Journey Complete!
Finisher #334 to complete the list
1089
Albums Rated
3.16
Average Rating
100%
Complete
The ArchAndroid
Janelle Monáe
Favorite Album
Featured Review
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins • 4/5
Music by and for poison type pokemon
Rating Distribution
How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
2010s
Favorite Decade
Funk
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Balanced
Rater Style
124
5-Star Albums
71
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wonderful Rainbow | 5 | 2.28 | +2.72 |
| Space Ritual | 5 | 2.68 | +2.32 |
| Phaedra | 5 | 2.73 | +2.27 |
| Peggy Suicide | 5 | 2.77 | +2.23 |
| Tarkus | 5 | 2.78 | +2.22 |
| Tago Mago | 5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
| Happy Trails | 5 | 2.8 | +2.2 |
| Gris Gris | 5 | 2.88 | +2.12 |
| Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes | 5 | 2.93 | +2.07 |
| The Dreaming | 5 | 2.96 | +2.04 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dookie | 1 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
| Pearl | 1 | 3.73 | -2.73 |
| Transformer | 1 | 3.67 | -2.67 |
| Hotel California | 1 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
| Parachutes | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| Meat Is Murder | 1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
| Eagles | 1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
| The Slim Shady LP | 1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
| The Soft Bulletin | 1 | 3.28 | -2.28 |
| A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector | 1 | 3.28 | -2.28 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4.75 |
| Radiohead | 6 | 4.33 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4.4 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 4.5 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.11 |
| Kraftwerk | 3 | 4.67 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3 | 4.67 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.67 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.67 |
| Johnny Cash | 3 | 4.67 |
| Peter Gabriel | 3 | 4.67 |
| Can | 2 | 5 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 5 |
| Portishead | 2 | 5 |
| Beatles | 7 | 4 |
| Pixies | 3 | 4.33 |
| Public Enemy | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kate Bush | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 4.33 |
| Deep Purple | 3 | 4.33 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.33 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.33 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
| Prince | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Eagles | 2 | 1 |
| Billy Bragg | 2 | 1 |
| Ryan Adams | 2 | 1 |
| The Smiths | 3 | 1.67 |
| Kings of Leon | 3 | 1.67 |
| Green Day | 2 | 1.5 |
| Eminem | 2 | 1.5 |
| Pavement | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2 | 1.5 |
| Everything But The Girl | 2 | 1.5 |
| Rufus Wainwright | 2 | 1.5 |
| Slipknot | 2 | 1.5 |
| Pet Shop Boys | 3 | 2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Albums | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Run-D.M.C. | 2 | 1.5 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 1.5 |
| Beck | 3 | 1.25 |
| Van Morrison | 3 | 1.25 |
| U2 | 4 | 1.12 |
5-Star Albums (124)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Frank Sinatra
1/5
“Some day I may buy her a ring, ringle-lingle” oh my god shut up you absolute asshole
8 likes
Janelle Monáe
5/5
This was fantastic! I feel like concept albums haven’t been in vogue for a good long while, so I really really loved how big she went with it here.
2 likes
Radiohead
5/5
So it’s just Radiohead minus some rock, plus some ambient? I’m into it, but I can’t believe that this one’s some big time controversial thing among the fans
1 likes
Ms. Dynamite
4/5
Final Album!
I'm not minding that this project of 3 years ends with above-average R&B from a random UK rapper who's mostly unremembered 20+ years later. Feels in the intended spirit of the project, while also demonstrating the biases about which lesser-known acts got included (and which ones got removed in later editions lol)
1 likes
1-Star Albums (71)
All Ratings
Pixies
4/5
I forgot how relatively mellow Pixies actually are compared to how I keep remembering them. I generally like them, and they clearly had some influence on later bands I like more. Doolittle dragged at parts, but overall pretty good.
Arcade Fire
2/5
I know a few people who are really into Arcade Fire, but I wasn’t really hooked in by this one at all.
Elvis Costello
3/5
b-side is really really solid
Green Day
1/5
high points only insofar as I recognize stuff from like radio play. not really a fan overall though
Aretha Franklin
5/5
sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me sock it to me
Probably my favorite album I was served this week.
Joy Division
4/5
Never spent any time with Joy Division before. I liked this pretty well, nothing really jumped out to kick my ass from a single listen, but I also never got bored with it at any point, which puts it above most of the rest of this week.
Sisters Of Mercy
5/5
I was really caught off guard by how much I liked this. Considering how much time I didn’t spend with it during formative years, my tastes definitely seem to align really well with gothic stuff whenever I come across it. much to think about.
The The
3/5
post-punk tends to be comfortable listening for me; this album was fine, but didn’t register as something to rush back to
Frank Sinatra
1/5
“Some day I may buy her a ring, ringle-lingle” oh my god shut up you absolute asshole
Public Enemy
4/5
I liked this a lot, especially the anti-arizona parts, and I’m uhhh better understanding now the roots of my middle/high school teachers in the midwest being so scandalized by rap, lmao.
Also something interesting to me is that because I’m very bad at passively picking up on lyrics, I really had to focus in while this was playing. Like the album really demanded my attention in a way I’m not used to.
The Pogues
3/5
Irish folk-punk! lotta fun every once in a while
Kate Bush
3/5
A lot of people whose tastes I generally trust are way into Kate Bush. Idk if I'm sold yet. This was pretty good, maybe a bit slower than 80s music I normally like
The Kinks
3/5
Maybe I would benefit from listening to other The Kinks stuff ahead of this, but for now this album was was kinda dull
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Sinatra and The Kinks had me insecure for a moment that there’s something broken in me that’s incapable of enjoying music below a certain bpm, but this was totally pleasant!
Basement Jaxx
4/5
EDM pre-dating 2010/2011-ish, which was when I first became aware of any of that. This one made for, like, decent focusing music for me, but wasn’t particularly memorable
Arcade Fire
3/5
I liked this a lot more than Suburbs, and the release year was pretty interesting (if I’d had to guess, I would’ve placed this sound around 2008 at the earliest). This wasn’t *quite* to my taste, but it was frustratingly close, and I’m still trying to figure out what’s making the difference.
1/5
I’m not very difficult to please with 80s synth pop, and yet this bored me a lot.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I like a couple zeppelin songs, but I never took the time to sit down with any of their albums all the way through. There’s a specific blend of acoustic instruments with later rock sensibilities that works extremely well for me (e.g. Jethro Tull is a band I love *way* more than they deserve by any objective measure. Or like King Gizzard’s use of harmonica hits my brain really nicely). I don’t quite know the exact alchemy there, because there’s a lot of folk rock that I can’t fucking stand, but Zep III is like right in the sweet spot. Loved it.
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
I, alright. I’ve given country music an honest shot a bunch of times in my life, it’s never clicked for me, this one was no different. Though that said the music didn’t really annoy me as such, and I was never bored or pissed off with it the way I was with the Sinatra album last week, so hey. Wasn’t wild about the Dixie song extolling “rebel spirit”, but comes with the fuckin territory I guess.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
I was excited to wake up and find out I’d drawn a salsa album for today, but turns out a full album-length wore me down by the end. It didn’t make for very good workday music, but it’d be great for dancing or cooking. A lot of the song openings decide to get really funky and interesting, and I wish that was more of what the full songs were.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
From a position of basically zero prior experience with Springsteen:
His two modes on this are either Moaning or Growling. The majority of it is moaning, and I much, much, much prefer the parts where he’s growling.
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
Incredibly solid album, right up my alley.
There’s something I’m trying to put my finger on with this. A lot of the albums I’ve liked during this project will have a few songs that I really groove with, but will also bore me a lot at some other point. Vs ELO here, who held my attention and gave me a really good time the whole way through an entire double album-length of stuff… but at least on first listen, there wasn’t any particular song that yanked me in. A slower burn. Any case, liked it a lot.
Madonna
3/5
Album opened incredibly strong, but tapered off *hard* for me as it went on.
Kraftwerk
5/5
I think this is the first album of this project that I’d actually listened to all the way through before. This is an excellent album, hugely influential, ahead of its time/invented the time. For how stripped-down it sounds compared to later electronic music, it still manages to be really sentimental.
David Bowie
4/5
The third 1977 album I’ve been served this week! And turns out to have been a hell of a fitting followup to Kraftwerk, given some of the production history stuff, influences, etc.
Bowie’s another of my major blind spots, and I suspect this might not have been the best jumping-in point if I’m going to be lazy and only learn about him at the pace of the 1001 albums generator. I'm sure I'll get another shot soon.
Joan Baez
3/5
A lady with a very nice voice sings buncha folk songs backed by one (1) or two (2) guitars. I think maybe because of that sparseness, my enjoyment of what was going on varied really wildly depending on the song (I liked the minor key ones a lot I guess?) idk, overall wasn’t really to my taste, but it’s not at all confusing or disagreeable to me that people do like this, I definitely get the appeal! I’m admittedly too much of a fuckin prog rock enjoyer and it would certainly have defeated the entire point of what she’s doing, but yeah I would’ve preferred there be literally any backing instrumentation beyond just a guitar or two.
Tom Waits
4/5
A man with a very gravely voice sings buncha sleazy songs.
God damn I love Tom Waits so much. Most of the songs on here are extremely good and even the ones I was bored with are still compelling because it’s him singing.
Daft Punk
4/5
Had to skip “Around the World” because I value not having that one stuck in my head for the rest of the week, but yeah, Daft Punk Good. Sitting down with an album from them was a weird experience because that’s really not the context where I’m usually hearing them, but as always with EDM/adjacent it’s pretty much ideal focusing music for me.
The Style Council
2/5
I dunno what I was supposed to be taking away from this. The literature on this one calls it “sophisti-pop” which I guess just means “80s jazz + they rap at some point”. For the range of stuff touched on, there’s nothing in here that I can’t find better-done elsewhere.
Eagles
1/5
Obligatory Lebowski
Blur
3/5
I knew of Blur, but somehow made it this far without realizing this was a Damon Albarn project. Also they’re a solid coupla decades more recent than I’d assumed for some fuckin reason. Any case, I had fun with this one, probably one of the better entries out of the kind of stuff rock bands were putting out during the 90s.
John Grant
3/5
This one grew on me as it went on, but I still think I’m more interested about the album’s thematics and John Grant’s history than I am in the experience of actually listening to it.
Aerosmith
3/5
Aerosmith’s cute every once in a while, but kind of wear on me during the course of an entire album
Beatles
5/5
I’ve always found The Beatles to be pretty alright, but I’ve never been able to check into the degree of hype and mystique around them (the most interested I’ve ever been in them is a documentary that came across PBS once that was getting into all the studio techniques they’d used to produce the Sgt Pepper album, like the craft end of things was just more compelling to me than the album’s actual music). All that said, I really like Revolver, kind of marks the beginning of the Beatles era that I find more interesting (lol drugs).
Hugh Masekela
2/5
Beginning to think jazz, salsa, etc are just kind of a bad fit for how I’ve been listening to the albums each day, because with every one of these my experience has been enjoying the first few songs, but then getting completely sick of it by the end of the album. Like I think this just probably isn’t music to be listened to in silence, by myself, on headphones! but it’s not like I own a bar or a club, so,
Amy Winehouse
3/5
First I ever heard of Amy Winehouse was literally news about her dying, so coming late to the party here, as usual. Undeniably excellent voice, though at the end of the day if I’m going for lounge music I’d still probably go for Tom Waits first, just the kind of person I am. GF tells me Back to Black is apparently where her best stuff is, though, so looking forward to that one coming up in the rotation.
CHIC
3/5
First song is literally them just yelling “Chic! Chic” over and over, then the next song is the unavoidable “Le Freak.” It’s a testament to how much I like disco sensibilities, funky basslines etc that I like this album a lot, since on paper I shouldn’t have patience for it.
The Triffids
2/5
“Vagabond Holes” is an alright song and an excellent song name. Otherwise album forgettable + way too goddamn long
John Prine
3/5
Knew I was in trouble the second I saw the guitar and hay bales on the album cover. Prine’s a fun lyricist, but I still can’t really deal with country music
Brian Eno
4/5
Very busy, all over the place, lots of fun!
Jamiroquai
3/5
I generally like funk; this is not the best that’s out there. I like the didgeridoo though.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Even when it got slow, was still very pleasant listening. Soul music, indeed.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
British post-punk, don’t have much new to say there
Violent Femmes
5/5
Oh wow, I had no idea this album was as old as this. So, clearly an inspiration point for a lot of the stuff being done in the late 80s/early 90s, just to pull from stuff I’ve covered from the generator, I’m hearing Pixies and Green Day in this. But Violent Femmes doing it a lot better imo.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
OK I wasn’t too taken in by Darkness on the Edge of Town, but I liked this one quite a bit. He’s doing more shouting and growling than moaning here, and even when he does do moaning-voice I can deal with it better because it’s not nearly as pronounced in the audio mix.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
third album i’ve gone through from this generator; first one where springsteen really clicked for me.
The Young Gods
4/5
quite good yet put me in a really sour mood
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
Ohhh it’s the california dreamin people! Lovely harmonizing, aggressive stereo mixing that forced me to switch off of headphones and listen out loud
Willie Nelson
2/5
My grandpa spinning in his grave that I think this is really really boring
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I can’t access the hype for them yet, but I got there with springsteen and I know these guys come up again on the list, so got high hopes.
Grizzly Bear
4/5
Two Weeks is extremely fucking overplayed to the point it scuffs up the entire rest of an otherwise decent album.
Louis Prima
3/5
More jazz. I remembered to play it on actual speakers instead of headphones this time, which helped a lot; music intended for a very different listening experience than how I normally do it.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
Very nostalgic album, definitely in my personal pantheon. Second half drags a bit, but first half more than earns it.
Mercury Rev
3/5
Milton Nascimento
3/5
Double album really long, but the songs are quick and varied, so doesn’t get boring.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
what if good jazzy background music, but played on a baseball organ. Nice for an afternoon.
Peter Frampton
3/5
Interesting that they threw a live album on there. If that was on the table, why come they didn’t put Stop Making Sense on there though (according to the wiki)?? Anyway this was decent, fun guitar noodling.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Not the first soul album to come up, but this was one that, like a couple others that have come up, that actually make the genre click for me properly. Liked this one from the start.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
Never listened to these guys back when they were a going concern, so this one’s a fun time capsule and also cipher key for understanding like 50 different memes. Killing In The Name alone resolved so many fucking previously-incomprehensible jokes for me.
The Cramps
3/5
Any one of these would be a fine contribution to a playlist, good lord they all sound the fucking same back-to-back on an album.
The Temptations
3/5
Incredibly solid funk, some really famous tracks on here that I didn’t realize was them!
Dr. John
5/5
Voodoo-flavored psychedelia, very fun and weird. From never having heard of this guy, to liking this album a lot, to looking up more about him, learning I knew a bunch of stuff from him and also learning that he was the visual inspiration for Dr. Teeth from the muppets’ The Electric Mayhem.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Judas Priest
4/5
Ray Charles
3/5
Santana
5/5
Talvin Singh
3/5
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
I think I like the idea of his states project more than I really care for the music itself
Serge Gainsbourg
2/5
Miserable headphones listen, his voice is so loud in the mix I can’t enjoy the music. Admittedly I might feel different if I understood French and could tell what he was saying lol
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
Queens of the Stone Age
2/5
BORING.
Sparks
3/5
Megadeth
3/5
I have a soft spot for certain types/eras of metal, this is not one of my preferred ones though
Beach House
3/5
Def Leppard
3/5
CHIC
3/5
SAULT
4/5
David Bowie
5/5
Bowie’s one of the figures I’m most interested in getting my head around through this project. Favorite thing I've heard from him so far!
R.E.M.
4/5
Another thing I’m trying to keep tabs on as I go through this is stringing together influence points toward things I knew before going in. For some reason as I listen to REM, I keep thinking of They Might Be Giants, which is weird because the music isn’t exactly similar. Something in the attitude? I dunno.
Prefab Sprout
3/5
The Who
4/5
There’s a couple albums like this on here where my brain lights up when it hears the recognizable stuff, and then doesn’t retain the rest of the music. Baba O’Riley is indeed really good, but I’m struggling to take an honest accounting of “ok is it genuinely so much better than the rest of the album or are you just really familiar with this”
like “do you think these songs are good or bad based on radio exposure, or did the ones you liked get radio exposure because they were the good shit?” I don’t trust the second one as an explanation even if it feels true.
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Really good bathtub listening. I’ve heard this one describes as like an album constructed for audiophiles/people who care a lot about precise mixing, which feels true.
Kanye West
4/5
I liked this a lot! Kanye really has a gravity about him, where I feel like I interpret a lot of the generator’s other rap/hip-hop selections in context of what they mean in context of things before/after KW's big deal albums
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
The Band
2/5
William Orbit
3/5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Burning Spear
4/5
One thing I’m learning through this project is I should probably be putting more reggae into my rotation. It tends to be slower than I usually go for, but otherwise checks a lot of my boxes
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
2/5
Iggy Pop
4/5
Willie Nelson
3/5
The Beach Boys
3/5
Devendra Banhart
1/5
2Pac
3/5
2pac’s another Huge name who’s a blind spot for me. I really need to revisit this one; I basically can’t retain lyrics unless I’m literally reading them along to the music, and I wasn’t able to do that when I was playing this.
The 13th Floor Elevators
2/5
Sonic Youth
4/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
2/5
Didn’t like this as much as 2pac & public enemy, in terms of 90s rap
Tori Amos
5/5
This one really grew on me! Very pleasant first listen, and then I found myself coming back to it a lot afterward.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
Haha god damn I like Alanis. So many choices she makes on here that should be obnoxious on paper, but just end up being extremely charming
*“HOWWwOWWowwW apprOAHpriaTe”* absolutely delightful
Alice Cooper
3/5
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
Belle & Sebastian
2/5
I think people I know like B&S? I don’t think I did.
George Jones
1/5
Queen
3/5
Randy Newman
4/5
I don’t think he’s country, but he’s something adjacent. I liked this, found it pleasant
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Hell yeah I love The Departed
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
What the hell every single song on this is super well-known. Major touchpoint filled in that I had no idea I was even missing
Simply Red
2/5
Os Mutantes
3/5
Wish I liked this more, the thing they’re up to seems interesting
Deep Purple
5/5
Oh my god I loved this. I knew by reputation that Deep Purple’s one of the bands that built the bridge from hard rock to heavy metal, and something about that boundary creates stuff I like way more than straight metal. Lot of Prog in the alchemy here
10cc
2/5
Yes
3/5
Yes’s good songs are some of my favorite stuff out there, but the individual albums have a lot of songs that just don’t work for me
Gil Scott-Heron
2/5
Steely Dan
3/5
I find Steely Dan to be technically boring, but perfectly serviceable cooking & doing the dishes music
Elliott Smith
2/5
R.E.M.
5/5
Nirvana
5/5
Blue Cheer
2/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Lana Del Rey
3/5
Black Sabbath
4/5
Similar to Deep Purple, lots of fun! The arrangements are fast, energetic, interesting. Noticing I’m tending to like a lot of 70s metal, then something happens 80s-00s that loses me really hard.
ABBA
4/5
Influence Alert: Marina and the Diamonds totally bites a whole bunch of influence from ABBA, it’s so obvious after sitting with an ABBA album all the way through (having previously basically only known them from the Mama Mia soundtrack *killed by brick through the window*). I liked a few songs off this one, looking forward to hearing more from the generator
The Flaming Lips
1/5
Lol I had people in the 00s recommend flaming lips to me. This was so boring!
2/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Pulp
4/5
David Bowie
3/5
With a couple Bowies under my belt by this point, he’s kind of a mixed bag for me; there’s usually a couple songs per album I’ll like a lot, and the rest leaves me really cold. That said, I still haven’t heard anything from ziggy stardust era, so there might be missing context or something still.
The La's
3/5
The Velvet Underground
3/5
Paul Simon
2/5
Björk
2/5
Felt really bad that I did not like this. might revisit, could just be it wasn’t good music for taking a bath.
Throbbing Gristle
2/5
This seemed like something I should like a lot, and instead it annoyed me.
Erykah Badu
3/5
Teenage Fanclub
1/5
Common
2/5
Hole
4/5
Damn I went in kind of expecting not to like it, and it turned out to be really good! *Trampled to death by approx. 1,000,000 foaming Gen X men*
Eminem
2/5
Way more misses than hits, but still a fun time capsule of what everyone I knew in middle school was blithering about at the time
Sugar
2/5
David Bowie
4/5
I feel like I need to read some production history to get the hang of this one
Suede
3/5
The Yardbirds
4/5
Baaba Maal
4/5
George Michael
4/5
haha oh my god he’s so fucking sleazy on this, I love it
PJ Harvey
3/5
Beatles
4/5
Overall pretty good! Hard to set aside the charles manson mystique around it
The White Stripes
4/5
Big nostalgia album! "Seven Nation Army" owns bones, the rest of this is distinctly worse, but pretty good still
Crowded House
2/5
The Smiths
2/5
Scott Walker
4/5
He has such a good voice! I don’t even like genre he’s doing and I was swept away!
The Doors
4/5
Jane's Addiction
3/5
Fiona Apple
1/5
Rush
4/5
I’ve given Rush an honest try before, they just never clicked for me. Decent, but...something’s missing
Steely Dan
3/5
Blur
5/5
Lambchop
2/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
Bob Dylan might be another case of I Gotta Sit Down With The Lyrics, bc on first listen I just found him kind of grating.
Duran Duran
5/5
Lmao I love this album. Title song’s whatever, but Hungry Like the Wolf makes me smile so fucking much
Beth Orton
2/5
Pavement
1/5
The Beach Boys
3/5
Sade
2/5
Fred Neil
3/5
Rare example of pure country music I found pretty engaging the whole album
Death In Vegas
4/5
The Killers
3/5
Unlike with The Who and Nirvana, I am very sure the popular songs off this one are the actual good ones lol. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me are A-OK, the rest may be safely left in the past
The Prodigy
3/5
Can
5/5
One of my all-time favorite albums. "Halleluhwah" alone earns them a spot in heaven, an I'm extremely into the rest of it
Dead Kennedys
5/5
This one really knocked me on my ass, clearly a big influence point for a whole bunch of bands I like a ton.
The Human League
2/5
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Metallica
3/5
This is the fucking thing with 80s metal, man! If each of these songs were like 50% shorter, this would’ve been really solid, but as is they’re not interesting enough to justify how long they make you spend with them.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
I like Never Loved A Man more than this one, but Aretha Franklin all-time excellent
Gary Numan
3/5
Really stripped-down, deliberately no-personality. Pretty interesting experience!
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
Ohhhhh these are the Louie Louie guys! Fun mix of rock, blues, etc. Seems kind of Of The Time in terms of baseline late-60s/early-70s bands.
Shuggie Otis
3/5
Nice soul/jazzy, which usually starts to bore me after a whole album, but was kind of nice to have on while I was writing the rest of these entries.
Raekwon
2/5
KISS
4/5
This was fun! 70s hard-rock/metal continues winning!
Kiss is such good dad rock, people were pearl-clutching about this eXtreme rock & roll from these guys, and nowadays the band members are super old, as naturally happens to people. History tells us that indeed Kiss was far from the worst influence on the teens of the time
Pretenders
3/5
The Stranglers
4/5
Really interesting sound that’s extremely of the time but also very distinct to them. The jazz organ's a very The Doors move, but the bass playing kicks things into high gear
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
The Monkees
3/5
Beck
5/5
I like Beck a lot, and I have a really hard time pinning down what exactly it is that he’s doing here, because it’s bouncing around and settling between a bunch of different stuff. Definitely putting a pin in this one to come back to and connect influences up to, I would’ve figured it to have come out a solid 8 years after it did.
After some time thinking about it, this came out only something like a year before Lonesome Crowded West, and the two albums are definitely sitting near each other in my mind
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
John Martyn
3/5
The first track tricked me into thinking I’d like the album more than I did
Sebadoh
2/5
what’s this one fall under, grunge? post-punk? Grating.
The Who
3/5
Very weirdly beach boys sound out of them on this. deliberate joke? Not gonna research it.
Roni Size
2/5
drum & bass, drum drum & bass, drum drum bass, drum & bass, I am very bored
Air
5/5
This turned out to not be great running music, but I went back to it at work, and it is seriously beautiful and calming, I was blown away
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Undeniable talent, each of these songs is great, though the entire album did start to wear on me after a while. Still though, you make Purple Haze, you can do whatever you want.
Sepultura
2/5
This is very CHUGGA WUGGA metal, and at the end of the day I prefer when my metal’s more uuWAAAAAAAAAGH *orchestral interlude* *bagpipes*
Radiohead
3/5
I’ve been dreading Radiohead coming up on this, and I know there’s a few of their albums on here. I’ve never, like, plunged into their archives for a comprehensive study, but I’ve given them an honest shot many times, and aside from parts of In Rainbows, I really dislike what they do. And this is frustrating to me, since I know a lot of people who really like them; like with country music I can just write it off as alien tastes, but these are people whose tastes I otherwise align with! I just walk away from the music feeling sad or annoyed, what am I missing?!
Motörhead
3/5
I played some guitar hero, but not that much; I imagine some Motörhead stuff had to have made it into that game, right? seems like the right genre. Any case, guitars fun, songs are sleazy in such a tryhard way it’s alternately charming and off-putting.
Also not relevant/bad taste or whatever, but Motörhead fans I’ve seen around on the internet are some of the most obnoxious fucking dweebs on the planet
Michael Jackson
5/5
Buncha all-time great songs on here; a sound that shows its age, basically because it defined the age
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Oh it’s the Come on Eileen guys! This wasn’t the album with that song though. Generally enjoyable and I like the vocals in particular, but definitely falls under “forgettable pop” for me
Frank Black
2/5
Kacey Musgraves
2/5
Ray Price
2/5
The Verve
3/5
I only knew these guys from Bittersweet Symphony, and turns out this one doesn’t sound much like that at all. Mellow, drifting sometimes into droning.
Ozomatli
3/5
at-90s/early-aughts latin fusion is such a specific, yet recognizable sound
Radiohead
4/5
Alright, I liked this one! There was still a little bit of audio channel stuff that hit my ears wrong toward the beginning, and “We Suck Young Blood” brought the whole album to a screeching halt right in the middle, but I liked most of the rest of the songs
GZA
3/5
This was a lot of fun, though after two albums from their members on here, I’m suspecting the generator’s not a good way to get oriented with Wu-Tang stuff.
Elvis Presley
3/5
There’s a lot of Elvis songs that I like a lot, but none of the ones I knew beforehand were on this album. He’s definitely one of those where it’s nicer for me to put his music on in the background, or work him into a mixed playlist rather than sitting & focusing on a whole album of him
Elton John
5/5
album opens incredibly strong! Started to blend together as it went, but since I like what it’s up to, everything’s good!
Dire Straits
3/5
The Money For Nothing riff is the main attraction here, and while it is a very very good riff (all-time Great, even), the song’s still scuffed up by how badly the slurs aged. The rest of the album’s pretty mellow, contextually good listening
The Pogues
4/5
The Doors
5/5
Dang, this was like Fleetwood Mac levels of not realizing how much I recognized the songs on here. Also The Doors are surprising me with how much psych/prog they have going on, I had always thought of them as just kind of a rock band
Fleet Foxes
3/5
Folky Indy like this tends to leave me cold. Not all the time, but this one did in any case. I think the make/break quality for me is I prefer duets and/or solo woman singer over solo man singer
Marty Robbins
4/5
Alright, this is country-adjacent music I like: Really pleasant voice singing about old west & cowboy things
Adam & The Ants
4/5
There’s interesting drumming on some of the songs, and a couple tracks on here feel like a direct antecedent to something like Vampire Weekend. Goofball music for sure
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
It’s Jimi Hendrix, you know his stuff! I liked this less than “Are You Experienced”, but still a great time
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
2/5
Blues w/ Jazz organ doesn’t impress me the same way it might’ve before I started this albums project, found this kind of grating after a full album of it
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I think I really like how distinctive Cohen’s voice is, but that alone didn’t really sell me on this. Honestly has me reconsidering the reasons I like Tom Waits so much, like it’s clearly not just about being won over by interesting vocals. The music backing Cohen’s voice was just kind of boring to me
ABBA
3/5
I’ve grown to appreciate ABBA over the years, even if they’re often not my taste. Arrival has some classics on it, but overall I kinda found it less interesting than The Visitors had been
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Janis Joplin
1/5
Joy Division
4/5
I’ve liked all the Joy Division that’s come across my radar for this project, but haven’t been able to access, like, true enthusiasm for them yet. They are a definite, definite influence point for a lot of great acts that came after
Metallica
4/5
On paper, live metallica + full backing orchestra is a hilarious idea, but also symphonic metal is absolutely a guilty pleasure of mine, so I was excited to hit play on this.
Even though the runtime on this one’s over 2 hours, it’s pretty fun overall. I stand by my original complaint with Metallica, though--every individual song overstays its welcome by half
Roxy Music
5/5
This one kicks ass! Some research reveals Brian Eno was involved in making this, which makes a ton of sense in hindsight.
Band/album name & especially album cover had me nervous this was going to bore me, but instead it kind of re-sold me on the 1k1 albums project after what had kind of felt like some doldrums
Aerosmith
3/5
Hard Rock Cafe
New York Dolls
4/5
Really interesting kinda pre-punk thing, lots of the reception to this seems to indicate it was very influential to genres I’m not otherwise super checked into
Solange
2/5
Bit too slow for my taste, most of the songs felt dull
Missy Elliott
4/5
Baaba Maal
3/5
The kind of music I could pretty easily spend all day with, but on the scale of things, I kind of wish it had more texture to it
Dr. Octagon
1/5
Stupid
B.B. King
4/5
Harry Nilsson
5/5
I spent about half this album wondering why I recognized his name until I got to the lime & coconunt song (simply called “Coconut”, apparently!), which was like somebody slapped me. What’s crazy is the rest of the thing sounds nothing like that! Most of the rest of the album sounds like the halfway point between Beatles and Elton John, it’s great!
Seriously, I wish I could explain better what it is about this that’s like, similar to Beatles and other late-60s brit acts like Kinks, Monkees etc, but different in a way that I liked way more. Like it incorporates blues a lot more, maybe?
Dr. Dre
4/5
*Immaculate* production, excellent sound, boosted Snoop into the mainstream, all of which put more tension than usual on finding the themes kinda dumb & gross.
Rod Stewart
2/5
The bones on this are fine as far as folky rock goes, but the songs go on way too long for how simple + repetitive they are, and not much variety between them.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
I like his voice, and I *really* like the variety of stuff he’s doing in this
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
“Shoegaze”, eh? The second half starts doing some interesting stuff, but the first few tracks don’t have enough stuff going on with the synth loops to hold my attention
Minutemen
3/5
Punk that passes the time just fine
New Order
3/5
At first it reminded me a lot of sega genesis music (compliment), but then the vocals started kicking in and the effect was ruined
Massive Attack
4/5
The only Massive Attack I’d heard before was “Teardrop” (yeah, yeah, because it was the House MD theme, yes), so I was very surprised to put this album on and get british hip hop (or I guess “trip hop”, apparently? not familiar with that one). Way more fun than I expected!
Kraftwerk
4/5
Not as iconic or joyful as Trans Europa Express but still a lovely time. Always bears repeating that it is ridiculously impressive how far ahead of their time Kraftwerk were
Billy Bragg
1/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
John Lennon
4/5
Title song’s irredeemably scuffed up by The Celebs, but I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I imagine (heh) it was probably pretty difficult for people to have normal reactions to beatle solo work back when it first released
Elliott Smith
2/5
The Rolling Stones
3/5
It’s rare that I’ve been blown away by what they’ve got. On this one, “Sympathy for the Devil” was good but overstayed its welcome. Out of their stuff that’s come across the generator so far, I liked Let it Bleed more
The Modern Lovers
3/5
Throwing Muses
3/5
Little Richard
5/5
I don’t think there’s ever been a better album opener than “Tutti Frutti”
Miles Davis
3/5
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
Radiohead
4/5
I’m generally pretty positive on this one, “Nude” kind of brings the thing to a screeching halt
Public Enemy
5/5
God damn I really like Chuck D’s voice
Steely Dan
3/5
Steely Dan’s come up a few times on the list now, and I have the same issue as always. It’s really close to the kind of thing I like, but it feels empty
Lauryn Hill
3/5
Ramones
3/5
Clearly very influential! This was really cool, but I think I’m zeroing in on liking 80s-era punk more than 70s and 90s. Violent Femmes and Dead Kennedys were more interesting to me
System Of A Down
4/5
lol I have a soft spot for SOAD, they feel like they should be grating, but instead I’m just having a good time
MGMT
5/5
There’s a review of Spring Breakers that I really like, where the reviewer points out that it’s a movie that makes more sense now, in hindsight, because instead of getting Harmony Korine’s hot takes on America’s youth, you get a dead-on time capsule of a very specific time & place--a zeitgest, over now, that at the time didn’t seem aware of its own mortality.
I was thinking a lot about that when listening to Oracular Spectacular; I was actually pretty shocked to see it’s as old as 2007, because the era I vividly remember it from was 2011-2013 aka my college years aka a time when the hits from this were ubiquitous instead of showing their age. It’s another one of those where exactly half the songs on here got way too much exposure, while the other half you’ve never heard in your fucking life. Most of the unknowns were actually pretty fun, with the exception of “Youth” which was so awful it single-handedly knocks the whole thing down a rung of my esteem. Fun trip down memory lane!
UB40
3/5
I’m slowly triangulating my reggae taste, for the most part this was pretty good, didn’t stand out very much, but a couple of the songs (”Signing Off”, “Reefer Madness”) are long instrumental pieces that I thought were really cool and engaging
John Lee Hooker
5/5
Cypress Hill
1/5
Talking Heads
3/5
This was an interesting one for me; I consider myself a huge Talking Heads fan, but also their big deal albums for me all come from their middle/later years, like Remain in Light onward. So even having grown up with their stuff around, I never really checked out their earliest offerings.
Madonna
4/5
Outstanding side A existing in tension with kind of a dull side B. I dunno, this one really excited me at the start, but I didn’t end it with the same enthusiasm
Gang Of Four
1/5
Oasis
3/5
Knowing them only from “Wonderwall”, this was pretty good. At its best made me think about underwater cities, which is a winner for me.
iirc there’s like a fan feud between them and Blur? going off this, I think I’m probably Team Blur
Coldplay
1/5
Dire stuff, I was correct to give them a miss back in the day
Julian Cope
5/5
I have no idea about who this guy is or his deal in general, but this was really interesting. Album length kind of uncalled for, but on the other hand a normal length wouldn’t have been enough to get lost in, which was very fun with this
Screaming Trees
2/5
Grungy, forgettable
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
Nanci Griffith
2/5
Spotify reactivated autoplay without permission, and it took me a solid hour to notice the album was done with.
Doves
2/5
Guided By Voices
2/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Had to dig up a mono release because the stereo mixing was way too aggressive for headphones, but overall pretty fun weird folky mishmash thing
Soft Cell
3/5
Sex Dwarf saved this from 2 stars
Muddy Waters
3/5
Pink Floyd
4/5
Janelle Monáe
5/5
This was fantastic! I feel like concept albums haven’t been in vogue for a good long while, so I really really loved how big she went with it here.
a-ha
3/5
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
I feel like by 1993 it was long past time to evolve past this kind of sound
Tim Buckley
3/5
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Album went a bit too long. The number of songs was correct, lots to get lost in, and they go a lot of different places, but the songs mostly overstayed their welcome.
c. 2012 I was using Pandora a lot, and for some reason it was absolutely obsessed with serving me up instrumental covers of “Kashmir”. Which I guess was fine, just confusing.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Johnny Cash is great, and I like how much this benefits from being a live album, really shows off how charismatic of a performer he was
3/5
Foundational album of a low-key influential band, but not one of my preferred releases from them
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
More of a stereotypical ‘80s sound compared to Crocodiles, by which I mean less along the lines of synth pop, and more grandiose, lots of orchestral stings, etc. A Bigger sound that I think benefits them
3/5
I expected to have a bunch of thoughts on Muse and whether their stuff has aged very well since my high school days when I was super into them, maybe some ideas on the distinctly Nolan-movie-style bombast, evaluating whether I still like it etc. What I thought about instead is how I never really listened very much to this as a full album, usually I just skipped between the singles. The big fuckoff Cosmic Arena Rock pieces show their age, but actually still land alright, but in between them are a whole lot of bad filler pieces that really drag the whole thing down
Orbital
3/5
The type of techno that Strong Bad was making fun of
Arcade Fire
3/5
Band continues to be mids
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
The Who
3/5
The Stooges
2/5
Various Artists
1/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
I’m a tough sell on most post-50s/60s country music, and I liked this quite a bit
Ryan Adams
1/5
Mudhoney
2/5
The Streets
1/5
Tom Waits
3/5
Think I liked Rain Dogs better, he was sleazier on that
Tortoise
3/5
I got excited when I realized it was going to be all instrumental, but it never really rose above passing the time alright
Arrested Development
2/5
This is the most dated-90s shit I’ve heard in my life
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
Hey this was extremely good! I don't think I could have survived school years if I'd been checked into gothy stuff, but their music continues to be fantastic
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Prince
4/5
Prince is kind of unrivaled among artists for me listening to his full albums and counting the number of songs I recognize from radio play, that I had no idea where from him. Incredible talent, RIP
The Gun Club
3/5
Queen
4/5
Queen
5/5
*Sheer Heart Attack* is good, *Night At The Opera* is great, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is genuinely good but wildly overrated and overplayed, not even the best one on that album (which would be "Prophet's Song", tyvm)
Fugazi
2/5
I understand Fugazi to be really influential for what would become grunge, but it and most of its descendants aren't really my kind of thing
Lou Reed
1/5
The Band
3/5
King Crimson
4/5
Song for song, it's got like a 2.5 for 5 hit rate for me ("21st Century Schizoid Man" & "Epitaph" are great, title song kinda depends on my mood), also historically this album was almost singularly responsible for inventing prog rock as a genre (compliment), even if I enjoy its successors more
Deep Purple
4/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
I've listened to enough Radiohead by now that I actually am getting the appeal of them and appreciating them more, so the new nemesis of my generator project is Bob Dylan. Like it's just been what I understand to be his good shit on the list so far, and I have really, *really* not been enjoying him. I have to assume the problem is I'm just not getting something, but for now I'm not grasping the source or intensity of his appeal to people.
Like with "Desolation Row," which I understand to be a very well-regarded song, he's clearly going hard w/ the lyrics, but it was such a chore musically? 11 minutes of the same structure and strumming going on endlessly, so by like Verse 138 it's like god DAMN shut up I can't take any more! put in a bridge section or something!
Cat Stevens
4/5
This was cozy, kinda reminiscent of mid-period Jethro Tull on a good day
The Byrds
3/5
Classics of 60s music, nothing really revelatory here
The Cure
3/5
Ok here we finally have a gothy entry that I'm more neutral on. Mellower than I was hoping for. Release date surprised me a bit, it released further back than I would've expected
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Boston
3/5
*Supernatural* soundtrack-type music, lol. Classics of Dad Rock. "Peace of Mind" is the only worthwhile song on here, but it unironically rules, basically single-handedly elevating the whole album
Beastie Boys
3/5
Cultural touchpoint filled in, basically. I love the idea of these guys more than I actually enjoyed listening
Supergrass
4/5
This one really won me over as it went. At first I thought I was going to be in for 60s nostalgia masturbation, but as the thing went on it was incorporating more contemporary sensibilities that fused really well
Culture Club
1/5
I'll admit to having a soft spot for "Karma Chameleon," but the rest of this is fucking awful, just the blandest stereotype of bad 80s pop
Funkadelic
5/5
It's not a perfect heuristic, plenty of exceptions etc, but I'm finding something that separates a lot of good 80s pop music from bad is that the good acts really, *really* took a lot of influence from funk. This is great stuff!
The Black Keys
4/5
Black Keys are generally pretty fun, kinda wear down over the course of a whole album. 2010's kind of the tail end for this sort of sound being fashionable, the bass is mixed more heavily, we're not quite to the point historically of dubstep being shoved in everyone's faces for half a decade, but it's hard not to think about that coming as this starts to die off
Christine and the Queens
3/5
Billie Holiday
3/5
She's great, and I really regret that I wasn't listening to this in ideal circumstances--slow dancing in a dimly-lit room
The White Stripes
4/5
Eagles
1/5
Obligatory Lebowski
Bob Dylan
3/5
[Trump Voice] "Freewheelin' Bob"
This one has been my favorite Bob Dylan to come across the list so far, still leaves me cold
Charles Mingus
4/5
Like this came out same year as Freewheelin' Dylan's thing, and I am *way* more interested in the musical ambition of this. Late jazz in general goes to really interesting places!
The National
1/5
Slow maudlin Indie, extremely not to my taste
Brian Eno
4/5
*S o u n d C o l l a g e*
I love both Eno and Byrne, and I like to put this album on every so often, but it's also not the best work either of them was doing around this time
Songhoy Blues
5/5
Malian blues! Very cool sound, and the band's history is really interesting! I am all the way invested in this
Tom Waits
4/5
[every review about how weird, growly, jangly, and off-putting this is, but *as a compliment*]
Franz Ferdinand
5/5
Easily my favorite offering from that generation of aughts alt-rock, makes me kind of sad that "Mr. Brightside" went the distance to be enshrined as a classic of the time but nobody really cares about "Take Me Out" anymore
Hüsker Dü
2/5
Clearly heralded a lot of how 90s rock ended up going, though I think I prefer other acts occupying that space. The particular guitar tone they lean on really grates on me after a while, and this one was a double album
Slayer
2/5
'80s metal stays losing. idk thrash has never been my thing, but I'd still pick metallica over these guys any day. All that speed & momentum, and nothing interesting done with it. Also they're setting off my Dad Rock alert, where the lyrics and themes probably freaked out a lot of parents when this first came out, but these days it just seems cute
Don McLean
2/5
Never actually sat down and listened to the title song, I basically only ever hear it driving or shopping; it's fun if overplayed, but the rest of the thing wasn't anything to write home about
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I've shared variations of this point before re: Cohen, but, like...
One of my partner's favorite genres is like acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. "Sad man with a guitar" music, as she calls it. And I cannot stand sad man with a guitar. What I need when I'm down is "Sad lady with a piano." Any case, I'm not Leonard Cohen's audience, and that's ok
(I can sometimes work with "sad man with piano" though, like I really like Warren Zevon a lot)
Ian Dury
2/5
Genesis
5/5
Big fan of solo Peter Gabriel work and both Genesis eras, but it's been a good long while since I sat with the old 70s stuff. Somehow aims for both grand and cozy, and manages to make both work
The Roots
3/5
The Divine Comedy
2/5
I try to not immediately reach for "I did not in fact need to listen to this one before I died" when I don't like one, because at 1089 entries on the list, obviously there's going to be some duds in there. But geez this one was skippable. A late-90s attempt to update crooner shit to modern sensibilities, no thank you
Miles Davis
5/5
I'm in favor of most jazz most of the time, and I really have been enjoying hearing from this 60s-70s era where historically, rock would've been in the process of completely overtaking the airwaves, and so the jazz artists start getting up to even more ambitious experiments. YES, I like jam music, YES I like prog,
Depeche Mode
4/5
I used to feel pretty positive on new wave, in theory; by now, though, the generator's served me up so much mediocrity from this era and made abundantly clear how many of these acts were one-hit wonders. This one was kind of a breath of fresh air, like with Depeche Mode I actually *get* what makes them appeal beyond "Enjoy the Silence"
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
4/5
Synths cover of Modest Mussorgsky. Came out 1971 and sounds exactly like 90s jrpg fight music, chef's kiss no notes
Einstürzende Neubauten
3/5
the sound design of this really swung for the fences, bringing in a lot of found objects, literal industrial machinery etc, which did admittedly grate at times (grew up next to neighbors that liked to bring out leaf blowers at 7AM, fuck off suburbs). idk, this definitely wasn't my favorite thing by a long shot, but the rest of you goons deciding this is your literal collective least favorite thing in the archive is really uncalled for, considering some of the dreck that's in this list.
4/5
Kinda as always with the Beatles, and especially this era of them, the production history of this is a lot more interesting to me than the music itself. It's good, but I find it musically less interesting than Revolver, and historically less interesting than White Album
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Endlessly funny to me that these guys were 100% a California production rather than actual swamp people, but either way this album rules. Even though 1969 is basically the 70s already, I give a lot of credit to 60s bands that didn't just try to sound like the Beatles or Beach Boys
The Stooges
4/5
I didn't like their debut album when it came across the list, but I liked how weird and energetic they got with this one
Barry Adamson
4/5
per wikipedia, "conceived as a soundtrack to an imaginary film", although music from this was then actually used in David Lynch's "Lost Highway." Really fitting choice for that movie, though, there's an underlying spookiness to this that I really appreciated
De La Soul
3/5
The Cure
4/5
I think I was kind of chilly on The Cure last time they came up, but I really enjoyed this one. Felt like it was keeping the pace up a little more
Miriam Makeba
3/5
Morrissey
2/5
Gang Starr
3/5
The Smiths
1/5
Knocking out both Morrissey reviews here since I basically got a double feature:
I hated these. Morrissey's like a chik fil-a kind of topic, where the main cultural impact I get exposed to is a million people very loudly flogging themselves for being such big fans of the awful person/franchise, but then you go check out the thing for yourself and it feels like you're being pranked because the idea that people are out there having such strong positive association with them in the first place is such a tough sell to me.
It's a mediocre chicken sandwich, and extremely boring, grating music! Come on!
Jane's Addiction
3/5
lol this ended up being pretty fun, had a very specific 90s brattiness that shows its age, but is kinda charming for it
Green Day
2/5
I had a better time with this than Dookie, but I think that's mostly from familiarity (I'll cop to kinda liking "Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but otherwise I've really disliked their stuff). I'm definitely in the age cohort such that this one was a big, big deal to people when it came out, so it was nostalgic to play this and realize I knew each song on here really well. But it's also interesting to pull the lists of what else was going on in rock music at the time, and 2004 had a lot going on! Like that's the year that brings us Franz Ferdinand and "Hot Fuss," Modest Mouse released "Good News," White Stripes had just put out "Elephant" the previous year... idk I know emo went strong into the aughts, but my personal big music touchpoints for that era tended to be alt-rock/indie stuff.
SZA
2/5
Never been the audience for this kind of mellow R&B. Kind of the same problem I run into with Dylan, the music itself doesn't land at all for me, which has me then zoning out on the lyrics, which is unfortunate, because I understand those to be the main draw here!
The Fall
3/5
Post-punk's hit-and-miss for me, and this one's got plenty of both. It's an interesting reference point for like... There's a spate of psychedelic surf rock groups that cropped up in the 2010s that clearly came from this type of roots, but the journey from here to there is still pretty murky to me
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Didn't care for the last thing from her (Pieces of the Sky, 1975), didn't care for this. There was pretty clearly some effort made to modernize the instrumentation to the era, which sometimes made for interesting fusion, because she's still doing country singing over everything. Like they had synths in the 70s and weren't using them back then, so I'm fascinated that the year 2000 apparently called for bringing them in
Miles Davis
4/5
This one's apparently really divisive among the generator audience, but suits my ADHD brain just fine. I think for me it's like... 4/5 for musical enjoyment (at the end of the day, I liked "In A Silent Way" more), 5/5 for interesting production story, 7/5 for album art.
Tricky
4/5
With only a couple examples under my belt by now, I think I like trip hop generally, while also finding it distractingly british sometimes
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
I always like hearing C.S.N.&Y., but I also find myself wishing a lot of the time that the rest of their stuff was as angry and bitter as "Ohio"
James Brown
3/5
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
The Police
4/5
Classic touchstone of Dad rock (maybe Mom rock actually? I think the Police albums we had on the shelf were hers in any case). I thought I knew what I was in for with this based on knowing only "Every Move You Make" and "King of Pain", so I was impressed with how different most of it was from those, like the A-side was often discordant and evil in a way that was really interesting
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Hendrix's last album, and I think also the last time he's coming up on my generator list. It's easily my favorite of them; it feels more energetic than the others and he's putting guitar pedal effects to wonderful use.
Obligatory "Watchtower" hot take: the original's actually pretty decent as far as Dylan goes, but he still comes out looking like a drip compared to what Hendrix does with it
Jeff Buckley
4/5
Only knowing him from "Hallelujah" I was kind of gritting my teeth heading into this, expecting the exact kind of singer-songwriter music that I can't deal with, but I ended up being really won over by this! the backing arrangements really elevate his voice & make the thing work for me
Stereolab
4/5
Meat Loaf
4/5
Fond memories of my dad playing this one on nighttime car rides. There were only two songs on here I set aside on the project highlights playlist, but when the thing's good, it's great.
It was incredible to look up stuff about this, each new detail more insane than the last. E Street band fresh off of "Born to Run?!" Todd Rundgren producing it after nobody else wants to touch this? One of the best-selling albums of all time, but barely seems to have sparked any imitators?? (in the US mainstream at least. A young Tobias Sammet was probably extremely warped by listening to this, entire subgenres of metal owe a lot to it, etc)
Miles Davis
3/5
ZZ Top
4/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Megadeth
3/5
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Leftfield
4/5
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
2/5
Norah Jones
3/5
The Replacements
3/5
The Divine Comedy
1/5
unbelievable that these bozos got two albums onto the list
Khaled
4/5
Jeff Beck
3/5
T. Rex
3/5
k.d. lang
2/5
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Great for going on a rainy morning walk, but only great in that exact context
Circle Jerks
4/5
Always a coin flip if I'm going to enjoy a punk rock act, but I liked these guys. The songs sounded very similar to each other, but none of them wore our their welcome
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
He's sounding kind of Country in this? Not a fan of him going that direction. idk the story of "Springsteen ends an 18-year hiatus with a 9/11 reaction album" is more interesting to me than the music itself, especially since that Reaction was apparently attuned to "messages of hope and uplift"
3/5
Yes are always kind of a mixed bag for me; sometimes they're great, sometimes they make boring songs, but also the boring ones usually have interesting passages within them. A lot of the time I feel like there's not enough delivery on Bombast that justifies the buildups
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
Arctic Monkeys are always interesting to me, since on paper they're the exact right era & genre that I should be a fan, but I'd overlooked them back then, and they still fail to click every time I go trying to get into them
Deerhunter
2/5
Pulling from a lot of different genre influences, but rather than resolving into something like an "eclectic mix", which I'd be more on board with, it just becomes a sludge
The Crusaders
3/5
weather channel music
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
I know this is sacrilege, but I think I really do not like Janis Joplin's vocal style. I don't mind raspy or gravely, and her baseline is totally fine! But it's specifically when she goes for high notes, her voice gets really *breathy* in addition to all that and it hits my ears badly. Like there's having a singing style, and then there's "this sounds like these notes are out of your range and you keep trying to go for them anyway"
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Carpenters
3/5
Love
3/5
T. Rex
3/5
Beatles
4/5
I'd genuinely never heard of *Rubber Soul* even though it's like right in the middle of their other stuff that I like. It's good!
The Darkness
4/5
It's bad, but still very charming
Waylon Jennings
4/5
Thin Lizzy
4/5
The Isley Brothers
3/5
Nirvana
4/5
Beatles
5/5
Mj Cole
2/5
Cheap Trick
3/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
Big shoes. big, big shoes. Huge cultural shadow, the good songs on it are classics... and there's other songs on there too I guess. idk on the whole I might actually like Bad more
The Fall
3/5
JAY Z
4/5
Lorde
3/5
The Lemonheads
2/5
Ride
2/5
Beck
2/5
no.
not my kind of downer album
Donald Fagen
2/5
Happy Mondays
3/5
Django Django
4/5
I'd heard of Django Django a *while* ago, and never checked them out.
story time, fall 2012, 20 years old, visiting Portland OR with classmates, become obsessed with the idea of going into a music store and buying some indie music, really live out my vague understanding of how to behave like these hipsters I've heard so much about. I pick up Yeasayer's "Fragrant World," guy at the counter is like,
"hey if you like Yeasayer you should check out Django Django"
"Django Django?"
"yeah Django Django"
"cool, will do"
anyway I never got around to checking out Django Django. Now that I've listened, turns out I wasn't missing much, like "Django Django" is fine, pleasingly eclectic. Wasn't interested in checking out the rest of the Django Django catalogue based on "Django Django," though. Yeasayer had at least 3 albums that would deserve the slot more than Django Django's "Django Django," but there's probably also at least a couple hundred albums on this stupid thing that should get out of the way before Django Django should have to. Django.
Supertramp
5/5
Really sneaky newcomer to my pantheon of favorites! I thought it was pretty good on first listen, but then I've kept coming back to it
Ryan Adams
1/5
Coldplay
3/5
In middle school I knew a guy who was obsessed with his idea that you couldn't be both a fan of Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't think he was even trying to make a temperature pun. Didn't appreciate his brain enough back then.
Van Halen
3/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Depeche Mode
4/5
I've been on a journey with New Wave, from not really understanding it beyond liking Talking Heads, to learning that most groups in that umbrella are actually the "80s synth music" I'd hear from radio play & not very much like talking heads... to listening to a *bunch*, *way too many* on the generator and realizing that Depeche Mode is maybe the only one of that crowd that actually had chops beyond the radio hits. Pretty good stuff! shame about their peers
Q-Tip
3/5
Deee-Lite
3/5
2/5
Queen Latifah
3/5
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Public Enemy
4/5
Iron Butterfly
4/5
Their general schtick's mostly done better by The Doors or The Stranglers, but that title track's an all-timer.
The Dictators
3/5
3/5
Fats Domino
3/5
Black Flag
1/5
sucks
3/5
Anthrax
3/5
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
Turbonegro
2/5
Mylo
3/5
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
Angry gym music for the thinking man
Billy Joel
4/5
Very funny to get this one while everyone was relitigating "We Didn't Start The Fire" after that cover from panic at the disco or whoever. Good news is that this was from long enough back, I don't need to make excuses for enjoying it.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
4/5
Bob Dylan
4/5
First and I think only Bob Dylan on the list that I actually properly enjoyed, rather than tolerated
Le Tigre
4/5
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
Gotan Project
3/5
The Byrds
3/5
The United States Of America
2/5
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
Jacques Brel
2/5
Paul Simon
3/5
Alice In Chains
2/5
Angry gym music for the sad man with no taste. idk nirvanna's kinda unimpeachable but them aside I think I'm not super into grungy
Bad Company
2/5
Morrissey
3/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Maxwell
2/5
Kate Bush
5/5
Wild decisions in this, going big, going weird, I liked it a lot! "Sensual World" hadn't really sold me, but knowing she had *this* in her makes people's praise of her make way more sense
Eels
1/5
Would this be considered emo? I never had a great grasp on what counted, but I figure if like Fall Out Boy or Green Day qualify, then this one might be on the board. Any case, hated it.
I'd missed out on most of the Angry Disaffected White Guy 90s/00s groups, and while they're all annoying to some degree, some of them are incredibly fun for kind of exactly that reason, and I'd like to figure out what's the alchemy that causes that. Like Eels here never had a chance, too mopey, but NiN was alright!
The Smiths
2/5
Everything But The Girl
1/5
Sigur Rós
4/5
shoutout to all the guys in college that were like "duude you gotta listen to sigur rós! They're so trippy and relaxing!" because they were mostly right about this. I'm not always in the right mood for this sorta thing, but when I am, it's good to put on.
Goldie
3/5
Missy Elliott
4/5
The Louvin Brothers
1/5
Life’s too short
X-Ray Spex
5/5
Best flavor of Punk stuff imo. Gimme weird girl chants and a saxophone wailing in the background, it's more interesting than tough guy posturing!
White Denim
5/5
Sneaky 5, jammy bluesey rock, very precisely targeted to what I like
Paul McCartney
4/5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
2/5
Unjust that this has stayed in the book while Songhoy Blues got cut
Skunk Anansie
2/5
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
I felt bad about dismissing the last couple funks on the list as Weather Channel music, so it was really refreshing to draw this and be reminded that there's good stuff out there that is both unmistakably funk, and able to transcend that association. Still, I'm really itching for "Maggot Brain" to show up on the rotation, because so far no other group has matched how big and bold Funkadelic went with "One Nation Under A Groove"
Merle Haggard
1/5
5/5
christ these guys leveled up since Something Else
The Hives
4/5
The Offspring
5/5
This shit right here! so goddamn obnoxious! such a great time! What's the secret sauce?! Whence their charm?!
Faith No More
3/5
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Bill Callahan
2/5
Some kinda weird indie country? It's got some interesting sounds to it but tbh my biggest complaint is that it's mixed like shit
Johnny Cash
5/5
Why come I like johnny cash and johnny cash music so much, but get bored out of my skull by most of his peers
The Byrds
3/5
The Charlatans
2/5
DJ Shadow
3/5
Richard Hawley
1/5
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Preacher Man elevates this a lot
ZZ Top
4/5
ZZ Top I think might be top of the heap in terms of how well various dad rock groups hold up, and this is the album that brought us most of their mainstays on oldies radio, keeps solid momentum
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Marilyn Manson
3/5
I didn't hate it, but not gonna set it aside to revisit. Feels like an attempt at going more extreme than specifically NiN, executed by someone much dumber than Trent Reznor.
Looking into the Wikipedia **Political reaction** section, I guess its interesting that this is probably the millennial equivalent of like Kiss or something, where most of the appeal was probably very tied up in kids wanting to piss off their parents. In that sense, that Onion "Going Door to Door to Shock People" headline probably did *way* more to knock MM down a peg than any amount of congressional hearings
Thundercat
3/5
Christina Aguilera
3/5
The Soft Boys
2/5
Röyksopp
4/5
Otis Redding
3/5
Steely Dan
3/5
The Only Ones
2/5
Traffic
3/5
The Jam
2/5
The Incredible String Band
1/5
Finley Quaye
2/5
808 State
2/5
UK electronica has had more than its fair share of slots on this thing, gimme more acts from the continent pls.
The sheer number of this kind of thing really puts into sharp relief that not only were Daft Punk really good, they were specifically mopping the floor with most of the other acts out there
Nick Drake
4/5
English Folky > American Folky imo, this was nice
Tito Puente
3/5
Beck
4/5
I think this was the first Beck album I'd ever heard way back in my youth. Doesn't top Odelay, but made for pretty good listening
Marianne Faithfull
1/5
Joan Armatrading
2/5
Beastie Boys
4/5
Hey what the fuck, I never put together that "Brass Monkey" was from these guys. Beastie Boys are fun, kind of feel like a joke band a lot of the time, but they're clearly in on the bit
Sam Cooke
4/5
Nick Drake
2/5
The Bees
2/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
O'Malley's Bar wears out its welcome so much it knocks this entire thing down a peg
Steve Winwood
2/5
end credits stock music
Pixies
4/5
King Crimson
4/5
3/5
The Pretty Things
2/5
Sitar-forward, tinny harmonizing, it's an English psychedelic band from the 60s ladies and germs! fuck outta here.
The xx
4/5
Man Pandora used to love giving me the first track, "Intro", from this one, and never showed me the rest of the album. This last month I dropped my daily caffeine to a quarter of what it had been, which is a decision I credit with helping me enjoy mellow stuff like this more than I otherwise might have
Lucinda Williams
1/5
The Monks
4/5
The Vines
4/5
3/5
I was excited to actually sit down with a full U2 album instead of picking up singles here, there, and on pandora. Unfortunately turns out a full album of U2 just still sounds like U2's hits the whole way through. Which is fine, I like them alright, but was hoping there were hidden gems out there instead of the ones everyone's heard of
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Taylor Swift
4/5
Nostalgic for hearing a lot of these during the short span of years where I was actually listening to the radio quite a bit. I'd gotten sick of these songs back then, but with some distance & listening as an album experience, they've grown on me
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Seen enough of his range by now to come down hard on preferring the piano-banging *Born to Run* sound
Liz Phair
3/5
Antony and the Johnsons
3/5
Laibach
2/5
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
The Flying Burrito Brothers
1/5
The Residents
3/5
Gotta revisit this one some time
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Music by and for poison type pokemon
Scissor Sisters
4/5
I never would have guessed in a million years that music doing so much disco referencing had come out in 2004 (compliment)
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
The Prodigy
4/5
Techno techno techno, it's fine, and I love that crab on the album art. Very fun to me that it wouldn't be until about 15 years later the trajectories of stuff like this and mainstream pop would overlap, like i have to remind myself this probably would've had a more niche audience than I'd expect nowadays. I wasn't musically checked in at all during the 90s (being younger than 10 years old the whole way through) (sorry to older millennials for mentioning that), but I'd have probably been drawn more to this kinda thing than Smashing Pumpkins
Kraftwerk
5/5
Great to have this come on after their progeny, The Prodigy. Undefeated by their successors, they infuse so much sentimentality into the kind of soundfront that goes on to be associated so much with dehumanization, industriousness, etc
Joe Ely
2/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Having crossed into the 70s proper, it's harder to levy the "ahead of their time" praise I like to use for them, but it's pretty much impossible for me to come up with anything bad to say about this one, it's a great time
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
Mekons
2/5
Elbow
3/5
Todd Rundgren
4/5
Not quite Supertramp levels of winning me over, but it's a fun experimental thing from somebody where my only prior familiarity was that he made the bang on my drum all day song, and knowing he was the person who got "Bat Out Of Hell" made when no other producers were willing to touch it
Patti Smith
4/5
Wilco
2/5
I literally listened to this only one day before writing this, and I don't remember it at all. Slid directly off my brain.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
All Ballads is usually a pretty big ask for me, but man *Murder Ballads* really unlocked these guys for me, I enjoyed this
Calexico
3/5
The xx
3/5
Lupe Fiasco
3/5
The Electric Prunes
2/5
More like electric prune 'em from this list heyooo
tbh though, this isn't the first example on here where there was a band contemporary to The Doors, doing very similar things to The Doors, that was also outclassed by The Doors on most levels
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
It's not nearly as exciting as what Miles Davis or Charles Mingus were doing around this time, but I'm certainly not gonna say no to calming jazz
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
Strictly worse than The Fall, but credit where it's due for doing The Fall type stuff this early on
Gene Clark
3/5
Turns out I like it alright when american country music decides to use the wah wah pedal more
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
4/5 music, 7/5 album art
4/5
I liked it, but not as much as self-titled & Parklife
Garbage
5/5
wait I thought people were like somehow embarrassed by Garbage, but this actually owns
Weather Report
3/5
Pentangle
3/5
for doing a related thing (aggressively acoustic, folky to the point of medieval), blows Incredible String Band out of the water. Still would prefer something more along the lines of Renaissance, get a little more ambitious with the arrangements, y'know,
Laura Nyro
3/5
Sheryl Crow
3/5
eh, it's country rock but her voice is nice. Na-Na Song was sung with a real Beck-type delivery, but I like Beck's production a lot more
Todd Rundgren
4/5
not quite as interesting and fun as *A Wizard/A True Star*, but it's pretty good. Enjoying Todd’s entries on this list so far, but in terms of “Producer guys’ projects where they’re composing the music” Brian Eno’s easily tops for me, and I’d probably even put Alan Parsons over Todd a lot of the time.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
4/5
The Kinks
3/5
The Kinks
4/5
Jimmy Smith
5/5
Neil Young
4/5
Neil Young's a sometimes food for me, but when I'm in the mood, it's really good to have his stuff around
Michael Jackson
4/5
MJ's also a sometimes food for me. Wrote in a different one of these that a lot of the good 80s music (which definitely includes his output) drew a lot of influence from funk, and this one’s even funkier than his big 80s hits
TV On The Radio
5/5
Literally never heard of these guys in my life, but it’s like… very *very* good type of indie, got some good alt rock flavor of the time
Simple Minds
4/5
Big Star
3/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
Other comments pointing out that this kind of lo-fi fuzz effect was basically Not Done when this released. Which is pretty cool, but there's stuff around these days that executes better on that vision I think
Neil Young
3/5
Anita Baker
2/5
Well, got my wish for some U2 songs that I haven't heard a bunch of times, but idk if the proclivities of the y2k era did them a whole lot of favors lol.
Maybe this is stupid of me, but I think I need bono to be more unrestrained, like the stuff I tend to like from them it sounds like he's hollering at large birds from atop a mountain, and for this one he's using his inside voice
Fishbone
5/5
Oh my god this rules. Runs the gamut of rock, ska, funk, gets real close to like sega genesis-sounding music sometimes, just all over the place, having fun every step of the way
John Martyn
3/5
The Undertones
3/5
Underworld
4/5
some of the better techno to cross this thing in a minute
Sidebar, there's a million techno releases from the 90s, but afaict *nothing at all* from that EDM boom in the early '10s on here. Like sure I don't think fuckin skrillex really did "albums" as such at the time he hit the mainstream, but like there was a whole era of stuff that lasted *years*, that was a big enough deal that pop artists started biting from it en masse, that’s being completely glossed over. And fuck knows I’m not itching to hear dubstep again for a good long while, but the double standard is glaring
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Just like Sister Ray Said
4/5
PJ Harvey's someone I should just dive into her music, listen to some things all in a row, bc she's been rock solid whenever she's come up on the list, but I feel like I'd benefit from like a closer career look. Thom Yorke showing up on one of this album's songs made something click in terms of, like, genre space mental sorting
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
A huge anchor point for the cultural memory of 80s music. Had a nice time, turns out most of the issue with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Time After Time" is just that they're overplayed
Joanna Newsom
4/5
Definitely to her benefit that I put this on as cooking music rather than working or walking, but May It Please The Court, I enjoyed this a lot
Radiohead
5/5
jesus christ, I'm not capable of being normal about the fact that I liked this, I really really liked this a lot fucking hell.
Confusion about why people like this band *and this album in particular* had been such a cornerstone of my music taste, and I've fully turned my back to it basically thanks to this project. Literally a 20+ year process for them to finally click
Mike Oldfield
5/5
Between this, Radiohead, and all the Todd Rundgren from last couple rounds, it feels like I've been on an intense-audio-production kick with these lately. I've listened to this one before, it's excellent stuff
Grateful Dead
3/5
lmao the top reviews fucking *haaaaate* this, and even the overall global score's pretty mediocre.
Meanwhile I'm like "eh pretty good, but not quite as layered as Phish songs tend to get"
Lenny Kravitz
4/5
Bad Brains
3/5
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
One of the last things through the door from Big Band era, and probably some of the best of the genre
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
4/5
abrasive (compliment)
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Holger Czukay
4/5
God bless Can and Can alums
Big Black
4/5
Outstanding work, which is rare for me to get that kind of enthusiasm for punk
Can
5/5
GOD BLESS CAN AND CAN ALUMS. RIP SUZUKI.
this one's a little less memorable/earwormy than *Tago Mago*, but extremely good, and Can remains consistently top-tier among the bands featured on this list
Mike Ladd
3/5
Hanoi Rocks
3/5
Eric Clapton
4/5
Definitely was born wrong era for Clapton obsession to have gotten its hooks in me, but passes the smell test of like "Ok it makes sense that older people have so much affection for his music".
Or like unlike morrissey, the music here's good enough that I feel kinder about people loudly having a complicated relationship with listening to & enjoying the scumbag artist
Destiny's Child
4/5
Jesus I had no idea about Destiny's Child, and this was a revelation. I feel like a lot of the time I find myself getting ready to be sorta bored by R&B when it comes up, but this was refreshingly energetic
Herbie Hancock
5/5
A++ Jazz Funk
Bon Jovi
3/5
lol jesus every single one of their famous guitar hero songs is from this one album. Brings me back to annoying memories of high school sports teammates, but that's not really bon jovi's fault, 3/5
The Who
3/5
Pavement
2/5
Bob Dylan
1/5
Silver Jews
2/5
Wilco
2/5
Second try at these guys after being mean to *Yankee Hotel Foxtrot*, this time I'll write while listening.
...Plonky plonk style indie rock. Good for a cloudy day, but I can't focus to this and it was a double album. "Monday" was good.
Digital Underground
3/5
Ah lol so that's where the humpty dance comes from. It's silly
Super Furry Animals
2/5
Some of these entries I think basically sneak onto the list for doing stuff out of the ordinary for the era. But the problem is I'm listening to like a 70-year archive in random order, so this doesn't feel like the breath of fresh air it might've felt like at the time, and instead just reminds me of 70s groups that I like more
Wire
4/5
Alice Cooper
4/5
Alice Cooper’s persona’s such a fun middle ground between guitar hero music and gothy theater kid, hard to not be charmed by that
Ministry
4/5
alright I guess "industrial metal" works as a genre descriptor, but that undersells how loopy the sample loops get. like listening to a youtube poop
Heaven 17
3/5
The Black Crowes
2/5
Pretty sure I've heard some of these playing at various Kohls stores
The Who
4/5
Struggling to describe my feelings on this that don't just sound like backhanded compliments, but I think this is the album that's made The Who kind of click properly for me, and the thing that did that was hitting the books on the making of this one and realizing that:
- a.) Pete Townshend's kinda... his reach exceeds his grasp, and he has a very very long reach, is how I'd maybe put it; but
- b.) that’s the band's secret weapon. Leads to them taking big swings and having interesting results fall out of the effort. Their good songs don't happen without that
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
Pretty good, but I liked their other one better, and they didn't need two albums on the list
Japan
4/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
I didn't know Neil Young could jam
Adele
4/5
Man, I always forget I actually like Adele quite a bit. Like out of the major radio-friendly acts of the ‘10s, she's held up incredibly well, and this wasn’t even her breakout album
Bobby Womack
4/5
Sonic Youth
3/5
There's some, but not many Sonic Youths left in the list, and I might need someone to explain what's the big deal they bring to the table, because I do really like what I've heard from them so far, but I know people who are *enthusiastic* about them in a way I can't access
The Undertones
1/5
…What are we even doing here, man.
I'm on an educational journey here when it comes to punk and punk-adjacent, but you can't show me groups up to actually interesting stuff (X-ray Spex, for example) and then expect me to be interested in something that's this tepid.
Beatles
4/5
*Hard Day's Night* really won me over. Compared to a lot of their contemporaries and imitators, they'd done a really good job keeping the tempo up and the arrangements engaging
Beatles
2/5
Easy to forget that once upon a time, being a popular band didn't involve mostly playing original songs
Cornershop
2/5
Kanye West
5/5
This is one of the ones I was most excited to get to. Modern-day Kanye is unquestionably A Mess, but 13 years ago the conversation around him was more "well he's an egomaniac, but *he delivers*", which I assumed could be true, but I didn't listen to his music back then.
But yeah this album fucking delivers. I'd drawn "College Dropout" already for this project and liked it, but that didn't fill in a whole lot of context for me. But this one's Post-MTV awards incident, pre-explicit-nazi-shit, and extremely fascinating to listen back to, knowing that his introspection and seeming self-awareness about megalomania and self-destruction in this weren't enough to save him.
The Strokes
4/5
My only real exposure to the strokes was through Pandora, where they filled in soundspace just fine, but didn't excite me all that much. Looking at that release date, though...
Did some quick wikipedia'ing, and yeah it's looking like this one might have been at the same level as MGMT *Oracular Spectacular* in terms of "hey all this other shit you were listening to came from specifically this". "Post-punk revival", as they call it, apparently. Like I like some Killers, I like Franz Ferdinand, those bands probably don't come out sounding like that without this having come first. So definitely respect where it's due
Björk
5/5
I didn't care for Medúlla when it came up on here (and am still not really on board with it, on relisten), which had me worried about taste blasphemy for a while. But I really, really liked this, and the two albums are doing such wildly different things that this actually gets me very, very interested in checking out more of her stuff compared to if I'd just listened to one or the other.
Really gotta go listen to that one with the album cover that everybody posts, in other words.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Mediocre trip hop
Portishead
5/5
Extremely good trip hop! nothing like a genre double feature to immediately clarify what the good stuff’s supposed to sound like
David Bowie
4/5
Has what's been the typical Bowie hit rate for me, where there's a handful of great songs on there, but the overall Album Experience^(TM) is just alright.
On a Meta level, it was probably the right move to drop this one from the later book editions, since Blackstar does a better job covering the reasons you'd think to put this one on here
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Mother Fucker, if Hindi movie soundtracks are on the table, I am going to fucking Demand you have more than a single album representing that on the god damn list. The Indian music industry and the way it's tied up with their film industry is a whole fascinating world, that I'm very of the mind that if you're going to showcase it at all, you should be giving it way more shrift than a single 70s album. I like David Bowie fine, I will have listened to nine of his albums by the time I'm done with this thing, The Next Day was enjoyable but expendable. Get your fucking priorities straight
3/5
kind of a curveball. I'm pretty sure I've heard this one indirectly before, as one of many weirdo things my brother was pirating off music forums at the time. Haven't heard it at all since those days, surprised to see it coming up on the list
Television
2/5
M.I.A.
3/5
Faced again with being kind of a basic bitch about a few things, "Paper Planes," overexposed as it is, is both very different from the rest of this, and also I like it more.
Ghostface Killah
3/5
Paul Weller
4/5
Nightmares On Wax
4/5
Mott The Hoople
2/5
Eminem
1/5
an era when being impressed by The Joker didn’t get a person viciously made fun of
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
Ray Charles
3/5
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
Dated in a way that makes me smile instead of groan (fucking losing my mind at the aerosmith cover, it's so good). This one must have been huge at the time, I feel like this is still probably a lot of people's mental model of how rap music sounds.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Enough Costello's come across here enough times now to make clear that there's not going to be too much stylistic variety between albums, so you'll either be on board with him or not (he is a consistent 4/5 for me). This one's maybe a little bit cleaner/tighter than *Armed Forces*.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
And that's a wrap for all the velvet underground on the list. Verdict: not really for me, but they're good, and endless respect to them for sounding Like That back in the 60s.
Ice Cube
3/5
What the fuck is it with all these guys and the constant cuck-revenge fantasies, it's so weird and pervasive! Still comes out way better than Eminem, though; I like the Bomb Squad's production a hell of a lot more, Chuck D's presence on the album is very appreciated, and Ice Cube has a much better range of topics that he's capable of covering, compared to Mathers
Amy Winehouse
4/5
I already liked *Frank*, and this one's even better.
Morrissey
2/5
...had to be there, I guess. Think there's only one more of this guy on the list, but he's had frankly too many opportunities on this thing to win me over for how boring each of these has been.
I might need somebody to explain patiently to me what the appeal is here, because everything I've osmosed just seems to point at inside baseball stuff around the particular scene he's involved in?
Duke Ellington
3/5
U2
4/5
Hey alright I liked this, and mostly didn't know the songs before. I might have been done a disservice with the order I heard the U2 entries in. Apparently this one was pitched as a major reinvention of their sound, which might have made "All That You Can't Leave Behind" make more sense if I'd listened that one after this? maybe unlikely, and I'm definitely not going to listen to that one a second time to find out
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
2/5
Sort of the rap equivalent of when on twitter two people manage to stay nice to each other during a disagreement, and then some third dipshit chimes in “wow a calm rational discussion? on the hellsite???”
By which I think I mean the corniness of the project, while not a fault, isn’t on its own really cause for praise, either
Bert Jansch
2/5
k.d. lang
2/5
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
3/5
Spacemen 3
2/5
George Michael
3/5
Good music to cook to, especially good music for you and your partner to cook *together* to. A lil date at home for you & yours
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
sounds not at all like the 90s and very much like how singer-songwriter people are in the last 5 years
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Tracy Chapman
3/5
Kelela
3/5
soundtrack of every ride share i’ve ridden in nyc
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
Took a minute to figure it out, but then I learned this is a Clapton thing. And it's got Clapton doing what Clapton do, little bit samey at points, but that'sa some pretty good blues guitar
Orbital
4/5
D'Angelo
4/5
mellow r&b, meaning it’s good as long as it’s not the first boy thing i’m paying attention to
Kid Rock
1/5
Lmao what a tool.
This was a letdown; I've never listened before, and by reputation I had got myself hyped up to hear something truly dreadful and cursed, but instead it was just dull and dumb, dime a dozen
Linkin Park
3/5
this sucks, but in a way that's charming and makes me like it. End of the day though, if I were being made listen to this kind of thing, I'm probably reaching for Evanescence first (and *really*, I'd ideally try to make a case for Nightwish, but that'd probably be too much of a genre stretch (in this hypothetical (their version of shouting is too melodic)))
Hot Chip
5/5
Oh man! I went in for some reason thinking this was a 90s act, then when the thing got going I was like "wow this sounds like something straight out of 2011". And then here we are! Really pleasant surprise, wasn't expecting danceable indie-pop + adjacent to get representation on here. no less dated than the 90s electronica, but it's dated to an era that I actually got some nostalgia for, dammit
Tears For Fears
5/5
Nice! Adding to the short list of new wave acts that actually could maintain quality for an album
Run-D.M.C.
2/5
oof, idk if the problem's that this was an earlier album, or if the turnaround on being served another Run-D.M.C. album was just too short, making the novelty wear off, but I thought "Raising Hell" was delightful and that this one was really boring
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
Talking Heads
5/5
All-time Pantheon album
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
AC/DC
5/5
I, hm, y'know...
AC/DC checks all the boxes of Dad Rock, and as much as I like to dismiss groups for that...
man, this album actually really fucking rips, to a degree I wasn't at all ready for
Ananda Shankar
3/5
Method Man
3/5
Giant Sand
2/5
low-rent lou reed and I don’t even like lou reed that much to begin with
John Lennon
3/5
Think I actually liked *Imagine* more. Dunno quite what to do with that.
The Stone Roses
3/5
The White Stripes
4/5
Having heard more now from other acts ascending in Detroit around this time, White Stripes even more solidified as an oasis in the desert of mid-aughts pop culture
Jane Weaver
4/5
Keith Jarrett
5/5
The Cure
4/5
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
The Stooges
2/5
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Nirvana
4/5
k apparently every Nirvana song I knew was off of "Nevermind." So speaks well for them that a cold listen of their stuff was still good for me, most other grunge doesn't manage that.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
hm, I think I'd rated "Dark Side Of The Moon" lower than this, which maybe I didn't mean to do that, when I'd listened to that one I was less oriented with what Pink Floyd is and does. Though actually, I think I maybe do like this one better, even if it's probably not conventional opinion. Overblown rock opera theatricality is something that works on me pretty well.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
Billy Bragg
1/5
I feel like for most matchups, I tend to like british interpretations of what "folk music" is, compared to americans', so there was a part of me like "man what are you doing" at Bragg doing American-style on this
Paul Simon
4/5
So I do know and have myself listened to better and more effective examples of "world music" imports than this... but also I do think that running with that influence was to the benefit of paul simon's music, and actually like this album quite a bit.
Donovan
1/5
This list is full of such a specific type of psychedelic hippy folk stuff from the 60s, where they're like deliberately aiming for sparse medieval-sounding instrumentation. I've mostly found these extremely bad and boring, this included, and I've been hunting for a good articulation of what exactly's not working for me. Because back in the Pandora days, I was being served up a lot of stuff like Celtic Woman and Loreena McKennitt, both of which I liked a lot, and both of which I'd use similar terms to describe.
So I think there's basically two things going on:
1. Acoustic is totally fine, but I like the arrangements to be on the busier side
2. singer-songwriter stuff puts a lot of onus on the singer to be able to deliver, and I don't think Donovan's all that impressive of a vocalist*
(I think I also probably got a bit of bias against being impressed by men's singing. Like idk if I could name a man's singing that I'd call like Conventionally very good. Most of what's memorable to me is like Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, or Tom Waits etc where their voice is just extremely weird and they lean into it. Much to unpack some other time.)
Shack
1/5
Should have just put another Oasis album on the thing, because at least Oasis can get credit for sounding like Oasis back during the days when Oasis was putting out bigtime Oasis albums. This one's just derivative, completely uninteresting
Björk
3/5
Aw uh oh I think "Debut" might be the only Björk that I like... none of her other albums have really grabbed me, and I've listened to quite a few of them now
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
This shit ain’t nothing to me man
Blondie
4/5
good hit rate of radio classics. Older songs than I would have guessed.
OutKast
5/5
Really Interesting! all the big recognizable hits were from The Love Below, but listening to it all the way through, I really liked the Speakerboxxx side a lot more
Roxy Music
3/5
George Harrison
3/5
Talking Heads
4/5
Last one through the door before "Remain in Light" kicks them into transcendence. Pretty good, but suffers a bit from the same issue as "Speaking in Tongues," where all the live versions of the songs on here are not just better than the originals, but completely blow them out of the water
Marvin Gaye
3/5
The Adverts
3/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
hoo man, I thought I was neutral to mildly positive on RHCP, was never sad to hear one of their songs come up randomly, but holy moly they become grating *fast* when listening straight through an album.
I think it might be kind of a meme to give mild credit to Flea while criticizing the rest of the band, but yeah the bass is usually very good, even when the full songs are mostly mediocre.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
The songs that Grace solos are *noticeably* better than the ones where she's having to support Marty
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
ohhhh lol this is a Frank Zappa project, got it. I only really know Zappa by reputation, so it surprised me to learn he was making stuff as far back as this. Interesting to see some hippy-punching coming from someone contemporary to that whole scene and who can't exactly be written off as a stuffy conservative of the time
Love
3/5
Got nervous when I saw the year & genre, but turns out they're more interesting than a lot of 60s pop. Less Beatles/Beach Boys rip off, and more proto-The Doors, which is a pretty alright space to be in
Hookworms
3/5
Worse Hot Chip, basically. Only the first song was all that worthwhile, and also 2018's a bit late anyway to be doing electric indie pop and still have it sound fresh. Fun album art, though! Reminds me of a geometry textbook
Coldcut
3/5
UK electronica of the era, fine background music, but objectively a snoozefest, *NEXT!*
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
Fever Ray
3/5
Seeing a lot of Björk comparisons, which, sure I guess. Less artful, but more groove, which for most days is a trade I'm ok with
Van Morrison
4/5
Weather Channel sounding. Morning Commute to The City sipping coffee from a travel mug ass. Pretty good.
David Bowie
5/5
ooh, early Bowie! Probably the most consistent album from him I've heard so far, there's some great highs, and nothing that I'd really call a stinker on here. Makes me more excited for ziggy stardust/aladdin sane era, which I've never listened to
Lou Reed
3/5
Probably my favorite Lou Reed to come across here, and I liked it alright. On the whole, though, Lou Reed solo and Velvet Underground both have a lot of albums on here, and while I think Velvet Underground deserves about that amount of exposure, the glut of solo stuff on top of it pushes Reed over into territory of "OK I've had about enough of this guy"
Primal Scream
4/5
K between this and the Dracula guys up the list, gotta have a stern conversation with 90s groups about what in fuck they think "screaming" is, because this is not screaming, it's pretty good psych jamming
The Libertines
3/5
Got some high points on here, but it's a crowded time & genre space, and I'm putting them below Arctic Monkeys, who I'm already not super big on
Quicksilver Messenger Service
5/5
This project's taught me that I don't like the wider world of 60s psych rock as much as I thought, so it's great to find something that sounds like what I actually had in mind. Y'know, jam music
The Sabres Of Paradise
3/5
Muddy Waters
3/5
John Cale
3/5
Travis
2/5
the very presence of a secret song saves this from a 1 because it made me laugh. Dreadful
Genesis
4/5
Probably not getting the most out of it for not paying enough attention to the lyrics, but was fun to sit with for a while. I think there’s a song about gooning on here? I am somebody who’s more on board for solo peter gabriel in general, but all eras of genesis have good stuff
Dire Straits
4/5
Silky smooth dad rock. Like smoooooooooth, which I appreciate them committing so hard to that
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Not quite as electrifying as *Juju*, but rock solid
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Janet Jackson
4/5
Vacillates wildly between danceable funky all-time bangers, and very dull R & B
Ash
2/5
Elvis Presley
3/5
Sinead O'Connor
4/5
phew damn, sometimes there’s albums that aren’t really my genre, and then there’s albums that aren’t really my genre done by someone so undeniably talented I get swept up in it all the same
3/5
Abrasive in a mostly unfun way, but very interesting checking in on what jazz looks like as the 90s are approaching. Miles Davis had given us prog-infused jazz, but art moves on and now we’re firmly in the world of what punk does to the thing
Bob Dylan
3/5
The Youngbloods
4/5
was worried I was in for a snoozefest, and then they started throwing instrumentals in! with interesting arrangements & jamming!
Sonic Youth
4/5
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
Nina Simone
3/5
Mariah Carey
2/5
Venom
3/5
Metallica
4/5
General Metallica take: miles ahead of slayer and megadeth, but they have a problem where their stuff always goes on too long.
As for this album specifically, “Enter Sandman” is an all-timer, even despite being such a planet fitness playlist staple, and it's such a good album opener that it took several more songs than usual to decide I was getting bored
Sex Pistols
4/5
Yeah see even though punk’s not a natural fit for me, a big advantage they have over metal is the punk bands get in and do their thing fast before wearing out their welcome.
This album's pretty fun, but tbh I almost have more fun reading people getting into comment section arguments about the Sex Pistols and there influence on punk as a genre space
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Def Leppard
2/5
Big time stupid 80s band, and I only have room in my heart for ACDC when it comes to big time stupid 80s bands.
Jungle Brothers
2/5
Fela Kuti
5/5
I feel crass for wanting to talk about his influence on Talking Heads after learning that this was a big deal protest album that resulted in serious violence being done to him. Then I kept reading the wikipedia article, which itself felt the need to bring up:
"Kuti and his band then took residence in Crossroads Hotel as the Shrine had been destroyed along with his commune. In 1978 Kuti married 27 women, many of whom were his dancers, composers, and singers to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic. Later, he was to adopt a rotation system of keeping only twelve simultaneous wives."
Like I dunno wiki editors, I feel like maybe musical impact and influences are maybe more relevant to the article about the album itself, and some of this other stuff belongs in the **Personal Life** section on the musician page.
The Doors
5/5
B-side slumps a bit, but i’m feeling generous today
Saint Etienne
4/5
The best song on here turned out to be a Neil Young cover, but otherwise pretty decent trip hop stuff
The Temptations
3/5
Ain't no Herbie Hancock, but pretty good for cooking or moving through the world
Steve Earle
1/5
Madness
3/5
Our House in the Middle of the Street band. That song's the only thing you've heard from them for a reason, the rest is whatever
The Specials
2/5
Small Faces
2/5
'es split 'is noggin in twain, 'e 'as, 'e 'as. Blimey
The Sonics
1/5
good lord the number of shit early/mid 60s albums on this list that were just nothing but rock & roll staple covers. It's bad! same goes for Rolling Stones' debut album!
TLC
3/5
Liked it less than Destiny's Child, but more interesting than most other 90s R&B acts that I know about (admittedly not many of them)
Neil Young
2/5
One of a handful of albums on here where the wikipedia production story entry is the main thing making the pitch for why it's included. I'm not enough of a lyrics man to get past how rough the production quality is on this one.
Madonna
2/5
First miss from a Madonna album on the list for me, and it’s a *big* miss. The other ones I heard from her were kind of taking the musical waters of their era and doing them really big and really well, but unfortunately this particular era was real real bad waters
Robbie Williams
2/5
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Solomon Burke
3/5
Frank Zappa
5/5
Yesssss hell yea! really really loved it. Surprisingly accessible compared to the Mothers of Invention album that came up earlier
Brian Wilson
2/5
Buddy, I’m frowning.
David Gray
3/5
Ute Lemper
1/5
Divine Comedy aside, real stacked crew of collaborators on here that did not end up making an album that I liked whatsoever. Glad Tom Waits and Nick Cave had fun I guess.
The The
4/5
Pretty interesting, post-punk in the 80s is kind of a cool experimental time in musicmaking
Bee Gees
1/5
I would not have asked them to contribute music to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack based on this, and that would have been a mistake on my part. Didn't care for this one, though.
Aimee Mann
3/5
Couldn’t have put it better myself hyuk hyuk
Kate Bush
5/5
lol I loved "The Dreaming," but it's not surprising that she had to be more normal for this one. Knocked it out of the park! Basically got her and Peter Gabriel holding down the fort of using 80s production soundfront toward artsy ends
OutKast
4/5
A classic, though I’m kinda surprised by how much more I liked "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"
Brian Eno
4/5
Did its job very well
Pearl Jam
3/5
Probably the first non-Nirvana grunge that's clicked for me at all. "Evenflow" genuinely rips, and I was pretty alright with the rest of it
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
The Associates
1/5
classic of shitty new wave
The Icarus Line
1/5
3/5
Kings of Leon
3/5
Joni Mitchell
2/5
Wild Beasts
3/5
mm, more like Mild Beats
Snoop Dogg
3/5
it’s fine, I like snoop more as a public figure than I like most of his output though
Richard Thompson
2/5
Sunday School music
The B-52's
5/5
Oh hell yeah now we’re talking, a great time the whole time. Only cowards skip the coda section of “Rock Lobster”
Morrissey
3/5
Christ *finally* something halfway listenable from this guy. Now get out of my sight dude
N.E.R.D
3/5
*Weird* and interesting halfway point between hip hop and alt-rock sensibilities.
Jeru The Damaja
1/5
Stupid
Chicago
3/5
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
Pretty interesting, especially for 1994! Doing White Stripes stuff like a decade before the White Stripes is respectable business
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
Kind of the Majora’s Mask to the Ocarina of Time of "Rumours," culturally. Came after a really tough act to follow, resulting in something weird that seems to be regarded better in hindsight than it was at the time, etc. For my own personal taste, though, I wasn't too into this one except for the muppet voices they used to sing the title song
The Rolling Stones
1/5
It stinks! Plenty of examples of them writing good stuff that’s on the list, so why do we need the boring album fulla cover songs
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Turns out putting Leonard Cohen into 80s production sensibilities results in something almost Nick Cave-like (it's better when Nick Cave does it, though)
LL Cool J
4/5
This released closer to The Doors' "Morrison Hotel" than to today. Enjoy.
Nas
4/5
Klaxons
4/5
Feels really random to have on the list, but I really liked a lot of the stuff on here, very proggy, which has interesting connotations on an '07 album.
...I know "Deloused" is on this list, really jonesing for some Mars Volta after this one now.
Rod Stewart
2/5
Sister Sledge
3/5
Scritti Politti
2/5
David Bowie
4/5
We all love aladdin sane, don't we folks? (It's pretty good. I liked it less than the Berlin albums)
Gram Parsons
2/5
Parliament
5/5
Thank you P-funk, god bless you every one
Buzzcocks
2/5
Stan Getz
4/5
Extremely influential music stylings import for the USA. Really enjoyed listening to this, perfect for a hot weekend afternoon, but I will say I mostly really dislike what Americans went on to do with Bossa Nova. That Sinatra album was a chore.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
Common
3/5
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
Apparently Lewis was a nightmare of a person, and I'm consistently not a fan of this era of rock & roll acts just being endless covers of genre staples. Makes it easy for me to dismiss this one, so I will.
Korn
2/5
lmao I'd somehow made it this far without hearing "Freak On A Leash" before. The album hits you in the face with fun insane decisions like that up front, but then drags on so long that it all wears out its welcome extremely hard. Probably my least favorite nu-metal act I've listened to for the project--SOAD was a great time, and even Linkin Park was mostly cute.
Jack White
5/5
This is like a perfect 4.5-star album for me, where I so rarely want to listen to the whole thing that I forget how good the good tracks are.
Doves
3/5
Listened to it in the wrong context. This is horrible cooking music, but would have been great for going for a walk on a lightly rainy night
Kings of Leon
1/5
Tempted to call them "mid", but that'd be a cowardly way to avoid saying they suck. Aggressively, insultingly boring.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
2/5
wanted to give this a 1 just to send a message. Duran Duran had already showed the world how to go big with this stuff, so no excuse for these guys just piddling around being cowards
Van Morrison
2/5
More like Asstral Weaks
Elis Regina
4/5
The Cardigans
5/5
Never heard of them, and I went on a real journey with this one.
Felt mildly positive at first, real chill
then "Lovefool" really perked me up, caught myself bouncing my knee while it was going. That one's an absolute bop, which, there's a part of me the often gets self-conscious when I learn my clear favorite songs off an album were the big mainstream radio hit singles. That happened to me with Jefferson Airplane, for instance. I'd never heard anything from these guys, though, so I think I can be less worried that I'm a secret lazy osmosis listener who just gets told what to like. In this case at least.
Then, uh, hm that "Iron Man" cover, huh. I don't think I liked it, but I threw it on the highlights playlist anyway because goddamn that kind of lunatic decision deserves respect.
Fugees
3/5
Portishead
5/5
drifting into HEALTH territory
Guns N' Roses
2/5
Not just dad rock, but like cargo cult dad rock. stuff that came out late enough in the (boomer) dads' lives that it can't be dismissed as a nostalgia thing
Fiona Apple
3/5
Got her most recent album served up to me a while ago for this, which I didn't like very much, but I think probably that listening order did her dirty. Would have been much better to have heard this first for context on what her deal is
Elvis Presley
2/5
Butthole Surfers
3/5
Cute, but trying too hard
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
Excellent album, and underrated stand battle
The Byrds
1/5
Don’t like them on their home turf, and I don’t like them doing this kind of thing either
Pixies
5/5
Contains the DNA of like the next 25 years of indie rock. Two bone songs in a row feels like a sequencing mistake but they’re allowed to do that.
The Zutons
3/5
Tangerine Dream
5/5
Clean W for team continental. Twenty years later a bunch of brits who grew up with this kind of music would start making a lot of drum & bass techno albums, then 30 years after that, I would get very bored by most of those while listening for this project. For some reason, the French and the Germans are just extremely good at making this kind of thing.
Foo Fighters
3/5
Foo Fighters
Happy Mondays
3/5
The Jam
3/5
nondescript, but I could maybe see how somebody like 30 years older than me could feel about these guys the way that I do about a band like franz ferdinand
Germs
2/5
Machito
3/5
Orange Juice
3/5
Might have liked it more if I hadn't learned by experience by now that Scottish 80s pop/post-punk is one of the most overrated and over-represented scenes on this list. Had some highlights, but I'm over it.
Pantera
2/5
Spiritualized
4/5
Pleasant! Didn't think the UK had this in them during this era
The War On Drugs
4/5
Noodling around the kind of stuff that built up to that one Weeknd song. Wish I hadn't seen someone in the peanut gallery point out that the drums are basically identical on each song, because that person is right and it became really distracting.
The Mars Volta
5/5
*Finally* a band that understands title capitalization rules around prepositions and articles. Fuck!
Legendary album, these guys rule.
Ice Cube
5/5
The Boo Radleys
2/5
TV On The Radio
4/5
R.E.M.
4/5
Hole
4/5
Not as good as their other album on the list and Garbage, but solid. Girl grunge good
The Beta Band
3/5
Not Bad, but baffling inclusion
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
Sepultura
3/5
Decent, but I don't think Sepultra needed two albums on this list. Keep this one, ditch *Arise*, imo
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
Checks out, they do seem like they're having fun
Justin Timberlake
2/5
It's not Black Eyed Peas bad, but it's down there. iconic album of a dreadful era
Joni Mitchell
3/5
I don't really get Joni Mitchell, I don't think. A lot of these sounded fine, but extremely aimless and unstructured. Made me bored. Couldn't settle into the right wavelength for it.
The Go-Go's
4/5
80s pop of the good variety.
David Ackles
1/5
Cream
3/5
Led Zeppelin
4/5
PJ Harvey
4/5
I think this wraps up all the PJ Harvey on the list. I'd probably benefit from doing a marathon chronological listen of her stuff at this point--there's a shortlist of artists with a bunch of albums on the list, and for me she's at the David Bowie level of "ok I actually did kind of need to listen to so many of these to get the hang of this artist"
Britney Spears
2/5
Jesus another iconic album of an awful era. Lotta overlap with the Timberlake album I listened to last round, but this one's way more interesting to think about, even just culturally. Both of those albums were dropped from later editions of the book, but imo they should have kept this one on there. Makes me really sad to listen to, knowing the injustice of what was coming up for her.
Setting aside the paparazzi angle, though, I would have been 7 when this released, and I couldn't stand this music back then. It was interesting to revisit this, having picked up more literacy about what Music was doing during that era. It was cool to be able to detect "oh this is doing shit that Janet Jackson had already worked over 10 years ago." R&B repackaged for white people, there's a much bigger context that this is clearly a component of.
Any case, I didn't really like this. I do like "Toxic" alright, but I never sat down with the album it came from, so idk if the rest of her stuff from that point sounded like that.
Buck Owens
2/5
I do not, and never will like honky tonk, but I do prefer country music being this kind of silly cornball stuff compared to what it's doing in the year 2024.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
The rest of it's good, but at the end of the day, "Superstition" is a song that gets you into heaven
Aerosmith
3/5
Inoffensive, but this is the third album I've been served from them, and that's really just too many Aerosmith albums.
The Sugarcubes
5/5
My first thought was this sounded kind of like B-52s, but then I kept listening and realized "wait a minute no, that's *definitely* Björk singing!" Keeping up the trend of preferring her early work, I liked this one a lot.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Fatboy Slim
1/5
FKA twigs
3/5
Lotta people I know are into this kind of thing. I have nothing bad to say about it, but it doesn't Speak to me at all. I prefer a more *staccato* layered soundscape.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
lil bit dull, but hardly a crime
Bee Gees
3/5
Less of a snooze than "Trafalgar," but still not great. The People Demand Saturday Night Fever!!!
Girls Against Boys
1/5
Grunge was mostly a mistake, there were only like two or three bands that could pull it off
The Auteurs
2/5
Neither new wave nor auteurs
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
Fine filler for oldies radio stations
Dion
1/5
Always a bad time to be confronted with the era of songwriting where you're incessantly and exclusively calling the object of your lust "Little Girl," and goes double for something like this where the goal doesn't seem to have been getting sleazy in the first place
Eurythmics
3/5
More chops than I was really expecting, but still unquestionably a one-hit-wonder entry
Stephen Stills
2/5
Neil Young can get away with doing this kind of boring stuff because he's got a weird distinctive voice
Tom Waits
3/5
Goldfrapp
3/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Manu Chao
3/5
Neil Young
3/5
Neil Young can get away with doing this kind of boring stuff because he's got a weird distinctive voice
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
Fairport Convention
4/5
Skepta
2/5
M.I.A.
3/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Mudhoney
3/5
I really, really disagree with Admin's policy of deliberately linking to deluxe/extended/remaster versions when available. Because this one's fun enough at 20 minutes, and would have been intolerable at the 2 hours that the spotify version had in store for me
The Coral
4/5
Minor Threat
2/5
Carole King
4/5
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
Three is too many albums from these guys on the list, but I did like this one the best out of them. They're better mellow instead of hyper.
The Clash
3/5
Elastica
3/5
Stan Getz
2/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Man this one's really underrated, but still kind of lacks a certain amount of juice to get them to the 5 stars category
Faust
3/5
Gorillaz
3/5
Slot should have gone to Demon Days
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Spiritualized
2/5
The Thrills
1/5
Dirty Projectors
2/5
Moby Grape
3/5
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Incubus
3/5
Beyoncé
3/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
5/5
Really like a 4.5 but rounding up for being such a clear inspiration on final fantasy music
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Peter Tosh
2/5
Radiohead
5/5
Koffi Olomide
4/5
Ah this is what graceland was aiming for
Van Halen
2/5
Big time stupid
Metallica
3/5
Notable for losing the Grammy to one of the more mediocre Jethro Tull albums. Which was an unfair situation for Metallica, but also extremely funny.
Lightning Bolt
5/5
look sometimes noise rock just has the juice
The Byrds
4/5
Won over by the weird alien voices
Christina Aguilera
2/5
80-minute shopping simulator
The Magnetic Fields
3/5
Kept it more interesting than I thought they would be able to
Gillian Welch
2/5
Dull while mostly not being annoying. Until the last song.
Killing Joke
5/5
The Waterboys
3/5
Been getting a lot of long ones in a row… Most of it was pretty good, didn’t care for the saxophone near the end of the thing
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Rare nick cave case where the backing music was doing more for me than the vocals
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
Obviously rating this high because Ella Fitzgerald’s great, but this is kind of a prime example of how the 50s inclusions on this list really stick out as being very different ideas of what an album is and does
LTJ Bukem
2/5
So much dedication on this stupid list to drum & bass: the hindmost of electronic music. I’d call it uk bias, but even the uk has better types of electronica
The Cars
3/5
The Verve
3/5
Oh they just made Oasis again
The Cult
2/5
Aphex Twin
5/5
Meat Puppets
3/5
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
The Slits
3/5
There's better versions of this kind of thing out there
Radiohead
5/5
So it’s just Radiohead minus some rock, plus some ambient? I’m into it, but I can’t believe that this one’s some big time controversial thing among the fans
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
Soul II Soul
3/5
Bonnie Raitt
2/5
Al Green
2/5
Stereo MC's
2/5
Pere Ubu
4/5
Pulp
3/5
Soundgarden
2/5
Take Spoon Man, leave the rest
Van Morrison
1/5
This is a very unfair 1, but it is november 7 2024, what I need is some good wallowing music, and this is doing so poorly at getting the job done that i’m furious with it
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Grateful Dead
1/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
Cave at the top of his game
Dennis Wilson
3/5
The Everly Brothers
1/5
Miserable
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
U2
5/5
ok i’m glad I wasn’t just hallucinating that they had at least one good album in their discography
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Pere Ubu
3/5
Hawkwind
5/5
Incredibly goofy, and I will not rate this below a 5
Suicide
3/5
MC Solaar
3/5
Iggy Pop
2/5
Slipknot
2/5
Got a handful of fun ideas & sounds, wrecked by *terrible* production.
Also wears out its welcome after half an hour; punk bands of the 70s and 80s understood to do your thing and get out after 35 minutes, all these metal groups go on like 3x too long
Slade
3/5
5/5
I’ve been trying to be a stickler about not listening to albums I know to be on the generator list, and i’m regretting that now. My Bowie education was clearly done a great disservice by getting this later than most of the rest of his stuff on here. The first thing I drew from him on here was "Low!" That's the wrong order to do listen to these!
Peter Gabriel
5/5
the turning point where he stops being the guy from genesis and starts making Peter Gabriel music
Femi Kuti
5/5
Big Star
1/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Figures its situation out in the back half
The Pharcyde
1/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
The KLF
3/5
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
Goldfrapp
3/5
Talk Talk
2/5
Massive Attack
3/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Badly Drawn Boy
2/5
The Fall
3/5
Talking Heads
3/5
Motörhead
2/5
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
Elvis Costello
2/5
Little Simz
3/5
Tom Tom Club
4/5
Wordy Rappinghood is basically a declaration of war, but overall this is unhinged in a fun way
The Damned
2/5
Barry Adamson
4/5
Evil Cartoon Circus Music
Slint
3/5
The Avalanches
4/5
Deep Purple
4/5
Dagmar Krause
1/5
Jazmine Sullivan
2/5
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Rufus Wainwright
1/5
Wufus Wainwight
Cee Lo Green
4/5
Adele
5/5
Sacrilege that this was removed from later editions of the book
N.W.A.
4/5
Kept from the 5 star because god damn be normal about women for fucks sake
David Bowie
3/5
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
Haircut 100
2/5
wanted to give this a 1, but I gotta be fair about that feeling being about new wave fatigue from this project, and not any fault of Haircut 100
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
The Birthday Party
2/5
Nick Cave made the right move in having the rest of his career instead of continuing with this kind of thing
Dizzee Rascal
2/5
Neu!
5/5
God I love krautrock
Syd Barrett
2/5
Only really interesting for inside baseball reasons, and I still wouldn’t exactly call this essential listening for those reasons either
James Taylor
3/5
The Blue Nile
3/5
Randy Newman
5/5
Prince
4/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
John Coltrane
3/5
Sonic Youth
3/5
Nick Drake
2/5
The Beach Boys
5/5
Damn the nixon years really made
them finally have to up their game
4/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Gene Clark
1/5
Kings of Leon
1/5
American Music Club
1/5
Traffic
2/5
David Holmes
2/5
I have a high tolerance for crappy techno, but this is some seriously crappy techno
Funkadelic
5/5
was worried during the middle that I was going to like this less than it deserved, but “Wars Of Armageddon” brought me back 🙏
Moby
3/5
He’s benefiting a lot from coming toward the end of this project for me, after having been through so much of the dullest drum & bass slop that the 90s had to offer. Gives an appreciation that he’s actually doing some interesting & different stuff, pushing the genre etc
Beastie Boys
3/5
Brian Eno
3/5
The Police
3/5
Play that funky music, white boy
3/5
Ice T
4/5
Tom Waits
4/5
Brian Eno
4/5
3/5
It's awful, but it's also a masterpiece of artistic vision. Could have been a 5 if it were like half as long
The Zombies
2/5
Super Furry Animals
2/5
The Shamen
2/5
"The system is down"
Supergrass
5/5
Magazine
4/5
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Prince
5/5
Fela Kuti
4/5
Tim Buckley
3/5
Johnny Cash
4/5
DID YOU KNOW: Vince Clarke said “Personal Jesus” belongs to Johnny Cash after hearing His version 🙏🥰😩👌
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
The Specials
3/5
Hey yeah there’s barely been any ska on this thing
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Björk
3/5
Ravi Shankar
2/5
jesus you’d think from this list that there hasn’t been music made in India in the last 60 years
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Soft Machine
3/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
Leonard Cohen
2/5
David Crosby
4/5
Suzanne Vega
3/5
XTC
2/5
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
Iron Maiden
4/5
Nico
2/5
Iron Maiden
4/5
Secret prog rock
Fairport Convention
3/5
Suede
4/5
Dang somebody’s listened to a lot of Bowie
Roxy Music
4/5
Scott Walker
4/5
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
Was hoping this would help give context or insight into fuckin costello’s deal, but no such luck
fIREHOSE
4/5
Tina Turner
3/5
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
Red Snapper
3/5
Fundamentally annoying, but up to more interesting things than most of the electronica included on here
3/5
Rush
4/5
Frank Ocean
3/5
Taylor Swift
3/5
50 Cent
3/5
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Jurassic 5
5/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Costello's one of the biggest reasons I might actually go read the book. Why is he on here so much
Astrud Gilberto
2/5
Napalm Death
1/5
Stop mumbling.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
New Order
3/5
CHVRCHES
5/5
This wasn’t really my kind of thing back in 2013, but this sound is *so* 2013 that it’s got me nostalgic in a good way.
This plus other kind of random-seeming selections like Hot Chip I think help me make sense of some of the more baffling patterns on the overall list (why so much drab new wave) (why so much crappy drum & bass techno). The common element really seems to be that these were all big deals in the British club music scene of each era. Like that’s treated on the list as it’s own entire ecosystem in the same scale as rock & hip hop. Which is insane, but at least it’s a throughline.
The Clash
2/5
Primal Scream
4/5
The Flaming Lips
3/5
This is the most dumb and petty complaint, but I can’t stand the way this guy leans into his Rs
Air
4/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Yes
4/5
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Justice
5/5
This list invests so much in showcasing UK electronic acts, and every single one of those gets completely smoked by the French and German offerings.
The Beta Band
3/5
AC/DC
2/5
Stephen Stills
3/5
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
Kanye West
4/5
Annoying to be getting this one like a week after he put himself in the headlines (again) with his nazi shit. Anyway, I respect how different it sounds from previous stuff of his, but it's not as good as Twisted Fantasy was
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Living Colour
2/5
Sabu
4/5
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
Tim Buckley
3/5
Slipknot
1/5
Slot should have gone to a second SoaD album if we’re trying for a quota of this kinda thing
Animal Collective
3/5
Eh, there was a time and a place. Listened to & enjoyed some stuff off Strawberry Jam in my youth, but I don't think about these guys nowadays, and I don't plan to start again
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
2/5
a double album's a loooooong time to simmer in this kinda shucks howdy shit. Imagining that I'm in a mining town only gets me halfway through disc one
Jethro Tull
5/5
Damn, I knew this one was on here, and was hoping it'd be number 1089. End the thing on a high note. 12 albums out, almost made it. Alas.
It's great, but also as someone who likes other Jethro Tull albums, it's wearying that this is the only thing in their discography that most people have heard of, or are willing to praise. "Oh yeah Aqualung's great [now stop talking to me about Jethro Tull]," they say.
Problem is, though, at the end of the day their potential > their actual output. They've got some heaters in their backlog ("Thick as a Brick" can unquestionably hang with the Genesis, ELP, and King Crimson prog classics, and I'm willing to go to bat for "Songs From The Wood" and "Heavy Horses"), but the bulk of their stuff was middling, and I gotta be honest with myself about that.
Definitely underrated, but there's still a ceiling there at the end of the day, y'know?
The Beau Brummels
2/5
Bauhaus
4/5
Thelonious Monk
4/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
R.E.M.
5/5
Rolling high on these as I enter the final week. Little bit more boring than Document or Automatic, but I'm rarely unhappy to see R.E.M. come up
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
The Young Rascals
3/5
Fitting that this thing still has some forgettable 60s pop in the tank as I move through the final week. I just need to draw another one-hit wonder new wave band from the 80s, and some no-name DJ's techno release from the 90s, and I'll have a nice balanced 1001 Generator meal to close things out.
Boards of Canada
3/5
Elton John
4/5
It's an Elton John Doing Elton John Stuff piece of business. A Sometimes food for me, but he's got his place.
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
It's always impressive how boring Frank Sinatra etc managed to make Bossa Nova sound. Every BN/Samba offering from actual South American artists has been pretty decent!
The Saints
3/5
Not breaking new ground in the genre, but pretty fun.
Not a bad draw as this thing winds down. No idea what the last one will be, hopefully something distinctive.
Ms. Dynamite
4/5
Final Album!
I'm not minding that this project of 3 years ends with above-average R&B from a random UK rapper who's mostly unremembered 20+ years later. Feels in the intended spirit of the project, while also demonstrating the biases about which lesser-known acts got included (and which ones got removed in later editions lol)