Solid alt rock, I wish I liked it more than I did. The second half dips in quality a bit, but overall it is very good.
I wish I could give it a 3.5/5, but unfortunately I cannot, so 3/5.
Classic Stevie Wonder, though I would like a little more funk. The constant laid back nature gets just a little bit boring throughout the entire album. That being said, this does have "Superstition" on it, which almost completely makes up for that.
Favorite Tracks: "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", "Maybe Your Baby", "You And I", "Tuesday Heartbreak", "You've Got It Bad Girl", "Superstition", "Big Brother", "Blame It On The Sun"
4.5/10
The only thing I knew about the Flaming Lips going into this was "She Don't Use Jelly". This album sounds nothing like that song, which was a surprise to me. Also a surprise was how much I enjoyed this one. The production is immaculate (it reminds me of The Mollusk by Ween in that respect), and the lyricism is deep and intensely relatable. I feel my opinion will only grow with further listens.
Favorite Tracks: "Fight Test", "One More Robot / Sympathy 3000-21", "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1", "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell", "Are You a Hypnotist??", "Do You Realize??"
4.5/5
Not a fan. I love new wave, but I guess I've been spoiled by David Byrne's genius. I've never liked "Rock Lobster", and I've never heard anything else by the band. "Planet Claire" is good, but the only track that I actively liked was "Hero Worship" I guess because it sounds like something that would have shown up on Talking Heads '77 but with better production. I will revisit this album from time to time, to see if it'll grow on me. Until then it's just an annoying one-hit (to me) wonder album.
A fantastic example of why pop punk is, in fact, one of the best genres of all time. 15 (well, 14) songs that all have bulletproof hooks combined with the angst of punk rock. Together it becomes a super tight collection of no skips, except "All By Myself".
Favorite Tracks: "Burnout", "Having A Blast", "Chump", "Longview", "Welcome To Paradise", "Basket Case", "She", "When I Come Around", "Coming Clean", "In The End"
Solid reggae. A lot of it blends together into one long jam sesh but that’s a-okay by me.
Favorite Tracks: “Marcus Garvey”, “Live Good”, “Old Marcus Garvey”, “Tradition”
A brilliant blend of neo soul, R&B, and rock stylings that come together into a truly magical experience. The last two tracks drag the rating down a bit, but overall this is a very good album.
Woody Guthrie is an interesting artist. He's certainly talented, but in my experience his melodies are lackluster, and his children's songs don't do anything for me. His biggest strength has always been his lyrics, so when Billy Bragg (never heard of him) and Wilco (heard of them, but never heard anything by them) set these quality lyrics to quality music, the outcome is a very solid collection of indie folk/alt country songs.
Favorite Tracks: "Walt Whitman's Niece", "California Stars", "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key", Birds and Ships", "One By One"
Brian Wilson fell in love with this album when it came out, and as someone who thinks Brian Wilson is one of the best artists of the past century, I also love this album. The vibe is exactly the type of 60's beatlesque pop rock that goes straight to my soul. Not the most profound thing ever, but well worth a listen if you like The Beatles or (especially) The Beach Boys.
Favorite Tracks: "Sail Away", "Lonely At The Top", "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear", "Old Man", "Political Science", "Burn On", "Dayton, Ohio - 1903"
80's pop perfection. I've never heard this album before just because I was never all that excited about 80s music in general, but recently I've fallen in love with the pop scene of the decade and knew this would be an album that would stand out to me. I was right. Every song on here is perfect or near perfect, from the singles to the deep cuts.
I love Fats Domino just as much as anyone with functioning ears. The man deserves more love than he currently gets. That being said, albums weren't exactly where he focused his efforts. This collection of songs starts off pretty good, but the second half doesn't really stand on its own. I'd recommend the "Fats Domino Swings" album instead, which has all of his biggest and best hits (including "Ain't That A Shame"). Also, it's on spotify!
Solid collection of indie folk songs. Proof that you don’t need much to make catchy and compelling music. Definitely falls off a bit towards the end though.
Favorite Tracks: “Blister In The Sun”, “Kiss Off”, “Please Do Not Go”, “Add It Up”, “Promise”
Man, this is a strange album. It kicks ass for two songs, then we take 10 minutes to listen to some of the most boring music to come out of the 60s, and then the rest of the album is 2nd or 3rd rate copies of the first two tracks. Disappointing listen.
Favorite Tracks: "1969", "I Wanna Be Your Dog"
Something/Anything? is 65% mediocre/boring pop songs and 35% kick ass rock songs. With it being 90 minutes that makes for an excruciating listen. Feel free to just grab the best tracks and ignore the rest.
Favorite Tracks: "I Saw The Light", "Wolfman Jack", "Black Maria", "Couldn't I Just Tell You", "Dust In The Wind", "Piss Aaron", "Hello Its Me", "Slut"
Really bad music. Riffs that have potential but are mixed terribly and have strange effects on them that take away from what it could be combined with Jonathan Davis's awful vocals and lyrics make for an excruciating listen. The fact that this was included on this list and classics like Madvillainy, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, and Soundtracks For The Blind aren't is genuinely baffling.
Some absolutely smokin' jazz. Prior to this my only real exposure to afrobeat was through Talking Heads, and listening to the real deal helps me appreciate Remain In Light more, and having heard RIL helps me appreciate this more. The grooves are immaculate and never let down the entire way through.
Favorite Tracks: "Let's Start", "Black Man's Cry"
Really good early 90's rap. Lots of things to love here. I do think it gets a bit repetitive with the flows sounding similar throughout, but that just comes with the territory. Also, the juxtaposition between a song like "Push It Along" and "Ham 'N' Eggs" is a bit jarring and doesn't help the album feel more cohesive.
Favorite Tracks: "Push It Along", "Luck of Lucien", I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?",
An hour straight of dance bangers. Killer grooves throughout, with a healthy dose of shredding here and there, when necessary.
Favorite Tracks: "1999", "Little Red Corvette", "Let's Pretend We're Married", "D.M.S.R.", "Lady Cab Driver", "International Lover"
With my only real experience with house music (and EDM in general) being Daft Punk, this album had an uphill battle in order for me to like it. It's no match for Discovery (what is?), but this is a very solid collection of beats that stays interesting throughout and keeps the head bobbing and the body moving. The repetition does start to wear thin towards the end, but that doesn't drag the album down a whole lot.
Favorite Tracks: "Rendez-Vu", "Yo Yo", "Jump 'n Shout", "Red Alert", "Being With U"
Perfectly fine collection of rootsy songs sung by someone who has a fairly weak voice. Nothing on here is outright bad, but the vast majority of it just didn't stick with me in any way. The songs themselves are solid, and I think a better vocalist would have been able to bring them to life.
Favorite Tracks: "No Other", "Strength of Strings"
An absolutely stellar performance by some extremely talented musicians. James Brown obviously keeps the energy going, and there is never a dull moment. I don't really get the point of the interludes, but they're short and don't really affect the flow of the album.
Favorite Tracks: "I'll Go Crazy", "Try Me", "I Don't Mind", "Medley: Please Please Please / You've Got The Power / I Found Someone", "Night Train"
Muse sounds like the lovechild of Radiohead and Coldplay, and as insulting as that might sound, it actually works really well here. All of these songs are well written, well performed, well produced, and honestly make me think of Muse in a different light than I had previously. The biggest issue I have with the album is that there isn't a whole lot of personality throughout. Regardless, the songs are strong enough to largely ignore this fact and just groove/rock out.
Favorite Tracks: "Starlight", "Supermassive Black Holes", "Invincible", "City of Delusion", "Knights of Cydonia", "Glorious"
Extremely poignant and intensely calming. Lou Reed has one of the most soothing voices ever, and the lo-fi aesthetic only adds to the homely feel.
Favorite Tracks: "Candy Says", "Pale Blue Eyes", "Jesus", "The Murder Mystery", "After Hours"
Lots of boring singer-songwriter cliches that aren't bad per se, but aren't very engaging. Also Luke Haines' voice is a bit annoying to me.
Favorite Tracks: "Show Girl"
What starts out as an interesting and engaging exploration of world music ends up as a fairly disappointing listen by the second half.
Favorite Tracks: "Visions of You", "Relight the Flame", "Ungodly Kingdom"
A punk album with excellent songwriting and a personality to match. A few songs could have been cut, but otherwise this is a damn good record.
Favorite Tracks: "Line Up", "Annie", "Connection", "Car Song", "S.O.F.T.", "2:1", "Vaseline"
Absolutely stellar 80's pop. Not every song deserves to be 5 minutes long, but other than that this is perfection.
Favorite Tracks: "One More Chance", "What Have I Done to Deserve This?", "Shopping", "Hit Music", "It Couldn't Happen Here", "It's a Sin", "I Want to Wake Up"
Solid collection of indie rock and indie pop. A bit too spacey in places for my personal taste, but quality songs throughout.
Favorite Tracks: "Earthquake", "Don't Cry", "Memory Boy", "Desire Lines", "Helicopter"
I feel like I should either like this album a good bit more than I do, or hate it a good bit more than I do. It feels like one of those albums that you either love or hate. I do my fair share of both (admittedly more of the former than the latter), but ultimately I feel pretty middle of the road about it. Most songs don't do anything for me, but a couple are decent and the instrumentals throughout aren't bad.
Favorite Tracks: "Been Caught Stealing"
A lot of decent songwriting on here, and of course Morrissey is able to sell them all to some extent, but generally the instrumentation and production is too bland and uniform for me to be too invested. Also, you are not "hated for loving", you are hated for hating.
Favorite Tracks: "Now My Heart Is Full", "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"
Now THIS is how you combine rock and rap. The instrumentals are always on point, both kicking ass and grooving at the same time. Over top of these instrumentals Zack de la Rocha manages to spit fire with a punky attitude. The combination works so well largely due to the shared "fuck the establishment" motif of both punk and rap. The only slight issue is that the intensity never lets up, and it becomes one of those albums that leaves you mentally drained at the end of it. But Soundtracks for the Blind does that too and I still consider it perfect. Also, Tom Morello is one of the most inventive guitarists I've ever heard.
Favorite Tracks: "Bombtrack", "Killing In The Name Of", "Take The Power Back", "Bullet In The Head", "Know Your Enemy", "Fistfull Of Steel"
