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655
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3.9
Avg Rating
218
5-Star Albums
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434 albums remaining
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4.9
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927
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Reviews
557
Written
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0.65
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3.9
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1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter | 5 | 2.15 | +2.85 |
| Locust Abortion Technician | 5 | 2.39 | +2.61 |
| Shleep | 5 | 2.51 | +2.49 |
| OK | 5 | 2.57 | +2.43 |
| Sex Packets | 5 | 2.67 | +2.33 |
| Movies | 5 | 2.71 | +2.29 |
| Medúlla | 5 | 2.72 | +2.28 |
| Atomizer | 5 | 2.72 | +2.28 |
| Our Aim Is To Satisfy | 5 | 2.74 | +2.26 |
| Two Dancers | 5 | 2.75 | +2.25 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| 461 Ocean Boulevard | 1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
| OK Computer | 2 | 4.1 | -2.1 |
| Heartbreaker | 1 | 3.03 | -2.03 |
| Destroy Rock & Roll | 1 | 2.9 | -1.9 |
| In Rainbows | 2 | 3.84 | -1.84 |
| Highway 61 Revisited | 2 | 3.77 | -1.77 |
| Beggars Banquet | 2 | 3.63 | -1.63 |
| Aladdin Sane | 2 | 3.62 | -1.62 |
| Exile On Main Street | 2 | 3.61 | -1.61 |
| Devotional Songs | 1 | 2.58 | -1.58 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and high weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles Davis | 4 | 4.75 | 4 |
| Björk | 4 | 4.75 | 4 |
| Beatles | 6 | 4.33 | 3.89 |
| Brian Eno | 4 | 4.5 | 3.86 |
| David Bowie | 9 | 4.11 | 3.83 |
| Public Enemy | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| The White Stripes | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Kraftwerk | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Peter Gabriel | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Pixies | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Nick Drake | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Pulp | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Dire Straits | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Marvin Gaye | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Willie Nelson | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Kate Bush | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Joy Division | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Elton John | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Taylor Swift | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| The Stooges | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| PJ Harvey | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 4 | 4.25 | 3.71 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 4.25 | 3.71 |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 4.25 | 3.71 |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| The Beach Boys | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and low weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 2.25 | 2.57 |
5-Star Albums (218)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Holger Czukay
5/5
Oh, thank god! Finally something weird.
This 1001 album experiment works best for me when there's something I've never heard, or even better, never heard *of*.
The layers, the sampling, the clear influences of people like Zappa, this is fantastic stuff. Instant add to my library.
33 likes
Bob Dylan
2/5
I guess I'm not a real music lover. Bob Dylan is nails on a chalkboard for me. Except that, when I was 13 and I wanted to get over that horrible feeling whenever the teacher would make a mistake and drag the chalk down the board in that particular way, I stayed after school under the pretence of cleaning the erasers and dragged my fingers down the chalkboard for an hour until I could do it without making myself cringe with sensory overload.
I was able to do that. I conditioned myself out of literal "nails on a chalkboard".
There is no amount of aversion therapy that can acclimate me to this.
Dylan's harmonica work is a hate crime.
Yeah, it captured the zeitgeist of a generation. Whoop. This whole album is pretentious as hell.
17 likes
The Darkness
5/5
Fun fact for me. My buddy loved "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" so much, but he didn't have an iTunes account. Since he was my office mate, I purchased the album for him on the spot and listened to it on repeat for about a month. First iTunes album I purchased.
The thing I love most about the Darkness isn't that they missed the hair band era by several decades. It's that they said Fuck It. This is the music we love and we're going to be the best damn hair band of the new millennium. Their love of the genre is obvious in their execution.
Brilliant debut album.
17 likes
Kanye West
5/5
Kanye is obviously a musical genius. The emotion flowing out of this work is enormous. It's 100% clear why he became a superstar. This is a brilliant album.
I guess the lesson I take away from this is: when you are prescribed medication for your mental illness, take your damn meds.
10 likes
Tom Waits
5/5
You know how special it is to experience something *new* as you start to get older? How those experiences become more and more rare and you keep chugging along? When you get to experience something for the first time that accompanies actual surprise and delight?
This is one of those times.
8 likes
1-Star Albums (6)
All Ratings
Nirvana
5/5
Good memories of this one when it came out. I remember it being a little divisive since, while the album has the same structure of Nevermind, more or less, this one explored deeper into the developing nirvana style. Heart shaped box was a great single, and Tourette's remains one of my favorites. Then Kurt died.
Beatles
4/5
Those harmonies on "If I fell"!
Still a super-poppy album, but you can hear the maturity coming along. We're a ways off Sgt. Pepper, but it's clear to see how we'll get there.
Funny listening to this album from start to finish and just "knowing" all of the songs, even though I am *sure* I've never sat and listened to this album from start to finish.
Pixies
5/5
Just gotta be honest. Never listened to the Pixies all the way through. It's hard to imagine that this was released in 1989. For me, this is a timeless sound.
Good lord. There Goes My Gun! An internal parody of their most well-known track on the same album!
Leonard Cohen
3/5
The open synth melody on First We Take Manhattan always reminds me of the Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner. It's such a relic of its time, but also incredibly interesting. I can't imagine the meeting that convinced Cohen to go from acoustic rumblings to this synth masterpiece(?).
Another one of those that I discovered more or less accidentally as I was trying to expand my musical vocabulary. I had downloaded a bunch of Warren Zevon on Limewire that ended up being misattributed Leonard Cohen.
The humor is surprising. I like the vague quote of the theme to Star Trek when the girls sing the chorus on Jazz Police. This seems to be a Cohen without something to prove, but I can't say I think it's his best work. It almost feels like he's telling a really obtuse and deadpan joke in album format.
Adele
3/5
Rolling in the Deep. The most Aretha Franklin song that she never wrote.
Rumor Has It. The lost Eurythmics song.
A great deal of pathos in this album. Adele's voice is brilliant. She's an incredible talent. The album doesn't feel terribly cohesive to me on first listen – an aggregation of various bangers and ballads. Beautiful stuff.
I recognize I'm not a huge pop album consumer. My album experiences were generally prog rock, so a lot of intention and through lines.
Set Fire to the Rain is just a great song. Anyone who dismisses pop as a less-than-legitimate artistic expression needs to soak in tunes like this one. Any act, anywhere, any style, can pick up a song like Set Fire to the Rain and make it their own.
The drums on He Won't Go are a warm flannel blanket on a cool autumn night, man. So cozy.
Brilliant cover of Lovesong. A cover needs to be something that becomes your own. Seems to me that Robert Smith could have written this song for Adele.
The Undertones
3/5
I wasn't of listening age when this album came out, and my house had precious little music to begin with. I missed this during the relevant time period, and the US definitely didn't privilege these guys.
It's competent work, and the NI significance isn't lost on me, but there's nothing here that makes me sit up and say, "Where have you been all my life."
The Rolling Stones
2/5
I understand that the Stones were a fundamental force in the rock and roll scene, but I just don't like them. I've had years and years to let them into my heart, but I just can't. I don't like the sexism. I don't like the swagger. Some the component parts are brilliant. Charlie Watts, for instance, is one of the all time great drummers. I'm happy to recognize that if you want the Stones, Exile on Main Street is one of the Stones-iest albums you can lay hands on, but my listening condenses it to track after track of what blurs into the same song rather quickly. 18 takes of the same song.
It reminds me a lot of a free concert I went to featuring Jimmie Vaughn of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, brother of the late Stevie Ray. He opened up his set with a competent blues in G at about 100bpm. Followed by a second song – a blues in G around 100bpm. He rounded out the set with a rousing blues in G around 100bpm. When Mr. Vaughn started picking out the same. freaking. intro. lick. on that third song, I packed it up and went home.
For someone like me who doesn't really grok the words on the first, second, or even twentieth listen of a song, maybe I'm missing something – some fundamental read on the human condition. I'm not patient enough to try to parse it out, however.
Listening to this album is laborious.
Nick Drake
5/5
I am happy to admit that I first heard Nick Drake from the Pink Moon VW commercial back in the early 2000s. Gladly, proudly admit that I looked up the artist and devoured his entire short discography. I am only sad that I didn't do this sooner so I could have more time with this man's beautiful music in my life.
Nick Drake is one of those once-in-a-generation type talents, and Bryter Layter is an incredible work. Northern Lights is one of my favorite songs, and the entire album is a front-to-back listen.
I don't claim to understand his demons, but I am glad he graced us with what he had as long as he could.
B.B. King
5/5
Listening to an artist at the height of his powers. Add in the adoring audience, and this album is a joy.
Frank Zappa
5/5
I've never listened to a Zappa album from start to finish. Let's see how I get on with Hot Rats.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Joni Mitchell holds a "folk-artist" position in my mind, but her skill and expression on Help Me immediately suggests to me that she's really a jazz singer.
Free Man in Paris is a bop.
Joni Mitchell isn't really my thing. I hear the skill and some of the lyrics are brilliant. But I'm probably not going to listen to this again.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
There's something I find comforting with the over-to-top sincerity performance of this album. Sure, it's about death and murder, but it's also really playful. And PJ Harvey is an automatic win with me.
I don't know what about this that scratches an aural itch for me. The performances are tight. The mood is atmospheric. The mix on the bass is astounding.
Jesus, Cave is doing a duet with Kylie Minogue on an album about MURDER! I love this to no end.
The intro on the Curse of Millhaven is exactly the kind of controlled musical violence that I love.
The Kindness of Strangers is really sad. Very good job, Mr. Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
I'm perfectly happy listening to Nick Cave growl sincerely into a microphone. Him and the band.
John Prine
4/5
Thoughtful and funny. Sometimes funny because it's funny. Sometimes funny because it's true.
Deep Purple
4/5
Pretty groovy, man. Pushing what sounds you can make with a guitar at the time. The only track that made me really perk up and pay attention is Living Wreck. Didn't move me terribly. I probably won't seek it out again. Not bad, but not my favorite.
Public Enemy
4/5
Ooh. It's been forever since I've heard any Public Enemy. I've never heard this one through. Nighttrain has some great energy. Loving the controlled noise on the first track, Lost at Birth.
Big Star
4/5
Big Black Car. I love the dreamy vibe.
That's a great drum solo on Nighttime.
Really competent. Fairly eclectic, particularly for the time. I enjoyed it.
Grizzly Bear
5/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Ok. So, I didn't know that I am apparently emulating the Jesus and Mary Chain when I dink around and try to compose downtempo rock music for myself. No idea how these guys made their way into my consciousness. This is the first time I've listened to this song. I've known about this band, but never knowingly listened to them. And yet, here I am, listening to an album that sounds like the stuff I'm trying to make, feeling as familiar as if I've been listening to them for my entire life.
The Darkness
5/5
Fun fact for me. My buddy loved "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" so much, but he didn't have an iTunes account. Since he was my office mate, I purchased the album for him on the spot and listened to it on repeat for about a month. First iTunes album I purchased.
The thing I love most about the Darkness isn't that they missed the hair band era by several decades. It's that they said Fuck It. This is the music we love and we're going to be the best damn hair band of the new millennium. Their love of the genre is obvious in their execution.
Brilliant debut album.
Alice In Chains
3/5
I've recently revised my stance on Alice In Chains. Back when I was younger, I couldn't escape them from the radio, and I was oversaturated. Now, listening in isolation, I've developed an appreciation for them. Still not my favorite, but Would? has made it onto various playlists.
The Blue Nile
5/5
Walk across the rooftops sounds like it may have inspired some of Sting's early solo work. I love the arrangement of the track. Lazy bass, dreamy time, I've wandered in this fog more than once.
Talking Heads
4/5
I like the talking heads. The only thing that turns me off about "Take Me to the River" is that it was so overplayed on the classic rock stations of my youth.
UB40
3/5
Not a reggaton fan. The musicianship is really competent, but it's not my cuppa.
LL Cool J
4/5
This is probably going to get in into trouble. I associate Mama Said Knock You Out with the movement that took rap from an indie art to the mainstream. It's undeniable that this is a powerful album. The music is outstanding. The rap performance is tight.
Wilco
4/5
I enjoyed listening to this album. The pseudo-industrial vibe with the Wilco jangle was a fine combination.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
These guys play your local pub? They're going to bring the house down. Right place at the right time, Come On Eileen is one of those lightning in a bottle tracks. Jackie Wilson Said here is better than Van Morrison's.
The Band
3/5
What am I missing? Was this proto-roots rock? Am I simply living in a post-"The Band" world much like my eldest son is living in a post-Beatles world and doesn't much understand what all the fuss is about?
It's Americana. It's competent. But it's not blowing my mind.
Deep Purple
4/5
I like stoner rock. I like prog rock. So it stands to reason that I like Machine Head.
George Michael
3/5
You couldn't get away from Freedom on MTV back when this song was released. Great song. Great video. It still breaks my heart that his sexuality was the butt of so many jokes back then. I'm happy his music did so well, I wish he could have lived out loud for longer.
R.E.M.
5/5
If I had to pick a single REM album to recommend, this is probably the one. It's a high point of a stellar career.
Cheap Trick
3/5
It's a great live album. They're clearly a great live band. I find it really interesting that this version of Surrender is their canonical version. Way overplayed on the classic rock stations of my youth, but there you are.
Little Richard
4/5
Groundbreaking. Such energy. I know this was very similar to much of the music of the day, but someone has to be first. Excellent performances.
Maxwell
4/5
Another album I've never been exposed to before, but added a number of track to a playlist. "Neo Soul" and really tight musicianship.
Hole
4/5
This is a great album overshadowed by all the drama of Love's life. She is a talented musician with a clear voice in a crowded grunge landscape.
The Soft Boys
5/5
These guys were ahead of their time.
Rod Stewart
3/5
It's funny to me that even after not listening to broadcast radio for nearly 20 years, I thought my Rod Stewart saturation might have subsided. Nope. Still too much. Great album. I can't listen to it.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Talvin Singh
5/5
New Order
3/5
Astrud Gilberto
5/5
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
Ok, you like the Ramones. I get it. I've heard high school demos recorded on a 4 track that have more soul and life than this album. I don't understand why I'm listening to it on the 1001 albums I have to hear.
Love
3/5
I'm so torn here. These guys were obviously pushing the boundaries, and "7 and 7 Is" is really a bop, BUT I dunno. That out-of-tune flute on "She Comes in Colors" docks a star immediately. There's the germ of genius here, but it comes across as accidental much of the time.
Bad Company
3/5
Another album I've heard *way* too many times on classic rock stations when I was a kid. It's competent. But it's so boring. Apple Music says this is "the definition of no-nonsense '70s hard rock."
Great studio value. Excellent vocals. Splendid musicianship. But we're not doing anything here. This is proto-dad rock. Jurassic yacht rock.
Hearing the rest of the album beyond the heavy-rotation classic rock tracks, I can confidently say that I will never seek out this album again.
Holger Czukay
5/5
Oh, thank god! Finally something weird.
This 1001 album experiment works best for me when there's something I've never heard, or even better, never heard *of*.
The layers, the sampling, the clear influences of people like Zappa, this is fantastic stuff. Instant add to my library.
Solomon Burke
5/5
This rocks. Love the constraints imposed by the physical length of a single album platter. So much soul jammed into 2 and a half minutes many times over.
Don McLean
4/5
If I wrote American Pie and Vincent, I would gladly ride that for the rest of my natural life. Those songs will easily outlive my bones. Everything else about this album is clearly a product of its time: McClean's vocals are lovely, the mix on the full band arrangements are delightful, and this is an album anyone's grandma can enjoy.
But to have written two songs for the same album that are such monumental compositions? Yeah, coast on that, man. You earned it.
Ice Cube
4/5
4/5
The contemporary reviews say this is one of the best concept albums ever made. Better than Tommy, released the same year. I may agree with the latter, but I'm not getting the "concept album" part of this. I comprehend the lyrical themes, but the musical sinew that would normally link a concept album together doesn't seem to be there, to my mind. I dunno. Maybe I'm missing something? While it's definitely not a collection of songs like so many albums, it's also not a tight through line. Perhaps I'll listen to it more.
Pulp
5/5
Loved it. Not sure what to day. It was idiosyncratic, dynamic, had a bunch of nuance. And the long held chord outro on the final track? Chef's kiss.
The Avalanches
5/5
I often wonder about the attention span of artists who can perform full length albums like this. Girl Talk All Night is a particularly masterful example of what I'm talking about.
Another album where the track delineation is somewhat arbitrary, "Since I Left You" is an hour-long soundscape that weaves in and out of itself leaving me wanting more.
Frontier Psychiatrist is a standout track here, and probably the one most of us have heard. I can't tell you the name of any other track on this album since I didn't notice where one began and the other ended. Taken as a whole, this whole album is an experience.
The The
4/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
It's no Trout Mask Replica, but it'll do.
"Safe As Milk" is funny as titles go. Wikipedia says that there was a ton of controversy with this album, and it eventually led to the band getting dropped by A&M. Without listening to the lyrics, this is a "safe" album. Musically it fits with its era. Safe. The lyrics are humorous. There's a lot of personality in this collection of songs. I love its sense of whimsy.
Tom Waits
5/5
You know how special it is to experience something *new* as you start to get older? How those experiences become more and more rare and you keep chugging along? When you get to experience something for the first time that accompanies actual surprise and delight?
This is one of those times.
Travis
5/5
This is a brilliant album from start to finish. The first time I listened to it, it was immediately on my top list. Blue Flashing Lights is one of the best hidden tracks in the history of hidden tracks. The entire album is gold from start to finish.
Beck
5/5
Remains one of Beck's best albums. Devil's Haircut is a favourite. The video is stellar. If I don't know what to listen to, I can pop this on, and go from beginning to end.
Bob Dylan
2/5
I guess I'm not a real music lover. Bob Dylan is nails on a chalkboard for me. Except that, when I was 13 and I wanted to get over that horrible feeling whenever the teacher would make a mistake and drag the chalk down the board in that particular way, I stayed after school under the pretence of cleaning the erasers and dragged my fingers down the chalkboard for an hour until I could do it without making myself cringe with sensory overload.
I was able to do that. I conditioned myself out of literal "nails on a chalkboard".
There is no amount of aversion therapy that can acclimate me to this.
Dylan's harmonica work is a hate crime.
Yeah, it captured the zeitgeist of a generation. Whoop. This whole album is pretentious as hell.
The The
3/5
It's... fine.
2Pac
5/5
Buttery smooth production and performance. Social commentary. Expressing his perspective on the life he lived up to this point. I'm into it.
Richard Thompson
5/5
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
Folks love these guys. Lot of energy. It doesn't tickle the \"love it\" bits of my brain, though.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
This is a David Byrne cover band that decided to record their own music.
Is what I would have told you if you played this album for me without context. I keep waiting for it to become compelling. A fine example of the subjective nature of music.
The Mars Volta
5/5
I'm such a sucker for prog rock. I love me an album that has a consistent through-line. Musicianship is fantastic. So much here that I can aspire to. I could put this one on to play and the entire hour passes without my noticing. My buddy says the Wiki summary reads like an Aronofsky film! Love it. And I'll be listening to this album again, most definitely.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
5/5
In the Winter of 1993, I drove away from my university in Ohio and my girlfriend at the time with the mixtape she gave me playing in my car. I lost the tape a number of years ago, and I've forgotten the majority of the tracks that she put on the tape. I think about how much I liked the songs from time to time, and I keep a running list that I add to whenever I hear one of the missing tunes in a potentially vain attempt to recreate that piece of my past.
Summertime just went back on the list. That was a sweet relationship, but I have to admit: I miss that tape more than I miss the girl.
Nostalgia aside, Big Brother & Holding Company is a hell of good band. They just put it all out there.
Then Janis' vocals explode all across the stage and blow me away. Huge and bold, raw emotion on display. God, I live for these kinds of performances. The uncompromising expression of those things you can't express any other way. It's just sublime.
The piecemeal acquisition of the performances that compose this album just add to the charm. I love me a good live performance, and this whole album has all the vitality of the best live performances whether recorded in the studio or on stage.
Love
3/5
Another one where I don't understand what I'm missing.
Tracy Chapman
5/5
One of the best albums ever recorded. Chapman's voice and message are timeless. I can't speak about this album without bringing up Fast Car, a classic anthem about breaking the cycles of abuse. Tracy Chapman is an essential recording that stands for all time.
The Clash
5/5
The album cover to end all album covers.
How completely punk rock to quit doing punk rock and keep calling yourselves punk rock.
Skepta
3/5
Not my favorite. I don't know what it is about the fame and swagger that doesn't hit me the same way as more obviously "socially conscious" rap. Good production, but not my thing.
Hole
3/5
Definitely a commercial release. Definitely hear the influence of Corgan on a number of these tracks. Love is a good songwriter. Her band was really good. There are some bangers on this album. It's not my favorite, but it's still a solid release. And yet, meh.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
5/5
Not so much a commercial album as an anthropology project.
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
The stones annoy the ever living hell out of me. Probably because of oversaturation from Classic Rock stations being played at nearly every hourly foodservice job I had as a kid, and I just couldn't escape them. Whiny Jagger, sloppy Richards, over-indulgent arrangements, and just being played all. the. time.
I hate myself for saying this. I really really hate it. But this is a good album. Dammit. Just... ARGH urk- aksjkljlkakl;asjDkldsafkjgklhjk;akl;ha dsadsgtewr fd
Public Enemy
5/5
I like sociopolitical rap.
Dire Straits
5/5
Is this the best album in the world? No.
Does it contain the best guitar solo in the world? Yes.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Musical noise. I like it.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Yeah, alright.
5/5
Buzzcocks
3/5
ZZ Top
5/5
When I was in high school, I traded an old trumpet for a really, really shitty drum set with a kid who lived down the way. See, he wasn't enjoying the drums, and I always wanted to learn how to play. He wanted to try the trumpet, and I wasn't using this one. Fair trade.
He never learned how to play the trumpet, but I ended up practicing that shit set around the clock. Out of sheer force of will, I became pretty good.
My pals wanted to do some cover tunes at the talent show, and I asked to be the drummer. I played along with the songs they picked until I could do a passable job. When we took the stage, I was so nervous I thought I would throw up, but the moment I started playing, I lost all of my anxiety in the music. When the audience started dancing during out little four-song set, I was over the moon. One of the best moments of my life.
La Grange was one of those songs. One of the first tunes I ever learned how to play. I know I'm no Frank Beard, but dammit, I kept playing until I went semi-pro in university. I still play, much more rusty than I used to be, but I will always have a place in my heart for La Grange and ZZ Top.
The Stone Roses
5/5
Woah.
Bebel Gilberto
5/5
Smooth as silk. Just want to sit back and let all parts of this flutter over me.
The Doors
4/5
Lots of very famous and recognizable work, but listening to this, they feel tired, man. If Jim hadn't died, this sounds like it may have been their last album regardless. They're not "the Doors" here. They sound like "the Doors Playing the Doors".
Iron Maiden
4/5
Listening to this in 2023, this sounds like a cosplay of heavy metal. Spinäl Täp vibes, you know?
But I realize I'm living in a post-*this* world.
Brian Eno
5/5
Fantastic from start to finish.
Randy Newman
3/5
Hard satire as Newman tends to do. But my ears aren't used to hearing that these days.
Public Enemy
5/5
What a great album! That flowed beautifully from one track to the next. A concept album if I ever heard one. A cohesive, consistent, commanding work of art.
Sonic Youth
5/5
CHVRCHES
4/5
The seeds of greatness.
Lorde
3/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
5/5
Devendra Banhart
5/5
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Red Snapper
5/5
The Cars
5/5
Fela Kuti
5/5
The Hives
4/5
Lots of energy.
Van Halen
5/5
This is the archetypical rock album that so many many others tried to emulate. The Van Halens' first album represents the height of their powers.
Britney Spears
4/5
If you could distill pop music and crystallize it into its purest form, you would get this album.
Fugees
5/5
Even if the only artifact from this album was Killing Me Softly, it would still be one of the best albums ever recorded.
Their use of samples is at once surprising and completely natural. "Wow! That's amazing," while simultaneously sounding like the most obvious choice.
The Mask hits real close to home these days.
Beatles
4/5
Unpopular opinion. There are great things on here. There are not great things on here. It's a hodge hodge. Still, it's a technical marvel, and one more example of how we live in a post-Beatles world.
Bob Dylan
3/5
For the love of god, why do people love Dylan? I really don't understand it. I really really don't understand it.
Pink Floyd
4/5
Seeds of greatness, but this album is a mess. It bucks a lot of the pop trends of its day, and veers hard into psychedelia. There's a lot to love, and there's much to listen to as a curiosity.
The Specials
4/5
Willie Nelson
5/5
Supergrass
5/5
Had I discovered Supergrass when I was younger, I undoubtedly would have been a fan.
Air
4/5
These guys keep showing up on various playlist compilations for years. Never sat and listened to the album through. Glad I did.
1/5
No, no. You can't trick me. I'm not fouling up my music recommendations for this obvious troll pick.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
Ramones
5/5
Ryan Adams
3/5
Supertramp
4/5
Orbital
4/5
Fantastic for my focus groove.
Sex Pistols
4/5
Never listened to this all the way through. Genuinely surprised at the musical competence.
Kate Bush
5/5
This album makes me incredibly sad. In an artistic way. It used to, too, when I was younger. Now I know why. It's not any easier now than it was then, but at least I have context for the emotions now. I am less afraid.
Miles Davis
5/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Randy Newman
5/5
Political Science is one of the all time great satires. This is a great album.
Paul Simon
4/5
He's a brilliant songwriter, but as he continues, his work feels more and more derivative of itself. This has a couple of great tunes, and a number of what feel like complete throwaway tracks.
Sometimes you get a group of artists whose collaboration obviously benefits from whatever creative frictions and constraints present in their process. When these groups go solo, it's obvious in many cases that their work benefited from those constraints.
I think this album is a good example of that. Awash in many of Simon's creative excesses, it's still the work of an incredibly talented man, but those previous constraints helped to reveal and refine his genius.
Goldfrapp
3/5
Not even remotely what I was expecting, and I imagine that at another time in my life, I would be into this mopey album, but it's just unrelenting. Oompah Radar has a glimmer of humor. Goldfrapp has a lovely voice. This simply isn't doing it for me.
Steve Earle
4/5
All pop music is derivative of what came before. This is the defining aspect of **POP**ular music. Very few things come out and break the mold – the very notion is antithetical to the process: Iterations on themes that evolve over time.
So, this debut album is derivative of that which comes before, while being the height of the form. The chronological iterations of the genre at large will soon descend into alt-pop-rock-country madness. (You know what I'm talking about.)
Competent. Clean. Evocative.
Absolutely not my taste.
Joy Division
5/5
Green Day
4/5
I always took Green Day as a bit of a cynical project. 90s American Post Punk, right? How could that be a sincere take on the genre?
I sort of dismissed it out of hand.
And shame on me for doing so. This album is cohesive, the production is fantastic. The musicianship is really good.
But this is why I'm on this website. I'm opening myself up to changing the opinions of my younger self. Here we are.
Faith No More
4/5
Interesting choice. An experimental lineup that release an album on the vanguard of a genre. Not bad. Couple of bangers.
Japan
4/5
Listen to the songs Rio and Quiet Life back to back.
The copying is insane.
The White Stripes
5/5
I think Elephant might be their best single album, but this is a damn close second. Dead Leaves, Fell in Love with a Girl (and one of Gondry's best music videos, natch), We're Going to be Friends...
White Stripes is one of my go-to examples for constraints yielding creativity. Jack and Meg make the absolute most of what they got. Jack goes on with his raconteurs, and it's not the same. More instruments, to be sure, but that project looses the primal vitality of the White Stripes.
Anyone who piles on Meg for sub-par drumming doesn't understand the point of a drummer. Does she keep the beat? Yes. Does her contribution add musically to the composition. Hell yes. Meg white is a great drummer.
Weird Al covers (pastiches) Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground with his CNR song. That's some high praise no matter how you slice it.
Haircut 100
3/5
80s pop. Competent. Love Plus One is a delightful bop. And. Um. Why is this here?
Massive Attack
4/5
Not my favorite of their albums (that would be Mezzanine), but the Tracey Thorn tracks add a star.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Quintessential Chili Peppers. Not sure it gets more spicy than this with any of their work.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
Love it. So many girl-led groups come off as cynical money grabs, but this is completely delightful. Major Pretenders vibes. (That's a good thing.)
Elis Regina
5/5
This is delightfully weird to my ears. I can see why she was a superstar in Brazil.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
Beastie Boys
4/5
Deep Purple
3/5
Good live album, but... meh?
Robert Wyatt
2/5
I usually like weird and offbeat, but this isn't hitting me right. Probably won't listen to it again.
Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road has a good intro. Did I render judgement too soon?
Nope. Not too soon.
The Allman Brothers Band
5/5
A live album that's particularly listenable. Enormously talented musicians at the height of their powers. Fantastic. It sure sounds like blues, but this is actually a jazz album, isn't it?
White Denim
3/5
I can hear the excellence in the production, but the album didn't light my fire.
Garbage
2/5
Grunge-wave pop grown in a lab to appeal to the existing market. It feels just as false now as it did when it was released. Individually, if you strip it to the component elements, it's competent, but the moment you stick this stuff into a blender and get this album, it's messy, unfocused, cynical. Not a fan.
The White Stripes
4/5
I love the white stripes. Constraints yield creativity. Just not their best album.
The Who
3/5
One of the OG rock operas. There are better concept albums, better "rock operas", and better Who albums that cover all those conditions (Quadrophenia is the correct answer, for anyone reading this who's wondering.)
However, there is greatness here, though it is a flawed work. Underture happens to be one of my favorite tracks on the album. Pinball Wizard is overrated. The final track, We're Not Gonna Take It, descends into moving theme.
Fiddle About is painfully uncomfortable. I mean, having Tommy's Holiday Camp as the second to last track, one could make an argument that this album's theme is the cyclic nature of abuse. Definitely doesn't age well.
Good, not great. Meaningfully impactful on the state of music at the time. I despise the child abuse themes.
Neil Young
2/5
What am I missing here? This sounds like a drunken late night jam.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Huh. Joni Mitchell makes a Joni Mitchell album. It's about as Joni Mitchell as Joni Mitchell can be. You can hear Pastorius from a mile away. It's a nice combo. Unfortunately, Joni Mitchell is another one of those "tolerate in small doses" artists, and this whole album is too much for me to ingest in a sitting.
Queen
4/5
David Bowie
4/5
Not the best Bowie, but not remotely the worst. His last effort, and proof that he was always fiddling with his style.
The Sabres Of Paradise
2/5
It's entirely possible I don't know enough about the electronic music scene to know how this record is one of the multitude I simply must hear before I die. For all I know, I live in a post "Sabres of Paradise" world.
All that said, This sounds like pretty generic mid-tempo electronica.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
The album has the best song they recorded. And others as well.
The Who
5/5
This is probably the Who's single best album. Moon was still alive. Their compositions were solid. The band cohesion was tight. 5 absolute classics.
The Everly Brothers
4/5
Clasic. The whitest of white rock and roll. Every song a 2 minute hurricane that could fit on a single. A shape of its culture shaping the future. Bonkers. A snake eating its own tail. Still. Cathy's Clown. 🤷🏽♂️
The Temptations
4/5
k.d. lang
4/5
The album is, unfortunately, unspectacular. She is a beautiful singer. It finishes with Constant Craving – probably her most popular single, almost certainly to be considered her "signature song".
The remarkable part of this album is k.d. lang herself. Queer representation was practically nonexistent in the mainstream at the time, and she took this on herself as her responsibility to society.
Hero. Legend.
Radiohead
2/5
Radiohead may be the most overrated band ever.
Jane's Addiction
5/5
Tom Waits
5/5
Tom Waits is one of the most consistent songwriters I know, and one of the only ones whose joy in playing in the art is communicated through his output. Even if the lyrics are dour, there's an ineffable quality that says, "I love this medium, and this is my playground."
When I want to connect with that concept of joy, I pop on some Waits.
Neil Young
2/5
I'm glad you have a hobby, man.
R.E.M.
4/5
I think Document is probably the REM album I think typifies their most enduring work. Murmur is a close second.
Buck Owens
4/5
I have a weakness for "real" country music. I remember my parents loving Buck Owens whenever he came on TV when I was young. I enjoy this era of the country genre, and I enjoy this album.
Dude, Streets of Laredo is *his* song?
Blue Cheer
3/5
Proto heavy metal. It's pretty average, though.
Elton John
5/5
Elton John at his Elton Johniest. John and Taupin at their Johniest and Taupinest.
Cowboy Junkies
5/5
I think this is the best live album ever recorded. Margo Timmins has never sounded better.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Kraftwerk is divisive. I get it. Autobahn is divisive. ALL THEIR WORK IS DIVISIVE.
But we live in a post-Kraftwerk world. Someone had to do it first. Many Someones had to do it first. Kraftwerk is on that vanguard: making what they wanted to make. Making the world of music in their image, or at the very least, carving out a small divot in the zeitgeist that others could expand upon.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Prince
4/5
Crowded House
4/5
The Rolling Stones
3/5
1. How did Charlie Watts ever get caught up with these people? Did he lose a bet?
2. This album doesn't make me want to stab myself in the ears.
Fela Kuti
4/5
It's always a shame that I'm only hearing about this because of the intervention of a white European.
The Beach Boys
3/5
Interesting to hear the progress of artists lurching toward their masterpiece. Peek-a-boo, Pet Sounds.
The Adverts
4/5
This whole album is just drenched with irony. One Chord Wonders is a hell of a way to start an album.
Safety in Numbers, what is that? a busted cone on the bass amp? Sounds like a wild animal prowling its cage, marking time before it bursts out.
This whole thing goes so hard from start to finish. I've not listened to this one before. Where have you been all my life? Apparently publishing your best work while I was a toddler.
I love love love this album.
The Jam
4/5
Bridging the gap between punk and new wave. Yesterday's album was The Adverts' Crossing the Red Sea. Safety in Numbers starts with a lyric, "What are you gonna do with your new ways? What are you gonna do with your new wave?"
And only a couple of years later, we're riding that new wave.
Even if I don't understand the rationale behind many of the selections of the albums in this project, I find it endlessly fascinating when I begin to recognize the common DNA between selected artists.
That triplet roll intro fill on Man in the Corner Shop is so smooth. I'm going to be practicing that tonight until I get it right. That's such a tight freaking fill.
That's Entertainment hits pretty hard. To be fair, I just watched the Commitments last week...
The Triffids
3/5
I guess I don't understand the inclusion of this one. It has a number of really nice tracks, but I can't identify that strand of DNA that's supposed to make me understand this in a greater musical context. Great band name, though.
Girls Against Boys
4/5
I have no idea why I didn't hear this back in 1993. This is very much in the vein of what I was seeking out. The raw analogue power of the presentation. No-nonsense rock that performs at its full capacity.
If you ever hear about an act whose performance feels "honest", this band fits the bill – Like how you can hear the edges of all the complex emotions that Tom Waits brings to his performance?
I understand that there is always studio magic going on here, but this album captures that ineffable quality of performers giving you what they have. It almost has a "one take" quality, as if the musicians are playing simultaneously in the same space for a work that feels organic, whole, and sincere.
I can easily see myself sitting on the dubious couch in the corner of their rehearsal room listening to my friends while I get my calculus homework sorted for university. This album takes me to a time when I had big feelings and big plans.
Wire
3/5
A number of these songs have clearly influenced some of the hits of decades past. Interesting to hear the early context of some of these riffs.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
This is one of their best. Perhaps the height of their collaboration.
Faust
5/5
That opening track! Good lord. That's on my chill playlist immediately.
The Shamen
2/5
Mediocre dance pop. This sounds like garage band loops, but published. I can't understand its inclusion on the 1000 albums you must hear list
Adele
4/5
An album built to showcase a singularly talented vocalist. This album does its job admirably.
Not every song is my style, but the majority rock harder than I anticipated.
The Byrds
5/5
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
Beatles
3/5
The Beatles before they were great. Nascent qualities on display, but a boy band at this point. Not artists yet. Performers.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
A singular great in a standout career. If you listen to one Zeppelin album, I think this is the one.
And it spawned the "Stairways to Heaven" anthology. Another of the all time greats.
Cat Stevens
5/5
Joy Division
5/5
Hubris alert. This reminds me of every garage band I started when I was at University. But in a good way. Wish I stuck with that. Maybe I could have been the next Joy Division.
Roxy Music
5/5
Idiosyncratic is good. Distinct musically. Clear talent on display. The artists' viewpoint is communicated. Simply a fun album to listen to. Love it. Adding to my library.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
The White Stripes
5/5
My favorite single White Stripes. hands down. And no, not because of the Seven Nation Army, which is a bop, but not the best track. All of the play that punctuates the White Stripes is on full display here. Constraints breed creativity. This is the apex of the White Stripes' evolutionary curve.
Eagles
4/5
Rumors and Hotel California were released in the same year. Goddamn.
Soul II Soul
3/5
I appreciate that this is a cultural stepping stone that helps to make sense of the the UK DNA entwined within hip hop and R&B. One US single that I recognize from the radio of the time, Back to Life. Still a bop. While the whole thing is musically competent, it's not my jam. Certainly not an entire album's worth.
Soft Cell
2/5
Synth punk. Not a genre that I hear a lot of. Half of these songs remind me of those kids on band camp making demos in their bedroom. They were certainly doing interesting things, but not my cup of tea.
This might be my first memory of hearing a cover tune thinking it was the original. Tainted Love is their lasting cultural contribution, and that's okay.
Coldcut
4/5
Wow. 1001 albums featured a house collection that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the eardrums. I can actually put this one on and, you know, *listen* to it.
The War On Drugs
5/5
From start to finish, not a single miss. Excellent album.
After I married and started having children, I stopped buying a lot of music, and didn't end up listening to a lot either. I missed about 2 decades of bands and releases. The joy of following 1001 albums is these opportunities to hear something I missed that resonates so deeply with me.
Mj Cole
2/5
The Smiths
4/5
So emo.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
There's better shoegaze out there. Much better. This is fine, but it's by no means great.
Neil Young
3/5
I appreciate the ethos that went in the creation of this album. Props for that. Better Neil Young albums out there, though.
Taylor Swift
5/5
Very few albums can be help up as a quintessential representation of their genre. Pop can hold up 1989 as of of those examples.
Funkadelic
5/5
7/5 Brilliant and inventive. Endlessly listenable. Music that gets in between the sinews.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
Oh delicious irony that is Rage Against the Machine. But just because you're a bunch of rich kids, doesn't mean you can't scream at the broken machine of your society. The ultimate complaint rock album.
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Perplexed and a little perturbed by the power pop produced in this presentation. Not perfect, not particularly profound. Pass.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Solid. Middle drags, but it's strong and cohesive.
Coldplay
4/5
Clocks is an excellent example of what Coldplay does right. The entire band is firing on all cylinders, and the drumming on that track is particularly tasty.
A Rush of Blood to the Head is a good sophomore album. Parachutes is a great debut album. This album marks the end of the Coldplay discography.
Afterward Coldplay becomes Chris Martin's band, and the rest of the musicians are there, too.
Another example of a band producing a beautiful and timeless debut, and struggling to match that initial success with later releases. One has to realize that Coldplay had been working on Parachutes for god-knows-how-many years before actually recording it. Then only 2 years for the followup. And then Chris Martin became a rock star.
So it goes.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
I was 47 years old before I realized that the drums don't play any cymbals or high hats. No metal played in the "normal" fashion.
"Melt" is Gabriel's second-best solo work. So is #1.
R.E.M.
4/5
REM signed with Warner. This marked the turning point of the darling of the indie scene, the poster children for IRS Records, going mainstream. It's a bold album, far more political than I thought they could have gotten away with on their major label debut. It's strange and moving in places, straight ahead rock in others. An excellent example of REM's talent, but Green isn't their strongest work. IRS REM has far better work, as does post-Warner. They survived their growing pains, however.
REM was full of talent. They were constantly moving forward. A good album, but for me, it falls short of greatness.
Pink Floyd
4/5
The Wall was a formative album for me. It's 5/5 in my heart. Waters and Gilmour were at their professional peaks here.
But the cracks in the band were glaringly obvious. The Wall is Waters' magnum opus performing under the Pink Floyd brand. The Alan Parker film adaptation is incredible. Gerald Scarfe's animations are transcendent. Bob Geldof performs Pink in the film with unnerving and uncanny skill. The Wall is a canvas that many talented people have expressed themselves on.
It's not *Pink Floyd's* best work.
Carpenters
3/5
Richard's arrangements are genius. Karen's voice is angelic. Most of the album is meh. But Close to You is transcendent.
The Thrills
3/5
Sounds like a low-rent Wilco. Not sure why this is here. It's not a terrible album, but nothing on here made it onto any of my playlists, and based on this listening, I wouldn't seek out any more of their discography.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Springsteen at his lyrical best. He's a good songwriter, and he does his own material really well. But you can't talk about Springsteen at his height without talking about the E Street band. Max Weinberg is one of the all time greats on drums, and his work here is exemplary. I love that this album features the Big Man himself so prominently. Clemons by himself is a towering influence on this whole sound. His work on Born to Run is inspiring. That solo on Jungleland is next level.
Ray Charles
3/5
Jazz standards and mainstream production. Solid performances all the way around. It's a little over-produced for my liking, but it's still a strong album. If I had my way, I'd prefer a do-over with a four or five piece combo. (I submit the intro of You Won't Let Me Go as evidence for my preference.)
Todd Rundgren
5/5
Rundgren's sense of "what music and sound were like in my internal environment, and how different that was from the music I had been making" is pure aural poetry.
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
I appreciate the mid-60s sound this production managed to achieve. Aside from feeling like an album out of place in time, it's not the sort of thing I would listen to again. It's probably the aroma of the Arctic Monkeys that lingers on the compositions.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Ok, ok, listen. Subjectively, I can barely take Billy Corgan for anything. Subjectively, the Smashing Pumpkins were ludicrously overplayed when they were active in the 90s. Subjectively, this band occupies a space in my brain where I actively cringe when I remember they exist.
Objectively however, this William Corgan fellow knows how to write a song. This is a powerful album from start to finish. The Pumpkins have a distinct sound, and their execution hits you right between the eyes. This album is full of all sorts of emotions, and this imbues the performances with a vulnerability exposed in the arrangements.
5/5 for being a career-defining album of an objectively talented songwriter.
-1 star for Billy Corgan's voice.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Sounds like a greatest hits album. So many songs that have been indelibly entwined with the culture.
Arcade Fire
4/5
As the second arcade fire that was offered to me on this list, I was prepared to start throwing shade. I'm pleasantly surprised. I might even go and seek this out to listen to on my own in the future.
A solid and competent entry into the "Stomp/Clap" genre.
Joan Baez
4/5
My dad loved listening to Baez. I recognize the purity of the sound, the accuracy of her playing and her voice. It's impressive for what it is. But it's not my taste. And that makes it hard to rate.
Metallica
2/5
Metallica isn't my favorite to begin with, but these performances are as competent as Metallica always is. I'm left wondering, "Who asked for this?" The orchestra doesn't elevate Metallica to something more highbrow than it is. The strings add little to the drama of the band's music in the first place. In this context, with the way they're mixed, the strings sound like a synth anyway.
Nobody asked for this!
Black Sabbath
4/5
No reasonable person could take this album for what it so obviously is: Pageant Rock on Halloween dressed up in its finest haunted house regalia. That's not to say a *lot* of very unreasonable people saw this as the sonic gateway to open up a portal straight to hell for the dark lord Satan himself to climb through. Hail, Satan.
Glob bless Black Sabbath for giving generations of disaffected kids this accessible and delightful album dripping in sinister melodrama to needle their parents who eternally refuse to understand them.
Elvis Presley
2/5
If it's true that you're either an Elvis fan or you're a Beatles fan, then I'm the latter.
I get it. He's slick, handsome, got that whole pelvis thing going on...
But there's better music from the era within this genre. Elvis gets a bump because he's Elvis? Nope.
Hey, his backup band is among the best in the biz. They have to be to buoy up their frontman.
Daft Punk
2/5
There's some daft punk I like. And there's this.
How can something be so simultaneously repetitive and stimulating? Puts me to sleep. Like, within minutes.
1/5
All throttle, no brakes.
The musicianship here – no, the *athleticism* on display here is amazing. Sprinting through a marathon the whole time.
I *like* Ornette Coleman. I love *his* free jazz. I love what he brought to music. There's a purity in his performances. Zorn's interpretation is too much.
Now I'm going to listen to Trout Mask Replica to cleanse my palate.
Muddy Waters
4/5
The Prodigy
4/5
The Fat of the Land was one of the first electronic acts that broke into the mainstream in the US around this time. Aside from holding a special place in my psyche as a good album, there's an ineffable quality for me that makes this much more listenable than, say, Homework by Daft Punk released the same year.
This style of big beat dance music was what the DJs were playing in the clubs I occasionally frequented around Deep Ellum, mid nineties. The Prodigy just slotted right into the scene, becoming integrated with my tastes at the time.
I used to babysit my friends dropping acid for the first time with this as the soundtrack easily half the time. Kind of makes me want to try that out myself – listening to this thirty years down the line, I wonder what they were experiencing?
The Icarus Line
2/5
What does this album bring to the cultural conversation?
I'm struggling to understand why I needed to hear this album before I died.
Brian Eno
5/5
There more Eno I listen to, the more I like him.
This is such an interesting album. I love the vocal doubling on the guitars on the eponymous track. You're trying to evoke an experience "On Some Faraway Beach"? Then record your instrumentation like it's 20 miles away.
These compositions featuring rock instrumentation have a lot you can dig into, if you're willing to give it a chance.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
I'm not going to listen to this again. It's fantastic. Top of their game. So unbelievably sick of GnR. Four out of Five -- these guys were doing their thing in the metal genre about as well as anyone ever has.
But I refuse to pollute my music streaming algorithm with this album.
Prince
5/5
Orange Juice
3/5
1. These guys studied their American Motown.
2. This sounds like top 40 80s background music.
3. I'm not unhappy I listened to it, but this wasn't something I needed to hear before I died.
Dr. Dre
2/5
I acknowledge the influence this album had on culture. I acknowledge its excellent production values.
I can't get past the bravado swagger to get to the social commentary.
Fleet Foxes
3/5
I don't know why this group gets under my skin. They keep showing up like a pebble in my shoe on a long hike. Like someone helping to scratch an itch I can't reach and failing.
It's not bad as folk rock goes, but there are examples of the Stomp/Clap genre I enjoy more.
Oh, I know what it is!
Listening to this album feels like I joined the cult in Midsommar.
Tim Buckley
2/5
Jeff's Dad.
It's *interesting*, but it's not my taste.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
4/5
It starts out like the Shaggs' Philosophy of the World. Whether or not that was on purpose, one does not simply emulate the Shaggs.
I've never listened to this before. It started to grow on me. Some truly interesting electronic compositions punctuated by some mediocre pop songs.
I liked it. Didn't love it, but I liked it.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Opinionated and weird, I think it's the work of an extremely talented songwriter throwing stuff at the wall on his first solo outing. He's having fun. I can dig it.
Hints of greatness here and there. Here Comes the Flood, Down the Dolce Vita, Moribund the Burgermeister, Solsbury Hill...
But it's not his best work.
Talking Heads
4/5
How does a band come out nearly fully formed on their debut album yet have room to still grow over their career? I'm sure a lot of that has to do with Byrne, the opinionated writer and front man, clashing with his other bandmates, famously often at odds with the excellent and (I think) under-appreciated bassist, Tina Weymouth.
It's an incredible debut album. Every corner of it is full of the DNA that makes the Talking Heads uniquely themselves.
Pretenders
3/5
This album was produced during a cultural shift in musical genre. Sometimes do wop, sometimes punk, this album is all over the place. Brass in Pocket is a great song and is an indication of their style to come. It's a good album, but not a great one, and the existence of a tremendous single doesn't do enough to elevate that aside giving us a glimpse into the Pretenders' future.
Incubus
2/5
Incubus was what my most obnoxious acquaintances kept telling I should listen to. Back then, it felt like Incubus was trying hard to be a distillation of everything that was popular on the charts in the 90s. It didn't resonate with me then, and it still doesn't. Recording is competent, balance is nice, musicians know what they're doing (though it seems like the drummer might be at the wrong gig).
Definitely of a time. And it's just not hitting right.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
It's interesting how Mr. Wonder can get such full-sounding arrangements without them becoming distractingly "busy". Everything on the album is performed well, but it's not my taste.
Ryan Adams
1/5
Nah. Pass. Not going to give this album a listen. I'm sure it has great production, yada yada. Ryan Adams is a garbage human, and I'm not going to contribute to his bottom line with my listening numbers.
Mudhoney
4/5
Quintessential example of the nascent grunge form of pop music.
Depeche Mode
4/5
I love how they took the idea of new wave and crammed every nook and cranny full of sound – Lush arrangements that fill up my room.
It's interesting to me that, while many members of the band aren't gay, their lyrics are universal enough that their work became synonymous with LGBT identity for a time. Their brand of longing and isolation was immediately identifiable to the queer community, that when I looked up their stats a few moments ago, I was genuinely surprised that two of the surviving members of the group are married to women.
This is a great album, but would be eclipsed by the astonishingly good Violator a few years later.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
Genres shift and change. Bluegrass slid into country & western, and that morphed into nu country, etc. In each of these major groupings, there are a few artists you can point to and say, "Yeah, this *is* that genre."
Bob Marley is Reggae.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
This is art in the hands of the people. It's exactly what it means to be. So much fun to listen to. It has the fingerprints of the artists all over it, and I love it.
And "I'll Be Your Mirror" is the best expression of the Jungian concept of the Shadow ever set to music. Fight me.
Django Django
5/5
I absolutely love this. And I'm loving my first listen through on this band. Idiosyncratic and full of energy. This is an immediate add to my library.
Van Morrison
3/5
MGMT
4/5
Interesting, many layers and textures. Has a garage-band sensibility with high production values. I like it. The whole album has lots of variety, and isn't track after track of minor variations of the same song. Not "knock my socks off" awesome, but still a lot of fun.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
The drums are incredibly tight. The title of the album I begrudgingly appreciate the utter depravity of the pun on display. Really great pop production. Timberlake does a solid Michael Jackson impersonation.
I don't care for this style of pop.
Dire Straits
5/5
I don't have to listen to this album. I know it by heart. Might be the best of Dire Straits on display here. A guitarist buddy of mine hates Knopfler's voice, so he isn't willing to even listen to Knopfler – one of the guitar greats of all time.
Even the filler is great, BUT...
Sultans of Swing and Romeo and Juliet appear on other albums.
Album is still significant. The digital recording techniques and mastering that were bleeding edge at the time, the seamless cut between the drum solo and the main song on Money For Nothing, so much amazing stuff happening on this video, completely invisible.
Massive Attack
3/5
They certainly have a favourite bass drum sound.
Digital Underground
5/5
I love this. It's a concept album from start to finish, and just drenched in comedy. The digital underground take all the bluster and swagger of big time performers, and turn it on its side. Freaks of the Industry doesn't get a E for its lyrics. That's a feat by itself.
All this nerdy sex and swagger culminates not in actual sex, but in an eponymous Sex Packet. Just like the real thing. For sale. And you don't have to work at bedding the target of your interest.
Dystopian sci fi rap genius. I loved it.
The Offspring
4/5
Oversaturation on the radio really turned me off to the Offspring when I lived through them the first time. Listening now, more or less fresh, it's more interesting than I gave it credit for as a young adult.
Sure, there's an "edgier than thou" vibe to a lot of this album, but there's also a delightful sincerity to the anthems of disaffected youth untethered in an uncertain world.
Isn't that what punk is about?
The Clash
3/5
What are the odds? Yesterday was Smash by the Offspring. Today is the Clash by the Clash.
Cultural significance? Check.
The shit singer and competent guitarist being led along by a drummer much too good for this gig? Check.
There are better punk albums. Some of them are even by the Clash, too.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
I'm really torn here. I like the narrative aspect of this album. I can appreciate the narrative persona within the context, but I don't *like* this guy -- not in an "unlikable narrative" way. It's an expression within a clear social context, but it's so damn juvenile. It feels like every time it tries to rise above and express a larger social message, it swaggers so hard the album ends up tripping on its shoelaces.
Os Mutantes
5/5
Opinionated and weird. Love the energy. This band set out to make a thing, and they definitely made a thing.
Radiohead
2/5
With the universal approbation Radiohead receives, I would like to like them, but they don't do anything for me. The further you get into their discography, the less they appeal to me. My heart is teflon; Radiohead doesn't stick.
I don't know. Maybe this is like how other bands grew on me over time, so it's possible that I'll discover what everyone else hears when they listen to Radiohead, but for now they remain the World's Most Overrated Band.
Neil Young
5/5
Despite the best efforts of this album generator project already feeding me all three albums of the "ditch" trilogy, I've not listened to the breadth of Neil Young's catalog. I suspect Harvest might be the best of the bunch. It's an incredible album.
Stephen Stills
4/5
Starts off really strong out of the gate. Solid 5.
And then it keeps going. Jarring insertion of country fiddle. 4.
And it keeps going. Sides 3 and 4 become an inconsistent assortment of loosely related songs.
By the end, we land on a three, the average content diluting the excellence of the start.
Had it been a shorter, more focused experience, strong 4/5. Meandering to the end we arrive at a 3/4.
Happily, I'll recognize the excellence of the musicians.
Pixies
5/5
I have trouble believing that I am 49 years old hearing this album for the very first time. I am utterly blown away.
I...
I'm just going to play it again.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
5/5
When I was a kid growing up in North Texas, football was a religion, and marching band was the choir. We were led by a legend in the area at the time, and he was very much a "by the book" kind of director. Marching Band 4 Life. I played trumpet, and even though all brass marched as a rule, when the football season was over, we were split into two bands: the prestigious symphonic band, and the one I was in – the "concert" band.
It wasn't that I was a bad player, I just wasn't engaged enough to actually practice to make it to the level of the #1 band. I chanced to take some private lessons that year, and my teacher saw my disengagement and took me on a track a bit away from the drudge of etudes. He started teaching me blues.
This lit something inside of me. I rounded up a number of my slacker band friends, and we approached our band director. We wanted to form a jazz combo, and would you please give us some direction?
We received a cold no from the man, and furthermore, if we insisted on forming the combo and actually started playing jazz, he would ensure that we would never climb the ranks into symphonic band, and we would kiss any future scholarships or personal recommendations goodbye. (I know: this sounds like the plot to an 80s teen movie.) This was *not* the reaction we were expecting, but we wouldn't be deterred.
We called ourselves "Unauthorized Jazz". Our first seat trombone's dad was a big cable marketing guy in the area, so we had regular mall openings, car dealerships, and parades that we were invited to play through his connections. We quickly coalesced our sound around big band swing and ragtime, and we honed our chops at the local senior center on the weekends, providing the accompaniment for the little old couples to dance to during lunch. That was a wild year.
We had no end of access to sheet music, too. The local university was (is) huge in the music education scene, and it so happened that one of the local TV stations was old enough to have transitioned from radio into broadcast TV. When they did, they donated *all* their sheet music (for the live broadcast bands) to the local university. As long as we had dimes for the copier, we were set.
We got really cozy with Mr. Count Basie during this time. Our arrangement of Splanky always brought down the house.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
To be fair, when this came out, I'm sure I was listening to Deep Forest or Enigma or any number of those "world music" mashups of this era. I probably saw this and thought "Jah Wobble" was a joke name.
It's not a bad album, but it's not great, either. The world music part is kind of fun, but it keeps getting interrupted by the singing growl of a Londoner for some reason.
Robert Wyatt
5/5
Heaps of Sheeps. A I iv V with a Bo Diddley beat. But weird. I dig it.
Maryan. I really love the lyrical bass and the whole vibe. Feels like Pink Floyd circa Atom Heart Mother.
Was a Friend. A whole-ass false song to start? Damn.
September the Ninth. Wasn't expecting a jazz track. Loving the brass section.
Alien. Love the way the whole song treads water the entire time, and the meditative drone lingering on at the end is a perfect way to close the song.
A Sunday in Madrid. Forcing the beat poetry into that meter is delightful. The hanging harmony on the final "sleeps" is a delight.
Blues in Bob Minor. Before I looked up to see the name of the track, I *knew* this was a play on Bob Dylan. Wyatt immediately dials this in. So much fun! Anyone taking the piss on Bob Dylan is immediately my friend.
The Whole Point of No Return. I just want to weave that trumpet solo into a blanket and curl up inside of it.
I was afraid this was going to be an experiment in noise, but I'm utterly charmed by its playful exuberance and experimentation.
George Harrison
3/5
I have a deep and abiding love for George Harrison, the man, and the artist. His years of being the money behind Monty Python has given us important and enduring art. His work with the Beatles was foundational within modern musical culture. His work as a public human being and humanitarian set the mold for many many musicians with a cause to come after. I would have liked to meet the man and simply tell him thank you for all that he has done.
All that said, as a musician, he's a better ensemble man than lead. It's a crying shame he got sued over My Sweet Lord. What is Life is as good as any song as he's written. The wall of sound approach on Let It Down is delightfully impressive. Apple Scruffs is charming. (I think it's about a dog, perhaps?)
He's one of the best guitarists of his generation, and one of the best of all time.
So much of this album is merely okay, and that's unfortunate. Listening to track after track of indulgent b-side material, I get that he wanted to express himself as a serious musician post-Beatles, and I admire that. This is one of those examples of recording work that could have used some editorial input. You take the best tracks on this double album, and you have a solid 4. His need to write all the things and record them after being held back by the Beatles' working relationship is absolutely understandable.
The 11-minute instrumental Out of the Blue is a great example of what I'm talking about. I'm not remotely opposed to instrumentals, but this track is a meandering, untethered jam session. It's not a composition that says much of anything about Harrison's artistic viewpoint. As a cohesive artistic expression, these extras and curiosities bring this album down.
His best post-Beatles work was to come with the Traveling Wilburys. At least, that's my favorite. (Can be argued to be better than his Beatles work with one or two exceptions.)
The Isley Brothers
5/5
How can one album contain so much funkitude?
I love it when bands make covers uniquely their own. Listen to the Music, Sunshine... Summer Breeze! Good lord. That was incredible. Takes the original and makes into something entirely transcendent. (If Prince wasn't listening to these guys while growing up, then I have no idea about anything.)
Motörhead
3/5
This album says Rock. Like, where's my car? I need to go take a drive, windows down, definitely speeding a little bit with this on the radio to properly set the mood.
If you want to learn to play rock and roll on the drums, start with Back in Black by AC/DC. Just put the album on and play along until you got it. Then put this one on. By the end of that exercise, you're ready.
But, seriously, Motörhead? Jailbait? Wasn't okay. Was never okay.
Ace of Spades is rightfully a classic (the song, not the album as a whole). As the album continues, it gets more samey. The riffs become more stale. This is definitely their wheelhouse, and it shows. Still, the rock and roll swagger, the apparent lifestyle – this is sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll exemplified. This is a double-edged sword. The content is primal and straightforward. The album is about as deep as a puddle, but that's what it was meant to be.
You *can* do rock and roll without the idiotic misogyny, however.
Common
4/5
Solid use of samples. Really listenable. I never *hear* lyrics until I get into a song more, and this is no exception for4 me. So, the rhythm, the timbre of his voice, this really appeals to me. When I listen along with the lyrics, I enjoy the humour in his turn of phrase.
Van Halen
4/5
This is peak Van Halen, and the last time the creative dynamics of the original lineup would appear together. These are artists at the top of their game, straddling that awkward phase between Classic Metal Rock and the Hair Bands.
Minus one star for the outrageous misogyny.
Roni Size
2/5
My friends were dropping acid and listening to this. I was the designated driver and trip sitter for their safety.
They LOVED this while they were tripping. It made me want to fall asleep. Sitting here while working, it's not repetitive in a way that helps me focus. It's more like an itch.
I could imagine this hitting different if I were high. It's good for its genre. Interesting enough. I'm sure it has a cultural significance. But I'm not from the UK, and this wasn't my scene, so I can't get the cultural import and why, exactly, I needed to hear this before I die.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Costello would make some great music with the Attractions. This has a couple of great tracks, and a lot of work finding their footing. Undeniable chops, but not *great* great yet.
The Cure
3/5
Aw... don't cry, emo kid. This lineup will take you into the stratosphere as one of the best bands of a generation.
You made a good album, to be sure. It's solid, but it's not *great*. It has one of your really famous singles on it, but the album isn't "blow me away" great like Disintegration will eventually be. Don't worry about it, though. You're laying the groundwork for the brooding melancholy about love that will be your signature idiom for an amazing run.
Buck up, little camper. It may seem bleak now, but I promise:
It'll be okay.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
Paul McCartney
4/5
I don't like Paul McCartney generally. I like the John and George songs the most. He's a savant when it comes to writing songs – I'll not begrudge his obvious and monumental musical talent – but he's not my favorite.
Or so I thought. I *like* this album. Apparently the Paul who's untethered and depressed about the direction his life is going to take after the dissolution of the Beatles is one I can relate to. I like the spare arrangements. I enjoy hearing the instrumentals.
Depressed, no-budget, basement McCartney reveals the soul of the artist.
I'm a little beside myself now, re-assessing my worldview.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
This was considerably better than I anticipated. Man knows how to paint a picture.
Various Artists
5/5
Steely Dan
4/5
Opinionated artists who start real strong out of the gate. Didn't realize that three of the heavy-rotation Steely Dan singles came from this one album.
Meat Puppets
2/5
Kurt Cobain made this culturally significant. By itself, it's interesting. I enjoy a number of the tracks, but the album as a whole lacks a cohesive narrative. Not the greatest album, and I'm not sure why I needed to hear it before I died. I'm not unhappy I listened to it. Oh well, you had to fill up 1001 spots – there's bound to be some filler.
All that aside. I wish I had the guts to put out an album this bad.
Jungle Brothers
5/5
The positivity of this album! It's full of "believe in yourself", "accept your brothers and sisters", and "know thyself". I'm loving this. Albums like these are why I keep slogging through this project. I grew up in a music-less house. This never made it past my radar at all.
No age is too old to be introduced to great music. Hip-hop was going to take a stylistic change around this time. These guys are preaching a message of peace and acceptance. I don't know how I would have taken this when I was younger, but this is exactly the message I needed to hear today.
The sampling is outstanding and the production is on point. This whole album is an instant party, just add speakers.
Going to let this one keep washing over me as I get my work done.
Meat Loaf
4/5
There's a reason he was Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Meat Loaf was a theatre kid at heart. These songs are *funny*. "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" has delightful production values and tells a common story in an interesting way. The bombastic arrangements as a whole belong to an off-off-broadway production of a rock opera featuring teenagers coming of age.
Looking at it like that, this album has merits. But the single trick doesn't play well for the rest of Meat Loaf's career. He gets away with Bat out of Hell. The rest of his oeuvre is another story entirely.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
These guys are kind of meh for me. This was a more enjoyable listen than their 2017 American Dream, also on this list for some reason. I would like a half star since this is better than average, but not "make me sit up and listen".
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
An interesting conglomeration of tracks. Mostly interesting as a record of a group of incredibly talented individuals imploding as a band.
Talking Heads
4/5
The Talking Heads know what they're about. Many of these songs are among the Talking Headiest of the Talking Heads' repertoire.
Doves
4/5
I'm a sucker for tremolo. I usually listen to the albums at a relatively low volume, just as a rule. I don't need them filling up the entire space while I'm working.
This one I turned up.
Was "Here it Comes" a single? It feels *very* familiar.
Not my favorite, but this is nice. It's layered, has compelling sonic textures. I'm not a huge fan of the vocals, but they're serviceable. Not bad.
Fiona Apple
5/5
A document from an artist coping with a global phenomenon. A letter from the edge. Fetch the bolt-cutters, indeed.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
I've always consumed Norman Cook in small doses. Am I going to get annoyed by a full Fatboy Slim album?
Risky click of the day...
Ok. Really digging Santa Cruz.
Give the Po' Man a Break is unpleasantly repetitive. Really broke me out of the work focus trance.
Yikes. 10th and Crenshaw immediately following. This is falling apart quickly.
Welp, I gave it a chance. Started out strong, but whimpered across the finish line. A starting point for some of his absolute bangers later on.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
A man whose first language is the blues fronting one of the tightest rhythm sections ever recorded. Transcendent.
Spiritualized
4/5
Turns out I like shoegaze (dream pop?). Spiritualized is starting to grow on me.
Yes
4/5
I have a soft spot for prog rock, and even though it would be heavy rotation on the classic rock stations of my youth, I silly enjoy "All Good People".
I think it's interesting to include their live folk track on this album, but it made sense to me. We hear a lot of heavy folk instrumentation on many of these songs, and it's nice to hear that they have live chops for the same.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
That was really short. I dunno. Didn't leave a lasting impression. Nick Cave sings story songs. And this is one of those albums. Seems pretty typical of his oeuvre.
John Lennon
3/5
Lennon/McCartney were a great duo. They each helped to reign in the excesses of the other. They are clearly talented musicians alone, but those same excesses really get on my nerves. I understand the "importance" of Lennon's first solo album, but this feels obligatory in a way. The story goes that John wanted to move on from the Beatles, even move on from music. This album feels reflective of that sentiment.
Primal Scream
3/5
I found it interesting. It's fine work background music. I've loved the Trainspotting soundtrack since the movie originally came out, and it's amusing to hear the larger context of Primal Scream's output.
All that aside, I'm not likely to seek this one out again, but it was a solid entry nonetheless.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Incredible album. I love the storytelling.
Jane's Addiction
4/5
My ex was clearly cooler than I was. She had this album. She would sing parts of it to me. "Sex is violent", "The water is so fucking hot, standing in the shower, thinking." But cute, you know? Enh. I guess you had to be there, but this was one of those ways she would always crack me up -- come up behind me when I was working and sing in my ear, "Standing in the shower, pissing on myself."
As for the album, these guys were doing their thing way before their time. This album kinda rules.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Nah. I don't need to hear any more of this before I die.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
That speed bump intro to "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" is a massive screeching halt to an otherwise nice soul album.
Not great for me. Wildly overproduced. Removes me from the soul part of the soul.
LTJ Bukem
2/5
I am not now, nor have I ever been high enough to enjoy this album.
T. Rex
4/5
As a kid in the US, the classic rock stations only played Get It On typically. I didn't dip my toe into T.Rex much beyond that. In the age of streaming, there's a much lower barrier to entry to try out new music, and I'm glad I did. On the first listen of this one, I really like it. Hearing the T.Rex DNA from Get It On in an album context was intriguing.
Simply Red
2/5
Fine. This might be the pinnacle musicianship of a particular strain of synth pop, but it does. not. resonate. with. me.
I'm reasonably sure there are better representations of the genre that don't sound like the speaker in the elevator got loose and started chasing me down the street.
The xx
3/5
I kind of love that they said that they were a bunch of minimalist imposters since they were still learning their instruments when they recorded this album. On the face of it, it's preposterous that they got this kind of studio quality and promotion with a story like that, but I want to believe it's true.
Musically, it's not my thing. I generally like it until the guy starts singing, then it loses me instantly.
Minor Threat
4/5
It's nice to discover and finally enjoy who the Offspring were r̶i̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ influenced by.
Carole King
5/5
What an incredible talent. Timeless classics here. Covers that become her own. She was 29 when she put this out. Amazing.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
Brilliant performance. Pure musicianship.
The Fall
4/5
FKA twigs
5/5
Twigs' vulnerability is transcendent. I first heard Two Weeks listing to a mix, and stopped what I was doing to listen to the full album. There's a paradoxical intimacy to the lyrics and delivery that, even though it was released as an album, it makes me feel like I've stumbled on someone's private diary, and I shouldn't be listening to this because I'm crossing someone's boundaries. Incredible work.
Nick Drake
5/5
Every now and then there's an artist who transcends their time and place and leaves something indelible in this ephemeral existence. Nick Drake's 26 years on this planet were a gift.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Iggy Pop
4/5
The song, "Lust For Life", lives rent-free in my head. It's a timeless piece of rock and roll. To me, it sounds as fresh today as it would have in 1977. Just an astoundingly good song.
Mariah Carey
2/5
I genuinely do not like this. Excessive vocal gymnastics that get in the way of the melody. It's an unforced error. Mariah Carey has an amazing voice. It's a damn shame I can't hear it for all the backflipping she does all over the place. Congrats to her on feeling so confident on that take of the title track Butterfly, but damn, she's not hitting the melody there. Yep. She's sexy. Got that sexy voice. Cool cool cool.
Was this at the point in her career where people were afraid to tell her "no"?
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
Jerry Lee Lewis was massively overrated, riding on the coattails of the black innovators of the form. A shout out to his backup band – the real heroes this set.
The Young Rascals
3/5
That album has some of the fattest bass I've ever heard from a pop act. The existence of "Groovin'" alone isn't enough to elevate the album from that ridiculous album art.
Madonna
4/5
In addition perhaps to being Madonna's best work, Express Yourself is one of David Fincher's more memorable music videos.
A quintessential gem of pop perfection.
Jeff Buckley
5/5
One and done. An absolute masterpiece. There's a very short list of debut albums that are this good. His talent fronting his supporting band fires on all cylinders all the time.
Radiohead
2/5
I don't know how to like Radiohead.
The Byrds
3/5
Solid Harmonies, if not a little droning. The music is repetitive and a little bit weird – backward echoes, reverb, and the like.
Eight Miles High is a great composition. Their interpretation of Hey Joe is simply bonkers.
As a whole, I can see this being really appealing if I were tripping. But I'm not tripping.
Metallica
3/5
They're competent musicians, certainly, but I can't remove their public selves from their work. Self-important blowhards who acted like they invented heavy metal, this album was massively overplayed when I was younger, and it's not gotten better with age for me.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
WOW! It's been a *very* long time since I started playing an album and was so immediately and completely subsumed within it.
I can't do justice to the feelings I am feeling at this exact moment.
I want to practice my drums every day until I am good enough to audition for Michael Kiwanuka's band. I want to sit in the room with him and be a part of the process – to be there first when his angel muses visit him and speak these glorious songs into his head. I want to be this man's friend.
This is an incredible album from the first note to the last. My only problem is that it ended and my elation started to fade. Happily, all I have to do is play it again, and it's back.
Completely, utterly in love with this.
Brian Eno
5/5
The OG of ambience. I aspire to be this good.
Cream
3/5
Sunshine of Your Love was on the first set list I played after learning drums. It's a delightful song to learn on. A lot of flexibility in Ginger Baker's drumming. His performance here is among my favorite drum performances.
Eric Clapton, even taken before his current assholery, has always been an asshole. He learned the blues well, but he's not the best. He learned to sing, but he's not the best. Yet he acts like he's god's gift. Look, it's sad his kid died, okay? I just don't like the man.
I understand why this album is "important". Several tracks are mainstays on all the classic rock stations. Strange Brew, Sunshine of your Love, and Tales of Brave Ulysses (aka Sunshine of Your Love, part 2).
Much of the rest of the album is really really *okay*. Feels like it's chasing the tail of the Beatles much of the time. It's not even groundbreaking psychedelia for its time. It feels conservative in its nature -- like the band is dipping its toe into the zeitgeist, but doesn't want to commit.
Björk
4/5
I think Post is a better album, but Debut is a hell of a way to start a solo career.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Buttery smooth vocals. White soul at it's best, but the over arrangement of the strings really gets on my nerves.
Burning Spear
3/5
The trance-like nature of the form speaking about human horrors in an almost matter-of-fact way somehow makes the horror more impactful. The musicianship is really good -- they're clearly good at their art.
5/5
Boston
4/5
I can't imagine why they didn't start the album with Foreplay/Long Time. The wild prog-rock intro melting into the power pop seems to be symbolic little nod to the influences and direction of the authors.
This album captures the zeitgeist of its musical era. I would say that you couldn't grow an album like this in a lab, but they did! I mean, it was a basement, but the self-titled "Boston" deftly distills the musical tropes of its day.
It's peppy. Listening to it makes you feel peppy. Of course this was overplayed on the radio.
Fugazi
4/5
You are not what you own.
I didn't understand what Fugazi was when I was younger and discovering music. That's a damn shame.
David Bowie
4/5
There are some great tracks on this album, but a timeless classic that I had to hear before I died? Not really sure about that. Solid album, though. I enjoyed listening to it. This is definitely one that could grow on me.
Valentine's Day
If You Can See Me
(You Will) Set the World on Fire
You Feel So Lonely You Could Die
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
I remember looking into how I could be cool like so many people I admired when I was a younger person. Block Rockin' Beat was on the radio, my friends went to dance clubs. I worked at a used CD store. This is the sort of music that the cool people played at their cool parties. I decided one day to put this on in the store during a bit of a down hour so I could listen while I reorganized the shelves. My manager dropped in for a visit around track 8, "Get Up On It Like This", and told me to turn it off.
There are several tracks here that are pretty good, and a couple that I couldn't stand for their duration. Beth Orton elevates anything she's involved with, and "Where Do I Begin" is no exception.
On the balance, this was a fairly "meh" experience. I consider myself a pretty progressive guy when it comes to music. Listening to this again after so many years, I remember that I am not now, nor have I ever been, high enough to fully appreciate this album.
Rush
3/5
When I was a younger man, learning how to play the drums, our reluctant bassist was completely infatuated with Rush. The bassist would much rather have been on guitar, shredding Tom Sawyer than whatever we were covering at the time.
He was incredibly annoying. Turned me off of Rush for *years*.
As an older man, listening to rush with fresh ears, perhaps it wasn't the bassist who was annoying. Perhaps we were annoyed by Rush all along.
These guys are clearly stellar musicians. It's just not my taste.
The Undertones
3/5
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
David Bowie
4/5
He was really firing on all cylinders during this time, huh? 4.49? Or 4.51?
The Temptations
4/5
Damn. "Run Charlie Run" completely smacks my gob. Hell of a message, and the music is *tight*. "Do Your Thing" needs to become one of my theme songs. The whole album has a socially conscious message that I really dig.
It's a beautiful album. Not full of singles, but full of luscious tracks that I want to float away on.
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
Maybe you caught me on a bad day, but not a fan. Some of these tracks sound like a table saw, but without any of the charm. I've made better sounding demo tapes on a tascam 4 track recorder.
No.
Missy Elliott
3/5
I'm sure I didn't need to know that this was another Missy Elliott exclusive.
On the one hand, I love the girl power vibe in a boy's world. Sex positivity, woman in charge here. Cool.
On the other hand, I don't like swagger rap, and that makes up over half the album. Not my thing.
Back in the Day is easier for me to listen to. It tells a story external to the persona of the artist. I get along better with that. Nothing out There for Me is a bop. Can You Hear Me is really touching. The woman is a powerhouse, no doubt about it.
But seriously, y'all: is the "Missy Elliott exclusive" thing a bit? Am I missing the joke?
Pulp
5/5
I feel like I know these people. I've had these conversations. The emotional content resonates on the same wavelength as my anxiety. Every part of this album is working for me, from the sweeping arrangements to the razor-sharp lyrics, I'm only sad that I didn't discover this album sooner.
Added to my collection.
Kid Rock
2/5
Sweet baby Jesus on a pogo stick. You couldn't get away from this back when it was released. Did MTv have an *ultra-double-plus-heavy" rotation? If so, this was definitely on it.
Cynical production that's a fantastic example of style over substance. I can see it now: Some music execs were sitting around one day brainstorming some ideas. One of them says to the group, "You remember all those songs in the 80s that has a screaming guitar solo or a rap break?"
The guy to his left perks up a little, "Yeah...?"
"Those were awesome. Everybody loved those songs."
"Where are you going with this?" Another guy at the table is sitting up now. Their collective interest is piqued.
"What if we made an entire album that was just that? Screaming guitar and rap breaks?"
"That would sound amazing! But you have to make sure the rap is performed by a white guy."
"Well, obviously it has to play well with white kids in suburbia...."
Naw. I couldn't get away from it back then, but I certainly can now.
Blondie
4/5
Really tight pop rock album. Not pop perfection, but really solid. Heart of Glass, One Way or Another. Difficult to go wrong.
Just heard the drums on the intro for "I Know, But I Don't Know." Love that.
I dunno. Strong album. Apparently it's the one that brought fame to the band. That's cool. I dig it. It's just, there's a bunch of filler, but it's not bad filler -- just not all that memorable on the whole. Really *listenable* though.
David Bowie
2/5
Wherein Bowie becomes, for better or worse, L’artiste.
Not my favorite. Probably won't listen again.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
There's a lot that could be said about Leonard Cohen, Poet Troubadour. But he was definitely more of a poet than a troubadour. I like this album. I like listening to the man. But I don't think this is a particularly strong album.
The Kinks
2/5
Had I been a teenage girl in 1966, I probably would have lost my mind over this album. But it's 2024, and I'm not a teenage girl.
4/5
I love the arrangements here. The way the verse builds on "Nature's Way" with the gorgeous, silky smooth bass slipping in on the last round to buttress up the already gorgeous harmony raised the hair on the back of my neck.
There's so much to enjoy here. The mastering is incredible. It sounds like a bunch of musicians who are really really good sitting around and doing their thing. Feels almost casual, like they're serious people who don't take themselves too seriously – playful and joyous, yet so tight at the same time. Really easy to listen to.
I could have sworn that I heard another Spirit album with this project, but this is my first one. Huh. I have more research to do.
Fats Domino
5/5
There's a lot of joy in this album. I agree that adding a compilation is kind of cheating, but this is still a great listen.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
This is dangerously close to a country album. What's the non-country term? Oh yeah, he's taken a hard turn into "Americana".
I also lived through the 9-11 attacks. I don't begrudge artists' need to process horror. I don't really care for this treatment of it. It's a personal taste thing. Springsteen's gonna' spring his steen, regardless.
He paints very pretty pictures.
Julian Cope
4/5
I liked it. It's weird. It's strange. It reminds me of Adrian Belew, particularly his work with King Crimson. I feel like I should know who Julian Cope is, but for the life of me, I don't know why. It's a weird cognitive itch I can't scratch.
Charles Mingus
5/5
The wild energy of the music propelling the dancers across the stage in my mind, bounding between chaotic and serene, my only complaint is that it was over too soon.
Beautiful.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
What can you possibly say about one of the greatest albums recorded at the height of one of the world's greatest musician's talent?
Kate Bush
5/5
This is what happens when you give an incredibly talented, weird musician carte blanche.
I love the weird stuff.
AC/DC
4/5
Rick Astley (yes, *that* Rick Astley) says if you want to learn rock 'n roll drums, put on an AC/DC album and play along until you get it right.
He's not wrong. This is about as straight-ahead rock and it gets. AC/DC's original singer went out on top. The puerile innuendo, the childish lyrics, and just mindless fun of the anthem rock that AC/DC exemplifies is all on display. Though, unless you're into it, the criticism that hearing one track means you heard them all is more-or-less true.
Perhaps the predictability is a comfort? For me it means that, while listening while I work, I don't always notice when one song starts and another ends.
Motivation when doing the yard work? Sure. As long as you aren't the type who actually listens to the lyrics. This isn't "high art", but it was never meant to be.
Kanye West
5/5
Kanye is obviously a musical genius. The emotion flowing out of this work is enormous. It's 100% clear why he became a superstar. This is a brilliant album.
I guess the lesson I take away from this is: when you are prescribed medication for your mental illness, take your damn meds.
The Incredible String Band
5/5
This is insane. It's utterly batshit insane. I hold a minor maxim about art: the more obscure the art, the more the artist actually believes it.
There is no rating for ?!?!
I think I love it.
Black Sabbath
4/5
An album filled with so many iconic tracks, that you could easily retire and coast simply on this.
Cross reference Girl Talk's track "Oh No" on the All Day album. Featuring War Pigs mixed with Ludacris' Get out Da Way for the opening track, It's an absolute banger.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
Peak "Golden Age" Hip Hop. The exuberance of this album is infectious. I know it's best known these days for the Aerosmith crossover, but Tricky was the anthem of my pre-teens.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
I really like this. This is my third Black Sabbath album for this project. I've enjoyed every one. I particularly enjoy the super fuzz sludge on the guitar here. It's really warm.
Is it possible I'm becoming a Black Sabbath fan? More specifically, probably a 1970s Black Sabbath fan?
Leonard Cohen
5/5
Oh! Sing melancholy of love and regret.
Sweetly serenade the last pains of my heart.
American Music Club
2/5
This sounds like it represents an inflection in the transition from indie rock to Americana. It's interesting, but it's not great.
I admit that I always wanted to be a rock singer, and I can also admit that I'm bad as a lead singer. Not "good-bad", just bad. This guy's friends really needed to have a sit-down with him and tell him some hard truths.
If this were the "obscure albums you must listen to before you die" I would understand its inclusion, but there are better acts out there that represent this transition point.
Not bad, not great. I like the music – the skill of the musicians. The incongruent vocals are distracting to a greater degree than I would expect.
Miles Davis
5/5
Move is a hell of a way to open an album.
Janet Jackson
3/5
Going out on a high at the end of an era. The production values scream mid 80s pop. Perhaps this is a chicken and egg situation. Perhaps this simply set the bar and everything that sounds like it is an imitation. (But that's not true.)
She does a good job coming out of her brother's shadow here. I didn't like the musical clichés of the genre when I lived through them, and they don't really get better with age.
The arrangements make most of the album quite danceable , but that works against it as a "sit down and listen" experience. The rhythm section alone is very repetitive and homogenous across tracks. It's a hell of a dance album. Taken as a social commentary? No. When I can hear the lyrics at all, the arrangements ultimately come off as busy, indistinct, and muddy. Not my favorite.
The Smiths
3/5
I like some of the Smiths. Some of the albums feel like cohesive wholes. This one feels disjointed and random. It's not landing with me. "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" resonates. "Well I Wonder" is cool.
So far, the second half of the album works better for me, but half an album isn't good enough for all the stars.
Beatles
5/5
Lana Del Rey
3/5
I'm torn about Lana. I've tried to power through her stuff before – it's the genre of stuff I generally like, but for some reason, her music really rubs me the wrong way. This was pretty good as long as I wasn't really listening to it. But really paying attention, it's track after track of dour mumble-whisper. Kind of samey. Not a lot of depth for me to get involved with.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
I went to a university that was pretty well known for its student jazz ensemble. Many of my friends were musicians, and I had an opportunity to watch their various performances and rehearsals. I relished this time. I could get some studying done, I could support my friends, and I was treated to some fun music at the same time.
Understand that these friends weren't in the #1 prestigious ensemble. I'm not sure that they ever really wanted to be. They still loved music, and they didn't want high pressure to perform to take that love away from them.
This album reminds me of that. I'm not utterly blown away my the sheer art on display (re: Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert). That's not to say it's bad. Not in the least. I'm loving this album. At the same time, I'm not sure I'm going to keep coming back to this one like I would with, say, the Vince Guiraldi Trio's Charlie Brown Christmas, you know?
Talking Heads
5/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
William Corgan is a good songwriter. The man writes a hell of a hook. Just look at his collaborations with Courtney Love.
Billy Corgan is a godawful front man. His delivery is just trash.
I know I suffered from pumpkin fatigue because I was still a young person when this album dropped, and you simply couldn't escape it. And the audacity of dropping a double album when you're a pop band is the height of hubris. Tonight, Tonight was on heavy rotation on MTv for, like, *ever*, and it's just not that good (yes, despite the fact it has a killer hook).
And the band fell apart a few years after this release. So, yeah. Hubris, then.
All that aside. 1979 is one of the best-arranged pop songs there ever has been, and I *will* fight you on this. I had never sat down and listened to this whole thing, and many parts of this (very too long) release surprised me. Some even delighted me.
But I still have a visceral cringe reaction to Billy Corgan's voice, and you can't take that away from me.
Guided By Voices
2/5
I find this album very unsatisfying. It's a tease. Great little pop hooks, but only the hooks. They're over before I get a chance to enjoy what's going on.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Probably the best stones album. Probably.
Beck
4/5
Not listened to this one all the way through before today, not the best Beck album (Scott Pilgrim vs the World) nor my favorite (also Scott Pilgrim), but it's solid. Added a few track to my various playlists.
Television
5/5
I have a strong suspicion that the Violent Femmes liked this band. I like them, too.
Slipknot
3/5
I tried. I really tried. I recognize the musicianship for what it is. Some of the tracks have a more broad appeal, and the anthemic nature of the lyrics – I can see how someone is a certain frame of mind could find solace in the lyrics. In the end, it's not a "listening" album for me. Nu-Metal just isn't my cup of tea.
Jack White
3/5
Constraints yield creativity. The White Stripes are one of my favorite musical examples of this maxim.
Jack White, now *the* Jack White, with his own record label, a full band, and whatever the hell he wants to do professionally lacks the creative urgency that permeates the White Stripes.
Jack White with a band is another white guy who has a knack for songwriting playing the blues. It's not *bad*, but does anyone listen to Jack White because they love his particular vocal stylings?
Here's a question to consider: Is Meg White a good drummer?
Absolutely yes. She keeps time, and adds musicality to the music she's performing. I offer that your personal attitude about this question will inform whether you like Jack White's solo work.
This albums excesses are the exact opposite of why I liked the White Stripes.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Everything But The Girl
4/5
Tracey Thorn could sing me the phone book, and I would be enthralled.
Al Green
4/5
Let's Stay Together is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Amazing track. The rest of the album is buttery smooth, and delightful, but nothing comes close to that title track. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the album. Loved it. 34 minutes of soul heaven.
The Stooges
5/5
All through this album I kept going, "Oh, these guys sound like the Doors..." or, "these guys sound like Nick Cave..." or Black Sabbath or the Rolling Stones or whatever. Then it clicked for me: those guys sound like these guys.
This album takes all the things I hate about the Rolling Stones, makes them *good* somehow, and distills them all onto a single album.
I don't care if Funhouse wasn't "critically acclaimed" at the time or whatever. This whole album slots so perfectly into its time, a gestalt snapshot of its culture. It builds on what came before, packs it into its most concentrated crystalline form, and sets a template for dozens of acts that would come after.
So much to love here, and I adore the absolute batshittery that closes the album with L.A. Blues. Brilliant.
The Human League
2/5
If you like synth pop and can ignore the tenuous vocals, then this is the album for you. Thin, tinny, grating, and repetitive. Minus a bonus star for the bad boyfriend vibes on the only track people remember from this album. Human League has done better work.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
As always, Frank's voice is silky smooth. His control is legendary, and rightly so. This was his instrument, and he was one of the best vocalists to be recorded.
And this album is full of sad sack melancholy emo crap before we had words for it. When all you have is the singer – when the music is supposed to fade into the background – the content of the songs better be pretty damn compelling, and this just doesn't do it for me. Sinatra plays someone so relentlessly heartbroken that in the end it's repetitive and tiresome.
De La Soul
5/5
I was waiting for this one. One of my favorite albums. They play with the form in a way that delights and surprises on every listen. Unreserved, completely deserved 5 stars.
Peter Frampton
4/5
I'm not really here for Frampton. Yeah, yeah, the talk box is great, and his guitar work is flawless. The backup band was absolutely on fire here.
Can we just admit that we're here to stand witness to the phenomenal engineering and recording that those absolute wizard sound techs performed to make a live album sound as good as this?
5/5
This is such a beautiful album to me. It's hits such a raw nerve bound up in regrets from half a lifetime ago. It was hard to listen to, but by no means *bad*.
It's not you, Polly Jean. It's me.
ABBA
4/5
Leftfield
4/5
Genuinely surprised by this one. I was able to put it on in the background and it never demanded too much of my attention. Less dance album and more ambient, but that's not a bad thing in this case.
David Ackles
4/5
Hear me out: Let's go out and find a Neil Diamond impersonator, get him *really* drunk and/or high, and introduce him to Corky St. Clair (of Waiting for Guffman fame).
Together, they could work on the musical for Blaine, Missouri's bicentennial celebration. And they'll call it, "American Gothic."
It'll be great! Whaddya say?
(What a deeply weird album...)
Happy Mondays
3/5
Maximalist sound with middle school lyrics.
The Auteurs
3/5
It's... competent. Definitely not the stuff I was listening to in 1993. Don't think I'll seek it out again.
Why is it on this list? Because it's "the first britpop album" in the wave that gave us Oasis? I don't get it.
Tom Waits
2/5
I normally like Tom Waits, but I like his songwriting and delivery. I don't care for this play acting nightclub lounge act. The verisimilitude is there, but it just crawls so far up its own ass, that I'm having trouble enjoying this.
I liked a number of songs on the album, but the "intros" that were as long as the song they introduced? I don't like acts like that in real life. A couple of moving songs doesn't save this one for me.
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
Björk
5/5
I love Bjork. She's almost certainly an alien. And I just love her work. This is such a heartbroken masterpiece. I hate to see others in pain, but I'm listening to the art recovered from the aftermath.
Stereolab
5/5
This is twee in all the ways I love. Stereolab set out to make a thing, and by god, they made it.
So much of this 1001 album project is subjective -- music *is* subjective -- so with that grain of salt, when I hear an album here for the first time, and I find it sonically compelling to the degree I want to add it to my collection so I can listen to it later, that's a star on its own.
The Stranglers
5/5
One of those albums I've never heard, but probably should have. These guys were getting banned from the BBC before I turned 5. Love it.
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
All hail Sufjan Stevens: King of the Twee Indie Artist!
The engineering on this album is a tremendous achievement. Feels like you're in the room with the performers.
The songwriting is stellar. The track names are deranged, but Stevens set out to do a thing, and what a thing it is. I get that this may not be everyone's thing, but this is peak "indie folk artist," for what it's worth.
Casimir Pulaski Day is singularly melancholy. Breaks my heart every time.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
They were certainly committed to talking about drugs. Flirting with a psychedelic sound. I can see where this is going to go within the whole psychedelic genre, but ultimately, these guys weren't going to be the ones to take it there. Honestly, I would think this is a parody album if it hadn't been released in 1967.
Suicide
2/5
In 1977, this would have blown people's minds. I understand the historical inclusion. The album starts off strong and quickly meanders into chaos, and not in a pleasing way.
ZZ Top
3/5
Anodyne rock that was specifically designed to appeal to a style-obsessed generation. I don't begrudge the band their success. This whole phase of their career was incredibly successful, but at the cost of their soul. Credit to the boys from Texas: they invented a sound that is uniquely, unmistakably "ZZ Top of the 80s".
When people joke about this or that thing or concept grown in a lab to appeal to a certain cross-section of people, this album is that joke brought to life.
The Cure
3/5
This is so emo. My anguished fourteen-year-old inner poet is like, "Dude. A little much." Depression is a hell of a thing.
Proto-emo, though. Hence, we are listening to it now.
I'm imagining a post *this* the Cure fan going back into the back catalog and landing on the title track and my same inner fourteen-year-old is giggling uncontrollably.
Mylo
1/5
Immediately put me to sleep, but I was trying to work.
The second track, Sunworshipper, almost made me turn this off. Hearing about that guy getting on his bike one more time....
Track 5 really wants me to know that motherfuckers gonna drop the pressure. The title track, Destroy Rock & Roll, features a wing nut reading a list of all the rock artists that he can identify over a single musical phrase that modulates between two chords for four minutes and four seconds. FOUR PEOPLE HAVE A WRITING CREDIT FOR THIS TRACK!
I'm done.
That's the problem here, I think. There's this idea that obscurity is the same as depth, and if you just repeat some obscure clip enough times, people will assume that you are deeper than a puddle.
This album is not deeper than a puddle. This is the sonic equivalent of that one "painting" hanging in every budget hotel room. Corporate music. I fail to understand how this is worth my time.
The Black Keys
3/5
How do you drain the excitement out of the stomp-thump genre?
Decaffeinated rock. It sounds like Portugal the Man overslept for the exam and had to copy off of Imagine Dragons' paper.
Pavement
5/5
Fillmore Jive, the album closer, just came on, and I'm grinning like I just found out I had a surprise party coming.
This whole album, most of Pavement even, didn't come across my player when I was younger and they were working. Damn shame. I would have been such a fan.
I'm listening to it now, though. And I'm now a fan.
Bob Dylan
2/5
I actually like a couple of these. Visions of Johana has a groovy vibe. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again also does. Rainy Day Women is one of those Dylan songs most people have heard and a strong start to the album.
Why didn't someone who loved Dylan tell him to put down the harmonica. The solo on the second track, Pledging My Time? Fuck right off.
Dylan can write some decent songs. But when he's trying to write a joke? Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat doesn't land. And when he's just writing a song following a standard blues? It's mediocre at best. Just Like a Woman tries so hard to be profound but is infantile and demeaning.
Lyrics aren't poetry. Nobel Laureate, my ass. This "poetry" substitutes obscurity for depth. And that goddamn harmonica work. God, just... asadfsdfhkl;'aiklhfqoighevwlo;JKCEWijou;wikopaipkadfsas.
Look. I finished it. I ate all my vegetables. Now I'm going to look for some dessert.
Amy Winehouse
2/5
Misandry right out of the gate. This isn't looking good.
Nope. This is toxic AF. Winehouse is a mess and a hotbed of drama that I have always gone out of my way to avoid. She's a great singer, but it's unfortunate that the balance of her voice on this recording is constantly in clip.
I usually don't listen to the content of the lyrics, but that's all this album has to offer me, being anodyne backing tracks to spotlight Winehouse's voice. Since I can avoid the content of the lyrics, I'm going to avoid the album.
Sade
4/5
Soft Machine
4/5
All prog, no rock. This is what we call Jazz. Not disappointed, but definitely not what I was led to expect reading the reviews. Nice in the background. Really impressive performance. A live take, you say? Cool. Will I listen to it again or seek out anything else they've done? Likely not.
James Brown
3/5
Another classic artist who stands in front of a towering support band. They are *tight*. Props to them. This is fantastic music.
James Brown? He's aight.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
An entrance for a whole culture to experience a vibrant and storied musical tradition, I hope the British kids who danced to this went and looked up some real blues musicians after this so they could experience what this album so capably appropriates.
I don't assert that the post-war UK didn't have hardships that would mesh well with the social and temporal privations that led to the development of the blues as a form, but I will assert that those cultural strains are better represented in UK punk.
Tl;dr: I'll listen to Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters any day of the week over these guys.
Beatles
5/5
Stan Getz
4/5
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
I like Lenny Kravitz. I enjoy his music and performances. This is very early in the Lenny Kravitz arc and probably should have stopped around track seven.
James Taylor
4/5
I will never stop remembering my very dear friend every time this album plays. I miss him terribly.
Yes, the album is saccharine, maudlin, but James Taylor is one of the best finger style guitar players there ever was. Minus one star for the just plain stupid metaphor of Steamroller.
Moby
4/5
I forgot how many singles from this were saturating the radio for years after this came out. Moby's chill turn isn't without its issues. At the time, we didn't think much of the skinny white kid using so. many. samples from black artists. Now that we know better, it's more than a little cringey.
Aside from that, there are so many great tracks on here. Second half of the album isn't as in-your-face as the front, but that's okay. The whole experience is a gradient between Moby before and after.
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
I first found this album when I was looking for record with Popcorn on it. The guy at the used record store was totally positive this was the album that had it, and he pointed me to Oxygene part 4.
I was a stupid kid, and this was pre-internet, so I paid my $4 and bought the album despite the fact that "Oxygene" was a different word than "Popcorn".
I was disappointed. I hadn't found the album I was looking for. I tried to like this album then, but was having a lot of trouble getting into it. Perhaps it was partly because of the disappointment, but I couldn't really enjoy it. I gave it to a friend of mine who also had a record player and got a synthesizer for Christmas.
Years later, my tastes have expanded, and while it's still not my favorite, I can dig the vibe a little better now. Not my favorite synth work, but it's a solid album to have on in the background while I work.
The Electric Prunes
3/5
The Velvet Underground
5/5
Imagine being a rebel without a clue in 1967. Warhol has decided to put together a band. He assembles some of the most drugged out experimental musicians on the scene, sticks a German fashion model as the front person alternating with a beat poet whose previous musical success was writing jingles for local radio, and tells them all to go to town.
You go down to the local record shop get this disk in your hand. A Warhol banana graces the cover. You pull the vinyl out of the sleeve and put it on your record player. You drop the needle down. And you proceed to have your face melted by some of the most subversive shit you've ever heard in your life.
We live in the shadow of this particular art record. While I'm not sure it's great music (though I unabashedly love it), it is absolutely great art.
I'll be your mirror is one of the most beautiful messages in any love song ever written. +1 star for Jungian psychology. I mean, who does that? Just gorgeous.
Radiohead
4/5
A genuine black swan. I have discovered a Radiohead album I *actually* like.
And it's really, really good. The rare sophomore album that's better than the debut. I might even listen to this again.
The problem comes in the rating. It's not among my favorite albums. BUT it's the best Radiohead album I've heard. And it IS still Radiohead in the end.... 4. Seems fair.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
As a cultural artifact, the existence of this recording is an invaluable insight documenting the creative expanse within Hendrix' mind.
As a record to sit down and listen to, it would have greatly benefitted from some editorial input. Ah well. At least we got All Along the Watchtower from Hendrix and SRV's cover of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).
John Grant
5/5
This album has an ineffable feel of not giving a shit. Freed from expectations of being "great", Grant has created an album that's distinctly good. It's personal. It's funny. It's serious. There's a German techno parody dropped in the middle of it...
The Only Ones
3/5
I can't get past this guy singing like Lou Reed with a head cold. Nice power pop. Until the singing starts.
Sparks
5/5
Ron Mael is a genius. Russel is a strange bundle of charisma. Together they pushed the boundaries on music by just being themselves. Brilliant work.
Kacey Musgraves
4/5
Man, this ain't country. Pop Rock at best with a smattering of steel guitar. (Is that all it takes to have a "country" album? Probably.) But released by a country artist, so I guess it blew the socks clean off of the judges who had their expectations set by the utter dreck that is "New Country". It's a lovely album. I'm glad I listened to it. I've not found anything that I'm likely to go back to, however.
Justice
4/5
Another rare bird. A pure dance album that I actually liked. Like the whole thing. It did flag a little about 2/3rd in, but then it picked back up at the end. Really solid. An unexpected treat.
Nirvana
5/5
I am glad I saw them live. Nirvana retains high status in the art of my formative years, and this album remains a living elegy for an artist in pain.
The Monkees
3/5
Much less painful than I was anticipating. Not using the Wreckin' Crew was a bold choice, and I expected some real garbage.
Nothing stands out particularly, but it's competent musicianship. The vocals have always been good with the Monkees, and this is no exception. Should I be recognizing any singles off this one? I'm startled to realize how short all of these tracks are.
George Michael
4/5
Very few images are so burned into my cultural memory of the 80s more than a cut man with a stubble beard shaking his ass in skinny jeans sporting an acoustic guitar slung on his back that he NEVER PLAYS.
A pop masterpiece.
Sinead O'Connor
5/5
I went into this fully expecting to hear the title track and ignore pretty much everything else. Turns out I have a few tracks I *really* like off this one. "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Jump in the River", "You Cause As Much Sorrow", "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance"... I mean, I just listed most of the album, didn't I?
The media abused her for protesting her abuse. She deserved so much better.
10cc
3/5
I'm not a fan of the casual racism. But I do like weird. And this is certainly that. I don't know. Did it move any boundaries? Am I likely to ever listen to it again? I'm confuzzled. I'm not sure how to feel about this album.
Bon Jovi
3/5
...sigh...
Most of you probably didn't live through this. *I* did. Inescapable.
Competent pop-rock. If not for the singles, it's party rock noise. Meh.
Gary Numan
4/5
Generally love the approachable pop fused with electronic music here. I imagine this was way ahead of its time. And the popularity of Cars on the nascent MTV certainly didn't hurt its visibility.
The Stooges
5/5
Rock and Roll nihilism finds a friend in me.
Germs
4/5
One of the ultimate "you have to know a guy" picks. My buddy will insist up and down that punk – *true* punk – has to be British. He might concede for this one.
Louis Prima
5/5
The Smiths
3/5
That was thoroughly unimpressive. Sometimes Morrissey's weird singing lands with me. Nothing on this album really hits. Johnny Mar is still quite good, but it's overall just meh.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
Not my favorite to listen to, but the archival nature of Elliott putting all these songs he learned from others on a recording is interesting from a cultural perspective.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Not the work of a "serious artist", and it shows. There's a lightness to this album that's infectious. It's no wonder this was massively popular for its time.
Q-Tip
5/5
Oh my. A delightful treat for my tired ears. The music has texture and layers! It's playful. The rap is smooth and insightful. Will definitely listen to again.
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
A diligent exercise in studied noise. Not a "listening album" per se, but I still found it quite listenable. Probably because of the groove laid down by the bass, primarily.
Shivkumar Sharma
5/5
Make sure you're listening to the real deal and not the 2007 recording by the same name.
1967: Brilliant. Perfect.
The B-52's
5/5
The B-52s made what they wanted to.
Calexico
5/5
An unexpected treat!
Magazine
5/5
I feel drawn to this one. I want to listen to it at least one more time to pick up what I missed on the first pass. I'm surprised in a good way. The album goes all over the place, but it never stops being interesting and listenable. I really enjoyed this one.
4/5
Sometimes things age really well, life a fine wine, and other times wine sits too long and turns to vinegar.
There are some tracks on here that weren't even good for their time. I'm a mongoloid? Ouch.
Great satire, sure. But the art that was derivative of this exceeds the original – specifically Weird Al's interpretation of Homo Jocko and his Devo pastiche, Dare to be Stupid.
Favorite track: Satisfaction.
The Sugarcubes
5/5
Johnny Cash
5/5
What you see is what you get with Johnny Cash. A real performance captured in all its glory. Even has a song penned by the late, great Shel Silverstein. Singing to prisoners about the very crimes they're in the pen for. Singing about executions, suicide, losing the love of your life...
Fuckin' metal, dude. The very template for punk rock. 🤘🏼
Arrested Development
5/5
An ambitious album. Trying to bring an overtly social consciousness to R&B, and this succeeds in its ambition. Not to mention, Tennessee features supporting vocals from the incredible Dionne Farris.
I heard this as a younger person and was electrified at how you could be super explicit in your music to try to make the world a better place. Hadn't really occurred to me before that you could drop all the allusions and metaphor, and just *say what you wanted to say*.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
This album gets it completely backwards. Take the first track, The Healer. That's not Hooker featuring Santana. That's Carlos Santana and the Santana Band featuring John Lee Hooker. Same with all of these "featuring so-and-so" tracks. There are better John Lee Hooker albums to listen to if you dig the blues. This is... something. Like, if the Muzak™ executives were brainstorming how to get more of the blues genre into their offerings. The featured artists all do a great job making space for their guest performer, John Lee Hooker.
What a weird choice. And not weird in a "pushing the boundaries" way. Just weird.
David Bowie
5/5
This is really really good. I may even come back to this one. It's well-constructed album that feels cohesive and satisfying to listen to. I had only heard Golden Years from the Changes compilation. It's nice to finally hear it in context.
Van Morrison
3/5
Ugh. Fine. I'll listen to it.
I'll be as polite as I possibly can. Music appreciation is a lot about taste. Van Morrison isn't my cup of tea.
It's clear that he's a powerful and unique singer, but singing is one aspect of music, and not even a necessary one for my experience. The way I process singing is as a single facet of musical possibility. I don't even comprehend lyrics until I've heard a song two or three times unless I'm purposefully seeking the lyrical content out. So, to feature an entire double live album of primarily singing just doesn't do a lot for me.
His backing band is great. The engineering's fantastic. But it's an hour and a half featuring a singer who isn't among my favourites in the first place.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
I'm at a loss here. It's not bad music. Not unpleasant. Really listenable. But nothing is sticking. Nothing here that makes me want to add anything to a playlist for later. I will forget that I've listened to this album the moment it stops playing.
That's a problem, right?
Tim Buckley
4/5
Wow. That really goes off the rails at the end there.
Overall, I dig it. Not "knock my socks off", but I would definitely give at least the first half another listen.
The Black Crowes
4/5
In a pop world where rock and roll was almost exclusively soft rock or hair metal, these guys were a hurricane of fresh air.
When I was a younger drummer, my little cover band wanted to play Hard to Handle. Very popular on the radio at the time. I learned a powerful lesson of playing with steady clarity. Keep the beat, lay the foundation, get out of the way so the rest of the band can do their work. There's a lot of power you can generate when you play the drums with simple clarity. The intro on Hard to Handle is on my list of great and understated licks of all time.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
It's chill. This is a hard one for me to get a read on. Were they trying to make a commercial failure? It seems like a personal album, introspective.
Merle Haggard
3/5
That sure is a country album.
Pere Ubu
4/5
I wish I had discovered these guys when I was younger. Thomas has something to say, but he shouts and barks it.
How do you critique something that is almost wholly unique and stands outside of the mainstream so fully that it doesn't even acknowledge your rules? Not may favorite Pere Abu album, but it's a really good one.
It's the kind of weird that I fully approve of.
Laura Nyro
5/5
This album sounds like taking a springtime walk through Central Park with your manic pixie dream girl friend.
Cornershop
3/5
It's chill, it's trance, it occupies the anxious parts of my brain whilst I work. On the whole, not bad. But also not great. Brimful of Asha is a banger, still every bit as catchy now as when I heard it as a younger person. And there's precious little Indian representation on this list, so that's nice as well.
It seems that one of the requirements of the 1001 albums project is. "Remember this one single? Turns out it was also on an album!"
Crosby, Stills & Nash
5/5
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Good noise. Not my favorite noise, but good nonetheless.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Elton John
5/5
Leads with two of the biggest hits of the man's career. Transitions into beautiful, lush, dramatic arrangements. Elton John the hit maker transforms mid-album into Elton John the composer. It's a genuine surprise for me, and brings Mr. John's genius into a whole new light. I loved it.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
An entirely average Elvis Costello album. I fail to see why I need to hear this before I died.
The Teardrop Explodes
3/5
This is an album on the cusp of eras. It's fine.
M.I.A.
4/5
No idea what the lyrical content is -- I don't really discern the words separately from the music, so that's my caveat.
This sounds like a time travelling mix tape from the 80s, published in the 2000s. I kind of like it. Not my cup of tea, but I find it quite listenable. A bit of a party mix vibe.
Yeah, it's super-political as I understand it, and I just denigrated one of the young voices of a germination or something. But in my defence, I only heard the music, not the message.
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
Love it. Solid blues. Very easy to listen to.
PJ Harvey
5/5
The Dictators
3/5
Reactions in real-time.
I would be really surprised if the Dead Milkmen didn't listen to these guys.
Wow... Racist, much?
These guys' covers are better than their originals.
It's fun, I guess. Juvenile garage band humor. ok.
Rod Stewart
2/5
Nice try. You can't fool me. This is Faces doing a country album.
There's only so much Rod Stewart I can take, and I got well overloaded in the 90s with that All For One nonsense. I've still not recovered.
The Saints
4/5
A lot of fun. Really sharp and polished. Toe tapping, the musicians clearly are having a good time. A delightful discovery today.
I know that "sharp and polished" stands in opposition to the punk aesthetic, but I don't care. I liked it, and if you want to call it punk, I'm on board.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Wishin' and Hopin'. I found it! The one single that stood the test of time.
... that somehow means the entire album must be heard before I died...?
It's not a bad album, but I don't think I would have listed it as a timeless classic.
Adam & The Ants
4/5
I'm not terribly familiar with Adam & the Ants besides Adam Ant's comeback single back in the 90s. I'm enjoying this in a way I didn't expect.
Ant Invasion is the first track that really grabbed my attention.
I guess taking a screen cap off your video and using it as your album art would have been pretty high-tech back in 1980. It's quaint here in 2024.
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
The thing that keeps this from being irredeemably bland is the presence of Duane Allman and some top notch musicians.
Clapton always gets under my skin.
The Sonics
2/5
Historical influence of some rock acts to come. By itself, meh. I like lo-fi garage band stuff. This isn't it for me, though.
Miles Davis
5/5
Happy Mondays
4/5
3/5
Not a fan.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
No. Not again.
Aphex Twin
3/5
I'm not sure I listened to anything. Pure chewing gum for my brain. No nutritional value; simply occupied part of my grey matter.
As an ambient album, I think this is what it was supposed to do. But it's not quite an ambient album. It sort of passed through me like a ghost.
Boards of Canada
3/5
I had such high hopes. It ended up being a little dull.
Nina Simone
5/5
The Boo Radleys
4/5
Lou Reed
4/5
I thought I was someone else: someone good.
This line wrecked me when I first heard it. It still does.
Fishbone
5/5
Morrissey
3/5
Morrissey without Marr is singularly pretentious.
Despite my distaste for the man, the album is competent. The *music* is competent. The arrangements are good. The lyrical content is mopey, dramatic, pretentious bullshit that dribbles from the mouth of the person at the party I'm definitely trying to avoid. Morrissey is constantly writing the soundtrack for the redpill incel movement.
Stephen Stills
3/5
This is an album I listened to.
Herbie Hancock
5/5
Herbie Hancock's jazz funk lives rent-free in my head. He just automatically slots into the soundtrack of my life.
My jazz band? One of the first songs we ever rehearsed was Watermelon Man. Hancock is just *there*, you know?
New Order
3/5
A baffling addition to the list of 1001 albums to hear before I die. Half of it sounds like my brain during a headache. The other half sounds like new order.
The Cramps
3/5
Dead Kennedys
4/5
Finishing this album off with a cover of Elvis' Viva Las Vegas is genius.
Punchy political parody packed into a punk-shaped pill.
Turbonegro
3/5
Do you like *dumb* rock? Do I have an album for you!
The Lemonheads
3/5
Unchallenging "alternative" rock. It's pop-rock at the height of the indie wave of the 90s. Not really grunge, this was a solid, typical example of pop music of the time. Easy to listen to, and Julianna Hatfield is generally a credit to anything she appears on. There's some power in the percussion, the harmonies are dreamy, it's really solid work. A few standout tracks, but aside from capturing the zeitgeist musically, I'm not sure I would call this a "must-hear" album.
Around this same time, largely because of the popularity of this album and their Mrs. Robinson cover, they were tapped to contribute to the Schoolhouse Rocks compilation album. They did a gorgeous cover of "My Hero, Zero", too. Check it out if you're inclined.
Metallica
3/5
In my imagination Metallica has this giant sound that fills all crevices of a room. This whole album is thin, tinny. The drums sound like they were constructed out of tin. The shredding on the guitar sounds distant and tenuous. I'm not a fan of Metallica on the best of days, but I can appreciate their musicianship. Everyone correctly observes that "One" is a timeless classic of the genre, but the rest of the album is certainly not helped by the engineering here. Millions of edgy teens cut their teeth on the disaffected shredding of Metallica over the years. I wasn't one of them. This album is kind of boring to me. Solos that don't contribute musically to the piece but exist for the sake of demonstrating your chops aren't my thing. There's a *lot* of that here.
I can't shake the feeling that Hetfield and crew feel their work is Really Important™.
The Slits
4/5
Oh, man. This one is all over the place. Definitely not punk. But they're having such a good time. That comes out at every point on this album. Is it "great"? No. It's pretty forgettable. But it was an enjoyable ride during the listening.
U2
4/5
Undeniably a very good album by a bunch of lads in their creative prime. They will keep reinventing and innovating throughout their career, but this is a very good album.
U2
4/5
It's the sound of a new band, and yet still uniquely U2. Bono is still and will always be a prat, but this is a great album.
Baaba Maal
4/5
I have no frame of reference for this. The voice is clear, the performances are precise. Musically, this is solid. Is it a fantastic representation of Senegalese music? I dunno. So many albums on this list that I had to listen to were questionable additions, to put it charitably.
Did I like it? Yes. Is it great? No idea.
Funkadelic
5/5
An amazing, fun album. Infectious energy, genuinely funny, but so sharp on the musicianship.
GZA
5/5
Why do I feel like I know this album when I'm pretty sure I've never heard it before? Not in a bad way. Not a huge fan of the biblical content for a variety of reasons. But it's well-produced and well-performed.
Genesis
4/5
It was hard for me to get into early Genesis. I grew up with Sledgehammer era Peter Gabriel, so the fact he was in the same band as the one Phil Collins fronted was something I had to learn. I tried to get into it when I was younger, but it was impenetrable.
Now that I'm older, having expanded my listening horizons, early Genesis is the proggiest of prog rock, and I find it delightful.
Aimee Mann
3/5
Whatever.
I like the stories she tells. I imagine this quality is what flagged this album up for Mr. Costello.
I wonder how many pairs of Dr. Martens this album cover sold...?
Billy Joel
4/5
Caetano Veloso
5/5
My favorite parts are when he sings like he's enjoying a really good sandwich.
Little Simz
4/5
4.49/5
Elastica
4/5
I love the joyous, expansive noisosity. Elastica's "Connection" is an all time favorite of mine. The heavy "BEWM" on the hook counterbalanced by the siren guitar is brilliant. "2:1" is another great track. Car Song is really sexy.
I'm really surprised by this album. Comes on fast, hits hard. It was over too quick. So much fun to hear.
Baaba Maal
4/5
I have no frame of reference for Senegalese music to know how much of a banger this is or not. I recently heard another Baaba Maal album on here, and it had more for my brain to catch on to. I'm sure, had I heard it as a teenager, this album would have been in popular rotation for me to fall asleep to.
Queens of the Stone Age
4/5
I like the work these guys did in Kyuss better, but I can get into the groove.
Roxy Music
3/5
The B-side of this album is a five for me. Solid five. It's idiosyncratic and opinionated. Lots of interesting stuff going on.
The front side of the album is just meh. It averages out pretty low. Strange bit of work.
Def Leppard
3/5
Alright. Let's get this over with.
When I was a kid, Def Leppard was everywhere. Jackets, backpacks, Trapper Keepers, *everywhere*. I have a bad habit of shunning popular culture. I don't think I'm a hipster, but I am immediately turned off of most things that are popular. I usually come around eventually, but I have to discover these things on my own.
Def Leppard never really appealed, however. I never had the motivation to discover them for myself. Hair bands in general aren't my thing. So, open heart, open mind.
It's not that bad. Lyrically, it doesn't exceed the emotional maturity of the average high shool-aged boy. So, more sophisticated than KISS, but only just.
Musically, it's solid. Even complex in places. Love Bites is one of the quintessential hair-band ballads. So many singles from this album. My former boss, 15 years my senior, *loved* Def Leppard. Will I ever seek this out to listen to it again? Not likely.
And the drummer for Def Leppard's only got one arm. So there's that.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
A surprise for me: that the album that contains "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday" is otherwise pretty dull.
Traffic
3/5
I like the second half better than the first. Feelin' Alright is better when Traffic does it. Not an enduring classic for me, however.
Judas Priest
5/5
I wouldn't call myself a metal fan. I really like this album.
Orbital
2/5
This entire album feels like an itch I can't scratch.
Supergrass
4/5
What a delight! Modern rock that shows off its influences while retaining its own identity. Love it! Had I head this as a youth, I certainly would have been a fan.
Gang Of Four
3/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
3/5
This is a snapshot of the 80s pop aesthetic in album form.
Johnny Cash
4/5
That's a beautiful goodbye letter from a musical legend.
The Magnetic Fields
4/5
I enjoy the concept. It's a challenge of a marathon scale. Not sure the execution quite worked. The best song is the Book of Love, but others still stand out. Just sketches that are too short to really sink my teeth into for the most part. Strong 3/4
Silver Jews
3/5
Can't get past the voice.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
ABBA
4/5
David Holmes
2/5
What a genuinely boring and repetitive album. I can sample street talk and mix it with the 007 theme, too. That doesn't make me an innovator.
Sorry, I meant, What a brilliant and captivating album. For someone tripping balls.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
1/5
I'm at a loss as to how I am to listen to this with no sources for streaming.
The Waterboys
4/5
Disk 1 is stronger than disk 2. Had they stopped at 1, I probably would have given this a five. Unfortunately, this drags post intermission in a way that could only benefit from editing.
The Waterboys' embrace of their local sonic tradition is nothing but a positive for me. They are very good at the Irish rock sound, and I want more of it. Disk 1 is delightful ear-candy.
Neu!
5/5
Genuinely loved this. Side A and Side B are considerably divergent, but both are delightful to listen to. It's hard to imagine that this was made in 1975. What made executive take such risks producing albums that were so obviously incongruent for their time? I'm glad they did.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Smooth like buttah.
Waylon Jennings
4/5
Hot damn. A country album I can listen to.
Violent Femmes
5/5
4/5
Ok, so here's the thing. This isn't "normal" music. This isn't bass, guitar, drums, vocals, 1-4-5, play rock blues until you die.
This album represents thought, composition, direction. This album is a *choice*.
I respect that.
Laibach
4/5
The same kind of people who miss the point of Fight Club are going to miss the point of Laibach.
Kind of amazing they were able to license the likeness of Sean Connery in Zardoz for their album art.
Def Leppard
4/5
I automatically hated anyone I saw wearing this t-shirt. I was 9 when this album came out, and all of those kids I knew were going to be cooler than I could ever be. And I loathed each and every one of them for it.
This is it: ground zero for pop-metal fusion -- hair metal. In 1983, this set the standard for every hair band. Hysteria is going to remain the platonic ideal of the form, but this was the throat punch to the rock world that started it all.
Sheryl Crow
4/5
Interestingly enough, it *is* Tuesday.
Tuesday Night Music Club is better than its representative singles would lead one to believe. The deep cuts are very good. I Shall Believe, for example, is very good.
Taylor Swift
5/5
I like folklore better. Evermore is better than her overtly pop stuff, though.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
Cocteau Twins
5/5
I absolutely love a couple things about this album.
1. Our musicians are playing shoegaze before it was a thing. And they're doing an incredible job.
2. Our vocalist is spouting utter nonsense, but doing it so consistently with exquisite phrasing, that it has the form of lyrics without containing any linguistic content whatsoever. As a person who hears lyrics as music before I register that they're actually singing *words*, I consider the singing an amazing feat.
If you were to grow music in a lab that was meant specifically for me, you couldn't do much better than the Cocteau Twins.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Apparently most people on here either dislike Elvis Costello or have heard too much of him on this list. I actually like Mr. Costello and his Attractions, but I'm veering toward the latter group. Why is there so much of him on this list? Not every one of his albums are required listening for the human race. This is a good one, however. I may be one of the finest Costello recorded with the Attractions. I'm giving it a pass. This time.
Barry Adamson
2/5
As a younger person, I had this friend I admired. He was a musician. A really good musician. His parents paid for any lesson for any instrument he wanted. I was a poor kid who taught myself on borrowed gear. He was so good, and I wanted to be good like him.
He also loved soundtracks. Couldn't get enough of them. I would come over to his house, and he would play me this track or that from the latest soundtrack CD he bought, and I listened with my full attention because I wanted to perceive the brilliance he was sharing with me.
He would record his CDs to tape for me, and send me home with copies. I would put them in my second-hand stereo and listen to them while doing my homework.
I tried. Really, I tried. I never could quite hear what he was hearing. Soundtracks without the movie were just dull and meandering. No context for the swells or the dips. On the odd chance that he gave me a tape from a movie I actually saw, I could sometimes visualize the scene that the music went to, and that helped a little but not enough.
And now you give me a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't exist. What the actual hell, man? Conceptually, I understand what you're going for here, but let's never forget that context matters.
Butthole Surfers
5/5
The noise and the rage and the knowing smirk straight at the audience. These guys knew exactly what they were doing.
I love that Mr. Peppermint's son cut this path for himself.
Le Tigre
4/5
I don't understand how someone gains this much sophistication and confidence. They're in their 20s, and seem so sure about their stance, their politics.
I'm much, much older than that, and I still don't have that kind of confidence.
Christine and the Queens
4/5
Unapologetically quer pop. I really liked this one. I am impressed by Chris' ability to express himself in English and French, though the French side of the double disk set clearly sounds better. Unfortunately, I'm not able to understand a single word of that. High 4.
Spiritualized
5/5
I was cautious starting this one. This was my third spiritualized album from this list. I like dream pop/shoegaze, but I was wondering why we're three for three on the Spiritualized? I figured that this was just another example of the obvious bias of this list.
I was wrong. Why didn't you just lead with this one, though? I didn't need the first two albums. This one, however. It sticks with me. It's full of pain.
Tom Waits
4/5
Deranged carnival barker offering visions of sideshows I could have read about in a Ray Bradbury anthology. A vision of a reality a little too real and off-kilter to exist in this world.
Eurythmics
5/5
Annie Lennox is the undisputed Queen of white soul. This is another example of the fact that we're living in a post-Eurythmics world. When this came out, it was a karate chop through the typical pop of its day. A classic.
Tito Puente
5/5
I don't know if this is the archetypical example of mambo or even Tito Puente's best album, but my god! It's fantastic. The musicianship here is flawless. I love the interplay of the chorus in the back with the alto belting in a delightful call and response that makes you feel like you're in the middle of something special. And that solo trumpet! When people talk about a "golden tone" this is exactly what they're talking about.
Iron Maiden
4/5
This is the first Iron Maiden album I've listened to, and it's the first Iron Maiden album. Is it good?
I'm asking you. Yeah, you. I have no frame of reference. Did they get better?
I'm genuinely surprised this was released in 1980. I would have assumed they were early to mid 70s with the aesthetic of this album.
It's growing on me, though. In a Black Sabbath kind of way. I just got to Phantom of the Opera. Groovy.
The United States Of America
4/5
The weirder a belief is, the higher the likelihood that the person actually believes it.
I wager this crew really believed in what they were doing.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
There is nothing I could possibly say about the single best soul album of all time that would expand the conversation.
The Byrds
2/5
This sounds like a joke. I expect since I'm not a country connoisseur, I don't realize I'm living in a post Sweetheart of the Rodeo World, but this sounds like a satirical pastiche of the country music gestalt. It definitely doesn't resonate with me.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
I defy anyone to put on this album and *NOT* start dancing. Funk soul pop.
Rocket From The Crypt
3/5
It's 1995. What's popular? Ska is having a resurgence. Smash mouth is getting ready to be a one-hit wonder with All Star. Green Day has just broken through with Dookie.
This is an album of the 1995 zeitgeist. It reflects the rock sensibilities of the time through an amalgamation of a the styles present in the day, without performing any single piece of those styles particularly well. It's competent, and little else.
Brian Eno
3/5
Brian Eno and David Byrne have separately made some of my favorite music. Together, they're not as "chocolate and peanut butter" as I expected. Perhaps my rating is a result of my high expectations, but as I listened with an open mind, I didn't groove to this record all that much. Some tracks stood out, but overall, it was really okay.
Tortoise
4/5
Prog rock for the post-rock generation. I can dig it. Not the best thing I've ever heard, but I like it.
Willie Nelson
5/5
When I tell people that I like some country music, this is what I'm talking about.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
5/5
Fever Ray
3/5
Chill. A little flat. Don't know what I was expecting, but I'm unlikely to listen to this again.
Donovan
3/5
Has a couple of bangers on it, but a couple of bangers do not required listening make. Happy I got to hear Celeste, however. Not one of the more well-known Donovan tunes, and I really liked it.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
Jurassic 5
5/5
Shame on me for not expanding my hip-hop listening when I was younger. Ah well, the second best time to plant a tree is *right now*.
Dwight Yoakam
4/5
Yeah, all right. That was actually pretty good. That's right on the cusp of this bullshit pop country disease we have and the classic, "outlaw" country that came before.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
Pentangle
5/5
These guys really rock. Listen to those guitar chops. Marvel at the deep knowledge of folk music. The weirder it is, the more they probably *actually* believe in what they're making. They made a believer out of me, that's for sure.
Circle Jerks
3/5
The dead milkmen listened to this. I'm sure of it.
New York Dolls
3/5
Steely Dan
3/5
So, so close to the platonic ideal of Steely Dan. They're on the cusp.
Scott Walker
5/5
At first I was skeptical. Another crooner, bigger than life, the most important thing to happen to music. Those are the vibes the cover puts out. But I was immediately convinced. This is a delicate work of deep emotive power. This is one I'll be listening to more – so many layers.
Throwing Muses
3/5
Steely Dan
4/5
Prog rock. Not even once.
This is what happens when you add jazz to your rock music. Do I like it? No. Are there some legitimate bangers on here? Sure. Is this the platonic ideal of Steely Dan? You betcha.
Paul Simon
3/5
Paul is in a career rut. He comes out of left field with a collaboration with African artists. Two singles that move the charts. But his voice. His lyrics. Sing-talking babble gets into my bones and makes me squirm. It's no wonder I saw him and Dylan on a tour together.
This album introduced me to Ladysmith Black Mombazo as a kid, so I'm grateful for that. And an ex of mine was obsessed with "Graceland" so I drove her to Tennessee to see the cultural phenomenon that is Elvis' home. That was also a thing that happened.
I bet it was a dream come true for Los Lobos to have the chance to work with the legend, Paul Simon. But Los Lobos is better without Paul Simon.
This whole album repeats that formula. Take talented artists in their own right and have them alternately make space for and have to get out of the way of a mumble-talk-singing Simon slinging his obtuse lyrics around the recording studio so the Americans buying the CDs can call it art.
The Who
3/5
The Who is a very good live band. This is a very good live album. I don't understand why it's essential listening.
Mudhoney
3/5
Interesting. It turns out I wasn't a grunge fan when I was a youth. I was a *Nirvana* fan. Good to know.
Wild Beasts
5/5
I think this is one time where being "lyrics blind" is a blessing, not a curse. The music is delightful. The vocalist really paid attention to the Russel Mael school of singing. I had to listen to it twice to decide whether or not the reviews on this page were accurate, or I was just a weirdo.
I think the reviews on this page are *not* accurate, AND I'm a weirdo. I'll be listening to this one again.
Otis Redding
4/5
It's the horns. They're perfect. Sam Cooke was a genius. The main misstep on this album is the cover of Satisfaction. It doesn't sound natural at all coming out of the lungs of Otis Redding, and he doesn't seem terribly comfortable with it.
This album is a powerful example of the primal appeal of classic soul music.
Björk
5/5
I just love this. Bjork has such a stature in the music industry that she can say that she wants to make an entirely "acapella" album, and she's going to have queues of musicians crawling over themselves just to get the chance to work with her. Her creativity is unbounded, and her discernment in selecting good collaborators is incredible.
Medúlla reminds me of one of my favorite music composition techniques/experimentation. Get four musicians in the room, each with their main instrument. Create sixteen bars of improvisational music. Each musician gets a turn to play four bars of long notes, four bars medium, and four bars staccato. The final set of four is for the musician to play a solo on any instrument that they do not play. Take turns, repeat as long as you care to. You get a group together with any chemistry at all, and this is unbridled fun.
I listened to this album twice immediately. The layers, the execution, the pure Bjorkitude of it all creates a sublime listening experience.
I understand that this sort of music isn't for everyone, but it absolutely is for me.
Alice Cooper
4/5
It tickles me to no end that parents were afraid of exactly this.
King Crimson
5/5
Over too quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Particularly the instrumentals.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Is this where we get the phrase, "Freak Flag"?
The Pogues
5/5
High octane Celtic punk. Top of the form. When I was younger I would dream about being in a band that could create such powerful, crowd interactive music. (I hate that Fairytale of New York has become a Christmas standard in the UK. Nothing says "Christmas Season" like domestic violence, I suppose.)
Miles Davis
4/5
When people say they hate jazz, this is exactly the kind shit they're talking about. Here we have Miles "Fucking" Davis in the height of his fame. His band is so under-utilized on this album.
His compositions are pushing the boundaries of melody, harmony, all those things what make music *music*. He never quite gets there, though. He never quite breaks through to the lofty heights of true atonality. He calls this album "Directions in Music", and that's all we have: vectors of music vaguely pointed in the same direction. They're all skirting around the edges of melody, firmly stuck in the grey areas.
Jazz purgatory.
I was listening to a Victor Wooten clinic the other day, and what he said really stood out to me in terms of this album. (https://youtu.be/ruMW7gsuFb0 – Wise man, that Wooten.)
This album doesn't want you to enjoy it, to sympathise with it, to groove with it. This album demands from the start that you listen to it. It practically announces, "Pay attention, you musical plebes. I'm an IMPORTANT ALBUM™ and don't you forget it."
Man, between my kids and my job, I have enough external forces making demands on my time. I don't need a Miles Fucking Davis album making even more demands of me. This album steadfastly refuses to let me just sit back and lose myself in the enjoyment of it. I ain't got time for that right now.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Not a taste which I have acquired.
Beastie Boys
5/5
Who could have ever imagined that the "Fight For Your Right To Party" guys could produce a work of such impact and range? Hidden talents, for sure. I knew "Sabotage" when I was younger. Who didn't? The Spike Jonze video was inescapable. But I dismissed this work as the mid-life resurrection of those "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" guys.
I'm always a little sad thinking about my younger, more close-minded self. I didn't take a chance on this album back then. And why not? I worked in a CD store for chrissakes! I just dismissed the Beastie Boys out of hand, and my musical life is poorer for it.
I'm glad I gave it a shot now.
The Beach Boys
5/5
This has one of the prettiest love songs ever recorded. Wilson pushed the boundaries of pop music at the time. It's an absolute masterpiece, and yet, I won't be listening to it regularly.
Frank Black
3/5
Fallacy of composition in action. Frank Black is a vital component of the Pixies, and the Pixies punched far above their weight to produce something vastly better than the sum of its parts.
The fallacy is that, because Black was a part of something amazing, by himself he will be amazing.
Sadly, this is not the case. I still enjoy this album, but I like the Pixies better.
Black Flag
4/5
I got into a friendly argument with my British friend who asserted that if it's not from the UK, it can't be punk. Clearly, this album would prove him wrong? Punk in the UK came out of socio-economic hardship for the youth entering a stagnant adult world. Besides the location of the youth, what is this album if not that – a clear reaction to maturing into a stagnating world?
He's wrong, I'm right. Black Flag = Punk Rock.
Blur
3/5
One great song. And then it's just a blur.
I like Damon better as a monkey.
Antony and the Johnsons
5/5
There's a lot of pathos in this album. It's really hits me today. I may even come back to this one.
I hope she's okay.
The Charlatans
3/5
Generically 90s energetic. Nice. Not super. I wouldn't skip it if it came up on shuffle, but I'm not going to seek this out again.
Better than Oasis.
Bert Jansch
5/5
Goddamn. Casbah is *hot*.
Just lovely all around. Pure musicianship from a talented performer.
Cyndi Lauper
5/5
Jethro Tull
4/5
I love the flute. I hate the aqualung persona. This is one of the albums my stepmother had on vinyl. I had heard the singles on the classic rock station, but there's a lot of good stuff in the deep cuts.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Michael Jackson was the child of abuse. By all accounts his dad was just a monster. But, people argue, it refined the talent of one of the most influential performers of a generation. Yeah, but, maybe without the damage, he could have been *better*?
This album heralds the arrival of the Mozart of our time. Yes, none other than "Weird" Al Yankovich, the true King of Pop.
Dion
2/5
My mother-in-law *loved* this guy. High point of her youth was seeing him in concert, apparently. If it was anything like this, I can't imagine why.
Lou Reed
4/5
I like Reed's solo work. I wish I had the guts to be as cool as he was when I was a kid. But listening to this on the heels of Transformer, you gotta wonder why Lou Reed hated being famous so much?
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
EtB's first album is energetic. And okay.
AC/DC
4/5
Great rock, classic album. I really can't get into this band. The singer just doesn't do it for me. He's perfect for this group, though.
Elliott Smith
5/5
A complete surprise. I knew the name, but never heard the music, and here is a touching album of variety and depth just dropped in my lap.
808 State
2/5
Understanding how this is groundbreaking, it just sounds like all of the warehouse raves I was invited to as a teenager so I could be the designated driver.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
5/5
It is so rare when I find myself listening to an album that I never want to end. I loved every moment of this and was utterly deflated when it came to a close.
Kings of Leon
4/5
The drums on this album put it over the top. It's a great rock album: super tight rhythm section, fat bass, guitar tone so fuzzy and comfy, you could wear it as a sweater. Minus one star for the super skeevy 17. Why do rock guys keep making odes to underage girls?
Portishead
4/5
Love the chanteuse. The album defines the standard for the trip-hop genre.
Underworld
4/5
Pearl's Girl made it onto the Saint soundtrack. I dunno about this one. I think it finished stronger than it started.
Doves
4/5
I was expecting more britpop from the early 2000s zeitgeist, but this one was more nuanced than most of the stuff from that era. It was still certainly of its time, but it didn't defy explanation for its inclusion as so may other albums I've listened to. It's not a perfect work, but it is very good and deserves a thoughtful listen.
The Coral
3/5
Weird, but not in a way that moves me. Sounds deeply unserious, and I'm not convinced.
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
An incredibly inoffensive 70 minutes of beautifully produced, over-indulgent rock that I've ever heard. ELO wants to take every nook and cranny of your aural orifices and jam them full of audio.
Is this Lynne's masterpiece? I'm certain it is. Is it something I'm going to return to? Probably not. I'm torn in my rating. This is one of the most 70s things ever produced in music. It masterfully represents the crossroads of pop, rock, and the burgeoning electronic scene. And just look at Lynne! If anything screams 70s, it's that man's look.
John Lennon
4/5
The solo debut with the man's signature track, but like the rest of the Beatle's solo work, it's clear that the Beatles were far greater than the sum of their parts. Without the creative friction to reign in the excesses of the other members, this solo work is good. I don't think it's great. And even the standout tracks on this album (Gimme Some Truth, How Do You Sleep) are elevated by the inclusion of (former?) bandmate Harrison's guitar work. How *solo* is this solo work, anyway?
I wonder if this is more John meeting expectations of who he was supposed to be? It seems that John wanted to be less of a musician and more of an "artist" by this time in his life. I don't blame him: burnout is difficult to cope with.
3 plus one star for a timeless classic.
Jane Weaver
3/5
It's fine. Does the curator have access to a TimeScope™ wherein he can peer to see the social impact this album will have in the future? Because it's 2025, and this album is fine. It's not bad, it's not earthshattering, it's just competent folktronica.
Talk Talk
5/5
That was beautiful. Someone in the reviews suggested that you need to be in a particular frame of mind to appreciate this album, and I agree with the wisdom of that. But I was, and it was a delightful experience.
Milton Nascimento
5/5
k.d. lang
5/5
Lang has a golden voice and a mountain of respect for her musical tradition.
David Bowie
3/5
A couple of hits. It's condescending to suggest he crossed the color lines in music and broke through those barriers when we're3 talking about a wildly successful white musician working "down" while ignoring everyone in black culture who were breaking through going "up".
Weird album, but this whole list is biased toward Bowie. I won't be surprised if I listen to his entire discography before I'm through.
Tori Amos
5/5
Before her MTV video dropped for the title track, a buddy of mine told me to get in the van; we were going to a concert. "Who?"
"You've never heard of her, but you want to come."
In the van we go down to Deep Ellum, Dallas. We get into the club, $10 a head, and there's nobody there, but there's this piano on the stage. Where's the rest of the instruments? Don't worry about it.
We walk up, take a seat – we can reach out and touch the stage. After a few minutes maybe 100 people total show up. Small show, and then Tori takes the stage, straddles the piano bench so she's quarter facing out, quarter facing the piano, and she proceeds to blow my 17 year old mind. I am utterly entranced with every moment of this performance. She plays every song on the Little Earthquakes album, yes, even Me and a Gun. She covers The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and I cherish this concert as a core memory.
Afterward, my buddy, who is 6 foot four, and I go out back to the access door to see if we can talk to Ms. Amos. She actually comes out and is so generous with her time. We thank her for the incredible performance, and my friend gets his picture taken with her. He just towers over this woman; she barely comes up to his collarbone. When I go to see him years later, he has a life-sized copy of this image framed on a significant portion of his wall.
I've seen her in concert since then, and it was a good show, but there's nothing like this that I can compare it to. "Saw her before she was big" is a cliché, but her video dropped the next week, and she blew up. But I was front row before she was big, and Tori Amos was absolutely amazing.
Easiest 5 on here. Little Earthquakes is a desert island album for me.
Gotan Project
3/5
Inoffensive.
The Youngbloods
5/5
Todd Rundgren
4/5
Always knocking off a star automatically for skeevy middle-aged dude writing love songs about high school girls.
It's very Rundgren, and very excessive. Are those synonyms...?
I enjoyed the playfulness, the genuine joy Rundgren expresses through his performance. It was too long, and drastically in need of some editorial input.
Dennis Wilson
4/5
Why do middle-aged men keep on making skeevy songs about high school girls? On a purely pragmatic basis, what the hell are you going to have to talk about, man? It's just not a good idea. If you have issues to work out, convince your similarly-aged sweetheart to do costume stuff, man. Just gross.
There are a couple of really good tracks, but otherwise, it's your basic "this is a competent musician" kind of stuff. He shows us some vulnerability, and there's a deep melancholy that permeates the whole album. It's not perfect, and I probably won't listen to it again, but I can recommend giving it a shot.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
A curious collection of musical vignettes and political commentary.
The Strokes
4/5
Really competent rock in a time when rock was on the decline. This album is full of tracks that are more fun to perform than to listen to.
Björk
5/5
I love how bare Björk's emotions are when she performs. This is a joyous, sexy album, lush and layered.
David Bowie
5/5
I cannot overstate enough how utterly boring Heroes is to play when you're doing a solo cover on the guitar. It's the sort of song that only works as a composition with multiple layers.
The second half of this album is what makes it great. Expecting more meandering 70s rock like most of the rest of Bowie during this era, Gimme a few singles and then fill out both sides of an album, the second half glides in like that thing with wings, elevating the whole work as a composition, rather than a contractual obligation.
Eagles
4/5
Is this the birth of dad rock?
God, this has got some dumb songs on it. Chug All Night? But the seeds are there. I can see how this was successful in 1972.
Imagine calling up your downstairs neighbor for songwriting help, who happens to be Jackson Browne.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
The iTunes summary says that the drummer has never had this much fun playing on an album, but drum machine programming doesn't strike me as fun, per se. I think the second half is more interesting than the first since it's more human performance and less dance loops. This is a confusing album. The singer has clear star power, and the rest of the bans is tremendously talented, but this feels like an insulated performance. Rock, once removed.
Aerosmith
2/5
Definitely not a fan. I recognize this is the renaissance album of the fading Aerosmith. I recognize that this album relaunched a career that was almost dead. It's big, dumb, loud, and exactly what it wanted to be. Great. Good job. Thumbs up. Woo.
I just don't like Aerosmith. And Steven Tyler is a damned sex offender. But it's all brushed off like, oh well, rockers and their seventeen year olds, amirite?
Three stars for competence and that Dulcimer Stomp song. Minus one star for skeevy rockers.
Rush
3/5
Awwww... little baby Rush starting to form their signature sound. I only really know established-classic-rock-radio-Rush. This album is a cusp of who they were in the soup of heavy metal rock and roll, and what they became after disco dethroned rock from the radio. I'll probably never listen to this album again, but it's an interesting bit of history for me.
Screaming Trees
3/5
You can tell they're stretching, extending their abilities to their utmost, yet the album falls short of being compelling. Whether from the lack of conceptual cohesion, a bad mix, or maybe we can speculate the Screaming Trees were just tired, the album doesn't land. I wanted to love it, but I merely like it.
Sugar
3/5
Does this sound like Tripping Daisy, or does Tripping Daisy sounds like Sugar. I'll be honest, I don't know a lot aboutBob Mould and his work with Hüsker Dü, but if asked my opinion based exclusively off the way Copper Blue does not resonate with me, I would hesitate to look up his earlier work.
Competent power pop that is indistinguishable from the soundtrack of its zeitgeist.
Alice Cooper
5/5
I had no idea. Absolutely no clue. When I was a kid, Alice Cooper was strictly verboten to listen to because of his famous on-stage antics, not that his style of music was going to be something I looked for during that time anyway, but this sounds like I've just listened to an off-off-broadway production of a lost Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.
And I say that with love.
2/5
Jesus Christ. Is someone punking me? Is there a camera hidden behind this potted plant?
This is torture. Please. I'll tell you anything you want to know.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
This is truly one of the rock and roll records of all time.
I don't know what it is about Breakdown. It's a great song, to be sure, but it always makes me think that it wants to be a Pretenders song. And the Killers shamelessly ripped off the intro on American Girl for Last Nite, so there's that.
The Cure
5/5
I think the word, "masterpiece," gets thrown around far too casually, yet here we are, collectively considering an actual masterpiece.
The Monks
5/5
Absolute banger from start to finish. Standing on the shoulders of giants, these guys made something entirely new.
You can take my rhythm banjo from me when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Animal Collective
5/5
I was expecting some twee bullshit, and I certainly got it, but it's the sort of twee bullshit that's really resonating with me this morning.
This sort of thing is anti-anxiety music for me. The layers hold the key. Lots of stuff for my idle brain to latch on to and discover resting in all the nooks and crannies.
Beth Orton
4/5
Orton's second album has some powerful tracks, but she's obviously breaking away from the "folktronica" before she becomes "the folktronica chick". The single from the album that got major airplay in my area, "Stars All Seem to Weep," sticks out awkwardly from an otherwise solid folky album. I love me some Beth Orton, but I don't think this is her best album.
Big Black
5/5
Crystalline rage.
Billy Bragg
5/5
I appreciate that the art direction on this was to not make new Woody Guthrie songs, but rather to imagine that Guthrie was a collaborator with Bragg and Wilco. This sort of Americana hits me right in the heart.
I'm the sort of person who doesn't register lyrics right away -- the vocals are just part of the music, and there are words, but they don't have semantic value for me until I hear the song a number of time.
But these lyrics I hear, clear and evocative. Why did Dylan get a Nobel Prize for literature when it's so obvious that Woody Guthrie was a true troubadour poet? A noble warrior with a machine that kills fascists.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
CHIC
5/5
How can one man go so hard on the bass this much that it didn't rip a hole in the space-time continuum? Roger's guitar scratches the unscratchable itch. The vocals are liquid satin and glitter. Undeniable classic from beginning to end.
Queen Latifah
4/5
... 1989...?
Time gets away from you.
Never heard this one all the way through. If Latifah had any amount of editorial control over her debut, do you think it's safe to say that she likes to dance? Yeah, it's rap. Yeah, it's definitely in the R&B stacks. But really, this is a dance album.
It's good fun, and I have a quibble. Latifah is good on the mic, for sure, but some of the best verses aren't served by her, rather her guests. I had high hopes for Ladies First, but this anthem of empowerment is about a deep as a puddle, and other places the lyrical message is about a subtle as a brick.
Am I expecting too much from Queen Latifah's debut? Probably.
Moby Grape
5/5
8:05 is a lovely track. Moby Grape is a name I've heard, but never really knew their music. It seems pretty clear that the Grateful Dead were certainly picking up what these guys were throwing down. Excellent album. I wonder why I can't hear it in its entirety on Apple Music? Something weird going on with the song rights. Found it okay on Youtube.
Santana
5/5
Santana is a great guitar player, and he's an even better collaborator. H stays in his lane, works with great musicians, and together they make art. The absolute monster banger "I Hope You're Feeling Better" from side two? Not written by Santana. But it belongs in "Santana".
Fantastic album. Beautiful instrumentals. Latin-infused Jazz. Love this one.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Competent and doesn't engage me. Seems like an album out of place in the 90s. Had it come out years earlier, it may have been more significant. I suspect had I been a PSB fan, I would be moved by this more mature and serious turn in their style. But I'm not.
Eric Clapton
1/5
The guitar is fine. Bland. Tidy work meant to sell records. But then he starts singing, and I just can't take it. Something about his voice coming from the back of the throat just makes me squirm. Whitewashing Bob Marley and making it a hit, that just sucks. Then you get to the man himself. Racist anti vax piece of shit.
This is bland, soulless music. Don't like it. Complete waste of the time of these session musicians.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
The Mothers Of Invention
5/5
A clear parody of the musical culture of the 60s. Zappa took everything on the pop charts and thumbed his nose at it.
"Help, I'm a Rock" is genius. And it gets better! "It Can't Happen Here"?
Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese Creamcheese
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Sister Sledge
5/5
David Bowie
5/5
Opens with a banger instrumental, followed by some average rock. Comfort-rock from Bowie. Then the second half is a sublime exploration of some ambient grooves. Really saves it in the clutch.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Springsteen at the height of his pop prowess. Ironies all over this album. There are some very strong pop numbers on here, and many songs that I'm sure are a product of Springsteen's artistry and drive to present musical tableaus of the "working man". Good examples of how they can't all be winners. The subjects of the songs, and the songs themselves. A powerhouse in the 80s, to be sure.
MC Solaar
5/5
My buddy back in university knew French. Really well. He had this bit he would do. "Anything sounds sexy if you say it in French," he would confidently declare in the club. Then he would approach some cutie across the way to say something ridiculous to her like, "I'm sorry but my couch fell from the sky and hit you in the face." And she would just *melt*.
The Beach Boys
5/5
If I am consistent, I need to give the most sincere, most weird albums full marks.
Richard Hawley
4/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
This sounds like the sort of album that was massively influential for a generation of musicians even if the album itself wasn't terribly well received on release. On another note, this list curator really Echo and the Bunnymen.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
An unflinching work about the need to elevate a community above the oppressive stereotypes the ruling class limits it to.
Elvis Costello
3/5
Nope. Don't know what to tell you. This is Elvis Costello at his most competent kind of, sort of without the Attractions. No idea what it was one of the inclusions on this list. Six Costello albums?
Flamin' Groovies
4/5
Some of the best rock blues I've ever heard come out of this era. Jagger (reportedly) was correct. This beats the socks off of the Rolling Stones.
Oh, hey! The lyrics for "Louie, Louie". Nifty!
The longer this goes on, the more it's growing on me.
The Jam
4/5
The Replacements
4/5
Satisfied is an all time favorite of mine.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
The title track is the best thing on here. Either there are some songs that are so prominent in my recollection that they came from these guys and I never knew it, or they sound like every other alt-indie band from this era. Hard to say which.
Competent. Not compelling.
The Cardigans
4/5
Not my favorite. Competence gets a three, but this one also contains Lovefool, which is a singularly great song.
The Cardigans' cover of Iron Man also deserves special mention. It covers my primary rule of covers, "If you're going to play someone else's song, make it your own." They certainly did that.
5/5
George Martin's masterpiece.
2/5
I think I understand that this is a seminal album for the hippie punk revolution, but it's... well, it's kind of embarrassing to listen to. Like I was listening to it, but I was afraid someone would walk in on me, and I would have to quickly switch to a porn tab so nobody would know what I had been doing.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Immigrant Song is good for a star, innit?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
This doesn't sound like an artist making art. This sounds like a performer in his comfort zone, playing music because he enjoys playing. That's kind of infectious in its own right. "I enjoyed making this music," this album says to me. "I hope you enjoy listening along." It feels like I'm being treated to a living room concert, and that's fine with me: I like living room concerts – casual affairs from skilled performers.
This is definitely growing on me. I'm not sure if it's really good, actually great, or I'm just enjoying the novelty of the intimate performance.
The La's
3/5
There are a lot of strong opinions in favor of this album on here. I find it to be very competent and reasonably enjoyable. I like the album cover.
The Prodigy
5/5
I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started this one. Like many I suspect, my exposure to The Prodigy was primarily singles from the Fat of the Land: Firestarter, Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe.
As the album continued, I started to understand. There's a lot of depth and variety to this album. So much more than many of The Prodigy's peers. Where some of those seem to have tracks for the sake of dividing up an otherwise homogenous album, this one is varied, layered, even subtle in places... you know, *interesting*.
Janis Joplin
5/5
Janis was so, so good.