If you’re looking for something fun and upbeat ‘Ghosteen’ isn’t the album for you. It’s the sound of a father’s grief for his dead son. It’s harrowing and unbelievably sad, yet cathartic and…wonderful. Production is minimal and sparse, but immersive and as interesting as any ambient album going around. I suspect that over time and repeated exposure ‘Ghosteen’ will become one of my all-time faves.

First half of the album is as good, if not better than any other Led Zep album. Every song is a heavy hitter culminating in the colossus that is 'Kashmir'. Disc 2 doesn't quite pack the same punches but does contain 'In The Light', 'Ten Years Gone' and 'The Wanton Song' which are the picks of the second half.

Outkast’s masterpiece and still the best rap album of this century. Broad and deep in scope, dense but accessible across its almost 75-minute running time (which for once isn't a second too long for an LP). Musically drawing on rock, jazz, blues and soul, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Hendrix, Electric Miles; it's all in there and you can hear these influences coalesce into something unique, urgent, exciting, transcendental and totally stoned but in the best way.

In 2022 ‘Hysteria’ feels like the most ridiculous album. It sounds all of the $4.5 million that it reportedly cost to make. It’s shiny, gleaming, glossy, expansive, excessive, bloated, monolithic…over produced, probably 20 minutes too long; and yet I still really like it because despite all my criticisms, the album is a heap of big, dumb fun. It reaches for your jugular, doesn’t let go for the duration, and demands you have a good time, which ultimately you will. Truly ‘Hysteria’ is to hair metal what ‘Thriller’ is to pop.

A bunch of album tracks and half a dozen cover versions doesn't necessarily sound like the recipe for a killer acoustic live album but 'Unplugged In New York' turns out to be something special. The bands material translates wonderfully well into intimate, acoustic arrangements, and their cover versions are often better than the originals. A tantalizing look at what Nirvana might've evolved into, and still a fitting if sad way for the band to go out despite the large shadow Kurt Cobain's death casts over this record.

First half of the album is as good, if not better than any other Led Zep album. Every song is a heavy hitter culminating in the colossus that is 'Kashmir'. Disc 2 doesn't quite pack the same punches but does contain 'In The Light', 'Ten Years Gone' and 'The Wanton Song' which are the picks of the second half.

A couple of decent tracks on this. 'Song For Lindy' is great, as well as 'Everybody Needs A 303'. 'First Down' is also fun. Rest of this album is repetitive filler and hasn't aged all that well.

Somewhat pensive at times but nicely produced. Low key and intimate, overall a really lovely album. Reminds me of the Beatles and Crosby, Stills and Nash in parts.

First Tim Buckley album I've ever listened to. Pleasant and well produced, but a little too earnest and heavy on the medieval sounding folk tunes for my taste.

Bleak and sparse, sad and melancholy. An achingly beautiful album. The more I listen to it, the more I'm drawn in and the more I can't help but love it . Make no mistake, this is a masterpiece.

Really cool blues rock/folk record. Neil’s baritone voice reminds me of Johnny Cash. Somewhat staggering that this was released in 1966. It has that timeless quality that makes it sound like it could’ve been recorded yesterday. The Dolphins and Everybody’s Talkin’ are the two standout moments here, but really the whole record is strong overall.

Really wanted to love this but it left me indifferent instead. Yes, It’s a smart and fun record which is very much the point, but there’s nothing really essential or groundbreaking here other than ‘Take Me Out’. YMMV but it's a no for me.

The best of the early Beatles records, and the peak of their early pop, Beatlemania years. The quintessential pop album by the quintessential British band. First album of fully original material and every song is a winner from the opening iconic chord of the title track, to the unexpected and premature fade out at the end of 'I'll Be Back'. What's staggering is this would be most bands high point yet the Beatles would get better than this, albeit their best albums would be purely studio affairs. Much has been written elsewhere about this album, it's influence and legacy but all you need to know is that it is that good and is easily a 5 star affair.

Killer guitar power chords, catchy hooks and riffs, but lyrically bleak and heavy. Leant more weight by the well publicized mental and health issues the lead singer had and his disappearance (assumed dead) soon after this was released.

Joy Division is a band I really want to love more. Their sound is heavy, angular, harsh...depressing. This is a good album, but not one I seek out to listen to regularly. I prefer them when they became New Order.

Always enjoyed this one. Actually quite diverse musically, with touches of latin and funk to go with the rock and folk tone of the record. Understated production, great songs, incredible harmonies.

Great songs with slick, polished production and the right mix of R&B/hip hop, soul and pop ensuring massive crossover appeal. All star guest cast cameos. Sexy but never sleazy. The blueprint for all female groups that followed in their footsteps. This is a real winner.

As stated in the 1001 albums book: "Night Life is Nashville's answer to Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours". Succinct and spot on description.

Super catchy and melodic guitar rock with with touches of psychedelia.

Introspective and melancholy, but musically and melodically beautiful, lyrically deeper and less bombastic than the PSB's first three albums.

Seminal dance music album that melded soul and R&B with house and reggae. It's legacy and influence is such that it still sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday.

A bunch of album tracks and half a dozen cover versions doesn't necessarily sound like the recipe for a killer acoustic live album but 'Unplugged In New York' turns out to be something special. The bands material translates wonderfully well into intimate, acoustic arrangements, and their cover versions are often better than the originals. A tantalizing look at what Nirvana might've evolved into, and still a fitting if sad way for the band to go out despite the large shadow Kurt Cobain's death casts over this record.

British white boy jazz-funk/pop complete with chunky sweaters and knitwear. This is super groovy music for the body and dancefloor that doesn't take itself too seriously, and is a hell of a lot of fun.

Beautifully gloomy, atmospheric and grand. An intimately claustrophobic but seductive album that rewards repeated listening. It's main drawback (if it has one) is that it feels a tad too long, but this doesn't majorly detract from what's a pretty outstanding record overall.

Ethereal, spare, transcendental. Jazz but not Jazz. Ambient textures, moods over melody. A masterpiece in minimalism that continues to influence. Its ground breaking cut and paste production stitched together by Teo Macero was ahead of its time, much like this album. Bitches Brew would send out musical shockwaves across the world six months later, but all the elements of that record, albeit more restrained, were present here first.

Cynicism, defeat, despair and excessive drug taking never sounded so soulfully funky and appealing.

So I stole part of a review on this album because because I CBF writing my own. Written by Maya Kalev for factmag.com, the article is called "One very important thought: Boards Of Canada’s Music Has The Right To Children at 15" I recommend it. The bit I stole goes like this: "Despite its name, Music… is about as grown-up as records get: an adult meditation on childhood, concerned with play, naïveté and nostalgia, all tinted with rosy pastoralism. But it’s also devilishly subtle, intricate and emotionally mature. That’s surprisingly rare in electronic music, most of which is concerned with the physicality of dance, intellectual weight, or the evocation of atmosphere rather than a holistic experience. By introducing themes of suppression, solitude and grief into Music…’s evocations of childhood, Boards of Canada created a record that was pretty but seldom precious, more faithful to experience than kitsch idealism. This ambiguity has endeared Music Has The Right To Children to its hordes of fans over time: as its listeners grew ever further away from the childhood it evoked, the album, bizarrely, became more relevant."

Sounds like a Led Zeppelin tribute band, but with more prog and less blues. Still, this is a raucously good time overall, an all-out assault on the eardrums. What it lacks in majesty, it makes up for in effort, sheer heaviness and slam. Play this loud.

I think other bands have had more successful results at fusing rock and electronica than these guys. I can see and appreciate what they are trying to do, and the wall of sound they create using guitars and synths is technically impressive, but frankly, aside from Iggy Pop's appearance on 'Aisha', there's nothing else here that really holds my attention.

In which Billie Holiday does Frank Sinatra's 'In The Wee Small Hours'. Her voice is cooked after years of alcohol and drug abuse, but the arrangements complement what's left of her voice, and the result manages to be harrowing yet triumphant at the same time.

A lot of punky goodness here. Guitars thrash like a machine gun, but the sound is very polished and the songs are surprisingly more tuneful and melodic than I was expecting. Lots of wit and humour present here.

Started off promisingly but failed to hold my attention. Not bad, but not great either. It just didn't resonate with me.

Essentially two individual albums by each member of Outkast. Sonically impressive, sprawling, probably too long and with too many interludes. Trim those and some of the fat ('My Favorite Things' instrumental I'm looking at you) and this would be close to the best hip-hop/rap/r'n'b/soul double album of this century. That title probably belongs to their previous album 'Stankonia'. As it stands however, 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' whilst not quite as vital or important as 'Stankonia', is still pretty fucking good.

The explicit social commentary the Beach Boys tried on this album feels really clumsy and forced, while "Take a Load Off Your Feet", a song literally about looking after your feet, sounds like an advertising jingle. I can't work out whether they are being sincere or taking the piss. That's kind of the problem I have with this record. In parts it's amazing, in other parts it's decidedly "meh" and feels like the group were running on fumes creatively.

So the hits and singles released from this album were (and still are) undeniably ace. As for the best of the rest: ‘Full Throttle’, ‘3 Kilos’ and ‘Claustrophobic Sting’ are both great, while ‘The Heat’ is interesting. What’s left is just a bit too one note for me. There are a lot of interesting ideas, but they never quite feel fully fleshed out, and on an album that’s already too long the padding get really noticeable at times.

Opening salvo of 'Where The Streets Have No Name', 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and 'With Or Without You' is as good a start to an album as any. The rest of the record doesn't quite live up to that opening but still chugs along nicely, nailing it’s anthemic, stadium filling rock brief. Meanwhile, Coldplay called and said thanks for the inspo.

I didn't hate this as much as I thought I would. Musically on point and Waits is a great story teller, albeit a lot of the stories are sad, worn and bleak and seem to involve an abundance of drug dealers and prostitutes. Meanwhile Waits sounds like he smoked 100 cigarettes, swallowed a cup of gravel and then drank several bottles of really cheap whiskey before deciding he'd sing some songs. Your appreciation of this album may well depend on whether or not you can handle his 'singing' voice for forty five minutes.

OK is ambitious in scope and execution, simultaneously futuristic yet ancient in sound. A wonderfully layered fusion of styles and influences gives it a sense of timelessness. Equally at home on the dancefloor as it is on your headphones, this is a beautiful album.

The distillation of all the best bits of Metallica across 54 minutes of brutal, aggressive, tight and polished musicianship (though there’s also a lot of subtlety here too). I listened to this a lot when I was a teenager, and many years after my wasted youth this album still can't be rated anything less than a 5.

A pleasant surprise. Super boring cover doesn't really do justice to the music that's on here. You can clearly hear the influence it's had on countless bands and ambient artists, and especially on David Bowie.

Undeniably well played, sung and produced. You can hear its obvious (and not so obvious) influences within the grooves. The record clearly wears its heart on its sleeve and rocks pretty hard in places too but ultimately there's not quite enough here to elevate it to classic status for mine.

Tracey Thorns voice kills and production is nice. It's quite a pleasant listen overall but one probably needs to be in the relaxed horizontal position to maximize enjoyment of this record.

Surprisingly melodic guitar rock album often tinged with jazzy influences. There's some quite sophisticated musicianship here that help to elevate this above standard punk-rock fare.

Having never really heard much of Joni Mitchell's work up to this point in my life, I found 'Blue' to be quite a revelation. Sparse and delicate, this is real heart on your sleeve stuff and it's also very beautiful, painfully so.

I've heard this a few times now and it creeps under your skin after a while. You can hear Sinatra's world weary voice cracking at times as he makes his way through the songs. The arrangements are subtle and delicate and really compliment Sinatra. Nice for late night listening.

Sonically there's a lot of interesting things going on here. Viva Hate has a very distinctive sound that's different to much of the Smiths output. Lyrically though, I don't care all that much at times for Morrisey's politics and social commentary.

'Like A Prayer', 'Express Yourself' and 'Cherish' are as good as anything Madonna ever recorded, and guest star Prince (on the duet 'Love Song') is always a welcome addition to any record. Yeh 'Art Of Contrition' is a bit underwhelming for an album closer, but when it turns out that Prince basically produced the track (it's also him on guitar uncredited) it's hard for me to be too critical. Elsewhere 'Dear Jessie' evokes the psychedelic 60's, 'Oh Father' is a brooding power ballad and 'Spanish Eyes' is a beautiful Latin tinged song confronting the then still-taboo issue of AIDS. Overall, this is a super pop album by a woman who was at height of her powers.

I landed Morrisey's first solo album 'Viva Hate' the other day and thought it was decent. Today I l got this, the Smiths last album which comfortably beats 'Viva Hate' on every count.

Not my favourite Steely Dan album, I prefer some of their other albums better, but what is here is still generally pretty good.

Was pleasantly surprised. This is a tight, concise, tuneful album. I wasn’t expecting it to be so accessible and so ‘pop’ based on the preconceived notion in my head of what I assume country music sounds like. This is really good stuff.

Outkast’s masterpiece and still the best rap album of this century. Broad and deep in scope, dense but accessible across its almost 75-minute running time (which for once isn't a second too long for an LP). Musically drawing on rock, jazz, blues and soul, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Hendrix, Electric Miles; it's all in there and you can hear these influences coalesce into something unique, urgent, exciting, transcendental and totally stoned but in the best way.

Not bad, but not an out and out classic either. It kind of falls short when compared to similar era Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. There are some great songs on here but for large parts, and especially a lot of the second half, this feels like the aural equivalent of trudging through mud.

Messy, sprawling, meandering. There's a good album in here somewhere but it's buried underneath a band that feels like it's not sure what it's trying to be.

The tracks that are actually songs (with lyrics and singing) such as everyone's favourite 'Theme From Shaft' and 'Soulsville' are great. 'Do Your Thing' bangs but it's almost 20-minute length is too long. It runs out of steam long before the end. A lot of the rest of this album comes across as background music (it is a soundtrack album after all). It's largely enjoyable and funky, but still background music nonetheless.

Fuzzy is a perfectly serviceable album, very much of its time with its distinctive early 90s alt.rock vibe and sound. I found it enjoyable enough, but it didn't blow me away.

Raw, messy, muscular, feminine, vulnerable, angry, seductive, powerful.

You can hear the influences: Iggy Pop, a bit of Sabbath, garage, punk and so forth. But the deliberately muddy lo-fi production is probably more of a hindrance than a help. I enjoyed parts of this, but found it to be a bit of slog overall.

Quirky, nerdy, urgent and paranoid post punk/new wave/surf rock with tons of humor and satire. Weird, but in that good way.

It’s a testament and a compliment to the Violent Femmes that their debut remains sonically and lyrically both out of and ahead of its time. It’s a record that will always sound current due to its universal themes of teenage angst and insecurity and the catchy singalong nature of the songs. I’m well and truly no longer the target market for this album, but my 17-year-old self would’ve really loved this.

This was surprisingly good. Strong hard rock, metal and grunge vibes (Nirvana pretty much copied Dinosaur Jr’s sound). ‘Poledo’ sucks and feels like an afterthought, but the rest of the album rocks. Good stuff.

Uninspiring cover hides grand and majestic grunge (not grunge) album with nods to classic hard rock, 60s psychedelia, folk and blues instead of the nihilistic pop punk and metal of their contemporaries. Underrated.

A mature statement from one of the great mainstream pop artists shooting for eternal air play on Smooth FM, and the album that made it OK for me as a red blooded and masculine male to like George Michael.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Eagles, but this surprised me and it’s starting to occur to me by participating in this 1001 albums exercise that I’m quite partial to country and country influenced music. This is a solid and polished debut album with some great rockers and nice nods to Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as bands like the Little River Band who liberally borrowed the Eagles’ sound for their own work.

A great mix of new wave cool and radio-friendly pop, the Cars' clever use of synths also really helps to elevate this album above normal rock/pop fare.

The title track is dour, but the rest of this album is fantastic, musically brilliant, adventurous and generally just really catchy with its overt pop and funk influences and some of Morrisey’s sharpest lyrics (even if he is an insufferable cunt). Now excuse me while I enjoy eating this steak.

‘Sign Your Name’ and ‘Wishing Well’ are the all-time classics they’re made out to be. ‘Dance Little Sister’ is also a great pop-funk number that both Prince and James Brown would’ve been proud to have written, and ‘Who’s Loving You’ is a worthy Smokey Robinson cover. And yet while it’s a solid enough debut effort overall, the rest of the album leaves me feeling a little cold, perhaps partly due to the late 80s synth heavy sound which makes the album sound somewhat dated to my ears.

Perfectly decent, spacey 90s electronica with dance, dub, trip-hop, world and new-age influences. Its sound and mood is such that it still holds up quite well almost 30 years after it was released. This one really grew on me.

A blend of UK garage breaks and brit-pop beats. If Eminem was cockney, British and slightly less angry, then this would be the result.

The band slaps hard and Sandy Denny's voice, both beautiful and otherworldly carries the melodies superbly. There's a ton of subtext and depth to the songs and arrangements, leant an extra level of emotion due to the personal tragedy and upheaval the group went through around (or just before) the time they met to record the album. Blending the ancient with the supernatural and turning it into something distinctly modern yet timeless this is the ultimate folk-rock record.

If you can get past the fact that Ryan Adams is a shit bloke, you love listening to song after song about breakups, relationship breakdowns and their aftermath then you’ll probably like Heartbreaker.

A brilliant sprawling mess of greatness with an immense legacy. Every R&B, hip-hop and soul album since owes something to this album. So does rock and pop really. And then there’s the house and dance music genres which have also borrowed liberally from this record. The breadth and depth of musical styles and emotions, and the way these are weaved together throughout and speak to us is why this album is so good and why it will always resonate. And that’s the key here. In a cynical world so often full of gloom and pessimism, anger and despair, love will always the save day and that’s what Songs In The Key Of Life is ultimately about.

Ambitious in scope, trippy, complex, engaging, and psychedelic. In which the Bee Gees get their Sgt. Peppers on. It’s probably too long and it doesn’t make a lot off narrative sense as a concept album, but I still really enjoyed this.

Monolithic, hard as granite and thick as sludge hard rock/metal album. There are some softer moments (with some nice mellotron action) to let you catch your breath, but for the most part 'Vol. 4' slaps harder than your mum.

Sleazy as fuck, messy, trashy and raunchy. The Dolls’ sound was a powerhouse of glam-rock swagger, bluesy attitude, proto punk looseness and 60s rock’n’roll homage. It’s this fusion that gives the record its edge, its timeless sound, and is the essence of its influence and legacy across the decades. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun.

A strange combination of country and soul, lush orchestration, impenetrable lyrics and Kurt Wagners irritating singing voice (especially that falsetto). The album is well produced and carefully arranged but the overall result is just not all that memorable.

Distilled into 6 cuts (3 of which aren’t even their own songs) ‘Live At Leeds’ is 37 minutes of awesome unrestrained destructive bluesy hard rock power with not an ounce of fat or filler. While the expanded versions of this record released over the years are still great and give context to the rest of the Leeds gig, it’s still the concise original released version that represents the Who at their absolute best live.

Short, sharp, and straight ahead. Understated and restrained, but music that still swings. Recorded over the course of a year in 1949 and early 1950, but not released in this format until 1957, 'Birth Of The Cool' still sounds fresh today. Whilst not quite as ground-breaking as what would come later for Miles, it’s still brilliantly played, totally hummable and full of great hooks.

Part BBC Radiophonic Workshop/Doctor Who/sci-fi soundtrack, part Kraftwerk, part prog, part Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and part Patrick Cowley/disco. Sure, parts of ‘Oxygene’ are a bit derivative, but equally, other parts are startlingly iconic and original. It sounds simultaneously dated and futuristic, but that’s part of its overall charm.

Lots of universal love for this album, but I personally don’t get the hype. Perhaps I’m missing something. Pleasant enough, but just OK at best.

Bongoriffic. Let's be honest, this record is all about the breaks which went on to fuel the entire hip-hop genre and then some, the most famous of which appears on 'Apache'. The rest of the album, while not necessarily essential unless you’re a beat maker or sampler is still fun and funky.

Stylish, cool, elegant, laid back bossa nova embraces modern production with electronic elements to create something beautifully dreamy and quietly glorious.

Tago Mago is a combination of rock, funk, psychedelic freak out, avant-garde jazz improv, elevator muzak, proto techno, stoned mantra, and trippy tape loop experimentation. It handles all these styles better, for longer and harder than any album that’s come before it or since, backed by a truly stellar rhythm section. If Tago Mago was a movie, it would simultaneously be The Empire Strikes Back and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Packed to the rafters lyrically and musically. Intimidating, angry and militant, but also funky as all hell with its insane twisting of samples into new shapes and hard as nails wall of sound production that bores into your skull like a pneumatic drill. 58 minutes of pure adrenaline that always leaves you needing to catch your breath at the end. Then there’s all the rappers, beat makers and artists who have built careers off the back of ripping this album off, Dr. Dre being one of the most obvious examples. ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ is still the sound of an exploding rap supernova whose impact still reverberates 30 plus years later.

Plays like a strange cross between the Sweet, Queen and a Broadway musical on steroids. Undeniably clever with a sense of fun and insidiously catchy in parts, but after several listens I’m still not not sure if I love this or hate it.

A bunch of ace driving songs, with ‘Road Runner’ still being the best of them. A couple of average to good songs in ‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Pablo Picasso’ and a couple of downright stinkers in ‘Hospital’ and ‘Girlfriend’, two ballads that really annoy. When it’s great, you can clearly hear the importance and influence this record has had on punk and rock in general. Having said that, I didn’t love it all the way through. YMMV.

There are clear echoes of Eno’s work with Roxy Music, David Bowie and Talking Heads/David Byrne on Another Green World. They’re the obvious references, I’m sure there’s tons more, not to mention the recognisable influences on the electronica and ambient music genres in general. There’s also what feels like a subtle oriental bent to many of the tracks which I quite like. The overall effect is a minimalistic, at times uneasy but overall dreamy, ethereal, and accessible oasis of calm for 41 minutes.

I don’t know if ‘Live And Dangerous’ is the best live album of all time, or whether it’s not a true live album at all because it was re-recorded in the studio and overdubbed with crowd noise to make it sound live. What I do know is that it rocks hard and is lots of fun, with many moments throughout to indulge in the hedonistic dream of being a rock god whilst perfecting one’s air guitar skills. ‘Live And Dangerous’ won’t change the world, but there’s worse ways to spend 75 minutes.

Unexpectedly charming oddball post punk, rock, pop, funk, emo, indie record. Bjork’s voice cuts through the mix like a hot knife through butter and it's quite wonderful. Some serious Nordic Viking shit going on here.

Electrifying, urgent and insistent sweat dripping live show carried by great performances from the band and Cooke’s showmanship. His voice is smooth like butter, but also raw and guttural, simultaneously sacred and profane, whipping the audience into a frenzy. If I could fire up the old DeLorean, this is the live show I’d go all the way back to 1963 to see.

Disco meets DIY Punk, new wave and 50’s surf rock. ‘The B-52’s’ is great for most of it’s run time, but runs out of steam towards the end, their cover of Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ tacked on to pad out the length of the album. Despite that, ’The B-52’s’ is still a unique, distinctive and undeniably fun record. If nothing else, you’re never left in any doubt as to who you’re listening to when their songs come on the wireless, and that’s never a bad thing.

Lot’s to enjoy here from the King. Doesn’t have the out and out raw energy, swagger, and urgency of his best 50s stuff, but there’s still heaps of style. His voice is as good as ever, and the session musicians and production are on point and top notch with the latter part of the record being surprisingly loose and sleazy. Good stuff overall.

A psychedelic wall of sound with elements of drone, gospel, classical and jazz. In parts its brilliant, in other parts it’s a bloated and self-indulgent mess. It’s overly long as well, ‘Cop Shoot Cop’ being a major culprit coming in with a 17-minute runtime. In the end these flaws in execution cause the album to fall short of its ambition.

‘I Should Coco’ is more super catchy melodic guitar rock, with touches of psychedelia, more fun, and slightly less introspection and darkness then their other album in this book ‘In It For The Money’.

I don't have a lot to say about this record to be honest. I like Radiohead, but I don't love them, and I prefer some of their other albums to 'In Rainbows' which sounds like an album Coldplay would make if they were depressed.

In Utero deliberately tries to be the anti Nevermind, at least sonically. It’s rougher, rawer and with less of the sheen and polish of its predecessor. I listened to this album a lot as a teenager, and it still sounds pretty good today, but I still prefer Nevermind, just.

A shade below the absolute best rap albums of the era and a touch too long at 72 minutes in length, but still pretty solid and worthy overall.

Revolver is a band at the peak of their powers as a collective but also as individuals, where everything is in balance. The result is a pop/rock album of seismic proportions covering all sorts of musical ideas, stylistic ground and psychedelia. It’s edgy, thrilling and dangerous and it’s close to, if not the Beatles best.

Worth the price of admission for 'I Am Stretched On Your Grave' and of course 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. But there’s other highlights like ‘Jump In The River’ and ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. This album surprised me in a good way despite its unflinchingly raw and personal nature,. I suspect repeated listens over time will make me appreciate it further still.

Overall decent country blues rock from CCR. John Fogerty's voice can grate after prolonged exposure to your ear drum but it's not that bad here thanks to the concise album length. While 'Green River' and 'Bad Moon Rising' are the generally known quantities (and good songs in their own right), it’s 'Tombstone Shadow' and their version of 'The Night Time Is The Right Time' that are the startling revelations here and are worth the price of admission alone

Unlike the squishy warmth of Air's debut album 'Moon Safari', 'The Virgin Suicides' leaves me cold like the corpses of the 5 Lisbon sisters from the movie also called 'The Virgin Suicides'

The best of the early Steely Dan albums. I enjoy 'Countdown To Ecstasy' so much more than 'Can't Buy A Thrill' or 'Pretzel Logic'. Their obtuse lyrics laced with their usual acerbic wit are still present coupled with their unique brand of soft rock, but the music is overtly jazzier here, more so than either of the two albums that bookend this one. Fagen and Becker were also apparently unhappy with some of the performances on the record and believed that it sold poorly because it had been recorded hastily on tour. And yet I disagree with them. For me, ‘Countdown to Ecstasy’ succeeds in-spite of and because it wasn’t quite as polished and meticulous as some of their other efforts.

One of the great mixtapes of all time and the soundtrack to the type of millennial house party I always dreamt of going to but was never cool enough to be invited to. For inventiveness, the sheer amount and variety of samples used (which shimmer and melt into, then emerge out of each other seamlessly), the nostalgia factor, the tinges of longing mixed with sadness, and for just the sheer fun factor you can't beat this. It’s lightning in a bottle.

Nice smoky, atmospheric jazz. The live setting and the background noise of the crowd add to the mood. This one gets better the more you listen to it, and what initially sounds a bit dense and impenetrable starts to make much more sense as your ears adjust and you begin to understand the perfect harmony and synchronicity that has been achieved between the piano, drums and bass.

'Friend Of The Devil', 'Sugar Magnolia' and 'Till The Morning Comes' are the pick here, the rest of this album was a slog. Also people who say that the harmonies on this record are great obviously haven't heard a Beach Boys or Crosby, Stills & Nash record.

Lo fi as fuck production, but this album is a revelation. A freight train of awesome blues rock power. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in power and energy. Janis Joplin slays on the vocals and it’s so good that even Eminem sampled this record.

Good clean singalong 80s pop/soul, and if you have a few drinks and squint hard enough Boy George does a passable George Michael impersonation. But it's Helen Terry who is the albums secret weapon and her huge voice elevates every song that she appears on. Yeh, this record is a bit too earnest in parts, but mostly it's a lot of fun.

Hunky Dory is not quite as accessible as Ziggy Stardust (which was recorded around the same time) but it's arguably as good, if not better. It's Bowie's coming out album, and the songs and themes on display here set the blueprint for the super-stardom that was to come.

The triple threat opening of Straight Outta Compton, Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta is what the albums reputation is built off, and for this alone the record is undeniably important. But clocking in at one hour, the album is too long and the last third especially sags. There are also at least 3 tracks I would cut to make the whole thing tighter.

Super solid jazz/funk/soul record with a touch of Afro-Beat thrown into the mix. Very reminiscent of similar era Crusaders, Mizell brothers, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Headhunters and so forth. As good as anything in this vein from any of those artists and the era in general. You can play this as background music, or you can really dig in and listen to the musicianship. Either way is rewarding. Also check the horns on ‘Inner Crisis’ that Theo Parrish sampled.

A bunch of decent songs and a bunch of average ones. Kind of jazzy, very vaudeville and very glam. As many have stated, you could just about build a rock opera or musical around this record. It won't change the world, but it's a fun listen.

If Kevin Rowland didn't murder every song on this album with his 'singing' voice, I probably would've liked it more as the actual band and the tunes are generally decent.

Full of great hooks and riffs. They’re clearly having a good time, and the album is a lot of fun, almost camp even. File under ‘air guitar hall of fame’ as it’s another one of those records where you can revisit and indulge your teenage dream of being a rock demi-god, furiously shredding your invisible guitar from the comfort of your lounge room whilst avoiding the reality you’re probably having a midlife crisis.

Meh...There's some good individual songs here that sound great in isolation, but a whole albums worth of slow, melancholy break up songs that all end up sounding similar gets really old, really quickly.

If you’re looking for something fun and upbeat ‘Ghosteen’ isn’t the album for you. It’s the sound of a father’s grief for his dead son. It’s harrowing and unbelievably sad, yet cathartic and…wonderful. Production is minimal and sparse, but immersive and as interesting as any ambient album going around. I suspect that over time and repeated exposure ‘Ghosteen’ will become one of my all-time faves.

There’s a couple of songs with actual hooks, but there aren’t enough interesting ideas musically to keep me interested for the duration of an entire record. The lyrics are of the typical break up, make up, angry at you, better than you, I’m not good enough for you, getting smashed at the club, hooking up with a random stranger, crying in the back of the cab on the way home variety. It’s been done and done better than here. The worst thing you can be called is bland, and Melodrama is just that.

Quirkier than I expected, and just when you think you have the album worked out, it wrong foots you. ‘Lovefool’ is clearly the star of the show, but ‘First Band On The Moon’ isn’t your bog-standard shiny indie pop/disco/rock record, there’s a fair bit more happening under the hood than initially meets the eye. A grower.

‘White Ladder’ is basically a collection of accessible, well produced songs about love and loss with some electronic elements thrown into the mix. I particularly like the ‘tronic parts of this folktronica proposition, especially the heavy bass drums. I can see why people jumped on this when it came out.

The title track is probably one of my least favorite songs ever. But as conflicted as I feel towards John Lennon, sans the title track, the rest of this album is actually pretty good. God I feel dirty writing that...

With most of my knowledge of Ray Charles having been gleaned from watching him in The Blues Brothers, I wasn’t expecting an album of swinging big band American jazz numbers backed with a selection of seductive, smoky ballads. I wasn’t disappointed though.

Lots of genre hopping across the rock spectrum, taking inspiration from hard rock, pop, psychedelia, surf rock, echoes of grunge and shades of blues rock. When Wilco goes off on these tangents ‘Being There’ is very enjoyable. In the end though, for me, the slow acoustic ballads and the overall length of the album weigh the whole thing down. Despite these criticisms, it’s still a solid record that's worth your time.

More Phil Collins then Led Zeppelin in the end. I was expecting ‘Brothers In Arms’ to rock more. Mark Knopfler can’t sing, and murders every song, but what he can do is play guitar very well and his (and the bands) work here is often languid, but seductive with the music getting under your skin and the resulting tunes sounding like the soundtrack to an episode of Miami Vice. Herein lies the albums charm.

An antidote to the typical LA gangster rap of the era (the Pharcyde hail from South Central LA), ‘Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde’ is gloriously absurd and ridiculous, juvenile but not silly, and a lot of fun. In another rare feat, there’s not a duff beat or groove to be found anywhere and so the album never drags. It stays jazzy and funky, resulting in one of rap/hip-hops greatest hits. Still as good today as it was in 92’.

It’s a little bit Blues Brothers, a little bit Rolling Stones, a little bit Led Zeppelin and probably a little bit of a lot of other classic rock and soul bands. While it’s not overly original, it’s fun and breezy and sounds good while it’s on. Consistent and solid are two adjectives I’d use to describe this album.

It’s somewhat reminiscent of Joy Division in that it has that Martin Hannett style wall of sound production that sounds like it was recorded underwater or in someone’s bathroom. Unlike Joy Division though, this was good, not as depressing and didn’t want to make me slit my wrists. It’s just balls to the floor straight ahead industrial post/punk no wave that often funks. It’s good stuff and you can dance to a lot of it. Even better, for once the bonus tracks are not just a bunch of shit demos slapped on the end as an afterthought, they actually add to the overall package, rather than detract from it. Winning!

R.E.M. are a band I’ve generally endured rather than enjoyed. ‘Murmur’ is generally a pretty up-beat sounding album compared to much of their output that I’m familiar with. It’s decent while it’s on, but it also doesn’t make me want to go and seek out more of their catalogue to listen to.

It’s a little bit David Bowie, and a little bit Bryan Ferry. It’s probably too long, but it’s still mostly very good. It’s stylish and lush in sound but behind the shiny veneer there’s an album full of uncomfortable truths about fame, success, and addiction. The moral of the story: be careful what you wish for because it might just come true.

There are some interesting things happening with the layering of instrumentation, the production is quite good, and there are some decent moments, but overall it feels like there’s a lack of variation musically which lends the album an air of sameness and makes getting through the whole thing a chore.

I was indifferent to Blur when I was growing up and I’m still indifferent to them after listening to ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’. There are some good individual songs and moments on here, and the album is perfectly decent, but at almost an hour run-itme it feels too long due to the unusually flat production and the lack of any real, interesting variation in a lot of the songs.

Every song is a winner and Aretha smacks it out of the park, her vocals elevating already strong material even higher. I can’t find enough superlatives to describe just how good this album is. It’s close to, (if not) the perfect R&B/soul album.

If you can get past the truly awful opening track, ‘Want Two’ markedly improves. It’s a ballsy record, very theatrical and stylistically broad in sound, with folk, pop/chanson, baroque, indie and show music styles among its repertoire. It’s probably overproduced, but it’s all these elements, (and the gay subtext also present) that make it interesting. ‘Want Two’ is the proverbial Forrest Gump box of chocolates: you never quite know what you’re going to get, but there’s a little something for everyone. Surprised how much I ended up liking this one.

‘Future Days’ is a calm, spaced out mix of shifting prog, ambient and electronic sounds and textures with a jazz sensibility. It’s not quite as off the wall, bonkers or daring as their other album in this list, ‘Tago Mago’, but it’s ultimately more accessible.

The overall ambience and mood achieved on ‘Solid Air’ is quite incredible. It’s smoky, intimate folk rock, with a strong jazz influence and dub elements, where the space between the grooves is just as important as the actual music. It’s a record you can almost dance to in parts, as well as nod your head to, and it’s definitely one for the stoners.

Played this for the first time in 15 years, and it’s still exactly how I remember it. Brilliant first half, second half that runs out of steam and limps to the finish line. Having said that, this album is still worth it for ‘So Easy’ and ‘Sparks’ which are the two best things on it, and also happen to be timeless.

‘The Slim Shady LP’ is generally as funny as it is horrifying, but its true genius lies is in trying to figure out whether Eminem was being sincere or just taking the piss. Turns out it was a bit of both. Where the album falls down a bit is in its somewhat hit and miss production and overly long length. At its best however, Eminem’s imagination and storytelling ability is both amazing and outrageous, with an angry and urgent, but often humorous hallucinogenic quality and a sense of danger you don’t often get anymore from an artist, especially on their debut.

In 2022 ‘Hysteria’ feels like the most ridiculous album. It sounds all of the $4.5 million that it reportedly cost to make. It’s shiny, gleaming, glossy, expansive, excessive, bloated, monolithic…over produced, probably 20 minutes too long; and yet I still really like it because despite all my criticisms, the album is a heap of big, dumb fun. It reaches for your jugular, doesn’t let go for the duration, and demands you have a good time, which ultimately you will. Truly ‘Hysteria’ is to hair metal what ‘Thriller’ is to pop.

Part Led Zep, part Aerosmith, part AC/DC (and a lot of other bands) ‘Appetite For Destruction’ is as raunchy and sleazy a debut as anything that came before it. Where it’s different compared to other hard rock albums of the era is in the nasty, mean, and grim undercurrent that runs through the album. However it’s also full of terrific hooks and riffs, meaning it’s a record that still thrills and feels dangerous, even today.

It’s somewhat ironic that an album about desperation, loss, distance, and isolation is also the Floyds most inclusive, accessible, and straight forward record. It’s expansive and it takes its time, but while it’s short on songs, it’s long on great guitar solos and the band is in top form. ‘Wish You Were Here’ is just one of those universal records that almost everyone loves.

Issues with cultural appropriation aside, ‘Duck Rock’ is that strange blend of hip hop, Latin, South African and Caribbean rhythms, silly Malcolm McLaren lyrics, Bronx DJ radio show snippets, and square-dancing music you never knew you needed in your life until now.

As the advertising/marketing slogan from 1977 for the ‘Heroes’ album states: “There's Old Wave, there's New Wave, and there's David Bowie."

‘Court And Spark’ is full of great songs and stunning arrangements by an artist at her peak, with a who’s who of 70s musicians including Joe Sample and Wilton Felder (from the Crusaders) Jose Feliciano, Larry Carlton, David Crosby and Graham Nash (from CSN and CSNY) all dropping by to lend a hand. Even Cheech and Chong provide some backing vocals. While not quite as emotional and intense as say ‘Blue’, ‘Court and Spark’ is still lyrically deep, musically and melodically sweeter than the aforementioned, and more ‘pop’ overall, even with its distinct jazz leanings. It was Joni Mitchell’s commercial high point, and you can really hear why.

Great raps and awesome flow from ATCQ with beats and grooves that are jazzy, deep and sparse, but thick as molasses and warm as butter. Even taking into account ‘The Infamous Date Rape’ which sounds like a rare misstep coming at it with 2022 ears, ‘The Low End Theory’ is still one of Hip Hops greatest hits.

The glut of positively beaming critical reviews make me feel like I’m missing something, and that like LCD Soundsystem, I’m losing my edge. See what I did there? For me, ‘Teen Dream’ is pleasant but ultimately drab and forgettable indie/dream pop. Fast forward and listen to ‘Lover Of Mine’ which is the best and most interesting song on the album, then head back to opening track ‘Zebra’ which is also OK. You can pretty much skip the rest of the record.

‘Hejira’ is a bit less immediate than some of Joni Mitchell’s other work. It has a restless nature in sound and storytelling, with complex chords and strong jazz overtones. It’s a slow burn, but it’s also possibly her most rewarding album.

In short ‘1999’ rocks, and funks. It’s Prince’s coming out album to that masses, a big pop cross over hit, but one that still retains his cred (and the funk) as a musician. It sounds of it time, and yet outside of time, the heavy use of synthesizers and the Linn LM-1 drum machine ensuring it always sounds current. What’s also interesting is the thread of desperation and loneliness that runs through the album’s narrative in amongst all the partying, hedonism, sex, and general staring down of the apocalypse. Truly this is the appropriate soundtrack for the end of times….you can dance if you want to.

No matter how many times I listen to ‘Mother’ it just sounds out of place in comparison to the rest of ‘Synchronicity’, which is a great, if somewhat ponderous album overall, and the sound of a band approaching breaking point whilst simultaneously becoming the biggest band in the world.

Oracular Spectacular?....Craptacular more like it.

‘Be’ is notable for being my first real sustained look (and listen) to Kanye West in any capacity, as he handles most of the production duties here, whilst also appearing on several tracks. As for the actual album itself, there’s nothing really ground-breaking on it in my opinion. ‘Be’ is just a solid album and a mercifully concise one at that which never overstays its welcome the way a lot of rap albums tend to.

The push and pull, yin and yang sound of a band falling apart whilst keeping it together. There’s not an ounce of fat or filler to any of the proceedings, and with its universal themes of love, loss and redemption, coupled with superb songs and performances, ‘Rumours’ remains loved by almost everyone and will continue to be for generations to come.

Some unexpectedly cracking super heavy power pop/rock with chugging guitars, melodic hooks, and a passing nod to the Ramones, let down by some shonky recording and production of the live set. Better than I expected.

There’s some interesting things happening sound and texture wise on ‘Vespertine’. It’s undeniably well produced but doesn’t sound dated for an album that’s 20 years old. Bjork’s voice is as clear and beautiful and piercing as ever, while the album as a whole is both ice cold, yet warm and inviting. I really like some parts of it, but other parts meander. Your own enjoyment of this record may well depend on how you feel when you put it on, and how much you can emotionally invest and drop into its overall mood and aesthetic.

My concentration wavered towards the end. Cohen’s lyrics and narratives are brilliant, but the arrangements end up feeling and sounding repetitive, detracting from what is a worthy record overall.

Wild, shifting time signatures that sway back and forth all over the place. An abrasive clash of styles and emotion on an album that is edgy and sprawling, but one that majorly swings and is sleazy as fuck.

With a band name like ‘The Lemonheads’ the odds of this being a good record were always going to be low. And so, it proved to be.

Half a dozen great songs, and then a bunch of snippets and unfinished music fragments stitched together and padded out to album length. Lots of good ideas, but most don’t really feel fleshed out. Not the masterpiece that critics and a lot of people will tell you it is.

Probably the easiest 5 out of 5 I’ll ever give. The jazz album for people who hate jazz. Timeless, definitive, straightforward in sound but deceptively complex at the same time. A masterpiece and one of the greatest albums off all time, jazz or otherwise.

You know, Ziggy Stardust is not all that different to the album that precedes it, i.e. Hunky Dory. After all, most of the songs on both albums were recorded at the same time, the major differences being the overarching Ziggy concept/story (albeit a bit loose at times) and the mystique of the Ziggy Stardust character, which make this album more immediately accessible than Hunky Dory. That’s it…oh and Ziggy rocks a little bit harder than its predecessor. It’s an excellent album, with an immense legacy, that has stood (and continues to stand) the test of time.

Reminds me of 80s 8-bit video game soundtracks for some strange reason. Expected it to sound harder and heavier than it does for a band with the name Iron Maiden. Reckon that’s partly due to the production, which lets the album down somewhat. Still it’s got ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ on it which is one of the great hard rock/metal songs of all time, so it’s not all bad.

‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ is relentless. It’s harder, angrier, more intimidating, and full of even more samples twisted beyond recognition than on ‘It Takes A Nation of Millions…’. It starts and finishes phenomenally well, but the middle sags as the record almost buckles under the weight of its political message and the dense and brutal nature of its beats. It’s still a great album, and you can’t question its legacy or influence, it’s just exhausting to listen to all the way through.

Sounds like a cross between David Bowie and Roxy Music, but without Bryan Ferry or Bowie singing on any of the songs.

More than just a Brazilian style Beatles and psychedelic 60’s rip off, this album is all sorts of charming weird and wonderful.

If you’re a fan of impeccably played American blues guitar rock (played by Brits no less) in the image of Boston, Journey, The Black Crowes and other such similar bands (who incidentally probably all owe a debt to Bad Company for inspiring their sound and style), then you’ll love this.

My issue with ‘For Your Pleasure’ is that it sounds like a band trying to come up with enough material to fill two sides of a vinyl record. ‘Beauty Queen’, ‘Editions Of You’ and ‘Grey Lagoons’ are ace and the best songs on the album. The rest is padding and filler, with ‘Bogus Man’ being the biggest culprit; a song dragged out to 9 minutes that should’ve been cut after 4 tops. ‘Strictly Confidential’ is also meh, as is the title track which fails to inspire. There are better Roxy Music albums than this one in my opinion.

Not as bad on a second listen. Musically, the album is actually quite inventive and reasonably interesting. However, when you throw in the lead singer’s annoying throaty, gravelly vocals things go downhill for me. Can somebody give this man a lozenge?

Pleasant enough reggae album with lashings of acid jazz, trip-hop, pop, jazz, soul and rock vibes. Smooth but slight. Inoffensive.

Short, sharp, clean bluesy licks with a surprising amount of funkiness. Some good moments here, but I wasn’t blown away, even though from an overall perspective I didn’t mind this album.

Part late 80s/early 90s New York House and garage, part funk and part hip-hop, ‘World Clique’ is a clever, fun and accomplished debut record. Featuring serious star power in Q-Tip, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker (amongst others) making unexpected but great contributions, it’s the little record that could and the ultimate New York party record of its era.

I’ve listened to ‘Spiderland’ several times now, and I still can’t decide whether it’s sheer genius or utter rubbish.

Musically I find ‘Closer’ easier to digest than ‘Unknown Pleasures’. Lyrically however, it’s hard to separate this album from Ian Curtis’s death and to think of it as anything other than a suicide note.

I found a lot of the vocals to be really irritating initially, although not so jarring on subsequent listens. Would've liked this album a lot more if it was just the beats and grooves, as they were actually quite good.

Parts of this I love, like when it gets bluesy on ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’, or full New Orleans on ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35’. ‘Obviously Five Believers’ is another highlight as is ‘Visions of Johanna’. Ultimately though, a double album of Dylan is a bit much to take in over a single sitting for my ears as his voice grates after a while, and this makes the album feel much longer than it actually is.

Traditionally not a fan of this type and style of album, but it’s hard not to like ‘Ingenue’. k.d. langs voice is undeniably awesome and beautiful, and she shines here with songs and arrangements that are uniformly excellent.

Super cool, with a huge number of samples used (over 100 songs sampled apparently), Paul’s Boutique is incredibly dense both musically and lyrically. And while it can sound somewhat muddled at times due to the sheer amount going on in the mix on any given song at any given time, it’s huge fun overall.

Big nostalgia vibes from my teenage years with this record, and big hits with songs like ‘One’, ‘…Wild Horses’ and ‘Mysterious Ways’ still getting regular radio air play today. Less preachy then some of their earlier albums, but with a harder guitar sound and more adventurous sonic palette (by their standards), ‘Achtung Baby’ is probably U2’s most consistent album.

Yeezy’s production and beats are undeniably meticulous. His rapping is OK, but he’s no lyrical genius and there are some really lazy lines, the most glaring one being the ‘pussy in a sarcophagus, bruised her oesophagus’ line on ‘Monster’. Just cringe. The guest rappers and artists are better and provide most of the album’s highlights. Overall though, I find MBDTF way too bloated and self-indulgent to be considered a classic in my book.

‘Protection’ does its thing quietly and assuredly, with little fuss. It’s warm and intimate, thick and heavy, blunted and moody. File under ‘late night listening’.

Was going to write a fancy, witty review using Tito Puente quotes from the Simpsons episodes he was in (Who Shot Mr. Burns pts 1 and 2 for anyone playing along at home) but it just ended up sounding wanky, unlike this album which must’ve sounded like a revelation in ’58, and sounds just as fresh and amazing and astonishing in ’22.

I read a piece describing the Silver Jews as being ‘ramshackle’, and that’s exactly how ‘Bright Flight’ sounds. That and bleak. Founder and main man David Berman’s songs and lyrics are the aural equivalent of defeat. From what I’ve read it sounds like he had a tortured life, and that experience often informs the tone of this record. YMMV, but I don’t see myself revisiting this any time soon.

Decent, melodic, power pop. ‘Bandwagoneque’ is sloppy and loose (partly deliberately, partly not) but that adds to its overall charm. It’s also got that distinct early 90’s rock sound that I associate with my childhood and find nostalgic. Not ground-breaking, but a cut above a lot of indie-rock records, both from its era and long after it.

Like being thrown into a constant, swirling ocean of droning guitars and feedback. A giant wall of sound, initially impenetrable, soon gives way to striking melodies and songs, and an album that is downright stunning for the most part.

Short, sharp, and to the point. Good stuff.

Objectively this is a great album, you can hear it in the guitar playing, the lyricism and there’s loads of atmosphere. Subjectively though, my attention wavered after the first few songs, and the record as a whole mostly came across as earnest and preachy which is a turn off for me.

At their best when they add a bit of funk, blues and swing to their hard rock template and ‘Rocks’ delivers this in spades with songs like opener ‘Back In The Saddle’, ‘Last Child’ and ‘Get The Lead Out’. There are a couple of missteps though: ‘Nobody’s Fault’ and ‘Combination’ come across as filler, but overall ‘Rocks’ is generally a good time full of cocksure swagger and hard rocking licks.

Listening to ‘Smash’ with fresh ears 30 years after it was released, I’m struck by how well it stands up. The Offspring may have ended up becoming something of a novelty act later on, but in 1994 they were hungry and had something to prove. ‘Smash’ does what it says on the tin, striking the right balance between anger and apathy, but with humour and urgent, catchy power punk riffs, all whilst extending a middle finger and a big fuck you to the world.

‘Let’s Stay Together’ is that perfect balance of ballads and RnB funk grooves, effortlessly shifting between tempos without missing a beat. It’s full of tight musicianship and Al Green has a serious singing voice, full of emotion and range. It’s just a super solid soul album all round.

Unexpected delight. Lashings of ska, funk, rock, pop, and Prince, with a strong DIY punk aesthetic. Funny, witty and for once an album with social commentary that doesn’t feel forced. They threw everything including the kitchen sink at this record and most of it stuck.

Both a bit derivative, and at the same time ahead of the game, in that it apes the Beatles sound, whilst also being original enough to inspire 90s Britpop. There are flashes of brilliance, but also a certain quaintness to proceedings. I wanted to like this more than I did.

Had to go back to check that the woman who made something as powerful and visceral as ‘Dry’ is the same woman who recorded this pile of crap. Very firmly in the ‘did not like’ camp. Lyrically, I found the treatment of the theme of war handled simplistically and inauthentically. Melodically things weren’t much better.

Strong, solid jazz album like most of them are from this era. It’s ambitious and incredibly played, but the deliberate dissonance may be off-putting for some. Personally though, I dug it.

‘Timeless’ is a staggering record. It’s widescreen in every sense. The production is amazing, and on a proper system it will blow you away. It still sounds vital, alive, and important all these years later. It’s not perfect: it’s way too long, and parts of it haven’t aged well, but you certainly can’t fault it for its sprawling ambition and cinematic scope. It’s smooth, silky, slinky, jazzy, dubby and warm and succeeds for the most part because its sound is so accessible. ‘Timeless’ was the record that made jungle/drum & bass sound legitimate to the masses, and in its best moments it’s mesmerising, well and truly transcending its club roots.

‘OK Computer’ is that nice mid-point between Radiohead’s earlier, straight forward guitar rock and the more experimental, electronic path they would take with ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’. It’s also better than I remember, and has uncannily ended up being as relevant today (probably more so) than when it was released. It captures that quiet sense of desperation, alienation, isolation, loneliness, and paranoia we all feel in modern society. Feelings that were always there lurking in the background, but which have really come to the fore over the last few years, what with a global pandemic and lockdowns, the rise and rise of surveillance by overreaching governments, our reliance on tech in general, our obsession with social media, the outbreak of war in Ukraine, our shitty corporate jobs getting even shittier, the mindless commodification of every aspect of our lives: and this is just the tip of the iceberg. ‘OK Computer’ taps into all of this and more. Its an album that’s direct enough to speak to us in the here and now, but ambiguous enough that it will always sound current in future times.

In theory ‘Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs’ is right up my alley, but in reality, it just doesn’t do it for me. It’s not bad…it just falls flat. The production is tinny, and its 70-minute run time feels like 3 hours when you actually sit down and listen to the whole album in a single sitting. Frankly, it drags. As a prime example, in what universe do we need the last 4 and half minutes of ‘Layla’? Why was it ever padded out to 7 minutes to begin with?

In which the Beatles both rock and suck at the same time. It’s hard for me to remain objective about the White Album. I love it because it’s so messy and all over the shop. It triumphs because of its indulgences and lack of quality control and screening. It’s also incredibly well sequenced (the real secret to its success) meaning that things stay interesting for the whole 90 minutes, and the record never drags. It’s the original ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ album, because let’s face, a lot of these songs wouldn’t work in any other context.

Wholesome songs about paedophilia, racial passing, abuse of power in the police force, arson and self-immolation, shame, fist fucking and domestic violence, alcoholism, the tale of a Vietnam vet who becomes a contract killer (or is it really about drug addiction), the rat race, and cattle slaughter in abattoirs. The aural equivalent of suffering blunt force trauma to the head from a sledgehammer, these guys are so nasty, hard and bleak, that they make everyone else’s music sound as light and fluffy as a Disney movie soundtrack.

Probably the most eclectic of the Led Zeppelin albums, it contains the usual bunch of hard rockers interspersed with straight blues and a heap of folky acoustic material (that mostly works), part of it with a subtle middle-eastern bent, foreshadowing the direction some of the band’s music would later take. As with all Led Zep albums, III is a super solid record, and up there with their best, but often gets overlooked between their debut and Led Zeppelin II and IV.

A little bit rock, a little bit prog, a little bit jazz and a little bit Latin. Sounds like a good mix on paper and admittedly, there are some good tracks on ‘Abraxas’, but as a whole, it just lacks that little something to really elevate it.

This is the second Bob Dylan album I’ve gotten from the generator whilst doing this challenge, ‘Blonde on Blonde’ being the first. After listening to ‘Freewheelin’…’, and also doing a bit of digging into artist representation on the whole ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’ list, the sobering reality dawned on me that there’s still another five Dylan albums waiting me…Fuck my life.

Cold electronics, bleak, industrial soundscapes, striking manipulated vocals. (I initially thought Fever Ray was a man to begin with). Definitely interesting, but more of a terrifying listen than an enjoyable one.

It’s hard for me to be objective about ‘Superunknown, an album I listened to religiously as a teenager. Personal bias aside though, it’s honestly great, and despite its 70-minute length, it’s strangely concise, probably owing to the deliberately polished production that still manages to retain the bands trademark heavy rock sound, without sacrificing their raw edge and grim, despairing outlook on life. There are genuinely few weak spots to be found, and it’s one of those records that gets better the longer it goes. It’s up there with the best of the 90s grunge era albums, and a genuine counterpoint to the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, in that this a band gunning for mainstream popularity, not deliberately trying to shun it like those two.

Listen to opening track ‘I Ain’t The One’, bluesy rocker ‘Poison Whiskey’ and the rightly lauded closer ‘Free Bird’. Skip the rest.

What happens when you knowingly throw every hard rock, glam metal and punk cliché into an an infectiously catchy cocktail of hooks and riffs, with absurd English as a second language lyrics, by Norway’s finest faux gay rockers. ‘Apocalypse Dudes’ is gloriously ridiculous, super enjoyable and a shit load of fun, but it’s also a clever record, and more than just mere homage. These guy really rock.

Common doesn’t excite me as a rapper. I can’t quite pinpoint why. J Dilla is the real star here. It’s his stellar beats and production that elevate ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ to classic status.

What’s most striking about ‘Ready To Die’ is how polished, fully formed and complete it is for a debut album (even taking into consideration the pointless skits). 2pac wasn’t anywhere near as good as this until ‘Me Against The World’, three albums in.

Probably the definitive version of ‘Summer Breeze’, and generally lot more fuzzy guitars and psychedelic rock vibes within a soul/RnB framework then I expected. Overall though, a pleasant if mostly unspectacular album.

Skip the sixteen-minute drum solo bonus track and save your sanity and your eardrums. It was never on the original version of the album, and while it’s probably interesting to some, it’s unnecessary for most. The rest of the album however is pure bliss.

Hasn’t aged well and outside of the hits it sounds decidedly one note. My gf’s father summed it up nicely after once being subjected to some of this album remarking, “This is 50 Cents is it? He isn’t worth 5 cents!”

The melodies of a lot of the songs didn’t grab me enough to want to pay attention to the lyrics and themes, which made me tune out as the album progressed. I also struggled with Jarvis Cocker’s vocal delivery. I like that he channels David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, but he doesn’t always sound like he is in tune; and his whispered, spoken vocals are particularly grating. This is a shame, because I really liked ‘This Is Hardcore’ and was hoping for a similar experience. A mixed bag then, not without merit, just probably not for me. Still better by anything than Blur though.

Stylish, deep, funky, rootsy, spiritual, angry, hopeful…proud. Politically and socially charged for sure, but for once I didn’t feel bludgeoned over the head by the message of an album of this type and so ended up enjoying it a lot.

One of the better Britpop albums that I’ve had the misfortune of coming across on the generator so far, which isn’t saying much really. File under: another one of those albums that I know is objectively great but doesn’t do much for me personally.

I get poor man Radiohead vibes more than Coldplay vibes to be honest. Decent enough in parts and ok as background music, but I find it beige and mostly forgettable overall.

Quintessential British folk rock that’s bleaker and more cynical than I anticipated, with the jauntier tunes holding some of the album’s darkest truths. Paradoxically though, ‘…Bright Lights Tonight’ is still easy to love because despite its songs being full of existential dread and tales about the futility of life, it’s so accomplished and inviting musically.

Strange but soothing, intoxicating, expansive, a waking dream. Like swimming underwater through an ocean of prog, free jazz, rock and Middle Eastern/Byzantine drone and melody. An incredibly beautiful album.

Genre-defining rock opera and meditation on depression, isolation, and the temptations of stardom and society? Or a bloated self-indulgent, self-obsessed, overblown, and pretentious woe is me, I’m a victim, mess of a wank-fest? Pleasingly it’s a bit of both.

The handful of classics (you all know the ones) are what make ‘Harvest’ worth a listen. The rest of the record, however, feels surprisingly second-rate, especially ‘A Man Needs A Maid’, which is up there as one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.

Objectively ‘Tidal’ is gorgeously produced, and Fiona Apple displays maturity beyond her years in her song writing and playing. Subjectively I’m not quite on the same wavelength with it. It’s a slow burn.

‘Pacific 202’ and ‘Sunrise’ are my two standout picks for best tracks on this album, as they are both timeless and still sound current today. They are weapons that can still get a dancefloor going. The rest of the album hasn’t aged as well unfortunately, which is a shame as I was hoping for more.

Revolutionary, sure, moving the early rap scene away from its disco block-party roots and morphing it into something tougher, with more emphasis on social commentary, and complete with stripped down, hard as nails production that laid the template for gangsta rap and beyond. Unfortunately, the album sounds prehistoric by todays rap/hip-hop standards, making it hard to listen to and be engaged by for long stretches.

Yeh, ‘Toys In The Attic’ is OK, I guess. Other than ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Sweet Emotion’ there’s nothing else here that I find really memorable.

As interesting as the arrangements and melodies are, and as good a lyricist and songwriter Tom Waits is, his continual choice to sing in that annoying, gravelly, guttural, raspy voice takes the pleasure out of many of his songs, especially here, making ‘Bone Machine’ about as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist for a root canal.

‘Good Times’ with its bassline that gave birth to hip-hop on wax dominates, but ‘Risqué’ is much more than that. Underneath its lush, upbeat, shiny veneer is an album tinged with loss, sadness and despair, layers of sarcasm and cynicism; an album that finds catharsis (or oblivion) through the dancefloor, ultimately transcending its genre and becoming something bigger and deeper than just a mere disco album.

This is great on so many levels. It’s weird and avant-garde, twisted but funny, experimental with its clever use of primitive electronics, but accessible. One of the easiest 5’s I’ve given and way ahead of its time both sonically and stylistically.

Iconic singles and videos in ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’’, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Legs’ from unlikely rock superstars ZZ Top. While it’s undeniably a fun record, outside of the hits, there’s a fair bit of filler.

There’s a couple of missteps but by and large this is still an outstanding, evocative, almost dangerous sounding debut record, especially songs like ‘Break On Through (To The Other Side)’, ‘Light My Fire’ and of course epic psychedelic freak out ‘The End’, which is forever seared in my brain through its use in ‘Apocalypse Now’. ‘This is the end, beautiful friend’ indeed.

Mostly uninspiring 80s UK pop with jangly guitars, pretentious lyrics, and lame emo singing. That there still somehow, mercifully manages to be a couple of semi-decent songs on this is a minor miracle.

Can’t work out if I love this, hate it, or just think it’s mediocre. First impressions weren’t great, but I’ve listened to ‘Astral Weeks’ several times now, and what I can tell you is that it does get better and more enjoyable the more time you spend with it, although it does feel unfinished in parts. Could it ever become a desert island disc for me? Jury is still out on that one. I do love ‘Sweet Thing’ though, which is just beautiful and my favourite song on the album.

Every time ‘Funeral’ threatens to win me over, something naff happens. Either some whiny singing, an unnecessary chord change, or a crappy lyric ruins whatever song is playing. In the end ‘Funeral’ doesn’t end up being as bad as I thought it would be, but that’s faint praise. That 1990s/2000s indie rock sound has yet to do it for me than just the occasional song.

Happy to report that this is many times better than I remember it. By turns tribal, trancey, dubby, housey and ambient, ‘Leftism’ takes you on a journey, battering you into submission one minute, seducing you the next. It really hits the spot and doesn’t sound dated at all considering it’s almost 30 years old.

Some killer, a lot of filler, especially sides 5 and 6 which are largely superfluous to needs and not overly memorable. So, we end up with a decent triple album, that could’ve been an excellent double album instead.

Not quite as good as ‘Master Of Puppets’, but way better than the Black album. ‘…And Justice For All’ is the sound of a band pushing a sound and a formula as far as it will go, and stretching it to breaking point. Unsurprisingly, Metallica were never this complex again, their sound eventually devolving into something simpler, and blander: more country rock than heavy metal. But ‘…AJFO’ still stands as a last hurrah to their early, progressive thrash/metal years, both a bloated self-indulgent mess and a stunning tour-de-force.

Let’s all take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate that Alanis Morrissette was only 21 when this album was released, and yet she writes and sings with the maturity, years, and experience of someone far older. Angry, but never broken and actually quite hopeful in many places, ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (with the exception of a couple of dud tracks) is quite excellent.

It’s not perfect, and the production quality is variable, but there’s a raw, carefree energy present, a sense of danger and excitement that gradually disappeared from Elvis’s music as his career progressed and he got older, and that what’s so striking and enjoyable about his debut. It’s the sound of a young man nailing it in 28 minutes.

If the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Black Sabbath had a baby, it would sound like this. Surprisingly funky, but hard as nails, ‘Rage Against The Machine’ is angry and militant, but also strangely a lot of fun, with a singalong nature to a lot of the songs and choruses (perverse I know given the subject matter). What’s not perverse is just how incredibly good and fully formed this debut is.

Solid effort but generally unspectacular. Bookends ‘Leave Home’ and ‘Alive Alone’ are great though.

There’s an incredible amount happening on this album. The sheer breadth and depth of musical ideas present here is breathtaking. This, combined with outstanding playing, singing and production, makes for an unexpectedly wonderful album. Akiko Yano (especially) and Kate Bush must have both surely been influenced by this album and Laura Nyro’s sound in their music.

There’s a particular type of person who will listen to this version of U2 and love this album. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. It’s not terrible, in fact it starts quite strongly with ‘Beautiful Day’, ‘Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of’ and ‘Elevation’, but from there things start to inevitably peter out, and you’re left with an album that ends up being more forgettable than memorable.

‘TTWOTW’ is mostly great, full of excellent soul funk cuts in ‘Shining Star’, ‘Yearnin’ Learnin’, ‘Happy Feelin’’ and ‘Africano’. The obligatory EWF ballads are also present, one of which ‘All About Love (First Impression)’ is sappier than usual, and a bit of a momentum killer. Paradoxically though, ‘Reasons’ the other main ballad is excellent. (As an aside check out the live version of ‘Reasons’ on the ‘Gratitude’ album if you get a chance. It’s as good, if not better than the studio version found here). Mostly though, I like listening to ‘TTWOTW’ for all the times Maurice White growls ‘Yowww!!’ throughout the album. Its surprisingly often, and if there was a drinking game, and I had a shot for every time he sang it, I’d be shitfaced by the end of the fourth song.

Musically, ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ generally rocks, but Perry Farrell’s vocals add a somewhat zany and cartoony element to proceedings with lyrics that are both cringe but disconcerting at the same time. End result: I never know if I should be taking Janes Addiction seriously or not, and it irks me.

Sort of like a cross between peak era Metallica, Big Black (and Nine Inch Nails?). A very industrial, nihilistic sound overall with a little bit of techno and hip-hop thrown in for good measure via the interesting use of samples and general electronic wizardry. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

As annoying as it is interesting. Excellent in some parts, excruciating in others. YMMV.

Ah Dusty, you had me from the moment your distinctive breathy, sensual mezzo-soprano voice started singing over the opening strains of the first track, ‘Just A Little Lovin’’.

Listening to ‘Vulgar Display Of Power’ is like having someone using a pneumatic drill to bore into your skull, with a sound heavy enough to burst an eardrum. It’s balls to the floor all the way with nary a moment to catch your breath. Full of angry lyrics, frenetic guitar solos and furious drumming, from a technical point of view at least, it’s excellent. I would’ve liked a bit more subtlety and variation to proceedings, but obviously that’s not the point. Definitely does what it says on the tin though.

Another one of those records where I can’t decide if what I just listened to was pure genius, or unadulterated shite….or both.

Entertaining, familiar and lots of fun while it’s on, even if, ultimately, it’s an album that doesn’t linger long in the memory once it’s finished.

This is mercifully short compared to ‘Derek & The Dominos’, the last Clapton album I got, which went forever. There’s also lot more restraint here too in the playing, with way fewer pointless guitar solos and more concise songs. ‘Get Ready’ and ‘Mainline Florida’ are probably the best tracks, the rest of the record is take it or leave it for me.

‘Bryter Later’ isn’t bad, but for mine, it’s over produced and saturated with unnecessary instrumentation in many places, detracting from the overall listening experience. I think Nick Drake’s music is most effective when it’s stripped down.

Britpop before Britpop. True to it’s 60s roots, but still sounds like a product of the early 90s. Catchy enough in parts, and if you squint hard enough, Lee Mavers does a reasonable Michael Stipe impersonation.

Cypress Hill already did it in The Simpsons

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ is a record I find hide to describe. It’s an uneasy, queasy listen with a dreamlike quality. I was underwhelmed when I first heard it, but I adore it now. It definitely rewards repeated listening and is actually quite a nice companion piece to ‘Remain In Light’.

Lyrically and thematically, yes, Leonard Cohen is excellent. He started off as a poet after all, but man, his voice, and arrangements, they can be so dour and monotonous. And it’s no exception here. Listening to ‘Songs Of Love And Hate’ is often as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist to get a root canal. However, ‘Dress Rehearsal Rag’, ‘Diamonds In The Mine’, ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ and ‘Sing Another Song, Boys’, just about make this album worthwhile.

Probably the best Britpop album ever, and definitely the best one the generator has spat out for me to listen to so far. Close to perfection with lots of great songs and catchy melodies, but just a tad too long to justify a 5-star rating in my book.

Stylish and atmospheric, ‘New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)’ is up there with ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ by ABC and ‘Dare’ by The Human League as the best of the quintessential pop/synth/new wave albums from the early 80s.

File under: Coldplay Music School of Finishing Graduate: 2002

Can tell you that it’s more fun listening to Anthrax, than being infected by it.

Classic 60s pop and psychedelia meets wall of sound, and nails on a chalkboard guitar feedback. Inspired by the past, ‘Psychocandy’ ended up influencing the future. Didn’t grab me instantly but grew on me after a few listens. It will grow on you too.

I’ve listened to ‘Marquee Moon’ multiple times now, and it continues to sound like a lot of other guitar rock albums from the era. Perhaps it was startling in 1977, but in 2023 it sounds ubiquitous. It’s not bad, it’s just familiar.

Kendrick Lamar albums are generally cinematic and expansive in scope. ’Good Kid, M.A.A.d City’ is no exception, with its non-linear narrative that demands you listen to it closely, piecing together the storyline as you go. There’s a couple of missteps, ‘Backstreet Freestyle’ I find jarring and not Kendrick's strongest work lyrically, and ‘Compton’ which feels strangely out of place (and an excuse for Dre to make an appearance) tacked on to the end of the album, when the penultimate track ‘I’m Real’ is for all intents and purposes the real (and spiritual) ending. Minor gripes aside, ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.d City’ is for the most part excellent and well worth your while.

‘Wire’ is art rock masquerading as a punk album, with its influence later popping up in the alt rock, hardcore, grunge and even brit-pop genres. Everything hangs together nicely considering many songs are no more than mere sketches and are over before they get started. Short and sharp, it still sounds fresh today.

Been a while since I wanted an album to get to the end this badly.

You know, this started off strongly, but kind of lost steam and meandered its way through the middle section, before coming home strong. ‘Elephant’ is still a cut above most rock albums from the last 25 years, but really, it’s a low bar to scale. ‘Seven Nation Army’, ‘There’s No Home For You Here’, ‘Hypnotize’ and ‘Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine’ are the highlights, but the rest of the album is decent too, if not as memorable as the best bits.

Still the best album about an armadillo-tank hybrid waging war…and is it just me or is ‘Jeremy Bender’ about fist fucking nuns?

I love carpet. I love desk. I love lamp. I love Hole.

Self-important, self-indulgent, bloated, unnecessarily complicated…and I’m here for it. Would have to be close to (if not) their best record.

I listened to both the international version found here in the book and the original version. Both are excellent. I don’t have much more to say, other than you should play this album and play it loud, on a good system - it will blow you away.

Worth it for ‘Why D'Ya Do It’, one of the nastiest, and best songs ever committed to tape, but pleasingly, ‘Broken English’ is full of highlights, such as the aforementioned track, the title track, ‘Guilt’ and ‘The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan’ to name a few. ‘Working Class Hero’ is the one cut that doesn’t work for me, the arrangement just falls flat. Apart from that one small blip though, the rest of ‘Broken English is excellent, and it’s an album everyone should have in their collection.

This is the third Clapton or Clapton related album I’ve gotten after ‘Derek and the Dominos’ and ‘461 Ocean Boulevard’. By now I’ve heard enough of his music to know that his version of the blues doesn’t really do it for me.

Can an album containing songs such as ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ and ‘Octopus’s Garden’ be considered GOAT I hear you ask? Well individually, probably not, but the Beatles have always transcended such things, and ‘Abbey Road’ works and approaches GOAT status because it is greater than the sum of its parts. It sounds unlike any other Beatles record, noticeably warmer, lush, more sophisticated and polished than any of their other efforts. They were united here as they hadn’t been for years, and it shows. It’s brimming with ideas and has hooks for days. The medley, initially created to use up a bunch off offcuts the band had lying around, ends up being something special, almost operatic in scope, and a fitting coda to the groups extraordinary career. Everyone gets a final moment to shine. Ringo even gets a drum solo. In fact, that sense that an era is ending is palpable throughout the record. It feels like a farewell letter, but not a sad one. I love ‘Abbey Road’. It was the album that really turned me on to the Beatles when I was 15, and it’s the album of theirs I return to the most often.

‘Skylarking’ is a beautiful, musically sophisticated pop album about life and death, tinged with 60s psychedelia. Funnily enough a lot of albums from the mid 80s were tinged with 60’s psychedelia, but this is one of the best.

Fuck you ‘Trout Mask Replica’, fuck you.

An inspired collaboration featuring three icons, ‘Trio’ is expertly sung, played, and arranged but it’s essentially full of slower songs and ballads. And while these are all great, I would’ve liked some up-tempo numbers thrown into the mix for some variation, and to wake me up a little.