Saved Prior: Enter Sandman Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: Through The Never, The God That Failed Overall Notes: Me before listening to this album: :) Me after hearing Enter Sandman: :) Me after the next 4 songs: :|||||||| Me after song 8 seems to finally signal a change in the repetitive song structure: :||| Me after song 8 finishes as a sub-par song: :|||||||||||| Me after the album finally ended: :||||||||||||||||| I hated this. I have yet to give a 1 through 80 albums, this album has the incredible Enter Sandman, and I still gave this a 1. Through The Never and The God That Failed had their moments but came nowhere close to saving the immense pain sitting through this album put me through. I remember now why I always thought I hated metal. Shit like this.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: This is one of those albums where it inspired a lot of music that ended up being much better. The first couple of tracks were pretty cool how they overlapped and sounded like one long jam session, but not something I'll be returning to.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra, My Old Man Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Maybe the most british album I have ever heard. If I was an english bloke in the late 70's who felt jilted by the system this would BUMP. Unfortunately, I am not any of those things. Some pretty crash bars all over this thing, and I want to believe he's playing a character but sheesh. I'm glad this exists for people who enjoy it.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Run Baby Run, Leaving Las Vegas, Solidify, The Na-Na Song, Wha Can I Do For You Cutting Edge: Strong Enough, Can't Cry Anymore Overall Notes: Actually liked this one a good bit. Kinda felt like junk food in comparison to the other albums we've been listening to in that it didn't take that much focus to enjoy, but still pretty good.

Saved Prior: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Neighborhood #2 (Laika), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies) Not Saved: 10. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) Saved: 9. Une Annee Sans Lumiere 8. Crown of Love 7. In the Backseat 6. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) 5. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) 4. Haiti 3. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) 2. Wake Up 1. Rebellion (Lies) Overall Notes: A very very difficult album to rank 1-10. I saw these guys in concert (would highly recommend) so I'm pretty familiar with their stuff, and each song on this album brings strong musical elements to the table. Album is super nostalgic yet at the same time forward looking. Great stuff. One thing I'll say is that it's crazy that Wake Up doesn't open up the album, and the tracklist flows a little weird to me. But what do I know? 4.75 rounded up because math.

Saved Prior: World in My Eyes, Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth Saved Off Rip: Sweetest Perfection Cutting Edge: Halo, Blue Dress, Clean, Dangerous, Kaleid, Happiest Girl, Sea of Sin Overall Thoughts: Very good album, sinister/sexual vibes, 4 all-time bangers, ambient songs towards the end bring it down to a 4 star

Songs Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Real Estate Cutting Edge: Break It Up Overall Notes: Not really my thing, high pitched delivery jarring at first but you get used to it, preferred the second half to the first

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: sounds like a lot of other guitar driven rock, probably inspired a bunch of the stuff i've already heard. Nothing overly good nor overly bad.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: So Much Things To Say, Three Little Birds, Punky Reggae Party Cutting Edge: Waiting In Vain Overall Notes: Not particularly a reggae fan but this was clearly very good, no bad songs, a clean 3.5 stars but had to round down

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Fight Test, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2, Are You a Hypnotist?? Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Very good album, flows really well and puts you in a different world. I can imagine coming back to this and liking even more songs.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Keep Gettin' It On Cutting Edge: Let's Get It On, Come Get to This, Distant Lover Overall Notes: Grew on me, need to be in the right mood to listen to it otherwise it really does not hit, not my genre but still pretty good. Definitely should've given Exodus a 4, that puts me in the mood to enjoy reggae while this album needs me to be in the mood for soul.

Saved Prior: None For all 5 star albums I'm going to be ranking the songs worst to best with tiers after one day of listening. Not Saved Tier: 14. The Word 13. If I Needed Someone Cutting Edge: 12. Nowhere Man (wish there was a little bit more going on, will probably grow on me) 11. Girl 10. Run For Your Life (would be higher if the lyrics weren't so sus coming from John Lennon) Saved Off Rip: 9. In My Life (didn't especially like it at first, already growing on me, could easily rocket up) 8. What Goes On (simple but hits the spot) 7. Drive My Car (again, simple but hits the spot) 6. Wait 5. Think For Yourself Top 4 are essentially toss-ups, not confident in this order: 4. Michelle 3. I'm Looking Through You 2. Norwegian Wood 1. You Won't See Me This album is incredible, might be a Beatle stan. I get the Beatles. Nothing sounds quite like them, and goddamn they refuse to miss on this album. Even the two I didn't save are at least 5/10 songs.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: C.T.A. - 102, Don't Make Waves Cutting Edge: So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star, My Back Pages, The Girl With No Name, Lady Friend Overall Notes: I guess I'm a fan of mid-late 60's rock, because even though this was a step down from the Beatles and there were definitely some misses on here this was still an enjoyable listen.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Song of Joy, The Curse of Millhaven Cutting Edge: O'Malley's Bar Overall Notes: Was a LOT better the third time compared to the first and second. Great storyteller, but I prefer it when my music does something beyond telling a good story. Similar to Marvin Gaye in that I need to be in the mood to enjoy it.

Saved Prior: Hungry Like the Wolf Not Saved: 9. Lonely in Your Nightmare Cutting Edge: 8. Save a Prayer 7. New Religion Off Rip: 6. My Own Way 5. Rio 4. Last Chance on the Stairway 3. The Chauffeur (all of the songs mostly had the same vibe except for this one. didn't expect to like this one as much as I did) 2. Hold Back the Rain 1. Hungry Like the Wolf Overall Notes: Didn't think I was going to give this album a 5, but looking back I saved all but one song so how could I not. Hit that 80's alt zone dead on. The hooks are absurdly good and took it from a 4 to a 5. Every single song had a really good melodic element to it.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Cuando Te Vea (mostly to remember the album exists) Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Super fun listen, never really listened to latin music that seriously before. Sounds a lot like other latin music to me, but that's not a bad thing.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Halfway Home, Family Tree, Love Dog, Shout Me Out Cutting Edge: Dancing Choose, Golden Age, Lover's Day Overall Notes: Pretty good. Nothing quite as good as Wolf Like Me or Happy Idiot, but still a good album. Cut the last 4 songs and it's a 4, as it stands it's a 3.5 rounded down. May come back to this one.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: Do It Clean, Pride, Crocodiles, Rescue, Read It In Books, The Pictures on My Wall Overall Notes: Wasn't a huge Echo fan going into this and the sentiment remains. All sounded more or less the same and wasn't terribly interesting. Maybe their later albums will be better.

Saved Prior: Yellow, Trouble Saved Off Rip: Shiver, Spies, Sparks, Everything's Not Lost/Life is For Living Cutting Edge: Don't Panic Overall Notes: Between a 4 and a 5, songs 7-9 brought it down to a 4. I can see why they blew up off of this, a beautiful album. Having Yellow and Trouble back to back is greatest hits type stuff.

Saved Prior: Sir Duke, Pastime Paradise Not Saved: 21. Easy Goin' Evening 20. If It's Magic 19. Love's In Need Of Love Today 18. Ngiculela-Es Una Historia-I Am Singing 17. Black Man (without the outro this would've been saved) Cutting Edge: 16. Ordinary Pain 15. Summer Soft 14. Have A Talk With God 13. Knocks Me Off My Feet Saved: 12. Ebony Eyes 11. Joy Inside My Tears 10. All Day Sucker 9. I Wish 8. Contusion 7. Village Ghetto Land 6. Saturn 5. Isn't She Lovely 4. Another Star 3. Pastime Paradise 2. As 1. Sir Duke Overall Notes: Another album where I didn't think I was going to give it a 5 but after looking back over it I clearly liked it a lot. Even the songs I didn't really like clearly belonged on the album (except the last one) and these songs work on their own and hit even better when placed with one another. That blind mf don't miss!

Saved Prior: A Message To You Rudy Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: a couple man idk which ones Overall Notes: not terrible, not amazing, I'll probably end up saving a couple. Similar to marvin gaye i'd say

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: Rock Me Baby, Out of Focus Overall Notes: Yeah this ain't it chief. Not as god awful as it was as background music the first time listening to it but definitely not my thing.

Saved Prior: Back In Black Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Was hoping it was gonna be better than past listening experiences but I really just don't vibe with this kind of music. Back In Black the song is crazy good tho and none of these songs are bad. If I was on a roadtrip through Montana I wouldn't skip any of them.

Saved Prior: London Calling, Spanish Bombs, Lost in the Supermarket, Train in Vain Unsaved Tier: 19. Jimmy Jazz 18. Revolution Rock 17. Four Horsemen 16. Lover's Rock 15. Wrong 'Em Boyo (second Stagger Lee song shoutout nick cave) Cutting Edge Tier: 14. The Card Cheat 13. The Right Profile 12. Clampdown 11. Brand New Cadillac 10. Death or Glory Off Rip Tier: 9. I'm Not Down 8. Koka Kola 7. The Guns of Brixton 6. Hateful 5. Rudie Can't Fail 4. Spanish Bombs 3. Lost in the Supermarket 2. London Calling 1. Train in Vain Overall Notes: An experience and set the stage for a lot of the 80's music I love today. Train in Vain is one of my favorite songs of all time. The 4 songs I had saved prior have a familiarity bias to them, but I'm sure in 5 months that list will be jumbled. Top stuff.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: I Will Dare Cutting Edge: Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out, Androgynous, Seen Your Video Overall Notes: I really did not like this one on first listen, but I saw the appeal on second listen. Would've given it a one for sure after first listen, got bumped up to a 2 after a couple more listens. I do like I Will Dare a lot though.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: You Just May Be The One, I Can't Get Her Off My Mind, Randy Scouse Git, All Of Your Toys*, The Girl I Knew Somewhere*, A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You* (last three songs were added on for the deluxe rerelease) Cutting Edge: Shades of Gray Overall Notes: Another less-good version of the Beatles. Felt more by the numbers than the Byrds did, but it just goes to show the crazy influence those English guys had on popular music.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Under Wraps, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I wanted to be a hater so bad but it wont me over. An album I never would've listened to if it weren't for this site and though it's not for casual listening, as an album experience it was actually super cool. Differed from Nick Cave in that I didn't get tired of his voice after a while because there was no voice, the narrative is carried through the music, song titles, and my imagination. Sounds super pretentious when I put it that way but this was super cool. Almost gave it a 5 lowkey.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Iron Man Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Oops, all heavy metal! I just don't really like this kind of music. Even Iron Man, a prior casualty of the Cutting Edge, took multiple years of listening to finally get saved. Maybe one day it'll all click for me but that day wasn't today.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Yes that was in fact jazz. Don't know enough about jazz to really understand what makes good jazz and what doesn't. Sounded pretty good to me, but also sounded like good ol' jazz.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn, Wild Cats of Kilkenny, Sally MacLennane Cutting Edge: I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day, Billy's Bones Overall Notes: These Celtic boys rock pretty hard. It feels kind of gimmicky sometimes but it's fun.

Saved Prior: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) Saved Off Rip: Love Is A Stranger Cutting Edge: I've Got An Angel Overall Notes: A lot more artsy than I was expecting having known Sweet Dreams beforehand. Much better after a couple listens, but nothing especially stood out other than Sweet Dreams, a deserving smash hit.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Cecilia Ann, Velouria, Allison, Ana, Havalina Cutting Edge: Dig for Fire Overall Notes: I REALLY did not like this one at first. Luckily it's pretty short so I could listen to it a bunch of times, and it has very much grown on me. A lot more abrasive than I was expecting going in, but once I more or less knew what was going on in the songs they were pretty good. Excited for the other Pixies albums.

Saved Prior: I Think I Need a New Heart Saved Off Rip: A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off Cutting Edge: a couple I have to go back through and pick Overall Notes: Very very long, didn't really have time to go through and truly listen to all of the songs as I am currently quite busy. An album I will be returning to in the summer when I have more time (hopefully). Placeholder grade of 2.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: This is one of those albums where it inspired a lot of music that ended up being much better. The first couple of tracks were pretty cool how they overlapped and sounded like one long jam session, but not something I'll be returning to.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: People Everyday, Mr. Wendal, U, Dawn of the Dreads Cutting Edge: Tennessee Overall Notes: A pretty fun listen. Sometimes the sound gets a little too all over the place and the tone gets a little too preachy for me but still a good listening experience. A 3.5, but I'll round to a 4.

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 7. Round & Round Cutting Edge: 6. Running Dry 5. Cinnamon Girl Saved: 4. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere 3. The Losing End 2. Cowgirl in the Sand 1. Down by the River Overall Notes: Don't usually listen to much of this country/rock stuff, so didn't expect to like this at all. A 4.5 that I rounded up for because of how much it blew my expectations out of the water. Good vibes and fun instrumentals. I'm excited to hear more from this up and comer 'Neil Young'.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: The One You Love, Old Whore's Diet Cutting Edge: Little Sister Overall Notes: A pleasant album. Not really sure why it's required listening but glad I listened to it. This is perfect music to put on in the background while you do work.

Saved Prior: Scar Tissue, Otherside, Californication Saved Off Rip: Parallel Universe Cutting Edge: Easily Overall Notes: Other than the three songs I knew already, the other songs kinda sounded the same. I wasn't able to devote full attention to the album so maybe I just wasn't listening close enough, but nothing especially stood out in a positive way. Will probably come back to this one.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Black Sabbath, The Wizard, Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B./Wicked World Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I don't know if this list has broadened my horizons or if this album really is that different from Paranoid, but I MUCH preferred this one. I'll be reappraising my 2 for Paranoid later, but I really liked this album. I don't get why they decided to combine multiple songs together, would've liked it even more if I could listen to just certain parts of the two ~10 minute songs. A 4.5 that I'll round to a 4 because I'm trying to avoid score inflation and I didn't ADORE this album, but damn this was a good album. Cut like 3 minutes off that last song and it's a 5.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Bluebird Wine Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Some good ol'fashioned country. Not a huge fan of slow country and it kinda settles into the background for me, but she has a good voice.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Ether, Damaged Goods, I Found That Essence Rare Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I was hopeful going into this, but it was kinda just noise. All kinda sounded the same, once you've heard the first 4 songs you've heard the whole album. Disappointed.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Like a Rolling Stone, Tombstone Blues Cutting Edge: Desolation Row Overall Notes: The songwriting is really good, but holy hell batman I can't take the harmonica. I normally have no strong feelings about the instrument, but for whatever reason it sounds horrible and it single handedly ruins songs on this album (Queen Jane Approximately is the chief example of it). I don't know if it's the mix or my speakers or what it was about it but the screeching in my ear was unbearable. I can't believe that the cool kids once listened to harmonicas and a rambling man.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours, Death of a Disco Dancer, Girlfriend in a Coma, Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Not as good as prior Smiths material I know, but still good. Will inevitably grow on me because that's just how the Smiths go. Hyped for the other two albums.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Everydays, Expecting to Fly, Hung Upside Down, Sad Memory, Broken Arrow Cutting Edge: Bluebird, Rock & Roll Woman Overall Notes: Sounds like one of those bands where they influenced a lot of others, but in retrospective they kinda blend in with the rest. They also don't really sound like a band but rather a collection of songs that people decided to put together under the "Buffalo Springfield" name. The songs are pretty good as a whole, but not very cohesive. The similarities between Mr. Soul and I Can't Get No Satisfaction just make me want to listen to the original than this quasi-cover. 3.5 rounded to a 3 despite the large number of songs saved because I feel like other songs/bands ended up doing this stuff better, including Neil Young himself. Good songs, but not the greatest 'album'.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Girls and Boys, End of a Century, Parklife, Badhead, To the End Cutting Edge: Tracy Jacks Overall Notes: The first half of the album is really really good, but could've cut a couple of songs to keep up the momentum. Super enjoyable regardless though.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Stroke It Noel, Blue Moon, Till The End Of The Day Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Despite the fact that I didn't save a lot of songs, this was a cool listen. It puts the disintegration of a band and of a man front and center and you can hear that in the music. Is it for casual listening? Absolutely not. This is another album that I'll be returning to over the summer when I can really immerse myself in the world of the album. As it is now, I'll give it a 4 and keep it saved to my albums on Spotify.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: God! Show Me Magic, Hometown Unicorn, For Now and Ever Cutting Edge: Something 4 the Weekend Overall Notes: This was alright with headphones, but it was a fun listen on the speaker. Don't entirely get what the big deal about them is, but it was fun.

Saved Prior: Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? Saved Off Rip: Perfect Skin, Speedboat, Rattlesnakes, Forest Fire, Charlotte Street, Four Flights Up Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: No bad songs, but nothing earth-shattering either. Just a nice collection of 80's alt-pop. Close to a 5 due to sheer number of songs saved, but not that many songs I would really call incredible 10/10 songs so it stays a 4.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: A fine album, I can see why Bowie is such a big deal. Nothing was super catchy for me to latch on to after a couple listens, but a good album nonetheless.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Tubular Bells Pt. 1 Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Some really cool parts, some eh parts. That'll happen when the songs are 20+ minutes long. Crazy enough, I liked those better than the shorter songs at the end.

Saved Prior: Coconut Saved Off Rip: Gotta Get Up Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I always get this guy mixed up with Andy Kaufmann. No idea why, but I do. In terms of the music, eh. Love "Coconut" tho.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Lucifer Sam, Matilda Mother Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I don't really get what the big deal about this is. I'm sure they get better as they go along but man, did not especially like these songs.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Sounded like a less interesting version of Fatboy Slim and "Connected" by the Stereo MC's. Close to a 1 tbh, because even though nothing was objectively bad about the album, nothing was objectively good either. It just existed for OVER AN HOUR. These songs should not be 5+ minutes.

Saved Prior: Immigrant Song Not Saved: 10. Hats off To (Roy) Harper Saved: 9. Tangerine 8. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp 7. Celebration Day 6. Since I've Been Loving You 5. Friends 4. Out on the Tiles 3. That's the Way 2. Gallows Pole 1. Immigrant Song Overall Notes: Led Zeppelin clicked for me during this album. I genuinely enjoyed every song on this album except the last one, and all for different reasons. Immigrant Song is what I imagine people who like heavy metal think heavy metal sounds like all the time. If it all sounded like that, I'd be a fan. Apparently this album is a transitionary album for Zep, can't wait to hear more.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Know Your Product, Memories Are Made of This, Private Affair, Run Down, Orstralia, New Centre of the Universe, Untitled Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Surprisingly really liked this one. A 5/5 punk album, unfortunately the downside of that being that punk kinda sounds the same a lot of the time. I had to check my computer multiple times to make sure I hadn't accidentally shuffled the album because some of the riffs sounded the exact same. Still a really good album, but that's why it's not a 5.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Gimme Shelter, Monkey Man, You Can't Always Get What You Want Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Is it blasphemous to call this album meh? I don't really like blues and that's probably why I don't like it all that much. This just wasn't my thing. I really like You Can't Always Get What You Want though, and Gimme Shelter is good if a little overrated.

Saved Prior: Radio Free Europe Saved Off Rip: Laughing, Moral Kiosk, Perfect Circle, Sitting Still, Shaking Through Cutting Edge: Catapult, We Walk Overall Notes: My biggest gripe with R.E.M. has always been that they sound like everyone else, and even though I know that they influenced all those other bands that doesn't change the fact that I liked some of those songs better. This album went pretty far in showing me that R.E.M. still have merit. Really really good record, and though they all sounded kinda similar I was tempted to give this album a 5. Gave it a 4 because nothing knocked me off my feet (other than Radio Free Europe which has quickly become my favorite R.E.M. song) but I get R.E.M. now.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: How Could I Be Wrong, Idiot Brother, Home Again Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Sophisti-britpop. Kinda reminded me of the slower songs from the Blur album. Bet the indie brits went crazy over this one.

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Forgive Them Father Cutting Edge: Ex-Factor, To Zion, Doo Wop (That Thing) Overall Notes: Let me just say that this was really good R&B/rap. Unfortunately, R&B/rap where almost every song is over 5 minutes long is not my thing. There's only so much Fergie-singing-the-National-Anthem-ing I can take before I tune out the lyrics, even if those lyrics are really good. Was close to giving it a three, but I was kinda bored listening to a lot of these songs. I'm sure that if I ever grow to like R&B I'll look back and laugh at what an idiot I was for giving this album a 2, but that's where I am right now.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Schizophrenia, Catholic Block Cutting Edge: Stereo Sanctity Overall Notes: This is how I imagine this album was pitched: -Hey guys I've got a great idea for an album. You play your guitar, you play your drums, I'll vocalize over it. No planning, just playing. I'll just let you know when you should be loud and when you should be quiet. -Oh so you're shooting for a jazz/improv type thing. -No. We will be recording our parts in separate rooms. We will be creating noise. I did not like this. It is so exhausting listening to this kind of music. It drains me like no other. I feel bad putting this on the same level as that fucking Metallica album that I also graded a 1 because I can tell that this was artistically a statement, but I did not have a good time listening to this and I did not gain anything from listening to it. 1.5.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra, My Old Man Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Maybe the most british album I have ever heard. If I was an english bloke in the late 70's who felt jilted by the system this would BUMP. Unfortunately, I am not any of those things. Some pretty crash bars all over this thing, and I want to believe he's playing a character but sheesh. I'm glad this exists for people who enjoy it.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Hang on to Your Love Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Blech. Not for me.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Castles Made of Sand Cutting Edge: Bold as Love Overall Notes: Messy by design. Not the biggest fan of these classic electric guitar driven albums, so this isn't really my thing. Seeing that Little Wing had over 180 million streams shocked me. 2.5 that I'll round down because some of these songs are borderline unlistenable.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Run Baby Run, Leaving Las Vegas, Solidify, The Na-Na Song, Wha Can I Do For You Cutting Edge: Strong Enough, Can't Cry Anymore Overall Notes: Actually liked this one a good bit. Kinda felt like junk food in comparison to the other albums we've been listening to in that it didn't take that much focus to enjoy, but still pretty good.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Talkin' Bout a Revolution, Fast Car, Across the Lines, Mountains O'Things Cutting Edge: Baby Can I Hold You, Why? Overall Notes: Didn't think I would like this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. Her voice just sounds super authentic and it sounds like she means everything she sings, even if it was a little preachy at times. Has a timeless sound, wouldn't have been surprised if it was released anytime between the 70s and the 2010s. I'd heard bits of Fast Car before but hadn't realized how amazing that song is.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Missed, Me-Jane Cutting Edge: Rub 'Til It Bleeds, 50ft Queenie, Yuri-G Overall Notes: I went back and forth one giving this one a 1 star. On the first listen it was downright unlistenable. I think understand what she's going for and she's doing a damn good job of showing what I understand to be gender-based rage. The problem is that I didn't want to hear it ever again. After forcing myself to listen to it again, however, I could in fact hear melody and how to music complimented the anger and confusion really well. Absolutely a 2 still because even though it does what it does really well, I don't really like what it does. This album isn't really for me though, and I would never say that this is a bad album. Kinda goated tbh. Still a 2 from me tho.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Dress, Sheela-Na-Gig Cutting Edge: O Stella, Happy and Bleeding Overall Notes: Less abrasive and angry compared to the other one we listened to. Liked more songs, but didn't really nail an emotion like the other album so will probably be returning to this one less.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Song For Lindy, Santa Cruz, Going Out Of My Head, Everybody Needs A 303, Give The Po' Man A Break, First Down Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I had prior exposure to his bigger hits, but this was fun head-bopping dance music. The repetition hits perfectly and this would be super fun to dance to at a party. Not what I would call essential listening, but a fun listen nonetheless.

Saved Prior: Poison Arrow Off Rip: Show Me, Many Happy Returns, The Look of Love - Pt. 1, Date Stamp, All of My Heart, Theme from "Mantrap" Cutting Edge: Tears Are Not Enough, Valentine's Day Overall Notes: Nice juicy drama, synths, and drum machines. The cover captures the theatricality of this album perfectly. Big fan. Popcorn music, was close to giving it a 5.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Push It Along (despite the intro/outro), Luck of Lucien, After Hours, Footprints, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Pubic Enemy, Can I Kick It?, Mr. Muhammad, Ham 'N' Eggs, Description of a Fool Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: A very good album. I don't think it ever transcends into a classic album, but it's a very good and very consistent album. All of the songs are good and have good vibes, but I couldn't round up this 4.5 to a 5 despite the amount of songs I saved.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Thunder Road, Backstreets, She's the One, Jungleland Cutting Edge: Born to Run Overall Notes: While I can't say I fully understand the insane hype for this guy, I will say that this is the best of this type of album that I've ever heard. Was going to give it a 3, but that felt wrong so I'm bumping it up to a 4.

Saved Prior: Drive Off Rip: Privilege, Nowhere Fast, Consequence Cutting Edge: The Warmth, Make Yourself, I Miss You Overall Notes: Actually liked this a lot. Nu-metal, or whatever this is, is a LOT more enjoyable than straight metal. I liked the tinges of hip-hop that were mixed throughout. Lost me towards the end where they got a lot more yell-y, but the first half of the album was really good.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Krautrock, Jennifer, Giggy Smile Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Expected to hate this. Kinda loved it instead. The baseline on "Jennifer" is genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever heard. This album does do the thing where it randomly blasts you with an unlistenable sound for a bit, but I still enjoyed this. Also 1973?????? You could've told me this was a Radiohead side project and I would've believed you.

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 12. Help (Hard to outdo the Beatles) 11. Crescent Noon 10. Baby It's You Cutting Edge: 9. (They Long To Be) Close To You (Crazy that this was their huge hit. I'm sure it'll grow on me) Off Rip: 8. Reason To Believe 7. I'll Never Fall In Love Again 6. Another Song 5. Maybe It's You 4. Mr. Guder 3. I Kept On Loving You 2. We've Only Just Begun 1. Love Is Surrender Overall Notes: This album made me go :). Happy music. Can't wait to take some summer drives to this.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Four Women, Either Way I Lose Cutting Edge: Lilac Wine Overall Notes: Good music, just not my kind of thing. I'm glad this exists, but it's not meant for me.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I get why ambient music exists. I might even go so far as to say I'm glad ambient music exists. But I couldn't tell you for the life of me what makes good ambient music and what makes bad ambient music. A bad ambient song to me is either silence or a musical song. So this middle ground between the two is very hard for me to judge.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Victoria; Yes Sir, No Sir; Some Mother's Son; Shangri-La; Nothing to Say; Arthur; This Man He Weeps Tonight*; Drivin' (Alternate Mix)* Cutting Edge: Mr. Churchill Says *: On the Deluxe Album Overall Notes: Very very strong 4. Love the lyrics on this album, and each song has at least one good musical/lyrical moment. A lot also had moments that I could've done without, but really enjoyed this album as a whole.

Saved Prior: Superstition Off Rip: Maybe Your Baby Cutting Edge: Big Brother Overall Notes: A little too mellow for my taste, much preferred the more varied Songs in the Key of Life. If someone told me they adored this album I wouldn't think they were crazy, it's just not my thing.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Drowned World/Substitute For Love, Swim, Ray of Light, Candy Perfume Girl, The Power of Good-Bye Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I really liked this album's vibes. 5 stars? No. But it was a very enjoyable listen despite nothing really happening. A clean 4.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Good Times Bad Times, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Your Time Is Gonna Come Cutting Edge: Dazed and Confused, How Many More Times Overall Notes: I preferred the more acoustic LZ III, but this was still pretty good. I didn't like the blues covers very much, so I'm glad they focused on their own material as they grew as a band.

Saved Prior: Freedom! '90 Off Rip: Heal the Pain Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Great voice, one all-time bop, one pretty good song, and a bunch of fine but ultimately forgettable songs.

Saved Prior: Walk This Way Saved Off Rip: Peter Piper, Is It Live, You Be 'Illin Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Walk This Way is an alltimer, and there were some songs here that I liked, but the rest of the album felt very basic. I understand that this had to come before all the other great rap, but I couldn't really get into this. It's Tricky has to be one of the most overrated songs I've ever heard (it's fine but nothing spectacular), and Dumb Girl is one of the worst early rap songs I've ever heard. Brings it down from a near 3 to a 2.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: First We Take Manhattan, Everybody Knows, I Can't Forget, Tower of Song Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: The missing link between Frank Sinatra and Nick Cave. I can see how people absolutely adore this whack poetry crooner, but it was average (for this list) listening. I get what he's doing with the cheesy 80's stuff highlighting the cheesiness of the lyrics, but that doesn't make it more enjoyable.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: The Grand Tour, Darlin', The Weatherman Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Saw someone call this the country "In The Wee Small Hours". I don't even especially like that album but let's pump the breaks. There are some good songs on here though.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Mothership Connection (Star Child) Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: We want the funk, give up the funk (if it's not live.) Coming to you from my laptop speakers, this is underwhelming. I would adore this live though, when you can really feel the rhythm. An enjoyable 2.5, and since most of my other 2s are albums I didn't like, I'll round this up.

Saved Prior: D.A.N.C.E. Cutting Edge Tier: 12. Waters of Nazareth Saved Tier: 11. Stress 10. One Minute to Midnight 9. Phantom 8. Newjack 7. Valentine 6. Phantom Pt. II 5. Genesis 4. DVNO 3. D.A.N.C.E. 2. Let There Be Light 1. The Party Overall Notes: A remarkably consistent electronic album. The main pitfall of electronic albums for me is that some of the songs drag on for a bit too long, but at 48 minutes for 12 songs this is just about the perfect length for the songs to breath without overstaying their welcome. Only knew D.A.N.C.E. going in, and that is definitely the outlier of the album. It's a lot darker and dirtier than that single, but in the best way possible. Daft Punk have their influence here, but they were also in turn influenced by this mammoth of an album. Incredible stuff.

Saved Prior: Seven Nation Army Not Saved Tier: 14. You've Got Her In Your Pocket 13. Little Acorns Cutting Edge: 12. Ball and Biscuit Saved: 11. Well It's True That We Love One Another (don't know why there's a minute of silence at the end of this one, would've been higher) 10. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine 9. There's No Home For You Here 8. In The Cold, Cold Night 7. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart 6. Black Math 5. The Hardest Button To Button 4. Hypnotize (if only it was longer!) 3. The Air Near My Fingers 2. Seven Nation Army 1. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself Overall Notes: I had prior exposure to Seven Nation Army and Hardest Button To Button, so I was expecting this to be an out and out rocker. Was a lot more nuanced and personal than that, and it was better for it. Didn't absolutely adore any of the songs, but this was an incredible album regardless. A low-end five, but 11/14 saved songs speaks for itself.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Bury Me Deep In Love, Hometown Farewell Kiss, Blinder By The Hour, Save What You Can, Baby I Can Walk You Home*, Region Unknown*, Love The Fever*, Bad News Reminds Me Of You*, Everything You Touch Turns To Time* Cutting Edge: None * = bonus track Overall Notes: Never heard of these guys even though they're in my musical wheelhouse. Reminded me of a more guitar driven Go-Betweens. Like this a fair amount, especially the bonus tracks, all of which I saved. If they were on the original album I would've rounded this up to a 4, but as it stands it's a 3.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Darkness, Darkness; Smug; Quicksand; Ride the Wind Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: The most inconsequential, random album on this list to date. I can only assume that it was added to give them an easy and uncontroversial album to take off when they have to add new albums when they release an updated version. It's not bad, in fact some of these songs are pretty good. It's just not must-hear.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Tell Me You'll Wait for Me Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Similar sentiment that I've had for a lot of the much older albums; good music, important music, but not my thing.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: August Day Song, So Nice (Summer Song), Bananeira Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Nice voice and beats. Really liked this, will be returning

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Girl VII, Spring, Kiss and Make Up Cutting Edge: Carnt Sleep, People Get Real Overall Notes: Not at all what I expected based on the album cover and the reputation this album has. Was expecting some kind of twee pop stuff but it was actually some decent dance music instead. Don't understand the polarizing reviews of this album compared to something like Screamadelica getting rave reviews. I know it came after but I liked this one more. The first half was on a strong four trajectory, but it lost steam as it went along. Cut like 3 or 4 songs and it's a 4.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: School, Bloody Well Right, Hide In Your Shell Cutting Edge: Crime Of The Century Overall Notes: The first three songs are really really good, but it loses its steam as it goes on. The definition of a 3.5 star album, but i'll round up to a 4 because the first three songs are incredible.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Out on the Weekend, A Man Needs a Maid, Heart of Gold, Old Man, There's a World, Alabama Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: When I'm in a relaxed mood this is very good music. When I'm not this is horribly boring music. Not as sonically interesting as the album with Crazy Horse was, and thus I greatly preferred that album (gave it a 5). This is worse than that album, but it's still pretty good. 3.5 that I'm going to round down because I have to be in the mood for this specific kind of laid-back-but-not-too-laid-back rock.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Alameda, Cupids Trick, 2:45 AM, Say Yes Cutting Edge: Speed Trials, Between the Bars Overall Notes: I'm not singer-songwriter depressed, I'm more twitchy guitar/drums depressed.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring, Peace Sells, Devils Island, My Last Words Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I considered myself a metal-hater, but it seems I have a soft spot for thrash. Probably stems from my time listening to the Madden '10 soundtrack every weekend as a kid, but I liked this. Do I get metal? No. But I get thrash. Wouldn't want anyone to know that I listen to this when I'm driving down the street, but it's great in doses.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Badlands, Candy's Room, Racing in the Street, The Promised Land Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Completely inoffensive rock. I understand he's a storyteller and he's an American icon but did we really need 4+ of his albums?

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Tonight, It's Not Me, Cheapskate Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Not a good sign of my enjoyment of the type of music a band is shooting for when the 3 songs I save aren't in the top half of most streamed on the album. Just came off a little too brash and noisy, and I gave this album a LOT of attempts to grow on me. A 2 feels harsh, but a 3 feels generous. A true 2.5 that I'm going to round down because score inflation.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Are You Happy?, Only Dreaming Now Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Sure. Fine. Bob Dylan esque vocals. Whatever. 2.5 rounded down cus it's ok.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, Afterglow, Rollin' Over Cutting Edge: Rene Overall Notes: Gets a little too kooky for its own good for the second half, but the first half is good unpredictable psychedelic rock (especially Afterglow). The second half is not terribly listenable though because of the gobbledygook voiceovers so idk how this could be one of the best british albums of all time. Bumass brits.

Saved Prior: Blister In The Sun, Kiss Off, Gone Daddy Gone Not Saved: 12. Gimme The Car 11. Good Feeling Cutting Edge: 10. To The Kill Saved: 9. Confessions 8. Promise 7. Add It Up 6. Ugly 5. Please Do Not Go 4. Prove My Love 3. Blister In The Sun 2. Gone Daddy Gone 1. Kiss Off Overall Notes: Angsty, immature, chaotic in all the best possible ways. Filled with catchy guitar hook after catchy guitar hook and the instrumentation and voice compliment each other perfectly. Big fan.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: The Headmaster Ritual, Rusholme Ruffians, I Want the One I Can't Have, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Nowhere Fast Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I love the Smiths, but I don't know if I've found a Smiths album that I adore yet. They all have really good songs, but also songs that I would rather skip. Just as with Strangeways the first half was much better than the second half. Nevertheless, a 4 of an album (Strangeways was also probably a 4 too but I can't change my old ratings). Excited for The Queen Is Dead which is supposedly their masterpiece.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt, What Does Your Soul Look Like - Pt. 4, Stem / Long Stem, Mutual Slump Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Lots of cool musical ideas on this album, and a deceptively large amount of the songs were saved seeing as a third of the songs were interludes. 3.5 that I'm going to round down because that felt right in my soul, though the quality of the beats was definitely 4 worthy.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Soul And Fire, Two Years Two Days, Emma Get Wild, Homemade Cutting Edge: Cliche, Forced Love, Bouquet For A Siren Overall Notes: This album had little bits that were really good, whether that be the lyrics, guitar, or melody, but could never keep the momentum going for more than a song or two, let alone the full album. Felt like they took the DIY aesthetics of the Violent Femmes and took it too far. I'm sure there are tons of people who love this, but I'm not one of them.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Concrete Walls Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Sounded like I was attending an Icelandic tribal ceremony 100 years in the future. Cool music, but not for casual listening.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen, Mother's Daughter Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Eh, this is clearly a bunch of talented dudes but idk it didn't really hit. I can't really put into words why I didn't really like it, but it just faded into the background for me. 2.5 that I'll round up.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: David Watts, Waterloo Sunset Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: There was so much hype on the internet for this album for some reason. I didn't see it. The amount of times I saw "How do I even talk about Waterloo Sunset; it's a perfect song"...??? Yeah it's great but come on. I'm sure I'm missing something with this album, but I listened at least 3 times and my opinion didn't really change from the first to the third. Meh.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Golgotha Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Nice relaxing world music. Every song more or less sounded to the same, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I like getting these world music albums on this list.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Tuesday's Gone, Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Things Goin' On Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Good authentic southern rock. Crazy that this was their first album and they basically defined the genre so effortlessly. Not crazy about Free Bird, but overall a great country rock record. Not my favorite genre so it gets a 3, but a strong 3 for sure.

Saved Prior: The Killing Moon Off Rip: Silver, Nocturnal Me, Crystal Days, The Yo Yo Man, Seven Seas, My Kingdom, Ocean Rain Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: One of those albums where I like damn near every song on the album, but nothing floors me. I love the mellow atmosphere of this album and the production was much better than the other Echo album in here. The Killing Moon is one of my favorite songs ever too, but there wasn't enough here to push this into 5 territory. Just a thoroughly good, sometimes great album.

Sauvegarder Avant: Rien Dès Le Début: Melody, Ballade De Melody Nelson, Valse de Melody, Ah Melody, L'hôtel particulier, En Melody, Cargo culte (c'est à dire tout l'album) Presque Sauvegarder: Rien Notes Générales: As someone who speaks French, I figure my two-cents is valid here. In terms of the "Lolita" part of the wikipedia page, that's really not a big part of the narrative and the whole narrative is clearly not meant to be taken seriously as the guy meets her after hitting her with his Rolls Royce as he's driving on the sidewalk. The music is the most important part, and once you let Gainsbourg's mic-swallowing exist in the atmosphere of the tracks it's not so jarring. Would've been a 5 if it was longer, I just wish it had more time to develop some of those songs. But I guess that's the point of the album, it's a short fling from car crash to plane crash. 4.5 that gets rounded to a 4 for length.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: 49 Bye-Byes, Teach Your Children Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: People adore this? Hated this on first listen, extreme overdose of meh on second listen. Simply was not interesting to me. Sorry.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: In Pursuit of Happiness, Everybody Knows (Except You), Someone, If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Me), I'm All You Need Cutting Edge: If... Overall Notes: Some nice chamber pop. I can see people seeing this as pretentious, but I like it like that. The orchestral moments are beautiful and the lyrics aren't too self-serious. A 4.5 rounded to a 4 because it wasn't anything earth-shatteringly good (and again I'm trying to avoid score inflation), but I really really enjoyed this album. This is like a better version of that Rufus Wainwright album and will probably replace it for when I'm in the mood for some chamber pop.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Shake Your Rump, Johnny Ryall, Egg Man, Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun, Shadrach, B-Boy Bouillabaisse: A Year And A Day, B-Boy Bouillabaisse: Hello Brooklyn, B-Boy Bouillabaisse: Dropping Names Cutting Edge: Car Thief Overall Notes: Pretty good. More of a technical marvel with all the sampling than a musical marvel, but still enjoyed a fair amount of tracks. Low 4.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Religion I Cutting Edge: Public Image Overall Notes: I don't get post punk. This sounds horrible. It's telling that the one song I saved is a spoken word version of another song on the album. I wanted to like this because I like "Rise" from one of their later albums (after they had already "sold out"), but this was a miserable listening experience. Musically important and the music matches with the rage and anger they're expressing, but this is still miserable. Upon relistenings there were redeeming qualities to the song "Public Image". Still a 1.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Afro Left, Inspection (Check One), Open Up Cutting Edge: Space Shanty, Storm 3000 Overall Notes: Super influential electronic that gives off Fatboy Slim vibes but with the world music meter turned up. It's fine, but nothing earth shattering for me personally.

Saved Prior: American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams*, Wake Me up When September Ends Off Rip: Holiday*, Are We the Waiting / St. Jimmy, Give Me Novacaine / She's a Rebel Cutting Edge: None *: I prefer the songs split up, so I had them saved off a greatest hits compilation at different times Overall Notes: I can't believe this album is as good as it is. IDK if I really follow the plot of the punk rock opera, but these songs all bop despite their hefty running times for punk songs.

Saved Prior: Dancing Queen; Money, Money, Money Off Rip: My Love, My Life; Dum Dum Diddle; That's Me; Tiger Cutting Edge: Knowing Me, Knowing You Overall Notes: I truly do not understand why people hate ABBA. You have to be so angry at people being happy. The lyrical depth of this album caught me off guard, was expecting vapid songs and these songs were not that. That's Me might be my favorite ABBA song by a country mile. ABBA know who they are and they do it so damn well. Went into this thinking ABBA were the quintessential Greatest Hits over Albums band, but this worked as an album very well. 4.5 to a 4 because it was just about what I expected and didn't really surprise me musically, but that doesn't mean this album didn't go crazy.

Saved Prior: Enter Sandman Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: Through The Never, The God That Failed Overall Notes: Me before listening to this album: :) Me after hearing Enter Sandman: :) Me after the next 4 songs: :|||||||| Me after song 8 seems to finally signal a change in the repetitive song structure: :||| Me after song 8 finishes as a sub-par song: :|||||||||||| Me after the album finally ended: :||||||||||||||||| I hated this. I have yet to give a 1 through 80 albums, this album has the incredible Enter Sandman, and I still gave this a 1. Through The Never and The God That Failed had their moments but came nowhere close to saving the immense pain sitting through this album put me through. I remember now why I always thought I hated metal. Shit like this.

Saved Prior: None (?) Off Rip: Welcome To New York, Blank Space, Style, Out Of The Woods, I Wish You Would, How You Get The Girl Cutting Edge: Wildest Dreams Overall Notes: My sisters used to listen to this album all the time, so I know the majority of these songs. Shocked I didn't have any of them saved before this because what a first 4 songs. Such a good pop album, the literal blueprint for at least half of the past 7 years worth of pop albums. Not as big a fan of the slower songs on this album and Bad Blood is a whiff for me, but a great album nonetheless. Glad she got some respect and made the list. 4.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Brown Sugar; Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine; Shit, Damn, Motherfucker; Lady Cutting Edge: Cruisin' Overall Notes: Smooth as butter. Didn't really think soul was my genre, but I've heavily fucked with the soul albums I've gotten thus far on this thing. Vibes on vibes on vibes.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: April Skies Cutting Edge: Happy When It Rains Overall Notes: Fairly one-note. I know their song Head On and that song is better than the entirety of this album. I can see how this would've influenced grunge and stuff but this album was just aight.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Motherless Children, I Shot The Sheriff, Steady Rollin' Man, Mainline Florida Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Prior to this album I only really knew Clapton as one of the greatest guitarists of all time but hadn't consciously listened to any of his music. To my surprise, these songs weren't entirely reliant on his guitar playing the way Jimi Hendrix's album was that I had gotten previously but were a lot more varied in the ways they presented the guitar. His playing didn't seem too out of this world to me, but I don't play the guitar so maybe I'm missing something. As for the album itself, very laid back, not especially my cup of iced tea but decent. Strong 2.

Saved Prior: Paradise By the Dashboard Light Off Rip: Bat Out of Hell, You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth, All Revved Up with No Place to Go, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Look. Turn your sophisti-brain off for 46 minutes and 31 seconds and enjoy this album. Is it the most incredible, world-changing music ever? No. Does it need to be to be an eminently enjoyable album? NO. This album is so fun and anyone who hates on it needs to lighten up. 4 stars.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: The Witch, Psycho, Money Cutting Edge: Do You Love Me, Strychnine Overall Notes: One of those albums with a low profile but incredible influence. Crazy that this was released the same year My Girl by the Temptations went number 1. Proto-grunge and proto-punk for sure, super simple chords and stuff but the energy sells it.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Ole Man Trouble, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Not a very big R&B fan, but his voice is incredibly expressive and he makes these songs his own. I had to look up whether the Rolling Stones actually wrote Satisfaction cus it sounds so natural coming from him.

Saved Prior: Tiny Dancer Off Rip: Madman Across The Water Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: All of Elton John's music that I've experienced so far has a certain theatricality to it that I don't know if i'm a particularly big fan of, but when it works it WORKS. Tiny Dancer is incredible, and I liked Madman Across The Water as well, but the others felt like knockoff versions of Tiny Dancer.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: She's obviously very talented. I hate to use the phrase "I'm too young to really enjoy this", but I'm too young to really enjoy this. Wouldn't turn this off, but wouldn't ask someone to turn it on either.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Oxygene Pt. 2 Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Very hard for me to grade these ambient and ambient-adjacent albums. How do you grade something that intentionally fades into the background. Probably blew mfs minds in 1976 but today it sounds like something you would hear in a carnival imitation of Space Mountain.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Play for Today, A Forest, M, At Night, Seventeen Seconds Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Really dark soundscapes. I personally would've liked a couple more hooks (especially since I know the Cure is capable of it), but that's clearly not what this album is shooting for. In terms of quality this is at least a 4, but it's not really for me. Does the job of creating a foreboding and uneasy atmosphere though, so I'll give it a 3.

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 11. Heard Them Stirring 10. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song Cutting Edge: 9. Meadowlarks Off Rip: 8. Oliver James 7. He Doesn't Know Why 6. Blue Ridge Mountains 5. Your Protector 4. White Winter Hymnal 3. Sun It Rises 2. Quiet Houses 1. Ragged Wood Overall Notes: Did not expect to like this at all. Folk is one of my least favorite genres, it all sounds so terribly plain to me. But this was impeccable. Lush sounds, wonderful harmonies, nice little lyrical bits. An easy 5, especially considering the genre this is coming from. This is medieval music for the 21st century, and I'm here for it.

Saved Prior: Promised You A Miracle Off Rip: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) Cutting Edge: Big Sleep Overall Notes: Blended into the background most of the time. Not what I expected since Promised You A Miracle is such an odd song. Fine, but wouldn't be anywhere close to my first pick if you asked me to play an 80's synth album (shoutout OMD).

Saved Prior: Teach Your Children (kinda. I saved a version on the CSN deluxe version that I like a lot more without realizing that it came from this album. Talk about Deja Vu) Off Rip: 4 + 20, Country Girl, Everybody I Love You Cutting Edge: Carry On Overall Notes: Catastrophically, Superbly, Normal. Y? I couldn't tell you. (CSNY?? Get it???) These guys have to be one of the most overrated acts of all time. Were they the first people to think of harmonizing while playing guitars? I genuinely do not understand their insane critical and commercial success. Maybe I'm failing to grasp how wide reaching their influence is, because they sound so NORMAL looking back at them. These guys are the boomer band to end all boomer bands. Not that it's terribly bad, it just is.

Saved Prior: Shakermaker Off Rip: Live Forever, Slide Away, Married With Children Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Good lord every song sounded the same, and not in a good way. Constant loud guitars and whichever Gallagher brother sings' accent. Was so close to giving this album a 1, but Slide Away and Married With Children saved it at the 11th hour so it's a 1.5 rounded up to a 2. After one album from each, Blur are blowing Oasis out of the water in the battle of Britpop.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Something for the Weekend, Becoming More Like Alfie, In & Out of Paris & London, The Frog Princess Cutting Edge: Middle-Class Heroes, Songs of Love Overall Notes: Very surprised to see multiple albums from these guys, especially since this album was overall similar to their other album in here without the orchestral flourishes. Good songs, but I liked the other album better. They fit in two from these guys but couldn't get one They Might Be Giants album????

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Writing To Reach You Cutting Edge: Driftwood Overall Notes: This is what Coldplay would sound like if they wrote exclusively wrote songs for mid-2000s 58% Rotten Tomatoes scoring rom-coms. It's mid Keane. "Something Only We Know" and "Everything's Changing" are better versions of anything and everything on this album.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Come All Ye, Medley: The Lark In The Morning, Tam Lin Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: If I heard this for the first time at a Medieval Ages themed section of an amusement park I would be bobbing my head and milling rocking on every block. That being said, these songs wear out their welcome pretty quickly seeing as they use the same vocal inflections and melodies over and over. It's fine. The songs I like are at an average of high 3 stars, but the rest are easy skips so I'll give this a high two.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Blue Skies, On the Sunny Side of the Street Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: There was nothing wrong with this album. Soothing country versions of classic songs. Not for me.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Love Plus One, Lemon Firebrigade, Milk Film Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Probably the most shocked I've been to see an album on this list. I've heard of Love Plus One before from all the 80's one hit wonder lists I've read, but never actually listened to it until now. New wave with congos and saxophones. Never amazing, but pretty good. Don't fully understand what this is doing here but it's good stuff. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say artsy Duran Duran, but I liked it.

Saved Prior: You Oughta Know, Head Over Feet Off Rip: All I Really Want, You Learn, Wake Up Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Great breakup album that has found me when I was not going through a breakup. I LOVE You Oughta Know regardless though the emotion is so crystallized. Don't normally like this kind of alt-rock but this was very good. 3.5 rounded up because there were no out and out clunkers.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: WHY MUST I CRY, Ketchy Shuby, Brand New Second Hand Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Fine reggae. I regret only giving Exodus a 3 more and more every day.

Saved Prior: Walk On the Wild Side Off Rip: Andy's Chest, Perfect Day, Satellite of Love Cutting Edge: Goodnight Ladies Overall Notes: About what I expected knowing Walk On the Wild Side. Songs I liked, songs I didn't, wide-reaching influence.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Mad Cyril Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Jumbled and overlapped beats and rhythms. No thanks. 1.5

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: The Fun Lovin' Criminal, Passive / Aggressive, Bombin' the L, We Have All the Time in the World Cutting Edge: Crime and Punishment Overall Notes: Fun funky laid back rap. Kind of scratches the same itch as People's Instinctive Travels but more rock leaning.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Traveling Man, My Blue Tears, Here I Am, A Better Place To Live Cutting Edge: Coat of Many Colors, Early Morning Breeze Overall Notes: Good old fashioned country music. 3.5 rounded to a 3 because it's nothing I haven't heard before. Still enjoyable though. Extra points for not having any problematic themes or lyrics.

Saved Prior: Cars Off Rip: Airlane, Metal, Films, Random* Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Pretty good early obtuse synth music. The Basement Jaxx flip of M.E. is iconic, and the beat to Cars is so good he uses it twice on the album. In general the album has cool ideas that he takes and uses, but nothing transcendent comes of these cool new ideas that others will master. Don't want to know what kind of parties they were throwing back in the late 70's-early 80's where this could've been thrown on aux though.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: River Song, Time, Pacific Ocean Blues Cutting Edge: You and I Overall Notes: This guy probably had a legitimate all-time album in him, too bad he had a little run-in with one of the worst people ever to grace the Earth. River Song, Pacific Ocean Blues, and the second half of Time are great at least.

Saved Prior: Baba O'Riley Off Rip: Bargain, The Song Is Over, Getting In Tune, Behind Blue Eyes Cutting Edge: My Wife Overall Notes: This is a masterpiece. Not usually a massive fan of mainstream rock, but this for sure earned its reputation as one of the greatest albums of all time. Baba O'Riley is one of the best album openers of all time, and though I didn't really get the hype for the closer Won't Get Fooled Again I respect the hell out of this album.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Ha Ha I'm Drowning, Sleeping Gas, Treason, Went Crazy, Brave Boys Keep Their Promises, Books (much better version of the Echo & the Bunnymen song on Crocodiles), Thief of Baghdad, When I Dream, Reward Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: A surprisingly great pop album from a band called "The Teardrop Explodes". If it weren't for some obtuse lyrics I would've assumed this was some kind of early, experimental Duran Duran. Didn't push all the way to 5 star territory, but still good/great music.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Billy Hunt, It's Too Bad, Down In The Tube Station At Midnight Cutting Edge: To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time) Overall Notes: Kink-y punk rock, though that seems to be by design seeing as there's the David Watts cover on this thing (I prefer the original Kinks version). Higher floor but lower ceiling than some of those Kinks albums have. This one gets a low 3.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Riddle Of The Eighties, In My Mind, Liberty For Our Friend, If'n Cutting Edge: Time With You Overall Notes: With that name, that album cover, and that title (which took me wayyyyy too long to realize was just "from ohio"), I was fully bracing myself for another self-important post-punk shitshow. Imagine my surprise when the first two songs are fun little guitar ditties. Not a classic by any means and I'm very surprised it's on this list (no song has over 150k plays on Spotify as of the writing of this review) but it was a fun low stakes album with short songs that don't overstay their welcome. If we're grading how much it surpassed my expectations, 5 stars easily. Unfortunately, objectively this album is a 3 for pretty good.

Saved Prior: Imagine Off Rip: Crippled Inside, How Do You Sleep?, How?, Oh Yoko! Cutting Edge: Jealous Guy Overall Notes: "Wow John, thank you for solving society. Now come back to bed and eat this PUSSY." - Yoko Ono after hearing this album for the first time

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Susan's House, Your Lucky Day in Hell Cutting Edge: Flower, Guest List Overall Notes: Very mellow indie rock. Some of the lyrics are fun and cute, others are just odd. Not really my thing.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Most Anything You Want, Flowers and Beads Cutting Edge: My Mirage Overall Notes: I understand that this album is primarily on here for the title track, but I actually preferred the first three songs as full songs. 17 minutes is a lot, especially for a fairly minimalist composition (drum solo was super cool though by far my favorite part, it's just a bummer you have to listen to a 17 minute song to hear it so it goes unsaved). Honestly a higher grade than I was anticipating giving it, was a pretty good listen.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Stay With Me Cutting Edge: Overall Notes: I read that Faces were considered a really good live band, but the only place I really felt their energy was Stay With Me (which I really liked). Outside of that song, the rest of the album kinda dragged on for me. More power to you if you liked this though.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Three Girl Rhumba, Surgeon's Girl Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: This is somehow super basic yet super erudite I don't know quite how to explain it. I appreciate that they were in and out before it hit 40 minutes though. I don't even know if you can call these songs man it's just riff riff riff. I wave the pink flag on this one. Good on Elastica for yoinking the riff to Three Girl Rhumba and making an actual song out of it, more bands should do that with these short ass 'songs'. 2.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: Love Goes On!, Streets of Your Town, Was There Anything I Could Do? Off Rip: Clouds Cutting Edge: I'm All Right Overall Notes: Shoutout Matt for putting me on to this album a couple years ago. That being said, the three singles are the only songs of note. Not quite sure why this album is on here, can think of a dozen 80's albums that would've been better inclusions.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Bemsha Swing Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I'll give Thelonious this much: he does have a distinctive sound. Title track sounds super complex, I bet music theory nerds go googoogaga over the minor-minor-Aflat-Zmajor nonsense going on. I will stick to saying that yup, this is jazz.

Saved Prior: Do I even need to say none for this one. Off Rip: San Francisco Bay Blues, The Boll Weevil, Salty Dog Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Cool that he has so many songs in his repertoire, like a modern day Homer. Not a huge folk guy, so it's more cool in theory than in practice. Also features the most subdued song about cocaine I have ever heard. Plus the Spotify version of this album for whatever reason has a Sarah Vaughan version of Dink's Song instead of the Jack version? Her version can't be found anywhere else?? It just exists under his name on this album???

Saved Prior: Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Head Over Heels Not Saved: 8. I Believe 7. Listen (wouldn't listen to it on its own, but nonetheless works well as a bookend to this album) Saved: 6. Mothers Talk 5. Broken 4. The Working Hour (other 3 songs have familiarity bias, but this song has the potential to jump them. This is a beautiful song) 3. Shout 2. Head Over Heels / Broken (odd choice to tack on Broken to the end of this song, would've just preferred it exist on its own to avoid the musical whiplash. Probably would've been number 1 if not for that) 1. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (not that this song isn't deserving of #1. Nutty song.) Overall Notes: Up there with the most artistic yet commercially viable new wave albums of all time. Straight up beautiful album. Must hear for SURE.

Saved Prior: You Make Me Feel So Young, I've Got You Under My Skin Off Rip: It Happened In Monterey, You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me, Love Is Here To Stay Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Ol' Frankie does it like nobody else. He's by far my favorite singer from the era (no racist). He just puts me in a different state of mind. With regards to this album, it mostly hits the same beats over and over. 3.5 that I'll round down to a 3. The big two hits from this album are can't miss all-timers though.

Saved Prior: Wouldn't It Be Nice Not Saved: 13. Sloop John B 12. Pet Sounds Cutting Edge: 11. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) Off Rip: 10. Let's Go Away For Awhile 9. I Know There's An Answer 8. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times 7. Caroline, No (annoying that he had to tag on the Pet Sounds and train to this one) 6. Here Today 5. That's Not Me 4. I'm Waiting For The Day 3. You Still Believe In Me 2. God Only Knows 1. Wouldn't It Be Nice Overall Notes: It took me a little bit to get used to the fact that these were old fashioned pop songs without hooks, but when I did holy moly did this album click. It sounds like Phil Spector if he had joy in his heart. It sounds like if the Carpenters had a collab album with the Beatles (I love the Carpenters this is a compliment). What a lovely little album.

Saved Prior: Black Skinhead, New Slaves, Blood On The Leaves, Bound 2 Off Rip: On Sight, Hold My Liquor, Guilt Trip, Send It Up Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: This album is very good. I saved 8/10, but tbh these songs are so abrasive that I can't really give it a 5. I understand that that's the point but that doesn't mean I have to like it. 4.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Piku, Setting Sun, Lost In The K-Hole Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Didn't really get it at first but the beats won me over on the second relisten. I like that their music feels organic even though it's all electronic and samples. It was a tad long, but they do so much genre melding that there is something for everyone on this album if you're willing to submit to the beats.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Please Donald Trump, please save me Donald Trump. Please save me Donald Trump, please, I'm asking you. Please save me. Please get Kid Rock away from me. In dear God's name stop these people from making music. (except All Summer Long he ate that one up ngl)

Saved Prior: POWER, All Of The Lights, Monster, Runaway Off Rip: Dark Fantasy, Hell Of A Life, Lost In The World Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Lots of great songs on this album (particularly Runaway POWER and Dark Fantasy) and the theme is really strong and ties the album together well. That being said, there's just something about this album that just keeps it from 5 status. I think it might be Kanye's sometimes lackluster rapping or maybe I don't like some of the hooks, but I can't quite put my finger on it. 4.(ialsodidntreallylikekanyespartondevilinanewdresstothepointwhereididntsavethesong.wouldvebeensavedifitwasjustthebeatandrickross.sorryiknowpeoplereallylikethatsong)

Saved Prior: Bohemian Rhapsody Off Rip: Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To...), '39, Sweet Lady, Seaside Rendezvous Cutting Edge: Love Of My Life Overall Notes: I know very few people who don't know Bohemian Rhapsody, and I know even fewer people who don't like Bohemian Rhapsody. The variety of this album surprised me, and it was a lot more campy than I expected. Crazy that Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Death on Two Legs, You're My Best Friend, Love Of My Life and Bohemian Rhapsody are all on the same album and it doesn't completely not work. That being said, I didn't really like some of these songs, so it goes down as a 3.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: F.I.N.E., Dulcimer Stomp/ The Other Side, What It Takes Cutting Edge: My Girl Overall Notes: Horny as expected with some clunker lines, but also genuinely good rock. I enjoyed my time listening to this about as much as I could enjoy an album with two pickup trucks fuckin on the cover.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Shapes of Things, Greensleeves, Beck's Bolero Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Not a big blues rock fan, but this guy is an incredibly talented guitarist. My favorite part of every song was his guitar, as evidenced by me saving both instrumentals (Beck's Bolero is especially awesome). May he rest in peace, glad he was recognized for his talent while he was alive.

Saved Prior: Hotel California Off Rip: New Kid In Town Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Didn't really like this. Hotel California the song is incredible though.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Holidays in the Sun, No Feelings Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Iconic album, iconic sound, infectious energy. You basically get what this album is about from any song you put on and it doesn't really stray from the recipe, but that recipe is pretty fuckin strong. A 3.5 that I'm going to round up cus I was never not at least mildly enjoying myself listening to this. Can't imagine how crazy this would've been to see live.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Rendez-Vu, U Can't Stop Me, Red Alert, Bingo Bango Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Good house music. Loved the layers and little sounds that were almost like Easter eggs scattered around the songs. Really rewards multiple listenings. That being said, it's still house music, and comes with all the negatives of that genre. 3.5 rounded down, but still a great example of this kind of music.

Saved Prior: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Blackbird, Birthday Off Rip: Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Martha My Dear, Rocky Raccoon, Helter Skelter Cutting Edge: I'm So Tired, Piggies Overall Notes: There is a 5 star album in here. There's just soooooo much that doesn't need to be here, particularly in the second half of the album, that the album suffers as a whole. To be fair, if any band had ever earned the right to make this album it's the Beatles, and I'm glad that people really like this. But this feels so much more like a collection of outtakes than a cohesive album. That's not a comment on the quality of the songs, as some of these songs are some of my favorite Beatles songs (notably Martha My Dear), but rather that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this album. 3.5 that I'm going to round down because good lord is the second disc tedious to get through.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Re-Make/Re-Model, Ladytron, If There Is Something, Would You Believe?, Sea Breezes Cutting Edge: 2HB Overall Notes: Glam Bowie for nerds, Pink Floyd for the gays. Sounds like bits and pieces of lots of things yet as a whole is like nothing I've ever heard. Despite the number of songs I saved I wouldn't say that I especially liked it so much as I spent the full 45 minutes marveling at it. 3.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: Tainted Love (also saved the Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go medley, but that's the deluxe version of the album) Off Rip: Secret Life, Say Hello Wave Goodbye Cutting Edge: Frustration Overall Notes: Opens well and closes well, but loses itself in the middle. 3.5 stars rounded down. ADORE Tainted Love though, one of my favorite songs of all time. Band is basically a worse version of Depeche Mode in my eyes.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip Tier: 2. Mr. Follow Follow 1. Zombie Overall Notes: This was really really good. Brave politics and boomin' beats. 25 minutes of vital music.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Blue Suede Shoes, I'm Counting on You, Just Because Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Old-timey rock and roll/blues/country. Nothing crazy but still fun and surprisingly varied sound throughout. I guess that's what happens when you don't write your own songs.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Confetti, Rudderless, Bit Part, Alison's Starting to Happen, Hannah & Gabi, Kitchen Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I cannot for the life of me come up with one single reason why this album is here. Negligible cultural impact, negligible musical impact, negligible chart success. It's fine music, nothing really to complain about musically and I can see how critics would eat this up I guess. Dozens of albums get this amount of critical acclaim every year and yet this one gets on here. I would accuse them of bribing their way in but they didn't sell enough fucking units to do that. It blows my mind that this inconsequential good-mood grunge gets a spot on this list. I understand that this is a pretty harsh review for something I'm about to give 3 stars (it is a good album and I do genuinely like this genre of music) but this still feels like a wasted spot.

Saved Prior: When I Come Around Off Rip: Having a Blast, Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case, She, Sassafras Roots, Coming Clean Cutting Edge: Burnout Overall Notes: Punk, even great punk like this, always has a strong element of diminishing returns for me. Even on a sub-40 minute bomb, I get tired of the same core musical elements over and over. I know that it's the same thing for basically any genre, but I feel this especially strongly with punk. All that to say that I like this album, but I don't love it. 3.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Mother Goose Cutting Edge: Locomotive Breath, Wind-Up Overall Notes: "Come traveler, let me spin ye tales of days long gone as ye rest ye weary legs" ass album. I understand what they're doing with Aqualung the song. Wasn't bad. Wasn't especially good either.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, Foreplay / Long Time Cutting Edge: Let Me Take You Home Tonight Overall Notes: I was skeptical going in because I'm not usually a fan of this kind of stadium rock/hard rock/classic rock music, but this was fun. Great hooks, not too busy. Started to blend together a little over the second half of the album, but those first few songs single-handedly won me over. Especially loved the Long Time portion. Clean 4.

Saved Prior: Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine Unsaved: 12. Anything Goes 11. You're Crazy (a lot of reviews mentioned that the version on G N' R Lies is better. They would be right.) 10. Rocket Queen Cutting Edge: 9. Out Ta Get Me Saved: 8. My Michelle 7. It's So Easy 6. Paradise City 5. Think About You 4. Nightrain 3. Sweet Child O' Mine 2. Mr. Brownstone 1. Welcome To The Jungle (maybe the greatest album opener of all time in my book. Baba O'Riley and this one) Overall Notes: A shot of pure adrenaline. Out and out classic. Side A of this album may be the greatest side of classic rock ever.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Sweet Life, Lost, Pink Matter, Forrest Gump Cutting Edge: Pyramids Overall Notes: I get why this got really good reviews and why it resonates with people. I am not one of those people. Definitely deserves to be on this list as it is clearly artistically accomplished, but it's a fairly weak 3 for me.

Saved Prior: Rock Lobster Off Rip: Planet Claire, 52 Girls, 6060-842, Downtown Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: The word "kitsch" is used all over this band's wiki, and it's the perfect description of their music. Underrated hook writers, they're spiritual predecessors of the hyper-pop of today imo. Love Rock Lobster, a truly insane song that somehow works.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Highschool Lover, Afternoon Sister, Empty House, Dead Bodies, Suicide Underground Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: ?? Don't see what all the hubbub is about. Good but standard light atmospheric soundtrack music that closes strong. I'm sure it's better when you've seen the movie, but I don't remember this being Letterboxd. Should've been the Daft Punk Tron Legacy soundtrack imo

Saved Prior: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Neighborhood #2 (Laika), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies) Not Saved: 10. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) Saved: 9. Une Annee Sans Lumiere 8. Crown of Love 7. In the Backseat 6. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) 5. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) 4. Haiti 3. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) 2. Wake Up 1. Rebellion (Lies) Overall Notes: A very very difficult album to rank 1-10. I saw these guys in concert (would highly recommend) so I'm pretty familiar with their stuff, and each song on this album brings strong musical elements to the table. Album is super nostalgic yet at the same time forward looking. Great stuff. One thing I'll say is that it's crazy that Wake Up doesn't open up the album, and the tracklist flows a little weird to me. But what do I know? 4.75 rounded up because math.

Saved Prior: Bigmouth Strikes Again; There Is a Light That Never Goes Out Off Rip: The Queen Is Dead; Frankly, Mr. Shankly; I Know It's Over; Cemetry Gates; Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Yeah this was probably my favorite Smiths album, but it didn't get all the way to 5 territory. Good lyrics, great guitar work, melodies are hit or miss but much more hit than miss this album. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out and Bigmouth Strikes Again are two of my favorite Smiths songs ever. Good stuff

Saved Prior: Straight Outta Compton, Fuck Tha Police, Express Yourself Off Rip: Gangsta Gangsta Cutting Edge: Dopeman Overall Notes: 4 great songs, 1 decent one and then a bunch of misogyny. "I ain't the one, the one to get played like a poo butt" I mean are you serious.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Just What I Needed, Don't Cha Stop, Bye Bye Love Cutting Edge: My Best Friend's Girl Overall Notes: I knew a little about the Cars (ie just Shake It Up) but I'd heard that they were one of the most underrated New Wave bands by the mainstream, despite the fact that I wasn't a huge fan. Sure enough, this was not very good on first listen, mostly because of what I feel to be fairly laidback vocals. However, repeat listens uncovered sublime little bits of guitar, base, and drums that elevated the album from a 2 to a 3. Don't think I'm in Touch with Your World got away though, that track is HORRID.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On, Run Charlie Run, Papa Was A Rollin' Stone Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Seems to be one of those albums that is included on this list for one specific track (Papa Was A Rollin' Stone). Good song, two songs that precede it are good too (insane chorus on Run Charlie Run), rest of the album is completely forgettable. 2.5 that I'll round up because Papa is already a third of the album's runtime.

Saved Prior: High and Dry Not Saved: 12. Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was 11. My Iron Lung Cutting Edge: 10. Bones 9. Fake Plastic Trees 8. Sulk Off Rip: 7. Just 6. The Bends 5. Black Star 4. Street Spirit (Fade Out) 3. (Nice Dream) 2. High and Dry 1. Planet Telex Overall Notes: I hate to give this album a 5 considering how pretentious the Radiohead fandom is, but I really liked this album. Plugs the gap between alt-grunge and art-rock, guitar licks and quaint little melodies abound. A low five, but I take solace in knowing that most Radiohead fans consider this one of their lesser albums. Hope I don't look back on this review as a Radiohead stan and rue its writing.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Brighton Rock, Flick Of The Wrist, Lily Of The Valley, Now I'm Here, Stone Cold Crazy, Misfire, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited Cutting Edge: Tenement Funster Overall Notes: Good stuff. Diverse, extra, fun rock. Wish I could've seen this era of Queen live, must've been absolutely electric. I will say that Killer Queen wasn't that good?

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 9. Colony Off Rip: 8. Twenty Four Hours 7. Passover 6. Atrocity Exhibition 5. A Means To An End 4. The Eternal 3. Decades 2. Heart and Soul 1. Isolation Overall Notes: I go into this album as a big New Order fan who has heard a lot about Joy Division's place in rock history without feeling too compelled to check their stuff out beyond "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (adore) and "Distortion" (adore) because of my general distaste for post-punk. I read some global reviews that seem to be mostly split between people really getting it and people being bored out of their minds. After listening, I can see both sides but I side firmly with the former. There were still the discordant elements of post-punk that I typically abhor, but something about the way it mixes with Ian Curtis' lyrics and voice works for me. It's hard to put into words why this album worked so well for me where other similar albums failed. Maybe it's the mythos of Joy Division, maybe I'm more inclined to like this because of my love for New Order, maybe, regrettably, it's the tragedy of Ian Curtis' suicide that sells it. Whatever it is, I'm so so so glad I finally gave this album a go.

Saved Prior: Let's Stay Together Saved: 9. Old Time Lovin' 8. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart 7. It Ain't No Fun to Me 6. What Is This Feeling 5. Judy 4. La-La for You 3. I've Never Found a Girl 2. So You're Leaving 1. Let's Stay Together Overall Notes: So so good. Groove is immaculate. LOVED this.

Saved Prior: Green Light Off Rip: The Louvre, Liability, Writer In The Dark Cutting Edge: Supercut Overall Notes: I distinctly remember when this album was released and how rapturous the reviews were. I also remembered Liability (found it boring), Green Light (loved it), Homemade Dynamite (did not like it), and Perfect Places (also did not like it) getting radio play on Alt Nation. It was not enough for me to want to check this album out then. While my music taste has matured since then, I still found most of this album eh. You can see the influence she had on massive modern pop stars like Billie Eilish, but I much prefer her debut album Pure Heroine on a song by song basis, even if this is a more complete album experience. Weak 3.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Commotion, Tombstone Shadow, Bad Moon Rising, Cross-Tie Walker, Broken Spoke Shuffle* Cutting Edge: None *Deluxe Album Overall Notes: Classic rock with a country twist. Pretty good. Nothing earth-shatteringly incredible nor terrible.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear, Old Man Cutting Edge: Sail Away Overall Notes: Billy Joel if he was in the process of OD'ing on a cocktail of barbiturates at a jazz club

Saved Prior: The Modern Age, Someday, Last Nite, Hard To Explain Saved: 11. Trying Your Luck *New York City Cops* 10. When It Started 9. Take It Or Leave It 8. Someday 7. Soma 6. The Modern Age 5. Is This It 4. Alone Together 3. Barely Legal 2. Last Nite 1. Hard To Explain Overall Notes: This album was so hard to rank, it is SO. GOOD. The sound of this album is iconic, from the washed out vocals to the guitar to the bass to the drums, everything is perfect. So glad I finally checked this album out after a decent amount of exposure to the Strokes, top 10 favorite albums of all time.

Saved Prior: American Pie Off Rip: Vincent, Empty Chairs Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Went into this expecting it to only be here for the title track (which bangs). He seems to take a while to rev up the interesting music engine when he writes a song (two longest songs were clearly two of the better songs). Thank goodness the rest of the songs were short too cus they were snoozefests. 2 stars.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Supervixen, Queer, Vow Cutting Edge: Stupid Girl Overall Notes: Sick, slick sonic atmospheres and a distinctive vocal timbre. Once you've heard a couple songs you've kind of heard the whole thing, so it goes down as a 3.5 rounded down. Still pretty good.

Saved Prior: Love Action (I Believe In Love), Don't You Want Me Off Rip: The Things That Dreams Are Made Of, Open Your Heart, The Sound Of The Crowd, Do Or Die, I Am The Law, Seconds Cutting Edge: Darkness Overall Notes: Despite the large quantity of songs saved (all but 1 were at least on my Cutting Edge playlist) and Don't You Want Me being one of my favorite songs of all time, this album was simply above average. It's good and most of the songs have multiple good elements to them, but they rarely come together to form a truly transcendently great song (Don't You Want Me being the only exception good lord is that song good). I liked it better than the Eurythmics album for sure, but nothing close to Depeche Mode. Lots of good songs, a couple very good songs, one incredible one.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Protection, Sly Cutting Edge: Euro Child Overall Notes: "Naw this shis reeul mewshick!!!"- the British people who heard Massive Attack put laid back hip-hop beats underneath soul/R&B tracks. British mfs will not survive the rapture. (this is a bit. the music isn't actually bad but it's kinda boring and I don't see what the hype is about. it reminded me of fever ray but less sonically unique. yes I understand they came 15 years earlier and were probably one of the first to do this kind of music. doesn't make it nothing but mildly interesting background music.)

Saved Prior: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Off Rip: Sleigh Ride, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Circling back to this one now that it's mid-December. Wall of Sound is definitely an apt description of this style of recording and music. Iconic. Weird dude Phil Spector, but highly influential and I gotta give him props for that. For me personally, I'll take Baby Please Come Home from this album and go.

Saved Prior: None Cutting Edge: 11. Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head Off Rip: 10. Poor Napoleon 9. Crimes of Paris 8. Battered Old Bird 7. Uncomplicated 6. Tokyo Storm Warning 5. Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind? 4. Next Time Round 3. Blue Chair 2. I Hope You're Happy Now 1. I Want You Off Rip: Uncomplicated, I Hope You're Happy Now, Tokyo Storm Warning, I Want You, Blue Chair, Battered Old Bird, Crimes of Paris, Cutting Edge: Overall Notes: I've been skeptical of Mr. Elvis Costello for a while. I've liked some of his songs (chiefly Alison, Veronica, and Pump It Up), but his status as one of the greatest songwriters ever seemed kind of silly. I get it now. I didn't adore all of these songs, but his voice shines through every single one of these tracks. They're all simultaneously catchy yet resentful. The album jumps between genres but not so forcefully that he loses his voice in the process. I like the somewhat simple production of the album as well. Low 5.

Saved Prior: is that a serious question Off Rip: H>A>K, Did You See Butterflies?, I Wish Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Cool soundscapes, eh lyrics, eh vocals, why is this a must listen, 2.

Saved Prior: Psycho Killer, Pulled Up Off Rip: Uh-Oh, Loves Comes to Town Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Eh. I like the hits, but their obtuse rhythms and David Byrne's oscillations between weird inflections and simple melodies either hits or misses, and they mostly missed for me on this album. Truly cannot believe they did not fit a They Might Be Giants album on this list.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Candela Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: A good soundtrack to a lazy day somewhere south of the border. Unfortunately I am listening to it in a state of mental anguish in my solo apartment and I wasn't transported to a beach so much as wishing I was there. Maybe it caught me on a wrong day. Gonna go listen to Morrissey or some shit that meets me where I'm at right now.

Saved Prior: Paint It, Black Off Rip: Under My Thumb, I Am Waiting Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Gotta be one of the most misogynistic rock albums I've ever heard from a mainstream artist. These guys do not like women as people. This isn't really why I didn't like the album [it's mostly borderline boring (TO ME) guitar work and quasi-sung lyrics that I can see influenced a lot of later artists], it just surprised me. Not a huge Rolling Stones guy myself, much prefer the Beatles. Am I...fruity??

*I already got this album before I joined the current group, so this review reflects my updated feelings. Therefore "Saved Prior" is songs I saved from when I first got the album* Saved Prior: Break It Up, Real Estate Off Rip: The Phuncky Feel One Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: My feelings on this album have not changed, not really for me and the vocals are still a little grating to listen to. Gave it a two the first time, and that two stands.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes, The Partisan Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Nothing more than a wannabe Bob Dylan on this album. I don't care if the lyrics are beautiful, there has to be at least something musically accomplished to merit putting them on a musical best-of list, and this album is missing it. Songwriter's hall of fame, sure. But we did not NEED to hear yet another album from this guy just because he writes nice poetry. Just print me a booklet of his lyrics and be on your way. 1.5 that I'm gonna round down to make a point about this kind of music. Am I overreacting? Probably. But I am banging my head against the wall listening to these kind of albums over and over again spread about this list and this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Saved Prior: Karma Chameleon, Church Of The Poison Mind Off Rip: It's A Miracle, Miss Me Blind, Mister Man, Stormkeeper Cutting Edge: Black Money Overall Notes: Pretty, inoffensive 80's pop. Boy George has a really nice voice, but I also really like the instrumental backing on this. Nothing to rock you to your core, but if you're looking for pop you could do much much worse than this. 3.75 that I'll round up.

Saved Prior: None* [I have a live version of a medley containing It Never Entered My Mind saved which I like better ('The Girl That Got Away/It Never Entered My Mind' off his 'World on a String' live album). Check it out, it's better than any song on this album tbh.] Off Rip: In The Wee Small Hours Of Hours The Morning, Mood Indigo, I'll Never Be The Same Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I appreciate that he made arguably the first sad boy hours album. I also count myself as a Sinatra fan. I can also also admit to myself that this album is eh. It feels a bit static, which makes sense on a conceptual level given the themes of the album but doesn't make it a terribly enjoyable listen.

Saved Prior: My Generation Off Rip: Out In The Street, I Don't Mind, La-La-La Lies, It's Not True, A Legal Matter Cutting Edge: The Good's Gone Overall Notes: Very good, I like the spunk of these shorter early rock songs. Crazy that My Generation (the song) is over 50 years old and hasn't aged a bit, love that song. Also special shoutout to I Don't Mind, which I might like just as much. Not as strong of a 4 as Who's Next, but still a 4.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: The Healer Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: I understand that this man is a legend, and he's clearly very confident in his craft on this album. I just don't like blues. Only song I liked was kinda carried by the guests, Santana and the Santana Band.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Dirty, Dirty Feeling Cutting Edge: Fever Overall Notes: Not as fun as the Elvis Presley album. Just aight.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Since I Left You, Stay Another Season, Flight Tonight, Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life, Frontier Psychiatrist Cutting Edge: Radio Overall Notes: It may be cliche, but this is truly an experience of an album. The way in which these snippets of audio odds and ends weave in and out of the composition is a true musical marvel. The unique ebb and flow of this album is unlike anything I've ever heard before, it's like it puts you in its own little world, completely foreign yet familiar at the same time. I will say, some of the songs don't really get all the way there for me, but when it works it WORKS. Since I Left You and Frontier Psychiatrist being prime examples, the former beautifully familiar and the second absurdly foreign. I love both, especially when paired with their music videos. High 4.

Saved Prior: Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) Not Saved: 9. The Girl Is Mine Saved: 8. The Lady in My Life 7. Baby Be Mine 6. Human Nature 5. Beat It 4. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 3. Thriller 2. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 1. Billie Jean Overall Notes: No wonder this guy was a SUPERstar. He OWNS this album. Beats are so fun, performance is immaculate, I can't help but move to every song except the Paul McCartney duet, which was a little off-putting. Easy 5.

Saved Prior: All Falls Down, Jesus Walks, Slow Jamz Off Rip: Spaceship, Never Let Me Down, The New Workout Plan, Through The Wire, Family Business Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: It's honestly weird listening to this seeing what has become of him. That being said, there are some great songs on here with the iconic Kanye production style (Spaceship is so good, astoundingly underrated) but not everything goes all the way to excellent (special shoutout to that preachy ass feature by J. Ivy on Never Let Me Down, free skip the second he starts his bullshit). Much has been made of the skits, but they didn't bother me as much as they seem to bother others people. Good album, but he would definitely go on to make better. And worse.

*I already got this album before I joined the current group, so this review reflects my updated feelings.* Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Ready for Love Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Just as average as the first time I heard it. Don't get in the slightest what the big deal about this album is. Ready for Love was good, but turns out that was the only one not written by the band during these sessions, which checks out cus I didn't really enjoy the rest of these songs. M-I-D.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Rip It Up, Mud in Your Eye, I Can't Help Myself, Louise Louise Cutting Edge: Turn Away, Flesh of My Flesh Overall Notes: Fun little new wave album. Reminds me of Haircut 100 or a poppier Talking Heads.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Tattooed Love Boys, The Wait, Stop Your Sobbing, Kid, Brass in Pocket, Mystery Achievement Cutting Edge: Precious Overall Notes: This was the embodiment of cool. Chrissie Hynde kills this on vocals. I only had exposure to Brass in Pocket before listening to this album and didn't get the hype, but some of the rhythms in these songs are sooooo cool I fully get it now. Cut the two 5:30+ minute songs without hooks and it's a 5. As it stands, 4.5 rounded down.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Apache, Last Bongo in Belgium, In A Gadda Da Vida, Bongo Rock Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Look, this is an instrumental album by the "Incredible Bongo Band" entitled "Bongo Rock". This is not high art, nor should it be. This is fun. I dare you to not feel the groove at least a couple times on this album. If you're listening on Spotify only the first 8 songs were on the original release, so it doesn't even overstay its welcome. Let the bongos play. Low 4.

Saved Prior: None Saved: Whole Album Overall Notes: This is really really good. This is transcendently good jazz. Beautiful.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody; (Nothing's Too Good) For My Baby; Oh, Marie; (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Fun bouncy music. Cool that while everyone at the time was trying to homogenize themselves to fit into stereotypical White American culture, he normalized publicly embracing his roots. Simple fun.

Saved Prior: Take on Me, The Sun Always Shines on T.V. Off Rip: Living a Boy's Adventure Tale, And You Tell Me Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Take on Me is one of the greatest songs of all time because of how crazy his voice is on that chorus, but the album reaches nothing close to that high again and fades into run of the mill romantic synth pop. But man oh man is Take on Me incredible.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Killing Me Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: This is what I imagine Blur trying to do an adult contemporary album would sound like. So not for me it's crazy. 1.5 that I'll round up cus I think this is a target audience issue.