Slim Shady does not give a shit. So edgy. Is it supposed to be funny? If it is, then maybe it’s not just my kind of jokes. If it’s real then it’s super cringy for an adult to stick with the same character for a second record and keep up with the same childish, angry verses. The beats sound pretty childish too. This is a time capsule of the MTV TRL era and it sucks.

1/5. There's very little on this record that I can enjoy. All of the songs have the same plodding, druggy tempo with a somniferous vocal delivery to match. Synthesizers are used in a basic way: neither mixed low enough to just add depth to the sound or distinctive enough to make the arrangements richer. Guitars are bluesy and noodle across many of the numbers - even giving some parts a west coast desert vibe that reminds me of The Eagles. The lyrics are pretty crappy which is surprising since your average boomer will call modern hip-hop a trash medium and then defend their position with Pink Floyd... a band who rhymes "school" with "fool" or "guitar", "steak bar" and "Jaguar".

I listened to it twice. I want to have an opinion but I just can't make myself form one.

Cheap sounding production. Cheap references to other music acts -- and Macromedia Shockwave (wtf). Cheap dick jokes. If I was a wrestler looking for a new entrance song for an upcoming heel turn, this is the album I would start with. I like when the vocalist goes into his weird falsetto whine raps -- especially on the hokey-pokey sections of "Rollin'." There's a part of "The One" where the bass kind of sounds like The Cure. That's my favorite part of this record which I will never listen to again. "Boiler" gives some Deftones vibes but the vocals, again, are just really not good. A pile of crap at the intersection of Eminem and Linkin Park.

SFA would reach heights beyond this record later in their career but this is still a 5 star from me. Ffa Coffi Pawb am byth.

Up-close vocals and laid back instrumentation make this effortlessly cool in the way Roxy Music could never pull off. The tracks that don't sound like Bowie are better than the Bowie-esque ones and the album as a whole is yet to be thoroughly mined for 21st Century Hipster Cinema soundtracks.

Music for a blue collar bar in a suburban strip mall. Hot, Blue and Righteous stands out as a sweet song to end side A on an otherwise greasy collection.

Listening to this album feels like I am consuming all of what became "alternative rock" in the decades that follow its release. I hope that if I was a teenager in 1979 I would have been cool enough to like The B-52's. The kitsch dial is turned up near maximum on this recording but the songs and performances are just too fun to ignore. If the vocal harmonies don't make your spine tingle, do you even like music?

You can't deny these riffs. The songs and sounds on this album share a lot more in common with the grunge bands I believed were far superior as a teen. As timeless as the music may be at times the lyrics get a little too "on the nose". The earnestness of grunge is its legacy rather than the fashion or even the sound. The production on the remastered version sounds great but Side B is hiding some real clunkers. For one reason or another I think I prefer Megadeth. Ye-yeah!

The songs are loud, poppy, urgent, timeless. The collection is as artistic as it is consumable making it the pinnacle of the bands career. You could even argue this was the pinnacle of punk rock. Listen to the Albini version unless you're a Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.

It's jazz, I guess? Many of the tracks are film noir sketches between lush piano, bass, and drum numbers that highlight Waits' voice which sounds great on this live recording. The lyrics are poetic and very clever. "Purina checkerboard slacks" from Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street) recalls the funny parts of Alice's Restaurant but in a much hipper presentation. Evocative stories taking place in the gritty parts of LA. Cars, tough personalities, drugs and booze. This should have been a hip-hop album.

Whatever this album is, it's one aspect of Cool Britannia that never made it across the Atlantic. And it's for a good reason. The duo are not The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Orbital, or even Sneaker Pimps. I guess you had to be there.

What can be said that Yasi Salek hasn't already explored? The episode of Bandsplain about RHCP really did change my view of the Peppers but this album is a solid work from a band that has evolved so much over the decades.

Cringe-worthy pop rap. The Slim Shady persona is that disruptive kid you knew in eighth grade who tried to come off edgy by telling tall tales on the bus. He was annoying and nobody's friend but unexpectedly shined in the one class he cared about. This record might be a victim of the aggressive posture that popular performers took in the late 90s. I wonder what persona Eminem would have created had he come up in the Soundcloud/emo rap era. Maybe he could have painted with colors other than "Fred Durst backward red baseball hat" red.

Fats has a great voice and his creations provided enough material for groups to mine well into the next decade or more. The songs are not corny like Elvis and more danceable than Buddy Holly. All in all there isn't enough to grab the attention of modern listeners but it's still a cool nostalgia trip.

When this album came out, rock music was in a bad place. Groups like The Hives emerged to bring rock 'n' roll back to its roots by mining early garage rock and punk sounds while adding better songwriting and cleaner dirty production. This is a compilation album which gives me mixed feelings but if Singles Going Steady and Hatful of Hollow can get away with it, so can Your New Favourite Band.

Aggressive. Sounds like video game music. Very danceable grooves. Must have been a genre-defining album upon its release.

I have so many questions. Where does this album fit between punk and The Kinks? Is this New Wave? Are these guys working class (Oasis) or not quite (Blur)? The album exhibits top notch production; the recording sounds great and highlights how tight the band is. Set the House Ablaze is a standout track. The album verges on earning a 5-star mark but the lyrics leave me wanting just a little more.

Instrumentation and production adds a filmy 1970s residue that obscures the songs and performances a bit but not in a delicious Stevie Wonder kind of way. On subsequent listens it may fade away but hearing this recording for the first time, I can't help but get distracted by it. Fortunately that is the only criticism I have.

I LOL'd. Then I tried to give myself a chance to "get" it and never did. When Jazz Police came on, I LOL'd again. The backing tracks are certainly stylized but they are interesting in the way Ween's tracks are interesting. I don't find the lyrics particularly poetic or deep, however. I must be missing something but I won't be back to find it.

cowboy music. longing vocals. twanging guitars. I much prefer Willie Nelson.

I love The Beach Boys. At least three of the songs on this album sound like The Eagles. I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man. "Thoughts of You" kind of reminds me of Eels which was interesting at least.

When I first picked up the guitar, I didn't know anything about technique. Early on I stumbled my way into palm muting and said to myself, "that's the Metallica chug-chug thing!" The riffs on this album have a harmony and beauty that isn't found as much on The Black Album. The production hides the lyrics a little better on this release, too, which is an overall benefit. (For what it's worth, I listened to the remastered version.)

The most punk of the British Invasion bands (except for maybe The Kinks) though you can't really hear it on this album of mostly R&B inspired songs. Not the strongest collection of tunes.

This was the sound of the times in which is was released. Alarmingly quotidian lyrics delivered with a highly-stylized affect create a contrast with the futuristic electronic track reminiscent of Kraftwerk. See also/instead: Grimes, Santigold, Karen O.

Upon hearing the first song, I thought maybe this was the missing link between VU and Devo! I should love this, right? The rest of the songs kind of sound like Sparks. I like the use of synthesizer and Mellotron. There are interesting sounds and a pleasant variation of tunes but nothing here quite sticks to my palate for longer than the length of each song. On occasion it veers into Rocky Horror Picture Show territory and that's where I begin to lose my appetite.

I'm going to tell my kids this was The Police. I really wanted to give it 4 stars. The diversity of styles is simultaneously a strength and a weakness. The quality of tunes is steady across the album but the sounds are disjointed in a way that keeps me from getting fully absorbed.

Quincy Jones production. Absolutely stacked with hits. I have to give it top marks even if it is a disco record.

"Vocal" albums are at the bottom of my list of popular music interests. The production on the vocals is over the top for my taste but she sounds great. Because she is great. The tracks take old sounds and make them sound modern. I didn't care for the cover song.

This is an album for people who adopted Fight Club as their whole personality. The songs and performances give off the "international band opening for the group you actually came to see" vibe. It's not bad but nothing really sticks on a first shallow listen. I have to give it two stars because -- while I didn't hate it -- I did find myself hoping the set would end soon so they could get their crap off the stage already.

The production is pretty bad. The record-scratching noises are totally unnecessary and the album is missing the art of other heavy bands like System of a Down and Deftones. Also missing: Korn's grooves or Nine Inch Nails' lyricism. I believe these guys do have something to say and came up with a new sound. There are fragments of songs that wander -- maybe accidentally -- into interesting territory.

It's "medium loud" shoegaze. Great sixties-inspired vox, muscular bass, jangly guitar. There's a little bit of The Smiths in here and possibly some Stone Roses. Very pretty arrangements and some really catchy moments in as well. The sounds on the record are great but the cover of this album put it over the top. Incredible!

A couple of massive singles among a collection of genre-defining dance numbers.

Dreamy but not dream-pop. Orchestral but it doesn't sound like an orchestra. Ágætis Byrjun is easier to describe in terms of what it isn't than to describe what it is. I can say that it is a wonderful piece of art but as an album -- a listenable collection of tunes that you want to hear on repeat -- I'm left looking for something to grab onto. Perhaps this is better consumed as a score than a pop music album.

Funny that the album opens with some banter about Morrissey. Heartbreaker shares some jangly-Americana influences with Mozza's early solo albums. In addition, both vocalists have exhibited some behaviors that force fans to separate the tunes from the performers' personalities offstage. It's an alright album if you like Bruce Springsteen. The quiet songs are OK when they sound like Sufjan Stevens or Elliott Smith.

Remember the first Kings of Leon album? That was like a modern reboot of the original Creedence universe. This album isn't the strongest collection of songs which makes me wonder why it's included in the book. The production, however, is incredible. It really sounds great and keeps me chooglin'.

I don't know if this album defined metal but it certainly took metal to the masses. The 2012 remastered version sounds great and highlights the album's tunes and performances. I find that I have a lot of similar opinions as Robert Christgau but I don't get his distaste for Black Sabbath. Sure, some of the lyrics are a little naff, but they don't deserve the roasting he gave them.

Her voice sounds weak - almost to a point of distraction. The songs sound old fashioned and sleepy -- like the songs that we only listen to during Christmas. This music isn't really my thing.

So many great Lennon vocals on this album! I love two minute long songs as well. The 2009 remaster sounds so good.

This isn't a three star review. It's a blended four star / two star review. The two stars come from the weird sex songs. I'll admit to being slightly prudish about this kind of stuff but they stand out to me as an unpleasant listen. On the other hand I enjoyed the rockers and especially the "slice of life" numbers that sound like a barely-literate Billy Bragg or working class Kinks.

I liked it. It sounds really new.

sucks

This album still sounds cool more than a half-century after its release. Like a west coast Velvet Underground.

Practically flawless. A solid collection of songs with some real standouts.

More songs about cars and working. Overly emotive vocals usually turn me off. So do incessant honking horn sections and dorky glockenspiel parts.

Awesome performances; great production; varied songs that kept me interested throughout the whole album. But I'm left wishing for something more. "You Said Something" is my favorite track.

Beatle-based mid-70s soft rock. This album sounds like a Time Warner "AM Radio Gold" collection.

I have a theory that Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Fishbone are actually the same band but they originated in different dimensions than ours.

The lyrics are not great. The oboe is a welcome contribution on the second track and the Mellotron sounds divine. I ended up liking this more than I thought I would. Robert Christgau called it "ersatz shit" which I love but don't really agree with.

I was not familiar with this album before today though I have listened to newer Belle & Sebastian albums a lot. I don't think this is their best material but if this is the record named in the book then we'll just go with it. 5 stars for the album because it is representing an amazing band.

It's OK. The title track gives me Steely Dan vibes. I also get some McCartney-esque pastiche vibes. Nothing here is as offensive as Springsteen but I'm not really inspired by the characters Joel creates.

This album made no sense when it came out but the singles were huge hits. I listened to this when it was first released and but didn't dig much deeper than the singles. There are some good tunes here but its a little too long. Typical Billy Corgan production that seems to be improved on the 2012 remaster.

Absolute madness. Sounds like Art Rock that actually kind of rocks. "Amateur Hour" is a great tune and the whole album has aged remarkably well for something that came out in the mid 70s.

Great recording. The novelty songs are kinda weird (what the hell is "Jamaica Jerk-Off"?) and the sappy songs ("Candle in the Wind") aren't my thing at all. More mid-70s pastiche. What was happening with pop music during this time? More than a few of the filler songs on this double record sound way older than the release date suggest. Billy Joel did it. Paul McCartney did it. But why?

Fiona has a great voice that never waivers through the whole album. The backing tracks are lush with great keyboard arrangements (piano, mellotron, etc.) The production on the whole record is top-notch though I don't like whatever effect is on the vocal track for Criminal. The singles from this album are amazing. If the whole album had tunes that good, it's an easy five star record. The lower tier cuts are still solid three-star material. I was debating between a three star review and four stars. Considering this was her debut and recorded when she was a teenager, I'll give it the edge toward the higher score.

I don't like crooners. It's not that I don't like modern music that sounds like old music. I really dig lots of bands that do new tunes that sound like music from my parents and grandparents generation. But there's something about crooners that turns me off -- even if they sound a little bit like Mark Lanegan. Hotel Room stands out a decent track. Born Under a Bad Sign is a sweet tune reminiscent of Petula Clark swinging 60s pop.

Super cool hipster music with dual vocalists. I'm not a fan of Croft's stilted cursive singing style and not a single lyric stands out enough for me to know what they are singing about. The spartan, atmospheric tracks are begging for a more evocative vocal performance but we never get a chance to hear one. I'm begging to hear Kele Okereke's voice and words here. All of the songs sound the same.

WTF is this? Lush, orchestral pop songs about sexual violence? It's certainly a unique concept and the performances are solid. It's exactly what I expect to be included in a list of 1001 Albums. There are a variety of songwriters on the album and Ute's skill as an actress is put to good use. She fits her voice to styles of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and others. If this album was meant to have a single, "Split" might be it. Ute's voice sounds great and it's upbeat.

Does working class New Wave exist? If so, this might be the album that defines the genre. A temporary stop on the evolutionary timeline between The Specials and Fun Boy Three. The production isn't great. I find the lyrics hard to make out and Rowland's vocal delivery doesn't help. The record has its moments with a few good tunes that are held back by the rough sound and a dodgy singer.

Smiths records always sounded bad to me but the 2011 remaster goes a long way to improve that. In my mind The Smiths are a singles band to the detriment of their albums. The Queen is Dead is a good enough album with about half of it being singles-worthy cuts.

Combination of the Two: great groove I Need a Man to Love: blues, I guess Summertime: more blues - bad vocal Piece of My Heart: the single Turtle Blues: oof. blues. Oh, Sweet Mary: some psychedelia Ball and Chain: BLUES

Jimi Hendrix recordings have always sounded otherworldly and chaotic - much like the tunes themselves.

"It's got a good beat and you can dance to it" Do you love a massive synth bass sound? I fucking do and this album starts with one a great one. However... the rest of the album sounds like LCD Soundsystem. "i used to" has some more cool synth sounds that remind me of the artists and albums that the band seems to draw inspiration from: British character-driven-post-human rock from Bowie and Numan and German robot bands like Can and Kraftwerk. What I find missing in this album -- and other work by LCD Soundsystem -- is a compelling narrator for the trip we are taken on throughout the course of the record. Maybe I'm distracted by the music and the way all of the instrumentation is mixed so carefully to create lush tracks that demand attention. The final song is the exception to this rule and fits well as an album closer.

Still haunting after so many listens. A chilling work of art for the ages. Can I give this one six stars?

sexy vocals - genre-defining. perhaps multiple genres. talented songwriter with a unique vision and lyrics that have something to say. does something absolutely post-modern before anyone was ready.

Sounds like Sonic Youth but more pop. Another foundation of alternative rock. How many albums would not exist if these songs weren't recorded? A lot, probably.

I liked it more than I thought I would. The lyrics are pretty bad throughout and the whole production sounds like the 1970s. There are moments that make me really excited but nothing here is edited in a way that keeps the album moving forward. Seven minutes of tuneless guitar noise is perhaps excessive but I prefer it over a blues jam of the same length so there's that.

Sounds kinda old and kinda new at the same time. Kelela has a great voice which sounds mercifully natural for an album recorded in the last decade. Stylistically the album doesn't fit well in any category. You can imagine these songs getting remixed into any number of electronic genres. For my tastes I think I would like to see the material contorted even further into rougher electronic versions but I understand why the choices were made to let Kelela's songs retain their origins in R&B.

It's Buzzcocks. What else can you ask for?!

"Been It" fucking slaps. The vocal and the lead guitar sound so good together. There's also a bouncy, melodic bass which I fall for so easily. This could be a Jellyfish song. "Losers" is another strong tune. The tumbling vocal and drums in the chorus contrast with the dreamy verses. The "Iron Man" cover is weird. I bought this album when it was first released after becoming enchanted by the song "Carnival" from their previous record. I never gave this album too deep of a listen back then and I'm surprised to see it on this list. All in all, it's a solid alternative rock/pop album that captures where popular music went after grunge yielded to other sounds.

Major Elliott Smith vibes and really bad cover art. Even the sounds of the instrumentation makes it sound like he sat down in the room where an Elliott Smith recording had just taken place to put down a few of his own tunes. That being said, I still like it.

It's hard to have a strong opinion about this one. There are a lot of really pretty songs on this one and its hard to get mad about that but some tunes do lack a little bit of substance. They can't all be singles but you also don't expect filler on a record with ten tracks.

I just really like it.

Cringe vox and songs. Sounds like Kiss without the disco. The guitar brings amazing melody, harmony, and rhythm to some otherwise lame toolbox rock tunes.

So cool. The coolest. 😎 The recording is crappy, the performances aren't super tight and Nico's voice is hard to listen to but does that really matter?

I like the aesthetic a lot but nothing here stands out as a classic. If only it was just a little more... something. Anything. Louder, quieter, sadder, prouder.

Hippie music generally gets a "pass" from me, but this is just too poppy to for me to ignore. It's really, really good.

The rhythm section on the opening track is next level. The rest of the songs didn't spark much interest.

An album following the Big Swedish Pop Tunes (tm) formula. Listen to the highly processed vocals. Each song employs a melange of trendy and modern sounds. Lyrics engineered to engage listeners in the target demographic.

Name a better lyricist than Elvis Costello. Pro-tip: you can't. The way he blends interpersonal strife with world politics is on great display here as evidenced by the title of the record. New wave music brought new sounds but this album does not depart from The Attractions sound: chirpy keyboard, muscular bass, and tight, anxious drums.

Sounds like 1968. Bluesy acoustic guitar and flute. It's OK, I guess. I file this under "Sunday morning household chores" music. There are a lot of stories here - not unlike a Bruce Springsteen album I was forced to endure earlier in this project.

The recording sounds great and the vocal harmonies are as good as they get but I find the lyricism and songcraft lacking.

Peter Tosh's songs stand out along with "High Tide Or Low Tide" on the expanded version.

Sounds like Limp Bizkit.

Never gets old. OK - the covers are actually a little tiresome.

Is this really an album? Definitely. Are these songs? More or less. Is it art? For sure, but not really pop/rock in the usual form. There are some catchy moments and the noise experiments are interesting.

Sounds like a hip-hop record without rhymes. The only MCs on this tape are in the form of recordings of conversation which set a mood of real street level humanity. The sounds are all over the place but cohesive enough to make a good album. At first I thought this might be a house album but I was pleasantly treated with some synth tunes, jazzy beats, etc. More Moby than Aphex Twin but still an enjoyable listen.

This might be the first "alternative" album I ever heard. I thought it was the weirdest thing I had ever heard. Was this guy serious? Is he actually angry or not? I hadn't heard punk before so the attitudes and forthright emotion confused my 12 year old brain. I thought a lot about the lyrics in a way that I had never analyzed the records I liked from C+C Music Factory and Culture Club. When I was exposed to this record I also heard Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The vocals on those records were hard to make out at times but the vocals on Violent Femmes are so clear.

Cool sounds. Evocative in a way that fulfills the mission to be both a film score and a standalone album.

Downtempo electronica with blues and gospel samples. It was a pretty novel idea in the 90s - especially to mainstream American audience who didn't listen to any of these genres much. The way Moby as producer puts his own vocals on tracks between the gospel ones keeps the collection interesting throughout the hour-plus runtime. I thought the Mission of Burma cover was going to be on this one.

There was mega hype when this came out and to me it signaled the end of the "first wave of indie rock." I wasn't too thrilled with the songs back then but I closer listen two decades later and I get the attraction. There is something about the vocal performances that turn me off still but the instrumentation and songs are solid.

Terrific production. Especially the drums. What can you say about the grooves on this record? Anything but the highest praise is short shrift to what the P-Funk collaboration created for these songs.

I don't know what these songs are about. I cannot identify with them at all. Is there some Taylor Swift lore that I need some background on or are they purposely obtuse? The lyrics remind me of those AI-generated bro-country anthems from the radio. The duets sound artificial. This album is just bad.

Frenetic breakbeats. Samples from metal songs and TV shows. The first side is a little bit monotonous for my tastes. The second side has some great variety.

Beach Boys tunes recorded to sound like The Velvet Underground.

This must have been a pretty wild recording back in 1958. I really like the guitar.

The recording quality is more than listenable for a live album from the early 80s. Solid performances and a good selection of songs.

Some of the tunes border on novelty song territory and that turns me off. Other songs are tuneful punk singalongs that I can totally get down with.

1/5. There's very little on this record that I can enjoy. All of the songs have the same plodding, druggy tempo with a somniferous vocal delivery to match. Synthesizers are used in a basic way: neither mixed low enough to just add depth to the sound or distinctive enough to make the arrangements richer. Guitars are bluesy and noodle across many of the numbers - even giving some parts a west coast desert vibe that reminds me of The Eagles. The lyrics are pretty crappy which is surprising since your average boomer will call modern hip-hop a trash medium and then defend their position with Pink Floyd... a band who rhymes "school" with "fool" or "guitar", "steak bar" and "Jaguar".

Madonna's voice has never been the main attraction but the top tier production on the album brings out the best of it. The singles are all massive songs. Pop perfection. The rest of the album is a mix of solid synth pop and softer ballads. All in all its a great collection at an important junction in Madonna's career.

This album could benefit from some tighter focus. The medieval or renaissance-sounding instrumentation is really cool but there is some folky Dylan-esque guitar as well. The lyrics also switch time and place with references to Christian themes as well as pagan and Hinduism. It's an interesting melange and it kept my interest throughout but nothing stood out as amazing. Other artists have taken influences from early music and done more with it. The Wicker Man album art is 5/5. For the tunes, it's a solid 3/5.

This is one of the albums ever made. There's a song about a motorcycle.

Great beats and the MCs put on a rhyme clinic throughout. The mix of tempos, sounds, and flows keep the album moving and interesting for the whole hour.

Sounds like a 60s rock album with vocal harmonies, plenty of production effects, and mystical lyrics.

sad songs. Some of the lyrics come off a tad overemotional. Even The Smiths threw us a fun one every once in a while. There is something about the effects on the instruments -- guitar and organ I guess -- that creates really harmonious, beautiful, emotional sounds.

My second favorite Bowie record. The arrangement on Life on Mars sounds like a Beach Boys song. The words to Kooks are so sweet. Queen Bitch might be the crunchiest three-chord tune ever recorded. Songs 5/5. Performances 5/5. Recording 5/5.

Vocal pop isn't my thing. I imagine this is similar to Barbra Streisand? The production on the remastered version sounds very crisp and expensive like a modern Christmas song. Freedom 90 is funny. It's one of those songs that plastic pop superstars eventually deliver as fan service to tell the adoring crowds that their new persona is finally the "real" person. There are some parallels between this album and the Taylor Swift albums on this list. There is some skillful songwriting on the record but the lyrics just do not offer me anything I can identify or empathize with. Final thought: Wouldn't an acoustic cover of Heal the Pain by Alice in Chains sound amazing?

Before there was post-grunge, there was grunge.

Slim Shady does not give a shit. So edgy. Is it supposed to be funny? If it is, then maybe it’s not just my kind of jokes. If it’s real then it’s super cringy for an adult to stick with the same character for a second record and keep up with the same childish, angry verses. The beats sound pretty childish too. This is a time capsule of the MTV TRL era and it sucks.

I used to ask my parents what the Sixties were like but I never got a satisfying answer. This album is what I was looking for.

This must have been a seriously groundbreaking sound in 1978. At this point there were still 15 years or more of solid punk records to make but PiL were ready to move on. Lydon is so pissed off and I love it. “Theme” could be an unfinished Nirvana song. “Public Enemy” sounds a little like the Pixies. This album must have been a big post-rock influence of the alternative bands who would make it big decades later.

The keyboards on this record sound great and Stevie's distinctive voice does as well. Top-tier songcraft is supported by lush arrangements that keep revealing more complexity after repeated listens.

I'm so annoyed. This is not for me at all. I actually like music so this album was a chore to get through. Everything about it is absolutely "mid" except for the lyrics which are awful. Like Squeeze awful. Like Chicago awful. Note to self: when you need to reset your rating gauge, consider returning to this album as it is the ultimate two star clunker.

60s orchestral vocal pop with naughty lyrics. I still don't like crooners.

I didn't know Bob Dylan had a sense of humor.

Crisp production and catchy, tight songs. Castles Made of Sand, Wait Until Tomorrow and Little Wing are almost pop songs.

Achingly poetic lyrics and totally original song structure and arrangements... are not what you will find on this album. What you will find are the vibes that will make you believe that Cool Britannia was a real thing.

This album is from an era -- that might only exist in my head -- where American bands competed with each other to see who could create the most EARNEST songs. Earnestness is a feeling that I get a lot when I listen to Husker Du and it's what attracts me the most to their tunes. Maybe it's Bob's plain voice or his first-person lyrics. I'm not sure but I know that I'll never not like anything that sounds like this record. There's a lot of Husker Du songs I love but they aren't on this one.

Great songs and blistering performances highlighted by Steve Albini's engineering.

I heard this album a decade before I'd ever heard a Led Zeppelin song so it was surprising to discover the original cuts when I get around to Led Zep's catalog. I really like hip hop and The Beasties but this one is just OK. While it was a landmark release at the time, the beats and rhymes don't hold up.

Solid lyrics. The production is lush and buries Love's vocals in some cases. (We're talking ELO level of production on this one.) These are her songs and I would have preferred to hear more of her performances. Auf der Maur's bass sounds great. All in all, as good as the singles are the rest of the album is pretty generic.

The song selection sounds like its a B-Sides compilation instead of a proper album. We get one inventive, artistic song in Sympathy for the Devil and then some odds n sods blues/country rock tunes. I guess at the time of its release, this album would stand out because of its straight-forward acoustic guitar and piano sounds. I kind of like Jigsaw Puzzle but Salt of the Earth is truly shit.

Great production that balances the fuzz with clear vocals and punchy drums. "Good Enough" is my favorite track. The songs are average. There is some variation in instrumentation which is cool but I find the collection as a whole to be somewhat monotonous.

The sounds are all here but the songs are not quite developed to the heights that The Cure would eventually achieve. "A Forest" is really the only standout track from Seventeen Seconds. The album that came out a year later is the real masterpiece of early Cure.

Great rhymes and the classic Beastie flow with three MCs trading lines like they have been doing this since they were teenagers. Musically, Ill Communication fits so well between Check Your Head and Hello Nasty in the continuing evolution of the group's sound. At the time, this record sounded like the end game for the Beastie's style - especially because it would be four years until they released a follow up album. When this record first came out I thought the noisy/scratchy beat samples sounded so cool. In 2022 they still sound cool. Ill Communication also mixes in jazz instrumentals and hardcore tracks which would be completely out of place on a hip hop record but somehow they work.

There are a handful of five star songs and a couple of two or three star numbers. The production balances a lush full band with Badu’s vocal performances to make a great sounding headphone record.

One massive single with some solid synth-pop after. I don’t particularly like the dramatic parts. I might listen to the record again but synth pop isn’t really about albums, is it?

Pretty good. I liked the parts that sounded like The Angry Samoans and The Velvet Underground.

The beats are very typical of the time but aren’t as abrasive as what the Bomb Squad did on the Public Enemy albums. The lyrics are still evocative of Afro-centric cultural revolution. There are a couple of notable songs on here and the rest of the album is worth a listen.

Call me emo but this whole record fucking slaps. Now My Heart Is Full is one of a very few songs that can give me a lump in my throat. The production on the solo Morrissey albums outshines anything he recorded with The Smiths too.

This ain’t it.

I like the parts that sound like Van Morrison. I don’t like the parts that sound like Kiss. This whole record is pretty standard toolbox rock but Lynott’s voice stands out as something unique among the standard 70s hard rock sounds.

Top talent, too songs.

Pirate rock 🏴‍☠️

Like Elvis Costello meets The Damned. Great bass tone on the whole record.

SFA would reach heights beyond this record later in their career but this is still a 5 star from me. Ffa Coffi Pawb am byth.

Paul McCartney really lost his shit in the 80s. The duet here is lame but when Thriller starts it is all forgotten.

Kinda cute. Like in a Belle and Sebastian way.

2112 is not for everyone. Listen to the last 30 seconds of the opening track as that tells you everything you need to know.

I'm a big reggae fan so this album gets a 5 from me. I do wish the genre could be represented by acts that are not Bob Marley. Confidentially, I'm not that much of a Marley fan.

Cheap sounding production. Cheap references to other music acts -- and Macromedia Shockwave (wtf). Cheap dick jokes. If I was a wrestler looking for a new entrance song for an upcoming heel turn, this is the album I would start with. I like when the vocalist goes into his weird falsetto whine raps -- especially on the hokey-pokey sections of "Rollin'." There's a part of "The One" where the bass kind of sounds like The Cure. That's my favorite part of this record which I will never listen to again. "Boiler" gives some Deftones vibes but the vocals, again, are just really not good. A pile of crap at the intersection of Eminem and Linkin Park.

I like the vocal and instrumentation but the songs are not interesting.

I love the Zulu-style tracks. Since these songs are written or co-written by Paul Simon, they are as perfect as a pop song can get.

Performances are good, especially the vocals. Recording is solid. If only the Led Zeppelin albums were engineered this well. It's a great collection of songs with a couple of standout singles. After all, though, it's pastiche.

A little Simon and Garfunkel, a little bit of The Bee-Gees, too. I bet Elliott Smith was really into this record. The music is OK and the vocal performance is a lot better than I was expecting. I don't take too much away from the lyrics at all. In summary, I regard this record in the way I take that one cottage-core Taylor Swift album.

I was a big fan of this record when it first came out.

coffee shop

A dance pop album with solid production that sounds great in headphones. There are a couple of major points that prevent the album from keeping my interest. The otherwise solid vocal performance suffers from trendy cursive singing style. Further, there is not much to distinguish the music from Billie Eilish or Lady Gaga.

The performances are honestly not great. Not that it matters. This duo were on a mission to save rock music from the dire condition it was left in at the turn of the millennium.

As a smooth-brained popular music enthusiast, I don't know how to listen to this. I've watched a lot of Adam Neely videos, too, and I still can't crack the code.

An incredible concept and brilliantly executed. "Written on the Forehead" is a bop and the whole record is flawless. This is a 5+/5.

Hip hop music can mean a lot of different things but at its core its beats and lyrics. This album is just that.

This record really holds up.

The album sounds like a product of its time but the beats and rhymes are 5/5.

Beautiful opening track. Very lush instrumentation that supports Rufus' intriguing vocal melodies. (I almost called them unique but they do remind me of Thom Yorke's and Thom Yorke wanna-be Matt Bellamy.) Evocative lyrics tell personal stories. I feel the album wanders a little in the second half. More focus on the particular sounds on some of the earlier songs would make this one perfect.

There's a couple of good songs and a bunch of weird ones. It sounds like a Prince album. It's a bummer that the best song on the record is the shortest one.

The band sounds great and the album captures what must have been a very exciting night for those who attended.

you: "Mom, can we get The Beatles?" mom: "No. We have The Beatles at home." The Beatles at home:

I can take an ABBA single every now and then but omfg this is rough. Every instrumental part and vocal part is engineered to be overly corny. I don't know how a high hat can sound corny as fuck but, damn, they achieved it here. I had to disassociate to get through the middle of this record. I will say that for 1981, the instrumentation does sound pretty forward-thinking. Synthpop was still pretty early then and this album sounds pretty mature for being a forerunner.

As an Anglophile, the music of The Kinks lets me live out my lad fantasies. These songs are little sketches of life that are not particularly evocative. I do like the pop style of the backing tracks quite a bit.

Am I crazy to call this a fun record? I'm not the type to go out to dance but this is something that would get me on the floor. The instrumentation and production is very 80s but it holds up. Solid songs, too. Everything is accented by the vocal performances of a 400 year old vampire.

kinda creepy

Backpack rap. I love it. It sounds like early Kanye West and is a successor to the first Talib Kweli solo record.

Back in the Saddle: A middle-of-the-road blues rocker with horse sound effects at the end. Last Child: "sweet sassafrassy" The near-funk rhythm almost saves this one Rats in the Cellar: I would prefer the Judas Priest version (if there was one) Combination: More riffs. The bass part is pretty rocking. Sick As A Dog: Sorta poppy in a Spinal Tap way Nobody's Fault: The Led Zeppelin one Get the Lead Out: Possibly the worst riff on the album Lick and a Promise: The Motley Crue one Home Tonight: of course it ends with a ballad Not really that bad but not good at all. It's safely a two-star record but its only saved because it has fewer references to carnal knowledge of teenagers than a Kiss album.

major Sleater-Kinney vibes but weirder songs and lyrics and a decade ahead of time

"The singer, he had long hair And the drummer, he knew restraint And the bass man had all the right moves And the guitar player was no saint" (portions of the review are originally found in Unseen Power of the Picket Fence. © 1993 Pavement)

The songs are kind of all over the place on this album. Supernaut rules. I've always liked Sabbath's extremely plain and matter of fact lyricism which shines on Changes. Further, I appreciate a Mellotron in any capacity so the songs that feature this instrument stand out. Beyond those three sparsely related highlights, this album is OK. The cover art is awesome as well. For me, this is a 3.99 rounded down to a 3.

Boring. In fact its so inoffensive that I have to deduct one star for being so close to Ed Sheeran on the boring scale. Also the lyrics to Sunlight are gross. There are some parts where the electric piano sounds kind of cool I guess.

FLAWLESS VICTORY. This is a six star record for me along with In Utero, Hunky Dory, and Closer.

This is more sophisti-pop than I was expecting. I need to give this album low marks for those tracks. Take On Me is an incredible single that I never tire of. The instrumentation and overall feel of these songs are a great representation of 1980s synth pop but other than the lead single nothing stands out. This could have been replaced by a Culture Club or Cyndi Lauper album that both had much more impact.

I wish I knew what this music meant. "Waltz for Debby" was my favorite on this record.

🌼 ✌️ 🙂 I like the folky vocal melodies a lot -- the guitar noodling not so much. Leaning a little bit more into the folk thing or more into the crunchy, raw rock thing would have made the album more intriguing.

This record ushered in a new sound and aesthetic so it gets an extra star for that.

Brian's side sounds like Black Sabbath. Freddie's side is really, really fun.

Spotify only has the Deluxe Edition so I'm listening to that release. Nailing down what grunge bands sound like isn't easy but this album sounds more grunge than most. The guitars sound so good!

"Oh, Yoshimi, they don't believe me." No? Its the previous record? In any case, its a record by The Flaming Lips. The lyrics are naff and the tracks are sleepy. After the first four songs, they all start to sound the same.

My first trip through Bossanova had me thinking: "This sounds like Pixies but its not weird enough! Two stars." I had to listen to the album twice before I understood how weird it is and I like it very much.

Theatrical.

Question: Is this sixties lounge/pop revival or nineties house? Answer: Yes. I had to listen to this album twice before I decided if I liked it. I do like it but its hard to decide if its a three or a four bagger.

Wow! Venus De Milo. I think I'm starting to get this jazz thing.

annoying

Kind of a weird pastiche record. It's especially for 1976 -- the year that punk happened. In any case, the tunes are fine and the performances are tasteful. The closing track is a gem.

The songs are good but the arrangements are schmaltzy. The performances from Karen and Richard are solid. I don't know why I like this. I really shouldn't.

another easy five star album

I fail to find what anyone enjoys on this record. I have to be thankful that this shitty arena rock inspired early punks to tear it all down.

I believe we can chug all night I believe we could hug all night The band is loose and the groove is right You're so much woman Believe we could chug all night oof - the finger-picky guitars and vocal harmonies are just on the wrong side of whatever sound this record is trying for. Absolutely shitty lyrics throughout. The production does sound great for what its worth. I don't know what I did to deserve two Eagles records in a row followed by Dire Straits of all things. I'm pretty sure my dad owns multiple copies of all of these albums.

Great performances and top-tier production longing for better material.

Because I have the time, I'll do another track-by-track review: 1. Run, Baby, Run: pretty generic radio blues rock. OK vocal. Nothing else of note. 2. Leaving Las Vegas: Painfully 90s production but the song is good. 3. Strong Enough: The track is sweet but I get "Midnight Train to Georgia" vibes which bums me out. 4. Can't Cry Anymore: This one feels really manufactured for the Adult Contemporary radio format. 5. Solidify: 😐 what 6. The Na-Na Song: OK side two is taking on a totally different flavor. I can't say I hate this one actually. 7. No One Said It Would Be Easy: my favorite number so far - despite my trashing of those two Eagles records I had last week. 8. What I Can Do for You: Kind of a pulled punch when Courtney Love and Alanis Morrisette were making angrier and better songs at the same time. The vocal refrain is bad. 9. All I Wanna Do: This is the big one. This song was everywhere back then. For good reason, too. The lyric and vocal performance are 5/5. The track really does sound like that one Stealers Wheel jam from Reservoir Dogs though! 10. We Do What We Can: the muted trumpet sounds cool? idk I'm kind of getting tired already. 11. I Shall Believe: Another adult contemporary one.

So good. It's a long record that sounds much shorter due to the short songs, varied characters and themes. I was surprised to find out that Tommy came so early in The Who's career.

Middle of the road electronic mood music. Not as weird as Stereolab and not even approaching the bombast of Daft Punk, this record is more like a serious Moog Cookbook. Enjoyable enough sounds but nothing you'll go back to again and again.

Fiona Apple makes good records. This is one is endlessly unique -- challenging and catchy at the same time.

This is kind of a rough listen. It comes off as a dying man singing songs about dying. "Sam Hall", placed right in the middle of the record, comes in like the first breath of fresh air after being bedridden with the flu.

Shitty record. I was looking forward to the Ray Charles cover but its mostly a dumb ass drum solo. Eric Clapton Sucks

Puff Daddy is too corny. Before I listened to this album I was prepared to give it a low score. All of the Puffy produced hits in the 90s were super corny. After the first few tracks of Ready to Die I was prepared to change my opinion but the album detours into some corny territory near the middle. Juicy stands out but Combs has to put his dumb vocal all over it. The beats are enjoyable enough, if a little bit predictable. There isn't much production on them -- rather many songs are instrumental tracks from 60s and 70s soul records.

This is music for kids. The producers did a good job making the best of Britney's vocal but the backing tracks are absolutely mental if you listen hard enough. The guitar solo and the unnecessary record scratching on "(You Drive Me) Crazy" is almost too much. And the reggae one? I'm dead. The Euro-House "Deep In My Heart" probably spawned a million remixes that never made it to the US. The whole thing is super plastic and manufactured. There's nothing I can really fault since this kind of record is a bridge between Kidz Bop and grownup music. [post-script: On "Thinkin' About You" there are a couple of lines where Britney harmonizes with herself. Not sure what the interval is (Beato) but it sounds like the same effect used on more than a few Sublime songs.]

The blues songs don't do a lot for me -- no surprise there -- but his folky and jazz numbers do.

I went in totally ignorant of this record and artist. At first I was getting Kraftwerk vibes but then the harmonized vocals kicked in which remind me of some sixties groups like The Hollies, The Association, or The Byrds. All said, I find myself drawn to records that successfully fuse cold/mechanical machine noises with warm/human musicality. Django Django certainly scratches that itch but when it veers into the longer, jammier songs I admit to getting bored. I love Stereolab but they are guilty of the same tendency. I think some editing of the longer tunes would be an improvement.

The album is pretty rockin and the production sounds great. However, I don't find anything here that stands out in the way other art rock groups do. Both Sparks and Of Montreal come to mind. The songs and performances are solid so I can't call myself a detractor. It's almost a four but just not enough.

I've read the wikipedia article for tumbao. I've watched a dozen videos about clave rhythms. My limited musical experience means that I only barely understand the basic structure of salsa but the more I listen and study the more I appreciate it.

Wikipedia categorizes this record as "funk rock." In my opinion its not funk if it hasn't been sampled on any hip hop record in the last forty years. Also, TTd'A refers to himself as a genius which throws some red flags. He has a great voice. That's undeniable. However the songs and instrumentation are a little too serious. All in all its not a bad record. Ultimately its a couple of Top 40 sounding singles with some filler and a Miracles cover.

What a trio these guys were. Blue collar thinking man's punk that couldn't be constrained by the typical LA punk sound.

It's great but there are groups who did it better: The Who, Elvis Costello, The Kinks. The final track sounds like The Clash.

O.G. is a listenable rap record with all of the hallmarks from this era of hip-hop. The beats are not as hard as the Public Enemy records and the flow isn't as smooth as other contemporary MCs but the album has some solid features and great samples.

British Sea Power meets Bruce Springsteen

Sounds like an indie album from the early 2000s. To be fair, this album probably popularized the sound. Big production, emotional vocals, varied instrumentation. There are some strong singles but the rest of the album feels a little same-y.

OK, look. I can barely keep common time. I don't know what the fuck a mode is or why a song becomes a standard. What I do know is that these guys sound damn cool on this recording. The melodies are pretty and the compositions are vaguely classical to my ear. It's nice. I like it.

The waviness of the grooves on Loveless give me a seasick feeling. In a good way. Great tunes that defined a new genre that continues to evolve even into the 2020's.

What is this? Some kind of concept album? It sounds like Dire Straits on dope. The sounds are too much at once -- like a kitschy disco record or some Dave Matthews type shit. Tell me you like that soul vocal on The Great Gig in the Sky with a straight face. This one isn't as bad as Wish You Were Here (1 star) but its dorkier than The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (3 stars) so the rating I'm giving it nestles it rightfully between the two. And hopefully this is the last Pink Floyd record I have to listen to for a while.

Great production makes the band sound great. Common's flow and verses sound as good as ever but I think I'd like the featured artists to have a bigger impact on this album. The grooves are exemplar of the "turn of the millennium conscious rap" sound that was just emerging. For that reason it deserves its spot on the list but there are other albums that did it better -- including albums by Common himself.

A couple of earworms on the big singles but a lot of filler.

The Smiths were a singles band. I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. That being said, this is as good an album as they ever made. The 2011 remaster cleans up a lot of the gunk from the original release.

Can’t Truss It, By the Time I Get to Arizona, 1 Million Bottlebags. These might not be the biggest singles from PE but they are as good as anything they released. The production on this album isn’t as hard as the other albums but it flows really well track to track.

Psychedelia without the burden of trying to be cool. The keyboards sound good and I liked "Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel" which reminded me of a plainspoken, angsty Brian Wilson song like I Just Wasn't Made for These Times. The tone of the whole album had me wondering if this guy is trying to be serious or not but there was a single lyric that made everything clear: "My voice goes so high you would think I was gay / But I play my guitar in such a man-cock way" Amazing.

If the drum breaks, bass lines, and in-your-face horn sections couldn't push the revolution to victory, nothing was going to do it.

Trying hard to be cool is fine if you achieve it but this album misses. The production is great and the instrumental performances are good but everything else is mediocre or worse. The lyrics are bad and the vocal performance is Simon-LeBon-tweaked-to-sound-good-on-early-millennium-pop-radio. The corny moments happen too frequently to ignore. Any band committing these sins can be absolved by creating terrific songs but they just aren't here.

This is a "rock" record in the same way Rod Stewart made "rock" records. To me this is a soul album that is overproduced, overwrought, overthought, and dated. She's giving it her all with the vocal performances but they don't do enough to save this one.

Tunde's vocals sound great on this record. Top production, performances, tunes.

Lovely performances and enjoyable songs. The Bottle felt like the first chapter of a trilogy including 1 Million Bottle Bags (Public Enemy) and Swimming Pools (Kendrick Lamar).

As exciting as the percussion is, the rest is some instrumental big band jazz. I would have appreciated some vocals to break up the horns.

I liked it more than I thought I would. At least it’s not Eric Clapton. And Rod Stewart isn’t especially annoying here either.

Tasteful eighties synth production. Great vocal performance and solid songs.

“All operators are busy. We appreciate your call so please remain on the line and we will speak with you shortly.”

flawless

Emblematic of popular rock at the time: blending sludgy production with addictive hooks and melodies. "The Day I Tried To Live" is my personal anthem.

In an effort to keep my reviews consistent, I keep these attributes in mind when I choose an album's rating: recording, performances, and songs. The performances and recording of this album are fine but the songs are not good. Say what you want about Motley Crue and Poison, they had song craft figured out.

Interesting jams, pleasant instrumentals but it's not P-Funk by a long shot.

Top performances and production on this album. There are a few fantastic songs and quite a bit of middling tunes.

Wow!

5/5 songs and 5/5 production. The performances are fine but like much of Beck's work there isn't much here to provide an emotional attachment that a 5/5 album has.

Too much fretless bass and the singing reminds me of Pink Floyd. It's a shame. I really wanted to love this one. I don't consider these songs to be minimal or even really ambient, either. Perhaps at the time of the album's release they were? For me the songs with vocals sound too druggy and the instrumentals veer into new age whale sounds territory.

Ray's voice sounds great.

Obvious influence on Doug Martsch from Built to Spill lyrically and stylistically. Neil's guitar playing also had an effect on Elliott Smith. On Harvest, Neil portrays a lonely character full of yearning for something real and permanent. The themes on the album remind me of James Taylor a little but something about the lyrics or delivery on this record seem a less genuine that Taylor's albums. Chock it up to Canadian aloofness? Old Man is the best song on the album.

There's only one album whose title is tattooed on my body and its this one. 5/5 obvs

Hipster anthems from the mid-aughts. It's a fine collection of songs. No more and no less.

I went into this album wanting to hate it. By the end of the nearly hour and a half running time I still hated it. Was Another Brick In The Wall ghost-written by The Bee Gees because it's a disco song. Young Lust sounds like The Eagles. Like the other Pink Floyd records this one has druggy vocals and squealing guitars. It's a concept album with a lame concept but it does have some tolerable parts so I can't give this a total failing grade in good faith. We'll put this in the two-star pile next to Dark Side of the Moon and the Terence Trent D'Arby album.

I can't believe I find myself analyzing this album so deeply. George Michael really tried to combine the sounds on big pop records of the time by Michael Jackson and Prince. It sounds cheap to my ears. There are monkey noises at the end of "Monkey." The songs themselves are fuckin weird. Is he singing about being naked with his dad?? Maybe I'm a prude -- OK, I am for sure -- but these songs give me the ick like a Tim & Eric sketch.

Background noise. A dial tone. It's the same thing as other Springsteen albums. The performances can't be faulted but the songs are all the same. The guy never met a road he didn't write a song about.

RIP Phife The moments where the MCs take a chance to boast up the other members of the group is the most wholesome thing ever.

I love this album. I hate this album. Appetite for Destruction came into my life at a crucial point. I was probably 11 years old and just starting to discover my own masculinity. Being an overtly masculine group Guns n' Roses had an immediate appeal to me along with Motley Crue and Def Leppard. This was a drastic shift from my early pop obsessions like Boy George, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Paula Abdul, and Michael Jackson reflecting my newfound identity. For a whole summer loud, macho bands were all I wanted to hear. It was only another year or so before the hair metal era ended and my tastes changed again. Nirvana, The B-52s, Pearl Jam, and The Violent Femmes challenged notions of portrayals of masculinity in popular music. This was a deeper thing and I moved on from GnR's overt butchness. I cringed at how cool I thought Def Leppard looked and strutted. But isn't that what adolescence is? Cringing at the person you were only six months ago? Revisiting this album now I am able to reconcile all of this art that I liked. Appetite For Destruction is over the top with masculinity but it also has everything that makes a great record: well-crafted songs, brilliant performances, listenable production. I hate this album. I love this album.

What if Devo rocked out to the Texas blues? "Elements of the past and the future combining to make something not quite as good as either..." Finally, the drums sound bad on this album.

Really pretty songs. Huge production on the remastered version.

Sex jams. It's OK. I didn't think I would like it but it's not bad. There isn't much here, honestly.

I am finally ready to admit that this is a grunge album.

ChatGPT prompt: "Generate a hard rock album that sounds like the early Reagan Years." Production: 5/5 (2015 Remaster) Performances: 5/5 Songs: 1/5 The songs are so corny. I was hoping maybe the deep cuts would have been interesting but they're just like the single without good hooks. Album art: 10/5

It's a guitar band and I like guitar bands so this is fine. If I didn't like rock music then this is nothing special. The Sonics were better.

I like the melancholy hippy folk ones. I don't care for the blues ones. The production on the 2016 Remaster I found on YouTube sounds great.

If the organ part on What Goes On doesn't give you chills then you need to seek professional help. The choice of songs and their order on this album is so hopeful it is a joy to listen to as a complete record.

"It's me against the world"-era Kanye but also disco.

Very engaging lyrics and powerful, varied musical accompaniment.

Experimental for sure and always interesting. Occasionally the band stumbles into a groove. If that was the intent of the recording then the mission was achieved.

They don't make them like they used to.

My favorite David Bowie album.

this album is more about vibes than songs

Three stellar tracks and some rather good synth pop in between.

Terrific production and compact songs make this collection more palatable than other Steely records.

These recordings sound great and the performances capture what must have been absolutely mental energy of Richard and his band.

Do you ever encounter rock music fans who say they don't really like The Beatles? I have and it's weird. But... I am a reggae fan who isn't really a fan of Bob Marley. The title track and Bend Down Low stand out on this album but the rest of the songs don't really do it for me.

The Bends aged remarkably well over 25 years. Six out of five stars.

It's not the most amazing collection of songs but it's The Clash, so...

This album must have been a big influence on some favorites of mine: Devo and They Might Be Giants. David Byrne has a unique voice that I find very appealing. Talking Heads is punk for clean cut kids.

This music feels really inauthentic. The type of person who listens to Eric Clapton doesn't really care about authenticity but I do. Vocals are bad all over the album. Please Be With Me is sweet. Let It Grow is some awful hippie shit.

Massive singles and some solid features. The beats are from the sample-heavy 90s but the references are on point. The rhymes are real hip hop and the three MCs voices sound great together.

The song choices for this performance are incredible. Krist plays the accordion. Kurt solos Pennyroyal Tea and his voice sounds amazing throughout the whole record.

Lovely melodies, engaging instrumentation, compact songs

The production is like an email where the entire contents are in bold, italics, and underlined. It's a well-crafted cocktail that's a little too bitter, too sour, too sweet, too fizzy, and too strong. Compared to 21, Adele's vocal sounds powerful and clear but the music is a bit forward on 25. Some tracks are worse than others and the B-side does sound better. Besides the complaints about the shiny backing tracks, the songs are great and the lyrics are emotional but not overwrought. The album closer is a banger.

This was released in 1981??

Are you allowed to make punk songs in waltz time?

Glad to have heard it. The music and performances are not mind-blowing but I appreciate the bands restraint in not trying to sound too cool while making really cool music. Owen Pallet rules.

As you would expect from a Peter Gabriel project this album features aloof vocals, songs, and performances. The backing tracks are interesting but they sound like the test track that your Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 would play when you finish installing the drivers. In Your Eyes isn't bad.

Duran Duran with bad vocals. This must have been unique in 1979 - before the whole New Romantic thing went mainstream. And maybe it's just because of the band name, I can't help but draw a dotted line between this record and Japanese visual kei.

You have to understand the state of popular music when this was released. American alternative/indie had already peaked and that tiresome macho, aggro thing was at its height. Music production had fallen victim to the loudness war which made listening to a whole album in one sitting a fairly unpleasant experience. It was time for the pendulum to swing back toward the opposite pole. It was time for sad British guys to make their return. The production on Parachutes sounds great. It's clean and clear with plenty of breathing room for the performances to shine. Maybe the lyrics are a little bit obvious but that's not what this is about.

Frank Black's vocals are absolutely unhinged while Kim Deal's are as sweet as ever. This album is another part of the foundation of alternative rock.

Another track by track review: 1. Awful lyric with an especially annoying chorus. 2. The instrumental is kind of a hippie version of 70s soft rock. Stevie's vocal and lyrics are the only enjoyable thing here. 3. Another Lindsey Buckingham song. This guy is trying to be Paul Simon but he sounds like a shitty backup singer for The Eagles. And the words are really trash. He's got nothing to say. 4. The radio hit. It's not bad except it has that "honky-tonk" 1970s thing that turns me off. 5. Yecch. The rhythm section does sound good here despite the rest. 6. And a ballad to close out the first side. Perfect. It's OK I guess. I like it the way I like The Carpenters. 7. Kinda bluesy like a softer Led Zeppelin or Heart but without any edge whatsoever. 8. On a very white album this might be the only number with any kind of soul. Unfortunately it has that gross 70s way of writing about romance and sex that gives me the ick. Is this what set the mood for the conception of millions of people my age? I can't let myself even entertain the thought. 9. I really like Nicks' voice. I really do not like Buckingham's voice. I know this band was basically a polycule before that even existed but Stevie and Christine should have started their own thing. 10. The fuck? OK I take it back. Stevie Nicks is the only good thing in this group. 11. I could have sworn Kiss had a song by this same name.

File under: Toolbox Rock. It's like KISS but slightly less gross. But only slightly.

I listened to it twice. I want to have an opinion but I just can't make myself form one.

Musicals are very not my thing. Stuffing weird narrative dialog into a song feels false. With that out of the way, the songs on this album are tolerable enough. I like the slower, crooning ones best. Regardless of the naff lyrics Ella seems to posses several difference voices across all of these tunes. Artists like Elvis Costello have tried to pull this off but I've never heard anyone do it as well as she does on this recording. Also, the band sounds great and the recording does both the vocals and backing tracks justice.

It's OK, I guess. To me it's kind of like that Ray Charles record only a decade newer. It's a foundation of later work but it's not as interesting as what came after.

I don't know what this is. There is something about it that is deeply appealing in the same way that other experimental artists like Battles, Silver Apples, and Can are. But this has soul in a way that those groups do not. The live, acoustic nature of this recording makes it so human.

Is this goth-rock or rock that goths like? Anyway, it's solid 80s dark, atmospheric guitar music.

I think I understand what they are going for and I do find it interesting. (Let's call it "Nineties T-Rex" for short.) The songs are also good. Beyond that I can't find myself latching on to anything in particular. It's fine. There was better alternative rock in the 90s and nobody out T's the Rex.

Mid. Not sure why it's on the list.

"Camel Cigarettes: The Album" Sweet Emotion is Aerosmith's only good song.

heavy but melodic, fast but under control, plodding but groovy

I'm not sure the diarrhea noises add much to the record but overall its great.

Not bad. Definitely a specimen of the indie rock sound from this time. The production and instrumentation sound great. I didn’t listen close enough to get a feel for the song quality but it does make me want to listen more.

No other record sounds like this. To me it's hard to categorize but it somehow fits with some of the other post-grunge-power-pop-rock albums that came out around the same time. These songs have always been mysterious to me. It's probably the muffled vocals. What could have become if the group maintained some of the mystery instead of going for all out rock radio fame?

Remember when you were in the Beatles and you did that album Abbey Road and at the very end of the song, it went: 'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make'. You remember that?

kinda sad, kinda pretty

The riffs aren't great and it all comes off like a Hendrix ripoff. I don't see how this album birthed heavy metal when Black Sabbath (and even Steppenwolf!) exists.

Pretty rockin' and I appreciated The Sonics cover

The sentiments in Brian Wilson's lyrics are plain and juvenile and epitomize pop music. For some reason they hit me in a deep way that other pop lyrics are not able to. The production, instrumentation, performances, vocal harmonies are all first rate. This is another 6 out of 5.

A is for Anachronism. This band keeps revisiting the same sound that was exciting in the 70s. E is for Easy. Lyrics about chasing girls and rockin hard. R is for Repetitive. Same beat, same solo, same dumb album art. O is for Oafish. Aerosmith is the first band listed under "toolbox rock" for a reason. S is for Sleaze. Ten songs about flesh and drugs. M is for MTV. Remember those videos with Alicia Silverstone? It was all too much. I is for Innuendo. These guys are geniuses when it comes to writing dirty songs but keeping them PG-rated. T is for TOO MUCH. This is third Aerosmith album I've had to suffer as I progress through this project. H is for Hits. Some how these guys had hits for multiple decades.

This is the kind of country music that is meant to break your heart. I suppose if I allowed myself to get caught up in it, it may be effective even on me. Parton, Ronstadt, and Harris have great voices and are amazing performances but I'm not sure about the song choices. My general unfamiliarity with country music may be limiting my appreciation of the songs but I have a suspicion that this album's late 80s release date has something to do with it. I compare these tunes with the original songs on Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose from 2004. I do like The Pain of Loving You, Wildflowers, and Those Memories of You. I don't like the dead hobo one.

"Easy Money" dips dangerously close to Pink Floyd territory but the rest of the album is compelling.

David Bowie never lost his touch. What an amazing body of work he left us with. I don't know if I would regard this album the way I do if it was by an unknown performer.

The rockers sound great and there are some really pretty moments. The blues and gospel stuff I am not really into. Having to sit through a whole Stones double album made me realize that it's Mick that bums me out about the band.

classic

You can't say the sounds or songs are particularly original. You can say that Norah Jones' voice sounds great on the recording and the tunes are pleasant.

got my mojo workin

Some records come up in this project that you can rate right away and this is one of them. Stevie Wonder is a genius.

The term Southern gothic comes to mind. This is a theatrical album with big songs that have pop hooks. It's OK. The band sounds good but I don't care for Cave's vocal performances.

This Bob's "Jakob Dylan's dad" era and it is the Bob Dylan sound that I was most familiar with before I started the 1001 Albums project. Can't say I enjoyed much on this one. "Standing In the Doorway" was a good sad song but the rest of the album is sad songs that aren't so good. Also the production is very... noticeable? and seemed out of place for Dylan's style. Gotta give it two stars. That is the rating I give albums that have me calculating how much time I have to listen before I can put another album on.

Introspective sounds of the revolution. A totally different energy from Sly's Stand! album. It's a compact statement with amazing songs, production, and performances.

The Doors sound is distinctive but nothing else on Morrison Hotel stands out.

se acabo

MCs have been biting rhymes from this record for decades. "Party for Your Right to Fight" is the perfect phrase and track to summarize this album. The Bomb Squad's production found its balance between abrasive sampling and listenable tracks on this recording.

Great vocal performance. Song choice is solid. The band sounds great.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Classic G-Funk beats. The guest MCs add a lot as far as the rhymes go. Not every song is great but I have to give The Chronic its due for its place in history. This album is the archetype for Southern California rap and the sounds live on today in the works of artists like Kendrick Lamar.

Wacky like a Danny Elfman score with storytelling like Sufjan Stevens. This record has a lot of acclaim but I'm missing something because I find it interesting but not appealing.

As lovely as anything he did in the groups he belonged to in the sixties.

Way too much blues. Two stars for being Clapton-adjacent. The songs are unpleasant and don't build on the unique sound that the Doors established on the five previous records.

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

Worse than Aerosmith. The first track is pretty rockin but "Child In Time" has too much guitar noodling, bad vocals, and the lyric "I want to be inside of you." Dumb lyrics continue on Smoke On The Water which also includes some Clapton-esque guitar chugging. Once that ends you are treated to a dull drum solo. This is the closest I have come to skipping a track in the over 300 albums I've listened to in this project so far. There is a part in the middle of "Strange Kind of Woman" where a guitar is trading licks with someone making dumb mouth noises. That is the exact moment I decided to give this record one star. "Lazy" includes some harp that gives me major "Honkin On Bobo" douche chills. This sucks.

I'm a metal neophyte but I can see how this is an archetype for so much of what came after.

Quite exotic to my ears. Veloso's voice is perfect for this style. Alegria, Alegria is a masterpiece.

The Residents walked so Ween and Primus could run.

Finding this album in my college days would have fucked me up. Back then I was really into contemporary sad-boy artists like Elliott Smith, Galaxie 500, and Pedro the Lion. Even if this album was unknown to those guys it certainly touches the same parts of the psyche as the best of their work. The spartan, clear production and concise confessional songs make the whole album feel very near and honest. The rare hooks highlight engaging melodies that are just enough to hang Drake's bedroom vocals on.

The production is too much. It sounds hot, bright, and overly sweet. The songs are decent. These Bush-era protest songs are not nearly as good as the Thatcher-era produced but the rock opera format is honored by this album -- for whatever that's worth.

The production is so bad its good - like a Velvet Underground album. The tunes are bouncy and raw like ? and the Mysterians. There's a little Motown soul in here, too. It's weird but I like weird.

Backing tracks are interesting: math rock guitar shreds, super odd drum beats, weird squeaks... I'm into it. The lyrics and vocal performances throw me. It is also unfortunate that this album is 14 years old, putting it squarely in that trough between nostalgia and novelty. The whole presentation and sound of this record is very "Anthropologie-core".

The title track has it all: sing-along vocals, banging rhythm track, funky synth. Even though its seven and a half minutes long it feels as compact as a pop song. The rest of the album is varied in song quality and feel.

The production is really late 70s/early 80s but it still sounds good on the 2015 Remaster. (btw... curse Spotify and/or the labels for replacing the original mixes with endless remasters) As usual, I like the Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks numbers and loathe anything by Buckingham. All in all, for a Fleetwood Mac album I find this one more tolerable than the others. I might even say I liked it.

The lyrics are echoes of The Smiths who had a way of expressing quotidian British maudlinism. The sophistipop backing tracks would have chased me off but I almost appreciate how carefully they are crafted. I listened through the album almost twice and the tunes started to blend together to form what sounds like an hour long ending credits song for an ITV-produced family drama series from 1988 taking place in a town with a name like Grimsby or Sowerby Bridge. I can't find much to love or hate here. Three stars, I guess.

The title track is a 6 out of 5 for lyrics, production, and performance. The rest of the album is similar sixties pop/folk. The sound of this record really speaks to me and I feel sixties pop could still be mined for inspiration for new music.

Some enjoyable tunes -- especially on the B side -- that regrettably lack what makes Elvis' lyrics special. "I Want You" is totally unhinged and is the standout song on this collection.

sounds like some Pink Floyd shit but with harmonica

Mrs-Maisel-core

Like an updated version of The Clash's Combat Rock, Kala addresses an ever-shrinking globe and the tension between the rich nations and rest of the world. The sounds are bombastic and modern. The rhymes are a great example of grime in the early 2000s.

Fantastic sounds and performances. I enjoyed every track. Lyrically the album doesn't say much that hasn't been said before but every word on this record needed to be spoken in 2020.

The production on the remastered version is fun. The stereo separation and sub-bass sounded great on my bookshelf speaker system. Overall there are some interesting parts but it is long and I found myself losing interest by the middle of the third track. Better editing could have made this a four-star record for me.

It sounds exactly like the 90s and it sounds exactly like today. RIP Phife Dawg

The White Stripes album with the big production. Terrific tunes as usual.

Not as good as Mr. Tambo/Urine Man but still terrific.

This is what it would sound like if the Velvets did a year of study abroad in Germany and lived in the same dorm as Kraftwerk.

Cube has great flow and rhymes as usual. The thing that stuck out to me is how race relations are discussed on this record versus the discourse that we hear today. Today's language around racism and equality issues is so academic compared to the real talk on The Predator. The beats don't stand out too much here.

The performances are great and the production on the 2011 remaster sounds great. But the tunes. Meat is Murder doesn't have the quality of other releases from the band. If you want to be a purest and exclude "How Soon Is Now?" then you're only really left with "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and maybe "Barbarism Begins at Home". RIP Andy

file under: Your Favorite Band's Favorite Band. file under: One of the Groups Created After Seeing Sex Pistols in Manchester

Performances: solid. Songs: kinda OK; kinda not. Concept: 90s radio rock with 60s nostalgia. Question: Why is this on the list? Rating: a very soft three stars

I'll agree that it doesn't sound like anything else. What it does sound like is a little bit dated. It's OK.

Proto-disco-soul-funk-trip. This album doesn't hit me like some of its predecessors. I miss Sly's world weariness and anguish. I miss Eddie Hazel's and Bootsie Collins' shredding. The edge of those records are worn down and polished smooth on "That's The Way Of The World". It's not necessarily bad but it doesn't grab me and thrust me back in time the way I was by Sly and P-Funk.

A seven minute long ballad about a fuckin car. CHECK. Lots of groaning. CHECK. Glockenspiel. CHECK. A song about going to work. CHECK. Yep... it's another Springsteen album.

I found a stack of my dad's old 45s in an old bowling ball bag left up in the attic. That is when I heard The Sonics for the first time. The raw power and excitement sticks with me today. Five stars for almost inventing punk a decade before it happened.

It's fine. The songs are great, of course, and the performances are solid. The stage banter is a little out of place and upsets the excitement of a live recording.

I love this album. More than Kala. I don't know why but it just bumps so hard from start to finish. Sunshowers, Bucky Done Gun, Galang... all classics.

At ten years old this album the sounds on this album are not as common today as they were in 2012. Channel Orange is a solid representative of the new soul sound: kinda druggy, kinda sad, kinda horny. Frank's voice sounds good and the songs -- though numerous -- keep my interest through the whole record.

Mostly throwaway songs - especially the ones that sound like XTC. This album would be totally uninteresting if not for what other groups did and continue to do with the sound.

High concept and self-referential. I do like the 70s production and appreciate the restraint in "fixing" it for the digital age. The songs are kinda dumb.

Mellotron-heavy songs that sound like a film score. This record must have influenced many artists I admire but this one doesn't do much for me. It gets too noodley for my taste and does not evoke much more than "futuristic robot space music" vibes. I'm giving this one a soft three because I do love electronic music.

I listened to this one twice. On the second trip through I found myself listening to more of the pretty parts. Ramble Tamble could be a mid 90s indie rock song. Some of the other songs are a little weak. Travelin' Band is some kind of 50s boogie woogie pastiche that makes me think of Sha-Na-Na. Between songs like this there are some real bangers. The handclaps on Up Around The Bend highlight the strong sing-along melody and steady rhythm groove. CCR's version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine moves the song's origins much further south than Detroit re-imagining it as a Delta Blues song. (The additional white guy noodly jamming doesn't improve it. Perhaps its too Clapton adjacent for my tastes.) The album closer - Long As I Can See The Light - is as solid of a final track as any album I've heard. All in all this is a genre-defining record with some solid singles. And there's a guy on a bike on the cover.

Possibly the most 90s record I have ever heard. More than Alanis, more than Stone Temple Pilots, more than the Singles soundtrack. Jeff's got a great voice. Many of the songs don't exactly stand out and the production is a little sappy for my taste -- especially here where the singer has more than enough emotion to deliver what's required. All said, this is a grunge record however its influences differ from the big grunge records of the day. I found the songs that showed those difference influences more interesting than the others.

When I first started the record I thought to myself, "this isn't jazz. This is a hardcore album". Upon reading the wikipedia article, it became clear that it's not an accident. In fact it's the whole concept of Spy vs Spy. The production is exciting throughout. The drums sound killer! I have no familiarity with the originals so my enjoyment of the versions on this album are not what they could be, but I still loved the thrash and frenetic energy of the recording.

The songs are not as good as they are on Up The Bracket (a six-star album in my opinion) but everything you love about The Libertines is here on the S/T record.

too much disco

Not bad for hippie music. Some songs are real gems; some songs are just songs.

Me Against The World is a solid example of rap in the mid-90s. At the time Tupac was a phenomenon. He was on MTV constantly in his own videos and featuring in other artists videos. His movies were crazy popular, too. Media loved to talk about his life and he relished the attention. On this album I find his flow to be monotonous but unique. Other rappers bit his style at the end of the 90s. His rhymes are his signature: the sensitive side of a thug. I like the beats on the album. It's G-Funk but not as bumpin as other albums from the time.

My review echoes what the Boys probably heard from every record executive ever: "Have you got more songs like West End Girls?"

Blues rock. Mostly boring but occasionally sounds like The Kinks.

Production is bad. Songs are OK as are the performances. What listeners should realize is that this album is where the band became its own genre. Previous Red Hot Chili Peppers records represented the bands unique mix of its influences: hip hop, funk, jazz, blues-rock. Californication is dad rock for guys born in the 1980s. The last song sounds like Elliott Smith.

Pretty songs. The words would probably break my heart if I could make any of them out from the reverb.

Real punk

Great songs, performances, and production. I can't fault this one even though it isn't something I would normally listen to. There are some solid Nashville country tunes between gospel numbers and even some almost-rock-n-roll hippie bops.

Upon starting Tago Mago my first thought was that this sounds like it could veer into some musical territory that is dangerously close to Pink Floyd. Thankfully it never does. My second thought was that this record isn’t especially interesting in a world with bands like Tame Impala, Kraftwerk, Deerhoof, Aphex Twin and Public Image Ltd. Obviously those bands would not sound like they do if Can hadn’t made this record so for that I give them credit.

This is an album in line with the direction some English punks rockers went after punk blew up: Jah Wobble, PiL, Big Audio Dynamite. It's an awful mess of genres but I like it and I think its fun.

Lame. Zero edge or energy. This record makes me thankful that the year it was released is the same year that rock 'n' roll came along.

Very pretty songs. It’s obvious to me how much Neil Young had an influence on the musicians of the early 90s who brought his approach to songwriting and performance into their styles.

Blues isn't my jam usually but Music in Exile is something fresh. I find the production a little bit elaborate but the 11 songs on the album are all interesting enough to keep me engaged.

Sounds like Roxy Music but a little bit weirder. I like it. There are some really beautiful moments on the record.

This is one of a few albums that required me to listen twice before I felt confident giving it a rating. I appreciate it more on a second listen now that I'm settling in to the vibe. The listening mode is more Boards of Canada than Kraftwerk. I'm listening as if it's a live DJ set and not an album as a collection of pop tunes. That approach gives a look into a time and place and a scene. Second Toughest In The Infants is not timeless but a touchstone to its era of electronic music.

I was ready to call this album a 5+ but I will agree with the other critics who said that The Love Below does take some odd turns. It's a double album so its bound to have some filler but do we really need a free jazz/breakcore version of a song from The Sound of Music? I know I don't. That inclusion of that track and some of the other clunkers knock this down to a solid five.

I do enjoy avant-garde music but I believe context is required to get the most out of records like this. Unfortunately I don't understand the world this record comes from.

What a record! Like Dylan meets Lou Reed but they get a baritone to sing it.

Pretty songs. I love sixties pop. Beautiful vocal harmonies and absolute classic Wrecking Crew backing tracks.

The Bee Gees really know how to turn tragedy into song and it's obvious how much they put into songcraft. (Also low-key this album art is 10/10.) As a whole I find the album kind of odd but I like it. The overwrought emotion of some numbers get to me a little and bum me out but the gall of the Brothers Gibb to make an album like this in a world where Jimi Hendrix was still fucking shit up is respectable.

One of the many things I have learned doing the 1001 Albums project is that 80s synth pop didn't just come out of nowhere. Duran Duran was not a result of spontaneous generation but is proof of intelligent design. Listening to these songs again with that context makes Rio that much more interesting. (Another 10/10 album art score for this masterpiece.)

This is the kind of music I think of when I hear the word "jazz". I don't know a damn thing about jazz but I like this record. I'm giving it a 5 because I think that's what music nerds are supposed to do and I'm a music nerd.

A perfect example of post-grunge indie/alternative rock.

Halfway through the first song I had convinced myself that the vocalist was Gibby Haynes and that Lambchop was a side project he had started. It made me excited because I assumed the album would start getting REAL WEIRD soon. After the fourth track no weirdness had revealed itself. At this point I started to settle in and my mind wandered into the territory of those Scott Walker records. The music on them was OK but they also got weird. Now we come to Nixon. It's not a Butthole Surfers off-shoot. The songs are not meant to shock uptight 60s music consumers. Instead this was probably a hallmark of the alternative country or New Weird America or whatever scene was popping at the time. It's OK. Not really my thing, honestly. I wasn't into Wilco 20 years ago. Maybe if I was then Nixon would be a revelation.

Let's do another track-by-track review of The Beatles lamest long player: 1. Rubber Soul starts off with a typical Paul pop ditty. The rhythm section sounds great but the guitar solo is really weak. It's OK. 2. Norwegian Wood is one of John's best songs. A masterpiece. 3. I've obviously heard this song before but I have no recollection of "You Won't See Me". It's a wonder John Cena never used this one. 4. John mope. Plenty of la-la-las but it's a bit more mature than the love songs the group had been making previously. 5. George complains about the government. Like "You Won't See Me" I must have heard this song before but I've got no memory of it. The fuzzy guitar is fun. 6. Hippie stuff. Dig that organ, though! 7. Michelle is a pretty song. I bet a lot of girls named Michelle had suitors dedicate this one to them in the sixties. The backing track is terrific. The acoustic plucking sounds great. 8. The Ringo One 9. Is this the horniest Beatles song?? Like Norwegian Wood the instrumentation has a slight Eastern thing going on. 10. Great track - especially the percussion and organ. Shout out to Ringo. 11. In My Life is probably the best song the Beatles ever recorded. What a track! 12. Wait is filler. 13. The other George one. It's OK. 14. Produced like an older Beatles song and the lyrics are wack.

I'm a sucker for these early 90s alternative rock albums. The vocal on Confetti sounds like it could have been on one of Elvis Costello's first two records. And the Mrs. Robinson cover is iconic now.

All of the songs sound like Paperback Writer. S.F. Sorrow can be filed under "first of its kind but later eclipsed by albums with better songs, production, and performances".

Some moments are a little too Bryan Adams. I like the story though it is told in a rather obvious, on-the-nose way. I bet these songs rip at a live show, however.

Hail To The Thief doesn't hit in 2024 the way it did when it was first released. We Suck Young Blood still haunts me just as much. Wow - what a performance. 10/10 album art

The vibes are cool. The songs are very minimal. I can't decide if its a punk dance album or a dance album with punk sounds. The second half really picks up the dance groove which I think is the best part.

Unique sounds and some real head bopping grooves.

Pretty mopey. Or occasionally pretty and completely mopey. The arrangement on "It's All In Your Mind" is a treat but the rest of the record is too moody for my taste.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say this but The Number of the Beast has all of the melody and songwriting of a Queen record. The songs aren't all just riffs and verse / chorus / verse. Some songs are actually surprisingly melodic and are more Iommi than Mustaine.

White soul. Terrific songs and performances.

Songs from the primordial ooze of modern popular music. A little sleepy for my taste honestly but Ray is a great performer.

R&B brought back the album after streaming threatened to make it irrelevant. I don't know if the sounds on Heaux Tales will age well but the concept is unique.

Sounds like seven remixes of Superfly but I'm OK with that.

Alternative rock as art. I like it.

As a jazz album, I really have no context for this. If this was pop I would probably love it.

"Chicken Bones" is perfect. Songs: The music is beautiful and the lyrics are odd. Personal and aloof at the same time. There is something engaging about the vocal melodies on this album that remind me of songs from the classic rock era. Production: The flange/chorus effect on the vocals make everything sound like John Lennon's vocal on Across the Universe. The backing tracks sound authentic and are absent of whatever ugliness was happening with recording in 2010. Performances: Solid.

Cousins of Buzzcocks, strung out neighbors of Elvis Costello, and the uncles of The Libertines. I found this album to be instantly engaging. Great pop songs and shambolic performances.

Aggressive and melodic.

Why? It's a cute presentation and the songs are fine I guess but they sound very sappy and overwrought like a sad movie.

I think this is great. Fuck it -- five stars.

5 / 5 songs. 5 / 5 album art.

This kind of music used to make me cringe but "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" demonstrates how much country music contributed to rock 'n' roll. Thankfully rock vocals evolved away from this vocal style that is still present in modern country music. I have to say that the instrumental was my favorite track from this album. Act Naturally goes hard, too, of course.

This album is way more punk than I remember. It's closer to Mudhoney and Gas Huffer than I gave it credit for.

It's a disservice to the songs on Countdown To Ecstasy to call it a rock recording. Rock has guts. "The Boston Rag" has a guitar solo and a driving drum beat which makes it rock adjacent but the rest of the album is... mild? "1970s mellow gold AM radio background noise" is what I would call it. Put this next to your Bread and Looking Glass records so you can put them on when your lame neighbors come over for mayonnaise sandwiches. Pearl Of The Quarter is the best song on the record.

Songs: 5, Performances: 5, Production: 5. This one is all-killer, no-filler. I listened to it twice in a row.

The Downward Spiral is possibly the most unlikely commercial success of 1994. It's not metal or dance or industrial. This album was my whole personality in ninth grade. The lyrics might tend toward "edgelord" but as a kid in his early teens they really spoke to me. Thirty years later I still appreciate the themes though the words are maybe too obvious. As with all of the NIN albums the production and songcraft is top notch. As with many other albums from this era (the mass adoption of the compact disc) the length is too long. Trimming some of the tracks from the tail end would make this absolutely killer.

All of the albums on this list are significant but this is the only one that matters.

I really wanted to love this one but its sterility does not leave me enough to latch onto. The experience of listening to Music For Airports through headphones while I sit at a desk feels like only half of what could be. What would this sound like at high volume? Or in a totally black room? Maybe in a sensory deprivation float tank... or an airport?

The hip-hop tracks are solid late 90s singles. The Top 40 vocal pop songs are rough. The vocal performances are great, of course, but suffer because they are accompanied by middle of the road instrumentals.

Another sixties pop record with a couple of standout singles. The remainder of the collection is pretty good. Not Byrds good, but it passes the vibe check.

Two and a half good songs and the balance of the record is bad songs.

Pretty voice and pretty songs.

sounds like Steely Dan... ? They used to play that De La Soul song that samples Peg during timeouts at Sonics games in the 90s.

Did Prince invent Bedroom Soul? Listen... I get it. There is no other artist in popular music who has a more singular style than Prince. Its so singular that I find myself needing to re-tune my ear to it any time I listen to his albums. And Sign 'O' The Times is a good album. To me its more mature in content and style than his other records but I'm not blown away by the tunes... there's no I Would Die 4 U and no 7 here but as an album its fine. 10/10 album art

Hook-laden post-grunge Britpop displaying its influences obviously. The production is massive and the tunes are instantly infectious. I was too cool to like this in 1994 but looking back I think it's great.

Horses is cool. Horses is unique. Horses is groundbreaking.

Tasteful disco with rock solid performances and engaging songs.

Mom, can we have David Bowie? No. We have David Bowie at home. David Bowie at home: ----- Memes aside, there are some really good rock songs on Billion Dollar Babies. The concept is executed well and must have been a huge influence on many groups for decades after its release.

Is it hyperbole to call this a modern masterpiece? Probably. But I really like it a lot. To my ear the music is challenging and unexpected but the songs are engaging throughout. The performances are next level without any virtuoso wankery.

Decent sixties psychedelia even if its over the top.

Flow: 5/5. Beats: 3/5. Rhymes: no idea/5.

Coldplay-core. Pretty generic record that sounds like 2008.

Incredible recording and super tight performances by the band and B.B. especially.

I would have loved this back in sixth grade but I'm not sure it has the staying power of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, etc.

Terrific collection of songs from The Beatles Maharishi era. Superfans will enjoy the album knowing the stories behind the songs but casual listeners can appreciate the tunes all the same.

Kid A reaches toward the artistic white it retains Radiohead's deft abilities in creating emotional pop, rock, and ambient songs. After the acclaim and success of OK Computer this was seen as a departure and challenged a lot of listeners at the time.

This would be good music for a child's funeral. 1/5

Pretty good for hippie music

Good funk and R&B tunes. The title track absolutely rips but the songs on the rest of the album are hard to distinguish.

I'm down with this album's concept for sure - especially looking back on the early 80s this far into the future and realizing that yuppies still exist in the 21st Century. The synth grooves and hooks are solid but many of the songs don't quite hit for me. LCD Soundsystem fans will probably love Penthouse and Pavement.

Revolver is the "not-quite-Sgt-Peppers" album. The melodies on this record are off the charts perfect. The acid tracks that close out each side (She Said She Said and Tomorrow Never Knows) are among the best work The Beatles ever did.

Am I hearing things or is Neil having FUN on this album? Some of these tunes sound like pop songs. Maybe there's a little bit of Matthew Sweet grunge-power-pop going on?

Back In Black appeals to the prurient interest in the same way as Kiss and Aerosmith. A couple of songs have hooky riffs.

Conscious early millennium rhymes with huge beats. On Lupe's debut I don't hear a unique flow but the raps are solid.

sounds like Wilco. two stars

sexy

Ms. Dynamite has a great voice and a smooth flow. The reggae beats sound really cool on all of the songs. I just wish this went a little bit harder: bigger beats, more powerful emotions in the lyrics, stronger feature artists.

The Scream is proto-post-punk, proto-goth, proto-alternative-dance. The vibe is heavy and Siouxsie's vocal performance is perfect. The only thing I find lacking is strong songs. These aren't the Sex Pistols twisted pop songs. Nor are they The Cure's dark ballads.

It's like a britpop Pet Sounds. Cutting this down to ten tight tracks would have made it a contender for the Five Star Club. Oh, well. It's a 4+ for me.

pretty fun and I'm not always the biggest fan of fun albums

There are some surprisingly sweet love songs on the album yet the songs' catchy rhythms struggle to exist under waaaaay too much squealing blues guitar noodling and unfortunate vocal performances. Layla sucks and Eric Clapton sucks.

This sound was so exciting as a kid in the early 90s. This album doesn't have many deep cuts but the singles are amazing.

Easy 5/5 for this vampire alien robot with a Moog collection. Terrific songs and inventive instrumentation.

I never wondered what Buzzcocks would sound like without Pete Shelley but now I know.

Yecch. Very bad songs.

I know I'm supposed to love everything about this but honestly it is completely mid. I even listened twice. Cupid Come and Several Girls Galore are cute but everything is OK. Good for mbv for making exploring new sounds and having the courage to go even further afield to define a completely new genre on the next record.

Like a B-sides collection from the Pet Sounds era. I was WAY into this era of Beach Boys when this came out and listened to it a lot. It's good but the songs feel like sketches instead of those perfect little three minute radio tunes that the group is known for.

Kanye is rich. Kanye is horny. Kanye is pissed off.

The Boss does disco. Now I've heard it all. Thankfully he sticks to songs about driving around. Running low on material, Springsteen combines his usual themes of roads and working into a single track about "Workin on the Highway." On "I'm Goin' Down" he works driving into a song about a failing romantic relationship.

Great voice, solid performances, OK songs. The sappy 70s soft rock production makes this hard to listen to in some places.

This album isn't particularly ground-breaking today. Maybe it was back in 1970? It sounds awesome, though.

More Specials is a great mood with terrific songs. Stylistically its a little bit of a mixed bag but I liked taking the journey.

Side A is great. Side B is great.

pop rock songs emerging from goopy noise

Walking Wounded has extremely nineties production that aged quite well. The songs are good, too. This was a surprisingly pleasant listen.

It might be stylistically unfocused and maybe the themes are a little bit light but the songs and performances are top notch.

It's just a bunch of blues shuffles with Mick Jagger singing.

This is the kind of music that plays when the doctor's office puts me on hold.

Beautiful songs but the production is unnecessary.

It's OK. The nine minute long plodding blues number in the middle of the record bums me out.

Time to Relax: wow, a skit. Nitro (Youth Energy): a decent skate punk song Bad Habit: Orange County punk band writes a song about driving Gotta Get Away: a bad grunge rip-off (About A Girl, anyone?) Genocide: another skate punk song. It's OK but at this point in the album the overly compressed guitar overdubs give me ear fatigue. Something to Believe In: Here's where I admit that I don't really like The Offspring and the vocal effect employed on every recording they ever did is a major part of why I never listen to their records. It overpowers everything like alfalfa sprouts on an otherwise delicious sandwich. Come Out and Play: novelty song Self Esteem: the other grunge song It'll Be a Long Time: the other skate punk Pennywise song Killboy Powerhead: the cover What Happened to You?: the ska punk number? ROFL So Alone: filler song Not the One: the angsty song trying to be Bad Religion Smash: I LOL'd at the half-time breakdown at the end Nice little skit and hidden track at the end because it was the nineties.

Soul Mining has a bop or two and the instrumentation, production, and vocal performances are certainly unique and engaging. It's OK.

What in the "Give Me a Leonard Cohen Afterworld" is this shit?

Elvis does Motown? This record was released in the same year as Altamont, David Bowie's Space Oddity, and The Beatles last concert. The songs are typical for Presley and the backing tracks are good but I can't see why this is an important recording. In 1969 this music must have felt like a relic of the malt-shoppe-going-steady-poodle-skirt days.

Half live record / half comedy record

If all of the songs on Talk Talk Talk were Pretty In Pink this would be an easy five. But they aren't.

Did the Stones ever do anything interesting? By the time Sticky Fingers came out both The Beatles and The Velvet Underground had come and gone. Black Sabbath was releasing music by this time. The songs are well-crafted but to my ears they are all so obvious: bluesy dude rock with lush instrumentation. It's just not for me.

When you go shopping at the expensive hifi store, this is the kind of record they use to demo the $5000 bookshelf speakers. The production is crystal clear with soft instrumental parts and distinctive vocals over the top. The piano sounds just like a piano and the synth bass fills the room with low frequency sound. And with all recordings used for this purpose, the songs take a back seat to the enjoyment of the mechanical process of recording sound and playing it back.

Destroyer is a weird album. It has some very melodic sing-a-long tunes, the expected posturing of a sexual predator, and the New York Philharmonic orchestra. There are many songs about "guys in a hard workin' band" that I find to be very lazy in the songwriting department. Kiss isn't a good band.

I don't think the songs are very good and the vocals have too much "performance" in them. I bet this guy is really into John Lennon.

Grateful Dead x The Mamas and the Papas hybrid

Morose. Maudlin. Murder Ballads. This was a slog. Are these songs? Dude is just talking over some movie score type beats. It's a great album to put on during your Agatha Christie cosplay event.

I think these kids were on acid.

A collection of attention grabbing synth sounds punctuated by occasional greatness lack a pop hit like Blue Monday.

WTF why? Your Own Back Yard is a little bit of Velvet Underground smack music which is cool, I guess.

oh its one of those post-Coldplay-core bands

Dance albums don't usually age as well after 25 years as Ray of Light.

What a debut!

Melange

Listening to an electronic album with music so natural and organic feels like scratching an itch deep in my brain. This album includes sounds I remember from early childhood programs that aired on public television when I was a kid making it even more of a satisfying listen.

What an opus. There are some amazing melodies among the 69 tracks. I tried to review each song on its own but I was worn about before I reached the end of the first disc.

The second album in Madonna's maturity phase. We've got some millennium pop optimism going on but it has actually aged better than some of the other albums from this era. A few solid songs make this a good collection.

If Daft Punk had bad taste.

There were a lot of albums like this in the late 90s but this was among the best.

The sounds are all here but the songs don't hit like later TVOTR albums. Still a great release from 2004.

Great production. That bass tone! Good songs and a fun mix of styles. Bonus points for the sick album cover.

These Canucks made the most American rock album ever.

I hear where Elvis Costello got his white guy Irish soul inspiration from.

I'm still blown away by the songs and the performances on Illinois.

En-Tact is certainly a time capsule of a record. Is it distinguishable from other work in the same style? I'm not sure. Did I enjoy it? Yes.

I'm with Christgau: it's exotic background music.

It's OK. I kept waiting for the tunes to really get going but they never did.

I love the optimism on Trans Europe Express. There wasn't a lot to be optimistic about as a European in 77.

Sounds like 80s R&B. The instrumentation doesn't age well but the songs and vocal performances are solid.

Damaged doesn't have the sleaze of Angry Samoans nor the absolute chaos of The Germs. Bad Brains had shredding that Black Flag avoids and nothing can replace Fugazi's bop. That being said the performances and songs on this album are still fantastic. The raw angst and energy of Rise Above, What I See, and Depression make these the top tunes on this record.

How much Sonic Youth is in this book? They're cool but I never thought of them as critical darlings.

This Sonic Youth album sounds like a Sonic Youth album.

Connected is a good sample of some of the sounds of early 90s clubs in Great Britain. There was one hit from this record and good vibes throughout. Like many records on this list it doesn't exactly stand the test of time but I enjoyed it all the same.

What the hell is this? Normally I like Neil but these songs make me think of a bar band saying, "now we are going to play some originals" between Pink Floyd and AC/DC covers.

I don’t know. It’s OK. I was hoping this would be Ride The Lightning II. There’s some thrashing going on but some songs go hard into the head banging chugga-chugga stuff too. Orion veers into Eric Johnson guitar harmony territory. Master of Puppets is a mixed bag.

I listened to both the original North American release and the director's cut version. These sound like very different works with the same name. I preferred the original release. Acid synths and soul vocals work well on these numbers. I could dance to this.

Like many of Elton John's albums there are absolute masterpieces (Tiny Dancer) among some really cringey numbers (Indian Sunset). As a stalwart of the rock album era I have always struggled with how bad his albums actually are despite his excellent singles.

Great production on Quaye's Caribbean-tinted pop songs. I really enjoyed the first half or so but the songs do get weaker toward the end of the album.

Aggressive sounds with origins in 90s alternative metal with better production than the band's debut combine with some fairly generic angry poetry on All Hope Is Gone.

It's some kind of hippie folk church music or something. Not my usual thing but I still like it.

Incredible instrumental and vocal performances but the songs don't exactly get the point across that there is a riot in progress.

I'm not into it. I think it's for kids.

Cute but not precious. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Hysteria's production has a very modern radio feel. I can hardly make out many of the lyrics. I imagine Ibanez dropped off a create of Tube Screamers and the engineer plugged every vocal mic, instrument cable, and drum mic into one of them. Each part is overdubbed and compressed within an inch of its life. The songs are good. This is a radio ready pop-rock record. Catchy songs with massive choruses and memorable hooks are a requirement.

I liked it more than I thought it would. This album is like a poppier Deftones or a sober 311. The turntable stuff didn't age well -- not that anyone would think that it could.

This is what Jimi Hendrix would sound like if he wasn't cool.

Sinatra stinks. This is so boring. I stopped paying attention after the third song.

dark. like joy division dark.

The Stones made a lot of records and Aftermath is one of them. I listened to the UK version which puts that 11 minute long blues dork jam at the end of the first side.

nah

The orchestra arrangement works well with most of the songs on S&M.

The quality of the numbers varies across four sides - some of the covers are terrific, some are OK.

It's sexy but all of the songs sound the same.

It's long but the songs vary enough that its not fatiguing. An icon of alternative rock releasing a record in 1994 was a risk but 30 years later it sounds right at home among contemporary albums.

avant-pop with political commentary

5/5 songs 5/5 performances 5/5 production About the songs... I know many of these because they are old standards but I don't really care for how they have been performed before. Willie's voice is perfect.

please-come-to-my-dance-recital-core

It's OK. It reminds me of my mom. I love the style but the song selection could be better.

All of the songs sound the same and this is what everything sounded like in 2007. Wannabe Bloc Party.

mid. A lot of records sounded like this at the time.

I don't like it. The vocals and some of the blues noodling is Clapton-adjacent. I think I know what it feels like for Elvis Costello haters to listen to Elvis Costello now.

La Revancha del Tango is cool music to play in the background of your wine party but it doesn't leave a lasting impression.

I trash a lot of blues records on here but I found myself enjoying this recording a lot. I don't know what that means.

Terrific production with the occasional bop. It could have been more with better songwriting.

When the Rock is Extra-Krauty 👌

Pretty music. Some pretty good songs and some pretty OK songs.

Damn this was hella boring. And I usually love this sad boy dreary day mopecore stuff.

I don’t have the knowledge of the context this record was released into but the playing certainly sounds capable and the tunes are tight and enjoyable. Minus one star for the saxophone solos.

Playing With Shit

Neil Diamond type beat. Pirates-of-Penzance-core.

A perfect time-capsule from the mid 90s.

Terrific production that ages so well. Otherworldly vocal performances and instrumentation that is solid and lilting at the same time.

John Lee is a lot better solo than with the dorky collabs.

"There are simply too many notes." It might be progressive but this isn't rock.

While the music may be Timeless, the album art surely is not.

I can't give Little Stevie less than five stars. I just can't do it.

Punk for people who don't like punk?

10/10 album art C'est Chic endures because of its production and performances.

Good songs but there's something about the production that stifles what could be a great record. The album lands in a non-specific zone between pop and rock that I find unsatisfying.

I shouldn't like this at all but in fact I enjoyed the whole thing quite a bit.

Great voice and good performances but the songs don't pull me in. Let me be clear that these songs are vastly superior to modern country pop songs that try to do what these songs do. I just don't get any kind of feeling when I hear them. "Someone Told My Story" is my favorite of the collection.

You can't help but love those vocals and house piano chords.

OK, sure it's got a real eurotrash vibe but the instrumentals sound really good.

Just like the suburbs this album is too expansive, dull, monotonous, full of angst, and not worth returning to.

what a masterpiece - how have I not come across "Os Mutantes" before?

The clave beat and the salsa piano chords get me every time. Oye! Chica! Tirate! Que Tirate!

Our Band Could Be Your Life

Great tunes but I have to dock IV a star for the production. It probably sounded great on an AM radio but there are many other recordings from the era that sound so much better.

One of the best parts of Will The Circle Be Unbroken is the banter between some of the songs. It's terrific. I think this album would be way better without most of the vocals and more solos by the instruments. I found myself engaged much more in the instrumentals than the songs with a singer. The songs are stifling the band.

Solid disco band featuring a white guy who sounds like Stevie Wonder. Unnecessary didgeridoo.

The first 7 inch record I remember owning was Karma Chameleon so I really wanted to like this one. The production is overly sweet and more than a few songs edge a little too close to George Michael territory.

10/10 album art Feargal Sharkey's voice somehow conveys the desperation of a lovesick teenager more than even Buddy Holly.

This is one of my favorite records. Easy five stars. Elvis' scathing lyrics about his continuing interpersonal and romantic struggles are front and center on Imperial Bedroom. "Men will literally write five albums full of the cleverest turns of phrase about romantic strife instead of going to therapy."

5/5 for beats, hooks, themes, verses, and features

Terrific production and amazing performances. I admit that I struggle to appreciate a cappella music and as good as these songs are it does color my opinion. The group's sound is striking at first but I get lost before the first side ends.

Just read what Christgau wrote about this album. It's all that needs to be said.

I don't get it.

Pretty vocals -- but yowza -- the rest of it just isn't my thing.

Jagged Little Pill is poppy and alternative. It's no wonder that this one was so massive. Alanis' performances are 10/10 and the songs feel very authentic. I think Head Over Feet is gorgeous and features some very tasteful harmonica.

The saxophone that starts the first side threw me at first but I ended up loving the record.

NINETEEN-NINETIES SAD BOY CLASSIC 10/10 album art, too.

Amazing production, infinitely interesting songs, lights out performances.

The lives explored in Parklife seemed exotic to me as an American teenager. Britpop itself was exploding after grunge and the sounds from Blur appealed to me when this came out. I still listen every once in a while and I still like it. Nostalgia trip? Maybe.

Just because its challenging doesn't mean its good. They Were Wrong, So We Drowned was probably more fun to make than it was to listen to. At least its short.

It sounds cool and I guess it's a good introduction to this kind of music but its so strange to my ears that I don't have the context to judge it.

I shouldn't like this... and I don't. For a live album, the production is incredible. The tunes have an occasional 70s groove and most of the record is pretty laid back. Lots of "ooooooh I love you, girl" themes. There was an acoustic song that sounds a little like Zeppelin. Some songs veer into the Jimmy Buffet zone. I was wavering between a two-star review and three stars. Shine On had me thinking that I could round up to three stars. I told myself, "the production is great and some of these songs are OK!" Then the Jumpin' Jack Flash cover kicks in! That finally relegates Frampton Comes Alive to the two-star tier.

the boring songs are boring and the upbeat ones sound like Springsteen

It's a Coldplay record. They pretty much define the middle-of-the-road, three-star album, don't they?

Super unique sounds. I like it and I don't know why but I also don't love it.

Well, it's not Thriller. I like the Stevie Wonder song. It's a good counterpoise to the tough guy songs that follow the overall theme of the record.

Exciting sounds from the days of future passed

I really wanted to love this one but it did not grab me in the way I thought it would. It's fun and novel but that's about it. Bummer.

It's a funny coincidence that this album was generated back-to-back with The Village Green Preservation Society. Blur's Parklife came up only a few weeks ago. I like The Rise & Fall but I don't think it's as good as either of those albums.

The Village Green Preservation Society is the biggest five that ever fived a five.

One of EC's pop-rock records. I kind of lost touch with Elvis in the 90s but Brutal Youth follows in the line from his 80s classics to his 21st century return to loud music with When I Was Cruel. Brutal Youth is a good record but is it something you MUST hear? I'm not sure.

absolutely not

sad songs

Some parts I really like. Some parts I don't care for.

Lots of different genres on Clube Da Esquina. The psych-rock ones were my favorite.

sexy vocals over late night tracks

Great production and performances. A couple of bangers on here, too.

J. Crew-core Like a mopey indie drama film, High Violet uses every emotional trick in the book to make you think that its deep.

In modern parlance, Heroes was a mixtape that Bowie dropped right after a career high album that marked him entering his sober Berlin era.