253
Albums Rated
3.49
Average Rating
23%
Complete
836 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2010s
Favorite Decade
Hip-hop
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
38
5-Star Albums
6
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
BEYONCÉ
Beyoncé
|
5 | 2.86 | +2.14 |
|
Brown Sugar
D'Angelo
|
5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
|
Very
Pet Shop Boys
|
5 | 2.93 | +2.07 |
|
Something/Anything?
Todd Rundgren
|
5 | 3.03 | +1.97 |
|
Crazysexycool
TLC
|
5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
|
1989
Taylor Swift
|
5 | 3.27 | +1.73 |
|
B-52's
The B-52's
|
5 | 3.29 | +1.71 |
|
Private Dancer
Tina Turner
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector
Various Artists
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
Channel Orange
Frank Ocean
|
5 | 3.32 | +1.68 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dirt
Alice In Chains
|
1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
|
American Beauty
Grateful Dead
|
1 | 3.24 | -2.24 |
|
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Devo
|
1 | 3.13 | -2.13 |
|
Elephant
The White Stripes
|
2 | 3.86 | -1.86 |
|
Whatever
Aimee Mann
|
1 | 2.83 | -1.83 |
|
Scream, Dracula, Scream
Rocket From The Crypt
|
1 | 2.77 | -1.77 |
|
Grace
Jeff Buckley
|
2 | 3.72 | -1.72 |
|
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
|
2 | 3.57 | -1.57 |
|
Playing With Fire
Spacemen 3
|
1 | 2.55 | -1.55 |
|
Definitely Maybe
Oasis
|
2 | 3.53 | -1.53 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Pixies | 3 | 4.67 |
| The Smiths | 2 | 5 |
| Beatles | 3 | 4.33 |
5-Star Albums (38)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Pixies
5/5
Zipless. The best description I read of this album was that it's surf rock for gothic kids who wear black to the beach which is literally me. The album reminds me of the mid-90s and of certain boys. Of all the Pixies albums, Bossanova feels the most realised, taking their strengths and pointing that in a particular direction. Not all the songs work and tbh I would be happy to ditch about half the tracks. But when it opens with the cool surf instro of "Cecilia Ann" and includes the swoony "Ana", the saucy "Down to the Well" and the hip "Hang Wire", there is a lot to love.
19 likes
k.d. lang
4/5
I had this on tape in 1992. I bought it because "Constant Craving" was such a captivatingly cool song that I wanted more... and was sorely disappointed by the album. I can say that generally, the laidback chic of Ingenue is no place for a 17-year-old. But even now, I don't feel like I'm really in the hipster wine mom demographic that would get the most out of this. But just imagine having a relaxing evening in your renovated villa, pulling up a kitchen stool, pouring a glass of pinot gris and enjoying the heck out of this classy album. Still, "Constant Craving" is a tune.
15 likes
Paul Simon
3/5
My dad was big Simon and Garfunkel fan but somehow Graceland never came on his radar. I always wondered what my life would have been like if the sounds of this album had been played around the house in the mid 80s. (I probably would have hated it.) This album absolutely feels like the creative work of a middle-aged man who has hit a creative rut and has taken inspiration from other cultures in other to get his groove back. There are some good tunes but ultimately it feels a little overwrought.
15 likes
Beyoncé
5/5
Another one of my faves. I hadn't actually listened to this album in a while. It's starting to sound like a product of its era, the synth-pop sounds of the early 2010s. The entire album is a masterwork, telling stories of horniness, womanhood, motherhood and other delights. "Flawless" is such a tune and it takes me back to the summer of 2013/2014, when waking up like this was my goal in life (and still is, tbh). I also like that Beyonce kind of invented the "surprise album" era, gifting fans with no just a full album but also fully realised music videos for each track. "Drunk In Love" is also a fab track but I cannot emphasise how much of an absolute perfect tune "Flawless" is.
13 likes
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
This is good, this is good. It's 1966 and already the suburban and societal tedium of the prior decade and the unrest of the present decade is being picked apart. I love how Freak Out just get more and more unsettled as it goes along. The final track feels a bit wack, but 60 years ago there would have been an explosive feeling to have an album start out fairly pop and end up with people muttering "cream cheese, cream cheese". Best track - "Go Cry on Someone Else's Shoulder" - a dismantling of teen heartbreak. Cheer up, you'll get over it.
12 likes
1-Star Albums (6)
All Ratings
Paul Simon
3/5
My dad was big Simon and Garfunkel fan but somehow Graceland never came on his radar. I always wondered what my life would have been like if the sounds of this album had been played around the house in the mid 80s. (I probably would have hated it.) This album absolutely feels like the creative work of a middle-aged man who has hit a creative rut and has taken inspiration from other cultures in other to get his groove back. There are some good tunes but ultimately it feels a little overwrought.
Talking Heads
3/5
I feel like I would have enjoyed this album more if I was a university student in the late 70s. The album would have sounded fresh and new and doing all kinds of things never heard before. But now, more than 40 decades on, there is so much baggage. Case in point, as dope as "Psycho Killer" is, the song was ruined for me when a fellow told me about how he and his friends would always sing "psycho chicken" and how hilarious that was. Also, as far as Talking Heads albums goes, surely Stop Making Sense is better?
Love
4/5
Somehow this group and this album had never made it onto my radar before. It seems like it's held up as a masterwork of 1960s psychedelic rock - and that feels a fair assessment. Some of the tracks feel firmly rooted in the 1960s but other tunes have a longer shadow and it's clear just how deeply they influenced rock, pop and indie artists in years to come. The only thing I'd be critical of is that some of the lyrical rhymes are really lazy but at the same time, it feels like they might have been the first ones doing this particular style so maybe they get that.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
This is the first album on this list so far that I've previously listened to in its entirety. Like, dozens of times before. To Pimp a Butterfly is probably one of my favourite albums so far. Its complexity and depth really stands out compared to the three albums I've listened to so far. It's not just a collection of songs, it's a cohesive artwork (a concept album!) and there's so much to be discovered in its depths.
Beatles
3/5
A boy band releases their second album, 14 tracks, most not bothering two and a half minutes in duration and almost half of the tracks are covers. No one could get away with that these days. Our standards are much higher. With The Beatles is a good pop album but the 1960s production gives every track a samey feeling, like if every meal you ate was a delicious chocolate pudding. Tasty, but not necessarily what you'd want to eat all the time. A curious thing - the double-tracked vocals sometimes give a spooky feeling, like reverb-heavy "dead mall" edits of popular songs. The perfect soundtrack for a liminal space. The reassuring thing is that this was not even the Beatles best recording - they still had a lot of room to grow.
Meat Loaf
4/5
Apparently the songs were original written for a musical and it serves that - big, dramatic and narrative. A few of the tracks were staples of FM radio in the 1980s and "Mouth" (cbf writing that title in full) is a glorious example of that era. As much as this is a work of recorded music, at the same time it feels like it would be just as good to see live. Maybe that's its strength - it's a recording that feels as epic as a live performance. Meat Loaf's vocals are thrilling and powerful, turning it up to 11 and always for a good reason. Least fave track - "Paradise". Tbh I'm not needing an epic saga of two teens rooting in a car.
Barry Adamson
4/5
This is intriguing! A soundtrack to a crime movie that does not exist. This concept isn't new anymore, but maybe Bazza was the first to ever do it. Moss Side Story is at its best when it doesn't feel like a straight film soundtrack, when instead it takes the tropes and upends them. Like "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" with its pizzicato strings turned up to 11, evoking such stresses of emotion, before turning into flowing streams of love - but that's flowing like hot lava. You know what I mean? This soundtrack doesn't need a film - it creates plenty of cinematic drama on its own.
Deerhunter
2/5
I'm not sure how I feel about this. It reminds me of Guided By Voices and various DIY indie bands from the 80s and 90s. I like the concept - songs about imaginary concepts - but it all starts to feel quite samey. Individually there's a lot to like about the tracks. I might listen to some tracks in a playlist among other artists, but I don't feel like there's anything significant about Halcyon Digest as an album. That's my first impression.
Depeche Mode
4/5
For me, Depeche Mode is "Just Can't Get Enough", "Personal Jesus" and the time in the late 80s when a reporter on an American entertainment show unironically called them "America's favourite rock 'n' roll band". Their Music for the Masses phase is interesting. It's an edgier sound and makes me think a little of Joy Division. "I Want You Now" was the most memorable track, with its disturbing respiratory sounds mixed with the loving but dark lyrics. It feels like a good stage in the creative life of la Mode.
Dusty Springfield
5/5
A week in, this is the first album by a female artist I've come across. Not only that, but decades on Dusty In Memphis comes with its own queer reading. Like "Breakfast In Bed" - super gay and super heartbreaking, n'est-ce pas? This album is another one where it's clear of the influence it would have on future artists. While some of the songs are very familiar, it's a comforting sense of familiarity. Auntie Dusty is here and everything will be alright.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I can appreciate this in theory, but I wasn't really in the right mood to enjoy it. The album reminds me of being a teen, when I had goth friends who would listen to Siouxie on scratched old LPs. That's a pleasant nostalgic feeling, but it's 2021 and I want to be sooooothed. Go on with your eyeliner.
Steely Dan
4/5
I'd avoided Steely Dan for so long because, I dunno, hipsters mocked them in the 90s? But this album is good. It has a very rich, complex sound, something that is evidence of how far audio production technology came in that part of the 20th century. The songs are just as complex, with dreamy worlds. But above all was my moment when I realised that "Peg" was the sampled basis of De Le Soul's "Eye Know".
Carole King
5/5
I associate this album with a working mum in the 1980s, coming home from her corporate job, making dinner for the family, seeing her kids to bed, then relaxing with a glass of wine and her Carole. And for a long time, this was a bad thing, but maybe I've aged into this demographic, if not the exact lifestyle, because I'm enjoying this album. It has Cazza's strong Brill Building pop sensibility filtered through her chilled-out lady vibes. An album full of pop classics.
Orbital
3/5
Listening to this felt like a chore. I can absolutely see how groundbreaking and influential this album was. Its influence over electronic music in the 90s is clear. But this feels like the music in a concentrated form, like runway fashion vs what ends up in department stores. I guess it's not a genre that I have ever been into and what is left just reminds me of the electronic pop that came in the later 90s - and I'm not ready to be reminded of that yet. So yeah, the album deserves its place on the list but it's not something I would otherwise enjoy listening to.
Metallica
3/5
Do I want to spend two hours of my life listening to effing Metallica? Not really, but I did it anyway. I feel like I'd rather listen to a shorter version of this, say one hour, than the full two-hour show. Or maybe just a Metallica album. The other thing, with every song there is the question "Is this a better rock/orchestral experience than "Live and Let Die"?" and the answer is only yes to about half the tracks. It helps when you know the Metallica back catalogue and so get why the audience goes nuts when the opening riff of "Enter Sandman" kicks in. I also feel like this album might have made the list because of its influence in sparking off other rock/orchestral collabs, but tbh I don't necessarily think that's a great heritage.
Jeff Beck
4/5
Aka Rockin' Rod Sings the Blues. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It's delightful to find Rod Stewart in his early 20s, showing he's already got what it takes, growing like a wildman. That and Beck 'n' friends wild blues rock explosions are thoroughly enjoyable. Yeah, they didn't go there first and a hefty creative debt is owed to the American bluesmen, but this feels like an evolution, taking things onwards for everyone.
The Band
3/5
It must have been quite a blast being a music-loving Boomer. Having all these iconic albums coming along and changing the world of music when you were in your 20s. I knew two songs on this album - "The Weight" (which I did not know had that title!) and the Ad Fab theme song. The rest of the album was fine, but it didn't grab me as much as I felt it was. Again, this seems like an album included for its role in music history - and that's not bad, but decades on it feels more like a lesson in a History of Popular Music 101 class than a music experience in its own right.
Pet Shop Boys
5/5
It was a good thing when the Pet Shop Boys left their imperial phase and were free to experiment with pop. This album takes the techno trends of the early 90s and mixes it up with songs that tell very queer stories. At the time, I remember how the Boys' cover of "Go West" had given it a melancholic twist in the era of HIV - but with modern antivirals, the song now grabs back a bit of the original joyousness. "Can You Forgive" her is an almighty dramatic pop track and a stonking opener.
4/5
This album specifically reminds me of the time in 1995 when my brother and I were planning a day trip to Auckland but he locked the keys in the car at the Five Cross Roads petrol station. But once the keys were liberated, we took off to Auckland, the Oasis CD blasting from the stereo. Morning Glory is a very full-on album. Every track is dialled up to 11, all rock 'n' roll excess. But if you're going to go there, you should go all the way - and that's what they did. It still holds up, but it's not the sort of album I'd ever relax with now. I'm older and I don't have the mental stamina for such vast expressions of rockstravagance. But from time to time, it is as enjoyable and comforting as a cup of tea.
Beyoncé
5/5
Another one of my faves. I hadn't actually listened to this album in a while. It's starting to sound like a product of its era, the synth-pop sounds of the early 2010s. The entire album is a masterwork, telling stories of horniness, womanhood, motherhood and other delights. "Flawless" is such a tune and it takes me back to the summer of 2013/2014, when waking up like this was my goal in life (and still is, tbh). I also like that Beyonce kind of invented the "surprise album" era, gifting fans with no just a full album but also fully realised music videos for each track. "Drunk In Love" is also a fab track but I cannot emphasise how much of an absolute perfect tune "Flawless" is.
Hugh Masekela
2/5
Well, I thought I'd enjoy this. But I didn't. It wasn't engaging enough and all the songs felt so long. Even that accursed Orbital album was more palatable. Maybe it's just that I haven't listened to much jazz-related music. I don't hate Home Is Where the Music Is but I wouldn't listen to it again. This is definitely not an album that I needed to listen to.
Joy Division
3/5
I was super excited that this was today's title and then I realised I'd never listened to it before. It even reached No.3 in New Zealand! But as much as I enjoy bits and pieces from Joy Division, Closer doesn't quite grab me as an album. It's good - the opening track is especially strong (the melody reminds me of "Kinky Afro" lmfao) but maybe its power is as the final testimony to Ian Curtis' genius. I don't have any memories locked into this music, no early 80s revelations or retro student discoveries of the 90s. Maybe this album is a conduit to the Ian Curtis memorial wall in Wellington and all that stands for.
Willie Nelson
5/5
I didn't think I'd like this, but I really enjoyed it. There's something about this type of 1970s country music, the trad and pseudo trad styles. Everything feels cosy and comforting, like you're sitting in a bar while yung Willie sings away in the corner. This is the kind of album that I would happily listen to again, if the mood took me.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
I was all over this album when I was in my early 20s, as it should be. I like that this is one of those legendarily influential albums that still holds up. It doesn't quite feel like an artefact of its time, it's weird and edgy enough to still feel current-ish in an unusual way. The pop songwriting craft is there, along with songs about heroin addiction that aren't as boring as drug addiction is. The melancholic feeling is sublime and it is probably very apt for these troubled times. I am very happy that this album exists and I want to peel Andy's banana.
Aimee Mann
1/5
I did not enjoy this album at all. I was 18 when it was released and exactly in that black-clad, Doc Martens demographic, gleefully listening to all the female rock acts I could get. But this is... You know, it's a favourite with older male rock critics. That's where Whatever exists. It belongs on "Best Album" lists but it doesn't seem to have a place outside that bubble. Maybe fans of the album get a nice nostalgic feeling of the early 90s? For me, it's bland rock that doesn't go anywhere.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
This is good, this is good. It's 1966 and already the suburban and societal tedium of the prior decade and the unrest of the present decade is being picked apart. I love how Freak Out just get more and more unsettled as it goes along. The final track feels a bit wack, but 60 years ago there would have been an explosive feeling to have an album start out fairly pop and end up with people muttering "cream cheese, cream cheese". Best track - "Go Cry on Someone Else's Shoulder" - a dismantling of teen heartbreak. Cheer up, you'll get over it.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Of course I've heard the theme song to Shaft, but the rest of the soundtrack was new to me. It is a delight to hear a proper soundtrack and not one of those "song written for a fictitious film that does nae exist" situations. The Shaft soundtrack doesn't just feel like a movie soundtrack. There's some interesting things going on with the prog soul sound, capturing the gritty feeling of early 70s New York City, a place with a beating heart. And really, it's still worth asking and answering the most important question - who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
Moby Grape
3/5
This wasn't on Spotify or Apple Music without loads of tracks greyed out, but I found a rogue copy on YouTube. It's ok. Again, it feels like the sort of album that decades down the track is considered highly influential more than it's regarded as a work in its own right. It also gave me a good late 1960s rock feeling and I'm happy that it played a big part in shaping this sound.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
This was an interesting experience. It's not just that so many of these songs are standard, but it's when they are sung in a Sinatra-esque fashion - and that casts a long shadow, retrospectively. Despite the name, the collection of songs feels quite tame, the marital drama of \"Makin Whoopee\" being a throwback to the time before middle-class contraception. I'm not sure if this is one of those highly influential albums, or if it's just representative of a bangin' pop album of its era. I think the familiarity of every darn track made it hard to engage. It's more like the sort of album that Auntie Pam has playing in the background while she makes the finishing touches to her cocktail evening preparation.
The Who
4/5
It's 1965 but it still feels fresh. So raw and garagey and youthful. It makes me wonder what if would have been like as a teen Boomer, hearing this for the first time and feeling the universe shift, knowing that it was time for your generation. While there are some pretty well known tunes on the album, the stand-outs for me were ones I hadn't heard before. Weirdly, I had only heard the title of "The Kids Are Alright", but the tune is a lovely bittersweet song, reinventing the melodramatic ballads of years prior with a modern edge.
Elvis Costello
3/5
I knew "Alison" and I guess I was expecting the rest of the album to be along those lines but I also knew that Elvis Costello is more punk/rock than the wistfulness of "Alison". So yeah, it was more punk/rock and that's ok. It doesn't sound like something from 1977 - I guess it's another of those influential albums that cast a very long shadow, well into the 80s, 90s and beyond. "Alison" is still my favourite track though.
The Blue Nile
3/5
More influence. The album seems to have been lauded for its clean and atmospheric production, perhaps a sign of the digital times creeping forth in an analogue world. One or two tracks stood out. I think the problem with influential albums is that to fully appreciate them, it requires digging into history, to know the context of things at the time the album was released. And that takes time. Ain't nobody got time for that. And sometimes, all the history books in the world just aren't the same as having lived through it in the first place.
Q-Tip
4/5
I've listened to plenty of A Tribe Called Quest, but this is the first solo Q-Tip I've heard. It's good! It's very Q-Tip, and brings a pleasant chill groove in an era where a lot of hip hop was electronic/dance hybrids. There's room for thoughtful rhymes that manage to stealthily make an impact. And best of all, it feels like this is on the list because it's a simply good album, not because it's "influential".
Fela Kuti
4/5
I appreciate this. I read up on the story behind the album and the meaning of the songs and it feels like a powerful and enduring work. However, there's shallower layer where Fela Kuti also reminds me of when it's the 90s and you're hanging out with a dude and he keeps playing his Fela vinyl and he's digging it more than he's digging you and it triggers an existential crisis. Maybe we could have had a 1001 albums date.
Todd Rundgren
5/5
I wasn't excited when I saw that this was a double album from 1972, but it's really good. Rundgren takes the listener on a journey, turning each of the four sides into its own artistic experience. It feels like an "influential" album but it's also a solid work in its own right. I like an artist that isn't afraid to eff with different genres and bring in different styles. The album art is really nice too. Also, I choose to believe that Rundgren is honouring his Swedish heritage by naming the closing track after the Swedish word for end.
The Beach Boys
3/5
I am not an emotionless music robot. I cannot listen to this dispassionately and pretend that the Beach Boys does not trigger memories of the sort of dudes who love the Beach Boys. Because as soon as there's a falsetto harmony or the merest hint of Southern Californian sun, it's f-boy central. This album is ok and it seems like it was a turning point for the Boys, before they got all prog surf. It definitely gets better as the album progresses, sounding like the blueprint for Weezer. I also found the final track, a discussion of snacks and touring, to be the most enjoyable track.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Ok Bob Marley. As I am a New Zealander, the entire oeuvre of the Wailers are practically the national anthem of this fair country. Yet despite that, the only song I knew prior was "Stir It Up", a conception song. The album was a lot more varied and interesting then I was expecting. The side A songs that delve into slave history were particularly powerful. But there is also the side B reminder that Bob Marley was quite the rooter. I get why this album is on the list. It feels like a record that is both influential but holds up as an artwork, and also enjoyable.
Jane's Addiction
3/5
Back in the 90s, I remember that this album wasn't super well regarded. Like, it was ok, but it wasn't held up as an iconic new classic. But evidently it has aged like wine? I dunno. I had the tape but the only song I was into was "Been Caught Stealing". (Formative live experience - being on holiday in Hawaii in 1991 and my mum was mad that I was spending all the time in my hotel room watching MTV instead of "enjoying" the sun. "Been Caught Stealing" was in the Buzz Bun and was the soundtrack of that experience.) I think of this as one of those 90s albums - but around the hype of one killer single but the album itself doesn't match. There.
Alice In Chains
1/5
I'm learning that my 90s instinct was not wrong. I knew of this album. I'd heard "Would?" and quite liked that. But I steered well away from the album. Listening to Dirt now, it's really full-on, the loud Jerry 'n' Layne's loud chiming voices powering in unison, emphasising things that don't need emphasis. At times there's a camp delight to the lyrics, the earnest adolescent subject matter. But the whole album was a lot to consume in one sitting and it doesn't inspire a repeat listen.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Go on, then. This is the sort of album I expected to be on this list and I am happy for Thriller to be the Halloween selection. I am old and therefore I remember when this was released. I also remember not being especially all that fussed by the various singles (even though they were all solid), certainly not enough to actually want the album. But yet decades later, I know the album inside out, despite never having owned it. (Metallica's Black album is like that too!). The production of Thriller is great, both minimalist and maximalist when it needs to be. Maybe there are a few dud tracks. I love the Mac n Jack "Say Say Say" but "The Girl is Mine" feels lacklustre. On the other hand "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is an incredible opening number. It's a cool album and also MJ is staggeringly beautiful on the album cover.
Beastie Boys
4/5
I specifically remember when Paul's Boutique came out and I was not super impressed with it for all the reasons that certain people were not impressed with it. I'm not quite ready to embrace it as a beloved classic, but ok, it's influential. I also don't like that "Hey Ladies" is my favourite track, especially when it's not even close to being one of their best. (Pls, let's talk about Hello Nasty.)
Aphex Twin
4/5
Somehow I thought Aphex Twin was super heavy so I was not looking forward to this (I have a headache). But it's lovely and chill. Despite the title, none of the tracks sound like they could have come from the mid 80s. It's a super modern excursion into electronica that feels exactly like it would have shaken things up in 1992. Yes, it's another influential album and it's very much of its age, but it still holds up. This album makes me want to go and hang out in a park.
k.d. lang
4/5
I had this on tape in 1992. I bought it because "Constant Craving" was such a captivatingly cool song that I wanted more... and was sorely disappointed by the album. I can say that generally, the laidback chic of Ingenue is no place for a 17-year-old. But even now, I don't feel like I'm really in the hipster wine mom demographic that would get the most out of this. But just imagine having a relaxing evening in your renovated villa, pulling up a kitchen stool, pouring a glass of pinot gris and enjoying the heck out of this classy album. Still, "Constant Craving" is a tune.
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
I owned this tape and I listened to it too much. I saw the Smashing Pumpkins live and had a t-shirt. It inspired an older man who wanted to talk to me about Sartre. But here's the thing - the first half (side A) of Siamese Dream is decent, but everything after the tape flip is not as good. Also, while "Soma" is the best song, the best version of it is when the band played it live and Darcy sang the "close ur eyes and sleep" part, rather than Corgan doing his own backing on the album version. nearly 30 years on, I can't relate to the lyrical topics anymore, the teen drama seems best left in the 90s. It's a good album but I don't need it anymore.
Burning Spear
3/5
I'm vexed. This is a thought-provoking album that examines interesting political themes. At the same time, it is a reggae album and maybe it's being a NZer, but this kind of roots reggae is easy to consider as background music for a lazy weekend barbecue. As a result, while the album took me along on its musical journey, there were times when I forgot it was even happening at all. The album ended, Spotify's algorithm gave me a few reggae tracks by other artists and I didn't even notice for a while.
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
This is your ex boyfriend's favourite album. That's just a fact. It's ok, but it belongs to a certain time and place and if you were on board back in '94, it's hard to hitch a ride 25 years later. The worst thing is that the title of track two has an apostrophe in it, wth.
The Smiths
5/5
I used to be obsessed with this album. Obseeeeesed. I also used to be obsessed with the boy who introduced me to The Smiths, but eventually The Smiths became more important to me than he. Strangeways isn't even their best album, but perhaps it's their most fully realised, a wholly conceived album rather than a collection of song. A band on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I've generally given up on Los Smiths due to Morrissey being problematic, but he is but one quarter of the group so I am happy to revisit their charms from time to time. So let's praise Johnny Marr's guitar and the melodic suburban drama. The best song is "Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before".
The Stooges
4/5
Look, I would give this album five stars purely for the line "Look out honey cos I'm using technology". I would even give it that if it was only that line, repeated for 34 minutes. Everything else is a bonus. Aside from that killer line, it's raw and it's powerful. The album is a clear path from the 1950s to the 1960s and then kicking and screaming into the punk era and beyond. I mean, this still sounded fresh back in the 90s. A classic.
fIREHOSE
3/5
There was a period in 1992 when I was trying to get into fIREHOSE. I listened to one album or another and it just didn't do it. I think the issue is that Flea kept naming Mike Watt as a big influence so I was expecting wild funk-punk but fIREHOSE is not that. It's ok and I was happy to listen to the album. But it's just not captivating. Bonus points for the band name, capitalisation and album title connection.
Judas Priest
4/5
It's thrilling to be able to revisit this and consider it with a queer lens. And in many ways, it feels like of course this super masculine flavour of heavy metal would be a perfect match for the leather daddy S&M variety of the gay male life. Maybe that's why the album is so strong - while Rob Halford wasn't out in 1980, the song matter feels authentic to his life. And regardless of yr sexual identity, decades on, the attitude and swagger are still thrilling. We're all breakin' the law in our own ways.
Public Enemy
3/5
I'm pretty sure I've heard this album at some point in the past 30 years. It's not a favourite - Fear of a Black Planet spoke to me more. Nation of Millions is good though - iconic and its influence is clear. So many moments of "Oh, that's where that was from". But maybe there's too much of the same sound. Maybe I'm spoiled by the musical diversity of the modern age. Still, individual tracks really stand out. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" remains a defiant highlight.
Also! The album starts with a dramatic opening from a live show. But that reminds me of a friend's story from the early 90s. He was picking up his brother from a PE show. He arrived at the venue, the show hadn't totally ended. He walked in and Flavor Flav was pacing back and forth, chanting the chorus hook from Suzanne's Vega's song "Tom's Diner" (which was in the charts at that point with a dance remix). Duh-duh DAH-dah duh-duh DAH-dah...
Pixies
5/5
Zipless. The best description I read of this album was that it's surf rock for gothic kids who wear black to the beach which is literally me. The album reminds me of the mid-90s and of certain boys. Of all the Pixies albums, Bossanova feels the most realised, taking their strengths and pointing that in a particular direction. Not all the songs work and tbh I would be happy to ditch about half the tracks. But when it opens with the cool surf instro of "Cecilia Ann" and includes the swoony "Ana", the saucy "Down to the Well" and the hip "Hang Wire", there is a lot to love.
Jethro Tull
2/5
This didn't make much of an impression on me. It was enjoyably theatrical at times, and the lyrical themes kept repeating in a way that doesn't normally happen with pop songs. And the flute - the flute! I feel like this deserves a place as a significant album in the history of music but it just isn't my thing.
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
I am acutely aware that I did not engage with hip hop in the mid to late 90s. And I also know that there was a lot of good stuff released in that period - and Ready To Die is one of those. It's a bit of a concept album, telling the story of B.I.G.'s life. The album knows when to get heavy with the lyrics and when to get light. And I'm not sure why, but the track that is a messy ASMR BJ somehow works? There's also the new layer of meaning because B.I.G. is no longer with it and thoughts of undeadening feel tragic. But then, it is a product of its time - mentions of the WTC bomb and the risk of HIV root it in the mid 90s and we can take it that context, a time when Biggie was alive and thriving.
Faust
3/5
Hello, I was today years old when I learned that krautrock is not purely an electronic music genre. It turns out it's literally a rock genre, including guitars doing all that guitar can do. I was perhaps also expecting some sort of epic jam excursions but even the 11+ minute opening track was a pleasant easing into the album rather than a roadblock. I'm not sure if I'd ever listen to this again, but it's a good addition to consider in the history of music.
Frank Ocean
5/5
This is one of my favourite albums, to the point where I was listening to tracks from it earlier today before this glorious website assigned me Channel Orange. If you want Channel Orange to be deep, it can be. You can sort the songs into pairs, consider Mr Ocean's exploration of his sexual identity and his telling of stories from different corners of society, both as a slice of life and a metaphor of his own experience. Or you can just take every song on their own, feeling sad or loved-up or defiant or introspective as the feeling takes you. "Bad Religion" stands as a glorious cornerstone of the album and ever fails to make my eyes leak. And best of all - this isn't even Frank Ocean's best work.
LL Cool J
4/5
Because the opening line of the title track is "DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK!", I had assumed this album came a considerable amount of time after LL's last. It was little more than a year - and in the 80s/90s, that was short. But when gangsta rap reared its head in the late 80s and Ladies Love Cool James's loverboy schtick was looking dated, perhaps it felt like a cultural comeback. The album proved that LL could navigate the new hip hop landscape and deliver something as hard and defiant as the title track. But at the same time, he showed that he could make the ladies love him in a way that those gangsta rappers could only wish. (Case in point - when I was 15 I was OBSESSED with "Around the Way Girl" and had a dumb crush on LL. Hey, he had it!) The Mama Said album is LL Cool J in his imperial phase, showing his skill as an MC, a lyricist and his (and his producer's) ability to deftly mix rap with pop stylings.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
I was not expecting to like this, but lay that melancholy upon me! This album luxuriates with infinite sadness, like you're heartbroken but you're lying on the beach in Rio so it's not wholly bad. Each song takes it time, taking the listener one step deeper into sadness. There is no solution, not upbeat "you'll get over it" vibes. No, the album leaves you on that beach with tears in your eyes and the realisation that being there means nothing when there's no one by your side.
Goldie
2/5
I was not expecting to like this, but lay that melancholy upon me! This album luxuriates with infinite sadness, like you're heartbroken but you're lying on the beach in Rio so it's not wholly bad. Each song takes it time, taking the listener one step deeper into sadness. There is no solution, not upbeat "you'll get over it" vibes. No, the album leaves you on that beach with tears in your eyes and the realisation that being there means nothing when there's no one by your side.
1/5
I thought I would like this album but I did not. I think it's just where I am in life - the quirky paranoia new wave just isn't where I'm at right now. Full respect to Devo though - maybe when I was 18 it might have struck the right chord, I could easily imagine that. But I am now in the demographic where I'd rather listen to the episode of 99% Invisible that discusses the story behind the album art than listen to the album itself.
Iron Maiden
3/5
I was hesitant but I liked this. Spirited metal and - like all good music - it has secret pop roots. As well, I spent too long lolzing at the title "Charlotte the Harlot". It wasn't even the best track - that was probably "Phantom of the Opera" which was pleasingly epic but at a reasonable seven minutes. This is a great example of a band that absolutely excels in their genre. And by excels I mean rocks.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
I've always been a little fearful of prog rock, but this is good. For a start, there's one point for the cover art, featuring an armadillo tank. Maybe it's the restraint required by the LP format - two sides of no more than around 23 minutes per side, so no time for an epic fantasy excursion. I think I preferred side one, the proggy masterwork, rather than the individual songs of side two. But all up, the album works as a whole, with a pleasant jazzy afternoon vibe among the ambitious prog.
Roxy Music
3/5
I'm surprised how much Bryan Ferry sounds like David Byrne here, but perhaps it's more accurate to say that David Byrne sounds like Bryan Ferry. There's something special about the sound of this album. Sometimes it feels like it's very much a product of the early 1970s with echoes of the '60s, but other times it feels lightyears ahead, forging bold new paths and kind of inventing its own genre. Spotify had the American version with "Virginia Plain" among the tracklist and I'm happy with that.
George Jones
3/5
George had been releasing multiple albums a year throughout the 60s and 70s but seems to have stumbled onto something good with The Grand Tour. It's an album of heartbreak, like a country album that's got the blues. I wasn't at all expecting to enjoy this (just my genre preferences) but the earthy sincerity hit right. Sometimes you just gotta let her go.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
This feels so iconic. I love the minimalist Rick Rubin production. A lot of the time the tracks dispense with anything more than beats and just let the MCs do their thing. "Walk This Way" was the big breakthrough, crossover hit, but the album is full of other tunes that pack just as much punch. The lyrics are still echoed in hip hop.
TLC
5/5
Back in '94, I thought I was too cool for CrazySexyCool, no doubt making my way through the chaotic ruins of late-stage grunge. But damn this is a good album. Even though there are literally children today whose parents were conceived to this album, it still feels fresh. By mashing up pop, R&B, hip hop and edgy alt sounds, it is solidly the forebear of the hip alt R&B albums of the past decade.
Spacemen 3
1/5
Playing With Fire either shrinks into the background, contently becoming invisible turn-of-the-decade ambient music or it gets all spikey and post-punk and noisy when it randomly feels like it (but the Skeptics already got there and got there better). This album retcons itself, with the late 80s album art being the only memorable thing about it.
John Lennon
4/5
This is a very comfortable album. There are a couple of iconic tracks that I'm already super familiar with and all the other tracks fit into the overall feeling. Imagine is a songwriter at the top of his game, someone who has talent to burn. Weirdly, some of the tracks feel a little bit too long, but that might be more a symptom of this modern age, rather than legit critique of this 1971 recording.
Marty Robbins
5/5
I really enjoyed this! Lyrically, it's like a cross between a particularly detailed health and safety report crossed with proto gangsta rap, combined with assertive yet comforting harmonies. The music reminds me of the sort of hipster western music that had a moment in the 90s, no doubt strongly inspired by Mr Robbins - just getting me ready to hear the real-ish deal for the first time 25 years later.
Ice Cube
4/5
A friend once told me about a boy he used to walk to school with. This dude would regularly recite "It Was a Good Day" and my friend always thought it was hilarious that this 15-year-old white suburban kid was spitting lines about not having to use his AK. In the context of the entire album though, that song is a moment of peace in the midst of the chaos of life as a Black man in the early 1990s, in the short hot shadow of the LA riots. The whole album works, inviting the listener in to get a taste of how life is for Cube and his community. Musically it feels like a precursor of Dr Dre's Chronic sound (I know, I know). And there's Cube sending a message to the future which, it turns out not everyone heeded.
System Of A Down
3/5
I did not know this album existed. I guess I thought System of a Down sprung into the world fully formed with Toxicity, a good album. But here's their debut and I get why it's on the list. Rock in the late 90s was mostly the tail-end of grunge and all the quirky band that had a go in the era of the high-profit CD. Then along comes this and it sounds like nothing on the scene. It's rock, it's metal, it's alternative. It's Los Angeles by way of Yerevan, bringing Eastern European sounds to the bratty LA rock scene. The whole thing works. It sounds nothing like what came in the years before not what was to come in the nu metal years after. And when SOTD come for kombucha people, that feels like an arrow shot 20 years into the future.
4/5
For years I'd wondered why The Kinks were so lauded, but it turns out this is it. Their legacy echoes through the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. The album itself paints a picture of Britain at a particular point in time, where things didn't feel so great, to the point where a young hopeful Brit might uproot their entire life and move to the other side of the world, in search of a better existence. Arthur is about what's left behind and also the things that you can't ever leave behind. Well crafted pop, including the scorching opening track "Victoria".
Koffi Olomide
2/5
For years I'd wondered why The Kinks were so lauded, but it turns out this is it. Their legacy echoes through the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. The album itself paints a picture of Britain at a particular point in time, where things didn't feel so great, to the point where a young hopeful Brit might uproot their entire life and move to the other side of the world, in search of a better existence. Arthur is about what's left behind and also the things that you can't ever leave behind. Well crafted pop, including the scorching opening track "Victoria".
Gene Clark
4/5
This is intriguing! It sounds like the sort of indie folk rock that had its moment in the 90s, like the Lemonheads when they stopped going punk. And yet it's not quite possible to say this would have influenced those 90s groups because the legend of this album is that it lingered in obscurity until a 90s rerelease. The production is bright and the album has an enjoyable pace. Give me this slice of the mid 70s that sounds just as fresh 45 years on.
Harry Nilsson
5/5
This is intriguing! It sounds like the sort of indie folk rock that had its moment in the 90s, like the Lemonheads when they stopped going punk. And yet it's not quite possible to say this would have influenced those 90s groups because the legend of this album is that it lingered in obscurity until a 90s rerelease. The production is bright and the album has an enjoyable pace. Give me this slice of the mid 70s that sounds just as fresh 45 years on.
Elton John
4/5
Elton John has made himself an evergreen prince of pop but it's still good to revisit his early years, when he was just on the verge of his imperial phase. This album is full of the iconic John/Taupin piano pop, including the now legendary "Tiny Dancer". A lot of the songs feel like storytelling, whether it's Elton recounting a historic battle or the ups and downs of a heterosexual relationship. It's even better knowing that this was merely the tip of the talent iceberg.
Elvis Presley
3/5
Let's first acknowledge the African American songwriters and performers who originally wrote many of the tracks on this album. Elvis - he's cool but he's also a bit of a dick in that rock n roll way. This album is full of swagger, a very self-assured debut. The track that surprised me the most was his version of "Blue Moon". It's weird and haunting. If that were to show up on the Spotify EP of a contemporary bedroom R&B artist, it would be cool. But Elvis was doing that 75 years ago. Young Elvis was also absolutely bringing it with the LP cover design, his name in pink.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Rundgren packs a lot into his songs. A lot of the tracks are little over one minute. At one point they would have felt like unfinished demos, but a one minute track fits right in with the modern world of streaming. As does Rundgren never sticking with one genre - sometimes even in one track. He's just having fun and creating an action-packed album in the process.
Tina Turner
5/5
For me, this album is like Thriller - I'd never heard the album as a whole before, but I'd heard almost all the tracks as singles. It's fire! This is how you make a comeback. Tina mixes up new tracks that capture her newfound cougar status with well-picked covers. As well, the music is on trend with 80s synthpop but also lets her completely rock out. So many good tracks and such a solid album!
Yes
2/5
The energy of this album jumps all around the place. I can hear its influence in the synth-pop that happened in the decades to come and even a bit of 90s alt folk rock. I wasn't especially grabbed by this album but I respect its craftmanship.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
It turns out there's a lot more to Dexys than that one song. I'd heard their other hit single "Geno" before but the rest of the album was new to me. It's a lively collection, with a surprising (for the early 80s) amount of hard swearing.
Jamiroquai
3/5
What if Stevie Wonder but young, hip and playing didgeridoo? I have an inkling that this isn't even Jamiroquai's best album but it seems like these albums are all about what was most influential. So along comes this UK band doing something very cool with a sound that was previously what your uncle and his mates with the funny cigarettes grooved to. And there's a didgeridoo, which somehow legitimised it for every busking backpacker trying to get beer money.
Patti Smith
4/5
I had a friend who love this album. As in, it changed her life. So at the time, I listened to it expecting to have a spiritual awakening but... it was just a decent rock album. It took me a while to get over the disappointment, but now, yeah, it's a really good rock album. It's thrilling when Patti goes off in the longer poetic parts, music that could have only come out of NY-effing-C. And of course, in the midst of it all are some decent hooks. An iconic classic.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
Emmylou has such a lovely voice, like a warm quilt. While I've never been a huge fan of country, I am beguiled by this album. Emmylou tackles various new country classics and give every song the interpretation it deserve.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Innervisions is such a well-crafted record. It feels like a snapshot of American life in the mid-1970s and a feeling of hope. But, well, Richard Nixon isn't the only American president that "He's Misstra Know-It-All" could apply to. The album shifted forward R&B and soul (and pop crossovers) with its sounds and we are richer for it.
Dire Straits
4/5
There is only one correct way to listen to Brothers In Arms. It is the mid-1980s. You are a man in your early 40s. You have just bought a new compact disc player. The salesman at the hi-fi store demonstrated it by playing the Brothers In Arms CD and it sounded amazing so you bought a copy. DDD, all-digital, every step of the way. You have set up your new CD player and put on the Dire Straits CD. You can't believe how crystal clear it sounds, how rich and pure. It is as if the Knopfler bros and co are directly beaming into your brain. You get chills, multiple times. "Money For Nothing" makes you feel like a bad-ass. "Walk of Life" makes you nostalgic for your youth. "Your Latest Trick" makes you feel... things. And the title track makes you cry on the inside. This is what the future sounds like. There is no going back. The mighty compact disc is here to stay.
Black Flag
4/5
I first heard Damaged when I was 18, which seems about the right age. But I perhaps wasn't angry enough to get the full impact of Rollins' ire. I'll tell you what though - change "TV Party" to "Internet Party", update the shows to website and nothing much has changed. We got nothing better to do.
Beth Orton
2/5
This is pleasant, but it's a little too pleasant. It's too easy to put this on and for the music to just dissolve into the background, vague mood music. Maybe I'm stuck on the songs Beth did with the Chemical Bros, that combined her wholesome folky vocals with bold electronica that captured the mood (and maybe I'm nostalgic for that part of the late 90s). So yeah, it was pleasant to listen to but I can't tell you what I just heard.
Bee Gees
3/5
I prefer the Bee Gees in their disco era, but there's a lot to be said for their prog-pop era, before the falsetto took effect. Like, who writes a pop song that's an ode to Thomas Edison? The brothers Gibb, is who. The album is very much a product of the swingin' sixities, but it has an eye to the future and it demonstrates the raw talent the bros had. I initially didn't realise this was a double album which I feel perfectly fits the mood of the album.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
I really liked listening to this, but it hasn't stuck with me. It feels like something is missing - and that something is the film visuals. Musically, it very much sounds like an accompaniment, something that is enhancing something else. And even though the album is was clearly doing a lot of the heavy lifting, it still feels like a soundtrack, rather than a standalone audio album.
Bob Dylan
3/5
I guess this is peak Dylan. I like the flow of the album, going from the electric first half to the acoustic second half. It brings a shift in energy and focus, like it's going from the whole world to just one man. It is also a bit of an acquired taste. Do you like the nasally singing man doing version of the blues then the nasally man playing his guitar and occasionally tooting his harmonica? Dylan big strength is as a lyricist so appreciation of this album has to be taken through a "lyrics first" lens.
Grateful Dead
1/5
I did not enjoy listening to this album. My instinct has always steered me away from the Grateful Dead and I guess there's something to that. I feel like this album belongs to a certain time and place. Outside of that, it feels like a museum exhibit.
Various Artists
5/5
This is delightful! So many of these songs have become the standard arrangement of these Christmas classics. And there's no doubt that Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" would not exist without the influence of this collection. The stand-out track is the one original song, Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". The whole album is full of joy and iconic performances from the pop queens of the 1960s.
Fiona Apple
4/5
I once next door to a married couple. Whenever the wife was on her own, she'd play Tidal, loudly. Singing along, loudly. The couple used to have terrible rows and it seemed like their marriage was a youthful mistake that they were grappling with as they headed towards their 30s. A lot of the time she never made it pas the first three tracks, usually replaying "Criminal" a few times. But now that I've heard the full album, I hope that she made it to the final track because that's all about having the strength to leave a shitty relationship.
Depeche Mode
3/5
I remember when this album by was new and when "Personal Jesus" was causing a fuss. (And the American entertainment television reporter, did she still think Depeche Mode were "America's favourite rock 'n' roll band?") This is exactly the kind of goth rock the world needed to ease the way from the 80s into the 90s. Time to say goodbye to the rough and into the smooth disguised as the rough. There's also the irony of Dave Gahan singing about being "clean" but maybe he meant it in a spiritual rather than chemical way.
PJ Harvey
4/5
I originally listened to Dry when I was 18 but, I dunno, I didn't really like it. (Rid of Me was dope, though.) But now I absolutely get it. It's that raw rock, the sneers and licks. And maybe the greatest rock lyric, "Put money in your idle hole", with the deep dip on the hole as a good hole should be.
Oasis
2/5
There is only one good song on Definitely Maybe and that is "Supersonic". Every other track is Oasis music. If you're into that, come join the mid-90s glad wagon. Otherwise, other music is available.
Boston
3/5
It turns out that Boston have other songs than just "More Than a Feeling". The sound of this album is like a band that has its particular sound, got a rockin' thing, but yet they also feel obliged to do the prog rock thing that was in vogue at the time. But there's a reason why "More Than a Feeling" is the evergreen feelgood favourite and why "Foreplay / Long Time" is a forgettable album cut.
Taylor Swift
5/5
I hadn't listened to 1989 in full before, but so many of the songs are familiar, those cornerstones of mid 2010s pop. It's a good album. It feels like Tay-Tay has a solid concept and thoroughly runs through it, her life as a young woman navigating both the life of a celeb and just surviving the dating world. The opening track "Welcome to New York" feels a little out of place because 1989 is not a New York album. But everything works. The best track is "Wildest Dreams", especially the pre-chorus. There's something so heartbreaking about the melancholic "Say you'll remember me standing in a nice dress / Staring at the sunset, babe".
The White Stripes
2/5
I don't know if the White Stripes' 2001 album White Blood Cells is on the list, but it should be because it's infinitely better than Elephant. This album is ok, there are some good songs on it, but too much it just dissolves into blues jams (which tbh, seems to be a hallmark of the 1001 albums list...). I also want to add, when "Seven Nation Army" was released every review noted that the iconic bass line was not played on a bass, rather Jack White revved up his guitar. Also, I was in a convenience store in Manchester in 2003 and an Australian couple got into an argument when the guy refused to buy the CD for the girl and he wouldn't agree that "I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart" was an adorable song title.
Billy Joel
3/5
Songs from this album last a long shadow over the pop landscape of the 1980s. The Stranger partly feels like a concept album, about that Italian restaurant, but then there are standalone pop moments. I can't abide "Just the Way You Are" - a now four-time divorced man telling women "don't go changing". But the title track is enjoyable, once its disco grooves get going.
3/5
I'm not quite sure how to approach this album. It's good but I feel like I'm lacking knowledge of this kind of Brazilian electro bossa nova style, especially when it's come via the Balkans.
Big Star
4/5
In my mind, Big Star are a new wave band from the mid-1980s so it consistently blows my mind that their peak creative period was actually the '70s. This album, be it Sister Lovers or Third, doesn't sound like a product of the late 70s. It has a much crisper sound, no doubt signalling how ahead of its time this band was. And behold the pop stylings!
Blur
4/5
Oh, I remember when this album was brand new. It is packed full of quality singles and the rest of the album is clearly the spiritual descendant of The Kinks' Arthur album, capturing a snapshot of London life (or their interpretation thereof). My favourite track is "This Is a Low", which uses the UK shipping forecast as an effective way of soothing a broken heart. I can testify that this song does what it needs to do and was what got me though the turmoil of 2000.
Sister Sledge
4/5
This originally put me off because of "We Are Family", but the album stands up as a decent work of the disco era, with R&B flavour. It probably helps that Nile Rodgers helmed the album, and he seems like a perfect match for the fierce vocal talents of the sisters. It's an album with plenty to dance about.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
Oh, so that's what that song is called. In a way, this feels like an entire album based around "Green Onions" but there's still plenty to like around the chill blusey instrumentals.
Foo Fighters
3/5
Ugh, I remember when this album was released. I'd only just got on the internet, so tracking down the lyrics to this album was literally one of the first things I did. As a result, the lyrics have never stood out as being a strength. A lot of them seem like filler, something for Grohl to yell. There are a lot of really good tracks on the album though, and it is remarkable that Dave Grohl could debut with this one-man-band project after years as the drummer of an iconic grunge band. I don't think it's the Foo Fighters' best album though and there's a lot to be said for how they developed in later years. (At least The Colour and the Shape is better!)
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
I'd avoided the LCD Soundsystem for so many years and tbh I was expecting something a bit self-indulgent. This is that but it's not a bad album. There are some good songs in the mix - and honestly, the shorter ones are the better. Also, sometimes they feel a bit too much like a Talking Heads tribute band. Again, not necessarily a bad thing but the Talking Heads already exist.
Incubus
4/5
I'd only heard a couple of songs previously, but it turns out that this album is like a direct pipeline to the turn of the millennium. When the combination of rock with turntablism was thrillingly new and Incubus thoughtfully enough delivered it via a lead singer who didn't seem fussed about keeping his shirt on. Make Yourself holds up as a good album, except for that freeform groove number which can get in the sea.
Napalm Death
3/5
I didn't think I'd heard any Napalm Death, but I HAD. They are the band that my friend's sister metalhead friends used to listen to. And we would mock their sound, which is the most hilarious thing ever when you are a 14-year-old schoolgirl going "RAAAR RAAAR RAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!" Also, this type of music is my go-to for awkward music that I think I would not enjoy listening to. But this beotch is only half and hour long and the tracks seldom bother 90 seconds a piece. It's surprisingly palatable!
Christine and the Queens
4/5
I used to have a playlist with cool French pop on it and one day "Girlfriend" mysteriously changed to the French version which soured things somewhat. For me, that's the standout track on the album (either version) but the rest of the album is good. I feel like it might need a few more listens to fully appreciate it but tracks like "What's-her-face" have a searing emotion that deserves further listening.
Megadeth
3/5
It is very clear that Dave Mustaine did time in Metallica before moving on to his own joint. He's clearly not a great vocalist, but does he need to be? Megadeth serve catchy, camp and snarling song after song, never relenting.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
I'd be happy if this album was a 45-minute version of "Walk on By". But even at 12 minutes, it's absolutely lush and a teasingly long version that takes all the best things about the song and combines it with all the best things about Mr Hayes.
Minutemen
3/5
I've just listened to this album and I'm not even sure what just happened. The energy is intense, with few tracks making it over 90 seconds, let alone two minutes. Because if 90 seconds is all it takes, why go longer? The beguiling bass of Mike Watt elevates the album into true iconic status. The whole album feels like the cool weird kids have invited you to a party and you're having the best time. And then, because it is 2022, there's also the post-post-modern Easter egg off the Jackass theme song popping up halfway through.
Dr. Dre
5/5
The Chronic does what it needs to do. The song is best listened to on a hot summer's day, preferably in an automobile. Yes, feel it. It introduced Snoop Dogg and established Dr Dre as both a rapper and a talented producer who could pull together the best bits of the funk era to create a brand new sound straight outta South Central Los Angeles. The album is also rooted in the 1992, in the months after the LA riots when the city was still coming to terms with what had happened. One of the most refreshing things is that this is not purely a boy's club. The Lady of Rage and Jewell feature on several tracks, a perspective not often heard on gangsta rap. There's also the frequent odes to weed. In a time when a teen idol like Justin Bieber can be at the top of the charts singing about getting his weed from California, here's a reminder of the blunt force (lol) that The Chronic unfurled. Also " Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" is such a good song.
Richard Hawley
2/5
This is a pleasant enough album but it doesn't linger with me. Perhaps I need to be more attuned to the Americana sound by way of Sheffield to fully appreciate it.
Simple Minds
4/5
I have a friend who loves this album but I'd never listened to it. Now I see why she loves it. It's a super cool new wave work, with a title that deftly looks forward to the future.
The Hives
3/5
This is an unusual album to have on this list because it was a "story so far" type of compilation after the success of "Hate to Say I Told You So". It's there, perfectly named, capturing the buzz and heat of this group rocking Europe with their Swedish take on garage punk. But at the same time, it still feels like that lead single is the tentpole of this release and the rest of the recording isn't as mighty.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
It's 1990 and it's the new decade and there is so much hope and promise. I'm at my friend's parents' beach house, having a chill summer party with friends and this album is the soundtrack. This never happened, but this is always what People's Instinctive Travels makes me think of, to the point where this might as well be real. The album has a fresh, feelgood sound, with social and political commentary among the party music. It's something to be said that ATCQ can deliver tunes about sexual health, cholesterol and losing one's wallet in El Segundo and not sounding preachy or dumb. Also check out the "Why" remix of "Bonita Applebum" because that is extremely dope.
Eminem
3/5
On one hand, Slim Shady is a character. He's an immature, bratty young man, whose response to stresses in his life is to indulge in violent fantasies around the sources of stress, often women. He also likes to smoke weed and eat shrooms, which seems very mild compared to the 2020s. On the other hand, there's Eminem who is a brilliant lyricist and rapper. His flow feels revolutionary. I guess with a lot of iconic albums, while he shook things up with The Slim Shady LP, it wasn't his best work and it was but a sign of things to come.
William Orbit
3/5
It's very ambient and moody. I can see what role this played in the evolution of techno in the 90s, and indeed how it influenced pop. I don't think I appreciated this album enough to want to listen again though.
David Bowie
3/5
I don't know much of Bowie beyond his many excellent singles, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this. It seems like a perfect final album, one man looking back at his life and thinking beyond.
Queen
4/5
This feels like a band at the top of their game, with the freedom to deliver exactly the kind of album they want, even if it is risky from a trad pop perspective. "Bohemian Rhapsody" isn't even the most outre track. The album goes in all sorts of different directions, all tied together by the craft and extravagance of Queen.
N.W.A.
5/5
I first heard Straight Outta Compton when I was 16 and it did what it needed to do. Shining a light on the situation in South Central Los Angeles and introducing a bold new genre of music. I actually feel that this could be edited down to an EP's worth of really strong tracks - some of the songs later in the album feel like filler. But this was the 80s/90s, a time when album sales were key and "thank u for all ur money". The title track alone is worth the price.
Cyndi Lauper
5/5
I remember a point in the mid 80s when it was "Cyndi Lauper vs Madonna". I was on Team Madonna, but I wish I'd been on both teams (lol) because She's So Unusual is such a good album and I feel like it would have been beneficial for me as a kid to be exposed to Cyndi Lauper's wild pop. There's something to be said for an album where the first six tracks are all pop classics (and the rest of the album is just as good). It's even the case that the mega hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" isn't even the best track on the album. And how many pop stars have had a hit with a song about flicking the bean? I love the influences of artists like Prince and the B-52s, getting all the coolest bits of new wave and making a pop masterpiece.
Beatles
5/5
1. John, Paul, George and Ringo really put their whole Beatussy into this album. The combination of sex, drugs and rock and roll was at its apex.
2. So many of the songs on this album have been covered. And so many of those covers are actually better than the original. However, the Beatles' originals still hold up, especially when listening to the album as a whole. But you cannot tell me that the Breeders version of "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is not vastly superior to the original.
3. I owned this album on vinyl in the 90s. It wasn't even a good pressing and I never got much enjoyment out of listening to it, so I mostly associate it with listening on my crappy record player and all the associated garbage of the mid 90s.
4. How many albums can be a product of their era and also sound like something from 20 years later and also sound kind of modern but in a throwback way?
5. When I was 11, a deeply Christian girl in my class told us about a Satanic song where a man just said "number nine, number nine" over and over and if you played it backwards there was a Satanic message and a boy she knew listened to it and he started acting strangely. Years later I realised it was just the Beatles sound collage. I listened to it and started acting normal.
Gene Clark
3/5
This didn't really do it for me, which I think it more down to the genre than anything. One thing I will praise is the production, sounding really crisp. Ok.
Pink Floyd
3/5
Listening to this, I couldn't help think of Pink Floyd in their mega rock star phase. It seems so at odds with the artful rock of this album, but maybe that's the appeal. While the album goes on a bit, it has enough hooks with emotional punch to work. Like, how can you not be moved by the title track?
Cee Lo Green
2/5
Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood, but I really didn't enjoy this album. I thought I would - all the ingredients are there - but it left me cold. It's like a cake decorated with fondant. It looks impressive, but when you try to eat it's, like just like sweet play dough.
Kanye West
5/5
I have mixed feelings about this album, mainly because I associate it with stuff that was happening in my life around the time it was released. But all up, it's a good album. Kanye's got some issues and he's working through them, as all his best albums are centred on. "Monster" is a stand-out track, and yes, the Nicki verse is epic - but there are plenty of other great tracks. Why, let me tell you of the time a boy made me a mixtape that ended with "Blame Game".
Kate Bush
4/5
I'd only previously heard "Running Up That Hill" but I can see where the rest of the album fits in. It's a cool sound, a blend of synth and folk, along with her delicate but curious vocals. It also feels like an accumulation of having a few years in the game already, building on musical and life experience to create this work. And somehow that opening track just hits harder.
Funkadelic
4/5
I'd heard of this album but I'd never actually listened to it before. I was expecting something funk-based, but instead it's more psychedelic rock with a strong social conscience. I feel like I appreciate the craft of the album more than the album itself. I'm not sure if I'd actually listen to this again.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
This was the debut album of Echo and the Bunnymen and while it's good, it feels too early in their eventual discography to fully represent their sound. Or, I dunno, was it really all downhill from here? I guess what I'm saying is that "The Killing Moon" is too much of a bright star and that anything that isn't it is going to get lost in its shine.
David Crosby
2/5
An album like this just comes and goes. It doesn't leave me with any specific memories or desire to listen again. If I'd grown up with this, if I'd had specific memories associated with the songs, then it might have a different impact.
The Kinks
4/5
It was a fun album. Loads of guitar pop, with captivating lyrics and more than a few stories to tell.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
The stand-out track is "You Haven't Done Nothin'", but the rest of the album isn't quite as classic as other Stevie Wonder works. It feels like Stevie in his imperial phase, but perhaps phoning it in in places.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
I remember the singles from when this was released. They were cool but the album as a whole isn't on the same level.. The album title is great, the cover art is so cool and intriguing but maybe there's too much rock and not enough roll.
Jeff Buckley
2/5
File under "Albums that I didn't listen to for the first go-round in the 90s and, it turns out, for good reason". It's just not my bag, baby. I appreciate the craft of the album but I just don't enjoy its contents. As well, I am haunted by the middle-aged Jeff Buckley fan I met at a party in the 2000s who was conflicted that his estate kept releasing new albums that gave fans new music but not good quality music. I just... no.
Donovan
3/5
It turns out that this is the go-to album to use in a movie if you want to evoke a slightly uneasy feeling of the 1960s. I enjoyed it a lot more than a thought a would, the few familiar tracks serving as a solid foundation for the rest of the album. Decent psychedelic folk pop.
D'Angelo
5/5
Shout out to all the grown-ass adults who were conceived to this album back in the 90s. This is smooth and seductive! I love the sense that the lyrics are utterly at the service of the music and D'Angelo's vocals, more about evoking a mood. It's a dream.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Perhaps wisely, "Come On Eileen" is the last track, ensuring that this iconic hit doesn't overshadow the rest of the tracks. The album is a lot better than I was expecting, showing much more to Dexys than just that one song. It also features "Jackie Wilson Said" which was on The Young Ones!
The Offspring
4/5
I saw The Offspring at a festival in the mid-90s. At that point, it was all about waiting for them to play "Come Out and Play". Listening to this album was a bit like that too, but at the same time there are plenty of good tunes before and after. It's very much the soundtrack of teen boys in the mid 90s - and kudos to The Offspring for capturing that vibe.
The Cure
2/5
This is not the Cure's best album! It's ok and I get its place in the evolution of the Cure and indeed the early 1980s UK music scene. But it doesn't strike me as being necessary.
The Soft Boys
4/5
This album feels both like the past and the future, with plenty of hints of psychedelic rock from the 60s along with some of the foundations of what was to be 90s indie rock. There are plenty of catchy tunes and good vibes.
Sam Cooke
5/5
This is such a great live album that it's like why would you even bother recording studio versions? Sam Cooke is absolutely on a roll and his energy - along with the energy of the audience - is clear and infectious in every track.
John Prine
4/5
I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this. While Mr Prine clearly has his musical wheelhouse, there's a lot of variety. The song is also clearly a product of 1971, with biting anti-war songs. I also likes how he eases the listener in with a goofy pro-weed anthem
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
I thought I'd enjoy this album but weirdly enough Karen O's voice starts to feel a bit samey from song to song. It is more the production style, with the compression, which feels like it's trying to disguise her jazzy singing style. But there are some great tracks on Fever To Tell, including the iconic "Maps" and the stellar opening number "Rich".
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
I feel like I've absorbed this album through having friends who played it a lot. And then there are the better-known songs that seemed to be the go-to picks for indie movie soundtracks of the 90s. Some of the track some a little formulaic, but the ones that work, really work.
Pretenders
4/5
Coming into it, all I knew was \"Brass in Pocket\". The rest of the album was a breezy piece of new wave. Highlights were hearing the OG version of \"Private Life\".
4/5
I wasn't expecting how fun this album is! Loretta is like a sassy bestie who is willing to share her experiences. At the heart of it is her voice with its soothing vibrato, backed up by a really classic country sound. This feels like the kind of album that's kept inspiring others for decades.
Pixies
5/5
I've heard this album so many times that it exists less as individual tracks and more as a solid block of late 80s indie rock. There's so much pop running through this. And when people decry modern songs being short and having no bridges, there's a reminder that the Pixies were doing that (and making it sound amazing) decades ago.
Massive Attack
3/5
There are only a few songs on this album that are familiar to me (Unfinished Sympathy, of course) but maybe what's more familiar is the sound. Massive Attack invented something that was to be the echo of the 90s. When music wasn't being mopey grunge or hyped-up techno, this sound was the complex but chill soundtrack of those idle moments
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Listening to the blues is so enjoyable, especially when it's really dirty and gnarly. This ticks numerous boxes. Spotify gave me the option of listening to a mono or stereo version and I went for the mono because it don't need no stereophonic tricks. The only song that didn't work for me was "Little Girl" because it is weird hearing a grown-ass adult man being pervy about a teen. Shut up and let ur guitar talk.
The Beach Boys
4/5
This is proto emo. The album is infused with so much longing and misery and love, a tornado of youthful emotions. And then it mixes that up with crisp melodies and harmonies that probably felt nostalgic right from the moment it was released. It's also the kind of album that clearly spawned so many sons and daughters over the decades, a gift the keeps on giving after the heartache mends.
Bon Jovi
2/5
The best songs are the ones written by Desmond Child. The only sole Bon Jovi written song is "Dead or Alive". The rest of their song are extremely mid. I didn't like this 35+ years ago when I was 12 and I still don't like it lol
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
I was ready to dislike this but it's quite good. The Chili Peppers meant the most to me in the late 80s and early 90s and I know they hit a dull patch in the early 90s. But on Californication they got Frusciante back and they got their groove back. This feels like the Chili Peppers at their peak, writing dirty but emotional songs about California.
AC/DC
3/5
I'd happily ignored this album, leaving it to the black clad bogans at my high school to make their personality. But decades later... it's ok. ACDC do hard rock very well, the sort of music the precisely demands it be enjoyed with a group of your mates that you can drink along and shout along with the lyrics.
Beatles
5/5
Somehow I hadn't heard Abbey Road before but here we are. It's a really good album and it's clear why it was and still is one of the Beatles most influential works. I love "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which seems like proto stoner rock.
Miles Davis
3/5
I thought I'd enjoy this (So What is a fave) but it didn't quite grab me. Maybe I needed to be listening to it in a different context, something more moody than the reality supplied by the 2020s
Brian Eno
3/5
I feel like this is one of those albums that was highly influential, creating soundscapes with both live instruments but also cutting up audio, I guess done with tape and razor splicing. The thing is that decades later, with no many others taking inspiration, it probably doesn't have the same avant grade impact that it did back in the day. Appreciation is theoretical, like having to read the information card to fully understand a painting.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
I was into this album back in the 90s. The secret is that Dinosaur Jr. write really solid pop songs disguised under layers of grungy guitars and J's super laidback vocals. Juliana Hatfield always said she wanted to cover the entire album and I've always thought that would be thee best way to uncover the pop. But maybe it's better to remain buried under all that sludge.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
This absolutely works as a father dealing with the death of this son. It doesn't feel like a typical "Nick Cave album", he's taking risks and going in other directions.
Green Day
3/5
I have to be honest, I love the singles and have strong emotional connections to them but I find the album as a whole to only be average
The Triffids
4/5
Thie feels like it comes from the Nick Cave adjacent corner of Australian rock. But maybe less gothic, more artistic and with a folky flavour. I want to listen to this album again, it feels like it has more to offer
The Smiths
5/5
I had a dub on this on tape that I always played in my car. And I listened to it so much, over and over, that one day I got sick of it, ejected the tape and chucked it out the window as I drove. But years later, it holds up. The Smiths had a knack for writing super catchy pop songs about the most unexpected subjects (the ode to a small town fairground is my favourite) and only effing Morrissey could end an album of delights with a gruelling anti-meat song.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
One thing that keeps coming up for me is the number of albums that seem like obvious inspirations for the grunge bands of the '90s. No wonder the Boomers weren't totally convinced - they'd heard it all before. I dig Skynyrd's blues infused rock, and there's so much more to the album than just Free Bird.
Death In Vegas
3/5
Music for people who don't like chord changes. I had a friend whose band made music like this (though tbh not as good). It's a nice kind of music to have in the background as a groove. One of the songs was super annoying though and when it ended the relief I felt was immense.
Brian Wilson
3/5
Before this album was recorded and release, I had a friend who was obsessed with the mythical Smile. So I've always felt that this album was for people like him. Ride or die Brian Wilson fans who were absolutely in it for the long haul. I'm not a huge fan of Smile but I appreciate the songwriting and the lush vocal layering.
Tears For Fears
4/5
I was wondering if the album's very well known singles would dominate too much, but the album supports them and provides a perfect context. I particularly like how Broken acts as an introduction to Head Over Heels, and tbh it's such a good song that any excuse to listen to more of it is welcome
The Monkees
3/5
This is an interesting choice for the list because it's not an all-time great album, but it is an interesting point in the Monkee's history. They'd gone from being a fake boy band in a TV series to a real group who could write their own songs. The songs, though, are off mixed quality. The best ones (imho) are Randy Scouse Git and the delightfully weird Zilch - which sounds a live performance of a sample-based track from 20 years in the future. But some of the other tracks just sound like cheap copies of the Beatles - but then, that's kind of what the Monkees TV series was trying to be
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
Overall I liked the sound of the album, the '80s new wave vibes. But there wasn't enough to hook me as a new listener. Though I could imagine putting this LP on in 1981 and hearing the future.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
I thought I'd really enjoy this album but it weirdly made me angry. The best known songs ("Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit") are still great, but otherwise the album just feels like a product of its time, a decent enough piece of 1960s psychedelic rock but as a whole album it doesn't feel greater than the stand-out classic singles
Sonic Youth
3/5
I hadn't heard this before, but it absolutely sounds like the next step before Goo. The songs are there, the weird stuff is there, the secret pop is there but maybe the production isn't as slick as the world of Goo. For me, my Sonic Youth experience is Goo and Dirty and I love the nostalgia those albums bring. Daydream Nation is good but it doesn't hook me for the simple reason that I wasn't listening to it back in the day
Led Zeppelin
3/5
I started listening to this, got a few songs into it and realised I wasn't really into an epic Led Zep double album. I also listened to Kashmir, a masterwork. I'm sure the rest of the album is excellent but I'm just not in the mood for it.
Anita Baker
4/5
Sweet Love is gorgeous and the rest of the album holds up. Rapture feels like the kind of R&B/pop album that has gone on to be super influential and listening to it has so many echoes of future artists to come.
The Strokes
5/5
In theory this should be a nostalgic ride for me, but the album is inherently intertwined with the cultural mess that followed 9/11. It's a really solid album and it's important to realise how unusual this sounded coming along in the midst of all the bright Millennial pop. Sometimes you just need something a bit grimy that sounds like it hasn't slept in days. Alone, Together is the best track.
Janis Joplin
3/5
Why had Janis Joplin's music evolved into cinematic sad lady music? Like when you're feeling angry or alone or betrayed and you have a red wine and listen to Janis and sing and cry the pain away? IRL it's pleasantly gritty blues rock. Maybe it will underscore or heal a bad moment, but it doesn't have to
The Avalanches
3/5
The album feels a bit too long, because when listening to it as a whole, the gimmicks start to wear through. The way they get a one sample and rhythmically play with it. "Frontier Psychiatrist" is still great, and it seems to have more richness to it than other tracks. I also like how each track is mixed into the next, but it also turns the album more into pleasantly cool background music than something more engaging
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I like a good blues jam and The Lemon Song does that, vile and grimy in all the right ways. The whole album is Led Zep at their best, just squeezing out that guitar
Nick Drake
3/5
I found this a little unengaging but I can see its influence on folk pop and beyond. The fact that it doesn't quite feel like a typical 1969 album is a credit to Nick Drake
KISS
3/5
The most interesting track is Detroit Rock City, because it opens with audio. This feels like such a more modern device, and that takes it away from feeling cheesy. The music though, I dunno. Kiss are doing what Kiss do. I think if you grew up with this, it's probably awesome. But decades on the album feels a little formulaic (even though Kiss wrote the formula)
The Saints
4/5
"Know Your Product" is an absolutely scorching hot introduction to the album. And the album itself sounds like a blueprint for the garage rock revival of the 2000s. It's a very enjoyable album, that feels like some young dudes wanting to be like their punk idols and also managing to do something new and fresh.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
The version of this that's on Spotify is subpar. I'll happily put up with vintage audio artefacts but "Lucky In Love" randomly turns into an Elvis song? To be careful if you're listening on Spotify. Otherwise, Sarah Vaughan's voice is clear and expressive and she tackles the varied setlist like a pro. Even forgetting the words, she can skilfully ad-lib nonsense which sounds better than most songs.
The Beta Band
3/5
I feel like this album is a personal favourite of the 1001 Albums list compiler. It's ok but it's not brilliant.
Steely Dan
4/5
Steely Dan always does it. There's something very precise about their music, which sometimes doesn't feel very rock n roll. But other times it hits. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is great, but my favourite on this album is the subverted blues of the title track
The War On Drugs
2/5
This was not the mid 2010s for me. My experience of this era was bright bop, getting all tropical house with it. So coming to this cold without the cushion of nostalgia is hard. The album is ok but it's not enough to captivate me or inspire me to listen to it anymore than once. My favourite track is the one that sounds like a lost Springsteen song.
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
I don't really have the context to appreciate this album. To me it sounds like good country music but that's all I can get out of it.
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
I have mixed feelings. The opening track was almost unlistenable with that quivering keyboard. But there were plenty of other excellent tracks, and you can absolutely see GSH's work as one of the building blocks of rap. "H2Ogate Blues" was my favourite track, though its legacy perhaps isn't as powerful as intended
Rocket From The Crypt
1/5
To me it sounds like if the Beach Boys made a punk rock album but without the harmonies (derogatory)
Joy Division
4/5
I thought I'd already heard this album but I hadn't. It's ok but somehow it wasn't hitting as hard as I expected it to hit. (I like the 12" version of "She's Lost Control", it feels more tense) I also hate that for me, "I Remember Nothing" is officially the "Ian Curtis on a roller coaster" song
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Every song is good and it's a fine end to this chapter of the Simon and Garfunkel partnership. I was surprised at how many of the familiar songs are more complex than the bits used in soundbites would suggest.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
This is a cute album. Nanci has a great and expressive singer and a good songwriter to boot. The album has an earthy traditional feeling but occasionally skirts around the edges of '80s college radio, bringing an echo of hip.
The Flaming Lips
2/5
Just be grateful if you never lived through the era when the UK music press was eating E and seeing the Flaming Lips live and talking about how transcendent and life-affirming it was to see "Do You Realise" live. Guess what? If it's a cold afternoon and you're eating lukewarm chicken nug nugz and listening to this album it's not all that. It's adequate but it's also hard to see this as anything more than the man who would directly lead to the creation of "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz"
JAY Z
3/5
I appreciate Jay-Z but I feel like this album isn't quite hitting for me because I didn't grow up with it. His skilled lyricism is there, as is the legendary beef with Nas. But nothing to hook me as a new listener
Fats Domino
3/5
This feels like an academic inclusion. Like, I can understand its significance but there are too many decades between this album and now to be able to feel it hit like it would have in 1956.
Iggy Pop
4/5
Jim and Dave go to Europe to get clean and record one of the best rock albums. Everything about it is delightful
Guns N' Roses
4/5
Despite this album being huge at my school when I was 13, I had never listened to the whole thing. It's good. The singles are the stand-out tracks, but there's a very slick, kind of glam production style throughout. I kind of miss this lavish style of rock, when songs just kept going because it was too cool to quit.
Japan
4/5
One of my favourite things about 10001 Albums is hearing all the generational influences. I'd heard of Japan for so many years and now after listening to their music, it's like, oh this is exactly what came before Duran Duran. An enjoyable piece of new romantic rock
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
A surprisingly enjoyable 1970s Brazilian romp. It's a delight discovering the origin of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" - especially when that track isn't even the best part of the album.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Well it's Creedence, man. It's a good album, expect the last track where they manage to make The Nighttime is the Right Time sound like Steely Dan track. Or is this the part where it turns out that Creedence was a major influence on Steely Dan?
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
This holds up. It sounds like the future but also like 1968. The best thing is that while Jimi is a skilled guitarist, the songs don't feel in service of the guitar. Rather, the guitar is there because it needs to be.
Fatboy Slim
4/5
I thought this album was totally new to me, but more than a few of the album tracks were very familiar. I guess it was everywhere in the mid 90s and beyond. It's a thrilling start of the reign of FBS, though some of the songs feel a little formulaic with their sample styles
TV On The Radio
3/5
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It very much feels like something from the late 2000s, and even the title is very much from the Millennial trend of being obsessed with science. The songs are catchy and extravagantly arrange.
Janelle Monáe
5/5
This is a really well made, really enjoyable album. It feels like Janelle has put so much thought into every track, getting stuck in in the studio. It's one of the few 1001 albums that I have instantly wanted to reply
Supertramp
3/5
I think the only way I can take this is via the singles, a staple of FM radio in the '80s. They dominate the album, supported by the rest of the album tracks. It's ok.
Black Sabbath
4/5
The most surprising thing for me is how the album isn't always metal. Like Black Sabbath were pioneers of heavy metal but they liked a good bluesy jam too. The opening track is still a scorcher and it's also a delight to hear little bits from other songs that live on through hip hop samples.
The Pharcyde
4/5
If I'd heard this album when it first came out in 1992, I know that I would have loved it. It slots in nicely into hip hop history, finding a place after the Native Tongue sound, but with plenty of earlier hip hop references. Maybe I was too distracted listening to the emerging grunge rock of 1992.
Pixies
4/5
I've listening too this album too many times. And then 25 years ago, one of the songs went mainstream famous which now disrupts the flow of the album. And I saw the Pixies live and the audience was full of bald heads. It made a lot of sense in the '90s (or the '80s, if you were there then) but now it's an awkward artefact of another time. Bone Machine and Brick Is Red are still the best opening and closing pair of any abum.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
Sometimes I forget that 1001 Albums is centred on UK culture, and then some seemingly random album will turn up and it's like "Wait, really?" and then it turns out it was like a number one platinum hit in the UK and the act is playing arenas but they're relatively unknown back at home in the US. And that's kind of what happened here. Come Find Yourself is a good album but it seems more good in the sense of "they were the first to make a cohesive, mainstream album in this particular new music style". It's very mid 90s, in the way that the mid 90s was aggressively masculine and everyone was going around quoting Tarantino dialogue. Most unexpectedly good song - the cover of the James Bond theme tune "We Have All the Time in the World".
Doves
3/5
This sounds like an album from a random NZ indie band from the late 90s. But I guess Doves isn't too far removed from that. I didn't think I'd heard the Doves before, but a) they are the ones who did "Black and White Town" (not on this album) and b) I guess "Caught By the River" was a minor hit because I'd definitely heard it before, but in a passive way.
Santana
3/5
This is such an uncle album.It's good. Mr Santana is a skilled guitarist and he never feels like he's just showing off. It's such an influential album too.
Elastica
4/5
This was one of my favourite albums in the '90s and I listened to it so much that the entire album is like a pop symphony. It's an extremely good piece of Britpop, especially because Elastica stole some of their best bits from Wire (very punk)
Nas
4/5
I'd never listened to this album before, even though I always felt I should. It's good and it's clear to see why it's considered such a classic (and why Jay-Z was shook). Nas is a smart lyricist and the samples and beats serve his flows.
50 Cent
4/5
For me, the singles stand out more than the album tracks. But even with that, the whole album is still really good. There's even some Ja Rule beef in the mix, just to underscore the imperial era 50 Cent. P.I.M.P is such an iconic track with the steel drums
Rush
3/5
I thought this would be long and self-indulgent but instead it was oddly familiar. I think it's the influence. I'd describe its sound as being like early 1990s incidental TV music. Not on a bad way (because, we assume, Rush probably originated the sound) but in the way that music evolves. I also like the song titles based on mathematical symbols - maybe an inspiration for Ed Sheeran!
The White Stripes
4/5
I remembered listening to this album a lot back when it was fresh. Yet it turns out I was mostly listening to side A. And it was on CD, so there was something about that first half that felt cohesive and brilliant. The whole album holds up, with Jack White getting right in there with streaming-era short short short songs. My favourites tracks are the Citizen Inspired "The Union Forever" and the pleasingly dramatic "This Protector"
The KLF
4/5
The KLF's biggest trick was writing a book about how to make a hit pop song and thereby convincing people it was a simple formula and not something that actually required all that much skill or talent. But here's The White Room, and album that spawned a number of hit singles that didn't rely on The Manual's formula. It turned out that the KLF were secretly really talented. It reminds me a bit of Grace Jones (and Trevor Horn's) Slave to the Rhythm album, riffing on a few melodies and lyrics. It's unusual and it works, not just tapping into the trends of the early '90s but doing something different and taking things to another level.
Fela Kuti
3/5
For me, this feels more like a chapter in the history of modern music than something I would chose to listen to. The musicianship from Fela and Ginger and co is brilliant and their influence is clear.
Morrissey
4/5
I've always felt that the songwriting in this era of Morrissey's solo career feels a little formulaic. Someone gives him some Marr-esque jangly guitar riffs and he warbles over the top. The end result is good though, but perhaps it doesn't totally stack up as an entire album. Glamorous Glue is brilliant!
Roxy Music
4/5
I love what's going on with this. It feels so ahead of its time, super cool and a little goofy and just making really interesting choices.
CHIC
4/5
I'm really fascinated by the vocal use on these tracks. Rather having lyrics that are focused on telling a story, the vocal lines are often repeated and seem to be serving the mood of the overall song. And it really works. It's like a disco symphony. Even though "Good Times" is super familiar, both on its own and through being sampled all over the place, it fits in well with the overall album. The serotonin boost from the get-go of the album is magnificent!
Elvis Presley
3/5
I'm not hugely connected to Elvis. To me, this album sounds good, he's an excellent performer but I don't know if there's anything that really grabe me. "In the Ghetto" is a standout track.
Elvis Costello
2/5
In theory, I could tell this song was really well made, good songs, good production. But I just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'm more nostalgic to Elvis C's older songs and don't have the same memories attached to his newer stuff
The Stone Roses
5/5
The stars were lined exactly right when the Stone Roses created this album. It references what has come before while also precisely capturing a corner of the Britpop scene they led. The fact they never managed to do this again just makes the album more special. Every song hits in its own way, and to me the album has always felt like it's casting a spell.
B.B. King
4/5
This was surprisingly fun! It shows BB as a skilled and confident performer, at the top of his game. Being a live album, the songs are accented by the audience's reactions. BB knows how to make the ladies scream!
Peter Frampton
4/5
This album has such a hearty reputation. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it's ok. It has such a nice feeling, capturing the spirit of an artist at his peak, performing to an audience of eager fans. Frampton had some decent tunes!
Talk Talk
2/5
"Life's What You Make It" is the best track on the album. The rest of it is like, ok, it's a Talk Talk album.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
I don't like this but I like that I don't like it. The one thing that this project has taught me is that the certain albums that I avoided listening to in the 90s, my instincts were right. I didn't enjoy this in the 2020s and I'm certain it wouldn't have been enjoyable for me in the '90s. I like my cacophonous indie rock with a little more pop around the edges, like Sonic Youth or The 3D's
Beck
4/5
I think I must have owned this album because every track is super familiar to me, but in a distant way. Like I definitely haven't listened to it since the late 90s. It's a solid album and it holds up. Beck is showing off and having fun and the listener is rewarded with bops. Despite me not having listened to it since the 90s, Odelay doesn't feel beholden to that decade. There's a weirdness that feels fresh decades later.
The Modern Lovers
4/5
To me, this album is being in your late teens and starting to have fun on your own terms for the first time in your life. And it's just nice to have a goofy album with songs that you can shoutalong to with your friends and feel a good place for that day
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
All I know if the lead single from this album, the extremely infectious "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee". But is the rest of the album as good? Like, it's good but it feels like it might have been buoyed along by the explosive lead single. It is very interesting that Ms Dynamite released one more album and has all but retired from the music biz
Miles Davis
4/5
This was just good to have on while I was doing other things. Not that I was listening passively. There's something about the energy of the music that kept pulling me in. Very enjoyable to be under this spell.
King Crimson
3/5
Listening to this, I can hear its influence. In every song there are hints of what would be emulated in decades to come. I didn't enjoy it on its own merits, but I appreciate the role it plays in the history of music.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
The track I liked the best was The Gift, because it reminded me of Bongwater songs with the combination of spoken word over the top of meandering, experimental guitar. I appreciate discovering all these influential albums that shaped the sound of music for decades to come.
John Lennon
3/5
Fatboy Slim
4/5
This is a wormhole that directly transports me to the late 90s. Specifically that girl who thought the lyric was "I want to praise you like a shoe" (well, it rhymes). This was the soundtrack of many social gatherings and stores and car stereos as we headed into the new millennium. A pleasant artefact.
Pavement
2/5
Pavement transports me back to the early to mid 1990s. I do not consent to this. I never got around to listening to this at the time (Wowee Zowee was more my thing) but this feels really familiar. Maybe it's Malkmus' quirky drawl that drags me in
Björk
3/5
There's something really comforting about Björk's voice. She can do weird things with her music, but her vocals are the grounding that will always make things feel safe. I don't think I'd listen to this again but I didn't mind listening to it once
Nirvana
5/5
This album is super nostalgic for me to listen to. But now, more than 30 years on, it's so clear that Kurt had very strong instincts for writing great pop songs. I think he hated it and tried to disguise it all with noise and weirdness, but the pop still shines through. So many great tracks, all adding up to an uncomfortable slice of his life
Joni Mitchell
3/5
This sounds very proto yacht rock, Joni and the meandering bass guitar of Hejira. It's a very pleasant album but it sounds like background music and doesn't inspire me to listen again.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
The warbling, the intense gothic tinged warbling.
The B-52's
5/5
I love how this starts off like a 1960s sci-fi adventure, with weird pop beaming in from another planet. The B-52's debut is a perfect blend of kitschy 1960s pop culture melded with the coolest new wave influences. The record sounds like it needs to be only enjoyed on vinyl, preferably in a suburban bedroom.
Little Richard
4/5
Exhuberant! There's something so delightfully energetic and youthful about this collection of songs. The feeling of the weekend arriving, having a pocket full of money and being ready to hit the town. Anything is possible. And then Little Richard manages to pioneer a whole new music genre while he's at it.
Culture Club
3/5
It is the weirdest thing that Culture Club had a big hit with "Karma Chameleon", a jaunty lil psychedelic pop song that sounded more like a number from a musical than a pop hit. But in the context of Colour By Numbers it makes more sense, adventures with new wave pop.
Method Man
4/5
This mostly passed me by in the 90s but it's really good. Method Man's voice has so much gravitas to it and the production feels like it's doing new and interesting things with hip hop.
Michael Jackson
4/5
I was listening to a podcast that mentioned how different pop albums were constructed in this era. They needed to have hits upon hits upon hits, with little room for filler. I've never heard Bad in full but I knew almost the entire album because it is just so packed full of hits.
In a way though, Bad perhaps don't work so strongly as an album. It seems better to dip into for the individual singles, when the need arises. Like today, it's definitely a Smooth Criminal day.
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
I don't hate this, I'm just not in the right space for it. Sonic creations like this are best consumed by fit, young men who feel like they have all the time in the world.
The Prodigy
3/5
I listened to this album a lot when it was released, but revisiting it now, I realised that it was me trying to be like the cool kids. It's a really good album but it's just not my jam. Climbatize is great, and the L7 cover is fun.
Hüsker Dü
4/5
This is a fun, uplifting album. The jangly guitar and Mr Mould's pop hooks do so much heavy lifting. I don't think I'd listen to this again, but I very much enjoyed listening once.
Radiohead
2/5
Funkadelic
3/5
Funkadelic always reminds me of annoying people at student parties in the early 90s. I know the album is doing a lot more than that, but for me there's too much weird context.
The Undertones
2/5
The xx
4/5
This is surprisingly good, and it turns out that "Intro" is super familiar. The album as a whole it very relaxing but with a lot of depth to it.