I didn't love this. Other than "In the End", I hadn't really heard much by Linkin Park before. Why? Because I get screamed at enough in real life. I mean, I'm the guy who appreciates the Bangles' subtle harmonies, the smooth sounds of Yacht Rock, and the entire catalog of James D. Buffett. What's the opposite of Linkin Park? Jimmy, man. Or Bob Marley - hey angry Linkin Park guys, "Don't worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright". That said, I do understand why people like this (maybe there are supernaturally calm people out there that just want to get their anger on), but I could feel my blood pressure rising the whole time. Neighbors walking by my open garage sped up and gave me the side eye - that must be one angry dude! No man, no. Echo, play Bob Marley Legend....check that. Play Loggins & Messina....

Wow! What was this? Is it hip-hop? Is it Enya? Is Santana playing guitar in the background? No idea, but it was awesome. Jumping from catchy dance beats to sweeping string-led anthems with Star Trek 60s vibes, I could never anticipate what was coming next. Rachmaninoff-style classical? Check. Movie soundtrack vibes (LOTR, anyone?). Check. Bass-infused jazz rifts? Check. Gap shopping trip background? Check. The illegitimate love child of Lauren Hill and The Bee Gees (Locked Inside - wow!)? Check. Going back to listen to it again, right now.

Oh, boy. People making out to Hee Haw on the cover. Doesn't bode well. But then, Ray invites me to take off my shoes and enjoy his album. Huh. Linkin Park never invited me to take off my shoes - instead, they made me wear uncomfortable surplus army boots. Night Life gets bluesy - no mentions of broken trucks or sad dogs. Well, never mind. Lonely Street hits all of the tropes - damn, Ray. Pick yourself up, take off your shoes, and go enjoy the night life! Even so, there's a Roy Orbison quality to it - kinda like that late nineties country/pop crossover trend (no slide guitar? It's Hootie! Slide guitar? It's Darius Rucker!). Sittin' and Thinkin' - "I got loaded last night on a bottle of gin"? He just comes out and says it - I think this is probably pretty risqué for the time; 15 years later, Jimmy Buffett will make fun of the country music tendency to dance around topics, and he penned "Why don't we get drunk..." as a parody of those songs. Ray doesn't quite get there (he skips the "...and screw" part), but the first step is admitting you have a problem. He still cries for an entire hour each day - so clearly there are some unresolved issues there. Bright lights and blonde haired women - "I'm getting sick and tired of being lit up like a Christmas tree" - wow. Look, Ray, you left your brunette woman at home with a single dim bulb hanging from a chain in the middle of the room. You ain't going back. Just get used to being drunk and hanging out with the easy blonde girls. You chose this life. Take off your shoes, get your crying over with, and do what you gotta do. Overall review - I didn't hate this. Look, I'm not going to be jamming to this while sitting in carpool or docking a pontoon boat, but it is infinitely better than the mid-nineties "been working hard all week, got my good jeans on, I love America" crap that country music turned into. Ray seems like he'd be fun to hang out with - I just gotta make sure I'm "on a work call" for that one hour of crying per day...

To start with, three amazing artists with incredible careers. Great, distinctive voices, amazing song writers. But DAMN That was depressing.as.hell. And disappointing - where’s the strong female voice from Working 9 to 5? These are some severely dated songs, even for the late 80s. To be fair - I’m pretty sure these are all or mostly cover tunes, but I mean, there’s a song about a coffin! Although it did make me realize two things - I don’t know if there are trains in heaven, and you just don’t hear people talk about ‘hobos’ much anymore. So much respect, but not for me.

This sucked. It was like middle-school affirmation poetry set to forgettable music. Dude, try some subtlety. Try some metaphor. Try some allegory. Try anything that you might have learned in 8th grade English. Reciting your feelings with an echo and backed by some dreamy guitar does not an artist make. Look, there are a lot of artists out there who can A) say everything you're trying to say; and B) actually make music that people want to listen to, and that can work on several different levels. Take my girl T-Swift, for instance. Is that pop-infused fun that can be belted out while driving down the highway? A statement on late 20s angst and growing up? YES! It's both! See, that wasn't so hard! Or actually, maybe it was. Maybe that's why there's only one Tay-Tay and about a 1000 of these guys roaming the college bars in the early 2000s. Another lesson that being "edgy" takes talent - just whispering a bunch of shit doesn't make you edgy. It just makes you quiet and forgettable. Although a bonus 1/2 point for frequent mentions of planets (I guess Marz with a 'z' is "Edgy-Mars"?).

First few tracks felt like they were trying too hard - "look at us! We're indy and angry about it!". I liked it by the end - No Cars Go was catchy. Don't know that I'll be adding this to my permanent rotation, but didn't hate it.

I mean, "More than a feeling"? Come on - can't beat that with a stick. "Peace of Mind" is one of those songs that I always forget about, but as soon as you hear it, you're like "Dude, Boston. Yes, please". "Foreplay"? Not usually a fan, unless it's Boston! "Smokin" and "Hitch a Ride" - well, to quote the immortal David Pumpkins sketch, they can't all be winners...actually, the whole B-side is really B-side, with "Let me take you home tonight" being particularly cringe-worthy in a way that only a STD rampant 70's vibe can be. I'm pretty sure this song is why your Maryanne walked away...still, I'm always impressed by how many solid hits came off of these old albums. The A side will definitely be in strong rotation around the old bing bong table...

This was an interesting listen - all they all cover tunes? Don't know - don't care. Pretty much the whole thing had me feeling mellow and....cozy? Couldn't place it. Why is Otis Reading making me crave hot chocolate and peppermint? Then it hit me - Otis singing "White Christmas" is the background to a classic Love Actually scene ("I hate Uncle Jamie!"). So other than subconsciously reminding me of Christmas, this is good stuff. Carol singers? Tell 'em to bugger off. No, on second thought...I'll go have a listen.

This definitely makes me feel like I'm in a mid-nineties Meg Ryan movie, which is probably unfortunate. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE me some Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry met Sally - but I think the inclusion of this genre of music in all of these films has probably whitewashed it somewhat. I'm guessing this was pretty hep cat stuff at the time, but we'll never know because to our generation, it's walking through Central Park with a pumpkin spice latte. What I do think is really cool is that it's really at the transition time between Big Band and Rock - and you can definitely hear that it's riding the line, and that something different is about to explode on the scene.

Uh, I didn't love this. Mo-town meets weird psychedelic crap. I was hoping for some smooth harmonies, helping me relive that one amazing night on the Carnival Cruise when the on-board musical review was "Mo-Town on the Seas" or something like that. It wasn't that great, but it was catchy. Instead I got "Runaway Child, Running Wild". It's like a jam band without the jam. And what's with the screech in the middle of the song. No thanks. Trying to hard to be edgy. Echo - play Scarecrow by John Cougar (y'all know it's coming!)

I've always thought of The Verve as being one-hit wonders. That assessment was correct. But man, what a one-hit wonder! Very few songs bring the late 90's rushing back like Bitter Sweet Symphony! Coming out around the same time as that other deep one-hit wonder, The Freshmen (by The Verve Pipe, no less. Coincidence? I think not), it brings back memories of hanging out in Athens OH, finishing my MA, and thinking - 'man, this is deep'. And man, was it. The rest of the album isn't bad - but it's like a montage scene in Felicity (before she cut her hair). It's there, and it's VERY definitely late 90's, but I don't need to hear most of it again. But that first song....DEEP, man.

I mean, come on. It's the Beatles! Even if you don't like everything they did, you have to respect it. I'm not sure I've ever listened to a whole Beatles album - I've always focused on the Ones album (their number one hits) or the essentials playlist. I like how the mostly 2-3 minute songs segue into one another, almost like one giant tune. So, let's get some of this out of the way - Sgt. Peppers, With a Little Help from my Friends (Wonder Years, anyone? But wasn't that Joe Cocker??), Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, When I'm 64, A Day in the Life - classics. Now that we can lay those aside - we're left with some late 60's psychedelic, pseudo-Indian (Within You, Without You - WTF?), and otherwise pretty forgettable tunes. It was a good reminder that Paul McCartney is responsible for BOTH Hey Jude AND Wonderful Christmas Time (shudder). Still, the classics and the fact that you have to take the good with the bad pushes this review over the top for me (4.5, but rounded up)

I didn't love this. Other than "In the End", I hadn't really heard much by Linkin Park before. Why? Because I get screamed at enough in real life. I mean, I'm the guy who appreciates the Bangles' subtle harmonies, the smooth sounds of Yacht Rock, and the entire catalog of James D. Buffett. What's the opposite of Linkin Park? Jimmy, man. Or Bob Marley - hey angry Linkin Park guys, "Don't worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright". That said, I do understand why people like this (maybe there are supernaturally calm people out there that just want to get their anger on), but I could feel my blood pressure rising the whole time. Neighbors walking by my open garage sped up and gave me the side eye - that must be one angry dude! No man, no. Echo, play Bob Marley Legend....check that. Play Loggins & Messina....

I did not enjoy that. It didn't hurt my ears or make me want to smash things like Linkin Park did. It was just sort of there, as a vague, winey hum in the background. I don't ever need to hear that again, honestly. But it gets rated higher than LP because it didn't make me wish that a meteor would crash through my house and destroy my Alexa.

I really dug me some Santana during the late-90's "Latin takeover" of popular music (Smooth featuring Rob Thomas? ¡Muy buena!). I always felt like a poser though, because classic Santana didn't do much for me - although there are some awesome remixes of Oye como va out there. And turns out it still doesn't - it's not bad, and you do have to respect a Latino artist bringing Spanish-language tracks and the Cali experience to the mainstream for the first time since Richie Valens (is this true? Don't know, but sounds good). But most of it sounds like the jam part of a Grateful Dead album, if Jerry Garcia were really good on guitar. So #Respect Carlos, but you're still getting a big tres from me.

Oh, boy. People making out to Hee Haw on the cover. Doesn't bode well. But then, Ray invites me to take off my shoes and enjoy his album. Huh. Linkin Park never invited me to take off my shoes - instead, they made me wear uncomfortable surplus army boots. Night Life gets bluesy - no mentions of broken trucks or sad dogs. Well, never mind. Lonely Street hits all of the tropes - damn, Ray. Pick yourself up, take off your shoes, and go enjoy the night life! Even so, there's a Roy Orbison quality to it - kinda like that late nineties country/pop crossover trend (no slide guitar? It's Hootie! Slide guitar? It's Darius Rucker!). Sittin' and Thinkin' - "I got loaded last night on a bottle of gin"? He just comes out and says it - I think this is probably pretty risqué for the time; 15 years later, Jimmy Buffett will make fun of the country music tendency to dance around topics, and he penned "Why don't we get drunk..." as a parody of those songs. Ray doesn't quite get there (he skips the "...and screw" part), but the first step is admitting you have a problem. He still cries for an entire hour each day - so clearly there are some unresolved issues there. Bright lights and blonde haired women - "I'm getting sick and tired of being lit up like a Christmas tree" - wow. Look, Ray, you left your brunette woman at home with a single dim bulb hanging from a chain in the middle of the room. You ain't going back. Just get used to being drunk and hanging out with the easy blonde girls. You chose this life. Take off your shoes, get your crying over with, and do what you gotta do. Overall review - I didn't hate this. Look, I'm not going to be jamming to this while sitting in carpool or docking a pontoon boat, but it is infinitely better than the mid-nineties "been working hard all week, got my good jeans on, I love America" crap that country music turned into. Ray seems like he'd be fun to hang out with - I just gotta make sure I'm "on a work call" for that one hour of crying per day...

Ok, I'm gonna get some hate on this, but I don't love Bob Dylon. His whiney-ass voice sets my teeth on edge. Blowing in the Wind? No thanks. Maybe you had to be there. So I came into this expecting to hate it. It had everything I don't love - an aging singer that I don't really like in the first place, trying to reclaim the glory days with a voice that just isn't up to snuff anymore. And yet...and yet...I don't hate it. I think his voice has improved with age. The rough, gravely notes are a big improvement on his previous hobbit voice. Not every song is a winner - I mean, we start with lines like "my feet are so tired, my brain is so wired". What the hell, dude? That's like 5th grade level poetry. Or is it? My feet ARE tired (pushing that clutch in during carpool traffic ain't easy). My brain IS wired (trying to figure out how to defeat your typical carpool driver eats up a lot of cycles). But I can easily imagine myself sitting in some dank dive bar, nursing a raspberry cider and tapping my foot along to the groove. And it is groovy. Not necessarily MY groove (my groove is in the heart), but groovy nonetheless. Rock on, Bob. Or don't. I'm too busy sitting in an endless carpool hell to really care...

This is weird as hell. And I love it. At one point, I think he's just meowing to a beat. And come on - Michael McDonald AND Kenny Loggins on the same track? It's like if the Weekend had a baby with, well, Kenny Loggins. But not Danger Zone Kenny - no sir. I'm talking Loggins and Messina Kenny. Captain (E)Stupido - 100% the weirdest opening to a song ever. "Still feel weird". Me too, man, me too. Thudercats HO!

First of all - randomly generated album of the day? Really? To quote SNL Alexa Silver - I don't know about that...As for the album, I really liked it. In spite having grown up in the 80's, my 80's music listening often falls into the "80s hits" playlists or the "80s on 8" on Sirius. And let's face it - 80s hits are awesome. But I always feel like there's this 1st Wave, New Wave, Whatever Wave undercurrent that I'm just not that familiar with. Yeah, I know. There are channels for that. But every time I listen to one, invariably some Cure comes on after 30 minutes, and I think to myself "Dang, I like the Cure", and we're back to a Cure playlist. I feel like the Smiths were one of those groups that were always just out of reach - at least for a kid in Huntington WV or suburban OH. I like albums where you can hear the sound transitioning - this wouldn't be obvious at the time, of course, but with the benefit of hindsight, it's there, clear as day. Like the Ray Charles album that previewed the coming Rock n' Roll storm, there are songs on this album that are SO clearly mid 80s (the title track, Frankly, Mr. Shankly), but then there are tunes that could easily be early 90s Toad the Wet Sprocket if you lost the over-articulated British accent (Never Had No One Ever) or a male cockney version of Natalie Merchant in early 10,000 Maniacs (tell me that if you heard Natalie sing Cemetery Gates you wouldn't say to yourself-"Yep, that's classic Maniacs"). Of course, both Toad and 10,000 Maniacs got there starts just a couple of years later, but I was too wrapped up in C&C Music Factory and Cathy Dennis (remember her?) to notice. But I'm there for anything that sounds like a low-key version Bizarre Love Triangle meets Hey, Jack Kerouac. 5/5

How have I never heard of Roxy Music? Even my Alex refused to play this album - "Do you want to hear rocket music on Pandora"? I do not. "Playing Avalon by Roxy Music". Closer. I had to listen on my laptop. What is this? 2005? But the good news is that using the Music app allowed me to see the bitchin' moving art work on the album cover. It's like we're living in Harry Potter land, if Harry Potter the offspring of Mick Jagger and, uh, I don't even know - some early rock saxophone prodigy. "Re-make/Re-model" made me happy; I have no freaking idea what it is, but wow that's catchy. And a short Beatles homage (pronounced without the 'h', of course) in the middle? Wow. But at the same time it's like they're saying "We ain't your grandpa's Beatles", except the Beatles weren't grandpas and were clearly on the top of their wave. I don't love every tune, but Ladytron and Virginia Plain are particular standouts. The rest can be a combination of the Partridge Family + David Bowe + 70's TV chase music, on acid. So I'm gonna let Alexa have her way and play "Avalon", which I learned is the band's last album. EDIT - I knew this reminded me of something, but I couldn't figure out what. Well, boys. I figured it out - it reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8 . This is an Italian dude in the 70's who wrote a gibberish dance song that sounds like English to non-English speakers. It was widely successful. Alright!

This sucked. It was like middle-school affirmation poetry set to forgettable music. Dude, try some subtlety. Try some metaphor. Try some allegory. Try anything that you might have learned in 8th grade English. Reciting your feelings with an echo and backed by some dreamy guitar does not an artist make. Look, there are a lot of artists out there who can A) say everything you're trying to say; and B) actually make music that people want to listen to, and that can work on several different levels. Take my girl T-Swift, for instance. Is that pop-infused fun that can be belted out while driving down the highway? A statement on late 20s angst and growing up? YES! It's both! See, that wasn't so hard! Or actually, maybe it was. Maybe that's why there's only one Tay-Tay and about a 1000 of these guys roaming the college bars in the early 2000s. Another lesson that being "edgy" takes talent - just whispering a bunch of shit doesn't make you edgy. It just makes you quiet and forgettable. Although a bonus 1/2 point for frequent mentions of planets (I guess Marz with a 'z' is "Edgy-Mars"?).

Remember that episode of Friends, where Ross is playing his "soundscapes" for everyone? "It's about communicating very private emotions...You should think of my work as wordless sound poems". That episode? Hilarious. This album...well, there are words. The album opens with some deep lyrics in Portuguese - you have to learn this lesson. Not what one wants to hear when starting an album. Remember when Ray told me to kick off my shoes? Thanks, Ray. Portishead, on the other hand, told me to lace up my combat boots and get dark and brooding, Lego Batman style. Now, a few important statements - I love Halloween. I love 90s paranormal TV shows (would love to see Buffy team up with Alanis to kick that last guy's ass). I love female vocalists. I love the dark, goth versions of Enya that you hear in the background of 90's paranormal TV shows. So, what does all this mean for Third? Well, if I thought of it as a female-led goth Halloween show background soundtrack, I kind of liked it. It was creepy. It was spooky. It was all together kooky. Does this mean I want to listen to this on the way to work in the morning? Not really. But a quick Wikipedia search shows that Portishead was one of the first groups to do the Emo-Enya thing. And since I like the background music in 90s paranormal TV shows, that earns them a 3 from me.

This experience has been interesting for me - I tend to think of myself as someone who is open-minded, about music and most other things, come to think of it. But, to quote Dwight Shrute - "False". I'm beginning to think that there AREN'T 1001 albums that people should hear. Probably more like 50. I did not like this. It didn't hurt my ears like Linkin Park, or push some violent reaction button like what's his name from the other day (man, I hated that guy!), but it just sounded like another bland, mid/late nineties grunge wannabe. Not a catchy tune in the whole thing. Nirvana? Catchy as hell. Stone Temple Pilots? Catchy. Dishwalla - well, who doesn't love counting blue cars. Catchy! This? Nah. It's background noise for a flannel-wrapped house party over on State Street (and you know what the houses were like on State Street in Athens, OH). So I just don't have any reaction to it. It gets a big "meh".

What? What? Big Willie Style? Yes! Right off the bat, I'm getting jiggy in my seat. It's like the beat walked right up on stage and slapped me across the face. But those are some brave rhymes - disco ~ Frisco, dance ~ trance, conceit ~ complete, still ~ kill. Still, disco of this sort makes me think of that scene in The Jerk with Steve Martin, or maybe that one time I actually watched Studio 54 - a creepy, over-sexualized meat market that would never fly today (at least not this overtly) - and you know there were some serious penicillin prescriptions floating around those clubs. The same vibe pretty much continues - "we're lost in music, caught in a trap, never turning back". It's probably the twirling brown-tinted disco lights combined with the ecstasy and the syphilis. But then - "we are family"! One of the mainstays of 70s nights at the local dance club back in the 90s, it brought everyone to the dancefloor like the Derry Girls during Rock the Boat (if you know, you know). On a side note, I wonder if they have "early aughts" nights at the club now, where everyone gets dressed up like Destiny's Child and complains about Nickleback? But I digress...The rest of the album was pretty forgettable, but bonus points for sampling Will Smith in the opening number (oh, wait...)

If you had asked me before today, I would have placed CCR as more of a 70s band - for some reason they always struck me as a little "crunchy", and as we all know, the 70s have several distinct different musical faces (disco, classic rock, crunchy and whatever the hell Muskrat Love is). But a little digging and listening to this album made me realize that the "crunchy" music I associated with the 70s (that would see a revival in the early nineties) was ACTUALLY mostly a 60s phenom. I mean, who is crunchier than a bunch of muddy hippies using a field in NY as a slip-n'-slide? I say this to preface that this album didn't turn out like I expected it would - I was expecting boot stomping, largely acoustic jams (based again on my erroneous view of the genre and their stereotypical boot-stomping, flannel-wearing, moonshine-swilling appearance). But, it turns out, late 60s hillbillies can ROCK. Several of these songs would have been right at home at Woodstock along side Jimmy Hendrix (and actually, that was the case - it turns out I'm not the only one with a skewed view of the boys from CCR - see here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/greg-kot/ct-ent-woodstock-creedence-clearwater-revival-0818-20190814-f7fgswmckbhstfm23gvcym6xxi-story.html ); all in all I liked this - I was sad that Fortunate Son wasn't included - it was from another 1969 album - because nothing evokes Forrest and Bubba flying low over the rice fields of Vietnam (rhymes with ham) than some CCR. But respect, CCR - you're more than just a bunch of dirty hippies!

Well, still better than Linkin Park.

So we're just being punked now, right? Wow this is horrible. It makes those Linkin Park guys look like the Partridge Family singing "Come on get happy". It's like there was an 80s metal arms race to see how ridiculous it could actually get - hold my anis, Megadeath. About half way through, I actually started laughing - it was like an SNL skit. I'm guessing that's not what a band called "Napalm Death" was going for (and is it death by napalm? Or is it the death of napalm?). One upside - this album helps me understand the Satanic Panic of the 80s....zero out of zero stars, do not recommend.

I like this. A lot. As I was listening, I kept saying to myself "Self, says I, this cat sounds like a slightly more rocking Nick Drake". Come to find out from the Apple Music album notes that the two were buddies, and that the first track was written for Nick. After I patted myself on the back for my musical acumen, I listened to the album again (for the record, I did not do this with Napalm Death). I have a thing for music that makes me feel like I'm watching a late-night talk show in the 80s - you know, some family members are visiting, you're sleeping on the couch, and all of a sudden there's a whole world of post-10pm culture that opens up. Like my favorite photographs, I don't know exactly how to define it, but I know it when I see (hear) it. The songs "Carriage" by the Counting Crows, most early John Mayer, but "Clarity" in particular, "Circles" by Post Malone, "Magic" by Coldplay, "#41" by DMB...you get the idea. They should preferably have horns (you can just imagine Paul Shaffer and the Late Night orchestra stepping in), be restrained and sound like driving late at night. But it's also got some latent energy to it - like you know these dudes could bust out and rock if they wanted to, but it's 11:43pm on a Wednesday, they're hanging with Letterman, and just want to ride the vibe of night in NYC. That's what most of this album sounds like to me - the jam busts through from time to time, but mostly it's late, I'm on the couch, and all is right with the world...

Uh, well, hmmm, Ok. I got excited when I saw Joni Mitchell. I haven't listened to much by her, but I was hoping for some tunes that would teach your cold, English wife to feel. You know, deep poetry set to deeper music. This was, uh, well, hmmm, poetry, I guess? In the same way that Jack Handy is poetry. A little too obvious for my taste. Looking at reviews after I listened to it, uh, well, hmmm - it's apparently a HUGE deal of an album. Huh. That's....interesting. I dunno - nice voice, and great production value (made my second hand Bose Wave Radio that's hooked up to my garage Alexa sing like, well, a Bose Wave Radio commercial), but uh, well, hmmm - I don't Love this, Actually. But three stars for A) being able to sing, and B) not making me wish I was deaf.

Jimi is another one of those artist that you always hear about, but never really listen to (Jimi, NOT Jimmy - I LISTEN to him all the time). It doesn't pull any punches right from the beginning. Is there any song that represents the late 60s more than Purple Haze? This dude could rock! A couple of other standouts were that Garth favorite, Foxey Lady (Garth Algar, NOT Garth Brooks) - I couldn't help doing the dance myself - and Third Stone from the Sun, which has a catchy little hook that I know has been sampled about a million times (OK, according to Google, seven - but I've heard the Dooby Bros so often that it seems like a million - https://www.whosampled.com/Jimi-Hendrix/Third-Stone-From-the-Sun/sampled/?ob=1 ). Overall a nice trippy rockin' trip to the 60s.

It turns out there's a lot of music from the aughts that I really like - I think it takes me back to having little kids and figuring it all out, so really nostalgic. I think about "Fireflies" by Owl City even "Clocks" by Coldplay from a few years earlier - there's a common sound that pulled us out of the crapfest that was the late 90s ("The Boy is Mine" by Brandi and Monica, anyone? WHY DON'T YOU HAVE LAST NAMES??). There's something Queen-like and Pink Floyd-like about Muse. For me, "Starlight" sums it up - it begins as some guitar that lets you know that these guys ain't forking around. Will I get screamed at Napalm style? But then...but then...the bright dulcet tones of the (electronic) piano and soaring vocals makes me wish I was spinning in circles with wheels on my feet at the Washington Elementary Spirit Nights at Jellybeans (RIP). Man, that was the life. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, Muse. A solid 4 from me.

Wow! What was this? Is it hip-hop? Is it Enya? Is Santana playing guitar in the background? No idea, but it was awesome. Jumping from catchy dance beats to sweeping string-led anthems with Star Trek 60s vibes, I could never anticipate what was coming next. Rachmaninoff-style classical? Check. Movie soundtrack vibes (LOTR, anyone?). Check. Bass-infused jazz rifts? Check. Gap shopping trip background? Check. The illegitimate love child of Lauren Hill and The Bee Gees (Locked Inside - wow!)? Check. Going back to listen to it again, right now.

To be fair, this dude didn't stand a chance, following right on the heals of the ArchAndroid from yesterday. So much energy! So much variety! Yesterday, of course. Not today. This is bland AF. It's vanilla ice cream with no sprinkles. It's a pan-fried burger with no toppings. It's a unicorn with no horn that just walks around eating grass, just like a regular ole horse. This tracks with my experience with the 70s on 7 on SiriusXM. The music from this time period is either amazing, sing out loud while driving awesome - or total and utter crap. Like change the channel to anything - EVEN THE BLEND - crap. This is the latter - hard pass, but thanks for trying.

"Everybody got to elevate from the norm". Right on, Rush, Right on. Yet another band I didn't listen to much - makes me think of the show the Goldbergs, where Johnny listens to Rush and only Rush. I liked this - and "Witch Hunt" was the perfect way to kick of October. I'll be coming back to this one.

Let me take you back in time, to the mid 90s. After suffering through "liking" music because everyone else thought it was cool (C&C Music Factory, anyone?) and then veering towards my dorm mates' penchant for early 90s hippy tunes (Phish, anyone?), one summer I discovered CD101, the new alternative station in Columbus, OH. It was sooo cool - nothing but new alternative. Low budget, but it wasn't 'corporate'. It was a DJ hanging out somewhere actually playing tracks off CDs (or so we were led to believe). They had the Andyman-athon at Christmas, and sponsored the Blue Jackets New Year's Eve event (hockey + swing dancing, awesome!). There was nothing cooler than having the oval CD101 sticker on your car. My point? Well, it was music like this. 10 years earlier, of course, but like this. You felt cool. You felt plugged in. Cranking that radio with the windows down, cruising down I-70 around the Miller-Kelton exchange on your way back from the Howl at the Moon Saloon (dueling pianos, anyone?) with the coolest tunes blaring. Man, that was the life. Then, the crapfest of the late 90s and early aughts intervened, and man that was bad. But around 2010 it the feeling started to come back - the music, at least some music, got good again. I wasn't hearing it on Mix 101, of course (the very definition of corporate radio, they ain't no CD101), but I grabbed a few of Amazon's free songs of the day, and it came roaring back. "It's been a year" by Greg Laswell. "Walk on Water" by Bad Lieutenant (the dudes from New Order). "Born Losers" by Matthew Good - holy cow. "When the lights come on this whole place gets ugly; but when they're out strangers fall in love...New Order's on the turn table we're dancing; cause what else do you do when you don't talk?". Damn. Even "Babylon" by David Gray. That's what this reminds me of. I didn't think anything could unseat Janelle as my favorite album from this so far, but The War on Drugs has done it. Hey Mix101, how's about a little less Sam Smith and a little (lot) more of this? 5/5

Meh. As I figured out with Sgt. Pepper's, I'm definitely a "Beatles' Hits" fan. And there are some of those here - but strangely I was mostly familiar with them from the early 2000s movie "I am Sam" with Sean Penn. The soundtrack was covers of Beatles' tunes by major artists of the day - Sarah McLachlan, Eddie Vedder, The Wallflowers, Ben Folds, etc. And honestly, the covers are mostly better (it turns out that the cover of "Norwegian Wood" by PM Dawn (yes, PM Dawn) that I remembered being on the soundtrack isn't actually on the album, but is still pretty awesome). So, again, it's THE BEATLES, but I still see no reason to replace my "Beatles' Ones" album with individual records.

As a child of the late 70s and 80s, this strain of popular music always makes me think of those scenes in TV shows where they show the protagonist walking through an urban landscape in a montage. Or Sesame Street. There was always music like this on Sesame Street - I'm guessing they weren't always getting the latest, greatest acts. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's what you'd expect to hear in a smoky, slightly run-down supper club or on a variety show (Lawrence Welk, anyone?). I am aware that the supper club and variety show acts were copying these more popular, innovative acts, so it's not really a fair evaluation, But I just can't get past it. "Son of a Preacher Man" is impressive - Dusty can belt it out, no doubt - but overall? I don't need to hear this again

This album dates from the middle of my high school days, but I was too busy listening to God knows what (although this was also my Bangles phase, which I don't regret in the slightest). So besides the title track, I hadn't heard any of this album. "Second wave" rap like this - after the early pioneers ("Rapper's Delight", anyone?) but before rap took its hard "East Coast vs. West Coast" turn later in the 90s still really shows its roots as improvised street poetry from the Bronx. I mean, you still get lines like "your rhymes are so cheesy, you found them in a mousetrap", which would be unthinkable coming from Biggie or Tupac. It didn't take itself so seriously, but at the same time being serious. So while I don't LIKE most rap, I definitely RESPECT rap as an art form - I mean, the Illiad and Beowulf were basically "rapped" for hundreds of years before they were written down in their final form - as bards improvised their lyrical rhymes to tell the story. This stuff has a LONG history. So, because the day was so busy, I ended up listening to this in the car with the kids - as Claire aptly put it, "I don't know if I like this, or hate it" - agreed. I don't think I'll be pulling this up, but like Alex said, "it make sense that this would be on the 1001 list".

Coming from someone who was born not long before Elvis took his final bow, my view of The King is definitely skewed by the over-the-top, sweaty, Vegas impersonator Elvis, so much so that it's hard to imagine him EVER being a big deal. This album from 1960 is, like so many other artists on here, the first full Elvis album I've listened to. I started out hating it, ended up loving the second half. It's probably not coincidence that, how do I put this delicately....Elvis starts this album as a white, gospel-inspired singer (some of the tunes remind me of the horrible "Elvis sings the Bible Hits" or whatever, probably with Charlton Heston reading Bible verses in the background - at least that's the commercial I remember....), but by the end of the album, he's neither of those things. With "It feels so right" and "Reconsider baby", The King is channeling his inner Ray Charles (isn't the album we listened to a while back from about the same time?). And "What a night"?? It must have been SUPER racy back in the day. Add in the hips, and you've got parents freaking out left and right. What's holding me back here is the originality of the whole thing - I don't have a good feel for how much of this is actually Elvis, and how much of this is taking Black music and making it acceptable. Still, the first half of this album merits 2 stars, and the last half 4 - for a solid three average.

Wow, that was weird. Good weird, I think. But weird with a capital W. From a love song to Stevie Wonder (WEIRD) to some preachin' about Jesus (WEIRD) to the sampler platter of remixes and samples at the end - this was such a weird time for rap/R&B. It's fun, no doubt - but WEIRD.

Eh, this was OK. Definitely early 90s alt-rock. Nice and nostalgic, but not particularly memorable. Ain't no "Hey Jealousy", if you know what I'm sayin'....

Dude - finally! I was just saying that we needed some Aerosmith on this list! So I came late to the Aerosmith party - back in the late 80s when this album came out, Aerosmith was "hood" music - you know, the kids with the jean jackets full of patches with long hair who frequented the school's smoking section during lunch. Basically Eddie from Stranger Things. The rest of us "preppy" kids (maybe??) were all about the C&C, some Cathy Dennis (I think this is the second time I've referenced her in a review), or whatever the latest Michael W. Smith "Saddam Hussein" remix was (remember those? Super patriotic Gulf War remixes that filled local radio? There was even a Bette Midler "From a Distance" version)...I knew some of their stuff, of course, but would never have considered myself a fan. But here's the thing - other than some weird sexist themes that were par for the course for music from this time - this stuff doesn't age! It's its own genre. Unlike most genres, where it's relatively easy to pin down a time frame (REM could ONLY be late 80s/early 90s; Boston could ONLY be mid-late 70s; Cathy Dennis (again!) could only be 1990/1991), but not Aerosmith. No siree. Early 80s? Late 80's? I don't want to miss a thing? Just Aerosmith. I loved this whole album - some tunes more than others, of course - but it's all 100% pure Aerosmith. Makes me want to go to Hollywood Studios and get launched into some Rockin' Rollercoaster awesomeness...

This album was all over the place. I'm all for artists branching out and exploring different genres, but at least have the courtesy to explore them on different albums! But man, Salisbury Hill? I'm sorry, I love that song. So iconic, and in just about every movie trailer made during the late 80s-90s (BTW, did you see the trailer where they turned the Shining into a family comedy just by playing Salisbury Hill in the background of the clips? Genius!). So SH - solid 5; The rest? 2 (it ain't no Sledgehammer). 3.5/5

Another band that I SHOULD have heard more from, but for a variety of reasons, haven't. Man, these are some angry Brits! Angry, but interesting. Good thing they were only a couple of years aways from a Royal wedding to make them forget all of the economic and social malaise of the 1970s! I also think it's cool how Brits can be both more refined AND more vulgar than Americans, who are just kind of floating in the middle somewhere. Either way, punk isn't really my thing, but you have to respect them as pioneers, and for just f-bombing an entire song, and then actually thinking that anarchy might be a good idea. Fight on, lads!

I mean, what is there to really say? This is some serious jazz for the hep cats! Music like this always makes me think of getting dressed up and working the room at a fancy Christmas party where they serve little tiny cocktail weiners on toothpicks. Tom Hanks would be there, along with Meg Ryan and probably David Letterman. For the record, I do not always get invited to these kinds of Christmas parties, but when I do, I want Miles Davis to be there.

On one level, this is impressive. Great voice - it always amazes me to go back and hear how strong some of these vocalists were before the days of autotune. Nowadays, you have no idea if your favorite artist can actually belt out a tune or not. But Carol, no problem there. But...this belongs firmly in that strain of 70s music that quickly makes me change the channel. The songs aren't bad - in fact they're kind of catchy - but they make me think of brown paneling and montage scenes in 70s TV shows. Although I did appreciate the Gilmore Girls throwback with "Where you lead". So as with many of my reviews - impressed, but not going to be pulling this one up again.

This is such an iconic album from the late 90s. I felt like it was everywhere for several years - but yet again, I don't think I ever sat down and actually listened to the whole record. It's good - real good. This is entering my normal rotation for sure.

Dude, so busy in October - I miss the halcyon days of September, just jamming to records and working from home. So this is short - Wilco? Some of it's good. Some of it's meh. I don't know what songs, because I was listening in the car - but I'll probably drag this back out for another listen when I can focus more.

I love The Boss. It took me a while to come around. I've always been more of a John Cougar man myself, but Springsteen has some real depth that takes a while to dig into. I still chuckle when all the 'Merica folks think that Born in the USA is a patriotic song. I wasn't familiar with this post-911 effort by Bruce and the E-Street Band, and some parts are a little obvious, but remembering what the time right after 911 was like, obvious was just what we needed. There might not be a Tunnel of Love (man, that's a crazy hook) or Human Touch (his most underrated tune, IMHO, but still worth a few listens.

Yaaass! More Roxy Music!!! And then, I listened to it. It's OK. It's no where near as weird and good as the first album in our rotation. It's still better than most of the early 70s junk we've had - but I think I'll stick with the earlier album.

Really a lot of noise. Some of it better than others, but I’m learning I’m really into harmonies and singable songs. Not for me (although Eriatarka got close for a minute). But bonus points for titles in Spanish.

Nope. I appreciate that these guys are pioneers in electronic whatever this is. So respect for that - it was a pretty radical break from the guitar-heavy anthems of the 70s. But since I already used the "Ross' soundscapes" metaphor, I have to up my game - this is basically the finale of "Revenge of the Nerds" when they play the concert and all of a sudden everyone loves them (as a side note, it's amazing that nerds were seen as outsiders IN COLLEGE; it's also gratifying to see that, 30 years later - the nerds won, bitches!; but I digress...). My breakdown - one star for not causing physical and mental distress (looking at you, Napalm Death), one star for singing about robots, and one star for the innovation. But this won't be entering my regular rotation.

To start with, three amazing artists with incredible careers. Great, distinctive voices, amazing song writers. But DAMN That was depressing.as.hell. And disappointing - where’s the strong female voice from Working 9 to 5? These are some severely dated songs, even for the late 80s. To be fair - I’m pretty sure these are all or mostly cover tunes, but I mean, there’s a song about a coffin! Although it did make me realize two things - I don’t know if there are trains in heaven, and you just don’t hear people talk about ‘hobos’ much anymore. So much respect, but not for me.

What in the literal fork is this shirt? I can see where, after hearing one or two of the tunes, you might say to yourself, "Self", says I, "this be nought but a store brand Sinatra, not unpleasing to the ear". The kids said a couple of the songs reminded them of bad Christmas music from 60's claymation specials. But Scottie boy doesn't leave us that option. No siree. Track 1 is some of the weirdest crap I've ever heard - and I like weird. Alex said that even William Shatner's spoken word albums are better than this. I. Agree (cue Shatner voice with lots of pauses).

This was interesting. Not unpleasant to listen to. A little bit of reggae, some funk, and some I don't know what. Had no idea this group even existed (unlike 38 Special, which I was all about in the late 80s!)

Yet another band I hadn't heard much from, except for the radio hit "Song 2". I liked it - solid 4/5.

Dude! I was so happy with myself for catching up and actually listening to this album on the day it came out. Nope - apparently I'm still behind. But what's to say - this is good stuff. Reminds me of Christmas and Meg Ryan, as these albums tend to do, but no complaints here.

Gather round, everyone, as I tell my Queen Origin Story... It was the summer of '92. I had just graduated from high school, and was living in that dreamy, undefined interspace between being a high school kid and a college "adult". And I was working at Super Saver Cinema's 8 in the Brice Outlet Mall in Columbus OH. Except when a kid threw up, this job rocked. Unlimited free movies and pop (not soda up in OH), even if the movies were second run and the pop wasn't always mixed correctly. Basically getting paid to hang out with your friends. We even had a softball team that played against other movie theaters, with the losers buying Waffle House steaks (the only place open when you were scheduled to close down the theater). There was the week of tornado warnings every night around the 4th of July, the world's best french fries at the Chinese place in the mall (really), and there was Wayne's World. I'm not ashamed to say that I really didn't give Queen much thought before Wayne's World graced the screens of the ole' Super Saver. But after you've seen Wayne and Garth head banging to Bohemian Rhapsody (or as Barry Goldberg would call it, Rap City), there's no going back. All of a sudden, Classic Queen showed up in the theater's 5 disc changer, on rotation for an entire summer. I still remember at least three of the other albums - some Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits, INXS X (the first CD, and if you opened in the morning, you knew you were on when you heard the beautiful opening notes of Suicide Blonde)...and Classic Queen. I don't remember the other two discs - there may have been a C&C Music Factory in there somewhere. But I digress... Listening to Classic Queen all summer was inspiring. "Under Pressure"? Holy cow - Vanilla Ice didn't write that hook (who knew?)! "A Kind of Magic"? Yes, indeed! "One Vision"? Wait, wait...was that the song from Iron Eagle? Damn straight! Doug and Chappy to the rescue! I even spent some of my hard earned cash on a used copy of the CD (to go with my new CD player that I got for graduation - no more BMG tapes for this guy!). That lead to Queen's Greatest Hits, with its matching red album cover. I HAD heard lots of this album - you didn't go to a sporting event in the 80s without "We will rock you" or "Champions". Some of it was out there - was I allowed to like "Fat Bottomed Girls"? "Radio Gaga" from Classic Queen was (and still is) really, really strange, but damn it's catchy. It was the summer of Queen, the soundtrack to my days and nights. It would soon be replaced by the soft strumming of Toad the Wet Sprocket (what is this new madness?) and my freshman roommate's penchant for classic Fleetwood Mac (how had I missed this??), but every so often I come back to Queen, and "One Vision" is still my go to ping pong song. All this to say, I hadn't listened to this album, although I feel like the cover is really famous. It was good. It was Queen, no doubt. Was it "Classic" or "Greatest Hits" Queen? Not by a long shot. But you can definitely hear what they will become. Now, back to work...Alexa, play "Under Pressure"....

I mean, come on. Thriller - one of the best selling albums of all time. In the mid 80s, when the radio was your main source of music, Thriller absolutely dominated. It was everywhere. Multiple songs popular at once - they were even selling single sequined gloves in a bun at the register at Penny’s in the Huntington WV mall. No, I didn’t get one. But I totally would have if it wouldn’t have shocked my mom. I don’t live every song on this, but most of them I do - still holds up 30 years later.

Not sure what to make of this. The first thing the kids said is "That Toy Story Dude". Yep, sure is. I had no idea he did anything except the Toy Story theme. But yep, he sure did. This. And probably other stuff too. It was...well....Toy Story, although with some racier lyrics. I did appreciate "I saw a vampire, I saw a ghost, but you are what scared me the most". Classic. So as an album of adult oriented Toy Story themes, not bad.

Not my thing. Kinda noisy. Hey, Yutes - Get off my lawn!

I love me some Big Band music. Such an elegant yet fun time (well, ignoring the whole WWII part). I even leaned hard into the late 90s Swing revival (ask me sometime about when we put on a swing dance in college, complete with jazz band and tuxedoes). I do admit I tend to prefer the slightly modernized Brian Setzer Orchestra versions to the original, but still, big fan of the genre. What's cool about this album is that it's late 50s Big Band. I'm assuming it was slightly old-fashioned at the time, given the other late 50s albums we've rated - they sound more 60s or transitional, where as this is definitely retro. But man, good working music, and I'd love to hire these guys for my dream Christmas party.

This was fun and unexpected. A nice combo of rock, blues and funk - reminded me of the bar crawl we did on Beale Street in Memphis back in the day. Bang a Gong plus so much more - good times!

This is good. And I learned a new term - Garage Rock. Makes total sense. This is raw and catchy, like an anti-Beatles while still sounding like a, well, garage version of the Gidget beach movie soundtrack. Good mix of covers (I think?) and original tunes.

This was surprisingly hit or miss for me. The hits were awesome - some of the best tunes that The Police would produce. But some of the others? Mother? Walking in your footsteps? WTF? While I’m generally a fan of Dino Pop, this didn’t hold a candle to Laurie Berkner Bands “We are the dinosaurs”. 5/5 for hits, 2/5 for filler. Rounding up to 4:5.

Yep. Early 80s alt with a first wave vibe. Liked it, but not much stands out.

Meh. Groovin' is good, a classic. The rest of it was proto-Monkees, variety show crap. Hey algorithm - get us out of the 60s, please!

This was actually not horrible. Pretty mellow, actually, which I always find hilarious when these proto-Goth, monster lovin', scary make-up wearin' 80s bands are really just softies at heart (albeit with some serious issues with public education - no need to blow up the school, Alice). Maybe you could teach the kids about the history of Milwaukee and put the fun back in education...

Now we're talking! Mambo from this time period always evokes cool dudes in white linen suits driving around Miami in their convertibles, before taking on some sort of "Oceans 11" type caper. You don't get better than Tito - still as danceable today as it was 60 years ago...

As art, I dig it. As chill jazz to put on while I do dishes, not so much. The dissonance in some of the tracks was unsettling - at one point, I think in the first track, I had a physical reaction to it. I was inadvertently squirming in my seat and fidgeting. It was unsettling and uncomfortable, but I'm guessing that's the point. This kind of jazz is like the Picasso of the jazz world - you can't quite wrap your head around it. Where are the lines? Where's the perspective? Why would you do that with instruments? So just like Picasso, total respect for the art and the statement. But it doesn't mean that I want it hanging over my couch...

I have no idea...we know that I like weird, but it has to be good weird. I think this is good weird, but I'm honestly not sure. It's very Queen-esque in some parts. In other parts, it's, um, I don't know. I liked it? I think?