Journey Complete!
Finisher # to complete the list
804
Albums Rated
3.13
Average Rating
74%
Complete
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Rock-and-roll
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
60
5-Star Albums
33
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Kenza
Khaled
|
5 | 2.58 | +2.42 |
|
Palo Congo
Sabu
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
Bone Machine
Tom Waits
|
5 | 2.86 | +2.14 |
|
Want One
Rufus Wainwright
|
5 | 2.91 | +2.09 |
|
Teenager Of The Year
Frank Black
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
|
The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Dirty
Sonic Youth
|
5 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
|
Rid Of Me
PJ Harvey
|
5 | 3.11 | +1.89 |
|
It's A Shame About Ray
The Lemonheads
|
5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
|
Mermaid Avenue
Billy Bragg
|
5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
|
1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
|
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
The Chronic
Dr. Dre
|
1 | 3.33 | -2.33 |
|
S&M
Metallica
|
1 | 3.26 | -2.26 |
|
Me Against The World
2Pac
|
1 | 3.25 | -2.25 |
|
Clandestino
Manu Chao
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
|
Django Django
Django Django
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
|
Dust
Screaming Trees
|
1 | 3.16 | -2.16 |
|
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Pink Floyd
|
1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
|
Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
|
1 | 3.1 | -2.1 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Steely Dan | 4 | 5 |
| Beatles | 4 | 4.75 |
| Pixies | 3 | 5 |
| Prince | 3 | 4.67 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 4 | 4.25 |
| Tom Waits | 4 | 4.25 |
| PJ Harvey | 4 | 4.25 |
| Neil Young | 3 | 4.33 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4 |
| Radiohead | 5 | 4 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Verve | 2 | 1.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | 2 | 1.5 |
| Love | 2 | 1.5 |
| Sepultura | 2 | 1.5 |
| Slipknot | 2 | 1.5 |
| Orbital | 2 | 1.5 |
| Kings of Leon | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Pink Floyd | 4, 4, 1 |
| Metallica | 4, 3, 1 |
5-Star Albums (60)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Marvin Gaye
5/5
I listened to this with my wife and now I'm pregnant, so - five stars.
69 likes
2Pac
1/5
Man, time has a weird way of changing the way thinks look. I mean, as far as mid-90s rap goes, this is probably as good as it gets if your name isn't De La Soul. I didn't listen to this back then, but I knew it was a big assed deal. But today, listening to this and reading about Tupac... I mean... I feel like I would hate this dude automatically if he was a bearded white guy. 1992 he dropped his gun, it discharged and killed a 6-year-old. He beat another rapper with a baseball bat. He raped a 19-year-old and went to prison for it. So I mean... sure, it's you against the world, I guess. You sound like an asshole.
40 likes
Incubus
1/5
So - an incubus is a spirit that rapes women and I mean, yeah, that's pretty much the vibe I get from this music. This is AGGRESSIVELY 1999 soul patch rock and 100% not something you need to hear before you die. I don't know if I could dislike this more. Wait - the album cover. Okay yeah, I dislike it more now, so there's still room to grow. Oh! "I feel emphatic about not being static." Yes, there's much further to go. Down, straight down. Oh no - Battlestar Scralatchtica. FUCK. YOU.
24 likes
Led Zeppelin
3/5
This another one where the first half is full of great stuff and the longer it goes on, the more I wish it had stopped. This is a ten song album in a fifteen song sack. still, pretty listenable.
20 likes
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
I love everything about this album. The tunes are strong, the subject matter is dark, it was recorded on 4-track. Spooky Americana about desperate people. And some cars. If I have a favorite Springsteen album, it's this one.
19 likes
1-Star Albums (33)
All Ratings
Jethro Tull
3/5
This starts strong, and the rock flute is really somethin' else. When your brand is rock flute, you don't have a ton of competition. That said, this rolled off into the background and I only realized later that it had stopped.
The Band
4/5
By turns haunting and forgettable. But mostly pretty great. This is, like, what all classic rock should be but rarely is.
The Waterboys
3/5
Surprised in many ways by this album - I didn't pay attention at all to the date on the album and figured this was something from the late 60s / early 70s before it started up. Lots of energy here, but not a lot of it grabbing me. Solid work, no doubt.
Tears For Fears
4/5
Shout, Everybody Wants to Rule The World, and Head Over Heels are pretty foundational 80s songs for me. But I think it's a pretty objective truth that this is a very good album.
David Bowie
3/5
Hey, it's all good, but only one track really grabs me. The rest of it is top tier background at this point in my life.
Le Tigre
3/5
Deceptacon is a very strong opener for a little album. And while this whole thing didn't keep me all wrapped up the whole time, it reminded me of the good indie albums of the 90s, the stuff that did what it wanted. I'd probably check this album out again and put Deceptacon on a few mixes.
Steve Earle
3/5
I'm not a big country fan, but this is pretty good country, I think.
Malcolm McLaren
4/5
This was released in 1983??? This is like a decade before its time. Holy shit.
Green Day
4/5
This is a very solid album. Green Day has their vibe and if you can't abide it, then none of this will work for you. But this songwriting is tight as a drum. Every song here has something melodic to grab on to. Even lowkey lofi closer is pretty crucial.
Wilco
5/5
A full five stars. Everything about it agrees with me and I agree with it.
Mike Oldfield
4/5
The fact that the Exorcist theme is called 'Tubular Bells' still cracks me up a good bit. Tubular bells? Couldn't call it 'Doorway to Hell' or something? It had to sound like surfer slang? Regardless, it does fit the movie perfectly and it's a delightful bit of music to listen to.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
I haven't even listened to this one with much attention before. Didn't realize how much flower child is in this one. I always thought it was a little more punk than that. Sort of a sweet folk album and a noise rock album smooshed into one.
The Yardbirds
2/5
This one starts out pretty strong. I like Lost Woman a lot, Over Under Sideways Down is pretty great, The Nazz Are Blue, I Can't Make Your Way, and Rack My Mind are all pretty good. But man, the last three tracks on this just take a severe nosedive. Turn into Earth is like some bad high school poetry. Then a sort of environmental protest song? Maybe? And then a Satan=$$$ song? Hoo man. Yeah, no, those three just about tank the whole thing for me.
Don McLean
3/5
Alright, so - I still like the title song a lot. I always have, since I was a kid. I don't know if it actually means anything, but it sure sounds like it does! And the song 'Everybody Loves Me, Baby' is pretty great, too. The other songs didn't really get me, but they didn't turn me off and I kind of loved the sound of the album, the acoustic guitar and all that. So this one I liked purty good.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
Pleasantly surprised by this one! Very 2001 in its deployment of techno-city. Got a lot of late stage Elvis Costello in this. And more than anything, really loved Shoot Doris Day. I may start listening to this band!
FKA twigs
2/5
Man, I like twigs - maybe based solely on that one Apple commercial - but there's only one song on this one that I get into - Two Weeks. The rest feel like songs that never start and I get real frustrated with it.
Raekwon
1/5
Couldn't get hooked by this one at all. Started out strong at the top, setting me up for a concept album about a guy doing what he had to to get his family out of the life. But then it was a lot of gats and bitches and... blargh. Sounds pretty generic to me.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
I always think I don't like SatB until I actually sit down and listen to them. While there are a couple songs here that feel like a stretch - the last track, mainly - there's something for me in every other song here.
Brian Eno
2/5
I don't know. I'm not hearing a single.
I'm not sure what this album wants from me, except for me to let it play on in the background. And on that note, it works perfectly. It is, absolutely, ambient.
Stereolab
2/5
I don't know, some of this is fun, but it tends to just go into the background for me. And background music, it is pretty good though, so one extra star!
Dennis Wilson
3/5
Man, so much of this is the kind of ambitious and maybe over-produced vibe that I can really dig. But why does his voice destroy it for me? Something about it doesn't fit, like he's trying too hard or something. Something about the whole album seems to say "This is a serious album" and I can't take it seriously. And I can't help thinking about Brian Wilson's stuff and how it's more ambitious and less serious and how I like it more than this. But not 100% more. I also just found out my folks voted for Trump a second time, so I'm not in a great mood. Sorry, Dennis.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
I love everything about this album. The tunes are strong, the subject matter is dark, it was recorded on 4-track. Spooky Americana about desperate people. And some cars. If I have a favorite Springsteen album, it's this one.
Bauhaus
4/5
I kind of love how bad the production is on this. It can't destroy how much I like these songs. Not an album I was familiar with before, but will listen again.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Simon is an incredible songwriter. Maybe Garfunkel is, too! I don't have a good way to judge that. But beyond a classic like Homeward Bound, did you hear how he totally sold the dorkiness of 'Feelin' Groovy'??? This isn't my favorite Simon stuff, but it's pretty dang good.
Rush
3/5
Rush has some balls, kicking off their rock album with a 20 minute track. I can barely summon the courage to listen to most 7 minute songs, much less 20. But this whole album kept me listening! I'm not a big Rush fan, and I knew more about why people didn't like them before I'd ever heard any of their songs, but this is a very listenable album. Didn't love that last track, though. Felt phoned in.
ZZ Top
4/5
Listening to this, it seems so unlikely that these guys were as big as they were in the 80s. But the songs are generally pretty good. Also, when I hear the song Legs, I picture a video where a woman is going around, kicking guys in the nuts. So, extra star.
Nick Drake
4/5
Man, those chord changes. I like this album for a lot of reasons, but especially those chord changes.
Talking Heads
3/5
God bless David Byrne and his weird pop music. This one for me, it's all just a lead up to Psycho Killer, but it's also a bunch of happy-sounding pop with weird darkness under it, so I'm game.
Gotan Project
2/5
Much like Eno's album, this one absolutely fought my attention every step of the way, demanding to stay in the background. And it did.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
Why do I like this more than Eno or Gaton Project? A little more variation? A little more aggression? I don't know. But I do. Still, around the halfway mark - backgroundsville.
Nick Drake
4/5
He did again! Love this dude. Can't believe I haven't listened to all this stuff before.
Ghostface Killah
4/5
Man, I listened the hell out of this back in 2006. Kilo has a great, great hook and I didn't remember anything else about the rest of the album. But I think pretty much every song on this is a gem.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
This album is great great great. This album was like an oasis in 2015. Love this one.
The Police
4/5
The first side of this one is, yeah, it's okay. Then the second side hits you over and over again and puts you in a pretty good Police state.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
This is another one I have very fond memories of. Transmissions from the Satelite Heart was my first Flaming Lips album and I loved it dearly. This one isn't my favorite, but it's still one of their better albums, for sure. What takes this one down a notch for me was that it included a remix at the end, which felt kind of dumb and/or cheap to me. I didn't get. I still don't. Still, Flaming Lips.
Van Halen
4/5
Man, this is almost as good as their first album. It's just hit after hit for, like, 8 straight songs. I even like 1984 as the opener. But it all comes crashing down on House of Pain. It was like a precursor to the generic rock years with Sammy Hagar. But still, very solid.
Faith No More
4/5
This is another tape I wore out. It was kind of exactly what I needed after graduating from the Poison and Metallica diet I had been on up to that point. The same hard-edged music that was just a good bit weirder. I think the tunes and performances hold up.
Joni Mitchell
2/5
I love the sort of free-flowing inventiveness of the song structure and the arrangements here, but none of it ever sinks in for me.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
I listened to this with my wife and now I'm pregnant, so - five stars.
Fugazi
4/5
I don't really love any of the songs on this one, but I love the energy of all of them. I could really listen to this all the time.
Sugar
4/5
I got Bob Mould's solo album, the eponymous one that came out in 1996. I loved that album. It had all the loud guitars on it that I could want, but didn't sound like anything else I had. I can't find that album anywhere, now - doesn't seem to be streaming. But this is a pretty good substitute. I still love the guitars.
Jeff Beck
3/5
Truthfully, I liked this. Sounds a lot more modern to me than 1968, though some of it sounds like Zeppelin might have ripped it off. Still, plenty of tasty riffs here.
Moby
2/5
This is a rough bit of business, this is. The good songs are good for about one to two minutes and then I'm just waiting around for them to stop. It felt like this album went on forever and I didn't even listen to the B-sides on the dang deluxe version.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Based on the title of the album, I was expecting something a little heavier and a little deeper than what I got. What I got was sort of a throwback to when hip hop was just guys having fun, making words rhyme and not really bothering with anything deeper than that. Which is also fun, but at some point kind of makes me ask why I'm listening. These guys are a lot of fun to listen to, but I never got past this question.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
This another one where the first half is full of great stuff and the longer it goes on, the more I wish it had stopped. This is a ten song album in a fifteen song sack. still, pretty listenable.
The White Stripes
2/5
This was the album where I started to feel like this White Stripes thing was kind of a one-trick pony. Or at least it was like they covered a corner of the music world that was too specific for me? And so three albums in I was like "Yeah, this is about as much as I need of this." Some good songs on here, to be sure. But the charm started wearing off here for me.
Pretenders
3/5
I love the song Brass In Pocket. I love the energy of Chrissie Hynde - Karen O owes a debt to her, for sure. And that arrangement on Precious is pretty fun. But this is another one that seemed to go on too long for what it is. Still, Brass In Pocket.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
I really like the whole vibe of this. I was always a fan of Daft Punk is Playing At My House and this is a bunch more of the same. Even the songs that go on forever I kind of like. Would listen again.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
I can't believe I've never listened to this album. I mean, I've known about it. I've heard Out of the Blue many times, but never listened to this whole thing. Deceivingly simple songs, here. I liked this a lot!
Gene Clark
2/5
Really liked the production on this one, but something about sounded so archaic to me that I couldn't get into it. Almost like it was a parody of this kind of music.
Beatles
5/5
I love this album top to bottom. It's exactly the kind of album I like and I like this one in particular.
The Verve
1/5
This one was a slog for me. Every song, I looked at my phone to see how much time was left in the song and it was routinely 2 more minutes. No, thank you.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
They aren't all hits, but I get from Breakdown to American Girl mainly just on the enthusiasm of the whole thing.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I like Creedence and always have. Probably because they were featured at the beginning of Twilight Zone The Movie. Regardless, three of their best songs are o here - Green River, Lodi, and Bad Moon Rising. The other ones are good, too, so what can you do?
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
I'm grumpy. Why is this cover art not the original cover art? Why do I care? I don't know. But I do. This is such a sentimental favorite that I'm blind to how long it goes and how drone-y and generic it gets in places. There are three to four great songs on this album, so maybe that's enough for me. I don't know. I'm hungry.
Spiritualized
2/5
I really liked the first little bit of this, but it sank into the background after a bit. I couldn't key into what my man was singing on and on about and the music is pretty good in the background, so there it stayed.
Mylo
3/5
I didn't love this, but I didn't mind it, either. I listened to it all the way through.
a-ha
3/5
It's really hard to reach the heights of that first track. That's an era-defining bit of business right there. Nothing else quite has that 80s synth kick.
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
A fine voice but not much in the way of music that gets under the skin. Kind of sounds like what you might hear at a small live music venue. It was good background, mostly.
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
I didn't get into any particular song on this one, but it did put me in the mind of some lost goth 80s movie that I really enjoyed. Wouldn't turn it off.
Megadeth
2/5
When I was a kid, and maybe this is just where I grew up, but there was a choice you had to make - were you a Metallica guy? Or a Megadeth guy? Well, I heard the song Battery and decided I was a Metallica guy (even though Megadeth was a much cooler band name). But then later I heard the Megadeth song 'Go To Hell' and thought, oh, that's not bad. But after listening to this one, I gotta say - in the Metallica vs. Megadeth war, I'm still a Metallica guy.
The Byrds
3/5
I mean, those first two songs are just so strong. Nothing else on this album really takes me to that same place. But those two songs are so good.
Laura Nyro
2/5
Man, I almost like this, but it's consistently pushing itself into show-tune territory and I just can't stand it. Like, I don't feel like she's brassy enough to pull off these big moments for me. I wish it was a smaller album, maybe? Like, a little more intimate, like what the album cover seems to suggest.
Soundgarden
3/5
You can't argue with the fact that Chris Cornell has an incredible voice. And a handful of these songs are really engaging. But goddam, Spoonman just wipes it all out for me. Maybe that's because of my initial reaction to the song when I first heard it, which was "Is he singing about a guy who plays the spoons?" And it turned out he was. And it just seems too ridiculous to me - the song is so heavy, but it's about a guy playing spoons. Maybe it was even more ridiculous back in 1994, when there was so much heavy, serious music going on. I just couldn't dig it. Black Hole Sun holds up pretty well, though.
The Young Gods
2/5
This one escapes me. It starts out real fun, like some kind of dark carnival. But I just drifted away from it over and over again.
Metallica
4/5
This was my first real metal album - had it on tape - and I think still holds up. Battery is just a great opener and I don't think the rest of the songs every let me down. Sanitarium is also that mix of heavy and ridiculous that I just love.
Sonic Youth
3/5
All the things I like about Sonic Youth are here, but then there's sort of twice as much as I actually want? I love any band that can make noise entertaining and Sonic Youth has given me some of the best noise I've ever heard. Still, this one does go on a bit.
The Modern Lovers
5/5
Why do I love this so much? Partially because it's good, but ya know, these songs are pretty repetitive and they go on for a bit, two things that usually repel me. But I just love this album. I love it!
The Who
2/5
Is it just me or does The Who get by mostly on it's energy? Or maybe theatricality? I mean, they're entertaining as hell and there are some real good songs here. But when they start going after James Brown and Diddley, it's like... I don't know. None of that stuff works for me. I'm also pretty sure I got suckered into listening to a deluxe super long edition of this album, which doesn't help.
Brian Eno
3/5
I'm kind of surprised I wasn't familiar with St. Elmo's Fire before now. That sounds like a song I should have heard? Regardless... I found myself engaged with most of this one and feeling surprised that it was over when it was over. Good stuff.
Missy Elliott
4/5
I love Missy Elliot because I feel like she keeps hiphop weird. Timbaland is probably also responsible for some of that, but I can't mistake her for anybody else. Every song I've ever heard of hers I liked. A natural.
Queen
5/5
Yeah, I mean, this hits all my sweet spots. It rocks. It's huge. It's dumb. It's weird. I love it. If you also love this and you've never heard The Kleptones A Night at the Hip-Hopera, I suggest you do so. This is all good.
The Cardigans
2/5
I mean... I still like Lovefool. And the Ironman cover is interesting. But nothing on the rest of this grabbed me.
The Saints
4/5
This was pretty great! A punk record kicking off with horns. Man, I got into every little bit of this. good stuff!
Leonard Cohen
4/5
So Long, Marianne is too much of a sentimental favorite for me to be in any way objective about this album. He can be pretty rambly and I wonder if he really wanted to be a singer at all. Maybe he really just wanted to write and this is what started paying first. Regardless, he's one of a kind and I can't fault any of this. I like the whole dark vibe even if I don't get into some of the songs themsevles. But also, the way the Master Song ends, just so suddenly... I love all that.
Pavement
4/5
I didn't get into any of this until the Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus album, and then I circled back. I like so much of this, but sometimes it kind of works itself down into an eddy and I lose interest. But a lot of good stuff here.
Beastie Boys
3/5
What I like a lot about this album is that it's all over the place with vibe. Some straight punk, a bunch of scuzzy Brooklyn whiteboy hip hop, some very mellow instrumentals. But it still outstays it's welcome for me. Right around Heart Attack Man, I'm ready for the party to be over. But there's not a good closer, ya know? Like maybe if Sabotage was the last song or something, you'd feel like it closed real strong. But I think I've turned this one off around here more times than not.
Lenny Kravitz
1/5
There's not a bit of this that grabbed my attention. The song Let Love Rule is fine, but the rest of it just never got its hooks into me.
R.E.M.
3/5
Finest Worksong, End of the World, and The One I Love are sort of the tentpoles of this one. And there's good stuff here and there, but mostly there's just the indie REM vibe that works for me. I can have it on in the background and not want to turn it off.
Joy Division
3/5
As Shawn was saying, these songs really settle into one groove and just go with it. Not a lot of variation and not really a turn off, but also the production or mixing or something here sounds pretty low end. It's not a great sounding record. But still, I don't want to turn it off!
David Crosby
3/5
I didn't hate anything here and I liked the general vibe quite a lot. But nothing ever stood out and demanded a 4 star rating. So...
Fats Domino
4/5
Man, I loved every song on this one. Each one just perfect, great energy, and aims to please. I liked this a lot!
Kraftwerk
3/5
This was strictly background for me, but it never intruded. I was kind of surprised at how pleasant it was? I have an impression of Kraftwerk being sort of industrial, but maybe I just didn't know what the hell I was talking about. This sounds like the background of Epcot Center and I don't mean that as an insult.
Deep Purple
3/5
Solid if meandering classic rock. I like envisioning being there, in a Tokyo arena with a Tokyo crowd, listening to American rock more than I like the actual album. But it's pretty fun, nonetheless.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
Again - every song starts out interesting and then runs itself into the ground. I'm not into it.
Suede
2/5
This album cover perfectly captures my feelings on this album. Butt. I don't know. There's a lot of activity and it sounds like people are working very hard, but this never left the realm of vanilla to me. Very clearance bin 1998.
Incredible Bongo Band
2/5
Pre-listening feelings upon seeing the album art: Oh no.
Post-listening feelings: So... these are covers of popular songs of the day, but with bongos? That's... that's what this is? Just to clarify - why 1,001 albums, exactly? Why not, ya know, 200 maybe. Weed out a couple.
But also - reading up on it, I guess this album has been sampled a good bit, which makes it a little bit interesting. But I'm not otherwise loving it.
Prefab Sprout
4/5
Never heard of 'em. Why do I love this? It's not really grabbing me but... everything is perfect at the same time? I listened to this three times yesterday. Can't believe I've never heard any of this. I kept expecting their hit to play and it never came.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
This guy is such an oddball to me for some reason. Is he really an oddball? I don't know. But I love so many of his songs and the fact that he was ever popular seems strange to me. He doesn't seem to fit in a particular genre of music.
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
Really loved that first song. And that second song title is pretty damn great. But it all falls off for me after that. By the third track, everything runs together for me.
Tito Puente
3/5
This is pretty hard to argue with. I don't know that I would put this on any old time, but it's some pretty feel good stuff that isn't tied to any trendy junk.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
The first time I heard these guys was 1991. I bought the Blood Sugar Sex Magik album and all I can say is that, at the time, I was looking for music that didn't sound like anything else. And, like, the song Give It Away just seemed like - wait, is this guy having sex with some girl's entire family? Like what is this about? It seemed like something my parents would hate. But now, looking back on most of the songs by this band, nothing seems all that good. Scar Tissue is maybe the song that sticks on this one. But in the first track, he rhymes 'entertain ya' with 'Pennsylvania' and then the sweat stains on the rhymes in Californication are real rough. And then comes Purple Stain and I'm like, man, fuck you.
The Jam
3/5
While nothing here really grabbed me, it's a good listen all the way through.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Brown Sugar and Wild Horses are old favorites. Can't You Hear Me Knocking and Bitch are strong. Probably Sway is the only song on this one that I wish could be over soon. This feels like ideal Rolling Stones - it feels timeless in an old-fashioned way.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
When I was a naive, church-going 13 year old, I thought this band and The Jesus Lizard were probably satanic. They seemed way more out of reach than Metallica or Slayer to me. Pretty funny to find out they're pretty much just dark pop. There isn't a standout to me on this album, but I do like listening to all of these.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I have a movie version of what the Rat Pack was like in my head and when I hear Frank Sinatra songs, that's what I imagine. I'm pretty sure that if I had been alive in 1967 this would not have been what I was listening to. But it's a very pro album made by lots of pros and there are several good tracks here, so who's arguing?
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I don't like reggae as a rule. Partially because I attach it to some potheads I knew as a kid that I never really understood. And also because I didn't have a terribly struggle-filled upbringing, so I was attracted to darker stuff - or at least stuff that wore its darkness on its sleeve. But also because reggae tends to sound very samesy to me, probably the way hip hop sounds very samesy to someone who doesn't listen to it much. That being said, this album got to me. Stir It Up is a great song.
Donovan
4/5
Donovan is one of those 60s pop rock acts that had a cool dark edge to him that I always liked. And then when his Hurdy Gurdy man was used in Zodiac, I was like "exactly". I love all this stuff.
CHIC
4/5
Aawwwwwwwwwww sheeeeeeeeeit. Yeah, that opening on Good Times. This album is great. The bass playing alone on this album makes me want to listen to it.
Metallica
3/5
I haven't listened to this one since I decided Metallica were greedy posers for wanting money from Napster. Times change. Here's what doesn't - Metallica still sounds silly to me, lyrically, but goddam these boys got some riffs.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Cinnamon Girl. That's a great way to kick this off. Nothing grabbed me as much as that one, but these were all good, all had their own personalities. And they all had Neil's personality, which I guess is good, too. There's also a dog on the cover, so you know this album is okay, probably.
TV On The Radio
3/5
I appreciate this more than I enjoy it. Great song structures and production, some really catchy stuff, but somehow it never totally gets in my head.
George Michael
3/5
Faith the song is exactly 3:16 long. My first thought on listening to this is that, goddam, Faith is a catchy motherfucker. Has anyone mashed this up with Prince's Kiss? Anyway, the other thing I think about is how GM had to hide who he was through all this. At least, when this album came out, he wasn't out. Which seems pretty ridiculous looking back on it. But that must've been fucking horrible. But as far as 80s pop albums go, there are some heavy hitters on here. There are also some very slight, forgettable tunes.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
This record is pretty wild. I don't know if I love the whole thing, but I would absolutely put this on in the background any time.
D'Angelo
3/5
I mean, this is all very strong. Not always my vibe, but there's something about all of it that I love. 'Shit, Damn, Motherfucker' woke me up for a second, for sure.
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
There's a lot of great stuff in here, but jesus, if I gotta hear one more time about Biggie bustin' a nut... I mean, I don't really need to hear about that shit from anybody. Songs about how many "bitches" you "bust a nut" in are automatic zeroes for me.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
This one left me cold. Had the same Cohen vibe I like a lot, but nothing here made me want to listen again.
Steely Dan
5/5
I mean, I've loved this album for years, so. This is not going to be an objective rating. All the reasons people tend to not like Steely Dan are the reasons I like them, I think. I know every song on every album. I mean, My Old School is a pretty great song however you cut it. It is what it is.
MGMT
4/5
I can't believe this is from 14 years ago. That seems weird. But I was really into this when it came out and I still like it a lot.
The Doors
2/5
Jim Morrison sounds like such a mess on this to me. I could take or leave this one, but I do love Riders on the Storm. That one works for me all the way. Love Her Madly is also strong. But the rest... ehhhhh.
The Streets
4/5
This is another one I listened to a lot when it came out. Still holds up for me. It's sort of just on the right side of amateurish and I like the story.
R.E.M.
3/5
Man, yet another sentimental one. I actually don't love a lot of these songs, but Nightswimming is grafted onto my soul, somehow, like a 90s alt-indie horcrux. Anyway... plenty of catchy stuff here and not at all hard to listen to.
Elvis Presley
2/5
The rendition of Fever on this album made me feel embarrassed while I was sitting alone, listening to it. The musicianship is great throughout, but this was not for me.
Travis
2/5
I know people who love the hell out of this band and they don't come off as posers or anything, but this stuff just slid right on by me, like plain oatmeal. Production sounds great, the band doesn't seem to be faking it. But man, I could not get into this. It always seems ready to tip over into some of my favorite Radiohead stuff? Maybe that's the block for me.
Rage Against The Machine
2/5
I remember thinking of Rage as the smart and good rap-rock band, I guess along with Faith No More. It seems like that subgenre could've just ended there and we woulda been fine. But Rage were still always at arm's length for me. Nothing here really gets me. Killing in the Name comes the closest. This just never connected with me.
Neu!
3/5
A decent vibe here and sounds way ahead of its time. Maybe only ten years ahead of its time, but still. It stayed in the background, but it had some pep.
AC/DC
3/5
Hahaha as a kid I thought they were satanists. I thought this album was probably very scary and that these dudes were seriously dangerous. Then I grow up and realize these album covers and the satan vibe were pretty much stoking the flames of all the uptight assholes who thought all rock n roll was devil's music. Hahaha. Anyway. AC/DC seems like the most likely band of this time to actually have some satanistic tendencies, but that's okay because this is a pretty great album. Songs with dumb names like 'Beating Around the Bush'... I mean... Dumb and scary, just like rock should be?
Miles Davis
3/5
Alexa had to censor the "Bitches" in Bitches Brew. Woke-ass device. Anywyay - I find all of this enjoyable and at the same time it doesn't connect with me. I love almost everything about it, down to that incredible album art, but I would never say this is my favorite thing. I'm glad he did it, though.
Billie Holiday
3/5
Where am I at with this one? It's Billie Holiday and I love a lot of her songs. This is good and all, but there's something in her voice that sounds tired to me and I couldn't get that out of my head. It's nice to listen to but I don't think I'd go back to it.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
Inarguably some great songwriting here. The album starts strong and while it fell off for me after a while, I still love these voices and love this songwriting. Good stuff.
Q-Tip
3/5
This is another one where I can't really find fault with anything here - Q-tip is great! - but I didn't really get sucked in at any point, either.
Frank Ocean
3/5
Another very nice sounding album with a lot of good moments, but nothing that ever stood out and stuck to me.
Eurythmics
3/5
Not sure how I feel about those guttural grunts on this first track. They're really throwing me. Everything is sort of good setting for Sweet Dreams to take off somewhere in the middle. But none of this sticks with me.
2Pac
1/5
Man, time has a weird way of changing the way thinks look. I mean, as far as mid-90s rap goes, this is probably as good as it gets if your name isn't De La Soul. I didn't listen to this back then, but I knew it was a big assed deal. But today, listening to this and reading about Tupac... I mean... I feel like I would hate this dude automatically if he was a bearded white guy. 1992 he dropped his gun, it discharged and killed a 6-year-old. He beat another rapper with a baseball bat. He raped a 19-year-old and went to prison for it. So I mean... sure, it's you against the world, I guess. You sound like an asshole.
The Dictators
4/5
I am absolutely predisposed to enjoy this and I did. So - pretty boring rating over here.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
I like the general vibe of this, but I didn't walk away humming anything, ya know?
Gang Of Four
3/5
A lot of fun to listen to, but not super grabby for me. Listened twice but can't remember any tune. Love the energy, though. And the cover art.
Violent Femmes
5/5
5 stars. Automatic 5 stars. Steve Belcher loaned me this tape at 7th grade camp. I was mostly listening to GNR, Metallica, Poison, etc. at the time. This was a real mindblower for me - acoustic but sounded dirtier and dangerouser than anything else I was listening to. Love it.
Taylor Swift
4/5
I listened to this album the first time under duress, assuming I would hate it, but the only really bad track on here is Bad Blood. Is this my favorite music ever? No. But I think the best part about it is that it absolutely nails what it's going for and for that reason I like listening to it. It makes me feel like a heartbroken teenage girl all over again. And I only mean that half-jokingly.
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
This one surprised me. Not at all what I thought it would sound like based on the cover art. I was thinking something more industrial? I didn't walk away humming anything, but a nice listen all the same.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
I mean, it's Bjork. There are a couple of songs here that grabbed me, but nothing crazy. But still - I like Bjork. She still sells the stuff that I'm not that crazy about.
Aphex Twin
3/5
This is fine. I think that the prevalence of loop software has made things like this seem much, much less special than they actually are. Kind of like how TikTok can make me look exactly like an old man but they couldn't erase Superman's mustache in that one movie.
Waylon Jennings
3/5
I don't really love any of these songs, but I do like this strain of short, pithy country road house songs. They have sort of a bad pun or just a juxtaposition of words in the title, super simple, maybe some good guitar licks. I don't know - I like it.
The Who
2/5
This may be one I would need to listen to several times to get into it. After spending the last week listening to Sondheim, this doesn't really measure up. If you told me that they made most of this up as they went along, I might buy that. Pinball Wizard is still a pip, but nothing else comes close to how strong that one song is. Whereas, like, Sweeney Todd? I mean, dudes. Sweeney Todd. It's a scary musical. The music... is actually scary. And sad. And funny. I'm not getting anywhere near that much out of this. It's not a fair comparison and I should judge this album on its own merits, but I don't wanna right now.
Burning Spear
2/5
I think I know why I don't like reggae - it's one of those genres that's built on a specific sounding beat. So there's a point where it all runs together and I tune out. It all sounds very well done here, but there are no stand-outs for me like on some Marley Records.
Dire Straits
3/5
Man the beginning of Money for Nothing is great. Walk of Life is strong. And the mid-80s vibe is second to none. Knopfler is a great player. Even when I don't really love the song, I like how he plays. Fun for the whole family.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
I was already pretty familiar with The Message, the song. But I wasn't ready for Dreamin', which seems like it's from a different album altogether. Really appreciate the robot voices on Scorpio. Pretty fun listen all the way around.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
I mean, it's Run DMC. I'll always be a fool for Run DMC. I think a lot of what they do is still pretty tight by modern standards even though the sound is very 80s.
Pink Floyd
4/5
This is another one that I love to much to be objective. First listened to it as a young teen and I think what surprised me is that it never lost me, all the way through. Sort of the opposite experience of Tommy (and maybe what I expect from Tommy).
Lou Reed
3/5
I always forget how many hook-ish songs Lou Reed wrote. Perfect Day is one of those songs. So are Wild Side and Satellite of Love. I never think I'm going to really like a Lou Reed record, but then I listen to it and I do.
The Temptations
3/5
This is pretty hard to argue with. I don't know that I walked away with anything that I can't live without, but Love is a Hurtin' Thing I thought was pretty great and everything on here is very tight.
The Beach Boys
2/5
"Hey guys, you know, this world is facing a lot of problems, ya know?"
"Yeah, some pretty bad problems."
"Agreed. Let's make up some songs about 'em right now and record 'em."
"Record 'em right now?"
"Yeah. Strike while the iron's hot, ya know? Don't overthink it."
"Sure, sure. But maybe if you took a day or two, and kind of worked the songs out before you recorded 'em --"
"We're the fucking Beach Boys, Jerry. Roll tape!"
Air
3/5
I don't love this, but I do like it. There are just enough good choices here to keep me listening.
Elastica
3/5
There are a couple of favorites on this one, but I like every song here. I can't believe I've never given this one a full listen. This is good stuff.
The Crusaders
3/5
I mean, yeah, this could play forever in the background. I really like that version of Street Life. This is all good.
R.E.M.
3/5
Not my favorite REM record, but it starts very strong and, at all times, it's very REM-y. A little jangly with a good beat. The song Moral Kiosk makes up for its name by being pretty fun. I like.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
I always forget how many hook-ish songs Lou Reed wrote. The Murder Mystery is one of those songs. So are Candy Love and After Hours. I always think I'm going to dislike a Velvet Underground record, but then I listen to it and I do.
Solange
4/5
I love this album. I love the sound of it, I love the tunes, the choices are just top notch. She had to have written some of Beyonce's Lemonade, right? And for that matter - where is Lemonade on this list? Offspring was on this list and we haven't hit Lemonade yet? Psssshhhhhh.
The Byrds
3/5
So - the Byrds are ever weirder than I give them credit for. Was The Christian Life a joke or not? I wasn't clear. I figured it was a joke, but now I'm thinking about that a whole lot. Regardless, this is fine. Nothing really stuck with me, but it did make me wonder if Ween's 12 Golden Country Greats might have come from listening to this? Anyway, who knows.
Tina Turner
4/5
Tell you what, this album had me in its mid-80s clutches for the entire thing - even through Help which I was sure I was gonna hate. But then... 1984. Hoo boy. But otherwise, I really enjoyed this. Probably a little because of nostalgia - it just sounds like the mall when I was 10. But still - enjoyed it.
King Crimson
2/5
This was not for me. It kept slipping into the background and there it stayed.
Megadeth
3/5
The riffs are pretty glorious here, as is the cover art. I mean, what the hell is that cover even saying? I love whatever that story is. But the lyrics in the songs are pretty rough and I wish I couldn't tell what he was saying. Like if Mustaine was just constantly screaming non-sensically, I might enjoy that more. But this is pretty fun anyway.
The Smiths
3/5
There was a time when I couldn't stand The Smiths, but these albums - the albums of the 80s anyway - really hit for me now. Morrissey's voice still hits me as whiny and he doesn't seem like that great a guy nowadays, maybe. But I kind of love how tight the music is and how sloppy the lyrics are. It works for me.
The Mars Volta
3/5
I mean, this is high-intensity noodling and the melodies are pretty strong, but it just feels like it goes on forever and I start to tune it out.
Incubus
1/5
So - an incubus is a spirit that rapes women and I mean, yeah, that's pretty much the vibe I get from this music. This is AGGRESSIVELY 1999 soul patch rock and 100% not something you need to hear before you die. I don't know if I could dislike this more. Wait - the album cover. Okay yeah, I dislike it more now, so there's still room to grow. Oh! "I feel emphatic about not being static." Yes, there's much further to go. Down, straight down. Oh no - Battlestar Scralatchtica. FUCK. YOU.
The National
4/5
"I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees". Not everything here connects for me, but this is very listenable. There's some very good stuff here. Very warm production. I do like it.
Beatles
5/5
Maybe the easiest five stars on the list for me. This one still surprises. What a good album.
The Young Rascals
2/5
A Girl Like You is a pretty strong start. How Can I Be Sure is one I've heard a hundred times. But this also feels a little like it's standing in the shadow of the Monkees and it doesn't quite have the personality to break out on its own.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Son of a Preacher Man is a good enough song that this album could get 4 stars based just on that. The fact that the whole album maintains that same vibe and that there are a few other good songs here (like No Easy Way Down) makes it a solid 4 for me.
Richard Hawley
3/5
This one's tough. The album cover kind of looks like a self-distributed album by one of your friend's dads. And then you start listening to it and the strings come in and you feel like "uh-oh, what am I in for." But then the vocals come in and it's not the amateur hour thing you thought it was going to be. But then as it goes on, you realize none of this is connecting with you. And maybe that's because you don't know who Richard Hawley is and nothing in the music is giving you a ton of affection for him. I don't know what the personality is here. I couldn't get into it. But it's a pretty pro sounding record.
Dr. Dre
1/5
This was the soundtrack for white frat boys in my first year of college, who for some reason wanted to play at being hard. First 30 seconds, it's all about dicks and guns and assaultin' the ladies. Aggressively homophobic. Insecure as shit. Snoop lets you know he's in the motherfuckin' house a number of times. I hated this then, I hate it now. 3 Feet High and Rising better be on this list somewhere, because jeez.
David Gray
2/5
David Gray's voice reminds me a lot of Ryan Adams. Am I alone in that? The music isn't nearly as all over the place as Adams, but the voice is just about the same to me. This is pretty bland for me, though.
The Roots
5/5
I love this one and I've love The Roots in general so this can't be objective. I remember hearing 'The Seed' for the first time and just howling, like, what the hell am I listening to? If 'The Chronic' is a Netflix-era Michael Bay movie, this one is a late 80s John McTiernan movie. It's just as fun, but it's got something to chew on, too.
The Youngbloods
2/5
Man, I was really hopeful looking at this album art. But this just never rose above lounge music to me. It's pleasant, but there's no grab to it. As soon as that lead singer started in on 'Darkness, Darkness' - I don't know what I was expecting, but probably just something a little less thin.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
This is some seriously hippy-dippy bullshit and the fact that I still love it means that it gets a 5. I feel like the title song, one degree to the left or right, just becomes too dumb to live. But right where it is, is perfect. Also, the album art has always made Garfunkel look like he's got a massive fu manchu. But it's also got three or four all-time great songs ever written, at least.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
I liked this a whole lot more than I thought I would, mostly just out of respect for some guys who are really, really, REALLY into the music they're making. Like, you can tell if they couldn't make a dime on this, they'd be doing this. So that's cool. And there's very clearly a lot of talent going into this. But I did not connect with this at all.
Drive-By Truckers
4/5
I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was a bit in and out of it, but the parts that punched through were really interesting. And kind of naive in an early 2000s kind of way? But the kind of heart in the right place, struggling with that Southern identity that I kind of identify with having grown up in the South. I will be listening to this again.
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
I mean look, these guys are very good at what they do. But Statesboro Blues was the only song I had a passing familiarity of and even that one was pretty noodly. I hung with it for a few songs, but it fell into the background never to return.
SAULT
3/5
Nothing really grabbed me here, but I did like the sort of kitchen sink production of it. Which I've probably said before. But I liked the flow of the album - it felt like one piece. But it also had that feeling of IMPORTANCE that was distracting to me - but that was probably because of the Wikipedia page, which I shouldn't have read. Anyway, not one I would listen to again, but sounds like a lot of work went into it.
Billy Bragg
3/5
I've always dug Billy Bragg's vibe more than I've dug the songs, though there are a fair number that I like a lot. A New England is one of those. But I also really love the commitment to just him and a guitar most of the time and how he's able to create pretty potent experiences with just those two things. Sometimes these songs fall into the background for me, but it's something I'd listen to 8 times out of 10.
Genesis
3/5
I want to be into Genesis because there's so much of it and there are so many people who revere them. There's some really good songwriting here, I think. And the Battle of Epping Forest was so 1973 that I couldn't help liking it. But there's nothing here I'd put on a playlist.
Eagles
4/5
The first side of this record and Victim of Love are all pretty good. The Last Resort is a little embarrassing, maybe more so now than it was then. But I LOVE the story that The Eagles had to stop recording this sometimes because Black Sabbath was being too loud in an adjacent studio. Anyway, I don't hate the Eagles and the songs are pretty catchy. I like the song Hotel California mostly for the eerie weirdness of the story. It's close enough to a horror movie to enjoy. And I like Life in the Fast Lane because I dig a good Hollywood live-fast-die-young story. I also like the production stories on this one. Is the music worth 4 stars? I don't know. But the whole package of this one gets it there, I think.
The Lemonheads
5/5
5 stars immediately. Sentimental favorite. Way too many memories attached to this one to pretend. But also I think these quickie songs hold up - catchy as all shit and taking you to some unusual places - at least for music made in '92. If you like this and have never listened to their album 'Hate Your Friends', give it a try.
Alanis Morissette
3/5
I hate the production on this album and when you really listen to the lyrics of any of these songs, they're just so... overthought? Or underthought? Both? I don't know. Ironic still makes me angry in a language snob way. Every song just sounds like it's a list, like they listed what the song should be about and then they decided the list was the song. And yet.
AND YET.
There are melodies here that are bulletproof. 'Head Over Feet' (god that dumb title), 'Hand in My Pocket', 'You Learn', and goddam 'Ironic' - the melodies are great. It's also the album of choice of a couple of 90s ex-girlfriends and, look, I like my ex-girlfriends, so I don't know what you want from me. This gets 3 stars.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
Oh, this is that song! Take Five! How did I not know the name of this song? Anyway, I enjoyed this enough that I didn't even stop it when it dove into the bonus tracks, which there were more of than original album tracks. It was in the background and it wasn't. This one got into my ears pretty good.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
I haven't listened to this in a long time. Jimi became a t-shirt in the 90s, along with Morrison and some other folks, and it sort of felt cliche to be into Jimi Hendrix. But jesus, listening to this - his playing can't be overhyped. And add to that his vocal performance which just makes you believe everything that comes out of his mouth. Song for song this is one of the best albums ever made. It's practically a greatest hits collection.
Except for that last song. Woof.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
I bought Led Zeppelin IV first (of course) because I was already sort of familiar with several songs, especially the big one. Then I bought Led Zeppelin II and I remember being surprised at how much I liked the whole thing. It seemed unlikely at the time that I would like two albums, front to back, of the same band. Then I remember buying this one and thinking 'No one ever talks about this one, I don't know any of the songs. This is probably going to be terrible.' And then 'Good Times, Bad Times' started up and I loved it again. I figured the blues-hippie-Tolkien -ock thing would burn off at some point, right? But it seems like these guys just had endless riffs and melodies to mine. I still think this is a great album.
Louis Prima
5/5
Fucking love "Just a Gigolo". This whole album is amazing. A real crowd pleaser - pure entertainment. Damn. Good stuff. I listened to this thrice through and I mean I actually listened. Also - Shawn, that's Keely Smith on The Lip! From Thunder Road. Remember? Remember? Anyway. Five stars.
The Sonics
2/5
A ton of energy here, but they do not sound better than The Contours on 'Do You Love Me' and that hobbles them right off the top. This kind of carries through. I'm bringing a lot of baggage into this, but these look like they're, maybe - maaaaaaybe - some rich kids who have some better than average talent? I don't know. I was not won over by any of these tracks.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
'Sympathy for the Devil' is just one of those songs. One of the greats. Then there's this long stretch. And then 'Street Fighting Man'. And then some more songs. So then I made a playlist where I took out those two songs that I know too well and just listened to the songs around it. And that helped a lot! I really liked No Expectations and Salt of the Earth much more when it wasn't sort of obscured by the two greatest hits songs on this album. Still, I don't love this one as a whole. Great work here, but it still leaves me pretty cold.
The Afghan Whigs
2/5
I'm surprised at this one - not at all how I thought The Afghan Whigs would sound. Nothing grabbed me here, but I believed it at least, so I mean that's at least 2 stars.
Machito
4/5
I listened to this whole thing, it held me in its grip the entire time and I feel like I ate a gallon of coffee. Jeezo.
Oasis
2/5
Oasis has a few really great songs, but just like back in the 90s, it takes a lot for me to get past Liam's whiney drawl. And there's still that aftertaste of just constant fighting in the band and the weird, constant bitter anger that seemed to surround them. Or maybe just Liam. I don't know. 'Live Forever' absolutely works. 'Supersonic' works for me. But there's still so much going against this band for me.
Blur
4/5
I had Blur up against Oasis in my head early on, before I understood anything about the Britpop thing in the 90s. And I always dug this sound a little more. Whereas Definitely Maybe loses me after a couple songs, this one carries me all the way through. Very different sounds, but this is the one I gravitate to more. In this case, the most known song on this album - Song 2 - is maybe my least favorite. And I like it a lot. Mostly I like the mixtape feel of it - how different each song is from the others. They all have their own little personalities. Love it.
Love
1/5
There was nothing for me here.
Prince
5/5
I bought this album through one of those Columbia House offers, where you get however many tapes for a penny. I bought it mainly because I loved Purple Rain. I had no idea what this was going to be. And very lucky for me, I really loved this one. I think the only song on the radio was 'You Got the Look'. (At least, on rural NC radio). But Jesus, these songs - Housequake, Play in the Sunshine, I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man. If Was Your Girlfriend??? Do you know what that song means to a 13-year-old kid in the rural South in 1987? Well I'm just saying it's a perspective on sex that you do not get anywhere else. And then to have a track like The Cross at the end... definitely the best Christian-themed song ever written? Aside from maybe O Holy Night, but that's a whole different conversation. Anyway. Another sentimental favorite here.
The Smiths
3/5
I'm still fairly cool on The Smiths, but Girlfriend in a Coma is worth a couple of stars at least.
Garbage
3/5
As mid-90s alt-rock goes, this holds up surprisingly well. I haven't listened to this in a good while. Am I crazy? Even when it's dripping with that sort of 90s faux-angst, the tunes hold up. I feel like I should want to roll my eyes at 'Only Happy When It Rains', but it works for me. Maybe I just believe it more when Shirley Manson says it. Regardless - a happy surprise. I might put this one on more often.
Little Richard
5/5
Like the Louis Prima record, this is another one that's just pure entertainment from head to toe. Also, I love the way he sings the line
"Well long, tall Sally
She's built for speed, she got"
I'm talking about the cadence of that, it's just incredible. That kickass voice. This is five stars for me.
Fishbone
2/5
Fishbone is one of those groups that I really wanted to love. In 1988, this was a group that was very different from anything else I was taking in. Had a cool logo. Looked cool in band photos. Seemed to go hard. And man there's so much energy all over this thing. Talent for days. But just not connecting here.
Janis Joplin
3/5
I really go back and forth on this one. There are a few songs on here that work for me - Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz. And she's got the personality that's pretty unmistakable. She's sort of the other side of the coin with Joe Cocker, maybe? I like all the energy. Some of the songs are indelible. But it's also not something I really reach for. There's something that seems a little put on or something that I don't love.
The Avalanches
5/5
5. Fucking. Stars. I found this album on Limewire back in the day when I was a poor kid just out of college and I have no idea why I was looking for it. I downloaded it all and had no idea what order the songs went in. But one listen to 'Frontier Psychiatrist' and I fell in love. As usual, I love the kitchen sink production.
Aside - why, on Wikipedia, do they have a thumbnail of the cover art and when you click on it, it takes you to a page where you get the exact same art at the exact same size? Like... why even link it, Wikipedia?
Ice Cube
3/5
This still feels pretty stale the way a lot of gangster rap does now, but this is probably top stale shelf. Whereas The Chronic seems to be pretty much in love with itself, this one feels like it has something to say. Ice Cube also has a killer delivery and more than a few lines that are pretty great. Like, Check Yo Self is one you could put up directly against anything on The Chronic and Cube would be the winner. It Was a Good Day is a stand out, but there's enough here to keep you listening at least once.
Mariah Carey
2/5
As far as I know, I've never heard anything from this album. And I'm a fan of at least a few early Mariah songs. So let's see what's what.
Yeah, this is pretty generic. Sounds great, production-wise, but I don't remember any of these songs. And they don't seem memorable. And then The Beautiful Ones turns out to be the best song, but this is a pretty dull version. So... yeah. No Vision of Love? Not even Fantasy? Nope, no coming back for more here.
Deep Purple
2/5
Yeah, so I mean, Highway Star still gets me. I mean, the lyrics alone on that song - there's a lot to unpack there. Smoke on the Water is one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar, so there's a werid sentimental attachment there. But it is a pretty plodding song, for sure. But overall this doesn't move the needle much. Feels very stuck in its time and doesn't deliver a whole lot of memorable moments.
The Pogues
3/5
This might be a great album but it demands a few more listens. Love the sound of it but I don't really love any of the songs. But they all pull me in one way or another - whether it's the voice or the meter, I don't know. But it didn't get my undivided attention. I'd listen again, though, so, 3 stars.
Pixies
5/5
10 stars. This album is foundational to me as a human being. I developed a crush on a girl because she looked almost exactly like the lady on this cover. I can't separate this album from myself. When I look in the mirror, all I see is Surfer Rosa. I'm a little snobbishly put out that 'Where Is My Mind' got so mainstream there for a while. It was a song only I knew about, dammit. This is an unbroken string of great songs, even though toward the end it sounds like they just threw a bunch of outtakes on the thing to fill it out. Don't say a cross word about it or I'll cut you.
The B-52's
2/5
I mean, the B-52's are some fun-loving folks and this is some pretty upbeat music, but this is too much of a good thing to me. Feels repetitive. And Rock Lobster is almost 7 minutes long? I don't need all this.
The Cramps
3/5
I've never really listened to The Cramps, but this is pretty fun. Doesn't outstay its welcome and really knows what it's got going for it. I'd listen again.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
I like Belle and Sebastian but this one is not my favorite. All the song work is there that I like, these sort of winding melodies that are very light and can be pretty dark, pretty funny. But this one doesn't pull me in the way that, say, Dear Catastrophe Waitress does.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
I don't know - it's Creedance. I like these songs. I think Fogerty has a thing about him that's pretty great. I don't think about Creedance a lot, but this is solid work.
Duran Duran
4/5
This album is really underrated. Mostly by me. I've gone through a lot of these 80s albums (because I don't like greatest hits packages), looking for little lost gems and usually I get a lot of hard white turds. But in this case, not so. This was a pretty excellent listen and I would do it again, without shame.
Miles Davis
5/5
This is that kind of album where everything is exactly where it should be. Every note of it. It can play in the background or it can play in the foreground. It's whatever you want it to be.
The Gun Club
4/5
I wasn't aware of The Gun Club at all before this and I gotta say, I really liked this. For the Love of Ivy is a great song. I don't know a ton about who they're pulling from, but I'm gonna do a dive on them. Good stuff.
Khaled
5/5
I coudn't figure out any way to listen to this album, so instead, I'm going to leave notes for Want One by Rufus Wainwright. Only because I saw that this list already offered up Want Two and I'm like "Want Two? The fuck is wrong with this list?" Because Want One is every good part of Rufus Wainwright in one album. If you're not won over by the first two tracks of Want One, then... then you probably wouldn't like the rest of it. But it's one the perfect albums and I would give it 5 stars. Maybe Khaled's Kenza is exactly the same way.
Pearl Jam
4/5
When this album came out I listened to it non-stop for months. I'm happy to say that this mostly holds up for me. At the very least, the music is ambitious in a way that a lot of the copycats after them weren't. It veers into self-seriousness a little but somehow manages to stop short of it. Or the worst of it, maybe. This is another album where the vocalist is what pulls me through - it doesn't really matter what gobbledy-gook he's singing, I believe it.
Herbie Hancock
3/5
This held my attention for generally half of each song before it fell into the background. I can't argue with the playing on here, but it all seems more like noodling than something you can really invest yourself in, listening-wise. Would've loved to have heard this when it first came out - maybe it would've blown my mind. But having lived through the 90s when most acts were repurposing this sound... it doesn't come off especially special for me.
CHIC
3/5
Yeah, man, all of this worked for me. Was disco that bad? Doesn't really seem like it. Love the production on this and most of this really works for me. I'd listen again.
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
This album is so deeply 90s. I find it hard to dislike, but there are no songs on it that weren't on the radio that I really like. The idea that this was whittled down from 60 songs seems crazy. There are several more I would've cut, but maybe if I gave it a super close listen, I'd change my mind. Regardless, there are six pretty great songs here and they're spread out enough that the filler-ish songs don't hurt you. 'Bodies' is probably the best of the lesser-known songs? But it is also maybe the most performatively sad of them all. I mean - love is suicide. Sheesh.
Sidenote - around the time this came out I had a friend I made music with and we had the idea of doing an original Christmas album by a band called Bring Cosby and the name of the album would be Bells and Holly and the Infinite Santas. That was the best part of the idea and that was as far as it went. Maybe some day.
Elvis Costello
4/5
I listened to this one twice in a row. I've always been a fan of Costello's early stuff but hadn't heard much of anything beyond the 80s. These are really strong, am I crazy? I'm surprised I've never heard a single one of these. This is Hell was a real stand out for me. I like it.
The Kinks
3/5
This isn't stand-out Kinks, but it's still Kinks and so it's still pretty listenable all the way through.
Black Sabbath
3/5
I've listened to this one a bunch of times but I came to it pretty late in the game. If this had been one of those albums that bowled me over as a teen it would probably mean a lot to me. But there's was something that didn't add up between Ozzy's persona and what you get from Black Sabbath. Growing up, it was like Ozzy was satanic or something. And you listen to this and they're a bunch of hippies. It's crazy how not scary it is. Kind of like the first time you listen to KISS, maybe, if you came to that late, too. And you're like - wait, is this fucking disco? What the hell was everybody worried about? Anyway, this album is good. I don't love it, but it's a good listen, I think.
Nirvana
3/5
I really liked Nevermind and back in the day, I was a very big fan of Nirvana. But this is not very good Nirvana. At the time there was some kind of coolness about not wanting to be doing the thing that you were doing, especially if what you were doing was something that a lot of people liked. Listening to this now - there are a few tracks that are really strong performances but man... a lot of it is also a drag. I don't need to hear every one of these tracks. Kurt didn't want to do this. And I don't want to listen to it.
Spacemen 3
3/5
This was better than I expected. Not sure what I expected, though. From the cover art - looks like three different kinds of bands. But 'neo-psychedelia describes Spacemen 3 pretty well. Only a few tracks were really grating. The rest were pretty listenable. I might dive back into this band, if not this album, again sometime.
The Charlatans
2/5
I waited for this album to get its hooks into me and it never did. Very hard not to make comparisons to Oasis. This is like Oasis with less personality, maybe? I don't know. It's all very tight and thought out, but just didn't get to me.
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
I love the energy of this. I can't stand the band name. None of the songs get under my skin, but if I went to bars, this would probably be the bar band I'd want playing.
The Cure
5/5
5 stars. Loved it then, love it now. Somehow, this sadsack never came off like a phony. This album was necessary for a fifteen-year-old kid with big feelings and nowhere to put 'em. Good stuff.
Beck
5/5
Can't separate this one from real life. This came out almost exactly when I was ending a long-term relationship. That then became a relationship again. And then ended again. So dumb. But this was kind of the soundtrack to that, so it's hard to be objective. Still, I think all of this sounds great. I'd been a big fan of Beck since the beginning and this was all sort of a whole new range that really worked for me. Great stuff.
Silver Jews
2/5
I'm not a vocals snob at all, but there's something about the lofi, low effort vocals here that are not doing it for me. Sometimes I find this kind of thing really charming and genuine. But in this case, it's just not doing it.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
This album is inextricably linked with a group of dudes from art school who called themselves the Full Flavors. I can't listen to this and not think of them. This is both good and bad. Regardless, though, this is a very fun album.
Tom Waits
5/5
This is another 5 star-er for me. I like the world Tom Waits comes up with. His albums are one of a kind. And this one is a favorite. Goin' Out West is an all-time great song.
Eminem
2/5
I hated 'My Name Is' the first time I heard it on the radio. When this came out it sounded like something geared toward 14-year-old boys who were just realizing that they wanted to upset their moms and weren't sure why or how to do it. I was WAY to old to enjoy this stuff back then. Older than I am now. That said, I don't really enjoy any of this. It feels like a comedy record where the comedian couldn't come up with funny stuff, so they went for the shock. There are bits and pieces that are fun and then sometimes it comes real close to saying something, but then sort of undercuts it. I don't know. Not for me. Two stars because there's clearly talent invovled here. I don't think this is something just anybody could do.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
It's kinda crazy that there are only two songs on this entire thing that I really 'like', in that I really respond to and I can't help but get into - Crosstown Traffic and Watchtower. And yet every track on here grabs me.
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
A pleasant listen. 'Pleasant' is the best descriptor I can come up with. It's a little better than fine? I don't mean to put it down - I thought this was pretty good. It's hard to crawl out of the shadow of the Beatles, though, you know? But yeah, it doesn't reach the heights of a Beatles record, which is maybe a high bar, but hey, I didn't set the bar, maaaaan.
The Kinks
3/5
Extremely Kinks. For a record that has very few Kinks songs on it that I know, this is very Kinks. Very listenable, very few generic songs here. No huge standouts, just Kinks-level Kinksdom, which is good enough for me.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
I mean, I get it. I get it! I get it. I get why people like this. I just don't like it that much. Three Little Birds is great. It's a very chill listen. I just don't like it that much. I'm sorry.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
I don't know if I loved any one song, here, but this could play all day every day in the background of where ever I am and I'd be okay with it.
Love
2/5
Hmmmm. There's a free-flowing nature to these tracks that I am not digging, baby. Nothing here that I could sink my teeth into. As soon as it felt like I had a tune, it would slip out of my grasp and go spinning off in some other direction. I just couldn't do it.
k.d. lang
3/5
Season of Hollow Soul and Constant Craving I like. And there's that early 90's VH1 vibe to all of this that I find some kind of comfort in. Something how I don't see how this could possibly be a hit these days. It's nostalgia, I guess, for a thread of music that I wasn't very into at the time but still made up a percentage of the atmosphere. Still, I don't get very wrapped up in the songs. Pleasant to have on in the background, but not something I'd put on a lot.
Method Man
3/5
I worked at Camelot Super Store in Charlotte, NC when this album came out. For the first month seeing this album cover, I thought the idea was that 'Tical' was an extension of 'Method', so like, the album was called 'Methodtical'. But then a co-worker hipped me to the real - it's a blunt. With cocaine maybe? Dipped, too, maybe? Regardless... a pretty good listen. Method Man's delivery works for me. I didn't walk away with any new best songs, but I liked the production and didn't mind it playing.
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
I really like the overall sound of this album. You can hear the sweat in these tracks. Great energy. They're all strong performances, but you can see why Layla is far and away the most popular one. I would probably put this on in the background if I could get some of those Eric Clapton quotes out of my head.
Black Sabbath
4/5
I'm starting to like this black Sabbath. Do you know I didn't know they did the original Supernaut? I'd only ever heard - and loved - the 1000 Homo DJs version of that. Haha. Life, am I right? Anyway, no wonder people like Black Sabbath. The songs are good. It's heavy, but that's not what makes it good. The songs are good. I liked this album.
Radiohead
5/5
This is one of the best top-to-bottom albums I ever heard. Usually, when I'm disappointed in an album it's because I'm hoping I'll feel about it the way I feel about this one on the first listen. This is the peak of Radiohead's work. Everything after this feels like interesting ideas but not a cohesive whole. I also had way more time on my hands when this came out than I do now so who knows.
Steve Winwood
3/5
Hey, it's this song! I didn't know this song was called this and was from this album. Kind of love the pitch bend keyboard buzz here. This isn't a grabber of an album for me except for a sort of nostalgic time capsule, which I do dig.
Simply Red
3/5
I didn't have cable growing up, but my grandparents did and we'd visit them a couple times a year. I wanted them to have MTV, but the cable tier they had only had Vh1. So I got a big dose of this, Tracy Chapman and Swing Out Sister. And I'm all the better for it. Holding Back the Years is a great song. Hoo boy, though, Jericho. That one almost broke me. Yeah, nothing really gets to that same height as Holding Back, but this isn't hack work. They're putting their backs into it.
I liked the heck out of this. Stay With Me is the high point, but I listened to this twice through and didn't get tired of it. Even the stuff that hangs in the background still has enough meat on it to keep it interesting. Simultaneously sounds old-fashioned and cooler than a lot of newer music. Funny thinking Rod Stewart was once not middle-aged.
The Stone Roses
3/5
This album has chased me around for a couple of decades. It's the kind of album that, even though I've listened to it more than once, I feel like I haven't heard it. And I think that's because I don't really like it that much? But I feel like I should, in the sense that I like everything around it, but I don't like very much what's in it. I mean, it's solid, but I just don't love it.
Joan Armatrading
2/5
This one just never grabbed me, though I feel like I'm missing a boat here. I'll try it again, but this slipped right past me.
Boards of Canada
1/5
Pure background. Reading the critical response to this album on the Wikipedia page makes me feel like I come from another planet. A lot of this kind of music tends to come off ponderous and repetitive and this is a prime example here. Like an album whose prime directive was 'don't bother anyone'.
New Order
3/5
As a kid, I always loved New Order's design and I had no idea what they sounded like. My older sibling just wasn't into it, I guess. I'm very glad it sounds like this, though. Nothing that fully grabbed me, but I welcomed the background.
The Strokes
4/5
This sounds a lot thinner to me than it once did - I remember hearing this for the first time and it was like a life preserver in a sea of shit. But some very simple, catchy rock, sort of on the order of The Cars, maybe. It cut through everything else that was going on and think what was going on was sort of a Limp Bizkit / Boyband / Sleaze techno phase. So anyway, this was better than that. Still very listenable - I don't know if there's a track on here that doesn't hook me at one point or another. But I have no idea what this guy is singing about, so... I'll still give it 4 stars because I'd listen all the way through.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
First of all, that's a great album cover. Second, that's a great album title. And while this one didn't leave me humming anything in particular, I'm hard-pressed to find a bad moment on this one. I could let this play in the background forever and probably let it play in the foreground for a few spins, too. I'd need a good long car ride alone with it to focus on it, probably. Regardless, glad I heard it.
Kate Bush
4/5
So what this is telling me is that St. Vincent owes a lot to Kate Bush. Everything I like about St. Vincent is here in this album, it seems like, though I don't have that one song that gets stuck in my head, like 'New York'. But that's neither here nor there. I've listened to other Kate Bush work before but it never grabbed my attention like this one. And this is lesser Kate Bush? Fantastic.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Bruce Springsteen has grown on me in the last few years, at least to the point where I started to understand the crazy die-hard fanbase he's got. I mean, Iiked plenty of his songs, but I didn't really start to understand the deep loyalty of his fans until I heard Nebraska, I think, which is still one my favorite albums. I started to see how much of a connection he's constantly going for with the audience. I don't know if there is another musician out there today that is this earnest and this sincere in just being barely more than a person in the audience himself? The hell am I talking about? Anyway, this is a good album, too, even though it doesn't really get its hooks into me. I'd listen to it for the mood itself.
Sebadoh
3/5
Man, I really liked the vibe of this when it started, all schlubby singing and discordant chording. Everything was mismatched in a really compelling way. And seeing that this one is the first they did in a real studio also makes it endearing - I like these albums where a group stretches their muscles and gets a little money behind them. But for some reason this seemed to go on twice as long as I thought it would. It lost me, is what I'm saying.
Elvis Costello
5/5
I've heard this before, but maybe I didn't really listen to it. Regardless, I love this album. Alison is an all-time great song. But there's not really a filler song on this thing. There's a great collision of old-fashioned rock n roll with something unhinged that just really works for me. Great stuff.
Femi Kuti
3/5
This started out really strong. Those first few tracks are catchy as all hell and they get into bone real good. But then it felt like more of the same the longer it went on. By the end, I wanted that beat to just stop, to change up for a minute, but it never seemed to. It's a very infectious beat. But like more infections, after a while, you wish it would go away. Still, a very solid bit of musicking here.
Suzanne Vega
3/5
So this is Suzanne before Luka. Nothing here has that Luka-level grab to it, but I liked listening to it. She has an unassuming but engaging voice and the arrangements were interesting. Not something I would run back to, but worth the listen.
Motörhead
4/5
I never listened a lot to Motorhead, but this album really never lets you down. It's all sort of this thundering and very tightly held together mess. If you wanted to make a song that sounded like a hungover guy who hadn't showered in a week running from the law on a Harley that was about to fall apart, this is what that would sound like.
Blue Cheer
2/5
Ehhhhhh?
N.W.A.
3/5
It's funny how childish this sounds to me now, though Ice Cube is convincing. I believe whatever Cube says. Several of these tracks are duds. I mean, 'Gangsta Gangsta' is some stilted stuff. Whereas 'Fuck tha Police' is timeless. Sadly. And also, any time Eazy E shows up - hoo man, the whole thing takes a real nosedive. I don't believe a word of that stuff.
Billy Joel
4/5
Even the lesser-known songs here are pretty strong. Really, everything through 'She's Always a Woman' is solid stuff. It was only the last two songs that I tuned out a bit. It's a lot of crafty songmansships and I dig it.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
I mean... five stars. How do you argue with this? Even the no-name songs, they still have Aretha singin' on 'em.
Elliott Smith
4/5
This is another group of songs - kind of like The Stranger - where every song grabs me somehow. I like that he's stretching a bit on this one - the songs sound a little more open, they sound like they're in a room full of people instead of just you and Smith in his basement. Which I also like, but... This isn't my favorite Elliott Smith, but it's pretty damn strong.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
The first time I heard the band name 'Echo & The Bunnymen', I thought it was a novelty group, like Weird Al. And since I already loved Weird Al, my first thought was the Echo were a copycat and I never gave them a listen. Having listened now, 'The Killing Moon' is the only real standout for me. The rest of it just never gets there, wherever there is. It's not here, though, I know that. What do I want - more Cure? More Erasure? More Depeche Mode? Yeah, probably something like that. This one never broke through.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
This is a good time top to bottom. Love the production on this, even though some songs don't really grab me. At worst, this is great background music.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Ragged Glory is a great title for this album. I love the story behind how it was recorded - it sounds a bit like a live record, like it has that energy. There are a couple of stand out songs here, like Fuckin' Up, Over and Over, and Mansion on the Hill. But I can get behind pretty much all of this. Still, when it falters, it falls all the way into the background. But I think I'll put this one on again, so I'll give it the big four.
Janet Jackson
3/5
I associate this sound with most late 80s pop and yet I think maybe all of that sound was in this album. Maybe a little bit in 'Control'. But anyway, there is some filler here, for sure, but for an album that was intentionally going for socially conscious subject matter, this is pretty strong. Rhythm Nation, Miss You Much, Escapade, and Black Cat all work for me. Come Back to Me has some sort of comforting '89 dentist office feel to it. I don't know - mostly this works.
Screaming Trees
1/5
If this is one of the 1001 best albums of all time, then I feel like the stuff I've recorded is solidly in the 2000s.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
This one had me for a little bit with 'Religion'. Love that cover and all the possibilities that lie therein. But this all felt pretty repetitive, not really taking me to a new and special place.
Radiohead
3/5
This is some fine stuff, but I'm still dealing with my deep, deep feelings of disappointment at this and the two previous albums in the wake of Ok Computer, which I loved. I wanted more of that, and just didn't get it. I wanted fan service! There's good stuff on all the albums, but none of it got anywhere close to OK Computer for me. Not fair to compare an album to an expectation, but that's where it is. Some bright spots on this one, though - 2+2=5, Sail to The Moon, Go To Sleep, The Gloaming
Johnny Cash
5/5
5 stars. Love this one, listened to it lots. Love how simple the songs are and the ambiance of the prison audience. The announcements here and there are just great. This works as foreground and background for me.
Digital Underground
3/5
I think the only song on here that will be any good is 'Humpty Dance'. Let's see.
Yeah, I think that's it. I do like the production on it - there's some depth to these beats. I'll give this one extra points for being a concept album about a drug that makes astronauts orgasm? And the song Gutfest '89 also gets some extra points for bein' real gross.
But that still only adds up to a 3.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
Hey, look, this is some lively, lively stuff and great background music. Top notch background. The beginning grabs me and there's a lot of great work here, but it doesn't hold my attention. They can't all be Incubus.
Big Black
2/5
I'm really torn with this one. I liked the energy and some of it really had me hooked. But the production sounded off to me - too thin or small or something? And the more I listened to it, the more I wanted it to end, which isn't great. I won't go back unless some really explains it to me.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
5 stars all up and down the road. All those cheesy "bow bow bow bow bow"s on Second Hand News? Love it. Not a bad track here. Clinton couldn't even kill my love for 'Don't Stop'. But the best here - 'The Chain', 'Dreams', 'Songbird'... I don't know, this is all great. And the back story on it, what was going on when they recorded it, is pretty great, too. Where's the biopic of the recording of Rumors? And Shawn - can I write a treatment of that and pitch it? To Lindsay or whoever? The story would kill and the soundtrack sells itself. Call me.
(I listened to this three times today. I'm not a superfan, really, but this is good stuff.)
Rod Stewart
3/5
This is very close to being The Faces, and that's great. The vibe is very much like that Faces album we already listened to. It's not Rumours good, but it's pretty good. Every song has something to grab on to, and I'm not a fan of Rod Stewart's voice. I'm liking all of this in spite of that. The album starts strong and builds to Maggie May, and then gently plays itself out. I don't know if I'll go back to this on purpose, but I wouldn't turn it off if it came on.
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
This is not what I thought Hanoi Rocks was going to sound like. Am I crazy? As a glam rock consumer of the mid to late 80s, I thought they arrived much later than they actually did. So this is kind of a nice surprise, though still pretty thin. Engaging songs, but nothing that made me want to hear it twice.
Motörhead
4/5
Am I a Motorhead fan? Maybe I'm a Motorhead fan. This is the second album of theirs on this list and... I mean, I like the whole thing. So I think I'm a Motorhead fan. I'm not a Motorhead superfan, but I'd say I'm definitely a fan, for all the reasons I enumerated in my last Motorhead review, linked here:
[no link was found]
Massive Attack
2/5
Getting bad Filter / Incubus vibes from this album art. Never listened to Massive Attack before, so let's see what this is.
There's a fine vibe here overall but it never pulls me in. That is, until we get to this version of Light My Fire at the end and, oh man, if you wanted me to want to turn this off, mission accomplished.
ABBA
4/5
My appreciation for ABBA has grown a lot over the last few years, to the point now where I have to say - this is absolutely at least a 4 star album that I will put on again.
Fiona Apple
5/5
This is a 5-star for me. A little bit of that is sentimental, but I admire the shit out of her songwriting. She's one of those songwriters who goes wherever she wants with a song and never loses me. I remember hearing her first few singles on the radio and feeling like they were lightyears beyond what was getting a lot of play.
Parliament
4/5
I mean, look - t's Parliament. There are a lot of albums that have this much swagger and don't have even half as much to offer. I'm looking at you, The Chronic. This is just effortlessly good. It's not even engaging the whole time, but every bit of it is right. I might give this 5 stars and it'll be the first one I've given 5 stars that is kind of a background album for me. But I might not. We'll see tomorrow.
The Pogues
3/5
The title track is an incredible opener that immediately justifies having every instrument on that cover. Fairytale of New York is amazing. A lot of great energy and playing here. I especially appreciate the inclusion of the track 'Worms'.
But then my streamer pulled a fast one and tacked six b-sides onto the end , ruining the experience. I really hate that shit. I really do. It's my least favorite thing about streamers, that you have to weed out bonus material. This album ending at 'Worms' is great. Ending where it did wanted me to never go back to it again.
Ash
3/5
I'll tell you what, this album won me over. This album art did not give me high hopes - I was getting 311 vibes and that's not a scene I dig, man. And that tie fighter sound at the top was probably a lot cooler to hear in 1996 than it is now.
There aren't huge standouts here for me, but especially like some of the bigger, buzzier moments. I probably would've gone for this in '96, if I'd heard it first.
Elton John
5/5
5 stars. Everything up to Jamaica Jerk-Off is great, great, great. JJO feels cheap to me. Not a terrible tune, just sounds thin and unnecessary. After that, it kind of lurches around. 'Seen That Movie Too', 'All The Girls Love Alice', 'Saturday's Alright For Fighting', and 'Social Disease' are all pretty solid. 'Harmony' is a pretty good closer. Even with the filler, though, I still do love putting this album on every time.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
'Somebody to Love' and 'White Rabbit' are great, just great. There's a lot that's very good here - psych rock that's not embarrassing. It's not Jefferson Starship, tough.
Queen
3/5
This is a tough one. I really like opener, but despite Freddie Mercury's voice and some fun ideas along the way, this one never really sits down and gives me a hug.
John Lennon
4/5
This is one of those albums, man. Has the stink of genius all over it. Imagine is still a great song. So is Oh Yoko. Jealous Guy is also pretty good. But this isn't really even as good as Rumors, ya know? This is not one I would listen to three times in a row. And I love the Beatles and John Lennon in general. I'll give it four stars because Imagine still strikes me as something that would bother religious conservatives. But that's as far as I can go.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
This album art is giving me impossibly high hopes. I don't know this album or what is on it. Let's see what happens.
This is fun and there's a lot going on here. When our kids were small and they'd get into a very serious mood and they'd be in and out of the room and carrying stuff in and out and building something, my wife and I would say "they're so busy." Todd is very busy here. This doesn't all hold together for me - it doesn't feel like there's something running through all of it outside of ambition or enthusiasm, but it's pretty much all fine craftsmanship. There are no songs that really pull me in, but it's not grating either. So it's background. The covers are strange - they sound... almost exactly like the originals? To the point where I had to say to myself "Are these the originals?" I don't know how to feel about that. I feel like if you're going to cover something, you gotta give it something of your own, otherwise what's the point? But anyway. Fine background for me.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I like this album and I've kind of always liked Arcade Fire even though when I think of them in the abstract, they seem kind of boring. A friend of mine had free tickets to a show of theirs, a big arena show, and invited me along. I went but kind of felt like it was going to be a slow evening. It definitely wasn't. It was a helluva show and they worked their asses off. The songs are all sort of big emotion songs, though I feel like if each one was just a few degrees off from where it actually lands, I wouldn't be able to listen to any of it. But this album in particular is one of their better ones and I've listened to it plenty. And I'll listen again, so - 4 stars.
Black Sabbath
3/5
This album is what I was afraid Black Sabbath would be. There's some good work here, of course, but there's a lot more wallowing in the sludge. This isn't nearly as fun as Vol. 4, but they had to start somewhere, so I'm glad they started here.
The Who
3/5
If you're anything like me, you listened to a lot of Zeppelin in your early teen years and in short order, you pretty much knew all those albums backward and forward. Then in the early 2000s, they released 'How the West Was Won', and every track on it sounded 1000% better than any of the albums. It pumped a few extra gallons of blood into each one of those songs.
Anyway, that's what I hope for whenever I hear a new live album. I didn't get it here, but most of the hits sound great - great energy behind them. Much like other Who albums, though, this feels like it goes on too long.
Portishead
4/5
Here's the thing about Portishead - they're the first artists I ever heard of who recorded their music and then sampled it to turn it into the songs on the album. Maybe I don't have that exactly right, but I seriously dig that worth ethic.
But anyway, the first two songs are GREAT. The third is good. Then the fourth one is kinda like "uh-oh, are they going for Sade, here? Because I like Sade, but I don't want that from Portishead." But then it clicks back in with Wandering Star and builds up to Glory Box which is a GREAT closer. This is a good album. I like Portishead.
Prince
5/5
Pffft. 5 stars. There are few perfect albums and this is one of them. All killer, zero filler. Most of it shouldn't even work but it does. Like, this opening with the organ and the eulogy? This could've crashed and burned. But it's fucking great. I like a lot of Prince's stuff, but he never got back to this. I bet this album benefitted from him writing, like, 200 songs and then paring it down to 9; that was his beef with WB, wasn't it? That they wouldn't let him release multiple albums a year? Anyway, I think curation helped this one a lot. I kinda wish he'd taken every three albums after this and pared those songs down to one album. Imagine.
Extra points to Prince for making me believe, when I was 10, that somehow when I grew up, adult life would be something like what is on this album and its cover.
Oh but here is some bullshit - on the 'normal' album on Apple Music, the end of I Would Die 4 U doesn't lead directly into Baby I'm a Star. Like, it just stops the party at the end of Die 4 U. I will take one star away from Apple Music for this and give Purple Rain 6 stars.
Roxy Music
3/5
I've always wanted to like Roxy Music but haven't gotten into any of their stuff. But I haven't heard this before. Let's see what's up:
The album starts strong. Listening through twice, I like the feeling of all of it, but I'm not drawn in. And it's been so long since I listened to something new that really drew me in that I wonder if the problem is me. For sure I shouldn't be listening to this during work. Work is a real distraction. But I'll give this a few more listens when I can really listen. Maybe I'll end up liking Roxy Music after all.
Aaaaaand now I see that Apple Music has screwed me again - I was just thinking "jesus this is a long album" and that was because of the 14 extra tracks tacked to the end of the album. Come on with this.
Nina Simone
4/5
There are three Nina Simone songs that are all-timers for me - Feeling Good, Strange Fruit, and Mississippi Goddam. I've never done a deep dive of her stuff, but I know that I've heard plenty through samples in other people's music - Four Women, for instance.
But she is one performer who always sounds like the truth and every song she sings is an experience. It's a world to itself. And this album is a great example of that. First time I've heard this one, and I'll call this five stars.
Van Morrison
4/5
Moondance - this is a solid four stars for me. The first side of this one are all pretty great and I've heard 'em a million times. The flipside is decent but fades into the background a bit. Good performances across the board, I think, but not as engaging.
Kid A - This is a big disappointment for me following OK Computer, which I liked every corner of. There's great stuff in it, but it's not something that holds my attention all the way through. It sounds so canned that I just want there to be a little bit of fresh air in it.
Anyway - Moondance gets 4, but Kid A gets 3.
Cypress Hill
2/5
Man, I couldn't care less about what these guys are talking about. A few songs in, and the hardcore rap-ness was dulling. BUT what's under those rappings? That works pretty well most of the time. I complain a lot that albums don't grab me and pull me in, but this one did numerous times and I didn't want to get pulled in. So anyway, good beats, bad raps, 2 stars.
Afrika Bambaataa
4/5
This stuff has been sampled and mapped over so many times, it's hard to think of what this must've felt like, hearing it for the first time. Great party energy, though it did fall into the background. Thought that's probably because of repetition - it alll already sounds so familiar. I'll give it an extra star since, when I was a kid, I thought Afrika Bambaataa and Mr. T were the same person and that seems wrong.
The Who
4/5
Seriously, though, fuck Deluxe Expanded editions. And maybe fuck Apple Music? But the only edition of this album on Apple Music has 114 tracks. For fuck's sake. For the sake of fuck. No one needs that many versions of The Magic Bus. Townshend's in his grave, like "enough already".
First of all, Pete Townshend is not dead. Did you wonder for a second, though? Second - I enjoyed the shit out of this, from the very first second on through. It's that kitchen sink thing that I like. Unpredictable but lovely and seems like they're just throwing tons of ideas into the mix and it keeps paying off. I'll listen again.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
I'm not sure I've ever listened to Emmylou Harris. I get her mixed up with other folks in my head and I can't think of, ya know, that one Emmylou Harris song. But damn this is strong. This is just one of those perfect little albums, where everything fits. Even her doing a cover of Coat of Many Colors works just perfectly. I'd only heard that from Dolly Parton, with that distinctive Dolly Parton voice. And yet Harris knocks it out of the park. Is it that I believe everything that comes out of her mouth? Probably. Dug this one. I'll go back.
Talking Heads
3/5
Take Me To The River is my very least favorite Talking Heads song, so this is probably my least favorite Talking Heads album. That being said, this is fine. For some other bands, this would be amazing. For Talking Heads, this is fine and I would let it play. It's got all the sounds and some of the moves of the best of TH, but there's a spark that just isn't here, and I think that's exemplified in Take Me To The River. Anyway, 3 stars.
3/5
Okay. 3 tracks. The first one is 20 minutes long. Okay. Opening up my mind and heart. Let's do this.
I hate that I sound like a broken record, but this is another one that doesn't grab me. I'm not in a headspace to go on a sonic journey with Yes right now. The playing is great, lot of talent here. And I was never annoyed by it, but I can't remember anything I heard in it and I listened to it twice. I star for each track.
Slayer
3/5
The cover is great. I want to like this album more than I do but only because so many teens wear Slayer shirts now and I want to say to them "You don't know what Slayer is all about! I do!" But I don't.
What I do know is that I really like the production here and I like Tom Araya's voice. Metal vocals can sometimes really ruin your whole day, but these sound great.
Still - at a certain point it feels like a pummeling and not in a good way.
Kate Bush
2/5
Kate Bush and me, we just ain't meant to be. Every song is just around the corner from something that I would love, but I can't key in on exactly what she's after. It reads like parody sometimes and I'm looking for the sense of humor, to figure out what the joke is, but I can never put my finger on it. Super interesting arrangements and tunes, but nothing that sticks in my head. I really want to be a Bush-baby, but I don't think it's gonna happen.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Very, very 1967. Some nice moments here and there, but nothing that really stuck out for me. Mostly, it felt very much of its time and that can be fun. This was good background.
AC/DC
4/5
Never heard of it.
You know, on this one, there's always something to carry you through. Whether it's a killer hook, incredible guitar work, or the sheer audacious stupidity of the song lyrics ('let me cut your cake with my knife' is some Spinal Tap-level shit), this never gets boring. I wouldn't say it's all killer, but it never loses me. And it's got a few all-time greats.
Metallica
1/5
I know this has been around forever, but I've never listened to it because it always sounded more like a concept that came from a committee than from an actual good idea. "What if... See if you can follow me here, Ted... What IF... we took Metallica, right? And we had them play with a symphony. You know, because they're so opposite. Who conducts a symphony? I don't know, who's a symphony guy? John Williams? Can't get him? Okay, I don't know, just get somebody. And we could call it 'S&M'. Get it? Get it? No, it stands for 'Symphony and Metallica! Because that's what it is!" It just seems to be trying too hard from the get-go. But let's see.
Having listened - I expected there to be more hits? As I haven't listened to much Metallica post-Black Album, a lot of this was like listening to a band that always has an orchestra behind it. Kinda like a movie soundtrack. But not much emotion here. Then 'Master of Puppets' hits and it sounds really weighed down. It's beholden to this classical music idea. It all really sounds lethargic.
I stopped listening at One. I figured that was the one that would benefit the most from this treatment, but no. Dear god, when they hit "hold my breath as I wish for death" is just bloodless. That was a real slog for me. Just took all the juice out of Metallica. Not looking to hear that again.
Small Faces
3/5
This is a tough one. That opening sounds way more modern than I expected. If Fat Boy Slim never sampled that, then he's lost a step. None of the tunes stuck with me, but I enjoyed listening to all of them. I liked the exact level of weird humor here. It never took itself too seriously, but it also wasn't a parody - at least not a parody of anything I could recognize. The production is over-saturated and carries a great groove most of the time. If the songs were just a hair more catchy, this would be an essential album for me.
3/5
The first three tracks are hard to argue with unless you already hate U2. I mean, Bono is an acquired taste. Probably less back then than now. But anyway, the first three songs are very strong. And if the rest of the album could've kept up that pace, it would be a five-star album. 'Where the Streets Have No Name' sets a scene that the rest of the album doesn't quite live up to. They do stay in their bucket the whole time - there's not a late album polka or anything. And 'In God's Country' is a nice little boost toward the end there. Through, there's the jangly U2 sound that lets you know who you're listening to, and that's comforting for some reason. So - it starts strong, it fades into nice background. Three stars.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Nick Cave has always been a tough one for me. Murder Ballads is great, The Boatman's Call is great and just generally the songs are strong structurally and melodiously. But usually, at some point, he completely loses me and I get the feeling I need a masters in English lit to follow him wherever it is he's off to.
And yet - this is pretty great. This is one that I think I'll dive into a little further.
The White Stripes
3/5
This was a badly needed breath of fresh air when it came out and now I'm pretty tired of breathing it. So stripped down, it brought to mind Billy Bragg and Violent Femmes, at least to me, at least in 2001. Just the way that, without a ton of studio tricks, these songs were compelling.
'Hotel Yorba' is a sentimental favorite and I still like its optimistic view toward relationships. 'I Think I Smell a Rat' is abysmal and I don't want to hear it ever again. That's a big range. A lot of it sounds kind of samesy after a while and fades into the background.
David Bowie
3/5
It pains me to say it, but this may be one of my least favorite Bowie albums. 'Lazarus' is a fantastic song and gives me everything I want out of an album that was recorded when Bowie knew he was on his way out. Nothing else steps up to that song though. Interesting digressions to be had here and there, but it's more of a jazz album than a Bowie album, at least to me. Maybe it needs a closer listen, but none of these songs really seem to take off. Background, though, for sure.
The Verve
2/5
'Bittersweet Symphony' is an alright tune, overshadowed by all that Rolling Stones business. This didn't annoy me until the song about 'Looking back on my life' and, coming from a 26-year-old, that's a little bit rich. I don't agree that this was the best alt album of 1997, especially when OK Computer came out the same year. This slipped into the background and into oblivion. Not a lot for me here.
Brian Wilson
4/5
I bought this one when it came out, mainly because of the hype around it. This was an album rescued from oblivion - a hell of a backstory. And there are some great moments on this for sure. But I've never successfully listened to this all the way through. It's just a smidge over 45 minutes - not that long a stretch. But it feels like twice that to me. Maybe that's because it has so much to live up to?
Still, Heroes and Villains, Roll Plymouth Rock, Surf's Up, Child is Father of the Man... all good stuff. Good Vibrations strikes me as a tug of war between Wilson and Mike Love. Those verses are hauntingly beautiful. Then the chorus busts in and "She's giving me excitations" - jesus that's bad. It's always been bad. I can't stand it.
So this is better than background, but it always ends up in the background for me. 3.5 stars.
David Bowie
5/5
You shoulda been there the first time I realized that quote from the opening of 'The Breakfast Club' was from the song 'Changes'. Haha oh boy. What a day.
But really, what a bunch of great songs - Changes, Oh!, You Pretty Things, Life on Mars?, Kooks, Quicksand, Fill Your Heart, Andy Warhol, Queen Bitch... there's plenty of good stuff to go around. This one doesn't meander or, at least if it does, it comes back with something interesting.
The Go-Go's
4/5
Man, I love the sound of this. I have seriously underestimated this group. Or maybe just this album. You guys ever listen to Ex Hex? Ex Hex is great, too, but owes a massive debt to the Go Go's.
Anyways - Our Lips are Sealed, We Got The Beat, Fading Fast, You Can't Walk in Your Sleep. Even Skidmarks on My Heart, which is a terrible title, still works! And all of this makes me want to hear what they sounded like when they were straight punk.
Anyway, enjoyed this one a lot.
The Byrds
2/5
Goddamit. Put this on yesterday, didn't look at the track listing. It was 17 tracks long and around the 12th track I was like "Jesus, when is this gonna be over." And of course, it's a 10 track album in a 17 track sack thanks to streaming music.
But anyway, sounds like the Byrds were getting into experimenting with sonic textures and, I mean, awesome. Enjoy. But Mind Gardens is rough going. The alien voices on CTA 102 are cartoonish. This one has several okay songs. My Back Pages and So You Want To Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star are the best and that's not really a super high bar. But this is a solidly 1967 album. It feels and sounds of that year and it doesn't seem like it traveled far beyond it.
New York Dolls
4/5
You remember Buster Poindexter? I only remember him because he'd pop up on SNL every now and then. I had no other frame of reference for him. He was kinda scary and kinda corny, big showman vibe but with a low-rent central casting look? He was the cabby in Scrooged. You remember.
Anyway, David Johanssen in great. I wish I'd known about New York Dolls before Buster Poindexter. I might have found it all a lot funnier. Regardless, I like this album. Each song is catchy in the exact same way. I really like Personality Crisis, but it might be the only one I really remember. Either way, fun album, good sound. Thanks Buster.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
I'm so torn on this stuff. I think the arrangements and rambling melodies work amazingly well for something that has no hooks. As non-engaged as I am by every song here, I can't say the songs are bad. Like the last thing we listened to of hers - the unpredictable nature of the tunes are great - breath-of-fresh-air great.
But man, they ramble and I can't get into them. Seems like something that if I listened to it nonstop for a week it would click. But like this, I just can't get in the door.
Cee Lo Green
3/5
You know how on track 15 it starts with 'Ladies and Gentlemen... Cee-Lo'? That bugs me. You could maybe lead off the album with that. But when it happens just before the 15 track... it starts to feel like, you know what, maybe this album should be over already.
I don't know - another album I'm torn on. I like Cee-Lo's voice a lot. I like the sense of humor generally. But the songs don't get under my skin. And this one feels overlong and out of focus. Tons of good material, but maybe it needed a little curating. I bet at 12 or 13 songs... even 10 songs... it plays a little better.
The Smiths
4/5
There was a time when I really couldn't stand The Smiths and maybe that was because I saw myself as someone who listened to louder, cruder, harder stuff. And also because I hadn't listened to any Smiths.
This is a hard one not to like! You have to buy into the ridiculousness of the songs to an extent and once you have, it's a little party. The dark humor and emoishness mixed with the popishness, it all works for me now. These songs are good, that's all.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I mean, yeah, this album was so overplayed by 1991 it was the butt of probably the best joke in Wayne's World.
But it's fuckin' Led Zepplin IV. What are you gonna do? If you heard this album for the first time today, you'd still be like "okay, that's a different level."
Unless you'd already been a fan of Greta Van Fleet, maybe.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Late 90s Dylan, huh? Alright. I mean I'm a fan of a lot of 60s Dylan. And some 70s Dylan. Even some 80s Dylan (that song he did on the Band of the Hand soundtrack I stand by forever. Probably the best song on any forgotten B-movie soundtrack ever.)
This album won me over. I was not at all excited about it. 'Not Dark Yet' is pretty great. 'Love Sick' is a good start. 'Standing in the Doorway' sounded so good. 'Trying to Get to Heaven' jumped out at me. It's all kind of what I would expect from Dylan, a little less urgent but a better experience than with some of his more rambly bits. I'll be listening to this again.
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Excellent, excellent background. Transporting background. Not interested in listening to this closely, but would never turn it off in the background.
Venom
3/5
A black metal album with a cross-eyed goat-faced man on the cover. Can anything live up to it?
Yeah, kinda. I mean - this is some black ass metal. Short tight songs, leaning toward the transgressive. Silly because it's definitely for teenaged boys, but still fun. It's not Regurgitated Guts, but it'll do til some gets here.
Common
3/5
Common is one of those guys... Is he an actor? Is he a musician? I know he's been in plenty of movies and made plenty of albums, but I can't name one from either category. He doesn't have that one song that everybody knows, ya know? Ice Cube does. Ice-T does. Tupac does. So on and so on. So anyway - let's see.
I don't know any of these songs. I can't say that they stuck. But this is a very listenable record. The production on it, the samples, the arrangements are all really strong. I wouldn't turn this off if it were on.
Boston
4/5
What kind of guy do you have to be to use the term 'mama' to refer to a potential romantic partner and not sound weird? And to tell said 'mama' that you want to show her 'sweet delight'? I don't think I could pull either of those moves off, but Boston does. So that's worth a point.
This is pretty good. It's definitely inoffensive. But there are also moments that are pretty undeniable. The first three tracks, for instance, are hard to forget. It's sort of like that Howard Hawks quote about making movies - have 3 great scenes and no bad ones. That's kind of this album. I could actively listen to this again.
Aerosmith
2/5
Do you remember when Walk This Way came out, with Aerosmith and Run DMC and you were 12 and it was like "oh SHIT!" and then sometime later you heard the original Aerosmith version and you were like "oh."? And then you heard Guns 'n' Roses' version of Mama Kin and you were like "OH SHIT!" and then you heard Aerosmith's version and you were like "what?"?
That's pretty much my relationship with Aerosmith. They belong somewhere in the rock n roll landscape, but they always feel about two steps back from greatness. There was that point at the end of the 80s / beginning of the 90s where the brought in songwriters and became really popular and had some catchy tunes. And hey, I owned Permanent Vacation and Pump.
There's nothing on this one for me, though. These feel like sketches of better songs. These songs were recorded too soon. Two steps back from greatness.
Heaven 17
3/5
The cover is fantastic. I wanted a whole album of 'Let Me Go' level stuff. This wasn't it. Interesting, but nothing that made me take notice. Makes sense that this album came first. I'd leave it on in the background.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Never heard this one before and ended up liking every song on it. I can't really put my finger on exactly why, so I'll chalk it up to 'good songwriting' and leave it at that.
It's possible that I'm an Elvis Costello fan.
Arctic Monkeys
2/5
This is not for me. I remember people loving it, but it feels needlessly aggressive and bitter. Like a 20-something pretending to be cynical. It's not my vibe. Some nice sounds, though.
Manu Chao
1/5
Is this guy bleeding from the head? Is he okay? Getting Adam Levine vibes.
This one lost me at Bongo Bong.
Kid Rock
1/5
Nope.
What I always hated so much about Kid Rock, before I even knew how bad a guy he was, was that he really ruined rock for a number of years. Maybe it's not his fault, but the whole army of these rap rock bands just took a shit all over the place and made rock die.
The fact that this was ever popular is kind of disheartening. This asshole is rapping and it's fucking atrocious.
Fucking cornrows. Fuck this guy. I got two songs in. I tried. The first verse of Cowboy did it. This was created in a lab that makes things for me to hate.
I listened to Return of the Frog Queen and I feel so much better.
Coldplay
3/5
Can anything sound bad after Kid Rock? I don't love everything here, but it's very listenable. Yellow is pretty strong. It's at least fine background.
Nine Inch Nails
3/5
Here's how good Trent Reznor is - this stuff is comedically angry and bleak. And yet - very listenable. I love the sound of it and there are occasional sparks of greatness. My mind wanders a bit on the way through, but he makes bleeps and booms sound better than most people.
Alice Cooper
4/5
The first song on this album was very welcome after this past week of the dregs of this list. And NIN. Three tracks in, we've got Stephen Sondheim. Give this man a Nobel Prize. We end on Sondheim, too? What is this album? It's a delight, that's what it is.
Steely Dan
5/5
Here's the thing - I really like Steely Dan. I don't know much more about them than the music. I've never seen them live. I got their box set at some point during film school and it was one of those situations where you listen to something and you like every single song you hear. As if you'd heard it all before. And some of it I had heard before, but the deep cuts were just as good if not better than the hits. And among Steely Dan albums is probably my favorite. I like the way it sounds, I like that it sounds like easy listening and the subject matter is drugs and porn and losers. And Ulysses, I guess? I love it.
The Birthday Party
3/5
This cover is ugly. And not because of the Ed Roth troll driving a hot rod. That part is cool. It's because it looks like it started out as a good t-shirt decal and then someone airbrushed purple and pink over it for no reason? Oh man. It's bad.
The music is better, though it didn't sink in. There's something to it that kept trying to drag me back in and I'll probably give it a closer listen some other time - though if I'm saying that now, it's also very possible that won't happen. It's a little like other Nick Cave stuff - it either grabs me at the top and holds on or I feel like I can't get in. With this, I can't get in.
Eels
3/5
I loved Electro-Shock Blues - that one has some all time great songs on it for me. This one feels like that one's little brother. 'Novocaine for the Soul' was a song title that fit in well the year it came out - a little over-dramatic, a little too on-the-nose? But I still like the general sound of all of this, even if 'Novocaine' is the only song that stands out for me.
The Byrds
3/5
I win this time, motherfucker! I knew a minute into 'Moog Raga' that I was listening to some 'expanded edition' bullshit! I win! I win! I was like "what are these mouse farts doing?" and then I knew. Whew.
Anyway - this entire album played in the background and never grabbed me once. Just nothin'. Nothin'. Absolutely fine background.
The Prodigy
2/5
I wasn't big on the rave scene. It seemed like a lot of drugs and repetitive beats. This sounds a little more entertaining than that, but not by much. It sounds like there's some thought going into this, which is more than I can say for other music in this category, so that's cool. But there's nothing here that stays with me.
Gorillaz
3/5
A friend recently called us, saying they have two tickets to Gorillaz that they can't use. It was only then that I realized I only liked one Gorillaz song. The rest of it is good design. I owned this one, always tuned out after Clint Eastwood. Sounds great, but there's nothing for me after that.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Never listened to this before but heard plenty of Curtis Mayfield. This was great. Love it. Now I know where the Beastie's got that one sample on Paul's Boutique. I mean, this is great. What's not to like?
Baaba Maal
3/5
Lively. Clear. Not something I feel super connected to, but definitely some good melody work here.
Sepultura
2/5
From the first words, I simply cannot take this seriously. This music needs to cast a little more of a spell before it dives into "ROHTS! BLOODY ROHTS!" I'm giggling from the outset. 'Ratamahatta' came around and I was still sort of bemused by it all. On 'Dusted', it ain't gettin' any better. This guy seems very upset.
I'll tell you what, a lot of the vocal performance here made me laugh. This probably isn't for me and I'm definitely not keyed in to whatever this is supposed to be doing. Good playing, though?
There's a brief respite with Itsari - that was pretty enjoyable! Then we dive right back into the angst.
I checked out at the beginning of 'Canyon Jam'. Sepultura did not earn another 12 minutes of my life.
Jane's Addiction
3/5
I seem to remember having the tape of this with the censored cover. It's almost weird to see this cover art.
That said, this is pretty good, but not near as good as Nothing's Shocking, which is a tape I wore out quite literally. Played so much it erased itself. Reading up on this, I learned that there was this entire back story to the album that I didn't know about and, now that I know... it's still pretty good. This one meanders too much for me. This cover is great, though.
Yes
3/5
Full disclosure: I did not listen to the deluxedition. And I will never do so unless I love this.
Strong start. I could listen to Roundabout several more times. That bass work, brother. Jeez. And yeah, okay, yeah, sure, yeah, this is fine, this is just fine! Just fine indeed! Every song is either pretty snappy or good background. I'll go along with this, sure! Not listening to the deluxedition though.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
For a songwriter who seems to have only one move, sound-wise, Mascis really makes the most of it. I wasn't a big Dinosaur Jr. fan back when Dinosaur Jr. was a big deal, so I don't have any other attachment to these songs, so they kind of play as pleasant 90s grunge background. Pleasant it is, though.
Also - is the last track on the album supposed to abruptly cut off? Anybody else experience that? I took three tries at it and it ended suddenly in the same place each time.
B.B. King
5/5
I mean - this is great! I'm not even a blues man, but this entire album is a great time, beginning to end.
Suicide
3/5
Synth punk? Absolutely. Minimalist? You bet. Interesting? Sure! Listen again? Probs not.
Pulp
4/5
I want to like this a lot more than I do, which is a weird thing to want. I guess it's because it has all the trappings of something I would love, but somehow it never gets all the way there. 'Common People' is a great song, but I first heard William Shatner's version. Maybe that's the problem right there. I like this more than just as a background record and I'll keep trying with this one, so maybe that makes it a 4. Yeah, I guess it's a four then. Okay.
Pink Floyd
4/5
I bought a bootleg tape of Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder at a flea market in Myrtle Beach back in 1988. I didn't know a lot of Pink Floyd - mostly things from The Wall. But that first track, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, is pretty fucking amazing. And I gauge that mainly by two criteria- 1) I really love it and 2) it's almost 12 minutes long.
This one opens with a lesser version of 'Shine' - it feels lethargic compared to the live version. That said, it's hard to deny the chops of these guys. They aren't playing in a standard songwriting sandbox and yet this is frequently engaging. Pretty good stuff.
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
I think I've always liked the idea of Sufjan Stevens more than the music. There's a song on Michigan that I really love. Chicago and John Wayne Gacy, Jr. are standouts on this one. But in the end, it always fades into the background and sounds samesy after a while.
Billy Bragg
5/5
I own this, I love it. There's almost no downtime in here for me - this is all great. Everything good about these musicians is on this record. Love it.
Badly Drawn Boy
4/5
The tunes here worked pretty well for me. This album had a strong start and I found it pulling me back in several times as it played in the background. This one I'd give a closer listen to. I like the production a lot, I like the genre-jumping songs - sounds almost like a mixtape. I didn't give a close enough listen to buy into the details of the lyrics, but I think I just might.
The Temptations
4/5
I like this cover - I like the idea of posing people on, in, and around a tree. Like, yeah, this is just how we hang out. When we're not playing music, we tend to hang out in, on, and around a tree.
Anyway, Papa Was a Rollin' Stone deserves at least 4 stars alone. But even without it, this is some pretty strong soul funk, if that's a thing. I'd listen again.
Eminem
2/5
There's talent here, but I still can't stand the sound of any of this. His voice, the jerky beats. It's super cool he got to make several albums so that he could talk about how much he wanted to kill every woman in his life. Stan is dark in an interesting way. The Real Slim Shady is an abomination.
Skunk Anansie
3/5
There's so much to like here that I'm a little dismayed I don't like it more than I do. This mix of ingredients is very cool and sometimes delivers some powerful moments. But having listened, there is no tune stuck in my head. The best I can give this is a three.
4/5
Victoria is a great song and a great opener. I really like this a lot. As someone seemed to note in the Wikipedia write up, this is like Tommy if it had good melodies. I can listen to this a bunch more.
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
For noise rock, this is pretty great. A few tracks went on a smidge to long, but somehow they still held it all together. How did I miss this in 1994? I was probably still listening to Dirty.
Hole
4/5
This is one of those albums that works for me all the way across the board. Crazy to think that this came out 4 days after Cobin killed himself. I remember kind of reeling from that - one of those deeply Gen X 90s moments. I bought this the day it was released and wore it out. There's nothing here that doesn't work for me. And Rock Star is an incredible closer.
The Who
4/5
Oh fuck - I know for SURE I'm not finding a version of this without 38 bonus tracks attached to it.
But alright, the album itself, the one that was released with just 9 tracks on it? That's some solid work. Some real solid work. Not a lot of downtime on this one. Baba O'Riley is a good one, of course. Bargain is tough to listen to without thinking about it in that car commercial, but it's still a strong one. On side one, only My Wife doesn't stand out for me. On side two, it's Getting In Tune. Otherwise, it's all strong stuff.
Not a perfect album - I'm not really emotionally moved by much of it - but strong enough for a 4, no problem.
Slipknot
1/5
Generic vocals, generic instrumentation, generic aggression, weak production. The lyrics sound like they were written by a 14-year-old who just got grounded for smoking a cigarette:
Fuck it all! fuck this world!
Fuck everything that you stand for!
Don't belong! don't exist!
Don't give a shit!
Don't ever judge me!
This is a deeply unpleasant listen.
Johnny Cash
4/5
I do love this record. Love the production on it, love the takes on these songs. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a little off, but I still love hearing these. Good stuff.
Randy Newman
4/5
I really liked this one. Not sure I've listened to Randy Newman outside of some Toy Story movie soundtracks and this was really good. Maybe you have to get past his vocals? They're distinctive enough that if they hit you wrong they'd ruin the whole thing. But they don't for me. He feels like the flipside of the Warren Zevon coin. Does that make sense? Anyway. Good stuff.
David Bowie
2/5
I love the cover concept. That's fun. And I want to love this album, but it doesn't pull me in at all. This feels like some talented people fucking around in a studio, seeing what they come up with. This doesn't feel like recorded a ton and the cut it down to the gold. I'd rather listen to this than Slipknot, though, that much I've learned.
Def Leppard
3/5
I'm not what you'd call a Def Leppard superfan, but I enjoyed listening to this yesterday. If you're a glam rock / hair metal fan at all, this stuff rises above the rest. It feels like it's in its own realm, and two or three songs here grab me. The rest have a nostalgic feel to them. The album art is pretty great. A fun listen.
The Pretty Things
2/5
This album was like when you make pancakes or something, right? And you put in a little too much salt and little too little sugar or something? It has all the pancake ingredients, but it doesn't taste right. It's not satisfying or enjoyable, but it smells pretty good? Anyway.
GZA
3/5
I dug what I heard of this, but I must confess, it wasn't enough to keep in my ears through that day. A solid 3 and I'll maybe go back to it.
Beach House
3/5
I have a long, drowsy history with Beach House. I have to work today, so here's hoping this doesn't knock me out.
Eh, I mean - this wasn't the worst. It stayed in the background but at the same time it didn't sound completely generic. I could see it working it's way to a four some day.
Television
4/5
Love me some Television and some Marquee Moon. Maybe this is in that same vein of Violent Femmes - it's deceptively simple. Nothing fancy about it, but all these parts work really well together. Even Marquee Moon, the song, at about 11 minutes - man, normally I would have no patience for that. But this one? It's all good.
4/5
When this came out, I turned my nose up at it. It was not underground enough for me. It played way too much on the radio next to Live and The Offspring and I just said "no thanks."
But let's not be crazy - this is good pop songwriting all up and down the road. The title track, Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger, Champagne Supernova. This is all very solid work. The songs themselves are pure nonsense, but the melodies, the guitar work, the bitter vocals and maybe some nostalgia all mixes together for something pretty good. This is pretty good. The only song on it that I really don't want to hear is 'Roll With It'. Then there are a couple generic boys. But other than that, pretty good.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
2/5
Looking up this one, I saw more remixes than albums and that's a red flag for me. This album cover is crazy uggo, and that's another red flag. This one is digging out of a hole for me is what I'm saying.
The blurb on the wikipedia page that basically says this is a refreshing departure from Wobble's shitty music of the past is pretty lukewarm.
Upon listening, this was not for me.
Fugees
4/5
A week after I bought this, I woulda told you this was a 5-star album. It hasn't aged terribly well. The conviction that I heard back in '96 I don't hear now. Now it feels more like a put-on for some reason. But I know every word of this. I mean, some of these bars...
And my panache will mosh your entourage
Squash your squad and hide your body under my garage.
And when the cops come lookin'
I'll be bookin' to Brooklyn
Leave the trails broken flippin' tokens to Hoboken
That's worth a couple stars alone.
Gene Clark
3/5
A nice change of pace and a good listen, though a lot of it went to the background for me. I'll probably give this another listen. Seemed like there was something going on here.
Fleet Foxes
2/5
This is close. This is close to something I'd like. It doesn't sound bad. But it also doesn't sound great. The tunes are inoffensive. The whole thing is a little beige.
Kate Bush
3/5
Alright, Kate Bush. Let's try this again.
Running Up That Hill is pretty great. And that Gen X music snob inside me really wants to not like it because it got popular again through a nostalgia porn show. But it's good!
Still, I feel the same way I do about this one as I did the last one - there's something that's too much about it. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. I can't do it.
Gillian Welch
4/5
I heard this one because I was deep in my LimeWire phase at the time and was downloading anything that anybody talked about. I didn't know who she was, didn't know her music. I wouldn't even consider myself a big fan of the sort of alt-folk/country whatever it is that this is supposed to be categorized under. But I loved it. 'Everything is Free' is an all-time great song for me (and quite ironically so, given my LimeWire addiction at the time). 'Revelator' isn't far behind. Plenty of good stuff in between. Love the sound of the guitars, too.
Pair this with Neko Case & Her Boyfriends' Furnace Room Lullaby. (Dammit that album better be on this list somewhere or it's all horse puck.)
3/5
There are some Bob Dylan songs that I really love. But when I dive into the greater discography, it all cuts so close to parody. The fucking harmonica and the nasal whine of the vocals here can grate. That's the first half. Even Like a Woman and Mr. Tamborine Man... not great.
But then the second half? The second half is a hoot. I mean, look, did I fall in love with any of the songs? No. But they had a lot of blood in 'em and made for a very good listen.
Depeche Mode
4/5
I know I've heard this album before, but I don't remember having a strong reaction to it. I gotta say, this is pretty great. It scratches a certain late 80s itch for me. It's music from the era that I haven't already worn out. These aren't all winners, necessarily, but this is strong enough to punch through from the background several times. Also love that album art.
Primal Scream
3/5
I expected more screaming.
PJ Harvey
5/5
5 stars. This is the first PJ Harvey I owned and the only thing I don't like about it is that it was mixed so low and every mixtape I ever put it on, all the energy just dropped out as you futzed with the volume. But then that just led me to listen to this whole album many times. She some other very good stuff, but this is by far my favorite. Rid of Me, Man-Size, 50 Ft. Queenie, Yuri-G. And all the rest. A great album.
Daft Punk
4/5
As repetitive as daft punk can be, there's something about it, something playful maybe, that still makes it fun. It slips in an out of the background. Around the World woke me up, for instance. It works for me.
John Prine
4/5
Whoa - this is great. I love this. I've heard of John Prine but never listened and this is pretty great and deserves a closer listen from me.
Bon Jovi
4/5
This isn't my favorite hair metal, but as hair metal goes, it's pretty good. I mean, just in terms of listenable songs, song structure-wise and melody-wise, pretty good. I appreciate the attempts at story-songs, too. If somebody was like "Is hair metal any good?" then I think you'd give them this and let them make up their mind.
Antony and the Johnsons
2/5
The melodies are nice, but this singing voice is driving me a little crazy. Can vibrato drive a person crazy? I think it can.
Three songs in now and damn, seriously, leEeEeEet UuUuUup on the vibratoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo.
So then I thought "Well maybe if I see the guy singing, maybe that will help. It'll put the voice in context and it'll make sense to me."
NOPE
When Wainwright shows up later on, everything feels right. I can't do this much vibrato, I'm sorry. Vibra-no.
The Clash
3/5
I always did like White Riot pretty good. The energy here is pretty great. But yeah, not much keeping me listening.
Neil Young
5/5
Agreed.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
Look, the beats aren't bad. But the rest of it is pretty weak.
Aerosmith
4/5
Oh ho shit. Friends, this was 14/15 year old Craig's jam back in 1989. Craig saved up his pennies and bought this tape and wore it out. I'm pretty excited to have an excuse to give this a listen again.
And it holds up! If you can buy into this being 100% dumb sex rock, you are ready to go. Only a handful of generic songs on this one - most of them have melody that at least gets into your ear. Whereas earlier Aeorsmith was pretty thin, with even the hits - Walk This Way and Mama Kin - getting way better treatment by Run DMC and Guns N Roses, this feels like a full-throated bar band having a good time.
Alice Cooper
2/5
The album art is pretty great here, but I didn't walk away with anything better than No More Mr. Nice Guy, which is still a good song, but the rest of this evaporated.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
This was the first album I ever bought on CD. This was during a time when I was buying things to find out what they sounded like. I knew the larger Zeppelin IV hits, but I knew nothing about this one.
And I loved it. Played it constantly. Always tuned out during The Lemon Song and Moby Dick (maybe there's a connection there?). Anyway, it's Zeppelin. The songs are good. What are you gonna do?
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
I mean, this is pretty great to stuff to just have on at all times. I didn't walk away humming it, but my brain was happy.
Prince
4/5
Not quite Purple Rain, much better than Graffiti Bridge.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Look, this is Isaac Hayes' Shaft. What do you want?
Radiohead
5/5
These first three radiohead albums are my favorites and this one probably comes in at #2 with OK Computer being #1. Black Star, Planet Telex, Fake Plastic Trees, My Iron Lung... these are the songs you need and no one else was quite scratching this same itch. Not Blur, not Oasis, not Verve or Pulp or Supergrass. This was the only shit.
Pixies
5/5
One of the best albums I've heard in my whole godforsaken life.
I shouldn't have gone back and rated this one. The first song, yeah, that's a solid song. Solid radio-pleasing U2. You can see it fitting nicely on a greatest hits album. But the rest of this, even with all the high dollar production, just ain't as good.
Thundercat
3/5
This album doesn't quite live up to its cover in terms of where it can take me, but there's enough inventiveness and fun and energy here to keep me listening. Some of it gets a little samesy, but when it's the same as something that's already pretty good, that's fine. This is fine.
John Martyn
2/5
I listened to this twice and can't remember anything from it.
Public Enemy
4/5
For a 20-track album, this plays out amazingly well. I don't pretend to know all of these songs well, but none of these songs played like filler to me. It all demands a closer listen. And the friction between Chuck D's serious as a heart attack delivery and Flavor Flav's chaos is kind of perfect. What a great, weird mix.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
Man, I do like this album art. The playing on this is just fine, just fine indeed. But jam bands, brother, they go into the background for me.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
I mean... it's a good listen and there's a neat spookiness to these old bad recordings. Something fun in the simplicity of these songs. And Cocaine I have a weird long history with, where I think I heard it first as a young kid because I left a radio playing and woke up to it in the middle of the night once. I don't fell particularly moved by any of it, though.
Blur
3/5
I lot of good tune work here, some solid beats that get under the skin. But I don't walk away from it wanting to hear more. By the end, I'm glad it's all done. I don't need much more of it.
Miles Davis
4/5
I don't know ya know? It's Miles. Does it sink in and leave me humming? No. But it sounds great.
4/5
Ideal album for me, thanks.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
While there are some Springsteen albums I've grown to like more than this one, you can't deny this one's got the hits! Almost every song here is solid gold, baby!
Ryan Adams
3/5
I own this album and Heartbreaker. There are some very good songs on both and there's some filler. New York, New York and La Cienega Just Smiled are standouts for me. But I haven't listened to this in years because when I think about Ryan Adams now I think about a guy in his 40s having phone sex with an underage girl. And it's like, fuck, all you have to do, the minimum you have to do, is know the age of someone and they only really need to be, like, 21. You're a famous musician. You're not desperate. All you have to do, if you're going to have phone sex with someone, is know that they are 21. If they're 21 and everyone consented, then I don't even ever have to know about it. And I don't want to know about it. But you can't say "Oh, I saw photos of her and I thought she was older." and expect everything to be okay. If you're a man in your 40s in this country and you're a famous musician and you don't know about underage girls who look older than they are, then fuck you. I really like some of your songs and I need songs that I like. Songs are how we survive this life shit. There are fewer and fewer good songs as time goes on. So you're not allowed to take a shit on them. Just 21. Or, here's an idea - fucking grow up, how about? You're having phone sex with strangers? The fuck is wrong with you? You wrote La Cienega Just Smiled - you don't need anyone's validation. You were married to Mandy Moore. She seems terrific but now she hates you. You wrote Shakedown on 9th Street - why would you do things that make Mandy Moore hate you? Do the dishes, bring her some water at bedtime - it's not complicated. I mean, shit.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
Look, I loved this when it came out.
Listening to it now, I got herpes.
Dire Straits
4/5
While I didn't walk away humming anything outside of Sultans of Swing, I do love the tight guitar work on this. And the way the musical phrases repeated themselves here and there. This deserves a closer listen.
Rod Stewart
2/5
I've had a visceral dislike of Rod Stewart since I was a kid. I just never liked the look of him nor the sound of his voice. A lot of his songs have grown on me over the years, but I'm still not completely over it. This album was pleasant to listen to, but I'm still not won over by any of it either. Even among Rod Stewart work, this feels like lesser R-stew.
Iron Butterfly
2/5
Iron Butterfly found one very good riff and groove. I'm not sure if there's anything else here worth sticking around for, though.
Tracy Chapman
3/5
There's something I love about this album in a nostalgic, boring, VH1 sort of way. Fast Car is a great song. I don't think anything else lives up to that one, though. Tracy's voice is perfect for this. I love the production on it. But nothing gets under my skin better than Fast Car.
David Bowie
3/5
Not my favorite Bowie. I like a more focused Bowie. I like a poppier Bowie. A less Eno Bowie? I appreciate Eno being Eno and taking us places we otherwise might not go, but still. Not my favorite Bowie.
Carpenters
3/5
Lightning Bolt
2/5
pummeling. i am pummeled.
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
I've never given Tusk a close listen until now and... ya know what... I like this. It doesn't have the sort of hit-after-hit feel of Rumors, but for all the talk of experimental music, this was surprisingly grabby. I'm grabbed.
Alice In Chains
2/5
Plodding, grindy, grimy, sluggish, perpetually whiny vocals. I just can't get into Alice in Chains. Couldn't then, can't now.
Also what is the thing where a song fades out... then fades back in? What is that supposed to do for me? Especially when I'm not looking for seconds.
The Clash
4/5
Weird that this album feels way longer than it used to for me. That said, there are some standouts - London Calling, Rudie Can't Fail, Lost in the Supermarket, The Guns of Brixton, Train in Vain - but even the songs that don't totally bowl me over all have something to 'em. I can listen to this album straight through still and I've done that a number of times. I've never jumped into The Clash with both feet but I like this whole thing quite a lot.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Dentist office background music. I don't hate it, but I also don't like it.
Beck
4/5
This Beck built well on the previous Beck and gave me more of what I wanted with less filler. Mellow Gold lost me more than it kept me, though at the time the mix of musical styles really set this stuff apart. Loser and Beercan are all I remember off of that one. Maybe that has something to do with the song titles that had little do with the songs? Whereas on Odelay, somebody sat Beck down and said "Look. Simple titles. Call these songs the same thing that the people who will listen to them will call them." So we get Devil's Haircut, Hotwax, Lord Only Knows, The New Pollution, Derelict, Where It's At, Readymade... Each one of these I can immediately hear the tune in my head.
Not as a good as Midnite Vultures and Sea Change, though.
Bobby Womack
4/5
This is pretty top-drawer though backgroundy stuff (mainly because of the day I was having. Nothing was going to be foreground music that day.)
Grateful Dead
4/5
The only good Dead album, start to finish. Also the first one I ever heard, recommended to me by an older Deadhead cousin. I listened as a young teen and thought - I get why people do this! Then I went to a Dead concert and thought - no, wait, no I don't get this at all.
This album though? This is, like, the best version of the Dead.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
While this was a bit of background, I would put this one again in a second. I liked everything I heard on this.
Air
3/5
This soundtrack reminds me of why I could never connect to Virgin Suicides. It sounds like what somebody thought would be a cool soundtrack rather than what would fit that movie. It still doesn't make sense to me. And listening to it now - it all sounds fine, but it doesn't take me anywhere. It feels a little aimless and fades into the background.
Jurassic 5
3/5
I did not listen to this closely, but every time it bubbled up, I liked what was going on. It's not spectacular, but this is very solid work worth another listen.
The Specials
3/5
I really like the energy of the Specials, but ska lulls me into a state of hypnosis. That beat turns it all in to white noise. There are moments that rip, though and Message to Rudy is strong. And Little Bitch was a blast - that's a edgy one.
Charles Mingus
3/5
I love everything about this cover. I like the music. I don't remember it, but it was a good listen, no matter what.
The Darkness
3/5
I'll always have a soft spot for this one. At the time it came out, it did a good job at what it was doing, which was threading a needle between parody of and love letter to glam/classic rock. The songs aren't half bad at all. I mean, 'Love On The Rock With No Ice' is a pretty sweaty title, but mostly it rides a fine line and comes down on the right side of it.
XTC
3/5
Not a big grabber on this one for me, but I do love this vibe. It was fine background that deserves a closer listen.
Thelonious Monk
5/5
Monk is always five stars for me. Always has been, always will be. The music is always on point but more than that? The covers are ALWAYS on point.
Leftfield
2/5
Absolutely built to live in my background and to potentially get me to call the police if it plays too late into the night because, seriously, teenagers.
But also - extended editions strike again. I was halfway into 'Afro Ride' and was like "I can't listen to this whole album. This is starting to hurt." So now because of a terrible expanded streaming album, my first impression of this group is 'did not finish'.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
I'm getting closer and closer to becoming a Joni Mitchell fan. These songs are constantly surprising to me and I thought a Joni Mitchell album would be a pretty dour affair. I can't say I've got standouts here, but damned if this album isn't actually fun. Which is weird to say? 3 surprising stars.
Linkin Park
1/5
Oh no. Oh fuck no, please. No. This can't be here. Not this, no. Please. Jesus, sweet jesus no, please. I can't - no, jesus. Pre-checking this shit, deleting bonus content. Fuck you, 1001 albums generator. It's a fucking Monday. Fuck you.
If I actually like this album it's going to be the start of my midlife crisis.
The thing is, if I had been 13 in 2000 when this came out, I might have been a Linkin Park fan. This has that undefined trauma melodramatic feel that I might have gone for at that age. But here's the thing - the first My Chemical Romance album came out two years after this and buried it. Same basic emotional palette, but one of them has good songs.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
There was a folksiness that I liked on this, but I give it three stars because I did not pay real attention.
PJ Harvey
4/5
This is not my favorite PJ Harvey, but it's still very much PJ Harvey.
The Cars
4/5
My review got erased! ERASED! Anyway, you can imagine the poetry but to sum it up - this album is great, is one of those that I associate purely with the 80s sound (even though it's '78, I know I know) and there's barely a dud here. Is there a dud here? I don't know, I don't think so. The cover is a delight. End of poem.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I mean it's prime Tribe.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
I wish Eric Clapton wasn't such a wank. His playing is really pretty great to listen to. I'm not sure I'm on the 'Clapton is God' bandwagon but apparently, he wasn't either. His one redeeming quality outside his guitar playing is that he at least once said that Prince was the greatest, which is most likely true.
Anyway - the guy is pretty wanky and that kinda bums me out.
But this is a very fun listen.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
First time I'd heard of these folks was from their ep that a friend of mine had. And it hit one of my sweet spots - that of some ugly, loud music that was somehow all held together by some ragtag melody and non-obnoxious enthusiasm. I played the shit out of that ep.
Then this comes along and it's exactly what I wanted out of their full-length album - same vibe, polished only to the point that it made the edges clearer, with all the melody and the energy intact. And look at that beautiful, ugly album cover. Love this one.
David Bowie
3/5
I've never liked Golden Years. The only David Bowie song that just sounds so square to me I can't take it. Other than that? Fine Bowie. This is just fine Bowie. Not a huge standout, but I do like the production on it - a good listen.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
I remember this as a documentary. I still have no real idea what it's about - outside of that it's about music. The production on this sounds great. These melodies are infectious, there's no denying that. I don't have a real emotional reaction to any of it - at least nothing that really wallops me - but this is a fun listen, for sure.
The The
3/5
The The's Dusk is a top 10 album for me. Or at least top 20. Definitely in the top 50 no matter which way you slice it. But what I like about Dusk is almost completely absent here. And that's not to say that this doesn't have a good sound. But for an album call 'Soul Mining', it didn't get anywhere near my soul the way Dusk does. Some good stuff, wouldn't turn it off in the background, but I'm not rushing back to hear it again.
Laibach
3/5
If the rest of this album is as good as this first track, I'm all in. Am I supposed to take this as funny? Or at least tongue-in-cheek? I mean, they're covering Queen, so it can't be all that serious, right?
This was more fun than I thought it would be. But it's also less good than I wanted it to be. Things got pretty long in the tooth toward the end. A case of out-staying one's welcome.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
A lot of this album lives in the shadow of Gimme Shelter. That's as strong a start to an album as there ever was. Then this Country Honk song confused me more than delighted me. And this Midnight Rambler - this can't be the version I've heard most of my life. I must've been hearing a live version, probably? And then the whole closes out with another fantastic song. Those two songs are too good to just be 3 stars. I'll have to give the rest of it more listens.
Bert Jansch
3/5
This is folk. It's kind of exactly what I expected and it stayed in the background. You know how Joni Mitchell kind of grabs you by the lapels every now and then? This one couldn't find my lapels. And they're right there.
I did kind of dig the overly harsh picking on Casbah, though.
Cheap Trick
4/5
As live albums go, this is pretty solid. A couple of real strong performances right in the middle there with I Want You To Want Me and Surrender. Doesn't out-stay its welcome. The little bit of backstory that the audio in this is not from Budokan but from a smaller show in Osaka is a nice little touch.
The Stranglers
4/5
I knew Get A Grip On Yourself and Peaches and... yeah, man, this was exactly what I needed to hear today.
3/5
When I was a kid, I was gonna one of two ways - I was gonna go for Devo or I was gonna go for They Might Be Giants. Of the two, I understood They Might Be Giants so that's the way I went.
The first two songs here are a great start and if that could be kept up, this would be a hard album to deny. But deny it I do! After those first two songs, it's a slow slide down. I love the spirit of it, I love the energy of it, but I just don't love the songs.
Neneh Cherry
1/5
This opening to Buffalo Stance is rough. The hook on the song is pretty strong, but the rest of the performance feels forced. There's no flow to it - it doesn't sound genuine, more like something that was scripted out beforehand.
And this carries throughout - any rap on this album sounds like it's coming from someone who doesn't mean it. The rhymes are pretty weak. "If you want to rock, you've got to roll it / If you gonna live, you've got to show it" - this sounds like something that came from a producer saying "The kids don't give a shit what you say as long as it's got a beat!" The hooks are fine but pretty thin overall. Outre Risque Locomotive is probably the second-best song on the album - it punched through from the background. The lyrics don't help it, but the hook got into my head.
And putting this in context - this is an album I needed to hear before my inevitable death? And we still haven't seen a De La Soul album? No Whitney Houston? Not even the Lauryn Hill solo album? Come on.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
I said, "I wanna be a singer like Lou Reed"
"I like Lou Reed," she said, sticking her tongue in my ear
This Pixies lyric is mostly to blame for why I like Lou Reed and, by extension, The Velvet Underground. This album, I barely like this. Just barely. But ya know, it's Lou Reed, so it's fine with me.
Was it just me or was the whole last song about somebody sucking on his ding dong? That was pretty cool. Would put on in the background again.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
I did not know that song was called Tumbling Dice. And that's really the only song on here that I know. But you know what - whatever it is I like about the Stones, I guess it's all on this album because I liked it so much the first time through that I listened to it again. This was pretty great. The fact that it got rebutted by Exile in Guyville makes it all the better.
Hot Chip
3/5
This was fine, but never held my attention. It's a busy day, so it's not like this one had no competition. I have to rate these albums by how much they demanded my attention when I'm also trying not to lose my job. That's a steep hill. I'd be okay with this in the background again, but I'd probably rather put on a film score or something.
Destiny's Child
3/5
Reading up about Destiny's Child, no wonder I didn't get into this. I mean, sure, this wasn't the section of the record store I was in generally, anyway. But also - it seems like across the first three or four albums the group kept dropping and adding members. I can't follow that kind of stuff - I need a rock solid group of people that I'm listening to. Beyonce wasn't Beyonce yet so that didn't mean anything to me. So anyway. This is pretty sharp. Remember a few days ago when this list tried to tell us that the Neneh Cherry album was a must-hear? And is it supposed to be on the same level as this? Because it isn't. Beyonce could deliver pizza and make it feel like a premium experience.
That said, there seems to be a lot of calling out folks who I don't know - from what I read it's about the former members of the group. I don't know - I don't need all that shit. It makes everything seem petty, like an album based on some reality show. Real Housewives of Destiny's Child. Pretty disappointing. "You know who you are" is a piss poor lyric.
Still, it's Beyonce, so like it probably could be 4 stars, but all that weird in-fighting bullshit throws it down to 3.5, so then it becomes a 3.
Sleater-Kinney
3/5
I really fell for Sleater-Kinney with the One Beat album. I didn't know what it was about, I only knew that a girl I liked liked it, so I listened and then found a bunch of songs grappling with 9/11 and it just had me, all the way. Still love every song on that one.
That said, I think the vocals are an acquired taste with SK and if you can acquire that taste, you're good as gold. But if you can't, it's just never gonna work out for you two.
I like the vocals, but this one still doesn't hold me in thrall like One Beat. Still, it's a welcome bunch of songs that I might like more if I listened a few more times.
Lana Del Rey
3/5
Kind of excited to hear this one. I've heard the name Lana Del Rey for a while, never heard a single song (as far as I know), I only know she's a big deal in some circles. Here we go.
On any other day I think I would hate this whisper singing. But this is working for me. And several times this broke out of the background on a busy work day. I don't know - I think I need to listen to this again, so that's an optimistic 3.
T. Rex
4/5
I love this album. For some reason, on Apple Music, the song 'Jeepster' is not available which is a crime. What is Electric Warrior without Jeepster? Anyway - love it.
3/5
That's a pretty good cover.
And this is a pretty good album. No standouts, but it seems like Blur's heart is in it. Might need to give this one another listen.
Eagles
3/5
The Eagles really tempt me to hate them, but I don't. The timid distortion on those guitars? The Grateful Dead-lite vibe of some of these songs? Sorry, guys. I don't know what it is, but this works for me in a very light-rock, nostalgic way. Is this the first band I reach for? No it is not. But it ain't dead last, either.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
I didn't realize it until just now, but I missed Amy Winehouse. Man, this first track is so much sadder now.
But this album is pretty solid, through and through. I remember listening to it a lot when it first came out - this was a much fresher sound back then and was easy to replay over and over. Amy's got some distinguished pipes and these songs - ahem - slap. Nothing wrong here.
The Specials
2/5
This is very much like the last Specials album. Very consistent. A bouncy beat that fades into the background a bit. I'm just not a ska guy.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
Man, I really want to love me some Souxsie and the Banshees, but this never grabs me.
Nick Drake
4/5
Pink Moon is a great song and it feels right that the only reason I know this song is because it was used in a car commercial. That should be vaguely nauseating but then again I think of the marketing genius who suggested the song - there was absolutely no cache to having a Nick Drake song in a commercial. It had to be that they loved this song and pushed hard for it. And I like to imagine that the campaign was considered a failure in marketing circles and that this disgraced marketer is working in a bar somewhere or maybe selling used cars - that's even better - and they are completely satisfied with how things turned out. Thanks for this song, marketing genius! 'Road' is also a fucking banger.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Never have I ever listened to a full Sly and the Family Stone album. I shouldn't be that surprised that I liked it this much, though. Everyday People is pretty undeniable song. And Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey was a nice surprise. It's Sly and the Family Stone - what do you want from me?
OutKast
4/5
This album is long as hell, but there's very little about it that I don't like. The 'Feeling good, feeling great. Feeling great, feeling good, how are you?" bit in the first song wins me over immediately. I didn't pay attention to the whole thing, but kept getting pulled in over and over again. It's good stuff.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
I love Janelle Monae and I don't care who knows it. This album hits me very much like Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. I didn't listen to everything on it, but several times the sound of it pulled me in. What a weird mix of stuff. I'll have to give it a closer listen.
Basement Jaxx
2/5
Kinda cool. Inoffensive. I wasn't into it.
1/5
I like that cover, but man - one track in and you're already hitting me with repetitive noise, huh? This was not for me.
The Doors
4/5
I bought this tape when I was a kid. I was firmly in the classic rock Aerosmith / Led Zeppelin mode and The Doors was a necessary album at the time. And that tape was censored, which I didn't know at the time. So that bit in 'Break On Through To The Other Side' when he screams "She gets high!" for me was just "She gets!". Which honestly made enough sense back then and hearing "high" now sounds all wrong.
Anyway - these tunes are good. Jim Morrison is just a good enough poet to land some good lines and the rest of it comes off as ridiculous pretentiousness that's pretty fun. It's a heckuva mix, which intentional goodness and untintentional goodness that adds up to a lot of goodness. I mean 'Soul Kitchen'? 'Soul Kitchen'? It's hard to hate an album that has a song about sleeping in someone's soul kitchen.
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
This is so late 80s that I grew a couple of shoulder pads just listening to it. But you know what? I'm sick today and this went down real easy. Thing Called Love is pretty strong. A lot of the other songs don't really register, so I'm gonna give this a 3, but thanks for the medicine, Bonnie.
Living Colour
3/5
Cult of Personality went harder than any other song on the radio in 1988. Nobody my age had a clue what the fuck Glover was talking about, but it sounded smart as hell. And hold up hold up - this song goes 100 times harder than any other rock on the radio and these are black dudes??? This blew my young mind.
Also - did it cause any kind of waves that he says 'Like Mussolini and Kennedy'? I don't remember there being any
talk around this song, but hoo boy, American hero Kennedy being compared to Mussolini is pretty bold!
This song will never not be relevant, it seems.
But then the second song sounds like something Backstreet Boys would've done, minus the guitars.
And the longer this goes on, the less I like it. Open Letter still has some good stuff in it but that initial blast of heat from Cult of Personality is long gone after a bit.
Still, in 1988? This was a big swing.
Holger Czukay
3/5
Cool in the Pool was sort of fun. And even though the rest of it didn't hold my attention, what I did hear was interesting. But there's not much to come back to for me.
Slade
3/5
I like the vibe, but I really don't like this thin-ass papery production. Great energy throughout, some mild fun number - Mama We're All Crazee Now, Gudbuy T'Jane. But man, that production sounds so bad. And none of this really, really digs in for me.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The name of the band turned out to be pretty fitting - they WERE pretty sensational. Gang Bang is a hoot and Next made me sit up and take notice. I might listen to more of this.
Slipknot
2/5
I can't take any of this music seriously. It's SO serious it just kills me. Production sounds fine, but this strikes me like the DC movies - it's for people who wish the silly thing they like was taken very very seriously.
Hole
2/5
This is a shame. Nothing close to Live Through This. The first song sounds like what a radio hit sounds like. The rest of it is not so hot.
Serge Gainsbourg
4/5
Gainsbourg can't be disliked. This works in the background and in the foreground. I don't really know any of his songs, but I've never disliked one.
Aerosmith
4/5
Big Ten Inch Record is a song so dumb I'd be disappointed if it WASN'T on this record. Sweet Emotion is still a great song. Walk This Way is a pretty okay song, if a little weak sounding.
This is pretty good Aerosmith. This sounds like what Aerosmith always wanted to sound like, ya know? They did it here. So good on them.
Mercury Rev
4/5
I love that this album is connected to The Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin. This is pretty great stuff. I will listen again.
Paul McCartney
3/5
Nothing that really sticks with me, here, but pleasant to listen to all the same. I do like the lofi-ness of it and knowing that this is post-Beatles breakup gives it a little bit of heft. I'd listen again.
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
Yeah, I mean - this is fine. Very chill background if you're in a certain mood. Sort of like if there was a direct-to-video sequel to Titanic, this would be the soundtrack. And it would be a movie like what used to be on late-night Cinemax, where the entire plot suggests that there will be LOTS of nudity at some point but then what you get is surrounded by terrible lighting and gauzy curtains blowing in an unmotivated way. Some candles. Then it's over. And this soundtrack doesn't actually match the movie at all, but it's what they could use so, there it is.
The Cure
4/5
It's mopey, dense Cure. I like it it a lot.
The xx
2/5
When this started out, I liked out simple it all sounded and I thought that if they built on that, this could be a real humdinger! But it kind of just stayed there, treading water. Not into it.
Iggy Pop
4/5
This cover is the eeriest thing in the world. This cover has only gotten better with age. I think the album has, too.
Underworld
2/5
This did not draw me in.
Ray Price
3/5
This was a good soundtrack for a Wednesday, a nice change of pace, but nothing stuck
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Most likely, this is very good.
Jane Weaver
2/5
Can this album live up to this cover? Let's see.
This ended up matching the album cover almost exactly. And interesting thing to behold, but also nothing that jumps out.
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
So much of this is a hoot. But it's also 55 years ago and I have almost no relation to anything they're talking about / making fun of. Still, though, glad it exists.
1/5
I'd have more respect for this album if it was called 'Buttholes and Dick Water'. But not much more respect.
Production is pretty clean, the music itself is fine. Imagine if there was something to hear, lyric-wise. Could be something. This is sort of like if you took Eminem's music and removed any hint of introspection.
"Maybe life is up and down
But my life's been "what" till now
I crawled up your butt somehow
And that's when things got turned around"
Hmm. Given the choice proposed, between his way or the highway, I have chosen the highway.
Barry Adamson
3/5
Heck yeah - Something Wicked This Way Comes. I was a avid listener to the Lost Highway soundtrack when it came out. You guys, I listened to that one a lot. I haven't heard this song in a handful of years now.
But except for that song, this still did drop into the background for me. C'est al vie.
Radiohead
3/5
This was the point at which I started liking Radiohead's album covers more than the music.
I miss the guitars. It's not even that this sounds bad and several moments draw me in, but this also puts me to sleep after a bit. I'm an old man and I require an old man's rock n roll.
I Might Be Wrong, Knives Out, and Life in a Glasshouse are all standouts. It just ain't the experience I want going in.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
I kind of want to hate this so that I can just write 'Husker Dön't' and imagine the golf claps I'd get from you guys for my clever wordplay, but it's Bob Mould and it sounds good and I like it.
Terrible album cover, though.
The Electric Prunes
1/5
Jesus christ these song titles are insufferable. Any chance that's tongue in cheek? Let's find out.
Yeah, I think they all nodded at these titles solemnly and said things like "Yeah, daddio. That's heavy." or something.
More than that, though, I don't like the choices they make in these songs. The left turns are all sour in some way that never takes me anywhere new or even somewhere old that I'd like to go. I want to say I appreciate that they take any turns at all, but that's not really true.
I do marvel, though, at the fact that living in the age of streaming you can listen to the entire catalog of a band called The Electric Prunes just anytime you want. That's kind of crazy.
Supergrass
3/5
I'm a big fan of Supergrass' Life on Other Planets. Haven't listened to them much outside of that. Also, weird that this is the second album in the last few days with 'In it for the money' in the title. Coincidence? Yes. But still.
So anyway - this is fine. Good energy, nice production. But nothing that grabbed me.
Why is it I put everything into those terms? Why do I want everything to grab me?
Elvis Presley
4/5
I don't know, man. It's Elvis. This is pretty good stuff. I've heard most of it before, but I still fully listened to it.
Donald Fagen
4/5
Steely Dan works for me on about every level and so this does, too.
It's hard to separate Fagen from Dan and vice versa. I like the 70s soft rock vibe that let's these dark little songs float by you. There's something about it and I like it.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Hadn't listened to his one before. It's tough - there's no Solsbury Hill, here. And Through the Wire works well and the rest of it is very Peter Gabriel-ish, there's no let down there. But since we know he's got songs that burrow all the way down into your bones, this isn't that.
The album cover is also top notch.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
I don't know what it is that I want from the Cocteau Twins that I don't get. But I don't get it. It seems like all the ingredients are right there. But they always make rhubarb pie instead of, like, the pumpkin pie the I'm after? It's like the music I want is just one room over? Because I listen to this and it's all there, but it's also not. And I can't get my head around it.
The Libertines
2/5
Why do I not like these guys? This cover puts me on the defensive from the get go. And nothing on here proved me wrong. It's all fine playing and everything. I like me some jangly guitars. But none of these tunes were worth the listen. I don't need any of this.
The Jam
4/5
I'm going to give this one three stars for songwriting competency and then an extra star for the couple of songs that broke through. This isn't my favorite album and I don't even know if I'll listen to it again, but this was a good listen.
OutKast
4/5
The fact that this came out in 2000, which is where so much music went to die, is incredible to me. This album so close to great.
"Don't everybody like the smell of gasoline?
Well, burn, motherfucker, burn, American dreams
Don't everybody like the taste of apple pie?
We'll snap for your slice of life, I'm tellin' ya why
I hear that mother nature now on birth control
The coldest pimp be looking for somebody to hold
The highway up to Heaven got a crook on the toll
Youth full of fire, ain't got nowhere to go, nowhere to go (woo)"
That happens in the first five minutes! Then So Fresh, So Clean? Ms. Jackson? Toilet Tisha??? Whereas most hip hop at the time was just albums full of pose, this one went in such a different, great drection. Is it the tension between Big Boi's fundamental rap style and Andre's grand, emotionally dynamic style? Sure. I don't know. But it's pretty fuckin' great.
Where it falls short - it coulda used a little restraint. By the time Xplosion comes around - and I like that one, too - it starts to feel long. I like long albums, too. But 24 tracks? All of these tracks break through for me, but I do think to myself "Is this still going?" and that ain't great. Like, I don't know that I need 'Slum Beautiful' at the end here. Like, if this stopped after Red Velvet - that would still be pretty long, but better.
Neil Young
4/5
I'll always be a sucker for Neil Young. This one isn't as grabby as some of his other stuff, and you know I love to be grabbed. But it's still got all that Neil Young texture and Neil Young atmosphere and I dig it.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
3/5
I kind of loved having this play in the background. Maybe because of how much I relate it to Paul Simon, but regardless - pretty great background music.
Shack
2/5
Don't hate it. Don't love it. Don't really feel anything. Just an empty void where feelings for music should be. It's not terrible. It ain't great. The best thing about it is the cover and yet the cover doesn't really do anything to me either. This is a 3 star album and I have to take one star away since nothing broke through.
Primal Scream
3/5
Another Primal Scream. You can just say there are aren't 1001 albums worth listening to. We don't have to keep up this charade.
This isn't even that bad. We've had way worse. But there's still so much better out there. Beyonce, Ween, Breeders, De la Soul... but we have two Primal Scream albums? Come on.
Duke Ellington
4/5
I'll write my review before I listen. 4 stars. Excellent background music that still punches through and I'd listen again.
2 hours later - confirmed.
Kraftwerk
3/5
Is it the restraint? Is it the goofiness? Do I just miss simple synths? I don't know what it is, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
This is all very strong work. A better album than others we've heard of the same period. But at the same time, no real stand outs. I can give this an easy 3. It's maybe a 3.5. A very easy listen, but not a lot to chew on.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
The first time I heard The Flaming Lips was on Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. I bought it close to the time it came out because a much hipper friend already liked them and said they were great. And you couldn't hear them anywhere else, so I bought it. One of those albums that immediately grabbed me and I loved everything about it, all the way to the end. Then 'She Don't Use Jelly' hit the radio and folks talked about the Lips was like they were a Weird Al novelty group. 'Turn It On' was the single, guys! 'She Don't Use Jelly' is a fun goof on a record full of bigger, fuller songs! The fact that 'Satellite' is not considered an "essential album" on Apple Music really chaps my bum. It is absolutely the best thing they've done.
Anyway, this one is still pretty listenable. It has a few very strong tracks - Fight Test and Do You Realize and the Yoshimi songs - then some very good tracks and an endearing character at the center of it. But it also feels like the point where the Lips really left Earth and also became a lot more straightforward? Which is not what I ordered. Maybe if I was a bigger fan of anime or something.
Fair warning - this album doesn't actually have 100 tracks on it but that's the only version that's available to me for fuck's sake.
Scissor Sisters
3/5
I like the general vibe of this. I appreciated the Comfortably Numb cover and I kind of like the lightness of the sound and weirdness of the worlds here. Nothing too sticky, though, not like I Don't Feel Like Dancing or She's My Man. But still, fun enough for the background, I think.
Beyoncé
3/5
Fuckin' finally. Except I'm not listening to the platinum edition, nope, no. Sorry. Not unless I love the normal edition.
Oof. Pretty Hurts. 'It's the soul that needs surgery.' That's not working for me. This feels like a late album song - side two, buried a bit, the one the artist insisted go on the album and that everybody else in the room said "Okay, yeah. Sure, I mean, you never know, right?" This is a tough place too start.
Haunted takes a minute - but 'My haunted lungs'? I'm on board with that.
But overall? This is not the shit. Lots of talent on display but very few moments of it are coming together. Lemonade. Bring me lemonade.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
This was fine. Not as fun as I would've hoped given all the words on the cover, but fine.
Kanye West
4/5
There's probably not an artist anywhere who does a) generally good work and b) makes me feel exhausted upon immediately reading their name. I listened to this album a lot when it first came out. There's a lot of really good work on this. But I haven't listened to it in years, mainly because I don't want to think about Kanye.
But here we go.
I mean, this is good. There's really nothing here that loses me. And I kind of like out anti-college it is. It's pretty obsessed with college being a waste of time which seems petty but it's beaten into the ground so hard that it becomes funny. This is good. I wish Kanye was a likable guy.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
I can't give this a full 4 stars because there isn't a standout song, but I do like The Jesus and Mary Chain vibe a lot. There are a few songs I love - like Head On - but mostly I love how drenched in reverb all of this is. I don't know, I like. Sue me.
Tom Waits
4/5
I don't know this album well, but I do love Tom Waits and only Tom Waits does Tom Waits well, so this'll probably be at least 4 stars for me.
Tom Tom Club
2/5
This was a shame. Judging by the cover, I was ready for a good time. Any of these songs are pretty fun at 2 and a half minutes. But man, once you cross that threshold, I go drifting off into space. If this album was a tight 20 minutes, it could really be something. But this was too much. Checked out in the middle of the last track.
Orbital
2/5
There are some pleasant sounds here, but this is not for me. Almost every track ends with me thinking "Is this still going?" and then looking and seeing that I'm halfway through the song.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
5/5
Excellent. No notes.
Traffic
3/5
I enjoyed this, but I enjoyed it in the background. Lot's of very nice musicianship, but not my thing.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
There's only one song on here that I'd heard before, but between the overall vibe of the songs, the songwriting and structure itself and this album cover, I'm giving this a strong 4.
James Taylor
4/5
I can't stand the title of this album. It just always struck me as cutesy and self-congratulatory, maybe? I don't know. But there is no mix of acoustic guitar and vocals quite like ol' sweet baby James here. And there's at least one song here that is indelible.
Keith Jarrett
3/5
Keeping consistent with my relationship with jazz, this is very nice to listen to, but I am humming none of it.
Pere Ubu
2/5
Great sound, but not terribly moving for me.
CHVRCHES
4/5
The Mother We Share is a pretty great song. Recover is also a pretty strong track. And it may be that I'm just in the mood for some faux 80s synth wave pop today. But this is working for me.
The Magnetic Fields
4/5
I love this album. It isn't just nice to listen to but it makes me want to write and record music.
I'm going to share a kinda name-droppy story that might mean something to you if you were into mid-90s alt rock. I went to a wedding in, I think, 2003 for a very good friend of mine. He was marrying an amazing woman. Someone came to the wedding dressed in a full body rabbit costume. The whole thing was pretty awesome.
Anyway, at the end of this service a guy gets up with an acoustic guitar and sings a couple of songs for the newlyweds and the folks assembled. He sings 'The Book of Love' and the whole time I'm thinking "Man, he's got a really distinctive voice, this guy." I felt like I'd heard something like it before.
So anyway, reception, toasts, food. Fun is had by all. And then the groom comes up to me and asks if I can give this singer guy, Mike, a ride to his hotel and I say sure. So we pile into my little Honda Accord and off we go. And we chat it up. He asks what I do and I tell him about me and I ask what he does and he says he's a musician. And I'm like "Cool, like are you a solo guy or do you have a band?" And he says "Yeah, I front a band called Soul Coughing."
Anyway, it was Mike Doughty, whose music I knew pretty well already but I just didn't know what he looked like. He was a nice guy, thanks for reading.
Sade
4/5
Greatness. This hits a certain spot that nothing else does. Probably half of the effect is sentimental nostalgia, but still. Only half.
De La Soul
5/5
FINALLY.
Now you can call this list 'A Few Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and 800 Other Albums'.
This was my sister's tape and I took it one day and listened to it and it was all I wanted to listen to for months after. As with almost every other moment like this in my childhood, I didn't know anyone else who was listening to this which didn't make sense because this was the best.
Still is.
That said, the streaming version changed some samples and it drives me crazy. This album is completely soaked in samples, produced in a time when nobody knew what a sample clearance looked like. So they took that Eddie Murphy sample 'Anybody in the audience ever get hit by a car?' out of the end of The Magic Number and it changes the whole thing. I bet Eddie doesn't own that sample.
Anyway - if you like this, seek out the original album. It's not a lot different, but the differences make a difference.
Klaxons
2/5
I'm in a terrible mood today and this did not help.
Brian Eno
3/5
More foreground than normal for Brian Eno. I dig a lot of this though it still travels beyond my patience barrier. I mean, it's Eno. What are you gonna do?
Death In Vegas
1/5
This is a lot like Klaxons. I can tell music is playing, but when it ends it's like - was there music playing?
Thank god I looked this one up and didn't end up listening to 23 tracks of a 9 track album.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Not my favorite Cohen, but it's still Cohen. What are ya gonna do?
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
I've listened to this album a few times and thought it seems like it's right up my alley, it's never connected. There no song on it but The Concept that stays with me,. Still, there's a lot that broke through today even though I wasn't giving it my full attention. This is a bit of indie college rock that keeps growing on me.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
This is all quite fine but it also feels like a lot of build up to Come on Eileen.
Ministry
3/5
I have a soft spot for Ministry. I don't really love this, but I do like it and that should be worth something. Maybe the sense of humor sets this metal/industrial music apart from other stuff? Sure, let's go wtih that.
Iron Maiden
3/5
As a latecomer to Iron Maiden, I'm still kind of amazed at how beautiful some of this is? It's all a good listen though none of it set me on fire.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
I liked Blur. Gorillaz is fine. This was less good than both.
Rufus Wainwright
5/5
Great album. One of the best two-song openers of any album I've heard. Movies of Myself, 14th Street, Go or Go Ahead are also great. The inbetweeners also have a lot to offer. Well done, everybody.
Grateful Dead
3/5
I saw the Dead once, sometime in the early 90s. We were all hippies for a year, I think, and so we went to their show. They played a few songs I knew and that was cool. But I wasn't high so the only thing that really made the whole trip worth it was the girl I had a crush on being there, too. The music was all fine background to that - pretty top notch background, really.
Jungle Brothers
3/5
I want to love this album if only because I was exposed to JB through De La Soul ("The Jungle, The Jungle, The Brothers, The Brothers" jumps into my head whenever I hear about them), but this never breaks through.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Marvin Gaye and Incubus being on the same list is pretty bad. Those two things don't belong on the same planet. Man, the high points on this album are like nothing else.
Beck
3/5
There are a couple of alright tunes on here and I still like the general Beck vibe, but this also starts to sound same-sy. Beck same-sy, but same-sy all the same.
Taylor Swift
4/5
I'm not a Swiftie, per se. But I do like certain Swifts a lot. And this is very good. It feels like it's millimeters away from something that doesn't break through, but it still breaks through. I don't really even like anything else that sounds like this. But I mean, 10 billion Swift fans can't be wrong, right?
KISS
3/5
The first thing I ever heard about KISS was that the name stood for Knights In Service of Satan. So I figured they were, basically, Slayer. This is when I was like 8 or 9 so give me a break. But I figured they were super hard. It took me a while to get the joke and the joke is pretty dumb so KISS might've been one of my favorite bands if I'd latched on to them in those early years. Still, a few interesting songs.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
Interesting tactic, sprinkling the bonus tracks throughout the album instead of pinning them to the end. If you listened to an album longer than 11 tracks today, blame streaming.
Anyway, the cover is hideously 1998. Later Queens covers are pretty nice, but this is like one of those club flyers that show up on your windshield after you walk out of a Best Buy, the kind that remind you there's a whole world out there that you don't belong to.
I didn't get any favorites out of this, but I do like the sound of all of this. I think the ideas and choices here are all pretty strong even if they don't break through. For 1998 rock, this is pretty good.
Tortoise
2/5
I put this on and forgot it was playing. The song it ended on reminded me that I was listening to something. Not bad to listen to, but no sticky.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Not my favorite Led Zeppelin. And not my favorite album cover. But still, it is Led Zeppelin. A lot of good slappers on this one and you shouldn't turn away a good slapper. Immigrant Song, Tangerine, Gallows Pole and Celebration Day all work on me.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Kind of love Tokyo Storm Warning. A lot of this feels like wheel spinning or oil burning or some other car metaphor where the car is working really hard and going nowhere. It all sounds like Costello but it doesn't deliver near enough of the Costello kick. Tokyo Storm Warning, though.
Gram Parsons
2/5
This never broke through for me aside from good musicianship? Are we rating things on that level?
Nothing against Gram Parsons but I like his brother's project better.
Bad Company
3/5
Solid classic rock albums. Just enough friction to be interesting, not enough friction to set the world on fire. Better than background.
The Hives
4/5
I think it's worth noting that I don't really like the lead singer here, but this album is pretty undeniable. At least the first four songs break all the way through. I don't even want to concentrate on it but I can't help it.
Dead Kennedys
3/5
I'm no Kennedy head but you have to respect a 33 minute album with 14 tracks. And I do love the fuck you spirit throughout. Stealing People's Mail is a favorite. It's not an especially pleasant listen, but like I said, deserves respect.
3/5
I don't really love Loretta Lynn, but there is a sort of cohesive portrait that this all paints that holds my attention. I think the first song slaps and then the rest are very good examples of the sort simple arrangement country songs that I can dig. 3.5 stars.
Nico
1/5
This does nothing for me. Even as a fan of some Velvet Underground - I either don't have the context required for this or I'm right.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Except for the marble frame, love this album cover. The album didn't break through very much but it also was not a waste of time. Solid background that is probably solid foreground if I could just sit and listen to it.
Kings of Leon
1/5
I can't fucking stand this baby talk vocal thing that's happening here. Can't get past it. I got three songs in. I did what I could, guys. God speed.
Beatles
5/5
I don't know, guys. It's the Beatles. What do you want?
Björk
2/5
An automatic 2 for being Bjork, but yeah, there's not a lot here to hang on to.
Guided By Voices
3/5
If this album cover had no words on it and you just showed it to me and asked "You wanna listen to this?" I'd say "Nah, I'm not big on reggae. Thanks, though."
Anyway, I love the lofi ethic of GBV, but I have to say that none of this is connecting with me. It's best listened to as if you found a tape on the sidewalk and took it home and this is what was on it. And you'd think "Dang, there's something here." And there is something here, I'm just not sure there's enough of it.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Great album cover. Not my favorite PJ album, but there are some bright spots. And at the very least, it belongs on a list like this.
The Cure
3/5
A Forest is some top tier Cure. I don't really love everything here but at worst it's great background.
The Only Ones
3/5
Never heard of them, kinda love it.
Can
1/5
groovy
Django Django
1/5
I don't know what to do with this. It's about 1/4 for me but it also fell off way into the background.
Jeff Buckley
2/5
I've never understood the Jeff Buckley thing. I know a lot of folks who love this album, really carry a reverence for it. And it's certainly fine and there's at least one bright spot - So Real sounds like a lost Tears for Fears track. But this feels very ordinary to me. I don't have any sentimental attachment to it, so maybe that's part of it. But this one has been overhyped in my world.
Talk Talk
2/5
Nothing can get through to me this week. This is another one that lays there like a bunch of dead moths.
Arcade Fire
3/5
About the first half of this keeps my attention. It tapers off a bit after that but there are still a few bright spots. I saw them in concert around this time and I didn't really go willingly but then the show ended up being an actual show so I have soft spot for them. Not sure if the lead singer is a piece of shit, though, so minus one star.
TLC
2/5
This is one of those albums, man. If every song was as good as the two singles off of it, it would be incredible. But it tends to dip down into generic territory a bunch and its given itself lots of room for generic songs. Overlong and underdone.
Stephen Stills
3/5
Look, that first track is a banger. But the rest of it falls away pretty easily. It sounds a little like warmed over Neil Young? Not great, not bad either.
Tim Buckley
2/5
This one lost me early and often. Gypsy Woman was the nail in the coffin. This is not for me.
Pink Floyd
1/5
noodlin'
Nas
4/5
This is probably the best example of what this is. I don't love everything on this album but almost every song works beautifully.
The Monks
2/5
Started out charming, became grating. I can see this being the jumping off point for a lot of very fun bands, but this was not a great listen.
Frank Black
5/5
6 stars.
This was my bible, my shield, my parents, and my best friend. A lot of Pixies fans couldn't bridge the gap between that band and this (and his first solo one, for that matter), but it all made sense to me. Where I think a lot of his musical ideas fell into ruts as time went on, this is one where every song and every diversion in every song was still paying off big time.
10 stars.
This was way cooler than anything on the radio - we were swimming in a real sea of shit with the copy-of-a-copy grunge and mass-produced R&B. This was the only album with songs about video games, going to malls, visits from aliens, and The Three Stooges - sung with all the passion of Celine Dion singing about the power of love or whatever.
A million stars.
George Jones
3/5
I like this for the same reasons I like most country from the early 70s and before: the almost comedic irony of the song titles, super simple compositions, chronic heartbreak. I mean, 'Mary Don't Go 'Round'. I mean...
Blondie
4/5
There's really nothing here I don't like. The cover is sharp. The songs, even the filler songs, are pretty sharp. Lotta sharpness. At least four songs I love - Telephone, One Way Or Another, Sunday Girl, and Heart of Glass. It doesn't totally hold me the whole time so I can't give it 5 stars, but it's an easy 4.
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Kudos to Devendra for developing an interesting sound and some strong ideas. Still, I lump this in with a lot of the early 2000s chill acoustic music that generally leaves me cold - Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, etc. Not bad music, but nothing that gets around me, either.
Miriam Makeba
4/5
This was delightful, beginning to end. The number of times it punched through was pretty amazing. A great way to start the day.
Beastie Boys
4/5
I stole this tape from a big box store that was going out of business. The place was a shambles - clearly they were short staffed because the whole place was just shelves of products in the wrong places and stuff laying all over the floor. This tape had been broken out of its plastic theft-proof case and just laying there, out in the open. It was too much temptation for 15 year old me to handle. I took it and didn't expect much. Then I wore this thing out. Much like De La Soul's debut, this is just that junkyard of samples and sounds that are perfectly mixed. Listening now, it suffers from a lot of the same things most of their albums suffer from - it's overlong, just throwing every idea in the pot. But the bright spots are the brightest of their career.
Pixies
5/5
There's not a bad song on here and at least two great ones - Dig for Fire and Velouria. And Allison. Is She Weird. They're all good. This is maybe the best step up by a band ever. Expanding the sound, feeling more mature and still fun. Best part is maybe that I remembered at the end of All Over The World was when the tape would flip over. Nostalgia. 5 obvious stars.
George Michael
2/5
Just watched the Wham! doc and for a band I always thought was a piffle, they have a pretty good story. And he wrote some pretty incredible pop songs, but this one feels like a step down from all that, like he's trying to fit into a sound that's already happening and it doesn't work. Freedom '90 has some juice to it, but other than that there's not a lot that sticks with me.
Fela Kuti
4/5
I didn't walk away humming any of this but the groove of most of these songs was pretty undeniable.
Portishead
2/5
Wow, I didn't even know this existed. I liked their first one and loved their second one and double loved their live album (which isn't streaming for some reason I guess?)
But yeah - this doesn't cast quite the same spell as earlier albums. Seems like the ingredients are there - those haunting vocals, layered samples, etc. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a Portishead member left before this one was recorded. There's just something missing here.
And then I just read the rundown and, yeah, I guess that sort of thing did happen. Is that why this leaves me a little cold? Maybe. May be.
Genesis
2/5
Long. Not uninteresting. But long. Longer than it is interesting. Nothing stuck and wish it would. Hopefully Alex's write up of it will make me reconsider.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
2/5
This is a tough one. A couple of famous songs in the middle. And interesting open (that I probably liked the most of anything). Spinning Wheel and You Make Me So are memorable songs but... man, I just don't like 'em. I just don't like 'em! There I said it! Do the lyrics and orchestration come off too cheesy for me? Yeah, something like that. But whatever it is, they make me feel embarrassed. Very strange. Maybe a childhood trauma. God Bless The Child is a great song, but not on this album it isn't. I don't know. This was very close to working for me without working for me.
Carole King
4/5
This is one of those albums - I don't love her vocals that much but there are at least 6 undeniable songs here. This belongs on the 100 albums to hear before you die.
Tricky
2/5
It's finely produced dub, but it's not a genre that speaks to me. Like, it sounds good. Some of this ilk can sound real thin, just a programmed beat that'll fool some suckers into handing over cash. This doesn't sound that cynical. But it ain't my bag.
Mike Ladd
2/5
I appreciate the ambition here, but man, this didn't grab me. It's not off-putting - the production is pretty tastefully done. It just floated off into the background.
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
This was pretty damn good. A couple songs got me listening - You Ain't the Problem, Solid Ground. A pretty strong groove throughout. I could do with more of this kind of stuff.
Turbonegro
3/5
This was interesting. There's something here. I know not what.
Happy Mondays
3/5
I couldn't get past this being fine. It walked a line between too little and too much for me and never went one way or the other. I kind of wanted it to go more toward too much. But maybe hearing it on a Thursday kills the whole vibe?
Pavement
2/5
I feel like this is the Pavement album that gets talked up the most but it's my least favorite. I love how their music barely holds together and when it's at it's best, it's still delivers something as hooky as it is exploratory. This is much more on the exploratory side. But then the best thing Stephen Malkmus ever did was his first solo album. By far the best. That may make me a Pavement heretic, I don't know. But I feel like I could give anybody his first solo album and they'd at least have to say it's a catchy listen. This one, not so much.
Circle Jerks
3/5
I think any punk record is gonna get an automatic 2 stars out of me. And this one has Live Fast Die Young on it, so I'll give it three stars for that. I almost want to give it four stars because it's so short, but if I gave it four stars that would make it seem like I'm going to listen to this one a lot, which I don't think I will. It has every pleasing quality of a lofi punk record except for enough raggedly catchy shout-em-ups. So it'll stay at 3.
Dolly Parton
3/5
I don't love it, but I do like it. I mean, this is pretty top tier harmonizing. The songs don't get my heart pumping but the craftsmanship is worth the listen.
David Bowie
3/5
I deeply appreciate Bowie's ability and impulse to go off the deep end and to fully explore any musical area that catches his eye. But a lot of it leaves me cold. In this case, first track and last track work just fine for me. Everything in the middle fades to the background.
2/5
I admire the energy and attitude here more than I admire any of the songs. None of it sticks with me except for the fact that on a song from 1969 someone screams 'Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!' But I won't be reaching for this one again on purpose and I might turn it off if it came one depending on my mood.
System Of A Down
2/5
Alright - I guess my time has come. Time to listen to a System of a Down album.
'Suite-pee' - oh no.
But after listening, I'll give this some begrudging respect. This could've been a lot worse. It at least has its own identifiable sound and explores it with a little more humor than most of the bands like this coming out at the turn of the century. I don't know that I'll listen to this again, but I get it.
UB40
2/5
Look, this is fairly inoffensive. Not my thing, but it's fine. But Strange Fruit broke me. That song without Nina Simone and with a reggae beat... woof.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Cha cha cha doo doo?
Five stars.
John Lennon
2/5
It pains me to say that none of this works for me. Maybe Working Class Hero comes the closest? And I do love the saturated production. But otherwise, not a huge fan.
Supertramp
3/5
Love this production, Bloody Well Right sorta cuts through but the rest of it never got to me. An easy listen, though.
Deep Purple
2/5
I do indeed love all the guitar here. It's an embarrassment of guitars, which would be a great Deep Purple album title.
Is there much that's memorable? Not a ton, no. Nothing that gives me that Smoke on the Water vibe. But when they launch into the numerous guitar solos herein, I have fun with it.
Ray Charles
5/5
I mean, yeah, five stars. I'd listen to this anytime.
Kings of Leon
2/5
I can't stand the vocals. I cannot. stand. these. vocals. Baby talk vocals. I can't do this.
The vocals don't work for me. It's too bad - the music itself ain't terrible.
Talvin Singh
2/5
There are elements here that are interesting and it makes me wonder if Talvin was part of a larger group could his contribution be honed to make something that really grabs you.
But the repetition here grates.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Bob Marley is one of those undeniable musicians. I still don't love reggae and yet, this is very listenable! No Woman No Cry is great! Am-A-Do is grating. Marley makes it all listenable.
Bee Gees
3/5
This album starts of with vocals so sour I thought it was a joke. These are not the smooth harmonies for which I rely on the Bee Gees. This is fine but How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is as close as this comes to the excellent quality cheese I expect from the brothers Gee.
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
I'm not a big Arctic Monkeys guy and this has some better moments to it, but it's just not hitting for me.
David Ackles
2/5
There is such a gulf between how I feel about the music and how I feel about the vocals and lyrics. Which is good about the former and bad about the latter.
LTJ Bukem
1/5
Come on, now. It wouldn't kill you to make this list 1000 albums long.
Japan
3/5
No real standouts on this for me, but man I love this vibe. If I didn't feel like a liar, I'd give it four stars.
The Associates
3/5
I can dig this. Didn't hit as hard as Japan, but I can dig it.
SZA
4/5
Why? Why is there deluxe version of an album that came out five years ago? We've barely had time to process this album in the first place, what gaps need to be filled? Is it a good album or not? If it is, then it doesn't need extra shit on it.
Anyway, I like this album a lot and I have more to dig into it, but Supermodel, Doves in the Wind, and Prom all work for me. Is it overlong? Sure. But there are very few moments here where I just wish it would be over already. Serves as good foreground and background.
Hawkwind
2/5
This is a lot.
Fairport Convention
3/5
Coming in very strong with the album cover.
And also pretty strong with the music. Friday was a shit day so I can't say I paid a lot of attention to this, but I'll give this another spin sometime.
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
“David [Fincher] said, much to my chagrin, that he wanted music [for Fight Club] that sounded like it was from white guys who thought they were funky but really weren’t,” says King [of the Dust Brothers]. “I was like, ‘Thanks a lot.’ But he was being creatively honest. We didn’t have to try to deliver that—we were white guys that thought we were funky.”
This album made me think of this quote.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
3/5
If Leonard Cohen and Ween had a baby, it would grow up and listen to this and miss its parents.
I can't say I was fully taken in by this. I think I need a quieter time to give this a listen. It's interesting but just didn't grab me.
TV On The Radio
3/5
I admire it more than I enjoy it, but I also enjoy it here and there.
Stephen Stills
3/5
I don't know, Stephen Stills. This is all fine but just not my cup.
Calexico
3/5
I don't have a ton of hope judging by this cover. Let's see.
It's better than its cover, I'll give it that. Didn't walk away with anything, but it went down smooth.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
I knew 'What Have I Done to Deserve This', which is a great song title. And I remember hearing the song on the radio as a kid, so I can't say it's not memorable. But I can say that, according to Wikipedia, there is a lot more going on here than I heard. And so it maybe require more listening. I do like the general vibe of Pet Shop Boys, but I'm such a sucker for hooks and when I don't hear them, I get so sad.
Jamiroquai
3/5
Didgeridon't.
Then again, I don't mind this. This is pretty good. It's like a really good Stevie Wonder impression? Is that it? Like enjoying the abilities of a tight band even if the music itself doesn't quite go all the way?
Morrissey
2/5
I didn't dislike this as much as Alex, but what he says is hard to refute. I was a latecomer to The Smiths and I've grown to like a lot of that. But listenting to this... the magic is gone.
Snoop Dogg
2/5
I hated all the white boys that loved this back in '93. It was a rock solid metric to weed out frat douchery. And it's another album that wallows in the violence/misogyny thing that I just haven't been able to get into. That said, the samples are pretty good. And that part in Who Am I where Snoop tells you that your woman likes him more because he's got the biggest nuts? Poetry.
Steely Dan
5/5
Duh. 5 Stars. Is there any music this good and this weird? No, there isn't.
Roni Size
2/5
There was both drum and bass, so I can't complain too much.
The Damned
4/5
Much better. This is worth listening to. More than once I was pulled out of what I was doing and into a song. Really, the songwriting here is almost bulletproof. Love Song had me in at the beginning... Melody Lee... I'm not sure I was out of this one.
The Adverts
4/5
See Craig's review. Illuminating and inspiring.
Maxwell
2/5
I remember this cover from my days working in the record store. What a simple, classy cover. If the album underneath it sounds anything like this, I'll love it.
I mean... eh? I dig the concept of it but, man - this just never got its hooks into me. Smooth jazz. Too smooth maybe.
Sonic Youth
5/5
This album is great. Great great great. It was so great that, upon hearing it, I bought other Sonic Youth albums and came to learn that this was their big stab at commercial success, which makes sense. I do like other songs of theirs, but I don't love another whole album of theirs. This thing is just good, through and through.
Mudhoney
3/5
Love the vibe but not really the songs.
The KLF
2/5
With no prior knowledge of The KLF, I was at first saddened to learn it was a dance record, then intrigued because it was a little bit more than a dance record, but then saddened again because it's not much more than a dance record.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
This is hard to beat. This sounds less like a band trying to fit into the Southern rock slot and more like a band that can't help it.
Goldfrapp
3/5
A great vibe but I never really care about it. Some good taste at work, though, as these things go.
The The
3/5
It's no Dusk, but it is The The.
M.I.A.
3/5
This one reminds me a little of Tom Waits - sometimes everything comes together and really takes off. Other times, it's just a lot of pots and pans. This one is more pots and pans for me than Kala was.
Joan Baez
2/5
Had I been around in 1960 this may have played well for me. But growing up in the 80s, this is what they made fun of when they made fun of folk music. It's really hard to take it seriously.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
It's not my favorite, but I do enjoy some B&S and 'Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying' is one of their best.
The Auteurs
3/5
I mean yeah, sure. Like Andy said - wouldn't turn it off but probably also wouldn't think to put it on.
Björk
3/5
I don't love this but Bjork is so elemental as a performer I can't turn away. At least a 3 if not a 3.5.
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
This is a solid 4, one of the few 4s I've given to an album I've never listened to before. I hate that I missed out on MBV when they first came out and I blame my parents or the government or somebody.
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
Someone in here was extremely inspired by Lauryn Hill. That said, this is highly listenable. I'd go 3.5 on this if I could.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
At least seven great songs to pull you through this one and Dusty's voice is always compelling.
Sam Cooke
4/5
How incredible would it have been to be there.
Orbital
1/5
So that's two Orbital albums and zero They Might Be Giants. We're in the last 200 albums of this experiment now. No Lemonade. No Breeders, Ween, Whitney Houston. Two Orbital albums, though. I mean I get maybe putting one on here to represent this corner of the music world. But what can two Orbital albums do for us that a single The End of the Tour cannot?
Kelela
3/5
This didn't totally set itself apart, but there were a few times I wondered why I'd never heard of her before. Besides being old and out of touch.
Spiritualized
3/5
This was a nice surprise. At the very least it started strong and it's hard to argue with. Losing focus on the back half may have more to do with my day than the album. But then they should've planned for me having busy days so one star off for them.
2/5
Strictly background for me. Not terrible, just background.
3/5
I guess I'm a low-key XTC fan. Sense Working Overtime is the only song I can readily identify, but I like everything I'm hearing? Except for maybe Your Dictionary, which seemed a little on the nose. But otherwise - it all gels up real nice.
The Style Council
2/5
Andy's comparison to Joe Jackson is dead on. That's what I was wanting the whole time.
Funkadelic
3/5
I don't love this, but thank god for Funkadelic anyway.
Solomon Burke
4/5
This is pretty much the definition of undeniably good. I think humanity is lucky to have this album and other albums like it.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
I feel like this is one of the better examples of what this is but it does not hold my attention for very long. There are better albums.
Crowded House
3/5
All nice breezy pop going by in the background. Nothing bad to say about it - and the album art is eye catching - but I didn't walk away with a song in my heart.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
Aguilera has a great voice and plenty of talent, but this feels awfully thin for such a thicc album. It's like she never found her personality in all of this. The 'I'm a dirty girl' thing feels forced. She's just not that person. She's not a Madonna tough lady, she's not a luminous Whitney Houston voice of the gods, she's not a Mariah-level diva or a Beyonce force of nature. She's got a great voice but she's been cast all wrong here. In the 90s she seemed like talented version of Britney Spears but not much more than that. And while all of these songs are working hard, none of them grabbed me.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
This is still pretty good and has some catchy stuff, but I miss their more ragged stuff, like off that first EP. Still, there's nothing anonymous about this.
Madonna
2/5
The album isn't so great but Madonna is. It feels like a slog toward the end but those first three numbers, I kinda felt like I'd been missing something. But then I remembered how much everyone wanted dance music in the late 90s and I can't get with that. Ray of Light is a strong song.
LL Cool J
3/5
I wish I could say this knocked me out. Some of it felt pretty forced (is Milky Cereal really a thing or was he trying to make that happen?). The title song is great but I wish the rest of the album lived up to it.
Lou Reed
3/5
Lou Reed is always welcome at a listening party. I can't say I was fully taken in but this will get more spins, probably.
Simple Minds
3/5
None of this jumped out at me but I'm probably going to keep listening to this. Something about this era of 80s pop that can't be faked. I want to love it. I don't yet but there was a time when I didn't love Trump either, so... maybe I'll never love it. But I'll keep listening.
The Fall
4/5
I'm taking a star off for the extra 30 tracks on this goddam disc. I know that puts me in league with the braindead Amazon reviewers who review a new 4k disc with 1 star because "I don't like George Clooney at all". But fuck it. 30 tracks??? You didn't even put the requisite 'deluxe edition' signifyer on it.
But I'll put a star back on because this is the kind of vibe I can dig. Do I love a song on here? I do not. Could I let this play all day? Probly so.
John Coltrane
5/5
Five full stars. The opening run alone is worth the price of admission. I don't know anything about jazz but this sounds good and if it sounds good it is good.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
One star for the album title, one star for the interstitials, one star for the well above average songs, one star for not being a name I'd ever heard but for having an album this listenable on first listen? Pretty good stuff.
Queen Latifah
3/5
What do people think who first met Ice-T on Law and Order? Then they go back and listen to songs like 'Black 'n' Decker' or 'Cop Killer'. Maybe it's just as weird as me, a guy who was a 12 year old listening to The Iceberg and then seeing Ice-T on a network police procedural. Anyway,
Trugoy! Trugoy's here! Is that all of De La Soul? Hey look - I didn't walk away with a favorite here but this thing has a lot of life in it.
ABBA
3/5
I don't know. I don't know. I couldn't get into this one. Cover is great, general vibe is hard to beat, but nothing broke through.
Buck Owens
3/5
This is that old-time country that sits well. Simple, finely crafted little sub-3 minute songs for sad boys. The original emo. Kinda square. I like it.
Coldcut
3/5
A little disappointed that this is a dance record. I was hoping for a weirder ride. That said, it was suitably bouncy and wasn't terrible.
Queen
4/5
I don't love everything on here but it does have Killer Queen and I do like listening to it so it's right over the edge of a 4.
Dolly Parton
3/5
There aren't any really bonafide hits here but this is that late 60s / early 70s country, super tightly written songs. And I also just buy whatever Dolly's selling here. I don't love it but I've listened to it twice?
Lorde
3/5
Royals was a song that grabbed my attention. This is all fine work but none of it does what Royals did and so here I am.
The Divine Comedy
3/5
I was surprised at how grandiose this album was but it just couldn't get under my skin.
Michael Jackson
2/5
Off The Wall was a good time. Thriller was a mindblower. This is an album desperately trying to do it again and failing. This all sounded impossibly soft by the time it came out. Like, you're really gonna kick off an album bragging about how bad you are in a light, bouncy pop song when I've just spent the whole last year listening to Master of Puppets? Are you not paying attention to me at all? It's pretty dorky. And I can deal with dorky - They Might Be Giants is also in heavy rotation. But don't try to sell me on how tough you are, come on.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
I can't fault anything here - it's that sort of 1983 vibe that is great background. It doesn't cut through but I'll give it another listen sometime.
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
The songs didn't mean anything to me and it's a bad sign that I thought a couple times "This is still going?" It's not badly done but it's not for me.
Ravi Shankar
2/5
Another album that is all background for me. I can appreciate the significance, but for me this music cuts through in an unpleasant way.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
I mean, it's Curtis Mayfield. Is it my favorite Curtis Mayfield? No. Does it have to be? No.
Ice T
3/5
This first track is a pretty weak way to kick things off holy cow. This is like a parody of gangsta rap. Lonely Island could've done this. Did they do this?
It's so hard to square 80s/90s Ice-T with today Ice-T. He seemed impossibly hard when I was in my teens but this all seems so put on. Even though dude had a helluva life. I don't feel like represents much of it so much as it represents a good way to sell a lot of records at the time. Is it too much to ask for a new Ice-T record that just covers dudes life? Both of his parents died of heart attacks when he was super young and he rented an apartment off their Social Security and sold weed and stole car radios to make ends meet. And that's just one sliver of what happened to this dude.
Anyway, I liked The Iceberg more than this.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
No, this cover is terrible. Whoever okayed this needs a talking to.
And the rest of the album - I mean, it's Marvin Gaye so it's not likely to be bad, right? The ambience is pretty great. But there's nothing here that belongs in the Pantheon.
Right? Pantheon? Because of the cover?
Should that one be put in the Puntheon?
thx
The Flying Burrito Brothers
3/5
One of the best all-time band names. Not one of my all-time favorite bands.
Tori Amos
4/5
I don't know. Maybe I love Tori Amos now but this went down real easy today.
The Slits
2/5
Love the energy, love the band name, the music leaves me cold.
Korn
1/5
Okay then, my time has come. My first Korn. Here we go.
The production on it isn't bad. But the Fred Durst song finally broke me. This one's a big nope for me. It does make you really miss when rock was fun.
Youssou N'Dour
2/5
Another album expertly played that just ain't for me.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
I get Todd Rundgren and Jackson Browne mixed up for no great reason.
I didn't know Rundgren wrote I Saw the Light, but I also didn't know the song was called I Saw the Light.
This a good album. A solid 3. I didn't listen it to twice (hello, Little Earthquakes). But this is some solid work.
R.E.M.
3/5
Stand is maybe my least favorite REM song. There still Pop Song 89 and Orange Crush here, which I like. And some other songs that don't quite punch through but are still very REM.
Scott Walker
3/5
Finally, all the questions that were left up in the air after Scott 1 will be answered!
I don't know where to put this. It's hard to say I don't like it, but it's also not easy for me to like. It's Neil Diamond but hornier? "A cute cute in a stupid ass way"?? I can't dislike an album from 1968 with a line like that. But do I like it?
Maybe Scott 3 will help...
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Don't read up on the Mama's and the Papa's. Just...
...don't.
Purely for the songs, this is four-star album, though.
Sex Pistols
3/5
An all-time great band name. And as punk albums go, very listenable. For all the talk of Sid Vicious not being a good bass player - it sure fits in just fine here.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
I like a lot of LCD Soundsystem but this was a LOT of LCD Soundsystem. Maybe a little too much. Feels like if there was a great party, and then somewhere during this album the party ended but the DJ was still feeling himself and so just kept going? I don't dislike any of it, but I was done with it.
The Fall
2/5
However this album sounds, the cover is terrible.
I like the ragged edges of this album but none of it took me in.
Sepultura
1/5
Fantastic cover. And also, a band known for pretty good covers.
But like the last Sepultura, this ain't getting to me. Playing is great. Lyrics and vocal performance ruin it.
So the question is - does there need to be two Sepultura albums on this list?
Skepta
3/5
I like the cover. What's inside?
It's not run of the mill, but it also could hold on to my attention. I wouldn't turn it off, but I'm not sure I'd seek it out, either.
Bill Callahan
3/5
This is all quite well put together. Like the production, the vocals, a lot of the lyrics. Something about this one. Something about it, I don't know.
Bob Dylan
4/5
I mean, it's Dylan. Even when the songs get repetitive, the lyrics are still pretty amazing. And there are a couple of bangers here. He was born to play this stuff and nobody else was, I think.
Dion
2/5
Sometimes easy listening ain't so easy.
Steely Dan
5/5
How can one band make so many perfect albums? It seems impossible. And yet, here's another one.
Mott The Hoople
3/5
A fun listen. All The Way to Memphis is a good one. Nothing here is quite as strong as All The Young Dudes, which I always credit Bowie with in my head. But a very solid listen.
3/5
I don't know, it's War. They do good work. I didn't love it but it's War.
5/5
This was a tough one for me to get behind at first because I was so used to the fierce PJ of days past but man, this one gets into your bones. Some of her best stuff is on here. "I saw my reflection come right off your face" is such a good line.
Kacey Musgraves
4/5
Slow Burn is a pretty strong start. Am I crazy? Do I love this? What's happening right now? Certainly Taylor Swift adjacent, I guess. Maybe it's that quality of sounding like songs about where I grew up? I don't know. It all works for me, though.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
I listened to a ton of hair metal in the 80s and this came out and beat everything else all to hell. This made the rest of my tape collection embarrassing. There is no fat on this album and it earns every drop of operatic melodrama that it puts out there. It helps that the opening track presents the whole thing like a concept album about the nightmare that is LA. Jesus this is a good album. By far, their best.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
This starts real strong but it fell off for me over time. None of it bad, I'd say. But whatever pulled me in that top didn't hold on.
Sonic Youth
3/5
It's not Dirty, but it'll do.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Born to Run is such a goddamn good song. By far the best song on the album. Thunder Road and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out are solid. And if you're into the usual Springsteen story songs, you probably love this whole thing. I'm about four-fifths of the way there.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
There are a few pretty good songs at the top of this one but it wears out it's welcome for me after a bit.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Very chill and 90s in a way I found enjoyable but I don't have anything to go back to.
The Replacements
3/5
The Replacements is one of those bands that seems like it checks all the boxes for me but I'm never fully won over. I appreciate the swings and the work being done here. I just wish I loved it.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
The Replacements is one of those bands that seems like it checks all the boxes for me but I'm never fully won over. I appreciate the swings and the work being done here. I just wish I loved it.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
This is one of those albums that came along in 2012 when I was feeling like I hadn't heard a good album in a while. And that so much hip-hop seemed lazy. This is great all the way through. Strangely enough, someone had tried to put me on to Drake a couple years before and that was one of the reasons I felt like maybe I was just too old for the new stuff. Turns out that wasn't true.
The Undertones
3/5
Not sure what it is but I just wanted this to stop playing yesterday. Every time it punched through I thought "SHUT UP!" This has more to do with me than this music, probably, but then how would that make it any different from any of these other albums. Sounded fine, I just wanted it to stop.
King Crimson
2/5
I swear the track listing said there were 6 songs here but I only counted one.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
This is interesting to listen to, knowing the material that broke though. I worked in a Camelot Music jazz section for a few years and I'd hear a lot the stuff that came out from 1993 - 1996. And there were certain albums that had just enough talent to scrape together an album. Nothing embarrassing about it but also not something that left a mark. This feels like those. A little better than those. I Heard Love Is Blind kicks off a pretty good run of songs, for sure. A little torn on this one.
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
I do admire this, but I don't enjoy it.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
Is chaos the opposite of form? Is substance the opposite of oblivion? This one loses me right off the bat. The cover doesn't help much. It sounds pretty solid but it doesn't seem to aim very high and there's not much here for me to dig into. It does have a track called 'Perverted Monks in the House', so 3 stars.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
I was taken in by the very mellow vibe of this, though I didn't walk away humming it. I do love the production.
Ramones
4/5
The thing about the Ramones is that even when it's not great it's still pretty good and even if it's not pretty good, it doesn't last very long. Some all-timers on this one.
Nirvana
5/5
This is the best example of what this is. That transition from Territorial Pissings, where his voice is torn to shreds, into Drain You, where he sounds like he's back in full health... I've always loved that. That last track is a bit aimless but then again, they just gave you 12 solid tracks so it's like, sure guys, go nuts. The rest of this is tattoo'd inside my ears. I'm a Gen Xer. What do you want?
4/5
This is not my favorite Beatles - it's a little all over the place. But there are undeniable songs here and Day in the Life is a fantastic closer.
fIREHOSE
2/5
I listened to this one twice through because I couldn't understand why I wasn't into it. I think what it all comes down to is that there are elements here that just don't gel. A bunch of interesting ingredients that never quite come together for me.
The La's
4/5
I picked this up based solely on the cover and was surprised at how catchy every song on the album was. Then there was the breakout hit. I was 16. The only 16 year old in the American South in 1990 who'd heard the term 'loggerheads'. Guaranteed. And these songs? This is some very tightly written stuff. It all still works for me. I especially still love the way the opening of 'There She Goes' always sounds like it's on one beat and how it all changes up when the drums kick in. I like the magic trick there.
Willie Nelson
4/5
What a delightful, quiet little album of songs I already like by an artist I already like. I don't love all of these renditions but there's definitely love in the room.
Syd Barrett
1/5
I like albums where people are sort of dicking around and finding interesting little nuggets - Bowie's made a whole career of that - but I reall don't find much that's interesting here. He's got the presence but nothing breaks through.
Stereo MC's
2/5
Connected is a fine song. But I'm stopping at track ten here. This isn't doing it for me and I don't see it improving toward the end.
Marty Robbins
3/5
It's hard to argue with 50s cowboy country. I'm a little nostalgic for it by way of my old man, I guess. I'm into it.
The Bees
2/5
Solid cover. Let's see what happens.
I gave up. The songs weren't grabbing me, the big single didn't do it, then I tried to let it settle into the background. I couldn't do it, you guys. That's on me.
Weather Report
3/5
I did enjoy this to a point, but I'm not taking anything away with me. It was generally solid background jazz. And I do dig the cover art.
Supergrass
4/5
Not as good as Life on Other Planets, but the songwriting is pretty solid throughout. A very listenable album.
William Orbit
1/5
oh god
Even though this is electronica from 1993 I'm going to be a good sport and give it 3 tracks to win me over. The first track is 7 minutes long so don't act like I'm not a hero.
Okay, no this is not for me. Thank you.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
I spent a few weeks of the summer of 2004 in a Carlisle, PA townhouse with Bonnie "Prince" "Will Oldham" Billy. He was a lovely chap. And after that, I listened to a lot of his music, including this. And it's difficult to separate the art from the nostalgia, but that was a pretty great summer all in. If you'd like to know what it was like, watch The Guatemalan Handshake (Todd Rohal, 2006). Also, the video for I See A Darkness (not the version on this album, but still) is top drawer.
Pantera
3/5
First of all, a great cover.
Second, this is pretty perfectly performed metal. Though I think Priest should probably sue for that 'Beckon the call, beckon the call' bit. Still, this goes down real nice.
Madonna
2/5
It's tough to listen to a Madonna album knowing that there was a time when she'd put out an album where you'd have a good 3 or 4 songs that pulled you right in. There's nothing even bad here, I don't think. It just doesn't have that pull. It's like seeing someone's thumb slip off the pulse of the audience.
Talking Heads
4/5
Once in a Lifetime is a foundational song to my understanding of what is good in music. The rest of this is very listenable.
N.E.R.D
2/5
I always thought NERD would be right up my alley. I'd heard so many good things about them. But you know how it is - you listen to an album and it's not bad, but it all just slips right off you. That's what this is like - it sounds like talented people playing around with a lot of ideas and equipment but there's nothing here that I'd put on a mix, ya know?
Radiohead
4/5
This is better than I remember it. I'm still nostalgic for OK Computer Radiohead, but some of that is here. I start to lose touch with it, though.
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
I can't say I listened closely, but this was all pretty great. A solid 3 and maybe more than that once I listen again.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Aretha Franklin is a national treasure. Five stars.
But can we talk about that Lithonia video? And how it perfectly nails this one aspect of visual storytelling in this particular vein that is so effective with me? This isn't a place to talk about it. And I feel like this may be a throw away video for a lot of people. But this is exactly the kind of thing I signed up for when I signed up for watching things.
Björk
3/5
I love Bjork but this is the fifth time she's popping up on this list. I'll undoubtedly enjoy this to some extent but we need to broaden our horizons. And not with another drum n bass album.
Also - that Lithonia video. The choice that's made here. Because it's already a song that feels like it is reaching outside of Gambino's usually wheelhouse. And it sounds great doing it! Like a vaporwave emo song? And so then to go where they go with it. Pretty strong.
Marilyn Manson
4/5
Look, if you'd asked me this in 1996, I woulda said five stars. And it's probably still five stars. The production is great, the over-the-top boundary pushing is also somehow within the bounds of good bad taste. Irrresponsible Hate Anthem got me through some angry and confused times. Manson is probably a terrible person. And maybe he gave us enough hints. I don't know. But I still do like this album.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
I have a real soft spot of Sinead. Nothing Compares 2 U is a pretty stellar performance. Nothing else on here quite gets to that level, I think, but it all sits pretty nicely beside each other. I don't know. This is really more of a 3.5 than a 3 but it's not quite a 4.
Al Green
3/5
That title song is so damn good but there's also sentimental attachment to it and that's hard to beat. The rest of the album can't match that, which is no fault of its own. Another solid 3 star album, for sure.
Slint
2/5
This is not for me. But it reminds me of a lot of things that are for me that aren't for anyone else.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
I really did enjoy listening to this but it was also almost totally background.
Soul II Soul
1/5
This is what I missed not going clubbing? Is Holdin' On a real track? The vocals on that sounded incredibly sour to me.
You guys, what is this? This isn't even background, this is actively annoying me. And the single wasn't on the actual record? What was happening in '89?
Dagmar Krause
2/5
I don't know what to make of this. I was thrown in the deep end of a cold pool and I know I can make something fun out of that but I swallowed way too much water.
David Bowie
4/5
I love me some David Bowie, but this album title is pretty eye roll-y, man. But the art is on point. This is my favorite Bowie but it's miles better than what we normally get on here.
U2
5/5
Too much of my real life is wrapped up in this one. I was 16-17. At my most objective I have to say, as U2 albums go, this is pretty solid all the way through. You can quibble over melodramatic lyrics or what have you, but at the end of the day, that's the DNA of U2. And this is probably the last time it really worked.
The xx
2/5
This is not for me. Somehow this album has several tracks on it and not one of them moves me at all. I kept expecting there to be that 'single' track that jumped out, like 'okay, this is the song people went for on the radio'. But I couldn't figure it out. Great cover, though.
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
God help me they're all called the same thing and first track is 8 minutes long. What is this list trying to accomplish exactly? Shouldn't this be a list of 1001 undeniable albums, all of them at least rated a 4 overall? Like, you guys - Kid Rock is on this list. Kid. Rock. We knew after that it wasn't going to get better. I mean, major props to the cover art, here. But this will be a miracle if I like this album. I'm just saying, if this album gets a pass but John Carpenter's Lost Themes isn't on this list, then what's going on?
Paul Simon
3/5
So much Simon sauce in here, but still left me cold. An opening song with an allergy metaphor. I mean, a bold choice for sure. Song About the Moon had some magic in it but aside from some terrific playing not much for me here.
Pulp
4/5
I've listened to this before but never got this much out of it. Who knew that listening to lyrics would make a difference?
Van Morrison
3/5
I enjoy the Morrison vibe but there's not a lot holding me here.
Peter Frampton
3/5
There are the Frampton tunes that I've heard all my life and they're fine. But the rest of this for me is generic classic rock - not a bad vibe but no stand outs.
Girls Against Boys
3/5
This all fit just fine but I wasn't taken in by any of it. The cover lacks confidence in some strange way. Feels like it was put together by three different designers all wrestling for control of the mouse. Regardless. Fine? But no big take aways for me.
Bad Brains
3/5
Man, this sounds so good but I'm still not fully on board. I just don't have that one song, ya know? I need that one song. Anyway, I understand why people love them.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
1/5
What is this cover? It looks like somebody coded a website all wrong.
This really grated. There are some interesting ideas here but really overstayed its welcome.
Scott Walker
3/5
Scott Walker is an interesting dude, you guys.
Deee-Lite
3/5
I do enjoy the poppiness of Groove Is In The Heart, but I'm not sure there's enough to sustain a whole album, right? Let's see.
I mean, it did maintain a baseline of pretty listenable grooves. Nothing quite as stand out all of it very 90s hippy, but it has some conviction to it.
Jack White
3/5
By the end of this, I realized it was going down pretty easy. I think I have a bias against Jack White now. Loved the White Stripes when they came out, was such a breath of fresh air. But I think I know too much about behind-the-scenes Jack, about how analog he is, about how precious he is about where he records, etc. Things that don't really matter to me at all but for some reason irritate me because now I know that much about him.
Nothing particularly grabbed me here but it's good work.
Röyksopp
3/5
A 2001 dance record, on the same list as Abbey Road. Alright. Let's see what you've got.
I mean, Poor Leno is a funny title, though. For an American at least. Who cares about late night variety shows. Don't tell me what it's about.
This wasn't bad. At least there were some dynamics to the musical ideas here. The songs went to different places. One of the better dance records on this list.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
For a CSNY album, this is banger after banger.
Terrible cover, though. Sheesh. Unless it's modeled after a famous photo, in which case - well done!
Tom Waits
4/5
Always love Tom Waits. There's only one guy who does this and this is him and that's great.
The Everly Brothers
3/5
Man, what an innocent time.
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
The Dandy Warhols have one song that I do really like but it's not on this album but this album is still fairly listenable and I didn't turn it off but I forgot the songs that were on it. 3 stars.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
I don't know what to do with some of these albums. The whole day yesterday was bonkers. Did I even listen to this with any kind of attention? Would this have broken through to me on a different day? My main impression was that it sounded like someone told Harris she should update her sound and fully disagree. Nothing really bad here but nothing stuck.
Van Morrison
3/5
This is too much of a good thing. I like his voice, the arrangements, the energy. But it doesn't really ramp up to anything. It feels like it stays at this one level the whole time.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
The deepest blessings to anyone who loves this music. My bro put out like 11 albums the same year as this. That's amazing. But it's not my thing and there's so much of it.
Suede
3/5
First of all - interesting that for me to find this album I had to call the band 'The London Suede'. Is it just Suede in London? How many Suede's are there?
Anyway, this was fine. Maybe worth a closer listen.
Pere Ubu
3/5
I respect it but I don't enjoy it.
Britney Spears
2/5
Anybody else feel nauseous looking at this cover? Like is it just me or does it cause the word 'exploitation' to play over and over in your head? Just me?
Anyway - this is kind of terrible. That first song is understandable as a pop hit but come on. 'E-mail My Heart'? These are not serious people.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
Hell yeah. I bought a bootleg of this album a swap meet in Myrtle Beach in '86. Didn't know anything about it really, just looked cool. Loved it - almost every track kicks. Perfection and Dumb Girl I could do without but the rest of it? Yes please. Walk This Way of course made a huge impact. The fact that it has survived over time, that even though the style is pretty stilted compared to today's stuff, it all works. Probably the best example of what this can be.
The Residents
2/5
Another album that I appreciate more than I enjoy.
Sabu
5/5
Judging by the cover, 5 stars.
Yep, 5 stars. Would listen again, made me feel happy. No notes.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
20 tracks. Damn. 20 tracks to prove she has a very strong voice. But there's still nothing here that has me coming back.
Patti Smith
3/5
I'm a few steps behind Andy on this one. Admire it for sure. Not quite with it yet.
The Beau Brummels
3/5
This was pretty delightful. Tight little songs, solid production. Would listen again.
The Vines
2/5
A lot of fine energy and production, but these songs just weren't moving me.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
Into You Like a Train and Pretty in Pink both work real good for me. I do love the vibe of all of this and carries all the way through. Not an all timer for me but a strong piece of work.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
How can you argue with this?
The Sabres Of Paradise
2/5
What am I supposed to get out of this? What does this want from me?
The Boo Radleys
3/5
I mean, yeah.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
I mean, I'm a sucker for old short country songs. I'm not such a sucker for three rebel flags on the cover? Man, I don't have time to go down a rabbit hole on this - I don't support the South in the Civil War, hot take. But I do like a bunch of these songs. do with that what you will.
Doves
3/5
Every now and then a Doves album really delivers for me. It's not every song, but then there's a sort of build up to a moment and then everything comes together. This is kind of like that.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Yeah, this is fine.
Otis Redding
5/5
Duh.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
I do have a soft spot for this kind of stuff done well and there's a few songs here that work for me. But it does get a little long in the tooth.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
3/5
This is so close to being Public Enemy without it being Public Enemy. A lot of vegetables here.
Norah Jones
3/5
Don't Know Why is a strong song. I was sick. This was a pretty good album to listen to when your head is achy and full of snot. It's probably good when you're healthy, too, but it worked for me. I'm a little better today. Coincidence?
Fever Ray
2/5
The cover is nice (Charles Burns?) but the music had to break through my workday / still sick daze and that feat was not accomplished.
Anyway, we're at 25 or so albums left to go, we've had Korn, Incubus, Linkin Park, and Kid Rock but not a single They Might Be Giants album.
The Teardrop Explodes
3/5
The vibe is not bad but this could not contend with my workday.
Goldie
2/5
Track 1 is 21 minutes long - there is no way I'll end up listening to this entire album.
True to form - there were two songs left when I tapped out. I'll allow space in my heart for the idea that maybe those two songs woulda turned this around for me.
Ozomatli
2/5
So Ozomatli did the sound track to the videogame based on the sequel to Happy Feet?
Anyway, I can understand why people would like this but this slipped right by me.
The Byrds
3/5
The Byrds are some comfort food for sure. I don't reach for this on my accord, but it's a good listen.
The Monkees
3/5
I don't love it, but it IS the Monkees.
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
I like this one a lot - must've listened to this a million times back when it came out. Kick Push is a pretty great track.
Ride
4/5
I didn't love this but I did like it a lot.
Soft Machine
3/5
Surely this album was created to challenge my will to live. Not a single track under 18 minutes long.
This album ended and I am still here. In terms of albums I don't love, I can understand this being on the list.
Gang Starr
3/5
This was pretty damn listenable.
Brian Eno
3/5
I went into this one with some trepidation but you know what? This Eno guy may have something here.
Roxy Music
3/5
Look I'm not trying to be a creep, but this is a pretty great cover. And not just because... ya know. I mean, it's not NOT because that. Like I'm all for that. But it's more than that. For instance, I really like how the text is actually kind of bad and near unreadable. Man, okay, I don't know. It's a godo cover.
Anyway, I've listened to this a few times now and it's growing on me.
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
5 stars, pre-listen. No notes.5 stars, pre-listen. No notes.
I spent the last two days listening to this and it's good to listen to people who are at the tip top of their art form, ya know? The next album better be strong or it's going to suffer for coming second.
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
I like the rendition of Sweet Jane and it's all fine but I don't ever freel totally taken in by this.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
While nothing else grabbed me the way Come on Eileen does, it's still a pretty solid setting for that little diamond.
Neil Young
4/5
Tough to hate.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
I really liked this. Hit me at just the right time, maybe. Chorus pedals of the world, unite!
Anita Baker
3/5
I enjoyed listening to this in a doctor's-waiting-room-in-the-late-80s sort of way. Like, when you have that appointment where it's not gonna be anything heavy. Maybe just a checkup. Not even a blood draw. It's sunny outside and once you're done with this the rest of your day is yours.
Fred Neil
3/5
Now I know where Tindersticks came from.
The Incredible String Band
2/5
If only I was into renaissance fairs...
Doves
3/5
I do like these Doves albums. But this is the second Doves. No TMBG, really?
The Beta Band
3/5
I remember some friends really flipping for Beta Band back at the turn of the century. I can understand it but I'm not fully on board with it.
Os Mutantes
4/5
I mean I love this cover. Let's see.
Finally, an album that lives up to its cover. Is this the best album I've ever heard? This is 36 minutes of joy, right here.
Sonic Youth
3/5
This one is better than I remember. Not my favorite, but pretty focused.
Tom Waits
4/5
I mean, it's Tom Waits. Even when it's goofy, it's alway entertaining.