A proper, shiny, widescreen heartfelt unashamedly bombastic pop album. If your world is full of strange arrangements and gravity won't pull you through, this is the album you need.
Confession: this is one of my favourite albums. I can more or less sing it front to back. All killer no filler. As grunge-era records go, I prefer this to Nevermind. Don't @ me.
An early concept album, on the notion of an Englishness that even in 68 was already gone... If it ever existed. Packed with different genres from music hall to psychedelia but always sounds like The Kinks. Elements which would influence ELO, early Bowie, Pink Floyd...
When it locks into a groove, this is fine stuff. But there's too much mumbling around for this to be a fun listen. I always thought Miles was overrated and this does nothing to change my mind.
Garotte-wire guitar, dub-rumbling bass, frantic drumming and That Voice. Raw, bloody and wild. The good stuff, straight out of the vein.
A surprisingly poppy album with a ton of variety. Sweet ballads to full-on rockers with, of course,the game-changing White Rabbit at the heart. Lush, rich and dark.
An early concept album, on the notion of an Englishness that even in 68 was already gone... If it ever existed. Packed with different genres from music hall to psychedelia but always sounds like The Kinks. Elements which would influence ELO, early Bowie, Pink Floyd...
Mostly covers, sounds like it was recorded in an old oil drum. But the sheer energy and power at play here can't be denied, and the original tracks are the clear progenitors of garage punk. A blast!
Still a glorious noise, achingly cool, arch and very NYC1990s.
I'd forgotten how punky this album was! Jittery, flinchy and angular with a very perverse sense of humour. You couldn't get away with calling a track Mongoloid today, but kudos for using the quantum term 'superposition' in a lyric.
A proper, shiny, widescreen heartfelt unashamedly bombastic pop album. If your world is full of strange arrangements and gravity won't pull you through, this is the album you need.
I normally listen to these albums on the drive home. I got halfway through this one before getting home. It's very big, very indulgent and deserves more time than I had for it this week. I'm a big Yes fan but Close To The Edge is a bit too rich for my tastes. I'm feeling Fragile...
Sparse electronic instrumentation over whispered or mumbled lyrics. Late light vibe. Pretty enough, but for me as flavourless and insubstantial as a soap bubble.
Never has an album been more appropriately titled. Maximalist to the point where the spoken word intro to By The Time I get To Phoenix lasts 8 minutes! Highly flavourful and dripping with soul.
An album of two halves. The well known tracks are some of Stevie's best. The album tracks are a bit bland and dull, frankly. However, any record with a song as strong as I Believe can't be all bad, right? For me, Innervisions is a better record for the cohesion and clarity of purpose.
If you can dance to it, it's not ambient as far as I'm concerned. It's likely the title of this one is another troll by young Richard. It's a great strong collection of glitchy bangers and really good driving music
A big, brassy bruiser of an album. Sometimes political, sometimes spiritual, always up for the wiggy freakouts. This is not the MOR Chicago I remember. A much wilder prospect.
Confession: this is one of my favourite albums. I can more or less sing it front to back. All killer no filler. As grunge-era records go, I prefer this to Nevermind. Don't @ me.
Dubby, loping beats. Bomps along nicely in a world music vibe. Whoever told Jah Wobble he should take lead vocal on most of the tracks needs a pop in the chops. I mean, he's got Sinead O'Connor right there backing him on a couple of tracks...
I'm starting to lean towards records with a sense of story, drama and ambition. This is all of the above with the kitchen sink and a big squirt of cream and a handful of cherries on top. Starts big and goes up from there.
A remarkable set of songs from an amazing group of musicians. Trouble is, these songs are so familiar there's almost a sense that I don't need to listen to them any more. Last Resort still kicks all sorts of ass, though.
Fat moving and wildly inventive but oh my days the long version of Voodoo Chile drags like it's got concrete boots on.
A proper power pop album chock full of good tunes. Evan Dando knows his songcraft. A bit druggy, a bit slack but a joy, nonetheless.
Didn't rate it then. Don't rate it now. Apart from Lucky Man, that gives me chills.
Bit of a raveup, this. A mix of blues, pop and raw garagey rock - of it's time, and you can see it as a precursor of how music would change radically over the next 18 months. A lot of fun.
Dreampop. Synthy, floaty, a bit guitary. Strangely effective on drives in the dark.
This is lovely, but it's essentially twelve versions of the same song. One tempo, one mood. Slightly melancholy, very romantic.
A regular listen on the car stereo rotation. Love this stuff.
Cinematic, quite Portishead. I bet they took notes.
I have lived with these songs since I was a kid. Part of the soundtrack of my life.
Surprisingly fluid and muscular, very slick and polished. Owes a lot to 80s Brit funk of course. I enjoyed this more than I thought.
Love the singles from this, always have. As a whole album it's all a bit one-note and very druggy. You could see why Layne Staney went the way he did, the guy was obsessed!
Raw, primal but still pretty locked to a groove.
It's Aretha. Nuff said.
Another one I've lived with since I was a kid. Songs that crawl into your airing cupboard and live with you all winter.
Good fun. A little disco in the mix too. Muy bueno!
This is on constant rotation on the car stereo. Never bettered to my mind.
Dank dark and delicious. Not drawn to hip-hop but this was great. Gotta go with the lyrical flow!
Spare, melodic, surprisingly contemporary in places. The raga at the end dates it, though.
Winwood going synth would have seemed very odd in 1980, but in league with his blue-eyed soul songwriting chops the whole package works very well.
This was everywhere a few years back. Quite fun in a psych synth rave kind of a way, but apart from the singles nothing very memorable.
Interesting concept and some nice tunes, but really just floated past me.
The songs are great, but the synthy stuff at the end is all Radiophonic Workshop outtakes - tuneless noodling.
The worst sort of one finger synth drag-and-drop pop. All the best bits have been sampled from other songs. Rock & Roll is safe.
Iconic stuff, but gets a bit samey over the course of an album. One good idea stretched a little too far. But when it's good it's epic
An absolute mainstay on the car stereo for years now. Never gets old, somehow.
A true classic, of course. I'd argue it's as influential as Sgt. Pepper.
Still sounds very slick and modern. Pre vocal-tic MJ – the guy could really sing! Plus some tunes I'd never heard before that shoulda been singles. This was a surprisingly pleasing experience.
Bruised romanticism and classic songwriting. An absolute delight.
All killer, no filler. A prog classic. So much to enjoy.
The perfect album for this time of year. Wistful, elegaic and full of beautiful melody and harmonies.
Kind of a concept album. A little bluesy, deep and lonesome songs drenched in barlight, spilled whisky and regret. The tunes still hold up today.
There's no denying the talent here, but the mix of gleeful horror core and whiny self absorption gets old across a whole album with nothing to lighten the mix.
This is a bop. Great flows, great beats,just all round proper hip hop. There's a reason it's a classic and I'm dumb for not getting on board earlier.
Rockin stuff. The title describes the album perfectly.
Blurry slurred delivery and lazy beats. A lot of it sounds like the same couple of ideas endlessly reworked. Nice enough but a bit shrug really.
Really liked this. Funky jazzy vibes with a dose of sunshine. Great tunes.
I preferred the film version.
They sound a bit tired here. Everything is mid-tempo, a little sad and gloomy. But there are still enough flashes of the old magic to make this one worth a listen, even if it doesn't feel like the pop juggernaut of old.
When it locks into a groove, this is fine stuff. But there's too much mumbling around for this to be a fun listen. I always thought Miles was overrated and this does nothing to change my mind.
Snotty, trebly post-punk. It's fine but not exactly original.
Porny, medically obsessed, phat beats,pretty wild stuff. Really enjoyed it.
Rockin, naturally. Still can't figure how Eddie made some of those sounds. The songs are really solid, the riffs pop big style. Still a really solid pop rock album.
A genuine rush. You could feel Venom know they're onto something new, fresh and exciting. This gallops gleefully along, giving no gucks and taking no prisoners. Great stuff.
Groundbreaking stuff, but the constant experimentation gets a bit tiresome over the course of a long album
It's just a classic, isn't it? Glamorous, rocking and strangely, very English.
Sprightly, zingy post punk. Surprisingly clean sounding but plenty of bounce and bite there.
Future funky. Loved the scale and imagination at play here. Hints of Funkadelic, elements of Todd Rundgren. No expense spared, no kitchen sink unutilised. Huge fun.
Songs on here that will be in my heart forever. Early folktronica? Where David led, Ed followed.
Played this the other day not knowing it was coming up on the list. A long time favourite. Lush, complex, playful, filled with emotion and beauty. I love this album with the whole of my heart.
The crosspoint between the Beatles, power pop and punk. Angry but righteous. English Rose is still rubbish, though.
Not as guitary as I was expecting. Very groovy, of course. Bit bothered that most of the songs with English lyrics are of the 'evil woman' school.
Fun stuff, very eclectic but good pop sensibilities throughout. Not sure about the cod reggae track, though.
This one takes me back. Straight ahead, street smart metal with punk bones. Needs to be played loud in a fast car.
I appreciate the ambition and artistry involved, but this was all too rich for my blood. I need to give Mingus a fairer shake. Just not with this album.
Listening to a lot of reggae these days, not sure why. It seems to have a purity of purpose and authenticity that just resonates with me. Music I need these days, I guess. Burning Spear really does the job, bringing on good feelings and a sense of clarity. Roots and culture! One Love!
Half a great album. Transcendent moments are bundled up with variety show rubbish. I see Mike Love's lumpen refusal to try anything new butting up against the Wilson's experimental passion. When it works, it's amazing. There just aren't enough of those beautiful waves of melody.
An old favourite. Wild-eyed apocalyptic visions of an England falling to pieces and the corrupting souls that live there. Overwrought and as subtle as a brick to the back of the skull. But the rage gives the album urgency and verve. At the end, as Johnson goes full Hank Williams and challenges the devil to a knife fight, your heart is pumping as hard as his.
Mystic. Cosmic. Ecstatic. Romantic. Contemplative. Meditative. Pastoral. Joyful.
The REM most people remember. I grew up to this album. The perfect mix of mysticism, poetry and a little politics. And oh that guitar. LEONARD BERNSTEIN!
This helped us through a very rough period. Wise, thoughtful and empathic songs, performed beautifully. A record for healing
The album which got me into The National. I suspect, the album which got everyone into The National. Broody gothy romanticism.
A true classic in every sense of the word. A snap shot of the times and timeless all at once.
Another one of those 'I grew up with this' albums.
I get what they're doing here and I don't like it. Apart from Kim Gordon's tracks. But then that's Kim Gordon for ya - always Sonic Youth's underestimated MVP..
OG outlaw country. Not as refined as Willie, but it has a rough and rowdy charm.
Beautiful stuff, but I really wish he hadn't covered Hallelujah. His version is great, but the crappy covers of it grind my gears something rotten.
Boring.
Chic in all but name and therefore utter shining perfection.
A truly lovely album, of which I am very fond. Sort of an Irish Basement Tapes.
Good, grungy fun. Production may be a bit anaemic - I bet these guys tear it up live!
A lovely country album which must have felt like a radical shift at the time (even if they do start proceedings with a Dylan song).
Half the album not available on Spotify. Four stars because it's Lizzy.
An ur-text for stoner rock. Deliberately dumb as a sack of rocks and just as heavy.
This is cracking. A real taste of my adolescence - Goth 101. Great tunes, great atmosphere.
One of my favourite albums of all time. A bleak 70s dustbowl drama in musical form, with flashes of sunlight and hope. I revisit it often, and it never fails to floor me.
A favourite. Always listened to it side two first just so the sequence would finish with Same Situation. Just made more sense to me.
I mean, this is fine, but it's all a bit... pleased with itself. Feels like a guy at open mike night at a pizza place with some very well off friends.
This is a lot of fun. Eno in highly playful mood, very lyrically nimble. There's a lot of the future sound of post punk in here, needly guitar and burbling synths to the fore. Very Talking Heads in places too - you can see where Brian's discussions with David Byrne would lead right here.
This is great. Greasy, salty surf punk that rolls right over you like a California breaker. Them with Dick Dale on lead guitar.
Enjoyed this. Modern country, some fun twists and turns in instrumentation. And the girl can write some vicious lyrics.
There's a real swagger to this album, which it needs to having the brass set to rip off The Stranglers et al. Good fun, hammers along.
The soundtrack of a long-ago summer. I remember when this was bleeding edge. Familiarity breeds contempt, I guess.
Liked this. Less pastoral and more groovy than expected. That's what you get with Steve Winwood at the helm, I guess!
A big noise from big boys. I have this on vinyl and still play it often. I believe Nirvana ripped BB off with a lame, sanitized version. This is the real deal.
I prefer their earlier stuff, although I like the tracks This Mortal Coil covered.
Much more experimental and proggy than I was expecting. Quite challenging in places. Lots of flutes and recorders in the mix too!
Garotte-wire guitar, dub-rumbling bass, frantic drumming and That Voice. Raw, bloody and wild. The good stuff, straight out of the vein.
A stone classic. Finishes strangely slowly, but otherwise it's a snarling monster. Great driving album, too!
Witty, worry and pop-literate. Lots of fun, with a delivery from the 'ex-choirboy who's seen some shit' school.
This is the Lanois one, right? It's got that atmospheric Americana vibe but,you know, Dylan. The tunes kind of sneak up on you and logde in your clothes like seedheads.
Wildly derivative, of course, especially if you're a fan of the late 70s post-punk NYC scene. But plenty to enjoy and New York I Love You is one heck of a showstopper.
I can see why this is so strongly cited as an influential album. One that takes some time and effort, but definitely worth it.
A bit too noodly for me. Some nice moments, but dull as a whole.
Proper. You always forget how may hits CCR had. This was just what I needed. Joyous unapologetic rock and roll. Ramble ramble!
Fizzing with invention, humour and wild feats of imagination. It's got tunes, phat beats and I can bug out to it.
Big fun. That weird space when mop top pop started mutating into something more trippy. The instrumental is rubbish, though.
They really couldn't be bothered, could they? Everything about this has a 'will this do?' air to it, from the no-title title to the lazy rehashes of former glories that simply have no spark of joy or imagination. I'm a huge fan of Loveless. I have no love for this.
Brilliant. Just packed with invention and cool ideas, some amazing lyrics and flow. Not what I was expecting, but absolutely lives up to the hype.
Didn't need to listen to this again. The songs and the voice live in my heart already.
Power pop pinnacle. Starts hard and just doesn't stop. A joy from ignition until that moment when they roar off into the sunset.
This was very enjoyable. Felt very much like Stereolab, which fits my tastes very well. Bit of Aldous Harding in there too. Must try a bit more folktronica.
Fill of fun, Experimentation and great tunes. Kinda forgot how big this album was.
Real smooth, damn funky. A big sound that got me bopping.
This is gorgeous. Lush, wild, romantic, gothic. More than a whiff of the Buckley's about it.
Fully signed up member of the Suede Nation here. The original and still one I listen to regularly. I glorious grimy shot of street passion, the power of doomed love and glamour... Above all else glamour.
Loud and angry, sampleicious metal. Lots of fun but more so live, I think. Some of the tracks go on a bit. Jesus Built My Hotrod a highlight.
This was a bracing dose of punky goodness, but I don't really get why it's important.
Super funky, super groovy. Did not need the 15 minute drum solo at the end, tho.
Pomp goth! Always loved this album. It's hilariously overblown and you just know Eldritch is in on the joke.
More Fela! I love this album. I especially love Fela's spooky Farfisa. The whole record is a solid groove, man.
Man, this is good. Shades of Nick Cave and even The The. Lush, theatrical chamber-pop with real scale and depth of imagination.
Of course I love this. It's so rich and tasty. Super soulful, full of flavour. No idea what Kurt Wagner's on about, bit that just adds to the mystery.
Ahh, good old fashioned thrash. A very fine soundtrack to the morning commute. Like a shot of caffeine right in the tearduct.
The singles are solid gold of course. But there's more cruft and noodle on this album than I was expecting. A bit baggy and on the wig-outs, frankly a bit dull...
There's a lot crammed into a very short album - this is punky, scuzzy, ugkay delicious. Gimme danger!
This was a really nice surprise. Funky, jazzy and mellow. Those two house tracks are a bit out of place, mind...
I know these songs well. Don't need another run through of the album and I don't think they've really aged gracefully.
Lost songs brought back to happy life.
A snapshot of UK rock and pop in that pre-summer of love mid-sixties era. A very English album in places with the madrigal-lite rubbing shoulders with the Stones doing The Kinks on Mother's Little Helper. Still beholden to the blues, tho.
Profane, hilarious, imaginative, sharp. I can see why this was such a big deal when it came out.
The blues is number 1. I SAID THE BLUES IS NUMBER ONE!
It's hardly subtle, is it? Lots of fun, though, and Knights Of Cydonia is the soundtrack to a sci-fi spaghetti western I'd really like to see.
This was on constant replay at a point in the early 80s for me. I was SUCH a synth nerd. Still am, I guess...
This is a musical constant in my house and has been since I was a kid. I can probably sing the whole thing front to back without needing to think about it.
Much more approachable than I thought.Nice and proggy, too. Must check out some more of the German stuff.
Love this album. Dark and powerful but such top tunes.
All killer. That's the tweet.
The lyrics are fine if a little 'pulled out for the diary', raw and explicit. The music though is generic indie with no real grace or even melody. Liz can't even be bothered to make a racket to bolster the anger in her words. All a bit shrug for me.
One of my favourite albums. The perfect mix of dirt, party vibes and a sweet hint of salvation. Praise be!
Really liked this. Smart, angry, lush and full of unexpected musical surprises. I can see why the critics rave about these guys.
BOOMCLANKPOW
The filler bits are very filler, which seems odd when you think how long the band spent on the record. But the standout tracks have stuck in my head since 1991, hence the 4 stars.
Aces. Atmospheric, cinematic, chilly and warm all at once. The hard heel turn Alison and Will took into the glam-rock stomp of Black Cherry put many people off, but I see the two as halves of a whole. Embracing the goddess in all her aspects.
Blunty horror core from the old dark school. My kinda hip hop.
Underwhelming. I was expecting big rock noise, but this sounds weedy and malnourished. The writing is terrible and the riffs just don't land as they should.
Strangely sad and downbeat. An elegy for the rock n roll dream? Just twigged how Ian Hunter's vocal delivery is very Dylanesque. A really good album, just not what I was expecting in terms of mood and attitude.
Soulful, smart, adult conversation on sex and love and the things we do to each other in the quest for fulfilling relationships. Really enjoyed this.
One of the defining albums of my life. One I come back to again and again. No one calls it a concept album, but that's exactly how we should view it. A wild headrush of ideas, imagery and emotion. Never bettered, often imitated. Woah, she's the one.
A lodestone album. I can sing the guitar solos. When I need to indulge, it's this one followed by Fragile.
The unedited ramblings of a deeply unwell man. Unlistenable.
Wot, no 'KICK OUT THE JAAAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!'? A good primer as to what the MC 5 must have been like live. You probably needed to be there.
This has such a great atmosphere and texture, you almost forget there's some solid songcraft at play too. I love Fever Ray, and this is a good reminder as to why.
Big, ambitious and playful, this is Suoergrass going for Sgt. Pepper. Still think Late In The Day should end the album, but that's just me.