My User Albums Journey

User Albums Journey

Exploring beyond the book, one album at a time

View 1001 Albums Summary

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2.96

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1970

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Hip-hop

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Wordsmith

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
How to Operate With a Blown Mind Lo Fidelity Allstars	5	2.77	+2.23
Sailing The Seas Of Cheese Primus	5	3.06	+1.94
Super Ape The Upsetters	5	3.19	+1.81
Rip It Off Times New Viking	4	2.26	+1.74
Mm..Food MF DOOM	5	3.28	+1.72
Joy as an Act of Resistance IDLES	5	3.3	+1.7
Comfort To Me Amyl and The Sniffers	5	3.37	+1.63
Wet Leg Wet Leg	5	3.41	+1.59
World Of Echo Arthur Russell	4	2.54	+1.46
Has A Good Home Final Fantasy	4	2.8	+1.2

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Pinkerton Weezer	1	3.41	-2.41
Magnolia Electric Co. Songs: Ohia	1	3.28	-2.28
Hand. Cannot. Erase. Steven Wilson	1	3.19	-2.19
Brat Charli xcx	1	3.14	-2.14
Fully Completely The Tragically Hip	1	3.11	-2.11
Penguin Eggs Nic Jones	1	2.99	-1.99
Before These Crowded Streets Dave Matthews Band	1	2.95	-1.95
A1A Jimmy Buffett	1	2.77	-1.77
Turn On The Bright Lights Interpol	2	3.63	-1.63
Come And Get It Rachel Stevens	1	2.62	-1.62

5-Star Albums (7)

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Popular Reviews

Ultra Blue

Hikaru Utada · 2 likes

1/5

"This could be interesting." I thought. No, it just sounds like terrible pop music but with the (presumably) vapid lyrics in a different language.

Rip It Off

Times New Viking · 1 likes

4/5

Someone added this to a playlist with an image from Scott Pilgrim comic, which I thought encapsulated that DIY indie grunge aesthetic. Lyrics were often inaudible due to the reverb, guitars were fuzzy as fuck, but that was kind of charming. 3.5 stars

All Hour Cymbals

Yeasayer · 1 likes

4/5

I really enjoyed this. It snuck up on me as gentle background music, but then I found myself really enjoying bits and relistened. Very chilled out, very skilled musically. A lovely find.

Older

Lizzy McAlpine · 1 likes

3/5

Fine. Nice. Good. Charming. Special? No, not really.

Pinkerton

Weezer · 1 likes

1/5

Whiny and annoying.

4-Star Albums (26)

1-Star Albums (12)

All Ratings

Ultra Blue

Hikaru Utada

1/5

"This could be interesting." I thought. No, it just sounds like terrible pop music but with the (presumably) vapid lyrics in a different language.

The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit

4/5

I walked through the woods on a sunny winter day, with a thick layer of fallen leaves all around, a dog charging off a head and only a vague sense of direction. It was an ideal listening environment this positive folk stuff.

Rip It Off

Times New Viking

4/5

Grace And Danger

John Martyn

4/5

I got a bit melancholy listening to this one, which chimes with the record label boss not wanting to release it as it was about his friends' divorce. I didn't think I enjoyed it that much, but then happily listened to another couple of hours of John Martyn and Martyn-adjacent music, so I think not enjoying it was very much the label in this section of the record shop (file under dour).

I Am

Earth, Wind & Fire

3/5

A little slice of disco magic. Like a cute friend (who is obsessed with Dr Who and won't shut up).

Fully Completely

The Tragically Hip

1/5

So middle of the road; I snoozed through the whole thing, safely buffered by that central reservation.

Before These Crowded Streets

Dave Matthews Band

1/5

I don't know why I despise Dave Matthews, but I do.

Fashion Nugget

CAKE

4/5

A lot of fun. The Distance was always a firm favourite and the rest of the album is good (but not as good).

10,000 gecs

100 gecs

3/5

Slightly painful to listen to, but I also admire them for the work they have put into this mess of commercial adjacent work, which shouldn't sell any records. It is a bit too art school, but has a good sense of humour. Noisy blaring pop

Pinkerton

Weezer

1/5

Whiny and annoying.

All Hour Cymbals

Yeasayer

4/5

I really enjoyed this. It snuck up on me as gentle background music, but then I found myself really enjoying bits and relistened. Very chilled out, very skilled musically. A lovely find.

Come And Get It

Rachel Stevens

1/5

Nothing good about this: Goodbye

Contra

Vampire Weekend

4/5

I've never really sat and listened to Vampire Weekend. They are a nice little american indie band, aren't they?

Script Of The Bridge

The Chameleons

2/5

Incredibly average dirge based guitar band from the eighties.

Tales Of Mystery And Imagination

The Alan Parsons Project

4/5

Surprisingly lovely. This band should have had a better name, as I keep thinking they are going to be The Partridge Family. I liked the classical bits and the chilled out vibe. I liked the arty bits.

Out of the Blue

Debbie Gibson

1/5

I mean ... Once I complete listening to the 1089 out of the 1001 albums to listen before you die, I too was angry and twisted, tempted to inflict pain on other listeners just out of a sense of anger. Unlike the wanker who nominated this piece of pop, unfit for a pub quiz trivia question I learned that the anger was because a deep seated insecurity that I can no longer blame on others and instead I must learn to accept and nurture myself instead of never quite getting the sense of justice I aspired for by tearing aural holes in the minds of others. Remove this from your Guantanamo playlist and place a daisy in the barrel of a rifle.

Human Racing

Nik Kershaw

3/5

Good old Nik Kershaw. A nice face of eighties pop.

The Feeding of the 5000

Crass

2/5

Proper anarcho punk, I expect. I didn't listen to any of the lyrics though because I was too busy being tied to my desk for The Man, enslaved in the corporate mechanism or something.

Bon Iver

2/5

I was tired and dreamy when I started listening to this, yet it still annoyed me. I have to give it a listen on another day, but I'm fairly sure I don't like it. On the tin it ticks my boxes: modern chilled stuff, pastoral and charming, but it was too MOR.

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Bright Eyes

3/5

Mumblecore indie folk. Kind of beatific, kinda depressed.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Vince Guaraldi Trio

4/5

A nice Christmas album if jazz fun.

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

M83

3/5

Stadium synth rock/pop. I'm kind of enjoying the auto-generated stuff that's coming after the album finished playing It was alright. 3.5 stars

TEKKNO

Electric Callboy

1/5

Marilyn Manson joins The Backstreet Boys in 1998 Ibiza.

Excitable Boy

Warren Zevon

2/5

Werewolves of London is kinda fun. The rest is a recommended skip.

A.M.

Wilco

2/5

I see why people like this, but I personally find this kind of country folk rock to be dull.

A Live One

Phish

3/5

Indie meets prog. The tunes are quite catchy and the musicianship is strong, but the long improvised bits are a bit too much. It has the feel of a band looking for a break which never came.

The Great Outdoors Jam

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong

3/5

*** Another album of long sets of improvised guitar and drums. As usual, the musicians are good and the tunes were nice. It was kind of jazz funk. ***

Older

Lizzy McAlpine

3/5

Fine. Nice. Good. Charming. Special? No, not really.

10,000 Days

TOOL

2/5

** It all sounds a bit same-y to me. One track of guitar noise blends into the next. Not too angry, but not my thing. **

Yellow & Green

Baroness

3/5

Like a quite good version of the Foo Fighters or something. I may be just in a rock mood today though, as I'm now enjoying Witchcraft. 3 stars as I'm not a massive fan of The Foo Fighters, plus a nod of respect.

Songs Of A Lost World

The Cure

3/5

Nice stuff.

Englabörn

Jóhann Jóhannsson

3/5

Pleasant jangly background music.

Erratic Cinematic

Gerry Cinnamon

3/5

Some guy and a guitar singing well, but not mind-blowing.

World Of Echo

Arthur Russell

4/5

Very interesting and quite cool. I checked out the documentary about him on BBC Sounds and I might find his disco album next.

Reconstruction Site

The Weakerthans

3/5

Good observation lyrics and a pleasant relaxed sound. I probably won't seek them out though. ***

10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

3/5

Surprisingly decent album of blues covers.

Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Steven Wilson

1/5

As if the guy from Erasure, Andrew Lloyd Webber and The Manic Street Preachers got pissed and decided to write a musical together. Then they wrote it with a beastly hangover.

Katamari Damacy

Various Artists

2/5

The second best computer game music soundtrack album I've listened to this year. Some of it was kind of charming background music. I liked the bobbly glitchy electronic bits and the grand piano and some of the jazz numbers. But Que Sera Sera was extremely painful, and I couldn't make it to the end of the song. Cherry Blossom sounded like it was written and performed by an 8 year with over-bearing parents intent on him turning out to be a genius and willing to hire an orchestra to prove it.

The Impossible Kid

Aesop Rock

3/5

Pretty good hip hop, but also pretty middle of the road. Like, it's technically good? But, like, nothing there really stirred me? You know?

Mm..Food

MF DOOM

5/5

Amazing stuff containing all of my favourite things: good music, food and silly superheroes.

Is Ellipsis

Psyche Origami

3/5

Classic Scratchy, boom-bap hip hop. Like Ninja Tune (yes, the whole record label), Krafty Kuts, Cold Cut, The Herbaliser or the Jungle Bothers. Jurassic 5 on a budget. I'm surprised I wasn't really into this in 2005.

Telefone

Noname

4/5

Rather lovely chilled out hip hop.

Bob Mould

3/5

Like a less annoying R.E.M.

Brat

Charli xcx

1/5

OMG just THE worst kind of pop poop.

You'd Prefer an Astronaut

Hum

2/5

Grunge dude mumbling. He can't/won't sing in tune.

Black Devil Disco Club

4/5

Funky French disco electro.

Squeezing Out Sparks

Graham Parker

2/5

Dull eighties stuff. A bit like Elvis Costello.

Control

Pedro The Lion

2/5

The singer sounds bored of his own songs.

Has A Good Home

Final Fantasy

4/5

Beautiful and weird and glitchy with soaring strings, clever vocals and niceness.

Relatives in Descent

Protomartyr

3/5

I think they would like to be The Fall. Dour singing and droning, melodic guitars.

Broken Social Scene

2/5

Bored Social Scene.

Alive 2007

Daft Punk

3/5

Bleep boop French synth pop.

Nurture

Porter Robinson

3/5

Nice.

Thank Christ for the Bomb

The Groundhogs

4/5

A nice mix of blues rock and prog. Not too much of a concept album, not too verbose or waffling. Pleasant blues guitar in the style of Deep Purple or something coming out of San Francisco in the seventies.

Version 2.0

Garbage

3/5

Good, fun, grungepop.

Sailing The Seas Of Cheese

Primus

5/5

wonderful fun funky rap jazz bass-heavy bonkers

The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess

Chappell Roan

3/5

I wasn't in the mood for feminist pop today.

Fear of a Blank Planet

Porcupine Tree

2/5

Fairly standard dirty rock. The NiN appreciation is clear, but it was also giving me Smashing Pumpkins vibes.

Jaco Pastorius

4/5

Wow! Funky orchestral jazz with everything dialled up to 110%

No.1 In Heaven

Sparks

4/5

Sparks-levels of bonkers, with Georgio Moroder's inimitable synth lines slapped all over the place. Sparks have a nice, precise approach to lyrics and their delivery. They innovate and experiment a lot, which makes them interesting. At the same time this is the kind of seventies shit I grew up hating: Very Marmite!

My Love Is Cool

Wolf Alice

3/5

Mad Dogs & Englishmen

Joe Cocker

4/5

Like a male Joan Baez; a strong voice and a big band, make these covers and reworkings shine and rock at the same time.

The Universe Smiles Upon You

Khruangbin

4/5

Beautiful background stuff. Doesn't have the single that I know Kruangbin from on. It could've done with more singing in.

Joy as an Act of Resistance

IDLES

5/5

Yeah. An irresistible powerhouse of sarky, angry intelligent punk.

Exile On Coldharbour Lane

Alabama 3

4/5

I really like this, and I've enjoyed seeing them live, but the joke wears a little thin to make a whole album, nevermind a career for these guys.

Funeral Dress

Wussy

3/5

Each song individually was quite nice. The lyrics were good and the tunes were melodic and not just CC DD CC or something, but nothing really shone out at me, so it's a 3-and-a-half star album to me.

Transatlanticism

Death Cab for Cutie

3/5

Proto-Coldplay

Young Team

Mogwai

4/5

Nice mumbly electro. Dark in tone with the odd crescendo.

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Arctic Monkeys

4/5

Enjoyable, but such a shame that they switched styles from that edgy sound in "Whatever People Say I Am..."

F♯ A♯ ∞

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

3/5

Dystopian noise. I like the idea of Godspeed you! Black Emperor, but sitting and listening to them is uncomfortable.

Harbor Lights

Bruce Hornsby

2/5

Music for dads who say they like jazz, but really they like Status Quo.

Geography

Tom Misch

4/5

Quite good in a background-y sorta way.

Speak & Spell

Depeche Mode

3/5

Lovely eighties pop

A1A

Jimmy Buffett

1/5

Terrible country. Why would someone enjoy this?

Ruin

The Amazing Devil

3/5

Quite nice folk. The kind of thing you'd get on a gritty modern western.

Magnolia Electric Co.

Songs: Ohia

1/5

Spectacularly unimaginative music for bored drummers.

Super Ape

The Upsetters

5/5

So good.

Y Ahora Qué?

Reincidentes

3/5

Nice to have some foreign language stuff. It wasn't bad, but didn't particularly move me.

Crack the Skye

Mastodon

2/5

Sigh. Metal is not my thing. I listened to most of it, so it can't have been that bad.

Comfort To Me

Amyl and The Sniffers

5/5

A lot of fun

Spilt Milk

Jellyfish

2/5

Generic

Penguin Eggs

Nic Jones

1/5

Not for me, this fiddly diddly folk

RENAISSANCE

Beyoncé

4/5

Very enjoyable pop warbling. It got a bit samey after an hour though.

Promises

Floating Points

3/5

On paper this kind of chilled jazz is right up my street. I kept waiting for it to kick in on this album and it never really did In the absence of cochones it needs more cowbell.

Modern Vampires of the City

Vampire Weekend

4/5

Perfectly acceptable indie pop, and anyone who disagrees is entitled to their opinion.

Sublime

3/5

Sub optimal ska

Café Tacvba

4/5

Interesting mix of sounds. It was also good practice for Spanish!

Odyssey Number Five

Powderfinger

2/5

Bland as fuck

I Had a Dream That You Were Mine

Hamilton Leithauser

2/5

Rose Mountain

Screaming Females

2/5

I'll be honest, I want really listening.

Highway Prayers

Billy Strings

4/5

File under: Country (less annoying than usual) I may even have enjoyed the more bluegrassy numbers a bit.

Hammersmith Odeon, London '75

Bruce Springsteen

2/5

You like Bruce Springsteen you will probably like this, but have probably heard it already.

Because the Internet

Childish Gambino

4/5

Fun

Wet Leg

5/5

Woo-woo all aboard the band wagon. This crazy train departs in 2022 and isn't looking back.

How to Operate With a Blown Mind

Lo Fidelity Allstars

5/5

Such a fabulous album. I have it on vinyl. They never repeated this anti capitalist anarchic chaos, sadly.

Mouth Sounds

Neil Cicierega

3/5

Fun noise. It's quite the gimmick record, and I just imagine the guys who did alternately giggling and cursing some subtle pitch/tempo that's just off or something.

Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol

2/5

Notably dull.