What a vibe. This album transports you. It picks you up and drops you into the midwest in the early 20th century, pours you a Jack Daniels, offers you a cigarette and tells you it's late night tales. An album that puts the world to rights. A few tracks could have lost a minute or ten which drops a half mark, but as we don't have half marks it gets the five.

Come on guys! I mean seriously! Some tracks are nearly interesting prog, then bland soft rock moments kick in. I don’t think there’s a single track that I find good start to finish. And some of the longer tracks are really boring. Dreamer is OK if a touch longer than needed. Not a super album.

Get's straight to the point. A brilliant and varied selection of little punk gems. Came close to full marks but I still find a couple of tracks difficult to connect with. Germ Free Adolescents is a stone cold classic.

No idea how such sweary, angry, mysoginistic, self aggrandising can feel so mellow and welcoming. Well done.

The album that inspired a generation of white British musicians to sound like poor versions of this album.

Much more blues forward than I'd expected which lent itself to the darker macabre spendidly.

If you like folksy Americana then you might get something out of this. Well performed , well written but merges into the genre.

Unexpected grower. The first 3 or 4 tracks are pretty uninspiring but I just seemed to tune into it over time and by the end was enamoured. Interesting to hear bits that clearly inspired other bands. A like rather than a love but a definite moment in time.

In your face JAZZ!! If you can embrance the note avalanche and tumble in the chaos it's quite and experience. Rather good.

It’s nice, but pretty much a live best of with strings. Smooths out Metallica’s rough edges making more like a soundtrack to’ Metallica the Ride’. Nothing wrong with it for me the orchestra took more than they added.

A really good album covering many styles and genres. It feels like it's sitting on the cusp between punk, prog, pop, rock and reggae. Throw in a bit of jazz influence too. Side two has the hits and the album fizzles out a bit at the end but overall a really solid entry.

I'm not the biggest reggae fan, but it's a pleasant album.

Very enjoyable. Most likely a strong grower.

Unapologetic pop rock. Sexist, dated and utterly brilliant. Of its era but a little joy.

Afrobeat, but predominently jazz. It's good and I enjoyed it, but it didn't change my life.

A bit uneven but a slicker production than their previous album. Kool Thing still the stand out track, but the whole album is a fun noise adventure.

Surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did. Mostly slow and introspective with quite a zen vibe. If you can tune in it's a ride worth taking.

A near perfect album. An dark atmosphere of terrible tales told around a camp fire. At turns viscious, funny, sad and beautiful. Definitely worth a listen.

It's ok but didn't grab me.

Hit singles lifting a solid rock album that wears its blues history on its sleeve as a badge of honour. Nostalgia and knowing wink glosses over the sexism. A step into the mainstream for a jobbing rock band.

A fruit cake full of tasty treats with quite a bit of filler. I liked the number of shorter songs but some still managed to outlive their welcome. But the standout songs are still world class. A mixed bag.

Very T Rexy. Surprised by the amount of classic blues in there. Brilliantly produced and decent span of styles.

Mournful and boring. Every song outlives its welcome.

Less than the sum of its parts. You could cherry pick the better songs but as a whole it disappoints.

A techno concept album. Worked for me.

Enjoyable to listen to but it doesn't stay with you.

Some gems, some filler. Ahead of the curve as ever and slightly odd for the Thin White Duke to predict the urban sould of the early 80's.

I like it too much to be objective.

Unashamedly bland, the clarion call of the middle class. The soundtrack to a million dinner parties. And while this is true it's better than you'd expect.

I feel I've undermarked this because it's an amazing album with a real crossover that paved the way for so much. But I can't help but feel Ray Charles is at his bets with blues. This whitebread album could easily be for Sinatra which I guess is the point. It opened doors and is very good. But you know he's got more in him.

Prog, Proggy, Prog, Prog. Rather enjoyed it.

It felt like Grunge by numbers. Predominantly filler with the occassional lift. Treading well worn ground, but with a female viewpoint. I can see how it could inspire. By the end I'd warmed to it a touch otherwise it may have been a 2 star.

Loud and rawcous, but unexpectedly eclectic and musical. Made me feel like a disaffected youth again. RAAAAAAAAGH!!!

I'm not sure if these were trailblaizers or pioneers of modern rhythm and blues, but they sound like 99% of American rock bands from 68-72. If they set the sound fair enough, but they are buried under better versions.

I kind of liked the title track but the rest left me cold. The mild electronic backing added next to nothing. Probably exciting if you were already a fan, but certainly not winning any.

Definately ambient. Some really good tracks balanced by some indifferent one. It was OK.

A perfect snapshot in time. Life, politics and race in Britain. The kitchen sink dramas. The bottled aggression. Desperate and beautiful.

Good. Solid. A bit bland. Couple of truly amazing songs and a few real self indulgent moments.

A great little album. He's happy or he's sad and he's not afraid to sing about it.

Predominately blah. Maybe you had to be there.

Moments of genius in plenty of filler. A rock band in a punk world.

That was nice.

Wasn’t that impressed at the time. Still not.

The singles carry at least one of these stars. Possibly two.

A lot more enjoyable than I’d expected. It held up really well.

Beautiful melancholy.

Not sure Tony Allen needed anyone to drum along, but still a joyous experience.

Top notch pop from the ABBA-bots. Can't say I actually enjoyed it but I did very much appreciate it, like a nicely stacked shelf of tins or a well presented window display. Well done everybody.

What a vibe. This album transports you. It picks you up and drops you into the midwest in the early 20th century, pours you a Jack Daniels, offers you a cigarette and tells you it's late night tales. An album that puts the world to rights. A few tracks could have lost a minute or ten which drops a half mark, but as we don't have half marks it gets the five.

A rounded up three and a half. It's not so much dated as frozen in amber, but the bangers still hit home and it does feel like a coherent collection of songs. A proper album.

Two cracking singles and plus Breaking The Girl and the title track save a bland melange of funk rock rap. Fop? I think I'm saying the bad Fop outnumbers the good Fop 2 to 1, but the good Fop is twice as good as the bad Fop. Middle marks.

Another I'd have given 4.5 stars, but happy to round up. Musically strong, brilliantly produced, well presented album. Lyrics seem more a mood thing, but it was a ride I'd take again.

It is good, but it didn't particularly grab me. Wore it's influences a bit too much on its sleeve. Not enough to make me want to leave and go and listen to Metallica, but it was still there.

Come on guys! I mean seriously! Some tracks are nearly interesting prog, then bland soft rock moments kick in. I don’t think there’s a single track that I find good start to finish. And some of the longer tracks are really boring. Dreamer is OK if a touch longer than needed. Not a super album.

Get's straight to the point. A brilliant and varied selection of little punk gems. Came close to full marks but I still find a couple of tracks difficult to connect with. Germ Free Adolescents is a stone cold classic.

Enjoyable accessible jazz that became ubiquitous. A positive view into a jazz future that never happened.

A lot of the tracks are not just old school but prehistoric rap. That said it still wins you over and about half the tracks are bangers.

Takes half an album to get going, but very good when it does.

A lot of nostalgia going on and fascinating to see a band on the way to where you know they're going. A few classic tracks here, but still a couple that are dragging their heels.

Don't get me wrong I am all for a jangly guitar and a crooney sing-a-long but this album is mostly boring.

I wanted to like it more than I did. It had all the right bits, but you go straight into Rambling Bob. I think I wanted a little more foreplay.

I liked most of the tracks that didn't have that built in 'tune out' thing where you keep missing them. It's like they're invisible. How do they do that?

This Joni Mitchell album has way too much Joni Mitchell in it. Less Joni please. I liked a lot of the music and was even surprised by a couple of songs, but less Joni would have made all of them better.

Really wasn't in the mood for this one. If you had no idea that if you hit a guitar it makes a noise for a bit and you had no concept of music then this may have some surprises for you. You'd have more fun picking up a guitar and hitting it at random yourself.

Was not expecting this. Smooth, ecclectic, not hanging around. A new little joy that I'll be revisiting.

No idea how such sweary, angry, mysoginistic, self aggrandising can feel so mellow and welcoming. Well done.

Neither fleet nor foxy. Fair play for the folk revival. It's pleasant enough and a bit too smug. The biggest take away is how much I enjoy the cover painting. Pieter Bruegel the Elder rocks like the Fleet Foxes can only dream.

It probably deserves three stars but it bored my pants off more often than it didn't.

LoVe hOW dAvId bYRne sInGS!

All that Nick Cave goodness, but it got a touch samey at times. Beautiful though.

A near perfect album with a creepy personal message from a murderer.

Sexy time in the 1970’s. Smoooooth.

He showed us the future. Now we live in cars.

Big bold ballsy bayou banjo blues n bluegrass. Bit boring.

Pleasant eloquent reggae without a single banger. Just mash.

They weren’t the first to do, they weren’t the best to do it, but they did it anyway. Couple of half decent singles on a mostly indifferent album.

Never has a crossover album felt so good. Thirty years later and it still hits home. An absolute joy to listen to. Life is hard and no one understands me.

Not boring. Not great. More than a Tori Amos wannabe hitting a saucepan. Occassionally suprising. Often not.

Like a weird buffet of your favourite foods stuck on your plate in odd combinations. Rock, punk, rap, funk, metal, and a bit of leftover late 70's/early 80's sneaking in now and again. I enjoyed this more than I expected to.

The tracks on this album are like a box of chocolates. I didn't like half of them.

That man can certainly write a song, even if he can't always keep your attention.

He Bossed it.

The Wellerphant man in full force with some jems here, but a couple of duds steal a star.

When you know you've gotta go, you gotta go. Quite the way to go.

Pretentious, overblown, and up its own bottom. I still rather enjoyed it.

Whether it's the last works of a legend looking back over a long life, or someone let grandad do the karaoke, this is better than it should be. Hillariously some unwelcome duets and bizarre choices of arrangement manages to shoot themselves in the foot. A potential five star album given away.

Taking Care of Business. How it took 10 albums until they found what Aretha was best at? Still the Queen of Soul.

A two star album with a four star cover. Let's split the difference.

Was heading straight for a five stars, and then they had a drum solo.

Goodbye Tim Buckley.

The album that inspired a generation of white British musicians to sound like poor versions of this album.

Occassionally brilliant, occassionally interesting, often just another 90's US rock band. If I'd discovered them at the time and no other 90's US rock bands ever existed then I'd have been a fan, but I didn't and they did. Nice try QOTSA, nice try.

I know it shouldn't have 5 stars but when I enjoyed it that much what exactly are 5 stars for?

Butter-shit.

Abattoir Blues sits on The Lyre of Orpheus like a chair, but it's a very nice chair. An albums (?) that I'll be going back to.

Aaargh! Surely this was a no brainer 5 star album. But listening to it it's so uneven. Some tracks are legendary, some borderline unlistenable, many just a bit flat. I'm disapointed Mr Hendrix.

That was an unexpected slice of Africa served up in an easy listening sandwich. More Africa and less not-Africa and it would have gotten another star.

Fork, fork, forkity fork. Guns. Fork.

So many styles. So many songs. Such a solid groove and tone. Four classic bangers. Some tracks need shaving.

Definitely under construction. The finished Missy articles are great, the rest needs work.

One stone cold classic soul song, one well know pure 60's pop hit. Throw in some baladeering, some straight rock and a spattering of everything inbetween and you get a band who don't sound like themselves. There doesn't seem to be a Young Rascals sound, and I for one am prepared to hold that against them.

We listened to it. It was music.

A smorgasbord of styles all with an unistakable Beatles feel, which is weird but I liked it. A concept album without a central concept, which appears to be the concept, unless it isn't. I even like the 'lesser' tracks which build the landscape. An album of 'We do this, which is showing off, and you can listen if you want' An album to Muso over.

Jazz burlesque stand up poetry, LIVE!!

The Elephant's Graveyard of the Laurel Canyon sound.

Not Bad.

Singalong Pomp for stadiums.

This album left me embarrased for everyone. Let's never speak of it again.

Nowt so strange as folk.

OMG OMD. IMHO FAB.

He’s an alligator. He said so.

Like a pastel Stars and Stripes this is very American and unchallenging. The smooth and easy sound that launched a thousand smooth and easy clones. Zzzzzzzzzz.....

Men, huh?

Blues folk. Bloke.

I am disturbed by your lack of jangle.

frank ocean is a boring poopy-pants and i don't like him

Adequate Furry Animals.

I'm not entitrely sure what Love Action is, but they've got it in spades.

The A to B of country and western.

The album that paved the way to the smooth sounds of The Fresh prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Supergroup, good album, average title, poor last track.

Minimalist gloom. Moom.

Can she do mainstream? Yes she can. Is it any good? Tidal-y. -boom tish- (gets coat)

Torchsong album that mostly fizzles.

Why is it always jam today?

Pub rock, rockin' the pub.

Red, white and blues.

Woe to you, oh earth and sea, for Maiden sent this beast with rock!

It began. It ended. Inbetween it played for eternity. It haunts me still. Like a poltergiest.

Krap

Audio semolina. What's not to like?

Yes. It probably is Dusty in Memphis. I blame the pyramids. That said she sings like a warm cuddle.

Not Krap.

Sounds like they released the demo, but it works. Angry acoustic. Angroustic.

Precocious teenagers set in aspic. Still fun.

Cheese and Onions.

Didn’t really light my fire.

Steve McQueen didn't really jump the fence.

Left me as cold as poor dead John Barleycorn.

Named after their favourite effects peddles, narrowly beating the Big Boobs 500X.

The song titles are more interesting than the songs.

They’re the kings of bongo baby.

A chip off the block.

Yes, Black certainly Is. Well done everybody.

In a parallel universe of beards and eye patches this would have been The White Album. Misogyny aside it’s a near miss. Ironically misogyny included and it’s a miss.

Lyrical songsmith weaving gentle poetic stories of the open road and freedom. Being trapped in a lift with her whilst she did this would be hell on earth.

Very comfortable, but running a touch late.

Angry love songs with production set to 11.

Single entendre, double entendre, triple entendre. Something for everyone.

A trip around the world with a really annoying boring nasal man.

Amiable audio wallpaper.

Some tracks are so fresh and clean, other leave me ice cold.

Blue Boo. I guess you had to be there.

I think the time it would take to learn to enjoy listening to this album would be better spent enjoying not listening to this album.

Jaunty music from a dubious man who is probably available as a handyman at a price you can afford!

Michael Jackson's Back In Black. Funky little Disco album.

I was expecting a burning spear of anger and righteousness and got a welcoming circle of friends warming their hands.

Zzzzzzzzvvvvrrrrrr ZzzzzzzzGgggguuuuuuudddd ZZZZaaaallllbbbmmmmmzzzz

Chilled and Orgasmic.

The birth of nasal rap.

Audio equivalent of a sensory deprivation tank. It nothing’d me.

Does not work as pornography.

Dark crooning for the win.

Hardly original, but I can Let That Be.

The pleasure was to play.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!

You are young. That's your fault.

Can women rock? Yes they can.

Suzanne Vega/Suzanne Vega = Suzanne Vega = 1

Simply Shite.

Jingly Indgly

The world is a smooth and terrible place.

Rats could have been hotter.

Finger lickin' just some jazz.

The Rumours are all true.

2 me. 2 U.

A couple of bangers bookend well sung average songs. A 'meh' sandwich.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A 'kids in the dressing up box' of an album, but it just works.

Neither Nor.

Pop music through a glass darkly.

Nothing shocking. Nothing gained.

You don't understand! They had class. They could have been contenders, they could have been somebody, instead of bums, which is what they are.

Sea Change Beck. Hope Change Back.

Folk’in good.

They broke the mould and made a new one.

No Justice. Just us.

Too gentle to stir the soul.

Kanye no.

The Beastie Frat Boys.

That's the way it is.

In context an amazing comeback built on mostly covers. But no, I don't want to see her do the shimmy again.

Foxy Music.

Grounded.

Sold their soul to be ‘palatable’

He sings with the strained anguish of a man with terrible hemorrhoids.

Les garçons sexy.

About 4 years better than the last one.

Violently Happy.

Foxbase Beta.