Expectation: Some funky Bee Gees beats to energise my day Reality: What the hell is this

Liked it. Not surprised the Dude didn't get his Creedence tapes back to be honest. Sorry Dude, life goes on, man.

Thursday morning. Nearly the end of the week. Lounging on my velour recliner for a moment of contemplation, it's a sunny day and the light is streaming through the window highlighting the dust in the air. Rising out the seat, I glance in the mirror and my oversize collar is on point with the brown and yellow earth tones in the tie I picked out earlier. Aviators on and quickly check the moustache - nice. I leave for work, climb into the car and Curtis plays in the background on the 8-track. Sunlight glints on my glasses and I'm feeling the beats, one arm out the window as I drive. It's going to be a good day.

Did not know what to expect with this one. There's so much going on here and it gets better with every play through. Stand out tracks for me are Mushroom and the experimental, brooding crescendo of sounds in Aumgn which transported me somewhere else altogether. Perhaps the wailing soundscape of Peking O goes a little too far into the avant-garde, but overall this is a stunning album, I can't even imagine being hit with this in 1971. So good. Probably not one to play at a dinner party though, unless your friend Saffron is planning to lace the avocado salad with something.

- DO NOT LISTEN TO TRACK 1 FIRST - It was alright, but nearly lost the will to live after the opening minutes of track 1, and this is coming from someone who usually rates prog rock quite highly. Quite an enjoyable listen once I got past that.

5* for Dear God alone, the rest is pretty sound too.

Some great tracks. The grade-school level novelty at saying "fuck" in verb or noun form for no discernible reason wears very thin very quickly, 3 stars.

no

Wouldn't go out my way to listen to it again

Not offensive but not particularly remarkable

'avv it

Tailed off a bit towards the end, but this was right up my street

Tainted Love is obviously a classic and I also enjoyed a couple of other tracks, but the rest of it was fairly forgettable

Listening to this album made me imagine my Dad careering around the streets of suburbia in his Vauxhall Viva modified with twin carbs; me in the back seat barely secured to the hot, faux leather vinyl that passed as a bench seat, him with his brown Aviators, 'tash, flared trousers and mop of hair blowing in the wind. Then I remembered he was more into Meat Loaf at the time and the daydream was shattered. Although lyrically, teenage kicks is still relevant today and the album as a whole was not unenjoyable if a little repetitive towards the end, I think this will end up forgotton, like a rusting car with Teenage Kicks as the singular component rescued and remembered in a museum of classics.

Did not know what to expect with this one. There's so much going on here and it gets better with every play through. Stand out tracks for me are Mushroom and the experimental, brooding crescendo of sounds in Aumgn which transported me somewhere else altogether. Perhaps the wailing soundscape of Peking O goes a little too far into the avant-garde, but overall this is a stunning album, I can't even imagine being hit with this in 1971. So good. Probably not one to play at a dinner party though, unless your friend Saffron is planning to lace the avocado salad with something.

Had never heard of Skip and doing a bit of pre-reading I was ready to dismiss this out of hand. It's a surprising one, there's a variety of stuff on here and it never felt samey. War in Peace sounds like something Radiohead would produce and there's a range in his voice which adds to the appeal. Seems like Skip had a difficult life and you can feel it in some of these songs. It's not in any way polished but maybe that's part of the appeal. Overall, I enjoyed this.

baseline reggae

Sinatra: None of the memorable ones The Girl from Ipanema is obviously the high point, but Getz / Gilberto is superior So, why bother with this?

I'm definitely not the target audience for this but there were some good tracks on here, if anything the second half of the album was more musically engaging than the first. If I could relate to it more lyrically I would rate it higher.

Do like me some hip-hop, but many of the tracks here have either aged like milk or were puerile to start with, and it's another culprit for pre and post-fixing tracks with skits which add little or just detract completely. Probably went down better in a cow-hide Chrysler Fifth Avenue, discussing your gang issues, at the time of release.

Liked it. Not surprised the Dude didn't get his Creedence tapes back to be honest. Sorry Dude, life goes on, man.

I lurched between being intrigued and wishing it would end but there's a certain something about it that lifts it out the ordinary - I'd go back to for another listen

I realised I was listening to this reminiscing about university days, and even though this album came out quite a long while before I attended, it somehow became part of the soundtrack to those times after being introduced to Nirvana by a friend I met there. Fired this up and it took me back, being as great to listen to now as it was then. So yeah I'm probably slightly biased, but the last track notwithstanding which I never got on with (I'm gonna ignore that), it's a solid 5 for me.

I was on the cusp of giving this a 4, Cherry-Coloured Funk has been a favourite for as long as I care to remember with its haunting synth and contrasting range of vocals, some of which are Kate-Bush-like in nature but ultimately all gel together brilliantly as a song that doesn't go on too long (unlike this sentence). And the rest of the album is, well, alright. But always found myself wishing I was listening to the first track again.

Alright, but spent a fair bit of time wishing it was Avalon

Ah, the "indie dirge" genre. Haunting melody on M62 song that I kinda liked, but overall this was a just a downer which I didn't appreciate being afflicted with.

So much tiresome crooning, and I did a cringe at half the lyrics

If I was a trucker in the 80s, I'd probably have played this

I love the uniqueness of her voice, the production values and the quirkiness of her music. On the flip side, it was rather maudlin overall, which was a barrier to engaging with it more. "Heirloom" gets a shout out for featuring some kind of Casio keyboard percussion track but making it work

Expectation: Some funky Bee Gees beats to energise my day Reality: What the hell is this

On one hand this isn't really my preference but it's undeniably great as inoffensive easy-listening and who doesn't know at least some of these songs?

Didn't like the lyrics, or the genre, or the same old same old country sob stories drawled out ad infinitum. Production seemed fine but that doesn't redeem it. Spent most of the time rolling my eyes and checking whether it was about to finish

Quite liked the title track. Scratchy Rod didn't really do it for me after that

Initially, I rolled my eyes at having to listen to a Bowie album, and one I'd never heard of at that. Surprisingly, I found myself quite enjoying it, thought it was a 3. Went back for another listen and I think it deserves more than that. Four stars - Bowie, but not as you know it, and all the better for it.

Turns out that I didn't know I needed some sweet, sweet Jazz Fusion on a random Wednesday, but I did. It's an easy listen and the 11 minute version of Street Life is the icing on the cake.

Definitely Queen, and obviously a foundation for greater things to come, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about this album to my ears

The Queen and the Solider and Marlene on the Wall are standout tracks, didn't much enjoy the rest.

Peak U2 before it all went downhill

Quite liked it. Would probs have given it a 5 if I'd been doing a lot of shoegazing in 2010.

There's some great stuff in here and it's well worth a listen. On balance, the genius moments outweigh the cuckoo-clock-shrieking of the last track

It's not Black Sunday, is it?

Ya Mama's musical taste is so bad she played Dwight Yoakam backwards through a hairdryer and still liked it

1 killer, lots of filler

Thursday morning. Nearly the end of the week. Lounging on my velour recliner for a moment of contemplation, it's a sunny day and the light is streaming through the window highlighting the dust in the air. Rising out the seat, I glance in the mirror and my oversize collar is on point with the brown and yellow earth tones in the tie I picked out earlier. Aviators on and quickly check the moustache - nice. I leave for work, climb into the car and Curtis plays in the background on the 8-track. Sunlight glints on my glasses and I'm feeling the beats, one arm out the window as I drive. It's going to be a good day.

Enter, Sandman. Then leave before you have to listen to the rest of the album.

It's not entirely without merit, had to look hard for it though. I think it's the drumming

I'm a sucker for circa 2000 trip-hop

Hotel California is the first good thing that springs to mind when someone mentions the Eagles. Unfortunately, that's not on this album so, moving on... By the time I get to Earlybird, and the banjo kicks in, I'm thinking of Convoy. Y'know, the Movie. Yep, we're in peak flag-waving, soft-rock, 'Murica territory. Which is fine, but there's a limited appeal and audience for that, which I am not in. Pass.

POV: You start your album by letting everyone know how horny you are, and you've got other stuff to say but mainly you're horny IDK

Three great tracks, three stars.

Felt like I was being trolled throughout the entire album, but maybe not unenjoyably so.

Strong start, descends into something quite samey. I don't say this unkindly - I could pick any of the tracks on the latter half of the album and enjoy them, but after a few I'd zone out. Coherent - but needs more flare.

Well prepared, forgettable soup. Didn't hate this. Unfortunately though, it elicited no discernible emotional response beyond apathy. What is music if not to lift the soul? There's some thought behind the lyrics - but the music they're saddled with is so non-descript it's hard to care less. All the nuance is lost in the cloying do-bops and tsch-bop-bops that smother the record like an unremarkable blanket. Probably at one point I've heard snippets of this in a hotel lobby but I don't know because I wouldn't remember it; case in point ended up listening to most of the album twice for the purposes of this because it fused with the background noise on the first occasion. Trying a little harder on the second attempt, the initial chord progressions in the unfathomably beloved Deacon Blues set the scene for a whole bunch of nothing to happen, and as listeners, we're not proved wrong with this assumption. Music should make you feel alive, this is beige soup for beige people with beige lives and beige ambitions who live in beige houses and drive beige cars to beige stores and ask for a manager when they get there because beige products are out of stock. There's a scene. And Steely Dan is playing in the background, naturally. So anyway, it was dull. Maybe one day I'll hear it again and not even know. 1/5

High energy mullet staring me down from the past, mixed emotions tbh

Big Hair P(l)op

The best Queen album I'd never heard

I don't know why, and this isn't a reflection on Peter's musical prowess, but this album just makes me uneasy and I did not identify with it at all. "Peak boomer rock" probably conveys it best.

Mixed emotions. Was kind of digging this on and off, and then the Klingon wailing bit started and I was like nah...

Enjoyed the electronic parts, which kinda outshone the vocals. JUST STOP SINGING. But no, she did not stop singing. Not that it was bad singing, it was just interfering with that sweet, sweet electronica I wanted more of. Slick production, though.

42 punishingly mundane 'Murica audio experiences I want to forget sooner rather than later

Great. Made even better by the memory of the late, great, Sean Lock using samples of Le Freak as a buzzer sound effects on "8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown", accompanied by a completely non-apologetic shit-eating grin.

5 - it reminds me of someone being the best. Yet also 1 - reminds me of same someone being inexplicably shitty. It's got to be a 3.

Punky AF. Lyrics still relevant today, some decent tunes. What's not to like?

Hello, and welcome to Jazz Club. Next up, Thelononius Monk with Scuba-dooba-dooba-bal-ue-surrender-panna-cotta-sandwich, with Sonny Rollins, Ernie Henry and Clark Terry. Also featuring Off Kilter chords and Sax that gatecrashed from a whole other song. Listen out for the smoky bass 10 minutes into Bolivar and get ready for those textured drum beats. Sensational. Let's listen again. Nice👌🏻

I listened. I liked, I went back to listen again.

Great harmonisation but after listening all the way through I'd had my fill.

- DO NOT LISTEN TO TRACK 1 FIRST - It was alright, but nearly lost the will to live after the opening minutes of track 1, and this is coming from someone who usually rates prog rock quite highly. Quite an enjoyable listen once I got past that.

Great riffs. I can imagine the hair

It's good, but inevitably I anticipate a way will be found to not STFU about it even come heat death of the universe, which stops it being a 5.

jfc

Expected the worst looking at the genre but this was, for the most part, a good time.

"The best-selling rock album of the 21st century". What if that said more about the state of rock than it being an endorsement of this?

This is the best Coldplay album, you won't change my mind.

Unexpectedly enjoyable noises