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Mon May 15 2023
Grace
Jeff Buckley
Generally fine, but not exceptional. Hallalejuah is great and is perfect for his style. Many other songs feel a little dated now. His death has probably impacted the legacy of this album.
3
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Tue May 16 2023
evermore
Taylor Swift
Most TSwift music feels a bit overly polished to me, and this isn't an exception. It is generally still really good though, and this is much more folk-y than most of her other music. Collabs with HAIM, The National, and Bon Iver all make it much stronger than it otherwise might be. Strong influences from The National and Jack Antonoff come through throughout.
Favorite song: champagne problems
Honorable mentions: 'tis the damn season; no body, no crime, coney island, closure
4
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Wed May 17 2023
Low-Life
New Order
The album is so obviously from the 80s. Heavy synth use on top of more standard rock elements. I don't have major issues with it, but it doesn't hold up particularly well to me and this isn't my favorite era of music generally. At best most songs don't really stand out, and at worst the singer's voice is a bit annoying (like on Sub-culture).
Maybe it just says more about my tastes, but Elegia (a 5 minute long instrumental) was the only song that really stood out to me on the album.
Favorite song: Elegia
2
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Thu May 18 2023
Rust In Peace
Megadeth
This is not at all my type of music and I wasn't really looking forward to listening to it. Honestly though, it was better than I expected. It's still not really my music and I don't see myself listening to it again, but the band is clearly super talented and the guitars and drums are pretty impressive throughout. Just not really aligned with what I like, but I respect it.
Favorite song: Rust in Peace...Polaris (Honestly they all kind of sound pretty similar to me, this is the last song on the album and it closed things out strong)
2
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Fri May 19 2023
Dire Straits
Dire Straits
I really like the vibes on this album. Fairly classic rock sounds on most songs, but mixes in a lot of twangy guitar and folksy elements too (and even some funk occasionally). It's simple in a really enjoyable way throughout. Sultans of Swing is the single that made Dire Straights famous, and it holds up. Side note but I love the cover art on this album, it gives strong Edward Hopper vibes
Favorite song: Sultans of Swing
Honorable mentions: Water of Love, Six Blade Knife, Wild West End
4
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Sat May 20 2023
Parallel Lines
Blondie
I really enjoyed this a lot. High energy throughout and really unique sounds. Debbie Harry’s voice is awesome, impressive range. Songs are bouncy at times, alt heavy at times, just really unique and interesting. One Way or Another is the famous song (and it’s good) but lots of other strong songs too.
Favorite song: Heart of Glass
Others: One Way or Another, Picture This, Fade Away and Radiate, Pretty Baby, Sunday Girl
5
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Sun May 21 2023
Live At The Star Club, Hamburg
Jerry Lee Lewis
This is possibly the most chaotic thing I've ever listened to. It's very early rock n' roll which is already a little chaotic, and this live album is just fast-paced piano and clashing drums and Jerry Lee Lewis yelling a lot. It does kind of work though, it would have definitely been fun to be there. This is also recorded like 6 years after Lewis fell out of the spotlight after marrying his teenage cousin, so there's a lot to unpack with this one. I'm rating this given the context of its time (though really hard to believe that The Velvet Underground & Nico came out only 3 years after this, this feels ancient compared to that) and it being a live recording. (Note: the Spotify version only includes 8 of the 13 tracks, full version available on Youtube).
Favorite song: Money (That's All I Want)
Others: Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog, Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
4
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Mon May 22 2023
Bone Machine
Tom Waits
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't really what I got. Waits has a very deep voice and a lot of the songs have a sort of spooky underworld vibe. It occasionally moves away from this (e.g., Jesus Gonna Be Here is more of a blues rock song, A Little Rain is a folksy piano ballad), but that mostly makes it feel more disjointed to me. There's a few redeeming qualities here, but it generally is just not really working for me.
Favorite song: Who Are You
Others: A Little Rain, That Feel
2
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Tue May 23 2023
The Specials
The Specials
I can't really explain it, but I have a weird soft spot for ska music. It's not cool at all and it kind of surprises me that it was ever popular, but it's light and fun and it always brings my mood up a bit. This album basically aligns with my general feelings about ska (though occasionally it's a little more alt-rock-y than just ska (Concrete Jungle), and sometimes more heavily reggae (Too Hot)). Good vibes throughout, a few interesting songs, generally a pleasant listen, though I would still probably not choose to listen to this over other things. The genre caps the rating a bit, but it's perfectly good for what it is.
Favorite song: You're Wondering Now
Other: A Message to You Rudy, Doesn't Make It Alright, Concrete Jungle, Too Much Too Young
3
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Wed May 24 2023
Teenager Of The Year
Frank Black
This is a perfectly fine but unexceptional alt-rock album. I actually think it holds up reasonably well and doesn't sound overly dated, I just don't think any of the songs really stand out. I wouldn't turn it off if it came on again, but I also wouldn't pick it out to listen to. It's also pretty long (62 minutes) which doesn't really help its case.
Favorite song: Calistan
Others: (I Want to Live on An) Abstract Plain, Speedy Marie, Superabound, White Noise Maker
3
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Thu May 25 2023
3 + 3
The Isley Brothers
It's funky. Definitely a reasonably good album with a few great songs. That Lady is a "cover" of their own song, but this is the version that got more famous (and it's better than the original). Summer Breeze and Listen to the Music are also covers of other bands' songs. A couple of the songs are titled Parts 1 & 2 and Part 2 is typically a funky instrumental that goes on a little longer than is necessary. It's a good funk album with a few high highs and the rest perfectly ok.
Favorite song: Listen to the Music
Others: That Lady, Summer Breeze, The Highways of My Life
3
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Fri May 26 2023
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Genesis
I have no idea what to think about this. After like a quarter of the album I wrote this: "This is my intro to Genesis and Peter Gabriel, and I’m thinking it might not be the greatest place to start. There’s definitely some good here, particularly lots of unique instruments and sounds behind the vocals. Overall though, this just is not working for me. I don’t love the concept album, it feels like it should be the soundtrack for a movie or something instead of a standalone album. Everything just sounds a little over dramatic to me. This also might be heresy, but Peter Gabriel’s voice kind of rubs me the wrong way on a lot of the songs. I’m very open to being wrong about this one after listening to more of their stuff, but right now it’s not doing it for me."
Then I don't know if the album took a turn for the better or I just started to get it or what, but I really liked a lot of it. There were a few stretches where I would give it a 4-5 rating and a few stretches where I would give it a 1-2 rating. Some of my criticisms from the beginning still definitely hold. It's a bit overly theatrical for my liking and it's way too long (especially given some weak stretches). I also do like the uniqueness of the background noises, but it's a bit synth-heavy on the back half which isn't really my thing. But still, a few places where this totally shined too, like Carpet Crawlers is buried in the middle of this 94 minute album and it's just incredible.
I've never written so many words in a review and I still have no clue what to rate this. Usually a 3 for me means I'm mostly indifferent, but that's not the case at all here. What a ride. I think I need to listen to more Genesis and come back to this.
Favorite song: Carpet Crawlers
Others: Counting Out Time, The Waiting Room, It
3
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Sat May 27 2023
At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash
This album is very good to great, and it’s really cool that it exists as a live recording from the time. It’s recorded at Folsom Prison and you can hear the crowd and there’s various announcements and things throughout. It’s definitely a cool historical document. Cash’s voice is incredible throughout and the performance is relatively tight given that it’s live. I just have to knock it slightly for the sound quality (though it’s decent given the circumstances) and some of the long asides that take away from the music a bit.
Favorite song: Folsom Prison Blues
Others: I Still Miss Someone, 25 Minutes to Go, The Long Black Veil, Jackson, Give My Love to Rose
4
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Sun May 28 2023
Run-D.M.C.
Run-D.M.C.
I really wanted to like this more than I did, but I just couldn't quite get there. There's some cool stuff for sure, It's Like That is a gem and Rock Box is a cool rock crossover song that seems to have been ahead of its time. That said, while I'm sure there's a lot of historical significance for what this did for the genre, it sounds really dated now. The thing where the two guys go back and forth like one line at a time and then sing some lines together just gets old quickly. One other nice/funny thing, the lyrics are almost hilariously wholesome throughout the album. Wake Up might be the most wholesome song I've ever heard, and they're also rapping about like going to school and not being prejudiced. It's a nice album overall with a couple of great parts, but altogether is not overly special to me.
Favorite song: It's Like That
Other: Rock Box, Sucker M.C.s (Krush-Groove 1)
3
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Mon May 29 2023
Copper Blue
Sugar
This is not really doing anything for me. It sounds like generic background 90s alt/punk rock. The lead singer’s voice is really whiny sounding on a lot of the songs. It’s just consistently mediocre, there’s basically nothing interesting happening except If I Can’t Change Your Mind (which is unique and actually good). Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, I don't know. I don’t actively hate this, but am struggling to understand why it made this list.
Favorite song: If I Can’t Change Your Mind
Other: The Act We Act
2
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Tue May 30 2023
On The Beach
Neil Young
This is a really strong album start to finish. It's sad and mostly slow folk/rock music, but still manages to be unique and interesting. The only thing holding it back for me is a lack of standout great songs. Lots of really good songs though and I'm excited to listen to more of his music. (Note: Neil Young removed all of his music from Spotify, so have to listen to this on Youtube).
Favorite song: For the Turnstiles
Others: Walk On, See the Sky About To Rain, On the Beach, Motion Pictures (for Carrie), Ambulance Blues
4
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Wed May 31 2023
If I Could Only Remember My Name
David Crosby
I feel like this album might be a bit polarizing. It's a rock/folk/psych album with lots of variety and interesting stuff going on in the background. It generally works for me and there's a few spots where it's great (Traction in the Rain is beautiful, Orleans is super short but really interesting). The biggest weakness to me is that it's pretty sparse lyrically. In some places this works (e.g., Music is Love has like 5 unique words but it's great). In some places this doesn't work so much (e.g., there's a few songs with no words at all and a few others with like half the song without words and I'm a bit mixed on them generally since I don't love songs with non-lyric filler noises). Overall I'm favorable on the album and enjoyed it a lot, but do see some negatives.
Favorite song: Traction in the Rain
Others: Music Is Love, Laughing, What Are Their Names, Orleans
4
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Thu Jun 01 2023
Natty Dread
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Reggae. Bob Marley. It’s nice and exactly what I expected it to be. I feel like I should be drinking a piña colada on the beach not walking around lower Manhattan.
I totally get why this got popular (relaxing, good vibes, progressive lyric themes) but also cannot imagine anything like this getting popular today. It really feels like a unique product of the moment, but one that I’m glad happened.
Favorite song: No Woman No Cry
Others: Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), So Jah S’eh, Talkin’ Blues
4
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Fri Jun 02 2023
Reign In Blood
Slayer
I was ready for it to be over by the second song. It just got more intense as it went on though. The best part is that it’s only 35 minutes long. The guitar player and drummer are clearly talented, but this just isn’t it for me. I picked Raining Blood as my favorite song because the rain sounds at the beginning and end are nice (even though I guess they’re supposed to be blood which is not so nice).
Favorite song: Raining Blood
1
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Sat Jun 03 2023
Back To Black
Amy Winehouse
Awesome album. Rehab was big when I was about 10 years old, so while I knew Amy Winehouse it was just a bit ahead of my time and I hadn’t really heard much other stuff from her. This made me go down a rabbit hole about her life, and the album is really pretty heartbreaking in hindsight. She directly confronts her addiction problems and relationship difficulties which never really seemed to let up for her.
What really stands out to me is how timeless sounding the album is. Someone could have told me that this was released basically anytime between 1950 and now and I probably could have believed them. She is clearly influenced by early female jazz/blues/pop groups but does it in a way that feels both old and modern at the same time (Just Friends sounds like it could be a cover of The Specials or something). I was afraid I would get tired of her unique voice after a full album but that didn’t happen at all (though it’s only 35 minutes and I did think the first half was stronger than the second).
The original release of the album is good enough for a 5 rating from me, but the deluxe version also includes a live (slower) BBC Radio recording of Valerie which might be might favorite song of hers (it’s a cover that she made famous).
Favorite song: You Know I’m No Good
Other: Rehab, Back To Black, Love Is a Losing Game, Wake Up Alone, Valerie
5
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Sun Jun 04 2023
The Renaissance
Q-Tip
I liked the first two songs a lot and then it kind of just settled into a fine but unexceptional album to me. I didn’t dislike anything on it, but also didn’t think anything was exceptional or would make me really want to listen again. Kind of random but I did kind of like the Norah Jones cameo near the end too.
I’m generally interested to get some more rap albums here. It’s a genre that I’ve previously listened to lots of songs but very few full albums, so it’ll help me calibrate a bit once I start listening to more full albums.
Favorite song: Won’t Trade
Other: Johnny Is Dead, Life Is Better
3
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Mon Jun 05 2023
Timeless
Goldie
I don’t have a clue how to rate this. I’m listening to this on the train to New York and it’s the first time that I’ve felt like I had to do something else (e.g., reading) while listening. I didn’t not like it though, it’s just music that to me is typically background noise and not a standalone thing to listen to. It also clocks in at 113 minutes which is really really long. The first song alone is 21 minutes.
It seems like this was pretty critical for early electronic drums & bass type music. It’s just a little too up tempo and intense at a lot of points for it to be really strong to me for background music purposes, and it’s not interesting enough to stand out otherwise.
Favorite song: Sea of Tears
Other: Adrift
2
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Tue Jun 06 2023
Moon Safari
Air
Two electronic albums in a row which is a bit out of my comfort zone. I tend to be overly critical I think so going to try not to do that today. Not sure what exactly it is that I like about this album, but I do like it a lot. It’s a downtempo electronic album with a pretty slow pace, which is a little more my speed generally. This type of music can get repetitive sounding sometimes, but this album was able to keep things interesting throughout.
My only real negative is a few of the songs had lyrics in a strange autotuned male voice that was a little annoying to me. Otherwise really enjoyed it though, would listen again.
Favorite song: La femme d’argent
Other: Sexy Boy, All I Need, Talisman, Ce matin-là, Le voyage de Pènèlope
4
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Wed Jun 07 2023
A Night At The Opera
Queen
I knew I liked Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend (because why wouldn't you). I didn't realize how much I'd love the rest of the album. The whole thing is just a great journey start to finish. There's a few places where things didn't quite work for me (I'll have to give The Prophet's Song another shot) but it's still so interesting and great throughout. I really love when bands try unique things even if they don't always work, so hard to even knock them given how well it works overall. An awesome rock album with just so many different instruments and styles to keep every song fresh. Freddie Mercury's voice is obviously incredible. I'm disappointed that I hadn't listened to the full album before, but glad I know it's there now.
Favorite song: Bohemian Rhapsody
Other: Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To…), Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, You’re My Best Friend, ‘39, Seaside Rendezvous, Love of My Life, Good Company
5
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Thu Jun 08 2023
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
This probably says as much about my music preferences as it does about this specific album, but I really enjoyed it. It’s simple folk rock, the whole album is short, and it just is consistently good. Includes a couple of top tier songs too, so hard to find any major complaints. Cat Stevens seems like a bit of an odd dude and he oversings a little occasionally, but neither of these things really impacts my thoughts on the album as a whole. This will make its way into the rotation for me.
Favorite song: Wild World
Other: Miles From Nowhere, But I Might Die Tonight, Into White, On The Road To Find Out, Father and Son
5
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Fri Jun 09 2023
Machine Head
Deep Purple
This is the second album I’ve listened to recently that had a weird car song. Less weird car songs please.
The guitarist is jamming throughout (that’s like half the album) but not really feeling any strong feelings about this one overall, generally pretty neutral on this old school heavy rock. Talked myself into a 3 because Smoke on the Water is iconic at least. Also I really like When A Blind Man Cries as the last song on the album, much slower and more ballad-like than the rest of the album, which was more guitar-shredding (Note: I learned this after finishing listening; When A Blind Man Cries was not on the original album, it was a B-side to the Never Before single. It was recorded when the album was first recorded but got added to the end of the album for the 25th anniversary release. I'm keeping it as my favorite song anyway because there's no rules here).
Favorite song: When A Blind Man Cries
Other: Never Before, Smoke On The Water
3
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Sat Jun 10 2023
Chirping Crickets
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
These old albums are a bit hard to rate. It’s very doo-wop sounding, but I honestly enjoyed it and it’s still pretty impressive given it was released in 1957 (compared to what else was getting recorded around then). You can definitely hear the influence on like early Beatles sounds in here. I did legitimately enjoy listening to it and I really respect that Holly wrote the songs here (lots of covers from other albums around this time). It comes in with 12 songs at only 26 minutes, so it’s compact and to the point. It would have been interesting to see how his sound would have evolved if not for his tragic death.
Favorite song: Oh Boy!
Other: Not Fade Away, You’ve Got Love, Maybe Baby, I’m Looking For Someone To Love, Send Me Some Lovin’
4
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Sun Jun 11 2023
Hounds Of Love
Kate Bush
I ended up liking this a lot more than I expected to. I listened to the first few songs and didn't love them the first time around, then didn't end up listening to the full album for awhile after, and really enjoyed it a lot. It's unique sounding and interesting throughout; she really is pretty experimental in a way that I wasn't really expecting. I got strong Weyes Blood vibes at various points in the album.
There things that I don't love (Waking the Witch is a bit too out there for me, and then there's an odd Irish jig song near the end). She also oversings a bit at times in a really 80s sounding way. On the whole though, the highs are plenty good enough to overcome these downsides. Really strong across the board, and Cloudbusting is a new favorite for me.
Favorite song: Cloudbusting
Other: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Hounds of Love, Mother Stands for Comfort, And Dream Of Sheep, Watching You Without Me
4
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Sun Aug 13 2023
Myths Of The Near Future
Klaxons
Fine album, but nothing blowing me away. Strong 2000s electronicky-rock sound. Pretty fast tempo throughout. Generally enjoyable, and I get a feeling that if I discovered this 10 years ago I might've been more into it, but right now I think it's perfectly ok but not outstanding.
Favorite song: Golden Skans
Other: Atlantis to Interzone
3
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Mon Aug 14 2023
Henry's Dream
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I have never heard of Nick Cave before, but apparently he’s pretty popular and has been around forever. Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry is the opener and it’s a trip, but for some reason it gave me strong “the bones are their money” vibes (and picturing Tim Robinson singing the song is hard to come back from). “Straight to You” sounded like generic Bruce Springsteen to me. “Christina the Astonishing” had some Father John Misty vibes. “John Finn’s Wife” was mediocre but I kind of liked the end, so that’s something.
It seems like his discography is all over the board, so I’m a bit curious to listen to more of his stuff. This one is not really doing it for me though. It just feels like someone doing a country western bit, I’m struggling to take it seriously.
I’m hearing some similarities in the vibe with Tom Waits (who I also discovered through this, have only listened to one album, and did not like). Willing to give them both more of a chance though, maybe I’ll come around.
Favorite song: Loom of the Land
Other: Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Christina the Astonishing, John Finn’s Wife
2
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Tue Aug 15 2023
3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul
Old hip hop is definitely not my area of expertise, but I generally just really enjoyed this one. It was fun throughout and I liked the short little mini-songs in between a lot of the tracks (Transmitting Live from Mars had great vibes, De La Orgee was totally ridiculous). This still isn't like my top genre or anything, but I respect it and found this one fun to listen to (though a little longer than I might have preferred at 63 minutes). Probably closer to a 3.5 score overall, but will round up since it was good vibes.
Favorite song: Me Myself and I
Other: The Magic Number, Transmitting Live From Mars, Eye Know, Tread Water, Plug Tunin’ (Last Chance to Comprehend), Buddy
4
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Fri Aug 18 2023
Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper
This is the biggest surprise album I’ve had yet I think. I was not at all interested in this, did not expect to like it at all, and ended up loving it. Multiple times I was listening to a song that felt “generic old rock”, but then just totally changed and got way more interesting (the end of “Raped and Freezin”, the horns in “Elected”, the harmonica on “Generation Landslide”).
I could clearly hear The Velvet Underground influence, and at other times I got Queen vibes. It’s gritty, and in more of a horror movie way than a sex and drugs way like most of TVU stuff. Something about it works for me though. The sounds are unique, Cooper’s voice is great (though he oversings in a real ‘70s rock way at times, but it is what it is), and it stays interesting throughout. I could have had infinite guesses about who sings Mary Ann and I don’t think I ever would have guessed Alice Cooper.
My biggest downside here is that there’s not that song or two that’s totally iconic. No More Mister Nice Guy is the closest one on here (and it’s probably the most tame and polished song too). Really feels like the whole is better than the sum of the parts overall though.
Favorite song: Mary Ann
Other: Raped and Freezin, Elected, Unfinished Sweet, No More Mister Nice Guy, I Love the Dead
5
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Sat Aug 19 2023
Marquee Moon
Television
This one came together a bit more for me on the second listen. I also think the second half of the album is stronger than the first half (Guiding Light and Prove It are my favorite songs), which made me come around to it more after letting it settle in.
A few things I don’t love. For some reason I find the singers voice to be a little annoying over the course of the full album, even though he’s clearly great. The first half of the album also felt a bit generic to me, though it came together nicely eventually. Lastly, the songs are also all on the long side (including the 10 minute Marquee Moon track), which generally isn’t my favorite album structure.
That said, I did really end up enjoying this, particularly on the second listen. This is considered to be a pretty pivotal album for early punk rock, and I get the appeal. I get strong Modest Mouse vibes at times (I think largely the vocals sound similar on Marquee Moon). It’s unique enough to keep things interesting, and is generally a strong 70s rock album.
I’m not as into this as some of the reviews I’ve seen online, but it’s largely enjoyable. Probably a 3.5 for me, but enough good here that I’ll round up.
Favorite song: Guiding Light
Other: Venus, Marquee Moon, Prove It
4
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Mon Sep 18 2023
Odessa
Bee Gees
I really only knew the Bee Gees from Stayin’ Alive, so I kind of assumed that’s what they were. Turns out that’s not the case. This is fairly early-ish Bee Gees (though still their 6th album), and has more of a Beatles early rock sound. It’s a longer concept album, which generally isn’t my favorite.
The album gets off to a bit of a slow start, but hits its stride with Marley Purt Drive, which is more of a country sound and is great.
This album is really hit or miss for me. A lot of songs I like a lot, and a lot that just sound old and boring (Lamplight is on while I’m writing this old and boring comment). There’s also a weird stretch of two symphonies about 2/3 of the way through, interesting choice.
Generally though I’ve enjoyed this. Definitely has its ups and downs and is too long, but the vocals are solid and there’s enough interesting stuff going on to keep me engaged. This is probably another 3.5 for me, but there’s enough good to round up.
Favorite song: Marley Purt Drive
Other: Black Diamond, Melody Fair, Whisper Whisper, Sound of Love, I Laugh in Your Face, Never Say Never Again
4
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Tue Sep 19 2023
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
This was perfectly fine, which is high praise from me on a heavy metal album. I get the appeal of this type of music, especially for a live performance. It just doesn’t typically land well with me in practice, and I can’t imagine actively turning something like this on to listen to.
My favorite songs on this album were honestly the ones that sounded least metal. Changes was great, and then it’s followed up by FX which is an avante garde-y noise track that I liked a lot. I’m a sucker for these kinds of avante grade things, and this delivered.
Most of the rest of the album though is more or less what I’d expect from 70s heavy metal. I generally felt neutral on most of it, which frankly exceeds expectations. Not much else to say here, it more or less was what I thought it would be (Changes and FX aside).
Minor point, but I felt like the vocals were washed out a bit by the instruments on a lot of the songs. Not sure if that’s just on the 2021 remaster I listened to (or if that’s typical for them) but I found that a little annoying.
Favorite song: Changes
Other: FX, Supernaut
3
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Wed Sep 20 2023
Heavy Weather
Weather Report
This is the first jazz album I've gotten, and while I do listen to some jazz (mostly in the background while reading) I'll be the first to admit that I am not at all well-informed to review jazz albums. So my review here is mostly going to be vibes-based.
And the vibes were not good on this one. It mostly sounded like elevator music, but with chaotic other sounds that were mostly just grating. There were points here and there where it was alright, but I quickly got tired of listening to this and felt that it was actually hard to listen to a few times. I don't have a lot more insight, I just really didn't like this very much. The musicians are clearly talented so credit for that, but not much else worked for me.
I would be remiss to not mention the best part of this album though. This has to be the funniest album cover that I've ever seen before. A giant fedora. Various weather phenomena crudely photoshopped together with the best technology that 1977 had to offer. Is the lightning coming from the fedora? Does the fedora have flaps (is it Brian's hat)? What is this city that's experiencing this hell? The world may never know, but I can't imagine I'm going to come across a more hilarious album cover in these 1,001 albums.
Favorite song: Birdland
Other: The Juggler
2
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Thu Sep 21 2023
The Next Day
David Bowie
This is a bit of a weird Bowie album to be my first to review (second from his last one). It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever listened to, but it’s unequivocally a Bowie album and it’s generally good.
He sounds old when singing (which is fair, he was old at the time) and it’s a little plain sounding to me at times, but overall is quite good for a star’s late career album, especially since there was a long hiatus before this one. My biggest gripe is that it’s a bit too long (and there was a stretch in the middle that was pretty average), but that’s a pretty minor complaint. There were a few stretches that I liked a lot too, and the album finished really strong.
My overall thought is that this album isn’t perfect, but it’s nice that it exists. It’s very possible this would be a lower rating if another name was on it, but hard to say for sure. Regardless, I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the Bowie discography soon.
Favorite song: Where Are We Now
Other: The Next Day, Love is Lost, (You Will) Set The World On Fire, You Feel So Lonely You Could Die, Heat
4
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Fri Sep 22 2023
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel
This album is wonderful, I enjoyed it a lot. It’s just pure folk rock and is consistently solid. It has 12 songs and is only 28 minutes long, so it went fast and was over so quickly. I finished feeling like I wanted more, but maybe that’s ok sometimes.
Homeward Bound is probably the most well known song and it’s great, but there’s a lot more here too. Any song that sincerely tells me it’s “feeling groovy” works for me, and I loved the vibes on 59th Street Bridge Song. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her sounded like a Bon Iver song before its time. And I was familiar from the Phoebe Bridgers cover/update already, but I also love 7 O’clock News / Silent Night. I think it’s a brilliant song and somehow works outside of a Christmas album.
Great album and I know this won’t be the last Simon and Garfunkel to look forward to.
Favorite song: 7 O’clock News / Silent Night
Other: Cloudy, Homeward Bound, The 59th Street Bridge Song, The Dangling Conversation, For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
5
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Sat Sep 23 2023
Hotel California
Eagles
This is definitely the most famous album that I've been given yet, which adds its own challenges. The quick answer here is that this album is great, and I very much see why it's considered a classic. Hotel California (the song) kicks it off, and it's obviously iconic and great. I don't think I had listened to the full album before, and I was surprised by the country twang that comes through on a number of the songs. I thought this worked well to complement the more typical rock vibes on songs like "Life in the Fast Lane". I also liked the slower tempo songs, and thought The Last Resort was a great way to wrap up the album.
The hard part about something like this is that its pretty much the poster child for what's considered "classic rock" to a 2023 listener (at least to me). Because of this, there are moments that feel dated or even a bit hokey today (e.g., the guitar riffs on Wasted Time gave me this feeling), and as great as this is, this makes it feel somewhat uncool which makes me second-guess whether it's actually good or not.
So clearly I'm overthinking things. It's great and there's a reason it's popular. Not everything has to hold up perfectly over time, but this manages to mostly do so anyway. Hotel California (the song again) probably gets a 5 rating on its own, but there's plenty more going on here too that's worth a listen and relisten.
Favorite song: Hotel California
Other: New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Try and Love Again, The Last Resort
5
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Thu Sep 28 2023
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
The Byrds
So apparently The Byrds had a country rock moment. I actually really liked how this album started, the first two songs both sounded interesting and somewhat modern. They're country, but in a fairly low-key nice way (I could have imagined The Avett Brothers or Jason Isbell or someone singing).
And then it took the hardest turn that I absolutely did not see coming. Song #3 is "The Christian Life" and it's something. If I'm supposed to take it at face value, its possibly the worst song I've ever heard. If I'm not supposed to take it at face value (and it's like a parody of old conservative country fans) then it totally misses the mark for me and throws off the whole vibe of the album. I like to think its the latter (the Southern drawl was particularly over the top strong on this song, so maybe...), but it still just does not work.
After that, the album settles into a perfectly fine but generally uninteresting country album. I guess this album kind of took country rock somewhat mainstream so maybe I should be giving it more credit, but I just really didn't think there was much interesting happening after the first two songs.
The original album does end with "Nothing Was Delivered," which was written by Bob Dylan. I did like this one too, so this at least was bookended by good songs. The Spotify version has some additional songs that were added later, they're ok and are generally less "country" than the rest. There's also a few rehearsal takes on the Spotify version that are skippable.
Apparently this album totally flopped back in the day, but is now considered to be pretty important for country rock. I think its largely just fine, occasionally quite good, and at one moment truly awful. A bit all over the board, but I'm glad I heard a few songs on this at least.
Favorite song: You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Other: I Am a Pilgrim, Hickory Wind, Nothing Was Delivered
3
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Fri Sep 29 2023
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha Franklin
I kind of feel like Aretha is a bit of a one-trick pony, but that one trick is an incredibly good one that doesn't really get old. Her voice is just phenomenal, and it hits right from the beginning with Respect as the opener. I think there's a few spots where the album lulls a bit, but even in these spots her voice just carries the song.
I don't have much else to say on this one, just an incredible singer with a really solid album top to bottom. I learned that this was her first breakthrough album commercially, but was actually her 10th studio album. Hard to believe it took so long, but it makes sense that it eventually happened.
Favorite song: Respect
Other: Drown In My Own Tears, I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You), Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream, Good Times, Do Right Woman Do Right Man, Save Me, A Change Is Gonna Come
5
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Sat Sep 30 2023
From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
I don't think I've ever listened to a full Elvis album before, but this is definitely one of them. He has a style and doesn't stray too far from it. It was generally fine and I liked a few of the songs, but I just don't think I'm a huge Elvis person. The voice flutter thing that he does is iconic, but it just kind of annoys me.
In the Ghetto was an interesting surprise at the (original) end of the album (there's a few extra songs on this version). It sounds a bit in your face or cheesy hearing it now, but it seems like the first time he ever sang a song with any sort of social theme, so I respect him going for it.
Favorite song: Wearin' That Loved On Look
Other: Long Black Limousine, Power of My Love, In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds
3
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Sun Oct 01 2023
High Violet
The National
This is the first album that I’ve gotten from an artist that I’ve seen live. I really enjoy all the new music that I’ve heard by doing this, but it’s also nice to get something familiar sometimes.
I’m hugely biased here, The National is probably my favorite modern rock band and this might be their best album top-to-bottom. I often find one singer hard to listen to for a full album, but I never have that issue with Matt Berninger. His voice is just great, I feel like it comes across as soothing despite a lot of songs that are a bit chaotic overall.
A review I saw described the guitars on Terrible Love (the first song) as “buzzy and atmospheric”, and I feel like that actually describes the sound of the album more broadly. The sound is full and grand, but there’s this buzzy undertone that I love. I get the sense that the Dessners are brilliant musicians too.
There’s so many great songs on this album, I’m adding basically the whole thing to my playlist. Terrible Love is a powerful opener, Bloodbuzz Ohio might be my favorite song of theirs overall, Runaway is more understated but fantastic. If I had to be picky about one thing I’ll say that the closing song could’ve been better chosen, but I’m getting really picky about an incredible album. An album that’s already in my rotation and will definitely continue to be.
Favorite song: Bloodbuzz Ohio
Other: Terrible Love, Sorrow, Anyone’s Ghost, Afraid of Everyone, Runaway, Conversation 16, England
5
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Mon Oct 02 2023
Frampton Comes Alive
Peter Frampton
This album is basically 77 minutes of Peter Frampton just jamming on guitar. In his defense, he shreds. The downside is that it’s not particularly interesting to me, and is excruciatingly long. I can see the appeal, just not really for me.
It’s interesting that this is basically the key piece of output from his career, and it’s a live album. The energy is pretty good on it, but live albums are tough.
There’s a couple of great songs on here. Baby, I Love Your Way is iconic. As a whole it’s just fine though, I was ready for something else pretty quickly. The last song was a bit of a banger, I’ll give it that.
Favorite song: Baby, I love Your Way
Other: Show Me The Way, Penny For Your Thoughts, Jumping Jack Flash, Do You Feel Like We Do
2
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Tue Oct 03 2023
Black Holes and Revelations
Muse
Muse is another modern rock band that I've seen live (Osheaga 2017). I actually am not super familiar with their work though, and the two songs of theirs that I do know are not on this album (Uprising and Madness). I thought this album started really strong, I liked the first two songs a lot and the third song (Supermassive Black Hole) is one of their more popular songs (though I'm not quite so high on it).
Starlight is song #2 and is my favorite one on the album. It's a great example of a piano/keyboard carrying a rock song (also the case on Hoodoo). We also know by now that I love the slow song in the middle of a rock album, and Soldier's Poem delivers (it sounds a lot like a Queen song to me).
Overall though, I thought the album was good but something about it just doesn't blow me away. After the strong stretch at the beginning not as much stood out to me, and I think they have a bit of a sound which makes a lot of the songs sound the same. Perfectly good modern rock with a few plus moments.
Favorite song: Starlight
Other: Take a Bow, Supermassive Black Hole, Soldier’s Poem, Hoodoo
3
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Wed Oct 04 2023
Fisherman's Blues
The Waterboys
This is certainly an interesting album. It's not my favorite thing I've ever heard, but I'm really glad I heard it.
It's generally a folk rock album that drifts into traditional Irish music. The bagpipes and string instruments are actually a nice change of pace from the more traditional rock that's more common on here, but I don't think I have a super strong desire to just listen to that on more of an everyday basis.
There are definitely interesting pieces too. "Sweet Thing" is a Van Morrison cover that's actually quite good. "Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?" leans country and is a lot of fun. "The Stolen Child has Yeats" poetry spoken on top of the song. And then it ends with a Euro take on "This Land Is Your Land."
My initial reaction was actually kind of negative on this, but it really started to grow on me more with a second listen. The Spotify version is also a Collector's Edition that has a ton of other content beyond the original album, and I think the length of that overwhelmed me a bit. I'm sticking with a three since it didn't blow me away, but I'd like to come back to this one later on and give it another go.
Favorite song: Strange Boat
Other: Fisherman’s Blues, Sweet Thing, Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?, When Ye Go Away
3
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Thu Oct 05 2023
Here Are the Sonics
The Sonics
I've listened to enough 50s and 60s albums now, and this one feels like a turning point to me. There's a lot of the rockabilly sound still in here (Roll Over Beethoven, Dirty Robber, etc.). At times it sounded similar to the Jerry Lee Lewis album that I've gotten before (including a common cover). There's a few covers on here too and it's very short (29 minutes), both things typical in earlier rock albums.
But I think this is when you can start to hear some of what's to come too. The rockabilly sound gives way to a bit harder of a rock sound at times, with strong guitar and drums. It's simple, but high energy, and frantic, and generally fun. There's also a lot of yelling (probably overdone a bit to be honest).
Overall I didn't love the album, it was just ok to me. The sound quality is pretty rough, the yelling became a bit much, and there wasn't much that stood out as particularly groundbreaking or interesting. But I get the sense that this was a critical step to what came shortly after. I know "Have Love Will Travel" (the best song on here) was mentioned in The Velvet Underground podcast I listened to, and you can see how this bridges the gap to what's coming. Maybe The Sonics walked so others could run.
Favorite song: Have Love Will Travel
Other: The Witch, Psycho, Strychnine
3
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Sun Oct 08 2023
Bummed
Happy Mondays
This is the first time in awhile that I actively disliked an album. No real interesting hooks at all, the singer's voice is annoying and mumbly, and he has this distinctively 80s sound that I don't like.
I guess this was a big album for some sub-sub-genre or another, but I'm not getting it. I'll be passing on listening to the full 2 hour collector's edition on Spotify.
Lazyitis (the last song) is somewhat decent, and I like the cover art. That's the pros.
Favorite song: Lazyitis
1
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Thu Oct 12 2023
Close To The Edge
Yes
I’m generally feeling kind of meh about this. It’s 70s prog rock, lots of guitar shredding and synth sounds together. It’s just not really hitting much for me beyond a few moments here and there.
Not super critical, but the album is stylized in a weird way that wasn’t super clear from the Spotify version. I was listening to the first song (15 minutes long) and I thought “this sounds like multiple totally different songs”. Turns out on the original version each side was one song with sub-songs (plus one more main song on the B side). Spotify doesn’t make this clear though, so it makes the 15 minute song feel a bit odd altogether. The Spotify version also has a few other tracks that weren’t on the original, including an “America” cover (significantly worse than the original).
Favorite song: And You and I
Other: Total Mass Retain
2
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Fri Oct 13 2023
Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival
This was great, I really enjoyed it overall. Generally upbeat musically, though the lyrics are not always so positive. The first half plus of the album were pretty much all great (the second half was good too but not as many standouts for me).
No real notes here, just a strong album top to bottom. The songs are pretty short, the production is tight, it sounds unique compared to other rock from the time. A bit of a rootsy/country sound throughout too, I got Caamp vibes frequently.
There's also a few very famous songs here, most notably "Bad Moon Rising". I also really enjoyed Lodi as something a bit more melancholy.
Favorite song: Bad Moon Rising
Other: Green River, Tombstone Shadow, Wrote A Song For Everyone, Lodi
5
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Sat Oct 14 2023
Cheap Thrills
Big Brother & The Holding Company
This is an ok album carried by Janis Joplin as the lead singer. Her voice is obviously super unique, and there's moments where it's great, though I don't know that I'm a massive Janis Joplin fan overall. I think I appreciate what's going on here, while also being somewhat indifferent for the most part.
Sound-wise, it was much more bluesy than I expected. They also did this thing where a few of the songs have added background noise to sound like they're live recordings, this was a bad choice. The cover art is kind of fun though.
Favorite song: Piece of My Heart
Other: I Need a Man to Love, Summertime
3
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Sun Oct 15 2023
The La's
The La's
Big time one hit wonder here (on their one album). There She Goes is the hit, it’s a banger.
I really liked the rest of the album too though, I was pleasantly surprised. Really good 90s British alt rock vibes, and they keep it interesting throughout. The lyrics are a bit cheesy at times but it is what it is. Fun album, good vibes, an iconic song, no major complaints here.
Favorite song: There She Goes
Other: I Can’t Sleep, Timeless Melody, Liberty Ship, Doledrum, Feelin’, Freedom Song, Looking Glass
4
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Mon Oct 16 2023
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
This album is so good. In some way it's also kind of the reason I started this album thing in the first place. I saw a Twitter thread about "After Hours" about 7 months ago, then went down a Velvet Underground rabbit hole, then listened to a podcast about the Velvet Underground that mentioned a bunch of other bands from the time, then realized I should listen to more older music, which led me to this.
This album has already been part of the rotation for a bit now and it will continue to be. "Candy Says" is an incredibly powerful opener, especially given the time it came out. "Pale Blue Eyes" is one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs, it's understated and beautiful and heartbreaking. While this album is great overall, I also think the stretch of songs from "Pale Blue Eyes" to "I'm Set Free" is one of the most thematically strong stretches of songs that I can think of. He's wrestling with his past, he struggles with religion, and it ends with the lyric "I'm set free to find a new illusion." "I'm Set Free" also just has such a grand sound that builds over the course of the song that pulls it together. It's such a narratively strong run, and they're all great musically too.
Then there's "After Hours," which got me into them in the first place. It's an interesting song to be the first song of theirs that I ever listened to, since it's so different from basically everything else of theirs. With no other knowledge I would've guessed this was a early 2000s indie song, but they were doing it 40 years earlier. Apparently Lou Reed just kind of decided on a whim that Moe Tucker should sing this one, she had no interest in doing so, and only agreed when Reed kicked the rest of the band out of the studio for her to record it. The song is brilliant, everything about it works perfectly.
It's very clear that I love this album, and it's so close to perfect to me. I do have to mention the one blemish though, which is "The Murder Mystery." One of the things I love about the Velvet Underground is their willingness to be bold and try things that are a bit out there. This worked perfectly on "After Hours" for example, but "The Murder Mystery" is a big miss for me. I won't comment on it too much, but it's 9 minutes long, has a lot of mumbling background noises, and definitely hurts the album flow a bit at the end. They tried something, I respect that, it didn't quite work, it is what it is.
This is already a super long review, but I just love this album. I'm not sure how I'd rate it vs. The Velvet Underground and Nico, but it's at least close for me. I think the overall narrative and production might be a bit tighter on this one, but they're both great in their own right. Easy 5 stars here, I've been waiting for my first Velvet Underground album and am looking forward to the rest. The whole album (except "The Murder Mystery") is getting added to my playlist.
Favorite song: After Hours
Other: Candy Says, What Goes On, Some Kinda Love, Pale Blue Eyes, Jesus, Beginning To See The Light, I’m Set Free, That’s The Story Of My Life
5
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Tue Oct 17 2023
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, but I liked this a lot. It's incredibly stripped down country. Very simple song structures, mostly slow paced songs, vocals standing alone. Nelson's voice is really great though, and it just generally works super well even though there's not a ton to it. It's a short album at 34 minutes, and just is a nice, easy listen start to finish. It lacks any real attention-catching moments (Red Headed Stranger is close though), but is consistently strong.
Favorite song: Red Headed Stranger
Other: Time of the Preacher, Medley: Blue Rock Montana / Red Headed Stranger, Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain, Red Headed Stranger, Denver, Can I Sleep In Your Arms, Hands on the Wheel
4
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Wed Oct 18 2023
Tubular Bells
Mike Oldfield
This album has it all: Richard Branson funding, a teenage instrumental musician, a horror movie soundtrack, and the Olympics opening ceremony.
I really am not sure how this thing got so popular, something about it feels super British to me. It's fine instrumental rock that is occasionally interesting and more frequently mediocre. It seems like this blew up after it was used in "The Exorcist", which I guess I get but it still surprises me. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I just don't quite get this one. There's two 25 minute songs which also doesn't help. I'm adding the "single" version to my playlist because I know I'll probably just skip the full version otherwise.
Favorite song: Mike Oldfield's Single - Theme From Tubular Bells
1
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Thu Oct 19 2023
Make Yourself
Incubus
This album has such a distinct late-90s / early-2000s rock sound. I think if I'm going to honestly assess this album, I would say that it's not from the best genre of music out there, and no one should confuse the lyrics here for Dylan. But there's something about this that is just hits a super nostalgic part of my brain that makes me like it more than I probably should. This particular album is just slightly before my time, but the sound is similar to a lot of bands from the era, and "Drive" was big enough still when I was younger that it made an impression.
So many of the songs have this deep trailing off guitar at the end that I think was popular at the time. I don't know, my brain is telling me this album is just ok, but my heart is saying it's good. "Drive" is definitely a banger though, no denying that.
To say something nice beyond "nostalgia," I do like their incorporation of a DJ/turntablist on quite a few of the songs here. It's actually pretty a pretty nice addition, so I like that. I've talked myself into a 4; this is supposed to be fun and I had fun listening to this.
Favorite song: Drive
Other: Nowhere Fast, Consequence, Stellar, Clean, Battlestar Scralatchitica, I Miss You, Pardon Me
4
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Fri Oct 20 2023
Live At The Witch Trials
The Fall
I've struggled a bit with the 70s punk albums on here so far. Marquee Moon (Television) started to work more for me on a second listen, so maybe this is something that needs to settle in a bit more for me (but Marquee Moon is also a lot more polished than this).
I generally didn't love this right now though. I actually liked the first song ("Frightened"), but then it didn't quite come together for me after that. It's super loose and unstructured, very garage-jam sounds. The singer is ok, but his voice is pretty whiny and somehow yelling at the same time. It just wasn't generally working, though there were a few spots here and there that I liked. But then there's also songs like "No Xmas for John Quays," where I just am not tracking it.
I do think I get the appeal of this music. It's certainly a lot more raw and outside the box than the mainstream 70s rock. I just think there's a bit higher variability, and this one didn't quite do it for me on the whole.
Favorite song: Frightened
Other: Rebellious Juxebox, Futures and Pasts
10/19/23
2
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Sat Oct 21 2023
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
This was fun, the "King of Soul" doing just that. The album is pretty short (37 minutes) and the energy is good throughout. As always, a bit hard to rate the very old music (particularly the stuff that sounds old), but I generally enjoyed this. Cooke's voice is awesome, good stuff here.
Favorite song: Cupid
Other: Feel It (Don't Fight It), Twistin' The Night Away, Bring It on Home to Me, Having a Party
10/22/23
4
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Tue Oct 24 2023
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
"2009, 2010 wanna make a record how I felt then" -Month of May
They crushed it. This album was already in the rotation for me, but reiterating here that it's an incredibly good one. I think this is basically peak 00s-10s indie/alt rock. The album is just so effective at capturing the feelings associated with a former suburban life (and it's not always positive or negative; there's despair or sorrow in there for sure, but also a sense of nostalgia as well).
Musically it's also awesome, varied and consistently interesting, with very few misses. A number of classic songs too; The Suburbs is one of their most popular songs and Sprawl II is my personal favorite. Sprawl II also highlights the female vocals that are used on a few songs (and highly underutilized in my opinion).
This is just a really great album where things just totally came together on one record. The topic might be a bit on the tame side for some, but that's ok. It's relatable for me and I'm really glad it exists.
Favorite song: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Other: The Suburbs, Ready To Start, Modern Man, Rococo, Empty Room, Half Light I, Suburban War, Wasted Hours, Deep Blue
10/23/23
5
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Wed Oct 25 2023
Rio
Duran Duran
I've kept going back and forth about what to say about this one. I'll admit that my thoughts about this album are possibly taking too much into account my overall thoughts about this 80s pop rock (or New Wave or whatever you want to call it) genre.
Basically I think this musical style is just super mediocre. There's this like goofy sounding synth that's really overused, the singer's voice is so overdone throughout, and basically all the songs sound the same except for the chorus. I really don't love it, and a lot of 80s pop rock has this sound.
But as much as it pains me to say it, this album has one (pretty critical) redeeming quality. The hooks are honestly pretty catchy. I don't like that I feel this way, but I do. Rio is super catchy, Hungry Like The Wolf too, Hold Back the Rain had a decent chorus, quite of few do work. They manage to hit something deep in the pop psyche that just sticks in your head. So I don't love the music, but credit where it's due. I'm giving them a 3, I'm tempted to go lower but I can't get the Rio chorus out of my head.
Favorite song: Rio
Other: Hungry Like The Wolf, The Chauffeur
10/24/23
3
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Thu Oct 26 2023
Post Orgasmic Chill
Skunk Anansie
I'm pretty convinced that I willed the second half of this album into existence. I really did not like the first few songs at all. They're pretty hard rock and feel really rough around the edges, it was not working for me. But the singer's voice is clearly really good, and I must've thought to myself 10 times that if they just took it down a couple of notches and let her actually sing (instead of the hard rock yelling / Janis Joplin knock-off thing that was going on) that she would shine.
And then that exact thing literally happened just how I hoped. The band pulled back the intensity quite a bit after the first few songs, and the singer actually got to show off her voice, which is really quite great. "Lately" and "Secretly" were both really good songs, and a number of other songs on here were similarly restrained in a way that let the singer (whose name apparently is Skin) to stand out.
They certainly weren't all winners on this one, and they did go back to the heavier rock a few times later, but I ended up liking this more than expected. This is an album that I have absolutely no desire to listen to again in full, but I found a couple of songs that are really quite good, and I almost definitely would never have stumbled on them if not for this project. Sticking with a 3 rating since a good bit of this didn't work at all for me, but it was worth the listen.
Favorite song: Lately
Other: Tracy’s Flaw, Secretly, You’ll Follow Me Down, I’m Not Afraid
10/25/23
3
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Fri Oct 27 2023
Ys
Joanna Newsom
Sometimes the line between genius and bad is pretty thin. I really didn't know what to make of this at first (and am still not sure I know exactly what to make of it to be honest). I think I really like it though?
The album is very orchestral. There's lots of twinkling chimes and harps and things, so definitely a bit unconventional. It almost sounds like it should be the soundtrack for some sort of medieval period piece or something.
The songwriting might be my favorite part of the album. The songs are beautiful and emotional and clever. In another era she might've been a great poet, but we got this instead.
Newsom's voice is also really interesting. I'm reminded by the discussion of Nico's voice in a Velvet Underground podcast that I listened to, where they spent quite a long time discussing whether she's actually a good singer or not. I think Newsom's voice is probably great, but honestly I'm not 100% convinced it's even good. Newsom's voice is a bit squeaky almost, and it seems like she gets criticized for sounding child-like at times. I think it works though, she has great range and expresses incredible emotion in her singing.
Anyway, I think it's really good, and I'm enjoying it even more on a second listen. Annoyingly it's not on Spotify (she REALLY doesn't like Spotify), but something about making me dig a bit harder for this seems on brand. I also think it's funny that she's married to Andy Samberg, they seem like they'd be a fun couple.
Favorite song: Sawdust & Diamonds
Other: Emily, Only Skin, Cosmia
10/26/23
4
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Mon Oct 30 2023
Either Or
Elliott Smith
Possibly my favorite album yet, this is perfect top to bottom. I had listened to a bit of Elliott Smith before since I knew that he was a pretty big influence on Phoebe Bridgers, but for some reason I hadn't really given much thought to this album as a whole. That was a mistake, this is incredibly good.
First, I get the Phoebe Bridgers connection. Part of why I like her so much is how she writes incredibly powerful lyrics that are about highly specific, often mundane parts of day to day life. Smith does this really effectively too, and I can totally see how this album influenced her later work. "You're sitting around at home now waiting for your brother to call. I saw him down in the alley having had enough of it all." He just captures these little specific life moments so well.
The album is definitely sad. Spotify's artist description says that Smith has a "distinctively melancholic sound", and that's probably a pretty apt description. But it has these small moments throughout that bring in bits and pieces of beauty or optimism that makes this all come together.
And then "Say Yes" just totally brings it home at the end. It's definitely not a "happy" song, but it's upbeat sounding and romantic and real. The guitar has this poppy sound. It's a distinctively Elliott Smith song, even though it sounds pretty different from the rest of the album. "I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl...I'm damaged bad at best, she'll decide what she wants, I'll probably be the last to know".
The album is a bit short (37 minutes for 12 songs), and Smith consistently ends songs a little before where you might expect other artists to end them. It works, there's no extra fluff, he gets across what he needs to. Say Yes is a great example at the end, it finishes a bit abruptly but it's perfect.
Truly great album, one that I knew of but never gave enough attention to before this. I'm glad I finally did.
"You can do what you want to whenever you want to. You can do what you want to there's no one to stop you."
Favorite song: Say Yes
Other: Speed Trials, Alameda, Ballad of Big Nothing, Between The Bars, Pictures Of Me, No Name No. 5, Rose Parade, Punch And Judy, Angeles, Cupids Trick, 2:45 a.m.
5
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Tue Oct 31 2023
Ágætis Byrjun
Sigur Rós
I've never quite known what to make of Sigur Ros. I had listened to them previously when getting into a few other Icelandic musicians so more or less knew their deal already, though I wasn't super familiar with this album specifically. This is the first album on here that wasn't in English, so that obviously makes it pretty unique off the bat. This one is mostly in Icelandic I believe, but they also apparently sing in made up words that kind of sound like Icelandic sometimes? I don't quite get that.
That said, they are obviously incredibly talented musicians. I do frequently like their sound, and the ambient noise style (or as Spotify says, "cosmic post-rock creations", whatever that means) can make for good listening (even just as background noise).
I don't think I'm quite as big on them as some others are, but I think where I land is that it's generally interesting stuff, very unique, and mostly enjoyable. This is another one that's probably a 3.5 for me, but it's unique and interesting enough that I'll round up.
Favorite song: Svefn-g-englar
Other: Ny batterí, Vidrar Vel til Loftárása, Olsen Olsen, Avalon
10/30/23
4
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Wed Nov 01 2023
The Colour Of Spring
Talk Talk
So the headline here is that I didn't really like this, but I spent a decent amount of time reading about it after listening and I'm intrigued by the band.
This seems to generally be considered a transition album for Talk Talk. They're arguably a one-hit wonder (It's My Life in 1984), and their early albums are a heavily sythn-pop sound. This is their next album after It's My Life (so it doesn't include the one-hit) and to me it still has quite a bit of the synth-pop that I don't really like. It just sounds really dated to me, and the singer also has kind of an annoying 80s oversinging thing going on.
My issue with this album is that it still sounds very synth-pop-80s, but doesn't have the catchy hooks that a lot of this type of music has (that's typically the one saving grace of this style in my opinion). There are a few spots where it moves away from it though, and you can kind of tell that they're trying to not just be a synth band. I really enjoyed Give It Up for instance, I think it showcases the band's talent a lot better.
After reading about them, this transition hypothesis seems to be the case. Apparently the singer had no real interest in being a pop star and also really didn't like the synthesizer as an instrument. It's My Life blew up, so they probably didn't want to completely move away from it on their next record (this one), but after The Colour of Spring they seem to completely move away from this type of music. The Colour of Spring had more commercial success than what came later, but it seems like the later stuff had a lot more critical success.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to get another Talk Talk album on this or not. This one still doesn't really work for me, but I can see how this represents a shift for them away from the musical style that made them big. That's got to be a hard transition to make, so I respect them for giving it a go.
Two other minor notes. I really hated the first song (Happiness is Easy), which is never a good way to start. The call-and-response thing with a children's choir just never works for me, bad decision on that one. On a more positive note though, I really like the album cover.
Favorite song: Give It Up
Other: Life’s What You Make It
10/31/23
2
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Thu Nov 02 2023
Nevermind
Nirvana
They don't waste any time getting to it on this one. It opens with Smells Like Teen Spirit, which is probably the most iconic song of the '90s (I just looked up what Rolling Stone has to say, and they agree).
I had heard a few other songs previously, but I was really impressed (but not surprised) by how good this is start to finish. It's raw and emotionally charged, but still comes across as really polished at the same time. Cobain is obviously an incredibly talented and troubled artist, and he just brings so much emotion and desperation throughout. I was probably listening to the drummer a bit more than I normally do too since it's the rare case where I know who it is, but obviously incredible talent as well.
I don't have a lot to say about this one that hasn't been said. Some albums just seem to capture a moment in time, and this one feels like the best stand-in for the early 90s grunge era overall. It holds up really well though, and I think still comes across as powerfully as it would have 32 years ago.
Favorite song: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Other: In Bloom, Come As You Are, Breed, Lithium, Polly, Drain You, Stay Away, On A Plain, Something In The Way, Endless Nameless
11/2/23
5
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Fri Nov 03 2023
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
First time I've gotten to listen to one of these albums on vinyl, so that was fun. I wrote a lot about my feelings about The Velvet Underground as a band when I got The Velvet Underground album on here two weeks ago, so I won't rehash that here. It's hard to believe that it's only been about 8 months since now, but I listened to this full album for the first time on a bus in Cancun and it's become a staple for me since then.
The album is obviously awesome. It's definitely dark, mostly in a sex and drugs way. It feels real though, you definitely get the sense that Reed is capturing his lived experience. I love the casual NYC references throughout as well.
Two lineup differences on this album vs. The Velvet Underground from a few weeks ago (I guess three if you count Andy Warhol, but that's another thing). First, this one has John Cale as a bandmember. I was fortunate to see Cale perform live a few months ago, and at 81 he's still got it (he played "I'm Waiting For The Man"). He brings a lot of the avant-garde/art-rock sound that really makes this album stand out from others from the time. For example, something like the constant drone underneath on "Heroin" really makes it stand out in an unsettling way that just perfectly complements the song. The band's later work was still great, but in a different way. I would've loved to see what came later if Reed let him stick around.
Then there's Nico. She's definitely an interesting character, and I enjoyed learning more about her dynamic with the band. I think it's probably good that she didn't end up becoming a long-term member of the band, but I really do have a soft spot for the Nico-sung songs on this album (Femme Fatale, All Tomorrow's Parties, I'll Be Your Mirror). I've heard this whole album before a number of times now, but "I'll Be Your Mirror" really stood out to me on this listen in a way that it hasn't before. It's almost strangely upbeat in the context of the rest of the album, but is just a really beautiful short little love song. A close read might sense some sadness in "please put down your hands" line, but I still think it's really touching and is just a really great song.
So much good stuff on here, I won't write too much more. It was hard to pick a favorite, but Heroin is just so epic-sounding and builds up in such an unsettling way. Sunday Morning is apparently their most streamed song on Spotify and is definitely a classic too (and a bit more of a tame start to the album). I'm Waiting For The Man certainly paints a picture of Lou Reed's life, and European Son brings it all home with some classic Velvet Underground chaos. This is just a masterpiece top to bottom. This lineup didn't last long, but it produced something great, so thanks Andy Warhol.
Favorite song: Heroin
Other: Sunday Morning, I'm Waiting For The Man, Femme Fatale, Venus In Furs, Run Run Run, All Tomorrow's Parties, There She Goes Again, I'll Be Your Mirror, The Black Angel's Death Song, European Son
11/2/23
5
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Sat Nov 04 2023
Disintegration
The Cure
This kind of blew me away, I loved it. I don’t really know what I thought this would be, but it was awesome.
Most of the songs have really long instrumental intros that just build the sound and anticipation. Early on you get a little taste of the 80s new wave sound, but they manage to do it in a way that captures the best of the style. The synthesizer doesn’t dominate but effectively complements the rest of the instruments, and Smith’s voice is just awesome and doesn’t fall into the over-exaggeration trap that a lot of music from the era does.
This has just such a strong top few songs. Plainsong kicks it off with a bang, first with subtle chimes and then it just hits. And then Pictures of You is awesome to follow. Lovesong is a bit poppy and has great energy. And then after a bit it turns a bit more dark and gothy (for lack of a better word) and it just totally works.
It’s a long album (72 minutes) and many of the songs are on the longer side from the intros. But it’s great start to finish. A band that managed to pull together a full album of songs that are interesting and unique and it’s all cohesive. This is the reason I love this 1001 albums experience, I hit play again as soon as it finished.
Favorite song: Pictures Of You
Other: Plainsong, Closedown, Lovesong, Lullaby, Fascination Street, The Same Deep Water As You, Disintegration, Homesick, Untitled
5
View Album
Sun Nov 05 2023
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
42 songs later...
This thing is long (130 minutes to be exact). Like really long. I couldn't listen to it all in one day.
The deal here is a 70s country rock band wanted to make a record with some of the most famous country artists from the prior few decades. All the old guys thought the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a bunch of long-haired hippies, but they eventually convinced a few of them to do it anyway. So what you ended up with is a bit of a mixed sound across a few decades of country, with kind of an all-star lineup from that era.
They're all clearly talented artists, but I rate these on the quality of the album overall, and this one was just overwhelming. I think it would be perfect as like an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame that just loops repeatedly with some video and you can sit and watch it for however long you like until you get bored and then move on. There's clearly a lot of historical value, but it's not a cohesive album (I don't know that any triple album can be). There's also a lot of talking and whatnot between songs, which again is cool for historical significance but hurts album flow a lot.
Anyway, the actual music was fine, but not much really stood out to me either. I do think if I'm picking out any of the old guys, I like Merle Travis the best. Dark As A Dungeon was my favorite song overall and his voice and songwriting are both great. There's also a cover from The Byrds country album on here which was good.
Favorite song: Dark As A Dungeon
Other: Grand Ole Opry Song, Nine Pound Hammer, Way Downtown, I Am A Pilgrim
11/4/23
2
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Mon Nov 06 2023
Ace of Spades
Motörhead
This is just like exactly what comes to mind when I think about classic 80s hard rock. Long guitar solos, a gruff singer, mostly ridiculous hardcore lyrics. Like Ace of Spades is their most famous song, is probably the best one on the album, and the lyrics are pretty hilarious. I guess I can see what people could like about it, but this isn't for me.
Favorite song: Ace of Spades
11/5/23
1
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Tue Nov 07 2023
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
I probably did too much reading on this one while I was listening to it to write an unbiased review. I guess Coltrane had a whole religious awakening around this time, kicked his drug habit cold turkey, and then took his music up a notch. Good for him. This is generally considered to be a masterpiece and seems to be one of the more famous jazz albums.
I am in no way qualified to rate jazz albums, but here goes nothing. I think I like it, and I'm not sure that I can articulate why. It's just a little fast paced and chaotic to keep it interesting. The songs are titled "Acknowledgement', "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm", and I think the idea is that this more or less traces his religious awakening. I didn't quite get it on
the first two tracks (it felt a little generic to me), but it does start to come together a bit on the second two. The pace on "Pursuance" is rapid and feels almost desperate (right from the drums at the beginning), and then it all kind of unwinds and hits its peak at the end of that song and then on "Psalm".
It's really good, and probably great. I like jazz but I struggle to rate it against other genres since it almost feels like it's own thing to me. I'm giving it a 4, maybe it should be a 5, who's to say really.
Favorite song: A Love Supreme, Pt. III - Pursuance
Other: A Love Supreme, Pt. IV - Psalm
11/6/23
4
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Wed Nov 08 2023
BEYONCÉ
Beyoncé
It seems like the commercial impact of this album might be even bigger than the musical impact. I guess Beyonce released this with no promotion and it was pretty much out of nowhere. She also released music videos with each song all at once, so it was a full production that no one was expecting. This is also the same year she performed in the Super Bowl, so she really was clicking at this time.
I'm a casual Beyonce fan at very most, and this album actually doesn't have a lot of her more recognizable songs. Drunk In Love was the only one I think I really knew before.
She tackles a lot of big topics on this one in a very blunt way. I think this is pretty clearly a strong feminist stance, and she does not shy away from explicitly sexual themes. Like that's a good bit of the album. There is a song called Blow. It's about exactly what you'd expect it to be about.
I'm probably never going to be a huge Beyonce fan, it's a bit overproduced pop music for me, but honestly I liked it more than I expected. It's at least real and there's a few softer songs that show off her talent. Jealous was a winner for me, I liked this one a lot, and the Frank Ocean song ("Superpower") is also great.
Not my favorite thing ever, but I'm confident saying that it's a very good album from one of the few true modern stars at her peak.
Favorite song: Jealous
Other: Pretty Hurts, Drunk in Love, Partition, XO, Superpower, Heaven
11/7/23
4
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Thu Nov 09 2023
You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fatboy Slim
Ok so this is one of those cases where I had heard of Fatboy Slim but didn't know what songs were his, and it turns out I knew a few of his songs but didn't know they were his. This starts out incredibly strong, the first two songs are both certified bangers. Right Here Right Now just instantly takes me back to Steelers warmups at Heinz Field in like the 2008 Super Bowl run, it's just an iconic sports song now in my mind.
Overall I think this album was just fine. There's 3 great songs, 1 good one, and the rest was a bit run of the mill to me. It's a fun album with some good moments, but it just drags on a bit at times. Generally upbeat and good vibes, but also not something I'd choose to listen to in full often. Definitely feels like a 90s album.
Truly high praise for Right Here Right Now, The Rockafeller Stank, and Praise You though, all great songs that I'm glad I know who they're by now.
Favorite song: Praise You
Other: Right Here Right Now, The Rockafeller Skank, Soul Surfing
11/8/23
3
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Fri Nov 10 2023
Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
This is really my intro to The Rolling Stones (beyond of a few of the singles that everyone knows). This album is a bit of a slow burn, and it's not really what I expected, but I really enjoyed it a lot.
"Rocks Off" starts off as a pretty strong rock song, and then from there it's musically a bit all over the place. They're obviously a classic rock band, but there's some folk here, some blues, some country sounds, the horns on "Happy" and "Let It Loose". It's varied and interesting and honestly just good start to finish. There's not really any song on here that's a clear standout (though I'm pretty partial to "Sweet Virginia" if I had to pick one, the harmonica at the beginning of the song just slaps, love it), but there's no real duds either. Strong from top to bottom, which frankly is hard to do on a 67 minute album (I even listened to it twice to make sure).
Favorite song: Sweet Virginia
Other: Rocks Off, Shake Your Hips, Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice, Torn And Frayed, Sweet Black Angel, Loving Cup, Happy, Ventilator Blues, I Just Want To See His Face, Let It Loose, All Down The Line, Shine A Light
11/9/23
5
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Sat Nov 11 2023
Live At The Regal
B.B. King
"The King of Blues" in a very famous live album. It's generally solid, and he's clearly a talented performer and guitarist. I'm not super into the blues, but it was an enjoyable listen. He definitely gets the crowd going throughout, and I liked how he transitioned between songs a few times. Solid album that was a fun listen, but not a major standout to me (though I'm sure I'm missing some of the historical context here).
Favorite song: Sweet Little Angel
Other: How Blue Can You Get?, Woke Up This Mornin’, Help The Poor
11/10/23
3
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Sun Nov 12 2023
The Atomic Mr Basie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
Another 50s jazz record that I'm not quite sure how to rate. It's solid and I legitimately enjoyed listening to it. There's also no vocals though, so it really feels like background music to me rather than something I'd choose to actively listen to. This guy recorded with Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett though, so he must be legit.
Favorite song: Splanky
Other: The Kid from Red Bank, Flight of the Foo Birds, Whirly-Bird, Midnite Blue
11/11/23
3
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Mon Nov 13 2023
Parklife
Blur
This might be the most British thing that I've ever listened to. It has the line, "I put my trousers on, have a cup of tea." There's a different song called "Bank Holiday". I can picture some 90s kid sitting in a pub in Leeds just loving this.
It's generally not bad. Also not amazing, but it's got some pretty good songs on here and is generally enjoyable. I guess they were rivals with Oasis and this is considered to be peak Britpop era. Checks out to me, I'll roll with it. I'm not sure this singer is as good as Liam Gallagher though.
Favorite song: This Is a Low
Other: Girls & Boys, End of a Century, Parklife, Far Out, To the End, Magic America
11/12/23
3
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Tue Nov 14 2023
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
I really just love how funny 80s and early 90s rap is. These guys are out here rapping things like "I don’t eat no ham n eggs cuz they’re high in cholesterol", and it's hilarious.
I think this album was pretty influential and it does sound a good bit more modern than Run DMC's debut (which is only from like 6 years before this), but I found it to be a bit repetitive (a pretty laid back vibe overall) without a ton of standouts. Generally an enjoyable listen, but this early rap just all sounds a bit dated now. The vibe is consistently good throughout, so it's a fairly easy one to press play and listen to passively.
The one real standout is definitely "Can I Kick It?" I'd heard this before of course, but I never paid that close attention I guess since I missed that it samples "Walk On The Wild Side". This is a really great song and it definitely elevates the album a bit, and this sample works great.
Favorite song: Can I Kick It?
Other: Footprints, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Mr. Muhammed, Ham ‘N’ Eggs
11/13/23
3
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Wed Nov 15 2023
Southern Rock Opera
Drive-By Truckers
So this is definitely not my favorite thing, but it did grow on a me a little bit over the course of the album.
I think the biggest issue here is that I'm clearly just not the target audience. The overarching theme is about growing up in the South and the experiences and misconceptions that come with that (fed though a Lynyrd Skynyrd lens). I found it at times to be an interesting perspective, but not one that I could relate with very well. I also just don't think I love the singer's voice (it's a bit raspy) and I found the non-lyric part of most of the songs to be a bit generic twangy rock.
It's certainly ambitious though, and I appreciate the storytelling throughout. I found the back-to-back tracks "Three Great Alabama Icons" and "Wallace" pretty interesting. The former is barely a song, and more like a documentary overview of George Wallace, Bear Bryant, and Ronnie Van Zant and their impact on Alabama. Then it leads into the latter, which is about Wallace and how he's in hell (but a fairly nuanced perspective on him). Then the second half mirrors the plane crash that killed a lot of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band members. The closing song "Angels And Fuselage" is particularly striking and has a much more somber tone than what led up to it. There's definitely a lot going on here, it's ambitious.
It's long (93 minutes), and long concept albums (which this definitely is) can be a bit hit or miss. This one isn't really for me, but I get why it makes the list and am glad I listened.
Two interesting side notes about this album. First is that Jason Isbell was not involved in the production of this album, but he joined the band for the live touring and then was part of the band for their next few albums before launching his solo career. The other one is that this was set to be released on 9/11/01, but ended up getting pushed back a day after the attacks.
Favorite song: Zip City
Other: Dead Drunk And Naked, Wallace, Angels And Fuselage
11/14/23
2
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Thu Nov 16 2023
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
This is in the same realm as Incubus' "Make Yourself" for me. If I'm trying to be super objective, I'd probably say that it's not the greatest thing. It's definitely a bit harder than most of the stuff I typically like, and some of the record-scratchy noises in the background sound a bit dated now.
But this hits something nostalgic that really brings me back to like the early-mid 2000s. This particular album was just a bit before my time, but Linkin Park was huge when I was growing up and "In the End" is particularly iconic. They did crush the rock-rap hybrid thing, which is worth mentioning. This is probably a 3.5 for me overall and there's some songs that I really don't like, but rounding up.
Favorite song: In the End
Other: Papercut, One Step Closer, With You, Crawling, Runaway, Forgotten, Pushing Me Away
11/15/23
4
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Fri Nov 17 2023
Horses
Patti Smith
This was really great, I really loved it start to finish. Possibly my favorite opening line yet; it opens with "Gloria" and starts off "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." Just totally sets the tone for what's to come. "Gloria" is raw and chaotic and awesome, and then it leads into "Redondo Beach" which is totally different but also beautiful and heartbreaking. It's basically a reggae song but the lyrics are just devastating.
This is just great from top to bottom. Smith has a really unique voice that just captures the emotion of the album so well. The lyrics are pointed and real and honestly poetic throughout. "Kimberly" is a bit more poppy in the middle (almost sounds like a Blondie song or something), and then "Elegie" is just a beautiful conclusion.
And then the unsung start is John Cale pulling it all together, this guy is incredible. He produced this (and a bunch of other stuff) after leaving The Velvet Underground and his fingerprints are all over this one. I guess Smith downplayed his influence on the album, but I don't think I buy it.
Favorite song: Kimberly
Other: Gloria In Excelsis Deo, Redondo Beach, Birdland, Free Money, Break It Up, Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer(de), Elegie
11/16/23
5
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Sat Nov 18 2023
Sound of Silver
LCD Soundsystem
This is one where I think the whole is better than the sum of the parts. There's two songs that really stand out to me on their own, "All My Friends" and "New York I Love You...". They're both awesome songs, and the latter really brings the album home, I love how it builds throughout the song. This has been a favorite of mine for awhile now and I enjoyed hearing it here in the context of the full album. "All My Friends" is awesome too, the pace is just a bit frantic in a great way.
Outside of these two I don't think there's as many standouts, but the album is really consistent top to bottom. It's a fun listen, upbeat and dance-y and consistently interesting. Good stuff here, they would be a fun live show too I think.
Favorite song: New York I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down
Other: Time to Get Away, Someone Great, All My Friends
11/17/23
4
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Sun Nov 19 2023
The Age Of The Understatement
The Last Shadow Puppets
This is the side project for the lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys. There's moments where this sounds like the Arctic Monkeys, and then times when it sounds like a James Bond movie, and then times where it sounds like a '70s horror movie.
It's not bad at all, and I liked it well enough. I don't feel like this stood out to me a ton, but it was generally enjoyable.
Favorite song: The Chamber
Other: Standing Next To Me, Calm Like You, My Mistakes Were Made For You, The Meeting Place
3
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Mon Nov 20 2023
Remedy
Basement Jaxx
This is definitively not a Sunday morning album (unless you're still awake at 4am from the previous night). I'm listening to this on a Sunday morning (at 10am with my coffee). It's not quite matching the vibe unfortunately.
I certainly was never in a Brixton nightclub in the late '90s, but I imagine it probably sounded something like this. It's not my thing, but there's probably a time and place where it would work.
For a positive, I liked the little interludes between some of the songs.
Update: I listened to the second half while going for a run, it was a little better that way. Not much though.
Favorite song: Stop 4 Love
Other: Red Alert
11/19/23
1
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Tue Nov 21 2023
Odessey And Oracle
The Zombies
I liked this a lot, really interesting psychedelic pop rock thing going on here. I do think I liked this a bit more on the strength of the singles than I did as a cohesive album, but the highs were really great. In particular, "A Rose for Emily", "This Will Be Our Year", and "Time of the Season" all stand out as timeless hits that still work great today.
I listened to this a second time as I cooked dinner, and I think I liked it even more. A couple other songs that didn't stand out as much stood out this time, really strong album top to bottom.
This is a fascinating band too. They had a few songs on their previous (first) album that got them a bit of a following in the UK mostly. Then they recorded this album but barely had enough money to even finish it, and immediately disbanded. One US musician convinced a label to market it in the US and then they kind of blew up. They decided not to regroup to play it live though, so the band never really got back together again except for a few random live shows and recordings many years later. Fake bands tried to capitalize on the hype for a tour, and there were multiple "The Zombies" touring that were not the real band. Also when they picked their name some of band members didn't know what a zombie was, it's funny how that just wasn't a thing in pop culture at the time. And "Odyssey" is spelled wrong on the album cover. Their friend made it and just spelled it wrong, but they tried to play it off as intentional for awhile before admitting it.
With all this, this album feels like it really had no business making a lasting impression, but it did and I'm glad for that. This was a fun listen.
Favorite song: This Will Be Our Year
Other: Care Of Cell 44, A Rose for Emily, Beechwood Park, Hung Up On A Dream, I Want Her She Wants Me, Time of the Season
11/20/23
4
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Wed Nov 22 2023
Rock Bottom
Robert Wyatt
I am certainly open to albums that skew a bit more "art", but this one was a bit much for me. The real story for this album seems to be what happened leading up to it. Wyatt apparently had written the album, but then he fell off a balcony while drinking one night and permanently paralyzed himself from the waist down. He then finished making and recording this album in the months after the accident. He claims it was mostly done beforehand, but it's hard to believe that the accident didn't have a significant impact on how this turned out.
While I struggle a bit with the content here (two of the songs have nonsense lyrics), there's definitely a lot of emotion in the album, particularly in the instrumentation. This is one that I'm probably not going to listen to again, but I respect what Wyatt was going for and can't imagine what he went through to get this made.
Favorite song: Sea Song
11/21/23
2
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Thu Nov 23 2023
Van Halen
Van Halen
They definitely have a bit of a formula on this one, and about half the songs just seem like excuses for Eddie Van Halen to shred on the guitar. But in his defense, he does. I was impressed by how many of the songs are still pretty catchy even with the focus on the guitar.
This style of rock is probably never going to be my favorite thing, but I did legitimately enjoy this one. It's fun and the guitar skills really do stand out. There's a few great songs on here too, so I get the hype.
I do think the first half of the album was a lot stronger than the back half, and I feel like I'd tire of this pretty quickly, but this album is pretty tight at 35 minutes so it works well.
Favorite song: Jamie's Cryin'
Other: Runnin' with the Devil, Eruption, You Really Got Me, Feel Your Love Tonight
11/22/23
4
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Fri Nov 24 2023
E.V.O.L.
Sonic Youth
This is awesome, I like this a lot. Sonic Youth is one of those bands that I've heard a lot about and never really listened to much, so I'm excited to get a bit deeper into their work.
From my light reading it seems like this album is considered to be a transition point for them where they rounded out the lineup going forward and solidified their sound a bit. It also just sounds very different from a lot of the other '80s stuff from the time and I'm into it.
The sound on here is just really great. There's a bit of the avant garde-y noise in the back on a lot of the songs, and it invokes this somewhat dark and uncomfortable feeling. But like in a way that totally works and makes for an awesome sound. The ping-pong-y sounds and whispers on "Shadow of a Doubt" are just perfect. I like the split male/female vocals as well, and really like the songs that Kim Gordon sings.
Awesome album, a real bright spot on a turkey-less Thanksgiving.
Favorite song: Shadow Of A Doubt
Other: Tom Violence, Starpower, Death To Our Friends, Secret Girl, Marilyn Moore, Madonna Sean And Me
11/23/23
5
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Sat Nov 25 2023
Dookie
Green Day
Really solid album overall. It's generally pretty simple musically and the lyrics are relatable in an "I'm 22 and hanging out" way, but I think that's part of what makes it work. It's upbeat and fun and has good vibes. A few standout songs ("Basket Case" and "When I Come Around") pull it together. It's not the most interesting thing I've every listened to, but it's really solid and launched Green Day to incredible success. 7 months after this was released was the infamous Green Day Boston riot, so clearly some other people got into this too.
Favorite song: Basket Case
Other: Chump, Longview, Welcome to Paradise, She, When I Come Around, F.O.D.
11/26/23
4
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Sun Nov 26 2023
Celebrity Skin
Hole
Courtney Love's peak was a bit before my time, but I was vaguely aware of her from her marriage to Kurt Cobain and as an actress. I honestly had no idea she had a band of her own.
This album was a fine 90s alt rock album, but nothing stood out as particularly exceptional. Perfectly good to listen to, but not a ton making me want to come back for more beyond a few songs here and there.
Favorite song: Malibu
Other: Celebrity Skin, Reasons To Be Beautiful, Northern Lights, Boys On The Radio, Pedals
11/27/23
3
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Wed Nov 29 2023
Fifth Dimension
The Byrds
This is the second album from The Byrds that I've listened to, and it's definitely very different than their country album (this one came first).
I feel like I should like The Byrds a little more than I do for some reason. 60s alt/psych rock plus David Crosby seems like a winning formula, but this one is just a bit inconsistent for me. There are a few songs that are really solid; "Eight Miles High" is awesome and "What's Happening?" has really good vibes as well. There's some down moments here too though, with a few more traditional covers and an instrumental on a fairly short album overall (only 30 minutes on the original release). I enjoyed listening to it enough, but it's definitely a bit all over the place. I'll keep waiting for The Byrds to fully click with me, hopefully it's coming.
Favorite song: Eight Miles High
Other: 5D (Fifth Dimension), Mr. Spaceman, What's Happening?
11/28/23
3
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Thu Nov 30 2023
Another Green World
Brian Eno
I listened to this a second time and talked myself into a 4 (it's probably like a 3.5 to me). It's honestly just a nice listen. It's a bit experimental for sure, but in a way that doesn't feel overly art-y or complicated. Only like 5 of the songs have lyrics so there are a few times where it's a bit easy to zone out in a bit of a trance, but every few songs something catches my attention and pulls me back in.
Favorite song: Golden Hours
Other: St. Elmo's Fire, The Big Ship, I'll Come Running, Becalmed
11/29/23
4
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Fri Dec 01 2023
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
I found this album to be pretty frustrating. I actually really liked a lot of the beats here. At times it's a bit rap-rock in a slightly cheesy way, but a lot of the songs have really good catchy beats. Lots of rock sounds, but it gets pretty jazzy at times too.
But man, the lyrics were rough. It's not just that they're bad (they often are a little weak but not horrible), but so many of the songs have just so much repetition of short snippets of lines that it was grating to listen to. I don't think I can hear \"La-di da-di, free John Gotti, 'The King of New York'\" one more time.
There's also one song in the middle of this ridiculousness (\"We Have All The Time In The World\") that's just beautiful and earnest, and of course I now learn it's a Louis Armstrong cover. It didn't quite fit, but it was still pretty nice.
There were a few interesting songs on here, but overall this didn't work much for me.
Favorite song: We Have All The Time In The World
Other: The Fun Lovin' Criminal, Scooby Snacks
11/30/23
2
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Sat Dec 02 2023
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
A British Invasion concept album about a very British everyman. Our protagonist loves being British, goes to war for a bit, thinks about moving to Australia, opines on home ownership and the empire, and copies a princess's style. Do you get that it's all very British?
This is the rare album where I actually liked the back half better than the front half. "Victoria" is a good start, but I struggled a bit with the war songs at the beginning. "Drivin'" is one of the singles from the album and it's a bit chaotic musically. Once we get to "Australia" though things start to turn a bit and it gets pretty fun. The juxtaposition of "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina" and "Young and Innocent Days" is really striking. The former playing up these goofy horns and then it launches right into a beautiful song reflecting on time passed.
I can't quite decide how I feel about this. It's a bit all over the place (and almost painfully British), but the narrative is tight and the varied sound works as a metaphor for what a life is like. "Arthur" finishes strong too; "Somebody loves you, don't ya know it".
Favorite song: Shangri-La
Other: Victoria, Drivin', Australia, She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina, Young and Innocent Days, Nothing to Say, Arthur
12/1/23
4
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Sun Dec 03 2023
Kimono My House
Sparks
This is a pretty high-paced, upbeat pop-rock album, and I thought it started out really strong. Both of the first two songs are fun and interesting. I'm not sure if things started to trend down after that or I just got used to their formula, but not a ton stood out to me later in the album.
It's definitely not bad and I enjoyed listening to it enough, but there wasn't much that I grasped onto as really standing out. They sound a lot like Queen to me, but without the big moments that wow you on a Queen album. Perfectly good, but nothing more for me.
Favorite song: Amateur Hour
Other: This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, Thank God It's Not Christmas, Hasta Manana Monsieur
12/2/23
3
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Mon Dec 04 2023
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
96 albums in and this is the first one I've gotten from a Beatle. It's generally really strong, the sound is varied and fun. The opening part of "Band On The Run" is like a fully different song from the chorus that I was familiar with, but then it gets there eventually. The "ho-hey-ho" on "Mrs. Vanderbilt" was enjoyable, and "Let Me Roll It" was a favorite of mine mid-album.
The lyrics are a bit simple and I think it lacks something really stand-out, but it's definitely strong across the board.
Random historical note, but I guess McCartney wanted to record this somewhere unique so they flew to Lagos and recorded most of it there. This was right after a civil war though and there were all kind of disease issues. Things didn't go great (they got robbed at least once) but managed to get it recorded (mostly).
Favorite song: Band On The Run
Other: Jet, Bluebird, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Let Me Roll It, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
12/3/23
4
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Tue Dec 05 2023
With The Beatles
Beatles
And one day later, my first actual Beatles album here. This is very early Beatles, it's their second album release and their first that made it to the US. It's old and frankly it sounds old, more reminiscent of the rockabilly / rock & roll albums of the late '50s and early 60s. Similar to those albums, this one is also a mix of originals and covers.
I wasn't disappointed, but I also wasn't particularly blown away by it. It's definitely enjoyable and there's moments where you can start to see what's to come, but the later Beatles sound isn't fully there yet. It's still a bit formulaic at this point (but if you like 2-3 minute songs about woo-ing some woman, this is the album for you).
It's good, possibly very good, but I don't think this one is the transcendent Beatles yet. That's to come.
Favorite song: Till There Was You
Other: It Won't Be Long, All I've Got To Do, All My Loving, Please Mr. Postman, I Wanna Be Your Man
12/4/23
4
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Wed Dec 06 2023
Dear Science
TV On The Radio
This was a really interesting one. This feels like a band that I should have been aware of (late '00s - 10s high tempo indie rock vibes), but I had never heard of these guys before.
I generally enjoyed this, though there were some ups and downs. It starts off really strong with "Halfway Home" which has this persistent drone sound underneath that I just love, great start. It hits a bit of a lull for a few songs (and then another lull near the end), but the sound is good overall.
I get some LCD Soundsystem vibes here with the electronic-y rock sound. It is somewhat varied though, and I felt like "Family Tree" actually sounded like it could've been an early Coldplay song.
This one is more about the sound than the songwriting or anything else. It's generally good and I'm glad that I know it exists since there's definitely a few songs on here that I'll listen to again. As a full album though I thought it was a bit long and disjointed, probably another one that's a 3.5 to me, I saved over half the songs though so I'll be nice and round up.
Favorite song: Halfway Home
Other: Stork & Owl, Golden Age, Family Tree, Love Dog, DLZ
12/5/23
4
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Thu Dec 07 2023
Double Nickels On The Dime
Minutemen
Where to start with this one? 80s punk, and like very punk-y punk. This thing was 81 minutes and 43 songs, so crunch the numbers and you get a very long album with an average song length under 2 minutes. And they're all a bit chaotic.
I'm realizing that I struggle a bit with the more raw, unstructured punk bands, which this felt like to me. I do get the appeal, it's simple and \"real\". They're saying screw the establishment, we're going to have three dudes playing whatever we want and singing about bad shit that's happening. And honestly I appreciate someone doing something different at this time, there was a lot of crap getting made then too. One of the songs on here is literally called \"Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?\", I take it they didn't love New Wave, I'm mostly with them).
But man, it's hard to listen to an over an hour of this. The singer is really raw, there's not a ton going on musically that's super interesting, it's just a bit tough. I get the appeal, but it's not super \"enjoyable\" to just sit down and listen to, I think you need to be in a real specific headspace for this. It does seem to have had an impact on future punk though, this is still the fairly early-ish days of punk rock so I can see it being influential for what came later. The singer also died a very tragic death in a car accident which led to the band disbanding not long after this, which is a real shame.
Favorite song: Corona
Other: Viet Nam, Cohesion, Maybe Partying Will Help, The Glory of Man, History Lesson Part 2, No Exchange
12/6/23
2
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Fri Dec 08 2023
It's A Shame About Ray
The Lemonheads
Album #100, we're making progress!
This one has a distinctly '90s alt rock sound. It's generally solid, though maybe a bit unexceptional. The song that blew up on this is actually their "Mrs. Robinson" cover which wasn't on the original release. It's great, and the title track is also awesome. There's a few more solid songs too, but a few stretches where things cool down a bit.
Not my favorite thing ever, but the sound is good and it's got some strong tracks, no major complaints here.
Favorite song: Mrs. Robinson
Other: It's A Shame About Ray, Rudderless, My Drug Buddy, Hannah & Gabi, Frank Mills
12/8/23
3
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Sun Dec 10 2023
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
My first Bob Dylan album on here, and it's really strong. I guess this is where Dylan started to shift from the more folky protest music he had been making to more of an electric rock sound. A bunch of people got really pissed off at him at Newport Folk Festival in 1965, allegedly because they didn't think he was doing folk music anymore (though possible also because his sound quality was awful). He's not known to be the best live performer.
Regardless, this is really great. The first half is definitely more \"rock\" sounding (with quite a heavy blues influence too), and the back half reverts a little more to the folk sound. The sound is generally great across the board though, it's somewhat simple but not boring at any point.
It's Dylan, so I need to comment on the lyrics too. I don't have much to say about any specific song on here, but it was striking listening to this after recently listening to \"With the Beatles\", which came out one year earlier. That album was great too, but if we're calling Dylan's songwriting a college reading level than the Beatles was like a third grade level in comparison. He definitely was doing a lot more lyrically at the time. I imagine both groups probably took a lot away from one another though, so it's just interesting to have that comparison here.
Favorite song: Mr. Tambourine Man
Other: Subterranean Homesick Blues, She Belongs to Me, Maggie's Farm, Love Minus Zero, On the Road Again, Gates of Eden, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), It's All Over Now Baby Blue
12/9/23
5
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Mon Dec 11 2023
Da Capo
Love
This is honestly just a pretty weird album, I didn't hate it, I also didn't really love it. It's definitely psychadelic rock, lots of flutes and chime-y drums throughout. There's some jingle bells at the end of "Que Vida". "Seven and Seven Is" is a bit more classic rock sounding, but I wasn't quite as into this one as some of the others.
The first half of the album is definitely a bit stronger than the second half. The structure is also a bit odd, with six songs all in the ~3 minute range, and then the last song is a 19 minute jazz song effectively. The whole thing isn't bad, but as a whole just isn't something that totally worked for me. These guys do seem to have a pretty unique sound for the time though, so I appreciate that.
Favorite song: Que Vida
Other: Orange Skies, The Castle
12/10/23
3
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Tue Dec 12 2023
Stand!
Sly & The Family Stone
Super funky soul music. It's the type of thing that is definitely a product of the time. It's generally pretty good vibes and uplifting, though \"Don't Call Me N*, Whitey\" definitely stands out a bit. The pacing is interesting on this one too, with 7 3-5ish minute songs, and then 14-minute \"Sex Machine\" that's an instrumental jam session.
Solid album, nothing that really blows me away today, but I can see the appeal and the significance at the time.
Favorite song: Everyday People
Other: Stand!, I Want to Take You Higher
12/11/23
3
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Wed Dec 13 2023
We Are Family
Sister Sledge
As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I think I'm contractually obligated to like "We are Family". The good news is that it's by far the best song on this album, Willie Stargell was onto something.
Honestly I think this is kind of a mediocre album with a few decent songs and one great one. The R&B/disco thing is kind of fun, but it gets old pretty fast. I generally like slower songs on most albums, but the ones on here were a bit of a miss for me. When you take away the up-tempo disco vibes it falls pretty flat.
"We are Family" is fire though, just straight good vibes.
Favorite song: We are Family
Other: He's the Greatest Dancer, Lost in Music, Thinking of You
12/12/23
3
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Thu Dec 14 2023
Automatic For The People
R.E.M.
This was incredible, just really great from start to finish. It's generally at a pretty slow tempo and a lot of the songs are a bit emotional and somber, but it just consistently works. They manage to create really emotional sounds throughout that build so well even when the song is slower. For instance, on the opener \"Drive\" it has this fairly simple guitar riff but then it builds into this full orchestral sound, it's beautiful. Even the instrumental song (\"New Orleans Instrumental No.1\") manages to evoke this like melancholic feeling, I would listen to a full instrumental album just like this one.
I also really like Michael Stipe's vocals. I'm getting this real familiar feeling from his voice, but I can't quite place it. I'm not sure if it's because people have imitated his style since then or what, but it's really great. He's really understated, but it comes across powerfully.
"Everybody Hurts" is the famous song on this album, so it's worth mentioning. It really is great, it drives home a lot of the things I noted above in one song. It's just raw and emotional and really relatable, beautiful song.
"Man On The Moon" seems pretty famous too, and this one stands out because it's actually a bit less somber and a bit more witty. It's an Andy Kaufmann tribute with a bunch of pop culture references. My Pittsburgh is showing here, but the style made me think of "Born Too Late" by The Clarks (though "Man On The Moon" came 8 years earlier and is way more famous).
I loved this overall, the only minor downside was I thought the stretch from tracks 7-9 was a bit weak in comparison to the rest, but I'm splitting hairs a bit here.
I definitely didn't realize what R.E.M.'s deal was. They're one of those bands that I had heard of but couldn't name any of their songs (though I obviously had heard a few of them before). Honestly in my head they were like an '80s new wave band, clearly I was off here, not sure why I thought this. Really strong album, I'm excited to dig into them a bit more.
Favorite song: Everybody Hurts
Other: Drive, Try Not To Breathe, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, New Orleans Instrumental No.1, Sweetness Follows, Star Me Kitten, Man On The Moon, Nightswimming, Find The River
12/13/23
5
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Fri Dec 15 2023
Let England Shake
PJ Harvey
This was a really interesting one. Another artist that I feel like I should have been at least familiar with, but PJ Harvey is totally new to me. She's been around awhile though, and a few of her albums seem to be very critically acclaimed (including this one).
The album is about England and it's about war (anti-war to be precise). That should sum up that part pretty well. It is very thoughtful, and she seems to be both trying to cover a lot of ground and capture the feelings of people in these situations.
I was more interested in the album musically, I found that to be the more compelling part. It's a bit alt-rock, it's a bit folk, it's often somewhat unsettling. About halfway through I found myself struggling with the album a bit, but also realizing that I had saved basically all the songs since there was something in each one that I liked.
I'm struggling a lot with an overall rating here, this feels like one that's hard to fully wrap my head around on one listen. It's definitely a bit art-y album, and the war theme makes it a not very light listen. But there's a lot that's clearly really good in here, both thematically and musically. I'm in the 3- 4 range, but this is definitely less of an everyday listen type of album for me.
This is my first PJ Harvey album, and this seems to be a pretty significant departure from her earlier work, so I'm curious to hear a bit more of her music.
Update, I gave it a second listen the next morning, I felt like it needed that. I really enjoyed it a lot when I stepped back and just listened without thinking about the lyrics too much. All of the songs I had noted the night before still stood out to me, and I added "England" to the list the second time around. It's still a bit of a tricky listen, but I think I like this.
Favorite song: On Battleship Hill
Other: Let England Shake, The Last Living Rose, The Words That Maketh Murder, All And Everyone, England, In The Dark Places, Written On The Forehead
12/14/23
4
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Sat Dec 16 2023
The White Album
Beatles
What to say about this that hasn't been said? It's a masterpiece from top to bottom. This is the first double album that I've listened to on here that I haven't been bored at any point, it's just consistently high quality.
Now it's certainly weird at times, and there are a few songs here and there that didn't quite work for me. I feel like the fun of something like this though is to see what resonates, and often the weird ones are standouts (I know this isn't a hot take or anything, but "Ob-La Di, Ob-La-Da" is such a banger). I will say that "Revolution 9" (second to last song) was an interesting artistic choice, you have to take some chances sometimes though.
This is just really polished, consistently good across a long album, and has multiple standouts (Blackbird, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter, Birthday, I Will...). While it's diverse as a whole, each song is fairly consistent on this one (unlike some other Beatles songs that are like 4 songs in one).
This is really great, one of the better albums I've listened to. It's very famous, and very rightfully so.
Favorite song: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Other: Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Don't Pass Me By, I Will, Julia, Birthday, Mother Nature's Son, Helter Skelter, Long Long Long, Revolution 1, Honey Pie, Cry Baby Cry, Good Night
12/15/23
5
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Sun Dec 17 2023
Superunknown
Soundgarden
This was ok, I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. It's definitely gotten a lot of critical acclaim, and is one of the big grunge albums from the time. I didn't think it was nearly as good as "Nevermind" though (although this might be way too high of a bar). The sound is alright, but I was honestly kind of bored a few times.
Perfectly good album but in a genre that I don't think has aged particularly well, and has a few slow spots.
Favorite song: Black Hole Sun
Other: My Wave, Fell On Black Days, Spoonman, The Day I Tried To Live
12/16/23
3
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Mon Dec 18 2023
My Generation
The Who
This is a pretty solid album overall, but probably not absolute top tier for them or for the time. There's a few classics ("My Generation" and "The Kids Are Alright" for instance) and it's enjoyable overall, but it lacks anything really stellar.
This does rock a bit harder than most of what else was going on at the time, so they were definitely starting to stand out a bit.
Favorite song: The Kids Are Alright
Other: I Don't Mind, La-La-La-Lies, My Generation, A Legal Matter
12/17/23
3
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Tue Dec 19 2023
Madman Across The Water
Elton John
This starts off on a high note with "Tiny Dancer", but it fell a bit flat to me after that. It has this prog rock / piano ballad thing going on that honestly just kind of makes one song blend into another after a bit musically.
He's obviously a really talented singer, but I was a bit underwhelmed by this given the high expectations. They lyrics are also all over the board, it's a bit hard to follow over the course of the album. Perfectly good, but that's it.
Favorite song: Tiny Dancer
Other: Levon, Holiday Inn, Rotten Peaches, Goodbye
12/18/23
3
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Wed Dec 20 2023
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective
I've been dragging my feet on writing this review for like a week now, time to get this over with.
I truly have no idea what to make of this. I've listened to it like three times now to try to wrap my head around it, but not sure if I've made any progress.
Lyrics-wise, this is honestly pretty straightforward and frankly almost a bit boring. It's generally fairly simple stuff about what's going on in the singer's life. "My Girls" is their most famous song, and it's pretty much just about how he doesn't want fancy things and just wants to buy a house for his wife and daughter. "Bluish" is about thinking his wife is hot. It's perfectly nice, but a bit simplistic.
The lyrics aren't what's interesting here though, it's the sound that stands out. The album has this really layered electronic-y sound. The depth of the sound is fairly impressive and on some songs I think it works really well. That said, I found myself actively disliking a few songs and kind of zoning out on others. It's interesting, but just doesn't work for me consistently.
I think I read too much about this while listening. The critical reviews are wildly positive for this one and I'm feeling like I'm just missing something. It's perfectly good, and I guess I can see how musically it might be a step above what else was getting made at the time, but I just didn't love it. I feel like I should love it given my musical tastes, but I just don't. I could see this being one that I come back to in a year and it just clicks, but it is what it is for now. Struggling to talk myself into a 4, so 3 it is.
Favorite song: My Girls
Other: In The Flowers, Summertime Clothes, Bluish, No More Runnin
12/19/23
3
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Thu Dec 21 2023
Midnight Ride
Paul Revere & The Raiders
This one did not do it for me. I'm typically pretty generous on the 60s rock, there was a lot going on at the time and I respect the bands that were paving the way for what was to come. This one did not stand out though.
I think it had three good songs, a bunch of mediocre songs, and two of the worst songs I've heard on here yet. Like what were they thinking with "Little Girl in the 4th Row" and "Melody for an Unknown Girl"? The former has just aged horribly, and the latter has a fine melody but the whispering about being for someone he loves but doesn't know yet was just weird.
What saves this a bit for me is "Get It On", which doesn't seem to be a particularly popular song of theirs but I think is an incredibly fun one in the middle of the album. "Kicks" and "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" are both solid too. It's not enough to save the album rating, but at least I came away with a few songs that I'll listen to again.
Favorite song: Get It On
Other: Kicks, I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
12/20/23
2
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Fri Dec 22 2023
Be
Common
I liked this a lot, it's tight lyrically (about his life in Chicago) and has lots of interesting stuff going on musically. Kanye produced this, and is featured on a few of the tracks. Generally strong, I enjoyed listening to it (though maybe lacking any real big standout moments).
Favorite song: The Food
Other: Be (Intro), The Corner, GO!, Testify, They Say
12/23/23
4
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Tue Dec 26 2023
(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)
Lynyrd Skynyrd
You know what, this was pretty good. I really didn't expect to like this all that much, but it was solid. I'm not convinced they did anything truly groundbreaking here, and I'm definitely not the target audience for the "southern rock" thing, but they still manage to pull off some really solid songs.
The first half is definitely stronger than the second half, but then it ends with "Free Bird". "Free Bird" wasn't my favorite song on the album, and it's a bit of a meme at this point, but it's still pretty good. "Tuesday's Gone" and "Simple Man" are both great too, just a generally solid listen here.
Favorite song: Tuesday’s Gone
Other: Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Things Goin’ On, Free Bird
12/25/23
4
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Wed Dec 27 2023
Queen II
Queen
We're starting to get into second albums of bands I've heard on here once. Stepping back in time for Queen II (1974). A Night at the Opera (1975) is a phenomenal album, so this was going to be tough to live up to.
While it isn't as good as ANATO, this was still an enjoyable listen. This rocks a little harder than ANATO (and harder than most Queen albums from what I'm reading). There are less standout songs, but I feel like this is a pretty solid and consistent Queen sound.
"Nevermore" is great but super short, and "Seven Seas of Rhye" was a catchy way to end it. The critics seem to be all over the place on this one, but I thought it was a reasonably strong album. Even when not at their very best, Queen is a fun listen.
Favorite song: Nevermore
Other: Father To Son, White Queen (As It Began), Some Day One Day, Ogre Battle, The March Of The Black Queen, Seven Seas of Rhye
12/26/23
4
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Thu Dec 28 2023
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
It's just a bit funny to me that these guys were the biggest rockstars in the country for a while, but I get it, this is great. It's really short at just 29 minutes and does not waste any time in there (one might argue that "Voices of Old People" does, but I think it's an interesting choice as an interlude).
This is the album after Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme, and I think it's a bit more uneven but has a tighter narrative and higher highs. There are a few songs I don't love on here, but the best moments on here are truly great ("America", "Mrs. Robinson").
I could possibly see this coming across as a bit uninteresting or pretentious even. I like a more positive spin, and think it works as a beautiful, simple reflection on living and aging.
Fun fact I learned here is that "Mrs. Robinson" was the first rock song to win Record of the Year at the Grammys (1969).
Favorite song: America
Other: Overs, Old Friends, Bookends Theme - Reprise, Fakin' It, Mrs. Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter, At the Zoo
12/27/23
5
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Fri Dec 29 2023
Mott
Mott The Hoople
This is exactly why I like this album a day thing. I never would have come across this on my own, and I was judging the cover a bit when I saw it, but this was really great. I'm realizing that I'm kind of into glam rock, and this is just consistently enjoyable and fun.
These guys seem to have almost completely fallen off the radar, but I'm glad they made the list here. Bowie was apparently a fan and seems to be a big part of the reason why they didn't break up before this album. Queen also opened for them at one point.
Fun vibes, good rock sounds, generally good stuff.
Favorite song: I Wish I Was Your Mother
Other: All the Way from Memphis, Whizz Kid, Hymn for the Dudes, Honaloochie Boogie, Ballad of Mott The Hoople, Rose
12/28/23
4
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Sat Dec 30 2023
The Predator
Ice Cube
Q-Tip described this as a "voice for the angry and unheard during the 90s", which feels like a pretty apt description to me.
Let's get one thing out of the way to start. This album has "It Was A Good Day" on it, which is definitely one of the most iconic rap songs of all time. It's great, full stop. It's also a pretty big thematic departure from the rest of the album. Two songs before this Ice Cube has "gotta wet 'cha" and then he's just describing this nice day getting a triple double on the court. It's a bit of thematic whiplash.
The rest of the album is a bit less accessible to me. This came out not long after the '92 LA riots, and "We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up" confronts this directly. It's a bit hard to place my current version of Ice Cube (in like comedy movies and TV commercials) back in this time.
I'm struggling to rate this one. It has one iconic song, a handful of pretty strong songs that I think capture the moment in time pretty well, and then a bunch that are fine but don't stand out much to me.
A few other random notes. Apparently "Now I Gotta Wet 'Cha" is where the phrase "it's on like Donkey Kong" came from. Similarly, "check yourself before you wreck yourself" came from "Check Yo Self". It's interesting how little phrases like this can work their way into culture.
Favorite song: It Was A Good Day
Other: When Will They Shoot?, Now I Gotta Wet 'Cha, We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up, Gangsta's Fairytale 2, Check Yo Self
12/29/23
3
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Sun Dec 31 2023
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
This one does a pretty good job of being very direct in its social message, while also being fairly accessible and interesting.
Musically it's strong, there's some really nice moments like the beginning of "Louder Than A Bomb" which is fairly subdued, or the newscaster overlaid at the beginning of "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos", or the jazzy start to "Show 'Em Whatcha Got". And then "Rebel Without A Pause" is pretty iconic near the end.
Flavor Flav is kind of a ridiculous hype man, but I found myself enjoying him more as it went on.
Also Chuck D likes to wear a Pirates hat because he's a big Clemente fan, so I can get on board with that.
Favorite song: Show 'Em Whatcha Got
Other: Bring The Noise, Don't Believe The Hype, Louder Than A Bomb, Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos, Rebel Without A Pause
12/30/23
4
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Mon Jan 01 2024
3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
Arrested Development
This is three days in a row of 80s-90s rap, but this one was quite a bit different than Ice Cube and Public Enemy. Those two albums were definitely a lot harder and I think a lot of the value was in the social commentary. This one was thematically much softer, with themes more about love and spirituality. Musically it was also more upbeat sounding and more of a light and fun listen.
There's obviously a place for both of these styles, but I found this one to be a nice change of pace after the last two days, and given the harder rap that was dominating the charts mostly at the time (this came out 8 months before The Predator) I think it might have been perceived as a nice change of pace then too (though it definitely does not completely shy away from more difficult themes).
\"People Everyday\" is one of the songs that does have racial themes at the forefront, and it's a really interesting update on Sly and the Family Stone's \"Everyday People\". \"Tennessee\" is also a really catchy song near the end of the album.
I definitely struggle a bit with early-ish rap, but I really enjoyed listening to this one. It feels more timeless to me (both musically and thematically) than a lot of other rap I've heard from this time period.
Favorite song: People Everyday
Other: Mr. Wendal, Raining Revolution, U, Eve of Reality, Natural, Tennessee
12/31/23
4
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Tue Jan 02 2024
Different Class
Pulp
First album of 2024, and we're off to a great start. This was honestly just really strong across the board. I wasn't familiar with these guys at all, and didn't have super high expectations since the last Britpop album I got was a bit of a dud for me, but I loved pretty much everything on this.
The sound is really smooth and fun. It's kind of giving me like Saint Motel vibes, but significantly more British.
"Common People" might be a dark horse contender for my favorite song I've gotten on here yet, just builds throughout in such a compelling way, and has this like subtle frustration in the lyrics that you can just get. There's also this cool little synth thing on "Sorted for E's & Wizz", and then the last line ("what if you never come down") is just delivered perfectly. "Disco 2000" is great ,"Something Changed" is slower but really nice, "Bar Italia" closes it strong. It's just solid top to bottom (with like a couple exceptions, but they were still ok at least), with a few top tier songs.
Favorite song: Common People
Other: Mis-Shapes, I Spy, Disco 2000, Something Changed, Sorted for E's & Wizz, Underwear, Bar Italia
1/1/24
5
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Wed Jan 03 2024
The Only Ones
The Only Ones
The good news is this actually started reasonably decently. The intro of "The Whole of the Law" has this great jazzy trumpet intro (which does not happen again on the rest of the album), and then "Another Girl, Another Planet" (their biggest song by far) is pretty fun.
The bad news is it just totally collapses after that, very little redeeming qualities, with two exceptions: "No Peace For The Wicked" was kind of interesting, and "Peter And The Pets" (which was not on the original release) has this quick guitar succession thing that's kind of cool.
If you squint really hard the singer sounds just a bit like Lou Reed, but if Lou Reed was British and a bad singer. He has this very mopey British voice, I'm not really into it, "Breaking Down" is a pretty tough listen. Like three times they were jamming with no vocals and I was like "this is ok," then he started singing again and I was like "oh, right".
I'm throwing this a 2 because it had a few songs worth listening to, but outside of them I could've been ok missing out on this one.
Favorite song: Another Girl, Another Planet
Other: The Whole Of The Law, No Peace For The Wicked, Peter And The Pets
1/2/24
2
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Thu Jan 04 2024
Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde
The Pharcyde
One full song is a big mom joke, and that pretty much sums up the vibe on this one.
Honestly it's fine, it's very light and mostly fun 90's rap, which is a pretty big change of pace from the harder rap that was more popular at this time. It is a bit long though (57 minutes). It also sounds pretty dated and while it's a more or less humorous listen, I don't think there's much that's really going to stick with me or be required listening in the future.
Favorite song: Passin' Me By
Other: Oh Shit, Ya Mama, Otha Fish
1/3/24
2
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Fri Jan 05 2024
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
I listened to this near the end of my 11 hour flight to Honolulu when I kind of had a headache, and that was probably not the right decision. My note from the flight was that this is "Heavy metal meets alien invasion meets video game soundtrack. The sound only parts can actually be pretty interesting though".
It has moments where I get it. "Hurt" is actually a really strong closer, it's legit a great song (though it drones on a bit long at the end).
It's generally pretty abrasive though, and it's a bit of a tough full listen without really being in a bit of a angsty mood. "Closer" is the most famous song on the album, and I've added it to my playlist because I feel like I have to, but frankly it's a bit much. Apparently the music video is in the permanent collection at MoMA, will have to look for it next time I'm there.
On partial re-listen I also just can't quite shake the "video-game-ness" of the sound. I don't know if it's necessarily a bad thing, but something just feels a little off to me.
My rating on the plane was a 2, and while I'm tempted to bump it to a 3 I think I'm going to stick with my initial reaction. I can see the appeal, and it has some strong moments, but 65 minutes of this is a bit much overall for me. I do like it more than a lot of the very hard rock that I've gotten so far though. I'm also very glad I heard "Hurt", so there's definitely a positive from this one still.
Favorite song: Hurt
Other: Piggy, Heresy, Closer, A Warm Place
1/4/24
2
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Sat Jan 06 2024
Sheer Heart Attack
Queen
Here's what I wrote on the plane:
Checking in from somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. This is my first "third" album from an artist, and while I'm a big Queen fan overall this is coming in 3rd place of what I've gotten so far (A Night At The Opera is by far #1, and Queen II is a bit ahead of this).
It's not bad, but is just a bit generic throughout. It's starting to sound a bit more like later Queen (Queen II rocked a bit harder, this is more glam-y), but there's not a ton that stands out to me. It's a perfectly good '70s glam rock album with a lot of songs that sound distinctly "Queen", but lacking much that brings it to the next level. I added a decent number of songs to my playlist, but I have no idea which one to pick as a favorite.
Additional notes on a partial re-listen:
I generally am still on board with what I wrote, but I think I was a bit overly harsh. There's definitely some good stuff on here. "Killer Queen" is pretty iconic Queen sound, "Brighton Rock" is better than I originally gave it credit for, same with "Stone Cold Crazy". "Dear Friends" is 67 seconds long, but a beautiful little break near the end, leading into also-short "Misfire" which is a lot of fun. This is solid, I was too negative.
It's still not as good as ANATO but that's a really high bar, and it's probably in the ballpark with Queen II for me, and I liked Queen II a lot. It's solid work from a band that generally hits for me.
Favorite song: Killer Queen
Other: Brighton Rock, Flick Of The Wrist, Lily Of The Valley, Now I'm Here, Stone Cold Crazy, Dear Friends, Misfire, She Makes Me (Stormtrooper In Stilettos)
1/6/24 (or maybe 1/7 depending on when we crossed the date line, don't think we have yet though)
4
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Sun Jan 07 2024
Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen
This is similar to the Eagles for me, in that they're both firmly in the "dad rock" category in my mind (Spotify is recommending I listen to a "Dad Rock" playlist with Springsteen's face on the cover). It does not feel particularly cool today as a result, but screw that. It's good.
It's popular for a reason, it's fun and relatable and interesting enough. It's definitely a bit generic at times, but so what. "Born To Run" (the song) still kind of slaps even if you're hearing it for the thousandth time.
I'm curious to see how I like his other albums. This is his first one that got big and it's actually fairly short and tight (39 minutes). This feels about right to me, with really not that many low points (only 8 tracks). I feel like I might tire of his stuff, but this was solid (though a slight bit weaker on the back half).
As expected, it's piano-heavy with the horns on a lot of songs. It works, and it's not overly formulaic at this point in his career. A few high points with "Born to Run", "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out".
Random thought, but he almost sounds a bit Elvis-like on "She's the One". Probably just the deep voice, but this is the first time I'm hearing it.
Favorite song: Born to Run
Other: Thunder Road, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, Night, Backstreets, She's the One, Jungleland
1/7/24 (we've probably crossed the date line by now, so it's not breaking my one album per day rule)
5
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Mon Jan 08 2024
Maxinquaye
Tricky
Notes from the plane:
Back for a second after some time off in Sydney, on the way to Cairns while I listen to this.
Not really what I was expecting here. It's kind of got this lo-fi vibey rock thing going on. It's kind of dark and moody sounding. The pace is pretty slow throughout, there's this consistent crackle thing going on, and the vocals almost fade to the background at times.
I can't really decide how I feel. I think it's reasonably fine, but more of a thing that I'd like put on in the background than choose to play. Very few songs stand out too, it's more of this overall atmospheric vibe that works ok collectively ("Atmosphere" captures the vibe pretty well, it's long though). It also got noticeably worse in the second half (or maybe I was just getting tired of it).
Notes on a partial re-listen:
I feel very justified on my initial impression. I picked out the three most popular songs as the three I added to my playlist, and the second half has much fewer plays on Spotify than the first half.
I'm also learning that Tricky is the music guy, and the singer is Martina Toply-Bird. Makes sense why the vocals feel in the background frequently, she has a pretty nice voice though.
I kind of feel like I'm being overly negative lately, but I just don't like this that much. The good stuff is fine, and the not good stuff is uninspiring.
Favorite song: Overcome
Other: Hell Is Round The Corner, Aftermath
1/19/24
2
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
Notes from the plane:
On the way to Melbourne from Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef was cool but I haven't showered in two days. Did I hear some Aussies at the end of "If You Only Knew"?
I think if I had guessed the year this came out without knowing I would've guessed like 1988. It actually came out in 2002. It has a lot of elements of earlier rap though. Smooth non-controversial (mostly) lyrics, multiple rappers playing off of one another, that type of thing. Nelly Furtado shows up at one point though (to sing about being in the friend zone), I kind of forgot about her.
It's alright, but I was starting to get bored before it was even halfway over. It's just not something I really want to listen to again, and very little stood out to break the monotony. I also HATE when there are children singing, which they did on "After School Special".
"Remember His Name" is actually kind of good, but "his name is death" is a hilarious plot twist line to end it, incredibly cheesy.
Just pretty "meh" to me overall, not much here I felt like I needed to hear.
On a partial re-listen:
Yeah basically nothing has changed, I added a couple of their more famous songs that I overlooked a bit but still "meh".
Favorite song: Hey
Other: If You Only Knew, Break, Remember His Name, What's Golden
1/23/24
2
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Strange Cargo III
William Orbit
Robot sounds and noises that you might hear during a spooky movie scene in like a forest (63 minutes).
Favorite song: Water From A Vine Leaf
2/2/24
1
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Sun Feb 04 2024
Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
I don't have a clue how to rate this. Marcus Garvey (the person) was only barely on my radar before this, but his Wikipedia page is quite a ride. I guess he was controversial (seems right from what I read), but is generally pretty universally loved in Jamaica. Somehow he also became a prophet for the Rastafarians? I don't quite get it, but here we are.
The album lyrics are highly political thematically it's pretty clearly Jamaican. It's somewhat surprising to me that this became a thing in the US, but it seems like it at least kind of did.
It's reggae through and through, and I am in no way qualified to rate the quality of this genre. It generally seemed fine to me, had a few songs that had pretty good beats, generally had a message that I could get behind, so it was fine. It is also only 34 minutes so it's quick.
I'm giving the album a 3 and moving on, it was reasonably fine (though Marcus Garvey himself is another story).
Favorite song: Marcus Garvey
Other: Slavery Days, Live Good, Tradition
2/4/24
3
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Tue Feb 06 2024
Street Signs
Ozomatli
This feels distinctly early-2000s to me and I'm not sure exactly what it is about it. It's got this like latin boy band thing going on, with a rap verse or two on some of the songs. It's a mix of English and Spanish lyrics throughout.
It's solid but somewhat unremarkable overall. A few songs that are decent, a few that I really didn't like very much. I don't really remember it, but apparently "Saturday Night" was on the Madden 2005 soundtrack, so I'm sure I had heard it before. I generally liked the non-rap songs a bit better, and think they're at their best when they lean into the some of the more latin-sounding instrumentals, otherwise they can come across a bit generic boy-band. There's a few points where it gets a bit funky too which were cool ("Nadie Te Tira" in particular). The random 1-minute piano song near the end was an interesting choice.
Overall this is perfectly fine and generally pretty fun sounding (though the lyrics are fairly political at times), but doesn't hit any major highs for me.
Favorite song: (Who Discovered) America?
Other: Saturday Night, Ya Viene El Sol, Nadie Te Tira, Cuando Canto
2/5/24
3
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
I'm not the biggest reggae fan in the world, and my first reaction to this was significant disappointment that I got two reggae albums in three days. This started ok, "Natural Mystic" is a decent first song and then it has a few fine songs after. I was somewhat favorable to the album at the halfway point, but no strong feelings. The first half is a little more "religion" themed, which is fine but not as much my thing.
The back half of this album is just pretty much perfect though. It's basically song after song of what reggae is at it's best. It's laid back and mellow with relatable lyrics, it's just good to vibe to. I highly doubt that I'm going to like another reggae album as much as this, this is getting a 5 and I don't think that will happen again. It's mostly "love" songs on the back half, and just consistently hits. "Three Little Birds", "Jamming", "One Love", just hit after hit.
I don't have much to say, but this was really great. It's not my genre at all, but it's awesome and I get why people are into it.
Favorite song: Three Little Birds
Other: Natural Mystic, Exodus, Jamming, Waiting In Vain, Turn Your Lights Down Low, One Love / People Get Ready
2/6/24
5
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Thu Feb 08 2024
New York Dolls
New York Dolls
I like to think that at least sometimes I have fairly intellectual takes about albums on here. I try to do some research to get the context and see what they might've been getting at. Sometimes though something just hits in a way that I can't really explain. This is that.
This album is super gritty, fairly simple, not particularly impressive musically, and I loved it. Basically every song just worked for me, and now I'm listening to it again and it's still working. I don't quite get it, I don't expect the community rating to be all that high, but it's just great.
The band gives strong Velvet Underground vibes, which is probably at least partly what I like about it. This came a little later than peak Velvets, so it seems like they were pretty influenced by them, and it's very obviously coming from the same NYC base that the Velvets are. I'm not really convinced any of these guys are great musicians, but somehow put them together and it works.
A few major thoughts. It seems like one could reasonably tie the New York Dolls to the beginning of both punk rock and glam rock. It's hard to pin genre beginnings to any band, but this feels reasonable to me (it came out like 4 years before "Marquee Moon", which is another album that's considered to be foundational punk). Musically it definitely has some glam rock elements too though, and certainly that's what they were going for with their look (which seemed to be big hair and makeup and whatnot).
This album is just also an awesome portrait of New York City in the '70s. It feels gritty, and the city was definitely gritty at that time. This feels like a pretty good encapsulation of what I imagine things were like in the city in the '70s.
This is an aside, but the urbanist in me can't help it. There's so many cliche rock songs about cars, everyone can't stop singing about cars. The Dolls sang a whole song about the "Subway Train" on this album though, and while it's not the most beautiful portrait, I salute them for their support of public transit.
I've seen some reviews saying these guys were just a bad version of the Rolling Stones or whatever. I don't know, I think sometimes it's bad to overanalyze things. I liked this a lot. I'm glad it exists, no notes.
Favorite song: Lonely Planet Boy
Other: Personality Crisis, Looking For A Kiss, Frankenstein, Trash, Bad Girl, Subway Train, Private World, Jet Boy
2/7/24
5
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Hot Shots II
The Beta Band
So this is some Scottish guys in the early 2000s doing something that's been dubbed "folktronica", which honestly is a pretty apt description. It's definitely unique.
I was actually pretty high on the first few songs, it's got this really unique, layered sound that's fairly captivating. Based on this, I actually expected to like it more than I ended up liking it. I think the uniqueness wears off a bit as it goes on, though it's certainly not a bad listen.
This is one that's probably a 3.5 for me. I actually ended up adding quite a few songs to my playlist, but I just don't feel overly positive about it as a whole. I tend to round up in these cases, but this feels more like one that I'm going to completely forget about until I randomly hear a song one day and think "that was a nice album", and then promptly forget about it again.
Also, I don't give ratings based on album art, but I need to comment on it in this case. It's just horrible. What were they thinking here.
Favorite song: Squares
Other: Al Sharp, Human Being, Gone, Quiet, Alleged, Eclipse
2/8/24
3
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Ten
Pearl Jam
This was really great overall. It's a little bit before my time, but it apparently was one of the top selling albums of the '90s and it has most of Pearl Jam's most famous songs ("Even Flow", "Alive", "Black", "Jeremy").
I really enjoyed it overall, and it's earned it's place as an iconic album. It is extra impressive as their debut album, not a lot of bands come out swinging like this right from the start.
Pearl Jam is one of the iconic grunge bands, and from what I've heard so far I think I'm higher on them than Soundgarden, but not quite to Nirvana level. I guess Kurt Cobain was not a Pearl Jam fan, and felt like they sold out. I can see it a bit, this definitely has a bit more of a polished sound. It's a little more alt rock than some of the other grunge albums I've heard (I almost hear some R.E.M.-type sounds in here, where I don't feel that way for Nirvana). It's still great though, the highs are really high on this one.
I'm really tempted to give this a 5, but I don't think it quite gets there for me. The front half of the album is incredibly strong, but the back half fell a bit flat for me (though I did like "Oceans" a lot). It's very good and in the 4.5 territory, but just a bit lacking on the back side.
Favorite song: Even Flow
Other: Alive, Black, Jeremy, Oceans, Porch, Release
2/9/24
4
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Sun Feb 11 2024
Inspiration Information
Shuggie Otis
This is some nice mellow soul/R&B music. A bit funky, a bit jazzy, overall pretty solid. Slightly uninspiring perhaps (despite the name), but perfectly enjoyable.
Also the 2001 re-release tacked on four songs from another album of his to the end of this one, and they're on the Spotify version. I didn't include them in my playlist since they really are from his album "Freedom Flight", not this one (it has a pretty different sound).
Favorite song: Inspiration Information
Other: Aht Uh Mi Hed
2/10/24
3
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Sheet Music
10cc
This was kind of fun in a bit of a ridiculous way. The first song is a fairly detailed look into life on Wall Street, and the second song is about how they're the worst band in the world but still sell a ton of records. The whole album is just a bit kitschy, but I can get on board in a somewhat ironic way.
It falls off a bit after the beginning for me, but there's a few decent songs buried in here. There's not much on this that's going to have much staying power for me, but they're definitely a bit more outside-the-box than some of the other '70s rock, so credit for taking some chances on this.
Favorite song: The Wall Street Shuffle
Other: The Worst Band In The World, Hotel, Clockwork Creep
2/11/24
3
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
I think this is the first time that I've gotten a jazz album on here and I've actually recognized a song. "Take Five" is famous enough that I recognized it from one of the jazz playlists that I listen to in the background sometimes.
I'm no jazz expert, but I enjoyed this a lot. It sounds fairly unique, and I couldn't quite place it on my own but after reading a bit about it I think it's probably that most of the songs were written in some non-standard time signatures ("Take Five" is in 5/4 time). It also just has this nice fairly calming vibe throughout (even when the pace is a little more frantic like the first song). This seems to be considered "cool" jazz from what I'm reading, so that checks out.
A few more fun things I learned about this one. "Take Five" was the first jazz single to sell a million copies, and is the biggest selling jazz song of all time. Brubeck originally wanted to be a veterinarian, got told by a professor that he wasn't into it enough and should switch to music (his whole family was basically musicians), and then he almost got kicked out of music school for not being able to sight-read music. Then he got drafted into the Army during WWII, got out of combat service after volunteering to play piano at a Red Cross show, and then formed the first racially integrated armed forces band. He was a strong proponent of racial integration throughout his life, and often cancelled shows when they weren't going going to allow black musicians to perform. He also became a Catholic later in his life, and won Notre Dame's Laetare Medal in 2006.
Favorite song: Take Five
Other: Blue Rondo a la Turk, Strange Meadow Lark, Three to Get Ready, Kathy's Waltz
2/12/14
4
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Wed Feb 14 2024
Street Life
The Crusaders
This opens with "Street Life" (the song) which is an 11-minute jazzy / disco / soul song with Randy Crawford guest singing. She's got a nice voice, and it's pretty fun overall if you're into the groovy '70s type of thing. These guys put out A LOT of music (49 albums by Wikipedia's count) and this seems to be their most popular song by quite a bit.
After this, the album has 5 more songs that I would probably describe as elevator music. It's perfectly ok, but nothing stands out to me in the way that say Dave Brubeck did (when I listened to it yesterday). It's this saxophone-y smooth jazz sound that's consistently fine, and generally not much more than that in my (very unprofessional) opinion.
Favorite song: Street Life
Other: My Lady
2/13/24
3
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Thu Feb 15 2024
Spy Vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman
John Zorn
This is, without a doubt, the most chaotic thing that I've ever heard. Imagine like two different artists just being told to do whatever the hell they want but as loud and fast as they can with no relation to one another, that's this. I feel stress just sitting on my couch listening to it. He could be the most technically talented saxophonist in the world for all I know, but why would anyone want to listen to this? The only reasonable thing is the cover art which seems to depict various violent scenes, that makes sense to me after listening to this. To top it all off, it's not even on Spotify. Do not recommend.
Favorite song: Feet Music
Other: Good Old Days
2/14/24
1
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Fri Feb 16 2024
There's A Riot Goin' On
Sly & The Family Stone
This was a really interesting one, and a huge departure from their previous album "Stand!", which came out only two years earlier. "Stand!" was super funky and generally pretty positive and upbeat, which "Everyday People" kind of captures well. This one is still pretty funky, but it's a lot darker and moodier. Sly seems to have developed a bit of a drug habit at this point and this also seems to be picking up the changing political landscape as the civil rights movement peak was wearing off a bit.
I generally try to ignore critics' reviews of albums, but I liked this one a lot, "Christgau wrote in 2007 that the "temptations and contradictions" of commercial stardom consumed Sly Stone and resulted in "the prophetic 1971" album, "its taped-over murk presaging Exile on Main St., its drum-machine beats throwing knuckleballs at [Miles Davis] and [James Brown], it was darker than the Velvet Underground and Nico and funkier than shit, yet somehow it produced two smash hits, including the stark, deep 'Family Affair'."
It's a really solid album overall. It's not one that I see myself coming back to frequently, but there's a lot of good stuff in here and it seems to capture a moment in time well.
Favorite song: Family Affair
Other: Just Like a Baby, Poet, (You Caught Me) Smilin', Time, Runnin' Away, Thank You For Talkin' To Me Africa
2/15/24
4
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Sat Feb 17 2024
Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf
Lots of wild things on this one, starting with the biggest one which is that this is apparently like the 6th highest selling album of all time. This is really pretty wild to me, I know my old music knowledge isn't the best (which is why I'm doing this album thing), but this album seems to have basically no staying power compared to the other stuff on the best selling list.
I really had no idea what I was getting into here. I'm going to fully admit that my perception of Meatloaf (knowing nothing about his music) was not particularly positive. I remember him from some lame commercials and had read some things about him being a right-wing nut in his old age. Then apparently he said people wearing masks on planes were Nazis or something, and then he (probably) died of Covid in 2022. I kind of assumed this was just going to be some hard metal thing from a bad dude that I would hate, especially given the album art. We try to separate the art from the artist here though, so I tried to keep an open mind.
Turns out this is a whole theatrical rock-opera production. Half of this could be a Broadway production, it's totally over-the-top. The lyrics are pretty cheesy (honestly the whole production is pretty cheesy), but it's definitely a dramatic.
I generally am into the glam-rock type music, but this one just wasn't generally working for me. It felt like Queen at times, Elton John at times, others at times, and in every case it just seemed like a worse version. It's not bad, and the drama of it makes it a fairly enjoyable listen at least, but I just can't believe this sold as well as it did.
"Paradise By the Dashboard Light" is like four different songs smashed together (plus a baseball announcer in the middle) and it's probably the most interesting song on here. Honestly one gripe I have is that all the songs are so long, they just never end (47 minutes for 7 songs). It's fine as a full album together, but I just don't see myself listening to this much on a one-off basis.
I will say something nice about Meatloaf, he can definitely sing and keep the energy up. He was probably fun to see live in his prime. I'm probably still over-indexing on my initial perception of him, but my overall take of this is just "fine". I think the popularity of this one might be a bit of a moment in time thing that I can't quite capture today. Maybe I'll come back to this sometime and feel differently though.
Favorite song: Paradise By the Dashboard Light
Other: Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, Bat Out of Hell
2/16/24
3
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Sun Feb 18 2024
The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges came up quiet a bit on the Velvet Underground podcast that got me into this whole thing, so I'm a bit familiar but haven't actually listened to much of them. Like the Velvets, a good bit of their appeal at the time was their live shows. Iggy Pop was wild on stage (huge understatement), so obviously that doesn't quite come through in the recorded albums. This is still super raw though in a great way. It's also produced by John Cale (after he got kicked out of the Velvets), and his involvement is clear from the sound (though his mix was actually rejected by the band).
I guess they had been playing live shows in NYC for a bit with 7 songs, and they originally intended to just record those 7 songs for this album. Elektra didn't like this though so they had to scramble to write and record a few other songs pretty last minute. They got it done, but it's interesting how sometimes things just get thrown together.
This starts super strong with "1969" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog", both awesome songs that are straightforward but raw and great. Then there's the 10-minute "We Will Fall", which is not my favorite on it's own, but it creates this really dark brooding type mood. The drone sounds in the background of "We Will Fall" are so clearly John Cale inspired, he has his fingerprints all over this one. A 10-minute chant song is also a great way to kill some time if Elektra wants more music (the whole album is under 35 minutes).
The B-side starts with "No Fun", and then there's 4 shorter songs to round it out. "No Fun" is back to the formula, simple, raw, building intensity through the song, strong guitar on the second half. "Real Cool Time" is a bit of a miss for me, but "Ann" (which I think was the last song they added to the album) is awesome, it's got this really understated, slow-burn intensity. "Not Right" and "Little Doll" are both solid to wrap things up.
This is a really strong album top to bottom that just falls a little short of perfection to me. I think the album format doesn't quite fully capture what they were about, and while "1969" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog" are both great, it's not the most deep album. "We Will Fall" is fine for the mood, but if you take that out it's only 25 minutes long. Still, a really great album and a pretty notable departure from a lot of what was getting made at this time. I think Iggy is going to continue to grow on me too, so I'm excited to get more of their music.
Favorite song: 1969
Other: I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun, Ann, Not Right, Little Doll
2/17/24
4
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Mon Feb 19 2024
Sign 'O' The Times
Prince
Prince is one of the most famous artists of all time, and beyond a few songs here and there I really haven't listened to much of his music. And he made A LOT of it in his life. This seems to be a bit of a weird place to start with Prince (my Rolling Stones starting point on here was similar). This is a magnum opus-type release that came out a few years after "Purple Rain". It's a double album coming in at 80 minutes, and it's really all over the board musically, kind of just showcasing everything that Prince could do. It's a hard introduction, but here we are.
Here's what I like about it. It's one of those albums that you can just tell the artist is on top of the world. There's like this confidence that just comes through in the sound, it feels like he's swinging for the fences on this one. The Revolution was out at this point, so Prince also does all the instruments and vocals which is impressive. It's also just wildly varied. There's some funky stuff, some smooth R&B, lots of catchy pop hooks, a few slow vocal-driven songs. It's almost a bit chaotic since everything is just really different.
Here's what I don't like so much. First, it sounds notably dated. I won't knock it much since part of the reason it sounds this way is everyone that tried to copy him after, but it definitely sounds like an '80s album. "Strange Relationship" is a great example of a song that is good and also sounds really dated. Rarely does a double album work for me, and this isn't really an exception. I think he's got about 1.5 albums worth of good content here (which admittedly is more than a lot of double albums have), but there's a few clear weak points. Some of the individual songs drag on a bit too. Also for how famous this is, there really isn't that one song that just totally crushes it for me. I liked "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" best (and it's really good), and others like "Sign O' The Times" and "Starfish And Coffee" are really solid, but there's not that one song that just really sticks.
I've been dragging my feet for a few days now on what to rate this. It's really good, it also didn't quite blow me away as much as I thought it might given the aura around Prince, and the million things online about how this is his greatest album. I'm giving it a 4, I might regret this after I hear more Prince but it is what it is, we move forward.
Favorite song: I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Other: Sign O' The Times, The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, It, Starfish And Coffee, Slow Love, U Got The Look, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Strange Relationship, The Cross, Adore
2/18/24
4
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division
I wasn't familiar with Joy Division before this, but I had seen the album cover before. This is a really sad story honestly, the lead singer had a lot of health issues and committed suicide right before their first North American tour. The rest of the band later regrouped as New Order (which was the third album I listened to on this).
I wasn't really a fan of the New Order album I listened to so my expectations weren't super high, but this was awesome. It's dark and moody and has this like feeling of desperation underneath it. I'm not totally convinced that Ian Curtis is a great singer, but his delivery just feels super emotional. This is one that I liked on first listen and it's growing on me even more as I've re-listened to it a bit too.
"Disorder" is worth mentioning too, it's just such a strong opener. The bass is so unique but so freaking catchy. Great stuff all around here.
Favorite song: Disorder
Other: Day of the Lords, Candidate, Insight, New Dawn Fades, She's Lost Control, Shadowplay, Interzone, I Remember Nothing
2/19/24
5
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Vespertine
Björk
This album is stunningly beautiful. Bjork barely rises above a whisper throughout, but it's just a mesmerizing sound. It's layered, a bit fuzzy at times, there's this awesome harp on a lot of the songs. Honestly I'm generally not a huge fan of music where the electronic bit is a big part of it, but this just works so well, and her vocals tie everything together so perfectly. It's builds to such a big sound at various points and just left me wanting more. It's like an awesome mashup of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsome and Mitski and something even better maybe.
Her singing style is super unique, it's like it's slightly off-beat, but somehow in a good way. The lyrics are really strong on this one too. A lot about love (and it's pretty sexually explicit at times, but it feels really understated somehow with her singing style).
This one kind of blew me away a little bit, I didn't see this coming. I'm definitely a sucker for music that's a bit odd at times, but this was just a perfect combination of a little weird but really gorgeous at the same time.
My one complaint is that the sound on "Heirloom" (3rd to last song) just felt a little out of place to me. It's not a huge deal to me, but something about it felt just a little off. The album finishes really strong though, so you forget about it quickly. I'm not sure that I've resonated with the lyrics of a love song quite like I'm feeling for "Unison". It's hard to pick a favorite song since it all comes together so well as a full album.
Favorite song: Unison
Other: Hidden Place, Cocoon, It's Not Up to You, Undo, Pagan Poetry, Frosti, Aurora, An Echo a Stain, Sun in My Mouth, Harm of Will
2/20/24
5
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Under Construction
Missy Elliott
First things first, "Work It" is an absolute top-tier early-2000s banger. Iconic song.
Outside of that, this is pretty fine but maybe a bit unexceptional to me. It's generally a pretty smooth sound, rap but definitely a bit of an R&B type feel to a good bit of it. There's a lot of A-list appearances on this too (Jay-Z, Ludacris, Beyonce).
Maybe not a shocker, but they lyrics are very explicit. "Pussycat" is definitely not beating around the bush much. There's a few funny spoken word asides too (one on the end of "Pussycat" and then another on the intro song where at one point she says "You don't see Bill Gates and Donald Trump arguin' with each other / 'Cause both of 'em got paper and they got better shit to do / Get more paper"; that's quite the 2002 statement). Also she dedicated this to Aaliyah and the 9/11 victims, so there's that.
Generally a fine album, about what I was expecting. I don't see any real reason to listen to the full thing again, but there's some solid song on here.
Favorite song: Work It
Other: Bring the Pain, Back in the Day, Funky Fresh Dressed, Nothing out There for Me, Slide
2/22/24
3
View Album
Sat Feb 24 2024
D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
This album is just super grimy, I don't really know how to describe it better. It's got this harsh industrial sound, lots of like jarring background noises and vocals and things.
I feel like more experimental stuff like this either really works for me or really doesn't. I had a few moments where I felt like I could hear some good stuff underneath, but overall it just was too much for me. The sound is just too abrasive, it's got an unsettling sound in a not good way. The cover art is also highly questionable. This sounds like something that was meant for a small modern art museum, or maybe a haunted house. It's not one of the 1000 best albums of all time though.
Favorite song: AB/7A
Other: Hamburger Lady
2/23/24
1
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Second Toughest In The Infants
Underworld
Pretty fast-paced electronic music. It is what it is, not really my thing but I get there could be a place for this. It's not quite as annoying to me as a lot of other electronic music, that's the high praise I'm willing to write. It's really long too (73 minutes for 8 songs, so they're all pretty long).
Favorite song: Blueski
Other: Pearl's Girl
2/24/24
2
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Hard Again
Muddy Waters
This is a late-career Muddy Waters blues album, recorded when he was in his early 60s. At this point he was already a legend, but it seems like he was in a bit of a lull in his career before this. Then he recorded this (plus three other albums in the next few years) that all were highly acclaimed and got him a bit of a resurgence. It seems like a lot of critics consider this to be a big comeback album for him.
It's a bit of a tough place to start for someone that's this famous in a genre that I don't know super well. It's generally really enjoyable, and he sounds really good for his age when this was recorded. "Mannish Boy" is definitely famous enough that I knew it already, but he also first recorded it in the '50s and rerecorded it a bunch of times during his career, including as the opener on this.
The album is perfectly good, probably a 3.5 really, and I know with this genre I'm missing a whole textbook's worth of historical context, but I don't think much is going to stick with me. I'm curious to hear a bit more of his earlier work, I'm sure I'll get the chance to here at some point.
Favorite song: Mannish Boy
Other: I Want to Be Loved #2, I Can't Be Satisfied, The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, Crosseyed Cat
2/25/24
3
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Tue Feb 27 2024
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
This was incredibly good. I had high expectations and it still cleared them easily.
I generally don't love live albums, I find it a little annoying to listen to them usually. This is obviously a little different since it's live in-studio (but was recorded in one take), but this is where the live recording can shine. I didn't even watch the video version, but the emotion just comes through so well. Kurt Cobain's voice is just so good with the stripped back sound here.
It almost has this folk-y sound throughout, and I think he could have gone this direction with his career too and still crushed it. The Bowie cover is awesome, and the last song is just a perfect conclusion. Also an interesting choice to not include "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on this, I think I kind of like the decision.
I don't have a ton else to say about it. He died 5 months after this (which probably contributed to its popularity quite a bit), and it's a little more striking listening to it with that context. It's beautiful nonetheless, and I'm glad it exists.
Favorite song: The Man Who Sold The World
Other: About A Girl, Come As You Are, Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, Pennyroyal Tea, Dumb, Polly, On A Plain, Something In The Way, Plateau, Oh Me, Lake Of Fire, All Apologies, Where Did You Sleep Last Night
2/26/24
5
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Haut de gamme / Koweït, rive gauche
Koffi Olomide
This is a Congolese album from the '90s that is not in English, so I have no clue what he's singing about. I tried to keep an open mind, but I finished this just thinking it was pretty bad. I feel like he tried to pull in some western music sounds throughout, but everything he pulled in was like the worst parts of music at the time, so now it just sounds tacky and dated.
There is very little written on this album that I could find, but Koffi seems to be one of the big names in Congolese music so I get wanting to include him on the list. From the little I found though it seems like this particular album isn't really considered his best, so I'm not sure why this is what got picked. His voice is perfectly good, but this left a lot to be desired for me.
Also, the album cover is hilariously bad. Ugly grey background, three wildly different fonts that are all terrible, him off to the side goofily just pointing at the camera, and for some reason white pants that look 100% photoshopped. It's rough.
Favorite song: Papa bonheur
2/27/24
1
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
I had pretty low expectations since I had never heard of this group and this list can be a bit overkill on old British rock sometimes, but this was really good. It manages to have both a pretty dark sound, while also being highly listenable too. I usually like the moodier rock but can get where it goes off the rails for some people (with like Sonic Youth's "Evol" for instance). This feels like it manages to walk the line nicely between being moody and approachable though.
This reminded me of The Cure a good bit, and it turns out Robert Smith both liked this band a lot and also played guitar for them for a few years after this came out. It seems like this band was a lot bigger in the UK than the US, but had quite a bit of influence for a bunch of bands that came later. This isn't quite as strong to me as something like "Disintegration", but it generally was a great listen.
The singer has an awesome voice, the pace is pretty good, the guitar is pretty unique sounding at times, generally really strong.
Favorite song: Spellbound
Other: Into The Light, Arabian Knights, Halloween, Monitor, Night Shift, Sin In My Heart, Head Cut, Voodoo Dolly
2/28/24
4
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
This is Neil Young's second solo album after Buffalo Springfield (5 years before On The Beach, which was album #16 on this for me). It's really solid overall, and this seems to be the album that really established him. It's a bit twangy (like on "The Losing End"), the guitar work is great from Crazy Horse ("Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" are mostly 9-10 minute guitar riffs), "Cinnamon Girl" is a catchy start. Just pretty enjoyable overall.
There are a few tracks that are misses for me, and it's a bit somber-sounding at times, but not overly so, and it's just generally strong. He has a great voice and it's an enjoyable listen with a few notable high points.
Favorite song: Down by the River
Other: Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, The Losing End, Cowgirl in the Sand
2/29/24
4
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Sat Mar 02 2024
In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
This is really unique, super interesting album. It seems like it's generally classified as progressive rock (and I haven't been a big prog rock fan so far), but it's very early prog rock and pretty different from what came in the '70s.
It's definitely a rock album, but it's also really jazzy and classical music influences too. The original release is 44 minutes but only five songs, so they're each pretty long. There's long stretches on most of the songs that are like jazzy and symphonic, it's really unique.
This is also partially famous in more modern times for Kanye sampling "21st Century Schizoid Man" on "Power" (I had no idea where it was from until listening to this). The part that he sampled has this super like fuzzy electric sound that seems way ahead of its time on here.
Beyond that, "I Talk To the Wind" has this really simple beautiful sound that's really enjoyable, "Epitaph" is great too, and "The Court Of The Crimson King" is really big and grand sounding to finish.
"Moonchild" loses the plot a bit for me (it's long and a bit more meandering than the others), and there are times where the long songs lose my attention a bit, but overall I really enjoyed this a lot. This is one that was great to listen to closely and I can also see playing in the background and enjoying too.
Favorite song: 21st Century Schizoid Man
Other: I Talk To The Wind, Epitaph, The Court Of The Crimson King
3/1/24
4
View Album
Sun Mar 03 2024
90
808 State
This sounds like what you would get if you asked an electronic music person in 1989 to make an album of what they think music will sound like in like 2020. It sounds "futuristic" in a way that is distinctly '80s.
It's generally not really my thing, but there are some moments that are reasonably nice. I like the bird noises on "Pacific 202."
Favorite song: Pacific 202
3/2/24
2
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Mermaid Avenue
Billy Bragg
This is a really interesting one, it's a collab between Billy Bragg (a British folk singer that I was not familiar with) and Wilco (an American alt rock band that I'm only somewhat familiar with), singing songs (or lyrics really) written by Woody Guthrie mostly in the '40s to '60s. I guess Guthrie's daughter had a bunch of lyrics that he had written (but no music to go with them), she asked Bragg to make an album with them, and he pulled in Wilco.
Honestly, it was a really nice album. Wilco is one of those bands that has been on the periphery of my musical knowledge for a long time; they're in the wheelhouse of music I tend to like, but I've never really listened to them much. It's a bit of an odd place to start with them (and with Bragg for that matter) since it's hard to really attribute this fully to anyone, but it was a really enjoyable listen.
No major surprise, but it's mostly fairly low key folk-y music (right up my alley). It does pick up the pace a bit here and there though and there's enough variation (partly driven by the multiple singers) that it stays interesting. "California Stars" is a major highlight, it's a really beautiful song and is definitely going to make its way into my rotation.
There's a few songs that didn't really land ("Hoodoo Voodoo", "Christ For President") but they're few and far between and don't overly hurt the flow. It's really solid top to bottom.
It seems like most of the reason Guthrie's daughter wanted something like this to happen was to try to make his music relevant to a new generation, and honestly it worked on me. This is making me want to listen to Woody Guthrie music. I don't think this album is quite as political as some of his recorded work, but a bit of it does come through at times. "She Came Along To Me" is an example of one of the more political songs on here, and honestly it lands just as well today as it probably would have when he wrote it. I'll wrap up with a lyric:
"And all creeds and kinds and colors / Of us are blending/ Till I suppose ten million years from now / We'll all be just alike / Same color, same size, working together / And maybe we'll have all of the fascists / Out of the way by then / Maybe so"
Favorite song: California Stars
Other: Walt Whitman's Niece, Way over Yonder in the Minor Key, Birds and Ships, She Came Along to Me, At My Window Sad and Lonely, Ingrid Bergman, I Guess I Planted, One by One, Hesitating Beauty
3/3/24
4
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Document
R.E.M.
I have a feeling that if this was the first R.E.M. album that I had heard I might have liked it a bit more than I did. Unfortunately I listened to Automatic For The People only 53 albums ago, and this does not live up to it. AFTP is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion, getting this after was a bit of a letdown. I actually re-listened to AFTP tonight because I was afraid I was over-rating it in my head compared to this, but no, that album is absolute fire.
I think this album is perfectly fine overall, maybe even good. It's a bit less polished than AFTP, a little harder of a sound, maybe a bit more political thematically. My biggest gripe is that the sound is pretty consistent throughout to me, and very little stands out. The songs are mostly about the same pace, there isn't a whole lot that is really attention-catching overall.
The one exception is the middle of the album. Song #6 is "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" and then #7 is "The One I Love". These are two of R.E.M.'s better-known songs, and for good reason. They're both great, and they carry the album quite a bit for me.
I think this is a classic 3.5 star rating album from me, I'm like mildly positive on it, so I'm going to make a gut call on which way to go. I do really like Michael Stipe's voice, and he's really great when he's either letting it loose a bit or doing something a bit softer like "Everybody Hurts". This album was a bit more middle of the road on average and I don't think showcased him as well.
One thing I will give them is that this sounds a bit ahead of its time, so I'll give them credit for that. There was still a lot of synth nonsense going on at this time, and they managed to pull off a pretty approachable (early) alt rock album in '87 without falling into that trap, so good on them.
Favorite song: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Other: Finest Worksong, Welcome To The Occupation, The One I Love, King Of Birds
3/4/24
3
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Wed Mar 06 2024
At San Quentin
Johnny Cash
If I had a nickel for every album that I've gotten on here that involved Johnny Cash performing at a prison I would have 10 cents, which isn't a lot but it's kind of weird that it's happened twice. At Folsom Prison was album #13 for me, so back at it 146 albums later. This one came out a year after At Folsom Prison.
A brief sidebar to note how odd it is that he decided to do a whole series of prison performances. And then write songs about how much it would suck to be a prisoner there. I can't even imagine the social media firestorm that would happen if Taylor Swift or someone decided to do a prison concert series today, the internet would explode.
Like At Folsom Prison, I think there's a ton of value in this as a cool piece of history. Hearing him interact with the crowd in the live setting is a pretty interesting historical record to have.
I think I like this quite a bit less than At Folsom Prison though. For starters, it's only 34 minutes total and I didn't count but probably 40% of that is random crowd noise or him talking. He also performs the song "San Quentin" twice, so there's only 9 unique songs on here. It comes across as really disjointed from a musical perspective. They also censored some of the songs on here with really annoying loud beeps, which I get probably wasn't his decision but is still jarring.
On the positive side, it does have a few a couple of iconic Cash songs like "Walk the Line" and "A Boy Named Sue". He generally sounds good, though I read somewhere that he sounds "tired" on this record, and I think I agree with that. It feels a little less engaging than At Folsom Prison.
I find these prison albums really hard to rate, since I think they're a little annoying musically but really interesting from a music history perspective. I tend to lean towards rating is as an album not a history piece, and I like this less than At Folsom Prison, so my rating reflects this.
Favorite song: I Walk the Line
Other: Wanted Man, San Quentin, A Boy Named Sue
3/5/24
3
View Album
Thu Mar 07 2024
Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart
This was actually pretty solid. It's an interesting mix of rock, some folk sounds, a bit of country, a little blues. Stewart's voice is a bit raspy, but it works for this.
This has "Maggie May", which is one of his most famous songs (and it's really great). "Mandolin Wind" is a nice way to follow it, and "(Find A) Reason To Believe" is a really solid finish to the album. "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" is a Dylan cover, and it's a nice addition too.
It's definitely a bit on the soft rock side and there are moments where it's a bit dull (there's a lull after the opener which makes it a bit harder to get into early on), but it's generally enjoyable.
I'm not super familiar with Rod Stewart's work, but I think his sound changed quite a bit later in his career. This early career version works pretty well though.
Favorite song: Maggie May
Other: Every Picture Tells A Story, Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Mandolin Wind, (I Know) I'm Losing You, (Find A) Reason To Believe
3/6/24
4
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Fri Mar 08 2024
Kings Of The Wild Frontier
Adam & The Ants
It's 1980. Everyone has been making moody little punk songs about how sad they are. You try that but it doesn't work so well. So you pivot and start dressing up as a pirate and singing about ants. You end up with this.
That might be a bit of a simplification, but seems more or less what happened. Interestingly this feels in the ballpark of the glam rock of the day (which I typically like), but this just didn't work for me at all. The first half of the album has a few songs that are decent enough, but nothing really stands out much, and then the second half is pretty much a disaster.
I guess it's fine as a bit of a silly album that doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's not really my thing. I think this just has a lot of the '80s new wave sound that feels overly ridiculous to me now. Not my favorite.
Favorite song: Antmusic
Other: Dog Eat Dog, Ants Invasion, Killer in the Home, Kings of the Wild Frontier, Jolly Roger
3/7/24
2
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Sat Mar 09 2024
After The Gold Rush
Neil Young
One week later and I get the next album in Neil Young's discography. I've dragged my feet on writing this review, and I think it's because after 3 albums now I think I really like Neil Young but don't love him. He's clearly super talented, his albums are consistently solid for me, the music style is right up my alley, but I feel like there's something missing that holds it back from really hitting for me.
I think this was probably my favorite album of the 3 of his that I've listened to, but I can't push myself to give it a 5. It's really good, pretty much the entire album is consistently solid, something just is holding me back.
I feel like this review is overly negative for an album that I really enjoyed. The first three songs are all really strong, "Southern Man" comes out of nowhere with a heavy-hitter about racism, "Till the Morning Comes" follows it up with a really short light song to pick things back up. The back half is a little weaker but it's pretty consistent quality top to bottom. I really did like this, I promise.
Also apparently the cover image was shot in front of the NYU Law School (and then they did the weird solarizing the image thing since it was blurry).
Favorite song: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Other: Tell Me Why, After the Gold Rush, Southern Man, Till the Morning Comes, Don't Let It Bring You Down, Birds, When You Dance You Can Really Love, I Believe in You
3/8/24
4
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
"1984 English synth-pop band" does not create a whole lot of excitement from me.
Honestly this was perfectly fine, it's not my favorite but I had low expectations and I liked it a bit more than anticipated. It's super' 80s sounding, heavy synth use throughout. The pace is pretty high though, they keep it interesting enough, and there's a couple of strong songs and decent covers to keep me invested.
My biggest issue is that this is way too long (64 minutes), there's a ton of filler in here. It actually starts reasonably ok (though the second song doesn't need to be 14 minutes long). But then "Relax" is solid, and there's two anti-war songs that are both interesting enough (including a cover of "War"). The Springsteen "Born To Run" cover in the middle is nice, I liked "San Jose", and then it's mostly very uninspiring synth-pop until "The Power Of Love" near the end.
It's perfectly ok with a few good moments, and that's praise enough for this genre.
Favorite song: Relax
Other: War, Two Tribes, Born To Run, San Jose, The Power Of Love
3/9/24
3
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Gasoline Alley
Rod Stewart
Only a week after getting "Every Picture Tells A Story" we're back to Rod Stewart with the album that came right before it.
To get right to the point, I didn't think this one was as good. This is basically a cover album, 6 of the 9 songs here are covers (including Bob Dylan and Elton John covers). It starts out ok, "Gasoline Alley" is a pretty strong start, it's upbeat and has a strong guitar running through it. After that though most of the album was just pretty "meh" to me. EPTAS had a few stretches like this, but had a lot more standout songs. This was just fairly unremarkable throughout.
I think Rod Stewart's raspy voice is pretty interesting and he still brings a bit of musical style variety here, but this just fell a bit flat to me. Perfectly ok, but not a real standout.
Favorite song: Gasoline Alley
Other: Country Comfort
3/10/24
3
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Tue Mar 12 2024
Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy
"The Boys Are Back in Town", certified banger. What I didn't know is that the lead singer (Phil Lynott) is a black Irishman, the more you know.
This album is a bit weird since it's a live double album. This is my first Thin Lizzy album on here, but the live album is basically just a compilation of their popular stuff at the time so it feels like it's kind of cheating to me.
Allegedly there's also a dispute about how much of this is actually "live". I guess they were originally supposed to record an album this year but their producer was busy so they just decided to pull live recordings and slap a cover on that instead. The producer claims that 75% of the sound actually was overdubbed in the studio, but the manager says that's wrong and 75% of the sound is live and they only overdubbed some background vocals and things. If it's actually significantly dubbed, that makes it even a little more dicey for this list.
Anyway, it's generally alright. It's definitely a hard rock album through and through, but there are enough solid songs. Obviously "The Boys Are Back in Town" is iconic, but "Jailbreak" is a great opener, "Dancing in the Moonlight" was really nice (I hadn't heard this one before), and "Cowboy Song" led into TBABIT nicely.
The downside is that it's long (77 minutes) and there are a few stretches that feel like somewhat generic hard rock. They probably could have cut this thing after TBABIT and been just fine with it.
Favorite song: The Boys Are Back in Town
Other: Jailbreak, Dancing in the Moonlight, Still in Love with You, Cowboy Song
3/11/24
3
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Lazer Guided Melodies
Spiritualized
This was a pleasant surprise, I enjoyed this a lot. It's one of those where I think the whole is better than the sum of the parts. Only a few songs really stood out, but the whole thing just had a really nice vibe to it.
I don't know if it's dream pop or shoegaze or whatever genre the internet says it is, but it's got a really nice sound. It's very layered and textural, a wall of sound that somehow never is overwhelming. It sounds ahead of its time to me too, I probably would have guessed 2000s.
It's a bit front-heavy and some of the songs drag on a bit, but no major complaints, this was really nice.
Favorite song: You Know It's True
Other: If I Were With Her Now, I Want You, Run, Shine a Light
3/12/24
4
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Thu Mar 14 2024
G. Love And Special Sauce
G. Love & Special Sauce
This was definitely unique. I'm not sure that it was good, but it was unique.
It's got this like bluesy, hip hop, rock combination thing going on. It's very slow and loose musically, it's mostly just vibing throughout.
A number of times while listening to this I thought to myself that I would like it more if the singer wasn't singing, I liked the music part better than him. There are a handful of songs on here that are pretty catchy ("Baby's Got Sauce" was pretty solid), but a lot of it was just a bit grating to me. It's pretty long too at 58 minutes, so it keeps going on for awhile.
Favorite song: Baby's Got Sauce
Other: Blues Music, Garbage Man, Cold Beverage, This Ain't Living, I Love You
3/14/24
2
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Sat Mar 16 2024
Thriller
Michael Jackson
My first Michael Jackson album on here, so for the record we try to separate the art from the artist around here.
It's honestly pretty impressive just how strong this is from top to bottom. It's really pop-y, I'm not even particularly a big fan of this era of music, and somehow it just pretty much all works. He's an incredibly talented musician.
I don't think there's a whole lot for me to say about this that's additive, it's the highest selling album of all time for a reason. It also has probably the most famous three-song stretch on any album ever, with "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean" all back-to-back-to-back on here. Add in a casual Paul McCartney appearance too, and this is very obviously a heavy-hitter.
Favorite song: Billie Jean
Other: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Baby Be Mine, The Girl Is Mine, Thriller, Beat It, Human Nature, P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), The Lady in My Life
3/15/24
5
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Sun Mar 17 2024
Ocean Rain
Echo And The Bunnymen
This was so good, I didn't see this coming. It sounds 10 years ahead of it's time, like a precursor to the alt rock of the '90s (I'm hearing an early R.E.M. sound at times, but that's probably underselling it, I also got The National at times). The sound is big and orchestral, but the singer isn't overwhelmed by the background instruments. They manage to pull off this ambience that's slightly unsettling or haunting, while still being incredibly enjoyable to listen to. Ian McCulloch's voice is awesome, dramatic and powerful.
The biggest knock on this is that there's a bit of a weak stretch on songs 3-5. It starts off great with "Silver" and the really uneasy sounding "Nocturnal Me", but then the next three songs are a bit weaker in comparison ("Crystal Days" is ok, I don't actually like "The Yo Yo Man" all that much but the plinking sounds in the middle are weird and interesting enough to hear again, similarly the guitar riff on "Thorn of Crowns" is pretty cool). Although I'm listening a second time and they're still pretty decent, weaker than the rest but there's still something interesting happening on each song.
The B-side is absolutely top tier though. It starts with their best-known song "The Killing Moon" which is iconic (fateeeee....up against your willllll). "Seven Seas" is almost just as good though to follow, and "My Kingdom" and "Ocean Rain" are beautiful to finish.
I also really like the album cover, the purple background is cool.
This was really awesome, a perfect example of what I've loved about this album thing. This is making its way into the rotation for sure, I hit play again as soon as it ended.
Favorite song: The Killing Moon
Other: Silver, Nocturnal Me, Crystal Days, The Yo Yo Man, Thorn of Crowns, Seven Seas, My Kingdom, Ocean Rain
3/16/24
5
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Orbital 2
Orbital
Another '90s British electronic album, meh. It's reasonably fine, but this is just nothing more than background music to me. Probably ok in a '90s London nightclub, probably more or less fine as focus music, absolutely not interesting to me as anything else.
Favorite song: Halcyon and On and On
3/17/24
2
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Tue Mar 19 2024
Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
I had heard of Depeche Mode before, but I wasn't really sure what their deal was. This is a late '80s synth-pop / new wave album that's a bit more on the electronic side.
As we know by now, synth-heavy is not my favorite music style at all. While I didn't love this, I did think this was better than a lot of the other music that's similar to this. It's still super synth-heavy, but it's a bit less pop, a bit darker and moodier. I liked this way less than Disintegration, but I get a bit of The Cure vibes here and there on this. I think this approaches that type of sound at its very best, but falls into electronic synth-overdrive at its worst.
I just took a look at Depeche Mode's "fans also like" section on Spotify and the 4th band is The Cure (like) and the 5th is Duran Duran (meh), which pretty much describes exactly how I'm feeling (somewhere in the middle of the two, though probably a bit closer to meh overall). This is probably another 3.5 to me, but I think I'm more out than in so rounding down.
Favorite song: Never Let Me Down Again
Other: The Things You Said, Strangelove, Behind The Wheel, To Have And To Hold
3/18/24
3
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine
Cee Lo Green
I was a bit surprised to see Cee-Lo on here at all, and was especially surprised when this wasn't his one-hit wonder album (two if you count his Gnarls Barkley days). "Crazy" and "Fuck You" were inescapable in my childhood, but I hadn't heard anything on here before.
This thing was a rollercoaster. First, I do not think I like Cee-Lo Green's voice. It has moments where it kind of works, but it's pretty grating on the whole.
On the plus side, there are actually a handful of songs on here that are really good. His annoying voice aside, this has some really smooth R&B sounds, it's a bit funky at times, some of the rap verses are pretty solid (especially when it's not him, it was nice to remember that TI existed). I loved the saxophone or whatever it was on "All Day Love Affair".
On the negative side, this thing was a bit all over the place. It would go from a song that had great vibes to like some awful nonsense. This didn't feel particularly cohesive to me, it's long, and the back half is really weak compared to the front half.
I don't really know what to make of this. I think I had a negative bias toward Cee-Lo coming in and I didn't really like this all that much on the whole, but there was enough good to keep me interested. Cee-Lo seems like a bit of a piece of work but whatever, closer to a 2 than a 4, but it was fine enough I guess.
Favorite song: All Day Love Affair
Other: The Art of Noise, I'll Be Around, The One, My Kind Of People, Let's Stay Together
3/19/24
3
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Penthouse And Pavement
Heaven 17
This is a very silly little album that also happens to be about fascism and war mostly. An odd one for sure.
It's another synth-heavy '80s album. I might be slightly getting used to the new wave stuff a bit because I actually didn't hate the first few songs on this. But it started to get old really fast though, and by the end I was just so ready for it to be over (and it's only 38 minutes).
Favorite song: (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing
Other: Penthouse And Pavement, Play To Win
3/20/24
2
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Fri Mar 22 2024
Live 1966 (The Royal Albert Hall Concert)
Bob Dylan
So there's A LOT going on with this one, I'm going to give a brief summary so I remember. This is around the time when Dylan decided to go electric and move from a folk artist to a rock artist. People were not happy about this (understatement). So Dylan is touring in the UK and he does some shows there where the first half of the set is just him alone doing folk songs. Then the second half he brings out his band and they rock. Strong applause in the first half, lots of upset people in the second half.
So these concerts aren't officially recorded, but some bootleg copies start getting circulated and eventually become a big deal (this gets a real release in the late '90s). It's called The Royal Albert Hall Concert, but it's pretty widely agreed now that this is actually from a concert at Manchester Free Trade Hall. This is at least partly known because a famous incident is caught on the recording, where a fan yells "Judas" at Dylan near the end of the show, and then he tells his band to "play it fuckin' loud" as they start "Like a Rolling Stone".
I think that's the key history, but was slightly more confusing for me since the Spotify version cuts out quite a bit of the crowd interaction, and then there's another release on Spotify that seems to be (confusingly) the ACTUAL Royal Albert Hall show. It's all very confusing. It's also a 95 minute album so hard to fully follow. I think I eventually got a grasp of it though.
I generally struggle a bit with live albums and I think this one is at least partly on the list for the "Judas" incident, but I have to say this is pretty cool. It's obviously partly cool as a history piece (it's wild how upset people were about him using an electric guitar). But beyond that I have to give him credit on this. Dylan is kind of a notoriously mediocre live performer, but he was really good on this. He sounds really great on the first half, and there's a real passion on the second half. It's striking listening to the two halves back-to-back like this. The song selection on this is also great, which isn't always the case on live albums.
I don't know how to reasonably rate this against more normal studio albums, it's a whole different thing to me. It's definitely very good though, I won't get caught up in the numbers any longer.
Favorite song: Like a Rolling Stone
Other: She Belongs to Me, Fourth Time Around, Visions of Johanna, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Just Like a Woman, Mr. Tambourine Man, Tell Me Momma, I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met), Baby Let Me Follow You Down, Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, One Too Many Mornings, Ballad of a Thin Man
3/21/24
4
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Amnesiac
Radiohead
Finally some Radiohead, I've been waiting awhile. I actually wasn't really familiar with this album at all, so this is new for me.
I think this is generally really good but is also somewhat hit-and-miss. The album comes off a bit disjointed to me. The first song is pretty electronic-heavy, then "Pyramid Song" comes second and it's awesome, then "Pulk/Pull" is a bit on the experimental side. Then there's a really great three song stretch with "You And Whose Army", "I Might Be Wrong", and "Knives Out". I also loved the last song "Life In a Glasshouse", it pulls it all together super well and the trumpet is a nice touch.
This is their fifth album and it's after The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A, so they were a huge deal at this point already. I guess this came out the year after Kid A and mostly was recorded at the same time. It seems like a lot of the people who don't like this seem to knock it as the "b-sides from Kid A". That seems a bit overly harsh, but I also haven't listened to the full Kid A yet.
I really enjoyed this overall and there were a number of awesome songs on here, but it also felt a bit all over the board and left me wanting a bit. I do think this is one that's a bit hard to fully get on one listen, so my feelings might change a bit. Overall a really strong album though, and I'm excited for more Radiohead.
Favorite song: Pyramid Song
Other: Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box, You And Whose Army, I Might Be Wrong, Knives Out, Dollars and Cents, Life In a Glasshouse
3/22/24
4
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso
The vibes on this remind me a lot of Love's album Da Capo. It has this somewhat interesting psych rock thing going with a bit of a bouncy feel and lots of different instruments and things. It's a bit all over the board, but I don't hate it.
This is the self-titled debut from a Brazilian artist. The genre is apparently considered to be "tropicália", which I guess is a Brazilian artistic movement that combined some traditional Brazilian sounds with the the psych rock from the US and UK at the time, plus some African influences too. It seems like it has a bit of an artsy avante-garde reputation compared to traditional Brazilian music. There also seems to be a lot of political stuff going on around this musical movement which I am not even going to attempt to understand.
The album is in Portuguese so I have no idea what he's saying, but the vibes are actually reasonably good here. It's a bit hit-or-miss, but a good number of the songs are pretty interesting musically, I like the Brazilian twist on the type of rock that was coming out in the US and UK at the time. The singer has a nice voice too.
The first two songs are like normal song length, and then the whole middle is like ~2 minute songs, so it ends up going pretty fast (35 minutes total). I can't say I'm likely to come back to this often, but it was pretty enjoyable. I'm glad I listened to it and expanded my horizons a bit.
Favorite song: Tropicália
Other: Clarice, Alegria Alegria, Anunciação, Soy Loco Por Ti América
3/23/24
3
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Mon Mar 25 2024
A Walk Across The Rooftops
The Blue Nile
Interesting album, not my favorite thing ever but it does sound pretty unique. This is an '80s Scottish band and apparently this was basically unknown when it was released. There's a rumor (that allegedly is a myth) that this album was created to test some new hi-fi sound equipment and then the company liked it so much they formed a record label to release this.
While I guess that's not true, I can kind of see where the myth came from. The sound is really rich and there's a lot of interesting background sounds. It's a bit synth-y at times, but less in-your-face than a lot of what else was coming out at the time, they seem more thoughtful about it all.
Despite this, while I did like the album enough I feel like it didn't blow me away. While reasonably interesting, the songs dragged on a bit and left me a bit bored at times. The singer is fine but nothing particularly exceptional to me. This is a solid but slightly boring album, borderline 3.5.
Favorite song: Tinseltown In The Rain
Other: A Walk Across The Rooftops, From Rags To Riches, Stay, Easter Parade
3/24/24
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
Urban Hymns
The Verve
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" kicks this off, and it's probably one of the best songs of the '90s, absolutely top tier song.
This album is actually pretty deep though, and "The Drugs Don't Work", "Lucky Man", and "Sonnet" are all really great. I like Richard Ashcroft's voice a lot. They manage to rock pretty hard one some songs and hit on the softer songs as well.
I was really close to giving this a 5, but there's just a bit too much filler here. While I liked a lot of this, it has no business being 75 minutes long. There's a few stretches that are ok, but relatively unremarkable which just breaks up the flow a bit.
I also was unfamiliar with the legal issues surrounding "Bittersweet Symphony" and The Rolling Stones, but that seems to be settled now which is good.
Favorite song: Bitter Sweet Symphony
Other: Sonnet, The Drugs Don't Work, Catching The Butterfly, Space and Time, Lucky Man, One Day, Velvet Morning
3/25/24
4
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Wed Mar 27 2024
Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
This is like classic early '70s soft rock vibes, but honestly there's some bangers on here. "Do It Again", "Dirty Work", and "Reelin' In The Years" are all classics that are all pretty catchy.
I didn't know much about Steely Dan, but I guess the two main guys (Becker and Fagen) originally had a full band, and the singer on this one is David Palmer. This album was a hit, and the two main guys basically decided to take the band name and start doing there own thing that was a lot more experimental and jazzy. So it seems like big Steely Dan fans have mixed feelings about this album, despite it including a lot of their bigger hits.
I'm curious to hear more Steely Dan going forward. While this isn't the most groundbreaking thing in the world, it's generally very enjoyable with lots of catchy songs. It's nice low key listening, albeit maybe a bit boring after awhile.
Favorite song: Dirty Work
Other: Do It Again, Midnite Cruiser, Only A Fool Would Say That, Reelin' In The Years, Fire In The Hole, Change Of The Guard
3/26/24
4
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Illinois
Sufjan Stevens
I should have been expecting this album at some point, but it totally caught me off guard when I saw it. I really love Sufjan's music, and this has long been my favorite album of his (though Carrie & Lowell is fantastic too).
Of course I listened to it in full again, and it's as beautiful as it's always been. The Sufjan 50 states project (this is the second and last part of it) was a pretty hilarious gimmick, but the depth of the Illinois-related songwriting here is honestly so impressive. He manages to take this incredibly niche concept (Illinois history) and create some absolutely devastating songs.
I first came across Sufjan around 2013 when I was a senior in high school and I stumbled on a mashup of "Chicago" and Coldplay's "Clocks". This was fairly early in the days of my expanding musical taste (Coldplay was probably the first band that I really dove deep into the discography) and I really liked this mashup. I probably listened to this album around that time, and was just blown away by this weird concept album with the long song titles. It's as great today as it was 11 years ago.
I've already touched on the lyrics, but I'm just always so impressed that he managed to create such incredible lyrics within the confines of the Illinois concept. I love so much of this album, but "Come On! Feel the Illinoise" is probably the most reference-dense song on here, "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." is so haunting (especially with the narrative turn at the end), and "Casimir Pulaski Day" is just a devastating story of a cancer death and questioning religion (which is something Sufjan explores a lot, and has been a big topic in contemporary Sufjan discourse).
Beyond the lyrics though, this album is also just so good musically. It's one that I often just put on in the background while I'm doing other things, which is pretty impressive for an album that also has the lyrical strength that it does. There's just such a wide variety of instrumentation and the sound is so dense, and my understanding is that Sufjan pretty much records all the instruments himself. It also manages to stay consistently interesting over the course of a 74 minute album, which is rare.
I obviously love this album, so I'll wrap up. Sufjan is such a unique voice in modern music, and I'm so glad this exists. An incredible work (the album cover is super iconic too) from an incredible modern talent.
Favorite song: Chicago
Other: Concerning the UFO sighting..., The Black Hawk War..., Come On! Feel the Illinoise!..., John Wayne Gacy Jr., Jacksonville, Decatur..., Casimir Pulaski Day, The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts, Prairie Fire That Wanders About, The Predatory Wasp..., They Are Night Zombies!!..., The Seer's Tower, The Tallest Man...
3/27/24
5
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Crocodiles
Echo And The Bunnymen
I gave Echo And The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain (their fourth album) 5 stars just 12 days ago, so that's front of mind still as I listen to this. This is their debut album which came 4 years earlier than Ocean Rain.
This one feels a little darker and grittier to me. It's hard to compare against a top tier album, but Ocean Rain pulled off this much more atmospheric moody sound, while this one is a bit more of a post-punk sound. I don't dislike this, but not a whole lot is really standing out to me. It's giving me a bit of a Joy Division sound, but with less powerful lyrics and less hooks that really keep you interested.
I'm probably being a little overly critical, it was a decent album. Quite a bit short of Ocean Rain though, and it's hard not to compare since I listened to it so recently.
Favorite song: Rescue
Other: Going Up, Do It Clean, Villiers Terrace, All That Jazz
3/28/24
3
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Sat Mar 30 2024
Sea Change
Beck
I am notoriously into sad music, but oh my this was a lot even for me. I guess he broke up with his long term girlfriend right before he wrote this, and this man is clearly not ok. "Guess I'm Doing Fine", "Lonesome Tears", "Lost Cause", "Already Dead", it's a lot.
But potentially on brand for me, it's very good. You definitely want to be in a certain mood for this (which I'm really not right now), but he's clearly very talented, the lyrics are crushing, and it's musically interesting despite being a bit of a slow burn.
I haven't really listened to any Beck at all (other than "Loser" of course), but I guess this album is quite different from the rest of his music. Professional reviews for this seem to be a little all over the place, which kind of makes sense if it's a lot different than his usual stuff (and probably because it's so sad too). I thought it was good, and I hope I don't feel like I need to listen to it anytime soon.
Favorite song: Lost Cause
Other: The Golden Age, Paper Tiger, Guess I'm Doing Fine, Lonesome Tears, Round The Bend
3/29/24
4
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Connected
Stereo MC's
Some reasonably catchy beats at times, but overall pretty unremarkable ‘90s British jazzy hip hop. “Connected” is the strongest song on the album (and their most popular song by quite a bit). There’s a few other decent tracks, but it drags quite a bit at 53 minutes. I don’t have a ton to say about this, it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t really my thing at all.
Favorite song: Connected
Other: Ground Level, Step It Up
3/30/24
2
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Mon Apr 01 2024
Honky Tonk Masquerade
Joe Ely
I thought this was about to be a nice country honky-tonk thing, but "Boxcars" kind of rocks a little bit. This isn't particularly my genre, and I think this has to have the least amount of Spotify plays of any album I've listened to on here, but it's not terrible. It's very Texas-sounding overall. It's got a reasonably good mix of low-key country ballady-stuff, and some songs that rock more. I wouldn't listen to this all the time, but it's a fairly nice change-of-pace album.
Favorite song: Boxcars
Other: Because Of The Wind, Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown, I'll Be Your Fool, West Texas Waltz
3/31/24
3
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Tue Apr 02 2024
good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick Lamar
I don't listen to a ton of rap, especially not full albums, but this is one that I actually listened to quite a bit back in the day. This came out my senior year of high school and was pretty huge for a few years after that.
I think I like this a lot because the sound is pretty understated through most of it. There's not a ton of gimmicks or anything, it's just really strong lyrics and good beats across the board. Lyrically, you really get a snapshot into Kendrick's life growing up, and the snippets of people talking between songs are both funny and pull together the album nicely.
I don't have a ton to say about this, but it's about as strong of a rap album as I've come across. It does get a bit weaker at the end (it's drags on just a little bit), but it's good enough otherwise that it's not a real issue. Kendrick is obviously super talented, and it was nice to revisit this one. This is 12 years old now (which is hard to believe), but it doesn't really sound dated at all to me.
Favorite song: Money Trees
Other: Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe, Backseat Freestyle, The Art of Peer Pressure, Poetic Justice, good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Swimming Pools (Drank),
4/1/24
5
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Modern Life Is Rubbish
Blur
I've been fairly positive towards Britpop so far, but for some reason Blur is just not really working for me. Parklife was album #77 for me, and I thought it was just ok. Unfortunately I'm having pretty similar feelings about this one. It seems like a lot of people think either this or Parklife is their best album, and neither of them are really working for me, so maybe I'm just not a big Blur person.
I feel like I should like this more than I do, but something about it is just a bit of a letdown for me. It's just like a little too British and I don't love the singer's voice. Perfectly ok '90s rock, but relatively unexceptional to me.
To be clear, I don't totally hate this or anything. There's a few reasonably catchy songs, and you can kind of see how this is laying the foundation for a lot of the Britpop to come (this is Blur's second album and I guess they kind of revamped their sound and image after their first album, Parklife came a year later). Just very middle of the road to me, and it sounds a bit dated to me now.
Favorite song: Chemical World
Other: For Tomorrow, Colin Zeal, Sunday Sunday, Miss America
4/2/24
3
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Thu Apr 04 2024
Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets
What a strange album this is. So these guys are most famous for being on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, where Nirvana covered three songs from this album with Meat Puppets band members supporting ("Plateau", "Oh Me", and "Lake of Fire"). Apparently these guys were pretty obscure before the MTV show, but Kurt Cobain was a huge fan. The MTV show was recorded in 1993 and this came out in 1984, so it wasn't new at the time or anything.
This thing is truly all over the board though. It definitely gives punk vibes, but the lyrics are a lot more thoughtful (nice?) than a lot of what you get in punk. This was released by the same label that released "Double Nickels on the Dime" by Minutemen, and that one also came out in 1984. While you can see some similarities if you squint a bit (a bit chaotic, questionably talented singer, short songs), this felt a lot more polished and thoughtful to me. It rocks pretty hard at times, it has this country thing going on, there's a number of acoustic-only songs (some of which are pretty slow, others that vibe nicely), a bit folk-y, it's got it all really. Wikipedia calls the genre cowpunk, and I have no idea what that means but I'll believe it because this is a bit of everything.
Speaking of the singer, is he good? Honestly I have no idea. Some songs he sounds kind of awful, some songs it works ("We're Here", "What To Do").
This is one that I feel like is going to have bad reviews on here and I can't really explain what I like about it, but I think I like it. Peak example of the line between genius and the terrible is thin. It's far from perfect but it's really unique sounding and feels somewhat timeless to me. There's some really great songs on here, I like the instrumentals, it's a good vibe. Probably a 3.5, but there's enough good on here I'm rounding up, it's unique.
Favorite song: We're Here
Other: Split Myself in Two, Lost, Plateau, Aurora Borealis, Oh Me, Lake of Fire, I'm a Mindless Idiot, Lost, What To Do, 100% of Nothing, Aura Borealis
4/3/24
4
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Fri Apr 05 2024
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Lupe Fiasco
This album was pretty solid, I like Lupe. For some reason I really liked his album "Lasers" when I was in high school, and looking into it now I'm learning that it's pretty widely considered to be his worst album. Oh well, what do I know.
This one is much better reviewed though, and I liked it a lot too. I thought it was strong lyrically, lots of memorable hooks and whatnot, and I was surprised that I actually recognized a few songs. "Kick, Push" is iconic, "Daydreamin'" is super catchy, "Hurt Me Soul" is great.
The last few songs are a bit weak in comparison, and we definitely did not need a 12 minute "Outro" thanking everyone that Lupe's ever talked to before, but generally a solid album.
Favorite song: Daydreamin'
Other: Kick Push, I Gotcha, The Instrumental, He Say She Say, Sunshine, Hurt Me Soul
4/4/24
4
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Live!
Fela Kuti
This is like a big-band jazz thing with an African twist. The singer is Nigerian and there's a bunch of context about his life that I'm sure I'm missing, and then Ginger Baker is a British drummer from the band Cream. I guess Kuti is known as the king of afrobeat, which is a mix of West African music with American funk and jazz.
It's ok, but not really my thing. I got pretty bored pretty quickly. It's also a "live" album, but it's really an "in-studio live" album which barely counts to me. Just not a bunch that's memorable on here to me.
Favorite song: Let's Start
4/5/24
2
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Sun Apr 07 2024
Freak Out!
The Mothers Of Invention
Frank Zappa! This one is pretty weird (and in the goofy-weird category for the most part). It's generally pretty fun, though is fairly uneven. It's a double album (though a 1966 double, so only 60 minutes total), and there's pretty big variability throughout. Some of the songs are fairly standard '60s rock (a little doo-woppy, a little Beatles-y) with a relatively decent amount of earnestness. Others are quite a bit more avant-garde and experimental.
I didn't dislike it at all, but it's definitely a bit outside the box ("Susie Creamcheese, this is voice of your conscience baby"). I think this is considered to be fairly mainstream for Zappa, so I'm curious to listen to more as I go. I think I'm a bit less into it than a lot of the other '60s rock, but I do appreciate the uniqueness of it. Approaching a 3.5 for me, but not quite enough to round up I don't think.
Favorite song: Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder
Other: Hungry Freaks Daddy, Who Are The Brain Police?, Anyway The Wind Blows, Trouble Every Day, Help I'm A Rock
4/6/24
3
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Mon Apr 08 2024
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
Anyway, here's Wonderwall. This album has 3 of the most iconic songs of the '90s (or ever?) on it. You get "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back In Anger" back-to-back on the front half, and then "Champagne Supernova" to close it out. All of these have been played to death in the last 29 years ("Wonderwall" in particular), but honestly they're all still phenomenal songs. I'm particularly fond of "Don't Look Back In Anger", but that two-song stretch has to be one of the most famous stretches on any album (the only one I can think of off the top of my head that might beat it is the three-song stretch on Thriller, but even that is probably close).
I was really impressed by the depth of this album though. I've had a few Britpop albums on here where the well-known songs were great, but the rest fell a bit flat. That wasn't the case here at all for me. There's two short transition songs and one other song that was just ok, but other than that I really enjoyed everything on here. On the surface this album doesn't really feel like it should work as well as it does, it's a bit plain at times really. But the Gallaghers are able to capture this like melancholic feeling that runs through the album. It's beautiful and slightly sad feeling. The sound just really seems to capture an era well. This 1001 albums list might be a bit heavy-handed on Britpop, but this one certainly deserves its place.
Favorite song: Don't Look Back In Anger
Other: Hello, Roll With It, Wonderwall, Some Might Say, Cast No Shadow, She's Electric, Morning Glory, Champagne Supernova
4/7/24
5
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Lots of nice sounding harmonies on this one mostly. It's a really strong album that generally sounds really nice and well produced. There were definitely a few spots where it felt a bit slow and my attention faded a bit, but it kept pulling me back in fairly quickly.
These guys were all in popular bands before this, so it's probably fair to call this a supergroup even at the time of the debut. Neil Young joined for the next album to complete the group not long after. There's a ton of talent here, and while it's not something I'd choose to listen to all the time, this is a nice listen overall with a few standout songs ("Helplessly Hoping").
Favorite song: Helplessly Hoping
Other: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Marrakesh Express, Guinnevere, You Don't Have To Cry, Wooden Ships, Lady of the Island, Long Time Gone, Everybody's Talkin', Teach Your Children
4/8/24
4
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Wed Apr 10 2024
Rhythm Nation 1814
Janet Jackson
I learned a new genre today: new jack swing. I also learned that this genre sounds incredibly dated to me. Honestly, I'm a little stunned at how good of critical reviews this has (and incredibly strong commercial performance).
This thing has a bunch of top hits from the time and I honestly thought it was incredibly mediocre.
Here's my issues. First, she went with the "social commentary" route on quite a few songs here, and seems to have gotten a lot of acclaim for this. These songs all sound so insincere to me at best though, and incredibly cringy and cheesy at worst ("We've gotta teach our kids to read and write / That's the only way to win this fight for life"). I'm fine with a social commentary album, but this felt half-baked to me. And the "love" songs were more fine to me, but nothing crazy inspiring lyrically. And then the beats. While there are some reasonably catchy moments here and there, on this whole this is dated-sounding at best and grating at worst. I also thought the interludes were a bit distracting and unnecessary.
I just really don't get this one. Some music just doesn't age well and I think this is in that category for me. I'm willing to concede that I'm not the target audience for this at all (R&B-pop social issue concept album) and it probably hit different 35 years ago than it does today, but I really didn't like it very much.
One positive I'll say is that I actually think Janet Jackson seems really talented. She's an interesting one generally, since it seems like she was massively popular for awhile but has almost completely fallen off the map in modern times. The Super Bowl incident played a role I'm sure, but she has had basically no staying power compared to other major artists from the time.
I'm tempted to give this a 3 based on the critical reviews, but I'm sticking with my guns here. This one wasn't for me, but I'm glad I heard it and I'm glad it resonated more with other people.
Favorite song: Escapade
Other: Miss You Much, Love Will Never Do (Without You), Come Back To Me
4/9/24
2
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Thu Apr 11 2024
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Raekwon
This is the first solo album from Raekwon, who is in the Wu Tang Clan (this came about 2 years after the Wu Tang debut album).
This is one of those things where I can tell the guys are super talented, but it's just not really my thing. It seems to be considered as an early "mafioso rap" album, and that pretty accurately describes the subject matter. It's a pretty harsh sound and frankly just not very relatable to me (like, obviously). Plenty of stuff on here that's perfectly good, and very little I feel like I need to hear again.
One positive, Ice Cream is a pretty hilarious song though (and it's pretty catchy compared to the rest of the album).
Favorite song: Ice Cream
Other: Knowledge God, Criminology, Incarcerated Scarfaces, Rainy Dayz, Guillotine (Swordz), Wisdom Body, Heaven & Hell
4/10/24
3
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Duck Stab/Buster & Glen
The Residents
As we often see on here, the line between genius and insane can be thin. I feel like I am pretty open to weird music, but this one was too much for me.
This is a late '70s American art rock album. It's really weird, no way around that really. There's very little structure, lots of weird drones and whatnot (which is actually one thing I do like on here), odd lyrics. It's a lot.
The Spotify version is almost 2 hours long, and I cannot imagine listening to that much of this. The original release was only 34 minutes though (which is what I listened to), and that was plenty. They tried something, someone clearly likes it so that's good.
Favorite song: Constantinople
Other: Hello Skinny
4/15/24
1
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Wed Apr 17 2024
Bad Company
Bad Company
This album is peak unoffensive mid-'70s "hard" rock. It is consistently fine, and pretty much never more than that.
I guess Bad Company is a "supergroup" of guys from the bands Free, Mott the Hoople, and King Crimson. I don't know any Free, but I find this less interesting than the Mott the Hoople and King Crimson albums that I've gotten on here so far. "Ready For Love" is actually a Mott the Hoople cover.
Perfectly fine sound, well-produced, I like the singer's voice, and yet something is just missing for me. It's ok but hard to get to excited for this.
I'm also pretty convinced the best song on here isn't one of their popular ones, "Seagull" slaps to finish the album. "Bad Company" the song is mid.
Favorite song: Seagull
Other: Can't Get Enough, Ready For Love, Bad Company, The Way I Choose
4/16/24
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
Brothers
The Black Keys
This is an album by The Black Keys. The name of this album is Brothers.
The Black Keys went on quite the run in the early 2010s, with this (2010) and El Camino (2011) in back-to-back years. My understanding is that they weren't particularly well-known before Brothers and it's their sixth album, so this was a real breakthrough.
Credit where it's due, this album is awesome. It has a truly iconic start, with "Everlasting Light", "Tighten Up", and "Howlin' For You" as three of the first four songs (and "Next Girl" is no slouch either).
I knew the hits already, but I was impressed by how deep the rest of the album is. It's certainly top-heavy (how could it not be), but there's plenty of good stuff throughout. They manage to do the bluesy / garage-rock / Jack White / Alabama Shakes vibe while keeping the sound fairly fresh and interesting throughout (speaking of Jack White, apparently he hates them and thinks they ripped off his sound).
It might've benefitted from being a few songs shorter (15 songs at 55 minutes on the original release, with a few misses), but hard to knock it too much. This is about as good of a 2010s rock album as I know of, both from a "hits" perspective and a "top-to-bottom" depth perspective. I'd probably give it a 4.5 if I could, but there's plenty here to round up.
Favorite song: Everlasting Light
Other: Next Girl, Tighten Up, Howlin' For You, She's Long Gone, The Only One, Too Afraid To Love You, Ten Cent Pistol, Sinister Kid, I'm Not The One, These Days
4/17/24
5
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Night Life
Ray Price
This is an early '60s country album and apparently is the "last grasp of true honky tonk". I still don't quite know what honky tonk means exactly. Wikipedia says it might be an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of the music, and I like that answer so I'm going with it.
This thing starts off with Ray Price thanking me for listening to all his music and talking about how hard he worked on this one. Strange, but nice enough I guess. Then he sings "Night Life" the song which honestly is awesome. It's actually a very light country sound, I almost got some Sinatra-esque sound on this. I legitimately liked this song a lot, which made the rest of the album a bit of a letdown.
A fairly positive spin on this album is that this is an early concept album about love (or more accurately, getting rejected by women in bars). A more negative spin is that it's a bit too thematically consistent, and some of the lyrics haven't held up particularly well. They're not awful (it's 1963, it could have been a lot worse), but the vibe I kept getting was "these women should want to be with me, they don't, why are they so dumb, they really should be with me". It's a bit exhausting, like maybe it's your personality dude.
All of the songs also sound pretty much identical too. I started scrolling through songs on my phone and like every one starts with a nearly identical guitar riff. I know it's early but still, come on now.
Anyway, this album is ok but not really for me. He has a nice enough voice, but one song really blends into another here and by the end I feel like I heard the intro, "Night Life" (banger), and a mish-mash of him being mad that women aren't into him. While I'm tempted to round up for "Night Life", the mish-mash has to win out here. Not much for me.
Favorite song: Night Life
Other: Sittin' and Thinkin', Pride
4/22/24
2
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Another album that I know well (and a band that I saw live at Boston Calling in 2018).
This album is really great, it's definitely top-tier in the indie folk world for me. The sound is just really enjoyable, it's soft and thoughtful with such rich instrumentation throughout. Robin Pecknold has an incredible voice too with great range ("Meadowlarks" is gorgeous). And it's their debut album too, so even more impressive.
This is definitely firmly within "my typical genre", but even I'll admit that some music from this era sounds dated now. This one doesn't at all to me though, it's got a very timeless sound that could've fit in just about any era. A masterpiece from Fleet Foxes.
A few other minor notes on this one. First, I love the album cover. Apparently it's a 16th century Dutch painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder that they saw in a book. There's just so much going on which makes it visually interesting, and somehow it feels like the perfect fit for the sound of this album (again, timeless sound).
Second, I really thought "Mykonos" was on this album, but it was actually on their EP that came out before this, and has not been part of any of their studio releases. A great song that falls through the 1,001 albums cracks.
Third, I forgot that Josh Tillman / Father John Misty was their drummer for a bit. I guess he joined for the tour for this album (though he wasn't involved in the recording of it) and then left after recording their second album. So he wasn't super involved in the band really (and seems to have been a pretty terrible bandmate) but interesting that he was in the mix here.
Lastly, it's interesting how little music Fleet Foxes have released since this. They have 4 studio albums total (2008, 2011, 2017, 2020) and they've all been critically acclaimed, but that's some huge breaks in between albums. Some artists definitely overdo it though, so I don't think anyone will say that about them. I hope there's some more Fleet Foxes to come on here.
Favorite song: White Winter Hymnal
Other: Sun It Rises, Ragged Wood, Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, Quiet Houses, He Doesn't Know Why, Heard Them Stirring, Your Protector, Meadowlarks, Blue Ridge Mountains, Oliver James
4/23/24
5