Journey Complete!
Finisher #293 to complete the list
View User Albums Summary1104
Albums Rated
3.32
Average Rating
101%
Complete
Shalimar
Rahul Dev Burman
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2020s
Favorite Decade
Samba
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other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
111
5-Star Albums
28
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Shalimar
Rahul Dev Burman
|
5 | 2.65 | +2.35 |
|
Scott 4
Scott Walker
|
5 | 2.8 | +2.2 |
|
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
Bone Machine
Tom Waits
|
5 | 2.86 | +2.14 |
|
Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits
|
5 | 2.95 | +2.05 |
|
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Richard Thompson
|
5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
|
Central Reservation
Beth Orton
|
5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
|
Smile
Brian Wilson
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Scum
Napalm Death
|
4 | 2.07 | +1.93 |
|
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Liars
|
4 | 2.11 | +1.89 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
At Budokan
Cheap Trick
|
1 | 3.1 | -2.1 |
|
Your Arsenal
Morrissey
|
1 | 3.05 | -2.05 |
|
The Who Sell Out
The Who
|
1 | 3 | -2 |
|
All That You Can't Leave Behind
U2
|
1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
|
All That You Can't Leave Behind
U2
|
1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
|
Apocalypse Dudes
Turbonegro
|
1 | 2.9 | -1.9 |
|
I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail
Buck Owens
|
1 | 2.81 | -1.81 |
|
The Grand Tour
George Jones
|
1 | 2.79 | -1.79 |
|
Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival
|
2 | 3.78 | -1.78 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Radiohead | 8 | 4.5 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.22 |
| Bob Dylan | 7 | 4.29 |
| Tom Waits | 5 | 4.4 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 4.5 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.67 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nick Drake | 3 | 4.67 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.67 |
| Herbie Hancock | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| Green Day | 2 | 5 |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4.25 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 4.25 |
| Steely Dan | 4 | 4.25 |
| Metallica | 4 | 4.25 |
| Joni Mitchell | 4 | 4.25 |
| The Kinks | 4 | 4.25 |
| Neil Young | 4 | 4.25 |
| Fiona Apple | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kate Bush | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Stooges | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Public Image Ltd. | 2 | 1.5 |
| Bee Gees | 2 | 1.5 |
| U2 | 5 | 2.2 |
| Elvis Presley | 3 | 2 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Van Morrison | 3, 2, 5 |
| Dexys Midnight Runners | 3, 1, 4 |
5-Star Albums (111)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Birthday Party
2/5
Idk man, if you played this at my birthday party I would probably not invite you next year
116 likes
Buck Owens
1/5
A lot of this sounded like a parody of a country album. Not for me I'm afraid
13 likes
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Some nice background music but all kind of blended into one
8 likes
Paul Simon
4/5
This really does feel like a transitional album. Some of the wonderful folk stylings from Simon's work with Garfunkel but with some hints towards the more diverse output that he would explore further over a decade later on Graceland. It didn't quite reach the heights of that album, but there's some great stuff on here. Run That Body Down was a standout track to me
8 likes
Lauryn Hill
4/5
A great mix of hip-hop with R&B, soul and reggae. This is such a confident and skillful debut and has a great legacy for a very good reason
6 likes
1-Star Albums (28)
All Ratings
ZZ Top
2/5
This was exactly what I expected from a ZZ Top album. The opening song was great and Sharp Dressed Man is a classic I was already a fan of, but it got samey quite quickly. Not a bad album at all, just not for me
Herbie Hancock
5/5
A classic of the genre. This is such a fun and groundbreaking record and I love it
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
This is a difficult one for me. It's so often regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, and it's impossible to deny the influence and impact this record has. However no matter how many times I listen, something just doesn't click with me and I just feel underwhelmed. There are some good songs on here, and the closing track especially is so remarkable with its honesty and vulnerability, but the record as a whole just fails to resonate on the same level
Paul Simon
4/5
This really does feel like a transitional album. Some of the wonderful folk stylings from Simon's work with Garfunkel but with some hints towards the more diverse output that he would explore further over a decade later on Graceland. It didn't quite reach the heights of that album, but there's some great stuff on here. Run That Body Down was a standout track to me
Yes
4/5
Doesn't quite reach the heights of their next two albums, but as a glimpse of prog to come this is a pretty fantastic record
Radiohead
5/5
This is probably my favourite album of all time, not much more I can say here. Just a beautiful, haunting, immaculate work of art
Joan Armatrading
3/5
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. There's some lovely stuff here and there but nothing too memorable
Leonard Cohen
4/5
A welcome return to form after a patchy period. It doesn't quite live up to his first four albums in my opinion, but it's great to hear Cohen being this adventurous at this point in his career, and his longevity and relative consistency such a testament to his skill as a songwriter
Mj Cole
2/5
Garage just isn't for me really. I get the appeal and it was a relatively enjoyable listen, though a bit on the long side, but just not my jam
The Lemonheads
2/5
Never really got the hype about this one. It's a pretty fun album but nothing really clicks for me
Fiona Apple
4/5
Probably my least favourite Fiona Apple record, but still a hell of a lot better than most artists' best albums
Radiohead
4/5
This seems to be a lot of people's favourite Radiohead record which I understand - it's certainly their most direct alt-rock/almost britpop album and fits nicely with some other acclaimed British albums of the mid 90s. However it's only maybe my 4th favourite Radiohead album, which says more about the consistency of their catalogue than the quality of this record
While I would ordinarily give this a 5, considering every album here is regarded as one of the best of all time I'm being a bit harsher with my ratings, as there shouldn't be too many absolute stinkers. Therefore 5s are going to be relatively sparse, and The Bends can make do with a comfortable 4
Yikes. I've always been a bit too judgmental of U2, and was pleasantly surprised when I took the time to dig into their earlier work last year. So my expectations were relatively high when going into this
Beautiful Day is a great opener, if a bit cheesy, but it went downhill from there. The three-track run of Kite / In a Little While / Wild Honey were all almost unlistenable - Bono's voice was genuinely dreadful! This is my first did not finish of this project
The Style Council
3/5
This was an interesting one. I like The Jam and I like Paul Weller... and I somehow had no idea this entire project existed. It was a fun record (though A Gospel was realllly bad). I don't think I'd revisit the whole thing but there were some good songs and it was a nice one to discover
Big Brother & The Holding Company
2/5
Joplin was obviously such a massive and unique talent, and there's some really good stuff on here (Piece of My Heart being the obvious classic, but Oh Sweet Mary was also great, as was I Need a Man to Love despite Joplin's voice being a bit Marge Simpson in places). The framing of the studio cuts as faux-live performances was also interesting and added a lot of energy to the record
However there were a couple of quite boring blues cuts on here, and the cover of Summertime was... not good. A mixed bag for sure, and not one I expect to go back to
Leonard Cohen
5/5
What an incredible album. Cohen at his darkest and with some of his greatest songwriting (which is saying a lot). One of the best singer-songwriter albums of all time
Eagles
2/5
This is a prime example of a top heavy album. The opening track is incredible, and New Kid in Town is great too, but things just slowly decline from there and the entire B side is just forgettable dad rock
The Young Rascals
3/5
A nice surprise. I didn't know any of this other than the title track but it was just a really pleasant listen. Good vibes all round
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Nothing much stuck with me here, but there were immaculate blues vibes peppered across the entire tracklist. Some of the guitar playing was absolutely filthy and the range of collaborations was great, with the featured artists bringing a slightly different flavour to each of their tracks before a much more subdued and emotional closing run
Alice In Chains
5/5
I haven't listened to this in maybe 7 or 8 years and wasn't sure how it would hold up... ooh boy it holds up. Dirt is certainly the right word, everything about this is pure grit and filth
The swaggering riffs! The dense, enveloping vocals! The sheer power of the lyrics and songwriting!
Is it grunge? Is it metal? Who cares - it absolutely slaps
Morrissey
1/5
A very weird choice. All feelings about this hideous man aside, he's released some great albums with and without The Smiths. Viva Hate; Vauxhall and I; You Are The Quarry - all really good and would be understandable inclusions on this list
Your Arsenal isn't one of them
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Such a great vibe. It's dark and mysterious while still being catchy and just a whole lot of fun
Spellbound is one of the best openers of all time, Halloween is an absolute gem, and Mobile was a groovy little highlight
Don McLean
4/5
This was another record with an absolutely classic title track that I adore but I had never checked out the whole album. I was expecting it to be like Hotel California, where a lot of the album was filler and didn't live up to the majestic opening... and was very pleasantly surprised
This was just a lovely listen really. Absolutely gorgeous ballads like Vincent and Sister Fatima, slinky grooves like Winterwood, and energetic bangers like Everybody Loves Me. A solid record all round
Fugees
4/5
I just found out that Ms Lauryn Hill was only 20 years old when this album came out... absolutely fuck that
I've enjoyed this album even more every time I've listened to it, and it feels vital and significant to this day. I'm not a fan of a few of the skits, but there's not a bad song on here and it's a great listen
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
'I don't understand what they mean and I could really give a fuck'
All jokes aside, this is a solid album - probably their best as it's more confident than Gish and more consistent than the fantastic-but-sprawling Melon Collie. Cherub Rock kicks things off with volcanic energy, Today is remarkably beautiful, and Disarm disarms me with a smile
Leftfield
2/5
I just don't think I'm ever going to love a house album. It just gets too repetitive for me and, despite the clear technogical breakthroughs and interesting textures going on throughout, it just leaves me a bit cold
John Martyn
4/5
Proper lovely, diverse and interesting album. A bit jazzy, a bit folky, a whole lot nice
Buck Owens
1/5
A lot of this sounded like a parody of a country album. Not for me I'm afraid
Eminem
3/5
Wow, remember when Eminem was good!
This isn't his most consistent album by any means, and he went on to perfect his approach on the Marshall Mathers LP, but it works well to define his sound and make a huge impact early on
Arcade Fire
5/5
I love this one more every time I hear it. A modern classic for sure, and one of the best debuts of all time. So impressive and beautiful and still the best thing Arcade Fire have done imo
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
This was pretty great! One that I had not heard of at all so had no expectations coming in, and it was a really interesting listen. I will definitely be checking out some more of his work
PJ Harvey
4/5
A solid debut from one of the best songwriters of the last 30 years. Hoping there's a lot more from her as we go through the list
PJ Harvey
4/5
When I said I hoped we get some more PJ albums throughout the list, I didn't expect to get another literally the next day...
This is great though, she really builds on her sound from the first record and just experiments a bit more (Man-Size Sextet is a particular highlight) and it sounds amazing
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Fantastic album, one of the best opening tracks ever. Not much more to say
On a side note, why do the toms on side B sound so weird? What's up with that?
The Strokes
4/5
This is just a really solid record. Every track is great, the songwriting is catchy and direct and the whole album flies by in such a joyous way. It took a few listens for this to click with me, and growing up I always preferred Room on Fire and First Impressions..., but ever since it clicked I've been revisiting these songs more and more. There's a beauty in its simplicity and it's clear how this became such an influential album; one of the first real classics of this century
The Undertones
3/5
This was fun! Classic pop punk and far less annoying than the Ramones, this has aged very well. All the songs did blend into one a little bit, and the obvious highlight Teenage Kicks seems to have not actually been on the original tracklist
The Specials
4/5
God, The Specials are great!
I only heard their debut in full for the first time last year but was blown away. I don't think this quite lives up to its heights, but the opening song kicks things off with so much energy, and the wider range of instrumentation with some more ambitious songwriting (Stereotype, namely) is a really nice contrast to the more direct debut.
Also the song where they just list off a load of James Bond titles was bizarre but a lot of fun
Tim Buckley
3/5
This was pretty good! I've heard 4 Tim Buckley albums before (really enjoyed 3 of them) but hadn't got to this one, and it was verrrry different to what I was used to
Wikipedia described this as the first move to Buckley's 'sex funk era' and... yeah that sums it up really
A lot of it is really fun and there are some great grooves, but some of the songs outstay their welcome. It was also quite unlucky for this to come up in the project so shortly after Let's Get It On, which basically does the same thing in a more effective way
The Prodigy
3/5
This has some bangers on it and is clearly a very important album, but 80 minutes of breakbeat is just a bit too much for me
Madonna
4/5
Blown away by this one tbh. I like a lot of Madonna's big hits but found the couple of albums of hers that I'd listened to a bit samey and inconsistent
This was a massive departure from anything I expected, the opening track set the scene so perfectly- sounded like Enya singing over a Trent Reznor instrumental. Then there's some exploration with trip-hop and big club bangers, with some fantastic sounding synths and a really wide range of instrumentation and grooves. It tailed off slightly for me towards the end, and did start to feel its length, but the mysterious and slinky closing track was another highlight. All in all a great album, very different to what I was expecting, and definitely something I'll revisit
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
This had it's up and downs but was mainly pretty good! Ramble Tamble was a really impactful opener, Up Around the Bend was great, and there were some really fun grooves and a lot of amazing guitar playing across the record
The cover of Grapevine dragged on a bit, but not as much as I expected I saw it was eleven entire minutes, so that's something
On the other hand, it was peppered with a lot of quite generic blues/rockabilly stuff that just lacked any character, and Ooby Dooby was woefully shite
Ride
3/5
This is a really confident debut and it's influence on that iconic floaty shoegaze sound is massive. It's a bit rough around the edges, with the vocals being a bit underwhelming, and doesn't reach the heights of Going Blank Again
However, when you let the sound of it immerse you it's really impressive. And while the reverb-heavy swells are used to great effect throughout, the most impactful song for me was Dreams Burn Down with sudden bursts of volume punctuating the structure and contrasting with the more dreamlike softer textures
The Cars
4/5
This was really good! The main thing that stood out to me was just how tight the rhythm section is, all of the grooves just locked together perfectly (even the quirky, disjointed rhythms of I'm In Touch With Your World)
Most of the songs were more simple but the texture always built and varied throughout to keep things interesting, and there were some great flourishes and interweaving melody lines to spice things up to perfect effect. Just a really enjoyable record from front to back
Pink Floyd
5/5
I nearly gave this a 4 as it's not quite my favourite Pink Floyd album, but all of the criticisms I had seemed so minor and nitpicky when I started typing them out
It's just really damn good, not perfect in my opinion but close enough
The Shamen
1/5
Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood, but I didn't enjoy this at all. It was just repetitive and not pleasant to listen to, and a lot of the synths and drum machines sounded pretty bad (I get that it was relatively early for EDM and the sound developed a lot throughout the 90s, but one song sounded like a Rick Astley instrumental)
Funkadelic
3/5
I have a lot of love for Parliament/Funkadelic but have always preferred the funkier side of things
There is some great stuff here (the title track in particular) but You and Your Folks... is a bit annoying with its warbling reverb, and the closing track was a bit much
Cocteau Twins
4/5
This was really good! I never really got into Cocteau Twins but had a great time with this one, the production is just immaculate and the melodies are so folkish and dreamy
Will definitely be going back and checking out more of their albums
Marty Robbins
3/5
Enjoyed this one! Marty's voice is excellent and there are so many amazing harmonies throughout with the backing singers, and some excellent little guitar licks that add so much to the songs
I felt the songs did start to get a bit samey after a while, and the ones that were just Marty on his own didn't click with me as much, but on the whole it was a great vibe.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
This has a bit more filler in the middle than I remembered but when it slaps it slaps and oh boy does it slap
Queen
4/5
I've always loved Queen as a singles band but don't think they have a perfect album- this one might be their closest, along with A Night at the Opera, and the vast majority is great
The diversity of styles on this album is great, but it does feel a bit scattered especially in the second half as the songs just don't flow as nicely as they should. The two songs without Freddie on lead vocals are really lacking as well and are just quite boring, which is a shame because otherwise there's some truly wonderful stuff here (both versions of In the Lap of the Gods are incredible, and Lily of the Valley and Dear Friends are two gorgeous shorter cuts)
Meat Loaf
3/5
The rest of the album is a bit hit or miss for me, but my god that title track is still as amazing as ever. RIP to a real one
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
I'd only heard Mayfield's first three solo albums before and, while I didn't enjoy this one as much as those, it was a good listen. There weren't any stand out tracks for me but there were some great grooves and melodies, and this is one that I think will grow on me with revisits/deeper dives into the lyrics
Alice Cooper
2/5
It was more diverse than I expected - I thought it would be the same kind of cheesy rock sound as the (admittedly very fun) title track and was pleasantly surprised by the variety on here - but nothing really stuck with me and I can't imagine going back to this record
Kraftwerk
3/5
Not as great as some of Kraftwerk's pivotal work from later in the 70s, but this is them really on the cusp of nailing it. A v fun album
Brian Eno
4/5
God damn, Eno was just on fire around this time, his genius fingers were in so many lusciously-textural music pies; and Byrne was the undisputed king of the groove in this era as well.
Much more freaky sounding than the Talking Heads work Eno produced but still with those toe-tapping head-pounding cross-rhythmic synth-warbling beaaats
Turbonegro
1/5
This was a perfectly fine and fun record but I definitely wouldn't consider it as one of the greatest of all time. Some of the songs would be alright on a lesser Tony Hawk game (one of the ones after Pro Skater)
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Led Zep's first two albums are great, but have quite rightly been regarded as rip-offs of classic blues artists, and they don't bring much of their own sound to the records.
This is the first album where they really bring something different to the table, with a wide variety of styles blending together in a pretty perfect way
Santana
4/5
Damn good stuff
Simply Red
2/5
There were a couple of good songs, but it was mostly very bland soft rock with generally godawful 80s production with every single worst cliché of that decaee
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I would say this is the first classic Stones record, and there's a lot of good stuff on here (especially on the US version with the iconic Paint It Black)
Unfortunately things are a bit samey and uninspired in places and the band still feel like they're finding their voice, but it's so nearly there at this stage
Coldplay
3/5
Oh what could have been
Coldplay have released some utter tripe in the last few years, but this is a pretty promising debut (and the second album isn't bad either!)
The one-two opener of Don't Panic and Shiver is great, and there's some really lovely if not super original stuff on here. I don't know if I'd revisit the whole thing but it was decent
Death In Vegas
4/5
This was really good! I'd only vaguely heard of Death in Vegas and never listened to them so had no idea what to expect going into this
The instrumentals and production were fantastic, and while the vocal performances were a bit hit and miss (Bobby Gillespie was quite disappointing on Soul Auctioneer, though Iggy Pop was incredible on Aisha) this was overall a really enjoyable album
Alice Cooper
2/5
Like School's Out, it's got this campy dark vibe that I want to like but the music is just really uninteresting
Björk
4/5
No one does it like Björk. This album is just a brief taste of what's to come but it's just so distinctive and gorgeous
Joan Baez
4/5
God her voice is amazing and these songs are just lovely. Solid album
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
It's just very very good isn't it
Led Zeppelin
3/5
It's good, it's just also very long and doesn't feel like it needs to be as long as it is. Kashmir is amazing, and there are a couple of other highlights but most of it just passes by - solid background listening but not much more, which is a bit of a shame
Fiona Apple
4/5
This is my first repeat review, as I did a few ratings before creating a group. Here's what I said last time:
'Probably my least favourite Fiona Apple record, but still a hell of a lot better than most artists' best albums'
It's really good though and grows on me with every listen
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Lovely stuff, Neil is a quality dude
Sex Pistols
3/5
The singles are great but I find the rest a bit hit and miss. Very few albums have this intense urgency though, and even though not all of it clicks with me I completely understand why it's as important and influential as it is
Public Enemy
4/5
A timeless album really. It's just so urgent and chaotic and really does feel exciting and dangerous even over 30 years later
Also the guy talking about men in cages on Incident at 66.6FM sounds like Ben Shapiro
Common
4/5
Another essential hip-hop album, the production and storytelling on this are just very very good
Sonic Youth
3/5
Cacophonous, atmospheric and seductive in a way only Sonic Youth can really achieve. It's not as streamlined or as sonically rich as some of their later albums (Teenage Daydream, notably) but there is a raging energy to this that the grimier production complements
Doves
3/5
This was pretty solid. Some of it was pretty trademark indie that was indistinguishable from a lot of post-Britpop bands, but there were some lovely hooks every now and then, as well as some more distinctive darkness on songs like Friday's Dust
Blue Cheer
2/5
I saw a lot of reviews calling this one of the first heavy metal records and like... I guess. Props to it for being influential but a lot of it is just quite sloppy blues. This really puts into perspective how much of a genre-defining sonic change something like Black Sabbath was just the year after
Judas Priest
3/5
Proper anthemic metal. The first half of this album slaps and I was going to give it a higher rating but I think it tailed off a bit after Living After Midnight
Little Richard
4/5
It does feel a little samey after a while, but it's just wall-to-wall bangers to be honest
An incredibly important and influential album
Kraftwerk
4/5
The motifs are super catchy on this album, and the songs are quite hypnotic. It's of course very repetitive but feels more carefully structured musically and conceptually than Autobahn for example, which veered off after the title track for me. There's also much more of an emotional range than you get with most Kraftwerk, even though it's still veiled by this robotic coldness
Neneh Cherry
3/5
I'm not a huge fan of Buffalo Stance so, considering it was the lead single and the opening track, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy this but I actually liked the rest of the album a lot more!
Buffalo Stance is pretty cluttered and has some really dated 80s drum machine and synth sounds that just don't work for me at all, but the other songs are far less hectic and feature some pretty great instrumental parts (most notably the jazzy solo on Inna City Mamma and the SNL-style sax riff on The Next Generation) and a good mix of solid rap verses and catchy sung hooks
Animal Collective
4/5
AnCo are one of the most innovative and exciting bands of the 21st century, and this is a really solid record. That being said, I just don't love it as much as Sung Tongs or Feels (or even Panda Bear's solo release Person Pitch) so can't really justify giving it higher than a 3, no matter what Pitchfork may do to me
Edit: After a relisten I am going to go with a 4, especially as I think it's their only album on the list. My Girls, Summertime Clothes, and Lion in a Coma all are highlights and there is just so much lovely and strange but groovy stuff
Wire
4/5
A riotous punk album and such a confident debut, what a class record
Depeche Mode
4/5
All synthpop should sound like a horror movie
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
Another that came up for me before starting a group, here's what I said earlier:
This is a difficult one for me. It's so often regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, and it's impossible to deny the influence and impact this record has. However no matter how many times I listen, something just doesn't click with me and I just feel underwhelmed. There are some good songs on here, and the closing track especially is so remarkable with its honesty and vulnerability, but the record as a whole just fails to resonate on the same level
Merle Haggard
2/5
Not bad but just didn't stand out to me at all
The Byrds
4/5
This was great! I think this is the fourth album I've heard by The Byrds and I've enjoyed each one more and more
A fascinating mix of folk and some more experimental electronic music, with off-kilter melodies floating around reversed guitars and modulated vocals
Elis Regina
4/5
Another album by an artist I hadn't heard of before that blew me away. Lots of amazing stuff on this record
5/5
A prog masterpiece. The opening track especially just has such a drive to it and is constantly evolving that it's 18 minutes fly by. Various genres and styles are executed pretty perfectly and blended together seamlessly across the entire album. It's a real highlight of the prog golden age, and the best record of Yes' discography imho
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
It's a great album with some lovely harmonies and guitar playing, and a solid mix of folk and blues - Helplessly Hoping is a particularly gorgeous highlight. However it does feel like it's lacking a little something, especially after only recently hearing the more experimental approach by Crosby's other band on The Byrds' 'Younger Than Yesterday' which gave some really fascinating soundscapes
Gil Scott-Heron
4/5
Finally got around to listening to this one - absolutely great stuff. The mix of proto-rap with the ethereal flute-heavy free jazz creates a great soundscape
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
Good stuff
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Gimme Shelter is a perfect opening track, and You Can't Always Get What You Want is a perfect closing track. Everything else in the middle is really solid but just kind of falls by the wayside in comparison
Can I give an album a 5/5 based off just two songs? I'm incredibly tempted but I think a 4 is more accurate for the entire album experience. They're two very very good songs though
Paul Weller
3/5
This is the second album I've discovered from this project of the post-Jam pre-Britpop Paul Weller years (an era that I had previously heard nothing from)
Just as the synth-pop Style Council was a far cry from the punk that brought Weller into the public consciousness, Wild Wood was another stylistic left-turn with a Pearl Jam-esque alternative rock album - it's not quite grunge but it's verrry early 90s.
There's some really good stuff on here, and I have a lot of respect for Weller for delivering on such a wide range of genres so confidently throughout his career, but there wasn't too much in the album that really grabbed me
Missy Elliott
4/5
It doesn't feel quite as groundbreaking as her astonishing debut or the futuristic classic Miss E... So Addictive, but it's still a really solid album. The production is killer as always, and Missy continues to be a phenomenonal rapper with a uniquely assertive delivery
Julian Cope
2/5
There was some nice stuff in here but there was also a lotttt that I didn't really care for. Appreciate the ambition though
The Crusaders
4/5
This was super groovy and I enjoyed it a lot
King Crimson
5/5
Absolutely mega album. A stunning mix of prog rock, jazz, and symphonic music that's just a groundbreaking delight
Orbital
3/5
Not really my thing but I enjoyed it more than expected, especially the second half
Lauryn Hill
4/5
A great mix of hip-hop with R&B, soul and reggae. This is such a confident and skillful debut and has a great legacy for a very good reason
Talking Heads
5/5
One of the all time greats
Dead Kennedys
4/5
I've listened to this a couple of times before a few years and it never really hit me properly but I really enjoyed it this time round
It's just incredibly frenetic and unapologetic punk, with some really bizarre lead guitar lines and inspired vocal delivieries that make it stick out from the more by-the-numbers punk bands
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
Wall to wall bangers
Van Halen
2/5
Runnin With the Devil is a great song and Eruption is very impressive, but the rest of the album is just very anticlimactic. Lots of flash but no substance
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Some nice background music but all kind of blended into one
2/5
Some of it was really catchy - The Look of Love is a banger, it's instrumental reprise at the end sounded great, and 2 Geva 4 Eva was quite fun and theatrical - but my goddddd the production was dreadful for the most part
The vocals in All of my Heart sounded so bad, and there was a transition between two songs on side one that was really really bad, and the bass tones throughout were just a mess
Megadeth
2/5
Some great riffs but Mustaine's vocals kind of ruin this
The Who
3/5
It's certainly ambitious and there is some great stuff here. The drumming in particular is obviously fantastic but all the performances are great, there are some lovely harmonies, and it introduces and develops certain motifs in a really satisfying way
It's a bit all over the place though - the concept is so scattered, and musically it doesn't exactly gel together (Good Morning Campers or whatever it's called is fun but incredibly out of place) and it really feels like the entire thing hangs around Pinball Wizard. Which is an incredible song but... the 70+ minutes bookending seems excessive
Steely Dan
4/5
Listening to Steely Dan is really difficult because every 30 seconds I have to repress a primal urge to scream 'this groove is so fucking tight'
Anyway this has some massive bangers but also not quite their best. Good vibes though
The Only Ones
2/5
It's pretty good, I'm just not super into it
OutKast
3/5
It's way too long and all over the place and doesn't live up to its predecessors, but also there is so much great stuff within it that it's still an enjoyable project (though it's crazy that Aquemini didn't make it onto the list)
Queen
4/5
I'd only ever really listened to Sheer Heart Attack and onwards before - the only song I knew going in was Seven Seas of Rhye - so this was very unexpected. Much more of a prog and kind of heavy approach than I expected, almost like early Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin rather than the more iconic Queen sound. Really enjoyed this one!
The Undertones
3/5
Not quite as good as the self-titled but still a pretty solid punk album
Spiritualized
4/5
Lovely stuff. Overwhelming and ethereal, just a really great and huge sound
Pulp
5/5
Probably the best Britpop album? It's just a perfect mix of the fun anthemic bops and the darker, introspective stuff that Pulp excelled at (and explored even more for their next album, This Is Hardcore)
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Pretty nice to listen to with some catchy hooks, fun grooves, and enough instrumental variation to keep things interesting (the orchestra at the end of Jealousy sounds amazing!)
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
It was a nice background listen but nothing really stuck out to me at all
Bon Jovi
2/5
The three big singles are absolute bangers and the rest is just... fine I guess
TV On The Radio
4/5
Big fan of this. I heard Return to Cookie Mountain only a month or so ago and really liked it, and this was great as well. This is definitely a band I need to listen to more of
Gotan Project
3/5
Well this was certainly something different and I enjoyed it quite a lot
Metallica
4/5
An absolute beast of a live album. It's a really effective if unlikely marriage of sounds, and provides a new epic dimension to some already classic songs. It's just a shame that this came out in the middle of the otherwise least inspiring era of Metallica's career, as the tracklist isn't always too consistent. Cut maybe half an hour of the Load/Reload material and this couldn't be much better
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Really lovely but it just lacks the excitement of Treasure
Public Enemy
4/5
There's a bit of filler here and there, but the ones that hit are some of the most vital, iconic and just damn impressive hip-hop songs of all time
David Bowie
3/5
Over 100 albums in and we've got our first Bowie, fancy seeing you here
The opening and closing tracks are both great, and I like the overall stylistic shift of the album, but everything in the middle is kind of... well, mid.
PJ Harvey
4/5
A really bold change of style with some incredibly catchy hooks and a strong message. The first 2/3 or so is amazing but it does fizzle out slightly towards the end
The Jam
4/5
I remember not being super into this when I first listened a few months ago but errrrr it's pretty damn great actually
The United States Of America
4/5
I had to give this one a second listen to really gather my thoughts on it. Some of the fully musique concrete stuff that bookended the album was a bit too all over the place for my liking, but otherwise this was a really exciting album that went all in on a lot of genres and pulled it off. Definitely one I'll be coming back to
Elton John
5/5
Absolutely mega album, an all time classic and quite solidly the best of Elton's career (Lion King soundtrack not included)
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
I remembered enjoying this one a little more than I actually did. Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are both incredible songs and Grace Slick's vocals are so powerful but, other than the beautiful guitar interlude Embryonic Journey, the rest of the album has a lot less character and just doesn't hold my interest in the same way
Basement Jaxx
2/5
Just not my vibe on the whole, sorry guys. Red Alert and Bingo Bango were absolute bangers though (and I enjoyed the Jazzalude)! The last song was also nice, but I didn't care for the rest at all
Adam & The Ants
2/5
It's fun and there's some good songs (especially the run of Ants Invasion/Killer in the Home/KotWF) but there's a lot of filler especially towards the end
The US version with Physical would probably get a 3, but it's not on the UK version so a 2 it is
Air
4/5
Sounds like Angelo Badalamenti got into Massive Attack. Sweet
The Birthday Party
2/5
Idk man, if you played this at my birthday party I would probably not invite you next year
Fever Ray
3/5
This was really cool, great vocals and interesting beats and hooks, but it was quite top heavy imo and I began to lose interest as the album progressed
Bob Dylan
4/5
A fantastic set of songs. The half-electric half-acoustic ordering gives this the vibe of a double album (without the runtime) and pretty much every track is a classic or a heartwrenching lyrical goldmine
Fiona Apple
5/5
A masterpiece and easily one of the best albums of the last few years
Guns N' Roses
3/5
Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and Sweet Child Of Mine are all fantastic era-defining anthems, but the rest of the album is kind of mid. Same kind of thing as Slippery When Wet
Soft Cell
2/5
Some fun lyrics here and there, and the Tainted Love cover is great, but otherwise this kind of sucked. Just really annoying synths and pretty awful vocals on the whole
Rush
4/5
Iconic prog with some absolutely incredible instrumental work, with Geddy's vocals sounding as powerful as ever. The first side is exceptional but I did feel the album tailed off slightly in the second half
Michael Jackson
4/5
*slaps roof of the album Bad by Michael Jackson* This bad boy can fit so many bangers in it
Mariah Carey
3/5
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did but yeah, all the songs are just a bit samey, and there's just a lot of vocal layers that are kind of buried in the mix and add nothing. When Mariah actually has a strong vocal line to sing, she sounds incredible, it's just a shame that a lot of the album is so washy
Sinead O'Connor
4/5
Great stuff, a really diverse and emotional record with top notch songwriting
Kacey Musgraves
3/5
It's a nice listen but mostly nothing too interesting. I was going to give this a 2, but the last three songs were all great so have bumped this up
Pixies
5/5
Not much to say, just a legendary record
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
A wonderful, incredibly dark and morbid album. Cave's late '80s to early 2000s run was pretty exceptional and, while this isn't my favourite in there, it's got some standout songs and a very defined style
James Brown
3/5
This album bustles with energy and is a lot of fun, though I do prefer Brown's slightly later stuff (his mid-60s to 70s repertoire is incredible)
It truly is a landmark recording, capturing such an iconic singer blowing up with a raucous audience all around, I just wish I liked the songs more tbh
Jeff Buckley
5/5
An incredible album - such a beautiful voice and songwriting with a heartbreaking legacy behind it
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
An incredibly important album from the Jazz rap pioneers. I don't enjoy this one quite as much as their two following records, but there are some fantastic songs on here and it's a remarkably solid and confident debut
Barry Adamson
3/5
I listened to this at work and was on edge all fucking day
Blur
4/5
It's a bit longer than it needs to be but there's a lot more to this than many other britpop albums. The interludes are fun, the ballads are really effective, and the singles do indeed slap
Kate Bush
4/5
An eccentric masterpiece
Brian Wilson
5/5
The fact that this album exists in a form that Wilson was happy to release it is just amazing
Now that the Smile Sessions are out, it's hard not to compare the two and I don't think this recording holds up as well as the sessions from back in the day, but it's still just a delight to listen to
Nas
5/5
Another absolute banger of an album. One of the greatest and most influential hip-hop records of all time, enough ssid
KISS
2/5
Detroit Rock City is a great opener, and probably Kiss' best song
Shout It Out Loud is fun if pretty cheesy
The rest of the album kind of sucks
Yes
3/5
Yes to this
It's not as ambitious as Close to the Edge, and doesn't have a standout single like Fragile, but it's still just another solid prog album from one of the best bands to do it
David Bowie
5/5
One of his best, what an enigmatic and delightful album
Al Green
4/5
God we've had some bangers recently. This is just the epitome of cool, every song is so chill and beautiful, and Al's voice is amazing. Title track and the BeeGees cover steal the show, the rest is solid if not as great
Sugar
3/5
People on indie groups on Facebook will try to tell you this is the best album ever
It's maybe a top 5 Bob Mould album - pretty good but overhyped imo
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Stevie is just so good
Neu!
3/5
Pretty great album that seems very ahead of its time. Kind of wish the ambient stuff and the heavier stuff blended together a bit more rather than having a halfway split, but I enjoyed this quite a lot
Nirvana
5/5
Another classic, so many great tunes on here
I distinctly remember hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time in about 2007 - I immediately googled 'Nirvana UK tour dates' and was very upset with what I discovered
Talk Talk
3/5
The first song was fantastic but the rest didn't really grab me. Hints of greatness here and there, and it marks a big transitional period to their next two (far superior, yet somehow not on this list???) albums
AC/DC
3/5
The title track slaps and then the rest just kind of happens, bit of a shame really
Some great guitar solos though
Steely Dan
4/5
Steely Dan just don't miss
Stereo MC's
2/5
Some of the songs were quite fun but it was all a bit samey and nothing too exciting
Richard Hawley
3/5
There are some really nice arrangements here but it is a bit derivative, and I don't think the vocals are powerful enough to carry through as much as they should
Eurythmics
3/5
Ngl I was expecting this to be one of those 80s albums with one big single and a load of filler but this was pretty darn good
It definitely sounds of its time but is really fun and uses the big 80s synths to great effect. Songs like Wrap It Up and This is the House are so upbeat and boppy, and the more laid back Jennifer is a lovely, sensitive moment after the big single. Lots to like here
k.d. lang
4/5
A very lovely record
Spiritualized
5/5
I listened to this not too long ago but wanted to relisten anyway just to decide whether to give it a 4 or a 5
I swear it just hits harder every time. The textures are just so beautiful throughout and every vocal line is either catchy as hell, a tearjerking lullaby, or both
Gorillaz
4/5
Exciting! This is just such an assured debut that covers just about everything stylistically. I'm keeping it at a 4 as I don't think it's as consistently strong as their next two albums but it's a true classic
Parliament
5/5
God we've had some good ones recently. Not much more to say other than this is possibly the best funk album ever made
3/5
It opens with three of the biggest stadium rock anthems you could ask for, and the rest of the album just kind of happens
Metallica
4/5
Another classic. This is the album that marks a big shift towards a more commercial sound for Metallica and, while that was questionable in the long run, this record is great. There are a couple of songs towards the end that I'm not as big on, but at least half of this album is just timeless tune after timeless tune
Van Morrison
3/5
I remember being blown away when I first heard this, but the last couple of times I've listened it's left me a bit cold. There's some beautiful stuff going on instrumentally but Van's voice is quite abrasive in places (especially on the first couple of tracks) and nothing is particularly memorable
Venom
2/5
Very different to what I expected- much more thrashy and not as heavy as I thought it would be, and just not very exciting tbh
M.I.A.
4/5
I completely forgot just how unhinged a lot of this album was. There are influences from all over, blended in a fascinating way over some filthy beats, and it's just a very fun listen
Weather Report
4/5
Some banging fusion, Birdland is a certified tune and the rest is also v good
Elastica
4/5
Really solid post-punk
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
Nice ambient stuff, it makes for good listening and clearly impressive for its time but nothing too exciting going on
The The
2/5
I first heard Soul Mining a few months ago and was a big fan so I was quite excited to see this come up. Yikes...
This was a very different experience and just didn't mesh together very well at all, I was close to giving this one star to be honest but the last song was quite fun
Miles Davis
3/5
This is really solid and maybe would have been a 4 or 5 with anyone else but I feel that, with the hindsight of what Davis would go on to do, it's a little underwhelming. It's a good listen and clearly very influential but just doesn't have the same emotional impact as his modal jazz period or the intrigue of his more experimental later work
Screaming Trees
3/5
Pretty good, kind of Alice in Chains-y, nothing too exciting
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Really enjoyed the first part of this, the first two songs somehow fly by and don't feel like 9+ minute songs at all
The spoken word intro of the last song drags on a lot though and the payoff isn't worth it imo
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Quite enjoyable blues rock record -the first song is especially good
The Roots
4/5
This is such a great album with probably the broadest range of influences displayed by a The Roots record. As conscious as ever and with some classic hip-hop beats but also the hard-core punk of '!!!!!!!', the chill soul of Complexity, the almost indie-rock sound of 'The Seed 2.0', and the beat-switching funk of 'Break You Off'
Some of it doesn't quite work for me (the soundscape that makes up the second half of Water is quite indulgent for example), and I'm very surprised this is the Roots album that was chosen over Things Fall Apart or Game Theory, but it's a really impressive dive into a lot of different sounds
Femi Kuti
4/5
Grooves for days
Harry Nilsson
3/5
Absolutely mad that Without You and Coconut are consecutive songs on any album
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
Good vibes all round
Lou Reed
4/5
A fantastic album, combining the wit and poetry of someone like Leonard Cohen with the punk sensibilities of Iggy Pop. World-weary, weird, and wise
a-ha
2/5
Another 80s album that really hinges on one big song
Take On Me is obviously fantastic (as is The Sun Always Shines on TV) and the title track was really nice and an effective change of pace. The rest of the album was really underwhelming though
George Jones
1/5
I've really tried to be open-minded with every county album so far, and I swear there are country albums that I like, but this was just so tedious
Prince
4/5
This suffers in the same way that a lot of double albums do, and is a bit inconsistent (both in quality and in tone) but there's enough great stuff across here to make it enjoyable on the whole, especially the second half (though the live song drags on waaaaay to much, low point of the album for sure)
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
Incredible vibes, and it works so well as a standalone that I sometimes forget it's a soundtrack
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Good stuff
The Stranglers
4/5
A really fun, catchy, and diverse punk record
The Auteurs
2/5
I've listened to this once before and didn't really get the hype then and don't get the hype now either. It's solid but completely unremarkable and there are so many better releases by similar '90s bands
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
A really lovely debut with some truly beautiful songs. Electronic Renaissance was an... interesting diversion that I don't think quite worked, but everything else was great
Kanye West
5/5
A messy, bloated masterpiece from a truly unique artist at the top of his game. This really is Kanye at his most open, self-aware, and remorseful before he entered full dickhead era
Primal Scream
3/5
Movin' On Up is a great way to start a record, and some of the darker songs towards the end (Damaged and I'm Coming Down) are really interesting, but on the whole this just doesn't really do anything for me
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
It's a solid debut but not too exciting. He has much better stuff later in his career
Beatles
3/5
Not as exciting as a lot of The Beatles' later releases, but there are a lot of just really lovely songs on here
Prince
3/5
The title track and Little Red Corvette are both fantastic but nothing else really jumped out at me. This was quite anticlimactic to listen to after Sign o' the Times, which felt a lot more consistent despite being 10ish minutes longer
This album really suffers from having quite a few songs that last far longer than they should, and just doesn't have strong enough songs to stick out after the iconic one-two openers
Paul Simon
3/5
This is another that came up earlier, my thoughts on it havent really changed since the last time though I think I'll change the score to a 3
This really does feel like a transitional album. Some of the wonderful folk stylings from Simon's work with Garfunkel but with some hints towards the more diverse output that he would explore further over a decade later on Graceland. It didn't quite reach the heights of that album, but there's some great stuff on here. Run That Body Down was a standout track to me
Bert Jansch
3/5
Some of the guitar playing was really nice but the songs didn't really stick out to me
Travis
3/5
This started pretty strongly, and As You Are in particular was great. However it was a bit derivative and after a while it just lost momentum
Crowded House
3/5
A lot of 3s recently - just a solid album with nothing too special going on
Roni Size
2/5
Didn't mind this one at all and there were some fun bits here and there (Beatbox especially) but it did not need to be so long
Sonic Youth
3/5
I really like a lot of Sonic Youth's over albums but for some reason this one just doesn't work for me
Le Tigre
4/5
An angular dance punk classic
Ute Lemper
3/5
Quite strange to include what is essentially a covers album on here, but it was an interesting listen, a lot of the arrangements are lovely
Deep Purple
4/5
Highway Star and Smoke on the Water are both incredible and, while the rest of the album didn't quite match up, it was still really solid with some fantastic playing throughout
Maxwell
3/5
Nice chill vibes, and Ascension in particular was a big ol slice of groove, but it did get quite samey towards the end
David Bowie
4/5
I only really got into Bowie just before Blackstar came out, so missed the hype around The Next Day when it was first released. I'd always dismissed it, thinking it probably only got the acclaim it did because it was such an unexpected return
But nope, it's also pretty damn good
The Flaming Lips
4/5
A great series of tunes with exciting instrumentation
The Byrds
3/5
Not bad by any means but nowhere near as exciting as some of their other albums
Fatboy Slim
4/5
Wall to wall bangers
Ice Cube
2/5
Very mixed feelings on this one. It starts really strongly and has good moments throughout (the production is generally solid even if it's starting to feel a little dated with the rise of G-funk, and Ice Cube sounds ferocious on the whole album) but the lyrics often seem really generic compared to the insightful and political Cube from previous releases. It's just a quite bland and excessive gangster rap record for the most part, which is a shame considering his legacy before this point
Björk
4/5
A very ambitious and fascinating album that many artists wouldn't be able to pull off, let alone make the end result sound so unsettling in some places and beautiful in others
Slipknot
4/5
The whole thing, I think, is sick
The first half of this still hits incredibly hard, Jordison's drumming is unmatched, and I have now had a flashback of singing Spit It Out at karaoke when I was about 15 so thanks for that
Some of the soundscapes from the second half are eerie as hell and still leave a huge impression. The only real downside is that some of the rap-heavy stuff from the tail end seems quite derivative compared to the earlier songs, and some of the lyrics are quuuuite bad, but on the whole it is just a ferocious and unsettling sonic attack
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Influential instrumentals and one of the smoothest MCs to do it, Q-Tip and Co. just dance over these beats
The 13th Floor Elevators
2/5
Didn't really click with this at all, none of the songs were especially distinct or memorable
Jane's Addiction
2/5
I've never really got this one. Jane Says and Mountain Song are both pretty great but the rest of the album is quite lackluster. The vocals are grating and the mixing is really not good at all
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Slightly overhyped but still a damn good album
Minutemen
3/5
I really like a lot of this but it just tails off a lost towards the end, that last side just doesn't hold up to the rest of the album which is a damn shame
John Prine
4/5
What's this? A country album that I enjoyed? In this economy?
This is a great album, and way more diverse than a lot of the other country albums on this list so far. Fantastic lyrics throughout as well and some cracking guitar playing
Eminem
4/5
A masterpiece of shock rap, some of which has stood the test of time incredibly well, some of which has aged very poorly
Traffic
2/5
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I have very mixed feelings about this album. The lyrics are generally pretty great (it's Cohen, of course they are), and he really makes the best use of this unique voice here - whereas some earlier albums have him straining for high notes he can't reach, he gives a commanding gravelly performance throughout this album that really works.
The instrumentation has aged very poorly though, and probably was behind the trend at the time as it's quite late in the decade to go all in on that '80s production. Still better sounding than Death of a Ladies' Man, but some of the instrumentals sound like rejected pitches for the Seinfeld theme. Overall, a decent album from a legendary talent
Can
4/5
Some of the second half gets a bit tiring but it's a really unique album and a great mix of incredibly tight grooves and absolute chaos
Billy Bragg
2/5
Its certainly an interesting idea for an album and I'm glad I was able to give it a listen, but it's a far cry from either of their best work
Iron Butterfly
2/5
I feel like if the title track wasn't 17 minutes long this album would not be anywhere near as revered, it's not really that interesting at all
R.E.M.
5/5
A gorgeous album that sees one of the greatest American bands of all time expand their musical pallete, with some of their absolute best songs
Pink Floyd
5/5
Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Probably my favourite Pink Floyd, and an all round fantastic record
Frank Sinatra
2/5
I listened to this yesterday and can't really remember it at all
Daft Punk
3/5
It's got some great moments but does get a bit repetitive and is about 20 minutes too long
SAULT
4/5
Of all the recent albums to be on the list, this is a really interesting choice. It wasn't one of my favourites of the last couple of years but, going back to it, it's inclusion fully makes sense
A diverse blend of genres, with thought-provoking spoken word on important abd always-relevant topics throughout, it has a lot of depth and I'm sure there's still a lot more to get out of this record on future listens. On a surface level I'm torn between a 3 and a 4, but think a 4 is more appropriate with this in mind
The Killers
4/5
A solid collection of pop rock bangers
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
3/5
It was alright, though I think my favourite song on it (Extended Souvenir) was actually a bonus track, and some of the others just gave me Aldi own-brand The Cure vibes
D'Angelo
4/5
A really chill neo-soul album with great vocals and even better production. It seems this is the only D'Angelo album on the list though, which is a bit odd as the other two seem so much more focused and vital
Elton John
3/5
This is an interesting addition in John's stellar 70s run. There are some amazing songs on here but the flow doesn't quite work for me. The instrumentation throughout is very diverse and a lot of the songs have their own unique style which is great, but the songwriting is incredibly samey throughout as pretty much the entire album is 5 minute-ish mid-tempo rock opera ballads. After a little while it's really begging for some variety and, while songs like Levon are fantastic, having it straight after Tiny Dancer makes it pale in comparison. If there were a couple of shorter songs of a different style mixed between here it would be a much more balanced listen
The Jam
3/5
A solid punk record that really peaks in the middle with Start! and That's Entertainment. The production is really good on this album with everything sound clear and impactful, especially the bass which just drives everything with so much energy
Faith No More
3/5
A pretty fun album that's years ahead of its time, not really my thing but I hugely appreciate the ingenuity here as well as the unhinged performances by Patton
Skunk Anansie
4/5
This is the first Skunk Anansie album I've heard (I listened to a couple of songs when I was about 14 and it wasn't really my vibe at the time) and I enjoyed this a lot. The music was a lot more varied than I expected and Skin is a powerhouse of a vocalist
Supergrass
3/5
It's quite fun and I like the mix of styles on here, with some '60s and '70s throwback stuff mixed in with a more contemporary '90s britpop sound, but the mix is incredibly muddy throughout and kind of ruins the listening experience
Oasis
4/5
Oasis have an annoying trait of making a solid 3 minute song last for about 5 minutes despite clearly running out of ideas
That being said, this album has some of their strongest songs - opener Rock n Roll Star is the major exception to the above rule, Live Forever is a great time, Supersonic is silly but fun, and Married With Children is a lovely little closer. It really drags in places though, and Shakermaker is downright awful
Elbow
4/5
A really lovely album, the instrumentation is gorgeous throughout and there are some incredible vocal harmonies on basically every track. Every song has its own unique sound and character yet complement each other really well, and it's just a tremendously rewarding listen
Morrissey
4/5
One of his best solo albums. There's a rare fragility to his voice that really carries this project forward
Anyway the Queen died while I was listening to this so that's a bit mad
The Smiths
5/5
Bit soon lads, she only died yesterday
Anyway this is a great album
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
We've had a pretty fantastic run of classic British albums recently and this no exception. Bandwagonesque blends the angular indie of Husker Du, Pavement and similar American bands with a proto-Britpop catchiness that results in a hugely enjoyable record
MGMT
4/5
A big vibe. The three singles are great in particular but it's just generally very good
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
There are couple of songs in the middle that drag a bit and stop this from being a perfect album for me, but the rest of it is just fantastic so it's getting a 5 anyway
Ice T
3/5
One of the most sonically diverse gangster rap albums ever. A great mix of thoughtful and political spoken word, heavy beats, and even a hard rock song. It's just way too long man - there is some great stuff here but also a lot of filler, and a more refined tracklist could have given this album so much more of an impact
DJ Shadow
4/5
I've never really clicked with this album but I appreciate the heck out of it - the technical wizardry on display is astounding, and DJ Shadow conjures up some quite eerie vibes in impressive fashion
Amy Winehouse
5/5
A gorgeous and timeless album, not much more to say its just wonderful
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
2/5
Some of this was alright but it was also just quite boring and the solos were far too noodly a lot of the time
TLC
3/5
It's got a couple of great songs (specially Waterfalls which is an all-time classic) but the album as a whole gets a bit repetitive and has far too many skits/interludes to be a really cohesive listen
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Pretty good and obviously really influential. I feel I may have enjoyed this more if this was my first Siouxsie album but, having heard some of their later work, this one doesn't quite reach those heights
Röyksopp
4/5
This was great!
Ian Dury
2/5
Some of the music on this was actually very interesting but I just couldn't get over the cringey music hall lyrics and really struggled to get into the album
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
The first couple of songs were really interesting and there was some other good stuff mixed in, but there were also some really tedious piano ballads that I could have really done without
Machito
4/5
Really fun frenetic jazz, yes please
Carole King
5/5
An incredible album, a true classic, every song is amazing really
Hugh Masekela
3/5
I enjoyed parts of this but other bits got a bit boring
New Order
3/5
A very hit and miss album. A couple of songs in the middle, particularly Sunrise and Elegia, were great. The opening song had such an awful mix though, each part was so weirdly independent it just sounded like it was recorded over Skype, and the vocals were awful on the last two songs
Joy Division
3/5
I've just never clicked with this album. Not sure why as I feel like I should like it, and I enjoy Closer a lot more, I just find a good chunk of the middle of the record to be quite tedious
Nina Simone
5/5
Simone's voice is incredible as always, and this is one of her strongest collections of songs. An absolute pleasure to listen to
Jeff Beck
2/5
This was a bit boring sadly, didn't get too much out of it at all
Tim Buckley
4/5
I'm surprised this one is rated so low. Absolutely gorgeous instrumentation throughout with the heavy use of vibraphone, and Buckley's vocals are just so impressive
CHIC
3/5
There's some amazing stuff here, and the first couple of songs in particular are great, but the album does get a little repetitive as it goes on
The Gun Club
4/5
I had never heard of this before and I had a great time. Like a proto-Pixies noisefest
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
A lot less weird than Trout Mask Replica which I still kind of struggle with, but still an absolute freakshow of a record. Delightful stuff
Grateful Dead
3/5
For one of the most influential and inventive bands of the '70s, this is a pretty boring album. Should have included one of their live albums instead
Stan Getz
3/5
Nice chill jazzy vibes with some lovely acoustic bass work in particular
Massive Attack
4/5
Not quite as focused as the albums either side of it in MA's discography, but still a great collection of genre-pushing soundscapes and hypnotic grooves. Sure, some of it sounds like video game music... but it all works
Aerosmith
2/5
This was pretty solid but there was nothing too exciting at all
Eagles
2/5
The singles are all pretty great, and there are a couple of other good songs on here such as Train Leaves Here This Morning, but any album with Chug All Night can't get any higher than a 2
Jimmy Smith
2/5
I really wanted to like this but I just found so many of the keys voices really annoying lol
Iron Maiden
5/5
Yeah this is just stellar really, one of the best metal albums of all time
The Rolling Stones
4/5
This album has its issues but a lot of it is great. Wild Horses and Dead Flowers are two highlights, and Moonlight Mile is a perfect closer
Donovan
4/5
I love love love the instrumentation on this, and songs like the title track and Season of the Witch are just fantastic
Goldie
1/5
Nearly 300 albums in and I think this has been the first one I didn't finish? It's not a great look when it feels like the record is running ideas and there's still *checks time* ten minutes left of the opening song
I bailed after track two
Beyoncé
4/5
Quite possibly Beyoncé's best record. There's a great mix of styles here and she really shines as a songwriter and vocalist in pretty much any genre she wants. Also the production is killer
There are a couple of songs I'm less keen on (particularly Blow and Mine) and it it a bit over-long in that sense. However otherwise it just has banger after banger - the four singles and No Angel are all top-tier Bey tracks- so it's hard to let that affect the overall enjoyment of the album
The xx
3/5
This album had such a chokehold on the UK indie music scene in 2009 and the early 2010s, and I get it - the production is fantastic and it just seems effortlessly cool. But the vocals are so lifeless and it really gives off such a vibe of style over substance that it's still difficult for me to find anything other than surface level enjoyment here
Pentangle
3/5
This was very lovely but not too memorable
The Police
3/5
A very interesting album by The Police that's incredibly hit or miss. Both Synchronicity tracks are fantastic, as is King of Pain and of course Every Breath You Take. There's a lot of pretty naff stuff here as well though, from the disturbing Mother to the cringey lounge jazz of Murder by Numbers
ZZ Top
3/5
This started off really well and, particularly with Master of the Sparks, I was enjoying the album quite a lot (certainly more than Eliminator). The second half didn't quite hold up for me though, and other than La Grange I found it difficult to latch onto anything. I'll still give it a 3 but it's much more on the 2-3 borderline rather than the 3-4 I was considering halfway through, which is a shame
Les Rythmes Digitales
3/5
This was a lot more fun that some of the other recent electronic albums (looking at you Goldie)
In terms of my personal enjoyment I'd only really give it a 2 but I'm feeling generous today
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Yeah this is a pretty much perfect album. So many fantastic songs among the tracklist with a more diverse range of stuff than I initially remembered
Duran Duran
3/5
On the whole this has aged pretty badly but there are some distinct positives, most notably Hungry Like the Wolf and the title track which are both just catchy as hell. New Religion and The Chauffeur were also really good, with the last one closing out the album in style, but there was just too much general production nonsense throughout the record to really ignore
Rod Stewart
3/5
Some of the songs suffered from being needlessly long despite clearly running out of material (That's All Right clocking in at 6 minutes??)
That fortunately wasn't the case on the whole though, and there were some great tracks (especially the opener and of course Maggie May)
Beatles
2/5
Yeah this is probably the worst Beatles record. It's about 50% covers, all of which have been done better by other artists. Somehow the best song on this has Ringo on vocals. Maybe I'm being overly harsh because I'm comparing it to their later work, but this isn't it chief
Madonna
4/5
Another Madonna record that was incredibly consistent. Once again, I feel bad for having previously dismissed her as a singles artist, this and Ray of Light were both top notch pop albums
Bad Company
2/5
Middle of the road forgettable dad rock
T. Rex
3/5
There's some catchy stuff on here and I enjoyed it on the whole, but it pales in comparison to Electric Warrior
Cat Stevens
4/5
A lovely collection of songs, with Father and Son being the obvious highlight. This was especially nice to listen to back to back with the 50th anniversary re-recording
Thelonious Monk
3/5
There are some really impressive solos on this but unfortunately none of the heads are especially memorable
Joni Mitchell
4/5
The jazz elements are a great addition to Joni's already-fantastic writing style of this period, and her vocals are astounding as always
Frank Zappa
4/5
The first two tracks are absolutely incredible but I do feel the album peaks quite early. The rest is pretty good but nothing sticks out as much as those openers. Still a banger though
Mylo
3/5
What's this? A British electronic album that didn't last two hours? It's pretty catchy and kept my interest the whole way, very chill and nice stuff. I particularly enjoyed Sunworshipper
Fats Domino
3/5
Very catchy and ridiculously influential. It's a bit samey after a while, but short enough to not outstay its welcome, and there's a charm to the songwriting and performances that makes it never seem boring
Anita Baker
4/5
A really enjoyable album with some great tunes
Jurassic 5
4/5
I absolutely loved this. There was a bit of filler in the second half otherwise I probably would have given this a 5, but on the whole this was great! Will definitely be checking out more of their stuff
The Dictators
2/5
It's a no from me
The Stooges
5/5
Possibly the best punk record of all time. Every song is so direct, powerful and ridiculously catchy, with really interesting and sometimes eerie background instrumentation giving some additional spice
Hanoi Rocks
1/5
Everything I hate about 80s rock wrapped up in one easily demonstrable package
Stephen Stills
3/5
This was pretty good, some surprisingly heavy tracks (Stills has an almost grungy tone to his voice which was very unexpected considering the release date of this) and a nice blend of southern rock and folk subgenres. Pretty damn long but it changed things up just enough
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Title track is amazing and the rest is nice enough, but I have been relistening to some of the later Beatles albums recently after the Revolver re-release and this is just lacking that Beatles magic
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
There are a lot of great songs on this and it works well on the whole, but it really marks the beginning of the end for Smashing Pumpkins in my opinion where everything just gets far too long and overblown. Nowhere near as direct and consistent as Gish or Siamese Dream, to the extent that I was toying with giving this a 3, but when it hits it really hits
Gang Of Four
4/5
Super catchy, energetic punk greatness
Pere Ubu
4/5
This was unnerving and I kind of loved it. It took me a while to adjust to the vocals and I think the opening track is the most abrasive they are on the whole album, but there's a lot of versatility across the record. Post-punk as I've never heard it before, and it was a delight
The Black Crowes
2/5
Not bad at all, just very uninteresting
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
Some of the music was fun, especially a couple of songs towards the end, but I didn't get on with the vocals at all
The Style Council
3/5
Another repeat from the dozen or so I listened to before starting a group - I quite enjoyed it at the time and it was a notable contrast to the music by Weller I was familiar with, but I also really didn't feel any desire to relisten to this even though it was nearly a year now since the first go through, which I guess says something about the album... idk, not enough for me to drop it to a 2, let's keep the rating as it was
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Far from Young's best albums (and my god has he had some great ones)
Looking forward to seeing some of his other records come up, but this one's only getting a 3
The Incredible String Band
1/5
I thought the first track was really interesting, and I was quite excited to see how this record blended different genres, but my god it meandered after a little while. The overall sound worked and some moments had fantastic group vocals that added so much depth, but it mainly just all felt exactly the same throughout, with the lead vocal lines often being very weak and honestly just annoying to listen to
The Velvet Underground
3/5
This somehow goes from possibly their most accessible song to their most unlistenable with a lot of chaos in the middle. There's a lot to love here, but also a lot of pretty horrible unnecessary feedback, and some dire mixing (Reed's vocals in Lady Godiva's Operation in particular are so jarring)
System Of A Down
4/5
This still hits incredibly hard, I can barely imagine the impact it must have had at the time. It's not as refined as Toxicity but probably their most distinctive and unhinged record, just am absolute slap in the face by a big red hand
The Smiths
3/5
Some of The Smiths' best grooves, but also some of their most meandering and forgettable songwriting
Aphex Twin
4/5
Perfect background music for basically any activity, with enough hooks to keep things interesting while still being just a lovely and spacious ambient backdrop
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
I really enjoyed the first few songs but it quickly got a bit too yodelly for my liking
Iggy Pop
4/5
The title track just kicks everything off with so much energy, it's an irresistible start to the record really. This may be Iggy's most vocally diverse album, he's just all over the place and sounding fantastic on pretty much everything. A couple of songs don't quite hit for me, but on the whole it's just a very fun time
Steve Winwood
2/5
I enjoyed the first couple of songs, the music was pretty fun, but I really tuned out after that
Todd Rundgren
4/5
I heard this for the first time a couple of years ago and it just blew me away. I prefer the first half to the second, but it's just a fantastic and incredibly odd little record
Rahul Dev Burman
5/5
This absolutely slapped
The Stooges
4/5
Punk with a dark and brooding edge, with We Will Fall really setting this apart stylistically from other albums of this scene. The first side is much stronger than the second but it's still an enjoyable listen throughout
Marilyn Manson
2/5
Nowhere near as dark and edgy as it tries to be, it's just got tinny production and laughably try hard lyrics. The Beautiful People and The Reflecting God still slap and Tourniquet is more impactful than I remember, but the rest is just unpleasant and boring
Adele
3/5
Adele is incredibly talented but also has a habit of writing some tedious piano ballads that don't really go anywhere. This album is far less fun and impactful than the previous two and less raw and emotional than her latest one and is just a very middling point in her discography. There are some incredible songs here - Send My Love is really fun, and All I Ask is absolute gorgeous. Just a shame that a lot of the stuff in the middle is so lifeless
The Youngbloods
3/5
I had no idea what to expect going in but this was quite fun
Underworld
2/5
Decent on the whole but just needlessly long and repetitive
Nick Drake
5/5
Just a really lovely album
10cc
2/5
There were some fun songs here and there but also some very questionable ones
Beatles
4/5
I don't have as much love for this one as some people but it's still a fantastic album and one of their best. Norwegian Wood, Michelle and In My Life are all tippity top
Joan Armatrading
3/5
I enjoyed this more on my second listen, still not quite enough to reach 4 stars but hey, maybe next time
Mercury Rev
4/5
For some reason I thought this was a britpop record but it's absolutely not, much more of a Flaming Lips and Sparklehorse kind of thing that I enjoyed the heck out of
Moby
3/5
A solid album with a great opening run of songs, they didn't all hit for me but the general vibe is great throughout
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
There are some really good tunes here, particularly Rent and It's a Sin, but it was a bit inconsistent and didn't have a huge impression on me
Pavement
5/5
An alt-rock classic and one of my all time faves
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
Very tranquil and beautiful, I enjoyed this a lot
David Gray
2/5
The fact that Spotify's first listening recommendation after this album is a playlist for 'Calm Labor and Delivery' says more about this record than I ever could
Laura Nyro
3/5
Enjoyed this one a lot, very Carole King esque
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
A mission statement and a half, this bursts with so much energy and personality. The skits actually add so much to the album, each member of the group shines and brings something different to the record, and there's just a lot of bangers with immaculate production throughout. Not my favourite Wu-Tang project (Liquid Swords and Fishscale do it more for me) but one of the most vital records of all time tbh
Fela Kuti
5/5
Probably the definitive Afrobeat album - politically charged and incredibly groovy, it's such an important record and also just so darn good to listen to
Violent Femmes
4/5
A great record whose acoustic leanings prove that punk doesn't have to be loud and fast; the aggression still comes through in the twisted lyrics and vocal delivery and the perfectly mixed rhythm section
The Byrds
3/5
Another interesting one by The Byrds, each of their albums so far has had a very distinct sound and personality which I really appreciate. This one felt a bit samey after a while but I had a great twenty minutes or so with it
Genesis
3/5
Genesis' magnum opus, with all the pros and cons that sentence conjures to the imagination
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
A dark and raw side to The Boss, with some great songs like Badlands and Racing in the Street, but a bit of filler and some very hit and miss vocals
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
2/5
I nearly bailed out of this halfway through but am glad I didn't as the instrumental tunes at the start of side two were the highlights of the whole album. The title track near the end was also great
On the whole though, it's over two hours of very repetitive country/bluegrass and felt even longer
OutKast
5/5
Yes!! This is basically the record that got me into hip-hop so I have a lot of love for it. Sure, there a couple of misses and the skits aren't always great, but there are so many incredible high points on this album to make up for it. Kicking off with so much energy with Gasoline Dreams and then the cooler-than-a-polar-bear's-toenails So Fresh So Clean; Ms. Jackson and B.O.B are two of the best hip-hop singles of all time; Humble Mumble has one of the best beat switches of all time; ?, Red Velvet and the closer are all incredible yet overlooked tracks. Just an absolutely fire record
The Yardbirds
4/5
A fun psychedelic twist on some standard 60s blues fare. Lost Woman, Over Under Sideways Down and of course Hot House of Omagararshid are all highlights
Lorde
4/5
Some absolute bangers with perfect pop production throughout, this is a brooding masterpiece
Jazmine Sullivan
3/5
Pretty solid but nothing massively noteworthy imo. This was my first time hearing the deluxe edition which was good, it definitely feels like a continuation of the album rather than a set of b-sides. Looking forward to the super deluxe edition Heaux Tales Mo' Tales Heauxliday Inn
XTC
4/5
Great stuff, quite possibly XTC's best. This record plows it's way through so many genres and feels at home in all of them
Blur
3/5
Beetlebum and Song 2 are both incredible songs and a huge statement to start the album. While there are some strong ideas throughout, with a great variety of styles and sounds with clear influences from all over the pop and rock spheres, none of them result in a complete song that is quite innovative or interesting enough to stand out
3/5
A fun punk record, nothing too exciting but a good time
Various Artists
4/5
This really is the quintessential Christmas album. Minus one star for the spoken word outro which I always kind of hated even before I knew about the hideousness of Phil Spector
Thin Lizzy
2/5
A relatively solid 90 minutes of exactly what you'd expect from a Thin Lizzy live(ish) album. I was going to give it a respectable 3, but there's a drum solo towards the end that is phased to shit and made me genuinely upset
So boring, a massive let down from the earlier Stewart album
Sepultura
4/5
I've never checked out more than the title track before but damn this was great
4/5
I'm a sucker for the first-half acoustic second-half electric live album formula. It really brings a sense of cohesion to something that can otherwise seem a bit aimless, and especially with Dylan's discography it feels like a turning point in his career unfolding in real time
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Bad Moon Rising is a great song but the rest is just really generic and not that fun to listen to
Marvin Gaye
3/5
There's a lot to take in here - a very raw album with some great grooves but not as refined or memorable as some more iconic Gaye records. Also, A Funky Space Reincarnation is a great song but feels woefully out of place with the rest of the album
Sparks
4/5
Probably my favourite Sparks album, and a whole lot of fun. Highlights are This Town... (obviously), Amateur Hour, and Talent is an Asset. Some of the songs can go on a bit long (looking at you, Equator) but on the whole it's a great record
Pink Floyd
3/5
Bursting with ideas to the extent that a lot of them overflow and just kind of fall on the floor. Astronomy Domine is a great opener, and The Gnome is a lovely little ditty. The rest is just a bit hit and miss really, but full of promise
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
Not as ambitious or memorable as the masterful Love & Hate, but a great record nonetheless
The Temptations
3/5
A solid soul album that didn't leave too much of an impact
k.d. lang
3/5
Strikingly different to Ingenue and her later work, but still a really good record
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
It lacks the intensity and energy that make The Holy Bible such a powerful album, but there are some great songs here. A Design For Life is the obvious highlight and one of their greatest songs, but it's a pretty stacked tracklist and one of their catchiest offerings
Peter Gabriel
3/5
There are some good songs here and there (Moribund the Burgermeister and Down the Dolce Vita are a lot of fun) but it's a very disjointed album, and sometimes doesn't quite stick the landing (Excuse Me feels like it's trying to be weird but just comes across as strangely nervous)
The Boo Radleys
3/5
This was a pleasant surprise. I figured this was going to be a pretty forgettable C-tier britpop album but there was actually a lot of interesting stuff going on and a much more Ride-esque shoegaze feel. Still a bit too long but not bad at all
Beatles
4/5
It's a bloated mess but there's so much great stuff on here, and even the songs I don't like add so much character to the album that I honestly wouldn't change a thing. I can't give it a 5 in good conscience as it can be such a slog to listen to all the way through, but on the whole it's a stunning collection of songs
Eric Clapton
2/5
Who the fuck let Eric Clapton play reggae?
Norah Jones
4/5
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. The great vocals were a given but the arrangements were constantly changing and kept things interesting, and production was on point. Good stuff.
The Kinks
3/5
Not one of my favourite Kinks records, this is solid throughout but there's nothing too memorable outside of the delightfully catchy Dandy and the incredible Sunny Afternoon
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
Doesn't quite resonate with me in the same way Psychocandy does, but it's a good moody album
Manu Chao
3/5
Good vibes
Bob Dylan
4/5
A really interesting addition to Dylan's catalogue. Is it as vital as Freewheelin/BIABH/Highway 61/Blonde on Blonde/Blood on the Tracks? No, absolutely not. But it shows a very different and more morose side to a continually evolving artist, with percussion and angular melodies that could have jumped straight out of a Tom Waits record
Pink Floyd
4/5
It's a bit bloated, sure, but it's a masterful display of progressive music, theatrical storytelling, and weird very-british quirkiness
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
This is the third album in a row that hits the 70-80 minute mark - really hoping for a 20 min punk banger tomorrow to counterbalance it.
Of the three this is the least deserving of the runtime, but it wasn't as painful as it could have been. There are some hypnotic grooves to get lost in here and there with some nice developments and interpolations. Things started dragging a bit by Bless My Soul but picked up again for the more left-field closing tracks
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Some of the synths have aged really badly but that's the only real negative. Every song is either poetic and emotional, an outright banger, or both
Ice Cube
3/5
A very hit and miss album, with some great wordplay, delivery, and politically-charged rhymes, and also some fire production- a lot of the other reviews say it's dated, which I get when compared to some more revolutionary early 90s releases like Low End Theory and The Chronic, but as a bookend to the 80s style production The Bomb Squad were renowned for it's still really impressively put together. Some tracks are very forgettable though, and others like It's a Man's World make me wish I could forget them
R.E.M.
4/5
A fantastic debut from a band with a ridiculous amount of great albums. Not my favourite of theirs but an incredibly strong and assured start to the discography
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
A quirky little album with some catchy tunes and dreamy production, but nothing too impressive or memorable
Dr. Dre
4/5
Quite possibly the most influential hip-hop production of all time, and the combination of Dre and Snoop Dogg is dreamlike
The Avalanches
4/5
Album number 365 of this big old journey and it's an exciting one. One of the first truly great albums of this millennium, this is immaculately produced and just a very impressive and groovy experience. I'm taking off one star just because, other than the title track, I've never really got a lot emotionally out of the record
Metallica
4/5
I don't revisit this anywhere near as often as the two Metallica albums either side of it, but I really should, its a damn good record. Some songs are slightly longer than they need to be, but it never really gets boring and the high points are very high
Cheap Trick
1/5
Who is screaming this loudly for Cheap Trick? The songs are boring and the album sounds so messy
Sonic Youth
4/5
Probably Sonic Youth's most fun album even if it's not their most consistent. Kool Thing is the obvious standout, but Tunic and Disappearer are also great
Beck
4/5
This is a very fun album. The rock, folk and hip-hop influences are blended together in an idiosyncratic and frankly chaotic way that is charming enough to somehow just work
Portishead
5/5
Quite possibly the best-produced album of all time. The beats are crisp as all heck but with a ghostly murkiness and the vocals are enchanting
Sigur Rós
4/5
Beautiful and atmospheric with some of the best orchestration on record. There are some bits that don't quite work for me and sometimes the downtime between those swells of strings can feel excessive, but that's really just nitpicking
The Replacements
3/5
A diverse, subversive, and most importantly fun punk album. It didn't blow me away, but it's definitely one I'll go back to
The Pretty Things
2/5
The first half of this was really interesting - a lot of great ideas and sounds that seem quite ahead of their time. Even though not all of it worked, there was enough ambition there to give a 3 or maybe a 4 too. Unfortunately the album just seemed to tail off towards the end, and the last few tracks were nowhere near as exciting
R.E.M.
4/5
Not the most consistent R.E.M album but each side is bookended with fantastic songs and Exhuming McCarthy also shines. Lots of stuff here to enjoy even if they've done some of it better elsewhere
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
Good god this album is sad. It's very well written and performed but does feel a bit repetitive after a while
Taylor Swift
3/5
I'm surprised this one made the cut over folklore, but both of these albums marked a fantastic turning point for Taylor and really solidified her versatility as a songwriter. There are a couple of weaker songs in the middle which hold this down slightly, but it's still a great record
Paul Simon
2/5
It was OK but nowhere near Simon's best
Sade
4/5
Smooooooth
Iggy Pop
3/5
A real album of two halves for me. The first side is excellent, taking the energy of The Stooges excellent work and channeling it into some ridiculously groovy post-punk and new wave bangers. The second half really tails off in comparison though
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
All I Really Need Is You was the only real highlight here, everything else was very generic and underwhelming. I also hate the 60s trend of speaking to the audience over the final track, on this song especially it's just aggressively cringe
Frank Sinatra
3/5
There are some fantastic songs here (I've Got You Under My Skin, Pennies Fron Heaven, You Make Me Feel So Young etc.) but also just quite a few forgettable or outright cringe ones (Making Whoopee succckks)
Ash
2/5
There are a couple of bangers in here (the opener kicks things off with a whole load of energy) and Lost In You is a genuinely sweet song, but otherwise it's quite middle of the road, forgettable indie rock
Kraftwerk
5/5
Kraftwerk's best album imo. Every song bleeps all the right bloops for me
The Doors
3/5
I've never completely enjoyed a Doors album other than their excellent debut, but this is probably the second best. The title track and Riders on the Storm are both fantastic, and Morrison's voice is so rich and powerful across the record, but it just doesn't all hit for me
3/5
Absolutely ferocious, one of the noisiest projects I've ever heard. The drums in particular sound fucking mega. I love that it's so relentlessly aggressive for the first 22 minutes and then just suddenly pivots to the swaggering groove of Feet Music, then just back to 100 again
Wilco
4/5
Sure it's a bit long, but it's all really good. Far less of a drag than some much shorter albums have been. It could do without the Outta Mind (Outta Sight) reprise - I get that it's in a different style but it doesn't really add anything conceptually and feels kind of unnecessary to have them both at random points on the same album. But otherwise there's nothing I'd cut, it's a really consistent and versatile album that rewards the longer listen
MC Solaar
3/5
This was fun! The production is pretty stuck in the 80s for the most part, though some jazz and funk influences sneak in here and there, but the mic presence and flow is unlike anything else I've heard from this era. Bouge de là part.1 and Ragga Jam are two particular highlights
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Far too many uses of the word 'bulbous'. This is an unhinged and fascinating record that sounds like a car crash through Tom Waits' nightmares, and veers from funny to harrowing in a split second. It's also way way too long - I was feeling a solid 4/5 for the first hour or so but it did drag towards the end unfortunately
Beck
4/5
Beck mellows gracefully with some lovely little songs. Sometimes a little samey, especially when you compare it to his eclectic previous catalogue, but it's just very pretty
Bob Dylan
5/5
Ooh it's very good isn't it
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
Obviously the title track is fantastic, and the rest is an easy listen but doesn't get anywhere close to the unmatched coolness of the opener
Blondie
4/5
An essential album on the border of rock, pop, and new wave. I’m not a huge fan of Pretty Baby but every other song is great. An incredibly tight, consistent and energetic album
Keith Jarrett
4/5
You can hear quite a few people on the recording just awkwardly grunting or going ‘yeah’ when the jazz is just too good and honestly same
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Great grooves but it does feel a bit samey after a while, nothing really stood out to me after the title track
Pavement
4/5
Such a game changer for alternative rock. Angular and dissonant yet catchy as hell. It’s a formula that in my opinion they didn’t perfect until Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, but the raucous energy of this debut is pretty special. There are also some incredibly tender moments, with Here being an obvious highlight and contrasting with the chaos of Conduit for Sale! and Fame Throwa
Culture Club
2/5
Karma Chameleon is a fantastic song, and there were a couple of other fun songs on here (It’s a Miracle and Church of the Poison Mind were two other highlights) but otherwise it’s a pretty forgettable and unimpressive album
Goldfrapp
4/5
The only exposure I had to Goldfrapp before today was hearing A&E right near the end of Now That’s What I Call Music 69, so I had no idea what to expect going into this album. The opening track was absolutely beautiful, and Little Bird and Happiness were both incredible as well. The album dragged a little in the middle for me with a couple of less interesting songs, but on the whole this was hugely enjoyable and I’ll definitely be diving into their catalogue
Ramones
3/5
Blitzkrieg Bop is an incredible way to start, but things never exactly pick up from there. It’s a fun album that peaks immediately and then levels out to a solid bit unimpressive record
Beastie Boys
4/5
There is some fantastic production on this, the beats and sampling are so good. The first half has some great songs but the approach to hip-hop and hardcore both sound quite dated and like a hangover from the late 80s compared to the 1994 landscape for both genres. However the album’s ability to traverse these genres, and the instrumental eclecticism of the second half are massive highlights.
Pulp
3/5
Very dark and atmospheric, this really feels like an anti-Britpop album. I like what it’s going for, and the opening track is fantastic, but there are quite a few low moments throughout the record and the drone at the end of the closer is way too self indulgent
Simple Minds
2/5
This was alright but I cannot remember a single thing about it
Beatles
5/5
It’s Abbey freaking Road, what more needs to be said?
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
The opener is fantastic and obviously Mr Blue Sky is a gem. Other than that, there are great moments throughout the album and some lovely recurring melodies and themes, but nothing strong enough to justify the mega runtime
Queen
4/5
Absolutely fantastic album, with such a massive variety of different genres somehow blended seamlessly (Seaside Rendezvous, The Prophets Song and Love of my Life as consecutive songs is just ridiculous but works so well, and Bohemian Rhapsody has pretty much every aspect of those within one impeccable song). I’m In Love With My Car and Good Company are the only two songs really holding the track list down from being a 5.
Neil Young
3/5
Not my favourite Neil album but still pretty solid. The first couple of songs are great but I do find For the Turnstiles a bit whiney and the second half meanders a bit
Grant Lee Buffalo
2/5
Average
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Not quite as strong as her next album, but there are so many great songs on here and it’s an incredibly assured debut from a ridiculously talented writer and performer
Isaac Hayes
3/5
The main theme is great and there are some other nice motifs here and there but a lot of the album is quite bland
Slipknot
3/5
A very strange inclusion, this is objectively the worst of their first four albums. There are some great songs on here, but there are some proper duds as well
Prince
4/5
I’ve never enjoyed this album as much as I feel like I should. The Beautiful Ones, Darling Nikki, When Doves Cry, and especially the title track are all fantastic but the rest doesn’t really do a lot for me. However it is such a monumental record from one of the most iconic artists of the 80s, with such an important legacy in the history of popular music that I feel like to give it any less than a 4 would be an injustice
The Clash
4/5
Absolutely solid and a pivotal punk album, not a bad song on here
Ghostface Killah
3/5
I remember really enjoying this when I first heard it a few years ago, but on a relisten it does feel excessively long. The production is fantastic throughout and Ghostface’s energy is really impressive (the most consistent solo Wu Tang member by quite some way imo) but it gets a bit tiring after a while
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
3/5
My thoughts on this seem to be shared by a lot of reviewers on the site. It’s got some great conscious lyrics, even if they’re quite on the nose at times, but the production and flow are very dated and need a lot more variety to keep this interesting throughout the whole runtime - even by about track four it seems that he’s run out of ideas
Frank Sinatra
3/5
The music is pretty lovely and the lyrics are oh so incredibly bleak. All feels very samey though, and never been enough to keep me engaged throughout the album
John Lennon
3/5
There’s some good stuff on this, but it just feels so one-note compared to the latter two thirds of the Beatles catalogue, it’s impossible not to compare really and it just falls short
Beach House
3/5
Beach House is real main character music. This album is really good but I prefer their next two
Little Simz
4/5
I’m really happy this is on here, one of the best hip-hop records of the last few years
Miriam Makeba
4/5
This was amazing, loved it
Digital Underground
2/5
It’s a lot of fun but I can’t really give it any more than two stars
Germs
3/5
Pretty rad that this came out in the 70s, it’s so different to Sex Pistols/Clash/Ramones and all the other punk from that era, and a real gateway into the hardcore of Black Flag and so on. That being said, I didn’t love it
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Lots of great tunes on this, a very nice little listen
Lana Del Rey
3/5
DOWNATTHEMENINMUSICBUSINESS CONFERENCE
The first two tracks are fantastic and the rest is kind of fine. Blue Bannisters is better
Faust
3/5
The opening track tests your patience slightly but after that there’s some great stuff on here. The Sad Skinhead and Picnic on a Frozen River… are both very catchy, and it’s abundant with the tight grooves that krautrock is renowned for even if the music over the top is a bit more chaotic
Johnny Cash
5/5
Probably the best live album ever? Johnny is on fantastic form throughout and the atmosphere is inimitably electric
Milton Nascimento
4/5
An incredibly diverse and enjoyable album, I need to revisit this more often
Brian Eno
4/5
Absolutely lovely, this was great to just have on while reading and sounds fantastic
Deerhunter
3/5
I like this album but there’s nothing particularly exciting or interesting going on
Pretenders
4/5
This was great! I only knew Brass in Pocket from this album going in, and the opening track blew me away. I wasn’t a huge fan of the second song so thought it might be a bit spotty but that was really the only subpar moment for me, the rest was fantastic
Deep Purple
2/5
I’ve just never really cared for live rock albums like this. Yes, they’re great musicians, but other than Highway Star and Smoke on the Water (which are both not quite as good as their studio versions) the songs don’t really offer a lot, and just serve as an incredibly bare backing for some fretboard wanking and piercing screams. There’s a six minute drum solo to pad out a shitty blues track that I cannot remember at all. The solos and the vocals are very impressive without a doubt but there is no emotion here and it’s just a very uninteresting 76 minutes
Super Furry Animals
2/5
A decent album ruined by its production. This is pitched as a psychedelic rock album but it’s actually just a rock album (with some pretty fun and inventive songwriting here and there!) drowned out every few minutes by the tinniest phasing you’ve ever heard
Robbie Williams
3/5
I wanted to give this a higher score as I genuinely believe Let Me Entertain You and Angels are two of the best pop songs of all time, and there are some other great deeper cuts on here, but unfortunately there are also songs like South of the Border which is absolute dog shit
The Prodigy
3/5
The three singles are excellent, Funky Shit is pretty fun, and Narayan is a low key banger (I’m also a big fan of how it transitions into Firestarter). Unfortunately I just don’t really care for the rest of the album - it’s fine while it’s on but doesn’t draw me in, and some of the songs (including ones I enjoy) are just wayyy too long without enough development to justify it imo
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
Pretty much what I expected, some of the production choices were cool but a few songs sounded like Arctic Monkeys b-sides
Richard Thompson
5/5
Absolutely fantastic album, love it love it love it
Tom Waits
4/5
My boy!!! This isn’t my favourite album of his but the title track is amazing and Jersey Girl and Ruby’s Arms are two of his most gorgeous ballads. Hoping to see more of Tom soon!
The Velvet Underground
4/5
An incredibly influential album that I enjoy but has never entirely clicked with me
Bauhaus
4/5
All I’ve previously heard from Bauhaus was their breakout single Bela Lugosi’s Dead and their acclaimed debut album which I found a bit one-note and dreary after a while. Imagine my surprise then when the follow-up release just keeps evolving in so many unexpected ways. I keep making a note of songs that are highlights and have practically listed the whole tracklist for a whole host of different reasons. Very inventive, quirky, goth vibes
Update: I wrote the above while listening to Hollow Hills, and found the second half pretty underwhelming in comparison. Muscle in Plastic and the title track were both good, but the other songs didn’t live up to the potential that was clearly on show elsewhere
ABBA
4/5
Such a unique and adventurous album from one of the biggest pop acts of all time, with a massive musical theatre influence (it’s no surprise that Chess came just a few years after this). With the exception of One of Us, which has always been one of my least favourite ABBA singles (and it is such a shame that it’s the only song to represent this album on ABBA Gold) every track is fantastic, and the deluxe version with the addition of The Day Before You Came is just as strong
Elvis Presley
1/5
Pretty mad that this album invented rock and roll
In all seriousness though, this… kind of sucks. I was expecting a lot more as I do enjoy quite a few Elvis songs from this era, but they all seem to have been either standalone singles or from EPs. Blue Suede Shoes is a great opener but the rest of the songs are either pretty subpar covers that have been done miles better by other artists (I’ve Got a Woman, Blue Moon, the somehow energy-less Tutti Frutti) or are just very bland, and often with incredibly annoying vocal inflections
Butthole Surfers
1/5
I’m glad I stayed until the end, as The O-Men and Kuntz were both quite fun. Did they make up for the half hour of dogshit beforehand? No, absolutely not
The Charlatans
3/5
Pretty nice britpop with a slightly fuzzy, almost psychedelic approach. A few of the longer instrumental sections felt a bit aimless, but the songs were generally solid
Motörhead
2/5
Title track is great, the rest is fine and exactly as expected. Was going to give this a 3 but have to take off a star for Jailbait, yikes
Queen Latifah
4/5
This sounds dated in the same way that pretty much all 80s hip-hop sounds dated now, but Latifah is on fire throughout the whole album, constantly changing her flow and just floating over the beats in a really engaging way. The opener and Ladies First are the highlights but it’s a really solid record
Stevie Wonder
5/5
An incredible double album that doesn’t even come close to overstaying it’s welcome, every song is just fantastic. A perfect record
David Crosby
3/5
Some nice stuff on here but also a lot of meandering instrumentals
Gary Numan
3/5
I didn’t vibe with this at all the first time I heard it but enjoyed it a lot more today (the perks of listening on decent headphones I guess). His voice can be a bit grating at times but the synth sounds are pretty great, and it varies from some really fun tunes to some darker, atmospheric stuff (the last track in particular is a big tonal shift and really effective). I still didn’t love it, but who knows what I’ll think next time
The White Stripes
4/5
This record is just so fun! Just two pals (are they siblings? are they married? do they hate each other? who knows back in 2001?) playing loud and loose and making a joyous little racket, with some lovely softer moments as well
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
The first song and Take Five are both fantastic and, while there is interesting stuff going on elsewhere, it doesn’t quite reach those heights again. It’s also a relatively emotionless project - there isn’t any passion or intensity in a lot of the playing, which makes it difficult to feel too strongly about it.
Now the negatives are out of the way: it’s a very fun album. The concept is simple but executed perfectly, and the complex time signatures sound natural in the context of the songs rather than just feeling like they’re irregular for the sake of it
Roxy Music
4/5
I’ve tried to get into Roxy Music a couple of times but never really cared for them, so my god was this a pleasant surprise. It’s baffling this came out in 1974, some of the production and Ferry’s vocal affectations sound so distinctly 80s. The range of genres this covers is ridiculous and it’s just a lot of fun
Dennis Wilson
2/5
The opening song is great and got me very excited for this, but unfortunately the rest is pretty mid. There’s some nice instrumental sections here and there (Dreamer was another highlight) but most of it is very generic with naff lyrics
John Martyn
3/5
It was fine - I much prefer Solid Air. The porny guitar effects were a bit distracting
Elvis Presley
2/5
I preferred this to the self titled and there was at least some variety and personality on here, but it’s still pretty boring. The cover of Fever was so uninspired. Also low-key hilarious that there’s a song on this called Soulja Boy
The Waterboys
2/5
It was fine, nothing awful and nothing special
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
It’s fun and I like the vibe of it, but it’s just too lo-fi for me - I know that’s basically the point and the main appeal for a lot of people but it’s just not a hugely enjoyable listen for me
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
A THIRD Pet Shop Boys album? Considering I gave the other two a 3/5, it’s safe to say I went into this not expecting a lot. Where the others had some standout tracks and strong ideas but suffered from a bit of inconsistency, this was just not very good from start to finish
The Everly Brothers
2/5
Some nice harmonies but generally a pretty lacklustre record
Nitin Sawhney
4/5
I had no idea what to expect going into this and every time I thought I’d figured out where the album was going it swerved to something left field. Electronic music with hip-hop influences, some Indian classical music, and one song that sounds like musical theatre? Yeah sure. There were a couple of mid songs but the highs far outweighed the lows, and I especially enjoyed Pilgrim and Serpents
N.W.A.
3/5
A landmark album with three incredible, genre-affirming singles and a lot of other songs that are there I guess (Parental Discretion Iz Advised also slaps)
Also - I think the Eazy E hate is kind of out of nowhere, he has some good verses, but considering the track he is most prominent on is 8 Ball I am not at all surprised, that song is ass. Dopeman is also not good, and Something 2 Dance 2 has always been incredibly out of place
Ministry
3/5
A blistering display of industrial oddness. The one-two punch of the frenetic Jesus Bought My Hot Rod and the doomy atmospheric heaviness of Scare Crow is a massive highlight at the centre of an assured and exciting but somewhat uneven album
Missy Elliott
3/5
A really promising debut that is a lot more chill than the commanding presence Missy has on later albums. Not quite as immediate as something like Miss E, but there are some really strong cuts on here beside the better known singles (the run from Friendly Skies to Izzy Izzy Ahh is maybe even stronger than that opening run, though The Rain is still probably my favourite song on the whole thing). Unfortunately it does tail off a bit towards the end, and I’m Talkin’ is ridiculously cheesy, and the choice to have two spoken outros is baffling
New York Dolls
3/5
Not really my thing but there was a lot to appreciate here. Heavier and more varied than I expected, and there were elements that I could see inspiring anything from Nick Cave to Rocky Horror
Silver Jews
3/5
A solid release from a band with at least two far superior albums - American Water especially not being in this list is a travesty
fIREHOSE
4/5
I thoroughly enjoyed this! I didn’t know that there was a post-Minutemen project and this took all the bits I really like about their sound and condensed it to a much more palatable project than the 80+ Double Nickels on the Dime (which is still a great record, it just loses my attention a bit towards the end). This on the other hand was a really exciting and enjoyable blend of punk stylings with those trademark killer grooves throughout
The Who
4/5
A great rock record that’s ultimately not bogged down by an over-complex concept like some other The Who releases. Three of their best and most iconic singles are on here, and a lot of the other tracks are great too, though the double-hit of Getting In Tune and Going Mobile are a bit of a low point
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Never really been my thing but it’s hard to deny the quality on this. The upbeat songs are really fun and the ballads actually come across as sincere and are well played rather than just being cringy, unlike a LOT of rock ballads from this era. The guitar playing and vocal performances are fantastic, and the songs don’t seem to go on longer than they need to despite some pretty hefty runtimes. Not sure if/when I would revisit this but I enjoyed it a lot more than expected
The Louvin Brothers
1/5
Kentucky was a great opener and the rest was just a significantly worse version of that song. Quality banjo playing but boring and repetitive songs with some godawful harmonies here and there
Tina Turner
3/5
Tina sounds great on this but the production is pretty bad in places. The big singles slap and it was interesting getting this relatively soon after Supa Dupa Fly (I hadn’t heard where that sample for The Rain came from before) but it didn’t all work for me, and the covers of Help and 1984 towards the end really ended it on a weak note
Dolly Parton
3/5
It was alright - decent but repetitive songs. Lots of respect for Dolly but nothing here was her best
The Blue Nile
4/5
I enjoyed this a lot more than expected. There are a lot of elements of that kind of 80s pop production that usually annoy me but everything worked together perfectly here, and the songs were really well written and developed
Radiohead
4/5
A solid and eclectic mix of Radiohead songs. Not their best, not their worst - tracks like 2+2=5, There There, Myxamatosis and Sail to the Moon are just very very good, and I think We Suck Young Blood is overhated
Bobby Womack
3/5
Solid vocals with pretty great soul production but ultimately let down by some very mediocre lyrics
Coldplay
3/5
The first half is genuinely great but it really runs out of steam after Daylight; A Whisper is the only track past that point that really stands out and everything else is just so bland. Also what is that weird Oasis impression he tries in the chorus of the title track?
Circle Jerks
4/5
This absolutely slapped. Succinct and powerful hardcore that shaped the way for an incredibly impactful subgenre
Carpenters
4/5
An unexpected delight. I really thought this would be quite hit and miss but almost every song is fantastic with some beautiful arrangements, and Karen’s voice is stellar. Two songs towards the end (Mr Guder and I Kept On Loving You) didn’t quite hit for me, but it picked back up for the more experimental closer
Scott Walker
5/5
A beautiful album that I appreciate more and more with each listen. I’d maybe put Scott 3 above it but they’re both 5-star albums at the end of the day
Deep Purple
3/5
Solid album, and it must have had a pretty huge impact in 1970. Child in Time is a masterpiece and Into the Fire and Living Wreck both have fantastic riffs. The musicianship and vocals are great throughout but the songwriting is a bit weak in places and it does take a while to get going, and not as strong as Machine Head a couple of years later
Abdullah Ibrahim
2/5
Yeah, this feels quite dated and none of the heads really stuck with me. It had a nice atmosphere though, and Tuang Guru especially was a lot of fun
Sam Cooke
4/5
An energetic live album with some great tunes that I’ve always enjoyed but has never quite fully resonated with me for whatever reason
Bill Callahan
4/5
Relistened to this a few weeks ago and it’s just very lovely. All of Bill’s stuff just completely envelops you in this delicate world with his emotion-heavy voice just floating at the low end of this lush instrumentation rather than breaking above it - wonderful mixing and songwriting that always results in a soothing experience
Stan Getz
4/5
Another gorgeous album, with one of the smoothest sax tones known to man and lovely vocals throughout
Elliott Smith
4/5
Never really got into Elliott Smith (though I’m not too sure why as everything about his music usually appeals to me) Anyway this was a bit of an eye opener, much more diverse than expected and solid all the way through
Alanis Morissette
4/5
Very 90s, very angsty, and very good
Red Snapper
2/5
I enjoyed this more than expected at the start but it got pretty repetitive over time and I kind of zoned out by the last few tracks
The Cure
4/5
My favourite The Cure album, this is just incredibly atmospheric and dark from the off with some of the most sinister sounding synths I’ve ever encountered
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
A lovely little album with a very relaxed vibe, albeit with nothing too special going on compared to studio releases
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I’ve never been hugely into this Cohen album, and much prefer the records either side (as well as a few others later in his illustrious career). Bird on the Wire is a great opener though and its pretty strong throughout, just pales a bit in comparison
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed is a vibe but otherwise this is a massive slog. The shorter songs are bang average and the other two longer ones go well beyond their natural ending point
The Fall
3/5
Never really got into The Fall despite giving them quite a bit of time. This and Hex Enduction Hour are probably their best and there are a few highlights here and there but there’s also a lot that’s just very badly put together and difficult to listen to
The Fall
2/5
Two The Fall albums in two days, lucky me! This one is rougher than the previous and, despite a great opening track, there’s really not too much else here that I can get into
Tortoise
2/5
The opening track was pretty tedious and, especially towards the end, seemed really disjointed. There were some stronger tracks later on but the album had already worn my patience quite a bit by then
Miles Davis
4/5
Haven’t listened to this for quite a while, and it’s a pretty overwhelming project. It’s a slow burn and requires some patience for me to really appreciate (definitely not something I can stick on at any time) but has a lot of great moments and is just very impressive, a landmark record for sure
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
The title track is one of the most iconic hip-hop songs of all time, and the rest of the record is… fine. The opener is pretty fun but yeah, there’s really not too much to write home about here other than the obvious
Liz Phair
4/5
It took me a few listens to get into this but, revisiting today, it was just a lot of fun. Grungy bangers to haunting piano-led pieces to canon-esque risqueness
Calexico
5/5
Never heard of Calexico before and was very impressed by this. Lots of fun, a great blend of genres that kept things interesting without seeming too scattered, and a well-paced mix of songs and instrumentals. Will definitely be revisiting this and checking out some of their other records. I feel like after a couple of listens this would probably drop to a 4 but just from a first impression I’m going high
The Streets
2/5
I remember enjoying their debut but man did this suck. The production sounds so dated and the vocals are awful for almost every track - the two big singles are the only ones that actually sound decent
GZA
5/5
This was a really tough one to rate. When I first heard it a few years ago as I was still getting into hip-hop I was completely blown away, the production was like nothing I’d ever heard and the cinematic vibe of it really appealed to me. For years it was my favourite Wu Tang adjacent album by a long way but after a few listens I think it loses a bit of steam towards the end and some of the verses get a bit repetitive, while my appreciation of some other albums like 36 Chambers, Supreme Clientele and Cuban Linx has grown. Still an incredible album though - would have been an easy 5 a few years ago, I’m still going to give it a 5 but it’s not as clear cut.
As a side note, I also just love how nerdy a lot of Wu Tang stuff is at base level. This entire record is just a love letter to samurai films, comic books, and chess and it somehow sounds cool as fuck
4/5
Maybe her most accessible album? Got some great tunes on this but also a couple of sleepers mixed into the tracklist just preventing it from being truly great
Fairport Convention
4/5
Not quite as lovely as Unhalfbricking but still an amazing collection of songs, Matty Groves in particular is incredible
The Band
3/5
Pretty good and clearly very influential. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first couple of songs but from Dixie onwards it was relatively strong. There’s just no it factor for the songs really, and their work with Dylan is much more exciting
Public Enemy
3/5
A solid PE album but nothing much compared to the legendary previous two, and only one standout track right at the end
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Joni does it again - her folky albums are lovely and Blue is still my favourite, but her more experimental and jazz inspired ones are just so interesting, and her voice and the melodies she writes fits this style so well. The first two songs were particular highlights along with Harry’s House/Centrepiece but the whole thing was delightful really
Tito Puente
4/5
What a great time! This was just really fun to listen to. Nothing that grabbed my attention quite enough to get a 5 but a lovely little background record with some of the cleanest ensemble brass tones I’ve heard
Pantera
3/5
Easily my favourite album fronted by a neo-nazi, solid 3 stars
Funkadelic
3/5
Really good stuff as you’d expect from any Funkadelic project but not one of their most memorable outputs
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Springfield sounds great on this whole record, what a fantastic voice and a fun selection of songs. Nothing too special but a good time especially for a debut
Jane's Addiction
3/5
I wasn’t a fan of Nothing’s Shocking on the whole so this was a nice surprise. The production was a lot sharper and the music was just far more interesting stylistically, with some grunge and prog elements on different songs? I’m giving this a quite conservative 3 now but will definitely be revisiting (and hey, I might even give the debut another go based off this)
Q-Tip
4/5
Q-Tip is just so damn good. Really interesting to hear him over some more digital beats than the more natural jazz instrumentation or sampling-based approach of Tribe, but he just has such a calm and enjoyable flow over anything. Some great features as well
The B-52's
4/5
Just very very fun. Planet Claire is a great opener, Rock Lobster is of course amazing, and the whole album is just really enjoyable
Beatles
5/5
God damn, I guess I’m giving the yellow submarine album a 5
Janis Joplin
3/5
A solid blues-rock record with fantastic vocals, but nothing too standout from a songwriting point of view
Fela Kuti
3/5
Not my favourite Kuti record. It’s good and there are some top notch grooves but he has some much more interesting material
The Sonics
2/5
The opening song was a lot of fun but that level of energy didn’t quite last unfortunately. It was mainly just covers of rock n roll songs that have been performed and mixed a hell of a lot better elsewhere
Jungle Brothers
2/5
Not a bad album by any means, but it just shows how much hip-hop has developed since the 80s (and how diverse it has become nowadays). The beats are all very dated and samey and the flows and delivery are just the same all the way through. Nothing too exciting lyrically or emotively on here either, and at a full hour it’s just way too long for what it is
Tears For Fears
4/5
Not really my cup of tea but a very well put together album, with three fantastic singles and pretty good stuff elsewhere
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Absolutely gorgeous record with so much variety and emotion, possibly my favourite Stevie release (though SITKOL is obviously incredible as well)
50 Cent
3/5
DiD yOu KnOw He WaS sHoT nInE tImEs?
I don’t know if Spotify just ripped a poor quality version of this or something but it sounds like the kick drums are peaking throughout a lot of the album? Very strange
In Da Club and P.I.M.P are both great and there are some other pretty decent songs on here as well - I actually really enjoyed the bonus tracks and they were better than quite a lot of the rest of the album. This record really had the industry in a chokehold 20 years ago and I get the hype around it - it’s a great story, the singles are massive, and 50’s flow is super confident and easy to listen to. That being said, it’s a very inconsistent album, some of the beats are mid, and where he does try to switch up his flow (Like My Style for example) it sounds very awkward
Supergrass
3/5
Alright is a tune and Lenny is also very good. The rest is perfectly fine - there’s some nice and interesting stuff towards the end but it’s pretty inconsequential on the whole
Tim Buckley
3/5
Tim’s always nice to listen to and the second half of this was particularly good as things got a bit more experimental, whereas the first half wasn’t quite as engaging
Laibach
1/5
Nope nope nope
Dr. John
4/5
Sounds like this man just rolled out of a swamp and started hitting some pans. I love it
Radiohead
4/5
Not the most consistent Radiohead record as the second half tails off slightly (until the incredible Life in a Glasshouse) but the first half is incredibly strong and contains some of their most fragile and beautiful songs
Ryan Adams
2/5
Yeah this was dull and he is an ass
X-Ray Spex
4/5
Such great energy, joyfully catchy punk/new wave songwriting, and an incredible, unique and iconic voice from Poly Styrene. The use of sax just makes this so much fun
The Verve
3/5
Very different to Urban Hymns - it was like if Robbie Williams fronted a shoegaze band. Some really great stuff but lost its way meandering towards the end
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Not as strong as her debut, despite the incredible Son of a Preacher Man and Windmills of my Mind. I feel like the mixing on her voice made it not quite as strong which was a bit of a shame
The Doors
3/5
I’ve never really got into a Doors album other than their debut. This one had some great stuff on it (Waiting for the Sun and Peace Frog both fantastic) but a lot of quite boring ineffectual blues as well
Muddy Waters
3/5
The musicianship was great and Waters sounded fantastic for the whole thing, it just got a little bit samey for me to fully enjoy though
Charles Mingus
4/5
Not much to say about this one, it’s just very very very good
Big Star
2/5
The vocals grew on me a bit as it went on and I appreciate the sparseness and delicacy of everything but yeah, it seemed pretty underdeveloped and just not too engaging. I gave up part way through and relistened to E.MO.TION instead and that fucking slaps
The Black Keys
4/5
A really solid collection of bluesy rock gems, I definitely need to spend some more time with Black Keys
Sisters Of Mercy
2/5
This Corrosion was a fantastic centre point of an otherwise quite dreary album with an unfortunately muddy mix
Aerosmith
4/5
I’ve never been hugely into Aerosmith but this was a great time. The standard cock rock you’d expect but nothing too too cringe, and there was a lot more variety than I expected- Janey Got a Gun could almost be a Pearl Jam song
Killing Joke
2/5
I’ve had enough of these muddy 80s mixes man
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Idk, it’s got some good stuff on it but I just prefer their songs about hobbits
Saint Etienne
3/5
Nice chill background music but nothing too exciting
5/5
A timeless and truly incredible record from start to finish
The Byrds
4/5
A fantastic psychedelic folk record that blends both parts of the genre perfectly rather than just hopping between them track to track. One of the pinnacles of the genre for sure and maybe the best The Byrds album? (I’ll have to relisten to Younger than Yesterday but it’s definitely up there)
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
A mixed bag, with some interesting stuff going on but nothing too exciting. Everyone on this record has been involved in much stronger projects
Nirvana
4/5
How do you follow one of the biggest albums of all time? With a raw as fuck angst-fuelled punk record I guess - and it works. There are a couple of tracks on here that don’t do it quite so much for me, but the aggressive production works so well as songs like Scentless Apprentice and Tourettes burst into life with so much energy, while gentler cuts like Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea and the incredible closer All Apologies add even more depth to Nirvana’s upsettingly short yet illustrious catalogue
The Smiths
4/5
Some great songs on here but it does tail off a bit towards the end
Slade
2/5
Nobby’s voice is so grating most of the time, though there are some decent songs later on where he uses a lower register and they reign things back a bit (Gudbuy Gudbuy and I Don’t Mind primarily, as well as the very Zeppelin-esque bonus track My Life is Natural)
For the most part though this is just the most tepid form of cock rock, with hideous mixing and lyrics that range from being intolerably cringe (slayed r just soooo crazee n luv rok n rol) to pretty creepy in Gudbuy T’Jane
The Adverts
3/5
A pretty decent early punk album but nothing too memorable
Traffic
4/5
Really enjoyed this one - the opening track was particularly fun but the rest was still a great mix of folk, prog, and blues
The Cramps
2/5
The aesthetic and the vocals are fun but the music is just so derivative. The mixing fucking sucks as well, it’s so soaked in reverb that it loses any sense of immediacy that might make it sound like a punk album. There are a couple of standout tracks but it’s mainly just a wash of bland rock n roll
The Byrds
3/5
The title track is great, one of the best covers I’ve ever heard tbh, and the rest of the album is… pretty good. A solid debut for a band who are still crafting their sound and massively improve on it in later years
Antony and the Johnsons
5/5
I first heard this a year or so ago when listening to previous Mercury Prize winners and thought it was absolutely gorgeous. Relistening has made me appreciate it even more - it’s just such a tender and affecting record
Sabu
3/5
The homicidal, suicidal, genocidal… oh wait, not that Sabu?
This was pretty cool, some amazing polyrhythms going on, but it certainly did get a bit repetitive after a while
Soul II Soul
2/5
The beats were very repetitive after a while but there were some interesting moments here and there - the flute lead of African Dance and the skittering kick drum of Feel Free were both highlights. Never got into Keep On Movin, and the only truly great song is a bonus track (the a capella version of Back To Life is not that good guys)
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Not bad by any means, it just does nothing for me
Solange
3/5
The sound of this album is so intricate and perfectly executed, and there are a lot of really strong messages that are well communicated through the lyrics and the interludes. Something has just never fully clicked with me though, and I seem to be one of the few who prefers her follow-up to this
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Fantastic album, the opener Concrete Jungle was the standout but it was still pretty consistent throughout
Cream
3/5
A pretty solid bluesy psychedelic rock album with a great rhythm section and really strong vocals from Jack Bruce. Clapton’s vocals are less appealing and kind of ruin Strange Brew for me which is a shame because it’s an otherwise brilliant song. It does get very samey after a while and the songwriting is kind of mid for a lot of the tracks, though the weird music-hall-esque Mother’s Lament is an unexpected and fun (if somewhat disconcerting) way to close things out
Shack
2/5
I really liked the first four songs, and if they were their own separate EP it could have been a quintessential britpop release. Unfortunately the album continued and, while there were some nice ideas here and there, it was mainly very dull and uninspired for the next half hour
The Cure
3/5
Never got into this one. The production is gorgeous, the songs are great for like 4/5 minutes but so many of them drag on for far too long and make it a pretty tedious listen in places
The Who
1/5
Hey, at least they embraced the concept by making some of the most unlistenable shit possible. I don’t even mind the adverts, I think they’re quite fun in places, but the opener is such a reverb-soaked mess and Silas Stingy is painfully bad. Not even I Can See For Miles can redeem this one
Devendra Banhart
4/5
Wow, yeah I’m a sucker for weird folky shite like this. There is a fine line between vocals being eccentric and downright annoying and it certainly crosses that line on a few occasions (See Saw in particular) but on the whole it’s inventive and often very pretty with some fantastic guitar playing and inspired songwriting
Joe Ely
2/5
Anything that uses the phrase ‘honky tonk’ is never going to be for me, but the first half of this album was actually pretty darn good - the straight/swing switch-ups of the opener were fun, the production was solid and it was overall a good listen. Unfortunately everything after the title track was garbage
Mj Cole
2/5
This is another I was given before restarting this list as part of a group, and my original review still stands:
Garage just isn't for me really. I get the appeal and it was a relatively enjoyable listen, though a bit on the long side, but just not my jam
Tangerine Dream
3/5
Eerie and hypnotic but not too memorable
Pearl Jam
4/5
The first half of this is incredible but everything after Jeremy has just never stood out to me. The closer works very well but just doesn’t quite hold up to those first six songs
Kate Bush
4/5
I’ve never clicked with this as much as most other Bush albums but it’s still a terrific piece of work. The violin/fiddle line of the opener is otherworldly and infectious, and the closing two tracks are so different but both incredible. A truly great record that I wish I got a bit more out of than I do
Bob Dylan
3/5
At just 22/23, Dylan already sounds like a master of his craft, with songs like Blowin in the Wind, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall and Don’t Think twice standing the test of time incredibly. There are some other fun songs here and the musicianship is generally impressive, but on the whole it does maybe suffer slightly from a couple of weaker tracks and an overuse of harmonica. Probably the strongest 3 I’m going to give
Love
4/5
I didn’t care for this on my first listen a few months ago - I was expecting something closer to Forever Changes, which is one of the best albums of the 60s
However listening now with a fresh perspective, it’s incredibly well done in its own right, and a more raucous and adventurous listen - very ahead of it’s time for 1966, and closer to Zappa territory than the Sgt Pepper/Smile Sessions vibe given off by its follow-up
American Music Club
3/5
A pretty diverse indie offering that was nice to listen to while it was on but was ultimately quite forgettable
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
A great album towards the start of a fantastic run from Tender Prey to No More Shall We Part, and maybe Cave’s strongest release up to this point. The opening song is so impactful and the energy continues throughout the whole record, though it is well balanced with some beautiful moments like Straight to You. A fantastic album from a legendary artist at the top of his game
Nanci Griffith
2/5
Inoffensive and unmemorable country pop. It was decent enough but not my thing at all, the only highlight for me was Goin Gone
Love
5/5
I praised this just a few days ago in my Da Capo review and yeah, it just gets better and better on every relisten. The orchestration is gorgeous and every song is just so catchy and mesmerising
Scissor Sisters
3/5
I’m tempted to rate this higher due to the three huge singles but unfortunately the rest of the album is kind of average and my god the Pink Floyd cover is dreadful. Balances out at a three
The Sugarcubes
3/5
A pretty fun introduction to one of the most distinctive voices in popular music. I think I’d maybe appreciate this more if I’d heard it at the time but, knowing the incredible highs that Björk’s sound develops to over her career, it’s difficult to get too excited by what is otherwise a relatively forgettable jangle-pop record
Janelle Monáe
5/5
One of the most ambitious and immaculate albums of the last decade, and Monáe’s magnum opus. High-concept genre-bending brilliance
Massive Attack
4/5
A bold and hypnotic debut that unfortunately doesn’t quite stick the landing
Fugazi
4/5
I’ve been blessed with three incredible debut albums in a row (ArchAndroid, Blue Lines and now Repeater)
A post-hardcore classic with so much groove behind the aggression, this hits so hard but feels so lush at the same time, a truly amazing balance resulting in a distinctive and magnetic sound
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
Big beat is generally not my thing but this album goes hard. It’s even better than their debut which is pretty strong in itself, and just keeps up the energy the whole time while still having enough variation to not feel like it’s dragging on for too long (which a lot of 60+ minute electronic albums suffer from imo)
The Pharcyde
3/5
A pretty fun classic hip-hop record that unfortunately doesn’t really push itself or come across too memorably
Suede
3/5
Another classic debut - there is some great stuff on here (singles like So Young and The Drowners but also the more somber Breakdown and The Next Life) but there’s also a bit of filler, and some of the mixing is pretty poor (there’s one bit of phasing that stuck out as being particularly bad)
Joanna Newsom
4/5
Not really sure what I think of this album. The instrumentation is absolutely gorgeous and the sprawling folk tales are impressive, but Newson’s voice hasn’t grown on me just yet (though I feel like it will after a couple more listens). I’m giving this an optimistic 4
4/5
Well this was incredibly fun! Never heard of Spirit before but was pretty blown away by this, it’s super varied and catchy and has quickly become a favourite dad rock album
Motörhead
2/5
Exactly what you’d expect from a live Motörhead album - energetic, fast and loose, and incredibly repetitive
Spacemen 3
3/5
Spacey and atmospheric for the most part until it reaches a climactic point of relentlessness and intensity that verges on unlistenable. Was about to give it a 2, but the subtle and gorgeous closing track Lord You Can Hear Me saves it
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Some great stuff here, especially Good Times Bad Times, but there’s also a lot of wanky blues that just goes nowhere. Track 3 in particular just drags so much
Joni Mitchell
5/5
A pretty much perfect album - Joni’s voice is incredible and this is her best collection of songs imo
Tom Waits
3/5
A really cosy and intimate live album - Waits’ banter between songs flows so naturally and the prominence of audience reactions really makes you feel involved even when some of the locale-specific jokes fly over your head. The only downside is the quality of the songwriting: there’s good stuff in here, especially Eggs and Sausage, but it just doesn’t hold up to hits like Martha, Diamonds on My Windshield and Tom Traubert’s Blues from his studio albums around this era
Louis Prima
3/5
A really fun if very samey record. It also features one of the best song titles of all time in ‘I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You’
Deee-Lite
3/5
Not really my thing other than the catchy-as-all-heck Groove is in the Heart, but there is a very fun quality to this. It might be cheesy and dated in places but it has a genuine sense of joy about it as well that’s difficult to dislike
Gang Starr
3/5
An odd choice to represent Gang Starr in this list - there is some good stuff on here but they still feel like they’re finding their sound on this one, and albums like Moment of Truth are much stronger
Sonic Youth
4/5
Not the hottest take but Teen Age Riot is an incredible opener - in fact the whole of Side 1 is pretty spectacular. The rest of the record doesn’t quite reach those heights, though songs like Kissability and the closing trilogy certainly have their moments, but the ebb and flow of energy over the 70 minutes really benefits the pacing, and the overall atmosphere is enveloping and enchanting, not really feeling it’s length at all. Is it perfect? Probably not - but it is incendiary and a joy to listen to
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
For the most part, this is one of Cave’s strongest albums. A far more tender offering than this work preceding this, with some of his most beautiful and impactful songs (Into My Arms in particular). This would have easily been a 4 or a 5, but unfortunately it’s mired by two absolute stinkers. The cringy Black Hair derails the album though it nearly holds its own afterwards, but the closer Green Eyes (with possibly Cave’s worst lyrics and vocal performance combined in one agonising song) ends an otherwise strong record on a real sour note
Kid Rock
1/5
DETROIT TIL I DIE
Yeah this was dogshit, I gave up after four far-too-long songs. Absolute worst kind of rap-rock from a pretty gross dude
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
Just couldn’t get into this one
Syd Barrett
3/5
A nice and quaint album with some fun moments and instrumentation but generally quite aimless and under-developed melodies
Justin Timberlake
2/5
As a lot of others have mentioned, the Neptunes/Timbaland production throughout is easily the best thing about the album. The opening two songs and the two big singles all absolutely slap, but unfortunately it’s a very front-heavy album and nothing after Rock Your Body makes an impact. A lot of the songs go on for a good minute or so longer than they should, and a couple of tracks (especially Nothin Else) are just outright bad
The Cardigans
4/5
This was an absolute treat. Such a strange but perfect combo with eerie, distant-sounding instrumentals behind very intimately-mic’d lullaby-esque vocals, producing some very off-kilter indie rock and pop until bam, Lovefool kicks in out of nowhere and the vibe completely changes. But it still works. Even when they throw in a lounge-jazz-ish cover of Black Sabbath, it still somehow works. Great stuff
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
This is pretty fun, and certainly proves they’re not a one hit wonder. The horns are used exceptionally throughout, and the opening couple of tracks and Geno are incredibly catchy. It did lose my interest a bit in the second half though
Living Colour
3/5
Pretty funny that this was assigned just a few days after CM Punk was fired again
Cult of Personality is the clear highlight of the album, and there’s some good stuff elsewhere with a fun mix of funk and hard rock, but something about the production makes a lot of this sound like sitcom theme tunes (Glamour Boys especially)
R.E.M.
3/5
There’s some really good stuff on here - the singles are all fun and I Remember California is a great deeper cut, but on the whole it is a dip in quality from the fantastic five album run that precedes it
Supertramp
4/5
Supertramp are just great at making very impressive and very fun albums. Maybe not quite as iconic as Breakfast in America, but there is some amazing stuff on here
Magazine
2/5
I guess that this would have been influential but really it’s just a bit diluted - a sound that has been taken to much more impressive extremes
Incubus
2/5
I’ve heard worse nu-metal albums - the musicianship and the production are generally pretty good on here. The songwriting is so boring though, and the choruses are just so strangely written, their momentum just feels so flat every time
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
This was pretty good! More in line with his first two albums than the underwhelming Imperial Bedroom and just fantastic songwriting all round
Duke Ellington
3/5
I’m a big jazz fan but for some reason big band swing rarely does it for me. This is great and one of the best examples of the subgenre but just doesn’t really hit with me
Brian Eno
4/5
A fantastic mix of glam and Eno’s more experimental work. The whole thing is a great listen, and On Some Faraway Beach is particularly beautiful
Megadeth
3/5
As with all Megadeth albums, the guitar work is great but it’s just not really my vibe. Dave’s voice isn’t actually too annoying on this one either
Hawkwind
1/5
I’ve tried to get into Hawkwind a couple of times now but just can’t. I know they’re hallowed in some circles and are like the Grateful Dead of the prog world but it just does not click for me at all
Brian Eno
4/5
Another fantastic Eno record, this one leaning more into the ambient side he’d continue to pioneer
Nick Drake
5/5
One of the all time greats, just a beautiful record front to back
The Specials
4/5
A ridiculously good debut that is just a lot of fun to listen to
Dexys Midnight Runners
1/5
This is such a fall off after their previous two albums. The unique and fun qualities of those has gone and instead is just a really homogenous 80s sound with songs that are far too long for the ideas they contain - I’ve never felt a 45 minute album drag as much as this. The second track is 12 minutes and doesn’t flow together at all, it’s just a 3 minute song that’s stretched out far far far too long. I gave up after the awful Warren Zevon rip off One of Those Things
Leonard Cohen
4/5
A fantastic debut with some incredible songs, but track for track I don’t think it quite holds up with Songs of Love and Hate or New Skin for the Old Ceremony
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Bar the incredible songs at the start of each side, this one is a pretty average Stones record
Talking Heads
4/5
A pretty great album but quite handily the weakest of Talking Heads’ impeccable first-five-records run
B.B. King
3/5
Some solid blues - just not my favourite genre so didn’t do too much for me, but King is clearly a master of his craft
LTJ Bukem
2/5
Can only rate based on what I was able to find online - Demon’s Theme was pretty darn good but a lot of the other tracks just blended into each other and got quite samey, nowhere near as exciting as the opener
Van Morrison
2/5
There are far too many live albums in this list. Some of them are revolutionary and undeniable like Live at Harlem Square or Kick Out the Jams, but this one is nothing special - half of it is covers, and the Morrison songs aren’t any more impressive here than the studio versions (at least the ones from Moondance and Astral Weeks I’m more familiar with). Would have preferred to see Veedon Fleece here instead
Robert Wyatt
3/5
This album is fascinating and has some incredible moments and some very annoying almost unlistenable ones. Very distinctive and unlike anything else I’ve heard really, and ultimately a rewarding listen despite The Duchess
Thundercat
3/5
A lot of great stuff on here but quite a bit of it is more mid than I remembered as well. Uh Uh, Them Changes and Friend Zone are incredible but there’s not actually too much more of note here
Flamin' Groovies
2/5
The opening song was fun but the rest of the album just didn’t change and got very old very quickly
The Slits
4/5
I’m surprised this one is ranked so low. A seminal reggae-infused punk/new wave album that is catchy and dissonant and just a whole lot of fun
The KLF
3/5
It’s never a great sign when there are multiple conflicting tracklists for an album…
Anyway. I tried out what seemed to be the two main singles from the Solid State Logik 1 live recording (What Time is Love? and 3am Eternal) - didn’t care for the first one so much but the latter was pretty fun
I then listened through to the directors cut of The White Room and, while it’s not really my thing, I cannot deny the production was incredible throughout. I also enjoyed the spoken-word passages in a lovely Scottish accent, though I also feel I have to call out the shameless appropriation of the Twin Peaks theme on the otherwise quite nice Build a Fire
Def Leppard
3/5
A quintessential dad rock album. Not my thing but pretty solid, and Pour Some Sugar On Me obviously slaps. Also mad respect for the drummer
Ozomatli
2/5
There’s some fun rhythms and tunes on here but in the end it really wasn’t worth the effort taken to find and listen to it (I still haven’t managed to hear the whole album, just a handful of studio songs interspersed with live versions)
Pixies
3/5
There’s some great stuff on here - Velouria in particular is one of Pixies’ best - but it doesn’t pack the same punch as the first two albums
2/5
It’s ok, not my thing really but nothing especially bad
Fairport Convention
5/5
I remembered this was great but had forgotten just how great it was. A quintessential folk album that’s incredibly diverse - the groove in Autopsy comes out of nowhere and is such a delight - with some truly beautiful moments
Giant Sand
2/5
I mean it’s fine but there are so many other albums with exactly the same sound and more compelling songs
Black Sabbath
5/5
Hadn’t listened to this all the way through for quite some time but it’s just very good. While the three big singles are the main ones I remember, it’s really consistent front to back, all eight tracks hit perfectly
David Bowie
5/5
It’s difficult to review this as just an album because it is so wrapped up in its context. I listened in the day between its release and Bowie’s death and thought it was stunning then even though I didn’t quite get on with the whole thing. It has grown on me more with every listen and, while not my favourite Bowie record, it is everything one could possibly want from a Bowie record in 2016
Cornershop
2/5
It’s a fun spin on the indie scene of the time, but too many songs are just underdeveloped and it makes it a quite unfulfilling listen
Miles Davis
4/5
Maybe Davis’ most intimate record, a really beautiful and contemplative album that somehow came out only a year before the far more out-there Bitches Brew. It lags slightly towards the end, as I feel the middle section of track 2 maybe doesn’t quite develop enough, but the closing few minutes is so serene and adds a really rewarding sense of finality to the project
Throwing Muses
3/5
It’s a solid debut and pretty important in the history of that scene but not their strongest material
Can
4/5
Hypnotic like all good Can is - doesn’t quite reach those Tago Mago heights but it’s a great listen
Gram Parsons
3/5
One of the better country albums on here, especially the first two songs and Brass Buttons. I Can’t Dance was a notable weak point, but on the whole it was a pretty well written record with some lovely harmonies
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
It was always going to be tough to follow up Rumours
Tusk does a pretty great job, with some absolutely gorgeous intimate tracks like Storms as well as some noisier and more experimental cuts. The lowest points are songs like Think About Me where it just sounds like Rumours Lite as well as the overall inconsistency that always comes with double albums like this, while the clear high point is the pounding title track (that I wish was a couple of minutes longer tbh)
Koffi Olomide
2/5
This was catchy for a bit but just got very repetitive, not for me
Talvin Singh
3/5
A really interesting mix of electronica and Indian classical that works a lot better than it could, and is stronger than a lot of the dnb/garage scene of the 90s for me. Still feels a bit long towards the end, I could do without the last two songs
Method Man
3/5
A solid and fun hip-hop record, but not the strongest Wu Tang solo outing by any means
Suede
3/5
There’s some solid atmospheric and emotional stuff on here, but it suffers from the classic britpop trope of every track being a minute or two too long and just meandering towards the end, making what could have been a tight project a bit of a slog at times (especially that 9 minute track towards the end, Jesus wept)
Manic Street Preachers
5/5
Absolute classic. An unmatchably bleak anti-Britpop album
Sister Sledge
4/5
The four singles are clearly the highlights but honestly - an album with four such fantastic and genre-defining songs on it deserves a place on this list regardless of the rest of the material. Fortunately the remaining tracks are still pretty solid and results in a total package that’s a whole lot of fun
Arrested Development
2/5
Not a bad album by any means and it’s a fun listen, but it feels incredibly dated (not just lyrically as some critical reviews seem to have focused on, but musically as well). It’s easy to compare to another 1992 album The Chronic, but even with earlier work like The Low End Theory and De La Soul is Dead, it just doesn’t seem as forward thinking sonically, and seems very stuck in that late 80s hip-hop sound
Kelela
2/5
A decent and chill record that is just a bit forgettable. Onanon is a bop but too late in the tracklist to make much of an impact. Was very surprised to see Arca credited on a few tracks as the production is pretty restrained and safe throughout compared to her far more out-there and interesting work
Tom Tom Club
2/5
As a big Talking Heads fan, I mean this with the greatest respect - this project is dogshit
The grooves are pretty good in a few tracks but the vocals vary from obnoxious (the awful rapping on Wordy Rappinghood is actually embarrassing) to unlistenable (Booming and Zooming is particularly bad). Ends with a cover of Under the Boardwalk that is somehow worse than the Bruce Willis version
The only positives I can really note are Genius of Love, which is incredibly catchy for the first few minutes until some backing vocals ruin it (hopefully there’s a shorter single version as it’s otherwise a really good song) and the kind of eerie Lorelei
U2
3/5
Maybe their best album? Sunday Bloody Sunday is an incredible opener, they have never sounded more urgent, and there’s some other pretty good stuff on here as well (though Two Hearts Beat As One was a notable dud)
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
A fantastic and incredibly catchy, laid-back project that’s suitable for any mood really
Elvis Costello
2/5
The writing is mainly solid but it’s nowhere near as interesting as some of Costello’s earlier albums, and his voice is more annoying on this one as well. It also seems very dated for a 1994 record, especially considering the wealth of albums from that year that are far more influential and of their time but did not make the list: Let Love In, Bee Thousand, Blowout Comb, Chocolate and Cheese, Resurrection, WEEZER
Wilco
4/5
Wish this had a bit more variety as it’s an otherwise really strong album, just gets a bit samey as it goes on. The opening track is incredible and Heavy Metal Drummer is fun, everything else kind of blends into one for me but it’s an enjoyable blend
Arcade Fire
4/5
Somehow the only Arcade Fire album I hadn’t heard? An effective expansion of their sound from a more acoustic debut that doesn’t quite reach the heights of the records either side of it
Fred Neil
2/5
The opening track was great and Everybody’s Talkin’ is a heck of a song even if Nilsson’s version is better (add that to the playlist of songs I never realised were covers)
Otherwise it’s a bit average, though I do at least admire his ambition and willingness to experiment - even when it doesn’t quite work, it’s far more interesting than a lot of the country-tinged records on the list from this era
The La's
3/5
An album that I’d unfairly overlooked before as being pretty dull other than one fantastic single (There She Goes, if that wasn’t obvious)
However there’s actually quite a lot to this - musically it’s pretty simple and I’m not a huge fan of the vocals, but it is catchy and surprisingly diverse. I don’t really care for the other singles (especially Way Out) but the Stone Roses-esque groove of Liberty Ship and the quirky Freedom Song are two other highlights, with the other tracks ranging from jangly pop to distorted almost punky bangers
Coldcut
1/5
Opening song slapped, hated everything else. I’m glad I could only find a few songs from this as even half an hour was too much, the full 65 minutes would have been a nightmare
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Not my favourite Sly album but the opener, Everyday People and You Can Make It If You Try are all fantastic
The Afghan Whigs
2/5
Angsty, muddy and kind of dull
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Not enjoying Loveless might be my biggest failing as a music fan. I’ve given it plenty of tries now and it’s just never clicked with me. only shallow is an incredible opener and the highlight of the album, and the one-two punch of when you sleep and I only said in the middle is another high point, along with a great closer. The rest just doesn’t really do too much for me though. While I understand the noise is kind of the point, and it is really impactful in places, on some songs like to here knows when it really overshadows the otherwise strong hooks and just results in a bit of a mess.
Rod Stewart
2/5
Really hope there’s no more Rod Stewart on here tbh, he’s got some good stuff in places but three albums is more than enough. The opening track is actually really good and there is some nice guitar work throughout the record, but it’s mainly just standard uninteresting Rod stuff, including the ending of the second track going on way way way too long. The closer is funky and fun and something a bit different until the lyrics ruin it. Also the album cover is ugly and Rod only wrote 3 of the songs on here the fucking poser
The Rolling Stones
3/5
The most overrated Stones album in my opinion, especially considering it follows from some of their greatest work with Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers
There are some great songs on here and I get why it’s so beloved (Rocks Off, Tumbling Dice, Sweet Virginia especially and Shine a Light) but a lot that are very basic or forgettable and some that are straight up bad (Shake Your Hips, anyone?)
This all results in a pretty wildly inconsistent double album that, rather than being incredibly diverse and vibrant like Beatles’ White Album, is just not that exciting
Django Django
3/5
Catchy and fun but sounds like every other indie band from 2012
Black Sabbath
4/5
God damn, these first few Sabbath records are great aren’t they. The most diverse of the first four, and while not everything quite works for me, there’s enough fantastic stuff here to make it hugely enjoyable
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
3/5
Thought I would hate this after the first few seconds but it was actually pretty interesting, there was a lot of fun chaos mixed in with the slightly unlistenable chaos
The White Stripes
5/5
A super fun and iconic record, easily White Stripes best and one of the highlights of the century so far
Rush
3/5
Not Rush’s best. The opener is ambitious and mainly keeps interest throughout its 20 minutes but does have a couple of passages that lead nowhere. Passage to Bangkok is not good, but fortunately the rest of the second half is stronger, with The Twilight Zone and Something for Nothing being particular highlights
Haircut 100
3/5
The opening song was soooo good
Rest of the album didn’t quite live up to it but was still fun, and it was a nice surprise to hear Fantastic Day (never knew who that one was by)
Tracy Chapman
4/5
A really lovely album, even if Fast Car and Baby Can I Hold You kind of overshadow the other tracks. Talking Bout a Revolution is also great but yeah, don’t expect any deep cuts
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Classic Aretha, nothing much to fault here but not necessarily her most engaging all the way through
Metallica
5/5
A metal masterclass. Every song is just peak thrash, and the production is perfect - there’s a clarity you don’t quite get on the preceding Metallica releases (or on And Justice for All) but still keeping an energy that is missing from some of their later records
Radiohead
4/5
Redux review:
This seems to be a lot of people’s favourite Radiohead record which I understand - it's certainly their most direct alt-rock/almost britpop album and fits nicely with some other acclaimed British albums of the mid 90s. However it's only maybe my 4th favourite Radiohead album, which says more about the consistency of their catalogue than the quality of this record
While I would ordinarily give this a 5, considering every album here is regarded as one of the best of all time I'm being a bit harsher with my ratings, as there shouldn't be too many absolute stinkers [side note - this comment hasn’t aged too well, but on the whole I still agree. There is also the run of tracks of Bulletproof - Sulk towards the end which, while still good, isn’t quite as strong as the rest of the album]
Therefore 5s are going to be relatively sparse, and The Bends can make do with a comfortable 4
Scritti Politti
2/5
This was fine - wasn’t particularly bad, just very bland, turned it off about halfway through as I just wasn’t vibing with it
Mott The Hoople
3/5
I’ve always disregarded Mott the Hoople as a bit of a B-tier glam band, but actually enjoyed this quite a bit. There were a few naff songs (Honaloochie Boogie, namely) but most were pretty good, especially the opening two. Might have to delve into some more of their records
The Triffids
2/5
Just incredibly dull. Giving this a 2 as the singing is pretty good, just a shame the lyrics are such dross
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
Went on a bit long (could have done without the last two tracks entirely for me) but otherwise this was a very fun blast through a lot of different alt-rock styles
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
2/5
I really wanted to like this because the big three singles are so good, but the rest of the album was an absolute shitshow. A directionless 13 minute title track, three covers that added nothing to the record, and a load of really cheesy 80s nonsense. Would be an instant one star if it wasn’t for those three absolute bangers
Dolly Parton
3/5
Not really my thing but can’t deny there’s some lovely stuff here. Telling Me Lies was a particular highlight
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
This was a great find - very diverse vocally, some tracks sounded Cohen-ish while others were more like Nick Cave, and just a very strong collection of maudlin songs
Wild Beasts
2/5
A very odd but quite fun album, that unfortunately doesn’t have too much in terms of substance that makes it memorable. I really enjoyed the last song actually and was veering towards raising this to a 3, but figured I’d stick with my overall feeling
The Doors
4/5
Easily my favourite project by The Doors. Break on Through is an incredible opener and Whiskey Song, Light My Fire and The End are all great
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Wasn’t expecting to be jump scared by the Wrestlemania 22 theme today but there you go
The first three tracks are fantastic and the album does lose a bit of steam afterwards, but the more experimental couple of tracks towards the end brings it back
Slayer
4/5
A noisy, energetic, fast and loud as fuck classic
Ella Fitzgerald
3/5
This is a difficult one to rate. As a comprehensive series of Gershwin recordings, it’s exceptional - incredibly detailed with fantastic arrangements, and Fitzgerald sounds so good on every single track. However as an album it doesn’t really work - it’s far too long and has no flow, and does feel tiring by disc three even though each individual song is expertly done. Not a problem with the work, just a problem with the categorisation.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Scarborough Fair is of course incredible, and Homeward Bound is a great track as well. Otherwise it’s a pretty bland offering from a duo who have more consistently strong projects
Grateful Dead
2/5
I’ve enjoyed a couple of Grateful Dead’s live albums before but this one is not good. The first couple of tracks seem really aimless, there are a couple of better ones towards the middle, but then the 7 minute track of just feedback towards the end was the final straw
Johnny Cash
4/5
Not quite as impactful as At Folsom Prison but still a great set
Prefab Sprout
3/5
There’s some catchy stuff on here but yeah, just a bit bland and the singing and musicianship really isn’t that great. Never understood why this is heralded by some as an indie classic
Slint
3/5
In another life I would fucking devour this album - not sure why but it’s just never really clicked with me. I appreciate what it’s doing and feel like I should like it but just don’t. My bad I guess
The Vines
2/5
Get Free is a banger but really it’s a pretty derivative record. Doesn’t offer that much at all and the other songs are pretty forgettable too
Otis Redding
4/5
Some songs on here I feel have been done better by other artists but they’re all fantastic songs
Billie Holiday
3/5
I hadn’t actually heard a Billie Holiday album all the way through until this, but definitely need to listen to more. The opening song was absolutely incredible, though unfortunately it didn’t quite stay at the same level throughout. A great mix of songs though and such a distinctive voice (used to great effect maybe 95% of the time with some less convincing wavers) and my god the strings sound lovely
4/5
Probably Muse’s most bombastic album, and the last one that still hits really well (The Resistance is decent but inconsistent and just doesn’t have the same impact)
Very epic and in your face which I get being a turn off for some but the hooks on this are just too good - the swagger of Exo Politics, the fucking mental drumming on Assassin, the soaring guitar solo in Invincible and the hugely underrated City of Delusion. And that’s not even mentioning the biggest hits which are as mega and impactful as ever. A couple of lesser tracks buried in the mix but still an incredible achievement and a healthy blast of nostalgia
4/5
Not a noisy as the reviews led me to believe and no way this deserves to be in the bottom 10. It’s surprisingly groovy in places and has a really cool industrial vibe that is somewhat reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. Would much rather listen to this again than a lot of the boring one hit wonder 50s and 80s trash on this list
Snoop Dogg
4/5
The production is so good on this and Snoop’s flow is just unmatched. I remembered it being really fun but there’s also quite a bit of diversity with some more intense tracks like Murder is the Case. The record’s so good that people still like Snoop Dogg despite him not really dropping anything of note for the 30 years since
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
Not very good
Aerosmith
4/5
God damn it, first we had Pump and now this. I guess I’m an Aerosmith fan now
Aimee Mann
3/5
Nothing too influential or memorable on here but it’s a pretty solid record
The Zutons
3/5
It’s quite fun in places but struggles more in the slower songs as well as the jangly tracks like Remember Me - there’s just nothing that really makes it stick out from the rest of the mid 2000s indie scene
Edit: I typed this during Remember Me and was going to rate it a 2, but fortunately the last three songs brought back the charm of a couple of the earlier ones. The album definitely dragged in the middle but it started and finished strongly so fair play
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
A very cohesive electronic album that manages to be both energetic and atmospheric in different places while still flowing perfectly throughout. There’s not really a stand out single anywhere and it would maybe be a more memorable experience with one or two of those, but at the end of the day it’s a very impressive debut
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
Speaking of impressive debuts, my god - as incendiary and sadly as politically relevant as ever, this is the prototype and frankly the apex of the whole hip-hop/metal crossover movement
ABBA
4/5
Opens with one of my least favourite ABBA songs, and That’s Me isn’t that great either imo - otherwise an absolutely fantastic album. Either this or the more adventurous The Visitors for their best, this is definitely their most fun though
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
A pretty average blues album that only really has two stand out qualities - the big, fuzzy guitar solos that I could give or take, and Joplin’s powerhouse of a voice
Unfortunately even that is a bit inconsistent here. On tracks like the classic Piece of my Heart and Ball and Chain she sounds absolutely mega, but then on some other tracks like Summertime (which is usually gorgeous but is absolutely butchered here) she sounds like Marge fucking Simpson
Beastie Boys
3/5
A fun and clearly influential album that has just aged pretty poorly. The energy is clearly there from day one, but the immaculate and experimental production that makes their later releases so exciting is incredibly rough here
Dr. Octagon
3/5
A remarkably inventive and pretty deranged album that’s very fun at times and at other times is just too much, man. The production is fire, though I do prefer some records it influenced quite a bit more than this one, and the lyrics are just on another level, asking the important questions that other rap albums are afraid to ask like ‘what if your gynaecologist was a homicidal time traveler?’ and ‘what if you were half shark alligator half man?’
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
Never been that big on the Sex Pistols but at least their songs were catchy and they brought an energy and attitude that I can admire. This side project however was a disaster
Dirty Projectors
4/5
Very fun weirdo pop, like a less dreamy Animal Collective
David Bowie
4/5
Not my favourite Bowie album following two game changing releases with Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust. I’ve always thought the title track is a bit overrated and never really cared for the Stones cover. It’s still peak Bowie though and there are plenty of excellent tracks here, from the swagger of The Jean Genie and the anthemic Drive In Saturday to some of his most gorgeous songs in The Prettiest Star and Time
Jack White
3/5
Jack White albums are always fun, and this is a great break away into slightly more experimental material following some stellar output with White Stripes (with the weirder Icky Thump serving as a kind of gateway)
An eclectic mix of consistently catchy songs, with Sixteen Saltines and the closer being the standouts, it’s a lot of fun but doesn’t quite hold up to the band’s strongest records or even White’s two following records in my opinion
Japan
2/5
Started pretty strongly but quickly became quite bland, with a very uninspired Velvet Underground cover thrown in for good measure
Depeche Mode
4/5
I always find it funny that Depeche Mode are so popular because their music is very dark and eerie - it’s great but I don’t understand how it broke the mainstream
That being said, this record does have a couple of their most obvious hits with the irrefutably catchy Personal Jesus and Enjoy the Silence, and the overall experience is pretty great
FKA twigs
3/5
Production is fire, vocals are wild, songwriting is just kind of ok - she has better projects imo
Mudhoney
2/5
I’ve never really found Mudhoney that interesting. Their Superfuzz Bigmuff EP is pretty admirable for its time as a proto-grunge release but they never really took it to the next level. By 1991 we’ve seen Nevermind, Ten, and Badmotorfinger, and Facelift is just around the corner. While this record has a lot of energy, with that pretty clear Dinosaur Jr influence, it just lacks the catchiness, directness and ambition of those other releases
Iron Maiden
3/5
I’ve never really given the pre-Bruce era of Maiden much of a chance so this was a pretty nice surprise. It’s a strong debut for sure and clearly hugely influential. Songs like Prowler and Phantom of the Opera clearly show the direction the band would end up taking, but in other places it does seem like they’re still looking for their sound - I can’t imagine Remember Tomorrow on a later Maiden album. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s a really good song and it’s interesting to hear some of their other early influences that didn’t stand the test of time
It’s not hugely consistent and there were a few songs I didn’t care too much for. Still deserves a place on this list, and the noteworthy absence of stronger Maiden albums (Powerslave / Seventh Son / Somewhere in Time) is more an issue with only including two of their albums on this list rather than this being one of the two that were chosen - no matter what two you went for, it would always feel like an underrepresentation
Stephen Stills
4/5
This was great! I mainly enjoyed Manassas when that came up earlier but it was a bit too long and inconsistent because of that. This was a much more concise and on the whole stronger set of songs and just a good old time
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Sounds like every other 80s new wave album on this list. The horns on the opening track were fun; the hook on When I Dream was profoundly irritating; the rest of the album was completely indistinguishable
Sebadoh
4/5
I’ve heard Bakesale a couple of times and enjoyed it but never really checked out any more Sebadoh, so was interested to give this one a try
It was really fun and a lot more varied than expected, with some gorgeous shoegazey moments contrasted with some energetic slacker rock and whatever the heck was going on during Elixir Is Zog
SZA
3/5
A really solid R&B album that I loved when I first heard it back in 2017 or whenever but hasn’t stuck with me too much. The slower songs like The Weekend and The Garden are the strongest imo, while Doves in the Wind has fun moments (Kendrick’s feature is mainly great as expected and the outro is gorgeous) but the Forrest Gump lines are incredibly cringe
Skepta
4/5
I remember first listening to this album when there was a bit of backlash to it winning the Mercury Prize over Blackstar and A Moon Shaped Pool among others. I’ve never really got into grime, and much prefer the US hip-hop aesthetic, so didn’t really know what to expect but was very pleasantly surprised by this. Revisiting a few years later it’s still got back to back bangers and is just an incredibly fun listen - the beats are all super catchy and Skepta’s energy and mic presence are next level. Blackstar may be more my thing and was a very fitting ending to an illustrious musical career, but Konnichiwa is a better time capsule for the British music scene in 2016 and really captures the spirit of what music awards should be about
Kanye West
3/5
In my opinion, the last truly groundbreaking album by one of the worst guys in the industry. There are some great tracks on here and it helped usher in that wave of experimental hip-hop production to more mainstream acts and listeners, but is inconsistent as hell (I’m In It is my least favourite Kanye song by some way) and, where on MBDTF he seemed self-aware in places, on Yeezus he just comes across as an ass
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Lo-fi earworms for days, this is some proto-shoegaze Scottish loveliness. Wouldn’t recommend listening to this on the Jubilee line, you can’t hear shit
Patti Smith
5/5
A riotous avant-garde punk record anchored by a magnificent vocal performance, this is a classic for a reason
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Listened to this while cooking and it was v relaxing and nice
Elliott Smith
3/5
I enjoyed Figure 8 when it came up earlier and really thought this could be the time I get into Elliott Smith… alas
It’s fine, the song writing is generally pretty strong, and I especially enjoyed Ballad of Big Nothing and the anthemic Pictures of Me. My main issue is the sound - I know it’s lo-fi but that’s not an excuse for the snare to sound as shocking as it does on some of these tracks, and any vocal parts that go into Smith’s higher register sound like he’s trying not to wake somebody up from next door
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
Really fun and just a nice vibe. Didn’t like Parade but otherwise v good stuff
Emmylou Harris
3/5
A very diverse and emotional album that was nice to listen to even if it didn’t entirely grab my attention. My main highlight was One Big Love, so I guess it’s kind of a shame that was the one song Harris didn’t have a songwriting credit on, but there was some other good stuff on here too (Michaelangelo and Tragedy for example)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
A pretty great third album that expands on the danceability of their incendiary debut rather than the punk elements but without entirely sacrificing them. It’s fun, especially the first few songs, and could even be their most complete album? I do love Fever to Tell though…
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but it’s just very fun. Sure it’s immature and some of the lyrics are genuinely god awful but it’s a good time
The Human League
3/5
The first two tracks absolutely slap and obviously Don’t You Want Me is a stone cold classic. Unfortunately the songs in between are a bit mid
The one exception is the surprisingly dark I Am The Law, which sticks out quite a bit but is a very good song in itself. Just a bit of a shame the rest of the album can’t quite keep the highs of its bookends
Erykah Badu
4/5
A quality neo-soul album, and maybe Badu’s best? There are some beautifully groovy tracks on here and the first 40 minutes or so absolutely flies by - unfortunately a couple of songs towards the end do drag a little bit, in particular the quite clunky closer Green Eyes
Boston
4/5
Cheesy in places for sure, and side A is definitely stronger than side B, but the whole thing is pretty fun. Even the songs I’m not the biggest fan of have some really catchy hooks or guitar solos. Never understood why Foreplay/Long Time wasn’t the opener as it just seems like such a perfect way to kick off an album, but I guess that eternal banger More Than a Feeling works too
Elvis Presley
3/5
The three song run of In The Ghetto - Suspicious Minds - Don’t Cry Daddy is probably the best of Elvis’ career. They’re probably all top 10/15 songs of his, so it’s pretty mad they’re grouped this close together on an otherwise quite mid record
Nothing else really sticks out; it’s fine but not great. But those three songs alone up the rating quite significantly
Hot Chip
3/5
Wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this but there were some absolute bangers - it was groovy and catchy and with some pretty strong vocals as well. It dragged slightly in places but one I’ll come back to
JAY Z
4/5
A landmark album for hip hop that unfortunately has Girls Girls Girls on it… fucking twice as well!
Beck
3/5
A solid Beck album with some fun groovy tunes but nothing that sticks in the memory too much - he has quite a few stronger projects in my opinion
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
Not heard this one for years and it was really fun to revisit. I love the first half of this album but for whatever reason the second half just doesn’t quite do it for me in the same way. Was going to give this a 4 from quite early on but feeling more like a 3 by the end
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Another solid but not too engaging desert blues record
Britney Spears
2/5
Britney is a fantastic singles artist but yeah, unfortunately this gets pretty mediocre pretty quickly and just goes on too long. The (incredible) title track is the only real stand out
White Denim
4/5
Another off-kilter indie album that sounds like it’s trying to be mid-2000s Animal Collective, except it works really well. There’s a bit more of a prog rock/jam band approach and it leads to some really enjoyable instrumentals with identifiable structures that complement the stranger vocal melodies and add more cohesion than you often get with albums of this ilk
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
If I was just rating based on the vocal performance then this would be one of the easiest 5s I’ve ever given. Unfortunately the songs themselves are often quite bland and drag on in places. The big standout is the ludicrously beautiful As Yet Untitled
Fleet Foxes
4/5
A very lovely album that I never really got into at the time but grows on me even more every time I hear it. I’m tempted to say it’s my favourite album of theirs but they’re actually incredibly consistent
Soundgarden
4/5
A quality album with some absolutely huge riffs and fun time signature changes/general weird rhythmic shit, and Cornell’s masterful vocals. Goes a bit long so it’s not quite as impactful as a more concise Nevermind or Dirt, but otherwise it’s top tier grunge
Frank Ocean
4/5
Another very strong 4 - we’ve been on a bit of a roll as of late. There are some skits/interludes in here that don’t add anything for me but otherwise it’s a really solid record, with the big singles being clear highlights but the supporting tracks adding a lot to the vibe as well. Side note: why do Frank Ocean and SZA both low-key want to fuck Forrest Gump?
Lucinda Williams
3/5
A pretty solid country album with some nice tunes. There are a couple of great songs towards the end, with the beautiful Greenville and the furious swagger of Joy, but otherwise nothing too special.
Fun fact - the lead guitarist on this album is called Gurf Morlix
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Jorge Ben albums are always a lot of fun, and this one blends his sound with a Herbie Hancock-esque funk that just complements it so well. An utter delight
U2
3/5
Another hit and miss U2 album - not as good as War, better than the dreadful All That You Can’t Leave Behind. There are some really good songs on here, most notably One but Acrobat was a great deeper cut as well - there were also some less good songs like the dreary closer and the god awful Tryin To Throw Your Arms Around the World, and then just a lot of stuff in the middle. Apparently this is the last of four U2 albums on this list so I’m mainly just glad I don’t really have to listen to them again
Goldfrapp
4/5
I really enjoyed the dreamy and catchy Seventh Tree when that came up a few months ago, and had been meaning to check out some more Goldfrapp but just hadn’t. This is their debut and is very different to what I expected but still incredibly good - it’s even more experimental, ranging from ethereal yodelling to haunted fairground music in consecutive tracks, but everything works so well to create this delicate and unsettling but also strangely beautiful soundscape. I’ll definitely be delving further into the discography now
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
I really liked the intimacy of the recording for this, but after a few songs it just got very repetitive and was too dreary to enjoy that much
Baaba Maal
3/5
Pretty cool! Loads of fun grooves and I really liked the prominent talking drum runs in Lem Gi
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
1/5
Not as unlistenably awful as a lot of the records I’ve given a 1/5 - I kind of appreciate some of what this is trying to do. I just think its inclusion in this list is such a waste. Trying to be an eclectic ‘world music’ album that just uses the most base level features of the genres and cultures it borrows from over some awfully dated synths. I’d have more leniency if it was a mid 80s album or something but it’s 1991, it should sound cleaner than this
Radiohead
5/5
The easiest 5 I’ve ever given, no surprises there
Talking Heads
4/5
An incredibly groovy and fun record that builds on the great sound of their first two and pushes it into a more experimental territory, and features some of Byrne’s most eccentric lyrics (I’m looking at you, Animals). The closer Drugs is probably the weakest song on the album and is a bit anticlimactic, and really the only thing holding it back from a perfect rating
Black Flag
4/5
A quintessential hardcore album - arguably THE quintessential hardcore album. It’s rough and ready, noisy, and immature but pretty fun. Rise Above is the clear highlight, and TV Party is also pretty amusing. Even though not too much else stands out as an individual track, the overall visceral energy of it is engaging enough throughout to leave a lasting impression
Def Leppard
2/5
I quite enjoyed Hysteria when that came up earlier. This was more of the same but just seemed even more uninspired and impotent. Just not for me at all
4/5
This whole era of The Kinks is great - everything from Something Else up to Lola is a super enjoyable listen. This one doesn’t really have a standout song like the others, but as a whole conceptual record it works incredibly well
The xx
2/5
I’ve never really got the xx, though I can at least appreciate the impact and influence of their debut. This album just felt like a legacy choice based off of that - it’s so bland and lifeless and there are so many better albums from the last few years that deserve its spot
Big Black
3/5
First listen and wow - this was even more abrasive than expected, even with the precedent set by having heard (years and years ago) what I think is their more iconic follow-up album Songs about Fucking (I guess the maker of this list was a bit nervous about including something with that title). The most surprising thing was the melodies that sometimes appeared behind the noise - there were some new wave influences in there that poked their shiny little heads out of the scuzz and added another layer to appreciate besides the relentless industrial assault
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
It’s pretty solid but nowhere near as impactful as some of the Blur and Gorillaz albums that have been left off this list. No way is this a more vital listen than 13, Demon Days or Plastic Beach
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
This is the sixth and, from the looks of things, final Costello album on this list, and these have definitely been a case of diminishing returns. His first couple of albums were great, but I feel like the later we’ve got into his career the less inspired the writing has become, and the more annoying his vocals. This one isn’t as bad as Brutal Youth, and there are a couple of great tracks here and there, but overall it’s just not that enjoyable.
Paul Simon
4/5
A fantastic album with a very complicated legacy
Blood, Sweat & Tears
2/5
Opening and closing with a weird Gymnopedies arrangement is a… bold choice. I like a lot of what this is trying to do, fusing jazz and some classical with a Creedence-esque bluesy rock sound, but it quickly ran out of ideas and some of the instrumentals were just quite weak, particularly the awful 10-minute track towards the end
The Lemonheads
3/5
I’ve never really understood all the hype about this - it sounds like so many other bands from the time and all the songs are a bit samey, so I really don’t know why this is one of the albums that stuck and lasted the test of time. That being said, it is pretty fun while it’s on
Pere Ubu
3/5
Pere Ubu’s previous album Dub Housing was one of my favourite finds of this project - an urgent and noisy post punk project that sounded like Talking Heads’ aggressive older brother. This follow up was less enjoyable, and in places just felt like it was being noisy for the sake of being noisy (especially the tinnitus-inducing introduction) rather than adding anything to the songs. There’s still a great attitude throughout it and some solid grooves, but not as exciting as the earlier record
The Thrills
3/5
This is a quite difficult one to rate. It’s certainly not an essential album. It doesn’t have a notable legacy or influence, it’s quite derivative of a few other alt-rock/indie bands of the 90s and early 00s, and the singer’s faux-American drawl is quite off-putting in places. That being said… I enjoyed it quite a lot. The opening track was so repetitive and felt like it would never end, but after that there were a lot of fantastic songs with some lovely chord progressions and textures and just a real sense of warmth. Do you need to listen to it before you die? Absolutely not. Is it a pretty great record despite that? Yeah, sure
Sepultura
4/5
Another fire Sepultura album. The production was a bit rough at times (the snare in particular sounded pretty bad on a few tracks) but the riffs and the overall energy were great
Afrika Bambaataa
2/5
An incredibly influential album that has aged terribly for both musical and non-musical reasons. The title track slaps and has been sampled everywhere (Public Enemy, Kendrick, LCD Soundsystem, Lana Del Rey) and the rest of the album is just a lesser version of that title track
Christine and the Queens
3/5
A really fun 80s throwback album that’s bristling with bangers, but a bit inconsistent upon relistening. I don’t think it has quite the same impact Chaleur humaine did, and in hindsight it lacks the emotional depth Redcar has now given us with La vita nuova and Paranoïa
Garbage
4/5
An effortlessly cool alt-rock record to really kick off the post-grunge era. Some of the production is a bit clean for my liking and took away some of the impact, but I’m aware this may be limited to the 20th anniversary remaster I listened to so I don’t want to be too harsh on the record because of that - the songwriting and Manson’s vocal performances are great, and that opening run of three tracks in particular is such a strong way to burst onto the scene
George Harrison
3/5
There are lot of incredible things about this album. Some of the songs are truly truly great - My Sweet Lord being the obvious choice but also I’d Have You Any Time, Awaiting On You All, Art of Dying. There are also a lot of songs that are just… fine. And if there were just one or two it would be easier to overlook, but there are a LOT of songs on this thing.
Apple Jam, the third LP that’s basically just blues instrumentals, goes pretty hard but does it need to go on for 30 minutes? This is always heralded as a triple album but it’s really a solid-if-a-little-inconsistent double album with some needless vamping slapped on at the end. The very last track doesn’t even sound like it’s been mixed!
Isn’t It a Pity is a beautiful song and a highlight of the album… but do we need it in full twice? Do we need a single second of the song Apple Scruffs?
It really is a pity because if this was more reined in and only focused on the highlights it would be on par with the best Beatles records but, as it is, it’s a fucking chore
George Michael
4/5
I gave this a first listen while I was out running and I was absolutely not the vibe. I was leaning towards a 3 at the time but figured I’d give it the benefit of a more contextually appropriate relisten, and I appreciated it a lot more this evening. The first two songs are both incredible and a perfect way to open up a record, and the instrumentals are quite sparse thereon out, relying mainly on acoustic guitars, the occasional thin synth pad, and layers of majestic and vocals. The songs are generally quite long but don’t outstay their welcome - the hypnotic swung waltz Cowboys and Angels for example does not feel 7 minutes. The album loses steam a bit towards the end, and Soul Free in particular sounds quite dated (it also reminds me a bit of Peter Andre which is frankly upsetting) so it doesn’t quite stick the landing for me but is a great experience on the whole
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
Another pretty dated hip-hop record - there’s some catchy stuff in there but the production and flows just sound pretty cheesy now (big ‘My name is Andy and I’m here to say…’ vibes). I hope Raising Hell is on here, because despite being only two years later it’s aged so much better and still packs a huge impact, definitely Run’s best work
Barry Adamson
2/5
Does this list really need two Barry Adamson albums? There's some interesting stuff here and there and it does sound vaguely Twin Peaks-y despite predating the show by a year (Adamson later contributed some music to Lynch’s film Lost Highway so that makes sense) but it’s very messy, sometimes difficult to listen to, and just feels like a less fully realised version of his 1996 album Oedipus Schmoedipus
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
This is the lowest rated album on this site and frankly I’m not too surprised. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the worst thing I’ve come across in this project, but it is nearly unlistenable at times. There were a couple of tracks that were ok, but also just a lot of drilling - also what is up with that Serge Gainsbourg cover?
The Associates
1/5
Dear god, it’s been a rough few days. This is so overproduced in the worst possible way, the amount of reverb on the snare creates so many moments where everything just feels out of time, and it’s all a complete mess. At least Einstürzende Neubauten from yesterday were TRYING to be unlistenable with their uncompromising industrial hammering - The Associates tried to record a pop album and somehow shat this out
The Beach Boys
4/5
This is more like it! Rounding off a frankly dismal week with an absolute classic this is probably the Beach Boys’ most eclectic record both musically and lyrically, shedding their surf rock foundations entirely and delving into topics such as environmentalism, mortality, and… feet? There are a couple of tracks around the middle that don’t quite hold up to the rest of the album, but there is some absolutely beautiful stuff on here, and the title track may be my favourite song they’ve ever released (I slightly prefer the arrangement on the Smile Sessions but it still sounds magnificent here, and closes things out perfectly)
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
A fantastic collection of songs that’s slightly dampened by a pretty weak concept. The first half is a kind of concept album but not really, and then the second half is just outtakes from The Graduate soundtrack - I think it would work better for me if it was either a full on concept album or just dropped the concept entirely. Voices of Old People adds nothing for me, and At the Zoo is a slightly weak closer after everything else. Pretty much every other song is great though, very strong 4
Joni Mitchell
4/5
I’ve only heard Hejira a couple of times, as I find myself revisiting albums like Blue a lot more than Mitchell’s later more abstract work, but it is really beautiful. Her songwriting and vocals are next level, and my god the bass playing on this is incredible. The songs do begin to blend into one for me a bit, but that’s really down to my lack of familiarity with their more complex structures and the absence of any real hooks - it’s a 4 for now but one that could easily grow to a 5 after a few more listens
Air
5/5
A pretty darn perfect electronic album. The grooves are immaculate and it’s got a great balance of fun bangers and just really lovely more ambient cuts. I find that quite a lot of electronic albums can get a bit samey or overstay their welcome whereas this is diverse, always exciting, and leaves me wanting more
Madness
3/5
A surprisingly varied album with some darker songs than expected, as well as a great opener and of course the classic House of Fun to kick off the second half. Unfortunately the second half was a bit weaker (the less said about New Delhi the better) and it didn’t quite stick the landing. 3/5 for the album, yikes/5 for the album cover
Tori Amos
4/5
A lovely and very ambitious debut but not as strong as some of her later work in my opinion
The Darkness
3/5
A fun love letter to glam with more virtuosic vocals than some of the bands it so clearly reveres, but on the whole the songs just aren’t too memorable (bar the obvious mega single)
The Go-Go's
2/5
A pretty homogeneous new wave album with some frankly ridiculous lyrics. It is quite fun though, not too bad at all, just if you’ve heard We’ve Got the Beat you’ve basically heard the whole thing
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
Dexys best, and there is so much more to this than just Come on Eileen (though that is of course excellent). A really fun album all round with a great blend of folk, new wave and soft punk
Mike Ladd
2/5
An abstract hip-hop record with some interesting ideas presented in a quite messy way, without any especially memorable hooks or beats. The overall vibe is quite similar to Deltron 3030 with Aesop Rock-style vocals, and some reviews on this site have compared it to Madvillainy (a comparison I don’t see as much personally), and the fact that neither of those three artists are anywhere in the 1001 albums list really begs the question as to why this made it here instead
Television
5/5
One of those rare albums that gets better with every listen. See No Evil is a catchy burst of post-punk energy, while the title track and Torn Curtain are these patient and sprawling epics that are still packed full of hooks
The Offspring
3/5
A fun and iconic pop punk record that’s actually not quite as strong overall as I remembered, other than that delightful double whammy of ‘Come out and Play’ and ‘Self Esteem’ right in the middle
Ryan Adams
3/5
I thought this was better than his previous album despite being initially put off by its length, but I’m still never going to enjoy hearing this prick
Fishbone
3/5
This was really fun. A punk/ska/metal/other? blend of catchy and interesting tunes. The opener was a bold and pretty effective cover of Freddy’s Dead from Curtis Mayfield’s classic soundtrack to Superfly, and the quality dipped a bit after that. However it jumped up massively with the vaguely Mario Kart-esque brass hooks of… er… Bonin’ in the Boneyard. Then followed the political punk riot of Subliminal Fascism, the oddball lilt of Slow Bus Movin’, and the supremely funky Ghetto Soundwave. Definitely glad I checked this one out, though I just wish it was all as strong as that second half - I could see this going up to a 4 in the future, but for now it’s a hearty 3
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Very very very good- not quite perfect (I’ve never really got into Real) but close enough for a big enthusiastic 5
Moby Grape
2/5
A pretty standard blues/hard rock album that didn’t leave much of an impression
Billy Bragg
3/5
A solid folk rock record with great lyrics and energy but kind of samey songwriting, and some arrangement and mixing choices that don’t quite work for me
The Beau Brummels
2/5
The last couple of songs were genuinely very good, but I’d kind of lost interest by that point - a psychedelic rock album with some country influence that didn’t stand out too much
Scott Walker
3/5
Walker’s vocals and the orchestration are so powerful and rich as usual, but the songwriting lacks the magic and unique character of his following two albums.
Speaking of: Scott 4 has come up already, and was a 5. Scott 3 is somehow not on the list, and would also be a 5. Walker’s later and more abstract/experimental albums, most notably the trilogy of Tilt/The Drift/Bish Bosch are all somehow not on the list, and would all be 4s or 5s
Ray Price
2/5
Not too bad but a pretty forgettable crooning country album
Girls Against Boys
3/5
Not really sure how to describe this one but it was worth checking out. It’s been labelled as a post-hardcore album but doesn’t really sound like what I would class as post-hardcore for the most part - it’s more like a darker, scuzzier Alice in Chains with a gruffer vocal. Good stuff
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Nick Cave’s previous album, Skeleton Tree, was bleak. His teenage son Arthur tragically died during the recording sessions, and the sound of the album as well as some of the lyrics were imbibed with grief, and this is clear from listening to the record. Ghosteen was the first album that was directly inspired by Cave’s son’s death, and is even more emotionally charged as a result - yet where Skeleton Tree often sounds cold and discomforting, Ghosteen sounds celestial. It can be a difficult listen due to the subject matter, and the lyrics do not shy away from this, but the timbres throughout the album are bright and rich, like Cave is communicating with the heavens.
This is a long album, and mostly deserving of it though some of the songs do meander slightly. The songwriting isn’t quite as tight as some of Cave’s other albums, but the emotion is impossible to deny
I saw Nick Cave live at Primavera Festival in 2022, his second live show since the release of Ghosteen and since the pandemic. It was also the second show since the passing of another of Cave’s sons, Jethro, the previous month. It was an incredible and uniquely personal performance, especially the songs from Ghosteen that were so directly about losing a child, and I never want to experience a performance like it again
Tom Waits
5/5
Swordfishtrombones is a massive stylistic shift for Waits from his bluesy, piano bar jazz origins. It opens with the off-kilter guitar and gritty snarl of Underground, which I first heard in 2005 animated film Robots - the image sticks with me every time I start the album as the industrial pounding throughout the song perfectly complements the demonic robot factory that is portrayed, lava and all.
There is so much to love here as the tracklist lurches through an incredible and inspired mix of sinewy, slinking marimba-accented cabaret like the title track and Shore Leave (with its desperate mews towards the end); heartfelt ballads like the gorgeous Johnsburg, Illinois; multiple madcap accordion solos; and absolute freaking ragers like 16 Shells and Down Down Down, as well as the rousing anthem In the Neighbourhood closing out the first side. Genre wise, it’s frankly all over the place, feeling even less connected than the equally diverse but somehow more conceptually together sequel to this album, Rain Dogs (which is my personal favourite Waits project). But there is magic in this chaos, and while it’s never too clear where Waits is going to go next, it’s one hell of a fun ride
Kanye West
4/5
Putting personal feelings about Kanye, especially in recent years, aside: this is a fantastic debut album. The production is stellar, the features and skits perfectly complement the songs, and Kanye has some of his strongest and funniest bars throughout the record. Is it my favourite Kanye album? No - there’s a fair bit of filler towards the middle (I’ve never cared for The New Workout Plan for example). But songs like All Falls Down, Never Let Me Down, Jesus Walks, and Through the Wire show the hunger and passion that early Kanye had in spades and, while it goes a bit long, Last Call demonstrates a humility behind the bravado - all aspects of his personality that made him such an undeniable force in hip-hop that have sadly been missing for the last few years
Lambchop
4/5
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from Nixon, as the only Lambchop album I’d previously heard was the more abstract and electronic This from nearly two decades later (which I had quite enjoyed, but not revisited since that first listen in 2019). Nixon on the other hand was more conventional - I guess. It’s a country/art-pop album that somehow also dabbles in Philly soul; its influences are all over the place and its songs regularly exceed five minutes but fill the time really nicely so they don’t seem gratuitous. Some grating falsetto aside, it’s a really nice listen and I’ll definitely be listening to what else Lambchop has to offer
Roxy Music
4/5
Ok yeah… I get Roxy Music now. This was just a lot of fun, opening with a really silly fake dance song which is probably one of the worst on the album but full of charm. It gets a lot better from there as it carves out a characteristic and energetic new wave niche, with Ferry’s yelps punctuating through the synths and saxes. The closing track was a bit of an anticlimax, but otherwise it was a great time
Nico
3/5
Nico often gets some slack for not really being able to sing, which I think is unfair as Lou Reed couldn’t really sing either. Anyway, this is a pretty strong if repetitive collection of songs with amazing orchestration, with the solemnly longing These Days being a clear standout
2/5
Just not really my thing - every song got repetitive quite quickly and while it did mix things up a bit between tracks not a lot it really worked for me. Você Gosta was fantastic but otherwise I just got nothing out of this
The Pogues
3/5
There are some great songs on here - namely Sally Maclennane, Dirty Old Town and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - but it lacks the spark and energy of their following album
Burning Spear
4/5
A great reggae project with some mega basslines and very catchy hooks
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Just not for me. Relistening to Loveless a few months ago didn’t make me enjoy it any more and this predecessor is even less impactful
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Probably my least favourite Hendrix album but it’s still fire
The Beta Band
2/5
Godrich clearly had fun with the spacey production and it’s by far the best thing about this otherwise quite bland record
Arcade Fire
3/5
This album has just never really worked for me. Don’t know why. The opener is fantastic and always hypes me up and I think finally, this is going to be the time when everything clicks into place, and… nope. The rest of the album is just kind of alright
3/5
A rough and rowdy album that really established what punk was going to be going forward. It’s incredibly high energy and I admire the heck out of it, even though I don’t really enjoy listening to it that much at all
New Order
3/5
It’s ok but it’s far from New Order’s best. Their fifth and final album of the 80s and somehow the one that sounds the most dated - it’s a quite jarring mix of decent but uninspired melancholic jangle pop tracks and fun but hit and miss dance rock cuts with some of the worst synth and drum machine sounds of the era
Madonna
3/5
This was quite fun despite some very odd production in places. The songwriting wasn’t quite as strong as the previous Madonna albums on this list (Like a Prayer and Ray of Light), and I’m surprised this made it on over something like True Blue. It was a good time though, even if a bit inconsistent
M.I.A.
3/5
M.I.A is great at making very fun and playful music - her lyrics and flow often have a playground chant kind of quality in their simplicity and catchiness without sounding annoying or condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. I don’t think this record is quite as strong as her follow up to it, but it’s full of character and the production still feels really fresh and exciting even nearly 20 years later
Nirvana
5/5
Nirvana really understood the assignment here. It’s a ridiculously strong performance and nothing gets buried in the mix like with so many other live albums. The song choices, whether it’s rearrangements of their original songs or well-selected covers (The Man Who Sold the World and the haunting Where Did You Sleep Last Night are obvious highlights, but the Vaselines and Meat Puppets covers also pay homage to their influences in the 80s alt-rock and punk scene), are perfect to showcase the more intimate side of one of the biggest rock bands on the planet.
Is it the best live album ever? No. But is it the best live album not performed by Johnny Cash in a prison? Yeah, maybe
Michael Jackson
5/5
Back to back hits for the vast majority of its runtime - Thriller/Beat It/Billie Jean is almost definitely the best three-track run in music history, and you’ve still got the incredible opener Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Baby Be Mine, and P.Y.T. The Girl is Mine is very cheesy and stands out as the weakest track on the album by far (I’m not too big on Human Nature either, though it’s inoffensive enough), but the high points really outweigh the lows here
UB40
2/5
There are some nice grooves in places but the songs meander so much. Multiple instrumental tracks are almost unidentifiable from each other, crying out for something to hold the track together - but then the vocals across the album are generally weak and uninteresting so they don’t exactly help
Peter Frampton
4/5
Frampton’s brand of soft rock isn’t really my thing, but this is a pretty fantastic live album. The performances are great, and the mixing is so clear and precise throughout - there is enough audience noise to inject every song with some more energy but nothing important gets drowned out
Emmylou Harris
3/5
Another quite nice but uninteresting country album
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
A pretty solid and fun prog album - the opening 20-minute title track is stronger than most of the shorter songs on the second side, especially the rock-n-roll closer that just feels ludicrously out of place
Country Joe & The Fish
2/5
Just quite dull really
Ravi Shankar
4/5
This was great! It starts with a really chill, simple introduction to ragas and instruments like the sitar and tabla, like a primary school music lesson, and then Ravi just fucking shreds for the better part of an hour
Taylor Swift
4/5
A really strong album that solidified Swift as one of the biggest pop stars in the world. A couple of songs are kind of cringe (Bad Blood and about half of Shake It Off) but Blank Space, Welcome to New York, Style, Out of the Woods and Wildest Dreams are all killer
Robert Wyatt
4/5
Robert Wyatt’s magnum opus is a psychedelic progressive folk masterpiece; a delicate oddity; chilling and beautiful. Simply put, Rock Bottom is a stone cold stunner
N.E.R.D
3/5
A fun blend of rap rock with great production but nothing too substantial- their previous album is far more exciting
Also: there are a few things about this album that are kind of dated, but the most notable is that there are THREE HIDDEN TRACKS
2/5
It took a little while to track this one down, and it was a bit anticlimactic when I did manage to give it a listen. XTC are great and there are some really good songs on here (more than you’d usually find on any band’s ELEVENTH album) but this is by no means one of their best. Your Dictionary is the only song that I’d say is outright bad, but most of it just feels like lesser versions of their own catalogue and those of their contemporaries - and frankly, by 1999, I don’t think we needed another album that sounded like this
David Bowie
4/5
I always forget just how good this is when considering Bowie’s discography - I guess because other than Sound and Vision it doesn’t feature the big singles that Ziggy and Hunky Dory have in spades. It’s a fantastic set of tracks though - some ambient and immersive; some fleeting - and despite a range of genres they all flow together like a strange opera. It tails off slightly towards the end for me, but is an otherwise fantastic entry to a ridiculously strong body of work
Muddy Waters
3/5
A really strong live blues album from one of the best to ever do it - just didn’t quite hit with me
The Who
3/5
A great band still finding their sound with very mixed results. The first half up to and including the title track is actually great but the drop in quality from there is pretty significant
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
A dark and industrial hellscape that also happens to jam packed with hooks and emotional gut punches
4/5
This is a very difficult album to review as its reputation precedes it massively. Let’s get a few things straight from the off:
1. It’s not the first concept album. It’s really not a concept album. The title track and its reprise set up a concept that the rest of the album completely ignores. It’s cheating
2. It’s not The Beatles’ best album. Abbey Road and Revolver are both better. White Album, despite it’s inconsistencies, is a more exciting listen as well
3. Speaking of inconsistencies, Mr Kite and Lovely Rita are both kind of bad. Good Morning Good Morning is a bit of a mess as well
Everything else is incredible. The production is remarkable for the time and there’s still not really anything that sounds like it. I can’t quite justify giving it a 5 but it’s the highest 4 I’m ever going to give
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I haven’t revisited this as much as Cohen’s earlier albums but it’s a fantastic final project. I find it difficult not to compare it to Blackstar by Bowie - the last album of a decades-spanning era-defining artist, released in 2016 shortly after returning from a lengthy hiatus and just days before their deaths, and lyrically very aware of what lay around the corner. While Blackstar experimented more sonically, diving into new genres, You Want It Darker is just Cohen doing what Cohen does best, while being very aware of the physical limitations time has imposed on him. Bleak and uncompromising but with some gorgeous arrangements, it utilises the gruffness of his voice in those later years perfectly, the pained growl of his vocals adding such a unique texture to these very emotional songs, and adding a fitting closing chapter to an incredibly storied career
Kate Bush
5/5
The finest work from one of the best to ever do it. The first half is full of such iconic and amazing songs, and the second half is a beautiful and bizarre opus. Not much more to say, it’s just fantastic - even now, almost 40 years later, I don’t think there’s anything quite like it
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Springsteen tries his hand at country with mixed results. Still pretty great in places but far from his strongest work
3/5
As difficult second albums go, this is a pretty good one. A huge stylistic change from the shoegazy Leisure though not quite the more definitively britpop sound of the following year’s Parklife. There are ups and downs and some teething issues but it’s a fun record and an important step towards some more consistent and iconic work. Also - the intermission and outro on this go so hard, they’re better than a lot of the songs tbh
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Respect is a perfect opener - it’s often heralded as one of the best songs of all time and is somehow not overrated, and never feels overplayed no matter how regularly I hear it. The title track is insanely good as well, as is the closing track (an incredibly powerful cover of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come). The rest of the album is very good, but it does drop a little bit outside of those three magnificent songs
Morrissey
3/5
It’s quite difficult listening to a Morrissey album in 2024. What previously passed for self-deprecating wit just sounds like a bitter old man whining about how nobody loves him. There are still some great songs here (Irish Blood English Heart, I Have Forgiven Jesus, First of the Gang to Die) but a lot of boring and cringy ones too (I Like You is especially bad)
Lightning Bolt
4/5
A relentless barrage noise rock that was incredibly fun
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
The dullest thing I’ve heard in a while, and I listened to this on the way to a conference about insurance policy wordings
The Kinks
5/5
Something Else By The Kinks by The Kinks kicks off with the peppy energy of David Watts, closes with the divine Waterloo Sunset, and ranges from baroque pop to garage rock in between. Probably my favourite The Kinks album, and just a really lovely way to spend half an hour
Yes
4/5
An incredible prog album with delightful hooks and gnarly grooves
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
The last thing this list needed was a 72-minute Springsteen album from 2002. It’s not bad by any means but is just so repetitive, and Springsteen really has nothing to say on this. He’s got some absolute classics that are deservedly on this list (as well as a couple that are somehow not, like The River) but this is not one of them
The Who
3/5
A quite frustrating album to rate, as it’s a live recording on only 6 songs (3 of which are covers). The covers are actually pretty good with Moon’s frenetic drumming consistently being a highlight, and the extended version of My Generation works surprisingly well (extending a sub-3-minute banger into a 15 minute jam/medley). Magic Bus is a quite underwhelming closer, itself lasting about 7 minutes but by far the least energetic performance on the record, and stops this one from being a 4
Belle & Sebastian
5/5
A beautiful and poetic jangly indie pop album that always delivers
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
A very fun new wave album full of bops and led by two massive and incredible singles. I was going to give this a 4 but the backing vocals of the closing track Yeah Yeah were incredibly annoying
3/5
Uncontrollable Urge is a hell of a mission statement to open a debut album with. It’s a very fun album on the whole but nothing too much sticks out after the opener, and I’ve never really got on with the cover of Satisfaction
The Beach Boys
5/5
A truly exceptional album that I enjoy more as a cohesive work with each listen. Some of the most gorgeous choral and orchestral arrangements you’ll ever hear, and opening each side with Wouldn’t It Be Nice and God Only Knows doesn’t hurt at all
Willie Nelson
4/5
I’ve always liked Willie Nelson but never taken the time to listen to a full album. This was great, everything I’d want from a country album really
The Cure
3/5
Moody, gloomy and atmospheric with some really strong basslines, but without the killer production and memorable hooks (bar a couple of songs) of later The Cure releases
The National
3/5
A lot of people seem to think this is The National’s best album but Im not sure I agree. It doesn’t have the energy and vitality of the preceding Alligator and Boxer, or the lovely and earnest ballads of its follow-up Trouble Will Find Me. The centrepiece of the record is the stunning Bloodbuzz Ohio, which is one of their biggest songs for good reason, but otherwise this album feels a bit lifeless in places
ZZ Top
2/5
Opinions have not changed since I first listened to this about 3 years ago - the opening track and Sharp Dressed Man both slap, the rest is just annoying butt rock
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
This was significantly better than their debut - a massive step up in quality with some grooves here and there that really pulled me in. Still hated it mind
Bad Brains
3/5
This was pretty great - takes the hardcore energy of their debut and mixes a few other genres in with it to create something quite unique and very fun. The last couple of tracks tailed off slightly unfortunately, but it was still definitely worth checking out
Van Halen
2/5
Jump is fantastic but the rest is just really average. Some good moments here and there, and a couple of songs have fantastic intros but then become incredibly cringe (Hot for Teacher and Girl Gone Bad)
Steve Earle
2/5
Another dull country album that just did absolutely nothing for me
Eels
3/5
A strong and fun 90s alt rock album even if nothing too much stands out from its contemporaries. The Flaming Lips influence is pretty strong, and there are elements of Beck as well - both of whom are great and it doesn’t quite reach their heights
Gene Clark
3/5
There have been a lot of pretty awful country albums on this list, especially recently, so it was great to hear one that was actually pretty good. The Dylan influence was also quite clear (as you’d expect from a member of The Byrds) and while there was nothing too memorable it was a really nice listen while it was on
De La Soul
4/5
Just a silly goofy album that also happens to be one of the most influential hip-hop releases of all time. Some incredibly catchy songs on here with virtuosic and innovative sampling throughout (to the extent that it pretty much singlehanded changed copyright laws, unfortunately to De La Soul’s detriment). It’s really nice to hear an album where everyone involved is clearly just having a lot of fun working on it
Bee Gees
2/5
A very bizarre album to be honest. I guess you have to put Bee Gees on here because they were astronomic unit shifters but… surely you’d go for one of their disco ones? This is just an odd representation of their impact on the musical landscape - and it’s not even like it’s that good an album
It starts with the amazing How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (which is a great song in its own right, even if the Al Green version from the next year outshines it by miles). From then on it’s just a string of ballads with pretty rubbish lyrics and slightly different styles. It’s Just The Way sounds like a lost Beatles song a la Let It Be, while Remembering is a weird melodramatic musical theatre number almost?
Also - what accent are Bee Gees meant to have? I swear it changes between lines in some songs
Peter Tosh
3/5
Lots of fun, super chill reggae but a little repetitive by the end
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
The opener was absolutely fantastic but the rest of the album did feel a bit like more of the same and lost quite a lot of momentum
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
Yeah this was great - fantastic vocals and ridiculously good drumming with so many interlocking grooves, and just lots of fun
Randy Newman
4/5
It’s a great collection of songs, from satirical cuts like the controversial Rednecks to beautiful ballads like Marie, that Newman performs well in his idiosyncratic and easily likeable voice
The Flying Burrito Brothers
3/5
Average psych/country rock. Mainly terrible lyrics. Fantastic band name
Balances out at a pretty solid 3
LL Cool J
3/5
The title track absolutely steals the show here, with Ladies Love Cool James (yes that’s actually what his name stands for) sounding full of energy and fire. The production is generally pretty great throughout and far more hard hitting than his 80s work like Radio, though granted he was a literal child when that album came out (he’s only 22 here and this was viewed as his comeback record - wild). Unfortunately the flow and lyrics are pretty dated more often than not, and there is a lot of filler in it’s 61 minute run time (the title track being followed by Milky Cereal is a clear demonstration of just how all over the place this album can be in tone and quality)
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
After 800+ days of not getting that much Springsteen, we’ve now had three albums in about a month. I feel like I may have been a little harsh on the previous two (Nebraska and The Rising) but they really weren’t his strongest moments. Born to Run, on the other hand? An absolute masterpiece
Meat Puppets
2/5
Not a huge fan of this one - I get the appeal, just not for me
The Electric Prunes
3/5
Nothing stood out too much from this but it was a pretty fun psych rock record
Green Day
5/5
Pop punk perfection
Small Faces
2/5
Some of the songwriting is decent but it’s all phased to shit and the ‘fairy tale’ that runs throughout the second half was absolute nonsense garbage
Todd Rundgren
4/5
The 70s was rife with double albums that featured a handful of great songs and then a lot of filler, where bands clearly grew big enough to have complete creative control and no one to reign in their less cohesive ideas. This is an exception to that rule. Granted not every song is perfect - Piss Aaron is hardly on par with Couldn’t I Just Tell You - but it’s incredibly diverse and consistent for such a huge project, with fantastic songs and a production masterclass
King Crimson
3/5
A solid prog outing as one would expect from King Crimson, but far from their best
Dizzee Rascal
4/5
Maybe the quintessential British rap album? Dizzee is on another level here, the beats are ridiculously hard, and it’s kind of mind blowing to find out he was only 17 - 18 when recording this. This album is 21 years old now and still sounds incredibly fresh and exciting
Raekwon
3/5
1995 was a pretty huge year for Wu Tang Clan, and this record dropped in between a solo album from the unique, charismatic ODB and the cinematic masterpiece that is Liquid Swords by GZA. Cuban Linx is probably my least favourite of the three - it’s the hip-hop purists’ album and its legacy is undeniable (influencing Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G among others) - but just doesn’t have that innovative spark that makes so many other Wu Tang projects so memorable
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Apparently this is the only EWF album on the list which… seems wrong (I’d go for I Am personally). Still a fantastic record though - it opens with Shooting Star which is about as perfect an opener as you can ask for, and just keeps delivering hit after hit from there
Super Furry Animals
3/5
Super Furry Animals’ debut was on this a while ago and that was my first time really listening to them. The songs were pretty good but the production was just so phasey and annoying, and made everything just sound pretty rubbish. Fortunately the production was a lot cleaner and more interesting on this - on the other hand though, the songwriting was more hit and miss for me, with the bigger singles in particular not really doing anything for me. A mixed bag for sure
The Icarus Line
2/5
A passable if forgettable noise rock album that just didn’t really stand out from a lot of similar bands (not quite the same style, but the fact that Relationship in Command by At the Drive-In isn’t on this list is pretty ridiculous)
Talking Heads
4/5
A very fun and funky debut from a stellar band - not their finest work but a great way to introduce themselves
Linkin Park
4/5
Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but I doubt it - this album slaps. The four singles are massive and a couple of the album cuts are amazing as well (particularly A Place for my Head and Forgotten). A lot of nu-metal/rap-rock has aged horribly but this one really stands out as a rare example of it holding up (alongside System, early Slipknot, some Korn and… yeah, not that much else)
Cure for the Itch is by far the worst track with its very amateurish turntabling - ‘80s records from Public Enemy, De La Soul and Beastie Boys sound so much better, and by the time Hybrid Theory came out we were getting incredibly futuristic electronic cuts from Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and The Avalanches amongst others, so this is the one moment where it feels awkwardly dated. Fortunately the album sticks the landing with Pushing Me Away, which is quite heartfelt compared to the generally more aggressive sound on here, and points to the more diverse direction Linkin Park would explore in their next few albums
Throbbing Gristle
2/5
A very important and influential industrial album that just does nothing for me
Morrissey
3/5
A relatively strong debut from a singer songwriter at the height of his powers (before everyone realised how much of a prick he is). It’s musically more diverse than any Smiths records, but not everything works and there are a few mediocre tracks amidst the classics. Suedehead in particular still sounds great, but some of the mopier songs are just very forgettable
The Stone Roses
4/5
Northerners will try to tell you this is the best album of all time, and it’s really not. It drags a lot in the middle (Sugar Spun Man in particular is just a bad song), and even though I Am the Resurrection is a great closer it goes on far too long at just over 8 minutes (this is made even worse on the US release, where this is followed by Fools Gold - another great song for a bit but inexplicably 10 minutes long)
The Stone Roses were inescapable when I was living in York so I got quite sick of them quite fast. I haven’t really listened to them in a while now so it was actually quite refreshing to go back to this with a relatively clean perspective and see what other people saw in it. The grooves are great, and there are some huge anthemic choruses and just generally really catchy hooks. It has 5 massive singles (7 if you take the US version, which just has two extra songs slapped in) and they’re all very deserving singles, and make a remarkable impact. The highlight for me is probably This is the One which is a bit more subtle but just builds beautifully and has a real sense of urgency
To summarise, I have very complicated feelings about this album. I think it’s massively overrated but also get why it is, and do think it has elements of greatness. It may not be the best album of all time, but it’s pretty good, and it’s better than anything Oasis put out
Ray Charles
4/5
The 1960s version of the Pop Goes Punk compilations. Ray Charles just being an absolute boss and reworking country songs into whatever genre he sees fit, making them catchy and characterful the whole time. Vols I and II have a combined running time of about 80 minutes but it honestly flew by. No songs in particular really stood out but the whole thing was smooth as hell
Radiohead
5/5
I had never even seen a shooting star before…
Anyway, sick album, bleeps all the right bloops
Suzanne Vega
3/5
A really solid singer songwriter album that feels like it bridges the gap between artists like Laura Nyro and more contemporary artists like Tori Amos and Fiona Apple. Nothing stood out too much on this record but it was definitely worth a listen
The Police
3/5
Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon are both incredible and the rest is a mixed bag, with the last song especially being a bit of a mess. A small step down from their debut in my opinion, and not as cohesive as Synchronicity
The Hives
3/5
It’s the Swedish Strokes! Great to see The Hives on this list, even if a compilation is a bit of an odd choice. An incredibly energetic and catchy set of songs that clocks in at just under half an hour, nothing too groundbreaking but just a fun little record
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
A quintessential dance punk album that just happens to end with one of the most beautiful ballads ever recorded. This grows on me every time I hear it and, while I don’t love the title track, it’s an otherwise pretty stellar record
John Grant
4/5
This was a really pivotal album for me in my teens as I realised what popular music can be outside of radio rock songs. Combining a singer-songwriter style with some glam elements and a hefty dose of electronics, Grant expertly crafts a spacey melancholy world where dreams go to die. There is a deadpan wit amongst the heartbreak on songs like Sigourney Weaver and Chicken Bones and, while a couple of songs in the second half don’t quite land for me, it all builds towards the stunning title track
4/5
I could happily live the rest of my life without hearing Don’t Look Back in Anger and especially Wonderwall ever again.
Other than those two huge singles, there’s not too much to write home about on Morning Glory. It doesn’t feel as impactful as Definitely Maybe and the opener is quite forgettable. Roll With It and She’s Electric are two other huge songs and they’re catchy as hell, but they feature some of Gallagher’s most annoying vocals and cringy lyrics respectively. The other songs aren’t especially noteworthy, often suffering from being decent 3-minute tracks that are stretched out to 5 minutes and just become boring after a while. It’s still a decent album and, while they’re definitely overplayed, Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back are both great so this is quite solidly a 3/5
Oh wait a second, it ends with Champagne Supernova?
Bee Gees
1/5
Pre-disco Bee Gees, huh? There was some quite lush instrumentation within here that made it not too unpleasant to listen to, but it was just so boring. I listened to this on my car radio and my Bluetooth connection cut out about halfway through - when it reconnected I genuinely don’t know if it carried on from the same place or started either the song or the whole album from the beginning again. Maybe a bit harsh as it did sound very pretty in places, but this was like listening to some nice paint drying
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
A fantastic garage rock/punk record, and one of the finest debuts of this century. It’s packed full of energy and sing(or shout)-a-long hooks and gave Yeah Yeah Yeahs instant legendary status
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Look, Xtina is great, but when I saw this was a nearly 80 minute album I was worried. Turns out I had nothing to worry about - it’s actually pretty darn good and surprisingly didn’t feel like it dragged
It’s a bit all over the place, trying to balance her new hip-hop inspired sound and brash persona on songs like Dirrty with huge ballads like Beautiful, and the quality of the production varies a lot (even between songs produced by the same people - Can’t Hold Us Down is fantastic while Fighter sounds incredibly messy). The main appeal of course is her voice, which is astounding throughout regardless of the genre she’s going for, and the album is full of fun hooks and choruses as well as her trademark vocal runs. All in all an inconsistent but generally pretty good pop album which actually justifies is monumental length
Boards of Canada
3/5
This is a really strong ambient album that’s nice to listen to and flies by, but doesn’t leave too much of an impression on me
The Beta Band
2/5
Another very bland album by the Beta Band - at least Heroes to Zeros had some interesting percussion in places. Every song just sounded the same, and like so many other songs from this era of indie. It is genuinely baffling that this band have two albums on the list when artists such as Gorillaz, The Strokes and The White Stripes only have one
Frank Black
4/5
Not as strong as the first couple of Pixies records, but realistically what is? It’s probably my favourite Pixies-adjacent project since the 80s and while it doesn’t quick match the band’s unique and raucous energy, it’s a bit more experimental sonically and is packed with great hooks and fun rabid yelps
William Orbit
2/5
Another alright but uninspiring electronic album. Nice enough to listen to but not worth revisiting
Everything But The Girl
3/5
The music is quite nice and the vocals are really strong, but again there’s just nothing too exciting or memorable on here
The Go-Betweens
3/5
Some nice jangle pop guitar but the vocal lines aren’t that interesting and it’s all just a bit forgettable
The Residents
3/5
The last couple of albums have been quite nice but not especially memorable - those are NOT things you can say about Duck Stab. It’s chaotic and unsettling by design and really does pack a punch. It’s not quite as strong as a couple of other Residents albums I’ve heard, or other freaky music pioneers like Zappa and Beefheart, but it sure does achieve what it sets out to do
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
I really wanted to like this one as I’m a big fan of Wainwright’s voice and Van Dyke Parks’ orchestration, but just thought it was ok. The opening and closing tracks didn’t do much for me at all (even with the guest vocals from Anohni - Wainwright’s feature on Anohni’s song What Can I Do? the following year is significantly better) and, while there was some lovely stuff in between, it was weighed down by some meandering vocal lines and lazy lyrics. Still beautiful in places though
Randy Newman
3/5
Not as consistent as Good Old Boys, his follow-up to this, but Newman still sounds great across this album. The first couple of songs in particular are fantastic, and his voice and mannerisms are always fun but the songwriting does drop off a bit and it becomes less interesting later on
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Very much an album of two halves. The first few songs are great and amongst the very best the Chilis have done (maybe with the exception of Get on Top, which is still quite fun). Songs like Parallel Universe diversify their sound a lot, while Scar Tissue and Otherside are two of their most emotionally raw performances. After the fantastic title track though, it all gets quite forgettable. I Like Dirt is another fun one, and Road Trippin’ is a gorgeous closer, but otherwise it really is lacking in that second half.
AC/DC
3/5
There is so much great stuff on this album but there’s so much absolute trash as well. Hells Bells is incredible and kicks things off perfectly, and Shoot to Thrill is another great tune, but the rest of side 1 is pretty naff (Given the Dog a Bone is particularly rough). Side 2 starts very strong as well, with a classic one-two punch of the iconic title track and the anthemic You Shook Me All Night Long, but then lulls again before the strong if less impactful closer. Some real highs and lows across this, which just results in a pretty good but generally unsatisfying album
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I have said a few times that there are too many Elvis Costello albums on this list. This one, however, absolutely deserves to be here. A fantastic and energetic new-wave-and-kind-of-a-bit-of-everything-else record with really fun lyrics and some great musicianship (especially highlighted on Lipstick Vogue)
Billy Joel
5/5
Absolute banger of an album. Movin Out is probably his most fun song, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is a vibrant and astounding work, Vienna is gorgeous and sounds massive: and that’s only like half of the singles. Every song has its place and it flows really well as an album, and the Morricone-esque whistling theme of the title track is delicious - just lovely stuff
Hole
3/5
The title track is incredible and kicks things off so well, and the closer is really impactful as well. Unfortunately the rest of the album lacks the intensity and energy of their two previous records and is a bit forgettable
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Funnily enough I heard this for the first time last week. Want Two came up on this list and I didn’t love it but enjoyed it enough to want to check out more of Wainwright’s work, so naturally went straight to part one. Everything came together a bit better on this one in my opinion, and some of the songs were absolutely huge. Go or Go Ahead is the standout here, and it sounds like the perfect blend of The Bends/Ok Computer era Radiohead and Origin of Symmetry era Muse - with the spacey guitars, gorgeous verses that sprawl and build to massive choruses, and the swells and stabs of choral backing vocals - and I’ve practically had that track on repeat ever since
Neil Young
5/5
A monumental singer songwriter album that sounds so vibrant and urgent even now over 50 years after its release. Got to love Neil Young, and this is up there with his absolute best
Fatboy Slim
3/5
A really solid and promising electronic debut, with Going Out of My Head and Everybody Needs a 303 both sounding huge, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of its behemoth of a follow-up
Hüsker Dü
3/5
Not my favourite Hüsker Dü album and a bit too long but still pretty solid as you’d expect from any Bob Mould adjacent project
The Isley Brothers
4/5
I DONE BEEN THROUGH A WHOLE LOT
This was a delightful blend of silky smooth ballads and fun, energetic funk - a complete package of groovy loveliness
The Modern Lovers
3/5
A solid punk album with some pretty cringe lyrics, though some of the slower songs like Hospital provided an eeriness that gave a nice balance and made it a bit less predictable
Jethro Tull
3/5
The opening track is a masterclass of the ominous, with that riff just grabbing your attention straight away. Unfortunately the few tracks that follow are kind of generic prog rock and it only picks up with Up to Me and My God when Anderson really leans into the band’s USP and busts out that gnarly flute playing
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
This opens so strongly but unfortunately dies down a bit after the stellar Dark of the Matinee. The closing track is really good as well, but everything else in between is just a bit forgettable, which is a bit of a shame after those first four great tracks
Khaled
3/5
There’s a lot of great stuff here and it’s an incredibly varied album drawing on Algerian folk music (raï, I have now learned), French chansons, funk, hip-hop, and 90s power ballads. The opening track slaps and El Bab is another really fun one, and there a couple of very nice ballads as well - but at 80 minutes it is just very long and the last couple of tracks aren’t too exciting. The cover of Imagine is also… definitely a choice
Sonic Youth
4/5
Sonic Youth are always pretty consistent but they were really on a roll in the late 80s and early 90s (I’m a Goo fan, sue me!) This is a kind of grunge inspired album but still keeping true to the harsher and noisier climate of SY’s earlier records. It kicks things off with the super catchy 100% but gets a bit weirder as it goes on, with Gordon sounding absolutely feral on some tracks. Very energetic, very cool, and just very fun really
Steely Dan
5/5
The ultimate yacht rock album. Every song is incredibly smooth and catchy but there are some bits that go really hard as well - the solos on the title track for example are just excellent. The session musicians on this track are next level (with appearances from Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie and Wayne Shorter among many others) and the production is so meticulous and crisp. An all round lovely and engaging listen
Van Morrison
5/5
I haven’t listened to this for quite a few years and remembered enjoying it but not this much. Every song is just absolutely fantastic. It combines every I love about Morrison’s music, with the ethereal headiness of Astral Weeks on songs like And It Stoned Me and Into the Mystic as well as the stellar hooks on Everyone, Brand New Day and the title track
The White Stripes
3/5
An interesting choice that has made me question how many albums I’ve actually signed up for
So this was the final album in the original 2006 book of 1001 Albums… and was one of the few 2005 records to be included in the list. In the subsequent editions, this album has been removed as other more impactful albums from later years have taken its spot. I’ve had albums from the 2020s in here so assumed I was listening through everything from the very latest edition, but now think it might be a combination of all of them, which brings the total album count up to something like 1080. Anyway…
This is pretty good but far from White Stripes’ best. We’ve had White Blood Cells and Elephant already and they are far stronger albums, and I would personally take De Stijl and Icky Thump over this - hell, Jack White’s third solo album Boarding House Reach should really be on here as well
Blue Orchid is a fantastic opener, The Nurse is eerie and affecting with a stunning use of marimba, and My Doorbell is one of their catchiest and most fun songs. The album tails off a bit after that though and while there are still highlights like The Denial Twist and Take Take Take, it’s mainly a bit underwhelming in the grand scheme of their incredibly consistent track record. The move from their garage rock roots to a more acoustic and varied sound is really interesting and the overall atmosphere of the record is great - it’s just a shame the songs on the whole aren’t up to their usual standard
Jacques Brel
4/5
A great series of songs with really unique and interesting instrumentation, and Brel attacks everything with such passion and energy. The recording quality is pretty lacking at times (I mean sure it’s a live album from 1964, I wasn’t expecting it to sound meticulous, but they could have cut some of the constantly-peaking applause) and a slightly longer album may have been able to demonstrate a bit more diversity, but it’s really strong for what it is
The Stooges
4/5
Probably my least favourite of those first three Stooges records. It doesn't quite have that slinking menace of the debut or the… pure intensity of Raw Power, and the last couple of tracks are a bit difficult to sit through with their sheer animalistic din
Shit still rocks though
The The
4/5
A fun and groovy slice of new wave/synth pop with some absolutely stunning production. I first heard this maybe three years ago and got a lot out of it, but was quite disappointed by their follow-up album Infected when that came up on this list, so it was really nice to revisit this first album and experience those highs again
Also a big shout out to the surprise Jools Holland piano solo on Uncertain Smile, absolutely hooting his nanny all over that track
Sheryl Crow
4/5
I’m not usually a big fan of these country-tinged singer-songwriter albums but this was really impressive. A good balance of fun catchy tunes (with the absolute gem All I Wanna Do keeping good company) and well-written ballads. I didn’t love the production on a couple of songs but even then there were other features that really redeemed them - most notably We Do What We Can, which I didn’t love the drum sound of but took on a whole new life in the second half
Donald Fagen
2/5
I did not know this album existed and my world has not been changed considerably now I know that it does
Just a few days after giving Aja a 5, this solo debut from Fagen is just so naffly 80s I can’t give it any more than a 2. Sick album cover though
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
A solid ‘50s rock n roll album that just gets very repetitive and doesn’t do much for me. Less than half an hour though and pretty good for it’s time though so no complaints
Soft Machine
2/5
English prog rock group try to make an avant-garde jazz album to mixed results. It’s a very ambitious and impressive record that I just didn’t really enjoy listening to
Kings of Leon
3/5
I enjoyed this quite a bit more than expected. Red Morning Light is a fantastic opener and brought back good memories of comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. The rest of the first half was pretty good as well, despite Joe’s Head featuring an even worse Bob Dylan impression than that Timothee Chalamet trailer, and Trani having some quite dire screaming towards the end (hey, at least he tried, and the song as a whole was really effective). Unfortunately the album did peter out in the second half as the songs started to blur into one a bit more
4/5
Opened and closed very strongly with two solid politically charged soul/funk bangers on each side. The Cisco Kid had the hardness of a Sly and the Family Stone cut while the title track had the sprawling depth of an anthemic Marvin Gaye epic. The two jazzier tracks in the middle felt a bit underdeveloped and aimless in places but were still decent, and the rest of the album was strong enough that it didn’t make much of an impact.
Tricky
3/5
The production is the highlight on this album, and Martina Topley-Bird’s vocals are fantastic as well. Unfortunately Tricky’s vocals are so weak and unimpressive by comparison and he sounds so unconvincing, especially with some of the raunchier lyrics. There is some really chill and atmospheric trip-hop as well as more upbeat tracks like the techno-laced Public Enemy cover Black Steel, but the album does run out of ideas a bit towards the end
1/5
I really wanted to give this a 2 or 3 because I do think Rollin’ is quite fun, the Mission Impossible song is alright (despite the transition from the 5/8 section back into 4/4 sounding incredibly clunky), and My Way gave us the best wrestling promo package of all time. Unfortunately the rest of the album was so fucking bad it has to be a 1
This is the very worst of nu-metal, with lazy and juvenile lyrics and often terrible production (the irony of Durst saying ‘you better get some better beats and get some better rhymes was not missed), and it goes on for 75 minutes that I will never get back. Oh, and one of the only decent songs on the album (Rollin’) is pretty much ruined by having a significantly worse version of it at the end - not even as a bonus track, just another 6 minute song before the nearly 10 minute outro - that somehow manages to make a Swizz Beats produced track with DMX and Redman features sound bad. And the worst part is the album’s not even a fun bad listen like Angelic 2 the Core, it’s just vapid soul-sucking garbage
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
Faithfull’s voice has a massive impact but I wasn’t too enthralled with it until the final song, which had such a massive impact that it gained another star for me. What a mega song, especially for it’s time
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
A virtuosic prog reimagining of an iconic orchestral piece. It’s incredibly impressive and I’m sure it would have been astounding to see live but it just doesn’t carry over too well to the recording and I’d honestly rather just hear an orchestral version of it
Elvis Costello
4/5
Another great Costello album with the three big singles (Welcome to the Working Week, Alison, and Red Shoes) being the standouts but a load of other solid tracks alongside them. The only real misfire is Mystery Dance, which just sounds like a bad impression of the other Elvis
Common
4/5
Common isn’t necessarily the most exciting rapper but he always has a good ear for a groove, and the production on this is fantastic as expected. Before the futuristic vibes of Electric Circus and the Kanye-helmed pop-soul smash of Be, the heart and soul of Like Water For Chocolate is that vibrant Soulquarians sound (the production powerhouse of D’Angelo, J Dilla, Questlove, Erykah Badu and more who dominated the neo-soul scene of the early 2000s)
Throw in a handful of features from the likes of Black Thought, Mos Def, Macy Gray and Bilal, and Common bringing his trademark consciousness and consistency, and you have a really powerful and clean as hell hip-hop record
Joy Division
4/5
I’ve always thought Unknown Pleasures was a bit overrated, but Closer is a different beast entirely. An unwaveringly bleak album supported by Hook’s pounding basslines, while Curtis yelps like a man possessed
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
2/5
Another pleasant but very average and forgettable jangly pop 80s record
Dire Straits
3/5
Pretty much exactly what I expected from a Dire Straits album. Some decent bluesy rock but nothing that particularly stood out other than the legendary Sultans of Swing
Happy Mondays
2/5
I’ve just never really vibed with Happy Mondays. There are some nice grooves here and there but the songs go nowhere, the vocals are just weak and messy, and the mixing on this is god awful. Not bad enough for a 1 but it’s a pretty low 2
Foo Fighters
3/5
A solid enough fun little side project from the drummer of Nirvana, hope it works out for him
Happy Mondays
2/5
Two Happy Mondays albums in the space of three days - lucky me!
This was a big step up from Bummed to be fair. It’s still not really my thing but the production was so much better and, while I think Kinky Afro is overrated, two of the other singles (Step On and Loose Fit) were both pretty great. An improvement on all fronts from their previous album, but not quite enough to warrant a 3 for me - just going from a low 2 to a high 2
The Temptations
5/5
What an absolute treat this was. Opening with some hard funk for the first couple of tracks, followed by the massive Papa Was a Rolling Stone, and then a second side of lovely soulful ballads (including the beautiful The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face). I’ve liked the few Temptations songs I’d heard before this but never checked out a whole album, and yeah, this just ticked all the boxes for me
David Ackles
4/5
A really fascinating theatrical album that sounds very ahead of its time. The closest comparison from the era I can make is the first four Scott Walker records, with their flowing lyricism and orchestral majesty. Some songs are more reminiscent of Nick Cave’s more twisted brand of grandiosity, while Family Band is a proto-Tom Waits poetic ballad. An incredibly rich and eclectic gem of a record
Steely Dan
4/5
Not my favourite Steely Dan album - it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Aja or Can’t Buy a Thrill for example - but it’s still a great record with some top quality songs like Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Any Major Dude Will Tell You and With a Gun
TV On The Radio
3/5
Dear Science (TV On The Radio’s 2008 album) was one of my favourite discoveries from this project when it came up a couple of years ago. Their energetic blend of heavy grooves and alternative rock, with soaring and multi-layered vocal melodies ripping out over pounding or slinking basslines, just makes them very exciting to listen to. This album sees them crafting that sound along with a healthy dose of a capella soundscapes, sounding like a proto-Young Fathers, and while it doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of Dear Science (also heard in 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain, which I don’t believe is on this list- though worth nothing the first edition of 1001 Albums came out in 2005, so this would have been their latest offering at that point), it must have been incredibly exciting at the time, and serves as a great indicator of what’s to come
George Michael
3/5
Faith and Father Figure are both huge and an incredible way to kick off the album, but it’s a bit middling as it progresses. There is some really bad production in places, most notably on Hard Day, and I Want Your Sex is just very cringe, not at all sexy, and far too long at 9 egregious minutes. It gets better towards the end though, with the very silly but very fun Monkey and then the genuinely beautiful Kissing a Fool. Overall a very mixed bag, and not as impactful as Listen Without Prejudice, but still with some mega highlights
Jamiroquai
3/5
A fun and funky time with a fantastic title track, but nothing too substantial on this debut record. Jay Kay (is that really his name) is trying too hard to sound like Stevie Wonder here and hasn’t really found his own sound yet
Genesis
4/5
A fantastic prog album and, in my humble opinion, the finest hour from arguably the biggest band in the genre. The opening track in particular is astounding but there’s some great stuff all around here. It’s bold, theatrical, and incredibly goofy in places (Gabriel tries about 20 different ludicrous accents on The Battle of Epping Forest), and always interesting
Primal Scream
2/5
Hmm… this was a difficult one to rate. Not a bad album but it just felt quite unfocused. It was an interesting mix of britpop and experimental rock with a more electronic and krautrock inspired sound. The opening track felt like a lazy Massive Attack rip off and the vocals were very hit and miss throughout, but on the whole the overall sound and atmosphere worked. Kowalski was a big standout and there were some other highlights dotted around but also a lot that didn’t work for me and a lot that was ok but just meandered
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
A solid post punk album with a great style and a lot of hooks as well as some more tender moments like She Is Mine, even if a bit samey in places
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
Ok so I’m going to review this album by mainly talking about another album
I started typing that this is probably the best live album not recorded by Johnny Cash in a prison, but had a strange sense of deja vu. I then realised this was because I made the same claim in my review of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged record, which was a sadly ironic connection considering Cobain quoted the opening track from Rust Never Sleeps in his suicide note
Morbidity aside, Rust Never Sleeps is a stunning live album (ok, a quick caveat - it’s about 80% a live album. There were some studio overdubs to the live recordings, and two of the songs seem to have been entirely studio based but just bear with me ok).
I’m often very critical of live albums that just sound like weaker or messier versions of their studio-recorded counterparts, and the best live albums are the ones that bring a unique element to the songs that couldn’t previously be captured - whether this is raucous energy improved by interacting with a live crowd, virtuosic solos and jamming aided by the interplay with other band members and honing in on the atmosphere from the audience, or a complete change in style to the studio recordings (in Nirvana’s case, a more cut-back and acoustic approach inspired by the ‘Unplugged’ gimmick). In the case of Rust Never Sleeps, there is no purely studio alternative to compare to - this barrage of scuzz is as clean as these songs get. Pocahontas and Sail Away still sound serene, but the B-side with Powderfinger and the closer Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) boasts dark, menacing ballads with distorted riffs, and the album as a whole commonly focuses on dying young and leaving a legacy.
With this heavier punk-inspired sound, which was much slower and doomier than a lot of punk at the time, the acoustic singer-songwriter legend Young effectively invented grunge on one of the greatest live albums in history. The genre was then popularised by Nirvana, who redefined what the genre could be by taking more of an acoustic singer-songwriter’s approach on one of the greatest live albums in history. Hey hey, my my. Rock and roll can never die
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
Really cool basslines all over this and Gainsbourg’s vocal style is always great to listen to. Sometimes it gets a bit overbearingly noisy though, and naturally it loses a star for the general noncery of the album concept
Jane Weaver
3/5
Another instance of a more recent addition to the list being quite odd. It’s a good album but nothing too exciting or unique about it - I feel like I’ve heard the same kind of thing at a higher level from artists like Julia Holter. It looks like Weaver’s back catalogue is all quite acclaimed, so it may just be a case of honouring her consistent work by adding the most recent at the time, which is fair enough as an introduction to an artist but not really the point of the list - I don’t know. Was good but nothing new
Korn
2/5
Oh dear. I was actually quite excited for this as I haven’t listened to Korn in ages and don’t think I’d ever actually heard this one all the way through. Freak on a Leash and Got the Life both hit hard as well as a couple of other deeper cuts, but there is a lot of trash on here as well, most notably the dull and homophobic ‘rap battle’ between lead singer Jonathan Davis and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst. It doesn’t feel as exciting and fresh as their debut or as mature and introspective as Issues, and is just a bit of a bloated mess that really struggles when it leans into the more hip-hop inspired side of their sound, which they are far worse at pulling off than their signature growly groove metal
The Soft Boys
3/5
This was an unexpected treat, an 80s album I hadn’t heard before that was actually quite fun. Even when I didn’t love the music, the lyrics were usually quite funny, even/especially when they don’t make any sense.
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
The live instrumentation for the beats was pretty cool and it was a nice and relaxed listen but the rapping was uninspired and the few comprehensible lyrics were not great. So many better rap albums that are missing from here
Chicago
3/5
A pretty great debut album that was a bit heavier and more progressive than I expected from Chicago’s later work. I was really on board for the first half but it was just far too long, and the 6 minute track of just guitar feedback was the final straw for me
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Never really got into the Bunnymen’s more acclaimed work and this debut didn’t change my mind. It’s decent enough moody new wave but just very homogenous and forgettable
The Monkees
2/5
This album was kind of flat, especially with the knowledge that The Monkees had a handful of incredible songs around this time. Unfortunately nothing was especially catchy on this record and it very much felt like a Beatles rip-off, with the title track sounding like a far less interesting Tomorrow Never Knows.
A side note does need to be made for Zilch which is a kind of mediocre track but ended up being sampled in a fantastic Del the Funky Homosapien track
Solomon Burke
3/5
A pretty cool bluesy soul record, carried by Burke’s fantastic voice even when the writing wasn’t too exciting
Christina Aguilera
3/5
This Aguilera album is kind of all over the place as it sets up that it’s a throwback to classic pop and R&B (as opposed to her harder, more hip-hop inspired sound from Stripped) but doesn’t always stick to that concept. This is especially confusing when the second side of the album introduces a second circus concept that is then pretty much abandoned after two songs. Very weird and too long and repetitive BUT there are some great songs on here, most notably Ain’t No Other Man which absolutely slaps
David Holmes
1/5
Another really uninspiring electronic album. There’s no Autechre or Squarepusher on this list but somehow there’s space for this, make it make sense
The Divine Comedy
4/5
I’ve been wondering for a while how to rate this. It’s an extremely lavish album in the style of Scott Walker, bolstering a classic britpop sound with something far more theatrical and orchestral and, as the album title maybe implies, is just incredibly horny. There is a very tongue in cheek approach to the blatant chauvinism that almost redeems it, like the singer is playing dress up at being this archetypal ladies man rather than actually believing it, and that makes it a much easier pill to swallow. The epic baritone throughout is really impressive and there are some really fun passages, and even though I kind of hate the whole thing it’s also very good actually
Adele
5/5
A stunning album that feels like such a staple in the pop catalogue now that it’s not really worth talking much more about. I have heard Rollin in the Deep to death but it is still an incredible song, and Someone Like You is such an emotionally powerful closer. Set Fire to the Rain is another huge power ballad, and Rumor Has It is the other massive song but a much more fun up-tempo number that adds a lot of variety to what could be a quite samey record. The production is quite sparse but it suits Adele’s powerhouse vocals perfectly and - while not every song can be a hit- Turning Tables, Take It All, and particular the gorgeous Lovesong are all highlights that are slightly more buried in the tracklist. It’s not really for me and in terms of personal enjoyment I’d probably only give it a 4, but it does what it sets out to do perfectly, and if you’re more of a fan of that kind of easy-listening minimalistic pop with huge dynamic choruses then there’s not really many better examples than this
Shuggie Otis
4/5
This was a lovely surprise. A fantastic blend of funk and soul with a more psychedelic sound, constantly shifting and refreshing. Strawberry Letter 23 sounded familiar and I have now found out that not only did it feature briefly in Pulp Fiction, it has been interpolated by both Outkast and Coheed & Cambria - wild
Anthrax
3/5
Anthrax have always kind of been the hanger-on of the big four of thrash metal. Metallica are anthemic and diverse and have an astounding cultural impact, Slayer are intense and relentless, Megadeth have their blistering guitar solos and some prog-rock leanings, and Anthrax are just kind of there doing the same kind of thing. They’re like Suede to Oasis/Blur/Pulp, or like Frankie Jonas
This is regarded as their best album and it’s a good album. Nothing I haven’t really heard before from the other three apart from maybe a more punk-inspired approach, and the whole thing is just very solid. Great performances all round, strong lyrics, but just failed to make much of an impact
The Coral
3/5
Can’t decide if it wants to be a landfill indie record or a quirky pirate concept album - I mean this as both an insult and a compliment. Dreaming of You still slaps
Waylon Jennings
3/5
Despite my documented hatred of anything dubbed ‘honky tonk’ (be that Rolling Stones songs or WWF Intercontinental champions) this was actually pretty good! Emotional and fun country that didn’t feel completely soulless
Gene Clark
4/5
It took me a couple of tracks to get into this but it’s a really well constructed series of country/folkish songs as well as elements of psychedelic rock (like a lot of The Byrds’ - who Clark was a member of - releases) but also with a big R&B/soul influence. The backing vocals are simple and sparing but add so much to the texture of these songs, elevating them from strong but run-of-the-mill 70s songwriting to these grand and lush ballads that I appreciated more and more as the album went on
Orange Juice
3/5
This was all over the place. Really hated some bits and really loved some others, sometimes bits that were occurring at the same time. There were some incredibly cheesy and cliched 80s synths in the mix, but they were sometimes so cheesy they swung right back into my good books. A lot of fun lyrics as well - I particularly enjoyed ‘A penny for your thoughts. Incidentally you can keep the change’
Some of the more mid-tempo tracks just passed me by but the ones that made an impression were a lot of fun when they weren’t actively annoying me
Tom Waits
5/5
The incredible run of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank’s Wild Years solidified Waits’ shift from a jazz-inspired singer-songwriter to an avant garde genre-bending freak. Bone Machine is his first album for five years after that landmark trilogy and he kept that momentum going and then some. It’s his darkest record and sheds the extravagant cabaret he sometimes dabbled in for a more straightforward blues sound, featuring some of his grittiest stompers and most heart wrenching ballads, and probably his most strained and haunted vocals which is sure saying something. He raves and rants and croons about growing old and religion and murder over janky guitars, out of tune pianos, and guys beating the shit out of some metal. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned shack in the middle of the woods and I just love it
Drive Like Jehu
4/5
This is kind of the missing link between heavier post-hardcore and the sound I associate most with emo, with some of the ferocity of Rites of Spring and the angularity of later groups such as At the Drive In combined with the glistening guitar licks subsequently popularised by American Football among others. It’s all just extremely well written, with these quite repetitive songs that are sometimes up to 9 minutes being hypnotic and encompassing enough to still feel a sense of movement and urgency
I didn’t finish this when I first gave it a try a few years ago and went in with a more lenient mindset. I’m still not a huge U2 fan but I’ve got something out of their other albums on this list, and think I gave them all either 3s or 4s
Anyway this one still sucks. Beautiful Day is a fun opener and the second track is good too, but it all goes very quickly downhill from there. The production is so clean and the lyrics are so awfully basic and soulless, and at least half the songs on here have at least one part where it’s completely out of Bono’s vocal range. If he was at least giving it some effort and emotion and straining for the high notes I’d forgive it (I just gave Bone Machine by Tom Waits a 5 for Christ’s sake) but it just sounds so flat and lazy, like he doesn’t care that it sounds bad. It’s just all so forgettable and meaningless, and even the songs with an important message (like Peace on Earth, which was written after a car bombing that killed 29 people and Bono described as being ‘as bitter and as angry a song as U2 have ever written’) just sound so flat and empty of anything
David Bowie
3/5
The production is fantastic on this, and Heroes is one of Bowie’s most impactful and evergreen songs for good reason. Beauty and the Beast is a fun opener as well, but unfortunately there’s not too much more of interest on this album. The more ambient second half is just very forgettable, especially when compared to Eno’s solo work at this time and the back to back Bowie bangers of Station to Station and Low that preceded this
Tom Waits
5/5
And the Tom Waits glazing continues…
This was the first Waits album I ever heard and it’s on my top 5 favourite albums of all time. Everything you could possibly wants from a Waits album is here and then some - gorgeous ballads like Time, huge stadium rock choruses like Downtown Train, unsettling slinking oddities like Clap Hands and just some fun and freaky shit like Singapore and Cemetery Polka. Probably his most diverse album, and even though there are 19 tracks on here they’re rarely more than a couple of minutes so it absolutely whizzes by, lurching from genre to genre like a ghost train led by a drunken vagabond
Beastie Boys
4/5
An incredibly impressive feat of sampling wizardry that pins together the Beasties classic style of rapping. There are a few bangers on here with Shake Your Rump, Hey Ladies, and Shadrach. There’s a song that samples Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Psycho, and Cheech and Chong and is about throwing eggs at a bald man, so that’s fun
Holger Czukay
3/5
An interesting and strange project from one of the members of Can. Didn’t resonate with me anywhere near as much as any of the Can albums I’ve listened to, and the vocals were nowhere near as strong as Damo Suzuki’s, but it was still quite fun and groovy as heck as one would expect
Willie Nelson
3/5
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about a Willie Nelson album of jazz standards but I was quite enamoured by the opening track, a beautiful rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust with an instrumental palette I’d never have expected to hear from Nelson but complemented his voice perfectly. Unfortunately the instrumentals didn’t change that much at all throughout the album and the novelty wore off relatively quickly - it was still lovely in places but just very uninteresting after a few tracks of the same, and some of the song choices didn’t suit him as well as the openers
Caetano Veloso
4/5
Discovering albums like this is the best thing about doing this project. A Brazilian album from the 60s combining bossa nova and other classic South American grooves and styles with a Zombies-esque psych rock sound and some Scott Walker style string arrangements thrown in there for good measure? Absolutely yes please thanks very much
Mekons
2/5
Oh wow. I really could not keep up with all the directions this album was going
The first song sounded like Morrissey’s tired uncle drunkenly trying to assemble a Casio in the back room of a saloon. The second song was like the soundtracks of three different Film 4 original cop movies were playing at the same time. The third song was… actually kind of normal, but then the fourth song was like drinking in a tiki bar in Eastern Europe where everything was inexplicably in slow motion. The second half of the album is a bit more of your standard 80s fare, and then the closer is a really fun country ballad (with a violin solo that sounds exactly like Sound of Silence)
I’m fresh out of similes but long story short this was horrible yet also somehow endearing. Wouldn’t recommend, would listen again - could be a 1, could be a 4, giving this a confused 2
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
A stunningly personal album despite all its extravagance and ridiculously long song titles that sometimes last longer than the songs themselves. I’m more of a Carrie & Lowell guy but this is definitely Sufjan’s magnum opus in terms of sheer scope and impact. 48 more states when?
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Back to back 5 stars for maybe the first time, about 980 albums in
Not much to say about this that hasn’t been said a thousand times over - it’s an immaculate master class of soul and a truly vital record
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
An incredibly strong debut from one of the most consistently interesting and insightful rappers of this century. The production is stellar and Lupe’s pen is on great form right out the gate
James Taylor
3/5
A nice little collection of mainly acoustic tracks that don’t leave too much of an impression but are lovely enough when they’re on. The attempts to expand out into more of a bluesy sound are very mixed - Steamroller Blues is a clear low point of the album with some truly awful lyrics, but the more ambitious closer Suite for 20G with its funky outro is probably the best song here
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Well, everyone’s got to start somewhere. This debut is obviously very historically important but really it’s just a set of uninspiring blues covers (plus two original songs - Little by Little which is pretty good and a very forgettable instrumental track) that doesn’t really contain any indication of the greatness to come
808 State
4/5
Guys… I think I get acid house now
The Band
3/5
It’s a pretty fun collection of songs with great musicianship throughout, and quite impressive how different it sounds from their output as Dylan’s backing band at the time - still kind of folk influenced but more of a psychedelic Americana sound. It flows pretty well and there are some very evocative lyrics here and there, but unfortunately other than the stone-cold classic The Weight nothing really leaves a lasting impression. The vocals are especially lacking, as The Band share singing duties throughout the record and no one has a particularly distinct or interesting voice, and they’re either quite bland or outright bad on songs like Lonesome Suzie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
It’s a really strong and sophisticated big band swing album but there’s not really any stand out tunes (other than maybe Splanky) or ridiculously good solos to elevate it to a higher level
Dagmar Krause
2/5
Like walking into a smoky Berlin cabaret bar… but like on a Tuesday or something. The songwriting is pure Brechtian strangeness and the orchestration is quite adventurous in places, but Krause’s performance is often restrained and bland, and clashes with the intense theatricality of the songs. This was a rare did not finish for me, though to be fair that was mainly because the album was only available on YouTube and I couldn’t stand hearing that fucking Tina Fey booking.com advert again
Paul McCartney
3/5
A wholesome and quirky collection of songs that showcases McCartney’s innate knack for writing a melody while also distancing itself a bit from the grandeur of the final Beatles albums. It’s not my favourite record of his and he has far more streamlined and impressive stuff later on, but as a kind of back to basics/soft launch of a solo career, it does exactly what it needed to do at the time
The Kinks
5/5
Nostalgic gatekeeping has never been so charming. It’s very ‘I remember the corned beef of my childhood’ but somehow actually very lovely. A five star album anyway but the cherry on top is the fantastic non-album single Days which closes out some extended editions
The Clash
4/5
A truly iconic album that for whatever reason I’ve never hugely clicked with. The title track is fantastic as are Guns of Brixton and Wrong Em Boyo, and it’s incredibly diverse for a punk record without anything ever sounding too out of place, but it just feels a bit overlong for me and a lot of the second half doesn’t grab me. A beloved album by many for good reason, just not quite perfect for me
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
This is really really good - a rare ‘supergroup’ album where the artists really get each other and bring out the best in each other. Maybe not necessarily any of their strongest records (particularly for Young who has so many classics under his belt) but the songwriting, pacing and harmonies here all just work so well
Michael Jackson
5/5
Every song on this is an absolute banger, kicking off with two classics before going into some equally groovy deeper cuts. She’s out of my Life is one of MJ’s most tender ballads, and then the pace picks back up again for the last few tracks
Justice
4/5
Why do French people make such good electronic music duos? AIR, Daft Punk, and then Justice - must be something in the water over there.
It’s been a while since I’ve given this a full listen and it still hits incredibly hard, just relentless bass-heavy dance bangers
The Bees
3/5
The first track was very lo-fi beats to study and relax to with a bad case of early noughties generic landfill indie voice and I thought this was going to be a long haul. Thankfully the album picked up quite a lot from track two, and was pretty varied throughout. Not everything really worked for me, but there were enough high points to make this interesting
The Verve
4/5
I remembered this being very front-heavy and very very long - and it kind of is both of those things. But it’s also very good
Combining britpop with more of a U2-style sound but also some more psychedelic and shoegazey instrumentals, the soundscapes are lovely and obscure the fact that most of these songs are over the 5 minute mark - the whole album is about 1hr 15 but really doesn't feel that long, even if it does start to drag a little bit after Lucky Man
Bittersweet Symphony is an all-time great opener, Sonnet is a beautiful counterpart to it, The Drugs Don’t Work is a stunning ballad, and Catching the Butterfly is fun and trippy - there’s a lot going on here and it all just works together very well
John Cale
4/5
An incredibly detailed and thoughtful baroque pop album with stunning orchestration, ranging from the driving Child’s Christmas in Wales to the bombastic centrepieces of Macbeth and the title track to the closing delicate whisper of Antarctica Starts Here
Ananda Shankar
2/5
Not my vibe unfortunately, and nowhere near as impressive as the album by his uncle from 100 or so days ago. The covers of The Rolling Stones and particularly The Doors are not great and, while the other tracks are stronger and combine the sitar with western rock instrumentation and Moog synths in a quite interesting way, the songs just kind of meander and leave a lot to be desired
The Magnetic Fields
4/5
I actually revisited this a couple of months ago, which is a happy coincidence because I don’t know when I’d find a spare three hours to take this project in at the minute
It’s ambitious as hell and I admire it for that. I often criticise albums on here for being overly long but the length is the point with this one, and it changes genre and lyrical approach enough to keep things interesting even over 69 tracks. It’s remarkably consistent as well - while there are a handful of songs that I would happily never listen to again, there are so many good-to-great ones that it’s quite easy to forget about them
Grizzly Bear
3/5
For ages I thought this was somehow related to Animal Collective (probably got Grizzly Bear confused with Panda Bear) and only found out they were a completely separate band a couple of years ago
Anyway, this is a really nice and dreamy indie record, with fantastic production throughout. The opening two songs are fantastic, especially the mega Two Weeks, and while the rest of the album is still a nice listen it really doesn’t reach those heights again and just kind of floats by
Lou Reed
3/5
It’s kind of funny this came up so soon after Paris 1919, the 1973 solo album by Reed’s former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale. Both albums are very interesting and theatrical, but while Cale’s record leans into an ornate and baroque direction, Reed’s is a bleak concept album about poverty and divorce. It’s like comparing a Chris Columbus film to Ken Loach (in terms of tone, not quality)
Os Mutantes
4/5
This was kind of all over the place and was very fun. A Brazilian psych-rock album with songs by Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben, Francoise Hardy and The Mamas and the Papas - it’s as eclectic as it sounds and just incredibly energetic and frankly a bit nuts. Good stuff
Neil Young
4/5
Another great Neil Young record, this is one of his bleakest offerings following the overdoses of two friends, a band member and a roadie. It’s a heavier blues rock inspired sound than his work up to this point (or at least the albums I’ve heard) without quite reaching the grunginess of Rust Never Sleeps a few years later. It’s not one of my favourite Young albums but still an important stepping stone in his legacy
Cypress Hill
3/5
The beats on this are really impressive, and B-Real’s flow and energy are always a lot of fun - I can definitely see how his quite unique nasal vocal timbre has influenced modern rappers like Danny Brown as well. Despite this, Cypress Hill have just never really clicked for me. Maybe it’s the lack of memorable hooks (Insane in the Brain isn’t on this one) or the lyrics just not resonating with me, but I just found myself appreciating this more than enjoying it
The Sabres Of Paradise
1/5
The title is by far the best thing about this tedious techno album. The tracks don’t build or develop at all and it’s just so painfully long at nearly 80 minutes. At its best it sounds like music for a PS2 spy game, and at its worst it doesn’t even register as intentional sound, let alone music
The Beach Boys
3/5
The Beach Boys’ transition from barbershop surf-rock poster boys to avant-garde art pop geniuses is fascinating, and the release of Pet Sounds and the infamous non-release of Smile in the two years following this album are monumental additions to the pop music canon. This album hints towards that direction, with far more diverse instrumentation than a Beach Boys record so far, but the songwriting is still very simplistic and doesn’t get close to leaving an impression in the same way as their later work
The Flaming Lips
4/5
How do you follow up a sonic and textural masterpiece like The Soft Bulletin? With a more electronic-leaning concept album about a Japanese girl fighting robots that represent her terminal illness, of course!
The production on this is absolutely stellar, it sounds so serene and otherworldly, and the songwriting is just very fun
Janet Jackson
3/5
The concept of this album is a bit directionless - the interludes are very political and address a lot of serious social issues but the songs are mainly just standard love songs that don’t delve into the same heavy topics and make the whole project feel quite disjointed
Musically it’s just as all over the place, from adult contemporary to hip-hop-inspired funk to straight up rock songs, but Janet’s voice and presence is versatile enough to make it all work. It’s not as fun as Control or as immaculate as The Velvet Rope, but it’s a well written and performed collection of songs. Just not the concept album it fronts itself as
Finley Quaye
2/5
Quite fun but ultimately quite forgettable in places, and just a weird album to exist - Scottish reggae, of all things
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I’ve been meaning to check this out for a very long time. Another fantastic Stevie album from his iconic 1972 - 1976 period. It’s not quite as gorgeous as the preceding Innervisions or as ambitious and impressive as the following Songs in the Key of Life, but is still a fantastic record from one of our greatest songwriters during his most consistent and prolific era
Nick Drake
4/5
Not my favourite Nick Drake album but it’s still just so good. His songwriting and voice are so unique and beautiful and listening to this just feels like putting on your favourite jumper and having a nice hot chocolate
Orbital
2/5
Very little to recommend with this album - it’s nice enough in the background and quite hypnotic in places but really just kind of uneventful and forgettable techno. Should be called Orbital 2 out of 5
Big Star
4/5
I wasn’t really a fan of Third/Sister Lovers when that came up a few months ago so didn’t get my hopes up too much for Big Star’s debut but it was actually pretty great. Power pop with a real rock edge in places, it’s just full of great songwriting and top notch hooks
The Libertines
2/5
The Libertines were right - I can’t stand them now and I never really could. That opening track is pretty great, and some of the quieter moments on the record like Music When the Lights Go Out and Tomblands are really nice, but they spend far too much of it posturing as a punk band and incomprehensibly slurring their way through inconsequential songs
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Probably Gabriel’s best, this is just very impressive and covers so much ground. It’s dark and atmospheric in places but groovy and full of massive hooks in others, and it all flows together remarkably well for such a diverse project. Games Without Frontiers is an odd choice for the lead single and is probably my least favourite on the album, but it’s still a great ride from start to finish
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
The energy on this is wild and it is just a non-stop rock and roll rip roar. However this does kind of come at the expense of the songs, as all of the solos are just vamping on the blues chords - there’s nothing actually inventive or interesting going on and it gets very repetitive very fast.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
I remember you was conflicted
Arguably the best hip-hop album of all time, and (along with Stankonia by Outkast) the one that really got me into the genre. I remember listening to this the day it came out, not too sure what to think, and despite the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on and the sheer length of it (at nearly 80 minutes) I immediately had to relisten as there was just so much I wanted to revisit and explore.
It’s incredibly ambitious, both musically with the live jazz backing and lyrically with everything that is tackled on here from institutionalised racism and police brutality to sexism within the hip-hop community to faith and identity and legacy, and so much more. It’s such an important, complex and heavy album but also has some absolute bangers so you can listen to certain tracks like King Kunta, These Walls and Alright in basically any setting (while For Free? and u are maybe best kept off the aux and within the whole album experience)
The features are amazing with everyone on their A game and really fitting with the concept of the record, whether it’s a fun Snoop verse, a really powerful Rapsody verse, George Clinton’s funk genius, Kamasi Washington’s otherworldly band leading with Thundercat’s ridiculous basslines, or a posthumous ‘interview’ with 2Pac - but Kendrick remains the star of the show, switching his voice and flow up dramatically whether he’s gliding over Dilla-style grooves on Hood Politics, aggressively spitting fire on The Blacker the Berry, or reciting poetry between the tracks. It’s a long album that never dips, never drags, stays focused, and is constantly impressive and moving
Not too sure what else to add about this as I could end up talking about it for days, so let’s just say once again it’s very very good and leave it at that
Gillian Welch
4/5
Never listened to Gillian Welch before and this was a great surprise. A really varied and interesting country album with very sincere and thoughtful lyrics, and strong performances throughout
John Lennon
4/5
I’ve always liked The Beatles but never really got into Lennon’s solo music much, and thought Imagine was just ok when it came up on here. Plastic Ono Band was kind of revelatory in that sense - it’s so emotional and surprisingly heavy in places, and really feels like a continuation of White Album weirdness rather than a more placid Let It Be-style record. I’ve heard so many bad covers of Working Class Hero that I forgot just how good the original is, and Lennon’s rasping screams on a couple of the songs are so effective. Also the closing track’s lo-fi abstractness sounds like Mac de Marco or something, very odd
In short, this was great!
David Bowie
5/5
After he killed off his iconic persona Ziggy Stardust and shifted from spacey glam rock to more of a soul pastiche with his last couple of albums, I’m not sure what people would have expected from a David Bowie album in 1976 - but I doubt it would have been Station to Station.
The soul edge is still there on songs like Golden Years, but elsewhere we see the more abstract songwriting that developed into the now famous Berlin trilogy - though even on these more experimental songs, there are still these driving grooves. The album is only six tracks but jolts dramatically with each one, with the avant-garde ballad Word on a Wing with its stabbing pianos to the snarky Iggy Pop-style art rock of TVC-15 to the reverb-stained heart wrenching closer Wild is the Wind.
It’s maybe not as focused stylistically as most of his other projects before or after this, but it’s a perfect distillation of all those little ingredients that make up Bowie’s sound, if he ever truly had ‘a sound’, and a powerful demonstration of where he had been and where he would go
The Pogues
4/5
Just a very fun collection of songs with great Irish folk melodies with that drunk punk spirit. Listening to Fairytale of New York in October felt wrong but I’ll allow it. Fiesta is incredibly catchy and has such wonderful energy. I thought the album was lagging a bit towards the end but then realised it was the deluxe edition and I was halfway through the bonus tracks so yeah, the actual core album is great (though the B-side Sketches of Spain is also well worth a listen)
Portishead
4/5
Dummy is one of my favourite albums ever and maybe my favourite debut album. The other two Portishead albums have never quite done it for me in the same way, but I’m really glad I revisited this one
Dummy is quite dark and gloomy on the whole but there are also these beautifully bright bursts of strings and sax and synths that add so much to the tone of the record. Third does not have those bright bursts - it’s just incredibly bleak. The atmosphere is overwhelming and disturbing and I find it a quite difficult listen, but it’s so powerful at conjuring that atmosphere that I can’t help but respect it, and there are some very rewarding moments especially towards the end. Definitely not an album I could put on every day, but when the time and place is right it is so uniquely affecting
Björk
4/5
Another fantastic Björk album but also a sore reminder that Homogenic isn’t on this list for some nonsense reason. Anyhow…
Vespertine is very subdued and abstract compared to the more bombastic art pop of Björk’s previous albums. The production is skittering and intricate - it’s incredibly detailed yet somehow gives the impression of being sparse and I don’t know how they pulled that off. Björk’s vocals are divine as always and, while there aren’t as many huge singles as previous records, there are still some standout tracks like Hidden Place, Pagan Poetry, and the closer Unison with its slinking synth line. This seems to be a lot of people’s favourite Björk record and I get it, it just doesn’t keep me quite as hooked as some of her others
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
A strong early highlight for Zappa and his Mothers, and the only psychedelic rock classic I can think of that seems to hold the genre in such contempt. There are sneering condemnations of the performativity of hippie culture and the album title is an attack on psych pioneers selling out while the album cover seems to conversely criticise commercially successful artists capitalising on the street cred of the genre at the time, with both approaches diluting its integrity. And at the same time, it’s a funny and freaky collection of weird sounds, feedback, and pitch shifted vocals. It’s a bit front heavy, and not as fully realised or virtuosic as something like Hot Rats or Apostrophe, but it’s a lot of fun
Destiny's Child
3/5
The first three songs absolutely slap and then it’s all just a bit forgettable and the tone is really inconsistent. Dangerously in Love is the other standout song, but the version on Beyoncé’s solo debut is better. Nasty Girl and Sexy Daddy are both very cringe, with the former just being pretty mean, and the last two songs are just very preachy. As a vehicle of Beyoncé’s singing prowess, it’s effective, but as an album it’s pretty subpar and really not worth checking out past those three classics
Malcolm McLaren
1/5
A pretty gross album that just samples a load of South African and Caribbean musicians without credit (and inexplicably combines them with playground chants). And not samples in a real hip-hop producer kind of way, where they’re flipped and combined and used to create the backbone of a different piece of music - they’re regularly just played in full while a load of random sound effects shoot off in the background. Some of the rhythms work together really well and the chaotic nature of it was quite fun - it’s l almost like channel-hopping through different stations on three different radios at once - but the fact that the most interesting musical ideas are stolen really takes the fun out of it. Also the album cover sucks
Neil Young
5/5
Another fantastic Neil Young album. This was the first of his albums I heard and I knew this was going to be a 5 as soon as I knew it was was on the list. I’m not a huge fan of A Man Needs a Maid but every other song on here is fantastic - the title track, Heart of Gold, Old Man, Alabama, and The Needle and the Damage Done are all quintessential Young songs. The closer Words is great as well and is a bit of a turning point for his sound, adding some heaviness which he explores far more in later albums. It’s his best known work for good reason and arguably his best - definitely top 3 for me, and a perfect entry point to his ridiculously strong and consistent catalogue
Björk
4/5
It’s kind of mad that we’ve had Vespertine and now Vulnicura in less than a week
Björk is amazing, every era of Björk is amazing, she has such a unique sound but still manages to reinvent herself every few years and put out some truly special and original music. This album combines some of the fuller orchestration of Homogenic (though that orchestration also makes more use of extended techniques and is spliced up and used in more diverse ways - the range of sounds Arca can get from a flute is insane) with the thin and creeping textures of Vespertine, the heavier industrial elements from the back end of Biophilia, and some truly mesmerising and inimitable vocal lines and harmonies. All these elements fit together to make a record that’s often beautiful, sometimes unsettling, and constantly immersive and impressive. It’s also probably her most personal record lyrically, drawing heavily from her break-up with the long-term partner who much of Vespertine was written about 14 years earlier.
Not quite a 5 for me, and once again I don’t understand why Homogenic isn’t on the list, but it’s a fantastic album and one of the most enduring and ahead of its time from the 2010s (which you can’t say about many artists who debuted decades earlier). I would also highly highly recommend checking out the Live and Strings versions of this, they are nuts
Herbie Hancock
5/5
The essential jazz fusion album. Groovy as hell and a great gateway into the genre but also has some proper weird moments like the squealing synth solo in Chameleon
The Saints
4/5
A fun and dynamic Aussie punk album with some killer brass hooks, but nothing else too memorable
Stereolab
4/5
Man, I really need to get into Stereolab more. I’ve heard this album before quite a while ago, as well as its follow-up Dots and Loops, and they’re both great records. The dreamy vocals inspired by French 60s pop songs float over the metronomic krautrock grooves so nicely, giving a sense of melodic freedom to otherwise quite rigid song structures. There’s some fun use of electronics at play, but the backbone of the songs are always quite organic, and it feels more inspired by Can than Kraftwerk though an updated and original twist on their sound
Overall a great listen, and easily a top 5 condiment album (alongside a couple of salsa records and Kick Out the Jams)
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Discovering oddities like this, which I would otherwise never come across, is undoubtedly the best thing about this project
No one is coming up to me at work and asking ‘hey, have you heard that live album with the Argentinian tango composer and bandoneon player with an acclaimed vibraphonist?’
I do not care about your kids. I did not see the game last night. I implore you, please tell me why you think this is one of the most virtuosic and emotionally resonant recordings of the 80s
Johnny Cash
3/5
A great example of an older artist updating his sound without giving up any of his enduring qualities as a performer
The opening track is one of the few original songs on the record and is a fantastic start. It’s mainly covers from then on, and these kick off with his famous and incredibly emotional cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, transposing a heartbreaking and unsettling ballad about drug addiction into a rumination on growing old without the ones you love. There are a few other great covers, most notably Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, but a few of them don’t quite work for me. Bridge Over Troubled Water loses its way towards the end and the usually amazing Fiona Apple doesn’t blend too well with Cash’s voice, and the slower and lower version of In My Life makes a beautiful song sound quite dreary. There are some truly exceptional songs on here and it’s a great concept, but not always executed too well
The Mars Volta
3/5
A very complex and impressive prog-rock revival. It’s incredibly pretentious in a way I find simultaneously charming and alienating, and really great when it hits - with some really strong hooks over tight syncopated stabs or cool Latin grooves - but there’s too many gaps for abstract noodling that the really gripping sections end up being few and far between
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I’d never actually heard this in full before so am very glad I checked it out. I’ve enjoyed Bob Marley albums before but this was the first one where every single track really clicked with me. Just a fantastic collection of songs front to back
Miles Davis
5/5
Much like Headhunters a few days ago, this is another undisputed 5 star jazz classic. Phenomenal soloing from some of the best performers of all time with some gorgeous and catchy heads, resulting in one of the most accessible but also fulfilling jazz albums ever
Black Sabbath
5/5
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is a monumental album, and one of those few albums that transcends its status as an album and is just a defining moment in music history. It marks the ushering in of a darker, heavier world of music that hadn’t really been seen to date and, remarkably, it’s opening track in particular still sounds darker and heavier than a lot of metal being released today, over 50 years since
I am of course talking about Black Sabbath from Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, whose toe-curling, earth-shattering, doomy central riff conjures up images of summoning demons even before the lyrics do, and prove that these four lads from the Midlands are not here to fuck around. And then that’s followed up by a quaint harmonica-led tune about a wizard.
The album is a bit all over the place tonally, but the songs still slap for the most part. N.I.B is a gnarly hard rock banger; Sleeping Village begins with this lovely acoustic finger picking but quickly gets very eerie and then suddenly very heavy - it sounds like three songs slapped together into one but is a lot of fun; and Warning is a truly epic closer with another monster riff that descends into some chaotic free-form soloing. The only song I don’t really care for on here is Evil Woman which is just a pretty basic and forgettable blues track, but doesn’t exactly drag the album down.
I was considering only giving this a 4 as it is a little inconsistent and because Sabbath released a stronger and more cohesive album in Paranoid just seven months after this, but on a relisten I just enjoyed the hell out of it. Sometimes I’ll hear an album that supposedly started or defined a genre and you can hear the roots of it but it does feel like a stepping stone to far more assured and impactful work when they or artists ironed out the kinks - but there aren’t any kinks here. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is bold, brutal, and it’s bloody great.
The Young Gods
4/5
Went into this with low expectations and was blown away. Starting off like a haunted cabaret, this quickly becomes a thumping industrial noise fest, with incredibly varied and powerful vocals. Drops off a bit towards the end, but the first two thirds or so is a blast
The Fall
2/5
Mark E Smith is a uniquely enigmatic vocalist with a signature caustic wit and a versatile delivery that can be effective over punk, new wave, or electronica. The one thing he really really cannot do is hold a tune, which unfortunately he tries far too often at the start of this album. He is just on really poor form on this, and the Sister Sledge cover at track 2 is quite embarrassing. The Wikipedia article says this is regarded as The Fall’s most accessible album, which I see to an extent - though this just means that a lot of the (genuinely well performed) instrumentals are basic Black Keys-style indie rather than the energetic and wild playing that makes The Fall actually stand out. Past Gone Mad is a rare highlight, with its driven electronic beat disguising Smith’s vocal shortcomings, but then the closing track Light/Fireworks is just very messy.
Admittedly I’ve never really got into The Fall, but I at least see the appeal of albums like Hex Enduction Hour and This Nation’s Saving Grace - this however is a big step down.
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
Now then - I’d vaguely heard of Drive-By Truckers before, but now that I think about it I might be confusing them with Ice Road Truckers (that show that seems to alternate with Storage Wars on some daytime TV channel I never watch)
Drive-By Truckers are in fact a Southern rock band, as indicated by the album title, and this is… a 94-minute concept album about the frontman’s troubled relationship with Alabama where he grew up and the American South in general, and their perception by other states and non-Americans, told from a variety of perspectives but somehow always referencing Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s ambitious, baffling, and surprisingly quite good.
Musically my closest reference point is Modest Mouse, with slightly angular guitars over grooves that mainly serve as a backdrop to the detailed storytelling lyrics - there isn’t much in way of hooks or choruses other than a couple of pastiche songs. The vocals are almost grungy with a clear southern twang, and sometimes remind me of Kurt Cobain specifically in the Meat Puppets covers during the MTV Unplugged set. Lyrically it covers a lot of ground, from race relations and politics to the state’s strange musical legacy (citing its most famous musical exports as the celebratory Sweet Home Alabama - by a band from Florida - and the critical Alabama and Southern Man by Neil Young - a Canadian).
Speaking of strange musical legacies, I find it odd that these guys were formed in Athens, Georgia - the same place as R.E.M, the B-52s and Neutral Milk Hotel. What a bizarrely varied musical footprint for a city with a smaller population than Slough.
Anyway - it’s a very complex album if sometimes a bit too on the nose, with lots of repeated ideas. There’s a great spoken word track The Three Great Alabama Icons, that singles out three cultural signifiers most non-Alabama-natives associate with the state - college football, Lynyrd Skynyrd (again) and racism. The song gives some history about the former state governor George Wallace who, despite a relatively progressive history as a judge, ran for Governor in the 60s as a staunch segregationist after realising that would get him the votes, and effectively held that position for over 20 years before back-pedalling on his racist politics. One of the key themes of the album is really laid out in this song, where the singer states that Wallace and his politics always felt dated and didn’t represent the people he grew up with - but upon leaving the state, he was surprised to see just how closely other Americans associated Alabama with segregationist politics and, while racism is an institutionalised worldwide problem, ‘it’s always a little more convenient to play it with a Southern accent’. It’s a great track, but then finishes quite clunking by introducing the following track, told from the perspective of the devil welcoming Wallace to hell. It retreads a lot of the same beats from the more insightful Icons and just feels very repetitive - as do a few of the songs on the second half and, oh yeah, the constant Lynyrd Skynyrd references.
In short, I enjoyed certain aspects of this very much, but didn’t really care for other bits. It’s a 3, but a 3 I have had far more to think and say about than a lot of other albums on this list
Pixies
4/5
A noisy indie classic about sexual delinquency, scuba diving, and a superhero called Tony. Latin-driven grooves with noisy, punky guitars and Black Francis’ signature yelping, this is a statement and a half. It’s not as strong as it’s follow up Doolittle where everything just blends together a bit better, but songs like Bone Machine, Gigantic and Vamos are just fantastic, even if the iconic Where Is My Mind? steals the show
The Divine Comedy
2/5
I was pleasantly surprised by The Divine Comedy’s previous album Casanova, a ridiculously over the top orchestra-backed witty deconstruction of the archetypal ladies man. A Short Album About Love started ok and the instrumentals were mainly very strong again, but the songs were nowhere near as gripping, with forgettable melodies and uninspired lyrics - the self-aware wit of the previous album was replaced by schmaltzy pap, with the last song in particular being very basic. A shame
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
2/5
People will argue that modern music is obsessed with sex and conveniently forget this 1973 album all about the singer’s penis
It’s very theatrical and ranges from the hard rock opener Swampsnake to the psychedelic The Faith Healer to an orchestra-backed Jacques Brel cover on the title track. The music is pretty good and Harvey’s vocals are ok if a bit much, but my god the lyrics… nothing more to be said, just listen to track 2 if you feel brave enough
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
A prime example of the wrong album by a great band being on the list. Songs for the Deaf is the obvious choice, with Like Clockwork being a fantastic later album, and Rated R also deserving of a spot. The self-titled debut is promising but never quite reaches its full potential, with swaggering riffs and that classic QotSA attitude but nothing as memorable or impactful as their later work
Lenny Kravitz
2/5
The Prince influence is clear but there’s also a harder rock edge that slots nicely into that grungy sound that was coming into popularity at the time. The title track is great if a bit over long and some of the other rockier or groovier tracks work really well, but there are a lot of go-nowhere adult contemporary ballads that just make me zone out
Roxy Music
2/5
I was pleasantly surprised by both Country Life and For Your Pleasure when they came up earlier in this project (and Avalon, which I can’t recall now if I listened to because of this or just in my own time)
Anyway, this is their debut and started strongly with a couple of really fun songs, and the diversity and interesting ideas of their later albums are still there but it’s so much more inconsistent. A few of the tracks are genuinely quite difficult to listen to, and it really seemed to drag despite being only 45 minutes
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
A very ambitious debut from one of the most inventive and surreal artists/groups of their era, Zappa and his Mothers really push the boundaries of what ‘pop’ music can be from the get go. There are some great songs on here - notably the opener - and some interesting psychedelic experimentation, culminating in a 12 minute musique concrete piece where the live band play something between free jazz and proto-metal which is then overdubbed by a barrage of tape manipulation that must have given Brian Wilson and George Martin a real kick up the backside for their studio wizardry in the coming months. The fact that all of this was possible in 1966 is insane - doesn’t mean it sounds good though
T. Rex
4/5
A swaggering glam rock masterpiece. Get It On is the enduring titan of a standout but songs like Mambo Sun, Jeepster and Rip Off are just as good (alright… nearly as good), and everything else holds it’s own pretty well. Very fun without veering into too cheesy territory
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
While I like some individual hip-hop songs from before this (The Message, Planet Rock, Rock the Bells and a few others) I often find the albums quite underwhelming as people were still really figuring out what could be done with the genre. There would be one or two standout songs and then just a string of forgettable tracks that all sounded very similar and were going for the same thing
Raising Hell is the earliest hip-hop album I can think of where everything just clicked. The years just after this pushed things further, with Public Enemy, NWA, Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul and loads more doing their own twist and pushing the boundaries even further from around 1987 onwards, but for 1986 this was basically unprecedented. Not only did Run-D.M.C. really figure out how to make a varied and interesting hip-hop album, they also pioneered combining this genre still in its infancy with rock on songs like Walk This Way and Hit It Run, expanding their sound even further. It’s quite front heavy with four fantastic songs to kick it off, but it doesn’t drop off too hard and it’s a truly remarkable release for it’s time
The War On Drugs
3/5
A very chill and dreamy alternative rock album that was perfect for an evening drive yesterday, but ultimately one I find quite forgettable as soon as it’s over
The Monks
3/5
A primitive blast of proto-punk with a strange mix of childish sing-song melodies over dissonant guitars/keys and rhythmic thumping. The lyrics range from ‘bitingly angry about the Vietnam War’ to ‘wanting to go to meet girls and go to the dance’, with a few nonsense syllable hooks thrown in the mix for good measure. Full marks for historical importance and musical innovation, but it’s quite a rough and repetitive listen
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
A pretty good comeback album from a great band that unfortunately just doesn’t get close to the dizzying groove-packed heights of their earlier records. There’s no Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, All My Friends, or Dance Yrself Clean on here but it’s still a pretty fun ride. It’s also overshadowed by the more energetic Electric Lady Sessions which has live versions of predominantly the same songs
Suicide
2/5
The artist/album name and the cover makes this sound like a brutal punk album but it’s really just half an hour of moaning over industrial bass distortion
Ray Charles
4/5
It’s a very bold album title but it’s not undeserved. Charles is a ridiculously strong performer and just sounds amazing all over this
Radiohead
5/5
An exquisite album that still somehow gets better with every listen - the production is just so rich and detailed, and the songs worm their way into your soul. Ok Computer is still my favourite Radiohead album but this is probably the one I revisit the most
Green Day
5/5
This was THE album that got me into rock music about 20 years ago now (Christ that makes me feel old) so I’m hardly going to be objective here, but I’ll try
There are a few songs in the middle that drag slightly - Are We The Waiting, She’s a Rebel and Extraordinary Girl are all a bit bland, and Homecoming towards the end is very unfocused and feels like a load of unfinished songs slapped together rather than a larger conceptual piece. American Idiot is a concept album and is kind of political but the lyrics are often very vague and it’s difficult to tell exactly what the political stance is, especially when it gets watered down by the central doomed lovers storyline
Criticism out of the way - I absolutely love it. The title track is a pure injection of energy and fire with one of the most iconic and pounding drum parts of all time. Jesus of Suburbia is even greater than the sum of its parts, a rock opera epic with so many memorable motifs. Holiday and St Jimmy are both incredibly fun, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Give Me Novocaine are massive and gorgeous ballads, and Letterbomb is a blast of pop punk greatness with one of Green Day’s most underrated choruses. Wake Me Up is probably their most personal song and (while a bit overplayed) is so emotional and powerful when it hits, and Whatsername is a beautifully nostalgic closer with a heartstopping bridge.
It’s a stunning project that blends stadium rock songwriting with pop-punk spirit and musical theatre ambition, and a complete reinvention of Green Day’s sound that led to them one of the biggest bands in the world, and my favourite band for a very very long time. I loved music for as long as I can remember but this in particular captured my heart when I was about 9 years old and opened my eyes as to what music could achieve, sonically and narratively, and what an album could be rather than just a collection of songs, and I immediately began devouring album after album until my brain melted and I signed up to listen to 1001 of the stupid things. No word of a lie, I don’t think I would have studied music at university without American Idiot, I don’t think I would have been friends with a lot of my closest pals growing up without American Idiot, and I would absolutely not be the person I am today without American Idiot. 3 stars.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
A fun underground hip-hop album with wickedly clean production by DJ Premier that ultimately just doesn’t live up to some of the larger albums of the time or have any especially memorable tracks to go back to
The Cult
3/5
This album was thankfully A LOT better than its cover. Still not amazing though, the energy was there but the riffs were very simple and generic and just left a lot to be desired
Doves
4/5
This is what it sounds like when Doves cry…
Doves’ maybe slightly better known second album The Last Broadcast came up on here a while ago and I quite enjoyed it - it was spacey and gloomy, but ultimately seemed a bit safe and repetitive. I was quite surprised then that their debut seems a bit more innovative and varied - maybe directionless at times but for a band exploring and figuring out their sound I think that’s easily forgivable. And boy, what a powerful sound that can be
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
There was about 15 minutes of very impressive technically proficient playing on this album and then a whole lot of repetitive droning, sound effects, and far too much actual silence. It’s like a live recording where they were just awkwardly waiting for one another to take the lead, or they didn’t edit out the dead air when one of them left to take a piss. The best moment is the weird 90-second country pastiche right at the end, like the closing credits to a cowboy show - it has nothing to do with anything that came before but is quite fun
CHIC
4/5
One of disco’s most iconic albums that also helped pioneer hip-hop and new wave. This is classic Nile Rodgers dance floor funk with the right bass line at the right time
Good Times is the obvious stand out, a truly perfect opener, and the rest of the album is pretty good but nothing else really comes close to that unstoppable groove
Guided By Voices
3/5
While a 28 song album sounds intimidating at first, in true GBV fashion this is also only about 40 minutes. It’s a breeze through a wide range of genres, with some fleshed out songs and some merely snippets of ideas, and the instrumentation and stylistic approach is all over the place. It’s fun, it’s quick and to the many many points, but it’s difficult to connect too much with anything that’s going on
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
The first couple of songs of this were actually fantastic - it tailed off a bit after that with some quite generic country pop but it started with real impact
Hole
4/5
A complex and brutal album, fuelled by righteous anger as Love addresses sexual abuse, eating disorders, and the hypocrisy of the Washington punk scene. Violet is a furious opener that calls back to Hole’s debut album and the riot grrrl scene they were distancing themselves from, but the sound is more varied throughout with the starting verses of Miss World and Doll Parts for example contrasting with punk-adjacent songwriting.
Due to the mythology around Love’s relationship Cobain, especially considering his infamous suicide just a week before this album was released, it’s difficult not to compare to Nirvana in places. While Nevermind saw Nirvana expand their sonic palate and In Utero then saw them return to a more raw and heavier production style, Live Through This is like a symbiosis of the two - the hooks and bridges of a more commercially-focused project with a fervent energy, passion and ferociousness that adds a strong emotional impact to most of these songs, and it’s the perfect balance of the two that really makes this project hold up and sets it apart from its contemporaries.
It’s a fantastic album, though a bit stacked in the first half as nothing after Doll Parts really hits with the same force for me, and is a bit forgettable in comparison to the six tour-de-forces on the front end
Brian Eno
3/5
Eno’s last pop/rock-oriented album is a bit of an odds and sods project, opening with a very funky track that foreshadows his work with Talking Heads a couple of years after this, and then jumping to some more glam-leaning work reminiscent of his first two solo albums, and a lot of more open and ambient tracks that hint towards his 80s solo projects. It’s a strong enough album but lacks the focus of his earlier records, and a couple of the songs don’t really seem to go anywhere
Baaba Maal
3/5
A relaxing guitar-heavy instrumental album that’s nice enough to listen to but lacks the interesting and exciting grooves of Maal’s other album on this list, Lam Toro
Dion
2/5
A placid and schlocky collection of songs drowning in the horrible mush of Phil Spector’s 70s production style. This is more restrained on the Gerry Goffin-written Only You Know, the highlight of the record alongside the two non-Spector-produced songs where you can actually hear what’s going on in the mix. Otherwise it varies between dull and unlistenable, with the over-long opener going absolutely nowhere, and the god awful rendition of He’s Got The Whole World in His Hands plodding through 3 days of reverb
Kings of Leon
3/5
Probably the horniest album by a family of Mormons. This lacks the vibrancy and energy of their debut and the huge singalong choruses of their later work, but still has some pretty fun songs especially lead single The Bucket. Day Old Blues is incredibly annoying though with its incessant yodelling
2Pac
3/5
My biggest failing as a hip-hop fan is probably that I’ve never really clicked with a 2Pac album. This is a pretty interesting addition to his catalogue with the large G-funk influence and a few more sensitive songs standing out against the harder beats of his earlier work. There are a few great tracks on here such as If I Die 2Nite, Dear Mama and Old School, and the lyrics are generally very strong and insightful, but a lot of the songs just blend into one another and don’t do that much for me
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
I’ve never really got on with post-Cream Clapton so, despite really liking the title track, I was not too excited when I saw this album come up, especially when I saw it was 76 minutes. However I was pleasantly surprised. While a couple of solos could maybe be trimmed down nothing massively outstayed it’s welcome, the songwriting was consistently pretty strong, and the performances by the whole band were great. Layla does steal the show but it doesn’t turn up until about an hour into the album and honestly that hour flew by
Heaven 17
2/5
Groovy electro-pop that’s frankly got a bit too much going on and is just a bit of a mess. The opener (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang is the clear highlight, and LCD Soundsystem’s cover of it is better anyway
Beth Orton
5/5
Wow. I’d heard vaguely good things about this album before but never checked it out until now. This was absolutely beautiful, quite minimalist folky arrangements with Orton’s stellar voice shining through
Incredible Bongo Band
2/5
This was… kind of exactly what I imagined. Pretty unimaginative instrumental renditions of vaguely popular songs with the gimmick being that there are some bongos chucked in there as well. Except the bongos are weirdly low in the mix for quite a few of the songs, so the main gimmick isn’t even that prevalent. Duelling Bongos is the only exception, which sees presumably two (maybe more - maybe there’s a whole army of them) bongoists trade off bars of solos, like a rap battle between two beatboxers with restricted timbral repertoire
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
Pure funk excellence, this thing grooves so hard and has hooks for days
Songhoy Blues
3/5
A very groovy and fun African blues rock record that sadly just didn’t really stick with me
Cee Lo Green
2/5
In which Cee-Lo tries to make OutKast’s Andre 3000-led project …The Love Below - by which I mean it’s a genre-hopping scattershot pop and soul adjacent album by a musician with his roots in the southern rap game. Where Andre’s effort is experimental, boundary-pushing and full of charm, Cee-Lo’s has moments of greatness peppered with poor pastiches and homages, cringy lyrics, and missed shots that aren’t really bold enough to give credit for. Soul Food by Goodie Mob or St Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley would be much more fitting Cee-Lo inclusions - though leaving him off the list entirely wouldn’t be a terrible idea either
Napalm Death
4/5
This was the album the algorithm decided to assign to me on Christmas Day… it was fun!
Mike Oldfield
4/5
Starting with the chilling main theme famously used in horror classic The Exorcist, this magnum opus from a freaking 19 year old also includes a fun and quite beautiful homage to Britten’s ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’, a great little jig, and a section with full on death metal vocals. It’s maybe a bit too long, with some motifs not being as inspired as others and some transitions between sections seeming a bit stilted (or just having extended periods of silence) but when it’s good it’s really really good
Bob Dylan
5/5
Can’t believe the winner of the Timothee Chalemet lookalike contest has released an album already…
This is just peak Dylan. I may have already said that in my Highway 61 Revisited review but it’s equally true here. While Highway 61 saw Dylan reinventing himself a bit by introducing electric guitar led rock to his sound, Blonde On Blonde is the work of an artist who has fully discovered his sound and is at the top of his game. It’s a fantastic collection of songs that covers pretty much every side of his output - which is far more varied than I tend to remember - opening with the jovial brass-led beerhall anthem Rainy Day Women and closing with the sprawling and impenetrable folk poetry of Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, with a great balance of ballads and rockier cuts elsewhere in the mix. Including B-sides, 8 of the 14 tracks were put out as singles and I’d argue another 2 or 3 would have been just as justified to release, especially the wonderful Visions of Johanna. It’s that rare gem of a consistently brilliant double album and it’s 75-ish minute run time flies by. It’s also the only album I know of that’s inspired both Pink Floyd and Death Grips which is pretty rad
Kings of Leon
4/5
This is kind of viewed as Kings of Leon’s selling out record, but they were hardly Black Flag in the first place. Sex on Fire and Use Somebody both still sound huge, the opening song Closer has a really cool slinking feel to it that’s instantly far more polished than anything of theirs from the preceding albums on this list without sounding too artificial, and Notion is another incredibly catchy highlight. I think this is my first time listening all the way through this for probably 12 years and I was surprised how well it holds up and how much I got out of it
Ms. Dynamite
4/5
A very assured debut that sadly hasn’t left much of a lasting impact despite deservedly winning the 2002 Mercury Prize, as evidenced by the sparse Wikipedia entry on the album. It’s a hip-hop record at its core but has a large pop and soul influence, sounding far more like The Fugees, Erykah Badu and even Destiny’s Child than the harsher grime wave that was building with Dynamite’s fellow British rappers around this time. Stunning production, great flows and sung vocals, and just a very impressive album
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
Another raucous offering from Dinosaur Jr., this time with a quite surprising amount of hooks poking their heads out of the sludge. It’s still lo-fi and noisy but feels a bit more structured in terms of the songwriting and more considered about when and when not to lean into the noisiness than their earlier work. That being said, I really appreciate J. Mascis’ commitment to vibes over ego, as there is some genuinely fantastic guitar soloing on here (especially in closing track Don’t) that is almost incomprehensible through the harsh vocals and droning feedback
Minor Threat
3/5
A rough and rowdy hardcore punk EP that is a lot of fun and fizzing with energy, but nowhere near as interesting as MacKaye’s later work with Fugazi
The Damned
3/5
Another fun punk album with a good dose of British sass and some gnarly bass riffs and guitar solos. Some solid tunes in here but nothing too noteworthy
CHVRCHES
3/5
Really fun 80s-inspired synth pop with a few more futuristic elements as well. It’s a really confident debut with great vocals (at least from Mayberry - the male vocalist sounds a bit too much like Chris Martin for me, sorry) and with standout tracks The Mother We Share and Science/Visions. For whatever reason they’ve just never fully clicked with me - I like all the individual elements but just don’t get that much out of the album as a whole
Klaxons
3/5
That was better than I remembered to be fair - a spacey and offbeat indie album with the first three songs in particularly being very exciting and memorable. Some of the hooks can be a little annoying and, while the sci-fi premise is fun on the whole, some individual lyrics are either very pretentious or just painfully bad. Wikipedia says this is linked to the dance-punk scene of LCD Soundsystem and Franz Ferdinand which I don’t really see - to me, it’s more like a sci-fi alternative to the sea-shanty inspired conceptual indie of The Coral’s self-titled. It’s catchy, gimmicky, and it beat Back to Black to win the Mercury Prize so I will never forgive it
The Zombies
5/5
A truly spectacular work, with incredible production that sounds so ahead of its time yet so distinctly 60s. It’s maybe the best psychedelic rock album I’ve heard, mainly because it doesn’t devolve into pure tripped-out jamming like a lot of psych albums of the era and is instead held together by stellar yet diverse songwriting - I Want Her She Wants Me sounds like it clearly influenced Queen, the opener sounds like it basically shaped Flaming Lips musical ethos, and the gorgeous Friends of Mine would sound at home on a Kinks album. Time of the Season is the biggest song here and it is a genuinely fantastic closer, but I’d hesitate to call it a stand out because the rest of the album is so damn good
Hookworms
2/5
At its best, it sounds like a less ambitious Animal Collective. At its worst, it’s ambient sketches of songs that go nowhere and sound incomplete (especially Boxing Day which just cuts out with no warning)
Most of the time though it’s just middle of electronic-tinged alt-rock that sounds like every other song from a 2010s FIFA soundtrack. A really underwhelming inclusion, especially considering how few albums from post-2005 have made it onto these revised editions
Dire Straits
2/5
The pinnacle of over-produced 80s soft rock - the majority of the record is just middle of the road, uninspired Casio-preset mush
There’s some great guitar playing on this but Knopfler’s vocals are not great and his lyrics are even worse. The songs are all around 5-8 minutes long despite having no build or development, and generally either repeat sections ad infinitum or just have pointless ambience to pad them out - particularly noticeable on the closer which has a fantastic guitar solo outro for the last 90 seconds or so, but it comes in far too late to make it an enjoyable song a whole. Walk of Life is fun but is pretty hokey, Money for Nothing has a great riff but is otherwise pretty bad, and everything else is so lifeless and forgettable
Bob Dylan
5/5
This was the first Dylan album that really clicked with me and, while I now don’t view it quite as highly as Highway 61 Revisited or Blonde on Blonde, it’s still a damn fantastic album. It must have sounded even better in 1975 as well, after a stretch of pretty dreadful Dylan records since the start of the decade (most notably the horrific Self Portrait). While I like Dylan the most when he combined his folk roots with a more electric and diverse sound, this back-to-basics album is still very impactful. It feels darker than his earlier folk records - whether that’s an intentional tonal choice or just a natural result of him sounding older and more weathered - and features some of his greatest and most inspired songwriting and actually catchy melodies. The opening track Tangled Up In Blue is the highlight but it never feels like the calibre drops too much, and it’s just quality track after quality track
Buzzcocks
3/5
Another fun and energetic but not especially memorable punk album. It’s much more frenetic than their big single Ever Fallen In Love (which came out on their second album only 6 months later) but nothing really sticks in your mind like that one does. It gets a bit more interesting towards the end when things get a bit darker, but otherwise it sounds like a lot of other punk albums from the same time
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
This is not helping with the ‘Andy secretly loved samba’ allegations. This was great, a really well put together blend of Latin singer-songwriter tracks that reminded me of Natalia Lafourcade, and some chilled-out funk and R&B that was almost like Erykah Badu in places. The production was occasionally pretty dated but there was enough character to the album for that to be easily brushed over
John Coltrane
5/5
A stunning spiritual jazz record that has been long overdue a relisten for me. It’s an astounding work from some of the best musicians to ever do it, kicking off from one simple but gorgeous motif and then building and spreading its wings to become a soaring elegy. It flits between gospel-inspired modal jazz to driving free improv with ease, and Coltrane blares out his soul over the whole thing. There’s really not anything like it
Also my good pal Harry wrote a far more comprehensive and insightful review of this album here which I’d highly recommend checking out
https://medium.com/@harrycaine14/a-love-supreme-60-years-on-why-john-coltranes-ode-to-self-expression-matters-more-than-ever-b48d8665757d
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
A stunning and somehow underrated masterful double album from Nick Cave. An 82 minute album should really be intimidating but somehow this manages to be propulsive and magnetic throughout, with some of Cave’s biggest hooks balanced out by a darkly gothic foreboding. I would usually point out a standout song here, but genuinely everything is fantastic to the extent that I can’t choose favourites. Every song earns its place and its runtime and adds so much to the overall sound, whether it’s driving blues, angular rock, or just pure Cave songwriter-lamenting-at-a-piano-and-breaking-your-soul
Mudhoney
3/5
If you’re going to name your EP after two guitar pedals, it better sound distorted as hell. I am pleased to report this sounds distorted as hell
It’s fun, it’s loud, it’s rowdy. It’s definitely grunge but the more punk and garage rock side of grunge, without the massive hooks or filthy grooves that various bands added into the sound over the next few years - just that searing delinquent energy. I appreciate it and it is definitely fun but just doesn’t do a lot for me
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
And this is it. The final album, not just of the 1001 but of all 1089 from all editions of this list. Thankfully, we have ended things on a high with Hendrix’s most ambitious and varied project. It’s got straightforward pop-rock songs, it’s got jam-filled hard blues songs, it’s got mindblogging fretboard-shattering psychedelia in the form of the 15-minute cut of Voodoo Chile, it’s got the remarkable Dylan cover towards the end. It’s got a 13 minute track about becoming a fucking merman. At the end of the day - at the end of 1089 days - what more can you ask for?