203
Albums Rated
3.44
Average Rating
19%
Complete
886 albums remaining
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1950s
Favorite Decade
Metal
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Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
43
5-Star Albums
10
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| KE*A*H** (Psalm 69) | 5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
| Step In The Arena | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| The Real Thing | 5 | 3.2 | +1.8 |
| Hysteria | 5 | 3.21 | +1.79 |
| Little Earthquakes | 5 | 3.23 | +1.77 |
| S&M | 5 | 3.26 | +1.74 |
| Joan Armatrading | 5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
| Red Headed Stranger | 5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
| Hybrid Theory | 5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
| Doggystyle | 5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| L.A. Woman | 1 | 3.67 | -2.67 |
| The Man Machine | 1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
| Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) | 1 | 3.24 | -2.24 |
| Selling England By The Pound | 1 | 3.18 | -2.18 |
| Autobahn | 1 | 3.09 | -2.09 |
| Ambient 1/Music For Airports | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
| Tarkus | 1 | 2.78 | -1.78 |
| Odessa | 1 | 2.72 | -1.72 |
| Cut | 1 | 2.71 | -1.71 |
| Aja | 2 | 3.46 | -1.46 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 4.67 |
| Beatles | 2 | 5 |
| Queen | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kraftwerk | 2 | 1 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Bee Gees | 4, 1 |
5-Star Albums (43)
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Popular Reviews
Hookworms
3/5
Yet more incredibly average Brit rock. It's totally fine, but I guarantee you that this isn't something most of us absolutely MUST hear before we die.
2 likes
1-Star Albums (10)
All Ratings
Amy Winehouse
4/5
I was super excited to dig into this one, because I know her big radio hits and have loved her voice, but never really dug much deeper. Thoughts are this -- she had a fucking incredible voice, but boy can you hear the life dissatisfaction in her lyrics that presumably led to her substance abuse. I love the jazziness, but there are a lot of gender assumptions and gender role acceptance that doesn't work for me in almost 2023 as it probably would have twenty years earlier. Stand outs for me: You Sent Me Flying, Fuck Me Pumps (which is very musically repetitive and catty as hell, but I like it in spite of that), and (There is) No Greater Love. Also, the UK version of the album has a cover she did of Someone to Watch Over Me, which is STELLAR.
The Doors
3/5
I have, for much of my life, found The Doors to be overly hyped, self-indulgent, self-important bullshit. This album doesn't really do a whole lot to change my mind on that, though there are three songs that I really dig (Roadhouse Blues, Peace Frog, and Indian Summer - the last despite the fact that it's really kind of a nothing song, but it hooked me nonetheless). That said, there's some definite shit on this album (Blue Sunday: snore; Ship of Fools: more snore; Land Ho! is so bad that I turned it off)
What I will say in terms of this album's importance that it ends up on a list like this is that you can definitely hear influences from other artists who came before (Land Ho!, for instance, borrows heavily from Ob-la-di Ob-la-da) and that ended up being passed on to more modern acts (such as how you can hear elements of the opening of Peace Frog in the opening of Smells Like Teen Spirit). So in terms of influenced by and influencer of other acts, it's definitely still relevant even 53 years later.
Faith No More
5/5
Death? Zombies? A War Pigs cover? This album truly is The Real Thing! What can I say? It’s EPIC!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
So... Yeah. Yeah yeah. This is fine, but I'm not sure it's a "must hear before death" album by any means.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
The Smiths
4/5
Not my favorite Smiths album, and I'm definitely sitting here eating murder, but still a classic from my youth.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Alanis Morissette
3/5
I don't think going down on someone in a theater is particularly "perverted," and that line has always annoyed me since 1995. It's potentially rude, classless, inconvenient, uncomfortable, or any other number of adjectives, but unless you're at a Sunday matinee kids musical or something, it doesn't really scratch the surface of perversion.
Ministry
5/5
Fuck the establishment. No notes.
Anthrax
3/5
Had I listened much to them in high school/early 20s, this would make me want to run through a brick wall. Coming to it later in life makes me feel like it's a bit juvenile, but not bad.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
How the hell had I never heard of her before? Her soulful vocals intertwined with a mix of soul, disco, folk, blues, and a little poppiness of the 70s is incredible. I ended up adding five of the ten songs on the album to my "liked songs" on Spotify, and I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid any of the other five. This is a really stellar album!
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Here's my biggest takeaway -- bossa nova is probably not my go-to genre of music. I will say this - the quality of the songwriting is stellar, it's just not what I'd generally seek out to listen to. So my rating here is based on merit rather than personal taste.
Def Leppard
5/5
First CD I ever had, bought with my own money when I was 13. 35 years later, it still holds up. And yes, I still have the CD I bought then. :)
a-ha
4/5
As a child of the 80s, it was hard not to be completely caught up in "Take On Me," but in the years since high school, it's become so ubiquitous and overplayed that it's not really a favorite anymore. So I wasn't sure what to expect from the rest of the album -- I'd listened to it here and there as a kid, but probably not since the early 90s. New Wave hasn't ever really been a huge draw for me, but this album is a lot more musically complex than I was expecting. I'm not sure that it's going to figure heavily into my regular rotation of stuff I listen to, but it's very well done.
Prince
5/5
I mean come on, it’s Prince. How much better can it get?!
Super Furry Animals
2/5
Take the more annoying parts of Pink Floyd, mash them with the more annoying parts of The Beatles, and somehow make it all worse than either of those bands could dream of being. I don't think there's enough weed in the world to make me really dig this album. There are a couple tracks that I'd listen to again, but ultimately I'm sitting here realizing why it's been out for 21 years and I'd never heard of it before. I can say that they have some really great lyrics in some of the songs, but overall my takeaway is this: Of all the albums I listened to in 2022, this was one of them.
T. Rex
3/5
Very 70s, but in a good way! There are definite Beatles influences here, some Simon & Garfunkel parallels, and honestly? Get It On (the song that everyone knows) is probably the weakest track on the album. There's an awesome blues number called Lean Woman Blues that absolutely *slaps* and is going into my rotation of liked songs. I'm not sure that I'll come back to this on the reg, but it's definitely re-listenable!
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Well that was utterly charming. My dad was always a huge fan of jazz/swing/big band music, but he died when I was young and I never got to experience it with him the way I might've had I been able to listen and explore it as an adult with him. Anyway, this just put me so much in mind of him and felt so at home that this is absolutely going into my mix of albums!
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
This is a load of crap and I stopped listening partway through because it was so bad that I didn't want Spotify to think I somehow liked it and alter my listening algorithms too much. I will never voluntarily listen to this again.
Various Artists
4/5
I don't generally love a lot of modern/secular Christmas music for whatever reason, but this album is great even if Phil Spector was a complete monster.
Prior to listening to this I was under the impression that the Jackson 5 version of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was the best version out there. I was apparently wrong.
And Darlene Love's Winter Wonderland is sublime. Then again, is there anything that she can't do perfectly?!
Miles Davis
5/5
The absolute best. No notes.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
My whole life I've said that I wasn't a TP fan except for American Girl. So after hearing things from him/them for the last 46 years, it's possible that maybe I was wrong? My impressions of this album:
Track 1 (Rockin' Around (With You)): Meh.
Track 2 (Breakdown): Do not like. Never have. Active dislike, in fact.
Track 3 (Hometown Blues): Okay, I actually liked that one.
Track 4 (The Wild One, Forever): Wait, I liked that one, too. What the heck?
Track 5 (Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll): Three in a row?!
Track 6 (Strangered in the Night): Nope. Back to meh.
Track 7 (Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)): A step up from meh, but not quite to liking status.
Track 8 (Mystery Man): Profoundly simplistic, exceptionally likable.
Track 9 (Luna): Okay, active dislike on this one, too.
Track 10 (American Girl): MAKE IT LAST ALL NIGHT! Legit one of my favorite songs ever.
John Lee Hooker
4/5
Unfortunately, the title track is what can only nominally be considered a blues track - it's really a Santana track, so I was a little suspicious at first, but thankfully things pick up quickly after that. Robert Cray's guitar on "Baby Lee" is fantastic, and "Think Twice Before You Go" actually made me want to get up and dance. Friends, NOTHING makes me want to get up and dance, so that's saying something. Charlie Musselwhite's harmonica on "That's Alright" is more than alright. And Hooker's deeply soulful vocals and lyrics on "My Dream" and "No Substitute" round out a really enjoyable album.
Massive Attack
3/5
It's not bad at all -- in fact, musically it's very good, it's just not my style.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
Disco is fun and kicky, but not always what I want to sit and listen to at length. That said, this is really good!
CHIC
3/5
Al Green
4/5
I think you're gonna find, when all this shit is over and done, I think you're gonna find yourself one smilin' motherfucker.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
I would definitely listen to more than once, though it starts out real weird and ends real weird, but often weird is good, so give this a go!
Gang Starr
5/5
The Velvet Underground
3/5
I don't think I'm cool enough to be blown away by them. I really want to be, I'm just not.
The Sonics
2/5
Okay. So here's the thing -- I'm a big fan of garage band/grunge, and I'm glad to know where some of its origins were, but that's about the only thing this album has going for it.
Only four out of twelve tracks on the album were actually written by the band, and one of them (Psycho) blatantly rips off "Do You Love Me" by the Contours, written by Berry Gordy, Jr. Ironically, that is one of the songs they cover on this album.
I get that in the 60s it was a pretty common thing to have songs done by multiple artists, but this is a band of five white guys from Seattle dumbing down a lot of great music written and recorded by Black artists. Disappointing.
The Fall
3/5
Somehow I'd never heard of this band despite this being their 15th album.
It's probably not anything that I'd choose to sit down and listen to, but something about the beat and generally forgettable vocals makes it fantastic background music for working. People say that EDM (which this isn't, but has some similarity with beats) is great for working, and I may understand a little why.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
I liked this wayyyyyyy more than I thought I was going to. Definitely going into my "things to explore more" list.
Gang Of Four
3/5
I really dig the beats, but a lot of it feels pretty generic Brit-punk/post-punk to me.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
The Sabres Of Paradise
2/5
It's fine - I don't have anything against it, necessarily, I just don't have anything for it, either. I'm not a big electronica devotee, so not really my jam.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
The music is relatively simplistic and can be a bit repetitive, but that works well to highlight some of the truly beautiful work with the lyrics. It's not a record that I am likely just to sit down and listen to unless I'm having one of those melancholy days where I just need to be all up in my feelings, but overall it's a good album.
The one exception to it being good is the track "Black Hair" which sounds like someone smoked about a pound of weed and grabbed an open mic with nothing prepared and just happened to see a woman with black hair in the audience. Oh, and with an accordion.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Moby Grape
3/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
The first track is called Song of Joy, so I think, "Oh! That sounds hopeful and like maybe it'll be more upbeat than the usual dirges he sings!" Boy howdy I was wrong.
The Stagger Lee adaptation is a travesty.
There are three tolerable songs on this album, and they're only tolerable because they have other people carrying the load for him. I really just don't get the appeal for Nick Cave. Pretty much everything he's ever released makes me want to throw myself in front of a bus. Or (more probably) want to throw him in front of a bus.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Incubus
4/5
Perfect late 90s/early 00s vibe before they got lame in later years. People love to shit on this album, but they're wrong.
Green Day
5/5
Awesome radio songs, awesome non-radio songs, 90s punk at its absolute best!
Aretha Franklin
5/5
You absolutely MUST respect the Queen of Soul. This album is magnificent, start to finish, and anyone who says otherwise is objectively wrong.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Good, but not life-changing. Proud Mary is amazing (though I knew that before launching into this endeavor), the rest is good, but feels a little repetitive at times.
The xx
3/5
I really REALLY like the music and the beats, but I don't think the vocals are great. But given that I'm an old fucker who doesn't love a lot of modern music, I would actually listen to this album more than once.
The Who
2/5
Self-indulgent and insufferable. I turned it off after Cousin Kevin. I don't give a shit about Tommy or anyone else in his family. It gets a second star simply because I recognize the cultural influence, but I still think it's shit.
X-Ray Spex
3/5
Ramones
4/5
Okay, so I'm rating this a 4 simply because I think that they'll make me give up my NYC residence if I don't rate it favorably. It's hard to deny how influential they were, not just locally, but on American punk in general, but if I have to be perfectly honest, there are other things in the genre I like better. And CBGB's might've been an institution and have the awning in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and all, but it was a shithole club, lol. (The "true New Yorker" police are about to knock on my door any minute, I know it.)
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Nick Drake
3/5
Unremarkably fine.
Stan Getz
3/5
Everything But The Girl
3/5
There's nothing about it that I don't like, but there's also nothing about it that I love.
MGMT
3/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
I really enjoyed this and could listen to it "over and over again, my love." My only only real gripe is the feud between Neil Young and Spotify so that I can't add any of these songs to my normal playlists, but even that I get.
The Who
3/5
They're fine, and I won't turn them off, but I won't turn them on.
Nas
5/5
Beatles
5/5
Are there any bad tracks on this album? I'm not sure there are. There are some that aren't as good as the others, but I'm not sure there's anything outright *bad* about this, and there's plenty that's outright awesome.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3/5
Carpenters
2/5
I'm surprised by how many people rate this album super high. I love folk-pop from the 60s and 70s, love women singer/songwriters, and was pretty much raised on this stuff. Yet despite all of that, I find it a little insipid. She certainly had a beautiful voice, but musically it's all just boring. And the cover of Help is an abomination.
Jethro Tull
2/5
The entire album is basically rehashing/reworking the very recognizable musical riff from the titular song and developing new songs around that. As a result, it feels extremely redundant even though it's incorporated in different ways in each song. But a big ol' snoozefest for me, even with the novelty of a flute in rock music.
Sonic Youth
2/5
Elton John
4/5
Steely Dan
2/5
I wanted to like this because I feel like as an aging middle-aged white woman, I'm nearly obligated to love stuff in this realm, and yet, here we are and I am bored to tears. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but I don't find anything particularly right with it, either.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
This whole album immediately went into my "stuff to explore more" playlist. Definitely want to hear more of them!
Beatles
5/5
Not my favorite Beatles album, but it contains my favorite Beatles song ever ("In My Life") and is the very first album I ever remember my parents having. Absolutely classic.
Linkin Park
5/5
Absolute fucking banger. If this is the genre of music you like, there's not a bad track on the whole album. 8 of the 12 are in my "liked songs" list in Spotify, and even the other 4 are still totally listenable. RIP, Chester. You are definitely missed.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
I'm rating this in the middle of the road because it has two MASSIVE hits in the pantheon of rock and roll, so it earns high marks for those two alone. However, the rest of the album is kind of bland, imo. Well done, just bland.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
All I can say is that I bet a whole lot of people have gotten laid as a result of some of these smooth and sexy sounds!
Crowded House
3/5
Shuggie Otis
3/5
Super chill and funky, definitely worth taking a deeper dive. Highlights for me: Sparkle City, Happy House, Sweet Thang, and Freedom Flight.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Blues riffs, harmonicas, social commentary, and a NYC focus? I'M STAYIN'.
Look, say what you want about the quality of his vocals, Dylan is a songwriting force to be reckoned with. This album is fantastic.
The Kinks
2/5
It feels and sounds like a compilation of other BritPop music from the era only not as good. There are certainly some diverse musical influences here, but none of this does it better than many other contemporary groups, and the whole thing is just boring, imo.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Historically significant because it launched their career, but it falls flat. I appreciate good covers, but these are mediocre covers.
I have a friend who's been trying to get me to like the Stones for a long time (they're fine, but they stand out more to me for their longevity than anything) and even she agrees that this isn't a good gateway album.
Ironically, the song I like most on the album is the one that Jagger/Richards actually wrote (Tell Me), so I guess there's hope. ;)
I'm rating this a 3 because I love the blues, but honestly I'm not sure it's quite that good.
Billy Bragg
4/5
This was really surprising to me. I was raised on American folk singers like Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger and the Weavers and whatnot, so there's a strong connection to the lyrics and message of those types of songs. I know almost nothing about Billy Bragg and only slightly more about Wilco, but I was kind of expecting this to be a little gimmicky and crappy. It wasn't. I ended up liking five of the tracks enough to add the whole album to my "stuff to explore more" playlist. The WG influence is definitely there, the surprise Natalie Merchant vocals were a delight, and overall it feels weirdly authentic given the musicians who put it together are British. This will definitely get more listens!
Scott Walker
2/5
Lyrically brilliant - political, powerful, angry at moments. But the juxtaposition of the music with the lyrics is really weird for me to the point where it almost feels as if he's lampooning the protest music of the late 60s. Sadly, the song I liked best on the album (Black Sheep Boy) isn't his. Next, while a tough listen, is an incredibly poignant look at how much war fucks you up. But overall, it's just not for me.
Air
2/5
Fine, just really not at all for me. The band is called Air - and that's a little like what this listening to this album is for me: not much at all, just kinda there like air. Only far less necessary for, you know, sustaining life.
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
Almost everything on the album is comprised of kind of Afro-Caribbean sounds and influences that were clearly not created by McLaren. 40 years after its release, it just sounds like some massive cultural appropriation. I'm sure in 1983 it was revolutionary, but in historically British fashion, he stole a lot of shit from indigenous people elsewhere in the world and tried to make it his own. Musical colonization, that's what this is.
Setting aside the fact that the music was clearly stolen from someone else's work, Double Dutch is a song that no white man should ever have sung. I don't care if it was the 80s, was this dude seriously calling people \"ebonettes\" while highlighting how different Black girls in NYC are from other girls jumping rope around the world? Racism at its finest, folks.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Death In Vegas
3/5
I'll give it a 3 for "it's fine, just fine" as I'm sure that it has value for many, but electronica is just not really my thing. I don't want to trash it simply because I don't know more about it, I just likely won't listen to it again.
John Lennon
5/5
I was going to give this 4/5 originally based just on the music, but with all the asshat haters out there, I’m bumping it up to 5. Fuck the haters.
John Coltrane
4/5
The Verve
3/5
Remarkably fine.
Sam Cooke
5/5
This is an absolute banger. 10/10 - no notes. Perfection.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I was listening to this in the office when I got an email that startled, confused, and panicked me a little. Right at that moment, Mr. Marley was singing about not worrying about a thing, and it turned out that every little thing was, indeed, alright.
This album is perfect.
Fiona Apple
3/5
Small Faces
2/5
It's not really my jam, but I can see how it would appeal to those for whom it is.
Neil Young
3/5
Did not listen as it's not on Spotify.
Joy Division
3/5
This was great in the 80s, but doesn't hold up to the test of time for me at all.
Tracy Chapman
5/5
Timeless and incredible. The messages of struggle, racism, inequality, the nature of living in a police state, etc. showcases how no matter how much we try to move forward as a society, we make only a little progress. Universal themes that resonate with every generation and every oppressed class of people that everyone else thinks they can stomp on. This album is just as meaningful -- if not more so -- in 2023 as it was in 1988.
Eminem
4/5
The music is rough, violent, prone to homophobic and misogynistic lyrics, and the character of Eminem can be kind of a dick. But I think man creating it is brilliant, and he does an incredible job of shining a light on themes of poverty, violent personalities, drug use, and the vast differences of the socio-economic tiers in modern American society and how that shapes people's lives. If you look at this like a horror movie, no one hates Stephen King or Jordan Peele for writing the things they do and depicting them on screen, so I'll never understand why that's not okay in the music world, too.
Genesis
1/5
This is largely self-indulgent trash.
The Human League
2/5
I have hit or miss enjoyment of most new wave. I don't think I've ever listened to this whole album before now.
There's good stuff here beyond just "Don't You Want Me" (my favorite song in 2nd grade, no lie). Open Your Heart is great, Do or Die is fine (though you can pretty much sing the words to Don't You Want Me to this song and it fits - at least with the chorus. They're very similar songs), Get Carter reminds me of John Williams's Close Encounters theme a little. On the other hand, there are some atrocities: I am the Law is horrendous. It's musically all over the place and it seems to advocate for over policing and implies that people can't take care of themselves. Maybe it's meant to be ironic? I dunno - did not care for that one. Seconds is equally terrible. Presumably it's meant to showcase how bad killing others is (not disagreeing), but it's obnoxiously repetitive.
Still, overall there are really only two good tracks here, so that's how it's getting rated.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
So here's the thing about Elvis Costello...
I think he writes some really great songs, both in terms of lyrics and the music itself. However, I've never been able to tell if this is a production thing or just the way he sings: he often sounds like he is mumbling or trips over words. It can be weirdly distracting.
That said, I enjoyed this album quite a lot (racial epithets notwithstanding).
George Harrison
5/5
People who say this is crap because it's all "stuff the Beatles wouldn't do" are crap themselves.
This is fucking phenomenal, start to finish.
The Avalanches
2/5
It's alright. It's not really my style and I doubt that I'd listen to it actively in the future, but I recognize that it's well done for what it is. I like the concept, I just don't love the execution - not because it's bad, just because it's not my jam.
Bad Brains
3/5
Black Sabbath
4/5
I hate admitting that this really is a banger because I think so much of the lyrics feel like they're forced into attempt to work with the music, but knowing how many drugs Ozzy was likely doing, you kinda have to let that go and just run with it.
Herbie Hancock
4/5
I know a lot of people can put stuff like this on and just groove out to it - and it is undoubtedly groovy - but I love this for working music. It's incredibly listenable but doesn't distract me and somehow keeps me focused, which just about nothing that isn't classical music can do while I'm working. So to that end, I relate Hancock to Beethoven or Vivaldi or Chopin - not bad company, really!
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
They can absolutely kick it! Yes they can!
Steely Dan
2/5
Four songs into the album my thought was, "well, I haven't turned it off yet..."
After all eight songs I can assuredly say that I won't turn it on again.
Elvis Presley
2/5
It's fine. That's it, just fine. It's not something everyone must hear before they die.
Suspicious Minds aside, the rest of the album just makes me shrug and then move onto something else.
Dirty Projectors
2/5
It sounds like it was recorded by killer whales. I'm really not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Eurythmics
1/5
Sweet dreams are absolutely NOT made of this.
I have hated that song since I was ten, so I went into this with some hesitation but figured that maybe the other stuff on the album might be better. I was wrong, it's all crap.
Queen
5/5
Holy crap this is awesome. I mean anything where I am hearing Freddie sing is awesome, but this album is really a lot of fun!
The Dictators
4/5
I went into this expecting absolute nothing but disappointment. It's one of those albums on Spotify that no one's ever listened to, it's defined as "proto-punk" and my initial thought was "these are guys who tried to make punk happen but weren't any good."
I ended up rather loving this. They're the Ramones before the Ramones -- and honestly (as bad a New Yorker as that may make me), I think they're better. There is the strong rebellious, irreverent middle finger to the mainstream present, but with more than just three chords, and you can totally hear how they're starting to bridge rock into punk. I love it.
There are also fun covers of "I Got You Babe" and "California Sun." Yes, that California Sun, you know, the one the Ramones recorded in '77 (two years after The Dictators) and used in their '79 movie "Rock 'n' Roll High School." These guys did it first, and it's great. :)
Doves
4/5
Lots of other people have remarked on the similarities between this and Coldplay, and I won't disagree. Well, except that I *like* this album, and have yet to like anything from Coldplay, really.
Standout tracks for me: Words, Satellites, Pounding
The Clash
3/5
Lyrically and message wise, they're top notch, but that's where my love-affair ends with The Clash. The vocals/music doesn't do it for me nearly as much as I want, sadly.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Tori Amos
5/5
I've loved this album since 1992!
Hookworms
3/5
Yet more incredibly average Brit rock. It's totally fine, but I guarantee you that this isn't something most of us absolutely MUST hear before we die.
OutKast
5/5
The Fall
2/5
Generic punk. It's fine, but like a nice piece of fish on a menu at a steakhouse, I'm probably not gonna order it.
The Undertones
3/5
Fun early punk pop. Not blowing me away musically, but fun nonetheless.
Metallica
5/5
This is brilliant and fuck the haters.
Janelle Monáe
5/5
I came into this knowing next to nothing about Janelle Monáe and came out of it wondering where the fuck this has been my whole damn life, holy shit she's incredible!
Brian Eno
1/5
I refuse to listen to this. I don't love him to begin with, but knowing that this was written basically *not* to be listened to makes me not want to listen that much more. Sadly I can't give 0/5 stars.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
This is literally the first record that I ever bought with my own money. I was in 4th grade and saved up from odd jobs around the house and for my parents' businesses and bought it from some fundraising effort at my grade school that I somehow associate with the Scholastic Book Fair - did they sell records through that, too? Either way, it's been one of my favorite albums since I was 10 and quite obviously gets a 5.
The Smiths
5/5
Probably my favorite Smiths album, but also one I haven't listened to on the reg or in its entirety since I was in high school mumblemumble years ago, so it was nice to hear some of the deeper cuts that you don't hear in generational wrap-up lists or on 80s mixes or whatnot. Nothing but deep teen angst love for this album.
Soundgarden
5/5
Oh Chris, we hardly knew you. <3
Pentangle
3/5
It's fine. That's really all I can say. Fine.
Steve Winwood
3/5
This doesn't suck, but not something I'll ever run towards.
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
As a person who grew up in the 80s and was reared on John Hughes movies, I certainly enjoy Pretty in Pink as a song for the sentimentality of it, but nothing else about these guys has ever really blown my skirt up. Album is fine, but I'm probably never gonna sit down and listen to it in its entirety again.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Man, I do NOT love SP at all - I think Billy Corgan sounds like a whiny brat about 95% of the time. HOWEVER, this is such a pivotal album, and it has two songs on it that I actually love in spite of their singer (Today and Mayonaise, even overlooking that it's spelled wrong), that I feel compelled to graciously rate it over the midpoint.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
This sounds like the 70s. That's not a compliment.
Louis Prima
5/5
This is fantastic, plain and simple. And I used to have a dog indirectly named after Keely Smith, so that endears this to me even more.
Eagles
5/5
I didn't even need to listen to this to rate it - I know pretty much every word to every song on the album, and the title track is not just hugely ingrained in American culture, it's one of those songs that become one of "our songs" and my mom and I have sung it together on more road trips than I can count.
Def Leppard
3/5
For what it was and when it was, it's perfect. I'm not sure how much it holds up in 2023, but it's still a fun listen.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Digital Underground
3/5
I really wanted to give this a 4 because I love love LOVE The Humpty Dance and Doowutchyalike, but so much of this album sounds just like the other songs. I'm somewhat convinced that Rhymin' On the Funk is just The Humpty Dance with different lyrics. So unfortunately, it's a three for me. RIP Shock G.
Neil Young
4/5
I would've rated this a 5 because the music is spectacular, but every once in a while I need to pause and rub my ears a little as Neil's voice can sometimes grate in large quantities.
The White Stripes
4/5
I really didn't want to like this (largely because the biggest song I know from The White Stripes is Seven Nation Army, which I DETEST), but was pleasantly surprised. There's some bluesy rock riffs that make it sound a little like Jack was trying to harness a Zeppelin I sound.
The Incredible String Band
1/5
I was tempted to give this a 5 just for excelling at being bad, but I can't. It's terrible. "Incredible String Band" -- yeah, incredibly BAD.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
Fuck all the haters who think that just because this is almost 40 years old that it is shitty. It holds up, it's a perfect example of the genre, screw all of the rest of you.
Queen
5/5
Anyone who thinks this isn’t perfect from start to finish is just plain wrong.
Television
4/5
This surprised me - it's not usually my genre (despite being a New Yorker of a Certain Age™), but I found myself really enjoying what I heard. Venus was the stand-out track on the album for me.
Van Halen
4/5
Gorillaz
3/5
Sabu
3/5
This is fine, but boy howdy, many of the people reviewing things on this site are absolutely not.
This isn't my jam, but it doesn't mean it's shit just because it's foreign to what one is used to. People suck.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
The Cure
4/5
So early! I loved The Cure as an angsty goth-adjacent GenX teenager in the late 80s, and this is a really good listen into where they began. You can hear where they're going. In 2024, it makes for EXCELLENT office music.
The Monkees
3/5
Cat Stevens
3/5
I hate Cat Stevens' voice, find much of his music to be overly sentimental, and I refused to listen to this album. I'll give it a 3 because I recognize his cultural significance and I know he's done a lot of great work beyond just music, but I don't love the music.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Great showcase of their early work, and fabulous to listen to for work music!
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
The Cramps
3/5
Talking Heads
2/5
Duran Duran
4/5
David Holmes
4/5
This was wholly unexpected and I really really liked it!
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
I listened to this a couple times in high school because a friend went through a Zappa period. I largely wrote it off as "dumb" (or some other eloquent turn of phrase that only 16 year olds can utter), but I'm liking it now much more than I remember.
Maxwell
3/5
Totally fine, but that's it. Good background music.
Common
3/5
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Klaxons
3/5
James Brown
5/5
Elvis Presley
2/5
Skunk Anansie
4/5
Whoaaaaaaa -- this is way more awesome than I thought it was going to be and I really dug it! Stand out tracks for me:
- Charlie Big Potato
- Lately
- Secretly
- Cheap Honesty
I will definitely be going back to listen to this more!
The Police
3/5
The Police have a lot of great albums and music, but this one is somewhat mediocre.
Willie Nelson
5/5
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Rod Stewart
2/5
Every fucking Rod Stewart song sounds exactly the fucking same. It's fine, but jesus fucking christ, dude, get some real talent.
The Who
2/5
Mudhoney
3/5
High ratings for the origins of grunge, and from a historical perspective, this is an important album that lots of other Seattle bands grew from/drew on. But I'm not sure that it's something that everyone needs to hear before they die. The six songs from the original EP are quite good - the others are fine.
Ryan Adams
3/5
2/5
Snoop Dogg
5/5
Kraftwerk
1/5
Nihilists. These men are cowards.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
Pavement
3/5
The three singles that everyone knows from the 90s are good, the rest of the album is fine, but I don't know that I'll ever understand the thinking that this is an album that's needed to be listened to before dying. I get that a lot from this list, to be fair. YMMV.
The Go-Go's
4/5
As a girl child of the 80s who also really enjoys punk sounds, I fully recognize that I am contractually obligated to love The Go-Go's, and of course this album is no exception. I'm taking back one star, however, because whoever greenlit the inclusion of that fucking apostrophe in their name should be punched and then sent to grammar prison.
Blur
3/5
Maybe it's because I wasn't a teenager in the late 90s, but on the scale of terrible (one star) to fucking amazing (five stars), this album ranks a "fine, but just fine." And that's not a fine like "damn, she's FIIIIINE" ranking. Honestly, the whole thing was kind of a ... blur.
The Cure
5/5
Absolutely formative album of my teenage years; have always, will always love it.
Bee Gees
4/5
I really expected this to be "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" and a bunch of crap, but I ended up liking this way more than I expected. To be fair, my expectations weren't that high - I never got into them as a kid - but it was great to hear that they had a whole sound beyond just the "Stayin' Alive"/disco years.
Highlights for me: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Israel, Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself, Walking Back to Waterloo
Tracks I probably could've lived without because they're just a bit too schmaltzy and over-the-top: Remembering, When Do I, Dearest
Pulp
2/5
Album should be retitled: this is hardSNORE.
Bored, start to finish. It's repetitive, tedious, mundane, repetitive, tedious, and mundane. Every song sounds the same: it's as if Jarvis Cocker took elements of Bowie, the Elvises (Presley* and Costello), and Leonard Cohen, threw them in a blender then strained out the good stuff and put the pulpy waste on an album. (Pun intended, yes.)
*I only included Elvis Presley because the chord progression on Party Hard reminds me so much of Suspicious Minds that I was singing that in my head while listening to the song.
Kraftwerk
1/5
Crapwerk. That is all.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
This reminded me of high school, but at the same time, I haven't listened to it since high school, so I'm not sure that it was all that revolutionary that it needed to be listened to people before they die.
It's a good example of late 80s alternative, but as with a lot of music of that era, it's a bit repetitive and thematically one-note. Good for the era, but nothing I'm seeking out on the reg.
The Lemonheads
3/5
Despite the fact that I owned a copy of this cassette at one point, I need to know on what planet this was every something that needed to be listened to before one dies? One of the other reviews is like "this is good, but I can think of a bunch of other albums from that era that sound the same." I'm with that person - how is this unique at all other than the Mrs. Robinson cover? And honestly, by definition of it being a cover, that's also not unique.
The Doors
1/5
The Doors are trash. Full stop.
Foo Fighters
5/5
In the immortal words of Christopher Walken: foo FIghters!
I don't care if Dave Grohl has a million extramarital children, he is the absolute bees knees musically.
Bee Gees
1/5
Top review #1: "Well. Not just a Bee Gees album, but a Bee Gees concept album. Not just a Bee Gees concept album, but one where significant creative differences resulted in not just one but two Bee Gees concept albums. About a Ukranian port. The first song alone lasts 1 day, 7 hours and 34 minutes."
Top review #2: "Expectation: Some funky Bee Gees beats to energise my day
Reality: What the hell is this"
Top review #3: "The Bee Gees were a lot more successfull at ripping off black artists than they were at ripping off white artists"
And honestly, I don't really think I need anything else. That all perfectly sums up this album.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
David Bowie
4/5
The Slits
1/5
This album is terrible. There have been moments throughout this project that I've wondered what the thinking was for including an album, but this is utterly mind-boggling.
Spend, Spend, Spend: I'm fairly certain there was a goat bleating in there somewhere
Shoplifting: Just a lot of shrieking for what seemed like absolutely zero reason
Everything else sounds like early Björk, except not in a good way.
Typical Girls: Not typical, and more goat bleating. Or maybe this one was a sheep?
This whole album was trash.
Michael Jackson
5/5
This is the first record I ever had that was solely mine and not shared with my parents.
I realize that there's so much that's squinky about MJ, but this album is an absolute banger, start to finish.
ABBA
4/5
Rod Stewart
4/5
I've absolutely been an open hater of Rod Stewart since I was in high school. My #1 "frenemy" was absolutely obsessed with him and tried to get everyone she knew to love him. However, she kicked me in the face with a ski on when we were 15, and as a result, I deemed every opinion of hers complete shit after that, so I refused to listen to all Rod Stewart at all that wasn't a radio song. In later years, my best adult friend and I have always had a running joke that no, we do NOT think he's sexy and we do NOT want his body. Needless to say, not a huge fan.
So I really dragged my feet getting to this album, but I read the text of why it was included in this project. Since it was described as being largely acoustic and it has a cover of a Dylan song (Only A Hobo), I gave it a go.
Here's my updated opinion:
- Still not sexy, still don't want his body (I know that's not on this album, but just sayin').
- Definitely not going all in on Rod ever, but it's possible the high school frenemy might not have been entirely wrong about everything.
- Dylan wrote great songs, but everyone sings them better than he did.
- I liked this more than I expected. Highlights for me:
"It's All Over Now," "Only A Hobo" (credit to Bob for writing such a powerful song, but props to Rod for doing a really good job with it), "Country Comfort"
-Lots of really good acoustic instruments on this album
Tina Turner
4/5
5 stars because it's the Goddess Tina Turner and because What's Love Got to Do With It and Private Dancer were two major hits of my youth. Plus, I'm totally here for her cover of Let's Stay Together. I'm taking a star away because of the Help! cover, though.
Fugazi
2/5
Look, I was a goth/emo kid who was 16 when this album came out. It was boring and banal then, it's no different now.
Elliott Smith
3/5
CHVRCHES
4/5
"Synth pop" is not anything I'd ever imagined myself enjoying, and yet... somehow I really really liked this album and they're immediately going into my "stuff to explore more" playlist. This was a wild surprise for me.
Aerosmith
2/5
So look... I'm a perfect example of a GenXer. I was in 9th grade when this album was released, so it's right in the wheelhouse of popularity for my age group. And it was ROCKIN' in 1989.
In 2025, it's mundane, overly sexualized, and trite. In 1989 when no one would talk about sexual abuse, Janie's Got a Gun felt revolutionary. Now, it just doesn't stand the test of time. It's a trivial, lackluster, vapid look at an extremely serious issue. The fact that it was written based on looking at a Time magazine article rather than actually trying to understand more of the nuances surrounding the trauma that victims endure is a lazy attempt to make money, in my opinion. The fact that it won a Grammy is a travesty. It was the late 80s/early 90s - I blame cocaine.
Love in an Elevator is fun, but a prime example of how much Steven Tyler thinks that young women are there for his personal benefit.
The one song on the album that I can't say no to is What it Takes. I love it, have always loved it, will always love it.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
This album is fucking incredible.
I could delve into why and what the stand-out shit is, but I'd just be talking over Ms. Hill. Let her amazing work speak for itself. Listen and enjoy!
Coldplay
3/5
Well, I wasn't an adolescent in 2002 when this album was released, so maybe I just don't get the draw.
I dig the sound of Chris Martin's voice, but honestly the music feels adolescent and repetitive to me in a way that I don't love. And I'd be happy if I never heard "Clocks" again for the rest of time.
This is fine, but just fine. It's more like a 2.5 than a 3, honestly, but not bad in a sense that it needs a 2.
Sade
4/5
The Fall
2/5
Spotify says, "Out of all the bands who formed during the '70s punk revolution, none were longer-lived, more prolific, or more innovative than The Fall."
To which I really just want to say, "Oh bless your heart, whoever from the band's PR team wrote that." Talk about a load of horseshit, that statement and this album together.
According to the 1001 albums book, this album was recorded and mixed "in just two days." Maybe they should've taken a bit more time, is all I'm sayin'.
Second star is simply because I happen to like the punk movement. But this is not a great example.
Nirvana
5/5
Nothing needs to be said. This is a perfect album.