this is an album i have never been able to really get into. i don't think it's awful but for some reason it has never clicked for me. i am a pretty big simon and garfunkel enjoyer and i really like paul simon's early solo output but i have never really gotten this one. the songs, to me, are not as good as on some of his other records and i really cannot get past the production and the, quite frankly, really corny world music schtick he employs on this one. i don't know who is going to paul simon as a source of world music. maybe it's peoples' gateway to it but to me it just comes off as pompous.

yeah this was pretty great. i'm not a big rap guy but there were several songs on here i already knew before this. the quality of the rapping and the beats/production were great. the skits were kind of corny - we don't have to talk about the restaurant one... but otherwise OK. overall, I really enjoyed my time with this album!

man there is a part of me that really genuinely likes arcade fire's music. has it become super cliche of this era of indie music? yeah probably. is it insufferably pretentious? yeah probably. idk there's something about it that just draws me to it. but then also, win butler is an asshole. and fuck win butler.

what can I say, this is one of my favorite albums of all time. foundational. this was an album i fell in love with in college when i was feeling particularly sad and lonely and it really hit the spot. nowadays, i find a lot of comfort in this album. it's been through the bad and good times with me. this album was also one of my gateways to joni, laura nyro, james taylor, and by extension, gordon lightfoot, jim croce, and 70s singer-songwriters as a whole, one of my musical happy places. plus, is there a better 3 track run to open an album? bonus points for cat. favorite songs: the whole thing

boy howdy i do not get this one. to be clear, i think the album is fine. even well made. i think the appeal of reggae is one i can appreciate as an outsider but it has never really been my thing, and perhaps unfairly, is something i just associate with that one guy in your college dorm who's got a hackeysack collection. i think this one is just too laid back for me. but i will still keep an open mind and hope that something in the genre clicks for me! favorite song(s): stir it up

even though pink floyd is adjacent to a lot of the "classic rock" music i got into in middle school, they are one band that i really have somehow avoided until now. my parents just weren't really into them, so i never got exposed and i think a lot of what they play on the radio was just so overplayed that i never really gave them a fair shot. despite that, for years i told myself and others that i didn't like them at all. well here is a shot at it for real this time. i actually did enjoy this album. i can't say i like it as much on the first listen as people seem to rave about it, but i can see myself enjoying it more with repeated listens. i think the quality of songs here are better than the typical radio fare that gets played. just interesting, progressive stuff. it's cool. even the title track, which used to bug me for it's overplay on radio really works well in the sequence of the album and i was able to listen to it with new ears and appreciate the sentiment of it more than i ever have before. fun stuff. favorite song(s): Shine On You Crazy Diamond (both) Have a Cigar Wish You Were Here

for an album from a member of a band i like that is an homage to an era of music i like, i really did not care much for this one. it was fine. nothing really stood out to me. it was not aggressive enough for me to like it as arctic monkeys-adjacent, and it didn't grip me enough as much of the music of the era it is an homage to does. really felt middle of the road for me, and not in a good way.

boy i don't think this should have been my introduction to leonard cohen. i'm not familiar enough with his music, so the whole "released while he was dying" thing does not really hit for me and personally, this was a bit of a slog. god i'm sorry this album is so boring for me. and boy i really can't get past his voice on this one. it feels like he's barely singing at all. look, i know, i know! i think it's just not for me.

this is a foundational album for me. although i love all the beatles' music like my children, i am going to get a little real here. the draw of the beatles is their songwriting and their innovative production - so from that standpoint, this album is one of the lesser beatles albums. it is before they hit their creative stride, and almost half of the album being covers does not really help. the covers are not even bad covers, they're just covers and i don't think anyone really listens to the beatles FOR the covers. but this album is really of it's time, that's just how it was done. that all said, i do still really love this album

my first experience with a prince album in its entirety, and to be honest, i am really digging this one. fun and funky and you can tell that he was functioning on a different plane with this one. just very creative and interesting and I feel like this album holds up incredibly well, despite it being 35 years old at this point. favorite track(s): housequake the ballad of dorothy parker starfish and coffee if i was your girlfriend i could never take the place of your man adore

an fun album for sure. a handful of these tracks are iconic for good reason. that being said, outside of that handful, there's not a lot that i feel is incredible. not bad! just not the upper echelon. obviously a lot of the production of this album sounds like raising hell from run-dmc, and i find myself mentally making that comparison, and i feel like i appreciate run-dmc's flow better. idk there's just something about the party boy rap style that i just can't get past. also boy there are a few references that do not hold up in a modern context and feel pretty immature. still i thought it was a fun listen! favorite song(s): rhymin and stealin girls fight for your right slow and low

not the biggest fan of this one. not really the target audience for this album, and that's ok. none of the songs really resonated with me all that much and i found it hard to connect with. part of the problem i had was the production, which wasn't bad, but is a lot more clean and shinier than i prefer. overall, i thought it was alright, but really not for me.

yeah this is a good one. it just all really flows together to tell a narrative. i really enjoyed the quality of the songwriting (catchy hooks) and the style. listening to it really shows why it is a pillar of classic rock. this was the only bowie album i have ever listened to in full, so i am excited to explore more of his back catalog! favorite song(s): five years moonage daydream star hang on to yourself suffragette city rock n roll suicide

this is such a weird thing to say but this is an album that i love that i haven't really gotten that into. in my opinion, it's a great listen, one of the pinnacles of 00s indie, and yet i haven't really come back to it all that often. but it was an important album to me during my sad boy era. in particular, "jesus, etc." is one of my favorite songs of the last 20 or so years. it was nice to revisit this album, like seeing an old friend. favorite song(s): i am trying to break your heart war on war jesus, etc. i'm the man who loves you

pretty cool album. very chill, serene, and calming. not something i would ordinarily listen to but i am glad i did. this is the sort of thing i am participating in this project for, to be exposed to music i ordinarily am not. that being said, i don't necessarily think this one is going to be one i go back to often, but i can see myself listening to this in moments where i need a mental reset. as this was my real first exposure to hindustani classical music, i'm not sure how to properly rate it - I have listened to a lot of music that was inspired by this kind of music in western music, but not the real deal. so i'm not sure if this is considered an all-timer of the genre, but i think it was a great first listen to a genre i am woefully ill-exposed to.

this is an album i have heard of for years and have never dove into. i think a big part of it is the runtime, and boy howdy, yeah... this is a long one. obviously the concept is interesting, especially with the length involved, but i think due to this, the quality is a bit hit or miss. i mean, realistically, how could you write 69 incredible songs in such a time period for one project? but yeah the length of this one is what kills it and kills my interest.

this is an album i have never been able to really get into. i don't think it's awful but for some reason it has never clicked for me. i am a pretty big simon and garfunkel enjoyer and i really like paul simon's early solo output but i have never really gotten this one. the songs, to me, are not as good as on some of his other records and i really cannot get past the production and the, quite frankly, really corny world music schtick he employs on this one. i don't know who is going to paul simon as a source of world music. maybe it's peoples' gateway to it but to me it just comes off as pompous.

this was a real nothing album to me. I found this album to be boring and a bit of a slog. a lot of these songs felt like they were just background music with nothing particularly interesting going on. I was expecting maybe something to build or like this album to go somewhere but it really didn't. I don't even hate this kind of music, per se, I just think this felt so uninspired and had no oomph. sorry, can't say I am a fan. I can confidently say I will never listen to this one again.

i think if i had listened to this album around the time it came out, i would have been very into it. this was the kind of music i was into at the time, and i'm surprised i missed this one. where i stand now is i appreciate it, but it maybe did not hit as hard as it may have back then. i still enjoyed the sort of atmosphere-y approach to the heartland rock sound. maybe not my favorite as it stands now, but still a fun listen for me.

i found this one to be very enjoyable. definitely understand the hype and why it is so celebrated. very refreshing mix of r&b and hip hop with great production and smart lyrics. personally i could take or leave the classroom "skits" (although i get that it is part of the whole experience/artistic vision) but otherwise it was a great album that i enjoyed a lot.

my first bob marley experience left a little to be desired. but we are turning a new page with bob marley experience #2. not sure if i am in a better mood today or what, but i much preferred this album to my first listen, catch a fire. this album is a fun listen! it's got that classic reggae feel but feels a bit funky too, which is something i appreciate. feels a little more upbeat and less lethargic. I can see myself listening to this one again in the future, it feels more in line with what i like stylistically.

some really great, classic funk grooves here. to be honest, i feel like for a lot of people, this album might be boring, but this really just hits the spot for me. i knew cisco kid and the title track before listening to this album, so I kind of had an idea of what I was getting into, but the album cuts on this one really cemented it for me. just a good, groovy album.

admittedly i am a pretty big stevie wonder guy so this is not a new album to me. i went through a pretty big stevie phase in college, but i haven't actually listened to this one in full for a long time, so it was nice to revisit. prior to this listen, i think this one ranked, for me, as maybe his least out of his "classic" 4 album stretch from talking book to songs in the key of life - not saying this one is bad, but just what happens when you have a stretch of remarkably high quality music. but on this listen, out of context of that stretch, i actually enjoyed this album a lot more than i think i previously have. i do feel it is a bit more low-key than his other albums of this time period. that being said, i think beyond the two singles off the album, there is a lot of really great stuff, but i don't think it quite gets to the upper echelon of his output. still a really great album.

yeah, there's a reason why this is considered a classic. very consistent and interesting throughout, the musicianship on this album is terrific! very complex and coordinated things going on. i am a fan of this era's sound, and this is one of the more iconic bands, to me, in terms of sound. i was never much of a prog rock fan but have been more open to it recently, this is one that i will definitely listen to again.

this is a terrific, influential album. i love the balance it has between radio friendly hits and more "album cuts". the instrumentation is great and at the time, there was not a whole lot that sounded like it. just a great album through and through. i think a lot of the criticism of this album has to do with the One Song (you know, that ONE song) and you have to remember from a historical perspective, what was going on in the united states in this time period, that song was a pretty provocative political statement. and for that, i think it makes it an important historical "document"

this was a real mixed bag for me. i actually liked a lot of the songs and arrangements. the sort of sparse, alt-country vibe is something i really like and appreciate. that being said, i had a really hard time getting over the singer's voice. it was pretty grating and not enjoyable to listen to. i am not opposed to unconventional singing voices, but i felt like the effort in singing was so lackluster, it really took away from the album. so ultimately, i feel like this is a bit middle of the road for me.

this album is such a fun listen. such intricate arrangements, you can tell a lot of thought and love was put into the instrumentation. just a very chill, interesting adventure of an album

a perfectly pleasant album, but to me, ultimately, nothing really to write home about. it's a very good vibe album, very chill, but unfortunately just not incredibly interesting songwriting-wise or otherwise. i can't see myself listening to this one again, unless i am really in need of some chill-sounding background music, and even if so, i think there's other stuff i would prefer to listen to.

a nice, sparse, quiet, sad boy alt-country album. not bad, but not my favorite. a lot of really pleasant moments but nothing that stood out to me as being incredible. still a good listen, especially if you're in the right mood.

to me, this is THE van morrison album. i've listened to astral weeks before and i have never truly gotten it. but this album is a lot more enjoyable for me. the first side absolutely goes, the second side leaves a little bit to be desired. definitely a front loaded album. but still very enjoyable. the jazz influenced arrangements mixed with the laid back, acoustic feel of the album makes for a pleasant listen.

yeah, I didn't quite get this one. i'm not saying it was bad, just really not my cup of tea. the songs can be quite lengthy without much variance (but i guess that's the point). i just think you need some amount of club drug in your system to enjoy this one fully.

yeah this is a pretty great album. of course, the first two tracks are the standouts, but i think even the album cuts are pretty good. i think the quality declines a little bit towards the end of the album, but otherwise, just terrific stuff. he does late 70s paul mccartney better than late 70s paul mccartney!

i'm sure this is fine but this is really my first exposure to metallica in full, and i don't know if i appreciate the symphonic aspect of it considering i know that a lot of these songs just don't have it. so to me, it is, at the same time, unnecessary flourish because i know this isn't how the music usually is, but also the only way i've heard most of these songs. so i'm not really sure what to make of this, as someone who is unfamiliar with the source material. it was fine but really was just lost on me.

yeah this was a great listen, just super high quality beats and lyrics and flow. consistent throughout, never a dull moment on the album. just front to back really really good.

look, i gave this album an honest shot. i think really i just do not get the appeal of the "dying old man sings sad acoustic songs" album. the covers on this album are all steps down from other versions, whether original or other covers. they are mostly slow, quiet, boring. his voice is not great, but i gather that that is "the point". a lot of the covers, i actually wanted to laugh. some of these are absurd. danny boy? yeesh. for a guy who is so known for being cool, this album is the opposite. i honestly do not get why people love it so much. the entire time i listened to this album, i was just thinking, man, just go lie down or something. not for me. sorry!

this was a great album. terrific grooves and awesome feel. david bowie in his prime was just operating on a whole other level. i particularly loved 'golden years' which has an infectious, really interesting hook that has been in my head ever since. but lots of very cool moments on this one. this is an album i see myself revisiting in the future!

i'm sure there are a lot of important and interesting beatmaking ideas going on here, but i think if there are any, they are lost on me. the beats are nice enough but a whole album of them is a little much for my taste. to me, this works well as background music but not so much as active listening. and that's kinda what it feels like, an album of background music at some trendy clothing store or something. not bad but just doesn't interest me much.

elliott smith and i, i think, are cut from pretty similar cloth. a lot of his musical influences are things that i adore and so his music tends to be pretty compatible with me. i find that he was a great lyricist with a knack for a catchy melody, and overall sort of dour, sad boy type vibe. a bit lo-fi, which i always appreciate. an album that effortlessly balances the line between quiet and intimate & loud and intense. i think this is the sort of music that you have to have been a bit depressed to listen to and appreciate, and if you found elliott during those times, you have an affinity for his stuff. that goes for me as well. i've listened to some of his other stuff but never this album in full. i've been meaning to for a long time, but never got around to it and i am so glad i finally did. as i suspected, i really liked it. a great album to curl up and mope around to (and i mean that in the most positive sense) favorite tracks: ballad of big nothing between the bars say yes

a pretty good mid-00s indie rock album. despite it's relatively short length, there's not a lot of variation here. a lot of the songs sound the same and are sort of the same tempo and feel. it's not bad, but it doesn't make for a super compelling album. i had never listened to one of their albums before, so this was a new experience. i can't say that listening to this one is going to amount to me going out of my way for more, but it wasn't awful. it's in the realm of the music that i liked back then and still like, but it just doesn't fully click for me.

A pretty cool album dealing with the tumultuous history of Lynyrd Skynyrd. A good story put to some good tunes. I particularly liked the moments of reflection on the rest of the world's impression and stereotyping of the south, an issue that is quite nuanced and I think paints a good picture well with its example of George Wallace, even though I personally find it a little misplaced. All in all, a good listen, pretty interesting, and a cool rock opera, as the title of the album advertises.

I had never listened to Leonard Cohen until previously on this journey, I received "You Want It Darker," an album that I don't think should have been my first foray into Cohen's work. Now this, this is the exact kind of album I think should have been my first foray. I have listened to a lot of Leonard Cohen's contemporaries and loved them, and this definitely feels along the same lines as a work of Bob Dylan or Paul Simon. The album feels so familiar, and I was not surprised to find it was produced by John Simon, who had a hand in Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends" which I adore, and think feels pretty similar to this album in some respects. He also produced many albums by The Band, so now it's all starting to come full circle. This album is soft, pensive, dark. Something that maybe does not feel monumental in a contemporary sense, but at the time definitely had to have been. This is an album I think I will come back to, something about it feels so familiar and lovely and I would love to get lost in it again.

Admittedly, I am extremely biased about this album, as it already is one of my favorites of all time. I love the Byrds as a whole, but this album holds such a special place in history and in my musical journey. I think what is lost about this album on most people is the context of this album, a rock band (who had dabbled in country before) going full country, with one of early country rock's seminal figures, Gram Parsons, joining in and putting forward his most iconic song, Hickory Wind. Ultimately, is this the most mind blowing album now? Most likely not. In fact, I think at this point, I prefer Parsons' output with the Flying Burrito Brothers more. But it was very groundbreaking at the time, and is one of the most important albums of the genre. I mean, Gram Parsons, Roger McGuinn, and Chris Hillman? It doesn't get much better than that.

This was a fun listen! Obviously not an album that takes itself very seriously, but was still fun all the same. Kinda raucous, kinda dirty minded. But a fun romp throughout. In a weird way, it kind of reminded me of the New York Dolls and the Replacements, very similar energy. I'm not sure I feel like it is a particularly important or influential album, but still fun all the same.

this was a fun surprise! i had never heard of this band or album so didn't know what to expect. but i found a pretty fun punk record that i felt combined the sensibility of the clash with the hooks of the ramones. it didn't absolutely floor me, but was still a fun listen!

I am very familiar with the work of Led Zeppelin, they were my favorite band from middle school up through college. I think this is sort of the "cool" pick for peoples' favorite Led Zeppelin album, but it's not mine. It's still good, though. I appreciate it's more country/folk feel as compared to some of their other albums, but I still feel like the track listing ends up being a bit weighed down by "That's the Way" and "Hats off to (Roy) Harper". That being said, it is still a great album.

This album was a fun surprise! The songwriting was pretty good and sometimes reminded me of the storytelling of John Prine. Dwight's voice is very nice, you can see that he sort of became the blueprint of sorts for lots of modern country music. The production is VERY 1980s, and it shows. The duet with Buck Owens was nice, sort of bridging the gap between different eras of country music. That being said, nothing particularly mindblowing for me here, just a pretty alright album.

going to be honest, didn't move me. it was fine, but like i'm not sure, i just kind of assumed a ska album would be more fun? a lot of this is just sort of uninteresting Walter Wanderley-esque lounge music mixed with ska and, although undoubtedly something different, does not make for a particularly interesting album in my estimation. once again, it wasn't bad, it just kinda did nothing for me.

I guess I am going to add this to the list of "acclaimed records that everyone seems to love that I really do not get" the songs were fine, albeit a bit boring. you can see how influential this album really is, because so much music after it lifts sounds and feel from this album. the singer's voice i did not find compelling and at times it felt like a bad jim morrison impression. i see people find his vocal delivery to be meaningful and i do not want to detract from that, but it just felt off in a bad way for me. sorry! not for me. i want to give this album another listen sometime because it is just so acclaimed that there has to be something i am missing. for now, i just sort of shrug, hoping it will click in the future.

yeah, this is it. to be honest, this album felt like one of the purest forms of music. all killer, no filler. just a bunch of dudes playing the blues in its purest form. a blast to listen to!

this one was a bit middle of the road for me. the production was clean and nice sounding, but overall i felt like the album just doesn't fit my vibe. i found it a bit dull. sort of reminded me of sitting in the waiting room of a therapist's office. not bad but definitely felt like background music to me. ultimately, it's not something i hated, but definitely something i would not ever seek out on my own.

so i am a bit biased on this one as i had discovered this album when i was in college and fell in love with it. it's not a "typical" 60s psych rock album but i would say it's adjacent - very similar to contemporaries such as jefferson airplane, the grateful dead, etc. i love every song on this album. the vibe is fun and the songwriting has hooks for days. just a very catchy counterculture album.

i was pleasantly surprised by this one! obviously i knew bitter sweet symphony before listening to this album, but didn't know what to expect from it. would it be mostly filler and the big track, or something more? well, i think it was something more. and perhaps every song on here is not as lofty as bitter sweet symphony, but it is a very fun of-the-era britpop album. I do feel like the first two-thirds of the album are very good and the last third really grinds the album to a halt, feeling very lethargic, and not in a great way. but overall, i liked this one, and am glad i gave it a listen!

obviously i know a lot of these songs from my years and years of listening to classic rock, but i can't say i was really a fan of zz top going into listening to this one. i was hoping that some of the album cuts would change my mind. unfortunately, that was not the case. this album is so same-y, i think if you listen to one song off of it, you've heard the whole album. the production is not my favorite and the songs are just really uninteresting. the kind of vibe you would expect some lame middle aged dude to really get into. i can get past the guitar tone but the underlying synth throughout the whole thing is so bad. but don't worry! on the second side, the seinfeld bass starts! god this album kinda sucks. i can't imagine the type of person this resonates with. sorry. not a fan.

yeah this album was pretty cool. i've never really listened to this sort of music but it was full of energy and this album was just balls to the wall nonstop. not to mention the musicianship is very good. very fun, very angsty, not generally my cup of tea, but definitely a fun listen.

yeah this is not an album for me. i'm sure this album was a very influential album but i think it's influential for a lot of musicians that i am not particularly fond of. i don't mind dissonance and noise, but just the way these songs are laid out just does not do it for me. there's something about the lyrics that i cannot take at face value, like they are so over the top and corny. look i am a sad boy through and through but my sad boy tendencies are not this angry. this is just eye rolling to me. this resonates with people? go take a walk or something. yeah, not my thing.

the way i would describe this album is finding organization in disorganized noise. unfortunately, my brain is very much not compatible with this. i... uh, had a bad time.

i really like this album. i would say this album is pretty abrasive, but i think it's also pretty fun to listen to. the problem i have with a lot of other abrasive albums is that i don't find them fun to listen to, but i appreciate sleater-kinney's approach to songwriting and the apparent meaning behind their songs. i love that their music does not cater to the typical notion that music made by women needs to be soft, elegant, pretty. their music can be harsh, noisy, aggressive, and that doesn't make it any less womanly. good stuff.

lol i mean, maybe i should have expected this from the album title and cover, but this album is so horny. like obnoxiously so. i like the beats and the samples and the flow is nice, but also like oh my god. from the first track, i was actually kind of expecting to be really into this one, even if it was a bit corny and sexually charged. i didn't mind it at first but starting at "Gutfest '89" which is the so cringey and obnoxious, that it really started bothering me a little. especially with the length of the album, i'm not sure how you rap about sex this much. there's only so much sampled "oohs" i can take.

i am a bit biased when it comes to this album, i like the white stripes a lot and loved this album when it came out. even though i think seven nation army has been played to death at this point, i think the whole album still sounds fresh and as good as i remember it did upon release.

i found this a fascinating listen. it's clearly something i would have not ever listened to, or even found out about. i could barely even find a copy of this album to listen to, but thanks to youtube, i was able to find it. i found myself really intrigued by the music. obviously a little challenging but reminds me a lot of other similarly european torch-music-esque stuff, like edith piaf. what i found most fascinating was taking the time to read about the composer of all the songs, hanns eisler, who was exiled from nazi germany to come to the united states, where he was once again facing persecution from HUAC. this music really put this into context for me. seems like a very fascinating person and wrote very interesting music. will i go out of my way to listen to this one again? probably not. am i happy to have listened to something that exposed me to something i ordinarily would not have with an interesting backstory? absolutely

this is an album that i have been meaning to listen to for years and just haven't gotten around to. based on what i've heard, i figured it would be right up my alley. and, yeah, it pretty much was. this felt like the jangle of REM or the Smiths meets the psychedelic pop of the Beatles or the Zombies. which, if you know me, sounds exactly like music i would enjoy. no surprises there. a fun one!

a pretty cool album. nick cave is a name i've heard for a while and never explored, so my intrigue was high. you can definitely see that this album was really ahead of its time in terms of production and sound. i liked the arrangements more than i cared for the lyrics, which at times felt clunky to me. but overall, i felt this was a good listen.

I'm not going to sit here and act like I am going to listen to this one all the time, but I had a fun time. kinda goofy, kinda cool. kinda camp, kinda serious. the instrumentation is really cool, but also there is literally a section where he starts calling out specific instruments and they start playing ("tubular bells" hey, that's the name of the album!). Overall, not something I can see myself going back to very often, if at all, but an enjoyable listen.

this album is pretty neat. it's got that classic 80s synthpop sound, but is very interestingly sparse sounding. and i don't think that detracts from the music, it gives it more of a pleasant, ethereal feeling. i particularly enjoyed the hooky synth lines and the sound of the singer's voice, i found it particularly calming. enjoyable!

yeah this one was not really my thing. the problem for me is that this album seems like it was made to be unpleasant sounding and i think that's the point. unfortunately for me, unpleasant to listen to is not something that i enjoy listening to. a lot of the music is dissonant. the vocals are a bit nonchalant, but also have a bit of a sneer. that's fine. it just doesn't resonate well with me. not my thing

this was a great album. obviously knew the two big songs off of this one already but didn't know the rest. I mean, it's not like it was out of left field, if you know what tom petty sounds like, then you know what tom petty sounds like. but I appreciate his style and his influences, so overall, I really enjoyed this one

yeah this was pretty great. i'm not a big rap guy but there were several songs on here i already knew before this. the quality of the rapping and the beats/production were great. the skits were kind of corny - we don't have to talk about the restaurant one... but otherwise OK. overall, I really enjoyed my time with this album!

ok i will admit up front that even though at the current place in time, i find eric clapton pretty morally reprehensible, particularly after the last handful of years, not to mention all of the questionable-at-best stuff he's done in his past. but i also was a HUGE cream fan in high school, so even though i dislike him, i do have a little bit of a soft spot for some of his music. that being said, this album is so blah. it starts off with a bang, with motherless children, as much of a facemelter as eric clapton has ever made, and then immediately gets sedated into the most mind numbing, boring, middle tempo bullshit you've ever heard, including two TERRIBLE non-blues covers - the most limp-dick cover of willie and the hand jive you will ever hear, and i shot the sheriff, which like, just listen to the original. don't go to eric clapton for reggae (to be fair, it is not even closest to the worst clapton reggae song i've ever heard - that award goes to his cover of knockin on heaven's door, which is abysmal). let it grow is the longest song on the album and it sounds like a carpenters song! lmfao. this album has no balls whatsoever keep in mind, this is his studio follow up to derek and the dominos! apparently this is his first album after kicking a heroin habit. i guess he also kicked making interesting music too. if you want to listen to good clapton, seek it elsewhere. this is not it.

i've been aware of system of a down but i've never sat down and listened to them. i didn't know what to really expect, but i came into this one pretty reserved because similar music doesn't really tend to be my thing. however, i was really into this one! fun and loud and aggressive and kinda goofy in the right way. never a dull moment, just a fun thrash throughout. i definitely feel like i could listen to more of them!

what can i say, this is a classic. by today's standards, it's a bit antiquated and dated, but in my estimation, this is one of the foundational building blocks of rap. and although i am not a huge fan of rick rubin's production in general, it is undeniable how dynamic his early rap productions were. these songs are bombastic and in your face, and that makes for a really fun listen.

the thing i really like about lou reed's music is that is just oozes cool and has a really biting sarcasm that adds to it. i think the production here is fairly plain, but i think that just amplifies his singing delivery and his lyrics. i knew the big song off of this one and a handful of the album tracks, but had never listened to this one in full. i really appreciated this album. i don't know how to describe it fully, but i feel like things lou reed touched just have this inherent coolness, and the combination of lou reed and david bowie just works so well and accentuates this.

what can i say, it's a stone cold classic. it's hard for me to give proper analysis and takes because i've listened to the beatles my whole life and i am extremely biased. but i love this album. lots o tambourine, lots o organ, some of the beatles' most underrated songs are on this. one of my favs!

a pretty serene album, but really in my estimation, nothing to really write home about. the instrumentation is nice, but nothing special. nico's vocals are an acquired taste and i don't mind them, i don't shy away from unique singing voices, but i just feel like her voice gives this album a monotonous feel that might have been manageable, except for the two 7+ minute long songs that did not need to be that long. don't get me wrong, there are some nice moments on this album - the fairest of seasons, these days, i'll keep it with mine - i just think there are better folk albums from the era that are more interesting. in my mind, the only reason this album is relevant at all is her connection to the velvet underground/andy warhol, because i don't think its merit is necessarily based on the quality of the album.

this album is another well travelled album for me. i think pretty much every song on this album is at least solid, i don't think there's a bad song of the bunch. it's still as fresh as i imagine it was when it came out. the famous songs are great, and i think the album cuts are also great. just a fun album from front to back.

a pretty fun, danceable album. i knew d.a.n.c.e. beforehand, but nothing else on the album, so i was hoping it would be along the same lines - and it was. was fun, not particularly mindblowing for me, but a fun time overall.

yeah i mean this was fine. pretty mid. not particularly mindblowing mid-00s indie. not bad, alright to listen to. not something i think is particularly interesting. it's actually so not particularly interesting that i am wondering why it's even on here to begin with. like i said, not awful, but i can't imagine anyone listening to this and thinking this is one of the top 1001 albums of all time.

based on their big song off this album, i always kind of thought that their style was kind of ironic, distilling the most over the top parts of 80s rock to it's most brash and flamboyant, much like their delivery on 'i believe in a thing called love' with big wailing guitars and soaring falsetto. in listening to the album, this came across less ironic, more like an actual, genuine tribute to this sound. it's a lot less goofy than i was anticipating, something i've always sort of felt about 'thing called love.' that's not necessarily a bad thing, just not what i was expecting. that being said, the big song is the best song on the album by a long shot, the rest are alright but really just come across in a 'get born - jet' kind of way, that early 00s retro fetishism sound. which, as i've said, is fine, but just purely fine in this instance.

before listening to this, i knew 'highway star' and obviously 'smoke on the water' - 'highway star' is as killer as ever, i think it's a very good song. but unfortunately, that's where it ends for me. the rest of the album did not do much for me. it's not bad, i just found it fairly uninteresting. i don't mind bluesy hard rock, but this was pretty formulaic to me, not much going on. the organ playing throughout the album, however, was great and fairly unique. but otherwise, i feel like there wasn't of much interest to this one.

not really sure why this album gets the hate it does. sure, on its face, it is pretty nonstandard, but it's not totally out there and the sounds on it are pleasant and i find the time signatures pleasant and engaging. overall, i found it a pretty alright listen. something i could see myself coming back to in the future. i think to appreciate this album, you need to be willing to be challenged (only just a little bit imo), and i found the challenge to be fairly fulfilling. not my favorite album of all time, but an interesting and fun listen for me.

yeah so i think this one isn't for me. i am not adverse to folk, or weird voices, in fact, a lot of the music i enjoy fits those categories. there's just something about the songwriting here that does nothing for me. mostly i don't think it's awful, but sometimes the songwriting made me make a (not good) face. just not for me, i think

i'm not normally an electronic music person but, yeah, this was pretty fun. i went into this feeling pretty cynical as most electronic albums i've run into so far have been really not my thing, but i was pleasantly surprised by this. engaging throughout and fun to listen to.

hey i gave it a shot. did not enjoy my time with this one. this really was not for me. just really the antithesis of music that i like to listen to. the growly noises, the vocals, the instrumentals. mr raggedy man, lmao seriously? i feel like half of this album's lyrics were literally just like "fuck you, you [slur]" there really is nothing for me here. sorry!

This album was alright, there was something about it that didn't quite move me. Not sure, maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it today. It was fine enough, good even, but some of the lyrics were kind of vulgar in a childish way - something that rubbed me the wrong way a little bit? Not sure. I'm not a prude, but I felt like it detracted from the music a bit. Still, all and all, an alright time to be had.

yeah this was pretty great. his flow is pretty unmatched and you can tell the amount of effort he puts into his craft, it really pays off. the production on this album was also great. dr. dre has still got it. overall, a very enjoyable listen. i can see why this album is so highly regarded.

i'm a bit biased, i am a huge motown fan, so yeah, i adore this album. it is really the first truly great motown album, its first and marvin's first politically conscious effort. so much of this album is still relevant today, more than 50 years later. and it has aged beautifully. the production sounds timeless, marvin gaye is, of course, one of the greatest singers AND songwriters of all time. the musicianship is incredible. just a great soul record, very jazzy at times. one of those albums that truly gives me goosebumps when i hear it. this is the stuff!!!

i am a huge beach boys fan, so of course, i was pleased to give this one a listen again, as it had been a while. pacific ocean blue is, in my opinion, one of the pinnacles of the beach boys, and is the climax of dennis wilson's rise to, undoubtedly, the best songwriter in the group. and what's more, it doesn't sound like a beach boys record, it sounds like its own thing, which is something I don't think any of the other beach boys really accomplished on their own. overall, i really love this album.

I adore this album. Of course, everyone knows the big one off of this, but I think the rest of it is excellent as well. The songwriting is top notch and catchy. The whole album, to me, is like the Beatles meets the Who, meets the Violent Femmes. Just a great time front to back.

Yeah this was pretty nice. Obviously a very talented rapper and had some cool beats and production. I know this is a really highly regarded album, but something about it didn't quite click with me all the way. I would like to revisit it again sometime and maybe it will click for me a bit more next time.

playstation 1 racing game music (derogatory) this album definitely hits a lot of problems i have with the electronic music i've experienced so far in this project. the really upbeat stuff is very repetitive. the "slow stuff" is very... nonchalant and subdued. like i feel like the music should be more energetic? and it's not downbeat, but it just feels like... a lethargic upbeat. if that makes sense. anyways, the ceiling here for me is "mid background music" and the floor is "really boring music played in the dressing room of the clothing store your mom dragged you to in middle school" - either way, i was quite uninterested by this.

hey look, you've got one of the greatest singers of all time singing some of the best songwriting of all time, arranged by one of the most iconic jazz arrangers of all time. this stuff hits. my only knock is that the entire album is... LONG. it is a COMMITMENT. but it's worth it. you're listening to the best of vocal jazz.

this is my first real experience listening to nick drake after i gave his album "pink moon" a listen about a decade ago, and felt pretty lukewarm about it. going into listening to this one, i was weary that i would have a similar experience, but i found myself pleasantly surprised by this one. the main difference to me is the addition of other instruments, which i think enhances his songwriting, and makes it a lot more interesting and listenable for me. cool, pleasantly subdued folk music. it's even jazzy and soulful at times. a really interest combination that works pretty well. this album reminds me a lot of fairport convention meets donovan (which like, fairport convention is obvious as several members contributed to this one). but yeah, overall, i found this one to be pretty enjoyable. i am (cautiously) looking forward to revisiting "pink moon"

my second beastie boys experience, and somehow i managed to get their first two albums in chronological order. i liked this one a bit better than their debut, i felt like it felt less like an obnoxious party and more refined. i thought the beats were better and more clever. their rapping still felt a bit... raucous, we'll say, but that's sort of the point there. but yeah, overall, i felt like i enjoyed my time with this one.

i would say i had an alright time listening to this one. it wasn't my favorite, and nothing really stood out to me. i'm not really a fan of all the noise, that was sort of unpleasant. just not really something i would ordinarily listen to and something i'm not sure i'll really come back to.

i've listened to a lot of bob dylan in my day. i don't know if i consider myself a huge fan, i've gone majorly hot and majorly cold on him over the years. i have been majorly cold on him for a long while now. this is the first i've listened to an album of his in a bit. back when i was a lot more into him, this was my favorite bob dylan album. and, after listening, i think it still is. this sort of re-awakened my interest in his music. i know it's kind of cheesy, but he really is a terrific songwriter, there was not a lot of people contemporaneously writing songs like him and he was dragging culture forward. that influence is really felt on this one.

man there is a part of me that really genuinely likes arcade fire's music. has it become super cliche of this era of indie music? yeah probably. is it insufferably pretentious? yeah probably. idk there's something about it that just draws me to it. but then also, win butler is an asshole. and fuck win butler.

i fell in love with this album well over a decade ago when i heard "earn enough for us" on the radio. i went out and bought the album immediately. the songwriting is very fun, very beatle-esque at times, and of course, we love a todd rundgren production. to me, the todd production pushes it over the edge and gives it a great energy.

of course, kate bush is brilliant. this is a really great album in general, showing off that brilliance. i find it to be a bit more subdued than some of her other earlier stuff, and to me that makes it a little less interesting. i am a bit more of a fan of the more off-the-wall stuff she did on earlier albums. that being said, this is still a very good listen!

if you like this album, quite frankly, you know ball

i like REM a lot, but this is not my favorite album by them. it's not bad by any stretch, I just think it doesn't quite get there for me. the quality of the songwriting is there, the instrumentation is as good as ever, it's just that for some reason, the total is slightly less than the sum of the parts.

i've never dug too deep into the smiths and related albums, although what of the smiths i've heard, i've liked. this however, did not move me. it was fine. the quality of the songwriting, to me, was not incredible, although not awful. morrissey's lyrics are as fine as ever. i think this is just a case of me realizing the importance of johnny marr.

man this album sounds so good. the production is top notch. jay-z is at the height of his game. this is one that has aged really well - it sounds of its era but you can tell how influential it was upon subsequent rappers and producers. good stuff!

man i really wanted to like this one. le freak and i want your love are bops. the rest are alright at best and snooze-fests at worst. at least i am free is SO boring. oh my god. i thought this was supposed to be a disco album but i guess we had to get some slow dance numbers in there. the instrumentation is great and of course they have an iconic sound, but boy this album is really uneven.

i am of the age where the white stripes were very popular during my formative years, so of course, i have listened to them a lot in my life, this album included. ultimately, i don't think this is my favorite white stripes album, but it's still pretty great. as fresh as ever, but being nitpicky, i think the songwriting on this one is not as strong as on others. i still love this album a lot!

what can i say, monk is the man. there's no one like him and there will never be. his playing is a style of its own, and maybe an acquired taste, but i love how off-kilter and nonsensical his solos can be. just really cool. and of course, he has a great band here as well. never listened to this one before and i'm not the world's biggest jazzhead out there, but i really enjoyed my time with this one!

i'd never listened to an album by Lorde, but I have heard several of her singles over the years, some on this album, so this was not a surprise to me. I do really appreciate her songwriting and production style - I think even though this album is 6 or so years old, it still feels fresh and you can tell how influential her songwriting and style is on a lot of modern pop music. definitely a nice listen.

my second arcade fire album in as many weeks. i used to like this album a lot but on this listen, it was not nearly as revelatory to me. i think this album is a quintessential mid-00s indie rock album. i still like it, but maybe not as much as I remember. and i will say it every time I have to review an arcade fire album, fuck win butler.

man, i didn't know what to expect from this one. i'd never heard of the album or the artist, but looked it up on wikipedia and saw brian eno's name. with that all the information i had, i plunged in and, boy, i suspect that this album is not going to be everyone's bag, but i really enjoyed my time with it. very serene and chill, a bit avant-garde at times, some really enjoyable play with dissonance. definitely feels like a small chamber orchestra at times. just a really cool vibes album.

some great musicianship here, especially some top-tier vibraphone playing. however, i feel that even though the musicianship is high, the music itself is not quite for me. i felt this one was a bit middle of the road. pleasant and nice enough, but not quite to the level of 'interesting' for me.

Another classic hip hop album that I had never listened to. And another album that is deserving of the hype it gets. Great beats and production, great flow. Truly poetry in motion. Good stuff!

gorillaz was really big when i was in middle school (showing my age) and for better or worse, gorillaz reminds me of middle school. i think it's a fun evolution of rock music that combines elements of hip hop. is it mind blowing at this point in time? not really. but is it fun? yeah kinda!

i suspect this is probably a lot of peoples' first exposure to pre-disco bee gees, which might be a big shock. I actually adore a lot of early bee gees stuff, but i've never really dug into this particular era of their evolution, which is a lot more soft than their early psych-ish stuff (bee gees' 1st, idea, etc). based on already liking their early output, and it being a rainy day, i think this album hit me particularly nicely today. not mind blowing by any stretch, but nice enough.

man i have listened to this album probably half a dozen times over the years and i truly do not understand why people adore this album so much. i keep coming back because i clearly have to be missing something. this album just does nothing for me. it's even more mindboggling for me because i love so much adjacent music to this. i find myself wondering if i am listening to the same album as everyone else, the way people talk about it. i don't find the songwriting particularly compelling, i don't find the arrangements mind blowing, the vocals and harmonies are subpar to me. just a really middle of the road soft-psych record, that quite honestly, is a bit boring. i really have tried to give this album a shot, i just truly do not get why it is so acclaimed. i hate to use the word but... overrated.

this one gets a lot of hype and to be honest, i agree with the hype. just a well made album overall, great melodies, a fun somewhat aggressive take on the britpop sound. i'd never listened to this one in full but knew a lot of the songs and i can say i will definitely come back to this one in the future.

this album kinda sounds like that bar band that a bunch of your friends' dads plays in (derogatory) not awful but really nothing super interesting for me here. weirdly horny? and not in a fun way. the production is alright until 'last of the teenage idols' in which the entire song just pans hard left??? everything is in your left ear. and then the song picks up panned hard right. and then it evens back out. this feels intentional. and bad. can't say i am a huge fan

not sure how i feel about this one. i know it is very acclaimed but i am not feeling that very much. i don't think it's bad, but i don't think it rises to the level of quality i expect from something so acclaimed. not very interesting and the songwriting didn't really move me. ultimately, a pretty average listen for me.