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Wed Sep 22 2021
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
4
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Thu Sep 23 2021
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
2
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Fri Sep 24 2021
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
4
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Sat Sep 25 2021
Tapestry
Carole King
5
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Sun Sep 26 2021
The Rise & Fall
Madness
3
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Mon Sep 27 2021
Screamadelica
Primal Scream
5
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Tue Sep 28 2021
Ten
Pearl Jam
I've never been big on grunge and had only had limited exposure to Pearl Jam. This album didn't really change my views, I neither loved nor hated it. It's just... Ok. I honestly found the songs a bit too long and a bit too samey. Porch was the standout track that I didn't already know that I saved as a favourite. Shorter and more musically interesting to me. It might be a great album but a couple of repeat plays was enough. I doubt I'll feel the need to listen to this in full again.
3
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Wed Sep 29 2021
The Slim Shady LP
Eminem
Not Eminem's best work but it set the tone for what he could do and showcases his latent talent. My feelings are probably coloured by nostalgia because I first heard this years ago in school when I was 15. It brings back good memories and at the time I thought some of this material was a lot funnier than I do at over 20 years remove. Coming to it completely cold I'd probably only give it 3 stars now.
4
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Thu Sep 30 2021
Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth
4
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Fri Oct 01 2021
Murmur
R.E.M.
5
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Sat Oct 02 2021
Inspiration Information
Shuggie Otis
5
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Sun Oct 03 2021
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
One of the great debut albums. There was nothing like it when it was released. Witty, gritty, loud and demanding endless replays. Lots of stand out tracks too.
5
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Mon Oct 04 2021
Hunting High And Low
a-ha
A couple of stand out tracks and even then I suspect Take On Me is only as successful as it is because of a genuinely great music video. This is not an album I can ever see myself listening to again. Not terrible but mostly dull to me and heavy on the 80s production that has never moved me.
3
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Tue Oct 05 2021
Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
A solid album from the band's strongest period. I've listened before but not in full for maybe 15 years. I seem to be in a minority but the only song I really didn't like was Jig-Saw Puzzle. The rest was consistently good to excellent roots rocks and blues rock. The stand outs have to be Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man and years of rock radio exposure has reinforced that but Parachute Woman and Salt Of The Earth the other highlights for me.
5
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Wed Oct 06 2021
Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake
If you hate this album you cannot conceive of true beauty in the world. This has always been my favourite of Nick Drake's albums. His singing, the string arrangements, the Richard and Danny Thompson's contributions, Joe Boyd's masterful production - all just perfect.
5
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Thu Oct 07 2021
Oxygène
Jean-Michel Jarre
In its time this would have been ground-breaking and a clear 5 for being utterly new and different. Out of context in the modern day when a child with a bit of software could do this, it's slightly less impressive and I find myself rating it purely on composition and production. Still a great listen from time to time when you need ambient electronic tunes without lyrics whilst working. Pt4 is my favourite, though that might be a British thing having grown up hearing it in every seaside arcade for my entire life. I'll definitely continue to listen to this in future.
4
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Fri Oct 08 2021
Selling England By The Pound
Genesis
I like prog but never really got into Genesis. This didn't swing it for me. Good playing but the song writing was average. On the plus side it makes punk make so much more sense.
3
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Sat Oct 09 2021
Ritual De Lo Habitual
Jane's Addiction
A good introduction to a band I only knew for one song. I enjoyed it, on the whole. Probably only 2 songs I'd listen to in isolation. This feels more like an album you listen to in full, with the second half comprising mostly longer tracks. It's not from my favourite period in time, so I'll listen again but not regularly.
4
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Sun Oct 10 2021
Strange Cargo III
William Orbit
I don't know how this counts as one of the 1001 albums I need to hear before I die. It's pleasant enough but entirely unmemorable. I don't even know if it's one of the best 1001 ambient albums ever produced. Inoffensive and worthy of playing in the background when you have work to do but it'll never feel groundbreaking.
3
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Mon Oct 11 2021
Eagles
Eagles
I enjoyed this album much more than expected. Quite a lot of strong tracks that I didn't know and really enjoyed. This is definitely an album I'd listen to again.
4
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Tue Oct 12 2021
Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I like CCR and this is pretty good but definitely not their strongest effort. It certainly defines their sound but it's not as even and polished as other albums.
4
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Wed Oct 13 2021
Blue Lines
Massive Attack
It took a couple of listens to really appreciate this fully, even though I've always liked trip hop. Definitely better after a second go round but some of the rapping prevents this getting 5 stars. This was a great album in that it created the template for trip hop and the Bristol Sound but their letter albums like Mezzanine are stronger.
4
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Thu Oct 14 2021
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
A good introduction to Tribe for those who don't know them. Not flawless but a strong and enjoyable album, even for someone who casually listens to hip hop but isn't necessarily a regular fan.
4
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Fri Oct 15 2021
In The Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra
This was a pleasant album but it's not going to set anyone's world on fire. I didn't feel like there were any stand-out tracks. It's a work meant to be taken as a whole because it's regarded as the first 'concept-album' where there's a thematic link between all the tracks for the first time ever, rather than just a disparate collection of songs. That's a good touch but I just couldn't say I loved it.
3
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Sat Oct 16 2021
Femi Kuti
Femi Kuti
Not really thing but a very funky thing it was.
4
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Sun Oct 17 2021
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Separate the man (colossal egoist) from the art (incredibly well produced hip hop album) and this is a banging record. I've never listened to one of his albums before but I enjoyed this way more than I expected.
4
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Mon Oct 18 2021
Remain In Light
Talking Heads
I've always liked Once In A Lifetime but I really didn't get the appeal of the rest of this album. A difficult listen for me.
2
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Tue Oct 19 2021
Nothing's Shocking
Jane's Addiction
Phenomenal album. So glad this process introduced me to this record. It's much more even and consistent than Ritual De Lo Habitual. I imagine hearing this for the first time in 1988 would've felt how it did hearing Arctic Monkeys for the first time in 2005. A total game changer.
5
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Wed Oct 20 2021
Moss Side Story
Barry Adamson
I'd like to image I hadn't wasted 54 minutes of my life listening to this soundtrack to an imaginary film. Unfortunately I did and I regret that. It has no redeeming qualities at all and completing it was a chore. It sounds like a music student's composition project. And not a good one. Never again.
1
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Thu Oct 21 2021
Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes
I wanted to love this because it's my favourite period and one of my favourite genres but the quality just wasn't there. Good with a couple of standout tracks but not great. The songs are an uneven mix of psychedelica, baroque pop and whatever you'd class the last track as. The thing that really killed this though was the terrible mastering. Most of the tracks were badly balanced with most of the instruments heavily skewed to the left. Really bizarre and irritating to listen to.
3
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Fri Oct 22 2021
Mama's Gun
Erykah Badu
Decent R'n'B album but I felt let down slightly by week vocals. Badu's voice doesn't have the depth and strength of some of her contemporaries and she seems sing from the throat rather than diaphragm, so she lacks the power and richness that would accompany the music well. Enjoyable on the whole though.
3
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Sat Oct 23 2021
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin
This hits me different now to when I heard it first time aged 18 and my only criteria for a good song was the quality of the guitar solo. Still a stone cold classic though. This is one of those rare albums that defines an era, sets a template for its genre and acts as a tentpole for the career of the artists. An absolute monolith in rock history.
5
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Sun Oct 24 2021
Call of the Valley
Shivkumar Sharma
Pleasant but unmemorable. No stand-out tracks. Good for being different but it hasn't tempted me into a repeat listen.
2
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Mon Oct 25 2021
Kimono My House
Sparks
Love a bit of glam and enjoyed this madness.
4
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Tue Oct 26 2021
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco
I don't see what all the hype about this album is for. Some good tracks, others ruined by really unpleasant noise. I prefer some of their other work. Great in parts though.
3
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Wed Oct 27 2021
Made In Japan
Deep Purple
One of the greatest live albums ever and a favourite of mine for years. I love every note, from the hard rocking of Blackmore's guitar to the bleepy, bloopy proggy noodling of Lord's Hammond organ. I prefer the original album to the deluxe version, so for the true experience I only listened as far as the end of Space Truckin'. The tighter 1 hour run time is a much better package and perfectly formed. Anything else is just too much imo.
5
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Thu Oct 28 2021
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I've never been able to get into Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I always found their music to be too dark, too dense and antagonistically difficult to listen to, so I didn't have high hopes for this. I was wrong. It's a great record and one I'll probably listen to again. Not a flawless 5 for me but really good nonetheless. O Children in particular was a standout for me.
4
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Fri Oct 29 2021
Repeater
Fugazi
I didn't enjoy this album. Musically it's pretty good though not at all what I enjoy,
however, the awful po-faced singing ruined it. I can't see this album's appeal. For the same period I'd rather be listening to Sonic Youth.
2
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Sat Oct 30 2021
Truth
Jeff Beck
4
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Sun Oct 31 2021
Olympia 64
Jacques Brel
Not an especially great live performance and not especially interesting songs. Not sure why we all have to hear this. Very short though.
2
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Mon Nov 01 2021
Ramones
Ramones
Short, loud, fast, iconic and great.
5
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Tue Nov 02 2021
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Aphex Twin
Way better than I first expected and really picked up after the first couple of tracks. Great ambient music to work to. Not memorable but the context of the album marks it out as significant. Will listen again.
4
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Wed Nov 03 2021
Damaged
Black Flag
Mostly rapid angry bellowing with a couple of witty tracks thrown in. Mercifully short at 35m 3s.
3
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Thu Nov 04 2021
In It For The Money
Supergrass
Solid album with some great tracks and it's well produced too. Just too long for my taste. To be great, a record needs to be tighter. When the running time is 71 mins there's too much opportunity to put weak tracks on there that detract from the overall score, which is what happened here. When it's good it's really good though. Supergrass have always been one of my favourite underrated British bands of the nineties.
4
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Fri Nov 05 2021
Transformer
Lou Reed
5
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Mon Nov 08 2021
Automatic For The People
R.E.M.
Pretty good but not perfect.
4
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Tue Nov 09 2021
Fear Of Music
Talking Heads
3
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Wed Nov 10 2021
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
4
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Thu Nov 11 2021
Hypnotised
The Undertones
Excellent punk album.
5
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Fri Nov 12 2021
Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf
5
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Sat Nov 13 2021
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
Pretty much perfection.
5
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Sun Nov 14 2021
São Paulo Confessions
Suba
3
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Mon Nov 15 2021
Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
A great album but a little too bloated with a couple too many instrumentals. When a record runs over an hour there's always the chance it'll contain tracks that detract or stop it being 5 star and although this is good, it needs to be a little tighter. I really liked it though and was both pleased and surprised by the eclecticism. A really enjoyable listen.
4
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Tue Nov 16 2021
american dream
LCD Soundsystem
I didn't think this was outstanding and probably not my favourite in LCD Soundsystem record. Too long as well.
3
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Wed Nov 17 2021
Pieces Of The Sky
Emmylou Harris
4
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Thu Nov 18 2021
Ace of Spades
Motörhead
A bit samey, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when the opening track is Ace of Spades but it didn't achieve greatness through its lack of variation. And as someone else pointed out, Jailbait has some really problematic lyrics. Very enjoyable though.
4
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Fri Nov 19 2021
The Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks
5
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Sat Nov 20 2021
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
4
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Sun Nov 21 2021
Floodland
Sisters Of Mercy
Not at all what I expected and really good. The album that has really surprised me most 50 into this exercise. Will definitely check out more Sisters of Mercy.
4
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Mon Nov 22 2021
Jack Takes the Floor
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4
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Tue Nov 23 2021
Violator
Depeche Mode
4
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Wed Nov 24 2021
The Band
The Band
3
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Thu Nov 25 2021
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago
4
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Fri Nov 26 2021
Rings Around The World
Super Furry Animals
Somewhere in the territory between boring and actively unpleasant most of the time. Genuinely my favourite moment in this record was the second or so of silence between the end of the dire Receptacle for the Respectable and the start of [A] Touch Sensitive.
2
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Wed Jan 26 2022
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
5* album, with apologies to MBV for having not listened sooner because I confused them with emo twats My Chemical Romance and Bullet For My Valentine. Turns out I love shoegaze. Who knew?
5
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Thu Jan 27 2022
Arc Of A Diver
Steve Winwood
Soft rock really isn't my thing but this was much more enjoyable than I expected. Would definitely listen again, though I much prefer Winwood's earlier group work.
4
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Fri Jan 28 2022
Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds
5
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Wed Sep 28 2022
Lust For Life
Iggy Pop
Stonking album. A couple of all-time top tracks and everything else is great too.
5
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Thu Sep 29 2022
Rattus Norvegicus
The Stranglers
A strong, very even album but not enough standout tracks for me to make it a 5*
4
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Wed Oct 05 2022
Fromohio
fIREHOSE
I really struggled to decide what to make of this album. Clearly some talented musicians making something that sounded very much of its time and had some flashes of virtuosity in more than a few places. I found it a bit too uneven though, lurching between disparate genres and styles. I didn't care too much for the vocals either. But I didn't hate it and I've saved If'n as a stand out track. I definitely won't listen to the whole thing ever again though.
3
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Thu Oct 06 2022
The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem
I was a teenager when this was released and I really liked it at the time. I've since grown up, my sensibilities have changed and though the quality is still there, the whole thing is just a hot problematic mess of misogyny and homophobia. There's some monster talent on this, great beats and hooks by Dre and some great tracks like Stan that will always stand up but now it's hard to listen to. I won't be coming back.
3
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Fri Oct 07 2022
Copper Blue
Sugar
This sounds like what you'd get if you searched "90s grunge" in a royalty-free music library. It's like the diegetic music you'd hear in the background of a teen film set in 1992. Like a previous reviewer said, it's like it was produced by an AI trained on existing grunge albums. Its biggest flaw is being dull and having nothing new to say. I'm not a huge fan of the genre butni know what's good and this just isn't. I'm honestly surprised it's in the list.
2
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Sat Oct 08 2022
Parachutes
Coldplay
Not as bad as some people make out but also not as great as others say. Chris Martin should really sing an octave lower, not that falsetto he goes for. I heard it once and it's much better. There are a couple of good tracks her but the mastering on Shiver made me really angry. Once all the instruments kick it I kept thinking my speakers were clipping but no, it's just their crappy production.
3
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Sun Oct 09 2022
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
4
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Wed Oct 12 2022
Dummy
Portishead
Strong
4
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Thu Oct 13 2022
Abbey Road
Beatles
5* in spite of, not because of the twee nonsense of Maxwell's Silver Hammer and the execrable Her Majesty.
5