I had never listened to any Elvis Costello (google says his name is Declan Patrick McManus lol) before today and find myself struggling to think of something about this style that really stands out as his own. It’s fine music, sounds like classic rock and roll (a lot like if Tom Petty were British really) but nothing is particularly unique or profound about it in my opinion. That said, I liked “I Hope You’re Happy Now” and “Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head,” and “Poor Napoleon” sounds SO close to something I would love, like if the Strokes had done not quite enough heroin to make good music. I can also tell and appreciate that the songs were recorded at concert volume as the energy is definitely there, even if it’s not my cuppa tea.
Solid 3/5. Nothing to strongly dislike but nothing really to love. Unfortunately for Elvis Costello, this nonoffensiveness is one of the worst things somebody can say about your art. The only way to create something that nobody hates is to ensure that it can't be loved either. Remove enough spice from a soup, and you'll just end up with water.
The energy in this album was very much appreciated on my Friday morning walk to work.
I think I’m probably missing out on some zeitgeisty element of the Offspring by not listening to a rip off of Napster and smoking skunk weed in a basement, but I’ve got a good enough imagination to see the appeal. You can definitely tell a lot of bands afterwards were heavily influenced by these guys’ sound. The bangers are bangers but 3 stars still feels appropriate when the name of the game is greatest albums of all time
I had never heard of Prefab Spout and thought this was gonna be a weird 80s alt-country album after “Faron Young” but was very pleasantly surprised by the rest of the album’s cool, groovy jazzy rock. It made me want to sit on a rooftop patio and sip champagne and I’m glad I kept trucking through the album.
“Bonny” in particular I thought was really strong and “Horsin’ Around was a beautiful prescient tribute to Bojack Horseman. This isn’t my favorite genre or vibe of music but definitely the best of these 1001 albums I’ve heard so far
This site knew Friday is deadlift day, and Metallica did not disappoint. Even the slower songs have so much energy I felt like I could (and probably should) run through a wall.
This album boldly asks “what if Daft Punk were terrible?” I know it’s much older than most of its genre and probably deserves some credit, but I don’t want to give it.
The lyrics tend to be cryptic but still seem profound and the vocals, while maybe not technically gifted, are very pleasant. He’s no Bob Dylan but he’s got those two things going for him. Pleasantly surprised
Heard a few of these songs before but the construction of the album is brand new to me and I love it. I’m a sucker for a good concept album and this is a great one; messianic android music made me want to rewatch Blade Runner. The sharp transition from classical music to techno/dance at the beginning first two songs really set the tone and greatly improved my Thursday morning sauna (pretty sure I even saw another dude at EoS bopping his head to my music). She blends the R&B, dance, and rock elements so well I struggle to put her neatly into a box and that is a great strength. Also she was surprisingly good in Glass Onion.
This dude has a Nobel Prize in Literature and it’s plainly obvious why when you listen to Blonde on Blonde. “Pledging My Time” is an all-time great blues song, and the desperation Bob seems to have in hoping that the listener can make it through life (without his help) is really touching (side note: this song is also a masterclass in harmonica). “Visions of Johanna” is one of the only songs on this album I’d heard before; this was the first time I’d ever really listened to the lyrics and they are pitifully sad, Louise gets absolutely shit on and I am once again extremely impressed by Dylan’s writing, no surprises there.
If the Grateful Dead are the chaotic improvisational side of jazz/rock, Steely Dan have planted their flag on the structured and planned side of the same coin. “Kings” and “Fire in the Hole” were my two favorites, but the classics like “Do It Again” and “Dirty Work” are great too.
Id never heard this album before and I want to start by saying I think Eric Clapton is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He has a great sense for the blues and the album straight through is no skips, very consistently groovy. The fact he wrote and recorded it after a 3 year hiatus due to his heroin addiction, while incredibly sad, makes the blues-y sound and lyrics a little better. That all said, while it’s a good album, the unique skill that Clapton has doesn’t really get shown off on this album at all and it feels almost sterile enough to say that any other decent cool rock guitarist could’ve done it (tbh John Mayer probably would’ve done it even better). Maybe it’s just a 70’s groove thing, but it’s painful to know Clapton is talented enough to make the blues sound all his own (like Stevie Ray Vaughn after him) and just… doesn’t.
Still a decent album though, just that I like Eric Clapton and this album was disappointing. And also “I Shot the Sheriff” is still a classic.
This album is certainly one of the most experimental things I’ve ever heard, and I really don’t shy away from old psychedelic stuff. The weird samples and horn solos throughout “Cool in the Pool” actually fit together quite nicely and I think I would like the song more if not for the annoying cool and hot callouts, which sucked in jazz and suck in krautrock too. This song is intriguing and I can see how it might have influenced the new age electric sounds and sampling styles, but by todays standards it’s frankly not that good.
“Oh Lord Give Us More Money,” on the other hand, is great. The bass line is super engaging for such a busy song, which I feel like you don’t see too much. And the synth is used very effectively for a song old enough that there probably weren’t too many good synth examples out there yet. This song (again with awful vocals) is the high point of the album.
Tl;dr: interesting, experimental, clearly influenced some more techno-style artists later than him. But not that good and probably won’t listen again. If I’m lucky I’ll get a trivia question about this album right some day at least.
This does a good, but not great, job at blues, jazz, and rock. I still enjoyed listening to it though and it’s the first time I’ve liked something 100% brand new to me on this website I think
I yelled at 5 am when I saw that this was today’s album. I know some people love Maad City and Section.80 but I think this is Kendrick’s best work and, coincidentally, also the best rap album of all time. It stands out from the rest of Kendrick’s incredibly impressive discography by being jam packed with jazz, funk, more jazz, and spoken word. But what’s cooler I think is that he tells a story in three acts like it’s an opera. I like to think I understood it as a junior in high school as much as a 17 year old white guy could, but every time I listen I get it more and more. It’s a masterpiece, and the caterpillar/butterfly poem at the end is the perfect bow on top.
I don’t think this is as complete as last week’s Steely Dan album but I was still impressed
Wasn’t super engaging, and didn’t appreciate the vocals too much. Had some very unique and cool guitar riffs but they were the exception on this record that proves the rule. The Doors are classic but this album was not for me
I forgot Neil Young had beef with Joe Rogan until I looked up this album and saw half of it grayed out. What I heard, though, I liked.
This is not the David Bowie I knew from pop rock songs about space but I still liked it a lot. He experiments with sound in a way I really didn’t expect from him and it all fits together nicely.
I liked all of the R&B sound and am always a sucker for Paak. The topic of feminine sexuality and all that is obviously not something I can directly relate to but it’s nice to see somebody calling out the double standard of men and women in art and how they can sexually express themselves. That said, it’s a bit too heavy of a concept for me to just casually revisit in the future I think, especially with all the skits. There were maybe too many of those. All in all though Jazmine Sullivan is extremely talented and certainly a unique and strong approach to this R&B concept album.
It’s shameful this album came up on a Wednesday, all I wanna do is grill hot dogs and crush Bud Lights. The rock n roll has just the right amount of twang and the album holds up very well when a lot of the contemporary rock from around this time comes across as a bit infantile or simple.
I’m not gonna lie: I did not enjoy most of this. I tend to like ballads and murder ballads and I think it’s cool how much of early American folk is just about crime. That said, the grung-y 90’s sound on these tracks abandons almost all that is charming about these songs and replaces it with bad and lazy rock. These songs belong in a B horror movie (derogatory).
I thought it was good ish but nothing was great. It probably would’ve been even better if it were only instrumentals
This album was a masterpiece. Can’t believe I’ve never listened to it.
I had to google shoegaze to figure out what it meant and decided it’s a stupid name for a music genre. Dream pop is better and certainly fits this sound. And while it didn’t blow me away as one of the best things I’ve ever heard, I did enjoy it quite a lot. Which is saying something because I hate giving British people credit for anything
Another British person,,,, but once again pleasantly surprised. The wiki entry taught me a lot about somebody I’d never heard of before and the added context of her illness and addiction contribution to her unique voice is very touching. She’d have made a good blues singer or 60’s singer songwriter with her smoker voice. The music itself I liked a lot, and the new age synthy-rock blends well with the older styles of blues and rock she sounds like. The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is particularly good
I like this a lot, it’s nice and pop-dance-y but with enough unique 80’s synth rock riffs to keep from being boring. Having only ever heard Psycho Killer (and not liking it much) I didn’t expect that from the Talking Heads but was pleasantly surprised. Their cover of “Take Me to the River” was also very good.
The second best rock musician named Jerry in the 60’s and 70’s. This was pretty cool to listen to, tons of energy and kind of reminiscent of back to the future? Good stuff for a Friday commute
I am such a slut for a live recorded album and this one is fantastic. Gonna have to replay Fallout.
This is weird but I liked it. A lot calmer and chilled than I expected off the name and genre, would have made a good soundtrack to Vanishing Point.
I liked What Goes On a lot and the Beatles influence is tattooed on this album’s face (in a good way)
This is a masterpiece. The folksy, blues-ish sound mixed in with hard rock and Jimmy Page absolutely shredding is a treat to listen to. The matter of Led Zeppelin not properly crediting a lot of the original blues writers of these songs is well taken (even a song written for Muddy Waters originally!) but the performance here is still sublime and while plagiarism is certainly naughty, blues songs and ripping each other off is a tale as old as time. From what I can tell the royalties on “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” have been back paid and Lee Dixon was properly credited from the beginning, so I have a clean conscience giving this 5 stars.
It wasn’t offensive and awful to listen to but also I did not like it
I love Live at Folsom Prison but somehow had never sat down and listened through this one. Very similar in content but I actually liked the songs on this one more. Love me some crime ballads
Not exactly my style, but gotta give Culture Club their flowers—Karma Chameleon is an all-time department store song, even if it’s like 3 minutes too long. I won’t go so far as to say it’s a good song (or that the album is good either) but that kind of longevity and widespread appeal is hard to do.
I had never heard of this band but it’s bangers end to end, and apparently every pop song in the 60’s ripped these guys off somehow. Some real bops
It’s so wild to me how insanely popular U2 were. I don’t dislike them or anything but their music is alright. This album is solid but I can’t imagine wanting to see them in a sold out football stadium. That all said, mad props to this Irish rock band for having the balls to try and tackle a topic as nebulous and tricky as the conflict between the real and mythic America.
This album is incredible. I’ve always loved it and now that I’ve read the Wikipedia and learned that the Strokes’ masterpiece “Is This It” is indirectly responsible for Mr. Brightside It’s even cooler. In fact The Killers almost seem like the slightly peppier younger brother of the Strokes. Both excellent. I hadn’t heard “All These Things I’ve Done” in a long time and truthfully it made my day
I lived this so much more than the Radiohead I’d listened to before.
Better album than I expected, though I honestly can’t listen to American Idiot without wanting to sing the Weird Al parody lyrics.
Didn’t love this but I expected to. Don’t know if his association with Bowie just unfairly raised my expectations or what but this album just didn’t do it for me
Never heard of this band or album but I really loved it. Like if the Dead were good at math and composition and also from 21st century Texas
Proto-punk meets counterculture sound. I liked “Gloria: In Exelcis Deo” more than the rest of the album I think, but there’s something to be said for a strong start. Unfortunately, I thought most of the rest of the album was dogwater and a great example of the fact that just because an album is underground and edgy doesn’t mean it’s Good.
I liked the horns and it felt very western. Interesting and unique sound but not my favorite. I kind of want to watch the movie now but it seems a little cheap to include this album on the list. Like I respect that they wanted to include some Indian music (and there’s nothing particularly bad about this soundtrack) but it feels like maybe the author googled “best Bollywood musical” without much more thought. Shalimar watch party soon?
This is a good counterpoint to Patti Smith a few days ago and I wish I had a better vocabulary to explain why. Where Patti is weird, edgy, and bad, Tidal is different, quirky, and very fun to listen to. There’s still a few pop singles and it’s not like Fiona Apple is some underground artist or anything (neither is necessarily a bad thing) but she has a very distinct sound and I enjoyed listening to this.
This was aight, the fact that I have nothing to say about it makes me feel like it’s a 3
