I love the mood this album sets, like an indie mariachi road trip.

Good beats, good lyrics, good delivery, but for some reason it all sounds boring as hell.

If smoke were sound, it would be this. Music to get lost in.

Groovy, bleak, industrial punk.

Live version of The Calvary Cross is actually quite good, but doesn’t make up for the 45 minutes of drudgery I had to endure before it.

I get why it’s long and dissonant and difficult, and I liked some parts of it, but overall this is a no for me.

I’m a total sucker for Jack Antonoff production.

‘Psycho Killer’ is outstanding but there’s not that much else here.

I like the atmospheric sound and the consistent mood throughout.

Good selection of well-crafted pop songs, although I wish it had more songs like Moving in Stereo.

Technically great but it doesn’t captivate me.

Solid, but I don’t understand how this album made the list over Norman Fucking Rockwell. Her range is wider than this.

Great from start to finish.

Starts out as a Loveless redux, but four tracks in it moves into different territory. Still noise but lighter, brighter, more energetic. Less smoke, more clouds.

Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.

Not the grooviest attempt at groove metal, but what really puts me off here is the vocals and the inane, clichéd lyrics. Disappointing.

The harmonies are a bit too sweet for my taste and the songwriting on the second half a bit safe, but the first half are all absolute bangers.

Unapologetically prog. I like a lot of the transitions here, it goes all over the place but never feels off.

Solid blues rock record.

Weird and interesting, but I think hearing it once is enough for me.

About 20 minutes of filler keeps this from getting all five stars.

One of the best jazz albums of all time

Hated this when I first heard it 18-ish years ago. It’s still a difficult album to get through, but I appreciate what it’s trying to do a bit more now.

Good, clean fun.

Rowdy lad music at its finest. Incredible energy and attitude throughout.

I don’t think I’ll remember a single sound from this album a week from now.

If smoke were sound, it would be this. Music to get lost in.

Very much a product of its time, but a damn good one.

Daft Punk at their clubbiest. Kinda hard to rate, because it’s a good collection of tracks that work miracles when they’re properly mixed in a dj set, but as an album this lacks the flow and cohesiveness of some of Daft Punk’s later, more disco-oriented albums.

Decent album, it doesn’t offend but it doesn’t excite either.

Nice little ironic baroque pop album.

Psychedelic, bluesy, proto-hard rock. Not counting the obvious joke Mother’s Lament there are three songs that are kinda meh and the other seven are perfect.

This is fun. And “Fuck Giuliani” is truly a timeless message.

First half is funky, second half is more generically Motown, but both halves are solid throughout.

Second half sounds unfocused and unfinished, and the opening suite is not strong enough to pull this into 4+-star territory. Cool armadillo tank tho.

Groovy, bleak, industrial punk.

Perfect soul/pop/hip-hop blend. It’s a shame she never made another solo album.

Maybe a bit too poppy, maybe a bit too long, but it’s all quite clever.

Basic, bland 70’s rock.

Unexpectedly varied. I like the bravado in the lyrics, the dark electro-trap beats, and the restrained vocals compared to her hits from the mid-2000’s.

Loveless at 60% intensity. As a debut this is interesting but their second album does the same thing better.

Couple of good songs, liked the psychedelica, but there were too many moments where it lost my attention.

This guy knows how to write a song.

I like the fuzzy, sleazy sound, but the cabaret-esque poppy stuff doesn’t do it for me.

Came in expecting to hate the jazz club gimmick but I quite liked this.

Beautiful melancholy songs.

I kinda tended to forget I was listening to it.

Legendary.

Disco to dance-punk to electroclash. 4.5 but rounded up because I’ll never not be in the mood for this.

Both sides are bookended by strong songs and Masters of War is an anthem, but the talking blues stuff in between isn’t terribly exciting.

This has never been my favourite Pink Floyd album because it’s so intensely over-the-top dark and nihilistic, but it’s damn good at setting a mood and even the “bad” songs work towards that goal. Five stars with the sidenote that there are five-star albums I like better (and other five-star albums that I like worse).

Sleazy, soulless and boring. I feel like this made the list purely on the merits of the two singles (title track and Crazy Love), and there are better UK garage albums *and* better garage/house crossover hit single albums that could have made the list instead.

I don’t know a lot about salsa music but this makes me want to explore more of it.

Sublime adult contemporary pop that transcends the country-pop label. Hazy days of summer kinda mood.

A lot heavier than expected for a grunge album. It has some sludge/stoner metal grooves which I liked.

Good speedy aggressive thrash, a ton of cool riffs, and I can hear why a metalhead would love this, but generally the sonic assault is a bit much for me.

Upbeat version of Lou Reed’s Transformer.

“New York City Song” is decent 70’s singer-songwriter fare, and the rare moments when Dion’s Wanderer-era ‘pretend bravado’ shines through are good. Most of the album, though, is just melodrama dialed up to eleven, one squeezebox away from being Schlager. At least it’s short.

Cool use of phasing. Both halves being two mini-albums probably works even better on vinyl.

Straightforward no-frills rap. Ice Cube’s anger is still relevant 30 years after it was recorded. I like the collection of samples, helps to deliver the message.

I would have liked this better if the falsetto vocalist didn’t take himself this seriously.

Great vocals, solid songwriting, and a cool brooding, unheimish mood.

Lyrical masterclass.

Nice ambient techno. Has a bit of a lull halfway through but it picks up steam again toward the end. I probably won’t do the entire album from A to Z again, but I can definitely see myself putting on the final five or so tracks and letting the algorithm take it from there.

I like the lush, full sound compared to your average 60’s folk rock.

Great voice, good production, sure, but the selection of cover songs is a little lackluster.

This does very little of the things I don’t like about Dylan and a lot of the things I do like.

Sounds great, especially for a live album, but it does all sound the same.

Melancholy synthpop meets exuberant old-school rave.

Quite a statement. It’s a bit too much for me, but I am impressed by the musical and conceptual range here.

The high energy is too exhausting for a 75 minute record. I prefer ATLiens and Aquemini.

Decent psychedelic folk. I like the mariachi influences.

Frantic and challenging. I like the use of loops and echoes, the funky electric guitar and bass in addition to traditional jazz instruments, and the sheer overwhelming amount of ideas here, but it’s not a record I’d want to hear regularly.

Has a couple of interesting moments, but mostly this is just indie rock playlist filler. Good, not great.

How many hit songs can you fit on one record?

Cheesy 80’s hotel lounge muzak.

Vocals can be a bit grating at times, but the instrumentals are top-notch and it has a good energy throughout.

Perfect concept album. The storytelling here is just so good.

Pretty wild indeed, and hearing this in 1956 (or seeing them live!) must have been quite the experience. I’m not usually a big fan of swing but this was a pleasant surprise.

Quite possibly my favourite album of all time. Laid-back, melodic, and filled to the brim with clever references.

I like ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ and ‘The Murder Mystery’ (but what the hell is it doing on this album?) but the rest of the album is a chore.

I guess the motto for the first half is that art isn’t supposed to look/sound nice, it’s supposed to make you feel something. Very interesting album, love that we had it, probably won’t listen again.

I love the mood this album sets, like an indie mariachi road trip.

A jumbled mess of styles and influences, but somehow it kinda works? I love the Punjabi cover of Norwegian Wood.

Very 90s Britpop, but it doesn’t quite resonate here and now.

Live version of The Calvary Cross is actually quite good, but doesn’t make up for the 45 minutes of drudgery I had to endure before it.

Starts as a solid hard rock riff fest but the second half is pure art.

Musically great but the overindulgent wailing wears me out. This would have been perfect if Buckley had just toned it down a bit.

Decent but utterly forgettable 80s pop.

Apparently Ryan Adams is a bit of a cunt, which is a shame because his music is quite enjoyable. Not mindblowing, but comfortable like an old sweater.

Stadium band does pub music. I like that you can hear that they’re scaling down their sound on purpose.

Jazz punk poetry. I was a bit hesitant about the length going in, but there’s enough variety of good ideas here that it doesn’t feel too long.

Straightforward late-70’s punk. Sounds pretty much exactly like you expect it to sound.

Good beats, good lyrics, good delivery, but for some reason it all sounds boring as hell.

I know the Beatles are practically sacred, but I looked through my previous ratings and I like everything I gave a 3 better than this. So here we are.

Indian triphop-fusion, slightly overambitious at times but overall a welcome surprise.

No synthesizers!

Love & Hate has a couple of songs that are individually better, but as a cohesive album this takes the crown.

Side I is kinda meh, side II a solid prog suite that closes with one of Queen’s greatest hard rock tracks.

Good 60s acid blues; Joplin’s vocals make it something special.

They’re trying very hard to do something, but I’m not quite sure what it is.

Not bad but a bit too tame for my liking.

Love the quiet-loud dynamics.

This was a trip!

Supertramp has a kind of tasteful, understated way of doing prog which I really like. I wish they had leaned heavier in that direction instead of the poppier songs.

100% 80s pop-metal clichés. Bonus star for being sincere.

I’ve learned that these are all Missy Elliott Exclusives, and that that is a good thing.

My least favourite Nick Drake album. The sparser tracks are beautiful, but the backing instrumentation is overdone on too many occasions.

I’ve heard this a hundred times and would gladly hear it a hundred times again.

I only wish most of the tracks were a bit longer.

Too unfocused for my taste.

Liked hearing it again, probably won’t listen to it for a while.

I only knew The Verve from the hits off of Urban Hymns, I like this more alternative sound.

Basically does one thing (Billie Holiday with more vocal frills) and I don’t hate it, but 59 minutes is a bit too much.

Yes Mr Cohen, I think I do.

Dunno what y’all are complaining about, this is good stuff.

Has some cool ideas, but I’d rather listen to something that builds upon those ideas.

Two stars for the bubblegum pop shit and a bonus star for I Remember California.

Terrific!

Sounds like a damn cartoon soundtrack.

It’s rap, it’s funk, it’s soul, it’s varied and ambitious, and it all fucking works perfectly.

According to Wikipedia this band was hugely influential in the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene. I’ll have to take their word for it, because this album doesn’t live up to that reputation.

Elton John at his best is great, but this ain’t it.

Couple of gems but most of it is just Blur over a hiphop beat.

I wouldn’t mind any of these songs (even the 15-minute one) popping up in a playlist but I’m not gonna do all ten in a sitting again.

“If this don’t make your booty move, your booty must be dead!” I like how funky this is, but honestly my main take-away is that I have to hear Acid 8000 on a proper big sound system some time.

Call it a guilty pleasure but you can’t deny it’s a lot of fun.

Pet peeve: Wikipedia and most of the reviews here calling this techno. This is downtempo, ambient, Latin, afrobeat, triphop, jazzy, a bit of dub—a nicely varied sampling of styles actually—but not techno. Anyway, it’s pretty good.

Too much Nashville for my liking.

Adolescent frustration. Am I too old for that? I might be.

Okay as a first draft. Cut half the material, revise the other half, and resubmit.

I quite like Metallica, but this is some tacky, melodramatic stuff.

Nice and bluesy!

Hard to rate. On the one hand it all sounds the same, on the other the way it all sounds is super chill.

‘Soundtrack to a nonexistent movie’ sounds like it could have been a load of pretentious crap. Thankfully, this is not too pretentious. It is crap though.

If Zep were a grunge band.

Britpop band tries Nirvana. Nothing mind-blowing; Get Free is still a great track though.

Apart from the bass playing, I don’t think this has aged well.

As cool as yoghurt and about as inoffensive.

Has a bit of a nineties alternative sound, think Eels meets Gorillaz. Nicely eclectic without going overboard like Odelay.

Discount Neil Diamond does show tunes.

Futuristic neo-soul, something to listen to while you watch the city lights through the rain on the window of your sleeping pod.

A thing of delicate beauty.

If you’re in the market for a cheesy, over-the-top, yet well-made caricature of Born to Run, look no further.

The Noodling Incident

I thought it wasn’t as terrible as the reviews here made it seem. And then the AutoTune track came.

Beautiful for a minute or two, monotonous afterwards.

Very driving game soundtrack!

It’s about 10 minutes too long but there are some gems on here.

Did you know they still made late 70s albums in the early 90s?

My ‘meh’ rating changes between 2 and 3 but I guess this falls on the more enjoyable side of meh.

It’s an experience, but one I’d care to repeat.

This would not be on the list if it weren’t for the title track.

Strange in a good way.

Satire has come a long way since 1968.

Pharrell and Mr. JT on a quest to deliver the slickest 60 minutes of the new millennium.

Fun little art-pop record. Certainly wasn’t expecting bossa nova from a British Invasion band but here we are.

Elton John at his best.

The softer singer-songwriter stuff is nice, although somewhat sentimental. The attempts at blues are quite awkward.

Quintessential Gen X dad rock.

Hot Chip proving they are as ready as ever for the floor.

This is like a dance music nerd showing his collection of synthpop/funk/disco/electroclash trading cards.

In popular culture, nostalgia tends to run in 30-year cycles, the rationale being that 30 years is the time it takes for kids to grow up, settle down, and think back longingly to the time before adult life just got so darn hectic. In probably unrelated news, this album was released 30 years after Abbey Road.

The list of mixing credits reads like a who’s who of the Second Summer of Love.

Perfect outlaw country record.