Journey Complete!
Finisher #49 to complete the list
1089
Albums Rated
3.46
Average Rating
100%
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1950s
Favorite Decade
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Top Origin
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113
5-Star Albums
21
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Heaux Tales
Jazmine Sullivan
|
5 | 2.68 | +2.32 |
|
Yeezus
Kanye West
|
5 | 2.77 | +2.23 |
|
Tarkus
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
|
5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
|
A Wizard, A True Star
Todd Rundgren
|
5 | 2.83 | +2.17 |
|
Ctrl
SZA
|
5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
|
Rapture
Anita Baker
|
5 | 2.94 | +2.06 |
|
The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
Vento De Maio
Elis Regina
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
Something/Anything?
Todd Rundgren
|
5 | 3.03 | +1.97 |
|
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
|
5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Little Earthquakes
Tori Amos
|
1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
|
The Boatman's Call
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
|
1 | 3.2 | -2.2 |
|
London Calling
The Clash
|
2 | 3.98 | -1.98 |
|
The Dreaming
Kate Bush
|
1 | 2.96 | -1.96 |
|
All Hope Is Gone
Slipknot
|
1 | 2.7 | -1.7 |
|
KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)
Ministry
|
1 | 2.69 | -1.69 |
|
Slipknot
Slipknot
|
1 | 2.67 | -1.67 |
|
Follow The Leader
Korn
|
1 | 2.65 | -1.65 |
|
Bubble And Scrape
Sebadoh
|
1 | 2.65 | -1.65 |
|
Document
R.E.M.
|
2 | 3.56 | -1.56 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 7 | 4.71 |
| Steely Dan | 4 | 5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4.8 |
| Bob Dylan | 7 | 4.43 |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4.75 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 5 |
| Prince | 3 | 5 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.22 |
| The Who | 5 | 4.4 |
| Marvin Gaye | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.67 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.67 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 5 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 2 | 5 |
| Elton John | 2 | 5 |
| Rush | 2 | 5 |
| Adele | 2 | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| Todd Rundgren | 2 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 6 | 4.17 |
| Miles Davis | 4 | 4.25 |
| Joni Mitchell | 4 | 4.25 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 3 | 4.33 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Slipknot | 2 | 1 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 5 | 2.2 |
| The Fall | 3 | 2 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| LCD Soundsystem | 5, 2 |
| Kate Bush | 1, 3, 4 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 2, 5, 4, 3, 5 |
5-Star Albums (113)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Roni Size
1/5
Listening to this entire album felt like having a panic attack in the back row of an international flight. 2
40 likes
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Not bad but I'm kinda pissed because this took a spot on the list away from so many albums that are much better than this. It's not even like this is revolutionary or different in one way or another, it just sounds like every other generic British alt-rock/pop/sadboi album in the 80s-90s and I'm starting to get sick of how many of these are on the list. 5
34 likes
2/5
This album is a huge miss from the editors. It’s not critically acclaimed or well-received, not at all popular, alternates between boring and flat-out bad, and it’s not even significant outside of a creepy pasta mentioned on the Wikipedia article for this album. I read the creepy pasta and even that was garbage. Maybe they should’ve instituted a 5 or 10 year buffer on new music before putting an album on the list just to stop something like this from happening. 3/10
22 likes
Turbonegro
2/5
This is one of the dumbest albums we’ve gotten on this list. I wanna cut these dudes some slack because English isn’t their native language, but they make Kiss sound like geniuses. Rendezvous With Anus?? Rock Against Ass??? What the fuck are you on about? 4/10
15 likes
1-Star Albums (21)
All Ratings
R.E.M.
2/5
The music is pretty boring and his voice is so grating. Not as bad as it could have been but not great.
Tears For Fears
4/5
I already knew I liked this album beforehand. Everybody Wants to Rule the World & Head Over Heels are classics. Honestly both Shout and Mothers Talk are a bit boring compared to the rest of them. Production is insanely clean as well.
The Smiths
4/5
Hilarious Morrissey voice cracks throughout. The music sounds like it’s about halfway between the Beatles and the Cure. No song stood out as super good and I didn’t really like Frankly, Mr. Shankly or Vicar in a Tutu bc they just sounded kinda creepy. Morrissey’s voice is also pretty bad but I think the songwriting and the interesting vocal melodies tend to play to his voice and make it more manageable. Upon further listening it’s actually pretty good.
Sigur Rós
3/5
What a disturbing album cover. Production is very good but it's hard to listen to mostly ambient orchestral type music for over an hour. Also I don't really like how Icelandic sounds vocally compared to other languages that I'm more used to. It’s alright but I probably won’t revisit this album often.
Kanye West
5/5
This is a classic album that becomes more fun to listen to the more times you hear it. From coked-out RZA on one of the strangest posse cuts ever to "Yeezy reupholstered my pussy" to a four-minute vocoder solo, MBDTF is a hip-hop tour de force. The quirks and bumps along the way only serve to further the image of a beautiful and twisted modern fantasy, and it's not likely that we will ever get an album that sounds and feels like this again.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
Big fan of this compared to “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” actually. Not that that album is bad, but it just never lived up to the hype for me. The lyrics are pretty direct & simple, especially compared to the more obscure Gil-Scott Heron and Eugene McDaniels stuff, but I think it fits with the live jam quality that the music has. And I guess that makes sense considering that Sly & the Family Stone was the band that made the mold for most soul music that followed. Ultimately, this is really good.
Slipknot
1/5
Sometimes I like metal. This is not one of those times. There's just so much screaming and there's such a huge focus on percussion that I really can't pick out much musicality throughout. And I can't stop imagining the lead singer just screaming at concerts in his silly clown mask. Like what? Anyways, not good.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
Sounds alright. I like the popular songs off this album and the rest are mostly forgettable.
Radiohead
4/5
I like it a lot. First half is a bit of a snooze fest even though I like the songs (don't leave me hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh). Once it gets to Just and the following higher-energy stuff, the album really picks up steam. This'll probably make it into my winter rotation of albums but isn't quite a 5 imo.
Earth, Wind & Fire
5/5
Absolute bangers, all the way through. Probably my second favorite EWF album behind I Am, but obviously still amazing.
Korn
1/5
No. Just no. This almost makes me wish I gave Slipknot a 2 so this could inhabit it's own tier of awful.
Brian Eno
3/5
I feel like I can understand the influence/importance of this album in terms of shaping the perception of sampling in modern music, but that doesn’t mean that I enjoy it very much. It’s not bad and I can almost get into some of the songs but I feel like there is a significant lack of payoff compared to more traditional song structures. Maybe I’m not enough of a genius to understand this or maybe I’ll appreciate it when I’m older. For now, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Burning Spear
3/5
Honestly pretty good considering I’m not a big reggae fan. The songs kinda blend together annoyingly and his accent isn’t my favorite but I can tell the album is about important stuff and it’s short enough so as to not get boring. This also prompted me to look up Marcus Garvey, who was a very odd person.
Tim Buckley
4/5
Alright but I really liked “I Never Asked to be Your Mountain” and the songwriting throughout was cool, so I’m bumping it up to a 4.
Janelle Monáe
4/5
Sounds good. Production reminds me of Pyramids throughout a lot of the album which is, of course, great.
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
I kinda like it. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes of the middle of the album but what I heard sounded good and I’d rather be asleep than listening to Korn. Will have to listen to this again when I am less tired.
Aerosmith
3/5
Just trucks fuckin trucks. Sounds alright and some of the songs are fun but I can't see myself listening to this very often. Also sometimes sex jokes get old, which is an opinion Aerosmith apparently disagrees with.
3/5
It was alright. I liked the songs with Thom Yorke and I thought the songwriting was pretty compelling, but her voice was frustrating at a lot of points. Worth another listen at some point but generally just some okay alt-rock.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Haha I love the Cocteau Twins! This album is good but not as good as Heaven or Las Vegas.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
His voice freaks me out from time to time but overall interesting to hear a Leonard Cohen album with modern production standards and strong backing vocals. Some of the songs kinda reminded me of The Division Bell purely because of how the backup singers sounded but pretty good overall.
Willie Nelson
3/5
Not as bad as I thought but not very good. It was interesting hearing Willie Nelson cover songs I’m familiar with but his voice is so bad that I feel like I should just listen to other versions of those songs.
2/5
Not very good. Her voice is somewhat annoying and the songs are just kinda sad. But not in a good sad way, in a way that makes me pity this woman, and to an extent all women who lived in America in the 60s. The instrumentals were mostly just boring too but nothing was offensive so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
I've listened to this album probably around 20 times since I first heard it and I'm no closer to understanding what they're saying now. It just sounds so cool and I always feel totally immersed in a wave of guitar chords and ethereal vocals. 5/5
Deee-Lite
4/5
Hilarious album cover and groovy beats. A full album got to be a bit much and some of the music is painfully 90s but that doesn't stop this from being a jam.
Talking Heads
4/5
I really like the first song and there are some great moments throughout. I got kinda tired of David Byrne over the course of an entire album but the upbeat and zany songs were generally fun to listen to. 2021 really is the year I actually listen to Talking Heads.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Still Leonard Cohen, still good. I like his voice more here but the production quality is obviously lower. He's got some strange lyrics too but that's just Leonard Cohen.
Billy Joel
5/5
Amazing album, one of my personal favorites this past year. Each song is a banger even though they can get a little corny.
The Slits
2/5
I really don't like this. This woman sucks at singing and the music is just awful-sounding.
Prince
5/5
It’s good
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
Some good songs and some meh songs but nothing bad. Like Jefferson Airplane’s album but more interesting to me.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Good songs but the last one is just kinda boring. Still groovy.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Liked it more than I thought I would. The way he interacts with the crowd makes the music more fun and it was a good listen overall.
Patti Smith
3/5
Probably gotta have a few more listens before I can fully appreciate this. As is, I think she had some interesting musical and lyrical ideas but didn’t really deliver a knockout punch on either front, so it just ended up sounding awkward and a little anticlimactic.
Nine Inch Nails
2/5
Not good. I hate the songs that talk about sex because I know from Hurt that he knows how to write songs, he just chooses to be shitty.
Stereolab
4/5
This album was strange but right up my alley. Groovy beats, wild synths, and dreamy vocals all contributed to my enjoyment of this. There was no single song that I loved but also no song that I disliked, so that's a good sign.
Jane's Addiction
3/5
The music was pretty good but I think the mixing made the drums and vocals too loud. Also his voice & songwriting were pretty annoying and I generally just got bored during some of the longer songs.
Miles Davis
4/5
I like it a lot but it’s not something I could listen to all the time.
808 State
3/5
Sounds cool but nothing really special on this.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
It’s just mediocre imo.
Donovan
3/5
Just boring. I like the sitar in a few songs but the medieval folky story songs are so hard to listen to.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Masterpiece.
The Waterboys
3/5
Good music to put me to sleep. Fiddle music makes me uncomfortable slightly but mostly this was just alright.
The Monkees
3/5
It's The Monkees. It's fun but kinda boring 60s music.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Masterpiece.
The Triffids
4/5
Pretty corny and pretty 80s which means I like it.
Alice Cooper
4/5
Fun and theatrical and West Side Story??? Also was confused for a while because I confused Alice Cooper with Alice in Chains before I looked it up lol
Cornershop
3/5
Pretty strange and not super memorable.
David Gray
3/5
Just a little boring. Sounds nice though
Jerry Lee Lewis
4/5
So short but I really like the energy and the piano!
Suede
4/5
Seems like the Smiths but more 90s so I'll give it the same score I did the Smiths.
Van Halen
4/5
Just good rock.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Feels like the Strokes but British. Pretty good!
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
Long, boring, and corny. America did not need this album post-9/11, I don't care what anyone says.
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
Some of it sounds somewhat cool but some of it sounds really bad. I wish there was like rapping over some of the beats (like the world’s famous song) because that would have probably evened it out a bit more.
Pixies
3/5
I liked it a decent amount, but nothing was super memorable. 7
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
5/5
Hilariously over the top and ridiculous keyboard work throughout. The idea of a mecha-armadillo named Tarkus is just amazing. 9
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Some decent songs bookended by fantastic songs. I think if the middle section wasn’t all dragging blues or if Monkey Man wasn’t a song I’d rank it higher. 8
The Police
3/5
Walking in Your Footsteps and Mother are both pretty horrible, there are some classics, and some meh stuff. Overall probably averages out to a 6
The Byrds
3/5
Boring but not unpleasant. Was kinda disappointed by the We’ll Meet Again cover but alas. 6
Björk
4/5
The more I listen to it, the more I like it. Vocals end up being charming and not too harsh to listen to, while her songwriting and musical vision are strong. I'd say 8 right now but it may bump up even more if I listen to more Bjork.
Happy Mondays
3/5
Pretty boring and some of the songs were flat-out bad. But it's mostly just generic rock-y music. 5
Common
4/5
Good but Common’s delivery is corny and some of the beats sound a little canned. Still a classic and well-produced rap album. 8
Meat Loaf
4/5
Hilarious and dramatic while still sounding good. 8
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I thought I might kinda like this at first but then it just dragged on and on. Lands somewhere around a 5
The Cardigans
4/5
Actually really enjoyable, I like how her voice floats over the music effortlessly. 8
PJ Harvey
3/5
Gross album cover and middling alt-rock. At least it's slightly better than the other PJ Harvey in my opinion... 6
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Maps is classic rock band and the rest was somewhat entertaining but not great. 7
Elvis Costello
4/5
I think I always confused Elvis Costello with Buddy Holly. Anyways, I liked this a lot, the first track is hype and the album is short, energetic, and fun. 8
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
It's alright but hard to care about a reggae album for more than 4 minutes. 7
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
Tried to be very experimental but mostly came off as bland and overstayed its welcome. 6
The Auteurs
3/5
I was feeling alright about this one but even the 2ish minute long songs felt like they lasted so long. Even though I generally liked the music it was just a slog. 6
The Cure
4/5
Depressive self-indulgence; less fun than the album name suggests. Music is still awesome. 8
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
I like the way the music sounds in general but over an hour was far too long for this album. Tusk is also severely underrated as far as FM songs go. 7
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Still Elvis Costello, still pretty good. I think I liked it a tad less than the other one but not very significantly. 8
Miles Davis
5/5
I think it's hard to rate jazz on the same scale as popular music but it's really good. 9 I guess
Deerhunter
4/5
I like the way it sounds but it wasn’t interesting enough to hold my attention super well. 7
Gene Clark
4/5
This files into the boring but good-sounding music category, which I guess is about a 7.
Neneh Cherry
4/5
Again, it was good but songs were long and the album didn’t really feel like it needed to be an album. 7
Little Richard
4/5
Good ol' rock and roll. 8
Arrested Development
4/5
Compelling enough for me to want to listen to again, and I love the samples/beats throughout. 8
Sam Cooke
5/5
I love this album. 10
Terence Trent D'Arby
4/5
A little disappointed that this wasn't funkier. 7
Tom Waits
3/5
Music ended up pretty good but his voice was quite bad. Overall 6ish
The White Stripes
3/5
Meg White's drumming ruins about 1/2 of the songs. I think maybe if there was bass it could fill in some of the low-end gaps that the percussion leaves, but since there isn't I didn't like it (despite a heroic effort by Jack White). Honestly the album could have been an 8 or 9 but she bumps it down to like a 5.
Roxy Music
3/5
I thought the first and third songs were pretty hype but everything else was boring at best. 6
Donald Fagen
5/5
What did you expect? 10
Megadeth
3/5
Megadeth... who cares? 5
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
Pretty fun! 8
Judas Priest
2/5
It’s like hard rock except everyone sucks at their instrument so they try to lay down grooves that just suck. 4
Pulp
3/5
There is no reason for some of these songs to be so long. 5
Nightmares On Wax
4/5
Super long but ultimately pretty good background music. 7
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Not bad but I'm kinda pissed because this took a spot on the list away from so many albums that are much better than this. It's not even like this is revolutionary or different in one way or another, it just sounds like every other generic British alt-rock/pop/sadboi album in the 80s-90s and I'm starting to get sick of how many of these are on the list. 5
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
The music was interesting but it was too long, too loud, and too intense. Almost couldn't make it through. 3
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
It’s got classics but a lot of it is mediocre or annoying. 8
The Beach Boys
4/5
I had never wondered what The Beach Boys did between Pet Sounds and Kokomo and yet here is this album. It’s a bit heavy-handed and strange but I like Disney Girls and it’s short. 7
Eminem
4/5
Very long (+dumb skits) but nostalgic for me. Production has also held up well over the years. 8
Primal Scream
4/5
I like the sound a lot, it got repetitive but it was good for walking around and probably for other background music. I’ll toss it a 7.5
The Verve
2/5
Like listening to paint dry. 4
Shuggie Otis
4/5
I thought I might like this more than I did. Some of the songs were just kinda background despite being pretty good R&B in other places. 7
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Not unpleasant and I recognized some songs, but it wasn't good or anything. 6
Daft Punk
3/5
Just so long. I think if each song was like a minute or two and there were more different beats it would be interesting. I still like some of the songs though, so 6.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
It sounds nice and Green Onions is classic but it’s mostly background. 7
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Pretty good for being slow and British. I think the production and lyrics are good and it's a bit more musical than other British stuff so yay. 8
Elvis Costello
4/5
I enjoyed the slightly slower pace of this album because I think he stood out more as a songwriter and the music varied more between songs. Another 8
Elis Regina
5/5
Really cool and definitely worth coming back to for another listen. 9
Bob Dylan
5/5
Honestly loved it. Songwriting was great and the overall sound was so raw and emotional, though it ran probably 5-10 minutes too long. I’ll give it a strong 9
Beatles
5/5
Maybe my second favorite Beatles album. 10
5/5
Loved it. Probably going into my regular album rotation for the next couple months if not longer. 10
Orbital
2/5
It's just hard to listen to for an hour. 4
UB40
3/5
It was less bad than I was expecting. A lot of the songs were somewhat groovy and I liked some of the messages in the songs. Still, it was over an hour of reggae so I’ll toss it a 6
Beastie Boys
4/5
I liked this a lot. The beats and production are so good and the rapping is decently hype. The back half got kinda weird and slow but it is what it is. 8
The Monks
3/5
Just kinda boring and obnoxious. Since it’s old it didn’t have enough musical experimentation to be really bad but it also didn’t have any interesting flair. 5
John Coltrane
4/5
Harder to get into than the other Miles Davis though I am somewhat aware of the intense musical stuff that’s going on. 8
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
Nothing bad but just boring. 6
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Very long and a tough listen because of its subject matter, but I love the sound and the emotion. 9
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Not nearly as good as his other albums on the list. 6
Carole King
4/5
Quite good and definitely grew on me as I listened to more but there weren’t too many special moments on the album. 8
The Zombies
4/5
First song and last song are pretty good. The rest are just alright 60s semi-psychedelic rock tunes. 7
Kate Bush
1/5
This album has a combination of some of my most hated musical aspects. The canned synths sound horrible, the vocals are shrill and confusingly distorted, her accent is disgusting, the tunes are annoying, and the maximalist production makes sure that everything I hate comes to the forefront. Borderline unlistenable and certainly headache-inducing. 2
Madness
3/5
It's fine. Doesn't overstay it's welcome but I probably won't listen to it again. 6
Tina Turner
4/5
Decent music but kinda slow-paced. 7
The Everly Brothers
3/5
Pretty boring, fine background music. 6
The Byrds
4/5
Some decent tracks but probably not anything I’ll come back to. I think something that I’ll nitpick about several 60s albums on this list that are in the rock/folk/psychedelia area have production that sounds fuzzy (mostly on the guitars and vocals) and that decreases my overall enjoyment of them. 7
4/5
I like it a lot, I just don't know how often I'll come back to a 1.5 hour Bob Dylan album. 8
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Short and sweet. 8
Soft Cell
4/5
Entertaining, though surprisingly not very memorable aside from Tainted Love and Sex Dwarf… 7
The The
3/5
Kinda boring, interesting electronic sounds but nothing that stood out. 6
Anita Baker
5/5
Sounds lovely. 9
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Good storytelling and immaculate beats. Gets a bit long by the end. 9
Ananda Shankar
3/5
Enjoyed the covers and the sound was alright but it slowed down a lot in the back half. 6
Love
3/5
Some interesting stuff but it has the same production hiccups as many albums from around this time. Also, I hate the harpsichord and the last song was highly unnecessary (my left ear really experienced that drum solo). 6
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
Somehow I had heard Georgia before and that song is weirdly endearing. However, most of the album (especially the more experimental parts) was borderline unlistenable. 4
TLC
4/5
Pretty good R&B but a little slow and boring in parts. 7
CHIC
5/5
One of the few albums on this list that I’ve felt compelled to listen to twice in a row. A great disco album altogether, though it could benefit from slightly more experimentation or variation. 9
New York Dolls
3/5
No track could match the energy of the opening song, and it instead got into headache territory through the middle. I can see why this band is important and why they would have been fun live in New York in the 70s, but the album is just meh. 6
Liz Phair
3/5
I think 30ish minutes of Liz Phair would have been a solid album. Generally, the production style and music is compelling, but it just didn’t hold up for almost a full hour without getting pretty boring and samey. 6
The Jam
3/5
Aggressively mediocre. There’s also something about this and other new wave that feels… claustrophobic? Not sure how else to put it. 5
Leftfield
3/5
Fine electronic album. My listening experience was decent because I was doing something while this album was on but even still it got somewhat annoying at times, especially with how long it is. 5
Thundercat
4/5
Musically compelling, though some songs are slow and his vocals get tiring in certain places. 8
Common
3/5
I wanted to like this. The production is good and the concept is there but it’s way too long. The beats don’t stay fresh over the course of 5-6 minute songs and Common’s delivery is hard to listen to. 5
Nitin Sawhney
4/5
Very interesting, but many songs don’t really hold up for their full lengths. The sound and production are amazing though. Overall, around a 7
Rod Stewart
4/5
One of those albums that is probably on the list because of its most popular song. Maggie May is classic and some others are alright but it got kinda boring by the last 3 songs. 7
Pretenders
3/5
Brass in Pocket good. Others meh. Vocalist is better than other Britpop. 6
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Fantastic production, great songwriting, and lovely vocals. A bit guitar-centric for my liking and the back half was more forgettable, but altogether good. 8
The Dictators
3/5
Not what I expected but not anything special. My favorite parts were the guitar solos, and sometimes the lyrics were funny but I think the vocals and instrumentals were pretty rudimentary throughout. 6
Hole
4/5
Better than most other punk I've listened to. I think Courtney Love's vocals are quite good and the album is short enough not to overstay its welcome, but it definitely didn't stick in the same way other albums on this list have. 7
Nirvana
4/5
Damn, we really got this the day after the Courtney Love album. Anyways, Nirvana is ok. 7
Animal Collective
4/5
Interesting sounds but there weren’t many climactic or exciting moments to make the 5-6 minute songs more interesting. 7
PJ Harvey
3/5
So damn boring. 5
Radiohead
4/5
Some cool stuff but somewhat low-key for my taste right now. I’ll optimistically give it an 8 because I’ll probably listen to it a few more times.
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Impressive vocals, clean production, and interesting instrumentals made for a surprisingly enjoyable album. It was long and had some slow burns but overall quite good. 8
Brian Eno
2/5
If we were rating purely ambient albums I think this would probably be a pretty good one. However, I spent most of the runtime wishing I was listening to almost anything else. The sound itself wasn’t unpleasant so it lands somewhere around a 4.
Sonic Youth
4/5
I actually liked a lot of the sounds on this album, but I think it could have been edited down by at least 10 minutes. Production quality was surprising with the guitars but inconsistent with vocals, and I generally think the vocals were more grating than they needed to be. 7
Funkadelic
5/5
Crazy guitar solo followed by some funky classics. Some songs don't quite stick the landing, but otherwise it's great. 9
Jethro Tull
3/5
Musically uninspired, sonically one-dimensional, lyrically heavy-handed. 5
Pixies
4/5
A fun listen but not something I'll return to very often. 7
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Masterpiece. 10
Television
4/5
Quite liked some of the musical ideas, enough that I'll probably go back for another listen. 8
Deep Purple
3/5
Nothing can live up to Highway Star. It's mostly just 30 minutes of boring rock after a jam and a half. 6
The Pretty Things
4/5
Has the grandiose story of all rock operas along with all the quirks in production and music that tends to follow with it. There were certainly compelling musical moments on this album but overall the production was too inconsistent and the vocals were too dubious to keep me from wanting to return to this. 7
Roni Size
1/5
Listening to this entire album felt like having a panic attack in the back row of an international flight. 2
Raekwon
4/5
Really good, slightly too long. 8
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
Interesting sounds but pretty repetitive. I’m glad it was short. 7
LL Cool J
3/5
I liked the R&B style beats but some of this was extremely corny and grating. 6
The Go-Betweens
3/5
This is one of the albums I’ve heard, with some of the songs I’ve ever listened to. 5
Grizzly Bear
4/5
Some cool sounds but kinda slow and not something I plan to go back to often. 7
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
Funky but inconsistent. 8
The Afghan Whigs
4/5
Consistent quality throughout, though it’s mostly just moody alternative rock. I think if I cared more about the lyrics or if there were more musical highs I would like this album better. 7
Tom Waits
2/5
Fuckin A, dude. 4
Metallica
3/5
Pretty cliche. 5
Ute Lemper
3/5
Interesting idea for an album but the music just didn’t sit well with me. 5
Ghostface Killah
4/5
Pretty good, I like the beats but it was long and had a bunch of boring skits. 8
Jamiroquai
4/5
Funky but honestly kinda boring. Still gonna give it an 8 just based on the sound.
The Isley Brothers
5/5
Life’s too short to not appreciate great albums. 10
The Damned
4/5
Honestly great guitar and bass work throughout, which combine with the high energy of most of the tracks to make for probably the best punk album I’ve heard. Still, it’s punk. The vocals and lyrics are pretty bad in spots and if it was any longer I’d probably have a headache. 8
Mercury Rev
4/5
A lot of it sounded cool and sad but I lost interest in most of the sound just over halfway through. 7
The Velvet Underground
3/5
This was a lot. Stomach-churning at times. I guess that was probably the intended effect and I honestly enjoyed parts of it. 6
Spacemen 3
3/5
Pretty boring. I see where they're coming from with the old psychedelia feel but the production just ends up getting in the way. 5
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
It’s damn good. 10
Wild Beasts
3/5
I got bored and his vocal performance was not my favorite. 5
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
This album is like a perfect winter day. 10
Randy Newman
4/5
Some good songwriting but his voice and the pacing really bog the album down. 7
Bert Jansch
4/5
It sounds like every other singer-songwriter album. 7
Shack
3/5
Why? 5
OutKast
4/5
I think I'll rate these separately because they're so different. Speakerboxxx was a little boring tbh. I like the overall sound but it's a long time to spend listening to songs that are pretty samey and multiple interludes. Also kinda pissed that the album starts with an Intro but ends with a Postlude (why not intro/outro or prelude/postlude??). The Love Below was more up my alley, even though it was really long. A lot of the lyrics and interludes were dumb but I liked the music a lot more. 7 for Speakerboxx, 9 for Love Below, 8 overall I guess
Ian Dury
2/5
Dreadful vocal performance. I mean, it’s just completely uninspired. Every song that starts out interesting is utterly destroyed the second his voice comes in. 3
Faith No More
3/5
I feel like most metal music falls into the trap of inflated self-importance purely because it's metal, so my problem with most metal albums are that the artists are so complacent that they forget to make interesting music. This album definitely feels like that in parts, but at least there are some redeeming musical qualities throughout. Epic is still a classic too. 6
Motörhead
3/5
Sure is loud. 6
Fiona Apple
4/5
It was slow and that'll probably keep me from listening to it too often but I really enjoyed the music. 8
David Bowie
5/5
Probably one of the few instances where Bowie’s voice made something worse. The instrumentals were all so good but the timbre of his voice is so nasal and thin that it just doesn’t fit over the funky/soulful beats. Still great though. 9
The Stooges
3/5
I liked 1969 alright but it was pretty boring overall. 6
Tom Waits
3/5
I don't know how to feel about Tom Waits these days. 6
Marty Robbins
2/5
I’m not into the cowboy aesthetic. 4
The Style Council
4/5
Back half was weird but it was jazzy and poppy enough to be enjoyable for a lot of it. 8
Bob Dylan
5/5
The more I listen to Dylan the more he grows on me. Also this is just so ahead of its time. 10
The Beach Boys
4/5
There are a couple of classics on this but also some really mediocre songs. 8
Lambchop
2/5
So boring and generally rough vocals throughout. 4
Beastie Boys
3/5
I still like their style but this one was less jazzy and the beast were more samey. 6
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Musically uninteresting but mostly inoffensive. His voice is rough in spots too. 5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Really good but some songs were definitely less interesting than others. 9
Fever Ray
3/5
When I saw the genre as electronic pop I was excited for a pre-hyper pop album but instead I was just bored for almost an hour. It’s well-produced and is very atmospheric but it feels so ambient to me. Vocals land somewhere between Björk and Lorde which makes it a shame that there were no moments on the album that highlighted the obvious technical skill. 5
Eminem
4/5
In classic Eminem fashion, this album would be way better if the 3-4 worst songs and the skits didn't exist. My Fault, Cum on Everybody, and '97 Bonnie and Clyde stand out as stinkers, and the production throughout the album is very tinny on the vocals and high end of the beats. However, my nostalgia goggles keep me from being too critical. 7
Fleet Foxes
4/5
Really good modern folk music. There wasn't anything flashy enough for me to be wowed or return to this album often but it's just very solid. 8
Frank Ocean
5/5
Life-changing. 10
Chicago
5/5
Crazy stuff on this album, especially impressive that the horns sound almost too good to be real. Also wasn’t expecting that guitar track. 9
Travis
3/5
Boring but listenable. 6
Bad Company
2/5
It's really boring and seems to be the origin point for so many terrible cliches but at least it's short? 4
Steely Dan
5/5
Steely Dan. 10
Depeche Mode
4/5
There are some interesting sounds on here, pretty similar to the The Cure album we had earlier. My main gripes are that it's slow and that the song I Want You Now exists. 7
Os Mutantes
4/5
Weird psychedelia that manages to stay fresh for the whole album, though isn't exactly polished. 7
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Really funky and interesting, my main issue is that each song is really long and it’s a little samey. 8
Cat Stevens
4/5
It has some weird lyrics and follows a lot of musical clichés but it sounds nice. 8
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
Great beats and cold lyrics. You have to be in a certain mood to listen to this and there is a significant amount of filler between tracks but it's still great. 9
Public Enemy
4/5
It's pretty good, I just wouldn't listen to it often. Beats are great but end up a little too similar in many songs. 8
Blur
2/5
Pretty horrible. Heavy handed lyrics and awful vocals with boring music make for a near hour-long slog. 3
Louis Prima
4/5
It's a lot of fun! 8
Mudhoney
4/5
It was loud but I enjoyed the eclectic rock sound over a lot of other grunge I’ve heard. 7
Pantera
4/5
Decent metal, slightly too long for what it is. 7
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Despite being iconic, it's kinda renfaire for my taste. Songwriting is strong but the vocal harmonies don't always sound good to me. Much like Wu-Tang, I would have to be in a specific mood to really want to listen to this, except it's probably the direct opposite mood. 8
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
This is a great live album, and I would love to have it on the background as I do something else. Listening to it purely to listen to it wasn't that rewarding though. 8/10
Sabu
4/5
I didn’t love everything, and the vocals were especially rough at points, but some of the rhythms spoke to me on what I can only describe as a primal level. 7/10
The Gun Club
4/5
Decent punk. The energy in the first half was really good but it dragged a little by the end. 7/10
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
I never realized that this band was so Scottish. Pretty quality 2000s alt-rock but nothing earth-shaking. 7
Soul II Soul
4/5
I like the beats, and would listen to it again. 8/10
The Byrds
3/5
They tried to make it interesting but I think where this album and so many like it fall short is a lack of energy. All of the songs are sort of slow and have lilting vocals that just put me to sleep. 6/10
PJ Harvey
2/5
I feel like the Fiona Apple album we listened to earlier was a peek into what PJ Harvey should have been going for instead of whatever the hell this is. Also why does she talk about dicks so much?? 4
The Offspring
4/5
Sounds like music that would be in a Tony Hawk game. Not always a fan of the vocals but there are some classics on here. 7
Tom Waits
4/5
I liked the live jazz club feel, though it was really long. 7/10
Kraftwerk
2/5
Lots of these songs sound like sorting algorithms. Generally boring, droning, and hard to get through. 4
Frank Zappa
4/5
Lots of groovy stuff going on here, but there are some production issues on the wind instruments that make parts of some songs tinny and hard to listen to. Still, the free form rock flow of this album makes it a fun listen. 8
The Sonics
3/5
Their original songs are quite good. Unfortunately there are only three of them on the album. 6/10
Ray Charles
4/5
Fun to listen to but the last couple songs got slow. Also there are some production issues that are a product of time. 7/10
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
I mean, it’s good, but Simon and Garfunkel just aren’t up my alley. I think it had something to do with the timbre of their vocals or the instrumentation of their songs. 8/10
M.I.A.
3/5
Pretty interesting but really a bit much for me. 6/10
Hugh Masekela
4/5
I liked it but it was pretty long. 8/10
k.d. lang
3/5
Just boring country. Her voice is decent though. 5/10
2/5
Really long and weirdly experimental in a way that didn’t pan out super well in my opinion. Maybe another listen would help do it justice but I don’t wanna sit through this album again. 4/10
Screaming Trees
3/5
Generally boring but inoffensive. 5/10
The Saints
3/5
Enjoyable enough punk but I won’t listen to it again. 6/10
T. Rex
3/5
Pretty alright glam rock. 6/10
Bob Dylan
4/5
Dylan's voice and songwriting set him apart from the dozens of other albums from around this era on this list. The album lacks punch in some places but is good throughout its runtime. 8/10
Oasis
3/5
One of the things that irks me the most about Britpop is the abundance of 4-5 minute-long songs that seem to go nowhere. Also, Oasis overuses the word "maybe". Maybe if it wasn't in the album title and also the word they said the most in two of their most popular songs it wouldn't bother me as much. Ultimately, this was meh. 5/10
Dr. John
4/5
You can tell so easily that this is a New Orleans album, which I think is really cool. However, I didn't love it much past that sort of atmospheric novelty. 7/10
Queen
5/5
I liked it a lot. 9/10
Fugees
5/5
Really great album. Slightly long but the beats, lyrics, vocals, and hooks are all so good. 9/10
Van Morrison
4/5
There were some good songs but the back half got a little sing-songy to me. 7/10
Bob Dylan
4/5
Last song was unnecessarily long and I didn’t enjoy the Tom Waits growl that Dylan used in some songs, but it was decent. 8/10
2/5
This album really makes you feel like modern life is rubbish. Vocals sound like dog water and the album was just long enough to give me a headache. 4/10
Cocteau Twins
5/5
So dreamy. 9/10
Leonard Cohen
3/5
The one song with electric guitar in it sounded amazing and I was really disappointed that Cohen didn't experiment further with that sound, instead opting for a fucking jaw harp in every song. 6
ZZ Top
3/5
Boring. 5/10
Beach House
5/5
It’s beautiful. 9/10
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
It’s so damn 80s. 5/10
Kanye West
5/5
A bit long with the skits but there are just so many classics on this album. 10/10
Prince
5/5
This album has some weird tracks on it and runs a bit long, but it’s Prince. You gotta love it. 9/10
Eurythmics
4/5
There are some really interesting electronic soundscapes on this album, which I was not expecting going in. Still, it was a bit low energy for my taste and many of the songs were just alright. 7/10
Yes
4/5
It's got a solid sound. 8/10
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
Pretty uncool to make a bunch of songs about loving your best friend's wife. They sound decent though! 8/10
Adam & The Ants
2/5
Got annoying quickly. 4/10
3/5
Annoying but in a more endearing way. 5/10
James Brown
4/5
Short and sweet live album. Honestly wish there was a little more. 8/10
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
It's well-produced and all the songs sound nice, it just isn't really my style for casual listening. 7/10
Garbage
4/5
It's decent, though not super appealing to me. 7/10
Fairport Convention
4/5
Some of these songs sound quite ahead of their time, especially Autopsy. Otherwise, it's just kinda slow folk music. 7/10
Portishead
3/5
I want to like this but there’s not enough variation in tempo throughout the album. I could listen to maybe one of these songs at a time but a whole album is just boring, no matter how well the beats are constructed. 5/10
Talking Heads
4/5
They hadn’t quite found their sound yet on this album. Still a great performance from David Byrne with some classic songs. 8/10
Pink Floyd
5/5
One of my most-listened albums ever. I don’t go back to it super often anymore, but every time I do it’s like a breath of fresh air. 10/10
Bon Jovi
3/5
Bad but fun. 6/10
Cream
4/5
I like the well-known songs but the rest is kinda boring. 7/10
Caetano Veloso
3/5
This didn't sound like anything special to me. 6/10
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Beautiful but so long. 9/10
Taylor Swift
2/5
I don't like her voice. The songwriting is generic and heavy-handed. The music is extremely overproduced. In short, it sucks. 3/10
Mudhoney
4/5
Decent grunge, especially the last song. 7/10
a-ha
4/5
Enjoyable enough. 7/10
ZZ Top
4/5
I quite liked this, and would have liked it even more if it had ended after La Grange. 8/10
Arcade Fire
4/5
I feel like they pulled a lot of punches despite having some compelling ideas. 7/10
Elton John
5/5
This would have been one of the most insane single albums ever if it was edited down more. It's a really good double album and even the less memorable songs were good, but I can't give it a perfect score. 9/10
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
I like it but you can tell that it’s an album for a movie. I guess it’s just too background at times. 8/10
The Prodigy
3/5
It was at least a little exciting. Still don't love electronic music though. 5/10
Parliament
5/5
So funky. 9/10
Rush
5/5
Second side was slightly disappointing but the song 2112 earns a high score on its own. 9/10
Funkadelic
5/5
Great, I just wish this was on Spotify so I could listen to it regularly. 9/10
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Very solid album, and of course I love Free Bird. 8/10
The Crusaders
4/5
Super chill, would listen to on a night drive. 8/10
Iron Butterfly
3/5
It wasn’t all that. 6/10
Black Sabbath
4/5
I liked parts of it. 7/10
John Lennon
4/5
Lennon needed the rest of the Beatles. 7/10
Big Star
3/5
Reading up on this album made it a more compelling story, but I still didn't care much for the sound outside of the more experimental tracks. 6/10
Pink Floyd
4/5
It's a British psychedelic rock album. I like Bike and Interstellar Overdrive a lot and most of the other songs are decent. 8/10
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Super cool sound. 8/10
Queen
4/5
Pretty enjoyable. 8/10
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
No misses. 10/10
David Bowie
4/5
A lot of the songs were interesting but the vocals bothered me and it wasn’t my vibe. Still a decent album. 7/10
Janis Joplin
4/5
A really fun listen, if a little one-note. 8/10
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
Odd but interesting orchestral type music. Mostly confused about the impact of this album. 7/10
Blondie
4/5
Lots of hits. 8/10
The Young Gods
1/5
An awful slog. The only things I liked were some guitar moments. 2/10
Beatles
4/5
One of the worse Beatles albums. 8/10
The Kinks
3/5
Entirely unremarkable but fairly listenable. 6/10
Billie Holiday
5/5
It just sounds nice. 9/10
Nas
5/5
Classic for a reason. 9/10
Ice T
3/5
Some of this has aged great, some has aged poorly. Minus a rating for being so long too. 6/10
Fela Kuti
4/5
Very fun, would listen to again. 8/10
The Cure
3/5
Sounds good but it’s pretty ambient. 6/10
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
The music had its moments but even in trying to be satirical this came across as corny in a lot of moments. A fun one-time listen. 6/10
Supertramp
4/5
I enjoyed the instrumentation but didn’t really care for the lyrics and vocals. 7/10
Massive Attack
3/5
Too consistently low tempo for my taste. And I’m not a big fan of the reggae influences. Excellent production. 6/10
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I mean yeah it’s great but it’s missing some wow factor for me. 9/10
Herbie Hancock
5/5
Good vibes. 9/10
Elvis Presley
4/5
Elvis’s voice just rubs me in the wrong way, which is a shame because the production is so clean and the band sounds so good. 7/10
Charles Mingus
5/5
Got just about everything right. I’ll be coming back to this. 10/10
Beatles
5/5
Probably not the best album of all time but there’s something to be said about universal acclaim. It’s damn good. 10/10
4/5
I like corny-ish prog rock. 8/10
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Pretty good except the Coconut song makes me want to never hear again. 7/10
Sepultura
4/5
Pretty samey but thrash metal is up there as one of my preferred metal subgenres. 7/10
Le Tigre
4/5
Some of the stuff on the back half of the album really surprised me. A lot of it probably went over my head. 7/10
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Really sing-songy at points and quite 80s. Lyrics are pretty good but I didn’t like much else. 5/10
Missy Elliott
3/5
Smooth production but pretty damn boring. 5/10
Prefab Sprout
4/5
At its best it’s clever and jazzy, at its worst it’s whiny and repetitive. Overall a decent listen. 7/10
The Avalanches
4/5
Very interesting but quite long and only a few songs that I really enjoyed. 7/10
Ray Charles
4/5
Didn’t really think of this as country which I guess goes to show that what I dislike most about the genre are the vocals. Fun but not too engaging listen. 7/10
Fiona Apple
3/5
I liked this a lot less than I was expecting. 5/10
Yes
4/5
I wonder if at any point recording this album they realized they should make more bangers instead of random minute-long instrumentals. 8/10
Billy Bragg
2/5
Would be so much better if Bragg never opened his dumb British mouth. 4/10
Beyoncé
4/5
Sounds good, if sometimes overproduced. 8/10
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
The penultimate song was my favorite. Overall, very white bread. 6/10
Frank Black
4/5
Solid alt rock, if a little long for an album. I like that the songs are all pretty short and I could get more into this if I was like 10-15 years older than I am. 7/10
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
Would put on in the background during a dinner party. 8/10
Aerosmith
4/5
It’s got some good songs, but I probably won’t listen to it more. 7/10
DJ Shadow
4/5
Very chill but faded into the background really easily. Could listen to this while working on stuff but probably not on its own. 7/10
The Stooges
2/5
I like the saxophone but not much else. I understand where they’re coming from with the chaos and distorted vocals but it wasn’t for me. 3/10
Queen
4/5
Pretty generic compared to later queen. 7/10
Radiohead
5/5
Honestly Motion Picture Soundtrack bumps it up like a full point for me. Just an absolutely beautiful send-off to an already solid album. 9/10
Buck Owens
3/5
Just kinda fine. 6/10
Q-Tip
4/5
Doesn’t feel like it pushes many boundaries. Pretty solid production and lyrics but very forgettable beats. 7/10
Merle Haggard
3/5
Middle of the road. But it’s like an old country dirt road. 6/10
Black Sabbath
4/5
This rock is hard. 8/10
Miles Davis
4/5
Cool but minus points for being really long and not super engaging. 7/10
Nico
2/5
Not good. 4/10
KISS
3/5
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuper campy. 5/10
Brian Eno
4/5
Really interesting production techniques and composition, but a weak middle and some mixing issues keeps it from being astounding. 8/10
R.E.M.
3/5
I really can't figure out what it is about REM that keeps rubbing me the wrong way. I liked parts of it I guess. 6/10
Various Artists
2/5
This opened the floodgates for so much Christmas music by popular musicians, which isn't a good thing. Annoying to listen to as an album, even on Christmas. 4/10
Killing Joke
2/5
British critic bait. If only life in London wasn’t so shite. 4/10
Steely Dan
5/5
It may be my least favorite of the golden age Dan albums, but it’s still a 10 for me every time I listen to it.
Orbital
2/5
Glad I don't ever have to listen to this again. 3/10
The Temptations
5/5
Really enjoyable. 9/10
Ramones
3/5
High energy but I can't get past the vocals. 6/10
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Cool beats but each song was far too long. 6/10
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
Damn this would've been one of the best albums ever if they only kept the best 10 or so songs. Oh well. 8/10
Al Green
4/5
A fun listen. 8/10
Missy Elliott
3/5
Feels really outdated. Also I don’t need to hear that every song is a Missy Elliot exclusive. 5/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
Just utterly pathetic. Dog water shit trash fucking ugly Nick Cave making me irrationally angry on a Tuesday afternoon. Still somehow doesn’t deserve a one because Korn was that bad. 2/10
Leonard Cohen
4/5
It's usual Leonard Cohen. 8/10
Queen Latifah
4/5
Some cool beats on here. 7/10
Public Enemy
3/5
I can understand the importance of this album but the beats were so screechy and the vocals were so shouty. 5/10
Def Leppard
3/5
It was alright. 6/10
The B-52's
4/5
Toes the line between delightful and annoying expertly. I wish a few of the other songs had the same chaos as Rock Lobster. Still, it's an album I'd listen to again. 8/10
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Sounds amazing. 10/10
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
The soft timbre of the vocals gave the whole album a more personal feel. 7/10
Incubus
3/5
I could dig a couple songs I guess. 5/10
Bob Dylan
5/5
Really good Dylan. Can't believe he was in his early 20s. 9/10
MGMT
4/5
The singles are three of the best pop songs from the 2000s. The rest is pretty alright. 8/10
Japan
3/5
I don’t care for the vocals and it was generally slow paced for me. I enjoyed most of the vibes of the songs though and it’s maybe worth a revisit in a different setting. 6/10
Can
2/5
From a historical perspective, I understand why this album is on the list and I appreciate its influences on experimental music. From a listening perspective it's awful. First half is alright while the second half goes completely off the rails, including an amazing impression of the Tasmanian devil, the ambient sound of an industrial freezer, and a couple of those infinitely rising tones. 3/10
Paul Simon
4/5
Fun to listen to. 8/10
Don McLean
4/5
Pretty solid folk tunes. 7/10
Christine and the Queens
4/5
Decently entertaining French pop. 7/10
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
2/5
I wouldn’t mind listening to a couple of these songs in one sitting, but the fact that the album is like 2 hours of music that all sounds about the same to me made my experience pretty negative. It’s frustrating too because there was some damn fine banjo and fiddle work on here. 3/10
Listenable rock n roll. 7/10
Simply Red
4/5
Surprisingly funky. Main gripes are the vocals are slightly annoying and the lyrics have nothing. 8/10
Love
3/5
Sounded fine. Definitely wouldn’t complain if it was on but wouldn’t seek it out to listen to. 6/10
Goldfrapp
4/5
Great production and nice sound but generally pretty down tempo. 7/10
Marilyn Manson
1/5
Very bad. 2/10
Underworld
2/5
Perfect album if you think On the Run is the best Pink Floyd song. 3/10
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Very solid Costello album, not quite up there with My Aim is True but still tons of funny lyrics and catchy tunes. 8/10
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Love love love love her voice. 9/10
Elton John
5/5
Two total classics and some really enjoyable other songs. 9/10
Goldie
2/5
Woof. 3/10
Spiritualized
4/5
I’m a big fan of the sound, not a big fan of the length. 7/10
The Black Crowes
2/5
I don’t dislike it in a vacuum, but it has so much of that Greta Van Fleet feel of not being able to come up with a single unique idea and thus falling flat in an attempt at cheap imitation. 4/10
Lightning Bolt
4/5
Scratched a very specific itch for me. 8/10
Mike Ladd
4/5
A decent listen, though I'm not really sure why this made it onto the list... 7/10
Count Basie & His Orchestra
5/5
What happened to that high schooler who vehemently defended his dislike of big band? This music just makes me feel happy now. 9/10
Mariah Carey
3/5
About what I expected. 5/10
The Magnetic Fields
3/5
More than most other albums on the list this is self aware with regards to its status as art, which makes it difficult to score. In other words, this is like going to the Pearl Harbor Museum. It takes three hours, is sometimes boring, and is way less fun than anything else on Oahu. Still, it's worth going at least once. 6/10
The Youngbloods
4/5
Instrumentals are decently entertaining. 7/10
Gang Of Four
4/5
Entertaining. 7/10
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Don’t really care for the over-the-top orchestral tone of the album but a couple songs had an admirable vocal performance and the lyrics were pretty solid. 6/10
Skunk Anansie
3/5
Some interesting things here but not really up my alley. 5/10
Motörhead
3/5
If I wanted to hear Ace of Spades ten times in a row I’d love this album. 5/10
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
Glad I listened to it. 7/10
2Pac
5/5
Super enjoyable with some classic tracks. Final verse of Me Against the World is incredible. Falls into the 90s album trap of being just a bit too long. 9/10
Elliott Smith
3/5
It's pretty listenable but definitely a downer. 6/10
Orange Juice
4/5
Shout out to the horns on this album. 7/10
Jazmine Sullivan
5/5
Covered a surprising range of emotion compared to what I originally expected, and my main critique is that I would like to hear more. 9/10
Pink Floyd
5/5
Wanna take a bath? 10/10
Elastica
4/5
Fast-paced with some driving bass lines. 7/10
James Taylor
4/5
Wow, former president James Taylor. 8/10
Black Sabbath
4/5
I really love parts of this album but other parts felt pretty slow. 8/10
Neil Young
4/5
Solid guitar work but very gloomy. 7/10
Pavement
4/5
Listening to this album put me in the shoes of a college student blasting this on cd while sipping beer in a crusty lounge chair on a warm Sunday afternoon. 8/10
Talking Heads
4/5
Once in a Lifetime is a great centerpiece but the album has the strange feeling of slowing down over its duration. 8/10
Richard Hawley
2/5
Total snooze fest. 4/10
Sade
4/5
Solid sound but had its share of sleepy moments. 7/10
The Who
4/5
I mostly enjoyed this album and its oddities. Shout out to the pre-Tommy riff in Rael. 8/10
Minutemen
2/5
I’m glad I listened to it but I’m glad I don’t have to listen to it ever again. 4/10
Van Morrison
3/5
It sounds nice but it’s so slow. 6/10
Les Rythmes Digitales
3/5
Passable dance music but goes a little long. 5/10
10cc
4/5
Odd but fun. 7/10
Neu!
4/5
Quite catchy for some reason. Songs were pretty long. 7/10
Nirvana
5/5
A bit slow in the middle but still awesome. 9/10
Slint
4/5
I’ve been liking loud sounds recently. 8/10
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
Lot of Casio keyboard sounds but honestly I had fun with this album. 7/10
Duran Duran
4/5
Had a couple slow downs but pretty groovy overall. 7/10
John Grant
4/5
Really clever and fun! 8/10
Pink Floyd
5/5
A life changing album for me. 10/10
Cypress Hill
4/5
The beats were pretty entertaining, could be worth another listen. 7/10
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Extremely mediocre save for Paint it Black. 6/10
Moby Grape
4/5
It's so hard to appreciate albums like this in the same way they must have when they came out. Like in 1967 I'm sure this was mind-blowing stuff but the psych-rock market got so saturated in such a short time that I've heard like a dozen records that sound very similar to this. 7/10
Blur
3/5
Blur proves once again that the only good song in their discography is Song 2. 5/10
4/5
Felt like this album accepted its silliness more into the back half. 7/10
The Adverts
4/5
Solid punk. 7/10
The Pharcyde
4/5
Quite fun, though a bit long. 8/10
Tracy Chapman
4/5
A nice listen but pretty slow. 7/10
The Byrds
3/5
The Byrds are just so meh. 6/10
Johnny Cash
4/5
Back when prisoners were just lovable goofballs who robbed and murdered. 8/10
David Bowie
4/5
Solid album, some songs stood out as bangers among a lot of alright songs. 8/10
Taylor Swift
2/5
Maybe one song I enjoyed, the rest I tolerated. There are so many better albums that came out in 2020 that deserve to be on this list. 4/10
Spiritualized
4/5
Spacey. A couple of songs had really cool moments. 7/10
U2
4/5
Honestly enjoyed it more than I expected. Might be because I was listening to it in the car. 7/10
Neil Young
4/5
This album had its moments. 7/10
David Bowie
4/5
A strange spot in Bowie's discography. It's solid but not really special. 7/10
The Flying Burrito Brothers
3/5
Pretty gloomy and not a lot of variation. 5/10
Silver Jews
2/5
Hate the vocals. 4/10
Deep Purple
4/5
Goes hard. 8/10
The Who
4/5
Pretty meh for the first 3/4, I really enjoyed the My Generation medley at least. 7/10
Queens of the Stone Age
2/5
Actually really didn’t care for this. 4/10
Roxy Music
3/5
It was alright, but in an interesting way at least. 6/10
Jane Weaver
2/5
I am so confused as to why this is on the list. 4/10
The Mars Volta
4/5
I guess some of the music was cool. Pretty long though. 7/10
The Birthday Party
2/5
Nowhere near the worst album of all time. 3/10
The Hives
4/5
Just a short and punky album. 7/10
Mike Oldfield
3/5
Technically impressive? Yes. Fun to listen to? At times. A bit of a slog? Of course. British music in a nutshell. 6/10
Radiohead
5/5
Great album. 9/10
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
A cool listen but quite long. 8/10
The Band
4/5
Solid, though a bit slow. 7/10
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Quite enjoyable! 8/10
The Who
5/5
This album (and movie) may be the most impactful piece of media/art in my life. I’m pretty sure the cascade of events after seeing Tommy led to some of my longest-lasting friendships, multiple relationship status changes, and even starting this list altogether. It’s not musically perfect or even very good as a story, but it means the world to me. 10/10
Adele
5/5
Excellent. 9/10
Femi Kuti
4/5
Pretty groovy but all the songs were kinda long and not super engaging. 7/10
Green Day
4/5
Pretty solid, not a lot of variety. 8/10
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Actually really didn't care for this. It was kind of creepy and the wavering vocals got annoying quick. 4/10
Nina Simone
4/5
There are some solid tunes on here. 7/10
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Commits the cardinal sin of being boring. 4/10
Brian Wilson
3/5
Not very interesting but I guess it sounds alright. 6/10
Talking Heads
4/5
Decently entertaining if a little odd. 7/10
Prince
5/5
Fantastic. 10/10
Iron Maiden
4/5
Some solid metal, vocals were pretty weak. 7/10
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
I didn’t feel super engaged to the music but it was alright. PCP was a good song too. 6/10
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
I like it, I just don’t love it. 7/10
Iron Maiden
4/5
Irony. 8/10
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
Adding Neil Young to my list of dogwhistles for overrated shit along with Mercury Prize and post punk. 6/10
Santana
5/5
Quite a treat! 9/10
Paul Simon
4/5
There’s something odd about the mixing of Paul Simon’s solo stuff. This was alright. 7/10
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Amazing vocals. 9/10
Sebadoh
1/5
A couple of songs were alright. But I don’t really care about the music on this album because I swear there was a high frequency pitch (dog whistle-esque) that rang out over the course of the entire album. It gave me a splitting headache and I don’t think I’ll ever return to this album. 2/10
Metallica
3/5
This was very uninteresting for most of its runtime. 5/10
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Solid, though reggae tends to get pretty repetitive for me. 7/10
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
They hadn’t quite figured out what to do with the guitar effects and how to make the vocals match the shoegaze aesthetic. 6/10
The Specials
2/5
Bleh. 3/10
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Really good. 9/10
B.B. King
4/5
Very good, but some of the editing (mostly between tracks) is a bit jarring. 8/10
Pulp
3/5
Mercury Prize for biggest snooze fest. 5/10
Lorde
4/5
I like the idea of this as a loose concept album. Also Liability will always get me in my feelings. 8/10
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I wasn't fully on board until the last song and then it all hit me like a ton of bricks. Made me immediately want to give it another listen. 9/10
Hole
4/5
Pretty good. 7/10
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
A bit noodly for my liking but few artists can make me enjoy the entire length of a double album. Guitar work is transcendent. 9/10
Nick Drake
4/5
I liked the soft sound. 8/10
The Stooges
4/5
Had some unimpressive moments but also some awesome guitar parts. You have to listen to this on high volume. 7/10
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
This album makes you feel like you’re from Olympia. 7/10
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Really fun alt-rock with some proto pop punk vocals. 8/10
David Bowie
4/5
Had some really solid songs but I felt like the mix was a little hollow. 8/10
Alice Cooper
4/5
Thought there was some solid guitar and a few really catchy choruses. 7/10
Röyksopp
3/5
Nice production but it’s pretty ambient. 6/10
Joan Baez
3/5
She’s got a great voice. Don’t really care for much of the folk stuff though. 6/10
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
The type of album I’d listen to on a porch during nice weather. 8/10
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
Sounded alright but don’t care much for it. 5/10
Fats Domino
4/5
One of the old rock n roll classics on this list but I feel like some of the performances were a little lacking compared to, say, Little Richard. 7/10
Jane's Addiction
4/5
Good guitar. 7/10
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
There are few genres I care about less than 1990s British electronic music. Thankfully, those genres don’t seem to have 20 entries on this list. 3/10
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
I never like this as much as I think I should. It always ends up a bit low energy for my taste. Still a solid album. 8/10
Stan Getz
4/5
I like the way everything sounds, there’s just not too much exciting about it. 7/10
The Beach Boys
4/5
Some fun tunes but. 7/10
Tricky
2/5
Pretty soulless. The more I listen to trip hop the more I dislike the genre. 4/10
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Definitely my favorite so far compared to II and IV. 10/10
Kate Bush
3/5
Liked this much better than The Dreaming but I still don’t like her vocals. 5/10
Blue Cheer
4/5
I enjoyed the guitar noodling. 7/10
The War On Drugs
3/5
Just kinda long and consistently alright. 6/10
William Orbit
2/5
Was ok for while I was focusing on work but also kind of annoying and kind of sleep inducing. 4/10
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Probably my least favorite of the three Hendrix albums. Still quite good. 8/10
Manu Chao
2/5
Didn’t care much for it. 4/10
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Pretty solid, though I’ve never thought The Rolling Stones could live up to the hype. 8/10
Frank Sinatra
4/5
It was good, definitely can’t escape from Sinatra’s theatrics, which is both good and bad at times. 8/10
Elbow
3/5
Some British nonsense. Musical enough. 5/10
Steely Dan
5/5
Probably my favorite album ever. The high water mark of what all popular music should aspire to be. You just have to listen to it. 10/10
Sonic Youth
4/5
Not as memorable as Goo, but pretty solid. 7/10
Dr. Dre
4/5
Pretty dated and too long. Still, I appreciate that this album essentially created G-funk, which is such a cool genre. 7/10
Randy Newman
3/5
Looking at the global reviews for this album it is clear that media literacy is pretty low. Satire still can’t save this album from being somewhat boring. 6/10
Eagles
4/5
I wish I hated the eagles so I could say “I fuckin hate the eagles, man”. Outside of their popular songs they’re pretty meh. The main problem is that their popular songs are so classic. 8/10
System Of A Down
2/5
Dunno what he has against kombucha. 3/10
Foo Fighters
3/5
“Oh wow, Dave Grohl did this whole album?!” quickly became, “oh no… Dave Grohl did this whole album?!” 6/10
Gang Starr
3/5
Beats are pretty solid but the vocal performance was so low-energy. 5/10
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Definitely the weakest Zeppelin we’ve had so far. 8/10
The Velvet Underground
4/5
This is an album that I always wanted to like more. The cover is so iconic and the influence is there, I just think individual songs drag on and Nico’s contributions are pretty lackluster. Heroin is still an amazing song. 8/10
Megadeth
4/5
Genuinely pretty good! 8/10
The Smiths
4/5
For a second there I swear they were getting funky. Not quite as good as The Queen is Dead. 7/10
Flamin' Groovies
4/5
This proves that The Rolling Stones are one of the most overrated bands ever. 7/10
Jeff Buckley
5/5
Really great, might even bump it up to a 10 if I keep listening to this album. 9/10
Deep Purple
4/5
Absolutely shreds sometimes, other times it’s too much of nothing. 7/10
3/5
Interesting but not very listenable, though I enjoyed a few tracks. This definitely doesn't belong near the bottom of the global rankings. 6/10
Joan Armatrading
4/5
The first half was super slow but it really picked up. People and Tall in the Saddle are great tunes. 7/10
Gil Scott-Heron
5/5
Damn I love Gil Scott-Heron. Wish Pieces of a Man was on the list as well. He is socially conscious, calming, uplifting, hilarious, groovy, heartbreaking, smooth, and a hundred other things all in one album and I always find myself wanting more. 10/10
Steely Dan
5/5
This grew on me so much in the past year. Must be because I got the Steely Dan T-shirt. 10/10
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Quite good but there were a few misses/snoozers. Still love her voice and the general vocal jazz + R&B combo. 8/10
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
I thought the first song was cute but the style got old over a whole album. I appreciate the effort to follow some sort of concept but it really falls flat when everything gets so samey. 5/10
The Kinks
4/5
A somewhat enjoyable listen. 7/10
The Doors
4/5
The best songs are quite good, the rest are decent. 8/10
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
Really lost steam after the two classic songs. 6/10
The Specials
3/5
Better than their first album? 5/10
Guns N' Roses
4/5
Hard to deny the talent of Axl Rose and the ability of the group to make hits. 8/10
4/5
Something decently memorable from The Kinks. 7/10
Sex Pistols
4/5
Never mind the ______, here’s _______. 7/10
Roxy Music
4/5
It’s Roxy Music. Kinda weird, pretty decent, never great. 7/10
The Stranglers
2/5
I spent most of the runtime of this album wondering why I disliked it so much. Other than the fact that it feels 10 years too late to hop onto an already over saturated psychedelic scene and is British as hell, it should be fine, right? Then I saw someone in the global reviews mention Ian Dury and it all clicked. Fuck whatever this genre is. 4/10
Koffi Olomide
3/5
Boring but inoffensive. 5/10
Lou Reed
4/5
Honestly a bit lacking in lyrical quality and very sleepy. I still enjoyed a lot of the music. 7/10
Genesis
4/5
Not sure what they were talking about at all but it was definitely prog rock. 7/10
Aphex Twin
3/5
Truly ambient. Sounds fine. Well produced. 6/10
k.d. lang
4/5
Generally solid and has a couple great songs. 7/10
Miles Davis
4/5
Solid jazz album, didn’t feel super thematic or anything but it was nice to listen to. 8/10
Ash
4/5
Surprised that I kinda liked this; though it got long. 7/10
Beastie Boys
4/5
Similar to the Pavement album earlier insofar as I feel like a college kid in the 90s listening to this. Except where Pavement was like drinking a beer on a Sunday this is like pregaming a shitty frat party. 7/10
Everything But The Girl
4/5
Pretty and sleepy. Maybe worth another listen some other time. 7/10
Dire Straits
4/5
Enjoyable, just also slow and 80s. 7/10
Lenny Kravitz
4/5
You’re trying just a little too hard, Lenny. 7/10
Tito Puente
4/5
Definitely made me want to dance. 8/10
The Doors
3/5
😴 5/10
Michael Jackson
5/5
Pretty much every song is a hit. Pure genius. 10/10
Suzanne Vega
3/5
Kinda like if kd lang wasn’t gay and was also worse. 5/10
The Incredible String Band
2/5
Hahaha fuck this. 3/10
Pixies
4/5
Just some good ol alt rock. 8/10
5/5
I forgot how good this was as an album. It’s so tight and clean I really could listen to it multiple times in a row. You wouldn’t think that looking at the track list but it’s just kinda something you have to experience. 10/10
Beatles
5/5
Probably the Beatles album that grew on me the most from when I first heard it. 10/10
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Smooth but doesn’t feel like there’s quite enough material here for a full album. 8/10
Death In Vegas
3/5
This boring album went gold in Britain AND almost won a Mercury Prize. Truly glad I heard it before I died. 5/10
The Louvin Brothers
2/5
The same annoying song, 12 times in a row. 3/10
X-Ray Spex
4/5
Pretty odd but the saxophone was a nice touch. 7/10
Coldplay
3/5
Very low-tempo. 6/10
Metallica
3/5
Always gonna be reminded of that tumblr post that goes something like “these guys aren’t tough, they’re singing songs!” 5/10
Morrissey
4/5
Decent Morrissey. I forgot to rate this right when I listened to it but I feel like I remember it being a bit more uptempo than his other solo album we got. 7/10
Milton Nascimento
4/5
There’s some really cool stuff on this album and somehow I had heard a couple tracks before. Loses points for being somewhat drawn out with a couple snoozers. 8/10
The Beau Brummels
2/5
Absurdly boring. 4/10
The Blue Nile
3/5
Very meh. 5/10
Heaven 17
4/5
I love hearing Reagan hate though not all of the songs were jams. 7/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
17 mediocre songs. 4/10
The Byrds
2/5
No more Byrds. Please. 4/10
Radiohead
3/5
This was a pretty challenging listen and not super rewarding. 6/10
Wilco
3/5
Critic bait that far overstays its welcome. 5/10
Linkin Park
3/5
Some measure of nostalgia keeps me from really disliking this. Still, it’s pretty much in the school of soft-loud-soft-loud. 6/10
Metallica
2/5
Fell asleep three separate times during this album. 4/10
Genesis
4/5
A rock opera with some rock operettas in there. A bit long but I generally like the music. 7/10
Eric Clapton
4/5
I don’t get why people would feel really strongly about Clapton one way or another. This album was decent, just like all his others on the list. 7/10
Otis Redding
5/5
Great performance. 9/10
Pavement
4/5
Good ol slacker stoner core. 7/10
David Bowie
4/5
Very solid, makes me wonder what methodology they used to select certain Bowie albums. They’ve pretty much all seemed decent but nothing life-changing other than Ziggy. 8/10
Ministry
1/5
A stomach-churning level of terribleness. Almost indescribably abrasive on my ears and I feel worse for having listened to it. 1/10
Nanci Griffith
3/5
Nothing interesting to me on this album. 5/10
Sonic Youth
3/5
Pretty cool but also pretty tough to get through. 6/10
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I could type the same thing I did for the previous two Marley albums we got. Instead, I’ll take this time to mention that listening to this made me think about the whitewashing that American culture did to revolutionaries like MLK and Marley. I think there’s a better word for it but each of them had ideas past “I have a dream” or “one love”. You can see that with songs like Concrete Jungle and Slave Driver. But at this point, Bob Marley has been reduced to his most palatable form for white Americans to consume - almost like a minstrel show. For some reason I am still disappointed every time I recognize this phenomenon despite how common it is. I guess I still have hope. 7/10
Eels
3/5
Manipulate your girlfriend to think you’re the only person in the world that loves her - the album. 5/10
Minor Threat
2/5
Quite annoying and only an EP. 4/10
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
Decent and well-paced. 7/10
TV On The Radio
3/5
Even though I don’t think I’ve heard much like this it still came across as boring and derivative. Easy listening though. 6/10
The Roots
4/5
Solid album, seems like it’s an important step along the path of conscious hip hop pointing towards TPAB. 8/10
Kacey Musgraves
3/5
👩🔬🧬🔬Kacey Musgraves constructing the most mid album. 6/10
Frank Sinatra
4/5
A very relaxing listening experience. 8/10
Def Leppard
4/5
Pretty much what I’d expect. Corny but fun, easy to listen to but not a lot of depth. 7/10
Robbie Williams
2/5
Crap. 4/10
New Order
4/5
Weird that Joy Division turned into New Order because this sounds nothing like Unknown Pleasure or Closer. Still, I actually like the electronic vibes and would listen to it again. 8/10
Muddy Waters
4/5
Great performances but really it is the blues for the whole album. 7/10
George Michael
4/5
The man so nice they named him twice does it again. 8/10
Ravi Shankar
4/5
It's interesting to me that classical music is excluded on this list except for the couple of classical Indian albums. I thought this was decent and enjoyed the explanations about what I was about to hear but I don't think this has much replay value for me, especially considering that it's close to an hour long. 7/10
The Smiths
4/5
Morrissey was kinda cooking on this album. Everything is so comically morose. 8/10
Madonna
4/5
There are some tracks I don’t care for and the production is tinny in spots but generally a good effort from Madonna. I like the funkier songs, the Prince appearance, and the lyrical depth of certain songs. 7/10
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Pretty boring considering how much of this late 60s psych rock is on the list. 5/10
David Bowie
4/5
Yeah it’s decent but it also takes the place of other more relevant post-2002 albums that didn’t get into the book because all the critics that contribute to the list are stuck in the 1970s. 7/10
Gotan Project
3/5
A bit too much accordion in this French ambient electronic album. 5/10
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Somehow I had heard the first track of this album before. Overall I liked it but couldn’t get super into some of the sound. 7/10
Carpenters
4/5
I like most of the songs but a full album of Carpenters is a bit much. 7/10
Wire
4/5
I'm glad to have listened to this after listening to some of the other short-form hardcore/post-hardcore on this list. It made it easier to draw a line from this album's influence onto future genres, and I think made me appreciate it more. 7/10
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
One thing I like about 90s east coast hip hop is the albums are so consistent. I may not like individual songs as much as I do their west coast G funk counterparts but whenever I strap in for an album I know what to expect. 7/10
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
A large portion of this album felt like the nihilistic satire that says “I’m smarter than you because I make fun of everything”. And then it all went crazy in the last couple songs. Not fun to listen to but at least it was creative? 4/10
Paul Weller
4/5
Nothing exceptional on this album but I enjoyed its solid structure and soft rock vibes. 7/10
Can
2/5
Pushing the boundaries of what you can consider music, and not exactly in a good way. 4/10
Guided By Voices
3/5
Weird but fine. 6/10
Sepultura
2/5
Some of life’s great unanswered questions: where what happened in Roanoke? How does Dr. Bronner fit 18 uses in one soap? Why did Sepultura end this album with a 13-minute long ambient cricket tin can percussion song? 3/10
Radiohead
4/5
It’s pretty good, not amazing. 7/10
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
10/10
Wilco
2/5
Wilco is so dull. 4/10
The Yardbirds
3/5
British as hell with some blues to boot. 6/10
Dolly Parton
3/5
An easy listen. 6/10
Public Enemy
4/5
Pretty cool sounds from the samples. 8/10
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
I liked the funky stuff but not the synthy stuff. 6/10
The Pogues
2/5
Not for me but I know someone who would like this. 4/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Well, Nick Cave, you did it! You took Bone Machine and made it worse! The day we are rid of his albums on this list will be in the top 10 happiest days of my life. 3/10
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
Great pop album, falls a little short in the last couple of songs. 8/10
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
4/5
One of those albums that makes you say, “That was a pretty good album.” 8/10
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Far more than the recommended daily amount of Red Hot Chili Peppers… 6/10
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
Actually quite pretty at times, just wasn't very exciting either. 7/10
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
Beautiful but bare bones. 8/10
Elvis Presley
3/5
Actually just kinda boring. 6/10
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
Laughably overrated by the reddit demographic. There were some good guitar moments and some cool grooves throughout but other sections fell really flat. 6/10
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
I don’t have the faintest idea why this is on the list. It’s not bad, just ugh. 5/10
Massive Attack
3/5
Pretty similar to the other Massive Attack album on the list. Great production with long and repetitive songs that seem to me to be missing some essential part of what I like about hip hop. 6/10
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
2/5
Goofy-ass Frankenstein’s monster type album. 3/10
Robert Wyatt
2/5
I appreciate that he was experimenting but it didn’t sound great. 4/10
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
Better than Isn't Anything, worse than Loveless. 8/10
ABBA
4/5
Had some enchanting disco moments but dragged a lot in the middle. 8/10
The 13th Floor Elevators
4/5
So that’s what an electric jug sounds like. I think this stood out as a bit more out there than some of the other seminal psychedelic rock albums I’ve heard so far, which made it more interesting. 7/10
Bauhaus
3/5
I liked the couple of songs where they pushed the envelope further, but generally I felt that most songs were just worse than comparable ones from The Cure. 5/10
Adele
5/5
I was caught off guard at how much I enjoyed the songs that weren’t hits on this album. 9/10
Fairport Convention
2/5
Not a fan. 4/10
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Lost to Macklemore at the Grammys. 10/10
Napalm Death
1/5
For a few glimmering moments I heard riffs that I enjoyed. 2/10
Kraftwerk
3/5
Their call and response song structure gets pretty tired when every song is like 6 minutes long. Still cool they were able to make these sounds in the 70s. 5/10
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
Ahhh sophitsi-pop, where they take music that sounds alright and make it worse. Also mental note that that Ute Lemper album deserves a much lower score than I gave it. 4/10
The Sabres Of Paradise
1/5
Just not good at all. 2/10
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Definitely sounded like a soundtrack but when the band cut loose it was amazing. 8/10
Magazine
3/5
I actually decently enjoyed the big single and some of the other songs, they’re just so muddy and long. 6/10
The Boo Radleys
2/5
Didn’t like very much of this at all. 4/10
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
There were 3 songs in a row that were pretty good but nothing else of note for me. 6/10
Ice Cube
4/5
Nice beats, didn’t really listen to anything else. One complaint is all the songs were long. 8/10
Jeff Beck
3/5
Reminded me of when you’d be eating lunch at elementary school and then someone would ask if you want a cookie, lick it, and hand it to you. Like yeah I would’ve loved that cookie without all that spit on it but you had to go ruin it for everyone. The spit in this analogy is Rod Stewart. 5/10
John Martyn
4/5
A really interesting blend of genres that I did not expect to like. 8/10
Depeche Mode
3/5
Got bored during a lot of the songs. 5/10
Lou Reed
4/5
What a strange album. Lou Reed has a pretty mediocre voice but I caught enough of the lyrics to like the overall package. 7/10
The Prodigy
2/5
The fact that people in the reviews are hyping this album up speaks to how shitty British music was in the 90s. 3/10
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Thought it was a pretty decent album and then Jungleland melted my face off. In a good way. 9/10
The Kinks
3/5
This was so stereo it hurt. The songs themselves were ok I guess. 5/10
The Killers
5/5
What a debut. 9/10
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Not the best Costello but pretty dece. 7/10
Thelonious Monk
4/5
Solid jazz. 8/10
Gorillaz
4/5
It was definitely creative but I didn’t like all of it. Also can’t get past that they were the original virtual idols. 7/10
Muddy Waters
4/5
Yeah that’s definitely the blues. 8/10
Green Day
4/5
It’s quite good, but it’s a lot of Green Day all at once. 8/10
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Another pretty alright Belle & Sebastian album. Fucks me up that it’s a band named Belle & Sebastian and not two people with those names. 7/10
Jimmy Smith
4/5
Not always hype, but they shredded for a bit. 8/10
Pearl Jam
4/5
Has a really consistent sound that wears a little thin. 7/10
The La's
2/5
You know, I don’t even really like There She Goes that much. 4/10
Haircut 100
4/5
Shred that sax, boys. 8/10
Mott The Hoople
3/5
Mediocre attempt to copy David Bowie. That’s not an original review but they didn’t have any original ideas either. 5/10
Fugazi
4/5
I would rather listen to this album 100 times than another Britpop album ever again. 8/10
Jurassic 5
4/5
Started out strong but got kinda boring partway through. Beats and lyrics were generally solid. 7/10
The Lemonheads
2/5
This was totally only on the list for the Mrs. Robinson cover, which wasn’t even on the original album. Shame on you, Dimery. 4/10
The Undertones
3/5
Ehhh fine. Good energy. 6/10
Nick Drake
4/5
Really pretty, might be an even higher score if I listen to it more. 8/10
Supergrass
3/5
Sure is britpop. I knew the big hit but I can’t help but feel this is another one hit wonder album on the list. 5/10
The Divine Comedy
2/5
Oooooo I wanna punch this guy in the teeth. 3/10
Dizzee Rascal
2/5
His vocal delivery is incredible but I ended up with a headache because of the beats. Just not quite what I look for in rap. 4/10
Tori Amos
1/5
I genuinely do not want to hear any of the songs on this album ever again. 2/10
XTC
4/5
Enjoyable enough. 7/10
Björk
3/5
Giving this a mediocre score because I don’t like it that much, but I appreciate that there is some experimentation on this album. Definitely don’t like the electronic sounds as much as I liked Debut. 6/10
George Michael
4/5
A couple tracks in the middle weren’t interesting to me but overall I liked this. 8/10
Beatles
5/5
Like an old friend. 10/10
My (single) White Album:
1. Back in the USSR
2. Helter Skelter
3. Happiness is a Warm Gun
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5. Martha My Dear
6. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
7. Dear Prudence
8. Julia
9. I Will
10. Blackbird
11. Piggies
12. Rocky Raccoon
13. Mother Nature's Son
14. I'm So Tired
15. Goodnight
Ozomatli
2/5
I didn’t like much other than the last song. Reminded me a bit of nu-metal except instead of metal it was Latin music. 4/10
Van Halen
4/5
Not gonna pretend that Panama and Hot for Teacher don’t kick ass. 8/10
Dire Straits
4/5
Sultans of Swing is a masterpiece and there’s some great guitar elsewhere on the album but definitely some slow parts. 8/10
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Leonard Cohen what the fuck were you thinking? 3/10
Morrissey
3/5
Overall very whiny and annoying. Still, there were a decent amount of enjoyable musical moments and I love the Margaret Thatcher hate at the end. 6/10
Joni Mitchell
4/5
I like the music but she really tries to fit so many lyrics into tight spaces when I’d prefer to let it breathe. 7/10
Fred Neil
3/5
A real snoozer with a bit of country twang. 5/10
R.E.M.
3/5
This probably has my two favorite REM songs on it. 6/10
Scott Walker
4/5
Interestingly theatrical. 7/10
Stevie Wonder
5/5
:)
9/10
Germs
3/5
Pretty grating but not entirely bad. 5/10
Dusty Springfield
3/5
It was alright. 6/10
Aerosmith
3/5
Bland but listenable. 6/10
Cheap Trick
4/5
A fun listen, if lacking in variety. 7/10
Iggy Pop
4/5
Decently interesting and seems pretty influential but it’s not something I’ll listen to often. 7/10
Red Snapper
3/5
Clean but boring. 6/10
The Band
4/5
Twangy. 7/10
Drive Like Jehu
2/5
Headache-core. 4/10
Circle Jerks
2/5
Albums like this make me the most conscious of music as an art form. This feels like it mirrors modern art in terms of a response to what people think music should sound like. Doesn’t mean I like it. 3/10
Nirvana
5/5
For such an incredible first half of the album, I did not expect the back half to be so mediocre. Begrudgingly 9/10
Kanye West
5/5
Ignoring Kanye as a person this album didn’t hold up perfectly to time for me. I loved it in high school and I still like it a lot but I guess I’m just not as angsty anymore. 9/10
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
I was into the spacey sounds at first but as it went on it got a lot more grating. 6/10
Hawkwind
2/5
Quite bad. 3/10
OutKast
4/5
It has a lot of good tracks but it’s too long with so many interludes. Also definitely still more in the Andre 3000 camp over Big Boi. 8/10
Waylon Jennings
3/5
Not my genre and very sleepy. 5/10
Primal Scream
3/5
Snoozer. 5/10
Suede
3/5
I could see why people might like this. 5/10
Ryan Adams
3/5
Not bad and maybe I could’ve liked it if it wasn’t so long. 6/10
Hanoi Rocks
4/5
Didn't strike me as particularly influential but it was fun and short. 7/10
Baaba Maal
3/5
Pretty repetitive. 5/10
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Damn this is good. 9/10
Janet Jackson
3/5
Weird and long but somewhat enjoyable. 6/10
Digital Underground
2/5
So strange and too long. They also don’t get to the main conceit of the album til the last 4 songs or so. 4/10
New Order
4/5
Very solid emo/new wave music, vocals and lyrics were pretty weak. 7/10
Sparks
3/5
Very odd and not all of it stuck but I appreciate this much more than some generic 70s or 90s album. Equator doesn’t really sound like a word anymore though. 6/10
The Electric Prunes
3/5
Dunno what I just listened to but it wasn’t terrible. 5/10
Kate Bush
4/5
Either I’m coming around or Bush’s style changed a lot. Probably both. The guitar in Love And Anger was great and a few other songs were pretty good. 7/10
King Crimson
5/5
The blueprint for so much prog to come. This listen I was struck by how the more ambient parts sounded so similar to Echoes. 9/10
The Human League
3/5
This one hit wonder group was smart enough to put their hit at the end of the album! 5/10
The Black Keys
3/5
Pretty disappointed by this, but I guess there's a reason I had previously only heard 2 songs from this album. 6/10
Justice
4/5
I’m surprised at how much I like this, I guess electronic albums can be good when each song is unique and they’re not like 2 hours long. 8/10
ABBA
4/5
It has just enough really good tracks to not overstay its welcome. I’ll still always contest that when people say “I hate disco” they’re talking about this white person “””disco””” and not the original genre. Or they’re just racist. 8/10
Anthrax
2/5
Pretty bad mixing of the vocals and generally too long. 4/10
fIREHOSE
3/5
Pretty odd and not always in an endearing way. 5/10
Joy Division
4/5
It doesn’t scratch the same itch for me that it must for a lot of people. Sure, it’s good! The album cover is cool! But it’s just not in that upper echelon. And the vocal performance is pretty meh. 7/10
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
They made a song about systematic oppression sound like the DK rap. 7/10
Portishead
2/5
Didn’t feel any reason to care about this album. 4/10
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Poor mixing in a lot of places and really laughable vocals at times. Still, there are lots of layers here and oddly charming moments. Could also do without the random remixes. 7/10
Richard Thompson
4/5
Title track is great and it’s very pretty but also a bit sleepy. 7/10
Violent Femmes
3/5
Would make for a really tight 20ish minute album but ends up a little eclectic and annoying even over the original <40 minute length. Couple good songs. 6/10
Johnny Cash
4/5
Pretty solid collection of Cash putting his own spin on famous songs. A couple of the adaptations weren’t the best (I didn’t particularly like In My Life or Personal Jesus much compared to the originals) but it’s generally quite good. 8/10
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
A couple of things were painfully 80s (looking at you, Born in the USA instrumental), but there are some quality songs on here. 8/10
Madonna
3/5
Weird techno trip hop Madonna that could’ve been a better album from the 90s (Weezer or Third Eye Blind). 5/10
MC Solaar
3/5
Funky but French. Could also be shorter. 6/10
The Clash
2/5
To me, this is one of the most overrated albums of all time. I’ve listened to it twice and both times come away with a headache. The singer sounds like his mouth is full of marbles and he can’t carry a tune half the time. Really only 3 songs I enjoy over the course of 19(!!!) songs. Blech. 4/10
The Doors
4/5
Kinda like if The Rolling Stones were American. 7/10
4/5
Lands squarely in the middle of Pearl Jam and Cold Play in terms of arena music sound. Couple of iconic songs. 7/10
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
2/5
A capella. 4/10
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
Really disappointing effort from James Murphy. 4/10
The Go-Go's
4/5
The popular songs are pretty good. The other songs were just OK and could have benefitted from being shorter or zanier (like B-52s vibes). 7/10
Sinead O'Connor
2/5
I think the lyrics are probably pretty decent but it was quite boring. Also whenever Prince does a song it is pretty much his forever so I really couldn’t get into Nothing Compares 2 U. 4/10
Solomon Burke
4/5
Being a worse Sam Cooke isn’t too bad. I think there was a bit of country twang in some of the slower songs that made me like them less. 7/10
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Unplugged amp core but not necessarily bad. 7/10
Gene Clark
3/5
The last song was the best song and the mediocre Bob Dylan cover was probably the second-best song. 5/10
The Mamas & The Papas
2/5
Pretty bad. Even California Dreaming gets on my nerves when I hear it. 4/10
Living Colour
4/5
Inverse Jamiroquai. 7/10
Little Simz
4/5
A very good album. 8/10
Coldplay
3/5
Pretty much on par with their first album. 6/10
The Cure
4/5
Kind of made me feel like shit but in the way that they intended. Not sure how often I’d listen to this but it has a very effective atmosphere and consistent sound despite having lots of long songs. 8/10
Paul Simon
4/5
Great album, slows down a bit after Me and Julio. First half is dripping with nostalgia. 8/10
Dolly Parton
3/5
It’s fine. 6/10
Air
3/5
Don’t really care about downtempo electronic music. Sexy Boy was in 10 Things I Hate About You at least. 6/10
The White Stripes
3/5
A lot of this was just pretty boring. 6/10
Ella Fitzgerald
3/5
It’s generally very pretty but over 3 hours is an insane length for this list and there was a lot of crackling noises throughout that threw me off. 6/10
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
This was very solid, I think it showcased the individual members' creative directions better than some of their other albums (David Crosby popped off on his two songs). If it wasn't so much of a hassle to listen to on Spotify I think I'd want to listen to it again. 8/10
Norah Jones
4/5
Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar’s daughter!!???? Pleasantly listenable but not a lot of substance, I guess it’s fine for a 2002 inclusion to the book. 7/10
D'Angelo
4/5
I like D’Angelo’s wandering R&B style. The songs have a sort of jammy improvisational feel that really works for me. 8/10
Rush
5/5
Great album. I remember listening to this while hanging out after coming back from the thrift store in the summer of 2017. 9/10
Emmylou Harris
3/5
A pretty boring collection of country covers. 5/10
Beck
3/5
This album is odd. I’m a bit concerned that it’s only on the list due to Chemical Brothers production because I’d like to have an excuse to listen to other Beck albums that I think I’d like better. 6/10
Super Furry Animals
3/5
A bizarre but fairly listenable album. Wouldn’t be one of my picks from the 90s. 6/10
Not very good. 5/10
Joy Division
4/5
More Joy Division, more depression. 7/10
Lucinda Williams
2/5
Sure is boring. 4/10
The The
2/5
Why are there two The The albums on this list? 4/10
Peter Frampton
5/5
I know it's not yacht rock but it's soft rock so I still wanna listen to it on a boat or a beach. Either way it's right up my alley. 9/10
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Very solidly listenable. 8/10
Dr. Octagon
2/5
The beats were ok but the central conceit was basically sexual harassment. How many times do you need to say rectum, anal, buttcrack, etc. in a single album? 3/10
Todd Rundgren
5/5
Todd Rundgren is under appreciated. I love Something/Anything and had heard this album before but never came back to it. Turns out that I should have because there’s so much interesting stuff on here, especially Zen Archer. Will be listening to this again for sure. 9/10
Soundgarden
3/5
I don’t get the hype. Generally boring and sometimes annoying aside from Black Hole Sun. Such a dumb album cover too. 5/10
Kraftwerk
2/5
I get that it was the 70s and some of this was ahead of its time but I really feel like this is just bad ambient music. Like, “fun fun fun on the autobahn” was the best you could think of?? 4/10
Miriam Makeba
3/5
It’s pleasant but not something I’d listen to often. 6/10
King Crimson
3/5
Creative and interesting but often unpleasant. 6/10
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I think CCR has one of the most consistent discographies of any of the groups on this list. They all have that swamp rock sound and they’re all pretty good. Keep on chooglin’ boys. 8/10
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Utter nonsense that the people behind this list lost all touch around 1985 so that this shit ended up with a nod. Either that or 90s music is worse than I thought. 4/10
John Prine
3/5
Pretty sleepy country, the few more electric songs were better. All the people in global reviews are talking about the lyrics being genius but I guess I just don’t care enough. 5/10
The Pogues
3/5
Just doesn’t really resonate with me in the year 2023. 5/10
Pere Ubu
2/5
This isn’t quite down there with my worst-rated albums but I can see why this is generally disliked on this site. At least it’s pretty short, though the last couple songs really drag on. 3/10
Stephen Stills
2/5
Just drags on and on. 4/10
Solange
4/5
Decent album, the instrumentals were a little sparse for my taste. In terms of women-led R&B from the 2010s I might have preferred Sza, Hiatus Kaiyote, or Noname. 7/10
Machito
4/5
Quite entertaining. It’s not as engaging or challenging as, say, Miles Davis or John Coltrane but this album has its worthy place in the jazz canon. Alternatively, Kenya fit these nuts in your mouth?? 8/10
The Stone Roses
4/5
I like a lot of this, it’s just so jangly and British. Maybe worth another listen after I’m done with this list. 7/10
Mj Cole
2/5
Couldn’t tell which songs to listen to since there was only the deluxe version on Spotify. So I stuck it out for the requisite 70+ minutes, and boy was this 70+ minutes of techno. 3/10
George Harrison
4/5
Really good, just didn’t care much for the third album instrumentals. 8/10
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
This album reminds me of some of the Velvet Underground tracks we've heard on this list (The Gift on White Light/White Heat comes to mind) - the spoken word structure and lingering instrumentals lend themselves to that much. However, it's an album about a pedophile that I can't quite tell is satirical, mostly since it's French. 6/10
Tangerine Dream
3/5
Pretty easy to forget that this was music. Wouldn't want to listen to it again and definitely got some creepy vibes from it but there was nothing outwardly bad about this. 5/10
Bob Dylan
4/5
I think I’d place this in the second tier of Dylan on this list, below Free Wheelin’ and Highway 61, and just a bit under Blood on the Tracks. It could move up to a 9 upon further listening, but for now it’s an 8/10.
T. Rex
4/5
A bit better than The Slider since I like Bang a Gong and Mambo Sun. 7/10
Django Django
3/5
Exceedingly boring even though it seems like it should be interesting. 5/10
50 Cent
4/5
So many classics on this album. A couple of songs don't hit, but Many Men, 21 Questions, In Da Club, Patiently Waiting, and PIMP are still amazing tracks. 8/10
4/5
Lots of great tracks here. Wonderwall is definitely overplayed but I still love Champagne Supernova and Don’t Look Back in Anger. Thankfully the album doesn’t stray too far outside of those songs, proving that a broken clock is right at least once a day. 8/10
Hüsker Dü
3/5
Reminded me of a less jangly REM. 5/10
Boston
4/5
Earns a good score thanks to its killer front side and cohesive sound. Almost loses that score since the tracks sound a little too similar. 8/10
Turbonegro
2/5
This is one of the dumbest albums we’ve gotten on this list. I wanna cut these dudes some slack because English isn’t their native language, but they make Kiss sound like geniuses. Rendezvous With Anus?? Rock Against Ass??? What the fuck are you on about? 4/10
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
I liked a couple of the songs, especially some of the guitar work. 7/10
Slade
3/5
I don't want to be mean but these guys look like Neanderthals. Their music is pretty mediocre too. 5/10
Keith Jarrett
4/5
Definitely enjoyable but it’s a lot of just piano. It’s crazy to think about the talent it takes to improvise so freely on the stage. 7/10
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Cowboy Song and Boys Are Back in Town are pretty much the only tracks I cared about in this 77 minute live (but not entirely live) album. 6/10
Christina Aguilera
3/5
I could see why this would have been huge in the 2000s. Many tracks feel dated but there’s a lot to be said about Aguilera’s vocal chops and she (or her producers) certainly had a good idea of the pop zeitgeist. For me, it’s too long and a bit too aughts. 6/10
Elliott Smith
4/5
I like Elliott Smith well enough. Don’t know if I completely get it though. 7/10
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
3/5
So long and such a bother to find a full version online. Beats are alright and the lyrics are wild but it's not what I look for in hip hop. 5/10
Crowded House
3/5
Nothing to really write home about. 6/10
Pentangle
3/5
Dunno why this has such a negative global rating when it’s just kinda meh. 5/10
The Police
4/5
Alright and it has Message in a Bottle. 7/10
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Seems like a waste of a spot on this list. 6/10
Blood, Sweat & Tears
4/5
This is such a weird album. Wikipedia categorizes it as jazz-rock but I feel most songs aren’t the intersection of the two genres but instead different sections that alternate between classic rock and jazzy horn solos. More jazz and rock than jazz-rock. And the album is bookended by variations on a classical piece. In the end, a decently fun listen. 7/10
Madonna
2/5
I'm not a big fan of cowgirl-electronica-Don McLean Madonna. 4/10
Holger Czukay
3/5
Didn’t like it, didn’t hate it, and I appreciate the presence of original ideas here even if they don’t all land. 5/10
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
So extremely dated that it was hard for me to be interested in this album. I definitely prefer the energy of performers like Fats Domino or Little Richard for this old style rock and roll. 6/10
The Rolling Stones
5/5
I think this is The Rolling Stones at their absolute best. For once I feel like I understand the hype. Why did that guy feel like writing a whole novel for his review tho? 10/10
The Fall
2/5
Music was mediocre but the vocals really turned me off. 4/10
Stan Getz
5/5
Super pleasant. 9/10
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
Wow this sounded awful. 3/10
Peter Tosh
3/5
My favorite track was When Your Well Runs Dry. Fine reggae. 6/10
Tim Buckley
3/5
It’s fine. I see this as pretty similar to Astral Weeks so I’m not quite sure why the global reviews rank this under 3 on average. Oh well. 6/10
The Cars
4/5
First three songs are absolute classics and the rest is alright. Moving in Stereo was probably the next best track. 8/10
Alice In Chains
4/5
I liked this a decent amount better than Superunknown. Maybe the short runtime and commitment to a heavier sound made me like this more. For some reason this album cover is so unintentionally funny to me. 7/10
The United States Of America
3/5
Pretty tough to listen to but at the very end I found myself slightly endeared to this album. 5/10
Beatles
4/5
The Beatles before they worked out what they really wanted to do. 8/10
The Libertines
3/5
Why? 5/10
Doves
3/5
This had some moments but was pretty boring. 6/10
Big Black
2/5
Generally sounded bad. I did like the refrain of Kerosene and could groove to some stuff. 4/10
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Something about either the selection of songs or the arrangements felt less inspired than other Sinatra we've had. Still decent. 7/10
Slipknot
1/5
This album boils down to something like "Life is meaningless, I'm going to scream!" When I am feeling existential dread I at least like to listen to music that sounds pleasant. 2/10
Steve Winwood
4/5
So 80s. Like Casio keyboard 80s. Except I just googled it and apparently the first Casio synthesizer came out in the mid-80s, which this album predates. Good job making these synths without a Casio, Steve! 7/10
SAULT
3/5
Had potential but ended up being boring. Plus I'm always a bit annoyed at modern inclusions on this list since I'm so familiar with excluded albums that I enjoy much more. 6/10
Super Furry Animals
3/5
Mid. 5/10
Elvis Presley
3/5
Elvis is Elvis! 6/10
Gram Parsons
3/5
I’m really hoping there’s a couple more great albums waiting in the wings as we round the 250 or so left mark. This was some alright country. 6/10
Moby
2/5
People on this site must have some sort of nostalgic attachment to this album because it’s not very good. 4/10
Marvin Gaye
5/5
This is a great album, but I’ve always felt that it’s missing something to put it over the top. 9/10
Bill Callahan
3/5
Pretty bad vocals and very sleepy but I at least appreciate the poesy of these lyrics. 5/10
2/5
This album is a huge miss from the editors. It’s not critically acclaimed or well-received, not at all popular, alternates between boring and flat-out bad, and it’s not even significant outside of a creepy pasta mentioned on the Wikipedia article for this album. I read the creepy pasta and even that was garbage. Maybe they should’ve instituted a 5 or 10 year buffer on new music before putting an album on the list just to stop something like this from happening. 3/10
The Streets
2/5
https://youtu.be/EHUeUk9dJc0
3/10
Led Zeppelin
5/5
It’s longer than it needs to be but otherwise I really enjoyed this album. 9/10
George Jones
3/5
At least it's short? 5/10
The Residents
1/5
Having to listen to this album borders on psychological torture. It’s only 35 minutes but is a continuous assault on the senses. 1/10
Bad Brains
4/5
Enjoyable guitar and bass work. 7/10
Lauryn Hill
5/5
Definitely deserves to be up there with the greats. A couple songs lasted a bit too long and that’s really my only complaint. 9/10
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
I think Dexys Midnight Runners having 3 albums on this list is the clearest example of British bias in the book. That's not to say that I dislike this album. 7/10
U2
4/5
First half was very promising and perhaps the best I’ve heard from U2. The second half of the album didn’t hold up to that standard and this ended up being about par for the course for the good U2 albums. 7/10
Talvin Singh
2/5
I fell asleep about 20 minutes in. From what I heard I at least appreciated the Indian influences. That being said, this is not something I need to listen to again. 4/10
Arcade Fire
4/5
I will always think of Arcade Fire as critic bait but I enjoyed most of this album. 7/10
Tim Buckley
3/5
I’m conflicted. The music was actually pretty decent but the lyrics were so bad. 6/10
N.E.R.D
3/5
Maybe was my favorite track. Otherwise, the main thing I got out of this album is that Pharrell Williams is 50. 6/10
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
Really not as bongo centric as you might believe. It’s kinda just a collection of funk band tunes and covers. Very enjoyable. 8/10
Morrissey
4/5
I can have a little bit of morose Morrissey, as a treat. 7/10
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Stevie got pretty gospel on this album and I just ate it up. Legitimately one of the most talented musicians ever. 9/10
Alanis Morissette
4/5
I wonder if in 25 years people will look back on Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR in a similar way that people look back on this album. 8/10
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
Made my teeth itch. 1/10
The Temptations
4/5
Some archaic-sounding production and mixing drag down this pretty inspired project. 7/10
David Bowie
4/5
Some good Bowie with a long stretch of ambient noise. 7/10
The Soft Boys
3/5
Surf rock meets post punk. I don’t love it but it’s sure creative. 5/10
Kings of Leon
4/5
The singer’s voice bothers me but I actually like some of the songs. 7/10
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Sounded like a Cure album with a little bit less direction. Seems very influential on that whole goth rock scene. 7/10
The Associates
4/5
Feels like we got the same album for a second day in a row. I’ll be fair and give these guys the same ranking as Echo and the Bunnymen but I can’t help feeling like the generator is testing me. 7/10
The Cramps
3/5
Elvis punk. 5/10
The Replacements
4/5
I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting. 7/10
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Started out surprisingly fine but got on my nerves quickly. 5/10
Rod Stewart
3/5
Mediocre. 5/10
Venom
3/5
Pretty goofy, not nearly as bad as I would’ve expected from the global reviews. We’ve certainly had worse (longer) metal albums. I think the thing that hurts this album the most is its extremely shitty production - the Satan stuff is a decent conceit, if a bit overstated. 5/10
Neil Young
3/5
I think this album would be excellent if Neil Young's voice wasn't so dogshit. 6/10
4/5
I’m not always in a mood for Muse but I thoroughly enjoyed this album. 8/10
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Bruce Springsteen tries his best to bore me to death. 5/10
The Charlatans
2/5
Oasis with a couple of canned beats. 4/10
Todd Rundgren
5/5
I really like this album but this listen through it got a bit long - maybe could’ve been a single album. Still a soft-rock staple imo. 9/10
Kelela
4/5
Pretty good, reminded me a lot of that Solange album on this list. 7/10
Calexico
3/5
Fine. 6/10
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
I liked some of the guitar but it was pretty boring. 5/10
The Fall
2/5
Really unpleasant. 3/10
Butthole Surfers
1/5
This album tells you what it is in its title. Believe it. 2/10
Snoop Dogg
4/5
G funk. 8/10
Lana Del Rey
2/5
So boring! Where are the drums?! Why does it sound like she doesn’t care at all?!? Why is every instrumental exactly the same??!? Does anyone relate to this affluenza schtick?!??!??! Artists with better albums released in 2021 that are not on this list include: Tyler the Creator, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Silk Sonic, Little Simz, hell even Clairo and Kanye had better releases that very same year! If we expand the range to the past 10 years it’s pretty laughable that this ended up getting a nod. 4/10
The Vines
3/5
Garage rock for Britpop fans. 5/10
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
They found a way to make jazz sound 80s! 7/10
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
Rambling crap. 4/10
Boards of Canada
4/5
For some reason I enjoyed this album so much more than any of the other ambient electronic albums we’ve had. Maybe it scratched the right itch for me or maybe I need to go back to Aphex Twin and apologize. 8/10
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
I could listen to this album end to end multiple times in a row. 9/10
Aimee Mann
3/5
Started off pretty decent but crept towards Tori Amos territory with some of the odder songs. 5/10
Happy Mondays
3/5
Liked this a bit better than I remember liking Pills 'n Thrills. I think it was more upbeat? 6/10
Jack White
4/5
Decent stuff, though it feels a bit behind the curve considering this came out in 2012. 7/10
FKA twigs
4/5
Definitely too out there for my usual tastes but this album grew on me throughout its runtime. 7/10
Bee Gees
2/5
In the book, this album is sandwiched onto the same page as The Yes Album, Who’s Next, and Tapestry. What’s Going On takes up the previous two pages. Somehow this juxtaposition didn’t help the editors put together the idea that maybe The Bee Gees are more well known and influential for Saturday Night Fever than this nonsense. You can’t even argue that that’s not included due to its status as a soundtrack, as Shaft, Superfly, and even That’s the Way of the World stand as counterpoints. 4/10
3/5
Mediocre punk. 5/10
Big Star
4/5
This is like the textbook definition for a 7/10.
Goldfrapp
3/5
Seemed more inventive but less good than the other Goldfrapp album on the list. 6/10
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
Not really a country album. I got vibes similar to Pavement when listening to this - that sort of hidden gem with enough of a literary slant that it'll end up on thrift store shelves for hipsters to brag to their friends about discovering. 7/10
Kid Rock
1/5
The music could've been worse, but just about everything else about this album was rock bottom. 2/10
Joe Ely
3/5
I would much prefer hearing this music in an old saloon than listening to it in my bedroom. 6/10
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Didn't care for this too much but it's not exactly bad. 5/10
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
This is the eight album review in which I use the word "snooze". This is the sixty-first album review in which I use the word "boring". Nice. 5/10
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Wacky but enjoyable overall. 7/10
Finley Quaye
2/5
Why? 4/10
The Darkness
2/5
I didn’t really care for the camp. 4/10
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Oh yeah bud. 9/10
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
Was gonna rate this lower but the extremely raw tone of Why’d Ya Do It piqued my interest at the end. 5/10
Basement Jaxx
2/5
Some of the worst vocals of any album we've had so far. Music was meh. 3/10
N.W.A.
4/5
It's really good but there are some dinky-dinky-ass beats on this album. 8/10
SZA
5/5
I probably would’ve given this an 8 but just reading the reviews on this site made me so annoyed I’m bumping up the score. I mean, “Why I can't stay alone just by myself? Wish I was comfortable just with myself but I need you,” almost made me cry this morning. 9/10
Saint Etienne
3/5
It was pretty fine, a little ambient. 6/10
Björk
3/5
Pretty slow. 6/10
Sonic Youth
4/5
Apt name. 7/10
Erykah Badu
4/5
I really enjoyed Green Eyes and the overall sound was nice but just missing something. 8/10
The Sugarcubes
3/5
Surprisingly unmemorable for Björk. 6/10
Dennis Wilson
4/5
Genuinely good. Had that warm and full production that I always appreciate and just enough variety to stay pretty fresh but consistent. 8/10
The Who
4/5
Very good but not up to the heights they’d reach later. 8/10
David Holmes
2/5
Not really worth a spot. 4/10
Throwing Muses
4/5
Surprisingly solid. 7/10
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Yeah. 9/10
Skepta
3/5
This was cool but not my cup of tea. 6/10
Peter Gabriel
4/5
A bit spooky. 7/10
Britney Spears
3/5
Not great. 5/10
Brian Eno
4/5
I think I like the more frantic, crazy Eno than the laidback songs on this album but it’s all pretty decent. 7/10
The Clash
3/5
Slightly better than London Calling since it’s more punk and less dub and doesn’t last for over an hour. Still has the same fundamental problem of terrible vocals. 5/10
Scissor Sisters
4/5
Some really high highs made this album a great listen. 8/10
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
Found this to be similarly enjoyable to All Things Must Pass. 8/10
Brian Eno
4/5
I’m pretty sympathetic towards Brian Eno’s solo stuff. 7/10
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF GET OUT OF MY HEAD 1/10
Fishbone
3/5
Weird. 5/10
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Very good listen, might deserve a 9 honestly. I did kind of feel like the album went out with a whimper. 8/10
Everything But The Girl
2/5
EBTG goes trip hop. What is the obsession with this mediocre genre? 4/10
White Denim
4/5
Felt like a more creative Black Keys album. 7/10
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
Yup, that’s goth rock. 6/10
AC/DC
4/5
Honestly pretty boring despite the couple of good songs. 7/10
Tom Tom Club
4/5
B-52s vibes but the first couple songs are clearly the best part of the album. 7/10
Syd Barrett
2/5
Really a tragic story for Syd but this album is still pretty dull. 4/10
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
I have no real complaints about this album except for wondering why it made the list. 6/10
The Only Ones
3/5
Pretty fucking lugubrious for a “power pop” album. 5/10
The Fall
2/5
I prefer autumn. 4/10
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
Not sure why this has so much hate on this site. It’s standard R&B and probably shouldn’t be on the list but it has a pretty pleasant sound. 6/10
Jacques Brel
4/5
Pretty fun, pretty French. 7/10
3/5
For 1969 this is messy. Grimy and dirty. Just really heavy and fucked up in all the right places. But we’re not in 1969 we’re in 2023 and so this album was mid. 6/10
Gary Numan
3/5
Is it unfair to call this a one-hit wonder album? 6/10
Dead Kennedys
4/5
I’m not sure why this stands out among the other socially-conscious punk we’ve heard on this list but something about it just seems … more genuine maybe? Or maybe more radical. 8/10
The Modern Lovers
3/5
It's crazy after listening to so many Velvet Underground projects that this is so clearly produced John Cale. I had to check that like 2 seconds into the first song. Unfortunately it's pretty slow. 5/10
Tom Waits
2/5
Sounds like Tom Waits. 4/10
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
I don’t really care. 5/10
Julian Cope
3/5
I guess there were some good songs on this. It was too long though. And definitely a bit boring. 6/10
Steve Earle
3/5
It would be hard at this point to convince me that those involved in the creation of this list didn’t just throw a dart at the top 40 country albums every couple of years and call that representative of the genre. 6/10
Ice Cube
4/5
Good old west coast 90s rap. I’ll never love the skits but I’ll never hate the albums. 7/10
Fela Kuti
4/5
A really good listen. 8/10
JAY Z
4/5
It’s good, I like Jay-Z. I just think it was a little unnecessary to include two full songs about how he likes girls. You compensating for something, bud? 8/10
The Thrills
4/5
Surprisingly enjoyable. 7/10
Dion
3/5
Spotify has tried to get me to listen to this guy in my discover weekly playlist enough times that I don’t dislike this. 6/10
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Sounds pretty cool. 8/10
Dagmar Krause
2/5
Extremely unpleasant. 3/10
Girls Against Boys
3/5
I have nothing against this album in particular, it kinda just sounds like less creative but less abrasive Sonic Youth. But I am a bit annoyed that all that Wikipedia can say about this album is that one of its songs appeared in a Need For Speed game. Did we realllllllly need to listen to it? 5/10
Slayer
4/5
This is the ideal thrash metal album. Slayer understands that they're going to take the listener to crazy places so they limit the runtime to under 30 minutes. It's packed with short and fast tracks, and bookended by their most iconic songs. Raining Blood is so sick. Still, it's not something I would listen to every day, or even more than one or two times a month. 7/10
Tortoise
2/5
Actually really boring and bad. 3/10
Sister Sledge
4/5
A little weak outside of its two big singles but I’m a sucker for disco. I’d certainly roller skate to this album. 8/10
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
A super fun listen. 9/10
John Cale
3/5
Somewhat unique for 1973 but also a little boring. 6/10
The xx
3/5
They’ve certainly honed in on their target sound. 6/10
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Interesting to hear sounds that are foreign to me but it wasn’t a super engaging album. 6/10
Gillian Welch
2/5
Alt-country is such a boring genre. 4/10
Hookworms
4/5
Sounds like Weezer doing a King Gizzard album. Ironically enough, neither of those artists are on this list. 7/10
Ray Price
2/5
If you want to listen to the same mopey country song for 40 minutes then you'll enjoy this one. 4/10
The Beta Band
2/5
Two sleepy albums in a row! 4/10
Paul McCartney
4/5
Maybe I’m Amazed is a great song but otherwise there isn’t much substance to this album. I could see myself listening to it if I was in the right mood but it’s not an everyday sort of album for me. 7/10
Rocket From The Crypt
3/5
I could see this being popular in the MTV and Tony Hawk video game era. It’s just not for me. 5/10
Neil Young
4/5
I wish I liked Neil Young's voice better because I think he could have some great songs. As it stands, this was decent. 7/10
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
The junkie song was enjoyable but I didn’t care about much else. 5/10
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
I'm sympathetic to these goths. 7/10
Ride
3/5
I like shoegaze generally, and something about this album is gnawing at me in a way that makes me want to rate it higher. I just can't get past how bored I felt for most of its runtime. Also, it seems like Souvlaki would have been a better pick for the list than either this or the non-Loveless mbv albums. 6/10
The Young Rascals
3/5
Very 60s. 6/10
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
I got a bit of a reality check this weekend when showing some of my less album-inclined friends a couple tracks from the most experimental artists on the list. Their reactions sum up to, "Why would anyone want to listen to something that sounds like shit?" Today I ask myself that very same question. 3/10
The xx
3/5
I can almost hear the vocals, can you guys sing a little quieter? 6/10
Doves
3/5
It was definitely more atmospheric than the previous Doves album we had, but still pretty boring. It doesn't help that I listened to this in a kind of fugue state while finishing up some urgent work. 6/10
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Some songs on this album are quite good - Aguilera recruited a group of talented producers and they generally delivered. However, this album is way too long. And part of its central theme is calling back to past classics. I’d certainly rather be listening to any of the artists that she name drops than this album. The second half of the album also felt entirely superfluous to me. Side note: the album cover is one of the worst I’ve seen in over 900 projects on this list. 6/10
David Crosby
3/5
Mostly boring but had its moments and was relatively short. And a quick fuck you to Neil Young for making this harder to listen to than it should have been. 6/10
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Rufus Wainwright sounds like Father John Misty for people who aren't that depressed. 8/10
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Slightly less bad than the previous Robert Wyatt we've had? Still pretty meh. 5/10
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
A sorry excuse for an album. Alt-country continues to disappoint. 4/10
Eagles
4/5
I’m struck by how much this felt like a Steely Dan album. Even though the lyrics and music are comparatively lacking in complexity, there’s something to be said about the clean production and general disdain for California. 8/10
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
Literally just 50 minutes of boomers noodling on guitars. 4/10
Duke Ellington
5/5
I want to get wasted and listen to this with jazz people. 9/10
Black Flag
3/5
This album cover is in a niche meme where the text is replaced with “Venmo me for my emotional labor”. I have nothing to say about the music other than it sounded exactly how I expected it. 5/10
M.I.A.
3/5
I really wish critics could get out of the mindset of "This mixes two different genres so it's good!". I liked this less than the other MIA album we had previously, I think her vocal delivery just annoyed me more here. 5/10
Nick Drake
4/5
This was a nice listen, but Nick Drake hadn’t quite unlocked his most melancholic/haunting vibes yet. 7/10
CHVRCHES
4/5
I hate this band name. Chvrches? CH-VUR-CHES? CHURCHES? 7/10
John Martyn
4/5
I found this to be less interesting than Solid Air but I was compelled to listen to it twice. Nice little Steve Winwood appearance too. 7/10
The Undertones
3/5
If you told me you had an album that was new wave with punk influences made by a group from Derry, I think I would have imagined this exact album. 6/10
Billy Bragg
2/5
Fucking abysmal. 3/10
Justin Timberlake
3/5
There are a couple of entertaining songs on here but the 2000s era overproduction is in full force. Also, this album goes for over an hour for pretty much no reason. 6/10
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
I don't really care for the droning style of this album. 4/10
Willie Nelson
3/5
I appreciate that he went against the grain a bit with the production and concept but this just isn't a genre I am invested in. Red Headed Stranger had a catchy chorus at least. Album cover reminds me of that Norm MacDonald bit about the picture of his great grandfather. 6/10
4/5
Nice and funky. 8/10
Kings of Leon
2/5
This actually really stunk. Did not like the vocals at all. 4/10
Antony and the Johnsons
4/5
Really cool to hear an album by a trans artist. Overall, the genre isn’t my favorite but the lyrics and emotion were quite strong. 7/10
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
These guys have 3 albums on the list?!? I guess this was about as good as the other two. 7/10
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
Very droning once again. 4/10
Grateful Dead
2/5
Feedback? Really? 4/10
Sugar
3/5
This album feels very derivative. It’s not bad, but it’s not nearly as good as its influences. 5/10
Barry Adamson
2/5
Why? 3/10
Cee Lo Green
2/5
I thought this was extremely dated BEFORE I heard the Blockbuster reference. 4/10
The Who
5/5
This is perhaps the best summer road trip album ever. 10/10
Destiny's Child
3/5
Felt nice to have a good but not great album to listen to today. 6/10
Grateful Dead
3/5
This was ok. Felt pretty generic honestly. 6/10
Suicide
3/5
Hard to believe this came out in 1977. And I didn't hate it as much as I expected. For some reason the craziness was slightly compelling to me - maybe I'm finally coming around to experimental shit with under 100 albums to go! 6/10
Jungle Brothers
4/5
I liked hearing the samples and old school hip hop sensibilities but this album was too long for me to love it. 7/10
Sonic Youth
4/5
This is my favorite out of all the Sonic Youth albums we've had. It felt like I could digest everything much better, and was quite a rewarding listen despite being 70 minutes long. 8/10
American Music Club
3/5
I guess the lyrics on this are supposed to be good? How come the only person with anything to say about this album is an Icelandic dude? 5/10
Arcade Fire
4/5
About the same as the other Arcade Fire we've had imo. Never as good as I want it to be, but never as bad as I make it out to be. 7/10
Björk
3/5
I dunno. It wasn’t terrible but I don’t really wanna listen to this again. 5/10
Giant Sand
3/5
Just so boring. 5/10
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Really good, sadly not on Spotify. 8/10
The National
3/5
I think this album would have benefitted greatly from having a competent singer instead of the bored deadpan delivery that persists through the whole thing. 6/10
The Zutons
4/5
Pretty fun, I appreciate the saxophone and retro aesthetic throughout. Bonus props to these dudes for writing Valerie, even though it isn't on this album. 7/10
Hot Chip
3/5
I'm glad this group at least seems to have devoted listeners and is pretty unique. Still wouldn't have been my pick for an album from 2012, though I wouldn't expect the editors of this list to have the foresight/acumen to pick out something from Swans or Death Grips. The Alt-J album from 2012 or Lonerism blew up the alternative scene while having some mainstream staying power, and either one probably deserved a nod over this. 6/10
The Bees
4/5
I was pleasantly surprised with this pretty modern sounding summery album. 7/10
Van Morrison
3/5
I genuinely liked a lot of the songs on this, but 90 minutes? Really? 6/10
Mekons
2/5
For most of this album I was just wondering wtf I was listening to. Not that it was all bad, exactly, just weird. 4/10
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Ahhhh, Better Living Through Chemistry by Fatboy Slim. One of my all time favorites. Such classics as "the Michael Jackson song", "the song where he makes it sound like the sample is saying gay porn", and "that one song where the beat sounded like farts" make this a big beat masterpiece. On the scale of music overall, however, that means this is a mediocre record at best. 5/10
The Shamen
2/5
Was expecting this to suck and it did not disappoint. 3/10
Mylo
3/5
I liked the first couple songs because of their creative sample use but this album just got worse as it dragged on. 5/10
Iggy Pop
4/5
Pretty solid album. Could definitely see how The Passenger was influential on a lot of the alternative and garage rock stuff that came out in the 80s and 90s. 7/10
The Verve
3/5
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if this is what peak British music was in the 90s, I feel bad for those poor chaps. 5/10
CHIC
4/5
I love Good Times, but the rest of the album could have benefitted from a more diverse selection of moods. It was like 5 disco slow burns in a row to end out the album. Each song individually was pretty good at least. And the bass was going off! 8/10
Beth Orton
2/5
Boring album that blurs the line between boring folk and boring electronica. 4/10
De La Soul
4/5
Definitely a little disappointed that I didn't like this album more. I've heard a lot of good things about it but nothing really stuck other than the song that sampled Peg and an overall sense of it being decent. 7/10
Talk Talk
3/5
Bleh. 5/10
Faust
3/5
I liked this a little better than the Kraftwerk, Can, and Tangerine Dream albums on this list. I guess Krautrock is just not my genre. 5/10
GZA
4/5
I like this album and I've listened to it a few times before, but it's never reached the highest echelon of this era of rap for me. I think maybe I'm just not listening to the lyrics enough. The beats are great but sometimes blend into each other, and it wouldn't be a 90s hip hop record without a bunch of non-music in between every song. Still very solid. 8/10
Baaba Maal
3/5
It was pretty long but honestly not too bad over its length. Felt a lot better than some of the other droning world albums we’ve had recently. 6/10
Joanna Newsom
3/5
Instrumentation was pretty interesting and I could tell the lyrics were supposed to be good even if I wasn't paying enough attention to get anything out of them. Still, this was a pretty long and not very easily listenable album. 6/10
The Coral
4/5
A fun little pirate-adjacent album. 7/10
Laura Nyro
3/5
Partway between Joni Mitchell and Minnie Riperton but less good than either artist. I guess that's the price you pay for coming first. 6/10
Soft Machine
2/5
80 minutes, 4 tracks, mostly nothing. 4/10
The KLF
2/5
Just not very good. 4/10
Bee Gees
2/5
I'll put this in the same bucket as Trafalgar. Not the worst album I've heard but far from the best Bee Gees album and far from the most important album from 1969. Why did we get these guys imitating the Byrds imitating the Beatles instead of Saturday Night Fever? 4/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Probably the best Nick Cave we’ve had but it still wasn’t good, per se. My anger towards his other albums was replaced with pity for a mourning old man. It was sometimes hard to take this as truly genuine given all the different hats that Cave has worn as a songwriter through his other projects on this list but when I was able to do so I had slightly more appreciation for this album. 5/10
Scott Walker
3/5
The music itself really wasn’t too bad, if a little self-important at times. But I am so baffled as to how this guy has 2 albums on the list. 6/10
Method Man
4/5
I'm gonna rate this the same as I rated Liquid Swords and Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx. They're all great projects with their own strengths and weaknesses, and are all slightly weaker than 36 Chambers. This album felt darker than the other comparable solo records and cut out a lot of the filler present in both, but had muddier production for some tracks. I also think Method Man's vocal delivery might be my favorite out of Wu-Tang. 8/10
Culture Club
4/5
This is extremely 80s but I kinda dig it. Karma Chameleon is very mall-core to me but in a nostalgic way. 7/10
Meat Puppets
3/5
A quick excursion to the intersection of punk and folk. 6/10
2/5
What I really don't like about this album is that it's no fun at all. People can try to draw parallels to the Beatles or Beach Boys because there are some unique instrumentations and production choices, but this completely lacks the sense of humor and genuine soul of projects like Rubber Soul and Pet Sounds. It's not horrible in a vacuum but seeing it in this context made me like it a whole lot less than I otherwise would have. Your Dictionary is also utterly terrible. 4/10
TV On The Radio
4/5
Reminded me of Doves but felt more interesting. 7/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
The music itself was fine. Still really dislike Nick Cave's voice and face. 5/10
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
It’s not exactly transcendent but boy were they schmoovin in those time signatures. And Blue Rondo a la Turk has been stuck in my head all day. 9/10
Traffic
3/5
Steve Winwood before the synthesizers. This was just some boomer rock, easily listenable but not that good. 6/10
Barry Adamson
2/5
Maybe a couple alright songs but mostly pretty weird. 4/10
AC/DC
3/5
Jesus fuck this album cover is hideous. Let's deep fry the shit out of a picture of 5 dudes who all have a bit too much Neanderthal DNA. Musically, I’ll only ever return to this album if I want to head Highway to Hell and 9 songs that song like but are slightly worse than Highway to Hell. 6/10
1/5
Just horrible all around. Album cover, title, lyrics, music, really the full package. If you enjoyed this album or had a hand in its making, I don't ever want to meet you. Glad this came pretty much full circle with Korn - it put some awful nu-metal bookends on this entire project for me. 1/10
Scritti Politti
2/5
Thought this was gonna just be a mediocre 80s record that was over hated but it was a crappy 80s record instead. 4/10
David Ackles
3/5
There were some parts of this album that were genuinely good but those clashed with the parts I really disliked. 6/10
The Jam
4/5
This is a great little new wave record. Plenty of songs that get to the point quickly and don't overstay their welcome. Would maybe listen to this again if I was really in the mood for it. 7/10
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
This was significantly better than Metal Box. I could actually tell how this album influenced plenty of post punk to come, and some of the songs were actually songs (despite being a little out there). However, the lyrics to a couple tracks were so heavy-handed and Fodderstompf was just horrid. 5/10
The Cult
3/5
Perhaps the most generic hard rock I've ever heard. 6/10
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
Good album but imagine if you thought you were friends with Lupe Fiasco and he left you out of the 12 minute shout out outro. That would be devastating. 8/10
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
Another great album. Good mix of alternative rock with soulful vocals and strong flow between tracks. My main complaint is that there wasn’t a very big range of emotion or sound covered, but it was still very good. 8/10
Simple Minds
3/5
Some extremely forgettable new wave. 5/10
The Icarus Line
3/5
Some very unmemorable noise rock. 5/10
R.E.M.
3/5
I think this album is where I finally understood how to interpret REM’s music. They’re not some alt rock band that randomly got popular, they’re just a pop group for Gen X. 5/10
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
This is so college radio. 6/10
Laibach
2/5
This is goofy as hell. Just some LARPers that are physically unable to come across as cool or intimidating. 3/10
Peter Gabriel
4/5
It was decent, I like Sledgehammer and the Kate Bush duet. Clearly a little more poppy than the earlier Peter Gabriel albums. 7/10
Bobby Womack
4/5
Pretty solid funky soul album. 8/10
Beck
3/5
I want to like Beck’s music but it’s just so meh to me. 6/10
John Lennon
4/5
I liked this better than Imagine. 8/10
Songhoy Blues
4/5
Pretty decent, if a little slow. 7/10
Stephen Stills
4/5
Could be my favorite out of all the CSNY-adjacent albums on the list. Or I’ve developed Stockholm Syndrome from having to listen to so many CSNY-adjacent albums (17 and counting!). 8/10
Buzzcocks
4/5
Nice quick punk album, nothing crazy about it. 7/10
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
This album is theoretically very interesting, too bad it’s one of the worst listening experiences we’ve had in the entire list. 1/10
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Melodramatic, weak vocals, a couple tracks with a bunch of talking, what was the rationale for adding this to the list? Still had enough fun listening to it that I don't exactly dislike it. 6/10
Maxwell
4/5
Really smooth R&B, thought it would be a little more interesting based on the first song but not a bad album. 7/10
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
Apparently the city of Cleveland loves this band. 5/10
Stereo MC's
2/5
Ugh really not a fan of this. Just super repetitive and boring. 4/10
Pere Ubu
2/5
Not a fun listen. 3/10
The Strokes
5/5
Man I love The Strokes. 9/10
3/5
I kinda liked this so I listened to it twice and liked it way less on the second listen. 6/10
Ryan Adams
2/5
Nothing kills a personal album with a lot of love songs quite like finding out the artist is an abuser. 4/10
Klaxons
3/5
What do you expect me to do with this album this far into the list? It was fine. Some parts sounded good. Some parts were boring. It won the Mercury Prize. It had zero cultural impact. 6/10
The White Stripes
3/5
This was truly mid. 6/10
Dirty Projectors
4/5
This was decently entertaining, actually an alright discovery for a 21st century album that I hadn’t heard of. 7/10
Beck
4/5
I really enjoyed this album, despite it having many qualities that I have disparaged other albums for on this list. I think Beck is a good songwriter and his skills are showcased here on a project that isn’t overflowing with canned drum beats. Almost got George Harrison vibes, though not quite. 8/10
Weather Report
4/5
Nice easy listening. I prefer the Buddy Rich version of Birdland but this is still an album I’ll return to. 8/10
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
I'm not sure if this is significantly better than the other Dinosaur Jr. album on this list, or if my music taste has changed in the ~2 years since we got the last one. Maybe now I can see how this fits in temporally between peak Sonic Youth and the ensuing 90s grunge scene. Some of the more out there stuff was a bit grating but overall I enjoyed this. 7/10
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
I think I would have liked this more if it was just bossa nova. Instead it almost leaned into trip hop, which was a little disappointing to me. 6/10
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Great stuff from the Pumpkins. 9/10
Traffic
4/5
I'm not sure that Steve Winwood was really important enough to get this many albums on the list, but I haven't disliked any of them. This was a nice bit of boomer rock with some interesting instrumentations. 7/10
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
Damon Albarn is extremely overrated. 4/10
Kings of Leon
3/5
It's pretty shocking to see that this was panned by American critics upon release, especially compared to the favorable reviews in the UK. Perhaps the American critics had prescient visions of Use Somebody and Sex on Fire getting significant airtime in dying department stores in the 2010s. 5/10
LTJ Bukem
1/5
Why make a drum and bass album over 2 hours? 2/10
Air
3/5
It's fine for a semi-ambient soundtrack but imo a dumb movie plot. Maybe I'll have a different opinion on both fronts if I ever watch the movie. 6/10
Morrissey
3/5
I wasn't really in the mood for Morrissey today but I also think this is significantly weaker than most of his other albums I've heard. 5/10
Coldcut
3/5
Highly reminiscent of World Clique but way less dancey. 5/10
Sheryl Crow
3/5
Generally fine. 6/10
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Not sure what in this album reminds me of high school more - the fact that it sounds like boring Christian music or the fact that it has My Antonia in it. 4/10
Khaled
3/5
I don’t think this was very good but I was genuinely surprised at the start of nearly every song, which counts for something. I’ll almost certainly never return to it given that it isn’t on Spotify. 6/10
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
This was really bad but I definitely liked it less listening to it on an airplane. 3/10
The Beta Band
3/5
After the first couple songs I thought this was going to be a pretty interesting alternative album but it got a little annoying at times. Can definitely see how this would have influenced Alt-J. 6/10
John Lee Hooker
3/5
There was one or two good songs but mostly it was just the blues. 6/10
Supergrass
4/5
Liked it slightly better than I was expecting. In some ways it felt like a rip off of every other British group in the 90s and in some ways it felt significantly better than many of those groups since it didn’t dwell on any singular sound for too long. 7/10
Small Faces
3/5
It was about what I expected, perhaps a little more whimsy than necessary. 6/10