It’s honestly amazing how influential this album is when you look at it from the surface level. On the surface it’s just simple songs with lots of distortion over them, but when you cut into the nitty gritty of it, you find an amazing album consisting of some very risqué lyrics and themes. The songs themselves are a stunning example of how less is more in music. As demonstrated with the lack of any competently forged riffs on these albums, but more a collection of chords that form a melody and the lack of any form of cymbals in the drums.

Iron Maiden’s brutal debut is a classic. It’s just raw energy captured in 8 tracks of brilliance.

A brilliant prog album that showcases Yes at their peak. It shows them moving away from making a regular album with 8 songs on it to having 6 songs where some are extended epics and others are quick and easy. Listened to this one before and it’s still easy to lose yourself in

A great album that shows Sly and the Family busting out tons of funk classics that can all stand (heh) tall when separated. I will say that, whilst I do kinda prefer the versions of the songs done during their segment of the Woodstock concert, as they had a fire that’s not captured in the album. This isn’t to say the album versions aren’t good, they’re still excellent and showcase the psychedelic side that the songs have.

This is what happens when CSN's brilliant harmonization with Neil Young's rocking guitar style.

London Calling is a legendary album that’s well worth a listen I’ve listened to it beforehand (well before this point) and I can still revisit it without any issue (just depends on me wanting to listen to the Clash)

A brilliant prog album that showcases Yes at their peak. It shows them moving away from making a regular album with 8 songs on it to having 6 songs where some are extended epics and others are quick and easy. Listened to this one before and it’s still easy to lose yourself in

An amazing debut from one of the best bands that basically created the whole genre of hair metal and thusly hundreds of rip offs. Every solo here shreds and all the songs can stand tall on their own.

This is probably the most egregious case of an album cover being far better than the music presented. You look at this cover and say “HOLY SHIT, THIS ALBUMS GONNA MAKE BLACK SABBATH LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF PUSSIES” then you listen to the music and hear it’s a sappy musical. On the musical side, it’s not awful, it has some great moments and feels kind of ambitious for what it is. The issue is that it just doesn’t have something to hook me in. I’d be reminisced to not mention the legendary moments where Top Gear (the good version) toon the piss out of the title track.

This is an alright album. The songs didn’t really stick with me after listening to them and I doubt I’ll be humming them any time soon. But it’s still an interesting listen. Each song does something that allows it to feel different when compared to the other songs also on here

This is quite a unique album. All the songs here are quite mellow hip-hop tracks but they all have a different flair to them due to the stylistic differences found on each song. This is all supported by a solid rock back heat

The album isn’t awful but the lyrics really make this album feel less like an album and more akin to a lecture. This can be seen as a positive, as it makes the songs have a real meaning and critique, but it could have been handled better. The instrumentals do leave a lot to desire but it does have some good style to it. The best point of the album is the straight outta left field cover of California Uber Alles by Dead Kennedy’s near the end.

A great album that shows Sly and the Family busting out tons of funk classics that can all stand (heh) tall when separated. I will say that, whilst I do kinda prefer the versions of the songs done during their segment of the Woodstock concert, as they had a fire that’s not captured in the album. This isn’t to say the album versions aren’t good, they’re still excellent and showcase the psychedelic side that the songs have.

It’s honestly amazing how influential this album is when you look at it from the surface level. On the surface it’s just simple songs with lots of distortion over them, but when you cut into the nitty gritty of it, you find an amazing album consisting of some very risqué lyrics and themes. The songs themselves are a stunning example of how less is more in music. As demonstrated with the lack of any competently forged riffs on these albums, but more a collection of chords that form a melody and the lack of any form of cymbals in the drums.

It’s quite a good album. The main selling point is Rod’s extreme vocal delivery.

Iron Maiden’s brutal debut is a classic. It’s just raw energy captured in 8 tracks of brilliance.

A quirky album that’s quite unique

A nice bit of good ol Rock n Roll. I will admit that only a few songs on here do shine

This is quite a unique thing

A good old swing album, nothing too advanced.

Meh. It’s decent but not very interesting

It’s a collection of really brief songs that are also fully formed pieces. So you get one song that does a thing, then the next song will do something else.

This album is basically a indie folk version of Nick Drakes music. Very quite but it does have more instruments when compared to Nick Drake

The 5th time Dylan was able to make a come back album and have it rock the music world, especially with it's mortality based lyrics.

This is where Joni Mitchell began her evolution from acoustics to a more rounded out sound.

Good rap album

It’s quite good, mixing their Latin music with the musical stylings of free form jazz to create an exiting listen

Good album, nice to see Elvis do new things

Dope Metal Album A proper Bass would have made it brilliant

If Marvin Gaye's What's Going On was a hip-hop album. It's a great combo of hip-hop and soul music

Ok

A nice album that blended tones of genres into a nice little pop package

Great album, Queen was at the top of their game and produced a brilliant album out of it. It’s a little mix of everything and it’s all brilliant

A great album. Blends their art rock sound with the styles of Can

Brilliant album that showcases Bowie at his darkest point (excluding Darkstar, but that album was recorded whilst he was at deaths door). Each song has its own unique identity and, even though they are lengthy tracks, don't outstay their welcome.

If you like Elton John's Madman Across The Water, then this is like an American version of that album. Except replace the pop friendly lyrics of Elton with some deeper lyrics about Americans. (Although I will say that Elton has got a better voice than Randy).

Mellow album with their best songs on it

Probably one of the more influential pop albums of the previous decade. Quite solid overall

A more polished Stooges

Pretty good Bobby Dylan album. Interesting layout of each side being a different style

Can’t come up with a great review for all of these, but this is still an amazing album.

The album which showed that Blur could do more than just Brit-Pop (and could actually evolve unlike some other band at that time).

A solid album that asserted Neil Young as one of the best acts

Nice little album this

It's a good listen

A great album that showcases the creativity of Sly

Listen man, when White Rabbit peaks, I want you to throw the cassette player into the bathtub. What are you crazy? That'll send you straight through the wall.

I'll admit, I'm surprised this one got into the book over the previous 2 Alice Cooper band albums (Love It To Death and Killer). This isn't to say it's a bad album, far from it, I just find it weaker overall when compared to those two albums. School's Out the song is a classic though and should be heralded as a classic.

Metallica make a turn for the commercial side of metal and came out of it very well off. The songs have lost their aggressive thrash edge to them, however this is made up by having harder riffs.

It's alright, the first track was easily the best, no questions what so ever.

A great album that showed Van Halen’s proficiency with the synth. R.I.P Eddie, lost a real O.G

It’s a very unique and pleasant album this. Mostly instrumental pieces with some avant guard flairs to it, that helps to keep it interesting.

Changed the rap game

One of the all time great Britpop albums and the main reason why Blur were better than Oasis.

The easiest way for me to describe this album is simple, it’s basically the beauty of a Studio Ghibli film condensed into an album, and no I’m not just saying that cause the album art kinda reminds me of them. Anyways, it’s a lovely little folk album.

This is what happens when CSN's brilliant harmonization with Neil Young's rocking guitar style.

Another solid release from Elvis Costello and his last proper release with The Attractions (in the 80's anyways).

It’s alright. I couldn’t get into it as much as I’d like.

Two disks filled with brilliant pop music.

A good album with some really solid tracks

It's good

Pure, unbridled PUNK ROCK This is the most important album in punk easy (not the best mind you, that honour would probably go to the band's third effort Rocket To Russia or London Calling).

It's definitely a more advanced pop album when compared to the rest of the 80's

It's a really solid album that shows Roxy Music could do commercial music whilst keeping true to their original image.

The humble beginnings of Nick Drakes three album run and it was a gentle album with light instrumentals.

It's a good listen and an early piece of success for Miles Davis before creating his jazz opus.

One of the pillars of Bowie's loft discography and possibly his most iconic album cover. All the songs here are noticeable in their own unique way.

The debut album from The Byrds and it's possibly their best album, but with their solid run from this album to Sweetheart, any of those albums could've taken top honours (not Turn! Turn! Turn! though, that one wasn't so good). It does rely on covers more than most of their other albums but that shouldn't be a detraction to the quality of the songs here.

It's a solid album, but most of the tracks get overshadowed by the epic title track.

It was an alright album, a solid entry into the hard rock genre.

There's not much to add with this album, it's an amazing album that made the hip-hop genre into something more vicious with their samples of hard rock and screeching vocals. It's certainly in the upper echelons of most influential hip hop albums of the 1980's

A yearning for Americana of old. This is the second of two showcases for why The Band are in high contention for being the best band of the 60's

It's an alright album, definitely feels like something to put on during a come down period.

It's a solid album overall but it does lack a track as anthemic as For What It's Worth. It does also begin the trend of 'Neil Young is a bastard to work with'

One of the prime albums in Thrash and helped establish Anthrax as a force to be reckoned with in 4 way of ‘best thrash band’

Just an amazing album that showcases all of the band members talents in really tight compositions

A (rolling) stone cold classic. Every song here has some flair to it. I can’t really explain why it’s so good overall, but it’s damn amazing and worth a listen

It’s a fine album, some tracks are amazing and others are decent

What else is there to say about this album? It’s bold, brash and belongs in the trash. 12 cuts of raw, unpolished music that took the country by storm when they first heard the marching opening to Holidays In The Sun all the way to the final cries of E.M.I on the aptly titled closer.

U2’s return to form was an explosive one. It’s got some amazing singles that can and will stand up to any single released from their earlier albums.

It was a fine album, didn’t really remember much from it

The weakest of the bands 4 albums in the book. It’s still quite good, but the songs just don’t gel as well when compared to the contents of the other album.

One of the more important hip hop albums of the 90’s. When one side of America had The Chronic, the other side had the god damn Clan

This album being in the book is a bit surprising, not to say it’s bad or anything, but it just feels a bit too novel to be in there. It’s basically the standard Fela Kuti affair but with Ginger Baker taking up some drum duties on the album. It’s a cool thing meeting another cool thing to make a cool thing.

I mean, it’s fucking Sgt. Peppers What else is there to say about it? It’s one of the greatest albums to ever exist and it deserves that honour (although I probably wouldn’t say it’s THE greatest)

Aside from the 9 minute epic, there’s still a ton of solid stuff on this album, it’s probably their album with their most well known stuff on it.

It’s a cool album

This is the album that established both Neil Young and backing band Crazy Horse as forces to reckon with.

Honestly, Tainted Love is the only track worth re listening to

Beck at his best It sees all of the ideas Beck put forward with Mellow Gold get fleshed out and expanded upon to create a real gem of an album

An amazing debut from the little band that could These guys combination of folk and excellent vocals caused the whole late 60’s rock scene turn their head and look at what these guys were doing. Hell the album make Cream break up due to it being that damn good.

A solid album that showcases the best of Janis

Def Leppard attempts to re-create Thriller, somehow creates album where the deep cuts are better than the singles. It’s amazing how they tried to make every track a single calibre song yet the ones actually released as a single somehow manage to be the weak tracks on the album. (Well in saying that, one or two of them are solid).

Out of his 3 albums. This albums the most well rounded. Containing an actual backing band rather than Drake himself plus Orchestra/Drake just playing guitar (in reference to his debut and last album respectively).

Honestly, I don’t get why this album gets praised as one of the greatest ever made. It’s still an amazing album, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t see it as being superior to albums like Let It Bleed or Sticky Fingers. Personally, I feel it could’ve been a solid 12 track album that didn’t need to be a double.

This is probably the best album Paul made in his post Beatles career. It features some of his most iconic hits and a wide variety of delectable deep cuts that keep the listener invested until the final refrains of the title track after 1985 finishes

I like to think of this album as the dark horse candidate of the Talking Heads discography. It’s where they really started to get inventive with their music and also fleshing out their new Afro-Beat style which would take them to great heights

The album FUCKING RULES. Motörhead are one of the more consistent bands to ever come out, and it’s a damn shame only two of their albums were included in this book (Overkill and Bomber should’ve made the cut).

This was the album that made Dylan a hero to a certain section of the American public, via his mature acoustic guitar and his even more mature lyrics. There are better Dylan albums but this is the one with the best lyrics.

A very slick album that shows off Curtis’s strengths

A rip roaring album that showcases how damn good Muddy Waters was. It’s got grit, it’s got amazing solos hell it even boogies and I don’t know what else you’d want from a blues album.

The album that popularised James Taylor and god bless it for doing so.

This is probably the perfect example of an anit-pop album. The songs here are just ugly, brash pieces that shouldn't have been pressed onto a record... however, it's done in a fashion which makes it impossible to look away from it, kinda like a slow moving car crash. It's basically the 70's version of Alice Cooper's debut Pretties for You (which originally inspired Johnny's musical styling in the first place) so it's quite a fitting comparrison.

A rock solid debut from the Clash which helped to prove that punk could be a bit more what the Pistols were doing

Jesus, this album is jam packed with songs, I highly recommend not listening to it in one sitting, rather spreading the listening experience out a bit. But when you do listen to it, you'll find it's a great album filled with heaps upon heaps of variety.

Some good old British music. I didn't find it super engaging but I can see why people would like this

It's iconic. The final stand of the Bon Scott era of AC/DC and it was an amazing (If unintentional) way to send the man off. It start's with probably their most anthemic song and doesn't stop the amazing pace until the final refrains of Night Prowler. A personal highlight is the sudo deep cut of If You Want Blood

It’s alright. Kinda feels like a weaker Nirvana

An amazing album that showcases all the best of Jethro Tull

The start of CCR becoming one of the greatest bands of all time. Seriously, if they were able to exist for more years then I’d say they would’ve gone down in history as one of the greatest bands ever.

This was a fine album to close the Smith’s discography on. Personally I find it weaker than the other two Smiths albums represented in the book, but it’s still a great listen

It's a really solid album

An alright listen, didn’t stick with me afterwards

Simply put it’s the best Beatles album and should be classified as one of, if not the greatest album ever made. Words can’t do this album justice, it’s a magnificent piece of work that should be remembered for eternity

A masterpiece.

This is a masterclass in making dance music out of samples

His most ambitious album and one of his best

One of if not the best pop album of the 80’s. It’s slick and stylish without being overdramatic and becoming a parody of itself.

Some of the best Krautrock

Eh, it’s ugly in a good way

One of his finest albums. A great entry point for anyone who wants to hear The Boss

Great thrash album

Good stuff

One of the best live albums. Would recommend the deluxe edition that had the whole show packed into it, but the original vinyl track list is still worth a shot

One of the Stones best albums, it was the last time Brian Jones had some real input for the songs and it shows.

It’s jazz perfection and a good subset of music wouldn’t exist without it

A genuine piece of art. It’s able to make some of the ugliest sounds known to man and meld them into something beautiful

The first half of the album is amazing The second half is solid

I wasn’t into this one but it’s damn influential

Pretty solid