705
Albums Rated
3.17
Average Rating
65%
Complete
384 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
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Rating Timeline
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Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Samba
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
51
5-Star Albums
23
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweetheart Of The Rodeo | 5 | 2.83 | +2.17 |
| The Last Of The True Believers | 5 | 2.95 | +2.05 |
| Get Rich Or Die Tryin' | 5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
| Crazysexycool | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
| Honky Tonk Heroes | 5 | 3.14 | +1.86 |
| Teen Dream | 5 | 3.27 | +1.73 |
| Channel Orange | 5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
| Sunday At The Village Vanguard | 5 | 3.32 | +1.68 |
| At Mister Kelly's | 5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
| Darkness on the Edge of Town | 5 | 3.42 | +1.58 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goo | 1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
| Dig Your Own Hole | 1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
| Music From The Penguin Cafe | 1 | 3.01 | -2.01 |
| Bug | 1 | 2.92 | -1.92 |
| Bone Machine | 1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
| Greetings From L.A. | 1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
| I Am a Bird Now | 1 | 2.84 | -1.84 |
| Histoire De Melody Nelson | 1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
| Isn't Anything | 1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
| Alien Lanes | 1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 4 | 5 |
| Miles Davis | 4 | 4.5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 6 | 4.17 |
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 4.25 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 4 | 4.25 |
| Marvin Gaye | 3 | 4.33 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Sonic Youth | 4 | 1.75 |
| Dinosaur Jr. | 2 | 1.5 |
| Tim Buckley | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Chemical Brothers | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Lou Reed | 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (51)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Stan Getz
5/5
Me and my girlfriend did interesting things in the back of my car to this
Best song: The Girl from Ipanema
10 likes
Beach House
5/5
Gorgeous glimmering music, loud and powerful yet gentle and soothing. Impeccable atmosphere.
Best song: Take Care
9 likes
Van Halen
5/5
This album basically created the entire sound of 80s rock. This led to a bunch of terrible bands, but I get why so many teenagers decided to start terrible bands off this album. Pop metal perfection.
Best song: Jamie’s Cryin’
2 likes
Pretenders
2/5
I don’t really get this one. It’s got some good elements but there’s no real hooks, the singer is just kind of whatever, and none of the songs stick out much. Feels like it’s halfway between punk and new wave in a bad way, not really achieving the strengths of either genre.
2 likes
PJ Harvey
2/5
It's just OK. Not crazy about the sound of the band; pretty meh 90s alt type stuff. Her vocals are expressive but nothing I'm particularly drawn to. I do hear flashes here that intrigue me. Interestingly abstract lyrics and plenty of passion. I'd be interested to hear one of her later albums, but not a huge fan of this one.
Best song: Dress
1 likes
1-Star Albums (23)
All Ratings
Parliament
3/5
Awesome bass. Pretty repetitive, I’m guessing for dance reasons. Weird in a good way. Not as many good hooks as I would hope for. Best songs: Mothership Connection, Give Up the Funk, Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples (💨)
Eminem
2/5
Awesome talent choosing to churn out murder fantasies and bad jokes. I just can’t get behind the lyrics; funny quips mingle with stuff that makes me feel gross. Call me a Gen Z snowflake prude I guess.
I will admit that Eminem surely has some consciousness of what he’s doing here (see Role Model, or especially Stan on the next album), but that’s more of a justification than meaningful context. More removed from the lyrics, it’s generally just kind of same-y and repetitive. Some good beats, some mid beats. It’s a young and hungry rapper on a lot of drugs spewing out a bunch of gross stuff, self-aware or otherwise. Best song: My Name Is
Gary Numan
2/5
Weird, repetitive, not catchy, not a nice singing voice. Yet kind of intriguing anyway? It’s definitely atmospheric, and as much as I don’t care for his voice it adds to that nervy, icy vibe that the whole album has. I wouldn’t listen to this again but I can appreciate what it’s going for. Frankly baffled he got a #1 in the UK off of this though. What is going on on that weird island.
Best song: Random
a-ha
3/5
Pretty standard synthpop… but pretty good listening. Good melodies, good song structures, hit-or-miss hooks. First half of the album is stronger than the second. Could be a 2 or a 3; 2.5 seems right. Not really my thing but perfectly decent.
Best song: Take On Me (shocker)
Holger Czukay
2/5
Really weird. Too weird. Musically interesting(?). Do not understand the painful wailing on Give Us More Money or the whole idea of Persian Love. Probably like a 1.5.
Best song: Cool in the Pool(???)
Queen
4/5
Really solid album. Pop and hard rock and prog and opera(??) in a mix that only they could pull off. And as overplayed as Bohemian Rhapsody is it is still an awesome song idc what anyone says.
Best song: Bohemian Rhapsody (You're My Best Friend deserves a shoutout though)
Beastie Boys
3/5
Very fun, if kinda stupid. The beats are obviously dated but some of these genuinely rip. Girls maybe brought the whole album down a point on its own.
Best song: The New Style
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Very breezy, laid-back, kinda soft rock. It makes the album good mood music but it kinda works against it in the sense that some of the songs end up blurring together. The sound is a bit mealy-mouthed, like the Carpenters or something, and the little injections of jazz hurt more than help. Still, she has such a nice warm voice that it carries the sections I found dull.
Best song: Help Me
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
1/5
What is this. I did not enjoy it.
Best song: Penguin Cafe Single???
Lambchop
2/5
Interesting downbeat album. Great use of strings, nice guitars, soft but rhythmic and well-mixed. The singer’s decision to sound like either late-career Bob Dylan or Tiny Tim on almost every song does bring it down, though.
Best song: Up with People
Tina Turner
3/5
Incredible voice, full of character and passion. The backing band at times doesn't have much impact; a little too much 80s synth. Not necessarily catchy, kinda lacking in good hooks.
Best song: Private Dancer
Public Enemy
3/5
Energy, lyricism, beats, power. As far as old school hip-hop goes this is pretty strong. Sometimes the loops are too obvious/loud and that becomes grating. Could definitely do without the NOI references but I guess that’s where they were at.
Best song: Rebel Without a Pause
Solomon Burke
3/5
Awesome voice, smooth yet sparky sound. Things do get kinda repetitive near the end, particularly with the backup singers who are the most gratingly dated element here (though I do still like them sometimes). Not the most substantial album but a nice listen.
Best song: If You Need Me
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Awesome guitars, good rhythms, good melodies, good vibes. Call me a basic southern white boy but this is good music right here
Best song: Simple Man
Supertramp
3/5
Smooth yet expansive sound with lots of great instrumentation. All songs are listenable yet have some of depth. Still, I don't think I would put this on much again. It's distinctive and well-made, yet not totally for me.
Best song: Bloody Well Right
Pretenders
2/5
I don’t really get this one. It’s got some good elements but there’s no real hooks, the singer is just kind of whatever, and none of the songs stick out much. Feels like it’s halfway between punk and new wave in a bad way, not really achieving the strengths of either genre.
Grizzly Bear
3/5
An interesting one. Great instrumentation, very atmospheric soundscapes. Singer is hit-or-miss and so are the melodies. Some songs sound divine and others sound loud and badly produced. Overall I think the good slightly outweighs the bad here as the highs are quite high.
Best song: Two Weeks
N.W.A.
3/5
Very impactful for obvious reasons considering the context of the time. Still pretty entertaining. Beats are harder and bouncier than a lot of other 80s hip-hop, and Ice Cube and Eazy E are both distinctive and energetic rappers (MC Ren...... well he's not BAD i guess). As far as the subject matter, it's a pretty accurate document of the mentality and vibe of this time for them, if not an accurate document of what was literally happening, lol. Not the kind of thing I'm really attracted to or like to surround myself with these days, but I get it and it's valid artistically. Also what was going on with that last song. Did the label just demand a crappy dance instrumental.
Best song: Fuck tha Police
R.E.M.
4/5
Really love the sound here. The jangly guitars can be a little thin, but they always give the bass a lot of room to pop and give the songs body. The band just sounds really tight. Good melodies. Michael Stipe’s voice is kind of an acquired taste, but overall really enjoyed this.
Best song: Radio Free Europe
Nick Drake
3/5
This dude must have inspired an entire generation of whispery singer-songwriters. The album itself is quaint, and frankly a little boring, but I can’t help but find it oddly touching. Crushingly intimate, like he’s singing right to me. The fact that it's shorter really works in its favor; doesn't overstay its welcome. Not something I’d put on much, but sincere and worthwhile.
Best song: Pink Moon
Bobby Womack
2/5
Smooth music with occasional bursts of energy. Pretty repetitive and lacking in melodies/hooks to hang on to. Not particularly inspired songwriting. Nothing wrong with this but not something I’d really choose to listen to.
Best song: Lay Your Lovin’ on Me
Jamiroquai
4/5
Groovy, chill, bassy, spacey. A very fun listen. I already knew from limited exposure that I was into the acid jazz sound and this is just further confirmation.
Best song: Music of the Mind
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
Very raw and bluesy. Strong, consistent sound. No one song really stands out from the crowd. Guitar sound is kind of rattle-y and thin. Singer sounds like an OK-but-slightly-drunk Mick Jagger impersonator. A solid album overall. I didn't listen to the CD tracks.
Best song: Yesterday's Numbers?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Great guitar album. Was dreading the long songs, but I actually found myself vibing to them and being lower on the shorter, more vocal numbers... and the reason for that is probably Neil's voice. I'm not a stranger to him and I think there's a certain resonance to it, but that tends to hit more on his acoustic stuff. With this kind of backing, he mostly just sounds weak and thin. Not many melodies to speak of, either, despite whatever's being attempted on that last song. Band is consistently pretty great though.
Best song: Love and Only Love
The Icarus Line
1/5
Very loud and raw. I can pick out things to like here; nice riffs, nice rhythms, good stretches; but overall the vibe here is just not for me at all. Some songs/sections of songs (Meatmaker, most of Kiss Like Lizards, the ending of Seasick) are straight up unlistenable. Wouldn't ever put this on again.
Best song: Spike Island
B.B. King
3/5
A good palate cleanser after Thursday's noise rock. Often repetitive, but consistently sharp and lively. Surprised by how much I liked him as a vocalist. Wish there was more guitar. Very nice albeit not something that left a huge impact.
Best song: Worry, Worry
The Beach Boys
3/5
Outside of Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys were definitely a singles band. Still, this is nice listening. Love the harmonies, love the pure simple sound, and the length is pretty much perfect. Why did they record themselves eating lunch as the final track? The world may never know.
Best song: When I Grow Up (To Be a Man) [Love Help Me Rhonda, but the recording on this album isn't the best version.]
Prince
3/5
Fun, quirky sound. Lots of over-long songs that felt more like jams. Sometimes the quirkiness went a little too far into weird as well, though I wasn't totally negative on that. Overall a very interesting album from a great talent, although I was only really into a few songs.
Best song: 1999
Billy Bragg
4/5
Slow, almost to the point of sleepiness, but mostly a nice vibe. Vocals might not be to everyone's taste but I like the simplicity and gruffness. Contemplative and fittingly old-sounding. Weary more than dreary. Could be a 3 but I'm feeling generous.
Best song: California Stars
Leonard Cohen
2/5
As someone who's never heard a Leonard Cohen song, this is an interesting one. He's obviously a talented lyricist, with some legitimately piercing images. A couple songs achieved a cold atmosphere that really matched the lyrical content. But when I look at the product as a whole, I have to admit that this is pushing pretty far against the barriers of what I consider listenable music. Half or more is a guy mumbling in monotone over a five-second guitar line repeated to death. Fascinating, good as poetry, but not something I liked much as music.
Best song: A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Heard this one before. For a band that started out as Andy Warhol's controversial, challenging art-rock weirdos, this is a shockingly intimate and comfortable album. Soft and gentle without being mushy or forgettable. Even The Murder Mystery, while not exactly an easy listen, is a lot quainter and friendlier than their earlier long experimental stuff. Overall a really pleasant album with some gorgeous ballads.
Best song: Candy Says
The Saints
2/5
Mid punk album. Sure why not. Idk why it’s on the list.
Best song: No, Your Product
The Residents
1/5
I’ve heard enough this is awful. The penguin album deserves a 2 in retrospect.
Best song: none
Buck Owens
4/5
I love this, call it my Hee Haw heritage I don’t care. There’s a couple very dreary same-y sad songs that do drag things down a bit. Also I love the live cut of Act Naturally but i do have to confront that that’s not on the original album. So it’s tough… but whatever YEEHAW
Best song: Wham Bam
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Vaguely familiar with Sufjan Stevens before I heard this, heard a few songs. I was really gripped by this. Folk music crossed with orchestral pop and indie rock(?) in a blend that seems kinda precarious but turns out positively gorgeous. The songwriting and melodies are the common links that hold everything together. Long, weird, disjointed, and not helmed by a traditionally strong singer, but ultimately beautiful. I’ll return to it.
Best song: John Wayne Gacey Jr.
Charles Mingus
3/5
Swaying and sharp, with lots of great trumpet playing. Maybe too experimental for me, although it’s hardly free jazz or something. Could use more devoted listening.
Alice Cooper
3/5
As someone who thinks the title track is corny I had low expectations, but this is pretty solid early 70s rock. More of a concept album than I would have guessed. Decent mix of tempos and styles. Nothing world-beating but mostly entertaining.
Best song: Blue Turk
The Rolling Stones
4/5
All-time great band entering their peak. Songs hard, production simple but strong, and probably some of Jagger’s best vocal performances. The opener and closer do sort of carry the album, but they’re contenders for the best opener and closer I’ve ever heard so do I really care?
Best song: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
PJ Harvey
2/5
It's just OK. Not crazy about the sound of the band; pretty meh 90s alt type stuff. Her vocals are expressive but nothing I'm particularly drawn to. I do hear flashes here that intrigue me. Interestingly abstract lyrics and plenty of passion. I'd be interested to hear one of her later albums, but not a huge fan of this one.
Best song: Dress
Miles Davis
5/5
Listened to this before. Marvelous. Packed full of overdubs yet never feeling overly busy. Comforting and calming yet challenging and fascinating in equal measure. I can't get into the nitty-gritty of every little musical touch and I get how some might find it boring, but I love this. I could put it on any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Green Day
3/5
A fun listen, full of catchy hooks. Pretty much the definition of same-y, although they do at least vary the tempo a few times. Not mixed particularly well, though maybe it’s a problem on my end. Maybe singlehandedly started the pop punk revival? Definitely a good album, even if it’s pretty mood-dependent for me in terms of how I feel about it.
Best song: When I Come Around
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Old school British blues. This doesn’t quite sound like the Stones to me yet since it’s almost(?) all covers. Still, it’s fun, gritty, and fast with a clear sound and identity, despite some weak numbers.
Best song: Carol
Eels
2/5
Lots of quiet-loud dynamics. Songs definitely have some depth and variety, though there’s something about the sound I can’t totally gel with. Not something I’d be inclined to return to, but certainly interesting.
Best song: Flower
Ash
3/5
I vibed with this, though I didn't love it. Some good hooks, some dumb lyrics. Definitely see the Britpop + pop punk meld of influences.
Best song: Lost in You
Genesis
3/5
I thought this was pretty cool. Definitely different, rooted in atmospheres and suites instead of traditional pop song structures, and I think it works for the intended vision. Very pastoral/medieval English vibes, with a big sweeping sound. In my head I always associate them with 80s synth and solo Phil Collins, so I'm interested to explore more of the Gabriel-era stuff.
Nirvana
4/5
Probably the peak of MTV Unplugged as a program/concept? Some of the hype was definitely due to the unavoidable reality that Kurt had just died when it dropped and the record company was looking to capitalize, but it's also a legitimately great performance. Some songs gain a totally new atmosphere with this backing; Pennyroyal Tea feels downright menacing as a solo acoustic song, and On a Plain feels much better suited to this environment.
It's not perfect. The sound is sometimes muted to the point of sleepiness, there's too much mumbling between songs, and Plateau and Oh Me probably could have been left off the set list without a problem. But the highs are high. It’s a quiet, reflective, soul-baring recording from a legendary band dissolved too soon.
Best song: Where Did You Sleep Last Night
David Bowie
4/5
Abstract, dark, compelling. Not every song hits equally but they all contribute to a rich, unsettling atmosphere. The jazzy instrumentation fits very well. A swan song for an artistic giant.
Best song: Lazarus
M.I.A.
3/5
Definitely interesting. Some songs are way too repetitive for what they have to offer, but there are a few legit bangers here. More than anything I appreciate how unique the blend of styles and influences is.
Best song: Paper Planes
Nick Drake
3/5
Yep this was definitely a Nick Drake album. I think I liked it a little less than Pink Moon, even though in a lot of ways this one was actually more engaging; more varied song structures, sounds, a few more instruments, etc. I did enjoy it, although it is kind of soft and blurry in the middle. I fully understand the praise he gets even if he's not an everyday kind of listen for me.
Best song: Three Hours
Deee-Lite
2/5
What the hell is this 😭 This is almost a 1 because I'm almost certain I will never touch this again, but yknow what, they're vibing, they're grooving. Groove is in the heart
Best song: Good Beat
Motörhead
2/5
Wow that was lowkey the same song 12 times. And sometimes I liked the song, but by the end yeah I was kinda tired of it. Jailbait’s gonna bring it down a point.
Best song: Ace of Spades but it could probably be any of them
4/5
Great atmosphere and guitar sound, good dynamics. Sometimes Bono’s a bit much for me but when he wants to be he’s an incredible vocalist. Album starts off extremely strong before tapering off through the middle, but overall this is pretty excellent.
Best song: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Daft Punk
3/5
Groovy. Probably a little too straight-up dance for me; not much variety, overlong songs (particularly when it’s one I don’t care for). Still liked it mostly.
Best song: Around the World
k.d. lang
4/5
Really into the atmosphere of this. The old-school sound combines with Lang's heavy, yearning voice for a dark, almost film noir vibe on many of the songs. It's somehow both devotedly old-school, with a sound straight out of the 1950s, and yet really off-kilter and unique in its context. The last song doesn't quite fit but is neat as a tribute to the singers who inspired it. Not for everyone, but I'm a fan.
Best song: Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them
Syd Barrett
1/5
It's not the worst thing I've ever heard. It's not good at all, either. I honestly couldn't wait til it was over so I think it has to be a 1.
On a wider note I'm not sure I get this one's inclusion. I guess it's a historical interest thing to know what Syd Barrett was doing after he left Pink Floyd, but like, who is this for? This album feels more like a set of demos or 30 mins of noodling around in the studio than an album.
Best song: Octopus? maybe?
The Stone Roses
5/5
I'm a little surprised by how much I love this, though I guess I shouldn't be considering the obvious mid-60s influence. The band is crazy tight: sometimes big and distorted, sometimes jangly and sweet, always working just right for the song. Even the two super-long jams don't feel excessive to me. Hate that it seems like they never put out anything else on the level of this, though I'll still seek out their other work to see for myself.
Best song: She Bangs the Drums
Rage Against The Machine
4/5
I think rap rock/rap metal is usually an ill-advised medley, but I’m almost convinced it could work off of this album because it rocks. Anger, power, rhythm, awesome awesome guitar playing.
Best song: Killing in the Name
Tangerine Dream
3/5
Very interesting and unique. Sound is light yet spacious and serious, drifting you through the clouds. The kind of ambient music I can get behind. Not something I would have sought out on my own, but a cool project that I'm glad the list introduced to me.
Eagles
3/5
I liked this, though I didn't love it. Breezy country-rock with occasional interjections of heavy guitar. Never been a huge Eagles person (beyond Hotel California, that one rules) but have always been cool with them, so no surprises here.
Best song: Take It Easy
Sebadoh
2/5
Grungy 90s indie rock. Not terrible, but kind of tuneless and boring despite all the gestures at experimentation. Not a fan of the vocals.
Best song: maybe Homemade
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Soulful (shockingly enough). Something to vibe to and feel. Great strings. Sometimes overlong and self-indulgent, but consistently passionate and self-assured.
Best song: Walk On By
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Not all that big on Zeppelin’s acoustic stuff and that’s the main focus here. There are a couple strong tracks, but they’re not exactly brilliant songwriters and it’s harder to hide when they’re not rocking out. It’s still a solid album, just not their best to me.
Best song: Since I’ve Been Loving You
Sigur Rós
3/5
The talent and vision here are pretty obvious. Big sweeping soundscapes, pretty string arrangements. Honestly, I can’t love this because it makes me feel uneasy. There’s a piercing quality to the vocals and the droning empty spaces that get under my skin ever so slightly. It’s a unique and artful album that deserves props, but as of now I don’t see myself listening again.
Best song: Olsen Olsen?
Taylor Swift
3/5
I do not like Taylor Swift very much. I am also perfectly willing to concede that this is a pretty decent album. Well-spun story songs, polished production, downbeat sound. It’s a pleasant listen that achieves the wintry acoustic vibe it’s going for.
I also have to admit that despite the folksy window dressing, Taylor Swift is still 100% Taylor Swift, and so the album is only going to go so high for me. I don’t really like her singing voice, and as much praise as her lyrics get, I feel sometimes they're clunky and overwritten in the name of being “heartfelt.” Also, as tired and unfair as it is to scrutinize Taylor’s personal relationships… wow so many Taylor Swift songs are breakup songs. Like SO many. I just wonder if she gets tired of writing them. She has to, right?
Best song: willow or no body no crime
Iron Butterfly
3/5
Solid if mostly unexceptional acid rock. I like the title track a lot and don't mind the length on principle, but it does drag some in the middle.
Best song: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Patti Smith
4/5
I wouldn’t listen to this all the time, but that doesn’t stop it from being awesome. Not for everyone what with her yowling voice and a few long rambling songs, but to me this album is core essential rock n roll, poetic yet passionate. I’m gonna make her mine make her mine GEELOHARAYAYE
Best song: Gloria
Alice In Chains
3/5
Dark, sludgy, heavy, dreary. Definitely on the more metal side of grunge. Solid riffs and rhythms throughout, though a few songs overstay their welcome (Sickman). There’s a definite style and mood that the album commits to and executes well, though it’s not one I especially enjoy.
Best song: Rain When I Die
Foo Fighters
3/5
Pretty solid grungy rock. I’m impressed that it’s a one man show as I would not have guessed that from the sound. Starts out strong before settling into a rut of just OK. I would throw it on again.
Best song: This is a Call
The Band
4/5
I like this a lot. Definitely felt like a concept album even though I can’t identify a story or even a central theme in the lyrics; the sound itself is sepia-toned like the album cover. Great melodies. Did wish I was listening to the Joan Baez version of Old Dixie, but I’ll respect the original.
Best song: Up on Cripple Creek
Big Star
3/5
Album starts out pretty bright and friendly before getting weird fast. Not a huge fan of the lead singer, but he fits the sound/vibe: ghostly and ephemeral, youthful and yearning. I can't say I liked it all too much, but I am seriously intrigued by it and willing to return.
Best song: Thank You Friends or Femme Fatale
Herbie Hancock
5/5
Fun, chill, vibed out, funky, future-thinking. Awesome.
Best song: Chameleon
Miles Davis
4/5
Chaotic, messy, rapturous soundscapes. Definitely get how innovative this was when it dropped; compared to In a Silent Way this feels several clicks beyond what it was going for. Not a listen I fully love or would return to much (I think), but very interesting and important.
Best song: Sanctuary
The Gun Club
2/5
Pretty rough. Lyrics are about as dumb as can be, nothing sticks out instrumentally or vocally, and the melodies rarely hit, if at all. In spite of all that, I can’t deny that it’s tapping into a cool fusion of genres. The opening stretch is pretty decent too.
Best song: Preaching the Blues
Blur
4/5
I really like this one, which doesn’t surprise me based on my love of Gorillaz + limited past exposure to Blur. It’s kind of a hard album to get a grip on; sincere but sarcastic, super pop but indescribably weird in a way that pop albums rarely are, nostalgic for the past and dismissive of it in the same breath. Definitely one I’ll return to.
Best song: End of a Century
Orbital
3/5
I would never have found this album on my own, and I doubt I’ll revisit it much if at all, but I am really glad to have heard it. Grim and unnerving, yet light and spacious, with some great beats. Sometimes repetitive, but a worthy listen.
Best song: Science Friction
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
Simple, vibrant rock. Lots of energy, great guitars, driving rhythm throughout, strong songs. Really nothing to criticize for me.
Best song: The Dark of the Matinee
Pixies
3/5
Got kind of excited after Debaser but the album that followed didn’t really live up to it, save one or two songs. Not bad by any means, just weird, prickly, and sort of aimless. There is an interesting mix of pop hooks and hardcore aggression going on; I can see how Nirvana was influenced a lot by this.
Best song: Debaser
Mott The Hoople
3/5
Yeah it's 70s glam. Big, cheesy, sometimes fun, occasionally a slog. A perfectly decent listen even if it's nothing exceptional.
Best song: I'm a Cadillac / El Camino Dolo Roso
Hole
4/5
A pretty great feel-bad album. Confrontational, angry, but at the core it feels sad more than anything. Lots of muscle to the sound: if Alice in Chains represented the metal side of grunge, this might be the punk side. Second half is weirder and weaker, but still a strong project.
Best song: Doll Parts
Janet Jackson
2/5
When people around my age talk about how much they love 80s music, I’m convinced they are only thinking of like the nine 80s hits everybody’s heard, including the stuff by Janet’s brother. They have not listened to this in full. Was it bad? No, not by my definition. Were the drums cool sometimes? Sure. But it all just keeps going and going and going for an hour, and every song has even cornier synths and even bigger echoier drums than the last song, and over it all Janet squeaks like a ten year old doing her best Whitney Houston impression. Goodbye 1980s. Please don’t come back.
Best song: State of the World
Alanis Morissette
3/5
Solid songwriting, good hooks, good energy. I'm not big on Alanis's voice (though it's distinctive, at least) and the whole thing is drenched in a mid-tempo minor-key 90s malaise that I'm iffy towards. A good example of how I like grunge itself but don't like its effects on the pop music of the decade. Either way, this is a pretty good album. It does get a minus for Head Over Feet, which is a deadpan snore with terrible lyrics, but it also has an all-timer breakup song, so it must be respected.
Best song: You Oughta Know
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
They have a very definite shtick which you're probably going to like or dislike without much in-between. I like it, though I do think a whole album of sunny close-harmony folk-pop (even a relatively short one) is a little much for me. So it's kinda corny and quite dated, but I do enjoy a lot of it. Great melodies and, of course, harmonies.
Best song: Spanish Harlem
Dead Kennedys
3/5
Loud, aggressive. Very loud, very aggressive, in fact. I don’t like Jello Biafra’s voice but I do like the tempo and sound of this album. It’s kinda same-y and it stumbles in places (like the ending of Chemical Warfare and the splitting headache it gave me), but the closing stretch won back most of the goodwill it lost.
Best song: Holiday in Cambodia
James Brown
3/5
Great vocals. Love some of the interaction with the audience. Surprised by how crisp the audio quality is. The extended jams don’t totally land for me, but the band is really tight. My favorite part might be the album cover lol
Best song: Please Please Please Medley
Mike Oldfield
4/5
I enjoyed this one. Lots of cool instrumentation, pretty good sense of melody, suites/sections that were memorable and easy to follow, and a really big sound that wasn’t too pretentious. I’ve never really been into prog rock or instrumental rock, but this is a good listen.
Radiohead
4/5
Radiohead still coming into their own and already very good. I think the idea of them as this super grim mopey band is mostly a stereotype, but it is reinforced by this one, probably their mopiest album. (There’s literally a song called Sulk. I mean. Come on.) Beneath all the dreary moods there are some gorgeous melodies on quality songs, a great mix of rockers and ballads and mid-tempo combos with big choruses. Instrumentally they’re nothing particularly special yet, but Thom Yorke’s ghostly wail is already here and pretty powerful in my book.
Best song: Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Bob Dylan
5/5
Bob Dylan has never been more Bob Dylan than this: a bunch of long songs with weird lyrics crooned in an ugly nasal whiny voice. On paper that sounds kinda terrible, yet I really really like this album. For one thing I just think Dylan’s an excellent songwriter, winning a Nobel Prize for his craft for good reason. For another thing the instrumentation and arrangements are really expert stuff, thanks in no small part to the Nashville session musicians who worked on the album. And then the last track is, for my money, one of his greatest songs and worth all 11 minutes… though it is, you know, 11 minutes, so your mileage may vary.
Best song: Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Kinda repetitive and not the greatest rapping I’ve ever heard, but on the same points, the production is strong and consistent, and the vibes are impeccable. Some really excellent and influential beats. Shoutouts to Busta Rhymes’s random show-stealing appearance on the final track.
Best song: Jazz (We’ve Got)
Willie Nelson
4/5
Simple, dusty, rough-cut yet weirdly tender. A country concept album executed in fittingly humble fashion. The story isn’t especially coherent and it’s got a couple too many short ditties and repetitions of the main theme, but the whole product feels very solid and authentic. Love the sound and the few central songs.
Best song: Can I Sleep In Your Arms
Fishbone
2/5
Pretty groovy. I’m not particularly struck by anything in a good or bad way, though there are a couple cool riffs and licks. Overall this one just kinda passed over me.
Best song: Freddy’s Dead
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
Beats minimal but hard, raps way more dynamic than I expected, and actual effective fusions of rap and rock. Quite a solid album even if it’s clearly dated.
Best song: It’s Tricky
Talking Heads
4/5
Fitting to the name, this whole album sounds very nervous, from the thin high-tempo guitars to David Byrne's panicked wail of a voice. That gives it a vibe I can't really compare to anything but which I inexplicably like. It's very fun and groovy as well as being weird and artsy, and those two things never feel like they're in conflict with each other. Definitely a band I'm excited to explore more.
Best song: Life During Wartime
Led Zeppelin
4/5
The hardest rock had ever rocked at the time. I’ve heard this album before and I wouldn’t say I love it, I can’t put my finger on why, but I still like it a lot. Bonham’s drumming is crazy.
Best song: Dazed and Confused
Leftfield
2/5
There’s clearly something going on here, I just don’t think I’m getting it. Spooky 90s dance with lots of wailing backing vocals and jungle drums. Interesting but not very exciting to me.
ABBA
4/5
Big dark pop, still mostly in the disco era but dipping its toes into synthpop. It’s soft in the middle but makes up for it with some great top tracks. A unique vibe executed with the signature ABBA polish and hooks.
Best song: Slipping Through My Fingers
Billy Joel
5/5
I’ve always respected Billy Joel and his thing from a slight distance, never being a huge fan, but this album might have changed my mind. This is really clean and hook-filled pop rock, nine tight tracks with no real skips. It's still a bit on the schmaltzy side for me... but there's nothing wrong with some schmaltz every now and then. A great album either way.
Best song: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Air
3/5
Very chill, pretty smooth, sometimes aimless, sometimes weird. A nice listen that didn't inspire a lot in me.
Best song: You Make It Easy
Lou Reed
5/5
The perfect mix of sleaze and sarcasm with kindness and gentleness. Embraces the cheese of glam rock and the 70s as fully as anyone (Satellite of Love) while injecting it with bites of understated darkness (Walk on the Wild Side). Lou Reed is probably one of the best examples of an extremely limited singer who succeeded by knowing exactly how to write for his voice. Love the weird mix of jazz and cabaret influences too. A fantastic album, up there with Ziggy Stardust at the peak of glam for me.
Best song: Perfect Day
Tom Waits
3/5
Wow that was an odd one. This album sometimes feels more interested in being quirky than it is being, well, good, but it’s a legitimately interesting brew of jazz and blues and rock with an unmistakable mood and approach. Lyrics are strange but help build the seedy old-school America atmosphere, and the same goes for Waits’ warbly roar of a voice. I didn’t enjoy it much, but I appreciate it.
Best song: Tango Till They’re Sore
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
Don’t think I’m into the whole noise rock thing. They’re an OK indie pop band covered in feedback noise for no apparent reason. I guess there’s something there with the contrast between soft melody and harsh noise, but it didn’t stick for me.
Best song: The Hardest Walk
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
Not the strongest album from a creative perspective but well-performed and passionate. I expected Janis Joplin to have a big ballsy showstopper voice, and she does obviously do that, but I was impressed by her range and sensitivity. The band is solid too with some great blues guitar. Not an all-time great but a worthy inclusion.
Best song: Piece of My Heart
Van Morrison
4/5
Chill, smooth, certain. Teetering on the edge of mushiness but I don’t think it gets there: too many good melodies and the jazzy instrumentation feels professional and organic, not saccharine. A high-quality and highly relaxing album.
Best song: Moondance
Missy Elliott
3/5
Goes hard in the early tracks before tapering off in the second half, though there are hits and skips in both parts. Timbaland’s beats are pretty great, though it is funny to skim the 1997 takes calling them “futuristic” since I think they’re more just weird and memorable. All in all it’s good, though I don’t think it’s her best based on what else I’ve heard.
Best song: Sock It 2 Me
The Thrills
3/5
A pretty mellow album with a nice sense of melody. It's a weird mix of sounds since there's sort of a rustic vibe from the banjos and harmonicas that crosses semi-uncomfortably with the singer's thin whispery indie voice. Overall it's interesting and pretty pleasant, although not something that hits me hard.
Best song: Say It Ain't So [hi, Dubya]
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Marvin Gaye’s heavenly voice hits some sultry lows. I guess it’s overproduced from a certain perspective but it hits the lush vibe perfectly. Wouldn’t you rather make love children… as opposed to war ☮️
Best song: Let’s Get It On
Joy Division
3/5
Very atmospheric and emotionally heavy. Really impressed by the production job, I’ve heard some Joy Division before but had no idea their live style was much closer to “normal” punk. A great example of how production can wildly change your sound. It’s quite a downer and none of the songs really hit for me, so I probably won’t come back, but it’s a fascinating and well-constructed album.
Best song: She’s Lost Control
Beatles
5/5
Even as a massive Beatles fan I’ve never been especially attached to the White Album. I still liked it a lot, but in my mind it couldn’t hold a candle to the Beatles’ “true masterpieces” like Revolver or Abbey Road. My thinking was always influenced by the infamously fraught recording process, where a chaotic and disjointed set of sessions resulted in a pretty chaotic and disjointed album. I guess for me this album represented the beginning of the end for my favorite band, so it was hard to have too much affection for it.
All that being said, I’ve rarely done full listens of the White Album, and actually doing one for the first time in a long time helped me realize how much this album teems with creativity. The Beatles try any genre, any style, throw em all at the wall and see what sticks, and they all come out a bit of fun at the worst and masterful at the best. They might be tired and annoyed at each other, but they’re also utterly unserious and having fun at flower power culture’s expense, from tearing down their own mythos in Glass Onion to dismissing the hippies' all-bark-no-bite politics in Revolution 1. And of course John, Paul, and George are all pretty close to the top of their game as writers. When the first side alone features Back in the USSR and Dear Prudence and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, they all could have gone home and celebrated a hard day's work (night?) in my book.
Could this album still have been improved by cutting the obvious chaff like “Wild Honey Pie” and “Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" Yes. Is it still chaotic, disjointed, and overlong? Yes. None of that takes away from its magic and beauty. It is, warts and all, the Beatles.
Best song: Blackbird
CHIC
4/5
Lavish, tuneful, funky, fun. Disco executed about as perfectly as it can be.
Best song: I Want Your Love
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
Cool mix of styles, definitely rock but with a lot of funk and soul and folk influence. I like his voice, though a few of the lyrics were kind of, uh, dodgy, and some of the songs dragged on too long.
Best song: Let Love Rule
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Definitely a big and expansive album. There are good songs here, but I’m not huge on the whole product. Some 70s fluff vibes with weaker rhythms and vocals. Impressive for the aspect of him doing (almost) all of it himself, if nothing else.
Best song: Couldn’t I Just Tell You or You Left Me Sore
Beatles
5/5
I’m too familiar with this album to really talk about it in any objective way so I’m not gonna try. I love it to death. Even if you hate it, 100% a must-listen. The Beatles at their greatest intersection of creative energy and unity as a group.
Best song: this time it was Tomorrow Never Knows
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Kinda weird, kinda unsettling, and I lost focus multiple times. Still pretty captivating in a lot of ways. Some fascinating sounds and beautiful harmonies.
Best song: Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Death In Vegas
3/5
Kinda creepy but kinda calming rock-electronic fusion. A unique sound that was worth experiencing, although there's not many individual tracks that I could say much about.
T. Rex
4/5
A little bit sleazy and a lot of fun. My thing with glam rock is weird bc I'm honestly not even much a fan of the visual style, which I know was a big piece of the appeal at the time. I guess I feel like they were carrying forward the legacy of 60s pop moreso than the other "new" genres of the 70s: lots of attention to melody, simplicity, immediacy. Anyway it's good. Catchy songs, good guitars.
Best song: Rock On
2/5
I used to think I liked punk but honestly maybe I don't. Or maybe punk has to be catchy for me to like it. There's nothing wrong with this album it's just kinda dull and the vocals aren't good and the sound fails to leave an impact. I'm sure it's good in some artsy way but I have no desire to hear it again.
Paul Simon
4/5
Lowkey and relaxing. Draws on African influences in ways that are generally interesting instead of distracting or distasteful. A strong listen.
Best song: Graceland
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
Seriously dark and heavy music; an unwell guy smearing his soul across an audio file. Maybe the weirdest thing about it is that beneath the abrasive layers it's kind of a groovy album, full of great rhythms and unique song structures. I come away from this thinking Reznor is an extremely legit musician who thankfully seems to have worked past his mid-90s issues that caused the subject matter here.
Best song: Closer
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
A very pleasant and pretty lightweight album. Great melodies, not much variety, a little pretentious in the lyrics. Length is good.
Best song: Scarborough Fair
Gang Starr
4/5
Great beats, smooth delivery, impeccable old-school vibes.
Best song: Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?
Kate Bush
3/5
What a weird album. I still don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel about it, and it could probably use another listen that I’m not willing to commit to. There’s something there though. I think… I liked it.
Best song: Suspended in Gaffa?
Nas
5/5
A dark, swirling world of crime reflected on over jazzy bassy boom-bap beats. Lyricism is crazy with the internal rhymes. The peak of gangster rap.
Best song: Life’s a Bitch
Steely Dan
2/5
Opening stretch wasn’t bad but I didn’t really enjoy this despite the jazzy stuff. Corny and kinda dull. Would be willing to try again.
Best song: Barrytown?
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
Abstract, jazzy, political, purposeful. Maybe a hair overhyped, as I don’t enjoy this as much as Good Kid Maad City or Damn, but it’s a great album with a clear vision.
Best song: King Kunta
Adele
4/5
Overplayed? Sure, but also super polished, classy, melodic, and delivered by a showstopper of a vocalist. Adele will age well.
Best song: When We Were Young
Happy Mondays
3/5
Not huge on the vocals. The sound is weird and hard to nail down, but I like the production. It’s the sort of thing I would like, but this doesn’t fully click with me for some reason. I’ll probably revisit at some point.
Best song: Lazyitis
Michael Jackson
4/5
Pretty close to pop/disco perfection in the first half, not as strong in the second, but still a fun listen. A very light and happy album, floating in midair.
Best song: Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
Aretha Franklin
3/5
Whoa what a voice. Songs vary in quality, but it’s a pretty consistent 60s soul vibe. A strong album though I’m not especially taken by it.
Best song: Respect
The Hives
2/5
Okay I don't even hate this but there's no way this is a greatest hits album. THIS is the best of what they had???
Best song: Hate to Say I Told You So
Iggy Pop
3/5
Weird, icy, dour, atmospheric. Definitely reminds me of Bowie's Station to Station, though not as high-quality. A very dense and interesting album although not one I'd want to listen to much.
Best song: China Girl
Barry Adamson
2/5
I liked the early jazzy one and the Milestones interpolation, but otherwise a thoroughly strange album that didn’t click with me. I certainly can’t knock it for diversity or atmosphere, though.
Best song: Something Wicked This Way Comes
4/5
I like this one. Lots of hooks and melody. There’s a pervasive Englishness that might turn some people off but I think it creates a distinct mood and style (and, obviously, it fits the concept). Good songwriting.
Best song: Australia
Jurassic 5
3/5
A chill album built on top of minimal beats. The energy is very consistent, but few songs stand out over others. Rapping is never bad but never impressive. An album you listen to for vibe above anything else, if this is the vibe you want. I like the more experimental and sample-heavy final song quite a bit, but it doesn't really fit with the album that precedes it.
Best song: Acetate Prophets
Jungle Brothers
3/5
Yeah it's 80s hip-hop. I think this is one of those genres where I had more affection for it when I'd heard less of it, not to say it's bad, but it's just a sound that maybe benefits from the distance of nostalgia. Anyway it's cool. A couple bangers.
Best song: Doin' Our Own Dang
Sarah Vaughan
5/5
Yeah that’s an excellent album. Her voice is so warm and rich yet there’s also these great moments where it gets sharp and brassy. Her voice is very instrument-like in that way, adjusting and curving around notes in so many interesting ways. Really enjoyed it.
Best song: How High the Moon
Killing Joke
3/5
I liked this more than I thought I would on first impression. Very well-defined vibe, punk-ish, grim, industrial (not even the genre, just feels like run-down urban factory music). Not really my style but neat enough.
ZZ Top
4/5
Aw yeah. Classic southern rock. Great guitars and grooves.
Best song: Gimme All Your Lovin’
JAY Z
4/5
Great raps. Love the chipmunk soul beats. That Kanye West fella who made some of em seems pretty talented. Wonder what he’s up to these days
Best song: Izzo (H.O.V.A)
Os Mutantes
4/5
Happy, colorful, thoroughly strange, and thoroughly creative. Psychedelic pop through a Brazilian lens. I’m not sure if I’ll ever return to this but I had a very good time.
Best song: Senhor F
Girls Against Boys
2/5
It’s very 90s. Very grungy. Very much music. Sure.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Weird genre mix: kinda funky, kinda rock, kinda pop. Lyrics, when I noticed them, led to some eye rolls. A solid album though not one I would seek out.
Best song: Dlz
5/5
The guitars are obnoxiously loud, obnoxiously treble-y, and distorted to death for no evident reason. The lyrics are often faux-deep drivel. Liam Gallagher’s snide sneer of a singing voice is easy to get sick of. A lot of the songs are same-y. All this is true, and this album still kicks an insane amount of ass.
Best song: Champagne Supernova
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
Hippie folk rock, random bites of electric guitar/rock jamming. I’m kinda mixed here because I really enjoy some of this but other parts feel dated and boring. There’s only a couple of songs that bring it all together for me. A bit of a hodgepodge but a solid one.
Best song: Our House
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
A very fun and heavy album. The last funk rock album didn’t impress me much but I get why these guys are (were?) kings of the genre.
Best song: Give It Away
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
A fantastic album. The concept and the story are well-made without dominating, but more than anything the songs are just really strong. Kendrick on the top of his game.
Best song: Money Trees
Scott Walker
2/5
This album was cute-cute in a stupid ass way
Best song: Best of Both Worlds?
Pink Floyd
4/5
Great sound and atmosphere. Probably need more knowledge of the band to be moved by the Syd Barrett tribute element of it but I was still kinda moved. Good album.
Best song: Wish You Were Here
Cat Stevens
4/5
Calm, meditative folk songs with occasional bursts of rhythm. Only a few songs stick out but a really nice listen all in all.
Best song: Father and Son
Aphex Twin
4/5
I wasn't excited for an hour-long album of ambient music but this legitimately delivered. Bassy atmospheric music with structure, menacing tone, and melodies that are mild but latch onto you. Interested to check out more.
Best song: We Are the Music Makers?
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Songs of sweeping sorrow. Marvin Gaye’s standard sexiness tempered by misery, making for a weird and distinct emotional tone. Great vocals, subtle but twisted and stretched. Drags at times and more focused on mood than melody, but a strong and memorable breakup album. (Maybe one of THE seminal breakup albums along with Blood on the Tracks?)
Best song: When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Obviously there's not a lot of variety here, but I love Sinatra. Immaculately warm vibes.
Best song: I've Got You Under My Skin
Jimmy Smith
3/5
Not very exciting but perfectly listenable jazz. Hammond organ brings a cool element. Wish the drums weren’t so quiet in the mix.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
A highly strange and highly expansive album. The first listen was mixed, but the second was more rewarding, particularly with the long jams. Listening on headphones helped also. Closing pair of songs are incredible.
Best song: All Along the Watchtower
Radiohead
4/5
Not quite peak Radiohead but a dark, rich album that's worth exploring. An interesting halfway point between the electronic paranoia of Kid A/Amnesiac and the ultra-clean arpeggiated rock of In Rainbows.
Best song: 2 + 2 = 5
Rod Stewart
3/5
Wow that’s a raspy voice. The blues rock stuff was kinda forgettable but the more acoustic stuff was pretty good. Decent album all in all.
Best song: Maggie May
The Darkness
3/5
That shrieky falsetto the singer loves to use got on my nerves kinda fast. That aside, it's a solid album. Very 70s with the bright crunchy guitars and big dramatic vocals.
Best song: Friday Night
Moby
4/5
Sometimes repetitive within songs, but pretty varied as a whole. Relaxing, creative, polished, smooth. Not sure I'd do another full listen anytime soon, but pretty fulfilling.
Best song: Inside
Bob Dylan
4/5
A great album from a master songwriter. I do think the electric numbers aren’t the strongest: Outlaw Blues and On the Road Again could have easily been left off, She Belongs to Me and Love Minus Zero are a little too similar, and he just isn’t tapping into the bite and drive he’d later access on Highway 61. So it borders on a 4, but some of his greatest solo acoustic numbers are on the second side so gonna give it full marks.
Best song: Mr. Tambourine Man
The Verve
2/5
Long, dreary, drawn out notes, blah vocals. I liked Bittersweet Symphony but this was a disappointment. Also the cover kinda creeps me out cuz they look like vampires. And not the cool kind of vampires, the skinny white guys living in a castle for 500 years kind of vampires.
Best song: A Northern Soul
Fleet Foxes
5/5
A perfect one to pop up for the weather getting colder. Reflective, beautiful, melodic, impeccably crafted. Not for everyone or every mood, and no, they’re not “authentic” country woodsmen, but who really cares? Probably the only thing I can fault it for is spawning a few too many sub-par imitators.
Best song: Ragged Wood
Tom Waits
1/5
Yeah I could not finish this one. I kinda liked Rain Dogs but no.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Relaxing and pleasant with a glittery, smoky sound. Nothing especially stands out, to the point that it borders on boring, but a very solid easy-listening type of album.
Best song: I Can't Make It Alone
Judas Priest
4/5
Yeah this rocks. Awesome riffs, great energy, great vocals. The couple of more anthemic songs don’t really land for me but otherwise 🤘
Best song: Breaking the Law
Grateful Dead
3/5
I was kinda dreading this one, but there are a lot of fun and interesting moments here. There is, of course, also plenty of self-indulgence: the feedback track alone drags down the score. All things considered, they’re a notable act and it’s worth experiencing their very famous live sound, even if it’s a pass for you.
Best song: Turn On Your Love Light
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
I'm a big fan of Sound of Silver, and this album lives up to it. Dense and heavily-layered soundscapes with great grooves, great atmosphere, powerful rhythms, emotional punch. A lengthy album with a lot of lengthy songs, yet I never felt bored or unfocused (save, maybe, at the end). A great comeback.
Best song: how do you sleep?
AC/DC
5/5
The perfect hard rock album. No notes, wouldn’t change a thing.
Best song: You Shook Me All Night Long
Rush
3/5
Cool. The opening medley is a little much (is there any particular reason all the sections couldn’t have just been songs?) but I think it’s neat. Good instrumentation. Liked the dorky fantasy lyrics, not so much the libertarian stuff.
Best song: 2112 Medley
Deep Purple
4/5
That was pretty sick. Wish the sound was a little bit heavier but otherwise pretty unimpeachable hard rock.
Best song: Smoke on the Water
Japan
2/5
I’m not gonna give it a 1 because it’s not terrible, but wow I do not like this. That version of All Tomorrow’s Parties abandons basically everything I like about the song. Limp-wristed mewling synth pop.
Best song: The Other Side of Life(?)
Shack
3/5
Album started really strong and didn’t completely hold that momentum, but overall really tuneful and enjoyable.
Best song: Natalie’s Party
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Good raw sound. Sort of an aimless album at times, but isn’t that kind of the point? A clear predecessor to punk, grunge, indie, etc., except for this guy it wasn’t a put-on.
Best song: Round & Round?
Dire Straits
3/5
A laid-back, bluesy, shuffle-y rock album. Fittingly unexciting but pleasant, with some interesting musical stuff.
Best song: I mean I don’t want it to be Money for Nothing bc of the slurs. But I’m sorry, it’s Money for Nothing
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Classic Stones. Not as hard-edged as their best stuff, but still a great bluesy pop album. Last song is a little excessive but everything up to that point is tight and sharp.
Best song: Paint It Black
TV On The Radio
2/5
A lengthy downbeat album that threatens to become interesting but never really does. The bass is pretty good and the doubling of the voices is an interesting effect. Beyond that it’s a kind of a snore.
Best song: Wear You Out
Ice Cube
3/5
Great passion and fire. Ew to Farrakhan. Beats get same-y, but a few hot tracks here.
Best song: It Was a Good Day
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
Sounds like background music to a 60s comedy spy movie. I love it. Band is great, songs are great.
Best song: Comin’ Home Baby
Boston
4/5
All killer no filler. Catchy, bright, happy, high-energy rock.
Best song: Foreplay/Long Time
Kanye West
4/5
Well I have to throw out a disclaimer that Kanye is bad and I don't feel great about giving him some pittance of streaming revenue. His decision to start openly spreading antisemitism sure turned me off of him as I think it did a lot of people. But if we're just looking at the album then I have to profess that it's very very good. A generational shift point in the genre for sure, bright bouncy production, oozing with charm and authenticity. All that talent, and look what he's done with it. It all falls down, huh?
Best song: All Falls Down
3/5
Rock at it's loudest, rawest, and nastiest... well, at least by 1969 standards. That rawness is the album's main feature but it isn't completely a strength to me; there's not many coherent songs here. Super hard and passionate performances, though.
Best song: I Want You Right Now
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Spacey, trippy, bluesy psych rock. You can tell the genre and its conventions, and particularly its experimental elements, are still up in the air as this isn’t the most exciting album in a lot of ways, but it’s a fun and approachable listen.
The The
3/5
An odd little album with some nice melodic choruses and some big booming drums. Very 80s.
Best song: Heartland
Elliott Smith
3/5
Ethereal, moody, dirge-y. Some good melodies and a very certain vibe. Could grow on me.
Best song: Alameda
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
I’m surprised by this considering I’m not a big fan of 80s pop or Cyndi Lauper’s voice, but this is good. Like REALLY good. All killer no filler synthpop.
Best song: All Through the Night
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
Stripped-down old-school rock. I like Tom Petty’s whole thing on paper but I’ve always had a hard time getting into it outside of the big hits. It’s a very decent short-and-sweet album with no particular flaws but not much that thrills me.
Best song: American Girl
Pavement
3/5
An interesting one. Sometimes melodic and breezy, sometimes prickly and unfriendly, occasionally both at once. The whole sleazy downbeat indie vibe here is not really one I can get 100% behind, but a solid album with a spirit all its own.
Best song: Gold Soundz
Beach House
5/5
Gorgeous glimmering music, loud and powerful yet gentle and soothing. Impeccable atmosphere.
Best song: Take Care
4/5
A very pleasant surprise after my meh feelings toward Dry, and a confirmation of my impression that she had a lot to offer despite that. A great turn-of-the-2000s rock album with melody, grit, and heart.
Best song: A Place Called Home
Black Sabbath
3/5
Very distinctive, atmospheric. You can tell it's foundational for metal but maybe not metal itself because a lot of the album is just heavy blues stuff, close but not quite there, and honestly kinda monotonous. I wouldn't put this on it again but I liked a good amount of it.
Best song: Black Sabbath
Justin Timberlake
3/5
Ultra-polished R&B-flavored pop. The hits are good and the rest is at least passable. Album’s too long. Doesn’t hit me hard but worthwhile.
Best song: Rock My Body
Duke Ellington
3/5
Not a huge fan of the big band sound in jazz, at least not compared to what smaller acts do, but there are good moments here. That big sax solo (mostly) met the hype.
Best song: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue
Serge Gainsbourg
1/5
A pedophile mumbling over elevator music. Yeah, absolutely not.
Beastie Boys
3/5
The production is pretty expansive and creative, though a lot of the songs themselves feel like afterthoughts for the simple joy of snipping together beats. Still more or less enjoyed it.
Best song: B-Boy Bouillabaisse medley
The Rolling Stones
5/5
This might be my favorite Stones album? It's weird because they're supposed to be rock gods and then this album is 80% acoustic country and blues music. Five coke-addicted art students from London shouldn't be able to pull off this type of music this well, but if you ask me they got a serious handle on it. And the classics are, of course, classic: the opener alone demands you to listen to the rest.
Best song: Sympathy for the Devil
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
Okay so uh. There’s interesting stuff happening here. It’s not unlistenably bad. I kinda want to give this a 2 just for the fascination factor of it, but I’m rating it in the middle because I’ve heard enough. It’s not good. What the captain is doing is not for me. But I support him.
Cowboy Junkies
4/5
Super slow burn and sort of same-y, but I’m crazy about the vibes here. Incredible atmosphere and an arresting singer help form a strong if unorthodox album.
Best song: 200 More Miles
Carole King
4/5
Good songs delivered by a warm, rich voice to simple, earthy music. Don’t need much more than that for a good album.
Best song: Way Over Yonder
Blur
3/5
An unfriendly and slightly strange album; the Pavement influence is pretty clear. It’s interesting to see their style filtered through more of an indie rock approach, but I don’t know if I enjoy it too much. Opens really strong before getting hazy and kinda boring.
Best song: Beetlebum
Various Artists
4/5
Christmas :) I liked it. Phil Spector knows his stuff even if he is a murderer or whatever
Best song: Sleigh Ride
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Well it’s definitely Bob Marley. A very solid reggae album though not my favorite material I’ve heard from him.
Best song: Midnight Ravers
The Only Ones
2/5
That wasnt very good
Björk
4/5
This is quite something. On the strange side and sometimes icy, but also full of moments of beauty. Layered production, varied sounds. If you can learn to love Bjork’s voice and get past the weird lyrics this is really strong.
Best song: Unison
Johnny Cash
4/5
Not the most energetic listen, but a fulfilling one. Humble and reflective ballads from an old master.
Best song: Hurt
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
I like the sound although most of the songs don’t quite get there for me. Also I’m honestly not into his vocal approach; there’s a ton of falsetto and it’s pretty thin and breathy. Overall kind of forgettable.
Best song: When Seasons Change
The Damned
2/5
This project has done a number on my opinion of punk rock in general. This album did very little for me until the pretty fun final song.
Best song: Smash It Up
Beth Orton
4/5
I'm not sure what I was expecting out of a "folktronica" album; acoustic guitar backed by beeps and boops?; but this really surpassed whatever those expectations might have been. Occasionally sluggish but often beautiful. A real treat that I will definitely revisit when the mood is right.
Best song: Sweetest Decline
American Music Club
2/5
Certainly not bad but pretty unexciting. It all just kind of chugs at one of two speeds (mid-tempo or slow) without much melody or variety. The random injections of "YEAH! GUITAR TIME" are more strange than anything. Didn't do much for me.
Best song: Firefly?
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Kinda corny with a self-indulgent final song but not gonna lie, pretty damn good. Almost makes me believe in the Springsteen mythos.
Best song: Thunder Road
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
A very solid but only modestly interesting soul album. Really well-crafted and thoughtfully written. Think I could have stood for a little more variety, or maybe a little more melody to go with the atmosphere.
Best song: Final Days
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Not super impressive but perfectly solid. A little weird, pretty jangly, interesting atmosphere. Would try it out again.
Best song: Happy Death Men
Television
4/5
I've heard some hype for this one over the years and yeah that's a great album. Interesting that it's always connected with punk, because it's not really punk at all yet it definitely *feels* like punk for some reason. The singer's kinda bad, which is an issue, but the music is really something and often sounds years ahead of its time.
Best song: Marquee Moon
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Equal turns brooding and cheesy. The lead singer throws me because he always maintains that very light and airy English dandy voice, which gives everything a definite tone but also makes the boring saccharine stuff even worse. Some good beats and nice melodies, though.
Best song: To Face the Truth
Green Day
3/5
Starts off really strong and has some great tracks, but then I don't know what it is with Green Day. It might be the monotony of their sound or just how extremely overplayed they were when I was a kid, but I have a hard time doing a whole album of this. Funnily enough for a punk band, there's also a consistent problem of songs being dragged on longer than necessary; Wake Me Up When September Ends would probably be twice as impactful if they just cut it to 3 minutes max. Then there's the "message"/protest element of it and in the end that just feels a little shallow. But there's no question it's a classic album with a couple classic songs.
Best song: American Idiot
R.E.M.
4/5
Yeah it’s REM. I like REM. It’s good. Yeah.
Best song: Orange Crush
Cream
4/5
Psychedelic rock peaked hard and early, this album being one of the key examples. It’s interesting bc it’s not particularly “psychedelic”; it’s much less trippy than something like early Pink Floyd; but it fuses dark blues rock with poppy color in all the right ways.
Best song: Tales of Brave Ulysses
The Young Gods
2/5
A very creepy crawly album with a lot of interesting samples and structures. Not very enjoyable, but worth experiencing once I would say.
Best song: La fille de la mort?
Leonard Cohen
3/5
A pretty quaint and humble singer-songwriter album despite the synths and backing vocals. Leonard Cohen has his clear limitations, and I almost didn't make it through Take This Waltz, but there's some decent songs in a well-defined mood here.
Best song: Tower of Song
The Prodigy
3/5
An intensely 90s album. Not really what I would choose to listen to most days, but I also get dance tracks are meant for, yknow, dancing, so I can live with how crazily long some of the songs are. Lots of cool bass and wobbles.
Best song: Firestarter
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I'm not really a reggae connoisseur but I know what I like and I love this. Expansively produced with Marley wailing triumphantly over everything; music of love and joy. The type of album you can listen to over and over.
Best song: One Love / People Get Ready
King Crimson
3/5
Well that was pretty strange, sometimes unsettling, and mostly interesting. Some of the more abstract stuff and orchestral sections got on my nerves, but this is more or less a weird listen in a fun way. Rock on ya nerds.
Best song: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2
Joan Armatrading
2/5
I feel almost bad for this take but this album is boring. I can't explain why but nothing here jumps out to me because it's just a soup of boring. Comfortable boring, but boring nonetheless. I'd be interested to hear her with a more spare backing; a solo coffee house set type of thing.
Best song: Somebody Who Loves You
The Stooges
4/5
Whoa. Now that rocks. It does bash and crash a little longer than needed in some spots, but yeah. It rocks.
Best song: Search and Destroy
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
Psychedelic pop in its heyday. This does drag in a couple places, and it’s one of the few examples of a band where I think a label/manager really should have stepped in and meddled by just making Grace Slick the full time lead singer, but it’s fun and hazy and creative.
Best song: Somebody to Love
Louis Prima
5/5
You know it’s good when you immediately start it over when it’s done. So fun and vibrant and sharp. Loved it start to finish.
Best song: Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody
Mudhoney
2/5
Grunge’s leaner, louder, messier predecessor. Honestly kind of disappointing. Lots of thrashing and screaming without much melody or purpose.
Best song: No One Has
Stan Getz
5/5
Me and my girlfriend did interesting things in the back of my car to this
Best song: The Girl from Ipanema
Happy Mondays
3/5
Happy, lazy, quirky, bright. A little too hazy at times for me, but a pretty pleasant listen.
Best song: Dennis and Lois
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
CCR in their short but sweet prime is pretty hard to top. It was funny the day I learned they were more or less all California hippies because I had assumed for years they came out of an actual swamp in Louisiana. The album certainly sounds it.
Best song: Born on the Bayou
Frank Ocean
5/5
Mellow artful R&B perfection. Every song weaves its own fascinating story. Love the beats and his buttery-smooth vocals. I have listened to this one before and loved it for a long time so I am biased. Even if he doesn’t know how to perform live.
Best song: Pyramids
Coldplay
4/5
Album starts pretty strong and doesn’t close quite as well but I honestly like it a lot. I think music nerds react badly to Coldplay because they are “safe” and pop-focused but I don’t think those are dirty words. Great melodies.
Best song: Green Eyes
Michael Jackson
5/5
I mean it’s Thriller. It practically solved pop music. Yeah it’s good as hell, shocker of the year.
Best song: Billie Jean
Heaven 17
2/5
Extremely 80s synthpop album. A few catchy songs but this is kind of an exhausting full listen. Certainly interesting in its atmosphere, at least.
Best song: Play to Win
The Kinks
3/5
Very quaint and whimsical. Honestly, it verges on too quaint and whimsical. Still, Ray Davies is clearly a talented songwriter and there are plenty of lovable moments here.
Best song: Picture Book
Elton John
4/5
Never listened much to Elton John but this does pretty much live up to the hype. Catchy, bright, sparkly, well-produced pop rock. Interesting prog-rock opener and mix of styles. A great album.
Best song: Bennie and the Jets
Cheap Trick
4/5
Fun catchy high-energy hard rock. Def one of the best live albums I’ve heard.
Best song: Surrender
The Coral
3/5
60s psychedelic throwback. That sounds like something I’d super for on paper but it does fall flat on occasion, mostly because it gets a little too interested in being wEiRd and turns hokey. Some good songs and a solid sound here, though.
Best song: Dreaming of You
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
Definitely different from what I'm used to and definitely not something I'd always be in the mood for. Still, the passion and talent at work here are pretty clear. Great driving rhythms and sometimes mesmerizing vocals. Worth hearing.
Nick Drake
3/5
OK yeah, it’s another Nick Drake album with… luxurious arrangements? Strings? Brass? What’s going on? This is definitely the odd duck of the three just due to its production, though I don’t feel substantially different about it. His voice is frankly too weak to sell some of these songs, but the album is sometimes beautiful. One worth coming back to once or twice.
Best song: Northern Sky
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Motown’s crowning achievement, a timeless and beautiful album. The gorgeous music shimmers and gleams while Marvin’s voice yearns for happier times. The album is deeply political but never preachy, infused with purpose and emotion. Love the way that melodies and sounds repeat and develop over the course of the album. Incredible work by an incredible artist.
Best song: Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
Donovan
3/5
One of the most intensely 60s albums I’ve ever heard. It even came before the Summer of Love, so you could argue this was pretty forward-thinking towards that era. Not a lot of great songs here and the sound is pretty thin, but there’s a charm to it that I can’t really put aside.
Best song: Sunshine Superman
The La's
2/5
There’s a couple decent songs, and I can see how this probably influenced the Britpop bands. I certainly don’t think I needed to hear this before I die, though.
Best song: There She Goes
Richard Thompson
2/5
Not a bad album, but a pretty boring one that failed to grab my attention outside of a decent opening stretch. Not a fan of their vocals. Unopposed but unimpressed.
Best song: The Calvary Cross
Fela Kuti
4/5
Sharp, muscular, jazzy funk music. Didn’t totally understand the messaging but definitely felt the music. A really solid and quick album (without the CD tracks).
Best song: Zombie
Fats Domino
2/5
I can’t front, I know Fats Domino is a big deal and a huge influence on rock music as a whole, but this is grandpa music. Just not very interesting from a modern perspective.
Best song: Blueberry Hill
Super Furry Animals
2/5
This isn’t that bad or anything, I think I’ve just reached the point where I’m extremely tired of yet another random British band from the 80s or 90s.
Best song: Something 4 the Weekend
The Beta Band
2/5
A hard one to evaluate. Definitely not something that I felt was an essential pick for the list. Sometimes interesting but sometimes boring in more or less equal measure. At the end of the day I just didn’t enjoy it very much.
Best song: Human Being
Ananda Shankar
4/5
A rich and engaging fusion of Western music with Indian music. My attention does drift away a little from the longer more improvisational stuff, but there’s a lot of interesting turns there, too. A worthwhile, unique listen.
Best song: Mamata (Affection)
Metallica
4/5
Thick, sharp, heavy as hell. Built around riffs, which is a good choice because most of them are great. Several of the songs and the album as a whole could definitely be shorter, but I still enjoyed it a lot. Metal isn’t always my thing but Metallica usually hits the spot.
Best song: One
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
A beautiful and highly polished send-off. Sometimes upbeat, mostly reflective, always fully realized. The title song is and probably always will be one of my all-time favorites.
Best song: Bridge Over Troubled Water
The Crusaders
3/5
Yeah. Street life. Life. On the street. Yeah.
Best song: Street Life
Sonic Youth
2/5
A long, muddy, feedback-drenched album that I’m sure Pitchfork loved. Interesting moments here, though describing what the vocalists are doing here as “singing” would be pretty generous.
Best song: 100%
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
A very slam poetry jazz/soul album. Often a little much, but lots of good piano and organ.
Taylor Swift
4/5
A couple of the album tracks are just okay, and a couple of the hits do get on my nerves, but otherwise this is pretty excellent pop music. If there’s one thing I always have to credit Taylor Swift for it’s her ability to move between styles and registers for each project, which goes back to her songwriting.
Best song: Wildest Dreams
Bob Dylan
5/5
Few albums have more clearly reflected what an artist was going through than this one. Dylan expresses sorrow, anger, regret, and a whole lot more in this bitter self-examination. Not every song is a total winner, but the highs are startling in maybe his last truly great album.
Best song: Tangled Up in Blue
Gene Clark
3/5
A sweeping and occasionally beautiful country(?) album. Sometimes a little too syrupy and overlong.
Best song: Life’s Greatest Fool
Ray Charles
3/5
It’s almost a 4 because Charles is such a great singer and there are some great arrangements here, but it does struggle to engage me at times in the middle. Still a very worthy listen. Shoutouts to the lyric “was I gay… til today?”
Best song: It Had to Be You
Astor Piazzolla
2/5
After one hour I have learned I do not like tango
Harry Nilsson
3/5
Bright Beatlesque pop rock. A little sappy at times, but pretty breezy and enjoyable.
Best song: Without You
Meat Loaf
4/5
A very 70s odyssey, almost insufferably campy and dramatic… emphasis on the almost. A fun and entertaining ride chock full of great vocals.
Best song: Paradise by the Dashboard Light
My Bloody Valentine
1/5
That started kind of OK before turning into utter bullshit
Adam & The Ants
2/5
This might have the most whoops + yelps per capita of any album ever made. Despite all its weirdness it mostly sounds like 80s slop to me.
Best song: The Magnificent Five
Talking Heads
4/5
Whatever new wave even is, I don’t usually like it unless it’s coming from the Talking Heads. Love their off-kilter but rock-solid rhythms and the thin, wiry guitars. Pretty weird but highly listenable.
Best song: Psycho Killer
Kate Bush
4/5
An artsy piano pop epic full of drama and beauty. The first half is excellent but the second half is a lot more uneven (or at least experimental), leaving me uncertain how to rate it. Definitely one worth experiencing.
Best song: Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
Well it’s definitely post-punk. I was gonna give this a 3 until I realized it took like five tries for me to drag myself through this album.
Lou Reed
2/5
A more understated and "literary" brand of rock opera. Pretty disappointing considering how much I loved Transformer; a little too dour and serious, and honestly kind of same-y.
Best song: Sad Song
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
A very pleasant album that rarely excited me. Probably could have used some cutting and editing, but a nice one to throw on.
Best song: De Camino a la Vereda
Funkadelic
4/5
Whoa that’s one of the most incredible guitar solos I’ve ever heard. Tempted to give the entire album a 5 off its strength alone but not sure I’m quite that high on it. Still a strong product as a whole with a really tight band.
Best song: Maggot Brain
Soundgarden
3/5
Dark grungy rock full of pounding riffs and great vocals. A little too overlong and mopey, but more or less a strong album.
Best song: Black Hole Sun
R.E.M.
4/5
A very pensive and mature album, probably my favorite I’ve heard by REM. Lots of radio hits on here, which is kinda funny since it’s pretty quiet and slow. Definitely one worth replaying.
Best song: Nightswimming
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
Yet another British post punk/alt band from the 80s. I’m torn here because there’s nothing bad (except the first song and its out of tune main riff), there’s just nothing here I really want to hear again.
Best song: She is Mine
Fela Kuti
4/5
Love the style and the energy. Amazing rhythms, as you’d expect with Ginger Baker on it. This and Zombie have made me a fan.
Best song: Black Man’s Cry
Julian Cope
2/5
Some cool psychedelic guitars but those can’t really save this giant pudgy slog of an album. Overlong and self-important.
Steely Dan
3/5
Well I don’t think I will ever be the world’s biggest fan of Mr. Dan in all his steeliness, but I did like this album better than the last one I heard. Pretty cheery and straightforward with some good melodies.
Best song: Reelin’ in the Years
Stevie Wonder
4/5
An immaculate first half followed by a pretty lengthy and self-indulgent second half. Still, there is so much good music here that it barely matters. A bright and joyful album.
Best song: Sir Duke
The Strokes
5/5
These guys might not have saved rock ‘n’ roll like the pundits thought they would but they pulled it off in my heart. Not a perfect album but a really important one for me as a teenager that cemented my love for guitar rock. Still can sing every song.
Best song: Hard to Explain
The Beau Brummels
3/5
A very folksy and cozy album in the early psychedelic tradition. Verges on forgettable, but consistently pleasant with a hair of edge.
Best song: Nine Pound Hammer
Hanoi Rocks
3/5
A very adequate hair metal album, which is above par for my baseline opinion of hair metal. Mixing is kinda awful as the vocals are often washed out, but a pretty fun sound and mix of songs.
The White Stripes
3/5
Probably my least favorite album from a band that I usually love. I get the impulse to experiment and show you can do more than just bash and crash, but piano-based indie-country-blues (or whatever you call this album's sound) is not the best use of these two's talents. There's still several good songs here, but the whole product is messy and not particularly cohesive: almost feels like a collection of B-sides?
Best song: Blue Orchid
Adele
4/5
Just like 25 this was definitely Adele. It was definitely good. She will still age well. All this said Adele does kinda make the same album over and over so I don’t have a lot to say. But hey it’s a good album.
Best song: Someone Like You
Steve Earle
4/5
“Country rock” sometimes makes me cautious as that can involve a giant tasteless mish-mash of girls-n-trucks songs with 80s guitar solos, but this is a very humble fusion of the two genres’ basics with some great songwriting. Really enjoyed it.
Best song: Goodbye’s All We Got Left
Miriam Makeba
3/5
On the one hand, it’s a powerful and unique voice set free in a brisk, tasteful album. On the other hand, I had to listen to all four minutes of “The Naughty Little Flea.”
The Vines
3/5
A very solid rock album though there’s not a lot on it that really grabbed me. Definitely sounds very “of the time” for that early 2000s rock revival.
Best song: Get Free
John Coltrane
5/5
A rich and tumultuous suite featuring some gripping work from a master of the form. Not my favorite of Coltrane’s albums, though I understand why it gets the lion’s share of the accolades due to its high concept and how it serves as a bridge into his more inaccessible free jazz stuff. Still a tremendous and necessary album.
Duran Duran
3/5
The two big hits are great and the sound is very definite, self-assured, and often convincing. It’s also pretty busy and over-produced, and while the album itself is a good length several of the songs overstay their welcome. I think 80s synthpop just struggles to land for me in general, but as far as that genre goes this is pretty strong.
Best song: Hungry Like the Wolf
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
2/5
There’s parts of this I enjoyed but overall kind of a banal listening experience. Very plain and muted.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
They put their blood sweat and tears into this
Best song: And When I Die
Wild Beasts
3/5
Swirling indie rock with lots of shimmery guitars and falsetto vocals. This is really polished and well-produced though often a little too weird for me to fully connect with it. Not a fan of the vocals. Would probably revisit.
Best song: This is Our Lot
5/5
Hard to know what to say. Probably one of my ten or so favorite albums ever made. Every last song is a classic. If Bowie never made anything but this he'd still be a legend.
Best song: Moonage Daydream
Johnny Cash
5/5
My favorite live album. Such a distinctive atmosphere and concept. Love the interactions with the crowd and the way he infuses this pretty grim and dour set of songs with life and color. The masterwork of an all-time great.
Best song: Jackson
Deerhunter
2/5
I dunno, just not really feeling this one. Some cool atmosphere but not a fan of the singer and lacking in memorable moments or melodies.
Best song: Desire Lines
The Modern Lovers
3/5
A weird little album. The singer isn't very good but I still find him kinda charming, and the songs range from banal and empty to refreshingly direct. I do think there's a good pop rock band here but they only sometimes manage to emerge.
Best song: Astral Plane
Kings of Leon
2/5
I’ve always kinda liked their two hit singles from 2008 and this is pretty well-made on a technical level, but wow do I not like it. Very sludgy. What is the lead singer doing.
Best song: Slow Night, So Long
Supergrass
4/5
A slightly quirky and highly energetic album. Very British with a very nasal singer, but consistently charming and melodic.
Best song: Lose It
Beatles
5/5
Middle career Beatles, in transition to being considered “serious artists.” The first proper Beatles album I bought so I have a lot of affection for it. Maybe their most laid-back and pastoral album, very folk rock.
Best song: Nowhere Man
The xx
3/5
A very clean and well-made album, though not an especially memorable one. A few of the songs were intriguing and the production was slick throughout.
Best song: On Hold
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Pretty quintessential Led Zeppelin. More spacious and dramatic than their debut but not quite as raw and immediate. Very good though not what I would consider one of my favorite albums or anything.
Best song: Heartbreaker
David Bowie
4/5
Ziggy’s darker, weirder younger brother. I get why this album hasn’t had the same level of staying power because the mix isn’t that great and it’s not super immediate, but still a strong and rewarding album with a lot of interesting twists.
Best song: Cracked Actor
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Big, messy, wild, and brash, but also clinically tight and sharp. I think this has some of the Stones’ best work on it, but it also gets sloggy in the middle and there are a few throwaways, so it’s hard to rate. I think I prefer their more focused albums but there’s a lot to love here.
Best song: Tumbling Dice
OutKast
3/5
Wow that’s a lot of music. I consider myself a fan of Outkast but I’m both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by this collection—and I do think collection is a more accurate word than album, because this is two solo albums mashed together without much cohesion between the two projects (aside from both being packed full with mostly unfunny skits). Both of them are solid but not especially memorable, and listening to them back to back doesn’t elevate either of them. I think it deserves a spot on the list because it received so many accolades at the time and it produced one of the biggest singles of the decade, but I don’t think it’s an ideal showcase of this duo’s talents.
Best song: Hey Ya
Skunk Anansie
3/5
Maybe my least favorite album title so far, but actually a pretty solid album behind it. Some good heavy tracks and some surprisingly strong use of orchestral drama. Great singer.
Best song: Lately
Roxy Music
2/5
This isn’t bad or anything but wow is it not hitting for me. Pretty boring. Surprising lack of edge considering the album cover.
Best song: The Thrill of It All
James Taylor
4/5
Sweet, mild, and soothing. Some might say they provide variety but I actually think the serene vibe is hampered a bit (and the saccharine vibe amplified) by the blues songs and the big band in the closer… either way, they don’t detract much from the whole product.
Best song: Fire and Rain
The Who
4/5
It may not be a magnum opus, but I still find this really engaging and well-made. Great use of motifs, and while the story isn’t especially coherent I also don’t think it’s a complete mess. Really love the mix of softness and hardness in their sound. Deserves its classic status.
Best song: Go to the Mirror
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
Beautiful harmonies and (usually) melodies in a much simpler and more focused album than Deja Vu. It’s hippie music but damn if I don’t like a lot of hippie music.
Best song: Judy Blue Eyes
Otis Redding
4/5
A legendary voice explores some soul standards (and one rock standard). Really like how the sound is tasteful but maintains some bite. Smooth, easy listening.
Best song: Wonderful World
Dinosaur Jr.
1/5
Well that was an unremarkable but acceptable 2 until the final song. Dinosaur Sr I think you should give this kid a hug.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Very few artists are capable of making music this bright and easy while infusing it with weight and importance. Tight, focused, varied, and exceptional.
Best song: Living for the City
Eagles
4/5
Opening pair of tracks are fantastic and the rest of the album ranges from OK-to-good. Is the last song supposed to be like an apology for manifest destiny?? Some weirdness aside it’s definitely worth a listen or two.
Best song: Hotel California
David Bowie
3/5
I of course know the title track, but beyond that this album was surprising, and often not in a good way. It’s a little too icy and weird for me, and Bowie stretches his voice further than he should to mixed effect. The instrumentals also didn’t really land for me. All that said, I get that it’s one of those albums you probably need to invest some time into to really “get,” and I appreciate just how odd and experimental it is.
Best song: Heroes
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Kind of a weird one but not unenjoyable. Has a movie soundtrack vibe, particularly with the title track. Some good melodies, and the failed experiments are at least trying something.
Best song: Theme from Casanova
Hawkwind
2/5
Well that sure was two hours of a dude grunting “SPACE… SPACE…” over some C-tier Black Sabbath instrumentals.
Best song: Down Through the Night
Black Sabbath
5/5
The fact that it features a few of the greatest guitar riffs ever played pretty much guarantees this is a good album, but there is also zero filler here, not a single missed beat, and many interesting ideas to boot (Planet Caravan?!). Fantastic.
Best song: War Pigs
Stan Getz
4/5
Very Monsters Inc, and that is a high compliment. A little more traditional than Getz/Gilberto but a high-quality and highly relaxing album nonetheless.
Best song: Desafinado
Tracy Chapman
4/5
A very thoughtful and well-constructed folk album. Maybe lacking in energy here and there, but largely engaging, reflective, and rewarding with a couple genuine classics.
Best song: Fast Car
Christine and the Queens
3/5
A very 2010s/Trump-era pop album. A couple heavy hitters in the first half but some parts border on generic. Very well-produced but lacking in personality. Interesting vocal cadence and phrasing (though not always in a good way).
Best song: The Walker
Frank Black
3/5
90s slacker rock with a lot of bright, quick, punchy songs. Kind of feels like an attempt to mainstream the Pixies’ sound or at least fit it into the grunge/alt paradigm (ironic considering the Pixies laid part of the foundation for that paradigm), and I don’t think it totally succeeds. There’s also not really enough meat on the bone here to justify an hour-plus length. Despite all this, a pretty enjoyable listen.
Best song: Thalassocracy
John Grant
2/5
A pretty unique singer-songwriter album with a deadpan singer and some pretty odd lyrics. Some good melodies. A couple of the songs are strong, but there’s a lack of variety and kind of an unsettling vibe about the whole thing from the album cover on down. Slurs never help either.
Best song: It’s Easier
ZZ Top
3/5
Grizzled guitar-heavy southern rock. Not quite as into this one as Eliminator; it’s a bit rawer and realer, but it’s just not quite as fun to listen to. Still, far from bad.
Best song: La Grange
The Doors
4/5
Dark, minimal, muscular, very bluesy. It was interesting to see the direction their sound grew in from their debut, which is similar yet very different. It’s a pretty good but not especially notable album until the final song, which is such a masterpiece it elevates the whole project.
Best song: Riders on the Storm
Blue Cheer
4/5
Heavy, trippy, and fun to listen. Also the rare 60s proto-metal album that actually does sound like metal.
Best song: Summertime Blues
The Smiths
3/5
Some great melodies and guitar lines. Closes pretty strong too. That said, sometimes I am just not in the mood to hear Morrissey sing.
Best song: Barbarism Begins at Home
Neu!
3/5
A pretty light and engaging first half followed by a more repetitive second half. An interesting fusion of electronic music with rock/punk.
Best song: Isi
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
An unfortunately heavy chunk of this is overproduced schlock, though what is good here is quite good. Besides, even the songs I don’t care for are performed pretty professionally and convincingly.
Best song: Shining Star
Nina Simone
4/5
Rich, meaningful, emotionally heavy. Sound can verge on boring sometimes, but consistently classy and well-executed.
Best song: Four Women
Hot Chip
4/5
Weird, groovy, dance-friendly. Good ebb and flow to the tracks. A fun and memorable listen.
Best song: How Do You Do?
The Everly Brothers
3/5
A very simple, short, and sweet album. Really enjoy the fusion of pop, country, and rock-n-roll. A little same-y.
Best song: So How Come
Pentangle
3/5
Very stately and well-arranged. Boring in places, but quite original and often interesting.
Best song: Train Song
Metallica
4/5
I get that Metallica got a lot of criticism for going “mainstream,” but this sounds more like a streamlined album than a compromised one. A little too long, but really heavy, tight, and memorable.
Best song: Nothing Else Matters
Elliott Smith
3/5
A pretty solid album with a lot of welcome 60s homage to the sound. That being said there’s something that screams hipster about this album that I can’t put my finger on but it definitely annoyed me. That’s kinda irrational though.
Best song: Pretty Mary Kay
Kraftwerk
4/5
This is an interesting case where I don’t find this particular set of tracks super exciting (except for a couple genuinely great ones), but I have a huge appreciation for this album’s aesthetics, innovation, and place in music history. So in a vacuum it’s merely decent, particularly by today’s standards, but all the surrounding context is enough to elevate the score for me.
Best song: Europe Endless
The Roots
2/5
I want to like this, and there are a few strong songs, but honestly this is not fun to listen to. It’s somehow a little too experimental yet also pretty boring? Something’s just not clicking.
Best song: Rhymes and Ammo
Marilyn Manson
2/5
It fits the bill as pretty evil- and gross-sounding music (by a pretty evil and gross dude, at that). This is definitely not something I would seek out on my own, but I do have to give it some credit for its vision, plus a few good guitar riffs.
Best song: The Beautiful People
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
Swing music is one of those genres I have plenty of appreciation but little excitement for. This album doesn’t really contradict that opinion, but it’s certainly worthy and well-performed.
The Temptations
4/5
Unexpectedly edgy in the first half and more of what I was anticipating in the second half. Neither is better than the other: a strong blend of tradition and experimentation, built on a foundation of powerful vocals and hypnotic rhythms.
Best song: Hey Girl
Pearl Jam
4/5
The contradiction of Pearl Jam is that their arrival, along with Nirvana and Alice in Chains and all the brothers-in-arms in grunge, was supposed to herald a new and raw and more authentic brand of rock—and yet this album, even more so than the hordes of hair metal slop being churned out in the late 80s, sounds tailor-made to be blasted over the PA system in your local Home Depot or beer garden. The formula for most of these songs is simple: enough heavy guitar to appeal to the average American macho man, but mild and hook-y enough to serve as inoffensive background music. I would argue Pearl Jam's music, and Ten specifically, became the blueprint for two whole decades of mainstream radio rock, the two decades that completely and utterly killed the format... yes, Pearl Jam fans must confront the uncomfortable reality that there is probably no Nickelback, no Creed, no Hoobastank without this album. Without those bands and their overpoweringly muddy and divisive sound, rock radio stations may never have fallen apart. Based on all this information, you might comfortably assume that the album is trash and it killed an entire genre of music’s mainstream relevance and so it should be hated for generations to come.
But the contradiction spreads further and deeper, because you know what? This album really IS good. Like, all-hits-no-misses levels of good. This album's formula works. Pearl Jam knows how to write some melodies, and Eddie Vedder's unconventional wailing and moaning feels like it should be a huge miscue, but instead it suits those melodies perfectly. There really is realness, rawness, and edge here: a song like Jeremy would never have hit the radio before this album dropped, but these guys sell it perfectly. So what do you do with Ten? I would say you can't really blame a band for what record executives and hack imitators choose to do with their style; it would be foolish to blame the Beatles for every two-bit boy band that came in their wake, after all. Still, I don't blame anyone for passing on this one just for how overdone its sound became, and for all it represents. I find it fascinating how you could point to it as the root of rock radio’s demise, but I'm happy to enjoy it for what it is.
Best song: Jeremy
Peter Frampton
4/5
I was not excited when I saw this come up but I can’t lie, that was pretty sick. Great guitar, great melodies, and great energy.
Best song: Show Me the Way
Jethro Tull
2/5
Well that has to be one of the most thoroughly lame albums I’ve ever heard. Jethro Tull enjoyers please keep enjoying them. I will pass.
Best song: Aqualung
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Lots of interesting sounds and vibes here. A little self-absorbed in that way only indie rock can be, but it has some good melodies, some nice bass, and some cool ideas.
Best song: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Zeppelin's magnum opus. A statement so massive that it came out in only the second year of the 1970s and yet it loomed over the whole decade. Big, brash, stupid, stupendous, overplayed as all hell, and, yes, a wonderful album.
Best song: Rock and Roll
Soft Machine
2/5
I may have spoken too soon when I accused Aqualung of being the lamest album I’d ever heard.
Best song: Slightly All the Time
Venom
2/5
Considering it's the namesake of one of the most extreme musical genres out there, and that its cover is literally just Satan's face, this is a surprisingly sludgy and unexciting album. The singer's deadpan grunt drags the tone down more often than not, and the guitar solos are pretty good but they're few and far between. All that said, I would have liked this less if it was actual black metal, so there weren't many ways to win me over here.
Best song: Buried Alive
The White Stripes
5/5
It almost sucks that most people only know this album (and this band) for being the source of that one sports arena song, because this is a cold stone classic. The White Stripes have a dead-simple blueprint: blues-ily flail around on guitar and drums (and ONLY guitar and drums) for a few minutes at a time, throw in some quiet-loud and stop-start dynamics, and pivot to acoustic guitar once in a while. Sounds like there's not much room to grow there, but that formula has somehow progressed and elevated here in a way that doesn't betray its principles while still evolving into new frontiers. The band kind of peaked here and then just gave up two albums later, which implies Elephant might be the limit of what two blues-punk wackos (only one of whom actually knows how to play their instrument) can accomplish. I'm cool with that, though, as this is a pretty awesome peak.
Best song: Little Acorns
The Smiths
3/5
Bigger and more atmospheric than the last Smiths album, though I don’t feel too differently about it. This is succeeding at what it wants to do, I think I’ve just learned I’m not the world’s biggest fan of what the Smiths want to do.
Best song: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
The Rolling Stones
5/5
The Stones at their sharpest, nastiest, sweetest, heaviest, and best. Let’s just try to forget the words to that first song.
Best song: Wild Horses
Pink Floyd
3/5
When this album sits down and focuses on the music, the songs are actually quite strong. The problem is it doesn’t do that a ton. I get that for a lot of people the artwork of this album is the story it tries to tell, but I found it confusing and distracting rather than contributing any kind of cohesion to the final product. Roger Waters certainly has his vision, but I wasn’t much for it.
Best song: Comfortably Numb
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Well it’s very bluesy. Some good guitar, as you’d expect. Not particularly inspiring or weighty, but certainly not bad and probably influential.
Best song: What’d I Say
2/5
Oh goodie, another band from the Steely Dan/Jethro Tull school of rock music. Just what I wanted.
Best song: Mr. Skin
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
My second album with Clapton on it in three days, oh boy. This one starts quite strong, but when the nine-minute jams start rolling in is when I start to lose interest. The title track is remarkable in some places (the beautiful instrumentals of the second half) and irritating in others (LAYYYLUHHH!!!). Overall worth hearing if far from a masterpiece.
Best song: Bell Bottom Blues
Blondie
4/5
Edgy but polished, grimy but pristine, Blondie somehow straddles two worlds in late 70s pop and pulls it off. A fun listen with some depth.
Best song: Heart of Glass
Traffic
3/5
A very consistent vibe, folksy brassy party time. Not totally my thing, but pretty well-written and well-executed.
Best song: Feelin’ Alright?
Dizzee Rascal
1/5
The British have a mixed record with interpreting American forms of music. Rhythm and blues? Imperfect, but pretty great. Jazz? Not much to talk about, but inoffensive. Rap? An assault on the ears.
Best song: Fix Up, Look Sharp
Frank Zappa
4/5
Really inventive and well-executed. Definitely weird, but a legible and interesting mix of genres. Really enjoy the jazzy stuff and the guitar work.
Best song: Willie the Pimp
Metallica
3/5
Bombastic and epic, but also sludgy and sluggish. Probably more interesting in concept than in execution. Not bad, but I don’t need two hours of this.
Best song: The Call of Ktulu
Neil Young
4/5
A quiet, raw, and honest album, laying the groundwork for who knows how many earnest singer-songwriters. The songs are pretty excellent and the focus and vision are clear. I hate to be prissy about this, but the number one issue is that Neil’s shrieky singing voice is just never going to be my cup of tea… I got over that issue with Bob Dylan, but I can’t get all the way there with him. I also think Neil’s hard rock side isn’t perfectly integrated—Southern Man is great, but When You Dance is a mismatch. Summing up, it’s a well-written and sometimes beautiful album, even if the performances aren’t always my favorite.
Best song: Southern Man
Koffi Olomide
2/5
I always appreciate it when the generator gives me the opportunity to hear a new genre and/or culture. That being said, this sounds like background music at a resort with some dude moaning in French over it.
Best song: Désespoir
MGMT
4/5
Bright, spacey, fluid, and super well-produced. Not every song connects with me, but the three big singles are so good and the vibe is so well-established that I still come away with pretty good feelings about this one.
Best song: Electric Feel
Emmylou Harris
4/5
A heartbroken album, with the sadness amplified by Harris’ voice sounding like it might break at any moment, a la Tammy Wynette. Just like Wynette, though, there’s a lot of power in that vulnerability, and the album as a whole exists in that power too. A little dirge-y at times, but really emotional and effective.
Best song: Boulder to Birmingham
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
I’m pretty sure I prefer this to Born to Run, which feels a little blasphemous but I have no qualms about it. A lot of artists were terrified of the 80s, but Springsteen leans into them and I think he succeeds. The album feels genuinely bright and celebratory even though most of the songs are about small-town desperation and misery, and that’s an interesting emotional mix that I don’t think could be pulled off without this style of production. And, of course, most of it is just damn catchy.
Best song: Dancing in the Dark
Lauryn Hill
4/5
Impeccably crafted, smartly written, and a pretty fun listen to boot? Surely Lauryn Hill became the next hip-hop mega star and broke the doors down for women in—oh. I don’t want to dwell on Lauryn never really capitalizing on this album because it’s more sad than anything, but it is too bad this is basically all we ever got from someone who seemed to be a budding master. Thankfully, the album is still here and is still great.
Best song: Doo Wop (That Thing)
The Style Council
3/5
A very weird and pretty polished genre mish-mash. Quite listenable even if I didn’t love some of it. Worth hearing if only for the novelty.
Best song: The Paris Match
Orange Juice
3/5
A very unique sound, mixing post-punk with funk and, uh, disco? That sounds kinda awful but I actually think it works, more or less, even if I don’t love some of the production choices. The singer is a bit of an acquired taste, too. I enjoyed it all in all.
Best song: Rip It Up
Paul McCartney
4/5
Not Paul’s finest work, though I tend to agree with the modern re-assessments that this album was under-appreciated when it released. The scattered, unfinished nature of the album reflects Paul’s own scattered frame of mind as his life’s work disintegrated around him… or he was too lazy and/or stoned to finish the songs and accidentally created lo-fi as a genre. Either way, it’s got Maybe I’m Amazed on it.
Best song: Maybe I’m Amazed
The Who
4/5
A titanic showing by a titanic band. Big, nasty, and melodic, minimalist in setup and maximalist in scope, with some killer musicianship.
Best song: My Generation Medley
Keith Jarrett
4/5
An elegant, fully realized, and impressive display of virtuosity on the piano. There’s a lot of engaging sections and cool musical moments here, too, not just a display of raw talent. Keith could stand to moan a little less, though.
The Black Keys
3/5
When I was 16 years old in 2015 or so, I was kind of a big Black Keys fan and I actually bought this album on iTunes, one of my treasured gift-card-off-the-Walmart-rack purchases. Today I have mixed feelings about the Black Keys and their sound. To sum it up, they sometimes feels like the beer commercial version of a much better band. But isn’t that kind of an elitist take? The Black Keys were a valuable window into a wider world of rock music for me, and I imagine I can’t be alone in that. Maybe in the years since they blew up in the early 2010s, they’ve actually become under-appreciated?
Anyway, the album. There are a few great songs here alongside a variety of mid bluesy filler. The production is objectively pretty strong, as everything’s very clear and sharp, but something about this fuzzy yet clean sound isn’t clicking for me. I could definitely get in a mood where this album hits for me, but it’s telling that I can remember finishing Brothers for the first time as a teenager and feeling my love for the Black Keys starting to fade. There’s something about this album, and this band as a whole, that just feels hollow and overcooked. But hey, they can still write some great singles and you can still have fun listening to them.
Best song: Everlasting Light
Public Enemy
3/5
High-octane, hard-edged, swinging and pounding music. Almost feels like a more rap-oriented companion to Rage Against the Machine, although that’s sort of a labored comparison that probably doesn’t do either album proper justice. The production is a little too busy and crazy for me on most songs, but this is still a fairly rewarding listen.
Best song: Bring the Noise
Muddy Waters
3/5
It’s definitely the blues. Pretty dated, but a sharp and well-executed set from one of the kings of the genre.
Best song: Got My Mojo Working
George Harrison
5/5
A huge achievement by the Beatles’ most undervalued member, bursting with creativity and spirituality. The length is a little much, but I think it’s appropriate to the album’s scope and its massive Wall of Sound production. I can also take or leave the Apple Jam, but I consider those to be bonus tracks and not really a part of the main album. Either way, this is George’s day in the sun as a songwriter that deserves to be taken just as seriously as John and Paul.
Best song: Isn’t It a Pity (Version 1)
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I’m pretty sure I prefer this to The Low End Theory—it’s not quite as focused, but the beats are fresher, the lyrics are stronger, and there’s a little more range. Great production as you’d expect. Could be a little shorter but a really solid album.
Best song: Can I Kick It?
Yes
3/5
Really melodic with some great harmonies and cool multi-section songs. Kinda dorky in that distinctly prog-rock way, but quite enjoyable.
Best song: Yours is No Disgrace
Deep Purple
4/5
Damn. That rocked.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
I saw a post not long ago talking about how Snoop Dogg was in a weird situation where he had become known more for his cultural legacy and not his music. I listen to this album and I find that hard to believe considering the incredible beats and buttery-smooth delivery. Then I pay attention to the lyrics and I realize how hard this album clashes with Snoop’s wholesome modern image as your friendly weed-loving uncle, because this is an aggressively misogynistic set of songs. I guess the fact that he was a scion of gangsta rap is part of the entire joke of Snoop being considered so wholesome today, but I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t consider it quite so funny anymore if they were reminded of what he was actually saying back then. Can you ignore it? Sure, but it’s part of the package whether you do or not. This is a fun and brilliantly produced album, but it is something of a relic for good reason.
Best song: Gin and Juice
The Band
2/5
Wow that's disappointing. I get that the scattershot sound of this album probably helps it sound authentic for a lot of people, but this straight up does not sound good. The three singers clash and run into each other a ton, and the production is kind of a mess. There's some strong songs here, but I have serious trouble enjoying them.
Best song: The Weight
Public Enemy
3/5
I've got plenty of respect for Public Enemy, but man I was not necessarily angling to hear another hour-long Public Enemy album within a week of the last one. The production is good but clearly dated, and the raps are dynamic but sometimes heavy-handed. I also just flat out got tired of Flavor Flav. I can't pinpoint why, I got nothing against him, I'm just not very into hearing Flavor Flav's voice anymore.
Best song: Fight the Power
Mekons
3/5
This album fuses country with British post-punk, and it sounds just as weird as you’d expect. This isn’t very good in a lot of ways but I’m kind of into it regardless.
Best song: Lost Highway
The Teardrop Explodes
4/5
I was not excited when I saw Julian Cope's name attached to this album... but this is good! It mixes new wave with psychedelic pop in interesting ways while staying anchored by strong melodies. The horns can be a little much but I really enjoyed it.
Best song: Treason
Butthole Surfers
1/5
Well that definitely sounds like some dudes on drugs in a random home studio in Georgia.
Best song: Sweat Loaf?
Songhoy Blues
3/5
A cool and unique take on American blues/rock. Not the most exciting, but pretty well-executed.
Best song: Sekou Oumarou
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Long, heavy, dramatic, and pretty interesting if occasionally boring. His voice took a little getting used to but I think I liked it. The arrangements never really hit a sweet spot for me, either too formal and "arranged" or too slapdash and experimental, but I still would say I liked this more than I didn't.
Best song: Hiding All Away
Dennis Wilson
2/5
A raspy, ethereal, orchestral rock album with a highly original sound. That original sound did not really click with me, but it’s certainly a fascinating one. RIP Dennis.
Best song: Rainbows
William Orbit
3/5
A pretty enjoyable if not very impactful electronica album. There wasn't a lot of music going on in the last couple tracks, but the atmosphere was solid throughout. Some good bass.
Best song: Water from a Vine Leaf
Talk Talk
2/5
Well you can definitely tell it was made in the 80s. There’s some interesting ideas and decent atmosphere here, but I don’t especially like any of the songs, so that’s kind of a hard problem to overcome.
Best song: Living in Another World
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Leonard Cohen’s voice might have about as much personality as a wet sack of gravel, but you know what, I will concede it. The man can write some songs.
Best song: So Long, Marianne
Santana
4/5
That was pretty sick. Lots of great guitar, cool Latin rhythms, highly smooth vibes. I liked it.
Best song: Black Magic Woman
Al Green
4/5
Smooth and warm. Traces of pain give some depth to plenty of joy. Drags a little, but overall a full slate of classic soul.
Best song: Let's Stay Together
Deep Purple
4/5
That went hard. Deep Purple is not the most inspiring band in the world, but damn do they go hard.
Best song: Child In Time
The Doors
4/5
Sharp, dark, bluesy. Drags a bit in the middle but there’s some really strong stuff here.
Best song: Roadhouse Blues
The Temptations
2/5
Some great grooves here, but pretty scattered and lacking in melody for my taste. Not necessarily what I’d be looking for out of this band, either.
Best song: Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On
Muddy Waters
4/5
Really gritty and electric album, great energy. Waters’ voice grounds the music, which already has a great balance between edge and old-school blues fundamentals. Quite enjoyed it.
Best song: I Can’t Be Satisfied
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
Cool and smoky with high-quality production and some strong melodies. Quite unorthodox but in a welcome way. I’m no Scott Walker fan, but I can hear and even appreciate his influence on this album.
Best song: Standing Next to Me
The Avalanches
3/5
A wild, creative, and mildly disorienting mix of dance(?) music. The whole concept doesn’t totally click with me, and neither do some of the songs, but there are some great moments here.
Best song: Frontier Psychologist
Brian Eno
2/5
That’s definitely fascinating but too weird for me to enjoy it very much. Brian Eno has a lot of interesting ideas, but he is not a good singer and only a couple of these songs really grab me. Still, I come away curious to hear his other albums.
Best song: On Some Faraway Beach
Elvis Presley
3/5
Woohoo it’s Elvis. He is kinda old and kinda lame already, but it’s still Elvis. Extremely schmaltzy, but a couple great songs.
Best song: Gentle On My Mind
4/5
Great flow and vibe to this album. Strong musicianship, love the jazzy touches. Took a little extra time with it to really get a handle on it, but once I did I really enjoyed it.
Best song: The World is a Ghetto
Talvin Singh
2/5
I wouldn’t listen to this again but I will give it some credit for its originality. Doesn’t save it from being kind of a snore unfortunately.
Best song: Ok
Sinead O'Connor
4/5
Slow, sorrowful, grim, and soulful. Great songwriting, pretty solid production, and of course it has the big hit. Worth more listens.
Best song: Nothing Compares 2 U
The Who
3/5
The pop/rock songs are mostly very good and the blues/R&B songs are mostly very mediocre, so kind of a mixed bag. Definitely the beginnings of something good, though. Keith Moon’s drumming is so insane.
Best song: My Generation
Radiohead
5/5
An all-time favorite. One of the tightest albums I’ve ever heard in terms of both production and performance; so smooth, crisp, and clean. It’s not perfect—I can take or leave Faust Arp and even Videotape—but to me this is Radiohead near the top of their game, fusing the mope-rock of their 90s with the electronic experiments of their 2000s to excellent effect.
Best song: Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
My favorite Springsteen album. I think Springsteen is a good (if repetitive) singer-songwriter who has trouble balancing that with his bombastic showman persona, but he strikes the balance as well as he ever does here. The performances are strong, the arrangements clean, and Bruce’s gravelly roar of a voice is at its most effective. Most critically, lots of great songs.
Best song: Adam Raised a Cain
Digital Underground
2/5
Parts of this are charming and I do like some of the beats, but so much of it is corny and inane that I can’t say I enjoyed it all that much. Also these guys seriously needed editors—did Doowutchyalike really have to be 9 minutes long?
Best song: Underwater Rimes
Mercury Rev
3/5
Strange, creative, whispery, soothing yet eerie. Indie Disney is the best way I can describe the sound. This is not really my thing but definitely worth hearing.
Best song: Endlessly
Kanye West
4/5
Woo, Yeezus. One of the most challenging albums I’ve heard (and actually enjoyed). It doesn’t help matters that Kanye West himself has become a more challenging guy to appreciate than ever, but I’m going to set that aside for now and just focus on Yeezus in its own context, at least as much as I’m able to.
From the start, Yeezus is disorienting and confrontational. That’s not to say it’s some completely uncommercial experimental album, but it’s also not designed to be a friendly listen. If 808s and Heartbreak was expanding who Kanye West could be and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a celebration of his accomplishments, then Yeezus is a furious assault on his past work, his fanbase, and even himself. Try to ignore the comically excessive bragging and boasting on “I Am a God” and “New Slaves” and just listen. Does this sound like a guy who’s having a good time? Beneath the uber-horny hyper-masculine bluster, Yeezus contains a barrage of negative emotions: anger, paranoia, and resentment abound. It’s the most aggressively misogynistic album Kanye ever made (which is saying something) and the lyrics tend towards vulgarity more than any coherent theme, but honestly, that matches what’s going on here sonically. This is the psyche of a man enraged by the world he lives in, one where he’s shattered every barrier to success and still feels like a second-class citizen in his own country, without a single real friend or even a real peer. (Note the crushing loneliness of “I Am a God”—he’s so arrogant that it’s made him despondent.) Pretty much all he’s got left to say now is some variation of “fuck all y’all.”
The music itself is in a continual feedback loop with the troubled emotional state of the songs, and it sounds like nothing Kanye had done before. It’s full of chopped-up electronic noise, grinding synths and guitars, eerily empty spaces, screams and roars shoved through AutoTune. By the time we finally reach some familiar territory in the chipmunk soul of “Bound 2,” the song almost feels like a cruel mockery of his old work, a final goodbye to the awkward guy in the pink polo that he started out as. Now we’re left with this snarling megalomaniac, lost in his own myth, endlessly chasing highs at the cost of his own family, and apparently in love with Hitler. You listen to this album and it really shouldn’t be a shock that Kanye turned into what he is, he’s always been almost *too* honest about himself—after all, his masterpiece, Runaway, is a self-pitying confession about what a bad person he is… but I digress.
One thing I want to highlight is the way Kanye sometimes breaks the hostile environment with sudden and emotive interludes: see the children’s choir in “On Sight,” the arena-rock finale of “New Slaves,” or the gospel bridge of “Bound 2.” It’s hard for me to identify why these sections work so well for me, even though they’re usually completely out of step with the songs they’re included in. A reprieve from the harsh sound font of the album? A reminder that there’s still some light among the darkness? I just like the melodies? Maybe all of the above, but whatever the reason is, they’re among the album’s most memorable moments. Many of these songs live on contrasts, the switch between soft and sharp, and the execution of that idea is pretty great.
I don’t love Yeezus. It would take someone made of tougher stuff than me to love an album with this many jagged edges, that goes out of its way to spit in your face so often. But I do admire it, because in a musical world increasingly defined by the monotony that the streaming economy rewards, Yeezus sticks out as a legitimately bold move. I can’t think of an artist today with the sort of stature that Kanye had in 2013 who would release something this intense and unusual. It isn’t my favorite Kanye album, but it probably represents his peak as an artist who commanded real respect and attention. Now he commands none of either, and that just makes Yeezus even more of a feel-bad album than it already was. Would be a shame if he didn’t deserve it.
Best song: Blood on the Leaves
Bad Company
3/5
Exceptionally average 70s rock. Consistent, if unexciting.
Best song: Bad Company, by Bad Company, on Bad Company
SZA
4/5
Shimmery, emotive, yearning soul music, like someone threw Aaliyah and Beach House in a blender. Great atmosphere and vocals. I’m into it.
Best song: Normal Girl
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
This is relatively innovative, smooth, and cleanly produced. All that said, there is something I find profoundly lame about this album that I can’t dismiss. Most of it sounds like the music that would play when the henchmen appear in a bad 90s movie.
Best song: We Have All the Time in the World?
Le Tigre
2/5
The energy and sharpness of this album are cool, but the sound is pretty thin, the production is blah, and the vocals range from nonstandard to flat-out bad. It’s definitely a unique spin on punk, so I can appreciate it but I’m not a big fan of it.
Best song: Slideshow at Free University
Prefab Sprout
4/5
“Sophisti-pop” is not a genre label that excited me on first glance, but this is not only sophisticated but also emotive, well-written, and well-produced pop. It’s certainly lacking in edge, but it makes up for it in craft.
Best song: Polly
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
I'm not really into Curtis Mayfield's love for falsetto, but this is still a very fun yet weighty album with a crystal-clear concept. Strong melodies and rhythms.
Best song: No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
Well it’s definitely Siouxsie—lots of wailing, icy guitars, and foam-soft drums. I acknowledge the very distinctive soundfont and vibe that this album has, I just don’t really enjoy it.
Best song: Carcass
The Who
3/5
Well that doesn’t really sound like the Who. This is a solid psychedelic pop album, though I also find it pretty scattershot and unfocused. (But isn’t a lot of psychedelic music like that, for obvious reasons?) There are some very melodic and pleasant songs here, just not quite what I would be looking for.
Best song: I Can See for Miles
Kate Bush
4/5
Somehow enormous and intimate at the same time. Kate Bush isn’t the most approachable but wow can she knock it out of the park once you get drawn in. Will return at some point.
Best song: Love and Anger
Ministry
2/5
Well that wasn’t very pleasant. I do like some of the guitar riffs here, but I don’t really like music that tries this hard to be dark and intense.
Best song: Hero
Massive Attack
3/5
An ethereal electronic album that relies on atmospheres and textures. Consistently relaxing, occasionally interesting, and sometimes forgettable.
Best song: Weather Storm
Skepta
2/5
That was definitely better than the last grime album I got. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s good.
Goldfrapp
3/5
Kinda sounds like diet Bjork with more synths. Not always my vibe, but there are a few quality songs here.
Best song: Happiness
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
There are decent songs here, though the theatrical arrangements aren’t really my thing. I almost came to like this album, but sadly I can’t really get past Rufus Wainwright’s voice. He sounds like Thom Yorke if you sliced out 75% of his range and ability to emote.
Best song: I Don’t Know What It Is
Radiohead
3/5
Not as high on this as I am on most Radiohead albums. This is probably their most difficult release, clearly a companion to Kid A but more muted and mysterious than that already kinda challenging album. The songs don’t get all the way there for me, but it’s still an interesting listen.
Best song: Knives Out
Aimee Mann
4/5
Very 90s, from the cover on down. There are lots of good songs here, sharp, melodic, and performed with a distinct style. A strong album for sure.
Best song: Stupid Thing
Antony and the Johnsons
1/5
Sounds like Sam Smith and James Blake’s love child freestyling over orchestra practice.
Best song: Fistful of Love
Milton Nascimento
4/5
Bright, expansive, creative, and fun. A little different but a real treat. This list’s Brazilian music has been hitting so far.
Best song: Dos Cruces
Nightmares On Wax
2/5
There’s nothing really wrong with this, but wow did it leave no impression at all.
KISS
4/5
There are not a lot of bands out there who are dumber and louder than Kiss. They are truly music for the lowest common denominator. And damn if they don’t rock.
Note: I was not aware until listening to this whole album how hilariously out of place Beth is. Also the music tries to sell it as this deep emotional song about separated lovers, but it’s literally just a dude at band practice telling his girlfriend sorry but we’re still practicing. It’s only fitting that one of the dumbest bands ever has one of the dumbest ballads ever.
Best song: God of Thunder
John Prine
4/5
The most striking thing about this album is the chilliness of it. I’d always thought of John Prine as this warm folksy Appalachian grandpa, with my only real exposure being his funny and warm “In Spite of Ourselves,” but this album reads as dispassionate and cynical. “Sam Stone” paints a haunting picture of addiction while punching you in the gut with its frank statement that “Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose,” and “Pretty Good” is a biting dismissal of the idea that anything really means anything. Prine weaves stories of average people suffering under a grim and disinterested universe. Even the more comical songs, like “Donald and Lydia,” tend towards a cosmic flatness, as two outcasts who seem meant for each other never actually make it happen; they’re destined only to “make love ten miles away.” The opener, an ode to marijuana in “Illegal Smile,” seems friendly, but even it’s openly about using drugs to escape the misery of everyday life. This is a DOUR album.
So to me, while this album is good and Prine is clearly talented, it’s not hard to understand why he never gained the wide audience that songwriters like Bob Dylan or Neil Young or Paul Simon picked up. Dylan was often cynical, but that cynicism came from strong emotion; Young was often miserable, but he was also sentimental and had a rah-rah electric guitar side to balance it; Simon was often dispassionate, but his removed character studies are usually more charming than sad. Prine is all three of these things, and he makes no attempt to water them down or make his songs more palatable to a popular audience. That goes to the sound, too, as his dry bleat of a voice lends little color to the spare arrangements. Charitably, he’s an uncompromising sort of artist, too honest to be accepted by the general public. Uncharitably, his music is too damn boring and depressing to earn a huge fanbase. Either way, I come away impressed by his talent but not necessarily excited to hear more.
Best song: Hello in There
N.E.R.D
3/5
Bouncy, pitchy, goofy pop rock. The songs are kind of hit-or-miss, but I can appreciate this. It’s pretty fun, and Pharrell knows how to write a hook.
Best song: Wonderful Place
The Beach Boys
4/5
Well it’s a massively regarded album for good reason. I’ve heard Pet Sounds several times and it always felt more like something I’m supposed to love than something I actually love. This time I definitely appreciated its scope and its craft, especially for 1966 and especially coming from a teen-pop band of surfer dudes. There are a couple all-time classics, especially the heartbreakingly gorgeous God Only Knows. But I feel like, I dunno, some of the songs are just not really cutting it? The album’s production is super overpowering and it does all the work in the weaker tracks, and I don’t love the effect of that. But whatever minor criticisms I can toss at Pet Sounds, its place in pop music history is assured.
Best song: God Only Knows
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
I’d always dismissed these guys as one-hit wonders, but this is a pretty bright and fun genre mix that shows they had more to offer than just the one hit. It is very 80s, for better and worse, but I enjoyed it.
Best song: Come On Eileen
Machito
3/5
Not really sure what this had to do with Kenya, but it’s a solid swing album with a neat mixture of Latin rhythms.
Best song: Blues a la Machito
The Shamen
2/5
British techno slop. Pass.
Living Colour
3/5
A bright and heavy rock album with some funk influence mixed in. Nothing special, but a fun listen.
Best song: Cult of Personality
Basement Jaxx
2/5
Sensual yet robotic, sharp, seedy. I’m not really into the vibe or sound of this, but I can see how it might have impressed a lot of people back in its era.
Best song: Red Alert
Stephen Stills
2/5
My first exposure to Stephen Stills was watching the Americana Music Awards with my dad when I was around 15. He was receiving some sort of lifetime achievement award, and the ceremony closed with him performing Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” with a giant band for about ten solid minutes. For What It’s Worth is a pleasant (if overrated) song, and I was willing to go for it. Then the performance started, and I quickly realized this band was going to attempt to go full Americana and mix at least five genres together—rock and roll, folk, country, psychedelia, blues, and bluegrass were all there, and most of them were not welcome. As the band riffed on and on, as countless white man blues guitar solos rained down, and as old man Stephen Stills kept wailing the by-then meaningless hook (“STOP HEY WUT’S THAT SOUND? ERRYBODY LOOK WHAT’S GOING DOWN!”), I became so utterly disgusted that I resolved never to watch the Americana Music Awards again. Listening to this album, whether fairly or not, reminded me of that experience. There are a few songs I like here, but it’s just a big fat messy hodgepodge that goes on way too long for its own good.
Best song: Colorado?
Turbonegro
3/5
That was stupid as crap, but the guitars were pretty nice.
Best song: Are You Ready (For Some Darkness)
The Police
3/5
A very odd little album for something that apparently was such a big hit. Listening to it I think mainly of Talking Heads, as it has a similar sense of paranoia, but it sounds much lighter and softer than them and I’m not certain that works. There are some boring moments and some bizarre turns (Mother??), but the good songs are really good. So it’s hard for me to get a handle on.
Best song: Synchronicity II
Tim Buckley
1/5
That didn’t necessarily sound horrible, but wow did I hate it. Worked about as well as you’d expect white man sex funk to work.
Run-D.M.C.
2/5
I get why this album is a big deal, but man it is hideously dated. There’s just not a lot here that I find engaging.
Best song: 30 Days
LL Cool J
4/5
Smooth, muscular, and very fun old-school rap. This feels like a major vibe and sound shift from most of the other 80s rap I’ve heard on the list, as full bass-driven beats dominate here. LL Cool J isn’t exactly a virtuoso, but he’s still a charismatic and talented rapper who sells every song successfully.
Best song: Mama Said Knock You Out
Eric Clapton
2/5
Oh God, Clapton. It’s not even like this is bad, it’s actually pretty polished for what it is, but I have zero desire to hear it again. The only memorable song is I Shot the Sheriff, which is all well and good except that it’s just a meek and flabby version of the much better Bob Marley original. Clapton please go away now.
Tortoise
4/5
A fascinating instrumental album with a well-defined vibe of mystery and strong musicianship. Post-rock can look difficult to get into but in my limited experience it’s a pretty strong genre, and this album reinforced that for me.
Best song: Djed
Sam Cooke
4/5
Lively, gritty, warm album. Great sound quality and crowd interaction. Big fan.
Best song: (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
Saint Etienne
4/5
Light, dreamy, well-crafted album somewhere on the edge between dance and indie pop. Not what I would naturally seek out, but a great piece of work.
Best song: Nothing Can Stop Us
Linkin Park
4/5
Why the hell do I like this album so much? I could easily chalk it up to being a child of the 2000s and call it a day, but there’s something more here, from the massive glitchy production to the killer riffs to the legitimate hooks permeating almost every song. Linkin Park are very easy to mock, but I will stand by this forever as a genuinely good album.
Best song: With You
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
4/5
A wonderfully bright and simple album. It might seem primitive at times, but the template for generations of pop and rock music is laid out here. Fun, wholesome, and pretty impressive.
Best song: Not Fade Away
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Oozing with creativity and packed with virtuosic guitar playing, this album ushered in the psychedelic era more than any other. Hendrix’s career wasn’t long but it was impactful, and perhaps none were more impactful than this.
Best song: Third Stone from the Sun
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Definitely some good material here, but does it really have to go on for so long? You can feel Zeppelin starting to sag under their own weight by the end of it.
Best song: Houses of the Holy
Slipknot
3/5
I hate horror movies, Hot Topic, and body odor, so one would think I'm inclined to hate Slipknot. This album was a pleasant surprise, though, even if I may be one of the first people ever to apply the word "pleasant" to this thing. The riffs were consistently great, and the band shows a bit of range, sprinkling in clean vocals here and blast beats there to prove they can do more than one type of metal. As shocking and off-putting as they are on the surface, their sound is actually pretty polished and well-produced, and while I understand why that might make them a joke to a lot of metalheads, it definitely helped things go down easier for me. I didn't love this, but I did enjoy a lot of it and I now get why they have (had?) such a big fanbase.
Best song: Psychosocial
Pere Ubu
1/5
An utter slab of shit. Actual money was spent to record this. It really makes you think.
George Michael
2/5
Well that sure was some 80s pop. Luxuriously produced, quite polished, and incredibly syrupy. I wouldn’t call this terrible, I think it’s just not my taste at all.
Best song: Faith
Pantera
2/5
After the Slipknot album I thought I was warming more to metal but nope, I don’t really like this one. I think the number one culprit is Phil Anselmo’s voice. Whatever he’s doing, I hate it.
Best song: Walk
The Smiths
4/5
The last two Smiths album made me question whether I actually liked them, but this album reminded me that they do have a lot to offer. Still, l’m not as high on them as I once was… partly because their bizarre lyrics now read as more annoying than clever, partly because they lack for sonic and emotional range, and partly because I don’t like Morrissey’s voice (though he is unique, I must give him that). But I don’t want to be too negative. In spite of everything, this is a pretty great album with a few classic songs.
Best song: There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Probably my favorite Neil Young album, and the best fusion I’ve heard between his acoustic side and electric side (though there still is some tension there). A great set of songs delivered with his distinctively emotive weariness.
Best song: Powderfinger
David Bowie
3/5
It's hard to describe how I feel about this one. It reminds me of Blackstar, with a different sound but similarly dour tone, and it has a couple really strong songs that stand up with Bowie's classics. But the whole thing just sort of drags, and the album cover really sets an accurate tone; an old, ragged, dismissive, and derivative take on Bowie's peak years in the 70s. Today is another day, and where are we now? Just as in the song, he sounds tired and unsure of the answer.
Best song: The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
Spiritualized
2/5
Some might describe this as calming—I’d describe it as eerie and droning. I get why people would be into this, but it’s not my cup of tea.
Best song: Run
Germs
3/5
Fast, nasty, hard-hitting. Cool song structures and some good guitar stuff. Off-beat but I was into it—is my faith in punk rock being restored?
Best song: Lexicon Devil
The Chemical Brothers
1/5
A 1 feels really harsh but I am absolutely not finishing this. It literally gave me a headache.
Best song: There were songs?
Soul II Soul
2/5
I was vibing with this until the male singer came in and pretty much ruined the album. Doesn’t help that it feels quite dated.
Best song: Keep On Movin’
Pixies
2/5
A scattershot “slacker rock” album that feels half-finished on purpose. I do appreciate the colorful sound here, disparate genres mashed together to craft interesting textures… but come on, is this really “good” by any normal metric? I guess it was to Kurt Cobain, who translated these ideas into much better music.
Best song: Tony’s Theme
Thin Lizzy
4/5
That’s pretty rad. Great riffs and hooks and energy. Quintessential hard rock.
Best song: Cowboy Song
Peter Gabriel
2/5
This is pretty well-crafted, but man is it a drag. Listening to this feels like I’m 8 years old and have been forced into attending an orchestra.
Best song: Solsbury Hill
Screaming Trees
2/5
A few nice melodies, but such a grungy and dingy sound. I kinda want to like this, but not much memorable here unfortunately.
Best song: All I Know
The Who
5/5
I’ve always found it pretty easy to slot the Who at third place in the imaginary contest between the Big Three British Bands of the 60s (the Beatles being 1st and the Stones being 2nd, naturally), but I will always give them their respect for this album, a towering and majestic peak if any artist ever had one. Possibly my favorite opener-closer pair of any album, and everything in between is pretty awesome to boot.
Best song: Won’t Get Fooled Again
Bad Brains
4/5
A sharp, spiky, paranoid album. Very much “post-punk” in a way that I prefer to a lot of actual post-punk albums. Really like the sound here, atmospheric, mixing heavy and light textures together.
Best song: I Against I
Malcolm McLaren
1/5
That started out alright before descending into utter madness. Not for me.
Best song: Obatala
The xx
3/5
This isn’t the most exciting album in the world, but it is very smooth and well-produced, and a little innovative to boot. You could throw this on almost any time for almost any mood. Still, its applicability to everything means it ends up not being specific to much of anything.
Best song: Islands
Billy Bragg
2/5
I respect the earnestness of this, but the preachiness and the monotony both turn me off. I’ve always been a bit skeptical when people call melodies derivative, thinking that a good melody should always be a good melody, but this album really made me get that criticism. To be fair, it all might have worked better if he didn’t sound like… that.
Best song: The Warmest Room
The Doors
5/5
Moody, rich, and immaculately crafted, fusing the darkness of blues, the sound of jazz, the edge of rock, and the hooks of pop as effectively as anyone ever did. Greatest debut album ever?
Best song: Light My Fire
3/5
Bizarre, elliptical, sort of stupid… but memorable. The production is pretty dense, the melodies are pretty good, and I come away uncertain but interested.
Best song: I Can’t Own Her
The Undertones
3/5
Bright boyish punk rock, full of loud hooks they keep hammering on you. Not my favorite, but pretty fun.
Best song: (She’s a) Runaround
Madonna
3/5
The unique and expansive production definitely elevates this album. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to a point where the sound is pretty dated, and Madonna’s voice has never really been my cup of tea. Still some good stuff here despite those factors.
Best song: Little Star
TLC
5/5
Awesome beats, better production, catchy melodies, great vocals and vibes. A peak intersection between 90s hip-hop, R&B, and pop.
Best song: Waterfalls
Robbie Williams
3/5
Britpop that leans hard into the pop side. Oasis was clearly a reference point. A little vapid, but I enjoyed it.
Best song: Angels
Nirvana
4/5
A rawer and angrier album than Nevermind, almost like a rejection of that album’s success. I can’t say I enjoy it quite as much, but I do appreciate its darker tone and rawer emotions. Strong production and dynamics, and of course, Cobain’s ear for melody is still here and strong ever.
Best song: Heart-Shaped Box
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Incredibly dated 80s synth-pop. I guess some people go for the detached tone here, and I actually kind of liked their last album we got, but this is not for me at all.
Best song: What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Dwight Yoakam
4/5
Twangy and mournful with a full sound. Great mix of instruments. Great songs.
Best song: Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)
Sonic Youth
2/5
I must be thoroughly uncool, because I don’t get these guys at all and I have no desire to.
Best song: Shadow of a Doubt
David Ackles
3/5
Thoroughly strange and unique, mixing show tunes with folk music and a grim naturalist approach to lyrics. I can’t say I loved it, but it’s definitely well-made and something I appreciated being exposed to.
Best song: Ballad of the Ship of State
Beatles
5/5
The peak of Beatlemania. Bright, fresh, happy, energetic. Fills me with good feelings.
Best song: If I Fell
Small Faces
2/5
Well that sure was weird. Some interesting sounds here, but also some weird mixing decisions—I often felt like the melody was way too low in the mix. And then the last song was more tedious than anything.
Best song: Lazy Sunday
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
Considering this is one of the most hipster-coded albums I've ever heard in my life, it’s really not bad.
Best song: I Could Be Dreaming
Morrissey
2/5
I definitely didn’t need to hear that before I died. A few good tunes I guess.
Best song: I Like You
The Pretty Things
3/5
Strange, psychedelic, creative, and colorful. I’m pretty into this despite its wonky sound.
Peter Tosh
4/5
I’ve never smoked weed but that still ripped
Best song: Legalize It
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Sharp, pulsing, and (for the time) genuinely modern rock, carving a new direction for the genre. It didn’t necessarily follow that direction, but I still really enjoy this album. Feels like a next step from the garage rock of the Strokes and the White Stripes, with a British twist.
Best song: Fake Tales of San Francisco
Def Leppard
3/5
Loud, catchy, and 80s as hell. This is one of the best takes on pop metal (AKA hair metal) that you’re going to find, but I do find it starts to get repetitive at a certain point.
Best song: Stagefright
Arrested Development
3/5
There are a lot of good beats here, and the album is packed with melody, harmony, and great energy. But wow is it corny, and the preachiness really is too much sometimes. My view of this group is possibly colored by Todd in the Shadows’ review of this album’s follow-up, Zingalamaduni, but songs like People Everyday and U definitely make me understand why they drove some people nuts when they were popular.
Best song: Tennessee
Baaba Maal
2/5
Sure. That’s cool I guess.
Depeche Mode
3/5
An eerie, atmospheric, and well-crafted album. Embraces the computerized, almost alien sound of synthpop to good effect. I don’t think I loved it, but I would give it another listen or two.
Best song: The Things You Said
PJ Harvey
2/5
Well that’s wildly different from her last couple albums I heard. Far inferior to Stories from the Sea, but not bad, really—just kind of boring? This one really fails to grab me in sound or vibe.
Best song: Bitter Branches
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
2/5
Weepy and boring. I could get behind the atmosphere of this, but no compelling songs or performances.
Best song: Madeleine-Mary?
Beyoncé
3/5
I am always okay to admit when I just don’t “get” an artist, and I am never really going to “get” Beyonce. I am a straight white guy and her music is not really for me. This album is solid, certainly well-made, but stinks way too much of 2010s pop trends and polish. Still, this is an interesting album since you can see the perception of her transforming from pop-soul diva to Serious Artist Making Serious Statements. Her own conception of herself seems to be changing in the same way—I don’t know why else she would include a whole-ass excerpt of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie giving a talk on feminism. The transformation would solidify on Lemonade, but it is kind of funny to see an early draft of it on that song, where you have her trying to mash together serious commentary on women’s worth with her roaring “I’m the shit, bow down bitches.” I guess for a lot of people it synthesizes perfectly… but again, not really for me.
Best song: Blue
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
Oh yay it’s these guys again. This is easily better than Bug, but the end of Tarpit, the butchering of Just Like Heaven, and the singer sounding like he's on opioids all combine to bring it down.
Best song: Little Fury Things
The Sonics
4/5
It’s raw, it’s dirty, it’s stupid, it’s repetitive, it rocks.
Best song: Psycho
Aerosmith
3/5
Sharp and definitely well-made, but kind of uninspiring with no great songs (but some good guitar riffs). I have always found Aerosmith overrated, so maybe I came in with a bias, but I’ve heard some hype for this album and was ready to have my opinion changed. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Best song: Sick as a Dog
Fiona Apple
4/5
This album often sounds light, but it’s richly dark, searing with intensity and instability just under the surface. Pretty odd, but really unique, passionate, and purposeful. Great stuff.
Best song: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Thundercat
4/5
Wild, weird, colorful, and creative. A great mix of psychedelia, soul, jazz, and hip-hop.
Best song: Inferno
Fugazi
4/5
A prickly album, forcing the anger and aggression of punk inwards and spewing it back out in complicated and compartmentalized form. A little unfriendly, but pretty rewarding.
Best song: Shut the Door
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
I like the sound of 60s pop rock and there are some great moments here, but it’s all just a little quaint. Then the last song is pleasant but almost impossibly corny.
Best song: I’m Not Your Stepping Stone
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
One of those albums where I really appreciate being exposed to it, even if I don’t necessarily love it. Kind of muted and verges on boring, but still a valuable and unique mixture of sounds and cultures.
Best song: Banga
Paul Weller
2/5
Old man rock. There are some decent tunes here, but just incredibly unexciting.
Best song: Moon on Your Pyjamas
Waylon Jennings
5/5
One of the kings of country at the top of his game. Quick and punchy, rollicking one minute and mourning the next. A quintessential country album.
Best song: Honky Tonk Heroes
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Smoother and softer than earlier RHCP albums, mostly to good effect. This is a weird album because I think they became kind of boring and milquetoast after it, but here, the synthesis between their early party-funk sound and their later adult-alternative sound works for me.
Best song: Otherside
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Classic Marley front to back. I did jolt a bit at the line about bombing a church.
Best song: No Woman, No Cry
Grant Lee Buffalo
3/5
A dour and mysterious album that infuses 90s alt-rock with some country sound. Sometimes a little too serious and mopey, but sometimes quite good.
Best song: You Just Have to Be Crazy
Elvis Presley
3/5
It’s Elvis! Kind of what you’d expect from post-army Elvis, and kind of all the same. Nice vocals and pleasant sound, though.
Best song: Such a Night
XTC
3/5
A lot to chew on with this one. I can honestly say I’ve never heard a band with a sound quite like theirs. I was sometimes entranced and sometimes bored, but I was never not fascinated by their originality. Very much worth hearing, and even worth re-listening, even if I’m not a huge fan of it at the end of the day.
Best song: Season Cycle
Richard Hawley
3/5
At first this seemed pretty boring, and I guess it honestly is, but I enjoyed it. It can get dirge-y, but it’s also well-written, well-produced, and quite calming.
Best song: The Ocean
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Thin and shadowy rock music, buzzing with feedback but also chiming with melody. Great atmosphere and great songs. For my money, this is the successful master release that follows the rough pre-alpha build that was Psychocandy.
Best song: Happy When It Rains
Wilco
3/5
This one has a pretty big reputation. I can’t really say I’m too impressed by it. I’m not a big fan of Jeff Tweedy’s scratchy hipster singing voice, and the sound is pretty mopey and verging on monotonous. But there are some good songs here, and it is very well-produced, and there is clearly a vision. So I can’t love it, but I definitely can’t hate it. In the end I think the story behind the album (and its ominous release on 9/11, with that cover??) are a little more interesting than the actual album.
Best song: Pot Kettle Black
Pixies
3/5
I think this is our last Pixies album, and I come away kind of unimpressed by this band even though this was a decent album. This has a claim to being my favorite of the three, but I think it also has a good claim to being the most boring. Not sure what that says about my taste.
Best song: Havalina
Steve Winwood
3/5
That was pretty much what I expected: well-produced, nauseatingly 80s, kind of lame. The one unexpected factor was that I kinda liked it. You do you Steve.
Best song: Arc of a Diver
Bill Evans Trio
5/5
Minimal, clean, creative, and brilliant live jazz. Requires a little focused listening, but very rewarding. Evans might be my favorite pianist ever.
Best song: Alice in Wonderland
Mudhoney
3/5
More muted and even than Superfuzz Bigmuff. Probably not as memorable, but a stronger collection more suited to my taste.
Best song: Into the Drink
Manu Chao
4/5
A unique album, bouncing between languages and vibes while staying rooted in a laid-back Latin-reggae sound. I really enjoyed the continent-hopping feel of this, and it helps that it’s a fun listen.
Best song: Desaparecido
Slipknot
1/5
I gave them a couple flowers for their other album but no, hell no. Who actually likes this and what is wrong with them?
Aerosmith
2/5
I’m into a lot of the big dad rock bands, but I have never liked Aerosmith. On paper this is something I’d be down for, but the whole product does not come together at all. I can’t pinpoint why, either. I’m not really into sleaze and I find Steven Tyler highly annoying, so I guess there’s two factors.
Best song: Janie’s Got a Gun
Underworld
2/5
Pretty solid background music with one or two interesting moments. Way too long.
Best song: Banstyle / Sappys Curry
The Cure
2/5
Lots of mewling and moaning over echoing soundscapes. Fairly unique, but not very impressive.
Roxy Music
2/5
I’ve long thought that critics of the arts can often become so familiar with their chosen medium that they become desperate for originality, and that desperation leads them to develop some really bizarre taste. There are few better examples of my idea than the fact that so many music critics seem to love Roxy Music.
Best song: The Bob (Medley)
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Overdone? Sure, maybe. Incredible? Absolutely.
Best song: Back to Black
Faith No More
4/5
Sharp, heavy, consistent, and fun. A treat to listen to, even if it is a little dated.
Best song: Epic
Tim Buckley
2/5
This is certainly better than his 70s “funk” music. It’s still not very good, but it’s at least trying some stuff alongside a bunch of self-indulgent hippie crap. Nice vibraphone.
Best song: Buzzin’ Fly
Traffic
3/5
Kind of lame, but quite well-done with a realized sound and some good musicianship. I’m cool with it.
Best song: Glad
UB40
3/5
It’s white reggae, so I get why people would dislike this, but honestly that’s pretty good. A little too slick at times, but a nice listen.
Best song: Burden of Shame
The Stranglers
4/5
Strange, offbeat, and quite a lot of fun. Never would have thought an organ could work in punk music, but here’s some compelling evidence to the contrary.
Best song: Get a Grip on Yourself
The Magnetic Fields
3/5
A singular experience. This sounds like an alien or an AI model who’s been fed 69 random love songs and has tried to recreate 69 of its own, realizing the form but feeling distinctly soulless and unnerving in the actual content. But it seems that was the exact vibe they wanted?
There’s a lot I could say about this, much of it bad, some of it good. There are some horrible songs, a few legitimately good ones, and a ton of experimental oddities swimming around in the difference. It’s difficult to evaluate that last group, because so many tracks feel more like goofy proofs-of-concept or stabs at a new genre rather than actual songs. The experience of listening to it is full of novelty, but at the end you’re going “what?” more than any feeling of admiration.
So I have no desire to ever listen to this again, but I can’t keep myself from appreciating the extreme ambition as well as the bizarre humility of this album. It did exactly what it set out to do in an incredibly weird way, and so I can’t help but judge it to be a success.
Disc 1’s best song: The Book of Love
Disc 2’s best song: Papa Was a Rodeo
Disc 3’s best song: I Can’t Touch You Anymore
Ray Price
4/5
Very classic-style country album. Not the most variety, but great consistency, melody, and concept. I enjoyed it.
Best song: The Wild Side of Life
The Clash
4/5
A titanic album that (briefly) established the Clash as a huge and important band. It’s probably a little too big for its own good, and a couple of the genre experiments don’t really work, but it’s a great album that still sounds fresh and raw.
Best song: Spanish Bombs
Tricky
2/5
Objectively, this album was pretty dense and unique, with lots of original ideas and beats. Personally, I kind of hated it. We’ll split the difference.
The Beta Band
2/5
There’s no way you can convince me that the damn Beta Band deserved two albums on this list.
Sepultura
3/5
Kind of all the same thing, but very consistent and heavy with some great guitar.
Best song: Desperate Cry
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
From Kings of Leon to the Beta Band to this guy, I can’t help but feel like the makers of this list did not have great foresight about who was going to come out of the 2000s interesting or relevant.
Best song: Peach Trees
Cee Lo Green
3/5
I started out a little iffy on his voice, but I actually got super into this as it stretched on. His voice can be an acquired taste though, and then I discovered he’s kind of a creep. Whoops. The album’s still pretty good I guess.
Best song: Die Trying
The Cars
3/5
A fun and well-made pop album. I recognize this is quality but I can’t say I’m super into it myself.
Best song: You Might Think
Gillian Welch
4/5
A rich album with a distinct sound and an artful voice. It can be self-indulgent, but it’s a great piece of work.
Best song: Revelator
Laibach
2/5
One of the most profoundly strange albums that the generator has offered up. I appreciated its unique vibe and sound, but I can’t say I enjoyed much of the actual music.
Best song: Opus Dei
U2
3/5
This album is quite well-produced, has some solid melodies, and deserves some credit for being a successful shift in sound for the band. That said, I don’t think this holds up super well. It’s often a little too slick and professional, and overall just kind of lacking in passion.
Best song: One
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
2/5
This is mostly 80s slop, though I acknowledge there is more effort and vision here than most 80s slop. An interesting album if not one I liked.
Best song: The Power of Love
Leonard Cohen
2/5
I acknowledge Leonard Cohen’s talent but damn dude, sometimes I’m just not in the mood.
Best song: Joan of Arc
Erykah Badu
4/5
A few too many excessively long songs, but overall a great album driven by a strong, unique voice.
Best song: Didn’t Cha Know
Pink Floyd
3/5
A profoundly creative album, packed full of soundscapes that would have been unrealizable just a couple years prior to its release. Of course, much of it is self-indulgent stoner BS, but if you have at least as much of a stomach for it as I do then you’ll probably like this.
Best song: Astronomy Domine
Nanci Griffith
5/5
Gorgeous and understated, wall-to-wall full of great songs. Maybe the shiniest hidden gem that the generator has treated me to.
Best song: Love at the Five & Dime
The Human League
3/5
I’m not a big fan of the 80s sound, but I can recognize when it works, and it works here. Similar to Tears for Fears or Depeche Mode, I think I’m into this album because there’s an awareness of how icy and robotic its synths sound, and the band leans into that rather then letting the dissonance sit there unacknowledged. Helps that a lot of it is really catchy.
Best song: Don’t You Want Me
fIREHOSE
3/5
A strange little album with a sound that’s hard to pin down, tossing acoustic guitar into a surprisingly textural and atmospheric album that somehow still feels like punk. I didn’t love it but I did enjoy it.
Best song: Understanding
Prince
4/5
A colossal and quite creative album that takes some weird turns but consistently dazzles. I’m not even the biggest fan of him personally, but I still think Prince probably hasn’t quite earned his due as one of our best all-around musicians.
Best song: Adore
Ray Charles
4/5
Dated, without question, but also a bright and daring slash through the racial barriers of American music in the mid-20th century. Charles takes country music and dresses it up in the styles of jazz and R&B to make it his own. A fascinating intersection of American musical traditions, and a great album.
Best song: I Can’t Stop Loving You
John Lee Hooker
2/5
John Lee Hooker’s got plenty of respect from me, but wow that was one of the most boring albums I’ve ever heard.
Best song: No Substitute
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
A very 90s album, though I wouldn’t really call it grunge; closer to something like Fugazi. A bit repetitive (and maybe bordering on misogynistic) but the music is pretty good.
Best song: Debonair
The Zutons
3/5
This is objectively solid with some catchy melodies and tight compositions, but the band sounds like they were brewed in a vat to make songs for car commercials and that kinda bothers me.
Best song: Pressure Point
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
I’m gonna come out with a frank and unenlightened take—a few too many weird noises in this album for me. Great energy and vibes though.
Best song: Xica da Silva
Röyksopp
3/5
Pretty chill vibes.
Bonnie Raitt
2/5
Incredibly lame and overproduced. I’m sorry Bonnie.
Common
4/5
Soulful, humble, and impactful with some great production.
Best song: They Say
Lorde
3/5
Very definite mood, style, and vision. It is interesting how she twists the 2010s electropop sound to suit the album’s needs, but I don’t like electropop so a bit of a hard sell for me.
Best song: Green Light
Guided By Voices
1/5
How do you even have an opinion on that? A few decent melodies buried in there, but all in all it’s a deluge of crap.
Megadeth
4/5
That kicked ass.
Best song: Hangar 18
50 Cent
5/5
Wall-to-wall bangers. And don’t skip those bonus tracks. Music may have peaked with Wanksta.
Best song: Many Men (Wish Death)
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
OK dude, I get it, you hate hippies.
Brian Eno
2/5
Trippy, sample-heavy ambient(?) music. Sometimes sounds like a forerunner to trip-hop. Cool ideas, though I can’t say I care too much.
Don McLean
3/5
A great song followed by a decent but forgettable folk album.
Best song: American Pie
Beck
3/5
Quite slow and sad, but also full and well-produced. A bit of a dirge, but not bad at all.
Funkadelic
4/5
Wild, weird, and fun with lots of great musicianship. They can really shred, too.
Best song: One Nation Under a Groove
Bob Dylan
3/5
Old man Dylan trying to re-discover his place in the world. Not much to talk about compared to his prime years, but an interesting look at his style aging into something more bluesy and downtempo.
Best song: Make You Feel My Love
Iron Maiden
5/5
Unbelievably kick-ass album. Heavy metal is so much better when the musicians are obsessed with sci-fi and fantasy instead of slasher movies.
Best song: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Arcade Fire
3/5
A rich and well-made album, though not one that made a strong connection with me. I appreciated the big and heartfelt sound, though.
Best song: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Van Halen
4/5
The original hair metal band and possibly the only good one. Definitely corny at times, but damn is it catchy.
Best song: Panama
The Pharcyde
3/5
Love the boom-bap sound and the energetic flow. The lyrics haven’t aged too well—a very 90s South Park-style sense of humor that isn’t really for me. So a mixed bag, but it’s worth hearing.
Best song: Passin’ Me By
Justice
4/5
I don’t really like much dance music but I’ve always liked French house, for some reason. This album is no exception. Love the big glitchy production and the heavy bass.
Best song: D.A.N.C.E
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Bruce is sad about what just happened but hopeful for the future. That’s great but not sure he needed to communicate that exact emotion over and over for 15 songs.
Best song: Into the Fire
Magazine
3/5
Punk sound and attitude at a slower, more introspective pace, which I guess is typical post-punk. This is pretty strong with some good guitar.
Best song: Burst
Norah Jones
4/5
Even and lowkey “lounge” music with diverse influences, including jazz, blues, country, and traditional pop. A really solid album that invites repeat listens.
Best song: The Nearness of You
Culture Club
2/5
The opener is a classic but it gets way too 80s for me after that.
Best song: Karma Chameleon
Dr. Octagon
2/5
Don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “rectum” used that much in an album. I like Automator’s production, but the porno “skits” (we are stretching the definition there) and obsession with being weird got to be too much for me.
Best song: Earth People
Talking Heads
3/5
A solid album with the signature Talking Heads funk-punk-pop(???) sound, though none of the songs really grabbed me.
Best song: Take Me to the River
Super Furry Animals
3/5
A very lush album with some big melodies. Too long, but I appreciate the exposure to something I’d never have heard otherwise.
Jeff Beck
3/5
Pretty classic, though there’s too much blues and not enough rocking out.
Best song: Beck’s Bolero
David Gray
3/5
A low-key but full-sounding singer-songwriter album. Very pleasant but verges on monotonous, particularly in the last song.
Best song: Babylon
The War On Drugs
4/5
A big and atmospheric album with a psychedelic sound. Meanders a little too much, but really strong in spite of that.
Best song: Under the Pressure
Supergrass
3/5
A bright and loud album that makes some fun noise but doesn’t leave a significant impression. A step down from their debut.
The White Stripes
4/5
Sledgehammer-blunt yet mysterious, clearly classic yet sharply modern (at least by 2001's standards), the White Stripes are hard to pin down. This is probably their most quintessential recording, so as someone who loves the band, I love the album.
Best song: Fell in Love with a Girl
Robert Wyatt
2/5
I do kinda go for the weirdness of this but there’s only so much I can hear about the miners from Asturias and their shiny moneyboxes
Tori Amos
4/5
Quite soft yet quite intense. She’s pretty good at mining darkness and negative emotions without overwhelming you or coming off as whiny. I’m impressed.
Best song: Winter
Miles Davis
4/5
Thank you Miles, very cool!
Brian Wilson
2/5
Well it has Good Vibrations, I guess. Otherwise it sounds like the disheveled ramblings of a very troubled guy with a lot of talent and studio time. RIP Brian
Best song: Good Vibrations
Method Man
3/5
Peak “listening to music about murder and drugs on the way to my 9-5”-coded music
Mylo
3/5
Solid electronic album with smooth vibes and a consistent mood. Not really into all the spoken-word samples.
Best song: In My Arms
Doves
3/5
Very atmospheric and textual and all that fancy stuff. An interesting listen if not the most memorable one.
The Fall
2/5
Really drives home how thoroughly many of the punks could not sing. Pretty creative, at least.
Best song: Two Steps Back
Sonic Youth
2/5
This album is the closest I’ve come to truly “getting” this band, though I still feel like I’m not quite getting the point.
Best song: Catholic Block
The Associates
3/5
Very 80s, but pretty original with some rich production. Worth more listens.
Best song: Party Fears Two
Doves
3/5
Two Doves albums in a week was not on my bingo card. They’re clearly pretty good but just not the kind of band I’m gonna get out of bed for.
Best song: Caught by the River
Neneh Cherry
2/5
New jack swing sure was a genre huh
Best song: Buffalo Stance
Elton John
3/5
Pretty strong album with a classic opener. It does get same-y though, and Indian Sunset had me rolling my eyes.
Best song: Tiny Dancer
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
I went in knowing this was the lowest-rated album on the list, and after a couple songs, I determined this was actual music (if extremely avant-garde music), not as bad as I was anticipating, and legitimately interesting in a few ways. So what the hell, 2. I got more out of it than hearing Dinosaur Jr shriek “WHY DON’T YOU LIKE MEEEE?!?!” for five minutes straight.
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
Smooth, sleek, charming, relaxing. A worthy successor to her dad.
Best song: So Nice (Summer Samba)
Massive Attack
3/5
This album has a unique and consistent sound plus some interesting ideas, but it doesn’t speak much to me. British music started going in some weird directions from the 80s onward.
Best song: Be Thankful for What You’ve Got
Can
2/5
Sounded like whatever Aaron Rodgers was listening to when he did ayahuasca on his darkness retreat
Kanye West
5/5
Kanye’s definitive statement, a colossal and excessive portrait of an egomaniac in crisis. Huge beats, huge hooks, huge stars, huge everything. Full of sin, self-loathing, self-pity, arrogance, violence, and loneliness. Probably a masterpiece.
Best song: Runaway
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
Perfect summer album. I don’t really remember most of the songs but who cares.
Best song: Beach Samba (Bossa na praia)
The Kinks
3/5
Kind of insulting to get an extremely British band on the fourth of July. Oh well, at least the album’s not bad.
Best song: Sunny Afternoon
Queen Latifah
2/5
This isn’t really bad, but it’s not very interesting and wanting for catchiness. Old school hip-hop has had more misses than hits sadly.
Neil Young
3/5
Some good songs and a nice country tone. It is middle-of-the-road as can be, though, and I’m not crazy about the production—very distant sound on most songs.
Best song: The Needle and the Damage Done
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Good Lord do we really need three albums from these guys. I got the picture the first time.
Les Rythmes Digitales
1/5
Utterly maddening. The 1980s and their consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Bee Gees
3/5
Kinda hokey, but nice melodies and harmonies. Possibly a hot take but I prefer this to their disco music.
Best song: Marley Purt Drive
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
So big, so many strings, so many choirs… they can write a melody but damn dude, chill a little.
Best song: Mr. Blue Sky
Fatboy Slim
2/5
Not as obnoxious as the Chemical Brothers, but not for me. It sounds like forgettable video game soundtrack music.
Ute Lemper
3/5
Very traditional, stately, and cinematic. Good voice and production. Not something I would seek out, but I appreciate how unique it is from the rest of the list.
Best song: The Case Continues
The Go-Go's
3/5
Slightly maddening but kinda fun anyway.
Gram Parsons
4/5
Good album that successfully mixes traditional country with 60s-70s folk rock, though it can be lacking in energy and melody.
Best song: Brass Buttons
Sonic Youth
1/5
Look at me I can’t sing or play guitar I’m so edgy oooooo
10cc
3/5
A strange and idiosyncratic album with a big 60s pop rock sound. Nice harmonies.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Hell yeah. RIP Ozzy
Best song: Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener
The Killers
4/5
I spent a lot of time listening to this as a teenager so pretty much impossible to take an unbiased view. Huge sound, huge hooks. The Killers can be a little annoying but they reach some pop-rock perfection on this album.
Best song: Midnight Show
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
As a statement of loss and grief, this album does its job stunningly well. I found it agonizingly dour and depressing, but maybe in the right frame of mind I could connect with this. I really really hope I’m never in the right frame of mind to connect with this.
Lucinda Williams
4/5
Rough and gritty, yet soothing and meditative. (Much like, wouldn’t you know it, car wheels on a gravel road. It’s poetic and whatnot.) Some great stuff on this album.
Best song: Greenville
Can
3/5
I was really into the first half but the second disc went wildly off the rails. Since that’s intended to be the weird experimental half I guess I can accept it and split the difference.
Best song: Halleluhwah
Minor Threat
3/5
The aggressive energy of this album is really striking. You get a little tired of listening to the same song over and over but the whole thing is only 20 minutes.
Jazmine Sullivan
2/5
You’ve heard of the Booty Jam. Now get ready for its enlightened and empowered cousin, the Dick Jam
The Byrds
5/5
A fascinating album since it seems nobody knew how to take it at the time of release: way too hokey and earnest for the critics, way too twangy and traditional for the hippies, way too soft and hippy-dippy for the rednecks. Despite that, it’s stood the test of time as a foundational album for alternative country. The Byrds’ harmonies and jangly guitars blend beautifully with country standards and style.
Best song: Hickory Wind
Django Django
4/5
A very strange but entertaining album with a highly original sound. I was in the right mood for it.
The Fall
2/5
Yeah that’s not for me my friend. Too much wailing and thrashing.
The Replacements
4/5
Punks get serious about their lives. There’s a world where this album is flabby and boring, but they successfully mix raw guitar music with smooth balladry. I liked it.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
A mysterious album, full of whispery vocals, mild instrumentation, and strange lyrics that seem to finish stories you can’t even guess the beginnings of. I’m not a huge fan of it, but it is memorable and has lots of great harmonies.
Best song: Mrs. Robinson
The Verve
4/5
Going pop isn’t always a bad thing. A slightly bloated but quite good Britpop album.
Best song: The Drugs Don’t Work
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
Couldn’t connect with this one. Maybe too avant-garde, or maybe just not into synthpop enough. There’s definitely a vision here, though.
Emmylou Harris
2/5
That’s tough because I do love Emmylou’s voice and there are a couple good songs here, but the genericized “Americana” fusion sound is not really my thing. Just a very dull and grey-sounding album.
Best song: Bang the Drum Slowly
Sparks
3/5
Unhinged energy in this one. The band is pretty great, but the singer is a bit of an acquired taste (soooo much falsetto). I liked this all in all, definitely something different.
Best song: In My Family
Definitely middle-of-the-road, but I guess where I split with this album’s detractors is that I think there are worse things you can be than boring. There are good songs and good moments on this album, even if its mild sound foretold U2 becoming one of the most irrelevant bands ever.
Best song: Beautiful Day
Portishead
3/5
A very strange and inventive electronic album. Not really my thing, but massaged my brain pretty good.
Joy Division
3/5
A slow, dour, and repetitive album that succeeds at crafting a singular atmosphere. Pretty tight band. I enjoyed it despite its flaws.
Best song: Decades
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
A bright and full album from a band just as capable with simple pop songs as they are with long instrumental freak-outs. I liked it!
Best song: Everyday People
SAULT
2/5
This album is not bad—it’s very competently made—but I really don’t care for it even a little. Honestly, it doesn’t inspire many good feelings in me since it’s an extremely 2020-core album. The very conceit of the project is that it’s some revolutionary statement that will “speak truth to power” and “get into good trouble” or whatever, when really it’s just a mid-ass R&B album with a bunch of inane lyrics. Living in the Trump 2.0 era makes you really cynical about what the point of this kind of crap ever was. But hey, I’m a white guy, so take my opinion as you will.
Best song: Hard Life
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
That was pretty calming annnnnd I can’t think of a single other thing to say about it.
Suede
4/5
Huge sound, melancholy tone, and great melodies. I think a lot of David Bowie and the Smiths, both of whom have inspired plenty of bad bands, but this was quite good and well-crafted.
Best song: New Generation
Tito Puente
4/5
AIYIYIYIYIYI
Ice T
3/5
Some real gangster shit. Not sure it needed to be that long though.
Best song: Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous
George Jones
4/5
Well George Jones is a great singer, but… I dunno, George, there ain’t anything else to sing about? Just all the women that have left you? There’s like 2 songs on this album that aren’t about that. You think there might be a common denominator here, George?
Best song: Our Private Life
2/5
Well-made, for sure, but kind of a big yawn sadly.
David Holmes
3/5
Pretty good soundtrack music.
Yes
4/5
A very bright album with a lot of weird but fun stuff going on musically. I’m for it.
Best song: Roundabout
Scott Walker
4/5
A much more somber atmosphere than Scott 2, and a much better album, full of great vocals on grim mysterious songs. Takes a little time to warm to but really interesting.
Best song: The Old Man’s Back Again
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Big, catchy, and pretty fun. That 60s sound is nice but a little overwhelming.
Ravi Shankar
3/5
Something different. A soothing and occasionally engaging intro to classical Indian music.
Fugees
3/5
Insane Lauryn Hill carry job. Wyclef Jean’s No Woman No Cry cover tempted me to give this a 2.
Best song: Ready or Not
Tom Waits
3/5
I appreciate Tom Waits’ crazy voice and singular style, but I found myself getting tired of this before it was over.
Best song: Jersey Girl
The Black Crowes
3/5
Very well-done with a couple good songs. It did get a little monotonous at a certain point.
Best song: She Talks to Angels
Nico
1/5
Wow Nico actually can’t sing huh. I quit in the middle of the nine minute avant garde song.
The Bees
2/5
Mild, quiet, and weird. Some nice jazzy stuff here but not my vibe.
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
Well that was cute(?)
Hole
3/5
A strong rock album, though it often feels a little stiff and commercial for reasons I have trouble identifying. Lacking the grungier edge of Live Through This, for better or worse.
Stephen Stills
2/5
Horns and gospel choirs and bluesy wailing and epic guitar… damn dude, calm down. Stephen Stills is just not my cup of tea.
The Sugarcubes
2/5
Bjork’s origin story. Some interesting moments here but it failed to really grab me at any moment. That echo-y, texture-heavy post-punk sound isn’t my thing.
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
At this point you might as well go listen to some local construction. I will give this one thing, though: it’s not really trying to be listenable music. It’s some kind of weird art statement. Does it succeed at that? I dunno, but it’s hard to fail it as music when it’s barely that in the first place.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4/5
This re-awakened my Woody Guthrie phase like an activated sleeper agent. You can definitely hear his influence on Bob Dylan, especially vocally. I liked it a lot.
The Lemonheads
3/5
I saw this described as grunge on Wikipedia, which is confusing since this is very jangly and melodic, more like a heavier take on REM. I was into it.
Best song: Hannah & Gabi
The Clash
4/5
Quintessential punk. You can see from the start that the Clash have their eyes set a little higher than their contemporaries; a lengthy multi-part track like “Police & Thieves” would not fly with punk purists; but it’s also easy to tell that their talent is way higher than the average garage band. A classic.
Best song: Janie Jones
Mj Cole
2/5
Dated, boring, and repetitive. A weird inclusion.
Best song: Strung Out
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
The sound of this album is fairly dense and interesting. Sadly, the shrieky lead singer and edgelord lyrics turned me off.
Kraftwerk
3/5
This what Mr. Krabs was listening into his office going “beep boop boo boo bop”
Elbow
3/5
Quite a dreary and rainy album. Verges on boring, but it worked for me on this rainy day. Some great production.
Best song: One Day Like This
Joanna Newsom
3/5
I appreciated the idiosyncratic style of this, even if it’s not something I would throw on regularly. Keep wailing about monkeys and sages over your harp Joanna.
Klaxons
3/5
An interesting one. Some good melodies and pretty tight production. Their sound is kind of overwhelming, but I think that’s the whole idea. Not my thing but not bad at all.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
I’m usually into Damon Albarn but that’s a tremendously boring album. Kind of reminds me of Age of the Understatement if you stripped out all the mystery and made it 50% sleepier.
De La Soul
3/5
A lot of fun. Too long. The beats are much more interesting than the rapping. The orgy skit tempted me to drop this to 2 but there is too much value here to do that.
Best song: Me Myself and I
Steely Dan
4/5
I never really wanted to be the kind of guy that was into Steely Dan but yknow what, maybe I am that kind of guy. That was pretty sick.
Best song: Pearl of the Quarter
The Libertines
3/5
One of the most 3/5 albums ever. Quite decent but I’ll never remember it. And whaddya know the global ratings’s a perfect 3.
Liz Phair
3/5
A very confrontational yet resigned album; horny but lazy, insisting on freedom and complaining about boredom, angry but constantly shrugging about it. I didn’t love it but I did like it and can see how it connected with so many people. Kind of a shame that her career never quite became what this album promised.
Best song: Divorce Song
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
Very chilly and rich album with great atmosphere. I’m not a goth but I understand those tortured souls a little better now.
Best song: Dominion / Mother Russia
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Nice atmosphere. A little same-y and a little too lush, but I enjoyed the sound of this.
Best song: Wrong
The Pogues
3/5
There were parts of this that didn’t click with me, but I found it pretty unique and engaging as a total package. Pretty sure my ancestors were mostly English so sorry boyos.
The Boo Radleys
2/5
Not sure what this had to do with John Coltrane or To Kill a Mockingbird
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
A classic and pristine fusion of blues, rock, folk, country, and pop: a real “American music” album. I’ve never listened to this front-to-back and it has such a mythic reputation that I did find myself a little disappointed. As much as I like the laid-back sound, it bordered on sleepy here and there, and Christine McVie is a glaring weak link among the three singers. But at the end of the day, come on, it’s Rumours. It’s good.
Best song: The Chain
LTJ Bukem
2/5
It’s not like I have a problem with this, it’s nice background music, but… what’s the point? Do people dance to this?
Miles Davis
5/5
A desert island album for sure. It might be the only jazz album some people ever hear, and that’s OK by me.
Best song: So What
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
A bizarre, bombastic, nerdy rock symphony. Some weird moments and sus lines but I was pretty into it.
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
A long and weird mix of jazz, downbeat electronica, and world(?) music, tied together by the impending doom of nuclear war. Certainly has some low moments (tikitikitatikitikita for one), but still a creative and fascinating album.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Maybe the first “concept album?” This album can drag at times, but it’s really successful at establishing a mood and ambience. Great for, unironically, the wee small hours of the morning.
Michael Jackson
4/5
Can’t tell if it’s funny or sad that the album cover is MJ’s vision of a “bad boy.” The music is pretty good. This is not as tight as Thriller for sure, and he’s not as suited to this weird rock-ish sound as he was to disco and R&B, but he could still pump out classics on an off day. Should we still be listening to him? I really don’t know. He’s dead anyway—it’s God’s job to judge him now.
Best song: Dirty Diana
The Prodigy
2/5
One of the most tedious albums I’ve ever heard. Not really bad per se, but man is it flirting with a 1.
Björk
3/5
A very weird and very sad album, about as crushing of a breakup album as you’ll hear. I have no desire to listen to this again, but I come away respectful as ever of Bjork’s unique talents.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Does this need to be on the list? Surely not, but I thought it was very pleasant and relaxing, if unadventurous. It strays to the edge of cheesiness but I don’t think it ever quite gets there.
Best song: Tears All Over Town
The Specials
3/5
A strange and buoyant little album, bouncing between moods and genres. Not all the songs are much good, but it’s a fun listening experience.
Best song: Enjoy Yourself
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
A pretty good rock album, one of the most original of the early-2000s garage rock boom. I do think the album is lacking in guts, for lack of a better word. Only a few songs have real bite to them, and except for Maps (which I don’t like as much as most do anyway), the slower artier songs are uniformly the weaker ones.
Best song: Date with the Night
Finley Quaye
2/5
I guess that was “innovating” reggae but I don’t like its innovations. Way too squawky and boring.
Van Halen
5/5
This album basically created the entire sound of 80s rock. This led to a bunch of terrible bands, but I get why so many teenagers decided to start terrible bands off this album. Pop metal perfection.
Best song: Jamie’s Cryin’
Jacques Brel
3/5
Made me feel like I was in Ratatouille.
Best song: Amsterdam
Shuggie Otis
3/5
A chill if unfocused album with a diversity of sound. Interesting but not too impactful.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
A fun if repetitive album. Full of bright sounds and great instrumentation.
The Auteurs
3/5
I am a sucker for Beatlesque rock. Solid if not especially memorable album.
Sugar
3/5
Grungy but with nice melodies and guitars. I liked it.
Suicide
2/5
An incredibly dismal album with a singular atmosphere. I don’t know if it’s really possible to “enjoy” any of this, but there is a vision there.
Metallica
4/5
A classic, though it’s a little too monotonous for me to rank it among the best of all time. Still, if you want to learn about metal, this is one of the first few albums you should check out.
Best song: Master of Puppets
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
49 damn minutes of WOMP woo woo woo WOMPPPP woo woo
Motörhead
4/5
Rock on you Bri’ish mu’ufu’ers
Ryan Adams
2/5
A couple decent songs here but the album is sooooo long and so dull. Doesn’t help that Ryan Adams himself is awful.
Best song: The Rescue Blues
Korn
1/5
Cookie Monster screams about how his daddy and the females hate him.
The sound of the band is actually not bad—often, they’re quite talented. I guess it may be my best-sounding 1/5. What an ignominious honor.
Best song: Freak on a Leash
George Michael
3/5
Soft, moody, acoustic, atmospheric. Too saccharine at times, but an interesting turn for a big pop star.
Best song: Something to Save
ABBA
3/5
It’s ABBA! Corny as hell, catchy as hell, and bedazzled to death.
Best song: Dancing Queen
The Byrds
4/5
You can kind of hear the sound of 60s rock change in real time on this album. Some of the psychedelic stuff is a little much, but a strong album from a great band.
Dolly Parton
4/5
A wonderful little album full of sweet, simple songs. Dolly will forever be the queen of country.
Best song: Coat of Many Colors
Stereolab
3/5
Fascinating and weird. The Apple Music blurb describes it as “music about listening to music,” much like the Avalanches or sample-heavy hip-hop, and I think that’s not a bad description. A sometimes excessive but consistently interesting collage of pop music.
Dion
2/5
A pretty boring album with the classic Phil Spector Wall of Sound production. Unmemorable, but not really bad.
2/5
A weird witchy album with an almost childlike sound. You know, like a demented child. I didn’t really like it, but I don’t think it deserves to be one of the lowest-rated albums, either. It’s pretty cohesive and not an active assault on the ears, unlike some of the other bottom feeders.
System Of A Down
4/5
The best band to come out of the nu metal/alt metal scene. Well, probably. I just know I’ll take this over Slipknot eight days a week.
Best song: Sugar
The 13th Floor Elevators
2/5
I guess it’s an innovative album, and it has a couple decent tunes, but I’m left pretty cold by it. The guitar tone is grating, the production is bad, and the songs feel really half-baked.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
A rich album fusing jazz and experimental sounds with Mitchell’s singer-songwriter approach. A little hard to get a handle on, but very good and deserving more listens.
Best song: The Hissing of Summer Lawns
John Lennon
3/5
I had to take a long hard look at myself and ask, if this hadn’t been made by a Beatle, would I think all that highly of it? And the answer is, no, not really. This is John approaching his most self-righteous and pretentious state (to be fully realized in Some Time in New York City), and the sound is too sappy and overproduced for my taste. The title track has always been wildly overrated. The melody’s nice, but there’s nothing too special about it and the lyrics scream of John’s self-importance more than they relate any deep message. (But maybe I’ve been poisoned by the Gal Gadot video back in 2020.)
The album’s best moment happens when John abandons his delusions of being some kind of people’s poet and attacks his former best friend in a mean, nasty diss track. Probably more revealing than any of the peace-on-Earth stuff, which John was never the best at, no matter how much he wanted to be. His specialty was always mining negative emotions, providing the darkness to Paul’s light, so it’s only fitting that he fails by straying from the grim intimacy of Plastic Ono Band but strikes gold by mocking his old foil.
So yeah, not John’s finest. It’s not bad, there’s good songs here, but it’s red meat for the haters in some ways.
Best song: How Do You Sleep
Fairport Convention
3/5
Kind of a boring album, but a well-made one that executes a cool concept, applying the American folk rock approach to British folk music. I can appreciate it.
Best song: Matty Groves