Absolutely love this, just pure bliss. It was a happy day back in 1997 when someone pressed this into my hands at uni. Obviously had some familiarity with Orbitals before that but it didn't extend much further than Chime, The Box and Satan. I didn't even know Belfast at that point. Anyway, got a hold of this work of genius and I didn't look back. Walk Now... is admittedly annoying, but the rest of the album is basically perfect, so despite not liking one track it's getting 5 because of all the bellends giving it 1.

Got this the day after The Birthday Party. It's funny how people's definitions of 'unlistenable' vary so radically. This is such a slog. Although it regularly meanders into the background, so easy forget it's on. A bit like all the singles did when they came on the radio in the kitchen in the 80s. But also overlong. Half the album is just twinkly nothing. And I'm sure you could do the prog intro to Money For Nothing and still close out the rest within 5 minutes. 8 and a half? Get out. The first album in project I have to give a 1 to, I just dislike all of it. It is absolutely not necessary to listen to this before you die.

I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand people who do not love the Cocteau Twins. I'm sure there are some very nice people, we are just different on a fundamental level. This album is like an old jumper you have had forever that you put on when you get sick, a comfort blanket. The Cocteaus at the poppiest they got, and probably the most fully formed. One listen to Fotzepolitic and I could take on the world. Bliss.

No write up in the book as it's been removed. Makes sense, two white stripes albums still in there is excessive, three would be insane. My interest was also waning considerably by this point also. The single, opener track was decent though. For a 45 minutes long album this somehow way outstays it's welcome. So many jobbing blues jam songs. Tbh I don't think I would give any white stripes album more than 6.5/10, I'm always bored partway through.

Oh. Oh yes. OH YES! The furious bongos, the brass! Hook it directly into my veins! Have heard the opener around and about plenty of times as a bed under radio hosts but never knew what it was. If I could give this 7 stars I would. Thank You 1001 albums. I hereby forgive you One of the Ryan Adams entries.

One of my favourites, know it inside out

Longstanding fan of everything up to and including Dookie. But nah, there's easily 2002 better albums to listen to this. Never listened before because I was fully done with them by this point. Heard the singles and thought nah. Maybe It's ok. Maybe I just stopped liking new Green Day stuff when I stopped being a teenager when they came out. It's a theory. Wait, what? The second track is 9 minutes long. Who are this band? Starts off aping the Beach Boys and then segues into All the Young Dudes. Actually quite funny how all over the place it is. What the hell, the next track is 8 minutes. Ha, Bush sent them mad. Ok I'm on board now. Might get 3 stars just because of how ridiculous it is. Yeah boulevard is still as dull as it always was. I see what's happening here, they've just removed the space between separate songs. Nah, too long and too many mediocre songs. 2 stars it is.

Apparently obligatory Big Lebowski reference. With that out of the way, I can't really argue with Take It Easy, oh well, until the banjo kicks in, fuck off man. This album came up early and I skipped it for months because it's The Eagles. Came back to give it a fair crack now. If Witchy Woman is representative of the better songs, then this isn't going to be fun. Shite. I didn't have high hopes for a song called 'Chug all night' and those expectations were realised. Following that with Most of us Are Sad is actually hilarious. The vocal harmonies are very nice. There are some songs I can tolerate... (Train leaves...) And heck, these obviously influenced Midlake and other stuff I like. But, well - Ok I'm just going to say, it's not for me. 1 star for an imagined version of Take it Easy with no superfluous banjo, and 1 star for being in some way responsible for Van Occupanther.

Just a joy. Love a bit of this. Mambo!

Will be the first listen for me. Only really heard the title track and the Triple H entrances. Need to listen to more Hawkwind as well. I mean it was never going to be a surprise was it. Loads of amazing, meaty guitar solos. Jailbait, well, yeah..hmm. Listening to an album like this first 40 years after its already influenced your musical tastes vicariously for years, can sometimes be a touch underwhelming. So, not blown away for those reasons. But there's no doubting it's a fantastic album.

It's energetic isn't it. So this is what my mates were listening to at school. I was happy with Faith No More. Does sound pretty much exactly like I imagined it to. Apparently massively influential, so again the curse of I've heard loads influenced by it but not the thing itself. All good metal, not massively my thing, I think I prefer my metal slightly less noodly in, always space for some of this for me but more likely in small doses. Mind you the solos and rhythm guitar for the second half of Lucretia are excellent.

Nope. Selling loads doesn't mean i have to listen to it, I heard all the identical singles 1001 times, that's plenty. Babylon is a place where this doesn't exist.

Very nice. Not my thing particularly, but would happily stick on a Sunday afternoon.

A pop classic from the off. Such style, an iconic record, not much point writing more. Launched a lot of inferior rips, but not their fault.

Ok. Only ever heard best ofs of T-Rex. I hear the 'formulaic' criticism/concern of Tony Visconti and yeah its valid, but at the same time, even the not standout tunes here are so irrepressible its hard not to love the whole thing. The formula is gold. Interested to see how this compares to Electric Warrior. Best tracks, Chariot Choogle, Metal Guru, Buick Mackane

I kind of expected to hate this, so I put it off. I didn't initially hate it, kind of irrepressible, big daft late 80s rock. To little me, this and the Run DMC track was what Aerosmith were, I had no idea of the 70s stuff until I heard REM cover Toys in the Attic and realised oh, they've been around since then? And Sweet Emotion is a banger. But this is Pump. Love in an Elevator has aged badly, as has most of this really, it's very dated. Side A really isn't very good. The Other Side though, is still very good, as it goes. That and My Girl I would still listen to. As the album goes on, it does get more interesting, it has to be said. The guy wasn't wrong in referencing Led Zep in Voodoo Medicine Man, wowsers. I waivered from 1 star all the way up to 3 whole stars. It should think itself lucky though. Actually, no, thinking back to that side A, it's getting 2.

Superb album that gives the lie to the idea that records after long hiatus are never good. This is excellent. Such a lush and glorious sound. It's not quite as good as Loveless, but MBV albums are so rare that doesn't matter. Finishes off with a wonderful cacophony as well.

Another one I skipped because I wasn't in the mood. Doesn't sound nearly as 80s as I expected it to in 2022. maybe if i played it through my mum's kitchen radio then it would. It's a very nice sound - but it doesn't take long to fade into the background. samey. Frankies first affair was good. As was I will be your friend. Not very likely to come back to this often but it was good.

So this might be the greatest hip hop album of all time, but it's not my favourite. I was pretty ignorant of it though, wasn't into much besides the Beasties and old school 80s rap at this time. My tastes developed but I didn't go back to this. Hearing it now, I can see why it's loved and admired, and Nas has great delivery, but it's not really my thing. Definitely decent. ... That's what I was originally writing anyway, then, song by song, this just got it's hooks in me. What a great album. Are those sleigh-bells in Half-time? Is this Nas' Xmas song about smoking weed and staying alive on the streets? Anyway, I'm bumping up to 4 stars because of that incredibly strong run of tracks through the middle. Tracks - NY State of Mind, The World is Yours, Half-time, Memory Lane, Represent.

I bet this has aged terribly.

Well this is already great. Previous knowledge of Can was basically all of Tago Mago and Vitamin C. But this is Can chilled out and spaced out. Real head music, as they say... So glad I've got another go-to record by them now.

WHO TOOK THE BOMP FROM THE BOMPALOMPALOMP, WHO TOOK THE RAM FROM THE RAMALAMADINGDANG!? Love Le Tigre. Love this album.

Ha, excellent timing to give me this during Jubilee week. Not listened because I played this to death growing up so it's indelibly marked upon my psyche, I can play it to myself whenever I want.

Both Eminem albums? 1 year apart. Nah. Surely you drop this one to make room for something new and groundbreaking. Still, when I look at what's on this it's hard to argue against. Bought it, like everyone else when it came out, same as the debut. Kind of not interested in listening again though.

The title track doesn't feel like 8 minutes. Always liked Vincent, but mainly for punk covers by the likes of NOFX. I will say I prefer the cover, like the godless heathen I am. Crossroads is quite beautiful and understated. I do not like Everybody loves me baby. The other tracks washed over me.

This is what I'm doing this for. Love a bit of Afrobeat and well aware of Fela Kuti's legend (and of course Ginger Baker's) but not got around to listening to many legendary albums. The groove is alive. Oh my god, the drumming. Superb

1997, great year for music. I listen to this all the time, but probably only discovered it about 10 years ago. One More Hour, right in the feels. Oh you've got the darkest eyes.

Not fond of the title track, the late 80s production really leaves me cold, and Santana's guitar coupled with this just feels easy listening. In the Mood is more the blues sound I was expecting and much better. Not a big Bonnie Raitt fan though, have a feeling this isn't going to be for me. The Canned Heat one is pretty good, decent groove. The George Thorogood one is excellent. Rockin Chair just John Lee on his own is great. Some really good tracks here then. As a whole album though I'm underwhelmed.

So, fan of the Undertones but only really heard those singles. This is all good fun, none of the first 5 are really getting their hooks in me before they're already finished, but hey that's ok, another one will be along in less than 2 minutes. And I guess that's the point. Feargal sounds a bit like Hugh Cornwell on Jump Boys in places, the first song that stands out for me. Here Comes the Summer is fantastic obviously. In, shake it all about, out, done, in a minute and a half. Bosh. True Confessions really stands out from the jangle pop that surrounds it, great stuff. And after that, more fun, fine but fairly forgettable pop punk. So there's 5 terrific tracks here in the middle for me.

My assumed position is Led Zep 3 is the best but the first 3 tracks here, you know, you've got to question it. Absolutely love the Battle for Evermore. And I mean I like the lord of the rings and everything but if anything that takes away rather than adds from it, I just love it as a thing. Never particularly understood the obsession Stairway to Heaven gets. Also don't recognise it in anything Wayne plays in the guitar shop. But hey it's a good song. Misty is loads of fun. Going to California, oh my heart. Yeah, at When the Levee Breaks and it's confirmed. Stairway is the only song on this album I don't absolutely love.

A really nice album. Like her stuff generally but hadn't heard this before for some reason. Silver globe and Amber are really great. Lots of gentle motorik beats all over this.

Being 8 when this came out the singles unsurprisingly surrounded me. I liked the title track of course. Less bothered by the others. Into the Groove is fabulous but not on this album, which I've never listened to before now. I was not aware of the Prince duet, which is a lovely little nugget to add to my library. The deleted track Supernatural is also going in. Exception on the singles, Dear Jessie I had completely forgotten existed and reminds me a lot of Erasure on The Circus. Nice.

Another band I've always liked but it occurs to me I've never listened to their albums. I've listened to more Style Council albums it turns out. Not really a fan of any of Weller's solo work. First impressions are that this is nowhere near as immediate, or spiky as I would expect from The Jam. So will it reveal itself from repeated listens, maybe so. After the first 3 fairly nondescript tracks, the following three are terrific, I'm really settling into this, In The Crowd a brilliant closer to side 1. The lyrics are predictably interesting. Musically not much arrests me on side B until the big single that sends us home. Probably a grower.

Had a couple of late 80s albums this week taking me back to my youth. But really striking how contemporary they sound these days, ten maybe 15 years ago this would sound as dated as hell but not now, aside from the odd scratch noise. This sound is everywhere in modern music. All time bangers front and centre, it's a blast at the beginning. I drift off halfway through as nothing can compete with the absolute classic singles particularly, but it's still a great, fun, pop album.

Serie A, Channel 5, John Barnes! Will forever associate Phantom pt 2 with that one season that happened. Another fun album, possibly more fun and zippy than Daft Punk were, but admittedly not as good. I can see this one getting displaced by better stuff down the line but you never know, there's some weird choices in the list. Even so, this is one I come back to semi-regularly. D.A.N.C.E, Phantom, New Jack, The Party, Stress all obvious highlights.

Not usually a fan of country but there are exceptions, I went into this with an open heart. First track I thought hmm. 2-4 I'm genuinely enjoying it, perhaps for the novelty, perhaps they're standout. I can see it's good, but after that I'm tapping out tbh, I just lose interest. Weird that there's absolutely no Lee Hazelwood in this book. Stuck Nancy & Lee on immediately afterwards to cleanse my palate.

What can you say, one of the great Dylan albums. Subterranean is outstanding, 115th Dream is still hilarious, Tambourine, Eden, Only Bleeding and Baby Blue still some of his all time best songs. The first side is great, but side B is pure gold. Not a duff song on here and the best was still to come.

The first album that's no longer in the book as of 2021 edition (app must have missed this). It was always weird that The XX's 3rd album was ever included, but that's gone too. Feels slightly harsh on the debut which is pretty good, although from memory there were only about 4 songs on it that were standout, being generous, and they very much capture the moment around the end of the 00s. Immensely parody-able, listening to it now, and tbf the overtly stylised nature of the band meant they always were at the time. The rest of the album just sort of maintained the mood, meandering without doing anything special. But the standout songs were good, some not as good as I remember, and sometimes we're just in Chris Isaacs territory... I always found the bloke annoying. In the end agree with the decision to ditch from the 1001.

Only vaguely heard of this guy but I knew the French love their hip hop, never explored before. This is pretty great, love the title track. I love 80s hip hop and rap but I kind of got off the bus somewhere early to mid 90s and never truly got back on. Always got time for exceptions like Dave and such. I don't like the ragga one, I'm not target audience, but I won't hold it against the album as a whole which is well worth a listen. This has a lot to like about it, much genres covered, and some of that early 90s production that works great for some things (this) and terribly for lots of other stuff. Kind of doesn't matter that I haven't got a clue what he's rapping about, it's a great soundscape.

Up against a deadline at work this morning and this is precisely what I needed to keep me motivated. All killer no filler.

Yeah Ok, so i have to say most of it washed over me somewhat as nice enough folk noodlings at first, until Do You Hear me jumped out, and enjoyed "Ramblings..." The guitar playing is obviously excellent throughout. Casbah is superb. Went back to relisten to Needle of Death. Am getting it now, need to settle into it, it's not a one listen wonder. Can see how influential this would be, as a big Robyn Hitchcock fan I knew the name, but had never heard before.

The book has it right, this is a low key, brilliant album. Unquestionably their best, and most consistent. Been a fan of these since Losing My Edge turned up on a label sampler my friend had, thought that was cool, then heard the amazing, blipping, squelchy Yeah and the New-Order-on-amphetimines Beat Connection and I was sold. The debut was good with some obvious high points but I found myself listening to the familiar disc of pre-existing singles much more. This is a fully formed album from the off, opener Get Innocuous dismissing any fears they'd spaffed most of their best ideas before even releasing an album. The weaker songs 'time to get away', 'watch the tapes' and the title track are still full of hooks and good enough to keep the vibe going. 'Weaker' being a relative term, as compared against the delicious joyful-mournfully celebratory 'Someone Great' and ultimate anthem to nostalgic wanderings through lost weekends and togetherness, 'All of My Friends'. Far and away the 2 best songs here, and the latter probably the best the band ever did. After that Us V Them is an admirable attempt to combine their best bits from other songs and does a good job, 'New York...' sends us home tripping up the first two stairs on our way to bed with a crashing indie rock jam. It's a great album.

This was my favourite Stevie album, until I got into Inner Visions. Wonderful

The first Neil Young album to come up in my journey, suspect I may feel similarly about all of them but we'll see. Have never particularly got Neil Young, despite following lots of artists and bands who sing his praises to the moon. Generally, all nice and good for a Sunday afternoon but it just doesn't grab my attention.

Great

Used to love these as a kid, but only ever had two different Best of albums. Naturally much of this was on it. So I never got around to listening to any of their albums proper, here we go. You've got to love that bass. Kicks off with a song about smacking your girlfriend around, nice. I knew there was always this edge, with Peaches obviously, who knows if it's sincere. Had a feeling the lyrics wouldn't age well, but the sound is wonderful. Grip was always one of my favourites of there's and it's my favourite on this album. Absolute stone cold banger. I don't think there's anything else here quite up to that high standard, but it's good. To be fair though, I will probably go back to the best ofs next time I need my Stranglers hit. Need Strange Little Girl and others.

Magical

Why is Little Wing so short. It's just getting started and it ends, I want more. Patchier and scratchier than the debut certainly but still some stonkers here.

All I understood ZZTop to be was this incredibly 80s, incredibly American sound. So I look forward to hearing Le Grange etc for the totally different sound. Never a huge fan of the singles, though they're obviously big old pop songs and you can't fault the craft. Tbh I think only Gimme all your Lovin had a serious impact in the UK. For me anyway. Great for any time I'm feeling in the mood for big daft rock such as this - not in anyway to denigrate it, those times and places do happen.

If you ignore Suede (who aren't really Britpop) this is pretty inarguably the best, most consistent Britpop album. The absolute peak, and a lovely old evisceration of the somewhat vacuous culture that surrounded it. That the 90s are now looked upon by many as the good old days, tells you everything you need to know about the absolute state we are in now, in 2022.

Haha, nice. I never did listen to song that The Man Don't Give A Fuck sampled. But Showbiz Kids is a cracker.

Yeah, can't be arsed with this one. Enjoyed it back in 2007 or whenever, but not a single one of their records since and the Alex Turner hero worship that followed is kind of annoying. But mainly I just didn't like the music. This is clearly the best one though and obviously the lyrics are clever. Blah

Ahh FFS. He's actually good isn't he. Not consciously avoided him but have somehow got this far without listening to him or much awareness at all besides the daft shite he gets up to in public life. But this is bloody good. Never Let Me Down is pretty special. Have tried tracks on their own in the past and just shrugged. Maybe I was never in the mood. This is ridiculously good actually. Surely one of the all time greatest debuts. Guess I'd better check the other good ones.

All time classic.

Well very nearly, 2 days before the 25th anniversary this comes up. Lovely. It does sort of feel its age to me this one, I guess because I lived through it and heard it lots at the time but not much since. This is the last Scream album I listened to in great detail. The 90s big beat style is front and centre. Medication is a hangover from when they thought they were the Rolling Stones and sounds a lot like 'Rocks', I can take or leave that one. Still, it's a very good album. The dub stuff is great, Long Life is great, Burning wheel is up there with the best things they've ever done, and Trainspotting stands up well, probably the one song on this album I have heard the most down the years in fact.

So having only ever listened to one Queen album, The Miracle, when I was a kid, this will be interesting, I recognize zero of the song titles here. Thought BR would be on it given the cover, but nope. Ok. So yeah this sounds like Queen (apart from the exceptions below), except you just haven't heard the song eleventy billion times. Oh and sometimes it's batshit crazy (ogre battle). My favourite song by a distance is one that doesn't sound like Queen and instead sounds more like quiet Led Zep, Some Day One Day. In fact, Billy Corgan 100% knows and likes this song, whatever he says, basically half of Siamese Dream (an album I love, but credit where it's due) is this song. The Loser sounds even more like Led Zep, loud version this time, creditable Robert Plant impression from Roger Taylor taking over vocals. Funny How Love is sounds a lot like good era Beach Boys so that's good. So, more tolerable, but mostly sounds like Queen, so I'll pass thanks. Appreciate Queen for what they were and there is a lot to like but it's not for me. Overall did enjoy the listen but probably will only listen to the Smashing Pumpkins one and the Beach Boys one again.

Interesting, so yeah, I am of the incorrect culture to know this guy, or anything much about Rai in general. So going in more or less blind, it's a lot of fun, a lot of variety of styles (funk, samba, samba accordian, sir?) so you're never bored. Do skip over the cover of Imagine though as that is an abomination. Track 3, man, really? Do you want people to listen to your long long record, or not? The persevering explorer however will be rewarded with a good time. I could do without a second soft rock version of C'est la nuit though.

Smooooooooth. Niiice! Grrrreat Schmoking! Mmmm, nice. Wonderful! Suuuuuperb.

Most of this isn't on Spotify anymore, but I listened to what I could. After getting Ice Cube the previous day, the contrast for me is stark. As much as I loved that, this just leaves me cold. Never been a Snoop fan, or a Dre fan particularly. I get what he does and that it is good, it's just not for me. A few decent tracks here but I find I'm appreciating them rather than enjoying them, it's just literally not for me.

What a record. Very nearly 30 years old. Terrifyingly little progress in some quarters in that time since the Rodney King riots. Righteous anger and vitriol ripples through this. Today was a Good Day, obvs one of the best rap songs of all time, even if I sort of blame it's success for Puff Daddy trying to repeat the formula over and over again for years with boring results. But this album is just really high quality the whole way through.

Big fan of Odelay and Vultures, I've been a sporadic fan since. One of those artists I keep intending to get through their last few albums but I never quite do. So, um yeah, this one took me almost 20 years to get around to. Oops. Woah, Paper Tiger. Getting his Serge on. Ooh, it's sad Beck. Okay. Lush production on Lonesome Tears. Gorgeous song. Some of the quieter ones I think are going to take a few listens to appreciate. At the end, yeah, rating this after one listen feels fraudulent. But I will definitely revisit this.

Listened to Air recently which I loved for the Stepney/Reich vibes in equal measure. That's nothing like this, I've only heard bits before, enough to know that Air was a departure, and that they released music faster than I could keep up. This is pretty wonderful. Never stays the same, never dips in quality. Fully justified inclusion, hopefully will withstand the brutal culls that more modern albums suffer with each new edition.

Often heard about them when reading REM interviews in the music press way back when, but pre-streaming/internet I would never hear them. So I guess now I'm going to hear them. The full album is on A***on Music, which trump's Spotify's pitiful offering of missing tracks. And, well, it's beautiful. Of course I was going to like this as a lifelong fan of REM, particularly their early stuff, of which this is most reminiscent, or vice versa. You can absolutely hear the Replacements too, and stuff like the Green Pajamas. Yes the production is loose as fuck, but for me thats all part of the charm. There's great tunes here, that vary between up tempo freak outs (You can't Have Me) and quietly devastating (Holocaust). Kanga Roo feels like a precursor to shoegaze in places and is absolutely wonderful. Anyway I'm a sucker for the mythology around 'lost' records like this, and 'Smile', with tracks scattered around all over the place, where noone can agree on the running order. Then someone finally does, decades later. Love it.

Absolutely wild, I never heard this before. What an amazing good time gig. What else can you say about Sam Cooke. Who knows if this would be the peak of his powers. Absolute tragedy that 18 months later he'd be killed.

Well, this falls into the category of yeah I can see what they're doing, but I'm not going to suddenly like Dire Straits after all these years. Aside from sultans of swing I'm not really feeling anything. I got really really bored towards the end.

Bring the scuzz, properly dirty. Lovely. In N out of Grace is epic

Very much a toe dipper in the world of Nick Cave, I like what I hear but not delved into the albums. So why not start with a double album, yeah. First track is surprisingly raucous, though I know he's got that side clearly, Birthday Party, Grinderman. And it's great. Few tracks in, loving the vibe. Oh my god, There She Goes my Beautiful World, how have I never heard this before, this is fuckin ace. Nature Boy I have heard and it's fabulous. This is so great. Second half sounds different but still has some bangers, Spell being the most obvious, just wonderful. So at the end of it, happily knew several tracks so I've not been totally missing out, but what a great, warm album, altogether. Going on the list.

Funny one this. Came to Floyd for the Syd Barrett stuff, via Robyn Hitchcock, I have no real love for later iterations and that's always been my position, despite mates and the entirety of society insisting it's one of the best records ever made. Certainly one of the best covers. So let's see. There's some obvious classics here, Breathe, I wish was as long as Money (see below), 2 minutes is a waste of that lush sound. Great Gig, is obviously stratospheric. Aside from that, On the Run is some fun noodly noises, fine, Time is nice in a cross between the previous two tracks kind of way, so far we are all good for playing on a hot day. Money, I just do not care for that much. I enjoy the odd time signature, that's good, but other than that it's just a blues rock song, which is fine, I just don't feel it. Us and Them is the centrepiece I warm to, that's great. I like that the rest of the album bleeds into eachother and Eclipse is a good finish. So ok, it gets a 4 - mainly because of the classics. will I listen to it often, no.

Sounds nice and sounds like Willie Nelson. It's just not for me.

It's a Jurassic 5 record. Day at the races, What's Golden, I Am Somebody are sublime. The rest is merely great.

First off, go to YouTube. Ignore the Spotify version which is not good. This is pretty magical, all told. The last track is gorgeous. It's a shame you have to faff with YouTube and VLC and whatnot as otherwise I can see me sticking this on more often.

Didn't listen this time but it's a classic, probably their best, most consistently great album.

The The are great. I think I might like this one more than Soul Mining. Not sure. Obviously the production has way dated now, but they're still great. Mrs sat next to me says it really shows how much INXS ripped them off and by god she's right.

Dunno why but I just get put off listening to this one - The best songs are not the singles (although Sway is great, if that counts) - Can't you hear me knocking probably my favourite, superb riff. Moonlight Mile. There's some nice blues and stuff. I much prefer Townes Van Zandt's version of Dead Flowers. It's a good album no question but I've never completely understood why it's vaunted by many as the best Stones album.

Great lyrics, great voice. Ultimately not my thing though. Fast Car is timeless obviously. Behind the Wall sadly still totally relevant. Baby Can I Hold You utterly tarnished in my mind by the ubiquitous Ronan Keating bloody version.

Summer of 69 and On a Rope don't get old. Love the horn section. It's a blast. Come see Come saw is basically Jumping Jack Flash, but hey the whole album is a gas gas gas.

It's a good indie rock album. Mad that it's nearly 20 years old and there really haven't been many good indie rock albums since. Not hugely surprised it's left the book as for all it's qualities, aside from Take Me Out it's not that outstanding/noteworthy in this context. Michael and Darts of Pleasure my favourites.

Bossa Nova. Tick.

It's Curtis Mayfield.

Listened to this a bit before but only a bit. Love the rhythms and fusion. Boyz is great, Jimmy is spectacular. Wasn't sure 20 Dollars worked as a lifelong Pixies/New Order fan, but on repeat it's a banger. XR2 is parp-tastic Paper Planes is a classic. But it's sampling the Clash so of course it is. It's a great record. Shame about the whole antivax bullshit, but you can't have everything.

App deleted my notes. Anyway. This is good. Looking forward to the other two given the fuss made of Kevin Rowland in the music press if this is the worst one.

Probably his best album. Automatic 5 stars.

Friends have banged on about Mick Head's bands for ages now, I've heard this and thought it was alright but I'd already been listening to Teenage Fanclub for years so just hear that in it. I'm told Shack had that sound first, I don't know, but Sparky's Dream existed for years before 'Comedy' and I can't help but hear the exact same chorus. Although, that is a delightful song. Beta Band vibes on the backing vocals of Captain's Table. Streets of Kenny is really great. With a really weirdly abrupt ending. So, to my ear nothing original, and tbh, after Streets of Kenny nothing really holds my interest (except Since I Met You). But it is really well done. Had I heard this back in 1999 I would very likely have been all over it.

Almost as good as The Soft Bulletin. Do You Realize is one of their greatest ever songs.

Immediately exiled from the book after one edition! That's harsh, and somehow symbolic. The world doesn't care, but likes to appear that it does, then quietly undo everything when people aren't looking. And so many garbage albums that outlived their relevance years ago remain. Yes, David Grey. Anyway, this is really good. To be fair, there's quite a lot of excellent desert blues and whatnot floating around these days if you listen out for it. Which is a great thing. This is a good example of it.

Yeah it's nice and that. I'm always just left a bit cold by Neil Young. Obvs there's more variety here because there's Stills too. And some other people! And it's late 60s flower music, groovy and stuff. It's good, but nothing really stands out for me and I just can't see me sticking it on again.

So many ideas. Ex lion tamer and Mannequin fantastic pop punk. Strange I heard the REM cover first. Short, stabby, songs everywhere else. No need to write much here it's so massively influential. The longer it goes on the better it gets. Fabulous album.

Bar a few songs, not a Metallica fan. I like my metal but they just bore me. So here we go. 1 track in, in danger of bouncing off immediately. Played to perfection, just not particularly interesting. Title track appeals to my Prog-livities, much better. Eye of Beyolder- meh. One, lovely intro. An intro as long as several Wire songs. One is one of the few Metallica songs I already like going into this and it's obviously one of the greatest metal songs of all time, Billy Corgan also obviously loves this song and Siamese Dream very reminiscent of it. So, moving on, what's after that? Lots more meh, it turns out. Was literally mind wandering then I heard the line "loss of interest, question wonder", ha. I think this is getting a 2 because I need to like more than 2 songs in an hour of music. But One deserves more than that on its own. Shame it brought it's mates. Ah, damn. Dyers Eve is good, right at the end. Still though, I like less than half the album so it's gotta stay a 2. Went back to Megadeth to remind me thrash could be fun.

It sounds great. Obvs hugely important. Judging it as an actual record - Most of the album tracks are, well, a bit shit aren't they. 6 great tracks ranging from really good to all time classics, 6 shite tracks. 6.5/10

A glorious racket.

Got this the day after The Birthday Party. It's funny how people's definitions of 'unlistenable' vary so radically. This is such a slog. Although it regularly meanders into the background, so easy forget it's on. A bit like all the singles did when they came on the radio in the kitchen in the 80s. But also overlong. Half the album is just twinkly nothing. And I'm sure you could do the prog intro to Money For Nothing and still close out the rest within 5 minutes. 8 and a half? Get out. The first album in project I have to give a 1 to, I just dislike all of it. It is absolutely not necessary to listen to this before you die.

Wasn't surprised on looking up to see this has gone from the book, it's a fine, decent indie dance genre-hip-trip-hopping album but 20 years later (eek) I don't exactly think of it as earth changing. We are also slap bang in the era of too-long albums from bands who feel they must squeeze all the space out of a CD. Not many of these tracks are what I'd consider essential, either. There's a couple of surprises though, the smokey Latin Simone saunters in towards the end and steals the show for me. I have no memory of this at the time. 19-2000 holds up well. Slow Country was nice. The band was a fun gimmick, giving Jamie Hewlett a paycheck after Tank Girl, which is nice. The Clint Eastwood remix at the end is, and always was, hella annoying.

Have floated around Roxy all this time but never truly dove in for whatever reason. Daft because I would clearly love it. This is one of the albums I've never even listened to once. Well, this is great. Thrill of it all, and Out of the Blue, both superb. The whole last half of the album.

Bounced off these for so long because of the horrible populist noise they became in the Invisible Touch era. Despite knowing they're prog behemoths under Peter Gabriel. But anyway, how could I like the Flaming Lips and not like this, is I guess. There's still lots to find annoying, and it's partly the stuff here that's pisstake-worthy (see The Battle of Epping Forest's singular ridiculousness) and the worst excesses of Yes that I blame for my not realising how much fantastic music there was to discover in the prog genre until way late in my musical journey. But if you put all your preconceptions aside, and just give in to it, this is a joyous record.

It's Blonde on Blonde.

Oh Christ. This is going to test my commitment more than Brothers in Arms did, isn't it. Ok, I listened. It's toss. Actually a shame, an album full of left leaning, anti-capitalist lyrics including a massive smash hit taking the piss out of Reaganomics at its absolute height, you just want it to be good. A Talking Heads cover, as well. To be fair, Come To My Aid has a decent track struggling to get out with decent Orange Juice/Smith's guitar work but Hucknall smothers it by being annoying all over the top of it. The rest is cod lounge-jazz crap. Or the worst kind of 80s mainstream electro rock. With Mick Hucknall being really annoying all over the top of it. I was softening slightly thinking about the good points but then Open the Red Box happened and sealed the 1/5.

It just sounds epic. Listened for the first time only a few months back. Couldn't believe I'd left it so long. I would watch the imaginary stage show that all these songs are taken from, and have a good cry, I'm sure. The Kids is a real tough listen.

Removed again. Yeah fair enough. Felt Mountain is obviously great, Black Cherry is possibly even better so if a 2nd Goldfrapp album is going in it's 100% that one, I love both those albums and regularly go back to them. I stepped off though at Ooh La La because it sounded just like Train but without the character so I thought, ah, out of ideas. So I never listened to Supernature - I think I may have listened to Seventh Tree once as it cropped up in year end lists but it definitely didn't leave an impression on me at the time. So, here goes... Will this be another lush, sumptuous album you could just drown in... or not? And the answer is.... Well the first track is certainly gorgeous. More than a hint of those sweeping John Barry strings that have always hovered around their sound. To be fair, it stays good. Not the same impact as those two albums but enough to encourage me to check out their later stuff and give this a listen again.

Riffage. Not really ever going to be my thing but it's fun. Classic case this of me having absorbed 40 years of culture influenced by it but never the source material. For instance can't hear Ain't Talkin About Love without wanting it to go the way Apollo 440 took it. I wish the tunes were as good as the guitar work. I can bet this will go down better with me than the 1984 one, but will have to wait and see.

My brother is always banging on about Bridge Over Troubled Water, I gave in an listened a few months ago and thought it was good, but, you know, not amazing. So I was a bit surprised to enjoy this as much as I did. Simon not quite decided on his sound, between the absolutely gorgeous folk, and the somewhat sub-Dylan stompers (Simple Desultory...), it's also somehow steeped in the politics of the time. Scarborough fair is just absolutely lush. Obviously Homeward Bound is one of the best songs ever written. But besides this, everything is gorgeous, even Feelin Groovy's slightly twee sound in 2022 doesn't spoil the mood. The juxtaposition of Silent Night and the swirling chaos of the mid 60s news is particularly effective. A flawed masterpiece.

This contains one of my favourite Nick Caves. Also, it's 25 years old this year, another 1997 classic. Into My Arms. Oh god... Just stunning. The ultimate spiritual love song for unwashed heathens such as myself. (Although 'There is a Kingdom' does confuse this somewhat) The rest of the album is great, understated, sad. Doesn't quite hit those early heights again for me but a good listen.

50% solid gold 60s teenybop bangers Beach Boys, 45% Pet Sounds gold Beach Boys (plus 5% withering Beach Boys recorded for all time for some reason at the end) What's not to like? Apart from that last bit.

Another daft hole in my music listening history (I was listening to Orbital when in these moods instead, so far from a total loss). Wonderful.

Kicking off with Now My Heart is Full, instantly nostalgic and remembering a time when it was OK to like Morrissey, because he wasn't obviously a terrible cunt at this point. Also, remembering that Morrissey really did used to be terribly good. Hold on To Your Friends, words to live by as you get older and it gets harder. Lifeguard Sleeping is great too, really unique on the record. This is a terrific album, and easily his best solo effort, for me.

When Chris Bailey died earlier this year I was inspired to dig into The Saints, thinking I didn't know them - but obviously I did, they wrote stone cold classics. Starting with I'm Stranded off the debut. Know Your Product is an absolute banger. The rest of the album is solid, well produced, is it post-punk? I mean some of this could have come out this year, people are still going for this sound, it feels oddly contemporary.

Another prog band I wasn't into because I'd been lied to that all prog was bad. Constantly skipped past Rush in record shops while looking for R.E.M. 12"s. Only Rush song I heard until relatively recently was something about trees, and I was not a fan. Tom Sawyer is fucking ace. Strangely first got into this by playing it on Beat Saber after Neil Peart died. So that very much dates my lateness. Love the shifting rhythms. Geddy Lee's vocals are going to be the sticking point for me here I think, because they're pretty annoying. Can not argue with his bass work though. YYZ is epic. Ungh, couple of tracks later I've got to admit I'm drifting off. I think I'm very much hit or miss with Rush. Witch Hunt grabbed my attention back, decent. Now there's some sort of Sting reggae shit going on. Ah, the last track. Ok, overall, not for me, but some great individual tracks. Not an entirely unexpected reaction, to be honest. Ha, everybody got mixed feelings. You are correct.

Yep! Time to find out finally what these were all about. So it's not Krautrock. I like half of the first track, very atmospheric. 2nd track could be the soundtrack to Dune. Ok, all of that was so wonderfully chilled, I loved it. Was starting to feel pretty aggravated before I listened and now I feel much better.

My partner likes John Martyn, or rather, she really likes Solid Air, I'm not sure I've heard her play anything else tbh. I like that kinda, it's not really my thing but it's nice and chilled. So, expecting more smokey, chilled and timeless acoustic stuff, the first track here was a bit of a surprise. It sounds much more dated to me, sadly. Nah, I'm really not feeling this. Even the more chilled, acoustic ones just seem...busy, somehow.

Yeah it's a great album, justified selection, changed the face of pop music for a good few years. Some wonderful, heart-wrenchingly open lyrics. Would never really choose to put this on because I've heard half of it more than enough times just by living life. It's genuinely good, but I'm done with Rehab, thanks. Tears Dry on Their Own has always annoyed me by not being Ain't No Mountain High Enough, you don't have to rip the whole thing and then leave us hanging, the rest of the album shows that, and all this technique does is remind me constantly of a far, far superior song. More durable however are the title track, which is easily one of the greatest songs written this century - I'll never get tired of that. Also Love is a Losing Game, another timeless Bond theme that never was. The album tracks are consistently good but nothing truly arrests me like the above. Wake Up Alone or Addicted probably best of the rest.

A decent hip hop album. Most of it faded into the background though while I was working. Some tunes jumped out (Sacrifice, Water, Something in the way of things). Some I found annoyingly reminiscent of 90s soul (Break You Off) which I guess in 2002 is perfectly fair but I don't have to like it. Overall, good.

Is this the best Dylan album? Maybe, maybe not, but it's top 3.

Absolutely love this as an idea. And as it turns out, also in its execution. The first Bjork album I didn't pay attention to when it came out, I think after 4 absolutely fantastic albums, I felt I had enough to be going on with and checked out other stuff. Came back to this recently ahead of going to see her at Bluedot. Triumph of a Heart is spectacular (watch the video), Who is It, Oceania also excellent. This has gone from the book but Vulnicura remains, which I find harder to like and find less noteworthy really because of the unique (lack of) instrumentation here. I want to argue with people who think Bjork only makes mental music, get to the point where they're willing to listen to examples to back up the argument, then play Ancestors to them and run away.

Any excuse to stick this on. Also it's the 25th anniversary of its release next week. First heard 6-7 years after its release, and then went mad for the sound, grabbing compilations of Compay Segundo and Omara Purtuondo's stuff. It is, obviously, wonderfully transportative music that could lift any mood. Just great.

Gave this a few spins when it came out but didn't quite land for me, and I haven't been back until today. I think it started with them just cutting off the really great opening track as soon as it really gets cracking. Feels like setting out to make it an uncomfortable record to listen to for no good reason. Not many of the following tracks do anything much for me, not like the 1st two albums. Nice little motorik bit on The Rip. We Carry On is the standout track for me, absolute monster. Machine Gun is certainly arresting and interesting, do I want to listen to it much? I'm not sure. In fact, I could say the same of the entire album. I much preferred the Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man record from a few years earlier.

Of all the original punk bands, Buzzcocks wrote the absolute best singles, that's just a fact. Apart from the Damned's New Rose. So, none of those singles are included here because it's those days when you did that. There's still some great thrusting bangers here, but initially I was itching for the hits. Then side b kicks in and you know why they let the album stand on its own, fantastic. Will be giving it repeat listens.

Yeah, Janes Addiction. Enjoyed clocking the PWEI sample of the yelp in Ocean Size for Get the Girl Kill the Baddies. What a yelp Perry has on him. Not that familiar with Jane Says, must not have been that big over here, always immediately think of Been Caught Stealing. I don't listen to JA much but I like what they are.

Loved the Longpigs the Sun is Often Out back in the 90s, this is very not that. Had this recommended a year or so ago from someone who seemed to love everything and anything that came out of Sheffield. Anyway. This is a nice, huggly sound. Kind of sounds like fellow Yorkshireman Chris Rea except good. But will I think to listen to it more than the two times I now have? Questionable. The archetypal 3/5 for me, nothing stands out, nothing to dislike. Actually a few tracks in, I realised the problem. It's really nice and cosy for a track or two. After that though, I'm bored rigid. This is on the list when something else more interesting isn't. 2/5

Certainly an important album because of what it kick-started, and those singles, but not as sure it's an essential album in and of itself. This production sound is almost as era-defining as the Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound was for the couple of years before it. And, well, despite anything else I say here I know which one I prefer. Erm, why is African Dance followed by the same song with less flute and more talking? Just don't stop, carry on. Kind of responsible for the explosion of artists I wasn't into, like, I dunno, the Brand New Heavies and stuff. It's aged in a way that Bjork's Debut hasn't (though nowhere near as much as some here are making out imho), although they both remain extremely transportative listens to their times.

It's a bonus Chic album. There's even an argument to say it's the best Chic album, high praise indeed. You know how songs get overplayed on the radio, you love them for decades and then get sick of them? Well that's not possible here, as these are some of the greatest pop songs even written. Hearing them in their full glory, 5-6 minutes long, just adds to the joy. Annoyingly only the 7" version of We are Family is available on Spotify, you need the record or YouTube for the majestic full 8 minutes (only this one link seems to have the correct tempo) which needs to be experienced. The bass work is simply out of this world. https://youtu.be/FLRvVZ_Q1Iw If you don't like disco, even just a little bit, I just don't think we're going to get along. Absolutely stunning. One of the easiest 5 ratings in this whole project.

Can't hear Love is A Stranger now without thinking of the LCD song that massively ripped it off (I Can Change). They're both great though, the original, and the pretender which took the ball and ran with it. Never listened to them beyond the singles but their value is obvious. The big synth sound is great. Probably wouldn't listen again given I don't have the nostalgia pulling me back in, but no doubt it's a decent and important record.

Have never listened to these. Or The Black Crowes. Or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I have listened to Black Sabbath. Anyway, yeah, this was alright! Kind of forgettable first listen though. But enjoyable enough. Tighten Up sounds like a million other things that were out around then and can't say I like that sound. Fake old, with modern production just fucks me off. Ahaha, the next song is that Glitter Stomp one that was the Heardle the other day I didn't get because I guessed Gary Glitter over and over because that's what it was. The longer this album goes on I can tell I'm not going to take it seriously because it's not my thing. Next song sounds like late 90s Lenny Kravitz. I think I'm out, there's nothing interesting for me here, kinda average 6music fodder, fine but that's it.

Put this on again recently around Andy's untimely death. Absolutely terrific album, some of their greatest ever songs, an easy 5. Also the Depeche Mode album I think which most influenced the glorious Turrican and Turrican 2 soundtracks.

Loads of fun.

Well. 4-5 songs excellent, the rest I don't really care for. Mother's Lament is incredibly annoying. Clapton is a massive clanger also.

First listen to a Sinead album, the first song pulls me in gradually and subtly. Then there's a very 1990 hip hop sort of thing. Then we're back to the gorgeous stuff. Then a sort of MOR pop song. The standout track, obviously. It's a mixed bag but in glad I listened to it.

It's Dusty Springfield, she was a hero.

I found Rust In Peace energetic and quality but ultimately not for me. So I don't know why, if it was just my mood, but I'm finding so much more to enjoy here. Absolutely balls to the wall, don't give a fuck, and so good. Good Mourning/Black Friday is simply immense. Peace Sells, Wake Up Dead, obviously ace. There's only a couple of tracks here I don't completely love. Will have to revisit Rust in Peace. I remain unconverted to Metallica yet, but we'll see.

Wonderful album, his masterpiece. Easy 5.

I said Exile was probably their best, most consistent album. I'm still not sure if that's right. There's some real stonkers on here and the potential of the band is really showing. A cracker of an album.

My Steely Dan education continues... Definitely falls into the 'troublesome 80s production' category - this is ridiculously smooth - though I can find value here. IGY overcomes the initial aversion to the sound, gently dragging me in by just being good for 6 minutes. The next two don't manage this. Green Flower Street, is it quite a song? What key is it in? I'm so confused. The Nightfly is also good, just can't shake the Smooooth, MOR 80s film soundtrack vibe for most of the album sadly.

Coyote is so gorgeous. All of it is gorgeous. I think I start to lose interest towards the end around Black Crow.

Kinda annoying faffing between spoti-tube. The funk ones are the best, particularly Runaway Child, 9 minute banger. The Motown stuff is still good though, particularly towards the end (don't let him...)

The cover looks like a meme. "Past Van Morrison tries to make sense of future Van's ramblings" Annoyingly, considering how much of a massive bell end the guy is, this is absolutely fantastic. "Throughout my career I have always preferred to let my music speak for me" he said in 2015. You what mate? Tell the last couple of years you. Anyway. Yeah, great record. The horns! The soul! The, erm, the clavinet! It's just great.

Hmm, yeah. Good. Not outstanding, but definitely good. Never heard of these before. Getting Bright at Night is pretty excellent. I love a good 9 minute epic that goes in directions. White Devil, singer doing a massive Black Francis impression which actually isn't bad.

The only ones of The Only Ones I knew was Another Girl Another Planet, which is one of the greatest pop songs of all time, so a good basis. You do fear though what you're going to get when bands are only famous for one song. But what a song. The Libertines owe these guys their entire career, and did the heroin to boot. A lot of Violent Femmes here, but less angsty. It's good, nothing stands up to the obvious highlight, but it does feel like a record that will grow on you with repeated listens, fair few tracks with a lot going on. The final track, Immortal Story, is a banger.

Utterly fabulous. Stevie Nicks in particular is epic on this album. Buckingham's stuff at its best with the slow grooves - Walk A Thin Line - rather than the jittery stuff that peppers the rest of the album, although that does break stuff up and successfully keeps me engaged. Exception that proves the rule however is Tusk itself which is wonderful.

The golden age of hip hop. Never heard this before but it's pure gold.

If you're not the kind of person who gets a kick out of the lyrics in Kingdom of Love, then it's going to be more difficult for us to become friends. I wanna destroy you, insanely jealous, queen of eyes, underwater moonlight, these are all total bangers. Hook it up and feed it directly into my veins. On a sidenote, I love all these innocent wet behind the ears types who somehow think this album is genuinely 44 songs long.

Nope. An album so massive and so good you were only ever allowed to hear one snippet of one song. But in every advert break for about 6 months. So I eventually stuck it on, but it didn't surprise, I have no real memory of it. Inoffensive though. 2 stars.

Haven't yet managed to get on board with Bitches Brew, but my tastes have developed since I last listened to it, so we'll see. Anyway this seems a great bridge to it, it is exactly the kind of thing I like right now, gentle waves of groove, that don't even necessarily have to be going anywhere. Have just been listening back to NEU! on its 50th anniversary, there are strong shades of this that have carried across to some of their work, particularly the second track. Great multi-purpose music. You can have it on in the background, or you can stick the headphones on and surrender yourself and drift away on its tides.

Again, it's Dusty. But this time the songs are even more consistently brilliant.

Funny how despite the legendary status and even now we have radio stations that play album tracks, I still haven't heard anything other than the two obvious classic tracks at the end here. Most of the rating goes to that, genre-defining. Mention also to Scorpio. The 'Expanded edition' deleting the wheels of steel though is a weird move given it's the second best thing here.

I liked Pocahontas. The rest meh. Especially towards the end. Welfare Mothers is especially dire. Into the black is very good though. Never got Neil Young, tried many many times.

The JAMC pop album - I think universally acknowledged as not as good as Psychocandy but still pretty great. There's some foreshadowing of JAMC-do-Billy Idol-'Head On' here. And more stuff that sounds a bit like Just Like Honey, rather than a drill boring directly into your soul. These are not necessarily bad things, there is a place for both, and how do you top the debut?

Kinder Murder is something else. Not an album I'm familiar with, but I recognise some of the songs. Some of this sounds very 1994 but not too dated and still unmistakably Elvis Costello. Together this seems to work very well. Probably a bit overlong. Enjoyable.

Very lovely. Never heard this. Amusingly had a later Elvis Costello album yesterday so it's a before and after Shipbuilding here, which is fun. Absolutely love Little Red Riding Hood the first, and Alife. I'm obviously going to love this with my NEU! predilections. Drink it in. Also this has Ivor Cutler on it at the end. 5 big stars.

Personality Crisis is obviously a banger. I've never latched on to another Dolls song in quite the same way, big points for influence and legacy though, fun album. Trash is the most obviously memorable one, and probably most influential. Frankenstein is about 3 minutes too long. I get it, it's a frankenstein.

Jeez this takes me back. Some fun tracks but by God it's so 1991.

Trying hard to like this because it's an hour and 20 minutes long and he's respected like. I'm not doing very well. The 2 singles down are comfortably the worst of the 4 songs so far. Why does he keep rapping while holding his nose? Art of Peer Pressure was the first song I thought was OK. Money Trees was good too. Actually, that was genuinely good, I enjoyed that one. If we can avoid more garbage I could get into this. Good Kid is good so far, yeah, really good. That’s 2 songs enjoyed. Maad City – ok I think I’ve actually heard this. Not for me at all but I guess it’s good. Oh ok its two songs in one without giving the second part a title. Weird move but OK. I like this bit lots better. Swimming Pool I think is the first single I haven’t thought is utter shit. Just seen the last 2 tracks are remixes of one of the shit songs so I’m getting out of school early, this is good. Emeli Sande, what happened to her? Oh you fucker, a 12 minute song. Except ok, its really good and affecting. Not sure I need the full minute of prayer at the end to get the effect. A 7 minute song now, this guy is pissing me off. So it’s not for me obviously, there are some good songs here no doubt and I’m glad I listened, but it’s too long and plenty of stuff I just don’t like at all.

With 3 hours of music, it's inevitably a mixed bag. The constant being Ella's unimpeachable legendary voice, and the jazz orchestra always on point. I'm more than happy to stick some Ella on from time to time. Some of the songs though. Treat me Rough? Clenched teeth emoji. But the gems are worth wading through this. Love is Here To Stay. Embraceable You. Boy What Love has done. I'd pick more out if I were in a better mood. You kind of still should listen to the whole thing, as it's a historical document. It'll keep you warm in the winter.

App deleted my review. Here's what I remember writing. Any excuse to stick a bit of Peej on. Really solid debut with some proper bangers on it. She goes from strength to strength and she's one of those artists who whatever she does you know it will be interesting. You exhibitionist!

It's good, but tbh none of the songs really hit the spot for me. This Year's Model is great though.

Belting. Janis Joplin and that guitar tag team.

Kicking off with easily one of the best pop songs ever written, but would I ever have listened to this had it not been in this book? Even as an A-ha fan as a child? No. I remember when A-ha had their own cartoon strip in Look-In magazine. At least I know I'll like 2 of the other songs. Well... Ironically Hunting High and Low sounds much more like a bond theme than their bond theme. It's not very good though. Sun Always Shines On TV is still another slice of pop brilliance. The rest is perfectly competent, if edgeless, 80s synth pop. The Blue Sky probably stands out among those, sounding a bit like contemporary era Depeche Mode. This shouldn't be in the book, the only reason it's important is Take On Me and Sun.

Which idiot at Spotify ordered it so the bonus tracks come immediately after the previous take from the original album? Surely it's not ordered like that on the CD. Anyway, after a quick playlist sort, this is a delight. Really enjoy a bit of jazz but I admit I'm mostly ignorant of many of its greats, so not an album I knew. But yes, superb. Fantastic stuff.

Maybe a cold autumn Sunday evening after getting back from an uninspiring draw at Old Trafford is the ideal conditions for listening to Born To Run. Whatever the case, I definitely enjoyed this a whole lot more than I ever have listening to Springsteen for any extended period before. I'm not about to memorise all the lyrics and mime-scream them at my girlfriend anytime soon, but yeah, very good. I have no idea how the title track crams quite so much epic into 4.5 minutes. The song is really 8 minutes long, you have been tricked. Don't love all the tracks, but the good ones are so good it makes it. By the end of Jungleland, I definitely understand the Meatloaf comparison, the difference is this guy has more tunes.

She cracked, I'm sad, but I won't.

I occasionally wonder what the person who can't see any value in stuff like Devo actually likes musically. My brain screams 80s Phil Collins, but perhaps that's reductive. Plainly not for everyone, but love em, they ripped it up and started again.

So, a fan of The Specials but really all I know is the debut and the big songs. Therefore all I really know from this is the wonderfully raucous Enjoy Yourself. The Specials are never bad, but the second half here is... unexpected. Yelling James Bond films. Moving into some sort of Western that devolves into dub? Very different, an interesting listen, not sure I'd choose to put it on that often though.

Love Leonard Cohen, but admittedly I 'm not a frequenter of his albums, and there's plenty I've left undug. Including this, so this was welcomed. Avalanche is just an incredible piece of work. Unsettlingly atmospheric guitar and strings, gripping songwriting and delivery. Anyone unaffected, by this, I don't understand. Last Year's Man is as mournfully beautiful as Avalanche was unsettling. The vitriol in Dress Rehearsal Rag! It seems pointless picking out further individual tracks, they're all of such high quality. Obviously, Famous Blue Raincoat, well, words can't express. Cohen at his best outstrips Dylan, and he does so here. This is the best album this project has presented to me in quite some time. Glorious.

Marginally more engaging than the last Eagles album, but nah. After committing to listening to 2 Eagles albums, I still only vaguely like 2 Eagles songs, and they both kick off their respective albums. Plus I prefer the Gipsy Kings version of one. Pass.

Hugely enjoyable is correct.

Roxy Music at their best. One criticism, I'm not sure the first 6 minutes of the bogus man have enough going on to justify the length.

Not the best Public Enemy album however it is a Public Enemy album and therefore at least four stars.

This was kind of exactly what I expected it would be, Suzanne is very good at what she does and this is a good listen. Definitely feel like it spawned a million inferior knock offs with a less varied sound, of which I'm far less tolerant.

I don't expect to like every album in this book, that's fine, but I don't expect them to annoy me - this is an exception. One of most egregious inclusions on this list given how comprehensively the 70s classic and blues rock is already covered from first time around. Why would I listen to this in 2022 when I already have Exile on Main Street, or Led Zeppelin II? May have been essential listening in the 90s when there were just the several other bands rehashing Rolling Stones' 70s sound, Lenny Kravitz, Primal Scream's boring period, etc. Except at least they had the grace to include a couple of great songs, I'm not arguing with Rocks off, massively unoriginal, but certified banger. There's no tunes here. 9 helpings of meh and 1 annoying song from an advert. Also, Hard to Handle when played in Manchester indie clubs in the 90s would signal the music was about to turn shite and would invariably be surrounded by other bands doing pale (and also somehow infinitely annoying) comparisons of good blues rock. Reef, Kula Shaker, all that terrible shite. So yeah, please, take this away.

As an indie kid starting my own journey of musical discovery in earnest in the early 90s, I was surrounded by people worshipping at the altar of this particular album, friends, the NME etc, it was hailed as a work of genius. Obviously, I'd heard the big single as everyone who was ever alive has heard that. I borrowed my brother's copy and eagerly stuck it on. Maybe it was the intensity of the hype that left me a bit disappointed. I've just never quite got it. It's a great 90s indie album, no doubt, Lee Mavers said it was "a pile of shit", the truth is surely somewhere in between. Feelin' is one of the better songs, but that just repurposes the riff from Paperback Writer without any attempt to hide the fact. Way Out is good. I'm not even sure what Freedom Song is, it's not good. Looking Glass is great. I just haven't latched onto why this warrants such high praise when compared to its contemporaries.

A fucking brilliant Tom Waits album, one of his very best no doubt. Getting this on Halloween weekend also really works for me so cheers for that. Just so much fun. Jockey Full of Bourbon is something else. As is the title track. Marc Ribot is tremendous. All of it is something else. The stories! I feel sad for anyone who just can't enjoy this. But they almost certainly hated Devo too. Phil Collins...

Absolutely love this, just pure bliss. It was a happy day back in 1997 when someone pressed this into my hands at uni. Obviously had some familiarity with Orbitals before that but it didn't extend much further than Chime, The Box and Satan. I didn't even know Belfast at that point. Anyway, got a hold of this work of genius and I didn't look back. Walk Now... is admittedly annoying, but the rest of the album is basically perfect, so despite not liking one track it's getting 5 because of all the bellends giving it 1.

Yes, very nice. This is something you have to properly listen to though, I guess it's not the best sign that Spotify played 3 or 4 other similar tracks by different people after the album finished before I noticed.

Wasn't sure what I'd make of this as I've always found Billy Bragg hit and miss, and I've never latched onto Wilco either. Woody Guthrie, obviously, is a legend for good reason, so I was very intrigued. It well and truly won me over, a really warm and engaging, and unique record. I love a musical project that brings artists together across decades, and borne out of love. Wonderful stuff. There's at least 2 other volumes of this which I will have to check out.

So here we are, the other Rush album. I should be less predisposed to this on reading it was inspired by Ayn Rand, but I think I've already made my mind up about Rush multiple times already. I see the ability, I see why a lot of people love them, it just doesn't hit the spot for me. Bits of it are great. Most of it just isn't for me. The little stings in passage to Bangkok are hilariously bad and strongly remind me of Spinal Tap.

Never heard this as was fiercely resistant to this generation of hip hop in 1994. Opened my mind later but it does mean I don't have nostalgic memories of thinking this was the greatest record of all time or whatever, I didn't even know who he was when I heard he had been killed. I still can't imagine a time when I want to kick back and listen to someone rap about bitches and guns for over an hour, and however good this is for other stuff, that's what this mostly is. Stuff like Things Done Changed, Everyday Struggle and Juicy are best. But yeah the album feels like it goes on forever, and I don't have any residual fondness for tracks, so not for me.

What to write. Pure genius. Sealand is fucking incredible. Funnily enough I am currently working my way through a Depeche Mode challenge from start to finish and this just blows everything they were up to until about 5 years later out of the water. I'm only sad I only got around to listening to this about 5 years back, as I've been missing out, one of the best records ever made.

Could give this a 5 for Some Weird Sin and Success alone. Plus all the bonus Bowie content. A classic.

This is here for the big songs isn't it. And sort of fair enough, though it's not a classic must-hear album, rather, Buddy Holly is a classic must-hear artist, and this is his only album. There's way better consistently good rock and roll than can be found here, but this is not the era of the album, it's the era of the hit single. So what are you gonna do?

Absolutely no prior knowledge of this but what an album. Another gem from indisputably the golden age of hip hop. This sort of stuff is why I can't say I don't like hip hop, I'm just very selective.

He died the other day, the crazy wrong 'un. This is meant to be 37 minutes long but only 22 minutes is available on streaming, not even YouTube seems to have it. So god knows what's on there. Hound Dog is one of them. Review: I believe the word is 'rollicking'.

I like Jazz, but I'm not well versed in it. I tend to err towards the out there, or improv stuff. First impressions of this are pretty inoffensive coffee shop jazz, from accomplished musicians. Does it grab me? Well Mandela didn't particularly, but I was much more into Song for Sathima. Near the end now and yes, it's nice enough, not the kind of thing that will live long in my memory though. And I would hardly call it essential listening amongst the vast pantheon of jazz out there.

A good 90s grunge album. Hadn't listened to all of this, but had heard Jar of Flies before so had an idea what to expect. Don't think it has particularly aged well and since I wasn't a big AIC fan at the time (was big into Nirvana, Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and more besides however so unclear why not) I don't have the nostalgia factor. It's decent enough, but barring a couple of tracks I can't see me ever coming back to this. I have my favourites when it comes to grunge, nothing old/new is going to break into that now.

Allways up there among my top 3 Beatles albums. Not much you can write about this that hasn't already been written.

Having refused to rate A-ha highly because the album was shit but it had 2 amazing songs on it, I'm going to do exactly the opposite here. I don't really care much for any of the rest, although they're fun enough. Simple Man stands out. But by god, those two songs. Fuck me. I will say it's not completely hypocritical, because these are two of the best songs ever written, really. Also, they make up about a third of the length of the album, and it's a good job.

It's Roxy Music's debut. Banging. This is the album I've actually listened to properly. Reading these reviews I hadn't realised how little cut through Roxy had to the (presumably) American market. Side A is absolutely impeccable. Every song, 6/5. Genuinely one of the best records ever.

Oh Christ. I can't imagine I'll ever be in the mood for an entire album of Abba. The odd song here and there of irresistible pop glitter, sure. Even though Dancing Queen is in the top 5 most overplayed pieces of music ever created, it's still somehow enjoyable, once you get over the initial "oh god, this again". The other singles also very good, in an Abba way. Knowing Me... and Fernando, and the odd other Abba song that isn't here I genuinely like, so I'm not a hater. And hey, let's be honest here, some Madness songs sound like Money, Money, Money, and we like Madness don't we? Yes they do, go back and listen again. There's some shocking shite elsewhere on here though. Dum Dum Diddle can get tae fuck. That's Me is actually pretty good right up until the cringe chorus refrain Carrie-not-the-kind-of-girl-you-marry. Unggggh. Why Did It Have To Be Me reminds me of The Beach Boys after Mike Love decided to take one of the greatest bands ever and make them the worst. Tiger is fine I guess. Fernando isn't really on the album, which is a shame for its rating because that's one I like. Overall, 10 songs, 3 great ones, 5 average and 2 absolute toss. Earns it a 2/5

Stone cold soulful grooves. Could give it 5 for the definitive version of Summer Breeze, I don't want it to end. Although the original is pretty fine as well. That Lady, what it comes down to, not every song here is 5 star classic - but most of them are.

While it isn't the best ever Beatles album, it still has some of their greatest ever songs (and song fragments). Maxwell's Silver hammer can fuck off into the sun. That aside, lots to love. I Want You (she's so heavy). Two of Georgie's Best. Because. I Want You (she's so heavy). Remembering watching Ringo and George working through Octopuses Garden in its infancy on Get Back. Oh Darlin. The medley! I Want You (she's so heavy)!!!! Seriously that song is just the best.

Nostalgia. All the indie kid girls I was friends with at school fancied Evan Dando, and who can blame them. Really enjoyed this today. Enjoy Juliana Hatfield popping her head in with the backing vocals.

Muddy Waters playing the blues.

Superb. She's amazing.

I've always enjoyed The Cure's big songs, don't know if they're all singles but have never fell in love with a whole album. I like both early goth Cure and pop Cure, this is obviously the former. Though people bang on about Disintegration and I'm the same with that, just the big songs please. The atmosphere created here is the first thing to hit you. The bass, Smith's voice, the lyrics, the repetitive slow drums. Doom, doom, doom. I think if it carried on like Side A I'd have to turn it off as it would be too much. But with The Figurehead and Strange Days the mood lightens just enough, musically.

Every Velvets album could be a completely different band, and they're all absolutely 5 star. This here is Understated Velvets, and it's the absolute best Understated Velvets album ever made. I love every song. "There are problems in these times, but woooooergh none of them are mine!", still makes me laugh.

Not my scene. Although this seems to lean more on the folk side of country, which explains why I'm more receptive to it. And anyway a great song is a great song, regardless of genre. Hello In There, Far From Me and Sam Stone are truly great. And today I learned that Cop Shoot Cop by Spiritualized has a direct reference to this song. I can understand the Dylan comparison particularly on songs like Pretty Good. The novelty songs leave me cold, but there's some wonderful stuff mixed in here. By the end, really won over. What a great album.

One of the greatest garage rock albums of all time, as is Easter Everywhere, you could include either. This has more straightforward bangers on it than EE but that Dylan cover... Man. The debut probably loses a bit of steam towards the end. Adore Splash 1, and Don't Fall Down, both of which show they had more about them than freakouts and playing a jug. What the authorities did to Roky and the band is a disgrace.

I like it but do I love it? This period of The Who's output always feels like a series of connected big moments in a song, rather than fantastic songs through and through. Which I guess is kind of prog, and there's a lot of prog around the edges here. Which I like, but it makes this neither one thing nor the other, or that's what it does for me. Like not love.

Oof. Mixed. I remember Walk from Jilly's Rockworld and Ritz Mondays, class. This Love is epic. No Good Attack the Radical is decent musically with problematic lyrics. People say it's "beyond racism" whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. "You blame oppression and play the role of criminals". Yeah. Hmmm, nah, fuck off mate. Rise, is another cracker that seems to espouse free thinking but when they guy has done a Nazi salute and shouted 'white power' on stage, well, that does inspire some thoughts. By Demons... is decent. Hollow is sub-Nickelback shite until the metal part starts. Separating the politics out of it, some bangers, some I'm less fond of without even paying attention to the lyrics, so it's going to be a 3.

"There ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk." "The girls around here all look like Cadillacs" "Swinging from the rafters in a brand new tie" "I shot the morning in the back..." Swordfish era Tom Waits gets all the plaudits usually but I'm a massive fan of drunk guy at the diner Tom Waits, equally if not more so. Man, can this guy write a song. I still just prefer Small Change, but this is a great album, Tom can do no wrong.

The Hole pop album. After the grimy riot grrl Hole album and the grunge catharsis in Hole album. All three are great in their own way, although I loved Live Through This so much (and still do almost 30 years later) I was always going to be disappointed when this followed it. Some undeniable bangers here though. Title track, Awful, Malibu, Northern Star all among the band's best work, and Billy Corgan appears to have poured the last bits of his talent into his contributions to 2 of those. Not too many good Pumpkins songs after 1998. For me this is album with obvious highlights, and the rest perfectly serviceable if not particularly remarkable pop rock. Some of it sounds like The Go-gos. Not a bad thing, but the Go-gos already exist. There's no duffers. It's not an album I ever reach for, but it's an enjoyable listen. 3.

I'm just a symptom of the moral decay that's gnawing at the heart of the country. I felt that Infected had dated musically I seem to remember. You could argue the same here but it's just too good for it to matter. Full of songs with a poppy feel but unusual chorus-less structures. Jools Holland at the ending of Uncertain Smile is fantastic. The slow build groove of Giant to close out. Terrific album.

Whenever I go back and listen to Steely Dan it's usually to try to understand the two major schools of thought about them. They're either revered as geniuses of classic 70s rock, or everything that was wrong with the music that punk kicked against. I can sort of understand both, although personally I never have a strong reaction to them either way.

Sailed under my radar for years and years until I discovered music Twitter goes absolutely batshit for this. I've tried it a few times and like several tracks but don't revere the whole album as others seem to. It's still getting a 4 because it's great but I'm leaving wiggle room for stuff I like more. Could be a case of loving the influenced before hearing the influencer, a huge fan of Godspeed and Mogwai both of whom arrive several years later and owe a lot to this record certainly, though I think in general they are the ones to push the sound to the next level where it gets REALLY good. Both bands which are notably absent from this book as well which is an oversight. Exceptions, Breadcrumb Trail, and the deliciously understated Washer, plus Good Morning Captain, which are fantastic and fully realised.

I enjoyed it but not mad on it. I like Reggae but I don't love it, I prefer the up beat of Ska or more of the dub style. It's got to have that dirty great bass running through it. This album felt a little polished really, which reading about it is the studios fault, not the bands. Would be interested to hear the original mix. So the one I enjoyed the most was the most dub, Red gold and green.

The last Prodigy album that's ace from start to finish. My CD copy of this always used to skip like buggery at the 3 song suite at the end, it's nice to listen to it without having to regularly get up and batter the hi fi.

Really enjoyable listen, he's a fabulous singer. I love Ole Man Trouble. slight nagging feeling through several of the songs as I find myself enjoying them slightly less than other versions of the same song. Possible exceptions being Rock me Baby and Satisfaction. But yeah, really good.

There's too much Elvis Costello in this list, but this feels like one of his better albums. I kind of get along fine with just This Years Model and select few other tracks though.

Come into this thinking I like two DIV songs, and prefer Dirt which isn't here. Aisha is decent, and ahead of the curve slightly in that Iggy Pop later turned up doing this sort of thing for everyone from New Order to seemingly countless others. Am immediately reminded that I also like Dirge, not sure I knew it was them. I saw the sub-screamadelica criticism which makes sense for Soul Auctioneer especially, Death Threat as a track is completely pointless, should be a 90 second coda, tops. Most of this, though, is decent and an enjoyable listen, however I'm not sure it's essential. Better than David Holmes solo work.

I can't read about why this was chosen because as an album made in the 2000s, it's not allowed to stay in the book. The National have always been a blind spot for me, failing to understand what's so great about them - also was late to them, but this is the one album of theirs I tried to get into when it came out. I gave it several listens at the time, but just bounced off. Don't know what it is. First track fills me with hope that I'm going to finally GET IT, genuinely very good, uplifting and driving. Then the album goes on, and it just... doesn't really go anywhere? Most of these other tracks just don't grab me, so I'm left just drifting in and out of it. Later highlights that at least held my attention, Bloodbuzz Ohio, England and Runaway. I keep being told to go listen to Alligator, maybe one day I will, but people also say High Violet is one of their best so I don't hold out much hope.

Although I’ll probably always turn first to Inner Visions or Talking Book for my classic Stevie fix, good god there are some classic bangers on this wildly ambitious, genre-spanning album. Right from the off, and right to the end. As a double album its always going to be accused of being a bit bloated and filler, and well, there is some. I can live without Contusion, a technically fantastic freakout that feels oddly out of place here on an album ostensibly made up of many of the most popular songs of Stevie's ridiculously high quality canon, With Contusion I forget I’m not listening to Magma or something. So, when I say I can live without it, I just kind of want to have the Stevie freakout album separate. The only songs that aren't completely five star smashed out of the park are maybe Ordinary Pain, and If Its Magic. But this is followed by two of the greatest circa-8 minute songs ever made, As and Another Star, neither of which feel a fraction of their length. I don't think I've ever heard the EP before, but Saturn and All Day Sucker are up to this standard, the other two I can take or leave. I’m splitting hairs because the vast majority is killer and this is obviously getting five stars.

1001 album a day tries to kill me with a Stevie double album followed by a Georgie triple album the next day. It's a bloody good job they are both fabulous. Very much enjoyed the 50th anniversary thing last year, especially after watching Get Back recontextualised the whole thing. Watching George working on several of these songs during those sessions, entirely reasonably floating the idea of breaking off to do some solo stuff and then coming back to the band, because at this point he was bleeding well busting with classic songs. The first 5 songs are of such unbelievably high quality, you do understand why Maxwell Silver Hammer gets mauled, taking the place of one of these beauties, and they were struggling for songs to put on Let it Be. Erm? I would respectfully suggest anyone who thinks this is sub-Beatles stuff go back and listen to the Let It Be album again. I think of the Apple Jam sessions as bonus material, much like the EP in Songs in the Key of Life, so I'm entirely unbothered if it's just jam noodles. Also, the jams are good. It's true that while they're all good, not all the tracks are of such high standard as the first 5 tracks, both brilliant versions of Isn't It A Pity, the title track, Hear Me Lord and Beware of Darkness, but an album with such a high hit rate of five star tracks, gets five stars. That's it, that's the rule.

Ah that goes in there, and that goes in there, and that goes in there, and that goes in there, and that goes in there...and then it's over. So, my favourite Pulp album His n Hers didn't make the list, but I'm happy this did, played it continuosly on release and no every word to most of the songs. The Pulp hangover record, the first half is so relentlessly (but wonderfully so) depressive and nihilistic, thank god there was a slight uplift in the second half or I might not have made it out.

Grace Slick! Not just White Rabbit, Somebody to Love, Today and some other songs, although that would almost be enough. Those songs tower. DCBA 25 is also pretty great. Feed your head!

Never heard any Jay-z beyond New York State of Mind, which is great, obviously. Takeover is good but to be honest I'm just enjoying Five To One. Izzo sampling the bit from I Want You Back just before the chorus opens out, means for me the rework never takes off. 3 tracks in, unless something radically changes, this falls firmly in the camp of 'I can see why people like it, but nah'. Not my style of hip hop. Girls girls girls is a better vibe, but again, just makes me want to go listen to the source material. I sense a theme here... Hola Hovito is the closest I've got to enjoying a song so far. Heart of the City drove me straight to Bobby Bland, and well, fair fucks, this is the first time I've thought Jay-z has done something to the sample which makes his songs stand on it own. Both songs are great. Never Change and Song Cry, similar to a lesser degree. If this record was massively influential then I now know why I was turned off hip hop for over a decade. There's two or three decent songs in the second half here, but ultimately I don't really dig the style.

Yeah, what The Beatles would have sounded like if they were The Who. Alternatively, what The Who would have sounded like if they were The Beatles. The main songs which are obviously ripped by Tommy is The Journey, and I See You. However there's a fair bit which sounds like offcuts from the Sgt Pepper sessions, just with more drugs. No surprise given that's where the producer had just been, but man it shines through pretty loud on half the album. That's not to say it's not great, because it is. As a fan of Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock and obviously the Beatles, I was going to enjoy this. Once again, I can't review this fairly because I'm too familiar with stuff it influenced and not familiar with itself. However Piper at the Gates preceded this and I hear Syd's influence a lot here also. Superb in places, would listen again.

Yeah, The Stooges. This is the album of theirs I return to the most. I love the crazy skronk on side B. 1970, Fun House, yeah!

I like Boy George as a person but always found Karma Chameleon, and Culture Club's musical output annoying as a kid. That hasn't changed. Obviously never listened to an album. The female singer with prominent backing vocals on a few tracks is the best bit. Reminds me of that Simply Red album I had to listen to in places. Most of the other stuff isn't as annoying, (although some of it is) and is fine I guess but it's not for me.

Slick 80s Soul. Yeah its good, but doesn't do anything for me at all. It's not Across 110th Street.

Shite. Awful, unremarkable shite. Another one from the Black Crowes or the Black Keys school of why am I listening to this, all the influences are already in the book and it's shite at that, nothing new. I don't understand it, there's just nothing here. And then there's all that shit about the man himself. Take it away.

Ah, good. Always been a fringe can of Sonic Youth but only really ventured into two albums, this one and EVOL. Both great. Glad to see I'll be visiting a few more on this project. Teenage Riot is fabulous, obviously. First half of this is packed full of 7 minutes long masterful tracks none of which feel overlong. I won't lie though I start to tire on the second half, however good it is. The end though, is an absolute beast.

Ah yeah this, I remember this. Stolen Car is better than I remember, more than just the radio-friendly indie folk it appears to be on the surface. I seem to remember a lot of artists tried to emulate the success of this but they were rubbish. Never listened to the rest of the album. Well, I'd stick it on ahead of Richard Hawley, that's for sure. It's nice enough.

It's Curtis Mayfield. It's fabulous. I'm a little unsure why Curtis and Roots aren't also here given the preponderance of some other artists. Maybe one or two fewer Steely Dan or Neil Young albums? I mean, we get it. I raise once more the existence of a David Grey album in a list ahead of Curtis.

Block rockin beats was so massively overplayed in the indie clubs I frequented 25 years ago that I'm no longer very excited to hear it. Although it is great. This is really good, but ultimately if I'm going to have a bit of nostalgic chems listening I am far more likely to reach for the debut, the big songs on which trigger that sweet sweet memory hit. A couple of tracks here are pretty average, or just run together without anything particularly distinguishable happening - Elektrobank, Piku, It Doesn't Matter, Don't Stop the Rock etc. when I think about it this is one of my least favourite Chems albums to be honest, I'm talking myself down to a 3. Private Psychedelic Reel though, is a different story, I fucking love that. In fairness the last 3 tracks are decent, in contrast to about half an hour of meh that precedes it. Amusingly I forgot about the Beth Orton track at the end, had her album yesterday.

Perfect pop song after perfect pop song. Sure, it's radio friendly, sure I guess it's kinda M.O.R. but, there's just something about Crowded House that means this doesn't matter. They stride above such concerns. Must be the quality. So it's either this or Together Alone which is their best album, I have a very strong soft spot for Together Alone as it just came out when I was buying album after album, but this is a very close second for me.

Barely listened around the fringes of these but my memory suggests I am fonder of them than other 90s metal bands. This is banging. Ratamahatta is absolutely ace. As is Born Stubborn. I'd say the Nu-metal songs are less good, but Lookaway is epic. 72 minutes is far too long, so tracks to drop - Straighthate, Dusted maybe? Itsari feels like a natural end point, then there's 4 more, admittedly good, songs. There's no bad tracks, it's just too long. Ah, the last track is 13 minutes of, well, canyon jamming, I guess. Which is great but I'm obviously not listening to it all every time I stick this on. So that takes this down to a tight 59 minutes.

Not my favourite Bowie album (Bowie albums I love more: Low, Young Americans, Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Station, Aladdin) though it indisputably contains one of if not his greatest ever songs. In terms of the Bowie albums with two halves of pop songs and instrumentals, Low is lightyears apart for me on both fronts. That said, it's a peak Bowie album, and is spectacular in its own right. I just have to leave myself somewhere to go. Favourites - Heroes, Neukoln, V-2 Schneider.

Scrolling through the reviews, people giving this 1 star seem to be mostly bell ends, or under this mad self-hate craze they've got running riot in the states. Or maybe they want all their music to have 'perfect' production with all the edges knocked off and unadventurous. Which is a valid choice for some. Sure it's not for you, nothing is for everyone, 1 star should be reserved for the truly bad, 2 stars for me when I just don't like something but can see why others would. That said I can understand why this album would be polarising. Newspaper, For Her, the title track. But if an album is polarising opinion, that can be a sign of something truly special. I remember the reaction when it came out, universal praise, Pitchfork's fabled full 100 score, that kind of thing and wondered if people were going overboard. I think they probably were, but just a little, this is a great album. I think I prefer the idler wheel, and I was never a fan of her 90s stuff, so I'm far happier when she's experimental. Regardless, I'm obviously going to add a star and give this a 5 just to undo one of those 1s that should be a 2. Faves - Fetch the Boltcutters, I Want You to Love Me, Rack of His, Cosmonauts

Hugely enjoyable listen in places, the opening of Instinct of Survival just kicks your face off. Very noticeable the change in make up of the band half way through. I think in general I find the first half better, or easier to tell the songs apart, but they both have a distinctive style. If you read the lyrics it's actually possible to pick out the words from the first guy, the second guy, you're fucked. Played some of the second half to my 11 year old when I got home. She said she liked it and it was inventive. Among other things. Faves, Instinct of Survival, Siege of Power, Born on Your Knees, CS, Pseudo Youth, Moral Crusade. Afterwards, the girl said she wanted to listen to mice. So I searched Spotify and found a band called Mice Parade, who seem to be pretty good!

Lol ok so it's not random. The best Xmas album ever made by a distance, Christmas (baby please come home) is the best Xmas song ever made. All the Darlene Love and Ronettes ones are stone cold timeless bangers. Oh and The Crystals. Well, all of it. Merry Xmas everyone.

Complicated relationship with this one. Well, not that complicated, it's just not my favourite of theirs and I struggle slightly with the concept that this is an all time flawless album. This is kind of more, the Led Zep "that's an impressive fret-wank (or equivalent) album". I appreciate Whole Lotta Love rather than love it, fun effects and stuff but too stop start ultimately. It's not high on my favourite led zep songs. Same goes for the Lemon Song. That said, there really isn't a song here that's less than very good. Ramble on and Heartbreaker are fantastic, they just don't fuck around (well, Ok, they do a little bit). Sounds like I only want straight ahead rockers from Led Zep which is not true at all, since I've been loving you on 3, the song remains the same, love all that shit. I also love their folksy shit, which again is more evident from 3 onwards. I love Led Zep 3 so much more, I like Houses of the Holy more, and Led Zep 4 is better than this. Based on gut feeling and memory, we'll see how I feel when they all come up, as I'm sure they will.

I've still somehow never seen The Exorcist (who someone on here seems to think was directed by Roman Polanski). Tubular Bells II came out when I was a kid though to a big buzz so this was everywhere for a while, I believe I may have listened to this in full once or twice then, and not in fact the maligned sequel. After the famous recognisable part is over... Well it's more prog rock isn't it, but is it good prog? I'm not sure it is really. For large swathes the ideas come thick and fast and then he's done and moved on. Of course there's a Mellotron in there, which is kinda fun as usual. It's basically one big solo jam session. Not my kind of prog either, mostly. There are high points though obviously, usually when he sticks with an idea for more than one minute, who knew. So the beginning, and the end of part 1 are both obviously great. Anything redeemable about part 2? Er, well not from the first half. The second half, with the Klingon and whatnot, erm, no. The very end of the album is good - nice, noodly and chill. Which is then ruined by him launching into Barnacle Bill - whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Overall, a very mixed bag, which is an entertaining enough listen as a one off for this but can't see why I'd put it on as a whole piece again.

It's the Go-Go's. Yep, great fun, poppy bangers throughout. Another nice one to get to send off Terry Hall into that long goodnight.

Hmm, not sure where I sit with this as I listen for the first time. Was just thinking, don't really get these, seems like sub-prog rock without really going for it, same as how I feel about most Steely Dan I've heard so far. Then Hotel came on and my ears pricked up, ideas all over the place. Probably headphones are necessary. But then you do also hear the ouch racist lyrics. Also this brought home the very obvious influence they had on the band Field Music, who I like, and who I particular appreciate for their adventurousness, so perhaps I should like this? Ah... Godley and Creme are from this band. Not that I'm mad on any of their songs particularly either, though. But, based on one listen - and after the first two songs left me stone cold - I'm coming down on the side of enjoying this. I like people to try stuff. My god, Field Music sound so much like these, especially on the first album or so. However as the album goes on I can also hear Surf's Up/Smile era Beach Boys and Briand Wilson's influence too. Yep, a winner. Faves, Somewhere in Hollywood

This was good fun when it came out, though it's pretty much textbook inessential, doesn't belong in this list, that's for sure. One or two genuinely great songs dotted around the Foos' career (maybe not on this one though) , and Dave seems a lovely bloke. Nice to get the lyrics sheet and have it confirmed after this time that the lyrics to This is a Call are a completely random list of non-sequiters. Foo Fighters albums just got more and more inessential, but not bad, as they went along. They hit on that formula early and by god they opened the factory. Because of that, and this being the height of my Nirvana-fandom, this is the Foo Fighters album I'm fondest of. It also sounds the most like Nirvana (Easy Target, Weenie Beanie), which makes sense since most of the tracks were written back then. For All the Cows sounds like Green Day. But ultimately, it's still just good to average, perfectly serviceable rock. And when In Utero comes around it's clearly getting 5 stars, so as someone who likes this, you have to consider - is it really just one star better than this? No. Faves - X-Static, This is a Call, Alone + Easy Target.

Ha, well I got this on New Year's Eve. 3 months after her death. Not a big country fan by any means but I have softened in my aversion to it in recent years. And, well, this is terrific really. What a voice. RIP.

Another golden age of rap/ hip hop record, and another I haven't heard before. Nice.

Definitely sets a mood! Since I'm listening with my daughter we dissolved that mood by singing the categories of Top Trumps Dogs to eachother in Marvin style as we played. I won in the end, kept getting the Doberman. Best songs for this game: Keep Getting it on, You Sure Love to Ball. Good times.

Growing up in Manchester I also obviously grew up with The Smiths and New Order, and it was the perfect counter soundtrack to the shite on the radio from the mid 80s onwards. I listened to this one less than TQID or Hatful of Hollow mainly, and they might have more straightforward classic Smith's songs, but this pushes the boat out musically and atmospherically, Death of a Disco Dancer being a prime example. Last Night I Dreamt... (surely one of their greatest ever songs). And there's still the pop, Girlfriend in a Coma, Stop Me if you think etc. Unhappy Birthday. The lyrics are great and affecting as ever. I'm beginning to get more comfortable separating 80s Morrissey from whoever this is now, and really enjoy the genius of what they created together back then. Anything else is pure self-denial. Some magnificent stuff here.

Removed from the book as a post 2000 album, obviously, we can't dislodge David Gray. I kept meaning to listen to this album back in the day, Christ it's 15 years old already, I am old. Anyway I never did really, apart from the 3 main songs on the radio, until years later. When I finally did I don't think I latched on. I remember a big fuss being made about Congratulations as well but I did the same with that. It's quite funny how different most of the album tracks are to the singles, there's a couple of decent pop-psych songs in a similarly interesting vein and then there's this kind of cod-Bowie/Bolan stuff. A little bit of the more interesting stuff feels a logical progression of what 10CC and others were messing about doing in the 70s. I'd say about 70% of the album is really good and enjoyable.

Ooh. Delightful. I don't have the musical vocab to say anything interesting about a classical tango album but this is very, very nice. I have one other touchstone in this ouvre I guess which was the soundtrack to Waking Life by Tosca Tango Orchestra, which was also slightly offbeat in places but more generally unsettling than this. This is lovely. I particularly love the longer tracks as they wend and wain.

Um... Well obviously Cult of Personality is a stone cold banger that's reverberated down the ages, welcomely popping back up in Grand Theft Auto (Vice City??) and again smashing it as CM Punk's entrance music. So, the rest. I did worry it was all going to be shit after the second track. Well it's not baad bad, I'm just not sure why I'm listening to it. Desperate People is probably the only song I'd be interested in if CoP didn't exist. Late shout for Glamour Boys. It says here that the album has aged well, that's debatable I think. The vocal style is incredibly of its time, cock rock/hair metal, maybe except on Memories Can't Wait, where he's trying his best to ape Mike Patton (without his ridiculously wide vocal range). I get why it's here, and I like that an all black 'metal' (it's not metal is it, let's be honest, who is calling this metal? I'll accept hard rock) band broke through in the 80s, and the messages in the lyrics. But aside from that one great song this isn't for me.

1-2 Oh My God! So much of this takes me back to Monday and Wednesday nights at the Ritz. Jumping off the stage to Sabotage (that video!), plus Root Down, Get it Together (Q-Tip!) and of course Sure Shot, which I got a second life from when I later discovered all the Blue Note stuff they'd pilfered from to genius effect. Jeremy Steig's Howling For Judy, is just an absolute gem. Such variation. Love the funky jams in the middle like Futterman's Rule. That said, the album does wander considerably far from where we were during the first 9 tracks at that point and doesn't come back for a while. Then it wanders away again. Essentially two different albums smooshed together. We're back red hot with Flute Loop. I'm a sucker for these jazz samples. Also enjoy the throwbacks to their start out as a thrash punk outfit. So, it suffers a fair bit through the classic CD era failure to edit. I'd drop Alright Hear This, The Scoop and a couple others to a B-side personally. Not Ricky's Theme though, that is low key ace. As is Bodhisattva Vow. Not sure you need the whole 3 mins 40 of Shambala as a lead-in to it. Mind you that is very good, but this is the issue with too long albums, you're kind of done with stuff like that by the time it comes around. Overall though, excellent, and aged well.

Hmm. Well it's accomplished pop, but I've heard a fair bit of pop in recent years that is really outstanding (Self Esteem, King Princess, Tove Styrke). I'm not really getting that here. I heard Tilted along with everyone else so checked out the rest of their stuff hoping to love it but was left cold really. I'm having more or less the same experience here. I've already got Off The Wall. Using the same production tricks is fine and everything but I'm not sure what's he to push this album into the stratosphere on its own merits. Doesn't Matter was good. Goya Soda was good. Feels so Good was good. A few songs were very average. Obviously I'm not going to listen to the same album again in French straight afterwards, therefore the 'Too long' criticism is unfair. Unless the songs were all so unmemorable to those people that they literally didn't realise this was happening, in which case that's not good, is it.

Karmacoma was literally everywhere when it came out, as such I'm a bit sick of it. But could never hear Protection too many times, wonderful song. I was never particularly taken by Tricky's solo stuff, aside from Black Steel (which is kind of a rock cover of Public Enemy anyway). Anyway yeah, played this to death during my uni years so will always be evocative of that particular era, plus the sound is very much of its time, hello also to Leftfield. A mix of melancholic but beautiful songs, swooshing instrumentals and modern dub. I had no idea it was made amid so much turmoil for the band. Nevertheless, it still stands up. Best tracks: Sly, Protection, Spying Glass, Heat Miser.

Well this is just loads of fun, especially when McLaren isn't speaking. You've got the Art of Noise, you've got Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens (massively not cool that they were uncredited - wtf), you've got Thomas Dolby, you've got the pirate DJs the Supreme Team all smooshed together by Trevor Horn and the gang. There's so much to love. Keith Haring cover art as well. It's so ubiquitously 80s, it's kind of wonderful. Even if McLaren comes across as one of the creepiest dudes ever, and most of this album is magpie-ing shit from everywhere - and although that is kind of the entire point, see above, pay those people! They made half the record pop. Also love happening upon another PWEI sample (end of Merengue = end of 88 Seconds...and still counting) Man From Delmonte stole the Makgona Tsohle Band sound (specifically on Water in My Eyes which I still love) and mixed it with Marr/Orange Juice guitar, and although no-one seems to have heard of them these days I still like them. This album sent me off on a journey of listening to all of the above over the course of the day. Therefore, inspirational.

Spent the whole album waiting for Number of the Beast and specifically Run to the Hills, just hoping something, anything would stack up to those two absolute classics. Sadly nothing really did. Also one too many 6+ minute tracks that don't do enough to justify the length. I suppose the 2nd half of Acacia Avenue was decent. But I was really trying to like something by that stage so who knows. My feelings confirmed when the 2 aforementioned finally come on and absolutely blow everything else away. Well RTTH does, NOTB is merely great. Maybe its unfair, how can anything compare to Run to the Hills, one of if not the greatest metal song ever written? Fact is they are on the same album as it, and that's that. It towers above everything else though, what a song. Muscular closer Hallowed be Thy Name is an exception to all my comments above, but just reading this being referenced as one of the greatest metal albums ever, I can't have that. 3 fantastic songs, the rest isn't meh, but it's nowhere near good enough for that accolade.

When this came out I was all about Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and all that. The biggest most recent wave of sad boy indie guitar, it was everywhere. Now I've moved on obviously, but still have to pop back to Funeral from time to time, which remains superb. I haven't felt drawn to this in the same way over the years, although it definitely has some of their best songs on it. Honestly if this album was around 48 minutes long it would probably be getting 5 stars. As it is, it's just too long and as others have said, in hindsight drags in the middle. Songs that make it too long while not really adding anything: City with no Children, Half Light II, Month of May. That said, it does an expert job of creating a consistent mood, you can really visualise the subject matter and imagine yourself wondering around somewhat soulless, humdrum and empty cookie-cutter neighbourhoods as you listen to it. Favourites: Ready To Start, Sprawl II, Suburban War

Don't get any big ideas. Probably my favourite, most enduring Radiohead album? The other classics, my opinion is clouded slightly by 90s nostalgia and I was never a Kid A Stan. I've grown to love it over the years but it's not the same. In fact Hail to the Thief brought me back on board after leaving for a while, and In Rainbows re-cemented my love and encouraged me to try Kid A again. So I love those albums. But In Rainbows - well it's retained its freshness somehow. I guess we will see in 10-12 years if I feel its as fresh, but in my memories clearly it's attached to a very different stage in my life than the bends or ok computer. Love every bit of this. That moment in Reckoner, you know the one. Johnny's guitar merging into the backing vocal melody in Jigsaw Falling into Place. The skittish, irrepressible energy of Bodysnatchers. The beauty of Faust Arp. Nude.

Hmm. Where to start here. I'll listen to arguments about why live albums should be included, I don't think they should be dismissed out of hand. Especially when the artists haven't released a truly great studio album but have great tracks, and are notoriously good live, which I think is fair to say of The Who. But then why are 4 studio albums in this book. I'll get to the other 3, but I didn't think much of Who's Next. I liked it but didn't love it. Secondly, this is a release that's been fucked about with, app links to an hour and 17 minutes version but the compiler is referring to an original 6 track live recording. I haven't got all day, so, after Can't Explain I'm skipping straight to Young Man Blues, then after Happy Jack I'm skipping to Summertime Blues. A compromise. Happy with my decision. Actually I deviated and skipped through Happy Jack and went to Amazing Journey from Tommy. I think I'm going to enjoy Tommy, I remember enjoying the film, and was disappointed with most of The Who's output post-1969. I just find them very hit and miss. But they can definitely hit. Was windmilling between 4 and 5 but the medley starting with My Generation just blew me away. Can't argue with the assessment that this is The Who at their best, and how they should be heard. Bin off the albums, just come here.

00s album, they only keep 3-4 per year in the book so can't read the write up. Never listened to these at the time. Heard various artists I respect saying it was good, just never got around to it. I guess I was listening to Devotchka instead. With that and Devo, that was the allocation for DEV taken up. A really gentle, indie folk album which was perfect for a Sunday afternoon. Lovely finger picking guitar. His voice and singing style strays occasionally towards the annoying, but mostly stays on the right side of that particular boundary. It's also crucially not sad indie folk, which seemed to be everywhere at the time. Some of it is good but too much was definitely a bad thing. Sufjan Stevens being the most obvious example of the good. I think I'll listen to this again in quiet moments.

All killer no filler from the Queen of Soul.

First thought - well, the cover is extremely reminiscent of the graffiti you come across in the Last of Us, but particularly the TV iteration, the 1st of which we watched last night. To the music - Wonderful. I love this, and I was caught unawares. Never listened to any Fairport Convention to speak of (I guess I'll look forward to that when they come up). The vocals, the instrumentation, the songs, the lyrics, all pretty much perfect. I listened to it twice on repeat. I think getting heavily into Richard Dawson in recent years, and into this kind of folk in general, has primed me for this little masterpiece. Faves - Title track, Calvary Cross, Has he Got a Friend For Me, End of the Rainbow.

The king of the swingers! This is already a favourite. Absolutely bags of fun, and a great pick me up. Every track might not be quite as good (often re-using licks - but again, what licks) as the ultra-highs of just a gigolo, jump jive n wail, oh Marie, buono Sera, what it definitively is, is a bloody good time. Tight.

Now this is an album that deserves to be here. We are on a good run. Discovered this only a few years back. Criminally overlooked it despite already loving She's not There. I honestly think I assumed Time of the Season was by The Bryds or something. Care of Cell 44 is wonderfully Brian Wilson-esque. That chorus just absolutely POPs out of the speaker. Brilliance. I believe it was A Rose for Emily being played at the end of every episode of the podcast series S-Town that finally dragged me to this album. Doubtless I'm not the only one, so I'm very grateful to that. There's plenty of Pet Sounds influences here (which is enough by itself to draw me in) but there's lots more to love besides. There's hints of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter here too in Hung up on a Dream (which of course was slightly layter). A glorious and faultless 60s psych-pop album. Definitely one of the best records ever made. Best - Care of Cell 44, Time of the Season, This Will Be Our Year, Hung Up on a Dream.

Another classic. I am due SUCH a run of duffers. As a long-time Tropicalia convert, I'm surprised I only stumbled across this album last year, through some random conversation. But that's what happened, and now it is a staple. I adore the Quarteto Em Cy cover of Tudo Que Você Podia Ser, did not know it was a cover before hearing this album. But what a trip we go on listening to this. Can't adequately explain how good it is. A journey in every song. Absolutely wonderful. I like the story of the two kids on the cover too. “I was eating a piece of bread that someone had given me, because I was starving. And I was barefoot. But I never knew I was on the cover of a record. My mother will be thrilled. We never had a photo of me as a boy.” Faves, Tudo Que Você Podia Ser, Clube Da Esquina No2, O Trem Azul, Um Gosto De Sol, Nada Sera Comp Antes.

One of my all time favourite albums. Adore the first track. Hate the fact that the Elvis "Can't help falling in love" infused version has replaced the original more pure version on all streaming sites. Should be an extra track. It's lovely, but when I listen to the album I want the version I fell in love with. Every song builds beautifully. Talk about going on a sonic journey into the space in your mind. I have the CD that came in a prescription blister pack, and cardboard with the inlay notes written on a patient information leaflet and instructions for dosage, etc. Genius design. Absolutely wonderful album though. I got this in 1997 then went back and bought Pure Phase and Lazer Guided Melodies and the three of them soundtracked my uni years and plenty more besides. Saw the band live a couple of times around this time, absolutely spectacular each time. The live album released a year or so later is a great example of this. Could always be relied upon to do something special and different in a live version, songs such as Electric Mainline and Shine a Light are completely brilliant in a different way to the studio version. Broken Heart, off this record, the harmonica is just incredible, heartbreaking live version. The studio versions are fabulous also. Broken Heart is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. So sad on the face of it, but the arrangement is so warm, and ultimately feels so full of acceptance, and strength to move forward. Like Hope in the Dark, this song is an axe I often reach for to break down walls. Stay With Me's gently shimmering brilliance, Come Together's muscular gospel rock, I Think I'm in Love's laconic build. The freak outs. Electricity continuing the Beefheart/OMD run of songs called Electricity being fucking excellent. After all that, Cool Waves is a blissful salve, before Cop Shoot Cop blows your socks off again. It's just perfect. I'm only really now getting into Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom's work with Panda Bear helps. Will always love this album and frequently return to it. Faves. Title track (original), I think I'm in Love, Stay With Me, Broken Heart.

Never listened to an actual Elton album. Obviously I know all the big songs, so it's just a question of what the rest is like. Nice to listen to the proper version of Candle in the Wind instead of the incredibly mawkish rework. I forgot how terrific a song it genuinely is. Benny and the Jets is obviously magnificent, and the title track is plainly one of the greatest songs written by anyone, ever. Weirdly I heard the Beastie Boys slightly daft (but still faithful) cover of the former before I heard the original. Saturday Night's alright for fighting, likewise, absolute cracker. So to the rest. Grey Seal is great. Jamaica Jerk off is not great. Everything else is good, very good even, but it's not really classic. It's unfair to compare them to 4 of the best songs ever written but they are on the same album so here we are. Also, this is a double album, which needs to have extra classic bangers to score top marks. (It's only 6 minutes longer than the Spiritualized 'single' album I just gave 5 to, but hey ho)

The midway point between two Blurs. I don't ever recall being that in love with this record, I enjoyed it and played it a lot, but I'm never compelled much to go back and listen again over the years. A fan since the first album, I enjoyed the experimentation on the Great Escape, which was critically panned, but well received on this - for me it just feels less...warm. Or maybe it's just that the tunes aren't as good, generally. I've not much time for the 'old' Blur songs here MOR, On Your Own, Look Inside America. They're fine but stick out, out of place. Beetlebum is still great. Song 2 is massively overplayed. Theme From Retro and Death of the Party still manage to sound vaguely Margate Pier underneath the weirdness, the chorus of the latter is the most Great Escape sounding thing here. Graham Coxon the solo artist is announced on You're So Great. The sludgy groove on Just a Killer For Your Love is excellent. A record I admire for the change in direction rather than love for the music on it.

I like metal and I'm not sure if I'm just not feeling it this morning, but I'm not feeling this. Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight aside, a lot of the songs seemed to go on too long, even though they were only 4 minutes. I was getting bored and wanting the next one on after about 2. Good riffs and energy but just... not enough tunes.

Hmm. Do I like this? Not sure. I like large bits of it certainly but it's very long for a continuous jam, even for my tastes, and I fucking love a big song that build and builds. I guess this doesn't necessarily do that though, it stops for a snooze now and then. Also I think we need to blame them for Phish, contractually? But then we wouldn't have had the Analyze Phish podcast with Harris Wittels, and both before and after that I haven't been impacted by Phish, so, net positive. So I am enjoying Calvary, which actually seems to suit the album cover. As a whole I think this goes in the 'enjoyable listen, glad I heard it, not sure I will ever put it on again ' section.

Yeah it's Bryter Layter, five stars. Some notes though. Belle and Sebastian seem to have pinched their template from a couple of tracks here, Hazey Jane II and suchlike. Love the soulful jazz of Poor Boy as it gently soars. One of These Things First and Northern Sky are particularly excellent. Some of the rest feels a little twee at times but seems to somehow stay on the right side and remains delightful, instrumentals included. Always a great listen.

Enough has been written about Bob Dylan. This is really good.

Eno! Ooh what to do? Not a sausage to do. Bags of fun, and so much inventiveness, I love it. By This River is gloriously beautiful. Spider and I is also gorgeous, extremely reminiscent of his work on Bowie's Low in the same year. I maybe don't love this album as consistently as Warm Jets or Another Green World but I still love it. All of Eno's albums in the 70s are fabulous.

Ah, this. Was absolutely everywhere and I didn't buy it for some reason. But I did listen to it A LOT. And it's all wrapped up in the memories of watching it at the time. Kurt's mohair jumper. Dave looking all prim in a pony tail, and those brush drumstick things because he couldn't physically hit the drums lightly enough with anything else. Who are these fellas, the what puppets? It's basically perfect. Was also into Bowie but it took me years to dive into his earlier back catalogue, so Man Who Sold the World joins the list of songs I heard the cover of first. For many years this was the definitive version for me. Only just twigged it's not actually unplugged, that's an electric guitar! Obviously. Kurt really loves The Vaselines, that's 3 covers now. Where did you sleep last night is chilling.

I'm not sure how arsed I am about this kind of Jazz. I know I really liked Kind of Blue, bounced off Bitches Brew when I tried them both 10-15 years ago, but I didn't go to this. Be interested to see how I react to Brew with several years more musical maturity. Anyway, this is enjoyable but I'm not really picking up enough variation to keep me massively interested.

Real good. Will be adding to my King Crimson rotation along with Crimson King and Red, the latter of which I was compelled to stick on after I listened to this.

Aw, too soon! Only just had ladies and gentlemen, hoped they'd space them out a bit. Ha. Pun not intended. Anyway, love this most low key Spiritualized album. Sometimes even more than aforementioned masterpiece. Certainly Shine A Light is one of the best songs they ever did. Everything builds so gently and beautifully, gliding into a blissed out haze. Elsewhere, both If I Were With Her Now and Take Your Time's one-paced, effortlessly rolling groove take some beating. Angel Sigh blows your socks off, Sway is simply gorgeous. This album starts and finishes so strongly. I'm not as fond of I Want You and the reworking of the Velvet's Run, Run, Run, but they're both still fun. Plus you get to have a little sleep and a float in the breeze in the middle of the album.

If you only listen to one Fleet Foxes album, you should listen to... Helplessness Blues. Well, actually I haven't given Crack Up or Shore enough of a listen but HB is a really great record. Better and more interesting than this one, which while a great debut and announcement of the band's somewhat memeable yet distinctive sound, trails off a bit towards the end. Great songs up front, a bit forgettable at the end. This is definitely something the band fixed on the follow up. Almost not worth mentioning the incredibly obvious influence of Simon and Garfunkel, and the Beach Boys vocally and Brian Wilson musically, but I will. Particularly in Quiet Houses, the standout Ragged Wood and the instrumental Heard Them Stirring. I also get a huge Red House painters vibe from Taking Tiger Mountain Peasant Song. Very accomplished debut, but better, more expansive music as they grew into their own sound was to follow.

So good. Demands close listening.

In a break from my routine I waited until the evening to listen to this. If you're listening to Portishead in the morning, you're probably still stoned. The little sample breaks are what give the album much of its charm, and save it from being too of its time. Strangers is a particular example of this. Lalo Schiffrin in Sour Times. Biscuit. Glory Box is obviously an absolute cracker. It's a Fire. Don't know this. It's not on the album. Very nice though. Unquestionably the best Portishead album, this is strongest for me when Beth is not overwhelmed by the trip hop beats. That said, Wandering Star pretty much marries these two elements most perfectly. Pedestal a close second. Anyone who enjoys her voice absolutely must listen to the later, absurdly good album she did with Rustin Man. Strong examples here though, It Could Be Sweet, Roads. Man. Roads. What. a. song. That's the song that doesn't immediately take me back to the years and evenings at uni where this album was ever present, because above any other song here I've carried it with me. One of my favourite ever songs. Just absolute bliss. Album probably getting a nostalgia 5.

Never listened to these. Heard Bell Bottoms on Baby Driver soundtrack, which I enjoyed but even that doesn't really go anywhere after it explodes. Threatens to be excellent but crashes into itself. Stopping after Sticky, that's the album. Skunk sounds like Odelay era Beck. Ah, same year. Wail, ok I prefer Lux Interior's mental Elvis drawl. This isn't terrible though. Fuck Shit Up - pass. 2 Kindsa Love. Think I've heard this before, another decent one to be fair. Love all of me - an extremely raucous song that still manages to be mediocre. A triumph. Loads more meh songs follow. Thank god I noticed the album itself is only 45 minutes long because it's really dragging. Only 2 half decent songs. Suspect this is a band that was probably great to catch live, but on record never quite the same. Leaves me cold anyway. In fact it started to grate. Had to stick The Cramps on afterwards as a palate-cleanser. Let's hear this shit done properly. The full "not great, not terrible" on the Dyatlov ratings scale.

While it was nice to get another LCD Soundsystem album in 2017, I struggle to think of anything particularly remarkable about it. It was decent, but not about to win over anyone who didn't already like them. So its inclusion here is just baffling to be honest. Especially considering how few albums per year post-2000 are allowed into the book. Sound of Silver is here elsewhere so LCD are accounted for. All the more egregious when I recall I've already had the XX album nobody knew existed from this year (now removed) I'm just thinking about other things released in 2017 that are more deserving. Breakthrough albums for artists, albums that move music in interesting directions. It's perhaps not a vintage year, but you have St Vincent- Masseduction. Richard Dawson - Peasant. Run the Jewels. Heck if you want a comeback album there was the Slowdive and Sparks albums. Anyway, this is still good. Takes a good while to get going but its got some decent tracks on it.

Ok we're picking this instead of one of the two good qotsa albums. Not listened to this one before. Avon I liked. Sidewalks descends into the 'just too long' hypnotic groove that Kyuss loved, and I did too. Look, it's a good sound they've got. Sadly the main problem here is there are way too few actual tunes. Kyuss has better tunes, maybe they'd run out at this stage. On Rated R they are straight out of the gate with the tunes, but sounded less like Kyuss and more like a new band with it's own sound. Which is probably how this should work. They seem like they're enjoying themselves though, so there's that.

Ed - write something about Stranger Things but being there the first time around. Donald Sutherland video. Hounds of Love is ace - however I think I actually prefer the Futureheads' version! Probably blasphemous opinion. The refreshingly mental Waking the Witch, what on earth is going on there. Can't think of words. It's Kate Bush, it's very good.

Ohhh Jeremy Corbyn. repeat to fade. I don't know what it is about the White Stripes, they're plainly quite good, but even at the time when I liked them, I never loved them, and I've never felt the desire to stick any of their records on in the intervening 20 years or so, even the couple I bought. Also, the big songs here were absolutely played to buggery everywhere, and the rest is kind of meh blues rock noodlings. I drifted in and out listening to this again now, mostly bored. Started as a 3, managed to work its way down to a 2. I'm noticing a theme in this project, maybe its the blues rock that doesn't do it for me. I like the blues. Shit, the cover version here just killed Burt Bacharach. Confirmed 2.

Difficult not to love the B-52s. A shame most people only seem to know Love Shack and a more recently, now also Rock Lobster. First 5 songs absolute stone cold worldies. Particularly Dance This Mess Around. Love love love. Lots of fun to be had elsewhere. Pure party band you have to get up and do all 16 dances to, and low key queer pioneers. Hey. So don't that make you feel a lot better?

Ok so classic period Aerosmith, here it is. Much heavier and doesn't have the aging issues Pump does. The missing link between heavy metal and hair metal from the review below is bang on. Still not my thing but it's definitely a good listen. Nothing jumps out at me like Sweet Emotion did, so my go to Aerosmith list of tracks remains short. Good though.

Got this on a Sunday which is very appropriate, the C90 I had with this on one side and Life on the other was permanently on while I played Sensible Soccer in the late 90s, or as a hangover cure. I think I may prefer Life slightly, but let's go anyway. Not listened for many years now but it doesn't seem to have dated, probably because of the many retro influences to start with. Maybe it's the flute solos. Gloriously weird in places, the mixture of this sweet, slightly twee sounding Swedish band and Black Sabbath is some sort of alchemy. Other metal moves are elsewhere, the kerchunk that punctuates the otherwise sad-indie banger Step On Me. So much so, that the worldwide smash and ludicrously overplayed Lovefool actually feels out of place when I listen to this album and it always has. Hard for me to remember the time listening to this before Romeo and Juliet. Oh god, Losers just came on. I fucking love this beautiful, wonderful song. Changed my mind, this is clearly the best Cardigans album, and actually one of my favourite albums of the 90s. Going back into circulation. Faves: Losers, Your New Cuckoo, Been it, Never Recover, Step On Me, Heartbreaker, Choke. Fuck me, the whole album except Lovefool, which is still good but passes me by due to overplayment. Sticking the excellent Sabbath Bloody Sabbath cover on to round things off.

So it's a Paul Simon album, except I've never heard it and don't know any of the songs. And it's brilliant. Why do none of these songs get played? Ah, aside from Me and Julio.

Love me a bit of Brazilian jazz singers. Initially thought this was a complete blind spot for me, before realising this is the Elis from Elis & Tom. But definitely never heard this. Turns out there's a couple of blind spots for me as I was late to the Milton Nascimento album here elsewhere also. Love the duet between the two here. Outro Cais I believe is actually on Clube de Esquina (as is O Trem Azul), but is shorn of the fabulous Beatles-esque actual outro on this outing. Less of the psych fun in general than those versions. There's a couple of more easy listening tracks, and a couple a bit janky very late 70s sounding on here (who is Jackie Ellis?) (slightly odd to have a compo on here with no Wikipedia page) but it's a really great listen, I'm going to have to dig in.

You wonder how much the editors really think you must hear this before you die given they removed it from the book immediately after a single edition. I feel ill equipped to rate this album, I've grown to like many examples of genres I previously wrote off in my youth, but modern R&B is one I'm yet to find an example I genuinely like. First two tracks of properly average R&B in, and a glance at the running time and I'm thinking, this could be the first one I'm tapping out of early. That said, the title track is pretty great. So there are ideas here. Ok, it has my attention. Enough is equally interesting. Ok. This is not an R&B album, more a beat-based soundscape with an R&B tinge. Wait. Another bog standard R&B song. The singles here are a disguise. Stop doing this! Either be good or be shite, please pick one. Her new album was just released this week, I wonder if she picked an approach. I guess out of the singles, LMK is at least a little interesting. Ok no, I think this album is just teasing me. There aren't any more of the cool soundscape songs until Turn to Dust, which is again really nice. There's half of a really great album hiding in here for me. The rest is interesting for an R&B album, but that's what it is, and I just don't really go for that.

Still one of my favourite ever albums, and in a world where I am constantly trying to listen to stuff new to me, it's one of the few records I still regularly return to. I don't care so much that Courtney is so divisive, this is just an excellent and timeless record to me. Really hits. The fact the record is imbued with tragedy, the deaths of Kurt and Kristen occuring so closely to it's release is undoubtedly part of why it stuck with me as an impressionable teenager, but does not explain why that stick has never wore off well into adulthood. The fact this album has come up in the week we just got the prognosis of my partner's cancer and the full scope of the battle ahead brought into stark relief, is well.... fuck....timely. This album is pure catharsis. It's vital. It's necessary. No punches pulled, and yet all wrapped up in melody. The harshness is still there in the lyrics, but musically it pulls back from Pretty on the Inside's onslaught. I like that too but this balance makes for a perfect record. I don't really miss God, but I sure miss Santa Claus.

Ok so here we are, about as far as we could get from the Barrett-era Floyd that I like. I was fair to Dark Side, I think that got a 4, surprisingly. So I'll be fair as I can to this. Don't think I ever got through the whole record before. By Don't Leave Me Now I was very close to turning it off again. Are the people that like this the same people who can't stand musicals? Because I don't understand that. The whole section of the album from One of My Turns up to Comfortably Numb, is the bit in the musical towards the end where the main character sits alone and has an introspective little sing to themselves. Why is In the Flesh on twice, this album is long enough, and this song is sub-Ziggy Stardust shit. I guess the point is the new racist etc lyrics to get across the character is now a fascist. So I get that this is a rock opera, which explains a lot of the decisions, and I AM glad that I listened to it. I guess I can understand why some revere it. But I don't understand why you would listen to it repeatedly. I don't go to musicals I have enjoyed again and again, so the same applies here. And the songs aren't that good, largely, which is kind of a big deal. There are definitely good bits sprinkled throughout it, but it's overlong. Songs enjoyed: Goodbye Blue Sky, Nobody Home, Comfortably Numb. That's it I think.

Funny, was just talking to a friend about going through the The Kinks back catalogue after I'm done going through Sparks. And this comes along the next day! The problem might be that every Kinks album is going to be compared unfavorably with the genius Village green. The first two tracks are great, classic poppy Kinks, after that though it loses something for me, goes a little bit too knees up mother brown for several tracks. The second half is better. Lazy Old Sun is interesting, lilting and hazy as if melted by the supposedly lazy star. End of the Season is similarly evocative, these tracks are what make the Kinks special. And then of course there is Waterloo Sunset, which blends their innate pop sensibilities together with the atmosphere to give one of the best songs made by anyone ever. Then I'm sticking Autumn Almanac on, I know it's a non-album single but honestly, what a song.

I think this sort of thing launched a million chill out albums from the late 90s to the early 00s. Still confused as to why Leftfield isn't in this book because it's better. As is The Orb, Little Fluffy Clouds this isn't. First track reminded me strongly of another track that has the same effect but it never launched into it, so that was frustrated. I've just placed it. It was a different version but off Northern Exposure by Sasha + Digweed, my trusty chill out/spaced out trance of choice during those years. The Story of Light sounds exactly like the Happy Mondays did several years earlier. The tracks at the end are kind of just... nothing. But not interesting nothing. Music with space to breathe can be awesome, see The Necks and the like. This does nothing with that space. Last track was ok. Feels very dated generally, extremely dated production, I don't have the nostalgia for these tracks to carry me over that bump. Also they aren't that interesting. I did like stuff like this back in the day quite a lot and occasionally go back to it but these tracks severely do not grab me. So this isn't for me, now. I'm not really sure other than maybe 2 tracks it was for me then either. Hazy Shade of Random, Water from a vine leaf (Spooky's Xylem Flow mix)

More Than a Feeling is such an unusually structured song. Why is the end at the beginning, and the beginning in the middle? Still, it works. Don't know any of the other tracks, I'm guessing from the reviews that the other songs besides the opener still get played a lot in the States. But this might be the most unfathomable thing, a good soft rock album. I'm still drifting off during Rock and Roll Band though. Once I realised I was bored nothing brought me back, but this type of stuff isn't for me anyway. Good fun.

RIP Keith Levene. Until relatively recently, I'd only heard the title track, and the pop stuff in the mid 80s, Rise, and that. So I'd got very much the wrong idea about PiL. One listen to Metal Box put that right, and it fair scared me off to be honest, I need to return to it. Certainly helped me understand their standing as post-punk pioneers. This is equally not for the faint hearted it seems. I listened to Theme twice, pretty much hating the first 5 minutes then loving it for the second 15. Public Image is a classic. Clearly not an immediate album, but a lot to like on the first couple of listens all the same.

These songs take me right back to the indie top 20 LPs and reading my brother's NME. Or rather, 'Birthday' and 'Hit'(from elsewhere) do, I've never listened to this album. So I was confused by the many B52s references in the reviews here, until I heard Motorcrash and OK, I get it, Bjork could be Kate Pearson and Einer could be Fred. Same with a few others. Birthday, if anything sounds like Cocteau Twins with an electrified Liz Fraser, Bjork is spectacular, the instrumentation otherworldly, simple but superb bass. Love this whole late 80s/early 90s indie vibe.

OK, Jah Wobble, never listened to his stuff but I know he has a cult following. Just had PiL's debut but I doubt this will be similar based on what I already know. 1st track, nice, this could be on Screamadelica. Ha, it was released a week later. 2/ Oh oh, 90s reggae/dub, this took a turn. Wait, Spanish guitar? What's happening here? 3/ The production here is very early 90s, reminds me of Leftfield. Except with Spanish guitar and vocals. Remember Jam & Spoon, right in the night? yeah nothing like that. 4/ ok, proper mix of styles here, I like this. The vocal has a striking resemblance to Alabaster dePlume of nowadays. Something very Talking Heads-y here too. 5/ the dub influence is back. The guitar sting which develops over the nippy dub bassline here eventually reminds me very much of Trainspotting off Vanishing point. So more Primal Scream, but later. I reckon the boys from Lo Fidelity All-stars were fans of this too. 6/ ahahaha, this one sounds more like Jam & Spoon (if they had a brass section) - I didn't plan that. Actually that's unfair, this grows into itself, with the arabic singing, interesting hoppity bass and more Talking Headsy guitar and horns backing it up. 7/ What's this then, desert dub? I like it, give me more. Oh, it drags on a bit, give me less. 8/ so this is more of that. I like it, but I'm not sure I love it. 9/ My mind is wandering at this point and this song didn't bring it back 10/ a jaunty one to finish. Very obviously a band lead by a bass-player, which usually makes for different music. It's reminded me of a lot of things that I like, which came after it. Whether they were influenced by this I don't know but that's a good sign. I wish I had come across this a little closer to the time because there is no getting away from the fact it's production has dated. At the same time the mix of styles and the North African / Spanish influence helps ease that. Spanish guitar doesn't date, that is permanent. Overall a mixed bag though.

Spiders. Fucking epic. Never get sick of these. They went a progressively more cartoony as they went along so this is generally the album I return to but Toxicity is excellent as well. Toxicity is more consistent right to the end, whereas the debut loses just a touch of steam between War? and Darts. (actually, just listened to Toxicity following on from this - it's a far better album - but this definitely the second best SOAD and still bloody great) Angry, political, loud, fast, musically tight as fuck. I have no idea how they keep the off-kilter rhythm of the verses in Soil on the rails. So many absolute bangers. We will fight the heathens. We will fight the heathens. Best: Spiders, War?, P.L.U.C.K, Suggestions

Oof, not sure about this. I can enjoy one or two Thin Lizzy songs as it goes, they're fun. But 17 in a row? No. For what is basically a best of compilation, I only recognised two songs I think. By the time the boys were back in town I'd spiritually gone home because I was bored. By Warriors, you can throw as many virtuosic guitar solos at me as you want, because I've mentally checked out completely. Checks - 5 songs left. Ok, we can do this. Songs that broke the mold and so I enjoyed: Massacre, Emerald.

A bloody good record by The Fall. I've never heard Cologne pronounced like that before.

Tried to get into this a few years back, knowing how revered it is. I bounced off the first 2 tracks then and I do now. Particularly Beside You - the musicianship is great but waaaaa waaaaa waaaa. Each time I listen to this album I recall the same reaction, Oh no, I hate this universally loved classic. but then it continues, and slowly grips me. Sweet Thing allows me in with an actual tune I can wrap my ears around. As it goes on though I grow into it, by Madam George I can float. I can hear some of the seeds of early Spiritualized here.

Well I like a couple of Mark Lanegan albums, Bubblegum, Blues Funeral. Never really listened to Screaming Trees. Not sure this will be essential but it'll probably be worth a listen. There's a real feel of The Beatles 'Love You To' lingering in the background of the opener, and its not just the sitar, the melody too. Hmm, the rest is fine but unremarkable 90s alternative grunge-tinged rock. His solo albums are better. To be fair, I don't think any of his albums are classics, but they all have a few great songs on them. Hit the City, Ode to Sad Disco, Leviathon. Whereas I can't really pick much to stand out of this album.

Essential listening, because of what they became? A few of these covers stand out, I Just Want to..., Can I get a Witness, ...Make it if you try. Though even those I prefer the original on the first 2. You can tell which song is the Chuck Berry cover to the point where its kind of unnecessary. Funnily enough my favourite Stones cover of this era, Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away' isn't on this version. As good as the original. All that is judging it on listening now, I know this was all the rage in the early 60s and fair enough, but I'm listening now, so... And within 2 years we have Aftermath, which is an altogether different proposition, huge growth. Nowadays my main association with this record is that Chorlton record shop King Bee was named for one of these songs (although it was probably the original).

Really great. Neon Lights is best. Album wise I think I prefer Computer World and Autobahn. but this is gooood.

Why don't I know a single Common song? I know he's a famous rapper but that's literally it. Didn't realise he was this old actually. I can hear the Kanye influence, now I'm slowly learning he was actually good once. I enjoy the soulful undertones. First track I thought this was going to be really good, but after that it's basically very accomplished well produced mid - 2000s rap/hip hop, which I enjoyed while it was on but am unlikely to go back to. I am not looking forward to the 77 minute long album to come though, this is fine at 40 something. Best - Intro, Chi-City.

Why have I never listened to this? People bang on about it all the time, and Tigermilk. I thought I had enough B&S with Boy with the Arab strap, and occasional forays into Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Plus as soon as I discovered Nick Drake maybe they weren't quite the same for me. Enjoyed this. Still not as many outright bangers as boy with the Arab strap though, for me, but no denying this is really good.

Ah, classic era Cure. I find I have to be in the right mood to listen to this all the way through, but I am today, and that's when it's masterpiece shines through. Pictures of You is the very definition of shimmering. And Lullaby. It's kind of Psych-goth in places, if that is even a thing. Over-long at 72 minutes for certain, but this also adds to its oppressive nature. You do feel swallowed up by this album.

Peej's pop album. Great. We Float is beautiful.

Never heard of this or him. Really enjoying it. A little dated, but still sounds great, and nowhere near as dated as other electronic music from this time can be. Reminds me of some of the chill down psychedelic trance circa Northern Exposure, with bossa nova lilts and beats. Gets much more of the latter than the former after the first couple of tracks (although noone can say it's lacking in bossa from the off!), I really dig this. As others have said, good working music vibe also. Getting a 5 because its the first NEW thing this has introduced to me in a while that I've really enjoyed.

First time washed over me completely apart from Killing Moon. More so than their earlier work, oddly. Second listen I enjoyed a lot more.

So I'm fighting hard against my prejudices against country pop to give this a fair crack before dismissing it. First 3 tracks or so I'm thinking so far, so formulaic. Somewhat incredulous that Rolling Stone have this around halfway in a list of 500 greatest albums OF ALL TIME, but most of those lists are bollocks anyway, so moving on... A couple of tracks do stand out as actually interesting, Space Cowboy, Oh what a world. There is an interesting soundscape going on. The rest, well yeah sure its nice to listen to. Accomplished pop. The sort of thing I imagine gets played on stations like Smooth FM 24/7. Will I ever listen to it again, or do I think it's essential? Absolutely not.

I will listen to this one time. Will I listen two times? Ready Or Not manages to be more than just the sum of its parts - Enya (with a John Carpenter vibe) and the Delfonics. Songs I've never heard and enjoyed - Zealots. Nice use of The Flamingos. Family Business - just a really decent hip hop track. Notes - The skits are kind of annoying, the one time two time and general chunnering behind Lauren's excellent performance on Killing me Softly is still very annoying given how good the rest of it is. The deep voice rapper (presumably Michel) reminds me strongly of the later Jurassic 5. The cover of No Woman Cry I found kind of bland and nothing at the time, and I still do. Overall, wow, Killing Me Softly did a really bad job of enticing me in to what is an excellent hip hop record back in 96. When the lads are rapping, its also very good. Very surprised how much I enjoyed this. Just chunner less lads, you've got gold here!

Oh sweet Jesus, I don't know if I can do this. Right. Solution, stick it on in the background while the football is on. Commitment carried out while minimising psychic damage. Helps no end that Liverpool are currently losing to Bournemouth. Oh the review - this is a load of old arse. Plus he's one of the biggest cunts in the music industry, doesn't exactly promote a sympathetic ear. Self confessed wife beater, rapist, racist, he seems to want to check all the boxes. Clapton doesn't even play the bit in Layla everyone knows. Bell Bottom Blues I guess is actually good. Went back to that at the end to check because after an hour of this shite I was numb. Confirmed though. One good original song. Little Wing is also good but Hendrix is a better guitarist so why would I listen to this instead of the original, I guess it's longer would be the only reason. Also Liverpool lost, hilariously.

A little mainstream, straightforward and poppy for my tastes. Usually find Zappa impenetrable, then he does this, what an enigma, eh?

Got to say the crowd don't seem that mad. Oh what? you don't even hear the 'Judas' moment! Stupid spotify sanitised version. Bootlegs are supposed to be raw,

Many Morrissey songs are now irrevocably tainted - Everyday is Like Sunday is not one of them. Suedehead and Maudlin Street are also very good. This isn't one of his albums that I actually listened to back then so even nostalgia can't come to the rescue, and songs like Bengali in Platforms - "life is hard enough when you belong here" - make me feel ick (I am so very sickened now?) I still like Vauxhall and I and rated that highly, but not this. Fair bit of late 80s production also here that jars with the Smiths in a bad way. A couple of songs have squalling, over the top guitar solos that feel horribly out of place, like someone scribbling in biro over a painting (Alsatian, Forget Me). The 2 classics - and even a song about decapitating Thatcher - aren't enough to redeem the album's many flaws as a whole.

Getting Neil Young on here is always a pain in the arse now, obviously Spotify is out, I used to be able to use Amazon but they fucked that by making it shuffle only so that's worse than useless. Had to run Youtube as audio through VLC for a tolerable experience. But mainly, because at the end of it all, its a Neil Young album. This isn't even good, folky or folk rock Neil young, its blues rock Neil Young, which can get in the bin. I do have to concede that Mercury Rev straight up pilfered 'the Dark is Rising' from 'Borrowed Tune'. How did they get away with not crediting that? I am glad they didn't however as it would disappear off streaming. Aside from that New Mama and Lookout Joe were alright. Tired Eyes was OK as well. Maybe the album grew into me as it went along, but he did that annoying thing of playing the first song again at the end, again (at least on Hey hey My My he makes the song better the second time), which drained away any goodwill which had built up.

A famously patchy album. Some absolute dross here, along with some of the Beach Boys best, most astounding songs. Feel Flows, Surf's Up, Til I Die, all incredible. Til I Die especially incredible, find the longer version, everyone deserves to hear it, even Mike Love. Then there's Student Demonstration Time.

Oh no, another Aerosmith album. But wait.... It's good? Toys in the attic is decent even if I might honestly still prefer REMs half arsed cover on Dead Letter Office. Mr Salty is... still decent, musically interesting, what's happening here? Then we get into original Walk this way territory, which just sounds weird to hear without RunDMC (also the chorus is worse) but it's still a banger (the guitar solo might be better), and Sweet Emotion, the best Aerosmith song by a significant distance. It's actually good! Big Ten Inch is obviously a massive pile of shite, but it wouldn't be an Aerosmith record without something diabolically bad, so I'm actually not going to mark it down! Worst songs, Big Ten Inch, Adams Apple - everything else was alright to very good.

Brave to start with not only the best song they would ever make, but also a really clear album closer. When someone says dark brown voice, I think Karen Carpenter. Help is good. The Bacharach songs are good, obviously. I'll never fall in love again is way worse than Dionne's version, or Bobby Gentry's though. I'm never really going to listen to any of this except We've Only Just Begun. Oh, but Crescent Noon is actually gorgeous.

Never heard this and initially put off by the intensely late 80sness. But it's not all bad. Most of it is though. Question of Life is very reminiscent of the punk ska bands I would later love for a while from 99-00 or so. Deep Inside is terrible. Mighty Long Way is terrible. Sounds like the closing theme to one of those cheesy teen US sitcoms they'd stick on the schedule of a Saturday morning. Bonin in the Boneyard nicks the keyboard riff from 1999 and slaps the shit out of some poor bass all over it. Actually good. One Day gets a pass because of the message despite veering way too far over on the Chilli Peppers Wankometer, which has been twitching regularly throughout the record. Subliminal Fascism is thankfully only 90 seconds long. Slow Bus Movin is sadly 150 seconds long. I get that it's an angry piss take though so fair enough. Ghetto Soundwave, oh thank fuck, the horns are back. A jaunty song about American cops doing one of their favourite hobbies. Just one bad apple. Nice effect detuning the horns and guitars as the hope is dying. Props. So I think that's 3 good songs so far amongst the shite. Change is quite nice to finish off. Tempted by a 1 here but it probably just scrapes a 2 for the good songs.

Remain in Light.

Ah ok CCR. High expectations for this, but I only know the hits. After the great first track (love the middle section) though there were a few meh tracks I could take or leave, and a creeping sense of disappointment began to grow. Then you hit the triumvirate of Looking out my back door (I hate the Eagles), Run through the jungle and Up Around the Bend and all is well again. I think you just have to give yourself up to CCR.

It's Earth Wind and Fire and therefore good, though I don't really know any of these songs.

Well I enjoyed this at the time and got pretty heavily into big beat, though in 2023 I never imagined I would listen to this album again. Obviously it's aged terribly for the most part. There is a reason this album was overflowing the bargain bins of record shops for £1.99 everywhere after a while. Nice to hear Right Here right now and Praise You, the other two singles were hugely overplayed but still good - as is Praise You but is more fun somehow. The rest of this - without exception - is pure filler. Some more egregious than others, Soul Surfing is alright, but that's it. Honestly, absolutely noone needs this in 2023. Will reserve judgement on the other one but honestly, TWO Fatboy Slim albums in this list, with the stuff they've left out? Criminal. Amusingly the book leaves an error in, referencing the sample from the Chambers Brothers - Fried Tomatoes, which doesn't exist. Just Brothers - Sliced Tomatoes however is a banger.

The Kinks spread their wings. I think I enjoyed this more than Something Else. In fact I definitely did. Took a couple of listens. A darker Kinks emerges.

Finally, a 5 star album, it's been a while. Every track, 5 stars. Plus a bit of Maggot Brain as a bonus track. Spotify don't have this album in 2023 for some reason, they lose a rating star as long as this continues to be the case.

Elected is a banger. The horns. Forgot I wanna be sedated is basically a rip off. No More Mr Nice Guy is a banger. Everything else is good. Not sure what Unfinished Sweet is meant to be.

Synths! Bass! One word song titles! Eyeliner! The sample from Where's Your Head At! It's all here!

Sigh, again? GTA San Andreas gif. Again, a load of songs that are not bad, sometimes interesting but I'm so done with Costello at this point. Man Out of Time was good. And in every home is daft. We get it man, you worked on Sgt Peppers. I completely zoned out 4 songs before it finished.

Is it me or is Sinatra weirdly out of tune repeatedly here? Still, it's a whole record of Jobim, and while it doesn't have The Wave on it, it's still good.

The ultimate party rock album isn't it? Forget the fact that many of the not stone-cold banger songs sound kinda the same, don't listen to the a bit rapey lyrics. Check your brain in at the door, turn it up, forget all your worries and rock out.

Ten has always disappointed me. I heard Vs first, loved that and still do, every song. So many bangers, one after the other. So on hearing there was this great debut album, and knowing the monster singles Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy, all great, so exciting! But, no. Aside from those most stuff here is just plodders. Just can't see why it's so revered. I've given it so many chances to reveal itself to me and it's never landed. I hear PJ have other really good albums too but I've never got into them, so it's possible that VS just hit right on an impressionable teen, and simply the residuals of that love have sustained that record alone for me down the years. I forgot Oceans, that's very decent. So that's 4 tracks. Release is like Elderly Woman except not as good. There are no bad songs here, just several boring ones, so I'm inclined to edge a 3.

"you don't see Bill Gates and Donald Trump arguing with eachother cause they got paper" Lol. Trump "wrong" gif. Not my bag at all mostly but no denying this is a cracker of a record and I enjoyed listening to it.

Was a bit worried at first that this has aged badly, but as it goes it's still good. Nice trip down memory lane. I can suspend my usual niggle of 'what's this doing in the book?' because it's been removed later, correctly. Describing it as metal and hard rock is a bit misleading, as while there's certainly elements of that still hanging around, they were well into their trying to emulate the Manics' pop chart success period, with similar sounding ballads as singles as well. As it goes I've more time for these ones, but maybe because I've heard them less. Kind of wish Skin was still politically active, her righteous anger is very much required in the face of these constant wankers we have now. One of the best voices in hard rock, and always a good read in interviews. Also though I think her head would explode onstage or something. At least now she can just quietly seeth like the rest of us.

Like I've left the radio on to a station I don't listen to. Or a doctor's waiting room. Completely inoffensive and fine to listen to, my daughter had blood tests this morning so it was nice to have something like this instead of subjecting her to Napalm Death again. It's all good obviously, she's ridiculously successful for a reason. Surprised that I don't know a single one of these songs, would assume I'd have heard at least one of them everywhere but nope. And clearly I'll never listen to this again.

This is fucking mental, I love it. The longer it goes on the more I love it. Hilarious that I got this the day after Adele. Obviously it starts off sounding like a jazz band falling down the stairs, but then you adjust. Kind of glad for the Spotify fail as it forced me to listen on headphones, and you can really pick out the intricacies. Can't tell because YouTube smooshed it all together but the song I think is Good Old Days is absolutely banging. Several more bangers later on but I've fully lost track by then. Thrash jazz, fuck yeah baby!

My kid has been reading the Warrior Cats books so after track 3 she couldn't stop herself chatting away about that so I missed a few songs I guess. What a strange record. I think I prefer Billion Dollars Babies because I just prefer the style there, but this is equally interesting. Overall been surprised over those two albums that there's much more to Alice Cooper than I knew.

Never really listened to these beyond the two obviously massively famous ones both connected to a MacColl. Ah, Fiesta - they used this as a music bed on the radio so heard this all the time. Banger. I did though used to listen to the Levellers a lot in the 90s. So really I should have been listening to these instead. Faves. Bottle of Smoke, Thousands Are Sailing, Fiesta.

An album where every song is a banger? Yeah, that works as a concept.

Yep. Old timey rock and roll.

I never really noticed what a dull year 2012 was for music but this is very strong evidence. Boring as fuck. Fiona Apple's the Idler Wheel was released that year, stick that in. David Byrne and St Vincent Love This Giant, that was a cracker, and she's been completely ignored in this book for whatever reason. At least it wasn't Jake Bugg.

Half decent, I've never heard any of these ones. I feel similar as I did for the album tracks on Back to Black. Consistently good but nothing stands out really. I enjoyed the jazzy, easy listening brazilian style backing to many of the tracks. I guess another reference to Sinatra and his albums with Tom Jobim. And some are simply Billie Holiday. It works well. Too long though, 3 or 4 tracks I wouldn't bother with at all.

It's pretty good. Straight ahead thrashy punk for several songs, gets interesting at Reignition. I think I missed the boat with these, I'm not that into it now I'm older. Then you read about all the homophobia and shit, which further dampens my enthusiasm. But it's not bad.

Really thought I'd hate this, my only memory of the band is Alexis Petridis regularly taking the piss out of them. But I don't. The book misses another good chance to include St Vincent, but again 2009 wasn't that good a year it seems. This is alright though, I don't find the voice annoying, unlike some stuff like Future Islands( which can piss off into the sun), I like the backing, post-punky guitars lightly speckled throughout a dreamy rhythm section together with gentle keyboards. It's a good relaxing listen without being boring. I guess on another day I'd dislike it but today I liked it.

Never heard of this band, also removed from the book so didn't read about the album. First impression was oh no, more mid 00s Americana. Ok so it's not just that, there is variety, but for whatever reason I don't care about any of the songs, it's just on in the background. It's not bad bad. Maybe it's because I went to see Yo La Tengo last night and this is bad by comparison. Speaking of which, why is there no Yo La Tengo in this book? There are 2x Ryan Adams albums and a fair bit of this sort of meh. There's room. Anyway near the end now and this band are pretty tight, particularly on some of the more jazzy numbers, I'm giving it a 3.

Good to listen to Jeff Beck do something other than Hi Ho Silver Lining. I don't tend to listen to blues rock but these ones are on the gooder scale. I like the mildly psych ones. Good cover. I drifted off towards the end and it's only half an hour long, so there's that.

Not surprised to read (early) Pixies and the Birthday Party mentioned on the same page as these now I'm hearing it for the first time. The progenitors of those greats. Elements of the Cramps in here to to my ear. And this is a fantastic album. Absolutely breathless, and never a comfortable listen.

Gangsta rap is maybe a net negative overall and not my scene, but this album stands apart. It's the samples that make it, Wikipedia helpfully lists them for each track, loads of avenues to explore further. Yes it's offensive, it's not that it hasn't aged well, it was offensive then. That is kind of the whole point. First three tracks and Express Yourself obviously classics, also really enjoyed Ain't Ruff and Parental Discretion. Tracks I thought were a bit shit: 8 Ball,

I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand people who do not love the Cocteau Twins. I'm sure there are some very nice people, we are just different on a fundamental level. This album is like an old jumper you have had forever that you put on when you get sick, a comfort blanket. The Cocteaus at the poppiest they got, and probably the most fully formed. One listen to Fotzepolitic and I could take on the world. Bliss.

The second best YYYs album, but a slightly distant 2nd. The poppiest. Starts off really strong, Zero is a total banger. Heads Will Roll is ok, they went full on for the pop market and it worked, although it makes me sad that this is their most played song as it's not even in their top 20 songs. Soft Shock and Skeletons are both gorgeous in different ways. Skeletons reminds me slightly on Karen O's solo stuff on the Where the Wild Things are soundtrack. Then it loses momentum. Dull Life to Runaway are more like the second album, not bad songs but fairly safe and mostly a let down after the debut, or after the first 4 songs of this record. Dragon Queen is just kinda pap. Hysteric is bliss on a stick and one of their best ever songs. in hindsight, the coda Little Shadow is a precursor to the sound they explored more fully on their recent comeback album, which is also decent.

Hmm. Finding many of the tracks oddly dissatisfying, especially the opener. The vocal is sung to a different melody than the music, creating a discordance that in some circumstances could work to create something magical, but it just falls flat here to my ears. Two Weeks is a relief in amongst this, a song I recognise (I'm guessing from an advert), although it's a fairly straightforward Pet Sounds derivative. There's one or two others in this order as well. Not for me.

Enjoyed after a relisten. Ozric Tentacles definitely liked this. Oh apart from the last track. Dire

Finally, a Neil Young album I enjoyed! Only taken about 6 goes. Cinnamon Girl is a good start, nice and Byrdsy, the collaboration with Cros makes sense. Echoes of this sound elsewhere on the album too. The longer songs are great, particularly down by the river. I can hear the influence he's had on other bands I like more closely reflected in this early album of his, I kept hearing the Green Pajamas here and there. Overall great. I now need to listen to it on some decent cans. The war with Spotify meant I had to stick it out my phone speaker sat in a glass, with annoying adverts.

How can you not love Gruff and the gang? In my top 3 indie bands of the 90s. This is where I drifted off from the furries, loved their first 3 albums (where's Radiator here???) and Mwng the Welsh album is just fucking fantastic. After that though I enjoyed the singles for a bit but didn't drive into the albums. I came back to the albums for the superb Love Kraft. So I don't have the same nostalgia for this. Have been back since though and Alternative Route to Vulcan St is gorgeous. The title track was deservedly massive for them. As was Juxtaposed. They finally started getting on Top of the Pops around now. Not the end of the world is lovely and soulful. You really can hear the ELO references on this album, something I hadn't realised were so present until recently. Receptacle is a good laugh and harks back to their earlier stuff. Except for that last bit. No ta, lads. There then follows a few good but not great songs (a furries album staple, unfortunately) - Touch, Doris, Sympathy, Presidential. Drop any of those and they're not going to be heavily missed. Although the techno bit of No sympathy is mental and I am totally here for that. Run Christian Run has the epic quality needed to finish us off, a fairly straight ballad which spirals off enjoyably. Was great to revisit in bed on a Saturday morning after a shite week but my Mrs finally got back from hospital.

Wake up with a hangover. What's today's album. Ah, Van Halen, check your brain in at the door. For the best part of my life the only song I thought I knew was Jump so thought of them as a synth pop band, confusing hearing Van Halen in the list of greatest guitarists. Then Apollo 440 happened and I realised they had another song. I probably also heard Panama in some American college films or something as I know that. It's alright, it's dumb, it does what it does. So, the rest. Drop Dead Legs is actually musically very good, enjoyed that. Hot For Teacher. Oh! Daft Punk! Yes! I am absolutely here for this. Oh Jesus what are you saying lads, this had such a promising beginning. Googles Aerodynamic, realise it's not actually Van Halen. Plays Aerodynamic. Ah, that's better. Goes back to Hot For Teacher 0:30. How is this not credited to Van Halen? It's really close. And fantastic, they should have built the song around it instead of rambling off in no direction. Oh well. Moving on. I'll Wait was arse. Girl Gone Bad was ok, if not particularly anything. House of Pain similar. A vehicle for some solos where they forgot to write an actual song first. Ok I'm bored now, good job this is the last song. Obviously I'll never return to this intentionally but it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, plus the paracetamol have kicked in.

Not the best Stooges album but still crazy good.

Yikes, 2 hours of bluegrass. Strap in, I guess. After track 1 I thought I was done, the odd bit of this here and there will usually do me, but it gradually charmed its way into my ears, and the quality is undeniable. Particularly enjoyed some of the instrumentals like Lonesome Fiddle Blues (well its Devil Went Down to Georgia innit) and Avalanche. Big treat of a run of all of these in the middle there. I definitely got fatigued around 1hr 30 minutes and stopped paying attention. And I didn't listen in one go.

Extremely loose and messy. This is what they were going for, maybe, in which case full marks. This can be great, but most of the songs aren't strong enough to come through for me. Also too much country after I had two straight hours of bluegrass yesterday. Sorry MPs, you're a victim of the algorithm. The songs Nirvana covered obviously are the draw, and it's interesting to hear them. I do really like the end of Plateau here, and Lake of Fire is stretched out, raw, scratchy and crazed. The rest I can leave, ta very much.

I'm only really here for two songs, one of which mainly for Kate Bush. The rest is fine but not for me. Very late 80s and safe sounding. Ha ha, Big Time

Feels kind of inauthentic but I get that it was an important record for the blues scene over here. And it's decent blues. A better listen than most Clapton content in this book. I'm not that arsed about the blues though. A few tracks here and there is fine.Two songs played after this finished before I noticed.

Ahahahahahah this is fucking mental, I love it. There's no way I would ever have listened to this were it not for this project. I had a young god's t-shirt when I was a kid, used for decorating and whatnot, I have no idea where it came from or who they were. Gets less mental as it goes on and reverts to more standard industrial rock, which isn't a bad thing but I would kind of liked an album as crazy as the first few tracks the whole way through. Ah! Les Enfants! We are back in crazytown, good times. This is fabulous.

Ace. Like Beck falling down the stairs, pursued by Sonic Youth and Pavement. But ragged and interesting in its own right. Homemade is bloody great. A band I was aware of back when I was heavily into this stuff but never investigated beyond Not Too Amused. Now I will.

Eh, it's alright. Good pop to start off with a green light but I got a bit bored with too many slower ballady ones after. Writer in the Dark stands out from those but mainly because it sounds like Kate Bush. Haven't heard the debut, I listened to Solar Power a few times when that came out and enjoyed it, but there were several weaker tracks on that too. In fact often the Maori rework versions she did were loads better, for me. Anyway I'm not the target audience here so it gets a 3 and I move on.

Amazing. Is it possible...is this.. better than nation of millions? Maybe not. Because, well, what a record. But this is relentless. And certainly not less good. Burn Hollywood Burn was right there in 1990, how many years did it take for the message to only just begin to trickle through to filmmakers? About 30, yeah?

A delight, and a real time capsule. Tend to expect albums from this era to have a few bangers on them and a lot of filler, but this is consistently high quality.

Less an album than a whole living, breathing, experience. You want to be there and live it.

I find Fear of Music curiously hard to get into, the first few tracks are good, but kind of cold. I understand where critics of TH's sound, that it is too precise and has got no soul, are coming from although I wouldn't judge them as harshly. But, and it's a big but, I am always swept away at a point halfway through Cities all the way up to and including Animals - what a run of songs. Absolute genius. After this big chunk, the album kind of fizzles out for me before the end, which is a shame. So, a flawed classic, and a hugely important step on the road to the best TH album, Remain in Light. A second listen later in the day it's even better, right up until those last two tracks. Favourite of the rest - Mind. Favourites - Heaven, Air, Life During Wartime

Make my funk the P-funk. I want my funk uncut.

When I was a kid I used to wear a t-shirt with this album on it. The lad who sat behind the counter at the local shop used to mock me for wearing it. He used to say "Sugar fan!" in a deeply whiney voice which exposed him as a little prick. Neither of us knew much about this album (I suspect he knew nothing at all) but I got into it properly later. Anyway, he was a prick, and I'm not, so I win.

The pettiest concept album ever made. Glorious. Double album of spite. But as it's a double album, it is, of course, too long.

I go back and forth with this. I kind of prefer Highway Star to Smoke on the Water thanks to Dazed and Confused and now I want to drive around the US neighbourhood smashing US Mailbox things with a baseball bat. The rest, is way honkier than I was expecting, and while it's not bad, I'm not that arsed. Space Truckin' is great fun though, so that's three songs genuinely enjoyed. 3 out of 8 should warrant a 2, but these are 3 very good songs. Seeing the live album also in the book which is these songs but twice as long, fills me with some trepidation, but it could be excellent. Will find out in due course.

Doves are pretty much the epitome of 'wouldn't turn it off, wouldn't seek it out either' for me. They're completely fine, and good at what they do, which is to be a bit like Ride crossed with U2. Tbf it does contain one bona fide banger in Pounding, which I've only just found out the name of, this is the first time I've not heard it passively. Fun to learn they recorded the King Crimson cover version under the actual flyover 5 minutes walk from where I used to live in Northenden. Surely it's the golf course end one and not the wythenshawe end, I can't imagine that ever being quiet enough. Oh yeah, the loud one is under the Parkway not the M60.

Are you all sitting comftybold two square on your botty? Then I'll begin... God bless Stanley Unwin. I had a strong free association urge to go listen to Nilsson's The Point after this finished. So I did.

Toe tappin'. Great big band sound. Fabulous voice. That piano playing. Every song is delicious. There may be more instantly classic examples of this genre but this collection of songs is no less outstanding for it. Don't let the sun catch you cryin' is certainly a classic. The string arrangement my god. Brings to mind John Barry's best, which would come later. I was bouncing off this one this morning and not really having it. The went back to it this evening and am glad I did, you've got to listen to this in the evening. With or without a decent glass of red. It's an album to reward the end of a day well lived, rather than one to kick it off.

He sounds like a real charmer. The difference between this and Clapton though is this is fun to listen to. Oh... Oh wait, track 2. Oh it's ok, it got better. The 90s production that kicked it off was too much. Oof, same situation with track 5. I enjoy the guitar noodlings and vocal harmonies. I feel like I can get better examples of that elsewhere (in fact I left it on and Spotify played some afterwards), but this was decent to have on in the background. By track 7 though I've basically tuned out.

Sparse and delightful. Ideology is brilliant. The Passion is beautiful. As is the Home Front. Billy Bragg is necessary.

Some of my favourite Doors songs but with loads of straight ahead blues around them. LA Woman still sets my hairs standing on end though when it takes off. Tbf it's just track 2 and 3 that I find dull. The rest is pretty great.

Yes it's very good, though very one paced. He does what he does and this is that. I really wasn't in the mood for this today and I had to listen in chunks to avoid getting dragged into its melancholy.

Today I learned I have never before heard the studio recording of No Woman No Cry. I understand why. The rest of the album is pretty decent, I think I would rather be listening to Peter Tosh though, I got bored. Half of it is decent. What is decent is very very good (Lively Up Yourself, Them Belly Full), but half of side B is just good. I liked more of it on second listen.

Basically my favourite band and certainly that growing up, this is most likely my favourite of theirs, although that changes frequently over the years.

So here we have one of Stevie's great but not stratospherically good albums. Feels odd to damn a record like this with faint praise but when an artist creates three of the greatest albums of all time that's the burden on their other work. In the 'Stevie's other work' canon, this is maybe my joint second favourite with Hotter Than July, but there's something about Music of My Mind (absent here, oddly) which places it above them. This is still really good, you may argue he was starting to run out of songs but in two years there's a double album called Songs in the Key of Life, so....nope. And honestly such thoughts are further dismissed as ridiculous once the album gets going, as after a few slightly less than stellar early tracks (excl. Smile Please) we are back to pure gold. So many low key classics here that reward repeat listening.

Well Christ what do I write here that hasn't already been written. One of the best albums ever, easily.

Dinosaur Jr are incredible. Elements of so much stuff I like is present here. I only know a few of their songs really but they're so good. This is a great listen. Just as with Sebadoh I'm going to have to give this and Bug several more listens.

So much better and long lasting that Never Mind. It could be that every single song on the former was absolutely played to death and only some of these were. But I definitely played this to death too and it still sounds fresh. From the very first discordant chord you know this is a break from the commercial, polished sound of the predecessor. And it's just so good. If I come back to Nirvana I come back to this.

Groove is in the Heart is a fantastic banger. The rest is house-tinged club stuff, it's quite good, it doesn't really have the hooks but it does have the style. Good Beat was better second time around. Tbh. While nothing else stands out apart from the obvious, this is a good mood on an album. Needs to be listened to when you've finished work on a sunny day. Then it gets a 4. Any other time it scrapes a 3.

First two are classics so no need to write about them. Cheree precursors about a dozen Spiritualized songs which I love. Such a singular sound, 45 years later basically nothing else sounds quite like it. People not getting this, or just not liking this, is totally understandable, but it absolutely should not be dismissed. Also it's not on here but Dream Baby Dream is an absolute stunner, and far less confrontational than anything here, it's very gentle.

Suicide's debut from 1977 yesterday, and today Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, also from 1977. I love them both, and I love that this is possible. The Buckingham/Nicks songs everyone knows (well, everyone knows everything on this album, but the ones EVERYONE knows) are the big hits, while Christine McVie's stuff pushes it into the stratosphere. You Make Loving Fun and Songbird are just.... Only thing wrong with this album is it doesn't have Silver Springs on it, one of their very best songs. Swap it in for Oh Daddy. Also it starts with a fairly average rocker. But that's all forgotten from Dreams onwards. If I'm honest, not including Silver Springs is a crime so stupid it's worthy of losing a star, but I'm not going to be daft.

In the top two or three Beatles albums, probably. I can't believe how many bloody Elvis Costello and Neil Young albums I had to wade through before I got the Beatles.

Cinematic. Suiting a sunny Saturday afternoon very well. I know for a fact without looking that the band Guillemots absolutely love this record. Loving tracks 1,3,5,6 Spirit of Eden comes to mind, although that is undoubtedly a level above. The more formulaic 80s groovers that are also here are not bad, but far less interesting. This is absolutely the sort of album I'm doing this list for and found it very enjoyable. Might well check out one or two of the other Blue Nile records recommended.

FUCK YES

Oof, how do I feel about this one. Loved it at the time, and hearing more or less anything on it evokes memories of his band mates horses head mask's manes blowing in the summer breeze across the stage. But oof, it's dated hard, hasn't it? A lot of it is Beck does Big-beat, he's got two turntables and a microphone, which again I loved at the time but man that sound has dated. The more timeless stuff makes less use of this sound and have remained my favourites over the years, Lord Only Knows and the wonderful Jack-Ass. I think I might prefer that to the Them song it samples, wonderfully. I still enjoy the magpieing from all sorts that's going on here generally. There's a lot of Beastie Boys going on, with judicious use of samples in a similar vein. I keep thinking of a Tarantino soundtrack, and that's not helping with the whole 'dated' vibe. Diskobox is still cool though. Why is that not on the 'Deluxe' version? So yeah, played it to death on release, still enjoy a track or two when I hear them, but the album as a whole sounds sort of cringe now, and that's why I'm surprising myself and not giving it a 5.

I really enjoyed her second album when that came out and went back to listen to this afterwards reading the acclaim, but didn't find the tunes so was disappointed after that. Different experience now, Lights On is great, Two Weeks is mesmerising, although Hours doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Pendulum is similar except it DOES go somewhere. Ok second half now and I'm understanding my previous reaction. Everything is fine but nothing stands out. Magdelane is way better as an album. I wonder what the EPs sound like, perhaps this should have been EP3.

Got into Fiona Apple via the fantastic Idler Wheel... around 2015 (not sure what prompted me) and also deeply enjoyed her last album. Went back to her older stuff upon learning she was something of a phenomenon I was only vaguely aware of. But it was all a bit 90s pop production, whereas the sparseness in her later stuff I think is what drew me in. Which is odd since I was a fan of Tori Amos stuff from a year or two before this came out. It is good though, it's not as dated as all that. And my god, she's 18? Writing and playing this stuff at 18, that's depressingly accomplished. The second half of the album is quite gentle, Never is a Promise one of the stronger of these, but several others aren't very memorable. Carrion picks up at the end but meanders too much beforehand. In short I think she's great, and this is a good album, not one of hers I'm likely to return to however.

Was expecting to not like this, thinking it would be the start of gangster rap which kinda ruined the genre for 30 years, but this is actually cool as fuck. Mic Contract is essentially big beat a few years early. Without sounding dated like that whole scene does. As is New Jack Hustler. Well, as are loads of these. The jazz and soul samples and general groove going on here really work for me. Being a pasty white dude means I can't drive around blasting Straight Up N out the window without broadcasting what a bell end I am, but it's a great track. And obviously making me uncomfortable and fuck you I don't care, is the whole point. Then there's a radical change of direction Midnight is epic, whatever the lyrical content of the previous tracks, the music was party time, that party is definitively over now. Mixing Black Sabbath with Led Zep drums and a deeply disturbing story. Absolutely bangs. And then the party starts again. Ok that was weird. Kicking back off with a namecheck song. So look, everything is great. Escape from the Killing Fields in particular. Message. And we round off with a beat built around a Halloween John Carpenter sample, and Ice T telling us all personally how fucked off he is about everything. What's incredible here is an album 72 minutes long, and I didn't lose interest or get tired of it at any point. What a great record.

Oh Christ. Yes, nonce etc. Look, we all know. I was a kid when this came out so I already know what I'm in for here. Pre listen I think The Way You Make me Feel is going to be the only thing salvageable from this, and the aforementioned key change in Man in the Mirror. Ah no wait, Smooth Criminal is here too. And I just can't stop loving you, I remember that's a piece of pure pop goodness. There's definitely going to be high levels of cringe here the rest of the time. One to listen to on headphones because noone else must know what I am doing. Listening back I of course remember every song, Liberian Girl (onomatopoeia onomatopoeia, bend away), all the album tracks. They don't age well. Oh jeez, that run of tracks 3-7. And Man in the Mirror is Jackson cheese pop central. I remember thinking Dirty Diana was shit when I was 8 and I salute you 8 year old me, you had good taste. Apart from Steve Stevens guitar at the end. So yeah, 3 good songs that remain good. And a whole lot of arse to wade through, best left in the 80s.

It's good, but not as fun as remember 36 Chambers being. I don't remember the big songs, even the Mary J blige version. Chef Vs meth is fun. Release yo Delf is funny. Mr Sandman and Stimulation both good. Things definitely pick up around those. I'm just not particularly moving for several other tracks. Looking back it might just round up to a 4, but a low 4, 3.5 sorta.

It's Revolver

I thought I really liked this album but it turns out I really really like 4 songs on it. There's a big run of unmemorable tracks after the first three, 10 Mile Stereo is an obvious stand out after those, Real Love is nice. Oddly for a double album, Once Twice Melody is more consistently good than this and I would rate it much higher now having gone back.

Which is best, this or FoaBP? Noone knows. But I think it's this

Raw, angry Peej. Yes

I heard that Kings of Leon's early stuff was actually good, and I do remember the snippets of the debut I heard on every advert break in 2003 sounding alright, but I've never felt compelled to check it out because everything I've heard from them on the radio has been unmitigated shite. This is alright I suppose, the book removed it from my edition so no idea why they thought it was special over the supposedly better debut. The first track is decent enough, nice guitar noodlings. After that though I'm just getting annoyed by his voice and very affected way of singing, and the mildly bluesy rock is quite boring. Bucket is ok but basically like a less good Strokes, I've got the Strokes albums after the debut if I want to listen to that. So yeah I won't be bothering listening to the debut or this again.

Wonderful record.

Gorgeous album to kick off the heatwave we've got today. I'm most drawn to the delicious harmonies so consistently delivered on Stills songs. I must check out more of his stuff. I think this stacks up as I definitely enjoyed his stuff on Buffalo Springfield more than the Neil Young. Long Time Gone is obviously great, and I loved David Crosby's solo record in this list. Less enamoured with Nash stuff but it's all good here.

Sonic Youth go (sort of) commercial. But stay true to themselves. I've never listened to this despite being VERY familiar with the cover, saw it everywhere but least my brother's record collection. recognise a few tracks, the straight up bangers of 100% and Sugar Kane, but they sound the least like themselves. Was slow to get into it but it gets really in my skin a few tracks in and doesn't let up.

Good morning, you're listening to Smooth Radio and I'm (insert name of inoffensive DJ). What your mum was listening to in the 80s. and 90s. And probably still now. Well crafted and interesting enough for one listen I guess, but I won't be back. Ack ack ack etc.

Such an great record, untouchable in its field. Best: Red Telephone, Alone Again Or. They are the obvious standouts, but everything else is an able collection of tunes that keep the mood going. Am I giving it 5 stars? Probably, though it's fair to say the rest of the album doesn't hit those same heights, it's a low 5. I always thought my CD was skipping at the end of Good Humour Man and it caught me out yet again.

Extremely front loaded. Second half doesn't have a good song. Stuck in a moment is good and Kite is ok but some of the singles are annoying. I am a mole and I live in a hole. Also yeah the blueprint for every diminished return that came after. Not good.

Dreading this. Why does Bat out of Hell end with the refrain from the Lion Sleeps Tonight? Heaven Can Wait steals from Thunder Road. I don't even really care that much for Springsteen. Yes it's like listening to a musical. I like a good musical but I have to be in the mood. Stuff like this while I'm watching Little Shop of Horrors= fine. I don't understand why people would listen to this when they want to listen to actual proper music. Maybe they don't and that's the point. Look I can see how people could get carried away with this and it's definitely a mood, but I just found it really tiresome long before it ended. More tiresome than the late period U2 album I got yesterday, so... Last track called For Crying Out Loud, and it's nearly 9 minutes of liquid shite, so that's at least appropriate. Was going to get a two before that.

This was good fun 20 years ago, how's it aged? Ok not incredibly. The overuse of 'panties' was a bit cringe back then and it's worse now, hey let's infantilise women and then go on and on about how much we want to fuck them, we're not creepy. That aside, the length. There's two decent albums hiding in here, but lads, one hour is too long for most records so the ' it's two albums ' excuse isn't cutting it all the way. Hire an editor, there's loads of forgettable tracks on Speakerboxxx alongside some great shit, and a lot of variety brought by guests. Enjoy the dude from RTJ here, didn't know that. Love Below, also fun, not a hip hop album at all really more a soul and rnb with a hip hop vibe. Heavily, HEAVILY, indebted to Prince. On like nearly every song. Spread is quite funny and musically interesting, Prototype is a decent soul number that gets ruined when Andre decides to smear shit all over it. Stank you smelly much. Generally good and immediate pop songs abound here though. Happy Valentines, Hey Ya, Roses (smell like poo ooh ooh - the guy is fucking obsessed with shite) The skits are nearly all heavily cringe. Pink & Blue through to She's Alive could be dropped. I don't think I really need to hear either of them ever again, though it was quite fun to let the whole thing play out over the course of about 6 sittings today.

Could have sworn I already had this, maybe I was listening after watching Summer of Soul. Surely the Sly album with the most outright bangers - I want to take you higher, Everyday People, Stand, You can make it if you try, need I go on? And well, Sex Machine. Oh hey guys, I've reached my stone cold banger quota for the year, but we need more songs for the album, will this 13 minutes long jam do? And then it turns out to be brilliant, because Sly.

Sat by the back door while it's chucking it down as the storm breaks. Finally listening to Elliott Smith and see what the fuss is about.

Ok, Grime. Well, we'll see. First couple of tracks I can appreciate, the flow is good, the words are good. It's just not my thing, man. By track 3 I can't help it, all I can think of is KoreanBilly and his How to Speak Roadman video. https://youtu.be/VV0BB0CxIFk I mean I know this is widely parodied whereas this is presumably authentic for Skepta, but I don't have control here, it's just what my brain does. Crime Riddim is kind of funny. The flat singing in Ladies Hit Squad, is everything I hate about this genre, that part of the sound is like nails down a blackboard for me. Ungggh, oh god I hate it so much. By the time Shutdown come around I'm more or less hating this. Reckon if I heard one or two tracks in isolation I'd like them a lot more. Ah ok. That's Not Me is the best track here by about a billion miles. Cut through all the negativity I'd built up by this point and made me smile and bob my head. This is gonna be a one listen and done, glad I listened to it, glad it's here, not for me, cheers.

Is that Meg White on drums? This really isn't very good. I don't care if it's influential, the album itself is shit. Most of it sounds like that track on Dead Letter Office when REM were pushing about. I was expecting thrash. I didn't enjoy any of the songs, nor did I think it was musically good but just not for me. Hence it's a one star, sorry, those are the rules. Also, why does it end with a long intro to a song which then immediately fades out? Daft.

Of fucking course Neil Young comes out again on a day when I'm in the car and can't piss about with YouTube. So after Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, i know there is Neil Young albums out there that i can enjoy. This is probably his most famous one? maybe tied with Harvest. First track wistful and gorgeous. a great opener. The title track also fantastic, Neil doing his silly falsetto whine on this one that in just can't take seriously, but its a great track. Only Love Can Break Your Heart I heard first as the St Etienne cover, but have heard this before and its also great. We're really doing very well here Mr Young. Southern Man is a little bit meh folk rock, but some really nice picking at the end, is that Nils Lofgram? An ad between literally every track so far. cheers Neil. Till the Morning Comes, another great ditty. Lonesome Me doesn't do much for me, Don't Let it Bring You Down sounds like a bout 4 different songs which all came after it. Birds is gorgeous, When You Dance is a lively rocker and good. I stuck Everyone Knows on later on to see which I preferred and I think it's still that for me, but overall v much enjoyed.

My bloody valentine. I wish I'd been listening to this for 30 years rather than just ten or so. Still, it manages to sound fresh, evocative of a bygone era in music, and timeless simultaneously. 'to here knows when' is like swimming in music. Every track is great, no chaff here.

I think from all the one star reviews up top I was expecting something much worse. In the end it's alright. It reminds me of so many other things. Get Echo and the Bunnymen vibes in Kelly's Blues. Hometown contains what seems to be a bad Springsteen impression. Unmade Love reminds me a bit of early James. Jerdacuttup Man is a Nick Cave song, I'm convinced. INXS float around as well. His singling style is like Bono, Nick Cave and Dave Gahan merged into one. Aside from the very good opener, I think Blinder By The Hour is one of the few I genuinely like, but there's generally enough interesting going on somewhere else. There's some 80s shlock though, and Vagabond Holes is pretty awful. I dunno, I might listen to this again. I don't remember it getting played when Madge and Harold got wed though, the main thing I remember is Harold falling off that rock into the sea in a comedy way. Least favourite: Holy Water, Vagabond Holes. I listened to it again today and enjoyed it again. Hit the same cues. 4 stars

White boy blues rock, the Small Faces had so much more soul than this. Alright it's more rock n roll, a Clapton borefest this isn't. It's not that bad like, I don't dislike it, but it's rod Stewart and mostly what I'd expect from a band with him as lead. Love lives here. Stay With Me is good though. But very much reminds me of the Ronnie Wood era Stones, you know, the lions share of their career and after they stopped writing good songs. What makes me glad I've listened is the contributions from Ronnie Lane as a songwriter, particularly Debris. I listened to some of his stuff with Slim Chance earlier this year and it was definitely good. Very sad what happened to him with MS. That's All You Need funnily enough right at the end might just be the best thing here. That is a banger. Not sure about the steel drum at the end.

How can you not love this? Joyful. Just fabulous big band and swing music. The sax on I got it bad is just delicious. Also it's not a 2 hour live album, the version I listened to was very obviously the full concert first, then the same songs as a studio rerecording afterwards. Which were then smooshed together for the original release. I may save the studio ones for later.

This is the second Adele album I've had and both have been removed from the book, leaving zero Adele albums. I do at least recognise two of the song titles on this one. 5 Singles though, and I've only ever heard 2 of them. In fact there are only 2 albums from 2011 left here at all. Having a scroll at first it seems fair enough, some good albums but nothing earth-shattering. There's a Mogwai album, (no Mogwai or Godspeed Y!BE in this book renders it incomplete) and REM but while good it's not their best. Arguably Helplessness Blues should have been included instead of Fleet Foxes debut but two by them would be overkill. Ah. The Wild Flag album, Strange Mercy by St Vincent, M83's Hurry Up We're Dreaming, that's harder to justify excluding. Probably detectable that I have very little to say about Adele. Such is my commitment to this though I did listen all the way through once, even after being severely tested by Don't you Remember. Tbf Set Fire to the Rain got things back on track quickly after that stinker. Lovesong surprised me at the end, it actually is a cover of that Cure song. Anyway, polished pop croon music for people who like that sort of thing.

FUCK. YES. Yeeeeesssssssssssss I've not heard this before but I love Grr from a decade earlier. This is pure joy, cannot express how much more enjoyable a listen this was than yesterday. Every track just a pleasure, and so warm. Smiles. Right up there with my favourite new listens on this journey.

Yes. Banging. Interesting. The light pours out of me.

One of the SY albums I know quite well. Excellent stuff. Highlights tom violence, starpower, death to our friends, and obviously expressway. Cracking cover too

It's a good solid Nick Cave album, which is an automatic 4*. Probably not up there with his best but a strong listen through. Fewer standout tracks, though the guest spots from Peej and Kylie are good and fun. There's more than a hint of Pogues on some tracks, so Shane Macgowan popping up later feels appropriate. Henry Lee is excellent. O malleys bar is wild. Stagger Lee is so over the top with the dirty I do hope it was intended to be funny. Little touches in the shifting perspectives in Where the Wild Roses Grow absolutely make it, 'on the last day' from the murderer, 'on the third day' from the unsuspecting victim. Death is Not the End is a lovely song. The multiple guest stars though render it impossible now not to think of the comic relief destruction of Lou Reed's Perfect Day a few years later. Still, lovely.

As with the 10cc album I got the main first impression I had was wow, Field Music owe a lot to these. Only knew Making Plans For Nigel by them. Stuck this on in the car in a rush to get to Stockport before the parts place closed, so I couldn't really hear it or concentrate on it much. Came back several weeks later, having heard Grass, excellent, lots of times slotted in between other stuff. I still drift away again for a few tracks after that high point but find 1000 Umbrellas catches my attention again, what a great song. Then I drift off again. I feel like I should be loving this more than I am. It's good, no doubt.

So after listening to College Dropout my first Kanye and being forced to admit it was magnificent, on this journey, I said I'd listen to the other good ones. Well I didn't. But here we are, his more or less universally regarded peak. And yeah, ok wow, it's pretty bloody brilliant. And I actually recognise a song! Power. Although I mainly just recognise the female vocal, (and King Crimson obvs) don't think I'd heard the whole song. Well, this is undeniable. I'm actually looking forward to the next one. Obviously the guy is a walking bin fire now, and some of these lyrics are tiresome and foreshadowed that transition. Thinking back to 2010, were people as obsessed with doing anal, or thinking it's ok to send photo of your dick to someone (unrequited) or choking during sex? I'm sure I can't blame all that on Kanye but it makes me wonder if he helped that shift in society by how massive this album is (despite me never hearing it lol). Also, obvs the clue was in the name, don't take it literally people. Oof, just got to the Chris Rock bit. Kerrrrrrrringe. Bon Iver! That actually dates this a bit haha. Anyway, fucking great album, really. Both immediately accessible and complex enough to reward repeat listens (I imagine).

Didn't listen to this much when it exploded. It's very nice in places, but I think I prefer more edges to my post rock. I wasn't gripped really at any point after the initial iconic sting of the opener. Some of it sounded like a slow late-period U2 album track. Also, I think Jon Hopkins came along later and perfected it. Ok edit, I'll take the second half of viorar etc, that's pretty special. Again, this is in here but Mogwai and Godspeed Y!BE aren't? There are far more egregious examples but still.

Track 1 might just be the most 1996 thing I have ever heard. I bet half of this is on the soundtrack to Killing Eve (Big Bamboozle [also John Barry, so that's a twofer], Something Wicked). Then it sounds like Air. I liked listening to this, not sure I would again - someone else said on here they'd much rather listen to its influences, and I very much get that vibe too. Like much of 90s pop culture, it's extremely backwards-looking, which sometimes has the benefit of highlighting lost treasures. But I'm not sure this is a treasure in and of itself.

It's 2016 and I am back at infant school age kids' birthday parties. The album with the two Swift songs I know. Shake it Off is a bop. Most of the rest just kind of blend together into the perfect polished production. I dunno, I just don't get adults listening to this regularly. I'll row that back slightly - unless they were kids or teenagers when it came out. I still go back to those Erasure records occasionally with joy and revel in their polished poppityness.

First of all it's Pixies, so 5*. Secondly, this is obviously one of the greats, but for me it's not close between this and Surfer Rosa as best Pixies album. I think the album tracks here are weaker (very clearly excluding Tame, Hey, La La Love You, Wave of Mutilation and Gouge Away, half of those obviously would have been singles if it was released in the 90s anyway). I'm coming around to the idea that Trompe Le Monde might be my 2nd favourite Pixies album.

Great to see what Sabu was up to 35 years or so before he started regularly throwing himself through stuff from great heights on EC Dub. Turns out he was ace at the congas and bongos. Multi talented guy. Anyway I love stuff like Ray Baretto and Blue Note in general so I was open to this. Have to be honest I did prefer the ones with guitar accompaniment, but the one that were simply absolutely banging bongos with chanting were a jam as well.

Urgh. Been about 25 years since I last wanted to hear this, I reckon. Stop saying they're like the Beatles. It's only Rain. Oasis pushed it later with Whatever. The rest is Status Quo. And the odd stolen T-Rex riff. Ironically, Cigarettes and Alcohol is probably the most Quo. So I was a fan for these first two albums, went to see them at Maine Road, then got very sick of them very quickly. I caught myself singing along to Live Forever and Rock and roll star so I guess they're still embedded. Shaker Maker is shite. Supersonic is obviously iconic for them. Most of the album tracks are absolute trash. I always did prefer the second album, I wonder if that has aged poorly as well. Oh god, Colombia is so so bad. I never liked this one, Oasis fans saying it's a belter is mystifying. What is that chorus, and then the song finishes but they just carry on for two minutes without doing anything. Slide Away does the same but at least it's a little bit better of a song. It's a high 2 at the absolute tops I reckon.

Yep, hardcore punk. I'll have it. Have been enjoying Ian MacKaye's contribution to EggsTV. Prefer what he did with Fugazi if I'm completely honest but I've always got some time for hardcore punk.

I dunno, it's fun, but none of it is sticking with me particularly, and I usually love this kind of thing. Officer isn't on Spotify, did Chuck D make em take it down? Enjoyable enough. Passin me By and Otha Fish are grooves.

Would have been an endurance test but thankfully it just faded into the background almost immediately once I stopped laughing at his voice. Generic. In the end I had to go out and life's too short so this is the first one of a few hundred I just binned off after about 5 shit tracks.

The first track absolutely kicks arse. That sax is menacing. I wish everything else was like that. Most of the rest of the album though while very good, is a lot more gentle swing, dinner party style jazz. I can't see me listening to that again. Ironically the last track entitled Bemsha Swing is actually much more freeform, and definitely more my bag. An album full of track 1 and 5 please!

The first 2 minutes of the Visitors was actually really good electro pop with interesting lyrics about living under the kgb, I started thinking what, they went legitimately good? Then the chorus kicked in and it was utter shit. Definitely more interesting and darker than Arrival, but ultimately it's Abba and with Abba production. No thank you.

Never mind Taxman, that's Pretty Vacant just before it isn't it? Not the exact same riff as in Start, but pretty bloody close and starting the song all alone in the same way. And the whistles are from Man Eater by Hall + Oates. Ah that came after, the pinchers become the pinchees. Anyway, good album. The Jam have never been an album band for me, some bloody great songs, same with Style Council, but never an objectively classic album. This is definitely the best and most consistent I've heard though, hence the high score. Strong lyrics as well. Grows better as it goes along, the first few tracks are only ok.

So much funk! What I love about the Wikipedia page is every(?) sample is listed by each song - absolute treasure trove of funk. Maybe there's 1001 albums to listen to on this album. I mean yeah, full of gangsta shit and far too close to the bone at times, I can't listen to much of this around my daughter for example because I'm not a cunt. But this is sheer quality. Just checked back my review of The Predator and I didn't mention that issue with the lyrics, there's more righteous anger in that (though it's far from absent here) whereas the focus here is stories of rolling around and being an absolute dickhead. That said, this is probably almost as good, just in a different way. The Public Enemy influence shines through on several tracks. Mind you, there's nothing here quite as absolutely shining genius as It was a Good Day, or When Will They Shoot? So yeah the predator is better, but this is very good. Early 90s rap is stuff I criminally ignored as a pre-teen (and since, aside from Public Enemy) so dead glad this project has forced me to check a lot out. Hardly any has disappointed. So much funk!

Another album I've not heard or desired to hear in probably 20 years. I liked it at the time, along with lots of people. His creeping over Natalie Portman didn't improve that. Some of its aged ok, some of it's aged terribly (Bodyrock). Absolutely a time capsule for 1999/2000. Fine in small doses but it's repetitive and I can't really see me ever digging the album out in its entirety again. I also remember there being quite a lot of nothing at the end of the record even back in the day (Everloving, Inside, Guitar flute strings, the first 2 minutes of Sky is Broken). The Sky is Broken and My Weakness are probably the best aging ones still, and a good example of his talent for soundtracking, his best work is still the theme from Heat, God Moving over the Face of the Waters. More useful these days as a reference point to jump off from into some blues belters.

I remember the hits fondly enough, but even then could recognise them as vaguely cheesy, acid house tinged pop. Why would I listen to the album in 2023? I did so anyway. So it's less of the pop rave silliness and more of a housey sound, but it's still generic, I'm mostly bored. By Make it Mine I was actively annoyed to be still listening. Thoughts and prayers to Americans listening to this now in mystified silence.

Criminally underexplored on my part is Fela, given how much I love what afrobeat I have heard. Another example here of why that was not clever of me. Absolutely stunning stuff. Tony Allen, too. 18 albums, what? In one year? You maniac.

A 74 minutes long concept album in an unfinished series of concept albums, with song titles so long that they take half the song length to scroll past on Spotify - there will definitely be people out there who hate this. I'm so glad to not be one of them. Oddly first got into him through his loads of Christmas singles. Carrie and Lowell will probably always be my favourite, an absolutely breathtaking album, but this is a close second. Really enjoyed listening to this today. Yes, obviously it's too long, not going to stop me giving it 5 though.

Oh, Waldo... I don't ever get the urge to listen to Sister Ray, but no doubting it's existence.

Easily up there in the Bowie top 5. For a while it was my favourite, but I'm not sure it will ever reach those lofty heights again. Love the title track, how it explodes into life - but in stages. If there is one song here that leaves me a little cold now it's Stay. Everything else is pure gold. Very pleased that I really got into this record before wading into the Berlin years I feel like it very effectively primed me to enjoy those properly. Maybe one day I'll crawl inside my TV and be with my baby. Golden Years, quack quack quack.

Easily the greatest U2 album, should not be dismissed just because they spent the best part of 3 decades treading water later. I frequently try to dismiss them but every time I have occasion to stick this on, I am pulled back in and reminded just how good they were, briefly. I love the start, that industrial guitar effect, and the factory-esque clang of the drums as they crash in. Always sounds great. And Zoo Station as a song is a great kick off. Brian Eno is all over this. Yes he also did Coldplay, he's not infallible but this is superb. It's still got big, crowd pleasing ballads like Joshua Tree, but hell, they were good at it at this point, and there is still unsettling distortion around the glistening pop of ..Horses. It's also got a crazy lead single in The Fly which it's not an exaggeration to say sounds not unlike Nine Inch Nails for a whole minute before the chorus comes in to smooth things over. Lead single. For U2. This time crucially, and unlike Joshua Tree they don't run out of songs when you flip the record over. The singles are great, sure, but the real strength of this one for me lies in the album tracks. My least favourite songs here are Mysterious Ways and ...the Real Thing and they are by no means bad. Until the end of the world is brooding, Ultra Violet is epic and uplifting, So Cruel is gorgeous. Acrobat is one of my favourite U2 songs of any album, it fucking rocks. I wish they'd made even one other record of as consistently high quality as this one. But they didn't. I still frequently get goosebumps listening.

Got into this a good decade or so ago, needs a couple of listens to appreciate how great it is, while also being pretty accessible straight away. I love the fact that Dropout Boogie is followed immediately by I'm Glad, two songs that couldn't be more different to eachother. The listener settles back and relaxes into the silky soul. And then wham! Electricity wallops them in the face. So many bangers. Fucking magical album.

1st track probably everything I still don't like about country, come on good ol' boys, slap your thighs down at the hoedown. Similar with Bottle let me down. I've started to really like some country, but I don't like that. Gorgeous voice, obviously. I can't argue with Boulder to Birmingham, lovely song. There are several more objectively beautiful songs. Beautifully done, not for me really, overall.

Too Much to Dream is obviously a towering classic of psych/garage, but the whole album? Ok... ...and yeah sadly nothing comes close to the brilliance of that first track.

I've always been just a touch disappointed in this, the way some people go on about it. this as much as many people do. There's no doubting there's some masterful stuff in the band's short lifespan but it isn't all here. Some of it is. It's stuff like Candidate I can't quite get on board with, it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Also with Wilderness and Interzone where the soundscape is absolutely on point but the overall tune maybe just isn't quite. Stark contrast with New Dawn Fades which absolutely does go somewhere and is a masterpiece. As is She's Lost Control. Lots of proto-new order to enjoy here also, in Disorder. I'd give it a 5 if the non-album singles were here instead of a couple of tunes.

Wasn't sure I would take to this, but it's like REM's Country Feedback slowed down. Which it turns out I like. One to drift into, and a whole mood for a dark, rainy Sunday afternoon. As it turns out it's Thursday, but I'm off work sick, and it's dark and rainy, so this gentle album is basically perfect for today. I wasn't that impressed with the patsy Cline cover though, that was a bit dragged out. Not a metric to judge this album but Spotify played a very pleasing mix of stuff after it finished as well. I extremely unsurprised to hear Mazzy Star, of course

I love this and I'm not ashamed. Although I do realise much of it is objectively not good. Enjoying the befuddled reactions in the reviews, I guess Adam didn't crack America. I can't have been musically conscious at 2 or 3 years old but Adam Ant was basically my earliest musical memory, the songs off this album went off like a grenade into my little ears. Particularly the title track and Dog Eat Dog. The Burundi drums, the deep voice chants, the big fuck-off riffs those vocal yodels, what was this??? The absolute pop explosion of Stand and Deliver (not a million miles from Jolly Roger, tbf), Prince Charming and Pablo Picasso at the planet of the apes is jumbled up in my young memories of this yet they're all off the next album. So, being a kid I fully bought into the marketing (I think McLaren was involved at this point - before nicking half the band like a kid in a I Want Candy shop. See me after class for more tortured puns), the (essentially cartoon) cowboys and indians schtick. Were they cowboys? Were they indians? Isn't this probably problematic in 2023? What happened to the punky band from Dirk Wears White Sox? I was only possibly asking the first two questions in my toddler mind. It's a shame much of it ages poorly. I stand by the tracks I love (honourable mention to Magnificent Five, also Don't be square, surely a left over from the Dirk period, he even chants the name), and I will readily credit this for opening my fragile young mind and preparing it to enjoy oh so many wonderful post punk masterpieces over the ensuing 40 years and hopefully many more. The title track is a masterpiece and one of the best songs of the 80s, I don't care. Marilyn Manson obviously thought so, the thieving dickhead. Down below those dandy clothes you're just a shade too white.

Is this where Americana came from? It's just not really for me. Maybe it takes a few listens, but I don't have the time or patience for that. Maybe I'll enjoy the debut since there's a few songs on it I actually know. Whispering Pines was alright, a bit Brian Wilsony. Look out Cleveland was alright, wouldn't be out of place on the Big Lebowski soundtrack. Actually the second half of this album is much better than the 1st. Or perhaps I acclimatised. Because of this I gave it another listen later on in the evening, and I still didn't much like the first two tracks. After that, it's a whole mood, I could grow to like this quite a bit. When You Awake just fades away when tbh I want more... I'm torn, there's great tracks here, and some I'm just not feeling. But would I given time... Unfaithful Servant is a slow burn banger. I think that leaves me with a stronger impression at the end of the album than the album does overall. Loads of words not saying anything from me there.

Always been intrigued by these since I read Paul Doggett's epic book about the counter culture from the 60s and beyond There's a Riot Going On. A cracking and thorough read. Country Joe and Joan Baez seem to have played every benefit going to support the cause against Vietnam. I know Maoism (who called revolutionaries "the fish who swim among the sea of the people") had a big boom around this time but seems mad to me to also name yourself after Stalin, particularly as a leftie - perhaps too much history between us and that decision. The music, I've heard bits of over the years but it's never stuck particularly. There's Doorsy keyboards (is that a Hammond?) particularly on the long instrumental Section 43 which I enjoyed, probably the strongest thing here. Reminds me of Inspiral Carpets as well. Apparently Clint used a Farfisa Compact which sounded like a Hammond. When the vocals kick back in the next songs though I'm dropped back down to earth as it's fairly sub standard psych rock, there's better examples in the period. But definitely an interesting band. Go listen to fixin to die rag though, you shouldn't move on from this band without hearing that mad hoedown. Also fun fact, the fish cheer was sampled by Death in Vegas for 'Dirt'.

People should definitely get over themselves and listen to the Yoko one of the same name. Once. I'm strangely unmoved by this, it's definitely raw and that's great, but are the tunes actually that good? My problem may be setting expectations too high, regarded as John Lennon's best solo effort, and my previous enjoyment of All Things Must Pass, you do expect greatness. This is so understated (apart from the screaming) by comparison also. However for me it's so raw the tunes didn't get developed really. As with George's record, you can play 'spot the potshot' at his former band mates and various people, which is a fun bit of historical pop culture horseplay. Mother I don't really like. Working Class Hero stands up to scrutiny. God is good but is also half a song and mainly a list of shit. To be fair, this whole record comes across as therapy for John and that's absolutely fair enough, it's just something I would choose to listen to much. I went back and listened to the Yoko version afterwards and it's an entertaining oddity but honestly I'll probably never listen to either of these records again.

Absolutely glorious. Why do I leave these albums unlistened to after discovering and loving one record by a band? I guess there's lots of examples where that would be a let down, but not here. The debut is fabulous of course and so is this. That beat in E-musik is just perfect. Drilled into my psyche. The ambient stuff is gorgeous. What's great about sticking a Krautrock album on is Spotify generally throws up a great load of stuff afterwards, there's so much wonderful stuff in the genre to discover, in many directions (obvs krautrock is a reductive term). Reminded me to go back to Harmonium, another project Rother was involved with, Deluxe is a cracker.

Salsa! Good salsa. Why does the cover make it look like one of those Salsa for Babies CDs? Radiohead for Babies etc. Best tracks: Buscando Guayaba, Ojos.

No need to write anything here, it's What's Going On by Marvin Gaye. People who don't like this are empirically wrong.

Hmm, I have no recollection of this existence at all. Someone mentioned the Mercury Prize and that's a good shout. I do remember the Talvin Singh one though, this, nothing. Most of this screams Morcheeba to me though, coffee shop grooves but with some eastern rhythms and overtones. Also overproduced in such a way as to turn you right off. I'd much rather listen to the real deal. There was loads of it about around this time. Offensively inoffensive. Blame Moby if you want. The rap one with some dude trying to do Q-Tip badly was hard to sit through. Oh god, Immigrant was painful. What the fuck is this. Utter schlock. The Conference is the one track worth listening to, and it jumps out, so incongruous is it to everything else here. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to avoid reaching the inevitable conclusion that it is fucking terrible. Or at least terrible in places, boring in others.

...but mostly sad. There's some pretty odd vocal choices early on here Tim. Some might say jarring. I most enjoyed Buzzin Fly and Gypsy Woman - I picked up the Fred Neil comparison in the former, then read the same later in the book so I guess it must have been obvious.

It's a classic. Was familiar with Fugazi since youth but mostly from thumbing past them in record shops. About 10 years ago I finally listened to them, starting with Ten Songs and loved it. Of course I did, it's right up my alley. Much more so than Minor Threat it seems. So it all sounds fresh, but I suspect it would still sound fresh anyway. Love that several songs are lead by the rhythm section, its a very different structure and probably what keeps it fresh. Brendan 1 and Repeater are perfect examples of this. Then there's Merchandise and Styrofoam, absolutely made for flying down dirt track hills on your bike to, and with a great message. Blueprint absolutely kicks arse. Fucking love it

Hated this at the time, loads of people since have tried to tell me it's great, and maybe it is, but I don't like it. At least it doesn't have that sodding dry your eyes mate song on it. Oh shit, it actually does! Blinded by the Lights isn't bad I guess. Not Addicted was alright as a skit. Too much of this I can't really understand wanting to repeat listen, it's like a comedy routine or a podcast with some beats behind it. Most songs are just vaguely irritating to me. Some are stupendously irritating like Get out of my House. Was wavering up to a 2 but more of that and it's getting a 1 and it better be grateful. Fit but you know it can fuck all the way off. That and dry your eyes still to come secured the 1*

Was struggling to remember what bland and massively overplayed guitar music this lot were responsible for. The first 2 tracks don't really give me any ideas. Then Golden Skans descends like a massive cloud of blandness. There we are.. Weeoooweeoooweeooo - ahh. No ta Weird to have that phasing out/nodding off sensation during such a lively song as Gravity's Rainbow. Ah, It's Not Over Yet is the other overplayed song, that's also got an annoying refrain. Go home lads. Sadly the overplayed guitar music has only got more bland really in the last 15 years. Bring back good guitar music!

Why does the app not say prog rock. This is so clearly prog rock. Except it's not the kind of prog I like apparently. Or not enough of it. Let's just say I understand the diverse reaction. I think I must have missed something on The Sage - Greg lake's 'best ever' live guitar recording? Too much of this is just nonsense. Interesting nonsense, and extremely well performed, for sure. There's great stuff in amongst it - The Old Castle (after it actually starts) into Blues Variation, and the hut of Baba Yaga. Also made me want to listen to the full Mussorgsky suite. Ha. Nut Rocker. I had no idea this was them, and I also would never have guessed this random piece of essentially boogie woogie was based on the Nutcracker.

I only know She Sells Sanctuary, which is a banger, and not here. Straight ahead rock, pretty forgettable. The book said it had outstanding singles but I completely tuned out the first one so I disagree. Love Removal Machine sounds like about 3 different ACDC songs mixed with She Sells Sanctuary. Why the shite Steppenwolf cover? Pass.

Erm, haven't I had this one already? Anyway, I'm well acquainted with the cover of Apache from the many nights at the Tiger Lounge, and yes it's an all-timer. So what of the rest. Bongolia has similar vibes and I'm absolutely here for it. Great schlock. Less so the last Bongo in Belgium. In the Garden of Eden is a fun cover but again the bongos are secondary for most of it. Oh no wait, here they are! Half an hour is pretty much the correct length, don't bother with the bonus tracks. Half tempted to give it a 4 because I haven't had a good album all week. Nah, yeah, this is really fun, let's go to 4 town.

Yeah it's really good. Can't decide if this would be my pick of the 3 Scott albums before the masterpiece, but it's a worthy pick. Love all his Brel covers, but these are some of the dirtiest, in a grimy sense. Feel like you could catch something just listening to them, wonderful. The other covers are nice, Scotts original stuff is great. I would probably choose Scott 3, more of his original stuff.

80s jangly guitar pop. There isn't any point in this where I think it's bad, I'm also not completely hooked on any of it on first listen. Which is fine, I just don't think I'm bothered about putting the effort in to get hooked, I'm kind of good for jangle pop, I got into Orange Juice fairly recently.

What is it about Metallica, why do they leave me cold. Maybe I just find Hatfield's delivery kind of emotionless. Master of puppets = some thrash, stop, say Master. Master! Then some thrash. Repeat for 8 minutes. Next song is just sludgy for 6.5 minutes. Admittedly I think there's a good song hiding in there somewhere. I'd probably say the same for Sanitarium. Disposable Heroes is good. Orion is a welcome change of pace. Ok. This is getting better as it goes along, even if I probably wouldn't ever choose to stick it on. I gave Justice For All 2 because I didn't like over half of it, this has fared better but I'm still not crazy about it. There's just so much metal I find better, funner, harder. 3.

First track very Byrdsy, decent, not what I expected. 2nd track onwards, very bar-room Americana, exactly what I expected. Not my thing.

Now we are talking. Prominent and urgent bass, spiky, scratchy guitar, great lyrics, enjoy the backing vocals too. Very confused by the reviews that couldn't hear the politics. Look this is just the perfect post punk album, it is the yardstick. 1/4 manc too. RIP Andy Gill, taken too soon by COVID.

Oh god I adore this album. Has to be my favourite Eno record I think, and so one of my favourite albums of all time. I have so much of it scattered across various playlists, as tracks stand so well on their own - however their true power is when listened to of a piece. I love it. There's some kinda angular music on here but I just find it all so beautiful and comforting. As well as the obviously beautiful and comfortable ambient tracks. Sky saw works so well, whatever instrument making that noise is, that's a saw. Fripp's work throughout this is outstanding. St Elmo's Fire and I'll come running are lovely. But the instrumentals kick me in the face, they are so perfect. The Big Ship, one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard. The title track, and Becalmed, similar. Zawinul/Lava is low key magnificent. I didn't think I could listen to it today as my Mrs is having a major op today, but this is a uniquely calming record and so it's perhaps for best it came out today. After a long and stressful day, and finding out she was ok for the night, I came home and put this on again. At first I only had one speaker working, and everything sounded wrong. Some would take that as a negative, but for me it is excellent. this is such a headphones album I guess, and when focused on, the sound positively dances around between your ears and it is just magical. Got to say, Another Green World is basically the perfect album for the day I've just had.

Happy Sad, Goodbye Hello... So this is different, far less low key than Happy Sad. More listenable to me as a result, if not mind-blowing. I did not really get the jazz in that. Definitely more accessible. The Buckley wail is present particularly in Pleasant Street. Boy there really is a lot of wailing here, this is definitely Jeff's dad. I prefer it when the wail is kept somewhat in check, like Once I Was. In the book this opens across from Love's Forever Changes, and you know what, there's a lot of similarity stylistically. But I much prefer the latter. Song to the Siren is such an absolutely wonderful song, I feel sad that I haven't really found a Tim Buckley album I really like. I stuck Happy Sad on again afterwards, and I do get the Jazz this time. I do not think I caught the bass properly where I was listening, it's actually really obvious - my bad, Happy Sad. Still morose for long periods on side B though.

Ok here we go. Primed for this after listening to the incredible Doremi Faso Latido, primarily because of the mind-melting Brainstorm. Had thought it was on this journey however I now remember Zaph Mann played it in the wake of Nik Turner's passing late last year and I went to the whole album, and didn't regret. Probably agree that this whole piece is a bit much to sit through in one go, but any several of these tracks are great in their own space. I can mostly leave the spoken word bleep bloop stuff in between, although Sonic Attack is something else, and unintentionally hilarious. Definitely worth staying until the end for the meaty riffage of Time we left this world today and Master of the Universe. Also, the last half hour or something is bonus tracks, so don't worry. And Brainstorm is still fantastic. You wouldn't imagine it was written by someone who primarily played the flute.

Pure, pure folk, of the purest kind. Just Joan on her guitar, and that voice. John Riley is utterly captivating. The guitar on Silver Dagger.

First two tracks I really enjoyed. Chilled and fuzzy, good late night stuff. Then two late period Rolling Stones rockers which I do not want. Then a country trundle. Back on solid ground with Red Eyed and Blue, but then we're back to sub-Stones (I say sub, this is probably better than what they were up to by this point). I think this is going to be one to pick stuff out of for playlists rather than anything I'll listen to all of again. Yeah, one hour younger me was correct. There is wisdom in youth. Listenable but not memorable, largely.

I was all ready to rate this as average, Been Caught Stealing and some other tracks basically. And while yes, that is the obvious stand out, and the first 3 tracks are good if nothing special, Obvious first caught my ear, and then Three Days is a definite building banger. As is Then She Did, in a low key way. I love a long song that actually does something with the time. All of the second side is very good. Rated the earlier JA a 4 and I think I enjoyed this one a little more.

Was not expecting to enjoy this, but well I got fully swept along with it. I probably dropped out around the second cabaret song though. So that's the second half of the album where I never really fully came back, and I obviously know Constant Craving backwards. Pleasing listen overall.

A damned good album from The Damned. Plus it has Smash It Up on it.

I like Prince, I do, but I can't get on with this album. There's some class tunes here, and some really interesting stuff with the Camille alter ego. It's just a double album that should have been an album. Can't shake the feeling it sounds like what it is, 3 albums of track choices thrown into a single release. Probably for best that the triple didn't happen. If I was going to pick a 3rd prince album after the two most obvious choices, it would definitely be Around the World in a Day.

My Mrs loves these, and she turned me onto The Cramps so her taste must not be questioned. However I haven't heard much of them, and mention of Motley Crue doesn't fill me with confidence. Surprisingly though, this is a much more punk rock record than I expected, the glam cock rock stylings are around the edges rather than the main thrust. A few songs remind me of Pink Grease, obviously influenced by these, and they're great.

Super furries are great, Radiator is the best album but this is still fantastic. Also encouraged me to read Mr Nice when that came out. There are undoubtedly shit britpop bands and shit britpop albums but this isn't one of them.

Didn't know Gotta Get Up before Natasha Lyonne's Russian Doll but that's a cracker. I really liked The Point, his kids album. Don't really know anything else besides the big song on here and everybody's talking. Odd that his most famous songs are both covers. "Ken Lee" is an indisputable classic. Coconut though. Please do fuck off. Everything else here is really good also. Jump in the Fire really reminds me of the Cult's She Sells Sanctuary, their one good song. Really good jam at the end with some lovely work on the bass.

Correct decision to remove from the book. It was shit then, and it's shit now. I didn't bail on this one, the only one I couldn't get through was Cee Lo Green. But, this is rubbish from start to finish, and seems to have only got mediocre critical praise at the time. Being a huge commercial success does not make an album an essential listen, it just doesn't. Also, just like Eminem and all this millennium era rap, it's aged fucking terribly. Basically forgot this guy existed, noone talks about him anymore. For someone who was so huge at this time that's quite an achievement.

Either I'm in a better mood, or this is far far better than the serviceable, but a bit boring, Natty Dread. Obviously there are more recognisable hits but I've heard 3 Little Birds and One Love so many times that is potentially a negative. Can never hear Jammin too many times though, funny how that works. Love the darker feeling of side 1. I never need to hear 3 Little Birds ever again. Great song but one of the most overplayed songs of all time.

It's not bad! For an indie guitar record in this period it manages to not be either incredibly annoying or snoresome, vanishingly rare around this time. Obviously it's derivative, but it's not bad. Like The Black Keys except with half decent tunes. I did more or less tune out long before the end though. Suspect this will get an aggregated 3 rating due to collecting lots of 3s, rather than lots of 5s and 1s like many far better albums in this list do.

Britpop? Ahahaha, who calls this britpop? Madness. Oh yeah, Madness, I guess they're britpop too, they're British and they made pop after all. Anyway, never heard this although I love Reward of course, and whatever I have heard of Julian Cope's output. Terrific new wave record. Pretty clear that the Inspirals listened to and loved this too. Britpop? Get out of here.

Holy shit, this has got the Men Behaving Badly theme tune on it! I'm not sure it's actually it but it basically is. Hmm. I've only heard Our Favourite Shop before, with bangers such as Walls Come Tumbling Down and Shout to the Top, and being generally really good, it was kind of difficult to understand why the music press in the 90s had such a hard on for treating the Style Council as one big joke. Now I basically do, if this patchy album of dinner party jazz was the debut. I probably preferred the many instrumentals because I dislike the smooth style in which Weller sings on every song here. Well not every song. A Gospel. Bring back the smooth, Paul, you're crazy! Oof, strength of nature is really bad too, aged like milk, this is in danger of getting one star. Might just scrape a 2 for being such a mad listen.

A nice enough listen on a Sunday morning after Psychfest but I wasn't that upset it's not on Spotify because I probably won't listen again. Nothing stood out particularly, maybe the grey and blue shirt.

Didn't listen in the 90s, but yeah, very good deserves the plaudits. In the vein of Kristen Hersh and PJ. Initial standouts, Glory, Shatter.

No write up in the book as it's been removed. Makes sense, two white stripes albums still in there is excessive, three would be insane. My interest was also waning considerably by this point also. The single, opener track was decent though. For a 45 minutes long album this somehow way outstays it's welcome. So many jobbing blues jam songs. Tbh I don't think I would give any white stripes album more than 6.5/10, I'm always bored partway through.

Can I have one of these, one of these, and two of those please. Come on auntie we'll miss the bus! I forgot the two long (mostly) instrumentals on here that sort of don't belong but also kind of do. Like the Swallow turns into MBV almost. Album as a whole is not what I think of when I think St Etienne but it's kind of better for it, and shows they didn't just make fantastic cheesy pop like You're in a Bad Way or He's on the Phone. Nothing Can Stop Us Now fulfils that here, and is right up there with their best. Pleased to note that Spotify have only partially carried out Neil's writ. Makes me want to go listen to So Tough and Good Humor. Did in fact stick So Tough on straight afterwards, classic two sides of a C90. I wonder which two songs I dropped to fit them on?

Yes to this. Give me more tropicalia and tropicalia-adjacent. It is literally all gold. A good excuse to check more of his albums. I went straight to his proper, self titled, tropicalia album.

Saw these live fairly recently, a late replacement for Television supporting Billy Idol's arena tour for which a friend gave me a ticket to come along with him. Was initially sad to miss TV especially given Tom Verlaine's sad passing the following year. Comforted myself that I had at least seen them perform Marquee Moon in entirety a few years and settled in to watch Killing Joke with medium expectations. They blew my socks off. Was also hilarious watching the baffled reactions of those around me to this band, slotted between Toyah and Billy Idol's pop, as they delivered an astonishingly heavy and dark set, with absolutely no fucks given for those just waiting for Mony Mony and White Wedding. Disappointed to learn he's gone nuts (or apparently always has been) on conspiracy bullshit. But this is a great album. The Wait is cracking.

There doesn't need to be three arcade fire albums in this list, this one only has two or three really great songs, plus the earlier EP version of No Cars Go is much better than this one. Man is that an understatement, just listening now, it's a real shame what they did to it, it's godawful, the version on this record, so irritating. Any Arcade Fire fans reading this who somehow haven't heard the EP version I urge you, go listen, it's still there on Spotify in the singles section. More raw, certainly, but all the more effective for it. I was sorely disappointed by this album at the time after the debut. I did however go see them on this tour. Several B side level songs, but what they do retain is the ability to build to a big finish in a song. I mean it's still good, obviously, just not anywhere near as good as their two really great albums. Was going to round up to 4, but that shiny and lobotomized version of No Cars Go forced me to stick to my guns and go with 3.

Totally disavowed gangsta rap as a youth, but this list is teaching me I might actually like it quite a lot with this and Ice Cube. I did like the odd Wu Tang track back then though so there were seeds. Continue to love all the old movie samples and general vibe of RZAs production. Obviously the swearing and guns and stuff is annoying, but man, Raekwon is irrepressible! Bit long, like. Also found Ice Cream to be a bit hella-lame. Wu-Gambinos absolutely bangs though.

On the face of it yeah, Toy story soundtrack 12 times. Until you listen to the lyrics. Songs about slavery, death, pollution and nuclear annihilation. Delivered with a hug and a smile. Not exactly what I was expecting but then I did always know Randy Newman had a bit of wit about him.

Obviously never heard this, the second track was quite interesting, though essentially 'Music' redux. Music was alright, as it goes. Including both this and Ray of Light seems quite the egregious move on the part of the editor. Oh shit this is the album with American Pie, the abomination. 2 nothing tracks follow, track 5 is pretty decent, could absolutely have been on Ray of Light. Sounds a lot like Beautiful Stranger. Track 6 is nothing, oh I recognise 7. Yeah that one was alright too. 8 was a single too I guess, that was fine, no more. I just read that both Amazing and Impressive Instant were a promotional single, resetting the 'worthwhile album tracks' counter back to zero. Although by that metric there are only 4 tracks not released as a single in some form, they're all completely unremarkable though. I haven't yet listened to Ray of Light but I already think that will be better and more essential than this, and including Ray of Light pt. 2 seems pointless. Really enjoyed Like a Prayer, what about some of her earlier stuff? Low 3, average, well crafted pop album. Good Christ, the American Pie cover is painful. Worse than I remember even. Loses a star. 2.

Hard to get on streaming, but there's the odd serviceable playlist cobbling this together from the stuff they released back onto services a couple of years ago after a far too long absence. One of the most interesting stories of any band ever, surely. There is an absolutely essential John Higgs book about them and their influences (occult, dadaist, conspiracies - the story of how the popularised concept of the Illuminati as an all powerful shadowy organisation was essentially invented as a joke then took on a life of its own, is mad in itself). The fact they blew out of obscurity, topped the charts with apparent ease for a couple of years as a kind of joke/art project and then fucked off again, signing a pact to never use the name again and deleting all of their records. The music, I see plenty of baffled Americans here in the reviews. I guess you had to be there. It's commercial house. But at the time when it blew on the scene I just remember thinking, What Is That Noise And Where Can I Get More Of It? I still think last train, 4am eternal and what time is love are bangers. But the real star here is Justified Ancients. You must watch the video. An absolute classic tune. Just pure joy. Problem is I don't think the version I love is the one on the album. The single version is the one. Bring the beat back! That notwithstanding this is obviously getting a 5. These are two Scottish guys who convinced Tammy Wynette to appear on their record and sing the words "they're justified, and they're ancient, and they drive an ice cream van" on top of the pops.

Hip hop for teenagers basically, it's a shame I didn't hear it when it came out. I mean I enjoyed the Bloodhound Gang back then so that's what I'm basing the maturity on. Although it's not exactly great, it's just alright, so I don't feel like I missed out. One of the strangest inclusions in the book. The best thing about this album is as a demonstration of how woefully Spotify's Explicit label is applied. Just the one, on a 26 second skit, because that has a 'fuck' in it.

I'm not a Traffic fan so I know nothing of Winwood. Get huge Peter Gabriel vibes from the vocal. The production is so heavily what I perceive as what others incorrectly malign the entire decade of the 80s for (1st half anyway), this is going to have to work to overcome it. So far this feels a lot like something that is going to be impossible to get into outside of its time. I don't want to say it's not good, but... ah fuck, 3rd track in, it's not good. Oh god, it's a song about a Second Hand Woman. Amazing. You're worthless love unless you're a virgin or something. What I will say is from what I know of Traffic, this is quite a departure and doesn't necessarily reflect badly on them. The Peter Gabriel vibes continue to shine through oh so strongly, except for, crucially, in the writing. Maybe it's the booze but I did grow into this sufficiently to enjoy Spanish Dancer. Is that enough to avoid the 1 it was headed for, time will tell. Sadly Night Train was less Gabriel and far more Phil Collins, thus earned considerable enmity from me. That and being almost 8 bastard minutes long. This is exactly the sort of record future editions of this book should be phasing out, but no, they delete nearly everything they ever included since 2005 as if no newish music is important. Some of that stuff is 15 years old and older mate, it's nostalgia for today's kids. Won't somebody please think of the children.

All through the 90s the received wisdom was that this was the greatest Beatles album. It outshone all the rest apparently. So imagine my confused face when I finally graduated from the red and blue albums to actually stick this on. I think I'd already heard Revolver, Rubber Soul, Hard Days Night and Help before this, it did not escape my notice that my mum and dad both had stopped buying Beatles records with Revolver. So maybe they got turned off by the drugs stuff, I should ask. Anyway I found a CD of this in my brother's stuff one day and stuck it on. And I was.... slightly disappointed? It's obviously excellent, but we are saying this is the Greatest... Beatles album, that is high praise. Nowadays things are a bit more measured, most people probably say Revolver, hipsters and me might say Rubber Soul are more consistently outstanding. Here we do have outstanding stuff of course, some of their greatest ever songs, A Day in the Life obviously, LSD. And a good start with the title track. Wet Wet Wet ruined little help from my friends for me. I think She's Leaving Home and Within Without You stand out for me of the other tracks. But besides that there's just far too much music hall ditties, 64, Getting Better, or daft stuff like Mr Kite and Lovely Rita. After LSD there's not really a Classic Beatles track that knocks you off your feet until a Day in the Life really does (one of the greatest songs ever made, by anyone - such an incredible thing, 5 great tunes in one and somehow still fully formed in and of itself). Perhaps if they'd fought and kept Strawberry Fields on it in favour of one of the ditties, it may be in the conversation. I just never choose to go back to this one. This possibly has the best cover art, but then Revolver has a shout there too. Gets points for being the starting gun for concept albums and the cultural touchstone but I have to give myself somewhere to go and I like a lot of albums a lot more than this one.

It's a real testament to how well this was put together, that listening to it almost 30 years later it still sounds kind of fresh. Aside from one or two tracks, I can't put a tune to a title, and when it comes on it always pleases me. So much of 90s music has aged pretty terribly, especially hip hop tinged stuff of the time. But this stands as a somewhat timeless classic. Easily one of the top ten albums of its era.

I tried, not for me. I didn't really like any of it. Even though I like both rock and folk and some prog. Same reaction as I've always had hearing Tull down the years.

Great voice. Not really my thing. Although it floats around the edges of some stuff I like a lot like REM. Love at the Five and Dime was good. Can't knock it as an album, and it seems to have aged well especially considering it was 1986, a time particularly prone to aging. Glad wasn't subjected to the one with From A Distance on it because that song very much is late 80s schlock. Although Cliff Richard is probably more to blame for my dislike.

"Does your love only come....in a Volvo?" I want to write a lot about this record but I don't have time today. Been with me my whole musical life, pretty much. I think of pre-Britpop and post-Britpop Suede as two different bands because they kind of are. From Trash onwards they glistened, before that, the beauty and ugliness in life was celebrated in equal measure, no punches pulled. The drop off from album 3 onwards might have been pretty marked, but these first two and their B-sides and outtakes... sublime. Not *quite* as genius as Dog Man Star but the margins are narrow. The gorgeous riffage in Pantomime Horse - fuck me.

Never heard or heard of this. Is this another record that's going to annoy me about the exclusion of both Godspeed and Mogwai from this list? There is one Boards of Canada record. I mean, it's a pleasant enough listen, but not essential or standout, for me.

A really invigorating listen. Never listened to Pentangle, or Bert Jansch really. Though after this I am looking forward to his solo stuff and work with The Byrds. Oh no wait that's Gram Parsons. Recalled I have actually heard his solo record in this book, I preferred this album though overall on first listen, the first half particularly.

I mean, it's Astrud Gilberto. But I am really unsure if this is the best representation of her here. No Agua De Beber, no Meditacion, no pretty much anything I think of when I think of her stuff. It's nice, of course, was never going to less than a pleasant listen. On Spotify it has the 2nd half of a different album with Walter Wanderley Trio for some reason. Which does contain Tristeza and Call Me. But I stuck her debut on afterwards instead, which reinforced my gut feeling that it should be in the book instead. Far superior.

It's a stunningly produced album of top notch disco, soul and funk. Or at least 60% of it is. I don't care for some of it, sorry Macca.

Wouldn't ever have listened to this otherwise, apart from the odd one on film soundtracks of course. Murder ballads, tall tales, this stuff is gold really. The story ones are the best, lead by Big Iron.

Ok, so this is low key Swift. Waited until now to see what the fuss was about. Didn't enjoy much besides the big track on 1989. Midnights was ok but I haven't been back tbh. First track drifted by anonymously. There's some lovely melody in champagne and gold rush, towards the end of each song. There's kind of just enough here for me to stay interested and not dismiss it as bland pop. If I gave it repeat listens I may even grow to really like some of it, but I'm probably not going to do that. It's also too long, and I did get bored around the National track. Spotify now wants me to listen to "Sad Girl Autumn" songs, which kind of says it all.

Ace.

Oh ok. So the debut was also in the book once. Quickly revisit my notes from the second album, I mentioned hearing snippets of this on adverts lots, and "...affected singing....mildly bluesy rock quite boring...like a less good Strokes...won't be bothering listening to the debut..." So I guess I was wrong on that last one. Everything else? Check, check, check. If it wasn't annoying it was just on. Open your fucking mouth properly, man. Mind you when he did, we got that Sex on Fire toilet stuff.

Really beautiful. Some of the Nico albums are hidden gems, and this is no exception. It's more folky than her second one which I listened to last year and enjoyed. Probably largely down to the flutes which I understand she hated but I don't mind here. Her voice is somewhat jarring against the backdrop and not typically folky at all, but that's part of what makes it interesting. I did prefer the more Avant Garde offerings of the Marble Index, and oddly was a bit put off by the one here that leaned slightly in that direction (it was a pleasure then).

Never heard this discussed - why? Not what I expected at all and it's really good. Like Grace Jones on crack in places. Particularly Why'd Ya Do It? Which is deliciously vicious and epic. Broken English is great bit of electronica, the cover of Working Class Hero works really well. What a mood piece. Will definitely come back to this.

Broad appeal this one, both immediate and interesting. Lots of the old, 70s soul, Marvin Gaye, while still sounding new. It's a pop record for sure and it's good pop. I enjoyed it when it came out. Not been back to it much though possibly only because it's hard to remember great albums when I have no physical object to flick through and remind me. Maybe it sags a little in the middle and gets a bit samey, but a real strong finish from Hard to Say Goodbye onwards grabs it a worthy 4.

Probably my favourite album for such a long time when it came out. Bit of a mess this on Spotify, for some reason the UK/US versions have different running order and the US version inexplicably leaves out the gorgeous Slow Motion in favour of the not very good Spiderbite Song. Well it's alright, I suppose, I just don't have any great love for it as it wasn't on my CD. Whereas the correct order of Spark into Slow Motion into Light? = pure joy.

So I was one of those many, many fans initially turned off massively by this album. Maybe I was caught up in the noise around it before forming my own opinion was a thought in my still young head, or perhaps it was to do with Kid A the song being so up front and not really very good that soured me. Let's be honest, it's a bit of a nothing song. Especially in such company. I've never much cared for Idioteque either if I'm completely honest. Anyway I didn't stick with it, and rejoined the party with Hail to the Thief, which many dislike but which I love. I've come back to Kid A of course, and to an extent Amnesiac, though I'll take much more convincing that the latter is a work of genius beyond obvious exceptions such as Pyramid Song. There's no point writing much more about the actual record, it's all been written. The overblown chaotic and the understated majesty go hand in hand.

The most boring music gets the highest ratings on here. Which makes sense, don't try anything, don't offend anyone's tastes. I'm sure this is fine for you if you really like Bryan Adams and suchlike. Wow. What the fuck is that word salad on their Spotify description? Also their album cover reminds me of Dog Man Star and the comparison in quality is stark. The longer it went on, the more nothing it became, and I just got annoyed. An entirely unremarkable band.

Very mixed feelings about this album. The Manics went pop, and it was enjoyable for a time but I don't think they released anything of interest to me after this apart from The Masses Against the Classes. A Design for Life was everywhere. I mean it was everywhere. The radio, TV, the nightclubs, shops. I've probably heard that more times than Common People. The title track not far behind. Ah yes, when every indie song had to have strings! After the masterpiece of the Holy Bible this ultimately was a disappointing turn, but you can hardly blame them for retreating from the harsh honesty and bleakness of their best works after the shock of Richey disappearing. His songs are probably my favourites here, honourable mentions to Wire's Elvis Impersonator, No Surface, and Pop Manics' shining star in my eyes, Australia. Ebola Alone is alright but I find the lyrics a bit cringe now. Crack for teenage me though of course, and that's the target audience. Sludgy britpop production doesn't help in places either, but most of this is still good, the only true duffer is Further Away.

I like far too much stuff influenced directly by this jangle pop to not give a perfect score, even though the Vera Lynn cover is shite.

I love this mental stuff, I don't care. Go away and listen to your War On Drugs albums.

So I only got the Byrds the other day and here we are with the Fannies. Nice. I missed this one at the time, got into them when Grand Prix came out off the back of Sparky's Dream. Absolutely love that, and Songs From Northern Britain even better. The Concept is great, and Is This Music is lovely and brings back memories of Goal of the Month of Match of the Day. In between those two pinnacles, this while consistently good doesn't hit me as strongly as the aforementioned (either of which would garner a 5) and so I'm scoring appropriately. Another review says it sounds like Oasis before Oasis, which in places, yes it does. And that's because Oasis were ripping off Status Quo and claiming to be the Beatles. TF also influenced by Quo but at least they were good. Power pop!

I don't come back to this hardly at all now but reminding myself of the tracks here it's a real hit list. Like many others it seems I went through a "Doors phase" when I was youthfully exploring music and played them to death. Maybe that's why I don't go back much, the songs are just in my head, beat for beat. The End is superlative. One of the best, most fully realised debuts from any band. The killer awoke before dawn.

Wow, ok. So we're doing the Billie 'comeback'/swansong album instead of her peak I suppose. Though you can't really talk of albums as such going back to the 30s. Yeah that first track is a real punch in the guts. The contrast between her now frayed, heroin-ravaged voice and the somewhat twee orchestral backing. Almost feels like a precursor to that 80s Marianne Faithful record the other day in that sense. She's a legend and the ultimate.

Syd Floyd is my Floyd. I only have time for bits and pieces of the later stuff. This is the epitome of 60s psych, I love it, it's masterful in places, daft in others. Full of understated poppiness as in Flaming, riffage on Lucifer Sam and the towering monster of Interstellar Overdrive. He's getting rather old but he's a good mouse.

Ooh. Well as the first track started I thought, mmm, more country, not in the mood. Then it got it's hooks in. First listen. Wow. Got a Dennis Wilson River Song vibe. Title track and Strength of Strings are moody bangers also. Obviously the production has a lot to do with it, I can understand where all the money went. Some Misunderstanding loses me a bit, for an album this generally blown up and huge sounding, it doesn't quite go on the journey I want an 8 minutes long song to go on. It's still good though. I should have known the guy who wrote Eight Miles High did decent stuff after The Byrds. One of the things I'm looking for in this whole project.

5 stars for I Want Your Love and At Last I Am Free on their own. Contains plenty other intricately constructed widdly wee widdly woo. Stonewall classic

Oosh. Archetypal country. I instinctively want to reject, so I must fight against. He was married to Tammy Wynette, therefore has a KLF number of 2. Initially, I can take any one song in isolation as a perfect mood setter, the whole album, just no. Longer it goes on, the more I feel I am indoctrinated. Might be the wine, it's took me till 11pm to get through this 28 minute album.

Yep, this is still great.

Love the Dead Kennedys, I haven't heard this though, all my DK needs were previously met with Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. Several crackers here though I didn't previously know. Lynch the Landlord

Ha ok. Check your brain in at the door. This is no time to be po-faced. I probably wouldn't ever listen to any of this by choice (except for today) but I can't really argue with what it does. First half all well and good. This is so 1986 it almost hurts. Other stuff I might eviscerate for that but for some reason I just can't bring myself to do that to this. All I will say is partway through Raise Your Hands I realised I was bored, and was very much ready for the record to end three songs before the finish. Interesting how much the last song is a massive rip of mid 80s Bruce, fellow New Jersey bloke.

Do I like this more than Around the world in a Day? Possibly. Anyway it's fabulous. Let's go crazy, Darling Nikki particular highlights.

I've been listening to some Country fuckin music Tryin hard to get my fuckin mind less stressed I've been fiddlin with the dial on the fuckin iron Tryin to get the creases out of my fuckin vest I've been wanderin around the local shit-farm Thinkin hard about, cleanin up my fuckin mind I've been tethering Alsatians to lamp-posts Hoping to get my fuckin chakras realigned (chorus) I'm not hu-un-ky I'm not bright as a spark I'm Andy Daw-wson I'm pissin on shadows, (shadows, shadows) In the fuckin dark I've been stickin my fuckin fingers into duck shit I've been throwin sticks and stones at my fuckin cat I keep hopin all day for a fuckin miracle Like waking up and finding out that my bellies flat (chorus) Cus I'm not hu-un-ky I'm not bright as a spark I'm Andy Daw-wson I'm pissin on shadows, (shadows, shadows) In the fuckin dark

Mmm, here we are again with Neil Young. So I've been surprised by a couple of the records. Not this time though, we're back on country Neil, and aside from a couple of good tracks and a general vibe, I'm largely unmoved. Last track is good.

I wanted to like this, I really did. Have heard good things about Scritti Politti and their place on the 80s new wave, but whereas I can go back to ABCs Lexicon of Love and really enjoy it, I just can't with this. All the vibe and production is there but the tunes aren't, from the first faux reggae beat right at the start I kind of wanted it to end. Absolute was pretty good and I increased in hope but then lost it again. There is some strangeness in WoodBeez which is vaguely interesting and there's some off kilter lyrics here and there but not enough to keep me coming back. What I find weird is for a band that Wikipedia says had several hits off this record, and me growing up in the 80s, why have I no memory of any of these songs? A curio, really.

Wall to wall bangers up front. Yep, lots of lyrics that belong in the last century, but wow, what a jam. Some tracks are not good - Mr Good Bar, Milky Cereal but even those have great beats. I think the longer it goes on the more I understand the negative reviews, it's too long (probably drop 3 songs after the title track), but still fun.

Sweet Love is a banger and it was nice to be reminded of it. Beyond that nothing else really grabbed me, but it was an enjoyable listen and there's no denying that voice.

Love love love this album. Every time I think I've maybe grown out of it or think the latest embarrassing thing Billy Corgan does has finally put me off, or I think I'm a bit sick of overblown opuses with countless guitar overdubs, none of that matters. When that opening drum roll hits and I think about all the songs here, I am right back in. As has been written many times Corgan was a tyrant in the studio and there's like fifty guitar tracks overlayed in places which some might say is excessive, but it's the gentler moments here that really make this album shine and live long in my heart, and in turn really feed the power when it explodes. I used to use this CD to test a stereo out before I bought it. If this record sounded good that system was a winner. It's a yardstick. The quiet, breathy bits still bring to mind memories of walking the streets delivering papers in the dark early mornings lit by yellow streetlights, listening to this album. One of my favourite all time records. Forever, apparently. Best songs: Hummer, Spaceboy, Soma, Silverfuck, Mayonnaise, just all of it. I can't put them in order.

I went back to this 2-3 years back for album club and listened to the whole thing several times over. It was actually not as good as I'd been expecting, and oh god, so long. Totally understand why this is the daft punk album in the book although Discovery is probably better. There's a lot of space in the tracks which is stripped out as their sound developed. That can be both a positive and a negative, as you can lose yourself in the beats (which is kind of what this album is for) but obviously makes it way long. Rollin' and scratchin', rock'n roll, burnin' are all variations on eachother. The apostrophe trio. Still, lots of bangers. And what it is great for is sticking on in the background while I build reports.

An undisputed masterpiece. For some reason I've never listened to all of it before. But it's clear from the very first track the people weren't wrong. Inferior, popped up covers of the most famous songs here fail to dim the frail majesty of the originals.

This is such a mad album. Throw a load of styles at the wall and see what sticks. I've never managed to get into Genesis prog era (or any era). So I didn't know what to expect from his first solo effort. The first track is prog mental, and appears even more so when contrasted with the second, Solsbury Hill. Obviously much more what I'd associate with his solo sound. The 3rd track is a mix of mid period Stones and Bruce Springsteen. 4th is barber shop Randy Newman. I don't like just parroting what I've read elsewhere but there is no other way to describe that song. Every other song is a different genre. What are you doing Pete? Despite that, is it good? I mean it doesn't work as an album. Some of the songs are good. I suspect it would require repeat listens to digest, but I don't want to do that. I'm so confused, I'm just going to plump for a 2.

Another of my all time favourites. Such a euphoric album. The harmonies. The beats. Brian Wilson pushed to his logical conclusion. I love the complexity of the songs though, it took me a while to really fall in love with this, at first I kinda hated it, after really liking (mainly) Feels and Strawberry Jam. But it unwraps itself on repeat listens. My Girls a personal theme of ours, particularly in our small family's early years and our search for a habitable home. No more runnin (says my mind) is a glorious paeon to just stopping and being. Shutting up all the nagging thoughts. Love it.

This was kind of just on. Odd really as the first track suggested a rollicking good time album but I kind of got bored fast. Faith Healer stood out because it was so tonally different, but not particularly good or anything. I love Jacques Brel so was looking forward/trepidatious about Next. We also already have the Scott Walker cover. This one wasn't good. It was demented though so kind of funny.

Heard about these at the time and as a Blur fan I should have been interested but of the little I heard nothing stuck. Pretty similar experience this time around. Although some songs are musically interesting, there's not really a song. The best parts of several tracks seem to be when Damon finishes singing. If you're not going to bother writing a melody just do an instrumentals album. I'm not really picking up any Tony Allen afrobeats, which is a shame. There's a couple of dub-influenced tracks which are quite good. Overall one I found relatively diverting while listening but can't say I'll go back. Yep. Got to the end and can't say I'll need to listen to that again.

Someone's review is just gonna be: "All I wanna do, is turn this off" Woof, 1993 production really made sure absolutely all the edges were shorn off didn't it. I don't do power ballads but Run Baby Run really took me back - to a worse time. Just made me think of all the shit TV that was on then. Evocative though, have to say. I liked Winding Road and Change, and even if it makes you happy to an extent but mainly as a slight break from the rest of the utter dross on the clothes shop radio tape I had to listen to for 8 hours every Saturday at the time. All of those are on the follow up though. Here, All I Wanna Do is a jam, everything else is total meh, and some just bad. What next, Spin Doctors, a Pocket full of Kryptonite?

Yeah really good. Track 8 is a Banga. I got Savane when it came out and really enjoyed it. But otherwise haven't ventured into Ali Farka Toure's work and I probably really should. Again, an artist I spent most of the 90s reading about but didn't investigate until much later when my awareness of my tastes had widened. Extremely enjoyable listen.

Wonderfully discordant. I'd only heard Deserted from 2019 and that was great. So, good to have one of their early albums on my radar, will definitely revisit.

Folk can go either way with me. It either hits hard or I bounce right off it. This is glorious. So warm. Especially for an album recorded in the wake of tragedy by a band following the death of one of their own.

Now then do I have the words today to gush about this band and this album. Probably not, and plenty others have gushed to an adequate degree. So I'll just say REM have been my favourite band for most of my life, I was fully primed for this after a friend had shared Green and Out of Time with me in the couple of years prior. While I eventually shied away from this album after a while of delving into their (only just) superior back catalogue, I am still always happy to come back to it after a break. Obviously as their commercial peak (a maudlin album about death at that - so very REM) many songs have been played to death, though I am somehow never ever tired of Drive, Nightswimming or Find the River. Glorious, glorious songs. This is the first time I became aware of the record company cashing in on success by releasing 6 singles off it, but you have to be honest, every single one of them deserves to be. Try not to Breathe and Sweetness Follows are other highlights and always high on my all time favourite REM songs. Wonderful. Also Man on the Moon should have been the first single I ever bought, but in a comical decision I eventually plumped for the techno remix of the Super Mario Land theme tune instead.

I'm sad I didn't know or get into Elliott Smith when these records were coming out. I feel certain I would know these songs back to front. What I've done instead much later is fall heavily in love with Sufjan Stevens. (Everything Means nothing to me is fucking glorious.) I got Either/Or a few months back and enjoyed it a lot in that moment. I haven't thought to go back to it though. I am definitely going to have to, I do wonder if it won't hit as hard ultimately because I've moved beyond those teenage/20s emotions. I hear the Beatles influence much more strongly this time too. Anyway Elliot Smith just invited my daughter to his party at the Crystal Maze Experience so he's alright in my book.

I get Rotary Connection vibes from this odd set of covers and jams. But done in a completely different style of course. Or styles, rather. I'm confused, but I think I'm having a better time than the last album this all over the place, by Peter Gabriel. Oh! I recognise this version of Spinning Wheel. You Made me so very happy is a song with a lot of versions, many of them absolutely fantastic, Lou Rawls probably my favourite. This one is so so. The culmination of Blues is very good. Yeah I'm going down the middle.

Wonderful. I've tried to get into Zappa a few times but never enjoyed my way through a whole record. I did with this. Good to work to as well, surprisingly.

It's Autobahn.

Sigh. Right then best get this over with. Look I like metal, and I like NIN and Reznor's later production work, but I've always found Manson a bit much, too try-hard. Also he's rapey. And the Beautiful People was just a metal Adam Ant cover. It's decent though still, despite hearing it in clubs hundreds of times in my youth. I have to hand that to them. The 77 minute running time was another reason I was dreading this coming up. At least it's happening on a work day. 4 tracks in and if I'm honest there's not been a bad song, there's something to like in all of them - but I also don't really want to him wail on. I understand it's supposed to be a rock opera and a riff on The Wall (which I thought was mostly a bit poo) and that's all well and good but I'm not really that interested. It's just the posturing I guess, massively off-putting. I tuned in and out of course, I could swear he was screaming "you're a dirty dirty rascal" at one point (it turns out it was rock star, I prefer my version) Overall it was more enjoyable than I expected but I won't be back, so it's a 3.

Faust do seem to be on the weirder side of krautrock, most of this isn't what I'd consider 'traditional' krautrock, whatever that means, being as it is one of the most interesting, experimental and diverse genres in all of music. It's an incredible mine for early electronica and simply for ideas in general just thrown out there. The fantastic, signature, driving motorik beat is mostly absent here for example. I've only listened to their debut before and that was a mix of banging stuff (as in literally banging stuff together) mixed in with the sound of objects floating in water (although I might be confusing it with a track on Neu!'s debut). Much more of an emphasis on weird noises than on this album. I read later that Faust IV is considered a more accessible set from the band, which definitely appears to be true. Does raise a little wry smile seeing the people in the reviews dismissing the entirety of krautrock on the strengths of this one album. But hey ho. They don't seem to be a band who stick with one idea. Which is incredible and I applaud it. I can mostly skip the second track, but I love the development going on in 1 and 3 and elsewhere. Most of the time now I want to listen to stuff where I have no idea what's going to happen next. I know the second CD was different versions of the same songs, but I left it on, because they were very different!

Interesting to learn this is apparently a concept album with a story, I've always been of the correct opinion that Mars Volta and At the Drive In lyrics were exclusively nonsense. Relationship of Command is one of my favourite albums and I still return to it, so I was primed for Mars Volta when they started up. They shook me off around Frances the Mute though, just too pretentious and daft. I definitely enjoyed a lot of this when it first came out though, but I've not revisited like ATDI so let's see. Intertiatic still hits. These do frenetic energy exceptionally well. How could I have not recognised the story on this album with lyrics as evocative and imbued with narrative strength such as "exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed" and "dress the tapeworm as pet"? Roulette Dates is another banger though, despite this utter nonsense. The longer this goes on the more daft I feel for sort of mentally writing MV off years ago, this goes in directions my tastes have caught up with since, prog, Latin, afrobeat etc. all mixed in with that sweet, sweet hardcore. Oh I remember now, songs like Eriatarka are much too long for their own good without doing anything with the extra time. Conversely, Cicatriz noodles along for ages doing stuff but I find myself getting bored instead of drawn in. Bit of an Icarus wings situation. So close to a 5 but I remembered why I don't listen to it and got bored before the end so I can't possibly. Woke me up for the weekend, at any rate. Time to dip back into the back catalogue I think.

Seems not everyone is able to appreciate Tom Waits, and that's fair enough and not unexpected. I'll just count my blessings of what I get from this lovely album. Equally sinister and gentle, the lyrics are fabulous as usual, and it contains both I don't Wanna Grow Up and That Feel, two of his loveliest ever songs. All drenched in dirt. Other highlights for me, Dirt in the Ground, and the almost beat poem, The Ocean Doesn't Want Me.

Yeah I discovered this about 20 years ago, probably spinning off from the Dazed and Confused soundtrack albums. I'd seen the Simpsons episode much earlier and had no idea who he was. Also that poo reggae cover of Baby I Love Your Way in the early 90s. Much later I learned he was working with Bowie during his career nadir in the 80s, Never Let Me Down/Glass Spider tour. Back then I loved Do You Feel Like We Do. Not particularly for the talking guitar but for the whole jam. The rest of the (long) set is kind of so so, a few other decent songs, mainly Show Me the Way, but largely just competent, inoffensive 70s rock. None of which I really needed to hear again but also didn't make me want to turn it off. Absolutely arrow straight down the middle of the road.

Only first listened to this in 2017 when I did a tour of loads of albums released in 1997, one of the greatest years in music. Was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it, even though I was aware that it stood out in his latter discography as a critical success. But!!! There's no way I would rate this up there with Dylan's best ever. There are some undoubted high points that are among his best, Tryin to Get to Heaven, Not Dark Yet... However there are too many long blues jams that while all well and good, just feel like padding out to me and when the record is 72 minutes long that's daft. My favourite of these is probably Cold Irons Bound. If the album shaved a few songs then I'd like it more. I'm sure Highlands is great if you've a spare 16 minutes to listen to all the words but I'm afraid it just faded into the background for me as it was musically uninteresting. I'm not sure if I preferred Oh Mercy as a whole, probably.

Yep, one of their (and arguably, the actual) best albums. Containing 3 of their (and arguably their actual) greatest ever song(s). Nothing to be said about Gimme Shelter. Menacing. I forgot about the country version of Honky Tonk Women here, entertaining. The title track is great fun. I've never quite got on with the Midnight Rambler though, I know it's always been a live favourite, and it's good fun, but for me the studio recording stalls just when it's threatening to take off into some kind of krautrock banger. Still, you can't always get what you want.

The album and song which give it's name to one of my favourite music books, by Simon Reynolds and all about the many post-punk scenes in that extraordinarily creative few years. I've mainly listened to You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, an absolutely gorgeous record, though I obviously know the lead off track here. Noone really sounds like Edwyn Collins do they? And that Smith'sy guitar laid down before Johnny Marr even got going, mixed in with Nile Rogers. I see the guitarist and drummer have changed since the debut, so the big change in sound makes sense. A lot here is closer in style to Satellite City, which was an outlier before. I was still thrown by the second track though, not what I was expecting at all. And not what I'm wanting from OJ, if I'm honest. Although I did enjoy Hokoyo. Hmm, near the end now and it's just not hitting like Consolation Prize, Falling and Laughing, Three Cheers For Our Side or Felicity and the like did. But I'm giving it 4 as I reckon it's a grower. I felt similarly about the debut at first as I recall.

Don't like this one? It's fine, there's another one along in a minute. I've tried to love this several times down the years but it turns out I just like it quite a lot. Tight as anything, and really gets into the swing after about ten tracks or so, some gold here.

I had this when it came out, not sure it should be here in this book as it's a compilation, but it's still the 'album' which launched them in the UK for sure, along with that Kylie Minogue advert for pants or rodeo or something, so ok. Was really punchy and I loved it back then. I did always think it was kind of disposable at the time and didn't think it would stand up forever or anything, just incredibly immediate and loads of fun for a short burst. The band members names are cringe. Vigilante Steve? The breakdown bits in Untutored Youth are cringe. Hey, would you like lemon and lime with that piece of advice, mister? What? Also I remember the follow up Tyrannosaurus Hives was the law of diminishing returns, just more of the same and I lost interest. Turns out it's not in the latest edition, oh wow, that's the oldest album to be removed I think so far. Anyway this is fun for half an hour, half of the songs are pretty unremarkable, was definitely one for chucking bits of into playlists. Die Alright was and still is fantastic for pegging it down hills on your bike to.

It's funny. In my youth I listened a lot to The Levellers. I even listened to World Party a fair bit. But I never listened to this. Why? The title track is just absolutely joyous. The second is much more of that full sounding 80s rock, reminds me somewhat of Simple Minds, but with a pulsating bass and fiddle driving it ever forward. The next couple of tracks don't grab me. Ah ok this is where Karl Wallinger first used the World Party name. I actually want a full album of the first track please, just inject that in to my veins. I think I do get a bit tired of it as it goes along but it's an enjoyable listen. My second favourite was probably When ye Go Away though, and the Keats tracks is quite sweet. I definitely want an album full of that first track, which is probably why I listened to The Levellers so much.

Having enjoyed The Faces more than expected when they've popped up on this journey, I was also pleasantly surprised by the title track here, a lovely wistful little song. Then the Womack/Stones cover belts in and I'm resetting my expectations, not in a particularly great way. Not sure why there's a small faces song on here especially since it's just done in small faces style. Band covers own song. The opening to Cut Across Shorty was sounding refreshingly folky Led Zep but that didn't last and went straight ahead rock pretty soon. I definitely enjoyed this more than I expected to enjoy a Rod Stewart album, but it still wasn't loads.

Astonishingly good write up in the book that I wonder if I should not have read before listening as it hyped this up so much as a lost classic. It's a good solid punk album. I didn't recognise any of the songs. Gary Gilmore's Eyes is quite funny to think back about tabloid outrage then and the shite that goes barely reported on these days. I'd never heard of the titular executed murderer until I looked him up but he was clearly well known at the time.

Erm. Kind of a cross between jazz and incidental 70s TV show music. Birdland was a big hit? I can't remember this at all. It almost sounds like the theme tune to Blind Date, but with loads of noodling over it. Oh sweet Jesus, the sax on track 2. Fuck me what is this. This is the sort of music that put me off saxophone for like two decades and stopped me encountering some of the really wonderful stuff the instrument can do when someone attacks it instead of sticking their cock into it. We are heading for a rare 1 from me. The drumming one is good but that is so out of place here, what's it doing, I thought Spotify had fucked up. Obviously the percussion is great throughout, and the musicianship is also very high quality, but just ... No! Palladium comes closest for me, is relatively interesting but that sax is just far too smooth again. Probably going 2 purely because they can really play their instruments.

Never heard of this, vaguely heard the name but thought he was a rapper. Only know what's on Wikipedia as it's not in the book, and first impressions are this will be inessential at best. As it goes, we've just learned that I'm prepared to give Weather Report 2 stars, so let's see. Oh I see, this is pure background music, which was very much the thing those days, stuff to stick on in at parties that absolutely noone would pay attention to and just provided a general hazy mood. Right Mylo, you just ruined the mood, what is this Dr Beat bullshit you are doing? This is gym music for arseholes. Oh I have actually heard In My Arms. My opinion is unchanged. In fact if anything it's reinforced. Far too many intrusive samples which are just people listing things throughout the whole track. This is trash, really. Glad he only made one album. Spotify tried to start playing something by "Layo and Bushwacka!" after this ended, whatever they are, which probably tells you everything you need to know about this record.

Safesurfer is absolutely epic. I was initially a bit dismissive of this and ready to be disappointed, I didn't particularly like East Easy Rider, too similar to the generic rock groove of the time. What I want from Cope is difference. Standing out from the field, paying little attention to the music scene around him and doing his own thing. And that is very much what the rest of this album brings you.

I love this album and Syd, but even still it's a difficult listen. Obviously it's very much a mood piece, and after the first couple of tracks I generally find the mood established, and the album really gets it's hooks in. Barely anything here really sounds like Floyd. Golden Hair the most obvious exception. Was first introduced to Barrett via REM covering Dark Globe on a B side, my introduction to so much music, either working with REM, covered by them or simply mentioned in interviews. I would go on to love another of these musicians, Robyn Hitchcock, who himself was hugely influenced by Syd. I find it impossible to disentangle my love for those influenced by this from the album itself. It's so fragile, and essentially a load of demos (If it's In You is just all over the place). I'm also reminded of Oar by Skip Spence, another spectacularly fragile album, one I found a bit harder to get on with, but which is also definitely beautiful in places. I love the follow up album Barrett as well, although I would suggest that's patchier, with more obvious peaks and troughs, the standard on Madcap is very much of a piece. Favourites, Dark Globe, Golden Hair, Octopus, No Good Trying. Please lift a hand, I'm only person.

Decent. Pretty sure I've visited this before, it's been a regular on best albums polls in music magazines down the years anyway. I had forgotten the sound though, I was expecting more folky, and while there are definitely flutes, this is unquestionably rocking. The sax refrain in Freedom Rider is delicious. Empty pages seems to be a cross between Peter Gabriel and the riff from Aretha's Knew You Were Waiting For Me. John Barleycorn the song itself is what I was expecting from this in truth. I could take or leave the final track. Not massively my thing but it was good enough while it was on.

YAAAAAAAAAAAÀAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. ... I will say that after about 20 minutes I was slightly numb from all the thrash. But then you've got the greatest metal song of all time to close out and it's only 28 minutes long. So. YAAAAAAAAAAAÀAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Um, this was ok and fun to listen to, once. I can't see me being back for it or for any of the tracks individually. I was hopeful based on the daft cover. It's not the Ramones and it's definitely not the Stooges. There's nothing here as catchy as anything New York Dolls did. Ah so this is why Caribou had to change their name, this is the guy.

Fuck Spotify and fuck Amazon for removing my alternative. As for the actual album, well I love Blue, and apparently I loved most of Hejira too. This though, not so sure. I wasn't switched on particularly by much of it, I think the middle few songs are the strongest, but the boogie woogie threw me off completely and by the end I was just confused.

I think this record is what opened my ears and my mind to harder rock – I’m not sure what it was in me that found Faith No More acceptable but never particularly felt the love for bands like Iron Maiden or later Metallica that many of my peers did. Maybe it was the humour behind Gremlins 2’s Surprise! You’re Dead! (poor Gizmo) or Falling to Pieces. Maybe it was Mike Patton’s awesome vocal range. Or maybe it was how frankly weird it was for a massively commercial record. Yes you, Woodpecker From Mars. Obviously it was all of the above. This was swaggering rock but never po-faced. But just when you’re getting comfy with the pop metal you’re hit with two 6-8 min worldies. Zombie Eaters should give pause to anyone getting broody (and taught young me the word ‘omniscient’), and the title track and centre piece is masterful, tying for me as the best tracks on the record. Obviously the huge smash of Epic first got my attention. Also, try listening to an album that starts out of the gate like From Out of Nowhere does and not getting excited. Later when I went clubbing in rock nights I’d often hear FNM, but it would be the big songs off Angel Dust that got played, the towering Midlife Crisis etc. However, The Real Thing reverberated through my childhood, and that’s the one to which I always return. I remember taking it on caravan holidays and doing kriss kross puzzles to it. Rackannrawlll. Faith No More changed with every album and moved with the times, and besides that any Mike Patton side project (and they are legion) is worth investigating. So that’s why. Finally, anyone who listened to late 80s music will tell you slap bass was awful. This record says no, it was just those other bassists.

Hard to argue with the positive reviews here. Yes it's not perfect. That's the point. He's just doing what he wants, all on his little own. Some absolutely perfect pieces of music here though, and the whole album is just a pleasure to listen to. Very much also worth checking McCartney 2 and Ram, and I am a little surprised to see they aren't also in the book. Still, there's lots of Beatles of various shapes.

Had to back and relisten to the Lost Notes podcast on John Lennon and Darby Crash ahead of putting this on today. So good. Ironic that I got this the day after McCartney. It does kind of eulogise Crash's death by overdose/suicide as a somewhat romantic tragedy however, but it's a good story. The album I didn't actually expect to enjoy that much, from the snippets I'd heard prior, muddy recordings of the chaotic live gigs with Crash snarling and gnashing over the top, thought it would be more of a mood than actually good. But holy hell, there's a lot of riffs going on if you listen, Pat Smear fully deserves equal kudos for this. Too much punk, especially hardcore, just thrashes through the same simple riff for 2 minutes and calls it a job. Not so here, there's loads going on. Banging.

Have always heard this highly praised, along with the two other big Dexys records, for very different reasons. But never heard this one. Was initially baffled by all the talking, and the extremely quiet talking and singing at first leading me to turn up the volume ridiculously and getting blasted when the song bursts in. I also thought he was saying she was intermittent at first, which I thought was an odd characteristic for a person to have. But once I've settled into This is What She's Like I am fully on board here. Slow burn, mood, warmth, it's majestic really. I think this is a good set of headphones record for sure.

Hmm, can't say I'm expecting much from this. I can imagine this one mystifying our American friends. The pop reggae of track 1 can do one, but track 2 was pretty good and different. I've heard Sunday Shining a million times and I'm not sure I've ever missed it in the intervening period. There's a dub track which made my speaker vibrate. It's all just fine, really. The last few tracks feel like barely fleshed out demoes with lashings of production on top. Reading about Finley Quaye now he appears to be something of a tragic figure. Even so, I don't think this should be in the book and I'm rating it as such. Also I have just noticed the distinct lack of proper ska albums in the book, which makes this inclusion particularly egregious.

People Hold On is a classic late 80s piece of pop-house which has aged very well. The rest of this is a classic piece of late 80s cut and paste and very listenable. Helped by the fact I found it on youtube as one piece with no ads. The longest track was my least favourite though, the one with the horns In the Hall of the Mountain King. Smoke Dis One was great. My version has (the excellent) Not Paid Enough instead of Doctorin' the House so I stuck that on at the end. Oddly I have no memory of that one. Ninja Tunes is a decent label too.

I guess the people who hate this are just away to listen to their pop tones. Yes, the songs are long. Long songs are cool. I ask you, how else can you get swept up into the intense groove of it all if the song's finished after 3 minutes??! I also don't understand people complaining about the vocals, like you wouldn't expect that dry sheet going in? However, any humour present in the Rotten-era persona has been extracted, made colder, like the cold metal exterior. 1979 was so mental. Punk luminaries such as The Damned and The Clash made great albums this year, but they were still recognisably punk, together with other influences. This, this is...what? Utterly unrecognisable from the sound they were making a year earlier, and utterly unlike pretty much anything else. Speaking of Poptones, that's just incredible. The bass, the rhythm. The insistent dread. Intentionally unsettling, and genius.

I think this might be brilliant. There's Barretty Floyd here, Wilson Beach Boys, and much more insanity besides. I get 10cc Sheet Music vibes in places - from the following year, so there was something in the water. The short stabs of 1 minute long ideas also bring to mind later artists such as Fiery Furnaces and of Montreal. Never heard a sin