Oh Sweet Baby James, you sinister, demented villain. Laying your sappy brand of sap upon the world with merciless vigor, coating the masses in a film of safe, gentle sweetness. The world is stagnant because of you, failing to venture into richer realms of funk and rock, treading circular to nowhere, listening easy and listening safe, the soft drips of the acoustic dragging them all to the ground day by day, with each adult mix blend station play. You and your gaggle of singer/songsucker demons not only won the mid seventies, but irre-“vocally” tainted the hearing skills of so many for ages to come. I will not succumb to it. In my mind sunny skies are not a persons name but an adjective and plural noun. I refuse to be bewitched by your light voice and simplistic stylings, I find refuge in drum beats, in guitars electric, in songs not stupid. You have dulled the souls of millions, Sweet Baby James, but you will not weaken mine, for I too have seen fire and rain, and I know the truth of them. Fire is hot and rain is wet. You, Sweet Baby James are mild and dry.

WOOHOO! Let's party! I can deal with life, yes! I'm gonna create an agenda for this meeting, and it's gonna be awesome. I'm not going to just deal with life, naw man, i'm gonna CELEBRATE IT! My party is started ya'll, and it ain't slowin down. Rock the meeting, rock the minutes, record the zoom, you know i'm in it! What you say about no email? I sent that mail, but I'll send it again! I don't even need to forward the orig, I love you all, without a hitch! Yo! What's that now? You want to zoom again about what I just sent? Who's that there that doesn't to read? Is it an impulsive boss with more time than me? I ain't even mad you let's chit chat! You wanna rehash yo I'm good with that! But now the party's chillin', things are slowin down, it's getting weird in here but I know why now. We gotta take a break so we can get close. It's time to find love, it's time to organize notes. It's boring, true, but there's peace in here, I gotta push through just to keep you near. CELEBRATE! I got those notes collated! Details revised, tasks designated! I'm checking off boxes, I'm setting the course, I'm takin over this project with no remorse!

Many many years ago a friend put a tape in his mom's a car, and played the song "She Watch Channel Zero," a death metal loop with this big voice hammering rhymes at us and this little voice yelling silly things over it. Then came "Night of the Living Baseheads" with this relentless sax loop. All us 12 yr olds were blown away, thought it was the most awesome music ever. Up to that point, rap in my world was skate rink stuff, kinda fun stuff but nothing too engaging. The Freaks Come at Night, Run DMC, and sneakers. I knew sneakers were really, really important. But Public Enemy was fast, angry, funky, different. It sure was odd that a bunch of white skater kids were listening to Public Enemy while none of our black friends at school even liked them. "Too loud," or sometimes, "why do *you* like them??" Most liked Kool Moe Dee, MC Hammer (to be fair, "Turn this Mutha Out" MC Hammer was pretty good). Move up 4 years, rap had transformed and was in the golden age, and Public Enemy was fixed in this weird space of theirs - loved by MTV, ignored by radio and either loved or disregarded by kids. And yet, they basically helped shaped so much rap of the time. Sample-heavy, hard beats that didn't shy away from repetition: embraced it, hammered you with it. They either influenced the sound or paved the way for so many of the hip hop sounds of the era. One the west coast, NWA and Ice T etc seemed to pick up the hard and fast beats, but on the east coast, whether it was all from Public Enemy or whatever the cocktail was of wild west sampling at that point: a lot of clean, looped, lyrically clever sounds. Gone were the rhyme-trading party-starting styles of the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. Arrived were the pounding verses of Rakim, Pete Rock, Big Daddy Kane, etc. And unmatched, uncopied, was Public Enemy. Poetic, political, noisy, angry, borderline reverse-racist. And what I'm sure has always seemed weird to a lot of black fans of Public Enemy, maybe even Public Enemy themselves, is their white following. This album doesn't quite attack the white naivete as much as Fear of a Black Planet, but it is no doubt a black experience album. But the undercurrent of the Public Enemy sound has always been so rock-oriented - noise, distortion, uptempo, pounding, and however ignorant of racial bigotry or oppression white kids might have been, teen angst is always real, and PE has got some angry angst. It should be telling that the tracks chosen for MTV on this album were Can't Truss It, Shut Em Down, By the Time I Get to Arizona. But interlaced with those slower, no less hard-hitting songs, are borderline punk equivalent: blazing energy-filled tracks like Nighttrain, How to Kill A Radio Consultant, Move... To me, this album is pure genius. Listening to it after so many years, the lyrics are so brilliant and layered, the rhyming so relentless and referential, and I don't think there is a voice more perfectly suited for rap ever than Chuck D's. The previously Public Enemy albums broke the ground, but this album was a group at their peak, striking an amazing, balance, producing an incredibly impressive, brutally unapologetic set of serious yet sonically infectious songs unlike anything anywhere.

When one is muddling through lists of scratched down to-dos and tasks, shopping, returning, hunting, forgetting, as the cold wind bites through the light sweatshirt you protect your fragile torso with, since the heat in your car makes it too hot to keep on your coat, and yet, how cold the parking lot is. The National knows this sorrow, they know the pain of an accumulating hill of failure and restart.

Sentimentality has arrived! I had a friend whose roommate was blasting random songs on his stereo, he was all bummed about a breakup, and "A Good Idea" came on, and I was like what is this who is this omg omg. He let me borrow the cd and I wore this thing out. This album is so emblematic of the best of the alt rock sound of the early 90's, it's got some serious rockin' tracks, some grooves, some bizarre lyrics that maybe are stupid nonsense or maybe I'm just stupid and don't get it, and of course I would assume the latter.

Big sounds, really enjoyable, probably a lot more there with more listens. Still, just something kind of missing, but can't put my finger on it. Still, definitely will be revisiting.

Freedom rock! All these songs I've heard my whole life in the background - grocery stores, dad's classic rock radio station, contemporary "mix" radio stations, movies, tv, college parties - and never once anything i would go out of my way to play. So, giving it a dedicated listen was eye opening - I can totally picture dudes in the 70's hanging out around the record player and nodding their heads, saying to each other, "wait for this part man!" This is no doubt one of the Greatest Rock Albums Ever, and it probably suffers for it - just straight up musical ubiquity. And yeah, nothing too deep or life-changing here, but at the end of the day it's still just awesome rock music I can appreciate and enjoy.

this music had me continuously picturing a montage in a movie of a busy city around christmastime. I like it at first, but then by the fourth song it got pretty annoying. I think I would like it better in small doses.

omg that second half was sleeeeepy. I tried to get kasia to slow dance with me in the kitchen, but she just yelled at me to turn that elevator music off.

True, some of the songs sound an awful lot alike, but when its this good, thats alright baby!

I was pretty shocked how much I liked this.

So what is wrong with me that I don't LOVE LOVE LOVE the Beatles? I've always known this, of course. But the time had come to listen to my first Beatles album from beginning to end. Maybe it's just this one that doesn't resonate with me? But once "Fixing a Hole" kicked in I steadily became more and more irritable and impatient. I felt like I was listening to some Sesame Street knock-off (which, OK, Sesame Street music is obviously a Sgt. Pepper knockoff but whatever). Maybe its something about the Dee-Do, Dee-Do, Dee-Do rhythm that just disagrees with my personal frequency. I tried to like it, I really did. But truthfully, it just puts me in a bad mood.

Am I gonna give a higher rating to linkin park than the Beatles? You’re goddamn right I am! You may ask yourself, why are they so angry? Or, why must this anger be manifested in mixed metaphors and silly phrases? We’ll just remember how articulate you were as a teen when your parents grounded you just for having an opinion; your teachers slammed you just because you didn’t wanna be a pawn in their game of doing homework and shit,man. If I heard this when I was in high school I would’ve been like, Man these guys know me! Instead I first heard them as a young adult and thought they were pretty stupid.

A very, um, challenging listen. It did get better each time I tried again, but I’m at the point where appreciating is gonna lose out to enjoying every time.

Ok, definitely a lot jam band vibes here, very dangerous territory for me. Also, is it me or is the only time Santana sings about bad women? Despite the meandering, start/stop jammin' jazziness that dared me time and time again to press the skip button, a lot of it was fairly enjoyable. A lot of it was pretty evil, though. Santana, I blame you for Phish.

Damn this is some good shit.

Oh man that was a hard listen. Very interesting going rob this right after Ray Price. Blues is a genre I’ve never enjoyed, but Price scooted you along sweetly and steadily. This wa more of that Twang-twang-twang Now I’m gonna tell you some stuff Twang-twang-twang Now I’m gonna tell you more stuff pertaining to what was previously told Twang-twang-twang And that infamous Dylan voice - that is definitely an acquired taste. Bob Dylan I’ve never heard much before, I have definitely heard all about them all my life. One of those artists that everybody says the greatest ever but you never hear any music from them. But the second half of the album I liked a good bit. Very haunting and clever lyrics, the somber but steady melodies, I can see why he has his loyalists.

Really was gonna give this a 2, some of this is just very challenging, though I’m not sure why. I think the jazziness. Not enjoying the jazziness. His voice I don’t enjoy either, but that “blood on the floor” song is awesome. Unthinking this was in the background at a coffee shop I wouldn’t mind it.

Well I definitely loved this. Smiths are a band I’ve always heard about but never really sought to listen to, besides the obvious favorites played on First Wave. But I love the uptempo driving acoustic guitar, love the drums, whimsical lyrics, all of it. Except: Morrissey's voice gets a bit old after awhile. often I want him to chill out and let me enjoy the music a little bit more.

I can honestly say that if I heard any single one of these songs in any random streaming app I would get out my phone, open the app, and press skip.

Well well well, the first half of this album I was like, what is this music, who is this amazing John Grant? My man has some serious branding issues! But then, I thought, you know, Tom Jones, he didn't have much issue, so what gives? Aha! It is the Second Half of the album. Yuck.

How excited I was for a Portishead album! But this is not the one I wanted. This is fine, I mean, but it's like when you ask the server for your second refill of cherry coke, and they come back with hot tea.

Man this is some satisfying rock! This is another band that I've heard so much about, but i guess i heard one song i didn't like and just wrote them off. Plus the album cover is really creepy - don't want that to pop up in carplay in the minivan with the kids! Anyway, the crunchy guitar, I can't get enough of, and plenty of rockin' hooks and fun rhythms, just a clean sound that makes me want to be productive.

Now! That's what I call music! But I must wonder about all those strings in the disco era. Did violinists playing for Sister Sledge get more money than, say, violinists in the New York Philmarmonic? There is a lot of funky sweeping strings in the disco era, how did they do it?

Well, some songs I love, some I hate! Something about that blues sound just really is like nails on a chalkboard to me, but CCR also has this funky rockin' side with just a Touch o' Blues that you never get tired of.

Metal!! METAL!!!!!! METTTTALLLLLL!!!!! Megadeth, man, they put some love into their work. Crazy arrangements, tempo changes, flaming solos, aggro bass lines, and just metal metal metal moarrrrr metal!!!! I liked it, but you do gotta be in the mood for it. A lot of modern death metal is growling and pounding, this is the real shit, super fast to dramatic to powerful… almost… theatric. Problem is I really do like a steady beat. When they get those machine gun guitars going then rip the rug out from under and break it down into some kinda step back and soak it up I get distracted and bored.

I had this dream that an army of dwarves wielding hammers and chainsaws were productively building away inside my brain, and it was not altogether unpleasant at first, but they continued, and continued and eventually I got used to them and hardly noticed them at all, but then some other thoughts ventured over to the armies of construction dwarves and they were like, "yo, we have to figure out how to get to the vet and orthodontist at the same time today" and the little dwarves just kept on hammering and sawing and finally I had to take away their tools and tell them that they weren't really accomplishing anything, but it was pretty impressive how fast and loud they could be.

Good god. Wth early 70s? Listen John, enunciate! What a mumbled! This was first album I couldn’t finish, a feat neither Roxy music or napalm death couldn’t claim.

Well, I am glad I heard this album before I died, but I will never intentionally listen to it again. Amazingly beautiful songs, I can picture teens in the early seventies playing this on the hi-fi and reading along with the lyric sheet alone in their room. There are two problems. 1) Her voice. it takes some getting used to. I think I could acquire the taste for strange sound she makes, like someone trying to sing in a british accent or something, but it would take some committment and effort, that sort that can be gained typically by providing interesting music and lyrics but- 2) Her singing style. Sorry, this is a big ol' problem. Nearly every song is like this. "la-la-laaaa-i'm-singsong-tallllking-la-la-laaa.... Immmmpaccctful Phrase!" So sorry Joni, in the end you are as annoying as your are brilliant, and it all balances out to a big neutral.

Well, what an a incredible album, but still one that I don't especially enjoy. However, the non-hit, non-bluesy ones (it should be established now I how feel about the blues sound) were really cool, especially Are You Experienced. I can see why Jimi is a big deal. But I'm good.

Meh. Meh meh meh meh. Honestly, I liked the variety of sounds, but Muse always had a try-hard sound to me. Also, you know Starlight totally stole the melody from that ABC song, I mean, come on. Come on!

I really liked this, i'll need to listen to more, it's pretty good for cleaning the kitchen to, but what about blasting in the car? I think it would be pretty good then, too, but it's cheerfulness may get tiresome. I have never ever heard of this Janelle Monae, but I get she gets pissed when people email her and they don't use the á. I'd be like, bitch I'm an underappreciated artist, at least you can take the time to google how to insert an a with a comma on top of it, or copy and paste the á from somewhere else. That's how I'd be.

Well, this really was fairly pleasant, if forgettable. Who were you, John Cale? Apparently the majority of the world found you forgettable too.

A definite winner! Another band I'd heard a few songs from and enjoyed, but in this case, I really liked a lot of the songs I hadn't heard before even better. Though, some of the super sleepy, ambient stuff, I could do without.

Ok, I understand now. I get all the hype and worship, I get why they had to get all crazy and weird. This album is pretty much an end-to-end collection of perfect little pop songs, unique in melody and sound, beautiful in their simplicity. It's not wonder that they had to push and experiment, they pretty much defined pop rock for ages to come and made it look easy and basic. Now, the sound itself of all these specific songs isn't necessarily something I'd go out of my way to find and listen to again, but I don't know, Michelle and Girl have a sweet little pleasantness to them that I probably will need from time to time. I'm giving it a 5, partially as an apology for Sgt. Pepper's 2.

Altogether it’s a little much, but separately it’s just sweet lovely music.

Finally, some hip hop! After trying to get through fancy pants Rush for a few days, the steady beats of golden age early 90s rap is just what I needed. I’m learning some things about myself with this whole processs - namely, I don’t want my music to be some sonic journey, I want my music to be simple. Simple simple simple but you know, simple but interesting isn’t so easy! Enter rap! Give me that beat, that hook, and let’s not let go of it for four minutes! Old school rap just scoots me along, pushing me forward through the haze of tween sleepovers, dirty dishes, dog diarrhea, and unread email. Just like in the streets! So, now we see why this era of rap is the ultimate culmination of all greatest music - peak melodic perfection, boiled down and distilled into… um, peak melodic perfection. But let us now come to Ladies Love Cool J. If only I could sexually harass women the way he does and have them laugh and tell me I so crazy. If only I had the swagger to rap a song comparing women to breakfast cereal. For the entirety of the song. LL is not one finds himself at the emergency vet at 6am on a Saturday, LL probably has a perfectly calm and dangerous Rottweiler that never eats garbage and that the ladies equally love. I have emotionally neurotic belle, who growls at small children. But me and belle both have LL, and his masterful collection of pop rap gets us through. We don’t need to actively listen to innovative artistry that push’s the bounds of music, we need to listen to music. Good music that sounds even better around the way with the jinglin babies in a booming system while eating milky cereal and telling every female that my name is Mr. Good Bar.

I don't get it man, I don't get it.

WOOHOO! Let's party! I can deal with life, yes! I'm gonna create an agenda for this meeting, and it's gonna be awesome. I'm not going to just deal with life, naw man, i'm gonna CELEBRATE IT! My party is started ya'll, and it ain't slowin down. Rock the meeting, rock the minutes, record the zoom, you know i'm in it! What you say about no email? I sent that mail, but I'll send it again! I don't even need to forward the orig, I love you all, without a hitch! Yo! What's that now? You want to zoom again about what I just sent? Who's that there that doesn't to read? Is it an impulsive boss with more time than me? I ain't even mad you let's chit chat! You wanna rehash yo I'm good with that! But now the party's chillin', things are slowin down, it's getting weird in here but I know why now. We gotta take a break so we can get close. It's time to find love, it's time to organize notes. It's boring, true, but there's peace in here, I gotta push through just to keep you near. CELEBRATE! I got those notes collated! Details revised, tasks designated! I'm checking off boxes, I'm setting the course, I'm takin over this project with no remorse!

Sentimentality has arrived! I had a friend whose roommate was blasting random songs on his stereo, he was all bummed about a breakup, and "A Good Idea" came on, and I was like what is this who is this omg omg. He let me borrow the cd and I wore this thing out. This album is so emblematic of the best of the alt rock sound of the early 90's, it's got some serious rockin' tracks, some grooves, some bizarre lyrics that maybe are stupid nonsense or maybe I'm just stupid and don't get it, and of course I would assume the latter.

Man, I was dreading listening to this. Janie's Got a Gun has to be one of the alltime worst songs in my head, it was just so ubiquitous, it was everywhere, I mean, completely inescapable. Plus, I thought that Armageddon song was on here. And Janie's Got a Gun was not the only big hit from this album, this album dominated MTV and local radio. This was peak Hair Metal era, and Aerosmith was dominating. But here's the thing, Aerosmith is not typical hair metal. This was an OG late seventies hard rock band, seamlessly inserting themselves into the pop landscape while somehow pretty much being true to themselves. At least at this point! Because they would even get Bigger after this. It's fascinating to me, because when I found out Whitesnake was formed by the guy from Deep Purple, and Damn Yankees was some supergroup formed from ted nugent and dudes from styx and night ranger (!), I was shocked. Those guys, that was the prototypical Hair Metal sound - loud rockin' power chords + droning groaning annoying power ballads. So, What It Takes is about as close as it gets to a power ballad here - this album is pretty much Aerosmith picking up from and improving upon Permanent Vacation's pop success of Rag Doll, Dude Looks Like a Lady, and the god-awful power ballad Angel (to be fair, I find all power ballads to be god-awful) with the sound that made them unique among the rock landscape at the time. By unique, one could argue, actually good. But I couldn't appreciate that back then, because I was so blindly determined to hate the band that relentlessly imposed Janie Janie Janie on me. And let's not forget how much MTV loved these expensive videos, and would continue to. Love in an Elevator, What It Takes, Other Side, I mean, this album was just saturating America! And yet, these guys threw horns onto metal riffs, accordions into country-infused rock ballads, and were still slapping funky blues licks over top of snappy rock beats across all their music. It was definitely a cut above Poison, Warrant, and White Lion. And so, listening to the OTHER SONGS on this album, it's all good. It's just good f'ing rock music man, and I'm sorry I hated it back then, but you gotta understand, sometimes some of us need music that is a little "deeper" than Love in an Elevator. But generally, the world doesn't. The world needs songs about sex, and I now understand that that is a-ok.

This was very good do you get to be a little much. I have no idea who the elbow is as I ever heard of them but I think they’re sounds a little ahead of their time. 2007 is a dark time for music, you could not pull out of the air anything you wanted, MTV had long stopped playing music, YouTube did not have music videos you can go find, and mp3 sharing services had been shut down. That’s why I think elbow remained all these years. This is a very gloomy sound but not entirely sleepy which is very soothing to me. I need to wallow in my exhaustion and sadness but still have enough rhythm to scoot me forward, accepting the reality that is the cold dark morning that starts every day.

Bleah. Amazing how good one song can be, and you might think, ah, this is going to be a set of songs so similar to the amazing song I heard that is on this album. But no.

Hot damn the sex pistols rock! I used to listen to all kinds of punk but of course i never listed to this old junk... which turned out to be way better than the misfits, dead kennedys, circle jerks, and so on and so on. Amazing this was 1977, what a subculture. Just raw energy, complete originality, and, you know, rockin fast songs with real and varying hooks.

So Miles Davis must have been a marketing genius. Titling a jazz album in 1957 "The Birth of Cool." I have a hard time seeing it. "I don't care what you say pops, I like this relaxing dinner music and you can't make me stop listening to it!" "Hey daddyo, can you dig smooth jazz? This is the coolest!" "Naw man, put away that Elvis and the Beatles, check out the mellow wordless magic of Miles Davis!" And then these songs have these super-cool titles, like "Deception," "Boplicity," "Rogue." Oh wait, it's "Rouge." That might even be cooler. But I don't know, something about feeling my nerves calmed and my stomach craving some pasta and white wine doesn't ring so cool that it this music must be the origin of all coolness. Shame, Miles Davis, SHAME!

Huh. I kinda didn't like this, even though I was expecting too. The songs all seem like 1 minute too long. But then I listened to it in my car instead on my headphones, and I was like, Hell Yeah. The Pixies. Rock that shit pixies, don't even worry if nothing sounds clear. That's rawness. That's rawdawg rock grunge post punk energy and you got it.

Man, this is Parents Music. Easy listening all the way! I wonder if back in the day Carol King, Karen Carpenter, and Carly Simon hung out together and talked junk about Joni Mitchell. I have to admit, I love that Too Late Baby song. But generally, this is an album full of your moms favorite shit, and its, honestly, kinda boring.

Pretty amazing! Another album with songs I always liked but never was compelled to listen to the whole album. Very glad I did!

Well well well. This is what all the fuss is about I guess! Another band whose name pops up in places, but you never ever here any music from them anywhere. But i loved this. I guess alt-country made a few reaches for the populace a couple big times in the 2000's before finally breaking through in recent years. This is just a nice sound, like a very American Belle and Sebastian, one of my favorite bands. And of course, its nice and gloomy, which is important, because when I am working, I am very gloomy, and it helps to have a soundtrack to my heaviness, as I trudge forward with copying and pasting, shifting windows, answering IM's, trying to remember what I was doing before Sally IM'd me about where she put her file, and then waiting for a slow website to load while I stare at the screen in 5 to 8 seconds of limbo - enough time to recognize my intractable state but not enough time to dislodge myself. Wilco knows this, and Wilco reassures me that its OK, it is the way it is for them too, perhaps for so many of us who plug ourselves into the feeding tube of our masters in hopes that we will win a few hours of joy after our minds bodies are sufficiently drained. Thanks for understand, Wilco.

4 because it’s catchy and definitely above 3 but it still needs some work!

Oh Roxy music, you really are crazy aren’t you? At first I thought maybe I won’t hate this as much as your other album, but then I slowly started to. I felt like I was at some off Broadway musical. You know, the kind of melodramatic music with annoying croons that assume you are invested and even further invested in some stupid story because of the dramatic melodies and emotional vocals you were besieged with no Roxy Music, I am not going to buy the soundtrack. In fact I will resent the day that I attended this event for some time. Although I have to admit that last song is pretty spectacular and awesome.

Well I did not enjoy that. I think if I was captured behind enemy lines and they said tell us everything or we will force you to listen to Mars Volta…with no skips! I would buckle immediate and tell them everything

It’s kind of pleasant, but in the words of my fifth grade daughter, this music is fine for a sci-fi movie or video game but I wouldn’t want to sit and listen to it. Actually, I might kind of sit and listen to it though I’m not sure.

You know, from the chipper happy picture of the three of them on the cover, you'd never know how sad and lonesome they all are. And of course they are definitely lonesome, not lonely. Country folks don't get lonely, they only get lonesome. This is one thing about classic country I've learned. The other thing I've learned is that country folks are all about projecting a glamorous and happy getup, but there is pain in them there hills, big heavy pain. These three ladies are at the ends of their careers, but the music sounds classic as ever. Beautiful, sad, lonesome music! I swear these ladies could kick the Dixie Chicks' asses. I'm sorry ya'll had to get old, but I understand. More than ever.

Incredible. True artistry, poetry. Highly unenjoyable. I picture Andy Warhol playing this at one of his parties, and everyone nodding and smiling, sublimely aware that this music should only be enjoyed at that moment, as one day it will become deeply and rightfully buried by the sands of time.

Somebody wants me to be happy! Somebody wants me to dance! And probably get high but no worries, Specials, your brand of upbeat island partytime fun is the only foreign substance I need!

Crapola. Picture yourself in the 90s, the neo-British invasion in full swing, only so much oasis you can take, and here comes the anti-oasis, and there is a used cd of the British band who created one of the most iconic rockin songs ever, and you are like, yeah, $5 for more music that sounds just like that song, count me in!!! This would not be the last time such happened to me, and I hereby condemn all artists who similarly tricked me.

Nice, beautiful, pleasant music.

Huh. This was pretty standard ok normal good rock music.

What more can be said? I’ll tell you what: Michael Jackson > Elvis

bleh. this was like listening to that uncle who loved to play the piano, but never any good songs, just weird ones he made up.

Man, I really liked some of these songs-

This is definitely a five-star cover! 1971, this has been a dangerous period, some really weird shit has been coming out. This was no doubt weird, especially the first and last tracks, which are apparently the highlights for the critics. I, of course, have little patience for music that is best experienced with an altered state of mind. But- In between: pounding, funky, hard, loud, rock songs very different from anything I’ve heard before. I want more. Yeah

Many many years ago a friend put a tape in his mom's a car, and played the song "She Watch Channel Zero," a death metal loop with this big voice hammering rhymes at us and this little voice yelling silly things over it. Then came "Night of the Living Baseheads" with this relentless sax loop. All us 12 yr olds were blown away, thought it was the most awesome music ever. Up to that point, rap in my world was skate rink stuff, kinda fun stuff but nothing too engaging. The Freaks Come at Night, Run DMC, and sneakers. I knew sneakers were really, really important. But Public Enemy was fast, angry, funky, different. It sure was odd that a bunch of white skater kids were listening to Public Enemy while none of our black friends at school even liked them. "Too loud," or sometimes, "why do *you* like them??" Most liked Kool Moe Dee, MC Hammer (to be fair, "Turn this Mutha Out" MC Hammer was pretty good). Move up 4 years, rap had transformed and was in the golden age, and Public Enemy was fixed in this weird space of theirs - loved by MTV, ignored by radio and either loved or disregarded by kids. And yet, they basically helped shaped so much rap of the time. Sample-heavy, hard beats that didn't shy away from repetition: embraced it, hammered you with it. They either influenced the sound or paved the way for so many of the hip hop sounds of the era. One the west coast, NWA and Ice T etc seemed to pick up the hard and fast beats, but on the east coast, whether it was all from Public Enemy or whatever the cocktail was of wild west sampling at that point: a lot of clean, looped, lyrically clever sounds. Gone were the rhyme-trading party-starting styles of the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. Arrived were the pounding verses of Rakim, Pete Rock, Big Daddy Kane, etc. And unmatched, uncopied, was Public Enemy. Poetic, political, noisy, angry, borderline reverse-racist. And what I'm sure has always seemed weird to a lot of black fans of Public Enemy, maybe even Public Enemy themselves, is their white following. This album doesn't quite attack the white naivete as much as Fear of a Black Planet, but it is no doubt a black experience album. But the undercurrent of the Public Enemy sound has always been so rock-oriented - noise, distortion, uptempo, pounding, and however ignorant of racial bigotry or oppression white kids might have been, teen angst is always real, and PE has got some angry angst. It should be telling that the tracks chosen for MTV on this album were Can't Truss It, Shut Em Down, By the Time I Get to Arizona. But interlaced with those slower, no less hard-hitting songs, are borderline punk equivalent: blazing energy-filled tracks like Nighttrain, How to Kill A Radio Consultant, Move... To me, this album is pure genius. Listening to it after so many years, the lyrics are so brilliant and layered, the rhyming so relentless and referential, and I don't think there is a voice more perfectly suited for rap ever than Chuck D's. The previously Public Enemy albums broke the ground, but this album was a group at their peak, striking an amazing, balance, producing an incredibly impressive, brutally unapologetic set of serious yet sonically infectious songs unlike anything anywhere.

Appropriate times to listen to "The Atomic Mr Basie by Count Basie & His Orchestra:" - During the opening credits of a cartoon - During the gathering period before a keynote speech in a large convention center ballroom - While you are doing the dishes - When you are compiling data, processing help desk tickets, or systemically deleting or moving all the random files on your desktop - When you've got a mystery to solve, but darn it, she's just so beautiful Inappropriate times to listen to "The Atomic Mr Basie by Count Basie & His Orchestra:" - When you are driving someone to the hospital - When you are driving someone from the bar to your place - When you are driving alone - When you have friends over - When you have family over - When you are answering email from your boss, your spouse, your child's teacher, or your probation officer

OK, if you are gonna name yourself "T.Rex," name your album "Electric Warrior" and put a badass rock stance silhouette on your cover, I'm going to expect some big, rocking, loud shit. You are not T.Rex, you are not even Allosaurus! You are Stegosaurus, Planteating with strings background Warrior. That's fine. Just be honest with us.

Pretty awesome. such energy!!

They have the weirdest song named Mother. So bad, turns a 5-star wonder of an album to a 4-star wonder of an album!

Excellent! Perfect 60s sound, every track was good, and really requires more listening to appreciate even more I think. It just strikes me as fun simple music that everyone should like, except for angry, jaded, cynical gen x'rs who have a serious problem with things being too straightforward. Yes, feeling is a natural rhyme with healing, wife with life, accept it, it's gonna be in a song. Now, you can enjoy The Rascals.

I so expected Alice Cooper to sound different, scarier. This was like a less annoying Meatloaf.

One of those bands I always liked what I heard, but never owned any of their stuff. There was a time, you know, when you had to pay 15.99 for a CD! And this is peak grunge - all the rock, a wall of sound, themes a bit deeper than gettin' drunk and gettin' laid.

I put on this album and I definitely felt a strong sensation to mildly sway.

I think that guy from La La Land would love this.

I mean, I reallllly wanted to like this. Uptempo, piano, like a more rockin' Abba. But those vocals... by the third song I'd forgotten the cool hooks and energy and just wanted to sing along, alllll-lalalalala-haaAAAAA-yayayayaya... YAH!

Oh Sweet Baby James, you sinister, demented villain. Laying your sappy brand of sap upon the world with merciless vigor, coating the masses in a film of safe, gentle sweetness. The world is stagnant because of you, failing to venture into richer realms of funk and rock, treading circular to nowhere, listening easy and listening safe, the soft drips of the acoustic dragging them all to the ground day by day, with each adult mix blend station play. You and your gaggle of singer/songsucker demons not only won the mid seventies, but irre-“vocally” tainted the hearing skills of so many for ages to come. I will not succumb to it. In my mind sunny skies are not a persons name but an adjective and plural noun. I refuse to be bewitched by your light voice and simplistic stylings, I find refuge in drum beats, in guitars electric, in songs not stupid. You have dulled the souls of millions, Sweet Baby James, but you will not weaken mine, for I too have seen fire and rain, and I know the truth of them. Fire is hot and rain is wet. You, Sweet Baby James are mild and dry.

When one is muddling through lists of scratched down to-dos and tasks, shopping, returning, hunting, forgetting, as the cold wind bites through the light sweatshirt you protect your fragile torso with, since the heat in your car makes it too hot to keep on your coat, and yet, how cold the parking lot is. The National knows this sorrow, they know the pain of an accumulating hill of failure and restart.

Who in the world are the Undertones?? Awesome uptempo kindapunk sound.

So, um, pretty sure I could have Alexa play this album and clear out all people in any room in my house. The problem is then I would still be there. Would I have the strength to tell Alexa to stop playing Sinead O’Connor before that wigless Gaelic siren has sung me fast asleep?

I day me and george michael drove around town, making wringvturns, rushing to do returns, in time to get to school carpool. I thought george Michael’s album was pretty amazing, but then sometimes I thought, you know george michael, I want your sex extended version is some weird wild stuff.

I kind of liked it, but not enough to really ever listen to again.

The Boss! This is like a good version of modern country. New Jersey country! But still not quite my cup of tea... or, ah, can of domestic lager? I know factory life is hard Bruce, but I feel like I had to be there.

Well that was a sleepy bunch of smoothness. Or was it snoozeness? Enjoyable, admirable - and all in all mild.

No doubt iconic, but you know, it’s a bit slow and psychedelic strangely.

this was yucky.

Not bad, it's no undertones though!

Just beautiful. I think it crossed over into a weird space where the country folks maybe didn't take to it like her traditional stuff, and other folks didn't give it a chance, but its truly amazing to immerse yourself in.

Pretty weird. Early 70's come through again.

This was amazing - never heard of the auteurs, but such a fun variety of upbeat rockin melodies.

Not nearly as enjoyable as a Yankee Hotel foxtrot. The up-tempo songs kinda sound hokey a little bit.

Really started off beautifully, then kinda turns into nice background music.

Not too bad, a great variety of sounds, far better than parklife, but in the end, a bit of work to get through all of it.

Very sleepy, but pleasant.

No

The lyrics man... just a bit on the nose. But the second half really is very good.

that is a lot of digital hand clapping! easy to forget that there was a period in early rap where the bulk of music was not sampling, but simple keyboards and drum machines and slick and fun rhyme trading. It's not as good as the stuff that came later though :)

The kind of album that when someone says they don’t like it, I think much less of them as a person. I don’t want to be their friend.

Why does everyone, except other people, keep telling me PJ Harvey is good?

Not my jam

weird. unenjoyable. what's with her voice? why did someone mute out all the drums and basslines? very pretty lyrics though.

Epic, incredible, but hard to look at objectively, because it dominated the airwaves, mtv, everything, for so long. It is now, sadly, just very enjoyable.

An incredibly powerful piece of little evil

Ok, so no problem, I can knock this album out in a day, I got lyrics out the butthole, you know? Just get me some of that sweet drum machine and casio space-age shit that's all the rage, and I'll do my thing over it. It's gonna be timeless.

pretty trippy, but you gotta like those hard beats over soft sounds.

It sounds like I’m about to get the best massage of my life, but then I realize I’m not, and I am upset.

nice nice nice

Like binging little books on tape

Incredibly angering. Why was something this boring, this whining, this draining… so popular? If you ever have trouble sleeping, this is your cure.

Incredibly…. Pleasant. I picture dinner parties with olive green furniture, giant speakers connected to a hi fi, and lots of cocaine.

Not as good as I was expecting

F’ing amazing! Sometimes we forget, and it’s possible for metal to have a lot of songs that are totally rockin and totally sound completely different from each other.

I always called myself a Rolling Stones not Beatles kinda person, but that based only on songs I’d heard on oldies and classic rock radio stations. Now that I’ve heard a whole Rolling Stones album I understand.

Amazing

Tasty!

Damn good shit

I would only listen to this if someone I hated was in the same room as me and I wanted them to be miserable.

Excellent. Though don’t know if id play again intentionall.

If you’ve never played a video game before and were curious what the music that’s played while you wait to start sounds like, you could listen to this.

Pleasant

I don't get it.

Do you like harmonicas? Do you like acoustic guitars? Do you like listening to your friends brother play on open mic night at your local sports bar? If so, Nebraska is for you.

I thought it would be better!

Outstanding

Very pleasant.