Journey in Progress
Discovering music one album at a time
411
Albums Rated
3.52
Avg Rating
89
5-Star Albums
38%
Complete
678 albums remaining
Rating Speed
3.6
Per Week
797
Days Active
Reviews
392
Written
95%
Review Rate
vs Global
0.21
Avg Diff
3.52
Avg Rating
Rating Distribution
How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1970s
Favorite Decade
Funk
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Balanced
Rater Style
17
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rattlesnakes | 5 | 2.9 | +2.1 |
| Aha Shake Heartbreak | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| The Nightfly | 5 | 3 | +2 |
| Future Days | 5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
| Suzanne Vega | 5 | 3.02 | +1.98 |
| Savane | 5 | 3.02 | +1.98 |
| Water From An Ancient Well | 5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
| Another Music In A Different Kitchen | 5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
| New York Dolls | 5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
| Drunk | 5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Reservation | 1 | 3.05 | -2.05 |
| Architecture And Morality | 1 | 3.05 | -2.05 |
| Meat Puppets II | 1 | 3.02 | -2.02 |
| All That You Can't Leave Behind | 1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
| Millions Now Living Will Never Die | 1 | 2.87 | -1.87 |
| Bone Machine | 1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
| A Walk Across The Rooftops | 1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
| 69 Love Songs | 1 | 2.85 | -1.85 |
| Southern Rock Opera | 1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
| A Little Deeper | 1 | 2.81 | -1.81 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and high weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 6 | 4.5 | 4 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Leonard Cohen | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| Stan Getz | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Elliott Smith | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Ali Farka Touré | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Metallica | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and low weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Bloody Valentine | 3 | 1.67 | 2.33 |
| Sonic Youth | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
5-Star Albums (89)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Cream
5/5
# Playlist track
- Tales of Brave Ulysses
# Notes
- Freaking amazing. Hard to choose just one track.
- I listened to Cream a lot during my "mp3 download era". Still sounds just as great.
- Still have no idea what "Mother's Lament" is about. lol.
- Fun fact: In ancient times, I tried to create a blog, and the name would be "Strange Brew". As most things I wanted to do in life, procrastination got the best out of that one.
- I was going to nominate "Strange Brew" to album track, but the imagery of "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is just too good.
1 likes
Christine and the Queens
3/5
# Playlist track
- Damn, dis-moi
# Notes
- Starts out with a mediocre dance ballad. -1
- I notice there's 1:30 hour of this and immediately despair.
- It's some kind of watered down La Roux. -2.
- Album is not bad, but it's bland. It sets itself on a lukewarm tone and never deviates from it.
1 likes
My Bloody Valentine
1/5
- This never ends. It's like the same song over and over.
- Probably met it in the wrong moment of my life.
1 likes
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
5/5
- The vocals are very 80s, but the sound production carry a somewhat country/folk soundscape on the guitars specially.
- I had never head anything about this band before. Cool discovery.
1 likes
The The
4/5
# Playlist track
- This is the day
# Notes
- When I loaded the album, I saw that "Uncertain Smile" had been liked by me on Spotify, despite having no recollection of it at all. According to last.fm, I heard it 5 times in 2019-2020. Cool.
- Good for me. It's a great song.
- Cool album! Definitely coming back to it in the future.
-
1 likes
1-Star Albums (17)
All Ratings
The Stooges
4/5
- Listening to Iggy Mix first.
- Liked the Bowie Mix better! It's less "muffled"
- Great album overall. Noisy and energetic.
Motörhead
4/5
Angry and energetic. All time classic!
Queen
5/5
This is a completely different Queen from what I'm used to!
- The opening act, Brighton Rock, is amazing!
Arcade Fire
5/5
Dark, nostalgic, dense.
Beach House
5/5
Elton John
5/5
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
4/5
- Interesting and energetic.
- A bit too distracting when trying to do other things.
Jeff Buckley
5/5
All time classic.
- Sad, emotional, real.
- Great lyrics, awesome karaoke material.
Nirvana
5/5
All time classic!
- First listened to it when I was a teenager.
- Introduced me to David Bowie via 'The Man Who Sold the World'
The Doors
5/5
Madonna
2/5
- *Like a Prayer* is great,
- Love Song kind of sucks
- Till death do us part has a catchy drum, but over repetitive chorus
- Disc is overall bland and uninspired. Might have been a hit at the time, but it didn't age that well for me.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
"Green Onions" opens with an instantly recognizable keyboard line
- Rest of the album is not that great but still pretty good.
Kings of Leon
5/5
Immediately nostalgic.
- Still pretty unique and exciting
David Bowie
4/5
- "Somebody up There Likes Me" is amazing. Great solo!
- Never head his version of "Across the Universe" before.
Iggy Pop
3/5
Joy Division
2/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Elvis Presley
4/5
Aretha Franklin
5/5
- an album that has aged GRACIOUSLY
- still amazing
Miles Davis
4/5
Gang Starr
4/5
- "Just to get a rep" samples "EVA" by Jaqcues Perrey wonderfully.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
Reggae is not my jam
The Slits
2/5
- I do recognize how innovative and awesome must a post-punk all female band been in the 70s, but this album didn't age that well.
- Didn't enjoy it that much. Maybe it's a bit too rough.
Supertramp
5/5
Great album. Nice departure from always hearing only "The Autobriography Of"
T. Rex
4/5
ZZ Top
4/5
Fun and energetic! Great guitars.
Suzanne Vega
5/5
- That is one COMPLETELY new album. Have never heard of this lady before.
- There's a lot from her sound that makes me think of the 90's and early 00's female singers. There's some Cranberries and Alanis Morrissette in there.
- Pretty damn cool!
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
The Clash
5/5
- Super fun and energetic.
- London Calling and Lost in the Supermarket are absolute classics.
Pixies
4/5
- 'Cecilia Ann' is an epic opening
- Great contrast between 'Rock Music' and 'Velouria'
Nirvana
5/5
Formative in my teenage years
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
I'm sure this is great, but I got it on a bad day.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
- Absolute banger.
- Incredible all around.
Miles Davis
4/5
- The album only have 2, 20 minute songs.
- They feel like the structure and soul of a prog rock song.
- Intricate. Beautiful.
Neil Young
4/5
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
5/5
- The vocals are very 80s, but the sound production carry a somewhat country/folk soundscape on the guitars specially.
- I had never head anything about this band before. Cool discovery.
Mike Oldfield
3/5
- Trippy and somewhat interesting but a bit repetitive.
- Great opening act.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
- I like this album very much, but at least some part of this comes from having listened to some if his later works, specially "You Want It Darker"
- Seeing how his music and tone changed is part of a broader experience and I'm not sure how it would feel to listen to this in 1967. Probably amazing, tho.
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Sister Sledge
5/5
- Incredibly catchy.
- Fun, energetic.
- It was cool listening to the "He's the greatest dancer" and realizing that the opening is the sample used in "Getting Jiggy With It"
Donald Fagen
5/5
Most 80s thing ever
Paul McCartney
4/5
It's Paul, he's a Beatle. It's fine.
But a bit uninspired.
Peter Tosh
3/5
Enjoyable (but I'm not big on Reggae)
OutKast
3/5
- not my vibe.
Fela Kuti
3/5
Albums starts off GREAT. Very cool and energetic.
- At the ending there is a never ending drum solo that doesn't fit well with the rest.
- Cool listen!
Led Zeppelin
5/5
- All time classic and one of the first albums I listened back to back. Immensely important for me growing up. Amazing!
Miles Davis
4/5
Cool is a great word for it. Love the sounds and the mood.
2/5
- Vocals are annoying.
- It's quite repetitive.
- There's some nostalgia thinking back on the edgy videos and 2000s vibe that prevents me from giving this a lower grade.
Elvis Presley
4/5
- Elvis sound just like Tom Jones.
- Some kind of signature "Las Vegas" sound
Deep Purple
5/5
- The opening, Highway Star, really sets the mood for the album. It's fantastic.
- Album keeps up with high energy throughout and then leaves you with "When A Blind Man Cries" at the end.
- 10/10
AC/DC
4/5
Tortoise
1/5
- I was super intrigued by the fact that I had never heard anything about those folks before, as well as by the interesting title of the album.
- Huge disappointment.
- This is supposed to sound creative and experimental, but for me it ended up being messy and annoying instead.
- One of the few albums that I didn't manage to finish so far.
Randy Newman
4/5
Cool album! Sounds a lot like the Toy Story soundtrack throughout.
AC/DC
5/5
Stan Getz
5/5
Amazing
Beatles
5/5
Jorge Ben Jor
5/5
Amazing opening.
- Full of interesting rhythms and cultural references.
- I might be mistaken but this version of "Taj Mahal" sounds very different
- Love the story telling
Buzzcocks
5/5
# Playlist track
- Fast Cars
# Notes
- Never heard of them before.
- Top notch punk!
- Really surprised with the tracks on the album having 30-50k plays on Spotify.
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
Fatboy Slim
5/5
- I've listened to this non-stop when younger. Still remember going to see Fatboy in rave when I was younger. Love this record.
- "Right Here Right Now" is a perfect opener to this, and the transition to "The Rockafeller Skank" is masterful.
Slayer
3/5
- It's one of those "you can either love it or hate it" albums. It's a heavy/power-metal classic, but not everyone is cut for listening to metal.
Justice
4/5
- It's well worth it to go see the music videos for DANCE and DVNO. Both are amazing.
- I like the album, but a lot of its songs are available in better versions in "Access all Arenas" and Woman Worldwide.
- I have no idea why, but this album reminds me of Kosuge Sugimoto's masterpiece [# 自主制作アニメーション『the TV show』](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ9YtJC-Kd8)
Cypress Hill
3/5
- Interesting sound. Didn't pay that much attention to the lyrics, as I was working.
- The album is a bit repetitive, could be shorter.
Adele
2/5
- She just sings too much.
- I suppose that there are some good tracks but they get really annoying, really fast.
- It's just too much. All the time.
The Cure
3/5
The album has a very full, heavy sound that fits The Cure perfectly. But it drags too long.
De La Soul
3/5
- The album is fresh and fun throughout.
- A bit too long.
- It's my first De La Soul album. Cool find!
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
King Crimson
4/5
- Absolutely a classic, full of amazing tracks.
- Taking one star out because the interludes are too long, breaking the flow of the album, specially after "Moonchild"
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
Upbeat and immensely fun. A bit too pop, if that makes sense.
Various Artists
3/5
- It's a bit too sugary. Might be great for american tastes, but I prefer less industrialized, pasteurized, over-sweetened albums.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
- This is a powerful album, no doubt about it. But it is incredibly annoying. It digs in your brain and it's really impossible to do anything else.
- I do understand that people say that you should power through it, and be strong and that it will be worth it. Maybe someday I will. But right now, that feels more like an inside joke than anything.
- Don't recommend.
My Bloody Valentine
1/5
- This never ends. It's like the same song over and over.
- Probably met it in the wrong moment of my life.
John Martyn
3/5
- Didn't like it too much on the first run, but I enjoyed it more on the second.
- The last track, "Small Hours", seems very familiar to me. But I can't tell from where.
- Update: I LOVE last.fm. Now I know that I have, in fact, listened to it before:
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
- Such a surprising album. I've always knew Simon & Garfunkel from songs that are a lot more melancholic.
- The cacophony in "Save the life of my child" blew me away. I thought that there was something else playing on the background.
- "Mrs. Robinson" is still as fun to hum as ever.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
- The southern accent and over singing, while part of their appeal, is also annoying.
- Free Bird is as epic as ever.
Wilco
3/5
Talking Heads
3/5
- Interesting album. Surprisingly energetic and fun.
- Seeing that it came out in 1980, it makes me think how much did this set the tone for upcoming bands in the decade.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
Slapping bass, cool 80s atmosphere, but a bit too much OooooOOOOOooohhhh for me.
Antony and the Johnsons
2/5
Too painful. Too many vibratos. Not really my thing.
Ryan Adams
3/5
- The album is fairly repetitive, but manages to still be a fun listen. I ended up adding "Shakedown on the 9th street" to my playlist, which is kind of the opposite of the album mood.
- 5/7
The Killers
5/5
- Super nostalgic, and help up pretty well!
- Playlist track: All These Things That I've done
- Had a blast singing and listening to this with decent speakers for the first time!
King Crimson
4/5
- I absolutely love "Book of Saturday" and "Easy Money" but the album is a bit hard at times.
- This is not a bad thing in itself. In "Exiles" for example, the tense build up makes the release on the 2-min mark more real and rewarding. Still, not a listen for everyday.
Radiohead
4/5
- Interesting instrumentals, well executed, catchy. Great listen!
- Not a big Radiohead fun, but still giving it a 4.
- The opener, 15 Step, is a banger.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
- The opening to "Luck of Lucien" is amazing.
- Album starts off really strong. It's a bit too long, and I could trim a few songs.
- "Can I Kick It?" is still amazing.
- Great listen
LL Cool J
3/5
# Playlist track
- Mr Good Bar
# Notes
- It's kind of angry, kind of cool.
- Drags itself too long.
- I like some of interesting verses and instrumentals, like the guitar in "Mr Good Bar". One extra star.
Soundgarden
4/5
- For many years, I only knew "Black Hole Sun" from them. And the parody "Asshole Son", of course. I downloaded an MP3 of it with the name of Weird Al on it. False, of course.
- Album starts great, but it won't really open up in the first listen. The bass-heavy sound gets a bit too thick as it goes on and on. Could be a bit shorter.
David Bowie
4/5
- I didn't even know this album existed, nor any of its songs. Cool.
- Why do I think that I know "How does the grawss grow?"
Nas
2/5
# Playlist track
- The World is Yours
# Notes
- A bit repetitive. In some songs, like "NY State of Mind" you are already annoyed by the same 3 notes by the middle of the song.
Kacey Musgraves
3/5
# Playlist track
- High Horse
# Notes
- It's still amazing that albums that have tens of millions of listens to every single track go completely unnoticed by me.
- It's way too sugary for my tastes. Not BAD. But a tad much.
- Listening to this (and disliking it) I could only thing of that amazing moment in "The Virgin Suicides":
> - Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl.
- In all fairness, this is a well produced, nicely put together album, but I'm not the demographic for it at all.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
# Playlist track
- Babe I'm gonna leave you
# Notes
- Still one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
Beastie Boys
4/5
# Playlist track
- Shake Your Rump
# Notes
- I believe this album shaped the 90s is ways that I don't fully understand.
- Experimental, creative, fun.
- Misses here and there, but overall a great listen
Le Tigre
2/5
# Playlist track
- Let's run
# Notes
- It's kind of angry, punk, and interesting, but also a bit repetitive and not fun.
- Not for me.
The Clash
4/5
# Playlist track
- What's my name
# Notes
- It's an amazing punk album!
- Punk is not really my thing, but this is really cool.
Prince
4/5
# Playlist track
- 1999
# Notes
- Album starts out pretty fun.
- "Something in the water" is atrocious and then it slides from there.
B.B. King
4/5
# Playlist track
- Worry, worry
# Notes
- Amazing record. I could do without the audience shouting sometimes, but that's part of the charm of it.
CHIC
4/5
# Playlist track
- Le Freak
# Notes
- Loses one star because it feels that is a bit too much "filler" towards the end. Specially "At last I Am Free"
- Otherwise, fantastic listen. Super fun!
Death In Vegas
3/5
# Playlist track
- Soul Auctioneer
# Notes
- First time listening to this.
- An album with great moments, like Dirge, Aisha and Aladdin's Story.
- Broken Little Sister and Lever Street cost one star ou of the rating. Each.
MGMT
4/5
# Playlist track
- Kids
# Notes
- Reminds me of my early 20s.
- It's pretty unique and it sounded incredibly new at the time. Some of that is retained after all this years, in Electric Feel and Kids.
Adele
2/5
# Playlist track
- Water Under The Bridge
# Notes
- I'm still bummed out about [[Adele, 21]] which I really didn't like.
- This more of the same. If you like 21, you like 25. I didn't like 21.
Tom Waits
1/5
# Playlist track
- I don't wanna grow up
# Notes
- It's one of these albums that people need to explain why they like it. It's hard to listen, it's exhausting. Not my cup of tea for today.
The National
4/5
# Playlist track
- Terrible Love
# Notes
- Great opening. "Terrible love" really fills the room.
- From there it's a great listen, but the opening kind of muddles it all for me.
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
# Playlist track
- Mr. Blue Sky
# Notes
- I really really enjoy the vibes of this. It's definitely something that I want to go back to and listen more times.
- Of course, Mr Blue Sky is amazing.
The The
4/5
# Playlist track
- This is the day
# Notes
- When I loaded the album, I saw that "Uncertain Smile" had been liked by me on Spotify, despite having no recollection of it at all. According to last.fm, I heard it 5 times in 2019-2020. Cool.
- Good for me. It's a great song.
- Cool album! Definitely coming back to it in the future.
-
Megadeth
3/5
# Playlist track
- Peace Sells
# Notes
- Spotify doesn't hold the original album, just expanded and deluxe versions. I'm not taking any of the extra tracks into consideration.
- Good quality trash metal, but not too interesting.
Thelonious Monk
3/5
# Playlist track
- Bemsha Swing
# Notes
- Soothing jazz. Not too chaotic. Great soundtrack to work.
The Yardbirds
3/5
# Playlist track
- Over, Under, Sideways, Down (Mono)
# Notes
- Listened to the Mono version in Spotify.
- It's a good listen and has a lot of interesting tracks, but this thing is 31 tracks long. The deluxe version has 40 tracks!
- It's just too much of a mess. Taking 2 stars out of the album.
Alice Cooper
4/5
# Playlist track
- Grand Finale
# Notes
- I've first seen this album playing Guitar Hero! It is still amazing.
- The "Grand Finale" absolutely blew my mind. I don't know what the hell was that and what is it doing on an Alice Cooper album, but it is GREAT.
ZZ Top
4/5
# Playlist track
- Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
# Notes
- Pretty solid album!
- I already knew La Grange but pretty much everything else is new and super cool.
5/5
# Playlist track
- When I'm 64
# Notes
- It's been some time and this album still hits GREAT.
- I hate that Spotify has 3 different stupid deluxe versions of the albums, but not the mono!
- Great companion all around. Impossible not to give it all the stars.
The Teardrop Explodes
4/5
# Playlist track
- Treason
# Notes
- Never heard of them.
- Right of the bat, this is incredibly 80s.
- It drags along too long. But it's fun and interesting.
- Worth revisiting in the future.
Animal Collective
2/5
# Playlist track
- In The Flowers
# Notes
- There is so much noise all the time.
- It was hard to get through it all.
- I'm sure that this is kind of cool after you listen to it after a bunch of times, but I honestly won't.
The Offspring
3/5
# Playlist track
- Come out and play
# Notes
- The opening act, saying "while this compact disc playing on your stereo" makes me feel very old.
- It's an OK album. Doesn't hit me like "[[The Offspring, Americana]]".
The Style Council
4/5
# Playlist track
- Strength of Your Nature
# Notes
- This album is all over the place.
- I actually opened Spotify a couple of times to see if it hadn't changed to a different one for some reason.
- It's breadth is super interesting, but a lot of the tracks are kinda uninspired.
- Definitely worth a listen and revisiting.
Sex Pistols
4/5
# Playlist track
- God Save The Queen
# Notes
- This must have blown people's mind out in the 70's!
- Liked the energy and the pace.
- Can't believe that I never heard this album entirely before.
Public Enemy
5/5
# Playlist track
- By the time I get to Arizona
# Notes
- Right from the cover, this is an amazing album.
- Even though this is not my favorite genre, by any means, there are interesting samples and instrumentals throughout.
- Definitely worth checking out.
Violent Femmes
4/5
# Playlist track
- Gone Daddy Gone
# Notes
- After "Blister in the Sun" (which I already knew) I had a WTF look in my face the entire album.
- Did those guys do an acoustic punk album?
- Whaaaat, Gone Daddy Gone is a cover?
- Super fun listen!
The Young Gods
2/5
# Playlist track
- Rue des tempêtes
# Notes
- Has some interesting instrumentals at times, but that's all.
- The album is a bit boring. The super industrial sound might have been interesting in the early 90s, but didn't age well.
- Very hard to choose a track to add to the playlist. I didn't ENJOY a single one.
5/5
# Playlist track
- The Cisco Kid
# Notes
- Just great right off from the first track.
- Kind of a jazzy, funky soul that is fun and catchy.
- Even with 2 10+ minute tracks, War pulls it off, and the album doesn't drag at all.
- Definitely listening again.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
# Playlist track
- Commotion
# Notes
- Classic album, lots of character and energy.
- It was my first experience listening to the entire album, and not some "The Best of Creedence".
- Definitely will listen again.
Caetano Veloso
4/5
# Playlist track
- Alegria, Alegria
# Notes
- It's really cool to look back and hear Caetano's debut album.
- Having heard multiple versions of some songs, it's nice to experience their original form.
The Who
2/5
# Playlist track
- Happy Jack
# Notes
- I don't really understand the role of this album in the list.
- This isn't a really interesting compilation, nor a particularly good recording for me.
- Not recommended.
Tom Waits
3/5
# Playlist track
- Down, Down, Down
# Notes
- Tom Waits' shtick is somewhat repetitive. There are fun instrumentals, but I couldn't even get myself to pay attention to the lyrics.
- Giving it one extra star, because this is better than Bone Machine
Cream
5/5
# Playlist track
- Tales of Brave Ulysses
# Notes
- Freaking amazing. Hard to choose just one track.
- I listened to Cream a lot during my "mp3 download era". Still sounds just as great.
- Still have no idea what "Mother's Lament" is about. lol.
- Fun fact: In ancient times, I tried to create a blog, and the name would be "Strange Brew". As most things I wanted to do in life, procrastination got the best out of that one.
- I was going to nominate "Strange Brew" to album track, but the imagery of "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is just too good.
Elliott Smith
5/5
# Playlist track
- Pictures Of Me
# Notes
- My first time listening to Elliot Smith and reading up on his story.
- Great album! It's sad, yes, but not in an annoying whiny way. More like "Sea Change" sad.
- Definitely listening again.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
# Playlist track
- Into My Arms
# Notes
- Great opening act with "I don't believe in an interventionist god"
- The album then proceeds with more or less the same tone throughout, and tracks kind of blend together.
- Good, but not great. 3 stars.
Carole King
5/5
# Playlist track
- I Feel the Earth Move
# Notes
- What an AMAZING listen.
- Listened back-to-back like 4 times and didn't get tired of it.
Billy Joel
5/5
# Playlist track
- Just the Way You Are
# Notes
- Such a cool and comforting album.
Brian Eno
3/5
# Playlist track
- Backwater
# Notes
- Weird, in a nice way.
- Didn't like "Julie With"
Raekwon
2/5
# Playlist track
- Criminology (feat. Ghostface Killah)
# Notes
- The album starts with 2 minutes of nonsensical phrases that end with "son". Awful.
- Read the wiki, thought it was a cool idea, but it doesn't hold itself together.
- There are nice beats and melodies here and there, but after the album is over, I don't want to hear nothing that rhymes with "son", "man", "dog", and "sayin'" for 3 months.
- Also, horrible singing in "Heaven & Hell"
Nick Drake
4/5
# Playlist track
- Man in a Shed
# Notes
- Never heard of him before, nor about his story.
- Cool album, ended up listening to it 2 or 3 times in a row.
- Definitely coming back to it in the future.
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
# Playlist track
- Gentlemen
# Notes
- I had that cover SO much.
- Enjoyable album, but doesn't hold itself all the way. The final songs are not very interesting.
- I had high hopes for this, because I really like their album "[[The Afghan Whigs, Do The Beast|Do the beast]]" from 2014. That's on me, I guess.
Sigur Rós
2/5
# Playlist track
- Starálfur
# Notes
- Album kicks off interesting, dreamy and chill.
- By track 5 it devolves into longer, more boring tracks.
- It's interesting to listen to Icelandic music, but there isn't enough interest to fill the whole album.
- Not recommeded.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
# Playlist track
- Rolling
# Notes
- What a FANTASTIC listen.
- Great album, interesting and fun from start to finish.
- One of the best I've heard so far. 7/7
Blood, Sweat & Tears
4/5
# Playlist track
- Spinning Wheel.
# Notes
- Great album! It's all over the place, but it the coolest way possible.
- Made me jump out of my chair when I recognized "Spinning Wheel" from Jason Forrest's incredible animation "War Photographer."
- Do yourself a favor and go check it out if you haven't watched it yet.
- Taking one star off due to the annoying tracks at the end.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4/5
# Playlist track
- My Uncle
# Notes
- Interesting listen and definitely worth re-visiting.
- Knowing nothing about them beforehand, it all seems a bit repetitive and over done.
- This might be just due to the fact that they are so influencial that I've heard hundreds of songs copying them but I didn't realize.
- 4 stars.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
# Playlist track
- White Rabbit
# Notes
- I knew some of the songs from compilation albums, but didn't listen to it before.
- This is ALL over the place. They've tried their hand at pretty much every rhythm and style they could fit in this album.
- Lot's of great gems, but a few also fall short.
- Grace Slick really shines on the vocals, huh. Both White Rabbit and Somebody to Love are just amazing.
- Also cool to listen to this version of "Plastic Fantastic Lover"! I only knew the version from "In Concert" and I assumed it was the only one. It's still my favorite, tho. They are called "Jefferson Starship" at that moment?
Steely Dan
5/5
# Playlist track
- Any Major Dude
# Notes
- My first Steely Dan album, and it's a great one. I've been hearing this over and over the entire day.
- Super impressive breadth! Overall the album goes steadily on a ballad-like rhythm, but then it throws weird and cool tracks like "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" at you from outta nowhere.
- 5/5 will hear again!
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
# Playlist track
- The Wind Cries Mary
# Notes
- When you hear the first chords of "Purple Haze" you can already tell that this is going to be a hell of a trip. One of the best song openings, ever.
- The album goes by without a hitch, it's simultaneously fluid and light and free, but then comes those small genius moments and you stop work to listen to whatever is going on.
- The bridge in "Highway Chile"
- The chorus in "Fire"
- The solo in "The Wind Cries Mary"
- The bridge just before the solo in "Love Or Confusion"
- Superb. All the stars!
John Martyn
4/5
# Playlist track
- Dreams by the sea
# Notes
- Very trippy, in a good way.
- The opening track is fantastically moody, followed by a happy one, than a gloomy one, then a groovy one, and so on.
- There are some boring misses, like "Go Down Easy" and "May You Never" (the most popular one?!) so I'm taking one star out.
Ray Charles
4/5
# Playlist track
- You Are My Sunshine
# Notes
- Ray Charles is super brave to go on and declare what the "modern sounds" are.
- I'm by no means a music historian, but it does look like he was right. I never heard this album before, but I kind of recognize it.
- Super interesting piece of history!
- Album is a bit repetitive after 24 tracks. Taking one star out.
The Cult
2/5
# Playlist track
- Wild Flower
# Notes
- Albums starts out OK, but gets worse with each track.
- -2 stars for an version of "Born To Be Wild" that is worse than what we usually get in drunken karaoke.
- -1 star for the annoying and repetitive screaming.
Lauryn Hill
3/5
# Playlist track
- Everything is Everything
# Notes
- Cool listen, but not really my thing.
- Half the album is just OK, but there are a few great songs. Not enough for a great album, tho.
Santana
4/5
# Playlist track
- Samba Pa Ti
# Notes
- I really wish I had met this album back when I was listening to [[G3, Live in Concert]] all day.
- Amazing album, some real bangers in there, and the guitar solos never get too long and tiring.
- Latin beats really tie it all up together.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
# Playlist track
- I've got you under my skin
# Notes
- It's Frank Sinatra, so it cannot be terrible. But it's not great either.
- All tracks are a bit too much the same. It's a pleasant listen, constant, fun. Just not great.
Duke Ellington
2/5
# Playlist track
- Take the "A" train
# Notes
- I'm into jazz, and also into jazz performances, but I couldn't get to the end of this one, despite trying twice.
- There are so many introductions, and announcements, and clapping and talking.
- Albums stretches for over 2 hours, but you can never get in the zone, because you're going to be interrupted by people taking.
KISS
3/5
# Playlist track
- Shout it out loud
# Notes
- The 1:30 intro to "Detroit Rock City" (which is a great track!) is silly, and should be in a separate track. No way I'm willing to listen to that every time I want to enjoy the music. -1 star.
- It's not a bad album. Some good tracks in there, but not great either.
Neil Young
4/5
# Playlist track
- Heart of Gold
# Notes
- It's an interesting listen. Possibly with the exception of Every Man Needs a Maid.
- It's a shame it's not available on Spotify. Fuck Joe Rogan. +1 Star for Neil.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
# Playlist track
- soon
# Notes
- MBV, again? I just listened to [[My Bloody Valentine, m b v]] a few weeks ago.
- It feels as you're listening to the album through defective speakers.
- I get that the full, noisy sound is intentional and it's supposed to evoke some kind of feeling, but that doesn't work for me.
- The grand exception here is "soon". It just works so much better. Maybe it's for this weird pauses in the main ultra distorted guitar sound for the weird experimental violin-ish guitars. +1 star
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
# Playlist track
- All Along the Watchtower
# Notes
- Hendrix is amazing but this album goes on and on a bit too long.
- "Vodoo Chile" and "1983" are close to 15 minutes each!
- There is a very specific mood and circumstance when you want to chill and listen to endless solos, but those are rare to come by. For most people the album ends up hard to approach and unlikely to be enjoyable as a whole.
- Cool gems like Gypsy Eyes and All Along the Watchtower still amazing, tho.
Korn
2/5
# Playlist track
- Freak On A Leash
# Notes
- This cover brings me back memories! Especially memories from the AWESOME music video for "Freak On a Leash" (go watch it if you haven't!). That broke my mind back on MTV days.
- Sadly, the whole album isn't as cool. It is a bit too long and repetitive.
- Only recommend to nu-metal fans. It didn't age too well, on my humble opinion. But go ahead if that's your thing.
The Strokes
5/5
# Playlist track
- The Modern Age
# Notes
- Boy, this makes me feel old. This was *amazing* when it came out. And it's aging pretty well! +1
- The opening chord +1
- Cover art +1
- Hard to choose a favorite track for the playlist +1
- No bad tracks +1
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
2/5
# Playlist track
- Hideaway
# Notes
- Decent blues. Fun for a while.
- Has good moments, but it's not a good *album*.
- For the fans, it's kind of cool to get some Clapton's early work, but this is far from his best.
Brian Eno
3/5
# Playlist track
- Regiment
# Notes
- Interesting but a bit too challenging for the casual listen.
- I can kind of relate to how much of an impact this must have brought back in the 80s, but in my experience this album is more of a curiosity than anything.
Depeche Mode
3/5
# Playlist track
- Never Let Me Down Again
# Notes
- Dark and brooding in an interesting way, at least at first.
- After tracks 4-5 it loses some of the shine and become repetitive. Might need to listen a few more times to get into it.
Dirty Projectors
2/5
# Playlist track
- Two Doves
# Notes
- The male vocals are overstretched in pretty much all the tracks.
- Never ending unnecessary harmonies feel pretentious.
- Boring as hell.
- One star for being kind of unique sounding but that's all.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
# Playlist track
- Penguin Cafe Single
# Notes
- Super freaky and experimental, but with some nice, more accessible tracks to ease it off.
- The opening track is kind of great.
- Great instrumentation.
- Only a couple of tracks are reeeeally hard to enjoy.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
# Playlist track
- Could You Be The One?
# Notes
- Album is too long and tracks blend into each other.
- There is an interesting, energetic vibe, but it's too repetitive.
- I was intrigued by the sound and the band and might try to listen a "best of" or another, shorter album.
George Harrison
4/5
# Playlist track
- All things must pass
# Notes
- Amazing listen. Great tracks like "Beware Of Darkness", "My Sweet Lord" and "What is Life".
- Some epic moments and also a few that drag too long, like the closing track "Out of the blue"
- It's worth the listen, but the 2 hour + playtime is a tall order and it's perfectly understandable to get tired of it halfway through.
DJ Shadow
4/5
# Playlist track
- Organ Donor
# Notes
- Super solid album.
- It's super experimental, so it kind of loses me at times, and it's definitely not the easiest thing to listen. Still super cool!
- Incredible sampling.
The Beach Boys
4/5
# Playlist track
- Long Promised Road
# Notes
- Great listen!
- -1 star for the sirens on "Student Demonstration Time"
-
Keith Jarrett
3/5
# Playlist track
- Köln, January 24, 1975, Pt. II C - Live
# Notes
- Interesting concert with some really really great moments.
- I'm not a huge fan of improvisations and still managed to enjoy it.
Afrika Bambaataa
4/5
# Playlist track
- Planet Rock
# Notes
- Very cool to recognize the hook from "Planet Rock" from pretty much everywhere. When I went to find an example and figured out it's originally from Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express.
- That sample instantly throws my mind to the late 90s and early 2000s.
- I do understand the folks that find the album a bit repetitive and that it didn't age too well. You've heard it a thousand times, but in other places.
- Insane cover art!
Van Halen
4/5
# Playlist track
- Running with the Devil
# Notes
- Running with the Devil is a great opener, but follow that with Eruption instead of "You Really Got Me" is a bit of flow breaker. I enjoy Eddie's solos as much as the next person, but -1 star.
- Otherwise, pretty great album. Full of energy and fun.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
# Playlist track
- Bridge over troubled water
# Notes
- I've heard the title track 1000 times since I was a kid and downloaded it on Napster or something. Still hits just the same. +3 stars.
- Andean music?! Amazing. +1
- I'd love to say that I can't stand another "La la lie" from The Boxer, but I would be lying. +1
- I don't LOVE the final tracks. They're cool, but so far in the album the bar is too high. -1
The White Stripes
5/5
# Playlist track
- The Hardest Button to Button
# Notes
- Seven Nation Army has been played to hell, but it still SLAPS. +1
- Interesting, fun and energetic throughout +2
- Not one bad track +1
- Cool visuals +1
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
# Playlist track
- "Thing Called Love"
# Notes
- Opening track suffers from a serious case of "80s keyboard sample" but it's cool. +1
- "Thing Called Love" is super campy and fun. +1
- The slower, love-balady tracks that follow are a bit boring, and unfortunately they set the done for the rest of the album.
- 80s Hair and outfit on the cover are also +1 star.
Christine and the Queens
3/5
# Playlist track
- Damn, dis-moi
# Notes
- Starts out with a mediocre dance ballad. -1
- I notice there's 1:30 hour of this and immediately despair.
- It's some kind of watered down La Roux. -2.
- Album is not bad, but it's bland. It sets itself on a lukewarm tone and never deviates from it.
Hugh Masekela
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Part of a Whole
# Notes
- Jazz is not my favourite gender. I think it tends to drag on and on.
- Having said that, this is a pretty good album!
# Playlist track
- Elevation
# Notes
- Album starts pretty OK. The first 3 tracks were huge back then, but didn't age too well. Still cool, as long as it's in homeophatic dosage. +3 stars
- The chorus for "Beautiful Day" has some oomph to it, but its just way overplayed. Not their fault, tho.
- "Stuck in a moment You Can't Get Out Of" suffers from an ever worse case. It's not even the whole chorus, it's just the first phrase. Just OK track, bad vocals, spectacular 1-liner.
- "Elevation" still sounds cool. Corny cool. But cool. Bono is there to avoid it being great.
- From there on it's just downhill. It's kind of amazing, really. One after the other, each subsequent track is worse. -2 stars.
- A horrible album with a passable opening act.
Aimee Mann
3/5
# Playlist track
- Fify Years After The Fair
# Notes
- It's on OK album. Whatever, as the title says.
- 90s balady, not groundbreaking, not too annoying. Whatever.
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
# Playlist track
- I'll kiss you
# Notes
- Listening to "Girls just wanna have fun" at home, with good speakers is really interesting. There are some interesting instrumentals that are lost when the song is blared in shitty speakers late at night in a disco club.
- Very interesting range here. I like the SKA guitars on "Witness" and the synths on "I'll Kiss You" very much.
- Super fun album 6/7 stars.
Muddy Waters
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Mannish Boy
# Notes
- Tracks are a bit too similar one to the other, so the album feels a little repetitive. There's nothing wrong with the album, but it's not stronger than the sum of all songs.
- Great blues, tho!
Leonard Cohen
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Tonight Will Be Fine
# Notes
- Really enjoy Cohen's voice and delivery.
- Tracks are not stellar, but the album is pretty consistent and there are no back ones at all.
Bobby Womack
4/5
# Playlist track
- Just My Imagination
# Notes
- Great production. Sounds are rich, interesting and there are cool hooks throughout +2
- No bad songs +1
- Super corny, but like "cool 80s corny" +1
- Album lacks a killer track or unforgettable moment. Still super good!
Willie Nelson
5/5
# Playlist track
- Stardust
# Notes
- Willie tells how it is from the very first second. It's cool, and crafted and it takes it time. Sit around and enjoy. Look at the sky for a while.
- It's a pleasant, soothing ride all along.
- When "Unchained Melody" comes up, I dread for a second. It's a very cheesy, overplayed song. Will it break the album? Nope.
- 7/7 Stars
Tracy Chapman
4/5
# Playlist track
- Baby Can I Hold You
# Notes
- Impressive vocal control, interesting range. Sometimes a bit TOO minimalistic.
- Great album.
Primal Scream
4/5
# Playlist track
- Movin' on Up
# Notes
- Album was brand new to me.
- Love/hate the cover.
- Weird moments like "Don't fight it, feel it" shake up the listening experience but don't annoy too much. Well done.
- Come Together could have been a great song, but the intro is waaay to long.
- Interesting listen, great flow, will definitely come back to it. 5/7.
# Links
New York Dolls
5/5
# Playlist track
- Personality Crisis
# Notes
- The first impression is really... something. The punk vibes, the weird outfits, the piano blaring along. Cool.
- Top notch punk! 6/7
Soul II Soul
3/5
# Playlist track
- Keep On Moving
# Notes
- Very repetitive. A bit bland and uninteresting.
- Not annoying or anything like that. But just OK.
- Enjoyable.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
# Playlist track
- Let's Get It On
# Notes
- One of the most iconic album openings ever.
- Nothing else in the album quite beats that single moment. Not the track. The opening 3 seconds.
- Not to say that it's a bad album. It's pretty enjoyable all around.
Mott The Hoople
2/5
# Playlist Track
- All The Way from Memphis
# Notes
- Album starts on a cool vibe. I like the pianos and the vibes from "All The Way from Memphis".
- Unfortunately, there's not much else to like moving on.
- Vocals are consistently poor, and instrumentals fail to create any interest to prop up the remaining songs.
- The weird "fight scene" in Violence is just awful. -2 stars for that.
Lupe Fiasco
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Daydreaming'
# Notes
- As always, noting that I'm not evaluating the lyrics.
- Musically, it's solid. Well produced. But it's not interesting enough to hold itself for over an hour. Case in point: the 12 min "Outro".
- It was a good listen, but I don't see myself coming back for more.
Björk
2/5
# Playlist track
- Big Time Sensuality
# Notes
- There are some fun beats and interesting explorations, I'll give her that. Also hard to imagine how would have been to listen to this back in 1993.
- Having said that.
- Bjork has awful vocal range and the higher notes and screams are often incredibly annoying.
- "Anchor Song" is boring. "Aeroplane" is insufferable.
- Nice to listen once, for its uniqueness and variety, but no longer than that.
The xx
3/5
# Playlist track
- On Hold
# Notes
- If I had never listened to anything from the XX before, I would rate this album higher.
- It's a good album, no doubt about it. It's dreamy, electric, chill pop in a very good way. But it's not GREAT. You kind of float through it and there's not much happening until "On Hold" hits.
- Final Rating: Go listen to "xx" instead. 5/7 stars.
Radiohead
5/5
# Playlist track
- Electioneering
# Notes
- One of those albums that has influenced so many bands that it's hard to imagine how it was hearing it back then. +2 stars
- "Filter Happier" is a bit of a downer in the middle of the album. -1 star.
- Riffs for "Electioneering" are just plain fantastic + 2 stars.
- "No Surprises" is a masterpiece, and the music video that goes along with it too. +1 star
The Band
4/5
# Playlist track
- Across The Great Divide
# Notes
- Hated the silly joke with the name, but the opening track is solid!
- Great country album throughout!
Radiohead
2/5
# Playlist track
- You and Whose Army?
# Notes
- I have the strong impression that this is one of those albums that are *hard* to listen. You need to give it time and attention. Play through a few times. You'll *earn* the right to delight on it.
- Not having the time or energy for that right now, it's just a disjointed, weird listening experience. With some excellent moments interwoven with a lot of senseless wailing and depression.
Beck
5/5
# Playlist track
- Paper Tiger
# Notes
- I had the "privilege" of listening to this after a nasty breakup. It was great.
- The instrumentals on "Paper Tiger" are just great and it finished off with an amazing "but there's no road back to you" line that fits perfectly.
- The album gets a bit too depressing sometimes, like in Around The Bend, but it changes things around enough that it doesn't ruin your day.
- Listening now, I'm tempted to take 1 star off as the album stales a bit towards the end, but that is pretty much in character for the theme, so this takes all the stars. 7/7.
Muddy Waters
4/5
# Playlist track
- Baby, Please Don't Go
# Notes
- Amazing blues. Hard to overstate his influence.
2/5
- Not available on Deezer and Shopify. Listened to some random youtube upload.
- The opening track is atrocious, but it gets better. -1 star.
- The rest of the album is... ok.
- Not bad, but not good enough to make me go back for another listen.
Metallica
5/5
# Playlist track
- Enter Sandman
# Notes
- I've listened to Metallica when I was younger and it would immediately transport me to somewhere else. It was fast, angry, energetic, but also cool as fuck.
- The album cannot keep the pace from "Enter Sandman" throughout the entire play time. But that is just a bar too high. Still giving this all the stars.
Fever Ray
4/5
# Playlist track
- When I Grow Up
# Notes
- I love the dreamy, hazy atmosphere and Karin's vocals and accent are just superb.
- I get the comparison with Bjork, but I completely disagree!
- 5/7 stars. Pretty cool!
Joni Mitchell
3/5
# Playlist track
- A Case Of You
# Notes
- Interesting listen. I didn't know much from Joni Mitchell before.
- She has a tendency to "over sing" in some parts of the album. It doesn't feel like this is a lack of skill. Seems to be that those are ornaments and flourishes to add character and interest. However, for me, they tend to sound more distracting than interesting. -1 star.
- By the end of the album, you are already a bit tired, and then you have to listen to "The Last Time I Saw Richard" which is the worst offender. -1 star.
Ozomatli
2/5
# Playlist track
- Believe
# Notes
- For some reason only the first couple of tracks are available on Spotify, I've pierced the album from Youtube Playlists.
- Never heard of them before, album starts with a very cool mix of western vibes and my hopes are UP.
- Unfortunately, the album doesn't really take off at all.
- There are some interesting moments, cool riffs and vocals and you can kind of forget that you are listening to a boring album. After a few minutes, that cool little piece of music will be reused 10 times and you'll be back to thinking that this is a boring album.
- Filled with interesting ideas, but none of them really pan out. 2 stars.
Tim Buckley
3/5
# Playlist track
- I Never Asked to Be Your Mointain
# Notes
- What, he was Jeff Buckley's father? And they met only once? And he died of heroine overdose and then his son wasn't invited to the funeral?
- Reading this guy's Wikipedia page was a wild ride.
- Album is OK. Hard to imagine hearing it back in the 60's. Must have sounded super interesting. Still cool, but not breathtaking.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
# Playlist track
- Superstition
# Notes
- This is the album that has "Superstition" so I was really impressed that it was not the most popular track. I didn't know "Your Are The Sunshine Of My Life" but it IS pretty good too!
- Super enjoyable album.
- Some nice tricks are overdone, like the chorus on "Maybe Your Baby", so -1 star for that.
The Black Keys
4/5
# Playlist track
- Tighten Up
# Notes
- Great mix of rock and blues. Catchy riffs.
- A bit too long at 1h 17min.
Spiritualized
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Come Together
# Notes
- Album starts pretty interesting, but the tail end is just weird and boring.
- The harmonies on the title album are pretty cool!
- I think it's one of those albums you have to listen to 14 times before you fully understand and enjoy it, but I don't have that time right now.
Oasis
4/5
# Playlist track
- Supersonic
# Notes
- Super nostalgic, but still rocks!
- The "maybeeee" opening from Live Forever makes me want to sing "Wonderwall" -1 star
Rahul Dev Burman
4/5
# Playlist track
- One Two Cha Cha Cha
# Notes
- This is super interesting. Kind of made me want to see the movie.
Solange
3/5
# Playlist track
- Weary
# Notes
- When I first listened to the album I found it to be *mostly* uninspired. It's good-enough soul. A bit too light, too diluted. Not too bad, not great. 4/7.
- Reading about it, it seems that there is some good songwriting in there, but I didn't pay attention while listening, so take that into consideration.
Portishead
5/5
# Playlist track
- Sour Times
# Notes
- All around amazing.
- I was lucky enough to get a hold of a pirate MP3 download of this one as a teenager. I always carried it on a pendrive whenever I went.
- All the stars!
Black Sabbath
5/5
# Playlist track
- Faeries Wear Boots
# Notes
- Weird-ass amazing cover art +1 star
- Paranoid and the memories of playing "Rock and Roll Racing" +1 star
- "I am Iron Man" +1 star
- The worst track (Rat Salad) is still good +1 star
- Shaped what it even means to play Metal music +1 star.
- But seriously, this is an amazing album.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
# Playlist track
- Bird Of Beauty
# Notes
- Super trippy and fun.
- +1 star for the phrases in Portuguese in "Bird of Beauty"
The Divine Comedy
2/5
# Playlist track
- Something for the Weekend
# Notes
- Album has some fun moments, but it's overall extremely overdone. To the point, I kept trying to figure out the the "Comedy" on the band's name was literal.
- "The Dogs & The Horses" alone is worth -3 stars.
Doves
2/5
# Playlist track
- Firesuit
# Notes
- Solid opening track (Firesuit) and follow-up (Here It Comes).
- On Break me Gently, the "breaking" effect on the vocals is overdone and distracts from the song, which wouldn't be bad if it didn't sound like it was streamed over a bad connection. -1 star.
- The rest of the album sits between "nice" and "forgettable" most of the time.
- The band doesn't bring enough variety to fill the entire hour of the album. The damn "breaking" effect comes back in the beginning of "The Cedar Room" (the most listened to song in Spotify) and I can't help but skip it every time. -1 star
- Reprise and A House are completely unnecessary filler and add nothing to the experience. -1 star
Led Zeppelin
4/5
# Playlist track
- Ten Years Gone
# Notes
- An incredible album, that I can't help but wish to be shorter.
- There are no horrible tracks in this, at all. But having just-OK material shipped along with amazing stuff just makes the album a bit more bland than it could be.
- It was really hard to choose a favorite, but being now a parent of an 11-year old, "Ten Years Gone" hit hard.
Talking Heads
4/5
# Playlist track
- Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town
# Notes
- That's the album with "Psycho Killer", so my hopes were high!
- David Byrne's vocals are super weird. It's hard to pin the whole thing on a specific genre on mood, but that keeps it fun and interesting.
- Ended up listening to the whole thing 4-5 times trying to make sense of it.
ABBA
3/5
# Playlist track
- The Visitors
# Notes
- Starts out energetic and fun, but doesn't keep up throughout.
- It's still good quality pop, but it's a bit of a letdown, especially compared with other ABBA hits, including the title track of the album.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
# Playlist track
- Proud Mary
# Notes
- A super enjoyable album! Great vibes, instrumentals and rhythm.
- "Proud Mary" is an all time classic.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
# Playlist track
- Zen Archer
# Notes
- I'm always conflicted by this super experimental albums.
- I can kind of sense that there is something in there. It was the 70s. Everything about it is unexpected and weird. This takes some real skill to do.
- At the same time, you can't just listen to this thing once and go on about your day. It's just annoying. I might try to come back to it eventually and might revisit the score.
Grateful Dead
4/5
# Playlist track
- Ripple
# Notes
- I've known this album for some time, but I don't thing I heard it entirely back-to-back.
- I really love "Ripple"s lyrics. Always had. Not sure why.
- The album has a couple of songs that are *really* downers, so -1 star for that.
Ramones
5/5
# Playlist track
- Blitzkrieg Bop
# Notes
- This is maximum energy, maximum energy, maximum fun.
- Simple, cool, doesn't need to act or pretend.
- I don't think I'll ever be careless, or free or fun as this album, and that sucks.
Al Green
5/5
# Playlist track
- I've never found a girl
# Notes
- Excellent opening!
- All around great album. Nice metals, great vocals and a great listen overall.
3/5
# Playlist track
- Morning will come
# Notes
- I kind of enjoy some parts of the album, and there is interesting experimentation here and there. But overall, it feels disjointed, and kind of a lackluster experience.
Can
5/5
# Playlist track
- Moonshake
# Notes
- This is a *really* cool album. There are some very endearing moments and you get really get lost into the nonsensical vocals and the flowing instrumentals.
- The opening track, Future Days, reminds a lot of [[Air, Moon Safari]]
- Definitely recommend to listen to this at least a couple of times.
- Having the fact that it was released in '73 in perspective makes it even more interesting.
4/5
# Playlist track
- Good Fortune
# Notes
- I've heard ABOUT PJ Harvey so many times while studying design. But never stopped to listen to her. Maybe I tried in some weird past. But I don't even remember it.
- It's an interesting listen, and I catch myself all the time thinking that I should have tried it more when I was, in fact, a teenager.
- I really like the Radiohead-ish tracks with Thom Yorke. But it feels like listening to Radiohead more than PJ Harvey.
Norah Jones
3/5
# Playlist track
- Don't know why
# Notes
- It's never too bad, all things considered. Starts off great, but then it just fails to go anywhere.
- A bit too slow, too soft, too mellow.
- Not bad, but not interesting either.
David Bowie
3/5
# Playlist track
- Sound and Vision
# Notes
- Never heard this album before, even though "sound and vision" is one of my favorite Bowie tracks, ever.
- Album starts out pretty great. Excellent opening. Fun, energetic, but it something does sideways halfway around. A set of weird experimental tracks takes over and they just feel out of place.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Great Balls of Fire
# Notes
- An interesting music history lesson and a somewhat enjoyable show.
Daft Punk
3/5
# Playlist track
- Da Funk
# Notes
- I really love Daft Punk, but I got to admit that this one is kind of a weird choice.
- It makes sense in the context of some awesome electronic party going on, I guess.
- But if I forget that Daft Punk made this, and this is part of them building up to RAM, this album is *not that great*.
- Sure, there are a lof of cool experiments and enjoyable moments, but there's also an plenty of long stretches of lost beats and loops.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
# Playlist track
- Little Fury Things
# Notes
- Weird and noisy at times, but have some great riffs.
- Kind of remind me of being younger, for some reason. Maybe is the grunge-ness of it all.
- This is earlier than bands live Nirvana and Pearl Jam, so must have been super mind-blowing at the time.
Def Leppard
4/5
# Playlist track
- Rock of Ages
# Notes
- Solid hard rock, from start to finish.
- I don't really have a sin to take out any stars. It's a really good album. It's fun and energetic. It's just *not amazing*.
- Had a lot of fun recognizing the opening from Offspring's Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) on "Rock of Ages"
Nirvana
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Come As You Are
# Notes
- This is one of those albums that is SO influential that it's hard to understand how big it was at the time, since so many people copied its style later.
- The riff for "Come as you are" is one the most recognizable tunes in the history of music. That's saying something.
- I have a soft spot for it, as I was in my early teens when first listening to it.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
# Playlist track
- A Funky Space Reincarnation
# Notes
- It's Marvin Gaye. The vocals are great, there is some soul to it. It's soft and cool. But if I hadn't listen to other tracks from Gaye, I doubt I would pay this one much attention.
- As usual, I listen while working and doing stuff, not paying much attention. After that, I read some of the reviews, and this album seem to be a very different experience when you factor in the whole divorce thing. Not taking that into factor for this review.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
# Playlist track
- After Hours
# Notes
- Not particularly interesting.
- Found "Murder Mystery" to be way too gimmicky and the rest of the album to meander between "oh, that's really nice" and "can't this track just end already?"
Michael Jackson
5/5
# Playlist track
- Wanna be Startin' Somethin'
# Notes
- This thing has Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean. In a row!
- It's fun, campy, catchy, infectious maybe. All around amazing listen.
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
# Playlist track
- The Age Of the Understatement
# Notes
- Never heard of it before, even though I really like the Arctic Monkeys.
- Found it enjoyable over all. Interesting tracks, especially in the opening tracks. Loses some steam midway though and end up on a somewhat disappointing ending.
- Very cool movi-esque instrumentals everywhere.
The White Stripes
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Fell In Love With a Girl
# Notes
- I do love The White Stripes, but I don't think this album is great.
- Love the fact that they shove 16 tracks in under 40 minutes! There are a lot of things happening, bunch of interesting tries, but just a few stick the landing.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
# Playlist track
- oh, baby
# Notes
- It's a dense album, not a dance one. I kind of like the dancier LCD Soundsystem.
- Not bad, not great. Worth the listen.
PJ Harvey
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Rid of me
# Notes
- Raw, energetic, noisy.
- Doesn't do it for me, though.
Janet Jackson
4/5
# Playlist track
- Rhythm Nation
# Notes
- I expected *nothing* of this and found the album to be pretty solid! I like the beat!
- There is too much filler and empty space in the album. Useless interludes that don't really add to the experience and a couple of meh tracks.
- All in all, way better than I expected and definitely worth checking out!
Gorillaz
5/5
# Playlist track
- 19-2000
# Notes
- Still sounds amazing! Definitely influenced by how I felt *back then* when I listened to "Clint Eastwood" for the first time on MTV.
- The album is pretty great all around, with the exception of "M1 A1", which is kind of boring.
- Very iconic album and definitely worth your time to listen a couple of times, and watch the videos too!
The Streets
2/5
# Playlist track
- Fit But You Know It
# Notes
- One of the worst albums I've ever heard.
- Opening track would be enough to make me quit the entire album if I wasn't listening for this project. One of the worst chorus ever.
- Pretty much every track flows in a weird way, but not like in a cool broken-but-it-makes-sense like in some prog rocks and jazz. Just wonky.
- The only reason this album gets one star is because there are some very interesting beats scattered throughout. It's just a shame that we cannot enjoy them without the horrible vocals laid on top.
Massive Attack
5/5
# Playlist track
- Hymn Of The Big Wheel
# Notes
- An genre-defining album.
- Love the ebb and flow of the rhythm as the listening goes on. It never gets boring or repetitive and ends in an awesome note.
- Must-listen. And a great starting point to digging more into massive attack and trip-hop in general.
The Doors
4/5
# Playlist track
- Light My Fire
# Notes
- Definitely not without its flaws.
- There are some boring moments, the lengthy solo, and the over the top moodiness in "The End". But it's a pretty great listen and left it's mark on the history of music.
Kid Rock
2/5
# Playlist track
- Cowboy
# Notes
- Let me start by saying that I have no goddamned idea of what the lyrics say. I listen to these albums while working or doing something else, so it doesn't really get to my head.
- I'm mentioning it because folks seem to thing it's REALLY shitty, and there's no way in hell that I'm listening to it all again just to make sure.
- The album sets with the right foot. It's energetic, and have a pretty cool beat.
- "Cowboy" instantly takes me to listening to MTV on my grandmother's house.
- Mid-album it has become repetitive already.
- When the ballady track and the bunch-of-talking one hit, I want to stop listening.
- It's kind of experience for folks my age to take a listen, but not a very good album to be honest.
Beth Orton
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Stolen Car
# Notes
- Bad britpop. Annoying, uninspired, bland.
- The only decent track is the first one, that is kind of discount Alanis Morrisette.
- One of the worst I've listened to, so far.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
# Playlist Track
- What's Going On
# Notes
- That's some well polished, beautifully produced soul music!
- Love the choirs and they complement Gaye's voice nicely.
- The speaking parts in "Save the children" it a bit boring
Aerosmith
2/5
# Playlist track
- Walk This Way
# Notes
- Interesting. I've listened a lot to late 80's Aerosmith, but never this one.
- Update: I'm so disappointed.
- The best track is "Walk this Way", but it's not as good as the version with Run DMC.
- It's a pretty uninspired Album. No horrible tracks, but zero great ones either.
- Only recommend to folks who already like Aerosmith and are interested in learning more where they came from.
Duran Duran
5/5
# Playlist track
- Rio
# Notes
- When I saw the cover on the recommendation page, I knew this would be great!
- The opening track, Rio, started playing and it even blew my expectations!
- I love the punchy bass, the synths, the mood. Awesome album all around, no bad tracks!
- One of the best 80's albums.
Linkin Park
2/5
# Playlist track
- Crawling
# Notes
- There are some solid tracks in there. Both "Crawling" and "In the end" definitely left a dent in the early 2000s.
- Other than that, I wasn't a huge fan when I was a teenager, and listening to it now, it seems like a very teenager-ish album.
- The instrumentals are not great, the raping verses tend to be bland. The calm to angry transitions get a bit old before the album is over.
- But in the end, it doesn't even matter.
The Cars
4/5
# Playlist track
- You're all I've got tonight
# Notes
- Never heard those guys before. Since I was too lazy to come up with this entry, I ended up listening to it for a couple of days, and I ended up enjoying it.
- It's not an amazing album, but I kind of like it!
- Won't change your life, but it's fun and well worth the listen.
Dire Straits
4/5
# Playlist track
- Your Latest Trick
# Notes
- I used to LOVE playing the sax lines of "Your Latest Trick" on the Keyboard back in my teens.
- The first side is absolutely brilliant. Banger after banger, no comments.
- Side B is a bit weaker, but since A is so great, I'm taking out only a star for it.
Tim Buckley
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Buzzin' Fly
# Notes
- I enjoyed Buckley's first album. I got it here, ended up listening to it for like a week, and even delayed getting to this one to avoid being "saturated". However, this is a very different beast.
- Two 10+ minute tracks are awful, and they make more than half of the play time for the entire album.
- Unless you're actually interesting in learning more about Buckley's career, I don't see any reason to go listening to this.
Wilco
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Jesus, Etc.
# Notes
- I like the sound and the vibe. I was very intrigued by the album cover.
- I found the music intriguing and interesting and I was interested in keep listening *most* of the time. At least a couple of songs end with weird noises that really really broke the flow for me.
- Seems like a very picky thing to complain, but it bothered me in the *three* times I tried to listen to this.
- "I Am Trying to Break Your Hear" has like an entire minute of shitty nonsense. "Poor Places" has an even worse one. Taking two stars out.
GZA
2/5
# Playlist track
- B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)
# Notes
- The album have its moments! Sometimes the flow, the samples and the mood hit just right.
- Waiting for those moments is a bit boring tho.
- Maybe more context on the time, the culture, or even Wu Tang would reveal me more about the tracks. There definitely seems to be a layer of it for people in the know.
- I doubt I'll come back to look for them. In my -admittedly limited- experience, it's just another rap album and shouldn't be in this list.
Killing Joke
3/5
# Playlist track
- Change
# Notes
- It's one of these albums that takes some time to digest and enjoy.
- First run, I pretty much hated it. The mixing is weird, with muffled vocals and muddy bass sometimes. Just didn't seem to make any sense.
- This is especially noticeable in "Wardance".
- As I listened to it a couple more times, it grew on me, though. There are cool riffs, a lot of raw energy.
- Not a great album for me, but one worth getting to know at least once.
Super Furry Animals
2/5
# Playlist track
- Something 4 the weekend
# Notes
- Albums starts right, with high energy and cool guitars. But it completely looses itself along the way.
- Band members seem disjointed. And not it a "wow, this is innovative" kind of way.
- Similarly, tracks are so disconnected from one another that it feels more like a buckshot fired from a mile.
- Overall, a very forgettable experience that I seriously doubt I'll want to repeat.
Spacemen 3
2/5
# Playlist Track
- I believe it
# Notes
- The organs and synths drone on forever. It's kind of an interesting experience at first, but it gets boring REALLY quickly.
- Not recommended.
Pink Floyd
5/5
# Playlist track
- Wish you were here
# Notes
- The weird thing about this album is that it's only 5 tracks long. Each track ebbs and flows in all kinds of interesting directions.
- There are long solos and weird explorations, yes.
- But they just work together. One moment melts into the next and you never feel stuck or waiting for something to happen.
- And, of course, there is the title track, which is just the perfect amount of trippy, sad, and emotional.
- Definitely worth listening at least once in your life! 5 stars!
Fleet Foxes
3/5
# Playlist track
- White Winter Hymnal
# Notes
- Technically good, but super boring.
- I do appreciate the harmonies, but this is a dull album and doesn't really do much unless you really crave some sulking around.
The Black Crowes
5/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
# Playlist track
- Jeremy Bender
# Notes
- Too overwhelming. Too much, all the time.
- I know and enjoy some other tracks from ELP (C'est La Vie, Lucky Man) but "Tarkus" is just too relentless and neverending. Feels like a wierd mismatch and I couldn't really get it.
Tom Waits
2/5
# Playlist track
- Heartattack And Vine
# Notes
- The album kicks off on a moody, kind of interesting vibe, which is super nice. But it never leaves. By the 3rd track I'm kind of sick of the same shtick.
- It then tried to get moving again and becomes enjoyable for a while. Waits then falls again on the hole and it's back to the same old.
- The atmosphere is there, it's well executed. But it's a bit boring to stay at this bar for the entire album.
The Replacements
3/5
# Playlist track
- I Will Dare
# Notes
- I don't dislike much about the album, but there's not much to like either.
- Vocals are kind of weak. Some good riffs, good energy.
- Can't reprehend it too much for sounding extremely 80s, as I have no idea if they are a cause or consequence of this.
- I've got a feeling that I would like it more if I've gotten to this while I was younger.
Beatles
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Octopus's Garden
# Notes
- +1 for iconic album cover
- Trippy and fun. Aged pretty well!
- Hard to overstate how influencial this ended up being. Definitely recommend for anyone that *somehow* hasn't listened to it before.
David Bowie
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Life On Mars?
# Notes
- Hard to pick a favourite for this! I already knew half the album, but "Kooks" was a pretty cool surprise!
- Creative, interesting, fun throughout.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
# Playlist Track
- I don't want to talk about it
# Notes
- Dug the opening tracks, but once "The Night I heard Caruso Sing" rolls on, I'm done.
- Kind of a boring album, unfortunately,
Jane's Addiction
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Been caught stealing
# Notes
- First half of the album is VERY good!
- Even the child voice announcing the opening is well executed leading up to a very interesting first track.
- Last few tracks are okay-ish ballads, at best.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Jealousy
# Notes
- Good album, but a bit repetitive.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Flight of the Foo Birds
# Notes
- Fun Jazz, amazing band name and album cover!
The Jesus And Mary Chain
5/5
# Playlist track
- Darklands
# Notes
- A pretty cool surprise. I knew nothing about them.
- Got hooked pretty much straight away.
- What's with this album and rain?
- Definitely worth the listen, and I look forward to getting to know others too.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
# Playlist Track
- If Only
# Notes
- Solid start, but kind of a mixed bag from track 5. Great riffs, tho. The next QOTSA albums are better.
Frank Ocean
5/5
# Playlist track
- Super Rick Kids
# Notes
- This album is so weird. But it's also so interesting.
- I love the "Street Fighter" sounds at the opening track.
- I'm not really a hip hop guy, but there are so many things to hear on this album. It was hard to choose a favorite track.
- Might be just me, but it doesn't seem that Ocean is a great singer. lol. That doesn't get in the way, tho.
- Recommended for all. Five stars.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
# Playlist track
- Zero
# Notes
- The opening tracks are SO DIFFERENT from the rest that the whole things even seems like a scam of sorts.
- Zero and Heads Will Roll are amazing, but it goes downhill from there, really fast.
- The last few ones, especially the acoustic versions are downright awful.
- It's boring, repetitive and doesn't bare any resemblance to the energetic and fun opening. What a shame.
Echo And The Bunnymen
5/5
# Playlist track
- Silver
# Notes
- I stumbled upon this album a few years ago, and it was an incredible experience. Listening to it again, I'm glad to say it still feels the same.
- The delivery is cool, the album got an interesting rhythm and under 37 minutes, it's gone before it starts to drag itself. Good call.
Saint Etienne
4/5
# Playlist Track
- People Get Real
# Notes
- Ended up listening to the whole thing a bunch of times in the past few days. It's definitely an *intriguing* album. Not an excellent one, but intriguing, for sure.
- I did enjoy some of the tracks, but was frequently distracted by weird interruptions.
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
# Playlist track
- Anyway The Wind Blows
# Notes
- This starts out super interesting. It's a dazzling journey crashing on so many different styles and references that I cannot help but admire it.
- There is such a thing as "too much kazoo" for an album. Lol.
- Taking 3 stars out for the last 3 tracks. They are incredibly annoying. Maybe that's the point? Couldn't stand it, so congrats if that's what you wanted.
Michael Jackson
4/5
# Playlist track
- Smooth Criminal
# Notes
- Not the greatest, but enjoyable throughout.
- "Bad" and "Smooth" criminal are enough to justify hearing to the whole thing, anyway.
- The other tracks (with the exception of Liberian Girl, maybe?) are good. Nothing special. But they are perfectly executed and polished.
- 4/5, recommend!
Butthole Surfers
1/5
# Playlist track
- There's no way in hell I'm adding any of those tracks to my playlist.
# Notes
- I admire the commitment. I really do. However, this is so bad that it almost made me a conservative so I could complain about "them kids and they shitty music."
- It's noisy and wild, sure. But not in a "oh wow, this noisy album is so cool!" kind of way.
Supergrass
3/5
# Playlist track
- Sun Hits The Sky
# Notes
- Listened to this a couple of times to make sure. Not once I caught myself wanting to learn more, or add a track to my playlists.
- It's a fine album, sure. It's also not memorable.
- Interesting how many people praise this in terms of life in the UK. That might make sense. But honestly, it's not a great album for folks literally everywhere else.
Mekons
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Country
# Notes
- I'm starting to believe that British music for some reason is like British cuisine.
- An incredibly boring album with just enough almost-interesting moments to double the frustration of listening to the whole thing and not actually liking a single track.
Eagles
4/5
# Playlist track
- Train Leaves Here This Morning
# Notes
- I like the atmosphere, the laid-back vibe.
- The best moments remind me of The Grateful Dead, actually.
- +1 star for great cover art.
- A mostly peaceful, very enjoyable album. Recommend.
Stephen Stills
3/5
# Playlist track
- Love the One You're With
# Notes
- Pleasant country, if a little unremarkable.
- Some interesting instrumentals here and there, cool vibes and mostly OK tracks. Gets tired a bit too quickly.
- I could give the album another star if it wasn't for "We Are Not Helpless", which is pretty bad.
Ali Farka Touré
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Beto
# Notes
- Music that magically takes you somewhere else. Where? Heck if I know.
- It sounds both familiar and new. Not being able to even recognize a single word or sound, but being driven by Toure's guitar in a comfortable, enjoyable place towards this place is super fun.
- Incredible experience, strongly recommend!
Rush
4/5
# Playlist track
- Red Barchetta
# Notes
- "Tom Sawyer" is a great opening to the album, and it is followed brilliantly by my favorite one here, Red Barchetta.
- YYZ picks out great but meanders a bit too deeply into over elaborate compositions, and the band won't get out of there until the last track, Vital Signs come up.
- A super enjoyable experience and a very rich one at that. Definitely recommend listening at least once!
Janis Joplin
5/5
# Playlist track
- Get It While You Can
# Notes
- Janis vocals are so refreshingly fun and unique.
- The accompanying band is absolutely amazing. Instrumentals are top-notch throughout!
- Janis seems like a fascinating character, and the album cover just compliments that nicely.
- Definitely worth giving a listen, or two, or three. Super fun and rewarding.
Shack
2/5
# Playlist track
- Natalie's Party
# Notes
- This is mediocre britpop, at best.
- Doesn't start out that bad (that's probably why I chose the first song to add to my playlist).
- There are interesting instrumentals and a very full, rich sound in many tracks.
- Those are one of the best features in the album, but they are overdone a number of times.
- Crescendos grow forever, and more and more instruments are added before the silly fade out ends your suffering.
- The vocals are appalling. The first minute in "Comedy" has some of the worst phrases ever sung in a mic.
- Not going to revisit this, and I like britpop a little less after that.
Funkadelic
4/5
# Playlist track
- Can you get to that
# Notes
- The opening track is a bit too slow. It doesn't really fit well with the rest of the album, and leads you into a different place that just don't exist anywhere else in the album.
- The mix of funk and progressive/psychedelic rock that takes on is super cool! Not quite funk, not quite rock. Something interesting and new.
Peter Frampton
4/5
# Playlist track
- Show me the way
# Notes
- Cool guitar riffs, great atmosphere all around.
- Couple of solid classics thrown in for good measure.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
# Playlist track
- Tears Dry On Their Own
# Notes
- Amy's vocals are absolutely brilliant. She sings with a very rare combination of talent, technique and emotion that is in full display on this album.
- The band follows dutifully. She is supported by amazing instrumentals and production.
- Just learned that Mark Ronson has his hand in the production of the album. That makes a lot of sense.
- I remember listening to it back when it was released, and you couldn't go to any parties without "Rehab" being played twice. Re-listening again, it's impossible not to get a little bit sad about her tragic life and all the sadness that fueled these amazing songs.
Dire Straits
4/5
# Playlist track
- Sultans of Swing
# Notes
- Just got "Brothers in Arms" recently. Nice to hear their debut and to connect them together.
- This one isn't as polished or interesting as the next, but it's a great debut. Their style is pretty unique and it's well worked in each track. Not long enough to be boring or repetitive.
- Not life changing, but definitely worth the listen!
Pink Floyd
3/5
# Playlist track
- Astronomy Domine
# Notes
- It's kind of interesting to listen and to ponder what Pink Floyd could have been with Syd Barret.
- Having said that, this isn't a great album. It's interesting, and noisy, but it is not quite there yet.
- Worth a listen, but just move over to the other albums after.
Prefab Sprout
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Bonny
# Notes
- Very nostalgic 80's vibes, sure. But also a not very interesting album, with an atrocious tail-end. The last few tracks are super boring.
- I'd give it a higher rate if it was shorter. Just a burst of 80's vibe.
- Not horrible, but a very forgettable experience that I don't look forward to repeat.
Elliott Smith
5/5
# Playlist track
- Stupidity Tries
# Notes
- Was hearing to this in a very very busy week and ended up re-playing the album a bunch of time instead of moving over to the next one.
- I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's sad, of course. Knowing it was Elliot's final album just makes it a bit sadder. Still, it feel heartfelt and sincere and it definitely is worth a listen.
Nina Simone
5/5
# Playlist track
- Lilac Wine
# Notes
- An absolute delight!
- "Lilac Wine" and "Wild is the wind" are both songs that I love and never realized were covers. Super cool to listen to the original versions.
Television
5/5
# Playlist track
- See no Evil
# Notes
- Got that as a recommendation from Flea (Red Hot Chilli Peppers). The day one of the members died (Tom Verlaine, I think) I read a note on Twitter saying that "Marquee Moon" was somewhat of a defining album for him.
- Blown away from the first track! It's really really good.
- Ended up re-listening today and the album is super fun! Definitely recommend!
Lou Reed
5/5
# Playlist track
- Walk on the wild side.
# Notes
- Loved listening to "Walk on the wild side" and thinking about A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It". Great song and bass line.
- Hated to read that due to copyright stuff, A Tribe Called quest never got once cent out of their song.
- Album was super cool, tho. Recommend!
Tori Amos
2/5
# Playlist track
- Happy Phantom
# Notes
- I feel this album is way way overdone. There is too much singing, if that makes sense. It's like Adele, if Adele was more interesting. It's better, but not a good album.
Johnny Cash
5/5
# Playlist track
- Personal Jesus
# Notes
- Just realized that Fiona Apple sings along in Bridge Over Troubled Water. Holy shit.
- This album is beautiful. It's an emotional, sincere and somber farewell. The perfect way to cement his legacy.
- The finitude of life really hits hard on this one, eh?
Love
4/5
# Playlist track
- Alone Again Or
# Notes
- Kind of a cool album, but pretty forgettable too.
- I like the arrangements and the instrumentals alone make this one worth a good listen.
- Sometimes the track blend in into another, as the album fails to keep interest through the listen. Not a capital sin, but taking one star off.
- Still, nice find. Looking forward to listen more.
OutKast
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Hey Ya
# Notes
- There are some amazing moments in this! Examples:
- The synths in "GhettoMusick"
- The jazzy bass in "My Favorite Things"
- The groovy guitars in "Happy Valentine's Day"
- That being said, the album is way too long and those moments end up spread too thin.
- Kinda cool, happy to pick some tracks for my playlists, but not coming back for the entire thing.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
# Playlist track
- Stephanie Says
# Notes
- Nah. Just a couple of OK-ish songs amongst a sea of noise. Not the cool kind of noise tho.
- In all fairness, this is a bullshit Deluxe Edition with a bunch of different versions for each track, so I'm probably being unreasonable with my evaluation.
- That's the only one available for me in Spotify tho. Fuck you Spotify!
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
# Playlist track
- Statesboro Blues
# Notes
- It is not a *bad* album, but it loses itself way too many times and for way too long.
- At some point between the never ending solos you're just tired of listening to pretty much the same thing over and over.
- Go somewhere else if you want to listen to Allman Brothers.
Charles Mingus
3/5
# Playlist track
- Track A - Solo Dancer
# Notes
- This is hard to hear. It commands so much attention, and it keeps surprising you, bringing something new and changing course in the last minute. All the time!
- You can either take that as a positive or a negative, but this is one hell of a ride. It was a bit exhausting to me, personally, especially the last track, that clocks out at almost 20 minutes.
- An interesting experience, but one that I won't repeat soon.
Tangerine Dream
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Sequent C
# Notes
- NOTE: Only the last 2 tracks were available on the time of listening!
- This is music tailored to a very precise kind of mood or situation. It's slow and trippy in a good way. The kind of trippy that takes you along for this smooth, quiet ride.
- This isn't however, a ride you'll want to take every day.
Stan Getz
5/5
# Playlist track
- Desafinado
# Notes
- Incredibly smooth and compelling. Makes you want to drop everything and head for the beach for a nice beer.
- Masterful instrumentals and beautiful poetry on the lyrics.
- For the non-Portuguese speaking friends out there: I do recommend taking a few moments to read the lyrics out. They are great.
- One of my favorite albums so far, in the 300+ I've reviewed already.
Pink Floyd
5/5
# Playlist track
# Notes
- There is a very good reason why that cover art is one of the most recognizable artworks of all time!
- As an album, this is a very different experience and it does require an open mind to enjoy it, maybe listening a couple of times. Even having considered that, the transition from "Brain Damage" to "Eclipse" is an absolute masterpiece of an apotheotic moment and one of the best endings to any album in history.
- That alone makes this album worth a listen, even if you don't enjoy Pink Floyd.
- Had a real real good time re-listeing to it. You should go do the same!
The Flaming Lips
4/5
# Playlist track
- Do You Realize?
# Notes
- A very interesting surprise! Some sort of experimental weird sci-fi not-quite-rock-opera.
- I didn't really enjoy it the first time around, to be honest. But as I got back to it a couple more times, I ended up finding it interesting. Charming, even.
- This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's worth experiencing it anyway.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
4/5
# Playlist track
- Kicks
# Notes
- Never heard of those folks before.
- Very fun. Kind of blows my mind that this came out in 1966. They sound a fair bit more modern.
- The ballads are not as good, tho.
- Still, worth the listen!
Ms. Dynamite
1/5
# Playlist track
- It Takes More - Bloodshy Main Mix
# Notes
- A couple of good tracks, but mostly an uninspired, boring album.
- I was kinda listening to the whole thing in the background but when "Watch Over Them" played, I needed to stop doing whatever I was doing to wrap up this review. One of the worst, flattest, poorest interludes I've ever heard.
- By this time this album was gunning for 3 stars, but this track alone should take one off.
- A 10 minute ending track? C'mon, just end already.
- 1/5 not recommend.
Beatles
4/5
# Playlist track
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
# Notes
- 90 mins, 30 tracks. There are a bunch of awesome ones, yes. But the album as a whole feels kind of disjointed and not very well put together.
- If you're a fan of the Beatles, and want to get this deeper dive on their musical history, this is a must-listen! Otherwise, not really.
The Coral
3/5
# Playlist track
- Goodbye
# Notes
- The opening track is really really bad. It sets this huge tension and suspense and breaks it with a super shitty chorus, I went into the album with a bad taste in my mouth.
- I mean, there are a few interesting instrumentals here and there, like the guitars on "Shadow Fall" and "Goodbye", but it's otherwise pretty forgettable.
- Giving it a point or two for the surprise, but it's hard for me to believe that this belongs on this list.
- Cool, but don't go out of your way to listen to it.
3/5
# Playlist track
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
# Notes
- I'm not a huge Bono fan, so that definitely affects my experience.
- Album is not *bad*. But it's very very U2-ish, which can be something good or bad for you.
- I do like Brian Eno very much, tho, and he helped produced this. I wonder what where can his influence be heard.
- Interesting album, nice piece of musical history, but doesn't make it to my top 100.
Sonic Youth
2/5
# Playlist track
- Dirty Boots
# Notes
- I've been to a Sonic Youth concert before. SWU Festival. I has kind of hyped to see them, as I have learned of how cool and disruptive and interesting they were. Long story short, it was one of the worst I have ever seen.
- I was pleasantly surprised when the opening track, "Dirty Boots" didn't sound like the shitty, pretentious never ending guitar scratching I heard years before.
- My joy was to be short lived, tho. As the album goes on, pretty much every track delves into a formulaic noise that just doesn't cut it for me. It's cool when you see it once or twice, but the album never moves away from it and ends up a bit boring and predictable.
- I was glad when it ended.
Fiona Apple
4/5
# Notes
- I've only came to know Fiona Apple when she released the (amazing) [[Fiona Apple, Fetch the Boltcutters]].
- I've heard a few tracks before, sure, but never a full album.
- Very cohesive, consistent album throughout. Great opener, nice mood swing from "Shadowboxer" to "Criminal".
- I don't *love* every track, and it gets a bit tiring here and there. She really puts her out singing and it weights on you.
- Even if it's not your favorite genre, definitely worth a listen! 4/5
Rod Stewart
3/5
# Playlist track
- It's all over now
# Notes
- Not a *bad* album, but I fail to see what's the reason to consider it one of the best in all time.
- Got this feeling that Rod Stewart is really good at one trick, but one trick only, and he uses it in every track.
- Nice, not great. No bad tracks (maybe Jo's Lament), but no awesome ones either.
Ian Dury
3/5
# Playlist track
- Wake Up And Make Love With Me
# Notes
- Never heard of this guy before.
- Opening track has banger bass+piano combo.
- This whole thing is a trip! It's not *good*, but it is really catchy at times, and super fun too.
- I don't think I'll be listening to this *all the time* but it was a wild ride, one definitely worth taking.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
# Playlist track
- Pitch The Baby
# Notes
- All around cool vibes! It's a fun, atmospheric, endearing listen.
- I would have love to see a bit more diversity and movement, especially on the last quarter of the album, but the opening act more than makes it up for it.
- Definitely makes me want to listen to more of their discography!
John Lennon
2/5
# Playlist track
- Hold On
# Notes
- Is this "widely regarded as Lennon's best solo album"? Oh no.
- I'll level with you all. The only reason this album even got someone to listen to it is because Lennon's name.
- Don't get me wrong, it's cool to have this in context of his life, the "primal scream" therapy thing and all. IF you are a Lennon fan, that is.
- Musically, this is passable, at best. Lyrics are OK, instrumentals are weak. Songs tend to be repetitive. The screaming thing is just annoying.
- Hear it once, as a piece of Lennon's biography, but don't expect to be coming back for more.
Yes
4/5
# Playlist track
- Long Distance Runraound
# Notes
- There are a handful of SOLID tracks in there.
- Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround and Heart of the Sunrise are probably my favorites. Also, Simon and Garfunkel's "America" become something else with them!
- Epic instrumentation and top-notch prog!
- Rick Wakeman mans the keyboards and synths on this one, and it really shows!
- That, this album kind of forces you in a trip that is sometimes bumpy. Got me in a good day, tho. I enjoyed it, but I can't fault those who don't.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
# Playlist track
- Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
# Notes
- A behemoth of an album. This 59 song, 3 hour+ monstrosity have no right at all being in a list like this.
- I tackled this maybe 2-3 days in a row and I have no idea if I managed to listen to every track.
- Having said that, whatever I got to listen was pretty enjoyable! Silky smooth instrumentals with Ella's powerful voice go really well together, who could imagine.
- Great soundtrack for a dinner or party, but it really really should be taken in smaller doses.
The Smiths
4/5
# Playlist track
- The Headmaster Ritual
# Notes
- I hope you have the chance of listening to this without knowing anything about Morrissey.
- Having said that, the arrangements are top-notch! Marr (the guitarist) is really an underrated musician.
- Meat is murder is kind of a pretentious, self-righteous track, but that's in-character for them.
Rush
3/5
# Playlist Track
- A Passage to Bangkok
# Notes
- A cool album, but one that only works for the true prog fans. The craft and mastery on it is very obvious and shows without the arrogance and overcomplication that tends to be in 20-min prog tracks, which is really remarkable.
- For the non-fans out there, I'd say start your Rush journey somewhere else.
The Smiths
5/5
# Playlist track
- Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
# Notes
- Probably one of the first CDs (yeah, the physical disk) I ever touched. I didn't like it that much, back then. I was like 10 or something.
- Album starts a bit slow, but REALLY picks up with "Bigmouth Strikes Again". From there until the end it's absolutely amazing.
- Even the well-worn "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" stood the test of time beautifully and it still is a great song.
Beatles
4/5
# Playlist track
- Can't Buy Me Love
# Notes
- It's cool that they've crammed 13 tracks in 30 minutes. No beating around the bush here.
- Listening to something like this in the 2020s it's hard to imagine how different that sounded way back then. It has been so impactful that we're all kind of used to the sound, anyway.
- Early Beatles were FUN. That's what this album is.
- Definitely recommend!
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
# Playlist Track
- California Dreamin'
# Notes
- What is the deal with that cover?! 😁
- Cool vibes, impressive harmonies!
- A pleasant listen through and through. Super cool that is their first album, too!
Thundercat
5/5
# Playlist track
- Tokyo
# Notes
- I fully understand that this mix of Jazz, Hip Hop & Soul is not for everyone. It takes some time to kind of listen to all of the weird layers and references included in this thing. But boy, you'll be happy you did.
- This took me a good 4 or 5 runs to get used to, and I enjoyed all of them.
- Yeah. It's music for weird people. But I'm weird, so it works out.
Solomon Burke
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Can't Nobody Love You
# Notes
- This is one of those albums that you really need to frame in historical context to appreciate. Just listening to it, I thought "Oh well. Cool Album, the end.". Turns out this came out in 1964!
- Solomon was one the people that carved the sound that would define soul music later. And he sounds great while at it.
- Definitely recommend!
Green Day
4/5
# Playlist track
- Basket Case
# Notes
- Super fun!
- I happened to listen to this a lot as a pre-teen, so it feels really nostalgic. Still, after all this years it feels young, fresh and energetic.
- Not quite punk, not quite pop. But that's not really an issue.
- Album would do better without the last 3-4 songs, but they are not terrible. Cost 1 star from my review tho!
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Our House
# Notes
- A bit slow and repetitive.
- I can't dig the harmonies in every single song. Just not my thing.
- I HATED the chorus on "Country Girl".
Scott Walker
1/5
# Playlist track
- Jackie
# Notes
- Repetitive. Very, very repetitive.
- Dude's a decent singer, but definitely a one-trick pony. Spends most of the album over-singing and over-acting.
- The whole thing is built like it's a grand, monumental even, act and it does show potential, but ends up falling flat on its face. No amount of orchestras and producers can save this from being super slow and boring.
Metallica
4/5
# Playlist track
- One
# Notes
- As someone who listened to A LOT of Metallica MP3's back in Napster, it's a nice experience listening to a full album, instead of loosely collected tracks.
- Sidenote: in my personal experience there's an awesome exception to this: `S&M`. Got the album for cheap in some sale close to Christmas time, and I've heard it a billion times.
- Also, the only reason I got it it was the price: it cost the same as other albums, but had 2 CDs, so twice the music! Got Deep Purple's live concert in the same haul and I love both!
- Back to the main subject: It's Metallica. It's fast, angry, energetic. This teases what Metallica will become later on. A cool experience, but far from being their best work.
Pulp
4/5
# Playlist track
- Common People
# Notes
- Actually good britpop.
- Had a lot of fun! Great energy!
- Some weird lyrics mixed in there? I listened to it while I worked, so I honestly don't know. And I won't get back to check now,
Happy Mondays
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Lazyitis
# Notes
- Yet another British album that I think is kind of annoying. lol.
- Not a bad one, but not super interesting either. Weirdly mixed and with 80ish vibes muddy vocals.
- I dig the Beatles reference in "Lazyitis"
Abdullah Ibrahim
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Mandela
# Notes
- A surprisingly accessible, fun and warm jazz album.
- Had never heard it before, but ended up spending most of my afternoon with it.
The Birthday Party
1/5
# Playlist Track
- N/A
# Notes
- Album not easily available in Brazil. Not in Spotify, not in Youtube.
- Listened to some tracks on Youtube, with inconsistent quality and ordering.
- They were....not good.
- Maybe there's some historical reason this album is on this list? Is it because Nick Cave is on it? It must be, because there isn't much to it unless you are a gigantic Nick Cave fan.
- Do not recommend.
Jurassic 5
5/5
# Playlist track
- If You Only Knew
# Notes
- Never heard of them before.
- Amazing album!
- Fun beats, good flow, cool samples.
- Reminds me of a Tribe Called Quest and De la Soul.
- Definitely recommend, even to people that are not into hiphop.
Mike Ladd
2/5
# Playlist track
- Airwave Hysteria
# Notes
- One of those albums that really make you consider what the fuck whoever made this list had in their minds.
- Not a *terrible* album, but a mostly forgettable, slow, repetitive and boring hip-hop that has no place amongst the other albums here.
- I've insisted and ended up listening to it two or three times.
- There are cool instrumentals and interesting samples sometimes, but they not warrant a full 1 hour listed of this.
- Not recommended.
Cornershop
2/5
# Playlist track
- Brimful of Asha
# Notes
- The opening track, followed by "Brimful of Asha" filled me with hope. Could it be one of these treasure albums? Something new and interesting that you have missed somehow and are about to become a new obsession?
- NOPE! Most of the tracks are incredibly boring.
- I'll give credit for the Indian spice here and there. If it wasn't for that, the entire thing would be awful.
- Still, there isn't enough curry in the world to make bland music be good. The overall experience is sluggish and uninteresting, much like Britain itself.
Moby
4/5
# Playlist track
- Bodyrock
# Notes
- Bit of a long play, but there are so many cool tracks that I'll allow it.
- Doesn't really factor here, but Moby also released some amazing videos, go watch them.
- Taking one star out as there are a few snoozers in there, like Inside and The Sky Is Broken.
The Soft Boys
3/5
# Playlist track
- Underwater Moonlight
# Notes
- Is that really a 40 song, 2 and a half hour album? No way dude.
- This is a fun listen. The energy is there, cool guitars and all. But that's WAY too much.
- "You'll have to go sideways" is just a boring solo.
- Stopping the listen around track 13 or so. This just isn't good enough to justify 3 hours with it.
Nico
2/5
# Playlist track
- The Fairest of The Seasons
# Notes
- I was excited to get to know this, since I really really like Velvet Underground.
- Major disappointment.
- Album starts out OK but drags on and on in an insufferable parade of boring and uninspired tracks.
- Do not recommend.
Sparks
4/5
# Playlist track
- This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
# Notes
- A wonderfully strange and fun album.
- It sounds like some early glam rock + pop mix. It's a bit *too* weird at times, but I really dig it.
- There are interesting sounds in pretty much every track, and discovering them for the first time was a really joyful thing. Also, the singer is a dude? LOL!
- Had never heard about Sparks before. Nice recommendation! I'm looking forward to hear other albums.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
# Playlist track
- Castles Made Of Sand
# Notes
- I was expecting more of a guitar shredding all-around experience and, boy, I'm glad to be wrong.
- Jimi's guitars are front and center, of course, but there is plenty variety to keep the listening experience interesting and fresh from start to finish.
- The intro track, Exp, is a bit boring and "If 6 as 9" overextends the noisy solo. Taking a star out for that.
- Still, a very recommended listen for anyone, not only rock fans.
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
# Playlist track
- Streets of Bakersfield
# Notes
- As stereotypical as it can be. From the accent to the instruments, this is as comically country as you can be.
- Not horrible, but very predictable and boring.
- I guess it would be amazing for die hard american country fans, but I'm not that demographic at all.
Morrissey
2/5
# Playlist track
- Everyday is Like Sunday
# Notes
- First album after "Smiths" broke up. Mar is sorely missed!
- There are good tracks, sure, but it's just not as good as "The Queen is Dead" and it ends in a very very boring couple of tracks.
Radiohead
2/5
# Playlist track
- Idioteque
# Notes
- Not a huge fan of Radiohead, overall. I do enjoy the ocasional experimental album but "Kid A" doesn't do it for me.
- Sounds overly muddy and jumbled.
X-Ray Spex
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Germfree Adolescence
# Notes
- Kind of interesting post-punk, but bad vocals are distracting. I know. Punk. But also, English.
- Enjoyed the crappy sax, here and there.
Brian Wilson
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Surf's up
# Notes
- What an amazing coincidence. Just read all about this album, because of Brian Wilson's death a couple of days ago.
- Pretty sure that knowing the story and paying attention to the melodies affects the experience a lot.
- It's interesting, it's super rich. Chockfull of beautiful harmonies, I'll give it that.
- But it's also too long and gets tiresome. A worthy listen, but not on my favourites.
The Darkness
5/5
# Playlist Track
- I Believe in a Thing Called Love
# Notes
- Oh boy, I'm getting old. Still remember when this album came out, 22 years ago.
- I laughed *so much* to the clip for "I believe in a thing called love". Re-watched today and it still silly funny!
- The whole album is a great time. It takes itself just seriously enough to believe that glam-hair-hard-rock is a real genre and they are great at it.
New Order
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Fine Time
# Notes
- Really enjoyed the 80's vibes and the overall rhythm!
- Not my favourite, but definitely worth the listen.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Tonight, tonight
# Notes
- Very biased review. I listed to this for the first time when I was like 14 years old and it blew my mind back then.
- Listening to it back to back this whole time, I still get some spectacular moments all over again:
- The hopefulness of "Tonight, Tonight"
- The riot for "Bullet with butterfly wings"
- Summer chill of "1979".
- Having said that, the album is objectively super long and can be a bit too hard to approach for new comers. 100% recommended, sure. But going for a "Smashing Pumpkins Best Of" is also understandable!
Tricky
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Overcome
# Notes
- It starts well, with a trip-hop vibe that is really cool. Really enjoyed the instrumentals in the beginning.
- On "Hell is Round the Corner", the "Glory Box" sample is cool, but it almost feels like a reimagined version.
- On "Brand New You're Retro", the Michael Jackson one is better executed.
- The tail end of the album is pretty poor, and the recurring whirring on "Strugglin'" is just awful.
- Interesting listen, worth taking the time, but I won't be coming back often.
The Specials
2/5
# Playlist Track
- A message to you Rudy
# Notes
- Once again a lame British singer makes an entire genre worse.
- I can dig the laid back fun here and there, but no instrumentals can save vocals that bad.
Mylo
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Drop the pressure
# Notes
- Most tracks are OK. There are groovi-ish beats and fun moments, but most samples with voices are just boring and overdone. If all speech samples were taken out, this would be a 4 stars pick.
- The title track is especially boring and uninspired.
- Rock & Roll is perfectly safe, but disco music might have just taken a hit from this one.
Drive-By Truckers
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Ronnie And Neil
# Notes
- This album is bad. No way around it. It's one of those things that you can only really enjoy if you have this particularly keen interest on the American south. And I'm not saying this just because is comically stereotypical, but also because it's a double album.
- So, unless you're borderline 'murica fanatic, it's unlikely that you can enjoy the full 90 minutes of this weird thing.
- I would give 3 stars for a 30 to 40 minutes "best of", but I don't recommend anyone but the proudest rednecks to sit through the whole thing.
The B-52's
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Planet Claire
# Notes
- Silly fun, in a very good way!
- Unfortunately "Lava" and "Hero Worship" are not available in my country for some reason. No idea how this would affect the score.
Sisters Of Mercy
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Dominion / Mother Russia
# Notes
- I'm going to go ahead and give it one extra star for the album cover before even pressing play.
- Super cheesy. Love the heavy synths and reverbs. It's a very very 80s sound.
- Recommend!
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Shining Star
# Notes
- A super fun and energetic album, with a couple of duds thrown in.
- The opening track "Shining Star" is a blast, and it's followed by the super cool ballad that titles the album.
- "All about love" then indicates that the album won't live up to its beginning and "Reasons" misses the mark on the overly dramatic vocals.\
- The rest is good. Not amazing, but not bad either.
- Overall a pretty fun experience. Recommend!
Ali Farka Touré
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Bonde
# Notes
- Super interesting and fun!
- Feels like your traveling and find some amazing local cuisine. They don't go wild on the spices, as they know you're a tourist, but still gives you a rich glimpse of how those people enjoy themselves.
Sam Cooke
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Bring it on Home to me
# Notes
- Pretty fun!
- The record quality isn't great, but it's pretty interesting.
The Kinks
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Sunny Afternoon
# Notes
- Uninspired, at best.
- Album is too long and too littered with ill-developed ideas. I only had access to the Spotify version with a bunch of extra tracks, but all of them feel unnecessary and half baked.
ABBA
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Money, Money, Money
# Notes
- A super fun and interesting album which is completely overshadowed by "Dancing Queen".
- With good reason! Dancing Queen is a masterpiece in disco history!
- If you can get past that and enjoy some of the less-brilliant-but-still-awesome tracks, you're sure to have a great time. Recommend!
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Geno
# Notes
- A weird, mixed, overly-British bag.
- There are some cool tracks, like "Geno", and there's some youthful energy that almost makes the album fun at times.
- However, with tracks as bad as "I couldn't help it if I tried", this is tough to recommend. The slower, ballad-like tracks are all incredibly dull.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
# Playlist Track
- King Kunta
# Notes
- Note that I'm not taking lyrics into account, as I listen to the albums while doing something else.
- Musically, it's particularly interesting.
- It's not bad! I dig the jazzy references and samples in the beginning.
- This doesn't have enough for over an hour, tho.
Beatles
5/5
# Playlist Track
- For No One
# Notes
- Full of gems from start to finish.
- Is it weird that Yellow Submarine is in this album? Feels weird to me.
- I totally get the praise for the depiction of Eleanor Rigby. It is a GREAT song. Having said that, "For No One" is criminally underappreciated. It's a brutal depiction of heartbreak and being so trivially mundane makes it worse.
- Totally recommend!
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
# Playlist Track
- The Cutter
# Notes
- Not taking into consideration the extra tracks from the extended album.
- Opening is fantastic, but the album loses steam as it goes. It's not a bad album, but nowhere close to Ocean Rain, for example.
- Really dug the marimba (?) solo in My White Devil.
- I've been getting way too many brits on this list.
Blondie
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Hanging on the telephone
# Notes
- Not looking at the additional tracks from the extended version.
- For something published almost half a century ago, this sounds pretty damn modern and fresh!
- Listening to this on Debbie Harry's birthday! She's 80 today?! Oh my!
Sonic Youth
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Teen Age Riot
# Notes
- Tried Sonic Youth a few times now. Even went to see them at a festival years ago. I kind of get the appeal, but definitely it's not for me.
- Not enough substance to justify over 1h playing time. Everything starts sounding the same and the riot blends into noise that I just can't get to like.
Bob Dylan
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Tangled Up in Blue
# Notes
- A pretty damn good Dylan album! +1 for having a good album that doesn't contain any of his most famous songs.
- Folksy, interesting, making great use of his weird vocals.
- I probably should go listen to a few more Dylan tracks.
Grateful Dead
2/5
# Playlist Track
- St. Stephen
# Notes
- The kind of experience that doesn't really translate well from the stage to a record. Never ending solos, long moments where the band is clearly chilling and enjoying. As a listener, you just feel left out.
- 2 stars and one of them is because of the awesome cover.
The Prodigy
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Mindfields
# Notes
- This is a BLAST.
- +1 for iconic album cover.
- There are less-than-stellar moments, like the "Narayan" dragging itself a bit too long and the weird glitchy sounds that make me thing the computer froze.
- Still, giant banger. Full of explosive energy and absolutely crazy cool tracks.
Billy Bragg
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Hoodoo Voodoo
# Notes
- Found the ballad-y tracks (especially "Birds and Ships") to be boring.
- The tail end of the album just drags on forever.
- An OK listen, but not one I'm dying to do again soon.
Taylor Swift
4/5
# Playlist Track
- no body, no crime (feat HAIM)
# Notes
- Not particularly interesting, but not too bad either.
- I'm 39, so not really the target demographic in here.
- Soothing, slow, smooth, pop-country whispered-singered ballads with catchy choruses.
- Great artist feats!
- A bit too underwhelming for me. Didn't really pay attention to the lyrics, to be honest.
My Bloody Valentine
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Lose My Breath
# Notes
- There's something about this that makes me feel incredibly old. I just can't seem to enjoy the droning mix on those tracks.
- Everything gets blended in a repetitive, monotone rumble that just isn't for me. Not event a single good track on this one.
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Poison Arrow
# Notes
- Lots of fun for anyone who enjoys that 80's sound. The synths and bass lines are on point.
- Album starts great, but ends in a low note. A few tracks, like "All of my heart" are a bit overdone. Nothing too bad.
- Still worth the listen.
Slint
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Breadcrumb Trail
# Notes
- Not my cup of tea.
Ravi Shankar
4/5
# Playlist Track
- An Introduction to Indian Music
# Notes
- A fabulously interesting experience. Taking an start out, as it's not really great album to listen all the time. Pretty situational stuff.
- Still, definitely recommend the experience! Really takes you to a wholly different soundscape.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Worlds Apart
# Notes
- Pleasantly surprised by the vocals and vibes in a few tracks.
- Album runs too long and gets muddied and a bit repetitive.
- Not horrible tracks, but no great ones either
Bad Company
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Can't Get Enough
# Notes
- Not amazing, still pretty good.
Incredible Bongo Band
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Apache
# Notes
- "Apache" takes me back. WAY Back!
- The entire thing is super cool! It's a really unique sound and, against all odds of it's somewhat silly premise, it's incredibly fun and -save for a few longer solos- chill. Recommend!
Todd Rundgren
3/5
# Playlist Track
- I saw the light
# Notes
- I could give this a 4, easily, if this was cut in half.
- Bunch of cool tracks intertwined to wildly different, bad experiments.
- Some of them, like "Little Red Lights" are so bad I had to skip the track.
- Appreciate you trying, Todd. But no.
Chicago
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Listen
# Notes
- The solo sessions in "Free Form Guitar" and "I'm a Man" are -2 stars. Easy.
- The entire live thing is super boring, actually.
- That's not to say that Chicago is a bad band, but boy, did they put out a bad album.
Blur
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Girls & Boys
# Notes
- Very solid start! Opening track is killer! It sadly loses momentum after 6-7 tracks and it's a bit disappointing towards the end.
- It is a pretty good britpop album, but it's still britpop.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Souvenir
# Notes
- Most tracks are either boring, annoying or uninspiring. And there are 16 of them.
- I might have enjoyed a few during the listen, but how could I know? There's always a bad one after.
- Not recommended.
Beastie Boys
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Fight For Your Right
# Notes
- This is crazy good. It's weird and broken and annoying in all the right ways.
- YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTAY is such an amazing verse. The entire song would be worth 2 stars on its own.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
# Playlist Track
- All I Wanna Do
# Notes
- A few interesting tracks, but an intolerable amount of over-singing. Most of the listen feels a bit forced and over exerted.
- Not coincidentally, my favourite track is of the light, careless, chill ones.
- Not horrible, tho. OK pop, that could just take it a bit easier on the mics.
Meat Puppets
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Magic Toy Missing
# Notes
- Didn't like a single song. Can't believe this, but I'm too old for this.
- It's shapeless, formless, but not in an interesting way where you can explore and detach. It's noisy, annoying and with very very poor vocals. Sometimes the guitars are cool. Sometimes.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Gimme Shelter
# Notes
- A mediocre album with an incredible opening.
- Midnight Rambler and Love in Vain deserve -1 star each, easily.
Hookworms
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Negative Space
# Notes
- Couple of good tracks in the opening, but loses it's way from the 3rd or 4th track.
- "The Soft Season" and "Boxing Day" are so bad that I almost gave up on the album twice.
- This has absolutely no place on this collection.
The Blue Nile
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Tinseltown In The Rain
# Notes
- Incredibly pretentious and boring. Of the few albums in this entire collection that I didn't manage to listen in it's entirety.
- Might have been more interesting at the time, surely. Trying some new stuff maybe? I don't know. But it aged super poorly.
- Not recommended.
Marty Robbins
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Big Iron
# Notes
- Super fun listen! Old-timey charm.
- Nice to listen the roots that made folks like Johnny Cash after him
- Dude looks like a PS1 character on the cover, though.
Bob Dylan
3/5
# Playlist Track
- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
# Notes
- Includes epic tracks, like Subterranean Homesick Blues and Mr. Tambourine Man.
- Not my favourite, but good overall. No horrible tracks, at least.
- I wonder if Dylan ever listened to the Brazilian version of "It's All Over Now" (Negro Amor) which is, frankly, miles ahead.
Sepultura
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Roots Bloody Roots
# Notes
- Not a huge trash metal fan, but this is pretty amazing!
- Incredible mix of rhythms, instruments and cultures.
- Dare to say it's worth the listen, even if you are not a heavy metal fan.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
4/5
# Playlist Track
- The Fun Loving Criminal
# Notes
- A strangely fun and absolutely silly album.
- This really seems to have been all thought all for edgy confused teenagers?
- I'll confess to the super confused. Bad hip hop, with decent instrumentals and a bunchy of catchy parts.
- I'd love to hate it, but I honestly think it's so silly it is fun.
Genesis
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Firth of Fifth
# Notes
- Oh boy. I've first heard this as a vinyl record.
- Side A still kicks ass. Yeah, the tracks are long and meandering, but taking the trip is well worth it. I love the pacing and the diversity.
- The flute lines in "Firth of Fifth" are just *chef's kiss*.
- After the huge "Battle of Epping Forest" things get a bit lost and the tail end is not as good.
- Still a listen that I very much recommend!
The Cramps
2/5
# Playlist Track
- I Was A Teenage Werewolf
# Notes
- Boring punk, not cool punk.
- Yeah, they can scream and make some noises, but can they put a good album together? I don't think so.
American Music Club
2/5
I'm really glad this one wasn't available on Spotify, so I don't have to add it to my playlist.
Super uninspired and boring
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Block Rockin' Beats
# Notes
- I love the Chemical Brothers, but their first couple of albums are more of a training ground, in my opinion. Good, but not the best.
- I can see how this might be exhausting for some folks, but I was lucky enough to listen to them for the first time during my teenage years.
Goldfrapp
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Utopia
# Notes
- A highly experimental album that gets a lot of things right.
- The spacey-jazzy-atmosphere is cool and involving but a few tracks are a bit too slow.
- Worth the listen, but Goldfrapp's latter albums are a bit more fun.
Tito Puente
5/5
# Playlist Track
- El Cayuco
# Notes
- This is crazy fun! Never heard of the guy before, but he's good!
- `Graças a Diòs nasci en latinoamérica!`
- The entire thing is super fun, groovy and light at the same time. An incredible time-travelling experience that leaves you better than you were when you started.
Primal Scream
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Get Duffy
# Notes
- This album has some really cool moments. I did enjoy the opening act and up to "If They Move Kill 'Em" things go pretty well. It's weird, but it's cool.
- It then stumbles and tracks like "Stuka" are not great, to say the least.
- Interesting experiments and worthwhile, at least once.
- Primal Scream is kind of an acquired taste, I guess.
Lorde
5/5
# Playlist Track
- Supercut
# Notes
- +1 star for great art on cover
- I enjoy the diversity, from the opening dance to the slower, deeper ballads and sad songs, it's a fun and interesting ride.
- Lorde's vocals shine through great instrumentals on most tracks but are never overbearing.
- One of the most interesting singers of recent. Definitely recommend.
Spiritualized
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Shine A Light
# Notes
- Needed to listen to it a couple of time before actually enjoying it. If my memory serves me right, their other album in the project had a similar effect.
- It's an annoying listen at times. The pauses and drama drag a bit too long, and it gets a bit boring while you wait for the next cool moment. But those moments are there.
- Good, not great. Recommend for the indie folks only.
Goldfrapp
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Caravan Girl
# Notes
- Good, albeit a bit too-slow listen. There are shining moments here and there, but overall it's more of a gloomy vibe that just won't jive with every mood.
- I did enjoy the transition to 'Caravan Girl' very much, but that left me wanting a bit more variety in the album.
Dolly Parton
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Coat of Many Colors
# Notes
- Not a huge fan of country music, but Dolly Parton is amazing.
- Also, +1 star for an album under 30 minutes with zero bad tracks. I do respect the care and restraint.
Kraftwerk
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Kometenmelodie 2
# Notes
- The album is a pleasure and a joy, but it is DENSE. Very much so, at times.
- Recommend to people who want to understand the history of electronic music, and the ones who are willing to give this the attention and time it requires of you. Not a great casual listen.
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Wonderwall
# Notes
- Wonderwall must be one of the most over-played songs in the history of over played songs. But it is pretty good. And it was a significant part of my teenage years.
- This is a pretty good album. Carries some nostalgia, but I reckon it aged well and I would recommend it even for those way younger than me.
Finley Quaye
2/5
# Playlist Track
- Sunday Shining
# Notes
- Album starts alright! I dared to be optimistic about what was coming. Reggae is not my cup of tea, but maybe I'd get a few nice tracks out of it.
- I was wrong. After the third track, it all gets super repetitive and uninspiring, with the tail end of the album being *bad*, including the title track.
# Playlist Track
- Too Bad
# Notes
- A fun, easy listening album.
- It lacked memorable moments, but was pretty nice throughout.
- Never heard of Faces before, open to listening more.
Blue Cheer
1/5
# Playlist Track
- Summertime Blues
# Notes
- This is one of the few albums where I couldn't honestly like A SINGLE track.
- I can recognize the historical value of this. Back in '68 this would be mind blowing. Alas, I'm reviewing this in 2025.
- The entire thing sounds like it was recorded underwater. Super annoying.
The Beta Band
3/5
# Playlist Track
- Squares
# Notes
- Pleasant surprise! I think I heard the opening track be samples a bunch of times. Don't remember where.
- All in all, this isn't an amazing album. I'll probably forget about it in time, but there are some inspired moments.
- I should probably take a star away just for that stupid cover, tho.
Yes
4/5
# Playlist Track
- I've Seen All Good People
# Notes
- A rich, interesting, moving album.
- Taking a star out as there a few moments that drag way too long and take away from the journey. Wonderful transitions in the different parts of Starship Trooper and I've Seen All Good People.
Cat Stevens
4/5
# Playlist Track
- Father and Son
# Notes
- Pretty pleasant throughout. "Wild World" and "Father and Son" are certified, all-time classics.
- A couple of dull tracks, but nothing egregious.
- Even though it's not really my tune, I did enjoy it a lot.
The Who
4/5
# Playlist Track
- My Generation
# Notes
- Super interesting piece of Rock music. "The kids are all right" almost sounds like a Beatles song, a very very distant relative to "Tommy" which comes out just 4 years after that.
- Recommend!
Leonard Cohen
5/5
# Playlist Track
- You Want It Darker
# Notes
- A beautiful good bye. A bit slow at times, but haunting and beautiful.
Kate Bush
2/5
# Playlist Track
- The Sensual World
# Notes
- Kate Bush's vocals are pretty great, but the tracks on this one are not. Couple of cool tracks, plus a few forgettable ones and one or two bad ones. Go listen to something else.
The Magnetic Fields
1/5
# Playlist Track
- The Book of Love
# Notes
- I almost gave this an extra star for the ambition of the album. Putting that many songs ou there is a giant challenge. However, after almost 3 grueling hours, I don't think that they have actually lived up to the challenge.
- The entire album is full of bits and scraps that frankly should have been left in the cutting room floors.
- It's not bad that they created all the bits. But getting them out is such an important part of the creative process and the album feels like they skipped this entire part.
- Not recommended to anyone but to the most bored cynics.
Metallica
4/5
# Playlist Track
- For Whom The Bell Tolls
# Notes
- This was actually the first CD I got, back when I was a pre-teen. Listened to it hundreds of times, probably! Glad it held up pretty well, after all those years.
- Still, it's a very long album, and it gets muddy in some points.
- A great starting point to get to know Metallica for the first time, or expand your Metal horizons into something more melodic.