750
Albums Rated
3.94
Average Rating
69%
Complete
339 albums remaining
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1950s
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270
5-Star Albums
18
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle | 5 | 1.88 | +3.12 |
| Logical Progression | 5 | 2.52 | +2.48 |
| New Forms | 5 | 2.53 | +2.47 |
| Dr. Octagonecologyst | 5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
| Orbital 2 | 5 | 2.7 | +2.3 |
| Roots | 5 | 2.78 | +2.22 |
| Night Life | 5 | 2.81 | +2.19 |
| Guitar Town | 5 | 2.81 | +2.19 |
| I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail | 5 | 2.81 | +2.19 |
| Chris | 5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smash | 1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
| Make Yourself | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
| Something/Anything? | 1 | 3.03 | -2.03 |
| Connected | 1 | 2.94 | -1.94 |
| Come Find Yourself | 1 | 2.93 | -1.93 |
| Arc Of A Diver | 1 | 2.88 | -1.88 |
| Cafe Bleu | 1 | 2.87 | -1.87 |
| Is This It | 2 | 3.82 | -1.82 |
| Yeezus | 1 | 2.77 | -1.77 |
| G. Love And Special Sauce | 1 | 2.74 | -1.74 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.78 |
| Beatles | 5 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 5 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 7 | 4.71 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 4.8 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 3 | 5 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 5 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 5 |
| Frank Sinatra | 3 | 5 |
| Neil Young | 3 | 5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 4 | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis | 4 | 4.5 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 4.67 |
| U2 | 3 | 4.67 |
| Marvin Gaye | 3 | 4.67 |
| The Flaming Lips | 2 | 5 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 2 | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| Portishead | 2 | 5 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 5 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 2 | 5 |
| Air | 2 | 5 |
| Pink Floyd | 2 | 5 |
| Van Morrison | 2 | 5 |
| Stan Getz | 2 | 5 |
| Ray Charles | 2 | 5 |
| Sly & The Family Stone | 2 | 5 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 2 | 5 |
| Manic Street Preachers | 2 | 5 |
| Dolly Parton | 2 | 5 |
| Johnny Cash | 2 | 5 |
| Muddy Waters | 2 | 5 |
| The Kinks | 2 | 5 |
| Willie Nelson | 2 | 5 |
| The Clash | 2 | 5 |
| Prince | 2 | 5 |
| Beastie Boys | 2 | 5 |
| Ali Farka Touré | 2 | 5 |
| Sonic Youth | 4 | 4.25 |
| Nick Drake | 3 | 4.33 |
| Joni Mitchell | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.33 |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 4.33 |
| Pixies | 3 | 4.33 |
| The White Stripes | 3 | 4.33 |
| Paul Simon | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Who | 5 | 4 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Todd Rundgren | 2 | 1.5 |
| Slipknot | 2 | 1.5 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | 1, 4 |
| The Smiths | 2, 5 |
| Metallica | 3, 2, 5 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 4, 2, 5 |
| Morrissey | 4, 5, 2, 3 |
5-Star Albums (270)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Byrds
5/5
The other day I had a discussion about gatekeeping in Nashville and how that basically lead to Americana as shorthand for Country music that doesn’t get airplay on the radio. How important forward thinking artists like Margo Price and Jason Isbell are basically exiled from the Country charts because they are too liberal.
The Byrds debuted this new sound (spearheaded very much by Gram Parsons) at the Grand Ole Opry and neither Country or Rock wanted anything to do with it.
The Rolling Stone review is conflicted saying it’s too pretty to be country and too country to be rock. The charts weren’t kind to the album either. No one knew what to make of it.
It would build over the years and become considered a masterpiece. It was the opening salvo of Parson’s Cosmic American music. It was a sign of things to come and the last great Byrds album. They had come a long way from the Dylan disciples bringing his message to the masses. In a way it marked the end of the folk revival.
The Parsons songs are the highlights. A bright shining star that flamed out all too soon. He would take Hillman and start the Flying Burrito Brothers. This left McGuinn to carry the band (an all new band) forward.
The Grateful Dead would see some success with a more Country Rock sound in the seventies. Lynard Skynard would distill the sound into Southern Rock and really make some waves with it. Artists like Uncle Tupelo would expound on the idea many years later. And then there are all them “Americana” folks from earlier (Isbell and Carlile and company) who can find a niche outside of Nashville because of a failed album by the Folk Rock titans.
10 likes
Fever Ray
4/5
A perfect winter album… cold, slightly detached, dark, and also utterly exhilarating and captivating.
9 likes
Fatboy Slim
4/5
Fun upbeat dance music that isn't awful to listen to while doing other things.
8 likes
D'Angelo
5/5
An outstanding debut from a singular voice. Muhammad, Saadiq and Powers are a heck of production team. It’s layered into some kind of futuristic version of Sly’s late 70’s sound. It’s also very of its moment and as such transcends space and time. It’s also glorious booty call music.
6 likes
Fats Domino
3/5
That was diverting. It’s fun. It felt a little … reserved… I’m not sure how much of that is a crappy YouTube upload which made it feel like the production was all over the place which may be the case as it may have been recorded over a number of dates. Blueberry Hill is a classic. I love the horn hit at the beginning of each bar in Honey Chile. Trust in Me was another highlight. Wished the levels were up a bit on the piano cause that sounds like it was smoking.
5 likes
1-Star Albums (18)
All Ratings
Arctic Monkeys
2/5
The Artic Monkeys debut is a fine modern punk pop album. I fail to see what all the fuss is about. They are fine.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
One of my all time favorite hip hop albums. I don't know if it was the first, but it was the first one I noticed a real Jazz influence in. This was the peak of golden age beats and lyrical invention.
Miriam Makeba
4/5
Very excited. Never heard of this artist, always up for some international music.
The singing is beautiful on this album. As are the melodies. I hope to spend lots of time with it.
The English songs are not as successful as the ones in her native language but a good listen all the way around.
Wire
4/5
Punk started shifting here. I dig the groovier stuff over the more by the numbers punk stuff. From reading up on the band, will be checking out their catalog at some point.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
Not much to say about this one. It's pretty perfect. For my money, their best studio work.
Nick Drake
5/5
This is one of those highly revered cult albums that lives up to its hype. It's haunting, simple, and beautiful. An album I always feel like I don't spend enough time with from an artist I know I haven't spent enough time with.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
Yoshimi is the sweet spot between the reserved Soft Bulletin and the utter batshit crazy of the rest of The Flaming Lips catalog. It had an amazing structure and some of their strongest songs. Nature versus machine being told against a backdrop of audible maturity and pure creativity. It’s all pretty much perfect.
Janelle Monáe
4/5
Metropolis Suite: The Chase was a fully realized statement from an artist who arrived confident and ready to change music. The concept was continued into The Achandroid which, unlike The Chase, is not concise and a little half baked. Its one real problem is it’s long. Metropolis feels like the elevator pitch and ArchAndroid plays like the three hour blockbuster and two hours in your bladder is really begging you to do something about the gallon of coke you drank. You kind of have to disengage but you don’t want to. Also like that summer blockbuster it’s a little all over the place. Like Coldwar really fits the concept but does Tightrope? It never lacks in inventiveness or swagger though. Like their idol Prince, Monáe actually does need a little editing and I think Diddy just threw them the keys to the studio. He was probably all like I’ve got this train wreck over here I’m trying to figure out, I don’t have time to edit your whole space thing. I don’t even know what Genorape means but you do your thing.
Brian Eno
3/5
Crazy glam rock. I don’t hate it.
Elton John
5/5
an all time classic full of classics. It's a bit long, but it's all gold!!
Little Richard
4/5
Fantastic early rock rave up!
Songhoy Blues
4/5
Joyful music. Milan music with a western guitar flare. Highly listenable.
Fiona Apple
4/5
A strong debut from an exciting and emotionally complex performer.
Leftfield
4/5
House music that works from home with an album that doesn’t just slog on. Solid stuff.
Love
5/5
Quite simply, this is the sound of the Summer of Love coming to a close. Flower power is losing its allure and the Manson murders are just over the horizon. This is the madness and the drugs, the love and the hate all encapsulated in one time capsule that has been open to us the whole time. It is astonishing in its emotion and it's sophistication. Peak psychedelia in all of its glory and insanity.
Hell, the title itself, LOVE FOREVER CHANGES, is poetic and profound given the subject matter and the moment in time.
Lightning Bolt
3/5
Controlled chaos. Really dig this.
Bob Dylan
4/5
A hodgepodge of rock and folk. Proto hipster swagger.
Funkadelic
5/5
Fuzzy, psychedelic, funk rock. Pretty damn perfect.
Van Halen
4/5
After I'll Wait, the album drops off, but before that this is Van Halen at its most poppy catchy and infectious. Eddie is in great form throughout and Dave is having a lot of fun. The end of an era and they go out in style.
Michael Jackson
4/5
The singular 80s record. A new standard in just about every way. An onslaught of hits.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
Beats are great. Lyrics are mostly nonsense. Flow is alright. Not a great record.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
A landmark jazz album, many a person has found this to be a key in their jazz appreciation.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Pleasant Dream Pop that is engaging. It is easy to see why the band is so lauded and why they are often imitated.
Ray Price
5/5
Honky Tonk goes Music Row. A slick slice of the seedier life by a master of singing.
PJ Harvey
2/5
Hate the dynamics, should probably revisit at some point. It is an excruciating listen for this exercise though.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
One of the best albums about death ever made. A man towards the end screaming at the void.
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
A fun album, it's by no means perfect, the Prince cover is pretty bad and the last half is lackluster, but when it hits, it does so hard. 80's new wave fun with a LOT of personality.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
4/5
Powerfully spiritual music performed by great musicians.
Slint
3/5
Interesting heavy music.
The Modern Lovers
3/5
Seems nice enough. Solid Velvet Underground like rock.
Todd Rundgren
1/5
It starts pleasant enough, then it gets a little weird, then it overstays its welcome.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Stevie Wonder had started his own path with Where I'm coming from and Music of My Mind. Talking Book refined his new freedom. Innervisions through Songs in the Key of Life is when he really set sail, realizing his potential. Great stuff.
Sepultura
4/5
Interesting heavy music.
The Cure
3/5
The album where the Cure became the Cure.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Perfect. As were the two albums before this one.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
My favorite album of 2019. It is a masterclass of progressive R&B. It recalls the past and paves a way forward.
Maxwell
5/5
a r&b hang out record. Acension is still one of the best songs of the past 30 years. His voice is silky smooth. The height of neo-soul.
Alice Cooper
3/5
GOTH GLAM FUN. Not something I want to listen to all the time, but a good time regardless.
Circle Jerks
4/5
I've been on this personal punk journey for a bit now and I really like this album (first time listening to it). Hardcore is hit or miss for me. This is hit. Makes sense as I really appreciated the Black Flag stuff with Morris as a front man, even more so than the Rollins stuff. This is going to make me check out Redd Kross and give Bad Religion another look. Very enjoyable, short and succinct.
Garbage
2/5
"Vig explained that as in his opinion 'the most exciting bands are those who incorporate all those elements of punk, funk, techno, hip hop, etc.' Garbage would attempt to do the same and 'take those influences and make them work in the context of a pop song.'"
That is from the wikipedia article on Garbage.
You guys know that I'm not a big fan of the "genre" of "grunge." Not, mind you, that I dislike Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, etc. I think the genre is some stupid marketing ploy to convince people that this disparate music that came from a scene is somehow linked by a unique sound which is utterly preposterous bullshit.
That being said, Garbage is a record that is "grunge." It's a pop record with bandmates made of a production team that was en vogue and very instrumental to that scene's rise. They got bored, started dicking around making remixes and then said shit, we should be a band. We can take all these different sounds we love and combine them into a pop behemoth.
Over the years, there have been many disparaging remarks from many of the type of folks who enjoy this band's music about bands like Coldplay and Muse being corporate entities playing to the lowest denominator. I've always found that to be a particularly weird thing to say of a band. Certainly, there have been corporately produced bands throughout the years, The Monkees and NSYNC immediately come to mind. Not to say that these bands were not talented, hell Neil Young auditioned to be a Monkee and in an alternative reality, he made it and the course of history and music is very different in that timeline. We all know that Justin Timberlake is a very talented musician as well. But to say these modern bands that made it big were somehow created and to use that as a way of demeaning their fans and music was just odd to me.
Garbage's record has some undeniable hits. Stupid Girl, Queer, Vow... they're good pop songs. Very of their moment and time. Hell production wise, they might even be a bit cutting edge. The album does take the sonics of the burgeoning Trip Hop scene of the time (Portishead, Massive Attack) and brings it to the alternative scene. It's all very marketable and pretty much manufactured that way. This is a band of producers who found a unique singer who was otherwise failing and gave her a platform of polished sounds of the times.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that. If you like it, you like it. It is what it is. There is nothing even bad about this record, you could even point out several things in this write up that show this album deserves to be on this list. It is an album of its time, it kind of sums up the total of the hip pop music scene of the mid 90s and hell, that's important in and of itself.
As a long time consumer of critical writing, I know that a lot of people look at the score before they read or decide to read a review and if you've done that, you probably wonder why the score seems so discordant to the words written here.
The thing is, it is completely a record of the moment, not just in the sound presented as a snapshot of the totality of music at the time it was released, but in that it is fleeting and ultimately unmemorable. Moments after even Stupid Girl plays, it fleets from the mind. I think the fervent fans must have been so enamored with the lush sound that they played it on repeat by pressing that magic button on their discman until it did become the earworm it so desperately wants to be. None of it makes any mark on me. Just as Spooner and Anglefish ultimately did not make a mark on music other than being previous projects by the two biggest talents involved in this.
Manson is a capable singer, who desperately wants to be a Beth Gibbons but beyond her striking looks, doesn't find the sound or content to compete. Vig is a producer of some talent. Love him or hate him, he had his finger in the pulse of the music of this time - maybe so much that he made a record that showed how fleeting that actual pulse is. It's remarkable that he did get to work with bands who did make remarkable records under his watch and he even gave them a little of his own thing to help define a sound, an alternative to the pop rock, glam metal, glossy r n b, etc. He helped make Punk poppy. Which is a double edged sword, good and bad. The music was brought to the masses and changed everything much for the better before the internet came along to emancipate the populace from their corporate music industry shackles. Ultimately, this is the sound of that freedom and maybe that's why it doesn't make the impression that it should. It's an important record that five hundred years from now (assuming man has not destroyed itself) will not be remembered. Utlimately, Garbage, Manson, and Vig will be footnotes to musical history much like Antonio Salieri.
Portishead
5/5
Moody spy music that makes you think about dancing while chilling at the house. Pretty perfect music, all said and done.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
I don't think it was really my first exposure to Neil, but this was the first album I owned. Neil being Neil. Introducing some of his best songs through the live setting. Showing off his acoustic chops and being influenced by the punk movement of the day. Great song writing, great playing, great singing, great heart.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Lounge music for sociopaths.
Faith No More
4/5
This is where they hit the map. Bringing on Patton and setting MTV on fire with Epic. I think Angel Dust is a better album, but this was an intro for a lot of folks and brought their weird but infectious vision of progressive funk metal to the masses.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Awesome Samba! Great stuff, makes me want to dance. Very groovy!
JAY Z
5/5
One of my favorite MCs. Reasonable Doubt and this one are easily his best. Just the way he laughs in the beat to the first track shows his skill.
Machito
3/5
Competent Afro-Cuban Jazz.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Good patiche of all the pop rock that came before it. Solid release. Too bad about Butler.
Beatles
5/5
My favorite Beatles record. A folk pop classic.
Mylo
3/5
Good hang out at the house techno. Mellow, with a variety of genres to keep it interesting.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
What a singer, what a songwriter, what an album.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
This is really a collection of club bangers loosely forming an album. It's really to hype for general at home listening but for a work out or the club, it is pretty awesome.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
noodly prog music at its stereotypical height. only resembles the piece presented occasionally. Also, an awful recording.
LL Cool J
3/5
More dates than I remember, when it hits it’s great but there is a lot of clunk going on too.
CHIC
4/5
I don’t think the sequencing in this album is great. That being said, it’s a great record to get lost in. Deceptively complex. Dark brooding themes with butt wiggling beats.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
Debut records don't get much better. Stunning lyrics. Great accompaniment and a singular voice.
Television
4/5
glam art punk. This has been a grower for me. I like it more each listen.
Sonic Youth
5/5
Perfect art rock, art punk pretty much never got any better.
AC/DC
5/5
All time classic. Hard rock doesn't get much harder.
Aphex Twin
5/5
Brilliant. One of the first touchstones in electronica. Still sounds as amazing today as it must have in 92 (this was hard to get back in the day). Ambient music was not just sleepy chill at home music at the time, but could easily be played at the Rave. This album shows that. Brilliant stuff, hard to believe it came out in 92 and that some of it was recorded as early as 85 and all in his bedroom long before computers made it really easy. A revolutionary album on many fronts.
New York Dolls
4/5
Glam gets gritty. Great protopunk.
The Jam
4/5
Very good post punk pop.
The Cramps
3/5
Fun punk rockabilly. Sounds like a deranged Elvis.
James Brown
5/5
A legendary performance and album.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Simon & Garfunkel are part of my musical DNA. My Grandfather and Mother talk about seeing them in Cameron Stadium when my Grandfather was a Duke Divinity student. Half of my full studio album discography on vinyl once belonged to my mother, including this album. While Cecilia, The Boxer, and Baby Driver were favorite songs, I did not hold this album in very high esteem until I listened to the 2020 season of The Opus on the album. I spent quite a bit of time with the album when I listened to that season in 2021. I came to love it during that period and it is probably my favorite album by them now. Part of it was probably a reaction to overhearing the title song (especially covers, Jesus, like Hallelujah, I could go the rest of my life without hearing a new version and they should set the songwriting royalties at such an exorbitant rate as to discourage people from singing it). But as I came to really understand the album and its place in time, I even over came that hurdle to love that song once again as I had as a youth. The album is like a minibiography of the band taking you from their humble beginnings with Bye Bye Love to foretelling Simon's solo stardom with The Only Living Boy in New York. It is nigh perfect by one of the greatest of singer songwriting teams. It's a beautiful swan song and probably should have been left as their last testament as opposed to numerous attempts to rekindle the flame rather through artistic desire, nostalgia, or money.
T. Rex
4/5
Galm rock pretty much perfected. Really need more time with it.
Steely Dan
3/5
Thank god the producer convinced Fagen to be the singer moving forward because I'm not a fan of Palmer. Do It Again and Reelin' in the Years could have been on any of their other albums. It's a tentative debut, there are glimpses of what would come, but there is a lot that doesn't quite work as well. Not a bad album, but not great.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
5/5
Brilliant noise pop.
Tom Waits
4/5
Dark and brilliant.
Anita Baker
2/5
an undeniable talent and great band but it all feels… sterile.
Gene Clark
5/5
A hidden gem in the early development of country rock. Ambitious and sprawling.
Roxy Music
3/5
Seems like pretty decent Glam, would need some more time with it.
Serge Gainsbourg
2/5
Creepy lush music.
The Magnetic Fields
3/5
nothing stuck out as bad. Quite a few songs stuck out as exceptional. It's really long and this was a first listen, will need more time with it.
The Icarus Line
3/5
competent noisy rock.
David Bowie
4/5
An uneven album by one of the all time greats.
Kraftwerk
3/5
Undoubtedly influential album that just feels like noodling to me.
The Fall
3/5
Solid post punk, would like to spend more time with it.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
Emotional. Sprawling. Epic. An improvisational feat!
Peter Tosh
4/5
Very good Reggae. Will spend more time with it.
The Doors
5/5
One of the all time great debuts. A dark fully realized and original album.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
The Neil songs are great, the rest is uneven and doesn’t meet the high bar of the first album.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
This is a solid album by one of the most consistent bands in American music. I mean Power Pop wasn’t even really a thing yet but you had Petty, Big Star and Dwight Twilley making it a thing. This album is a concoction of southern sensibilities and Punk aesthetic. They made better albums for sure but the sneer was never the same & there was never the same sense of urgency. Sure, almost 50 years later this sounds like classic rock radio but this was fresh and new and slightly dangerous in its day. If nothing else, it has Breakdown and American Girl which are stone cold classics. It’s amazing to think they were this fully realized from the get go.
k.d. lang
5/5
I don’t think I’m capabale of thinking about this album critically.
She had been a country artist before this album. She was quirky and strange, her songs full of humor.
In the three years between Absolute Truth and Twang, she came out as a lesbian and to further alienate herself from a still very conservative musical genre - she became an outspoken animal rights activist.
With this album she transitioned to an adult contemporary artist. She was suddenly doing music that more closely resembled what you would hear in nightclub and more likely some seedy French place. The production and vocals immaculate.
The album itself is very much about unrequited love and is an emotionally complex work from an artist who not only reinvented herself but stepped out with new confidence and a bit of a cavalier devil may care attitude not accepting compromise with her audience. It is an artist saying this is who I am and my desires and if you don’t like it, I don’t really care.
Parliament
5/5
This is peak George Clinton to me. While One Nation is Under a Groove is great, it isn’t quite the sound I associate with Clinton. Aqua Boogie is my other fave and the far out sound I associate with Parliament. This album is more of a direct lineage from James Brown’s funk but is reaching for that spaced out sound. What really struck me today is how clean the production is… I’ve always thought of Clinton’s sound as cacophonous but this album has presence of stage depth and the instruments are distinct and separate. There is a cacophony but if you listen clearly you can hear everything. And it grooves!
Green Day
3/5
Sometimes you have to check your biases. This was not as bad as I expected it to be. Actually quite enjoyable and more so with each listen. Even the singles started not to annoy in context.
Sarah Vaughan
5/5
Stunning
Moby
4/5
Ubiquitous and catchy. A little long.
Radiohead
5/5
My favorite album by one of the best bands of the late twentieth and early twenty first century/. A band at the cusp of reinventing rock. It’s epic.
Thundercat
4/5
Space noodling jazz funk. Odd and brilliant.
Miles Davis
5/5
My favorite not live release of the electric/fusion period. This is considered Miles' first fusion album, he had been headed that way for a minute adding electric instrumentation to Miles in the SKy and Filles de Kilimanjaro. Even further Sorcerer and Nefertiti had shown a shift from modal music to a more moody groovy music. In many ways, Nefertiti feels like Silent Way. The biggest difference not just being the augmentation of acoustic instruments but the addition of the work of Teo Macero. The music begins to be composed after the studio work is done... having many takes cut together to form a new composition different then even the free flowing takes in the studio. This would not only be a big deal in the music Miles would make for the rest of the seventies, but in music in general. It is a piece of the puzzle that became EDM and Hip Hop. @jamieanderson1968 says the Laswell work is sacrilege to some, but I think it shows that he understood what this was. Panthalassa is worth a listen and a fitting tribute to this period of not only intense experimentation in the music, but in how it was released. This is not only just a masterpiece but one that still challenges musicians today to do better. A top notch band expanding the possibilities of the music and a top notch production that expands what music actually is. This album is a vibe.
Air
5/5
Cinematic infectious booty shaking kitsch.
AC/DC
5/5
I didn't really know the Bon Scott story until recently and now I find this album sadly ironic. I also find the idea that the difference between this and Back in Black is filler funny. AC/DC is nothing but lean. Which is part of their problem, they created a formula for their sound and went with it. The filler is just stuff that they didn't release as singles, because I don't think the quality of songs ever lets up on this album.
This is basically a call for help from Bon that wasn't heard. It actually fills me with a bit of dread now. Ultimately, it is fun. It is one of two for sure essential albums by the band, the other being Back in Black. Sure the fans will throw Dirty Deeds out as well and honestly, I think through Let There Be Rock they are very solid (and Powerage mostly suffers from them straying from the formula.) Anyhow, this band made these two unequivocal masterpieces.
AC/DC is an important band though. Mutt made them marketable and by extension created a world where Hair Metal ruled the airwaves, GNR dominated sales, and ultimately - when combined with the indie movement in the eighties - allowed the harder music when Punk broke to be palatable by the masses and marketed as Alternative. If this album had not been a monster followed by a behemoth none of that happens the way it did.
Genesis
3/5
A band I’ve always meant to spend more time with. I’ve always had a copy of Invisible Touch (just picked up an OG the other day) and I know the Lamb Lies Down very well. HUGE fan of Gabriel’s solo stuff and a fan of Collins’ solo stuff but never dug into the rest of their catalog. I mean I’ve heard this but never gave it the time it probably deserves.
I have a feeling this is exactly the kind of music that people who hate prog rock are talking about when they say they hate prog rock. It’s very English. Very noodly. Very full of itself. I’m honestly not sure where I fall half way through it.
I’m still mixed on my third listen. There are parts I really dig then there are parts where it makes me want to stuff things in my ears. I have a feeling this is not the best starting place.
Ash
3/5
A heck of a lot of fun. Derivative but fresh. Will revisit.
R.E.M.
4/5
A very good album by a very good band.
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Illinois is one of those albums that I forget is great until I am listening to it. Like @dbarila , I get much more out of the experimental stuff, but I feel like that disparages this a bit, because it's not like it is your typical singer songwriter fare. It is very much of the same ilk as Age of Adz and Seven Swans - melodically and thematically, it is just the bridge between. I imagine that this is the kind of music that Tim DeLaughter and Brian Wilson hear in their head.
Robbie Williams
1/5
Not for me. Seems vapid and the singer seems pretentious.
Bad Company
3/5
Every other song is a slog. But the half that doesn’t is awesome.
Adam & The Ants
2/5
I would like to check out at some point I. The future. Not feeling it today. Struck me as an unfocused Cure.
Radiohead
5/5
The album where Radiohead became Radiohead. Essential listening.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Afro-Brazilian Samba Funk!!!!
Sabu
3/5
Nice, didn't really get to dissect it the way I want to. Love Brazilian music so will probably return to it some day.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Complex musical settings for her lyrical brilliance. To a certain extent, it feels like she is fully an artist for the first time.
Elis Regina
3/5
Very nice vocals with nice accomplishment. Will want to come back to.
Fatboy Slim
5/5
I feel like You've Come A Long Way, Baby is music nerd music made by a music nerd. What's better is it makes your butt shake. Can't find fault with it, it does its job well. Unlike Dig Your Own Hole, the other Big Beat record we have reviewed, this one is not fatiguing in the home setting. It feels like an album, I'm not sure if that is because of the interstitial pieces, fades, better programing. I feel like it is a little of all. Like the Chems, Fatboy Slim came up doing dj sets, he applies that knowledge to his first two albums. The Chems never really got that their albums should flow until Surrender, which interestingly enough was after they released a dj style set mixtape (Brothers Gonna Work It Out).
The Rolling Stones
4/5
I’ve never really listened to early Stones before besides the hits. I have to say I find both versions more enjoyable than the likes of early Beatles. There is personality in spades. The UK version is a little long, suffers from not having paint it black but feels more like a thought out album starting in psychedelic territory and ending more traditional blues oriented. The American version is short, has Paint it Black but doesn’t really gel quite as well as an album.
I agree that their later work is better and more important but this is a solid album which is slyly altering the sound of English Pop Blues.
Spiritualized
3/5
Slow plodding atmospheric music. They are obviously talented, but this is music for bed time.
Nanci Griffith
5/5
Superb songwriting. Great performances. Masterful.
4/5
This album is like a stroll through a history of British Pop music through the lens of Brit Pop. quite enjoyable.
Daft Punk
5/5
Housey fun!
The Who
3/5
Straight up British rock. Enjoyable, nothing mind blowing. My Generation does have an urgency that would not really be replicated for a few more years. Moon is the stand out here. He was fully cooked with his primal abandon even at this point. Townsend is neither the songwriter or force on guitar he would become. Daltrey eventually becomes one of the better rock singers but isn’t there yet. It’s funny, the apple blurb states the band didn’t like it much, feeling it was rushed which may be some of its charm. In reality, except for a few exceptions (Who’s Next), The Who are a band I like on paper more than I do in reality. Almost every album feels like it is lacking compared to the various compilations or their live sound which gets at that unhinged urgency of My Generation or It’s Not True. It does its job well though and they are a competent enough band.
Stephen Stills
4/5
Solid album. Definitely Stills lead but you can hear Hillman’a influence bringing in that Byrds/Burrito Brothers sound. A wide swath of music with a country blues foundation.
Steve Earle
5/5
A perfect blend of songwriting and delivery that brings straight ahead country with a nice blend of 80’s heartland rock.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
A stellar voice, influence abounds even if he is a little full of himself.
Green Day
4/5
Dumb pop punk fun. Full of hooks and memorable choruses.
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
Fleeting but enjoyable.
Kanye West
2/5
All the shine is gone. It's fine I guess. When I pay attention to the lyrics, I'm overanalyzing them in the context of who he became, which probably isn't fair. The production doesn't seem as great now either, but I imagine that is due to his techniques being used by others a million times since this was released. Power was the highlight of the album. He does seem like a much better emcee in the age of trap and mumble. That being said, he still has a corny forced flow that isn't helped by cadences that are slightly beyond his ability. Wish I could listen to it in a vacuum without him as baggage
The Youngbloods
4/5
I was unfamiliar with this group. I quite liked this album, while they were a Boston group, it seems they had relocated and this sounds to me like a bridge between the Laurel Canyon folky rock singer songwriter scene and the emerging psychedelic Bay area scene. It could be a little more focused, but is very charming.
Pink Floyd
5/5
A well thought out concept album that can slog a bit but is filled with some of Waters era Floyd’s best songs.
Fats Domino
3/5
That was diverting. It’s fun. It felt a little … reserved… I’m not sure how much of that is a crappy YouTube upload which made it feel like the production was all over the place which may be the case as it may have been recorded over a number of dates. Blueberry Hill is a classic. I love the horn hit at the beginning of each bar in Honey Chile. Trust in Me was another highlight. Wished the levels were up a bit on the piano cause that sounds like it was smoking.
Van Morrison
5/5
I’ve never thought about ranking Van Morrison. Most of the run from Astral to Fleece is basically perfect (Hard Nose being the good not Great album in the run). I’d say I reach for this one more often and that’s certainly true, even last fm agrees with me. It’s a warm blanket of an album.
The Byrds
5/5
The other day I had a discussion about gatekeeping in Nashville and how that basically lead to Americana as shorthand for Country music that doesn’t get airplay on the radio. How important forward thinking artists like Margo Price and Jason Isbell are basically exiled from the Country charts because they are too liberal.
The Byrds debuted this new sound (spearheaded very much by Gram Parsons) at the Grand Ole Opry and neither Country or Rock wanted anything to do with it.
The Rolling Stone review is conflicted saying it’s too pretty to be country and too country to be rock. The charts weren’t kind to the album either. No one knew what to make of it.
It would build over the years and become considered a masterpiece. It was the opening salvo of Parson’s Cosmic American music. It was a sign of things to come and the last great Byrds album. They had come a long way from the Dylan disciples bringing his message to the masses. In a way it marked the end of the folk revival.
The Parsons songs are the highlights. A bright shining star that flamed out all too soon. He would take Hillman and start the Flying Burrito Brothers. This left McGuinn to carry the band (an all new band) forward.
The Grateful Dead would see some success with a more Country Rock sound in the seventies. Lynard Skynard would distill the sound into Southern Rock and really make some waves with it. Artists like Uncle Tupelo would expound on the idea many years later. And then there are all them “Americana” folks from earlier (Isbell and Carlile and company) who can find a niche outside of Nashville because of a failed album by the Folk Rock titans.
Stan Getz
5/5
Boss’s Nova and America start right here (vinyl sounds real good)
Beatles
5/5
A perfect album by my favorite band.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
Poetic. Straddling a folk sound and classical. Never quite what you expect with a voice that calls from long ago but echoes the sixties. A demanding album.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Man, in 1971, Stevie Wonder released Where I'm Coming From and didn't really let up until 1980's Hotter Than July. That's a full decade of once in a lifetime level albums. This is pretty much the apex of it all. A remarkable run from a remarkable musician.
Culture Club
4/5
Pop music was king in the 80s. This was one of the cream of the crop, a New Romantic masterpiece. Unavoidable in it’s time. While definitely of it’s time, its themes (at times heavy despite the infectious sound of it all.) A rare band that not only seemed driven by the front man, but allowed the back up singers and instrumentalists shine. Really love the slick Motown update of Church of the Poison Mind.
CHIC
3/5
Most of the songs a little too long. At last I am Free is dreadful. However, it grooves. The musicians are talented and the album is sequenced well.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Really dig this. It’s fun. It swings!
The Police
4/5
Energetic and fun. Not only presenting two big hits but through them the sound that would define them and be felt in all of pop during the 80’s.
Nico
4/5
A sophisticated and complex 60's pop record. Her voice is challenging and her harmonies are interesting. Hearing the core of the Velvet Underground in an orchestral setting is pretty cool. It is folky and Baroque and brilliant.
Dirty Projectors
4/5
I enjoyed the inventive harmonies and complexity of the compositions. Will seek in the future.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
I have a big stupid smile on my face. It’s Saturday morning. Cartoons are done, gonna watch Soul Train and then some Kung Fu movies. Wishing that I had a Defender machine in my house because the Atari version sucks.
Honestly, the programming is bizarre and brilliant at the same time. Like musically You Are is out of place. Thematically, it makes perfect sense.
B.B. King
5/5
A masterclass in blues and live showmanship.
Pixies
5/5
A noisy band with pop hooks that influenced a lot of bands. A landmark album.
Stereo MC's
1/5
The first song is pretty cool and could be the part of a 3 or 4 star album easy. The music if it were the soundtrack to a heist movie with a 90's house vibe could be a 4 or a 5. However, the rapping is awful - the cadence, the silly rhymes, the lack of content. It drags the whole thing down.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
This is the moment that Gabriel took control of his solo career and forged the path forward. It is the first accomplished album he produced after leaving Genesis. It is a landmark album in its style and impact on music for the next decade. He would only reach higher with subsequent projects both in ambition and popularity. I'm not quite sure that I agree with the general consensus that it is his masterpiece. I would probably give that to Us. However, it is brilliant and perfect, especially given its difficult subject matter.
Motörhead
4/5
Fun. crunchy. fast. makes me want to kick stuff in a good way.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Hendrix at the height of his powers and free. Brilliant.
Lou Reed
4/5
First time listening to this entire album.
I did not know before reading the RS review that Bowie produced this which made the sound of Vicious and Hangin' Round make a lot more sense. The first half of the album sounds like T. Rex and The Velvet Underground made a record together (well besides Perfect Day where Reed does his best Sinatra by way of Cohen) and I'm here for it. Once A Walk on the Wild Side hits though, it all gets a little more interesting. That Sax and then the Tuba on Make Up.
He has a really unique voice. It isn't quite as evident in the Velvet Underground stuff probably because there is just a lot more noise. He makes interesting choices vocally.
This was my first time listening to this album and I will be sure to return to it.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
This feels like a Velvets morning acoustic jam after a long night. Dolly and riveting.
The Zombies
3/5
Time of the Seaon alone places The Zombies in the pantheon of 60’s British psychedelic rock. The album basically didn’t exist until the song surprisingly became a hit two years after its release and the band had broken up (although now they play the oldies circuit and I believe still release material).
It is one of the oddest albums in the classic rock canon. It plays like some twisted Kingston Trio album of songs The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd collaborated on and never released. It’s all Mellotron and harmonies and deeply deeply strange. But then again these guys wore capes to their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Prime British weirdness.
N.W.A.
4/5
N.W.A. built on the foundation laid by Ice-T and Schooly D. Cube’s hyperbole and sense of humor combined with Dre’s beats were aided by the antics of the PRMC and a formal introduction of rap to white audiences through the unprecedented popularity of the Beastie Boys resulting in a real zeitgeist moment for the group. Without airplay, it became a big hit, made gangsta rap a viable product for the masses, and put the West Coast on the map.
Dre would go on to be a better producer (with a hell of a business acumen) and Cube would go on to add a bit of social commentary to his angry street persona (and make many a dumb comedy), but this remains the collective’s most powerful statement together or apart.
There are cringey moments.. rap more than any other genre seems to date itself not only through the prolific time stamps throughout its history but by being a record of the mentality of its auteurs.
The album would be important beyond the hype given its subtle political message- young black men in America were mad (righteously so) and this was, if nothing else, a way to express that anger without the fear of incarceration. Unfortunately, through both the mechanisms of a society that was censorshiptastic (which was oddly directed with more penalty at African Americans - systemic racism at its finest) and other’s attempts to be real (even if they weren’t), gangsta rap wasn’t a healthy or prison free outlet for very long.
They weren’t the first or even the best gangsta act, but they were the big bang and the album is a landmark for hip hop, in both positive and negative ways.
Ray Charles
5/5
Genius
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Long but solid.
Jack White
3/5
This album is fine. Jack White is fine. The White Stripes are important, but his solo work just feels like treading water. There are some nice moments and his guitar work is always great.
David Bowie
4/5
An artist known for looking forward looks back. The icon was human. Pretty great stuff.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
The end of two years of deeply rooting in himself, his thoughts and his addictions. An answer to Marvin Gaye. A complicated messy album that still resonates today.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Brilliant debut.
Massive Attack
4/5
Great singing. Great production. Great music. Great songs. Atrocious rapping.
Iggy Pop
4/5
Like the lost transition from the Glam to the Berlin Trilogy, a brilliant inward look at a rocker.
Gil Scott-Heron
4/5
I do not think one listen is enough to fully process a Gil Scott-Heron project. Really dug the music though.
Tortoise
4/5
Real cool post rock. Will revisit.
The Doors
5/5
Not much to say here. They went out with their best set.
The Verve
2/5
The singles are great. The rest of it just kind of meanders.
Portishead
5/5
Dark. Brilliant. An album that is showing a band ready to transcend Trip Hop.
American Music Club
4/5
Pretty solid americana adjacent music. Weird mix of 80s style vocals and more countrified vocals. Like this alot. Reminds me of Counting Crows.
The Gun Club
4/5
Bluesy, grimy, jangly, dark. Love this. Will revisit often.
Dr. Dre
4/5
Great beats, changed the game. Cringey.
New Order
4/5
This album bounces and feels like life.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
All I wanna do is have some fun. Decent pop. Nothing spectacular.
The Fall
3/5
Enjoyable punk/post punk.
Eric Clapton
3/5
A little incohesive. It has it moments.
Massive Attack
4/5
Good stuff
Black Sabbath
5/5
A landmark album. I mean how many albums can be directly pointed to as the point of a major genre?
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
Peak 80’s fun.
R.E.M.
4/5
An influential and important album. It’s not perfect though. A couple of songs are as grating as anything they ever did and Stipe mumbles throughout the entire album.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
REally nice, will need to spend more time with.
5/5
A great album, doesn’t hold its concept the whole way through, but it never slacks off. Pretty much the acme of glam.
Norah Jones
4/5
A vibe if an album, equally great for a morning with coffee or a light night. Excellent musicianship and production.
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
His most poptastic entry and one of the better post beatles efforts from any of the fab four.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Brilliant debut. A landmark for psychedelic music. Madness intertwined with childlike lyrics.
Astor Piazzolla
5/5
Masterful and passionate music. Two beasts surprisingly making widely disparate music sound like it was meant to be. Will revisit.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Mayfield was a master. This is smooth and funky and I will return to it.
Beck
4/5
Countrified hipster funk from the mad folky and the dust brothers.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Noisey art punk. Great stuff. Need to spend more time with the band, always.
Dexys Midnight Runners
5/5
I think this may be my favorite thing that I did not know (I mean, I knew Come on Eileen, but that was it) before the project. It is fun and a wonderful mash up of soul, punk and Irish music. Like nothing else. Will for sure return to it.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
The apex of what sly started with this band. It is optimistic and hopeful. The band is starting to be overtly political and it grooves.
Pretenders
5/5
Embarrassed to say that beyond Brass in Pocket, I did not know this. But it is great. Swagger for days and plays like a survey of 80s rock from punk to new wave to pop.
Wild Beasts
2/5
Decent music. The singer has a grating voice. The lyrics are bizarre at best, and stalkerly at worst. While I find the music interesting, the content will keep me away from this group’s work.
Nas
5/5
A undisputed classic. Phenomenal flow and lyricism. Production game changer.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Zep adds acoustic guitars. Magic happens.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
More than a throw back to the motown it is an update. One can only wonder what we might have had if she had stayed with us longer. The producers and the Dap Kings add a lot.
Guns N' Roses
3/5
A tough one. A landmark of 80s metal to be sure. The glam genre taken to its furthest extreme. It is full of excess both in hedonism, layered big arena music and grime and hate. It’s that hate - hate of women and other that drags it down. A double edged legacy.
Madonna
4/5
A solid later album from Madonna. Not the heights of the album directly preceding (Ray of Light) or Confessions after, but fun and well made. Could be sequenced better.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
A dark and personal, gritty album from one of my favorite songwriters. While it isn't the one I reach for the most, it is with out a doubt his best work.
Cheap Trick
3/5
So... I listened to this three times today and it really doesn't do anything for me. It's not bad. It just doesn't excite me. I do really like "I Want You to Want Me"
The Black Keys
3/5
The Black Keys stop being spaced out weirdos but don’t quite make their triumphant return to form. It has great moments (Everlasting Love) but mostly feels a little reserved
Iggy Pop
4/5
Iggy sort of returns to his former glory. It’s easy to understand why this is the record people gravitate to.
D'Angelo
5/5
An outstanding debut from a singular voice. Muhammad, Saadiq and Powers are a heck of production team. It’s layered into some kind of futuristic version of Sly’s late 70’s sound. It’s also very of its moment and as such transcends space and time. It’s also glorious booty call music.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
The album where Aretha became ARETHA. One of the greatest soul records ever recorded.
Kacey Musgraves
3/5
This is a solid pop album with a hint of a twang and a lot of Country attitude. I think the two albums preceding this one are much better.
Soundgarden
3/5
Way too long. Too polished. A handful of great songs though.
Queen
3/5
Queen was an odd art metal prog band. This album is nifty, you can see the band they would become starting to form.
Beyoncé
5/5
A defining and landmark album both for the artist and for how albums are released.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Simple beautiful. The voices. The harmonies. The melodies. The acapella rhythm.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
The hits - Spinning Wheel and Happy are outstanding. And When I Die is weird. The rest is okay or just meandering.
Bob Dylan
4/5
It’s a bit of a mess and all over the place but the highlights (Johanna and Memphis) are some of his best songs. Of course, Rainy Day Women is his worst.
Blur
4/5
A solid bit of britpop but as I know more of their catalog, the less impressive it is.
Common
5/5
Common is in top form here, as is Kanye. Dilla is just the cherry on the sundae. I like One Day… and Chocolate better but this is a highlight of this era of rap/hip hop.
Buck Owens
5/5
My love for Buck Owens is an example of the full circle I’ve had with Country.
Hee Haw was a Saturday evening staple in my house when I was a kid and I hated it. At the time it just seemed lame but I think maybe my subconscious knew that playing the South as full of Bumpkins was offensive. We’ve tackled the peculiar nature of Southern Pride elsewhere, but that’s certainly what I don’t like about the show and it’s legacy now.
What I did enjoy as a kid were the musical guests. Basically anyone who was anyone in Country music did a performance on Hee Haw. It was hosted by Buck Owens and Roy Clark who would tell bad one liners dressed in overalls and straw hats. I didn’t realize as a kid that these guys were titans of Country Music.
As I got older, I started to despise country because of Hee Haw, the conservative politics of the genre as a whole, and because I was ashamed of my heritage. Mind you, this was before I understood the systematic way racism was downplayed and further institutionalized in school.
In college, the punk kids all respected Cash and the other outlaws and I started to reevaluate the genre as a whole. But even then it was another decade before I let my affinity for Country music (and R&B) be something I was comfortable enough to openly display and talk about.
I’ve really come to know the Bakersfield sound in the last decade and have become obsessed with Owens, Haggard, and especially the songwriting of Harlan Howard. A lot of this comes from a tribute album by Vince Gill:
www.allmusic.com
Vince Gill, Paul Franklin - Bakersfield Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic
Discover Bakersfield by Vince Gill, Paul Franklin released in 2013. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
Those old deep seated biases against Owens and the politics of Haggard late in his life kept me away from the music far too long. Fortunately my admiration for Gill as a guitarist (he’s a bit vanilla as a singer) changed that.
What’s really interesting is when it came time to really start exploring Owens is just how much of this album I knew. Many of the songs like the title song and Streets of Laredo were burned into my brain from that younger age (and probably countless covers) and those earliest memories of actually enjoying the music before I allowed outside influences (including my Dad who displayed an open dislike of the “old timey” music, specifically Hank Williams and Bob Wills, that his dad had liked - which is a topic for another day as Bluegrass … through its first exposure to me in high school… would play its own role in me accepting my love of country music).
This album has as much to do with the sub genre becoming popular as any other. Years before Outlaw became a crossover thing, Owens and the gang from California added rock to the country sound. This is its own cyclical thing in that both the Beatles and the Stones would play Bakersfield music which in turn influenced their sound and we know how influential both those acts were.
It’s a great record and if you think you hate country music, you should maybe check that bias at the door before listening.
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
I really enjoyed this. It’s noise the way I like it. Will return to it.
Eagles
3/5
Meh. The hits are great. The rest not so much. There’s nothing wrong with the Eagles. They aren’t pushing anything forward and maybe that’s why they are so popular.
Metallica
3/5
Of their core albums before they helped numetal gain a strong hold, this is their weakest. It is also the most popular. It certainly catches a couple of zeitgeist type topics and has become anthemic for various reasons.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
Two masters as the height of their powers. A great album and collaboration.
Fever Ray
4/5
A perfect winter album… cold, slightly detached, dark, and also utterly exhilarating and captivating.
Talvin Singh
4/5
I enjoyed this quite a bit. The Indian elements, the drum n bass and oh my gosh the low end is something.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
An all time classic. Not a bad song in the bunch
The White Stripes
3/5
Jack White at the height of his powers, on the precipice of fame. Still hungry and completely garage. A solid listen.
The Undertones
3/5
Fun punk pop.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Astonishingly violent. Astonishingly captivating. Will return.
The Charlatans
3/5
1st half boring same old same old brit pop. 2nd half this organ shows up and stuff gets funky and interesting.
MGMT
4/5
Fun modern pop that is quite a bit exceptional.
Talking Heads
4/5
A great album by a great band.
Youssou N'Dour
3/5
Was nice.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Solid and powerful alt rock.
G. Love & Special Sauce
1/5
Boring and amateurish.
Sigur Rós
3/5
Very nice ambient music that I will probably return to.
Sam Cooke
5/5
One of the all time great live albums and another side of Sam Cooke that most do not know.
Flamin' Groovies
4/5
Was unfamiliar with this. Would like to return to it, like a countrified Stones.
Steve Winwood
1/5
so... this is like some adult contemporary nightmare where Billy Joel and Phil Collins have merged into the same dude who happens to think he is Stevie Wonder. The cover pretty much tells you what you are getting into.
Tricky
5/5
This is one of the all time great albums. It actually makes it hard to listen to most other trip hop. It still sounds like the future three decades later. It’s a world of its own and mind blowing.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Si this is really when Zeppelin becomes the band that takes over the world. The first album is just not quite as confident.
The Doors
3/5
half of the album is great (see Peace Frog and Roadhouse Blues), half the album is obnoxious. So you know, it's a door's album.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Springsteen would take his edge further with Nebraska but this is a defining album for him.
Manic Street Preachers
5/5
An awful cover hides an intelligent and emotional bit of post punk meets metal. Absolutely brilliant. Will be exploring this discography.
Ozomatli
2/5
over produced, but there is music worth listening to here. Saturday Night is the beginning of it settling in and it gets a little better through to the end.
Janis Joplin
5/5
One of the all time great voices. Honestly, the album doesn’t quite feel finished, but it doesn’t really suffer because of that.
Radiohead
5/5
Tweaked out future soul.
George Michael
4/5
Entering his adult contemporary phase, Michael ups the vocal difficulty and thematics.
Bob Dylan
5/5
The best of the early folk stuff.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Not as inspired as their earlier work but an enjoyable listen.
Dolly Parton
5/5
When Dolly became DOLLY.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
5/5
Psychedelic folk rock at its best. Amazing harmonies.
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
All the chaos, anger and politics of The Pistols, but with a more musical slant. Jah Wobble was a genius from the offset. Keith Levene's guitars influenced a generation. This is post punk before it was a thing. It is confrontational and provocative. A great album.
Khaled
2/5
This seems a little slickly produced and trying to bring in as wide an audience as possible. However, it was a great entry point for the artist and I have listened to his self titled album which seems more accomplished and exciting. I look forward to exploring his catalog and the Rai music genre.
The Style Council
1/5
inconsistent and two much. reading other reviews there are a lot of these two songs are good, doesn't make up for the utter amateurishness of the whole endeavor and nothing makes up for A Gospel.
Johnny Cash
5/5
One of the all time great recordings by one of the all time great artists.
Various Artists
5/5
An all time great Christmas album full of bangers.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
Not bad, not great. Seems like Amy Winehouse with hip hop production.
Destiny's Child
2/5
The hits deserve the attention: the rest is a mess of meandering runs over beats probably better used elsewhere. A mess.
Doves
3/5
An interesting album that resembles what might happen if Coldplay and a Radiohead joined forces. Worthy of possible future listens.
Beck
4/5
A hip danceable modern rock pop thing. A lot of fun.
Fugees
5/5
An all time great rap album that sort of reset all the gangster rap and made everything a little bit more palatable.
Dolly Parton
5/5
Great songs sung by three great voices with beautiful harmonies. Perfect record.
Hugh Masekela
5/5
Simply stunning. The musicianship and composition are perfect. The blend of spiritual jazz, hard bop and African sounds is infectious.
Sonic Youth
4/5
The stereotypical sonic youth album. Following up their best album (and one of the best albums ever) and getting signed to a major there are tracks that show why they got there intermingling with art noise. A complicated messy and utterly compelling work.
Muddy Waters
5/5
Raucous and inspired. Winters, Waters, and company quite literally caught lightening in a bottle with this record.
Taylor Swift
4/5
The moment I started paying attention to Ms. Swift (actually it was Ryan Adams' cover of this album). On top of fully embracing pop, she actually writes more about herself (instead of relationships) and seems to have more substance as a result.
Sparks
4/5
Like operatic new wave. Zany and infectious. Will be returning, for sure.
King Crimson
3/5
Noodly prog. Then the guy sings and it’s like a renaissance rom com. It all sounds well played and very intricate, but it’s doesn’t really groove or grab you.
The Beta Band
2/5
This plays like DJ Shadow Muzak. Chilled out The Books. Radiohead except all beats instead of guitars and vocal aerobatics. It doesn’t live up to the hype of High Fidelity.
Eminem
2/5
This is decidedly not for me. I recognize Eminem’s talent as a rapper. His flow is untouchable and he’s obviously very intelligent. The Dre lead music is awesome. The lyrical content is at best problematic. He’s shocking purely to shock and the amount of anger is astonishing. I find it very unheroic that there is a censored version that bleeps the curse words as if that is the problem with the content
Pixies
5/5
This album was (and is) a bomb of aggression and noise. All neatly tied with a keen sense of poppy hooks. It reverberates through music to this day.
Burning Spear
5/5
Essential roots reggae.
Shuggie Otis
4/5
Was not familiar with this before listening and am now obsessed. It is remarkable that so much of what Maxwell and Cody ChestNutt would do was done before in 74 by a basically forgotten musician. Great stuff that I will continue to explore.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Not my favorite and a little long but pretty awesome.
Billy Joel
4/5
This is an accomplished but of pop music. Joel has a way with melody and also for creating characters that feel like they are real.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Prime stones.
The Specials
4/5
This was quite the revelation. There is not OG Ska worth listening to.
Bill Callahan
5/5
This was outstanding. Dark. Melodic. One of the more emotional singers I have ever heard. I will be revisiting this and his catalog.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
5/5
A touchstone of country rock. Having already created one classic with The Byrds, Parsons defined a sound with this album. Gritty and lo fi and perfect in every way.
Thin Lizzy
2/5
This is one of those things, on paper I should love it, but it just doesn’t do anything for me.
Elvis Presley
4/5
It’s uneven and weird but one of the most important releases ever.
Minor Threat
3/5
Pretty important east coast diy punk. MacKaye grew up to be a powerhouse of the scene.
Fatboy Slim
4/5
Fun upbeat dance music that isn't awful to listen to while doing other things.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
It says Jimmy Smith on the cover but I’m pretty sure this is Stanley Turrentine’s album.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
It’s a shame that what is a landmark album for hip hop is full of problematic material. The beats are nice, the features nice and Snoop’s
Flow is impeccable. If it was all Murder was the Case instead of Gs up hos down…
Nick Drake
4/5
Beautifully played and produced album. Will revisit.
The Dictators
3/5
Juvenile and in your face rock. A lot of fun.
Blondie
4/5
A classic… punk grows up, goes to the disco and gets huge.
Neneh Cherry
4/5
A very unique album blending styles into its own amorphous genre. A sort of proto trip hop affair especially when you look at the list of collaborators. Sounds just as out there now as it did 3 decades ago.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
A fierce dance punk record that I will be returning to.
Black Sabbath
5/5
A leap forward from their first album with no less than three iconic riffs. The writing and production is raised. The band is great and Ozzy is in good form. War Pigs is one of the all time great songs.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
An opulent and mesmerizing album.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
Albarn supergroup sounds like Albarn supergroup.
Genesis
5/5
An ambitious album that doesn’t quite meet its brief but reaches musical highs and still impresses to this day.
Blur
4/5
A lot of fun. Nice shift in Brit pop
The Who
5/5
I’ve been listening to this as long as I can remember and I think I love it more each time.
The Vines
2/5
Meh… like most of this 2000 garage stuff, it was pleasant enough to listen to and completely forgotten after.
Jurassic 5
4/5
I would have picked Quality Control or J5. However, this is a fine album. It threads the needle of gangster and conscious rap. The mcs are insane and have a unique interaction. NuMark and Cut Chemist are brilliant.
Can
3/5
Psychedelic and out there. Will revisit.
Bob Dylan
5/5
A landmark album.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
A pretty perfect album. Probably gonna reach for CSN or any number of NY albums before this though.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
Solid representation of the Bay Area Scene.
Eagles
3/5
Well it’s better than Hotel California. The country vibe works better for them.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
I don’t understand this record.
Deep Purple
2/5
Meh.
Public Enemy
4/5
Not their best album but possibly the one that imprinted the group on a wider consciousness.
Pavement
3/5
Evidently this is a genesis of the indie rock sound. To me, it sounds like the noise of Sonic Youth brought to the hooks of Bob Mould. It’s wide ranging sounds and snippet like approach certainly inspired quite a few after.
Violent Femmes
3/5
Evidently this is a genesis of the indie rock sound. To me, it sounds like the noise of Sonic Youth brought to the hooks of Bob Mould. It’s wide ranging sounds and snippet like approach certainly inspired quite a few after.
Bauhaus
4/5
This was fantastic. Will revisit. Sounds fresh even today.
Deep Purple
3/5
I liked this better than Made in Japan. It feels more focused but still feels like jam band meets metal and ultimately isn’t really for me. I really don’t like the screams vocals at all.
5/5
Such a great album!
Rage Against The Machine
4/5
A great and inventive band with an important message. Dislike Zach’s voice. They are kind of full of themselves and 52 minutes feels like 20 minutes too long for this kind of music.
The Soft Boys
3/5
Power pop with teeth and lots of psychedelics. Will revisit for sure.
Willie Nelson
5/5
One of the all time great albums. Willie free at last and showing what he can do when left alone.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
A great debut and a great synthesis of southern rock.
Elliott Smith
4/5
Great voice and melodies
Elvis Costello
5/5
A stellar debut. He would never have this much bite again, but his catchy hooks and ear for unique melodies is riddled through out.
Queen
3/5
Freddie is great as always. The band presents their usual craftsmanship. Killer Queen is a great track. The rest of the album never even comes close to that peak.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
Solid debut.
The Offspring
1/5
Not for me.
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
An amazing display of space, layering and emotion.
4/5
Good debut. Nostalgic.
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
Solid stuff. A more out there and dancey version of Joy Division. Will revisit.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
The title track is a jam. The rest of the album is a definite vibe that can be grating sometimes.
Duke Ellington
5/5
A great performance by a great band.
Meat Loaf
5/5
Over the top theatrical rock fun.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
Good vibe album. Love his voice. Like the ska edge.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
2/5
Yacht rock music and Eno soundscapes.
5/5
A perfect album.
Dire Straits
3/5
On first listen, I thought this was a front loaded bore of an album. However by the third listen, I was beginning to respect the ksucianship and craft on display. The production is top notch. It’s a grower.
The Clash
5/5
A great debut. A great album. A great band.
3/5
A fun bombastic dancy pomp.
Morrissey
4/5
Despicable human with an amazing talent. Gorgeous album.
Big Black
4/5
Post punk as Porto industrial. Intense in every way.
Prince
5/5
Prince arrived to the mainstream with this album. A beast of an album.
The Smiths
2/5
I disliked this album even though I have come to terms with liking both the Smiths and Morrissey’s solo work. This is self aggrandizing taken to ludicrous extremes and comes off childish at times. Morrissey also sounds ill on several tracks.
Saint Etienne
4/5
Fun poppy dance music.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
1/5
Derivative and sophomoric. Sure it’s full of hooks that not only are samples but samples that have been used a lot before this came out.
Pixies
3/5
There are awesome peaks (Happening, Blown Away), a lot of pointless filler (first and last song) and atrocities (Hang Wire). The most uneven of their original four full length albums and unfortunately a sign of things to come.
Miles Davis
5/5
Landmark album
ZZ Top
5/5
A behemoth of a record. inspired by Billy digging Depeche Mode and Ministry.
Tori Amos
5/5
A gut punch record. Hauntingly beautiful at times. Always engaging. Very emotional. Perfectly executed at all times.
Elastica
3/5
90s alternative rock. Edges and fun but still feels like an Apple ad spot to me.
Pantera
4/5
Prime 90’s metal.
Miles Davis
5/5
A landmark album. A gateway for jazz.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
One of the all time great rap acts and albums.
3/5
I get that this is an important album but it’s a wreck of a show. They sound sloppy as hell. Starship is great though.
The Byrds
3/5
Oye easy to see how this was influential both as early psychedelic rock and with the beginnings of the more Country Rock they would soon be producing. It is a wildly uneven album though.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
Strong stuff. Will revisit.
Adele
5/5
A great vocalist with an album full of heat.
The Who
4/5
Great music. Wish there was less chatter.
The Pogues
4/5
Solid
MC Solaar
3/5
Solid 90s hip hop.
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
Very nice bossa nova with and undertone of electronica.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
4/5
A nice fossil of early rock. The singles are great!
Nirvana
5/5
An all time great album. A band that found itself at the top of the world with a singer that didn’t really want it. It rails against everything, including itself. Beneath all the fuzz and anger, there are smart lyrics and brilliant hooks and melodies.
Elliott Smith
4/5
I really enjoyed this. Fairly new to his music.
Miles Davis
3/5
This is a landmark album for fusion and I. The way it was constructed, but for me thus music works best in a live setting where it can breath instead of being confined to a structure that didn’t necessarily exist
Supergrass
4/5
Edgier britpop and all the better for it. Will revisit.
Sex Pistols
3/5
A historic album.
Calexico
3/5
Liked. Will revisit.
Ice T
4/5
A landmark album in gangster rap. Smart and brutal. Still problematic at times and Ice T’s flow has always been kind of goofy to me.
Beck
4/5
Beck in baroque folk mode, an album about breaking up that’s sounds more haunting than the singer feels. An atmospheric album and one of his best.
Iron Butterfly
3/5
Kind of mid psych rock.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Great harmonies. Interesting Psych in the sixties vibe.
Nick Drake
4/5
Very nice. Not as nice as the moon one. Will be returning to catalog.
Hole
5/5
A gut punch of an album given the timing and subject matter. Still raw to this day.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I dig Costello but was unfamiliar with this album. It is raw and vicious. Will return.
The Go-Go's
5/5
A great debut album that holds up very well.
Beastie Boys
5/5
They’re best album. It takes elements of all that came before it an adds a maturity of content.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Not his/their best - the got better with each outing in my opinion, but a stellar debut that set more than Jimi’s guitars on fire!
Eurythmics
3/5
I like the idea of Eurythmics more than I like them. Their greatest hits is enough for me. Very dated sound.
Derek & The Dominos
5/5
A killer album.
Kate Bush
4/5
I need to listen to more Kate Bush was my take away. Not an easy album but always compelling.
Johnny Cash
5/5
A great last album and statement on mortality.
Jerry Lee Lewis
4/5
A rip roaring and dynamic live performance of early rock n roll.
Cream
4/5
A great psych record.
Skepta
3/5
Energetic British hip hop that doesn’t make me want to stop listening. Nice collage of sounds and interesting lyrics.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
One of the best albums by one of the best artists. Baby making music!
Wilco
5/5
Whole books could be written about this. Films made. Oh wait, that has happened. A brilliant album that happened to punch music forward and catch the zeitgeist at the same time. The story behind the album is as fascinating as the album itself.
Coldplay
5/5
Coldplay goes bombastic. Takes over the world. People immediately start to hate.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Inventive and fascinating.
Solid bluesy classic rock.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Always great a bit of a different sound than I expected!
Stan Getz
5/5
An all time chill album.
Harry Nilsson
5/5
First there’s the voice. Then there’s the songwriting… then there’s this album of polished shimmery pop that also rocks and manages to all feel subversive. Singular stuff.
Laura Nyro
5/5
A phenomenal singer and songwriter who deserves to be here and more widely recognized.
John Prine
5/5
A hell of a debut full of songs that are pretty much standards now. There is a wisdom and emotional depth that is years beyond the young man who wrote them. He has an uncanny ability to tell everyone’s store.
Mike Oldfield
4/5
A very interesting listen. Will want to come back to in the future.
Metallica
2/5
An odd album. It doesn’t reach the mark of good classical music (sounds more like a soundtrack looking for a movie) and stifles Metallica.
King Crimson
3/5
It’s all nice enough and seems to be very important to prog rock, but it doesn’t excite me or compel me to return to it.
Solange
5/5
A powerful and seductive album experience that I wish I had listened to before now.
Radiohead
5/5
Great stuff.
Lupe Fiasco
2/5
It doesn’t quite gel. The production is solid. His flow is good and switched up a bit. His lyrics aren’t reprehensible. But it just kind of falls flat.
Bob Dylan
5/5
One of the greatest albums of all time. Possibly Dylan’s most confessional. Easily one of his more accessible and relatable. Emotional.
David Bowie
5/5
Ziggy goes to America and gets weird. Bowie begins truly collaborating and experimental.
Dr. John
5/5
Funky and grimy. Sometimes creepy. Always mesmerizing.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
4/5
Weird artsy 80’s music. Me likey.
David Holmes
3/5
This album plays like a survey of electronica circa 1997. An interest concept, very eclectic.
Louis Prima
4/5
Fun stuff!
Fleet Foxes
5/5
A beautiful bit of chamber folk. Perfect for a winter’s day.
The Thrills
3/5
Was unfamiliar, quirky fun britpop that evokes sun drenched California through a Wayne Coyne filter.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
A solid album from an icon.
Billy Bragg
5/5
Woody Guthrie, Bragg and Wilco. It’s fantastic.
Steely Dan
5/5
A bit of sonic slickness combined with amazing musicianship and fierce wit. Also, it thumps.
Iron Maiden
2/5
I enjoy what the band does but not Dickinson, furthermore it all comes off as cold.
The Saints
3/5
Was unfamiliar but this was a lot of fun. Will return to it.
Holger Czukay
3/5
Fascinating cut and paste noodling.
The Mars Volta
3/5
I was familiar with later work but had not spent time with this. It is complicated and compelling. Will take further listens to really suss out.
Dire Straits
3/5
Solid.
Alice In Chains
5/5
A exemplary metal album from the nineties. Staley was a great singer, he and Cantrell wrote great songs. This is the pinnacle of their partnership. An album consumed by darkness and addiction.
Terence Trent D'Arby
4/5
A unique and fantastic 80s slice of eclecticism.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
A weird album.
Cypress Hill
5/5
A classic.
Bee Gees
2/5
A weird album.
The Streets
1/5
I like the beats. The rest is decidedly not for me.
3/5
This was a vibe. Will relisten.
Justice
4/5
An inventive take on the fun French house brought to the masses by Daft Punk.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
The Velvets doing what they do. Great heady stuff.
Madness
4/5
Quite enjoyable English pop ska. Will seek out future listens.
John Martyn
4/5
Breathtakingly brilliant.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
The hits are great. The album is too long and the rest of the album is too uneven.
Talking Heads
5/5
Brilliant.
Boards of Canada
3/5
Seems like this would be where the music became album oriented listen at home stuff. Will need to spend more time with it.
Jungle Brothers
5/5
A great album by a solid undervalued group. As solid and groundbreaking as their partners in the Native Tongues.
Happy Mondays
3/5
Unhinged British pop that blends the old and the new. Definitely worth a listen.
Beastie Boys
5/5
This is a touchstone album. A turning point for the band and hip hop. It’s like Pet Sounds or the first Velvet Underground album, it wasn’t a runaway hit (although its flop is overstated) but its influence is remarkable. Ill Communication is my favorite Beasties record but this is arguably the most important.
Venom
1/5
Well that was an album.
The Monkees
3/5
Interesting album, light folky psychedelic pop.
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
Fun power pop, plays light Sugar demos.
Nitin Sawhney
4/5
Stunning, a classical approach to electronic music composition with breathtaking scope in concept and themes. Will return to this.
KISS
4/5
Fun, over the top cartoon rock.
The Triffids
2/5
A slow burner of an album that borders on CCM at times.
The Associates
3/5
Man. Way out there crazy 80s pop doodling. Fun stuff.
Eminem
4/5
Em is very talented and not for me.
The White Stripes
5/5
Their biggest sound and a well crafted album all the way around.
Haircut 100
3/5
Liked what I heard. Need to revisit…
Supergrass
4/5
More like super fun. Raw and energetic. The best of the Brit pop I’ve encountered on this list.
Gene Clark
3/5
Pleasant Country rock.
Femi Kuti
3/5
A little stiff but a respectable debut.
4/5
Energetic and thought provoking. Coleman’s music enjoys the grit and pace.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
Missy, outstanding and energetic. Not a fan of Helter Skelter.
Suede
3/5
Meh… nothing wrong with it.
Jeff Beck
4/5
I should listen to more Beck.
Randy Newman
5/5
A warts and all exploration of the south told by a master storyteller. Great stuff that will get under your skin.
Sonic Youth
4/5
An awesome step in the evolution of the band clearly bridging the noise art of the early band and the pop sensibilities that would immediately follow.
The Band
5/5
An all time classic.
Minutemen
5/5
Watt and Boon basically reinvent their instruments and what punk can be. All time classic.
Badly Drawn Boy
4/5
I was unfamiliar with this artist. This was a very interesting album encompassing baroque folk, indie rock and grandeur pop. Will revisit.
The Stooges
5/5
Classic, probably their most accessible.
The Killers
4/5
A fun rock pastiche.
Bobby Womack
4/5
Groovy and nice. Need to spend more time with it and the catalog.
Devendra Banhart
4/5
Solid folk
Music. Like the space in the recording. Will return.
Milton Nascimento
5/5
A landmark in MPB. A beautiful genre shifting epic.
Kings of Leon
4/5
Post strokes garage rock goes southern rock. Energetic and raw. The bombast of their later work is present if you listen for it. A fun record.
Lorde
4/5
This was a strong personal pop album framed very well. Antonoff’s great production is clearly felt but his tropes do weaken the album at times. The last half is the strongest. It is a worthwhile album.
The Cars
5/5
One of those perfect and timeless albums. Plays like a greatest hits and it’s their debut. Absolute magic. Oh yeah and the Rhino HiFi vinyl is AMAZING.
Janet Jackson
4/5
Seven #1 hits. It’s pretty much the reason it is here. It’s a competent album and after the breakthrough of Control, made her a superstar at her brother’s level. As a concept the album doesn’t hold up, but it has a solid production from Jam and Lewis that while dated is still pretty great and those hits are something else.
Meat Puppets
5/5
Great hillbilly punk.
Billie Holiday
5/5
Emotional and vulnerable, perfect.
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
Unlike a lot of shoegaze I’ve listened to this is almost punk and almost avant garde. It is guttural and raw. Dig it.
Finley Quaye
2/5
A perfectly pleasant, unremarkable and instantly forgettable listen.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
Noisey jangly ballsy rock with hooks.
Paul Simon
5/5
In 1987, Simon took Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (all also on the list) to Zimbabwe where they played for 45,000 people.
I guess I sort of remember the controversy, but Simon worked to showcase the black musicians of South Africa and to celebrate their music. It was a collaboration not a wholesale appropriation. I get not supporting the apartheid government but I have a hard time understanding how someone who earnestly sought out this music that caught his ear and then worked with the people who made the music to broaden the world’s knowledge and enjoyment of it could be doing a bad thing.
The fact that he was a target of anti-apartheid groups kind of just boggles my mind.
There is a joy to this music and its performance and the collaborative experience that went into making it. It is a great album. I think the love expressed by this music is just as important as any overtly political statement he could have made.
Earth, Wind & Fire
5/5
A soul classic. Shining Star is ubiquitous but there is not a bad track on the whole thing.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
4/5
A sophisticated jangly pop sound. Killer voice. Will revisit.
OutKast
5/5
Great album, a little harder edged than the rest of their catalog. The singles are all jams though.
Muddy Waters
5/5
I don’t really know enough about the blues to talk about it intelligently. I know that I like some of it and this one is one I like a lot.
The Damned
3/5
This was a lot of fun. Will revisit.
Talking Heads
5/5
One of the all time great debuts.
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
A landmark album that has become hard to listen to because of a tarnished legacy.
The 13th Floor Elevators
4/5
A landmark album that i need to spend more time with.
The Smiths
5/5
A great record. Too bad about that lead singer dude.
Spacemen 3
2/5
I liked this better than Spiritialized on first listen. It is kind of like grungy meditation music or music for angry yoga. It’s very droney which is where the sleepy time comes from for me. It’s not bad I’m just not real sure what would compel Me to play this
Gang Starr
3/5
Enjoyable.
Hot Chip
4/5
An album that makes you tap your feet and smile. Good stuff!
Isaac Hayes
5/5
Sexy funky smooth
Happy Mondays
3/5
Competent modern psych. Fun but kind of fleeting.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Gaye’s voice is great as ever, the album sounds great and his song writing is awesome as always. The album is an emotional chore though.
Metallica
5/5
The band’s masterpiece, a statement that forever change metal music and really rock.
Sepultura
5/5
A great and unique metal album.
Stephen Stills
4/5
Solid album, the singles are geat.
Kate Bush
3/5
An intriguing album by an intriguing artist. Production is a little dated.
Cowboy Junkies
5/5
Mmmm
Lou Reed
5/5
Probably the best bummer of an album ever made.
Morrissey
5/5
I don’t know if it was this here project shoving him down my throat or the election, but this hit me in the feels today. I’m gonna go take a shower and see if I can wash off this ick.
Animal Collective
4/5
A great bit of experimental chamber pop. A psychedelic cacophony
Slipknot
2/5
I had never listened to Slipknot before this. The first half was very interesting like a trashy mashup of Pantera and Queensrÿche. Then Vendetta is terrible and after that all the numetal tropes show their ugly head.
Iron Maiden
3/5
I may like the original singer better than Dickenson. I definitely like the crunchier sound of the band better.
Crowded House
3/5
Decent album. Very alternative of the late 80s/early 90s variety. Kind of like REM doing a Steely Dan impersonation.
Sister Sledge
4/5
Solid disco entry. Chic does their thing here in one of the best sets and Sister Sledge compliments them well.
The Kinks
5/5
An eclectic, fun and thoroughly English album.
Roxy Music
3/5
Bizarre fun. Look forward to spending more time with it.
Jane Weaver
4/5
Was unfamiliar but completely entranced. Nice textures and ambient feel. Will return to this.
Ray Charles
5/5
Perfect album.
The Who
4/5
It’s a little long, it doesn’t always work, but I love it.
Jethro Tull
4/5
Not my favorite album by them. There is no doubt that the heavier sound did them well. The title song has long outlived its welcome (it’s still a good song.)
Mj Cole
2/5
Enjoyable enough edm. Worked best when it was a cross of Beand New Heavies and Deee-Lite with some cool jazz samples. Didn’t like the rapper.
Ramones
5/5
Landmark debut.
Roni Size
5/5
Landmark debut. A brilliant bit of beat making that manages to be built in long tracks that while repetitive never stagnate. Feels like jazz drum n bass.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Another great debut. This one is an oddity in their catalog, it’s all more psychedelic than their later albums and rawer sounding.
Pearl Jam
5/5
Another stellar debut. Great songs and music. With Nevermind, the 1 2 punch that lead to “Grunge” taking over and the proliferation of alternative music to radio darlings from the realm of critical/cult favorite obscurity. Dark subject matter that still resonates today.
Joan Armatrading
4/5
This was new to me and completely captivating. Her voice and sense of melody were odd but familiar at the same time. Johns made some inspired choices in connecting her with musicians that made it all just sing…. Good stuff that I am sure I will revisit.
The Waterboys
5/5
I had a CD of this back in the day. I really like the song writing and the production that allows it to sway effortlessly between eighties bombast and folky intimacy. A tour de force.
Jamiroquai
3/5
Light, catchy, infinitely danceable. Pleasant listen.
Kid Rock
1/5
I had never listened to a Kid rock album before. I’m shocked that this seems to be critically lauded. The lyrics are juvenile. The band sounds amateurish. The production is awful. Confounding.
M.I.A.
3/5
I respect the craftsmanship here and she is a talented vocalist/rapper but this album is too much for me.
Gang Of Four
5/5
Great album. It’s a thread in a lot of music that followed.
Mike Ladd
2/5
Meh… the ambient stuff is uninteresting. The jazzy stuff is fine. The poem at the end is the biggest highlight.
Living Colour
4/5
A weird but great album. Glover and Reid are incomparable talents. Production is a little too glossy.
Arcade Fire
3/5
Great Modern take on Springsteen. Too bad that one dude sucks.
Funkadelic
5/5
A genre less masterpiece and that Eddie Hazel solo!!!
Liz Phair
3/5
Songs like Flower with multitracked vocals are the most interesting here. Musically this doesn’t do much for me and there is not enough time in a day to really unpack it lyrically. Ultimately this feels meandering to me and many if the songs end with out resolving.
Q-Tip
3/5
It’s funny a competent album from one of the all time greats feels like a flop. It’s fine.
Aimee Mann
3/5
Pleasant album, need to revisit.
Prince
5/5
All fire, pretty damn close to a perfect album.
Madonna
4/5
A well made pop album from a master at her prime.
4/5
Everything about this album is awesome.
The Blue Nile
3/5
Enjoyable sophistipop.
5/5
Classic.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Probably their best album. Unfortunately, market saturation makes it something I still don’t really appreciate.
Pulp
3/5
I liked the music and energy enough, need to listen back to lyrics at some point.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Not my favorite CCR album, but the singles are undeniably great.
Caetano Veloso
5/5
A classic of Brazilian music that sounds fresh every time.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
A remarkable album. Corgan really was on to something with the first three Pumpkins album (whether it was with the band or as in here as a de facto solo album)
The Stone Roses
5/5
This album soundtracked much of college for me. Love the vibeyness of the whole thing. That modern take on like the British Invasion sound. Solid stuff.
5/5
In addition to her great songwriting and singing, she is backed by a great band here. This is a perfect country album.
The Strokes
2/5
No, it isn’t.
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
Atmospheric. Good stuff. Clearly ahead of its time.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
A beautiful album, well conceived and performed. It does feel like some of their looseness and more zany side is loss which gives Yoshimi an edge up, but this is a masterwork.
The War On Drugs
4/5
Great album. The band really feels like they have come into their own here.
Slipknot
1/5
Ugh.
10cc
3/5
This was very enjoyable. Quirky and different but very listenable. Hope to return.
Ride
3/5
Melodic and noisey shoegaze, will want to revisit.
Deep Purple
2/5
Band is not for me, feels like a metal version of the dead.
Madonna
3/5
Ray of Light is a great single and the album has its moments. However, it is a little pedestrian and based on reviews, massively overrated. She was still in the midst of a very strong run, but this may be her weakest non-soundtrack entry until American Life. If you want to listen to modern dance electronica Aladdin’s listen to Music or Confessions on the Dance Floor.
R.E.M.
5/5
A cult band grows up and makes a mature album that is a masterpiece of human emotion and sophisticated folk pop.
Mekons
4/5
Country punk before it was a thing. Dig it, will probably go down this here whole rabbit hole.
Scritti Politti
1/5
This played as an overly slick and dated attempt at blue eyed rnb. It seemed a little soulless and quite frankly, boring and forgettable.
Suzanne Vega
3/5
Strong songs, vocals, and guitar playing are unfortunately given a too slick sheen of production which brings down an otherwise superb set. Strong debut.
Van Halen
5/5
A fantastic debut from a band that seemed fully cooked at inception. Eddie is already doing wild shit. Dave is already hamming it up. Anthony and Alex. There is a reason that bands wanted to sound like these guys for the next ten years, even though no one did.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
An ethereal entry bordering on jazz. Worthy of more exploration, for sure.
Ute Lemper
3/5
Very interesting. Her vocals are compelling and the song choices are great. Wish Hannon didn’t sing on it, but The Divine Comedy works as a house band on it.
George Michael
5/5
Essential eighties listening.
Bill Evans Trio
5/5
A band that is in tune with each other in an unbelievable way and a masterpiece in immersive recording.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
n album that effortlessly switch’s between powerhouse singing and skilled rapping.
TV On The Radio
5/5
This band is its own thing soulful post punk insanity. Love it.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
Fun midsixties pop rock.
5/5
A fully realized and astonishingly fresh debut. Quirky fun and accomplished.
Raekwon
5/5
Rza is at peak here. Raekwon is a great storyteller and Ghostface is a great partner. Gangsta rap worth listening to. Smart and influential.
k.d. lang
4/5
Stunning. Lang straddles the neo-traditionalist country she started out with and the voice, sound & maturity of Ingénue. Countrypolitan to its core, Bradley did an amazing job bringing a nostalgic air to the proceedings well worth listening to for the project and after.
Pulp
3/5
Different Class had moments where I found the subject matter to not be to my liking. Mostly dealing with sexual escapades at others expense. The worst of the sex, drugs, and rock n roll. This album is full of just those moments. It seems like an accounting of the underbelly and the relationships are all about dominance and physical manifestation of that dynamic. The music itself is performed well and adds a gavitas to the Britpop band's sound that is welcome and suits the subject matter.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
Interesting take on women and their power and sexual nature. Conceit was well done.
Bon Jovi
4/5
Solid hair metal, not perfect but more hugs than misses and the actual radio hits are very strong.
David Bowie
5/5
Bowie does blue-eyed soul. Idiosyncratic and brilliant.
The Cult
4/5
A lot of fun.
Scott Walker
3/5
Solid 60’s baroque pop, will return to it.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
An oddly produced final album, I really need to spend more time with their discography. While I don't hate this album, it's a bit incongruous to what I know before (Landspeed through Zen) but is a nice bridge to Sugar. Will listen again.
Van Morrison
5/5
One of the all time great albums. Different from anything before or since. Influential to this very day. A vibe as the kids say. Elusive and highly listenable. A masterpiece of doing your own thing.
Neil Young
5/5
A touchstone for the iconoclast. It almost plays as a survey of his career to date, jangly folk meets hard rocking tunes. Social commentary and ellusive personal statements. And of all the great songs here, The Needle and the Damage Done is the best song he ever wrote, a heartbreaking song that is staggeringly beautiful.
John Cale
5/5
I am newly familiar with this album, being introduced to it with the 2024 reissue. I have only really grown to appreciate the Velvets with this project, despite loving the debut since I fell in love with it during my college years 30 years ago.
This is a different beast all together, almost too clever in its literary nature, just look at the song titles for god's sake, but offers narrative songs worthy of the pretension.
Cale's grasping of classical music goes beyond mere prog rock or chamber pop. These are complex compositions that seem simpler than they are. He uses textures and chords in interesting ways and to great effect.
It is an album I am sure to revisit.
Koffi Olomide
3/5
This was a fun shake your bottom around the house listen.
Radiohead
5/5
I was late to Radiohead. Hail to the Thief is when they finally caught my attention. I worked back from there and had the entire catalog within a month or so. It did not occur to me at the time that this had been some big leap as it seems like a good through point from Ok onward. That being said it is immense and a great listen to this day. Love the horns!
David Bowie
5/5
One of the most perfect transition albums it walks the difference between Young Americans’ homage through deadpan and the Berlin Trilogy’s experimental. As such it is one of Bowies most musically accomplished albums and best works.
Moby Grape
4/5
Solid late 60s Bay Area psychedelia.
The Isley Brothers
5/5
A laid back slice of funk. They even cover the Doobie Brothers for god’s sake. Yacht Funk and it’s great. The guitar solos are amazing.
Christina Aguilera
4/5
Fun pop working as a revue of fun pop through the ages, her voice is in great form.
The Beach Boys
4/5
An odd little album from a band far removed from their prime. Filled with some great songs and probably their best since Pet Sounds.
The Shamen
4/5
Solid nineties electronic dance music.
ABBA
3/5
I have always thought of ABBA as a singles act and Gold as being the only thing you need. A lot of that has to do with the amount of only good material available there. This album has shown me that their albums are enjoyable… no it’s not album oriented rock and interconnected into one overarching work, but it is solid and worthwhile. Solid pop music.
Big Star
5/5
A great album. The production leaves a little to be desired but the songs and performances are top notch.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
The Stones are a great band and they pay homage to their forefathers here. It is a competent and raw set, but only a glimmer of where they would go...
Carpenters
5/5
Sublime pop mastery.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
This was a lot of fun. Look forward to returning to it.
Richard Thompson
5/5
This was great - emotional, smart, great music with great performances. One I will want to add to the collection.
Einstürzende Neubauten
4/5
Industrial music edges forward, sometimes quite literal in its meaning. Fascinating despite its noise and attempt to be unlistenable.
Joy Division
5/5
One of the greatest albums of all time. It is a revolutionary album in the Punk scene really moving to the post-punk/new wave moment. The band is incredible. Hook’s bass lines amazing. Curtis exudes feeling. Perfect on every front.
Paul Simon
4/5
Paul Simón is great and that is evident here with a less than marquee album that still entertains completely and thoroughly.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Good stuff. The band evolves from their first album while retaining what made that one interesting.
Tito Puente
4/5
Super fun.
Slade
2/5
The first half of the album never quite gets there. The Gudbuy T’Jane Song is creepy but the rest of the second half is decent.
4/5
Dark and intricate. Love the layering. Cool concept. Will return.
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
Stone cold classic. Great album.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
Cigar and scotch music. Seriously though, a great album by one of the all time greats.
SAULT
5/5
A powerful statement on what it means to be Black in the modern world. It’s also a lot of fun to listen to.
The Avalanches
4/5
A nostalgia bomb that works as its own thing. It is like a hip hop group and daft punk worked together to bring back youthful summers.
The The
4/5
I enjoyed this. I will need many more listens to digest it.
Slayer
5/5
A great album. Beyond starting a subgenre, it is just filled with great guitars and drumming.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
The last three songs are worth the price of admission.
Underworld
5/5
Still hits hard. A unique blend of ambient, drum n bass and dance floor stomp.
Ghostface Killah
4/5
I originally did not like Ghostface because of his voice but over the years his flow and storytelling have won me over. Was not familiar with this - dug it.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
This is their best collection of material. However, the muddy production keeps it from Being their best album. Still a great ride.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
It ain’t terrible. Except for Get on Top which is.
Ian Dury
4/5
Enjoyable continuation of the Kinks sound.
Morrissey
2/5
A mixed bag of an album. Morrissey’s voice is not in top form. About half the songs are good. The other half are uninspired, some times he actually sounds bored.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
Sinatra is in great form here with a spectacular selection of standards. Some of his best work.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
Interesting lyrical content and singing is bogged down by over polished and pedestrian metal music.
Def Leppard
5/5
A pop metal masterpiece.
Arrested Development
4/5
A top tier positive hip hop album. It can be a little earnest from time to time. Speech is talented and the music is top notch.
Pavement
4/5
Jangly and surprising complicated indie rock from the birth of alternative…
It’s not a perfect album by any sense. Side one is fantastic. Side two drags a little. However, it is a Very Good album by a Great band.
Ali Farka Touré
5/5
Incomparable guitarist. Great stuff.
Beatles
5/5
This is the album where the Beatles start to realize their potential. The album isn’t a couple of singles surrounded by their amateur show material. It’s a little more thoughtful and is the beginning of the through line to the band that changes everything.
Sugar
5/5
A great power pop album from Bob Mould.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
Solid nineties dance pop and r&b balladry. Neptunes and Timbaland are really the stars here.
Scott Walker
3/5
Modern crooner with substance.
N.E.R.D
3/5
Funky and fun.
David Bowie
5/5
His first truest great album, setting the stage for his work until he goes to Berlin.
Al Green
5/5
A brilliant voice with a great sense of emotion. A stellar album.
The La's
4/5
Seemingly og britpop that outshines most of its progeny. Will revisit.
fIREHOSE
4/5
A brilliant mix of folk and post punk ideas. Will be returning to this album and band.
James Taylor
5/5
A touchstone in the seventies Singer-Songwriter movement that revealed a more sophisticated folk music. Two powerhouse songs in Fire and Rain and Country Road manage to not overshadow the rest of the album. While his storytelling and earnestness can overcome the impending corniness of material like Steamroller. A beautiful album.
Adele
4/5
Not to necessarily detract from how good this album is, it is the least of Adele’s albums. It is heavy on the balladery and feels like an album made by an older saber artist looking to pad their shows with new material. The opening two songs are those great set pieces.
Don McLean
3/5
This is an interesting album to be here. It’s a consistent album outside of the two rock songs. Unfortunately out side of American Pie and Vincent (being great songs) and the other rock song (being terrible), it’s a pretty mediocre folk rock album. The title track is essential listening though, so I guess it belongs here despite its less than essential listening overall.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
A scorching reunion album. They sound refreshed and vital again. Like Neil had come back from the wilderness.
Manu Chao
3/5
I liked this more than the cover would lead me to believe I would. Interesting mix of styles and seamless integration of found music. Will revisit.
Sebadoh
3/5
I like the juxtaposition between 90s jangly indie rock crooning and bat shit crazy sonic youth experimentation. Will listen to more.
The Who
4/5
The WHO’s first concept album (doesn’t really work any better than any of them). Wide Rangel of styles here. Peak psychedalia. I Can See for Miles is a great song.
ABBA
4/5
This set me on a journey exploring their music. Only knowing the hits and Gold coming into this, I was surprised by the tone (which upon further examination shouldn’t have been the case, their very first big hit was based on Napoleon’s defeat - darkness was always there). Knowing now of some of their folkier origins and the almost Carpenters nature of their first album (at least the first half - you kind of see ABBA born on Ring Ring), the sophistication here is also unsurprising. A beautiful send off for the band. Possibly their most accomplished album and honestly far more deserving of a place on this list than The Arrival (the other hit laden album represented)
Girls Against Boys
3/5
Completely unfamiliar, an interesting mix of influences - primarily the DC (post)hardcore scene and the alternative movement of the 90s. Two bass players gives the whole thing a groove too. Will return to it.
The Undertones
4/5
Fun poopy punk. Singer’s voice is great. Great hooks and songs, possibly better than the debut. Will spend more time with.
Queen
5/5
An iconic album with an absolute beast of a song. The rest is crazy batshit fun. Play it loud on a really good system.
LTJ Bukem
5/5
Laid back (for drum n bass) filled with ambient textures and jazzy influences.
Mariah Carey
3/5
It’s fine but not really for me. Really like her debut and Christmas albums though.
Otis Redding
5/5
Otis becomes OTIS. Possibly the greatest soul album of all time. The "Stax" sound is born during Satisfaction.
The Incredible String Band
2/5
One of the weirdest albums I’ve ever heard. It’s like a Monty python skit about how pretentious folk music is. To each their own.
Belle & Sebastian
5/5
A heck of a debut. Band is already fully formed and firing on almost full throttle. Such a lovely record… great instrumentation, wonderful harmonies, great stuff.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
A band I have always meant to dig into. Need to dig ear the page in the book to ensure it happens one day. Very enjoyable.
Laibach
4/5
This is super cool. I wish I knew what they were saying because it all sounds, well, German.
Bert Jansch
4/5
This is basically demo and it’s beautiful in every respect, his guitar work, his songs and his performance. Great stuff. Can’t wait to dig in deeper.
Throbbing Gristle
5/5
Experimental, eclectic, always engaging. Refines things done before it, prophesizes the future. Brilliant stuff.
The White Stripes
5/5
The exploration on this album is very interesting, a band that is confident in its powers and that their fans will take the journey with them. The production is stunning, garage rock has never sounded better.
Mudhoney
5/5
Wild, unhinged, guttural and completely absorbing.
Megadeth
3/5
It’s Megadeth, one of two albums that would be their best, but Mustaine’s voice still grates.
Beatles
5/5
A band transitioning from great to GREAT. The music swells and is all over the place but it works.
Judas Priest
3/5
It’s an important album but a little to by the numbers for me. Good god the drums on that opening song though. Breaking the Law and Livjng After Midnight are fantastic United and Red, White, and Boue are terrible. Rest of the album is okay.
Brian Eno
3/5
Album is cool. It’s odd and ahead of its time. Will return.
Brian Wilson
4/5
One of the few times in history that what if gets answered. Great tracklist, great band, great songs. Brian’s voice (who had died at 83 the day before our group got this pick) shows wear making the whole proceedings more charming than it otherwise would be. Only thing missing are The Beach Boys harmonies.
The KLF
3/5
Decent mainstream house. Justified and Ancient was huge (no matter the version) - strange it’s no really mentioned in the book or on Allmusic. Directors cut is different but doesn’t really seem to lessen the experience.
Oasis
4/5
This brought Brit Pop to the States it meshed well with the grunge/alternative scene taking pop music by storm. The fact that they were rockers of the old ilk didn’t hurt.
Foo Fighters
4/5
One guy, one week and thus begins the second big band of Dave Grohl’s career. Solid pop rock.
Incubus
1/5
Not for me.
Dennis Wilson
4/5
Dark beach music. Good stuff. Need to spend more time with it.
The Cure
3/5
This was pretty good. A Cure album I am unfamiliar with but will return to.
Rod Stewart
2/5
It’s fine.
U2
5/5
A classic. One of their best. The music overcomes the crap recording.
Orange Juice
4/5
Very catchy stuff. Especially like the afribeat songs.
The Lemonheads
5/5
A classic. Probably their best.
Gram Parsons
4/5
Solid country influenced rock, will return.
Carole King
5/5
Pretty much perfect.
Japan
4/5
It’s like hearing the 80’s being born.
Neil Young
5/5
People will debate some of the albums on this list. People will debate this one being on the list. What is art but a representation of ourselves. Neil Young and his compatriots laid it all down their sorrow and a love for these two men who meant a lot to them and were taken by a heinous thing. It’s imperfect and honest and dark and powerful and wonderfully uplifting. I struggle to think of another album that packs the emotional wallop. It is a singular album and a masterpiece from an artist who has been courageous and demanding enough to do it multiple times.
Buzzcocks
4/5
Good fun pop punk.
Beatles
5/5
The band makes the transition from youth making rock music to writing all their stuff and beginning to really show where things were headed.
PJ Harvey
4/5
A solid album, its themes and music need more time than a couple of listens can provide.
Peter Frampton
3/5
Very nice album.
Dr. Octagon
5/5
This was an instant classic that didn’t sound like anything else and Kool Keith is a singular MC. It’s like a crazy futuristic comedy funkadelic. Highly influential and basically the start of the whole backpacker scene.
Doves
3/5
It’s fine.
Rush
5/5
A classic album from a classic band.
Fairport Convention
5/5
Great stuff, I hear so much of later Americana, roots, and folksy music.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
A lot of fun.
2Pac
2/5
It’s fine. Feels a little more real than his prior work.
Black Flag
3/5
Strong songs and energy are mismatched with less than musicianship and terrible recording. A landmark of hardcore all the same.
Digital Underground
4/5
Fun, inventive hip hop. An extension and reinvention of P-Funk
Stereolab
4/5
Very cool. Will need to revisit.
Method Man
5/5
Possibly the best voice in Wu-Tang.
Black Sabbath
5/5
A road map for metal to come down. It’s a little all over the place but also rocks hard. Play loud.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
Fun, will return.
Ice Cube
5/5
Ice Cube’s debut solo album is a major feat marred only by lingering misogyny. He’s storytelling is sharper, his politics more pointed and the Bomb Squad is a perfect match to his anger.
Supertramp
3/5
Rudy is a highlight. School is creepy. Clarinets don’t really belong in rock music. Proto yacht rock. Not my favorite prog ever but you can see the band that makes Breakfast in America.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
Smart and sophisticated pop that also is the start of a sound trope for the group.
David Crosby
4/5
Not real familiar with this one, but it is great fun. Will return.
Hanoi Rocks
4/5
Sleazy stupid rockin fun
Marilyn Manson
4/5
Werner sucks. This is a great album and unfortunately more relevant today than it was when it was released.
Manic Street Preachers
5/5
A remarkable album by a remarkable band. After their primary lyricist had disappeared following their previous album, they came back sounding bigger than ever managing to turn the trauma into something positive.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
There are some flashes of great playing here and there but it is in the end a stiff rendering of the blues.
Primal Scream
2/5
Fun and ultimately forgettable pop rock. Dig the spy stuff.
Solomon Burke
4/5
Legends are usually legends for a reason. This is a good piece of evidence therein.
Tom Waits
4/5
A wild concept album that conveys its concept perfectly, a small show in a night club. Sort of the moment Waits becomes Waits.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Not a bad album but a pretty less than effort from Cohen, he sounds tentative, the songs sound extemporaneous and the orchestration/production is slightly off. Most of the songs are amazing, it’s just everything else that is lacking.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
A haunting, beautiful, vulnerable, and deeply emotional album from the king of cool.
The xx
3/5
Album was fine.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
I, like many people, have long looked at this album as the big bang, the moment that Neil got heavy and that's not untrue. However, after years with the album and a fresh listen in the auspices of this project, have rethought how I think about the album. It is a rejection of the over production of his first solo record... it is less polished and grimy. However, it is also like a Rosetta Stone to Neil... there is the tender ballad, the country stomper, and of course the double guitar monster of the Horse and Neil with extended guitar jams. It is a hell of an album that on any day may be my pick for his best work.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
As with the other album by this band in the book, this is a lot of fun. I do think it’s variety hurts it in the age of ALL THE MUSIC EVER IS AT MY FINGERTIPS. My thinking here is two fold - 1. It never really gets a groove, it just keeps moving on to the next thing. 2. I feel like this would need ten to fifteen listens just to start to grasp all that is going on.
These aren’t really problems with the album but more a statement on the consumption of music nowadays, if you’re caught up in the endlessly self defeating listen to as much new music as possible or like me find yourself in rabbit holes of discovery - it’s hard to make a case (for the album oriented listener, anyhow) for an album that plays like a playlist as opposed to a singular vision. It is probably my own baggage keeping this from wowing me.
I do like the almost survey of all popular music since 1966 feel of it, I almost think it accomplishes this better than the Blur Rubbish album. The psychedelic through line is very cool and inventive. I feel like if I had discovered this earlier or had a vinyl copy of it, I might have put the time in with it but under the auspices of on to the next thing… it’s hard to think there is much here to draw me back except for potential and the stature of the album.
Everything But The Girl
5/5
It may be cynical, but I don't see any other way it can be... after a wildly successful cameo with Massive Attack and a phenomenal success of a Todd Terry remix, there had to have been a commercial reasoning behind making an electronic album. Everything But The Girl was a better than average Sophistipop group with a great singer in Thorn. To take their melodies and fuse them with Drum N Bass, Trip Hop and Techno beats could not have been the easiest thing and yet it works, very well and elevated the group even farther.
Ali Farka Touré
5/5
A beautiful meeting of two phenomenal musicians with traditions much closer to each other than one would assume. A crack team behind them. You don't need to know the lyrics to know this is the blues.
Paul Simon
4/5
Simon’s first album post Simon & Garfunkel is a mostly laid back folk rock affair. He is a master of knowing how to use his vocal abilities in their best fashion. He’s also an incredible song writer. Mother Child Reunion and Me & Julio are standouts not only in style and energy her but as great entries in his storied songbook.
Soft Cell
4/5
An odd little number. The faster dance songs work best. The ballads are a little weird. It’s a tad perverted at times. Tainted Love is a great cover.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
It’s difficult to talk about this album, Kendrick was already a powerful force in hip hop from his mixtapes and his debut album. The hand of Dre had guided him to that point and here he takes it all up a notch, he takes that very personal voice from MAAD City and applies it to the current moment - unfortunately as is often the case with important socially motivated music - it seems just as relevant today. The direction of Martin and Washington is great hopefully introducing a new generation to the joy of improvised music. Smart and musically revolutionary while still speaking to a broad audience - brilliant.
Jane's Addiction
4/5
A rich tapestry of angry psychedelia. Play it loud over loudspeakers.
The Adverts
4/5
This was a lot of fun. Raw young punk played well. Will revisit.
Christine and the Queens
5/5
Man, this is something. Was unfamiliar. There is an emotional wallop to the vocals which also evoke Michael Jackson through their intonations. All of this is backdropped by a minimal electro disco groove. AND THEY DO IT IN ENGLISH AND THEN FRENCH.
Elbow
3/5
Was unfamiliar. The studio album is nice but the live version recorded at Abbey Road with the BBC Orchestra is something else, epic in scope and the emotion is ratcheted up. The album is a nice listen. The live version is stellar.
Frank Black
4/5
Confession time, big Pixies fan (well original run)… pretty much ignored Frank’s solo career, it was too eclectic for me back in the day and the first few songs of this make for a jarring listen… however it eventually settles into itself despite it genre hopping around and with repeated listens, you start to see the genius of his songwriting in sharper clarity. Still not the same has the hey day of his most famous band, but pretty good stuff.
Joan Baez
4/5
A stunning voice singing beautiful folk music. Good stuff.
Neil Young
5/5
The ditch trilogy is Neil Young harnessing his grief to a brilliant trio of albums that are all very different, all very dark and all Neil Young. He bares himself in ways unimaginable to most. Simple great stuff.
Yes
5/5
Yes is pretty much Prog Rock at its best and this is their least commercial yet accessible release. It’s a fun listen.
Waylon Jennings
5/5
Whooo… a perfect storm of an album. Hotshot young writer meets legend. Legend says let’s do something then ducks writer. Writer convinces legend to do it. Chet Atkins says no way… Waylon says, good go. Calls his boys, makes one of, if not the best country albums of all time. Sells like hot cakes. Starts whole movement.
Ice Cube
4/5
Not my favorite Cube album, although his dissent would be remarkable with and after his next release. While there are high points here and the actual raps (misogyny and homophobia aside) are solid. However, the g-funk is creeping in and while it accentuates the fun of a track like It Was a Good Day…. It undermines the anger of his takes regarding a post riots LA. The venom of Death Certificate and Amerikkka was supported by Sir Jinx and the Bomb Swuad adding a soundtrack that met the lyrical content, here the swing towards a sound more fun for the augmented mind counteracts the lyrical content. As a result what could have been greats…. Doesn’t quite work.
5/5
There can be no doubt as to the historic importance of this recording. An artist in the brink having conquered one world and moving on to another. The performance shows that he was in command of both.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
A fantastic debut, although they would climb higher over their next few releases. This is the start of Bug Beat having a moment in the sun.
The Cardigans
4/5
I knew fool but had not listened to this or any other Cardigans album. This was pleasant, eclectic in sound yet remaining effervescent which is paired with often times very dark lyrical content and the juxtaposition works. Will be returning.
Pere Ubu
4/5
Man… post punk done right. A thousand albums and genres branched out from this. It’s like Talking Heads without the pop sensibility. Great stuff I am sure to return to.
Marty Robbins
5/5
This album is very well produced. Marty’s voice is great. The variety of the songs doesn’t take away from the cowboy around a fire feel of the album as a whole. Great musicianship and the Glasers are amazing backup singers. A true classic.
a-ha
3/5
The singles, beyond Take Me On as well, are great. The rest of the album is solid. Take Me On is the clear high point though.
David Ackles
3/5
Album is fine. The book’s review only makes a little sense, there is one song that is reminiscent of Copland. There is one song that evokes Kurt Weill. What it does sound like consistently is Neil Diamond covering Randy Newman. Which is fine.
Os Mutantes
5/5
An absolute monster of an album that takes 60’s American/european psychedelia and advances it farther than any one in the tradition did. It is full of musical ideas and the music was so daring that other singers of the style (often backed by Mutantes) were exiled. Great/Amazing stuff!
Megadeth
2/5
Why are there two megadeth albums? Music is fine. I’ve never thought much of Mustaine’s voice but it was extra terrible here. He’s kind of buried in the mix though which is fine.
The Prodigy
3/5
An album very much of its time. Aggressive dance music with lyrics to match. Don’t get it twisted, this was cringy then too and played well to the same audiences. The music’s ability to make you want o shake it is undeniable though.
The Everly Brothers
5/5
Really great. Great song picking. Impeccable harmonies. Inventive arrangements and their songs are great as well.
The Monks
4/5
This was a lot of fun, psych pop from the early sixties.
Hookworms
3/5
Seems like the arena rock version of the whole Meet Me in the bathroom scene. Album is fine.
David Bowie
5/5
A bold brave brilliant statement from one of the greats. It doesn’t quite rise to the occasion but it is interesting to see him truly experiment and fold that into his sound.
Brian Eno
4/5
Really enjoyed this, possibly the most accessible of his solo work I have listened to to date. Will circle back.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
Mayfield is a genius, known for his politically relevant songs before this instead of being overt he uses the lives of characters in an exploration film to explore the same ideas. And it’s funky!
Depeche Mode
5/5
Great dark dance pop.
David Bowie
5/5
An incredible artistic look into the void. Also, a fairly progressive statement from an ever-evolving artist.
De La Soul
5/5
A highly inventive and positive rap album. No one sounded like these guys and they would never sound like this again. This is the album that made me fall in love with Hip Hop.
John Lennon
3/5
There are great songs on here and some unremarkable songs.
Joe Ely
4/5
The voice, intonation, and song writing/interpretation more tha make up for the slick Nashville sound of this album.
3/5
Fun psychedelic pop.
The Beach Boys
5/5
For my
Money, the best of the pre pet sounds beach boys.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
This is the beginning of the rest of your life.
Kanye West
1/5
Ehh… great production but Kanye was basically done at this point.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
4/5
Cool vibes stuff will return to.
Orbital
5/5
A classic that sounds just as good today as it did three decades ago.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Good stuff.
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
Enjoyable, need to spend more time with it.
Bob Dylan
5/5
A modern day master piece that really marked the beginning of Dylan’s current place as a gothic Americana artist.
The Yardbirds
3/5
A lot of fun and wildly all over the place.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
No notes. Perfect album. Unfortunately, just as relevant today as when it was released.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Feels like a forgotten masterpiece now. No skips. The production is not in the same league as Thriller but it might be a better collection of songs.
Eels
3/5
Fun. Not much else to say after a first listen.
Barry Adamson
4/5
Very cool. Very atmospheric, will revisit and probably check out more.
Fairport Convention
4/5
Very good stuff. Really need to spend more time with this group.
System Of A Down
3/5
An interesting one. The singer is unique and when he is doing his thing, the music is very good and challenging in a good way. The lyrics are smart, but this is all surrounded by these almost cliche trash breaks and hooks. Ultimately not for me but a good listen.
Frank Zappa
5/5
Brilliant. Great stuff. The rock side of Jazz Fusion and a perfect complement to Bitches Brew.
Tina Turner
4/5
This is a fun album.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Great band. Great album.
Pet Shop Boys
5/5
Maybe not their best but probably their most fun? Which is a weird thing for a Peg Shop Bous album to be.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
The second Beefheart album I have ever listened to and it’s a whole lot more fun than Trout Mask. Whacky but not as…
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Elvis gets all sophisticated.
Cocteau Twins
5/5
Stunning.
Sade
5/5
A killer voice, unique and sultry, a debut that sounds just as good today.
The Clash
5/5
My wife says this is a classic album with no bad songs.
Ryan Adams
3/5
A good album. Too bad about the artist.
Ryan Adams
3/5
Another good album that I could do without because of the dude behind it.
Morrissey
3/5
Great voice. Nothing else to say.
Kanye West
3/5
This one marginally holds up better than his others in the list so far. Mostly because he hadn’t gotten to bold yet. His flow is still kind of corny and his production hasn’t reached its apex yet. Again too bad he has destroyed his legacy.
Grateful Dead
5/5
Sublime
The Sabres Of Paradise
4/5
First time listening. Really good electronic music from the nineties. Overall, a nice ambient sound with interesting excursions into samba and drum n bass. Will be sure to revisit.
Willie Nelson
5/5
Willie makes another left turn and makes an album of American Songbook Standards. Moving from a brilliant songwriter and performer to an impeccable and unique interpreter of song. Also, Trigger sounds amazing.
Traffic
3/5
Fun little album.
Def Leppard
4/5
Lange fully moves the band to pop metal juggernaut. The next album would realize the formula but most of the NWOBHM is gone. Classic stuff.
Fela Kuti
5/5
A complete groove that is only more remarkable in the fact that all that booty shaking music is political protest music!
Sleater-Kinney
5/5
Noisy, hooky, great.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4/5
Fine lofi folk. Really enjoyed the stuff with Guthrie.
Donald Fagen
4/5
Steely Dan minus the smirk. Not quite as clinical but still immaculate in its production. More sincere in its nostalgic view. Will return.
Spiritualized
3/5
Dark and layered music that needs more time spent with it.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Are you Experienced was the fire being lit, this is the vision statement.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
I found this album in parts weird and boring.
Air
5/5
A vibe. Familiar with out being familiar. Always a fun listen.
The Pretty Things
3/5
Decent early Brutus psych. Interesting attempt of a concept album. Can hear the influence to Tommy.
T. Rex
3/5
Aloud glam rock. Willl need to revisit.
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
A pop masterclass. Orchestral, hooky and effervescent.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
I like this better than Loveless, it feels more put together and not just like dense noise.