Last summer, as my friend and I left Boulder for Yellowstone, we were delayed by traffic outside the CU football stadium. Frustratedly craning my neck from the passenger seat, I spotted a sign: Dead and Company. We realized that neither of us had ever listened to any of the Grateful Dead. Aware of their massive following and contributions to American music history, I decided to remedy that by downloading a Grateful Dead playlist from Spotify. Leaving Jackson a day later, we lost service and Spotify switched to offline mode: downloaded music only. Cruising down the highway through the heart of the Wild West with nothing but open road ahead, Tetons clawing the sky to our left, Great Plains unfurling to our right, and roadtrip vibes immaculate, seemed the perfect time to indulge in some quintessential Americana. We made it through four Grateful Dead songs before turning on something else. If that wasn't the time to appreciate the Grateful Dead, when is? Not now either, apparently.

I didn't even notice the songs were 9 minutes long because I was having so much fun

She's clearly a very talented singer but this severely did not need to be a double album. It's incredibly bloated. I'm not sure what was more uncomfortable to listen to, the horniness of "Nasty Naughty Boy", which features literal sex moans a la boys goofing off in a middle school classroom, or the 5 straight minutes of ego stroking on "Thank You".

Only made it through one third of the first track. I have nothing against Miles Davis specifically but I can't possibly describe how not into jazz I am.

M.I.A. walks a VERY fine line between annoying and intriguing. It sounds like something I should hate but her music just fascinates me.

Not a big fan of this older style of blues-y rock in general, nothing against this album in particular.

First track on the album was really good. A lot of the rest didn't stand out/wasn't as memorable but overall I enjoyed the experience.

Only made it through one third of the first track. I have nothing against Miles Davis specifically but I can't possibly describe how not into jazz I am.

Too slow, had a hard time keeping me interested. Not a fan of songs that are both slow and don't have a strong vocal melody, they just feel forgettable in the end.

I had only heard Where is my Mind before now but I knew that Pixies are said to have inspired many alt rock bands of the 90's and 00's and I can tell why after this. I think this would have blown my mind were I alive in 1989, but it's fun to retrospectively hear shades of different bands I like throughout this album.

Not interested

Didn't love it, but I actually finished it, which I can't say for a lot of the albums on here. Not for me but it's not bad music.

The Beach Boys are fine but this is just boring

Enjoyed this. I generally like punk except for the common punk thing where the lyrics devolve into unintelligible shouting. There are a few songs on here that do that

I didn't even notice the songs were 9 minutes long because I was having so much fun

Unhinged Joy Division

Turns out I don't hate rap, I just hate modern rap. I can get behind this.

It's alright but I probably could've died without hearing it

I'm convinced that no one actually likes jazz and they just say they like jazz because they think it makes them seem sophisticated. I'll give it a 2 because at least it was just boring instead of utterly unlistenable cacophony like some jazz.

This is the first time I've heard this and honestly, Bowie's done better. It has its moments (Lazarus and I Can’t Give Everything Away stand out to me) but nothing on here comes close to the magic of 70's Bowie.

It's not bad but it's a little generic.

I was apprehensive when I saw this because 60's music has generally been lost on me (excepting the Beatles and a select few Rolling Stones and CCR songs), but this album grew on me. It just emanates an authenticity and charm that much of modern music lacks. This might be against the grain but I think this album is much better on the songs that aren't just acoustic guitar and vocals. The supporting instrumentation on the more \"uptempo\" (relative to this album) songs is quite good. Wooden Ships and Long Time Gone made it onto my classic rock playlist. A pleasantly surprised 4.

My first introduction to Steely Dan. The album was enjoyable as a whole but only "Peg" stood out to me as something I'd want to revisit frequently. I see this isn't generally considered the peak Steely Dan album, so I'm looking forward to getting more because this was on the cusp of being something I'd really like but not quite there. 3.5

Of course I'm familiar with Queen, but I'm not sure I've ever listened to an entire Queen album before. This was an excellent place to start. Good all the way through. Highlights (excluding the three hits, which I've heard before): '39, Sweet Lady (Brian May shines here). I actually didn't mind I'm In Love With My Car, but it does break the flow of the album a little. It felt like dropping a Van Halen song in the middle of a Queen album.

Last summer, as my friend and I left Boulder for Yellowstone, we were delayed by traffic outside the CU football stadium. Frustratedly craning my neck from the passenger seat, I spotted a sign: Dead and Company. We realized that neither of us had ever listened to any of the Grateful Dead. Aware of their massive following and contributions to American music history, I decided to remedy that by downloading a Grateful Dead playlist from Spotify. Leaving Jackson a day later, we lost service and Spotify switched to offline mode: downloaded music only. Cruising down the highway through the heart of the Wild West with nothing but open road ahead, Tetons clawing the sky to our left, Great Plains unfurling to our right, and roadtrip vibes immaculate, seemed the perfect time to indulge in some quintessential Americana. We made it through four Grateful Dead songs before turning on something else. If that wasn't the time to appreciate the Grateful Dead, when is? Not now either, apparently.

It's enjoyable but Come on Eileen is the only thing truly memorable on here. Also why does this guy sound just like Robert Smith?

I'm not that familiar with the Beatles' early work aside from a few singles. This was fun, I enjoyed it, and I discovered a few new songs for my playlisfs. On the other hand a few songs felt a little generic, like they could've been written by any pop band of the time period. Highlights: And I Love Her, Any Time At All

I've always been daunted by the 2 hour runtime so I've never listened to this album all the way through despite loving the singles and Siamese Dream. I'm glad that this project finally motivated me to do so. Even though it's 2 hours long, I enjoyed every minute of it. There isn't as much bloat on here as I expected, although the second half is just good while the first half is mind-blowing. If this was the first half only--with 1979 promoted to the first half--it would be a 5 but I have to acknowledge the inconsistency and give it a 4.5. Highlights: Jellybelly, Here Is No Why, Galapogos, Muzzle

Setting aside my thoughts on the artist, the one thing you can't deny about Kanye's work is the exceptional production level. Almost every sound is carefully chosen and placed to set the atmosphere. It's compact and flows well; very few moments feel out of place or unnecessary. I say \"almost\" and \"very few\" because the autotune in \"Blood On The Leaves\" is a choice. A bad one. The only track I would skip if I were to listen again. I have never been much of a rap fan--even after (or maybe because of) exposure to countless rap playlists at college parties in the mid-2010's--but even I can tell Kanye has elite flow. It's a real shame he's deplorable as a human being, because he'd be one of a short list of modern rappers that I actually want to listen to. Highlights: Black Skinhead, I Am A God A reluctant 4.

When I got my first iPod in the early 2000's, there was already a smattering of U2 songs in our fledgling iTunes library. One of my parents must have been a fan. Coincidentally, some of U2's greatest hits became some of the first songs I fell in love with. So admittedly, there's a nostalgia factor here as I find Bono's voice soothing and I've always been impressed with The Edge's guitar chops. I've never heard this whole album before, as I started to explore other bands and genres once I was old enough to buy my own music and never got around to a U2 discography deep dive. I only knew With Or Without You and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For from this one. I liked it a lot. Not a single song felt like wasted space on the album. I already used this word earlier, but it fits; the whole album felt soothing. I got chill out and just vibe for 50 minutes, forgetting about all the things I'm supposed to be worrying about. Another one for the record collection. P.S. Joshua Tree National Park is a cool place and I totally understand why it would inspire someone to write music. Highlights: Where The Streets Have No Name, Bullet The Blue Sky, Trip Through Your Wire A nostalgic 5.

The first half was a little too slow and I was getting ready to not like this at all, but it picked up the tempo at Back Home for a few songs that I quite enjoyed. His voice is exceptional but I think the music is a little too barebones for me. Highlights: Back Home, The Bottle H2O Gate Blues is an interesting one. Musically, it's basically not a song, but lyrically and atmospherically it was captivating. The inclusion of an \"audience\" gave it a very lifelike feeling. It was like I was transported to a bar in the 1970's, and it was a great time capsule of how people felt about the state of the country at the time (and some of it is unfortunately way too relevant still). The answering machine bit actually made me laugh out loud.

It's not just the songwriting but the sound design is also exquisite. I've messed around using synthesizers to write music before and could barely scratch the surface. I can only imagine the untold hours spent on this album in production painstakingly perfecting every sound. The sounds chosen throughout the album lend to the brooding nature of the album (the backing vocals run through a synthesizer are my favorite touch, especially on Waiting for the Night). Something in this music just resonates deep in my soul on a level I can't put words to. Stirring, sinister, sensual, provocative, perturbing, primal. Highlights (besides the hits), Sweetest Perfection, Halo, Blue Dress, kind of all of it? Note: I listened to the 2006 remaster with bonus tracks

My introduction to Green Day came through Boulevard of Broken Dreams in the American Idiot era. I was not alive for the heyday of this album, and I think I've never given it the respect it deserves as a consequence. Of course I know the four big hits, but I've only rarely listened to the whole thing. It's energetic and a lot of fun to listen to all the way through. I know Green Day can be controversial, but to me it's simple. It's just good. Highlights: Longview, She, Sassafras Roots, When I Come Around, the breakdown of Welcome To Paradise, \"am I just paranoid, ayuhyuhyuuuuh!\"

Wonderwall gets a lot of memes and some actual hate for being overplayed, but I will die on the hill that it only got so big because it's genuinely an all-time great song. The rest of this album is pretty close to that level, honestly. I found a few really good new songs besides the three hits I already knew. Highlights: Roll With It, Some Might Say, Morning Glory

Waterfalls is a great song with an unnecessary rap bridge and the only reason this earns a 2. The rest is entirely forgettable. I had to take a break after Waterfalls when I realized it wasn't close to over and I had several more songs that all sound the same to go.

This album is conflicting for me. There were parts that I liked and flashed potential. And then there were parts that were boring, annoying, and confusing. I generally don't consider lyricism when rating, but the lyrics were also so bipolar that I had to comment on it. There are some very good lyrics on here. "I want to be like water if I can because water doesn't give a damn" is damn clever. But for every line like that, there's a headscratcher like "We're off to the land of hot middle-aged women" or this so-bad-I-had-to-laugh line: "The sky is low and gray like a Japanese table and my horse's legs look like four brown shotguns." Highlights: the parts of Time Will Break The World that didn't make me laugh, and the last minute of Transylvania Blues goes hard

She kinda sounds like Janice from Friends but it doesn't matter because damn she can SING. The instruments, arrangements, and songwriting are all really interesting on top of that.

I never appreciated the Beatles until I had a guitar teacher who was a huge fan. I wrote them off as boomer pop music and didn't bother to listen closely outside of the few hits I couldn't avoid. Then my teacher asked me to learn While My Guitar Gently Weeps. I had never heard of it before. I know, I know, Eric Clapton played guitar on the recording, so I can't claim that the guitar on this song is what opened my eyes to the Beatles. Well George Harrison wrote it so it still counts. I learned the song, but to this day never can come close to Clapton's performance (or Prince's, for that matter). Regardless, this is now one of my favorite songs of all time. Later my teacher showed me how to play Blackbird, and on top of just being a beautiful song, it is SO MUCH fun to play on guitar, and easy to loop over and over. I sometimes sit around and just play Blackbird idly while watching TV or something. Plus, it impresses the hell out of my friends who don't play. This album opened my eyes to the brilliance of the Beatles, promoting them from \"basic boomer band\" to regular rotation. Highlights (besides the aforementioned): Dear Prudence; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Julia; Birthday; Helter Skelter, Revolution 1

The guitar riffs are solid but the vocals just sound like they're trying too hard to be ACDC. I feel like this could've been very good with a little more originality; I've heard this kind of music done better by several other bands. I listened to Love after this and I really feel like that's the one that should've made this list. 2.5 because it's unoriginal but at least enjoyable. Highlights: Lil' Devil, King Contrary Man, Love Removal Machine

The only song I've ever heard by the Cardigans is Lovefool, so I was expecting a full album of bubblegum pop here, and while I like that song, I thought I would get bored real quick. This was very good, and surprisingly not quite as pop-y as I expected. Step On Me was even a little grunge-y at times. I feel like it could've worked as a Pixies song. Highlights: Step On Me, Lovefool, Iron Man

I didn't live through Satanic Panic, so after hearing this I just have to ask...THIS is what people were up in arms about 40, 50 years ago? All the Betties who had their britches in bunches back in the day need to give black metal a try. This is paler than their skirt-concealed, taboo ankles in comparison. They missed out on some great fucking music while they were busy being Paranoid.

Music to be sad-horny to

I am not much of a folk person, so I found this pretty boring, like I do a lot of folk music. The title track is not bad though.

Slash is good at guitar

It's exactly 12 minutes of good music and 38 minutes and 38 seconds of the recording engineer's wasted time in the studio.

This right here is why I started doing the 1001 albums project. This is fucking great, and I would never EVER have heard of Fela Kuti in my usual music circles.

I'm not really a fan of folksy singer-songwriter, but Don McLean is winning me over.

I listened to this on a run and found myself almost sprinting during Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution.

This was almost a good album. There are some good ideas here but, with comically short track lengths, nothing has enough time to breathe. Despite that, it flows very well and is quite good as a holistic album experience. Until Ex-Supermodel. That song made me cringe viscerally the whole time, and the album never really picked back up after there.

I actually didn't hate this as much as I thought I would. In fact, I really liked it. A lot of the vocals toed the right side of the line between creative/unique/interesting and off-putting. This very much could have been a generic, annoying hip-hop album but the production and care put into the sounds pushed it over the top.

This list is really opening my eyes to soul music. This was great hype music to study to.

I listen to some modern progressive rock bands but regrettably have never done my due diligence into the roots of the genre. This is phenomenal. Very cool to see the obvious influence on modern music I like. I will be spending much more time with this album in the near future I think (maybe skipping the second half of Moonchild...).

It's creative and unique but it's repetitive and not enjoyable. At one point three songs had gone by and I thought I had been on the same song the whole time because he was still just chanting "Trans-Europe Express". The title of the final track is apt because that's what this album felt like. I understand this was influential on stuff like Depeche Mode and Daft Punk, but those bands are actually fun to listen to.

This is very good musically, but I've never enjoyed shout-y vocals. If there was more melody in the vocals I might have loved this. While I'm glad I listened to it once, I don't feel like I'll be revisiting.

Where has this album been all my life? I've only heard "Only Happy When It Rains" before, so I was expecting an album of poppy alt-rock, but this unexpectedly dives into an atmospheric blend of industrial and trip hop.

She's clearly a very talented singer but this severely did not need to be a double album. It's incredibly bloated. I'm not sure what was more uncomfortable to listen to, the horniness of "Nasty Naughty Boy", which features literal sex moans a la boys goofing off in a middle school classroom, or the 5 straight minutes of ego stroking on "Thank You".

About a year ago I watched a video of two guys doing a bracket of the best indie songs of all time. In the end My Girls by Animal Collective won out. Intrigued, I excitedly listened to the GOAT indie song that I've been missing out on. That was when I realized the people making the video had terrible taste. My opinion has not changed after listening to this album in full.

I liked this, the overall vibe is really good, but I felt it started to get repetitive and the songs blurred together after a while.

I've been listening to this hold music for so long I forgot who I'm calling.

Not sure why this made the list over Only By The Night. Not their best work but I can't complain.

I don't normally like jazz but this is a fuckin viiiibe.

So today I learned what trip hop is.

If "chill beats to work/study to" was an album (and that's exactly what I did while listening to it, but it didn't help my enjoyment).

It's decent dad rock but wasn't worth skipping YouTube ads every 5 minutes for

Adele is one of very few artists on mainstream pop radio who are actually talented. This album is raw, genuine, and just plain good. It doesn't matter how many times I've heard Rolling In The Deep, Set Fire To The Rain, or Someone Like You; I'll always be excited when they come on. Plus she covered The Cure on this. Love it.

Muddy Waters has a nice voice but I just can't do blues; all the songs sound the same. I also learned harmonica might be my least favorite instrument after hearing the same fucking trill one hundred times.

Bittersweet Symphony is such a great song but honestly nothing else is really memorable here.

I didn't hate it but it really doesn't re-capture the magic of Rumours.

I'm not a rap guy but this is actually much better than 90% of rap I've heard. It was trending towards a 4 for me before it just dragged on way too long and then the homophobia was really cringe.

Her voice is amazing, but outside of a couple highlights I found most of the arrangements to be a little plodding.

I liked it but it's always a little awkward when the best song on the album is a cover.

It gets a 2 because of Top Gun but other than that, I've never been able to get past blues songs all having the same chord progression and bass line. I find it makes it really hard for a particular song, album, or artist to stand out and makes the majority of it forgettable.

A common talking point about music is the opinion that a band's older music is better and fans wish they would go back to that style and make music like that again. Apparently, that must not be true of The Who; this is just forgettable outside of the title track.

I'm not typically a jazz fan but this was pretty good.

John Frusciante is good at guitar.

Good shit

Fast drumming! INCOHERENT YELLING!! Power chords! This album is 21 minutes and 40 seconds long, or about 18 minutes and 36 seconds longer than my tolerance for it, because every song sounded the same. The only redeeming factor was the guitar; even if the riffs are simplistic, they're entertaining.

I'm hesitant now whenever boomer pop stuff comes up on this list but I actually liked this. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could

Crazy how much metal has evolved over the years. This sounds like a lot of other hard rock of the era, but fast forward 40 years and you're listening to some guy with neck and hand tattoos shriek his lungs up through his esophagus into your ear drums while another guy who looks ambiguously like he just walked out of either a comic book store or a gun show is going to fucking town on a 32nd note blast beat.

An otherwise interesting album with complex and skillfully performed instrumentals is ruined by a drunk man rambling over the top of it.

I love this list on days like today.

You know, I thought this was gonna be a real chore after the first track. But I put it on while working and eventually settled into kind of a groove with this. It was almost like listening to a soundtrack, which I do sometimes to help me focus.

This is far from my era or genre but Aretha makes it hard not to take notice.

This is something alright.

I'm not very familiar with Radiohead's electronic era (I haven't listened to Kid A either outside of two songs), and I don’t normally like electronica. That being said, something about Radiohead just resonates with me. Every album that I've heard is a transcendent, almost out-of-body experience. It just takes me to a place, a mood, a headspace that not a lot of other music can.

I just don't care.

It was forgettable but I didn't hate it. The perfect 3.

Who you calling pinhead? I wanna be Steely Dan.

This list is really making me appreciate rap a lot more.

I started to get the feeling I was waiting too damn long for a table at an overrated, overpriced restaurant. His voice is soothing at least.

This album really makes you feel like you're going around the world.

This album released during my first semester of college and I could not go anywhere without hearing Shake It Off, Blank Space, or Bad Blood. I grew sick of those songs quite quickly, but always had an appreciation for Style, Out of the Woods, and Wildest Dreams. This is the first time I've listened to it in 10 years, so I decided to check out Taylor's Version. I was expecting to like the songs I used to like, roll my eyes at the songs I used to roll my eyes at, and get bored of it all somewhere during the bonus tracks. But Taylor's Version really elevated this from a notable but played out pop album (probably a 3.5) to a 5 for me. The reimagined production breathes new life even into those songs I used to feel faint disdain for (just compare the toms on Bad Blood to the original). In the bonus tracks, Taylor re-embraces the chillwave influences that made Midnights an intriguing surprise a few years ago, and this section actually became a highlight for me instead of a drag.

Funky as hell.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to listen to some sitar music. It has a very unique sound that's able to create a certain mood that traditional Western instruments can't. I found the fusion of sitar with synthesizer very interesting. I'm not generally a fan of putting covers on an album. I love standalone covers when the new artist puts their own unique spin on it. But it feels unoriginal and a bit pandering to put them on albums, which I feel should be representative of the artist's own ideas and personality. In this case they only served to pull me out of that mood that this album otherwise does a good job of creating.

A few years ago I heard the singer/guitarist of one of my favorite bands, bought Jeff Buckley's guitar but I didn't even know who he was or why that was significant. Now I finally understand.

This is what I'm doing this challenge for. Some unique stuff I never would've found on my own.

I'm not really a folk guy but this is some good shit.

Funny story, I am not a huge Panic at the Disco fan but there is one particular song I like a lot from them: Nicotine. The reason I like Nicotine is because it has an absolutely killer guitar riff. Well, after listening to this album it turns out I don't just like Nicotine, I actually like Rock Lobster, because Nicotine interpolates the guitar riff from Rock Lobster.

I haven't been the biggest fan of electronica from this list, but I think this might be the best non-Daft Punk electronica album I've heard so far. This actually had some variety of grooves I could get into instead of the endless repetition that seems to typically plague the genre. I did get the feeling that the album overstayed its welcome by the end, but overall I found myself enjoying it.

Music is best when it allows you to feel what the artist was feeling when they created it, and this album certainly made me feel like I was stoned and goofing off with my buddies.

Ohhhhh fuck yeah

I have previously been a Miles Davis hater on here but I liked this. These songs had melody and felt like songs. Maybe that rejection of musical conventions is what draws others to something like Bitches Brew, but that's exactly why it wasn't for me. This was.

Losing My Religion is the only R.E.M. song I've ever heard before this, and now I'm wondering why I never thought to check them out any of the hundreds of times I heard that song.

I'm a blues hater but this is refreshing

Buffalo Stance was good. I was really into this for the first few tracks but I felt it kind of started to drag towards the end.

I've been really conflicted on electronica throughout this list. I always think there are some very interesting ideas going on, but then I always think they take those ideas and beat them into the ground, and then do it again, and again, and again. This is one of the better electronica albums on the list, and I liked Since I Left You a lot.

They managed to make a hip hop song a staple at every white couple's wedding reception and that is a feat in itself.

I should be listening to more Wilco.

The only other artist I've heard say their own name so many times on their music is Jason Derulo. Parts of this album are Jason Derulo-tier but other parts were quite good actually.

There were some good parts (The Seed (2.0) stands out, but it went on a little too long for me.

And it was also the night that the skeletons came to life The bones are their money So are the worms They pull your hair up, but not out To turn into a man and have another chance at life But if they pull it out they turn to bones

The album flowed very well and felt cohesive.

You have to at least admire the craft and research. I grew up in Illinois and didn't even get all the references.

I was so excited when this one popped up (although it's not the cover art I'm used to). Every single song on this album is on one or more of my Spotify playlists. The production is crisp, the performances are tight, not a moment out of place on the whole album. As an amateur guitarist, my favorite thing about this album is the way they use the two guitars playing separate but interlocking lines to add complexity to simplistic song structures.

Clapton is technically impressive on this, sure, but it's musically uninteresting.

I'll admit I've only heard of Kate Bush because of Stranger Things, and while Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is a very good song, it did not prepare me for the rest of this album, which was also very good but in different ways.

The opening track was kind of interesting but then, yeah, it devolved from there. I don't even remember much about this album at the end of the day except rolling my eyes at one point featuring a jumble of horns and thinking "great, more shitty jazz fusion no one asked for".

This album carried me through training for my first marathon. I'd pump this shit into my headphones on a long run after 2 hours of podcasts. Always gave me such a huge second wind for the last 45 minutes. RIP Chester

I've been an Electronica hater on here but I actually liked this one. It's not as plodding and repetitive as other albums in the genre I've heard. It was pretty groovy.

Modern punk is very hit or miss with me, but man apparently I love the roots.

The most generic, smack dab average album I've ever heard. The absolute definition of a 3. I thought about giving it a 2 for lacking originality but I didn't hate it. I was just apathetic.

This list is making me realize I like Indian music.

This album has never transcended to "masterpiece" in the way some other Radiohead albums have for me, but I still have no complaints. 2+2=5, There There, and A Wolf At The Door rank among the highlights of Radiohead's discography.

I've been lighter on britpop than a lot of people seem to be on here but maybe I'm starting to get fatigued. This just didn't interest me at all.

This album is a lot like a ride on the actual Chicago Transit Authority: it takes too long and has some garbage in it (Free Form Guitar).

Pleasantly surprised.

My dad's favorite album of all time.

Pyramids fucking slaps dude what

0 3 5 0 3 6 5 0 3 5 3 0

My discovery of Joy Division was a coincidence that came by way of two different bands, and came way too late in my life. There's a song I used to hear on the local alt station when I was young called "Let's Dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats. I liked it but never stopped to ask "what the fuck's a Joy Division?" About a decade later in 2020, Third Eye Blind, who I discovered on the same radio station, released a song called "Disorder", and I LOVED it. I put it on all the playlists I made that year. I kid you not, I listened to that song for a whole year without knowing it was a cover. Then one Monday in 2021, I booted up Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist and heard a familiar bassline. "There's a WHOLE BAND with more music like this?" "This band is what the Wombats have been talking about??" I listened to this album and loved every melancholic minute of it.

An easy way to identify whether an artist sucks is if they shout their own name in any of their songs.

Music good, lyrics bad

There's one good song, there's some generic blues-y slog, and there's one extremely annoying song (Dear Doctor). 3 instead of 2 because Sympathy for the Devil is legitimately very good.

Whoever did the mixing had the chance to make this an actually good album by just turning the volume on the vocal tracks all the way down.

Yeah boiiiiiii origin story

Keep on chooglin' y'all

I'm not usually a folk guy but Fred must've caught me in the right mood, or just drew me in with that smooth voice.

In this case, there is a strong negative correlation between the quality of the music and the quality of the person who made the music.

M.I.A. walks a VERY fine line between annoying and intriguing. It sounds like something I should hate but her music just fascinates me.

As a certified blues hater, this is by far the best blues album on the list so far.

I listened to this while rearranging furniture in my apartment. It gave me superhuman lifting ability.

3

2m

I thought this was really interesting. Haven't heard a lot of music like this before.

I started out enjoying it but my rating just kept dropping as it went on. Every song was too long, too same-y, and too horny. A word of advice to all musicians everywhere from now until the end of time: never put actual sex noises in your songs ever. I guarantee your audience who's probably just listening while debugging some code at work is not as horny as you were when you recorded the song.

This...honestly kinda slaps. Damn

You know, I hated this at first but then I started pretending I was listening to video game boss music and it got a lot better.

This was surprisingly interesting. I found myself vibing with it all the way through, it just grew on me track after track.

Super surprised by this. Big Florence and the Machine vibes.

There's a lot of good music out there to discover. I ain't got time to finish this.

I have Freak On A Leash on my workout playlist so I thought I might like this, but that song basically took the best things about the album and distilled them into one decent song. The rest of the songs all blur together and there are way too many slow interlude-y parts with just drum and bass and weird synthesizer in the middle of otherwise heavy songs that break the flow. I do appreciate the metal take on scatting, it's weird and I love it.

If I went to this show in real life I would be bored as hell. Instead I listened to a fake show, by myself, so I was somehow even more bored than bored as hell.

I've never given Elton John a fair shake beyond his mega-hits. Damn. Sorry.

Offbrand Beatles, don't really understand what impact this had on music history to make the list.

Very conflicting. I liked the overall vibe and the instrumentals were good. The vocals were sometimes interesting and sometimes grating. Made me feel something at least.

These classic rock live albums never sit well with me. They always just feel like a circlejerk. \"Look how good I am at playing my instrument!\" Okay, but can you play music on it that doesn't bore me to tears? Smoke on the Water was good but there's also a track that's basically just a 9 minute drum solo and then a track where the singer tries to mimic his guitarist which was basically just 5 minutes of screeching.

The reputation as one of the best albums of all time is not undeserved.

Kiedis can be cringey but I would listen to an 8 year old singing songs about Fortnite if John Frusciante played guitar on the track. This album has a nice blend of galloping funk riffs and the beginnings of virtuosic solo ability he would become renowned for when he returned to the band for Californication and beyond.

I like the energy on this despite at times feeling like I was too white to be allowed to listen to it.

That harmonica will haunt my dreams tonight.

Like listening to shopping mall Christmas music.

I've never been to Iceland but now I know what's it like to get stoned there.

I'm genuinely bewildered how I've lived most of my life with alternative/indie rock as my self-proclaimed favorite genre and never encountered these guys on the radio, Spotify, YouTube, etc. The algorithm let me down.

The first song was good and had me thinking I was in for a King Gizzard-style ride. The rest was tedious. I appreciated Bomb Yourself's shoutout to Japanese video game franchise Final Fantasy. Nobuo Uematsu would be proud.

This man has the absolute most British voice I've ever heard. That's not why I rated it a 2 though, I just didn't like it.

I dunno shit about Eurovision, but thank you Europe for bringing us ABBA.

This surprisingly slapped.

Was it interesting? Very. Did I like it? I still don't know.

Man if I'd heard this when I was really into alternative rock in high school it would've been my entire personality.

This album started out with a bang on the first two songs but then followed it up with 10 minutes of the most inane bullshit I've ever heard. It never quite picked back up from there

This entire album sounds like someone's first session with a new synth VST just playing around with all the presets.

Eh.

I appreciate what this man did for Toy Story but this album was kind of boring. Also, why is a guy from Los Angeles obsessed with singing about Ohio?

Tedious.

I have been trapped in this elevator for 68 minutes. Please send help.

I fell in love with rock Radiohead after hearing OK Computer in full about a year ago. The Bends is my favorite Radiohead album and I think In Rainbows is nearly perfect. I've never really understood electronic Radiohead. It's taken me a long time and multiple attempts to get into this album. I have a few songs on I liked but never liked it as a full experience, but it's starting to click on this listen. That being said, How to Disappear Completely is still the clear standout. It's a beautiful, beautiful song and I think it's Radiohead's magnum opus.

I'll admit I judged an album by its cover. I saw the genre, saw that it was a live album, and was preparing for a lot of eye rolling. But this was good. It really put into focus mode for getting some work done.

I have a theory that every band/artist who says their own name at any point in their lyrics does not make good music. Exhibit A: DJ Khaled. Exhibit B: Limp Bizkit (Getcha Groove On).

A few months ago my dad gave me remnants of his record collection and I started listening in alphabetical order. And so it came to be that Aerosmith's Toys In The Attic was the first album I ever listened to on vinyl. It was a lot more bluesy than I expected. I usually don't like blues rock but it worked really well here blended in a hard rock context.

I cannot listen to Johnny Cash without thinking of I Think You Should Leave. The bones are their moneyyyy So are the woooorms

There have been a couple trip hop albums on this list (Massive Attack, Portishead), and that's a new genre I had never heard of, but I gotta say I like all of what I'm hearing.

I'm pretty sure I could've recorded this album and sounded better.

Top tier prog rock. Love the use of "glitchy" sound effects in instrumental sections.

Are Canadians even allowed to make country music?

Kinda vibed with this one tbh

B U M B A B A B U M B A Y A B A Y A

This feels blasphemous but it's a liiiiitle bit bloated. I felt like the highlights were REALLY good but a lot of the deep cuts were forgettable, so it doesn't work quite as well as a whole.

Extremely boring. It all kind of blurs together, I'm not even sure I could identify when one song ended and another began.

I just don't like jazz.

DA BLITZKRIEG BOP

Jimi Hendrix is the GOAT

This album has it all: the brown sound, Eruption, Runnin' with the Devil was my go to Guitar Hero song as a kid, Ain't Talkin' Bout Love is one of my favorite classic rock songs as an adult. I got to see Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Definitely cooler than Captain America's shield or Dorothy's red shoes for me.

I hated the vocals most of the time but the instrumentals were really good most of the time.

The indiest of indie rock. Shout out to Chicago's corncobs

Way too long for bang average dad rock. The first half of Layla is the only standout and even that song drags on too long.

I've been very on the fence with electronic music on this list. This is the first one that feels like a breath of fresh air in the genre, blending electronica with indie rock vibes and vocals. This album was just really fun the whole way through.

I tried to stick it out but then I saw I was less than halfway through

Incredible voice. Just a pleasantly relaxing album.

"Mom, can we listen to Oasis?" "No, we have Oasis at home." Oasis at home:

I would've spent the whole time trying to put myself in the headspace of someone who would record this and say "Ja, das ist das Vermächtnis, das ich dieser Welt hinterlassen möchte" ("yup, this is the legacy I want to leave on this world") but I was too distracted by the nails scraping on chalkboards inside my head.

This was so good. Seamlessly blending genres, flowing from track to track with ease, this was an introspective, relaxing experience. Parts of it remind me of an extremely polished version of John Frusciante's solo work, which I love.

Mind-numbingly boring most of the time, excruciatingly painful to the ears at others (I had to turn the volume waaaay down during some literal screeching from a trumpet at one point).

All I did was look at the cover art and suddenly James Hetfield was in my living room yelling "DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME"

This is absolutely amazing. I now understand why Mitski is one of the only trendy pop artists I Iike. The influence on modern "experimental" pop is so clear. Can't wait to get more Björk on this list.

I had a theory that any artist who chants or shouts their own name in any of their songs makes bad music. This album tested that theory. Overall I enjoyed it but it's not without flaws. The guitar and bass were both grooves hell but a lot of the songs got very repetitive.

Siberian Khatru slapped

Pinball Wizard is kind of fun. The rest is long and not that interesting.

Classic country isn't that bad tbh

God I wish I were that duck right now

Wannabe Beatles

Despite the cringiest title imaginable, I kinda liked this. Some real swamp-rock-Zeppelin vibes

Not my favorite album by The Smiths but I can't give them any less than a 4

Can't decide what's better, the music or the name of the band

This sounds like it was intended to be a parody of Joy Division

I'm surprised to find this on the list but it's been a 5 all day every day since 2017.

Chill as fuck

I was at a bar for a Halloween party this weekend. In between bouts of generic, shitty EDM, the DJ spun up Thriller. The crowd went fuuuucking nuts. We're talking an average age of maybe 25. If a song can create that much excitement, 42 years after its release, with a group of people whose parents were still kids when it came out, you know it's special.

Started out decent but dragged a lot in the second half

Harmonica is officially my least favorite instrument.

The title is apt; this may be the rock bottom of this list. It's not good and it's not even particularly unique or interesting, just pretentious and boring.

Yesterday I quipped that an album called Rock Bottom was the rock bottom of this list. I was mistaken. Devil Without A Cause is the rock bottom of this list. P.S. My theory that any artist who says their own name in a song makes bad music survives another album.

I really like Comfortably Numb so I wanted to like this album but I really hated the concept album part of this. There's so much incongruous whispering and yelling before and after or in the middle of songs. A lot of good songs like Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. II include extended moments of this nonsense that disrupt the actual musical talent on display throughout the album.

My jaw literally dropped when I saw the length of this. I'm not a big fan of hardcore punk but this is how you do hardcore punk right

Endconsistent..... Some parts of this were really good. I was grooving a little. Other parts dragged on the same repetitive sample way past the point of boring and into annoying territory. Overall I appreciated it but I think it could've benefited from an editor.

Bro's trying really hard to be Liam Gallagher

One of the biggest challenges to learning the guitar (or any instrument) is to play with *feeling*. Rather than just hitting the right notes at the right times, you let your emotions, your life experiences, whatever is calling you to play these notes in this moment flow from your heart down your arm through your fingertips and into the instrument. Jimi Hendrix is second to none in playing with feeling. The soulfulness in each guitar lick, the endearing timbre of his talk-singing style, the stripped-back percussion that embraces the guitar without overpowering, all cultivate a liveliness, genuineness, and intimacy that one finds all too rarely in music. It feels like Jimi is here in the room, singing and shredding for me and me alone.

I am quite whelmed.

Hee-hee! Wooooohooooo! Owwwww!

My least favorite rating to give is a 2. 3's are fine. 4's and 5's, self explanatory. 1's usually at least make me think, or are interesting even if I didn't like them, or are just plain different. 2 is unremarkable. Neither good nor bad and certainly not interesting. 2 doesn't belong on a list of albums you must hear before you die. This album is a 2.

I listened to today's album and yesterday's album back to back and didn't even notice when one ended and the other began. Too generic

Instrumental jazz, probably the worst combo I can think of.

Ohhhhhh oh whoa oh oh ohhhhhh whoaaaa

Listening to this album felt like I walked in on someone jacking it to some freaky ass shit and was forced to stay and watch for 32 minutes