726
Albums Rated
2.71
Average Rating
67%
Complete
363 albums remaining
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Taste Profile
2000s
Favorite Decade
Psychedelic-rock
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Perfectionist
Rater Style ?
25
5-Star Albums
111
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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Ratings by genre
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Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merriweather Post Pavilion | 5 | 2.9 | +2.1 |
| Five Leaves Left | 5 | 3.47 | +1.53 |
| The Suburbs | 5 | 3.5 | +1.5 |
| Paul Simon | 5 | 3.51 | +1.49 |
| Oracular Spectacular | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Born To Be With You | 4 | 2.62 | +1.38 |
| The Queen Is Dead | 5 | 3.66 | +1.34 |
| A Grand Don't Come For Free | 4 | 2.67 | +1.33 |
| Honky Tonk Masquerade | 4 | 2.68 | +1.32 |
| Deja Vu | 5 | 3.7 | +1.3 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purple Rain | 1 | 4.02 | -3.02 |
| Back In Black | 1 | 3.86 | -2.86 |
| Siamese Dream | 1 | 3.83 | -2.83 |
| At San Quentin | 1 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
| Doolittle | 1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
| Songs From The Big Chair | 1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
| The Low End Theory | 1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
| Violator | 1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
| Born In The U.S.A. | 1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
| Highway to Hell | 1 | 3.66 | -2.66 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 6 | 4.83 |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 5 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Bruce Springsteen | 5 | 1 |
| Prince | 3 | 1 |
| Pixies | 3 | 1 |
| Madonna | 3 | 1.33 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 1.33 |
| Kraftwerk | 2 | 1 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 1 |
| Joy Division | 2 | 1 |
| Siouxsie And The Banshees | 2 | 1 |
| M.I.A. | 2 | 1 |
| The Prodigy | 2 | 1 |
| Johnny Cash | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Jesus And Mary Chain | 2 | 1.5 |
| Run-D.M.C. | 2 | 1.5 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 2 | 1.5 |
| Can | 2 | 1.5 |
| Mudhoney | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 2 | 1.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem | 2 | 1.5 |
| Dolly Parton | 2 | 1.5 |
| Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | 2 | 1.5 |
| Echo And The Bunnymen | 2 | 1.5 |
| Dinosaur Jr. | 2 | 1.5 |
| Sonic Youth | 4 | 2 |
| Brian Eno | 3 | 2 |
| Leonard Cohen | 3 | 2 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 2.25 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Grateful Dead | 4, 1 |
| David Bowie | 2, 1, 3, 3, 5, 3, 3, 4 |
5-Star Albums (25)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Beck
4/5
This album is pretty sweet. The style is all over the place and really keeps things interesting. Starts off with a Rock Band classic that's pretty decent if a bit repetitive. Very catchy chorus of course.
He sounds like he attempts to sing while using as few facial muscles as possible, perhaps he is a ventriloquist on the side.
I'm less of a fan of the rap tracks but honestly they're still pretty good. For some reason I really jive with the chorus to Hell Yes, for example. Great bass line on that song too.
A highlight for me is Farewell Ride which is a pretty awesome song that just puts me on a worksite building a railroad in the wild west. I would not be surprised if this track was part of the inspiration for the Breaking Bad theme song.
Honestly not a lot to say. No major lowlights. Just a solid album through and through. Maybe I'll check out more of his stuff.
9 likes
The Smashing Pumpkins
1/5
You know I think I would find this music listenable if it weren't for Billy Corgan's absolutely Z-tier garbage voice. He ranges from soft whisper singing like someone attempting to conceal a fart to his higher pitched yell singing that sounds like someone playing a kazoo while also pinching their throat shut.
3 likes
Klaxons
4/5
My first listen I was unimpressed but this one grew on me. They have kind of an unusual sound but it comes together into some pretty decent songs that sort of mix punk with a bit of Gorillaz and maybe some avant-garde or something. Competent musicianship all around and creative songwriting.
A low point is definitely Isle of Her, which I find to be kind of boring and a bit too heavy on the weird factor. The other dud is Four Horsemen which I find is just a bit too intense that it loses out on the intricate sound the other tracks have. Also it doesn't have a melody since they just sort of yell the lyrics, and the song misses that.
These two low points are easily outweighed by the good work on the rest of the album however. My highlight is probably the intro to Atlantis to Interzone, where that vocalization noise in your left ear and the siren in your right ear sounda chaotic but quickly resolve into the beat of the song. Really nice stuff.
1 likes
Pixies
1/5
So sick of these guys. The singer sucks and the weird dissonant guitar hammering they do just gets on my nerves
1 likes
1-Star Albums (111)
All Ratings
Black Sabbath
3/5
Dusty Springfield
2/5
Just a little lovin provides an excellently smoky start to this album, giving us a picture of Itchy Summerfield as a singer in the basement of a club singing to the regulars. However, this is a bit of a ruse as the rest of the album slips back into typical upbeat female crooner led late 60s pop. It’s not bad, but it isn’t doing much for me. The track of note here is obviously Son of a Preacher Man, which deserves every ounce of praise and admiration it has received over the years. Just a fantastic song, bringing together a funky rhythm with gospely singing. I can’t help but still think Urethra Franklin provides a more inspired lead on her version, but as the original this version deserves attention. At least on that track, Crusty’s vocal starts soft and gets somewhat excited towards the end but ultimately doesn’t drive us home with the conviction you want. Ultimately a lot of this album is forgettable. There’s a few decent tracks, one good track, and a bunch of filler.
Violent Femmes
2/5
This feels like an album you buy on vinyl just to discuss how you own it with other people who bought it on vinyl. While a stripped back early punk sound has a lot of appeal, it needs to be combined with a lot of creativity to make an album’s worth of content interesting. Nearly every song the Angry Ladies put on this album is just a repeat of the same 4 odd bars over and over again until the end of the song. The closest they come to a bridge is the occasional breakdown into mindless flaying of the instruments. The notable exception to all of this is the final track Good Feeling, which abruptly is a whole different feel from the rest of the album. It’s a decent song and if there were a couple more nuggets like it sprinkled throughout I think it would have lended this album some much needed variety. The songwriting is lacking on this album, limited to coming up with pretty much 4-8 bars per track with maybe 3 chords. That being said, I enjoyed the instrumentation. The bass stands out as the most inspired work on the album, sitting front and center throughout and playing non stop riffs. The licks may suffer from the same repetitiveness as the tracks, but they’re still pretty good. The guitar is decent too, and the drums are sloppy but pretty fun. Overall I think this Frumpy Broads drags when listened to all at once, but hearing a track or two individually is nice.
Bobby Womack
3/5
What a start to the album, just a great opening lick. Lots of soulful funk going on here, with awesome bass, keyboards and guitar all over the place. Those three instruments take a backing position to the vocals, which are always front and center, but oh man focus in on any of them for an absolute treat, especially the guitar which you can honestly miss altogether on some tracks but it is just groovin back there in the mix. Lay Your Lovin On Me could be an Anderson Paak song, I'm sure he got some inspiration from this album for some of his sounds. The album's most popular track seems to be If You Think You're Lonely Now, which I don't understand because that's got to be the most tedious song on there. I had to skip that track a couple times at the office because it felt like it was literally extending my afternoon. Overall decent stuff. Pro tip: read the Personal Life section on wikipedia for some weird.
U2
3/5
I hate U2. They're all smug, self-important, pretentious assholes. I also am irritated by the standard U2 sound, with Bono doing improvised high up wailing vocals over Edge's jingling high pitched droney guitar nonsense on a bed of boring bass and drums. All that being said, this album was better than I expected. It is certainly plagued by a boring back end, where the drummer comes up with a single rhythm and just plays it with few fills for the entire song. And that rhythm is often the same across multiple songs to the point where the drums need to be there but are forgettable and can be mostly ignored. The bassist was good for coming up with at most one good riff per song, which is rarely improvised over. That riff is usually pretty good, but come on show some creativity. It is especially egregious in the transition from Mysterious Ways to Tryin to Throw, where the similarity of the single riff highlights the lack of creativity. Note that the bass is quite well mixed on this album however and stands out exactly when it should. Thankfully the guitar on this album is pretty good. Edge stays away from his high jingly garbage for the most part and lays down some pretty nice tracks. Guitar highlight for me is the extremely tasteful two-guitar opening to One. Bono is at his worst when he does the high wailing stuff, but mercifully that's absent from a number of these tracks. I would say overall that this album is mostly decent up to Mysterious Ways, then after that it is garbage other than the last track which I thought was a pretty decent closer. Mysterious Ways itself is more of a classic U2 sounds but man do I like that song. That bass groove is so nice, even if it never changes. The outro section kind of devolves into U2 garbage but I can forgive it. Another big highlight for me is the false rhythm opening to Until the End of the World, really like that. Anyways, impressed by some of this album but unlikely to go listening to much more U2.
Johnny Cash
2/5
Not a lot to say here. The story about this album is kind of interesting and the last song being written by an inmate is definitely cool, but I'm here to review music not read a story. The music is typical 50s stuff, though recorded in the late 60s. He is a good singer and good guitarist and has a serviceable band around him, but ultimately the music itself is boring. It's remarkable how little variety there is in 50s music like this stuff, like they couldn't be bothered to write a bridge? Or have a fourth chord? On top of all that the primitive recording stuff available at the time leads to a horrible mix where you can hardly hear anything besides Cash's vocal and guitar. There is little in this album to elevate it over its brethren from 10 years prior.
Kanye West
3/5
I don't think you're likely to hear Jesus Walks from your local church choir.
Fuck Kanye West as a person but he can make music. This is nowhere near my style and I won't be revisiting this one in the future, but there's plenty to enjoy in here for a listen or two. I'm not really a lyrics guy so my problem with a number of these tracks is that the music is extremely repetitive within one song. Just the nature of the genre I suppose. I will say that Kanye's beats are at least pretty good on a number of the tracks, and there are definitely some tracks that mix up the sound more than just changing who is rapping. There's a lot of filler tracks in here that probably make more sense if you're paying attention to the lyrics, but really just serve as a distraction for me.
I think my favourite is Never Let Me Down, and the lowlight is certainly Last Call which is a garbage self-aggrandizing jerk off that lasts for seemingly 3 or 4 hours.
Boy does Kanye seem to have contempt for higher education. As an alternate universe Patrick Roy might say "I can't really hear what Kanye says because I got my two degrees plugging my ears."
Primal Scream
2/5
This album starts off with a bang with Movin' on Up, a very fun and upbeat track. The song is well put together, entertaining, and ends before it gets old. The same cannot be said for most of the rest of the album.
The second track makes you think ok maybe they're actually going for a psychedelicy atmospheric sound and it's pretty ok. By the third track you are realizing there's no point in figuring out what they're going for because they're just making random stuff, some of which is garbage. I might hear that synth whistle in my nightmares for the next while.
The hallmark of this album is that most songs are about 2-3 minutes of actually pretty good content stretched out into 6 or more minutes. I noticed that in the UK release of the album Come Together was actually 2.5 minutes LONGER, which is insanity. Loaded would be an actually fantastic track if they cut it in half. It spends a lot of time building the sound up with 4-8 bar repeats, adding a new instrument or piece of the sound each time. Ramping through the sound changes much more swiftly would drastically improve the pace of the track, either by changing every 2 bars, or else by adding two sounds instead of just one each cycle. It has a jam feel that is kind of appealing when listening to a snapshot, but is a bit much over 7 minutes.
If you skip around in most of the tracks of this album, I find that I enjoy the music a lot. The problem is that much of the songs outlast their welcome so listening to the whole album is quite tedious. Not to mention track 3, which is by far the worst thing on this album and nearly justifies burning this album in a fire.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
Some of this music is fine. But generally it's a real snooze. Not a good album to try and stay awake to while at work. None of the instruments are very interesting. The songwriting is ok, but the sound is so consistent here, it's like listening to one long song with some gaps.
Cornershop
2/5
Another album that starts off promising and devolves into senseless trash. Sleep on the Left Side is a jaunty and fun little ditty that made me think we had emerged from this hole of 90s musical wanking. It's still a bit long with an extended outro that someone should really have noticed and cut off. Brimful of Asha as a follow up is boring and monotonous but not awful and makes you feel like you're getting a feel for their sound.
But then.
The third track feels like a weird departure into some experimental psychedelic stuff. Not much musical content here, just some loops with drums that aren't even interesting. Almost feels like one of those songs the drummer "writes" that you include on the album out of pity.
It's only after the third track that you realize in fact the departure was the first couple songs, and in fact we're in for a journey through experimental nonsense for a while, with a couple steps away for proper songs or fragments of songs.
They bring it back to songs for We're in Yr Corner and Funky Days, but those songs are both terrible. Then it's back into the mess with 6 minutes straight of various garbage throwaway tracks.
Anyways, other than Sleep on the Left Side and Good Shit, this album is composed of a bunch of junk tracks, with a few actual songs that have a mostly monotonous melody and uninteresting instrumentation. Oh and with an abrupt switch in genres for Candyman to little benefit. The Beatles cover at the end sucks as well (though I'm a pretty hard sell on Beatles covers). I don't feel terribly surprised that what I assume is a direct translation of the lyrics doesn't fit rhythmically into the original melody. "Norwegian Luggery (Eh Jery Bahgey)"
This album feels like a musician doing a bunch of unstructured jerking off. A handful of songs written, fleshed out by a bunch of filler material and a lackluster cover. Which is why you have a producer who can curtail your impulses and shape your creativity into a cohesive whole.
Oh. It's self-produced. Big surprise there. Maybe 8th time's the charm, but I doubt it.
Iron Maiden
4/5
Here. We. GO!
This album is great. Full of great songs that not only have great riffs, but also switch things up with bridges and pre-choruses and solos all over to keep you interested.
The instrumentation is fantastic, everyone here is so good at their instruments. The standout is the bass, which often flies off into an excellent riff or has some counter-melody lines in the chorus or something. As someone who is not overly into metal, I found this album to take the best aspects of metal (energy, instrumentation) and kept them in a format where the songwriting and music can really shine through and without getting carried away with overly long tracks or overly repetitive foundations.
The highlight for me is the run from The Number of the Beast to Gangland, where all three are fantastic songs that seem to be just the right length. I really like Hallowed Be Thy Name as well but that one runs just a touch long for me, I find it loses my attention before it ends usually which is a shame for the final track of the album. Just a small negative though on a mountain of excellence.
Of the albums we've done so far, this is the new number one.
Beck
4/5
This album is pretty sweet. The style is all over the place and really keeps things interesting. Starts off with a Rock Band classic that's pretty decent if a bit repetitive. Very catchy chorus of course.
He sounds like he attempts to sing while using as few facial muscles as possible, perhaps he is a ventriloquist on the side.
I'm less of a fan of the rap tracks but honestly they're still pretty good. For some reason I really jive with the chorus to Hell Yes, for example. Great bass line on that song too.
A highlight for me is Farewell Ride which is a pretty awesome song that just puts me on a worksite building a railroad in the wild west. I would not be surprised if this track was part of the inspiration for the Breaking Bad theme song.
Honestly not a lot to say. No major lowlights. Just a solid album through and through. Maybe I'll check out more of his stuff.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
A lot of this album is that kind of classic American rock (a la Bruce Springsteen) that I just never really could get into.
Tom Petty has a unique voice that is pretty great on some tracks but just gets weird and annoying (see The Wild One, Forever) on others like he doesn't have complete mastery of his mouth muscles. Really interesting how much his voice is different here from the voice I recognize more from later albums. The guitar, bass, and drums are all decent and definitely competent, but nobody is standing out really. None of this is helped by a top-heavy nearly mono-style mix that doesn't really do the musicians justice.
The album starts off pretty great with the first two tracks, but after that becomes the American rock stuff that's just not my thing. It's definitely not terrible but the style really gets stale on me over the course of a full album. This is the kind of music where if you made a greatest hits out of 5 albums of content it would be really awesome, but having to listen to several deep cuts in a row starts to lose my attention. And then Mystery Man comes on and I have to reach for the next track button because that one sucks. If you don't skip Mystery Man and your brain tunes it out instead, you will not be snapped back to attention by the lackluster Luna.
Just when I'm fully sick of the album and ready to listen to anything else, American Girl comes on and reminds me why this guy is so famous. That song is absolutely great and provides a stellar outro that pretty much makes you forget that you weren't really enjoying the last few tracks.
On a separate note, it's pretty cool that they got Linda McCartney to pose for the album cover.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Buckle up. This is not Led Zeppelin's best offering. But that's not saying much. This album is awesome. There are so many good tracks throughout. It's later Led Zeppelin's more raunchy feel but with all the recognizable hallmarks of their sound including sloppily awesome guitar work, virtuoso-tier bass full of counter melodies, insane energetic drumming full of fantastic fills, Robert Plant's classic singing, and a smattering of wailing harmonica and delicate mandolin. A UK rock radio station once did a poll that asked listeners to create the greatest rock superband in history by holding separate votes for the greatest rock singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer. The poll simply produced Led Zeppelin. I wouldn't quite go as far as the poll does, but surely these four each deserve to be in the conversation for the GOAT of rock musicians at their respective posts.
We lead in with Custard Pie, whose guitar and keyboard riff gives us a taste of that crunchy rock we are in for a double album of. The Rover is great but amongst the caliber of this album I find it to be one of the more forgettable tunes. In My Time of Dying has a phenomenal hook as all the instruments are introduced one by one. It's a very long song but has so many tempo and dynamic changes that it doesn't really grow old on me.
Next is a block of classics. Houses of the Holy is classic Led Zeppelin sound. Trampled Underfoot is one of my favourite songs by them, that keyboard/guitar riff just charging ahead through these hilarious lyrics, with the cherry on top that is the keyboard solo. What more can be said about Kashmir. A definite departure from their typical sound, it is somehow something different from Led Zeppelin's normal sound while at the same time being so classically them. The contrast of the haunting verse progression with the breakthrough into the triumphant chorus progression. Throw in strings, horns, and an excellent bridge, and baby you got a stew cooking.
Disc 2 is less hit-heavy, but contains some of my favourite Zeppelin deep cuts off any of their albums, specifically all of the first 5 songs here.
In the Light molds together weird atmospheric stuff with some amazing rock riffs into such an awesome track. The vocals are amazing. This song is long but it is great and I wouldn't lose a second of it. Bron-Yr-Aur is a beautiful instrumental. Down by the Seaside's guitar tone makes you feel like you're underwater. Ten Years Gone is so nice and has an excellent solo. Night Flight is one of my favourite Zeppelin songs. My favourite small moment of the album is on that track, a small and simple drum fill that strikes me as being just absolutely perfect, I think of it whenever I think of the best fills (timestamp about 0:58). The band cuts out and the gap is filled beautifully by just 5 hits.
The final four tracks are a bit weaker by this album's very high standards, but the outer two are still two good rockers and the inner two are fun acoustic jam songs featuring some tasty mandolin.
I love this band and this album. Talent just dripping off of them. As much as I wrote here I could have written three times as much. What I wouldn't give to have been a fly on the wall while they composed, recorded and produced these tracks.
Kraftwerk
1/5
I am reasonably confident the inclusion of this album was an unfortunate typo.
Apparently Tim Horton, Duke Ellington, and Nick Drake all died in 1974. I can only imagine they all died due to a broken heart from hearing this album.
1974 had the deadliest single airplane crash with no survivors in history, this is also likely due to this album.
Trash
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
I must admit I enjoyed this more than I expected.
The first song is garbage, some typical extremely 80s junk where the snare is so compressed the roadies probably kept it in their pockets. However it improves steadily, peaking with This Corrosion which is actually a pretty damn good song. At first the length of it felt a bit much but honestly it doesn't get old on me as much as some of the other songs on the album that are half the length.
Besides the first track, each song has something to enjoy, whether it's a decent chord progression, decent guitar playing, good bass, or good keyboards. The drums are boring and fairly shitty, but they're a drum machine so pretty par for the 80s. I don't like the singer's voice and the melodies are usually pretty bland, a definite low point in their sound.
Definitely pleasantly surprised here.
AC/DC
1/5
I have never been a fan of AC/DC. However, I have never listened to a whole album of theirs before and I resolved to go into this one open minded and ready to try out some of their deeper tracks surrounded by some of their biggest hits.
You know when there's a pressure difference across a doorway that slams the door shut as you pass? That pressure difference was AC/DC's music on the open doorway of my mind. By about one minute into the second track, I was absolutely sick of it.
The guitar work on solos is quite competent, even good, representing the only thing I liked here. The bass and drums are terribly boring, the guitar outside of solos is nearly sheer power chords the entire time, I find Bon Scott's singing voice irritating, and the songs are uninteresting. The one brighter spot track wise is You Shook Me All Night Long, which isn't a great song but I definitely found myself grudgingly head bobbing a bit to it, indicating there is some redeeming quality in that tune. On reflection though it's like a half remembered dream, I can remember the general feeling of enjoying the song but my mind can't quite grasp why.
The best thing about having to listen to this album is that I know it is AC/DC's best known album, so there is hope that it is their only offering on this list.
Some rock and roll is, in fact, noise pollution.
Cat Stevens
4/5
Off to a slow start but the opening track just grows into a great little number, and shows off what you can expect from the album as a whole. Some slow sections, some fast sections, and a range from forgettable to absolute classics. The songwriting is on display here, with some real nice chord progressions on many tracks. Instrumentation is for the most part simply arranged, typically centering on one or two acoustic guitars and the vocal melody.
Overall the album is pretty great, with few tracks that are boring enough to merit displeasure, more than counterbalanced by the brilliance that is Wild World and Father and Son.
Besides the aforementioned two amazing songs, other highlights include: the piano riff on Sad Lisa, the crescendo in Miles from Nowhere, the play between when his voice gets intense on On the Road and the na na naaa, and the fantastic denouement that is the title track.
This is how you put together an album. Doesn't need to be super complex, just needs to be a good set of a variety of tracks that flow well with each other with a couple top tier tracks to hold it all together.
Ryan Adams
2/5
Some good musicianship here. The guitar, piano and harmonica are good, and he has a decent voice as well.
That being said, this album falls pretty flat for me. There are just way too many slow songs all over this album and it drags me down to sleep. When I do pay attention to the glut of slow songs they are pretty decently made, I just find that putting them all in a row makes for a rough listen.
A highlight is To Be Young, it's a fun and upbeat start to the album. I don't even mind the throwaway intro track since it kind of sounds like a conversation I would have with some buds over some beers.
A Tribe Called Quest
1/5
As someone who isn't really interested in lyrics most of the time, there is very little on this album to take my attention. The music backing up the rap is token at best, with few interesting beats or attempts at supporting melodies. There is little structure in these tracks, it's mainly just rap verses without many choruses or other changes to the formula.
The album has nearly the same tempo for every song as well. All of this combines for an album that is largely interchangeable tracks that fails to get my attention and disappoints when it does.
The Clash
3/5
This album is pretty ok. The pure punk sound is just a bit much for me over an entire album. I really like the songwriting from these guys overall and the instrumentation is decent. The singing is great if only because I love the hilarious classic Clash singing style. I never listen to this album despite enjoying the Clash a lot, just due to how it's fairly monotonous and I get tired of it.
Mostly, listening to this album just made me excited that we would eventually certainly see London Calling pop up on this list.
Gorillaz
3/5
This album just sort of runs out of steam. As I jog my memory listening to snippets of the various tracks, a lot of them really are quite decent, and a few really good ones like Re-Hash and Clint Eastwood. Through the second half of the album the density of weaker tracks just gets high enough to lose my attention. From the boring Slow Country and Starshine to the straight up irritating 19-2000.
I want to make special mention of the song 5/4, which is a pretty good attempt at writing in the awkward time signature, but loses points for the lazy and self-congratulatory title.
I was initially leaning towards a 2 on this one based on my impression from full album listens, but listening to individual tracks reveals some more quality here than that impression. This album is less than the sum of its parts.
The Specials
3/5
Well I can definitely say this is the first time I've ever listened to an entire ska album. My impression of this was that it was like if someone really liked the Clash's Revolution Rock and decided to make an entire album of slight variations on that song. However, this actually came out a couple months ahead of London Calling so I guess it was just in the air of London at the time.
The musicianship is decent but the album drags on a bit since it's all the same thing. Definitely some good tracks sprinkled throughout though, and I didn't hate it. I bet these guys are fun to drink with.
Brian Eno
2/5
I can see this album being good for meditating or some other low-brain-activity thing, but as an album of music to just listen to there isn't enough going on to be worth the time.
The noises are pleasing enough, but this is background music. These tracks could be great in slow and ambient sections of a video game, maybe one of those indie games that has an emotional scene where the character is learning about their dead/estranged parents' pasts. That or just music on the main menu. It could also serve as backing music at a planetarium show.
Musically, each track is very long and basically features just piddling around on instruments (mainly synth) without any kind of structure or much development (also, 30 seconds of dead air at the end of the first track, whyyyy). You could probably recreate this on the fly from an electric piano and maybe a couple of friends running their fingers on the rims of crystal glasses.
As negative as that review was, I don't dislike the album. It kind of lulls you into a happy place. This is good to work to if you're doing something interesting enough to keep you awake. I got some good coding done with this on.
When evaluated based on what I personally look for in music however, such as instrumentation, musicianship, melody, and song structure, it just doesn't rank very highly.
k.d. lang
3/5
The first two and last three songs on this album are just country crap that I can't enjoy. The middle seven songs however at least don't turn me off immediately. She does have a great voice and I sometimes find myself getting into those middle tracks.
I quite enjoyed the variety in the decent songs. Black Coffee and Shadowland are suitable for a smoky basement club, though I admittedly can't picture k.d. in the requisite scarlet dress crooning at the front of the stage. Sugar Moon belongs on a Hawaiian beach, and Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes seems like it is played by a mariachi band.
The backing band is very solid, not a lot of standout performances but just steady and solid throughout. The slide guitar is the one that stays with me, providing a sound that is irritating on the country tracks but quite nice on the other tracks, even if it does attempt to drag the genre back towards country.
You can create an EP from this album that is fantastic.
Dr. John
2/5
This album has a couple of ok tracks mixed in with a bunch of hippy junk. I imagine Croker Cortbullion is quite good if you’re three tabs deep convulsing in the grass while your friends nearby chat about how we’re all really just one organism, man. But it doesn’t click for me. Dr John’s voice is kind of cool. There’s not much on this album for me but it wasn’t awful.
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
I think the songs on this album have that mix of being energetic, repetitive and not overly interesting that makes them very suitable for mini-bosses in video games. Not quite epic enough for a true boss. Listening to this as purely an album where you sit down and listen to the tracks is not a particularly interesting experience. This is background music.
Shuggie Otis
3/5
This album starts off great, with some soulful good stuff. The rhythm guitar and keyboards throughout are great, played really tastefully and adding a ton to each track.
The first five tracks are all quite good, building up an excitement for the quality of the album. Rainy Day comes on and it's a nice step back into a moody instrumental that I find to be quite nice. And then you're smacked with XL-30, some sort of dystopian circus soundtrack that absolutely sucked me out of the mood of the first half of the album. It's an awful song that reeks of unstructured jamming.
When that's over you hope to get back into the groove for the final two tracks Pling and Not Available. You could easily fall back into the groove as those two fit better with the first half, but unfortunately the wake up call that was XL-30 lowered the veil over the second half of the album, and you can't help but notice that where the first four tracks are well put together songs, the last five really just seem like jams by comparison.
I have a strong suspicion that our buddy Shuggie put together an EP of material but wanted to release an LP so he filled the rest of the bare minimum play length with a few jams and called it a day. It's too bad, there's some real potential in the first half of the album that ends up unrealized.
a-ha
1/5
The first song is a classic. I spent a fair amount of time listening to Take On Me trying to decide if I had never heard it before whether I would like it or not. I could never quite decide. Either way, I do enjoy that song and it makes for a great opener.
The rest of this album is synth pop trash.
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
I have heard that the lyrics on this album are really great. That's very cool but it's just not what I'm here for. I didn't find the beats to be terribly interesting, and I didn't find much to listen to in the music, so there really wasn't much for me on this album.
R.E.M.
3/5
Pretty typical alternative rock throughout. I definitely enjoyed it more than I assumed I would. I don't really like the singer's voice but the musicians are decently talented. It's the End of the World has such a catchy chorus, not surprising it's so famous. Overall better than expected but nothing to write home about.
Gene Clark
4/5
On my first listen to this album, the slight country twang of the first couple tracks got in my head and I caught myself looking for reasons to dislike the album. I forced myself to get over it and wound up listening through the album three or four times. It's pretty damn good.
While his voice is just ok, in general the musicians on this album are good stuff, especially the bassist who definitely stands out. The songs are generally of good quality with nothing I would consider a significantly weaker track than the others. As I continued to dive into this one, I found that my initial pet peeves about his voice and sound became the pieces that I found fondly memorable. His sound actually reminds me of another band, The Band, which I have very similar feelings for.
Despite it probably being too long, I think my favourite track so far is Some Misunderstanding. The guitar solo of that song has almost a Pink Floyd feel.
It's not easy to break your way into my core rotation of music. This is the first album from this 1001 album challenge that I am adding to my triage playlist for further listening, and I think a couple of these tracks might find there way onto my playlists.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
Is this ever a 60s album. The instrument tone and mixing just has the quintessential 60s feel. This album is really quite decent, with a lot of good songs spread throughout. Two highlights for me are the massive song Somebody to Love and the instrumental Embryonic Journey. Embryonic has a Jimmy Page-esque feel.
There are great performances by guitar, bass and vocals all over this album. There's also a variety of song tempos and styles. I really wasn't expecting much from this bunch of hippies, but as it turns out this album gave me everything I look for. Pleasantly surprised by this one.
Stan Getz
3/5
Oh boy, jazz. Jazz is totally cool in small doses, but it is a genre I have a hard time listening to full albums of on repeat. The bossa nova flavour of this jazz is quite nice, lending a structure and fun to the music that other jazz can be sorely lacking. With that structure and fun comes the distinct feel of "interlude music" however, and you can find yourself being transported to a waiting room, or a lobby, or an elevator, or a montage scene in a movie where the main character spends several hours cleaning their house or something.
As is typical for jazz, the instrumentation is the highlight here. The bass, guitar and drums were all fantastic, and zoning in on any of them was a pleasure on every track. The soloist is there to provide melody for people to center their listening on, but it really isn't the stand out track to me on any of these numbers.
I probably won't revisit this, but I won't be upset if a similar album pops up once every couple months.
Skepta
3/5
This was decent. For whatever reason some of the lyrics were filtering through to me on this one and some of it was odd stuff for rap, but definitely interesting. Maybe I was charmed by the british accent. Nothing to special on the music side of things but I found this one rather more accessible than a lot of hip hop (or Grime or whatever the genre apparently is).
Duran Duran
3/5
This album is like if you took a really good album and just started adding layers and layers of synth and effects. I can hear those good songs underneath, with really nice rhythm guitar parts, great bass, and good drums. But the 80s sound that infests it all really takes away from the music. I'm also not a big fan of the guy's voice.
Overall I definitely enjoyed this more than I expected, but I found myself wishing I could listen to that album that might have existed if this material was written in a different decade.
Eels
4/5
My initial impression of this album was that it was more boring alternative rock. Upon repeated listens however it really raise its head above the other stuff we've had.
These guys' sound reminds me of Pavement, and places the album firmly in the mid-90s. This album definitely suffers from some sameyness, but luckily in this case it was a samey sound that I found myself getting into. I like the singer's style, and I quite liked the bass and guitar's work on the side, simple as it may be.
The turning point for me was listening to this music out loud while doing chores this weekend. I found that the music was really nice played that way, as opposed to in headphones like I typically listen to these. Pleasantly surprised, I'm marking this one to return to!
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
Some massive hits on this album. I have officially discovered that if you don't listen to Freebird for a very long time that it actually does become good again. An obviously talented band playing a collection of decent songs. This is definitely a good album, and if I was into Lynyrd Skynyrd's sound I'd even call it great. The highlight is the guitar work, multiple fine guitarists in this band.
Fiona Apple
4/5
Very solid album. This song has a good variety of songs at a variety of tempos. She has such a great voice and the songwriting is quite interesting. I don't really have any major highlights or lowlights to point out here, it was just a good end to end album. I listened to it over and over all day yesterday.
Klaxons
4/5
My first listen I was unimpressed but this one grew on me. They have kind of an unusual sound but it comes together into some pretty decent songs that sort of mix punk with a bit of Gorillaz and maybe some avant-garde or something. Competent musicianship all around and creative songwriting.
A low point is definitely Isle of Her, which I find to be kind of boring and a bit too heavy on the weird factor. The other dud is Four Horsemen which I find is just a bit too intense that it loses out on the intricate sound the other tracks have. Also it doesn't have a melody since they just sort of yell the lyrics, and the song misses that.
These two low points are easily outweighed by the good work on the rest of the album however. My highlight is probably the intro to Atlantis to Interzone, where that vocalization noise in your left ear and the siren in your right ear sounda chaotic but quickly resolve into the beat of the song. Really nice stuff.
The Dictators
1/5
This feels like a novelty album or something, but all signs on wikipedia point to it being a sincere effort by this group. I found this album to be pretty lame. There was nothing to interesting going on in the instruments or the songs themselves. Most of the singing was like punk-style half-yelling, but it was clear the odd time they tried to sing a melody that none of them can sing.
Also reading about member Richard Manitoba, he is an asshole.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Solid music. He's a great singer and these songs are fun to listen to. No major highlights as this is a pretty consistent album. The lowlight is the last track, I get a little tired of the story he's speaking to us because it is insanely long. Overall I think some of these tracks could stand to be shorter, if only to for the sake of making room for an additional couple tracks for us. On their own though, despite their lengths, I found that other than the final track these songs did not overstay their welcome, they're just nice to have on.
Judas Priest
3/5
This album is ok. I found the guitar work to be rather sloppy and got the impression that they are mediocre guitarists that turn the distortion up to 11 so it sounds like they're super good. I don't mind the guy's voice. This album just didn't really connect with me. Didn't hate, didn't really enjoy either.
Run-D.M.C.
2/5
Couldn't get into it really.
Deep Purple
2/5
Live albums are really mainly for people who are big fans of a band. As someone who doesn't already know some of the songs on here, I find that listening to lengthened and less structured versions of these songs isn't all that fun. Not to mention that mindless screeching noises at the start of Lazy might be fun in person but are just awful through headphones to someone trying to get through the work day.
Being at a concert is a great experience, but live albums fail to communicate that experience to anyone who hasn't already experienced that band's live act. It's like having someone describe an event to you: sure they can get the idea across but it will never be the same as actually being there.
All that being said, they do sound to have been a fun live act. The renditions are impressively faithful to the original tracks aside from how they're mostly much longer, and their musicianship stands up on the live stage as much as on the album. Including the singer, which is often the weak point in a rock band's live show by comparison to their albums.
Beatles
4/5
This is a great album. Not by the standards of the Beatles though. If you had asked me which Beatles albums would be on this list, this would not have been one of them.
Their second LP, With the Beatles expands on their first album by providing a marked step up in the maturity of the songwriting while still maintaining the covers and simplistic structuring of Please Please Me. In many ways it can be seen as somewhat of an older brother to Please Please Me.
The originals on this album come in a big range of quality. At the top of the list has to be All My Loving, which combines hard hitting triplet chords with a walking bass line and McCartney's excellent vocal to create an excellent 60s pop song whose sound is so unique you really can't do anything like it without being super obviously mimicking it. It Won't Be Long, All I've Got To Do, and Not A Second Time are nice Lennon tracks that are interestingly written and display the creative exploration going on, but aren't going to blow anyone's socks off. Hold Me Tight was originally written for the first album but cut. It's not one of my favourites but I will say the guitar and bass parts are deceptively tricky with some interesting chord changes. Don't Bother Me isn't too interesting but is notable as Harrison's first contribution, the budding of a great songwriter. Little Child is one of my least favourite Beatles songs, I find it to be bland and unappealing. I Wanna Be Your Man is a goofy little throwaway song, but my favourite thing about it is that the Beatles decided to give it to the Rolling Stones who then had a hit with it. The Beatles then decided to record their own version and it's just a million times better than the Stones' one.
Looking away from the original compositions, we have a very interesting selection of covers that really displays the broad range of music the Beatles listened to. They famously listened to everything they could get their hands on and had an extraordinarily wide view of popular music, which I believe was a major factor in their ability to synthesize so many disparate sounds into the canon of songs they're so famous for. Till There Was You provides a brand new soft side to the Beatles, and is an excellent track with fantastic singing and great lead classical guitar. That solo is just awesome. You Really Got a Hold On Me and Devil in Her Heart are darkly interesting songs that I think suit the Beatles well. Money is just a classic and in a similar vein to Twist and Shout the Beatles really made it their own. Money showcases two of the best rock voices of the early sixties: John Lennon ripping his lead vocal and Paul McCartney at the top end of the backing vocals, awesome stuff. Roll Over Beethoven is a fun time and showcase of Harrison's awkward early guitar solo style. Please Mr Postman I find pretty boring and the weakest of the covers.
Overall this album shows us a band who already has found their sound but is eager to continue to expand both through covering tracks and writing originals. The creeping maturity seen here only barely hints at the greatness to come. If The Beatles fell off the map after this we would probably say they were just another promising pop band, if remarkably talented, that couldn't sustain their popularity. But history shows us that this album is just one stepping stone as they made their way inexorably from a peppy upstart group of goofballs into the innovational force they later became.
PS whoever decided to hard pan drums and bass on some tracks in the 2009 remaster can suck a fat one.
Madonna
2/5
She is a pretty great singer but this album is kinda weird. Some decent stuff in here but a lot of fluff and 80s trash I have a hard time with. And then that last song is just an awful finish. There are some rock elements in here that sometimes get me going for sure, but overall just didn't connect with it.
Pink Floyd
5/5
What an album. One of the all time great bands enjoying the peak of their prime.
The album begins with one of the greatest atmospheric intros that I am aware of. Synth G minor, chimes, in comes a meandering keyboard solo, in comes such a tasteful guitar solo, in comes that classic riff, and the song kicks off. We're already over 4 minutes into the song and it has barely gotten going, and yet I'm not annoyed by the length. The high up guitar chord slams in the background, more just fantastic guitar soloing up next. Classic, if simple, lyrics come in and teach us of an enigmatic man, the original leader of the band Syd Barrett and his descent from eccentric band leader to losing his mind. Now time for an insane sax solo to lead us into an atmospheric outro from the first part of this epic song.
Welcome to the Machine is probably the weakest track here, but it's still very cool. It puts you almost inside a factory where you're stuck doing mindlessly repetitive behaviour. It's a bit of a departure for the album since it doesn't feel like it connects into the Syd Barrett/origins story the rest of the album themes around.
Have a Cigar is such a cool funky track with awesome bass and guitar. Depicting the story of Pink Floyd hitting the big time, my only regret about this song is that Roger Waters didn't sing it (he sings it live and it's great).
What more can be said of Wish You Were Here. An all time classic track, with an accusatory first verse and brilliantly loving second verse, it is another tribute to Syd Barrett and the complicated relationship the band had with him until his final departure from the group.
After a nice ride through some more ordinary (if brilliant) songs, it's time to hop back on that Shine On train with a last couple verses and some more fantastic solos until the final fade.
This album is a beautiful tribute to Syd Barrett. It shows the band is still inspired to creation by him even in his absence. It shows the band wrestling between feelings of longing and nostalgia for how things used to be with him but also knowing that things can't be the same now. Apparently Syd Barrett, nearly unrecognizable, showed up at a recording session for the album. That must have been an intense experience, and probably very sad.
On the more positive side, this album is the second half of the creative cohesive prime of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, when they still collaborated extensively. They both have marks all over each song of this album. Pink Floyd stays great for a couple albums after this one, but never again will their creative forces mesh together to the extent they did here.
The Monks
2/5
This album oscillates between interesting and awful.
The Roots
1/5
I fear I didn't give this one as fair of a shake as I should have, since I'm rushing a bit trying to catch up by doing two a day. I didn't really vibe with it as is common with hip hop albums for me. I'm trying! Just need to find one with interesting music in the background.
Milton Nascimento
4/5
I am not usually one for music in foreign languages. Even though I'm not really a lyrics guy, I guess there's something I don't like about not even being able to listen to them if I wanted to. However, this album has some pretty interesting music all over it. It's a very long album but honestly it doesn't drag too much. Good guitar all over. Love the jump into 5/4 time for Lilia. Surprisingly enjoyable.
Sarah Vaughan
2/5
I think this would have been lovely to have been in attendance at while knocking back a few drinks. Listening to it 70 years later is a bit tedious. 50s artists tended to be fairly one dimensional and this fits that bill. Talented musicians and a great voice with some bits of fun banter, but too long for me.
TV On The Radio
4/5
Very cool stuff! They remind me of Royal Canoe. A diverse soundscape with lots of different stuff going on. It's pretty interesting music that has something to grip you no matter when your attention starts to flit back to it. Saved for later!
Nas
3/5
I got into a couple of these tracks. Still not my thing but I could feel it bobbing my head sometimes.
Wild Beasts
3/5
The songs are actually pretty interesting on this album, but unfortunately the off-putting singing ruins the effect quite a lot.
The Who
4/5
This album is extremely famous for how much of a true concept album it was so long ago. Judging it now, a lot of these songs have some filler aspects to them. I think when you compare the music on this album to the Who's other music it's actually fairly simplistic and not overly impressive. It would probably be my choice for only third best Who album.
That being said, there are some absolute gems on this album. The See Mee Feel Me recurring theme is hauntingly beautiful. Pinball Wizard is of course an all time classic, and a standard for aspiring acoustic guitar players to do some proper damage to their guitar bodies trying to play. It's kind of a shame you have to listen to Fiddle About right before it, which isn't a bad song musically but is just hard to not cringe when hearing.
This album is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. The story is kind of cool and the use of recurring musical motifs to enhance the storytelling of the lyrics is great. In the end though, this album feels to me like just baby steps towards the masterpiece that is Quadrophenia.
Supertramp
4/5
I wrote off Supertramp as a youngster because I don't like Dreamer and I thought it was basically what their sound was. I'm glad I was forced to listen to an actual album by them! Their sound is so much more than the goofy high pitched soft pop Dreamer bit, as iconic as I find it to be. They know how to rock, they're good instrumentalists, this was a good album. I'm wondering if this is their best album because it has all the songs I know off hand by them. Highlights include Bloody Well Right and the moment in Hide in your Shell where the pre-chorus transitions to the chorus with "Don't let your...".
Harry Nilsson
4/5
This was pretty interesting. I've never heard his stuff before for the most part and I thought it was pretty good. Production quality is insane for 1971, maybe it's a remaster? It's not all good, and Jump into the Fire is downright bad, but definitely decent stuff.
HE PUT THE LIME IN THE COCONUT AND DRINK IT ALL UP
ABBA
4/5
Great singers. Though this shows some flashes of the typical showtunesy ABBA I'm familiar with, there are some very cool songs on this album. Highlight is definitely the title track, which has an atmospheric and dark vibe I really got into.
Prince
1/5
Prince was an immensely talented musician who used his abilities to create awful music. It's like if all Monet did was take big steaming dumps on canvases.
David Bowie
2/5
There's stuff to be enjoyed here but for the most part I'm unenthused.
Elton John
4/5
The first 6 songs on this album is an unreal run. Candle in the Wind is beautiful, Bennie and the Jets is a classic, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is some fantastic songwriting. The rest of the album is a bit hit or miss. Misses like Jamaica Jerk-Off can be nearly painful to listen through, but then Saturday Night's Alright is nestled near the bottom of the album and is an all-time classic. As is so often the case, if this were a single album with the cream of this crop, it would be one of the greatest albums ever. As it stands, it's still damn good, just not quite elite.
Wilco
3/5
You know what? This is decent stuff. It just really didn't do much for me.
Primal Scream
2/5
There's some ok stuff sprinkled in here but you almost forget about it amidst the sea of boring noises.
Kid Rock
1/5
Surprisingly actually has a couple tracks with decent rock. This album is like a mixture of Beastie Boys and some arena country or something. The decent rock is far outweighed by the absolute trash scattered throughout the album. Only God Knows Why is apparently an extremely popular track but the heavy autotune on it completely ruins it for me.
The Specials
2/5
Adele
3/5
Rolling in the Deep is amazing. Her voice is amazing. This album drags with a number of more boring songs though.
The Beach Boys
5/5
All time classic. God Only Knows has one of the nicest melody/chord progression combos ever devised. Wouldn't it be Nice is such a great feel good song. The various supporting tracks here are a mixed bag but generally good. Brian Wilson had such an ear for melody and harmony, his vocal line compositions here are amazing.
Shame he went nuts.
Also Mike Love is a bastard.
Abdullah Ibrahim
2/5
meh
Al Green
3/5
What an opener. Good stuff but gets a little stale for me
Charles Mingus
2/5
An entire album of jazz just gets tedious
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Not really my style. Some decent tracks but his vocals are annoying and the music didn't really work for me.
Pixies
1/5
I don't like this, it's weird
Erykah Badu
3/5
Pretty nice stuff, great bass and lovely voice. Got a little sick of it before the end but generally pretty good
Marianne Faithfull
2/5
Meh
Sly & The Family Stone
2/5
Such good bass and guitar, with boring melody lines. Needs more variety, this album drags because it's just so samey
Bob Dylan
4/5
Some great stuff, a few forgettable ones
Ray Charles
3/5
Great music but I get a bit sick of it and also Ray Charles was a shit dude
Aerosmith
3/5
Not the biggest fan of Aerosmith. Talented guys but their music is lame. Adam's Apple seems like it was made exclusively to deliver a handful of Bible puns someone came up with, and it sucks.
This would get a 2 except that Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion are absolutely fantastic songs.
John Lennon
4/5
Some great stuff here. Imagine is a classic. Jealous Guy may be my favourite Lennon solo track. How Do You Sleep would be one of his best as well if it wasn't such a vicious attack on Paul McCartney. It's remarkable to me that on Spotify that song is the third least listened to song on the album, which must be in part attributable to it's lyrical content since it's so good musically.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Great hits, boring deep tracks. I usually don't like the songs where Kiedis raps instead of singing.
The Jam
3/5
Decent
Cream
3/5
Such a talented band. So few top tier tracks from them though.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
2/5
There is some excellent stuff in here, but it is scattered in with a whole bunch of garbage.
Le Tigre
1/5
Junk
T. Rex
2/5
You know what? Better than I remembered. Lots of trash on here but there are a couple medium songs and of course Bang a Gong is a classic.
Pixies
1/5
Doesn't work for me
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
Not a rap guy but there are really good beats here. Lots of iffy lyrics though, caught something about beating his girl? Also not the biggest fan of all the loud sex noises, makes it kinda difficult to listen to the album at work.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Too long for basically a jam album. Decent quality overall but no stand out tracks to hold your attention.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Some good songs in here but also some trash sprinkled throughout.
808 State
1/5
boo
Hugh Masekela
1/5
Wow was this one album? Felt like it lasted about 7 hours
Oasis
3/5
They're good but this album is nowhere near as good as What's the Story
Pixies
1/5
So sick of these guys. The singer sucks and the weird dissonant guitar hammering they do just gets on my nerves
Joy Division
1/5
ugh
The Byrds
3/5
Ah the Byrds. Talented folks that just get way to obsessed with being super psychedelic and it creates some really bad tracks. Good stuff on here though.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Bob Marley was a talented guy and there's some good stuff here but listening to a whole album of his gets real samey on me
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
I thought I didn't like it but then Dull Life woke me up and I realized it was pretty damn good. Dull Life is the best one.
Nick Drake
4/5
Such a shame this guy didn't get the recognition he deserved back in the day.
William Orbit
2/5
snore. Some decent stuff sprinkled in
Can
1/5
Some ok stuff and a whole lot of the worst kind of psychedelica. I'm here to listen to music, not what amounts to 30 minutes of house creaking
The Who
3/5
Early Who with almost all songs sounding the same. My Generation is obviously an all time classic but the rest of the album is filled with forgettable songs that are only fun to listen to because they recall the sound of the actual good sounds from the early days of the band. The opening track actually rips off the riff from Anyway Anywhere Anyhow, unless it actually predates it or something. Legal Matter is probably my least favourite moderately famous Who track.
Parliament
2/5
Fun and funky but also boring
Public Enemy
2/5
ok, not much for me
Mylo
3/5
Good beats but a bit boring to listen to all in a row. Good background music for a drone tour of a city or something
Linkin Park
4/5
Pretty good. I know it's their sound but I sometimes feel like I wish instead of the verses being mostly rap they had written melodic verses. I quite enjoy the music but wish there was a melody to tie it together
Lauryn Hill
4/5
I'm not really a rap guy. But there is some beautiful stuff in here and this girl can sing like crazy. Good beats and some nice instruments in the background too. The sudden Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You was a definite highlight, I was a big fan of that cover.
Dire Straits
4/5
Pretty good. The highlight is the guitar for sure, and Sultans of Swing is an amazing song.
Ice Cube
3/5
Pretty good I guess. Skits are boring they're a real trope of these rap albums
Louis Prima
2/5
This is from before they invented interesting music
Queen
4/5
A couple all time hits in here. The backing tracks range from decent to forgettable. I'm in Love With My Car is probably my least favourite Queen song that I'm actually familiar with.
Funkadelic
4/5
The Band
4/5
I don't really like how country they can get sometimes but this is obviously a very good album
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Decent music, but more suitable for an elevator ride or pause menu than a dedicated listen.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Great album
Queen
3/5
Just ok for the most part. Killer Queen is unreal
Solomon Burke
3/5
Good but unremarkable
Metallica
5/5
Great album
Bob Dylan
3/5
Generally good but not great, with Don't Think Twice as an elite song. The creativity is showing and so is the lyrical quality, but the musical maturity isn't there yet.
Mudhoney
1/5
Not into it
Eurythmics
1/5
Terrible garbage. Their big hit on here is pretty good but mostly for the familiarity. These guys suck
Kraftwerk
1/5
I get it you like to pretend to be robots. This album was probably composed wearing cardboard boxes and dryer vents
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Pretty interesting stuff on some of these tracks. Should have been a single album though there's lots of boring tracks.
Big Black
1/5
TRASH
Brian Eno
2/5
His stuff is weird but this was not as bad as some of the other more boring stuff.
Britney Spears
2/5
Baby One More Time is a great song. A lot of the rest of this album sucks though
Beatles
5/5
What an album. After 11 months without a major release and a whopping 18 months since their last full album, the Beatles are showing off that they are producing so much material they can randomly do a double album instead of single. That being said, to flesh out all the way to a double album there is some definite filler in here (not much but it's there). Knowing all the other material they were working on that would find spots on later albums and even their solo careers, I don't know why they decided to put tracks like Wild Honey Pie on here. But of course being the Beatles even the filler kind of serves to highlight the surrounding songs when listened to in proper album context.
Despite how much I love this album, it contains the one part of the Beatles discography that I always skip: I always end this album two tracks early. Revolution 9 is just too experimental and garbagey to listen to more than about once a year, and Good Night sucks so I just end the album instead of skipping.
The album was recorded with the four Beatles working separately on a lot of it as they went through a period of internal strife. For the most part you can tell the songs where they worked separately as they have a single Beatle's instrument or singing super highlighted with little harmony. At this point in their career John and Paul were producing so much high quality stuff that the music transcends whatever internal conflict they had and comes out as yet another set of fantastic tracks. This is also the first album where George has one of the most famous contributions to the album in While My Guitar Gently Weeps. This is the time where his writing production skyrocketed in both number and quality, which shows over the rest of the Beatles' career and into his solo act. Ringo also contributes a composition in Don't Pass Me By, which is forgettable.
What an opening. That jet fade in for Back in the USSR, crossfade to Dear Prudence's flowing guitar arpeggios, to Glass Onion is three great rock tracks to get you in the mood. As you move through the rest of the album you're greeted with the typical Beatles fare: great chord progressions, great melodies, great instrumentation, great album pacing, a variety of styles, and of course sprinkled in are a number of all-time classics. It's not hard to forgive the album of Good Night, Revolution 9, Wild Honey Pie, and Don't Pass Me By when they are counterbalanced by Back in the USSR, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Blackbird, Rocky Raccoon, I Will, Mother Nature's Son, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Revolution 1 and Cry Baby Cry.
Random tidbits:
-Helter Skelter is considered to be a major influence in the development of early heavy metal.
-Yoko Ono's line in Bungalow Bill is the only female lead line in the Beatles catalogue.
-Eric Clapton plays lead guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
-Blackbird is played by every person who has ever owned an acoustic guitar but somehow everyone stills likes hearing it anyways.
-Everybody's Got Something to Hide is one of the only songs where I have never been able to properly sync up my mental beat counter with the song before the rest of the instruments come in. I have tried so hard.
-Revolution 1 is amazing but Revolution is still better.
I'm beginning to think these Beatles characters were pretty talented.
Fun game: create your personal single disc version of the white album. Limit it to 23 minutes on each side of the LP, and order the tracks so both sides flow well. It's so hard.
Paul Simon
5/5
Damn, so much good stuff here.
Marty Robbins
3/5
Decent but like most 50s music it gets pretty samey listening to a whole album
Kanye West
3/5
ok
Red Snapper
2/5
Not terrible music but instrumentals always bore me after a while. A full album like this gets tedious.
George Harrison
5/5
A phenomenal album, full of great tracks and a regrettable third disc that is lame. This is the backlog of George's music from writing in the intense creativity hotspot of the Beatles' recording studio, but overshadowed by the prodigious output of John and Paul. Those years of behind the scenes writing and only getting a couple songs onto Beatles albums gave us the crystallization of the best ideas he had over that period in this album. If only the Beatles had found a way to work stay together, I can't even imagine how these tracks would have developed without all their input. Amazing stuff.
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
Ughhhhh. At least Born to Run is good. This big sound Americana crap is so awful
Elvis Costello
2/5
Pretty boring
Madonna
1/5
Brutal stuff. So boring
The Jam
3/5
This was ok. Some of it is a bit boring but I don't mind the style they were doing
4/5
I've never listened to her before but quite enjoyed the grooves on here
Fleet Foxes
4/5
Great album. Such interesting composition, there is a wide variety of speeds on this album, though all closely clustered into typical folk genre. The chord progressions and guitar work are great here, as are the classic Fleet Foxes harmonies. By comparison with their later work, you can see how unpolished their sound is, but taken on its own this album is an absolute treat.
Nick Drake
3/5
Not my favourite by him but still decent.
CHIC
3/5
ok
Faust
1/5
ugh
Jurassic 5
2/5
ok
Siouxsie And The Banshees
1/5
I kind of like some of the instruments on some songs but mostly hated the overall sound
John Prine
1/5
Old timey country for small cowpoke children
Morrissey
4/5
I enjoyed it! Some of the good elements of the Smiths music without the shit elements of some of the other Smiths music
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
This is a fantastic album. A bunch of great ones and a couple mediocre ones, nothing terrible. The absolute greats are Carry On, Teach Your Children, Woodstock, Deja Vu, and Our House. That's half the album!
The Go-Go's
1/5
Nope
Willie Nelson
2/5
Boring, not my thing
New York Dolls
3/5
Not terrible, but definitely not that good
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Damn, pretty good stuff
David Bowie
1/5
I do not like this era of Bowie.
Sister Sledge
3/5
Not bad but gets a little tedious on a whole album
The War On Drugs
4/5
These guys are pretty good and I'm into their sound, but the songs sort of bleed into each other. The album is too consistent track to track, could use a couple change ups to keep it interesting.
Talking Heads
1/5
I think the music in general is ok if not all that interesting. The vocals are terrible and ruin everything.
Baaba Maal
3/5
This music isn't really my style but it's definitely interesting
Todd Rundgren
4/5
What a weird album! A mix of stuff I quite liked with some really weird interludes. It definitely keeps your attention. I might have to explore this guy more
Black Sabbath
3/5
Pretty good. A bit of a different sound than I'm used to for them, some bluesy stuff going on.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Decent album but a little dull. The old people voices one is weird. Mrs Robinson is obviously a classic.
Fiona Apple
4/5
This music is very interesting. Not all the tracks landed with me but it definitely kept me interested
The Thrills
4/5
I quite enjoyed that!
The Divine Comedy
4/5
This was pretty good
Garbage
3/5
meh
The Band
3/5
ok
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Started off enjoying but got kinda tired of it by the end
Portishead
3/5
Decent
Donovan
3/5
Kind of boring, typical mid-60s uber psychedelic summer of love type stuff. Some of it is definitely decent.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Classic band and a couple classics on this album. Fun tunes.
Beck
3/5
Some good stuff, some boring stuff. Album could be great if it was a few songs shorter.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Interesting, definitely not terrible but didn't connect with me a ton either. Come On Eileen is so good.
Liz Phair
3/5
Pretty lewd. Also pretty decent. Would listen again
Ray Charles
3/5
There are approximately 800 songs on this album. It's not bad stuff but kinda boring overall.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
I love Fight Test. The rest of the album is decent
David Bowie
3/5
ok
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2/5
A whole album of jazz is always tough
The National
2/5
Thought I would like their sound but it really got boring on me. Fairly samey.
Sonic Youth
1/5
Such a garbage band
Thelonious Monk
3/5
Jazz again. He is super good but jaaaazzzzzzz
GZA
3/5
decent
The Killers
3/5
Brightside and Somebody Told Me are so good. A number of good supporting songs here too. Unfortunately peppered with some real duds, especially to end the album.
Brian Eno
2/5
Couple ok ones, mostly junk
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
Decent stuff but I never could get into ELO's sound.
Paul Simon
4/5
Classic album. Some of these songs are unreal. Unfortunately there are some tracks that are boring and that general 80s feel in the background takes me down from a 5 to a 4.
Cyndi Lauper
1/5
Time after Time is decent for an awful 80s ballad. Girls just wanna have fun is trash but it is recognizable and not awful when drunk in a group at a wedding. The entire rest of this album is horribly bad and nearly drove me to start mindlessly destroying things around my desk.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
Some decent stuff.
Elton John
4/5
Good album.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Pretty sweet but doesn't really stand out to me
Dusty Springfield
2/5
Some 60s pop stuff. Not terrible but kinda boring.
R.E.M.
3/5
REM kinda blows but this album wasn't awful
Madonna
1/5
There were some better songs on here than other Madonna stuff we've done. The American Pie cover was atrocious. Gone was an interesting look at her actual singing ability. I Deserve It was pretty good. Overall though this music still sucks.
Buzzcocks
3/5
ok punk, kinda boring
Tina Turner
3/5
I get the feeling that this is really good music for the genre. It just doesn't quite connect with me though. The Beatles cover didn't "Help" either ell oh ell
Kate Bush
3/5
The Stranger Things song is great. The rest is ok
Bob Dylan
4/5
Very good album. Highlight is the opener, what a great track.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Decent, probably shouldn't have been a double album. I actually have never heard the original that inspired Gangster's Paradise before so that was cool.
The Libertines
3/5
ok stuff
Dead Kennedys
2/5
Not really my thing but it's not like it was bad
ABBA
3/5
Dancing Queen is a fantastic song. There are other decent ones here, but overall it's not my favourite sound.
Beatles
5/5
One of the greatest albums of all time. Imagine being in 1966 listening to all the other stuff coming out in the mid-60s and then you're hit with this. Track after track of great sound, many tracks that just had no comparable songs at the time. Highlights:
-George Harrison's first song that rivals Lennon/McCartney quality in Taxman.
-Paul's guitar solo on Taxman.
-The feel of I'm Only Sleeping and its reversed and patched together guitar solo sweeping across your ears.
-The harmonies on Here There and Everywhere.
-The drumming on She Said She Said.
-The dual guitar melody on And Your Bird Can Sing.
-The everything on For No One (my top Beatles track).
-Just when you're winding down listening to this album Tomorrow Never Knows smacks you in the face and still has no songs that really remind me of it.
Amazing stuff.
Paul Simon
3/5
Pretty laid back, decent stuff
Madness
3/5
Not bad
OutKast
3/5
decent. Some great stuff mixed in and some boring stuff. Why are skits such a thing
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Decent
New Order
2/5
not my favourite sound
T. Rex
2/5
mostly ok, but boring
Ozomatli
4/5
liked
The Rolling Stones
3/5
This is fine. I was reading about how people talked about it as the best album of the year. Revolver and Blonde on Blonde both came out a couple months later.
Keith Jarrett
3/5
This guy can really play but hardly the type of album I look to listen to
Aretha Franklin
3/5
Classic but not that interesting
The Doors
3/5
These guys are so boring, I can't believe The End is so popular. At least Break on Through and Light My Fire are actually good.
Tito Puente
2/5
meh
Kings of Leon
2/5
Hate the singer
Duke Ellington
2/5
It's good but jazz
Various Artists
2/5
Old timey christmas music, fun but not exactly groundbreaking stuff
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
Decent stuff
Gary Numan
1/5
HAted this
Marvin Gaye
3/5
good stuff
Miles Davis
3/5
He was so good at trumpet. Full album of jazz though, gets a little snoreful
Blondie
3/5
Never listened to an album by them before. Not bad
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Something about this really worked for me
Guided By Voices
2/5
Not great
10cc
4/5
Liked this
Funkadelic
3/5
Decent
Johnny Cash
1/5
Junk. Feels kind of cringey getting into a prison and singing about how much you hate prison to a bunch of criminals
The Cult
3/5
This is just rock. Kind of weird to hear almost in the context of the late 80s. Just plain old rock. Not bad.
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
This was awful. The mere presence of this album calls into question the sanity of the person making this list, and thus the value of the entire list.
Caetano Veloso
3/5
ok
The Smashing Pumpkins
1/5
You know I think I would find this music listenable if it weren't for Billy Corgan's absolutely Z-tier garbage voice. He ranges from soft whisper singing like someone attempting to conceal a fart to his higher pitched yell singing that sounds like someone playing a kazoo while also pinching their throat shut.
Nirvana
4/5
Pretty cool
PJ Harvey
2/5
boring
Beastie Boys
4/5
Pretty sweet. So much more than a hip hop album.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Meh
Iggy Pop
4/5
Pretty good. Never listened to an album by him before
Yes
4/5
Pretty good
Orbital
2/5
Only gets a 2 because of a couple ok tracks. A bunch of junk on here.
3/5
decent
Weather Report
4/5
This was pretty sweet stuff. I'm not really one for pure instrumental albums but these guys are good and I can dig the jazz fusion going on.
Green Day
3/5
Better than expected
Public Enemy
2/5
Flava Flav pisses me off
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Good
Mudhoney
2/5
Did nothing for me
Neneh Cherry
3/5
pretty decent
Willie Nelson
2/5
boring
Frank Zappa
3/5
Such weird music, but something compelling about it.
Grateful Dead
4/5
Classic stuff
Beth Orton
2/5
meh
CHIC
4/5
Pretty sweet
Eminem
4/5
Great
The Cure
2/5
Discount U2
Arrested Development
1/5
I thought a lot of this album was mediocre to not great. And then the 6.5 minute final song hit and it was so awful it decreased my 2 or 3 star rating right to a 1.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Classic album
Bee Gees
4/5
Not what you imagine when you think of the Bee Gees. Some good stuff on here.
Boston
5/5
All time classic
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Decent
Japan
3/5
ok
The Who
4/5
Cool album. The commercials are a bit annoying
Metallica
4/5
Sick album but not sure why it's on this list.
Meat Loaf
3/5
This is some weird combo of Elton John, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac. There were moments of that combo I liked and moments I hated.
The Police
3/5
Good
Little Simz
2/5
Nothing here for me
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Noisy. I was into it at the beginning but it just keeps going and doesn't change.
Morrissey
4/5
Pretty good. I don't really listen to the lyrics much but the snippets I caught sounded like classic Morrissey complaining that us regular folk don't do enough to improve the world. But whatever I'm into his sound
Fats Domino
2/5
ok
The xx
2/5
not very interesting
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Decent
Cee Lo Green
3/5
ok
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
ok
Talking Heads
1/5
garbage
The White Stripes
3/5
Pretty ok
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
Decent gangster rap
Calexico
4/5
Interesting. Didn't like some but really surprised by how interesting it got in places!
The Hives
2/5
meh
Elliott Smith
2/5
meh
Radiohead
2/5
Just can't get into these guys
LCD Soundsystem
1/5
This guy sucks
Elvis Presley
4/5
Pretty good stuff for the mid-50s. No wonder he got so famous, the bar was just to do something even mildly different from everybody else.
Depeche Mode
1/5
Hate these guys
Count Basie & His Orchestra
2/5
Good but gets old
ZZ Top
4/5
A few classics in here
Neil Young
4/5
good stuff
The Pogues
4/5
I have never heard the Christmas song but it is amazing. The album is very good.
James Taylor
2/5
meh
Tears For Fears
1/5
Nope
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
good stuff
The Beta Band
4/5
Quite liked this
2/5
Meh. Bob Dylan live sucks compared to his albums
Bill Callahan
3/5
Decent
Pretenders
2/5
nope
Adele
3/5
Good.
The Cars
4/5
Pretty decent. I'm not the biggest fan of their sound but the songs are pretty good
Motörhead
2/5
Just ok
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
meh
Joy Division
1/5
God these guys are awful
Elvis Costello
3/5
It's basically Bruce Springsteen but not
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
Interesting, sort of early Beach Boys esque. Some good stuff
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
Interesting, and ok
Meat Puppets
3/5
Interesting
Nirvana
2/5
A bunch of good songs, a bunch of garbage.
Beatles
5/5
Great stuff. A couple misses on this album for me, especially the abysmal What Goes On.
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
decent
The Beach Boys
3/5
Interesting transitional stuff between early Beach Boys and Pet Sounds. Not that stellar though
Sepultura
1/5
nope
Radiohead
2/5
Still cannot understand why these guys are so famous
Daft Punk
2/5
Not enough tracks I got into to balance the tracks I just found boring and overly repetitive
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
Live album, always a weird choice
Ananda Shankar
1/5
One of the weirdest additions yet.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Some of the most 60s music ever
Massive Attack
2/5
meh
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Takes me back to Rock Band in university. There are moments on this album where you can hardly tell the song has changed they're so similar. But there are also a couple gems like Under the Bridge and Breaking the Girl.
M.I.A.
1/5
Hated this.
Justice
4/5
Discount Daft Punk. Decent
Cheap Trick
2/5
Why are these ok live albums on this list. This one isn't even particularly good
Television
2/5
Blech. There are elements of interesting songwriting in here, but I just don't like their overall sound, especially the awful singer.
3/5
Pretty good. Got a little long on me though for whatever reason
The Zombies
4/5
Decent
Dwight Yoakam
1/5
gross
Billy Joel
5/5
Fantastic album
Supergrass
3/5
ok
Prince
1/5
Prince. Great guitarist, interesting person, writes music that I hate.
Suede
3/5
Interesting sound. I don't hate it but some of the songs did suck.
Air
3/5
Interesting soundtrack, some cool stuff
Lambchop
4/5
Interesting, never heard of but kinda liked
Neil Young
4/5
Very good album
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
ugh hate him
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
This was good
Common
3/5
Pretty not bad
Mariah Carey
1/5
Awful
The Doors
3/5
The Doors are the definition of meh
The Who
3/5
Pretty cool but still hard to understand why this is on here
Joe Ely
4/5
PRetty damn fun
The Temptations
4/5
Great fun stuff
Norah Jones
3/5
Good stuff
B.B. King
4/5
good
U2
2/5
Sunday Bloody Sunday and Drowning Man are great songs. The rest of this album is generic U2 junk, not interested.
4/5
This was very cool
The Fall
1/5
Nah
Slipknot
1/5
Not bad for the genre I think. Hate the genre.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Good
Radiohead
2/5
Why are these guys so popular
Dr. Dre
1/5
Not feeling it
Haircut 100
3/5
Some ok stuff in here but lots of trash
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
some ok songs
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
Not bad
Bob Dylan
4/5
A classic. Not my favourite Bob Dylan but it's great
The Police
3/5
Decent
The Everly Brothers
2/5
Not bad, but kinda painfully 60s sounding
Talk Talk
2/5
nope
5/5
Screw the haters, this is a great album. Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova are overplayed and cheesy but they are good songs. Don't Look Back in Anger is a classic. She's Electric is one of the best approximation Beatles homages ever. Good stuff.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
This guy. The epitome of writing nice poetry and pretty tunes and then just slapping them together regardless of how they line up. It always bothers me how his vocal phrases don't at all fit with the melody he writes. And don't get me started on rhyming gone with alone.
The Zutons
4/5
Wow not bad
Marilyn Manson
1/5
yikes, not what I want
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
ok
Coldplay
3/5
ok
Dolly Parton
2/5
meh. country
Queen Latifah
3/5
pretty good, but got tiring before the end
Radiohead
3/5
This is not terrible. I cannot for the life of me enjoy these guys but this album is at least ok.
N.W.A.
3/5
The gangsterist of gangster rap, and the a random dance track at the end
Nick Drake
5/5
GAD that is a good album. Man in a Shed is one of my faves by him. Wish he lived long enough to play for us at folk fest.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Pretty good album, couple big hits and decent supporting cast.
The Electric Prunes
1/5
yikes. Ranges from generic 60s poprock to basically children's music??
David Gray
3/5
very ok
AC/DC
1/5
blah blah blah. Couple ok ones but man they had boring material and his voice is like nails on a chalkboard after a while
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
Great album
Guns N' Roses
4/5
I kind of hate these guys but also found myself rocking out to some of this album.
Mott The Hoople
3/5
Does this guy ever sound like David Bowie. With a hint of Bob Dylan.
The Beta Band
3/5
Weird but not bad
5/5
Not much more to be said about one of the greatest albums of all time.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Sgt Pepper followed by Dark Side, what a treat!
Van Halen
3/5
Great guitar work but Van Halen kinda sucks. Hot for Teacher, Jump and Panama are classics though
Bad Company
3/5
ok
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Not bad. Solsbury Hill is great
Fatboy Slim
2/5
ok. it's fun but I get bored of it because I'm working in excel, not on drugs at a rave
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooof
The Prodigy
1/5
did NOT like. That sound they had between some tracks that sounds like a program crashing gave me PTSD to not having saved in too long
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
meh
Fever Ray
3/5
Some interesting stuff, but the interesting pretty much just balances the weird
Jane Weaver
2/5
not great
Steely Dan
4/5
Solid album with a couple absolute classics
Kanye West
3/5
There is some really good stuff on here but I find it a bit long and some of the songs could have been cut
David Bowie
3/5
ok
Jacques Brel
2/5
not really what I'm looking for
The Prodigy
1/5
I hated this. This is music for the dance clubs in a sci fi video game
Prince
1/5
He's so talented and just makes such trash music
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
I mean, some of this is good but a whole album of reggae?
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Some interesting stuff but also some stuff that is not what I want to listen to
Gillian Welch
1/5
nah
Siouxsie And The Banshees
1/5
Trash. That Helter Skelter might be the single worst Beatles cover I have ever heard
Little Richard
3/5
50s music is pretty samey but at least Little Richard's singing adds a huge amount of energy to the recordings
Fugees
3/5
ok
Run-D.M.C.
1/5
Didn't like. Boring beats
Lana Del Rey
3/5
pretty good
Stereolab
1/5
This was boring and shit
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Classic stuff, pretty good. Always hated the one note solo on Down by the River though
Frank Ocean
1/5
This sucks
D'Angelo
3/5
Not my thing really, but the music is interesting at least
The Young Gods
1/5
oh man NOT IDEAL
Goldfrapp
3/5
This had some decent moments, especially near the end. Some junk too.
Ramones
3/5
They have such an iconic sound. The music isn't really for me though
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Some great stuff, drones on a bit sometimes with psychedelic whatever
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
Didn't hate it
LTJ Bukem
3/5
Interesting
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
Not bad
Fred Neil
2/5
Nope
Killing Joke
2/5
nope
Travis
3/5
This is ok. Definitely some good stuff
The Waterboys
2/5
Ok, not too interesting
ok
JAY Z
4/5
Pretty good
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Not too bad, definitely didn't hate.
The Streets
4/5
Wow this was pretty cool
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
terrible
The Slits
2/5
This wasn't terrible, but it was not good
2Pac
3/5
ok
Beach House
3/5
ok
Everything But The Girl
3/5
ok
Jack White
4/5
good songwriter, just never quite clicks with me
Nirvana
3/5
classic
Method Man
3/5
this is like a sequal to wutang
Goldfrapp
3/5
Interesting, kinda cool
Björk
2/5
So weird
Alice Cooper
2/5
Boring
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
That was one of the worst things I've ever had to listen to
k.d. lang
3/5
She has such a great voice
Sebadoh
1/5
These guys suuuuuuuuck
Lou Reed
4/5
Ranges from amazing timeless classics like Walk on the Wild Side to insane garbage like New York Telephone Conversation.
Mekons
3/5
not terrible, but not very interesting
The Cardigans
4/5
Interesting, pretty good. The Iron Man cover is hilarious, like something I would randomly do while messing around on guitar. First song is excellent.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
They're just not very good. At least it was better than the Trout one
The Smiths
4/5
good
Buck Owens
3/5
Not terrible I guess. Would be fun at folk fest but not what I put on for myself.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
decent, a bit boring. Superstition obviously amazing.
Don McLean
3/5
Title track is all time classic. The rest is fine if not super interesting
CHVRCHES
3/5
Not bad.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
Old guy doing old music. Kinda neat but not too interesting
2/5
meh
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
1/5
This album sucks. So boring.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Nope
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
1/5
Rough run of albums here. These guys suck. The Born to Run cover was so random. Nearly as good as the original because Bruce Springsteen also sucks but that's his best song.
The Go-Betweens
3/5
This music slid in one ear and out the other. Pretty unremarkable
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Kinda odd to make an album all about murders
Lupe Fiasco
2/5
So I thought there were good songs and ok songs on here, was ready to give it a 3. Then you get to this self indulgent Oscar speech at the end that absolutely ruins the album.
Ice T
3/5
some good stuff
Sugar
3/5
meh
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
Unremarkable but not bad
Sonic Youth
3/5
Not quite as bad as I expected
Eagles
4/5
Pretty impressive debut. These guys were pretty good. Take it Easy is an all time classic.
Fela Kuti
3/5
Definitely some fun parts, but overall it's not so fun to listen to this jam as it probably was to see it in person.
Beck
3/5
ok
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
I couldn't get on this one's level
Beyoncé
2/5
She is a great singer and I see the appeal but this is not for me
Jeff Beck
3/5
Alright. Didn't realize Rod Stewart sang for him at the start
Gotan Project
3/5
not bad
The Flaming Lips
3/5
This has some interesting stuff and some stuff that is too lame
Donald Fagen
3/5
Definitely ok, some good stuff and some annoying junk
The Young Rascals
3/5
Pretty generic 60s
Deep Purple
4/5
What a great album
The Blue Nile
2/5
This is like discount Springsteen
Slipknot
3/5
Pretty sweet
The Only Ones
3/5
This is like a combo of generic 60s rock and 70s punk. Interesting but not amazing
Hüsker Dü
2/5
meh
Joni Mitchell
2/5
I've always kinda thought she sucked, album is about right
The Teardrop Explodes
1/5
Terrible stuff
The Byrds
3/5
not bad but not too great
The Mothers Of Invention
1/5
Frank Zappa is terrible
The Beach Boys
3/5
Pretty good. Til the End is very good
Neil Young
3/5
Pretty good
Thin Lizzy
3/5
I'm not their biggest fan but this was probably a fun show to be at. Not bad for a live album but why are live albums on this list.
Fishbone
3/5
Meh, not as bad as it felt like it was going to be, and the variety was definitely a plus. But overall didn't inspire me.
Miles Davis
3/5
I guess this is a mega classic, probably because for jazz this is downright listenable. An entire album of jazz in a row though is still pretty tough for me.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
pretty ok but didn't stand out
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
Bruce makes me feel things. Mainly anger and fatigue
Roxy Music
3/5
meh
SZA
3/5
Really started off thinking this was not my thing, but there were actually some pretty nice tracks on here
Butthole Surfers
1/5
I'm glad this album was short
KISS
2/5
meh
Ryan Adams
2/5
He sucks, his music is fine
David Holmes
3/5
This is actually quite good as background music I'm not paying attention to. However it's a bit boring actually paying good attention.
Public Enemy
4/5
Pretty fun
The Clash
5/5
What a classic
Antony and the Johnsons
4/5
Some pretty cool stuff on here. I really liked What Can I Do
The Flying Burrito Brothers
1/5
Pretty much hated this hillbilly country
Doves
4/5
This was pretty good!
Morrissey
3/5
Ok. Rather on the nose lolololol
The Byrds
3/5
ok
The Stranglers
1/5
These guys SUCK
Black Flag
1/5
Not into it
3/5
Some ok stuff on here and some junk. Highlight is the bass
Soft Cell
1/5
Tainted Love doesn't save this album from being a 1. AWFUL
Incubus
3/5
meh
Anthrax
1/5
Not terrible but not for me
Dire Straits
2/5
Money for Nothing is a great song minus the silly extended intro on the album version. Mark Knopfler is a great guitarist. This album is mostly full of 80s trash though (with good guitar solos).
Tom Waits
3/5
Interesting music, but the singing sounds like an extended death rattle
5/5
Classic album
Janelle Monáe
4/5
This was pretty cool, lots of different interesting music. Listens almost like a musical soundtrack
The Smiths
5/5
Fantastic album
Pantera
3/5
This is not bad but not a genre I'm into
Bert Jansch
2/5
This guy is a phenomenal guitar player. But I find his stuff to be a bit boring
Heaven 17
1/5
Awful stuff
Drive Like Jehu
1/5
This may have been a 2 but Luau was terrible and way too long and then it goes into a smoke alarm for 30 seconds at the start of Super Unison.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
Solid album. You Oughta Know is the centerpiece and it is so good.
MGMT
5/5
Classic album, half full of huge hits and the other half is pretty good too.
Miriam Makeba
4/5
Some decent stuff on here. Highlight was the one with the guy laughing his ass off at the widow's grief.
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
Pretty fun
Prefab Sprout
3/5
Meh
Culture Club
3/5
Not great
Herbie Hancock
3/5
Some good stuff, some boring stuff.
Fairport Convention
2/5
Not great
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Very meh
Portishead
3/5
Some ok stuff on here, but mixed in with some real snorers.
Eagles
4/5
Pretty good album in general the title track is an all time great.
Air
3/5
Interesting! Some very cool tracks in here, but also some real boring duds. Never heard of these guys.
Doves
4/5
Pretty good stuff! Earmarking for another listen later.
Songhoy Blues
3/5
This was interesting. Pretty decent tunes.
The White Stripes
3/5
Haven't listened to this album in a long time! Some classics on here but the supporting tracks are really lame.
David Bowie
3/5
Some classics on here including my fave Life on Mars. The supporting tracks I was never too into though.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
Pretty good but didn't make me ooh and ahh
The Boo Radleys
3/5
There is some interesting stuff in here but also some stuff that is just weird to be weird.
Bad Brains
2/5
Boring
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
I find their music to range from annoying to boring
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
ok. A bit boring but some decent stuff and her voice is cool.
Fugazi
2/5
Meh. The singer sucks
Pavement
3/5
Pretty classic them. Good sound, fun music, but not exactly the most technically inspiring stuff.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
Interesting album! A real roller coaster that helps with how long it is. Definitely some good stuff mixed in here, and the weird/bad stuff is short and infrequent enough to not bother me too much.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Decent stuff, of course a few of their best songs are on here.
Talking Heads
2/5
There are moments of music for these guys that I really like. But then there is a lot of junk around it and the singer is just terrible, should have found a career on a children's tv show or something.
Elvis Presley
3/5
Classic Elvis. Not bad music, and he's of course a great singer. However, it's very characteristic of the 50s style to lean on pretty generic song structure and chord progressions, so it does end up being a bit boring.
Def Leppard
2/5
Hair rock, not the best.
The United States Of America
3/5
Some snippets of good stuff in here, but definitely a lot of stuff that is just over the top psychedelic noise.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Pretty interesting
Steve Earle
1/5
NOPE, not for me
Orange Juice
1/5
Yikes these guys are awful
Bebel Gilberto
2/5
Not exactly my type of music but it's not bad. A bit boring.
Faith No More
2/5
The last track is pretty cool, but generally these guys' sound isn't my thing.
Lou Reed
3/5
Some ok stuff mixed in here but a lot of boring stuff too.
Queen
4/5
Pretty good, never listened to this one before. Seven Seas of Rhye is a great song.
The Sugarcubes
2/5
Nope
R.E.M.
3/5
As mediocre as ever
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
ok, not super good. Kinda boring stuff and some of these tracks are wayyy longer than necessary
M.I.A.
1/5
This is some of the worst music I've ever heard. Can't even be saved by the excellent alliwannadoisbangbangbangbangkcccchingandtakeyourmoney
Soul II Soul
3/5
decent
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
2/5
Very weird and eclectic. Didn't like a lot of it
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Decent. A bit long for my tastes with this style
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
Awful. Like putting a bunch of toddlers in a room with a bunch of pots and pans.
Bob Dylan
2/5
God this album is so boring. 16 minute snoozefest for the final track, are you kidding me?
Can
2/5
Kind of like if Pink Floyd didn't make very interesting music. Not terrible but just too much samey jamming for the sober mind.
Van Morrison
3/5
This album is so famous but I just can't understand it unless you love his voice which I don't. It's just ok.
Death In Vegas
3/5
meh
Common
3/5
pretty good
Pink Floyd
5/5
One of the greatest albums ever crafted. From the songwriting to the musicianship, the vocals to the lyrics, this album has it all. When I think of concept albums, this is the first one to come to mind as the best example of an album that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
Echo And The Bunnymen
1/5
The better stuff is like U2 (yuck), the worse stuff is Talking Heads 80s trash
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
Musical versions of some classics. Not bad but pretty boring. Good for an elevator or background at dinner.
Taylor Swift
3/5
The songwriting is a bit boring, with very little variety. She has a good voice and there is some ok instrumentation in the background but nothing to get excited over. Those lower case track titles though... BURN IT TO THE GROUND
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
Kinda interesting.
50 Cent
4/5
Pretty good stuff
2/5
So much faffing about. Would be so much better if they just took some of these ideas and parceled them into songs.
Incredible Bongo Band
2/5
BORING
TV On The Radio
4/5
Pretty interesting music, good variety. I'm into it.
Deep Purple
3/5
You can hear the seeds of Machine Head here but they haven't grown fully yet.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
2/5
This album art is something. Music is fine but not really my taste
George Michael
2/5
Meh this stuff is pretty fluffy
Frank Sinatra
2/5
meh
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Back when they were just a worse and bluesier version of what the Beatles had been doing a year before them.
Tricky
3/5
Some interesting stuff but overall not too into it.
Merle Haggard
1/5
Why is this generic old country album in this list? The songs are boring and monotonous. At only a half hour, this album bored me nearly to tears.
The Triffids
3/5
Some of the songwriting is interesting but it's so dripping in 80s sound that it's hard to enjoy
Aimee Mann
4/5
Not bad at all
Leonard Cohen
1/5
Just as boring as usual
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Some classics on this one
Billy Bragg
1/5
BORING
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
some greats some mehs
Tom Waits
1/5
This is like a novelty album but without good singing
Mercury Rev
2/5
Weird and not good weird
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
meh
Christina Aguilera
4/5
She is a lot more bluesy and jazzy than I assumed. Not bad at all
Sex Pistols
2/5
Not the best
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
ok
Wire
3/5
meh
Pere Ubu
1/5
I hated this
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
Well if I ever wondered if Anderson Paak got his inspiration anywhere then I have my answer
The La's
3/5
Meh
John Coltrane
3/5
It's good but it's also jazz so an entire album is a lot. I think if elevator rides were 32 minutes long everyone would turn on each other and the strongest would devour the others by the end, mainly because of having to listen to too much consecutive jazz.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
4/5
Decent
Elastica
3/5
Fine
Miles Davis
3/5
Good, but jazz
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
I find his music to be so boring
Aerosmith
3/5
meh
American Music Club
3/5
ok
Shack
3/5
ok
Roni Size
1/5
why
Arcade Fire
5/5
Fantastic
Hookworms
3/5
not bad
Sigur Rós
3/5
Decent
The Verve
3/5
Decent
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
Signs of great things to come
OutKast
3/5
Good
Otis Redding
3/5
Good stuff, a little monotonous when listening to the whole album straight
Brian Wilson
2/5
Hints of excellence in a sea of self indulgent garbage. Brian Wilson's head was simultaneously in the clouds and deep up his own ass.
Moby Grape
3/5
Decent
Barry Adamson
2/5
Missing the movie for this soundtrack. That's the point I guess
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
decent
Dr. Octagon
2/5
Classy stuff
Finley Quaye
2/5
One good song, and boring otherwise
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
good
System Of A Down
3/5
ok
The Adverts
3/5
ok
Holger Czukay
3/5
What a bizarre combo of interesting music with some really cool stuff overlaid with garbage!
Beatles
5/5
Only album to be 100% Lennon McCartney. They were early 20s putting this list together. Classics.
Dolly Parton
1/5
country
Ray Price
2/5
ok, bit boring
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
3/5
Decent
Napalm Death
2/5
meh
Screaming Trees
3/5
meh
Van Morrison
3/5
Moondance is a great song but the rest is pretty boring. This guy is such a prick.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
2/5
bored
Happy Mondays
2/5
very meh
Dinosaur Jr.
1/5
awful
Kings of Leon
3/5
Never really clicked with these guys
Bonnie Raitt
1/5
nope
Iron Butterfly
1/5
wow that is some basic junk. Didn't realize Gadda da Vida was 17 minutes long, not sure I've ever heard the entire thing. What a slog
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
kinda boring
Blur
3/5
Song 2 is the best. Rest is ok
The Cure
2/5
meh
Genesis
4/5
This has some good stuff but also some lame stuff
Coldcut
3/5
some highlights, but long boring stretches
Ice Cube
3/5
meh
Underworld
1/5
sucked
David Bowie
3/5
This was fine
Simply Red
3/5
Some cool stuff here
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
This album is fine. I played a lot of NHL 2005, Take Me Out is a classic
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
This album makes me wish I was in one of the towers
Joan Baez
1/5
boring and awful
The Kinks
4/5
Classic album. Some great songs and some filler
Syd Barrett
2/5
yeah his stuff isn't notable after Pink Floyd
The Auteurs
4/5
This was pretty good
John Martyn
4/5
This was pretty good
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
Decent but the last couple tracks really lost me
fIREHOSE
3/5
meh
Cypress Hill
3/5
ok
Bee Gees
3/5
Not bad but doesn't make me feel
Emmylou Harris
3/5
That For No One cover was NICE
The Youngbloods
3/5
not bad
Robert Wyatt
1/5
I can't forsake you or forsqueak you - Hamlet
Animal Collective
5/5
Wound up listening to this all day. Great example of an album that is far better than the sum of its parts. Hard to choose single songs on here that I really love and want to add to playlists, but listening to it all together is an absolute pleasure. Such creative music.
The Kinks
3/5
Sunny Afternoon is an amazing song. The rest of this is fine. Probably deserves a more detailed listen for the lyrics though.
Beastie Boys
3/5
ok
Wilco
3/5
ok
Stephen Stills
2/5
Some good stuff some sucks
Django Django
2/5
not great
Girls Against Boys
2/5
boring
Scott Walker
3/5
not bad, felt kind of like a soundtrack
Peter Gabriel
2/5
so, so 80s
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Not a bad album even if his voice sounds like a car driving slowly along a gravel parking lot.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Great album with a couple great hits
The Yardbirds
3/5
Pretty good
Randy Newman
4/5
Good stuff. That one song has maybe too many N bombs
The Smashing Pumpkins
2/5
Not as bad as I expected but still not great
The Crusaders
4/5
This was pretty damn good
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Weird but not bad
Tracy Chapman
3/5
ok
Hole
2/5
Bronze band
N.E.R.D
3/5
ok
Joan Armatrading
3/5
ok
Jungle Brothers
3/5
ok
Stevie Wonder
2/5
meh not great
Dion
4/5
Pretty good
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
meh seems like the kind of thing late 60s/early 70s crowds would lose their minds for
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
meh
The Incredible String Band
1/5
This sucks
Venom
2/5
nope
Santana
3/5
not bad
Big Star
3/5
mediocre
Crowded House
3/5
not bad
Stan Getz
2/5
Was that the same song 10 times?
UB40
2/5
BORING. The blatant moondance ripoff was funny though
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
Weird stuff
Elis Regina
3/5
meh
1/5
This is junk
Soft Machine
2/5
some interesting ideas in here but this album is so long that they are separated by chasms of 60s psychedelic garbage
The Black Keys
4/5
I'm not the biggest fan of these guys in general but this is a pretty creative and good album.
Dizzee Rascal
1/5
nope
R.E.M.
3/5
meh
Goldie
1/5
I thought this album was of infinite length but it does in fact end eventually
The Stone Roses
4/5
This was pretty good
Blue Cheer
3/5
Kinda boring
Nanci Griffith
2/5
meh
Mike Oldfield
3/5
Actually kinda cool but drags on.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
A classic
Yes
3/5
ok. Typical Yes where my brain tunes out on it's own but it's not bad.
The Louvin Brothers
2/5
boring
Elliott Smith
2/5
He seems like a decent songwriter but listening to him makes me want to fall asleep possibly forever
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Pretty funky stuff
Grateful Dead
1/5
So are you supposed to enjoy it when a live show goes from overly long but not bad jam sessions into an extra long series of random noises that just eventually kind of ends.
Aerosmith
4/5
not bad at all. Haven't listened to Janie's got a gun in a while that song is pretty good.
Dennis Wilson
3/5
This was ok
Throwing Muses
2/5
Boring
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
Typical early QOTSA. Decent but nothing special
Elvis Presley
3/5
Typical Elvis. Solid but nothing super interesting. Couple great songs
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Classic album with some top tracks on it. Little Wing in particular is my favourite song by him.
Justin Timberlake
1/5
I hated this
Röyksopp
3/5
Some fun ones and some boring ones.
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Sounds pretty fun to be at
Jane's Addiction
2/5
They're kinda boring
Stephen Stills
2/5
fine but why is this a double album
The Offspring
4/5
Pretty good punk rock
The Jesus And Mary Chain
1/5
this sucks
2/5
boring, odd inclusion
Fela Kuti
3/5
not bad but a bit boring
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Classic blues rock, this stuff is decent.
The Black Crowes
4/5
Some standard classic rock. Good in general, Hard to Handle is such a great song.
The Replacements
3/5
decent but nothing that got me too excited
PJ Harvey
2/5
boring
The Saints
3/5
not bad
David Bowie
4/5
Pretty good album
Carpenters
3/5
This wasn't bad. We've Only Just Begun is a great song. The Help cover is pretty weird.
Grizzly Bear
4/5
Great album. I wish I could give 4.5. Only a 4 because it pales compared to Shields.
Bauhaus
1/5
Well that sucked
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Not great
Anita Baker
2/5
Not my fave
Waylon Jennings
2/5
Not for me
Maxwell
3/5
This is porn music. Not bad though
Frank Black
3/5
not bad stuff
Peter Tosh
2/5
Reggae for a whole album is SO tiresome. Side note, I wonder what he wants to legalize
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
fine but nothing special
The Modern Lovers
3/5
I did not hate this but it did not impress me
Sonic Youth
1/5
I hate these guys
TLC
1/5
Other than Waterfalls this album really isn't great.
Ministry
1/5
LOUD NOISES