Do I speak French? No.
Do I like this album? YES.
What I love about this album is that it opened my eyes to a faction of Punk Rock that I didn't think existed and isn't that the point of this list?
Congrats to OP for submitting this album, this is my first on the user submissions and its giving me good hopes.
4/5
I vaguely recall hearing Stars when it first came out but don't remember much else of this band. While sounding on par for the rest of 90s grunge sound this was a nice different listen.
3/5
I had to go back to my review of the TSAHB from the list and had an okay impression of it. This album I absolutely loved and easily think this one would be a better representative of the band and genre on the list.
Thanks OP for another new to me listen.
4/5
My first thought was wasn't there enough Danny Elfman on this list, I then realized there isn't any. This album is such a must listen, big L on the author(s) for leaving this out.
4/5
This really is an alt-The Wall. And I aint mad. An album like this really shows how much Roger Waters was involved with PF in the 80s. I grew up on this album and it's one of my PF favorites so a separate album with similar sounds and a different story is a good option.
3/5
I guess we can call the Cure post-punk too?
Not bad.
3/5
Coming from a big Punk / Thrash / Hardcore background, MLiW is a new band for me. Sadly they don't give me much to be excited about.
3/5
Such a sublime album, adding another album to my list of bands I never knew existed.
4/5
I never liked Blink-182, I always thought they were the pop version of Green Day - which is poppy punk.
After listening to this, I still don't like Blink-182.
2/5
Baseline Christmas album and key piece of influential music that introduces younger listeners to Jazz and Classical.
5/5
I've never heard the Tragically Hip but I'm familiar enough with their fandom to know they're big in Canada. This album was okay to me. Sounds very much like another Canadian band, which is okay as well.
3/5
Interesting new take on Hip Hop and how it evolves. Always heard of Danny Brown but never really listened to him. Enjoyed this one.
3/5
I'm reminded how angry I am that actual masterpieces like this album are not on the list and a metric shit-ton of BritPop is.
5/5
Never judge a book by its cover - unless its everything you expect it to be
3/5
Like TSO but less Christmasy
2/5
Indie noise rock that sounds exactly like the rest of the rest of the noisy indie rock. I'm just surprised this came out in 1997, it sounds more like 2007.
3/5
Average rock that probably needs more time to "cook" before I can really evaluate.
2/5
An album or band I never heard before. This was a fun listen and should easily replace a number of the bland UK post punk / britpop albums on this list.
3/5
1995 me would've loved this album. 2026 me thinks 1995 me needs to listen to more music, but still thinks this is pretty good.
3/5
Very rarely do I want an album to last longer, but this 25 minute whateverthefuckitis was pure joy to listen to.
4/5
Another Who album, great.
Wait… Quadrophenia ISN'T on the original list? Did the author(s) not think the Who aren't British enough???
4/5
Man, the 90s were great. No Doubt's Southern Cali-Ska-Punk-arama was everywhere.
3.5/5
Mac Miller isn't for me. As a user submitted album I have less issue with a recent album being on this list.
3/5
The album starts off with a great title and gets stuck in the weeds of a poppy album where each track sounds the same as the one before it.
3/3
The poppiest of 90s pop-punk.
3/5
Was looking forward to this album after hearing their collabs with Leon Bridges. This wasn't what I was expecting and the whole album felt dragged out.
3/5
While a fun listen and a good primer into classical guitar and Latin Jazz, Paco's technique is on full display yet the album feels slow and repetitive.
3.5/5
Good listening, picking up PiL influence.
3/5
Pretty standard shout rock.
2/5
Wait… this isn't on the list? Big oversight by the authors. It's not like there's not enough room with all of the extra redundant BritPop.
4/5
Not REMs best album, but the album that changed music. How is this not on the list?
5/5
Knowing this is a fan favorite, I'm still attached to Ænima. Lateralus feels too long for me for a TOOL album.
3/5
I don't know how I missed Mogwai coming up but hot damn this was great.
4/5
I don't know how to describe this band I never hear of, but I like it.
4/5
Thought I was listening to a Scissor Sister cover band.
Not my thing, too artificial.
3/5
Sounds like a generic riff on a popularized version of the Blues. King is a talented guitar player but his orchestrations fall flat here.
3/5
Good sounding record but not my style, got a little repetitive.
3/5
Electronic early 00s music is not for me. This is okay, it gets very repetitive.
3/5
…and I thought there was too much BritPop on the list, the early 00s didn't produce much great music either. This was okay, but overhyped IMO.
3/5
Having survived the 80s and 90s hair sound I'm experienced enough to know that stone has been squeezed and it shouldn't come back. This album from 2009 confirms that take.
2/5
Reminds me of Cake (the band). I like Cake (the band). I like Cake (the food) too.
3/5
Suprisingly good, better than most of the drum and bass on the list.
3/5
TELL ME WHY?? 🎶🎵
Good on this submitter for putting this up. This album is an important slice of what this era of bubblegum boy band pop is. Yes it's saccharine. Yes it's poppy. But the significance of it surprises me that this wasn't on the original list.
This is a solid 3 for me personally but to help this album get what it probably deserves I'm throwing a sacrificial 5 to it.
The whole faux Americana rock with meaning thing gets pushed real hard with groups like the Mountain Goats and Mumford and Sons.
3/5
Man, Vernon Reid and Cory Glover put out some solid music. I've forgotten about this album and this listen was like sitting back with an old friend and jamming.
4/5
This is a good album that represents a weird time in popular music. At the time it was a good trend, that trend just hasn't aged well. Not NMH's issue though.
3.5/5
Not my thing. Indie music from this time period is very cliche at this point, this album doesn't differ.
3/5
okay album indicative of the genre and time, but easily forgettable compared to the rest of the music that came out of that era.
3/5
Good background music album
3/5
My first time hearing this band. Sounds like previous user submission Khruangbin. My review of that album is the same as this: This wasn't what I was expecting and the whole album felt dragged out
3/5
Sounds like a tribute to all of the heavy metal instrumentals from the 90s. It's okay but fairly repetitive.
3/5
The 90s were full of Ska Punk bands. Operation Ivy was one of the earlier ones which gets them full credit, but man the whole ska movement degraded to the point it is cliché.
3/5
Meh. I think one album from the Shins should be here. But since this is user submitted I did my due diligence and am not wowed. The Shins come from an era that produced bland pop-infused music that felt edgy enough to be "Indie". That indie label can only be stretched so far and this album would snap it.
3/5
Pop punk is my least favorite genre next to Shoegaze and Emo and FOB strike all the reasons here.
Not my thing but I'm noticing a lot of late 00-teens albums filling the user submissions. Albums like this need to grow and even with this one being 13 years old, it's a forgettable album.
2/5
Like there wasn’t enough 80s BritPop on this list, but yet OP found an actual album from that genre that should be here. I never heard of this band and like their fresher sound over the mimicry of most of the list.
4/5
Poppy emo punk is a genre that does not reflect well for the early 00s.
2/5
I enjoyed this album but always felt Garbage's first album was their best. It's good but the original belongs on the list.
3/5
Very much a modern throwback to earlier 60s folk. I don't know if it's needed today, but this would work well in an incense shop.
3/5
understanding that this album is years ahead of others you can understand the impact Chet Baker brings. Comparing this to his 'Sings' album you see two different people achieving and reinventing the genre.
5/5
Frank Zappa is a genius whose value has yet to be fully realized. This is one of my favorite albums of his.
4/5
Finally an album from the 21st Century I am convinced should be on the main list. This covers so much ground.
4/5
My first thought was "Oh geat, another Modest Mouse album". As I listened, I wanted to see what my review of the other MM album was and was floored to see that album is not there. So much of the early 00s indie rock is generic and repetitive that MM has a high mountain to climb. This album is so different from what I take them to be. This is a nice modern, raw, garage rock album.
3/5
This would be the exact album to recommend what music sounded like in 1980.
3/5
The proto-Americana reemergence of the early 00s exemplified by Josh Ritter and others was a good twist and tribute to the genre.
3/5
Hellyeah is a band that arrives about 15 years too late. Their lyrics and sound bring nothing to Metal that hasn't already been done.
3/5
This is an okay album. Well past Marillion's prime. This comes at a time when the hard Prog Rock was under full control of bands like Queensryche. Marillion paved the way but this album doesn't help their legacy.
3/5
Reminds me of EBN and similar artists from the same era. there was a lot of experimentation as this sound was evolving. Some bands completely orchestrated the sampling vs. studio creations while others took whatever samples they could find and threw the kitchen sink into the studio and pressed record. This album is more of the latter.
3/5
This is what I expected to get from this list, an international phenomenon that wasn't popular in my region.
3/5
Man. Raw 90s Angry Chick Rock was great.
4/5
Takes me back to the early 90s where second tier indie bands like the Posies had some very eager fans.
I heard them back then and haven't given them a thought in almost 30 years.
3/5
I never wondered what an entire album would sound like if it was intended to be heard underwater. Now I know.
2/5
This is user album #70 for me. I listened to every album on the list completely with the exception of one album. This is my second DNF.
2/5.
s'Okay. Nothing major or different than their other album on this list that sounds just as generic.
3/5
Damn… I didn't know how well Lady Gaga is produced. This is a non-stop thriller of an album.
4/5
The great thing about African World Music - you don't know if it was recorded in the 1960s or 2010s - it all sounds the same and that's not a bad thing.
4/5
I get where this album is going, but I've had too much Synth BritPop on this list.
3/5
When I first heard Gary Clark Jr. I was excited and thrilled that contemporary musicians were still referencing the blues. When I listened to his albums I lost interest. He suffers from the same ailment most Blues-influenced artists do: lack of originality and nothing but the same sound with different lyrics.
This an okay album. For an electric guitar forward album to have so much popularity following a 2019 release that brings hope to the music industry, but not from me.
3/5
I haven't listened to CLUTCH in many years, not much has changed from them.
3/5
This was amazing 90s HipHop. Haven't heard Blackalicious in a while.
4/5
As a fifty-something year old I can say Olivia Rodrigo saved pop music - she does credit her music-loving parents for raising her on a wide-range of music which really shines on both of her albums.
4/5
Mumford and Sons with less banjo.
3/5
I never heard of this band so imagine my surprise when I liked it and looked up to see if this modern band had anything new or was touring…
3/5
Meh… s'okay I guess. Doesn't sound like a 2017 release.
3/5
They're Swedish, I guess that differentiates them enough because the sound they're putting out sounds like every other pop record from the early 00s
2/5
I love all kinds of music. I really love Jazz - this version of Jazz is not for me, this is the only thing beside pop country that I could never listen to.
Sorry OP, I get your love for it.
3/5
Early 2000's POP that sounds like other early 2000's POP.
3/5
it's okay. it's very new (still) and the one hit was barely a hit to be recognizable.
2.5/5
It's absolutely hysterical that this album is getting trashed. A Quick Look at the history of some of the worst reviewers shows a penchant for more britpop.
Jam isn't a big thing for me, but to help OP along a bit I'm throwing a 5/5
This album does at least the same if not better than any of the 50-ish Elvis Costello albums on the list - which this album should be included.
4/5
Man, I forgot how good early 90s ska-punk was. 311 did what Limp Bizkit tried to do, but less douchy.
4/5
Good rock album, something that doesn't really exist in the early 00s.
3/5
Not my favorite FNM album, but still a good choice for this project to show their span.
3.5/5
It was okay. I never heard of Matthew Good Band so I can't rationalize OPs choice in this album, it's very recognizable of the time period.
3/5
Whatever the term for something sounding like what it looks like, this is it.
2/5
Stop Making Sense packs a double-punch of success. It's a great live album and one of the best concert films. You can choose the film, or if you don't feel the need to watch David Byrne's silly antics while he showboats on stage, you can listen to the album.
It's a staggering surprise this album isn't on the list.
4/5
Pop metal.
3/5
I've had Jimmy Buffet thrust upon me at family gatherings. I turned into a quasi-parrot head and always enjoyed hearing Jimmy on the radio. This album is such a biographical journey of what life is like in the Keys of Florida, not to mention two of my favorite songs, one of which is the most accurate description of what aging is like (A Pirate Looks At Forty).
Thanks for this trip down memory lane OP and Fin's Up.
4.5/5
My initial review got mistakenly deleted, I can't remember what exactly I had, but this album is not Punk for how much it claims to be. Granted 90s / 2000s 'Punk' is different than traditional Punk but even by that definition this album is more hard rock.
3/5
As an extreme late comer to quality Country music, this was a great listen.
4/5
14 songs, 37 minutes. You can't pay more of a tribute to punk than that. This falls into the gray area of 90s Ska and the flexible definition of what was 'Punk'. however, good fun record to listen to.
3.5/5
interesting. varied types of music here, nice to see non-English included.
3/5
Whatever the word for something that sounds like it looks like, this is it. And not bad this time, some early 00s girl-pop is necessary. in this instance I've never heard of Rachel Stevens or her music so this was not what I was expecting, which was a Brittany, Xtina, etc.
3/5
Was curious about this band and love whatever this is. Checking out more from them, I'm a new fan.
4.5/5
Modern-ish country that feels like authentic country, not Country™.
3.5/5
When a band doesn't know they're symphonic, prog, fantasy, hard-rock they throw all of those genres into a blender and mix it up for a little and churn out the generic pablum that they think makes them the inheritor of Rush or Dream Theater when they're really not.
2/5
Instead of eating world, Jimmy should start smaller, like a curb.
2/5
From today's WhatInTheActualFuck am I listening to? A 1990s BritPop knockoff of Frank Zappa. With a creepy cover.
3/5
The Beastie Boys reinvented themselves on this album and moved away from their childish white boy rapper image they gained with their first two albums. Well, really, this is more of a return to where they began. When they were a four piece band before their original drummer would leave to form Veruca Salt. Anyways, Check Your Head really shows the boys musicality abilities and opens the door to the collars with the originators of Hip-Hop that they grew up on and with.
This one should totally be on the list. Probably their best album.
5/5
Some things to consider while listening to this album:
1- This concert was recorded before Born To Run became BORN TO RUN
2- it catches the energy of what an early Springsteen show was. non stop energy, etc.
3- When it was released in 2006 on the Born To Run anniversary compilation, these types of historic releases were non-existent. Nobody was buying 30 year old concert releases
4- listen to the audience. This is in London when the inheritor of the Bob Dylan torch was visiting from across the pond for the first time. This is not a typical rock and roll audience, they're polite, they clap - no screaming which helps make the music more the feature
I get why the negative reviews are coming at a live album with a 17 minute live deep cut would infuriate some folks, although some of them skew towards the political side of Springsteen Ala the negative reviews for Kid Rock, but this archival release has done so much for live music releases that even Nugs has turned it into a corner of their business.
4.5/5
I always enjoy when contributors bring new types of music or things I've never heard before to the list.
This aint it.
2/5
I'm going to be extremely biased because I didn't like Korn when they first came up and still don't.
3/5
Very Queensryche-ish with over produced vocals. Not so bad.
3/5
Somewhere between She & Him and Bright Eyes. This period of Indie rock doesn't do much for me.
3/5
Very melodic an pleasant to listen to. Not something I would listen to a lot, the 48 minutes felt much longer.
3/5
Very melodic an pleasant to listen to. Not something I would listen to a lot, the 48 minutes felt much longer.
3/5
Never heard of Shudder To Think so this whole listen was an introduction for me. I wouldn't put them in the post punk slot, they're more of an alternative / soft hard core sound based on this album alone.
Reading their bio puts a lot into their local band makes it big, but outside of the DC / B'More area, I've never heard of 'em.
3/5
Makes me miss stopping at the Bodéga for my morning coffee and bagel. Well, the Bodéga cat anyways…
4/5
Another fine example of an album that is uncommon yet opens your eyes to a whole new region for culture. Portuguese rock was not on my list of expectations.
3/5
I love Sinatra and the standards. The Great American Songbook is a genre that still holds many many years after its popularity faded, so this amazing iteration that opens my eyes to the Great French(?) Songbook is sooo enjoyable.
Thanks OP for thinking really outside of the box for your selection.
5/5
I don't know who The Knife are, but they sound like every other techno group.
3/5
Hmmm… Ambient Metal is a thing. This was a great background album to have while focusing on work.
4/5
Talk about walking into something blind and being completely blind. Seeing a European Electronic duo (again) hits you in the gut for a disapointing listen, until you litsten to the serenity and peaceful calm that are invoked by this loveliness.
This album is a good reminder to check your biases with every new album and give it a shot.
4/5
This is the sound of the 80s. I swear I just listened to the montage music to a group of young rapscallions using their injenuity to upset the mean old-timers in their town.
4/5
I thought the original list was fairly well covered for UK Electronic raw music and didn't need any additions. Turns out I'm right, this is no different than the others on the list.
3/5
I wonder what someone like Adam Green would say about Adam Green's music. Myself, I don't get into the 'being edgy for the sake of being edgy' type of creativity - it, and this album remind me of the first time I wrote a curse word on a piece of paper and then erased it but my mom still found it anyway.
Technocore should not be a thing.
2/5
I vaguely remember this group and don't recall them being labeled 'Punk' - cuz they're not. They were more of an alternative / post-alt at the time. Nevertheless, this was a good album to listen to.
3/5
Surprised a recent pop album could be good, but here we are.
4/5
I tried, I can't get into the 1975.
3/5
Thanks to the list and submissions like this I discovered I like Krautrock, this is a good progrock album.
4/5
I am not a fan of video game soundtracks. I've never heard of this game, but the music is eclectic and made an enjoyable album.
4/5
This is my second Japanese soundtrack in a row. The other one was interesting whereas this makes me feel like I should be running down some tunnel trying not to get rolled over by a giant peach.
3/5
