Great band with an awful singer who also happens to be an awful person. Favorite track: Unhappy Birthday

Pretty much a flawless album

Not at all like most stuff I listen to, but most of the tracks were pretty cool. Any songs with lyrics or voiceovers severely detracted from the album as a whole though. Favorite track: Dirty Trip

Did not like the start to this album at all. Lyrics were dumb and instrumentals weren't interesting. It got better toward the end, but country music just isn't my thing. Favorite track: Far From Me

I absolutely love this album. Today was my first time listening to it, and it will be stuck in my head for the foreseeable future. Genuinely very fun, interesting music. Flaming Lips will be in my rotation henceforth. Favorite track: Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell

Liked this album a lot. Very easy to listen to, and the jazz vibes throughout the album are right down my alley. Favorite track: Night by Night

Just an absolutely stunning voice every time. Not as good as Lady Soul was, but still a transcendent talent. Favorite track, non-Respect division: Good Times

Fun album. Instrumentals kicked ass, but the lead singer's voice was hard to listen to at some points. Favorite track: Identity

The thing that stands out the most with this album is how poignant its main points remain 30 years on from its release. I understand why each interlude track was included, but it did feel like they broke up the music too many times. That being said, the music is phenomenal. It Was A Good Day sticks out like a sore thumb because it's nothing like any of the other tracks--just a funny part about an iconic song. Favorite tracks: When Will They Shoot?, Dirty Mack

This album is pretty bland until Powderfinger. Then, it's like a switch flipped: Powderfinger, Welfare Mothers, and Sedan Delivery all carry what was set to be a pretty underwhelming album for me. Even the outro version of Hey Hey, My My has considerably more interesting instrumentals. I'll be interested to hear more Neil Young albums to see if this is a trend for him. Favorite track: Welfare Mothers

Honestly, this album always had an uphill battle with all the lyrics being in Portuguese. But all that put aside, this simply isn't the type of music that moves me. Favorite track: Clube Da Esquina No 2

Pretty cool instrumentals at points in this album, but lyrics and singing didn't do anything for me. Calling it plain or bland would be inaccurate, but it just didn't move me at all. Favorite track: Virginia Plain

Really, really cool album. First track plays hopscotch with the "weird vibe that's genuinely interesting"-"weird for the sake of being weird" line, but all the others nail the genuinely interesting side of it for me. Very much enjoyed this album. Favorite tracks: Uncertain Smile, Giant

The Bowie-Ronson influence in the production and instrumentals is very obvious and great. However, the elephant in the room is that they're working around a bad singer. They cover for it well in some of the tracks (Perfect Day, Hangin' 'Round, Walk on the Wild Side, I'm Free), but he honestly just sounds bored on most of the other ones. Favorite track, non-Wild Side division: I'm Free

Morrissey's voice gets pretty hard to listen to after a while. Plus he can go fuck himself.

Really fun album! It's a bit long, but it held my interest throughout. Favorite tracks: Sun Hits the Sky, Sitting Up Straight

This album made me wonder if I actually like metal as much as I thought I did. Favorite track: Don't Burn the Witch

This album fucking rules. If you need introduce somebody to 90s rap, do it with this album. Beats are great and interesting--I'll always for jazz-inspired beats like on Da Bichez. Lyrics are great and important, flow is great. Favorite tracks: Da Bichez, Ain't the Devil Happy. Honorable mentions to Mental Stamina and My Mind Spray

I mean, come on lol. Album is obviously amazing and the titular track is the best song on it. Going right down the middle with Bowie is ironic since his music is anything but that, but sometimes there are just facts of life. Whole album is incredible, including the instrumental-only tracks.

Nah, I just can't listen to this album again.

Very enjoyable album. Favorite track: No 13 Baby

Boring, pretentious crap. Was there actually an intentional "outtake" left on Todo Los Dolores???? Perfectly sums up music like this--trying entirely too hard to be artsy and against the grain

This album walked so Random Access Memories could run. This type of music and use of electronics had to have been considered extremely advanced for 2001. And sure, some of the electronica moments are over-modulated and can sound cacophonous or overwhelming. But this album was awesome overall. Favorite track: Juxtapozed With U

I normally can't stand listening to straight up electronic music, but this album is genuine art. It is very well composed rather than feeling like it's testing out all the noise settings on a synthesizer. The album listens like a suite from start to finish, so picking a favorite track feels disingenuous. But I really enjoyed this

Exactly my type of music. Enjoyed listening to this album because of the genre and style, but nothing really stood out to me as special either. Favorite track: Never Here

What a pleasant album to listen to. Very enjoyable tracks and good vibes all around. Favorite track: Jump Into the Fire

Truly unbelievably good album from the best musical act out of Philadelphia. Album starts out hot, stays hot through the middle, dips a little before the end, and ends on a high note. So many great tracks, but my favorite has to be Rolling with Heat

My biggest pet peeve with Indie music is how it sounds like the singer is singing poorly on purpose. This is no exception. Instrumentals are cool though. Favorite track: Two Dancers (I)

Just a beautifully sung album honestly. It gets a little repetitive for me, but that's about the only thing I can point out. Favorite track: Mountains O'Things

Low hanging fruit is still fruit: the guitar work on this album is amazing. Favorite track: Hey Joe

This album was really cool! Definitely nailed the "genuinely interesting" side of weird music. Favorite track: 21st Century Schizoid Man

Beautiful album from an extremely talented band. This album is nowhere close to being as good as Rumours, but still a great listen. Favorite track: Sara

Fuck yeah. Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game soundtrack music, which is a big compliment for me. Favorite track: Think Again

Traditional African music has always interested me. While I was not at all expecting this album to be a cappella, I enjoyed it all the same. Favorite track: Wawusho Kubani?

Amazing!!! The range shown on this album is nothing short of spectacular. Absolutely loved listening to this. Favorite track: Yours is No Disgrace

Lol, like I was going to give this anything less than a 5. Favorite track: Gimme The Loot

R&B just doesn't do too much for me. Nice background music, but that's about it. Favorite track: ...Til the Cops Come Knockin

This was great! Awesome instrumentals, fitting vocals, interesting compositions all around. Favorite track: Loose Fit

It was completely fine. 2.5 stars/5. Favorite track: Sunny Girlfriend

Absolutely beautiful album from a complete legend of music. I never wanted this album to end. Favorite track (non-Let's Get It On division): Keep Gettin' It On

I would have started levitating if I attended this show. Favorite track: How Blue Can You Get?

I really love the unique sound of this band. Pretty sure I could pick a new favorite track every time I listen to this album, but this time it was Arthur

Incredible. Just incredible. Every song, every aspect. Just loved it. Favorite track: Make Yourself

This is my second time listening to this album, and it did grow on me from the first time. However, the (purposefully) bad singing still prevents this rating from being higher. Favorite track: Motherly Love

I liked this album more than I expected to honestly. There are some very interesting musical elements at times, but ultimately it can't overcome what always happens to me with Indie music: it starts to all sound the same, and I get bored. Still, overall a decent album. Favorite track: Afraid of Everyone

Talk about two of my worlds colliding. This absolutely kicked ass. Favorite track: Master of Puppets

Fake crooner music is the absolute worst. No soul to this music at all. The Seventh Seal was good, but every other song is pointless

This album rules. Deep basslines and overall rock sound. Favorite track: Space Truckin'

Enjoyed listening to this one. Favorite track: It's No Use

So. Goddamn. Good. Four absolute heaters to start the album, and the rest of the tracks follow suit. Favorite track: My Adidas

This was a nice album to listen to. Nothing terribly interesting to me musically, but solid al around. Favorite track: Empty Room

Album is perfectly fine. Favorite track: Moog Raga

This is for you, Tony Bourdain. Favorite track (besides Blitzkrieg Bop): Listen to My Heart

Every song feels like it's either a rap beat or just plain boring. Awful, awful album

Just an incredible album. I liked this one better than Heroes (another incredible album) because of the jazz vibes in the instrumentals. Bowie really was a special artist. Favorite track: Cracked Actor

An hour and thirteen minutes of background music. Why are there so many electronica albums in this experiment

Awesome album musically. So many bases covered--I love it. Favorite track: Glad

What an interesting album. James Taylor is a great songwriter with a very nice voice, but the style can get a little redundant to listen to after a minute. But then, out of nowhere, two big band tracks break up the monotony. I liked this a lot. Favorite track: Suite for 20 G

Really liked this a lot! The instrumentals were awesome, and the vocals were pretty decent too. Interesting album all around. Favorite track: We're in Yr Corner

Album fucking rules. Favorite track: Alone, Together

The bears/instrumentals are really cool. The lyrics leave much to be desired though. Favorite track: tonite

Album is obviously good, but I felt a little let down by it too. There wasn't that epic climax anywhere that I'm used to with the Foo Fighters. Favorite track: Floaty

FUNK. Favorite track: Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication

Second time listening to this album, and I still really like it a lot. Still have A Million Pleading Faces and I Can't Help Myself as my favorite tracks

This album was great! It was refreshing to hear a relatively recent rock album be this good musically and lyrically. Favorite track: Howlin' for You

This was quite a bit different from what I expected, but it was great. Interestingly, I thought the two most popular tracks were the two weakest ones on the album. Getting into a groove on hard rock tracks is so impressive to me. Favorite track: Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Basically / N.I.B.

I have survived this album, barely. Favorite track: Inside

This album is right down the middle for everything that I like. What a treat this was. Favorite track: Revolution 1993

Hell yeah. Just awesome musically throughout. Favorite track: Samba Pa Ti

The peaks of this album were very fun. There is quite a bit of filler in this, which knocks the rating down a bit. Favorite track: One Way or Another

Funky music sure enough does turn me on

Album is way too long to listen to again. Orange Blossom Special is the best song on it, and I do enjoy the bluegrass.

System of a Down is a strange one for me. The highs with them are awesome, the lows with them are awful, and they're often for the same reasons. Sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't. Favorite track: Sugar

Pretty bland on the whole. Favorite track: Pictures of Me

The amount of hits on this album is pretty stunning. How can it get anything besides 5 stars on that alone? Favorite track: I Feel the Earth Move

The two smash hits are great. There is a decent amount of filler on this album though. Favorite track: Paint it Black

Admittedly, I never really "got" Bob Dylan. This album did a little bit to change that, but it's still music that I only moderately enjoy at best. Favorite track: Not Dark Yet

I fucking hate this album so much

This album was alright. The Cure don't really move me too much, but this was fine to listen to. Favorite track: Fascination Street

One of the most beautiful albums I've ever listened to. It's almost hard to believe that he was able to produce such a beautiful album with the myriad of health issues he had at this point. Favorite track: I Hung My Head

Just not for me I'm afraid

I loved this! Rod Stewart really showcases his talent well on this album. Favorite track: Mandolin Wind

Bruce simply isn't for me. Instrumentals on the album are awesome, but it just doesn't connect for me. Favorite track: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Glorified slam poetry

The piano playing was beautiful, but it's pretty difficult for me to relate to a solo instrumental performance meaningfully when I don't know the music

Beautiful songs played with beautiful emotion. Hard to beat that. Favorite Nirvana song on here is About A Girl, favorite cover is The Man Who Sold the World

I liked this album. The headline maker is obviously the titular song, but there are some other tracks that stuck out to me too. Winterwood was my favorite non-American Pie track. Everybody Loves Me, Baby and Babylon are also interesting to me. Nice album, Mr. McLean

Interesting album. The most popular song is comfortably the worst one on it, some of the songs feel more punk than grunge to me, several highlights I enjoyed, but it feels like it drags on as well. Favorite track: In 'n' Out of Grace

This album was so damn trippy...but I think I loved it musically. I honestly have no idea why because this spectrum of music usually turns me off. Favorite track: Section 43

I had no idea so many of these classics were all from the same album. Favorite track: Frosty the Snowman

This album was cool. Very much fit the mold of 90s alternative that I like. The mid-track changes were a touch that landed for me. Favorite track: Sunday Sunday

Said it before, and I'll say it again. Slipknot is too far down the metal spectrum for me. Album was mostly noise, but there were some highlights. Favorite track: Dead Memories

Not much interesting here for me. Favorite track: Lonely at the Top

This album had a lot of interesting musical choices that didn't really land with me. I can appreciate the effort though--it definitely wasn't being weird for weirdness' sake. Favorite track: Understanding

Such a cool album that portends nicely to what was to come for Pink Floyd. Enjoyed listening to this piece of history a lot. Favorite track: Matilda Mother

This album was really cool. Perfect balance of instrumentation and enhancing it through electronic sounds. Favorite track: Mr. Disco

This is my favorite Byrds album so far in this exercise. Favorite track: My Back Pages

Album was basically background noise for me. Favorite track: Lazarus

I am determined to make it through this album. But I am 6 tracks in and it is not easy. Closest I've come to turning an album off so far Update: I've made it. My God that was painful. Favorite track: Desired Constellation

What an awesome album. Aerosmith tend to be hit or miss for me, but pretty much all of these songs were hits. I couldn't get enough of it. Favorite track: F.I.N.E.

Hell yeah. One of my favorite ever music acts comes through again. Favorite track: Shining Star

What a cool album. Beautiful jazz vibes, and love hearing jazz as a form of protest--Charles Mingus would be proud. Favorite track: Mistake

The rap albums in this exercise are so damn good. I loved this album. Favorite track: A Day at the Races

Of course this is good. Favorite track: Judy Blue Eyes

Enjoyable album that I did not have high hopes for going into it. That's the nice thing about this exercise though. Favorite track: Doledrum

This album didn't really move me at all sadly. Favorite track: WeFight/WeLove

I liked this album. It doesn't sound very 90s to me at all, which is likely a good thing honestly. Favorite track: Confetti

Was not expecting to like this album so much. The instrumentals carry a lot more than most other singer songwriter albums in this exercise though, and I appreciate it. Favorite track: Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues

I'll always be such a sucker for jazz. Great album from a legend. Favorite track: Come Rain or Come Shine

Very fun album. Come on Eileen obviously the smash hit, but my favorite track was actually Until I Believe in my Soul. This album was significantly better than I thought a one-hit wonder album would be

I mean, what is there to say. Such an excellent album. It wears on just a little bit too long for me, but the diversity of the instrumentation and feel of each song makes it work. Favorite track: An Ode to No One

This album is awesome. CSNY's usage of vocals is so impressive to me, and the instrumentation is excellent as well. Favorite track: Country Girl

This style of music is just not for me. Favorite track: There is Power in a Union

This is excellent. Awesome production and sound quality on a live album. Every song is well performed as well. Favorite track: Show Me the Way

The greatest country album of all time. Favorite track: I Got Stripes

JAZZ. Beautiful things happen when legends team up. Favorite track: Bemsha Swing

Come on now. Favorite track: I've Got You Under My Skin

This album was pretty cool. The electronic elements were nowhere near overkill and enhanced the music. Favorite track: Decca

Really interesting album. At first it was hard to hear the influence on heavy metal, but it definitely grew to be like that as the album went on. I enjoyed the mash up of 60s sound, blues, and hard rock. Favorite track: Doctor Please

I hadn't listened to a full Coldplay album before. Their music is fine in bits and pieces for me, but a full album doesn't do a whole lot. Favorite track: Sparks

Well performed music here, but not my preferred style of jazz. Favorite track: Samba De Uma Nota So

Too weird for the sake of being weird

Wasn't a fan of most of this album. Far too much going on in the background of most of the tracks. Favorite track: Jus' a Rascal

I applaud PJ Harvey's decision to stop making bland, boring music. There did not need to be 3 albums by her in this exercise though. Favorite track: The Colour of the Earth

All-time album. No misses. The best track is Master of Puppets. Alright, let's listen to the album now.

Boring. Favorite track: Oh Boy!

Not sure if I've ever heard such a dichotomy between instrumentation and vocals. That was...interesting. Favorite track: Jersey Girl

I'm stood up in my office giving this album a standing ovation. Wonderful album. Favorite track: Cherub Rock

Liked this significantly more than I thought I would. This is the most thoughtful and least pop-y I've heard her, and it led to a pretty good album. Favorite track: long story short

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Pinnacle of jazz right here. Introduce your friends who don't know/like jazz to this album, and they'll be hooked. Favorite track: Festival Junction

Fela Kuti has quickly become one of my favorite artists I've discovered in this exercise. Once again, strong, swinging jazz from his group. Very strong Mingus vibes. Favorite track: Black Man's Cry

Fantastic. The funky instrumentals are unbelievably gripping, and the voice is so uniquely suited for it. Great album. Favorite track: Another Star

Second time with this album, and there's just not much interesting here still. The titular single is a Trojan horse for the rest of the album, as it sounds nothing like anything else on here at all. Favorite track: The Trip

Becoming pretty convinced that Tom Waits just is not for me. Favorite track: Gin Soaked Boy

This album was wonderful. Big time improvement from Astral Weeks for me. This is the Van Morrison I expect to hear. Favorite track: Glad Tidings

There's something about an album called Bad Company by a band called Bad Company with a song called Bad Company on it. For real though, great classic rock here. Heavy instrumentation with a lighter singing voice pairs so nicely here. Favorite track: Can't Get Enough

Some of the most self-tortured lyrics you will ever hear. I have no idea how nobody knew about Ian Curtis' mental state until he passed. Favorite track: Passover

The progression in this album is very interesting. At first, Mrs. Robinson sticks out, but it then sets up a much more lively ending than the beginning. Simon & Garfunkel have done it again. Favorite track: A Hazy Shade of Winter

Beautifully sung and performed, but I'm looking for a little more variety in the album than being in love with a woman or getting over a woman. Favorite track: I'll Be Around

Masterpiece. Favorite track: Let Down

Giving this one star was too harsh before, but the comments stand. These are not good songs outside of the hits. Favorite track: Somebody to Love

All normal edgelord Indie themes aside, there is some really nice music on this album. Arcade Fire do not fall into the trap of "having your lyricist sing poorly on purpose," so they get some marks up in my book for that too. Favorite track: The Well and the Lighthouse

This is the funkiest rap album I can remember ever hearing. It's awesome. Favorite track: Don't Be Coming (In My Face)

The breakout for the most famous character of potentially the most interesting artist ever? Yes, I think this will get 5 stars. Shocker. This is art right here. Favorite Bowie track ever is Suffragette City, but the whole album is a classic. Not a single skip here

Green Onions and Mo' Onions are the only tracks worth time in this experiment. Everything else just sounded like a cheap organ at a dive bar.

This album isn't bad musically, but I think it's the horniest album I've heard in my life. Favorite track: Common People

I was pretty uneasy at the beginning of this album, but it was wonderful at the end. Favorite tracks: Broken Clocks, 20 Something

People from England will defend this album until their last breath. Neither the music nor the story arc were interesting at all though. Favorite track: What Is He Thinking?

Music was fun enough I suppose, but pretty difficult to have any of it land meaningfully. Favorite track: Elixir

Where has this album been all my life? Stunning mixture of rock, blues, country, swing, probably countless other genres I'm forgetting right now. A pleasure to listen to. Loved all tracks, but In the Gallery is what pushed it to a 5 for me

Great band with an awful singer who also happens to be an awful person. Favorite track: Unhappy Birthday

I've made my thoughts on singer-songwriter albums very clear in this exercise. If they were more like this one, then I would feel very differently. Where most others fall short for me is that the focus is about 90% on the singing/lyrics and 10% on everything else. For me, that's a pretty bland listening experience unless the singer has one of the top voices ever. This album is decidedly not that. Joan Armatrading's sultry vocals are powerful and emotional enough on their own, but the instrumentation is excellent as well. It creates a more holistic experience for me, and it makes me love this album. Favorite track: Join the Boys

Very fun album. Favorite track: Mad Cyril

Her voice is amazing. The production is amazing. But...it just feels like something is missing? The risk-taking thing kind of just sounds like people parroting music critics, but I guess that could explain how I feel overall. Favorite track: Send My Love (To Your New Lover)

What a whirlwind of an album. Definitely an ambitious step away from what Nirvana came up on. Some of the vocals are cacophony to me, but a lot also lands beautifully since I like harder rock. Favorite track: Milk It

Pretty cool album. Not a ton resonated with me, but it was a simply enjoyable listen. Favorite track: Strangelove

This album is so crazily unique, I needed a second listen to land on my rating. Ultimately it's a 4, though I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were hust slightly too many non-musical artistic directions in the middle of the album to get the 5 star rating here. Beginning and end of the album are top quality. Favorite track: White Cross

Nothing interesting here for me. The lyrics are meh, and there's very little vocal range shown. Instrumentals nothing to write home about either. Just background music mostly. Favorite track: The Fog

Like if you gave Captain Beefheart wireframe glasses and a Timothee Chalamet haircut

Singer sings the same song while playing an acoustic guitar over different variations of elevator music behind him. *saves review to notes for every other singer-songwriter album in this exercise*

Yep. Favorite track: The Bottle

This album would be much better if each song was about a minute and a half shorter. It's fun for the most part, but every single track is repetitive beyond belief. Favorite track: Narayan

An album that's so good, they named a movie after it 2 years later. Nuff said. Favorite track (besides the obvious ones): Lifes on the Line

This album was considerably better than I thought it would be going in. The first two tracks are quintessential 90s music--honestly could be part of a soundtrack to describe how they sounded. The most popular track, 4th of July, was comfortably the worst one for me. I appreciate this singer-songwriter album for approaching the music holistically--it made for a much more cohesive listening experience than most of the others here. Favorite track: Fifty Years After the Fair

It's Sinatra, so it's obviously good. I did find myself wishing that Jobim would have a bigger singing role than he did though--more of the play between English and Spanish vocals would have been interesting. But, I didn't find a lot of variety between the tracks. The performances were beautiful, but this is the weakest of the Sinatra albums I've had so far in this exercise. Favorite track: Meditation

You go into this album expecting to get the epitome of 2000s hip hop, and come out with a full anthology showing how talented both of these artists are, individually and together. I'll forever maintain that Big Boi is the most underrated figure in hip hop. The best tracks on each are obvious, so the best of the non-obvious tracks: Speakerboxxx: Flip Flop Rock The Love Below: Love in War

I genuinely have no idea how to feel about this album. It's almost like a ska band's take on reggae at some points, which sadly can drift into being elevator music-adjacent. But the instrumentals are far too sophisticated for that at the same time. Lyrics/vocals are nothing to write home about. Favorite track: Madam Medusa

This album makes Closer seem even more haunting. Even the tone in Ian Curtis' voice is noticeably brighter throughout this album, and the lyrics aren't even close to being as self-tortured. That being said, a lot of the music didn't grip me as much as I'd have liked. It was definitely good, but not one of my favorites. Favorite track: Day of the Lords

This album is exactly how the Stones are supposed to sound. Absolutely perfect encapsulation of what makes them incredible. Mick being Mick, incredibly arranged instrumentals, variations in musical feel, everything. Awesome, awesome album. Favorite tracks, non-Tumbling Dice division: Rip this Joint, Happy, Shine a Light

Special, special album. Sometimes you can just feel the overwhelming talent in a performance, and this is one of those times. Favorite track: Zealots

Yeah this album was great. Variation in styles throughout, strong vocals and instrumentals. Favorite track: Trouble in the Message Centre

This album was pretty good. I wasn't as moved by it as I was hoping to be, but it's still very good 90s hip hop. Favorite track: Farmers Blvd

Shoegaze: mumble rap for white hipsters

I wanted to like this going into it...but good lord. This was a disaster. Unlistenable vocals, mostly basic instrumentals, woof. I Heard It Through The Grapevine was the only cohesive track, because it turns out you have to actually pronounce the words in a cover

I really like albums like this. Complete changeups from a band's normal archetype--it feels like they're doing it specifically to prove how talented they are. I can't speak for their motivation here, but I can speak for Led Zeppelin's talent. To change up the style so much for this album while maintaining their unique vibe is probably the hardest thing you can possibly do as a band. Favorite track (besides Immigrant Song): Out on the Tiles

This album was great. Common has always been one of the most likeable rappers, and that shines through here. Favorite track: The Corner

I think people who don't like funk or soul music might just be racist. Favorite track: Hey Girl

Cool instrumentals, stupid lyrics, annoying singing voice. Overall, not for me. Hong Kong Bar and Make It Right put in a hell of an effort to make me change my mind on this album, but the damage was done

Lou Reed is such a confounding one to deal with because, well, he is an awful singer. And yet...his extreme talent still makes him a fitting frontman. The arrangements on every one of his songs are simply stunning. I found myself enjoying this album much more than Transformer because the instrumentals are so, so good, and so is the songwriting. It's why How Do You Think It Feels is the biggest and best track on the album, but I felt similarly about Lady Day as well.

My favorite ever artist stepping outside of his comfort zone to perform in one of my favorite genres of music, recorded in my hometown. This could be the worst piece of shit ever made and I'd still give it 5 stars. Of course, this is not even remotely close to being that. The backing vocals and instrumentals are incredible. Bowie continues to cement himself as an elite performer. Such an amazing talent to make his voice fit the feel of this music perfectly. Every single song the album is great, but the favorite track is Somebody Up There Likes Me

This album just sounds like the 90s. I enjoyed listening to it. Favorite track: Alcoholiday

Really interesting album. I usually can't turn albums like this off fast enough, but something about this one kept my attention. The tracks are very well arranged, and the overall gothic country feel is something I'm not sure I've ever heard before. Favorite track: All Thoughts are Prey to Some Beast

Nothing especially wrong with this album, it just doesn't really sound like The Kinks at all. I appreciate bands who can deviate from their sound for a different project, but this felt less like an artistic decision and more like a "we need to ride this Beatles wave" decision. They've done it well enough, but it just doesn't feel that authentic either. Favorite track: Sunny Afternoon

This album is a lot of fun. It doesn't really feel groundbreaking, but that's okay. The vocals are fun and sung well, the instrumentation is arranged well. Favorite tracks: Speedy Marie, Superabound

I'm sorry man, I just don't get it

The type of album that you know exactly how soulful it'll sound as soon as you see the cover and title. Favorite track: When I Grow Too Old to Dream

PUNK

This album had all the makings of something I'd despise going in. Stupid name for a band, album title that seems to be making fun of album titles for no reason, Britpop...not great. And then the album started out hot. And then quickly became what I thought I would hate about it. The music just becomes so uninteresting so fast. Favorite track: Faron Young

The album definitely is not bad, but it definitely did not grip me in any meaningful way either. Favorite track: The Champ

Categorize this as one of my favorite new discoveries in this exercise. Pretty shocking to think that this is typically a punk band making an album like this, but it just shows the breadth of talent wonderfully. Favorite track: Guiding Light

He's done it again. Favorite track: Inner City Blues

There are some really fun highlights in here. Some very, very funky beats that had me locked in (Come Into my House, Latifah's Law), but everything after Ladies First pretty much all ran together for me. Favorite track: Come Into My House

This album is so damn good that it is still going to get 5 stars even with the amount of screechy elements that made me recoil. Favorite track: Theresa's Sound-World

FUNK. This album brings it in spades. Favorite track: Sex Machine

Man, this album really swings so hard. Really made me want to find a woman and dance, which is a hell of an achievement for an album. Favorite track: Oh, Marie

Typically fun Beastie Boys album here. Their ability to remix and repurpose classic sounds for their own music is pretty cool. Favorite track: B-Boy Bouillabaisse Medley

Not for me

The hits are quite good. The other tracks are quite dull. Overall, fine album, but not one I have much desire to sit down and listen all the way through again. Favorite track: Shout

An entire album where almost nothing notable happens at all. Yay.

This album fucking rules. Janis Joplin makes every track she's on more fun, and the backing instrumentals are right there with her. I'm really glad I got to hear this album. Favorite track: Ball and Chain

This is the best jazz album I've ever heard, and I grew up playing jazz band in school. Their groove just grabs you and never lets go throughout the entire album. Just simply incredible.