View Album
Wed Sep 28 2022
Cosmo's Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Pretty good. First time I heard a full CCR album, and they're actually pretty good. Not a singles artist by any means.
4
View Album
Thu Sep 29 2022
Vivid
Living Colour
Pretty cool to find a political hard rock/glam metal band that's also not white. Liked the singles, "Glamour Boys," and "What's Your Favorite Colour?"
4
View Album
Fri Sep 30 2022
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
It's OK. Not really for me, but it's pretty good working music.
3
View Album
Sat Oct 01 2022
Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
Loved the fuzzy guitar sounds. It's funky but also hard rocky, and the combination interests me a lot more than I expected.
5
View Album
Sun Oct 02 2022
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
Lol, I guess I like The Strokes better. Seriously, though, I do like the album a lot better than I thought. "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor" is still a weird banger, and some of the album tracks here are relistenable. Just not as good as the Strokes' debut, although maybe a relisten to that would dissuade me of the notion.
4
View Album
Mon Oct 03 2022
The Köln Concert
Keith Jarrett
Too lit to use as study music in the background. Catchier than I expected a piano jazz album to be, and I like the little moments where Jarrett is vamping and can't help making sounds like even they can't believe what they're doing.
5
View Album
Tue Oct 04 2022
Who's Next
The Who
The back half is really good, as well as the singles and "Behind Blue Eyes." Not AS good as I remember it, though.
5
View Album
Wed Oct 05 2022
Ghosteen
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Damn, Nick Cave's voice is really rough, but in a good way. What a sad fucking album, not sure what to make of it. Love the shivers in Nick Cave's voice. The sonic landscape and ideas are so interesting. I can't get over it. It's definitely a 5/5 in certain moods.
4
View Album
Thu Oct 06 2022
GREY Area
Little Simz
This fucking slaps. Little Simz says the n-word with a hard R sometimes (not bad or anything, but definitely shocking a bit considering how American rappers do it). Again, this fucking slaps, and it might be the first non-Slick Rick British rap that I enjoyed?
5
View Album
Fri Oct 07 2022
The Healer
John Lee Hooker
It's OK. His voice is lovely.
4
View Album
Sat Oct 08 2022
Machine Head
Deep Purple
I can't believe how annoyed I got by the end. It's OK, but kinda one-note and uninteresting.
3
View Album
Sun Oct 09 2022
Debut
Björk
God, I love Bjork so much. Fuuuuck, this fucking sounds so good, I literally cannot believe it sometimes, despite having heard it so much.
5
View Album
Mon Oct 10 2022
Dirty
Sonic Youth
I like it. The alternating singers and the great variety of riffs and sounds make this a great listen. Didn't listen too closely to the lyrics, but they all felt very centered towards an idea, and I like that a lot.
5
View Album
Tue Oct 11 2022
The Age Of The Understatement
The Last Shadow Puppets
This has a very specific rock sound reminiscent of the late-1960s/early-1970s, like, I dunno, flower power rock or MOD rock or surf rock something like that, in combination to like those old cowboy Western country songs. I dig it, and I love Alex Turner's voice. It's very repetitive, but I gotta be honest, I am totally vibing with this shit.
4
View Album
Wed Oct 12 2022
Arise
Sepultura
The album is OK. I like the hooks and riffs, very memorable thus far. I'm not super big on metal, truthfully. The most metal thing I listen to is Metallica. But I can definitely vibe with this, and I like the mood it creates.
4
View Album
Thu Oct 13 2022
Copper Blue
Sugar
Sounds like Pearl Jam, but like with a heavy pop-rock sound. I can definitely see the appeal of a band like this. This definitely is pop-punk and grunge put together, and is like a heavier version of what Green Day was doing at the same time. OK, fine, I think I love this album, it has like the jingle-jangle sound with the pop punk and the grunge, and that's pretty good; I'm a sucker for a melodic rock record, especially ones that can be McCartney-esque at times.
5
View Album
Fri Oct 14 2022
Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts
The Adverts
This is pretty rad. A lot more distinctive than a lot of the punk bands I've listened to.
5
View Album
Sat Oct 15 2022
Mama's Gun
Erykah Badu
It's great mood music. Love Badu's voice and lyrics, though strangely enough, it doesn't feel as transcendent an album as I've been led to believe. Weirdly enough, I feel like the album would be a little more palatable for me if it was more hip-hop-adjacent, would've broke through the monotony. The back half of the album is a lot more dynamic, though.
4
View Album
Sun Oct 16 2022
Me Against The World
2Pac
Love 2Pac, and this is my favorite album from him. Love the less aggressive sounds from this versus his next album.
5
View Album
Wed Jan 18 2023
Two Dancers
Wild Beasts
It kinda sounds standard indie-pop fare. I dunno, it's not a very different record from other indie records of the same variety at the time.
3
View Album
Thu Jan 19 2023
Scum
Napalm Death
Fun album. Not really catchy or very lyrically complex, but still liked it.
5
View Album
Sun Jun 04 2023
At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan has a great voice, very clear and striking, and it just sounds good. Very loose performance, but it's also very enjoyable. I like this a lot, the looseness and the song choices are really inspired and it gives it a lot of charming, low-key energy. It's not a big record, but I think the low-key-ness works in its favor.
5
View Album
Mon Jun 05 2023
All Mod Cons
The Jam
This is good, I think. It's a very disciplined, light-touched riff-y thing, but there's also a heaviness to it that keeps it from being a trifle or an easy thing to disregard. Not the best Jam album, maybe, but I think it's OK.
4
View Album
Wed Jun 07 2023
Fulfillingness' First Finale
Stevie Wonder
"Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" is great, sounds just as good as many tracks in *Songs in The Key Of Life*. Christ, three tracks in and I forget that a lot of modern love song standards were made by Stevie ("Too Shy to Say" is definitely a radio and cover staple, and I didn't realize that it was his). Brilliant album.
5
View Album
Thu Jun 08 2023
Warehouse: Songs And Stories
Hüsker Dü
Kinda proto-pop punk, like a step below the Ramones or Green Day in terms of sophistication. I guess this could also be seen as DIY or garage rock, but again, a lot less sophisticated than the popular bands from those genres. It still definitely works, though, and it's kinda hooky anyways. I guess my best comparison point is Cheap Trick; these songs sound like Cheap Trick if they were more punk. I actually like this album a lot because of that, now that I think about it. Punk Cheap Trick is something I can get behind on. The album is definitely a bit too long, though, and a lot of these songs can probably be cut to make a stronger album.
3
View Album
Fri Jun 09 2023
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
This feels a lot more conservative in its perspective than I remember. It's very Christian, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (Kanye is very Christian, and a lot of his music is still good), but I'm not actually sure if the lyrics really get introspective enough for it to work on some songs. It still sounds great, though. It's weird that it sounds so good, but the lyrics aren't hitting me as much as it did when I was younger.
4
View Album
Sat Jun 10 2023
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
This is very dour stuff. Haunting stuff. Pop music if the people making it were too depressed to function.
5
View Album
Sun Jun 11 2023
Moving Pictures
Rush
I mean, it's good. But also just kinda typical studio prog rock? It's a lot better than Genesis's stuff in the 1980s or what Yes or other prog rock bands were doing at the time (except Pink Floyd, maybe? I'm not super familiar), but it's also not that much of a standout. This is probably more due to my taste than anything, I always thought a lot of prog rock and studio rock in the 1970s-1980s were too clean for my tastes and they tended to work better when the principles were applied to poppier songs (but then again, I hated "Invisible Touch," so what do I know?).
4
View Album
Fri Jul 07 2023
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
You know, this actually sounds pretty good. Like G-Funk, but there's a rickety grime to it. Very disorganized, but it works for the intended meaning they seem to have. A lot of these songs sound like "Jump Around" by that other group, but I guess it's better?
3
View Album
Sat Jul 08 2023
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
Pretty good shit.
4
View Album
Thu Jan 11 2024
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
A classic album through and through. This is basically the blueprint of every coffee shop album from Starbucks that I listened to in my youth, which makes it sound more nostalgic than I realized. It's great napping music, too, which doesn't mean it's boring or white noise, but more that it's relaxing.
5
View Album
Fri Jan 12 2024
Wild Gift
X
It's like really weird rockabilly, but with a Blondie sheen on it. OK, less of a Blondie sheen, actually---like some of these are very Blondie, but some of these are like less-sophisticated versions of Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I find that interesting. It has a sloppy polish to it that puts it closer to the blues records that influenced rock and roll versus the garage bands that ended up influencing punk. It's so interesting.
4
View Album
Sat Jan 13 2024
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
This is heavier than I realized. Like, the sound feels weighty, and everything contributes to that broader mood of despair. I like it, but damn, is it surprising. Honestly, I haven't heard of this album in full and it surprises me how cohesive but varied it is. Like, it's very blues and very rock and very jazzy and there's a synthesis to all of these discordant sounds that does actually show how rock music was going to evolve in the future. Also, everything is so distinctive, it's so weird how in sync the sound is while each of the instruments are so *distinct*. Terrific stuff.
5
View Album
Sun Jan 14 2024
Abbey Road
Beatles
Starting the album with fucking "Come Together" is probably the most, ugh, baller move they could've done here, after following it up with fucking "Something." Just a one-two punch of awesome. And then they follow it up with "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"??? Jesus Christ, that's just fucking---no one would tolerate that if it wasn't anyone but fucking Paul McCartney. Why did they put this on SIDE A?? This is Side B material, or hell, like---why?? "Octopus's Garden," however, is an awesome classic and I will not hear slander for it otherwise. "Here Comes The Sun" is the Beatles' most listened song on Spotify??? That's...huh. It makes sense, because it's genuinely one of the greatest songs ever made, but also it's surprising to me, a person whose first exposure to the song was "Bee Movie." Side B of this album is kinda hilarious, it sounds like the Beatles just walking through the most random song ideas, like switching radio stations and getting a new song every time. In fact, I bet they could've done a concept like that and it would've been FUN.
4
View Album
Mon Jan 15 2024
Fire Of Love
The Gun Club
Love the energy and the riffs, it's a lot more boppy than most punk bands I've listened to. I'm reading that it's very much inspired by the blues, and I can definitely hear that. I do like the blues part more than the punk parts.
3
View Album
Tue Jan 16 2024
Bad
Michael Jackson
It's *really* hard to listen to this with fresh ears. "Speed Demon" and "Liberian Girl" are a skip. "Just Good Friends" and "Another Part of Me" are pretty good ("Just Good Friends" is much better than "The Girl is Mine," for example). The back half of the album is better than the front half, but also I don't know how to rate these songs collectively or singularly, seeing as all of them have been overplayed for decades. "Man in the Mirror," "Smooth Criminal," and "The Way You Make Me Feel" especially: both classics, and both on constant rotation that they're as much part of the air as they are music.
4
View Album
Wed Jan 17 2024
Among The Living
Anthrax
I forget that I really like metal if there's no lyrics. I wonder if there's a version of metal that's just instrumentals. Honestly, this really isn't my genre no matter how much I listen to it, but I did like this! I found it a very compelling listen.
4
View Album
Thu Jan 18 2024
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
"Blister in the Sun"!!! I love that song. Damn, the instrumentals are really complicated. Didn't notice that before. This was apparently released in 1983, which is wild to me because the early parts of this album sounds like one of those bands in the 1990s that would make really silly, ironic hits and disappear. It's the lyrics, I think. Very conversational and laced in irony in a way that most bands at the time wouldn't dare to do. It's closest similarity would probably be the Smiths, but this sounds more kitschy, thus the comparison to the one-hit wonders of the 1990s.
4
View Album
Fri Jan 19 2024
Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
I think it's weirdly preachy? I want to like it more, because I am a fan of stuff like this, but it just doesn't work for me like RATM or Public Enemy does.
3
View Album
Sat Jan 20 2024
Songs From The Big Chair
Tears For Fears
I've never heard of anything than the three big singles and wow, this is kinda boring? Like, it's very pretentious and that should lead to ambitious stuff, but it mostly leads to really long musical solos that kinda make me sleepy. The singles are really good, though. I think the problem is the songs are too long. Like, a lot of them keep going on and on, and it's kinda boring.
4