As one reviewer aptly put it in this section, post-2000 metal, postmetal and avant-metal are among the music genres done dirty in the 1001 Albums book (along with post-rock and several jazz classics -- other styles also explored by Kayo Dot in *Choirs Of The Eye*, incidentally). So I get why someone would want to place this particular avant-garde metal album in the list, just to set the karmic balance right in one swift stroke. Some of the tones (often owing more to postrock than to metal genres, to be honest), build-ups (gosh, that insane climax leading to black metal mayhem at the end of the third track!), and harmonies, whether darkly pretty -- the Lynchian and melancholic double-bass and piano-laden conclusion of "The Antique" -- or downright atonal, are impressive for sure, and you just can't deny the creativity and very open mindset that went into the writing and recording of this album. That said, and as the same reviewer also stated in here, it's admittedly a little weird to name this record first when so many other acts in adjacent subgenres have been ignored in Dimery's book. See that other reviewer's list when it comes to postmetal (to which I would add Converge, early Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, Gojira or Birds In Row). Same with post-rock, actually : no Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor's in the 1001 Albums book - if I had had more than one record to add in the users list, you would all have to review "Lift Your Skinny Fists...", along with the Canadian band's debut album that a user with good taste already placed there. So yeah... *Why* Kayo Dot first? Beyond that "contextual" perspective, I will add that I can also understand why some nonplussed listeners would perceive this LP as indulging a little too much in "noodling" instead of tighter compositional work. In some ways, *Choirs Of The Eye* sounds a little unfocused at times (especially for the sung vocal parts). I don't know... Maybe it's a little ironic that the spirit of The Grateful Dead can find its way in a 21st century metal band. I'm pretty sure that fan John Zorn would lambast me for such a caricatural take, though. What do I know, after all? I'm just a music fan with very subjective tastes among millions of others... 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 0 for now Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 2 for now (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 1

Sometimes life is simple. An unknown party using this generator suggests a gentle and sensitive modern folk album where a gifted artist wears his heart on his sleeve -- just as said artist tries to find meaning in a recent break-up, along with revisiting older family trauma -- and the thing is both evocative and memorable enough to make your day. I already knew Angelo De Augustine's name from that collab album he made with Sufjan Steven (which I haven't heard yet), but I had never listened to his music. This LP is obviously very close to Stevens' turf circa *Carrie & Lowell* (also in this list, which is great), with the same sort of soft falsetto vocals -- once or twice lacking a bit of personality, but most of the time distinctive enough to avoid being derivative of Sufjan's own artistry. There's also some sensibility in those very nice songs that's close to the one of Andy Shauf (unfortunately not mentioned in this list, I think). But once again, Angelo has a voice of his own, both literally and figuratively. It takes a bit of time for the record to find its groove, but once it does so, it's simply marvellous, as well as soothing and/or moving. ""Kaitlin", "Time" (with that enticing whistling part in the chorus), "Wanderer", "All Your Love" and "You Needed Love, I Needed You" especially shine. Glad I'm finally able to write a short review to tell my thoughts here. As I said, life is simple sometimes. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 10

IN MEMORIAM To the loving memory of Prog Rock, who lived a life filled with hope and love and creativity until she was ruthlessly murdered by Rush -- under the orders of their masters the Eighties, before the latter gave her dead body to Marillion so that they could desecrate it even further. Truth be told, Marillion were ruthless in their own pervert ways: glossy tones and sounds that don't fit the genre well, supposedly "complicated" sections that are actually quite linear and conventional, unchallenging pop single drivel such as "Kayleigh", and some terrible lyrics and vocal performances once in a while -- all of this, and sometimes worse, is the ordeal Prog Rock's sweet remains had to go through under Marillion's hands. Astonishing since singer Fish looks like a good dude on a personal level. Yet his imitation of Genesis-era Peter Gabriel (sometimes straddling that near-invisible bad taste line dividing it from solo Phil Collins turf), all over Mike Oldfield-like guitar noodling and a couple of *Pink Floyd The Wall*-adjacent moments, is not merely derivative. It is a pastiche that, more often than not, is fully offensive for many dwellers of the music lands who still hold Prog Rock's memory dear to their heart. She was nothing but an innocent soul, was she not? To use Marillion's own words in "Blind Curve": Her childhood, her misplaced childhood... Give it back to her. Give it back to her. May she rest in peace now. Amen. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 1 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 3 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3 (including this one)

Didn't expect a band like this to come up on this list. And especially one from the noughts in that genre. Streetlight Manifesto have the good taste to label said genre "punk with horns" and avoid any mention of "ska-something", at least. But you still quickly get the picture, I guess... It's also an extremely well-crafted record, with high octane energy all along (which is near mandatory in that style), and with quite spectacular horn arrangements indeed. The musicianship is stellar. Some of the choruses are infectious. As for the lead vocals, they are youthful, somewhat raspy and admittedly a little... vulnerable and slightly out of pitch at times, but in a manner that makes them pretty endearing in the long run. So more an asset than a flaw here. This band must have been a killer act live. Also, the impact of the first two cuts can't be denied. Opener "We Will Fall Together" amounts to five epic minutes that are instantly memorable, and equally agitated "Down, Down, Down To Mephisto's Café" still feels vital today -- with lyrics about acquaintances giving in to rotten ideas that resonate in a particularly striking fashion in early 2025. Not overly political, but the subtext still remains pretty obvious nonetheless. There are many other good moments like that in the LP. Truth be told, I have to admit it's a music genre I personally don't feel much connected to these days, like I might be a little too old and world-weary to have said music change my current tastes and outlook. But who knows? Maybe all I need is albums such as this one to rekindle the old punk flame. *Somewhere In The Between* actually made me want to revisit The Suicide Machine, an obvious influence on Streetlight Manifesto from a decade earlier -- if you enjoyed this album, check out *Destruction By Definitions*, by all means! The horns are missing there, but apart from that, you got the same hectic and melodic spark as the one found in Tomas Kanolki's band, which makes both acts stand out among the rest of the smaller, Mighty Mighty Bosstones-adjacent fry. In a sense, I could say why Streetlight Manifesto and not their obvious model? But in hindsight, that would just be the nostalgia factor having a say here. So yeah... Why not having your cake and eat it too? Why not *both* bands and/or albums? Beautiful artwork as well. Don't have much to say about it, but I had to point it out. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 5 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3

Wow. Just wow. I knew absolutely nothing about Gang Of Youths before today -- guess that many acts reaching local success Down Under have problems getting known outside of Australia. And I'm really, *really" impressed. At first, I was afraid the length of this album would become a flaw -- that the obvious dynamics of the *stellar* first three tracks would get muddled by too many hairpin curves. The thing is, the changes of pace are not a flaw here. They are actually assets to maintain your attention until the very end -- even the orchestral instrumentals winking at Jacques Lacan, of all people. Interestingly, reviews about this album - whether negative, neutral or positive -- tell you a lot about the reviewers first, like a Rorschach blot. What I'm about to say will probably sound controversial, but anyone comparing the band playing on this record to Killers or Bleachers comes off as self-deluded in my eyes. Because for me, there is more soul, heart and brains in 30 seconds of this LP that there is in the whole career of said Killers. Same with Bleachers (at least as I know, I haven't delved into everything). Even comparing Gang Of Youths to The National, U2, The War On Drugs or Japandroids (er... what?) is awkward to an extent. Gangs Of Youths' music is as memorable as the one of those other acts, I guess, but it's also richer in awesome arrangements and melodies, and generally livelier. Which leaves us with the most obvious influences, and those comparisons sound true this time: they are early Arcade Fire (to an extent), and, most of all, Bruce Springsteen. Singer / songwriter David Le'aupepe readily admitted his debt to the Boss, evidence enough of his humility. This humility goes even further than that, since the man once suffered from impostor syndrome and unchecked forms of perfectionism. Reading that on the band's wiki, I instantly wanted to give the big talented guy a hug and tell him he's doing better on an artistic level than 90% of the so-called "rock stars" out there. At least on this terrific record. I don't have the time today to mention all the great songs in details -- "great" for both the music and the lyrics, most of the time. There's one in its second half I just *have* to say something about, the one whose chorus goes "The heart is a muscle / And I wanna make it strong." It's not the best song in the album on a lyrical level. And yet, just like David says, listening to this heartfelt AND bright record makes me want to strengthen my own heart, so that it can help me appreciate more beauty and humanity in life. Those feelings are precious, and when music triggers them, it's simply bliss. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 8

Let's give it to Alex Turner. Starting with this album, he has become a world expert in the difficult and even perilous art of auto-fellatio. Such skills, requiring flexibility and a lot of patience, should be commended, I guess... Not every man (or artist) can give himself a blowjob and then let the whole world see the results. What is about to follow is a very long rant, and I *do* get the irony here. Maybe I should drink my own medicine when I criticize Turner constantly looking at himself in the mirror. I'm just a nobody and he's a world-famous artist. So why should you bother about some guy hating this album "with a passion"? What is it gonna bring you? Not much, I admit. The thing is, whenever I "criticize" some piece of music, I want to people to understand where the criticism subjectively comes from. It's a little too convenient to say "this is good/bad stuff" and not explain your own metrics. And this takes time. It would also take some cake to accuse me to be bad at self-editing when Arctic Monkey's are so utterly terrible at it in this record. I'm not talking about the album or its individual songs' lengths here. I'm talking about its pointless meanderings (which could have been replaced with something else -- something *better*). Turner's skills don't include a knack for memorable hooks or any dynamic flair that could have helped the man structure his compositions away from the self-indulgent drivel often polluting this record for instance. Likewise, the so-called "psychedelic" overtones sprinkled throughout this LP are often quite stale. They evoke a simulacrum that's ironically of the sort the cryptic lyrics in this record seem to parody or criticize. Yet in spite of that (involuntary?) mirror effect, the thing fails to leave you with any deep thoughts about (post)modern online "simulations". What you have instead is just a bad taste in your mouth, lingering after 40 minutes of listening to Turner mostly singing to himself or a nearby love interest, in between two indirect allusions about virtual reality or politics, all of this with his pocket mirror at hand. Reading David Foster Wallace doesn't mean you have the chops to become his pop music equivalent overnight, mind you. Nor that you have the right angle for such endeavor in the first place. Likewise, vintage or retro textures straddling the pastiche line just for the sake of it do not always make exciting music either, whether old or "new". And neither do pointless ramblings about fame or consumerism or the internet automatically make great lyrical contents -- all those frankly sickening, hackneyed metaphors, or those unfunny puns such as "Star Treatment" in the opening track having the same name, they are just... grating. "Bear with me, man, I lost my train of thoughts," goes Turner at the end of the inoffensive second song, "One Point Perspective". You sure did, Alex. You sure did. But you've actually lost us from the get-go. The problem is that you're just using all those dystopian elements and ideas sprinkled throughout the lyrics to mostly speak about yourself and your feelings as a famous British rock star now feeling disconnected from the real world right after settling in LA. Hence why you're losing your "train of thoughts". Yet one can sense that you're still in quite a comfortable position, no matter how disconnected you are. So you can still play it cool, and with similarly cool vintage music in the background. Stanley Kubrick, obviously in Turner's mind as he populates his moon colony with all sorts of different "characters", sometimes applied those sorts of distanciated tricks to describe dystopia, of course. But then, Kubrick would break the big guns, the Strauss or Beethoven brass section blasting their way through the glossy screen to jolt the viewer. But where are the big guns in this record? Nowhere to be heard or seen. Not that *everything* is downright terrible or fully complacent in *Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino*. The music suddenly gets more interesting on third cut "American Sports", for example, thanks to that trippy, psychedelic organ in the background. But this specific cut is no real song, it's basically just a nicely instrumented short interlude with some vocal parts on it. The title track's is also OK, I guess, but "Golden Trunks" is definitely not: I dare anyone in here to convince me it's not a totally pointless dirge on a purely musical standpoint. Single "Four Out Of Five" thus instantly erases any memory of that so-called "song" which preceded it, thanks to its main hook, chorus and well-crafted final build-up. Unfortunately, the supposedly "meta" lyrics in the song -- actually just plain narcissistic -- are a little annoying, and even sometimes as grating as the bridge changing keys just because, well... why not? "I can lift you up another semitone", croons Turner during that bridge. Er... OK. What for, though? Does that make the song per se any better? In all honesty, Geordie Greep is a little more astute at sending those kinds of meta winks to the audience these days. Plus, he's better at layering his own parodic, borderline-cheesy instrumentation into something that truly sounds lively and one-of-a-kind. Cue Arctic Monkey's terrible waltzy, schmaltzy meanderings of "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip" in comparison, to witness everything that must NOT be attempted in that sort of parodic endeavor. It's just a cut that's totally dull. And once again, it's self-indulgent as f*ck. That's all too bad, because the deep synth tones of "Science Fiction" (probably one of the three cuts you can fully salvage here, along with the title-track and "Four Out Of Five") are great. And at least there's a thematic scope in the lyrics that's useful for once. But then, we grudgingly dive into the heavy-handed main riff of "She Looks Like Fun", alternating with more Serge Gainsbourg-adjacent shenanigans in anything but a graceful fashion. The seams are *so* visible here. And what's aggravating in this particular cut is that its protagonist knows he is just a boring prick, and yet tries to be a smart Alec (Alex?) about it: "Finally, I can share with you through cloudy skies / Every whimsical thought that enters my mind / There's no limit to the length of the dickheads we can be" Yeah sure, this here is also a barely veiled satire about social media, and I guess Alex includes himself in the people he criticizes, which is not a bad move on paper. The thing is, we never EVER get beyond the "dickheads" level. Bukowski is mentioned right after, by the way, and quite logically. One does not dare imagining how tedious and tiring Bukowski would have been in the digital age. So it checks out, I imagine... Then, a little later: "I'm so full of shite / I need to spend less time stood around in bars / Waffling on to strangers all about martial arts / And how much I respect them / Key changes..." Please no. Not *another* meta joke about key changes. Please. And if you don't want to be seen as a narcissistic twat, just stop wallowing in the thing that makes you look like such in the first place. Who cares what you tell those people about yourself in bars??? This constant look in the mirror is simply unbearable, just as Turner's next aimless, meandering vocals and lyrics in penultimate track "Batphone", that I don't even want to delve into. Just shut up, man. Shut up. The drowsy, aptly-named "The Ultracheese" then ends the proceedings on a final bum note. Once again, the whole thing is just terrible, devoid of any clear musical direction, just like that weird conclusion ending on a harmonic question mark. The vocals sound forced at times. The meter is often awful and verbose. It's everything good music involving a singer singing lyrics shouldn't be. And I'm not only talking about the last song in this LP here... I'm talking about *all the other duds* in it. Three or four decent cuts... A fistful of other discrete moments extracted from a couple of tracks here and there... *That's* the total sum of the music that's listenable in this thing. Everything else just... sucks. And might also incidentally explain why even among Arctic Monkeys fans, the once-stellar reputation the band originally had live has been sullied in the recent years. Maybe because their new artistic direction is mostly a chatty overrated borefest, and it shows onstage whenever they play new stuff (from this album and the next one). Simply put, the once fun and witty working-class garage kids have now turned to consensual bourgeois musicians, crooning about imaginary resorts for the space elite while expressing some distant irony about the whole situation (that's sadly never mordant or biting). To which you can add ultimately empty self-referential allusions here and there. OK, maybe Arctic Monkeys were never truly 'working class' in the first place. But if that's the case, at least that one simulacrum sounded far better than its latest iteration. To finish, one thing about the album artwork: it is admittedly gorgeous, and evocative of an interesting "concept" on paper. Yet you get it by now, said "concepts" are not necessarily conducive to genuine artistic success. So let this overall failure be a warning for future generations of musicians when the time comes up for them to renew their game. After all, said warning is often included in the album's lyrics anyway - a rare case where the poorly inspired artist is so defensive he automatically gives ammunition to his most fierce detractors: Cue the conclusion of *Science Fiction*: "So I tried to write a song to make you blush / But I've a feeling that the whole thing / May well just end up too clever for its own good / The way some science fiction does". I guess the comparison makes sense. Only in a parallel universe such as one explored in a sci-fi flick can *Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino* be considered as an "essential" album. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums (not exactly "Four Out Of Five" for this taqueria, huh?) 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 0 for now Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 0 for now Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 1 (including this one)

I didn't know the first thing about Ani DiFranco, and I want to thank whoever posted this album in the users list, because it allowed me to learn more about her. She's obviously a great singer and stellar guitar player (especially on acoustic guitar, from what I'm hearing here - awesome tones and a nice overall energy are coming out of her playing chops for sure!). And from what I've read online, it also looks like she's a good person, with her heart in the right place in terms of ideals. Which obviously can't hurt, and transpired in some of her lyrics -- admittedly also quite tormented at times. My first impression of *Dilate* is that Ani sounds a little like a more sophisticated indie version of Alanis Morissette, which is bound to be highly reductive for her fans, of course. DiFranco certainly sings better than the famous pop rock star, and she is more adventurous stylistically speaking. Yet there are commonalities, which includes a quite convincing way to express anger and frustration in interesting or poetic ways. It's the sort of highly expressive quality that make both women still endearing to listen to today. Listen to opener "Untouchable Face" to have a nice example of that for Ani. Not that this album is flawless. Just like with Alanis Morissette, there are also typical mid-nineties so-called "alt-rock" flourishes that didn't age that well (those supposedly groovy live drums breakbeats are a little hackneyed today, aren't they?). And there's also a couple of totally underwhelming cuts kinda spoiling the fun once or twice. I mean, what's the point of "Going Down", more like a pointless moody interlude than a song proper... ? But I guess that DiFranco is a free soul feeling the need to experiment with things so as to avoid formatting, which shows her good intents, at least. And when you listen to the very moving conclusion of the track that follows "Going Down" ("Adam and Eve"), you know that Ani surely has the goods people who like alternative folk and alternative rock would want so as to fall in love with her music. Same with breathtaking closer "Joyful Closer" (those angelic background vocals over that minimal and hypnotic acoustic guitar hook are a thing of wonder). Hence the cult following Ani still seems to benefit from today. Good for her. Not sure I will be part of that cult one day, but I leave the door open, at least. 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 0 for now Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 1 for now (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 1

As one reviewer aptly put it in this section, post-2000 metal, postmetal and avant-metal are among the music genres done dirty in the 1001 Albums book (along with post-rock and several jazz classics -- other styles also explored by Kayo Dot in *Choirs Of The Eye*, incidentally). So I get why someone would want to place this particular avant-garde metal album in the list, just to set the karmic balance right in one swift stroke. Some of the tones (often owing more to postrock than to metal genres, to be honest), build-ups (gosh, that insane climax leading to black metal mayhem at the end of the third track!), and harmonies, whether darkly pretty -- the Lynchian and melancholic double-bass and piano-laden conclusion of "The Antique" -- or downright atonal, are impressive for sure, and you just can't deny the creativity and very open mindset that went into the writing and recording of this album. That said, and as the same reviewer also stated in here, it's admittedly a little weird to name this record first when so many other acts in adjacent subgenres have been ignored in Dimery's book. See that other reviewer's list when it comes to postmetal (to which I would add Converge, early Cult Of Luna, Neurosis, Gojira or Birds In Row). Same with post-rock, actually : no Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor's in the 1001 Albums book - if I had had more than one record to add in the users list, you would all have to review "Lift Your Skinny Fists...", along with the Canadian band's debut album that a user with good taste already placed there. So yeah... *Why* Kayo Dot first? Beyond that "contextual" perspective, I will add that I can also understand why some nonplussed listeners would perceive this LP as indulging a little too much in "noodling" instead of tighter compositional work. In some ways, *Choirs Of The Eye* sounds a little unfocused at times (especially for the sung vocal parts). I don't know... Maybe it's a little ironic that the spirit of The Grateful Dead can find its way in a 21st century metal band. I'm pretty sure that fan John Zorn would lambast me for such a caricatural take, though. What do I know, after all? I'm just a music fan with very subjective tastes among millions of others... 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 0 for now Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 2 for now (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 1

Leaving a contribution to allow Alexander to run this app without ads is very nice. I wish I had the means set up a monthly payment myself. The thing is, when someone reviews only 15 albums in the first half of January 2025, and then suddenly stops, it gives you the nagging feeling that this person who was allowed to submit a first album before finishing the project -- thanks to their early contribution -- doesn't really have the chops to defend their choice in the grand scale of things yet. Too soon, young Padawan, too soon... I sincerely hope that this person is OK now, that nothing too serious distracted them from using the app, and they they just suddenly got bored with the whole thing. But if it's the latter, I don't really see why we should pay much attention to this particular album dabbling in a genre so stale and inoffensive it *does* become offensive after a short while, quite paradoxically. Hey, if you're reading this, whoever you are, let us know you're doing OK at least. Leave a review, once in a while. It would be nice. And if you're not OK, my heart goes out to you, very sincerely. Going back to *Stories*, I readily admit that its first two tracks are pretty effective in the EDM genre, thanks to some fun spiky synthetic flourishes that are not wearing you out yet at this early point. But then the whole shebang quickly goes down the drain, owing to an overabundance of cheesy arrangements and tepid chord progressions -- so predictable everything soon becomes a borefest. If you want electronic pop that's as "effective" and catchy as it is layered and daring, you can take your pick between acts as different as Jamie xx, Dua Lipa or Charli XCX. In comparison, there was nothing daring in Avicii's music, god rest his soul: it's just surface gloss filled with hooks that cross the grating line a little too easily. And to be honest, it's not that catchy either. Chances are that this thing will age as badly as Scritti Polliti or ABC -- the bad taste of the eighties (at least part of them) still has an imprint on today's mainstream commercial output, I imagine, as vastly different as the electronic genres involved are from one decade to another... Another point of contention is how perfunctory and devoid of true soul all the guest vocalists sound in this record. Looks like 2010s-era Chris Martin is surrounded by like-minded performers here, which certainly brings... cohesion to the whole project! Some vocal hooks slyly copypasted from older pop songs are also annoying as hell 2Pac's "California...!" even makes a sudden appearance at some point, too discrete to be a real homage, but also too obvious not to raise eyebrows. And speaking of hip hop influences, Wyclef Jean's featuring in one of the "deep cuts" from the tracklist -- some sort of half-baked reggae song -- is probably one of the most embarrassing things the man has done (and he has done quite a few since the end of the Fugees!). So all of this is obviously part of a very manufactured formula, like with the fistful of glossy "acoustic" country-rock-ballads-oriented cuts also recorded for this project. Oddly enough, those innocuous tracks actually made me want to explore the already gargantuan output of Zach Bryan, that I am not very familiar with, in an admittedly close range of "modern" countrified pop music harboring gentle and accessible melodies. Because anything sounds at least a little "authentic" compared to Avicii's music. Even the most streaming-friendly stuff out there. One track stood out in the album's second half, though, thanks to a more "extravagant" feel and a bouncier, far more original rhythm pattern. A little campy, maybe, but campy implies having something akin to taste instead of total blandness at least. That song is "Somewhere In Stockholm", and very ironically, its chorus, "I left my backbone/ Somewhere in Stockholm", sums up everything I think about the vast majority of the other songs, all interchangeable and lacking personality, and all written in "committees' to boot (but also quite logically, if you think of it). Because let's be honest for one second: where is the "backbone" indeed on this thing? Was the "real" Avicii a flesh-and-bone person, only a producer, or just a brand? Well the jury's still out on this one. But what it comes to stating whether this album deserves to be in this list, I'm afraid the jury has reached an unanimous decision here. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 0 for now Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 2 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 2 (including this one)

Wow. *Huge* thanks to whoever put that album on the list. I didn't know the first thing about aboriginal artist Gurrumul, and this posthumous album presenting rich orchestral pieces displaying his distinctive vocals is a thing of wonder. You feel like you're watching the stars in the night skies of North Australia as you listen to it. It's so humbling that you can discover so much great music after going through 1001 albums (actually far more than that, with everything that couldn't go inside the original list). Music is a whole universe, seemingly without any boundaries. To the person who added this record, but also to anyone potentially interested in orchestral music: the instrumentations and arrangements written by Errki Veltheim and Michael Hohnen for this record obviously owe *a lot* to the groundbreaking works of minimalist and postminimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Very obvious influence here. So if you don't know those works and love this Gurrumul LP, I strongly advise you to check those names as well. It's a shame said key works are not in Dimery's book. I guess that the rationale was that there was no room for orchestral or "classical" music albums in his list, but I think that for their cases (and also adjacent contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, another obvious inspiration for mystical, mournful and hypnotic cut *Marrayarr* here), it's a huge mistake not to mention any of them. Because some of Reich and Glass and Pärt's full-length releases exactly fit with the 'modern album format'. Those composers are still alive, and they released LPs under their own names -- a huge difference with the usual performances of older orchestral music by symphony orchestras or smaller groups of classically-trained musicians all around the world, which would need their derivative 1001 Albums book with its own set of requirements. So in a sense, including *Djarimirri* sort of implies that you must also include ones from at least a couple of those minimalist composers. Not a problem for me. Not a problem at all. 🙂 Of course, what I'm saying here is a 100% "Western" perspective. Other positive views are possible. First, you'd need to point out that the minimalistic style of Reich and Glass also partly draws from the repetitive nature of African music, for instance. But more crucially when it comes to today's record, Gurrumul's enchanting or haunted vocals also bring specific warmth and emotion there that are obviously only his. It's the spark that probably makes the orchestral canvas around him accessible to many listeners with other tastes than mine. And there are also many instantly memorable vocal lines in those compositions ("Galiku", "Djolin", "Gaou"). I have sometimes stated that "global music" is so "large" that it would also need another book on the side. But listening to *Djarimirri*, it feels like it might also be unfair to exclude voices from all around the world in an overall list of albums to listen to before you die. Especially with a voice that is so stunning and beautiful. What we have here is a match made in heaven, nothing less. Hope that Gurrumul can smile from there after all this hard work. 4/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 1 (including "Djarimirri*, which will join works by Reich, Glass and Pärt in my own list) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 2 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 2

Discovered who The Chromatics were through their inclusion in the soundtrack of the third season of Twin Peaks (The Return). Went back to this 2007 album right after that. It's pretty well-crafted synthpop / dream pop, but in the grand scheme of things there's nothing in this record that Beach House hasn't pulled off ten times better in the following years. First proper song "Night Drive" is a nice calling card for the rest of the tracklist, but it's not exactly thrilling either. "I Want Your Love" is overlong and a little cheesy. The Kate Bush cover is OK, but I don't really see what it brings to the original song. "Killing Spree" and "Tomorrow Is So Far Away" use the same "Diamonds Are Forever"-adjacent xylophone/ glockenspiel gimmick (remember that old James Bond title song?), which makes one of those cuts a little redundant (the first one for me). "Healer" is a little more exciting than the rest, with a nice build-up towards the end. "Tick Of The Flick" is, on paper at least, an interesting 15-minute (!) attempt to ape Kraftwerk's hypnotic dirges, but lack of clear stakes and intents makes it fall on its face after only five minutes. "Shining Violence" and "The Gemini" are shorter and wonderful moody instrumental pieces, though. But the songs in between are just a borefest for me. And that female lead singer definitely lacks punch to properly dynamize her performance. Fortunately, closer "Accelerator" is awesome and mesmerizing. Very cinematic, the way some Kavinsky cuts are. Crazy how only the instrumentals shine on the album's second half. So yeah, it's a mixed bag for me. Not excluding that album from my list of keepers right away because of its peaks, but I highly doubt it will make the final cut. To be honest, I also hold a huge grudge against the Chromatics because of a later hit song ("Shadows") which rips off the melody of Sonic Youth's "Wish Fulfillment" in such a blatant and even odious manner it's amazing the New York band didn't sue at the time (guess they had other fish to fry, or were just not greedy enough to give a rat's ass about it). But that song wasn't on *Night Drive*, so I guess in this doesn't weigh too much on my assessment here. The thing is, I just hope they didn't plagiarize any other artist in this particular album. That would not paint the project in the best of lights, right? 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 1 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 3 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 2

IN MEMORIAM To the loving memory of Prog Rock, who lived a life filled with hope and love and creativity until she was ruthlessly murdered by Rush -- under the orders of their masters the Eighties, before the latter gave her dead body to Marillion so that they could desecrate it even further. Truth be told, Marillion were ruthless in their own pervert ways: glossy tones and sounds that don't fit the genre well, supposedly "complicated" sections that are actually quite linear and conventional, unchallenging pop single drivel such as "Kayleigh", and some terrible lyrics and vocal performances once in a while -- all of this, and sometimes worse, is the ordeal Prog Rock's sweet remains had to go through under Marillion's hands. Astonishing since singer Fish looks like a good dude on a personal level. Yet his imitation of Genesis-era Peter Gabriel (sometimes straddling that near-invisible bad taste line dividing it from solo Phil Collins turf), all over Mike Oldfield-like guitar noodling and a couple of *Pink Floyd The Wall*-adjacent moments, is not merely derivative. It is a pastiche that, more often than not, is fully offensive for many dwellers of the music lands who still hold Prog Rock's memory dear to their heart. She was nothing but an innocent soul, was she not? To use Marillion's own words in "Blind Curve": Her childhood, her misplaced childhood... Give it back to her. Give it back to her. May she rest in peace now. Amen. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 1 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 3 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3 (including this one)

Wow. From the first three tracks alone, it's easy to understand why this LP garnered such a cult status. And the rest is obviously filled with many other bangers effortlessly straddling the line between instantly likeable classic rock (drawing from the Stones and Led Zeppelin) and Alice Cooper / Cramps-adjacent quirkiness. Or so it seems. Because speaking of "seams", you never feel like the studio sessions were as erratic as they were reported to be (see the Wikipedia page -- Erickson was a very damaged soul, and it's awesome that others around helped him express his rock'n'roll genius). Tape splicing could do wonders ages before the advent of DAW software. All you needed was scissors and tape glue. Those songs are *so* cinematic, and you wonder why half of them haven't been used for retro horror films yet. And their vocal melodies and guitar hooks are as infectious as a zombie bite indeed! The 13th Floor Elevators were already an important milestone in the history of rock'n'roll. Looks like this is another one here, less famous, but maybe as important. So huge thanks to whoever added this album on the list. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 3 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3

Snowed under with work today, which is a shame, because I need to place myself in an adequate, care-free mindset to truly appreciate a good dub record. From my short -- and probably inadequate -- listening session while toiling on a few things on my computer, *King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown* sounded like a well-crafted (and apparently groundbreaking) album in the genre. Truth be told, I also had a feeling that the record now seemed a little by-the-book from today's perspective, at least compared to the weirder, loonier, moodier, more whimsical and maybe also more endearing works and productions of Lee "Scratch" Perry and The Upsetters (as displayed in the *Super Ape* album). But what do I know? I don't pretend to have a very self-assured taste when it comes to Jamaican music (apart with household names such as Marley, Toots, The Congos and Desmond Dekker). And browsing through the album again now that my work is done, it feels that some of the tones, arrangements and interesting key changes in this LP have become more evocative and accessible. Maybe it's because winter night has fallen, and I wish it became a hotter Jamaican night... So I'm leaving this LP the benefit of the doubt. I hope that one day, I'll be able to return to it in more comfortable circumstances. In the meantime, here's a tentative grading for the album... 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 4 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3

Didn't expect a band like this to come up on this list. And especially one from the noughts in that genre. Streetlight Manifesto have the good taste to label said genre "punk with horns" and avoid any mention of "ska-something", at least. But you still quickly get the picture, I guess... It's also an extremely well-crafted record, with high octane energy all along (which is near mandatory in that style), and with quite spectacular horn arrangements indeed. The musicianship is stellar. Some of the choruses are infectious. As for the lead vocals, they are youthful, somewhat raspy and admittedly a little... vulnerable and slightly out of pitch at times, but in a manner that makes them pretty endearing in the long run. So more an asset than a flaw here. This band must have been a killer act live. Also, the impact of the first two cuts can't be denied. Opener "We Will Fall Together" amounts to five epic minutes that are instantly memorable, and equally agitated "Down, Down, Down To Mephisto's Café" still feels vital today -- with lyrics about acquaintances giving in to rotten ideas that resonate in a particularly striking fashion in early 2025. Not overly political, but the subtext still remains pretty obvious nonetheless. There are many other good moments like that in the LP. Truth be told, I have to admit it's a music genre I personally don't feel much connected to these days, like I might be a little too old and world-weary to have said music change my current tastes and outlook. But who knows? Maybe all I need is albums such as this one to rekindle the old punk flame. *Somewhere In The Between* actually made me want to revisit The Suicide Machine, an obvious influence on Streetlight Manifesto from a decade earlier -- if you enjoyed this album, check out *Destruction By Definitions*, by all means! The horns are missing there, but apart from that, you got the same hectic and melodic spark as the one found in Tomas Kanolki's band, which makes both acts stand out among the rest of the smaller, Mighty Mighty Bosstones-adjacent fry. In a sense, I could say why Streetlight Manifesto and not their obvious model? But in hindsight, that would just be the nostalgia factor having a say here. So yeah... Why not having your cake and eat it too? Why not *both* bands and/or albums? Beautiful artwork as well. Don't have much to say about it, but I had to point it out. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 5 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 3

Er... I want to be benevolent towards this project, but honestly, my heart's not in it. Talkin' Loud is a label that I respect for sure. They put that short-lived acid-jazz hype on the map, which was interesting, at least on paper. I still have good memories about Young Disciples' *Road To Freedom*, released in the early nineties, for instance... Yet if you flash forward to 1997, there was not much left to that hype by that point. And it even feels like the label was grasping at straws a little when they released that Nuyorican Soul album. Whoever added it to this list will disagree, of course. Yet objectively speaking, said album didn't exactly usher Talkin' Loud into the 21st Century. You just need to see their releases in the last fifteen or twenty years or so (mostly reissues, along with some very rare stuff nobody talks about now, whether "loud" or not) to realize all this. My main issue with *Nuyorican Soul* stems from its lack of cohesion. There are albums that go all over the place that I can love, but this is not one of them. Probably because the first two songs (singles to boot) -- basically displaying the same sorts of arrangements and harmonies over two different rhythm patterns -- sound like exceedingly boring dance club drivel to my ears. Fortunately, you soon go to more authentic-sounding latin and jazz tunes sprinkled with far more subtle layers of electronics and Meters-like funk instrumental regalia. Plus, there's Tito Puente himself on timbales and vibraphones! Needless to say, those tracks are the real meat within the LP. But you keep on wondering why that stuff right before those nice cuts sounded so... cheesy. Like a bad camembert aftertaste in your mouth when you try (and fail) to enjoy a tropical fruits juice afterwards... The last leg of this long album aims at a synthesis of sorts to gather all the loose threads, yet it also mostly fails in my book. The house music / neo disco-adjacent cuts are near-obnoxious. A rare hip-hop-influenced track fares far better than that at some point, even it doesn't exactly offer thrills either (oh, *Fresh Prince Of Bel Air*'s Jazzy Jeff is in the houuuuuuse, folks, ha ha!). And when the latin-jazz flourishes manage to take the upper hand again, they only end up sounding like illustrative muzak instead of truly soulful stuff. Probably because they're surrounded by too much material that neither rhymes nor reasons. It's that same smelly french cheese taste, lingering as you drink mango juice again... Don't get me wrong, I can still enjoy the stellar musicianship gracing many parts of this record, especially on the piano -- not to mention the high quality guests (George Benson, Roy Ayers, Jocelyn Brown...), who provided its professional-sounding vocal parts (including some fun scat at some point). Yet when it comes to the tones and moods displayed by the "Masters At Work" in *Nuyorican Soul* , most of them come off as way too artificial for me -- they're functional and perfunctory, even in that better middle section in the tracklist. Sometimes admirable musicianship isn't enough. You also need a vision. And what I see here is just a sanitized jazz or latin club populated by wealthy, good-looking interlopers who are ultimately uninteresting bores. Not the real deal. Ironic when the cast participating in the album have such credentials. But you can't shake off that impression once you step into the place. You being "I", of course. It's not the end of the world, I guess. The city is large after all, and there are probably other dives there that can offer more in terms of excitement. Even other cocktail bars, who knows? So it's time to go and pick up my coat in the check room now. The night is still young, and other far more significant locales might await us, just right around the corner... 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 5 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 4 (including this one)

The National has always sounded overrated to my ears, which does not mean they don't have assets once in a while. In a sense, they're very much like early Coldplay: their restraint and relative lack of dynamics passes off as subtlety for certain crowds, but I'm often wondering if said crowds might actually be too complacent and narrow-minded to invest in similar acts that offer the same sort of recipe, albeit with a little more *punch*, liveliness or genuine gravitas (more on that later) -- or if, conversely, those crowds' ears are attuned to very specific wonders that can't be found anywhere else, and that I would unfortunately be unable to perceive myself (which would make me the narrow-minded one here). Checking out the highest rated and lowest rated albums from the person who submitted this LP suggests that we see eye to eye about a lot of great music, which is always awesome, sincerely (and we also very majorly agree about which ones should be considered as duds, ha ha). So I guess opening my shakras a little can be worth the effort. That person can't be *fully* wrong here. On that same line of thought, it is also obvious that the omission of this record in the original list doesn't make a lot of sense since Dimery and co. chose to include *High Violet*. I didn't need the inclusion of *Boxer* in the users list to listen to it today. It's an album that I already revisit once in a while, if only to finetune my personal assessment of The National on general terms. Sitting in between the somewhat more abrasive, borderline garage tones of *Alligator* and the glossier soundscapes of *High Violet*, *Boxer* is The National's magnum opus, enough said. File that mind-boggling omission in the 1001 Albums book with the fistful of other LPs by a prominent act that were left aside for absolutely no good reason, even if another LP of theirs made the list, inexplicably. Dimery's book didn't have Weezer's Blue Album -- 1st in this users' list!-- The Breeders' *Last Splash*, Björk's *Homogenic*, Grandaddy's *The Sophtware Slump*, Lana Del Rey's *Norman Fucking Rockwell*, to which I would also add Nina Simone's *Little Girl Blue and probably another Fugazi album (which could be *13 Songs*, *In On The Kill Taker*, *Red Medicines* or *The Argument*, depending on the day...). Why oh WHY were all these albums ignored, for chrissake??? So even if I'm not a *huge* fan of the National, I want to support this addition in the users list, at least. Hence my quite positive mark. Sorry for the long rant up there (as usual). I don't have much to say about the album itself, oddly enough (and also, I have a lot of work today). Let me just say that the two consecutive slaps in the face that "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken For Strangers" are can't be easily dismissed. Those two songs are a hell of a way to open *any* record, and only for this, this one deserves to be noticed. Awesome chord progressions, vocals and instrumentation. And yeah, here are the dynamics I sometimes find lacking in the rest of the band's output. The rest of the tracklist offers material that I generally find as effective as the one found in Interpol, Other Lives or Tindersticks's best records. Maybe it's not enough to make fall in love with the album as a *whole*. But even with that in mind (and with some of those other records I've just evoked not making it to any list here), I still want to leave the door open for *Boxer*. So thanks to whoever thought of adding it here. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 4

The nostalgia factor is obviously very strong with this one, but looking back two decades ago, and realizing how this record still holds its own after all this time, I'm adamant it's not the only reason this debut album SHOULD be in this users' list. A few bullet points to explain why (I'm myself tired of my overlong reviews, so let's *try* to make this short, for once): a) The formula here is -- basically -- to take Gang Of Four's propulsive post-punk grammar (already from 25 years ago in 2005) and infuse a melodic earworms feast into it to round up some of its angles. And it's an unmitigated success in my book. To such a point that *Silent Alarm* just instantly crushed the (landfill) indie competition at the time. Honestly, it's one of the top 5 albums of 2005 for me, period. b) That drummer is a goddamn powerhouse. Matt Tong injects so much energy to the already bouncing guitar instrumentation that the whole shebang just quickly becomes irresistible. I remember dancing like a maniac to this LP in night parties with friends during the noughts. Not just to a couple of songs (opener "Like Eating Glass", "Helicopter", "Banquet" and "She's Hearing Voices" are the most obvious candidates for that). Once or twice, I have danced to the whole goddamn album! Rarely have drum'n'bass / jungle patterns over rock music sounded so good. c) Even with that bouncing instrumentation behind him -- which could have diverted too much attention towards it -- Kele Okereke still manages to offer something distinctive and soulful as a vocal performer and lyric writer. Many choruses are stellar. Some political undertones -- a bit wide-eyed and naive maybe, but never heavy-handed -- give welcome new dimensions to some of the songs ("The Pioneers", "Price of Gasoline"). And on many others, especially on the second side ("This Modern Love", "So Here We Are"), the romantic overtones are thrilling and cinematic. d) It's a bit of a shame that Kele never managed to fulfill the very high expectations this album triggered in its wake, and that it remains the high mark of the project to this day. Honestly, I have a feeling that some ego issues got in the way at some point -- especially when Kele sort of suggested that Tong shouldn't attract all the spotlights. Which was unfair, because the balance between the guitars, the vocals and the drums was actually perfect in this debut. Tong's input was consequently sort of reined in or toned down starting with the second album (admittedly harboring decent songs-- yet also lesser ones to an extent, which means that making them sound less hectic wasn't that justified). As a consequence, I wasn't too surprised when the band's personnel changed a few times in the following years. At the start, those (quite young) boys looked like such chummy and mischievous pals together. Including onstage, where I had the luck to see them give an incredible performance. Guess that reality is always a little more complicated than that. Especially when you have to factor in individual wishes or specific artistic ambitions. But this doesn't matter too much now. We still have this incredible record at least. Pretty sure that Kele and the rest of the original line-up of Bloc Party are still very proud of it 20 years later. They should be. 4.8/5 (or something) for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.8) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 4

"What's this borefest dross?" my partner went out when I played this album on the Hi-Fi. She's French, as I am, so it's a somewhat imprecise -- and less rude -- translation of the words actually uttered. But you get the picture, I guess... Right after this... appraisal, a conversation about what makes a good folk album followed. The gist of it was that *some* contemporary country-folk albums are way too clean-sounding to make you feel strong emotions, contrary to the Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons or June / Johnny Cash of the past (aptly refered to in the admittedly impressive second track of this LP). That clinical cleanliness is a flaw that can even be found in Fleet Foxes, mind you (a flaw that's easily redeemed by the quality of their compositions and heartfelt performances). And it's also evidently found in that Devendra Banhart / Coco Rosie wave of noughts "vintage" revival in that style (not so easily redeemed in my book). All those acts (along with the golden age names) are obvious influences for this Swedish duo, who actually made a name for themselves by posting a Fleet Foxes cover on You Tube. Sisters Johanna and Klara obviously have the vocal chops to produce the technically pristine harmonies serving those sorts of tunes right. But do they have the flame? A quick aside: not all contemporary folk albums have this glossy sheen preventing more authentic-sounding tones to surge. Women artists such as Adrianne Lenker or Jessica Pratt are the Karen Dalton and Emmylou Harris of today. Plus, they write their own songs, just like Joni Mitchell or Judee Sill did. Sure, First Aid Kit do too. But it looks like they don't take much risks in their songwriting craft, generally speaking. Except with some of their lyrics, which are a little too on the nose or "flat", with the same "I need you, I love you" bags of tricks used from one song to the next. Not exactly the sort of risk that's an asset in the long run... And since the music 'plays it safe' anyway... Hereby lies the difference between a real wooden shack in Montana or Georgia -- a little messy inside, but displaying soul and life -- and a Starbucks Coffee rendition of it, folks! In spite of my cruel words up here, I will be less harsh than my partner in my final assessment of this album (she's always a little more severe for female performers, ha ha). That thing is a little quaint and perfunctory, but it's not horrible. Maybe the fact that First Aid Kit routinely favor the same notes for their vocal harmonies quickly wore my better half out as well, I don't know. If that's the case, she *does* have a point there too, I think. Those songs are probably better to listen to in single sittings (or in a playlist) than through an album format released by a single act / artist -- which, for me, is a very important factor to take into account for a list such as this one. Cuts such as "The Lion's Roar", "Emmylou", "This Old Routine" are surely worth a detour. Most of the rest isn't, but that doesn't make the record "bad" per se. It's not thrilling but it's pleasant at least. More like a timid "meow" than a "lion's roar". But who doesn't enjoy stroking a cat's pelt once in a while? Oh yeah, cats haters! Oddly enough, both my partner and I are cats lovers. Guess some cats (or kittens) have more personality than others... 🤷 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 5 (including this one)

- Inclusion of this Phish live album in the list - PROS AND CONS Pros: if really you want to mention the American cult phenomenon that Phish is in this list, you might as well include a live performance. As far as I know, their studio albums have by-the-book production values, and apparently, there are essential tracks in their repertoire that the band only play live. Plus, the coming-of-age-like cult phenomenon around the band was more centered around their concerts than any other communal experience their music can elicit. Hence this inclusion, I guess... The first half of the first disc is not unpleasant. "Bouncing Around The Room" (especially its final chorus supported by tapping solos on the guitar) and "Gumbo" are memorable for sure. And you can sense that for folks wishing to partake in the live experience, there's something fun going on. Cons : Starting with the second half of the first disc, a question surges, however: what's the frigging point? Sure, the players are very good at their trade and the music is often quote-unquote "good". Yet the let's-throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach soon yields to listener fatigue no matter what it is that it is going on on a purely musical level. Besides, clichés abound so much in those performances that it feels like you're working in a Kodak laboratory. Jazzy flourishes, dad-rock guitar solos, quite tame hard-rock boogies, funky rhythms, reggae winks, inoffensive vocal parts, more off-kilter (yet also lengthy and gratuitous) atonal dirges... The whole sounds a little like Steely Dan on steroids, albeit without the sly undertones and the ultra crisp production values. Or like an eighties-sounding Grateful Dead without the hippie utopian ethos and a bag of mainstream stylistic tricks instead. Rarely have I listened to music where the stakes are seemingly so... low. This thing manages to sound both bloated and naive-as-fuck. And as a consequence, your emotional response may become as equally stilted and perfunctory. Worse, the fans loudly expressing their knowledge of the songs and which part they should sing after some cues from the band give you the feeling that you're not part of their club, and that unless you sign on a proverbial paper proclaiming you a member of the Phish fanbase until the end of your days, you'll *never* get what is so exciting about the band. Well, lemme tell you this: I'm not excited listening to this record, only mildly amused. Which is OK, I guess. But not more than that. Jam bands... Some of them are 100% oblivious of the difference between craft and genuine art. Sure, I imagine that it's because Phish actually don't care about the "pretensions" of art that they are so refreshing for their target audience. Good for them. Why should the rest of the world care, however? I might come off as pretentious myself, but I feel like I'm either too old or too young at heart to have time for any of... this. And with a double-album to boot, it's not the most convenient manner to feel welcomed to the "club" anyway... Looks like the cons far outweigh the pros for me. Wish I could have written a shorter review, once again. The record is already long enough. So I'm gonna stop here - both listening and writing -- just as the noodling on the unbearable "Tweezers" goes on forever. Skipped the end of it, actually. "What is a band without a saxophone?" asks Phish on the song that follows, the aptly-named "Simple". *My* question is rather this one: "What is a jam band without a clear-cut *vision*?". Give me a hundred records by King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard instead (they'll soon reach that number of albums anyway, ha ha). With their relentless drive and unhinged energy, King Gizzard can elicit all sorts of cinematic pictures in my head, at least. In comparison, Phish is just stale and cutesy. The only image they can trigger in my brain is: "jam band noodling on stage". Good music can be much more evocative than this, don't you think? 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 6 (including this one)

Not so sure choosing "guilty pleasures" for this list is really reasonable, you know. Especially when the original list misses so many essential albums in most genres. In that realm of blatantly commercial pop, I could have chosen quite a few records myself -- like that late seventies LP by Duncan Browne, along with albums released by Mike Oldfield during the eighties, Enigma during the early nineties, or even Dua Lipa these days. And then I would expect the 1/5 and 2/5 grades to pile up, of course. Guess that user doesn't take themself too seriously at least. Good for them. Kind of liked the opening song about "dancing girls", not so far from The Human League in their *Dare*-era artistic apex. And I also enjoyed second track "Wouldn't It Be Good", that I had indeed heard somewhere before -- which proves it is somewhat memorable, I imagine... Unfortunately, as soon as "Drum Talk" surged on my headphones, this thing became absolutely ridiculous. Sprinkling some "experimental" flourishes and rather imaginative baroque arrangements here and there can't possibly redeem how hackneyed the compositions, songwriting and production are throughout this LP. The second half of the first side is close to appalling. The vocal performance is even a little weak at times, and during those weak moments, it manages to be more grating than the gated drum sound -- which is, honestly, quite a feat. Oh, and the horns are *especially* annoying. The joke is gonna fly over the head of most English-speaking listeners, but I'm now waiting for a French citizen to add La Compagnie Créole to this list... The first half of the second side fares a little better, surprisingly. "Shame On You", "Cloak And Dagger" and "Faces" explore more ambiguous and evocative synth tones at least. But that ephemeral relief is then instantly erased by how utterly TERRIBLE the last two cuts are. "I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" is cringe-inducing cheesefest garbage dross, and "Human Racing" sounds like a parody of Stevie Wonder in his worst eighties moments (instead of his best seventies works). Whenever I witness someone praising that sort of ridiculous eighties record, I sort of expect them to rant about those albums' "artistry" the way Patrick Bateman does in *American Psycho*. Which is both hilarious and terrifying. Here's me hoping that this particular user isn't secretly a serial killer. Given that I sense some welcome humor in their own review, I cross my fingers that my own rant is gonna make that person laugh. Hopefully. Just to save my skin, let me just add that technically, I'm rating this thing higher than *Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino* by Arctic Monkeys. At least, I'm feeling something listening to Nik Kershaw -- it might not be very positive emotions, but it's better than my near-total absence of emotional response whenever I listen to Alex Turner self-fellating. Yet seriously, and for once, I can't round up my 1.5/5 grade to a 2/5 one, the way I usually do when I hesitate between two scores. Because let's face it, this choice of an "album to listen to before you die" is damn weird in my book. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 7 (including this one)

More than an "apostrophe" ('), I think that in the grand scheme of things -- as far as modern music history is concerned -- this album is rather a "footnote" (*). Quite a singular one, obviously owing to the personality of its author. But a footnote nonetheless. * Not that Frank Zappa wasn't an important figure. For instance, one could state that his *Hot Rats* is close to a masterpiece, and I can heartily thank Dimery's book for allowing me to get acquainted with this great record. Like others, I have complained many times about the shortcomings of the original list (some of which could have been avoided, even if you take the subjectivity of its contributors into account). But let's face it, even with its flaws, the 1001 Albums book allows you to discover loads and loads of gems. *Hot Rats* can indeed be considered as a very rare beast. It's jam rock with a distinctive *vision*, and with precise and cohesive sonic aesthetics making it hold water more than fifty years after its release. Exactly the sort of thing that the Phish live album added in the users list can't be. And also it's *fun* (far more fun than Phish think they are, at least outside of their dedicated fanclub). And it's tight and concise within the requirements of "jam rock". Don't get me started on the overlong dirges of "A Live One". Please. So what about *Apostrophe*, you might ask? Well, it's got that *Hot Rats* spark in the title track, I'll give it that. Jam Rock at its finest, maybe only missing the violin and Captain Beefheart vocal parts that made that earlier LP a keeper, but still easy on the ear and fun to listen to. Yet as most Frank Zappa fans are probably aware of, the driven musicality and accessibility of *Hot Rats* is sort of an oddity in the rascal's discography, because it lacks... well, it lacks an overabundance of "Zappa oddities", quite ironically. Like, weird surreal spoken-word rants. More angular-sounding, quote-unquote "conceptual" music. Parodical intents both mocking and harnessing counter-cultural energy from the late sixties / early seventies -- which made *Freak Out!* an essential listen as well, admittedly, but which also triggered the absolutely terrible and cringeworthy *We're Only In It For The Money* (because the parody here crushed all sense of musical direction to shreds). And here's *Apostrophe*'s problem. It's also ripe with that sort of thing, which Zappa fans fawn over, and leave most other people cold. No real middle ground here. My gut feeling is that a lot of users in this review section are being awfully polite when they give 3/5 and 4/5 marks to this record. I'm gonna do the same, actually -- it's just that my similar grading is more related to the originality of the work than to how pleasurable it actually is. Because, if I'm being honest, that sort of half-concept album about dreams featuring "eskimos" -- the bulk of the LP's first side -- sounds utterly pointless to me. I don't care if it means anything or not, if it's a parody or not, and or what it could be a parody of. I don't care if there are any metaphors or innuendoes or whatnot. I simply don't care a lot for those lyrics, and I even don't care about explaining why. I usually love surrealism. But not here. Because the best sort of surrealism always transcends its hermetic nature to become intriguing or inspiring. It should never be gratuitous. It should speak to your soul. And maybe I'm wrong, but I have the sneaking suspicion Zappa was only speaking to his own soul here, and couldn't care less what other people might feel. Maybe that's what impressed his fans at the time. That gratuitous expressive drive, both relentless and aimless... I also sense that the *relative* commercial success of the album's singles helped people remember this record has ever existed. Fads of all sorts come and go, and even someone as iconoclastic as Zappa can get lucky and catch attention once in a while. Which is what probably occurred in 1974. Oddly enough, this is the point when I take a page out of *some* Zappa fans, who point out that there are less famous yet better albums in his gargantuan discography (which ones, though? Hard to find a consensus there either). Maybe it's because the man put out so many albums that trying to find a third one summarizing his anarchic mad genius eventually becomes an impossible endeavor. Commercial success, even of a limited nature, can be a factor to find entry points in an artist's discography, sure. But it can't be the only one. Otherwise, you would just need to mention the highest selling albums in a selected group of artists, and genuine critical assessment would simply go out of the window. Oh, I almost forgot! Right after the track "Apostrophe", you have "Uncle Remus", a piano-driven, very *subtle* topical song whose only real flaw is to be underdeveloped, for once (How long is this cut? Two minutes max?). It's a nice track, but it's not enough to make the whole album essential, at least outside of certain hardcore Zappa fan circles. So I'd better rest my case here and now -- this "footnote" is far too long already. This is a *no* for me. No "apostrophe" is needed. Only a full stop. 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 8 (including this one)

My mileage about this band has changed so much over the years. Sometimes I found them kind of "important", and other times I found their "emo" undertones drowned by too much Coldplay-adjacent dross. When I listened to this album today -- probably their best -- I found it quite pleasant, in all honesty. The last track especially shone bright. Such heartfelt emotion. To the point that I can forget the partial lack of dynamics in the rest of the tracklist. Now the question is whether I prefer this to side-project The Postal Service anyway -- that I initially found more quaint and innocuous, in comparison, but listening to this other album again, I might actually revise my judgement as well. The thing is, chances are very slim I will eventually include *both* album. They are 3.5-4/5 album fodder, but not one for perfect or near-perfect grades. So I'm leaving the door open to Transatlanticism. Until... ? 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 3 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 8

Wow. Just wow. I knew absolutely nothing about Gang Of Youths before today -- guess that many acts reaching local success Down Under have problems getting known outside of Australia. And I'm really, *really" impressed. At first, I was afraid the length of this album would become a flaw -- that the obvious dynamics of the *stellar* first three tracks would get muddled by too many hairpin curves. The thing is, the changes of pace are not a flaw here. They are actually assets to maintain your attention until the very end -- even the orchestral instrumentals winking at Jacques Lacan, of all people. Interestingly, reviews about this album - whether negative, neutral or positive -- tell you a lot about the reviewers first, like a Rorschach blot. What I'm about to say will probably sound controversial, but anyone comparing the band playing on this record to Killers or Bleachers comes off as self-deluded in my eyes. Because for me, there is more soul, heart and brains in 30 seconds of this LP that there is in the whole career of said Killers. Same with Bleachers (at least as I know, I haven't delved into everything). Even comparing Gang Of Youths to The National, U2, The War On Drugs or Japandroids (er... what?) is awkward to an extent. Gangs Of Youths' music is as memorable as the one of those other acts, I guess, but it's also richer in awesome arrangements and melodies, and generally livelier. Which leaves us with the most obvious influences, and those comparisons sound true this time: they are early Arcade Fire (to an extent), and, most of all, Bruce Springsteen. Singer / songwriter David Le'aupepe readily admitted his debt to the Boss, evidence enough of his humility. This humility goes even further than that, since the man once suffered from impostor syndrome and unchecked forms of perfectionism. Reading that on the band's wiki, I instantly wanted to give the big talented guy a hug and tell him he's doing better on an artistic level than 90% of the so-called "rock stars" out there. At least on this terrific record. I don't have the time today to mention all the great songs in details -- "great" for both the music and the lyrics, most of the time. There's one in its second half I just *have* to say something about, the one whose chorus goes "The heart is a muscle / And I wanna make it strong." It's not the best song in the album on a lyrical level. And yet, just like David says, listening to this heartfelt AND bright record makes me want to strengthen my own heart, so that it can help me appreciate more beauty and humanity in life. Those feelings are precious, and when music triggers them, it's simply bliss. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 8

I would agree with that other reviewer that this album is bland and soft like a hotdog. And not a very tasty one at that, especially at the end. Or, like that other user puts it: "...under the gloss, not a huge amount of substance, lyrically or musically." Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber once explained all this a little differently, in a review so mean and ripe with sarcasm it is honestly hilarious to read: "You want to cruise around the housing development with the windows down, doing donuts in the cul-de-sac with your newly obtained permit, blasting music so empty and sincere even you could have written it." Boom. That review is admittedly also a little ironical at Schreiber's expense in retrospect, since the guy later sold out to the some of the worst soulless capitalistic forces out there (that happened a mere decade after, when he took that big fat bag of money from Condé Nast in exchange for the music website he had founded). Yet, in spite of all that, Schreiber's sarcasm still stands today. Even more so than in 2001, actually: "[Jimmy Eat World] are the best friends you can imagine. They know what you're going through, and they care. They care like a million hearts wrapped up inside a teddy bear holding a bouquet of understanding in one hand and an undying torch of reassurance in the other. They keep the flame of rock alive while giving you advice about the most important thing in your world: yourself." Not that there ain't two or three tracks to salvage in *Bleed American*: hit single "The Middle" has quite original ways to create addictive guitar and vocal hooks, which shows that its popularity at the time was probably deserved. "Your House" is also a pretty nice acoustic guitar-driven song. And if the gloss and shtick on the vocal parts of "Sweetness" are annoying from the get-go, you can't deny the strength of that track's massive rock instrumentation and production (see also "Get It Faster", to a lesser degree). But those vocals, for chrissake. Those goddamn vocals... The layers of saccharine inflexions and hackneyed tricks on most of the songs are up to such a ludicrous level that it's impossible for me not to take them derisively. Here's everything that emo-rock *shouldn't be* to stand the test of time. Good emo is a somewhat rare beast, but it *does* exist, and some of its most stellar proponents are certainly not neutered like this band is -- they *really* bare their soul and hearts, they scream their lungs out... In other words, they make you feel *urgency*, and not a watered-down simulacrum of it. There's a reason Jimmy Eat World is most often filed next to Sum 41 or Blink 182 (and toured with them, apparently). Because as they pandered to the lowest common denominator, those acts lost sight on the very concepts of authenticity and credibility. If the title "Bleed American" is supposed to be understood ironically, everything in this record suggests it should be taken in earnest instead. Another sure sign of artistic misfire here. Stylistic preferences and "authenticity" aside, judging this thing on its own merits is also terribly inconclusive. The instrumentation and compositions are so awfully *flat* on the second side of this LP, whether for so-called "ballads" where absolutely nothing happens on a musical level, or for the second-rate "rockers" that don't benefit from the exact same production values as for the singles on the first side -- and therefore elicited nothing but a yawn from me. So yeah, this thing aged like milk. As someone whose birth places him at the tail end of "Generation X", I have sometimes found younger folks than I am making fun of my favorite music styles and acts -- which is in the order of things: you need to put a spear through the golden calf of days yonder to assert your own take on culture. Yet now, it looks like millennials are put through the same test, and given how deeply inconsequential this supposed "masterpiece" truly is, it looks like the joke's on them today. Popular music from the naughts can still sound good in 2025. But seriously, guys, you need to separate the wheat from the chaff. Who looks a bit daft now, huh? I could have given a 1.5 - 2/5 marks to this thing. Yet because I pushed the "like" button on a few 4/5 well-phrased reviews -- since I begrudgingly enjoyed the manner in which the nostalgia factor experienced by some of my millennial brothers and sisters was expressed in those takes -- I feel like I need to set my own karmic balance right and counter my first benevolent posture. I really tried to open my mind here. Yet, one catchy hit and one decent acoustic song don't make a good album. Do you *really* think someone who's not in the target demographics aimed at by this record (whether now or then) would think: "yeah, it's a masterpiece". Think again. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 for musical competency and production values + 1 for the artistry). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 9 (including this one)

So let me get this straight... From what I understood, this user chose this LP because its best songs are supposedly the first three ones -- and when this person takes a short drive, that's a nice album to play, because they can listen to those three songs in a row and not care if they don't listen to the rest... Am I getting that right? I don't get it. The metrics to choose an album in this list are considerably difficult, between choosing a magnum opus by a legendary artist inexplicably forgotten in the original list - whether a particular album or the artist themself -- ; or picking an album in the genres and subgenres criminally ignored by Dimery ; or selecting a hidden gem that most people have never heard of... And yet, through all those different metrics that this user could have chosen, *this* is what they go for? I really, *really* don't get it. It just looks like this person doesn't care that much for this LP. *LP*, I repeat, not individual songs. I'm an English teacher for French middle-schoolers. I sometimes ask the latter to suggest songs to study in class. The first time I've heard The Lumineers is when one of the students in my 'special needs' class asked me to play "Hey Ho" (from another album by the band) so that we can study its lyrics. Frankly, I was delighted -- you can't imagine the sort of terrible music some of those special needs students listen to (and no, it's not only a generational thing, it's just that those pupils are routinely fed with such crap that they can't possibly develop a somewhat cohesive taste in music). There's a reason "Hey Ho" is the most popular tune by the band: it's a proper folk-pop song, and it's somewhat pleasant to listen to, as quaint and inoffensive as The Lumineers usually are. Unfortunately, this song is not present in this album's tracklist, so I don't have similar personal memories to attach to the latter. I almost took a page out of the user who chose this record, just out of spite, I admit it: I almost decided to only listen to the first three songs, and they were so frigging underwhelming that I wondered if I would not go to a 1/5 grade and leave it at that. Fortunately, I dug deeper, and found out that "Angela", "In The Light" and closer "White Lies" are actually far better tracks than the first three ones in the album, contrary to what this user seems to suggest. So that's gonna be a 2/5 mark for me. FYI, 2/5 in my own criteria to assess albums in this app/website equals a 7/10 grade for more general purposes (5+2), so it's not as if I'm roasting this thing. I'm trying to keep an open mind here. Can I go higher than this, though? No, I just can't. What's frustrating with the other tunes is that *all of them* suffer from the same flaw: lack of development. I can't count the times when a song took a left turn into something that suddenly sounded genuinely interesting or inspiring, and then just... stopped. Here is the key difference between The Lumineers and modern folk-pop acts with a truly distinctive voice such as Other Lives, Fleet Foxes, Big Thief/Adrianne Lenker or Jessica Pratt. In one way or another, they transcend that folk genre through a generous use of their imagination, heart and technical skills. To be clear, it's not that The Lumineers are "bad". They're accomplished musicians who somehow deserve their commercial success. But honestly, with the sheer amount of music produced every day in the world, you need more than "accomplished musicians" for this list. You need genuine artistic *vision*. The real "Cleopatra" is remembered for a reason. She was a queen. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 10 (including this one)

And here I was thinking that those records by Nik Kershaw, Avicii, Jimmy Eat World and Arctic Monkeys were poor choices for this second list... I stand corrected. Far worse choices are actually waiting for us all, lurking just around the corner. "Out of the blue" indeed. If only this was an attempt to troll the other users, this could be funny at least. Alas, I'm not so sure this is what really happened here... Besides, a Rick Astley album would have pulled off that trick in a far funnier fashion anyway. Most of us here have probably been "rickrolled" online once or twice in their lives. That's part of the man's legend now. 😉 As another reviewer aptly pointed out, you only need to look at this laugh-out-loud ridiculous album "artwork" -- doing everything one *shouldn't* do in that realm -- to predict how cheesy and appalling the music's gonna be. The font used for the artist's name and album title is especially on point. Bad taste is not a criminal offence, fortunately. But you sometimes wish it is. I could have stopped there and not listened to the music. Honesty and curiosity made me listen, though. That's a half-hour from my life that is not coming back. Yeah, I know, that's only 30 minutes out of the 40 this album lasts. To be honest, I *did* skip to the next song before one was over once in a while. I have a couple of kinks, but self-harm is not one of them. 0/5 for the purposes of this list of albums you must listen to before you die. 3/10 for any purposes whatsoever related to the appreciation of good or at least *decent* music. In more details: 3 points because Debbie wrote *all the songs* in the album at the tender age of 16, which is indeed worthy of praise, I'm not gonna deny that. Then 5 points for stuff such as musical competency, large popular impact in the US (not elsewhere, crucially), "professional" production values, etc... To which I retracted half a point for *each* track. Because each and every one of those ten songs is an insult to the very concept of artistry itself. Pop music can be good music. But not when it's only mind-numbing, blatantly childish dross like that. So where's the "0" button here? Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 7 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 11 (including this one)

Sometimes life is simple. An unknown party using this generator suggests a gentle and sensitive modern folk album where a gifted artist wears his heart on his sleeve -- just as said artist tries to find meaning in a recent break-up, along with revisiting older family trauma -- and the thing is both evocative and memorable enough to make your day. I already knew Angelo De Augustine's name from that collab album he made with Sufjan Steven (which I haven't heard yet), but I had never listened to his music. This LP is obviously very close to Stevens' turf circa *Carrie & Lowell* (also in this list, which is great), with the same sort of soft falsetto vocals -- once or twice lacking a bit of personality, but most of the time distinctive enough to avoid being derivative of Sufjan's own artistry. There's also some sensibility in those very nice songs that's close to the one of Andy Shauf (unfortunately not mentioned in this list, I think). But once again, Angelo has a voice of his own, both literally and figuratively. It takes a bit of time for the record to find its groove, but once it does so, it's simply marvellous, as well as soothing and/or moving. ""Kaitlin", "Time" (with that enticing whistling part in the chorus), "Wanderer", "All Your Love" and "You Needed Love, I Needed You" especially shine. Glad I'm finally able to write a short review to tell my thoughts here. As I said, life is simple sometimes. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 10

Please make a thought experiment. Replace the "rock" instrumentation generally applied in this album with synthetic or mainstream pop tones, and you would quickly realize... that it's just a consensual pop album. And not a very good one at that. Not that I need this change of instrumentation to realize how much I despise that sort of music. This LP is such a bland borefest on a harmonic and compositional level, it's just mind-blowing for me that some people outside of Christian rock circles could possibly fall for it. There's a couple of very short redeeming moments sometimes. Very rarely, in a couple of cuts, those nice inoffensive surfers with a knack for corporate church services try their hands at something a little more original in some chord progressions in the verses (as in "More Than Fine" or "Redemption"). But they always return to cheesy, hackneyed, sugary major-chord dross for the choruses. So it's a hard pass for me. I tried very hard to forget this was Christian Rock, mind you. Hard to pull off when the wiki page for this record is so hypocritical. There was "universal praise" for this LP, the page goes. Yet the publications mentioned are *all* obscure Christian-minded websites or magazine. There's a reason other usual websites and the rest of the music press just ignored this thing. Because the music, as "professional" as it is, isn't worth much, and there's no reason to attract accusations based on faith (or lack thereof) from the target audience where you can just let the thing fly by and join the footnotes of music history at large -- without giving the opportunity to anyone to make a fuss about it all. Yeah, in other words, maybe ignoring Switchfoot was just the best move here. Yet my main reproach goes deeper than that. Oddly enough, my main reproach has something to do with the way spirituality in this record sounds so... underwhelming. Switchfoot wanted to avoid being "preachy", which is a good idea on paper. The problem is that they can only resort to vague generalizations once that idea is executed. And the vague generalization is not only expressed lyrically, it is also expressed musically. It starts with the very opener, some kind of post-grunge thing that has all the ingredients from ten years before the album's release, and is logically devoid of heart and stakes. But then, it gets even worse, and the whole glossy quickly thing goes down the drain of oblivion. This record does not sound like a trip to visit a community of faithful believers. It sounds like a trip to the mall. I might be an agnostic, I still want music with religious tones (whether undertones or overtones) to lift and inspire me, and even make me consider the possibility of a higher power. This religious impulse is actually the most probable origin of music itself. I can feel that "spirit" in soul and gospel. I can feel it in the sacred tintinnabulations of Arvo Pärt. I can feel it in the melancholy and existential questioning of Sufjan Stevens. I can feel it in the divine harmonies and infinite patience of Low. Those artists all have a very real and sincere Christian faith at the heart of their artistry. And they honor that faith in such a graceful fashion, that you can't help being in awe at them. When I listen to Switchfoot, I just feel numb. Not the best way to win new adepts, I'd say. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 for musical competency and production values + 1 for the artistry). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 11 (including this one)

90s band with strong Queen, Supertramp and prog overtones, sprinkled with indie-rock / power pop shenanigans sometimes adjacent to Weezer. Very flourished and extravagant, with adequate production values for the music played. Yet oddly enough, not entirely memorable. At least for me. Nothing unpleasant. It's just that nothing really stood out either. Oh, and the artwork for the cover is downright horrible, but that's probably intentional. In that realm, see also Soul Coughing's *Irresistible Bliss*. 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 3. 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 12 (including this one)

Funny how the first track sounds like a draft of the second. But, gosh, that second cut, what a song! If only for "The Bug Collector", I want to give a hundred thanks to whoever posted this. I was aware of who Haley Heynderickx was, and could already place her in a folk universe not so far from Big Thief / Adrianne Lenker, Mitski or even early Joni Mitchell and Vashti Bunyan. So I can certainly see the appeal now that I give my full attention to her music and artistry. The album goes to some... uncertain places sometimes -- some of those undecided moments, like "Jo", sound indeed a little unfocused, on first listens, at least ; but others are fascinating (the long "Worth It", the piano in the second part of "Show You A Body", that echo-drenched guitar and horn part towards the end of "Untitled God Song). "Oom Sha La La" is a quite surprising, mock-lively penultimate indie-doo wop track. And closer "Drinking Game" is very nice. Expecting this one to grow on me. And last year's *Seed Of A Seed* seems to be in the exact same vein, with maybe production values sounding slightly more lush in some tracks in comparison (with more instrumentation). Some very impressive cuts on this one, too. Giving quite high marks to this thing. And leaving the door wide open to it. Modern folk and indie-rock album suggestions have genrally been great on this users' list. And it's something that was clearly missing in the original list. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 4 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 12

Discovering this krautrock album a couple of years ago was like discovering a treasure trove from the distant past. Sure, it's not exactly a 5/5 album. There are some lengthy moments in the improvised jams on the second disc -- missing in the Spotify version, and that could easily be considered as bonus tracks today. There's also the somewhat awkward (yet also intense) performance by that male vocalist towards the end of the "Soap Shop Rock" song suite comprising the first four tracks as displayed on Spotify... But even with those few trinkets in the trove, the jewels covering them shine brightly. Especially if you love realizing that some of the current great acts sort of playing in that style (from Osees to Goat, King Gizzard and even Parquet Courts or Ty Segall at times) actually invented nothing. Even on that second disc's patchouli-scenting improvisations, you have many extraordinary moments in the "jam" genre. And they're not always so easy to pinpoint on the regular time frame usually associated to rock history as we know it. Some of them hearken back to the Velvet Underground at their most abrasive, others foretell Sonic Youth at their most melodic. Which is the reason why the improvisation thing sounds so fresh compared to other seventies jam rock fare such as The Grateful Dead or Quicksilver Messenger Service. And the same relative timelessness occurs with the more regular "songs" on the first disc. The first two cuts of "Soap Shop Rock" ("Burning Sister" and "Halluzination Guillotine") could have been recorded yesterday, for all we know. There's a wealth of enticing harmonies and epic chord sequences right after those two tracks, mixed with near-apocalyptic flourishes (like that distraught violin in "Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm" making up for the unfocused vocal parts). Singer Renate Knaup displays her vocal chops in quite an unhinged manner as well on the first disc, and here, the performance nicely adds to the whole mayhem. "She Came Through The Chimney" is a nice little acoustic interlude, quieter and cinematic. And don't get me started on the extraordinary Can-meet-Black Sabbath "Archangels Guillotine", with its heavy guitars and bouncing drum patterns (that drummer was a full powerhouse whenever his services were needed). I literally got obsessed with that song from the first time I listened to it. A krautrock hit for the ages. *Yeti* is thus Amon Düül II's magnum opus, and given how the original list mentioned Can and Krautrock once or twice, it's kind of a surprise that this album didn't make it there. I also like their later LP *Wolf City* a lot, by the way. So if you enjoyed this one, check that other album out as well. And thanks to whoever thought of adding this album in the users list. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 12

So... This is what the ultimate edgelord user in this generator submits after shitting on the Beatles, The Clash, Pixies, The Velvet Underground, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Elliott Smith, Radiohead and so on... ? Let me have a good LAUGH! Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Looks like this user actually likes Blur, Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest or Haley Heynderickx, so I'm able to personally and subjectively assess they can have a set of functioning ears once in a while. But personal preferences are beside the point. The point is: why using this generator if you hate *most* music anyway? Is it like a self-harm kink of sorts? I really, really don't get it. There's also a different theory to explain that 1.89 global score : even though said user is the fifth one who went through tall the 1001 albums of the original list, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually didn't listen to a very large part of those records and just went to their comfort zone and gave 5/5 marks to the only LPs they already knew in the list. If that's the case, that's akin to cheating for me. And it would also explain why said user only very rarely left a review. Which raises the most important question: why should I put in an effort and listen to Men I Trust if really that user didn't put an effort as well (or gives such impression)? The irony of the band's name in that situation is borderline hilarious. I simply refuse to *trust* the taste or supposed "better judgment" of that person. I did listen to parts of *Oncle Jazz* however. I can't blame Men I Trust for having such a weird fan. For me, it sounds like bland, inoffensive muzak, which got the "indie" tag only because they're technically "independent" indeed, even if they have nothing to do the music usually associated with that tag. It wouldn't be much of a problem if you didn't sound like a second-rate version of Chromatics or a third-rate version of Beach House. The thing is, this record does sound *exactly* like this. The end of "Days Go By" was OK, I guess. But not much stands out in the rest of those songs, and I very quickly lost interest after that. Interestingly, none of those songs (except from the one-minute instrumental introduction) is among the ten most played or "hot" tracks on Spotify. A sure sign that most of the people who did listen to this record in 2019 have quickly forgotten about it since. Polaris prize long list nominee or not, you wouldn't have me believe that such insignificant fodder for "chill playlists" has generated enough sufficient physical sales to have enough hardcore fans listen to this on vinyl or CD instead. 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 2. Mostly because I don't want to be considered as an edgelord myself. Call me charitable here. 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for musical competency and production values + 1.5 for the artistry). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 13 (including this one)

"When Smoke Rises is the debut studio album by Canadian musician and poet Mustafa. It was released on May 28, 2021, through Mustafa's Regent Park Songs imprint. The album was produced by frequent collaborator and executive producer Frank Dukes with contributions from James Blake, Jamie xx, and Sampha, among others. The songs "Stay Alive", "Air Forces", "Ali", and "The Hearse" were released as singles prior to the album's release. The album is self-described as 'inner city folk music' and is thematically centered on Toronto's Regent Park community.[1]" That text up there is the review that the user who submitted this Mustafa album left when their own choice appeared in the generator. Such passion. Such flame. Yep, you get it, they did the same thing for each album. They merely copied and pasted the Wikipedia blurbs here associated to an album page, every single time. Maybe out of some sort of experimental drive to point out what we all already know here, i.e. that there's no such thing as objectivity in music appreciation. Or maybe out of laziness. Interestingly, this person only did this for the users list. There are no original list reviews to be seen on their main page. And their "all ratings" section is also missing, oddly enough -- even though they *did* grade the 1089 albums (the 3.26 average score kind of proves it). Another intriguing nugget about that user: their "lowest albums" section is empty, which speaks to their open-mindedness (or their awareness of the intricacies and challenges of being a musician). Yet, as if you counterbalance that benevolence, there are only 35 highest-rated albums from the original list -- most of them excellent choices in my own subjective book, sure, but also a sure sign that this mysterious person can be *very* picky. My grading philosophy is radically different (see below), but I do believe this one also makes sense somehow. I'm writing all this whereas I haven't listened to *When Smoke Rises* yet, by the way. But given that I have recently discovered Mustafa through a more recent album, I know what to expect, kind of. Namely a soothing and somewhat off-kilter mix of folk and indie-R'n'B, not always memorable when it comes to the rather by-the-book vocal lines, but at least sounding original, sincere and heartfelt enough. I guess you've already gotten an inkling of my overall impressions about the man's debut album through my grade anyway. I'm writing the review before listening to the album, you see. Only this one time. This here is my own way to get "experimental" as well. Now, to return to the copied-and-pasted Wikipedia blurbs on that person's reviews, one thing bugs me. When you go to the album pages in the users list, those reviews (and the gradings associated to them) are nowhere to be seen. I checked, I was meticulous... Is it a glitch in the matrix? Subtle censorship? Some shadowy cabal? This here will join the greatest mysteries of all time, the ones that keep on nagging me to this day. Like, who really assassinated Kennedy? Where did all those planes go when they vanished in the Bermuda Triangle? Or why on earth would anyone with a set of functioning ears enjoy Debbie Gibson's music? 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 3 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 14 (including this one)

Ha ha ha ha! Didn't expect that one to come up! For anyone with a flimsy grasp of the French language, know that the second track of this live album, "Tout le temps pareil", translates as.... "Always The Same". And you couldn't find a better way to sum up the record (and Les Sheriff's strand of punk rock in general). Maybe it's a self-referential wink, in a way. But I wouldn't be surprised if such wink went high over the heads of the band's core audience at the time. Les Sheriff were iconic for a couple of slightly older kids I hung out with as a teenager, back in the early nineties. In that overall French punk genre displaying strong working-class values, Bérurier Noir and Ludwig Von 88 were even more iconic, admittedly -- because they had released truly memorable anthems with a political edge. Les Sheriff never pulled that off outside of their dedicated fanbase, though. And it seems to me that they were never that political. Their shtick was more "beer and drunken fighting" fare and fanfare. And for anyone intrigued enough by the lyrics, just know that the latter already sounded a little dumb and mind-numbing for me at the time -- and that, in retrospect, they sound even *more* awkward, simplistic and pointless to me now. Not to mention the fact that the singer's quite heavy-handed delivery quickly gets on my nerves as well.... As for the music... Yeah, "Tout le temps pareil". That drummer is a powerhouse, and the band's live act certainly had a rowdy reputation among the fans. But the whole thing is so damn linear, c'mon -- there are so many ways good working-class-minded punk rock can avoid that sort of bland proposal devoid of real musical stakes. The kind of simplicity displayed here rarely justifies a 70-minute record. Gonna end my rant in French. There are a couple of things I want to add, but I'm pretty sure no one outside of France or Québec will care enough about it anyway... J'ai un pote qui joue dans un groupe et qui a ouvert pour les Sheriffs il y a pas longtemps (ils tournent toujours aujourd'hui). Le groupe de mon pote est très bon sur scène, dans une veine pop-punk pas si éloignée que ça des Sheriffs, finalement -- textes en français frais et sans prétentions, beaucoup d'énergie, une chanteuse-guitariste pour les voix lead... Pas forcément mon truc, mais rien qui justifie ce qui va suivre : mon pote s'est en effet pris des gobelet de bières dans la tronche dès le début du concert, avec un manque de respect évident de la part d'un public vieillissant et pas toujours très fin. Alors bien entendu, on parle certainement d'une minorité ici -- faut pas mettre tous les fans des Sheriffs dans le même panier, et ces derniers eux-mêmes n'y peuvent rien. M'enfin bon... Ça donne pas forcément envie de faire la promo de ce genre du punk à papa à l'international. Surtout quand il est évident que le phénomène a zéro chances d'y être compris ou réellement apprécié. Bref, c'est rigolo de voir ce nom-là sortir sur ce générateur. Mais ça va pas beaucoup plus loin pour moi.... 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 2 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1 for the artistry + 0.5 for the band's dedication and endurance, I guess). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 15 (including this one)

And so, finally, I've listened to an album by the Dave Matthews Bands, which I've heard so much about. And truth be told... I understand why so many people are derisive about this act. At times, this record sounds as if Pearl Jam and Tool had been taken to the vet so as to be castrated. Given that I'm not a huge fan of Tool, and that I think that Pearl Jam are overrated and boring for the most part, you can probably guess my exact mileage on that sort of glossy "jam-rock". Same meandering, sometimes gratuitous, dirges, but without the "alternative" edge (and layers of partly hackneyed gloss instead). Plus, the lead vocals sound particularly grating and "forced" for no good reason in some of those tracks. And they can't help the sometimes linear, sometimes decent music shine as it should. About what I've written up there... You have to forgive me for the weird metaphor about taking nineties bands to the vet. I don't really know where that came from... But I now imagine naming my two cats "Pearl Jam" and "Tool" (or dogs if I had some). And that thought strikes me as kind of funny. That's it, not much else to say. I'll see myself out. ---------------> 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 2 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 15 (including this one)

Sounds like a comedian trying his hand at singing songs. Musically speaking, it's rubbish. And lyrically, Adam Green is not even "too smart for his own good", he just uses a lot of ornate and "literary" words to say very dumb things, generally speaking. And he's a quite bad singer, to boot. Not "bad" in an endearing and unwittingly touching fashion. Just "bad bad", in a cringe-worthy, amateurish, self-conscious way. I have a hard time imagining how playing that sort of thing makes you wake up in the morning and think, "yeah, I need the world to hear all my songs, there's a flame in me that pushes me to do so, and I have something distinctive and personal to bring to the table". Not when you play such goofy muzak. Apologies to Alex Turner, that I roasted in my scathing and admittedly overlong review of *Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino*. At least the leader of Arctic Monkeys understands the concept of "artistry", even if I subjectively believe he comes off as pretentious and suddenly clueless about the ingredients of a good song. Conversely, you could state that Adam Green is humble in his ambitions, and is just having a bit of fun here. The thing is, I'm neither laughing nor finding his music worth the precious time of most people. A "dreamy, kind-of-cheesy companion piece" to my lowest-rated albums section indeed. I don't know, maybe Adam Green would be funnier if he decided to stop playing music and become a full-blown comedian. I've just read that he's also into film-making -- and also art -- but does he make "funny" films? As of now, I'm not interested enough to find out... On that line of thought, I'm wondering if some musicians whose career I follow could be good at comedy. I would bet on Andy "Falco" Falkous, of Mclusky, or Pavement's Stephen Malkmus. But I guess we'll never know the sort of... "gemstones" those guys could utter onstage on a comedy night. *Rimshot!* 0.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 1 5.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 0.5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 5 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 17 (including this one)

Now we're talking. This second album by the legendary Canadian post-rock act was in my own shortlist of LPs to submit for this users section. Godspeed You! Black Emperor's debut being already in the list, I chose another record, eventually. But I'm obviously *delighted* that another user submitted *Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven* (and this not long after I entered the users "club" myself). I'm gonna repeat the same thing I always repeat when it comes to post-rock in the original list: it's a pivotal music genre that has been done dirty in the 1001 Albums book. So it's time to set the karmic balance right here. Now about the album itself: from that elated crescendo repeating the same heartbreaking leitmotiv in the first five minutes opening "Storm", to the eerie soundscapes ending "Like Antennas To Heaven" on a devastatingly melancholic, post-apocalyptic note, this two-disc release is filled to the brim with epic highlights. But what's even more impressive about this record is its stunning ability to evoke so many images and sensations related to the state of our fallen, late capitalist hellworld. A soundtrack for the end of times indeed, often sad-sounding and ripe with anxiety, but never fully devoid of *hope* (a keyword that has run throughout the Canadian band's career). A friend of mine once imagine the perfect video for the first minutes of the album: a lone beach being gradually peopled by dishevelled yet hopeful visitors moving in slow motion towards the viewer. This image haunts me to this day. The four 20-minute tracks/programs in *Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven* obviously encourage that sort of daydreaming. In fact, rarely has purely instrumental music (if you take aside the collage of field recordings often displaying distant endearing voices, as if remembered through the haze of old memories experienced in the afterworld) been so *powerfully* evocative. This album pulls off the feat of being like a sort of "platonic ideal" of what a great post-rock album should be, but it also transcends the boundaries of the genre at times (hence maybe why GY!BE have never been at ease with that tag). The collage aesthetics -- less noticeable in further releases, as great as most of them were -- is pivotal here. That interview of an old man reminiscing about Coney Island, lamenting that people "don't sleep anymore on the beach" there, is now as iconic as the music which follows it. Add the breathtaking acceleration within "Static", or the obsessive drilling guitars concluding the main section of "Sleep", along with another dozen of spellbinding moments like that, and what you have is an album for the ages. 5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5 10/10 for more general purposes (5 + 5). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 6 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 17

Often mesmerizing, sometimes baffling but always interesting, this record could have been recorded yesterday, and I'm delighted someone submitted it here. The music from Arthur Russell I had listened to so far was his most played tracks on Spotify, and given that said music seemingly oscillated between some sort of quaint disco and some some sort of quaint country, that handful of more commercial-sounding cuts didn't really appeal to me. Quite the contrary happens here, though, and it's awesome. To me, this experimental album sounds like a stronger, more personal offering, and so only now can I grasp why Russell is considered as such a cult figure in some circles. There is definitely something soothing and touching going on in "World Of Echo", beyond the uncompromising, minimalistic soundscapes -- like some sort of electronic-driven Nick Drake, as some other reviewer wonderfully put it. I can also link what Arthur does here to Thom Yorke's solo endeavors or The Smile. Same hypnotic grooves and inspired vocal adlibs, and some underlying tension beneath the gentle vocal performance. The reverb and delay-drenched cellos and percussions can take you to another world indeed. If you manage to go under the similar sounding surface, you soon realize how actually different and distinctive those songs are. "Kid Like You", the obsessive rhythm patterns of "Treehouse", and the melodies of "Hiding Your Present From You" and "Lucky Cloud" are currently my favorite compositions in this album, but I have a feeling that I can fall in love with all of them if I'm patient enough. Like the whole LP is a mystery I already can't help returning to in the future. So here I am lying in my bed after a tiring day, listening to this album again, and I feel this is exactly what I need now. Doesn't often happen when I use this generator, and this is probably what makes me want to include the LP in my list of mandatory listens, filed next to Laurie Anderson's *Big Science*, also criminally missing in Dimery's list. Will stop writing and enjoy the damn thing now. Good night. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 7 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 17

UK grime / rap. The production on this thing sounds more varied and adventurous than in the Dizzee Rascal album included in the original list. The first six cuts are terrific for that genre, and proper closer "Signs In Life" slaps as well ('Boys Love Girls" is not the real closer and just a somewhat goofy hidden / bonus track, so I kind of ignore it for my assessment...). This thing is, I found the second half of this record underwhelming to say the least -- lyrically to some extend, but most specifically musically, owing to the overeliance in cheap chiptune sound aesthetics (which aged quite poorly). And maybe there's also the fact that Kano uses so many different producers from one song to the next also turns the whole thing into an endeavor lacking in personality at some point (instead of truly surprising you when a new subgenre comes up). All of this sort of jeopardizes my initial intent to listen to the whole album all over again on day. To put it in a nutshell, "Home Sweet Home" is still a pretty good rap album. But I can't see it in my own list of 1001 Albums keepers (contrary to Little Simz or The Streets when it comes to UK hip hop). Sorry! Nice to know more about this gifted rapper, however. So thanks to whoever submitted this record! 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 7 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18 (including this one)

Review: Yes, the word 'pop' can be found in the 'hyperpop" tag, even though the layers of irony and hypertextual recycling used in that particular scene (including by Charli xcx herself) have often hampered its readability for a more mainstream audience. It's not so easy for a newcomer to the genre to have access the immediate pleasure of good melodies when there is so much pastiche going on at the same time -- and when said pastiche straddles the fine line between conceptual winks and plain bad taste within a song in a matter of seconds... In other words, hyperpop is often more "hyper" than truly "pop". How many devastating choruses or memorable synthetic hooks have there been so far in that genre ? Very few, and it takes the cake, really! Outsider listeners of that scene could therefore take the latter with a huge grain of salt -- until Charli made the waves she had always dreamed of at last, even spelling such ripples out for popular culture at large, thanks to those low-resolution Arial letters on the neon green cover of *Brat*. For anyone with ears that can tolerate an admittedly excessive use of Auto-Tune, many of the criticisms routinely thrown at the hyperpop genre thus risk becoming moot after this record. Because, beyond all the memes and the TikTok trends, *Brat* is also an album that reconnects with the requirements of the great game-changers of the past, surprisingly enough. Which is maybe how it will actually stand the test of time. Charli's latest checklist is impressive for sure, at least. A string of bangers without a single dull moment in and in between them? Check. A wide array of intents and moods that paradoxically strengthen the overall cohesion of the project? Check. A narrative drive which resonates with such musical dynamism, seeing Charli go from a superficial party girl to a more touching young woman afterwards? Check. The delirious and abrasive confidence of A.G. Cook's production (also responsible for the quite notable *Britpop* in 2024), along with the contributions of Keane, Gesaffelstein, Hudson Mohawke or Cirkut, here dusts off an electronic field that has often been threatened by inertia and artistic dead ends in the last few years. And the result will probably sound exhilarating for most fans of dancefloor-oriented shenanigans with strong French Touch influences Yet it is most specifically Charli's touch -- her millennial girl energy and sensitivity, not caring for one second about expectations and usual social "codes" (so as to better create her own?) – that makes Brat a true phenomenon. 'Bumping that' for sure. List of songs: The iconic opener "360" ; the hedonistic, ketamine-driven "Club Classics" ; "Sympathy Is A Knife", with its elated, stellar chorus ; the suddenly introspective and minimalistic "I Might Say Something Stupid" ; the somewhat cheesy and yet 100% efficient "Talk Talk" ; absolute banger "Von Dutch, with its incredible drop and infectious synth hook ; "Everything Is Romantic", with its string section, its crazy flute loop hearkening back to Björk's *Utopia* and its part-hectic, part-cinematic atmosphere. You can really see "Capri in the distance" listening to that one, with sunrays blinking on and off on Charli's face as she drives on Italian roads... The second half of the album then starts with "Rewind", with its tongue-in-cheek displaying of nostalgia and apt tape sound gimmick to illustrate the latter ; "So I" is a heartfelt ballad which also serves as an emotionally complex tribute to SOPHIE ; "Girl, So Confusing", harbors a distinctive feminine perspective in its lyrics (which allow Charli to mend fences with Lorde, of all people) and therefore makes the best of its bouncy instrumental ; "Apple" then struts along in a tongue-in-cheek, happy-go-lucky, meme-worthy demeanour ; "B2B" explores tighter, moodier, and more hypnotic harmonies ; "Mean Girls" is kind of wild, and it has that fun and groovy piano part at the end ; and the last proper song in the album is "I Think About It All The Time", a straightforward confession that sees Charli reflecting on potential motherhood and her wish to slow down at last. Finally, here comes outro "365", a high octane, cocaine-fuelled version of opener "360" that sees Charli forget all the good resolutions uttered in the track before -- because, well, she will always be a "brat" at heart, won't she? The cycle can thus start all over again. Yeah, I know, I know... Sometimes the lyrics may sound a little daft if the songs are taken individually. But as a whole, this record also tells a very specific story, and it's actually not that hard to relate to it even if you're not part of its core audience. And the musicality and energy are relentless anyway. [The "review" before the "list of songs" section up there is actually adapted from a short one I wrote for the Mowno music website, here translated from the French language. If you want to read the shorter original in its original language, you can find it thanks to the link below] https://www.mowno.com/articles/selection/session-de-rattrapage-les-oublies-de-2024/ Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 8 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 9 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Stars went under my radar when they released this album. Which is surprising given that they're artistically related to Broken Social Scene, and that I really, really like that band. Listening to the first tracks of *Set Yourself On Fire* today, I also couldn't help thinking of Black Country New Road -- which shouldn't come as a surprise, since the latter are noticeably inspired by that sort of mid-noughts indie scene which also tangentially gravitated around Arcade Fire at the time. I admit that because I had a big day at work today, I couldn't do more than browsing through the second half of this LP, and that I should probably need to give the latter a more serious listen some time later. The thing is, and even with my incomplete listen, it seems to me that compared to all the references I've written up there (to which I could add another Canadian band named Clues -- far more abrasive and unpredictable), Stars sounds a little too demure and even timid to a fault. To me, it's not really the electronic flourishes which bring this lack of dynamics stakes, because those dynamics actually provide a quite distinctive flavour to a project also often displaying original textures and arrangements, as a matter of fact. This has more to do with the vocal parts, that I find a little too "gentle" and devoid of personality. But as I said, maybe I didn't focus on this record the way I should. So I'm giving this one the benefit of the doubt (in spite of tentative "neutral grade" that should normally place it out of my list of potential "keepers"). 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums? 8/10 for more general purposes? (5+3) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 8 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 10 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Being a lover of minimalistic, ambient music, it's a shame I had not paid attention to this album in 2000. There's sure was a thing happening in that particular field at the turn of the century, between GAS, the first albums of Tim Hecker, and William Basinski's Disintegration Loops series. *Pop* sounds repetitive at first but then this foray into darkly poetic woods easily reveals its sonic subtleties -- more a matter of (shadow) frequencies than proper music, admittedly, but the effect was undeniable on me. The two cuts where the bass kick... kicked in surely became exhilarating, especially for the breathless closer. Many thanks to whoever in this group took me to those memorable woods. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: approximately a fifth of them so far (including this one), I've temporarily lost count. Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: approximately a third of them so far Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: around half so far

I admit it: I burst out laughing when I saw Jimmy Buffet pop up on my phone this morning. But it turns out that thing ain't so bad, all things considered. Or at least, that there are enough highlights on this album to make up for the occasional bland song (as some other reviewers also pointed out, the duds are actually more noticeable on side one than one side two, oddly enough). I suspect that those highlights will soon becomes firm favorites of mine in an overall country-rock genre I'm not *always* at ease with. Surprising how those highlights actually sound good compared to most of Buffet's more famous songs. It was still the early seventies, and the man was only starting to embrace the cliché he would later become, while managing to sound relatively fresh and lively. Plus, look at that cover and tell me you don't want to be in his place, huh? I especially enjoyed the compositional work and dynamic arrangements in the memorable "Dallas" and the instantly catchy "Life Is Just A Tire Swing". And of course the lyrics about living a life of idleness and binge drinking on the beach are either witty or downright funny. Cue the gentler "A Pirate Looks At Forty" and moodier "Trying To Reason With The Hurricane Season" to have stellar exemples of that. Or spin the opener "Makin' Music For Money" again. It sure is a lazy and quite inert old-fashioned rock tune, even by 1974 standards. The song is musically devoid of anything interesting, *of course*, but it's also lyrically on point with the music's blandness -- a wink that both doubles down and redeems the supposed laziness Buffet often witnesses when he looks into the mirror. In other words, self-deprecation has rarely sounded so cool, and I can picture why one "handsome man" found this album endearing enough to select it here (I forgive you for hating *Kid A*, pal !). Guess all I needed to appreciate that sort of commercial country-rock music and make it sound cinematic enough for me was a sip of tropical Florida juice inside the usual C&W formula. Wish Dimery and co. had thought of that! Still not sure I can "reason with the hurricane season" and find a way to include this record in my own list of keepers. But as of now, I certainly keep the door open. The view of the ocean outside is magnificent, after all. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes? (5+3.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 9 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 11 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Got acquainted with Alex Cameron through album *Miami Memory*, and I remember finding it a little boring and/or awkward. Earlier LP *Forced Witness* seems far, far better, in comparison. As another reviewer aptly puts it in this section, it is unclear whether the "Alex Cameron" heard here is a total fabrication -- one of the personas the artist routinely adopts -- or if the man behind the curtains sometimes peeps through the latter to show his real face. What's clear, however, is that a lot of the often laugh-out-loud offensive lyrics are memorable, and that the same can be said about the eighties-like music -- actually a little more sophisticated than what it sounds at first when you play it again. The vast majority of the songs on the first side are well-crafted. They verge on pastiche territory, but fortunately, they also have more earnest layers. There's just one song featuring Brandon Flowers that I find a little flat, confirming my distaste of The Killers. That said, I admit that Flowers doesn't ruin the show when he appears again for the great and catchy closer "Politics Of Love", nicely summing up the themes of failed masculinity explored throughout the record. Some of the choruses sung throughout this LP are infectious, which is essential for eighties-minded music. And "Politics Of Love" certainly harbors such a chorus. Too bad that the joke suddenly wears thin on "The Chihuahua" and "The Hacienda" on side two. Those two tracks are very, *very* weak songs that almost prevented *Forced Witness* from reaching my "High Rated Albums". But the last two cuts return to the quality level of the first side in no time. That was a close call, folks! Now is all that enough to make me consider this record as "essential" as a whole? The jury's still out on this one. Having it pop up today made me feel like a "forced witness" indeed. It's not so easy to have a record displaying so much sarcasm immediately click for me. I'm still a naive soul after all these years, I guess, and figures like Alex Cameron are sometimes a little daunting for listeners like me. But chances are that I might be happy to testify later, once the man's intent and off-kilter artistry becomes more familiar to my slow ears... 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes? (5+3.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 9 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

Under the pink you can find a woman, Tori Amos, whose distinctive sensibility makes her truly unique. She exemplifies a romantic ideal made flesh -- "romantic" in the sense of the sublime aesthetics of the 19th century -- and as usual with that type of romanticism, a bit of grotesque is sprinkled here and there. This conflation fuels the elated, sometimes exaggerated emotionality in her vocal performance, a clear yearning to be heard, paradoxically through the troubled (or troubling) soliloquies of a tortured soul. This is how Tori's lyrics make unforeseen left-turns from the nonsensical to the sensual, or from a deep-seated melancholy to scary spikes of furious anger. And the result is cinematic. Tori's main instrument, the piano, is just perfect for those romantic aesthetics. Its notes twirl and swirl, displaying a virtuosity which is always serving her songs' musicality. Opener "Pretty Good Year", with its cyclical main riff illustrating the passing of time and the nostalgia it induces -- as if watching old photographies of your circle of friends when they were younger -- is a perfect first statement in that regard. Of course, secrets hover above that circle, some of them innocuous, others of a far darker nature, maybe -- you can hear that darkness in that very short aggresive "alt-rock" bridge coming out of nowhere. But gentleness then resumes, and everything is forgiven. Who knows who slept with whom, who hurt whom, or who had some unacknowledged crush on whom? This is how bittersweet feelings are bound to seep in, under the surface, "under the pink". Romanticism also implies rebellion -- *feminine* rebellion, obviously, with a touch of "hysteria" which often acts as a subtle revelator of the constraints of patriarchal oppression. "God" needs a woman to look after the mess He makes, Tori's scathing comments emphasized by the rattle of atonal electric guitars uncomfortably wailing and wincing in the background. Delicate "Bells For Her" finds solace in a clandestine lesbian affair, even if prejudice and secrecy will soon doom the two lovers. The use of a "prepared piano", with its strings blocked and stifled to make them sound like the titular "bells", is pitch-perfect to describe the dysfunctional feelings and infinite sadness cursing the characters of the song. "Cornflake Girl" sees Tori sneer against the conformism of suburban lives at the lively beat of a catchy pop song presenting the whole thing like a classic western flick -- climactic showdown with the bad guy "with a golden gun" included. Why don't you look for the keys for yourself, Honcho? Tori's fight is the fight of all women. It's just that it's tailored for a big screen here. In fact, the ambitions displayed in this record never divert from its blunt manners. The production, soundscapes and compositions owe a lot to pop music, of course, but it's just that the latter is "perverted" enough to become interesting. Some of those pop songs tell harrowing tales about violence and sexual abuse at times, picking that thread from where "Me And A Gun" left it on debut *Little Earthquakes*. Under the pink, the wounded flesh. Trent Reznor, known for being a somewhat scary and troubled performer at this stage of his career, sings surprisingly soft background vocals on "Past The Mission", a song dealing with this particular topic. What we have here is a quite subversive form of pop music, where values are inverted, and confusion can reign supreme. "The Waitress" even allows Tori to express maddening rage at a fellow employee in a striking chorus enhanced by military percussion and a rambling electric guitar line, yelling seemingly gratuitous threats thrown at another woman (instead of a man). The subdued tone of the verses suggest the screams and rage and threats probably all happen in her head -- it's dangerous for girls to truly express their feelings in this world. You know where all the supposedly mad women went in the 19th century. Yet how is it that Tori can make the lunatic asylum sound so attractive, and even *fun* at times? "I believe in peace, bitch" is a hysterical line indeed, in all the senses of the word. Sometimes you're brought back to an age where conventions corset you into a ridiculous pantomime, as in "The Wrong Band", whose voluntary quaint arrangements seem to illustrate musicians playing together as the Titanic sinks into the frozen ocean. Sometimes a quiet ballad like "Baker Baker" soothes you like a balm. Sometimes you're lost in a winter landscape and you wait for the night to fall, as in "Icicle". And sometimes you're floating with a "Space Dog", and you think you can glimpse Kate Bush in the distance, somewhere among the twinkling stars. And it all ends with the nine-minute epic "Yes Anastasia", with only Tori, her piano, and a grand string orchestra plunging you into a surreal historical film which takes place in different time periods and seems to involve lookalike characters so as to tell another tale of woe and violence and hope that only women can tell you. The chorus of that closer is a thing of wonder, but really, the whole track, and how it constantly pulls the rug under your feet, is simply amazing. It's a tour de force, and if you've never heard this song, we'll see "how brave you are" indeed once you get those goosebumps, just as Tori's crazed falsetto goes sky-high in the last minute of this album. *Little Earthquake* was an excellent solo debut revealing an immensely talented artist. But there was still something relatively "formatted" in it. In comparison, *Under The Pink* is *pure* Tori Amos. Unhinged, uncut, unapologetic, and yet still cohesive and always accessible somehow. You want to know what it feels like to have all that pain and passion under your skin? Ask a fellow waitress. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 10 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 18

John Mayer is an accomplished musician and singer, but let's face it folks, what we have here is so goddamn *generic*. Of course, the musicianship being what it is, you have stellar arrangements once in a while -- most specifically on the bridges and conclusions of some of the tracks in the first side-- but the songs themselves are way too predictable. With everything that was going on at the time of this album's release, and worse, with everything that had *already* occured, you can't help feeling this is just neatly-packaged and shrewdly-marketed soft-rock, with bluesy flourishes convenient enough to give an air of "authenticity" to the whole thing. Ultimately, said authenticity comes off as rather artificial anyway. This record is way too conventional, refuses to take meaningful risks, and so fails to inspire me. For me, it's more a simulacrum than a "continuum", and it gives the impression that John Mayer is just John Mayall for amnesiac millennials. Or maybe he's just a less lively clone of Lenny Kravitz, himself a generally boring clone of greater seventies rock stars. Next album, please. 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 2. 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the production and musicianship + 1.5 for the artistry) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 10 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 19 (including this one)

Oh well. The epitome of 2010s/2020s manufactured, cold-sounding mainstream pop, trading in easily digestible songs with predictable chord sequences, cinematic washes of atmospheric synths (partly provided by Oneohtrix Point Never's Daniel Lopatin or Tame Impala's Kevin Parker), along with fashionable beats and crisp programming -- either catchy eighties-sounding ones as exemplified by Max Martin's contributions to the project, or more menacing trap-oriented patterns created by excellent hip hop producers such as Metro Boomin. An impressive blockbuster cast for sure, adding to The Weeknd's usual core team of contributors... But with such a stellar roster of producers around Abel Tesfaye, it's no wonder the Canadian R'n'B singer's auto-tuned vocal presence often comes off as stifled, perfunctory and mechanic at times, as if crushed by impersonal logistical constraints hampering productive spontaneity or genuinely interesting melodic sparks. This flaw is especially noticeable in the first half of this LP (which many "critics" still see as his magnum opus, in spite of its obvious shortcomings as an album). The Weeknd and his team of producers go as hard as they can for bass-heavy despondent moods and hazy atmosphere in the record's first leg (presented before the hits on the second half, but more on that later...), hoping to give an artsy sheen akin to the one of Frank Ocean's *Channel Orange* to the whole thing -- and unfortunately without ever providing the proper dynamics and relatable overtones most Frank Ocean songs effortlessly convey. Those mixed results give the feeling that Tesfaye often ad-libs or improvises his vocal lines around the chords' tonic notes (not so far from the way Future does it, for instance), and it's therefore a little difficult to sense what's really at stake in those early songs. Too often, the glitchy music just harmlessly drones, and there's not much that Abel can do to provide genuine thrills over this indistinct backdrop. "Hardest To Love"'s awkwardly syncopated, UK garage-adjacent drum part also doesn't help -- as if that strange drum programming sacrificed pop efficiency for so-called "originality", yet ultimately failing on both counts. This failure probably stems from the hackneyed, sickly-sweet nature of the song proper, along with its tired clichés about heartbreak, which never justify any sort of seemingly "sophisticated" arrangements in the first place. Same with next track "Scared To Live", basically. Of course, you can still argue that there are discernible melodical elements in those two compositions, as naive-sounding as those elements are. Because, even more crucially, the sound textures displayed elsewhere on the album's initial run most often take over genuine musicality anyway. It's all nightly neon gloss and surface effects, admittedly shiny once in a while -- as in opener "Alone Again" and follow-up track "Too Late -- but also a little too complacent, conventional, and even fully pointless at times, as in borefest "Snowchild". "Pyramids", this is decidedly not. As for Tesfaye, he is no Frank Ocean for sure. He's obviously not interested in bringing warmth or humanity to his digitally-enhanced vocal performance -- almost as if he didn't care about the songs. And neither is he Michael Jackson in this record, which is surprising given that Jacko had been his obvious model on an artistic viewpoint so far -- to the point of pastiche or mimicry on some older hit singles. Abel's trademark falsetto sounds too demure and distant for that on *After Hours*, implying that he probably just wanted to change his stride for this particular album to counter that old comparison with the idol of his life. Fair enough, but what is it that we *do* have instead? Well, it's unclear... Tesfaye's computerized act doesn't suggest any relentless robotic intent either, the way artists like Kraftwerk, Gary Numan or former collaborators Daft Punk once exemplified it. So you're just caught in some undecided soft-sounding and conventional dusk between man and machine, instantly disposable and irremediably inert. You feel like current AIs could have written this music at times. But you never feel such effect was consciously looked for. Not that this impression could exclusively be viewed under a negative light. In a way, said inertia and mindless artificially are also an apt way to musically convey the lyrical themes also found in this LP: isolation, paranoia, lust, relationship issues, self-centered concerns and the likes... More than ever, Abel sounds like a lost and disillusioned soul imprisoned in the solipsistic ivory tower money and fame has put him in, desperately looking for meaning and failing to do so. Those lyrics certainly don't call for empathy -- the man chose to live a life like this after all. And with copious amounts of sex and drugs helping Tesfaye find his pleasures where he can (whether he or his pop star persona), I guess he's doing alright enough compared to us plebes anyway... Interestingly, the song where Abel addresses those topics in the most straightforward manner is the one where he seems to wake up from the slumber of the record's first side at last. Oh the irony. Metro Boomin-produced "Heartless" is indeed the first item in a string of gems which almost goes all the way to the conclusion of the album, and its bouncy trap flourishes and menacing-yet-memorable chorus succeed in leaving an imprint that was lacking in the album's first leg. Following it, you have "Faith", a supposed deep cut with quite intense lyrics about death and addiction -- whose spiky synth pop instrumentation actually fares far better than the one found in many previous The Weeknd singles. Speaking of singles, the track that follows is none other than "Blinding Lights", the new-wave-inspired hit that has become The Weeknd's signature song for all the good reasons (that synth riff is simply infectious!). Next is "In Your Eyes", and yes, its horn section, white funk arrangements and major harmonies are cheesy as f*ck. Yet it's hard to hate the tune if you manage to convince yourself this here is indeed a song which directly came from the eighties -- one that you've heard countless times on the radio before, and that you've brought yourself to love through the sheer power of nostalgia. And "Save Your Tears" pulls off the same feat right after, with a slightly more driven energy also leaning on dream pop flourishes this time around, evoking some platonic ideal of what "eighties pop" songs should sound like in 2020. For once, Max Martin can be congratulated for his input. When it's so well crafted, standardized pop can certainly change your outlook on blatantly commercial music. This doesn't redeem the album's flaws, but at least it gives you the impression you're not wasting your time anymore. After a lesser song going back to the muddled turf of the album's first side, actually labelled as an "interlude" in spite of its normal length (translate: they knew it wasn't good enough), the title-track "After Hours" offers the last of many highlights in the album. Here, The Weeknd proves he can get "atmospheric" without losing the melodic thread too much, and the obsessive nature of the rhythm patterns does help the listener getting hooked. If only they had applied that formula earlier, especially for the first songs... One last drowsy "experimental" track later ("Until I Bleed Out", where the Oneohtrix Point Never and Metro Boomin respective patinas can be easily pinpointed, once again), and *After Hours* is over. Right after the album fades out, a question surges, though: what do you remember from it, even after several listens? Well that it's basically a half-baked EP to which a "greatest hits" one has been added so as to create a full album. In the dead of the night, a string of famous singles suggesting the cohesion of a Spotify playlist instantly erases the memory of the conceptual artistry clumsily displayed before. And so it all ends up with vampires counting their hundred dollars bills in a corporate hotel suite instead of seducing you. The album's very name and its artwork suggested a real gothic adventure instead. Alas, the adventure is short-lived. Guess all that blood on the man's lips was just fake after all. 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 3 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the production and musicianship + 2.5 for the artistry) Coda: Some contemporary or near-contemporary pop / R'n'B artists (such as Britney Spears, Pharell Williams or Drake) will be mostly remembered for their iconic singles, and buying a "best of" LP of their works is already enough for most people, if they buy any record at all (I do have a CD of The Weeknd's *The Highlights* at home by the way, bought for a couple of bucks / quid / euros at a second hand record shop). And other artists and musicians will always be remembered for their legendary albums. Guess in which category I consider The Weeknd fits in... Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 10 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 20 (including this one)

Saw Thee Oh Sees / Osees live twice and almost lost a rib in the moshpit the second time -- not that I was actively trying to mosh, but sometimes you have to go with the flow. It was all worth it though, the live reputation of John Dwyer's psych garage act being 100% deserved. So I totally understand why someone would select this record for the users list, even if I very rarely support the inclusion of live albums in this generator. The band's protean discography also explains why someone would go for this record -- here you have three or four pivotal studio albums represented at once, as the person who selected the album explained themselves. The thing is, the vocals and electric guitar sound of a band such as Oh Sees will unavoidably be less distinct in a live recording, and the studio versions of those songs still display unmistakable live energy no matter what. So with the exception of "Web", maybe (whose hazy pedal effects in this live version add something to the studio one), I consider that the studio versions will be better appreciated by most listeners, thanks to shenanigans like mike placements and double-tracked guitars. Besides, you can always argue that if really you had to select *one* Oh Sees studio album, *Floating Coffin* would be the one to go to. For a long time now, John Dwyer and co. have been starting their gigs with the iconic first track of this LP, (as exemplified in *Live In San Francisco*), and the rest of that studio album perfectly encapsulates what the agitated American band is all about, with excellent closer "Minotaur" also being the template for the slower "ballads" Osees often end their LPs with. It's hard to pick just one, admittedly (and I have a few suggestions down there for a possible second studio album to select). But choosing also implies that you're making a personal statement, and it might be easier for newbies to discover this weird wonderful band through an entry point recorded in a studio. But whatever the case may be, and whoever you are who thought of Thee Oh Sees, I bless your heart for thinking of that band of jittery rascals. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 10 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 21 (including this one -- but as said earlier, it's because I would select *Floating Coffin* instead, probably with a second studio recording that could either be *Mutilator Defeated At Last*, *A Weird Exits* or *Carrion Crawler / The Dream*...)

The only album SOPHIE released was she was still in this world goes from lush and expansive synth-pop ballads ("It's OK To Cry", "Is It Cold In The Water?") to arid, abrasive and bouncy Aphex Twin-adjacent electronic scorchers, "playfully aggressive and interactive" indeed (they are the crazy and lustful "Ponyboy", the unhinged and uneasy "Faceshopping", and the obsessive manifesto "Whole New World / Pretend World" which closes this LP). You also have an incredible electronic dance banger towards the end with "Immaterial". Gosh, this thing is objectively ridiculous, with its relentless handclaps and its chipmunk digital vocals, but my head can't help bobbing to it! This is fun. When it's done correctly, "hyperpop" sure has striking assets up its sleeves, and this album proves it then and again. On first listens, the album seems to gratuitously go all over the place, but then I felt like its vastly different moods sort of completed each other, oddly enough. You're sensing there's a very personal narrative going on, even if it's obfuscated and even baffling to a degree. It's a narrative that's indeed most probably pertaining to transhumanism or transidentity, and whatever the songs' topics really are, the music conveys a striking, hypermodern worldview. Under that light you can forgive the short dud "Not Okay" -- actually more like an interlude anyway -- just because you can easily feel it's part of that mysterious narrative. And if the jump from the dark and impressive hyper-ambient instrumental "Pretending" to dancefloor banger "Immaterial" seems jarring at first, subsequent listens actually made that jump strangely satisfying for me -- as if all the tension experienced in the first track was suddenly released in the second. It's very sad we'll never hear the second full-length chapter SOPHIE could have written in a less tragic universe. You sometimes feel like her potential for highly conceptual LPs wasn't fully explored yet at this point. But for a niche artist who was mostly known for her more conventional forays into dance-pop up to that point, this very idiosyncratic record feels like a bold and brazen effort, unafraid to take risks. SOPHIE didn't merely experiment with her music here. She was also experimenting with her audience's expectations. Hyperpop is a genre that is not always beyond reproach, given the weird and even sometimes downright goofy things it does with sound and music. But it most often has a very singular quality: it exudes a lust for freedom that is not so commonly witnessed in other genres. And in this day and age, it's at least one feature in this genre that's worthy of praise. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 11 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 12 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 21

Oh well. I've always found this indietronica album overrated, but I have to admit that listening to some of its details with a greater focus today has mellowed my initial harsh assessment. The first three tracks, "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight", "Such Great Heights", "Sleeping In", are actually pretty cool. The next three cuts are admittedly underwhelming (it's where Ben Gibbard's sickly-sweet and gentle vocals display their potential flaws), but everything after -- starting with "We Will Become Silhouettes" -- returns to nicely-done tones and moods. The last two tracks involve some jungle / drum'n'bass rhythms that already sounded quite dated in 2003, but from today's vantage point, this doesn't matter at all -- fads come and go, but they shouldn't be that relevant decades after the fact: when the music's good, it's good. So Ben Gibbard (from Death Cab For Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello probably deserved their huge, long-standing indie success here. Of course, there is something to be said about the clean-sounding noughts aesthetics (generally streamlined to a fault) at the heart of the album's mostly homemade production values. But maybe the record sounding of its day and age brings it some charm today? Can't bring myself to immediately select both *Give Up* and Death Cab For Cutie's *Transatlanticism* for my own dangerously ever-expanding, potential 1001 albums list. I will have to make a choice at some point. But I'm still leaving the door open to both. At least as of now. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 11 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 13 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 21

Spanish prog rock / hard rock with poetic spoken-word sections and logical latin influences. Sometimes moving and well-crafted, other times awkward or hackneyed. 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 11 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 13 Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 22 (including this one)