I don't like folk music. Therefore this isn't folk music. It must be some obscure subset of punk.

I'm so glad someone is taking Spinal Tap seriously.

Like being stuck in a hotel lobby in the 1980s.

I'm not sure why this album makes me so cross. Maybe I'm disappointed that I missed out on something because I don't, "get it". Anyway, it's wrong and I'm right. NAA.

I think I managed 4 songs before the wave of pop nausea overcame me. Like aural Kendal Mint Cake.

Meh. Bit too shouty. Sorry Miss Jackson is a banger.

An OK album, but it features none of my favourite Curtis Mayfield tracks.

Get in! Love a bit of the White Stripes. Thumping drums, stonking gurt riffs and agro vocals with a touch of whimsy. Lovely.

This album is perfectly fine, until you get to Get It On, at which point it becomes a STONE COLD CLASSIC (TM).

OMG. I don't think I'd ever listened to this full album before. What a joy to find the diversity of tracks on here.

I'm not sure why this album makes me so cross. Maybe I'm disappointed that I missed out on something because I don't, "get it". Anyway, it's wrong and I'm right. NAA.

Worth listening to as a whole album. Most tracks are familiar, but together they really feel on that Low feeling. If you are listening to this regularly, you probably need to take up a team sport or something to get you out of the house.

Yep. Fine. Move on.

Meh. Really not my cup of tea. I checked out their more recent albums, and they were better.

Enjoyable, good glam fun.

Perfectly lovely jazz.

Bit dull

I thought I was going to love this, because of his version of Barber's Adaggio for Strings, but it was just pleasant. One piece I imagined would make good backing to an extremely dull wildlife documentary. It promised so much more from they opening couple of songs but didn't fulfill that promise.

Amazing album, so rich and weird. The melodrama and soaring instrumentals are fantastic.

If you ARE going to insist on making pop music, then have the decency to do what Price did, and do it with talented colleagues and make it a little funky.

Sorry. I'm not a massive fan of The Smiths.

Dull

I wanted to not sing along, but they're so.... bloody... NICE! Grrr. Coming in here with their good intentions and catchy tunes.

Good fun. Not bad fun.

I want really drawn into this album. It was just kind of on the stereo.

Ooh, he was very good that Nick Drake, wasn't he? I'm not a folk fan, but if I was I would probably really enjoy this. I enjoyed this 3 stars, but feel like it's a 4 or 5 star album.

I think I managed 4 songs before the wave of pop nausea overcame me. Like aural Kendal Mint Cake.

Oh Chef, Chef, Chef. This is how you got that badass reputation, you smooth motherlover

Every song a stone cold classic.

Not my cup of tea at all

Whiny folk drivel saved by some catchy riffs.

I enjoyed the angry grunge for a bit, but it's all a bit facile and superficially teen angst, and made me wonder how much of being in a band like this is having the rock star image.

I just dislike this kind of country sound. The lyrics were interesting to read, but the vocal fry and slide guitar have me shudders down the spine.

Solid gold

Oh no, bit this again

Yeah, s'alright if you're into that kind of thing.

What a classic

Sounds exactly like I expected an Aerosmith album to sound. Heavy-ish guitars, harmonies, non specific lyrics about girls and life. Neither offensive but interesting to me.

If I were in my 70's this would've been my era, and I would be listening to their record regularly. But I'm not.

Why would you do a Beach Boys album without Brian Wilson? It's like The Jackson 3, NSYNC without Timberlake or Destiny's Twins. It's like a poor photocopy of Harry Nilsson on a bad day.

I keep forgetting I kind of like LCD Soundsystem. I think I prefer each song individually though, rather than a whole album at once!

I thought I was going to hate this, "Oh God, not Travis!" Maybe the catalogue of middle of the road 70's whining had lowered my expectations. Maybe Travis have some good riffs, with lovely mellow bits and unexpected angry bits, lyrically sound too.

Love a bit of Floyd!

What a relief. I thought my sense of taste was going after I enjoyed Travis, but thankfully I found this to be fairly drab middle of the road rock. The lyrics were indecipherable amongst all the guitar noodling.

Yeah man, this shit is thoroughly entertaining.

Extremely NICE.

Classic.

Yeah. Quite fun, but not my favourite Beastie Boys

She sounds bunged up and posh. I sound bunged up and posh sometimes too, but I'm not sure it's something to aspire to.

At last a sixties /seventies album I can get behind. This is a classic. OK, it's a load of whiteboy blues covers with questionable accents, but they make them their own and really knock them out of the park.

You got a problem with Aretha? Yeah? Then you have a problem with me. Don't mess with the Queen of Soul.

Nothing says stealing black music and making it white like Graceland. A beautiful album, with coherent lyrics, made by a proper musician. Well done, Mr Simon.

So good. The Beatles are used as an example of how 10,000 hours of practice can give you mastery of a form. I think I listened to The Beatles, mostly this album for 10,000 hours in our basement when I was a child, so I've mastered listening to them, and I've really got it down to an artform. A lot of the album is quite childish, but so am I, and so was I when I listened to it most. I love the range of songs, the lyrics, and that you can have a song along to most of these.

I think I preferred Screaming Trees by Dust. After Abbey Road (yesterday), we now seen to be listening to some middle of the road bullshit again. It's not bad music, but the chord progressions are so textbook, with the lyrics on Spotify I can sing along, despite never having heard it before.

Singing out of tune and cultivating an attitude like you've made no effort is SO PUNK. Oops, I am so punk I put on Bob Marley & The Wailers instead.

A banger

Generic songs. Was this the Stone's Contractual Obligations album?

Ah! An album that deserves to be in the top 100!

Note the best album by not my favourite band.

Yeah. It's OK.

A Change didn't come. :-( I think I prefer the studio albums. Still, Sam Cooke, what a star!

Lovely lovely lovely

Extremely pleasant background music. Crank it all the way to 4 in your local bistro.

Meh

Do you like sex? Do you like albums about sex? Do you relate to the inner city struggles of Harlem? Well, here it is on a plate. Dig in!

Beautiful Christmas cheer. Good will upon one and all.

Blues standard

Very enjoyable. The lyrics were delightful: black, simple iconography of heavy metal stuff. You could hear what he was on about My favourite but if the Wikipedia page was that Countess Bathory was inspired by The Magic Roundabout theme music, and that Smells Like Teen Spirit was inspired by Countess Bathory. So now every time I hear that Nirvana song, I'll start humming The Magic Roundabout music. Lovely!

My grandmother and I concur, Sarah Vaughan is a classy delight.

Jolly pleasant, but not really going anywhere.

Look out! Will everyone PLEASE stop standing in the middle of the road, it's really not safe. What's that? No, I don't care that you used to be Bob Dylan's backing band, this constant flow of traffic over all lanes at once is a disaster. You British bands, just keep to the left and everyone else stay to the right and that way we'll have no troubles.

Yes please.

Grrrrr. Yeah.

Do disappointing. I live a lot of Gil Scott-Heron's poetry, but this just sounded like lift music. I'd heard The Bottle, which was the highlight, but failed to lift the whole album up.

It's your nan's favourite mop-tops. If you've any knickers left over after the Tom Jones tour, chuck em this way!

A solid Doors album.

Yes. All day long. Hit me!

Oh, man, I'm tired and don't need someone shouting at me. Stop it. Even if what you are really singing is, "In my dang a ding a ding a ding dong A sticky sticky son of a gun Ding a danga danga dong dong ding dong Why why never know Why why wack a dong a dang ding dong Then you take it on the bill Ding dang dong don't dong Whoa! I want to love ya!" (Jesus built my hotrod) I think I'd prefer it in a Country and Western style, and I generally hate Country and Western

No comment required

I would've been a terrible Beatle. I don't have the hair.

Fuck yeah

Lovely great trippy swooshing noises. Less aggressive then a lot of his work. Beautiful stuff.

Had some good songs on it.

Like being stuck in a hotel lobby in the 1980s.

Loses one star just for not being Back to Black.

I can see how this could be someone's thing, growing up in a town suddenly they discovered this album and no-one else got it like they did. I found it hard to focus on, like trying to catch a worm, it just kept slipping away and something else would pop into my head.

Beep beep sheep

Good rocking fun

What an album. Superb, funky, smooth. Yes please, Curtis.

Good fun, but a little incoherent.

Oh no. Just ... Don't.

I feel like I should be wearing a one piece flared jumpsuit in a primary colour. Martinis al round! This was a cool slinky album, but also quite irritating at times.

I can take it or leave it or tie it up in a bag with a brick and throw it off a bridge in a torrential midnight rainstorm.

Oooh, look at that boy, he's so quiet, dark and mysterious. The way he avoids all eyes contact and uses monosyllabic responses betrays his inner genius. He's clearly got high emotional intelligence, I can tell by the eyeliner.

Very womad. Benign background music.

I've got this on vinyl and I listen to it whenever I want to feel thoroughly disappointed. It's OK, but pales in comparison to "The Best Of ... "

I got all excited when that one song dropped, and thought this was going to be a barnstormer, but then nothing else dropped. I looked up some of the lyrics and was fairly unimpressed.

Yeah. It's a'right.

Ugh. I should hate this more than I do according to, "people" but fuck them, it's got some catchy ones. This album is very middle of the road 2pm traffic updates coming next. It's sponge cake with decent jam; the excitement of junk mail when you've been at home too long; that clean numb feeling of strange teeth after the dentist's given you a really full-on polish; the smell of opening a jar of Asda's own brand instant; landscapes you don't remember in the family photo album; the back of the head of the person next in queue which is the twin for your presumably long dead school teacher's pate.

Every song would be improved by someone shouting, "THE ACE OF SPACES, THE ACE OF SPADES" at the end of each verse.

Rockabilly. Sigh.

Yeah. It's good.

I don't like folk music. Therefore this isn't folk music. It must be some obscure subset of punk.

Why, Who? Why?

Love PJ Harvey, but she's not easy listening. This is one of her finer albums.

It's like these guys have studied how to be the most background of bands.

Lovely stuff

Solid gold banger.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I thought John Martyn was all twee fiddledy diddledy stuff, but it was punchy and varied and had loads of good riffs that stick in your head after the song had long gone.

An enjoyable mix of nine inch nails type goth metal, hip hop, bagpipes, weird bleeps, funky bass. A bit too angsty for my tastes, but still enjoyable and good stuff.

All the songs were a bit samey and I don't speak their language. It sounded nice, but I didn't know what it was about. Were they pro Mali or dissing it?

Listening to the lyrics I thought made it was trying to address misogyny, but the whole attitude of the album seemed to be in a tone of gangster rap, so I was confused. Like when people go to the opera to see La Boheme dealing with issues of poverty.

I took the time to listen to you whine about everything. Now go and tidy your room and tell your little friends it's time to go because their mum's will be expecting them back for tea.

Lovely. God save her Maj from getting the AIDS again

Roadrunner is a decent song. All the others are weighed down with trying to be The Velvet Underground. They do a good job, but it's just not that great.

It sounded like Nigel got a kick ass backing band! The vocal stylings have a lot of similarities.

Absolutely lovely. I wish this were as good an album as carboot soul, but it still takes me back to the drowsy days of chillout rooms and basement flats with tea in chipped mugs and the smell of weed, tobacco and damp.

Yes please. A sold Beatles album.

A really nice album. Worth listening to twice.

4 stars for having the balls to be The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: A band that needs to exist. I love the band and the attitude, but I found it hard to get through the whole album in one sitting.

Shouty songs about (or vaguely related to) death and sadness and anger. That's it.

Wow! An album that clearly deserves to be in some Top X Albums of ... list. Incredibly listenable, varied and interesting.

I got all excited when I glanced at this album, because I love Bad Manners. Such disappointment! I get that this was probably ahead of the curve with a lot of blues rock, but I feel like it probably inspired a lot of middle of the road mid eighties crud, so that's not a good thing.

Not great

Phenomenal stuff. I didn't think I'd like it half as much as I did. The Osbornes doesn't show this at all.

The absolute Bible of funk. I think I've listened to this album 4 times this year before it came up in this list. I smack my fingertips like a chef. Mwah!

Nope. Not for me.

Before I discovered Billy and Ella and Nina, I sung along to Aretha in The Blues Brothers. What a winner. This album bangs out hit after hit, with all the force of Aretha's almighty lungs and beautiful vocal chords. Great backing, great tunes; loved it!

One is Stevie's least crap albums. I love Stevie, but a lot of the album tracks don't stand out.

What a fantastic album. I may have to watch the film again.

Really good covers of songs I don't much like in the first place = 2 stars. Bonus star for Hurt and Sam Hall, though.

Generic punky band.

I think I've figured out how to be myself after listening to this album.

Simultaneously enjoyable and annoying. I can't separate my history listening to this and assess it objectively, sorry.

Whiny singing style: quite contrived. I feel like the musician is more into the guitar playing than the singing. The lyrics don't connect with me personally, so I find it hard to give a shit. Maybe you can't win with me though, the lyrics are VERY easy to understand (well enunciated and not jumbled in strange rhythms). If they were less hard to understand would I like them more?

It was not terrible.

Undeniably a force in songwriting.

No thanks. Not for the likes of me.

Oh yeah!

Great stuff

Track 1, I thought I knew Randy Newman. That guy from Toy Story, right? Track 4, yup, I've heard all I need to.

I was really enjoying this. Then the guitars just kept on doing the same thing and the lyrics kept on about angels and demons. Maybe I don't have the patience for this, or maybe it's a little bit pants.

Terrible

It may be a bit cheesy rock, but they're not taking it too seriously, and made a good album for good times. I'm torn between giving it a high 3 stars or a low 4 stars.

Not very good.

Ugh. Eagles. No.

Classic heavy metal. Well made, but just not my thing.

It took 3 or 4 goes to listen to this album. TIP: They made it too complicated and it's better with only one headphone bud in. I used the right one. I don't know if the left channel is any better. The lyrics were utter bobbins.: think teenage poetry attempts. I can't go as low as one star reasonably because they clearly made an effort and have some misplaced talent.

Very enjoyable.

I've got a raging boner for the king and fuck you if you can't stand him. Unless it's on racist grounds... In which case fair enough.

Surprisingly good.

When I was a boy, my sister and I had a record player in the basement and a small selection of records including Pretzel Logic. I thought it was dull then and I haven't changed my mind.

What terribly terribly waffly wank

At last! An album which deserves a spot on this list!

Meh

Think of this as the twee, desperate ramblings of an alcoholic American trying to keep up with the British invasion, then you may see the beauty of it as I do. Sure, it's 70% utter bobbins, fuelled by frozen margaritas and too many meetings with record execs, in the heat and ennui of affluent 70s California. Sure, some of those earworms are sung loud and desperately in the halls of asylums for the insane. But you can be sure when you've ratched Russian Doll and Gotta Get Up starts up for the seven thousandth time, a little smile will creep across your face and your your will tap along.

Nice enough.

Husker Dön't? Many of my friends with excellent good tastes like Hüsker Dü, so I'm missing something.

I just couldn't focus for a whole song.

Wiffly piffly rinkerty tink

MORE COWBELL!

These hippies! Not my thing.

A proper good album.

A good fun knees up of an album. No idea what he's muttering about, mind. Do you think the singer intonates like this at all times? While asking for a carrier bag in the supermarket or boarding a bus?

Better than I thought it was going to be.

Classic. It's not my favourite of their albums, but it is a timeless wonder.

Lovely stuff. Thanks Nick. I feel like I should have read the lyrics in preparation for listening because the odd line I picked up was highly literate, but snippets here and there didn't coalesce into anything sensible.

Oh no. I thought this was going to be an undiscovered classic. How wrong I was: indulgent, twee nonsense (sorry, Paul).

It looks like Courtney Love could be a contender for the 1001 best fucks in the world, but I'm not sure why this album is here.

When the opening chords of Cry To Me pounded in, my heart pounded, \"Another Banger!\" Thinks I. But then, that was the one good song, what a disappointment!

A lovely accompaniment to the Wu Tang docudrama on Disney+ It's all guns, bitches and homophobia, which is not my jam. One liners in foreign slang with great rhythms and samples does tick my boxes though.

She's best when she's on the helium.

Great stuff. I'm just not a big fan of The Fall. This is one of those things where a lot people I respect think they're the best, but I just don't really get it.

Having this alongside The Fall was interesting. Both if their vocal stylings were unique and mildly annoying. It's a fine set of songs though.

Pleasantly surprising, this one. Hints of Autechre and ambient droning, whereas I think I expected something like a bad metal score to a slasher movie.

Wanting less than 3 stars is incorrect, and you should try harder on your next listen.

Twiddly guitar blues rock.

Really good. I liked it.

Classic album. At times cheesey, at times pop, but I love the hooks and their version of killing me softly. I understand that it was overplayed on Radio 2 for a long time, but I still have love for this album.

Five stars all day everyday and it's not even my favourite DJ Shadow album. I listened twice just to prove a point to you all. I'm not sure what that point was, may be that I'm a dick, but that's for you to decide.

Braggadocios

If I listened to folk music This might be the kind of folk for me And if I wrote lyrics for folk songs I might sing them over these tunes Kind of witty sentiment and A fag packet bar chord structure Old twenties Americana Or contemporary satire If I listened to folk music This might be the kind of folk for me

Banger after Banger, but I want really in the mood this evening. Undeniable quality, mind.

Not bad

Pretty good.

Barely a shower goes by where I don't belt out a song or two from this album.

Well... that was a thing. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I don't know if I want to listen again. It was probably innovative and unique at the time, but it's a bit dull to listen to now. I've just listened to their modern work, and found it much more interesting. It's still borderline art/bullshit, mind.

Is the singular for tedium tedia?

Everybody knows this is meh.

Initial reaction, "Oh why bother? Who wrote this stupid list?" After the album, "If this was my lift music, it wouldn't be so bad to live another floor up."

Oh no.

No. No no no no no no no.

"Can you sing it as if you have constipation throughout?" anon, Sound Engineer

I feel like I should like this more; funky basslines and humorous lyrics. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it's just not in my top albums.

Insipid, middle of the road and dull. Oh, no, sorry that was 90% of the albums thus far. This is quite cool and a bit more interesting. I'm not sure if listen that often though.

I don't hate this as much as I should. It's perfectly fine benign middle of the road stuff.

Lovely stuff

Good.

You know what? I think this album deserves to be in this list!

Love it. Not as good as Dirty Computer, but literally fantastic.

Not as strong as I remembered. But I remembered it as strong as chilli pickles and Social Workers, so it's still a 5 from me.

Music to be listened to with subtitles. My little beard had now been smoothed into right-on correctness.

I found the singers voice really offputting: so breathy, husky and with vibrato on everything. I ended up just listening to how much I disliked it, rather than to music. This was most apparent, when there was a lovely Rufus Wainwright sounding track in the middle all of a sudden.

I like that one tune.

Nice. Far too nice. Terribly horrifically nice. Eminently forgettable, not bad, just not great.

Well hello, someone wants to sit on Queen's throne.

Oh no, it's like being stuck in the mind of a horny 55 year old woman with poor taste.

Overated

All sounds like one long song from the Bill & Ted's movies to me.

Frank Sinatra makes me feel like Fred Astaire (but less tired).

Not as good as The Pixies. There were a couple of good tracks, but not enough to make it great. I kept stopping to listen to other things, to be honest.

Bag of shit

Nice stuff. Good work Bob.

Tedious. Spotify says they were more responsible than any other band or artist for the entire folk rock movement. Fuckers.

Fab stuff. Mostly instrumental bobbins, but with good beats and little samples of this and that. Sometimes a bit self indulgent. I get why others mightn't rate it, but it's right up my street.

I think one of these songs was about shopping for nice things to eat because his best friends were coming over for a tea party, but maybe I didn't hear it properly.

Synthetic manufactured pop. I hatred myself for singing along and doing my little dancer in the kitchen.

Is a zero stars rating possible? Thankfully none of those times were catchy.

I was really not bothered. I listened to it two days ago and it made no impression at all.

A solid block of rock. Deservedly good.

Sublime

Woe is me, gloom and heartbreak.

Was it a great album? We'll come to that. Was it overplayed? Yes. That summer, that winter, all the Bourne films, and a lot of tedious wankers really loved this album. What did it do well? Great samples, interesting lyrical bits, a range of styles, nice to here some old stuff in a modern style that want just a cover version with a heavy beat. What did it do wrong? Too many instrumental mood pieces. Was it a great album? Yes, for its time. It was brave and innovative. It doesn't age that well though.

Pleasantly surprised by this. Not entirely the middle of the road fare I've come to expect from this list. What was "mother" all about? Quite fun.

F-ing marvelous. Solid gold songwriting, attitude and riffs.

You know when someone labels the Christmas presents wrong and you are given a lovely floral scarf, which would really suit aunty Susan? That's how I feel about this. In this metaphor aunty Susan has perfectly good taste, by the way. In an alternate reality, I had a flatmate who was obsessed with Elvis Costello and I learned to love this album along with the rest of his back catalogue, and I could carry off a floral scarf with panache and lavender eau de toilette.

Just brain-melting goo.

Probably a great album, I'm just not that into Prince. It all feels like a mid 80s party.

Solid rock. Like a pebble or some't.

Ra Ra Ra . Quality noise.

It wouldn't work on Spotify, so I streamed it from YouTube, every 2-3 songs, I'd think, "Oh, this is different, nice interesting change ... " and then find I was listening to an advert. It's good solid guitar noise, which I want to like, but when I find myself enjoying the jingles more, it's very telling.

Banging retro electro.

Pretty f-ing dire. Not good enough to be soul. Not funky enough to be funk. No standout singles. The kind of music some bloke you're stuck with on a ferry boat for 2 days into.

Very nice.

Can't go wrong with Jimi.

Eminently pleasant as background music; full of hits; I didn't really notice when it went on to Spotify autoplay and kept on churning out 80s synthpop, though, so I wasn't gripped.

Absolutely love this one.

Rollicking good fun

Decent stuff

Better than I thought it was going to be. It sounded like a load of Portishead samples! I didn't understand much of the lyrics, though.

Oh, that was lovely.

Not terrible pop, but not great either.

Oh, so this is why people like The Smiths. Not bad.

Nice. Sounds more modern than 1979!

I thought it was going to be manufactured pop punk metal for some reason, and was pleased that it was raw and fun and I could make out some of the lyrics. TV Party was a highlight.

Classic. That girl at uni loved this and played it over and over and I liked her so I listened to it over and over and agreed it was amazing. It's OK.

Possibly the worst thing I've heard so far (in my life).

As good as ever.

Pleasant

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP

Very enjoyable.

A load of reckless white boys roaming the American suburbs at the end of the 60s. What's to like?

I'm so glad someone is taking Spinal Tap seriously.

I want really listening. There was some good ones in there, but it's all a little gangster isn't it?

Meh. Pop bangers, but not my thing. Good sing along tunes.

I'm glad that someone made this and it exists. I don't ever want to listen to it again. There's something about it, like when you go to an art gallery and see some pretentious shit and think, "My toddler could do that." But there is some subtle difference. This is the musical equivalent of Tate Modern finger painting.

Have we not listened to this already? Maybe I just had our on repeat after watching Walk The Line... Good stuff, anyway. I like the live element, it does add something. Only three stars because I'm not into country music.

I just can't separate the art from the artist on this one. I really liked his boogie woogie energy when I was a teenager, but now I am just imagining the leering perv.

Yes. More of this, please.

Ducking atrocious

I approve this album

I dislike his bragadociousness and misogyny, but he has good samples and flow. I want to either like this more or hate it, but I'm honestly struggling to do either with much emotion.

A bit shit.

I honestly had trouble starting awake through this. It's beautiful, but verging on the medicinal.

Surprisingly not as shit as the album cover. I thought it was going to be awful, but it was quite pleasant.

Enjoyable blue note jazz, works music stuff.

Very average hip hop.

He does his thing very well. I'm not always in the mood for it, but it's objectively good.

This should be in the top 1001 albums OF ALL TIME (1000 - 2022AD)!

Lovely.

I like Love's sounds they are a lot more raw than other acts of the time and their big hits are fantastic. Nothing in this album particularly moved me though. I can only assume Forever Changes is somewhere else in the list of greatest albums? And the one with Just Be Thankful For What You Got on it?

Enjoyable pre-post-britpop jangly guitar stuff w/acerbic lyrics. File next to Albarn, D. if room on shelf.

Quality

It's a Sin? It's an earworm more like. #actually #Ithinkyoullfind I got quite into this, and then the second half bored me

Started off thinking this was enjoyable enough pop. But it wore thin very quickly.

Loved this. A nice new gem of an album to listen to from time to time.

Enjoyable synth sounds. electro hand clap cla-cla-cla hand clap.

Yeah, s'alright, innit?

Listening to Take On Me, it was a lovely piece of pop. Then it was all eighties dribble.

What a treat. A post daft punk electro dance thing. I felt like I'd heard every song before somewhere. Enjoyable low calorie fodder.

Dull

Good stuff.

Just terrible. Even the recognisable hit is terrible.

This album should be called Lady Day Phones It In. It's obviously her, as there's none like her, and she has a great voice; but why is this over orchestrated mush on this list and not her greater jazz contributions?

This is a really interesting album. It was original and had great composition, the lyrics were good and you could hear it constantly innovating from all these different sources. This is definitely sometimes favourite album of all time, and if I were on The Desert Island with just this album I'd get really into it before dying of starvation. ... I'm just not sure I'd choose to listen to it ever.

Catchy and vacuous, but I think that was the intention from the melodrama of the lyrics and the pulp fiction artwork. I'm tempted to give it 3 stars.

Mystically forgettable. Like a really serious academic paper, I tried to focus on it, and my brain instantly wandered off on s shipping trip, I must but some tubs from the hardware store, and I'll grab a coffee. In the coffee shop they're probably playing Elliott Smith, but I can't be sure because it sounds so benign and when I try to listen above the coffee cups and subdued chatter my mind wanders off and I'm listening to the "greatest"albums. I wander what the next over is. What was I doing again?

OK

Formulaic songs in simple language, Crowbarred into matching suits and ties, Torn between Rock n Roll and being christian virgins. I imagine it's still in the top hundred albums of the 1950s.

Just about the worst thing ever.

Thought it was a'right at the time. In retrospect, I enjoyed the singles and began considering it a classic. On actual listening it's got some great tracks but doesn't consistently hit every ball out the park I like the originality it shows.

Number one pop hit you like very much. Coca cola chic, yes? Make good and very enjoy. Have you ever want to visit? Click here for discount. All your needs!

Haven't we heard this already?

Long guitar solos. And a long drum solo. And a bit of singing, which couldn't quite be made out. I think it was something about a woman? And smoke on the water which is always nice. But this version went on a bit and had too many long guitar solos. And a long drum solo. And a bit of singing. It was just too indulgent, that's the point I'm trying to make when I go on about the long guitar solos. And the long drum solo. And that bit of singing. Too indulgent and too long. If you really like guitar solos you'll love this. There was also an organ which was playing, but it wasn't particularly notworthy. Not as noteworthy as the long guitar solos in any case. Or as the long drum solo. The organ was comparable with the singing, I suppose. But not with the long guitar solos, which were far too self-indulgent.

Yeah. Good.

Really nicely done. Some of the best background music I've heard in years. Probably good to see live in concert. Also good to play at home if you've got a deadline or an aunt visiting, or if you're going out and the dog gets lonely.

Set stun to mild.

I thought there'd be more of this kind of thing on this list. A refreshing change, but not particularly my thing.

The ultimate A level band in the back room of a pub.

All I needed was to be tipsy on cheap fruit schnapps somewhere formal like a funeral or railway station waiting room, listening to this on cheap headphones, and I would feel teenage again.

Good songs but very same-y.

Beatles covers

Lovely cheesy funky shit.

Mmm

It's OK. I think you have to be in the mood for some weird. It's as if they go at great lengths to make it as out there as possible. And this is one of their most accessible albums!

Do you like Pearl Jam? If your budget doesn't stretch to Pearl Jam, why not try Bad Brains? All the nutritional content of Pearl Jam without the inconvenience or cost? Maple Jar

Joyous

I was in there mid for this cheesy uplifting slice. All me tomorrow and I'll hate it, but today I enjoyed.

Not my thing. Sorry, Mr Horse and Mr Young.

Fun

Like Bauhaus meets the Velvet Underground or Godspeed...

Fun indie pop rock

Easily in the top 5 of my list: Albums Called Beauty and the Beat.

Lovely droning guitar stuff

Not a great Elvis album. Back of your gran's record box.

Quite fun, bubbly pop. It reminded me of a supermarket lemon mousse. Very manufactured, but the idea is there. Without Nile Rogers it would have been unbearable.

This is in my own personal Top 1001 albums (somewhere). It is good.

Absolutely love this.

Funky stuff.

Lovely dark atmospheric stuff. It has no teeth though.

This would make great music for the end credits of a budget ITV drama

Listenable but it's got a very commercial pop sound. I enjoyed the quiz, "Swift or Shakespeare" though.

Quite a good Bowie album. I didn't know he co-wrote Fame with John Lennon until just now. The funk influences are strong. I liked it.

Coincidence that the band banner is an anagram of ire of use? Yes? I'm too tired for this. Maybe as it makes no sense; no? No coincidence, just nonsense? Gah!

Standard eighties fare.

Yes please. This is the kind of batshit weirdness I was hoping to discover on this foray into albums. I could hear influences of (or to) Pink Floyd, Meatloaf, The Beatles, psych rock, Zappa. It's not something I'm particularly INTO, but it is GOOD.

OK

This is sublime music to work to.

They had so many of the cocaines that they started thinking that crew was spelt with a k.

Basic.

Terrible

I didn't manage to get all the way through the last Deep Purple album. It's not that it's bad, it's just that my emotive response to it is boredom, so I keep listening to something else instead. This one I hung on until I woke up when Spotify decided to play some Zappa instead.

Bit long. Genuinely a good album though.

Grinding, fabulous post-Beatles evolution.

Limp like three week old lettuce. Good sing along tracks, though.

Very eighties. Too radical for Stock, Aitken & Waterman, maybe, but not by much.

Pleasant pop

I wanted to hate this more than I did because it's so middle of the road and so over played, but I think it's probably played so often because deep down it is quite good. Ah me, oh my. Down to 3 stars because of all the radio drive time airplay.

It's funny because it's obnoxious and noisy.

Painful

Absolutely what I thought I'd be listening to when we embarked on this voyage. Funky salsa rhythms.

Really enjoyed this one.

Yes! Fabulous stuff. Admittedly led by two bangers, Lust for Life and Passenger. The Bowie is strong in this one.

Fabulous. I really liked this. Not exactly listenable, but funny and weird and innovative.

More six form bands. This one's quite good, and I'd have gone to their gigs in the back of a pub until they broke up because the bassist wouldn't stop saying how fit the drummer's mum was and it all got a bit tense. The lead singer probably knew that half their fans only came to gigs because they fancied the drummer AND his mum.

This is a good album

I was in the mood for this cheese and happily sand along to a few numbers. The Carol King-penned tracks in particular got me through some of the smoochier Burt Bacharach & Hal David numbers.

There are some classic tracks on here, but somehow it's never really worked as an album for me. I want to like it more.

I absolutely loved this. OK, it can lose a point for being all covers.

I had to listen to this twice to give it proper attention. It was quite far out of my comfort zone, but I would definitely listen again. Weird and wonderful. Hectic latíno electronics. It was rocking all the right boxes, but there were points where it all got a bit too crazy.

Nearly redeemed by Time Of The Season, but it is not ticking my boxes.

Unimportant

I was really enjoying this, but then it was somewhat ruined by my teenage son asking why I'd been listening to the same song for half an hour. I couldn't shake that, so my rating went right down to 3 stars. Maybe it should be 4?

It was enjoyable, but went on for far too long in the same style, until by the end I was angrily doing little Christine and The Queens impressions to myself.

Not my thing at all.

Tragic

Great fun.

Nice. Far too nice.

I really enjoyed this album. Proper old school.

Nostalgia filled me to the brim and then I spilled over with joyous bubbles of musical pleasure. Maybe if you didn't listen to this weekly in your teens, your feel differently.

Good stuff, punky whingy stuff. Not every track hit, but there were some great tunes in there.

What are they so cross about?

Bit sad and grumpy.

Green Onions is a legendary track, but the rest of the album was, frankly, a disappointment.

Very pleasant and a bit sad.

What an album! I love this. It's got emotional depth, gothy vibes, virtuosity, literary references.

I really enjoyed this one. I have reasons.

Jolly good, but I wasn't angry enough to appreciate it.

Jazz; nice.

A weird mix of love music for the ancient and decrepit and absolute bangers. Some of the soppy numbers were so unlistenable for my rough gruff grizzled boxer ears that I've only rated this three, despite having a lovely sing along.

Noisy poetic dirty fun.

Ugh. Why is Bob Dylan doing a dodgy Bob Dylan impression for this whole album. It reminds me of sitting around in a campsite with my mother's tedious hippy friend.

Solid lump of punk.

Awful

Totes mazin

Noisy boys and their body guitars. Shouting shouting shouting all the bloody tube. Just calm down, eat some food and get some sleep FFS.

Tedious.

Joyous fun. Very groovy. No idea what the lyrics were on about, but it sounded good. A little to heavy in the cheese.

Right down the middle of the road.

Meh

A lovely slice of jazz.

Simply amazing. Dope beats, guitar licks, great rapping. A proper classic album. One of the greatest.

Bit dour

A little pretentious but interesting.

Real spotty teenage stuff. I had to listen to it in tiny bursts with the volume down. I like that you can make out the lyrics and enjoyed the Judge Dredd song. Immature, not (just) in a poobumwilly way, but like if they kept pursuing this, it could grow into something better.

Good fun.

Great moody swathes. Lyrically interesting, but like good classic poetry I feel like it needs undivided attention. I'm going with 4 stars because it seems like an objectively good album, despite the fact I wasn't really appreciating it.

Sometimes you just need good lyrics, a guitar and drums. This album was played on full on 6 Music the other night and a song got stuck in my head, consequently it's the third time I've listened to the album in full this week. I still enjoyed it.

Love this.

It was probably good if you're into that kind of thing.

A genuinely lovely album. Ry Cooder had a great idea getting all these neglected amazing musicians together.

I thought this really picked up at the end of the album, but it turned out my streaming service had just switched to playing similar, and slightly more catchy, music. I was impressed by the lengthy guitar harmonies and jazzy bits, but didn't really enjoy them that much.

I didn't enjoy this. The laid back rythms are good, but all the casual sexism and racism really put me off. Maybe when it comes to the misogyny I didn't, "get it". Maybe it was ironic or satirical or something?

Good fun. A little whiny. Guild me with nostalgia for indie clubs in the 90s.

Simply fantastic. Not my favourite Radiohead album but nevertheless it is great.

A good solid album by The Jam: no complaints here!

As soft metal (leaden perhaps?) goes, it's not too bad. There are a couple of good tracks, but it's not really my thing.

Amazing. I thought it was great then, I think it's great now. It's a got a real variety of music, there's story telling, straight up songs, nonsense and I love it.

I love A Tribe Called Quest. The combination of jazz samples and positive raps is nice.

Well, I thought this was a winner. I love a bit of jazz drumming, and these two pros did not disappoint. It didn't write make it to be a 5 star album because I couldn't imagine myself listening to the whole album over and over.

Yeah, it's alright.

Pop funk. You can hear the cocaine arrogance seeping through, but at the same time it's toe-tapping stuff. When I was a barman, I'd put on The Pogues when the pub seemed a little dull and everyone would spring into conversation. I imagine this would work for the same trick.

This was a nice album.

I know he has now transcended into alt-sainthood, but I didn't go all the way to give stars. It has done great tracks on it, though. I appreciated it's brevity, too!

So chilled. Very background music, but lovely nonetheless.

Instantly forgettable punk rock.

A phenomenal album. I just love this one because of its bitchy lyrics, its range of musical style, its electronic bits and its harmonic bits.

Pants

Dull, but not horrible.

When we listened to Wu-Tang earlier on this list, Method Man was on my favourite tracks. I enjoyed the vague sounds of this, but didn't listen to it properly; my bad.

Fine

I had my aunt's old record collection when I grew up in the 80's, so listened to a lot of fifties music growing up. This has some real classics in it. Very cheesy, but very enjoyable once you get over that.

Don't get me wrong, I like Sinatra, but this is an hour of listening to a guy go on, in the barest of detail, about how he's sad because his baby has gone. It's sixteen different ways of saying the same thing I had to listen to it in installments because it was too boring.

It's fine. But I think I need to have a kooky haircut and a beard to enjoy it properly. The bass is fantastic. The lyrics are probably very clever, but I can't make them out, so I have to look them up. The whole is less than the parts for me though.

"Yes!" I thought, "The Style Council! Great!" It turned out I was thinking of The Jam.

The first track is a classic. The rest is dross. Another disappointment.

I feel thoroughly depressed now. Not technically accomplished or particularly sophisticated, but brutal in his honesty about the mental health struggles he had, which ultimately consumed him.

It's lovely to have some jazz, but I honestly stopped focussing on it after a few tracks.

I was really impressed by the credentials and accolades when I read about this album. I didn't get the same by listening to the album, which was fine. Just fine. I know a few Arcade Fire tracks to hum along to, and I'm not sure why this album was picked instead of one of their other albums.

Not bad for country.

Fine. Viva Nigeria was great.

Started strong. I sang along to bits of it, but it fizzled out.

Bum! ha ha! It's rude.

So benign. Would be one star, if not for I'm not Your Stepping Stone, which in turn would be great if not for the band who wrote it changing their name to Liverpool 5, to cash in on Beatlemania. They weren't from Liverpool.

Lovely slice of Radiohead. But why this album?

So very very dull.

Quality. I'd like it less if I didn't live in Bristol at that time; but I did: so I do.

The antithesis of my musical tastes.

Fine. Not my thing really.

Bit punky, bit show-offy in a self conscious way. It overtly says, "Oh look at me aren't I contraversial?"

80% genius.

Just the kind of enjoyable nonsense I was in the mood for today. Like a trashy film. I'll hate it tomorrow, but I enjoyed it in this ice tea swigging summer's day.

It's got some good stuff on, but all sounds very same-y.

Got some really good songs in here. I enjoyed it very much.

Interesting. It ticked all the boxes for me: Varied, silly, a bit of jazz a bit of hip hop. It didn't quite hold it together in the execution though. I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

I felt this was tedious. Not my bag at all. Standard four four drums and guitar and nothing to make it stand out to me. I imagine there a better band to see live in a dingy cellar club, but I wasn't there at the time. Maybe I'd have loved it.

BANGER

Sigh. Not another of these.

I like the ambient noodling, but I prefer Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. I like that it's different to a lot of stuff. The horns and keys washing in and fading out amongst the other bits and bobs is great I'm not usually a fan of soundscapes, but they do this very well.

Pants

Today I learned that punk blues is a genre and it sounds like you'd expect. Not offensive, but it didn't stand out to me.

Classic. I am guessing this will be divisive as some in our number think that Jim Morrison was a twat, but I enjoy it. It has a load of great songs on their, the organ noodling isn't too indulgent compared to their other work and the bangers BANG HARD. Riders on the Storm? Yes, please. Love Her Madly? A great track.

Superb. Dancing in the kitchen.

Yeah. It was alright. I had a Scritti Politti take in my collection as a teenager and every now and then I'd fish it out and be pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a shit as I'd thought. This time, thinking it was going to be a pleasant surprise, it was not all that. 3.5 stars.

Bag o' poo

Painful. It hit every nerve in me that cried, "This is terrible." Somehow I listened to the whole thing, but it wasn't for me at all I am quite aware that there will be people for whom this is their #1 of all time. Let's agree to disagree.

Rod was the Ed Sheeran of his day, I guess.

I am really enjoying this funky, bleepy alt-pop.

I enjoyed the first and last funk numbers, but not so much the romantic soul. I can't reasonably drop my score below 3 stars because Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough is so good. Well done, Quincy Jones.

Neither amazing nor offensive to my ears.

Yeah. S'alright.

I listened to this album a lot. It takes me back to a time when Giles Peterson rules the stereo system and WOMAD was always on the cards for summer.

I like the Latin vibe, but it was just too soppy for me. Perfect for an Audrey Hepburn moving picture.

Pretty good. I got into this more when I knew it was a Talking Heads spin off. Nice guitars and catchy tunes. Wordy Rappinghood reminds me of the kind of things that teachers do in a school assembly which seem like a good idea at the time.

Oh. Another album of earnest whining and guitars. It's fine and all, if that's your jam, but by the end when they were singing "Are we rich or poor? Does it matter any more?" I was shouting, "Yes, it does matter, if you're poor." Maybe I missed the point of the song ... Maybe I missed the point of the whole album?

I had this girlfriend at uni who was an intense Greek cellist who listened to Einsterzenden Neubauten. Or maybe it was the German's who came for some kind of summer language school when I stayed behind and worked in the halls of residence. In any case I got this on cassette in the late nineties and found it completely unlistenable then, even as a teenager with a modicum of angst and a recent B grade in GCSE German. I imagine watching Fritz Lang's film Metropolis is just as tedious and is also only done by art students who want to show off how clever they are.

Nice stuff. Not world changing but good, solid, Big Band work.

Surprisingly enjoyable for yet another middle of the road eighties pop act.

A bit dull.

Delightful

Fantastic work. I love this album.

I'm increasingly surprised by how much I enjoy this pop music. I was sick of it in the eighties, but it's not so bad now.

Meh

Are we definite that AI was not around when this was released?

A bit too smoochy for I.

I listened to this just after attempting Bitches Brew and it was just the pop antidote I needed: Neither to alternative not to facilitate to put me off. So saying it is enjoyable without being complex. A charming mash-up of genres.

Quite nice punk rage.

Good jazzy vibes

Love it. Right up my electro weird avenue.

The best

The music was alright and the songs were alright.

It's got some great tracks ... it's got some alright tracks.

The first couple of tracks made for good angry walking to and fro from the corner shop with headphones in. The last few tracks were on in the background whilst I worked. It was as if the musicians were consciously trying to skirt around an actual main tune whilst never hitting it. When the album ended and Spotify auto played, I got a sense of relief. Painful listening at times and interesting at others.

Beigest

Good fun. Not sure about the intentionally off singing, but I enjoyed it and like their musical output. I pushed it from 4 to 5 stars purely because it would be funny if this was our group's top rated album.

Wonderful. At times a bit soppy, but there are plenty of great songs on here for me.

I've got a soft spot for this album. I love her vocals and the attitude. The lyrics are positive and upbeat and the beats are great.

Can I kick It? Is it possible this is greater than the Lou Reed sample? Probably not, but it's a great track and makes the whole album worthwhile. I also enjoyed the party vibe in Ham 'N' Eggs and the laid back smoothness of I Left My Wallet In El Segundo.

A great album. He re made it away from Island Records as Garvey's Ghost. Which was great too. I really enjoyed listening to this and then went down a dub rabbit hole all afternoon.

Here's my trick: When an album gets too dull or unbearable, nip over to Wikipedia and check out how many tracks were on the original release. Have you listened to 9 Ride songs? Well that'll do then, won't it?

Good fun. Banging tunes and killer tracks alongside some standard punk rock. Very enjoyable though.

Modern soul. I like the vibe. I enjoyed the pop numbers, too. It's quite cheesy overall, but I like it. I wonder why she stopped releasing music.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this, but it was all just a bit limp. They need a person up front giving it some.

Purposefully jarring singing is not good.

Good fun. I really enjoyed this one.

I had a cassette with The Pixies on one side and Jane's Addiction on the other. They were never up to bring measured by that standard, but they do have some good tracks.

I bought this on vinyl and never really got into it. I put Come Clean on a fair few mixtapes, but nothing else really hooked me in. A disappointed 2 stars.

They just kind of troweled on the angst and anger without much finesse. Somehow it sounds both raw and contrived to me. Come and Play is a undeniable banger. The rest I could do without.

Most of this album is just a prelude to Cars

It was a good album with some good tunes on it, but I had a bit of a headache and wasn't really in the mood for it. I can't bring myself to vote it as low as three stars, though.

Pretty crap. I stopped listening hard and was weirdly enjoying it by the time it got to the extended edition remixes, which made me want to go back and listen to the originals again, and then they were still crap. There's something in it, but it does sound a lot like a talented, burnt out, crusty going on and fucking on.

Another case where the music got massively better as soon as the album stopped and Spotify started playing similar hits. Each tune was a couple of minutes too long . Good Times was an inspiration for a lot of samplers in the eighties.

Well done, The Rolling Stones (claps politely), that was nicely executed. There were plenty of good tracks and you ended on a beautiful earworm. Highly enjoyable.

Very good.

Frankie says funny things over music. Frankie says sex noises and David Gilmour style guitar wailing. Frankie says cover versions are a great tribute. Frankie says, "Poppers?"

Enjoyable. I liked the hits and the other stuff was fi-ine-ish. For once having the 2.5 hour extended edition with live concerts and such added to my enjoyment. But it was mostly background music as I got in with my day. Maybe if have been a mod if I were born at the right time.

Quite fun. Some good tunes in there.

Superficial bollocks.

No idea what she was singing about. It might as well have been in French. It wasn't offensive, but it wasn't very good either.

Like a familiar hug. Such a nice album. I think DeLa Soul are a group who have only improved with age, though. #####

I mentally prepared myself for listening to a Black Eyed Peas album, then was pleasantly surprised.

The pop is strong with this one, hhmngh.

Good funky pop jazz. A shame it's mostly covers, but I liked it!.

Good fun.

What was all that about then? Got it off your chest did you? Have something to eat and a little sleep and you'll feel better in the morning.

I got through this by checking out the credits and Googling who else put in the hours apart from Britney. Eric Foster-White and Max Martin are the main culprits. It is vapid, chewing gum music, slickly produced and cynically written. I enjoy a lot of vapid, cynically-written television, but and is the equivalence of being too tired/stoned to change the channel at 3am and watching some Hallmark bullshit. The Beat Goes On was a surprise halfway through, as I quite liked The Allseing I, and this was that, identically, again, but with Britney instead of Cher. I survived it: Go me! Now I have to catch up on that Iron Maiden album I similarly put off until my completionism got the better of me.

Inoffensive benign jingle janglery

Apart from the misogyny, violence and drugs it's good. Great rhymes, good samples and witty. I enjoyed it, but didn't approve.

Really really well made music that just isn't my thing. It raises the bar in the middle of the road.

Pants

I absolutely love Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I would have given 5 stars for their second album, which I much prefer. It's got lovely melodies, eccentricity, musique concrete found sounds.

I go down to the seafront in Weston-super-Mare sometimes and there's a pub garden with a microphone and amplifier set up the. Usually there's some guy playing covers to a backing track. Occasionally they're quite good, but more often than not there is someone playing dodgy covers, not up to the original and nothing to sing along to in the first place. There is usually a cluster of pensioners nearby who clearly just want to eat their basket of chips undisturbed by seagulls or guitarists, but are having a good moan about both. I bet Ken Bruce loves Traffic.

They were a one hit wonder, but then Amy Winehouse blew shit out of the water with her cover of Valerie (or was it the other way around? Did they do a decent cover of her song? Just Googled it: no). They headlined the Godney Gathering festival last summer, but I couldn't be arsed to stay to see them live. I was tired, it was muddy and I had one tired teenage child moping about and one who wanted to party until dawn. This was the right kind of contemporary upbeat to suit my mood yesterday and I did enjoy listening to it even if it was a bit like Travis with a horn section.

I had a mixtape from my first girlfriend with Everyone Knows on it. I am unable to separate the nostalgia from any subjective appreciation. ####

I really like the idea of this album (and how nice was it to get something other than 3 men with guitars, a drummer and singer?). I felt it fell short by not having any obvious catchy hooks or chorus.

Yeah. It wasn't bad. A new Peter Saville /Steven Morris project, CP1919, featuring an extract of the voice of Ian Curtis is getting its preview on 6 Music as I type. ###

What an album! I'd forgotten this existed. I think I had it on cassette or iTunes, or something... Great lyrics, great riffs. So bleak and twisted.

This singer must be really nice. He sounds really nice. I expect he doesn't forget birthdays and he's the kind of guy who pops around when you've been ill or if you're low. I don't know why else he would be on this list as the album doesn't stand out at all.

Absolutely! (Sorry: Wrong album) I love Madness and they have top songs, but they don't have a solid gold album that is bangers wall-to-wall. Nutty boys, silly songs, sensible songs, ska, reggae: good stuff all.

I was kind of aware of Robert Wyatt because of his version of Shipbuilding, but I think I assumed he was just another folkie la-dee-dah troubadour. I really enjoyed this album though, and exploring his catalogue. I was in the sweet spot for listening to chilled soothing melodies and innovative choices of instrumentation. The story behind the able was so captivating and made me want to listen more carefully. Plus: Ivor Cutler! Anything featuring Ivor Cutler ticks my box. Robert seems to have moved in all the right circles in my mind. Ivor Cutler's children's books (yes please), born in Bristol (me too), his accident happened whilst he was in Venice with his wife who was editing Don't Look Now, which I keep meaning to watch (I think, maybe, Edgar Wright mentioned it as a great film to watch), staunch leftie during the Thatcher years (go on, my son!), working with Bjork, Brian Eno, John Peel, David Gilmour (what good taste).

Absolute classic. I think I listened to this a lot in my late teenage years. It was on the right side of the listenable spectrum in my step-dad's collection of jazz CD's. All good, solid jazz. I held back from giving it 5 stars as it's a little cliche now, and more cafe background music than smoky jazz dive with clicking fingers and goatees.

Good fun. It's got a real dressing up and playing vibe. I can see why it was a smash with the kids at the time. Pop, though, innit?

Good fun blues, I guess.

The blandest. We're talking mild cheddar; overheard nattering from the front seats of the bus; hospital catering grade blandness.

Good to have some modern sounds on here. Lyrically it was thematic, rather than narrative driven; the flow was strong and the backing music was beautiful.

Good fun. Lively and different. I almost understood some of the slower Spanish! Hooray!

I thought Incubus sounded like a death metal band, so that was a relief. It wasn't very interesting, though.

Not much of anything

Not good.

I wasn't really into this, but I got into some of the "Doghouse cassette tape" bonus tracks. Maybe they're exactly the same and I just needed to give it a second listen, though.

I wanted to like this a whole lot more.

Dull blues rock. I like their version of Hard to Handle, so it wasn't a complete washout, but I was largely bored listening to this.

Not my cup of tea at all.

Soft rock bollocks

I am supposed to love this because it was multi platinum selling album.i should love it because I once met one of them before they were famous, but I forget which. I should love it because my wife does, and my children and it at school concerts. I am suppose to hate this because it was EVERYWHERE and overplayed on Radio 2. Sitting alongside other vilified soft pop targets as James Blunt, David Grey and Bryan Adams. I never really hated it, nor loved it. It has some good sing along numbers, but doesn't really grip me much. I apologise for the lack of strong opinion.

It's got done good singles on there, and had a certain eccentric style, but I just didn't gel with it.

My teenage big sister loved this at the height of me hating my big sister. I grew to love her, but not Fairport Convention. Fiddly diddly dee dee medieval knights and tragic love oh-I nonny no. Flutes, gong and tambor play-ed in time, Sentence like Yoda for to scan the rhyme.

This is the best one. Decided.

I've tried to love this a few times over the years because many of my friends with good taste rate it highly, but it's just too folky and earnest for me. Maybe it reminds me too much of the worst aspects of my childhood.

The best songs were the ones where they get a sample of a great song, looped it and chucked a load of beats and one finger keyboard playing at it, and then asked a budget soul diva to wail a bit, and then sampled the worst bits of that alongside some stuff of their favourite telly programs. And I like electronic music. Catchy though...

I made it all the way through this one. Enough said.

Reminds of me of WOMAD. I don't have the cultural knowledge to appreciate this properly, maybe. Or maybe I just need to listen in the right environment.

I kept getting interrupted and when I went back to listening, I had no idea which track I was up to as they all sounded the same to my untrained ear. I like Ravi's explanations (although they clearly didn't go in) and I was enjoying the music.

These are not the Bee Gees I was expecting! Where's the falsetto disco gone? Pleasantly not unpleasant. Not great either, though.

Ugh. A bit dull. I think the recipe is: (4 mins, 4/4 beat, mild crescendo) Take a slow moody guitar, breathy vocals and generic non-specific lyrics about one person feeling something about another. Mix with some basic electronic stuff.

I just dislike country music.

I really got into this. I loved this album, then I listened to a bit of Griff Rhys's latest one, then I went back and enjoyed a bit of Neon Neon. The tongue in cheek lyrics, experimental sounds and laid back guitar were spot on.

I bit too melancholic. I cannot relate to his dry desert winds. He should write more songs about grey dull skies and interminable rain.

Well. Let's see, shall we? It's better than Ray Of Light, agreed? I was also rather mean about Beck yesterday, so now I feel like I shouldn't go too low on albums that aren't offensively poor. I'm not enjoying listening, but it's not offensive. If I was in a cafe and this were on I'd vaguely think, "Ugh; Madonna." and make no more of it.

A lovely album, not mind blowing genius or trailblazing innovation, but well made, catchy, well sung and interesting to listen to. I can't really fault it.

Nice. A lot of recognisable songs. Nothing really objectionable.

Average. This samples a whole load of great tunes; as a source/reference guide it might be worth checking out the originals. I would have loved this a lot more when I was a teenager. Now I think this was included by some music journalists who rightfully love the one hit Bootsie Collins MAKES Groove Is In The Heart, which is a floor filler in the best way. 2 Stars, plus a bonus for Groove Is In The Heart.

Oh, those silly boys.

It's like a medley of extracts from a confusing musical, where they forgot to write a plot. Oh god, I just read the plot on Wikipedia; oh dear; oh no. I'm not into these long form monologue progressive rock tracks. I liked the enthusiastic explanation of, "Erogenous Zones" on Counting Out Time. Did he ever get his penis back from the raven (who was carrying it in a shoobedoobe)?

Pretentious pricks

"Hey, Brian, the audience screening feedback just arrived in the post from the record company!" "Oh wow, that's great Gerald. Did they like the orchestral pieces?" "Umm, let's see... Orchestral... Orchestral... Uh, no. No mention of orchestral pieces. Hey, is audience feedback usually written in crayon?" "What? Well what did it say?" "The gist of it is that the tracks are too long, too complex, with too many instruments, and it says here that the 17-22 year old market doesn't like that it was in tune." "Oh." "Yeah." "I see." "Yeah. But the record label really liked it and said can we make a bazillion songs to go on the album." "They liked it? OK. Well let's do all that then."

Finally! Another album I'd include in a Top Albums ... list.

I had to give this a few goes. I was surprised if never heard of it. It seems like a bit of an obscure choice for this list. It was enjoyable to listen to, but I don't know if I'd go back to it. I liked the subsequent suggested tracks that listening to this on Spotify generated, too. 3.5 stars.

A bit too folky for my tastes, but there are some undisputable killer mic-drop tracks on here. It's no Bridge Over Troubled Water, but it is also less twee than that.

I was going to give it an extra star for being short, but I hate country.

I used to listen to this a fair bit in my teens, it was a go-to not bad album too hum along to.

The works is definitely better for having this album in it. It's not something I would listen to often but it's a fan sight better than a lot of the crud on this list. It makes me think of the comic book/movie Sin City.

Nope. I like nuts but this was too far.

What is this and why is it here? Willie Nelson sings soppy covers? Really? Why do I need to listen to this?

I would argue that whilst it flows nicely as an album, it is ALL ethereal keys and noises, and that's too much for a whole album. I listened in 2 sittings and it was lovely hearing this mix in straight after some Indian music. They are lovely pieces but it doesn't work as an album for me.

I want particularly listening, sorry. There was something nice about seasons in the middle, and Constant Craving at the end, which I think was the theme to Green Fried Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café. (Quick Google: Nope, it was a Nob Dylan cover). Probably enjoyable, if you're paying attention.

I rolled my eyes to see another much-discussed late seventies American rock outfit on this list, but I see why they deserve a place. I like the blues energy of this album. Personally, I wouldn't choose to listen to this though. I'm 3 songs in and it still has work to do to earn a 4th star.

I enjoyed this kind of gentle funk with soulful lyrics. Nice.

I enjoyed this. A few tracks I'd heard before and some new. Not worried changing, but enjoyable.

Every single song is great. This is a top album. Sarcastic, funky, political. It's got it all.

Yeah. Fine, but not really that interesting. Nice and short.

A real work of art. Idiosyncratic, weird and enjoyable. If you can get Viv Stanshall or Ivor Cutler on your albums, get them on your albums (you can't: they're dead).

Predictably average country rock. The best songs were covers.

Not my favourite, but good quality Bowie.

I enjoyed reading about Dion much more than listening to him. It seems that his work features a lot of great singles, but I didn't get anything from this album.

Yeah, fairly decent alt rock. Akin to a lot of other fairly decent nineties/nighties bands. 3 and half stars.

Fantastic. This album was on BBC 6 Music in full the other night, so I happily listened to it twice this week. I'm too tired to review it properly, so you'll just have to trust me that it's good.

I have this on vinyl. It has a really good mix of different things on here (although the Pussy Galore track sounds distastefully sexist). The Roots are a really interesting band. There are no standout catchy tracks for me.

Not good.

Deeply unpleasant. I'm glad that's finished. 12 minutes of shout-outs was more unbearable than sitting through the credits on a Marvel film for a 12 second bonus scene setting up the next shit film that gets cancelled anyway.

I love this album like a Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan movie. It's pure schmaltz, with jazz musicians in the background as invisible and talented and as obviously there as Spielberg. It's an indulgent weepy raise-a-ghettoblaster-above-your-head indulgence that I am 100% there for. You are welcome to disagree because it doesn't meet your rebellious agro-punk credentials, it's not cool and not alternative, but I have a soft spot for this album so there.

It would be five stars if not for the painful to listen to kidnap skits.

Enjoyable and what artwork!

Better than most Elton John albums. It has a couple of good songs in.

Ugh. Country! Whining soppy music.

I had this on vinyl and really enjoyed listening to it again. Far preferable to their later work.

Lovely stuff. A bit of a weird choice compared to some of her other albums, but she does weird so wonderfully. I spent a happy afternoon LISTenINg to Björk. ####

My teenage daughter has been hating on Portishead lately, but I just can't bring myself to dislike it, it has so many happy memories tied up with it. I love the melancholy, the mash up of old and new, the vocals and drum and bass playing together. Glorious!

Contemporary electro noise with a kind of wall of sound vibe and some lively harmonics. I'd not really listened to this before, whilst I'm tempted to go for 5 stars, that might just be because it's not F*&king COUNTRY AGAIN., so I'll be cautious and drop a star because I didn't instantly listen twice.

Absolutely fine grunge. I enjoyed it, but not vastly. On my own in the kitchen whilst doing some work was not the correct listening environment.

Good fun.

See Anthrax,but with slightly better tunes. It's as if they just got a white board out and asked some 12 year old boys to write the nastiest stuff they could think of on there. Then they made songs about that. Two and a half stars, because Run To The Hills was good and 22 Acacia Avenue reminded me of Bananaman, who lived 7 doors up the road.

A really enjoyable album that I feel like I must have listened to a few times before. Psychokiller is such a tuuuuunne!

Whilst it's enjoyable jazz, I wasn't particularly grief at any point. Deserves its pace on this list, though.

So-so punk from back in the day. Three Girl Rhumba is in my playlist of maths songs!

Marvin Gaye is/was fantastic but this album is soppy mush Songs for Sexytime, and not really what I'm into. Let's Get it On, is a classic though.

Too minimal. I could barely hear it. Like the memory of a whisper in a noisy room.

I really enjoyed Only Love Can something something Heart, but the others swung between dull and hum-along classics.

I had a strong feeling we'd had The Jungle Brothers already. I really like them, and this album is, frankly, stronger than a lot of their other albums. I don't feel like they're massively innovative or original, but they are very good at what they do, and they are not crazily braggadocios or hooked on whores, guns and drugs. 3.5 stars

Very gentle. So gentle I only know I listened to it through the application of logic. I remember that Lee Scratch Perry track, that was good, the rest of the album was like a lovely light anaesthetic coma.

No. Thank you, but no.

Yes, this is the Velvet Underground album I always reach for. Fantastic stuff! Chilled, weird, good.

Not quite punk, not quite rock. There's a reason I'd not heard of this band. Not that great, sorry.

Really enjoyed this.

What an unexpected joy. I have heard of and listened to things by Andrew Weatherall before. He died in 2020 and his stuff went into heavy circulation on BBC 6Music. This was good to listen to as a whole album.

Nice pre-Spiritualised trance inducing guitar noise.

Worth a listen, so long as you don't mind falling into a pit of depression the likes of which you have never felt before where you can only pray for the numbness of public transport and bestsellers from charity shop book shelves.

Very middling singer songwriter stuff.

Some good tracks and solid guitar work. I see why it could be someone's greatest of all time album, but it's not mine.

Celebrates pimping violence and misogyny. I know he keeps saying he's trying to get out of he "thug life" , but he should've stopped being such a dick, really.

Fine.

A fucking masterpiece. Surreal and real and noisy and sentimental by turns.

Just terrible.

Very enjoyable. I'm not sure it entirely works, but it was worth a listen.

I'm not racist, but, this didn't do anything for me.

Heard to concentrate on whilst I was working, but the bits I tuned into were good.

This sounds like modern Eurovision entries. I got the strong feeling they were aware of how ridiculous they were. Maybe it was their album of Beatles covers that did it. They get an extra star for that.

Disappointingly average for John.

I had his album Electric Circus when it came out and had a similar thing, that I wanted to really like it, it's intelligent hip hop touching in themes of the black American inner city experience. There was a little bit of misogyny in there, and none of the music really hooked me, so I didn't ever get into Common as much as, say Curtis Mayfield, Arrested Development or Mos Def.

Meh: country. K D Lang has a nice voice, I just don't like the music.

Loud guitars and teenage angst. Not too cliche or repetitive. I liked it, but wouldn't seek it out again.

Dull. Based on Wayne's World, I thought I'd like Alice Cooper more, but it just wasn't very interesting.

Enjoyable Björk teamwork.

Ooh, he's such a nice boy, with his lovely floppy hair. And he does that nice song by that nice Garfunkel and his lovely friend.

Bloody good.

The thing about dub is getting lost in its bouncy, offbeat rhythm and going along for the ride. The cutting of sounds and samples gives a homemade quality. The deep base groove is like a relaxing heartbeat. The sway of reggae takes me away and the electro wooshing on old synths is like a sprinkling of hundreds and thousands. What a shame this isn't dub.

Marvelous original punk. Good hooks, good lyrics great tunes.

Shouty shouty men are very cross about something. They probably need a hug, then they'll feel better.

Jolly music with amusing lyrics. I feel like this style has been emulated many times since, so I have it an extra star for innovation (although I am just guessing).

Björk, innit?

Solidly benign background music to work to. The covers were almost as good as the originals.

Great fun. Bombastic and funky. Could've done with some singing, on maybe a track or two to add an extra dimension, but it was fantastic and wonderfully different to the usual albums in this list.

Really not bothered by all this shouting and guitars. Not particularly coherent, funky or witty.

I can do this, too. The road is long, You've got to be crazy to catch a cliché, it ain't easy, and my brother, looking over my shoulder, it's been a long path; and my sister, where has she gone? Where has the time gone, dripping off my watch like syrup, Dali on my mind, Dali on my mind, Dali on my mind, Dah-a-a-ali on myyy miiind. Heavy with the pressure, waking up in a motel and thinking, Dali on my mind, Dali on my mind, Dali on my mind. Ooohh, yeeeaah.

Beige as fuck.

Very enjoyable. I like the striped back nature of Jack White's performances.

Fab: Punchy and fun.

My Country Album, The Gravity of My Firstworld Problems, features tracks such as: Why Aren't There any Childcare Places? That Hat Don't Match I Ordered a 5 but they Delivered a 9 Not Beyonce Enough Stil' Crushin' on the Mailman Every Cliché has a Rainbow ... and a cover of McArthur Park

Enjoyable but not particularly memorable and I doubt I'll hunt it out again. Someone's jam, no doubt, just not mine.

Fine I suppose. Interesting and different enough not to disappoint, but I'm not going to search them out or explore further unless some future person is adamant I must.

Rude boy! Bit misogynistic, but good sounds.

Sigh. Roll over and go back to sleep. Not worth waking up for.

In Australia, Jonathan Richmond meets Badly Drawn Boy. This was instantly forgettable. Maybe I've heard it many times before? I've definitely heard the round and round, up and down song before, so that one might be better and less forgettable.

Good funk pop.

It took me about a month to listen to. In small chunks it was fine. Individually the tracks can be great and there are some stand out tracks. But it was WAAAAAAYY TOOO LOOONG. I guess the finish helped them get attention, and considering that it was about 4 albums long the quality is remarkable. But I just didn't want to listen to 4 albums of this stuff back to back. 4 stars with one removed because of the length.

A zinger! I didn't know this was wall-to-wall needledrops. What a delight. I am an tired and pottering about doing tasks and this is a lovely accompaniment. I cannot go 4.5 stars, so I'll have to round.

Not bad, not bad. A bit chin stroking and smoking gauloise. Dissertations have been written on this I expect.

Absolute tosh, but it could be quite entertaining if you're in the right mood. Drummer only knows one drum beat, the singer only has the notes he wrote during his maths class and the guitarist had lovely hair.

Walk the line precariously between novelty album and serious prog rock statement and then nosedives into the novelty camp. A pointless album.

A good Miles Davis album. "So What" is the standout, but I'm never drawn to put this on. It's music to have on whilst drinking Martinis outdoors on a hot sunny day, whilst chatting with intellectual friends. It's just a bit too long and all a bit too similar.

What a delight. Proper band work, varied and tight. I listened as I walked through sunny fields and a birdsong overdub is recommended for the next remastered release!

Beautiful singing (but I'm not sure what about). I wonder how many were covers... Nice to have heard. Pata pata is a classic and a shame it wasn't on this album. I remember that Miriam Make a looked after Nina Simone when she needed it, and they toured together.

Solid hip hop classic. Not my favourite but produced to the max. Deserves a place on the list, whatever your opinion of Kanye.

I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve with this one really. I like The Talking Heads, and liked some of these songs, but at times it just seemed a bit rambling.

The production values and quality of singing are not up to the high and ambitious standard of songwriting. I enjoyed the variety of songs and the content of the lyrics very much though. I would love to hear a modern cover of this, it done genius had nothing better to do with their time.

Yes! This is the way all (well, most) punk albums should be. 1 minute songs, bang, bang, bang and done. FIN.

Listening carefully, I've noticed that the lyrics are 90% incoherent bullshit. The backing is nice enough jingly guitar stuff. It's devoid of anything interesting, really though.

Enjoyable bobbins.

What a band! Fantastic, gush, gush, fawn. 5 Star masterpiece.

The title track is a clear standout, and accompanied the reading of the Wikipedia pages on the 1919 Paris Peace Accords well. None of the tunes were bad or tedious they just didn't hook me in much.

An interesting band that rises above the typical middle of the road jangly guitar pop.

Charming jazz.

"Adele! Do your thing!" "Where's me bloody orchestra?" "In the faacking studio, innit?" "Oh, I dunno, mate. Quite honestly, I'm just not feeling it." "Right! Bring in the boyfriend!" "Wha? Simon?" "Hi babes. Listen it's not you, it's me..."

"Guys, I am running out of cash let's make an album. Call the producer." "What do I tell him?" "Like, say, we need a mansion with some recording equipment and a genius Sound Technician guy." "K" "Yes, and some K" "He says, have you rehearsed?" "Fuck it. Just say we have."

Fine. Not bad, but not my thing either.

Perky pop vibes. Very manufactured

Wonky sample nose by art-loving pretentious clever men. I mean, why not? It's not painful to listen to. The exorcism track is great. It just has "Interesting side-project" written all over it. As a teenager, I would pick this out of my step dad's CD rack from time to time when I wanted something different to listen to. 3.5 stars

I can't listening to this without hearing Vic Reeves lounge singer. Even Spotify wasn't sure of the lyrics. But, hey, if you give a thousand monkeys typewriters one might shit something in the shape of a letter onto one.

I love that I can understand bits of most lines of this, which means I have a better grasp of French than done inner city US slang. Thank you, MC Solaar; well enunciated! The tunes have great samples and it's not all just bitches, violence, drugs and cars. Why they picked this album and not La Nouveau Western, with the cowboy vibes and Serge Gainsbourg sample (from the film La Haine) is beyond me.

I liked this over the other Dexy's album in this list. The northern soul is strong here, and Kevin Rowland's is simultaneously individual and full of character as well as indecipherable and fucking annoying. I'm not really sure what it was all about, and I was torn between saying that I preferred the original and that I loved the uniqueness and the brass section on slightly punky tracks. 3.5 stars

Well, Clapton is always pretty good, isn't he? This is a nice blues album, nothing terrible, nothing outstanding either.

Back at the dawn of L.S.D. when the "electric" guitar was young, this was novel and exciting. Burroughs was busy creating at the shredder and Waterman had yet to perform a rock opera. Heady days that anyone who was REALLY there cannot remember.

A real mixed bag, which probably comes from having so many writers. I adore the track "Randy Scouse Git", and "Zilch" is a fun skit. But every time they sing, "I'm going to be stealing, That little girl's heart today." I get a chalkboard shudder. It was a different time.

The relief of a familiar album! Not having to wade through an obscure 80s, cheesy 50s or acid-drenched 70s album. 5 stars because I would choose to just put it on from time to time all by myself. I like the lyrics (although the creepy ones go a bit too far sometimes) and the tunes are interesting and catchy.

Pretty bland.

I can really relate to this album of early twenties pretentious self-aware middle class debauchery. I like electronica and songs where you can tell what the singer is actually saying. However, this album reads like a diary entry and Marc Almond is not a good singer and you can tell the music was botched together by one person. File under: Has a good cover of a Northern Soul song. We've already had "I Shot the Sheriff" (Clapton) and "Seven Days is Too Long" (Dexy's) this week though. Highlights were Tainted Live (obvs), Say Hello, Wave Goodbye and Bedsitland. Was Youth ironically out of tune or did they not have anything better recorded and needed filler?

Thankfully short. Everybody's Talking is good and raised it from a one star rating, the rest was typical charity shop reject bin stuff.

The Wikipedia made me dread this; his girlfriend died and his band broke up, so he ended up doing hard drugs and hanging out in a studio whilst celebrity mates checked in on him and jammed a bit. The resulting album of mostly instrumental psychedelic folk was poorly received by the waiting press. After hearing that, the resulting ambivalence I felt when listening is miraculous. I liked reading the lyrics of the cowboy song.

The origin of rock n roll. What a legend!

Fine. Pleasant. Funny.

Fun. Not really my thing, but I see why it's on this list.

Lovely but consistently dour. The title track is really catchy, the rest just kind of sits there.

Terrible. The kind of album you get stuck listening to at a relatives house where it wouldn't be done to comment on how shit the music is. The covers, usually the catchy ones, were bad: Nature Boy was out of tune and didn't seem stylised.

I felt like I'd heard of Howe Gelb before. His output looks prolific. I liked the sound, very chilled and poetic like Buck 65 or Lee Hazelwood. The album wasn't "tight" though and I felt that it could have benefitted from more variety. Twenty years ago I might have bought this in a record shop, I might listen to another Giant Sand album to see, but probably won't return to this one. Also: How geeky is calling your band Giant Sandworms? :eyeroll:

Oh God, please, no more country music! Aaargh!

There She Goes is such a classic jingly jangly happy song. I've always been disappointed by the rest of The La's output and this album backed that up. One good song doesn't make an album.

I tried to listen but it kept moving away like trying to remember a dull dream and resolutely stayed in the background.

Honky Tonk bollocks

I surprised myself on how much I enjoyed this one. I'll give it another listen some time.

Slinky vocals but slightly devoid of personality.

Lovely pleasant songs. Typically, the cover song is the banger that got put in adverts. Not a particularly noteworthy entry, though.

Absolute classic. What fun!

Comically dark. I like that it manages a range on a theme without coming across too much like s novelty album. Also Kylie not being a total pop princess., which is nice.

A milestone in music making, but it hasn't dated that well.

A well produced album. Shame about the Chris Rick and Kanye West vocals. There is a wealth of talent hidden in this album who should get more credit. How come Gil Scott Heron didn't get a credit when the last track was his track from an earlier album with added accompaniment?

Terrible lyrics, big hair, generic guitar sounds; this was all a bit of an accident. Nothing to see here, move along please.

Strong poetry, but the music just makes me think of my mum after her divorce.

A lovely little album. It's a bit soppy but there's some gems such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

An insult to burritos.

Dirty grungy nose machines. Fine, but not my thing.

I enjoyed humming along to this. They don't take their time, but not everything has to fit on a 7", so that's a nice change. Shame about Roger Waters politics! I tried getting my kids into Pink Floyd but they weren't interested. I'm pretty sure adults tried to get me into them too back in the day.

This is another one of the albums to endure on this list.

Not bad, but not interesting either.