I grew up in Lou Reed's twilight years so I primarily think of him as the misogynist and anti-Semite who feuded with Susan Boyle. All that aside, he's not a strong vocalist, and yet his even weaker bandmates also sing on this album. I don't have time to get into the lower standards we set for male vocalists, but I'm just not sure the writing is compelling enough to make this album worth a lot. It started to grow on me by the end, but I don't know that I would revisit more than a handful of tracks in the future.
Standout tracks: What Goes On, Beginning To See The Light
A foundational album in a genre I don't care about. The most iconic tracks are songs that I can vaguely recognize but could never name.
Standout tracks: Tuesday's Gone, Simple Man
Is it blasphemous to say that the inclusion of Steven Tyler is detrimental to "Walk This Way"? It is clear that it was recorded about a decade past Tyler's peak. Regardless, this is a fun album, full of wall-to-wall bops. There are moments of cheesiness that I would make fun of modern rappers for releasing, like the fairy tale allusions in "Peter Piper" and the Adidas namedropping on "My Adidas," but it's also nice when an artist isn't afraid to be cheesy. It's a fine line to walk. The album does get a little repetitive, and it's hard to distinguish between what feels derivative just because everyone else has copied it and what has genuinely aged poorly. However, it's still a great album.
Standout tracks: It's Tricky, Hit It Run
More like Titular Bells, am I right? Though, That Album What Has the Exorcist Song might be a more successful title. This is a great album that I will never listen to again. It's a technical masterpiece and clearly a work of passion, but I have never understood progressive rock and this gets particularly experimental, even when accounting for the genre.
Standout tracks: Tubular Bells (Part I), Tubular Bells (Part II)
Why isn't "The Fat Man's Hop" available on Spotify? What is the government trying to hide from us? This album didn't make a huge impression on me, which may be why it appears to have been wiped from existence, but I'm also just not invested in the genre.
Standout tracks: Troubles of My Own; Poor, Poor Me
I enjoy listening to Pink Floyd in the sense that I like the songs well enough when I hear them in the wild but have never deliberately sought out a Pink Floyd song, let alone sat down and listened to a whole album. Based on that limited exposure, this is a good album, but I don't know if it's their best. It's been memefied by 2000s culture. At least "Money" is a banger, but it's a problem when an album's best songs are over six minutes long.
Standout tracks: Money, Us and Them
I am most familiar with Brian Eno from his frequent appearances as a crossword answer. His musical endeavors are certainly... sonic. I think every single track gave me a migraine. I can acknowledge that there is some skill here and I know that he is a respected producer, but I will never willingly listen to this again.
Standout tracks: Baby's On Fire, On Some Faraway Beach
I genuinely cannot tell most the songs apart from one another. The line between cohesion and repetition is thin.
Standout tracks: I Wanna Be Adored, Waterfall