My 1001 Albums Journey

Album	You	Global	Diff
D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle	5	1.88	+3.12
Duck Stab/Buster & Glen	5	2.03	+2.97
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned	5	2.11	+2.89
Tank Battles	5	2.12	+2.88
L'Eau Rouge	5	2.32	+2.68
Rock Bottom	5	2.39	+2.61
Opus Dei	5	2.39	+2.61
Punishing Kiss	5	2.4	+2.6
En-Tact	5	2.43	+2.57
Butterfly	5	2.48	+2.52

Album	You	Global	Diff
The Marshall Mathers LP	1	3.49	-2.49
The Fat Of The Land	1	3.41	-2.41
The Slim Shady LP	1	3.29	-2.29
Fun House	1	3.28	-2.28
Vulgar Display Of Power	1	2.97	-1.97
Reign In Blood	1	2.96	-1.96
Gentlemen	1	2.9	-1.9
Is This It	2	3.82	-1.82
Vincebus Eruptum	1	2.8	-1.8
Follow The Leader	1	2.65	-1.65

Artist	Albums	Average
Beatles	7	5
Tom Waits	5	5
Led Zeppelin	5	5
Bob Dylan	7	4.71
David Bowie	9	4.56
Björk	4	5
The Kinks	4	5
Joni Mitchell	4	5
Neil Young	4	5
Stevie Wonder	4	5
The Who	5	4.8
Brian Eno	5	4.8
The Rolling Stones	6	4.67
Leonard Cohen	5	4.6
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds	5	4.6
PJ Harvey	4	4.75
Miles Davis	4	4.75
Pink Floyd	4	4.75
Paul Simon	3	5
Kate Bush	3	5
The Beach Boys	3	5
Queen	3	5
Aerosmith	3	5
Beck	3	5
Elvis Presley	3	5
Nick Drake	3	5
Madonna	3	5
Simon & Garfunkel	3	5
Prince	3	5
The Velvet Underground	3	5
Johnny Cash	3	5
Peter Gabriel	3	5
Jimi Hendrix	3	5
Public Enemy	3	5
Radiohead	6	4.33
Steely Dan	4	4.5
U2	4	4.5
R.E.M.	4	4.5
Black Sabbath	3	4.67
Kraftwerk	3	4.67
The White Stripes	3	4.67
Marvin Gaye	3	4.67
Creedence Clearwater Revival	3	4.67
Frank Sinatra	3	4.67
The Doors	3	4.67
Nirvana	3	4.67
Beastie Boys	3	4.67
Yes	3	4.67
Amy Winehouse	2	5
Willie Nelson	2	5
Billy Bragg	2	5
Fairport Convention	2	5
Adele	2	5
Fiona Apple	2	5
Elton John	2	5
Taylor Swift	2	5
Eagles	2	5
Robert Wyatt	2	5
Elliott Smith	2	5
A Tribe Called Quest	2	5
Oasis	2	5
Fatboy Slim	2	5
k.d. lang	2	5
Ray Charles	2	5
Rod Stewart	2	5
Hole	2	5
Green Day	2	5
M.I.A.	2	5
Aretha Franklin	2	5
Dusty Springfield	2	5
Lou Reed	2	5
Def Leppard	2	5
Missy Elliott	2	5
CHIC	2	5
Stan Getz	2	5
Isaac Hayes	2	5
The Pogues	2	5
Muddy Waters	2	5
Sly & The Family Stone	2	5
Randy Newman	2	5
The Clash	2	5
The Divine Comedy	2	5
Stephen Stills	2	5
Coldplay	2	5
John Lennon	2	5
The Police	2	5
Dolly Parton	2	5
The Beta Band	2	5
Goldfrapp	2	5
The Byrds	5	4.2
Metallica	4	4.25
Michael Jackson	3	4.33
Pet Shop Boys	3	4.33
Blur	3	4.33
Bob Marley & The Wailers	3	4.33
Echo And The Bunnymen	3	4.33
Van Morrison	3	4.33

Artist	Albums	Average
Eminem	2	1

Artist	Ratings
The Prodigy	5, 1
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band	5, 2
Roxy Music	5, 2, 2

Endtroducing.....

DJ Shadow

5/5

Wow! Wasn't expecting to love this so much.

Buena Vista Social Club

5/5

Delightful. Really enjoyed it.

Brothers In Arms

Dire Straits

3/5

While I was very familiar with the singles from this album that were released in the US, this is the first time that I remember hearing the full album. I found most tracks on this record just OK. I can't deny that the opening riff of Money for Nothing is pretty great and I really liked The Man's Too Strong and the bass-heavy One World. The one track that I actively disliked was Your Latest Trick which seemed quite dated with all its 80s saxophone and reminded me of the theme from LA Law...and not in a good way.

Eliminator

ZZ Top

4/5

I'm not sure that there are actually 11 different tracks here --- more like two and a half. What I'm saying is, some of these songs sound the same. Except Thug, which sounds like the theme from Seinfeld. But what the heck --- it's peppy and fun and I had a good time bopping around the kitchen making dinner and waxing nostalgic about high school cheerleading as I listened.

Rain Dogs

Tom Waits

5/5

Tom Waits is one of those artists that I always felt I was just expected to like. So I resisted liking him for a long time. And then one day...I guess I finally heard the right song(s) or something and now I love him. It feels to me like he channels music from somewhere not of this world. Good variety of styles on this record. Not every song speaks to me personally (sorry Downtown Train) but there are a few that I love a lot (Jockey Full of Bourbon, Big Black Mariah, Gun Street Girl). I've heard the comparison to Cookie Monster before but this is the first time I've noticed that sometimes Tom Waits sounds like Christopher Lloyd (specifically on the title track here).

The Stone Roses

5/5

Had no idea what I was about to listen to. I found the first track (I Wanna Be Adored) unbelievably boring the first time through and was afraid I was going to loathe the rest of the album. But I smiled through the remaining songs and immediately started the record over. Love the Brit-pop vocals and jangly guitar. I'll come back to this one. p.s. If no one's done it yet, "This is the One" would be the perfect soundtrack to the ending of a manic pixie dream girl movie.

The Undertones

3/5

Not much variety from song to song but I appreciate their youthful exuberance. I hear a few of these songs fairly often when my husband's choosing the music --- Family Entertainment, Here Comes the Summer, Get Over You (which I guess wasn't on the original LP and was a bonus track on the digital stream I found) --- but most of these were new to me. Really liked Billy's Third, Male Model, and I Know a Girl. It's not a style of music that I feel the need to seek out but I don't hate it.

The White Album

Beatles

5/5

There's too much to say about this album. It's just terrific. Picked up on a lot of new things listening this time: disquieting stereo effects, interesting fade-outs and transitions between songs, lyrics I've never quite caught ("trying to make a dove-tail joint"). Such diverse musical styles but nothing sounds out of place. I love it mucho.

Ramones

3/5

Songs are short, fast, and fun but kind of all the same. I can appreciate the album's importance for its time and its influence on other bands. And who doesn't love chanting "hey ho let's go"? But as a whole, the record doesn't exactly speak to me personally at this point in my life.

Nick Of Time

Bonnie Raitt

5/5

Yay, a woman finally! I haven't listened to this one in a long, long time and it was wonderful to listen to it again. I love her voice, love her music. (Also, her hair. My god that HAIR!) Favorite tracks: Thing Called Love, Cry On My Shoulder, Nobody's Girl, I Will Not Be Denied, and I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again.

Ritual De Lo Habitual

Jane's Addiction

5/5

I like this album a whole lot and really enjoyed listening to it in one sitting for the first time in a long time. I loved feeling immersed in the fullness of their sound. Perry Farrell's vocals are simultaneously raw and melodious. While I really like the singles (Stop! and Been Caught Stealing) that made me buy the CD when it came out, I dig even more the theatricality of the later songs on the album, like Three Days, Classic Girl, and the nightmare circus that is Of Course.

When I Was Born For The 7th Time

Cornershop

5/5

I've never heard of 'em. I'm goin' in! All right! You wanna win me over quickly? Gimme accordion right from the jump! Or is it a harmonium? Either way, I am totally on board. Next song is the "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow" song! I know this one! (After looking it up, I know the Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) remix.) Yes! Love it! Love the trippy groove of We're in Yr Corner and the silliness of Funky Days are Back Again. Appreciate the reminder that, "Good shit's all around, good people." Definitely will listen to this one again and am already looking into their other albums, starting with Judy Sucks on a Lemon for Breakfast, which...is that a clarinet on the title track? Swoon!

The La's

5/5

All I knew ahead of time is There She Goes, mostly from So I Married an Axe Murderer (which I watched again this summer and it has held up pretty well). I like this album! Different songs remind me of different bands --- lots of REM sounds, a bit of U2 and The Beatles, British Invasion era Rolling Stones and The Kinks, and even an iota of The Monkees. None of that is bad. The song Feelin' has me feelin' pretty darn good. (It's just too short!) Would have rated it a 4 after the first listen. Rounding up to 5 after the second.

Vincebus Eruptum

Blue Cheer

1/5

I can hear their influence on The River Bottom Nightmare Band. I was kind of ok with it until Parchment Farm which is...problematic on a couple of fronts. There are better albums to listen to for this kind of psychedelic rock sound. I doubt I'll listen to this again.

Electric Prunes

The Electric Prunes

4/5

I've heard of The Electric Prunes but the name is such an unsuccessful attempt at humor, I kind of assumed they were a parody, like Spinal Tap. But here they are. (And maybe Spinal Tap's got an album on this list so this doesn't really prove that they're a "real" band. In fact some of these songs reminded me of ST's Cups and Cakes.) Anyway... I liked this. The music definitely evokes a specific time period. These guys look awfully serious on the cover, though, for playing songs that are quite silly. I guess they're mad because their producer made them sing songs they didn't even write! How often has it happened that an all-male band sang so many songs written by a couple of women? (Oh, but looking closer, I guess they're recreating the B&W illustration behind them which is...what? Why isn't THAT the cover?) In addition to Spinal Tap, I was reminded of The Guess Who and The Hollies. I enjoyed I Had Too Much to Dream, Are You Loving Me More, Sold to the Highest Bidder, Get Me to the World on Time, and About a Quarter to Nine. The ragtimey Toonerville Trolley was a delightful surprise at the end.

Bad

Michael Jackson

3/5

I don't know. Listening to MJ mostly just makes me feel sad and conflicted now. Highlights of this album for me are the groove of The Way You Make Me Feel (you knock me offa my feet now baby --- hoo!) and when the chorus comes in at the key change in Man In the Mirror and also remembering how my college friend Laura changed the words to Bad and sang, "My dad...has had...a crush on Cheryl Ladd!"

Virgin Suicides

Air

4/5

"Obviously, doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl." This album is a mood. They used to use some of these tracks on This American Life a lot. That may have been why I bought the CD originally but I can't really recall now. I don't remember much about the movie other than thinking that it captured the 70s better than most movies set but not made in that decade. It was nice to listen to the whole album again. There's a sound on one of the tracks (maybe Dirty Trip?) that sounds like The Bionic Woman jumping. I like the album a lot, especially the last track with narration from the movie. That's some beautiful writing there. "Everyone dated the demise of our neighborhood from the suicides of the Lisbon girls. People saw their clairvoyance in the wiped-out elms and harsh sunlight. Some thought the tortures tearing the Lisbon girls pointed to a simple refusal to accept the world as it was handed down to them: so full of flaws. But the only thing we are certain of after all these years is the insufficiency of explanation."

Guitar Town

Steve Earle

2/5

Most of this was...fine? I guess? (shrug emoji) I like the guitar playing and the instrumentation but mostly this leaves me cold and wanting to listen to a country album that I like. I liked Hillbilly Highway. Good 'Ol Boy is ok, though I don't really get why someone from Iran partially owns his truck and it reminds me a little of the song Gettin' Bi from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I do really appreciate the line, "I was born in the land of plenty, now there ain't enough." And I don't know that I like the song all that much but I sure feel the sentiments in My Old Friend the Blues.

Bringing It All Back Home

Bob Dylan

5/5

Me, before listening to this album: I just don't get why people like Bob Dylan so much. Me, listening distractedly while cooking dinner: Yeah, I still don't get it. Me, as soon as It's Alright Ma starts: Ohhhhhhhhhhh...I get it now. I'm giving it 5 just for that experience.

All Mod Cons

The Jam

4/5

I've only listened to The Jam's Greatest Hits and frankly I'm surprised we're listening to this album instead of whatever album Town Called Malice is on. I will be equally surprised if we eventually listen to more than one album by The Jam. (Side note: My husband said he knew of this album before he knew what "all mod cons" means and he thought it was something much cooler than it actually is.) I only recognize a couple of these but this is a fun album. The bass and the drums stand out a lot to me in an interesting way. Favorite songs: the cover of The Kinks' David Watts (oooooh, when do we get to listen to The Kinks?), Billy Hunt, Fly, The Place I Love, and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight.

Scream, Dracula, Scream

Rocket From The Crypt

5/5

When this started, I thought, oh lord this is not what my frayed nerves need today. And I turned it off. Then I restarted and turned the volume down and it was much better. I completely missed this band at the time but I dig this punky, grungey (grungy?), alt-rock sound. (My spell check likes grungy but my eyes don't.) Reminds me of Faith No More, Soundgarden, Elvis Costello. Misbeaten sounds like The Beatles feat. Frankie Valli. I love On a Rope, Young Livers (yes!), Ball Lightning, Suit City, and Come See Come Saw. WOW! I love this!

Master Of Puppets

Metallica

3/5

I admire their speed and their power and their talent. These guys can play. But other than the title track (which is great), there's not much on this album that makes me want to listen again. Similar to how the Ramones made me feel, I can see why other folks like them but they're just not for me right now. I think maybe they're good for adolescent dudes who are mad at their math teacher and I can't not take that personally today.

Foo Fighters

5/5

I don't love every song on this record, but the ones I love, I love an awful lot. These are hard rock songs with singable and often beautiful melodies. I'll Stick Around and For All the Cows are two of my favorite FF songs. I also like Good Grief, Floaty, and This is a Call. Before today, I'd never heard how this album was recorded and now my mind is blown. This is all just Dave? Whoa.

John Prine

5/5

This record broke my heart and made me laugh out loud. He's a genuine poet and a heck of a story-teller. I loved pretty much every track (even Pretty Good with its glib mention of dog rape (WTH???)). This kind of album is the reason I'm here.

Hearts And Bones

Paul Simon

5/5

This album is not without some 80s cheese and some of the songs seem rather pedestrian in their themes (Allergies? Cars Are Cars? Write what you know, I guess). But Paul Simon is a poet and a prophet who can write a good melody and some great lyrics. (I also forget sometimes how freaking funny he can be.) I understand why I missed this album in 1983 --- it was a little grown-up for my 15-year-old tastes. But this sure appeals to me now. The title track, Song About the Moon, Think Too Much, and Rene and Georgette Magritte... are all really nice pieces of music. Train in the Distance and The Late Great Johnny Ace gave me chills.

Paranoid

Black Sabbath

5/5

Holy cow! This album is freaking fantastic! What have I been waiting for??? I think as a kid I bought just enough into the satanic panic of the 70s and 80s to believe at least a tiny bit that listening to Black Sabbath would invite Satan into my soul. (There were Christian protestors outside the brand new Events Center when Black Sabbath came to my home town in the early 80s.) And even after I became certain there was nothing to fear in this music, I had convinced myself that Black Sabbath just wouldn't appeal to me. They'd be too hard, too noisy, too mean. I even knew and liked half these songs already (War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man) but there was still a part of me that did not believe. Gah! Propaganda works, yo! Now I get why the powers that be needed me to be afraid. But the truth is we don't need to fear this bunch of hippies! The war pigs are the ones to fear! Anyway, my feelings about every single track on this record run the gamut from like-it-a-lot to oh-my-god-I-love-this-so-much! The drums, the guitars, bass, vocals are all amazing. When everything but the hi-hat drops out at the beginning of War Pigs? Sublime. The mellow bongo-ness of Planet Caravan? Smooth. The psychedelia Electric Funeral? Terrific. The bluesy grooves in the middle of Hand of Doom and Fairies Wear Boots? Bluesy and groovy --- and wicked! I love this record. More please!

Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter

2/5

Hello! Feminist Killjoy here... I spent a lot of this listen making a mental list of some of the female artists that I hope are coming up. (We've been listening for a month and we've heard exactly one.) So, while this album wasn't unpleasant to listen to, it had me wondering if maybe Deerhunter's dad was on the judging panel? And this isn't to say I think they're bad. If they lived down the street and played the local clubs, I'd think they are awesome. I'd be super proud of them for making stuff. But I found most of this unremarkable in the grand scheme of music and I can't help but wonder who was passed over to include it in the 1001. My rating of them is low perhaps because I'm mad at the list-makers of the world. Songs I enjoyed: Earthquake, Desire Lines, He Would Have Laughed. (And I've listened to these three several times now and like them more each time. I'm glad I've heard them. They are good.) Song I actively disliked: Basement Scene

Reign In Blood

Slayer

1/5

I expected this to be shocking and it was. I was shocked by how boring it is. Next!

Rock 'N Soul

Solomon Burke

5/5

Hooray! Some soul! I didn't think I knew this guy but once it started I recognized Cry to Me from that one scene in Dirty Dancing. You know the one. I also know He'll Have to Go but I'm thinking that maybe I really just know the first line, "Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone," from a TV ad for one of those compilation records in the 70s. (And maybe not this version. Maybe Elvis?) I really like this! Sexy, bluesy, lots of yearning. So glad to be introduced to it.

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

5/5

I freely admit that I've been living under a rock since about 1995. I was of course aware of Amy Winehouse and felt the grief of her fans when she died but I'd never listened to her music. (OK, maybe I saw them do Rehab on Glee...) I didn't know what to expect but it sure wasn't this. Musically, it's a joy to hear such a clear echo of the girl groups and soul singers of the 1960s --- I especially like the sample of Ain't No Mountain High Enough in Tears Dry on Their Own. The music sounds completely modern and nicely retro. Lyrically, it's sometimes hilarious (what kind of fuckery is this?) but mostly it's depressing as hell. I hear a woman trying desperately to numb her pain while trying to sound devil-may-care. And it is obviously so much worse considering how her short life ended. I can't imagine a bleaker sentiment than Love is a Losing Game. One or two songs are misses for me but overall I really like this album. I'm angry that we lost such a talent so early and I hope that she is resting in peace.

Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room

Dwight Yoakam

2/5

Jesus Fucking Christ, this record. If there were no lyrics, I would really really love this. I very much enjoy this traditional style of country with its banjos and fiddles and delicious guitar playing. The duet with Buck Owens is particularly good and it's great to hear Maria McKee on Send Me the Pillow. But as so often happens, toxic masculinity ruins the party again. My dude, your lady-friend is allowed to leave you. She's allowed to leave to be with someone else or just to get away from you (and your gun) or for no reason at all other than she wants to. And, yes, I know it hurts. It's super painful and will make you sad and angry and humiliated and that is HARD. I get it. But eat some ice cream, binge watch some TV, take a bath, and get some freaking therapy. This multi-song revenge fantasy is a misogynistic horror show and it makes you sound like a fragile baby. I'm giving this a 2 instead of a 1 for Buck Owens and Maria McKee.

Fromohio

fIREHOSE

4/5

For the first two songs, I couldn't really tell what musical language these guys were speaking. Once the bass kicked in on the superbly titled Whisperin' While Hollerin', I started to understand what we were doing. And then came the spare and lovely acoustic guitar instrumental Vastopol which is completely unlike anything else on the album but doesn't feel out of place. There is more great bass, funky guitar, and playing with time signatures in Mas Cojones, What Gets Heard, Time with You, and If'n. There are a couple of drum solos, which are good if you like that kind of thing. Some Things is fast and catchy punk-lite (in a good way). I came away thinking that these guys are decent musicians who like having a good time and I had a good time listening though I don't know how often I'll come back to this.

Rust In Peace

Megadeth

2/5

Are they trying to be silly? This isn't funny enough for me to believe they're not earnest but ... The songs I _almost_ liked were Breakpoint and, I can't believe I'm about to type these words, Tornado of Souls. But I've had enough metal for a while. Could we please have some Indigo Girls or Barbra Streisand or, as a friend of mine once said, "some goddamned Dolly Parton?"

The Hour Of Bewilderbeast

Badly Drawn Boy

5/5

Someone included Once Around the Block on a mixtape for me a while back but that's all I know of Badly Drawn Boy. I've always liked Once Around the Block because it's in 3 and sometimes you just need a waltz so I'm interested. First track is called The Shining and I'm nervous. Oh, a cello. How lovely. And a French horn? Go on... O! It's about the sun! And it's pretty! I love it. Next song is Everybody's Stalking (good Midnight Cowboy/Nilsson reference) and I'm dancing at the bus stop! (Can't really understand the lyrics but they might be creepy since it's about stalking.) I love this one, too! Also on my love list are Pissing in the Wind, Say it Again, Epitaph, the disco sound of Disillusion, and Stone on the Water (another waltz). The piano at the beginning of Magic in the Air reminded me of Hard Candy Christmas from Best Little Whorehouse... This Song is very strange. I listened to it twice on speakers and would have absolutely believed it was Simon & Garfunkel. But then I was relistening on headphones on my walk home and thought I might be having a stroke. There is some very very strange (and off-putting) stereo effect happening there. I almost fell over. There are a few tracks on this long album that didn't do much for me but overall I really liked this and will listen again.

Jagged Little Pill

Alanis Morissette

5/5

What were you doing when you were 21? This woman was recording a masterpiece. Incredible.

Happy Sad

Tim Buckley

4/5

Sweet and mellow, folksy and jazzy, double bass and marimbas, lovely melodies and a mournful voice. Side A was perfect for my state of mind on a lazy gray autumn Sunday afternoon. Side B's Gypsy Woman (title=ugh) went on way too long for me. Was grateful when that one was over. But overall, I really enjoyed this. Will look for more of him.

Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth

3/5

This is a band that I've seen on other people's T-shirts but I've never really listened to. And now I've listened to them. It's not at all that I disliked them. Not at all. But I can't really say that I liked them either. The music is fine but didn't make me feel a lot of feelings: good, bad, or otherwise. The instruments are standard rock band. Songs are melodious but not really pretty. A lot of the singing is more like pitched talking or yelling. And again I'm not saying this is bad, just not for me. Here are the songs that I appreciated: Teen Age Riot, 'Cross the Breeze, Eric's Trip, and Total Trash.

Peggy Suicide

Julian Cope

5/5

This feels like the kind of album that would be playing super loud at a record store and you'd be shopping and grooving and you'd pick up a copy and then listen on your walkman and it would feel like a wonderful secret. I loved this an awful lot. Even songs that started out kind of annoying (is he rhyming "mistake" with "mistake"?) built to something magnificent. Different tracks brought to mind wildly different things: Pristeen reminded me of Jesus Christ Superstar, Double Vegetation of The Who's Tommy, Promised Land of Leonard Cohen, Safesurfer of Pink Floyd. Several of the tracks are a total groove and a half: East Easy Rider, If You Loved Me At All, Soldier Blue, Not Raving But Drowning, Head. I was dancing along for a lot of it. And then we end with the easy, mellow Las Vegas Basement. I didn't pay much attention to lyrics. They seem repetitive but I didn't mind that at all. Love it love it love it. Thank you for this!

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Mudhoney

3/5

As a Seattle-ite, I'm glad I've now listened to a Mudhoney album. I was solidly...whelmed. I didn't want to leave the room because of it or anything but I'm not in a big rush to listen again. I did listen to it twice: once on headphones, mostly just paying attention to the music, and again on speakers while doing other things. I liked it better the second time. As my sole focus, there wasn't much there that caught my interest, nothing particularly unusual or catchy or moving. But while I was doing other things (making breakfast, answering emails), I found myself bopping around a bit to it. That's gonna elevate it from a 2 to a 3 for me. Thanks, though, Mudhoney for saving Sub Pop.

Spiderland

Slint

3/5

I really don't like looking at the cover. These guys make me nervous. I don't trust 'em for some reason. I really didn't like this the first time through and liked it even less the second time through. Couldn't really distinguish from track to track, lyrics are more speaky and shouty than singy, nothing really to grab onto. But I kind of got into the groove of it the third time through and really enjoyed Breadcrumb Trail, Washer, and Good Morning, Captain. If I were a different person, I can imagine listening to this late at night in a low-key hang with friends. But my friends and I are old and that would be past our bedtimes.

Debut

Björk

5/5

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This is so great! Listening to this just felt really good. Loved every track but special shout-out to Human Behavior, Like Someone in Love, and Big Time Sensuality. So good! Eleven stars out of five. ***********

Hounds Of Love

Kate Bush

5/5

How wonderful to listen to two women in a row! (Björk was yesterday. These two make a nice pair.) I've not listened to this one and didn't know anything beyond Running Up That Hill. I'm sorry I waited so long. Or maybe not. Maybe it needed to be now for me to appreciate it. Big Sky and Jig of Life were my favorites. I'm quite well taken with her voice, especially how it drops on the word "God" in Running Up That Hill. I sense a particular kind of authenticity in her music, that she's making exactly the kind of record she wants and needs to make and that makes me want to listen more. Excellent.

Haunted Dancehall

The Sabres Of Paradise

2/5

This is fine. Not unpleasant to listen to but nothing particularly stands out.

(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

4/5

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Three Guitar Army and Ronnie Van Zant's growl resonate deep in my bones. These songs feel surprisingly like home. Maybe it's because Gimme Three Steps was one of the songs that my brother's garage band rehearsed in our basement. (We did not have a garage.) My brother must've had a Greatest Hits album on 8-Track or something because several of these sound familiar but not all of them. I've never heard this whole album before, I'm sure of that. At least 3 songs mention guns but I don't think they ever get used, just held threateningly. I said "uh-oh" when they started talking about the ghetto in Things Goin' On but the rest of the words seemed ok and then the honky-tonk piano came in sounding exactly like something Paul Williams would write for the Muppets or Bugsy Malone and I was totally charmed. I prefer the upbeat songs like I Ain't the One, Gimme Three Steps, and Things Goin' On to the ballads but I cannot deny that Free Bird is a great song even if it's nine minutes long and I've heard it a million times. If I get to see the original Skynyrd line-up in the afterlife, you bet I'll ask to hear Free Bird.

Red Dirt Girl

Emmylou Harris

4/5

This one took me a few listens before I could really decide about it. I was excited to listen --- I'm not very familiar with Emmylou Harris but feel like I should be. The first time through, the songs just weren't taking hold. I thought they were pleasant and pretty but none of them felt like mine. I'm almost done listening for a third time and it's grown on me quite a bit. Her voice is great, there are some interesting guests singing harmony, the instrumentation is varied and fun, her songs tell a story. I'm most sold on One Big Love, Hour of Gold, and the title track. Those feel like they belong in my library. I also like Boy from Tupelo and My Antonia.

Trans Europe Express

Kraftwerk

4/5

There's nobody that quite sounds like Kraftwerk. This is another of those bands that I appreciate and respect more than like. They're good. They're unique. They're interesting. And yet... Their music doesn't make me FEEL anything. I never have the thought, "Oh, I should listen to some Kraftwerk." This album is good. I have a hard time distinguishing between songs but I can tell that things change now and then. I find the affectless German thing quite charming and some lines stick in my head (We look around and change our pose.) I wasn't wishing for it to end but I wasn't all that disappointed when it was over, ya know? Normally, this kind of review would mean a 3-star rating from me but I'm bumping it up to 4 stars because, although I don't love them, my husband does and he doesn't love many things and so the fact that he loves Kraftwerk DOES make me feel something...happy.

Frampton Comes Alive

Peter Frampton

5/5

I'm having another ohhhhhhhhhh-I-get-it-now moment. I've heard bits of this my whole life but never sat through the whole thing and kind of didn't think I'd like it that much. I listened to the 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, 1 hour and 46 minutes of music that I didn't want to end. Frampton's musicianship is astounding --- there's plenty of impressively spoodly electric guitar solos but then there's some lovely acoustic technique in Penny for your Thoughts and All I Wanna Be. And his voice! Smooth and lovely throughout, lots of variation. None of the fatigue or pitch problems you can sometimes hear in live recordings. I think of Frampton as a great guitarist but he can really really sing and he seems to be an incredible showman. In addition to the singles I was familiar with, I fell in love with several of these songs during this listen: Wind of Change, All I Wanna Be, I Wanna Go to the Sun, Shine On, and White Sugar. I didn't really love the cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash --- it just didn't seem to have teeth for some reason --- but I have renewed appreciation for Do You Feel Like We Do, all 14 minutes of it. So great!

The Visitors

ABBA

4/5

This was fun. Mostly these are songs I either don't know at all or don't know well. Stand-outs were the catchy, danceable title track and the theatrical I Let the Music Speak, a glimpse into what B&B had in store with the musical Chess (which I love). I didn't find much else that was very distinctive on this album but even a run-of-the-mill ABBA song is nice to listen to. I listened to the Deluxe edition with seven additional songs. I don't feel like those added much. A friend mentioned that he liked how the original album ended so I listened again, stopping at the end of Like an Angel Passing Through My Room, and I totally agree: that's how the album should end. There've been a lot of albums in this project where the version I find streaming is a Deluxe version and that's clearly not always good --- it matters how an album starts and ends and what order the songs play. This is a reminder to try to find the original version whenever I can.

Live 1966 (The Royal Albert Hall Concert)

Bob Dylan

4/5

Well now I don't know how to rate this album. I listened all the way through twice and was quite well taken with it the first time, ready for 5 stars. But after a second listen, I'm tired, ready for it to be over, at a low 3. I'm not sure what happened. I find I like it best when I can give all my attention to the lyrics. That makes it hard to get anything done while I'm listening. Second time through, I had to get some work done so maybe that's why it grated. I did really like the first side both times, all acoustic with just Dylan "singing." His voice is definitely a parody of itself and I can't call it "pretty" or even "good" but honestly I can't imagine these songs sounding any other way. This is poetry talk-sung to some simple, sweet melodies. His musicianship really shines on the harmonica --- chords and single tones with dynamics! Whoa. I started writing down all the lyrics I particularly liked but had to stop pretty quickly because I'd be quoting entire songs. I like the second side less with more musicians and more electricity. I see now from the album's Wikipedia page that the audience agreed with me: "The first half of the concert was greeted warmly by the audience, while the second half was highly criticized, with heckling going on before and after each song." It wasn't bad but I wasn't as charmed. I'll split the difference and give the whole thing a 4. I'm glad to have listened to it but I may not listen to the whole thing again.

Rejoicing In The Hands

Devendra Banhart

4/5

Loved the first few tracks, loved the last few tracks, but I got a bit bogged down in the middle. Overall, I like this Joanna Newsom-y kind of thing: a coffee shop guitar, quirky lyrics. The first lines and the last lines of the first song won me over right away and will be a hymn in my own personal church: "This is the soup that I believe in This is the smoke I'm always breathin' This is the way I share my breakfast ... Well we've known we've known We've had a choice We chose rejoice" I'm interested in hearing more from this guy.

Dummy

Portishead

3/5

This is not what I expected Portishead to sound like. But it turns out I was confusing them with Pigeonhead. Very different. Portishead's Dummy is pleasant ethereal background sound, the kind of music that they play to alert me that my time is up in the sensory deprivation tank. I've listened all the way through a few times and, other than Sour Times (which I know from something but I don't know what), not much leaps out at me. I'll rotate a couple of songs into my library but I'm not going to rush to find more.

Snivilisation

Orbital

3/5

A solid groove of an album. Songs weren't all that distinct from one another but I danced pretty much the whole time. The last track felt like the end of a long dance party and I felt good and ready to go home.

Teenager Of The Year

Frank Black

3/5

This was fine. I didn't love it. Some lyrics popped out and at best I mildly enjoyed some of the songs.

Illmatic

Nas

5/5

OK! I liked this the first time through. Liked it even more the second time through. Yep, the music is catchy, the rhymes are clever. All the talk of M-16s, M-10s, .9s, and the threat of death or prison makes me viscerally anxious, so I'm not sure if I'll listen to it regularly (and I acknowledge the privilege that I have that allows me to say and do that). But this is a great album and I can see why it's on this list.

Be

Common

3/5

Glad to see some rap finally showing up 53 albums in. And we got two days in a row! After Nas’ Illmatic yesterday, I was excited to listen to Common. But this didn’t appeal to me. I don’t particularly like Common’s rapping style. To me it felt disconnected from the music for the most part --- it's not that I want him to sing or anything but it almost felt like the lyrics and music were recorded independently so I had a hard time finding a groove. I definitely want to be exposed to more rap and hip-hop with this project but this just wasn’t my thing.

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

Spiritualized

3/5

Haven't we already listened to this? A lot of these records from the mid-90s are all running together. I liked the first few songs: the title track, Come Together (not the Beatles), and I Think I'm in Love (with lyrics like "Just me and my spike in my arm and my spoon," think more Lou Reed's Perfect Day than Eddie Money's song with almost the same title). Sorta liked Electricity. But the rest was unmemorable and felt endless. Are the 1990s overrepresented in the 1001 Albums book or is the randomization front loading the 90s records for us? Everything's starting to sound the same!

Bitte Orca

Dirty Projectors

4/5

Lots of melodic and rhythmic unpredictability on this one. Interesting vocals and instrumentation, too. Sometimes it's really interesting and fun and sometimes it's hard work to listen. I loved Cannibal Resource, particularly the backing vocals and the guitar in the instrumental section mid-song. I loved Stillness is the Move, including the title (this is a band that likes a juxtaposition I think). Two Doves sounds like contemporary musical theater (that's a compliment coming from me) and contains the line, "But our bed is like a failure." And Remade Horizon is really great, again with the hooty backing vocals that I find so charming. Most of the rest didn't really work for me. Temecula Sunrise has extremely pedestrian, extremely depressing lyrics. ("Definitely you can come and live with us. I know there's a space for you in the basement, yeah. All you gotta do is help out with the chores and dishes." Poetic in its banality? Actually, kind of yes.) In The Bride, the handclaps after the line, "no one has any good reason to live," were...surprising. I'm giving this one a 4 because the songs I love, I really love, and I am giving them each a star.

Kenya

Machito

5/5

Yes! I've listened three times all the way through and just started my fourth. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping from this project. It would never occur to me to seek out some Afro-Cuban jazz and, even if it did occur to me, I'd have no idea where to start. I love this! It's like a dance party in my kitchen. The crisp horns and percussion set my soul aflame and get my hips a-shakin'. I can't even pick any favorite tracks. I enjoyed every minute.

Songs Of Love And Hate

Leonard Cohen

5/5

This was such a pleasure to listen to today. Cohen is on the list of artists like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits who I had to age into. I appreciate him in a way that was never possible before. I have a two-disc Leonard Cohen Essentials CD but haven't ever listened to any of his studio albums. So glad to be doing it now. The guitar work is exquisite, the lyrics emotionally deep. The chorus of children's voices is particularly effective but not overused. I favorited every track.

Revolver

Beatles

5/5

This album blows my mind. Every single time. This is a pop/rock album, right? But here's Eleanor Rigby, a piece of chamber music with pop lyrics; Love to You, with its tabla and sitar; Yellow Submarine, which feels like something written for Sesame Street; For No One, backed only by piano, percussion, and French horn; and Tomorrow Never Knows which still sounds, in 2021, like it's from the future. The rest of the songs are more traditional rock and pop but they are an eclectic mix that I find difficult to place in a specific time period. Here, There and Everywhere sounds like 1960 Beatles. Got to Get You Into My Life sounds like 1970s Wings (which is honestly ok with me). Here is a short list of the things on this album that make me exclaim, "Are you kidding me?" to these geniuses when I listen to Revolver: The too slow countdown + cough + in tempo countdown that open Taxman and the guitar solo in the middle. The psychedelic fuzzy guitar on She Said She Said. The staggered entrances of the instruments and vocals at the beginning of Good Day Sunshine and the change to the melody on "Sunshine" the last time through the chorus. The way the bass and the piano play with each other on I Want to Tell You. The entirety of Tomorrow Never Knows. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is my favorite Beatles album.

White Blood Cells

The White Stripes

4/5

This isn't my favorite White Stripes album but I appreciate the intentionally spare style on display. I love Jack's youthful, crackly voice straining to hit the higher notes and Meg's steady volume on the drums. There's the perfect punk song Fell in Love With a Girl, the too short Little Room, the melancholy and melodic Same Boy You've Always Known, and Offend in Every Way somehow evoking gunslingers in the old west. A couple of the songs are relentless with the guitar, drums, and vocals all keeping the exact same rhythm pretty much the whole time (Expecting and Aluminum). My two favorites are This Protector (good lord, I am a sucker for a rock and roll piano) and the unexpected We're Going to Be Friends, which only a monster could dislike. ("Teacher thinks that I sound funny but she likes the way you sing.")

Surf's Up

The Beach Boys

5/5

Holy holy, what an absolute gem of an album. Can't believe I've never heard it. The album starts with The Beach Boys telling me NOT to go near the water. What? This was unexpected. To be honest, this song is a little cheeseball and a bit too on the nose. It could've been (maybe was) a TV ad for water conservation. But other than the surprising message, this sounds like a Beach Boys song. Long Promised Road is a beautiful, beautiful pop song. I just love it. Can't believe it wasn't a bigger hit. Take a Load Off Your Feet is catchy and ridiculous. I knew Captain & Tennille's cover of Disney Girls but had no idea it was a cover of a Beach Boys song. This is another really lovely pop song with an achingly exquisite melody sung so beautifully by Bruce Johnston. When he sings "oh" in the chorus, it goes straight to my heart. I love this one. From that we go straight to a heavy blues riff and some sirens for Student Demonstration Time. This has some of the best lyrics including, "The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun." Fuck. Feel Flows definitely sounds like the Beach Boys singing but doesn't sound like a Beach Boys song. The instrumental section is prog rock with flutes and all. This is another one that I love. I don't know what to say about Lookin' At Tomorrow. I just don't. A Day in the Life of a Tree is from the p.o.v. of said tree accompanied by a sad carnival calliope. Again, Til I Die and Surf's Up sure sound like the Beach Boys singing but they are eerie and haunting and the opposite of the carefree surfing songs I've come to expect from these guys. They're stunning. I am so grateful to have been introduced to this precious piece of work. We've only been together, this album and I, for about 24 hours but already we are in a pretty serious relationship that I think is going to last for quite some time.

I See A Darkness

Bonnie "Prince" Billy

5/5

Whoa. This is dark. I am worried about Bonnie "Prince" Billy. His pain is palpable. I felt heart-sick the entire duration of my first listen. I think I'm on my fourth time through now. It is still dark but it gets prettier and prettier the more I listen. There's not a song I dislike on the album. I find the songs I See a Darkness and Today I Was an Evil One especially resonant, at least today. The record ends on a positive note (I think?) with Raining in Darling. "Oh, it don't rain anymore I go outdoors Where it's fun to be And I know you love me I know you do" love love love

The Atomic Mr Basie

Count Basie & His Orchestra

5/5

Two words: Heck yeah!

Funeral

Arcade Fire

5/5

This one. This one I want to hear performed live. I want the bass to tickle the soles of my feet and rattle my ribcage. I want to dance and sweat and mouth all the words. More than many, this album feels like one piece of work, rather than a collection of songs. I've never seen Arcade Fire. I'm making all of this up. Here is my daydream: This works best in my mind if I imagine a smallish venue --- max. capac. at most 500 people, an old theater with red velvet curtains and a proscenium stage. We've got reserved seats (we are too old for general admission) in the 6th row and a warm whiskey buzz going. The first three tracks bring us in gently, but each of these rises and falls in tempo and intensity, building to a boppy finish at the end of Une année sans lumière. And THEN, Neighborhood #3 hits like a ton of bricks and we are overwhelmed with sound and light and maybe we can't breathe. Good thing Neighborhood #4 is next so we can take a minute to recover, continuing into the beginning of Crown of Love which builds some more, shifting to a crooning ballad and again to a disco finish that leads into the steady groove of the anthemic Wake Up which itself shifts to a dance party reminiscent of The Jam or Iggy Pop. Rebellion really feels like a finale. We're all on our feet, jumping to the beat in unison. It's hot. We all need water. Almost done. We know. We are elated, high on the show. Applause, clapping, stomping. We want an encore! We hear In the Backseat start before lights come up. We close our eyes, all breathing the same air. Music builds for the last time. It is too much but we don't want it to end. Instruments gradually drop out one by one. No applause at the end of this one. We exit quietly, our ears ringing, a tear in our eyes, a gentle smile on our lips.

Teenage Head

Flamin' Groovies

3/5

The earth didn't move but this is ok. I like this general style of music and there were a few stand-out moments. I like City Lights and some of its rhymes: laughin'/autographin', Stetson/gets in, and buildin'/killed him. The line in Have You See My Baby about talking to strangers because I'm a stranger, too, made me laugh. Dr. Boogie is pretty fun. Don't know that I'll play this whole album again but I like some of these songs enough to rotate them into play now and again.

Tracy Chapman

5/5

Terrific. Chapman's at her best and most authentic with a spare arrangement, just her voice and guitar, maybe some percussion. A couple of tracks seem over orchestrated and overproduced, which unfortunately makes them feel dated. This is still a great album. Lyrics are bleak but vivid, some fine story-telling. Fast Car is on my top-shelf of favorite songs.

Jack Takes the Floor

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

5/5

Oh, I like this. I like the style of music, the quality of his voice, and his ramblings. His folksy country-boy persona comes across as kind, gentle, and authentic. This despite his being raised in Brooklyn, his first exposure to rodeo being in Madison Square Garden of all places (according to Wikipedia). He sounds to my Wyoming-raised ears just like a genuine cowboy. I enjoyed this a lot.

Sheer Heart Attack

Queen

5/5

Wowee! That was exhilarating! I am giddy. That's what I wrote last night. This morning I woke up to the news of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and I wasn't so giddy. This album's great though and I expect to be in the mood for it again someday. It had managed to fly under the radar for me all this time and I'm glad to be finding it now. I love that, though there are several different styles of music here, Queen is as unique a band as you'll find, hard rocking and broadly theatrical and fun (if you're into fun). Definitely will come back to this one again and again.

3 + 3

The Isley Brothers

5/5

This was so fun! Love the extended version of That Lady with its wailing guitar solo and the other original songs especially You Walk Your Way and The Highways of My Life. And then there are a bunch of delightful covers that I wouldn't have expected to work but absolutely do. I loved the soulful Don't Let Me Be Lonely and Summer Breeze (more wailing guitar!) and the funky Listen to the Music and Sunshine. Terrific addition to my library. I'm really loving the records from the early 70s that have been showing up recently, new-to-me albums from familiar-to-me artists. Great fun.

Back to Mystery City

Hanoi Rocks

3/5

I'd never heard of Hanoi Rocks. I think I would have really loved this album 30 years ago when I was listening to L.A. Guns and Motley Crue. I really liked Malibu Beach Nightmare and Back to Mystery City and, to a lesser extent, Mental Beat. The others felt like a bit of a slog for me.

Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C.

5/5

Had a great time listening to this. Have always loved the Walk This Way, It's Tricky, and You Be Illin'. Great to hear the rest of this classic. Super fun.

Smokers Delight

Nightmares On Wax

4/5

Didn't have the luxury of a nice, long focused listen today but this provided a groovy ambience to my dinner-making. Nothing was particularly standing out until Bless My Soul and its delightful boings. I loved that track and the next, Cruise (Don't Stop), and Rise and its repRise. It's nice. I'll keep it.

I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail

Buck Owens

4/5

I liked listening to this. Even the songs that are sad made me happy. I doubt that I'll listen again but I enjoyed being here for a while.

Drunk

Thundercat

2/5

Well, I tried real hard to like this. I laughed out loud a few times -- perhaps I laughed loudest at, "Tell 'em how you feel, Kenny. Kenny Loggins." It was fine at first, kind of musically directionless, which isn't my favorite but I can respect it for a while. Lyrics seemed fragmented, short snippets rather than part of a story or even one theme. (Well, Friend Zone seemed pretty clear. But was maybe satire? Maybe not. So maybe not so clear.) Ultimately, I found it really hard to latch onto anything and it just overstayed its welcome. It felt like a friend of your roommate's who was kind of funny at first but whose humor wore thin pretty quickly and they were too drunk to drive home and are still at your house in the morning when all you want is coffee and some toast.

Since I Left You

The Avalanches

5/5

This was a great dance party. Tempos and styles changed but we kept grooving from start to finish. Loved it.

Dare!

The Human League

4/5

This is good, synth-y 80s pop. I don't think I'd ever heard the whole album. I liked Don't You Want Me well enough when it was released but I think I've heard it enough in the last 40 years. I really liked the songs on this album that were less familiar to me, especially The Things That Dreams Are Made Of and Seconds.

Fever To Tell

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4/5

I knew Rich and Maps going into today but hadn't listened to the whole album before. This isn't really my kind of music and I don't know that I'll want to do the whole thing again but I listened to it a few times today and enjoyed it well enough. The opening of Rich is an excellent start to a record and I love Karen O's snarling, screaming vocals throughout. The lyrics in many of the songs include long stretches of a single word or phrase repeated over and over (rich-rich-rich-rich-rich-rich; choke, choke, choke; tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick; uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh-ooh; bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam dunuh-dunuh-dunuh-dunuh). This totally worked for me. The almost gentle Modern Romance is a nice change of pace after so much screaming and blistering guitar. Love the sweet vocal quality, the simple steady beat, and the quiet jingle bells on this song. The last track Poor Song starts with an off-key mmm-chh that I could listen to all day and a line that is my personal philosophy, "Baby, I'm afraid of a lot of things, but I ain't scared of loving you."

Rocks

Aerosmith

5/5

Aerosmith! Yay! I don't know this album. (Is it just me or does the cover look cheap?) I love the build at the beginning of Back in the Saddle and there are some horse noises I've never noticed before...and some yodeling! Last Child is one of the songs that defines Aerosmith for me --- an edgy, hard-rocking blues sound where Steven Tyler gets to sing and screech. The rest of the songs are totally new to me. I do love Combination --- the lyrics have some clever rhymes and the chorus is hella catchy. When Nobody's Fault started, I had to check to see if I was still listening to Aerosmith. It's more heavy metal than blues-rock. Get the Lead Out is fun. (But why are you showing me your fist? is it to show off your new finger tattoos?) I love me a song with some na, na, na's, like Lick and a Promise. Home Tonight is a nice piano-heavy power ballad whose melody made me think of Chicago's Saturday in the Park. This was great fun!

Vento De Maio

Elis Regina

5/5

Wow. This is something very special. Wow. She is soulful beyond belief, channeling something that the rest of us aren't in touch with. I adored every song but Rebento stopped me in my tracks. Tremendous!

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Stereolab

4/5

Unfortunately for Stereolab, yesterday's listen was Elis Regina and she is a HARD act to follow. I really just wanted to keep listening to Elis. But I'm a good student and like to keep up with my homework so I made myself listen to Stereolab a couple of times today. It's good! Pleasant and unobtrusive, nice slow grooves. Favorite tracks were Metronomic Underground, OLV 26, and The Noise of Carpet. Now back to Brazil!

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

5/5

Sublime. I've been to church. I am stunned and grateful.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Beatles

5/5

It's hard to "review" an album that I've listened to so much. It's like trying to review air or water. This album just IS. I listened three times today and tried to hear new things. I paid a lot of attention to background vocals and bass lines and unusual instruments. This music is layered and rich and there's a lot to hear. I am starting to really notice and appreciate Ringo, both on the drums and when he sings. There's something so hopeful and endearing about A Little Help from My Friends sung in his treacly voice. Some of my favorite bits are the "hey, hey, hey" in Fixing a Hole, how the vocals build in the chorus of Lucy, and that sweet clarinet in When I'm 64. I also love the lines "Vera, Chuck, and Dave," "And of course Henry the Horse dances the waltz," and "Fun is the one thing that money can't buy." Oh yes, this is a good one indeed.

Truth And Soul

Fishbone

5/5

Excuse me, I am too busy to write any notes about this album because I'm building a time machine so I can go kick my college-age self in the hiney and tell her to pick up a Fishbone cassette or two. She would have really loved this album. Listening to this was a wild ride! Such a range of styles. No two songs are alike: there were spoodly metal guitar solos, some funky ass bass, soulful keys and horns, ska rhythms and danceable beats, and some swoon-inducing twelve-string guitar. Fun tunes with lyrics to match but also upbeat songs that belie their serious social justice lyrical content. I had a great time listening to this and will listen again and again to make up for lost time.

Psychocandy

The Jesus And Mary Chain

3/5

This is fine. Not really my thing but not unpleasant. I listened twice. Probably won't listen again.

Odelay

Beck

5/5

I capital L-O-V-E about half the tracks on this album. The loud, fuzzy downbeat of Devil's Haircut is a tremendous start for an album and the rest of the song is great --- gotta love a song with the word "leprous" in it. I also love the lyrically absurd Hotwax ("in the chain-smoke Kansas flashdance ass pants") and its extensive instrumentation --- there's some jazzy Charlie Brown piano in the background for just a few seconds near the ass pants line and some steel guitar that are both just delightful. Jack-Ass and Ramshackle are mellow, almost plaintive, and lovely. My other faves include The New Pollution (of course) and Where It's At (of course of course) and also the country-tinged Sissyneck. Beck's varied instruments and styles, clever sampling, and singable tunes make me a fan.

The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

Charles Mingus

5/5

This was a rather dramatic soundtrack to my rather ordinary day. Evocative and cinematic, this album tells a story, going from smoky and sultry to mildly frenetic to romantic to grandly theatrical in a short 39 minutes. Not all jazz does it for me but this sure does. Love it.

Remedy

Basement Jaxx

4/5

I had a great time dancing for the first half-hour or so and then I was tired and ready to lie down. Terrific fun ... for a while.

Abraxas

Santana

4/5

Didn't have the time that I'd like to focus and listen a few times but I enjoyed the time I had with this album today. Great guitar, organ, and percussion. I particularly liked Mother's Daughter.

Elvis Presley

5/5

How odd to simply listen to an Elvis album. These songs and this sound has been so ubiquitous that it's hard to imagine a time before they existed. This was great. I'm so impressed with the musicianship and the marriage of blues and country. Very enjoyable.

Stardust

Willie Nelson

5/5

Thank you, 1001 Robot, for giving me this album today. It was a balm for my soul at the end of a sad week. There is a delicacy, a clarity, a precision to every note of this album. Tempos are steady, slow, and deliberate, giving a sense of being suspended in some warm, gooey, sweet syrup. These are some of my favorite standards delivered by musicians of the highest order. Perfection.

It's Blitz!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

5/5

Really surprised by this one! It's so different from Fever to Tell which we had just two weeks ago. The sound is cleaner and seems more intentional. Dance beats but still an alt-rock sound. I dig it!

Melodrama

Lorde

5/5

I've listened to this album seven times today...so far. I am in awe of Lorde's powerful voice and story-telling, her strength and vulnerability, her fearlessness. I wrote down some of my favorite lyrics but there were a lot. Lots of favorite songs, too. This deserves more than five stars.

Sex Packets

Digital Underground

2/5

Welllllllllllll...I was having a pretty good time at this party. I've always liked The Humpty Dance. It's cheeky and fun. The next track talks about verbal rape but ok, I guess that's just some macho posturing and it was 1990 and all. Rhymin' on the Funk, The New Jazz, and Underwater Rimes are fine with their "smooth flow" and "dope rhymes" such as "mobster" and "lobster." (Sincerely! Not sarcasm! The quotes are from the album!) These guys mostly seem silly and fun. And then...the last half of the record felt like I was listening to a joke where I wasn't exactly the punchline but the joke really wasn't meant for my ears (and maybe as a woman, I was punchline-adjacent). I won't say I was offended by all the sex talk --- I'm a feminist killjoy, not a prude --- but I didn't enjoy it and wanted to leave the party. I'll just take The Humpty Dance and go.

Nixon

Lambchop

3/5

Maybe this is a slow burn and with a few more listens I would love it. I really loved Up With People from its first hand-claps and thought during the first listen there was another song that I liked a lot. But on the second listen I realized it was just another version of Up With People. The rest was fine but nothing else particularly grabbed me. Nice and mellow though.

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

PJ Harvey

5/5

Didn't know much of PJ Harvey aside from 50ft Queenie, which is a great punk song but I didn't know how I'd feel about a whole album. Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was a wonderful surprise. This is solid alternative rock with a grown-up point of view. During my first listen, I favorited half the tracks. During the second, I favorited the rest. I love this.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

5/5

Listening to Nick Drake gives me deep feelings of warmth and safety. It's like being swaddled and held. I find this ironic and profoundly sad considering the animosity that apparently existed between this talented artist and his own brain. I'm grateful for what he left us with.

Songs The Lord Taught Us

The Cramps

4/5

Wasn't expecting such a fun surfer rock/rock-a-billy sound from The Cramps. This was a good time. The cover of Fever was superb.

Appetite For Destruction

Guns N' Roses

5/5

This is an old, old favorite that I used to listen to on my walkman in college. Aside from a couple of lyrics that still make me cringe, this is a brilliant piece of work. Great songs, great riffs, great vocals. I will always love it.

Brothers

The Black Keys

3/5

I like The Black Keys and have listened to a couple of their albums so I was excited to see this. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with Brothers. I like their general sound but most of these songs just blended together into a big mush. Howlin' for You, Ten Cent Pistol, and Sinister Kid stood out from the rest but just barely. Maybe a couple of their albums is all I need.

I Against I

Bad Brains

3/5

Another album that lands in the "well, it's not _bad_ but why is it here exactly?" category. Thought it lacked pizzazz.

Dear Science

TV On The Radio

5/5

They had me charmed from the ba-ba-ba ba ba at the start of the Peter Gabriel-esque Halfway Home. I love this song a lot a lot a lot. My love continues through Crying, Dancing Choose ("bought a sweater for his Weimaraner, too"), the funky bass and glorious chorus of Golden Age, Love Dog, and Dogs of Light. And finally, my favorite, Shout Me Out, with its tempo change and wailing second half. The songs are hard to categorize but this record is good good good.

Violator

Depeche Mode

4/5

I've never been very into Depeche Mode and hadn't listened to Violator prior to today. It's good! It's really good and gets better each time I listen to it and I want to keep listening to it. In addition to the great Personal Jesus, I do enjoy Enjoy the Silence, Halo, Policy of Truth, and the very fine Clean. I'm not done with this one yet.

Pornography

The Cure

3/5

Glad to confirm my feelings about The Cure: I can see why they appeal to some people but they don’t hold much appeal for me.

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

5/5

A wonderful Christmas surprise.

Lazer Guided Melodies

Spiritualized

4/5

A very nice mellow interesting listen.

Low-Life

New Order

3/5

This is fine. Tolerable. But if I were dating someone and they said this is their favorite album, I'd probably break up with them because we wouldn't understand each other emotionally. This album isn't bad but I find it uninspiring.

Pretzel Logic

Steely Dan

5/5

Maybe it's because I heard Steely Dan a lot as a kid, but there's something about this album that seems very grown-up to me, like something a friend's cool (but not too cool) parents might listen to. I was surprised to learn that Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were in their mid-20s when this was released. They sound older than I will ever feel. AND I love it! It's not at all gloomy but they seem like they take the music seriously. There's interesting percussion and great guitar throughout. Rikki Don't Lose that Number is a terrific pop song. Pretzel Logic has a groove (but I'm scratching my head at the lyrics about minstrel shows). OK, maybe I lied a little --- Charlie Freak's lyrics are pretty gloomy but the dark lyrics are juxtaposed with a rollicking Linus-and-Lucy-like piano and some jingle bells. And I love the bass and sax in Monkey in Your Soul. At a short and sweet 34 minutes, songs are varied and interesting and I didn't feel like there was too much filler. It zipped along.

Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

Billy Bragg

5/5

Everything about this is wonderful, from the title and the cover to his voice and his powerful lyrics. Half the songs have a practical, everyday romanticism to them and the other half protest the oppression of the working class. Every song is terrific. The Peel Sessions Album is one of my husband's favorites so I've heard Billy Bragg a lot but in a much more stripped-down setting --- just Bragg singing and accompanying himself on electric guitar. Very interesting to hear a studio album with more instruments and back-up singers. Love the violins on Train Train and the piano on Honey, I'm a Big Boy Now. There is lots of poetry to talk to the taxman about. My favorite: "Mother shakes her head and reads aloud from the newspaper As Father puts another lock on the door And reflects upon the violent times that we are living in While chatting to the wife beater next door." Oof.

Too Rye Ay

Dexys Midnight Runners

4/5

Enjoyed it more than I expected but likely not enough to seek it out again.

Face to Face

The Kinks

5/5

I've been waiting for The Kinks. I don't know this album aside from a few songs. I loved every track. Super great.

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

George Michael

4/5

I've always disliked the title of this album. It feels like a set-up --- if you don't like the record, it's because of your prejudices. Well...to this "little hungry schoolgirl" who loved Wham! and Faith, this album _was_ disappointing at the time. I like it more now than I did in 1990. I count Praying for Time and Freedom! '90 among my favorite songs. I also really like Waiting for That Day and Heal the Pain. While I can appreciate Michael's need for more respect as a song-writer and the state of his personal life at the time, this album seems overly serious. I would have liked a bit more fun and a bit less scolding. This album is nevertheless very very good.

Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

4/5

Interesting to listen to Cohen's first album not long after listening to his last. Not a lot of variety in this one --- most of the songs are easy to mistake for Suzanne. But Suzanne is a lovely song so not much harm in that.

A Night At The Opera

Queen

5/5

What a glorious piece of work this is. An incredible example of what's possible in rock music. A grand display of hutzpah and talent. I love it very much.

Very

Pet Shop Boys

4/5

This was a very enjoyable listen. The disco beat and interesting lyrics provided a great soundtrack to my cold, wet, gloomy walk today. Top-notch exuberance!

Smile

Brian Wilson

5/5

Wow. This is something. I'm glad I had the time to give it a focused listen. I think it might not be quite so great in the background but, as an activity all its own, this album's got layers galore to explore. It's symphonic with its movements and recurring motifs, one piece of music rather than a collection of songs. Tantalizing snippets of the familiar melody from Good Vibrations appear early in the album in Song for Children. Heroes and Villains and Surf's Up are similarly teased before those songs actually start. The instrumentation is incredible: strings, brass, woodwinds, a deep percussion bench, whistles (so many whistles!), power tools. So much to discover on repeated listens. (I appreciated the inclusion of the instrumental Heroes and Villains bonus track to hear some of the sounds I missed the first time through.) Lyrics are often child-like and nonsensical, often just repeated words, phrases and sounds, using the voices as more instruments as opposed to a means to tell a story. I'm so grateful that Brian Wilson found the strength to come back and finish this after a tough 40 years. It did indeed make me SMiLE.

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

5/5

Once again, I am very pleasantly surprised by Black Sabbath. I really really love this. It's more psychedelic rock than heavy metal and a few songs barely count as "rock" music: Changes is a piano ballad for crying out loud and Laguna Sunrise could play over the end credits of a Western. I think Lenny Kravitz took some psychedelic funk inspiration from Supernaut when making Are You Gonna Go My Way. There were a few tracks that started out just ok for me but then they'd hit a bridge or a transition or a melody line that made me weak in the knees. The last track Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes is the most like what I would have expected from Black Sabbath and I'm glad the entire record wasn't like that. But there's enough variety here to make that track a welcome ending. I don't know how often I'll listen to this but 20-year-old me would have listened a lot and I'm going to let her give it five stars.

Africa Brasil

Jorge Ben Jor

5/5

This is the kind of thing I came here for. It wouldn't occur to me to seek this kind of music out and, even if I did, I wouldn't know where to start. And how else would I find out that Rod Stewart got sued for stealing the melody for "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"? Lots of fun.

Metallica

4/5

Hard to believe that it was 30 years ago that I bought this CD. I haven't listened to it in a long, long time and was reluctant to listen today. I figured I'd outgrown it. BUT I found the first 2/3 of the album absolutely exhilarating. This is great heavy metal with distinct and singable melodies and lyrics. Enter Sandman, Sad But True, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam, Don't Tread on Me, and Nothing Else Matters are as thrilling to listen to today as they were back then. I really wish the album ended after Nothing Else Matters though. The last four tracks are tiresome if not downright silly.

Eli And The Thirteenth Confession

Laura Nyro

5/5

This is incredible. I have heard of Laura Nyro but never listened. I always had the feeling for some reason that her music was somehow weird and would be a challenge to listen to. On the surface, it doesn't seem challenging at all --- I get a clear singer-songwriter pop vibe a la Carole King or Rickie Lee Jones --- and I can't figure out why she wasn't on the radio all the time when I was a kid. But, oh, yeah...melodies and rhythms and even styles change every couple of lines or so. She doesn't stay anywhere for very long...and I love it. My god, what a treasure.

Led Zeppelin

5/5

There may be other bands with them at the top but no one is on a higher shelf of my Mental Library of Favorite Bands than Led Zeppelin. They make me feel all of the good stuff. There is a lot to appreciate in this album. At the start of almost every song, I catch my breath a bit and think, "Oooh this one's my favorite." And at the start of the next, "Oh, no wait. It's this one. This one's my favorite." On some of the tracks, I'm often glad when Robert Plant's vocals start back up again after a long spoodly middle but any given song is back to being my favorite by the end. Love them all.

Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk

4/5

It's great to hear more jazz. I like it.

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg

Jerry Lee Lewis

5/5

Man oh man is this one fun. A rollicking good time.

Quiet Life

Japan

3/5

Fun, synth-y, sax-y late 70s/early 80s pop. A clear influence on Duran Duran. Not my favorite but good enough and the right beats per minute for an afternoon walk in the sunshine. Love the cover of All Tomorrow's Parties.

Modern Life Is Rubbish

Blur

4/5

Before today, all I knew of blur was their song from the Trainspotting soundtrack ("Sing") and the cover of their Leisure album with the lady in the flowered swim cap. I've listened to Modern Life is Rubbish many times today. It was good music to play while I worked, neither annoying nor overly distracting. And the more I listened, the more I liked. And yet, I'm finding blur very hard to pin down. Pretty much all I know for sure about them is they're British. I try not to read about the album before I write my review but I broke that rule today and that did help me make more sense of the album as an attempt to make something distinctively English, taking inspiration from Ray Davies and Paul Weller, after an unpleasant tour of the US. I can hear the essences of The Kinks and The Jam but with a 1990s sensibility, a British response to grunge. I really, really like every song on this album but there's something holding me back from loving it and I don't know what that is yet. I feel like I need more time with it. It's a solid 4 today but I can envision it inching its way up to a 5 eventually.

Slanted And Enchanted

Pavement

4/5

I did not want to listen to an indie rock band from the early 90s today and was throwing a bit of an internal tantrum about it. But these guys have won me over, distortion and atonal speak-singing and all. I wouldn't mind if they lived on my block so I could hear them rehearsing in their garage. I'm still a long way from calling myself a fan of early 90s indie rock but I'll be happy to have several of these tracks shuffle up in my rotation.

Olympia 64

Jacques Brel

5/5

I've not seen any of Jacques Brel's movies but based on his music, I am guessing he's an extraordinary actor. I don't speak French well enough to know what he's saying most of the time but I sure as hell know what he's feeling. Very few artists get under my skin the way he does.

Dry

PJ Harvey

5/5

Much like when we listened to Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, it took me a few tracks to find my footing with PJ Harvey's Dry, but once I did, I was a goner. I love this album, especially Dress, Victory, Hair, and Plants and Rags and especially-especially Sheela-Na-Gig and Happy and Bleeding. Swoon!

Heaux Tales

Jazmine Sullivan

5/5

Goodness gracious. Vulnerable and raw. This is a fascinating album. Recordings of seemingly candid speeches are interspersed with songs inspired by the discussions. The way I said it makes it sound boring! But the pieces are largely about sex and sexual agency, so no not boring. I love Sullivan's voice. She's got a beautiful range and uses it with particular gut-wrenching effect on the track Lost One. My other favorites on the album were: Bodies, Pick Up Your Feelings, The Other Side, and Girl Like Me.

Bluesbreakers

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

2/5

Clapton's recent and not-so-recent shenanigans render this pretty unpalatable for me. I get why your dad likes it but it's not for me today.

Dub Housing

Pere Ubu

4/5

I think it really says something about a record if you have to pause occasionally to see if the sound you're hearing is the music or a truck backing up. (It was a truck backing up.) This record is squeaky and squonky, clickety-clackety-chrunchety. The vocals aren't exactly singing, more pitched shouting that reminded me of my Granny a lot of the time. I can't imagine the day when I will say, "You know what I'd like to hear today? Some Pere Ubu." But I did find this interesting, a unique listening experience. Kind of like getting a routine MRI (I get one every year) --- I don't really like or enjoy it but it's fascinating and there's only a tiny bit of pain and fear involved. And now I have to give it a rating from 1 to 5 and pretend that the experience of music is somehow one-dimensional, as though I could nestle Pere Ubu somewhere between Portishead and Leonard Cohen instead of on some other scale entirely.

Bright Flight

Silver Jews

4/5

Poetic and wistful but not brooding. Somewhere twixt indie rock and country. It's nice.

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying

Megadeth

2/5

They've got volume and speed if you like that sort of thing. I'm finding that I need more...a poetic lyric here and there, a melody, a hook, a groove. I've tried keeping an open mind and looking for things to like but I think I'm ready to say that thrash metal just isn't for me.

The Healer

John Lee Hooker

4/5

Some great blues from JLH and some of 1989's more mainstream artists. Loved The Healer with Carlos Santana, I'm in the Mood with Bonnie Raitt, Baby Lee with Robert Cray, Cuttin' Out with Canned Heat, and Think Twice Before You Go with Los Lobos. I found the second half of the album much less fun. (I guess I like my blues to be fun.) I'd love to hear more from John Lee Hooker though.

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

5/5

Full of soul and exuberance, this album had me dancing and grinning from start to finish. I gave it five stars before the end of the first line of Tutti Frutti and it just got better from there. Whooooo!

Walking Wounded

Everything But The Girl

3/5

Well, I have been on a journey with this album today. I had heard the name Everything but the Girl but I really didn't know anything about them. I didn't get a particularly good feeling from the cover art last night. I woke up early to get some work done this morning. I put on my headphones and pressed play. The mellow, danceable beats and smooth vocals were a great accompaniment to my workday. Made it all the way through the album and pressed play again. Still good. And then...I took a walk outside with it and it was much less interesting. Maybe the ear pods I wear when I'm walking give me less bass than my at-home headphones and that was the issue. Maybe the music is better as background than as my main focus. Maybe three times in a day was too much. They'd somehow lost their luster one way or another. Anyway, this is pretty good electronic-pop, but maybe just in small doses.

Brown Sugar

D'Angelo

3/5

I'm not too keen on this many songs containing what sounds like earnest let's-get-it-on-ness. I liked the cover of Cruisin' and the smooth and jazzy When We Get By.

Exit Planet Dust

The Chemical Brothers

4/5

I've been meaning to investigate The Chemical Brothers for a while but hadn't gotten around to it. Glad this project gave me an entry point. This was a great soundtrack for my afternoon walk. Tempos were lively and kept me moving. I like it as background for work and kitchen grooves while making dinner. It's hard to distinguish between "songs" --- it's just one long dance party. Today that matched my mood and agenda perfectly.

Crime Of The Century

Supertramp

5/5

This is one that really needs to be experienced with headphones. The dynamic range is wide and listening on speakers I was either straining to hear or clamoring to turn it down. With the headphones, I got more of the subtle sounds and some nice stereo effects. Before this, I was really only familiar with Supertramp's singles and mostly those that featured Roger Hodgson singing lead. That made it hard to fit songs like longtime favorite Bloody Well Right into the Supertramp space in my brain. Listening to this album helped with that, giving me a wider perspective of their work. I enjoyed this record a lot. Most of the songs exceed five and a half minutes and don't stay in one place --- songs I didn't entirely love had parts that I did. Some of the pieces and their theatricality brought to mind Queen and Elton John of the same era. (In fact, parts of Asylum sound so much like Tiny Dancer, that it must be an homage.) I've never really liked the song Dreamer before but I loved it today. Today I recognized a little countermelody near the end and it took a minute to place --- Rodger Hodgson included it as part of the soundscape introduction to his 1984 solo single Had a Dream, another of my favorites. And that glockenspiel at the end! Yes! Glad to have listened to this for the songs I knew and the songs that were new to me. Lots to dig into here and it definitely makes me want to hear more from Supertramp.

Rising Above Bedlam

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart

4/5

Only had time for one listen today. I liked it. Nice mixture of cultures and styles.

Lost In The Dream

The War On Drugs

2/5

Maybe I'm a grouch today. This isn't terrible but it's not doing much for me, I can't ever imagine choosing to listen to it again, and I'm feeling some resentment about listening to it. It's got a very strong Bryan Adams/Don Henley vibe and honestly I'd rather listen to one of them because then at least there'd be some nostalgia involved.

Horses

Patti Smith

5/5

One of the things that impresses me the most about Horses is its highs and lows. This is an album that hits the peakiest peaks and rockiest bottoms. Songs rise and fall in shape, mood, volume, never ending where they start. Patti Smith enunciates (or doesn’t) as if she just needs to work this shit out for herself and doesn’t really care if you understand it. That means that, even if I can’t completely follow the through-line of the lyrics, every once in a while a phrase leaps out and keeps me curious, enthralled. (“Your soul was like a network of spittle…”) Of course I love Gloria and its opening line “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” especially the second time when she is so quietly smug on “but not mine.” Birdland is an epic poem that starts with some nice piano and Smith’s sweet, almost girlish voice describing the funeral of a farmer and the son he left behind. “It was as if someone had spread butter on all the fine points of the stars, ‘cause when he looked up, they started to slip. Then he put his head in the crux of his arm and he started to drift.” And on the word “drift,” her voice slides into her more familiar growl, and we are beamed into space with the son, his farmer father, a raven, and some doo-wop. Incredible. Free Money starts again with delicate piano that is soon overtaken by relentless rhythm guitar and drums, ending in frenetic chaos. Kimberly is a 70s punk take on 60s girl groups, I think, and there’s something captivating about the refrain, “Little sister the sky is falling. I don’t mind. I don’t mind.” Like Birdland, the track Land is epic and made me all like, “Whoa!” There is so much here: “From the other ends of the hallway, a rhythm is generating.” “He pressed him against a lockah!” “He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, do you know how to pony like bony maroney?” (Holy shit. WHAT???) “…sperm coffin…” “Can’t you show me nothin’ but surrender?” “Except for one who sees his possibilities. What he sees is possibilities. Seize us, possibilities.” And in the middle of all that is some great rock and roll piano which, as we may have already discussed, I am a sucker for. Finally, the cover of this album is itself a work of feminist art and I am deeply in love with it. Can I give it seventeen stars?

Fuzzy Logic

Super Furry Animals

4/5

It seems like these guys make music because it's fun. I like it. Musically at least it's light and poppy --- I didn't have a chance to dig deep into the lyrics so maybe they're talking about serious stuff but I was having a good time. Even Long Gone, which is melancholy, if not outright sad, isn't overly earnest or dramatic, just serious enough. Nice.

Fear Of Music

Talking Heads

4/5

I run hot and cold with Talking Heads. Love some songs, find others really grating. This one's got more good to it than grating. Glad for that.

Unhalfbricking

Fairport Convention

5/5

This is wonderful. I loved it from start to finish.

KIWANUKA

Michael Kiwanuka

5/5

What an absolute treat. Fantastic. FANTASTIC!

Kings Of The Wild Frontier

Adam & The Ants

3/5

This was pretty much what I expected.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Raekwon

2/5

This record stressed me out, I did not enjoy listening to it, and it was long.

The Band

3/5

I thought I would like this more. I love their general sound, this southern-fried rock sort of thing, with its fiddles and mandolins and honky-tonk pianos and yodels. I do still love Up on Cripple Creek and King Harvest was a nice new discovery. But I was ready for the album to be over when it ended. I know it was recorded 50 years ago and, at least in my circles and the media I consume, there's not a lot of this kind of stalkery caveman garbage left but I really couldn't stomach the lyrics of Jemima Surrender. ("You can change your name, you can find a new walk, you can change your lock, it's all the same. ... Jemima surrender. I'm gonna give it to you.") After that, I was just tired and sad.

James Brown Live At The Apollo

James Brown

5/5

Great fun!

Doolittle

Pixies

3/5

Didn't expect to like this one but I did. Probably not enough to listen often but good enough for today.

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

5/5

Dreamy vocals just underneath fuzzy guitars, a tuneful bass, and reliable unobtrusive drums. What's not to love? Surprisingly relaxing and good to work to, this album feels noisy but with intent. Droning with a purpose. I can't tell what any of the words are so the voices just act like more instruments. Hard to pick out individual songs (except perhaps the last track, the totally danceable "Soon") but things do change enough that, as an album, this is a great listen that I want to start over as soon as I've finished. Up to now, shoegaze has been my least favorite genre but maybe now things are changing...I love this!

Countdown To Ecstasy

Steely Dan

4/5

Yep. That's 41 minutes of Steely Dan, all right. I love the cover art.

Pearl

Janis Joplin

5/5

Its only flaw is that it is too short. Power, vocal agility, and so fucking much heart.

Who's Next

The Who

5/5

This is one of my all-time favorites. With some devastating lyrics and incredible musicianship, it's got so many great songs that it feels like a "Best of..." record. (Though there are many, many more of The Who's bests not on this album.) It is grandly exuberant, theatrical, cinematic. (There is a reason Baba O'Riley is the soundtrack to so many movie trailers.) Listening to this album just feels HUGE. Like I need to expand to fit the music in. It's exhilarating. lovelovelovelovelove

Untitled (Black Is)

SAULT

5/5

I loved this. Hopeful, uplifting, great music. Really great.

Wild Wood

Paul Weller

3/5

All the pieces are there for an album that I should like but somehow they're not adding up. I usually appreciate when I can tell an artist has created something with intention but this feels almost too controlled and sterile. There aren't any surprises and every song sounds kind of familiar even though I've never heard any of them before. I can imagine hearing this at an uncomfortable dinner party where the hosts seem much more grown-up and fancy than I. I think I would like most of the songs just fine if they shuffled up in a playlist but none particularly grabbed me by the feelings today.

21

Adele

5/5

Such a beautiful voice. Such an amazing songwriter. Top-notch album.

No Other

Gene Clark

4/5

Liked this a lot. Reminds me of Stephen Stills of the same era. Would like some more time with this one.

Tidal

Fiona Apple

5/5

I loved this album for a long time. From the opening drum beat to the last pluck of the hard, this is mellow and subdued and lovely.

The Gershwin Songbook

Ella Fitzgerald

5/5

Lucky I like a Gershwin tune (how about you?) because this was a lot of them. Ira's rhymes don't hurt either --- here's one of my favorites: "The only work that really brings enjoyment Is the kind that is for girl and boy meant" With Ella's smooth and silky voice and Nelson Riddle's lush arrangements, this was pure delight from start to finish.

The Only Ones

3/5

Fun!

Live At The Harlem Square Club

Sam Cooke

5/5

This was just great. Soulful and energetic. One of the best.

Technique

New Order

4/5

Glad to say I enjoyed this one much more than the previous New Order album (Low-Life). This one had a clearer point of view. Still had a hard time telling one song from another but liked it anyway.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

5/5

This has everything I could want from an Elton John album. Great pop singles that I've known forever and, even better, deeper cuts that are new to me and that range from sweet pop ballads to country-tinged character studies to rollicking rock and roll anthems. In addition to long-time favorites Saturday Night's Alright... and Yellow Brick Road, I absolutely love Love Lies Bleeding, This Song Has No Title, Sweet Painted Lady, The Ballad of Danny Bailey, Dirty Little Girl, All the Girls Love Alice, Social Disease, and this amped up version of Grey Seal. Albums like this are the reason Sir Elton is the holiest of holy prophets in my own personal church.

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols

3/5

Well, yeah. I guess I expected to see this one. I don't hate it. But I'm glad it's behind us. Next!

Sticky Fingers

The Rolling Stones

4/5

Some undeniably great music on this album. Too bad Brown Sugar is such a groove because the lyrics are pretty despicable. I'm glad to read that the band's removed it from their setlist. Wild Horses used to be among my least favorite Stones' songs but it's grown on me. Dead Flowers and Moonlight Mile are new loves.

Sunshine Superman

Donovan

5/5

Wowee, was this fun! I love the prominent bass and the psychedelic sound. Occasionally, it ventures into a ren-faire area (a ren-fairea, if you will) and engages in some scansion shenanigans (scansionanigans) that might make me uncomfortable if they came from another artist. But on Dononvan I find them completely endearing. ("Through the DARK, forbo-DING skies..." You're kill-ING me!) Fun fun good good fun.

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

5/5

This album certainly evokes a very specific time period for me. These songs were everywhere in 1977 and listening to them brought up memories of particular places and feelings. There's not a dud on the album. Every song is terrific. It helps that the band contains (more than) three great song-writers and vocalists, each with their own style. But these distinct voices can also blend into something sublime. Glad to have this opportunity to be reminded of it in its entirety.

1989

Taylor Swift

5/5

Oh, so this is the Taylor Swift about whom I've heard so much from under the rock where I've been living. I get it now! Hella catchy but also sophisticated pop tunes. Good for the kids and their parents (and their parents' childless friends). Love it!

Welcome to the Afterfuture

Mike Ladd

3/5

Wasn't really in the right head space for this one today and I think I might like it better on a day when I can pay more attention. It blended into the background...until it didn't, which was either because of explicit lyrics or lyrics about religion or Space 1999. I liked most the songs about multiples of 10 --- 5000 Miles West of the Future, Planet 10, and I Feel Like $100.

Superfly

Curtis Mayfield

5/5

Excellent vibe. Super groovy.

Cypress Hill

4/5

Lots of catchy beats. I was happiest when I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics.

Rage Against The Machine

4/5

I've managed to avoid RATM all these years and now I'm not sure why. I think I assumed they'd be too rage-y for me. Turns out we're outraged by the same stuff and I should have listened before. I dig it.

Teen Dream

Beach House

2/5

The opening track Zebra perfectly fit my mood and needs at the moment giving me high expectations for the remainder of the album. Perhaps too high. No other track rose above a non-committal shrug on my how-much-do-you-like-it? meter. Songs are simplistic and repetitive, both rhythmically and melodically. I wanted bigger changes, more surprises. There were times when they teased me with a build and I thought, ok here we go, and then...no. Overall, this just didn't do much for me.

Bat Out Of Hell

Meat Loaf

5/5

Pure rock'n'roll theatrics. Love it.

Hotel California

Eagles

5/5

Great guitar hooks and memorable lyrics. Splendid!

Tommy

The Who

5/5

The movie Tommy was on HBO a lot when I was about 11 years old. I remember circling all of the times it aired in the HBO guide that came in the mail so that I could tune in for the last ten minutes of every airing and watch Tommy scrabble over all those rocks singing, "I get excitement at your feet!" I hoped none of my siblings would come in the room and interrupt, tears streaming down my face as I watched Tommy raise his arms, palms open toward the enormous rising sun. This was more spiritual to me than anything that happened at church. I found the rest of the movie pretty incomprehensible. But the music, especially "Listening to You" and its reprise that played over the end credits, was as moving a thing as I'd ever heard. I didn't get the original studio album until college. But once I did, it became one of my favorites. I still get a little choked up when I listen to it. Thanks Pete, Roger, John, and Keith for taking me to church. I love you for it.

Your Arsenal

Morrissey

4/5

I've never been a huge fan of The Smiths and didn't expect to like this much but then You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side started with Peter Gunns a-blazin' and made me all, like, whoa. I also loved the next track, the driving Glamorous Glue, and the last two tracks I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday and Tomorrow. The tracks in the middle were more what I expected and kind of mushed all together for me. But the tracks I liked were enough to push this from a 3 to a 4.

Bryter Layter

Nick Drake

5/5

Some of these songs sound like the ones on Sesame Street when they were all, "Look, here's some happy penguins." This album is delicious. I love Nick Drake.

Court And Spark

Joni Mitchell

5/5

I think my heart just exploded.

A Grand Don't Come For Free

The Streets

5/5

This is a simple but compelling story performed as a rap opera in a Brummie dialect that would make anything charming to my American ears. I'm not super interested in listening to any single song as a stand-alone track. But the album as a whole is unique and provided me with a fascinating listening experience today. I really enjoyed it.

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse

4/5

Ambitious. Epic. Spacey yet firmly grounded. A fine listen.

Lady In Satin

Billie Holiday

5/5

Well the lush orchestrations were an unexpected feature. Not quite what I'm used to from Billie Holiday but glad to have been introduced. Happy to float along on the sound of the strings and flutes and her incredible voice.

Brutal Youth

Elvis Costello

4/5

I've not seen much reason to go out of my way to listen to Elvis Costello in the past but this one hit me just right today with its fun tunes and cheeky lyrics. I had a great time and want to keep it around.

Mask

Bauhaus

3/5

This was fine. I didn't hate it.

Arrival

ABBA

5/5

We had this one on 8-track when I was a kid. I don't know precisely who in my family "owned" it --- it seemed to just belong to all of us, which was unusual. My mom (now 82) didn't ever listen to a lot of popular music but she can still name Dancing Queen from the opening glissando. I loved listening to this today. ABBA sounds distinctly superb and these are some top-notch pop songs.

Selling England By The Pound

Genesis

4/5

Never bad, occasionally great, often meandering in that prog rock noodly, Hobbitty way. Interesting to see this incarnation of Genesis that I'm not familiar with beyond a song or two, particularly hearing how Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins' voices blend. Very pretty!

Le Tigre

5/5

Wheeeeeee! What a fun ride. Surprises around every corner. My new musical crush.

Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock

4/5

Funky change of pace from my usual fare. Had a great time.

American Beauty

Grateful Dead

4/5

I've managed to avoid listening to Grateful Dead all this time. Not sure why I was so hesitant but I liked this quite a bit.

Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi

5/5

So fun. I love this record. Takes me back. Back back back. Super fun!

Franz Ferdinand

5/5

Catchy and timeless. A great listen.

Rock Bottom

Robert Wyatt

5/5

This was the perfect listen at the perfect time. Why wouldn't someone sing backwards during my stay at The Great Northern Hotel from Twin Peaks? Will I ever want to listen again? Who knows. But it will remain a special memory forever.

One Nation Under A Groove

Funkadelic

4/5

Enjoyed a lot of this, got a little tired of it in places. But it does contain one of my favorite lyrics of all time, “The fear of being eaten by a sandwich.”

Crosby, Stills & Nash

5/5

One of my favorites. Love the melodies, the harmonies, and the layering of the vocals and guitars. This one makes me feel good.

Cross

Justice

4/5

A good solid groove.

Power In Numbers

Jurassic 5

4/5

Loved this. Lots of variety, rewards repeated listening. Great!

Either Or

Elliott Smith

5/5

Every time it ends, I just start it over again. And the more I listen the more I like. Breathy vocals and vulnerable lyrics, lovely indie-folk instrumentation. Heart-achingly beautiful. A new favorite.

Maverick A Strike

Finley Quaye

4/5

I'd never heard of Finlay Quaye before and did not know what to expect. I found it an absolute delight, a terrific mix of reggae and pop unlike anything else I've heard. Really enjoyed it.

This Is Fats Domino

Fats Domino

5/5

Had a great time with this today. Lots of fun tracks, great blues, and some very fine piano playing. A+.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

5/5

I never think of Tom Petty. I don't dislike him but I never feel the need to listen to a whole album. Seems I've been depriving myself. I knew the singles Breakdown and American Girl (the latter of which I love...except when I'm driving alone at night and it comes on the radio and I start to sing along and then I realize I've seen someone sing along to this song driving alone at night and I don't want to put the lotion in the basket and so I turn it off real quick) but I didn't know any of the others. From the first drum beat, I loved this great mix of songs. And at a scant 30 minutes, this album goes down super easy and is never boring.

Bert Jansch

4/5

Spare and simple. Warm and mellow. Pretty. Very nice!

The Joshua Tree

U2

5/5

Another album that is church to me. If someone made me choose a favorite album, this might be it. Holy. Holy.

OK Computer

Radiohead

4/5

Full disclosure: prior to today I'd never listened to a Radiohead album, couldn't name a Radiohead song. I was looking forward to hearing what everyone else has been talking about for the last 25 years. A couple of the songs (Airbag and Subterranean Homesick Alien) grabbed me by the heart and declared themselves mine immediately. I found Exit Music, Electioneering, and Lucky entertaining. And the rest, even through multiple listens today, just OK. Like I felt with Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish, this album feels to me like a reaction to something and I can't quite tell what that something is but it makes the band hard to pin down, to put in a love-it/like-it/don't-care-for-it box. I love Airbag and SHA enough though to give this four stars.

Murder Ballads

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

4/5

Less a collection of songs and more a series of horror stories set to music. Upsetting and horrifying but beautifully mesmerizing. Lovely melodies belie their ugly lyrical content. The cover art is an eerie match to the tales inside. Unique and finely crafted. My only complaint is that O'Malley's Bar goes on and on and on. Death Is Not The End seems like it might be a nice ending to all the brutality but even its lyrics aren't particularly hopeful.

Wonderful Rainbow

Lightning Bolt

2/5

Hmmm. I didn't really enjoy this nor did I find it very interesting in its unpleasantness. I found it temporarily and only slightly more interesting when I learned that this is just drums, bass, and vocals. But then my interest waned again. But I'm not mad that it exists. If this is their most accessible album, I'm a bit curious about the others. Those might be more interesting.

Rapture

Anita Baker

5/5

Ahhhhhhh, what a voice! Sweet and smooth like silky honey. Released just as I was starting college, this seemed like music for old people to me. I guess I'm old now because it just sounded great today. A genuine treat.

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

5/5

Yes!

The Notorious Byrd Brothers

The Byrds

3/5

This album sounds like the 60s in a rather bland, generic way. The Byrds clearly had an influence on the culture to have a sound that is so representative of the era but there aren't any songs on this album that draw me in, that make me want to listen again. I'm disappointed.

Clube Da Esquina

Milton Nascimento

5/5

Captivatingly beautiful. Or beautifully captivating. Either way, beautiful and captivating. It's feeding my soul today. I love it.

Here, My Dear

Marvin Gaye

4/5

This is a thing. Lots of feelings here, most of them unpleasant: heartbreak, longing, regret, despair, bitterness (though he doth protest), and a track literally called Anger. But there's also genuine love, contrition, hope, and redemption, not to mention a Funky Space Reincarnation. There are worse ways to process a break-up than making your art. It's obviously completely one-sided --- it made me really want to hear her side of the story. It's very interesting how literal some of the lyrics are. ("Why do I have to pay attorney fees?") It's like listening to someone else in therapy. Lyrics aside, this kind of R&B isn't my favorite and I do better with it in small doses. I doubt that I will ever want to hear the whole thing again, but I can appreciate its place in the history of American music. Fascinating.

Skylarking

XTC

5/5

Delightful. Once again, I wonder why I wasn't in love with this band in college. They're great!

Tical

Method Man

2/5

Not for me. Not today anyway.

She's So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper

5/5

Super fun new wave album with a ton of hit singles. Going from squeaky to deep and throaty, Lauper's voice is unlike any other. A great listen for today.

Truth

Jeff Beck

4/5

Some very fine blues rock, featuring baby Rod Stewart and some surprising covers (Ol' Man River, Greensleeves). Made me want to close the curtains, put scarves over all the lamps, and sit on a cushion and smoke. I quite enjoyed it.

Tonight's The Night

Neil Young

5/5

I knew we were going to listen to a lot of Neil Young in this project and, to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to it. I've never been a big fan of his voice and hadn't given him much of a chance (outside of CSN&Y). Today this pushed all the right buttons. This record is full of feelings and story and musicianship and I love it. Now I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Hot Rats

Frank Zappa

4/5

Fun, mostly instrumental fusion of rock, jazz, blues, and funk, with appearances by Captain Beefheart and Jean-Luc Ponty(!). I would call it unexpected, but when I stop to think about it, I have no idea what to expect from Frank Zappa. At any rate, I quite enjoyed it.

Tea for the Tillerman

Cat Stevens

5/5

Wonderful to spend time with this old favorite.

The Blueprint

JAY Z

4/5

I don't enjoy much of the lyrical content myself but there are some nice samples, catchy beats, and interesting rhymes. I can see why it's got its fans.

All Directions

The Temptations

4/5

Oh great, I thought, The Temptations! This will be fun! I was thinking it would be songs like My Girl and Ain't Too Proud to Beg. You know, happy songs with choreo. I forgot that The Temptations could go serious, like twelve minutes of Papa Was a Rolling Stone serious. Run Charlie Run is startling and dark. I Ain't Got Nothin' is for and about lonely people. The songs about finding and having love are even wistful and sad sounding. So, no, not overly fun. But good and interesting.

Kid A

Radiohead

5/5

This one took several times through. Listened over breakfast on speakers and just couldn't get enough volume --- wondered if speakers were somehow faulty. Tried again while I worked, on different speakers this time, and got more volume --- better but definitely blended into the background. Third time with headphones and I wish two things: (a) that I'd started with headphones, in a dark room on some nice cushions; and (b) that I'd listened without carrying the full weight of my expectations of Radiohead, a band I don't know much about apart from their reputation. Frankly, this is a much more interesting album than I would expect from a band that is so popular. Perhaps I've underestimated the masses. This is challenging music, not a care-free ride. Songs with nonstandard instrumentation and freaky time-signatures. Sometimes cacophonous, other times just nicely shifting ambient tones or a predictable bass groove. I wanted to hear the details, sometimes to crawl around inside the sounds and figure them out and at other times wanting to just float and let them carry me. And this is all without really hearing much of the lyrics. Maybe that's a whole other level of stuff? Anyway, I like this. A lot. And want to spend some more quality time with it.

Like A Prayer

Madonna

5/5

I still remember watching for the first time Madonna open the MTV VMAs in 1989 with Express Yourself. That was the moment that my relationship with Madonna changed. If you'd asked me then why I liked it so much, I think I would've said that I just liked the choreography. But watching it on YouTube today, it occurs to me that there may have been a lot more happening for me at the time. Madonna's wannabes were all around me in high school (class of '86) and, while I thought some of her songs were catchy, I didn't quite understand her popularity. She was girly in a way that I couldn't relate to and frankly looked down on. (Hello, internalized misogyny!) But in Express Yourself, the sexy-baby voice from the Like a Virgin era is replaced with a deeper, more grounded sound and on the VMAs, instead of a lacy bridal gown, she and her backup singers wear suits over bustiers, still feminine but with a touch of masculine swagger. The thing that strikes me most of all today about the 1989 VMA performance is that every single aspect is exquisitely designed, rehearsed, and executed. It is very clear to me how high Madonna's standards were and how much she must have demanded from everyone on her staff in order to achieve such perfection. I think now that part of what appealed to young me, without my really being aware of it, was seeing a woman having that kind of vision, agency, and unapologetic power. So, thirty odd years later, I have mad respect and admiration for Madonna as a woman, a performer, and an artist at every single stage of her career. I don't know that Like a Prayer is my favorite Madonna album but it's got a special place in my heart with its elevated (but still catchy) pop next to some deeply revealing material and an appearance from Prince. These are some great songs that changed the trajectory of popular music and music videos.

Private Dancer

Tina Turner

5/5

A spectacular album that hits me right in the nostalgia bone.

Elvis Is Back

Elvis Presley

5/5

Other than Fever, I didn't recognize a single song on this album. Really enjoyed getting to listen to a bunch of brand-new-to-me Elvis songs.

Beautiful Freak

Eels

4/5

This is adorably creepy and misanthropically cute. The comparison to a David Lynch movie is apt with darkness behind white picket fences --- Susan's House in fact sounds a lot like A Real Indication from the Fire Walk with Me soundtrack. This Could Be Your Lucky Day (sounds nice!)...In Hell (uh oh!). I truly love Novocaine for the Soul, My Beloved Monster, and Spunky (a cat named lola with a violent past is balled-up asleep 'cross her knees). There are a handful of songs that are a bit of a wash for me but I like the general feel.

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest

5/5

Funk and rhythm kept me groovin' all day. Loved it.

Swordfishtrombones

Tom Waits

5/5

A beautiful but dangerous circus run by ghosts of soldiers with broken hearts. Lovely lovely lovely.

Blue

Joni Mitchell

5/5

Poetic and soothing. Really beautiful. I am grateful.

The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow

5/5

I'd never heard of Elbow, which is either the best band name or the worst. Can't decide. But what a wonderful surprise! I was hooked by the second track (The Bones of You). Many other favorites, including Mirrorball, Grounds for Divorce, Weather to Fly, The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver, and of course One Day Like This.

Entertainment

Gang Of Four

4/5

Zipped through this four times today. Fun!

Pump

Aerosmith

5/5

I had this on cassette, I think. It was super fun to listen again after so many years and hear timeless lyrics like, "Even the Tipper thinks I'm all right." Super. Fun.

Cosmo's Factory

Creedence Clearwater Revival

5/5

Boy, CCR sure knows how to start a song. Even songs that aren't my favorite, I hear the beginning and think, "Aw, yeah!" (e.g. Up Around the Bend). Most of the time, though, they follow through with a great song and exquisite guitar work. Part blues, part country, all bayou, and all rock-n-roll.

Golden Hour

Kacey Musgraves

4/5

Pleasant contemporary country-slash-pop. Blended into the background a bit but was always nice enough when I turned my focus back to it.

Tarkus

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

2/5

Look, I try really hard not to think of anyone's music as dumb but I failed at that today. There's just so much noodly organ+percussion paired with a meandering narrative about an armadillo tank and a fucking manticore that I can take, OK? Capital N. Capital O. Capital THANKS.

Machine Gun Etiquette

The Damned

5/5

It starts with a charming, "Ladies and Gentlemen. How do?" And then we quickly get all the volume and speed I expect from British punk rockers but with lots of unexpected and delightful moments throughout. Tuneful melodies are discernible from one song to the next. I Just Can't Be Happy Today has some incredible drum fills and ironically happy handclaps. Melody Lee starts with a piano introduction that could easily have come from an Elton John track. These Hands is one of those scary circus calliope deals. Lots of fun variety that is more than just Noise, Noise, Noise. Loved it!

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Red Hot Chili Peppers

3/5

I'm pretty sure I've heard this whole album before but certainly not for a couple of decades. I didn't recognize more than a handful of the song titles and was familiar enough with the first couple of tracks. I love the full, bass-forward sound and the shouty singing that seems very 90s to me now. Oh, yeah, here's Breaking the Girl. That's nice and different. Then a bunch of songs. Then Give It Away, which is fantastic. Eventually Under the Bridge plays and that's ok, especially the key change and, surprisingly, the bridge. And then...there are like six more songs. None of which seem all that necessary. I was really ready for it to be over. Really ready.

The Sensual World

Kate Bush

5/5

Really wonderful. She's so good.

Medúlla

Björk

5/5

Hoots and boops, moans and growls, mewling and heavy breathing. Unlike anything else. Björk!

Chirping Crickets

Buddy Holly & The Crickets

4/5

Obvious in its influence, this record's got some great classic tunes. Holly's guitar chops are on full display. Some of the lyrics are pretty insipid but perhaps that's an indication of the time or the songwriter's tender age.

The Contino Sessions

Death In Vegas

4/5

I like it! Good background music. I'm afraid it won't be overly memorable, though. Even now, I can't keep the name of the band in my head. If you ask me in two weeks if I've ever heard of Death in Vegas, I will probably say no.

Being There

Wilco

4/5

This album covers a lot of ground. There's occasional horns, occasional banjo, occasional fiddle. Sometimes they sound like The Rolling Stones, sometimes The Grateful Dead, sometimes ... someone I can't quite put my finger on. (Maybe Bright Eyes? Mountain Goats? Silver Jews? Let me know if you figure out who I'm thinking of...) I blanched at first when I saw the 77-minute length --- sometimes that's just too much --- but the variety of styles kept things interesting. I think any fan of rock music would find something to like on this record, and I can't find anything to dislike. It's really good.

Lust For Life

Iggy Pop

4/5

The title track is a stupendous way to open an album (or a movie or breakfast or just about anything). It's one of my favorites ever. Beyond that, I loved the David Bowie-ness of this album. It made for a much more pleasant experience than I expected based on the little else I knew of Iggy Pop.

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

The Pharcyde

2/5

Slurpees rhymes with herpes. The music was fine and they seemed to be having fun but I was cringing at a lot of lyrics so I didn't have a good time.

Blackstar

David Bowie

5/5

Sophisticated and stunning. A remarkable swan song.

Infected

The The

3/5

I've heard of The The but never listened. They're more interesting lyrically than musically. I think I would've liked them a lot in college but today I am underwhelmed.

Channel Orange

Frank Ocean

3/5

This was ok. Every once in a while, an instrument or a lyric would catch my attention but there wasn't much that really grabbed me.

O.G. Original Gangster

Ice T

3/5

"It's just so LONG" has been my main complaint about some of our albums in the last couple weeks. You know what they say...if the album's too long, you're too damn old, Gramma. I like Ice-T's sound and enjoy the riffs and samples here. But this just went on and on and on. I think I would have enjoyed the 16-track vinyl album more.

Bone Machine

Tom Waits

5/5

This is the third appearance so far by Tom Waits in this project (we're about 25% through). This isn't an album I've listened to before and the first time through, I wondered why this one? He's got so many albums, why choose this one over any others? And what's it adding that the other included albums haven't already given us? It wasn't clear to me at first what made this one different. After two more times through the record, the answers to those questions didn't matter. There's room in my heart for as much Tom Waits as you want to give me.

Groovin'

The Young Rascals

5/5

A lot of fun. Several songs I knew but not in their original form. I was totally groovin'.

Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane

5/5

Wow. Thank goodness for Grace Slick. Somebody to Love and White Rabbit (two of the greatest songs ever) really elevate this album. The rest is solid 60s rock, some psychedelic, some acoustic folk, some blues.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory

Oasis

5/5

Really enjoyed this, especially the strong finish with She's Electric, Morning Glory, and Champagne Supernova. Sorry I missed it in the 90s.

Roger the Engineer

The Yardbirds

5/5

Very nice driving blues rock. Didn't know any of the songs but lots of good ones on here. Good good fun.

Kind Of Blue

Miles Davis

5/5

It is evident from the moment it starts that we are in some very capable and caring musical hands. Listening to Kind of Blue feels like lying in a raft gently rocking on a calm sea. So soothing, so laid back. My soul feels lighter. Each track is its own subtle mood and the shift from one to the next creates a clear arc through the whole piece. Absolute perfection.

The Message

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

4/5

I loved the fun party tracks but didn't love so much the earnest serious tracks in the middle. Overall, a good time!

The Score

Fugees

5/5

Excellent hip-hop. L Hill's voice is to die for.

Live At The Witch Trials

The Fall

2/5

I found this very uninteresting.

Beauty And The Beat

The Go-Go's

5/5

I have memories of bopping along to this on cassette while driving my mom's car in the summertime, wearing white Keds with no socks. I've definitely always thought of it as pure pop fun. But how great to listen to this with grown-up ears and hear such aggressive musicianship! This band ROCKS! The bass! The drums! These women have SWAGGER! I have a renewed love, admiration, and gratitude for The Go-Go's today.

Junkyard

The Birthday Party

2/5

Three-quarters of an hour of Nick Cave screaming at me. I'm kind of used to it.

The Lexicon Of Love

ABC

3/5

There's something about the lead singer's voice that has always rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe he's straining at the high notes? So he gets a little yelly? I found myself dancing to it now and then and I liked it more than I expected it to. So there's that at least.

You've Come a Long Way Baby

Fatboy Slim

5/5

Super fun. I danced all day.

A Date With The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers

4/5

A nice Happy Days kind of listening experience. Some out-dated gender ideas, etc., but otherwise very, very...nice.

Bad Company

5/5

Huh. If you'd asked me yesterday if I'd ever gone through a Bad Company phase, I would've said, no. But as soon as I saw the track listing of this album, I remembered owning this on cassette. And a quick perusal of their album covers made me remember I had at least two others. So, I guess I had a bit of a Bad Co. phase and I forgot! Anyway, this album is great! When I think of Classic Rock, this is exactly what I'm thinking. While I love just about every song on here, my two favorites are the gentle ballads Don't Let Me Down and Seagull. It's so great to hear them again! Thanks so much for jogging my memory, 1001!

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

5/5

Wonderful, wonderful. One of my favorites. Simple, soothing. I wish I still had a beanbag chair to sit in while I listen.

In A Silent Way

Miles Davis

5/5

Beautiful and mesmerizing. Each time it ended, I just wanted it to start over again. That happened four times.

Live!

Fela Kuti

4/5

Not my usual fare but very enjoyable.

Mama Said Knock You Out

LL Cool J

4/5

Really enjoyed the first two and a few of tracks near the end but got a bit bored in between. I like his smooth sound.

If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears

The Mamas & The Papas

5/5

With delectable harmonies and a groovy 60s sound, this one really got to me. I knew I loved California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday. But I had 6 or 7 other favorites by my third listen. The vocals on The "In" Crowd give me chills on chills on chills. Excellent!

Murmur

R.E.M.

3/5

This was ok but I felt like the songs lacked variety and energy. Far from my favorite REM.

In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra

4/5

I love me some Sinatra, so smooth and charismatic. This album definitely set a mood. It wasn't precisely the mood I was in today but I could see enjoying it more under different circumstances.

Hybrid Theory

Linkin Park

4/5

Hard-hitting but melodic, this is another album that I think younger me would have really loved. I like it now but it has a ... not juvenile, that seems pejorative, and that's definitely not what I'm going for ... but maybe youthful(?) feel to it that doesn't hold the same appeal as it would have a couple or so decades ago. Still, high marks!

That's The Way Of The World

Earth, Wind & Fire

5/5

Delightfully uplifting. Super smooth. A great accompaniment to the day.

The Grand Tour

George Jones

5/5

There's something about this album that I find very comforting. Maybe it's the simplicity of the lyrics where it seems that all there is to life is love and heartbreak. (Maybe that is all there is...) Maybe it's the resonance of the deep voice singing back-up that reminds me of my dad singing hymns next to me in church. It just feels restful and good.

The Doors

5/5

The Doors have such a great and unique sound and this album has some of their best songs.

Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Fiona Apple

5/5

Complicated, funny, intimate, weird. I love it.

Grace

Jeff Buckley

5/5

Mmm-hmmm. This album gave me deep deep feelings and left me with few words. This is one of the special ones.

Rings Around The World

Super Furry Animals

4/5

I like this one about as much as I liked their "Fuzzy Logic" a few months ago. This one seems a bit more serious but I can hear the influence of decades of pop music behind them. I don't know that I could pick one of their songs out of a musical line-up but I enjoy listening to them.

Electric Warrior

T. Rex

3/5

I didn't hear much that I didn't expect from T. Rex. I love Jeepster even though I don't know what it means exactly.

This Year's Model

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

Yeah, this is what Elvis Costello sounds like. It's 1978 but not the 1978 that I lived through. I've always wanted to like this album since it seems like all the cool kids do and I was hopeful today that maybe I'd find what I'd been missing. But I didn't. I liked "Brutal Youth" better and that's probably why I'm not a cool kid.

Ingenue

k.d. lang

5/5

Lush, beautiful, and (and I don't use this term lightly) romantic. Excellent songs and a gorgeous voice. A-plus!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

Simon & Garfunkel

5/5

Perfect.

The Genius Of Ray Charles

Ray Charles

5/5

Sailing smoothly from big band horns to jazzy sax and piano to lush orchestral strings, The Genius of Ray Charles is one glorious ride.

New York Dolls

3/5

Glad to have listened to New York Dolls so that I can say I have.

Dance Mania

Tito Puente

5/5

This was a great soundtrack to cleaning the bathroom today. Super fun.

Butterfly

Mariah Carey

5/5

I was under the impression that I did not particularly care for Mariah Carey's music. I was so wrong! I really dig this album. Outstanding.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Rod Stewart

5/5

I knew I was going to love it and I did.

The Bends

Radiohead

4/5

These are songs with big emotional hooks. Planet Telex in particular met me right where I was today. I really love that one. The rest never quite got me in the same way but I enjoyed the album overall.

The Dreaming

Kate Bush

5/5

Wowwowwow. Complicated and strange in the best possible ways, this album maxes out the scale for originality. Unsettling, beautiful, and totally badass.

Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

Derek & The Dominos

3/5

Experienced a lot of push and pull with this one. Wanted to like it due to its reputation but I started out underwhelmed. Then found the right frame of mind and got into it. But by the time it was over, I sure was ready. Undeniable musicianship but not much here I’ll feel the need to revisit.

Rid Of Me

PJ Harvey

4/5

Definitely not my favorite of the PJ Harvey albums we've listened to so far. I'm glad we have those: Dry and Stories of the City, ...

Vauxhall And I

Morrissey

3/5

Maybe it was the dehydration headache I woke up with or the noise from the roofers that started too early at my house this morning but there were several moments today when I thought, "I think Morrissey's voice is making me nauseous." Other than that, I didn't find this album to be particularly remarkable.

Giant Steps

The Boo Radleys

3/5

Every once in a while, I'd think, "Ooh, I like where this is going..." and then The Boos Radley would dodge and go a different and (to me) unsatisfying direction. There were a couple of songs that grew on me after further listening but for the most part, this was just ok.

In Utero

Nirvana

4/5

I was so glad to arrive finally at Nirvana. I didn't really know anything from this album apart from the singles Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies, both of which I like a lot. The first listen through was rough. Maybe I was tired, hot, crabby. But I just couldn't find the groove of the album, couldn't find more than a hint of greatness. Second time through, though, I fell into the pocket. The sound is raw and fuzzy and real, like having your ears scrubbed by a loofa. There's poetry and pain and humor in the lyrics (which, to be honest, I still can't understand without reading them --- but there's treasures to be found there). At the time of this writing, I've not yet listened a third time. But I just might.

Disintegration

The Cure

4/5

I didn’t think I much liked The Cure but the first half of this album had me thinking it was going to get 5-stars from me. It kind of wore out its welcome after about 30 minutes but I really did love the first half.

evermore

Taylor Swift

5/5

This was the perfect thing for a rainy Sunday afternoon. It felt sophisticated, intimate, and warm. Loved it.

Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

To be honest, this is an album I've been dreading. I've never much liked Springsteen and I feel kind of defensive about it. There was no chance of listening to this with a completely open mind even though I tried. Most of the songs were new to me aside from the anthemic title track. I was surprised how theatrical they were and am equally surprised that he's not yet been Mamma Mia'ed (i.e., there's no Bruce Springsteen jukebox musical yet, that I know of). The songs are BIG both in sound and in story. I loved the quote that Springsteen wanted this album to sound like "Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan, produced by [Phil] Spector." I think that's pretty much what he did. However, there is a young white American east coast dude-ness to this music that puts a wall between it and me. I can certainly appreciate it but I don't identify with it much at all. Interesting to read later that compared to previous albums, this one "includes few specific references to places in New Jersey, in an attempt to make the songs more identifiable to a wider audience." I'm interested in those earlier albums --- I think their specificity might actually appeal more to me. Overall, I liked this one but I am not yet a convert. Give me another and we'll see.

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams

4/5

Good solid bluesy country folk, reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss. Very nice.

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

Soft Cell

2/5

I remember being very unimpressed with this album when my sister bought it in 1982. My opinion hasn't changed much in 40 years.

E.V.O.L.

Sonic Youth

3/5

This is fine. I don't really like it much but I'm not angry at it. It's catchy here and there but I don't think I'd choose to listen again.

B-52's

The B-52's

5/5

It takes talent to be this quirky, silly, and fun and not tip over into the annoying. But these are just the cool cats to do it. I love this album from start to finish. I need more of this feeling in my life.

Goodbye And Hello

Tim Buckley

3/5

When we listened to our first Tim Buckley album (Happy Sad, ~270 albums ago), I said I would look for more from him. So I was excited to see his name again. This one's a bit more folksy, less jazzy, and Buckley sings in a much higher register for much of this one. I enjoyed the early tracks on the album with more of a 60s protest or psychedelic-folk sound. Once we got into the Knight-errant wond'ring whither his lady'd wandered, I was out.

Opus Dei

Laibach

5/5

Completely different from anything we've listened to so far. I wasn't completely unfamiliar with Laibach but, if I'd ever listened to this whole album, it was thirty years ago and I didn't remember all of it. I found it compelling, frightening, and funny, and spent the day falling down a Laibach rabbit hole. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm here for.

Live Through This

Hole

5/5

I was busy during grunge and wasn't paying much attention. But when I think of grunge, I think only of the dudes and shame on me for that. This album is superb!

American Idiot

Green Day

5/5

Oh man, am I a sucker for a rock opera. I love American Idiot's scope, structure, variety, and ambition. Equal parts rock and musical theater, this fits right into the pocket of my tastes.

All Hope Is Gone

Slipknot

3/5

I was prepared to suffer through this for an hour based on some of the band's visual imagery but then it went in some unexpected directions and I ...did not hate it. There's lots of screaming and ridiculous speed but then, all of a sudden, a shift into melodic singing or a groovy rhythm. Lyrically, the band punches up (or in), not down --- they're mad but they seem take it out on appropriate targets. I'm unlikely to choose to listen to this again but happy to have had my expectations surpassed today.

Kala

M.I.A.

5/5

Unique and hella catchy. L.O.V.E. M.I.A.

Hunky Dory

David Bowie

5/5

For no very good reason, I've not listened to much David Bowie aside from the hits. That's a real shame. This is stellar.

This Nation’s Saving Grace

The Fall

3/5

After being very unimpressed by The Fall's Live at the Witch Trials, I had rather low expectations for this one. It easily cleared that bar. Some of these songs have a rockabilly feel with vocals that aren't really on what I'd call a reasonable pitch but --- hear me out --- not in a bad way? Not a favorite by any means but I'm warming a bit.

Live At The Regal

B.B. King

5/5

Oh, yes. I wouldn't have thought it would be so fun to listen to the blues but this was fun! Really great.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

4/5

Really great in the background today. Caught my attention now and then in a very pleasant way.

Oracular Spectacular

MGMT

3/5

This is fine. Not much I want to revisit.

Dirt

Alice In Chains

3/5

There are several Alice in Chains songs in which the combination of melody and vocal quality are very compelling and I would say almost beautiful. These are qualities that offset the despair and hopelessness in the lyrics. With this album though, I got all the despair and hopelessness but very little of the beauty. I liked Rooster and Junkhead.

Third

Portishead

3/5

Nice and ethereal background stuff again. Nice.

Miriam Makeba

5/5

Wonderful! A terrific voice and variety of styles. Very very enjoyable. More please!

Real Life

Magazine

3/5

Another just ok from me. Some fun pop synth sounds mixed with punk drum fills but nothing much that grabbed me.

Fleet Foxes

5/5

I've heard of Fleet Foxes but I've never listened to them. If I've heard any of these songs before, I think I probably assumed it was a group from the 60s or early 70s. I'm reminded of Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Neil Young. Lyrics have a specificity that give them emotional heft beyond the usual clichés. Very nice indeed.

The Last Broadcast

Doves

4/5

Never heard of 'em. But this is some good solid early oughts rock/pop. I really liked Words, N.Y., Pounding, and Caught By the River. Good show.

Ananda Shankar

5/5

Super groovy and fun! Yeah, baby!

S.F. Sorrow

The Pretty Things

4/5

Reading the description and listening to the opening track, I had extremely high hopes for this album. I love a rock opera and the first song has all the right features: coherent introductory narrative, interesting instrumentation, singable tune. The rest was enjoyable but not quite up to the level promised at the beginning. There were moments I was reminded of The Beatles, The Who (obviously), Yes, Pink Floyd, and even The Beach Boys. Definitely worth listening on headphones for some nice stereo. Glad to know of it as a piece of rock history.

Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin

5/5

This is musical greatness from start to finish. Especially the finish --- Going to California and When the Levee Breaks are a one-two punch to my guts I love them so much. This album is a gift.

British Steel

Judas Priest

4/5

A heavy metal album where the songs all sound different? That's pretty swell. I am super impressed with the differing styles of the guitarists and Rob Halford's deft vocals. A pleasant surprise.

Bummed

Happy Mondays

3/5

I had to keep starting this one over because I kept forgetting to listen. By the third time through, I sort of liked most of the songs but only sorta. I won't remember it.

Come Find Yourself

Fun Lovin' Criminals

5/5

Never heard of 'em before but this was a fun groove with many surprises.

The College Dropout

Kanye West

4/5

To my surprise, I was very into this for the first hour. My listening notes consisted of a couple of notable rhymes: "Vandross" rhymes with "pants off" and "breasteses" with "messages."

I Should Coco

Supergrass

4/5

A fun pop-punk, summertime vibe, like it should be coming out a transistor radio tuned to an AM station in the basket of your banana seat bike with coaster brakes.

The Cars

5/5

I love this album. The Cars have a unique sound among popular bands of their era. Every song on this record is so good. So good.

World Clique

Deee-Lite

5/5

A fun and funky blast from my past. It's been a while since I listened to this album but it is still very enjoyable.

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

5/5

As with the album Stardust, I am again struck by the deliberateness of Willie Nelson's music. Every note, every tempo, the order of the songs...all show a clear intent and purpose, nothing ad libbed or left to chance. Despite the murderous themes in the lyrics, I feel safe with Willie at the helm. This is music that makes me feel good.

Tapestry

Carole King

5/5

I can't believe I've never listened to this. A masterpiece.

Time Out Of Mind

Bob Dylan

4/5

This was a pleasant background for my activities today, though it seemed to last forever. (It didn't help that my Apple music kept getting hung up between songs so I thought it was over several times before it actually was.) Interesting to hear how Dylan evolved from his earlier albums. Very different but still very good.

Solid Air

John Martyn

4/5

This was new to me. Definitely heard the influence of Nick Drake in early tracks. But then I might've mistaken Dreams By the Sea for Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield. Nice mixture of sounds. Solidly enjoyable.

Scott 4

Scott Walker

4/5

Well. The first track is a re-telling of Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal which sounds a bit like the opening of a late 60s/early 70s TV show that reminds us each week of the show's premise (à la Gilligan's Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch). That just seemed a little strange to me. The rest is less weird and very much of its time. Walker's voice and the orchestrations are lounge-singer cheesy throughout. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. The music definitely evokes an era and gets better with multiple listens. Walker's wikipedia page is fascinating and I am interested in hearing something that would cause a reviewer to say "imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen."

Heroes

David Bowie

4/5

A tremendous title track and a bunch of spacey instrumentals. Interesting.

Meat Is Murder

The Smiths

4/5

As much as I've heard this album (on account of my husband plays it sometimes), you'd think I'd be able to tell the songs apart. Other than The Headmaster Ritual and the title track (on account of its farm noises), I really can't. I would never choose it but I don't mind it.

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

2/5

This was about what I expected. Well, I don't think I expected the singer to sound like that. It's clear that what he's doing takes great skill. But to my ears, it's not really worth the trouble. I found it not all that interesting and only slightly annoying.

Sister

Sonic Youth

2/5

Really? Sonic Youth again? I still am not getting it.

At Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan

5/5

Wonderful. I was delighted.

Off The Wall

Michael Jackson

5/5

The first album I ever bought. Still great.

Vulgar Display Of Power

Pantera

1/5

This is not music that speaks to me. I got the gist early on and then had to listen to the rest. Next!

The Nightfly

Donald Fagen

4/5

There was something about I.G.Y. and New Frontier that made me inexplicably vaguely uncomfortable in 1982. That seems to have passed. This is nice.

The Man Who

Travis

3/5

This is fine. Pleasant enough. But every song kind of sounds the same. It's fine.

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Aretha Franklin

5/5

Goodness. Goodness gracious. All hail The Queen. This is church.

Blur

4/5

I like this album a lot. I can hear the old school influences like David Bowie and The Beatles and more contemporary bands like Pavement. But I'm also getting a stronger, more specific POV from this band than on Modern Life is Rubbish, which I liked but couldn't love. After yesterday's Aretha, I'm feeling stingy with my 5s but I'd give this a solid 4.5 if I could.

Tuesday Night Music Club

Sheryl Crow

4/5

First things first: All I Wanna Do is a brilliant, brilliant pop song with its evocative imagery and beyond-catchy chorus. (It once caused my exuberantly drunk brother-in-law to attack me and my husband with a lint roller.) That's a lot for the rest of the album to live up to and unfortunately it can't quite reach the bar. But Crow is a talented musician and this is some solid southern country rock mixed with a few other styles (smoky piano ballad We Do What We Can is another standout).

Dusty In Memphis

Dusty Springfield

5/5

Springfield's full, soulful voice is the perfect instrument for these timeless tunes. Beautiful.

Songs For Swingin' Lovers!

Frank Sinatra

5/5

I could swing with Frank all day!

Innervisions

Stevie Wonder

5/5

Freaking finally! I've been waiting for this one. These songs are gorgeous, deep, and timeless. They help me celebrate the good times and help get me through the bad. Love it love it love it.

John Barleycorn Must Die

Traffic

5/5

There's something about Traffic that just makes all my chakras line up or something. They just feel good to me. I like their tunes, their instrumentation, and the yearning quality of Winwood's voice. Good good good.

Odessey And Oracle

The Zombies

5/5

Only familiar with Time of the Season, I did not expect The Zombies to feel so light and optimistic. I love almost every song on this album. Terrific!

Scott 2

Scott Walker

4/5

My feelings about this one swing wildly from love it to hate it and back again. These songs are cinematic and epic and total cornball. But somehow it all works and I'm closer to love it than not. The Jacques Brel covers in particular sound just right coming from Walker.

1999

Prince

5/5

Whoa! Don't know that I've ever listened to this whole album. I couldn't really connect to Prince when this was new. But grown up me thinks this holds up very well indeed. Superb!

Disraeli Gears

Cream

3/5

Strange Brew and Sunshine are both great. The rest did not leave much of an impression. I can tell that it's "good" but that doesn't mean I "like" it.

Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water

Limp Bizkit

2/5

I kind of wish I hadn't been paying attention to any of the lyrics because I actually did enjoy the music here. But the words... My goodness, these guys sound like they are just SO MAD at their moms. So much whining. So very much whining. Too bad.

The Rising

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

Very good. Nice instrumentation and heartfelt lyrics. I like it.

Foxbase Alpha

Saint Etienne

4/5

A nice mellow groove.

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones

5/5

Sweet, smooth, ooey-gooey mix of pop, jazz, folk, and country. Delicious!

Suicide

3/5

Sure. Sure.

Highway to Hell

AC/DC

4/5

Rocked my socks off for the first half or so. Got a bit repetitive but still a good time for the most part.

Bookends

Simon & Garfunkel

5/5

Well, this album contains one of my favorite songs (America) with some of my favorite lyrics ("Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping. "I'm empty and aching and I don't know why."). So already that's a 5. But then there's also Mrs. Robinson, Save the Life of My Child, Old Friends, Hazy Shade, and At the Zoo. And more. So good. So very good.

Remain In Light

Talking Heads

3/5

Not a lot of surprises here. It's fine but none of it really seems like mine. Feels like being at a party where I don't know anyone but I don't really feel like getting to know anyone either. And the feeling's mutual.

Savane

Ali Farka Touré

4/5

I thought I had an idea of what to expect from "The King of the desert 'blues' singers," but I really didn't. My first listen, the music was mostly background for work and was, at best, unobtrusive or, worse, boring. It didn't seem to have the hooks I expect from blues. But on a second, more focused listen, I started to appreciate it more. It's not an easy listen for my ears --- unexpected timing and rhythm, lyrics in a language I don't understand --- but it is interesting and different and I do like it.

A Girl Called Dusty

Dusty Springfield

5/5

Wowee! Range is the word for this album. Songs cover a wide range of styles: there are a few covers of tunes made popular by American "girl groups" like The Shirelles and The Supremes, three Bacharach/David numbers, one written by Ray Charles, and one by Kander & Ebb. But Springfield also demonstrates remarkable vocal range, from a deep growl to a chill-inducing soulful belt to a lovely light head voice. (My husband kept asking, "Is this the same person?") The lyrics display sexual and romantic power that must have been unusual in 1964. Even Wishin' and Hopin', which advises us to give one's true self up to get a man ("Do the things he likes to do. Wear your hair just for him."), also encourages us to make the first move since it won't happen if we just sit passively wishing and hoping, etc. And it's fascinating to note the shift in tone when some of these songs, clearly written for men, are sung from a woman's perspective --- Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa hits me very differently sung by Dusty Springfield than sung by Gene Pitney. I absolutely love this album. Can't get enough!

The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths

3/5

I loved the title track and then the rest just sounded like The Smiths. I don't dislike their sound but I have a hard time distinguishing most of their songs from each other.

Actually

Pet Shop Boys

4/5

This provided me a fun afternoon dance party today.

Ctrl

SZA

5/5

Since I am old and the kids' music (anything released after 2000) doesn't tend to appeal to me (or so I think), I did not expect to like this much. What a great surprise! I love SZA's vocal fry and appreciate her P.O.V. I found several of the songs very moving. Maybe the kids are all right. (Ooh, I shouldn't call a woman in her 30s a kid. But, you know what I mean. The youngs. Signed, Gramma.)

Transformer

Lou Reed

5/5

I thought I wasn't cool enough to like Lou Reed. I was wrong. This album is fantastic.

Surfer Rosa

Pixies

3/5

I was in a very bad mood when I started listening to this. Even at its relatively short running time of 34 minutes, it felt like a slog, a chore. Soul-numbingly mediocre. I came back to it later, in a much better mood and, while I still didn't love it, I didn't quite feel the same animosity. These songs sound like they're not fully done yet. If I were their producer, I'd say, "Good start, y'all, now go back and finish them."

Music For The Jilted Generation

The Prodigy

5/5

A fun endless dance party to accompany my boring workday. Very nice!

Back At The Chicken Shack

Jimmy Smith

5/5

Smooth and easy. A nice massage for my addled brain.

Play

Moby

5/5

I had a dance teacher who used this album in class a lot in the early 00s. I liked it so I ended up buying it. A few of the songs are barely noticeable ambience, melt into the background/use in commercials kinds of things. But many are catchy or interesting or both. I enjoyed revisiting this record today.

The Scream

Siouxsie And The Banshees

3/5

Never quite been my thing. I'm glad to have listened but am not completely won over.

Hysteria

Def Leppard

5/5

Copied to cassette from a friend's CD, this one spent a lot of time in my walkman in college. Pour Some Sugar and Armageddon It were constantly on MTV but the rest of the album is just as solid. I love especially all the songs with one-word titles: Women, Rocket, Animal, Hysteria, Excitable. This is some really great 80s hard rock.

School's Out

Alice Cooper

5/5

I made an "ew" face when this came up and now that I've listened I think my face should apologize. I loved it! These kind of rock-n-roll theatrics are totally my thing. I kind of wish I hadn't been looking at the lyrics because there was a very nice musical theater surprise awaiting me in the song Gutter Cat vs. (no spoilers). In addition to that one, I loved the jazzy Blue Turk, the epic My Stars, and the White-Album-esque Alma Mater. This was great unexpected fun. (But p.s. it's kind of cruel to assign School's Out homework to a college professor one week before the start of the school year.)

Heavy Weather

Weather Report

4/5

Hooray for Birdland! It is great. The rest is not as great --- sounded like a record of 80s TV themes, putting everything in soft focus like Cybil Shepherd in Moonlighting. I give Birdland 10 stars and the rest 3.

Supa Dupa Fly

Missy Elliott

5/5

Great samples. Very entertaining. Loved it.

BEYONCÉ

Beyoncé

5/5

Smooth, sexy, powerful, and empowering. I feel like kicking the patriarchy's ass today. More so.

The Pleasure Principle

Gary Numan

5/5

This album was part of a specific place and a specific time in my life from which it cannot be disentangled. If it hadn't been with us then, would I love it so much now? I don't know. In any case, I do love all the spacey synths and Numan's nasally singing and the times when his voice breaks and the times when the bass drives everything forward, on and on. I can't tell if giving every song a one-word title is pretentious or its opposite. (Today, I say "opposite!" but I'm guessing if someone else did it, I'd change my mind.) I'm glad he was there then and I'm glad he's here now. Also: Cars.

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

5/5

At 83 minutes, this double album didn't leave a lot of time for multiple listens but my response to my first listen is Wow! This is epic! I love the addition of the female backing vocals, which help provide a gospel church atmosphere. Again, it's a long album and I had so many thoughts and feelings that I can't recall many of the specifics. But overall I really enjoyed this.

16 Lovers Lane

The Go-Betweens

3/5

I got excited by the opening track and thought this might be another hidden gem. But after that, things were pretty and pleasant and rather ordinary.

Rio

Duran Duran

5/5

This album is great! I. LOVE. EVERY. SONG. Do you hear the bass? Amazing! Here are some stories about Duran Duran. 1. I have relatively recently had a dream wherein I was running around an indoor flea market singing the "You make me feel alive, alive, alive!" part of the title track repeatedly at the top of my lungs. 2. When the album came out, there were families that had MTV and families that did not. Mine did not and this created a particular kind of desperation in me for music videos. At a party at the home of one of my dad's work colleagues, the kids all shuffled into the living room, where the host's kids were watching TV, the oldest daughter controlling the remote. She clicked on MTV where the video for Rio was starting but said, "oh, I've seen this" and clicked away and I died a little inside and still remember it a full 40 years later. 3. I have a friend who tells the tale of decorating a Christmas cookie in 1983 with the name Duran Duran and her mother storming out of the kitchen and proclaiming with complete sincerity, "Christmas is ruined!" I think that is very funny.

Apocalypse Dudes

Turbonegro

2/5

I’m not sure I needed to hear this one before I die but now I have. Very silly. Very spoodly. I did enjoy the handclaps on Don’t Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker. I predict that I will use “I’ve got a headache in my pants” as an excuse to get out of something before the end of this week. I won’t listen to this again.

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Ice Cube

3/5

I really loved some of this and really hated some of this.

Chris

Christine and the Queens

5/5

Very fun in English and in French.

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

5/5

Spectacular.

Trafalgar

Bee Gees

4/5

Man, I did not expect this to be so BLEAK. The Brothers Gibb are sad. I'm glad that in a few years they will know that you should be dancin'. Yeah. This is soft and gentle if depressing. Seems I like most the tunes written by Maurice, which are the ones that sound most like The Beatles.

Band On The Run

Paul McCartney and Wings

5/5

My brother had this on 8-track and I remember being vaguely afraid of the cover image so I don't think I ever listened to the whole thing. But I've always loved the title track and Jet and Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five (but if you'd asked me yesterday about that last one, I wouldn't have realized I know it). The album is fun! Had a great time listening. Would do again.

Pink Moon

Nick Drake

5/5

My favorite by one of my favorites. Wonderful.

Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan

5/5

My bestie included a couple of these songs on a mixed tape back in the day. (Thanks bestie!!!) But I'd never listened to the whole album before today. Superb story-telling and lovely tunes. It's darn good.

In Rainbows

Radiohead

4/5

Still not completely in love with Radiohead but I'm closer? Once again, there were a couple of songs that felt like something special. The rest is better than fine just not quite there.

american dream

LCD Soundsystem

4/5

It took until about track 3 for this to heat up. Hints of Bowie obviously but also Talking Heads, U2, Kraftwerk. Some good dance beats in here.

The Soft Bulletin

The Flaming Lips

5/5

I love their raggedy vocals and quirky, specific lyrics. They've got a bit of a 70s AM radio sensibility that I find quite charming.

A Seat at the Table

Solange

5/5

Wow! Smooth and personal. A great listen this morning.

Darklands

The Jesus And Mary Chain

3/5

Hm. I think I miss the grinding. I found this kind of boring and generic. (Sorry.)

Licensed To Ill

Beastie Boys

4/5

If you want to make me feel good about your record, there are worse ways to start it than by sampling Led Zeppelin's When the Levee Breaks. The lyrics are silly and often sophomoric. I definitely don't feel like I'm the intended audience. And that's a bit of a shame because there were lots more fun samples and catchy delivery. Another band that's better when I can't really hear the words.

Vanishing Point

Primal Scream

4/5

I was expecting a band called Primal Scream to be screamier. They weren't! Mostly chill dance vibes here. The dance tracks are far better than the others. Star, a song with a message, is particularly on the nose and a little cringey. But overall, I enjoyed this. Groovy and sedate.

Country Life

Roxy Music

5/5

OK. I've never been a fan of Bryan Ferry's voice and really was't looking forward to the Roxy Music albums I knew we'd have to listen to as part of this project. The glistening ladies on the cover weren't helping with my dread either. But then...I loved it despite myself. I'm still not enamored with the vocals but this is bold and theatrical and I want to hear it again. I also want to give the cover models some towels and some warm, comfortable clothes.

Pretenders

5/5

This is badass.

Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction

4/5

I'm a big fan of Ritual de lo Habitual but had never bothered listening to the album that came before. There were glimmers of light on Nothing's Shocking but mostly I heard a band that hadn't quite found what they wanted to be yet (or at least what I wanted them to be). More spoodly hard rock than the theatrical circus that was to come.

Born In The U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen

3/5

After listening to Born to Run and The Rising, I thought I'd be ready to like this and went in pretty optimistic. But I'm afraid this did not go well for me and my ear holes. The songs that were familiar had worn out their welcome long ago and the songs I didn't know didn't really speak to me today. I'm a little jealous of Springsteen fans because their feelings for him seem to run so deep. (I'm sure I feel like that about somebody else. Lots of somebodies else. But, you know, no such thing as too much love, right?) I'm pretty sure there's a Springsteen album that I could love. I will keep looking. p.s. Anyone else find the line "Hey, little girl, is your daddy home?" monumentally creepy?

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

OutKast

4/5

Since this is our 400th album, I'll accept an album of epic length without (too much) complaint. I definitely enjoyed Speakerboxxx more than The Love Below but both contained some excellent tracks. Loved GhettoMusick, Bowtie, Church, and Knowing from Disc 1; and Behold a Lady (whatever tf that means), with its literal "clap-clap"s, and the jazz version of My Favorite Things played at break-neck speed from Disc 2. I don't know if I'll ever listen to all 2 hours and 15 minutes again but a playlist with the aforementioned favorites might make me very very happy.

Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan

4/5

Great to hear such a significant piece of work even if it’s not particularly my bag. Interesting to hear the different voices and styles. It’s clear why this album was so influential.

Gentlemen

The Afghan Whigs

1/5

Wow oh wow was I bored by this.

C'est Chic

CHIC

5/5

I love being able to identify a band by its bass player. This is good good fun. Danceable and soulful and a punch of nostalgia. Just great.

90

808 State

4/5

Except for the parts that sounded like the alarm on my phone, I very much enjoyed this. Fun dance grooves with tiny melodic surprises.

Ready To Die

The Notorious B.I.G.

3/5

Well. This was hard to listen to. It's nihilistic, misogynistic, and violent. It made me feel sick to my stomach most of the time. And yet...there were moments where I was in awe and even felt a sort of delight at some of the genius rhymes. I can see why he was considered one of the greatest rappers. And I think I've heard enough.

Kick Out The Jams (Live)

MC5

4/5

At first, this was just loud and muddy but it finds itself about half-way through. Some great energy.

Midnight Ride

Paul Revere & The Raiders

5/5

Mostly great fun. Exemplifies the 60s in my mind. I can even excuse the myriad issues with Little Girl in the 4th Row as relics of a bygone age. Ballad of a Useless Man is oddly catchy for a song about an alcoholic living on the streets. And Melody for an Unknown [Woman] could have used even fewer words if you ask me. But overall, this is a good time capsule and just a good time.

Jazz Samba

Stan Getz

5/5

Utterly delightful.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

5/5

Trying to break my heart? That's not that hard to do. And it's extra tender today so maybe this doesn't mean much but break my heart it did. (And I wasn't even really paying much attention to the lyrics.) Melancholy vocals over sad piano on a gray and gloomy day felt just perfect.

The Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks

5/5

Clever and funny and good-hearted. The Kinks can play for me any day. And talk about rhymes: Consortium - awarded them, vernacular - Dracula, affiliates - and billiards. God save Donald Duck, vaudeville, and variety!

Rubber Soul

Beatles

5/5

I find it very hard to think about this one as an album since many of the songs are so familiar outside of this context. The songs that weren't hit singles stand out because they are equally as good but seem relatively new to me. Other than the horrifying Run for Your Life, I've got no beefs with this record. (And honestly the rockabilly twang of Run for Your Life is so goddamn catchy that I kind of love it, too. <shakes head and tsk-tsks at John Lennon>)

...And Justice For All

Metallica

5/5

Other than One, I'd not heard any of this before. It's great! Really great! Much more accessible than Master of Puppets but a little less radio-friendly than Metallica (the black album). Right in the sweet spot. Loved it.

Sign 'O' The Times

Prince

5/5

Incredible. Didn't want it to end. Until the last song. I was kind of glad when that one ended. But overall, super-top-notch!

Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads

4/5

Fun and interesting.

Elephant Mountain

The Youngbloods

5/5

Oh, sure. The Youngbloods. I know them. Wait...do I? Am I confusing them with The Yardbirds? Oh yeah: come on people now, smile on your brother... That's them. That song's not on this album though. The only song I know on this album is Darkness, Darkness because Ann Wilson (of Heart) did a cover on her amazing album Hope & Glory. I love that cover. And I love The Youngbloods' original. I love a lot of this album. It's definitely 60s but not overplayed. Interesting instrumentation. Speaking of...there are a few instrumental bits that go on a little long but that's my only complaint. This is good good stuff and I want to hear more.

Repeater

Fugazi

4/5

I enjoyed the driving bass intros on a few of these. There's a lot about this album that brings Jane's Addiction to mind --- the vocals in Song #1 in particular and the guitars in Brendan #1. I found a lot to like.

Pieces Of The Sky

Emmylou Harris

5/5

Sublime. More like this please!

Fuzzy

Grant Lee Buffalo

2/5

Okee dokee. I listened to that. What's next?

Mama's Gun

Erykah Badu

5/5

Deliciously soulful. A great soundtrack for a chill Friday evening after a long, hard week.

Space Ritual

Hawkwind

2/5

I find this kind of music rather silly. When I wasn't bored, I was embarrassed for all of us. My favorite parts were the spoken word bits where the guy sounds like Hans Gruber stating his demands to the miracle that is the Eff Bee Eye. "The following people are to be released from their captors: In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn Movement. Small babies should be placed inside the special cocoons and should be left, if possible, in shelters."

The Beach Boys Today!

The Beach Boys

5/5

I'm really loving all of the exposure I'm getting to The Beach Boys with this project. And it's fun to read about the goings-on around the recording and the release of this record. Do You Wanna Dance hits you with the Phil Spector-ish wall of sound, making it clear why Wikipedia classifies this as Orchestrated Rock. I love the complexity of the lyrics on side 2 of the album hinting at where Brian Wilson is headed. A gem!

Stankonia

OutKast

2/5

I wasn't in the right place for this today. Very little of it was appealing or even unappealing in an interesting way. To me. Today.

Penthouse And Pavement

Heaven 17

4/5

The kind of 80s brit pop that I tolerate more than enjoy, this one had me bopping along pretty good.

Hot Buttered Soul

Isaac Hayes

5/5

Soulful and sexy and only a little silly. Heart!

The Real Thing

Faith No More

4/5

This was a favorite of mine back when it was new. So most of what I felt listening today was nostalgia. They're bass-y and shout-y and if the songs were new to me, I don't think I'd appreciate them as much today. But this one has the benefit of familiarity.

Nevermind

Nirvana

5/5

Electrifying. So many great songs.

En-Tact

The Shamen

5/5

Another solid groove for a Saturday dance party. Really enjoyed it!

Rum Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues

5/5

To me this album means home. It is heartbreaking but gorgeous and exhilarating. I love every moment.

Let's Get It On

Marvin Gaye

5/5

Making us all want to Get It On is what Marvin Gaye does best.

At Newport 1960

Muddy Waters

5/5

Nice to wallow in the Muddy Waters today. Appreciate hearing it from the source.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins

4/5

I wasn't looking forward to 2 hours of the Smashing Pumpkins. I remember kind of disliking them in the 90s. Based on what? I do not know. So there was a lot of music here and I only had time to listen once but I really really liked it. I think I'd like to narrow it down to about 10 songs instead of 28 but I really really like those 10.

Boston

5/5

Yes!

Tubular Bells

Mike Oldfield

3/5

This was different. Creepy and then so completely not creepy that it was kinda creepy. And then just ordinary. I appreciate having listened to it but I can't say that I really liked much of it.

Seventeen Seconds

The Cure

3/5

No real surprises. This is what I think The Cure sounds like. Tolerable but not my fave.

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

4/5

Yes, I love the title track. Sure, I love Sara. Beyond that, these songs aren't familiar. For the most part, each one reminded me of a different Fleetwood Mac song that I like better. I liked it a lot but I'm disappointed that I didn't love it.

Home Is Where The Music Is

Hugh Masekela

5/5

Smooth, rich, and wonderful. Made me feel good. Home IS where the music is. Heart!

The Predator

Ice Cube

5/5

What a difference two years makes! I did not much enjoy the experience of listening to AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990) a couple of months ago. The Predator (1992) showed a tremendous leap in musical maturity. It's intense and serious and compelling but still finds room for humor and play. There were parts that made me feel ill and sad and angry, so it wasn't all a good time. But it was a good listen.

Roxy Music

2/5

First listen, I didn't mind it. Seemed ok. And then I hit "play" again. And I did not have a good time. That and I spent far too much time and energy thinking about and talking about whether the cover was sexy or a joke. I'm back to disliking Roxy Music again.

3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...

Arrested Development

5/5

My super-cool housemate had this CD back in the 90s. I hadn't heard it in decades. It's still great. Wonderful to hear it again.

Emergency On Planet Earth

Jamiroquai

5/5

Jamiroquai! When you want a 70s sound but not from the 70s. Really fun and funky grooves. I love it!

Talking Book

Stevie Wonder

5/5

Stevie Wonder exudes love and light. He makes me feel good.

69 Love Songs

The Magnetic Fields

5/5

Wow. There are a lot of songs here. But there's a lot of variety in style and instrumentation so I never really got bored or tired, just overwhelmed by the assignment. Thematically, yeah, they're all love songs of a sort. Some are silly, some are sweet, some are poignant, some heart-breaking. Lyrics are worth paying attention to for sure. So much to love.

Screamadelica

Primal Scream

4/5

A couple of these songs are strong 5s for me (Movin' On Up, Loaded) and I already knew and liked Come Together from Trainspotting. I had a good time grooving to the rest. I will want to listen again.

Here Are the Sonics

The Sonics

5/5

Hey everybody! There’s a twist contest in the kitchen and you’re all winners! This was fun and these guys are still playing. Fun!

D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle

5/5

What makes this good and not just complete nonsense? I have no idea but good it certainly is. Unusual, weird, noisy, and really really good.

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

50 Cent

3/5

Some catchy beats. Not a ton of variety. Quite long. Not my favorite.

Bandwagonesque

Teenage Fanclub

3/5

Fine. I think I won't remember it at all.

Fire Of Love

The Gun Club

4/5

A different kind of punk sound. Interesting to read how much they influenced artists I like. Disturbing lyrics at times. But a good listen for today.

Chelsea Girl

Nico

5/5

The instrumentation is lovely and Nico's vocals sound raw and authentic. No autotune here. Deliciously soothing.

Close To The Edge

Yes

4/5

I hadn't heard this one before. Lots of spoodling and those high Yes vocals. I enjoyed it just fine.

Little Earthquakes

Tori Amos

5/5

An old favorite. Still excellent.

Picture Book

Simply Red

4/5

A hometown friend gave this to me, kind of out of the blue, right before I left for college. I would never have bought it for myself but I listened to it sometimes and enjoyed it. Still, I was surprised to see it on this list. I don't know why! It's really good. There are bits that certainly smack of the 80s but mostly I think it's aged pretty well and it's more suited to me in late middle-age than it was in my (rockin') teens. Very nice!

Life Thru A Lens

Robbie Williams

5/5

On our honeymoon in London, we had dinner with an old friend who was living there. The conversation turned to music and he sheepishly admitted to being a fan of Robbie Williams even though his flatmates made fun of him for it. When I returned to the US, I ran across Williams' The Ego Has Landed in a used CD store and picked it up out of curiosity. It quickly became one of my favorites and it still evokes strong and specific memories of where I was living and how I spent my time that year. I only today found out that Ego is a compilation of songs from prior albums, including Life Thru a Lens. So today's listen was a fun mix of songs that I know well and songs that were new to me. I love it!

Is This It

The Strokes

2/5

I did not find this particularly interesting.

Fisherman's Blues

The Waterboys

4/5

I knew When Will We Be Married, Jimmy Hickey's Waltz, and Carolan's Welcome from a show I was in a few years ago and I love those tunes! Based on that, I kind of expected a more "traditional Irish" sound from the album. The bulk of the album is kind of generic folksy rock, none of which did much for me. I do love When Ye Go Away. That's my new favorite.

Born To Be With You

Dion

3/5

This seemed very adult. Not in a bowm-chicka-bowm-bowm way but in an I gotta wear a suit and do my taxes kinda way.

Time Out

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

5/5

I love this. Sophisticated and very very cool.

Scum

Napalm Death

2/5

For being so short, that was kind of a slog. I started rockin' out a couple of times but for the most part was just waiting for it to be over. Couldn't understand a word.

Made In Japan

Deep Purple

3/5

This was going along pretty great until after Smoke on the Water and its holy trinity of rock chords. Long spoodily, uninteresting solos made the rest feel like an eternity. The band sure does sound great live and the songs are good but these jammy solos get a big no-thank-you from me.

Second Toughest In The Infants

Underworld

3/5

I listened twice today and both times this flew under my radar for the most part. I didn't hate it but nothing stood out.

GREY Area

Little Simz

4/5

"I'm a boss in a fucking dress!" is the line I've always wanted but never knew. Still not my genre, but this was an interesting listen for today.

Alien Lanes

Guided By Voices

4/5

This is the kind of album that makes it clear why this is "albums you must hear" and not "the best albums." I'm glad I listened to this once and I will not likely choose to listen again. But I've got respect for musicians who say, "I've got an idea for a song," and then just record a song that's 50 seconds long --- no padding, no filler, no long solos, just...here's the song. Lyrics don't need to rhyme or make sense --- the whole album felt very stream-of-consciousness and I appreciated that. The songier songs sounded like 60s British invasion covered by a grunge band and even some of the vocals sounded a bit like Paul McCartney.

Odessa

Bee Gees

5/5

Well this just smacks of quality. This isn't the Bee Gees I grew up with but it is top-notch!

Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago

5/5

Love the bluesy, hornsy sound of this band. Some of the songs go on too long (I had to stop Free Form Guitar and come back later), but great to hear the origins of some very familiar songs.

Wild Is The Wind

Nina Simone

5/5

Overwhelmingly powerful and deeply expressive, Nina Simone is an incredible gift.

Music in Exile

Songhoy Blues

5/5

Wonderful. Improved my day.

Kimono My House

Sparks

4/5

Quirky and fun. Liked it just fine.

The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy

1/5

"Smack My Bitch Up..." Why? Oh, who cares. Fuck off.

1977

Ash

3/5

Mostly underwhelming 90s indie rock. Makes me wonder if we all avoided feeling feelings in the 90s? Some of the more punk-sounding songs are fun.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West

4/5

A Kanye West album definitely wasn't on my wish list for Christmas so I took the day off and didn't listen. Too bad Ye is such a public mess because a lot of this album is truly great. Yeah, some of it is misogynist-ick and some of it is just plain ick. But several of the songs really got to me in a way that's hard to reconcile. Once again, I am failed by a one-dimensional scale.

The Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest

5/5

Funky and jazzy early 90s hip-hop. Very enjoyable.

Behaviour

Pet Shop Boys

5/5

More subdued than the Pet Shop Boys I'm used to. Sophisticated class.

Station To Station

David Bowie

5/5

I don't think there is any song that starts cooler than "Golden Years." This album is great!

Vespertine

Björk

5/5

Warm and magical. I wanted it never to stop.

The Who Sell Out

The Who

5/5

I'd always avoided this album because the bean business from the movie Tommy kind of freaked me out as a kid, so the cover made me nervous. But this is silly and fun and I had nothing to worry about. I love it.

The Slim Shady LP

Eminem

1/5

I would like that hour back.

Younger Than Yesterday

The Byrds

5/5

My expectations were low after The Notorious Byrd Brothers and the first few tracks had me nervous but it really turned around for me around track 5. First of all, they appealed to the grammarian in me by correctly singing "between you and me" (instead of "you and I") on Time Between. After that, this album was shimmery gold in my ears.

Clandestino

Manu Chao

5/5

Varied, interesting, and fun. Will listen again!

Soul Mining

The The

4/5

Good solid 80s pop that wasn't overplayed, at least in my neck of the woods. If I were creating the soundtrack for a movie that was set in the 80s and I didn't want to go with the obvious choices (Don't You Want Me, Come On Eileen, (I Ran) So Far Away), I might choose this. I loved the first half and was less enchanted with the second. The piano solo on Uncertain Smile was especially nice. Really good!

Deserter's Songs

Mercury Rev

4/5

The music of a quirky circus (a Quirkus-TM). Organs, strings, woodwinds, horns, musical saw. I'm not in love with it but if someone I lived with had it in their regular rotation, I wouldn't be mad.

Dig Your Own Hole

The Chemical Brothers

4/5

Good, more Chemical Brothers. I still really can't tell one song from the next (for the most part) but I like the sound.

Berlin

Lou Reed

5/5

Sometimes you hear and album that makes you say, "Holy cow, I need to recalibrate my rating scale." This, folks. This is what a 5-star album sounds like. From simple piano melodies to wailing electric guitar over sax and horns, the story packs a heavy emotional punch. I'm overwhelmed.

Nighthawks At The Diner

Tom Waits

5/5

Well, I was apprehensive about what could possibly follow the perfection that is Lou Reed's Berlin, and seeing our fourth Tom Waits album had me wondering how this one was going to stand out from the others. I shouldn't have worried. The 1001 Generator had my back. Nighthawks at the Diner is an intimate night in mid 70s Los Angeles with a performer who is doing precisely what he was meant to do. The songs themselves are wonderful but so is the interstitial patter, poetic and musical enough that it was likely scripted and rehearsed but seemed completely spontaneous. Waits often laughs at his own jokes and had me laughing out loud, when I wasn't tearing up. Really fantastic, start to finish.

Melody A.M.

Röyksopp

4/5

Pleasant, unobtrusive electronica.

Buffalo Springfield Again

Buffalo Springfield

5/5

I love me some Stephen Stills. This is lovely. Top notch!

The Infotainment Scan

The Fall

4/5

What? I actually like an album by The Fall? Yes, I guess so! Surprisingly fun and danceable.

Different Class

Pulp

3/5

Am I the only one that's confused by the fact that there is Pulp but then there is also Blur? Those are pretty much the same word, right? I love Common People (Shatner's cover with Joe Jackson is one of my favorite things on earth) and I got excited about I Spy and Disco 2000 the first time through. But then I was kind of bored by the rest of the album and, listening again, even Spy and Disco'd lost some of their luster.

Thriller

Michael Jackson

5/5

Summer of '83. In the high school auto shop building. Poking paper napkins through chicken wire tacked to a flat-bed truck, building a float for the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo Parade. A Thriller cassette is in a boom box. Each time a side ends, someone is there to flip it over and press play. When we get to that part of Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', everyone stops and yells "Yee Haw!" (Though the Apple Music lyrics tell me now it's "he ha." Whatever.) This was the soundtrack to our lives for more than a year. It changed everything and it meant a lot.

The Man Machine

Kraftwerk

5/5

Of Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express, I said, "Their music doesn't make me FEEL anything." Well, I guess today is a new day because I felt great listening to The Man Machine. I loved the lasers and the dance beats and just generally had a good time.

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Sinead O'Connor

5/5

This is a great album. Songs are distinct, both musically and thematically, and O'Connor's adept vocals still haunt even thirty years later. Lots of good songs that add up to a satisfying, unified whole.

Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury

The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy

5/5

"Being kicked in the closed mouth Or smiling with no teeth They're both choices, yes But it's impossible to eat" Oof. Why haven't I ever heard this before? I have some theories... Really great early 90s hip-hop sound with lyrics that are still too relevant. I would understand if folks thought it preachy but I'm in the choir so I say, "testify!"

MTV Unplugged In New York

Nirvana

5/5

This is hard to listen to. I felt sad and tense the whole time knowing what's around the corner. I was also embarrassed for the audience whose yeahs and whoos feel inappropriate, insufficiently reverent given the performance's now understood weight. The album is undeniably poignant and historic but I doubt I will ever seek it out again.

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic

5/5

Delightfully bonkers.

Autobahn

Kraftwerk

5/5

Very fun, especially for someone who doesn't like driving.

Calenture

The Triffids

1/5

I don't have particularly good reasons but I found this utterly dreadful today. Inexcusably mundane. Really, really, really did not like.

Young Americans

David Bowie

3/5

Hmmmmm. To me, this is the least appealing of Bowie's records so far. I can tell he's going for a bit of a soulful R&B sound and I can appreciate that but for the most part these songs don't particularly grab me. (And I disliked outright the cover of Across the Universe.)

Kollaps

Einstürzende Neubauten

4/5

I've got no hope of being neutral about Einstürzende. They're one of my husband's favorites. I hear them whether I like it or not. So I might as well find reasons to like them. This album's noisy and rather unpleasant, but it's not chaotic, not just loud noodling and screaming. I couldn't tell you what their intention is, but I can tell they've got one. It's hard to tell from this album but there are songs on later albums where Blixa's voice is actually soothing. On Kollaps, we only hear the stuff of nightmares. Still, this is different! I would much rather listen to something that disturbs me with noise than to something that disturbs me with boredom. So, thumbs up!

Dirty

Sonic Youth

4/5

OK. This is the least "huh?" of the many, many Sonic Youth albums we've listened to so far. If this had been the only one, I wouldn't be so mad. It's not bad. There are songs I actually would like to hear again. Good work, everyone.

Shake Your Money Maker

The Black Crowes

5/5

Aw, I love this one from my walk-man days. Great bluesy, southern rock sound.

Viva Hate

Morrissey

3/5

I'm not ever going to love Morrissey. This was fine though.

Fever Ray

5/5

Very nice! Björk-ish but not Björk. Will want to listen again.

Hot Fuss

The Killers

3/5

Someone gave me this CD thinking I would like it. I listened to it a bit and, though some of the tunes appealed to me, the album was never a favorite and now it just seems tired.

My Aim Is True

Elvis Costello

5/5

Feeling a little meh about Elvis Costello going in but I'm glad to say, I like this one! I like this one a lot! Varied styles from song to song. Hard to pin it to a single decade. A range of feelings. Lots here to like.

The Slider

T. Rex

3/5

T. Rex has some fun hooks and a distinctive sound but a kind of limited range. I got tired of this album real fast.

LP1

FKA twigs

5/5

(a) I can't stop looking at the cover. Her hair, her eyes, her lips, her teeth. The shine and color on her face. Beautiful but disquieting. (it's not a bruise, is it?) The hyper-real/non-reality of it. This image took up a lot of my brain space today. (b) I am completely unfamiliar with FKA twigs, a fact that earns the album extra points after what feels like several repeated artists over the past few weeks (a lot of white dudes I already know and some I've heard enough from already). (c) Like many others, this faded into the background a bit in the kitchen during dinner prep and was much, much, much, much, much more compelling and interesting with headphones and more focus. I'm intrigued and want more.

Heartattack And Vine

Tom Waits

5/5

There are few who could charm me this much by singing about whores and Chinamen. But Tom Waits does. I'm not sure what a fifth Tom Waits album is adding to this list. No matter. I love it still.

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

5/5

Wow! This is a lot of impressive music. A wonderful change of pace. I loved the interstitials that caught the musicians talking. That really added to the homey cozy feeling. Loved it.

Yeezus

Kanye West

2/5

I was making a cringey face through much of it but there are a couple of tracks that are incredibly catchy and I enjoyed them despite myself. I especially appreciated the vocal delivery on some of the rap tracks --- an intensity in West's voice and the intake of breath that made the stakes seem high even as the words themselves seemed pretty banal at times. I had to look at the lyrics to blood on the leaves to make sure that I was hearing correctly that the main thrust of West's lyrics are about partying and doing Molly against the sample of Nina Simone's Strange Fruit. But again, the song is hella catchy and I listened several times. I don't want to hear much of this again but I thought about it a lot today.

Woodface

Crowded House

5/5

A wonderful surprise. Sophisticated pop tunes that could be from almost any era. Lots of tracks made my love list.

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

3/5

In my review for Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness I said, "I remember kind of disliking them in the 90s. Based on what? I do not know." There was so much of MC&tIS that I enjoyed that I was kind of looking forward to hearing more from these Pumpkins. Cherub Rock validated my feelings that I had really missed out back in the 90s --- man, that song is an absolute peach! The rest of the album did not nearly agree with my earholes as well as that one, including the singles Today and Disarm, which might have been what put me off the band in the first place. And I found that by the end of the album (half as long as MC&tIS but still over an hour), I'd grown quite tired of their schtick. Still though, Cherub Rock, you guys.

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

5/5

Wheeeee! This put me in a GREAT mood and that is not an easy thing to do. Fits perfectly in my brain.

Bayou Country

Creedence Clearwater Revival

4/5

Yep, that's CCR all right. No surprises. It's fine.

Rattus Norvegicus

The Stranglers

4/5

This was fun (except when it wasn't, and even then it was just kind of dumb). I already knew (Get a) Grip but all the rest was new to me. I laughed out loud at the dopey delivery of the first line of Princess of the Streets (She's gone and left me. I don't know why.) and Peaches (Strolling along minding my own BUSINESS.) The prominence of the organ keeps the tone light and makes this band stand out from others of their genre. Well done!

Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A.

3/5

It's historic and ground-breaking but I feel a bit ragged after listening to it.

Me Against The World

2Pac

5/5

I was quite well-taken with this one. It was thoughtful and poignant, emotionally deep. Well done.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

Brian Eno

5/5

Much less noisy and more musical than I'd assumed from the description. Outstanding! Very enjoyable.

Natty Dread

Bob Marley & The Wailers

4/5

OK. Reggae's not my favorite but I tried my best to keep an open mind. The first track, Lively Up Yourself, had that typical Reggae thing going but it felt super chill and was catchy. I loved it. No Woman, No Cry was familiar and warm. So far so good. However, the beat and the tone don't vary much and I got pretty tired of it after three or four tracks. So I think I can appreciate it a bit at a time --- I would not mind if any of these songs shuffled up in a playlist now and again --- but I don't know that I'll reach for this album as a whole again any time soon.

Pictures At An Exhibition

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

4/5

I think a lot about how the way I grew up interacting with music (in the 1970s and 80s) is so different than how folks interact with it now (in the 2020s). In my day, I'd hear a song on the radio several times. If I liked it, then I might call the radio station to request it and then wait around until they played it. If I really liked it and had baby-sitting money, then I might buy the 45 (rpm vinyl record of the single). If I really liked it and had no cash but I did have a blank tape, I'd hold my tape recorder up to the radio speaker and record it, mildly cursing the DJ for talking over the intro and/or the fade-out. I wouldn't buy a whole album unless there were at least two singles I liked on it AND I had money. Further, there was virtually no way to listen to an album that you did not yourself own or have access to via a friend or sibling. So it was extremely rare to hear an album just once. If you heard an album, you'd hear it over and over again. And if you'd spent money on it, you'd do that even if you didn't particularly like it beyond the hit singles that brought you to it. But there was a sense of ownership of a song --- "I had that on 45" --- ownership that made the song a part of you. From LPs, we moved to cassettes and to CDs. When iTunes came along, I ripped my CDs to mp3s, at first just the good songs and then, as I got bigger and bigger hard drives, the rest of the albums. (I still have all those CDs. I don't know how to get rid of them.) I also paid for songs and albums on iTunes for a long time. I feel a sense of ownership of all of those songs. Now I subscribe to a streaming service and I haven't really figured out a way to curate the songs that I want to "own" because in some sense I own them all. Whenever I want, I can listen to a whole album once and feel no obligation to ever listen again. Often in this project I base my rating at least in part on whether or not I want to hear the record again. I think that's partly due to this training in my formative years. Loving an album, or even liking it, means having it and listening to it again and again. But maybe that's not necessary any more. Anyway...I did not know of ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition before today. I liked it just fine and I appreciate it as part of the culture but I don't particularly want to hear it again, so I think I'm going to give it 4 stars. But I also think, if I'd heard it live, without the question of whether or not I'd even have the option to experience it again, I might give it 5.

The Velvet Underground

5/5

Creates a groovy atmosphere. Simple and nice.

Devotional Songs

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

5/5

I don’t know enough about this kind of music to say anything informed or intelligent about it but I liked it and could use a bit more love and devotion in my world.

Da Capo

Love

3/5

The first few tracks I can only describe using the non-word "prancy" --- maybe it brought to mind circus ponies? I came into "She Comes in Colors" expecting something like the Stones' "She's a Rainbow" but got Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" instead --- either would have been fine and this is by far the best track. I don't think I'll remember much about the rest.

Hejira

Joni Mitchell

5/5

Another gem from Joni Mitchell. We are truly blessed.

Cheap Thrills

Big Brother & The Holding Company

5/5

Glorious abandon. Janis is fearless.

From Elvis In Memphis

Elvis Presley

5/5

Well, my stars. You're gonna have to gimme a minute to recover from all this...charisma. This album is deep, soulful, sexy. I enjoyed the pants off it.

Bug

Dinosaur Jr.

3/5

I was ready to write the whole thing off as not really my thing based on the first couple of tracks but found myself really enjoying They Always Come, Yeah We Know, and Let It Ride. Still not really my thing but not terrible.

Steve McQueen

Prefab Sprout

4/5

Liked it better the second time through. Listening on headphones revealed layers that weren't obvious on speakers. Feels like it would benefit from repeated exposure.

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd

5/5

I listened to Dark Side on 8-Track a lot in my teens. Today brought back memories of doing math homework stretched out on shag carpet. There are still parts of this album where I fully expect to hear the music fading out, followed by the ka-thunk of the tape changing tracks, and the same song fading back in. The lyrics certainly hit my 54-year-old ears differently than they did at 14. I'd never actually understood much of "Us and Them" and reading the streaming lyrics today nearly knocked me down. (Instead, I looked up to see a baby with giant blue eyes staring at me and we held each others' gaze for a good minute on the bus. That was intense.) I'm relieved and grateful that this album is still as good, if not better than it always was. It does not seem dated, does not feel tired. Every fall on the college campus where I teach, as the kids are settling into their new dorms, there are always Dark Side posters on display at the pop-up poster sale on the quad. I take some comfort in the fact that the teens too still find it good.

Tigermilk

Belle & Sebastian

4/5

I really like Belle and Sebastian but I find their songs really hard to tell apart and they have SO many! This isn't my favorite B&S album but it's nice.

Hypnotised

The Undertones

4/5

Light-weight and youthful. Concerned with boys and girls and they're getting together or not. Fun.

The Renaissance

Q-Tip

4/5

A smooth, old-school R&B feel in this hip-hop record. I enjoyed the groove.

Stand!

Sly & The Family Stone

5/5

An absolute gem of a record. Social justice messages with a party sound and exquisite musicianship. Very fine!

Ocean Rain

Echo And The Bunnymen

5/5

I do like the sound of a Bunnymen song. Lots of la-las and do-dos. Pretty!

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators

4/5

Great psychedelic rock sound and cover art. Their influence on later acts is apparent. Glad to have heard it.

High Violet

The National

4/5

The bones of a great album are here. The songs have beautiful melodies and nice instrumentation. I like the quality of the vocals and hear some lovely poetic lyrics here and there. And yet... There was something about this album that felt like I was being held at arm's length. The message I picked up was, "Look how sad I am. You could never understand such sadness." I don't dislike sad albums but I think a good one says, "I'm sad and I can see you're sad, too. Let's be sad together." Perhaps it was my own mood going in. I was already pretty down and felt like High Violet didn't leave much space for me to bring in my own sorrow.

Closer

Joy Division

4/5

I'm very familiar with a few of these songs. I liked the album but definitely started to tune it out after a while. I respect a singer who's not afraid to sing off-key.

Morrison Hotel

The Doors

4/5

Bluesy and moody. A lot of songs with a maritime theme. I had fun.

New Boots And Panties

Ian Dury

4/5

Very 70s. Very British. Kind of odd. Kind of silly. Very fun.

Juju

Siouxsie And The Banshees

5/5

Oh! So much better than the last Siouxsie and the Banshees' album we had. I love this one!

Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs

Marty Robbins

4/5

Not particularly my favorite style nor subject matter but it gets points for being a welcome change of pace. Very Lawrence Welk!

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys

4/5

A very fine punk rock record. Fast tempos and clever lyrics that are both funny and horrifying.

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen

3/5

Oh, I tried. I tried I tried I tried. It's fine. I don't hate it. But there's not much for me here.

Out Of The Blue

Electric Light Orchestra

5/5

A distinctive and glorious sound. Thumbs way up.

Exodus

Bob Marley & The Wailers

5/5

I generally enjoy my reggae in smaller doses but this felt cool and soothing today. The reggae rhythm bounces along under almost every song but the lyrics are moving and uplifting and the second half of the album left me feeling all right.

Ill Communication

Beastie Boys

5/5

Other than maybe there's one or two songs that aren't adding much, this album is really something. This is a much more mature effort than License to Ill, lots of growth has happened in between. I was dubious about the claim in Sure Shot about being through with disrespecting women but they lived up to that promise throughout the rest of the tracks. There are a variety of styles that shine on this album --- a few tracks are exactly what I expected with distorted shouty vocals (not a bad thing) but then there were punk songs, straight-up funk instrumentals, and even some Klezmer violin. The last few tracks are a paean to Buddhism and enlightenment. This album is bold and inventive and kind-spirited. Good work.

Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear

3/5

Not unpleasant but very bland for the most part. I doubt I would've finished it if I didn't "have to." I'm glad I stuck it out because the last two tracks were quite striking, elevating the overall experience.

Tanto Tempo

Bebel Gilberto

5/5

Absolutely enchanting. I was enchanted.

Eagles

5/5

Holy smokes! I'd never quite registered the banjo-picking that comes in on the instrumental section of Take It Easy. That's quite something. Nice to listen to classic country-tinged rock from the early 70s. It gave this witch-ay woman a peaceful easy feeling for sure.

Strangeways, Here We Come

The Smiths

5/5

A Smiths album I actually liked! I played it three times! Super catchy and I could tell the songs apart. Finally!

Sail Away

Randy Newman

5/5

This is very fine storytelling. And not just in the lyrics. The music itself tells a story. It is no surprise that Newman has been so successful as a film composer. His songs themselves are cinematic. The opening and closing tracks are deviously beautiful: lovely melodies bring you in and then the lyrics kick you in the teeth. I'm sure I knew it at some point but maybe I'd forgotten that Newman wrote "You Can Leave Your Hat On." Listening to this album, it struck me how similar Randy Newman and Tom Waits are. I would love an album where they cover each other's tunes.

At Budokan

Cheap Trick

5/5

I love this band. Surrender is one of my favorite songs. This album is exhilerating and fun!

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

3/5

I hadn't listened to any of Arcade Fire before this project and I found their album Funeral (our album #65) bold and theatrical. I felt an arc and an intention. I listened several times. Now it's a year and a half and 500 or so albums later and maybe I'm tired and maybe it isn't fair to compare this album to the previous one but that's what I found myself doing. I heard glimmers of what I liked about Funeral but overall found The Suburbs much less compelling. I don't particularly want to devote much attention to it again.

All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

5/5

Other than My Sweet Lord, I hadn't heard anything on this album that I can recall. It is long and there's a lot to take in for one day. My immediate reaction is that there are maybe a couple too many long instrumental jams (maybe...) but some very sparkly gems in here as well. I think that after a bit of time with this one, it will rank among my favorites.

Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys

5/5

Wowee! This is a super fun jam. Loved it top to bottom.

Freak Out!

The Mothers Of Invention

4/5

I enjoyed a lot of this, bopping twixt different styles with lyrics whose satirical nature was easy to miss when I wasn't paying attention. I think these Mothers were likely a retroactive influence on Lenny & Squiggy. I can live without hearing the last two tracks again though.

American IV: The Man Comes Around

Johnny Cash

5/5

Mathematical fact: the set of all people who dislike Johnny Cash is a subset of the set of all people who are actually monsters. This is divine.

Harvest

Neil Young

5/5

Mr. Young continues to grow on me. I found this very moving.

Queen Of Denmark

John Grant

5/5

Goodness Gracious. I cried and laughed out loud. Outstanding. Truly outstanding.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Richard Thompson

5/5

Delightful. A ray of sunshine, with a bit of shadow. Just the way I like it.

Everything Must Go

Manic Street Preachers

5/5

I'm not at all familiar with this band and even after listening to Everything Must Go, from what I read about them, I still don't know much. This record plays like a concept album or a rock opera à la Green Day's American Idiot but I guess it's not? Almost every song feels epic. I loved many and disliked none. Very glad to have made its acquaintance today.

The Marshall Mathers LP

Eminem

1/5

Listened to ten and a half tracks. I don't need to hear more.

The New Tango

Astor Piazzolla

5/5

Absolutely invigorating. I feel vigorous!

Moondance

Van Morrison

4/5

Huh. I thought I really liked Van Morrison but, aside from the songs I already knew, I found this rather unexciting.

Madman Across The Water

Elton John

5/5

I believe we have well-established that I am a sucker for a rock-n-roll piano. No surprise then that this album speaks to my soul. Sing it, Brother Elton!

Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent D'Arby

Terence Trent D'Arby

3/5

Welp, I really shouldn't have read his Wikipedia page or the iMusic description or talked to my friends about this album before doing today's homework. It was super hard to give this an unbiased listen. I personally have always loved Wishing Well and might even place it in my top 100 songs of all time. (Might. Definitely not top 10. Probably not top 50. But maybe top 100.) But it seems some of my friends hate it and I don't know who they are anymore. Also, TTD', now known as Sananda Maitreya, sounds kind of insufferable and I kind of couldn't stop thinking about that today. I'm not completely sure why this album is here.

My Generation

The Who

4/5

It's hard to believe that this is the band that will record Tommy and Who's Next just a few years later. I appreciate that about The Who: early Who sounds totally different than what I think of as "later" Who (even though it's not that much later). I like this album just fine. It feels rough and youthful. I like imagining seeing this version of the band in a cramped and smoky venue.

Neon Bible

Arcade Fire

3/5

It's fine. I appreciate that it was recorded in a refurbished church. Love the pipe organ. It's interesting lyrically. But musically it mostly left me cold. I'm not going to rush to hear any of it again.

Beach Samba

Astrud Gilberto

5/5

I was in a bit of a foul mood earlier today but listening to this, I could only imagine skipping gaily along in a bright yellow sundress stopping only to sniff the blossoming camellias. Delightful.

Devil Without A Cause

Kid Rock

4/5

God damn it. I had no intention of enjoying this asshole's music so much. But I did.

Dookie

Green Day

5/5

Some solid fun punk. Fun.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Tortoise

4/5

Except when I wondered if my speakers were broken, I very much enjoyed this. Its Steve Reichian rhythms and instrumentation kept me buoyed and focused at work.

Black Sabbath

4/5

Ah, this is much more what I expected from Black Sabbath: shadowy, moody, bass-y, guitar-y, long noodly segments. I don't dislike it but it's not nearly as appealing as Paranoid and Vol. 4.

Among The Living

Anthrax

4/5

Captivating chuga-chuga-chuga rhythm all the way through. They seem fascinated by death but largely against it, which is nice. I liked it!

Bongo Rock

Incredible Bongo Band

5/5

Funktastic! Highly recommend!

White Ladder

David Gray

4/5

Very nice. My Oh My, Silver Lining, and White Ladder in particular felt special.

The Clash

5/5

For a punk band, these guys sure seem to have their shit together.

The Idiot

Iggy Pop

5/5

Prominent bass with some great guitar underneath. David Bowie’s prints all over it. I dig.

Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

Dexys Midnight Runners

4/5

Dexy's vocal affectations get on my nerves a bit but this was a fun, mostly upbeat soundtrack to cleaning my bathroom today. (I know his name's not Dexy.)

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

4/5

I enjoyed most of this. Varying styles and some good special guests.

The Sun Rises In The East

Jeru The Damaja

3/5

I listened twice but nothing much grabbed my attention.

Automatic For The People

R.E.M.

5/5

Mournful and lovely. Hold on.

Water From An Ancient Well

Abdullah Ibrahim

4/5

Nice instrumentation. Mostly quiet and very pretty.

2112

Rush

4/5

Here's the thing about a Rush song for me: there's always a part in it that I go, "oh yeah, that's the stuff," and then there are large chunks of the song that do nothing for me. Also, you start talking about a "solar federation" and typically I'm out. And yet...there's quite a bit here for me to like and I definitely appreciate Rush's whole deal.

Live And Dangerous

Thin Lizzy

4/5

I had fun rocking out to this album. I think it would have been a heck of a thing to experience live. I did feel though that the songs were a little samey-samey and the hour and twenty minutes felt long.

OK

Talvin Singh

5/5

Unique style and combination of instruments give a relaxing ambient sound that I thoroughly enjoyed. An hour of soft groovy beats.

Planet Rock: The Album

Afrika Bambaataa

4/5

Interesting and enjoyable throwback.

The Bones Of What You Believe

CHVRCHES

4/5

I like the general sound of it and the edginess of the lyrics. I don't know if this is so but it seems like the kind of music that would play over the end credits of a tv show popular with millennials (not an insult).

Catch A Fire

Bob Marley & The Wailers

4/5

I'm really appreciating the opportunity to hear more of Bob Marley. There is some good variety here, both in lyrical themes, and musically --- there's a lot of that typical reggae beat but also a good bit of not that. I was especially taken with the first four tracks: Concrete Jungle, Slave Driver, 400 Years, and Stop that Train.

Throwing Muses

5/5

Wow oh wow oh wow. This is some very powerful stuff. Why wasn't this band, like, Nirvana big? So good.

Music

Madonna

5/5

One of Madonna's most mature albums. Very entertaining, very catchy. I love it.

Let's Stay Together

Al Green

5/5

This felt like a smooth, creamy, sexy massage for the soul today. Perfection.

Songs From A Room

Leonard Cohen

5/5

Some nice Leonard Cohen with a lot of mouth harp. Boing-boing-boing.

Arise

Sepultura

2/5

As an album, I found this rather tedious. I did, on occasion, find myself banging my head. But I don't really feel the need for more than one of these songs at a time.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

5/5

Another from this master story-teller. It's hard to tell a lot of the songs apart but there is good and challenging and deep stuff here. It made me sad and angry and even laugh out loud a couple of times. In addition to Blowin' in the Wind (one of two songs I can play on the guitar) and Hard Rain, I particularly appreciated Masters of War and Oxford Town.

Histoire De Melody Nelson

Serge Gainsbourg

4/5

It’s really a shame that the subject matter and cover photo are so revolting because musically I fucking loved this record.

Parallel Lines

Blondie

5/5

I thought I knew what to expect from Blondie but I was wrong! Really fun punky pop songs like One Way or Another and the disco rhythm of Heart of Glass, but also more than a hint of 60s girl group and an unexpected Buddy Holly cover. Debbie Harry kicks ass.

Ray Of Light

Madonna

5/5

Wait. Did I just say a few days ago that Music is one of Madonna's most mature albums? I did. But so is this. More like yoga class than a dance party, this one goes down real easy. And Ray of Light is one of my feel goodest songs.

The Chronic

Dr. Dre

2/5

Boy I sure am tired of hearing about AKs. Some of the beats are catchy.

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys

5/5

In college, a group of guys in my dorm cluster formed a band and called themselves Vivid Arctic and I think that made me biased against bands with Vivid or Arctic in their names. Shame. This is fun and upbeat and I bopped around the whole time. Loved it.

Central Reservation

Beth Orton

4/5

Pleasant music, nice voice. Would enjoy it as a party was winding down with folks sitting around quietly talking, not quite wanting to call it a night yet.

Heaven Or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins

4/5

Very listenable, at times glorious.

Darkdancer

Les Rythmes Digitales

4/5

Fun to have a straight-up dance album. Not sure why this one but I enjoyed it.

Something/Anything?

Todd Rundgren

5/5

If you asked me what 70s pop music sounded like, I'd hand you this. This is a long album and I think there are probably some songs that I could do without but there are also some real gems. I don't think I carry it in my brain all the time as such but when I listen to it, it's clear that "Hello, It's Me" is a genius pop song. I was prepared to be outraged at a track called Slut but even that was catchy and kind of pro-slut it turns out.

New Wave

The Auteurs

2/5

I did not connect with this at all. They get a 2 instead of a 1 because of the cello and glockenspiel.

We Are Family

Sister Sledge

5/5

A few facts about the song We Are Family: 1. It is on my top 10 list of favorite songs. 2. It's one of very few that I can safely claim to know all the words to. 3. The "hey-hey-hey-hey-yah" on the chorus after the first verse is maybe my favorite moment in pop music. 4. I went to a dance convention in 1979 and learned a dance to this song and to this day, every time they sing "I got all my sisters with me," my brain says "brush-hop-step, brush-hop-step" in rhythm. Anyway...it's so great to get a legit, straight-up disco album. The upbeat songs are divinely danceable and the slow jams have lovely lead vocals and rich back-up voices. Moreover, the love grooves lack the faux earnestness that such songs often display, tending to make me more uncomfortable than anything. The ballads on this album were sweet and authentic and just as appealing as the dance tracks. A really great album!

Maxinquaye

Tricky

4/5

I enjoyed the moody vocals and easy beats. Definitely liked the first half better than the finish.

More Specials

The Specials

5/5

On paper, this seemed like the kind of thing I wouldn't like at all but I took their advice from the first track and enjoyed myself throughout. Some impressive horns and saxophone and rockabilly guitar here and there highlight a fun variety of styles. It made me happy.

São Paulo Confessions

Suba

5/5

Mostly delicate and mesmerizing and then occasionally fuzzy and noisy. I loved it.

There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly & The Family Stone

5/5

A lot less catchy than I expected but still a great and compelling album.

Safe As Milk

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

5/5

I've heard of Captain Beefheart a lot but had not ever listened and expected something much weirder. This is a charming, fairly unweird, blues-rock album and I liked it very much.

Marquee Moon

Television

3/5

I was excited to listen to this one since it seems all the cool kids are into Television. I did not however particularly enjoy most of it. Guess I'm still not a cool kid.

Ace of Spades

Motörhead

4/5

My husband bought this CD for me a while back thinking I'd like the title track and he was right. The rest of the album is kind of more of the same so it's a good thing I like it. I found this much more enjoyable than some of the metal we've heard. I did skip Jailbait. Nobody needs that.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Simon & Garfunkel

5/5

Wonderful. An absolute treat.

Copper Blue

Sugar

4/5

Not familiar with this at all. I absolutely loved a couple of tracks and enjoyed most of the rest.

The Wildest!

Louis Prima

5/5

This is a great time.

Pink Flag

Wire

5/5

There are a lot of them but these songs are lean and clean. Nothing goes on too long nor does anything really meander. I love especially Three Girl Rhumba, 1 2 X U, and Mr Suit.

Tragic Songs of Life

The Louvin Brothers

5/5

I love the title of the album, the cover art, the instrumentation, the twangy harmonies, and the old-timey lyrics. (Well...not the lyrics where the women have no agency which is...a lot of them actually... and certainly not the wtf lyrics of Knoxville Girl. Seriously, wtf?) These guys sure can sing! Nicely different from much of the rest of the 1001.

Homework

Daft Punk

5/5

I enjoyed the heck out of this dance party. Great fun!

Gorillaz

3/5

Hmmm. I was excited to listen to this. I love Feel Good Inc. and Dare from Demon Days but maybe the fact that I never listened to that album more than once should've been a clue as to how I'd feel about this. With a lot of these songs, I felt like the musicians just weren't that interested in making music, which makes sense to me after reading about its inspiration being the soullessness of pop music. A lot of this did feel soulless. Which is an interesting thing to try, I guess? But it obviously makes it hard to connect with.

Let's Get Killed

David Holmes

3/5

A lot of down-tempo, repetitive tracks made this rather tedious. It's fine but not my favorite.

The Boatman's Call

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

5/5

I'm familiar with all these songs but, looking at the list of titles, I couldn't sing any. I think that's because they're musically pretty similar and all run together for me. But I also don't think that the music is the point of this album. It's the lyrics. The songs are melancholy and sweet with a touch of menace and lyrics that occasionally make me catch my breath. Nick Cave's a master.

Orbital 2

Orbital

5/5

I can't tell one song from the next but that's ok. I was engaged and entertained throughout.

Boy In Da Corner

Dizzee Rascal

4/5

This music isn't pretty. Not even pleasant. And sometimes the sounds are what I'd call downright ugly. The lyrics are so rapid that I'm not sure of many of them. But this album is never boring. I was surprised at how much I liked it.

Phrenology

The Roots

5/5

Great mix of styles and voices. Enjoyed it mucho.

Good Old Boys

Randy Newman

5/5

So many complicated feelings. I feel like I've been kicked in the teeth while listening to some pretty piano playing. Oh, Randy Newman, nobody does satire like you.

So

Peter Gabriel

5/5

Hello, old friend. It's been too long. You still sound good.

Queen II

Queen

5/5

Surprised to see an album from such a well known band without a single familiar title. But no worries --- this is quite comfortably Queeny. There are pre-echos of more familiar fare like our beloved Bohemian Rhapsody and the Flash Gordon soundtrack. Interesting to hear the difference between the white and black "sides" of the album and to hear other band members taking lead vocals from Freddy Mercury.

D

White Denim

4/5

Wow. There is an awful lot happening here and some of it is fantastic! Layers of rhythms and styles. Just so much going on. Sometimes it feels completely comfortable and sometimes nicely unexpected. I don't have time for multiple listens today but I know I like it and want some more time with this one.

American Pie

Don McLean

5/5

As many times as I've heard them, American Pie and Vincent both still give me chills. The rest of the album is more of the same: evocative poetry set to lovely folk guitar. Very moving.

Our Aim Is To Satisfy

Red Snapper

3/5

Had it on while I was working and it was fine. Tried to listen again on a walk and kept hitting fast-forward. Not unpleasant but not very interesting.

At Fillmore East

The Allman Brothers Band

4/5

Parts of this were amazing and then there were the parts that were amazing but for far too long. I do love Whipping Post though.

Something Else By The Kinks

The Kinks

5/5

"Nice and smooth." I love The Kinks. They have a kindness, a gentleness, a cuteness about them that makes them unique and endearing. David Watts and Waterloo Sunset are two of their best.

Feast of Wire

Calexico

5/5

Outstanding! Eclectic mix of great songs. I am quite well-taken with this one.

Life's Too Good

The Sugarcubes

5/5

An absolute delight. Quirky and funny but seriously good. I want to listen to this a lot.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Iron Butterfly

5/5

Another classic album I've never listened to. In fact, I'm not convinced that I'd ever listened to the entirety of the title track before this afternoon. This was a grooving 60s soundtrack for a sunny day, knitting lace on the patio.

Gasoline Alley

Rod Stewart

5/5

I think it's interesting that my first exposure to Rod Stewart was probably Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? at the age of 10. Or maybe Hot Legs, the year prior. I can imagine that songs like that felt like a huge betrayal to fans of these earlier records. I've since filled in a lot of the gaps but I'd not heard any of these particular songs except those I knew by other artists (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John). A lot of the songs have a country tinge to them that I wasn't sure would work for me but they absolutely do. I feel lucky that Rod Stewart became a singer instead of a professional footballer.

Birth Of The Cool

Miles Davis

4/5

This didn't quite hold the magic that Kind of Blue and In a Silent Way had for me. Solid, soothing jazz though.

Axis: Bold As Love

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Wow. Phenomenal. Groovy, psychedelic, and fun.

We're Only In It For The Money

The Mothers Of Invention

3/5

I was rather looking forward to more from The Mothers after enjoying most of Freak Out a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I found this one a bit tedious. Not particularly interesting sound wise and not particularly funny nor profound words wise. It seems like these guys had some fun making it but that doesn't necessarily translate to fun for us what listen.

Joan Baez

5/5

Pure, haunting, beautiful.

Exile In Guyville

Liz Phair

5/5

At first, this just had a vague 90s indie sound that is not generally my jam. But I warmed up to it pretty quick. Her voice has an interesting atonal tone and I found many of the songs musically and lyrically compelling.

Follow The Leader

Korn

1/5

Sorry, boys. Gramma is old and tired and you're just too darn loud. I liked some of the funky bass bits. I might've given this two stars if it were fifteen minutes shorter Three, were it thirty.

If You're Feeling Sinister

Belle & Sebastian

5/5

If no one's using Terry Underwear as their drag/burlesque name, I call dibs. I love B&S and I love this album.

Mermaid Avenue

Billy Bragg

5/5

Warm and cozy. Love this collaboration.

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

5/5

I feel so hip!

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys

5/5

I expected something much weirder after everything I’ve heard about this record. All I hear is beauty. Kudos!

With The Beatles

Beatles

5/5

I'm familiar with most of these songs individually, but I don't have a lot of listening experience with this as an album. Interesting to hear how close in sound they were to the 1950s, with Revolver and Rubber Soul just a few short years away.

Shaka Zulu

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

5/5

Lovely and moving. Like being gently rocked to sleep.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God

The Pogues

5/5

Amazing. Just...beyond...everything. If heaven has a DJ, they play The Pogues a LOT.

Aha Shake Heartbreak

Kings of Leon

3/5

I don't know this band but there is something about the name Kings of Leon that I find a little off-putting. I found the record at turns super-catchy-fun-rockabilly and then annoying. More fun than not, though.

Rip It Up

Orange Juice

2/5

When they started singing, I thought, "Oh god no." There's that whiney, alternative 80s voice that drives me bonkers. It wasn't all like that, but a lot of it was.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Lana Del Rey

5/5

Beautiful, unique voice.

Inspiration Information

Shuggie Otis

5/5

Really enjoyed this. Funky and relaxing.

Lam Toro

Baaba Maal

5/5

I listened to this on a plane, coming home from a vacation with my oldest and dearest whom I only see in person once a year or so. So I was a little sad but this music made me happy. Very fine.

On The Beach

Neil Young

5/5

Mellow and lovely. Very very nice.

Heartbreaker

Ryan Adams

5/5

Drags a bit in the middle but overall really terrific.

Ragged Glory

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

3/5

I think I might’ve overdone it on the Neil Young today. Or maybe 1990’s era NY just isn’t my thing. These songs are long with lots of guitar jamming that didn’t appeal to me at all this afternoon.

...Baby One More Time

Britney Spears

4/5

I love the title track and the cover of Sonny and Cher’s The Beat Goes On and I appreciate this album's cultural significance but the rest of the tunes on this record don't quite do it for me the way some of Spears' later records do. I hope we get to hear more from her.

Shaft

Isaac Hayes

5/5

Funky and soulful. The apparent blueprint for all cop show scores of the 1970s. I felt like I was listening to an episode of Charlie's Angels.

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Public Enemy

5/5

Outstanding.

Antichrist Superstar

Marilyn Manson

2/5

This went on for a very long time. And then it went on for another 45 minutes. So. Long. I hadn't thought about Marilyn Manson in a very long time. Do people still make music like this? Are people still shockable? Is Marilyn Manson still mad at his mom? I did appreciate the lyric, "I wasn't born with enough middle fingers." I have felt that emotion.

Connected

Stereo MC's

4/5

I bought this CD when it came out but, judging by how unfamiliar the songs are, I only listened to the whole thing a couple of times. A nice 90s dance sound throughout but nothing as memorable as the title track.

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips

4/5

Quirky and sweet. Glad I listened.

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

Ray Charles

5/5

A wonderful way to spend an evening.

Casanova

The Divine Comedy

5/5

I spent the first few tracks trying to figure out where I'd heard this voice before. Finally had to bite the bullet and look it up: Ute Lemper's Punishing Kiss! Yes. Makes perfect sense. I'm guessing the ratings of this album are going to be pretty split --- I spent as much time hating it as loving it. The vocals are annoyingly affected at best, creepy and menacing at worst. But the theatricality of this album got way under my skin. I do think this is an album that I needed to hear before I died. Very unique. Very interesting.

Songs In The Key Of Life

Stevie Wonder

5/5

I've had this one in my library for a while but there's a lot here, so I'm always appreciating new things. This is a good one.

Can't Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan

5/5

Huh. I'd forgotten about Dirty Work. This album is great.

Music From The Penguin Cafe

Penguin Cafe Orchestra

5/5

I am completely charmed.

Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

Loretta Lynn

5/5

Wonderful. I wish it was twice as long.

There's No Place Like America Today

Curtis Mayfield

4/5

I really thought I was going to love this one but then it was a lot of falsetto singing about Jesus? Good but maybe not great.

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

4/5

Yep, that's Joy Division. Lots of bass and talky-singing. It's not something I'd choose to listen to but I don't mind it.

Microshift

Hookworms

5/5

loved it loved it loved it

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

David Bowie

5/5

Why has it taken me so long to listen to this beautiful piece of work? For a record about an alien, this is notably lacking in typical space noises like lasers and flying saucers. That's nice. I got some strong Hedwig and the Angry Inch feelings in places. Also nice. Glad I finally took the time.

White Light

Gene Clark

3/5

Some nice tunes here but for the most part I don't think I'll remember much about it.

The Age Of The Understatement

The Last Shadow Puppets

5/5

Wow, I sure am glad that we listened to some Scott Walker earlier in this project so I know his influence when I hear it. I can't believe this music is so modern --- it sounds like a movie from the 60s or maybe a few different movies from the 60s. Very fun!

Fulfillingness' First Finale

Stevie Wonder

5/5

Though I might've preferred if the ratio of down-tempo to upbeat songs were reversed, the whole thing made me feel great today and buoyed my spirits on a boring errand on public transit. Yay, Stevie!

New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)

Simple Minds

4/5

Even though I really love Don't You (Forget About Me) and Alive and Kicking, but I've never listened to a whole Simple Minds album. Didn't feel like I needed to hear more from them, I guess. For the most part, today's listen supported that feeling. I really loved a few songs but most didn't make me want to hear more.

Destroyer

KISS

5/5

And with this I believe we've stumbled upon the album on this list that I've known and loved the longest. My brother bought this one on 8-track when I was 8 years old and we listened to it a LOT. These songs are catchy as hell. KISS found the formula for a rock anthem with Rock and Roll All Nite and they copy it a few times on Destroyer with tunes like Shout It Out Loud and Flaming Youth. But every song makes me want to rock out and sing along, even Beth. Is this a great album? I couldn't possibly say. It's too much in my bones. Is it a great time? Hell, yes!

Greetings From L.A.

Tim Buckley

4/5

It's late and I'm tired and it's nine minutes until my birthday so I'm not going to go too much into detail about the sexism and racism on this album. It's there. Did I enjoy it anyway? Sure did.

Stripped

Christina Aguilera

4/5

I was frankly put off by the 78 minute running time of this album that came to us on my birthday. And the first half of the album (ten tracks if you're counting) had me dreading the rest. While I was impressed by Aguilera's powerful and agile voice, I found no hooks, nothing that made me want to hear anything again. Luckily, the second half, starting with the lovely Beautiful, made up for it and then some. (I actually knew Beautiful from the NBC show Smash. Remember Smash? But I didn't know who had originally done it. Ah, Smash.) From then on, every song got to me in some way or another and completely stuck the landing, leaving me wanting more. That half of the album gets 5 stars.

Damaged

Black Flag

4/5

Another band that just sounds so mad at their mom...but somehow I don't mind it. They're young and loud and fast. It's not my thing but I appreciate their place in history.

At San Quentin

Johnny Cash

5/5

A raw and moving performance by an exemplary human.

Achtung Baby

U2

4/5

OK. I love U2. And I get why this album is here as it marks a shift in content and process for the band. But I find most of the songs on this album very very meh. I do love Mysterious Ways, though. On your knees, boy!

Arc Of A Diver

Steve Winwood

4/5

Very synth-y, very 80s, reminiscent of a TV theme song written by Mike Post. Sounds like I didn't like it. And yet... I had a couple of moments of pure euphoria listening to this today. Really enjoyed the first listen but was done by the end of the second.

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles

5/5

A couple of very familiar tunes, a couple of tunes I know best from Stars on 45, and then some I hardly know at all. It's not my favorite Beatles but it's still The Beatles.

Kenza

Khaled

5/5

Very enjoyable. Wish the whole thing was available in the US.

Machine Head

Deep Purple

5/5

I only recognized Smoke on the Water from the track listing but, oh!, Highway Star sure is familiar, as is Space Truckin'. I enjoyed rocking with all of this today!

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Genesis

5/5

Ohhhh, this one is goooooood. I’m angry I’m only hearing it now. I wish I’d discovered it as a teenager when I would listen to albums enough to memorize them. I don’t think I have that in me now but I’m tempted to try.

Tago Mago

Can

4/5

I enjoyed the groove of a couple of these tracks and I'm struck by how modern the album sounds. The last 40 minutes or so might be better experienced in a dark room on some pillows than on a sunny summer walk. I don't really want to listen again but I liked it.

If I Could Only Remember My Name

David Crosby

5/5

There is a melancholy spirituality here that I was very touched by. This is gorgeous.

It's Too Late to Stop Now

Van Morrison

4/5

Nice takes on some familiar (and not so familiar) tunes. Makes me wish I was there.

Amnesiac

Radiohead

5/5

Very nice.

Graceland

Paul Simon

5/5

I didn't pay much attention to this album when it came out but I picked it up a few years ago. That was the right time for me to find it. It's brilliant. And Boy in the Bubble seems especially relevant these days. Love it.

Ys

Joanna Newsom

5/5

"Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow with Hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up their brow" Maybe it's all the harps, but I'm pretty convinced that Joanna Newsom is an angel. No human person could fit the phrase "hydrocephalitic listlessness" into a musical phrase so beautifully. This music is sent from somewhere divine. A friend put Newsom's Peach, Plum, Pear from her first album on a mixed CD for me many years ago and I was entranced with its harpsichord and the first lines: "We speak in the store I'm a sensitive bore You seem markedly more And I'm oozing surprise." The Milk-Eyed Mender became one of my favorite albums, so lovely it nearly breaks my heart. Ys is a harder album to digest. Tracks are long. So are the words. Deep listening is rewarded again and again. This isn't music meant for the background. But still heart-achingly beautiful and holy.

Vivid

Living Colour

5/5

I owned this album back in the day but it's been a long time since I listened. It still holds up! (And listening today reminded me that my bestie and I saw Living Colour on a triple bill with Guns-n-Roses and The Rolling Stones on their Steal Wheels tour. That was a long, long time ago.) Living Colour has a unique melodic hard rock sound that I loved then and still love. Cult of Personality would likely make my list of 50 best rock songs. This was a welcome nostalgia trip.

Djam Leelii

Baaba Maal

4/5

Soothing, repetitive rhythms and lyrics I couldn't understand made for a nicely meditative listening experience today.

Happy Trails

Quicksilver Messenger Service

3/5

When the first track started, I was all, "all riiiight!" But then the rest of the album happened. Lots of jamming. Too much jamming.

Honky Tonk Heroes

Waylon Jennings

5/5

Superb song-writing and excellent musicianship (and a very pleasing running time). Top notch!

Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

5/5

I will say that, even though I'm never excited to see yet another Neil Young title show up, I have loved all but one so far. I love the acoustic first side more than the amplified B side but the whole thing is very enjoyable. I'm not sure how many more we need but...

Basket of Light

Pentangle

5/5

Loved it! Indeed a basket of light. Super sunny.

GI

Germs

3/5

I was digging this paradigm of punk at first and do appreciate its place in the popular music canon but I was so ready for it to end and I don't ever need to hear it again.

I Am a Bird Now

Antony and the Johnsons

3/5

I had high hopes for this one after reading the description. I appreciate the artist's p.o.v. and I enjoyed the vocals by the guest artists but ultimately this record just isn't for me.

Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine

Cee Lo Green

3/5

This was fine. Just … fine.

Hms Fable

Shack

4/5

This was saved from mediocrity by Captain's Table and Streets of Kenny. Those two songs made the album for me.

Doggystyle

Snoop Dogg

3/5

Reasonably fun musically. Much less fun lyrically --- there's only so much talk of balls that I can comfortably tolerate.

Deloused in the Comatorium

The Mars Volta

3/5

I don't personally see the need for this kind of thing in any year past 1973 but you do you Mars Volta.

Shleep

Robert Wyatt

5/5

I'm so glad we got another Robert Wyatt album --- I wondered if my strong positive reaction to Rock Bottom was a one-off due more to time and place than the actual album. With this, I'm a fan for sure. I'm in awe of this weird and mesmerizing album. (And some of it's not all that weird.) The instrumentation is glorious --- horns and piano, some great jazz drums, electric guitar layered over acoustic, vocal chanting. I will never be able to sing along with most of it and I'm totally ok with that. Very, very fine.

War

U2

5/5

Watching this band leave the stage one-by-one as a crowd of 20,000 continues to sing, "How long to sing this song," is the most religious experience I've ever had. So many layers on this record, musically and lyrically, and from guys in their early, early twenties. Babies. I love it.

Get Behind Me Satan

The White Stripes

5/5

I just love the sound of this band and the variety of styles on this album. Lots of great songs.

Goo

Sonic Youth

5/5

Wait. What's happening? A Sonic Youth album I actually like? And really really like, at that? This is good.

Before And After Science

Brian Eno

5/5

Brian Eno surprises me yet again by being excellent. I quite liked the more upbeat first side of the album but it really shines in its soothing mellow second side. I felt great listening to it and want to listen again.

Fear and Whiskey

Mekons

4/5

After a rough start, I quite enjoyed this.

In The Court Of The Crimson King

King Crimson

5/5

Occasionally an excess of noodling but mostly epic and soaring. Reminded me of Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, early Genesis, etc., unsurprising I know. Glad to have heard it.

The World is a Ghetto

War

4/5

Funky and cool.

...The Dandy Warhols Come Down

The Dandy Warhols

5/5

Love this Britpop by way of PDX sound. The synth gives them a unique vibe that's really fun.

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

5/5

I sought out this album after seeing a documentary about photographer Robert Frank who created the cover. The music is way more bluesy and raw than I expected from a band I thought I knew from their hits. A terrific surprise.

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective

4/5

Reminds me a bit of Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors that we heard very early on in this project. It's got elements of pop and elements of electronica but goes in unexpected directions. I had it mostly in the background today, which was fine. Not much really caught my attention. I liked it but don't see it becoming a favorite. I laughed hard at the title Guys Eyes, which I assume is a reference to my favorite line from Rosemary's Baby.

Whatever

Aimee Mann

5/5

Mann's melancholy warbling was a perfect accompaniment to my granola-making on this chilly late-summer day.

Blue Lines

Massive Attack

5/5

Very much enjoyed the various voices and the smooth trippy groove.

Leftism

Leftfield

5/5

Oh, hell yes! One of the best electronica albums we’ve had I think. A delicious and relaxing groove.

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Small Faces

4/5

Fun and whimsical.

Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black

Public Enemy

5/5

Fantastic!

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned

Liars

5/5

I absolutely loved the first two-thirds of this. Fuzzy, screechy, whiny against some totally danceable grooves. The last few tracks lost my interest but I was captivated by most of it. Yes!

Fred Neil

5/5

I was really enjoying this and then, oh!, there’s the song from Midnight Cowboy and that just made it better. This felt good.

Tellin’ Stories

The Charlatans

5/5

Maybe I’m just on a vacation high but everything sounds so great to me right now. I loved this so much!

Architecture And Morality

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

2/5

Welp, I guess vacation's over because I did not enjoy this. Nothing particularly catchy nor interesting. If you put it on at a party, I might not notice, but if I did, I'd be mad at you. The nerve! Next!

Fragile

Yes

5/5

I don't remember owning this but I must have because I could predict the start of every next song. My husband hates the song Roundabout due to the bit about the mountains standing there. I love it though with the opening "pling" and the aggressive bass and the rock organ. I love the rest, too. Takes me back to somewhere I guess I don't remember.

Penance Soiree

The Icarus Line

2/5

726 albums in. We've not heard from Dolly Parton yet. Nor Annie Lennox, Diana Ross, Laurie Anderson. No Joan Jett. No Pat Benatar. No Janelle Monae. But The Icarus Line, we've got them. I was completely underwhelmed by this album. Why is it here? It seemed completely generic and lacking in any kind of spark. How is it notable? How is it important? I don't think it's "good." It's...ok. But what's next?

Shadowland

k.d. lang

5/5

This is exquisite. I have no notes.

Billion Dollar Babies

Alice Cooper

3/5

I had pretty high expectations after hearing the wonderful School's Out many many albums back. So this may have suffered a bit in comparison. It probably also doesn't help that Alice Cooper, the man, has been in the news lately for not-so-great reasons. But I found this to be very so-so and unshockingly "shocking." Did not pack the theatrical punch of School's Out. Too bad.

Hail To the Thief

Radiohead

4/5

Sank into it about halfway through. I find that I want to like Radiohead more than I like them. But this was a decent soundtrack for a late afternoon bus ride.

Aja

Steely Dan

4/5

Boy, do Steely Dan songs all sound the same or what? And yet...I love some songs (Peg) and dislike others (Deacon Blues). So, I guess those sound different somehow? Also, I forgot about Josie (which sounds just like FM, TBH).

Playing With Fire

Spacemen 3

4/5

I liked it. Yes.

Celebrity Skin

Hole

5/5

I did not think I would enjoy Hole. Don't know why. Loved rocking out to this record.

L'Eau Rouge

The Young Gods

5/5

A terrifyingly off-kilter French vampire boardwalk amusement park. A perfect soundtrack for a remake of The Lost Boys.

Back to Basics

Christina Aguilera

3/5

We got Aguilera's Stripped on my birthday just a couple of months ago and my review then mentioned being put off by the 78-minute running time. And here we are again with another 78 minutes of music. And again still, I am impressed with Aguilera's voice but I find a lot of these songs very samey and not my thing at all. My ears perked up a bit with the first few old-style tunes on disc 2 but then we were back to mostly full-throated melisma eventually. I wish this album was about half as long.

You're Living All Over Me

Dinosaur Jr.

2/5

This probably says more about the state of my brain than it does about this album but this was all a ball of mush to me. I don't like it.

Manassas

Stephen Stills

5/5

The first time I heard Johnny's Garden, it was playing in our favorite hipster burrito restaurant and I had a pretty nice margarita buzz going. I scribbled some lyrics on a napkin so I could do an AltaVista search to find the name of the artist and buy the CD. Could I give it some of the same criticism as I recently did for Christina Aguilera --- that it's long and the songs are kind of samey? --- why yes I could. And yet, this is a favorite. Top shelf.

Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren

5/5

Delightfully entertaining variety of styles here. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Killing Joke

4/5

I know a couple of Killing Joke songs but I don't know that I've ever listened to an entire album. I liked it! Seems hard to categorize --- seems pretty grungy for a record from 1980.

Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

The Byrds

5/5

Outstanding. Very enjoyable.

Fear Of A Black Planet

Public Enemy

5/5

Really enjoying these Public Enemy albums. Fight the Power is one of the best songs ever.

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Pink Floyd

4/5

Not the Pink Floyd I'm familiar with but interesting as a piece of musical history. Psychedelic, renaissance faire, British invasion-y stuff.

Chore of Enchantment

Giant Sand

5/5

I'm not at all familiar with Giant Sand but I very much enjoyed this album. Had lots of Lou Reed feelings and just as many Bill Callahan feelings. Glad to be introduced.

McCartney

Paul McCartney

5/5

Not quite The Beatles, not quite Wings, but all Paul. Good good good.

Toys In The Attic

Aerosmith

5/5

This one's on my top shelf. A desert-island-disc. A favorite of all favorites. heart-heart-heart

Like Water For Chocolate

Common

4/5

This was kind of a hard day to listen to a long album where the focus was on the words more than the music --- just didn't have the time to devote to it that I think it probably deserved. But I also think this album benefited from my low expectations of Common after listening to Be seven hundred albums ago. I had a hard time connecting with that one, so I expected similar difficulties this time that didn't quite pan out. I'm giving this one a 4 just to distinguish it from Be's 3. Ratings mean nothing!

Metal Box

Public Image Ltd.

4/5

Interesting and not nearly as annoying as I feared. I quite liked it.

Moving Pictures

Rush

4/5

Tom Sawyer and Limelight are absolutely incredible songs. The album is quite good but the rest don't quite measure up to those two for me.

Risque

CHIC

5/5

A delightful dance party. More like this please.

Night Life

Ray Price

5/5

Wonderful old-timey country, reminded me of Patsy Cline and kd lang. A terrific listen for the day.

Tres Hombres

ZZ Top

5/5

Have mercy. Fantastic guitar work and a gritty blues sound felt nostalgic and homey.

Pelican West

Haircut 100

4/5

I gotta say I was pretty surprised to see this album here. I think of Haircut 100 as the dictionary definition of one-hit wonder for Love Plus One. But this album is a lot of fun --- big horns, great percussion, and some 80s sax (which I can't always abide but can forgive today). Sounds like they sprouted from seeds similar to Wham! and Culture Club.

m b v

My Bloody Valentine

4/5

When we listened to mbv's Loveless so long ago, I was immediately taken by the muddy, muffled-ness of it. I could hear distinct melodies and I loved them. They instantly felt like mine. I was excited to hear more. I didn't find this album quite so easy, not as immediately likable. But after a couple of listens, I'm hearing more to distinguish the songs and am enjoying the drone. It's not quite mine yet but I can imagine it getting there.

Frank

Amy Winehouse

5/5

Wonderful voice, great style. I'm glad for another from her after the impeccable Back to Black so long ago.

Crocodiles

Echo And The Bunnymen

4/5

I am often pleasantly surprised by E&tBm. They've got quite a pretty sound to my ears.

S&M

Metallica

5/5

Wowee! That was epic! Oddly enough, I had to take a break from the album to go see the Seattle Rock Orchestra’s presentation of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. It’s been a symphonic rock kind of day. Anyway…this album melted my face off in the best possible way.

Deja Vu

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

5/5

I'm just going to repeat my notes from Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic. This one's on my top shelf. A desert-island-disc. A favorite of all favorites. heart-heart-heart I'll add that Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in particular are songwriters who really speak to me both in CSN(&Y) and solo-ly. But also Mr. Young can sometimes really do it, too --- Country Girl, that's what's up.

Modern Kosmology

Jane Weaver

5/5

Wonderful!

Oxygène

Jean-Michel Jarre

5/5

Always happy to listen to this classic. We're having a very good week!

Peter Gabriel

5/5

Continuing an excellent week. You could tell me that this album was from any decade and I'd believe it. There's not much here that screams 1977. Loved it.

Music Has The Right To Children

Boards of Canada

4/5

Created a gentle ambient background sound for my work today and again later while I rested. I’m not sure I could say what makes it distinct from other electronic music but it’s nice.

Konnichiwa

Skepta

5/5

OK. I guess I like grime? I very much like the rhythm of the words and the backing tracks and definitely the dialect.

Yank Crime

Drive Like Jehu

4/5

I thought it was some kind of a sign last night when I saw the cover of this album --- my husband had just shown me the jar of ink he'd received in the mail. I started listening and I was all like, sorry boys you're just too darn loud, and turned it off after about 10 seconds. But then I stuck it in my earholes and went for a walk this afternoon and for a while it was just the thing. When Do You Compute started, I was staring at a perfect dahlia in full bloom and it felt like maybe the world wasn't just completely awful. This album is loud and screamy and screechy which is actually pretty great sometimes. I was ready to turn it off by the time I got home but then a squirrel ran by along the top of a fence about 6 inches from my face carrying an entire apple in its mouth and, well, I know that doesn't have anything to do with the music exactly but it's a thing that happened and I want to remember it.

Green Onions

Booker T. & The MG's

4/5

I'm willing to bet that a very large percentage of people hear the opening notes and go, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh, this song. What do I know this from? Some TV show?" And that percentage is about the same as the percentage of TV shows and movies that include the song Green Onions in their soundtracks. Very high. Very high percentage. And no wonder! This album, its title track especially, is super groovy and definitely evokes a mood. Makes me want either to go roller skating or do a mob hit. Not sure which.

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Kendrick Lamar

5/5

Musically and lyrically dense, there are a lot of layers to unpack in this album. It's got a variety of voices and perspectives and some catchy hooks. I'm well-taken with it.

Two Dancers

Wild Beasts

3/5

Not as dreadful as I first thought. I didn't enjoy the falsetto and the style's not particularly my thing. I wouldn't choose to listen again but I'm not mad.

Astral Weeks

Van Morrison

5/5

Not what I'm used to from Van Morrison but it's raw and emotional and lovely.

A Rush Of Blood To The Head

Coldplay

5/5

I can't believe it took us 768 days to get to Coldplay. So...finally. I don't think I've ever listened to an entire Coldplay album before but many of these songs were familiar just because I was alive during the past 20 years. I see why folks like them so much. I hope that someday I'll be able to tell the difference between them and Radiohead. (And to a lesser extent Oasis.) They occupy the same apartment building in my brainborhood.

Imagine

John Lennon

5/5

Other than the ubiquitous title track, I'd not heard any of this before. Nothing particularly unexpected but all good.

Rhythm Nation 1814

Janet Jackson

5/5

Listening to this today was a real treat. I'd forgotten how much it defined the late 80s for me. Apart from a couple of songs, every track is a winner. This album needs to be in my regular rotation.

Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches

Happy Mondays

4/5

I had to check to see if we'd listened to any Happy Mondays yet and, yes, we listened to Bummed about a year ago. In my review, I said I wouldn't remember it and I did in fact not. This was much more enjoyable though. Some songs were very catchy and appealing. Don't know if I'll remember this one but I'm more likely to listen to it again.

Guero

Beck

5/5

Oh my goodness. I love this album! So glad it's here!

Sweet Baby James

James Taylor

5/5

Well this is just lovely. My knees are buckling.

Strange Cargo III

William Orbit

5/5

I listened to this at work and started it over as soon as it finished. Very pleasant background music. I listened again during my walking/bus commute and was pleased that it held up in that context as well. Some tracks are a mellow dance groove, some are gentle and floaty, some are noisy but with a thumping bass line. I can hear some of you asking, how much electronica do we need? And I say, lots!

Are You Experienced

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Sexy and fun. Outstanding!

In It For The Money

Supergrass

5/5

I don't know why these guys make me think of the beach --- they look pretty chilly on the cover --- but they totally do. My notes about I Should Coco mention summer. And In It for the Money gave me loads of sunshiny feelings. Maybe there's something about them that reminds me of California bands like The Dickies and Redd Kross and Jellyfish. Anyway, I love their sparkly tunes and melodious vocals. I was uplifted!

Bossanova

Pixies

3/5

Yep, I listened to that. We're done with them now, right?

Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

5/5

So many great songs here. Immigrant Song, Friends, Celebration Day ("my, my, my, I'm so happy!"), Gallows Pole, That's the Way, Bron-y-aur Stomp. Love love love it.

Garbage

5/5

Another 90s band that I was too busy to pay attention to at the time. This album kicks ass!

Black Metal

Venom

3/5

Well this turned out to be just fine for Halloween. But I find that this kind of goofiness wears thin quite quickly. At least I got the sense that they don't take themselves too seriously. Very silly.

Superunknown

Soundgarden

5/5

Today was the perfect Seattle day for listening to Soundgarden, its namesake sculpture just over the ridge from where I sit. The muddy guitars make me know it's grunge (or at least grunge-adjacent) but Cornell's soaring vocals evoke the hair metal of my youth. Made me feel feelings and rocked me hard.

Immigrés

Youssou N'Dour

4/5

Very nice!

All That You Can't Leave Behind

U2

4/5

U2 has a lot to live up to in my book and they don’t always quite rise to my expectations. I think Beautiful Day and Elevation are among their best songs and a few other tracks stand out for not sounding like their typical fare. But I don’t love every track the way I hope to when I see the name U2 attached.

Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts

The Adverts

4/5

I'd heard Gary Gilmore's Eyes but not much more than that. I enjoyed it for what it was though I will not likely seek it out again.

The Last Of The True Believers

Nanci Griffith

5/5

Well this was lovely. More like this, please. More!

Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds

4/5

Unpopular opinion: I don't much like the song Mr. Tambourine Man. Except the line, "My toes too numb to step wait only for my boot heels to be wandering." That I like. This isn't my favorite 60s sound but sound like the 60s it sure does. I found it hard to tell many of the tracks apart but I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better and Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe, stood out to me.

Floodland

Sisters Of Mercy

5/5

I've listened to SoM before and was ready to give this a "fine but not my thing, 3*" review. But I loved every minute and started it over for a second run almost immediately. It's so good!

Nilsson Schmilsson

Harry Nilsson

5/5

This album filled me with honest-to-God GLEE today. Distinct songs, each with its own style and instrumentation, each telling a different understandable story. I feel like a crabby grampa saying they don't write 'em like this anymore but this is just so fun and good.

Talk Talk Talk

The Psychedelic Furs

5/5

For the second time in just a few days, we have an album that I thought I'd be luke-warm on, at best, based on scant familiarity with the artist but on listening, I find myself really enjoying the sound and thinking, I would definitely listen to this again. I didn't think this kind of 80s alternative was my thing but who knows what my thing is anymore. I liked this a lot!

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Faces

4/5

Matched my expectations. It's good, possibly my favorite way to listen to Rod Stewart. I think the blues-rock category, as much as I like it, is perhaps overrepresented on this list. This is good, but not much of a revelation.

Kilimanjaro

The Teardrop Explodes

4/5

I was pretty unimpressed at first but about half-way through started warming up to it significantly.

Mothership Connection

Parliament

5/5

This is a funky good time. Handcuffs might not be so fun --- I think it's supposed to be funny maybe? I'm choosing to interpret it so that it's the woman who wants to be handcuffed and the man's not into it at all but he's game to do it if it's what she likes. That works, right? Otherwise, very fun.

Logical Progression

LTJ Bukem

3/5

In almost 800 albums I have never done this but I'm going to rate this one having only listened to half. First, it was hard to find --- the apple music link took me to Logical Progression Level 1, which was not the same as the Logical Progression album described in the Wikipedia page. So I listened to a few tracks from the Level 1 album and then found a YouTube playlist for what I think was the intended album but that was LONG and occasionally interrupted by ads so I feel like I've done due diligence with this one. I did not hate it and in fact found it a reasonably enjoyable soundtrack for much of my day's activities and I'l keep the YouTube tab open in my browser to listen to a bit at a time and finish this one up (since I am a completist). But I'm not going to do that today and I'd like to move on so consider this three-star rating for only Disc 1.

Sulk

The Associates

2/5

I really enjoyed the tracks with no vocals. My reaction to the others was, wow, no thank you.

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground

5/5

I don't know that this music is actually good but it is undoubtedly cool.

xx

The xx

3/5

I like the almost-symmetry in xx by The xx That's about all I have to say.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen

3/5

I feel hard to impress right now. This did very little for me.

The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett

5/5

Now this was just right. Homey, comforting, and festive. A treat.

What's That Noise?

Coldcut

5/5

I don't know what I expected but it sure wasn't this. What a party! Danceable and fun. Delightful.

In Our Heads

Hot Chip

4/5

While most songs were just "all right," a couple were "ALL RIGHT!" More good than bad on balance though and I'm glad to have heard it.

The Colour Of Spring

Talk Talk

3/5

The lyrics aren’t deep and the bass line is 11 notes repeated half a million times and yet Life’s What You Make It is still a favorite of mine and I will groove out to it forever. The rest of the album is exactly the kind of 80s stuff I’ve never really connected with.

Duck Stab/Buster & Glen

The Residents

5/5

Delightfully wacky and wonderfully weird. Loved every freaky minute.

Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers

5/5

Funky and fun. Benefits from under exposure for me --- I've not listened to this one before so it feels "fresh" relative to Blood Sugar...

Vulnicura

Björk

5/5

Once again, I'm gonna need some more dimensions in my scale. I can't compare this in any way to, say, Snoop Dogg or The Electric Prunes. This is abstract art, which I see after listening is appropriate since it was created for an exhibit at MOMA. Listening definitely feels like work. But it’s musically complex and emotionally deep and maxes out the uniqueness dimension.

Dr. Octagonecologyst

Dr. Octagon

2/5

Has anyone counted how many times he says "rectum?"

Superfuzz Bigmuff

Mudhoney

4/5

I did not expect to enjoy this at all but that 22 minutes of youthful exuberance hit the spot today. No need to listen to more.

Songs From The Big Chair

Tears For Fears

5/5

Exquisite. A favorite of favorites.

La Revancha Del Tango

Gotan Project

5/5

I've had Gotan Project's cover of Whatever Lola Wants in my collection for a while. It's great to hear more. This was a wonderful hour of me doing the tango in my mind.

Fun House

The Stooges

1/5

This was nowhere near what I needed today. A lot of unwanted, uninteresting, screamy meandering. No thank you.

Os Mutantes

5/5

Really fun!

Underwater Moonlight

The Soft Boys

4/5

Surprisingly enjoyable. Liked it quite a bit!

Go Girl Crazy

The Dictators

3/5

Musically, it's ok. Lyrically, it's old-fashioned and silly. I enjoyed the covers of I Got You Babe and California Sun.

Electric Music For The Mind And Body

Country Joe & The Fish

4/5

Why do I feel like dropping acid all of a sudden? This was a fun and fine trip of a listen today.

Document

R.E.M.

5/5

This is a very fine album indeed. Pretty melodies and Stipe's gorgeous voice make me weak in the knees a bit. Plus End of the World is my favorite way to end a karaoke party. Love it very much.

Sunday At The Village Vanguard

Bill Evans Trio

3/5

Fine background music. Not much really caught my attention though. I wanted to like it more than I did.

Phaedra

Tangerine Dream

4/5

Sleepy and dreamy, with emphasis on the sleepy.

Call of the Valley

Shivkumar Sharma

4/5

Soothing and fine.

Larks' Tongues In Aspic

King Crimson

3/5

I enjoyed much of this but I will never intentionally listen to this again. I do not like the title.

Synchronicity

The Police

5/5

I listened to this one a lot with my bestie back in the day and every song sounds like a hit to me, even Mother and Miss Gradenko. The song Synchronicity II is one of my karaoke jams and a favorite song generally. I love the imagery evoked by such lines as, "We have to shout above the din of our rice krispies," and "Packed like lem-mings in-to shi-ny me-tal bo-xes." I hadn't realized before today that this was The Police's last studio album --- I just sort of assumed they were still recording. Ah well. This is a good one!

Siembra

Willie Colón & Rubén Blades

5/5

Enjoyable Latin sounds with a tinge of late 70s disco. Fun!

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

John Lennon

5/5

Powerful and emotional. I had big feelings.

Liege And Lief

Fairport Convention

5/5

I find Fairport Convention lovely and soothing but vaguely terrifying. Five stars!

The Sounds Of India

Ravi Shankar

4/5

Interesting to hear some of the Beatles' bits straight from the source. Learning is fun!

The Next Day

David Bowie

5/5

Top notch! Loved it.

I'm Your Man

Leonard Cohen

4/5

This album contains a couple of my favorite Cohen songs (Everybody Knows, Tower of Song) and the one I consider the cringiest (Ain't No Cure for Love). I'm very glad I know more of his music than this album because I give it a lot of side-eye with its eighties sax and back-up singing.

Warehouse: Songs And Stories

Hüsker Dü

3/5

Very 80s college radio. It was fine and there is a lot.

Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Two days in a row (so far) of double albums. I'll say that I'd rather listen to 4 sides of Jimi than 4 sides of Hüsker Du any day. Hendrix has a singular sound that evokes his era like no other.

Green

R.E.M.

5/5

This is perhaps the only R.E.M. album I knew when it was current. I had it on a cassette tape with The Smithereens' Green Thoughts on the other side. I listened to it a lot on my walkman. Still love Pop Song 89 and Orange Crush. Great to hear it again today.

Porcupine

Echo And The Bunnymen

4/5

I have absolutely no idea why we need three albums from this band on this list. None. They're fine. Good, even. But I cannot tell one album from the other. Why? I like The Cutter.

Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson

4/5

I love the concept and I liked it best when there was a familiar melody for my brain to latch onto (Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Man with the Golden Arm). This probably would have been better on headphones in a darkened room but I had holiday baking to do... I'd like to say I intend to revisit it when I "have time" but I don't actually think that will happen.

Urban Hymns

The Verve

3/5

Aside from the distinctive and ubiquitous Bitter Sweet Symphony, I found this very generic and very long. I can't imagine listening to it again.

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul

Otis Redding

5/5

Wonderfully soulful takes on familiar tunes. A+

After The Gold Rush

Neil Young

5/5

I've become quite fond of Neil Young's song-writing and musicianship. This is another good one.

Cut

The Slits

5/5

Unique and interesting sound! I've long been curious about this band. Really enjoyed their take on I Heard It Through the Grapevine (bonus track).

Van Halen

5/5

I love this band, I love this album. They've got personality. So good.

Close To You

Carpenters

5/5

Beautiful. A wonderful Christmas gift!

Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem

5/5

What a mood booster! Really helped out my antidepressants today.

Colour By Numbers

Culture Club

4/5

Backing vocalist Helen Terry is the highlight of this album for me. I give her 5 stars. The rest of the album is quite good. I wasn’t much of a fan back in the day, but listening now I appreciate this Club’s unique style and charisma. I find Boy George’s voice off-putting somehow. At some point, I might’ve blamed the androgyny of that but now it occurs to me that he might not always be singing on pitch.

Coat Of Many Colors

Dolly Parton

5/5

Incredible story-telling and musicianship in this album. Dolly Parton is the real goddamn deal.

Aqualung

Jethro Tull

5/5

This album means a lot to me as it is one of the few that my husband and I agree about. When I think of this album, along with the title track obviously, I think mainly of Mother Goose and Wond'ring Aloud, which I find heart-achingly beautiful. But it's got so many other great ones like Cross-Eyed Mary, Up To Me, Hymn 43, and Locomotive Breath, all beautiful in their own ugly way. Lots of stuff to love on this one.

Oar

Alexander 'Skip' Spence

4/5

Interesting collection of songs, some quirkier than others, and an interesting back-story. The kind of thing I wouldn't seek out but am glad to know of. Lots to absorb.

461 Ocean Boulevard

Eric Clapton

4/5

I wasn't really looking forward to this one but it was a pleasant, bluesy surprise.

Your New Favourite Band

The Hives

4/5

I had fun with this!

Reggatta De Blanc

The Police

5/5

I've never listened to this one but it sure sounds like The Police. Very fun.

#1 Record

Big Star

5/5

Reading the description of this album, I was prepared to be wowed. I wasn't immediately but by the time we got to When My Baby's Beside Me, I was into it. When it ended, I started it over and enjoyed the whole thing the second time. Rounding up from 4.5.

California

American Music Club

3/5

I did not find this at all remarkable.

Southern Rock Opera

Drive-By Truckers

5/5

This is epic. I was daunted by the 90-minute running time and put it off until time to make dinner. I put it on while I cooked and wasn't really listening, wasn't really enjoying it. After dinner, I put my headphones on and started where I left off, at The Three Great Alabama Icons, at which point I realized that I needed to start it over. And I'm glad I did. It is definitely long but there are lyrics worth really hearing and an appealing southern rock sound throughout. Moreover DBT really stick the landing --- I was riveted through most of the second act. I don't think that this will necessarily become a favorite album but it certainly fits the brief of being an album to hear at least once, especially having read the origin story. Glad the band was persistent in its efforts to get it made.

Paul Simon

5/5

Most of my exposure to Paul Simon has been via greatest hits albums. It's great to hear a complete album and find new favorites like Armistice Day and Paranoia Blues. Simon is a master song-writer and story-teller.

Queens of the Stone Age

3/5

I thought it would be terrible. It wasn't. But, next!

Deep Purple In Rock

Deep Purple

3/5

I did not much appreciate this today. It came through as just so much noise. I didn't find any tracks particularly attractive or catchy. Could just be me today.

Let Love Rule

Lenny Kravitz

4/5

I loved the first two tracks and then my affection waned a bit and I found some of the lyrics a bit shallow. And then we got to jesus. Still a sexy, funky groove for a bit.

Welcome To The Pleasuredome

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

5/5

A wonderful trip to the 80s. Especially fond of the covers of Born to Run and San Jose. Very fun.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

5/5

Thoroughly enjoyed this one even though I was sometimes flummoxed by unexpected changes in tone. (A salsa break in the middle of God Bless the Child? OK...) BS&T has a unique sound and interesting takes on other folks' stuff.

System Of A Down

2/5

No, thanks.

Future Days

Can

5/5

Once again I am surprised at how current this band sounds. Very very enjoyable and interesting.

Trio

Dolly Parton

5/5

Glorious. Amen!

Under Construction

Missy Elliott

5/5

Fun samples and catchy beats with lyrics that are clever, sexy, and heartfelt. Missy Elliott has swagger and this album is fantastique!

Slipknot

3/5

OK, I guess we have to listen to at least two Slipknot albums before we die? I was surprised by the first one (All Hope is Gone, about 500 albums ago). Thought I'd hate it. Didn't hate it. Didn't really like it. I think I liked this one a little more? But I don't really care enough to figure out why or even if that's actually true. This one had a bit of variety. A bit. There's at least one song with an actual melody, others with a rap quality to the vocals (as opposed to monster screaming like most of them). But it felt like I'd been listening to it all day when I still had three songs to go. So, kind of monotonous, too. Don't make me do another one.

Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

Frank Sinatra

5/5

Smooth and classy. Top-notch!

Justified

Justin Timberlake

3/5

I can't believe I'm about to say this but...I think I'd rather listen to Slipknot? I'm surprised but I didn't find any track on this album to be particularly catchy or interesting. I just couldn't relate to it at all. I do like Sexy Back, though, which I guess is why this is so surprising? Where's the Sexy Back of this album?

Survivor

Destiny's Child

5/5

Wow! Why have I waited so long?

Armed Forces

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

4/5

Solidly whelmed by another Elvis Costello record.

Arular

M.I.A.

5/5

Totally catchy yet completely unpredictable. I so appreciate M.I.A.'s unique sound!

Crazysexycool

TLC

5/5

I had Ooohhhhh...On the TLC Tip back in the day and enjoyed it well enough. Heard Waterfalls on the TV/radio a LOT and liked it well enough, too. But I don't think I ever listened to all of Crazysexycool so this was mostly new. Had a lot of fun grooving with T-Boz, Left-Eye, and Chilli today and look forward to doing it again. Crazy, sexy, and cool.

L.A. Woman

The Doors

5/5

So moody and bluesy you can practically smell the smoke, whiskey, and sweat. For a band that famously has no bass player, the bass on this album is surprisingly prominent in the mix. Really great.

Joan Armatrading

5/5

Incredible. A rich and timeless sound. Want to listen on vinyl in front of a crackling fire. Amazing.

The Modern Dance

Pere Ubu

4/5

Wow! Didn't expect to enjoy so much of this. For the first half, I thought it was gonna be a 5. Actually sounded like music for several of the tracks. Eventually, it sounded like a lunatic locked themselves in the recording studio but I actually want to hear a lot of this again. Nice surprise!

For Your Pleasure

Roxy Music

2/5

Oof. My earholes did not like this.

Public Image: First Issue

Public Image Ltd.

3/5

Ah, a religious text for the sabbath. I feel edified if not entertained.

Destroy Rock & Roll

Mylo

3/5

On paper, this sounded right up my alley. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, though, and I was left feeling kind of empty. Too bad.

Locust Abortion Technician

Butthole Surfers

3/5

I wasn't quite bored but I didn't have a very good time either and I don't really want to listen again.

Hot Shots II

The Beta Band

5/5

Hooray! After a week of 2s and 3s, finally something that sings to me again! I guess I know the song Squares because of Six Feet Under? The rest was unfamiliar but I really dig this folktronica business. Listened twice and am tempted to start it once more. Really really good.

The Rolling Stones

5/5

While Mick Jagger's literal voice is unmistakable, it's clear the band hasn't found the Rolling Stones' voice quite yet. This sounds like some talented kids imitating their musical heroes. But if you're going to make a list of 1001 albums you must hear before you die, I think you've got to put the Rolling Stones' debut on that list. So even though I wasn't blown away by the music on this album, it's still pretty great and earns 5 stars for historical significance.

The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies

5/5

With its sparse instrumentation and sultry vocals, this is a stunner from the first notes.

Dust

Screaming Trees

5/5

I completely missed Screaming Trees back in the day. This is really good! And I see that they're from around here and two of them died recently when they were about my age and for some reason that makes me like it even more. I really like this one.

Double Nickels On The Dime

Minutemen

4/5

With 40 tracks, there's bound to be some hits and some misses. Luckily, there's a lot of variety on this album and tracks are short. I didn't listen closely enough to catch any cohesive through line for the album as a whole but there were quite a few tracks that caught my ear and made me sit up. Glad to have heard it.

Scissor Sisters

5/5

How great to listen to an album that has me grinning and laughing on my walk to work! On paper, I was nervous about the cover of Comfortably Numb but holy cow did that work. Absolutely stellar!

The Specials

4/5

Upbeat and fun. I've convinced myself I don't like ska but The Specials have other plans.

Sheet Music

10cc

4/5

To be honest, I was surprised to see an album by 10cc on this list and then I was surprised to hear this album by 10cc. Unexpected and fun!

Zombie

Fela Kuti

5/5

Groovy beats and luscious horns. Super fun!

A Walk Across The Rooftops

The Blue Nile

4/5

These songs certainly aren't hummable and the vocals have a Bryan Ferry quality that I don't love, but it was a nice, meditative listen.

Let It Be

The Replacements

3/5

Liked it better the second time through. Got it past meh but not all the way up the like meter.

Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

5/5

A truly wonderful album from Lady Soul.

Sincere

Mj Cole

3/5

Well, this was long. And not terribly interesting. I liked the straight-up disco of Rough Out Here but was largely underwhelmed by the rest.

Third/Sister Lovers

Big Star

3/5

My ears didn't really perk up until the quiet covers near the end. Really enjoyed Nature Boy over simple piano accompaniment. Brought a tear to my eye I must admit.

Take Me Apart

Kelela

4/5

This grew on me as I listened. An interesting fusion of electronica and R&B.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

The Incredible String Band

3/5

It's not particularly pretty and I don't think I want to hear it again but points for being different.

The Libertines

4/5

Very fun!

Imperial Bedroom

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

4/5

I still don't know why there's so much Elvis Costello on this list but this is good. I liked it just fine.

Wild Gift

X

5/5

I had a roommate in college who liked X and wanted us to go hear them when they played in the gym on campus. But none of the rest of us knew them and wouldn't buy tickets so we compromised and eavesdropped on the show from outside, on the grassy mound known as The Hump. That's not that interesting a story but it's a nice memory. Anyhow, I didn't take the opportunity to become an X fan --- they were a little too "alternative" for my tastes at the time. That's ok because they fit into my tastes just perfectly now. This album is great!

Felt Mountain

Goldfrapp

5/5

We do appreciate a haunted cabaret circus around these parts.

Paris 1919

John Cale

5/5

An absolute delight!

Low

David Bowie

4/5

Seeing another David Bowie record, I always assume I'll know at least a few songs. The only song I recognized on this one was Sound and Vision, which I gotta say isn't one of my favorites. While Side A was just fine, I really got into Side B with its moody atmosphere and limited vocals.

Sunshine Hit Me

The Bees

3/5

A little underwhelming but not unpleasant.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

Bill Callahan

5/5

There aren't many people from whom I would accept claptrap like "Rococo Zephyr" but listening to Bill Callahan makes me feel like I'm in the presence of a protective Big Brother Bear and nothing will harm me as long as I'm in earshot of his comforting voice. His vocal range is approximately three notes and he sings a lot about trees and branches and birds and different kinds of birds and rivers and yet...I love him and I love this album. ...ro-co-co...

Done By The Forces Of Nature

Jungle Brothers

5/5

Very fun, very groovy, very good.

Here Come The Warm Jets

Brian Eno

5/5

First time through, I thought, well, there are some hits and some big misses here. Second time through, I thought, where did the misses go??? An interesting and entertaining listen. Eno takes me by surprise again.

Gold

Ryan Adams

4/5

Wait, what? Another record by Ryan Adams? Really? A lot of the tunes are solid, some less so. It's fine.

Legalize It

Peter Tosh

4/5

Glad to be exposed to some reggae that's not Bob Marley. I don't plan on becoming a fan, but this was nice accompaniment to my work today.

The Poet

Bobby Womack

4/5

Very early 80s. Very R&B. As each tune started, I rolled my eyes a bit and then, as each tune progressed, I found myself grooving. Enjoyed it a lot.

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis

5/5

This wasn't easy but it sure was good. Trippy and wild.

American Gothic

David Ackles

5/5

As far as I can tell, no one has yet turned this album into a cabaret-style revue à la Jacques Brel is Alive and Well... So I guess I'll have to do it. This album is amazing! Fascinating stories well told and set to compelling and complicated tunes and instrumentation. A masterpiece that I will return to again and again.

Want One

Rufus Wainwright

5/5

Oh, I'm so glad this one's on the list. I became a fan of this album after hearing Beautiful Child in a movie. That's still a favorite, along with What a World and 11:11. I like Wainwright's whole deal.

Peter Gabriel 3

Peter Gabriel

5/5

I didn't know this album apart from the tracks that appear on his greatest hits album (I Don't Remember, Games without Frontiers, and Biko). I love all three and this album gets high marks just for those. I'm not sure the rest of the album added much to my already significant appreciation for Gabriel but neither did it detract.

Lost Souls

Doves

3/5

This did not excite me.

25

Adele

5/5

An incredible musician with a powerful and beautiful voice.

Beyond Skin

Nitin Sawhney

5/5

A striking blend of styles. Lovely and poignant. This is one I wouldn't have ever sought out but I'm so glad to have heard it.

Aladdin Sane

David Bowie

5/5

This was very easy to listen to three times.

Youth And Young Manhood

Kings of Leon

5/5

I don't know what my problem was with the prior Kings of Leon album we listened to but this one was totally my jam. Well, one of my jams at least. I dug it start to finish.

At Folsom Prison

Johnny Cash

5/5

This album crackles with a unique and exquisite energy.

Electric

The Cult

2/5

This started out ok and I thought I was going to enjoy it but it felt like a very long 38 minutes by the end of it. I like this genre and this era just fine but I don't get why this is here.

Who Killed...... The Zutons?

The Zutons

5/5

A fun and easily digestible pop album with a variety of styles and instrumentation. I was quite well-taken with it!

Blunderbuss

Jack White

5/5

I know this is weird but Blunderbuss is the album that brought me back to rock music after about 15 years of listening to nothing but showtunes. I'd pretty much missed the White Stripes and didn't really know who Jack White was when I caught a performance of Love Interruption on a talk show and positively swooned at the opening notes of the organ and guitar and the soulful harmonies. White pulls off the throwback sound of the album with ease, like he's channeling music from another time. I think this one's pretty great.

Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan

5/5

Another album that makes me want to recalibrate all of my ratings. 12 stars.

I See You

The xx

3/5

Underwhelmed by The xx again. What am I missing?

Dire Straits

5/5

I enjoyed the heck out of this. Every song sounds a little like Sultans of Swing but it turns out that's not a bad thing. A+

Suzanne Vega

5/5

I remember thinking when this came out that the lyrics were super weird. I just thought they were lovely today. Top notch.

Marcus Garvey

Burning Spear

4/5

I don't mind it.

Bubble And Scrape

Sebadoh

5/5

As has happened before, when the album started I thought, "not another alt-rock band from the 90s that eschews tunefulness and feelings," but not long after I was feeling a lot and digging the dissonance in spite of myself. I kind of ended up loving it.

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Joni Mitchell

5/5

Brought to mind a late summer supper of fresh tomatoes and basil and corn on the cob, chatting on the patio with friends in the fading light. Love.

Live / Dead

Grateful Dead

3/5

I wasn't really looking forward to this one, especially because it came at me while I was on a short vacation so I was playing catch-up and really prefer short albums when that happens. I will say that this exceeded my expectations music-wise and I found the first three sides of the album quite good, inducing a sense of peace and ease. Once we got to side four though, I'd kind of had enough and was just glad to get it out of the way.

Tank Battles

Dagmar Krause

5/5

Ausgezeichnet!

Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus

Spirit

4/5

A decent classic rock sound. I skipped a few songs thesecond time through but overall fine and good.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Eurythmics

5/5

A delicious slice of 80s cake and about freaking time Annie Lennox showed up. A+

Punishing Kiss

Ute Lemper

5/5

I'm pleasantly surprised to see this here, hot on the heels of Dagmar Krause's Tank Battles just a few days ago. I picked up Punishing Kiss on CD about 20 years ago, not knowing much about it --- I knew a bit about Lemper's theater credits and was intrigued to hear her collaborate with Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, and Tom Waits. (I didn't know The Divine Comedy and Scott Walker at the time but thanks to this project I do now!) Lemper is a great singer with incredible range and a flair for dramatics. The album feels dark and a little creepy and definitely worth its place on this list.

Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

TV On The Radio

3/5

Wow! It's been a few years and hundreds and hundreds of albums since we listened to TV on the Radio's Dear Science, which I ended up loving and have listened to a few times since. So I was excited to try another. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I didn't like this one at all. I know that Desperate Youth has been removed from the 1001 book at this point, which is fine by me. There should probably only be one and it should be Dear Science.

A Short Album About Love

The Divine Comedy

5/5

I think we’re at the point in this project where 75% of my notes are going to start with, “Really? [insert name of artist] again???” Other than my being surprised that I must listen to (at least) two (and a half if we count Ute Lemper’s Punishing Kiss) albums by The Divine Comedy before I die, I really enjoyed all the theatrics. We’ve had some dramatic outings here in the last several days and I am here for it!

Django Django

5/5

There've been a lot of times when listening to the album of the day felt like work. This was NOT one of those days. I experienced actual pleasure doing today's assignment. This was fresh and fun. Loved it.

Fly Or Die

N.E.R.D

4/5

Reasonably entertaining, quirky and different. I had fun for the most part.

Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo

MC Solaar

5/5

Upbeat and fun.

Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode

5/5

How did I like this more than Violator? Eh, I probably didn’t. Can I get a do-over? I like this one! A lot!

Nowhere

Ride

3/5

I started out feeling rather optimistic about the album based on the first two tracks. Then the tempo slowed and I got a bit bored.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

5/5

I had a lot of big feelings listening to this today.

No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith (Live)

Motörhead

3/5

This wasn't the best day for loud, live, and muddy, but you get what you get when you get it. Not entirely my jam but closer to my jam than I expected.

Faith

George Michael

5/5

An old friend. A favorite of favorites.

Tom Tom Club

4/5

Oh! This is an offshoot of Talking Heads? I didn't know but now that you say it, I can totally hear it. Genius of Love is one of the catchiest catches that's ever catched. The rest of the album is quirky and funky and fun.

Let It Bleed

The Rolling Stones

5/5

If you start an album with Gimme Shelter and end with You Can't Always Get What You Want, it doesn't really matter what happens in between.

4/5

I'll be honest --- I skipped to the next track after half of Gang Bang. Didn't really need that. But I kind of loved the rest of the album. It was an interesting mix of styles and I really enjoyed it and will want to hear much of it again. Good stuff!

Moon Safari

Air

5/5

A very soothing selection for the end of a sad week. Much appreciated.

NEU! 75

Neu!

4/5

Well this is a couple of different things --- Side One was some very enjoyable mostly instrumental lushness, synth-y 70s keys but also actual piano and actual drums. Side Two was I guess why this gets labeled as proto-punk but I found that bit much more typical of the time, much less interesting. If I owned it on vinyl, I'd play the first side and never turn it over.

Group Sex

Circle Jerks

5/5

Short and...well, not sweet. But sweetly silly. All albums should be 15 minutes long. Maybe not all. But most.

Now I Got Worry

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

2/5

Loud and fuzzy, like Elvis with more distortion and swears and much less enjoyable.

I’m a Lonesome Fugitive

Merle Haggard

5/5

The perfect album for the day.

Another Music In A Different Kitchen

Buzzcocks

4/5

I'm a second-hand fan of Buzzcocks, one of my husband's favorites. Sometimes they play their songs at the grocery store we shop at and I feel very old.

Street Life

The Crusaders

5/5

Very smooth and jazzy. Normally I might complain about all the sax but Street Life is such a good song, I felt ready to enjoy the rest.

Make Yourself

Incubus

3/5

I really liked the first few tracks but was less enthralled with the second half of the album. I might've liked this more when it was released had I been paying attention.

Grievous Angel

Gram Parsons

5/5

This is exactly the kind of album I want in this project: an album by an artist whose name is more familiar to me than their music. And it's a bonus when the music is this good. Emmylou Harris is a bonus here. Very, very fine.

Third

Soft Machine

4/5

More interesting than enjoyable. I've got the hang of Robert Wyatt by now.

Treasure

Cocteau Twins

4/5

No super strong feelings in either direction for me. It's nice.

Sound Affects

The Jam

4/5

Yes, very Jammy. Fine.

The Coral

3/5

950 albums down and the kids are getting restless. Are we there yet? This is fine, I guess. Not super original but I'm not mad.

Atomizer

Big Black

5/5

This is an album that I would never choose to listen to but I have to admit that, whenever my husband plays it, I get swept up by their energy. The riffs that start Kerosene and Bazooka Joe are exquisite in particular.

Better Living Through Chemistry

Fatboy Slim

5/5

Very fun, very groovy. Any need for this AND You've Come a Long Way on this list? I don't think so but I had a good time.

So Much For The City

The Thrills

5/5

It's like someone flew some California sunshine to Ireland and The Thrills put it in a blender with some 70s pop radio and this is what we got. I heard similarities to The Carpenters, Pinball Wizard, the theme from Midnight Cowboy (not "Everybody's Talkin'" but the instrumental that was in all the John Brimhall piano books that is still one of only four songs I am able to play), and East Bound and Down (from Smokey and the Bandit). Some fun instrumentation and an overall uplifting sound made for a great listen today.

Post Orgasmic Chill

Skunk Anansie

5/5

An interesting mix of styles, it kept me on my toes. The singer's got an incredibly powerful voice and a unique p.o.v. Glad to be introduced to this group.

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Maxwell

4/5

Not my go-to genre but a sweet mellow groove today.

Myths Of The Near Future

Klaxons

3/5

There were some fun riffs and drum fills here and there but overall this didn't do much for me. I'm not sure that it will stand the test of time (she says 20 years after it's release).

Sea Change

Beck

5/5

A different side of Beck. Loved.

Blonde On Blonde

Bob Dylan

5/5

Yet another great one from Bob Dylan. Very nice listen today.

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

5/5

Moody.

Violent Femmes

5/5

My sister went to music camp one summer. When she left for camp her favorite album was the Xanadu soundtrack and when she came back it was Violent Femmes and she thought it made her better than the rest of us. I hated it so as not to give her the satisfaction. But now I think she had a point. The tunes and lyrics are catchy and the acoustic sound is unique and intriguing. There are a lot of songs I really like on this album. I think there is room in this world for this AND Xanadu. Sorry sister.

Aftermath

The Rolling Stones

4/5

Jesus Christ! That last track was only eleven minutes long? Felt like fifteen years. Despite some problematic, dated lyrics, I enjoy the Rolling Stones. I'm appreciating hearing some albums that are unfamiliar to me.

The Madcap Laughs

Syd Barrett

3/5

A nice voice and a whimsical style. There were a few songs that stretched the definition of "song" but I liked a lot of it.

Cupid & Psyche 85

Scritti Politti

4/5

A fun trip to the 80s. I've always loved Perfect Way.

Apple Venus Volume 1

XTC

4/5

I was nowhere near as taken with this one as I was with Skylarking many hundreds of albums ago. Some fun lyrics here and there.

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

5/5

About 750 albums ago, Elliott Smith's Either/Or became a new favorite so I was more than happy to hear from him again. Figure 8 seemed not as woeful but just as appealing as Either/Or. I'll take it.

Iron Maiden

2/5

I don't doubt that this album is notable and influential. I acknowledge that the vocals are powerful and technically impressive and that the band shreds. But I honestly don't feel like this album is actually good. I almost enjoyed Prowler and Running Free but found Strange World completely cornball and Charlotte the Harlot more offensive in its lack of originality than in its harlot-shaming. My feeling is that I enjoyed Number of the Beast more than this but, checking my records, I see I gave that album a 2. This isn't a 1 but maybe a 1.5.

Faust IV

Faust

5/5

Very compelling. I'm almost overwhelmed. A+

Parachutes

Coldplay

5/5

Sweet and pretty, warm and floaty. This burrowed itself right into my heart today.

Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

5/5

I picked up a bunch of Rolling Stones CDs several years ago and this was one of my favorites. I like it very very much.

Fishscale

Ghostface Killah

3/5

Goodness, I thought that might never end. It's fine.

Another Green World

Brian Eno

4/5

I don't think that I can claim to be pleasantly surprised by Brian Eno anymore. So I guess I'm not surprised but this was pretty pleasant. I quite liked a few tracks and didn't dislike any. Good good.

Let England Shake

PJ Harvey

5/5

Unique and moving. Amazing.

All Hail the Queen

Queen Latifah

5/5

Wow! This was a great weekend of music. Just as with yesterday's PJ Harvey, as soon as I finished All Hail the Queen I just started it over again. Fantastic!

Want Two

Rufus Wainwright

4/5

Doesn't quite have the oomph of Want One but still a fine album.

Suede

3/5

This might improve with more familiarity but after only one listen this doesn't appeal to me much. It sounds like the 80s college radio bands that I never connected with.

Seventh Tree

Goldfrapp

5/5

An absolute breath of fresh air. Really nice!

The White Room

The KLF

3/5

The first few tracks turned my shower into a late 80s European dance club. But I was much less taken with the last half of the album and was very ready for it to end.

Caetano Veloso

5/5

Delightful surprises abound!

Meat Puppets II

Meat Puppets

4/5

I liked this more than I expected. More country-tinged than I thought going in. It's ok.

Blood And Chocolate

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

You guys. Enough already with the Elvis Costello. Tokyo Storm Warning is super catchy and I love it. But the rest is just more of the same. Why so many?

Isn't Anything

My Bloody Valentine

3/5

I'm so glad our first mbv album was Loveless. I loved Loveless, actually found a lot of it quite pretty. Isn't Anything wasn't anything I could latch onto. Disappointed.

Movies

Holger Czukay

2/5

Album #983 may be the one that broke me. 900 albums ago, I might've been able to give this more of a chance. But today I was just bored and irritated and had to keep reminding myself that my participation in this listening project is voluntary. 900 albums ago, I had points to give for "uniqueness" but I think I've heard this kind of "uniqueness" before which isn't a great feature of "uniqueness." Is music a thing I used to like? Was it ever anything but an "obligation"? I don't know anymore. Another day, another mood, and maybe I could be more generous. But not today.

Hard Again

Muddy Waters

5/5

Aaaaand I'm back in the game. This is a legitimately good album and its cultural significance is apparent. I'm in a much better mood today.

The Wall

Pink Floyd

5/5

This made me feel all the feelings! Feelings of an almost human nature. This will not do. Actually, it will do quite well. This piece of theater is still pretty brilliant after almost 50 years. So much nostalgia.

The ArchAndroid

Janelle Monáe

5/5

Following Pink Floyd's The Wall yesterday, this is another epic. There's such a wide variety of styles, different eras and influences evoked, that there have been times when I had to check to see that it was still the same album. It's by turn serious and silly ("I think I lost my underpants." What?!) Monáe's the real deal.

Roots

Sepultura

2/5

Seriously? Someone thinks I must listen to (at least) two Sepultra albums before I die? That is incorrect. I did however enjoy this more than the other one whose name I can't be bothered to look up. Though Roots seems unnecessarily long, there are a few interesting tracks in the mix to break up the monotony.

Back In Black

AC/DC

5/5

"Rock and roll ain't no riddle, man. To me it makes good, good sense." Crank it!

G. Love And Special Sauce

G. Love & Special Sauce

4/5

I've never heard of G. Love and Special Sauce. This was entertaining enough. I'm not sure though about their controversial take on Cold Beverages.

You Are The Quarry

Morrissey

3/5

This is exactly what I expect from Morrissey and I enjoyed it exactly as much as I expected.

Honky Tonk Masquerade

Joe Ely

4/5

Why have I never heard this? Very fun!

The Rise & Fall

Madness

5/5

I like their fun vibe and my enjoyment increased as the album progressed.

The Modern Lovers

4/5

I knew Roadrunner and Pablo Picasso but the rest was new. I enjoyed listening late in the evening with the lights down low. They fit my mood.

Coles Corner

Richard Hawley

5/5

Some very pleasant smooth, old-school crooning reminiscent of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and kd lang. A nice surprise.

Time (The Revelator)

Gillian Welch

5/5

Couldn't be lovelier.

Run-D.M.C.

4/5

Run-D.M.C. is fun and they've got a unique sound. It's good.

New Forms

Roni Size

3/5

Good lord that took forever. I did not like it at first as accompaniment to dinner-making. But later with headphones on doing some work at the computer, it made for some decent background sound. There's just so much!

Broken English

Marianne Faithfull

5/5

Fantastic. Just the thing I needed today. Thumbs way up!

Talking Timbuktu

Ali Farka Touré

4/5

Not unpleasant but not much really leapt out at me either. It's fine.

Live At Leeds

The Who

5/5

I doubted the need for another album by The Who. I was wrong. This was epic. (I will admit, however, that I only listened to the tracks on the original release. That was enough.)

Parklife

Blur

5/5

All right. Here we are at album #1001. Not quite done but a milestone nonetheless. About 900 albums and 2.5 years ago, back when I had the stamina and interest to listen to the albums multiple times and write long explanations justifying my ratings, we had our first blur album. There was a lot I liked about Modern Life is Rubbish but I was frustrated because I couldn't quite pin down why I didn't love it. I listened to Parklife at a friend's recommendation and found that it had the element that Rubbish was missing. This is joyful, unapologetic, poppy poppy Brit pop. I loved this one easily and immediately. A great callback for album #1001.

Illinois

Sufjan Stevens

5/5

The internet keeps showing me ads for the new Broadway musical based on this album. Such a musical makes a lot of sense --- "Chicago" is a showtune if ever there was a showtune --- but I cringe at the thought of the forced earnestness that musical theater performers are likely to bring to this material. This album already works as a piece of theater with evocative imagery and complex orchestrations. It's an impressive piece of work. A favorite.

Abbey Road

Beatles

5/5

I've not listened to this one in a while. Every song is so good in a different way. Transcendent.

Diamond Life

Sade

4/5

I would never choose to listen to this but it's nice. No real complaints, just not my favorite.

The Stranger

Billy Joel

5/5

A classic album that became familiar to me in bits and pieces over the years. Moments of it are very much of its time but most of it is timeless. Very special.

Protection

Massive Attack

4/5

I've been sick with a cold for a couple days and have started this several times only to fall asleep during the third track. It's a nice loopy soundtrack for a fever dream. I finally made it through awake and it's good for that, too

Don't Stand Me Down

Dexys Midnight Runners

3/5

Did not particularly enjoy this. Interesting as a curiosity.

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

5/5

Super smooth! A very very fine piece of work.

Step In The Arena

Gang Starr

4/5

This grew on me as it went on. Nice early 90s hip-hop that was new to me.

Fifth Dimension

The Byrds

4/5

A little sloppy and a lot trippy. Eight Miles High is maybe the most 60s song there is. Interesting to hear a song with anti-war lyrics about Hiroshima and soon after a weird rendition of the gunning-down-my-woman song Hey Joe (so much cowbell).

Heroes to Zeros

The Beta Band

5/5

I remember liking the prior Beta Band album we had but I don't really remember why. HtZ doesn't jog my memory at all but I loved it. I think maybe I'm into the Beta Band and their whole deal.

Raw Like Sushi

Neneh Cherry

5/5

I had Cherry's Homebrew on CD back in the day (for the song Buddy X) but I don't think I ever listened to Raw Like Sushi. What fun! A lot of catchy grooves that captured the late 80s perfectly. Shame I waited so long.

Germfree Adolescents

X-Ray Spex

5/5

Fantastic follow-up to yesterday's Neneh Cherry. Released a decade apart, two young women with unique takes on their respective genres. Germfree Adolescents is just so good! Poly Styrene's voice is raw but incredibly pure, confident with a whole lot of swagger. For punk songs, they are musical and catchy. This is a real gem.

The Downward Spiral

Nine Inch Nails

5/5

All right. Sit back. Put your feet up. Pop open a cold one. This is gonna get long. I have thoughts! Feelings! Irrelevant anecdotes! First, I have jokingly referred to this person as Terence Trent Reznor for so many years that I now have to stop and think what his name actually is when I want to talk about him. Misnaming someone or mispronouncing something is one of my favorite jokes but it gets dangerous the older I get and someday I will embarrass myself by saying “supposably” because I think it’s funny and some smarty-pants won’t know I’m joking and will think I’m an idiot. (Related: I had a roommate in college who gave her friends nicknames based on their resemblance to famous people. She had a friend she called Echo because he looked like someone from Echo & the Bunnymen, a friend she called Maverick because he looked like Tom Cruise, and a (female) friend she called Quasi (which had something to do with Quasimodo but not looks...I don't think). A name like Echo, Maverick, Quasi, you know to ask, “Hey, what is your actual name?” BUT she did not give EVERYONE a nickname and she had a friend she introduced as Larry and whom I called Larry for months before he said, “You know that’s not my name, right?” NO! I DID NOT KNOW THAT! But now that you mention it, you do look like Larry Mullen, Jr. Oh… My point is, maybe calling people by their actual names is best practice.) Anyway, (Terence) Trent Reznor always seems to me like he’s SO MAD at his mom and he’s just slammed the door to his bedroom because NO ONE UNDERSTANDS HIS PAIN!!! My vision of him as a petulant, selfish teenager was cemented when I read that The Downward Spiral was recorded at 10500 Cielo Drive, which just seems like the most childish of choices. And then to read further that it hadn’t occurred to him until he met Sharon Tate’s sister that it was exploitative and cruel (1) to have sought out that location in particular and (2) to have named the studio he created there “Le Pig.” Ugh! Are you in 8th grade??? (And there is some hypocrisy happening on my part because I have consumed enough media about that event that I know without further elaboration the significance of the address 10500 Cielo Drive and the reference implied by the name Le Pig. So I am part of the problem. Or I was. WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER!) (Reading further, I see that he moved out of the house in 1993 BUT TOOK THE FRONT DOOR WITH HIM! The door on which was written in Sharon Tate’s blood the word “pig.” Classy!) Any-anyway, the album’s theme is nihilistic self-destruction on the titular downward spiral. More reading tells me that (T)TR resisted friends’ suggestions at this time that he get himself on antidepressants and that makes me like him even less because if your friends are telling you to do that, maybe it’s because self-destruction tends to destroy a lot more than the self? I get that artists worry that antidepresh meds will blunt their precious gifts but is the gift of your art worth the grief you may be causing your loved ones by not getting help? Shrug emoji! (It seems he eventually got married, had a bunch of kids, won some oscars and is “happy” now, so good!) Any-any-anyway, is this a good piece of art? Yeah, I think so. As cheerful as I seem, nihilism and self-destruction are themes that I identify with more than I’d like. I kind of prefer it when broken people realize they’re broken and try to unbreak themselves but I don’t get to write the end of every story. Nine Inch Nails has a unique sound, brash grating industrial noise breaking suddenly into a lilting piano medley can really get to me, even if the story ends with no hope, “the pain eternal.” I actually like this album a lot.

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

The Kinks

5/5

I can't tell what this is adding to the other 4 records by The Kinks that we've already listened to but I am still just as charmed.

Timeless

Goldie

3/5

I don't want to yuck anyone's yum and I can accept that I'm just not the audience for this BUT I can see why one song that sounds like this is cool. But a whole album? A double album? An entire genre? I don't get drum and bass. What am I missing? Drugs? Is it drugs? It's drugs, isn't it?

Headquarters

The Monkees

5/5

Well this is delightful. Nice and easy 60s pop. A good time.

Oedipus Schmoedipus

Barry Adamson

5/5

Wowee! Whatever I was missing in Adamson's Moss Side Story, I have found in spades in Oedipus Schmoedipus. A compelling listen from start to finish. Hands down, this is a thumbs up!!

Elastica

5/5

Yes! It rocked. It grooved. It boosted my mood. I couldn't ask for more than that. Thanks!

Dog Man Star

Suede

5/5

I wasn't super excited to see another Suede album so soon after having a tepid response to their eponymous debut but this won me over with its strong start and even stronger finish. Well done.

Street Signs

Ozomatli

5/5

Great fun. I danced all day.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo

Devo

5/5

How could I not love Devo and their singular style made for us nerds?

Raw Power

The Stooges

3/5

Much more tolerable than Fun House. Fine.

Highly Evolved

The Vines

4/5

A nice variety of songs, some of which are quite good. If I’d owned it at a time when we didn’t have access to every album all the time, I think I’d listen to it a lot.

First Band On The Moon

The Cardigans

5/5

Geez. Sometimes your first impression is just wrong. Lovefool is one of those songs that makes me feel crazy --- everyone seemed to love it so much and I just couldn't stand the sound of it. So I wasn't super excited to see this album here. But holy cow! I loved it so much! By the time I'd gotten to Lovefool, my feelings toward that track had softened significantly. (It is still definitely not my favorite. But nearly every other song could be...)

Henry's Dream

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

4/5

This is one of the NC&tBSs records I've not heard much of. It's great!

The Holy Bible

Manic Street Preachers

4/5

An interesting mix of styles and influences made this a compelling listen. Feels like a proper album as opposed to a collection of unrelated songs. Don't know how often I'll want to revisit but it was hard to look away.

White Light / White Heat

The Velvet Underground

5/5

I can't say why but I find this album very comforting. It just works for me.

It's A Shame About Ray

The Lemonheads

4/5

I never listened to The Lemonheads but this sounds like some other things I liked. I had a good time.

Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby

Girls Against Boys

3/5

This was a long slog but I felt like I'd kind of found the groove near the end.

Idlewild

Everything But The Girl

4/5

Very late 80s adult contemporary vibe. It worked for a quiet Friday night.

Green River

Creedence Clearwater Revival

5/5

More great classic (and slightly sinister) bluesy rock. Love it.

Triangle

The Beau Brummels

4/5

Interesting and fun!

This Is Hardcore

Pulp

4/5

Lushly theatrical.

Black Monk Time

The Monks

5/5

Somewhere twixt Buddy Holly and Pere Ubu there lie The Monks. I was entertained and educated, exactly what I'm here for.

Moby Grape

5/5

Adjacent in sound and style to CSN&Y and The Guess Who. I like this a lot!

The Yes Album

Yes

5/5

Kind of noodly and not particularly hummable but a nice listen.

Winter In America

Gil Scott-Heron

5/5

Timely and enjoyable. A great listen.

Ten

Pearl Jam

5/5

.;l,. uyykl;/≥ /'/..÷?,.'//. / '/ The one-year-old who's staying with me wrote that. We both dig this album. Perhaps more today even than when it came out. It's gorgeous and poignant.

Pacific Ocean Blue

Dennis Wilson

5/5

A thousand albums and what seems like a thousand years ago, we heard The Beach Boys' Surf's Up. Pacific Ocean Blue is similar in tone and style and also likewise makes me angry that I've lived so much of my life without it. It's gorgeous.

Ambient 1/Music For Airports

Brian Eno

5/5

Felt more like a day at the spa than a day at the airport. Very relaxing.

Traffic

3/5

In my review for John Barleycorn Must Die, I said something about how Traffic makes my chakras line up or something. That did not happen today. My chakras remain out of whack after this album. There was a lot of noodling and not enough glory. Even the original version of the fantastic Feelin' Alright? pales a bit in comparison (in my opinion) to Joe Cocker's cover. Sad to be so underwhelmed today.

Femi Kuti

4/5

An interesting album. Songs were a little samey-samey for the length but good.

Mott

Mott The Hoople

3/5

Yep, that was Mott the Hoople. They might’ve received a higher rating on a different day. I found this pretty ok.

Signing Off

UB40

3/5

Yeah, I made a big ugh face when I saw today's homework and I actively hated it for about half an hour. And then I stopped paying attention and found myself grooving to the rhythm. I was a little thrilled to hear Randy Newman's I Think It's Going to Rain Today and was a little shocked that I liked it. Food for Thought is a great little tune. Definitely exceeded my expectations.

Cafe Bleu

The Style Council

4/5

This eclectic collection of tunes was a pleasant surprise. If I'd stopped at one listen, it might've been a 5-star rating. But the second listen rubbed off a bit of its luster --- without my low expectations, it was clearly not really something I'll return to much.

Dig Me Out

Sleater-Kinney

5/5

It's about time! This was really fun. I'm glad that the kids I know get to grow up in a world where this album exists.

Purple Rain

Prince

5/5

I didn't get the hype back in '84 but I sure as heck do now. A classic!

Permission to Land

The Darkness

4/5

This would have fit right into my cassette collection in the late nineteen hundred and eighties. I have less use for it now but enjoyed it once.

More Songs About Buildings And Food

Talking Heads

3/5

It's fine.

The Gilded Palace Of Sin

The Flying Burrito Brothers

5/5

Very enjoyable from start to finish!

Pyromania

Def Leppard

5/5

Way to take me back to the summer of '83. Lots of nostalgia in this one.

Ellington at Newport

Duke Ellington

5/5

As a tap dancer, I am required by law to do the Shim Sham whenever I hear Take the A Train.

Only By The Night

Kings of Leon

3/5

This is ok but there's a lot of music that sounds like this but that I like much more. If I had nothing else to listen to, I wouldn't be too upset but if given a choice I wouldn't choose this.

Forever Changes

Love

2/5

I didn’t Love this and found a lot of it downright ugly. Nope.

Smash

The Offspring

3/5

A little noisier, shouter, and sweatier than I was in the mood for.

KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)

Ministry

5/5

Hot on the heels of The Offspring (whom I called too noisy, shouty, and sweaty — autocorrected from sweary) we get more noisy shouty swearing from Ministry. But I’ve got a big soft spot for Jesus Built My Hotrod because my bestie and I got kind of obsessed with it back in the day. I don’t think I ever listened to the whole album but I like its energy.

London Calling

The Clash

5/5

Hm. I expected to recognize more of this than I did. It's pretty great.

Rattlesnakes

Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

3/5

Very generic early 80s college rock. Not my thing.

Spy Vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman

John Zorn

2/5

I don't get this. It's energetic I guess. And loud.

1984

Van Halen

4/5

I don't think I have ever listened to this entire album before. You certainly couldn't avoid hearing Jump and Panama and Hot for Teacher at the time. Jump is not my favorite VH song by a long shot -- when I want that kind of early 80s synth sound, I'll go look for Steve Winwood. But this is an interesting bridge between the classic VH sound and the just-around-the-corner Sammy Hagar era.

Club Classics Vol. One

Soul II Soul

5/5

A solid late 80s hip-hop groove. Loved it.

Out of Step

Minor Threat

4/5

Noisy, fast, and short!

Palo Congo

Sabu

3/5

Not a lot for me to hook into but an interesting change of pace.

The United States Of America

5/5

Fantastically trippy! Psychedelic but accessible. I loved this!

Slayed?

Slade

5/5

A rocking good time.

Liquid Swords

GZA

4/5

One of the more accessible offerings from one of the Wu-Tangs. I think...

Music From Big Pink

The Band

4/5

Shades of The Grateful Dead and Traffic. I'd not heard any of this save The Weight. Liked but didn't love.

A Northern Soul

The Verve

3/5

Really? These guys again? You considered all the music and thought we needed two albums by The Verve? No. I didn't hate it.

A Wizard, A True Star

Todd Rundgren

4/5

Lots of ups and downs with this one. I appreciate the experimentation and found a couple of the tracks downright exhilarating.

Stephen Stills

5/5

Outstanding. Please play Love the One You’re With at my funeral. Thanks.

Eternally Yours

The Saints

4/5

Exuberant and fun for the most part. But not a genre that I’ll seek out again.

Ghosteen

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

5/5

A more heartbreaking and authentic expression of grief you will be hard-pressed to find. Devastating and beautiful.

Haut de gamme / Koweït, rive gauche

Koffi Olomide

3/5

Seemed a little dated and like something you might hear at a restaurant. It's ok.

Ágætis Byrjun

Sigur Rós

5/5

How dare an album be this good! I’m actually a little angry about it right now. Magnificent.

One World

John Martyn

4/5

Started out great. I can't understand a word. It got a little noodly and moogly at the end but I could listen to it again.

The Stooges

3/5

I liked this more than the last album we had by The Stooges.

Gris Gris

Dr. John

4/5

Not what I was expecting. Was I thinking of Dr. Hook?

Cloud Nine

The Temptations

5/5

Funky, soulful, and deep. Yes!

Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

2/5

Open mind open mind open mind. Nope. Irritating, long, and really really boring. Next!

A Little Deeper

Ms. Dynamite

5/5

I'd never heard of her and this isn't a genre I gravitate to but it held my attention and made me want to listen again.

Hunting High And Low

a-ha

2/5

You guys. I tried so hard. Take on Me is my nemesis. I hate it so much. And it's everywhere. You can't get away from it. And everyone loves it. It makes me feel really alone. I thought it might just be that song and the second track, Train of Thought, seemed ok. But then...you guys. It's not just that song. I don't like the sound of this. It feels bad in my ear holes. I'm sorry. It's not the record, it's me. It must be me. I'm so alone.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

4/5

This project has made me appreciate Neil Young more and I love Cinnamon Girl, but this is the last one by him, right?

3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul

5/5

Well I haven't heard this one in forever. Wildly fun and nostalgic.

What's Going On

Marvin Gaye

5/5

It's really nice that we're getting good albums in our last week. Please let the next one not be crap!

Elephant

The White Stripes

5/5

Really great. One of my faves.

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

Lupe Fiasco

4/5

Another "recent" artist I've never heard of. I loved the orchestral bits. Pretty darn good!

Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

Pavement

3/5

With this rating, I will reveal our last album in this project. For the penultimate album, we had our second from Pavement. It's fine. In three years, we've had zero albums from each of the following: Laurie Anderson Pat Benatar En Vogue Melissa Etheridge Bobbie Gentry Heart Whitney Houston Indigo Girls Joan Jett Grace Jones Gladys Knight Alison Krauss Martha Reeves Diana Ross Salt-n-Pepa Carly Simon Donna Summer This is your last chance 1001 to put one of these deserving artists on the list. Revealing the last in three...two...one...

Shalimar

Rahul Dev Burman

5/5

Well, all right. I really hope this actually is our last album because this is right where I want it to end. Fun and 70s and new to me. That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it! Thank you so much, Alexander!

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