Hahahhahha, yes! YES! The pretentiousness is very much the point here, and I _love_ it. Singing absolute nonsense with such earnest conviction - fantastic! (Although it's made me realize that Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", another fine example of heartfelt gibberish, isn't on this list, which feels like quite the omission!) I'll take this album over anything At The Drive-In did. It's also my fave Mars Volta album, by quite a stretch... Fave track - the whole thing, really, but "Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)", "Eriatarka", "Televators" and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" are the stand outs...

Jangly discordant post-punk! Young Nick Cave tries to emulate Tom Waits. I really liked this, but can see why it scores low, I guess. "Pere Ubu" have a similarly low scoring album, so jangly discordant post-punk obviously rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Fave track - "She's Hit"

Oh yeah, this was fantastic - a great discovery for me. I feel like PJ Harvey inherited some sort of spiritual crown from Patti Smith. Fave track - "Land" is a wonderful post-punk (proto-punk? para-punk?) odyssey!

Glorious, seemingly effortless hard rock. Some absolute classic tracks. Fave track - on this play through, "Massacre" really jumped out at me. Tends to get overshadowed by their more well known tunes, but it landed for me this time...

Lot of nostalgia in this one for me - takes me right back to first year uni. Love how cinematic the album feels. Could absolutely be a soundtrack to something, and it's no wonder Holmes went on to do so much soundtrack work. (He did all the Ocean's Eleven movies, amongst many others) Fave track - "Caddell Returns", maybe - it's not really about stand out tracks, it's about wandering around the neighborhood, soaking it in!

Dream poppy singer songwritery loveliness - will check out more of his stuff, for sure. Fave track - "It's Easier"

Awesome stuff - love the songs, love the chat between songs. So much more compelling than your average live album. Favourite track - "San Quentin". I mean, I like a lot of Cash's tracks more overall, but that song on this album in context - WHOAH.

Great album - I was a lot more familiar with it than I thought. Picking a fave track is hard. "Today" was popular at karaoke while I lived in Japan, so I've probably heard it more than all the other tracks and have a lot of affection for it. "Cherub Rock" is a fantastic album opener. Might opt for the wildly OTT melodrama of "Disarm" though!

I didn't appreciate this album at the time because I was 🤘 VERY METAL 🤘 but these days it really hits the spot. You could definitely make some Flaming Lips comparisons. Fave track - while "Goddess On A Hiway" and "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" are contenders, I have to go with "Holes"..... so b e a u t i f u l . . .

Glorious, seemingly effortless hard rock. Some absolute classic tracks. Fave track - on this play through, "Massacre" really jumped out at me. Tends to get overshadowed by their more well known tunes, but it landed for me this time...

Eh, gansta rap isn't really my thing. Cypress Hill carved out an undeniably iconic sound for themselves - you can tell a Cypress Hill track within seconds. Fave track... one of the ones with more Spanish, I guess? "Latin Lingo" or "Tres Equis"

He's got a distinctive style, I'l give him that. I think a lot of the charm is probably in the lyrics, so it's not well suited to listening in the background while working. I'll potentially revisit it at some point! Since the Monk theme tune wasn't on here, fave track "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)", as that one made me stop what I was doing and pay attention...

Fantastic album, love it. Fave three track sequence = "Maps" -> "Y Control" -> "Modern Romance".... so good!

Wow, Carole King was a pop cultural tyrannosaurus rex! I was largely ignorant of her, but bet I've heard countless dozens of songs she wrote over the years. Fave track - "It's Too Late"

Some iconic tunes on this record, no doubt, but the other stuff left me a bit flat. Fave track on the album proper is probably "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", but I really dug an industrial sounding bonus track "Empire Building", which was a b side of "Mothers Talk". Apparently they were listening to a lot of Art of Noise when they wrote that one, so imma check them out!

Jurassic 5 know exactly what they're doing. Great stuff. Fave track - "Thin Line"

Classic hard rock - so comprehensively influential that it's kinda washed out by everything that came after it. Fave track - "Immigrant Song", c'mon. "Gallows Pole" is great too, though

Gloriously weird. No-one does it like Waits. My fave Waits album is The Mule Variations, and Rain Dogs kinda prefigures that, so I'll definitely be revisiting. Fave track - well, I love that "Jockey Full of Bourbon" sounds like the Black Books intro theme (or rather, the other way around) but was really grabbed by "Singapore" this time around...

Lovely sunny harmonies, classic pop. Fave track - "California Dreaming" - one of my absolute fave karaoke tracks because it's really easy to encourage everyone to sing along, whether it's singing the main lyrics, or the harmonies... 😍

Lot of nostalgia in this one for me - takes me right back to first year uni. Love how cinematic the album feels. Could absolutely be a soundtrack to something, and it's no wonder Holmes went on to do so much soundtrack work. (He did all the Ocean's Eleven movies, amongst many others) Fave track - "Caddell Returns", maybe - it's not really about stand out tracks, it's about wandering around the neighborhood, soaking it in!

Such a distinctive voice and style! Fave track - "Guilt"

Eh, not massively my thing, but it grew on me as it went on. Fave track - "Memphis, Tennessee" - this song sounds like the template Elvis Costello mutated into the manic kaleidoscopic "Tokyo Storm Warning", which has long been a personal fave...

One of the first psychedelia albums, so hugely influential on a whole bunch of genres that came later. A lot of drippy silliness. Fave track - "Season of the Witch" by a mile!

The Temptations are awesome - sugary poppy doo-wop group turned psychedelia-embracing politically conscious funk superstars! Fave track - "Papa was a Rolling Stone" 12 minutes of prog funk, what's not to love!

What a weird mashup of an album! Fave track - "Clevor Trever", maybe - or "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" I think this is a pay-attention-to-the-lyrics album, so probably need to relisten with more focus!

Alrighty, from Donovan's drippy end of psychedelia, to the proggy jam band guitar wailing end. I enjoyed this a lot. Fave track - the entire first 6 tracks being one long noodly "Who Do You Love?"

Quite enjoyed this. Like the wall of sound production. Didn't find Liam Gallagher quite as intolerable as my teenage self used to! Fave track - "Columbia". Don't recall ever hearing it before, and liked it - I guess that's how I'd feel about the rest of the album if I were hearing it for the first time now!

Does it sound dated, or was it date-defining? Who knows! Fave track - "Smooth Criminal"

I do like a bit of Afrobeat. I'm more familiar with Femi's father, Fela, but this was great too. Fave track "Plenty Nonsense"

Realistically, a three star album at best, but I have a big soft spot for Motorhead so I'm giving it four. Fave track - "Ace of Spades", natch

Yeah, this was great - love that saxamaphone added to the punk sound. Lyrically this album is so much more relevant than the Sex Pistols' manufactured nihilism. Fave track - "Identity" - mainstream culture is only now (kinda) catching up with what this song is saying!

Listened on Thursday when I was in a bad mood and this largely slid off my brain without leaving an impression. Listened again today when I was more receptive, and I had a much more positive experience. There are a few artists I love that have a similar guitar sound, but tend to be instrumental. Fave track " Instrumental Medley 1964" which is possibly a bonus track rather than being on the original album? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The definitive classic rock & roll performer, wailing on a piano and belting out the hits! Great stuff! Fave track - "What'd I Say" maybe, as I don't think I've heard it before, but it rocked and rolled just as much as the standards!

Archetypal folk! She has an amazing voice, but I'm not so keen on the vibratto (if that's the word) technique she uses in most of the songs. Fave track - Toss up between "House of the Rising Sun" (which has a really interesting wikipedia page!) and "Girl of Constant Sorrow"

As I said in slack, this is exactly that kind of slide-guitary “my-woman-left-me-and-my-dog-died” mournful country balladeer the stereotypes come from! I had to relisten to it today to pick a fave track, as non of them stood out to me first time around. I think I'll go for the title track, "The Grand Tour", as that seems the most sad sack....

Hah hah, more Motörhead! You know exactly what you're getting. Fave track - "Capricorn", if only for the dedication to "all the poor bastards that only get one present for both birthday and Christmas"! 😂

Yuss, great album, even better cover art. This was hugely influential on post-punk, gothic, and darkwave, and probably a bunch of other genres too. Fave track - I dunno, "New Dawn Fades"? "Shadowplay"? "Disorder" is a cracking tune. Or for campy melodrama, "She's Lost Control"!

A deliberately weird Beach Boys album - yeah, I liked it! Fave track - well, "Surf's Up" sounded most classically Beach Boys, but I think I'm gonna go with "Student Demonstration Time" as being the most unexpected!

Awesome stuff! Hard rock turns power pop. I really enjoyed this. Thought I'd only heard "More Than A Feeling" before, but recognized "Foreplay/Long Time", which I'm naming fave track, from a bunch of TV shows and loved hearing the whole thing!

This was a perfectly pleasant listen, but without knowing any Portuguese it kinda slid off my consciousness without making too much of a mark. Fave track "Tropicalia" - though that just might be because I was paying attention to track one before going back to working and letting it play in the background ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh yeah, I loved this. Pop rock from a parallel timeline, dissolving into dream pop as it goes on. Fave track - "By This River"

Not really my kind of thing, but there's some great pop going on, and "Tainted Love" is a karaoke monster! "Sex Dwarf" seems kinda questionable... huh, there's a video for it that was banned in the UK!? Fave track - "Entertain Me" - liked the flow of the lyrics in that one...

Perfectly functional classic rock / folk rock. Listened to it twice and most of it didn't leave that much of an impression. Fave track - "Bad Moon Rising" for being the most identifiable one!

Weird album - half the songs are twee naffness, and the other half are incredible!? Fave track - "Perfect Day"

Social commentary and protest songs in a country style! I really liked this. Pretty Dylan-esque. Fave track - "Sam Stone" - mainly because Spiritualized lifted some of the lyrics for one of my all time fave tracks "Cop Shoot Cop" from "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" and hearing them in the original song was one of those "oooh, so _that's_ where that came from" moments!

I'm much less familiar with this album than "Fever To Tell", and there's no nostalgia bump. The first few tracks feel poppier, and then it gets more whistful? Those are both pleasant modes for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to adopt. Fave track - "Dull Life" - though I think I need to give the album a couple more listens, as there are some other contenders there, for sure...

Pleasant background listening - it didn't bug me from getting over-exposed to the Pet Shop Boys in the bad old days of reliance on broadcast media. Fave track - "Dreaming Of The Queen" had some truly WTF lyrics, heh

Very enjoyable jazz, mostly falling on the "hot" side. (My mom categorizes all jazz as either "hot", "cool", or "what time does the tune start", heh.) Fave track - "Kid From Red Bank" for hot, "Lil' Darlin'" for cool!

Fantastic album! So, so good mirror universe indie rock. Fave track - there are maybe 2 or 3 tracks on the album that _aren't_ contenders for being a fave. I'm going to pick "No. 13 Baby" from my listens yesterday as the highlight - those guitar lines!

Lovely dreampop. I adore Elizabeth Fraser's otherworldly vocals. Fave track - "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" for full on nimbly bimbly glossolalia!

Jangly discordant post-punk! Young Nick Cave tries to emulate Tom Waits. I really liked this, but can see why it scores low, I guess. "Pere Ubu" have a similarly low scoring album, so jangly discordant post-punk obviously rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Fave track - "She's Hit"

Banging electro rock! Great stuff. Fave track - "Decepticon" - that track kicks ass!

I like an album that jumps through a bunch of genres - classic rock and roll, psychedelia, country, folk rock - good fun! Fave track - "Lookin' Out My Back Door", for the Lebowski connection, heh, which also probably pushes the whole album up to 4 stars. But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

Pleasant background music, at times funky. Fave track - "Aprendendo a Jogar" for the wacky backing vocals

Top quality cool jazz! Fave track - while "Time Out" is a classic, I'm gonna pick "Blue Rondo à la Turk" for the playfulness!

Smoky jazz club vibes - I was unfamiliar with most of these songs, so that was a bonus! Fave track - "Four Women" - powerful stuff, great crescendo!

Reminds me a lot of Lisa Germano, but less weird (and thus, in my book, less good) but yeah, acceptable early nineties alt rock singer songwriteriness. Fave track - "Soap Star Joe", had some amusing lyrics that caught my attention...

This was released at the height of my "nothing but metal" phase, so I disagreed violently with how inescapable the singles from it were, but age has mellowed me, and I can enjoy their cheeky Lahndan britpop these days. Fave track - I'm gonna go with "Girls & Boys" because even though it drove me spare in my teens, it's still inextricably linked to some good summer memories, so it gets a nostalgia bump...

Commanding, authoritative, and sadly every bit as relevant today as it was when it was released. Fave track - I really like "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" but it feels slightly wrong to pick the goofiest track on the album, so I'll go with "Burn Hollywood Burn" instead!

So smooth, so funky - sounds great whether you're tuning into the lyrics or not. Fave track - "Move", for the awesomely funky sample usage. Apparently that track was produced by J Dilla, who I know has an amazing reputation, but I've never really got what the fuss was about...

Great album, amazing voice! Fave track - I was expecting it to be "Rehab", but I think I'm actually gonna go for "Back to Black"!

Eh, this didn't make much of an impression. Pleasant, but not much stood out. Fave track - "Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?", I guess, although they were all much of a muchness....

Lots of different genres thrown into the mix, which I liked, even if "Dear Jessie" didn't seem to fit with anything else. I liked the weirdness of "Act of Contrition" Fave track - "Like a Prayer" - that shiz is anthemic!

I haven't really listened to much Judas Priest - not sure why, as they would have naturally blended in with a lot of the stuff I listened to as a teen. I liked this - quite a few different styles in play, including Kiss style party rock in "Living After Midnight", Motorhead style straight ahead metal in "Rapid Fire", and anthemic stadium rock in "United". Fave track is "The Rage", though, for that funky underlying post-punk line!

I think I've listened to some other Sebadoh album previously that gave me the impression they were intolerably twee potheads, but this sounded like more straight ahead indie rock. Didn't leave much of an impression on me at first listen, so went back for a second listen to pick out a fave track ("Sacred Attention", I reckon) and perhaps it is actually pretty above average indie rock? Gonna give it 3 stars for now, but I suspect more listens would get me to bump it to 4...

Hah hah, gloriously weird, very noisy, exactly my type of thing. Fave track - "Graveyard" maybe, although I did enjoy the faux metal glossolalia of "The O-Men" a lot

Psychedelia gets heavy and helps create metal - what's not to like! Fave track - "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita", for the song itself, glorious prog noodling odyssey that it is, and for it's use in pop culture over the years, and for the mythology of its creation!

Yeah, fine - I have no strong feelings about this one way or the other. Fave track - "Jump"

Post-punk, but poppy! I didn't like that much at first listen - I guess I prefer my post-punk angry or angsty or depressed. On second listen I caught more of the lyrics, and they seemed pretty angsty after all - the poppiness is a veneer over the top. Fave track - "I've Been Waiting For Tomorrow (All Of My Life)" maybe, as it sounds like very early industrial music. Or possibly "The Thinking Feeling" as that's the song where the lyrics clicked for me....

Again, not quite my thing - I want more angst on the surface, more darkness in the tone. Fave track - "Sweet Bird of Truth" Pretty bleak, lyrically, and as relevant as ever...

Eh, why do the early Beatles albums get included in these lists? I guess they were massively popular at the time? If I ever make such a list, I'd skip the early stuff and only include the later stuff, which seems more revolutionary... Fave track - "Money (That's What I Want)", I guess, though picking a cover feels slightly weird?

I've listened to this album before once or twice maybe, and it never really grabbed me, but paying more attention to it this time around and it's _wonderful_. Gorgeous music, poignant lyrics, amazing stuff. Fave track - "Chicago", although I can imagine that might change with a few more listens...

I do have a soft spot for Neil Young, although I imagine his cracked wobbly voice is an acquired taste. Fave track - "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" is a stormer, but also have a lot of love for "Roll Another Number (For The Road)", "Tired Eyes", and "Tonight's The Night"!

I haven't listened to this album much, but some of Pavement's later albums are among my faves. The version I have is a 2 disc set, which apparently includes 3 EPs and a bunch of early versions of tracks that appear on Wowee Zowee, so I had to re-listen just to the original album tracks to pick out a qualifying fave - "Fillmore Jive"

A fun listen - didn't grab me nearly as hard as "Before and After Science", though. Fave track - not sure - quite like "Baby's on Fire", but the oddness of "Dead Finks Don't Talk" appeals, as does the triumphant almost kazoo-ness of "Here Come The Warm Jets"

Very pleasant easy listening, with lots of the songs familiar from film soundtracks or adverts... Fave track - "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" - great lyrics!

Fantastic - music from a parallel timeline. Fave track - "Turquoise Hexagon Sun"

Glorious, melodramatic, soaked in all kinds of gospel, from the euphoric to the hellfire & brimstone. Fave Track - "O Children", though I resent Harry Potter using it in the soundtrack 😠

This doesn't quite do it for me, I'm not sure why. I like his later albums more. Fave track - "Santa Cruz"

Wonderful stuff - love both the lyrics and the melodies. I could definitely sink more listens into this album and hear new discoveries every time... Fave track - "Beyond Belief" - I think I've loved this track for ages and didn't know what it was called or which album it was on, so good to find it!

One of the first groups to switch me on to hip-hop was the Gravediggaz, and this album reminded me a lot of "6 Feet Deep" for obvious reasons. Love the grumbling hypnotic bass lines a load of these tracks have. Fave track - "Stimulation" as it reminds me a lot of Dr Octagon's "Blue Flowers", which was another one of my hip-hop first loves. I'm a sucker for a meandering ethereal melody line lifted from a classical piece, it seems!

Very slick - Missy Elliott makes it all seem effortless. Fave track - gonna have to go with "Work It" - love that the gibberish after the lyric "reverse it" really is the vocal track reversed. Always fun to hear people attempt it in karaoke! 😆

Amazing soul, so many great tracks that Otis makes his own.... and apparently the whole album was recorded over 24 hours!? Fave track - "Change Gonna Come", but "My Girl" and "Satisfaction" get honorable mentions.

Having just listened to Method Man's "Tical", this album comes across as a bit unfocused? Or, I guess, it's more focused on mythology building than it is the music... Fave track - "C.R.E.A.M." - C'mon, that shiz is iconic.

So this is apparently Kanye deliberately taking a "maximallist" approach, and it really doesn't work for me. For every element of a song I like, there'll be two or three more annoying elements jammed in. "Blame Game" samples Aphex Twin? Awesome! Oh, it has a 2 minute long Chris Rock skit embedded in it? ಠ_ಠ Fave track - I dunno, "Gorgeous" maybe. I should probably give this 3 stars, but I'm deducting one because Kanye's obnoxious in a way that doesn't entertain me...

Fun! Very poppy, very upbeat - I didn't know this group was Belinda Carlisle's origin story! Fave track - "Automatic", maybe? "You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)" is fun too...

Oh yeah, this is gorgeous. Sparsely arranged, masterfully executed. I love that Willie's record company fought him all the way on this and it ended up being a ludicrously big success. Fave track - "September Song", but I suspect I might pick a new fave with each listen...

Yeah, fine. Standard alt rock type stuff. I didn't listen to it at the time, so it doesn't have any nostalgia value for me. Fave track - "Mrs Robinson", and I know it's technically a bonus track, but sue me!

Fantastic, funky, infectiously groovy and a lot of fun even with the language barrier. Also, copious use of friction drums! Fave track - "Taj Mahal" - can't really blame Rod Stewart for ripping off that great melody!

This album was so popular, and the songs so good, that it's kinda become part of the cultural cosmic background radiation, right? Fave track - "Talking 'bout a Revolution" maybe, but there's a lot of great tracks...

Oh yeah, funky as anything. And sci-fi psychedelic as anything else! Fave track - tempted to say "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" due to the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" connection, but I'm gonna go with "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" as it comes across as a funky manifesto...

Hmmm, a weird one - I quite liked the slightly jazzy easy listening of the beginning of the album (that apparently maps exactly to the A side of the vinyl) but was much less keen on the more upbeat poppier B side. Especially "A Gospel", which was cringingly bad. Fave track - "My Ever Changing Moods" - makes sense that was a successful single!

Got some nostalgia for this one from my teen years. It wasn't quite metal enough for my tastes, but this was pre-internet, and beggars can't be choosers! Fave track - "Janie's Got a Gun" - gotta love that glass harmonica intro!

Wow, listening to Bee Gees songs that haven't been rammed into my ears a million times before is actually quite a pleasant experience! Fave track - "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" at the moment, but I should maybe listen a few more times as there are some other contenders.

Oh, this wasn't at all what I was expecting - I thought it was going to be pretty abrasive noise rock. Is that because they have some other albums in that vein, or am I confusing them with another band? Who knows! I really liked this - lovely blend of psychedelia, shoegaze, and a little bit of dream pop. Will definitely be revisiting. Fave track - "He Would Have Laughed" at the moment. "Desire Lines" also stood out... Gonna give this 4 stars but feel it could become 5 with more listens

I haven't listened to a great deal of album Springsteen - obviously a few of these songs have become massive cultural icons, so I've heard them a lot. Really enjoyed listening to the whole thing. Can definitely see why it was so massive. Quite a bit of it had a Dexys Midnight Runners vibe, which I liked. Fave track "I'm on Fire" - although "Dancing in the Dark" is a great karaoke tune...

Eh, not really my thing. For the first 5 tracks I was seriously thinking of awarding 2 stars because it just seemed like unreflective brag rap with fairly basic rhymes. It did approve a bit after that. Fave track - "Cheesy Rat Blues" - a much more interesting listen than most of the other tracks. Plus it's where Run the Jewels got their name! The title track is also a pretty good tune, tbf

Hah hah, a raucous rocking time! I was introduced to this album during my "only metal" phase, and even though it's plainly not metal, I had to admire the level of punk wrapped up in this folk! Fave track - "Sally MacLennane" maybe? A lot of good songs to choose from, though...

I loved Mellow Gold and was a bit non plussed with Odelay when it first came out, but I've warmed to it. It's still very very weird, and you gotta admire than weirdness being crammed into such a catchy pop sound. Fave track - "Minus", maybe? Though all the tracks released as singles are banging. Also really like "Ramshackle", as I like Beck in mellow mode...

Yep, I dig this sort of folksy rambling gubbins. Very pleasant! Fave track - "Grey Goose".... HONK!

I prefer their later, weirder albums, but re-listening to The Bends and it's really solidly well done - lots of great tunes. Fave track - "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", although "Fake Plastic Trees" is a close second...

Excellent, brash, swaggering, bluesy garage rock. So many great tracks, but have to go with "Seven Nation Army" as a fave!

I mean, this is THE reggae album as far as mainstream taste in the UK goes, I think? Pretty much inescapable, but I think it's a testament to the songs that that much forced exposure to them never sent me into a strop. Fave track - "Jammin"... No, "Three Little Birds"... No, "Exodus".... No, "One Love"... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not really my thing, but not overdone diva-style antics which I can sometimes find grating. A pleasant background listen. Fave track - "Sweet Love" is undeniably iconic

Yep, fine. Fave track - "Paint it Black", by a mile. "Under My Thumb" is a tune too, though...

Rollicking good fun, and weird enough to keep my interest the whole time. Fave track - "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both of Us" is an absolute tune. I really liked "Equator" on my last couple of listens, but not sure if it might not get irritating with more listens? Or, it could grown on me further, who knows!

Hmmm, apparently a very influential album in the formation of heavy metal, so I'm glad to have listened to it! It's a little uncomfortable hearing a bunch of white Englishmen ripping off the blues, though... Fave track - "I Ain't Superstitious" maybe? "Shapes of Things" is good too...

Very much my jam! Super soft dreamy vocals, driving krautrocky motorik rhythms, luscious indie pop melodies... Fave track - "H>A>K", but "Did You See Butterfiles", "Slow Motion", "The Architect", and "I Wish" could all take the top spot too on a different listen!

Final Bowie. Ethereal, mournful Bowie. Cryptic and theatrical Bowie. 😢 Fave track - "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore"

I have massive nostalgia for this from my uni days which gets it 5 stars. I thiiiink I might still give it 5 stars even hearing it for the first time? It's just a fantastic example of prog. Songs going off in unexpected directions and blending into each other. Sound effects and samples amplifying the ambient qualities. Clare Torry's outstanding vocal performance. I love it all. Fave track - it doesn't really make sense to pick one fave track as a lot of the appeal of the album is how things flow into each other? "Speak to Me" -> "Breathe" -> "On the Run" is great. "Time" -> "The Great Gig In The Sky" is magnificent - I guess this is my fave track pick... "Brain Damage" -> "Eclipse" gives me triumphant chills every time!

Gorgeous Indian classical music. This was apparently one of the key factors in sitar appearing in everything around this time? Understandable! Fave track - "Ahir Bhairav/Nat Bhairav" for the lovely gradual build up.

At first I thought "this isn't the QotSA album I'd pick", but I guess I haven't listened to it in a long time, as it's a banger. Lot of great tracks! Fave track - "Avon", maybe? "How To Handle a Rope" and "You Can't Quit Me Baby" are great too!

I've heard this once or twice in the past, but it was good to give it a couple of listens with more attention. Super influential on a bunch of the genres that make up post-rock, you gotta love that quite/LOUD dynamic. I was already thinking 4 stars, but an extra listen or two, including all the demos, has pushed me up to 5. Fave track - maybe "Don, Aman", maybe "Good Morning, Captain". Kinda feel like I want to listen to this album while reading the lyrics, which is not something I experience very often!

Good to compare this minimalist Springsteen with the maximallist "Born in the USA" which came from the same sessions. Again, I can see why he's been so acclaimed and has the reputation he does. Fave track - "Atlantic City" - great track!

I mean, arguably the first heavy metal album, gotta be considered a classic! Got that brooding sound. Pushed blues rock into true heaviness. There's fairly juvenile songs about wizards and the occult, so it's really laying down some genre foundation stones... Fave track - "Black Sabbath" - the first doom metal song! And doom metal, imho, is the finest of the metals! 🤘

I have a lot of pre-existing fondness for this album - takes me back to end of uni / just graduated times. The title track was definitely the soundtrack of a summer around then. It's just a fantastic melange of samples whirled together to produce some wonderful pop. I still really dig it! Fave track - this is one of those albums where picking fave tracks makes less sense, as the way everything segues together is part of the magic. "Frontier Psychiatrist" should get a mention for the fantastic music video. "Radio" is a highlight, as is "Two Hearts in 3/4 Time" as is "Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life" Awesome stuff.

Of the Madonna albums I've listened to, this is definitely my fave. Love that William Orbit production, and I'm a sucker for electronica with world music blended in. Fave track - it always used to be "Frozen", but this time around the title track really jumped out at me. It's quite a tune! Got me pretty energised!

Messy raucous noise rock drenched in squalls of feedback. I can definitely see this won't be to everyone's taste, but I dig it. Can certainly hear the influence it had on shoegaze... Fave track - "Little Fury Things", for sure.

Yeah, shimmery synth drones and Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies and jangly psych biz. There are some definite 5 star tracks, but it's not quite consistent enough to get 5 stars overall. Fave track - "My Girls" - great tune!

I had their self titled debut on here a week ago, and Vol.4 suffers by comparison, I'm afraid, and that's mainly because of "Changes" (and, I guess, "FX"). They just completely mess up the flow of this album. I quite like "Changes" as a song in its own right, but it makes such a dent in the tone of this album, I dunno, maybe because it's piano based? Fave track - "Supernaut", I reckon, though I have a soft spot for "Laguna Sunrise" too. All the tracks apart from "Changes" and "FX" are pretty solid,

Is it goth, or is it just goth-aligned post-punk? Either way, I'm a fan of this gloom! Fave track - "Nine Million Rainy Days" for most depressive lyrics...

Upbeat, cheeky pop rock. When this first came out I was in an "only metal" phase, so didn't appreciate it at the time. Still, had a lot less antipathy for Supergrass than I did for Blur and Oasis. Listening now, there's a lot I like. I appreciate "I'd Like to Know" and "Strange Ones" being like a call and response. Fave track is probably "Caught by the Fuzz"

I was kinda surprised to see this on the list, but wikipedia tells me Jamiroquai were actually a whole lot more popular in the nineties than I thought, and have influenced a whole bunch of people, so ok, fair enough! It's funk and soul done competently enough, but it feels uncomfortably appropriative, and the way it tries to lay on a message is pretty cringe. I've no plans to revisit this, but probably won't object to it coming up on shuffle... Fave track - "Revolution 1993", I guess?

Was initially thinking 3 stars during a background listen, but put it on again and paid slightly more attention and definitely bumping it up to 4. It's been so massively influential on a bunch of genres I like. To quote from a Drowned in Sound review quoted on Wikipedia, it's "all at once antique, timeless, retro and contemporary". Fave track - the whole of side 2! 🚅

It doesn't quite grab me - not sure whether that's because it came out during my METAL phase, or what. It's perfectly acceptable alt rock. Fave track - "Faster" for sure. "Revol" is also pretty good...

Oh yeah, this is lovely! Super chilled out soul, with a splash of psychedelia and folk. "Strawberry Letter 23" is an absolute tune, but it's not present on most versions of the album, so I'll go with "Island Letter" or "Pling!" as my top track - love those relaxing latin rhythms underpinning them!

In my head I had it that I didn't particularly like the first Foo Fighters album, but that's completely wrong - I've _loved_ this re-listen! Fantastic alt rock, and I dig both the upbeat blasting tracks, and the slowed down mournful introspective ones. Fave track - "Good Grief", maybe? Could easily pick 5 or 6 more that would get the title....

Ok, this was great - not really what I was expecting - more melodic and with greater depth. Loved the Kinks cover! Fave track - either "To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)" or "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", but more listens might bring out other contenders...

I had no idea what to expect from this one, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the answer was "a little bit of everything"! I love an album that's not afraid to wade around the genre pool, so really enjoyed hearing rock, folk, country, blues and who knows what else in quick succession. Definitely up for more listens. Fave track - "Bound to Fall"

There is zero (0) chance that I'll be objective reviewing this. Looooved this album during my uni days, and have loved Portishead ever since. Such a moody, smokey sound. Fave track - "Glory Box" maybe? Could easily be any of 5 or 6 others though...

This is unexpectedly excellent! Nearly flawless poppy alt rock. "There She Goes" is properly timeless, as I was very surprised to learn this was its origin - I assumed it must be a cover of something that had been around since the 60s or 70s! There are a lot of great tracks besides that one, though. "I Can't Sleep" and "Timeless Melody" are both awesome, but my fave track award has to go to the closing phantasmagorical wonder "Looking Glass"...

This is an old fave of mine - and you couldn't really ask for bigger subject matter for an album, could you!? Lovely vocals and melodies, gorgeous beats, and sobering samples. Fantastic stuff. Fave track - "Nadia" perhaps? "Homelands" is amazing though, as is "The Conference".

This didn't really grab me. It all sounded competent enough but nothing really lit up. Maybe you needed to hear it just after 9/11 to have it in context? The cover invites comparisons to Springsteen's "Born in the USA", but the music doesn't seem to. Fave track - "Enemy Fire" I guess...

I'm a massive fan of "Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space", but I haven't listened to this album much, which seems.... weird. It's got all the elements I love. I think I just need to spend more time with it, so going into my third play through now... Fave track - "Take Your Time", at the moment, but there are a couple of other contenders... I really don't know why I never got into this album as much as "Ladies & Gentlemen..."!?

I can respect the talent it takes to carve out a sound like this. It's extremely difficult to listen to while doing something else, I found. Every track sounds super busy and attention grabbing. It's a little vertigo inducing, which is kinda fun in itself! Fave track -"Stop Dat", I think. I'm not doing a second play through to be sure, though...

David Bowie does ambient!? I've definitely listened to this album before, but somehow it escaped me that side B is just straight up Eno-style ambient instrumental loveliness. I actually like side B more than I like side A, even though "Heroes" is an absolute tune. (And weird to think that it wasn't that popular when first released!) Fave track - "Sense of Doubt" - pure mood! "Moss Garden" is gorgeous, though, too...

The individual members of the Fugees may have all gone on to get mired down in financial irregularities, but here they're all working cohesively together to create a great album! It all sounds so effortlessly confident. Fave track - "The Mask" - takes on a different meaning in 2021, heh.

Yeah, ok, the first rock opera! Pretty psychedelic sounding, some obvious proggy elements - I enjoyed it, especially on a second listen. Would like to hear a version with Arthur Brown reciting the chunks of text between tracks - that'd be great! Fave track - "Death", I think? "Private Sorrow" was great too...

I wasn't familiar with this Roxy Music album, but really like some of their others. This didn't really grab me, and I gave it three listens. I don't know what's missing - it's not quite weird enough maybe? The lack of Eno? Fave track - "Casanova" - it had a little bit of that "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" swagger...

Hah hah, yes! Moody, gothy synthy not-pop. Enjoyed this a lot. Fave track - "Behind the Wheel", maybe? "Never Let Me Down Again" was great, and I enjoyed the weirdness of "Pimpf", too...

I've loved this album for far too long to have any objectivity. Flawless. Fave track - "Wish You Were Here", I guess, but really I think the whole album should be consumed as one cohesive unit...

This was fun! Liked it a lot more than the Jeff Beck Group album that came up on here previously. More experimental, more all over the place, less just straight up ripping off the blues. Fave track - "Ever Since The World Began", I reckon, but have a soft spot for "Over Under Sideways Down", "Hot House of Omagararshid" and "Jeff's Boogie" too...

The first Cure song I ever fell in love with was "Burn" from the Crow soundtrack, and this whole album sounds like that, so I am very much on board. Digging the abject gothiness of the whole thing. Fave track - "The Hanging Garden", perhaps, or "A Short Term Effect". I like this album as an album, though, rather than discrete tracks.

I have massive affection for this album - one of the first electronic albums I properly got into after my nothing-but-metal phase. Love electronica that fuses world music into itself. Love an album that wanders over the genre map. Fave track - gotta be "Open Up", really, but love everything on here...

I think I might have scored this 4 stars a year ago, as it's never been one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums... However, I watched The Wall movie this year, and that's added an extra layer of appreciation and bumped it up to a 5... The rise of British fascism looking more likely rather than less these days, it's a disturbingly prescient work. 😑 Fave track - "Mother" maybe, or "Is There Anybody Out There?"

I can appreciate that this is pop punk done well, but pop punk's not really my thing. There are some great tracks on here, but a whole album of it wears a bit thin. Fave track - "Teenage Kicks" is an absolute tune. Also really liked "Billy's Third" and "True Confessions"

I kinda like the overblown mafioso approach taken here, and as always like the Wu Tang sprinkling of kung fu movie samples. Found the homophobia pretty grating, though - are the regular Wu Tang records this bad for it, and I just never noticed!? Fave track - "Heaven & Hell", I guess. There wasn't really any particular track that stood out...

Not really my thing, but I have to hand it to George Michael - looking at Prince and Michael Jackson in the late 80s and thinking to yourself "I can hit that level" and then _actually doing it_! Amazing! 😲 Fave track - "Hand to Mouth", I reckon...

I like the railing against the police/racist society stuff, but dislike the misogynist gangsta braggadocio stuff, and unfortunately the latter seems to outweigh the former. Fave tracks - all of the Inserts were pretty great! Prefer them to most of the actual main tracks. "Who Got The Camera?" was pretty good too....

Loooove this album. So mellow. Just glorious. Fave track - "Solid Air" has long been a fave. "I'd Rather Be The Devil" gets an honourable mention too...

Yes, groovy, digging it. Half euphoric "Screamadelica", half gritty jittery "XTRMNTR", and coming between those two albums, makes perfect sense! Fave track - "If They Move, Kill 'Em"

I've been dimly aware of The xx for a while, but they never really made an impact on me. Giving it a decent listen as part of this project has definitely opened my eyes (ears?) to them, though - yeah, like it! Dream pop-adjacent, knackered, end of the night vibes. Will definitely be coming back to this album a lot more in the future. Fave track - "Shelter" at the moment, but I'm sure more listens will turn up more faves...

I've not really listened to much Sonic Youth, and always felt vaguely guilty about that hole in my listening. This was great! A noisier, harsher Pavement (or rather, Pavement are a quieter, gentler Sonic Youth). I can definitely see myself bumping this up to 5 stars with more familiarity... Fave track - "Trilogy", for sprawling grandeur. "Teen Age Riot" is a tune, too....

Bowie at his most accessible. This is a great rock record! "Starman" and "Ziggy Stardust" are karaoke staples. Even the B sides were great. Fave track - "Suffragette City" this time around, I think, but "Five Years" and "Moonage Daydream" were contenders too!

I definitely have a strong preference for proggy later Pink Floyd over earlier twee psychedelia Pink Floyd. This was an interesting listen, picking out the elements that would go on to become foundational in some of my favourite albums, but ugh some of these songs were grating, like "Bike" and "The Gnome" 😠 Fave track - "Astronomy Domine", perhaps, or "Interstellar Overdrive"

The first thing that struck me was this sounded quite a lot like Big Music era Waterboys, but maybe lacked a bit of their pizzazz. I gave it two listens, and it's perfectly acceptable, I suppose, but nothing really left an impression. Fave track.... uh, "Soft Wolf Tread", maybe? This album didn't make me want to look up specific track names very often. 😑

I'm not nearly as familiar with this album, as "The Velvet Underground & Nico", but it definitely still hits the spot! The Velvet Underground being a little more straight forward and accessible, what's not to like? Fave track - "Beginning to See The Light" and "What Goes On" have been my favourites in the past, but this play through I really dug "The Murder Mystery". Love the effect of two voices overlapping and interfering and generating urgency without sense...

Eh, not really my thing, but fine I guess. I enjoyed hearing the origin of the guitar line of Apollo 440's "Ain't Talkin' About Dub". Fave track - probably the Kinks cover "You Really Got Me". I quite liked "I'm The One" too, as it started out sounding like a Motorhead song and then went off in an unexpected very un-Motorhead direction... 😆

Hah hah, this album is gloriously deranged! I've long been a huge fan of it. Fave track - "The Curse of Milhaven", I mean, c'mon, almost every verse has a laugh out loud funny line. On this listen through, "Lovely Creature" really stood out to me, too...

This is lovely. Not sure this is the PCO album I'd have picked, if I was only picking one, but sure, whatever. I'm a sucker for some instrumental ambient or indie chamber music or however you categorize this stuff. Fave track - "Penguin Cafe Single", perhaps, or "Chartered Flight". It's not the sort of album with standout individual tracks, is it? It's all about the overall experience...

This was a perfectly pleasant listen. I'll freely admit I'm not at all knowledgable about salsa music, so this struck me as being kinda generic salsa, but after seeing on wikipedia that this is the best selling salsa record in history, I guess it's genre founding rather than generic! Fave track - "Pedro Navaja" - I like the slow build up and shout outs to other tunes!

This is a welcome discovery - never heard of Suba! Getting a lot of Thievery Corporation vibes from it. It's been quite a while since I listened to any Thievery Corporation, but this maybe sounds better? A bit less plastic, a bit more authentic. Will definitely be revisting. Fave track "A Noite Sem Fim" for that awesome twanging noise. "Samba Do Gringo Paulista" had some great percussion lines, too....

About half the songs on here are _amazing_, but the others don't quite do it for me. I think this is the first album I've wanted to give a .5 star to, as it's not quite 5 stars for me, but maybe should be classed higher than the other 4 stars. Massive kudos to Prince for defining his own sound with such confidence. Sounds fresher today than a lot of his contemporaries. Fave track - "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" are frickin' epic. Really like "Let's Go Crazy" and "I Would Die 4 U" too though...

Classic rock n roll, what's not to love. "Blueberry Hill" is era defining. Fave track - "La-La", or "Troubles of My Own" - they both have a backing rhythm that makes me think of a locomotive chugging away...

Very pleasant. My mom categorizes all Jazz into three buckets. "Hot", "Cool", and "What Time Does the Tune Start". I guess this is where "Cool" came from! Fave track - hmmm, not sure any single tracks stood out to me - just enjoyed the album as a whole. "Israel", maybe?

I think this is the first Genesis album I've properly listened to - not sure if this is a good entry point into their back catalogue, but yeah, enjoyed it! Prog with the folkiness dialed up, and without going too twee. Fave track - "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", perhaps, or "The Battle of Epping Forest". I definitely think more listens will be rewarded...

Listened to this a lot as a teenager, so it was interesting to revisit. Weirdly, the stand out tracks had really stuck in my head, but the rest of the album had faded away almost entirely, which isn't exactly a great endorsement! Fave tracks - "Basket Case", "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise", predictably enough!

Solid musicianship, great songs. Fave track - either the title track or "Sunflower", I reckon...

I hummed and hawed over giving this 5 stars but after 3 listens it hasn't quite grabbed me hard enough. "Tokyo Storm Warning" has long been one of my fave tracks by any artist after I heard it on a Best Of album. Fave track - this time around, "I Want You" really, really sank its claws into me. That is one hell of a song! The version with Fiona Apple on vocals is well worth a listen too...

This felt less dated than "Bad", to my ear - I guess because of "Bad"'s use of synths? A bunch of these tunes are era-defining monsters. "PYT" was pretty cringe, though. Fave track - has to be "Thriller", really. "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" are pretty epic too.

Hmmmm, couldn't quite get into this. I prefer my electronica to be either more banging, or more chin strokey, or ideally both. The album seemed to get better as it went on, though - definitely enjoyed the second half more. Fave track - "Damaged People" for sure!

Hahahhahha, yes! YES! The pretentiousness is very much the point here, and I _love_ it. Singing absolute nonsense with such earnest conviction - fantastic! (Although it's made me realize that Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", another fine example of heartfelt gibberish, isn't on this list, which feels like quite the omission!) I'll take this album over anything At The Drive-In did. It's also my fave Mars Volta album, by quite a stretch... Fave track - the whole thing, really, but "Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)", "Eriatarka", "Televators" and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" are the stand outs...

I heard this at a friend's house as an early teen and it blew me away. Still had fragments of the songs going around in my head days later. This was the album that prompted me to start seeking out music proactively and build up a collection of cassettes, rather than just passively listen to whatever the TV or radio offered. So yeah, 5 stars for personal significance alone. Fave track - "Sad But True", let's say, but I have a lot of faves on this album even today...

This didn't grab me quite as hard as Ziggy Stardust, but it's cool hearing the more experimental stuff start to creep in to his sound. "Time" made me think of It's Always Sunny's "Night Man" - I wonder if that's its source!? Fave tracks - "Panic in Detroit" maybe, or "Cracked Actor"... I feel like if I listened to this album a bunch more times that rating might climb to 5...

Oh yeah, this was pretty great! Sometimes listening to old school hip-hop can be a bit of a chore, as the rhymes can sound basic and dated, and the attitudes can be, uh, regressive, but this still sounded pretty fresh! I guess the amount of rock music being sampled (and the Aerosmith collab) make this much more accessible to my goblin-pale ass. In the version of the album I listened to there was a bonus track of them recording a commercial for some live dates, and they refer to themself as "Rap n' Roll", and YES, that's a great label! Fave track - all the singles were great - also liked "Proud to be Black" for the Tubman reference!

Tranquil loveliness! I am a massive fan of ambient music, so gotta give props to the album that started it all... Fave track "1-1", I guess - not that it makes sense to break the album down into tracks...

Ooh, proggy! This is not your average post-punk, and that made it a really interesting listen for me. Also, was pleasantly surprised to find the source of "The Light Pours Out of Me", which I was familiar with from Ministry's cover... Fave track - love the rising hysteria of "Shot By Both Sides"!

A favorite from my youth - still sounds solid. Fave track - "The Day I Tried to Live", for sure. Although "Black Hole Sun" has a special place in my heart due to its availability as a karaoke option...

PJ Harvey was not fucking around when she put this album together. A lot of fantastic songs. Excellent stuff! Fave track - the duet with Thom Yorke was great an all, but I have to go with "Good Fortune" overall, but like three quarters of the other tracks come in a close second place!

The first time I listened to this I very much wasn't in the mood, so it fell flat. I gave it another chance the next day and appreciated it a lot more. You need to be in the right mindset to connect with morbid depressive off-kilter discordant folk, I guess. Also, I can't help thinking of Jeffrey Lewis' "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror" 😂 Fave track - "Death to Everyone", or possibly "Madeleine-Mary"

Yeah ok, this was nice - you can hear he's starting to get a taste for incorporating world music into his sound. The "Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard" lyric "Goodbye to Rosie, the queen of Corona" hits differently in 2021. 😞 Fave track - gotta be "Paranoia Blues". Relatable!

How is this not considered prog? Is it the lack of lyrics about wizards? Seems pretty darned proggy to me! (Which is not a dis) I mean, c'mon, "Free Form Guitar"! Anyway, yeah, this was a good listen - I don't think I've heard any of this before, with the possible exception of "I'm a Man", but it might have been the original I've heard. Fave track - "Someday (August 29, 1968)". Sad to think that basically nothing has changed...

Eh, it's a perfectly pleasant background listen, I guess. It's too laid back to be energising, but not quite laid back enough to be chill. Fave track - "Being Boring", but they're all much of a muchness...

Wikipedia tells me this album was a huge deal. I guess it's been so influential that whatever made it so remarkable has now become commonplace? It was a nice listen, for sure. Fave track - "Glad Tidings", let's say, but I didn't feel like there were any stand out tracks - they all blended together...

Great stuff - really interesting variety of songs! Incredible vocal talent. Fave track - "Mbube" for that "Lion Sleeps Tonight" quality. Also "The Click Song", for clicking!

I think participating in this project is developing a taste in me for new wave, as that was a lot of fun! Upbeat, light, poppy and funky - they sound like an earnest, humorless They Might Be Giants. Fave track - "Favourite Shirts", maybe. I like "Kingsize (You're My Little Steam Whistle)" too, but damn that's a bad track name!

I was hovering around 3 stars for this, but some additional listens have bumped it up to 4 stars. It's a lot of fun! B-52s meets the Addams family! Fave track - "What's Behind the Mask?", maybe? "Garbageman" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" are both great too....

This is probably a three star album, let's be honest, but I've got a massive soft spot for it, so bumping it up to four. I'm a John Frusciante fanboy, for sure. A lot of these tracks made great karaoke tunes, too. Fave track - "Otherside", maybe, or "Parallel Universe"

Upon first listen this didn't sound like anything special, and I wondered why it had been included in the list, but apparently it was massively influential when it came out? I guess the spangly guitar sound became so ubiquitous that this album now sounds a bit run of the mill? Fave track - "We Walk", I think, or maybe "Laughing"

Smokey underwater trip-hop. I like Massive Attack more, but this is still a great listen. Fave track - "Black Steel" is absolutely badass. "Suffocated Love" really stood out to me this time around, too!

I'm genuinely pretty shocked to be giving a new wave synth pop album five stars, but this was looooovely! I've never really listened to OMD before, except passive radio play, so I didn't really know what to expect, other than a vague idea they were very poppy? This was excellent - atmospheric, emotive, unexpected shifts happening mid song - it kinda prefigures post-rock! Fave track - "Sealand". Just - WOW.

Ok, this was pretty rocking - did not fit my preconception of what The Verve sounded like. It pairs pretty well with Spiritualized's "Ladies & Gentlemen..." which came up on here recently, for being a bit droney wall-of-sound-style rock. Fave track - "A New Decade". I'm definitely up for more listens to pick out other faves though...

One of my all time faves - automatic five stars! My neighbour in Uni halls during my first year had the cd version packaged up like medicine, and I was always deeply jealous - such a great release! I love love love the way this album flows together, just fantastic stuff. Fave track - "Cop Shoot Cop" if pressed, but really this is an album experience, it's not really about the individual tracks...

This was unexpectedly great - started off sounding like it was going to be straight forward country, and then gospel and folk and soul and the kitchen sink get thrown in too! Sad backstory to the whole thing, as well. Fave tracks - "No Other" sounded very Zappa to my ear, and "Some Misunderstanding" has some powerful energy going on...

A fun prog odyssey! I was only familiar with the Exorcist bit previously, but largely enjoyed all the other sections. I am gleefully anticipating all the complaints about the section that sounds like it's sung in Klingon!

This is simply wonderful - probably my favorite discovery from this list so far. I found this much more accessible than your average prog. The whole thing sounds like a dream, both the instruments and the vocals. I could get lost in this album... Fave track - "Sea Song", but really this album demands to be listened to straight through...

This is cheesy as anything, but I have a certain amount of nostalgia for it from my late teens. I can imagine I'd be pretty nonplussed if I was hearing this for the first time... Fave track - "Drive", let's say...

OK, a Doors album that's not the self titled one... Well, I wasn't in the mood at all when I first put it on, but within a couple of tracks it had won me over. Definitely a solid album worth some more listens! Fave track - "Riders on the Storm" is a classic, and I think the only track I was properly familiar with in advance. "L.A. Woman" is a great tune too...

Enjoyed this - it's nice to hear so many songs that I haven't heard to death on best ofs or random radio play. Fave track - "Them Belly Full" - the opening almost sounds like Tortoise!

This doesn't work for me, sorry boys. All the little ads and skits are annoying rather than endearing, and break the flow of the album. Or maybe I was just in a mood while listening. Fave track - "I Can See For Miles" is undeniably a tune, and the only track I was very familiar with going in. "Armenia City in the Sky" was fun, I guess...

Pretty flawless glam. Marc Bolan understood the assignment. Fave track - "Metal Guru" is one of the standouts. Also "Ballrooms of Mars"

Coffee table drum & bass with smooth female vocals over the top - what's not to like? I only really know that "Missing" song from EBTG, so this was surprisingly trip-hoppy. I really enjoyed it! Fave track - the title track I think. "Single" was also great.

A great listen! That intro makes it sound like Public Enemy puts on one hell of a live show... I love Tricky's version of "Black Steel" so it was great hearing the original. Fave track - "Prophets of Rage", maybe, or "Louder Than a Bomb". "Don't Believe The Hype" is a massive tune too, of course...

Bowie does "plastic soul"? Yeah, I'm here for it! I do love an artist that explores different genres, and Bowie's somewhat of an archetype in that area. Fave track - "Fame" is awesome, obvs. The overwrought cover of "Across the Universe" is good for a laugh. "John, I'm Only Dancing" is a bonus track, but it's great, so I'm mentioning it...

This really is a fantastic album. I'm kinda tempted to deduct a star because Morrissey is such a prat, but that hardly seems fair. Fave track - "Girlfriend in a Coma" maybe, on this listen through. I could honestly go with a different track each time, though - about three quarters of them are candidates....

That voice. THAT VOICE. Fave track - The title track is absolutely badass. "Traveling Light" takes second place...

Eh, this didn't grab me even after 3 listens. I had Gene Clark's "No Other" a week or two ago and that was great, but nothing from "White Light" is really making an impact. Fave track - "1975" maybe? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Perfectly pleasant indie folk. A nice listen. Fave track - "White Winter Hymnal" was a fave going in. "Your Protector" caught my ear on this listen through, too...

Been a long time since I listened to this. Love the double bass - such a distinctive sound it gives to the album. There's more misogyny than I remembered. 🤨 I guess there's less than a lot of acts were putting out at around that time, but still... Fave track - "Buggin' Out" for that double bass goodness. "Scenario" was great too...

This was a great listen! I'm not massively into country, and only really familiar with Dolly Parton's inescapable mega hits, so it was great to hear something from her I wasn't already passively sick of. Fave track - toss up between "Traveling Man", "The Mystery of the Mystery", or "Early Morning Breeze"

That's an automatic 5 from me. Have loved this album for a long time. The guitar line from "Bone Machine" is one of my most frequently occurring self generating ear worms, and I _still_ love it. Fave track - it could literally be any of them, I love them all. On this play through, let's say "Gigantic"...

This was pretty gloriously unexpected! Took a second listen to get my head around what I was hearing. Only really knowing the Bee Gees' disco output, a sweeping melodramatic concept album about the close of the 19th century rather took me by surprise! Fave track - "Edison", maybe? Or "Whisper Whisper". More listens are probably required...

The origin of glam rock - it's a gas! Fave track - I mean, it's gotta be "Get it On" really. "Cosmic Dancer" is great too...

Solid stuff - easy to see how they took the genre mainstream and became so influential. Fave track - love the guitar samples from "Rock Box". Also, gotta love the juxtaposition of the unsympathetic pragmatism of "It's Like That" followed by the dreamy idealism of "Wake Up"!

Eh, this was fine, but didn't really excite me. I guess it's so foundational to classic rock that it now comes across as generic? Fave track - "Bad Company" which is admittedly the only track I recognized. Maybe with more familiarity I'd grow fonder of the other tracks...

I'm way more familiar with Mark Lanegan's solo career, so it's interesting to hear his voice sounding a little younger. This was apparently their final album? I should dig into their back catalog. Fave track - "Make My Mind" or "Witness", I reckon....

Yeah, awesome stuff, though a bit weird that it's the only album by The Roots on the list. Being a bit contrary, I like the more genre bending experimental tracks that a lot of people seem to be complaining about, heh. Gonna go for 4 stars, but I suspect it could bump to 5 with more listens... Fave track - "The Seed (2.0)" is a fantastic tune.

Yeah, like this - sounds a bit more noir, a bit more cinematic than your usual Dylan. Even a bit Tom Waits in places! Fave track - "Not Dark Yet" was good - think I need to go with "Love Sick" overall though, that's a great album opener...

I have a certain amount of nostalgia for this album, and some of the singles are still absolute tunes, but there's a lot of cringe on here too... Think I prefer RHCP in alt rock mode, rather than funk mode... Fave track - "Give it Away", predictably enough!

Pretty sure I'd be giving this a five star review even without the nostalgia bump. Have loved this album since teenagerhood - pretty sure the inclusion of "The End" in "Apocalypse Now" is what switched me on to it. Fave track - still "The End", but "Break on Through" and "Light My Fire" are both awesome, and the rest of the tracks serve their purpose...

Oh yeah, this was fantastic - a great discovery for me. I feel like PJ Harvey inherited some sort of spiritual crown from Patti Smith. Fave track - "Land" is a wonderful post-punk (proto-punk? para-punk?) odyssey!

I like a bit of Björk, but wasn't really familiar with this album. I'm also a fan of that early oughties faux-vinyl-crackle glitchy electronica, so this was right up my street! Fave track - "Hidden Place", maybe - loved the harp on "Pagan Poetry" too....

Poppy post-punk with a splash of psychedelia? Don't mind if I do! Reminds me a little of XTC, although I think I prefer XTC on balance. More listens might improve my appreciation though... "You can watch Rafferty turn into a serial" - I have no idea what that means, but it's catchy as hell! 😆 Fave track - "Sleeping Gas" and "Treason" are both stand outs. Liked "When I Dream" a lot too...

It's undeniably lovely, but doesn't move me quite the way his other albums do. Not sure I can put my finger on why exactly... Fave track - "From the Morning"

This might be the first album on the list that gets a nostalgia anti-bump from me! My first serious girlfriend used to like U2 - it must be over 2 decades since I've listened to a full album by them... It was fine, I guess. The high points for me are when it started to sound similar to the Passengers side project they did with Brian Eno, which I much prefer to straight U2.... Fave track - "Mysterious Ways" maybe? idk

Oh yeah, this feels iconic - you can definitely see how Dylan captured the zeitgeist of the times. Most of these songs could be dropped into the soundtrack of a scene and instantly paint a picture of 60s cultural tumult... Fave track - toss up between "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Masters of War"

I can see how this isn't for everyone, but it sure does hit my spot. A real life sickos.jpg situation. At the time, I loved this album for the pounding manic tracks like "Mr Self Destruct" and "Big Man With A Gun", but these days I appreciate all the little dark ambient flourishes that connect them. You can definitely hear the signature sound that they've brought to all the score work they've done. The soundtrack to the Watchmen series is _badass_. Fave track - "Hurt" is an obvious choice - amazing song. This version's great, even if the Cash version is better. This play through, though, I'm gonna go with "Eraser", as it had that lovely soundtracky feel...

Nice hearing their early stuff, actually, rather than the hits that have been crammed down my ears since childhood! Plus one star out of Brummie pride... Fave track - "Tyler" was a great opening. "Reefer Madness" was fun, too.

Some bangers on here, no doubt. Minus 1 star for the creep factor of "Sixteen" tho. Fave track - "The Passenger" is one of my all time fave tracks by anyone - I even like the Terrorvision cover of it.

Yeah, really liked this! Definitely giving the band side-eye for their rejection of the goth label, heh. I can see me lifting this to 5 stars with more listens... Fave track - "Sin in My Heart" - love the tempo ratcheting up throughout.

I enjoyed this - I like a bit of motorik style krautrock. Not entirely sure what qualified this album for the list, though? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fave track - uh, "Static Resistance" maybe? I listened to it three times and no specific track jumped out at me, although I liked the album well enough as a whole...

This was a funky listen! Also, indicative of how much of an afterthought world music is to this list. The original entry was "Shalimar/College Girl" because the list author had a bootleg album that threw two unrelated soundtracks together! 😆 "College Girl" is also worth checking out. The track "College Girl 'I Love You'" lifts a chunk of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" which is fun, and "Everybody Dance With Me" uses the riff from Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vita"... Fave track (on Shalimar) - "Countess Caper (Music)" - loved that Bollywood spaghetti western vibe! The opening track "Title Music" was also very atmospheric...

Gave it two listens and it didn't really grab me - there are definitely Rolling Stones albums I like more. To their credit(?), they decided that if they were gonna appropriate black American music, by golly they weren't gonna half arse it - the number of genres they're ripping off an incorporating is impressive. Fave track - "Happy", maybe, or the execrably named "Turd on the Run"

Gangsta rap isn't generally my thing, but this was mostly a fun listen! The production was great, and the flows smooth. Deducting a star because the misogyny really started to grate as the album went on. Fave track - "Intro" - I really liked all that story telling compressed into 3 and a half minutes - I coulda gone for a lot more of that...

Yuss! Love me some Faith No More! This is the only album of theirs on the list?! That don't seem right! Fave track - "Surprise! You're Dead!", but really I have such a longstanding affection for this album I could pick any of the tracks...

I went backwards and forwards on whether to give this 3 stars or 4. On the one hand, it's quite a fun listen. On the other, would I really come back to it? I'll settle on 3. Fave track - "Tokyo" is the funnest!

Listened to this immediately after The War on Drugs' "Lost in the Dream" and it suffered for the comparison. Listened on a new day, and it did better, but still didn't really grab me. Much prefer angry cynical Springsteen than patriotic inspirational Springsteen. Fave track - "The Fuse"

Liked this a lot! Krautrocky rhythms overlaid with dreamy vocals and slide guitar - a very pleasant experience. Mostly preferred the more uptempo songs to the slower ones, but appreciate how it all blends together. Fave track - "An Ocean In Between The Waves" maybe? This album is more about the album than individual tracks, though....

Oh yeah, this is badass - liked it a whole lot more than III. Most of these tracks feel iconic rather than generic. Fave track - "Misty Mountain Hop" - I'm pretty sure there's a Linda Perry cover of that song that kicks ass...

I thought this was alright when it first came out, and still find it pretty enjoyable. A bit scuzzy, a bit garage, and it's refreshing to hear a singer keep their regional accent. You can also detect they have a lounge album brewing, if you listen closely! 😆 Fave track - "From The Ritz To The Rubble" caught my attention this time through!

Old school punk's not really my bag, but this was an OK listen - didn't find it grating or anything. Fave track - "Don't Care", I reckon...

Oh yeah, I loved this - one of my favorite discoveries from this project so far. Mellow and smooth enough to blend into the background if you're not focusing on it, but rewards attention if you do. Strong opener with "The Dolphins". I'm a sucker for Elizabeth Cotton covers, so loved track 2, and then the quality holds up as the album keeps going, finishing with a psychedelic raga - great stuff! Fave track - "That's the Bag I'm In" for the relatable pessimism...

Nice little bit of easy listening style jazz. Fave track - toss up between "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "Come Rain or Come Shine"

Awesome, seemingly effortless, funk and soul. A great listen. Fave track - "That Lady" is badass - also loved their version of "Summer Breeze"

Not really my thing, but didn't find it an ordeal to listen to. The synth and drum machines sound very dated but, tbf, they're used well. Fave track - "Rhythm Nation" still slaps.

Yes, love a bit of electronica with world music blended in. This pairs nicely with Nitin Sawhney's "Beyond Skin" which is also on the list. Fave track - "Butterfly" perhaps. I also enjoy the jabbering of the title track!

I'm going by how much I enjoyed the play-through rather than how important an album is to the Western canon, so I'm gonna go with 4 stars. There's a lot to admire here, no doubt, but also some weaker tracks, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fave track - "Within You Without You" for bringing in that Indian Classical music vibe, for sure. "A Day in the Life" is also a highlight.

Huh, this was the project's pick for Christmas Eve! Pure chance, or did the algorithm get fudged? Either way, I reckon the relevance of the date is worth an extra star from me. If I'd had to listen to this in July I can imagine it losing a star... Fave track - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by The Ronettes maybe, idk

I am weirdly less familiar with this Pixies album than their other stuff. Now why would that be? Anyway, it's still awesome, even if it doesn't give me nostalgia tingles. Fave track - "Velouria" I reckon, though "Dig for Fire" is a contender too....

Adding berimbau and other traditional Brazilian instruments goes a long way towards covering up the faint whiff of nu metal that otherwise might have turned me right off... Fave track - love the swivel eyed mania of "Ratamahatta"! "Roots Bloody Roots" is also a tune...

Plenty of pedal steel guitar, country but not obnoxious plastic country - yeah, I can get on with this. Fave track - "Hippie Boy", I reckon...

On first listen this didn't grip me at all - was leaning towards 3 stars. A day later and a second listen and I liked it a lot more. Maybe I was in a mood? The slower more saccharine tunes I could do without, but overall a worthy listen. Fave track - I mean, c'mon, "Superstition" absolutely slaps! "Big Brother" was also great...

AC/DC are like Motorhead, in that they keep making the same album over and over again. Normally I have a strong preference for Motorhead and AC/DC leaves me cold, but this play through actually really worked for me. Maybe it's getting more exposure to it? Fave track - "Back in Black", for sure. "You Shook Me All Night Long" also has some fondness, as it's a good karaoke tune...

Perfectly pleasant. Not entirely sure it belongs on the list, as the schtick is that he's perfectly and earnestly recreating the sound of a bygone era - so why not give us some of the originals this is aping? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fave track - "Coles Corner" was a lovely opener, and "Last Orders" a lovely closer, so let's go with them....

I don't have enough MDMA in by bloodstream to properly appreciate this. Was thinking this might be a 2 star review on the first listen, but a second listen exposed some of its charm. Still, though, it's a bit of a shambley mess! 😂 Fave track - "Bring A Friend" maybe, or "Do It Better" for the weird grunting at the end!

I've historically not got on with AC/DC and now this is my second album by them within a week, and you know what? It didn't suck! Maybe it's like acquiring the taste of olives or other pungent flavors, and you need to be exposed on a certain number of unique occasions, I dunno. Anyway, that was a fun enough listen, and I didn't find the vocals too grating. Fave track - "Highway to Hell", by a mile. Which reinforces my olive theory, as it's been featured in so many soundtracks...

This'd be a five star album for the title track alone, but the rest of the album slaps for sure. "Can You Get To That" is so strong Sleigh Bells can slap a vocal track over the top of a sample from it and produce a banger. "Hit It and Quit It" is just funk brilliance. And "Wars of Armageddon" is a brain melter of a closing track. I can definitely see that the album as a whole might be too weird for some people, but I've long thought the title track is a veritable Voight-Kampff test. If you can listen to the track "Maggot Brain" and not get the feels, then someone in a trench coat needs to come retire you. And I felt like that before finding out the backstory to the track, which only heightens its emotional impact! Fave track - "Maggot Brain", for sure, but "Hit It and Quit It" gets an honourable earwormy mention!

I had some strong preconceptions about the naffness of Rod Stewart, but this album was actually pleasantly rockin'! I liked it more than some of the other "white Brits rip off Black blues artists" albums we've had. I'm not sure whether that's because I had lower expectations going in, or Rod genuinely did more to make these his own? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fave track - "Maggie May" is the only song I had much familiarity with going in, and I have some affection for it from karaoke. "(I Know) I'm Losing You" was a badass Temptations cover. "(Find a) Reason to Believe" was pretty notable, too....

I get that Neil Young is an acquired taste, but I acquired that taste quite a while ago, and this is one of the albums that was involved. His cracked forlorn voice perfectly suits the melancholy atmosphere of this album... Fave track - "For The Turnstiles" has historically been my favourite, but "Walk On", "Revolution Blues", "On the Beach" and "Ambulance Blues" are all stand outs too...

I didn't find this too objectionable, but it's a little too ren faire, eh? "Pleasant Street" really reminded me of "Here it Comes" by Doves, but after listening to them back to back they're not actually that similar... And "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" sounds to me like it's about to break into "Get Together", but apparently no-one else on the internet is saying that, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fave tracks - the two mentioned ☝️

She's super talented and switches effortlessly between rapping and singing in a number of styles. Bit hard to rate this one as I was introduced to this album by my first serious girlfriend, so it's tangled up in my melon heart biz. I did really like the listen through, though. The classroom intermissions felt immersive rather than flow-breaking, like the skits often popular on hip-hop albums from this era. There are some absolute tunes on here, too... Fave track - "Forgive Them Father", maybe? "Everything is Everything" is a contender, and "To Zion" and "Doo Wop (That Thing)" are both very strong too! Fuck it, 5 stars!

Heh, I don’t think Manu Chao had much of an impact on the UK, but he was apparently massive a lot of other places. I first encountered his music while backbacking around Thailand around 2000, as was the custom at the time, and a guesthouse owner kept asking me “Do you like Manu Chao?” and I assumed it was Thai for something, food, or drugs or lawd knows what, and when I said I didn’t know what Manu Chao was he just kept repeating “Manu Chao! Manu Chao!” and waving his arms around - in retrospect to get me to pay attention to the music that was playing - but I was utterly baffled for an embarrassingly long time… The music is alright, I guess - chill, polyglot, a bit juvenile from what I do understand. Probably a three star album, but I'm awarding an extra star for the above anecdote associations... Fave track - "Bongo Bong" which I'm pretty sure was the track that was playing in that guesthouse...

Yeah, fine, sounds competently done and is an enjoyable enough listen, although I notice even after two play throughs nothing's really stuck in my head. Fave track - "Hard to Handle", but mainly because the The Black Crowes version of that song was reliably available as a karaoke choice, not because they did anything amazing with it...

I like the Velvet Underground a lot, but this is far from their best work, and a pretty questionable inclusion on the list. Lou Reed's (?) interjections on "Lady Godiva's Operation" seem like he's trying to tank the track!? Fave track - the title track probably. "Sister Ray" is fun too...

I liked this well enough at the time, and it seems like they did a good job of raising the profile of lurchy angular post-punk as a whole, so hurrah! Still enjoyable to revisit! Fave track - has to be "Take Me Out" - that's an absolute tune. "Michael" and "This Fire" get honourable mentions...

"Movin' Out" is a fantastic start, and "The Stranger" is great too, but then things take a turn for the saccharine - I definitely prefer his more upbeat numbers to the ballads. When I listened to this yesterday I'd have given it 3 stars, mostly due to disappointed expectations after the strong opening tracks... Listened again today with more of an idea of what to expect, and found it a lot more palatable... Fave track - "Movin' Out", for sure, with the title track a close second...