1001 Albums Journey

So I actually knew a good amount about this album before hearing even a second of it. I had heard "Licensed To Ill" and it was good but not mind-blowing and really was carried by the big hits. That made me worry a little bit about this album. Then I read that this was so different from their first album that it was panned by the public. That gave me some hope because making another "Licensed to Ill" would have been a bad decision. I also saw that it was considered sampledelia which gave me even more hope because some of my favorite albums are sampledelia like "3 Feet High And Rising" and "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back". It did not disappoint in the slightest as this is a 10/10 record. I constantly found myself thinking there is no way they can top this song after song and the consistently did especially on "B-Boy Bouillabaisse". Overall all though the songs on this album were great with some of my favorites being "Shadrach", "Johnny Ryall", "The Sounds Of Science" and "Shake Your Rump". Overall a great album that, alongside the aforementioned albums, truly revolutionized sampling in rap music and completely morphed the genre as well as lay the groundworks for future rap subgenres. 10/10

New wave is just not for me. I found this album hard to sit through from The Good Thing to Artists Only. That series of songs was extremely boring to me. I like only one song in that 5 track stretch which is bad for an 11 song album. It did pick up after that because I'm Not in Love, Stay Hungry and Take Me to the River were all good songs. Take Me to the River is a solid cover of Al Green's classic but it is nowhere near the original. I personally feel as if I am unlikely to come back to this album or half the songs on it. Still a solid album but it is just not for me.

Really good album. I would give it a 9/10 if I could give half stars. I listened to their first album in preparation for this one and Karen sounds better and somewhat more confident to me. The title track "(They Long To Be) Close To You)" is one of the best songs of all time. It does one of my favorite things in music which is it's melody progresses exactly how you want it to and it is perfect. Other highlights to me are Baby It's You, We've Only Just Begun and I'll Never Fall In Love Again. I was not a fan of only two tracks which were Love Is Surrender and Reason To Believe. One interesting side note for this project is Richard, the other Carpenter, when given his own singing parts sound good but there is a clear gap in the quality of the singing. I have not listened to any more of their music but I would not be surprised if when I do he starts getting less and less singing opportunities which is not a knock on him cause he is solid but Karen is like an all time great vocalist.

Nothing insane. Just a really solid rock album. Some absolute classics on it like Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City but the track between those highs were generally uninspiring. Not bad but nothing revolutionary and some of them sounded a little cookie cutter. Still solid enough to be an 8/10 but there isn't much to say about thins album besides that.

I like this album but there were a good amount of covers on this album. Often I would prefer to just listen to the original version of a song rather than a cover when the original singers are of the caliber of Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Inez Foxx but because Dusty is a really great singer so it did not bother me that much. I would say the only cover she did that was not close to the quality of the original was "When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", it had nowhere near the same amount of energy of the original and when you listen to them back to back Dusty's version just sounds flat in comparison. I would say every song on this album is really good besides "Do Re Mi", "When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", "My Colouring Book" and . The standouts for me are "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "You Don't Own Me", "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" and "Don't You Know". Solid 8/10 album of classic 60's pop.

Not really my thing but was a solid album. Felt a little derivative at times but had some solid ideas that to me were not fully fleshed out. Some tracks like "Old Pervert", "Queen of Eyes" and "I Wanna Destroy You" were solid but felt a little incomplete and could have been executed better. Still, a lot of solid tracks with my favorites being "I Got The Hots", "Insanely Jealous of You", "Tonight" and "Underwater Moonlight". I would give this a 7/10,

Easily one of my favorite Beatles albums and the most consistently good of their early albums. I didn't dislike any song on the album but it did have a couple meh songs like "Wait" and "Norwegian Wood". Despite that it has a couple of my favorite pre-psych Beatles songs in "Nowhere Man", "Drive My Car", "You Won't See Me", "Girl" and "Michelle". Overall I think this was their best album up to this point and was to me easily the best of their albums before they entered their psychedelia phase. A solid 9.5/10 and it only didn't get a 10 because of the few meh songs above but the rest of the album is easily 10/10 material.

An incredible album made by one of the greatest R&B artists of his generation and it was very important to me in my formative years. No real misses on this album for me. My favorite song is Sweet Life but you can't really go wrong with any of them. I think the weakest track on here for me have to be White but it is still okay (like a 5-10). The rest of the songs range from a like 7-10.

Solid concept album. Weird to hear as someone who grew up in the 2000's because all I hear when he speaks is Monsters Inc. and Toy Story. I actually though thought that this album had no bad tracks. My personal favorites here were "Kingfish", "Marie", "Rollin'", "Rednecks" and "Every Man A King". A really great album that I completely unexpected because of my personal experiences with the artist. A solid 8.5/10.

Solid album. Reminds me a lot of The Righteous Brothers, Beatles and The Beach Boys at times. The only song I didn't like on the album was "I'm so Happy Now" and besides that the album is really good. Standout tracks were "Sueno", It's Love", I Don't Love You Anymore" and "A Girl Like You". Overall nothing mind-blowing but still a nice, easy to listen to album. 8/10

Really good soft rock album. No tracks stand out as being below average. Highlights for me were definitely "Dreamer", "River Song", "Pacific Ocean Blues", "Time" and "Moonshine". The instrumentation on a bunch of these song were really great and that is what really made this album for me. I think though that is was really good but nothing stands out to make it great. 8.5/10

Really great debut album from one of the best rock bands of all time. Not really a bad song on the album but a couple songs are just kinda meh. My favorite songs are "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Take It Easy", "Witchy Woman", "Nightingale" and "Tryin'". The rest is solid, and some of it sounds a little derivative but those tracks are still good. 8/10

This is a very weird album. In one aspect it is a great proto-punk record that is clearly inspirational to much of the genre and rock in general but on the other hand it feel sort of flat to my ears. The 10 minute dirge that is "We Will Fall" is completely out of place on this album and really sucks the life out of a third of this record. The rest of the songs are solid and it has some outstanding tracks like "1969", "Ann", "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Real Cool Time" but the inclusion of "We Will Fall" completely baffles me to the core. I see the appeal of the song to an extent but not in the context of this album. Also to some extent I feel like some of the songs sound a bit similar to each other but not to the extent where it takes away from the listening experience of this record. I personally think this album is really good still but it would be much improved as a full work if that song was removed. I would give this an 8/10 despite that track.

I came into this listening not expecting much because I am not a huge fan of folk music per se but my expectations were completely blown out of the water. I had never heard of Beth; I never had even been suggested this album. I was taken aback by how enchanting the her vocals were on this album on song like "Stolen Car", "Couldn't Cause Me Harm" and "Stars All Seem to Weep". The instrumentation on this album was excellent as well. All in all this album has no bad songs to me. My favorites were definitely the three I mentioned above as well as the title track, "Pass in Time", "Love Like Laughter" and "Feel to Believe" but as I mentioned before there are not any bad songs. I would give this albums a 9/10 or even a 9.5/10.

I am usually not the biggest fan of ambient music but this album was really good. It is just a nice listen from start to finish with a great variety in the sound of the songs. A lot of the time for me ambient music can become stale due to the lack of strong vocals or instrumentation to differentiate tracks. This album combats that by having songs with many different themes and sounds. Coming into this I had never heard of the movie and had no prior knowledge of this album or the band. I think my favorite tracks on this album were definitely "Dead Bodies", "Highschool Lover", "Playground Love" and "The World Hurricane". The only song I would say I was not a fan of was "Ghost Song" because . Overall I would give this album an 8/10. A really good album but it is still Ambient which I find hard to give a rating higher than that. Definitely one of the better Ambient albums I have ever heard though.

This was a very interesting album. I am someone who likes Country Rock and this did not disappoint. The reason it is interesting is it had songs that clearly were more country sounding and some that were clearly more rock sounding. This was an interesting contrast when compared to other Country Rock groups that came after them like Eagles and Grateful Dead that had a more fluid sound. For instance "Sin City" is basically just a Country song with little identifiable Rock aspects and on the other side of the "Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" are a lot closer to Rock songs than Country. The Eagles style was much more fluid between the two genres. That being said it doesn't make this album any worse just different. I think though if you are not a big fan of Country this is not gonna be for you. That being said I do like Country so this was good. I really liked the aforementioned "Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" as well as "Wheels", "Juanita", "My Uncle", "Hippie Boy" and "Christine's Tune". There was really only one song on here I didn't really like and that was "Do Right Woman". I don't know why it is but so many groups try to cover this song and it is never a great cover imo. Their version was okay but once it gets to about a minute into the song the songs starts to feel way too slow for some reason. Despite that all the other tracks are solid to great and I would give the album in totality an 8.5/10. Also as a side note, this album cover is one of my favorites of all time. The way the band name pops on this cover is so good and their Nudie suits are amazing.

This was a really solid album but it definitely is not their best work in my opinion. They are a great group so it is still really good but I prefer some of their earlier albums and a few of their 70's albums over it. I think my favorite song on this album is the title track as well as "I Need Your Lovin'" and "Why Did She Have To Leave Me". The rest of the songs are all solid but this albums to me is nothing to write home about. 7.5/10

The 60s brought us so many great sounding records and this is not one of them. I do not speak French so all I can really appreciate is the instrumentation and his vocal performance and both are weird in a bad way at parts and lackluster in other parts. Like what the hell is he doing on "Tango funebre". That does not sound good and the same goes with "Le plat pays". I read that this genre, Chanson, is lyric-driven so I might just not be getting the full picture but he is singing so harshly and not in a good way. It sounds like an American doing an offensively bad French accent with all the classic tropes played up to the maximum. It kinda sounds like it is the source of French stereotypes, like if you told me that people started believing French people were snooty/rude solely because of this record I would believe you 100%. It feels manufactured and sort of feels like it lacks any soul or passion that an artists typically has when making art. He sounds like he is constantly straining to sing these notes like he is forcing it. I did like "Amsterdam" and thought "Les jardins du casino" and "Les Toros Avec Final" were a fine songs but I would never come back to anything else on the album. 3.5/10 but I definitely am not getting the full picture as a non French speaker.

While this wasn't really my style, I really enjoyed parts of this album and it really surprised me. It was incredibly well written and created a setting/mood just as good as any album I have ever listened to. Some of the songs were truly chilling, some felt like if you made a Wes Craven movie into an album. This is definitely not an every man's album and you really would have to be in a specific mood to listen to this but the artistry is undeniably great. This was my first time hearing Tom Waits and something about his vibe made me immediately think of New Orleans like he sounds like he is into voodoo. The storytelling and writing on this album is incredible and really made this a treat to listen too. His voice is definitely grating but in the same way as a Louis Armstrong or DMX to me which is a good thing. I think the best songs on this album were "I Don't Wanna Grow Up", "That Feel", "Black Wings", "The Earth Died Screaming", "Dirt In The Ground" and "Such A Scream". "Dirt In The Ground" was probably my favorite track, the instrumentation on that song was incredible with the low Sax and piano, it worked beautifully with his overstrained vocals. I was not a huge fan of "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me" (a little too slow, dull and boring for me) and "In The Colosseum" (a little basic compared to the rest of the album) but that is about it. Definitely not an album for the people who only likes happy/pop-y music. I would give this a 9/10 but definitely not an album you can just throw on.

This is the first album I have got that I have listened to extensively and it is probably the best Country album of the 2010s. So many memorable tracks and melodies and best of all it did something few country artists are willing to do, go outside the box. The real issue I have with Country music is the fact that there is so little variety in content and themes. So much Country music is cookie cutter and this is out of the box and incorporates genres outside of Country in a pleasant way. I was reading some reviews of this and all the criticisms I saw to me are ridiculous. Someone said that the songwriting is poor but I couldn't disagree more. In a genre full of bad, repetitive, and derivative songwriting this stood out with interesting concepts and very quaint, emotional lyrics. It clearly doesn't have the lyrical depth comparable to other genres but among Country music, it is at the top. Another common criticism was that this sounded too much like pop and this is such a typical criticism of a country music listener. Country music is easily the least innovative of all the popular genres and it is to its detriment. I like Outlaw Country too but not every country album has to be that. I am not surprised that Country music fans are not open-minded but jeez it is just music sit back and enjoy. This album takes risks in the best way and it definitely paid off because this is a great album. The best songs on this album are "Velvet Elvis", "Space Cowboy", "Rainbow", "Mother", "Butterflies", "Slow Burn" and "Love Is A Wild Thing". There are not any bad tracks on this album. 9/10

Solid alt rock record. A little too bubbly for my taste but still good. It feels a little safe which is not something I am personally looking for in alt rock. I think my favorite tracks were "Mr. Brightside", "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", "Believe Me Natalie" and "Somebody Told Me". It is a pretty listenable album but I feel like a lot of the tracks are just a little neutral and don't stand out. I would give it a 7/10.

Really pleasant sounding jazz/bossa nova album. Damn near a perfect album. Beautiful vocals, instrumentation, atmosphere, and all of these combine to make a great record. I can already tell this will be one album in my constant rotation. Perfect length to put on while doing some work in the background. I have nothing to say negatively about this record. 10/10

Awesome album with a ton of great choruses and instrumentation. Not a bad song on the album to me. I assume it was adventurous for the time and I believe it paid off and it sounds great to this day. 9.5/10

One of the best Grunge albums and, in general, one of the best rock albums of the 90s. The instrumentation and the singing meld perfectly to create that quintessential grunge vibe. Not a bad song on the album. My favorites are "Violet", "Jennifer's Body", "Miss World", "She Walks On Me" and "Doll Parts" but no song on this album is lower than a 7.5 out of 10 to me. An easy 9.5/10 and sometimes it is even a 10/10 for me.

Great disco album. Not really any bad tracks. Actually was a lot better than I expected and had way more interesting writing than a lot of other disco groups but that's a significantly low bar. Overall though extremely enjoyable and a seminal disco record. 9/10

Love Sarah Vaughn. One of my favorite Jazz vocalists of all time. This is pretty good and I like the casualness of the record. I am not a huge fan of artists who take themselves too seriously. Not really a bad song on the album. 9/10

Very solid proto-punk record. A lot of solid songs but nothing that I would say was exceptional or made it stand out from the crowd. I think my favorite songs were "Personality Crisis", "Looking For A Kidd", "Jet Boy" and "Pills". The rest is solid besides "Lonely Planet Boy" and "Frankenstein". I was not a huge fan of those two songs. Overall 8/10.

Great punk album. There wasn't a ton of variety between how songs sounded but still good. I liked a majority of the songs on here with my favorites being "Teenage Kicks", "Girls Don't Like It", "Jump Boys" and "(She's a) Runaround". I was not a fan of "Casbash Rock", "True Confessions" or "Male Model" but they were not horrible songs. Overall I would give this an 8/10. Nothing mindshattering but definitely worth a listen.

One of the easiest 10/10s there is. Some of the best production in rap history and it has a great list of features that have memorable and even iconic verses. Snoop Dogg is at his peak rapping ability on this album and his verses are great throughout the album. Dre has never been the best rapper but his production on this album was absolutely incredible. As someone who loves West Coast Hip Hop and G-Funk, this is an absolute classic to me. The only thing I didn't like on this album was the doctor's office skit because I hate sex sounds in songs but it doesn't really take anything away from the album. Of course, it has massive tracks like "Nuthin' But A "G" Thang", "Let Me Ride" and "Fuck Wit Dre Day" but what really makes this album is its consistency. Those 3 hits are obviously great tracks and I love all of them but there is not a clear difference in quality between any song on this album. I think my favorites are those hits along with "Lil' Ghetto Boy", "Stranded On Death Row" and "The Roach". Easy 10/10 which on my scale means everyone who can listen to this album, should listen to this album.

This is definitely not Ray Charles's best album but because he is one of the greatest singers of all time it is still like a 9/10. He really isn't doing anything outstandingly different on this album but it is him doing it so it is great. I wouldn't necessarily call this album safe, which is a problem I sometimes have with albums, because it doesn't feel like he is actively picking easy, safe songs like The Killers album I heard a bit ago. In general, though I probably would pick between 5-10 of his other albums before I got to this one. Despite that, there is still not a bad song on the album but my favorites are "Half As Much", "Hey, Good Lookin'", "I Love You So Much It Hurts" and "I Can't Stop Loving You". Overall a 9/10 which to me means if you like music you should probably listen to this album.

Great Art Pop album. Not really a bad song here and it has a couple of all-time 80s songs. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time" and "All Through the Night" are all big hits that are actually really good, and to me, they all hold up pretty well. These are the most popular songs on the album and this is a rare case in which a pop album is consistently good from beginning to end. I liked every song on here besides the title track but that is a 45-second track and I was kind of neutral on "I'll Kiss You". I liked "She Bop", "Money Changes Everything" and "Witness" just as much as the big hits. 8-8.5/10 depending on how I feel.

Solid album, my only issue with it is at times it can be kinda predictable. Still really good garage/indie rock. A lot of good songs with my favorites being "Someday", "Is This It", "Last Night", "Take It Or Leave It" and "Hard to Explain". This album instantly make me think of white kids from a specific suburb in the city I grew up in that I went to school with because for some reason. The album just screams to me "I'm a white kid that grew up in a house with a 2 story house with a big back yard and a fully finished basement and maybe a pool" but that might just be my experience. Overall though 8.5/10.

A solid new wave record with some reggae influence. I liked the album but it did not blow me away by any means. Some of the songs like the hit "Message In A Bottle", "It's Alright For You", "Walking On The Moon", "Contact" and "Does Everyone Stare" were really good but then there were tracks like "Deathwish" and "On Any Other Day" that I was not a fan of. I really didn't like some of the vocal effects and inflections they tried on songs like "No Time This Time" and "Deathwish". I don't really have strong feelings about this album. A decent 7/10 because it failed to leave me with any strong feelings. I would say I enjoyed more of it than I disliked it but it was just kind of meh overall.

This was easily the most surprising album I have ever been suggested. I came into this knowing a bit of old country music cause that is what my grandparents listened to when I grew up. I might have heard a Marty Robbins song here and there as a kid but I definitely didn't remember him if I did. Either was the level of storytelling on this album was absolutely astounding and is easily among the best of any country album I have heard. From the most well known song nowadays "Big Iron" to "The Master's Call" to "They're Hanging Me Tonight" the storytelling was genuinely shocking. As someone who is a big rap fan hearing storytelling to this level in a non-rap genre was very surprising. Not a bad song on the album and is an easy 9.5-10/10 for me.

Easily one of my favorite Jazz albums of all time. John Coltrane is at the heights of his powers in my opinion on this album and in this era. I am a huge Coltrane fan and love a majority of his albums but if I were forced to say my favorite of his works I think I would pick A Love Supreme which may be a basic pick but this is one of those cases where public opinion is right. I know some people prefer Blue Train, Giant Steps, or even Ascension but this album is perfect for me. It is one of the few Jazz albums I always have in my rotation as someone who doesn't listen to Jazz on a consistent basis. Every part is great but I think my favorites are between 2 and 4. One of the easiest 10/10s and one of the few albums I think is perfect.

While I personally am unlikely to return to this album much because I don't really listen to soundtracks or songs from movies and shows in general, I really thought this album was one of the best. This soundtrack separate from the movie is a really enjoyable listen. Isaac Hayes is a great composer and they amount of energy that is in this album is astonishing it is constantly full of motion. I do however have a few issues with this in the context of it being an album. "Do Your Thing" being nearly 20 minutes long was an absolute waste of time. It is a solid song but there is no reason it should be 20 minutes. In general some of the tracks were a little longer than they needed to be like "Café Regio's" and "No Name Bar". I do like it though as a listening experience and would highly recommend it. They who songs that have actual singing on it are super catchy and sound great. My favorite songs on the album were "Theme From Shaft", "Ellie's Love Theme", "Shaft's Cab Ride", "Early Sunday Morning", "Soulsville", "No Name Bar" and "Shaft Strikes Again". I would give this an 8.5 out of ten but it could have been higher if "Do Your Thing" wasn't so long and some of the extra fat was cut off of songs like "Café Regio's" and even some of the intro of the theme.

Great psych/garage rock record. I am not a huge fan of psych rock personally but this album completely exceeded my expectations. The singing and instrumentation had the perfect amount of weirdness and distortion. The only thing I did not like is the fact that on some songs like "Roller Coaster" and "Fire Engine", it feels like the weirdness was prioritized over the music and I am not a fan of style over substance in any form. Also it kinda goes without saying but this album cover is so good and is one of my favorite covers of all time. My favorite songs were "You're Gonna Miss Me", "Splash 1", "Reverberation", "Don't Fall Down", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Monkey Island" and "Tried to Hide". 9.5/10

Pretty good album if you like 60's folk-rock. Kind of weird in a good way which I show that genre typically is. Personally I liked it. Sometimes the vocal inflections were a little too weird for me to the point that they were not a good listening experience like at the start of "People take Pictures of Each Other" and in "Monica". Some of the guitar melodies and riffs on this album though were incredible. Loved the instrumentation in general on "Wicked Anabella", "Village Green" and "Sitting By the River". Overall though I liked the album and my favorite songs were "The Village Green Preservation Society", "Wicked Annabella", "Village Green", "Animal Farm", "Do You Remember Walter?", "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" and "Picture Book". 9/10

Just like when I listened to Pink Moon by Nick Drake and Central Reservation by Beth Orton, I had extremely low expectations and all three exceeded my expectations. I don't like folk music typically but this was so much more than just a folk album. There was jazz and rock influence that truly made it a completely different experience. If it was just a folk I probably wouldn't have liked it nearly as much as I did. I read some other reviews and some people talked about how they did not like his quiet, whispery vocals. I can understand that but I personally like the vocals and think it really matches well with the instrumentation. I think that the instrumentation of this album was really good and made a lot of the songs. The guitar and sax throughout this album really took this album over the top. I liked every song on the album but the best songs to me were "Solid Air", "Over The Hill", "Don't Want To Know", "Dreams By The Sea", "May You Never", and "The Man In The Station". 9.5/10, my favorite folk album I have heard. I prefer it to Blue by Joni Mitchell and Pink Moon by Nick Drake.

This is an album that I can 100% see people either loving or hating. It is very consistent, in that no one song stands out as any better than the others (to me). It is a very weird album because it doesn't really fit in a specific category to me. The first song is definitely classic rock with what sounds like (to me at least) some R&B influence with the horns, then the next tracks are strictly classic rock but also kind of sound like proto-country rock with some banjo and maybe even mandolin usage but they also have some harder rock influence on "Draft Morning" as well, then by the time we get to like "Old John Robertson" we are definitely in country-rock or folk-rock territory and then at the end they throw a big middle finger to us by adding a couple psych-rock songs like "Dolphin's Smile" and "Space Odyssey". Somehow though with all this the album still sounds extremely cohesive to the point that I had to re-listen to the album just to pick out the songs. I usually don't agree with the idea that you need to listen to an album all the way through but this is one that I definitely think you need to. It is just too weird and I feel like you would not get much out of just listening to random songs off the album in a playlist. Personally though I like the album a lot and I think it is a great easy listen but I definitely think that I would have to be in a specific mood to listen. I think I would give this an 8.5/10.

First things first, this is totally not my style but I will say I was pleasantly surprised. The instrumentation on this album was great. The guitar and drums were catchy, moody and had really a infectious energy to them. Despite the vocals being intentionally loud and brash, I think the instrumentation matched the vocals perfectly and (to me) made this album. I looked through other reviews of this album and the number one criticism I saw was "I don't like being screamed at". I can understand the sentiment when it comes to screamo or some metal but personally I don't necessarily feel that way about this album. I think the vocals were brash but definitely not unlistenable. I view them as another instrument and with that mindset they fit the track perfectly. Either way I really enjoyed this album and liked all the songs but "New Math". 9/10

This was a very interesting album. I grew up in the 2000's so when I think of electronic music I immediately think of genres like EDM and Dubstep but this was surprisingly minimalist. I really enjoyed the stripped down production and think that it really made this album feel unlike others. It wasn't mind blowing but it was interesting and different and I appreciate that. I liked all the songs except the last one. I really liked "Neon Lights" and "Metropolis". Overall I would give this album an 8/10. Good but not great. The highlights I mentioned above are definitely worth listening to.

Obviously this is a pretty classic album and I can say that it did not disappoint. Really futuristic pop for the time it came out and the fusion of a lot of different genres comes through in a very interesting way. I would say that I liked it a lot but I don't think it is as perfect as many people think it is. There aren't any bad songs per se but I do think the vocals can get slightly annoying after a while and some of the songs are a bit close sounding. Still great and is a 9-9.5/10 but not the clear 10/10 many people call it. The best songs to me were "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "You Still Believe In Me", "That's Not Me", "I'm Waiting For The Day", "God Only Knows" and "Here Today".

This is one of the first albums I listened to when I started exploring music. I always was a pretty big fan. I personally could understand someone not being a huge fan since Eddie's vocals can be very love it or hate it at time, I am obviously on the love side. I thought it was a perfect album the first time I heard it and while I don't think that now I still like it a lot. It is still an all-time great album to me but after listening to other albums from their contemporaries I personally don't think as highly as I once did. One thing I always like about Ten though was to me it always felt a little less raw and was a little easier to listen to than other Grunge albums like In Utero, Live Through This and Dirt which can be a nice change of pace at times. Either way great album with not a bad song on it 9.5/10.

I came into this album with no expectations as I had never heard of this album or Ian Dury even and in all honesty I came out of listening to this album pretty much the same as I went in. This to me felt like a very standard 70's British punk album. That is not to say it is bad by any means just average. I definitely don't think it is on the caliber of a lot of the other albums I have heard from this list and I think if you just included the standard picks for this genre/scene: "The Clash (self titled)", "London's Calling", "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols", "Live At The Witch Trials", "Unknown Pleasures" and "Pink Flag", you would have covered the genre and the scene nicely. I even think The Undertones self titled is a better fit and I am not even a huge fan of that album either. This album is a little more off the beaten path and I don't think it fits the list. Still solid with some good songs at the start but after "Clevor Trever", the album falls off to me. Still good but not something I would see myself coming back to, 7/10.

This was a really great folk rock album. I had first heard of it because one of my dad's favorite songs is Father and Son. I then re-heard it in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack and since then I have always had this as an album that I was going to listen to but never got to. I finally got to it because it was suggested to me here and it lived up to my expectations. I think this album was amazing. Consistent throughout with a few standouts like "Sad Lisa", and of course "Father And Son". I don't really see any flaws in this album except for the fact that Cat has one of those singing voices that I like but I could see getting annoying if I heard it a ton. Either way this was a great album that I definitely would recommend to anyone who likes folk music or folk rock. 9.5/10

Solid Rock album but it is heavily carried by it's 3 hits. The other songs fall into two categories great but just not as popular ("Rock & Roll Band", "Something About You" and "Smokin'") and meh/forgettable ("Let Me Take You Home Tonight" and "Hitch A Ride"). I listened to this album a good amount growing up because my dad was a fan but overall it is sort of underwhelming if you know the three big hits. Still like a 8.5/10 with all that being said because those three big hits are some of the best classic 70's rock/pop rock songs you can find and there is enough in the other 5 tracks to keep it enjoyable.

Never heard of Supergrass before getting suggested this so this was a completely blind review. This unsurprisingly is a really great rock album. I really enjoyed it throughout. I would suggest everyone giving it a listen because it to me felt like one of those albums that are just an easy listen. I will say that while it is great there was not really any track that stood out to me from the rest because this album is very consistent in it's quality. 9/10-9.5/10.

I don't know if this is a controversial take but I think Sgt. Peppers is probably The Beatles most overrated album. I was just not a huge fan of some of the experimentation on this album and I don't think it made it as listenable as "Rubber Soul", "Revolver" or "Abbey Road". I will say though I do think that up to this point in their catalogue this album has some of the best writing of any of their albums and I think that helped a lot. It is still The Beatles so it is still really good but not the obvious 10/10 that many people see it as. I was not a huge fan of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" or "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" and I really dislike "Within You Without You". In all honesty this feels like the modern art of Beatles albums to me. It feels kind of artsy just to be artsy with an clear reason to do what they do but I may just miss the point. Still with all my disagreement with the praise this album gets it is still like a 9/10.

There is not much to be said about this album that has not been said in every other review of it. It is truly one of the best albums of all time. I personally love the rawness of this album and the honesty in the lyrics throughout this album. It seems like it is a very personal album which makes it feel better in a way. I don't really have any criticisms except for the fact that I feel like it may be a track or two longer than it need to be and some of the songs on this album are a little too slow for me but besides that this album is perfect from start to finish. Easy 10/10.

If you like punk rock you will like this album and it is as simple as that. As someone who enjoys it I like this album. I don't love it but I do like it. I really don't know how to describe how I feel about this album. It definitely is good but it also isn't like that enjoyable of an album to listen to. It is sort of like "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits in that way. It is a great work of art but not one that I won't come back to super often. Sort of like a great body horror movie like The Big Shave. It is a great piece of art but it is hard to watch. That being said I care a lot about how enjoyable a listen an album is and I can't say I enjoyed this album to the level of a lot of the other ones I have listened to. Solid 8/10 because I don't think it has that much replay-ability for me.

Really fun and short album. Just classic 60's R&B. If you like instrumental music you will love this but as someone who is not that big on instrumental music that isn't Jazz I would not say I love it. I think I would rate it a 8/10 with the title track unsurprisingly being the best track.

As someone who never listened to an ABBA album before this one I expected that it would be good because I enjoy a lot of their hits I know but I did not expect the album cuts to be as good as they were on this album. From "My Love, My Life" to "That's Me" to "Why Did It Have To Be Me?". Of course the hits from this album are also really good my favorite being "Money, Money, Money". Just a classic pop/disco album that is a really easy listen and one I find hard to like. I would probably put it around an 8.5 because it is good but it does have some flaws. I thought that a few tracks ("Tiger", "Arrival" and "Happy Hawaii") were a little weaker than the ones that came before and they felt like lesser versions of previous songs on the album.

Me and my brother recently got into Steely Dan but I never really listened to this album because it didn't have any of their really big hits so I just assumed it was a dud of an album but I couldn't have been more wrong. I think this is just as good as the rest of the albums they released around this time like "Katy Lied" and "Countdown To Ecstacy". Really solid throughout and I would say it doesn't really have a bad track. Easy 9/10.

I don't know if this is controversial to say but this album is really good but I find it kinda of boring at times because of how same sounding a lot of the tracks are. That really is not an indictment on Little Richard it is an indictment on the genre at the time. Classic 50's rock and roll albums are very same sounding. I do think this is one of the best ones and it is mostly because Little Richard is one of the most charismatic singers you can think of. I really like this album but I would say it doesn't really stand up to albums even a decade into the future when it comes to the quality of the music. That being said I do give this album a ton of credit for being one of the albums that laid the groundwork for rock music. I would give it a solid 8/10 also as a side note "Rip It Up" is clearly the best song.

I have a very limited knowledge of any African music beyond Burna Boy, Tems and Fela so I had never heard of Baaba Maal until his album Lam Toro was generated for me a few weeks ago and I never got around to Lam Toro but I am now glad I didn't because I can now listen to Baaba's albums in order. With all that being said this album was really good. Despite not understanding the lyrics the other aspects of the songs were really good. The production and instrumentation were really enjoyable and I felt like this album had really good atmosphere. Similar to a lot of African music that I have listened to there is a lot of repeated lines as well as call and response and this at times can go a little to far and become somewhat annoying but I really only felt that on one or two tracks. Also as a side note the backup singers throughout the album sounded so good especially on "Djam Leelii". Either way this is a very solid 9/10 for me and I definitely can see myself coming back to this album.

This is one of those albums that I definitely see as good but I probably won't come back to very often. It is just a combination of not my preferred genre and the music being, to me, not mindblowing. It was still a really enjoyable listen but I probably will be unlikely to come back to it. Still like a 8.5/10

I don't really have much to say about this album besides it is a really good grunge album. If you like grunge you will like it. A solid 9/10

Tom Waits is an artist who is just greater than the sum of his parts. You look at him and her his voice and listen to the instrumentation and the lyrics and nothing stands out as astonishing but blended together they always make fascinating albums that are so diverse and interesting. I first listened to Bone Machine which is a weird album of his to start on cause it is sort of not like anything else he did imo. This album is sort of his classic sound and it is great. Tom Waits can always guarantee you a few things: interesting lyrics, interesting sounds, his unique voice and a creative aesthetic. This album hits on all those notes and if you like experimental rock I would definitely steer you towards this album. Personally though I don't think it's as good as some of his other work like Rain Dogs and I do think there are some songs that I would say sound fine but don't work as well on this album. Also "Underground" is in Robots so that automatically makes me like this album just a little bit more. 9-9.5/10 depending on how I feel that day.

Of the first three Black Sabbath albums I feel like this is they one that gets slept on the most. I feel like that may be because of how the tracks are put together with them being so long and some having multiple parts which can throw some people off. I still love this album, it has a sort of horror movie aesthetic to me in that there feels like there is a big focus on creating an atmosphere. I think it makes it feel fuller sonically. I love all four tracks with my favorite being "Wasp / Behind The Wall Of Sleep / Basically / N.I.B.". 8.5/10

This is one of those albums that I have always heard is a clear 10/10 but I just never listened to it. This album definitely lives up to its reputation. The storytelling on this album is fantastic and the vocals and instrumentation blend together to make a perfect album.

Really Good album. I honestly don't think I have ever listened to a Janis Joplin song so this was a really good introduction. I especially liked "Ball & Chain", "Summertime", "I Need a Man to Love" and "Piece of My Heart". "Ball & Chain" though is the clear best song on the record and Janis is absolutely outstanding on it. Throughout the record though her vocals are extremely charismatic which really give the album some personality. Overall though I would say the songs that I didn't mention above are kind of forgettable. Still though it is a great record 9/10

This was just a really enjoyable rock album. I had already heard "Beth", "Detroit Rock City", "God of Thunder" and "Shout It Out Loud" because of a few older cousins who liked Kiss and those tracks still to me stand out as the best tracks on the album. I would probably say "Beth" is the best to me. Other songs I enjoyed were "Sweet Pain", "Do You Love Me?" and "King of the Night Time World". A solid 9/10.

I had never really listened to much Eric Clapton before this album. I have always thought of him as one of the greatest guitarists of all time from the work of his I had heard like \"While My Guitar Gently Weeps\", \"Sunshine of Your Love\" and \"Layla\". This album cemented my opinion of him in that regard completely. The guitar work on this album was great and it blended incredibly well with his vocals. This was a great listen from start to finish and I would give it like a 9-9.5/10.

I don't have much to say about this album. I like old country but this was a little to on the nose for me. It felt like it was a modern artist making a parody of '50s country. Also I think that the title track was unbearable and was the worst song on the album. That being said I think a few of the more melodic tracks on the album were really good and I especially liked "If You Fall Out of Love With Me", "Cryin' Time" and "The Band Plays On". It is like a 7/10. Side Note: I don't know where to put it so I will put this here. I don't know how you pick country albums and don't include "Dreaming My Dreams" by Waylon and "Starfire" by Caitlyn Smith. I can understand if the author maybe did not know about "Starfire" because it was a little under the radar but "Dreaming My Dreams" is arguably the best country album of all time to me and "Starfire" is up there as well. I would 100 times out of 100 replace the Merle Haggard album on the list with a second Waylon album especially if it is "Dreaming My Dreams". Just my two cents on the country music selections.

This is an incredible album. It is extremely open and emotional album where Simz talks in depth about her view of many serious topics. Her rapping is obviously great but what really stands out with this album is how honest she is with her lyrics and content. It feels like she is having a late night conversation with a close friend. Not a bad song on the album 9/10.

A good Bossa Nova album but I just think it is not as good as "Elis & Tom". Still really good because Elis is a great singer but I feel like two or three of the songs felt kind of flat. Still because Elis is so enjoyable to listen to it is like a 8/10

As someone who is not that big of a psychedelia fan I was not the biggest fan of this album. There are great songs on this album which should be expected by a band as great as Pink Floyd but songs like "Interstellar Overdrive", "Bike", and especially "Pow R. Toc H." were a little too off-putting for me. It's not like they were bad songs they just had some element that made it unenjoyable for me. My least favorite song probably was "Pow R. Toc H." and even that had great guitar and drums throughout but they were ruined for me by the weird screeching and yelping at parts of the song. Also "Interstellar Overdrive" was just way too long of a song for how uninteresting it was at times. I once again enjoyed aspects of it like the drums and the guitar at parts but then they randomly decide to do something weird that to me does not pay off. Also was not the biggest fan of "The Scarecrow" because I am just not that big a fan of that sort of intentionally eccentric vocal style. Overall not my favorite album like a 7/10.

I always had heard of Maxwell but he listened to him as much as any of the other r&b artist of the era. This album absolutely blew my expectations out of the water. "...Til the Cops Come Knockin'", "Ascension", "Whenever Wherever Whatever" and "Reunion" were all really great with the star of thr show being the first song I mentioned. Truly a great album I definitely could see myself coming back to this album a couple times a year. Like a 9-9.5/10.

I love this album and it is a 10/10 but it's not perfect because acid giveth and acid taketh away. Acid allowed them to create this beautifully weird concoction of sound but it also removes their common sense when making a few of these songs and they just left in parts or chose to pick some sounds that a when you aren't high you hear and say I don't think we needed to include that. Still one of the greatest acid rock/folk/prog. soul albums of all time. What's funny to me is how "Can You Get To That" is now being used in advertisements when they were almost certainly as high as a person could be when making it. Either way great album as I said before 10/10 but not perfect.

Solid proto-punk album. Has a lot of good songs on the album but in all honesty there was nothing that would make me think this album is life-changing in any way. Still really good but sort of par for the course in the genre, it is just a really good example of that garage rock/proto-punk sound. If you like that sound you will like this. 9/10

Okay so I went into this album only ever hearing "Tom Sawyer" so you could say I knew nothing about Rush. I had only ever heard of them because my dad liked them and Trailer Park Boys. I was more than surprised when I this immaculate album. I was expecting that this would be one of those times where the group has one really good album, that being "Moving Pictures" and the rest are just good. This album completely subverted my expectations as it is like a 9.5/10. The opening track is so good. I used to hate long songs because I think most of the time there is not enough variation in the material to make a song interesting for a third of an hour. That however cannot be further from the truth in this situation. Great from start to end not a single bad part. So the first song being great and 20 minutes long surprised me but then I was even more surprised because the rest of the songs do not miss a beat. I don't really have any criticisms for the album. Love all the songs and I would consider it a must listen album. Honestly, and I have no clue if this is a hot take, I prefer it to "Dark Side of The Moon" when it comes to those classic 70's prog-rock albums. I think it just had less flaws than "Dark Side of The Moon" and was a little more enjoyable to listen to. Either way as I mentioned before strong 9.5/10.

This was a very compelling album because honestly I don't think any other orchestral or chamber pop album I have ever heard sounded like this one. The vocals on this album feel like they are from Broadway in that they are so crisp and enunciated for better or for worse. It was a weird experience. It was like listening to an opera but without the annoying operatic singing. I kind of liked it but I really have not clue what situation I could possibly play this and it felt like the right music to play. It's an enigma. I did like it though. The only song I was not a fan of was the first song and the second song was meh but after that they rattle of five straight extremely grandiose songs that were extremely interesting to listen to. Still thinking of when I can listen to this outside of time where I am listening to music by myself but overall 8.5/10

This is one of those albums that I don't necessarily come back to often besides a couple of tracks but when I do listen to it in full I am always taken aback by the incredible consistency of this album. Not a bad song on it and as much as the hits are great, the deep cuts are just as good and some are better. "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" is obviously the transcendent song on this album and it deserves all the credit it gets as it is an absolutely amazing song I listen to all the time. "Chain Of Fools" is a very strong gospel inspired song that opens this album perfectly with the perfect amount of energy. "People Get Ready" is a beautifully written track that unsurprisingly was originally written by Curtis Mayfield. That honestly is what stands out to me the most about this album is the insane amount of incredible artists that had their hands on this album. Obviously you start with Aretha one of the greatest vocalists of all time, Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations on backup vocals, Eric Clapton & Bobby Womack play guitar on tracks who each themselves are incredible artists with their own incredible solo work and then you have songs written by/for Carole King, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, the Young Rascals and Don Covay. It would literally be impossible to make an album that involves all these great artists and it not be good. All that being said I think my favorite tracks on the album are the aforementioned "People Get Ready", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Niki Hoeky", "Ain't No Way" and "Good to Me as I Am to You". A clear 10/10 album that is the perfect length to just throw on whenever you have a half hour of work or just need a short album to listen to.

So I am a big fan of the Native Tongues. Tribe is one of the first rap groups I really loved and I have listened to their albums countless times. De La Soul has been a newer find because their music was not on streaming services but as soon as their catalogue was added their "3 Feet High and Rising", "De La Soul Is Dead" and "Stakes Is High" went into my rotation. I love Monie Love's first album and Queen Latifah's first 3 as well as what I have heard from Black Sheep. And I say all that to say that this album really doesn't hold a candle to the other work from the collective. I feel like it sound so primitive but not necessarily in a good way like Grandmaster Flash, Rakim or Slick Rick. It sound like that stereotypical 80's rapping just elevated a bit. Don't get me wrong I still like the album but compared to those De La Soul albums or any Tribe album or "All Hail The Queen" and "Black Reign", I just think it doesn't hit the mark. I do respect that it was important for the movement and was the collective's breakthrough but I just feel as it was the first one not the best one. It is like George Mikan or Bob Cousy. Sure they were the first to do it but just a couple years later new people came in and elevated what they did to the nth degree. I would bet that if I listened to this before ever hearing Tribe, De La or Queen Latifah I would like it better but having listened to them extensively before Jungle Brothers this does not keep up. Still really good don't get me wrong just not as good as their compatriots albums of the next few years. 8/10

Solid album. Not Curtis Mayfields' best work and personally it is barely top 5 for him because Superfly, Roots, Curtis and New World Order are all better. Still though it is Curtis Mayfield so it is good. It does have some songs I really like "Billy Jack", "So In Love", "Love to the People" and "When Seasons Change". I think my biggest problem with this album is the lack of variation between his vocals in the songs. All the songs feature relatively similar intonation and vocal tone which sort of makes some of the songs feel like copies of each other. Like all other Curtis albums the instrumentation throughout is immaculate and to me it really carries this album especially during some of the more dull tracks. Because of the instrumentation it is still like a 7.5 but his vocal performance on this album is like a 5.5-6 due to the monotony of it.

I came into this album knowing nothing about it besides seeing that on the Wikipedia article it was hip hop and new jack swing and while I liked it I feel like it may not have been the best inclusion for what it is trying to represent. It had very catchy melodies and choruses and I really liked most of the songs but I do feel as if it got carried by these choruses because the verses even for the era were so elementary and poorly written. If you were picking albums to represent female rappers from the late 80's-early 90's I feel as if there would be about 8-9 albums I would pick over this. I am pretty sure there was no inclusion of a MC Lyte, Monie Love or Salt-N-Pepa album on the list and would have also included "Black Reign" by Queen Latifah but that is because I have a strong personal bias towards Queen Latifah. Personally I believe that all of these artist have albums that better represent the genre from that time. I think this album is sort of was included just to cover the female rapper and new jack swing requirements because this list has a surprising lack of both of these categories. There seems to me to be an over abundance of albums from a plethora of rock subgenres but a massive lack in albums from these two categories. You pick like 30 new wave albums and 80 post-punk albums but can't include more than 5 albums from female rappers and more than 1 new jack swing. I am not even opposed to the new wave and post-punk picks and I like a lot of the choices but I think there needs to be some sort of balance in the list. Personally I would have included at least one album from the 3 female rappers I included earlier and would have probably added a couple from new jack swing artists like New Edition, Jodeci and Guy. This came a long way from just me reviewing this Neneh Cherry album and I say all that I have said to say I am not even opposed to this albums inclusion cause it was still very good like a 7.5-8/10 but its inclusion feels analogous to a diversity hire. It is here just to cover all the bases not to show your appreciation of its original genre or what it represents as an early breakthrough for female rappers.

I have said before that psych rock is not my favorite genre, I still like it but I would pick a good amount of options before I would land on listening to psych rock. The start of this album kind of worried me because it sounded like the type of psych rock I am not really the biggest fan of. I know "Alone Again Or" is one of if not Love's biggest songs but in all honesty it was kind of forgettable compared to the other songs on the album, it is just the most poppy sounding song on the album. It is still a solid song but I probably would not go out of my way to listen to it again and probably would skip it if I cam back to this album because I don't think it really blends well with the rest of the album. One the second track started playing though I was immediately brought back into the album because it was a standout track on the album. The guitar work on this song and really throughout the tracks stood out as one of the best aspects of the album. "Andmoreagain" was a great change of pace and is one of my favorite tracks on the album. "Old Man" was also really good it just had a really slow first minute but it picks up in and has some incredible instrumentation in the second half. "The Daily Planet" did not really stand out. The second half of this album from "The Red Telephone" to "You Set the Scene" is immaculate. I particularly liked "Live and Let Live" and the aforementioned "You Set the Scene". Both songs had very appealing vocals that stood out on the album. I have have been suggested this album for at least five years and have known nothing about it besides the cover. Honestly for some reason the cover gave me prog./acid soul vibes and that is what I thought it was before looking it up when I was suggested it. Overall I was very impressed and I think this is probably my favorite psych rock record I have heard (which isn't saying much because I am not a huge fan of the psych rock I have heard). 9/10

I will be honest going into this album I had very mixed feelings because for one this is one of the most iconic albums of all time so I didn't want to dislike it and be that guy but on the other hand I was really not a fan of their first album which I had listened to. That being said this album lived up to its hype for the most part. I was a little worried because the first few songs on this album were good but not game breaking except for "Breathe". Then we get "Time" which is the start of the really good shit. Personally I could have gone without the ear piercing clock noises as I was listening to this full volume with headphones while cooking my dinner but after that the song is incredible. Beyond that the album is immaculate. My favorite song is probably "Us and Them" but really from "Money" to "Eclipse" you can't really go wrong. The thing that stands out on this album before everything else to me is the guitar work throughout. I don't know I have listened to an album that had such consistently great guitarwork. That being said I think this album really is held back from being a 10/10 by "On the Run". It was genuinely grating to hear and that coupled with the start of time was the worst 3-4 minutes I have heard on any album that is this highly regarded besides "Love To You" on Revolver. That being said I still really enjoy this album and think that for the most part it deserves all the credit it gets. 9.5/10

I honestly was very surprised with this album. First of all when seeing the album cover I assumer this album was some sort of alt-rock so when I played it and it was country I was very surprised and I would say it was a fairly pleasant surprise because I am always looking for good new country albums whereas I am always getting recommended alt-rock albums. This was a very enjoyable album with my favorite tracks being \"Lock, Stock and Teardrops\", \"Shadowland\", \"Black Coffee\" and \"Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them\" but in reality I liked pretty much all the songs on the album. One problem I have with some country music is sometimes country artists will fall back on the easiest, most derivative lyrics and topics without putting forth any new ideas. I think this may come from the fact that country singers lean more conservative and in turn are more rooted in tradition but in art tradition can lead to stagnation. This album while still being clearly country provided some small differences that I think made it stand out from the crowd. Also while the final song is not my favorite I do love the inclusion of some country legends and specifically one of my two or three favorites Loretta Lynn. Also in general k.d.'s vocals really stood out to me on this album as being very strong and really were the center of attention which is an aspect that I personally enjoy in my favorite country music. To me, the vocals in country music can sometimes take a back seat to things like lyrics or trying to create the country music feel but this album I think gives all these aspects their just due and it came out really good. Solid 8.5/10

Really good folk rock album. I am not surprise given their reputation and the fact that many older people I know who I have talked music with have suggested them. I don't have a ton to say about the album besides the fact that it was really good. I particularly liked the songs "49 Bye-Byes", "Helplessly Hoping", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Marrakesh Express". The whole album was good though. I usually am not a fan of slower/more folk leaning folk rock but I think that they did a great job with the more folky songs on this album. My one criticism would be that at times the album felt a little slow/dragged out but that was a minor issue. Overall 9/10 album.

Very solid alt-rock album with a couple of standout tracks like "In My Mind", "What Gets Heard", "Time With You", "Some Things" and "Understanding". The only songs I did not like on this album were the two drum solos not because they were bad but because I felt that they broke of the flow the album had. Overall though very solid album but I do wonder if I would have included it given my previous criticism of the list including too many alt-rock and new wave acts. That being said I have no clue how influential this album was or how important it is to the genre since it is not a genre I am super knowledgeable about. Either way it still was very enjoyable and was an 8-8.5/10. Also side note, I was looking at the list and realized that he included no Whitney Houston album. I know she did not have the strongest albums but to not include a single album from one of the greatest singers of all time and one who I think has an argument for the greatest vocalist of all time. You include 6 Elvis Costello albums and can't include one Whitney. I recognize the fact I don't love Elvis Costello but 6 albums is ridiculous.

I was very worried coming into this album cause when I first listened to Blur I listened to Leisure which is a very meh album (I think I gave it a 6/10). I was very surprised by this album because it was leaps and bounds better than Leisure. I feel like Leisure was just a lesser version of a bunch of other artist with a lot of boring choruses, weak vocals and annoying instrumentation. I think that Modern Life Is Rubbish completely changed that with really captivating instrumentation and really good vocals. I really like almost every song on Modern Life Is Rubbish besides "Sunday Sunday". Some of the highlights for me were really good like "Colin Zeal", "Resigned", "Coping", "Pressure on Julian" and "Blue Jeans". Overall I really liked the album solid 9/10.

I think in my previous review "There's No Place Like America Today" I said I love Curtis Mayfield and this album is one of the reasons why. I love this album. From the start of this album to the end it is an experience. "Little Child Runnin' Wild" is one of my favorite songs Mayfield has made and then you get the classics that are "Pusherman" and "Freddie's Dead". The whole album though is great and I think the best song to me besides "Little Child Runnin' Wild" is "No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song)". That song has that classic Mayfield groove but I think my favorite part besides Curtis' singing is that about 3 minutes in there are these super punchy keys that are played along side a tambourine and smooth sax and for some reason I have always loved this little instrumental bridge. Like all Curtis Mayfield albums the instrumentation is immaculate and that combined with the vocals which are some of his best ever as well as the incredibly thoughtful writing makes this a masterpiece. 9.5/10

This is another album that I was very worried about coming into listening to because I was recommended "More Songs About Buildings And Food" and disliked it. While this album was a clear step up in both songwriting and instrumentation it kept some of the core values that I disliked about More Songs. It still has those intentionally awkward sounding vocals I hate and some awkward instrumentation. The best way I can describe it is "More Songs About Buildings And Food" was sort of the Big Bang Theory of albums. They intentionally are doing awkward things because they think it is funny but when you look at it on the outside it is just sort of obnoxious. "Fear Of Music" is more akin to The Office. A much more grown up and sophisticated (at times) version of "More Songs About Buildings And Food" with more consistently entertaining songs and better sounding vocals for the most part. "Heaven", "I Zimbra", "Cities" and "Drugs" are great songs in general not just great new wave songs which is a much lower bar. "Heaven" in particular is sort of what I think a band like this could be but instead they choose style over substance. I am all for experimentation but I am not going to praise something just because it is experimental. For instance, "Paper" and "Drugs" are examples of experimentation that I think work really well and both are enjoyable and interesting to listen to whereas "Animals" and "Air" fail immensely in their experimentation. Songs like "Animals", "Mind" and "Air" are somewhat annoying songs that I would love to never have to hear again. Overall much improvement but the bad songs on this are pretty unlistenable and even in the good songs many of them keep the obnoxious vocals. 7.5/10

Coming into this album I really knew very little about Neil Young and I personally just due to the fact that he was not on Spotify, my preferred streaming service, I was sort of turned off and hesitated to listen. I was then gifted two of his albums on CD from an older guy who I am friends with. They were "This Note's For You" and this album. I have held on to them for about 10 months never listening and then I was given this album and I decided I really needed to stop putting Neil Young off. So coming into this I could have never expected that this album was this good. I came in assuming I would not love this album and I could not be more wrong. This album was fantastic. From the first track to the last. I loved every track on here and what stood out of me besides his distinct and interesting vocal style was how consistently good the instrumentation on this album was especially the guitar and drum work. Before going into albums I check their Wikipedia articles just to see the genre and if there are any studio musicians I know and when I saw folk rock alongside proto-grunge I had no clue what to expect. What I got was probably the best case scenario of what could have happened. I like grunge alot and hearing this was fascinating because you can hear specific ways that this inspired that genre as you listen again specifically with the guitar work. I think though I preferred the first side of the album. Neil's voice and style fit together with Folk Rock like peanut butter fits together with jelly. "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue", "Thrasher", "Pocahontas", "Ride My Llama" and "Powderfinger" were all immaculate tracks and the second side also was pretty perfect. The only track I did not love was "Sail Away" but even then it was still pretty good. The writing is something that stood out in these songs. Personally I am someone who judges music just on how enjoyable it is to listen to and I usually find lyrics as complementary to the music but this is an album in which they were a star. "Powderfinger" was the best written song and honestly was probably one of the best songs I have ever heard as was the first track on this album. They perfectly blend great storytelling, vocal performance, instrumentation and emotion to make truly lasting impressions when I heard them. I am surprised to say this but this album for me was a 10/10.

This was a really solid blues/folk rock album. Though for some reason like a lot of other great albums has a very meh opening song. "You Can All Join In" is a fine song but nothing mind-blowing. They then follow it up with two of my favorite songs on the album "Pearly Queen" and "Don't Be Sad". "Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring" is another solid track and then you get into the really good stuff. "Feelin' Alright", "(Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) 40.000 Headman", "Cryin' To Be Heard", "No Time To Live" and "Means To An End" are all great tracks. "Vagabond Virgin" is good too but not on the level of the other tracks I mentioned. I knew this album was going to be good just by looking at the members of the band and the other groups they were a part of. My only other criticism is at times this album can be a little obvious in the decisions it makes. Still it is really good but even some of the better tracks on here feel like they could have been made by plenty of folk/jazz/psych. rock bands from this era and some probably could have done it better. Still though it is good enough to be a 9/10

So I had heard of The Band because my brother had gotten into them and the backed up Bob Dylan but I don't think I heard anything beyond "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up On Cripple Creek". Unsurprisingly this album was amazing. From start to finish it was great. I think what separated The Band from a lot of the other rock groups I have heard from this era is just how soulfully they sang, that is not to say they are better than others, it is just a clear difference imo (I just read that they were heavily inspired by Motown and Stax which makes a ton of sense). "Tears Of Rage" starts the album out incredibly with insanely heavy vocals that really are the star of the show. I honestly was not the biggest fan of the next two tracks, they were not bad just not up to par with the rest of the album. "Caledonia Mission" has a very traditional rock and roll feel specifically with the keyboard and guitar work and I don't know if that was supposed to be a reference to the James Brown version of the song "Caldonia" given the classic rock feel, if so I thought that was a nice touch. "The Weight" is the big hit of the album and honestly is one of my favorite songs of all time. I love the crescendo in the song during the chorus and in general the guitar playing is some of my favorite of all time and I love the gospel elements (Side note Aretha's cover of this song is amazing and it has Duane Allman on slide guitar playing lights out). From there on out it is amazing song after amazing song without any misses imo. It is hard to pick my favorites of that last grouping because in all honesty they are all amazing but if I was forced to pick my favorites I would pick "This Wheel's On Fire", "We Can Talk" and "Long Black Veil". This album would be an easy 10/10 for me if it were not for those two tracks that were just meh but in spite of those two it is still a 9.5/10.

I was a little worried coming into this album because I had not heard of this album at all and I am pretty plugged in when it comes to R&B. I was somewhat worried that this album would worry about message over musical substance but I do think that this album balanced those two characteristics well. This album is pretty solid throughout and I like some of the more out there tracks like "Monster", "Only Synth in Church" and "Stop Dem". I think that overall this album doesn't have any songs that I dislike but it also doesn't necessarily blow my mind at any point outside of the aforementioned songs and "Why We Cry Why We Die", "Sorry Ain't Enough", "Wildfires", "Miracles", "Bow" and "Eternal Life". I like the gospel and really old soul inspired tracks because those are some of my favorite genres and the spoken word tracks were nice too. I kind of think this album feels more like a really good tribute to a lot of artists that came before it than its own thing but I don't necessarily know if it deserves to be put on a list like "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" (Then again it very well could make my top 1001 albums if I made a list cause that is a lot of albums). I do feel like this was added because of its message which is fine but personally I would rather pick albums that were more impactful on music as a whole. That is not to say that it doesn't have any place on the list, I just think that there are better albums and some that even focus on similar themes that are better than this one. Still a pretty good album 8/10.

This album like much of Randy Newman's work at the time can be very misleading if you do very surface level listening. The title track on first listen does not read as a critical review of the American Dream and how it was presented to slaves who were victim of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Many of his songs are like and I think it has to do with his voice and the fact that he always has amazing instrumentation so sometimes you can get caught up in the song and miss the message. In a similar fashion, "He Gives us All His Love", when taken at face value does not seem to be a criticism of religion when in reality, especially with "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)" in mind or the knowledge that Newman is an atheist, clearly is not just a testament of his faith. "Political Science", "Burn On" and "God's Song" are more on the nose with their criticisms but that does not make them any worse. They all are great tracks with compelling lyrics and instrumentation and I really like all of them. "Memo To My Son" is another song that took me more than one listen to understand but once you do it really fleshes out the song. "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" is a nice track that has some nostalgic vibes even though Newman is nowhere close to that old but it is still a nice track. "You Can Leave Your Hat On" is such a change of pace that it genuinely caught me off guard but it still was a great track and I really like the slide guitar on it which is done by Ry Cooder so no surprise it is great. I don't know where I heard "Lonely At The Top" but the song feels like I heard it before and it is great especially the sax. "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear" is another change of pace and is a fun lighter themed track that while not on the level of other tracks on this album on its own is still pretty good. I think my favorite tracks on this album are "Lonely At The Top", "Last Night I Had A Dream", "Sail Away", "Burn On" and "Political Science". I think my favorite of those is "Last Night I Had A Dream", the first and last verses are the best parts of any song on this album especially the guitar which again is Ry Cooder and the keyboard. I really like this album and to me it is a solid 9-9.5/10.

This is simply one of the best albums of all time. I had only heard it once or twice before coming back to it today and when I did listen I thought it was a 10/10. I honestly did not remember any tracks from the album because they are not in my rotation but coming back to it it solidified my opinion about this being a 10/10. I'm not the biggest indie guy but there is something about this album that just feels so full and appealing sonically. From the baselines to the percussion this albums instrumentation just fits together like a puzzle. Morrissey's vocals on top are really appealing and throughout the album are consistently compelling to listen to. I think my favorite tracks are "The Queen Is Dead", "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "I Know It's Over", "Never Had No One Ever", "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "Some Girls Art Bigger Than Others". Generally when I can't pick less than 7 favorite songs on an album it is pretty good. This album is a must listen and deserves all the praise it gets as one of the greatest albums of all time. Easy 10/10

I am a big Fiona Apple fan and this album started her career off strong. This is a great album from start to finish with some of my favorite tracks being "Criminal", "Sleep To Dream", "Carrion", "Shadowboxer" and "Sullen Girl". "Shadowboxer" in specific is one of my favorite songs and is in my constant rotation because I can never get enough of the piano and the crescendo of the song. Personally though if I had to pick a Fiona Apple album to put on the list (besides FTBC cause I know that is on this list too), I would definitely pick "When the Pawn...". I just think WTP is the more consistent album and reaches higher heights. I also think it took the experimentation on Tidal up a notch in a good way. Despite my preference to WTP I still love Tidal and it was my first introduction to Fiona. I personally think that she really made a lane for herself that she has built on time and time again and still continues to make incredible work. My main criticism for this album is that it does have weaker songwriting when compared to her other works but given this was her first album (and she wrote everything at 18 or younger), I don't hold it against her that much. Overall this is an album that I come back to once or twice a year and every time it hits me just how good this album is for a debut and a debut for someone so young as well. 9-9.5/10

I had never listened to a Leonard Cohen album fully before hearing this. I had obviously heard of him and heard some of his songs but never listened to a full album. This album is one of a handful that is bursting at the seams with raw emotion, which is understandable because Cohen was near-death while making this album. It was sort of in the same way soul music seeps emotion. Every song was like hearing someone open up to you about something personal and there was not a bad song on the album. I can understand someone not liking Leonard's voice especially on this album because it is very dirge-like but I don't think anyone can deny the raw emotion he put into singing this album. I personally think this album is great and immaculately succeeds at creating the feeling of someone close to death. It is pretty heavy as albums go so this won't be in my regular rotation but it is sort of like "Grave of The Fireflies". One of the most emotional, touching movies you will ever see but you can't just put it on whenever and watching it over and over would only cheapen the experience. That's how I feel about "You Want It Darker". That being said just because an album creates a great atmosphere does not mean that it automatically makes it a 10/10. This does have some flaws like the fact that the vocals at times are a little rough and in general the song structure is somewhat simplistic throughout the album. I would say there is a song or two on here that I would say don't add a ton to the overall experience and with that in mind, I would give this album a strong 8.5-9/10. R.I.P Leonard Cohen

Before listening to this album I read some of the backstory about Willie's wanting to sing a full album of pop standards and in all honesty I was skeptical of it just like his label executives. I had just listened to Red Headed Stranger which was incredible and I thought that a sudden shift in genre so soon after an album like that may not work and I was very wrong. This album from top to bottom was incredible. My favorite tracks were "Stardust", "Moonlight In Vermont", "All of Me" and "September Song" but all the songs on this album are really good. Despite me liking "Georgia On My Mind" it doesn't really hold a candle to Ray Charles' version but that is a really high bar cause Ray's version is one of my favorite songs of all time. I really respect this album because so often country music lacks innovation and that is likely because of the more conservative, traditionalist mindset of a lot of country artists. That is not to say an album needs to be innovative to be good but just to say it takes a lot of spine to go completely against the grain in a genre that does not really like people going against the grain. I'm also not one to hoist up an album if the artist experiments but it doesn't work but when an artist innovates and it works it creates some of the greatest albums of all time (e.g. Stevie Wonder, Outkast and Marvin Gaye). This is one of those times where innovation succeeds and it really allows Willie to fully show off his range. 9.5/10

This is the album that to me perfectly sums up what The Stooges were all about and is their peak as a group. It is a near perfect proto-punk record with that ironically raw and experimental sound that was really key to the sound. The vocals by Iggy are pretty good throughout and are improved from their first album as are the basslines and drums. I also like the saxophone and think it was a really unexpected place for the Stooges to go and I think it worked out pretty good. Overall I really liked this album and think it deserves the credit it gets but I do think it suffers from some of the same flaws that their debut suffered from. At times tracks can be a little stale or drawn out and at other times it feels like nothing is happening on a track which can make it feel a little stagnant. That being said it happens a lot less on this album and it is made up for by better written and better sounding songs throughout imo. Solid 9-9.5/10

Sly & The Family Stone is one of those bands that before I got into listening to music more in depth, I had heard some singles and knew about but did not know they were super critically acclaimed. Generally bands like that are as good as the critics say (with a few exceptions like Talking Heads imo) and Sly & The Family Stone is no exception. I previously had listened to "There's A Riot Going On" and that surpassed all my expectations and is in my opinion a 10/10. This album was the precursor to that one and it clearly laid some of the groundwork that made Riot so good. It is similarly consistent and has great groove in every song. This album features some of the best instrumentation I have ever heard from a soul/funk album. The basslines are really good and so is the percussion. I especially like when the songs feature the trumpet and sax because when used they are typically highlights of the track. The vocals throughout the album are very earwormy. I liked every song on the album. I am not really one for long instrumental songs but even "Sex Machine" was great. "Everyday People" is obviously the most popular track from the album and it is really good. "I Want to Take You Higher" is one of the best song I have heard from them as was "Somebody's Watching You" and "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey". The fusion of funk/soul and social commentary is strong throughout the album and I think they alongside Marvin Gaye are some of the best artists at incorporating more important social topics in their music. Overall though not much to say about this album besides it is really good. If I would change one thing it would be shortening "Sex Machine" but besides that it is pretty good. 9-9.5/10

As someone who is not the biggest fan of rap rock, this album is meh. I don't particularly like rap rock because I think it often has some of the weakest, most unbearable rapping I have ever heard. I always feel like when rock rap bands rap, it always sounds like it would just be better if they sang. This album does feature some of that but it does have a lot of really good aspects. The first is the rapping is not as basic as others and they don't rap nearly as much as other groups. I really liked most of the guitar playing on this album and appreciated some of the minor details like ending "Epic" with a soft piano interlude. The first three tracks were actually pretty good, in spite of the poor rapping on "Epic". I liked "Surprise! You're Dead!" but I am not the biggest fan of screaming in my music and while it was just a minor part it did make the song worse for me. Still the solid instrumentation throughout that track made it a worthwhile song to listen to. "Zombie Eaters" stars out with some really nice instrumentation and vocals that I think are a highlight on the album. They guitar and keyboard work seamlessly together and create one of the best soundscapes on the album. The second half of the track is still good and I like the progression on the track which keeps it one of the most interesting songs on the album from start to end. The only downside is some of the vocals are kinda meh specifically the line "I'm just a little baby", every time the lead vocalist said it it kind of made me think "Why did you sing it that way?". I just felt like there was probably a better way you could have done that line to me. The next track is "The Real Thing" and it is pretty good but like a lot of other music my one issue is it did not have no be that long and that is all that I could think once I got around the six minute mark of the track. This track also features some vocals around the three minute mark that I expect some may call rap rock but I personally don't think it really fits the bill. To me it is closer to spoken word then rap and I think it honestly sounds a lot better to me than what I think of when I think of rap rock like Papa Roach, P.O.D. or Limp Bizkit. That is not to say I dislike those bands it is just I don't like their rapping in general. I think the album starts to fall off after that besides "Woodpecker From Mars" and "Edge of the World". Overall this is one of the best albums I have heard from the genre it is just not a genre I am super fond of. I think the fact that rap was included less then in other albums from the genre made it a little bit better for me. 8-8.5/10

This is one of the essential Punk albums and I am a big fan. It hits all the classic punk elements while also providing its own take on certain things like their less on the nose lyrics and the more minimalist sound they had compared to contemporaries. This is one of those albums that really needs to be listened to as an album. It is much greater than the sum of its parts. Listening to a playlist that has a few of the songs really takes away from the experience and would probably not make you feel as strongly about the album as I and most other fans do. I think this is a near perfect album and is very deserving of a 10/10. From track 1 to 21 the band creates incredible atmosphere and movement in each track that really makes the album fill up a room or your headphones. It feels very fleshed out sonically despite the minimalism when it comes to instrumentation. I feel like this album is sort of like a plateau in that no one song feels much better or worse than the rest. The songs work like a well oiled machine to make this album a great experience to listen to. The only thing that stood out to me was at the end it felt like they had some tracks that felt like they were intended to be the hits, those being "Mannequin" and "Fragile". That being said it doesn't really take away from the experience of the album because they aren't selling out their sound to make the hit. Each of those tracks still feel like a song from "Pink Flag" more then their own thing so it is still a smooth ride. As said before this album is a pretty clear 10/10, is one of the most essential punk albums and imo is a must listen album for anyone not just punk fans.

Before listening to this album today I had only listened to this album one time and that must have been a couple years ago now. I completely forgot how immaculate this album is. It is one of the most perfect albums ever created. From start to finish there is not one bad track. Not only does it not have any bad tracks it has some of the most important tracks in rap history like "Juicy", "Who Shot Ya?" and "Big Poppa". It also has some tracks that are some of the most well written of all time like "Suicidal Thoughts" and "Things Done Changed". I think though the best part of this album is even the tracks in between the big hits are sometimes just as good as the hits like "Me And My Bitch", "Everyday Struggle", "The What" and "One More Chance". I think that this album is undeniable one of the top 3 rap albums of all time (for me it is 2) and is probably in my top 10-20 albums of all time but I am heavily biased toward rap music. It features one of my favorite songs of all time "Suicidal Thoughts" and it is one of the albums that got me into rap/hip hop (though I never listened to the album just the songs on it). If I did have to make one criticism it is I personally hate sex sounds in music and skits and this album features it a couple times. Personally it doesn't take away from the experience that much I just would prefer it not being there. I think this is an easy 10/10 and if you have not listened to it stop what you are doing immediately and pick it up cause honestly the 80 minutes just fly by.

I am a massive fan of Steely Dan (they are my little brothers favorite band OAT) and have listened to them extensively. In my humble opinion this is one of their more underrated albums. It doesn't have really any hits; the biggest song is "My Old School" and personally I would not consider it one of their hits. That being said despite not having any hits this is an extremely consistent album with a ton of good songs. "Your Gold Teeth" is one of me and my little brothers favorite tracks they have ever made and so is "Pearl Of The Quarter". "Bodhisattva" is a good opener and really showed that they were a band that were comfortable with experimenting and not making the same sounding music that made them popular on their first album. "Razor Boy" in all honestly is a track that I never really come back to but when I do listen to this album it is always a nice listen. "The Boston Rag" is another one of their more underrated tracks and I love the guitar riff that comes after the verses and it has a super earwormy chorus to me. That is one of my favorite pieces of instrumentation on this album. Overall that is a probably the highlight of this album. I think they improved the instrumentation from "Can't Buy A Thrill" by a lot and this is the first album that I would say the created the general formula for their music. "Show Biz Kids" is another track I don't come back to a ton but it is a good track. It personally just doesn't feel particularly special. I do think it has some of the more memorable writing on the album but I think it just drags on a minute or two long. "My Old School" is the biggest song on the album and it is a song that I am kinda surprised was not a hit on release because it checks a lot of the boxes you would typically hear in a Steely Dan hit. It has great groove, memorable chorus, nice supporting vocals, great guitar and sax but was not a hit on release. It is one of their best songs. "Pearl Of The Quarter" as mentioned before is one of my favorite songs on the album. That chorus is so good and it has some of the most sweet writing on the album. It feels like watching a cheesy rom-com. The best part of the song though is obviously the "Singing voulez, voulez, voulez-vous" refrain. It is one of those lines that even if you don't know the song you have to sing when you hear it. The last song is "King Of The World" which is another track I don't come back to a ton but it is really good. I just am not a huge fan of how the track starts. There are though some really quality parts of this song like the little synth bridge and singing in the second half of the verses. Overall I really like this album a lot. I think it falls victim to the fact that the band has so many great critically acclaimed albums and albums with bigger hits that this sort of falls to the wayside. Personally it is not better than Aja, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied or Two Against Nature but it is right there with Can't Buy A Thrill and Gaucho. Solid 8.5-9/10

I am someone who appreciates experimentation in music but will not herald it unless the experimentation creates something that is satisfying to listen to. In all honesty, I was a little worried coming into the album due to the cover and the fact that I had never heard a Captain Beefheart song before listening to this album. This can be described as nothing short of an experience. If you go into this album knowing nothing about Captain Beefheart, I genuinely believe there is no possible way you could expect all the weird pockets this album goes into and I think that it consistently works. It reminds me a lot of Tom Waits (I looked into it and Tom was heavily inspired by Captain Beefheart in his 80's work). There are obviously some misses which can be expected in such an experimental work but they are surrounded by some incredible songs so it evens out. I think the standout characteristic of this album, besides the general weirdness, is the instrumentation. The guitars and drums throughout the album are amazing and are a massive highlight of the album. Despite that being a highlight I also like some of the acapella tracks ("The Dust Blows Forward 'N the Dust Blows Back" and "Orange Claw Hammer"). I think on of my favorite aspects on the album was the different vocal styles that are tried throughout the album from the more wailing type of vocals to the raspier vocals at times that remind me of New Orleans singers like Dr. John and then you have tracks that are essentially spoken word. Also the level of complexity to some of the arrangements on the songs is amazing. You could listen to some of these songs dozens of times and still not understand every moving part. This is not an album that I could imagine picking a couple songs and putting them on a playlist. It is like a full-length feature film more than any album I have listened to. This sort of reminds me at times of experimental jazz more than it does experimental rock. I do have to qualms towards this album though is the treatment of band members while it was being made because that is truly some horrible stuff and at times the level of syncopation is a little to much for me and I find it occasionally makes my head hurt. Despite this, overall this is the best experimental rock/avant-garde album I have heard. 9.5-10/10

This is a prototypical rock album of its era with two outstanding characteristics. The first is the quality and depth of lyricism of each track. Each song has clear theming or has a clear message and I would say that they are relatively well expanded on. One example of this is "A Design For Life" which is about the injustices faced by blue collar workers and the disparity in power between workers and employers. They also were able to make very emotionally moving tracks alongside these more message focused song. One track that I would say exemplifies this was "Further Away" which is a beautifully written track with two potential meetings: the first being a reflection on the relationships built between the band members throughout their time together which was almost certainly inspired by the pain of losing their rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards who disappeared a little over a year before the albums release and the second meaning being a very sweet love song about how hard being away from a partner makes your life. I think pretty much every song features similarly quality writing. The second aspect that stood out about this album was the guitarwork. On most of the songs on the album the guitar was the outstanding aspect that drew me into the songs. I don't think they were particularly groundbreaking but there was something about how the riffs were played that really made them stand out. The percussions and extra instrumentation was also good don't get me wrong but there was something about the guitar that really pulled me in. That being said there is not really a bad song on this album but I would say this album does at times feel kinda similar to other rock bands of the era outside of those two characteristics and I could see many bands having done the parts of this that I did not identify as above average (this criticism is more for the first half of the album the latter half is more distinguishable). Despite this it was a really good album from start to finish. My favorite tracks were "Further Away", "No Surface All Feeling", "Kevin Carter", "Enola/Alone", "Everything Must Go" and "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky". 9/10

This along with some other albums have made me realize I don't dislike new wave as a genre; I just dislike the uncomfortable levels of "quirkiness" of bands like Talking Heads and The B-52s for me. I had heard the big hits of this album because they are some of my mom's favorite songs as someone who grew up in the 80's. That being said it was a good surprise to see that many of the deep cuts on this album were able to stand up to the singles. That being said the two massive singles on this album are some of my favorite of the 80's and definitely stand up to the test of time. I like all the songs on here and what really stands out throughout the albums is the very full sounding instrumentation. On "Shout" for instance near the end of the songs you have that massively full soundscape with the drum and guitar riffs, the bass line, the backing vocals and the layered synths all fill your headphones at the same time and it creates a very attractive musical experience. In that way it kinda reminded me of My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze as a whole which I really like. The other great aspect of the instrumentation on this album is their understand of movement when it comes to instrumentation because throughout the album rarely does the instrumentation on a song feel stagnant which can be a huge issue for me. Not only is it not stagnant it often ramps up in big crescendos with more instruments being added in and overall it create a great soundscape and really allows the longer songs to not feel all that long. I think my favorite tracks are "Shout", "Head Over Heels", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and "Broken" and while those are just the singles for the most part this is an album where the general public was right in choosing the hits. The three hits of this album are absolute bangers and should be in your constant rotation if they are not. I like the other songs as well and think that this was truly a surprisingly good album in a genre that in the past I have shown not that much affection for. Solid 9/10.

This is one of those albums that on the surface is incredible but if you look into the story behind the album it becomes legendary. Keith played this amazing two piece performance on a baby grand piano due to a mistake made by the promoter and if you don't know the difference a baby grand piano are literally made for houses and have a much inferior sound to Keith's preferred concert grand piano and is like half the size. That is an astonishing accomplishment but it is dwarfed by the fact that this entire album all 67 minutes was completely improvised while having a completely uncomfortable setup. Baby pianos have a lot weaker sound than concert grand pianos but that is especially the case when it comes to the lower register of the piano and Jarett still manages with techniques like ostinatos to strengthen the sound of the bass notes. In all honesty I cannot do a track by track review like I would usually do because there was no intent behind these songs. This album is more an experience of a musician who is truly a savant and has a complete mastery of his instrument more than just about anyone else. It is like hearing Charlie Parker or Sonny Rollins on sax or listening to Hendrix or Tosin Abasi on guitar. It is truly one of the most astonishing musical performances I have ever heard and is among the 2-3 best live albums I have ever heard. He just whips out these long, improvised motifs that are just as good as you will hear in any of the most well reviewed jazz albums of all time. I would suggest anyone who likes this album just look up any video of him improvising. More than any other musician I have seen the music seems to flow out of him in an absurdly natural way. It is one of the most astonishing things I have seen. One of my favorite aspects of this album is how he made the two songs so contrasting with the first being a long, light piece that makes me imagine it being played in a tour of heaven. It is so beautifully played and has these repeating parts that are really addictive to hear. Whereas the second piece is a much punchier track that is just incredibly movement inducing. I really can't think of a simile for what I could imagine this track being used for and I tried for like 15 minutes. It is a completely unique experience and it is incredibly well done with those large periods of intensity juxtaposed with slowed, more emotional parts. I may like other jazz pianists music more like Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk or Bill Evans but when we talk in terms of talent and skill I think that Jarrett is comfortably in the top 2-3 conversation. He plays like it is nothing more than breathing to him and it almost comes of as spiritual in the way he plays. In conclusion, this is easily one of the best jazz albums of all time and is one of the best live albums of all time. It sort of makes sense I like this cause I am a big fan of free jazz but nevertheless listen to this album it is great.

I came into this album hesitantly because I am a huge rap fan and I enjoy my fair share of metal. Because of that I sorta hate rap metal because it is often just a worse version of the two genres. The hope that I did have was the fact that I was always told in real life and on the internet that Rage was always one of the few good "rap metal" bands alongside SOAD and Faith No More and I liked some SOAD singles and the Faith No More album I was recommended from this list. The only Rage song I had only ever heard "Bulls On Parade" (and maybe "Killing In The Name") and I liked that but I never looked into their catalogue. This album definitely surpassed my low bar of expectations because it is one of the best metal albums I have ever heard. I was surprised by how good the instrumentation was throughout this album the guitarwork and drumming surprisingly was great and can definitely stand up to most other great metal albums. I also am a little confused because people call Rage rap metal but I don't really see it. When I listen to Faith No More or Linkin' Park they actually rap and have rap verses which imo is often the worst part of some of their songs. Rage is similar to SOAD in that way. I see some of the rap inspirations but I would not call either band rap metal imo because they don't actually rap; to me it is closer to spoken word than rap. This is not to disparage the bands by any means as I think they are both great; I just find it as a complete mischaracterization of their music and in reality I think it is more fitting to just label them as alternative metal bands that are inspired by rap. I actually think that it makes their music better because as it turns out it is not easy to be a good rapper and 99.9% (if not more) of rap metal bands don't have good rappers and it ruins their otherwise solid songs. Nevertheless this album despite my criticism of the misclassification is really great. I think it is one of the best metal albums I have heard from a writing standpoint but the one standout quality of this album is the guitar more than anything. Both lead and bass were absolutely stealing the show in some of these songs. I had heard from some friends who play guitar that Tom Morello is one of the greats but I did not expect this level of innovation and general creativity. His lead was the part on every song that I kept being sucked into. Definitely one of the best guitar performances album-wise I have ever heard. In all honesty I think the weakest part of the album was probably Zack's vocals (that is relatively because he still is great just the others are better at their part imo). I really respect his writing and lyricism but I don't think he has particularly outstanding vocal performances throughout the album. He does provide great loud, punchy vocals that marry well with the rest of the track but I found his vocals sort of disappeared into the instrumentation at times. The bass and drums are both played to some of the highest levels I have heard in metal. Tim and Brad really are the backbone of a lot of these tracks while Tom and Zack provide the ear candy. I do however have two criticism, for this album, besides me thinking that Zack was good not great. First, some of these tracks do drag on a little bit to long like "Township Rebellion" and "Freedom". Secondly, they do suffer slightly from the fact that some of the weaker tracks on the album do sound a little bit repetitive in their sound. This is not really that big an issue but big enough that it can be pointed out. Also the aforementioned, "Township Rebellion", has by far the most obnoxious chorus on the album. I like it but it is repeated way to many times, especially at the end of the song. Also I am still not a fan of screaming in my music and there was a surprising lack of screaming on this album. I was expecting a lot more because I had heard they screamed a lot in their music but it was either not super apparent and it fit into the track well or there was not a ton of screaming. All this being said this is an absolute killer album and it is definitely a classic. It also has some of the best songs of the 90's with "Killing In The Name", "Bombtrack" and "Know Your Enemy". Not a skip on here and personally I think to really get a full appreciation of this album you probably need to listen to it 2-3 times so that you can focus on the lyrics, drums and guitars separately. Strong 9-9.5/10.

It is a Frank Sinatra album. Exactly what you expect from him except he sings mostly swing songs on this album. Obviously pretty good with great vocals but not particularly interesting to talk about. He has some of my favorite of his songs on this one like "You Make Me Feel So Young", "It Happened In Monterey", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Love Is Here To Stay" but any album that has this little variation in sound throughout it just becomes a slog once you get to around the 30 minute mark. That may largely be due to the era that this album came from because a lot of basic pop albums from the '50s and '60s did not stray far from the basic formula of the album. That being said still a good album but not one that I would come back to as a whole body of work. 7-7.5/10.

I have really mixed feelings about this album. On one side I really enjoyed a lot of the tracks and thought that the album had mostly good ideas. My issue with this album is there were multiple songs that had moments that I personally felt like were boring. For instance, the start of "Forgotten Works" was so boring I almost took a break on this album but finally after like a minute or 2 the track picked up and ended up being solid. That happened for a couple of other tracks. I think the boring parts in general were the parts that were not dance-punk or rave-y. I liked tracks like "Golden Skans", "Totem On The Timeline" and "Magick" because they focused heavily on those two genres and did them really well. I think overall the second half of this album was a little weaker than the first half but it was not a massive fall off (the first half was like a 9 and the second was a 7.5-8). That pretty much sums up my issues with the album. Now onto the positives, some of the tracks on this album feature absolutely addicting grooves like the aforementioned "Golden Skans" and "Magick". The dance-punk tracks were punchy and featured really ear-wormy instrumentation. I generally don't think the singing was anything super outstanding when compared to others in their genre and the instrumentation in spite of being somewhat derivative, both were performed well enough that it made this album an enjoyable listen and did not take away from the album that much. Personally not my favorite album in the genre but nowhere near bad. This is definitely the type of album that you can just throw one whenever and there are a few tracks that have entered my rotation. 8-8.5/10.

Coming into this I knew nothing about Garbage, I had just seen this album cover before and I had been suggested it with no context on how it sounded. When I looked it up on Wikipedia before first hearing it I saw the genres listed as Alt. Rock, Dance-Rock and Power Pop which made me think this would be a typical run of the mill mid-90's alt. rock album. I then saw Butch Vig was a member who I knew from liner notes as the producer of Nevermind which gave me a lot of hope for this album because being around great musicians often creates great musicians. That feeling would end up being more true than my worry of it being run of the mill. This album is full start to end of absolute jams with incredibly ear-catching influences. *Note* I am going to say that a song had an outstanding chorus a lot because this album is full of really appealing and memorable choruses. "Supervixen" starts the album out with a nice track that features really great instrumentation. Some tracks on this album like "Supervixen" has a sort of wall of sound feel which I love if done correctly and in that way kind of reminds me of shoegaze. The next track is my personal favorite on the album, "Queer", which I love because it features an absolutely killer hook that will definitely stay stuck in my mind for the next few months. Alongside this hook it features really interesting trip hop, alt. rock production with a really cool bassline alongside some really interesting electronic instruments. It even features a switch up from electronic to traditional instruments that really makes this track an absolute joy to listen to. "Only Happy When It Rains" feels like a bit of a change of pace of sorts as it starts with much more toned down instrumentation with just one distorted guitar but then it crescendos to another full soundscape like the first two tracks. One aspect of the track that really stands out to me is it features what sounds like a vocal sample that is looped (or maybe the lead just performed it but either way) after the really catchy and is my favorite part of the track alongside some really cool electronic wobbling sounds that come in on the second verse. It also features a really solid chorus. "As Heaven Is Wide" is the actual change up of pace on this album. It features what sounds like a version of (or at least something reminiscent of) the Amen break which immediately makes me think of drum and bass which is then followed with a really low distorted guitar and some synths which does not sound like it should work but it all comes together to create a really cool blend of sounds. The choice to use a more soft, toned-down vocal style I think blended well on the track. "Not My Idea" is another track with good soundscape and a good chorus. I really like the distortion on the guitars on this track the only issue is the chorus can get a little annoying on relistens. "A Stroke Of Luck" is another song that leans in a more soft tone which I think is a nice switch up after the relatively brash chorus of the previous track. It features on of my favorite choruses on the album and I like the more subdued instrumentation letting the vocals shine on this one. It is really just the drums and a guitar or two alongside the chorus. "Vow" was pretty solid but it did feel like a somewhat watered down version of a couple other songs with a few outstanding characteristic which was some really cool guitar riffs that were very appealing to hear, some really cool layering of sounds at around the two minute mark and some really cool variations in dynamics throughout. "Stupid Girl" was the big hit of the album but being a 2000's baby I had never heard it before. It makes a lot of sense why it was the big hit because it has one of the most ear-wormy choruses on the album while also featuring some of the most widely appealing riffs on the album which is in no way a bad thing. It is a really good song and it still features some interesting experimentation like the feature of some interestingly crackling noises and the addition of keyboards to the wall of sound created which they didn't do much on other tracks. "Dog New Tricks" takes a more industrial rock path which is a nice change up from the past few lighter songs. I think they incorporated the industrial rock ok but not as good as the trip hop, electronica or even as good as on other parts of this album. It is still good but I think it is one of the weaker songs on the album and I think it only is saved because I like the chorus and some of the little instrumental choices on the track. "My Lover's Box" is a track that features a big divide between verse and chorus which adds some intrigue. The verse feature much more stripped back and spacier instrumentation and the chorus features the aforementioned wall of sounds style. It is a pretty cool track and it features some of the most memorable vocal melodies and choruses on the album. The next track, "Fix Me Now", is what I can only describe as a typical deep cut. It is not really as flashy or out there as the hits but does follow in their footsteps and it features some interestingly layered vocals that to me sound like they are imperfectly layered but that might just be me overthinking things. Either way I liked it but not as much as other tracks on the album. This leads to the final track "Milk" which again focuses on trip-hop influences and it leads to a really cool spacey track that is a really nice conclusion to the album especially because they allow for the track to stay spacy throughout and not do a switch up to the wall of sound style they used in previous tracks. I like the choice and I think that the vocals and think the layers of keyboard while create a sort of juxtaposition to the layering of guitars and drums on previous tracks. Overall this was a really good album with some of the most memorable and ear catching choruses on any '90s alt-rock album I have heard. I love the wall of sound technique (MBV and Velvet Underground are some of my favorite bands) and I think it was applied beautifully in this album. I would say that I only have two issues with the album, that being some of the songs use too similar of sonic pallets to the point that it can be hard to distinguish them from one another. I also think that later in the album some of the choruses get a little weaker as they were incredible from track 1 to 8 for the most part. I really want to give this a 10/10 because I genuinely think "Queer", "Only Happy When It Rains", "As Heaven Is Wide" and "Milk" are some of the best songs I have heard and will be in my constant rotation but I do however think these two negatives weigh it down a little too much to get a 10 but it still gets a very strong 9.5/10.

So I had never heard of Big Beat before listening to this album despite hearing of many of the big artists in the genre like Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. I had heard of Fatboy Slim only because of the "Weapon Of Choice" music video in probably 2016 and never looked into the artist because I was not into electronic music at that point and I was pretty young. I just assumed it was a one hit wonder of a group that managed to shell out a lot of money to get a famous actor in their music video. It was not until I got into music that I learned about electronic music and the vastness of the different subgenres. Like I had never heard a Daft Punk album or even heard of Aphex Twin before getting into music. All that to say I had really no clue what was in store for me for this album besides it was some sort of electronic album in a genre called Big Beat. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Big Beat essentially is a type of electronic music that is heavy on its use of breakbeats, uses a lot of samples and distorted sounds, and is very energetic and playful. This made it such a fun, easy listen and is definitely one of those albums that I could see myself throwing on whenever. From start to finish I liked every song. It was so playful which was a nice change up as the last few electronic albums I had heard like "Music Has The Right To Children" and "Post" have been sort of depressing. I particularly like the progressions on songs like "Right Here Right Now", "Kalifornia" and "Soul Surfing". I don't have much to say about this album besides it was fun because I don't really know how to talk about electronic music yet. I can say I really enjoyed the breakbeats on the album and it really lived up to the genre it hails from, I liked alot of the samples like the ones on "Fucking in Heaven", "Gangster Trippin" and "Acid 8000". Overall I really liked this album but I do find that some of the songs go on a little too long and some can get a little annoying at times. I think my favorite songs on the album are "Right Here Right Now", "Praise You", "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Soul Surfing". 8.5-9/10

Before listening to this album my only exposure to Bill Evans before this was his work on Kind of Blue and I think he performed incredibly on that album. So coming into this I was pretty confident it would be great and it was. The piano understandably was the star of the show as Evans is the pianist but LaFaro and Motian aren't slouches themselves. Specifically Motian on "Gloria's Step" played great and was really stand out as well as LaFaro on . This album was at both times smooth while also not falling into the trap of being so smooth that it feels like being fed baby food like a Kenny G album. It is still takes risks and they play enticing songs that are well composed. I really like the first track, "Gloria's Step", because it allowed all three of them to be the main center of attention at different times in the piece and none of them miss a beat as their all great. I like that the second track was taken in a much slower pace and it provides great contrast to the first which speeds up near the end. Throughout the album one thing that is a constant is how well practiced the trio seems. Their instruments meld together just as well as in any other albums I have heard. "My Man's Gone Now" is played incredibly as well and is a much more emotional track than the first. One thing that caught me off guard in this album is the crowd noise. It was so quiet compared to any other live album I have heard that when I heard a voice say something I literally turned around thinking one of my roommates was trying to talk to me. Unsurprisingly "Solar" is an amazing track. When you have a song composed by Miles Davis and Chuck Wayne it is sort of hard to be bad. Here I think that LaFaro absolutely steals the show with his bass. This is largely due to the fact that it was just him and Motian playing but LaFaro is allowed the spotlight and capitalizes on the opportunity. Also Motian at the end ramps up his drumming and it is great. "Alice in Wonderland" is obviously the theme for the Disney movie. I had heard it before in the movie but never in as focused a manor as it is performed on this album. I think that this song is another example of what this album excels at which is keeping the listener captivated by playing really well arranged songs while also not being too obvious. This is a really well composed tracks with movements that are completely evoke completely different emotions. It starts out in a very dreamy, floaty sound that progress to a punchy, loud, hectic movement that is such a clear allegory for the story that gives this song its name. It then slowly comes back down to softer tones at the end which makes this song feel very rounded and cyclical. I think it is probably the best song on the album imo. "All of You" is a much softer, more romantic track that to me evokes images of old romance movies. It feels like it is the score of a movie about a young couple falling in love over a summer with the section with no piano being the tumultuous breakup that is resolved at the end, (turns out it was written for a romantic musical so I am kinda close). The shortest track on the album is the final song "Jade Visions". This one feels like an more smoky, mature version of the previous song. It feels like a song from the soundtrack to a romance movie closer to that of Casablanca. It is a really good send off for this album and I think is probably the most expressive of the tracks on this album. One other note for pretty much all the songs on this album is the way that Motian's cymbal sounds is absolutely enchanting. I don't know if I have heard a cymbal used this effectively on a jazz album. All in all this is one of the best jazz albums I have ever heard and is probably the best live album I have heard outside of Live at the Apollo and Live At the Harlem Square Club though I have not heard that many of them due to my usual aversion to live albums (like I don't think I have heard Live at Folsom Prison which alongside a bunch of others would probably be just as good if not better). A strong 9.5-10/10.

So I first listened to this album while on a road trip with my family. This was a common occurrence for me so I was used to it but this was the first summer I had decided to try to expand my music taste. I had heard of Björk before but never listened to her music so I decided to start with where it all started and nothing could have prepared me for what I heard. Björk has one of those voices that if you have not gotten used to it you probably won't like it the first time you hear it but on repeat listens it grows on you until they become one of your favorites. I love this album for a few reasons: the diversity in the inspiration, sound and genre of the songs, the quality of Björk's singing throughout and how different is sounds from a lot of the music coming out at the time. This is an album that came out in '93 and its production sounds at least a decade ahead of its time. The album starts out with "Human Behaviour" which is a good song and was one of the biggest on the album but to me it is just an appetizer for what comes after it. I do like the beat on it and the more I listen to it the more I like the vocals but I just think it falls a little short of the other tracks. I do think it has probably the most interesting writing on the album. "Crying" to me has one of the best most memorable choruses on the album and it has this really infectious beat behind it with these really watery sounds that make the chorus that much better. Definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album and one I come back to frequently. Next is probably the biggest song on the album, "Venus as a Boy", and for understandable reasons. I think it is one of Björk's best vocal performances of her career. The relatively simple production on the song allow for her to dominate the track which she does. It is one of those songs that I can't really explain why it is so good but it truly is a great song. "There's More to Life Than This" is kind of a weird way to follow up "Venus as a Boy". You go from a more ambient, ballady type of track (at least when it comes to the chorus to a live house/dance track. I do like this song a lot but it was just sort of shocking first hearing it. "Like Someone In Love" is one of my favorite jazz standards of all time and I think Björk starts the track off with two minutes possibly the best version of the song but when her vocals come back in she leans a little too heavily for me on that breathy style she has at times and it isn't great. That being said I still love the song and often come back to it to listen to the first verse and just skip the second half but it does kinda suck that her vocals were not as good in the second half. "Big Time Sensuality" is a much more electronic sounding song and to me is another weird sequencing choice. It is still a good track but is probably one of the songs I see myself coming back to the least. I do think her vocals are pretty good on it but the beat is nothing to write home about. Good song but not one of the strongest on the album imo. "One Day" is one of my favorite tracks on the album and I think it has the strongest, most interesting production on the album when it comes to the more electronic based songs. It is sort of trip-hop sounding but it also feels very experimental which is pretty standard for Björk. It has these incredibly addictive sounding synths throughout the song that really keep it interesting and she has a good vocal performance. "Aeroplane" is a very interesting track on this album. It has the best instrumentation on the album with great saxophone and these really strong cymbal swells. This all is accompanied by nature sounds and a very heartbroken Björk who gives what I would say is a very average vocal performance on this album with above average writing. "Come to Me" is another song with really good instrumentation. It has some really good strings, a backing cymbal that keeps this song grounded (as well as similar cymbal swells to "Aeroplane") and ends with some sort of hand drum that sounds great. It also implements more electronic sounds than the previous track which is a nice change as outside of that they are relatively similar tracks. "Violently Happy" is honestly one of the more meh songs on the album. I like the beat okay but it is just a standard sounding electronic beat with vocals that have an effect on them that to me honestly becomes very annoying quickly. The chorus is better because it provides a little more variation than the verses but the verses honestly can be a little grating to the ear after relistens. I do like the 20-30 seconds where she chops her vocals in the middle of the song but overall this is probably one of my bottom 3 songs on the album. Finally there is "The Anchor Song", which is another weird pace change but honestly at this point I was used to it. It heavily uses a saxophone but it is played in a way that I honestly don't think I have ever heard a sax played like. It feels weird to listen to so much that I did not identify it as a sax at the start. It sounds almost like there is an effect put on it, granted I am almost exclusively used to sax being used in a jazz context. It is actually a good song but the sax throws me off at times. I actually think it is a really well written song and is a much more reserved Björk verse. Overall, even as I come away listening to this album in its entirety for the fourth or fifth time, the first adjective I think of to describe this album is weird which is pretty standard for Björk. It has these incredible ballads, bouncy dance and electronic tracks and some tracks that sort of don't fit a clear genre. It is bends genre just as much as any album I have heard before. A really good album with some highlights on it for sure but very weirdly sequenced. Overall I think I would give it between an 8-9/10 depending on how I feel about it that day.

I really like good country music and it is close to my heart as it is what my mother and her family listened to when I grew up. George Jones is one of the singers that I always knew but he was never one of the family's favorites. I knew songs like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "The One I Loved Back Then" but outside of those hits I really didn't know his music like that. So it was to my surprise that he would have an album included on this list. I knew he was a legend but this list has a major lack of country albums so his inclusion caught me by surprise. Jones was always known to stick to his guns more that just about any other country singer and that is apparent on this album. It is straight classic country to a T. Personally, I love a good classic country ballad and that is what this album is full of. This is not really the most diverse album in terms of song structure but that is not atypical of country albums at this time. That being said this album still manages to impress because Jones is one of the best vocalists in country music history and he is a very good songwriter as well. This allows for enough variation song for song that the lack of difference in song structure is not a massive hinderance on the entertainment of the album. "The Grand Tour" is a really good opener for this album and was definitely made to be the hit of this album as it has the most pop-y sound and structure. It also has one of his best vocal performances on the album. My favorite part of the song is at the start of the last few verses his vocal pacing slows down and then are backed by some really nice strings. I think it is definitely one of the best country songs of the seventies and probably in the top 5 in terms of quality of instrumentation. The next song is "Darlin'" which is one of if not my least favorite songs on the album. I just don't really like how his vocals are layered on this chorus. I also never was a huge fan of pet names (by that I mean I hate them) so it just makes this song grating to my ears. Luckily, George follows this up with a series of some of the best songs on the album starting with "Pass Me By", which is another typical country ballad but what makes this stand out to me is the fact that it has some of the best songwriting on the album. It is not full of super complex lyrics but just a nice, simple, to the point story by George about a woman who is looking for a temporary relationship. I have no issue with casual sex or anything of the sorts but there is a sweetness to his writing on this song that really makes the song stand out. It is not that he is shaming her or anything but just him letting her know that he is not looking for that sort of relationship and at the end of the second verse he even states he hopes to not fall in love with the woman because he doesn't want his heart to get stepped on. This coupled with a really good vocal performance makes this a top song for me. This is followed up by a song that is better than this song in just about every way. "She'll Love the One She's With" is another song with really strong writing, vocals and more interesting instrumentation. It is a really quaint song about a woman who he is infatuated with but she does not feel nearly as strong as he does and despite this she still loves him. "Once You've Had The Best" is another song in this run of tracks with great lyrics and really good vocals. Honestly when I first heard this song I sort of thought it was weird. Like who makes a song saying they knew their ex would come back because "there's nothing better once you've had the best". I even told my sister about how weird this song was and then she essentially said no you idiot he is talking about the woman and how he was not looking for anyone else because he already had the best. That made the song make so much more sense and after a few more relistens knowing this it became one of my favorites. The next track "The Weatherman" is the first non ballad on the album and it is the customary country two step that is one all these classic country albums. It is a nice pace change that doesn't sacrifice the songwriting that has been consistently great on this album. While it is not a super mind-blowing or revolutionary track by itself, it provides a lot to this album in terms of variety and in my opinion really works well. "Borrowed Angel" is a cover of the classic Mel Street hit. I personally am not a big fan of covers for the most part, unless they are really good, and George's version is not nearly as good as the original. The original feels a little faster paced which works better for this track to me and it has more full instrumentation which is also better on this track. George's version is a fine cover but it is nothing to write home about for me. Probably my least favorite track on the album. "She Told Me So" is a fine ballad that I personally don't think is all that special. It has some of the weakest writing on the album in my opinion and I think it is generally a skip for me. "Mary Don't Go Around" ends the short run of underwhelming tracks. It has really good vocals and is a nice pace change that is sorely needed. The lyrics are nothing to write home about but it has the a aforementioned vocals and production going for it. "Who Will I Be Loving Now" leads us back to the ballads but it is on the good writing side of things. It is just a sweet little song about how he is lost after being broken up with. It is a little clingy but not to the extent that it makes this song feel stalker-ish and overall I would say is around the top half of songs on the album. "Our Private Life" is a fun little track to end the album off. It is the first song in a while to feature an interesting theme in that it is about the relationships between celebrities and their fans as well as the lack of privacy provided to celebrities. I am not one to baby celebrities because they get plenty in return for their lack of privacy but I can agree with some of the sentiments. He is totally right about people caring too much about celebrities in the first verse and in the third he is right about the fact that some celebrities are held to ridiculously high, above human standards. Overall I think this is a solid country album by one of the legends of the genre. It's brevity makes it a nice easy listen but it tails off pretty hard in the second half of the album. Though, I do think the highs on this album are pretty big highs. Would I include this album on my list of 1001 best. Maybe but honestly I think there are better picks from other country artists and even from Jones himself. "Dreaming My Dreams" is one of the 2-3 best country albums of all time imo and it is not on the list. Sammi Smith, Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Chris Stapleton, Clint Black, George Strait and Patsy Cline all have country albums I would pick over this, not to mention Jones's own "I Am What I Am" which I think is better. I think just like with 90's R&B/New Jack Swing there is a massive lack of the genre on this list. I don't understand how you can have hundreds of art rock, blues rock, singer-songwriter and post-punk albums but can't have 20 country albums. Just because it is not the most critically acclaimed genre does not mean you can't find more then 15 country albums that are great. I did not even like country growing up because it was shoved down my throat so much and I still would have put more than 15 country albums on the list. Either way this is a solid album but not something mind-blowing 7/10.

What more can be said about this album that has not been already said. From start to finish this is just one of the most perfect rock albums of all time with some of the greatest tracks in Zeppelin's discography all time. From their biggest tracks like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Black Dog" to the "deep cuts" like "When the Levee Breaks", "The Battle of Evermore" and "Misty Mountain Hop". It has great diversity from song to song in sound, influence and energy. You get the massive, drawn out epics like "Stairway to Heaven", "When The Levee Breaks" or "The Battle of Evermore" contrasting with quick, hard-hitting tracks like "Misty Mountain Hop", "Four Sticks" or "Rock and Roll". I think that IV was their most polished sounding record to this date which is how they were trending after III and it was a good change because their first two records are a little too raw and some of the ideas are a little weakly portrayed. This is such a crisp album with easily the best instrumentation on any of their albums up to this point. I would go as far to say this album could be called the "Thriller" of rock and roll because just like "Thriller" it has tracks that no matter who you are you have probably heard them, those being "Stairway to Heaven" and "Black Dog". I think personally it is the Zeppelin album that has the best performances from both Bonham and Page, who both are at the peak of their powers throughout, with the only competition being "Physical Graffiti". I think though what really makes this album great is just the consistency of it. From start to finish their is not a single bad track and it is one of the albums that I am sort of inclined to listen to from start to finish. Even the lesser known tracks like "When the Levee Breaks", "Four Sticks", and "The Battle of Evermore" are incredible. The only part of this album I dislike is the start of "Misty Mountain Hop" but the song becomes better after a minute or so and it doesn't really ruin the experience. Personally "The Battle of Evermore" is one of those tracks that I truly cannot believe was not as big as others on the album. To me it is top 3 on the album with "Stairway to Heaven" and "When the Levee Breaks". I love how the song builds and I think it is one of the best vocal performances on the album. I also really like the folk influences on the song. In total this is one of the best rock albums of all time and is one of the clearest 10/10s I have heard.

While I respect that this is the first album that the band finally got their opportunity to have some creative freedom but I cannot say this was that special of an album. I definitely knew the Monkees and the discourse around them coming into this listen. I had heard of some of their songs and watched some reruns of their show with my dad as a kid but never listened to a full album. The only song on this album I had heard before was "For Pete's Sake" but only because it was the closing theme for the show and I only remembered a little bit of it from when I was a kid. This album started out pretty strong with "You Told Me" which is a pretty typical Monkees song except for the fact that it has some above average instrumentation with some fun banjo and tambourine. It also has a pretty catchy chorus and I would say it a pretty good start to the album. This is followed with "I'll Spend My Life With You" which is another good track. I think it has one of the most memorable choruses on the album with some really nice steel guitar backing it. It is also the first song that you can see that the band got to do some of their own experimentation on. It could just be me but it almost sounds like the band saw the massive psychedelic music wave happening around them and decided to just dip their toes in with this chorus. To me the sort of slowed down tempo along with just the vocals reminds me of the version of "Green Tambourine" that is performed at the end of Recess: School's Out except that the Monkees did not commit to hard to the sound but that is not too surprising as it would have been a massive jump. Either way it still is a really solid track. I know alot of people who have reviewed this like "Forget That Girl" but I just find it kind of annoying. I see what they were trying to do but I think Davy Jones just struggles to pull this song off vocally and to me it just sounds kind of whiny. I also think it sort of falls back in line with the more typical pop of the era. I guess it has somewhat interesting vocal arrangement but it is just not performed particularly well to me. "Band 6" is not really a song so I'm just gonna skip it. I can appreciate that it is part of the band finally being allowed some creative control but it just stops any momentum the album had and was not really interesting in any way. "You Just May Be The One" is another pretty typical 60's pop album. It is fine but in all honesty the vocals are kinda boring on this one. I probably would never come back to this one. Next is "Shades of Gray" which to me is a return to form. It is just a more strongly written and arranged track than the previous three. I think it had a stronger vocal performance as well. It is just a nice, sweet 60s pop song with some solid instrumentation especially the strings, piano and French horn. "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind" is just painfully plain. It is like an unseasoned chicken breast. It has some solid writing that is nice and cute but the vocal performance as well as the instrumentation is so milquetoast that the song is near unlistenable to me. It is like it was sung half asleep. The first song on the B side of the record is "For Pete's Sake" which is the outro to their show and it is one of the best songs on the album. It is just a simple track but what puts it apart from other Monkees tracks (especially on this album) is how punchy the instrumentation is on the song. The drums, guitar and bass are all clearly better than they are on most of the other songs on the album. Next is "Mr. Webster" which is another solid track with some more interesting writing about a man who does exceptional work at a dead end job and never gets the appreciation he deserves (or raises he is promised). It is a welcome change of pace and it has a solid vocal performance but is just a little boring. "Sunny Girlfriend" is another one of the best tracks on the album. It has some real energy behind it which is sorely needed on this album. I think it has some solid songwriting and nice instrumentation. Also has probably a top 3 or 4 vocal performance on the album. Not a ton to say about it besides this cause it is still strictly in the realm of 60s pop rock but it is a really good example of the genre. Similar to "Band 6", "Zilch" is pretty much just here because the band finally got to do their own thing and they decided to just throw some weird shit on that album which I am not opposed to but only when it works out. Here it does not. "No Time" is a continuation of the energy on "Sunny Girlfriend". It is a little derivative of early Beatles stuff and other bands of the time but it still sounds really good and has a really fun vocal performance. Definitely a top 3-5 song on the album. "Early Morning Blues And Greens" is a fine track that sounds like a lot of what is already on the album. It is a better version of some of the worse songs on the album but it is not a particularly great song. I don't know, I'm just not a fan of this overly soft, washed-out sound that they seems so tied to on this album. "Randy Scouse Git" is a really great outro for the album. It is the most experimental track on the album with a scat breakdown, more heavier sounding instrumentation, better vocals, sound progression and development. It also has some of the more interesting writing on the album. It is what I would have hoped the album would be given the reputation that this album was them finally getting to spread their wings. Overall I think this was the best track on the album. In all honesty this just feels like a standard pop rock album of the late 60's. You could replace them with 5-10 bands that would make this album with better vocal performances, better instrumentation, better writing but most importantly more character. The Monkees sound exactly like what they look like, they have no edge to them at all which to me hinders them on this album. They just don't bring that much character to the songs in my opinion. I don't actually dislike the band all that much but I just don't see them as anything special and definitely not good enough to deserve the amount of popularity they did. I listened to this album cause it was suggested to me on generator for "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and while it is solid it stick out like a sore thumb when put up with some other albums on the list. The show is still fun though.

While the bulk of the attention goes to Thriller and Bad which are both great records, this is the one that most Michael fans see as his peak work and I can't agree more. It is easily his most consistent album with not a single miss on the album. It is also a high point for Mike in terms of vocal ability and songwriting. The album starts out with the ever iconic duo of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You" which are two of his best singles of all time and were perfect blends of disco, R&B and the forthcoming wave of 80s pop. They are both some of the funkiest, grooviest singles of all time and are both high among the best songs of the 70's and Michaels career. But this album is not defined by its singles as it is full of some of his best album cuts of all time. "Working Day and Night", "Get on the Floor" and "Burn This Disco Down" are perfect disco songs with that essential pumping beat with unmatchable groove. They have some of his best choruses and melodies of his career with super memorable instrumentation especially the basslines. Among everything this album has some of the best basslines of all time which makes sense because they are played by one of the goats, Louis Johnson. They along with the percussion (which is played by another legend in Paulinho da Costa) create such an immaculate foundation for these tracks that are among the grooviest of all time. Then we get to my personal favorite song on the album, followed closely by "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Working Day and Night", the title track "Off the Wall". It has my favorite vocal performance of the album with what is in my opinion a top 5 Michael Jackson melody. The vocal tones in this song are almost too good. Just a perfect track and one that is always in my rotation. The second half of this album is much more toned down and slowed that features two of his best ballads of his career. Often his ballads are sort of hit or miss because sometimes they can be either a little drawn out, too nasally, weak instrumentally, or a little corny (*cough* "The Girl Is Mine" *cough*). Instead this is a four song run of great vocal performances that are pretty well written and have really good instrumentation. "Girlfriend" and "It's the Falling in Love" are just really good mid tempo R&B tracks with memorable choruses and some nice danceable instrumentation. Not the best songs on the album but are still great songs in their own right. "She's Out of My Life" is the best of the four with one of Michaels best vocal performances of his career. It has super emotive vocals and lyrics that I think at times Michael struggled to portray but this is one of those circumstances where he hit the nail on the head. The control he had over his vocals at this time was just astounding with these really good vibrato bits that still stand out to me. "I Can't Help It" is a much more reserved and laid back ballad that also features one of Mikes best vocal performances. It has good writing which was done by Stevie Wonder and it is not too complex in terms of instrumentation cause it doesn't need to be. It is just a nice sweet ballad. Overall this is the peak of one of the greatest musicians of all times career in my opinion. It is a clear 10/10 and is one of the best albums to just thrown on whenever you need some good vibes.

So I haven't done a review on here in a long while because I found RYM but I had to comment on this because Minor Threat is one of my favorite bands of all time. You may ask why then did you give this three stars and that is because this is easily the single worst project they ever released and for some fucking reason it is the one that Robert Dimery picked for the book. I originally assumed no Minor Threat project would be in the book because they never released an album just EPs and singles but Robert made an exception for this project and missed out on putting their self titled EP which is easily the bands most critically acclaimed and most beloved project by fans. It has so many of the most popular tracks like "Minor Threat", "Straight Edge", "Seeing Red", "Filler", "I Don't Wanna Hear It" and "Screaming At A Wall". Instead you pick this EP which is nowhere near on the same level and has just one track that I think most fans would put as a top tier Minor Threat song in "Betray". It is just illogical to pick this EP when the self titled is literally there. I think it is probably because this project is closer to album length but who cares. You are already making an exception since it is an EP you might as well put the bands best project in the book. If you wanted to do it this way then you should have just put the bands Complete Discography compilation album. I get if you don't want to put compilations but this is a different circumstance since the bands whole catalogue is basically the length of a regular album. Just a baffling decision that really does a disservice to one of the greatest punk bands of all time.