1001 Albums Summary

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

A classic of the genre. This is such a fun and groundbreaking record and I love it

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

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

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

This is probably my favourite album of all time, not much more I can say here. Just a beautiful, haunting, immaculate work of art

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. There's some lovely stuff here and there but nothing too memorable

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

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

Never really got the hype about this one. It's a pretty fun album but nothing really clicks for me

Probably my least favourite Fiona Apple record, but still a hell of a lot better than most artists' best albums

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'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

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

Proper lovely, diverse and interesting album. A bit jazzy, a bit folky, a whole lot nice

A lot of this sounded like a parody of a country album. Not for me I'm afraid

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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.

This has a bit more filler in the middle than I remembered but when it slaps it slaps and oh boy does it slap

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

Damn good stuff

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

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

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

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

Like School's Out, it's got this campy dark vibe that I want to like but the music is just really uninteresting

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

God her voice is amazing and these songs are just lovely. Solid album

It's just very very good isn't it

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

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

Lovely stuff, Neil is a quality dude

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

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

Another essential hip-hop album, the production and storytelling on this are just very very good

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A riotous punk album and such a confident debut, what a class record

All synthpop should sound like a horror movie

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

Not bad but just didn't stand out to me at all

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

Another album by an artist I hadn't heard of before that blew me away. Lots of amazing stuff on this record

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

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

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

Good stuff

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

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

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

There was some nice stuff in here but there was also a lotttt that I didn't really care for. Appreciate the ambition though

This was super groovy and I enjoyed it a lot

Absolutely mega album. A stunning mix of prog rock, jazz, and symphonic music that's just a groundbreaking delight

Not really my thing but I enjoyed it more than expected, especially the second half

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

One of the all time greats

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

Wall to wall bangers

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

Some nice background music but all kind of blended into one

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

Some great riffs but Mustaine's vocals kind of ruin this

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

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

It's pretty good, I'm just not super into it

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)

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!

Not quite as good as the self-titled but still a pretty solid punk album

Lovely stuff. Overwhelming and ethereal, just a really great and huge sound

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)

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!)

It was a nice background listen but nothing really stuck out to me at all

The three big singles are absolute bangers and the rest is just... fine I guess

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

Well this was certainly something different and I enjoyed it quite a lot

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

Really lovely but it just lacks the excitement of Treasure

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

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.

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

I remember not being super into this when I first listened a few months ago but errrrr it's pretty damn great actually

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

Absolutely mega album, an all time classic and quite solidly the best of Elton's career (Lion King soundtrack not included)

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

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

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

Sounds like Angelo Badalamenti got into Massive Attack. Sweet

Idk man, if you played this at my birthday party I would probably not invite you next year

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

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

A masterpiece and easily one of the best albums of the last few years

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

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

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

*slaps roof of the album Bad by Michael Jackson* This bad boy can fit so many bangers in it

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

Great stuff, a really diverse and emotional record with top notch songwriting

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

Not much to say, just a legendary record

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

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

An incredible album - such a beautiful voice and songwriting with a heartbreaking legacy behind it

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

I listened to this at work and was on edge all fucking day

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

An eccentric masterpiece

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

Another absolute banger of an album. One of the greatest and most influential hip-hop records of all time, enough ssid

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 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

One of his best, what an enigmatic and delightful album

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

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 is just so good

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

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

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

The title track slaps and then the rest just kind of happens, bit of a shame really Some great guitar solos though

Steely Dan just don't miss

Some of the songs were quite fun but it was all a bit samey and nothing too exciting

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

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

A very lovely record

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

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

God we've had some good ones recently. Not much more to say other than this is possibly the best funk album ever made

It opens with three of the biggest stadium rock anthems you could ask for, and the rest of the album just kind of happens

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

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

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

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

Some banging fusion, Birdland is a certified tune and the rest is also v good

Really solid post-punk

Nice ambient stuff, it makes for good listening and clearly impressive for its time but nothing too exciting going on

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

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

Pretty good, kind of Alice in Chains-y, nothing too exciting

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

Quite enjoyable blues rock record -the first song is especially good

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

Grooves for days

Absolutely mad that Without You and Coconut are consecutive songs on any album

Good vibes all round

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

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

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

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)

Incredible vibes, and it works so well as a standalone that I sometimes forget it's a soundtrack

Good stuff

A really fun, catchy, and diverse punk record

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

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

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

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

It's a solid debut but not too exciting. He has much better stuff later in his career

Not as exciting as a lot of The Beatles' later releases, but there are a lot of just really lovely songs on here

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

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

Some of the guitar playing was really nice but the songs didn't really stick out to me

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

A lot of 3s recently - just a solid album with nothing too special going on

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

I really like a lot of Sonic Youth's over albums but for some reason this one just doesn't work for me

An angular dance punk classic

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

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

Nice chill vibes, and Ascension in particular was a big ol slice of groove, but it did get quite samey towards the end

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

A great series of tunes with exciting instrumentation

Not bad by any means but nowhere near as exciting as some of their other albums

Wall to wall bangers

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

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

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

Influential instrumentals and one of the smoothest MCs to do it, Q-Tip and Co. just dance over these beats

Didn't really click with this at all, none of the songs were especially distinct or memorable

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

Slightly overhyped but still a damn good album

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

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

A masterpiece of shock rap, some of which has stood the test of time incredibly well, some of which has aged very poorly

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

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

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

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

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

Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Probably my favourite Pink Floyd, and an all round fantastic record

I listened to this yesterday and can't really remember it at all

It's got some great moments but does get a bit repetitive and is about 20 minutes too long

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

A solid collection of pop rock bangers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

Bit soon lads, she only died yesterday Anyway this is a great album

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

A big vibe. The three singles are great in particular but it's just generally very good

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

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

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

A gorgeous and timeless album, not much more to say its just wonderful

Some of this was alright but it was also just quite boring and the solos were far too noodly a lot of the time

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

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

This was great!

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

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

Really fun frenetic jazz, yes please

An incredible album, a true classic, every song is amazing really

I enjoyed parts of this but other bits got a bit boring

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

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

Simone's voice is incredible as always, and this is one of her strongest collections of songs. An absolute pleasure to listen to

This was a bit boring sadly, didn't get too much out of it at all

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

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

I had never heard of this before and I had a great time. Like a proto-Pixies noisefest

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

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

Nice chill jazzy vibes with some lovely acoustic bass work in particular

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

This was pretty solid but there was nothing too exciting at all

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

I really wanted to like this but I just found so many of the keys voices really annoying lol

Yeah this is just stellar really, one of the best metal albums of all time

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

I love love love the instrumentation on this, and songs like the title track and Season of the Witch are just fantastic

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

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

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

This was very lovely but not too memorable

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

Middle of the road forgettable dad rock

There's some catchy stuff on here and I enjoyed it on the whole, but it pales in comparison to Electric Warrior

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

There are some really impressive solos on this but unfortunately none of the heads are especially memorable

The jazz elements are a great addition to Joni's already-fantastic writing style of this period, and her vocals are astounding as always

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

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

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

A really enjoyable album with some great tunes

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

It's a no from me

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

Everything I hate about 80s rock wrapped up in one easily demonstrable package

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

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

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

Super catchy, energetic punk greatness

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

Not bad at all, just very uninteresting

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

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

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

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

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)

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

Some of The Smiths' best grooves, but also some of their most meandering and forgettable songwriting

Perfect background music for basically any activity, with enough hooks to keep things interesting while still being just a lovely and spacious ambient backdrop

I really enjoyed the first few songs but it quickly got a bit too yodelly for my liking

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

I enjoyed the first couple of songs, the music was pretty fun, but I really tuned out after that

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

This absolutely slapped

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

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 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

I had no idea what to expect going in but this was quite fun

Decent on the whole but just needlessly long and repetitive

Just a really lovely album

There were some fun songs here and there but also some very questionable ones

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

I enjoyed this more on my second listen, still not quite enough to reach 4 stars but hey, maybe next time

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

A solid album with a great opening run of songs, they didn't all hit for me but the general vibe is great throughout

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

An alt-rock classic and one of my all time faves

Very tranquil and beautiful, I enjoyed this a lot

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

Enjoyed this one a lot, very Carole King esque

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

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

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

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' magnum opus, with all the pros and cons that sentence conjures to the imagination

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

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

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

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

Some absolute bangers with perfect pop production throughout, this is a brooding masterpiece

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

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

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

A fun punk record, nothing too exciting but a good time

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

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

I've never checked out more than the title track before but damn this was great

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

Bad Moon Rising is a great song but the rest is just really generic and not that fun to listen to

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

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

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

Not as ambitious or memorable as the masterful Love & Hate, but a great record nonetheless

A solid soul album that didn't leave too much of an impact

Strikingly different to Ingenue and her later work, but still a really good record

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

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)

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

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

Who the fuck let Eric Clapton play reggae?

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.

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

Doesn't quite resonate with me in the same way Psychocandy does, but it's a good moody album

Good vibes

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

It's a bit bloated, sure, but it's a masterful display of progressive music, theatrical storytelling, and weird very-british quirkiness

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

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

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

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

A quirky little album with some catchy tunes and dreamy production, but nothing too impressive or memorable

Quite possibly the most influential hip-hop production of all time, and the combination of Dre and Snoop Dogg is dreamlike

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

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

Who is screaming this loudly for Cheap Trick? The songs are boring and the album sounds so messy

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

Good god this album is sad. It's very well written and performed but does feel a bit repetitive after a while

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

It was OK but nowhere near Simon's best

Smooooooth

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

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

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)

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's best album imo. Every song bleeps all the right bloops for me

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

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

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

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

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 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

Ooh it's very good isn't it

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

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

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

Great grooves but it does feel a bit samey after a while, nothing really stood out to me after the title track

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

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

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

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

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.

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

This was alright but I cannot remember a single thing about it

It’s Abbey freaking Road, what more needs to be said?

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

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.

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

Average

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