Blinded by nostalgia here. More proof as to why Linkin Park is my favorite band of all-time. These songs carry such emotional significance for me, as they introduced me to music, and are probably the foundation of my taste in punk rock today. To be totally fair, the lyrics here are very surface-level. I never felt like Chester was a brilliant lyricist, but he always wrote with raw unfiltered emotion. Which ultimately led to plain and derivative lines that Chester sold incredibly well with some of the best vocal control I've ever heard. The hooks are catchy, the screams are cathartic and it feels like every song could have been a single. Hybrid Theory is one of the most iconic albums of the 2000s. It's not LP's best record (forever a Thousand Suns superfan), but it is their most important. RIP Chester. Favorite songs: With You, Papercut, By Myself, Points of Authority, One Step Closer, Crawling, A Place For My Head, Forgotten Least favorite songs: N/A (In The End, I guess?) P.S. when I hear any song on this album, I think of Club Penguin, because I discovered LP in 2006 when I was five years old and spending every day playing the Club Penguin pizza game and watching LP/Club Penguin music videos on YouTube, like this: https://youtu.be/vCbY-9hZxwE

Listened to this album a few years ago, because I love the Love (wow!) song "Everybody's Gotta Live," which I heard in the movie JoJo Rabbit. Listened to this record on a flight home from Phoenix to Las Vegas in March 2020, which ultimately ended up being a one-way flight (Thanks, Rudy Gobert). Circumstances definitely made it harder to enjoy this record then, so I'm hoping for a different experience this time, but I do remember Love sounding like nobody else I've ever heard before. Their blend of psychedelic rock and folk is tough to replicate. I would imagine they're a big reason why bands like A War on Drugs and Neutral Milk Hotel exist. Andmoreagain is a standout, certainly somewhere between James Taylor and David Bowie, which is a pretty fucking cool place for a song to be. The lyrics on The Red Telephone are great, especially the numbers bit on the second verse. "If you want to count me, count me out." You Set The Scene is a very good outro. I remember it being my favorite track on first listen and that hasn't changed. All in all, a very good album that I don't see myself revisiting a lot, but had a hell of a time listening to. Favorite Tracks: Andmoreagain, You Set The Scene, The Daily Planet Least Favorite Tracks: The Good Humor Man (...)

Never listened to a full Pixies album, but I enjoy their biggest hits, two of which are here on Surfer Rosa, so here goes. Really hoping I can find some gems beyond the singles. First impressions of Bone Machine are good, but the hook is a bit nagging, and sort of spoils some perfectly good 80s alternative instrumentation. Something Against You rocks. The bouncy guitar lick combined with the building drums is a nice start. Pretty wild to hear a borderline instrumental track so early in the tracklist, but hey!, that's early indie! Another reminder that Where Is My Mind is one of the best songs of the 80s! The perfect soundtrack for a main character existential crisis! This song had every reason to be as big of a hit as it is. With every song, I realize more and more that Billy Corgan calling this record and the Pixies discography an inspiration is the understatement of a century. This album belongs on this list, if just only for the influence it had on the best rock of the early 90s. Favorite tracks: Where Is My Mind, Gigantic, Something Against You, Tony's Theme Least favorite tracks: Broken Face, Bone Machine

Wow, was this album long. I can see why it was so influential, the hybrid of trip-hop, ambient music and electronica is unique, but it ultimately was just background music for me. Super cool record that I don't foresee myself ever really coming back to. Favorite Tracks: Building Steam With A Grain of Salt Least Favorite Tracks: Napalm Brain

I am a sucker for classic soft U.K. rock and this album strikes all the right chords for me. Some of the songs are frustrating, with just how “amusement park” the choruses are, but it’s not enough to stain the album for me. I could use this kind of record here and then. I listen to a lot of sad shit. Lmao. Favorite tracks: Two Sisters, Tin Soldier Man, End of the Season, Waterloo Sunset Least favorite tracks: David Watts, Harry Rag