Journey Complete!
Finisher #339 to complete the list
View User Albums Summary1089
Albums Rated
3.34
Average Rating
100%
Complete
Since I Left You
The Avalanches
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Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2020s
Favorite Decade
Grunge
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
256
5-Star Albums
122
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Trout Mask Replica
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
|
5 | 2.29 | +2.71 |
|
Boy In Da Corner
Dizzee Rascal
|
5 | 2.57 | +2.43 |
|
A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Streets
|
5 | 2.67 | +2.33 |
|
KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)
Ministry
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
New Boots And Panties
Ian Dury
|
5 | 2.7 | +2.3 |
|
Medúlla
Björk
|
5 | 2.72 | +2.28 |
|
Group Sex
Circle Jerks
|
5 | 2.75 | +2.25 |
|
Vulnicura
Björk
|
5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
|
Colour By Numbers
Culture Club
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
Quiet Life
Japan
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Madman Across The Water
Elton John
|
1 | 3.59 | -2.59 |
|
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
|
1 | 3.53 | -2.53 |
|
There's No Place Like America Today
Curtis Mayfield
|
1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
|
Surf's Up
The Beach Boys
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
The Yes Album
Yes
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
|
1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
|
Virgin Suicides
Air
|
1 | 3.24 | -2.24 |
|
A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse
Faces
|
1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
|
The Poet
Bobby Womack
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
|
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Aphex Twin
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Rolling Stones | 6 | 4.67 |
| Beatles | 7 | 4.57 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4.6 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 4.75 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 5 |
| Beastie Boys | 3 | 5 |
| Nick Drake | 3 | 5 |
| Prince | 3 | 5 |
| The Cure | 3 | 5 |
| The Smiths | 3 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.22 |
| Metallica | 4 | 4.5 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.5 |
| Björk | 4 | 4.5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 4.5 |
| Kraftwerk | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.67 |
| Johnny Cash | 3 | 4.67 |
| The White Stripes | 3 | 4.67 |
| Marvin Gaye | 3 | 4.67 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 3 | 4.67 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 4.67 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 5 |
| Dire Straits | 2 | 5 |
| Van Halen | 2 | 5 |
| Willie Nelson | 2 | 5 |
| OutKast | 2 | 5 |
| Run-D.M.C. | 2 | 5 |
| Eminem | 2 | 5 |
| Joy Division | 2 | 5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 2 | 5 |
| Green Day | 2 | 5 |
| U2 | 4 | 4.25 |
| Aerosmith | 3 | 4.33 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.33 |
| Pet Shop Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| Madonna | 3 | 4.33 |
| Public Enemy | 3 | 4.33 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.33 |
| Pixies | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Fall | 3 | 1.33 |
| Yes | 3 | 1.33 |
| Scott Walker | 2 | 1 |
| Emerson, Lake & Palmer | 2 | 1 |
| Bee Gees | 2 | 1 |
| Traffic | 2 | 1 |
| The Byrds | 5 | 2 |
| Stephen Stills | 2 | 1.5 |
| Spiritualized | 2 | 1.5 |
| Grateful Dead | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2 | 1.5 |
| Billy Bragg | 2 | 1.5 |
| Air | 2 | 1.5 |
| Orbital | 2 | 1.5 |
| Baaba Maal | 2 | 1.5 |
| Love | 2 | 1.5 |
| Super Furry Animals | 2 | 1.5 |
| Tim Buckley | 3 | 2 |
| Dexys Midnight Runners | 3 | 2 |
| Morrissey | 4 | 2.25 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Curtis Mayfield | 5, 1 |
| The Velvet Underground | 1, 5, 1 |
| Pink Floyd | 5, 1, 5, 5 |
| The Beach Boys | 5, 1, 2 |
| Paul Simon | 1, 3, 5 |
5-Star Albums (256)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Beastie Boys
5/5
Shiiiiiiit. If this gonna be that kinda party, I’m gonna stick my dick in the mashed potatoes.
77 likes
Bob Dylan
2/5
Important? Sure. Historical? Yes. Fun to listen to? No.
58 likes
The Auteurs
1/5
I am 1/3 of the way through this list. There has been no Pearl Jam, no Snoop Dogg, no Alice in Chains, no Soundgarden, no Stone Temple Pilots, no Tool and yet I have to stomach third-tier BritPop garbage that sounds like Blur on clonazepam? No, man, no.
36 likes
The Icarus Line
1/5
Ick. I’d say forgettable but I remembered feeling pleased when the album ended.
29 likes
Nick Drake
5/5
When I listen to Nick Drake, I can feel my brain expanding. I’d give it seven stars out of five if I could.
28 likes
1-Star Albums (122)
All Ratings
Genesis
4/5
Wow. I didn’t realise how Rush-like Genesis really was. Very Jethro Tull influenced. I dug it.
Bill Evans Trio
5/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
Awesome. It does sound like all of 80s smooth jazz ripped this sound off, though.
Beatles
3/5
It’s not my favourite Beatles album, but it’s fine. It prompted me to ask the question, though “Who Recorded it First?” for a few of the tracks.
Metallica
4/5
Excellent. A bit repetitive to some tracks.
David Bowie
5/5
Kraftwerk
5/5
Amazing. I can hear all of New Wave and Techno in their trailblazing synthesisers.
Pulp
5/5
How is this album 25yrs old? How is it so good and I’ve only heard 2 songs on it? HOW????
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
Love love love love.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
Eh. Not my cup of hallucinogenic tea, but an interesting listen.
Beach House
4/5
I had never heard of them. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tito Puente
3/5
I had to walk through a rain storm while I was listening to this album. The rhythm helped me keep my pace in turbo
Japan
5/5
Where is 6 stars? Duran Duran took notes from this album.
Iron Maiden
3/5
That was fun. Again? Nah.
Aerosmith
5/5
So many gems in that album. Loved the re-listen. Definitely from my youth.
Violent Femmes
5/5
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Love the re-listen.
The Specials
4/5
Lovely. Love steady rock steady be steady.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I had no clue this album existed. So jangly and grungy. Love Elvis Costello.
Goldfrapp
5/5
I was completely oblivious to this album but damn does that Alison Goldfrapp song some moodymusic.
Talking Heads
5/5
So good. I’ve never listened to the whole album. And now I have, and feel richer for it.
The Clash
3/5
I prefer London Calling but I can see how this zinged everyone in 1977.
George Michael
2/5
I love Freedom ‘90 but I didn’t enjoy the rest of the album. I thought that it painted an HIV-affected picture, though.
Doves
4/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
Shiiiiiiit. If this gonna be that kinda party, I’m gonna stick my dick in the mashed potatoes.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
All day Phife and Tip. 5 foot Cypher and the Abstract. Love love love the Young Zulu Nation.
PJ Harvey
3/5
It definitely brought me back to a place and a time in my life but I’m not sure I wanted to be there.
Tim Buckley
4/5
He seemed like a shit person but I really liked the funky-ass album. Don’t emulate your heroes, kids.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
4/5
What the f——-? Mind blowing guitar solos. Like Roy Rogers on acid. Loads of fun but I don’t think I’ll be listening to it again except as mood music for my apocalyptic western RPG.
Dusty Springfield
5/5
That was fun. Love Dusty Springfield.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Own it. Love it. Saw him live perform it. Damn it. On it. Fuck it. Makes it.
Wilco
3/5
Kinda slow. Liked the next Wilco album more.
Lucinda Williams
5/5
That was really quite excellent. Americana that I had missed.
Supertramp
3/5
It was good but not mind blowing.
Elastica
4/5
Yeah, pretty good. Got a lot of mileage out of grungy guitars for a non-grunge band.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Classic rock is classic for a reason
Nick Drake
5/5
When I listen to Nick Drake, I can feel my brain expanding. I’d give it seven stars out of five if I could.
Metallica
4/5
Working thru it. Feels like a Metallica based James Bond soundtrack.
2/5
Beck
5/5
Singing along with every word. I had this album from its release day. Fabulous in its entirety.
The Doors
5/5
It’s a testament to how transformative this album was that every time I hear The Doors, I think “1960s”.
The Strokes
5/5
I forgot how great this album is.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
You gotta be in the right mood, but when you are, it’s magical.
Funkadelic
5/5
I want the funk.
Blur
3/5
Eh. Apart from the 1st two songs, I wasn’t blown away.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Fun! Love the Coconut song.
Nirvana
5/5
4/5
That was fun. Missed Intl Women’s Day by a few but definitely in the spirit.
Pulp
3/5
Meh. Not impressed. Lyrics were still witty af.
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
Yeah it was good. I was impressed at the straight-up blues.
Fatboy Slim
5/5
So much love for this record. Just awesome.
Roxy Music
2/5
Eh. Cover art to the album was the best part of it.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
4/5
The Go-Betweens
1/5
Eh. I’m bored.
Fela Kuti
5/5
Rhythm is gonna get you.
Prince
5/5
I was lucky enough to see him live in 2016, only a few weeks before he died. One of the best concerts of my life.
Circle Jerks
5/5
I was very surprised at how much I liked this.
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
Intriguing and innovative. Occasionally too loud to hear the singer.
Rod Stewart
4/5
Classic rock is classic. My wife would give this 10 stars.
Joan Baez
4/5
I very much enjoyed it. Didn’t know House of the Rising Sun was a Baez jam.
Stephen Stills
1/5
I don’t care for Crosby, Stills, and Nash. I most definitely don’t care for just one of them.
Radiohead
4/5
Love it but I liked OK Computer more.
The Police
5/5
I am surprised that I didn’t favourite every single track on the album.
Peter Frampton
3/5
Classic rock is classic. This one felt a bit hollow by the end, though I can see the “live” appeal.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Classic rock is classic but DAMN some albums SLAP.
The Kinks
4/5
Had never heard of it. Really liked it.
Jethro Tull
3/5
Classic rock is classic. A bit odd.
Sheryl Crow
4/5
I like it. Cant lie. I’ll listen to it again.
Slipknot
4/5
Didn’t really think I’d like it all that much. I was wrong.
The Cure
5/5
Yes. Please. More. Yes. Yes. Yes.
10cc
5/5
Wow. And I only knew 10cc for “I’m Not in Love”. That was great!
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
Janis Joplin screaming out from under the rest of the band was fun, but I don’t think I’ll listen to much here again.
Kate Bush
3/5
I was waiting the Kate Bush album. This one was not for me.
Elvis Costello
3/5
Yeah. Ok. Yeah.
Hole
5/5
Much more amazing than I have it credit for.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Liked it a lot, but I rarely feel in the mood for the blues.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
I’m going to listen to this one over again.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Enjoying it a lot.
Ghostface Killah
5/5
Abso loot LUV.
Derek & The Dominos
5/5
That was really really good. I’m surprised. I mean, Layla is a banger but there was so much good stuff on this album!
Neil Young
4/5
Classic rock is classic
The Go-Go's
5/5
Aw New Wave. You make my heart go Oingo Boingo.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Wow.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Coolness. But a measured taste.
Neu!
3/5
It feels like the building blocks for something, but not super exciting on its own.
The Smiths
5/5
YES!!!!
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Intriguing. Art rock ain’t my thing, but this guy’s story is amazing.
The Who
4/5
Impressed. Such excellent live sound. Better than that Frampton album.
The Waterboys
4/5
I had no expectations. It blew me out of the water. Who are these people?
Frank Sinatra
3/5
So iconic that it feels like a cliche.
Television
5/5
I knew it was going to be good, and bad on me for not listening to it for this long, but HOT DAMN.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I’m having trouble seeing the gushing love for everything Elvis Costello. Good, yes. Mind blowing? Eh?
Supergrass
3/5
Enjoyable, but I don’t rate it as iconic.
George Jones
2/5
Not my cup of tea, but appreciated.
Bert Jansch
4/5
I very much enjoyed the instrumental tracks. Amazing artistry.
Ray Charles
4/5
Genius. Most of them.
Miles Davis
1/5
Nope.
Ministry
5/5
Oh my god how do I not know this album??? Fuck YEAH.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
5/5
OM NOM NOM. More New Wave albums, please. OM NOM NOM.
The The
3/5
It was good. I didn’t know The The apart from This is the Day. Fun, but very specific to the mid 80s.
Billie Holiday
4/5
Heartbreaking.
The Monkees
3/5
I like the Monkees. Don’t love them.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
I was thinking to myself “I’ll bet there won’t be a soundtrack album on this list” but I had forgotten about this album. So bleeding good.
The Byrds
1/5
Fuck. No. So continues my hate affair with anything Crosby, Stills, or Nash-ish.
Crowded House
4/5
I’ve lived in New Zealand for 8yrs and now listened to one of the best New Zealand albums ever. Not an Aussie album.
Wire
5/5
Yes! Who? Where?
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
I always appreciate James Murphy. Maybe this’ll be better on a second listen-thru. I still liked it.
Beatles
5/5
My favourite Beatles album. It doesn’t get much better.
George Michael
5/5
Damn. I forgot how great this album is. The first album I ever purchased, as well.
Dire Straits
5/5
Loved it. I don’t understand why they weren’t so widely regarded in the US from this album. Excellent.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
So cool to hear the prototypes of my beloved grunge and garage rock. Love love alternative 80s.
The Temptations
4/5
Papa Was a Rollin Stone is a Magnum Opus. The rest of the album is funky good.
The Triffids
2/5
Hmmm. Not really impressed.
David Holmes
4/5
This is the kind of gem that I somehow missed along the way.
Jerry Lee Lewis
5/5
DAMN. So that’s what rock and roll is all about. Ridiculous in all the good ways.
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
Alt country like Devo is alt folk. Really good concept album.
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
Now I know where all the Beastie Boys got all those samples from.
The Young Rascals
3/5
Eh. Good. Fine. Average. Not my generation.
The Byrds
1/5
Ick. No.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Classic rock is classic.
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Blown away by the album. That John Wayne Gacy song will haunt me.
Gotan Project
1/5
Don’t know why elevator music from 2001 made this list.
The Prodigy
5/5
I know exactly where was when I listened to this. Loved it.
The Velvet Underground
1/5
Now I know what heroin is like. I didn’t like it.
Elvis Presley
2/5
I’m a bit mixed. I like some Elvis. I love his voice. I didn’t dig this album.
Deep Purple
2/5
Building blocks I can see period that doesn’t mean I like the album period
Pink Floyd
5/5
Classic rock is classic but shit, yeah.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
3/5
So odd. I can hear the mental illness. Wrenching and interesting.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Yeah. Ok. I’m surprised at everything Britpop but rare grunge albums.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Disturbing. Catchy! Iconic??
The Cardigans
2/5
I’m giving it two stars for the ‘Lovefool’ song, but a one-hit wonder doesn’t make an album iconic. Feels like scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Hmm. Not my thang.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Give me melancholy Sinatra over peppy Sinatra 9 times out of 10, please.
Animal Collective
3/5
Fun! A psychedelic circus.
ZZ Top
3/5
Yeah, La Grange is FIRE. The rest? Somewhat smouldering….
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
I went through a Belle and Sebastian stage in med school. I’ll let you know when I finish it.
Tina Turner
5/5
I always miss my Dad when I hear this album. The transformative power of music.
Stan Getz
2/5
Meh.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
Ehhh. Pass.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
4/5
Golden oldies. Buddy Holly’s voice!! Wow. Liked it and forgot how much.
Pink Floyd
1/5
Eh. I don’t like psychedelia. I tried.
Dolly Parton
4/5
A living saint and a great album.
Fairport Convention
3/5
I wasn’t expecting that!
Paul Simon
1/5
There must be some mistake here in including this album. I’d subtract a star if I could knowing that Simon’s next album was Graceland.
Deep Purple
3/5
Classic rock is classic.
Johnny Cash
5/5
100 stars. As iconic an album as exists.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
NSFW awesome
Van Halen
5/5
Classic rock is classic. But Eddie is fucking in heaven!
Nick Drake
5/5
So delicate and ephemeral. It’s magic.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Eh. Drawn out proto-grunge that seemed very dated. Not bad; just not memorable. No clue how this was Pazz and Jop’s #1 album for 1990.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
5/5
Classic rock is classic, but Free Bird alone is worth 10 stars.
Mekons
2/5
Eh. I know why this is here but I just didn’t find it memorable.
Syd Barrett
2/5
Yeah, I don’t know. Bowie loved it, eh? Yeah, I don’t know.
Pet Shop Boys
5/5
So good. Owned this. So good so good so good.
Jeff Buckley
5/5
Like Nick Drake before him, this was a bard unsung in his time. Truly ephemeral.
Kraftwerk
5/5
I tore thru this. I prefer Man-Machine but this album deserves 5 stars.
Nirvana
5/5
The album of my adolescence. 30 stars.
Scott Walker
1/5
It’s like your misogynistic skeevy uncle in a chat room. Ick.
Donald Fagen
4/5
Very cool stuff. An audiophile’s dream.
Megadeth
3/5
Eh. It’s alright. Not enough for me to go out and buy it.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
Reminds me of tripping on Good Old London E near the fin de siècle. Good times.
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
Yeah it’s ok.
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
That was fantastic and intimate in all the ways that the best jazz joints are.
Fuck. No.
Grizzly Bear
3/5
There were bits that I liked. Iconic? No.
Nick Drake
5/5
3 albums now 50yrs old. Each one mind blowing. An ephemeral talent never seen before or since.
The Temptations
2/5
Naw. Seemed disjointed. Give me neo-soul, not psychedelia-soul.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
Weird! I liked. I didn’t fall over.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Better than other Dylan - I’m just not a big fan of his.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Classic rock is classic.
Spiritualized
1/5
How did this beat out OK Computer for album of the year? How is this amazing?
New Order
4/5
Yass. Not my favourite New Order album but a goodie, to be sure.
The Modern Lovers
4/5
Drummer for the Cars; bassist for Talking Heads. That’s a pretty fantastic evolution. How do I not know this band?
Miles Davis
2/5
I was in the right mood, but I still didn’t like it a lot.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
Classic rock is classic. Even this one.
Brian Eno
4/5
I really liked that. Worth a re listen.
Ramones
5/5
There are albums that suck. This is the polar opposite of that.
4/5
It’s good; don’t get me wrong.
Madonna
5/5
Such earwigs. Good earwigs.
5/5
This is coming home from college and raiding my sister’s new CDs. Good vibes. Good music, too.
The White Stripes
5/5
I played this CD until it no longer functioned. Can’t believe I forgot about all the gems on this album. 100 stars.
Os Mutantes
4/5
I’ve got a soft spot for Brazilian music. Doesn’t get much funkier, for sure.
Sabu
2/5
Yeah, it’s peppy.
Fats Domino
3/5
Classics. Building blocks of rock.
Beatles
5/5
What superlative can I add that hasn’t already been said?
James Taylor
3/5
Yeah. That’s an album. Not my thing, but I knew girls in college who were all about it.
Funkadelic
3/5
Interesting. Funky. Life changing? Nah.
Anita Baker
1/5
Yeah, hunh? Easy listening is an album I must listen to before I die?
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
I feel bad for pissing on something from the 80s, but I just don’t get how this is iconic.
The Lemonheads
4/5
God I love Juliana Hatfield.
Madness
5/5
I was waiting and hoping for my crazy Rocksteady crew. Not disappointed.
Frank Black
2/5
Peppy, but not Pixies.
David Bowie
4/5
I’m a bigger fan of the Thin White Duke than other Bowies, but Luther Vandross was a backup singer on this album. I mean, damn.
Talvin Singh
3/5
Reminded me of my Indian friends in college.
Grateful Dead
2/5
Eh. Never understood the Dead or the love for them. Not wired to, I guess.
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
wow.
Weather Report
3/5
Aw, yeah? Hunh.
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Eh. Buffalo Stance is good, but one song doesn’t make an album.
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Pleasant. I don’t think I can say anything else.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
That was funkin’ WILD. Gimme more dat Brasil Bop.
Eagles
5/5
Classic rock is classic.
Jamiroquai
3/5
Funky, yes. I liked their 1997 album better.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
Cool, Daddy-O.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
Damn. Am I a Lana Del Rey fan now?
Elton John
4/5
Classic rock is classic.
Foo Fighters
5/5
Damnit. Is this classic rock?? It’s still a slam-dunk 5 stars but does it have to be that long ago? Damnit.
Stereolab
3/5
Cool. Liked it then; like it now. Ground breaking? Nah.
Merle Haggard
1/5
Not my cup of gruel.
Mudhoney
3/5
There’s the grunge!
Joni Mitchell
3/5
This was lovely. I’m looking forward to more by her in this list.
Lorde
5/5
I’ve no clue why it took me that long to listen to that. I really liked the humour in it.
Brian Eno
4/5
Wow. I can hear most of the sample driven world of pop and hip-hop of the past few decades in this. Some of these tracks sound like they could have been made yesterday.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Very good. I’ve never delved into Leonard Cohen before but I think I’ll rectify that error.
Living Colour
5/5
Yasss. I owned and played this tape until it died. Loved it and never understood why they never achieved this high again.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Yeah, s’alright.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Classic rock is classic.
Le Tigre
5/5
That was so under the radar. I listened to it twice in a row. Gotta be 5 stars
Missy Elliott
5/5
Owned this album when it came out. I remember 2002 as a blur but this was and still is a banger.
Sade
2/5
Yeah, some of it is not too cringey.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Classic rock is classic. Some of it more classic than others.
Billy Joel
5/5
Responses to music are so subjective. This reminds me of my father, so it’s an automatic 5 stars.
Simple Minds
3/5
Hmm. It simmered, but it never seemed to pop for me. I love my 80s so it gets some credit there. Still - it didn’t live up to the hype.
Public Enemy
5/5
It has to be 5 stars, if it’s not 5 million. Such an album.
Paul Simon
3/5
Me and Julio drags this one up from the mere average.
T. Rex
3/5
Some fun to be had here. I wouldn’t gush over it.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
I can see why all the hype. Excellent.
Ute Lemper
1/5
I didn’t really enjoy it.
The Band
4/5
Classic rock is classic. That Jawbone song is a banger.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Important? Sure. Historical? Yes. Fun to listen to? No.
Van Morrison
3/5
Never experienced this chapter of Van Morrison. I was impressed. Can’t call it classic rock cuz I’d never heard it.
The Pogues
4/5
It’s the Irish Flogging Mollys! Seriously, who woulda thought that McGowan would still be alive in 2021?
The Beach Boys
5/5
Questlove had it right. This thing transcended music. It’s like Brian Wilson had a secret time machine.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
I wasn’t expecting that much funk. A bit too many extended guitar jams, but a good listen.
Femi Kuti
3/5
Cool! Kicky and catchy. That is all.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
Funky. Tightrope is a good song helped a lot by the Outkast love. A bonus star for the crazy range of music on display.
2Pac
3/5
A good listen full of pathos and swagger. Something felt missing for me.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
3/5
I owned this album when it came out and felt like a bad ass for being in the know, but the album didn’t get me laid in 1996 so I’ll subtract a star.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
Iconic. Nuff said.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Lovely and jangly in all the best ways. And witty! I didn’t realise the lyrics were so cunning.
The Undertones
5/5
Ok, I consider myself a bit of a New Wave/Punk aficionado and I knew NOTHING about this group. Never heard of them. BLOWN. AWAY. This is what I love about this list. This. So obsessed.
Elvis Costello
5/5
Classic proto-New Wave rock is classic. This is what I expected to see of Elvis Costello on this list, not the 85 other albums that I’ve seen.
Public Enemy
4/5
911’s a Joke and Fight the Power are anthemic and I found myself bopping to a lot of this album.
Milton Nascimento
4/5
I wasn’t expecting that. I really liked it. Guess I have a thing for Brazilian music.
Black Flag
5/5
Fcuk YEAH!!!!
Kacey Musgraves
5/5
I had no clue that this singer existed. This album made me silly-happy. Guess I found a new thing.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I knew nothing about this album but damn that’s some sense stuff. Very Johnny Cash-esque, and funny to hear that Cash covered some of this album. Worth a listen, but I won’t be re-listening too soon.
The Charlatans
2/5
Sounds like Oasis on an off-day.
Fishbone
2/5
I owned this album. It was an ok album. Life changing? Nah.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Better than other Crazy Horse albums on this list I’ve heard. Still…
Various Artists
4/5
A lovely Xmas present.
Jurassic 5
5/5
Owned this album. Loved it. Don’t know why I don’t still have it but it was a totally awesome re-listen for me.
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
This is AMAZING music with which to get high. Like, better than anything.
The Zombies
4/5
Pretty cool stuff. I wish there was a 1/2 star that I could give. 3 doesn’t seem like enough; 4 seems too much. Oh well.
The Fall
2/5
Hummmm. Uh. If “most accessible of their umpteen albums” is the reason to put it on the list, then does it need to be on the list?
Coldplay
4/5
Really good songs and some clunkers. Still, a solid album that I would give 4.5 to if it were an option.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
Fun and funky. Love me some soul.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
Yeah, interesting but I’m more confused by it. What did I just listen to? 2.5 stars but I’ll subtract a 1/2 star for how it left me feeling.
The Stone Roses
3/5
I’ve not taken nearly enough ecstasy to make this album more than just passable.
The Stooges
3/5
So grimy and gritty. And sounds so much unlike 1970.
Mike Oldfield
4/5
I remember a buddy in high school putting on this album and realising that The Exorcist song actually wound up having a pleasant ending. And then hearing that Hornpipe ditty at the end. What a weird album. I’ll boost it a star for the memories.
Erykah Badu
2/5
Yeah, there’s chill and then there’s Badu chill. I found myself lulled to sleep with this one. Can’t deny the music or the soul.
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Mr Blue Sky is such a lovely song.
Taylor Swift
5/5
Yup. I unapologetically love it. I didn’t realise it was a love letter to the new romantic movement of the 80s. I love it even more.
Napalm Death
3/5
That was entertaining! Not an everyday listen, but totally anachronistic.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Cool. Not as catchy as other Kraftwerk stuff but a bonus star for its innovation at the time.
Van Halen
5/5
Classic rock is classic. Also, Hot for Teacher makes me want to run through a goddamned stone wall.
The Doors
4/5
There’s a Kids in the Hall sketch where a deranged record store owner tells Kevin McDonald’s character that he won’t know the Doors until he goes on a three week bender, listening to nothing but Morrison Hotel until he finds himself behind the wheel of a stolen car driving into the middle of the desert. I don’t know the Doors THAT well, but I have enjoyed listening to Morrison Hotel.
Willie Nelson
5/5
I discovered Moonlight in Vermont a month ago and thought it was a recent Willie Nelson song. Here now I find this album and realise what a jackass I am.
Lou Reed
3/5
Wow. Raw and painful and awful and so important. I didn’t enjoy the first half; I HATED the second half and that’s why it’s so good. I need a warm bath.
Ice Cube
5/5
I see you, 1001 albums, giving me Ice Cube on the 30th anniversary of his ‘Good Day’. Well played, well played indeed.
The Replacements
5/5
My heart has been broken by two girls who loved Paul Westerberg. I cannot argue with what my heart wants.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Listening to Sonic Youth sounds to me like listening to music while mowing a lawn - good music, but surrounded by an incessant droning.
Mike Ladd
2/5
Interesting. I like where it’s going but don’t know if it got where it wants to be.
The Only Ones
2/5
Don’t do drugs, kids.
Moby
5/5
I know I’m rating it in a biased fashion, but this album is so damned beautiful, start to finish. It was my lone companion on a nighttime bus ride from Pittsburgh to Detroit circa January 2001.
OutKast
5/5
It’s very obvious to me when I peaked based on the current music I owned at the time.
Def Leppard
5/5
This was my lawn mowing cassette as a kid earning that neighbourhood coin. When I saw it on the list, I thought ‘Good, but not amazing’. Wasn’t even gonna listen - I know them all by heart - but then I listened to it. 5 stars. Bravo.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Yeah. Hmm. I want to like it. I just find it needlessly nihilistic. Crocodiles is fun. Yeah.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Hipsters of the world, unite!
Queen
5/5
Classic rock is classic. Bohemian Rhapsody is god-level.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
Funky as but a bit too trippy at times.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
The hype is real, yo.
The Afghan Whigs
4/5
This is one of those instances where the sunmative album is greater than any one individual song.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Classic rock is classic.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
Knew nothing about him. Now I want know more. What a cool album.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Classic rock is classic. And face-numbing.
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
I never felt like a tired middle-aged man while listening to an album before. Not a pleasant experience.
Goldie
3/5
I saw Goldie live in 1997. I didn’t realise that this album was so legendary, but I guess someone had to kickstart drum and bass. It’s a good listen, yeah, and so layered, but it does feel well dated.
David Gray
1/5
Urrgh. Yes, Babylon is a good song but the whole album?? How is this Ireland’s best selling album of all time? Is this guy responsible for James Blunt? The horror.
The Crusaders
1/5
Why?
Brian Wilson
4/5
Heavy on the slide whistle, but definitely the spiritual successor to Pet Sounds. I said it about that album: “Brian Wilson has a time machine.” Enjoyable.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
Ahhh. Like a warm bath.
Radiohead
5/5
This goddamn album saw me at my smartest. It was all downhill from here.
Isaac Hayes
2/5
Yeah, look, Chef, if it takes you 16min to butter your soul, isn’t it cold by that point?
This album makes me wonder if all Pentecostal preachers are doing Issac Hayes impersonations in the pulpit. A star for that fun thought.
Arrested Development
4/5
Funky and so fresh in 1992. Does it hold up? Yeah, somewhat. I’ll give it an extra star for helping to get the Dirty South on the map.
Jungle Brothers
4/5
I don’t know why I wasn’t pumped when I saw this album show up. Listening to it and thinking about the BASIC pop rap out at the time makes my head spin. Such a great group.
The Smiths
5/5
Right. There are a few duds on this album but god damn if Johnny Marr isn’t one of the best guitarists from the 1980s. Cannot rate it lower.
SAULT
3/5
It’s a gorgeous album with a powerful and eternal message. I’d like to come back to it to see how it hits me a second time.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4/5
Those cover songs we’re a bit cringey, but Relax was one of the first songs that I was aware of in the zeitgeist Of the MTV heydays. Love that.
David Bowie
4/5
The mythos of this album is something otherworldly; the music is, too, but like much that is alien, it’s at times challenging to fully comprehend.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Classic rock is classic, but glory be some albums are nitro fuel to the global music engine. Case in point.
Blue Cheer
2/5
Naw. Proto heavy metal. I can see why it’s here, but I can’t dig it too much.
The Auteurs
1/5
I am 1/3 of the way through this list. There has been no Pearl Jam, no Snoop Dogg, no Alice in Chains, no Soundgarden, no Stone Temple Pilots, no Tool and yet I have to stomach third-tier BritPop garbage that sounds like Blur on clonazepam? No, man, no.
Jane's Addiction
5/5
I was whining about not enough 90s alterna-rock grunge and this album turns up. 5 stars for perfect timing. Also, for Stop!
Astor Piazzolla
1/5
Eh. Listened to it. Feel like I completed a task.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
I can feel the pathos so deeply here. Funky album, too. I never knew this existed.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
Karen O Yeah Yeah Yeah.
Frank Zappa
4/5
Zappa, like his rats, are a dish best served hot.
Dead Kennedys
4/5
Enjoyable but I agree that Jello Biafra’s vocal delivery leaves something to be desired. Still, highly amusing.
Cyndi Lauper
5/5
Classic rock is classic. Cyndi Lauper is one of those treasures that we don’t celebrate nearly as much as we should.
Massive Attack
4/5
Very chill. Super iconic. Yup, fits the bill.
Ian Dury
5/5
Wow. I have a new favourite thing. I’d heard of this dude but never listened. Not too late to the party, but late.
The Icarus Line
1/5
Ick. I’d say forgettable but I remembered feeling pleased when the album ended.
Randy Newman
3/5
Can’t listen to Randy Newman without thinking about Buzz Lightyear, but this album was lovely.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Good god I loved this album. I don’t think the Dap-Kings get enough credit for the pristine sound-gasm. This would be one of my 10 desert island albums.
Fleetwood Mac
2/5
So inconsistent. I’d compare it to Cerberus, but it’s more like Scrappy-Doo. Subtracting a star for the great expectations that Rumours generated.
4/5
I love the dystopian themes of this album, along with the cinematic touches to multiple tracks. Teleported me back to a decade ago for sure.
Steve Earle
3/5
Not usually my cup of tea but jangly enough to keep me entertained. Had to go and listen to Copperhead Road as well for good measure after realising it wasn’t on this album.
The Boo Radleys
2/5
Kinda unmemorable.
Bad Company
3/5
Classic rock is classic.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
I really liked this album! It’s like Radiohead’s spacier cousin. Wasn’t aware that “Do You Realize?” was a Flaming Lips jam. I enjoyed that epiphany.
Iron Butterfly
2/5
Classic rock is classic, but I enjoyed this more as a Simpsons gag than an album.
Mylo
3/5
Seems like it’s desperate for a rap track. Some solid grooves. Still, I’m waiting for more impressive electronic albums.
Laura Nyro
5/5
Do you recall seeing the sun rise for the first time?
The Black Crowes
4/5
Classic rock is *gulp* classic. Damn, I feel some grey hairs coming on.
Faith No More
4/5
I remember really enjoying this at the start of high school and wondering what was wrong with me because none of my friends liked it. Turns out, I’m not in Tool.
Cypress Hill
4/5
Quintessential gangsta-stoner rap. Goes down like Mother’s Milk.
Prince
5/5
The thing I love about most Prince songs is that you get the initial groove and you get lulled into an idea of “oh yeah; I see where this is going” and then BLAM! he drops a keyboard or guitar solo on you and introduces the secondary melody and the next part of the song. And you’d think you would learn after 5-6 songs but no you don’t. It’s MF Prince and he is the (insert superlative here).
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Swanky. Worth a listen but not gonna live in my long term memory for long.
The Mars Volta
3/5
I’ll admit; I was going to leave a snarky, one-star review indicating that I didn’t know where my migraine ended and this album began after initial listen, but I read some other reviews and decided to give it a second listen. There are still some tracks that evoke pain, but I’m feeling new things and the second listen-thru. Perhaps a third listen will give me something to chew on. Three stars in optimism for that. Oh, and for Flea.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
Classic alternative rock is classic. This was the first alternative album. Much props. Also, how many covers did this album spawn?
T. Rex
4/5
The first ever glam rock record definitely deserves a nod of acknowledgment. Strangely enough, I’ve heard so many of these songs already and didn’t know it. Love that.
Beyoncé
3/5
Pop mastery. I love the production, but I’m not over-awed by the release story of this album, nor am I going to rate the music differently because of it.
Taylor Swift
4/5
I might be feeling a bit Swifty.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Classic rock is classic, but this seemed a bit less evolved than most. Downrating it by one star because the UK version inexplicably left off Paint It Black.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
James Murphy is my spirit animal.
Nas
4/5
Lyrically cannot be beat. Still, I’ve had other Nas songs and lyrics stick with me more. It’s still iconic.
Tangerine Dream
1/5
Yeah, props for using Moog stuff innovatively, but I’ve never been into ambient music, much less proto-ambient music.
Morrissey
2/5
I’m sure it’s a seminal album to those who grew up idolising Morrissey and hoping for a return of The Smiths sound, but it sounds like whinging to my ears these days. It’s also not at all helped by age.
Patti Smith
4/5
It’s nice to hear that most of the female and some of the male voices of the New Wave and post-punk movement took their vocal inflections from Patti Smith. Iconic.
Tracy Chapman
5/5
Revolutionary sound when it came out. Still refreshingly sweet to this day.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
No, thanks. I had a big lunch.
Cat Stevens
3/5
I smell eight track cassettes owned by my Dad.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
One of the formative albums of my youth. Forgive me for my biased opinion.
The Cars
5/5
When I first encountered this list, I immediately started guessing what albums would be on it. This was one of my first 10 guesses.
2/5
Interesting but didn’t blow my socks off, or even halfway down. I’m not sure if I have some sort of aural disability with PJ Harvey, but I don’t seem to dig her sound.
Paul Simon
5/5
My first cassette. Who knew I would select such a timeless opus magnum? 1000 stars.
The Who
3/5
What a fun concept album. Not the biggest fan of the music, but there are some gems here. Nevertheless, this is another example of the sum being greater than the parts.
Beastie Boys
5/5
The pinnacle of stupid fun. I have so much love for this album at multiple stages in my life. I want an “infinity stars” button.
Röyksopp
3/5
The first two tracks established a lovely, trippy, lounge feel, but the remainder faded into obscurity for me. I’ll give it an upvote of a star as they did ‘Alpha Male’ a few years ago, and that track KICKS.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
I noticed that both this album and Licensed to Ill dropped within 6 months of each other. Same label, same producer, both equally classic. And yet, I never heard the tracks on this album on top 40 radio unless they were samples. Institutionalized racism sucks. This album rules.
Lauryn Hill
4/5
Doo-Wop is one of the prettiest damned songs of the past 50yrs. TIL that this was Lauryn Hill’s only studio album.
Muddy Waters
3/5
I really liked this and can see why Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Keith Richards did, too.
John Prine
4/5
Such raw storytelling with a funny, nasally voice. It’s like Dylan singing songs written by Bukowski. Fascinating.
Radiohead
3/5
It was not the Radiohead album I expected (celebrating its 25th anniversary), but it was appreciated nonetheless.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
That’s the Bunnymen that I like!
The Pogues
5/5
As a disaffected youth, I got interested in my Irish background and asked for an album of Celtic music for Xmas one year. I got a James Galway album. Now, no disrespect to Mr Galway or the person who gave me that gift, but they can póg mo thóin, especially after I realised that this album could’ve been my Xmas present that year.
Talk Talk
4/5
I didn’t know this album at all, even though I had heard “Life’s What You Make It” a few times before. It never struck me that it was Talk Talk. This is one of the joys of this list - the lost treasures.
Laibach
2/5
Um, wow. I wasn’t expecting any Slovenian albums on this list so of course it gets a ‘rule of cool’ star for that. Some VERY dark, vodka-infused humour here. I really want to give this 2.5 stars.
Miriam Makeba
4/5
And that’s where “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was misappropriated from, sweetheart!
Snarkiness aside, I liked most of this and loved some of it.
Adele
3/5
I prefer the white-hot angry Adele of 21 over the blue regret-filled Adele of 25, but it’s still a nice listen.
Hookworms
2/5
It’s like a tamer Tame Impala.
Arcade Fire
4/5
So layered. And much like Prince, once you get used to the melody, they offer you a second melody in the same song.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Created and then broke the model by which all classic rock is measured. An essential album.
Deep Purple
2/5
Wow. Two separate 5 minute drum solos in one concert.
Yup. This album might have inspired a good deal of This is Spinal Tap.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
I’d like to thank Gn’R - and this album specifically - for showing pre-adolescent me how to fluently drop F-bombs into your everyday vernacular.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
Much like a lot of the mid-80s goth rock NOT made by The Cure, I want to like this more than I do.
Butthole Surfers
3/5
This made me laugh out loud and cringe all within 40min. I can’t help but reel at the 1987 cohort albums (Appetite for Destruction, Darklands, Sign O’ the Times) close by this album in my chronological listen-thru. Truly alien.
Oasis
4/5
Essential 90s culture and a seminal BritPop album. Do I think the lyrics make sense? Nah. Are they catchy? Yeah.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Iconic. Can’t hear the title track without singing along, and there are many other singalong tracks on this disc. It staves off the advancement of time well.
Al Green
4/5
Soul heaven! I bopped my head throughout, and I’ve got two of those songs on steady replay.
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
From Trent Reznor’s Wikipedia page: the artist describes himself nowadays as “a pretty happy person.” You got to stare the Devil in the face to wrest your soul away from Him. This album, to me, is that. Transcendent.
Gillian Welch
3/5
I had never heard of this album. My wife loves this album. I think I must have been under a rock for the early 2000s, music-wise.
Garbage
5/5
I had a crush on Shirley Manson in the 90s, but in hindsight, I think I probably had a raging erection for Butch Vig and his music production. Might still do.
Depeche Mode
4/5
I very much enjoyed some of the instrumental pieces on this album, but Strangelove is an awesome song to soundtrack a purposeful strut. RIP Fletch.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I am now - finally - seeing the Dylan-tinged light. This is an amazing album. I was always impressed with Dylan’s storytelling but I was never into his musicality until now. Interestingly enough, nothing I’ve heard before or after this from Dylan seems to scratch this itch, so perhaps this is the high-water mark. If so, then what a flood.
Julian Cope
1/5
Yeah, I get it. It’s a socio-political album about a raft of 90s-themed UK and global topics. I just don’t find the music catchy.
Fugees
4/5
I had forgotten how smooth the flow of this album was. New Jersey’s finest hip hop.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
There are some albums that transcend even the music recorded on them based on their historic impact. This is one of them. It’s just too bad that there are some awful clunkers in the middle of it.
The Jam
4/5
So surprisingly bouncy. Bass-driven tracks on top of punk rock. Yes, please, I’d like more.
Elliott Smith
3/5
A haunting portrait of mental illness for the new century. I adore the additional tracks on the deluxe version of this album.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
B&S treats me like peanut butter. I don’t want it at first, then I have some, remember how good it is, and before I know it, I’ve downed 3-4 teaspoonfuls of it. And then I’m sick of it and don’t want it. Until the next time.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
I had no clue that ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ was written and originally performed by S&G. Mind blown.
Beatles
5/5
Essential.
Ella Fitzgerald
2/5
I love Ella’s voice - this should go without saying - but I particularly like the way she pronounces (or sings) her ‘r’s. There’s something lov-er-ly about it. That being said - I just don’t think I’m a Gershwin fan.
1/5
Your Honor, in the case of The People vs Prog Rock, allow me to present Exhibit A.
Morrissey
2/5
It’s painfully obvious in listening to this that Johnny Marr was the heart of The Smiths.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Any single one of these songs would get a new artist signed to a multi-record deal. How timeless and flawless.
Joan Armatrading
3/5
I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to like it. Funky at times.
Steely Dan
3/5
I’m going to have to call them “Steely Dan chord changes” - these interesting chord progressions that then morph into some smooth jazz-y and wholly unsatisfying. Audio quality can’t be beat, though, save by other Steely Dan records.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
5/5
I recall seeing RHCP perform at an MTV Awards the year that this was up for awards. They set up to play Under the Bridge in formal wear and got through the first chords before ripping off their clothes and busting out Give It Away near-naked as 50 fans joined them on stage for an orgy for the eyes. This album is joyous.
Teenage Fanclub
1/5
I am downgrading this album’s generous two-star rating by a star because the knuckleheads at Spin magazine decided that this album was the better 1991 album of the year than Nevermind.
Aerosmith
4/5
Classic rock is classic. 10 Inch Record needs more recognition for its subversive awesome-ness.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
California Dreamin’ is such a perfect pop encapsulation of the 60s. Some of the rest of this album was alright, too.
Queen
3/5
Classic rock is classic, and though Killer Queen is a great song, the rest of the album seems to not yet be as regal as this band would become. Musicality is amazing, however.
Chicago
2/5
Family Guy does the bit where they play a joke to death, and as they continue to beat it to death, it becomes funny again. Chicago plays enjoyable riffs to death, but they don’t become enjoyable again.
TLC
3/5
Good album. Never noted the obvious Prince comparisons. I wanted something a little more dance-able on the album, though.
Bee Gees
1/5
Ick. I can barely tolerate 70s era Bee Gees. I don’t need a double album of their 60s stuff.
I could barely finish it.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
Not the magnum opus that To Pimp A Butterfly is, but good god what a major label debut. Kendrick’s got such unique flow - the album needs a cinematographer.
The Youngbloods
3/5
That was wholly unexpected and so BROAD. Country fried to psychedelic to jazzy to proto-R&B. And produced by Charlie Daniels! Weird….
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
Jazzy peppy joy. The pinnacle of what a jazz album could be.
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
Happy fluffy lovey gooey joyful stuff. Upvoting a star because I went and listened to Girl From Ipanema again.
Billy Bragg
2/5
Socially-conscious music, eh? Is it crap of me to not want to listen to music as part of my political beliefs?
Oh well, I’m crap, then.
Incubus
3/5
I enjoyed these songs when they were on the radio in the late 90s. Did I think this album was mind-blowing or historically important? Nah. Fun? Sure.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
It’s good to be reminded now and again that shimmering beautiful things are good for your mental health - case in point.
Massive Attack
2/5
It’s like I woke up in a hip-hop themed spa. Pleasant enough but far too heavy on the trip (and light on the hop).
CHIC
4/5
While the rest of the album is OK as far as disco goes (not exceedingly far), the impact of Good Times cannot be overstated. Also, Nile Rodgers is a verifiable music production deity.
a-ha
3/5
I don’t get the love for The Sun Always Shines on TV. In contrast, I would like to have Take On Me played to me as I shuffle off this mortal coil, so this album’s got that going for it, which is nice.
Soundgarden
5/5
One of the Mount Rushmores of grunge. Especially chilling final track given Chris Cornell’s passing a few years ago. RIP.
The War On Drugs
4/5
Beautiful album worth another listen-thru, I think. I can totally here the 80s themes. Like, totally.
The Black Keys
5/5
If T Rex and Hendrix had ever collaborated, it would have produced this album.
This album got me through a really dark place. Pardon my biased love.
ZZ Top
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Fun to think of this hard rock banger coming out in the midst of New Wave revolution.
Hanoi Rocks
3/5
Finnish proto-hair band with trademarked 80s harmonica and sax riffs? I’m here for that!
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
That scratched an itch that I didn’t know I needed scratched.
Bobby Womack
1/5
Naw, man. Just not my thing. There was a bit of funk in there, but straight-up 80s R&B (without any hip-hop) has never intrigued me.
Also, Womack seemed a little too-R Kelly in his lifestyle to be anything worth praising.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
It’s as if the YYYs got sucked into a synthesiser - in all the right ways. That being said, the acoustic extras highlight Karen O’s luxurious sound delightfully.
Dirty Projectors
3/5
I’d heard of Dirty Projectors but never heard their music. Now I have, and I don’t know if I could describe what I heard. Is that good? Regardless, I enjoyed most of it, especially when it came to the syncopated chorale runs.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Ok, two things:
1) Classic rock is classic (Solsbury Hill) but goddamn, Mr Gabriel, your range of musical styles here is all over the place. If I closed my eyes on Waiting for the Big One, I would swear that you were Randy Newman. In addition to blues, there’s honky-tonk, hard rock, chamber music, barbershop chorale, and funk. Holy schnikeys.
2) The album cover is so jarring. It looks like the artist is committing suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in their car. Way to grab attention. Yeesh.
Beastie Boys
5/5
My favourite album by my favourite group. Do not expect objectivity from me.
Pixies
5/5
It’s not just the crazy lyrics, the anarchic themes, the roots of grunge, or the wonder that is Kim Deal that we have to thank the Pixies (and Black Francis) for, but it’s also that. What a lovely debut.
Tom Waits
4/5
Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave are the gravelly-voiced Cereberus of doom-laced music. I love them all - this might be Waits’ finest album.
Also, 16yo me had no clue that Rod Stewart sanitised and covered Downtown Train in the early 90s. It’s like Pat Boone covering Ozzy Osbourne. Ick.
Sepultura
2/5
I like my speed metal speedy. This is a little less speedy than I’d like it. That said, I acknowledge the musical importance and the death metal groundbreaking. Death-breaking. Yeah, that’s it.
Wilco
5/5
I unabashedly love this album. I read that it was reviewed as “an Americana Kid A” and I can only sagely nod in tacit agreement. Nothing further needs be said.
Queen
2/5
It’s like if Queen played a whole bunch of Led Zeppelin covers, and you’d never heard of those Led Zeppelin songs. Interesting but definitely not amazing.
The Avalanches
5/5
Some albums are greater than the sum of their parts, but what happens when all of the parts individually are masterpieces? This album was one of the first albums that I had hoped to be on this list. It is righteous and joyous and emotionally deep. I cannot help but to dance when I hear it.
Do I like it? Nope. I adore it.
Lou Reed
5/5
Classic rock is classic but goddamn Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side are such exquisitely-presented moods. I really enjoyed some of the other lesser-known songs on the album as well, but the real reason that this is a 5 star album for me is the gutsy and healthy gender diversity portrayal (even if grimy).
Pixies
5/5
The video game Rock Band allowed online players the options of purchasing various albums that were available to play in the game - this album was one of them. I have lovely memories of screaming at my living room TV during Monkey Goes to Heaven as I did my best Frank Black impersonation and mashed buttons on a toy guitar.
Also, Here Comes Your Man is a perfect pop ditty (that must really rankle Black Francis) and the best song ever recorded about train-hopping hobos.
Tom Waits
4/5
How has it taken me almost 40yrs to discover this album? I feel like I’ve rolled around in smashed malt liquor bottles. I love it and hate it but mainly love it.
Fela Kuti
2/5
Sounds like a funk explosion. I liked it but I doubt I’ll go back for more. That being said, THIS is how you do live drum solos.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
The partnering of matter-of-fact singing with vocal chorales is something that Lou Reed does as well as Leonard Cohen. It just seems that the former does it better. This album didn’t really hit it for me.
Nirvana
4/5
It’s not Nevermind but what the f@$@?!?! You expect consistent and unrelenting genius? It’s still damned good.
Iggy Pop
5/5
I knew this album was going to be good but I did NOT know that Bowie was going to be singing backup vocals. It’s a damned shame that Iggy released this album the same week that Elvis died - this would’ve been so much more financially impactful for the Godfather of Stage Dives. I guess it’s better for the soul to be renowned for your impact on others’ music careers. I wonder what Iggy would say.
The Beach Boys
1/5
TIL that the Beach Boys were considered counter-culture to the 1960s counter-culture movement and tried to fix that with this album. This album sounds like them trying too hard. Downvoting one star due to Brian Wilson not being involved.
Radiohead
3/5
Yeah it’s good. It’s Radiohead, right? It’s just a bit too meditative and less gripping. Perhaps I should be kinder. Ok, three stars feels kind.
Talking Heads
5/5
It’s just a mesmerising collection of rhythms and auditory patterns. Like Jackson Pollock on a 45.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Queens tend to be a sensitive subject these days. Aretha was more of a force of nature than a regal entity. Respect is such a perfect song.
The Cure
5/5
I don’t think that there’s another album that I was so sure that was going to be on this list that I had never heard before. “Like Lou Reed’s Berlin and David Bowie’s Low, it’s an album that requires a few years of music history to pass in order to be appreciated.” That’s mighty high praise. Seems accurate.
Charles Mingus
2/5
It’s fun, yeah. I think I’ll leave it at that. Interesting that it was composed as a ballet. Next?
Roxy Music
3/5
This one is full of earwigs, most often (at least for me) triggered by that entrancing and insistent percussion. I could do with less tight Bryan Ferry vibrato, though.
The Kinks
2/5
It’s the swinging sixties in London when this album comes out, yeah? So why does it make me want to buy a tea cosy and call my Nan? It just feels anachronistic. Sweet, with some razor Ray Davies wit, but….OLD.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Alright! A PJ Harvey album that I didn’t find obtuse. There’s some catchy rhythm packages on this one. I felt like this was more a band and less a solo artist.
The Streets
5/5
This album is Uber-cool for many reasons, not the least of which is that its best-known track is funny AF and I didn’t know that it was part of this rap opera opus.
This album, like The Village Green by The Kinks or Different Class by Pulp, reflected British youth so dead-on in 2004. I want to give it 5 stars. It deserves 4.5 because not everything is a banger but it’s all so accurate. Aw, fuck it.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Classic rock is classic. CCR must’ve seemed a juggernaut in 1969. What would’ve come of a decade of them?
Shuggie Otis
3/5
I’d call it easy listening funk. Funky listening. Yup. Book it.
It was looking like a solid 2 stars until I heard the unexpected and familiar bells of Strawberry Letter 23. What a lovely little ditty.
Little Simz
3/5
Enjoyably fresh and vulnerable. And I see she’s guest judging on RuPaul DR UK next week. Good timing!
George Harrison
4/5
A triple album? How am I supposed to keep up with this pace with 2hrs of music to get through?!
Just kidding, though I am subtracting a star for the inclusion of the long jam-my tracks at the end. And I’m adding a star for being directly responsible for the formation of Derek and the Dominoes. That’s a rule of cool.
Summary? 4 stars. Some really dense musical bits in this and you can see how Harrison simply wanted to show that he wasn’t “the 3rd Beatle”. Also, I love the dig at the Beatles with the album cover photograph.
Eminem
5/5
It’s funny cuz at the rate I’m going when I’m thirty…this whole bag of Viagra isn’t working…
It was funny when I was 20; it’s more dead-on now that I’m 40. Such a high-water low-brow album. Also, probably the best horrorcore album of all time. I love it all.
Duran Duran
5/5
This was my gateway drug to the wonders of the New Wave movement. Upon further reflection, this thing is about as New Wave as Lil Nas X is country. The sheer disco-funk of this album is shining though.
So much on this album to love and I think Rio is the most balanced musical composition for quintet that I’ve ever heard, bar none. Come fight me about it.
Lastly, The Chauffeur is a criminally-underrated track that almost bridges the gap between pop New Wave and alternative goth artists of the era.
I adore this album. It’s in my desert island collection, and if I’m allowed one album, then it is my desert island music selection.
Portishead
3/5
I’ve never listened to Portishead before but I consider it to be a glaring omission from my aural collection. That said, I feel a bit disappointed that the ‘anti-Portishead’ album would be the first Portishead selection of which I discovered.
I enjoyed the musical mood painting that this sound canvas had on me, but still I can’t help but hunger for what made Portishead Portishead.
Yes
1/5
I liken Yes to cooking with seitan - it could be done with genius-level artistic mastery but I’m not fucking eating it.
Air
2/5
I had never heard of this band or this album or even any of the tracks on it before this list. It was enjoyable and I can see why it was here. I would not think it worth more than a casual acknowledgement as it was neither the first downtempo or low-fi album, nor was it one of the best. It’s a meh.
Adam & The Ants
4/5
What lovely Burundi Beat glory we have here! I thought of Bow Wow Wow as I heard this (insofar as similarity) and was surprised to read that Malcolm McClaren had pinched Ant’s original backing band for BWW prior to this record. Amazing stuff then, this record.
I wanted to give it a 3.5 but I cannot, but then I listened to the additions to the US version of this and realised that it needed the full 4 star rating. I love me some New Wave!
Def Leppard
4/5
Hysteria was my first introduction to DL as a teenager, but this album had the hits that I kept coming back to as an adult. The rest of the album is a bit of a hard rock/pop metal hodge-podge, and it’s still a wonder to me that the percussion sounds here (done by a drummer with two arms) sound very much the same as Hysteria (done by a drummer with one arm).
Can
4/5
By George, those drums! I’d give this album another listen just for the percussion. My musical ignorance astounds me - I’d never heard of this band or this album ever before. What a joy to find.
Also, Thom Yorke - I see what you did.
Michael Jackson
5/5
It’s not Thriller, but good god what an album. Leave Me Alone is criminally underrated. Smooth Criminal, too. I’m not a big fan of the soft rock schlock, but I cannot fault the music production value. And, this album gave us Fat by Weird Al, so for that, it gets bumped to 5 stars. (Not really for that.)
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
It’s a solid album with fabulous instrumental performance (nods to Booker T and Steve Cropper), but it’s Green Onions that lands this thing on the list, and rightly so. You can’t hear a blockbuster comedy movie preview without that song somewhere in the background. Such an amazing tune.
Tom Waits
3/5
Yeah ok. Some grimy Waits love here. Not as oddly sentimental as I’d like but it scratches the itch. I really liked Jersey Girl.
Cee Lo Green
2/5
I don’t get why this album. There could’ve been a DangerMouse album, or the next Cee Lo album which features F@*&$ You (which is an all-decade jam)….but this one seems muddled. Dunno. I like Cee Lo but….meh.
3/5
Essential if not a bit superfluous BritPop.
Daft Punk
4/5
I was wondering where the DP was. Glad to get this one first. I expect more.
Some of this is a bit repetitive but the enjoyable earwigs on here more than make up for it.
N.W.A.
5/5
Rough and gritty, but I heard a lot of the Beastie Boys beats in some of those bars. Nevertheless, it’s a classic.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Classic rock is classic, but I keep dipping my cup in this well and coming up with new stuff. How is this so fresh sounding and 55yrs old?
James Brown
5/5
Funky and awesome. The screams of the ladies in the audience reacting to James Brown are equally entertaining to the performance of the Father of the Get Down.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
Now that’s the Zappa I love, except it isn’t solo Zappa, it’s his band. So dense and odd and fun and wacky. I wasn’t prepared for it.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
That was glorious. I had never heard of the artist or the album and I’ve listened through it five times already in two days. Clearly I’ve got a Jones for recent Brit soul.
More specifically, the pathos evoked from Kiwanuka’s guitar evokes an emo-tinged Hendrix. I loved it.
Primal Scream
2/5
I don’t understand the unbridled love for this album. Interesting for 1991; I don’t feel it holds up. It definitely sounds like I’ve not dropped enough E to fully appreciate the atmospheric soundscapes.
Gorillaz
4/5
I want to give this 5 stars because Clint Eastwood is so good, but in all honesty, 50% of this album feels like filler. Still, the highs are super high on this and Del tha Funky Homosapien deserves major props for his work here.
Pretenders
5/5
This album was one of those that I thought I was going to be on this list. Happy to see that I’m not disappointed. Interesting to hear that Johnny Marr considered this to be key to his playing style. And Tattooed Love Boys is one of my favourite Rock Band jams.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
“Life passes by at a low interest rate.” Damn, Nick Cave can turn a phrase. Still, I didn’t find the music as engaging as some other Bad Seeds albums.
The Clash
5/5
My favourite punk album and in my top 5 favourite New Wave albums. Not a mediocre song to be found here.
Jimmy Smith
2/5
Very chill; very cool. Does not resonate to me as soul-changing or life-affirming so I’m a bit confused. Still, it was nice enough.
k.d. lang
2/5
k.d. lang has the kindest-sounding voice. I recall this album and I enjoyed some of the country-western cabaret feel to it. That’s all I’ve got.
Khaled
1/5
I tried, but despite the polyglot offerings, I didn’t really enjoy it.
The Monks
3/5
I can see how this album fits here, both as an historical footnote as well as a ‘lost legend’. The entire album is a fun endeavour, especially if you consider, as said by Julian Cope, that it was done by an American rock band in a foreign country not constrained by censorial forces of the day.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Funky and suave, the epitome of 70s sexual swagger - perhaps more a caricature nowadays. I can see how this album revolutionised the soundtrack genre. And let’s not forget that it’s about a bad mother clucker.
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Classic rock is classic, but the story behind this album and the poorly thought-out recording junket in Nigeria was more interesting than half of what was on the album. I should give credit to McCartney for recording most of the musical parts on the album himself, but he was the one who pissed off the rest of Wings and made them quit, so…
Joy Division
5/5
If I’m giving Pornography and The Downward Spiral 5 stars, then you bet your ass I’m giving this one 5 stars, too.
It has all of the exhausted nihilistic rage you’d expect a goth masterpiece to have, but it’s also catchy dance music. What a cool magic trick.
Bonus: Love Will Tear Us Apart wasn’t even good enough for the original album.
Solomon Burke
2/5
Foundational soul. Catchy in small bits. Just not sustained for an entire album’s worth.
Pentangle
2/5
It’s the soundtrack to your Renaissance Faire weekend outing with that friend who scored some awfully-mediocre stank weed. Embarrassing to say you enjoyed some of it.
Miles Davis
5/5
I mean, it is the blue print. There’s a reason why every jazz album since sounds like it’s copying the formula. It doesn’t disappoint.
Metallica
5/5
It’s hard to fathom that this album and Nevermind came out the same year. We got Enter Sandman and Smells Like Teen Spirit in the same go-around the sun. If you listen to them both, the hard rock elements are front and centre but the subtle differences signal the monumental shift from the excess of the 80s to the angst of the 90s. I can’t imagine my youth without either.
Throbbing Gristle
3/5
Wow. Proto-industrial and I liked it a lot more than I thought that I would. That said, the bar was pretty low.
Faust
3/5
I had no clue that I would be nodding along to 14 minute Krautrock tracks, thinking “Yeah, this would totally work for my morning run.”
Fiona Apple
5/5
That was a clinic on neo-percussion. I loved the raw joy and pathos exemplified in most every track, flecked by subtle humour. There’s so much to listen to - I need to listen again and I’ve already listened 3x.
Neil Young
4/5
I liked this more than many of Neil Young’s classic rock warbles and a whole lot more than any of his Crazy Horse work. A touch of youth angst looks good on him.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Wow. It’s like it’s a completely different artist named PJ Harvey writing a WWI-themed album. This thing could be the soundtrack to a horrors-of-war documentary and I would not mind at all. Also, that high soprano *swoon*
Sugar
4/5
How in the Sam Hill do I not know this group, this album? I love Husker Du and Bob Mould. My world is shaken in such a good way.
It sounds as if many of the 1990s alterna-rock warriors copied a lot of this album. I hear Gin Blossoms. I hear Third Eye Blind. I hear Collective Soul. I hear Sum 41. Bob Mould is a gift.
The Beach Boys
2/5
Hey look! It’s the Beach Boys between their well-loved California fun heyday and their anachronistic Pet Sounds era! There’s a reason why adolescence is regarded as an awkward age.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Too many times albums are labelled ‘classic’. This one fits the bill. It also has CRAZY prophylactics.
Johnny Cash
4/5
The last of Cash was some of the best. So weary, so sad, so desperately hopeful.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
This feels like alt-classic rock. Some of those guitar riffs don’t sound like Springsteen at all. It’s an odd bit of magic - you’re not sure about the music and then something like Racing in the Streets tugs on your chest and you’ve got a lump in your throat. That’s Springsteen’s power.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
It sounds like AM radio. Good god double and triple albums are a slog to get through.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
This is what I would imagine that satellites would play to each other as music. Sadly, I’m not very extra-terrestrial.
Barry Adamson
3/5
If the Dust Brothers composed a Tarantino score with vocals by Leonard Cohen, you’d get this. Interesting.
The Byrds
3/5
That Rickenbacker jangle is a one-way ticket to the 1960s. Cool to know that this was considered the first folk-rock album. Classic rock is classic. Not my favourite genre, but history outweighs my stupid opinion.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Shining Star is uber funk and I like the review suggesting that the entire album is “make-out music of the gods”. I can get down with that.
50 Cent
3/5
Two thoughts: 75 minutes is an excellent effort for a debut album. 50 Cent has an obsession with imagery of gunshot wounds to the head.
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
All I could think of as I listened to this was the speed and skill of those dying fingers. A triumphant exit.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
Melan - collie.
Didn’t know this album, this singer, anything.
Loads of influential musos love this - hell, Cash covered the title track. Must mean something.
Here’s what I got: the lead singer’s oboe-like voice makes me listen real hard. The subject matter is dark. I’d call this blackgrass if I was going to name this genre of gothic folk. Or maybe fothic. Something like that.
Pink Floyd
5/5
In the case of the People vs Prog Rock, the defense would like to call a surprise witness to the stand.
Indefatigable.
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
I’m perplexed. I know it’s supposed to be a “super-group”, but it just sounds like the Arctic Monkeys with an orchestral accompaniment, which also sounds like Muse.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
2/5
I just thought that Public Enemy did it better.
2/5
Apart from the first names of 90s-era kids’ cartoons, I don’t see the comparison of this album to Tommy. Maybe Ray Davies doesn’t translate well across the Atlantic?
The Specials
5/5
It’s the Rude Boys ‘Abbey Road’, innit? I can see why.
The Pharcyde
4/5
“Got more rhymes than 7-11’s got Slurpees. If Magic got AIDS, then yo I got the herpes.”
(Awkward pause)
This album is WACKY in such a good way.
King Crimson
3/5
Everybody from Doves to The Flaming Lips to Kanye has lifted stuff from this album. And I can see why sampling these somewhat lengthy tracks is the right move. Credit must be given for the hooks, though.
Gary Numan
4/5
It’s New Wave nirvana! Not the band, the metaphysical concept.
I was impressed with the surgical drumming on this record and found a few new tracks to augment my love for Gary, but I’ve got to subtract a star for his vocal delivery. It’s like someone asked him to sing like a nerd.
Sonic Youth
3/5
This was the album in high school that the cool nerdy kids were all into. I was never a cool nerdy kid. It’s got merit, for sure, but man, fuck those cool nerds. Ha.
Eminem
5/5
This is like an angrier Millennial version of Licensed to Ill but it’s still just as fresh and joyously breakneck as that disc. TIL that Eminem recorded My Name Is within an hour of meeting and starting to work with Dr Dre. That’s focus. I’d give it a 4.5 if possible to highlight the step up The Marshall Mathers EP was, but its impact on its day cannot be overstated.
Eurythmics
3/5
This is the house….it’s a little thin. That seems the more apropos lyric.
I adore Sweet Dreams but these three stars are for that and that alone. The rest of this is also-ran synth-pop blather.
Kanye West
5/5
Obviously, regarding this album by the present issues with this artist is difficult, like viewing MJ without considering the spectre of pedophilia. That said, POWER is one of the snatchiest hooks of the last decade. Most of the rest of this album is a similarly amazing production level.
I see some similarities between this album and Dark Side of the Moon. That seems to be the proper iconic parallel for this album for its day. Hard to swallow the fascism, this one is.
Hüsker Dü
2/5
Snarly and alternative without landing any amazing hooks. I enjoyed listening to the album and deciding which of the two alpha wolves wrote each song, but it did feel like the burnout of a relationship. Hmm. Leaving me feeling a little empty.
Pixies
3/5
Not as iconic as other Pixies albums. Not as weird, honestly. Still, it’s the original band and Kim Deal is still there so that warrants 3 stars.
LL Cool J
4/5
I can’t call this disc a regular jam. Bonus star for the MTV Unplugged sessions stemming from this album. Damn.
Q-Tip
2/5
“I don’t need a Top 40 Hit to hit you up, girl.”
Yup, but she might not stick around without one.
Traffic
1/5
Ponderous. As in, I ponder how this tire fire of an album of improv folk-jazz is on this list.
Scott Walker
1/5
*wordless noisy moans of frustration and contempt*
The Blue Nile
3/5
It invokes a lot of the classic Dunedin (NZ) sound of the early 80s - minimalist synth chords on the backdrop of heartfelt lyrics designed to make you feel slightly uncomfortable. I liked it; I would’ve been more impressed if they’d noted the Antipodean version of this (i.e. The Chills, The Verlaines).
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
It’s the Tree of Life of funk. It’s also difficult to follow, impossible to understand, and makes me think I need to take mushrooms to be on the same planet. I liked it!
Portishead
5/5
I have not anticipated an album appearing on this list more than this one and I wasn’t disappointed in the least. I want to take a bath in Beth Gibbons’ voice. This is the soundtrack to the Twin Peaks cocktail party I never knew I wanted to have.
Paul Weller
2/5
Weller has such bluesy sensibilities! The Modfather, Part II. Still, like many sequels, there is something left wanting - both lyrically and musically. Solid but not life-altering.
Steely Dan
3/5
Bodhisattva was - by far - the weirdest inclusion in the Rock Band video game series. It was the first Steely Dan song that I liked. I feel the same way about the rest of this album. Weird jazz-rock mashup. Technically flawless but weird.
Mercury Rev
2/5
It’s Arcade Fire with more theremin, less tympani, and a whole lotta weed.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
I can see why Amy didn’t like this album. The editing, the mixing, hell, even the promotion to this disc all sounds wack.
That said, it’s Amy. I’d happily listen to her cover Yoko Ono’s greatest hits.
Iggy Pop
4/5
I would rate this as 3 stars as an Iggy Pop album but 4 stars as a David Bowie album.
Steely Dan
4/5
This album sounds and feels timeless - for the first time I see the Steely Dan draw.
It’s a fun game to expect the Steely Dan chord change and hear it, but not be able to predict which direction it goes.
Like a bouncy rubber ball.
Herbie Hancock
5/5
I was looking at my rankings (over 500 now!) and saw that my average ranking was 3.6. I thought ‘maybe I should be more critical and rank things lower’ and then this album came up and I was like ‘nope’.
Just the best jazz-funk, ever. I’ve loved this album since I was 13yo.
The Prodigy
3/5
I found myself nodding my head a lot while listening to this. Later, when I thought about what I had listened to, I couldn’t recall any of it. That’s some kind of magic trick.
Does this make it life-altering?
5/5
It’s the Sgt Pepper’s of Sgt Pepper’s, innit?
All cheekiness aside, the album is a significant cultural touchstone, much like Nirvana’s Nevermind. It encapsulated a generational mindset. It was/is IMPORTANT.
And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is about LSD and you cannot deny it, Paul. Nope.
Meat Loaf
3/5
Never knew it was THAT popular in the UK and New Zealand. A good album with a narrative feel and of course, Meatloaf. For whatever reason I associate a lot of these songs with wedding receptions. Probably reflects the kinds of wedding bashes that I get invited to.
Songhoy Blues
3/5
I got strong Black Keys vibes from the music and then French/Arabic/African language-lyrics. Trippy!
Prince
5/5
I want to say something pithy about my love for this album but I keep returning to my pre-teen cousin and me sharing a Walkman headset during summer vacation and giggling at Darling Nikki over and over. And that’s what got Tipper Gore’s stickers all over everything! For that, and for the staccato bass-less groove of When Doves Cry, and the Arsenio Hall performance of Let’s Go Crazy that I saw once and been Jonesing for ever since and Wendy and Lisa and Apollonia and Dr Fink, I have one thing to say:
Thank U
Parliament
4/5
There was a middle-aged white lady in a lab where I once worked who told me her favourite all-time album was Mothership Connection. I confess I never listened to the whole album until now - only Tear the Roof Off. Shame on my funk.
Dr. John
2/5
I love Dr John’s gravelly Cajun drawl. Twas a fun album to peruse. I shan’t be listening again, though unless I need to wash off some bad mojo.
The National
5/5
“I Need My Girl” is the song my wife picked for our wedding, so I’ve got a soft spot for The National.
Nuff said.
The Smiths
5/5
I like the synth evolution of The Smiths’ sound on this album and mourn for what could’ve been had the band stayed together.
There’s some misogyny about this album. Or maybe it’s misanthropy. Either way, it somehow adds to the mystique of the sound.
David Bowie
5/5
I hear Gary Numan. I hear OMD. I hear Depeche Mode and Joy Division. I hear NIN; I hear Radiohead. Hell, I even hear Taylor Swift.
There are some albums that trigger a seismic wave.
Plus, it’s my wife’s favourite Bowie album. I love my wife.
KISS
2/5
Meh. Maybe I had a headache. It was ok but I’m definitely not a KISS Army recruit.
DJ Shadow
3/5
It’s intriguingly dense and laudable insofar as it was completely created from samples, but it’s not giving me the earworms I was hoping it would.
Perhaps two or three more listens will bring this up to a 3.5, but for now…
Eels
2/5
Novocaine was that enjoyable ubiquitous song on the radio that one 90s summer. The rest of that album does not score as high as that one song.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
This paints a sepia mood. The constant barrage of words blends pleasantly into nostalgic reverie. It’s nice.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Here I am, thinking that IV was the definitive LZ statement but I didn’t know the nuggets of joy present on this disc. Suddenly I don’t know how to get the Led out FIRST.
I’m pretty sure this album birthed the ‘hard rock’ genre. You can’t hate on that.
Tom Waits
4/5
I liked this a lot more than I thought I was going to do, even after I read the stories of how this album was recorded. I think I’m a sucker for unconventional percussion. That probably makes me a sucker for Tom Waits.
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
I find that the singer does it best with funk or doo-wop, but the slick 80s easy listening romance isn’t winning me over. Such a voice though.
Gene Clark
3/5
‘Lost’ albums become that way for some appropriate and deserved reason, usually. This one doesn’t seem to have deserved it apart from anything save for its not-of-this-era qualities. It was jammy with notes of funk. It sounds like some of it could have been easy listening-Parliament Funkadelic. Perhaps it’s a cautionary tale - all too common - against losing your soul to addictive good times and being a prick.
Elton John
1/5
Tony Danza is an OK song, but I’m not too sure why this bland EJ offer is on the list.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
I am simply not British enough to deal with the Churchill quotes, Royal anthem references, or Blitz imagery. And furthermore, I cannot stomach Scott Walker so when I heard that he was a major influence on the creation of this album, well that’s what one star ratings are for, I guess. Barf.
Ride
3/5
Just like a shoegaze group to sneak up on you with an explosion of clashing guitar colour, plaintive lyrics, and anonymity. Never heard of them, but I’m pleased to finally meet them.
Elliott Smith
4/5
Elliot Smith was the poet laureate of the quiet, pained, regret-filled epiphanies of a morning’s hangover. Even two decades after his death, he still is. This album revels - in wicked self-awareness - in its own self-destructiveness.
Norah Jones
3/5
This was a jazz album like Black Sabbath was a rock band. The times just didn’t have a definition for what those acts were doing. Norah did what Adele and Amy would do later on. I bought into the seduction; I didn’t realise that 27 million others did as well. That’s the definition of pop music, right?
AC/DC
5/5
Drongos rejoice! That said, it’s the high water mark for lowbrow music. And it’s pretty damned high.
Nightmares On Wax
1/5
Music for a hip dentist’s office.
Suede
4/5
I definitely hear The Smiths and glam rock - more T Rex than Bowie. It takes more than one listen to truly appreciate Gervais’ favourite BritPop band but once you get the musical texture between your fingers, it feels like, well….you know.
Justice
4/5
Daft Punk, Air, Justice - damn, the French really like their EDM.
I remember that Waters of Nazareth song. I used it on the treadmill to get my RPMs up. It’s nice to hear that the rest of the album has the same stucco-like syncopated feel.
Not sure that MJ tribute song aged super well, but oh well.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
Spellbinding. Not a piano fan. Not a free-form jazz fan. Never heard of Jarrett before.
Now I’m a fan.
There’s enough here for me to use this as adjunct to anaesthesia for major surgery. Make no mistake - I want my heavy drugs as well.
Iron Maiden
3/5
I’ve always enjoyed the devil imagery associated with heavy metal - it appears that this is where it was written in blood. Run to the Hills is an obvious stand-out, but it’s interesting in that it has nothing to do with devils in its sympathy for the plight of Native Americans. And there’s the song about the whorehouse, too. A real scattered mix of themes. A foundational heavy metal mish-mosh, pun intended.
Beth Orton
2/5
My wife loves this album. I’m less enamoured of the folksy musing though I recognise the musicianship on display.
Big Star
3/5
Sad, like a broken-down children’s toy. Alex Chilton and his plaintive guitar does not disappoint. It’s even sadder that this is the first of his to which I’ve listened.
The Style Council
1/5
As per Paul Weller’s biography, “[Cafe Bleu] left some fans confused and critics divided”. I’m not really a fan and I’m confused.
Machito
3/5
Zesty! I enjoyed this amuse-bouche but forgive me, I found it just that - something to whet my appetite for something more full-spectrum.
Minutemen
4/5
It’s the diamond of the hardcore movement. I especially like the “singing”. That snarkiness aside, the trio of guitar, bass, and drums is remarkably kicky. Very enjoyable.
Orbital
1/5
No, man. I’m sure that they’re excellent live, but I felt bored. I wanted to like it.
Minor Threat
5/5
Wow, first Two Nickels on the Dime and now Out of Step - it’s Hardcore Week. I’m here for it.
This album is such a beautiful bridge between punk and grunge. Love both of those genres - I really like this album.
Digital Underground
2/5
I adore the Humpty Dance but the rest of this? A bit too horny Prince without the funk.
David Bowie
5/5
My favourite Bowie has a sepia smile, sick piano melodies, and the drama of a thwarted teenage girl.
This album is such a good drug.
The Stooges
3/5
Grunge in the time of bell bottoms. I Wanna Be Your Dog is such a banger, it almost makes up for the weird 15min chant thing in the middle of this album. Almost.
Cream
4/5
Good god that slaps. “Where the blues ends and the sound got heavy.” Agreed.
That last throwaway song about the death of a child feels f@$@ing eerie with Clapton playing there.
5/5
Yup, there it is.
The most Americana album ever. Done by an Irish group.
Bono gets so much crap for how braggadocio his singing is on this disc but damn, yo - he’s allowed the massive ego for this disc.
Miles Davis
3/5
Not as transformative as Kind of Blue even though it was - quite literally - the birth of cool jazz.
I appreciated the effortless hand-offs within the nonet. And that’s the first time that phrase has been uttered in the English language.
Kanye West
5/5
So many similarities between the debuts of Kanye and Eminem - both angry with “things to prove” and machine gun sprays of words. The chipmunk soul of Kanye makes this album inimitable (well, at least until it was imitated to death in the late 2000s), but it’s damned weird to see the sociopolitical trajectories of them both two decades later.
David Bowie
4/5
The Brian Eno second half got me, like, bleah, but the rest of those songs….*chef’s kiss*
This meme-filled review has been brought to you by the letter $ and the number ¥.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Shit - how badly did PJ Harvey fuck up Nick Cave?
Curtis Mayfield
1/5
One star for Curtis Mayfield’s amazing falsetto, but that’s all I can manage to give. It’s like warmed-over mid-morning funk leftovers.
Bad Brains
2/5
I hear Tenacious D. I hear Faith No More. I hear 90s Metallica. And yet, not a metal band. A fun magic trick.
Bon Jovi
4/5
I was born and raised in the greater Philly region. I believe that they piped this album into the water supply during my middle school years. My fist-pumping responses to these tracks are born of genetic indoctrination.
That said, it’s not a bad album, even if the lyrics are a bit puerile.
Arcade Fire
4/5
It’s a much more compact sound than I’d expect from Arcade Fire, but still so deceptively intricate. Thematically permeated by “the suburbs”, the existential dread of the metaphor saturates the music. Most of the time (as in the title track), it’s highly enjoyable. I don’t get Win Butler’s explanation of the music as Depeche Mode meets Neil Young, but I appreciate the attempt.
John Cale
4/5
This album is doubly amazing insofar that I find all the rest of Cale’s solo repertoire (and a lot of his Velvet Underground stuff) utterly and unpleasantly impenetrable. Still, I like many of his production projects, so I know he can make an album that I like. And I did, this.
I can see the impact of this on many artists. I hear late Beatles, I hear Level 42, I hear Sweet, I hear the Decemberists. I liked it all.
The Pretty Things
1/5
I’m with Lester Bangs on this one. Over-produced (for the time) and under-cooked. I can see how LSD was the fulcrum on which this album was balanced.
Slade
4/5
If Axl Rose wasn’t listening to this, then I think my ears aren’t working.
Also, Dave Hill is what Nicholas Hoult would look like if he played for a glam rock band in the 1970s.
All of the fritterances aside, this album was completely unknown to me, as was this album. It was thoroughly enjoyable.
Rush
2/5
My disdain of most things prog rock continues, and given that I love Moving Pictures, I would’ve thought that it’d be different here.
I found it too unfocused - cluttered with too much space and not enough hook to attract more than a casual interest. Forgive me, Neil Peart.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
I really didn’t enjoy John Mayall’s voice - I noted immediately when Clapton took over the vocals and warmed to it. I cannot fault the guitar-ing. Historically important - still, you’d like the innumerable black artists on which this album was built to get more credit.
Venom
1/5
I had a root canal once.
Baaba Maal
2/5
Though the album didn’t resonate with me, I found some of the rhythms alien and infectious. Joyful, no doubt.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Soul doesn’t get much better. Though not all of these tracks are classics, the vocal presence on each is simply undeniable.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Such a wonderful slice of Americana.
Tricky
5/5
This album makes me feel like I’ve been smoking the kushiest herb. All CBD; no THC.
That, and Goldfrapp doing her best Bjork (or is it Bjork who’s been doing Goldfrapp all along?) on Pumpkin makes me realise what the noise about this disc is all about.
I love the up-front misdirection of Beautiful Day. Most of the remainder of the album sounds much like it’s trying to re-capture former glory and while that’s not necessarily bad, it is derivative.
Madonna
4/5
The 2000 U2 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind feels like it is desperately trying to re-capture former pop-star glory with mixed results.
This 2000 disc by Madonna succeeds at that same task (apart from the clunker of an American Pie cover) without the desperation. It also innovates by combining techno and country in a way that hadn’t been done before (and not super-well since).
Meat Puppets
2/5
The first psychobilly album? Perhaps. There are streaks of lovely jangly melody in this, along with some amusing lyrics. I largely found the instrumental tracks more arresting. Perhaps a second re-listen will garner more than my tentative initial two stars.
The Damned
2/5
I love the grimy and snarly nature of this music, but there weren’t many hooks that made me want to listen past that.
The Who
4/5
Classic rock is classic but Baba O’Riley is something else.
Jane's Addiction
3/5
Proto-grunge party time. I hear heroin.
Lightning Bolt
1/5
There were some fun rhythms, but a noise rock band is - after all - just that. Fun to experience, but not the first nor the best of its kind.
UB40
3/5
That was the most soothing protest record I’ve ever heard. I recognised none of the songs (even the covers had an alien feel to them) but they were all very pleasantly bip-boppy.
Kings of Leon
3/5
That was harder than I expected. Much less country jangly and engaging; much more gnarly and abrasive - in a good way, that is.
Moby Grape
4/5
I’m not a fan of psychedelia, but that rocked. It’s a shame Moby Grape gets overshadowed by other Haight-Ashbury groups. Hey Grandma and Omaha blasted me out of my chair.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Peerless and answers the question for me of comparisons to The Beatles - how can you compare apples to oranges?
Radiohead
3/5
Radiohead said that this album wasn’t leftovers from Kid A but I sure as hell sounds like leftovers from Kid A. It’s still Radiohead though, right?
Marvin Gaye
5/5
The pinnacle of 70s soul? If not, then at least one of the peaks. Despite the meandering religiosity of the middle of the album, this thing sings true.
Pavement
4/5
I had heard of Pavement and this album but I knew NOTHING on it and I was a freshman in college in the US in 1994. NO EXCUSE.
It’s like Beck mixed with Husker Du, but you know that they also cover Minor Threat songs, but not tonight because they’ve got a hangover.
I really liked it even if I can’t hum along to any of the songs now. Weird, that undefinable nature of enjoyable music. Other people probably hate it. Good thing I’m not them.
Pearl Jam
5/5
I’ve been impatiently awaiting this sweet, sweet album that defined the soundtrack of my high school experience.
Don’t wanna hear the PJ vs Nirvana dreck. Both bands and their high-water albums are era-defining.
Slint
3/5
I had never heard of this group or this album and was going to say something snide about obscurity begetting obscurity, but then I heard Good Morning, Captain and had an epiphany. This is the American shoegaze masterpiece. And no, I’ve no clue what ‘math rock’ is but I don’t mind it.
The Young Gods
3/5
It’s Tom Waits singing Nine Inch Nails songs in French.
Seriously though, Bowie liked this album and this group. That gets it a bonus star.
The Fall
1/5
It felt tedious at times, this album. Like musing on a series of chords was the aim of the record.
I caught some B-52s-esque sound in a few of the tracks and that made me sad that I hadn’t heard any B-52s on this last so far. And that made me think that I hadn’t heard any REM on this list so far. And then I thought that there were much better albums from 1985 to have been included on this list.
Jack White
3/5
Very curious to release a misogynistic album at the height of the #metoo movement. It’s a good thing that Sixteen Saltines slaps like it do.
Rahul Dev Burman
1/5
The soundtrack to the most expensive Bollywood film ever (relative to when it was released)? Well, OK.
I really liked the 70s-funk laden sounds of the intro track. I desperately wished that continued throughout the album but it didn’t. Winds up being kitschy fun for me, but not much else.
Ice T
4/5
I listened to this hard as nails album, stopped, and listened to it again.
Rolex watch, can’t fit no more diamonds on it.
Pinky ring, worth a house if I decide to pawn it.
Damn, Detective Tutuola.
The Hives
4/5
The Hives, The Vines, The Strokes, The White Stripes….the teeming bounty of turn of the century garage rock had so many high points. Veni, Vidi, Vicious was one for me but not this album. I know it’s a compilation record of some of the VVV stuff, but especially because of that, I’m substracting a star for the inclusion of this over the original album.
That said, Howling Pelle can come and scream in my face ANY TIME.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
One of the more visually-striking albums of the 1st New Wave wave, you get notes of The Kinks, CCR, Springsteen, and The Specials. It sneers at everyone and everything, so I can’t call it misogynistic as much as misanthropic. I love it.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Wounded and beautiful - I don’t know when I’d like a re-listen of this again, but I’m happy to know that it’s here for me when I do.
The United States Of America
4/5
Give me this over Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead any day. It feels like Fairport Convention acid rock covers. I was pleased.
Basement Jaxx
4/5
Driving, insistent, sweaty house goodness. Forgot this album existed. Thanks for the memories.
Motörhead
3/5
As much as I love Ace of Spades, many of Motörhead’s songs have a similar tonic and rhythmic structure. Even the “slow songs” here sounded like subdued versions of AoS. Still fist-bumping to its core, but not as many melodic hooks as I would’ve liked.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
An essential grunge album and the most important album of my freshman year of college. The skein of rich and unique sound on this! That wall of guitar sound so easily identifies the band.
The Stranglers
2/5
I once owned a CD set called Living in Oblivion that featured “the 80s Greatest Hits” and while there were some bangers, there were just as many bargain bin acts like Belouis Some and Strawberry Switchblade. The single greatest sin though? My introduction to The Stranglers via Get a Grip on Yourself on volume 2 of this CD set. Hard to reconcile a single from 1977 as a “greatest hit from the 80s”.
I felt that same disconnect from this album. I LIKED some of the songs, and some of the songs rubbed me the wrong way, akin to hearing a stupid joke about domestic violence.
It’ll get a spare star for its sins.
Robbie Williams
1/5
“You’re not a middle aged white lady who wants to sleep with him,” my wife replied to my derision at this album.
Formulaic and tired, this thing has all of the hackneyed 90s music production tropes on garish display.
Skunk Anansie
3/5
Skin seems to be the spiritual successor to Grace Jones - a gritted-teeth vocalist more than willing and armed to f&@$ you up.
I enjoyed my introduction to cunt rock (Skin’s words; not mine).
Thundercat
4/5
I was expecting nothing from this jazz-funk offering and was BLOWN AWAY. Good good, the badass bass lines.
I’ve got Friend Zone on repeat and I am living for the goofy-ass humour on full display. The only way that this would be better is if there were less self-indulgent guest artists. Even Kendrick didn’t add anything to this that Thundercat didn’t one-up.
Leftfield
1/5
This album sounds like what you’d get if you asked AI for house music nowadays.
I was expecting much more.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
Country ain’t normally my jam. This was chill proto-psychobilly, which gives it more than the one star it normally would.
Everything But The Girl
1/5
Kinda bland and forgettable though I love their voices. Forgive me.
Deerhunter
2/5
Where’s Waldo (or Wally) presents a unique sensory pastiche, one that demands a close examination to seek out hidden delights - much like this album. However, like this album, once you’ve found Waldo, there’s not a lot to keep you pulling it off the shelf.
That said, I got sedate Wilco vibes. I can get down with that.
Elvis Presley
4/5
There wasn’t much like him beforehand in popular culture, but it’s obvious how much he leaned on black musicians who came before him. Still, the start to Blue Suede Shoes is iconic, oft-imitated, and lives rent-free in my head.
Goldfrapp
3/5
Ethereal and light. A sweet soundtrack to a breezy holiday. And of course the inimitable vocal flavour of Goldfrapp. Not as mind-blowing as Felt Mountain, but I’m sold.
Jane Weaver
1/5
Hunh. What was that?
I’m confused at this album’s inclusion. It’s not bad. It’s just not distinctive or amazing.
Caetano Veloso
1/5
Psychedelic bossanova? I am not the target audience for this.
Rod Stewart
2/5
The wife loves Rod. I find him tolerable. This album was a bit of that. The bonus star is for my wife.
Grateful Dead
1/5
I appreciate that the Dead created the jam band mythos. I appreciate the musicality to their improvisation and their bluesy sensibilities. I acknowledge their centrality to the counter-culture movement of the 60s and their exclusive membership to the Haight-Asbury club. I just don’t like their music. I don’t.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
I like this album best when I hear Joni do her Steely Dan impersonation (like the title track). But goddamn this music composition is so DENSE - it definitely warrants a slow burn before I ultimately judge it. For now…
Simply Red
2/5
Is it easy listening? Smooth jazz? New wave? Blue-eyed soul?
I dunno. Mick Hucknall sure can sing but those staid 80s synth chords need to be left behind with the Betamax tapes and the Trapper Keepers.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
The Berlin Wall crumbles. The USSR folds. It’s the height of Madchester and yet these two release the most melancholy club kid record ever.
I loved most of it. Bonus points for having Axel F impresario as the producer. I don’t understand the criticism of these guys as “wimpy”. I just think others don’t get them. Sad for those others.
Barry Adamson
1/5
No. Just no.
Why the random insertion of background noise mimicking an audience? Why the ruin of a perfectly-good Alfred Hitchcock theme with off-rhythm feedback noise? Why ANOTHER concept album for a fake crime movie from this guy?
But more importantly, why is this considered influential, good, or noteworthy? I exercised every bit of my self-restraint to not fast-forward through the entire album. I want to give zero stars.
Lambchop
4/5
Seriously blown away by this alt-country, alt-rock offering. Easy and breezy like a Sunday morning in one corner; evocative and sinister like a 2am Saturday alleyway in another.
I listened to the first 3 tracks on repeat after listening to the whole thing. Knew nothing about this group but was NOT surprised to find their Nashville roots given the rambling guitar sound.
Solid underground offering. More, please.
John Martyn
1/5
Yeah it’s a mood, right? Masterful guitar picking, just nothing I’m going to crave at a later date.
I was distracted away from the album multiple times by other songs that I wanted to hear more.
Willie Nelson
5/5
That was entrancing. I listened to it three times over and still felt this weird calming spell. Magical, really. I guess that’s what smoking all that weed can do for country music.
Travis
1/5
I’m not a fan of wimp-rock.
3/5
I always get the group War mixed up with Edwin Starr’s song of the same name. Then I hear the funk and I’m still a bit confused.
That’s ok. I want the funk.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Hurts my heart to say as I recall the MTV VMA show where the Sledgehammer video cleaned the house.
Best song about a penis, ever. Mainly because no one clocked it as such for so long.
William Orbit
4/5
Well there’s another huge banger of an album that I had never even heard of (nor the artist) with which I found myself bopping along. Sure as shit don’t sound like 1993.
Fairport Convention
3/5
This would be the 2nd of this band’s albums on this list, and much like the last one, I was pleasantly surprised. Psychedelia and folk music are not for me, so when it sounds like honky-tonk and the blues, I’m appreciative.
Drive Like Jehu
2/5
If you like all of the screaming of Nirvana but none of the catchy tunes, then this one’s for you!
Supergrass
2/5
Yeah, it’s BritPop but it’s not. There’s some nice stuff on here but I’m not going to be hankering for this album on my death bed.
Meh. It’s alright.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
I entered into this album somewhat aware of some of the songs but dismissive of the teenybopper echoes. I should’ve checked myself better.
I was impressed by the full-throated range of feminist vibes from this millennial offering, especially from someone so Disney. The grooves are somewhat undercooked but the vocal virtuosity cannot be denied. A surprisingly satisfying listen.
Alice Cooper
3/5
Classic rock is classic. I love Billion Dollar Babies (maybe that’s the effects of Guitar Hero) and I wasn’t aware that No More Mr Nice Guy was on this album. Good listen. No downside.
Sepultura
4/5
That was intense and so fun. I loved the Sud American beats and the intensity. Felt that all the way through.
Destiny's Child
5/5
Good god. I did not remember how jam-packed this thing was with hits.
And to think that this DC3 unit only had been forged a mere month before recording - ridiculous talents. Of course Beyoncé is the star here but the production was top-notch for its age (maybe a bit dated right now) and the songs hold up (despite the passé Charlie’s Angels movie references).
Still, can’t fault this turn of the century gem.
Van Morrison
4/5
Classic rock is classic. If you don’t like this, you don’t like blue-eyed soul and you’re not my friend.
U2
5/5
Such a great album - my favourite U2 album by far. Sunday Bloody Sunday makes me want to run through a wall. Adam and The Edge sound sp amazing on this disc. Can’t give it anything but the full appreciation.
Radiohead
5/5
It’s one of the most important albums of BOTH the 20th and the 21st centuries, ok? Enough said.
The Dictators
4/5
Who woulda thought that I’d be such a fan of proto-punk? Well, me, I guess because I like punk. I confess to knowing NOTHING about this album, this band, zero.
I liked it a lot. I also hear Black Flag, the Beastie Boys, and Sonic Youth.
Trailblazers and then blazed out. So curious.
Ozomatli
2/5
Funky and fun. I love seeing my Jurassic 5 connection. Was it life changing? Nah. Fun though.
XTC
4/5
Dear God is the best song of 1986, quite possibly of the 1980s. It’s the atheist’s swan song; it has such a high place in my heart.
Interesting that Todd Rundgren produced this. Even more interesting that XTC thought this was a subpar album. It’s a great album with a singularly lovely tune.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
I understand the historic inclusion of this album as a bridge between early 20th century country roots and late 20th century hippie “country fried” music, but I wasn’t feeling the album until the sheer number of rags and fiddle fiestas hit me. That’s what I’m here for - I’ll jam to that!
David Ackles
2/5
I recognise the lost artistry here but I got some Scott Walker vibes and that revolts me.
That said - I appreciated the musicianship and the arrangements. Bonus point for impressing Elvis Costello so much.
CHIC
2/5
Hey - Le Freak is an amazing song. The rest of this album? Well, it’s high-end disco, right?
Skepta
3/5
The second half was much swifter and catchier than the first. I didn’t think I was gonna like the grime - I really liked the heartfelt outro.
Donovan
1/5
The litany of groups that have not yet graced this list are long, and yet I’m listening to the 199th best album of the 1960s.
Uggggggghhh. Eff off with the tales of Guinevere and the harpsichord already.
The Bees
3/5
I expected nothing. I got a sun-drenched palette of lazy days lounging by a pool with a margarita and a good book. Refreshing. Possibly not life-changing but the best vacations usually aren’t.
The Notorious B.I.G.
5/5
Biggie’s flow was that of a black belt martial artist. Smooth and beautiful but percussive, crisp, and potentially damaging. There haven’t been many like him since him. This album is on the Mt Rushmore of gangsta rap.
Germs
4/5
That rocked. I love how punky it was. I love the tragic tale of the often-trespassed band. I love that Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos was supposed to be their original drummer! I love Lorna Doom. I love Darby Crash. This felt so nihilistic; I can’t help but love it.
Missy Elliott
3/5
I forgot how much Missy sang on this and how mindbending Timbaland’s techniques were back in the day. It’s not her high water mark, but it’s damned good.
Depeche Mode
5/5
This is the album where Gahan goes full BDSM and Depeche Mode took their rightful place alongside the pantheon of 80s Brit alternative superstars - and in 1990, too!
So much to love here and such lurking threats hanging over every track. Well well done.
The Who
2/5
Gets a star for My Generation Gets a star for being anachronistic and inspiring grunge and hard rock. It sure as hell doesn’t sound like 1965.
I’m sorry though; I can’t manage more than that. It just never stuck with me.
John Lennon
2/5
Important and poignant but goddamn painful.
R.E.M.
5/5
Thank god it’s about time I got some REM on this list and it’s my favourite album of theirs!!!
It’s the End of the World As We Know It always makes me jump around like I’ve got a live weasel in my pants. I also try to sing along and only succeed at shouting “Leonard Bernstein” at the appropriate moment.
That’s joy, kids. This album sparks joy.
The Jam
2/5
Interesting and cerebral. Some cool riffs in here (I’d expect that from The Jam). Enjoyable throughout.
Aphex Twin
1/5
I know it’s considered amazing and classic and groundbreaking but it’s just dull to my ears. Ambient techno does NOTHING for me or too me. Maybe if I was a robot in 1993 I’d find this amazing, but even the robots now would likely find this too simplistic. Sorry not sorry.
Carole King
5/5
This supernova of an album - Jesus, it’s like a greatest hits album, it’s so good. If you’ve got zero interest in 70s easy listening, then this album is STILL likely a good album for you because Carole King wrote hits that got re-recorded by so many different people.
This album is a true gem.
Randy Newman
5/5
I had a cassette tape of the Blues Brothers growing up and one song done by John Belushi was Guilty. I always thought it was the perfect song for him but had no clue where it came from until now.
This was phenomenal. I almost did a spit take at Rednecks. This is powerful song writing. I had no clue Randy Newman had done this.
Soft Cell
3/5
Two thoughts of this album: when I was in high school, my best friend’s older brother would play this album for us incessantly when picking us up from school - a spectacularly sketchy choice of soundtracks for our commute.
Also, I cannot see this album cover without seeing Howard and Vince from The Mighty Boosh.
Musically, obviously Tainted Love makes me swoon still, but the rest of the album relies a bit too much on Marc Almond’s head voice. Still, it’s New Wave Nirvana - cannot deny its cultural importance.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Tracey Thorne over drum-and-bass was just what I wanted. It sounded a lot like Dido (but obviously predated it). I liked it a lot.
R.E.M.
4/5
Sublimely simple and complicated at the same time. I sought out this album when I was in college when I had a limited budget for CDs. I never regretted it.
Boston
5/5
Classic rock is classic, and it doesn’t get much more classic rock than this. It’s almost a one-hit wonder album, as there wasn’t much left in the tank of Boston through the late 70s and 80s. Still, what an album. If you like power pop, then this is on your Mt Rushmore.
Red Snapper
1/5
Yeah. Inoffensive. That’s the best I can manage.
Heaven 17
2/5
I didn’t think that I’d be rating a Heaven 17 album before any Human League albums on this list.
TIL that Heaven 17 was named after a band in A Clockwork Orange. That’s cool. This album? Yeah, it’s alright.
Janis Joplin
5/5
I love Joplin’s fuzzy vocal virtuosity. I also loved learning that Mercedes-Benz was the last thing she recorded before she died. This album is part of the sad mystique of rock and roll excess.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
1/5
It just sounds like watered down Cypress Hill or recycled Sublime. Half-baked, and not in a fun lovin’ way.
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
Funky and so important to the hip hop world. Visionary in 1974, for sure.
Orange Juice
4/5
I only knew Rip It Up on this awesome 80s album, and only that very peripherally. I really liked the funky Nile Rodgers- influenced energy on this thing. Just amazing. I could bop to this all day.
Stereo MC's
2/5
Hey - I can swim in the trance of Connected for a dog’s age, but the rest of this album doesn’t rightly click with me.
That said, I cannot overstate how much this album did for the all-denim wardrobe.
The Magnetic Fields
4/5
I wasn’t expecting 69 songs….surprise!
As witty as it was full of heart and synth, I found myself marking track after track as favourite.
It got a little repetitive, but wow what an album from a band I knew little about.
D'Angelo
5/5
This album was fire during my University years. People lost their damned minds when D’Angelo came to town to perform.
A re-listen rekindles. This was the start of neo-soul.
Richard Hawley
2/5
Beautiful. Heartfelt.
I’m probably not going to remember much about it.
Ryan Adams
3/5
It was one of my sister’s favourite albums before his sexual harrassment lawsuits and the Mandy Moore divorce became public. It’s so hard to divorce the artist from the art.
It’s funny that he was having an argument about Morrissey in the first track. Another narcissistic asshat.
This was the real start of alt-country, I believe. I enjoyed despite the issues raised.
Koffi Olomide
1/5
Yeah, revered worldwide, I am sure but I just couldn’t get with the Congolese conga.
Tortoise
2/5
I think in Tortoise I hear the evolution of all pre-packaged cell phone ringtones.
Shout out to the surgically-precise percussion.
I liked this, a bit. I think it’s worth two stars.
Fleet Foxes
4/5
This album made all the Gleeks and choral-nerds jump out of their skins in joy at the end of the Aughts - the actualisation of dense vocal harmonies into something more than a pretentious art-pop dalliance.
It still sounds as fresh as new fallen snow 15yrs on. That’s some pretty songwriting.
Marty Robbins
2/5
I can see its influence on country/western music, soundtracks, and even folk music. I just wanted a minor chord or two and something other than ‘notches on .44s’ as imagery.
Genesis
1/5
The decade of the 1970s was a wonderland of concept albums. The problem with the concept album is singular: if you don’t enjoy the concept, then you’re not going to enjoy the album.
It’s hard to fault the musicianship here, but reading about this album, it seems that this album was purely Peter Gabriel’s vision and not the rest of Genesis. And then Peter Gabriel was out. That says something, I think.
I found this tripping too close to the annoying prog rock territory of Yes. And I loathe prog rock Yes.
Screaming Trees
1/5
I just don’t understand the inclusion of this one. It’s a good representation of generic grunge but…it just doesn’t scratch any itch. I wanted it to be something that it wasn’t.
Björk
5/5
That was a goddamned brilliant study of vocal technique and virtuosity. Blown away, I am. I love Björk even more.
The Sabres Of Paradise
2/5
There were some songs that annoyed me and some songs with which I tapped my toes. I enjoyed the songs with progressive overlapping electronic layers the most. I can hear the roots of techno here; I wish I got more, though.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4/5
It is 2023. Bob Dylan is referred to as this guy’s musical “son”. Dude knew Woody Guthrie and taught Woody Guthrie’s songs to his son Arlo. Johnny Carson thought that this guy knew everyone and had a song for everything.
And he’s still alive! It’s 2023. This dude is a living musical history treasure trove.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
3/5
It’s a career-defining sound, for sure, and with Paul Simon producing it on the back of Graceland, it cements the group’s historical musical relevance. Does it hold up after 35yrs?
Sorta?
Ray Price
4/5
Damn I wasn’t expecting that chord progression on that title track. If this was what honky-tonk was, then I’d like to bring it back. And god, what a voice!
Spacemen 3
1/5
Damnit. I can see that this group was influential and groundbreaking but sweet Jesus - Monday is already hard enough without having to listen to 10min tracks of distorted guitar and mumbled lyrics.
Mott The Hoople
2/5
Yeah, it sounds like Bowie would try to promote this band but I’m not getting much more than glam rock leftovers.
Deee-Lite
3/5
My teenage self adored Groove is in the Heart. I confess I hadn’t listened to the rest of the album. It was funky as - maybe a bit too ambient for my tastes, but I cannot underestimate the number of rump shakes Deee-Lite has given me. I appreciate the love.
Björk
4/5
How is it possible that you can hear a smile? That’s the magic of Bjork’s voice.
This album sounds like it was made by someone in love. That’s worth a bonus star.
Turbonegro
3/5
If The Ramones were an English as a second language band that played hair metal, you’d get this album.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
The Boxer is the pinnacle of 1960s folk-pop. Cecilia and Bridge are also classic rock. Even The Only Living Boy in New York has iconic status. I’m not a folk aficionado, but this album slaps.
Django Django
3/5
I’ve heard parts of 4-5 songs on this album as jingles, ad breaks, and video game inserts. It’s nice to hear the native album - an electronic pastiche of bemusement.
Hole
3/5
Too slick to be grunge; too grimy to be pop. Probably the pinnacle of Hole’s artistic prominence and a damned fine hard-rock offering. Courtney Love’s vocal bombast deserves some credit for why this stands the test of time.
OutKast
5/5
This is the pinnacle of the Drrty South sound and goddamn does it feature everyone - Killer Mike, Cee-Lo Green, Lil Jon, Ludacris. Hell, even JAY-Z had to get in on the action. It’s an opus magnum dei. I loved this album when it came out and bought it the first week. I am down with the crunk.
The Fall
1/5
I’d rather be listening to Public Image, Ltd. or the Sex Pistols. It’s not impassably bizarre like other The Fall albums, but that ain’t high praise.
Talking Heads
4/5
Classic rock is classic but this is something else. It’s not peak Talking Heads but goddamn is it first wave New Wave heaven. Pour it all over me.
Shack
1/5
There’s some trend on this list to put perfectly-average examples of musical movements (i.e. psychedelia, grunge, drum & bass) on this list and call them “essential listening”.
This is the BritPop example of that phenomenon.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
1/5
Damon Albarn seems to have his finger in many pies. This one is cold and not too tasty, but his finger is still in it.
Death In Vegas
2/5
Dirge is fun. The rest sounds like the ambient music played to open a NIN concert.
John Grant
5/5
I’ve never heard of him before.
On the first listen-thru, I immediately liked 2/3 of the songs on the album. On the subsequent re-listen, I liked the other 1/3.
Poignant, witty, subversive, catchy, wounded. I needed this album many times in my life. Funny to find that it was recorded the year in my life that I needed it the most, but now I’ve found it, 13yrs later.
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
Satirical genius with some laugh out loud moments but maybe not that many catchy song hooks.
In reading about this album, I found it interesting to learn of Zappa’s social circles (i.e. Lenny Bruce, Hendrix) and the contemporaries he despised (i.e. The Beatles, Velvet Underground) around the time this album was recorded/released.
That album cover parody deserves a bonus star.
Madonna
4/5
I was struck by a few things about this album: William Orbit’s production was contemporarily criticised but retrospectively celebrated for helping to bring EDM into the mainstream. Madonna was contemporarily criticised but retrospectively celebrated for her Eastern cultural influences in this album. It’s almost as if critics decide that what they say in the present is outdated when asked to retrospectively view it 2 decades later.
The disc is good.
Robert Wyatt
1/5
Eh. Nah.
Nah
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
I enjoyed this strange tapestry of alt rock and musical mimicry. I found it intriguingly-haunting for further listens. I cannot identify one track on the album, but I can tell you how I felt throughout it.
The Verve
3/5
The unceasing melancholia wreathed in BritPop mastery could irritate in larger volume, but this album definitely shows restraint. Of course Bittersweet Symphony is a jewel of 90s pathos; the rest of the album is surprisingly similarly and sweetly sour.
Tori Amos
5/5
Unapologetic love for this album and Under the Pink. Tori Amos is my favourite singer/songwriter/piano warrior.
Peter Gabriel
2/5
There’s some fun New Wave influence about this album. There’s some important sociopolitical message to this album. I was sad that “Shock the Monkey” was not on this album.
Roxy Music
2/5
I was just thinking about Brian Eno the other day as I was listening to some New Wave stuff that he influenced. You’d think that the combination of Eno and Ferry would make this album untouchable and yet - it’s alright, yeah.
Hawkwind
1/5
I can think of a handful of things more painful than a two hour live space-rock jam album, but they all involve the desecration of my genitalia. 0 stars?
Boards of Canada
4/5
I had no clue that subliminal music was my jam. It definitely passed under the radar for me, but then again, isn’t that what it’s supposed to do?
Youssou N'Dour
2/5
Yeah, better than most of the international offerings on this list but that doesn’t mean I’m going to listen to it again. Maybe the shortest album on the list - that’ll get it a bonus star.
The xx
4/5
Most of The xx sounds like two estranged lovers singing over the phone, their faces tear-stained, their choked sobs off-mike. This was a nice collection of that evocative sound.
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Classic rock is classic.
The fact that Huey Lewis played harmonica on this album blew me away.
A fun listen.
American Music Club
4/5
Anachronistically evocative, this sure as sugar doesn’t sound like 1988.
Slow/sadcore pioneers, eh? Maybe that’s why this sounds like the logical stepping stone between Husker Dū and Elliott Smith.
Some of these tracks gave me goosebumps. That’s good, right? How have I never heard of them??
Brian Eno
3/5
This was fun and Eno-ish. I dunno if I’d call anything in this album life-changing but I think it’s cool that the track King’s Lead Hat is a purposeful anagram of Talking Heads, who Eno was working closely with at the time.
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
Sloppy jazz. Stoner white boy hip hop. Random college rock. Whatever it is, it’s unique. That doesn’t always mean that it’s good. This? Eh. They’re from Philly. I’ll give them a bonus star.
Green Day
5/5
Just the best concept album I’ve ever heard. So many poignant songs - like a love-letter to a punk rock kid written by the jaded, older version of the same. It was the album that made me realise my adulthood.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
It’s interesting that I get this album - RHCP’s rebound album - the day after I got American Idiot - Green Day’s rebound album. They’re both interesting and fun, but this one is more microcosmic than Idiot.
Cannot overstate the contributions of Frusciante to this album - Kiedis’ vocals are notably better than Blood Sugar Sex Magik too. Solid end of the 90s rock.
3/5
There wasn’t anything that sounded anything like that before them, I reckon. I think it’s funny that this album was Lester Bangs’ first critic column and he was savage (and later retracted it all).
There’s some stuff on this live disc that feels like filler, but I’d listen to it again for sure.
Queen Latifah
4/5
I was stunned by the breadth of hip-hop styles on this one disc. It was also lovely to hear the Daisy Collective - De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love.
I found it poignant that this would be my album a mere week after the passing of The 45 King who played such a pivotal role here.
It’s a damn good album, yo.
Alice Cooper
2/5
Yeah, classic rock is classic but this one feels a bit thin apart from the title track. I prefer Billion Dollar Babies.
Johnny Cash
5/5
The social implications of this album seem to eclipse the fatigue in Cash’s voice - they almost seem to buoy his spirit to fight the demons he was likely tortured by at this point in his life.
Truly a heroic artist. His art was never more starkly evocative.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
I hear the inspiration for most of the Sesame Street/Electric Company theme music in this album. Funky and cheerfully positive. The chronology clearly works out.
k.d. lang
4/5
I think I love how kd lang ends all of her songs - judged based purely on her winsome outros, I would give this 6 stars out of 5.
U2
4/5
Classic rock is classic (ack!).
This is likely my 3rd favourite U2, behind War and The Joshua Tree. It’s good and the bangers really bang. The fillers detract.
While most described this as a new direction for the band, it just seems like U2 in retrospect, like they were inventing their own genre or something.
Still, it’s worth inclusion in this list and likely the top 100 albums of this list at that.
Can
1/5
There were more mind-blowing elements in the other Can offering on this list. I found this album to be a poor man’s Gorillaz, unadorned by rap or the electronic treasures of the 21st century. Interesting but unrealised. A rap outro could’ve saved this, I think, but of course, it wasn’t really on offer in 1973.
Paul McCartney
2/5
Seems like a peaceful muse on music by someone jaded by the industry. Apart from Maybe I’m Amazed, it does seem disappointing coming from a recent-Beatle. I understand its importance in the growth of the lo-fi movement, but it ain’t too pretty on it own.
LTJ Bukem
2/5
3hrs of drum and bass, eh? Wow…..uh. Thanks?!
Elbow
3/5
It’s interesting and a left field inclusion. Kinda takes into account a 5yr period of my life where I was aware of ZERO up and coming artists.
Felt a little whiny at times. Dunno. I’ll listen again.
Gang Starr
3/5
Smooth and crisp - the mould by which most streetwise 90s hip-hop would and should be measured.
Lyrically ahead of its time but I find the earwigs a bit sparse on this one. I want to give it 3.5 stars. I can’t, so I’ll play hardball.
Ryan Adams
3/5
Optimistic Americana that in retrospect feels like tarnished glory both nationally (9/11) and personally (#MeToo).
Cannot deny the beauty to Ryan Adams’ voice when he loses the Johnny Cash-affected growl and sings purely.
It’s strange to me to consider Ryan Adams alongside Elliott Smith - both had similar tortured misogynistic womanising facades. Interesting that one would die the year this album was released.
Dire Straits
5/5
Overlooking Knopfler’s transcendent guitar and the sterling 80s production value (in my mind, 2nd only to Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly for acoustic quality), the jaded, fatigued ascerbia of this album makes it an essential classic. Money for Nothing gets (as it should) a bumper crop of love for accurately skewering 80s excess, but the rest of this pristine disc isn’t too far behind.
It’s a desert island album for me.
The Roots
5/5
This is hip-hop virtuosity right here with little filler or misstep. I might give it 4 stars but I gots to love my 215 brethren.
What can I say? I’m a Philly homeboy.
The Human League
5/5
It’s the album that killed Lester Bangs!
I’m all seriousness, it’s a genre-defining album, and it’s my favourite musical genre. A full five star-rating was never so easily given.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I didn’t think much of the first half of this album….and then the second half dropped.
Whoa. That’s what comes of surviving an assassination attempt, eh?
Suicide
2/5
So influential and also so difficult to listen to - I’ve never heard synth that menaced like that.
Still, I’d rather be listening to Alan Vega’s best buddies - Devo. Where are they on this list?
David Bowie
3/5
Like, it’s one of the last bits of Bowie we got on this plane of existence, right, so there’s that, but unlike Blackstar, I don’t think that I would’ve liked it as much had it NOT been Bowie.
Beck
3/5
I have specific memories of this album with a specific ex. It sounds like Beck did, too.
Melancholy isn’t my favourite Beck flavour but he does it really well.
Fever Ray
1/5
It sounds like Cyndi Lauper doing a Bjork impersonation to a series of Peter Gabriel backing tracks - and while that sounds like it’d be good, it just didn’t hit for me.
SZA
4/5
I’m so out of touch with current popular music - I had no clue that she was one of the top 10 most listened to artists on Spotify.
This album is lovely and jarringly-intimate - like I’m reading someone’s diary. I love the raw poignancy. It needs a second listen.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Gosh, what would we have had if Jaco Pistorius had a long career and didn’t die in a bar fight? His bass lines on this disc are sublime.
“There’s something comforting about melancholy” - yup, I see the birth of Lana Del Rey and St Vincent in this album. It’s nice; it’s lovely rainy day music.
Baaba Maal
1/5
Robert Christgau describes this album as “background music with soul”.
Forgive me, but I’d prefer soulless main character theme songs.
R.E.M.
4/5
It was REM’s first mainstream album and damn - what a banger. If the second half had been all that the first half was, this would clearly be a 5 star disc. I feel like I’m splitting hairs but I’m docking a star for REM selling out. Fair? No. Who cares? You?!
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
The Smashing Pumpkins have this signature musical gesture - a 16 beat crescendo of repeated accented guitar/bass/drum notes followed by a drum outro. I noticed it used on at least 5 tracks on this album to heighten the drama. It works.
This is arguably the last mythic grunge album. There’s so much to love on here - not only because it’s a double album. It’s ridiculous how good all of these far-ranging tracks are.
White Denim
1/5
Much like a vegan Thanksgiving dinner, where loads of effort has gone into creating something appetising, I’m hoping that the pizza place is open because I’m still hungry.
Dagmar Krause
1/5
I believe ‘WTF’ summarises my review of this nicely.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Like a pickle juice shot after a sip of whiskey, punk rock and soul music mixed together shouldn’t work, but it kinda does.
Kinda. Maybe not the most successful examples of Northern Soul, but likely the first album exemplifying the genre.
Forgive me; I just wanted ‘Come On Eileen’.
Björk
4/5
The sheer love that Bjork has for all music is ever-present here. Didn’t know that she was the force that propelled British underground electronica to its 90s mainstream heights. I’m not surprised. Human Behaviour is one of my favourite songs and the video lives rent-free in my head.
Tim Buckley
1/5
Eh. Psychedelia and singer-songwriter? Pass.
Public Enemy
4/5
Angry and dance-y. This is some hardcore hip-hop heroics right here. Flava Flav needs much more credit than just being the “Yeah, Boyyy!” hype-man. He flashes his hip-hop chops something fierce here. The PE-Anthrax duet was the best of the hip-hop-metal mash-ups of the age. Just a solid gold disc.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
That’s some fun glam rock that I had never heard before. If it’s good enough for Robert Smith, then it’s good enough for me.
Black Sabbath
4/5
It was fun to find out that the first heavy metal album’s sound happened because of Tommy Iommi’s fingertip injuries and Geezer Butler’s inability to play the bass.
Also fun to hear that Ozzy has ALWAYS sounded that way.
Rather enjoyed this lovely little gem of doom.
Rocket From The Crypt
1/5
I mean, it’s a serviceable post-punk, but so would be My Chemical Romance, or Ween, or hell….Devo.
I am left severely-wanting in comparing this to what I’ve not seen on this list so far. Fair? Not really, but I have no direction that tells me I need to be fair.
The KLF
4/5
Gosh, I heard that early 90s trance/ hip-hop drum line and I wanted to dance. I always got The KLF and KRS-One mixed up as a kid. Mainly because they keep repeating their name in their songs.
One of the best albums not found on Spotify.
The Incredible String Band
1/5
I caught the influence of this record echoed in Monty Python (listen to The Minotaur Song and tell me you don’t hear The Lumberjack Song).
I’d like to give this album a higher rating for the Python association but yeah, nah.
Magazine
4/5
Right. Now THAT is post-punk or even new wave realness that I’ve never actually heard before. And the more I hear it, the more I want to listen again.
Jesus, the royal lineage on this disc: post-Buzzcocks, pre-Siouxsie. Just fits right in there between punk and goth so perfectly.
Kate Bush
5/5
Dream-pop on steroids before dream-pop was even a thing.
I adore “Running Up That Hill”, and while I knew some of the other hits on this disc, I was totally unfamiliar with the sonic allegory on the flip side. I liked - I shouldn’t have been surprised.
This is an iconic 80s album.
The Everly Brothers
2/5
It’s a fine example of effortless mid-century American harmonies that makes me wonder if the Everly Brothers spoke in tonic descension with one another. Cathy’s Clown is the highlight for me, but forgive me - this album makes me think of all of the black and Latino music of the time getting zero airplay.
The Darkness
2/5
I adore “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” - it’s an amazing karaoke song - but the rest of this album sounds like AC/DC for the new millennium, and while that’s nice…..just give me AC/DC?
Wild Beasts
1/5
I just couldn’t get around the lead singer’s falsetto. Did. Not. Like.
Sam Cooke
4/5
The true potential of a live album is capturing the authentic spirit of the performer. In that sense, this is a perfect album. Cooke’s gravelly-yet-smooth voice glides playfully over the ebullient crowd in such a pleasing way. It makes zero sense that this album wasn’t released until the 80s. Given Cooke’s untimely death and the circumstances surrounding it, the record company’s position that they were “preserving Cooke’s image” feels very phony, but Q-Tip did mention industry rule #4080.
The Louvin Brothers
2/5
Good god.
Seriously, I wasn’t expecting a murder ballad from 1956 called Knoxville Girl to go so hard. I ALSO wasn’t expecting it to be something that charted.
I don’t recall listening to a song with my jaw wide open like that before. That’s worth something, even if the genre and the generation clearly isn’t for me, but I’ll return to my original comment.
Good god.
Joanna Newsom
3/5
Joanna Newsom sounds like a Bollywood singer singing in English.
This album blows my mind with the intricacy of its composition - how does she remember what she’s supposed to be singing during her 16 minute vocal barrages?
Yes, she’s also Andy Samberg’s partner. Fun trivia.
The Birthday Party
3/5
Nick Cave has been screaming in a demonic voice for over 40yrs, as this album clearly demonstrates. I found the incessant and barbaric percussion gripping; I felt disturbed by the lyrical content.
I’m sure that’s exactly what the antipodean Tom Waits wanted. Punky Bluester? Possibly not for the content.
Doves
1/5
This album sounds like middle-aged depression.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
Cry Me a River was my jam in the summer of ‘02 - and that’s me sounding old AF for the record. Might as well give me a spittoon and a gold pan.
Seriously, this album sounds deceptively like an MJ album. I guess that makes sense as most of the songs were developed for the Gloved One. It’s nice to see Timberlake on here as he seems such an earnest artist and a huge fan of R&B. I’d give it 2 stars but I’m feeling generous post-holidays - I’ll give it a boost.
Burning Spear
2/5
I listened to this on a grey, lonely day in January. It felt weary and political. It was nice to contemplate; I don’t think I shall revisit it.
Solange
1/5
I know what it’s for and why it’s here but forgive me, I just did not enjoy the music.
Joe Ely
4/5
I wasn’t expecting a lot. When most of these tracks started, I was like “oh yeah, a country song”, and then the instrumental mid-section hit. And hit it did.
I can see why The Clash loved this guy and wanted to work with him.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Yeah, I can see why John Hughes said that he listened to this on Thursday and woke up a different person on Friday. The lack of folksy whine and the addition of electric guitar made the first half of this album hum for me, but it’s the comic break at the start of 115th Dream that makes me see the humanity behind Dylan. That makes it my second-favourite disc of his.
Pavement
4/5
I heard so much of the 90s to come in this album - I heard Sublime, I heard Beck, I heard Foo Fighters. I wonder how mainstream popular Pavement could have been if Nirvana hadn’t come along. This album really made me consider what I missed in the golden indie era. Also, the drumming on this disc was sensational. RIP Gary Young.
Coldplay
4/5
The first half of this album is fire and soundtracked a heady year of my young adulthood; the second half, not so much.
I find it very odd that the Brits named this album a better album in 2011 than Dark Side of the Moon. I mean, Clocks kicks ass but let’s not be ridiculous, right?
Raekwon
5/5
I had no clue that Raekwon started the mafioso rap craze, the Tommy Hilfiger craze, the Cristal obsession. Damn. This album is iconic - not to mention filled with enough thick spit-worthy rhymes to clog up a dentist’s sink.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
So Come On Eileen is obviously the prize of this album, but by its weight alone does it drag this album up to three stars in my view. It’s such a weird marriage of folk, soul, spoken word poetry, and New Wave. I’d say it’s unique, but we had Dexy’s first album on this list as well so…
B.B. King
4/5
That was fun! Ended weird though. But still fun and livelier than I thought the blues would be.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Iconic lyrics for sure but the folksy whine seems to have crept back in - worth a more comprehensive examination of the poetry in motion with the harmonica muted, methinks.
The Beau Brummels
1/5
I don’t know if I have a bad day and then I get an album that I judge to be lacklustre, or I get an album that’s sub-par and I have a bad day. Either way - bleah.
The White Stripes
5/5
Oh my god this album. This is the peak of garage rock of the Aughts, I reckon. Seven Nation Army is going to get shot into space as a 21st century representation of our artistic prowess as a species. An easy 5 stars.
Traffic
1/5
It sounded like a Hendrix jam on one or two of those tracks, but it wasn’t Crosstown Traffic. It was only Traffic. Too bad.
The Stooges
5/5
More evidence that Iggy (and Ziggy) had time machines in the 70s (or maybe it was all the drugs). Either way, this is seminal garage, punk, and rock. The Evolution of Music 101 right here.
Bebel Gilberto
2/5
“One of the most sampled albums of 2000” doesn’t feel like a big reason to include this disc on this list. Still, it’s a shame about the producer dying of smoke inhalation to prevent the preliminary tapes from burning up in a fire.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
I’m a sucker for a good R&B album, but this feels like a bit of a flash in the pan. Not a UK native: I’m grateful to have listened to this as I would’ve never heard it otherwise.
It sounds like Beyoncé if she was British and never was in a girl group. Interesting that Beyoncé was beginning to blow up at the same time as Ms Dynamit-ee.
Brian Eno
4/5
I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting that ear-gasm. I really really liked it, and it would probably get 5 stars from me after repeat listens. I should get onto that.
TV On The Radio
1/5
I tried; I really tried. I was just irritated by it.
Richard Thompson
2/5
Laconic, glittering, and sad - like maple syrup made from the tears of young children.
3/5
I expected to hate this - I’m not a fan of noise rock - but I was pleasantly surprised by the insistent rhythms of these songs which were otherwise noise. I’ll give it a bonus star for the fanciful song titles.
The Police
4/5
On one hand - it’s vintage New Wave, it’s head-bopping reggae, it’s The Police before the abhorred each other, it’s Message in a f@$@“&ing Bottle.
On the other hand - a lot of the rest of the album feels like filler (and WAS filler as per The Police), folks other than Sting are singing on some of the tracks, there’s some blatant homophobia (“On Any Other Day”).
Is it great? Yes, it’s The Police. Is it a greatest album of all time? Meh.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Finally! 800 albums in and I’ve finally received a Stevie Wonder album.
Superstition makes me want to Spider-Man 3 my way through anything (if you know you know). I was excited with the breadth of funked-out pop-rock on this disc. Even the easy listening stuff made me peppy.
I firmly believe that Superstition is the best song of the 1970s. On the back of that, I can not rate it any lower.
New York Dolls
5/5
I don’t know why I’ve never taken the time to listen to this glowering, glittering, gobsmackingly grand record. It’s more glam than Ziggy Stardust. It’s more punk than The Stooges. It’s more 70s NYC than The Velvet Underground.
TIL that David Johansen is the last surviving New York Doll. Fascinating.
Tim Buckley
1/5
I have no clue how this guy got three albums (I hope only three) on this list. This one felt chugging orange juice while chewing spearmint gum. Sometimes this list feels like work - case in point.
Soft Machine
1/5
It made my lawn mowing more interested than nothing, but I guess “better than silence” isn’t glowing adulation.
Otis Redding
5/5
My only critique? It’s too short. More soul, please.
Otis Redding’s voice can plead, cajole, encourage, and seduce in the span of four bars. And Steve Cropper on the disc, too? Damn.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
Psychedelic but with notes of Scott Joplin and Motown. Such a weird album from a band I’ve never heard of classified as garage rock - how, I don’t know. It made me curious; I’ll give it that.
Cocteau Twins
5/5
The basis of all dreampop to follow - I love the fact that I listened to 40 minutes of blissful gibberish that Spotify refuses to attempt to transcribe into lyric sheets.
And I loved it. Colour me an 80s kid.
Jacques Brel
3/5
French chanson album? How did you know what I wanted for Valentines Day?
Seriously, this was one of the best non-English language inclusions on this list (apart from The Cocteau Twins - ha). That voice was a force of nature. It made me sheepishly realise how much high school French I’ve forgotten. Sorry, Mme Shoestock.
Big Black
4/5
There’s so much proto-NIN in this album that I loved. I’m not upset that it’s not on Spotify.
That said - goddamn was that nihilistic nirvana.
Christine and the Queens
4/5
Such strong Michael Jackson vibes listening to this album. The production values are pristine Christine. I appreciated the English/French versions of all the songs. Just a stunning album, really.
Stan Getz
4/5
TIL that bossa nova - of which this album is likely the best-ever example - was invented in the late 1950s.
I also learned that sexism prevented Astrud Gilberto from being credited anywhere on this album, despite her classic Girl from Ipanema debut.
The Velvet Underground
1/5
I just cannot with this album. Off-key, drowsy, pathos-inducing music. Yes, I know it’s considered classic. Emphasis for me on “ic”.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Ah, my favourite Stevie album! I’m “living for this album”. AHHAHAHAHAHAH.
I’ll see myself out.
The Band
2/5
Quaalude-soaked bluesy-country-rock, eh? The Weight is one of those classic rock staples, but the remainder of this album felt like a hazy Sunday afternoon that’ll leave a hangover on Monday. Beautiful as it happens, but the details aren’t distinctly memorable and you’ve got a strange taste in your mouth the next day.
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
All B-movie and low-rent TV action and sci-fi soundtracks owe a debt of gratitude to this disc.
I don’t see the “electronic Oldfield” comparisons. I’d suggest that this is what Bach would sound like behind a synthesizer.
MGMT
4/5
I had a feeling this album was going to turn up. Electronic psychedelic goodness. Electric Feel is the coldest jam of the 00s. Parts of this album felt undercooked but I think that’s an overall groove feel. I’m here for it.
The Byrds
3/5
Classic rock is classic but this is an alternative version of classic rock - there’s a ton of LSD and hash evident in this disc as well. Some of it is almost unmanageable (Mind Gardens *ahem*), but the minor chord stuff hits a melodic sweet spot. I’d still rather be listening to Hendrix if I’m getting my 60s fixties.
David Crosby
3/5
This is what happens when a hippie gets depressed and turns to hard drugs. In this case, this hippie had tons of musical virtuoso buddies he could call in favours from.
I enjoyed the instrumental pieces more than the ones with lyrics, by and large, and enjoyed more than I thought I was going to enjoy.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
There are aspects of this album - like the title track - that help me speak the beautiful jazz vernacular. There are other tracks that stymie my scholarly pursuits in this arena. I’m still better for having heard it. I’ll round up a half-star correspondingly and get back to my studies.
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
I was going to say that Billie Holiday did the “damaged songbird” thing better with her album Lady in Satin but then I got to Why’d You Do It? and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.
Faithfull wasn’t a damaged songbird; she was a damaged bird of prey. Damn.
The Byrds
2/5
It’s the fifth Byrds or Byrds-adjacent album I’ve had on this list in the past month and while, yes, it belongs here and probably started the whole country-fried rock’n’roll thing, can I please be done with The Byrds now? Pretty please?
Footnote: minus 1 star to Gram Parsons for writing a song about killing his lover named Pretty Polly and then naming his daughter Polly. Ick.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
All hail the birth of the New School.
It’s not my favourite Run-DMC disc, but goddamn this is gold. First hardcore rap track, first diss track, first rap-rock track…
For a hip-hop head, this album is foundational. I wanted to give it 4 stars because it’s not my favourite, but is George Washington NOT great because he’s not your favourite president?!
No.
The Gun Club
4/5
Yes, please!
It also had this B-52s jangle to it that I enjoyed - it’s the closest that I’ve got to my beloved beehive-sporters, so I’ll take it. I had never heard of this group before - now I feel educated.
It would seem that Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a punk rocker’s punk.
Eric Clapton
2/5
So that’s postjunk funk, eh? Heard.
Yeah, it’s cruisey bluesy. Not something I’m really jonesing for, but it’s nice.
The I Shot The Sheriff cover is a straight-up duplication of the original - again, nice but not novel.
Mj Cole
1/5
I’ll listen to the rest of this, but then I’ll forget it in a haze of non-specific UK garage blandness.
Calexico
2/5
If Fargo was set in the Yosemite Desert, this would be the soundtrack.
It’s a mood for sure. It’s good music, too. Does it belong on this list? Not in lieu of some glaringly-overlooked albums.
The Offspring
4/5
TIL that this is the best-selling album off of an indie label EVER. Impressive.
These guys are the kings of Shout-Rock in the same way that the Beastie Boys are the kings of Shout-Rap. Not a surprise that I am inclined to them both.
It’s interesting that they are labelled pop-punk and - in listening to the rest of this album and not just the songs plastered all over the radio in the 90s - I would have to agree.
The more you know…
ABBA
4/5
Classic rock is classic and of course there has to be an ABBA album on this list - they’re almost their own sub-genre of rock. Probably best that that disc has their most famous song as well as their most underrated song (Fernando).
Anthrax
3/5
Thrashers unite.
As a naive pre-teen when this album broke, I was intimidated by the aural ferocity. If you had told me that the songs were about social activism, the death of John Belushi, and Judge Dredd - I probably still would have been scared off.
Soul II Soul
4/5
I remember listening to this album when it was released and I thought to myself “Welp, the 90s have definitely started”. It was just different, ya know?
Still feels that way. Comfy. Groovy.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
This was one of those albums that I thought of immediately when I started this list. It took damned long enough to finally surface! And yes, THIS is my favourite Stevie album. This AND Innervisions. They’re like my two babies. I cannot choose only one.
Also, still amazed at how much Will Smith (I Wish) and Coolio (Pastime Paradise) owe to this album. I mean, they’re almost cover songs, right?
Santana
4/5
Classic rock is classic but I’ll boogie down to Oye Como Va all damned day. Believe that.
Ice Cube
4/5
Not surprised to find this album here. Also not surprised that I had heard none of the songs on it, as mainstream radio wasn’t about to touch this disc with a 69-foot pole back in 1990.
Doesn’t make it less of an historical (and prescient! - hello LA riots) album. Ice Cube sounded so angry on some tracks that he sounded a bit winded, and I didn’t mind it.
Orbital
2/5
It’s better than most mind-numbing techno drone. I enjoyed the Lt Worf cameo on the first track, and then it was a bit downhill from there until the penultimate track (Halcyon and On and On). I did enjoy the wit woven through. Am I going back for more? Not really.
Motörhead
3/5
The title track always makes me pleasantly growl. The remainder of the album makes me think of grimy roadies and the scuzzy life they lead. I’m sure Lemmy wanted it that way exactly.
Curious that the band rejected the new British heavy metal movement and always identified as hard rock. I think that’s why punks and goths have such love for Motörhead.
Queens of the Stone Age
5/5
I effin’ love this album and I had no clue it existed. I dig a good Josh Homme-riff but good god this thing is chock full of that and more.
Interesting - I didn’t understand the ‘stoner rock’ genre tag, but hearing this disc - and hearing that it represented the hybrid of Homme’s Kyuss days and the QOTSA evolution - it makes me think that this is the acme of that genre.
For that, and all the goodness that QOTSA brings, I can do no more.
4/5
Another band that I should’ve listened to before now. They do not disappoint.
It’s amazing to me the breadth of punk as it disseminated like a lovely greasy film across the late 70s and early 80s, twisting all other music forms into its nihilistic groove.
I caught lots of B-52-esque energy in this - might be the gender duo harmonies. I’m getting closer to my beloved beehives.
You could have given me 75 guesses and I would never have pegged X as hailing from LA - even if this was their debut album. I like being kept guessing.
Suzanne Vega
3/5
I had thought about rating this at two stars for the minimalism, but I kept going back to Vega’s simple voice and finding it too compelling to rate it lower. I prefer Vega’s sophomore album to this one (maybe that’ll be on this list too?) but I cannot fault this lovely disc more than 3 stars.
Serge Gainsbourg
2/5
Jesus, am I conflicted. I mean, on the one hand, this album basically birthed trip-hop: Portishead and Jarvis Cocker were clearly breastfed from the teat of this funky, odd, non-English-language concept album.
And on the other hand, Melody was 14yo when the narrator met her and 15yo when he took her virginity, so in essence, they are responsible for two kinds of assault. Ick. I mean, Lolita is both celebrated and reviled. I think this album should be as well.
Also, RIP Jane Birkin.
Saint Etienne
1/5
It’s a perfectly-serviceable sample-heavy dance record of the alternative variety. It is not an album I must listen to before I die. Give me Weezer. Give me The B-52s. Give me Dr Dre or Snoop Dogg. Give me Lady Gaga. Give me Minnie Riperton. Jesus, give me The Shaggs if you’re going to give me something mind-bending. Stop giving me mundane genre exemplars.
The Zutons
1/5
Yeah, uh…how is it remarkable?
It deserves nothing more than that, especially in the shadow of albums not on this list.
Duke Ellington
4/5
Wow. So that’s what pandemonium at the jazz-house sounds like. Iconic and timeless (though I loved the MC mentioning that a very young producer named ‘Quincy Jones’ had lectured earlier in the day of this concert).
Gram Parsons
3/5
It’s a weird magic trick when country songs have titles like “Death Take Me Now” or “Horrid Depressed Existence” and then the song starts with this kinda-upbeat chipper twangy guitar thing.
Anyhow, that happened three times on this album. Also, Emmylou Harris sounds great.
3/5
Maybe because it was recorded at Abbey Road, but I got really strong Beatles vibes from this album. That’s not entirely a bad thing. It’s kitschy and witty and tongue in-tongue in cheek, so I could get down with that, even if the arrangements made me screw my face up a bit.
Ray Charles
5/5
There are good albums and there are historical albums. And then there’s this one, which is effortlessly both.
Brother Ray probably did more for racial relations in the US with this album than any single person in the 1960s not named Martin or Malcolm.
Sebadoh
2/5
It leans dangerously close to wimp-rock, but the short sharp bursts of Dinosaur Jr-esque energy save it from damnation. I hear a lot of Violent Femmes influence here. I wish I heard more.
Throwing Muses
1/5
I wasn’t a big fan of random compilation albums on this list (The Hives, Husker Du, Big Brother and the Holding Company) to begin with, but at least I knew something about them and liked some of their songs.
This? All I know is that these folks paved a path to a record contract for The Pixies. While I’m grateful, I don’t think it’s a reason I should listen to this.
Green Day
5/5
Along with Weezer and the Dave Matthew’s Band, this was the soundtrack of my sophomore year at university.
The luxurious re-listen does not disappoint. The sheer brilliance of this trio of jerks continues to amaze. This album did so much to evolve punk into the 90s and beyond. I cannot hyperbolise how much I adore this album.
A great weekend album, BTW.
Big Star
2/5
I enjoyed finding the theme song to That 70s Show on this album, but I don’t think I found much else to write home about. Forgive me - I think I like my Alex Chilton a bit more aged.
Beatles
4/5
Oh, I wanted to give it five stars - it’s the Beatles arrival at the peak of their powers!
And then “Run For Your Life” ended the album and John Lennon showed his abusive hand.
Ick ick. A star deduction for karma.
Cowboy Junkies
5/5
Hot take: the Cowboy Junkies are the North American acoustic version of Portishead.
I had a buddy in college - hard-edged art major punk - who would play this album nonstop and fight people who didn’t like the Cowboy Junkies. Me? I could sink into euphoric stillness listening to Margo Timmins’ voice.
I’m very happy that this album is on this list.
Bee Gees
1/5
Much like the Battle of Trafalgar, listening to the Bee Gees will result in the death of plenty of semen.
Carpenters
4/5
Goddamn is Close to You a near-perfect pop love song. This album is a peak on the soft-rock mountain range, and even if it’s not my cuppa tea, I cannot disrespect Karen Carpenter’s voice.
The B-52's
5/5
It gives me hope for the future of humanity that this album appears on this list. After all, if we all can’t learn to do the Aqua Velva, then what’s the point?
They are my beloved beehives. Dance, you fools!
Crosby, Stills & Nash
2/5
Yeah, I can see the impact of this album with its tight reedy harmonies and popular musicianship of the day. It’s classic folk-rock. I’m just not the kind of folk it rocks.
Dr. Octagon
4/5
The rap flow feels like Jurassic 5; the lyrics feel like Andre 3000; the scratching reminds me of Mixmaster Mike of the Beastie Boys.
And then I did some reading on Kool Keith and found out that he had directly influenced all three of those hip hop heavyweights. And then I read that the lyric “Smack My Bitch Up” used by Prodigy was a sample of Kool Keith.
Mind. A bit. Blown.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
(Most of) the world’s first taste of Bjork, eh?
It’s as you’d expect: brilliantly high-flying vocals from Lady McIceland and serviceable post-punk work from everyone else.
I liked it. I had only ever heard “Birthday”. I might listen again.
The Libertines
1/5
I hear strong features of The Arctic Monkeys and hints of The Teardrop Explodes in a sea of dive-bar-hot-mess. Fair? Do I care?
And why do the two band mates on the album cover look like they’re about to share a heroin needle?
Slayer
3/5
I swear, if I had been a bit cooler as an 11yo kid…
That melted my face. What I caught of it, I enjoyed. Some of it definitely sounded like an iron cage of cookware and angry bears falling down a flight of stairs.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
I love that this album was largely disrespected by the music community when it was released and has since been described as one of the best albums ever.
I also think it’s curious that Jagger only hears the mixing woes that make this album feel real - achievable for a band playing out of their mind but still achievable. Its inspirational feel still feels just as palpable 50+ yrs on.
Don’t get me started on the Keith Richards lead vocals on Happy. So good.
Lastly, I’ve recently seen Jack White identifying Beatles tracks by hearing the first few seconds of varied songs. I’d argue that you could so easily identify all of the tracks on this album as The Stones in the same way. They obviously hit their inimitable pinnacle with this disc.
Billy Bragg
1/5
Modern folk music is still just that - folk music. Not for me, thanks.
The Kinks
2/5
It’s strange how eerie The Kinks and The Beatles emulate each other. In a parallel universe, Ray Davies would be on every girl’s wall and John Lennon would be fighting anonymity.
Sadly, will unfairly be thought of as derivative.
1/5
This album is a love letter to toxic masculinity.
Seriously….why? If you want early 2000s nu-metal, wouldn’t The Deftones, or Linkin Park, or Tool be a better option? Not the 3rd best album by these hacks.
Steely Dan
3/5
That didn’t sound like a debut album. That sounded like peak Steely Dan. They’ve always had that chord progression misdirection gear? Wild.
Dolly Parton
2/5
They are all amazing songsters and it’s pretty to hear them songster together.
That’s all I’ve got.
Brian Eno
2/5
I could yoga so hard to this album.
And outside of that environment, I’m not likely to listen to it again.
John Lennon
4/5
The term ‘iconic’ is too-commonly used. This is one instance where it’s properly-utilised.
Beck
4/5
This one’s my favourite Beck - all crunchy guitars and wacked-out hip-hop. I forgot how many tracks on this disc made my head bop.
It should be noted that Beck’s lyricist skills are singularly unique and wondrous. It’s like a stream-of-consciousness prayer by an LSD-soaked thesaurus.
The Thrills
1/5
It’s not offensive but it didn’t give me the Thrills.
This album seemed like a love letter to Americana with an Irish accent. I liked it better when it was called The Joshua Tree.
Ravi Shankar
2/5
Educational and interesting but not something that I’m going to crave. Still, you can’t front the impact that Shankar had on music.
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
It’s such a trip to find the origin of musical references (i.e. “two trailer park girls go round the outside”) amidst a crazy-eclectic hodge-podge of musical styles. I did enjoy the old-school hip-hop roots.
Easily the best square-dancing single of 1983.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
It’s a good album for walking outside on a grey and rainy day.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Beefheart is regularly noted as one of the most important influences on new wave, punk, grunge, and post-punk. John Peel, Lester Bangs, and Robert Christgau all love him.
The tracks on this album that I liked all feature Ry Cooder going to town, so I don’t know if I like Beefheart like all of those knowledgeable music types do.
It’s not that I didn’t like it; it’s that some of the non-Cooder tracks turned into annoying background noise.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
It’s about fucking time.
X-Ray Spex
4/5
I’m enthralled with Poly Styrene’s voice and it’s obvious that Kathleen Hanna is as well.
I think that the musical structures of X-ray Spex’s tunes are really interesting and not the typical straight-up-and-down punk arrangements that you might expect. That said, I appreciate the well-defined outro curb for each and every track - that’s a true gift.
This album fits for me into the “you really should have listened to this by now, you twat” category. I love this list reading me for filth like that.
Bonus star for the “dubiously-tuned saxophone”.
M.I.A.
5/5
Such a wonderful collection of joyous noise by a world music master. I’d rate it 5 stars even without Paper Planes, but that just shoves it into the stratosphere.
John Coltrane
5/5
I was such a big fan of Giant Steps as a high schooler playing in jazz band. I thought Coltrane was a god and it was the coolest thing ever.
I now see that I was 1/2 correct.
Love
2/5
I get it - it’s melancholy flower power, it’s melodic 60s mastery, it’s alternative when alternative wasn’t a thing.
I just don’t feel it in my grunions. It’s not bad; it’s just not leaving an impression. It’s meh. I’ll give it a charity star so that it’s separated from Limp Bizkit.
Kelela
3/5
This artist’s super power is obviously sonic layering. That was like taking a bath in harmony.
I was too harsh on Sade’s Diamond Life. I’ll award her spiritual descendant - Kelela - an extra star for the future-facing smooth operations.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
I confess I had never heard of this album or this artist despite claiming to be a hip hop head - I feel humbled.
I enjoyed the lyrical flow and the DJ Premier beats. It slaps but it doesn’t scratch an itch - that’s where I feel a bit hollow. I like it, yes. I see the love for it. It’s not Wu-Tang. It’s not Young Zulu Nation. It’s something else.
It’s something else.
Roni Size
2/5
This album is so bipolar. Half of it is lovely raucous and rambunctious drum and bass and the other half you can imagine the artists passing around a blunt in the studio and repeating the word “Deep” with meaningful emphasis.
The Cure
5/5
I’ve never known such despairing joy as this album. It is the zenith of goth music. It might not be my favourite album of all time but it’s easily in the top 10.
5/5
YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY.
DEVO sits on the Mount Rushmore of American New Wave acts alongside The B-52s, Blondie, Talking Heads, and The Cars.
Their version of Satisfaction breaks my brain every time I hear it and I love it. Bonus star for the hilarious Shrivel-Up at the end.
The Beta Band
3/5
Favourite of Oasis and Radiohead and the only album I’ve ever special-ordered from a record shop.
That said, apart from ‘Squares’ (which is such a cool song), the remainder of the album feels a bit undercooked. Humorous, yes, so I’ll give it that extra star (though it’s probably a solid 2.5 stars).
The Undertones
3/5
I’m a huge fan of pop-punk and I found Derry’s favourite band through this list (when I got their debut release). I like this album; I just liked the roughness of the debut album more.
It’s not fair, but it’s my opinion. Bite me.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
I saw the Chemical Brothers live in 2001 while under the influence of some sweet London X. Don’t remember much of the concert but I heard echoes of it in this album.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
It’s the first Stevie Wonder album on here that I’m not gushing over. I barely know any songs on this album. You Haven’t Done Nothin’ is a banger and it’s crazy to think of MJ singing backup to that song.
A little too introspective and heartfelt. Give me some funk.
Blur
5/5
"When our third album comes out, our place as the quintessential English band of the '90s will be assured. That is a simple statement of fact. I intend to write it in 1994." -Damon Albarn, 1990
WTF is that sorcery?!?!?
It’s the UK’s favourite BritPop album but not the world’s (Definitely Maybe probably is) - but you can see why: it is quintessential Brit through and through. It’s like The Kinks - misunderstood but respected outside of the UK; enshrined in the zeitgeist within the UK.
Coachella this year proved it - Blur’s headlining resulted in not a lot of buzz for anything but Girls & Boys and Song 2 - save for the Cool Britannia attendees.
TL;DR - this album delightfully and joyously nails mid-90s Britishness to the wall. It’s the bee’s knees.
Maxwell
4/5
I owned this album when I was in college. Damn, did it make me sophisticated.
Funny thing - 28 years does not dull it. This album is lighting a fire, undoing the top button, and breaking out the bubbly. This is SWANK.
Sleater-Kinney
3/5
I’m in love with Corin Tucker’s voice - just the most expressive punk voice. I knew of Sleater-Kinney but had never listened until now.
What’s in the water in Olympia, Washington? Same thing as in Athens, Georgia, methinks.
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
I’d love to love this album more. I liked the song Don’t but it seems the hardcore outlier on this album.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Classic rock is classic.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
If Cohen had lived longer, no one but whales and moles would be able to hear his singing. The dude sounds like he’s singing from his grave on this record. Moribund and beautiful just like The Man Comes Around by Cash. Not a cheer-you-up kinda record.
Korn
1/5
Jonathan Davis knows his instrument and his audience - is it the crystal meth enthusiasts? I guess capitalisation has its benefits. That, and a debt of gratitude to Trent Reznor.
So it’s obviously a pillar of the nu-metal movement but that’s where the “legacy” of this album seems to end. I liked my late 90s nihilistic angst from a band that offered alternate spellings of words featuring the letter ‘K’ when it was called Linkin Park.
This deserves 1.5 stars. I’m feeling harsh, though.
John Martyn
3/5
That was wacky. I heard “Big Muff” and immediately checked my phone as I thought the playlist had gone random. 1977?! Dude.
I think loads of credit for this “altered state” album needs to be given to Scratch. That man was magic.
The Cramps
2/5
If Meatloaf’s character Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show recorded an album produced by Riff Raff, l think you’d get The Cramps.
I enjoyed this album more when they leaned into minor chords. The major chord screaming songs got very old very quickly.
The La's
4/5
There She Goes gives me pleasurable auditory frissons whenever I hear it. Like Shawshank Redemption, whenever I light upon it, I must experience it all the way through before I can continue with what I was doing. It’s a magical song that transports me straight to the 90s. Stranger still that it was recorded in 1988. While the rest of this album doesn’t have that much fervent acoustic energy, it’s still a solid listen.
Giant Sand
1/5
I listened to all of this 2hr album then read about it as I felt confused by the half-whispered singing. I learned about Howe Gelb’s loss prior to this album; I learned (and heard) about how he was influenced by The Cure. I read about how was starved for new music in Tucson, Arizona and decided to make his own, which served as the blueprint for alt-country. I understood more.
Does it mean that I liked the album? Nah.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I bought this album as soon as it came out because I loved the artwork and I was curious about the band. Man, did I luck out.
The glorious aural scope of many of these songs still resonates 17yrs on. It’s my favourite Arcade Fire disc.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
The only Zeppelin album that I’ve ever owned. There’s a reason - it’s the high water mark for LZ, and perhaps 70s rock.
Classic rock is classic. Some is classicker.
Tom Tom Club
3/5
Ground breaking and so influential but I confess I only found Genius of Love to be an earwig that I wanted to revisit. Upvoting a star for this album’s insistent influence on hip-hop.
Yes
2/5
I liked this more than any other Yes album on this list only on the back of Roundabout. That’s not high praise; I still found the rest of this prog rock parade interminable. Sorry not sorry.
Britney Spears
3/5
It’s Britney, bitch.
A bit coincidental that this album would drop for me on the weekend where Timberlake gets arrested for a DUI. Strange the way that’s lined up.
Toot it or boot it, this album’s impact on all of music cannot be denied. Enter the modern bubble gum pop princess.
I liked the original Hit Me Baby One More Time - it’s a jam.
Finley Quaye
1/5
That was spectacularly uninteresting.
Buffalo Springfield
1/5
It just couldn’t end quick enough. I detest all the shit-stains left behind by The Byrds’ psychedelic unraveling.
The Verve
1/5
3 albums’ worth of droning and distorted angst from ecstasy-laced dysfunctional BritPop lads? No recognisable hits?
My cup runneth over. With sand.
808 State
4/5
I can taste my jaws clenching around my rave pacifier.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Jeff Beck
3/5
I love finding out about the rock-n-roll ouroboros of the 60s British Blues Boom. I had no clue that Sir Rod and Sir Ronnie were part of the backing band of Jeff Beck’s “solo” efforts.
That said, I enjoyed the tracks that featured Jeff Beck more than the bluesy Rolling Stones-style efforts of the majority of the A side of the album.
Stephen Stills
2/5
The only album to feature both Clapton and Hendrix, eh? Then why don’t I like it more?
Sarcasm aside, this album feels rudderless. There’s talent on display but it’s so unfocused and broad-spectrum that it’s hard to feel a musical theme or direction to the disc.
I guess that’s the unfathomable danger of genius - it too quickly becomes unrelatable.
Dennis Wilson
2/5
I’m not convinced that nominating 17-disc, 5 hour-long compilations of single artist’s work as examples of “albums you must listen to before you die” is really doing great work. I mean, there’s gonna be some stuff in there that’s good with that playtime, but is it all something I need to listen to before I die, or is it just going to take me that length of time to complete the task?
This album seems to be made by a tortured soul. Pretty and disturbing and pretty disturbing at points. It triggered me to read about Dennis Wilson’s death - pretty disturbing given that the name of this album was the murder weapon.
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
It’s like the Cure, Jr!
And I love The Cure.
Nina Simone
4/5
Nina’s voice holds the thrill, chill, and wonder of so much love, heartache, and pain. I find some of the arrangements too dense but now I find out that she was a piano virtuoso as well - those were her arrangements.
The more you know…
Bill Callahan
2/5
I’m not certain I need to listen to it before I die. It’s nice and I like Callahan’s voice. Can it be just that?
Buzzcocks
4/5
The tight punkyness of it all!
Are the Buzzcocks reminiscent of the Undertones, or is it the other way around?
Either way, I love both. I think that the best thing about early punk is how well-defined everything is, with concrete starts and stops to the songs. Never knew that I hated the fade-in or fade-out like I do.
Common
2/5
The rise of the Soulquarians, eh? It’s more like the evolution of the Native Tongues collective, yeah?
I liked this more than Mama’s Gun (which put me to sleep), but I like it less than some of the other Soulquarians’ output (like J Dilla, Questlove, or Mos Def). I did enjoy the self-reflective notes of many of the songs. I just wanted more catchy hooks.
Janet Jackson
4/5
Much like Bad, it’s a quintessential Jacksonian late 80s power pop tour de force.
Holds up, too. I especially like how Janet flexes her stylistic muscles with Black Cat.
And then, there’s the visual art of the album as well. That deserves love, much like Sgt Pepper’s, KISS, or anything by Devo.
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
I recently saw a video of PiL on American Bandstand in 1980. It was surreal; I would bet that 90% of the televised audience for that performance were expecting the Sex Pistols. What they got was what is on this album plus one important spark: Johnny Rotten being charismatic and inclusive and selling the shit out of his music. It’s really quite magical to watch.
It makes me laugh to think about Richard Branson and the Virgin executives. Picture hiring the darling of the hottest musical genre (punk) and giving him the reins to his first album with his new band…and then he spontaneously evolves overnight into an unheard-of musical style (post-punk). Wild. And totally in keeping with Mr Lydon’s creed of “sticking it to the man”. The music might not endear itself to me, but damnit if the ethos doesn’t.
De La Soul
5/5
TIL that 3 Feet High and Rising pioneered the trend of short skits between album tracks.
Could I love this album more? It seems that there’s an argument for that but I doubt it.
It’s the first hip hop album that I owned. I dunno if I’ve ever owned a better one. RIP Trugoy the Dove.
Fugazi
3/5
Proto-grunge, eh? I enjoyed the crunchy guitars and bass but I confess I found Ian Mackaye’s vocals a tad irritating. The cool kids in high school loved this.
Man, f&$%# those guys.
Sonic Youth
2/5
It’s not noisy No Wave and it’s not Daydream Nation. It’s the beginnings of something but not the peak.
Buck Owens
3/5
I enjoyed that Bakersfield twang a lot more than I thought I was gonna. That rockabilly sound reminded me of a Tarantino soundtrack.
He’s more than Hee-Haw, that’s for sure.
Flamin' Groovies
2/5
If I closed my eyes and concentrated, I’d think I was listening to the Rolling Stones.
Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.
The 13th Floor Elevators
1/5
That “electric jug” sounded like the record had a flat tire - not pleasant. Not surprising that it never caught on.
Also not surprising that this band never caught on. Why is it here - because they were the first to use word “psychedelic” in the description of their music?
I wound up listening to this album and then three more songs not on this by different bands (purely added by the algorithm) while driving and not noticing a difference. That says a lot.
Primal Scream
2/5
There’s some decent dance music on this disc but goddamn the band relies too much on the reverberation and oscillation sound effect machine - reminiscent of confiscating a Tickle Me Elmo doll from your 3yo and surreptitiously breaking it with a hammer in order to preserve your sanity.
I blame Tarantino for this. He drops the Pulp Fiction album in 1994 and suddenly everyone (especially Brits) start making fictional (or hopeful, in this case) soundtrack discs. Hell, we got two in the 1990s from Barry Adamson alone. Weird.
Holger Czukay
1/5
The roots of ambient music by that guy from Can, eh?
Be still, my atonal, asynchronous heart.
Or don’t. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
That’s that New Wave sauce, right there! Everything goes down well with a bit of The Furs.
I noticed for the first time that at least 50% of this album was about having sex. That’s worth a bonus star.
R.E.M.
5/5
Essential 90s monster album of awesome. Probably the best REM album - top to tail. Everybody Hurts is the 90s equivalent to You Can’t Always Get What You Want. If we’re comparing apples to dem apples, 5 stars isn’t hard to fathom.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
That clash of pathos-soaked sound on this album reminds me a lot of Neon Bible. I think Win Butler likely gives thanks for the Bunnymen.
I enjoyed this and the evolution from Crocodile. It’s not my favourite Echo, but it’s close.
The xx
4/5
Despite the dual chanteur-styling, this album feels like Joy Division if the antidepressants had worked. Still overarchingly-winsome and sad, but more soul, more warmth, more restraint - less nihilism. It’s one of the best moods of the 21st century (so far).
Common
5/5
Kanye at the peak of his chipmunk powers and some of the last J Dilla on this plane? This album is a love letter to the Aughts: Dave Chapelle, John Legend, John Mayer all on the same disc?!? DAMN.
Seriously, Kanye steals the scene with most of his flow but Common is an honourable silver medallist.
I knew of this album but had never listened until now. Turns out it was aimed straight at me.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
I really enjoyed the grimy guitar of this album. It feels like the link between The Replacements and Nirvana. A special nod of approval to the twisted Just Like Heaven cover version.
Talking Heads
5/5
Best album of 1979, eh? That’s a mean feat given all the New Wave, Two-Tone, punk, disco, early rap, and prog rock bombs dropping at the same time.
Interesting that Talking Heads could be considered to represent any of those.
I liked this album. I loved Byrne’s voice and the blessed rhythm section. Again, I find myself wrestling with the “it’s not my FAVOURITE Talking Heads album” fallacy. So let’s try this: if this wasn’t Talking Heads, would I be raving about it?
Yup.
Sonic Youth
5/5
Yup - there’s that shoe-in for best alternative album ever.
The coolest thing about this album is how it pays it forward to all that came after - Radiohead and Foo Fighters especially (more so than Nirvana) - as well as fondly looking back at influences like ZZ Top and Joni Mitchell.
I got so many pleasurable hairs on the back of my neck with this disc. It’s a cool magic trick - the zeitgeist of noise rock morphing into something beautiful and resonant.
All of my words pale in comparison David Bowie’s review: “[this] is an extraordinary album”. I should not say more.
Culture Club
5/5
My early 80s cultural awakening was authored by E.T., Mary Lou Retton, Mr. T, and Boy George.
I cannot be objective with my unadulterated love for this album, but I can be rational enough to observe that Helen Terry deserved some sort of Grammy for her work on this disc. Those pipes are phenomenal.
New Wave 4 Life!
Waylon Jennings
2/5
More outlaw; less country, please. I enjoyed the rockabilly bits.
Also, the fade-outs on every single track annoyed me. Finish a song!
Peter Tosh
2/5
It gave me a giggle. It’s a lovely vibe. That’s all I’ve got.
Dizzee Rascal
5/5
My sweet cuppin’ cakes - I haven’t even finished the album and I’m already giving it 5 stars.
The sheer pace of rhyming makes me want to bounce around the room like a lotto ball. And then the world-weary lyrics make me wonder where Eminem was when he first heard it. It’s like his spiritual UK brother.
Scissor Sisters
4/5
I heard ABBA, Moby, Elton John, and of course, disco-era Bee Gees. Somehow the mashup felt less Frankenstein and more symphonic than I would’ve expected.
I’ve got a new favourite!
Happy Mondays
3/5
This is an example of where the structural bones of an album are greater than the musical artistry therein. Being one of the first rock bands to get a world-class DJ to produce your album at the absolute acme of the Madchester movement would do it. The “stupid fun” of this disc is evident and you can forgive it lots for not being super polished.
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
Separating the artist from their art is a challenge here.
Look: there’s no denying this album and 50% of this artist as celebrated for its timeless impact on the evolution of music - not just hip-hop. It also directly influenced other varied genre acts like LMFAO (Party Rock, anyone?), New Order, and RATM.
But the time to ignore that other 50% has passed.
Kate Bush
4/5
You know in movies when the adults hand over the keys of the car to the teenager and tell him to “Have fun but be safe” and then all hell breaks loose? This album is the equivalent of that with a synchroniser.
I’m tickled by Neil Tennant in his curmudgeonly pre-fame days remarking how uncommercial this sound is. And of course Kate said the same thing when she reviewed this album a few decades later.
It might be a bit too toothy for me to be a 100% convert. Still, when Bjork, Big Boi, and Beyoncé (I see you) obviously adore this album - well you can’t argue with such company, eh?
Mariah Carey
1/5
I preferred Mariah the Belter. You can take away the butterfly.
Manu Chao
3/5
I expected nothing but got so much more out of it than that! I really enjoyed some of the infectious Latin beats.
Tom Waits
4/5
“I’ve been standing on the corner of 5th and Vermouth.”
That was the best Beat poetry slam I’ve ever attended.
JAY Z
4/5
The renaissance of hip hop sampling - Kanye’s production ascendancy - the resurgence of East Coast hardcore.
Yeah, this album belongs here. It might not have my favourite Jay-Z bits, but the sum of the parts needs recognition.
Nico
2/5
Mood-music means you have to be in the right mood for it. I can see why this is here - it’s a proto-goth album, I’d argue, celebrated by Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, New Order, and Bjork.
But, I’m not always in this mood.
The Saints
2/5
It’s weird to me - I’m vacationing close to Brisbane right now and this Australian punk album turns up on my list.
I wanted to like it more than I did. It’s not snarly or wicked, fast or grimy. I know it was earlier than many punk offerings, so perhaps I’m expecting too much.
Spiritualized
2/5
Strong acid-laced jam band vibes here. I felt Phish concert vibes more than once. The biggest problem I had was that multiple tracks felt exactly the same as they faded away to nothing.
Fun to discover that Spiritualised came about when Spaceman 3 broke up, but not that much fun.
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
Where was I that I missed this aural explosion? I’ve definitely heard of The Dandy Warhols before, but I had no clue that they rocked so hard.
The joy of this list.
Aimee Mann
2/5
Straight-forward, sarcasm-laced, heartfelt mid-90s pop. Not Counting Crows, Live, or Toad the Wet Sprocket? This instead?
I’ll give it a bonus star for Aimee Mann’s pristine songwriting skills, but….well, whatever.
Happy Mondays
2/5
A pleasant buzz but I kinda zoned out after 45 minutes.
Dexys Midnight Runners
1/5
Any musical intrigue generated by this weird-ass album gets immediately dispelled by Kevin Rowland’s rambling, pointless conversations with his band mate in the middle of his songs. It’s not even spoken word poetry; it’s auditory litter.
This does not belong.
3/5
Aggressive jazz. Punk bebop. Thrashcore alto sex duets.
It got me looking into the careers of both John Zorn and Ornette Coleman, so that’s a good thing. Man, was it weird.
I enjoyed it more than some hardcore punk that I’ve heard on this list and more than most jazz albums. I’ll have to be in the right mood to go back, but I’m glad it’ll be here when I’m ready for it.
The Coral
4/5
This sounds as if The Doors were a 2000s garage rock revival band. Surprisingly, that works really well.
I especially liked the layered oddball melodies. It did not make the jump from the UK to America, so it was all brand new to me.
It’s interesting that this Oasis-adjacent Brit album would be released the Monday after Oasis announced a reunion tour. The algorithm has a hold of me!
CHVRCHES
4/5
More intelligible than Elisabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins; less soulful than Taylor Swift - Lauren Mayberry (Lavren Mayberry?) is extraordinarily reminiscent of both. I just found out that she’s the percussionist (percvssionist?) too.
This is post-New Wave 80s gold, right here, this album. I think I need another listen, but damn if this isn’t a solid rocket of techno-pop love.
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
This is hip hop finesse right here. Enjoyed it thoroughly, but the funniest thing was the shout-out to MySpace in the outro.
That’s a laser scope focus pinpointing this album’s spot in time. Ha.
MC Solaar
4/5
1991 eh? I can really hear the Gang Starr influence (or is it the other way around?) and I think it’s interesting that Guru worked with him later on in the decade.
I think Das-EFX, Digable Planets, pre-Fergy Black Eyed Peas, maybe even Mos Def were all listening. will.i.am rates him higher than Tupac.
I sure wasn’t expecting to nod my head so much to an album I don’t understand.
System Of A Down
3/5
That’s nu-metal that I don’t feel slimy for enjoying. I never realised the anti-war bent to many System of a Down songs.
Serj has the strangest and most engaging voice - whispering and plaintive, screeching and roaring, all within a beautiful lyric tenor. The remainder of the band hits it hard, but Serj truly makes this sing for me.
It does make me yearn for Toxicity, though.
1/5
This reminds me of the Friday night drum circles that would happen in Asheville, NC when I used to live there. Infectiously fun for five minutes, then the novelty begins to wane and it becomes droning.
This is the second album this Serbian has had on this list (the other being the one he died trying to save from a studio fire), and though I appreciate the tragedy of his life cut short quite literally for his art, I just don’t see anything more than techno-laced samba.
Forgive me; I’d rather that some other 90s club scene albums would have made this list.
The The
5/5
This is synth-pop gold. So underrated. I only knew “This is the Day” and adored it.
I think I adore this album. 1983 was such a great year for music. It’s about time I heard one of that year’s best albums.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
2/5
Classic rock is classic even if it leans a bit too much into interminable jazz solos.
The Associates
2/5
This is just an odd collection of synth-pop and falsetto - and I love New Wave but I simply found it weird. I hear that contemporary comparisons were to Sparks, and maybe I wanted them on this list more.
I liked it best when they leaned more into disco moods but apart from a few moments, it just didn’t resonate with me.
Elis Regina
1/5
I’m not feeling it. I don’t understand it, so I kinda have to go by feeling more than anything else.
Killing Joke
5/5
Absolutely adored every single synth, bass, and drum opener on this album. Most of the tracks went on to deliver the proto-goth goods, too!
Yes - it is criminal that I have not listened to this. I knew of Killing Joke (enough to not call them The Killing Joke), but I only knew the song Eighties, and that largely through Nirvana.
It seems that there were a lot of others listening to this too - Metallica, NIN, Pet Shop Boys, Daft Punk….The album itself sure as hell doesn’t sound like 1980; it was classified as metal-disco and I don’t hate that description, but I really think this was something unique at the time.
It holds up.
Pantera
3/5
Ah, the glory of Dimebag Darrell. It’s an interesting album and definitely a stepping stone from heavy metal of the 1980s to nu-metal of the 2000s. Possibly the only real stepping stone, in fact.
Enjoyable. Would listen again. Would steal a car to this as a soundtrack.
The Doors
4/5
Classic rock is classic. In this case, I thought it was 60s rock but it was recorded in 1971. Oops.
Enjoyable, this last blast of Morrison on the green side of the Great Divide.
The Slits
4/5
Another one from the vault of “you really haven’t listened to that yet?”
I think it’s telling that I knew of the album cover but none of the music therein. It sounds like I need to clean out my search engines.
This was a lovely left-field two-tone/punk album. I very much enjoyed trying to decide where Neneh Cherry was screaming in the background. I especially liked where my listening algorithms took me after this album finished. That says something.
Megadeth
3/5
Quite possibly the pinnacle of 80s heavy metal - or at least, one of the last great 80s heavy metal albums (the other being Metallica’s Black Album). It is the best speed metal album, bar none, and makes for the most satisfying Rock Band experience.
I can get down with it.
Super Furry Animals
2/5
At times it sounded like Blur, other times Aladdin Sane-era Bowie, and still other times like Flight of the Conchords (if they had gone back in time about 5yrs and not made any witty music).
A solid BritPop album, a seminal Cool Cymru group, and apparently a pit stop for Rhys Ifans on his way to Hollywood. Interesting.
Life-altering? Hardly.
M.I.A.
4/5
Afro-beat yummies. I couldn’t stop my hips. Fun to think that she laid down most of these tracks in her apartment on her Roland 808.
That said, I do think Diplo needs some serious nods here for production extravagance. Danceable political messages - a fun magic trick.
Guided By Voices
1/5
Were the 90s so boring, Pitchfork, that this 60-second-song album was the 27th best?
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
1/5
This album smells like patchouli in a cultural-misappropriation kinda way.
Judas Priest
3/5
I understand that it’s the birth of thrash metal, but I felt that perhaps AC/DC, or Motörhead, or even Van Halen did it better, or at least thrashier, as contemporaries.
It’s good but I found the pace of some of the songs a bit…sleepy.
I’ll up-vote it a star for history. Maybe that’ll appease the Rock Gods. Probably not.
Adele
5/5
THERE’s the Adele I was waiting for - white-hot angry, raw, evocative, witty, heartbroken. I revere this album for rekindling my interest in popular music after almost a decade of being dismissive.
Globally it would seem that I wasn’t the only one. The cross-generational reach of this album cannot be overstated.
1/5
It felt like something to sample, but on its own? Look, I don’t hear prog-rock or psychedelia, and I like that.
Oh, now I listened to ‘1984’ (not on this album) which was recorded around the same time. I can hear the sci-fi prog-rockiness now. Yup. That seals it.
The White Stripes
4/5
I saw The White Stripes perform two songs from this album live on The Daily Show when this album was released and those goddamn earwigs were in my head for weeks afterwards.
Now, thanks to this damned list, they’re back in there.
It’s a good thing I like them there.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
I didn’t know much about this artist but I know when many other artists cover your original work (Kathy Mattea, Bette Midler, Emmylou Harris) and you’re invited onto Letterman to perform more than any other artist, you’re probably really good.
I enjoyed Looking for the Time a lot. I enjoyed this country-ish album a lot more than many country albums on this list. Bonus star for Lyle Lovett featuring as a back-up singer.
Prefab Sprout
2/5
It started strong for me with Faron Young but then went a bit sideways and too much into sophistipop. It’s nice and I can see why it’s here. It’s just nice.
Neil Young
3/5
It would seem that in order to be dubbed a ‘troubadour’ of the 70s and 80s it is requisite to have a trilogy of albums, like Bowie, Dylan, Waits, Springsteen….enter the Ditch Trilogy by Maestro Young.
This album felt like sitting shiva - a drawn-out conversation of sorrow, loss, and grief. There were points of beauty to it but the overarching theme was of unrelenting raw pathos - like the blues distilled into a shot glass.
There were parts that I liked more than most Neil Young (and all of his stuff with Crazy Horse or CSNY). It’s just that I don’t wanna feel heartbroken most of the time.
Morrissey
2/5
This album makes me feel unenviably like Morrissey’s therapist.
Oddly enough, there was something catchy about it.
Bauhaus
5/5
I knew that Bauhaus was seminal to if not the originators of goth music (and culture), but what I failed to recognise were the spin-offs of their breakup, including Love & Rockets and the one-hit wonderful Tones on Tail. I bopped to about 50% of this album (the part that sounded like vintage mid-70s Bowie) and got serious Joy Division vibes from the other 50%.
I’ve 5-starred both of those, so what choice do I have?
Fiona Apple
4/5
I had a girlfriend who performed a striptease to ‘Criminal’ for me once upon a time. I’m sorry - my impartiality for this album has been corrupted.
Also, I love belting out “Shadowboxing” in various octaves with varying levels of proficiency. So yeah, I like this album even if the second half kinda murmurs itself to sleep.
GZA
3/5
I listened to it three times in a row and I still don’t think I got 50% of the lyrical references. This thing is an encyclopedic hip-hop thesis.
I liked most of the beats but I found some of the singing a bit off-tune - perhaps on purpose?
ABBA
2/5
Sadly, this pathos-soaked album doesn’t reach the highs of Rumours, the other contemporary album from a band where all the lead musicians were sleeping with each other. I did note that Ace of Bass stole a melody line from One of Us for All That She Wants - Swedes gotta stay together, eh?
Beatles
5/5
How do you follow up the most important album of the 20th century? This wasn’t a bad effort.
I’m 950+ albums through this list and there have been 1-2 more notable exclusions than this iconic album. Glad to see it finally show up.
I won’t add any more adulation than this album surely deserves. I find it cool that this was originally released with serial numbers and album #0000001 was recently purchased at auction by Jack White for a ridiculous sum of money.
Kings of Leon
4/5
Kings of Leon have such a unique bluesy sound but with a classic garage rock feel. It makes sense that their best album is on this list.
The dichotomy between the US and UK critical ratings of this album are a bit of a head-scratcher.
Morrissey
3/5
I listened to this and thought with regret how great Suedehead would have sounded with Johnny Marr on guitar.
It’s better than the multiple other Morrissey solo albums (spoiler!) that found their way on this list - how does he have more seminal albums than Madonna or Prince or Elvis on here?
I smell a bit of bias.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
1/5
There were a few songs that I thought were gonna break into that sweet Slumdog Millionaire-type jam, but then didn’t.
I get it: this man had what is considered to be one of the best voices in the history of humanity. I’m just not a fan of Qawwali music. Sorry not sorry.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
I’m glad Tom Petty is on this list - I feel that he’s the American answer to Van Morrison - but I am very puzzled by this album’s inclusion. It’s their debut - while it has hints of what might come, it’s definitely inferior to Damn The Torpedoes or Into The Great Wide Open.
I think someone at the NME needs their head checked.
The Adverts
3/5
It’s a serviceable early punk album - crunchy and snarly in all the right ways - but the comparison to Never Mind the Bollocks - ESPECIALLY as I only have 15 albums left to this list and I haven’t seen the Sex Pistols on here yet, seems dim, moot, and not apt.
I think I’d downgrade my belief in the NME’s critical judgment severely if I finished this list and the 2nd most-important album of the 20th century (behind Sgt Pepper) wasn’t on here.
And now for some Adverts.
Antony and the Johnsons
3/5
Evocative and winsome for what probably could (and should) have been. I liked the appearance of Boy George (but didn’t recognise his voice). The real prize here is Anohni’s voice.
An important album. I can see why it’s included.
Les Rythmes Digitales
4/5
That was an enjoyable, peppy, dance-able disc. I must have a thing for turn-of-the-century electronica.
It reminds me that Propellerheads haven’t been on this list yet - but it also reminds me of them and that can’t be all bad.
Bonus star for the Skee-Lo sample. That song is a treasure.
Haircut 100
3/5
These guys knew their funky New Wave lane and definitely stayed in it. I appreciate Love Plus One for being reminiscent of Steely Dan in its chord progression.
It’s New Wave. It’s hoppy. There’s some bland filler, but it’s good by me. Me likey.
Linkin Park
5/5
The pinnacle of nu-metal.
The death of Chester Bennington still stings 7yrs on - similar to that of Robin Williams, Chris Cornell, Anthony Bourdain, Philip Seymour Hoffman….
Hug your friends.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
Such lovely melodies - and that Beatles re-make of For No One needs a warning for the emotionally-sensitive. Wowsers.
Bonus star for a Shel Silverstein song credit. This album surprised me.
Ananda Shankar
2/5
Ehhhh. Covers of original songs are just that - covers. Even if done in a world music style.
The Who
4/5
It’s one of those albums that you just knew had to be on this list. It’s probably the greatest conventional rock opera to most (not me: I rate American Idiot by Green Day higher).
That said, it was revolutionary and still (mostly) stands the test of time. It needs to be heard (and probably seen) to fully understand - I appreciate the nebulous feel of the individual music pieces as I think they provide stepping stones for a dramatist to insert a fully-realised script.
I’m more of a fan of the entire album than I am of any individual tracks save for Pinball Wizard. That song is a banger.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
What do Marilyn Manson and Lizzo have in common? Accusations of workplace abuse and flute virtuosity.
This album reportedly ended grunge and paved the way for nu-metal self-immolatory nihilism. I’m of two minds about that - I love goth music but I also love grunge. What I’m not a fan of is whiny - whether it’s dressed up with acoustic guitars and pained grimaces or horror-show makeup and painkillers. This album feels a bit whiny to me, underneath it all.
As far as a concept album goes - I didn’t follow it. I enjoyed the Reznor-esque production (even though it wasn’t finished by him). I liked most of the sound pastiches and my least favourite tracks were the ones that got radio attention.
TL;DR - I am conflicted by this album. Important? Yes. Life-changing? Yes for some but goddamn - in a bad way.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Some albums are mythic in their musicianship and influence. I present example #61.
Side note: I find Dylan’s keening harmonica annoying on other albums, but not this one. The balance must be right - possibly that’s why it’s such a classic disc.
Air
1/5
Why not a Danny Elfman soundtrack? Why not a John Williams soundtrack? Hell, why not a Henry Mancini soundtrack? Quentin Tarantino’s sound tracks are also 100% more influential than this collection of uneasy-sounding electronica, regardless of his simple collation efforts.
In all honesty, I think I liked this soundtrack better when it was called the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
Joy Division
5/5
Yet another of those albums that I knew HAD to be on this list for me take the list seriously but holy good god what a day to drop it in my ears (2024 US presidential election).
A bonus five stars for unnerving timing.
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
This album really feels like a country opera. Again, it manages the country music magic trick of singing the most dreary pathos in the most toe-tapping peppy way.
I liked it more than I thought I would.
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
I hated it. I tolerated it. I thought it interesting. I really liked it. That’s my summary of listens #1 through #4 of this album.
Who knows what the ceiling is?
Pere Ubu
2/5
Jesus Christ it’s weird.
So I’d never heard Pere Ubu before but I had heard of Pere Ubu and forgive me, I hadn’t realised that they were from Cleveland.
That doesn’t help with my reconciling how goddamn weird this album is; it probably compounds it.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
2/5
It’s a curious inclusion. Jangly guitar-centric pop tunes with some flavours of folk and country thrown in. Nothing apart from Perfect Skin really landed for me as a pleasurable earwig, which is what I think the album’s ultimate purpose is.
Interesting critical analysis suggesting that this entire album is a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic take on traditional romance. Interesting enough to save this from a one-star rating.
Tears For Fears
5/5
I think this album is probably the last great peak of New Wave influence. It has such an awesome feel to it - not at all detracted by heavy MTV airplay - coupled with sick singalong lyrics. Personally, I think it’s an encapsulation of the grandeur of “the 80s”. I am too glad to see it on this list.
I believe it’s a desert island disc for me.
Klaxons
1/5
Strange. The drummer sounds like they play in a metal band and joins this electro-indie band as a side hustle.
Liz Phair
5/5
It’s the Rosetta Stone between alternative music and indie rock. I have a huge crush on Liz Phair. Very pleased that this album made it.
Blondie
5/5
It’s on the Mount Rushmore of American New Wave albums. From Harry’s sultry and sarcastic expressive vocals to the lyric snide to the surprisingly complex guitar lines to the perfect pop ditty composition….
It’s an amazing album with no parallel. Pardon me the wordplay.
AC/DC
4/5
It’s not as definitive as Back in Black but it still scratches that hard rock - heavy metal itch.
It’s weird to me how similar the voices of Bon Scott and Brian Johnson are. It’s also weird to me how the ascendency of AC/DC into the pop culture zeitgeist seemed to be not affected in the least by the death of their front man, last heard on this record.
Hot Chip
1/5
(Scratching his head)
Yeah - it’s electro-poppy. Is it memorable? Nah.
I did not find it offensive. That said, I won’t listen again.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
It’s obvious to my ears that Ozzy and Geezer were taking notes when this album dropped. It’s also interesting to hear the primordial versions of some Led Zeppelin legendary songs in this first album.
That said, this is so straight-up blues-soaked rock - it’s hard to consider this heavy metal but it’s really interesting to understand that the blues is the foundation to heavy metal. This album proves it.
It’s an important album.
Underworld
4/5
Without Born Slippy, this album is a two-star exercise in techno excellence. With the deluxe edition (including Born Slippy), this album is a heraldic 4 star affair.
I prefer the deluxe.
Steve Winwood
2/5
You hear that farty-sounding synthesiser track and you know it’s a Steve Winwood jam. Is that something you must hear before you die? It is if you need more instruments that sound like flatulence in your life.
I give this album a bonus star for Winwood playing all of the instruments and engineering the hell out of this thing. I think his next album - Talking Back To The Night - is more iconic. That’s what I’ve got.
Kings of Leon
3/5
It’s a good debut album and shows off the bluesy stoner rock bones of which they’re capable.
Bonus star for my name-drop.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
Yeah, it’s a pretty little thing, this album, but is it all that memorable? I listened to this while painting and the lyrics in Vibrate gave me a chortle, but not much else gave me a vibe.
David Bowie name-checked Dinner at Eight, so that bumps this by a star for me. Just.
Mudhoney
4/5
It’s got so many hooks, you’d think it was a fisherman’s hat.
It makes sense that it sold poorly when it came out. No one knew what the hell to make of grunge in 1988. There’s the curse of the trailblazer - no one knows where you’re going.
I mean, when Cobain names it as one of his 50 desert island discs, you don’t need much more approbation. I’m sure Mark Arm would’ve liked more money for his trouble, though.
Michael Jackson
5/5
It is sometimes difficult to separate the artist from their work when challenging controversy surrounds them - and lord, does controversy surround MJ. I knew this album was on this list - it had to be - and I was worried about how I was going to feel with the weight of 42 years since its release upon me.
I needn’t have worried. Joyously infectious, funky and swagger-filled, heartfelt and poised - it was like I was 7yo at Xmas getting this - my first album ever - again.
This is the pinnacle of pop for me. I can only imagine how people were swept up by Elvis or The Beatles at Ground Zero for their arcs. I was captured by this album and the MJ craze that overtook the world.
There’s no possible other score that I can give. Every track is a classic. It’s the best album on this list for me.
The Cult
2/5
Ian Astbury sings like he’s yelling for the kids to come to the dinner table.
That Born to Be Wild cover….*involuntary shudder*
This is a very odd album to be in Rick Rubin’s portfolio. Imagine producing Licensed to Ill and then this. Weird.
Coldcut
3/5
Such a lovely snapshot of 1989 - Lisa Stansfield, Queen Latifah, Yazz - and a heaping helping of unpretentious sample-heavy house music. Party and Bullshit has a well-deserved legendary reputation in house circles.
I’ve never heard this album before but I can hear the stories pouring out from those that heard it when it was newly-minted. Those are undoubtedly some wild tales.
Love
1/5
Seven and Seven Is sounds like The Stooges fooling around in the garage. I recognise it predates garage rock/proto-punk by 4yrs, so props for that.
I’ll also note that the majority of the album steers clear of folk rock-psychedelia (thumbs up from me) but unfortunately goes into this weird garage rock-jazz space. Sadly, that doesn’t resonate with me.
*side-eye* at She Comes in Colors. I should scrub my filthy mind.
Einstürzende Neubauten
3/5
I can picture a Simpsons joke where Homer forms a rock band that screams German lyrics into a microphone while Barney beats on steel trash can lids and radiators.
Why is this so compelling? Why did it make me laugh? Why ask why?
From a critical point of view, it reminded me a lot of Throbbing Gristle. I kinda liked that too - quite contrary to the mainstream.
Snoop Dogg
4/5
I was waiting for some G-funk era album to appear on this list. I’m surprised that this showed up instead of The Chronic. It’s just as iconic, to be sure, though possibly not as chock full of hooks.
Still, Snoop is a master of his craft, even if it is misogynistic and pro-violence. It’s nice to see how 30yrs and a metric ton of weed can mellow a man.
Sex Pistols
5/5
They didn’t invent punk rock; they perfected it.
It’s the second-most important British record of the 21st century behind Sgt Pepper’s.
The Johnny Rotten snarl alone warrants a full 5 stars.
Ash
3/5
Is it 1977 from 1996 or 1996 from 1977?
Either way, it’s crunchy guitar-heavy Britpop goodness that I’ve never heard of before. Will I listen again? I think so - I found some bits especially crunchy.
Slipknot
4/5
Sweet fuck. This album is 25yrs old. Can you imagine getting your cerebrum caved in by this in 1999? It makes the limp shit by Limp Bizkit sound like a children’s record by comparison.
It still sounds fresh because it was so far ahead of its time.
Grant Lee Buffalo
3/5
The first track and the front cover artwork gave really strong Smiths vibes so I was positively inclined. While I enjoyed it, it didn’t fulfill the Strangeways promises of the cover art.
I think the bookends of the album are my favourite bits. Jangly indie alt-country. It’s pretty good and worth being saved from oblivion which is where it likely sits for most.
Dion
1/5
While listening to this, I honestly thought that I would rather be listening to Barry Manilow if I was forced to listen to a 70s romance crooner. That should say enough.
On a production note, the decision to release this album Frankensteined together with another lacklustre Dion album - 1976’s Streetheart - just makes me loathe it all the more for a running time of 80 minutes.
Eagles
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Those high-flying harmonies just need to be bottled and sold as pick-me-ups.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Nick Cave is so all-over the place that it makes sense that he might have multiple albums on the list, but this one? I don’t get the acclaim.
It’s good and it’s Nick Cave, so that makes it better than most, but it doesn’t make me feel anything more than mildly unsettled and that’s a straight up failure if you’re a Bad Seed.
The Sonics
4/5
How did that sound not break through to greater mainstream success?
I can totally hear The Stooges and MC5. I can hear the Hives and the White Stripes, too. It’s massively impressive to have 60yrs worth of influence.
And yet I had never heard them until this list.
Sister Sledge
5/5
I think I’d be bopping my head along to Nile Rodgers playing guitar and Bernard Edwards playing bass while I was being drawn and quartered. That’s some irresistible good times, right there.
This album might be the pinnacle of disco, methinks. Such a head bopper.
Black Sabbath
3/5
It’s Black Sabbath, so of course it’s foundational and amazing but the earwigs are just not as wiggy as I would expect. I don’t think that I was as impressed with the dub-sounds as others were in 1971. That’s the foolishness of 50yrs of time talking, I guess.
Supernaut is the exception on this album - as in exceptional.
Cornershop
2/5
Eck. Leck. Tick.
Look, I love Robert Christgau and he loves this album. He ranked it third in his 1997 albums of the year. He obviously has a soft spot for SE Asian-fused hip-hop and funk. His love for all things M.I.A. seems to highlight that.
But this? I just can’t fully get behind it. It’s nice and boppy and finally gives a well-deserved nod to Asha Bhosle, the most-recorded human voice in history. It also contains probably the last contemporary recordings of Allen Ginsburg.
So, for historical purposes, I’ll give it 2.5 stars but for artistic purposes it only scrummages up 2 stars from me.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
5/5
I don’t get it, but I’m only halfway through my third listen and I don’t hate it like I did the first time I listened. It took me five listens to enjoy Public Image Ltd and Johnny Rotten adores this album.
I’m pretty sure I’ll take a chance on a five star rating for this magic trick. A lot of my favourite musicians (i.e. Lydon, Tom Waits, Mark Mothersbaugh) call this one of their favourite albums ever.
Elvis Presley
2/5
It’s Elvis, so I won’t get too upset that it’s on here, but it’s such a mediocre album by his standards. I’m going subtract a star for this album not including the single that was released in advance of this album that somehow didn’t get on this album - Stuck On You.
FKA twigs
4/5
That was an ecstasy-fuelled drug trip and you cannot tell me different. That said, I loved the high soprano, I loved the hard romance, I loved the mood.
Do I remember much of it? No but I’ve got echoes of the emotions, just like some quality E.
Frank Ocean
4/5
I’m on some kind of futuristic R&B trip with that album. I confess that Frank Ocean was one of those artists that I felt that I should have listened to by now, so thanks to this list for giving me a ‘wassup’.
There are some killer lyrics on this disc - “my television ain’t HD cuz it’s too real”; “unrequited love for me is just a one-man cult”; “you don’t know how little you matter until you’re all alone”….
Damn, dog. I like (but don’t love) the vibe of the music but those lyrics cut me to the quick.
Small Faces
1/5
Well now, THAT was blooming’ weird. I’m not saying that I’m mad with the album but I’m also not mad for it, either.
It did feel like two halves of an album shotgunned together - Dr Jekyll was a psychedelic trip with an R&B filter and Mr Hyde was a concept album featuring a mod comic with a whackadoodle fake language.
It’s not one star but it’s not much better and since I can’t score it one and a half, I shall be cruel.
Metallica
5/5
The album that made Metallica and, by extension, made people consider heavy metal (and speed metal) to be more than a momentary diversion?
Yeah, that’s a five star rating. I still can’t play Battery on Rock Band.
Gene Clark
1/5
It’s straight up singer-songwriter country-fried folk rock - a pale version of Dylan or Kristofferson. “Big in Holland” isn’t a huge reason for it to be on this list, methinks.
Little Richard
5/5
If you like modern music, then you have to know this album. It is simply essential - more so than any other albums from this age. An easy five stars.
Cheap Trick
4/5
It’s funny - just a few days ago, I derisively rated an album one star and commented that ‘big in Holland’ wasn’t a reason to be on this list.
But ‘big in Japan’ is something else entirely. Or so the song goes.
This album answered a puzzle for me about why I Want You To Want Me sounds like that on the radio - the single came straight from this album, straight from Tokyo (or Osaka). Cool!
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
It’s the stuff of what legends are made and if you don’t get chills when the climax to Born To Run hits, I think they should take you off the life-support machine.
I never noticed before the love affair that this album has with the girl groups of the 60s like The Ronettes and The Chiffons. I think that’s what makes this album Springsteen’s best.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
It’s an excellent Elvis Costello sound with surprisingly politically-charged lyrics. It’s not iconic like albums bookending it, but it’s better than other Elvis Costello albums on this list. And it’s New Wave, so yay!
Kid Rock
1/5
*expletive-laced review follows*
Get this flaming maggot-haired shit cart of a human being off of this list.
Fuck. This.
The Yardbirds
2/5
The swinging 60s proto-psychedelia wouldn’t normally be my thing but Jeff Beck’s guitar licks elevate it past mediocre.
It’s a fun listen. It’s also pretty wild that The Yardbirds germinated all those guitar gods in their short time.
The Soft Boys
3/5
Lovely lost album.
I know Robyn Hitchcock from his solo work - it’s fun to find this album. It’s even more fun to hear how this impacted on all 80s and 90s indie music.
The Vines
5/5
I love this album; I owned it when it came out. Just a peak of the Aughts garage rock. When The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, and Tame Impala all indicate your band was a reason that they sound like they do, then you know you’re doing something correct. So sad that they only managed a small amount of music at the peak of their powers.
The Shamen
2/5
It is serviceable rave music. It joins the host of albums on this list that I think are mediocre in their unforget-ability.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
Look - folk music isn’t my jam but this has some ethereal middle-eastern juju wrapped up in heartfelt and heart-wrenching melodies. I’ll happily let this be a pinnacle of the folk pantheon.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Wow. That was too much fun. Couldn’t stop my hips from shaking. Needs another listen or six.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
I mean - yes I should listen to this so that I’m certain that 95% of prog rock is not for me, and the other 5% is some Rush.
Aerosmith
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Some rocks harder than others.
DID YA SEE WHAT I DID THERE?
Van Morrison
3/5
I like Christgau’s take on this oft-praised album: “Songs that…were just lame in the first place have more force and tightness here than in their studio versions.” Ouch.
And still…
Rush
4/5
Funny. I just referenced this album the other day when I said that I don’t like 95% of prog rock, and the other 5% is Rush. And this album is 90% of that 5%.
YYZ is my favourite Rush song and my favourite thing to jam on in Rock Band as I pretend that I have a clue what these guys can do. And Neil Peart is god-tier all over this disc. While some of the other tracks trip some of my prog rock alarm bells, the majority pleases.
5/5
Funky bass hammers and new wave synth produced by the Trevor Horn machine?
Yes and yes and yes.
Such a lovely 80s album. ABC deserves a lot more love than they get. A lexicon of it, shall we say?
Björk
5/5
Amazing. This algorithm has me as its cat’s toy. Just what I needed to hear as my own relationship imploded.
N.E.R.D
3/5
It’s good and I love that Pharrell gets some love from this list. He’s one of the most exciting songwriters working right now. The rock-rap thing was established by the Aughts; this is a great example of it.
I just liked N.E.R.D.’s first album more.
New Order
3/5
I read Peter Hook’s autobiography. I know exactly how much Ecstasy they were using while this album was being made.
I would’ve expected it to be even more joyous. Perhaps this is joyous for New Order. It’s lovely and peppy. It’s just not as catchy as I would’ve thought it could’ve been.
Kanye West
4/5
Witty and filthy and coming unglued. Portrait of a genius descending and ascending simultaneously.
I loved reading about the diverse influences on this album.
Ali Farka Touré
1/5
Yeah, nah.
Method Man
4/5
Old school hip-hop spit by one of the wordiest Wu Tang members? Yes, please.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
I was not feeling the psychedelia but then some chunky guitar licks started in about halfway through the disc and gave me a contact high…
Scritti Politti
3/5
That’s some pristine 80s production right there. Perfect Way can live in my head for a long time and I won’t mind. The weird falsetto vocals are just that - weird.
It’s a classic New Wave synth pop jam.
Abdullah Ibrahim
1/5
Strange. I loved the other South African jazz album on this list (Hugh Masekela). I found this one soporific.
Gang Of Four
5/5
Now that’s entertainment.
Seriously, on almost all of the tracks, one of the Four was playing some rhythm that was blowing my mind. I love punk; this was punk+.
Don McLean
3/5
This was one of my Dad’s favourite records. I wonder why “Starry Starry night…” always makes me think of him.
Unfortunately, being subjected to American Pie at most of the middle school dances that I went to kinda makes the album lose its lustre. Still, it’s appreciated.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Such a rich and warm album. I can see why people gushed about it. What I don’t see is why I’d never heard of it.
Sparks
5/5
I knew this was iconic and yet I’d never listened to it. It seemed that ABBA, Rush, and Morrissey definitely did.
I am in love.
Alice In Chains
5/5
Finally. The last of the Four Horsemen of Grunge gets an album on this list. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden all are their own version of angsty awesome but Alice In Chains walks the borderline between nihilism and dark hope with the skill of an Olympic gymnast.
It doesn’t hurt that their singer and guitarist shred (vocal cords and riffs, respectively) and every other song is about heroin.
I love this album.
Christina Aguilera
1/5
Ehhhh….
I mean, is it all that?
It falls into the trap of “this quadruple album contains some of the best music by this particular artist sandwiched in between some garbage”.
I’m not likely to listen again.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Classic rock is classic but god damn. Those tunes stick to your ribs.
The Residents
2/5
It’s like Primus without the funky bass lines.
Primus sucks (meant fondly).
A bit too weird for me (and that’s saying a lot) but I do like the album’s timelessness.
Silver Jews
4/5
Beautiful bluesy and broken. That’s the kind of album I come to associate with this list.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
Densely pretty and melancholy. I’m not sure I needed to listen to it before I died. I imagine it would’ve been better had it just been a part of Want One.
Louis Prima
5/5
That’s the stuff of big band/swing magic right there. I’ll say that some of the bass lines on the swing tracks sounded very similar, but it’s not like I didn’t enjoy them.
A special shout out for the fun gibberish that obviously influenced early rock and roll albums. I want to give it a 4.5 but I can’t so it’s gonna get the full 5.
Pere Ubu
3/5
So much better than the other Pere Ubu album on this list. This one actually has melodies!
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
If Prince recorded a series of unreleased Sgt Peppers-era Beatles numbers…
I was wondering if Kravitz was going to get an album on this list. It seems that he would grow as a lyricist during his career, as many of these songs’ words feel a bit cringey. Still nice.
Suede
3/5
You can’t spell ‘pretentious’ without ‘pretty’. You’d have to misspell it like ‘prettie’, though.
Super Furry Animals
1/5
Mighty weird that the best rated song on this album (“Tradewinds”) isn’t on this album. I found the majority of the songs on this album to be dense and symphonically psychedelic - full of skill but just not hitting an audio mark that I would denote as ‘excellent’, much less ‘must listen to before I die’.
I’m noting the classic and influential albums not yet on this list and judging this one severely as a result. Shoot me.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
Two bonus points for Nothing Compares 2 U. That song changed so much. The rest of the album is window dressing around that gem.
Dr. Dre
5/5
Yup. One of those albums that I was sure just had to be on this list. So much music of the 90s had this sound all over it. Misogynistic and crass, the sheer force of this album cannot be undersold.
Fred Neil
2/5
I had “Sweet Cocaine” on a random playlist for years without bothering to look at the rest of this album. Reading a bit about him, the man seemed to have been a seminal artist for the folk movement of the 60s and 70s. Fun listen. I can see why the album is here, even if it’s not entirely my cup of herbal tea.
Girls Against Boys
1/5
Grungy and grimy but why??
Neil Young
4/5
Classic rock is classic. Some of it is also heartbreaking.
King Crimson
2/5
It’s definitely an acquired taste. Despite the amazing musicianship on offer, it does not land with me but many aspects of it sounded like it landed with Queens of the Stone Age (and Josh Homme in particular).
Sigur Rós
3/5
I felt like I just zoned out in a sauna on Jupiter. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
I think it’s humourous that Icelandic wasn’t foreign enough of a language for the lyric sheet of this album; they had to develop a new form of gibberish to complete the authentic feel of alien music.
David Bowie
4/5
Not my favourite Bowie but that’s like saying it’s not my favourite flavour of chocolate. It’s still chocolate.
The Beta Band
1/5
Whereas the Hot Shots album hit the sweet spot, this anaemic album hit the zero spot. I don’t understand its inclusion.
Franz Ferdinand
5/5
It’s one of the pinnacles of the garage rock sound of the Aughts and the reason that Rose Matafeo almost had a protection order taken out against her.
I’d be very Aughty if I didn’t rate it 5 stars. Or perhaps I am very Aughty because I’ve rated it at 5 stars. Whatever.
The Killers
4/5
Two 2004 bangers in a row with this following Franz Ferdinand….nice.
This playlist - for better or worse - is so heavily British that it would be in no way complete with the inclusion of the album that contains the UK’s favourite karaoke number. The rest of the album is good too, but it’s not the lofty heights of the Aughts.
fIREHOSE
2/5
I mean, it’s pretty, but it’s not like I feel like I need to own it.
It’s an interesting stepping stone from The Minutemen and the vocals are lovely and soaring but blah blah blah.
Yeah I didn’t need it.