1057
Albums Rated
2.76
Average Rating
97%
Complete
32 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1970s
Favorite Decade
Rock-and-roll
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Perfectionist
Rater Style ?
52
5-Star Albums
80
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Idlewild
Everything But The Girl
|
5 | 2.58 | +2.42 |
|
Felt Mountain
Goldfrapp
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
|
Coles Corner
Richard Hawley
|
5 | 3.03 | +1.97 |
|
Oxygène
Jean-Michel Jarre
|
5 | 3.08 | +1.92 |
|
Murder Ballads
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
|
5 | 3.08 | +1.92 |
|
I'm Your Man
Leonard Cohen
|
5 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
|
Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
|
Actually
Pet Shop Boys
|
5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
|
The Visitors
ABBA
|
5 | 3.2 | +1.8 |
|
The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
|
5 | 3.26 | +1.74 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
|
1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
|
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Wu-Tang Clan
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick Lamar
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
Illmatic
Nas
|
1 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
|
Stankonia
OutKast
|
1 | 3.55 | -2.55 |
|
Straight Outta Compton
N.W.A.
|
1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
|
Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
|
1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
|
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
|
1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 7 | 4.29 |
| ABBA | 2 | 5 |
| Depeche Mode | 2 | 5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 5 | 4.2 |
| Metallica | 4 | 4.25 |
| Radiohead | 6 | 4 |
| Pet Shop Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kraftwerk | 3 | 4.33 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kanye West | 3 | 1 |
| Public Enemy | 3 | 1 |
| OutKast | 2 | 1 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 1 |
| Ice Cube | 2 | 1 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 1 |
| Missy Elliott | 2 | 1 |
| Sonic Youth | 5 | 2 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 2 |
| Belle & Sebastian | 2 | 1.5 |
| Pavement | 2 | 1.5 |
| Common | 2 | 1.5 |
| Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Byrds | 5 | 2.2 |
| Beastie Boys | 3 | 2 |
| The Stooges | 3 | 2 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 3 | 2 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 3 | 2 |
| Echo And The Bunnymen | 3 | 2 |
| My Bloody Valentine | 3 | 2 |
| The Fall | 3 | 2 |
| PJ Harvey | 4 | 2.25 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Robert Wyatt | 4, 1 |
| Everything But The Girl | 5, 2 |
| U2 | 4, 2, 2, 5 |
| Kate Bush | 5, 2, 3 |
| The Doors | 3, 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (52)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
Am I biased against hip-hop? - You bet I am. But this album isn't helping. 1/5
17 likes
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
I sigh whenever I read Neil Young's name on one of the albums on this list, because I think he is severely overrated.
The problem is always the same. The song might start out well enough, but as soon as I hear Neil Young's whining singing voice, I just can't stand to listen any further. Apart from that, on this particular album, I don't care about any of the lyrics, and musically, the songs are nothing to write home about. Must be a 70s thing. Classic Young. 1.5/5
14 likes
Depeche Mode
5/5
This was Depeche Mode's bridge album between their more classic 80's synth period (Black Celebration) and their all time classic Violator. But from the album cover to the music, this album is both a classic and truly iconic in its own right. There is not one bad song on here. 5/5
12 likes
Jean-Michel Jarre
5/5
Jarre is one of the godfathers of electronic music, and this early album is one of his best. Its best known part is certainly Oxygène 4, but one really should listen to this album as a whole, not for individual tracks. Jarre is weaving a tapestry of ever-repeating patterns and introduces gradual over time, so it never gets boring. A classic masterpiece of electronic music. 5/5
11 likes
The Who
2/5
I can't help the feeling that this album served as heavy inspiration for Pink Floyd's The Wall - you might even call it a blueprint. However, the Pink Floyd opus is miles better.
Tommy is often called a "Rock-Opera", in lieu of the then unknown concept of "(rock) musical". But no matter what we chose to call it, it remains very mediocre. I have massive respect for The Who, but this whole album screams "concept over substance". The whole undertaking is bit tedious and self-indulgent. There is a story here, and if that manages to catch your interest, good for you. Pinball Wizard is a good enough song (which was done better by Elton John), but the rest is nothing to write home about. It's just run-off-the-mill 60s rock without hardly a good idea (or melody).
Thus, I find Tommy to be severely overrated and found my listening experience to be quite disappointing. 2/5
11 likes
4-Star Albums (196)
1-Star Albums (80)
All Ratings
Radiohead
3/5
Tracks 1 - 6 are excellent, but too much filler afterwards. 3/5
New Order
2/5
Love Vigilantes - not for me
The Perfect Kiss - Disco - good bassline at the end
This Time of Night - Dark - nice!
Sunrise - OK, quietly babbles in the background
Elegia - very nice!
Sooner Than you think - OK
Sub-Culture - Cool, but bad singing.
Face Up - Nope.
2/5
Boston
3/5
More Than a Feeling is nice. The rest is just standard Classic Rock without any highs or lows. It's OK, but nothing special to my ears. 3/5
Aretha Franklin
3/5
Aretha Franklin in her usual blues/gospel mode. Solid enough, but lacks variation. 3/5.
Various Artists
4/5
This is a great Christmas Album; especially the tracks by Darlene Love are excellent. The others are nice as well, only the Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans ones are lacking a little bit, and I could have done without the final track with the Phil Spector speech. Still, well worth a listen. 4/5.
Shuggie Otis
4/5
Didn't think I would like this one as much as I did. What a surprise! 4/5
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
1/5
Not my kind of music at all. It may be a genre masterpiece, but my listening enjoyment says 1/5.
David Holmes
1/5
This is not my kind of music. At all. As such, I can't find anything I like about it. 1/5.
The Clash
4/5
This is a pleasant surprise. Was expecting a punk record, but this is really a Punk/Rock/Pop/Reggea(ish) album with quite a lot variation. Doesn't blow me away, and is maybe a bit longer than it ought to be, but is a good very album nonetheless. 4/5
2/5
Run-of-the-mill late 60's rock, complete with pretentious lyrics, calls for a 'revolution' and out-of-tune instruments.
Not totally awful, but boring. 2/5
Talking Heads
3/5
The Mid-to-Late-70s-Bowie-Vibes are strong with this one, without reaching Bowie's level. The music is quite experimental here (Brian Eno's influence), but not enough tracks stand out. Nice album, which I don't absolutely have to listen to again. 3/5.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Dylan is more poet than musician. His lyrics may be deep, but his music more often than not is shallow. There are some good tracks on here, especially in the album's first half. But nothing really stands out or touches me. Also, I'm still not a fan of Dylan's voice.
3/5.
Lucinda Williams
3/5
Standard mid 90's Singer/Songwriter fare with a heavy country/blues touch and a slightly annoying singing voice. Nice enough to let it play in the background, but there is not one memorable song or even hook here. 3/5
4/5
90's brit-pop meets grunge. Competent album, but without anything really standing out. But quite a bit of variation. 3.5/4, which I'll round up.
Massive Attack
3/5
Torn about this one. I quite like electronic music. I hate hip hop with a passion. So many of these tracks get a hard pass from me. Heat Miser is nice, though. 2.5/5, which I'll round up.
Jean-Michel Jarre
5/5
Jarre is one of the godfathers of electronic music, and this early album is one of his best. Its best known part is certainly Oxygène 4, but one really should listen to this album as a whole, not for individual tracks. Jarre is weaving a tapestry of ever-repeating patterns and introduces gradual over time, so it never gets boring. A classic masterpiece of electronic music. 5/5
Ray Price
2/5
The title track is quite a pleasant surprise, actually. It's a blues-meets-country-and-they-go-to-a-swing-concert type of track, that I quite enjoy. I was hoping the rest of the album would be cut of a similar cloth, but alas! No. ... The rest is run-of-the-mill old style country with cringy lyrics for good measure, and I found myself fast forwarding all the way until the end. *sigh* 2/5
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
This is a great Jazz/Swing-Album from an artist I previously knew nothing about. It's a live recording, too, but only runs about 35 minutes. Sarah Vaughan has a fantastic voice; and the way she saved "Willow Weep for me" after having forgotten some of the lines is truly elegant and funny at the same time. 4/5
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
This album is more jazz than I can bear. I can hear that the players are masters of craft, but all of the tracks are endlessly meandering, with the performers playing in a very self-serving manner, as opposed to song-serving. I know this is par for the course for jazz, and I know that I don't like that. I also dislike how more than one take of the same songs needed to be be included on this album. 2.5/5, which I'll round up.
Traffic
3/5
Early-70's folk/progressive rock album. Not bad, but didn't speak to me at all. Why this is on the list is beyond me. Still, 3/5.
ABBA
5/5
Yay, ABBA! This is their 4th collection of catchy tunes and memorable melodies. Among others, we find classics as Dancing Queen, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Money, Money Money, Arrival and Fernando. Of course, not all tracks are equally good, but there hardly is any filler material here. Onle My Love, My Life and Dum Dum Diddle do nothing for me, but everything considered, this is a great album. 4.5/5
Elliott Smith
4/5
No other decade could produce an album like this. Singer/songwriter, mostly with acoustic guitars only, but the chords and melodies have soaked in the full 90ness of things. First word that comes to mind is "angsty". Which isn't bad neccessarily, but I have to be in the mood to listen to this. I'll give it 3.5/5.
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
Hip Hop. Really?!? Sorry, could never get into it. And really, I tried listening to a few tracks here, I just can't find anything I like. 1/5.
Beatles
4/5
Rubber Soul is bridging the gap between the early poppy and the late experimental Beatles. As such, we can find tunes like Drive My Car, which could have easily been published one or two year prior, and Norwegian Wood, a folky song that experiments with instruments like the sitar. There are some real Beatles classics here, like the aforementioned Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood, Michelle, and especially In My Life. Even though I much prefer their later material, this album never gets boring. It's a solid 4/5.
Belle & Sebastian
2/5
Pleasant easy-enough-to-listen-to songs without any real highs. I don't like the singer's singing-style - he sounds stiff and unemontional. 2/5.
Björk
4/5
This is a highly experimental album - nearly every single instrument is the human voice. This is an interesting concept, but Björk manages to pull it off and still sound like ... Björk. This is a small hiccup for me. I have massive respect for Björk, but could never really get into her music. There is only a handful of Björk songs that I like. Luckily, one of these is Oceania from this album, in which Björk summons an incredibly amount of energy, which I find is lacking in many other of her songs.
All in all, I'm a bit torn, but I'll give this album 3.5/5.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
2/5
Late 60's Singer/Songwriter/Folk/Country/Hippie-Album. Nothing stands out. Quite boring. 2/5.
The Yardbirds
2/5
"Oh, look, it's another blues rock album from the 60's". Expertly played, but oh so utterly boring. Yawn. 2/5.
Billie Holiday
4/5
Songs from the Great American Songbook. Billie Holidays frail voice and the orchestral arrangements do justice to these selections, but they could be a little more varied. Still a very nice listen. 3.5/5.
Silver Jews
3/5
I liked this somewhat - this indie-rock-meets-country album somehow sounds bleak, but in the first couple of songs manages to hit the right notes for me. The songs on the opposite end aren't as strong, though. 3/5
David Bowie
4/5
Bowie's last album. Seven tracks, four of which I like. (Blackstar, Lazarus, Dollar Days, I Can't Give Everything Away). It was published shortly before Bowie's death, and is about that very subject matter. The music is a mixture of pop/rock and jazz, and is at times quite ominous sounding. The album is well worth a listen. 4/5
Air
3/5
Eclectic collection of melancholy instrumental tracks that served as the soundtrack for the movie of the same name. Flows nicely, but it's nothing I would listen to more than a few times. 3/5
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
Did nothing for me. Music is good, voice is good, but it just doesn't gel to something great. 2.5/5
Jane's Addiction
3/5
Clearly this album is a precursor to the alt-rock/grunge movement that would appear a few years later- there is this typical 90s bleakness and agression that is inherent in most of these songs. For me, this lacks variation. 3/5
Pet Shop Boys
5/5
This is a masterpiece of electronic pop/dance music. The undertone here is often melancholic, but even then with a hauting, yet melodious vibe. Still, there is variation between songs - listening through this gem never gets boring. We can find some well-known PSB songs from the 80s here (It's a Sin, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Rent, Heart), but the lesser known songs are good as well, including two especially beautiful ballads (King's Cross/It couldn't happen here). This album is a classic. 5/5
Julian Cope
3/5
This is a LONG alt-rock album. Songs are nice enough, but nothing that would give me any incentive to listen again. 3/5.
Pixies
2/5
The alt-rock is strong with this one. The album tries too hard to be lound and raw, but only succeeds in becoming somewhat predictable. The obvious standout is "Where Is My Mind?". The rest? Boring. 2/5
Carpenters
4/5
Mellow 70s pop. - Think Burt Bacharach ... who incidentally, wrote a couple of songs on this album. (They Long to Be) Close to You is great. So is I'll Never Fall in Love Again. On the other hand, the Help - Cover doesn't seem to quite work, and there are one or two songs that are just OK. Still, Karen Carpenter phantastic voice carries this album throughout. I'll give it 3.5/5.
Neil Young
4/5
Country(-Rock). The album is off to a strong start with its opening track Out on the Weekend, which grooves and has full, partly electric arrangement. But the album quickly loses steam afterwards. The following songs are more sparse and generally on the weaker side.
The best songs are the aforementioned Out on the Weekend and (of course) Heart of Gold; The Needle and the Damage Done is another well-known track. I'm quite indifferent about the rest, honestly. Still, 3.5/5.
X-Ray Spex
3/5
This punk rock album is OK, but apart from the fact that some of the songs feature saxophone, it's nothing special. 3/5.
The The
2/5
I generally like the that 80's sound, but the songs on this album just don't do it for me. There is an abundance of ideas and experimentation, yet without going anywhere songwise, leaving a rather messy impression. 2/5
Jeff Buckley
4/5
I previously only knew Buckley'a Hallelujah-Version, which I find overrated. But with the album I was pleasantly surprised. This is a nicely flowing and varied collection of songs, which could be great for letting it play in the background. Standouts: Lilac Wine, Last Goodbye, Eternal Life. 4/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Distortion. Extreme distortion. And, at times, heavy use of reverb. But some of the melodies are really nice. Standout: Just Like Honey. 3.5/5
Robert Wyatt
4/5
Well, what is this? - "Experimental jazz meets psychedelic pop" with a strong emphasis on "psychedelic". "Alife" even resembles Jean Michel Jarres Ethnicolor from the Zoolook album, even though it's and entierely different genre. I found it strangely difficult to fast forward or skip tracks. The whole album is very trippy, in a good way. This is far from my usual tastes, but I'll give this 3.5/5.
The Specials
2/5
Reggae/Ska. Not awful, but not really my thing either. 2/5.
The Who
4/5
The Who before they got really big. The sound is typical 60's rock, but the interspersed commercials give it a nice touch. Very easy listen, without any real standouts. 3.5/5
Slint
2/5
Mostly instrumental rock/metal tracks with a heavy emphasis on guitar (mostly distorted, sometimes clean). Overlaid with hard-to-make-out spoken word passages which don't change the fact that this for all intents and purposes is an instumental album. Not bad, but no standouts either, and tries a little too much to sound raw and edgy. 2/5
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
This is a mostly low tempo album with an excessive number of ballads. It's not overly repetetive, but I have heard better melodies from Rufus Wrainwright. Still a nice listen, but without standouts. 3.5/5
Wu-Tang Clan
1/5
Hip Hop begone! 1/5
Elbow
5/5
The album is dominated by a melancholic undertone; I got some very slight Radiohead-meets-Leonard-Cohen vibes out of it. On top of that, the singer sounds a bit like Sting at times. Still, there is quite the variation between songs, which keept me engaged. Standouts are Mirrorball, Weather to Fly, The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver and One Day Like This. I will listen to this again. - Very enjoyable 4.5/5.
George Jones
3/5
This is about as classic Country as it gets. Nice flow to it; good for letting it play in the background. Not especially my kind of music, but nice enough for a solid 3/5.
Gillian Welch
2/5
Sparsely instrumented Country. I'm not a big country fan, but don't mind listening to the genre from time to time. This album, however, doesn't vibe with me. Revelator and April the 14th, Pt. 1 are O.K.ish, though. But generally I find the songs and singer's voice a bit irritating. 2/5.
Neil Young
2/5
Yeah, Neil Young again, this time with a heavy blues influence in addition to his trademark whiny voice. Maybe I'm jsut not in the mood for this kind of music, but I found this album tedious. A lot of fast forwarding was done. 2/5
The Temptations
3/5
Standard 60's poppy soul music. No real standouts here as nearly every song sounds like the every other. Plus, this contains probably the worst version of Heard It Through the Grapevine I've ever heard.
Altogether, this album is not terrible, but nothing special either. Thus, 3/5.
Van Morrison
4/5
I was pleasantly surprised, because of this album, I so far only knew the title song, which I don't particularly like. But the other songs are quite good in a Summer Vibes kind of way. Very solid 4/5.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
In the everlasting question of "Beatles or Stones?" I'm firmly in the Beatles corner. This album contains some competently played Blues and Rock'n'Roll with some Country and Folk thrown in. However, it's just not my thing. I enjoy the occasional Stones song, but none of these invites me to listen again (or to the end of the song, for that matter). 2/5
The Go-Go's
4/5
The album title is fantastic. The music: feel-good-rock with a west coast vibe. It succeeds in that respect and is gernerally a very easy listen. The mood and tempo is very similar in most of these songs. Still, it's a worthwhile listen. Highlights: Lust to Love and Fading Fast. 4/5
Radiohead
5/5
I adore the experimental nature of Radioheads earlier albums Kid A and Amnesiac, but their sound was quite a departure from Radiohead's more rock oriented music. Hail to the Thief - In Rainbows predecessor - was a mixture of both styles, but didn't manage to hold my attention throughout its runtime and probably contained too much filler material. And then came In Rainbows. This is a return to form for the band. Its sound is less gloomy, at times very laid-back, even relaxed!!! There is not one bad song on this album. Standouts: 15 Step, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Bodysnatchers, Reckoner. I love it. 5/5
Beastie Boys
2/5
While on the one hand having massive respect for the Beastie Boys, and on the other disliking hip hop with a passion, this was a very strange experience. The album contains Sabotage, which I really like, and some instrumentals with an experimental rock/funk attitude that are quite nice as well (ex.: Futterman's Rule). But I just can't bring myself to like the rest of the album's many hip hop tracks. For me, this is a 2/5.
Mike Oldfield
4/5
Before he was pushed in a more commercial - and very successful - direction by his record label, Mike Oldfield produced mainly long instrumental and - for the time highly experimental - pieces. This is Oldfield's earliest outing as a recording artist. It shows, in that it sounds a bit dated soundwise and limited regarding his skills a s musician. Very frequentliy, there is much meandering over one idea or the other without going anywhere melodically for quite some time. For example the guitar solo after about 6 Minutes in Part 1 is very not very exciting. Some other parts are in the same vein, sometimes even cringy - Oldfield still was to come into his own as a musician. But in spite of this, this is a classic worth knowing. 3.5/5.
The Stooges
2/5
Generic, late 60's proto-punk with blues rock embellishments. Not terrible, but boring. Or, to say it with one of the song titles: "No Fun". 2/5.
The Adverts
3/5
Aaaannd it's another punk record! But wait ... what do I hear? Could this be ... real songs, and not merely screams over badly tuned and inadequately played instruments?!? Granted, these songs sound simple, but I am pleasantly surprised how I can listen to quite a few of these without skipping or fast forwarding. I most like "One Chord Wonders".
This alone isn't enough to make this a relly good record, but it isn't as horrible as I thought it would be either. 2.5/5
Deep Purple
4/5
Early 70's hard rock/proto metal. Was innovative at the time, and still holds up today, though it sometimes sounds a bit generic to more modern ears. Child in Time and Living Wreck are good. 3.5/5
Mudhoney
2/5
Your run-of the-mill grunge album. Pretends to be raw and angry, but is mainly one thing: boring. 1.5/5
Ice T
1/5
Hip hop and mysogynistic wannabe "gangsta" rap. Would gladly give this 0 stars. But alas ... 1/5.
Gene Clark
4/5
Listenable and competent mixture of country and rock. Think Eagles with a bit of Tom Petty mashed in for good measure. 3.5/5
Beatles
4/5
I generally really like The Beatles, especially their later, experimental albums.
With The Beatles being only studio album no. 2, this has nothing similar to their later work, but is dominated by their earlier Rock 'n' Roll (and at times Pop) material. The songs really are a mixed bag here. We can find strong numbers like It Won't Be Long and the early classic All My Loving. But the album also contains the very, VERY schmaltzy Till There Was You, one of quite a few cover versions that have, uncharacteristically for the band, found their way onto this collection. Much better here is their rendition of the Marvelettes' Please Mister Postman.
All in all, this album contains a few bad, some mediocre, and a couple of really good songs; the latter of which were an early indication of the creative heights the Beatles would reach eventually. Still, this one is 3.5/5.
Q-Tip
1/5
Hip Hop, you shall not pass. 1/5
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
Album of country/blues rock tracks, for which the 60's and 70's apparently were very fond of. It's OK, but nothing special. 3/5
Alice In Chains
4/5
I'm not a big fan of the grunge, but this album is quite nice- it even has some metal overtones. 4/5
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
Classic Rock'n'Roll/blues live album. Nicely played and great energy. Only problem is the lack of variation, which prevents this from being a truly great album. 3/5
Talk Talk
4/5
The follow-up to It's My Life came with a sound change - less synthesizers were used, but Mark Hollis' characteristic voice and beautiful, moody, yet never boring songs make this still a true Talk Talk album. Standout: I Don't Believe in You. 4/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Much noise, not-so-much substance. 2/5
Pavement
1/5
Well ... the book says this album sounds "raw". Actually, the sound quality may work as a demo, but not for a finished product. At all. The same is true for the singing, production and song selection. How this made the list is beyond me. 1/5
John Prine
2/5
Old school country, expertly played, but nothing to write home about. 2/5
Paul Simon
4/5
Paul Simon is quite the storyteller, a quality that shines through in the lyrics in this collection of songs. Musically, there is a melancholic undertone in many of the tracks, but that doesn't mean that they are not listenable - quite the contrary is true. Yes, this album may not be a timeless classic, as some of the decade's more questionable stylistic choices are quite prominent. Nevertheless, it is never boring either, and deserves further listening. 3.5/5
Depeche Mode
5/5
This was Depeche Mode's bridge album between their more classic 80's synth period (Black Celebration) and their all time classic Violator. But from the album cover to the music, this album is both a classic and truly iconic in its own right. There is not one bad song on here. 5/5
Spiritualized
2/5
For an album with that title I guess I was expecting more ... melody. Thus I wanted to like this, and I can hear that the performers are no amateurs, but sadly, this album didn't vibe with me. 2/5
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
Pleasantly surprised. This is a very good alternative rock album. 3.5/5
Tim Buckley
2/5
The songs are competent enough here, but there is something about his style of singing (similar to many of his late 60s/early 70s contemporaries) that puts me off. Despite the strength of some of these songs, I cannot really listen to this for any length of time. 2/5
AC/DC
5/5
No one can accuse AC/DC of being too experimental. You just know them when you hear them. This is the album's biggest weakness. Every track is bristling with energy from the first second to the last, and every indivudual track is excellent. The title track and "You Shook Me All Night Long" are the obvious standouts. Iconic. 4.5/5
Gang Starr
1/5
Hip Hop - 0.5/5
Duran Duran
5/5
After a respectable first album, Rio is when Duran Duran really got going. Everything fits well together here; lead singer Simon Le Bon doesn't always hit the correct notes, but what he lacks in intonation he makes up with tone that is uniquely suited for this kind of music. John and Roger Taylor (no relation) are a tightly locked, always grooving rhythm section - the title track's bassline is especially iconic, and John Taylor's playing is on a whole new level. Meanwhile Andy Taylor's (still no relation) very tasteful and restrained guitar playing adds some welcome rock overtones. And Nick Rhodes' keyboard parts are not only embellishment, but are totally integrated into these songs. This album more than any other defined the new romantic sound of the early 80s, and set an antithesis to the then-prevalent punk movement. Every single track here is worth a listen, but the standouts are Rio, Save A Prayer, and Hungry Like the Wolf. It's truly iconic for its era. 5/5
Santana
4/5
Latin-flavoured, mostly instrumental rock with a 70s touch. Nice flow for background listening, though I have to be in the mood for this cuban-style kind of music. 3.5/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
I had high hopes, but sadly this album just didn't do it for me. It sounds like most other glam rock albums without bringing anything new to the table. The songs themselves are pretty forgetful. 2/5
Jeff Beck
2/5
This album was a good reminder of why I find most of late 60s/early 70s blues rock tediously boring. 2/5
Erykah Badu
3/5
Good funk album with soul overtones. Have to be in the right mood to enjoy it, which I am not currently. But this is a solid 3/5.
Queen
5/5
The number of strong songs on this album is staggering: Bohemian Rhapsody, Love of My Life, '39, You'Re My Best Friend, God Save the Queen. The rest are at least very good. Among the early Queen records, this is easily the most important one. Truly iconic. 5/5
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Moody soul-influenced 60s pop. A bit of a mixed bag. Son of a Precherman and The Windmills of Your Mind are quite good. The other songs to varying degrees less so. 2.5/5
Coldplay
3/5
Coldplay's usual piano driven pop/rock formula. Best (and most well known) track is Clocks, most of the other tracks are good, but not great. 3/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
I can stand Reggae in the right dosage. This is overkill. OK, I should have known the moment I read "Bob Marley", but still ... 2/5
Kanye West
1/5
Hip Hop? Check. - Overhyped artist with an inflated ego? Check. - 0.5/5? Check.
Prince
3/5
I have deep respect for Prince, and I can see that this album is very good, but I just can't feel it. Maybe it's his particular brand of funk and soul. Somehow I just don't connect with it, except for the title song. 2.5/5
SAULT
3/5
Modern soul with a slight electronic/dance vibe. I'm usually not much into that kind of music, but I somehow liked this. 3/5
Sugar
4/5
I'm pleasantly surprised! This is a very good rock album by an artist I have never heard of before. Musically, think Foo Fighters, but a few years earlier. Most of songs have string melodies and are extremely well arranged and produced. I will listen to this again. 4/5
R.E.M.
3/5
I'm not a big fan of alt rock. This album is a mixed bag. Some songs are nice enough, some are plain boring. Nothing really stands out. 2.5/5
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Somehow, I was expecting more, but got less. It's not bad, but not really good either. 2/5
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
2/5
I will never understand the appeal of 60s/70s blues rock . It's all-the-same, all the time. 1.5/5
Talvin Singh
3/5
Modern instrumental, mostly ambient world music. I kinda like this, even though it contains some filler material. All in all 3/5.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
Just hearing the name Bob Marley evokes a pretty clear sonic picture in my mind of what kind of music I have to expect: It's Reggae all the way down. These expectations were met with a nodding approval by reality. And so it came to pass that I was bored. 2/5
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
Late 80s mainstream rock. Competent, but not really my thing. 2.5/5.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Well... yeah. Stevie Wonder. Good album, I guess. Funk and soul with lots of ideas and variation, expertly played by the masters of their respective instruments. Only problem I have is that it doesn't really speak to me. Might just not be my style. Oh, well ... 3/5.
Otis Redding
3/5
Classic 60s soul. Mixed bag, some tracks are quite nice, some not so much. Listening to Respect from the (original) mal perspective is very strange for modern ears; I for one found the track unlistenable. The Stones Cover of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction doesn't sound too good either. 2.5/5
4/5
Early 80s pop; similar to new romantics like Duran Duran. The rhythm section is really good here, as is the production, courtesy of Trevor Horn. This is very good. 3.5/5
Pavement
2/5
Alternative/post-grunge rock album that sounds too much like Radiohead's weakest album (Pablo Honey). 2/5
B.B. King
2/5
I have deep respect for B.B.King as a musician. Having written that, this album, for me, is just blues overkill. The genre just fails to move me in any way, no matter how masterful (like here) it is presented. 2/5.
New York Dolls
3/5
The album started off sounding like classic Rock'n'Roll with a little glam sprinkled in (think Rocky Horror Picture Show), but ended very much sounding like the Rolling Stones. It's good, but not great. 3/5.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I like Frank Sinatra, and this is a very happy swing album, which could even be a great introduction to the Great American Songbook. Alas, I much prefer Sinatra's melancholic side from "In the wee small hours". Still 3/5
The Modern Lovers
2/5
Don't know what to make of this. I don't hate it. But it's not my thing. 2/5
Ray Charles
4/5
This is where classic swing, soul and blues meet. I liked this quite a bit more than I thought I would. Great arrangements with chorus and sweeping strings, yet with a melancholy undertone make for an irresistible mixture of music. 4/5
Peter Tosh
2/5
Reggae overkill. 2/5
Bee Gees
4/5
Relaxing 70s pop. Flows easily in the background. 3.5/5
Neil Young
3/5
That's a real shame - I was pleasantly surprised at the start of the album, as I am not a Neil Young fan. The first three tracks were really good, but it got very mediocre after. As a side note: Neil Young is much better when he has a band backing him (like here), compared to there being only him with his guitar and harmonica. 2.5/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
I couldn't enjoy this album. Some of the songs start out nice enough, but as soon as Dylan starts singing, it ruins the music for me. His voice doesn't mix well with the music. At all. Even having Daniel Lanois as a producer (clearly recognizable) doesn't help. And much of the material is based on the blues, which is off-putting as well. 2/5
The Youngbloods
3/5
Very diverse, relaxed collection of tunes. The album contains pieces of country, rock, and soul among others. Nothing breathtaking, but nice enough to listen to in the background. 3/5
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
I hate hip hop with a passion. Yet, strangely, I can actually listen to this. It's maybe because modern rappers try too hard to be misogynistic wannabe"gangstas", or the fact that image rules over musical talent nowadays.
On this album, I even like the background tracks that display some real talent and craftsmanship, albeit with an 80s vibe, which is an added bonus for me. The dual vocals sound very cool and more badass than any modern artist from the genre could ever pretend to be.
So, yeah, a nice surprise here. For me, only one question then remains: When and where did Hip Hop go so wrong?
But for this album I'm awarding 3/5.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
Ella Fitzgerald's American Sonbook album are something special, and the Gershwin one is the best of the bunch. Nelson Riddle's lush, yet melancholic orchestration paired with Ella's remarkable voice make for an unmissable album. 4/5
Doves
3/5
Your run-off-the-mill alternative rock album. Nothing really sticks out. Hoped it would be better. It isn't. 2.5/5
The Stranglers
2/5
70s Pop/Punk with added keyboards. The singing is par for the course for the genre - which doesn't make it particularly good. The album fails to reach me, it's competent for the genre, but nothing I would listen to again. 2/5
Fairport Convention
4/5
I like this quite a bit. This is folk with some modern instruments added. It flows nicely. I will listen to this again. 3.5/5
The Band
2/5
Blues Rock and Folk Ballads. Nothing that stands out for me. 2/5
Tricky
3/5
Trip-Hop/british rap. Way better than the usual Hip-Hop rap outings. I especially like the intricate backing tracks. Still, while I can appreciate the talent and craftsmanship that went into it, this is really not for me. 3/5
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
Southern rock with some groovy guitar riffs. The album starts great but somewhat loses steam towards the middle. So Lynyrd Skynyrd really hat more songs than Sweet Home Alabama. Who would have known? 3/5
Beth Orton
2/5
I don't know what to make of this. It's not bad, but most of these songs just made me shrug. The first one or two tacks were quite OK, but I couldn't get into the rest, fast forwarding my way to the end of the album. 2/5
King Crimson
5/5
This one is a classic of progressive rock.
21st Schizoid Man is heavily Jazz influenced with quite some guitar noodling, which is a bit tedious. I Talk To the Wind is a sweeping 60's ballad dominated by a synth flute. Epitaph is the absolute high point of the album; it's such a strong and beautiful song, with great vocals by Greg Lake. Moonchild is the most experimental (and longest) song, with even more guitar noodling - I have to be in the mood for this one. Finally, The Court of the Crimson King is a classic in its own right, for me almost on par with Epitaph.
All things considered, the highs on this album are incredibly high, while the lows are only somewhat so, but still interesting in their own right. I like this album quite a bit. 4.5/5
The Smiths
2/5
Generic mid-80's pop/rock. There is not a single memorable melody line, and every song sounds like the other, arrangement-wise. Boring. 2/5
Television
2/5
Boring guitar driven post-punk/rock album, with no standouts whatsoever. 2/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
Maybe I should just copy & paste my other reviews of Bob Marley & The Wailers albums... I just don't know how so many of these albums make it on the list. I could understand one (say Exodus), but so many?!? They all follow the same intricate formula: get some basic Reggae, add some more Reggae, stir, and spice it up with even more Reggae for good measure. (Evidence: Stir It Up on this very album). Suffice to say that this is not my idea of an enjoyable album. But to each their own. 1.5/5
Belle & Sebastian
1/5
Moody 90's pop with cringeworthy singing. What could go wrong?!? 1/5
Pearl Jam
4/5
This is one of the big two albums that really got the ball rolling for the grunge movement - the other one being, of course, Nirvana's Nevermind. However, this album is to Nevermind as Rock is to Punk. I prefer the more rock oriented sound that's prevalent here - great songs, great lyrics, great melodies, great riffs. And while I'm not a big fan of the grunge genre, this album is one of its finest momens. 4/5
The Who
2/5
I can't help the feeling that this album served as heavy inspiration for Pink Floyd's The Wall - you might even call it a blueprint. However, the Pink Floyd opus is miles better.
Tommy is often called a "Rock-Opera", in lieu of the then unknown concept of "(rock) musical". But no matter what we chose to call it, it remains very mediocre. I have massive respect for The Who, but this whole album screams "concept over substance". The whole undertaking is bit tedious and self-indulgent. There is a story here, and if that manages to catch your interest, good for you. Pinball Wizard is a good enough song (which was done better by Elton John), but the rest is nothing to write home about. It's just run-off-the-mill 60s rock without hardly a good idea (or melody).
Thus, I find Tommy to be severely overrated and found my listening experience to be quite disappointing. 2/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Early Heartland Rock. Nice to listen to once, but I wouldn't neccessarily listen to most of these songs again, the exception being Born to Run, which is the only real Showstopper here. 3.5/5
The Cardigans
2/5
This album is a good illustration of what the 90s considered catchy pop. But compared with the decade that directly preceded the 90s, this kind of pop music feels somewhat flat and uninspired, monotonous and boring even. The most well known (and best) song here is Lovefool, and Iron Man - a Black Sabbath cover, no less - works surprisingly well, but the remaining songs just fall flat. 2/5
The Streets
1/5
This is Hip Hop - a.k.a. "Thank you but no thanks." 1/5
Radiohead
5/5
What does one of the most successful Alt.-Rock bands of the 90s do as the followup to one of the most important and successful alt rock - albums of that decade? - They make an experimental electronic album. And it's awesome. But to appreciate it, listeners needed to do one thing: forget everything they knew about Radiohead up to that point - this is Radiohead reborn.
As mentioned, this album is highly experimental, but remains accessible throughout at the same time (something that can't be said about the band's later album The King of Limbs). Every track is different, there is so much to discover here. I don't like every track equally well, but this album as a whole is almost iconic, it warrants 5/5.
Van Halen
4/5
The first Van Halen album, containing classics like Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Runnin' with the Devil, and, of course, Eruption, which cemented Eddie Van Halen's status as hard rock's most virtuoso guitar shredder. While the rhythm section is no slouch either, Eddie and David Lee Roth are clearly the stars of the show, delivering what was to become Van Halen's trademark of extroverted hard rock with fratboy lyrics. The album keeps to this style throughout, which is very entertaining, yet maybe lacks a bit of variation. Still, this is one of the albums that really deserves to be on this list. 4/5
Jungle Brothers
1/5
Aaaaaand another hip hop album. Hard pass. 1/5.
Marianne Faithfull
4/5
This is the kind of album I hoped I would find more often in this list, as far as variation goes. Generally, the album's style is pop/rock with some blues thrown in for good measure. The most well-known song is probably The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, which is dominated by a wobbly synth arrangement, but every single track is different here, so with every song the listener has something new to discover (unlike with so, SO many other albums on this list). This was a great find, to which I will listen again. 4/5
Nico
1/5
This could have been a great album, but it ends up a pretty embarrassing one. Let's face it: Nico couldn't sing. At all. So all what could have been a collection of beautiful songs with haunting arrangements is utterly ruined as soon as she begins to what obiously passed as singing back then. I gave up after the first half, but spot checked the second one. Same result. 1/5
The Who
2/5
Nice enough, but all tracks sound quite similar, there is no real standout. All in all a bit disappointing and forgettable. 2/5
The Slits
2/5
*Sigh* This is tedious. There isn't a good song on this album, except for the cover version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", but even this version is botched. The singer can't sing, but at least the rest of the band has a decent command of their instruments. Still, there is nothing here to warrant repeated listening (if at all). 1.5/5
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
This is a GREAT album (with a BAD cover photo)! It contains many of S&G's best-known songs: "Bridge Over Troubles Water", "El Condor Pasa", "Cecilia", "Keep The Customer Satisfied" and "The Boxer". These songs make the album worth anyone's time alone. The album is paced a bit unevenly, as all the big songs are to be found in the first half. The last couple of tracks fail to reach the same hights, but are a nice listen nonetheless.
The track order is the problem here. BOTW would have worked much better as the final track. In it's place, The Boxer would have been a fitting opener. El Condor Pasa's ideal place would be the beginning of side two. And the weaker songs could have been mashed in between. I have seldom seen a running order that was just so wrong on multiple levels, but there it is. Oh, well, it's still a great album. 4/5
The Triffids
3/5
It's a real shame - the music and the songs on this album are good, but not great. It's expertly arranged and played, but it somehow misses the spark of true greatness. I guess I wanted to like this album more than I ended up doing. 3/5
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
Well... this album doesn't vibe with me at all. I can't relate with any of the songs, even though I can hear the craftsmanship that went into it. Strange, but it happens, I guess. 2/5
Green Day
5/5
This is an excellent Rock/Punk album. I'm usually not a Punk fan, but have nothing but respect for Green Day. With this album, they outdid themselves. There is no weak track - every song is memorable with great musicianship and hummable melodies. Wake Me Up When September Ends is such a beautiful, powerful song; the real standout on this album. Other highlights include the title song and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but, this being a concept album, the whole collection warrants repeated listening. However, for the times when you really just want to listen to one particular song, it would have been to let each individual song reside in its own track. I'm not really a fan of lumped together tracks like "Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams". But that is just a minor quibble. 4.5/5
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Amy's voice is the big seller here. This album was a harbinger for the true greatness that was to come with the next album, but this album holds its own as very good. 3.5/5
Amy Winehouse
5/5
I'm getting both Amy Winehouse albums on two consecutive days ... What are the chances? Anway ...
I'm not the biggest Soul fan on the planet, but I can recognize quality when I hear it. This album is a huge step up from Amy's first collection. The style here is more soul than the preceding album's jazz/swing; in the style of 60's girl groups like the Ronettes and producers like Phil Spector. Every song is different here, and every one is a gem. The obvious monster hit is the title track, Rehab is also well known. But the album also shines in the more unknown numbers like Love Is A Losing game, which displays Amy's more vulnerable side. Iconic. 5/5
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2/5
I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Jazz, and this leans more towards the latter side. Everybody knows Take Five; it's nice, but a bit boring for my taste. The album as a whole is much too cerebral. It's Jazz by the (odd) numbers, but it doesn't speak to me. 2/5
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
This is difficult. The album can be very relaxing, but I found myself to be annoyed a couple of times. This is probably a function of listening to it for too long.
This is probably the only Indian folk album I have ever heard. It was a great influence on contemporaries like Paul McCartney and George Herrison, an influence that can be clearly heard on The Beatles' later albums.
As the album is so mixed, I'll go with the middle of the road. 2.5/5
Raekwon
1/5
Well, if that isn't another hip hop album. Just add it to the pile. 1/5
Arrested Development
2/5
Apart from a few exceptions, I really hate hip hop, because it usually is a cesspool of misogynistic wannabe "gangstas" without much talent.
This album is a welcome step up; it really has a positive vibe. This being hip hop, I really can't listen to it for any extended amount of time, but tracks like Mr. Wendal and Tennessee were a pleasant surprise. In spite of the genre, I'm giving it 2/5.
Ramones
3/5
Punk was both protest against certain trends in politics and society as it was against established trends in (especially rock) music. This is proto punk - three chords and the truth, bass, guitar, drums and vocals. You cannot get more basic than this. The whole records has a balls-to-the-wall energy, but lacks variation. It's hard to distinguish the individual songs. But this energy ...
3/5
Can
4/5
I liked this more than I thought I would. This is ... progressive rock? New age? Experimental? All of the above? And more? I don't know. But it flows nicely. I actually might want to listen to this again. 3.5/5
The Byrds
2/5
Mid 60s californian rock. The album sounds pretty generic for its time, and I can't find anything that hasn't been done better by other groups. Disappointing. 2/5
The Byrds
3/5
The blueprint for this band's sound is the early Beatles' albums, with some sprinkles of the usual American west coast flower power sound. The songs are alright; the obvious standout is Mr. Tambourine Man, but generally this is the Beatles' playbook 101, and I can't find anything here that the Beatles haven't done better before. 2.5/5
The Shamen
2/5
Generic 90s dance music. I couldn't even find one track to catch my interest. It hasn't agend well. 1.5/5
Al Green
3/5
I'm not the biggest Soul/R&B-fan, but this is quite nice. Standout: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart. 3/5
Frank Zappa
3/5
This is Jazz/Prog-Rock. Not bad by any means, but not really my style. 3/5
The Cure
4/5
Dark and brooding early 80s rock. Very atmospheric. I like this quite a bit. 3.5/5
The Flaming Lips
2/5
This album was overhyped in the book. I guess the songs are OK (though nothing special), but I couldn't finish the album. I find the singer's voice quite annoying and whiney, but the real offender is the mix. The drums are overbearing in volume with too much room ambience a lot of the time and the bass is much too soft. I really couln't get into this. Disappointing 2/5
4/5
There are people for which The Joshua Tree is U2's Opus Magnum. For others, it's Achtung Baby. I'm firmly in the latter camp, but I still can recognize The Joshua Tree as the great collection of songs that it is. Compared to its predecessors, the band's sound has evolved to become grander and more cinematic. (Though it's no sonic revolution like Achtung Baby). Songwise, apart from the usual suspects (Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With Or Without You), there are some really great songs on here (Red Hill Mining Town and One Tree Hill readily come to mind). Of course, the usual problem in much of U2's catalog, preachy Bono, is present here as well, but it somehow fits the music and is less annoying than elsewhere.
This is a recommended listen. 4/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
For me, Bob Dylan is one of those "You had to be there to understand" musicians. The problem I have with Dylan is on display as early as the very first song - Dylan can't sing for the life of him. Rather than carrying a tune, it's more speaking interspersed with some very embarrasing shouting. Some of the songs are alright, but there is much too much folk and harmonica. That's how his fans like him. I don't. 2/5
Anthrax
3/5
To me, Anthrax are a lightly more aggressive Metallica. OK, that's par for the course in thrash metal land. The album begins with high energy and never lets up. And this is exactly the problem I'm having with it - it lacks variation. If we look at Metallica again, even on their second album they changed the tempo and mood of some of their songs, so listeing never gets boring. Not so with Antrax. The album is good, but a bit tiring and numbing, and not as interesting as similar acts in the same genre. 2.5/5
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Jazz meets Tango. I'm not a fan of both these genres. While I enjoyed the first track quite a bit, i found the second one unbearable - seems I'm not a fan of the vibraphone either.
But this pattern continues somewhat - some tracks are really OK, others are Jazz (with a capital J) for the sake of it; rambling on much too long without strucure or aim. At least the Montreux audience seemed to like it. For me it was a mixed bag. 2.5/5
The Kinks
3/5
Folk rock, directly from the early-Beatles playbook. Death of a Clown is the standout for me. The rest is OKish. No really bad songs, nothing that blows me away either. Solid effort. 3/5
Muddy Waters
2/5
Not a fan of the blues. Pass. 2/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
This is an album that really- hands down, no argument - belongs on this list (for a change). Michael Jackson, who later was dubbed King of Pop, delivers an irresistible mix of Pop, Soul and R&B. Every track grooves, every track shines due to the production work of one of the true masters - Quincy Jones. The rhythm section is sometimes human, sometimes programmed, but always grooving. There is even the famous guitar solo on Beat It, played by Eddie Van Halen. And MJ himself delivers on almost every track. The songs themselves are fantastic as well, the only odd one out is The Girl is Mine - I find both the lyrics and their delivery by Jackson on that song to be quite cringeworthy. But apart from that, this album is a true, iconic classic. 4.5/5
John Martyn
2/5
Not my thing. The singer's voice and the heavily folk/blues-influenced song-writing do nothing for me. I believe it's good for fans of the respective genres. For me it's 2/5.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
This is a good collection of dance/pop songs, but I much prefer the Pet Shop Boys' earlier albums. True: There are some heavy hitters like Can You Forgive Her, Liberation, I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing, and - of course - Go West. But some of the other songs dont't quite feel up to par here. Plus, the sound is heavily anchored in the early 90s. Still, a good effort, and probably the last album I would count as belonging to the classic PSB era. 4/5
Cream
2/5
I will probably never not be bored by blues records. But here, the genre comes with some psychedelic sprinkles on top, which makes the music somewhat easier to bear, but not enough to really like it. 2/5
Method Man
1/5
Hip-Hop. Ya know one - ya know 'em all. 1/5
a-ha
4/5
This is a massive synth-pop album that contains some of the biggest genre hits of its era - Take on Me and The Sun Always Shines on TV deserve every single bit of praise they have received (not least because of Morten Harket's versatile voice). The title track, however, is something else. It's more acoustic with a cinematic breadth seldom seen in 80s pop and a breathtaking, sweeping orchstral arrangement. But that song remains the exception, as synth pop is is ruler supreme on this album. And while the highs are incredibly high, there is quite a bit of filler material here, most of which is fine. This was a good first effort for Norways most famous musical export. Many more - even better ones - were to follow. 4/5
Eagles
4/5
A solid first effort for The Eagles and their trademark Californian Rock. The obvious standout is Take It Easy, and the rest of the songs are nice as well. However, it seems that that Eagles spark that dominated much of their later material is still missing here. That doesn't mean the album can't be enjoyed. It's just not their strongest collecton of material. 3.5/5
The Incredible String Band
2/5
Psychedelic ... folk?!? I gues this must have been quite the rage in the late 60s, and I have to admit I was strangely fascinated upon hearing it. Still, I'm probably not going to listen to this again, it doesn't speak to me as much as to the generation it was intended for. 2/5
Radiohead
4/5
This album defies any genre definition. There are rock tracks, electronic synth tracks, beautiful ballads and some jazzy moments, all bound together by a gloomy vibe, not least created by Thom Yorke's voice. I like a couple of tracks (especially A Wolf At The Door), but unlike a couple of other Radiohead albums, this album doesn't quite vibe with me. I wish it was different, because I can hear that there's some high quality musicianship in there. It just fails to reach me on any emotional level. Which is just too bad. 3.5/5
Stereo MC's
2/5
This is a mixture of house and hip hop, and soundwise very much a product of it's time. Connected is a well known track which I can actually listen to. The rest is OK, not nearly as bad as a lot of gangsa rap - albums, but nothing I would neccesarily have to listen to again. 2/5
Tim Buckley
3/5
This album could almost be a the prototye for 70s rock/white-blues/soul, as it sounds so generic and firmly rooted in that decade. If you like this kind of stuff, you will like the album too. For me, this is not bad by any means, but really nothing special. 2.5/5
Common
1/5
Hip hop. Why are so many of these albums on this list? Annoyed 1/5
Nanci Griffith
3/5
I don't usually listen to Country too much, but this album is not bad. It sounds more modern than some of the genre classics, but it remains acoustic throughout, so no country rock either. The first two tracks especially stood out for me. After those, the album loses some steam, but it's still 3/5.
Ye olde run-of-the-mill 70s (blues) rock. Only good track is "Debris". The rest? - Yawn. 2/5
The Louvin Brothers
1/5
Classical Country with a capital 'C'. Acoustic guitars and over-the-top harmonizing vocals. I cringe when I listen to this. Not my thing. At all. 1/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Throughout my listening of this album, the effect has always been the same: The song begins with an intro that promises a good, if not great rock song ... and then Neil Young starts to sing, and the song is ruined. Whoever thought it was a good idea to ever give Young singing duties didn't do him (or us) any favour. Young might be a good song writer and musician, but his voice is not suited for this kind of music. 1.5/5
Finley Quaye
2/5
Reggae is just not my thing, and Finley Quaye is trying too hard to be the next Bob Marley. 2/5
DJ Shadow
3/5
Based on the description in the book, I was prepared to hate this album, but I don't. This is a compilation of tracks that are totally based on sampling. Thankfully hardly any rap is to be found here. There are quite interesting tracks here, but others don't evoke any reaction or are even quite annoying. The result is a very mixed album - in every regard. 2.5/5
David Crosby
2/5
"If I Only Could Remember Why On Earth This Is On The List ..."
Another 70s folk/rock album with flower-power sensibilities. This album is more style than substance. Case in point: Song With No Words, which is an endlessly meandering mess. Same goes for I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here. I could go on. The whole album is so overblown with self-importance that Crosby somehow forgot to include any good songs. Or - worse - thought that these, indeed, were good songs. Not a total catastrophe, but utterly forgettable. 1.5/5
Soft Cell
3/5
I love myself some 80s synthpop. Having said that, I don't really like this album. The songs are just not there; the arrangements are fine, but there hardly is any good hook or melody. Tainted Love being one of the most overplayed 80s songs in history doesn't help. Some tracks are listenable, but the resulting song collection is very uneven and mixed. 2.5/5
Tom Waits
4/5
I have massive respect for Tom Waits' particular brand of blues/jazz/whatever-the-rest-is. But I have to be in the right mood to enjoy his music, as his lyrics and voice go to places hardly anyone else (OK, maybe Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen) dares to venture. I'm not in that mood today, but I can recognize quality whenever I hear it.
Sonically, this album is exactly what anyone who knows Waits' music can expect. Many of these songs are good enough, but not really great. But there are a couple of standouts as well: Hang Down Your Head, Time, Rain Dogs and Downtown Train are instant classics. This album deserves a re-listen. 3.5/5.
Bad Brains
2/5
A little disappointing. Energy and power are high, the singer's voice even reminds me of Simon LeBon, but the songs are just not there. Nothing to write home about. 2/5.
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
Some of the grooves are nice, for example on Block Rockin' Beats, but overall this is much too repetitive for my tastes. For this genre that comes with the territory, I guess. 2/5.
The Smiths
3/5
Good album for having some music in the background; it's easy on the ears, but missing really good compositions. On the other hand, there hardly is any really bad song to be found. The Queen Is Dead is the best track. 3/5
Kate Bush
5/5
This album is phenomenal. People will (finally) listen to Kate Bush again due to Stranger Things and it's inclusion of Running Up That Hill. And that's OK, because it is an excellent song. But the rest of the album is no less fascinating. It defies genre definitions: Pop meets Art Rock meets Folk meets Chorale .... (I could go on.)
Among the twelve tracks on this album nearly every single one is different, and each has something new just waiting to be discovered. The first side (which includes Running Up That Hill) is slightly more pop oriented. Running... , Hounds Of Love, The Big Sky and Cloudbusting are real standouts. The second side is more of a concept album. The listener needs to pay more attention here, but is rewarded with excellent music. Forget everything you thought you knew about 80s music, this album is something else. 5/5
Tom Waits
3/5
The second Tom Waits album within one week...
As usual, Waits mixes Jazz with Blues to produce his trademark "down low" sound. And it works. Waits is one of the few white men playing the Blues that can sound authentic while doing so. Sadly, many of the songs are not that memorable per se, but it's the underlying mood which manages to sell them. The album gets really good in the ballads, most of which are quite beautiful - Saving All My Love For You, On The Nickel and Ruby's Arms are the high points here. The other songs would have benefitted from that level of songwrighting, too. 3/5
The Stone Roses
3/5
I shrugged. 2.5/5
OutKast
1/5
This is 2 albums. Both hip hop. Album 1 is Gangsta Rap trash. Album 2 is a little bit better than anticipated, as it contains Jazz and Soul elements, and their probably most known song Hey Ya.
Album 1: 0.5/5
Album 2: 1.5/5
Final Score: 1/5
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
This is around the time the 80s stopped being fun. The whole album is a forebearer to the Grunge movement, but worse.
The singing here is atrocious, and the music hardly is any better. Good compositions are nowhere to be found. 1.5/5
Hole
4/5
Very good Rock (post-Grunge) album. This is a collection of very strong songs, expertly played and I was pleasantly surprised that Courtney Love can actually sing. 4/5
Foo Fighters
3/5
As far as rock albums go, this is a good first effort for Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters, but one that is still too deeply anchored in Grohl's grunge roots. The songs don't yet reach the hights of their later albums and could use more variation, but the signs of greatness are already there in the relentless energy in most of these tracks. 3/5
Rod Stewart
2/5
I was quite bored by this. It's the typical early 70s "rock" sound. The songs are nothing to write home about, except for Country Comfort, which is a cover. 2/5
Björk
3/5
The first couple or songs are typical Björk-gloomliness, but it gets better. Björk really experiments with different styles and instrumentation. Pagan Poetry and Aurora are real standouts. 3/5
5/5
In the everlasting list of dichotomies like "Tea or Cofffee?", "Pepsi or Coke? "Stones or Beatles?", there is "Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road?". In this question, I'm firmly in the Abbey Road Camp, but not because I love Sgt. Pepper less, but Abbey Road more. Because, really, Sgt. Pepper is as superb and iconic a masterpiece as it gets.
It starts with the cover photo, a psychedelic collage of famous people from all over world history, which is one of the most famous album covers ever. And that is even before listening to a single note of music.
The music, then, was absolutely revolutionary on release, and still holds up extremely well to this day. The Beatles continued the (r)evolution of their sound that started on Revolver, but here they turn that aspect to 11. From a songwrighting perspective, every single song is superb. Standouts are certainly With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite! and - of course - A Day In The Life. Sonically, the Beatles have gone further on this album than on any of the predecessors: Uncommon Instrumentation for a rock record (Sitar, Clarinet, ...) meets novel production techniques - tapes played in reverse, the almost infinite reverb at the end of A Day in the Life, tape loops and much more, made complete with an impeccable, great sounding production.
Of the many albums that have found their way on this list, not-so-many are truly great. This one is. 5/5
Hugh Masekela
2/5
Too much jazz - pointlessly meandering without ever arriving anywhere may be satisfiying for the performers, but may be less so for the listener. Case in point: me. 2/5
Butthole Surfers
1/5
A perfect example of a band trying to be extreme just for the sake of it. The result is embarrassing. Sorry, I don't have time for this. 1/5
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
I'm not the world's biggest jazz fan, but this kind of jazz I can get behind. It sounds pleasant, good for some background listening, always with a focus on melody. Sadly, the title track is blocked on Spotify and Youtube. Still, a good album. 3/5
Grizzly Bear
3/5
Alternative pop/rock with some experimentation sprinkled in. The result is a mixed album consisting of a couple of OK and some more not-so-OK tracks. Nothing really stands out in either direction - there is no really horrible song here, but nothing is particualarly good either. 2.5/5
Tears For Fears
4/5
Were all of the songs of the same quality as Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Head Over Heals, this would be a straight 5. Sadly, a couple of songs, while good, are too much anchored in 80s production values, and some of the songs don't work per se, making this album a 4/5.
Dead Kennedys
2/5
Low-variation punk. Not horrible, but does nothing for me. 2/5
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I love Leonard Cohen, and for me this album ist the absolute high point of his second phase, perhaps even his best overall together with You Want it Darker.
The songwrighting is stronger than ever here, with every single song being different, and almost every single song being a masterpiece. (Jazz Police is so-so). The lyrics are unmatchedly deep and witty, with Cohen's dry humor shining through in most of the eight tracks.
To the casual listener, it might sound like a typical 80s record, but the arrangements often are even more stripped down than that, and generally fit the lyrics pretty well. The most important instrument, however, is Cohen's voice, which is deeper here than ever. - Could Cohen sing? You can argue about that, but whatever he is doing with it, his voice is more expressive than what most other artists can muster. To quote from Tower of Song, the final song on this album: "I was born like this, I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice." 5/5
Orbital
3/5
Generic 90s techno/dance album, some tracks are OK, some not. Nothing that stands out for me. 2.5/5
Led Zeppelin
2/5
Another exmple of late 60s rock where white people play The Blues(tm). There are only a couple of songs that do not adhere to this formula, and in these instances the music gets better immediately. Sadly, these moments are far and between. The rest is simply boring. 2/5
Beyoncé
2/5
I know that this particular style of mainstream pop/soul/hip-hop/rap has been extremely popular since the beginning of the century, but I just can't ... I'm sorry, no. Nothing that remotely speaks to me here. 1.5/5
New Order
2/5
This record cannot decide if it wants to be a proper New Order album or a collection of house music tracks. Both kinds of songs are there, but whenever we reach a house track, the album sounds dated. And for the new Order proper sections, the song material is quite weak. It's not utterly horrible, and Dream Attack is quite nice, but overall the album is a very mixed experience without any real highs. 2/5
Depeche Mode
5/5
If I would have to name one album that shows Depeche Mode on the peak of their talent, it would probably this one. After two excellent predecessors, this album is DM at the hight of their potential. The mood is gloomy, but embellished by Alan Wilder's intricate arrangements. The songs themselves are chef's kiss as well - on one single album we find legendary songs like Personal Jesus, Waiting for the Night, Enjoy the Silence and Policy of Truth; the rest of the songs, while lesser known, are equally as good. Truly iconic. 5/5
Circle Jerks
1/5
With just over 15 minutes, this must be the shortest album I have ever heard.
... and that is the only remarkable thing about this album. This is another one of those late 70s/early 80s punk bands who have traded talent for loudness. There is attitude, but not much else to go on. What a boring waste of perfectly good 15 minutes. 1/5
Yes
3/5
This is proggy alright, but with a heavy folk influence. Of the longer songs, most are in different sections that could be songs in their own right. Songwrighting is mixed. An OK album, certainly influential for its time, but not for me. 2.5/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
What is there to say, really? This is one of the best albums ever produced. It's Pink Floyd's opus magnum, and really one big piece of music (two, if you account for the fact that the listener had to turn over the LP after The Great Gig In The Sky) that deserves to be listened to as such. Do not, DO NOT! skip around the album trying to find the obvious singles. If you don't know it, know that you ow it to yourself to listen to this album in its entirety, front to back, in one uninterrupted sitting. This album is an absolute iconic masterpiece. Really, what else is there to say? 5/5
Tracy Chapman
4/5
I knew Tracy Chapman, but I hadn't heard any of her albums. This one is quite good; singer/songwrighter with a folky/rock flavour. Every body knows Fast Car and Talkin' Bout a Revolution, but for me the strongest song is Baby Can I Hold You. Chapman's voice is unique, frail but strong; and the songs are very melodic and extremely nice to listen to. Which I will do again. 4/5.
Everything But The Girl
5/5
What is this? Soul? R&B? Pop? - Whatever it is, I like it. I only knew Everything But The Girld by name before, so this album is quite a discovery for me. It's a very laid back affair, the arrangements are top notch and not too rooted in the 80s. The singer has a great voice, and the songs are very good too. What's not to like? 4.5/5
Johnny Cash
4/5
The 4th album of Johnny Cash's American Recording Series, and the last one published during his lifetime, this record contains mainly sparsely arranged covers, most of which are just acoustic guitar and Cash's unmistakable gravelly voice that is second only to Leonard Cohen's. This affords Cash much room for singing, and he delivers. The album contains - for me - the definitive versions of Hurt and especially Desperado, because he sings them with an absolute authentic, heartbreaking sincerity. Sadly not every song is on that level, some lyrics are quite weak (eg. Sam Hall), and the theme of the condemned man is present in too many songs with too little thematic variation. But that shouldn't distract from how great this album is. 4/5
Suzanne Vega
3/5
With the exceptions of Luka, In Liverpool and maybe Tom's Diner (all of which are not on this album) I always thought that Suzanne Vega's would be better as a poet than a songwrighter - her music sounds like poetry with some musical accompagnement rather than actual songs. There is hardly any memorable melody here, nothing that stands out. The tracks are OKish, but that's it. 2.5/5
Kanye West
1/5
Oh, look, it's a Hip-Hop album by Kanye West! What could go wrong?!? 0.5/5
Billy Joel
4/5
One of the best early Billy Joel Songs. I liked it listening, but wasn't blown away, even though most of the songs are quite good. 3.5/5
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
Nice album, but wouldn't really call it rock. Flows nicely without any real highs or lows. 3/5
OutKast
1/5
Hip-Hop. 1/5
KISS
3/5
Of course I have heard of KISS before, and I knew Beth and God gave Rock 'N' Roll To You, but this is the first full KISS album I've listened to, and to be honest I am underwhelmed. Music and songs are alright, as far as 70s (glam) rock goes, but I guess I was expecting something a little more special. But this isn't. It's OK, it's solid, but that's about it. For KISS, the packaging obviously was as important (if not more) as the music. 2.5/5
Fugees
2/5
Better than Gangstarap. But that is all I can say. It's still Hip-Hop, and I still don't like it. 1.5/5
TLC
3/5
I expected a rap/hip-hop album, but was pleasantly surprised. The songs mostly are R&B and genereally flow nicely in the background. Waterfalls is the obvisous standout. There is some rapping, but it's not as annoying as on many other albums. 3/5
Louis Prima
2/5
Overly extroverted Rock&Roll/Jazz/Blues/Easy Listening. Expertly played, but SO annoying. 2/5
The xx
3/5
Interesting instrumentation meets uninspired, brooding songs. 2.5/5
The Doors
3/5
I never really could get into The Doors. Riders on the Storm is good, but many of the other songs are generic typical early 70s Blues-Rock affairs. This was obviously very influencial in it's time, but for me it falls flat. Very mixed 2.5/5
Tori Amos
4/5
Good piano driven singer/songwriter pop/rock with some strong songs and enough melody to keep it interesting. 3.5/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
The first Bob Dylan album I can actually listen to for a bit. Didn't think this was possible. I'm still not a big folk fan, and I still think that Dylan's voice doesn't lend itself well to singing, but this is surprisingly ... OK. - Huh... Wo would have thought? 3/5
Kraftwerk
5/5
This one is a masterpiece - early minimalistic, electronic music with great hooks and rhythm. The Model is perhaps Kraftwerk's most famous song. The Robots has great rhythm and makes for a fantastic opener. And Neon Lights is just beautiful. There is not a weak track to be found. I somewhat prefer the album's German version, but the is a must-hear in any language; certainly one of Kraftwerk's best. 4.5/5
Iron Maiden
5/5
The first Iron Maiden album to feature Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals, this is one of Maiden's best ever. It contains The Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name, all on one album, and the rest of of the tracks are great as well. I especially like Children of the Damned, a really beautiful song that is sadly often overlooked, because it is overshadowed by the aforementioned tracks.
The production by Martin Birch is punchy without being overbearing; the songs are heavy but with enough melody and variation to never become boring. And Dickinson is without a doubt one of the best metal singers ever. All of this comes together to form a real classic Heavy Metal album. 5/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
I think I prefer Dylan when he's all-acoustic. That kind of music is better suited to his voice. Here the songs are extremely mixed and generally a bit boring, the only exception being Like a Rolling Stone. Tired 2.5/5
The Prodigy
2/5
Uninteresting 90s dance/club music that hasn't aged well. 1.5/5
Skunk Anansie
3/5
Good 90s rock album, but nothing special. 3/5
Goldfrapp
3/5
The album sounds good, but doesn't offer anything to write home about in the songwrighting department, making this a nicely quiet, but unremarkable listen. Still 3/5
David Bowie
3/5
The best song - of couse - is Heroes, but the others are lacking. I somehow liked the instrumentals. 2.5/5
Sebadoh
2/5
"Look, we're so alternative and so edgy!!!" .... Why on earth is this particular album one of the 1001 album I have to listen to before I die?!? 1.5/5
Jacques Brel
4/5
Nice flowing, autumny vibes. I'm not the biggest fan of chanson, but this is quite good. Best track is Amsterdam. 3.5/5
CHIC
3/5
Good Times is such an iconic dance/disco/funk song; if the rest of the album were as good, it would be phenomenal. But, alas, it isn't. The other songs are just OK, without anything really standing out. So between them and Good Times, it's 3/5.
Hole
2/5
This is the kind of grunge-infused, angsty rock music that could only have come out in the 90s. This comes especially as no surprise as the singer is Curt Cobains wife. But apart from this, the album is not only uninteresting, but tedious and exhausting. Every song sounds like every one else. 2/5
Lana Del Rey
2/5
Well, at least no one can accuse Lana Del Rey of being to versatile. I find it hard to distinguish the songs, they all sound the same, not only from a compositional standpoint, but also production-wise. Whoever produced this must have thrown everything he/she knows about producing pop-hits on a wall to see what sticks. And Del Ray's vocal style is disappointingly similar to every other contemporary female pop singer/sonwrighter. This is one of the best albums that 2021 had to offer?!? Oh, come on ... 1.5/5
The Black Crowes
4/5
Very good rock album from the 90s that sounds like right out of the 70s. There isn't really a bad track here; songs, production, playing, singing are all equally good. 4/5
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
Late-to-the-game 70s style glam rock from 1983.... which I have nothing against. What I have something against is the lack of good songwrighting. Nothing here makes me want to listen to this again. 2/5
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
Am I biased against hip-hop? - You bet I am. But this album isn't helping. 1/5
Ice Cube
1/5
The entry for this in the "1001 albums" book says it best: "gangsta garbage".
This is a sorry excuse for an album. 0.5/5
Led Zeppelin
2/5
70's rock, a.k.a. white men play The Blues (tm). There are a few tracks that do not adhere to that (e.g. Kashmir), and in these cases the music becomes better immediately, but the basic formula holds true, making this not a very enjoyable album. 2/5
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
Par-for-the-course 60s anti-establishment psychedelic rock without anything standing out. Never really liked Zappa. 2/5
Red Snapper
2/5
Some interesting instrumental tracks marred by too many hip-hop ones. *sigh* Best track (by a mile): Keeping Pigs Together. 2/5
Screaming Trees
3/5
Best song is All I Know, the rest is a very competent rock album. 3/5
Elliott Smith
3/5
Good rock album; although Smith tries too much to sound like the Beatles on many of these songs, without reaching their level. But overall very nice. 3/5
2Pac
1/5
Hip-Hop. 0.5/5
The Kinks
2/5
Get The Beatles, and take away the production value and songwrighting abilities. You'll probably get this, a very mediocre 60s pop record. 2/5
David Bowie
3/5
This is not Bowie's best outing, but a good album nonetheless. The songs are OK, and when I am in the mood I quite like the instrumental pieces. 3/5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
3/5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo were the backing band on Paul Simon's Graceland, and this album sounds like it. ... Except for the fact, that all of the songs are a capella. It sounds nice enough, but just isn't my cup of tea. 2.5/5
Aimee Mann
2/5
90's rock. Nicely played and sung, but without any interesting ideas or hooks it's nothing special. And at nearly 53 minutes it overstays its welcome. 2/5
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Soul/Funk soundtrack from the early 70s that works quite well without the movie. It's nice background music. Not sure if I'd come back to this, though. 3/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
The first couple of songs were surprisingly good, the rest of the tracks are more ... noise-based and edgy for the sake of it. I just can't get into this band. 2/5
Wilco
2/5
Alternative country rock by the numbers. The album is much too long, especially considering it having not a single interesting song whatsoever. 2/5
Prince
3/5
For me, Prince is best listened to in small doses; I like only a couple of songs (the usual suspects: Purple Rain, Kiss, ...). The title song and maybe Little Red Corvette fits the bill, and altogether I prefer this album to, say, Sign 'O' The Times, but it stays a mixed bag for me. 2.5/5
The Beau Brummels
2/5
The first track wasn't half bad, the rest was OKish, but nothing to write home about. 2/5
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
Big Band/Piano Jazz. Not really my thing. 2.5/5
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
Well, this is better than expected. The bongos reign supreme here, but apart from that, this is an instrumental soundscape that screams "70s" all over in a good way. The worst tracks are the two remixes at the end (which I suspect weren't on the original release). Go figure. 3/5
Justice
2/5
This tries to be Daft Punk, but, despite what the book says, fails by a long shot. I found the listen tedious. 2/5
James Taylor
2/5
The folk songs are alright - typical James Taylor stuff flowing gently in the background like a summer breeze. Nothing special, but something to entertain your ears. Sadly, there are also a couple of songs where he tries the White Man Plays THE BLUES(tm) routine, and as so often in these cases, these efforts fall completely flat. 2/5
Suicide
1/5
Cute on a cerebral level, but does absolutely nothing for me in the enjoyment department. 1/5
A Tribe Called Quest
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Eagles
5/5
Fantastic, iconic album without any bad songs, and no two songs are the same. The obivious, most-well known, monster-hit song is Hotel California, but the likes of Wasted Time and The Last Resort are nearly equally as good. West Coast country rock has never sounded better. 5/5
50 Cent
1/5
"Gangsta" hip-hop trash. 0.5/5
Talking Heads
2/5
I never could get into Talking Heads, save from a few mid-80s songs. This album is more a sound collage than music. The singing is particularly atrocious. Of all the songs, only Once In A Lifetime was alright, but generally I find this album to be severely overrated. 1.5/5
The Doors
5/5
This album is excellent. It genuinely covers the spirit of the latter 60s, and contains so many great songs, e.g. Break on Through, Alabama Song, Light My Fire and The End. Every single one can stand on its own. The music is fantastic, the organ solo in Light My Fire is simply sublime, and Jim Morrison's vocals and lyrics shine in every one of them. I never was a Doors fan, but this made me intersted in their music. 5/5
D'Angelo
2/5
Pretty boring mid 90's R&B. Nothing that speaks to me at all. 1.5/5
Metallica
5/5
Absolutely classic album that was my introduction to Metallica back when it came out, so I grew up with it, and it's nice to revisit it today.
The album contains 12 tracks, five of which are outstanding, with the remaining seven raging from "OKish" to "actually quite nice".
Clearly, I am biased, but in my book, any album that can muster tracks like Enter Sandman, Sad But True, The Unforgiven, Wherever I May Roam and Nothing Else Matters deserves a high rating. I'll substract 0.5 points for the somewhat weaker tracks, but that still leaves us with an absolute iconic monster of an album. And no, I don't care if this isn't really Thrash Metal or whatever subgenre people come up with. That's just gatekeeping. 4.5/5
Steely Dan
3/5
Rock with a decidedly 70s vibe. Not bad, flows nicely, but nothing to write home about. 3/5
Elvis Costello
2/5
I totally respect Elivs Costello, but I can't find and song that I like on this album. They sound alright; they're just not my cup of tea. 2/5
Madonna
3/5
Madonna is the Queen of Pop, even if this is the overproduced 90s electronica version of the genre. It's good, but not great, and I much prefer her earlier albums, e.g. True Blue and Like A Prayer (and Evita, but that's another story entirely). The best tracks here are Drowned World / Substitute for Love, Frozen and The Power of Good-Bye. 3/5
Bebel Gilberto
2/5
Bossa Nova with electronic instrumentation. Nicely done, but Bossa just isn't for me. 2/5
Eminem
2/5
Still can't get through an entire hip hop album, but from what I could hear, this one is quite funny. I'm impressed. 2/5
Faust
2/5
Electronics mixed with rock and ... noise? Interesting concept, but fails to get my attention. 1.5/5
Baaba Maal
2/5
Mixture of 90 synth sounds and African music (think "The Lion King", albeit a few years earlier). Not too bad, but I'm not a big fan of this kind of world music. (which, in any case it has been done better by the likes of Peter Gabriel.) It would take a few more years before the integration of African and more western music would become somewhat more authentic - here, it sounds like an experiment. 2/5
Songhoy Blues
3/5
.... nice, I guess. Just didn't pull me in. But very nice. 3/5
The Who
2/5
I never could get into The Who, especiallly on this (their first) album, which sounds a lot like typical 60s beat/rock fare. The title song is alrightish, though. 2/5
Emmylou Harris
3/5
On hearing Bluebird Wine, this album's first track, I had high hopes, but was a bit disappointed to find that the rest of the album didn't live up to that song. It's not bad by any means, but just middle-of-the-road Country without anything that would make it stand out from other albums of the genre. 2.5/5
Paul Simon
4/5
This is what you get when world music meets with slick 80s production values. Recorded in South Africa with local musicians at the height of Apartheid (and breaking a cultural boycott), this album mixes African music with Paul Simon's songwrighting abilities. The result is a mix of different styles, but all influenced by the music of the continent it was recorded on. The greatest tracks are The Boy in the Bubble, Graceland and the severely overplayed You Can Call Me Al. The other tracks can't always reach the level of these songs, but the album is very worth a listen nonetheless. 3.5/5
Parliament
3/5
Why is it that in early funk tunes the subject matter of the lyrics is almost exclusively "The Funk"?!?
The music is par-for-the course for mid-70s funk music, but nothing relevatory. Most tracks sound alike. 3/5
Dire Straits
5/5
It was 1985, and Mark Knopfler was in the mood for super-stardom. The result of that (successful) endeavour is this album, one of the best released in the 80s and at the time a showcase for CD sound quality. The songs are a bit more commercial than on previous Dire Straits albums, with Knopflers guitar work rightly being the centerpiece of every track. Every song sounds different here, and there is great variantion among the tracks, so it's hard to get tired listening to this.
So Far Away is a moody opener, while Money for Nothing is the obvious mega hit with one of the most memorable guitar riffs ever. Walk Of Life contains some feel-good Rock'n'Roll, while Your Latest Trick ventures into Late Night Blues. Why Worry is a nice (albeit a bit long) guitar ballad, and Ride Across the River is a synth-heavy partisan tale with a reggae vibe. In The Man's Too Strong, we find a folk/country story about the war (most probably the Falkland war; a subject that features greatly in the album's second half).
One World is blues rock with slap bass; it's the only track on the weaker side, but thankfully it is also the shortest. Brothers in Arms (the title track) is a brooding, yet beautiful anti-war ballad and a great closing track to a magnificient masterpiece of an album. This is Dire Straits at their peak. They never sounded better. 5/5
Dire Straits
3/5
A good first effort by Dire Straits, and one that already contained the mega hit Sultans of Swing. The rest of the tracks is played well, but imitates other Blues and R&B bands too much. Apart from the title track, Knopfler's song wrighting abilites were clearly in their infancy here. The guitar work, on the other hand, was already top notch. The following albums would refine things on the songwrighting front. 3/5
Faith No More
3/5
Not a big fan of this, though it is alright in small doses. Despite what I read a lot, this is far from Metal. It's Rock with a trying-too-hard-90s-edge, and ingredients from other genres sprinkled in. Not terrible, not great. 3/5
3/5
PJ Harvey has always been an artist I knew existed, but by whom I couldn't name any song. This album, then, was my first real exposure to her music, and it's a nice rock album. The best track is probably This Mess We're In, a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. The worst song is the opener Big Exit, as I don't like the singing style on that track. The rest of the songs fall somewhere in between. I can clearly see myself listening to an album like that, but I doubt that I will ever be a big fan of this artist. 3/5
Caetano Veloso
1/5
Um, sorry... just no. I can't listen to this. It's not neccessarily bad, but so far from my own aesthetics that I couldn't get through even a cursory listen. 1/5
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Starts strong, but the second half loses some steam. Still, a nice album by Manic Street Preachers, even though I prefer This Is My Truth .... 3/5
Carole King
3/5
As far as albums with that typical 70s sound go, this one is fine - no more, no less. I wouldn't neccessarily listen again, but wouldn't be annoyed if it was running somewhere I happened to be. First time, too, that I have heard the original version of Where You Lead, a.k.a. Ally McBeal title track. 3/5
Marvin Gaye
3/5
This is essentially a breakup album. The music is competent, but the subject matter is really limited to this one theme. 3/5
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
Fist time I listened to this album; and I must say, I didn't know the sheer amount of tracks I had heard before. This is very good 70s California rock/folk music, that runs a little out of steam in its second half. Still, this is a worthwhile listen. 3.5/5
Morrissey
2/5
Not neccessarily bad, but none of the songs is doing anything for me. Morrissey is a bit full of himself, though, isn't he? 2/5
Jamiroquai
4/5
Of all the music acts that appeared in the 90s, Jamiroquai undoubtedly is one of the better ones. Their brand of acid jazz funk music grabs attention immediately, the mix of expertly arranged songs (just listen to these basslines!) and frontman Jay Kay's slick vocals make for an intriguing package. The songs themselves are good, but they would become better - truly great - on later albums. But this album is where it all began, and deserves a listen. 3.5/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
I sigh whenever I read Neil Young's name on one of the albums on this list, because I think he is severely overrated.
The problem is always the same. The song might start out well enough, but as soon as I hear Neil Young's whining singing voice, I just can't stand to listen any further. Apart from that, on this particular album, I don't care about any of the lyrics, and musically, the songs are nothing to write home about. Must be a 70s thing. Classic Young. 1.5/5
Kanye West
1/5
The genre makes this 1/5. The artist brings it down even further. 0.5/5
3/5
Well, this is prototypical proto-prog, and all of the album's three songs sound like it, but at the same time the songs or their individual, proggy parts are not really that interesting. Seems that this the general problem I have with Yes; the playing and singing is top notch (if you like Jon Andersons voice, that is), but the music fails to reach me completely. Which is a shame. 2.5/5
The Avalanches
2/5
Samples. Lots of Samples. But that alone doesn't make for a good album. I guess this is not my kind of music at all. 2/5
Coldplay
4/5
Parachutes is not so much pop as one could expect when hearing the band's name. This, their debut album, ventures into indie rock and resembles the early Radiohead at times (but with a slightly more positive vibe). Especially Don't Panic and Yellow are the standouts here, but most of the album is quite good, though it loses a bit of steam near the end. 3.5/5
Simply Red
4/5
Debut album for Simply Red. Much soul through an 80s lens. Good stuff, but too few real standouts. 3.5/5
Dr. John
2/5
60s New Orleans Folklore. Not bad by any means, but so far from my own tastes that I found listening to be quite tedious. 2/5
Fatboy Slim
3/5
I don't usually listen to this kind of sample based music, but this album is surprisingly good. Especially the first few tracks pulled me in, but sadly the album loses some of its steam in the second half. Still a worthwhile listen. 3/5
Stephen Stills
2/5
Early-70s Blues-/Southern Rock without any redeeming qualities. 2/5
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
Oh, well, this is easy-to-listen-to 70s soul; it might have been a revelation in its time, but in hindsight it's nothing special. Just a good soul album. 3/5
Mekons
4/5
I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I don't know why. There is something about this mixture of punk, folk and wave that somehow speaks to me. I couldn't recall any individual songs, but the album as a whole is a really nice listen. 4/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
This is a real classic album with some very good songs - even the worst songs here I would still call 'good.' And any album with songs like Born in the U.S.A., Working on the Highway, I'm On Fire, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark, and My Hometown deserves a high score in my book (or 1001albumgenerator-project).
What I really don't like, however, is the mix, which, in typical early-to-mid-80s fashion is quite bright, but at the expense of the low end. Granted, you can hear the bass, but it's too tame to be really driving the groove. Also, there is constantly too much reverb on Springsteen's voice. Which is a real shame. 4/5
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
As far as the number of tracks goes, this is a bit overkill; but even so, most songs are at least OK, if not better. There's nothing mindblowing or stellar here, but this is a solid album nonetheless. 3/5
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
Industrial noise ... rock?!? I somehow like this album. 3.5/5
The Pogues
4/5
Nice mixture of folk and punk that doesn't sound like the year is was recorded in. 3.5/5
The Young Rascals
3/5
Mid 60s psychedelic pop/rock with some other genres thrown in for good measure. Nothing spectacular, but makes for a nice listen. Best track is A Place in the Sun. Altogether 3/5.
Janet Jackson
3/5
Expertly produced, dancy album, that was a mega-seller in its day. For me it falls a bit flat, as there are hardly any songs that I would like to re-listen to. Also, the first half is very repetitive. 2.5/5
SZA
2/5
Generic auto-tune pop/r&b/hip-hop without any original musical idea whatsoever and with absolutely nothing to say. Tedious. 1.5/5
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
This early hip-hop album demonstrates what the genre could have been hadn't "gangsta"-rap come and ruined it all. There are some filler tracks, but that's OK. This is an enjoyable listen and a fun album. 3/5
The National
3/5
Solid alt-rock album, but quite gloomy throughout - this record lacks variation. 3/5
LL Cool J
1/5
Hip-Hop. 1/5
Beastie Boys
2/5
While I respect the Beastie Boys, this was too much of the same throughout, so that was quite the disappointment. I couldn't tell the tracks apart if I had to. But rap/hip hop is one of my least favourite genres anyway, so I might be biased. Still, 2/5.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Better than expected. The title speaks for itself; the album is a very relaxed affair that makes for some nice background listening, even though this is not my usual genre. 3/5
Joan Armatrading
3/5
Good. This seems to be the blueprint for the likes of Tracy Chapman and others. The first few tracks are really good, but it somewhat fizzles out towards the end. Still, 3/5
GZA
1/5
Hip-Hop. *sigh* The cover looked to promising ... 1/5
Led Zeppelin
2/5
Wait, this is supposed to be one of the greatest Rock albums of the early 70s? THIS?!? Granted, Stairway to Heaven is a powerful and classic (albeit severely overplayed) track, but outside of that, I hear a lot of generic white-men-playing-the-blues rambling and songs without too much variation or ideas. The Battle of Evermore is pointlessley meandering without going anywhere. The same could be said about Four sticks. Going to California is a welcome change of pace, but is too generic to be really good and sounds the same throughout. When the Levee Breaks left me shrugging.
Led Zeppelin are supposed to be one of the best bands of the 60s/70s, but I've been suspecting for some time now that they are simply overrated. This is another case in point. 2/5
The Human League
3/5
Sound, songwrighting and singing are all par for the course for early 80s wave music, but this is generally a pretty uneven record. Singing-wise, Philip Oakey aims for all the right notes, but misses too often. This, too, is a trademark of that kind of music, but one that I never was particularly fond of. Most songs are quite dark, but not all too memorable - except the obvious hit "Don't You Want Me". For this alone I'll raise by rating by .5 points. Without it, this album would have been very disappointing. 2.5/5.
Queen Latifah
1/5
Annoying 90s hip hop. 1/5
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
The only track worth listening to - because of the lyrics - is New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (the music in this one is OK, too). The rest is just run-off-the-mill dance music without anything catching my interest. I saw this album being compared to Daft Punk one time or the other. But I don't hear that. Daft Punk are ahead of this by several miles. 2.5/5
Adele
4/5
Adele has in incredible voice, but but not all of the songs are equally phenomenal. Tracks like Rolling in the Deep, Don't You Remember, Someone Like You and Set Fire to the Rain are awesome, but then there are tracks like Rumour Has It and Turning Tables that are just filler. Still this is a phenomenal album, but not as iconic or timeless as it could be. 4/5
Femi Kuti
3/5
Well, this was better than expected; I really liked Survival, while the other songs were mostly competent as well. 3/5
Common
2/5
I can't say much about hip hop except that I don't like it. Howeverm, to my ears, this album is a tiny notch above most of the others in that genre I got to know from this list. Can't really say why. 1.5/5
Willie Nelson
4/5
"Country singer tries his hand on the Great American Songbook and other classics and succeeds". That would be a fitting headline. The album's mood is relaxing, calm and soothing, most of the songs are expertely arranged, played and sung. Unchained Melody sadly cannot reach the origninal recording by the Righteous Brothers and should have been left alone and off this collection. But apart from this single misstep, this is really a great album. 4/5
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
Man, this is pretty bad. Similar attitude and, sadly, musicianship to the Sex Pistols. 1.5/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Since knowing the big hits (Give It Away, Under the Bridge, Breaking the Girl), this is the first time I have listened to this album in its entirety. I must admit the experience has been a bit tedious. With the album consisting of 19 tracks and a runtime of nearly 80 minutes, it quickly overstayed its welcome. Combine that with most of the songs sounding very similar - a highly extroverted form of funk rock - , and you get an album that is by no means bad but really quite uneventful. The aforementioned songs are great for a reason, and I really enjoy listen to them, but the rest could have done with both some trimming and some variation. 3.5/5
Harry Nilsson
4/5
I liked this. This is a collection of Rock and Pop tunes that very often sound like the Beatles, without blindly copying their formula. Most songs don't sound like the others, and I can forgive the odd white-man-playing-the-blues(tm) track if there is a lot of variation otherwise. The biggest song is undoubtedly Without You. Mostly good stuff throughout. 4/5
Big Black
2/5
Mostly just noise. 1.5/5
Ravi Shankar
2/5
More instructional than made for enjoying the music. And thus, I didn't. It may have been interesting for some audiences, especially for the psychedelic movement about ten years later - I can hear some of the Beatles' influences here. But that's not enough to stand on it's own as a record to listen and come back to. 1.5/5
Spacemen 3
2/5
A bit boring, isn't it? The band sounds like they have been playing guitar for not-so-long and are on a - trip - to experimentation and self-discovery. Also, they obviously have just discovered digital delay effects, overusing them in almost every song. Put all of that under the moniker of "psychedelic" or "experimental", but this album fails to reach me like others from the same genres do. 2/5
Yes
2/5
On paper, Yes should tick all the boxes for me, but in reality ... they don't. Nothing speaks to me here. There is definitely a progressive vibe, but to my ears it sounds so generic, without anything standing out. Perhaps this particular band just isn't for me. 2/5
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
This is supposed to be intimate, but I find it utterly tedious and unremarkable. The songs were - literally - therapeutic for the artist, and they sound like it, but they do nothing for my listening enjoyment. 1.5/5
PJ Harvey
2/5
Quite grungy and alternative. But none of the songs manage to reach me or evoke any response whatsoever. This just left me shrugging. 2/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
2/5
I seem to be on a terrible roll, because recently I've been bombarded with 90s alt.-rock albums. They all sound more or less the same, and they leave me bored. Case in point: this. I can hear it is well produced, the songs might be OKish, but there is only so much that this angsty sound can do. It might be one of the more popular albums of that style and era, but it does nothing for me. 2/5
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
This is just mostly white men guitar jamming on a blues scale without any song, or structure, or both whatsovever. I don't get what is supposed to be psychedelic about this one. Or good, for that matter ... 1.5/5
Taylor Swift
3/5
I'm not the biggest fan of modern pop music, but this is the epitome of that genre. It's a nice listen, not too much substance, but very well played, produced, arranged and sung. Of all the tracks, I liked dorothea best, the others were mostly OK as well. I could listen to this again, but don't neccessarily need to. 3/5.
2/5
Classic Country - not for me. 1.5/5
The Doors
2/5
I think it's time to acknowledge that the Doors, except for the obvious hits, are not for me. There is nothing on this album - especially not Roadhouse Blues - that I find even remotely interesting. It's all that 60s/70s sound without anything really standing out. 2/5
Public Enemy
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Pulp
3/5
I like The Fear, Glory Days and, strangely, the title track. The rest of this album, however, doesn't reach the same heights. It's not bad by any means but rather ... bland. The record seems to have been made to alienate much of Pulp's prior fanbase, without offering an alternative to pull in new listeners. 2.5/5
David Bowie
2/5
David Bowie albums are like a box of chocolates - You never know what you're gonna get. There have been Bowie albums that showcase his excellent songwrighting abilities. But his is not one of these albums. This is glam rock for the sake of it, without any exciting or original idea. The melodies, especially, are utterly forgettable on this one. Come to think of it, the rest really is as well. 2/5
Mylo
3/5
Heavily influced by Daft Punk, but not as versatile. 3/5
Donovan
2/5
*sigh* This album is another one of those pretentious mid 60's hippie folk/pop albums that take themselves way too seriously. It's not a total trainwreck, but there is nothing making me want to listen for more than a few minutes. That some of the songs are rooted in the while-men-playing-the-blues traditon doesn't help. 2/5
The Sonics
2/5
The album cover screams "Beatles copycats", but the music is much more generic 60s pop/rock fare, albeit with more rawness and less talent. It has been called proto-punk, but it's really too tame for that. However, not-being-punk as its only redeeming quality is not enough to make this a record worth enjoying. 1.5/5
The Beach Boys
4/5
I know, the album's title is supposed to be a pun, but the album cover is horrible. Pet Sounds was heavily influenced by the Beatles' Rubber Soul, but while the latter supported its music with an imaginative cover photo, the picture on the former is just plain silly and might have been a factor if the initial sales figures left something to be desired.
Well, on to the music .... Brian Wilson set out to make a pop album with no filler, topping Rubber Soul (and probably Revolver, which had come out in the meantime). In that, he succeeded. This is the only album I know from that period that is on a similar level as the Beatles were then. There are no bad, and a couple of really great tracks here - Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, and especially God Only Knows come readily to mind. While there is no bad or filler material, some of the tracks are not quite as good as the ones on the A list, but that shouldn't distract from the fact that this album, musically, is more than solid. And it really helps that there is not a single surfer anthem anywhere to be found. 4/5
Minor Threat
1/5
There may be a couple of original punk bands that have brought something new to the genrel, but this band isn't one of them. It's just rehashing the old saying that in punk, you don't need talent, just attitude. Terribly boring and predictable album. 1/5
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Nice for having it running in the background, but closer listening does nothing for me. 2.5/5
Blur
2/5
The first two songs were quite good, after that the album got increasingly annoying with every track. 2/5
PJ Harvey
2/5
Angsty grunge-inspired songs may have been appropriate for the time when this came out, but have nothing else going on for them. Especially not melody. Tedious. 2/5
The Soft Boys
3/5
Mixed, but altogether better than expected. I feared for the worst when I read "punk" in the book, but this is rock with an 80s sensibility production-wise. Not every song is good, but all of them are at least adequate. 2.5/5
Richard Hawley
5/5
Once in a while, you get to listen to an album of an artist you haven't had on your radar, but which, upon listening ticks all the right boxes for you. This is a perfect example and a pleasant surprise. The songs are positively old-fashioned and romantic, and Hawley delivers them with a soothing baritone voice and fitting arrangements. I really liked this and will explore this artist further. 4.5/5
The Verve
4/5
Good album, but doesn't speak to me as much as I hoped. Sure, Bitter Sweet Symphony, Sonnet and the Drungs Don't Work are timeless classics, Lucky Man is quite memorable, but of the rest, not much stands out. 3.5/5
Supergrass
3/5
Nice enough, but nothing special. So ... OKish. 3/5
Ghostface Killah
1/5
Another one for the heap ... 1/5
The Young Gods
3/5
Crossover of carnival, industrial, rock and - at times - metal and a singer who himself is a wannabe crossover of a french Tom Waits and Till Lindemann, albeit trying too hard. The result is mixed. 2.5/5
Röyksopp
4/5
Actually nice background, lounge-like electronic music. 3.5/5
Blondie
4/5
I'm not the worl'd biggest new wave fan, but this album is really nice, with good songs, clever hooks, engaging arrangements and quite a bit of variation. I will listen to this again. 4/5
Le Tigre
2/5
Loud and obnoxious. No melody to speak of. Probably just not my thing. 2/5
Public Enemy
1/5
The opening track is promising ... but then the rapping starts, making this anbearable fast. The backing tracks - as far as I could make out - are a little bit better than on most other albums of the genre, but that's where the positivity stops. To sum up: Hip Hop. 1/5
Rush
3/5
I have tried to get intro Rush mulitiple times, but I have always failed. On paper, Rush ticks all the right boxes for me: rock with a prog edge, great instrumentalists, great production values. But in reality they just ... don't. There is something about their songs (at least of that era) that just leaves me unengaged. Even though I can hear their brilliance on an intellectual level, it just fails to reach or move me more directly. Which is a shame. I guess that means 3/5.
Hookworms
4/5
This is one of the few albums I had to listen to a second time to figure out what I think about it. I'm still not entirely sure, but I now know enough to call this very good. The first few tracks left me underwhelmed at first, but the album gets better with every track, and I'm quite fond of tracks like Opener and Shortcomings. Somehow, I find this mixture of electronica, pop and rock very fascinating, and my second listen intensified that feeling for me. I suspect I will listen to this again multiple times, and I still don't know what I like about it especially. I just do. Perhaps it's best not to overthink it.
4/5
ish
Beach House
4/5
It's really nothing special, just very well made pop music, and today it hits a sweet spot for me. 4/5
Missy Elliott
1/5
Hip Hop 1/5
Megadeth
3/5
I just can't get into Megadeth. It may be the Thrash Metal genre as a whole, but I find Dave Mustaine's vocals especially annoying. Music and riffs are fine, but nothing to write home about. 3/5
1/5
Nothing against Jazz, but this is just Drums and Sax on speed. Utterly horrible. 1/5
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
For my liking, the album's title is way too much tell and not enough show. The music itself is par for the course mid 60s pop and rock music without anything standing out. It's fine enough, but that's all. 2.5/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
5/5
Always having respected the Chili Peppers while never having been a fan in particular, this album was a real surprise. There is no bad song on here - not a single one. While the first three or four songs are outstanding (especially Parallel Universe) and the rest cant't quite live up to them, all of them are at least solid. Not once hat I the urge to fast forward to skip to the next track. The songs have quite a bit more melody than previous efforts of the band, Flea's bass sound is out of this world, and the songs are an intriguing mix of rock, funk and pop. Not iconic, but very close. 4.5/5
Brian Eno
2/5
Try-hard-with-a-vengeance-glam-rock. It's bland and fails to engage me in any way. However, it's not horrible, but that is all the positivity I can muster for this album. Try harder. 2/5
Elvis Costello
4/5
Starts of really nice with some 50s style rock/pop tracks, but loses a bit of steam on its way to the finish line. Still, it's 3.5/5
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Pros:
It's Leonard Cohen. Come on.
The album contains the timeless Cohen classics Avalanche, Famous Blue Raincoat and Joan of Arc.
Cons:
The rest of the songs (except maybe Last Year's Man) are quite raw and mediocre. This version of Joan of Arc is not the best even in Cohen's own catalogue.
What to do then? This being a Leonard Choen album is an immediate bonus for me, biased as I am. But there are many Cohen albums better than this, and giving this 4 or 5 would be unfair to them. So I guess it's 3.5/5, which, of course, will be rounded up.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Very old school Heavy Metal, still rooted a bit too much in the Blues for my liking. But the riffing is strong with this one, and considering the time, it was one of the best Metal records of the era 3.5/5
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Indie pop with a healthy dose of electronica for good measure. I liked this one quite a bit at first, but it somehow got old the longer the album ran. Still 3/5
Alice Cooper
3/5
I like Alice Cooper, but this album is too much 70s for me. Maybe I was expecting something heavier. 2.5/5
808 State
2/5
This had its time and place on the dancefloors in the 90s, but it's not the type of music I would listen to outside of that. It sounds a bit dated and is somewhat tedious. 2/5
The Saints
3/5
This is one of the better punk albums on this list, but it's still not a genre I enjoy listening to for an extended amount of time. Well, they have tried. 3/5
Sepultura
2/5
In my personal ranking of the (too) many subgenres of Metal, Thrash is somewhere in the middle. For my ears, this album is totally adequate for both genre and era, but fails to break any new ground. Productionwise it could have been better, the rhythm guitars especially seem to be heavily post processed and lack punch. The songs are so-so. Soooo... 2/5
Fiona Apple
2/5
In the current era of singers/songwrighters, the art of writing a good hook seems to have been lost. The songs on this album coud use some more structure, and there is nothing that could catch my interest, most tracks meandering aimlessly without a genuine great idea or melody. It's pretty disappointing. 2/5
Maxwell
3/5
Nice and loungey, but overstays its welcome. 2.5/5
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
Boring 70s wash. 2/5
Little Simz
1/5
Hip Hop trash. 0.5/5
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Alt rock. Not bad, very OK as a matter of fact. It's a bit on the long and thus tedious side. 2.5/5
Tito Puente
2/5
Might be a good record, but the whole Mambo genre is not for me. 2/5
Milton Nascimento
2/5
Beatle wannabes mixing Latin music with the songs of their icons. While I love the Beatles, this album leaves me a bit annoyed, which may be due to the whiney delivery of many of the vocals. That may be par for the course for Latin music in general, but it just isn't my cup of tea. 2/5
Underworld
1/5
I don't recall 1996 being such a dull year for music that including this uninspiring and really bland techno album in the list would be even remotely warranted. But there you go. 1/5
FKA twigs
1/5
Pop of the worst sort - and I like well made Pop songs. But there is none of those to be found here. In fact, there are no real songs anywhere, as this is more a bunch of overproduced electronic arrangements on top of which the singer is trying to vocalise random words or sentences - I dare not call them lyrics. There is no real musical idea here, and nothing that speaks to or touches me in any way. This is an atrocious waste of time. 1/5
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
Not every track on this album is as good as Monday, Monday and California Dreamin' - there is much standard mit 60s Pop music here (I find Spanish Harlem especially dreadful). The Beatles and Beach Boys influences are hard to ignore, but while, most of the time, I'm missing the spark that made both of these bands stand out, altogether this album holds up well enough. 3/5
Motörhead
3/5
Punk-informed Thrash Metal, including lots of energy and Motörhead's greatest hist Ace of Spades. The songs lack variation, however - they all are loud and fast, which was (mostly) what the band was all about, but there is nothing setting the tracks apart from each other. 2.5/5
Sam Cooke
3/5
Classic soul by one of the genre's great artists. Nice, but sadly not my kind of music. 2.5/5
Crowded House
4/5
This is a great early 90s rock album, expertly played and produced with quite a bit variation between the songs. I like this. 4/5
Randy Newman
4/5
This album starts off strong but slightly fizzles out towards the end. It's still an enjoyable listen. 3.5/5
Jane's Addiction
2/5
Another one of these 90s rock albums. Being a kid of the 80s, I keep thinking that the 90s were a step in the wrong direction, but there you go. 2/5
Bon Jovi
4/5
Mid-80s stadium rock with a slick production, good players and fantastic hooks. The downside is Jon Bon Jovi, who is taking himself way too seriously, with his over-the-top singing and corny, cringeworthy lyrics. Best example for all of these points: Never Say Goodbye. Still, in the right mood, this album can be quite enjoyable, albeit in a guilty pleasure kind of way. 3.5/5
Radiohead
5/5
Radiohead's third album is the last one of their alt-rock phase. And it's a phenomenal. Experimentation reigns supreme here, be it in the form of song structure (Paranoid Android) or of a collection of buzz words of the 90s spoken by an Apple Computer (Fitter Happier). Elsewhere, we have depressing, yet hauntingly beautiful melodies (Exit Music (For a Film), No Surprises, or even the final part of Paranoid Android) or simply great songs and hooks (Karma Police). There is not a single bad song to be found anywhere here. This is a truly iconic masterpiece of an album. 5/5
Animal Collective
2/5
Ahm .... Well... No. WTF? I'm neither high nor drunk enough to appreciate this. Another of these questionable entries into the list.
I like the album cover that seems to move, though.
1.5/5
Brian Eno
2/5
The first six tracks - regualar 70s style songs - are kind of garbage, but tracks 7 -10 with their dreamlike, ambient vibe are actually quite good and reminded me why Brian Eno is still relevant even today. Sadly these songs are in the minority here, since most of the album is still below average due to the first couple of songs. 2/5
Waylon Jennings
3/5
Nothing to say, really, this album is not half-bad for a country record. 3/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Classic Springsteen with solid tracks, the mix is a bit better than on Born In The USA. I liked this. 4/5
M.I.A.
2/5
Hip-hop being hip-hop. The background tracks are unsually dance/electronica-oriented for the genre, but that can hardly save anything. 1.5/5
Nina Simone
2/5
The songs are good, but there is something in Nina Simone's voice that I have always found thoroughly off-putting and that prevents me from wanting to spend any more time with her albums than neccessary. 2/5
Massive Attack
4/5
Nice downbeat tracks. I didn't even mind the hip-hop vocals all that much, surprisingly. 3.5/5
Japan
3/5
This band is an early member - or even precursor - of the New Romatic Movement from the early 80s (think the likes of early Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet). The sound is all there, but the songs are not - at least not entirely. It's OK, but nothing more. 3/5
The Stooges
2/5
Early punk, not horrible, but without any appeal whatsoever. 2/5
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
Mid 70s radio-friendly rock with country influences. I guess it's nice enough, but not something I would listen to again, given a choice. 2.5/5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
When reading Mitchell's name, I feared for the worst, but instead, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm still not a fan of her singing voice, but these are some very well written and produced songs - and that was not a given in the era this came out. 3.5/5
The Killers
4/5
This is a fun rock/pop album. It starts strong with "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", which is flollowed by the mega hit "Mr. Brightside" (which I never could warm up to). Another very good track would be "Andy, You're a Star", but not all of the tracks are equally strong, and the album loses a bit of steam in it's second half. No matter - this is still a record that deserves to be listened to again. 3.5/5
Pretenders
2/5
Some early 80s rock with punk influences. Sadly, the songs aren't quite there and Chrissie Hynde's style of singing is a bit tedious for my taste. 2/5
Beastie Boys
2/5
Beastie Boys have always been a one-trick pony, haven't they? It's a good trick, bringing us the likes of Sabotage, and (on this album) Fight For Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn, mixing beats and Guitar/Bass Riffs with their own brand of high energy Hip-Hop. But for an entire album, the formula just holds up for so long - too long in this case. I found listening increasingly tedious with every track. 2/5
Minutemen
3/5
43 tracks?!? Wow ... Luckily, most of them are on the short side, mostly even under two minutes. Musically, the songs walk the line between rock and punk, with and most are distinct from each other. Really, the record is perfectly fine, but it somehow fails to engage me. Maybe it's just not my thing. 2.5/5
Eric Clapton
3/5
Expected the worst, but got an OKish album. It adheres to the white-men-playing-the-Blues(tm) formula, with some Reggae sprinkled in. It's really nothing special to write home about, kind of par-for-the course 70s rock music without any revelatory musical ideas. I just didn't mind it it that much today. 3/5
Björk
2/5
I respect Björk for her avant-garde attitude and no-compromise experiments, and this album is well produced. I just don't .... like it. The music fails to engage me in any way. It's more like an intellectual exercise trying where you can take modern pop music - which is fine, of course, but it's not for me.
Ride
2/5
Quite boring alt-rock. 1.5/5
PJ Harvey
2/5
This PJ Harvey record screams "Look at me! I'm still a relevant alt-rock icon!" Except she isn't and this is just pretentious. 1.5/5
Aerosmith
4/5
Classic radio-friendly rock with a number of hits. The strongest song here is easily Jeanie's Got A Gun, but Love In An Elevator, The Other Side and What It Takes are great as well. The rest of the album ist fine, but nothing special, albeit well written and produced. A fun album that deserves to be on this list. 3.5/5
The B-52's
2/5
I can only listen to the B-52's in the rarest of circumstances. My main problem with the band is that all of their songs sound alike and that Kate Pierson's vocal delivery is WAY over the top, bordering on the annoying. For me, they only have two or three good songs, none of which are not on this album. 2/5
Nirvana
4/5
On the one hand, this is a very iconic and genre defining album, on the other hand, that genre happens to be Grunge. Which is fine, but I never particularly warmed-up to it and I'm not buying the "It's Nirvana, so it must be great" - argument. The album is not bad by any means, just extremely overrated. I'll give it 3 for the music and .5 for it's importance. 3.5/5
Sparks
4/5
Glam rock/pop that started strong, but somehow lost steam as there is not too much variation between the tracks. Still interesting to hear some kind of proto - New Wave sound from 1974. This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us is easily the strongest track. 3.5/5
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Had high hopes when reading the description in the book, but was disappointed. Every single one of the songs leaves me completely cold. 2/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
OK, nice, but not nice enough to warrant re-listening. 3/5
Nick Drake
3/5
Soothing, but all songs sound alike. Still a nice and intimate acoustic album. 3/5
Snoop Dogg
1/5
Hip-Hop trash 1/5
Travis
3/5
OKish rock/pop album. Best track is Why Does It Always Rain On Me?. Don't need to listen again, but wouldn't be annoyed if I stumbled over it it playing anywhere. 3/5
Heaven 17
2/5
Par-for-the-course New Wave. Not really interesting, without any standouts or any sense of hooks or melody. 2/5
R.E.M.
5/5
After the world, was introduced to R.E.M. through Out Of Time (this album's predecessor - think Shiny, Happy People and Losing My Religion), Automatic For The People was the band's magnum opus.
The album is mostly acoustic and melancholy. The music is phantastic, no song sounds like another, and Michael Stipes voice fits perfectly here. Everybody knows Everybody Hurts, Nightswimming and Man On The Moon. Drive and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite have been very succesful singles in their own right. Find The River, however, is something else: the quintessential song that perfectly sums up and closes this album; this is one of R.E.M's best. But really, every song is at least "good" here, and the album as a whole is truly a masterpiece. 5/5
Oasis
3/5
I have never been a big Oasis fan, and this album changes nothing about that. While I like the opener Rock'n'Roll Star quite a bit, the remaining songs (except for the acoustic closer Married With Children) bring nothing new to the table and leave a lot to be desired in the variation department - especially absent are memorable melodies. This album, then, is just OK ... ish. 2.5/5
The Cure
4/5
This album has a couple of very strong tracks (Plainsong, Lovesong, Lullaby), but overstays its welcome in the second half, particularly because the last couple of songs are extremely long compared to the rest. This wouldn't be a problem if The Cure managed to fill this excess time with additional interesting ideas. Sadly, they don't, making the album quite uneven. It's still very good, but misses the mark of true greatness. 3.5/5
Pixies
3/5
I always found the Pixies overrated, their music sounding always a bit disjointed and at times even out of tune. This album is more of that, albeit with a darker twist. The album starts strong with Cecilia Ann, which is an instrumental dark Surfer Rock tune. The following songs are in a similar vein, but the longer the album runs, the more Pixies standard fare appears. I guess this band is not for me. 2.5/5
Leftfield
2/5
Mixed. Some of the tracks are quite good musically, but are marred by the presence of vocals bordering on Hip-Hop, where just the music would have made it a much better track. Case in Point: Release the Pressure. But also musically, there is too much standard dance music here to be truly groundbreaking. 2/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Very good album, and a great mix of soul, pop and funk. 4/5
Gorillaz
2/5
Alternative isn't really my thing, and this is as alternative as it gets. I couldn't finish it. 2/5
The Smiths
2/5
Not horrible but ... unengaging. As in "left me shrugging". *sigh* 2/5
Roni Size
1/5
Why on earth would anyone put THIS on the list?!? It may have it's fans, but this is not a collection of the 1001 best Drum'N'Bass albums. I just don't see - or hear - the significance.... 1/5
Def Leppard
3/5
Def Leppard's trademark have always been energetic, radio-friendly rock songs with 80s songwritghting and produciton sensibilities. And this is exactly what we get here. With every. single. song. The tracks themselves aren't necessarily bad, but it's generally too much of the same during the album's 1 hour and 2 minutes runtime. It's just too long with too little variation. 3/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Radio-friendly rock/pop meets fledgling New Wave. The songs are OK(ish), but nothing to make me come back to this album. The possible exception is (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, which was fun. But really, the early Elvis Costello probably just isn't for me. 2.5/5
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Nice enough 70s album. It starts strong with Stand!, but meanders into funk and other genres without really anything new. The 13-minute Sex machine is especially tedious. I liked the final track, You Can Make It If You Try, but as a whole this album didn't leave me wanting more, but rather a bit less. 2.5/5
Miles Davis
2/5
I respect Miles Davis, but this kind of extended improvisational Jazz isn't for me. 2/5
The Undertones
3/5
This is some 60s style pop informed by 70s punk aesthetic. And while I'm not a fan of either genre, this is an alright enough album. 3/5
CHVRCHES
4/5
Electronic pop with high prodution values. It flows very nicely and even has two songs that I quite liked - Recover and Night Sky. But this album hasn't any really bad songs. The production quality is very high, too. This is what modern pop sould sound like (instead of 95% of tracks currently in the pop charts, but that is another story). 3.5/5
Duke Ellington
4/5
A live Swing album with some extended improvisational passages. The good book says that it was revolutionary in its day. For more modern ears, it's still pleasant enough for some background listening, even without being a fan of the genre. 3.5/5
Fairport Convention
2/5
This collection of folk songs would be much better if the singer didn't have that slightly annoying, thin, fast-vibrato voice. On top of that, some of the instruments are out of tune. I gues this one is not for me. 2/5
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Valiant effort to recreate sounds of the past (i.e. soaring orchestral ballads of the likes of Sinatra and others) by modern means. The singer even has quite a potent baritone. But somehow the songs themselves are not really there, and without excellent songs, the project falls somewhat flat. Well, it was worth a shot. 3/5
Lorde
4/5
These days, it's rare to find good pop albums. This is one of them. Lorde is has a fantastic voice, the production is top notch, and most (if not all) songs are at least listenable, if not better. Not one second did I have the feeling that I am wasting my time - something which I can't say for every album on this list. I especially liked Green Light and Supercut. This one was quite good. 4/5
The Monkees
3/5
Collection of inoffensive mid-60s pop/rock songs without anything special to make them stand out. 2.5/5
Elton John
3/5
Elton John has released a huge number of albums, and quite a few have been excellent. This, however, is not one of them. Two exceptional songs - Tiny Dancer and Levon - stand opposite seven very mediocre ones. Even the title track doesn't really cut it. I have no idea why this particular album was chosen for the list. It's a 3/5 only because of the two first phenomenal tracks.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Mid 80s pop/rock. Not bad by any means but so, SO mediocre. It's not even about the typical 80s sound or other production qualities, but about the songs that have nothing memorable about them. 2.5/5
Roxy Music
2/5
Bryan Ferry's voice lends itself much better to Roxy Musics later material - here it is just wasted talent. The cover photo is outstanding, but that's about it. Productionwise, everything is alright, but the one important thing missing are some good songs. You could play Where's Waldo with the memorable hooks you wish were there. 2/5
Orange Juice
3/5
One good song (Rip It Up), the rest very OK..ish. 2.5/5
Aerosmith
3/5
70s rock by the numbers. Neither bad nor good, no standouts. 2.5/5
Tom Waits
2/5
Tom Waits to me has always been 80% pretentiousness and 20% art (as in: good music, especially beautiful ballads). On this album, however, there is hardly any of the latter. Whistle Down the wind is decent, but I've heard better on his other albums. I respect the man, but can't get into his art. Perhaps it's just not for me. Perhaps it's for the hipsters. Who knows? 2/5
U2
2/5
The best songs here are - of course - Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day (albeit the former having been extremely overplayed everywhere). The rest ist mediocre and firmly rooted in early 80s music, which wouldn't be bad if the songs contained any genuinely great ideas or hooks. But they don't, and Bonos ego alone isn't enough to keep my interest. 2/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Before listening to this, I knew this band only by name. I was pleasantly surprised - the songs on this album are really good. Nothing earth shattering, but real good songs from the rock-realm (with a pinch of pop mixed in here and there). 4/5
The Sugarcubes
2/5
When I heard that Björk was the singer, I should have known what to expect. This music - sadly, as I respect Björk - is really, REALLY not my cup of tea. I had trouble getting through this. 2/5
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
Massive album (as in: two hours) of classic country. Some of the instrumental tracks are quite relaxing, but mostly this kind of music just isn't for me. 2.5/5
Merle Haggard
2/5
Another day, another country album. This is a collection of inoffensive, if boring, songs that can i can listen to without being too annoyed. But the album doesn't give me any reason why I should. 2/5
Norah Jones
5/5
Very smooth and relaxed blues and folk. There is not a single bad song on this one. And while there is nothing standing out in particular, this is excellent stuff. 4.5/5
The Residents
1/5
0.5/5
Steve Winwood
2/5
Heavily synth/pinao oriented pop, the sound of which firmly places it into the late 70s/early 80s. Which I usually like. But where are the standout elements? Where are the hooks? Not to mention melodies ...
Without any of those, this is a lackluster excuse for a good album of that era. 2/5
Gene Clark
2/5
Singer-songwriter stuff from the early 70s. Yes, it is exactly how it sounds: folky with some country vibe, a bit self-important and utterly uninteresting. *sigh* 2/5
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
This is extremely mixed - some songs are really good (I Looked Away, Bell Bottom Blues, and the overplayed Layla), but there is much too much of the usual White-Men-Playing-The-BLUES(tm) here. 2.5/5
Scritti Politti
2/5
Mid 80s soul/pop album that sounds exactly like Prince and Janet Jackson sounded at that time, but without an inkling of their respective genius. Pity. 2/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
70s southern rock with too many blues covers. 2/5
Janelle Monáe
3/5
Lots of modern pop here, with plenty of funk, soul and hip-hop sprinkled in. Some of the tracks I like, but mostly the tracks have too little substance and there is nothing really standing out. 2.5/5
Ute Lemper
4/5
The first couple of songs were very good. Especially Lempers's interpretations of Nick Cave's Water Song and Kurt Weill's Tango Ballad were spot on. I didn't like some of the later trackson the album, although that has more to do with the source material (e.g. two numbers by Tom Waits). The album is expertly arranged, and Lemper is givig her all with her versatile and powerful voice. It's a pity that some of the songs are not all that interesting. 3.5/5
Solange
2/5
Bland and uninteresting. The hip-hop/rap bits were especially atrocious. 1.5/5
Joan Baez
2/5
Classic folk album; i.e. just guitar and voice. The latter of which is quite good - Baez is famous for her clear voice, though I find it overbearing and overdramatic at times - she's using too much vibrato for my liking. Apart from that, the song selection is uninspired. Diamonds & Rust this is not. Well, maybe Rust ... 2/5
Britney Spears
4/5
90s pop. But compared to what passes as pop today, this is high art. The first three notes of ...Baby One More Time contain more musical talent than anyhing in the pop charts today. Yes, it's a bit cheesy at times, especially the ballads, for which I'll deduct half a point. But really .... it's Britney. I mean, come on. 3.5/5
Portishead
2/5
Self-absorbed hipster-trash. 1.5/5
The Jam
2/5
Uninteresting 2/5
Janis Joplin
5/5
Before this, I only knew Janis Joplin by name and maybe Me and Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz. I expected another mediocre 70s blues rock album with a rating of maybe 2/5. But this... After the first listen of the album I immediately had to listen again. This is exceptionally good. I was acquainted with Joplin's voice; but the songs are unbelievably well put together, too. It's such a shame that Joplin died before finishing this album, so that she couldn't even sing the vocals of Buried Alive in the Blues, which remains an instrumental. And a good one at that.
This album comepletely hit me out of the blue, as I wasn't expecting this to be 5/5. But it is.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Par for the course Rolling Stones: Some of the songs are good (the real standouts are Gimme Shelter and You Can't Always Get What You Want), but there is too much white-men-playing-THE-BLUES(tm) noodling. The arrangements and especially recording quality leave a lot to be desired. George Martin did it better with the Beatles years before. 2.5/5
Iggy Pop
3/5
Not only in China Girl (of which the original writer's version is much superior) do we hear that David Bowie had his hands in the making and writing of this album. It's artsy, but the songs just aren't there. It's a nice enough listen, but that's about it. 2.5/5
White Denim
3/5
Nice background listening, but a bit bland for the foreground experience. 3/5
Led Zeppelin
2/5
Boring blues-matadors. 2/5
Marilyn Manson
2/5
Loud and edgy for the sake of it. 1.5/5
Venom
2/5
In lieu of good songs, be noisy and edgy for the sake of it. Not bad, but quite boring. 2/5
The Isley Brothers
4/5
This is nice. The album contains some good Soul/Pop/R'n'B/Funk tunes that make for an easy listening experience. There are no real standouts, but the whole record flows quite easily. 3.5/5
Koffi Olomide
2/5
Not horrible, but also, not really for me. 2/5
Django Django
3/5
Starts off nice with Jarre-esque synths, but then evolves to mediocre pop with mediocre songs. Too bad. 2.5/5
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
I mostly knew Manic Street Preachers from their album "This is my Truth, Tell me Yours", which contains a number of good songs. But there is none of that here. There is some nicely played (alternative) rock, and James Dean Bradfield's vocals are great as ever, but the songs are just not there - none of the tracks move me in any meaningful way, the mostly just... are. 2/5
Sister Sledge
3/5
This is essentially CHIC in everything but name. Nice, but nothing special and not much variation. 3/5
Little Richard
3/5
Enjoyable album from Rock'n'Roll's infancy years. Not really my style, or anything I would listen to without this list, but nice enough nonetheless. 3/5
Jazmine Sullivan
1/5
Hip-Hop, a.k.a. the bane of popular music. 1/5
David Bowie
3/5
One of the better Bowie albums. Some soul inspired tracks, fueled by the usual Bowie weirdness. 3/5
Ryan Adams
2/5
A bit ... boring? 2/5
Khaled
3/5
This is a mixed bag, ranging from "this is fun" to "meh". And then there is the hideous cover verson of Imagine....
Anyhow, the beginning of the album left me intrigued, but it can't fill it's considerable running time with enough variation to stay interesting throughout. 2.5/5
Todd Rundgren
2/5
70s adult contemporary album that is as uninteresting as it is long. 2/5
2/5
I guess, after so many albums, I have to realize that punk music really isn't for me. 2/5
Basement Jaxx
2/5
I must have my lists mixed up. This is clearly from "1001 albums that will bore you to death befeor you die for real." 1.5/5
The Beach Boys
2/5
Must have been the bee's knees in 1965, but in hindsight it's pretty generic 60s pop. 2/5
Shack
3/5
Not bad by any means, it just misses the spark that would make it exceptional. 3/5
Muddy Waters
2/5
Blues music does nothing for me. But at least here, it's not white people trying to play THE BLUES(tm). 2/5
Brian Eno
4/5
This was interesting and a bit above average. Still nothing knocking me of my socks, but it's a nice and interesting listen. 3.5/5
Beck
2/5
Hipster alt-rock with mumbling vocals. 2/5
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
Dance music with some latin music sprinkled on top. Not bad, but nothing special either. 2.5/5
Beatles
5/5
This Beatles album is not iconic like Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road, but it's pretty damn good. The tracks are not as coherent - a concept album this is not; in fact, the song selection is very eclectic. Still, The Beatles were on the peak of their songwrighting here, and their driving force was undoubtedly Paul McCartney. Some of his songs are very self-indulging, even outright silly (Wild Honey Pie, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, Rocky Raccoon), and for all the creativity, the band might have been wise to self-edit and trim the 1:33 h running time a little bit. But really, in the face of the quality of most of these songs, this is just nitpicking.
Back in the U.S.S.R., Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Blackbird and Helter Skelter alone would make for an absolutely classic of an album. And this is only a small selection of the songs penned by McCartney.
But even if John Lennon took a bit of a backseat as a member of the Beatles during this time, he was no slouch when it came to songwrighting. He provided a much needed counterpoint to McCartney's style of writing, providing both more experimentation and more moody and edgy songs. Glass Onion, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I'm So Tired, Julia, Revolution 1 and Revolution 9 are all a case in point.
George Harrison, meanwhile, was coming into his hown as a songwrighter. His output was not as high as that of Lennon or McCartney, but he made that up with quality. Piggies is a fascinating track with harpsichord and the backing of a chamber orchestra. But While My Guitar Gently Weeps is an absolute monster of a song with Eric Clapton on lead guitar, which can rightly be called one of the best tracks the Beatles have ever recorded.
And then there is Ringo Starr, the Beatles' legendary drummer, who was always a little bit overshadowed by his bandmates when it came to penning songs. Here, he provides the equally strange and charming Don't Pass Me By, and especially the gorgeous Good Night, the album's closing track.
Having all these remarkable, classic tracks (among others of varying quality) on a single collection makes for an instant classic album. I'll deduct half a point for the lack of trimming, but this album is one of the (clearly less than 1001) albums that really deserves to be on this list and to be listened to by everyone. 4.5/5
Black Flag
2/5
Boring - punk isn't really for me. 2/5
Eminem
2/5
Hip-Hop. Kill You was amusing. The rest? 1.5/5
Chicago
3/5
This leaves me mostly unimpressed. It's not bad, but Chicago's later material is much, much better. This is mostly inoffensive, easy-listeing blues and soul. 2.5/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
CCR have always been a staple for 70s southern rock. The best track on this album, Proud Mary, has been severely overplayed on the radio. The rest is just middle-of-the-road radio friedndly rock by the numbes - quite a bit boring and predictable. 2.5/5
David Bowie
3/5
This is a mixed bag. It contains Bowie's trademark-weiredness, but the songs are mostly so-so, with one or two exceptions. 2.5/5
The Byrds
2/5
The usual late 60s/early 70s country noodling. Nothing to see (or hear) here... 2/5
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
I don't mind world music, it can be nice and refreshing. At least to my western ears, every track on this album sounds basically the same, sometimes venturing in annoyance territory. I had to skip forward from time to time. 2/5
Adele
4/5
It's not always bad to be predictable - everything I wrote about Adele's previous album (21) can also be said about its successor. So I'll do just that, only exchaning names. So here goes ...
Adele has in incredible voice, but not all of the songs are equally phenomenal. Tracks like Hello, Send My Love (To Your New Lover) and Love In The Dark are awesome, but then there are tracks like When We Were Young and Remedy that are just filler. Still this is a phenomenal album, but not as iconic or timeless as it could be. 4/5
Frank Sinatra
5/5
All that sweet, sweet sadness...
Far from his usual swing adventures, Frank Sinatra had to come to grips with his breakup with Ava Gardner, and he did so with this melancholy masterpiece of a record.
The mood is deep autumn, the sad, yet longing songs are mostly from the Great American Songbook, but the arrangements by Nelson Riddle are sublime, and Sinatra's voice is just perfect here. There is a sweet bitterness that's too good to be resisted - like coffee or very dark chocolate. Even the cover art conveys the mood spot on. Whenever you are awake after hours - regretting, mouring, thinking - this is the perfect album for the occasion. An iconic masterpiece. 5/5
Beatles
4/5
This marks the beginning of the Beatles experimental phase, both in terms of recording technology and world instruments (sitar, anyone?). The album contains classics like Tomorrow Never Knows, Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby, but some of the songs had not reached that iconic quality of later albums yet. This was a good first try at something different; The Beatles' next album, Sgt. Pepper, would blow the lid off completely. 4/5
Kate Bush
2/5
Kate Bush herself calls regards this album as beloning to her weired phase, and I wholeheartedly agree. This is art with a big "A". I get that this was her way to express herself, but she lost me after track 1 or 2. Her later material is much stronger. 2/5
Fela Kuti
2/5
Probably alright, but really not my style. 2/5
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
I'm not a folk fan - far from it. This album, however, is great. The songs are good, the arrangements are sublime, the singing is superb. It helps that I heard it quite often when I grew up. Rediscovering it now through the list was a nice surprise. 4/5
Peter Gabriel
3/5
This was the first solo album by Peter Gabriel that I would call 'good'. Some of the tracks, like Games Without Frontiers and Biko are even outstanding. However, there is still too much unfocused, quirky experimentation here. One more album would follow before Gabriel's first real masterpiece album 'So'. 3/5
4/5
One of the better Bowie albums I've encountered. It's not mind blowing, but very good, without a bad song anywhere to be found. Moonage Daydream and Starman even are true classics. With this album, Bowie singlehandedly defined the glam rock sound. It's really worth a listen. 4/5
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Brit-Pop has always liked to imitate the later Beatles, but has also failed to realize what made the Beatles so great. 3/5
Mike Ladd
1/5
Hip-Hop 1/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
The typical new age/rock sound of the early 80s, but without songs that are any good. 2/5
The Replacements
2/5
Oh great, some more heavily-punk-informed rock from the 80s. This is nothing to hold my attention or that would make me want to listen it again. Not horrible, just bland. 2/5
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
Saw Frank Zappa, rolled my eyes, but started listening anyway. And, actually, while this is not really music I would listen to again, from a lyrics standpoint, this has been quite amusing and witty. I'm pleasantly surprised. Well done! 3/5
Accodring to Bono, with this release, they didn't write an album, they wrote 12 singles. - Well, where are they?!?
This is just middle-of-the-road adult contemporary music, and not even very good one at that. I didn't hear a any song standing out or keeping my interest, and I can't even remember a single one. This is lightyears away from Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum and Achtung, Baby, by far their best albums. 2/5
The Only Ones
2/5
At times, very nice playing; but almost always god-awful singing. 1.5/5
Fever Ray
3/5
This is good - maybe not the best electronic album out there, and devoid of any catchy tunes; but some tracks are really great (some, on the other hand are a bit weired). If I Had A Heart is probably the most well-known song, as it was the Vikings opening tune. 3/5
Ozomatli
4/5
I managed to scrape together a few tracks, as the whole album is not on any streaming service accessible to me. From what I have heard, this is a very nice mixture of styles, Latin pop being predominant. I could do without the occasional Hip-Hop/Ra, but it's still quite strong in spite of that. 3.5/5
Jimmy Smith
3/5
... because the chicken play The Blues. 3/5
Beatles
3/5
On this album, The Beatles are still in simple Rock/Pop mode, with the female teenage population clearly being the target demographic. For that, songs are par-for-the-course, but miles away from what their music would become later. The Beatles wouldn't be as popular today if they hadn't evolved their sound away from the sound of their first few albums (this is their third). The best song here is the title track; Can't Buy Me Love and and Things We Said Today also stand a bit above the rest. I tend to give the likes of Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road 5 stars, but I cannot in good faith rank this album equally high. Thus, 3/5.
Aretha Franklin
3/5
Good, I guess, but this kind of Soul music isn't really my syle. Even if it's by Aretha Franklin. 3/5
Jeru The Damaja
1/5
You know what you get by just looking at the atrocious cover and the ridiculous artist name - lots of misogynist "gangsta" Hip-Hop trash. Hard pass. 0.5/5
UB40
3/5
Everybody knows that expecting a wealth of different sounding musical styles from UB40 tends to leave you disappointed. The band has always been a one-trick pony, even if they have mastered that particular trick quite well. The best track ist clearly the opener Tyler; the rest is easy-enough-to-listen-to reggae; not bad, but nothing to write home about. 2.5/5
Korn
2/5
Nu-Metal - combining Hip-Hop with Metal - was an experiment that I think was worth a try in its time. But that time has passed now, and it didn't really work, as it didn't do any favours for either genre. This is mediocre metal music combined with all the traits of Hip-Hop I've come to loathe. 2/5
David Ackles
2/5
A product of its time soundwise, but as for the songs, this is so, so mediocre. 2/5
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4/5
Well ... this album is really more of a statement and the definition of a sound: that-Trevor-Horn-80's-sound was strong with this one.
On here, not every track is a song, and not every song is great, but it was extremely influential in ushering in the sound theat would define so much of an entire decade. There are the obvious must-know hits like Relax, Two Tribes, The Power of Love or the title track. But also some of the lesser known tracks - like the covers of Born to Run and Do You Know the Way to San José or the instrumental The Ballad of 32 - are good music in their own right. Yes, there are some eybrowraising, headscratching interludes that will not go into any playlist that warrants repeated listening. But still, while a litte uneven, this record is definitively worth a listen. That, coupled with its significane in other areas, makes it a worthy addition to the list. 4/5
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Very derivative and, at times, self-important, and, with every track, getting more and more on my nerves. 2/5
Elvis Presley
4/5
Elvis is not my go-to artist, but this album worked surprisingly well for me - some nice Rock'n'Roll songs, coupled with a handful of ballads is ideal background listening. 4/5
Killing Joke
2/5
Clearly a product of the early 80s, but it doesn't vibe with me. Neither the songwrighting nor the sound did anything for me. 2/5
Tangerine Dream
4/5
Being a fan of electronic/ambient music, of course I have heard of Tangerine Dream, and I even know some of their later works. This album, however, had escaped my attention so far. I am glad that I found it, because it comprises of a classic, even prototypical electronic sound, which the likes of Kraftwerk, Jarre (especially - I can hear traits of Oxygene, Equinoxe and Magnetic Fields in this one album) and Vangelis obviously drew a lot of inspiration from.
The soundscapes here are always interesting and layered, making for a very enjoyable listening experience. 4/5
Bert Jansch
2/5
Bert Jansch - never heard of the guy, to be honest. Not that I'd missed out on anything particularly good. His brand of Blues and Folk is pretty generic and, really, quite boring. 2/5
The Police
3/5
The Police - I never could really get into their music, but I know the obvious hits and I respect each member's musicianship. But on this album, Sting is a little too full of himself songwrighting-wise. I can't bear to listen to most of this. Only everybody's favourite stalker song - Every Breath You Take -, King of Pain and Wrapped Around Your Finger betray the greatness this band was capable of. The rest is just noodling and experimentation. 2.5/5
Sepultura
2/5
Couldn't get through this one. It's quite heavy, which in itself is not a bad thing, but all the tracks sound alike, and the growling gets old pretty fast. 2/5
Morrissey
3/5
I know, this is Morrissey, but still, this is a good album - not great, but very solid. The first track is easily the best one, but I couldn't find any song that dips in quality. 3/5
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Very nice album; certainly better than the other Wainwright album on this list. Every song is listenable and the album flows nicely. On the flip side, there is no real standout. 3/5
Tom Tom Club
4/5
Wow, I didn't know this bad (project) by name, but there are so, SO many tracks I had heard before. Case in point: Genius of Love. And the cover of Under the Boardwalk is utter genius. So while this may not be as iconic as a handful of other albums, I thoroughly enjoyed this. 4/5
CHIC
3/5
Well... with Chic, you know exactly what you're getting - that classic, funky disco sound with the seemingly neverending tracks is their signature sound. This was an easy, if somewhat long, listen. 3/5
Fugazi
3/5
Rock with a slight Punk attitude. Nice. Nothing standing out, but nice. 3/5
Traffic
2/5
Terrible? No. But boring. As in "white-men-playing-The-Blues(tm)-boring". 2/5
Air
4/5
Ohhh, what a great album! This is why I'm doing this project.
The music reminds me of Daft Punkt, albeit a bit more on the mellow side. This album contains great tracks in abundance it just loses a little bit of steam in the second half. Never mind, this is easily 4/5.
Judas Priest
4/5
Judas Priest is one of the best Metal bands ever, and with Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight, this album contains two of their more well known songs, even if the latter is more mainstreamy.
This is, however, far from their best album (that distinction belongs to Painkiller or Firepower), and it is beyond me how British Steel is the only one of their albums on this list.
It's still a worthwhile listen. 4/5
Joy Division
2/5
I just can't seem to get into Joy Division. 2/5
1/5
Unlistenable. 1/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
After four albums with much experimentation, Peter Gabriel seemed to have his sound with this album. Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Don't Give Up, Mercy Street, Big Time and In Your Eyes are all nearly perfect songs, and each one is distinctly different. The three other songs are just OK, but don't distract from the fact that this album is a masterpiece. 5/5
Scissor Sisters
2/5
Modern Glam Rock. OK, I guess, although the cover of Comfortably Numb was atrocious. 2/5
Girls Against Boys
2/5
The music is mostly riff-oriented, and some of the riffs are quite good. But a good riff alone does not make a good song, and the album as a whole is lacking in that department. 2/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
Might as well have been called "Bob Dylan sings the Blues". But still, this was a surprisingly OK listen, given that I usually can't get into Dylan at all. 3/5
Madness
3/5
Never could get into this band. Our House is nice, I guess. 2.5/5
Rod Stewart
3/5
Not too annoying. 3/5
Nick Drake
2/5
Self-important 60s folk. Nothing special. 2/5
Baaba Maal
3/5
This starts off nice enough with some repeating guitar patterns and world-music vibes, but gets old fast. Still worthy addition to this list. 2.5/5
The Cure
2/5
Typical early 80s sound. 2/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Not bad, but did nothing for me. 2.5/5
Fiona Apple
3/5
Competent, if a little busy. There is, however, no real standout among the songs. 3/5
Wire
2/5
I can only stand listening to classic Punk if I'm totally in the mood. Today I wasn't. 2/5
Sheryl Crow
3/5
California Rock. The first half of the album is way better than the second. I especially like Run, Baby, Run. The obvious hit All I Wanna Do is overplayed by now. The rest is just OK. 3/5
Joanna Newsom
3/5
A whole album of mainly harp and Kate Bush-like singing sounds intriguing. Joanna Newsom even sounds like the young Kate Bush, but unlike with Bush, here the songs aren't there. Well, it was a nice idea. 2.5/5
Country Joe & The Fish
2/5
Must have been groundbreaking in the late 60s; but to my ears this is just boring psychedelic noodling with some of THE BLUES (tm) thrown in for good measure. 2/5
The Pretty Things
2/5
Tedious Beatles wannabes. 2/5
Primal Scream
2/5
Not really bad, but fails to grab my attention. 2/5
Ice Cube
1/5
"Gangsta" rap and Hip-Hop trash. 1/5
Robert Wyatt
1/5
Pretentious, self-important, humorless. 1/5
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
I don't think that I belong to this album's target audience. Some of the tracks are alright, but generally I wouldn't really listen to this album again. 2/5
N.E.R.D
2/5
Hip-Hop meets .... music?!? The opening track is alright, the rest didn't really gel for me. 2/5
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
Some gothic rock mixed with an 80s sensibility. Nice, even if some of the tracks are unnecessarily long. 3/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
This is better than the last Elvis Costello - album I came across on this list. I quite like the opener "Accidents Will Happen" and a couple of other tunes. Still, there is too much filler here to make for an even listening experience. 3/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Bad Moon Rising, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring. 2/5
Blur
3/5
As far as Britpop goes, this is one of the nicer album's I have heard. It's just that after listening, I cannot recall a single song. Oh well .... 3/5
De La Soul
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
The La's
2/5
I guess I expected more. What I got was mostly 60s (especially Beatles sounding-) pop without any standouts. The only exception, of course, being There She Goes. But that alone is not enough. 2/5
10cc
3/5
Well, finally some interesting 70s music. I enjoyed this album quite a bit. Best song, of course, is Wall Street Shuffle. But the rest doesn't need to hide. Maybe not utterly brilliant, but very nice. 3/5
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
Not sure how to rate this album. It's entirely instrumental, which is nice for a change, and some of the tracks are quite enjoyable. Others not so much, and the album at times tries a litte too hard to be Art (with a capital A). I guess, then, this might be 2.5/5.
Love
3/5
Pleasant, but uninspired album. 2.5/5
Van Halen
3/5
OK, first things first: Van Halen are not, and have never been, a Metal band. Even if you compare their music to that of contemporary metal bands - e.g. Maiden, Priest, Sabbath - the difference is striking. So: Hard Rock yes, but Metal no.
With that out of the way, this is a good hard rock album. Jump, while especially overplayed, is one of the most iconic tracks ever. I, for one, tend to like Panama better, and Hot For Teacher is nice musically, while cringe inducing lyrically. The rest of the tracks are OK but nothing memorable.
3/5
The Stooges
2/5
Annoying. 1.5/5
4/5
A nice album from the 70s. - What are the odds? </s>
The music here is quite funky; I had mostly a good time listening. I could have done without the two 10 minutes+ tracks.
3.5/5
Motörhead
4/5
High octane proto-thrash metal (with hard rock influences) that makes up for the missing variability with pure energy. 3.5/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Uses themes from the original composition, but doesn't really capture it's spirit. Still a worthwhile listen. 3/5
Def Leppard
2/5
80s mainstream rock with the usual bland attempts at writing lyrics. Move on, nothing to see here. 2/5
Steely Dan
4/5
70s funk pop. Very nice. May listen again. 3.5/5
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
According to the good book, this was supposed to marry Hip Hop with other styles. But really, this is just Hip Hop. 1.5/5
The Gun Club
2/5
Early 80s punk - not my idea of a good time. 2/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
This is utterly horrible. I might have figured that out from the artwork, but no, I had to start listening to the album. ... I have a hard time calling this music. I didn't last long. 0.5/5
The Roots
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
fIREHOSE
3/5
Indie rock. Neither bad nor good. 3/5
Hüsker Dü
2/5
More Indie Rock. OKish, but too long. The songwrighting leaves a lot to be desired ... like good songs. All tracks sound alike, and there is not enough variation to make this even remotely interesting. *sigh* 2/5
3/5
Par for the course, as far as Dylan goes. I kind of prefer the second, electric, half to the folk side. But different strokes for different ... folks. I'll see myself out. 3/5
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
This is the kind of Hip Hop that I can respect. Pity that you can find it hardly anywhere anymore, after everyone wanted to become "gangsta".
I especially like the cross-over bits, It's Tricky and Walk This Way are the obvious standouts. 3/5
Aerosmith
4/5
Had a surprisingly good time listening to this. It's 70s rock with some added funk in a couple of tracks. Good listen!
Big Star
2/5
Standard British rock/pop without anything standing out. 2/5
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
This is mostly noise. Unlistenable. 1/5
Calexico
4/5
Good stuff! Never heard of the band, but this is incredibly varied and interesting. It's a mix of folk and alt rock/pop. Will listen to this again. 4/5
Throwing Muses
2/5
Rock/punk. I don't like the songs and I can't stand the singer's voice. 2/5
Barry Adamson
3/5
This almost alternates between quite good and WTF. Altogethter , it's 3/5 in by book.
Brian Wilson
4/5
Almost 40 Years after the first attempt, Brian Wilson finally published the Smile album, and it sound like a real Beach Boys record, albeit with some touches of the later Beatles here and there. It's a very good collection of songs that flows well. I like it. 3.5/5
John Grant
4/5
This one is good! No song sounds like the other; the lyrics are oftentimes hilariously funny. This is a great find. 4/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
What could I say about The Wall that hasn't already been said, apart from that it's truly iconic? It's not an album where you skip sections and just listen to your 2-3 favourite songs; it's a concept album in the best sense of the word, where every track deserves to be heard in the correct sequence. Roger Waters songwrighting - a tale of alienation, anxiety grandiose fever dreams of political power - together with the musicianship of Rick Wright, Nick Mason and David Gilmour, and the production by Bob Ezrin created a masterpiece. I believe that Comfortably Numb contains the best guitar solos ever created, elevating the song to something unforgettable. Every song on this double album deserves to be heard, even the more unknown songs like Good-Bye Blue Sky contribute to making this album unforgettable. It's Pink Floyd at their final peak, and truly one of the best albums of all time. 5/5
Linkin Park
3/5
Nu metal. Huh. I basically like the metal part, but the Hip Hop is hard to bear. And the singing (if it comes to that) is overly full of pathos. 2.5/5
The Blue Nile
2/5
And exercise in 80s production technique without songs to back it up. 2/5
King Crimson
3/5
I like King Crimson and Progressive Rock in general, but this has too much self-indulging noodling for my taste. The songs are not strong enough. 3/5
k.d. lang
3/5
Shadowland, a.k.a. How 36 Minutes Can Seem Like An Eternity. It's just too much Country for my taste. 2.5/5
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
Rock album with songs ranging from lame to competent. There is no real heavy hitter, though. 3/5
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Nope, this is mostly guitar noise. There might be some songs underneath, but it's badly mixed and too soft below the overbearing guitars. 1.5/5
Tom Waits
2/5
Tom Waits is able to write astonishingly beautiful songs. But for the running time of 1 hour and 13 minutes, there is a surprisingly low amount of songs on this album. Much is spend with talking to the fake audience in this fake concert. The rest isn't anything to write home about. Waits serves his usual schtick of low life lyrics, here mixed with a jazz band. But that doesn't make for a good album and comes across as pretentious. 2/5
Soundgarden
2/5
Well ... it has Black Hole Sun, which is a plus. Sadly, every other song on this album is your run-off-the-mill Grunge, where nothing is really memorable. 2/5
The Beta Band
4/5
This album is a strangely smooth listen, given that I can't remember any of the songs. But for some reason or another, it pulled me right in. 3.5/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
As far as Country goes, this is OK. It's just that I'm not a fan of that genre. The lyrics are mostly naive bordering on cringe, but I guess if you don't listen close enough and don't mind the genre, this is quite alright. 3/5
Ian Dury
3/5
Well, this is certainly different. Some tracks remind mit of Madness (the band, not the state of mind), some of Elvis Costello. It's not bad and at times quite original. It's just not my cup of tea. 2.5/5
Guided By Voices
2/5
Rather than a proper album, this seems more like a collection of alt-rock demos. Someone must have thought "That's enough, release it already". And they did. Tedious 2/5.
Steve Earle
2/5
Springsteen did it better, earlier. 2/5
Stevie Wonder
2/5
It's strange - I deeply respect Stevie Wonder as a musician, but at the same time I cannot get into his music. Like, at all. It's not that this album is bad objectively. But sadly, the music does nothing for me. 2/5
The Black Keys
4/5
Yes, this is a Blues-album but it sounds unlike any other Blues albums out there. The songs contain great hooks and a fuzzy bass, the production value is top notch. I will listen to this again. 4/5
Mudhoney
2/5
Grunge before the genre got big. I strictly listened to the original release's six tracks, and didn't need to hear more. 2/5
Kings of Leon
2/5
Lacks variation. And good songs. And a good singer. And ideas. 2/5
3/5
Modern psychedelic progressive ... music? I don't know. But at least this album was a pleasant listening experience. 3/5
Pere Ubu
2/5
The good book says that after some time, Pere Ubu knew that they wouldn't be commercial. After listening to this, I can understand why. Commercial doesn't always equal good, but this is quite far from both. 1.5/5
ABBA
5/5
This is, hands down, ABBA's best album. It was also meant to be their last - that is until their 2021 reunion. Musically, this is pure pop, but of the good kind. There are plenty of remarkable hooks that will stay with you for the forseeable future. But ABBA are not only masters of writing songs; on here they have also matured as producers and arrangers. All the instruments are played very tastefully - just listen to the bass on One of Us. The title track is pure late 70s, early 80s synth goodness. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room is sublime. The production of this album is also top notch and innovative for its time.
With this album ABBA managed to go out with a bang - before being reborn 40 yeas later, also in top form. 5/5
Fred Neil
2/5
It started promising with the opener The Dolphins. What followed was either quite boring, old school country informed music or simply... just boring. 2/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Left me unimpressed. 2/5
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
Not bad, but most tracks overstay their welcome and are, really, quite boring. 2/5
Buffalo Springfield
2/5
Nice try, sneaking Neil Young into here. But really, this is just standard late-60s fare. Move on, nothing to see here. 2/5
The xx
2/5
Sometime in the last 15 years, Pop took a wrong turn. Gone is the fun, gone are hooks, gone are the songs. They have been replaced with something like this (and other - worse - acts, but you get the idea). This kiond of music doesn't speak to me at all; it's just overproduced boredom. 1.5/5
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
Standard Indie-Rock. 3/5
Genesis
4/5
As far as prog rock albums go, this one is delightful. Not quite the same league as, say, Dark Side of the Moon, but very close. 4/5
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
I feel that I cannot give this a fair review, as this kind of World Music is too far from my musical roots. It sounds like a blend of said genre with 70s funk, another of my less-than-favourite styles. 2.5/5
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
Just until now, I never realized how influential Buddy Holly has been. This album is the blueprint for bands like the early Beatles. While I don't vibe with most of the songs, that alone makes this an easy 3/5.
Drive Like Jehu
2/5
Lots of energy, not much on the musical side. Punk can (and usually does) do better. 1.5/5
Paul Simon
3/5
This is a direct continuation of Simon & Garfunkel, only without Garfunkel. It's quite good. 3/5
The Mars Volta
2/5
I feel that this was a good effort (with excellent production), but somehow the tracks were lost on me. 2/5
Rush
3/5
I SO much wanted to get into rush, but never could. This album can't change that. As prog rock of the 70s goes, this is par for the course, but not terribly exciting. I also just can't get used to Geddy Lee's singing voice.
I gues I just have to move on. 3/5
The Electric Prunes
3/5
Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed the first track, and the following two were alright as well. The rest of the album, however, contains too much filler and generally only material typical of the decade without anything else going for it. 3/5
Joe Ely
4/5
Surprisingly, this is a good Country album, going more for Rock than pure Old Country. If I have to listen to this genre, I much prefer this approach. 3.5/5
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Extroverted, late 80s dance pop with hip hop influences - a dime a dozen. Manchild, which was hyped on MTV back then (if anyone remembers), is nice, but the album as a whole is as uninteresting as the genres suggest. 2/5
Pink Floyd
4/5
After their magnum opus The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd couldn't quite match the quality of that album with its successor. The title track is a classic, and all the parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond make and epic synth and guitar - driven track for the ages. But Welcome to the Machine and Hava a Cigar, while not bad, leave me shrugging. The spark that was there in all the tracks of Dark Side (and would later resurface for most of The Wall) is just not anywhere to be found on this album. Which is not to say that it's bad by any means. It is a great album, but really not iconic. 4/5
Spiritualized
2/5
Brit Pop with grandiose ambitions. The songs are not really good, and the arrangements are much too busy. This is exhausting. 2/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
This one is a stellar achievement; one that I actually like better than Thriller. The whole album is perfectly produced pop. Any album that contains the likes of Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man In The Mirror, I Just Can't Stop Loving You and (especially) Smooth Criminal will get a high rating in my book. While these tracks are at least on par with Thriller, there are 2 or 3 here that I would rather file as ... Filler. That, however shouldn't distract from the fact that here, Michael Jackson has indeed proven without a doubt that he was really the King of Pop. 5/5
Frank Ocean
2/5
Modern soul that at times moves dangerously close to Hip Hop. 2/5
Queen
3/5
Well, it's Queen, but this is far from being one of their best albums. I can't remember any song except for Seven Seas. 3/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Very bleak, yet somehow beautiful album by Nick Cave. I prefer Murder Balldas, it's predecessor, but this is also a very solid effort. 3.5/5
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
Old school Rock'n' Roll - from a band from the Bay Area in the early 70s, no less. No psychedelic shenanigans. Who would have thought .... 3/5
Peter Frampton
3/5
Feel-good rock from the 70s. It's an easy listen, but not something I would neccessarily need to come back to. 3/5
The Prodigy
3/5
Album started somewhat strong, then fizzled off into generic 90 dance/techno territory. 3/5
The Birthday Party
1/5
How was this recorded? Did they put two microphones in the cellar where the band happened to be playing, and called it a day?!?
Apart from the questionable production value, there is nothing here. Even though this is Nick Cave's first band, I would not recommend this album to anyone. It's more noise than anything else. I have no time for this. 1/5
Queens of the Stone Age
2/5
There are definitive Nirvana Grunge influences here, but that's about it. The whole album sounds generic, as if some label's A&R desperately needed to find the next Nirvana. Compositionwise, this is as bland as it gets. 2/5
Tim Buckley
2/5
I tried to listen to the whole thing, but couldn't. The songs just don't do it for me. 2/5
The Coral
4/5
Above average rock album. 3.5/5
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
This is underground rock with slight punk influences. But it doesn't move me. For an album on this list, this is a litte underwhelming. 2/5
Syd Barrett
2/5
Syd Barrett might have been the driving force behind the early Pink Floyd, but this collection of songs is nothing to write home about. And I didn't like the early Pink Floyd anyway, really.
This is psychedelic pop/rock without any business of being on this list. 1.5/5
Beatles
5/5
Inspite of Sgt. Pepper existing, this is, without a doubt, the best album by The Beatles. It marked the last time they recorded together (Let It Be was released later, but recorded earlier). The maturity of songwrighting here is of the charts; every member contributed. Lennon wrote Come Together (where McCartney's bass plays the key role), I Want You (She's So Heavy) and Because. McCartney contributed the quirky Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Oh! Darling. Even Ringo Starr produced a timeless classic with the inescapable Octupus's Garden. But the real star, as far as songwrighting goes, is George Harrison: Something and Here Comes The Sun are iconic masterpieces that demonstrate how far he had come as a songwrighter.
And then there is The Medley, composed of snippets of ideas and unfinished songs. It was a brilliant idea to compile these into probably the most famous medley in rock history, transcending the individual ideas and making a strangely coherent whole.
The production is equally masterful. George Martin was back after the rather unsuccesful attempt at replacing him in the Get Back sessions (which would turn into Let It Be). The Beatles were able to use 8-track machines, which was a novelty at the time of production. We still can hear a good deal of experimentation, but it is always in service of the songs.
Finally the cover artwork has become famous in it's own right. It's just the four guys, barefoot, crossing the street in front of Abbey Road Studios. It's such a simple concept, but it has become a cultural icon that even many people know who - sadly - have never listened to the album.
This album is sheer brilliance, combined with talent and hard work. It's really iconic and one of the most important albums of Rock History. The Beatles managed to go out with a bang. 5/5
Arcade Fire
3/5
Alt-rock with some good moments, but overall nothing special. 3/5
George Michael
3/5
George Michael was a fantastic singer and a great sonwriter; but his 90s output dipped a little in quality. The opener, Praying for Time, is an instant classic, but as a whole, the album can't keep what this first song promises.
It doesn't help that the mix is uneven in many songs - there are plenty of heights, high mids and bass, but the low mids are missing in many songs, giving them an icy quality. 3/5
Can
2/5
Experimental, noisy art-rock. Halleluhwah's relentless rhythm is engaging as it is soothing, but the other tracks range from forgettable to annoying. 2/5
Charles Mingus
2/5
I will never understand this kind of Jazz. I just can't see (or hear, for that matter) the appeal. Case in point: this album. 2/5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Better than expected, considering it's Joni Mitchell. Some of these songs transport a sweet, exquisite melancholy that makes me longing for autumn. I guess that is something. 3.5/5
Roxy Music
2/5
Very early 70s, with glam-rock and avant-garde influences. Not horrible, but I much prefer the band's later output. 2/5
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
An album about 9/11 by The Boss and his E-Street Band. It's very competently played and produced. The songs are alright as well. Problem is, most of songs are kind of boring. There is no real low point here, but no high point either. 3/5
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
I couldn't bear to listen this mixture of old Country and Folk to the end. It's eye-rollingly boring. 2/5
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Wikipedia wants us to believe that this is Rock music. It isn't. This is dance/electro pop. Which wouldn't be a bad thig, if the songs weren't too long and too monotonous. 3/5
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Brown Sugar is nice. Apart from that, there is much too much Blues for my taste. 3/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
*shrug* 2/5
Robbie Williams
4/5
Robbie Williams's first solo album is not his best, but songs like Angels, Old Before I Die, and Let Me Entertain You set the stage for what was to come in the following years. His superstar status was well deserved, and in spite of this being Pop, this is Pop of the good kind. 3.5/5
Lou Reed
3/5
Yes, this sounds exactly like something that David Bowie would produce, given that it sounds exactly like his own albums from that era. It's not exactly bad, but it had been done already by Bowie, and the songs themselves are so-so at best. Walk On the Wild Side is highly overrated. Perfect Day is the only song I really like. 2.5/5
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
As far as Country goes, I have heard worse. But also much, much better. 2.5/5
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Warbly synths and trip-hop beats can't make up for the absence of good songs or melodies. I've heard better from EBTG. 2/5
Tortoise
3/5
Instrumental ambient album. It has to play in the background, because when you pay attention it's mildly infuriating. 2.5/5
Kelela
2/5
The overbearing production can't hide the mediocre, forgettable songs. 2/5
Pantera
2/5
No other decande than the 90s could have produced this. It's more about attitude rather than good songs. 2/5
Queen
4/5
Early 70s Hard Rock album by Queen, with a nice flow. The obvious standout is Killer Queen, one of the band's eternal classics, but all the other tracks are nothing to scoff at as well. This was clearly an early peak for Queen. Many more would follow. 4/5
Ministry
2/5
Basically, this is nine times the same song. And that song isn't good. 1.5/5
Metallica
4/5
Inspite of Master of Puppets - objectively - being one of Metallica's best albums, I somewhat prefer ... and Justice For All and the black album. It's still an iconic album; with songs like Battery, Master of Puppets, and Orion being iconic in their own right. 4/5
The Hives
2/5
My new favourite band? - If only ... 2/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
I wanted to write something witty about the an album of a band who's only claim to fame is Come On Eileen, but I couldn't come up with anything remotely interesting. Which is fitting, somehow. 2/5
Christine and the Queens
4/5
Above average pop album; a bit reminiscent of the 80s. Nice. 3.5/5
Lou Reed
3/5
Started strong, ended weak. 3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
More than I expected - a decent album by the early Rolling Stones; the first few songs are exceptional; but it loses steam in the second half. But even there, there is some good material. 3.5/5
Johnny Cash
5/5
Unexpectedly, overwhelmingly good. And funny. And iconic. This one is a gem. 5/5
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
Bleak, yet, at times, beautiful Folk album with a dose of Country sprinkled in. You definitively have to be in the right mood to apprecialte this. The music reminds me of Radiohead in their darker moments, or even of YOBs Beauty in Falling Leaves. Yeah, Tom Yorke would be proud. 3/5
Genesis
3/5
This one is overly long and self-induglent. It simply has no business being a double album; there is too much filler, and the really good material would fit on a regular LP easily. It's a well known prog rock epic (Carpet Crawlers is among the higher quality tracks), but it's often lacking in the hook and melody department. As such, it isn't bad, but a little tedious to get through. 3/5
Saint Etienne
2/5
If you're a fan of 90s dance music, this might be a worthwhile listen. I'm not, so this was on the tedious side. Best track: The 43 second intro. At any rate, this album shouldn't be on this list. 2/5
David Bowie
3/5
Well, there is Life on Mars? and Changes, and then there is all the rest. The former two are excellent, the latter are just OK tracks. 3/5
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
Never heard of this band, but the music is intriguing. It's a modern take on 60s pop and psychedelic music, and it works surprisingly well. Listening to this was a breeze. That's what I'm here for. 4/5
The Zombies
3/5
Not bad for a psychedelic album not by the Beatles. 3/5
Led Zeppelin
2/5
Immigrant Song is great. After that, there is nothing noteworthy, just aimless rambling. 2/5
Cat Stevens
3/5
Pleasant enough acoustic album, with Father and Son and Wild World (of course) being the standout tracks. 3/5
A Tribe Called Quest
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Talking Heads
2/5
I never could get into Talking Heads. For me, it's just New Wave Meets David Byrne's Manic Vocals. This album is just a case in point. 2/5
Donald Fagen
4/5
This is a surprisingly easy-flowing, pleasing listening experience. I'm not much of a Jazz fan, but this album is really enjoyable. 4/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Another one by Noisy Youth .... Sonic Noise, ahm, Sonic Youth, who I find highly overrated. It's not a total disaster, but a minor one. 1.5/5
ZZ Top
3/5
I prefer ZZ TOPs 80s escapades, but this one, Blues and Boogie oriented as it is, is a joy to listen as well, even if it's missing some variety. 3/5
Guns N' Roses
4/5
Guns N' Roses' debut album still holds up quite well, even though there is a clear gap in quality between the three monster hits (Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Sweet Child O' Mine) and all the rest. It's a worthwhile listen from time to time anyway. 4/5
Beck
2/5
I never understood the appeal of Beck. This album couldn't provide any answers. Oh well .... 2/5
Cornershop
2/5
I'm lost for words. And not because this is any good. 1.5/5
Daft Punk
3/5
Daft Punk got better with every album, with their final opus - Random Access Memories - being an utterly brillant masterpiece. That, however, means that going back to their beginnings makes it a bit hard to appreciate the tracks. There is definitely a funky spark there, but there is just not enough variation. The album sounds a bit dated, frankly, a clear product ofthe mid 90s. It's not bad by any means, but a far cry from what was to follow. 3/5
The Bees
3/5
Nice pop album; an easy listen. Nothing more, nothing less. 3/5
The Who
3/5
Three mega hits with a so-so rest makes for an OKish album. 3/5
Portishead
4/5
Electronic ambient music? Nice, but not as great as everyone makes this out to be. 3.5/5
Germs
2/5
Punk rock from a time when Punk albums came a dime a dozen. It sound like it, too. 1.5/5
The Beta Band
2/5
"INDIE!!! WE NEED MORE INDIE IN THIS BOOK!" This is how I imagine the averange meeting of the editor with his contributors must have gone.
But really, this album is the definition of unexciting. As in: not bad, inoffensive, nicely produced and played but devoid of anything that lets me take pause and want to listen to the music. Why is this on the list? Oh, yeah, I forgot.... INDIE!!!! - 2/5
Sleater-Kinney
2/5
"OK, who believes that this album should be on this list?!? I'll wait. ...
Anyone?!? ...
Hello?!?"
(Crickets.)
(Cue Tumbleweed ...)
1.5/5
Mariah Carey
2/5
Mariah Carey's old problem is prominent again on this album: she is much too much infatuated with her own voice but can't find anything better do with it than singing not for the songs, but to show off. Her new problem is that the songs are entirely forgettable. 2/5
k.d. lang
2/5
Not horrible, but doesn't speak to me in the slightest. 2/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
This (double) album is much too long for what it is. I much prefer the second half, but altogether can't shake the feeling that, while quite alright, this is not Cave's best material. 2.5/5
Elton John
5/5
Very good album - one of Elton's best from the 70s - that is marred by its long running time, to which many of the songs don't quite live up to to be considered iconic. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Candle in the Wind, Bennie and the Jets and the title track carry this album, and they are only Tracks 1- 4. After that, the quality drops noticeably, but is largely saved by intersprinkled gems like I've Seen that Movie Too and Harmony. Saturday Night's Alright (for Fighting) is late to the party, but very welcome nonetheless, as it's the only track that can hold up a candle to the first four. A worthwhile listen, that could have done with some trimming. 4.5/5
The Strokes
2/5
Another one of those albums where 'Alternative' is a poor excuse for 'no variation'. I mean, why produce an album at all when you only have ideas for one song?!? *annoyed sigh* 2/5
Sade
5/5
If you're in the mood for some relaxing, sensual music, you can't go wrong with this album. Sade's voice is perfect for this blend of R&B, pop, and world music. True, production is rooted in the 80s, but very tastefully so, and the instrumentation is perfect. So is the performance of each individual band member. Iconic opener Smooth Operator sets the tone for the rest of the album. While the album could have done with a little more variation or trimming the running time down by just a couple of minutes, this remains a true 80s classic for anyone who is really willing to listen. 4.5/5
Buck Owens
2/5
This album is so full of clichés, my eyes hurt from the constant rolling. The lyrics are especially bad, but the music is nothing to write home about either. Johnny Cash did it better. 1.5/5
XTC
3/5
I imagine that if the Beatles had been a thing in the 80s, instead of the 60s, they would sound a bit like this. "Sound", mind you, as I don't think that the songwrighting is even remotely on the same level. Stilll, listening to this is somewhat relaxing, and for the obvious shortcomings regarding the material, I actually liked the final result somewhat. 3/5
Slipknot
3/5
Good, but too exhausting. 3/5
Roxy Music
3/5
Another one of those 70s glam records. Not really bad, but I struggle to remember any of the songs. 3/5
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
At the time, I would have thought this to be "spacy", for lack of a better word. The sound if late-Beatleish with a slant towards the late 70s or even early 80s. Sonically, everything is good. It's just, that short of one or two songs (Mr. Blue Sky, anyone?), this is a forgettable affair. Pity. 3/5
Fatboy Slim
2/5
Bland 90s take on electronic music. 2/5
Kacey Musgraves
2/5
Country Pop, where there hardly is any Country, leaving mostly Pop. Which is a problem, considering what Pop has become in the last 10 - 15 years. The lyrics are especially bland (just listen to the opener Slow Burn for a prime example). 2/5
Simon & Garfunkel
2/5
While I have deep respect for Simon & Garfunkel, this album does not contain their best material (Mrs. Robinson being the only notable exception).
One would think that the name alone doesn't warrant inclusion on this list, but there you go ... 2/5
The Charlatans
3/5
It's another one of them Alternative albums, so it must go on the list. *sigh* Well, truth to be told, this doesn't sound half bad, even though the songwritghting leaves quite a bit to be desired. I'll give it three stars and get to go home early. 3/5
Soul II Soul
2/5
Having an album called "Club Classics Vol. One" waiting for me fills me with dread. Club, as in: bland late 80s/early 90s Dance music?!? Will it contain Hip Hop? And is there, god forbid, a Volume Two?!? Turns out the answer to all of these questions is a resounding 'YES'. 1.5/5
The The
2/5
The 80s have so much good music, a lot of which has been left of this list. Instead, we get .... this. The book article rambles on about the lyrics, and while they may be significant for the time, the music is just dull. Production is typically 80s, which in this case is not a compliment, with too little bass and too much highs, resulting in a rather icy soundscape. Instrumentation could have been better as well. Poor 80s. 1.5/5
Jack White
3/5
Before listening to this, I sometimes wondered what all the fuss about Jack White was about. After listening, I'm still wondering. 2.5/5
TV On The Radio
3/5
Not really bad, good production, even, but something that I just can't relate to. 3/5
Public Enemy
1/5
Hip Hop. Hard pass. 1/5
Herbie Hancock
4/5
This album's four (yes, only four) tracks are the definition of Funk. I found the listening experience to be very invigorating, even though some of the wilder Jazz elements were running dangerously close of losing my interest. Still, I'm glad to get an album that really belongs on this list for a change. 4/5
Christina Aguilera
3/5
As far as turn-of-the-millenium Pop goes, this one is alright. Aguilera's voice is her strength, most songs are not, with the notable exceptions of (obviously) Fighter and Beautiful. 3/5
Scott Walker
3/5
Very mellow and, at the same time, full of pathos - does that make it pathetic? I'm not sure, but I know that this particular sound could only come out of the 70s. 3/5
Goldie
2/5
Generic 90s EDM without anything resembling a redeeming feature. 1.5/5
Richard Thompson
2/5
Country/Folk album that through its inclusion in the list makes me question my sanity. Again. 2/5
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I'm not the world's biggest Bossa Nova Fan, but it helps when it's presented by one of the best singers of all time. The result is a very laid-back, relaxed album that is very easy listening in more than one regard. It is also over before you know it, not overstaying its welcome by one bit. A solid 3/5.
Tom Waits
3/5
A typical Tom Waits album, for better or worse. Actually, this one isn't half bad. 3/5
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I'd never heard much Jimi Hendrix before, and listening to this album, I wonder why. This is as iconic a masterpiece as they come; and Hendrix' reputation of being a Guitar God is well deserved. Additionally, there is not a weak song here. Seems I must listen to more Hendrix .... 5/5
Lauryn Hill
2/5
Hip Hop meets Soul. I'll leave them alone. 1.5/5
Klaxons
2/5
Very busy and trying much too hard to marry Rock to Dance. The songs are mostly OKish, but there is nothing that would warrant the inclusion in this list. 2.5/5
Sinead O'Connor
4/5
First time I really listened to this album, and I like what I hear; with the exception of "I Am Stretched On Your Grave", which was a bit tedious. The rest is a very good mixture of styles ranging from Pop and Folk all the way to Alternative with a Punk twist. The material is very mature and varied, making for a great album. 4/5
Cypress Hill
1/5
Hip Hop - aka. Hard Pass. 1/5
American Music Club
3/5
Comparing this to the early R.E.M. is apt. Elements of Rock, Country and Folk are there, the songs are nice as well. But that's about it. 3/5
The Fall
2/5
If I didn't know any better, and would really believe that this is one of the best albums the 90s had to offer, I wouldn't touch that decade with a 10 feet pole. 1.5/5
Metallica
4/5
This monster of an album works as a live concert (which it was) but is too long for an album. I have huge respect for Michael Kamen, may he rest in peace, but the orchestral arrangements are hit and miss. Sometimes they are great (Until it Sleeps), sometimes they add nothing to the song (Master of Puppets). All in all an album that really deserves to be here, but could have used a litte bit of editing. 4/5
Metallica
4/5
I remembered this album to be better than it is. Granted, One is sublime, and one of the best songs Metallica have ever made. But the rest is really uninspired; Thrash riffs chugging along with hardly any real original idea. Except for One, only To Live Is To Die offers something for the more melodically inclined. Yes, Thrash is not my favourite sub-genre, but Metallica can do (and have done) better even before this album.
It doesn't help that massive disrespect was shown to bass player Jason Newstead, who was the new guy at the time, by making the bass tracks almost inaudible, and ruining the whole album's sound along the way.
Compared to all the other albums on this list, this is slightly above average, which makes it a 3.5/5.
The Band
3/5
Not bad, not especially good. It's 60s music that left me shrugging. 2.5/5
3/5
Nice, inoffensive 60s pop, that will not go down in history as a great innovation, but which flows nicely in any case. 3/5
Deep Purple
2/5
I can only listen to a single song for so long if it doesn't introduce anything new. In that respect, all of the songs on this album are offenders in my book. EvenChild In Time and Smoke On The Water, both of which are classics, massively overstay their welcome here. Meanwhile, the rest of the songs live several leagues below, and that is even before they received their extended live treatment. Mule, Lazy and Space Truckin' really managed to get on my nerves, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I decided to call it quits and sweet silence embraced me. Guess I won't be listening to this again anytime soon. 2/5
Happy Mondays
3/5
This album is off to a nice start; I had high hopes on hearing the first two or three tracks. But, alas, it wasn't meant to be. After the initial high, the album succumbs to 90s standard fare - a shame, really. 2.5/5
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Music as light as a feather. It's nothing revolutionary, but I had a nice time listening. 3.5/5
Barry Adamson
3/5
In spite of being a moody soundtrack to a non-existent movie, this album was a better listen than I feared. Nothing I need to listen to again, but quite alright. 3/5
Burning Spear
3/5
Not a Reggae fan, but this was an easy listen. 3/5
The Waterboys
3/5
This album is very nice when it leans on the Folk aspect of the music; it's not-so-good when it is just generative 80s music, and I say this as an 80s lover. Luckily, the latter songs are the minority. The Folk songs have it. 3/5
Blue Cheer
2/5
There are way too many of these Blues-goes-Psychedellic albums on this list. All I hear on this one is fuzz guitar and an absence of high frequencies. Not to mention talent. There isn't anything interesting on the album. Move on, nothing to see here. 2/5
Laura Nyro
4/5
The fact that this album was overlooked by most of the contemporaries tells me everything I need to know about the late '60s. Actually, the music is quite nice. Nothing stellar, or groundbreakting, but a couple of good, jazz informed songs where the piano and rhythm section are - apart from Nyro's singing - the most prominent instruments. So.... what's not to like?!? 3.5/5
The Vines
2/5
Nothing special, just typical alt-rock without anything interesting. 2/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
2/5
I had to listen to this in two sessions, because it is simply too long. And not good enough for that length at that. The album was hailed as something like the next coming in alt rock, but all I'm hearing is ... alt rock, by the numbers. Where is the revelation I was promised?!? This is even more irritating considering Billy Corgan's singing sounds like a bad Mick Jagger parody. If this is really the Smashing Pumpkins at their peek, as the Good Book states, I am not interested in the rest of their catalogue.
2/5
Eurythmics
4/5
This is a strong synth pop album. Never mind the the overplayed (and, in my case, over-listened) Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). Eurythmics were very early in their carreer when they released this, and the album already shows signs of greatness. While later albums would show a more melodic side of the duo, with more pure pop arrangements and less synth, even this early release is a serious undertaking which set the groundstone for airplay domination in the mid 80s. 3.5/5
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
The 60's - I guess you had to be there to understand. I wasn't, so I don't. 2/5
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
Yeah, this is nice and all, but not really my jam. 2.5/5
The Everly Brothers
3/5
Began quite likable musically, but ended in late 50s schmalz. It's probably better not to mention (as in: pay attention to) the lyrics. 2.5/5
Manu Chao
4/5
I'm far from being the word's greatest Latin music connaisseur; but I like this album quite a bit, as it's an extremely relaxed affair. 3.5/5
Johnny Cash
3/5
The first of Johnny Cash's prison albums. It's nice enough, but I much prefer the San Quentin one. 3/5
Nirvana
5/5
1994, when Grunge was in full steam, Nirvana came and did .... this. An acoustic live album, courtesy of MTV unplugged, with some of the more obscure songs from their catalog, a couple of covers and only one of their big hits (Come As You Are). And it's marvellous. Most will know that Kurt Cobain could write fantastic songs, but here he proves to be an incredible vocalist as well. Prime example: the album closer Where Did You Sleep Last Night, where Cobain is giving the song his all - so much so, in fact, that he declined MTV's request to get back on for an encore, knowing that he would never be able to match the intensity of that performance.
Another personal favourite is the cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, but again, there really isn't any bad song here. This is truly a gem. 5/5
The Icarus Line
2/5
Songwrighting doesn't appear to have been high on the list of important things when this album was made. Noise, on the other hand .... 1.5/5
Kings of Leon
3/5
OKish Rock album. 3/5
Death In Vegas
2/5
Remind me again: Why is this on the list?!? .... Hello?!? .... 2/5
George Michael
4/5
The first 4 tracks - Faith, Father Figure, I Want Your Sex, and One More Try, are exceptionally good, the remaining 6 are just standard late 80s Pop. If the whole album would be like the first 4, it would be an easy 5/5, the other tracks are more like 3/5, so I'm making this a 4/5 and call it a day.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Like almost everything that Kraftwerk did in the 70s, this album is magnificient. As innovative as humorous, Kraftwerk paved the way for many electronic acts in the decades that would follow. This, however, is the original. There can be only one. 5/5
Megadeth
2/5
Thrash. Thrash, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash. - Melody? Songwrighting? Not so much. 2/5
Don McLean
4/5
Folk album containing two magnificient monster pieces of music - American Pie and Vincent - and lots more of mediocre stuff. Not bad by any means, but they aren't nearly as good as the two great ones, for which I'll give this a 3.5/5.
Madonna
2/5
I remember a time - it must have been the mid 80s to mid 90s - when a new Madonna album was a sensation. But that ship had sailed by 2000, when this album came out, and apart from American Pie (which is a cover) and maybe Music, it only contains pop tracks that about betray the time when they were produced. 2/5
Bad Company
3/5
This one is right up in the middle of the bell curve. 3/5
Rage Against The Machine
4/5
Good stuff. I had never listened to this album in its entirety before. Turns out that when you mix metal and rap, the metal part can make up for much of the awkwardness brought by the rap part. 4/5
Orbital
2/5
Generic 90s dance music. *yawn* 1.5/5
Supergrass
3/5
Very OK album. 3/5
Anita Baker
4/5
This is a very good Soul album, informed by the best production qualities the 80s had to offer. 4/5
The Rolling Stones
2/5
This album is utterly boring, and proof that the Beatles were much better. It's quality over quantity. 2/5
JAY Z
1/5
Hip-Hop - not touching this one with a 10-feet pole. 1/5
Badly Drawn Boy
2/5
Starts out nice enough as some folk informed Pop music, but goes on for a bit too long without anything really new. 2.5/5
James Brown
2/5
Never could get into James Brown and his music. I found it tedious. 2/5
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
2/5
Nothing against Glam Rock (even though I'm not a fan), but this one is just pretentious and lacks the songs to back it up. 2/5
Elastica
2/5
" I'll take 'Generic alt-rock I didn't need to hear', Alex." 2/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
Annoying alt-grunge/rock without anything to show in terms of songwrighting. 1.5/5
The Specials
3/5
As far as Ska albums go (of which I'm generally not a huge fan of), this one is perfectly alright, even quite solid for a few of the tracks. 3/5
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
Utterly forgettable. 2/5
Ash
3/5
Another alt-rock album. Not really bad, but utterly mediocre. Why is THIS on the list? 2.5/5
The Magnetic Fields
2/5
As the title states; this album contains 69 love songs. I could only sample a few, as the album is much (MUCH) too long. Most of the songs I listened to were nothing to write home about; the record is more of a revue than a proper album. For this the songs might be OK, but not for just listening. 2/5
R.E.M.
4/5
For me, I always divided the R.E.M albums into the ones that came after and including Out of Time, and the ones that came before. I mostly know the former ones, while the latter are mostly terra incognita. Imagine my surprise when I listened to this album and it was at least on par with some of their later albums. It contains two monster hits (The One I Love, and It's The End of the World as We Know It), but the rest of the songs are extremely listenable as well. 3.5/5
T. Rex
3/5
70s rock; pleasant enough, but unremarkable. 3/5
Green Day
4/5
This one is a classic, and the definition of how Punk (or any) music should be: fun, with great musicianship and songs and good quality songs with great melodies. It's not too much to ask for, but for a long time it was for the genre. This deserves all the praise it got. 4/5
David Gray
2/5
Another one of those bland and uninteresting albums that hasn't aged well. 2/5
Neu!
4/5
That was unexpected. The album contains some excellent instrumental tracks. If all the songs would have been of the same quality as the first three (ISI, Seeland and Leb' wohl), this would have gotten five stars. Sadly, the remaining instrumental track, E-Musik, is just OK, and the more guitar oriented ones (Hero, After Eight), which also contain some form of vocals, are atrocious in comparison.
Still, on the strength of the instrumentals, this is a 4/5.
Steely Dan
3/5
Steely Dan - you get what you pay for. It's OK. 3/5
Thin Lizzy
3/5
70s style hard rock. I knew of Thin Lizzy but, knowing Gary Moore's later work, I expected .... more. This is not bad by any stretch, but too long for the fact that there is not that much variation between the songs. 3/5
Destiny's Child
2/5
I just can't stand to listen to these early 2000s pop-records anymore - it's soul, it's rhythm, maybe even Hip-Hop (yuk!). And there is attitude in spades. But the parts don't come together to any coherent whole. And, as always, melody is completely AWOL. 1.5/5
The Dictators
3/5
For an obscure Rock/Punk record from 1975 this is surprisingly fun. Nothing I would absolutely have to listen to again, but I wouldn't mind if it played somewhere in the background. The I Got You Babe cover was especially good for what it was. 3/5
Kate Bush
3/5
After Hounds of Love, this album was a bit more mature, with Celtic/Irish Influences. Not bad by any stretch, but even now I have trouble remembering any songs in particular. 3/5
Violent Femmes
2/5
Yes, the songs and music are OK. The singing, because of which I kept skipping the first few songs before giving up, isn't. 2/5
Living Colour
3/5
Massive talent in the guitar and bass department, but without the songs to back it up. Still, an easy listen. 3/5
Suede
4/5
Proto-Britpop. The real great songs by Suede were to come on later albums, but this is more than a decent start, both of a band and of a genre. 3.5/5
Adam & The Ants
3/5
The usual early-80s-post-punk attitude and sound - this album is well produced, however - but tedious, as in the absence of any good songs, I'm missing a reason to listen to this again. 2.5/5
Bauhaus
2/5
Erm .... what was that? Hello?!? ... Never mind. 2/5
5/5
I love Muse. My musical sensibilities usually lie between Metal, Rock, Electronic and Pop, and this album checks all of these boxes (and more). When I first heard it, it was a revelation, because for me, there was simply nothing like it. It was a first for Muse as well, experimenting with integrating all of these genres. Matt Bellamy is a great songwrighter, most of the songs are memorable with great hooks and excellent melodies. The arrangement vary between the genres mentioned above, sometimes even in the same song. The musicianship of Matt Bellamy, Dom Howard and Christ Wolstenholme was always first rate, and this album is more than living proof of that.
If this doesn't deserve 5 stars, what album does? 5/5
The White Stripes
3/5
OKish alt-rock album with one mega hit. 3/5
Van Morrison
3/5
Van Morrison goes Jazz. .... which is not utterly horrible, but still not one of his best ideas. 2.5/5
U2
5/5
This is, hands down, U2s best album (with Rattle & Hum being a close, but somehow different second). Produced by Brian Eno and engineered by Flood, U2 completely reinvented themselves, after having achieved everything possible with the sound of their first five studio albums, culminating in the Joshua Tree. There is relly not a single bad song on the album; The Fly, One, Mysterious Ways, and many more show what the band could achieve when they didn't take themselves too seriously and when Bono got rid of his messiah complex. 5/5
Björk
3/5
On this album, Björk is somewhat more accessible than usual, but that isn't saying much. It's still not something I would like to listen to again. 2.5/5
John Lennon
4/5
Even after the end of the Beatles, John Lennon was no slouch when it came to writing songs. Energywise, this album may be a low key affair, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. 4/5
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
There are only a handful of Punk bands that I can stand. Alas, this is not one of them. When every song sounds the same, what's the point? 2/5
Fishbone
3/5
Shrugworthy. 2.5/5
Happy Mondays
2/5
I love 80s music, but this album is like many others from the dacade: lots of (sonic) style, but hardly any substance. 2/5
Sigur Rós
4/5
Journey through a wide sonic landscape while listening to an imaginary language.... Very good album, even though not every track was a high point. Still very recommendable. 4/5
Iron Maiden
4/5
Iron Maiden are one of the most important Metal bands ever, and their self-titled debut album was a good indication for even better things to come. By The Number of the Beast, their third album, they would have the definitive singer, both of their guitar players locked in and some truly great songs. On this album, the songs are still a bit raw and unrefined. Phantom of the Opera remains a fan favourite to this day, even if it might be a bit overhyped. The rest of the songs are fine, but don't reach the quality of later albums. The same goes for singer Paul Di'Anno. He's doing a good job, but he is not Bruce Dickinson, who would take over two albums later. So while this is not the album I would recommend to someone just getting into Iron Maiden, it is a worthwhile listen nonetheless, especially for those who are already fans. 3.5/5
Dr. Octagon
1/5
Another one for the Hip-Hop pile. 1/5
Brian Eno
4/5
Fabulous ambient album. 3.5/5
Dusty Springfield
4/5
This whole album screams "Amy Winehouse" - Dusty Springfield must have been a strong influence. And who can blame her? Dusty has a very strong voice that fits perfectly into the material, which is mainly 60s pop, but with strong melodies and arrangements. I'm glad that I can now appreciate Dusty Springfield a bit more. 4/5
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Before Springsteen's career would switch into overdrive with Born in the USA, there was Nebraska. It's low key, even sombre affair. It shows a very different side to Springsteen. I applaud the effort, but I'm missing memorable songs. 2.5/5
Keith Jarrett
4/5
Alternate Title: A Man and His Piano. It's remarkable that the circumstances - a missing concert piano, so that the artist hat to improvise with a rehearsal one with lacking high and low registers, all in front of a sold out house - resulted in this classic. Keith Jarrett's ability to improvise - as in: compose while playing - is tremendous. Granted, not all of the pieces are on par with each other, but the album is still enjoyable, both as foreground and background music. 4/5
M.I.A.
2/5
This is aptly named, as anything enjoyable is M.I.A. on that one. 1.5/5
1/5
If you've ever wondered just why Nu Metal is practically dead, just listen to this. 1/5
Ms. Dynamite
1/5
Hip-Hop, bane of my existence. 1/5
T. Rex
4/5
One of the better 70s rock albums. There is not any really bad track here; some are actually quite good. Favourite: Cosmic Dancer. 3.5/5
Deee-Lite
2/5
Generic 90s dance album, altogether not very dee-liteful. 2/5
Primal Scream
2/5
This band if far from being a Rock band. Rather, this album is an amalgam of indie rock, dance, prog, instrumental and more. As such, it's mixed bag. There are a couple of generic dance tracks, which are utterly forgettable. Higher Than the Sund and Come Together, the longest track, are particularly annoying. Inner Flight, on the other hand, is an utterly beautiful instrumental that I liked instantly. But sadly, the annoying moments prevail. 2/5
Eels
3/5
This is just a rock album that is good at what it does. Nothing bad about it, but also nothing truly amazing. 3/5
Grateful Dead
3/5
I can't understand neither the love nor the hand this band is getting. This album, at least, is totally fine. Americana isn't neccessarily my go-to genre, but this album is as good as any 70s rock albums. 3/5
Elis Regina
3/5
This is such a typcial case of "It must be good, but it's so, so completely not my style of music". 2,5/5
Cee Lo Green
1/5
Oh ... more Hip-Hop. 1/5
Billy Bragg
3/5
Americana. Next time I'm cruisin' and endlessly winding American Highway during the fall, I'll remember to put this on. 3/5
Dirty Projectors
1/5
Hipster art without any real artistic merit. 1/5
Cowboy Junkies
4/5
If you're in the mood for some mellow, relaxing Country music, this album is the way to go. 3.5/5
The Sabres Of Paradise
1/5
Talentless Dance music posing as art. 1/5
William Orbit
3/5
This is not so much Dance, but more of an Ambient/Eletronic album, interspersed with Spoken Word passages, only one of which I found unbearably annoying. The rest flows nicely. 3/5
2/5
Psychedelic 70s rock; quite a bit on the boring side. 2/5
Gary Numan
3/5
I find it hard to categorize this one. Maybe I shouldn't; but it's like a mix of Electronica and late 70s Pop. I found it surprisingly listenable. There you go. 3/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Psychedellic Blues? - Annoying bordering on the unlistenable. 2/5
Slayer
2/5
The average song on this album goes
Thrash, Thash, Thrash, Thrash, Death, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash, Terror, Thrash, SLAYER!!!!, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash.
I got old by track 2.
2/5
Morrissey
4/5
If we can seperate the artist from the music for a minute, this is a very competent pop/rock album. While there are no real standouts, every song is at least "fine", and the album flows nicely and is an easy listen. I, for one, enjoyed it. 3.5/5
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
This album is as French as it gets. It's a nice listen that won't overstay it's welcome, but also something I don't absolutely have to play again. 3/5
The Clash
2/5
Punk is as Punk does. 2/5
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
If this album is on the list, 2013, it's release year, must not have been a good year for music overall. While the production is slick, the songs are mostly abent. I've heard many amateurbands do much, much better. 1.5/5
Brian Eno
3/5
This album is Talking Heads in all but name. Not really bad, but also, not entirely my cup of tea either. 2.5/5
Love
2/5
Psychedelic rock by the numbers. 2/5
The Velvet Underground
2/5
Self-indulgent 60s Art Rock. That Nico was allowed to sing on this album doesn't raise it's appeal, to put it mildly. 2/5
John Lee Hooker
3/5
There is only so much Blues music I can handle on one album, and this is too much. The Healer is probably the best track, but the remaining began to wash into one another. 2.5/5
Todd Rundgren
2/5
Very experimental and, I'm sure, very influential for its time. It's just that, for me, it's also very unlistenable. 2/5
Miriam Makeba
2/5
This sounds like a direct Lion King precursor; but without the images, this kind of World Music falls flat for my tastes. 2/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Elvis Costello always sounds to me like a guy nursing his midlife crisis by making music that might have sounded cool in the 50s. His singing style is just a case in point. His shtick is seldom working. Mostly, I find it pretentious. 2/5
Marvin Gaye
4/5
This is a very charming Soul album with exactly the right length for my taste. The obvious hit here is the opener What's Going On, but after that, the album just .... goes on in the same way, and this is a good thing, for once. 3.5/5
Doves
4/5
This one was a pleasant surprise. It's alt-rock, with enough variation to make me coming back to it. 4/5
The Libertines
2/5
A bit boring, isn't it? I couldn't finish this. 2/5
Incubus
2/5
One from the time when Nu Metal hat all the street cred in the world. Now, that time is but a distant memory, thankfully.
Slipknot
4/5
I had never heard an entire Slipknot album before, but this is brilliant. It's not only speed and screaming (although there is plenty of that), but also quite melodic moments. And, most importantly, it can, better thatn most other albums I know, be an outlet for feelings like frustration and anger. I will come back to this. 4/5
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
The cover screams "Psychedelic", but the music is Country. Both are highly derivative. 2/5
The Jam
3/5
Well... I can stand listening to this album. I don't feel any need to do so, but if it happened to play somewhere, I wouldn't run away screaming ... which is more than I can say about a lot of albums on this list. 3/5
Willie Nelson
2/5
Yes, Willie Nelson is an icon, but this album just sounds like the same song 15 times over - that would be too much, even if I liked the song. 2/5
The Crusaders
4/5
Extremely smooth Soul record, with the title song being one of the genre's greatest gems. Also, it's the only song with vocals, and vocalist Randy Crawford was on the top of her game. The same can be said for everyone else involved. It's really quite good. 4/5
Nick Drake
4/5
A pleasant surprise. I don't care much for Nick Drake's voice, especially in the higher registers, but the music is the epitome of "that 70s sound". The album was an enjoyable listen throughout. 3.5/5
The Byrds
2/5
This is your run-off-the-mill psychedelic, 60s Rock album, and a pretty derivative one at that. 2/5
Iggy Pop
3/5
Iggy Punk Rock. 3/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Elvis Costello's singing style is inauthentic, pretentious and the reason I couldn't get through this record. 2/5
The Lemonheads
2/5
In a dictionary of musical genres, this one would be as close to a definition of alt-rock as one could get. It's not a compliment. 2/5
Elvis Presley
2/5
Classic Rock'n'Roll, by the numbers, without much variation. Elvis was a trendsetter for audiences in the '50s. To me it's just same old, same old, desperately in need of songs to match his talent. 2/5
Holger Czukay
3/5
Experimental music. Not bad per se, just not my cup of tea. 2.5/5
John Martyn
4/5
Very mature, extremely listenable, especially for its time. This was a pleasant surprise! 4/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Too much noise, not enough genuinely good songs. 2/5
Wilco
3/5
If I was a fan of alt-rock, I would be all over this. But I'm not, so, for me, this is just a very alright album. 3/5
Dion
2/5
Forget what's written on the album cover - this album is a typical Spector wall-of-sound record, which for many artists meant involved included giving up their identity and giving complete control to an out-of-control producer with illusions of grandeur. All these albums sound exactly the same. It's a boring affair. 2/5
The KLF
2/5
This was hot shit in the early 90s, but it hasn't aged particularly well. 2/5
Garbage
3/5
Not entirely garbage. Actually, very OK. 3/5
Lambchop
4/5
I went in blind, and was plesantly surprised. Would write more, but time is fleeting. 4/5
Stephen Stills
3/5
Not sure about the other two, but in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Neil Young was the one whith the whiny voice, while Stephen Stills was the one with the talent. 3/5
Moby Grape
2/5
An album like Thanksgiving. I give thanks to the fact that we don't live in the 60s anymore ... 2/5
R.E.M.
3/5
The first classic R.E.M. album - it's not bad overall, but contains too much filler. 3/5
The Auteurs
2/5
A new look at New Wave, but boring. 2/5
Magazine
2/5
Starts promising, ends boring. 2/5
Nirvana
3/5
Not Nirvana's best - that distinction belongs to "unplugged". In fact, it is rather dreary and tedious. 3/5
George Harrison
3/5
This is a collection of mostly mediocre, some good, and just a few very good songs - meaning that there is probably a great album somewhere in there wanting to come out, but being afraid of all the run-of-the-mill stuff. Clearly, George Harrison wasn't doing it any favours. 3/5
Turbonegro
2/5
Never heard of this band before. I took away three bits of information:
1.) It's punk-informed alt-rock (or the other way round - whatever).
2.) It's not especially good.
3.) It has no business being on this list.
2/5
Deep Purple
3/5
Let's face it: Smoke on the Water is a much better song than guitar store owners all around are comfortable to admit. In fact, it's pretty good. Add to that the sublime When a Blind Man cries, and you have two instant classics. It is sad, then, that the rest of this album can't hold a candle to these two songs. It's mostly what passed as Hard Rock in the early 70s, with some bluesy passages interleaved (but without any Metal, mind you). But there is nothing special about most of these tracks. On the strength of the two aforementioned songs alone, this is 3/5.
Alice Cooper
3/5
Well, it doesn't contain Alice Cooper's best material, but it's still miles above similar albums of the era. 3/5
Dizzee Rascal
1/5
More Hip Hop Trash. 1/5
Justin Timberlake
2/5
This album embodies everything that is wrong with Pop music in this millenium. 2/5
The Verve
2/5
You start listeing while doing some chore, but find yourself wondering when the next track is going to start, because the current track isn't very good to begin with. Then, suddenly, the album has finished playing. This, in a nutshell, is The Verve's A Northern Soul. 2/5
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
Was a big hit in the 90s, and I can see why that might be the case: this is very expertly played and produced, very relaxed Latin-Jazz. It's just that this kind of music if very far removed from my musical tastes, so that I did not enjoy (as in: even get through) this album at all. 2.5/5
Isaac Hayes
2/5
Not bad, as far as Soul albums go. Maybe a bit on the longish side, and therefore somewhat tedious. The long spoken work passage, and not to mention the interview, both don't help.
2/5
Ananda Shankar
3/5
The first half was much better than expected, but, unfortunately, the second half was exactly as expected. 2.5/5
Elvis Presley
4/5
One of Elvis' later albums. This one has slick production and some good songs; the obvious one-two punch is the sequence of In The Ghetto and Suspicious Minds. I liked it. 3.5/5
The White Stripes
3/5
Garage Rock from the turn of the millenium. Sounds like it, too. 2.5/5
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Nothing against good Folk music, but this is just dull music with cringey lyrics. 2/5
Nas
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Vaudeville, Folk, Glam Rock, and Blues are just some of the genres Peter Gabriel tackled for his first solo outing after leaving Genesis. True, the album contains monster hit Solsbury Hill and his somewhat-more-of-a-deep-cut Here Comes The Flood (albeit with overblown sound and chorus arrangement - I much prefer the later quiet version). But generally, the songs weren't quite there yet, and it's evident from the aforementioned selection of styles that Gabriel himself wasn't entirely sure about the kind of music he wanted to make a s a solo artist. Thus, this album is the beginning of his experimental phase, that would last for two more studio albums: an interesting, soul-searching, but somewhat messy experience. 2.5/5
Super Furry Animals
2/5
I completely tuned out while listening to this album, but suddenly realizing "What, this is still playing?". I hope this answers the question if there is anything remotely remarkable about it. 2/5
Leonard Cohen
5/5
This album, released just a few weeks before Cohen's death, is arguably his best one. Certainly Cohen knew that his time was coming soon, and this album is testament to the utter grace with which he accepted that. Subject matter is diverse here, the lyrics are often ambiguous, but meaning shines through often enough (Leaving the Table, You Want It Darker, If I Didn't Have Your Love, Traveling Light). The best song, however, is Treaty, whicht together with its Reprise in String Reprise/Treaty is as poignant as it is moving. I cannot recommend this album enough. 5/5
Fleet Foxes
2/5
Nope, didn't speak to me at all. 2/5
The White Stripes
2/5
Started somewhat strong, but became stale pretty fast. The White Stripes just aren't my jam. 2/5
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
If you're into some Old School Funk, this one is for you. I'm not, so this isn't. 3/5
Pere Ubu
2/5
Album opens up with an assault on my hearing - with the first track, I've had enough. A cursory listen to the rest of the tracks didn't produce anything revelatory. 1.5/5
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
As much as I would like, I just can't find my tastes aligning with this kind of world music. 2/5
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I find the singing style annoying and the music is really uninspiring (and the Helter Skelter cover is just cringe) but somehow these elements work better together than they have any right to. It helps that that particular band was one of MTV's darlings when that station still was focusing on music, and so I might have become a little numb. I wouldn't come back to this, but I can bear it better than I would have expected. 2.5/5
Stan Getz
4/5
The title already made me suspicious - Jazz and Samba most certainly do not belong to my favourite genres. Imagine my surprise that this is, in fact, quite a wonderful, laid back album that lends itself to playing in the background. ... which it will do again, in the days and weeks to come 4/5.
Billy Bragg
2/5
*shrug*
2/5
Franz Ferdinand
2/5
Might me a solid Indy act, but I coulnd't bring myself to care about any of these songs. 2/5
The Cramps
2/5
Another reviewer mentioned the genre being Punkabilly, which I find very fitting, as I drew a blank when trying to come up with a fitting term. Trouble is, I don't like the kind of music the term describes. 2/5
Meat Loaf
5/5
I love this album. Jim Steinman just knew how to write fantastic songs with great melodies, and Meat Loaf is the perfect vehicle to bring these songs to live. It's just seven of them, but every single one is a gem. The lyrics - somewhat typical for Steinman - are B-Movie teenage poetry, but that is exactly their point. Coupled with the music, they work incredibly well. And the music in itself is full-on, over-the-top laden with pathos, almost operatic. The 10-minute title track in itself is worth the price of admission, but, really, none of the songs sound alike, and each one is a heavy hitter. The arrangements are expertly done and the band are more than competent; Roy Bittan's piano is especially memorable. This, for one, is an album that really deserves to be on this list - it's a truly iconic masterpiece.
5/5
Bill Callahan
3/5
On the one hand, this one was refreshing, because it tried to do something new with the Folk/Country genre. On the other hand, Callahan's voice didn't vibe with me at all, dragging down the songs with it. As a whole, the album is a solid effort, but nothing more. 3/5
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
2/5
Yepp, the Blues exploded alright. The resulting album is D.O.A.
1.5/5
David Bowie
3/5
70s Bowie (with some 80s sprinkled in for good measure) was the best Bowie, even with his tendency to constantly reinvent himself. This album is good, if a little uneven, and it's missing obivious, stand-out hits. However, the title track and Wild is the Wind alone are enough to make this album aat least very competent. The rest of the tracks don't need to hide either. 3/5
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
Melancholia reigns supreme on this Harold Faltermeyer produced album. This feeling of decay can be found in almost every track, and it's bitter-sweet and beautiful. It starts with Being Boring and continues on through the likes of Only the Wind and My October Symphony, all the way through to Jealousy. This is how electronic pop music was meant to be.
4/5
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
Wanted to love this, but didn't - it's a bit too self-important for my taste. 2/5
Hot Chip
3/5
An album like fast-food: enjoyable at times, at others hard to stomach. There is nothing making me paticularly sick here, nor is there anything really good for my ears. Or brain. 3/5
Bobby Womack
3/5
80s Soul, nicely done if you are into that sort of thing. But Simply Red did it better. Still, 3/5.
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
Boy, do I miss the 80s.... Cindy Lauper's debut is the quintessential Early-80s-pop-album. The music, synth- and guitar-laden, as is typical for the period, happily bubbles on, and the album opens with a number of very strong tracks - "Money Changes Everything", "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time" and especially "She Bop" are all extremely catchy as they are different, and all serve to show Lauper's talent. Side B opens with an equally stong "All Through the Night", but loses a bit of steam during the final couple of tracks. No matter - this album is a must listen for anyone even remotely interested in 80s music. 4/5
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
Tries to be original with rock, folk, etc. influences, but at the end of the day, this is just Hip Hop. 1.5/5
Black Sabbath
4/5
After Black Sabbath more or less singlehandedly created Metal with their self-titled debut album; they refined the genre's vocabulary with Paranoid.
Tony Iommi created riffs for the ages - Paranoid and Iron Man are both absolute classics that make this album's place on this list justified on their own. Bill Ward and Geezer Butler complemented this by being a very tight rhythm section. Meanwhile, Ozzy's singing was competent, but the melody-lines were mostly an affair of "just do whatever the guitar is doing and call it a day", and not all material on the album is of equal quality, proving that the genre still hat some way to. 3.5/5
The Fall
2/5
I couldn't get through this one. Neither the music, nor the lyrics spoke to me. At all. Every song has an air of self-importance, but is completely uniteresting and uninspiring. 1.5/5
The Fall
2/5
Very much noise oriented. I know, that is the Punk ethic of that period, but there is nothing here that catches my interest. I couldn't finish this. 1.5/5
Randy Newman
3/5
Newman's piano heavy songs evoke an America long forgotten. The music is drenched in somewhere between Jazz and Blues, and the lyrics seem to spy on US-American lives somewhere in the middle of the last century. As a whole, the album is nice enough, but nothing I would neccesarily re-visit. 3/5
The Velvet Underground
2/5
Tries to be art, but is pretentious and boring. 1.5/5
Beck
4/5
Well, this wasn't half beck. 3.5/5
Miles Davis
3/5
It happily played in the background while I was having breakfast; forgetting it was even on. 3/5
Stan Getz
3/5
I'm sure it's not bad, but I'm rarely in the mood for Bossa Nova/Jazz. 2.5/5
Pulp
4/5
Is this Pop? - Yes. Is this Brit Pop? - Positive - Is this album better than anything the likes of Oasis and Blur have released around the same time? - A thousand times yes!!!!
True, not every song is equally good, but every song is its own thing - Pulp obviously didn't like to repeat themselves - just listen to Common People, I Spy, Disco2000 and Something Changed for illustration. Plus, the lyrics are intricate and tell little stories in their own right. Pulp weren't as big as the aforementioned bands, but on this album, they were better.
4/5
The Cult
3/5
The record sounds good, but gets boring quickly as about every song sounds the same. 2.5/5
Neil Young
2/5
Oh, the anticipation! - Will this album be any different than all. the. other. Neil. Young. albums. on this list? I usually can listen to a Neil Young song exactly for as long as it takes for him to start singing - the whiny voice is just more than I can bear. So this album is already off to a bad start, because on the opener Tell Me Why, the intro is exactly 2 seconds long. OK, skipping this track. Track 2 - After the Gold Rush manages to hold my interest for a respectable 10 seconds until I am confronted with the same dilemma: the song sounds as if it coud be good, but is immediately ruined by THE WHINE. I come to the conclusion that each and every track will have Young singing on it at some point, and so I'm skipping the entire album. What were those people in the 70s thinking? .... or smoking ... ?
2/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
What a great album!!! For me, this is Nick Cave at his best.
Every track tells a morbid story full of broken characters, violence and murder - the lyrics might not be for the faint of heart. This, together with the music creates a very dark, brooding atmosphere.
The music, meanwhile, still manages to be catchy, ranging from bluesy untertones, sometimes even with a Country twist, to hauntingly beautiful ballads (Henry Lee, Where the Wild Roses Grow, The Kindness of Strangers).
The heavily overplayed Where the Wild Roses Grow is good, but far from being the best song on this album. Still, I can't decide which track is the best, as they are all in their own way little masterpieces.
5/5
Marty Robbins
2/5
Classic Country and me are simple incompatible. 2/5
Os Mutantes
2/5
Probably only even remotely bearable if you're stoned. 1.5/5
Coldcut
2/5
Generic 90s dance music. - Yuk. 1.5/5
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Well, yes, this is much better than I expected when I saw another album of this band in my queue. But still, I find the music and the singer's voice quite unappealing, so I doubt I will listen to this again. 2.5/5
Pentangle
2/5
Folk music from the 60s with a sprinkle of psychedelics - not horrible, but nothing to write home about. 2/5
The Byrds
2/5
The same goes for the Byrds as for many other bands of that era: The Beatles did it better, and if I can't find anything original on an album like this, I'm not inclined to listen again. 2/5
Slade
2/5
The glamest of Glam Rock albums? Maybe, but that is all there is to it. 2/5
Jane Weaver
3/5
This was .... good? Nothing exceptional, mind you, but good. Maybe it shouldn't be on this list, but that's not the album's fault. 3/5
Culture Club
2/5
This is New Wave Pop with a soulful touch. Sadly, then, that at the same time it is so soulless. In other words: there is Karma Chameleon, and then there is all the rest, and all the rest cannot hold a candle to KC. There simply are not enough good songs here. 2/5
The Damned
2/5
Classic Punk by the book, but the book isn't for me. 1.5/5
Sabu
2/5
World music - probably fine, but not for me. 2/5
Giant Sand
3/5
Well... at least Shiver was quite alright. But generally, between the singer who thinks he is Lou Reed and the self-important music, this was .... wait for it ... a Chore!!!! to get through. .... I'll see myself out. 2.5/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
OK album, I guess, but nothing even remotely memorable. 2/5
TV On The Radio
2/5
The myriad of creative sounds wouldn't be wasted if there were any good songs to go along with them. Alas, there aren't. 2/5
Hawkwind
2/5
The album cover announces what the music confirms: these are psychedelic wannabe space rockers. But they forgot all the good songs back on earth - most of the material is very jam-like and sprinkled with lyrical nonsense - just listen to The Awakening. Nope, I didn't finish this one. 1.5/5
Jurassic 5
1/5
Alternative title: Hip Hop by the Numbers. 1/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Very good album. Not Nick Cave's best, mind you, but extremely beautiful and serene. Subject matter is the death of Cave's son, and he really sings his his heart out on a couple of tracks - just listen to the stunning Waiting For You, and you might be able to catch a glimpse in the loss Cave was feeling.
Sonically, this album is much less bluesy than previous outings, but more daringly experimental with lush, but tasteful synth arrangements.
This must really be one of the most recent albums on the list, and it really is deserving to be on it. 4/5
Goldfrapp
5/5
So good. I had heard of Goldfrapp before, but never got around to listen to the whole album before. This is the THE downbeat album I need in my life. It perfectly vibes with my mood today. Generally, I would put this on my list for tired evenings or lazy autumn afternoons. It's really that good. 5/5
Skepta
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
This has typical late-80s production values - make it chimey, and the bass, while not absent, doesn't sit in the mix at all, so that it might as well be not there at all. Speaking of which: Do you know what's also not there? - The songs. Wishing Well and Sign Your Name were chart toppers in their day, but the rest is derivative and quite forgettable. As is this album. 2/5
Cheap Trick
2/5
Pretty generic 70s rock. 2/5
Frank Black
2/5
This is essentially a Pixies album by their lead singer, doing Pixies stuff: American alt-Rock by the numbers. Quite boring, really. And much too long at that. 2/5
Mercury Rev
3/5
This one was good, but forgettable somehow. There is not any other way I can describe it. When listening, I liked most of the material, but now, writing about it, I just can't remember any single song. Strange, that. 3/5
The Monks
2/5
Psychedellic shovelware. Move on, nothing to see here. 2/5
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Rock that leans havily into noise. I had enough after song 2.
2/5
Small Faces
2/5
The first thing I noticed: The instruments' placement in the stereo mix is strange, to say the least. And it got worse from there. 2/5
MC Solaar
1/5
Hip Hop. 1/5
Joy Division
3/5
Joy Division's brand of New Wave music struck a joyful chord with many listeners. For me, it's rather about Division, because I just can't seem to get into them. 2.5/5
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
It's not that Paul McCartney couldn't write a good tune - he proved that he was one of the best songwrigthers of all time during his Beatles years. It's just that in the years afterwards, he adopted what I tend to call That 70s Sound - pleasant enough, easy-listening tunes with rather intricate harmonies and instrumentation, a sound that is completely different from anything that he did before. Listening to Band on the Run, I'm starting to wonder if he really adopted the style, or if he rather was influential for the development of that sound to begin with.
Anyhow, it's a sound you have to like, and I only can bear it in small doses. None of the songs are bad per se, but the album doesn't fully catch my interest either.
3/5
Mott The Hoople
2/5
The album artwork promises Glam Rock, and Glam Rock is all you're getting. And not particularly good one at that. Bowie did it better.
2/5
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I'm a huge Leonard Cohen fan, but, even so, I can acknowledge that not every of his albums is of equal quality. This one is a point in case. Generally, I have some problems with Cohens earlier material, as his songwrighting skills - the musical side especially - are still underdeveloped and lacking, but even on his debut, Cohen managed to write more coherent material with better melodies. On this album, his second, Cohen is too often in Dylan-emulation-mode, which gets tiring pretty fast. Granted, there is the occasional gem: Bird on a Wire is a classic, and The Partisan ist still pretty good, but I find the rest to be quite forgettable. It's just not enough to make a good album. Happily, better times (and albums, for that matter) would come within the follwing five years. Meanwhile, this one is a mediocre 3/5.
Aphex Twin
4/5
Against all my reservations against late 80s/early 90s electro/techno music, this one is more than just very decent. It's called Ambient Works for a reason - if you need to do some work with not too intrusive music in the background, this is one of the things you might listen to. I know I would. 3.5/5
Pink Floyd
2/5
The psychedelics are strong with this one. 2/5
The Beach Boys
4/5
The Beach Boys are really the American Beatles - this album sounds like the late Fab Four (think post-Revolver period) even after they had dissolved. Which is not neccessarily a bad thing; the album sounds quite mature and has some 70s sprinkles in it. This, for one, really belongs on this list. 3.5/5
Emmylou Harris
4/5
Well, I could listen to this front to back, and two of the tracks (Michelangelo and I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now) have found their way onto another playlist of mine. Which, really, is more than most Country Albums have any right to claim. 3.5/5
Big Brother & The Holding Company
2/5
This is just the kind of Blues oriented rock noodling that was extremely prevalent in the 70s, and that just leaves me shrugging. Very cheap thrills, indeed. 2/5
Big Star
2/5
Dear album, it's not you, it's me. Goodbye. 2/5
Funkadelic
2/5
Spotify only has three album tracks for me, but that's plenty. The pile of mediocre 70s albums on this list is ever-increasing. 2/5
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
I have always been quite fond of O.M.D., but this album doesn't contain their best material (which, if I'm honest, is spread out quite a bit among all their albums and singles). Yes, there is the rightfully known-and-loved Jean of Arc(Maid of Orleans) (Track 6, not the previous one with almost the same name, mind you), but the rest is underwhelming, to say the least. They were experimenting with their sound, when they should have honed their songwrighting craft. 2/5
John Lennon
3/5
John Lennon could write good songs, but he is a bit too overhyped and intellectual for my tastes. That's why his songs worked so well in the Beatles - his impulses were kept in check by his bandmates (who, in turn, had their impules kept in check by him and the others as well). Without that, we have some beautiful, timeless songs like Imagine and Jealous Guy, but most of this album comes across as too self-important. It's worth a listen and should be on this list, but it also serves as a reminder why the Beatles were one of the best musical acts on the planet ever, while the individual solo careers of the former Fab Four were just ... OK. Like this album. 3/5
The Style Council
4/5
This album surprised me - I didn't expect a Blues/Jazz record, albeit with the production values of the 80s. But there you are. 3.5/5
Dennis Wilson
3/5
Started quite well with a piano that could have been played by an early Elton John, but went a bit downhill from there. The album is not bad per se, but it rambles too much in 60s and 70s Rock tropes, without too much original ideas. 3/5
Haircut 100
4/5
This was ... enjoyable? I had never heard of this band before, but even though the cover art suggests a boy band from some years later in the same decade, the album flows nicely. Sound is New Wave-ish (think Spandau Ballett oder Duran Duran, without quite reaching the same heights, song-wrighting-wise), and production values are rooted firmly in the 80s without being to overbearing or self-indulgent, which was often a problem with albums back then. Yeah, I can see myself listening to this again sometime. 3.5/5
Dolly Parton
2/5
Yeehaaw, another one of 'em Country albums ... *cue tumbleweed*. 2/5
Miles Davis
2/5
Listen, Miles, you may be the greatest Jazz trumpet player ever, but if this is the kind of Jazz you insist on playing, I ain't listenin'. 1.5/5
Weather Report
3/5
A very slow moving album. Jaco Pastorius' fretless work is sublime, but as for the songs, all I can say is that I didn't mind listening. It was nice enough, but Jazz isn't really in my Top 5 of genres. 3/5
Lightning Bolt
2/5
To each their own. The genre of "Noise Rock" definitively isn't for me, and how this album could find its way on this list is beyond me, but there you go. 1.5/5
Nightmares On Wax
4/5
Background music for the times when you really don't want to listen to music, but need to do something else that demands you concentration. The music is unobtrusive and stays out of your way, but still manages to fill that niche in your brain that needs to have something going in the background to allow for peak concentration. For this, the album execls. 3.5/5
2/5
Your run-of-the-mill New Wave record without any noteworthy ideas. Plus, the singer is annoying. 2/5
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
Hip-Hop. 1/5
The Kinks
3/5
Starts somewhat strong, but loses steam after the first half. Pity. 3/5
Radiohead
2/5
Amnesiac is really a bit like the ugly stepsister of Kid A, isnt't it? Look, I really like Radiohead, but sometime people are too fast to applaud everything they do. Maybe because its Art... But this doesn't quite live up to Radiohead's reputation. Recorded at the same time as Kid A, this album contains many tracks that were left on the cutting room floor of the former one. We might even directly compare these two by virtue of looking at the respective versions of Morning Bell. The Kid A version was sublime, the one on this album deserves to be forgotten (cue obvious pun on this album's title). There might be one or two good tracks on here - I myself am partial to Pyramid Song and You and Whose Army? But that is not enough, and after Kid A, this is quite a letdown.
2/5
Michael Jackson
3/5
Disco reigns supreme on this album. Produced by Quincy Jones, there can be no complaints about arrangement or production values. But, come on, this is basically 9 times the same song plus a token ballad. None of these songs are bad per se, but for me the album came across as exhaustingly similar throughout. The following two albums (Thriller and, especially, Bad), would introduce some welcome variation, but here, there isn't nearly enough of that. 3/5
Funkadelic
2/5
From a band called "Funkadelic", I would have expected more, I dunno, .... Funk. It's rather some typical 70s Blues-oriented rambling. 2/5
Solomon Burke
3/5
The album is as advertised: It's Rock. And Soul. Of the old school kind. While some of the songs are not bad, the whole affair sounds a bit cringey to my ears. Oh well ... 2.5/5
Mj Cole
2/5
Generic electronica rambling without any structure or original idea. 1.5/5
Bee Gees
2/5
I much prefer the Bee Gees' 70s and 80s output. This is just bleak acoustic rambling without any genuine ideas. Who would have thought? 1.5/5
Grateful Dead
2/5
Seems like I've never understood the appeal of The Grateful Dead, but I wanted to be open minded and use this live album to learn.
The first track is just 23 minutes of aimless noodling, and only bearable if you're totally stoned - which I suspect is the state that most of the audience were in at that concert. It didn't get better from there...
I still don't understand the appeal of the Grateful Dead. For me, it might remain one of life's great mysteries.
1.5/5
The Cars
4/5
This is a good mix of Rock with slight New Wave Elements. Didn't expect to like it as much as I did. 4/5
Patti Smith
3/5
The first three-or-so songs are a major letdown, but the album finds its groove in its second half. I'm still not a fan of Patti Smith, but this one is quite OK. 3/5
Soft Machine
2/5
First track was an assault on my ears. The rest didn't do much better. This really takes the Rock out of "Prog Rock", and I'm not sure about the Prog either. 1.5/5
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
This 60s Rock album sounds so generic, it's almost a parody in itself. It's not that bad, but also not something I would return to. 2/5
Prince
4/5
This album is a showcase for the early 80s pop sound. But even more than this, Prince has come up with some really good songs, among them the title track, which is a timeless classic and almost worth the price of admission alone. This album really deserves to be here. 4/5
The Pogues
4/5
Very enjoyable folk/punk album - the majority of the material awards it 3 stars. I'll raise it to 3.5 (therefore rounding up to 4) for Fairytale of New York alone - it's really a perfect Christmas song. 4/5
Lupe Fiasco
1/5
Hip-Hop. Noping out .... 1/5
Laibach
2/5
Slovenian band singing songs from 80s in German. Sounds like a parody, but I suspect it isn't. I bravely soldiered on until the middle, when I couldn't take it anymore. 1.5/5
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
1/5
Hip Hop. Pass. 1/5
Suede
4/5
Britpop, but better than the usual suspects. 3.5/5
Deerhunter
4/5
Not bad, as far as Indie albums go. I liked the opener Earthquake especially. 3.5/5
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
60s Rock albums - you know one, you know them all. 2.5/5
LTJ Bukem
2/5
Noperino. 1.5/5
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
Naaaaah ... sorry, this kind of world music is not for me. 2/5
Paul McCartney
3/5
On his first solo album, McCartney continues where he left off with the Beatles. Most of these tracks would not have been out of place on Abbey Road. Most of the time, the album chugs along nicely, but I'm missing the real heavy hitters. Only Maybe I'm Amazed has what it takes to be a classic. The album falls short of greatness, but is an enjoyable listen nonetheless. 3/5
Paul Weller
2/5
Generic to a fault. Missing the spark for greatness, and, come to that, any memorable songs. Forgettable 2/5.
Pixies
2/5
I can't stand this band. I'm not even sorry. 1.5/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
This, right here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the beginning of Metal. The title track heralds a new era. It's true that there still are many Blues influences on this album, and not all of the songs are as good as they could be, but this one started it all. 4 stars for the music, add half a star for the sheer iconic influence. 4.5/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Typical Nick Cave. Not his best, but very listenable. 3/5
Tina Turner
4/5
This album singlehandedly turned Tina Turner into a superstar. And it's easy to see (and hear) why. The heights (essentially: the singles) are extremely high, but there is some filler material as well. It wouldn't be much of an overstatement to say that with the production values present, this album is a prime example for the sound of the early 80s. 4/5
Ray Charles
4/5
Wasn't in the mood for the album, but reluctantly started to listen, and was pleasantly surprised. The opener wasn't my cup of tea, but the rest really was able to sway my mood. What more can you expect? 4/5
Kraftwerk
3/5
Kraftwerks' debut album. The title track still holds up, but it's quite noticeable that they still were experimenting and finding their style. Kometenmelodie parts 1 + 2 are still fine, but Mitternacht and Morgenspaziergang range from tedious to slightly annoying. No matter - this is still a classic album. 3/5
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
This is merely noise, of the pretentious kind. 1/5
The United States Of America
3/5
After the initial shock, this album grows on you. This is firmly in the psychedelic department all the way through, and heavily influenced by The Beatles' White album and Sgt. Pepper, without reaching their level, but with enough ideas to hold its own. 3/5
MGMT
4/5
This is a very fun, and creative, pop record. No more, no less. 3.5/5
The Police
3/5
Barring a few exceptions, I never could find much to like about The Police. They are all great musicians in their own right, but their Reggae style is just not my cup of tea. This album is just par for the course. 2.5/5
Arcade Fire
2/5
Everything here screams "Indie!!!!", but while screaming, they forgot to add anything not derivative about the genre. 2/5
Talking Heads
4/5
Of course I already knew Psycho Killer, but being not a fan of Talking Heads per se, I so far had skipped their debut album. Good thing that through this list I got around to listen to it - it's really good. Apart from Psycho Killer, I especially liked the opener, but the rest also doesn't need to hide. What a pleasant surprise! 4/5
The Associates
1/5
Utterly horrible. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give this group a recording contract should have reconsidered their career choice. 1/5
Thelonious Monk
3/5
I'm neither impressed nor unimpressed. This album is true neutral. 3/5
Meat Puppets
2/5
Indie Rock before that really was a thing. But that's not a compliment, as it didn't forsee everything that's great about the genre, but rather focuses on the bland and uninspired aspects. Musicianship is above average, but the two bis S aren't there, at all: Songs and Singing. Thus, it's a rather dull affair. 2/5
Wild Beasts
2/5
Some of these so-called indie rock albums are the popular equivalent to 12-tone music. This is Art with a big A, screaming "Look, this ART". That goes especially for the singing, but the songs are nothing to write home about either. Really, this is tedious. 2/5
Arcade Fire
3/5
Okish, but altogether underwhelming effort. 2.5/5
Fela Kuti
2/5
Interesting, but too little variation throughout for my taste, and, ultimately, just not my thing. 2/5
Stereolab
2/5
This record is clearly a product of the 90s. It's bit indy, a bit electronic-y, a bit wishy, a bit washy, but nothing to capture my interest. Plus the singing is especially weak. 2/5
Fats Domino
3/5
This is an mix of - mostly - early Soul and Swing. Fats Domino's voice is perfectly suited for this kind of music, but the song selection is a bit lacking. 3/5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
This is a great, relaxed album; perfect for fall season. But, man, did they go overboard with chorus on Jaco Pastorius' fretless bass. 4/5
Kid Rock
2/5
Inflated-ego-music. 1.5/5
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Well, there's Sympathy For The Devil, and there's all the rest. Most of said rest are several White-Men-Play-The-Blues outings, but there are one or two good songs among these as well. It's a step up for the early Stones for sure. 3/5
The Thrills
4/5
For an Indie album from 2003, this is above average, which is saying a lot considering the sub-par quality of many other Indie albums of that era. 3.5/5
Ryan Adams
2/5
Calling this boring, run-off-the-mill Americana album "Gold" is really pushing it. ... Iron, maybe? Mud? 2/5
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Nice enough for one listen, especially if you're into 70s Soul music, but there is nothing standing out. All the tracks are extremely similar to each other. 2.5/5
N.W.A.
1/5
Hip Hop.
1/5
Buzzcocks
2/5
Punk: lots of energy; good songs (or talent) - not so much. 2/5
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
Southern Rock styled after Lynyrd Skynyrd, nice enough, but overstays its welcome, especially since there is nothing special about it at all. 2.5/5
Lenny Kravitz
4/5
A very good first effort. The following albums were even better, but this one also ticks all the right boxes. 4/5
Iron Butterfly
2/5
I don't hate this, but it's your run-off-the-mill psychedelic album. Nothing here stands out, it's void of any good material. 2/5
Youssou N'Dour
2/5
OK, I tried, but World Music is generally not for me. 2/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Typical early 80s vocal style meets mediocre songwritghting meets questionably arranged brass section with bad intonation. It's listenable, but listeners who expect the likes of Come On Eileen will be disappointed. As was I. 2.5/5
The Afghan Whigs
4/5
Didn't know I needed this today. It's got Alt-Rock written all over it, but it's gritty, mature and sounds interesting throughout. A pleasant surprise. 3.5/5
Scott Walker
3/5
Interesting, this sounds like one of those easy-listening Pop records with lush orchestration from the mid 70s, but it precedes that decade by two whole years. Apart from that .... you have to be in the right mood to listen to this, but it's not bad by any stretch. 3/5
Moby
3/5
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? is the obvious standout. Maybe it would be a stretch to call the remaining album a collection of Blues Loops, but that's what it feels like, and I don't even The Blues(tm). 2.5/5
Prefab Sprout
3/5
Well... if anyone wonders how the typical 80s album sounded, we can refer them to this album. Not that it's bad; it was a nice enough listen. But I don't get why it has been included on the list, because I fail to find anything exceptional about it. Oh, well ... 3/5
The Pharcyde
1/5
Hip Hop. Noperino! 1/5
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I love Leonard Cohen, even though I'm leaning more towards his later material. Of his very early records, this, his debut - aptly named Songs of Leonard Cohen - is his best. It's not perfect; not all of the songs are equally good, but any album with songs like Suzanne, The Stranger Song, Sisters of Mercy, and So Long, Marianne deserves an above average rating at least. So this is 4/5.
Digital Underground
1/5
Hip Hop.
1/5
Jethro Tull
4/5
Prog meets folk and with a little bit of the Blues for good measure. I could do without the Blues bits, but still, this is an enjoyable listening experience and a real classic. 4/5
Thundercat
2/5
Thundercat is a monster bass player, but the quality of the songs on here leave a lot to be desired. As in: This was really boring. 2/5
The Velvet Underground
3/5
It's not bad per se, and miles better than I was anticipating after having experienced some of the material The Velvet Underground released with Nico. It's just ... a little boring. None of the songs were particularly noteworthy. 2.5/5
Afrika Bambaataa
2/5
Generally, I am not Hip Hop's biggest fan, even though I find old school Hip Hop generally much more agreeable. Still, this album leaves me shrugging. 2/5
The Offspring
2/5
This is about what I expect when I read "The Offspring" on an album cover. There are undeniable Grunge and Punk influences here, and the singer is usually more shouting than actually singing, which is par for the course for Punk, but not really my cup of tea. Self Esteem is a classic from the era, but the rest of the album is just so-so. Energy yes, good songs, err, not really. 2/5
Super Furry Animals
2/5
*unbelieving stare while pondering what brought the editors to include this, of all albums, in the book* 1.5/5
Van Morrison
3/5
Nice enough as far as Blues and Soul albums go, but altogether much too long, and not enough variation to warrant that running-time.
3/5
Steely Dan
3/5
The Wikipedia article calls it Rock, but that's a stretch. This album ventures deep into Easy Listening territory, with that typical 70s sound. Not bad by any means, I'm just not in the mood today.
2.5/5
Gotan Project
4/5
This is actually quite nice for playing in the background. It's bitter during warmer seasons, though. 3.5/5
Antony and the Johnsons
4/5
Deeply personal, beautiful songs. The singer's voice takes some getting used to, but this album absolutely belongs on the list. 4/5
Taylor Swift
3/5
OK, I tried. But for someone like me who grew up with Pop music of the 80s, this, while not bad, is a tad too sterile and predictable. 2.5/5
Napalm Death
2/5
As subtle as a jackhammer. 1.5/5
Kings of Leon
2/5
This sounds exactly like every other Indie Rock album from the 2000s. There aren't any good songs to speak of, and the singer is particularly annoying. 1.5/5
Miles Davis
3/5
Yes, I know, Miles Davis, Jazz, masterpiece, legendary album, yada, yada, yada, but I just wasn't in the mood for this today. 3/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Oh, come on ... Neil Young? Again?!? *sigh*
Well, at least he's not singing solo most of the time on this album, so his whiny voice isn't front and center, but, really, that's hardly enough to warrant an inclusion in this list.
2/5
Boards of Canada
2/5
Electronic music can be everything that this album is not. This album is bland, repetitive, presumptuously long and just plain boring. A shame, really.
2/5
Missy Elliott
1/5
Hip Hop, with one of the blandest album covers the genre has to offer. 1/5
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
Well, to put a positive spin on it, Malcolm McLaren is a compiler of different styles of world music, some of which later became their own genre (e.g. Hip Hop, when it was still good in the 80s). It's an interesting idea on paper, but the execution is just done in a totally uninteresting way. Especially, I don't think that the aforementioned genres got their rise to prominence because of this album, and so, nothing good has come from the album. It's a wasted effort. 2/5
The Temptations
3/5
This is a mixed affair: Side A is Funk, while Side B is R&B. It's fine, but side A is much, much better, and the dip in quality drags this album down a little.
2.5/5
System Of A Down
3/5
Man, were the 90s a bad decade for Metal.... This is even one of the better albums of the genre from that decade, but it's still all over the place, with songs ranging from quite good to "WTF is this?!?" Oh, well ... 3/5