For me, Massive Attack's best album. Exquisite. The choice collaborators. The mirrored, twin-sided format. The mood, the flow. The instrumentation. Analogue dub heart with digital flourishes. Not a bad track on here. Brilliant.

Hmmm, tricky one. Ambivalent about the whole project. Real sense of unease about creepy old Malcolm appropriating the sound of young black and hispanic New Yorkers. That said, quite a few tracks are genuinely good, and it hangs together quite well as a piece despite the random mash-up approach. I hope all the artists got paid properly I suppose, not just the old swindler.

This band's level of popularity is baffling to me. The guy (yeah, I know) is a good lyricist, with a lovely mellow singing voice. But the overall effect to me is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Lounge music, but a wee bit more introspective and ultimately a bit of a downer.

Godawful, damaged, whiney, shouty shite. Terrible cover, terrible record, massively overlong. And when they rap? Laughably bad. Not quite 1-star rotten but it was extremely close.

Music for adverts. There's something really uncanny-valley and inauthentic about Moby. Can't quite put my finger on why I feel like that. In fairness he did stumble on a popular formula but it is exactly that: formulaic.

Bombastic bilgewater, pretty fun in parts. Exactly what I expected :) Lap of the gods wis guid

Still so good. Shocked that it's 21 years old. 4.5

Grubby bloody hippies and the boring album company more like. The cover art is the most interesting thing about it. Might be wrong but I get a bang of spoiled rich white kids cosplaying a chitlin' circuit blues band off this. Hard to enjoy once that idea takes hold. Also a faint tang of prog rock?!

Nostalgic but still kicks ass.

A bit like eating greens, I can appreciate the qualities but I'm rarely in the mood for a full meal of that. My loss. Really enjoyed taking the time to listen to this whole record.

Oh man, it's a 5. Years since I sat right through it. Still holds up. That the weakest track probably yields the single most beautiful moment tells you something, I think. Ordinary lads, not afraid of beauty.

Over-produced, under song'd, imo.

Quite like the distinctive sound, in moderation. Bit too soft for me. Housey piano is cool but not much dynamic range and I get bored. Hint of Gil Scott Heron i'd not noticed before?

Enjoyed this more than I thought I might. Bit Tom Petty in places? Gets pretty turgid in the middle.

A clean, bright blast of energetic purity.

This is good. But how long!? 😅 Not sure how much of that is attributable to the remixed, repackaged version. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Hmmm. Some really great stuff. Just too long though! Chance to sit through 2+ hrs as a single experience ain't happening. Don't think I'd ever heard 'the love below' all the way through before. 3 & 4

Wasn't really in the mood for this today. Still. Absolutely staggering. Gotta be a 5

It's good. Nice production. Sounds like a Prince record. Probably deserves a 4. But it ain't getting that from me.

Quite good but quite dull.

I can confidently assert that I'll not listen to this again.

Never actually listened to this as an album before. It's great!

Hard af uneasy listening. Excellent!

This is brilliant. Not heard before I can see where Beck nicked a few good ideas.

Don't like it much. Instrumentals are quite good background music but some of the story sounds horrible 😬. 'Fiddle about', you say? Dodgier than P. Townsend's browser history 🤮

Exceptionally good. That opening 5-song run is really great. The warmth.

Not really heard this earlier era of REM properly before. I thought it was brilliant. 4

FFS, cheer up, guy 🙄😂 Was this the birth of stoner rock? I was quite up for hearing this but it wore thin pretty quickly. It sounds like a desert, which is kind of the point I suppose. But I prefer my biospheres greener. Sort of a bridge between G'n'R and QotSA 🤔

It's simply excellent. More nostalgia. My parents had pretty good taste.

This kicks ass. Never heard before but will be listening again

Holy smokes

Sumptuous voice but couldn't really be bothered. Just not my thing I'm afraid

I dunno man. Lovely voice, some charming lyrics. Still sounds boring MoR to me 😥

More MoR, albeit quite good.

Was enjoying it up until the godawful cover of hard to handle. From a potential 4 to a 2 right there. Slick but so derivative

Couple of bangers to top and tail, with some total dross filler

Willing to accept I'm probably missing some nuance but it didn't do much for me. Can't win em' all

Good but not her greatest imho.

When I was a kid all I heard was the violence. Now I have a bit more context I hear more emotional range. I hear hyper vigilance and vulnerability. Violence is only ever directed at white supremacists. There's no real cussin'. No real misogyny. It's a mature piece of work, even quite funny sometimes. Even the title seems like a wry wee joke. Still, I'm an East coast guy and the production ain't always my favourite.

I liked it more than I thought I might but still not a total convert

Awesome songs, amazing singer.

I'd never even heard of this. Bollywood/hippy/funk. Lush orchestration, even a hint of mariachi. I like it!

A fine line between coherent and samey. Too damn long as an album. Quite fun but needs an edit.

Utmost respect, but I'm not mad for this record

A time and a place. Really strong record but dated a wee bit

Never heard this album before as a whole though I know a few songs already. Love it

Not my usual vibe but fairly enjoyable. Little water song I was thinking sounded like a female Nick Cave and yeah, sure enough 🥲

Frathouse rock. Well executed and pretty fun but ultimately a bit monotone

Never been a big fan of Eddie Vedder's voice but this is a solid album to be fair

The third Who record that's come up for me in about the past month. I can only surmise that they really are a 'greatest hits' band. Some great high spots but an awful lot dross too

Pretty sad and depressing but really quite impressive.

Quite astonishing as a single piece of work. Peak Stones. Gotta be a 5

I'm more of a New Order guy but this is not as grimly depressing as I remember 🥲

Meh. Quite good, quite twee, quite three

Pretty guid. Almost a cliché but I suppose it's only that way because it was popular in the first place. On the fence between a 3 and a 4

Just so solid.

Tinseltown is still amazing but as a whole album don't enjoy it all that much

Not heard before. First impression is favourable.

Sandpaper bubblegum

Big shrug. What's the fuss about?

The worst kind of technically accomplished but overindulgent, soulless toss

Woah. This is fantastic. Heard the name before (courtesy of tfc) but need to explore his catalogue. Near Neil Young level songwriting, without the somewhat divisive singing voice. Superb

Dope.

I love DM's signature synthy sound but I can rarely be arsed to listen to a whole record of their actual songs 🤷🏻‍♂️

It was good. Never heard before. Sticking with a 3 today but certainly deserves a second listen.

Hokey but a seminal era. Split the difference between 1 and 5

Pretty darn good. Though there are a few more filler tracks than I remember. Maybe this is one where streaming/shuffle culture has damaged great albums as we expect wall-to-wall hits.

Oh man, Killer alright. Imagine being in the crowd for this one 🤯

Bloody hell man. Better than I remember. That said, it'd be better still if it was 20 mins shorter. Those last couple of jawns are a waste

Pretentious, portentous, slick, camp, competent. Not for me but can see why it's popular. Sort of.

So good. How old was Hill when she made this? Maybe 30? An almost unbelievable amount of wisdom and assurance. Barely any fat on this record despite being really long

Man alive. Scarcely believable number of radio hits for a single album. Impressive, even if it is a bit more MoR then some of their other efforts

This is great. Not sure it's really classifiable as a full album but hey, not really my place to judge.

Another one where although the playing is impressive it leaves me cold. Noodling

Really liked this. Needs more listens

Really quite enjoyable. A shame for them they were probably running a couple of years behind the British invasion and the Beach Boys: but some good pop songs on here

So good

This is rad. Too much to digest in a single take though. Short tracks, inventiveness, guitar rips! I need to go back to this

I thought it would be wack and it was. Abundantly wack in almost every regard 😬

Probably a 3 star effort in reality. Some dreadful lyrics. Gets a 4 for sentimental reasons, with its energy and impact at the time. The lyrics are mostly terrible though!

Tough one. I wanted to like this; looks like it should be right up my street. Other than that awesome cover of Grapevine though, I just didn't get into it 🫤

This is pretty much why punk had to happen. Like some of the California jazz jam nonsense, this is massively proficient but shows barely an ounce of soul or emotion. There are moments of beauty but just doesn't float my boat. Put the organ away lads.

Here I am, 44 years old, walking the dog at 7:20 on a dark, dull, muddy December morning; tears in my eyes as the sunshine goodness of Hometown Unicorn floods my ears. Bias acknowledged, I was 16 when this record came out and have loved it ever since. Was thrilled (and surprised) when it popped up on the list. Unbelievably good run of songs at the start. Close to a 5 but I reckon that is rare territory and there are a couple of slightly flatter tracks later on. Head and shoulders above the Britpop nonsense that was happening at the same time. "You and I, United by itemised bills"

It's pretty great. Wee bit too long?

Enjoyed it but probably not enough to go rushing back.

Pretty good. Not amazing by any stretch but enjoyed it more than I anticipated

Quite good but it doesn't excite me much

It's great

Other than Pin, Maps, and a couple of slower tracks near the end, I couldn't be bothered with this today. It's a band with a good sound and a charismatic frontwoman but sorry, for my money this is not a great album

Rad. I can see what the fuss was about. Knew a couple of songs already but they're all excellent. 1973!

Really good. A rich stew

Something tiresome is the amount of well known albums that are linked to on streaming services as extended 'deluxe' versions. I don't wanna hear out takes, b-sides or remixes unless I'm a super fan. This one was particularly bad: 3 versions of a cover version. Just play me the album as the artist intended, especially for a daily taster session like this. I was enjoying this a lot to start with. Tapered off big time though. Quiet Life is a great track.

Oddly, although I consider myself a pretty big fan of Neil Young I don't think I've ever heard this as a complete album. Obviously it's great. More country than a lot of his stuff, which might be more of an acquired taste for some; but I really enjoyed it.

Astonishing that this is from 1977. When the filth and fury of punk was getting the headlines, these guys were working out this pin-sharp art-pop-funk. The band is lean and tight. The frontman sounds weird but charismatic. The tricky thing is, if you've come to talking heads late, through stuff like Stop Making Sense, you're probably expecting more 'hits'. So it's simultaneously amazing but also slightly forgettable.

Well-crafted, thoughtful power-pop. Obviously 'Another Girl...' is a classic in any genre. The rest doesn't live quite up to that but it's an enjoyable listen.

For me, this is probably Beck's best album. Love it

Wonderfully serene

Boring tosh. (I know, I know, it's poor form to belittle the artistic endeavours of others etc. Whatever.)

I acknowledge its inherent goodness. But can I enjoy it much? Meh, not really. Feels quite proggy, quite stodgy, quite boring.

I kind of feel like I should like PJ Harvey. But sorry, I just don't get on with this album very well.

Pretty much has to be the definitive 'hipster-approved/quite tasteful' Christmas album. All good

Nae bad

I was a bit distracted and didn't manage to listen to this in a single sitting, so I'll need to come back to this in future. That said, the music is brilliant so I'm confident I'll want to come back.

Sad, disorienting, weird, pretty amazing. I still find a lot of the music dissonant and hard going (though there are some sweet hymns in there too) but the voice and the stories are incredible. Strikingly distinctive

I almost can't believe how much we lapped this up at the time. Lumpen lyrics, lumpen music 😬 Still has some last remnants of the Definitely Maybe energy - but let's be honest, it's not really a top 50 record of the year, let alone a multi million selling powerhouse 🤷🏻‍♂️ I mean, there still are a handful of decent moments but in retrospect the Quoasis jibes were fully justified.

Real good.

Sweet nursery rhymes, cabaret ballads and glam pop stomps about junkies, queers, and general New York degradation, dissipation and despair. Sung by a bad-tempered, flat-pitched weirdo. Probably should be toe-curlingly strange and bad but it's the complete opposite of that. Astonishing

Banger. Best Steely Dan record imo

Sort of Southern rock's equivalent of The Strokes. The aesthetic is loose but the overall effect is actually quite tight and polished. Spawned quite a lot of pale imitations but this is a very good, consistent record.

So this slams. But an hour of it is pretty exhausting. Not my genre, though I can appreciate the intensity, power and accuracy. Weird take: some of this is actually quite melodic, and the vocals are super clear (English as a second language effect?), so it comes on at times like a thrash ABBA 😅

Archetypal hair metal. Bombast. Bright-ass (over) production. Drums like they're played in an aircraft hangar full of mics. Noodly overdrive guitars, with very little in the way of actual memorable tunes. Very silly mantra-like lyrics, mostly about shagging and that. Quite funny. Quite fun. Pretty stupid. A Pirelli calendar of a record. Titillating in passing but sad (and a bit of a red flag to be honest) if that's your definition of art. Fully aware this makes me sound a pretentious killjoy. Maybe I am. But up yours Def Leppard 😆🖕

Brilliant. Was familiar with a couple of the lead singles, and really liked the follow-up album, Introvert. This is rock solid all the way through. Smart, highly attuned, empathic, moving.

A take I don't think I've seen: a lot of this is like a shoegaze record. It sounds like Ride. Fitting I suppose for a new frontman coming out from behind the drumkit. It's good and melodic but a wee bit MoR.

I dig Method Man but this album was never quite on a par with some of the other Wu Tang offshoot projects, or indeed his Redman collaborations. Meth is one of the best when he's contributing a guest verse or two to other people's tracks but I don't rate him so highly for carrying a whole album or even a full track. This is good but not great.

If I'm brutally honest, it's too long and has a handful of fillers on there. But it still rules. Giving it a 5 for its inventiveness (and my own sentimental reasons); but imagine how much leaner it could be if it was 12 tracks/40 mins. Mind you, the flaws (if you can even call the odd b-side track a flaw) are what makes it. Would I change it? Nah, probably not

I was interested when this popped up as really like some of The The's stuff but nah, sorry, not a fan. Was surprised how little I liked it. No doubt deserves another attempt at some point but it left me fairly cold this time.

Liked it more than I thought I might. Needs another spin

Biggest mismatch between cover art assumptions and reality? American wuss, more like 😅

Mid, tbh. Good, but

Expertly crafted bluesy power pop. Pretty good. Doesn't rock my world but enjoyable enough.

Bleak af

Hilariously camp panto (Campomime?) A theatre nerd's second-hand idea of what rock n' roll might feel like. There something rural about it. Something virginal. Maybe that's why it's popular? The sort of gear that's quite fun if it pops up on the radio but I'm unlikely to ever seek out. Does it have a sense of irony? I reckon not. Does that matter? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Some great stuff here. Very modern sounding: the way some tracks are layered up with samples sounds like the good ambient house music from 10 or 15 years later. Saying that, it starts to get boring and ultimately seems to peter out. Needs another spin

Kind of wanted to like this but I found it twee and boring

This band's level of popularity is baffling to me. The guy (yeah, I know) is a good lyricist, with a lovely mellow singing voice. But the overall effect to me is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Lounge music, but a wee bit more introspective and ultimately a bit of a downer.

This is brilliant. Got 2 plays today. It'll get more in future

This was enjoyable. Incredible voice. Strikes me the production was a bit westernised and synthetic. But I enjoyed the discovery

I found it muddled. Starts out somewhere between pavement, beck, and the beta band, without being as good as any of those. Then gets bossa nova and jazz on the go. Weirdly forgettable for all that.

Very good. Particularly enjoyed the second side. Half and half in terms of familiarity, so it was good to hear it afresh

Really rather enjoyed this. Not a million miles away from Cream, in terms of the playing is pretty great and it's not overly-heavy. Should probably give it a 4

Very nice. Didn't affect me in a big way like some of the Richard & Linda Thomson stuff but great record.

Sheer pompous HUBRIS. The best bit is the intro; scored by Morricone, performed by the orchestra and therefore nothing whatsoever to do with Metallica. And this mf is over 2 hours long 😧 Visceral dislike and a true test of endurance to get through this. These guys are absolute tossers 😅🖕

Enjoyable but the spell wore off a bit for me towards the end

Not my usual genre but the energy is pretty astonishing. A touch melodramatic perhaps but the thrash-funk sound and dynamics are pretty rad. I appreciated the tight rage attack

Lightweight and largely forgetable

Pretty much the apex of the album-as-artefact era. 14 songs, 34 minutes; inventiveness, pathos, silliness, experimentation, charm. Not even my favourite Beatles record but by gum, we'll never see their like again. Retains drops of twee naivety but mixed with the start of psychedelic rock. The full gamut.

It's a shorter line than you think from Bruce to Meatloaf. Gather round the ol' joanna for some overwrought storysongs about automobiles-as-freedom. Maybe. Could be great if you're in the mood but fill in that blank... *key change*... **sax solo**

Respect the artist? Yes. Relate to the artwork? Ach, not so much.

Pastoral. Some charm but excellence somehow always just out of reach. Didn't really resonate

Almost unbelievably on-the-nose prescience. Maybe it took a few of the rest of us 20+ years to truly catch up. And I guess most still haven't. A classic.

Batshit crazy, with a few moments of brilliance. Would have loved to have seen these dudes live. But a track like gang bang can gtfo quite frankly. Tell you what though; the first couple of tracks start with 4/4 glam/blues stomp drums and piano stabs... were SAHB tantalisingly close stumbling onto the Chicago House sound about 10 years early? 😅

Nincompoopery;. Though I mostly mean that in a sense of affectionate fun here.

Got to hand it to Knopfler; the guy can obviously play like an absolute beast but he's also capable of something more: the exercise of restraint. This record is stacked with riffs and the songs ain't half bad. Even the 80s production sound hasn't agreed badly; just sounds appropriate to its era and mostly fairly tasteful. Must be the right kind of fame as well: create a multimillion-selling monster then return to a low profile life. Respect

Demands a closer listen than I was able to give it today. Really good. Will give it another spin

Music for adverts. There's something really uncanny-valley and inauthentic about Moby. Can't quite put my finger on why I feel like that. In fairness he did stumble on a popular formula but it is exactly that: formulaic.

Take On Me and The Sun Always Shines... are all-time slices of sheer pop perfection. It shouldn't come as a massive surprise that the rest of the album struggles to match that. Some of it comes off like ersatz Bowie, some of it is Mel n' Kim level. Enjoyable enough though

I like Bob Marley (of course, who doesn't?) but I have to be honest, this washed over me with hardly a ripple

I don't enjoy all the medievalist schtick tbh. Morning Glory and Pleasant Street are nice enough. Undoubtedly a beautiful voice but I just didn't enjoy the album very much

As a sort of gateway record I suppose it's irrelevant whether (or not) this is credibly good. If it turned a few suburban kids on to eventually explore and buy from among the wider reaches of hip hop, maybe that's got some value? And of course, it provided the springboard for Lauren Hill to go massive. So fair play, but it's still pretty stilted.

This was alright but I didn't find it as arresting as the earlier Love and Hate album. Will keep listening out for the lad though

Cracking. Imperial phase PSB

I don't mind a wee bit of UK garage but this is boring. Sincere is a good track but I find much of the rest to be just a couple of rungs up the musical ladder from shopping mall lift muzak. The type of gear playing in the second room at the sort of club I wouldn't really want to be at.

Sparse, bleak, arresting, excellent.

Not only did Dylan tap into into this rich vein of poetic magic, somehow he was able to keep working it for absolutely years and years. Mind boggling. This is probably a 5 star album but I'm giving it a 4 today just because

I used to assume I didn't like country music but I now realise that was a blinkered kind of inverse bigotry. This is pretty great. Still not giving top marks as I'm unlikely to reach for it (I tend towards British folk if I'm looking to scratch a trad. itch) but I did find it a very enjoyable listen.

Odd serendipity: yesterday threw up Emmylou Harris, today brings this up-to-date take on sweet, reflective country. Found it an enjoyable listen. Even a touch of Sufjan Stevens in the banjo style in places? Never heard of Ms Musgrave's before but this was a perfect Sunday morning kitchen listen.

Ambivalence. Some aspects of RHCP I really admire. Sometimes I think they are almost unintentional self-parody. Great moments but then it gets so samey.

Sort of apocalypse horror metal. Sounds alright but still scores low for me as I just didn't really jibe with it

Was not familiar with this at all but it immediately demands a repeat listen. I guess I was expecting something bleaker or more earnest but it's really good

Dinosaur Jr. is a band I really like in small-to-medium doses. I love the overdriven sound but this whole album in one sitting starts to feel a bit stodgy.

Really like the cure as a singles band though I find this as a complete work gets very ponderous.

I acknowledge the genuine excellence of Ms. Badu and her band. But it don't half go... on and on 😅 Seriously, why did artists stop knocking out tight 40 minute records? I know the format initially stemmed from what could fit on a 12" record but that constraint also improved quality control on the tracklist. I enjoyed listening to this for 45 mins but by 80 I was honestly getting bored.

Pretty amazing. Hugely sampled/covered hits. Heavily front-loaded album though.

I find this more accessible than some of Harvey's earlier records. Plenty to enjoy on here and I think I'm more attuned to it now that I would've been 20 years ago.

The sort of album I might make if I didn't know I shouldn't.

Reminiscent of Kruder & Dorfmeister. So downtempo that even when it speeds up a bit it's almost comically soporific. Good though

Hmmm, tricky one. Ambivalent about the whole project. Real sense of unease about creepy old Malcolm appropriating the sound of young black and hispanic New Yorkers. That said, quite a few tracks are genuinely good, and it hangs together quite well as a piece despite the random mash-up approach. I hope all the artists got paid properly I suppose, not just the old swindler.

Front loaded with bangers. Resolves into eminently forgettable studio noodling.

Never heard this before. Thought it was great. Real hardcore.

This is great though I can't help feeling it's not quite as good as a Neil Young 'solo' record might have been. Possibly a terrible take?

It's ok. Despite a couple of real classics on here I won't be rushing back. Patchy.

Not for me. Dislike most aspects of this

This is a work of near-genius but not necessarily from the obvious source. Without Andrew Weatherall at the controls, I suspect Primal Scream themselves would have come up with a third of an album worth of forgettable, Black-Crowes-Lite/Texas jams. Even as it is, the material is stretched a bit thin but at least AW makes it feel like a reasonably interesting collection of 12" dubs. It's a justified spaced-out classic; once you get onto that trip, you're in for the duration.

<usual Morrissey-is-a-knob disclaimer here/> Phenomenal record. Excellent musicianship. Crisp production. Great lyrics; some poignant, some funny, some daft, nearly all interesting. I'm not a huge Smiths head but this is a really rewarding listen and so evocative of a certain sense of place and time.

Oh damn, this is incredible. Cool and fun sounds from 70 years ago 🤯

Bloody hell. Absolutely spine-tingling from start to finish.

Blimey. On a reflective Sunday morning, the opening couple of tracks on this landed HARD. Heartbroken old boy hymns. What's worse, the unrelenting horny frustrations of the younger man, or the feeling that chapter of life has ended and you no longer care? Leonard knows. Making his peace with a god he no longer wants to believe in. Love it.

Depending on mood, often my favourite Beatles record, which puts Abbey Road at or near the top of a very illustrious pile. I mean, Maxwell and Octopus are very silly but aside from that, amazing. The sweep of side 2 is mind boggling.

Maudlin and pedestrian (neither of which are necessarily bad things but you know... meh)

Sounds good, if you fancy some doomy, heavy gear. It so happens that today I did not.

Ah, the Morrissey paradox. The guy is so obviously sad, damaged and lonely that I can't help but feel quite sorry for him. But his entire public persona for the last 30+ years send to have been to make himself as dislikeable as possible. A real arsehole, but one who still made plenty of objectively good records. This is decent, not great, but definitely a diverting listen. Begrudging respect.

RIP and mad respect to Neil Kulkarni, the (as far as I know) originator of the "would I trust them to make me a sandwich?" test, for musicians in general but 70s rockers in particular. Anyway, probably pretty obvious where I'm going with this. Is this a behemoth of a record? Yes. Does it have some astounding playing? Again, yes. Do I actually like it? Nah, not a huge amount. I'm not such a fan of Robert Plant's histrionic vocal stylings to be honest. And would I let any of them anywhere near my sandwich? Would I fuck, the grubby-fingered, sleazy gits. If I'm ever in the market for a round of reefer-ash-with-a-hint-of-spunk on rye, I'll let you dudes know, ok? 😅

The parts don't quite add up. I have a slight soft spot for Supergrass and this is decent, well-crafted pop. But I don't much like it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Started out pretty much hating this. For a little spell towards the end of the middle, I actually got right into it. Then by the end I was hating it again. Some of the production is unbelievably ahead of its time. Some of the story arc really seems to predict internet culture and the threat of misinformation about 30 years early. First citing of 'brain worms' maybe? For all that, it's still not my cup of tea. Too long, too pompous, too preachy.

Wistful and restrained

Sounds excellent and I'd like to revisit it at some point

It kicks ass obviously and in all sorts of ways. Cumulatively it does leave me feeling a bit like I ate too much ice cream or something though

Lonesome ditties evocative of driving a pickup truck across a plain somewhere. Not really my vibe but perfectly pleasant and I do respect the craft. Sorry for the low score, I'm feeling harsh and I don't anticipate this being a record I'll come back to.

I think Dr Dre is a damaged, nasty bastard and this is a grim piece of work. And though some of the production and sound engineering here is jaw dropping, I've never been on board with the adoration this record gets, or the genius status afforded to Dre. It's an adolescent violent revenge fantasy of a record. The trademark G-funk sound is incredible but the bars are horrible (except for some of Snoop's features) and the feeling I get is that it's been bullied into existence. I don't really know who's responsible for the odd brilliant moment, I just know that Dre is taking all the credit. I'd go as far as to say this put me off the whole West coast scene for a good while. One of those paradoxes: I really do recognise it deserves a place in the 1001 canon because of what it represents... but I'm scoring it low as I just don't like it and I'll not reach for it. Possibly dodgy lukewarm take: this record propagates institutionally racist and sexist hegemony: brim full of negative stereotypes and painting whole city districts as no go zones. No thanks.

Weirdly different to some of his other stuff. A Doors-meets-funk jam, full of sex. Pretty good

I'm quite into this. Needs some repeat listens. Luke Haines seems to want to recast himself as a sort of rakish, silent-era matinee baddie. Not sure if that's entirely successful but it is fun.

Hmmm. Genesis of an iconic career but didn't find it all that arresting

Mad. I thought 'cool water' was a Coen brothers' parody; but here it is, without a hint of (big) irony. It's kind of great but more of a curio than a real repeat listen.

3rd Beatles album that's come up for me quite recently, 3rd legend. Was my favourite of theirs when I was a kid; it's not my favourite now but it is still remarkable

Absurdly bleak. I remember borrowing this from the library in my teens: not exactly Laden with mixtape bangers to impress a pal or woo a prospective girlfriend. I love it

Exile is an odd one for me. I know plenty of people rate it as the Stones' best record and I can see how it garners classic status but I've never much enjoyed it as a whole. Maximum swampy bloozeness, not that fun to listen to.

Never heard most of this before. Pastoral Nuggets. Pretty nice. Some a bit too English and twee, some quite Kinks-esque, some really quite experimental and fresh sounding. Thumb up

Minor heresy: I've never really understood what the level of fuss around Nirvana was about. I like the slower ones and the unplugged record which I guess that marks me as some sort of softie. Some of the harsher tracks I find quite formulaic, albeit with extra abrasive delivery and lyrical content. Don't get me wrong, I can see that this is a good album from a strong band, it's just not one I'll voluntarily sit through for pleasure.

Pretty class

What a band! What an energy! Awe inspiring

Unbelievable. A tight, shiny masterpiece. When session players make a chance and go Gonzo...

Actively despise this arsehole and everything he represents. The horrible music is an irrelevance at this point. I listened to it but I didn't wanna. ☠️ People talk a lot about separating art from the artist, often to justify continued enjoyment of the things they like while becoming more aware of the personal failings of some creators. With this guy there's no need for that though, it's a singularity of degenerate, provocative crap and the sick scumbag hiding in plain sight who led its creation. No amount of slick production can mask that. It doesn't give me much pleasure to note that time has proved me right on this one.

Very good

As rad as a pair of sick troop hightops paired with a dayglo-accent shellsuit. In other words then, not very. It was fun at the time but dated quickly, athough it certainly has its moments 😎

I suppose one of the challenges with soundtracks, whether real or imagined, is that they often need their accompanying visuals to really land. I respect the concept and the skill here but ultimately didn't find it a very exciting listen.

Godawful, damaged, whiney, shouty shite. Terrible cover, terrible record, massively overlong. And when they rap? Laughably bad. Not quite 1-star rotten but it was extremely close.

It's great. Not much more I can say really, a warm, rich sound.

Unexpectedly excellent. A plaintive Dear John letter which says, in a nutshell: Loretta is sick and tired of your nonsense, buddy.

The aural equivalent of eating your greens; you know it's good for you but it can feel like hard work at times. Maybe I'll know when I'm a fully fledged grown up when this clicks into place and I choose to put it on without prompting. Definitely getting closer but still maybe a little way off 😆

Bob Dylan, eh? Bloody hell... Even when he's being faintly ridiculous he's still amazing.

Didn't have too many preconceptions; I've heard a few radio hits of course but never listened to a full Taylor Swift album before. Blimey, it's actually really great! Good to know that the hype and exposure is backed up by serious talent.

Pretty good. No more, no less

Is it in danger of sounding a bit schmaltzy to modern ears? Maybe. Is it still extremely good? Yes. I'm probably under-rating it a bit here

Weird: I seem to remember this record including more hits. Still pretty darn good, mind you.

Kind of an interesting one. Must have started out as a pastiche pisstake (albeit from a place of affection and knowledge) then morphed into a legitimate and pretty strong album in its own right. Genuinely funny in places (a love ballad to an STD? I mean, come on) and actually winds up almost as good as the AC/DC or Maiden records it emulates.

This surprised me a little. How have I never heard this before? Really pretty good. Deserves a revisit. Strangely high chance I won't bother

I was feeling a little bit cynical towards this: more British white guys pretending they're saviours or perfectors of the blues? However, have to say it's excellent, by midway through I was well into it.

Slightly better than expected

Wait a minute... I felt like there was something a bit fishy about today's link. Double checked and it turned out YT had pitched me a record from 2003, which I didn't enjoy much. But let's rewind and see how we get on with the intended debut from 1986... nope, couldn't really engage with that on a very meaningful level either. Weird, as my expectation was that I'd like it. Oh well. Can't win em all.

"The body of Venus, with arms", haw haw, good one guys. 5/5 for the riffs but all told it's A Touch Too Much

Okay

Nah, not really for me thanks

New one on me. Rather liked it. Bit of a palate cleanser. Too long mind you

A clever trick; sounds pretty avant garde while also being mainstream pop. Cars was literally number 1 in the chart the week I was born, and still sounds sharp today. Liked this record a lot

Stunningly good. The musicianship is great and it weighs a tonne. Noice

This came as an absolutely perfect wake up call as I jumped on my bike at 6.05 this morning. Short, noisy, perfectly formed

Absolutely dreadful. No love whatsoever for these guys. Saying that, I think I once had lunch in a Harvester of Sorrow🫠

Hmmm, very much on the fence with this one. Abba are obviously brilliant at their best but I didn't much want to sit through many of the more formulaic, cabaret-style tunes. Maybe just me, for today it's a 3

Slightly nonplussed today. I do like them though I don't often listen again

Nailed-on, certified classic. Probably my second-favourite massive attack record, and that's a crowded field

Woah, second day in a row for Bristolian trip hop royalty. This should probably be a 4 but its bleak, claustrophobic sprawl is actually not the easiest listen so, regretfully, it's getting a 3 today.

Unbelievable record really, from a true one-off mega-talent. Sounds like it should be too weird to go mainstream but somehow it's crammed with hits. Sheer charisma.

I remember hearing Diz absolutely destroy some mumble rappers on an American radio show a few years back: his flow was like some crazy future gear by comparison. I find this record a challenge to sit through as a whole though, works better in smaller doses imo.

Reminiscent of the recent Darkness album which came up: this must have provided much of the template for that, albeit without any hint of irony or humour. Not much worse for that though; it's just an enjoyable listen and a pretty iconic, clean sound.

Amazing. Definitely could be a 5 star record if it was 20 mins shorter. So cool and so inventive though.

Well, I've battled through this a few times before. I want to like it because of what it represents, yet still I find it nigh unlistenable.

Super record. Quality seconds indeed

Amazing voice, great concert recording, classics from the songbook, tight band bashing it out. What's not to enjoy?

Impossible not to like the rock n roll energy

Sounds good, competent, accomplished. Went in one ear and out the other.

Could not be bothered with this today and quite frankly found the record a bit tiresome. I'll try again some other time but for now it's a poor score

Not much to say. Couple of all time great tracks

Want to like this more than I actually do in reality. Remixes routinely better than originals. Too long, too noodley. Joke title is the cleverest bit about it.

Not really sure what I was expecting, maybe a touch of postmodern snark or something. But this is quite a straightforward country crooner album. Ms Lang has a nice voice, the songs are quite plaintive and the arrangements are traditional-in-a-good-way. I rather liked it

Oh man. Tender, sad, elegiac. Very nice

It is cheesy but I rather enjoyed this while gazing wistfully from the window of a train heading north though the Highlands. Always kind of think of Billy Joel as a horrible wee guy but there's some good story-songs here.

Very good. Not sure why I haven't listened to this in so long but it's nice to rediscover it now

I liked it quite a lot

It's wonderful. Not much more to say

Jason Spaceman is a low-key broken genius. These gospel nursery rhymes are built on simple foundations but contain great depth. Clue is in the name I suppose but these are yearning incantations. Beautiful, tightly composed, tinged with regret and sadness but also hope. A dope-sick hymn to the cosmos. Too long but so what, it's great.

Extraordinary. I'll be coming back to this one

In the past I've had the feeling I'm missing part of the MBV jigsaw. Like, I know they're doing something clever and worthy but I just don't quite understand it. Re-listening to this now goes a long way towards making me reassess that. I'm hearing the melodies more. Enjoying it more. I'm 30-odd years late to the party but feel like maybe I've almost cracked their code.

Thank you 1k generator. Another exceptional joint I've not had the pleasure of hearing before. Brilliant stuff.

This sounds great. Not sure I managed to give it the concentration it deserves today, so I'll be back for another listen

Oh yeah. First thought was 'big 5 stars'. The opening 4 or 5 tracks are flawless. If there's a pair of better wistful ballads than 'thirteen' and 'el goodo', I can't think of them. Absolutely wonderful stuff. Sadly it does go off the boil a bit but tremendous record still.

Bombastic and a bit silly, but quite entertaining

Staggering talent. I understand why his voice can be a bit divisive but for me, Neil Young is a mega, generational star. So much soul and pathos. Phenomenal songwriting.

Feel like sometimes the Byrds' reputation outstrips their output. Some of this comes across like unused tape cuttings from a Beatles studio floor. A bit noodly and inconsequential. Suspect I'd hear more from this on repeat listens but I'm afraid for today, on first impression, it's a low score.

Looking beyond its role in Half Man, Half Biscuit's very accurate skewering of a certain type of middle class Englishness, this is still a legitimately brilliant record. Master craftsmen and women doing what they do best.

Weirdly, I think of this as a Christmas album. It's really very good but also a bit worthy and twee. On the fence.

Fairly enjoyable. Interesting how stuff which was supposedly unfeasibly heavy at the time in retrospect seems quite tame.

Old timey drinking ballads. Pretty cool and a mellow listen but not really my thing in the long run. A decent curio

Schlock rock. Decent

One of the best records of the 90s, in any genre. Yes it's a bit too long and could stand to lose 2 or 3 tracks - but as a whole it's a certified 100% banger

I don't have the patience for this jolly hokum. Immaculate production of course; of a caterwauling cavalcade of sideshow tinged, swanee-whistle riddled, clippety-clop, honky-tonk nonsense.

Astonishing how much of this I can accurately remember despite not hearing it through for 20+ years. Never been a true Eminem fan but it's hard not to admire a lot of his wordplay. Get rid of some skits, the badly-dated inflammatory nonsense, and the flabbier verses (along with some of the more rinky-dink musical backings) and there's probably an ultra-strong ten or twelve track record locked inside this one's boot and headed for the parapet.

Not bad. Couple of classic tracks, couple of spots that drag on a bit. A decent listen

Interesting, though not to the extent that I need to explore to much further. I feel bad for this but in a crowded field it's a low score for me

Basically bookmarking this to re-examine in future. Not familiar with the album at all (though have heard a handful of the tracks before) but it's got some excellent stuff.

This sounded great. Need to come back to it another time

I find it hard to grade outkast. I don't consider them a true favourite but do think they're inherently great. Smart guys. Full gamut from pop smash hits like Ms Jackson, to stank-ass Southern trap music (and even a cameo from a young Killer Mike). There a lot to chew on. Even skits and off cuts are way shaper than average.

I like this quite a lot. Sedate and soulful

Loved the start, went off it a bit

Pretty gutted for the most part, pretty forgettable in some.

This was unexpected. Wild stuff. Nigh unlistenable to my ear but jeez, the manic energy. Advanced level freaky business. I see its merit, I just don't want to have to listen to it.

Thought I'd love this then I got a bit bored tbh

Quite entertaining. I can see why it was a hit and has longevity. I do find it a bit odd the whole schtick but what the heck do I know

Started out thinking it was frenetic and dated, ended thinking it was a cool, roll-neck-sweatered, Riviera boat-chase of a record.

Never heard this before. Pretty great 👍

Messy and arresting art. I'm not sure 'enjoy' is quite the right word but I was invested and engaged

For the most part, I found it a touch monotonous. There, I said it 😥

I love q-tip's vocal style though today I found the overall production a bit meh. Probably need a repeat listen or two to get into it

Extraordinary. I sometimes find the production too clipped and bright but I guess you could argue that's also a big part of what makes it unique*. The opening three songs are particularly great. Form, lyrical content, performance; superb. *Not to hate on it, I also feel that way about some other Fridmann productions, e.g. the Delgados and some Mercury Rev. Would love to hear a remastering of some of these records.

Horny swamp rock, with some peculiarly synthetic, chrome-plated sheen. Moderately diverting and a bit enigmatic. What are they hiding?

Pub rock not punk rock. Pretty great

Gives me a whiff of that dreaded term 'adult contemporary' 😬 though it's still actually pretty rad in places 😌

Rippers

This was good. Second Elliott Smith record in quite short order and I preferred this one

This was a stunning discovery. Never heard of before. Loved it. Touches of Calexico. Better. Moments of great beauty to revisit.

Never quite a classic imo but does stand up well. Still like it, still sounds clean

From the more accessible end of The Fall's catalogue, still with enough weirdness and dread to keep it interesting

It's tricky; I like quite a lot of it. Maybe somewhere in here lurks a 38-minute, tight, 4-star album. But I find it a bit too narco nod-off in places, sludgy, or like a low(er)brow Spiritualized.

I've never really felt drawn towards getting into Jane's Addiction but I enjoyed this a lot today. Very solid record.

Bit more tuneful than I anticipated. Exhausting though

It's great. Not quite as avant-garde as some would have you believe. Rich and intriguing.

Strong start, tending mid

Simply magnificent. It's lean, it's smart, the playing is superb.

Really inventive, really good

What is this? Sort of prog pop? A wee bit camp. A wee bit funky. More than a hint of Joel/John piano-man. A dash of Pink Floyd. Quite enjoyable really.

I almost forgot to get to this today. It's pretty good. Smart lyrics, tight production. Starts very strong, declines

Insufferably pleasant, swingless jazz-lite. Boring, soulless, nepo-baby shoppingmall musak. Maybe this will stir you if you want to feel like you're hanging out in a Starbucks on your own, in 2003.

So beautiful it almost becomes cliché. Soundtrack to 1,001 soaring-vista'd HD nature documentaries 🫠

I'll level with you, this possibly deserves a better mark but I listened while commuting and I'm not sure I gave it the level of attention it deserves. Sounds good, missed some nuance

Legitimately pretty good fun

Quality silliness with some old skool bangers

Ambivalent. More murky muddy than I remember, overlong; vs. actual genius at work, heavy blue jazz.

I know it's not meant to be '1,001 BEST albums...' but still, not sure how this makes it onto the list. Nor can I understand how The Verve were so popular at the time, particularly with their indie-lads fanbase. Ponderous music under some very maudlin songs. I mean, it is pretty good but you know... Overdose dirges atop the pop chart? Different times 🙃

Strange one: I don't really like much of it. But I can appreciate its edge. Very brave subject matter for its time. And 3 or 4 classic tracks on there.

The hits are pretty epic to be sure. The rest, I find rather forgettable.

Frequently wonderful though not necessarily the sort of thing I'll naturally reach for. +3 indeed

Not as bad as I feared it might be. Not my vibe but I suppose I can see how it's popular. Rock/hip-hop crossovers can and should be more exciting than this though.

Hadn't drawn a parallel in my mind before, between Annie Lennox and Grace Jones. Giving similar synth-funk ice-queen vibes. The production on this is just so sharp and shiny. It's good. I still probably won't want listen to it again but it is good.

Stupidly, hilariously bombastic. Formulaic, but man, what a formula. Excellent

Righteous, focused anger and right-on social commentary. Smart, direct lyricism. Dope beats. Strong recommend. Absolutely all the subject matter is still highly relevant 32+ years later 🤯 Franti is basically a sage and we collectively have learned almost nothing.

Abrasive. I didn't get into this so much at the time. I rated '...Dark Twisted Fantasy' much more as a record but, with hindsight, this is also close to bringing the Ye-game. The sense I get from Kanye is that despite always acting hard, he's essentially a soft lad, full of yearning. Aside from his well publicised foibles and troubles, it makes him an oddly compelling character. The musical landscape always feels more interesting when he's releasing his better material.

Competent schmalz-rock balladeering. Goes in one ear and out the other, signifying very little that I can discern.

Don't think I'd ever heard of this guy, or this record. Good; I'm up for obscure discoveries (or unknown to me at any rate). This is a bright, jangly, enjoyable country rock romp.

Swaggering

Right on, man. Right on.

Darn good set

Nice to see this on the list, if a touch surprising: in my mind it's maybe SFA's 4th or 5th best record. And I don't mean that as a back-handed compliment; more a testament to the strength of the Furries' catalogue. Some surf-pop vibes. Some soaring ballads. A bit of a melancholy vein throughout. Still very inventive, still really good.

Certified banger 👍

It's fairly good

To be honest, the Village Voice review quoted on the Wiki link summarises this better than I could: "...its creators deserve credit for finding each other and making their obsession real". And R.I.P. Steve Albini.

Man alive. What a singer. What a gig.

Decent grimey heaters. Liked it

None more 80s-sounding. I reckon I wanted to like this more than I actually did. I enjoy the hits but found much of the rest a bit po-faced.

Couldn't really be bothered digging this one out. I mean, it's decent, coherent as a record, and pretty easy to see why it was a big hit. Just a bit too needily provocative. Production on a lot of the tracks is a bit hokey. It's too long. The skits are wack. The smelly spectre of Dre and Iovine is all over it. Lots of the subject matter has aged badly (though tbf, I think we can give MM the benefit of the doubt most of the time). Just can't get right behind it. Begrudging respect and no more than that.

I find something slightly over-produced about this. It's alright. Couple of good tracks. I'm feeling stingy with the score today

Seems to me largely aimless noodling, even if there is talent, a nice voice, and the odd snippet of excellence. Hard to gauge

Wasn't sure I was going to like this much but it was diverting enough. Birthday obviously excellent. Plenty more interesting tracks to explore as well. Needs a revisit.

Breezy DnB rollers. If that's your jam there's a lot to love. Suspect a lot of listeners might get a bit bored? Stop press: I'm starting to think I may be listening to the wrong version of the record here. Difficult to tell; confusion reigns 😬. I'm not listening to the whole 2+ hours if I can't be sure.

Kind of more hi-nrg than I remember. Really good though, can still see its influence decades later. Some naive melodies and dated programming, but it sounds distinctive and it works.

Found it pedestrian.

Very silly, pretty great.

Sappy-yet-catchy, pure essence of wafty 2000s french synth pop wussiness. Quite decent for all that.

Part of the challenge with best-of lists is that they tend to be dominated by a certain type of older/male-er/whiter listener/collector/wannabe-curator. So I am absolutely here for hearing more new stuff from young woman artists/producers. Whether I actually like this or not isn't that relevant. I thought it was alright; quite sexy, although modern RnB is probably never gonna be my jam in a big way. I enjoyed discovering this record.

Wilfully obtuse freak-zone garagey art rock from way back. Probably groundbreaking in its time. I found it intriguing if a bit of a tough listen, though I was glad to give it a spin.

In an alternate universe, Chris Martin was rightly clocked as a sort of crap Nick Drake, the band played the indie circuit for a couple of years, and wrapped up before they were 30 so they could all go off to work in the city. I remember thinking 'yellow' was a stunner at the time. Not much going on beyond that. Passive-aggressively pleasant. How they now routinely pack the biggest stadiums is a total enigma to me. Album is ok in itself, albeit no indication of greatness.

Tiring

Solid power pop. Good fun listen

Along with Rocket from the Crypt, these guys were part of a sort of naughties noisy, garage-punky, rockabilly renaissance. Fun, taut album with barely an ounce of fat and loads of energy.

Don't consider myself a disco fan but this absolutely rips. The chic sound is tight as ever, the musicianship on vocals is equally superb.

I enjoyed this a lot. Accomplished

It's about twice as long as an album should be, imo. But it's still pretty bloody good. And then I discover it's bilingual twin versions of the same record. All is forgiven 🙏😅

Green onions? Hammond cheese sandwich, more like 🙄 Real tasty as a quick snack; tiresome and bland as a multi course meal.

It could almost come off as a bit too wilfully hip but it deftly skirts that. Genuinely engaging. Some dubby parallels with the likes of Sabres of Paradise. I think it feels authentically true to its cultural source material, while modernising that in a credible way. It's a nuanced and well executed production. Definitely not 'stick a house beat under some samples and collect the advertising money'. Still sounds fresh 23 years later.

For a 5-track (long-ass tracks) prog rock jazz odyssey this is surprisingly accessible. It's actually a gas.

I used to have quite a bigoted assumed dislike for country. I'm over that. This record is great. Old fashioned, tear-jerking country ballads.

Superb. I wasn't sure it was on a par with the Folsom album at first, though by the end I was absolutely vibing.

Loved Dookie at the time but I've never actually sat all the way through American Idiot before. It's alright.

Horrible operetta prog pop. Respect the will to create, dislike the creation.

Astonishing playing but a bit indulgent for my tastes. Fretboard wankery extraordinaire.

This is pretty amazing. Elegiac, working-class, junk country or something. Cutting lyrics, humane politics. Resonated with me today. Excellent. "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes" I mean, bloody hell.

Never even heard of this before. Quite a fun hippy wigout. Bits of Doors-esqe organ.

Ozomatli are great. Sadly, this is one of those albums that doesn't come up properly on my streaming provider and while I feel fairly confident it's probably a 4 star record I'll have to give it a 3 as I'm not getting the full picture.

Stunning voice, heartfelt songs. Really can't fault it.

I don't normally tend to check others' reviews while I've literally got the album on but I just had a peek at some for this. Alternately scathing, hilarious, and in some cases richly insightful. A bit like the man himself. There's a full spectrum of responses from active dislike, through simply not getting into it, right up to hero worship. Put me somewhere in the middle. I find the music and production here quite unedifying for a lot of the time, though the sarky, sardonic, poetic lyrics always hold plenty interest. 2.5, tending to 3

Another one with the curse of the streaming-services-special-edition-re-release. How long was the original record? Can't we just listen to that? An hour and 3/4 of anything is liable to get boring. That said, sounds like there's some decent tracks on here. It doesn't quite float my folk boat like some bands can. And it's a bit parochial seen through a rock lens. But it's likeable enough. Coward's score from me: a 3.

One of my less favoured Bowie records though to be fair, after the first track it picks up a lot.

I like some Björk but jeez, I simply didn't get on with this at all.

Neil really is the main man. Long after his 'Decade' golden era, he was/is still regularly churning out work of incredible quality. I feel like this album was quite overlooked at the time, though in retrospect it's a cracker.

Suppose the clue was in the band name: way less heavy than I anticipated. Other than the eponymous title track (which largely kicks ass but is preposterously long) I didn't much care for it. Too noodley.

Man alive, feel the influence. While Johnny Lydon and chums were still flicking bogeys at each other up the back of the class, these white German cycling nerds were in the lab laying down the blueprint for some all-time-great hip hop, house and techno samples. Even if those eventual end-points are often more fun to listen to than an entire album of cool-blooded Teutonic metronomy, this is astonishing gear. I for one welcome our peculiar, analogue-techno overlords.

For me, Massive Attack's best album. Exquisite. The choice collaborators. The mirrored, twin-sided format. The mood, the flow. The instrumentation. Analogue dub heart with digital flourishes. Not a bad track on here. Brilliant.

There are brilliant moments on here but man, it's just too flipping long. Daunting.

They may be most known for the 100-mile-an-hour, music-for-pirates hoedowns. But it's the slow airs that get me. Greatness is here if you care to look for it.

Must admit, although I like the Chemical Brothers a lot, they're normally an act I listen to in fairly short snatches. There's only so many epic-buildup breakbeat slammers a man can take... but this record does reward a full listen through. It ebbs and flows nicely and sort of captures the dynamism of a live set. Strong.

Bleak and dirty literary hymns. I'm genuinely ambivalent towards this.

When this popped up today I couldn't really be bothered to listen but I persevered and it was decent. Fun (and often quite funny) camp disco pop.

Wearing. Man, I want to like these guys, and I frequently do, in small doses. The guitar and drum sound are phenomenal by any measure. But I just can't abide Robert Plant's caterwauling vocals for more than about ten minutes at a time. I thought this was going to earn a high score but by the end I was relieved it was over.

Some of it's pretty great, coming on like an English Lauryn Hill. Some of it feels a bit dated now.

Prog but with every ounce of fat trimmed. Master craftsmen.

Glorious rococo pop. Earnest rather than than twee. I find it beguiling.

New to me. Enjoyed it. Well worth a revisit.

Ronseal album: sounds like it says on the cover. And that's no bad thing.

The frontiest of front-loads. Starts in euphoria then falls off like a mf. Still remarkably solid for all that.

Good record but I'm feeling harsh.

Hmmm, one of those ones. I feel there's a really strong 10 or 11 track album lurking within but, for me right now, the overall affect comes off a wee bit MoR and sprawling. Of course, being as smart as they are, this in itself might be a deliberate allegory for suburbanism. Who knows. On another day it probably gets a 4 from me but today it's landing a bit flat

Masterful but - unlike most people my age it seems - to my mind not Radiohead's masterpiece. It's great, I just don't want to listen to it very often as it's too depressing.

Some tremendous stuff on here. Warmly humane boom bap.

Although it's good it won't compel me to come back often.

Pretty much unimpeachable excellence.

This is strong

Pretty much the apex predator of 70s singer-songwriter funk-tinted soul. Rooted in its time and also somehow completely transcendent.

Almost goes without saying that this is absolutely tremendous. An awesome wave of daftness. Churlish to give it a 4 really but compared to some true 5s, it is mono-paced (which I know is also kind of the point, but still...)

In which a metamorphosis occurs, seemingly almost in real-time. Young players become mature artists. Hokey pop takes a psychedelic turn. The end of the 60s is foreshadowed, even while that decade is barely starting to peak (a peak both created and destroyed by this record as much as anything). The band cements its status as giga-stars while at the same time renouncing the accompanying circus. All while playing the meta game of literally creating the circus. I feel slightly mad not giving this a 5 but I reckon that even though on cultural impact, this is a 5 all day, there are better albums, and even some better records by the Beatles. It's hard to listen afresh, as it is a pillar of my early childhood. It's phenomenal, it's just that I no longer feel a drive to listen to it very often.

Not feeling it today. Finding it monotonous.

Lovely stuff. Coming at this expecting White Light, White Heat stompers will yield disappointment but there's loads of introspective niceness here.

Woah, second Bunnymen record in the space of 2 weeks. What are the chances? This is a very strong record

This was enjoyable and seemed to be a shoo-in for a 4 but in truth I felt like its momentum dropped off pretty hard after A Forest.

I'm not saying the guy is untalented, but I don't like this album and find most of the songwriting childish and wack.

When the title track kicked in, I was thinking steady on here, we might be looking at a 5 star record. Sadly, the rest of the album can't quite live up to that but it does have several great singles. Also evoked fond memories of being 9 years old and hearing this music via my friend's big sister.

Still sounds genuinely exciting. Garageland is a self-aware statement of intent and this is the closest The Clash came to a straightforward pub-rock album, but there are still signs of greater ambition throughout. Tight harmonies, tighter rhythms, and the first shoots of the reggae influence that made them extra special. It's probably the purest expression of the punk energy the band had and might be their best record in that sense. It lacks the sprawling ambition of later efforts but who says that's a bad thing? 14 songs, 35 minutes, barely a couple of duffers on there. It's like an early Beatles album or something: pure pop sensibility but cranked up to 11 with frustration and boredom. And it's hard to think of a stronger opening to many records than the 4 song run from Janie Jones to White Riot. Brilliant

The Sorrow and the Ditty* With respect, this is genuinely, crazily, bleak. Thanks to whoever uploaded the source material. It's not a suite of music I'm likely to seek out again, but I am glad to have made the effort to listen through it all. It's quite impressive in its scope. *Review headline if I were a sarcastic Melody Maker sub-editor (which, tbf, might have been a dream job)

Something quite Californian about the sound of this, even though it's meant to be an English riff on delta blues. It's excellent in places, though way too long. Everyone knows Layla of course, but I'd not heard the album in full before. Always that slight lingering thought in the back of my mind as well, that although we can all admire Clapton's virtuoso playing, he is still an absolute knobhead.

Not so much a tower of song as a monolith of pure sonic regret.

Spine tingling opener, bum fiddling closer.

Amazing guy. Some top joints on here.

Hmmm, could be tricky. I think 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' is a genuinely classic track. I used to think 'Suedehead' was one as well. However, although it's certainly a catchy tune, I have an awful feeling that, knowing what we know now, it can be re-read as racist. Troublesome at best. The rest of the album feels inconsequential by comparison. Morrissey himself has now repeatedly shown himself to be so unlikeable that it's hard not to view his work a lot more harshly.

Atmospheric and generally pretty excellent

An astonishingly lovely set of songs ☺️ Some of the worst cover art 🥲

Young Dry Keiths. As bland as can be, imo.

Happy Mondays' cultural profile and influence is way bigger and more powerful than their actual back catalogue. A handful of stomping great singles. Quite a lot of dreck. Still an interesting listen.

Super record.

Beautiful voice and I was glad to listen to this. Unlikely to track it down again I suppose but a nice discovery.

Til the cops come knocking eh? Dodgy. Slickly produced and all but this vibe is not for me.

Interesting one. Some stone classics, couple of superb cover versions, couple of relatively throwaway tracks. A rich listen.

Must admit I couldn't get through this in a single session today. It's interesting and fairly challenging. Some proto-krautrock/math-rock mullarkey going on. Did I like it? Sometimes. Am I a big time convert? Not really.

First time listen. Big production, quite high concept. Bit better than expected. Faint praise.

Angle-grinder abrasive beats. Historically and socially conscious lyrical context. Boom 🧨

Surprised but pleased to find this on the list. Not heard it for years. Awesome, distinctive sound. Maybe a bit less varied in scope than some of their later albums.

Astonishing really. Sick bed of Cuchulainn is a winning statement of intent and extremely on-the-nose reflection of Shane's own struggles. Folk punk tales featuring a knackered and broken cast of rentboys, boozers, squaddies and navvies. And maybe that's just the band. Squalid and vibrant, thrilling and tragic.

Not a fan. Over produced, over-loud and r-r-repetitive. Golden skans is alright, and the idea of indie-rock/dance crossover they're going for sounds appealing in theory but I'm not sure this is it. Second-best track is a cover version that's not as good as the original. Landfill indie. Sorry.

A relic from a time when Creation Records stood for something. Boo Radleys hit a rich vein of form starting with this record. Sunshine melodies crossed with shoegaze distortion, and plenty of studio experimentalism. I hear some parallels with labelmates like Super Furry Animals, Teenage Fanclub, Ride. Ultimately though, it runs a bit too long and the high spots (Wish I Was Skinny, Lazarus) are spread just a wee bit thin.

Incredible voice.

Hard to contextualise this awful greatness. I suppose that is the real root of awe but that doesn't mean we'll all enjoy the listen. Like a brutalist building of sound. Sharp, repetitive forms. A sublime harshness. Scoring it seems even more pointless than usual; simultaneously a 5 and a 1.

Ooft. Had to break this down into separate segments as it got too annoying for me to listen to more than about half an hour at a time. An act of pointless endurance. A technically decent singer, I just don't like the vibe or the songs.

Pretentious, cloyingly bombastic, heavily overrated but actually, with benefit of some distance, still a solid album despite all that. All These Things is a cracking track. Over-exposure at the time probably got the hackles up more than the actual music. I don't know who thinks this is in any way post punk though (as stated on the wiki). Power pop at a push. Can't really even see it as indie as it was always mega mainstream here in the UK. A bit like U2, both in terms of aesthetic and breadth of appeal but also in the way they front-loaded the hell out of this tracklist. The second half of this record falls off an absolute cliff 😅

I remember getting a bootleg of this in '03, from a market stall in Bolivia. I was underwhelmed at the time but that's more on my taste than on Missy. It's fun and decent.

Ooft. Another record spoiled by streaming services putting up a confusing 2-hour, extended edition that makes everything worse than the artists intended 😬 I love a bit of spiritualised but not that familiar with their predecessor, the spaceman 3. To be frank, I couldn't be bothered with this much stoned-sounding introspection today.

Bruck

There's quite a lot going on here but it doesn't add up to a whole heap of coherence. Couple of minor indie hits, a handful of other goodies, a lot of sketches and experiments.

Pretty astonishing

Sonic wallpaper I'm afraid: in one ear and out the other (albeit smooth and mellifluous while doing so).

I've realised in the course of this odyssey that I'm a bit of an arsehole as a reviewer. Despite any positive feeling towards a record, I almost always feel compelled to include a 'but...'. Anyway, I need to try not to do that so much. I like a bit of 808 State. Their singles are banging. This record is a cool short stab of acidey goodness. Doesn't quite hold up as a complete listen in the way that something from LFO might, for example. Very evocative of a particukar time and a certain vibe though.

Never heard of this before. Brilliant!

Real good

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed some of the MoR radio sunshine wafters. I was also surprised by how little I enjoyed some of the studio-noodling. Oh, and the thing as a whole is twice as bloody long as it should be. But there's stuff on here that will reward some repeat listens I think.

Not heard much at all from these dudes before. Great discovery. Very enjoyable, groovy (stating the obvious) pop sound. Reminds me quite a bit of Small Faces.

Probably still my favourite Chemical Brothers album, even after all these years. A true pillar of 90s UK electronica. The better-known tracks are great of course, some mash up between house, big beat, with an indie influence and something new at the time and quite distinctively British. Some of my favourites though are little off-piste moments like the drop on Three Little Birdies Down Beats, of the clank of Playground. All told, awesome.

I'm familiar with a few bits and pieces of Bill Callahan and Smog but not this album. It's frankly lovely. Stark, sparse, emotive songs.

Not heard before. I found it excellent.

Elegiac brilliance. Sod it, Neil can go into the rare 'two 5s' club.

Not really in my wheelhouse but I can hear the merit. Pretty enjoyable listen. There's not such a divide between the tribes: there's a line through hardcore, on towards techno and some hip-hop that unites a certain right-on-brother ethos: hard-ass sounds with a humanitarian and essentially quite soulful message. OK, so I'd personally rather listen to those other genres but I like these guys and to my ear, they sit on that continuum. Thrash for your rights, if you like.

Better than anticipated. Not as much of a novelty pastiche act as expected.

It's a bit of a banger, to be sure, though I don't really share the five-star love a lot of people give it. Undoubtedly solid.

Ugh, not for me thanks. No mi gusta. Caterwaul. I mean, I'm sure Ms Morissette is a decent person. And fook me, this spawned a fair clutch of radio hits. I just find this record cloyingly produced, overly earnest, and bum-clenchingly emotive. Like a framed affirmation on a wine-mom's kitchen wall. Sorry not sorry; if you can't handle my reviews at their pettiest and shittiest, you don't deserve them waxing lyrical🫠

I like the cure though I must admit this record struck me as a bit of a downer today.

Unbelievable talent. Doesn't mean it's a full-bhoona 5-star album for me but I admire and respect the heck out of the work.

Tough call. I hear brilliance though in honesty it's too raw, too hard, and the language is too charged for me to find it an enjoyable listen. That's not even really a critique, just that I'm not the core audience and I absolutely *should* feel uncomfortable around some of the material.

Somewhat uncharitably, I assumed this might be about half as good as a Steely Dan record. Turns out that assessment might be about right. On a good day 😬

I like the sound of all three main constituent parts of this project, albeit the combination could risk becoming arse-clenchingly earnest. In the end, I think it walks that line really rather well, honouring Woody Guthrie without being too worthy.

I can't much be doing with this record in truth. I like a wee bit of Smiths but this is peak whinge-era Morrissey.

On a slightly jaded new-years-day morning, I found this to strike a perfect mood.

Swiss factory carny polka techno horror. Kind of great, kind of appalling. Small doses were enough for me. Impossible to rate.

Beautiful. Wistful morning music.

The unsinkable legend.

Solid band. Solid set of tracks. Not something I'll dig out frequently but I do like them when I hear them.

Frankly ridiculous how strong this record is. A real all-killer, no-filler affair. No best-of collections required when there is back catalogue like this to unearth. There are of course several era-defining bangers (Changes, Pretty Things, Life on Mars, Queen Birch) but those are so well known already that it's some of the slightly deeper cuts (Bewlay Brothers, Fill Your Heart, Eight Line Poem, Quicksand) that really stick with me these days. Peak Bowie. Maybe his best.

Funny, jangly tales of horny, frustrated youth.

Only previously familiar with A Minha Menina. Bonkers baroque trippy mod pop exotica. Starts strong, gets old fairly quick. Like it quite a bit.

'Is and Is and Is' is a stonker. I really like these guys. Overall, a 4-star band for their playing and style, but maybe this is a 3.5-star album.

Never really listened to Ministry before. This starts out pretty rad: almost a hip-hop production, the industrial grind has some of the same energy as a public enemy jam or a Rick Rubin track. Then it settles into a more speed-metal mode. The propulsive drive is good, if not my natural listening habitat. Jesus Built My Hot rod is a great, fun track, sort of turbo-rockabilly. TurboBilly™? ScareCrow is a bit like The Smiths, if they were into heroin. Some of this is hilariously overblown, though the band sound self aware enough that you're always laughing with rather than at them. I will check out more of these guys for sure.

Epic as a track is pretty much exactly that. The rest of the album? Not so much. Are these guys at the credible end of the 80s hair-metal spectrum, or the naff end of the early- 90s grunge-adjacent spectrum, or some other kind of thing? Stopped caring at some point during my listen.

I'm afraid this is a bit of a case of admire-more-than-enjoy. Joni is a wonderful artist but this isn't one of my favourite records by her and in truth, although it's quite nostalgic for me (reminds me of my mum), I ultimately find the style here a bit too 'jazz lounge'.

Don't really get it, sorry. Sounds sort of pleasant but I don't enjoy that fully trad country vibe very much.

Answering a question no one was really asking: what if Meatloaf was handsome? I kind of want to like the guy but this is too earnest for me.

Very questionable aesthetic. Dodgy, dirty old man slurs his sleazy story over a laid-back rock/funk/jazz/big-band/choral backing and it somehow sounds cool as hell. I feel extremely conflicted.

Sort of hard-boiled, noir-ish comedy as much as music (albeit the band are brilliant). Amazing storytelling; sad, grimy, lonesome yet richly compelling. Nocturnal melodrama indeed. This might have baffled me a bit as a youngster but Tom Waits seems to sneak up on me with age. Like.

There is something off and ersatz about this. Smacks of major-label A&R money trying to ride the house music/daisy-age boom? If anything the production is too polished to feel authentic. Want Maceo Parker on a track? Sure, why the hell not? At its heart is vacuous flim-flam. Groove is in the Heart is a cracking 1-hit wonder though.

Another gap in my listening c.v. Surprised me just how good some of this is. Demands a re-listen.

Big metamorphosis for the Byrds, in which they turn turn turn almost fully country. Was skeptical at first, then started to get into it, before my enthusiasm waned again a bit by the end. Enjoyed the ride though, and the playing is great.

MJ is a featherweight, a tragic punchline popinjay. But this is a Quincy Jones joint, so the first couple of singles at least do absolutely slap. The connective tissue is weaksauce milquetoast disco pop but hey, it's sort of alright.

Indie taste heresy #257: I bore quite quickly listening to The White Stripes. I'm bumping this up to a 4 as it's got so much strong stuff on it but it's marginal. 40 mins but feels like 55.

Not much to say about this one other than it's pretty damn great. Respect.

Aside from a couple of weed propaganda tracks which I could take or leave, this is excellent.

Didn't know Solomon Burke. I like this a lot. Good Friday-night kitchen music.

The production is strong and there are some good lines. Not so much my scene but some funny moments and decent hooks

Can't be doing with much of this one I'm afraid. Liked Dummy quite a lot at the time but I'll probably never reach for this one. Bleak

This project continues to teach me many things. Today's revelation is that although I like to think I am something of a Joni Mitchell fan, I might be kidding myself. This is the second album of hers that's come up in as many weeks and it's clear now that I admire the idea of her as an artist more than I enjoy a lot of listening to her actual music. My loss.

Yes! The funniest/dopest stoopid-but-played-with-a-straight-bat gonzo boom-bap nonsense. Strong recommend.

Christ, no wonder Morrissey never got laid. The music is good of course, and the Smiths can still surprise you with an absolute nugget here and there (Paint a Vulgar Picture fits that profile here for me) but in the main it's a dreary trudge.

I was finding this pretty lacklustre but then you still get some absolute winners like In the Ghetto or Suspicious Minds just dropped in there at like track 13. Soulful diamonds in the cheesy country rough.

Never really sat through this one in full before. I think I'd need more listens to get right under the skin of it. On this evidence that's something I probably should try to do.

I like a bit of George Harrison but I was thinking to myself 'flip, this thing is over two hours long!'. Need not have worried. It flies by and there's some lovely stuff on here. Yes, it's meandering but if you're in the mood it's great.

Oh man, this was unexpectedly excellent. Despite being long af, which I usually dislike, as soon as I'd finished listening, this got a second spin.

Strange, suburban, Scottish blue-eyed Afrobeat. Or something. Pretty darn good it is too.

Other than Games Without Frontiers, I didn't much care for this. I suppose at least it mostly held my interest.

I mean, I can easily see how this spawned a couple of respectable Radio-2 playlist hits. Milquetoast with your milquetea. And there is some merit in that. What I can't get my head around is Coldplay's emergent status as U2-style biggest-band-in-the-world by default. Truly baffling.

I sort of want to like this more than I actually do. It's in one ear and out the other for me. A bit MoR.

Astounding. It's like a greatest hits record.

Decent grooves, though I've always had a strange feeling from the Stereo MCs, like their lyrics are half finished or something. Never realised there were 4 singles on this record though.

I quite like a bit of Jay-Z but I don't connect with much of his stuff on a deeper level. Still a bit too much focus on fast cars, iced-out watches and bird-chasing brag chat to be really interesting to me. The Nas diss on this is funny but also indicates that Nas lives rent-free in Jay's head. Protest too much?

Excellence. I know they pretend to play it sloppy but this is precision songwriting and finely crafted musicianship. One of their best

Cool as a cucumber and the brass is class.

I enjoyed this way more than I expected.

This is a full gas laugh. Less darkness and less speediness than the name suggests, coming on more like a hardcore Hives. Silly in a good way.

Retro-futurist dreamscape tracks, crafted in an abandoned European workshop by art nouveaubots.

Admiring the poetry, some diverting tracks and plenty of interesting ideas. Not really my listening vibe today though. Blues in Bob Minor is a bit of a banger.

Fairly passable impressions of Little Richard. Quite fun sounding but I guess I don't understand the context properly; why so many cover versions?

A first time listen. Liked it. Shades of Violent Femmes. Solid garage music, if a bit mono-paced.

Ludicrous kitchen-sink melodrama doggerel showtunes, on depressing topics. Ooft. No thanks. Although, saying that...

Metal dudes, eh. Do they ever like, you know, just take a day off and chill? 🥲 This record does get interesting when the band introduce more indigenous Brazilian sounds.

So exciting at the start. Falls off pretty hard tbh but overall excellent and redolent of its time and place. An era when jazzy D'n'B looked like it might conquer the world. I mean, I'm kind of glad that didn't happen but the newness felt great at the time. Some of the tracks drag but I'm still scoring this high for overall aesthetic and vibe.

Intricately layered bonkers mad shit. Jazz funk prog proto-electronica. Sharp and clean but packed with detailed flourishes. Loving it.

This was lovely. The raw sound of rural heartbreak and bitter disappointment. Think I need to check it out again

Very poignant in hindsight. Despite a few reservations about the fairly manufactured production, there's nothing manufactured about Amy herself. Undeniably strong album.

Half Man, Half Waterboys. And I don't mean that to sound disparaging at all.

This is fine, strange, new territory. What happens when one of the all time greats knows he's dying but can't tell everyone? He gets back in the studio for a final fling as a parting gift to the world. So poignant. And really interesting music. Excellent

Strong album. Good storytelling, solid production. Sound has more in common with stuff like PE, rather than the later West Coast G Funk style. Just not a comfortable listen so I have to knock off a point as it's not a record I will reach for often. Was glad to hear it right through though.

"If you're fond of sand dunes, and salty air; quaint little villages, here and there..." GTFO All I got for you is an angle grinder and a lump hammer, in the cavernous blackness of an abandoned German factory, under the tortured howls of a maniac. A European take on the birth of industrial techno? I kind of wanted to like this but it certainly ain't a relaxing listen. 5 for integrity, 2 for actual listenability 🫠

Probably my favourite Stones album. It's phenomenal.

Super strong opening couple of tracks. The rest is just ok.

Cratedigger elegy. On the hunt for an elusive feeling. It's an excellent mood, if not massively exciting much of the time.

Credit where it's due: I was nonplussed when this appeared on my list, but I found it to be much more enjoyable than I'd remembered/imagined. Perhaps age-related; I found Weller very boring in the 90s but can now appreciate this record's reflective, folky, soulful charm.

This rips. And it's quite funny. But it's absolutely knackering. 💀💀💀

Incredible voice

Preposterous. Not always necessarily a bad thing.

Wilco are never bad. Bit too long, not much that really grabbed me, but a solid and pleasant listen.

1st track: 😐🤚 2nd track: 🧐👍 3rd track: 😶🫴 "Yes"? Nope, "no thanks" more like.

Difficult. Quite like the rockabilly underbelly. Quite like the sparse instrumentation. Not an easy listen but a fairly rewarding one. Can easily see it's influence on stuff like Nebraska.

Pretty impressive driving momentum. I might well never listen to this again though I was happy enough to hear it today.

Copper-bottomed quality. My palate has been a bit tainted on Bob Marley by over-playing his greatest hits when I was a youngster. But this is just so good.

Comedy glod

A luscious wallow

I admire Dolly Parton a lot as a human. And objectively, this record is full of goodness. Just personally not really my jam I'm afraid, even if I do like some of the storytelling.

This is astonishing. Now I get it. Now I see what the fuss is about

Really liked this record. Hadn't listened to it for a few years, largely since hearing of Adams' cancellation due being an abusive sleazebag. Damn but the songs are still great though. It's really copping a lot of hate on here and I'm not sure if I'm just out of tune with with the rest of the world, or if the hate is largely reputational received wisdom. Either way, I think there's still plenty to enjoy here. Like a young Neil Young in the better moments. Way too long though. As ever, there's probably an unimpeachable 40 minute classic lurking in an edit. Conflicted whether to mark this down more or keep it up there...

I was keen to check this out but sad to say I found it pretty shallow and boring. Although the production is crisp and precise, a lot of the music also feels really dated, not in a cool 'rooted in the time of it's creation' sense. Just a bit naff

Pretty much textbook landfill UK indie pop, with the honourable exception of 'comedy', which is a beautiful track. In other words, worth a cursory listen but not very noteworthy beyond that.

This is pretty good. Flitting the fader back and forth from old world folk to west coast psychedelia

Basket Case was an absolutely massive vibe when I was 14 or 15. And to be fair, the rest of the album is cut from similarly solid material. I still like most of it, even if it is a bit bright-sounding and quite obvious thematically. Marking it down a bit as I think this record is responsible for a slew of less discerning imitations throughout the 90s and 00s.

Must admit, I didn't expect to see Skunk Anansie anywhere near this list. Impressively ferocious and dynamic vocals from Skin. In a parallel universe, she'd probably be turning out at the royal opera or something. Not really my jam but it's better than I maybe imagined. Well-produced.

Never heard of these guys before but I rather enjoyed the listen. On a drizzly Saturday morning, this dash of mournful, depression-era (though I see the record was actually released in the 50s, so was maybe nostalgic even then?) bluegrass seemed to strike the right tone.

I like quite a lot of the Rolling Stones' work. But not this. Maybe the most sexist opening few tracks to a record imaginable, and I was in no mood for that bullshit today. Yes, they're trying to do some interesting-for-the-time stuff with instrumentation and so on but I don't think it compensates for the fundamentally rotten core of this album. Add to that, the bluesy jam stuff like 'Going Home' drags on horrendously and you have a recipe for a pretty crappy record. It's a wonder their career not only survived this but went supersonic.

Tough one as I'm a bit ambivalent about Blondie. Parallel Lines rightfully deserves its classic status and boasts a handful of cracking hit singles. Somehow though, for me, that still doesn't add up to an album I want to have on heavy rotation. So, I enjoy hearing it now and then but not really enough to compel me to score it more highly.

There's quite a set of strong songs on here. I must be personally going through a strict and demanding phase as I don't feel inclined to be generous with the scoring. Definitely a decent record though.

Some of the most kickass blues swagger and riffage imaginable. Only marginally marred by the odd bit of caterwauling. Maybe led zep's best record?

It's too long. Too many skits. Still, there's some excellent stuff on here. And, more than most, the vaudeville does at least seem to add to the overall arc of the thing. There's some good ideas here, exploring the tension between loading up on conspicuous consumption, vs lifelong education. Kanye doth protest too much... you can tell he wants to be a good student, a church boy, a family man. Be he also wants to push miracle whips and chase women. I rate him highest when he's not trying too hard to be hard. The best tracks are more reflective and vulnerable ones (spaceship, family business). An interesting listen for sure.

17th studio album eh? What a man 🙏

Intense in delivery, fairly dismal in tone. It's at once very good and a bit dragging

I found this pedestrian, earnest, and overlong. I'm quite partial to a bit of Bruce and this record is not terrible; but it has no place anywhere near a must-hear list

Another super strong record from shakey

Soundtrack to 1,001 gnarly skateboarding vids. Precision-tooled metal that fairly rips along. Not really my usual fare but I enjoyed it a lot today, blasting homeward on my bike in the sunshine 🤘

Nope. Spray of Shite, more like. Not that I hate Madonna, mind you, but... next!

These are some interesting songs here, some enticing vocal harmonies. Over time, I find the production relentlessly shiny, echoey and flat. Interesting enough to warrant the occasional repeat listen maybe, though towards the end this time I found myself craving to be free if it. Claustrophobic in a way.

Hard to come up with much feedback today. Probably need to hear this again. Was cool though

This record is not brilliant in spite of being absolutely crackers and way too long. It's brilliant absolutely because it's bonkers and overlong, and it doesn't give a hoot. I keep wanting to mark The Beatles down for something, then I sit through another of their records and I absolutely have to hand it to them. This is the sound of an apex predator of bands, at the point in their development where they stopped caring what anyone else thought and just went gonzo. The idea-tap completely wide-open. Crazy good. Often, fame and money seem to dull artists in some way, shutting them off from the world, or limiting the creative spark that brought them to prominence in the first place. By some mad alchemy, these guys passed through that veil with the accumulated wisdom of a bunch of 60 year old veterans, while still being in their mid 20s and full of energy and appetite for risk. Hardened but not jaded (well, ok, maybe just the odd wee bit). Absolutely mind boggling. Track after track etched into your mind and barely a bum note. I am grateful for the existence of these lads.

The high points really are great, though there are quite a lot of meandering fillers

Pretty solid. I like some of the rare-groove, soul-inspired tunes. Some of the more housey numbers too. And the opening cover version is a bit of a belter. Some of it's a bit too wishy-washy but all in all a rewarding listen.

Really interesting, ambitious, and impressive; it's just that I don't necessarily want to listen to all of it in one swoop. I find 'Who Is It?' particularly spine-tingling. Ultimately, acapella won't be for everyone even if it can be admired more than enjoyed.

Pretty mad in a way that this odd wee guy became one of Britain's most enduring pop cultural icons. No accounting for public taste eh. Still, there is some enjoyment to be had on this record. Production dated, lead vocal weak-as-water, but still somehow OK for all that.

🤘🤘🤘🤘 Superb.

Enjoyed this a lot. Not familiar with many of the tracks beforehand but the whole album is locked into a really solid groove

Bit twee on reflection, albeit with an all time great to finish. Actually managed to listen through this twice today. Enjoyed it more the first time, and it would've earned a 4. A slight downgrade after the second spin.

Must admit, I didn't have time to give this the attention it deserved today. A lot flowed over me, so I'll need to give it a second spin. Sounds solid but of course it would.

Nah, sorry. I don't hate it but I can't say I enjoyed it much. I find the synths a bit atonal. It all feels dated (and not in a good way as can sometimes be the case)

Mellifluous, if somewhat one-paced. Kind of like a sister record to Sinatra's 'In the wee small hours'.

Quite aggressively frenetic. Best enjoyed out in a field through a massive soundsystem, Prodigy were a useful gateway for me into discovering all sorts of other electronica. The production is rad: very big, very loud, and very sharp. But saying all that, it's quite a challenging listen nowadays. It's all energetic but some of the big rave lead synths can sound a bit cheesy at times. When this popped up, my instinct said this would be a 4 star record but in truth, on listening back, it doesn't move me like it used to.

I simply was not in the mood and couldn't be bothered with any thrash doggerel dogma today. And there's one way to stand up to vulgar displays of power: RESIST! I don't much care if Pantera are probably some of the good guys; fuck off, this isn't what my ears want right now. I heard it out diligently (of course) and it just made me feel angry. And now of course that's got me thinking... perhaps that was the point all along ✊🖕🤷‍♂️

A work of bugged-out bonkers, peurile party genius.

Ooft

This was really educational, which I appreciated. Pretty intense wig-outs too

Gold soundz indeed

I'd forgotten quite how good this is. Bit nonplussed to see it on the list but listening back, it's a perfectly cut gem of a record. One of those rarities perhaps, where the reality is actually better than its status. Barely a flat spot on it, a coherent and unique sound, brilliant musicianship. It's fantastic

A 1-minute blast of FBS can be quite exciting. Perfect soundtrack to advertise your affordable hatchback. 5-mins is usually a fairly interesting listen (sample spotting, intriguing production, fun times etc.). 10 mins is getting wearing. Half an hour is way too much. What's that? Another big buildup and breakdown you say? Another frantic 16/4 drum climax? A full album? Utter overdose 💀

An Essex shagger's rockabilly-jazz-funk odyssey, with some nifty wordplay. A peculiar kind of genius at work here

I mean, who doesn't love Marvin Gaye's voice? This is a wee bit syrupy for my taste but still... daayumn

Didn't know anything about this - on first impression I really got into it. I know I'll be checking it out again.

True class. Is this something of a barometer record? Must admit, I used to struggle more to get into the material. Hearing it back now made a lot more sense to me.

Starting to feel like there's quite a lot of Byrds records on this list. Surprising to me but I guess they are more influential than I gave them credit for. This is a good listen, and there is a good mix of experimentalism and lyricism along with the jangly melodies. On the fence between a 3 and a 4 but this is solid so let's be generous. My Back Pages is a standout

Got a bit bored by this

Less awful than the other couple of Metallica records that have come up so far. I still dislike the overall cut of their jib but this is nearly tolerable.

Almost totally new to me, though I'd heard the name and one track before. Cover had me expecting naughties-era alt-folk or something, rather than the 60s jazz-pop-hippie-swing oddities that the album actually contains. Did I like it? Nope, I thought it was dreadful. But who cares, that's part of what this project is all about: interesting diversions.

I was quite keen to hear this again after 20+ years. Couldn't find the whole album on my streaming service but managed to track down 10 of the tunes on YT. Not as strong as I remember tbh. Not aged particularly well. Some good moments but in the main I found the production a bit wishy-washy.

Execrable, interminable dirges. Absolute dogshit dreck. I won't go down to 1-star for it, as that's reserved in my mind for records I actively despise. This was close though!

Not as exciting as I remembered from the time. Solid record though

These guys were 20 years ahead of their time. Unfortunately for them, that means 'their time' would be smack-dab in the middle of T***p's twisted idiocracy. This is the sound of wilfully ignorant douchebags living high on the hog. Not a single thought in their heads that isn't some variant of whiny, victim-mentality, navel-gazing, peurile, hubristic, bullshit. Thanks for making me listen to it: Mr Durst, now indeed I know precisely why I wanna hate thee. Wack sauce rock/rap crossover attempt. Shit by any measure.

Bit of a flaccid effort. Think Too Much, indeed. Unusually, the bit I enjoyed the most was probably the extra, unreleased, acoustic demo tracks, tacked onto the end of the edition I listened to. Warmer and more direct.

This was fun, if a bit fleeting

Massively jaded

This must be the jolly/fun end of the prog-rock spectrum. And it's decent for it. Bright sound, tight playing, tales of seafaring etc. Crisply recorded and not overlong. Flecks of diverse influences (jazz? bluegrass?). Not bad at all; one to come back to.

Yes it could be seen as twee and fey but so bloody good. Many of these lyrics and melodies have been living in my head for over 25 years now and they still stand up, fresh and timeless. Some astonishingly good songs, well-produced and perfectly sequenced. What the heck, it's nearly flawless in its own unique, imperfect way: give it a five.

Pretty good fun. Didn't realise this was the origin of J Dilla's 'Workin on it' sample. Strays at times perilously close to Frank Zappa territory; which I'm sure some people might like.

I'm feeling like this is more of a John Cale record than a Lou Reed one, if that makes sense? Most of it is quite wilfully angular and challenging, albeit kinda cool. I like it, I just don't really wanna listen to it more than once in a blue moon.

Personal heresy no. 352: I don't much care for the Beach Boys. And while I recognise a few great songs, I've never quite understood the scale of their hype. This record was a pleasant listen but has done very little to disabuse me of that skepticism.

Enjoyable if largely quite forgettable

A window to a different era, of big bands and big productions. Could come over as bombastic and schmaltzy but somehow just sounds pretty awesome and fun instead. Somewhere between soul, jazz, funk, and hippie rock - with a rhythm section tighter than two coats of paint. Strays at times into prog excess but still quite cool.

I think this was the first album I bought with my own money; on vinyl, from Our Price in Stirling, aged about 10. Not listened to it for at least 30 years, and I suppose that tells its own story. Can still remember every note though 😅! I mean, it's terrible comedy litebeer schlock rock. It also seems to be completely, deadly earnest and unironic. Still nearly awesome despite all that cheese. An extra star for nostalgia.

Great energy on this. Always was a cut above the landfill britpop that was doing the rounds at the time

A beautiful singer, singing lovely and wistful songs. Somehow still fails to leave much of an impression on me for all that. Maybe my favourite track was the short, bittersweet closer.

I like a bit of Ali Farka Touré, though I'm a lot more familiar with a couple of his later records. I'm also quite a big fan of Ry Cooder so, on paper at least, this should be a shoo-in. I wouldn't say it was as arresting as some of the work I've heard from either musician elsewhere but it is a charming listen. A low-key, mellow, desert blues.

Great record. Brooding and elegiac.

This is the Day is a solid track. The rest of the record; interesting for sure (jaunty synths vs pretty deep and miserable lyrics makes a good contrast) but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it hugely. Certainly glad to hear it in full though.

From the rococo, maximalist end of the French, sample-tastic electro-disco-house spectrum. There are brilliant, banging moments on here for sure and Justice have a trademark, inimitable sound. For 48 mins though? Bit much for me

I love a bit of Big Star but don't think I'd ever sought-out this album. Unsurprisingly, it's full of interesting moments, even if overall it's a bit less radio-friendly (and arguably a bit more weary and jaded), than previous efforts.

Feels oddly pedestrian for something which, on the face of it, sounds pacy and energetic. It's alright for sure, just lacking a certain something.

This is a bit like swimming lengths in the pool or something. At first it feels like hard work and distinctly monotonous. After a while you start to notice you've zoned-out and you're almost weightless and attuned to the flow around you. You probably finish feeling invigorated and a little stronger for the experience. Not truly my bag but I see its essential upside.

Never heard this before. Really quite impactful and enjoyable. Coming on like something between Jane's Addiction, JaMC, and The Music. Pleasant surprise.

I'll level with you: I didn't much fancy this today. It started ok but I found the overall experience a bit too twee. I'm rating it a 3 just now as I suspect there might be stuff that's worth revisiting - but I didn't really feel I 'got it' on today's playback.

Didn't expect anything of this but it was fairly enjoyable. Country-pop-blues-jazz-adult-contemporary. I'll probably never listen again but it was pleasant enough

Naming and cover art are so awful it must act as a sort of protective spell, to ward off the casuals but also to provide insurance for when the band's more questionable experiments fall flat. I actually rather enjoyed (most of) my listen through this. Quite experimental; a couple of dreadful duffers but some interesting and quite funny moments. Didn't know this was the origin of the sample for Orbital's Satan.

Oh yeah. Now you're talking. An album quite eclectic in its references and collaborations; full of African and Caribbean rhythms and sounds, building on Detroit and Chicago's blueprints; but somehow unmistakably British. A singular vision, one of the best records of the 90s, imo. Brilliantly produced, thoughtfully sequenced, and choc full of bangers. It looks too long - but it doesn't feel like it. Rock solid on the headphones; flipping MASSIVE on a festival soundsystem. A 5 all day - one of the high watermarks of electronica.

A rocket up the backsides of the music industry, 60s hippiedom, and the American suburban lifestyle. Pretty damn good

A new one on me. Enjoyable and well-produced psychedelic-lite chamber pop. A wee hint of Love perhaps? Solid

Peculiar and gorgeous. I'm not sure if I'm smart enough to truly get into it but I do like what I hear

Hard as hell. Not one to bump while the family are around, unfortunately. Some classy production, some unbelievable lines, delivered with panache. It's too long but it's still excellent.

Cool cover. The music is good but I must admit it kind of washed over me, rather than drawing me right in.

Unbelievable; it's like a greatest hits record. A flawless gem of a thing.

Ooft. Was the original release of this really an hour and eleven minutes long? Somewhat interesting listen but not really my cup of tea tbh. Probably wouldn't go out of my way to hear it all again.

Golden age East coast gear. Jeru's voice and delivery are great. Classy head-nodding Primo boom-bap beats behind him. Some of the subject matter aged like milk though. A bit overshadowed then, and still now tbh, by some very illustrious New York peers.

One (sort of) interesting bias that this project can throw up: your response to a record will often be anchored, contextualised and shaped by whichever album happened to precede it. In this case, I was quite harsh in scoring yesterday a bit on the low side. And now, because I enjoyed this record less overall (despite any lack of direct or objective reason for comparison between the two), that leaves me with a bit of a quandary... This is not a 2 star record by any stretch. Even though a lot of people hate Cohen's dour and deadpan delivery, I always find some interest in his lyrics. But, today, I can't in good conscience give it the 4 it probably justifies. So it goes.

Three is a troublesome score. It can run a wide gamut, from 'I really don't like this but I recognise its significance', right up to 'I kind of love it but I hear some shortcomings', via 'there's plenty going on but I just don't know if I really get it', or 'I might need more time to digest this'. Anyway, this is a 3 for me today. It's good, and a pretty fun listen even if I found a few of the lyrics a bit stilted. Am I likely to seek it out again unprompted? Not really.

Strong record as you'd expect, even if not a true favourite.

In which our anxious art nerd heroes accidentally give rise to large parts of hip-hop and techno culture. Hugely significant, if not necessarily massive fun to listen to in its isolated entirety.

RIP, Brian Wilson 🥺.

Goldie is a bit of an oddity. He looks (and acts) all 'ardcore. But then drops this, nearly 2 hours of contemplative, slow-reveal, jazzy d n' b rollers. There are quite a few sublime moments on here for sure but by jings it's overlong. Would like to hear an edit where someone from the record label stepped in and made a tight mixdown under 50 minutes. I remember buying this (on cassette) the week it came out and being a bit flummoxed by some of it. Probably still the case today, though definitely worth a listen.

I didn't much dig this, except for the closing track. Strange, as I do like some of Martyn's work. Maybe it needs another spin or two.

I liked this quite a lot. In not sure much was instantly memorable after the fact, but it's very pleasant and I'd like to hear it some more.

Not really inclined to listen to this much these days but it is an archetypal banger. These guys were talking over main festival stages all over the place at the time and their sound was absolutely immense. Impressive from Liam, as he seemed to be more or less executing the tunes solo. It's also a bit of a masterpiece of studio engineering. Everything sounds lean, sharp, and loud as fuck. And while to a passerby it might seem quite basic in its intent, I think there's a lot going on in terms of genre mashup and sampling. There are hints of punk, hip-hop, hardcore, trance, and jungle influences all over this. But it becomes its own thing; somehow at once really commercial, but also still undeniably popular with the ravers.

Unfortunately, the stream that's linked for me goes to the 'director's cut' version, which seems like an ersatz and diluted imitation of the original release. No doubt this is at least partly for sample-clearance reasons. And maybe, if I had to guess, to make absolutely sure G***y G*****r doesn't get any more royalties from it 😬? But the original release is a bit of a classic. It's stupid but clever. It's derivative but wildly inventive. It's massively commercial and a sellout to a hilarious degree, while also being completely earnest and credible in its execution. It's a serious art-project, while being built from the wreckage of various cheesy nonsense. Honestly, so full of contradictions. Chill Out is more of a 5-star classic, as there are a couple of shite moments on here. But it definitely deserves its place on this list and is a hugely entertaining listen, IF you can track down the real thing.

I like a bit of Nitin Sawhney. Lovely lavish productions. However, this is all a bit too nice and midrange to draw me back regularly. Pretty good concept arc tying it all together though.

Absolute landfill swill. Music to advertise your mild spec, affordable, small, 'youthful' hatchback to. Must have been a slow day round at Robert Dimery's gaff when he decided to put this on the list 😅

This isn't an album I come back to very often but it is class. Maybe a bit too on the gangster side for my taste. But the rough, rugged rza beats were rarely better, and Chef and Ghost do go off. Come to that, why isn't it credited to the both of them? Minor mystery. Scoring harshly today but it is a justified classic.

Simply lovely.

'Skip' is a bit of an unfortunate nickname in the era of online streaming. Thankfully, this record is better than that. At first this was putting me in mind of Roy Harper, albeit decidedly more lo-fi. Though once I started to tune into the lyrics and recording a little more, it's a lot more idiosyncratic. Pretty amazing rush of manic energy to bash this out solo, even if quite a lot of it is fairly 'demo level'. Well worth a listen.

The fairly niche genre of Stadium Maudlin.

There's something not-of-its-time about this; like a Donovan or Incredible String Band record from 30+ years earlier. Or a slightly less likeable James Yorkston. Not quite freak-folk, if pretty freaky nonetheless. Interesting and pleasant enough.

An angle-grinder shaping a surfboard

Curiously downbeat for a debut rocker

A trademark sound. Great vibe. Tempo starts to drag a wee bit after a while.

Decent

I reckon this might might be peak Beasties. Extremely hectic, broadly eclectic, full of good energy. Solid New York record, a melting pot of genres, influences, and collaborations.

Pretty great latin jazz. Not a student of the genre by any means but certainly recognised a few tunes. Nice

Ordinarily I don't much care for Elvis but, driving along at 5.30 earlier this morning, this just hit the right mood. Really enjoyable, and glimpse perhaps, of why he was so revered.

Started out very promisingly though I was starting to get a bit bored by the end. Nice clean production sound. I'll need to check these guys out again sometime.

Ooft. The soundtrack of being 9 years old; and it's mostly as insipid as the title and cover design suggest. There's no accounting for public taste eh? Couple of decent pop hits if I'm feeling charitable - and it seemed exciting at the time - but far from my bag nowadays.

Unironically my favourite Nirvana record. And that says as much about me as it does them.

Not bad. Not sure I concentrated hard enough for a better appraisal but I enjoyed having this on

Quite good tbh, and not quite as I (mis)remembered it. The talking guitar sound is pretty awesome. Strays into MoR territory at times but I reckon I enjoyed this more than I expected.

Very impressed with this. Absolutely deserved a listen.

I guess this could probably be called green-eyed soul. While the boy can definitely sing, it's not my bag at all. Icky schmaltzcore for old-fashioned grown-ups 🫥

R.I.P. Ozzy. Main man at the helm of this usually-random project must have paid tribute after Ozzy's death yesterday. OK, I'm now a Sabbath convert. Slo-mo heavyweight blues. Fast does not equal heavy. Ponderous (but tight!) rhythm section absolutely pinning it down on the slow build, while your guy riffs like a mf, double-time over the top, equals heavy. Embryonic new genre, still quite close to stuff like Cream, rather than later, speedier, more machine-metal offerings. Certified quality. Eldritch.

Pretty great. Bit too shiny 80s for me as a whole but there are some excellent tracks here for sure. Verging on a 4.

Really good. Was hovering over the 4th star and it maybe just went on a bit too long. Will need to revisit this one for sure

I'm sometimes not quite sure how to approach jazz. This swings, no doubt, and was an enjoyable morning listen; though it's unlikely I'll return to it much.

I was quite excited to give this a spin again. Things done changed and Gimme the loot are absolutely superb. But man, the album is way too long and extremely, uncomfortably sexist. Tricky innit: a legendary flow and inimitable voice - but a lot of fairly wack productions and some very questionable material.

The musicianship is pretty great. Very much of-its-milieu and hard to distance the record from the sad tale that accompanies it. Not quite my bag but certainly a worthwhile listen.

Still not sure about Bruce. Mostly find this very hokey but then he will still absolutely slay every once in a while, with the likes of Dancing in the dark. This is probably peak 'The Boss and his 4 hour gigs' era. Personally I wouldn't want to stick around anywhere near that long. But hey, he's a big figure

Ooft. Sorry to say, today, some of this felt like doing homework. A bit of a chore

Soundtrack to a softer-than-hell James Bond movie. Depending on your taste, that might sound like just about the worst thing ever. But I can assure you it's not half as bad as that might make it sound

Kind of a mixed bag of collaborations and stylistic variations. Some didn't quite float my boat. Some are the self assured works of a true maestro. Towards the end, we get the pared-back, almost Saharan blues of My Dream, which I found very affecting. This, and its two neighbouring tracks, are the only songs without big-name collaborators; probably not just coincidence that I enjoyed these the most. I will return to this record

A few strong blasts from the past on here. Very good, even if it maybe is seen as a more commercial or easy-access take on hardcore

Mellifluous meandering, mostly monumentally mundane. Honestly, I remember loving Carboot Soul, so I was poised to be giving this four stars. But was sad to find it chronically boring. Other than track one, can barely remember any if it

I'm not sure I understand this. I thought WN was a meant to be a countercultural stoner icon, not the purveyor of great-american-songbook crooner-lightweight-cover-versions? Perfectly pleasant and laid-back, but not exciting to me at all I'm afraid

Easy-access student-party raps

True freakzone wigout shiz. High marks for artistic endeavour, less so for accessibility, at least towards the end 😅

I was feeling a wee bit weary and cynical when this popped up this morning. But it's won me round, once again. It starts out like a greatest hits record and its stature just can't be denied. Probably transcends taste.

This is pretty solid. More jangly power-pop than psychedelia imo, and the lyrics are a bit iffy in places, but it's good. First encounter for me and I'll dip back in. There's some bluesy garage rock type stuff later too, though I'm not sure that was part of the original release. The edition I have here is 2.5 hrs long; maybe need to unpick the original tracklist to hear it as intended 🫥

Conflicted about this record. On one hand, it's fairly 'orrible. Deliberately objectionable and 'coorse', as my mother would have said. On the other hand (and with the benefit of hindsight), it's surprisingly tuneful in places, and is a big part of the rocket the British establishment needed at the time (and still does tbf). Deserving of its place on this list? Yeah, 100%. Likeable? Not so much.

This is a bit of a revelation. I'm generally a Beach Boys skeptic but this is excellent. Only really knew Feel Flows before but but will need to revisit this

Boring torch-songs, perfectly executed.

Didn't like these guys much at the time. I think their name put me off. The film about them and the Brian Jonestown Massacre - Dig - was pretty funny, though didn't really cast them in a great light either. This record is actually alright. Some well produced pop songs, with a few leanings towards more shoegazey, krautrockesque, experimental territory.

Underwhelming skiffle

This is probably the music that springs to mind when I think of Elvis Costello. Seems crazily ahead of its time. 1978 😳. Somewhat overwrought lyricism in places, though maybe that's part of the appeal.

Astonishing talent. Found myself tiring of this fairly quickly but there's no denying Baez is something special.

Some good moments and a polished sound, but mostly rather boring. Less claustrophobic tracks late-on provide a nice contrast. Certainly not bad by any means but how the heck is it on this list 😅

They might possess some virtuosity but there's no way I'd let these grubby freaks make me a sandwich

Some moments of weary beauty if not an easy hour

Piper at the gates of mimsy whimsy

Peculiar Scouse psychedelic pirate musichall klezmer soul. Excellent

I had a feeling this record would be on the list. Astonishing voice. I don't enjoy every moment of the album - some of it is a bit too earnest, trying a bit too hard - but it does all gel as a coherent, quality work.

This was excellent. Very pleasant surprise

Was more familiar with Gold but this has some great stuff.

High-concept prog space nerd stoner rap. A bit willfully cerebral at times. Intriguing listen though. Somewhere in the mould of El-p or Aesop Rock. Deserves another spin.

Demented, in a good way. Truth be told, this record hasn't aged as well as I anticipated. Yeah, there are a handful of classic tracks on here - and much of the production remains uniquely fresh - but there are quite a lot of meandering, directionless fillers. In my head my immediate thought was '4 star record' but I'm not quite sure it holds up to that.

This chugs along nicely. Nods to the likes of AC/DC, Skynyrd, ZZ Top.

Camp schlock rock. Good fun

Plastic soul power. Strong

Awesome schlockabilly, though in honesty an EPs worth would probably be enough to sate my appetite. Link Wray's weird little nephews are out in the garage again 😎

Sweet emotion = brilliant. 10 inch record = embarrassing dreck. All things in between.

Surprisingly listenable

Simply wonderful

Come back to me in 10 years or so and this just might get a 5. Somewhat superb, time will tell.

2 maudlin 4 me

Meditative. It's good, and the trademark sound is still there, though for me doesn't hold up against the energy of their first couple of albums.

For anyone who thinks - as I do - that Eric Clapton is an absolute dangerous walloper, I would heartily recommend this phenomenal character assassination by Andrew Male 😅: https://youtu.be/QFiYTs7EWsU?si=bvXxrJd_eOLvD4Rp As for the album itself? In the better moments, hints of Ry Cooder or JJ Cale. Even some moments of genuine, soaring beauty. Also a lot of boringly competent midrange playing and, at his worst, plenty of pale-imitation, faux-blues and cod-reggae crap. Should probably really merit another star but ultimately marked down for EC being such a massive tit.

Gorgeous in places, for me starts to run a bit too long and lacks variety

Way too crisply precise to be real bad boys. Dad Company, more like.

In my mind, I had slightly conflated this with Arthur Lee's Love; and there are some similarities in mood and overall auteur-ish approach. This is excellent. Crisp, melodic, funky.

Worthy

Pretty fun. Buona Sera is an absolute beauty.

Very good. A clear influence on bands like Mogwai. Pleasantly hypnotic. One to revisit

Reminds me a bit of Field Music: similar math-rock-adjacent playing?

It's So Anodyne. *Except Time After Time, which is next level.

Pretty cool golden age party boom bap jams. Wee bit samey.

I've enjoyed quite a bit of Sleater-Kinney in the past. For whatever reason, I didn't quite gybe well with this today, which is kind of a shame.

Loud, glossily produced, wack trash for wilfully ignorant cucks.

This was pretty awesome. Sort of yacht-hop? Cool cover art too.

Hadn't heard of this at all before. Enjoyable listen. A welcome contrast on a dark and windswept early morning dog walk.

Didn't realise the BGs had been going that long. In a world pre-disco, they were knocking out lavishly orchestrated, wistful, hippyish, folk-and-country tinged torchsongs, with more than a passing nod to the likes of Byrds or Kinks. Some of it pretty good as it happens. Record turns inexplicably crappy towards the end though. An interesting listen but a real mixed bag.

I don't always find it super-easy to get into The Fall but this has excellent energy. Even some experiments with housey breakbeats. Offputting cover art, on a great record.

Cringingly dire, even if partially redeemed by some progressive politics.

Instantly transported to Barcelona, 1999. Distinctive sound but not something I return to all that frequently. Think he was a big influence on subsequent stuff like Gorillaz. Likeable enough

"Say, I'm doubling your rent 'cause the building's condemned, you're gonna help me buy City Hall" Same as it ever was. Sensational stuff.

Quite fun as a game of 'spot the sample'. 1 hour 18 minutes of bongos though, that's objectively a lot of bongo 😬

Hectic. Greatness, confusion, and many points in between.

Great musicianship. Needs a replay to really get my head into the afro jazz-funk space.

Berlin in the 70s sounds bleak man

Overblown and pretentious as hell. Yeah, a couple of quite stunning moments, amid a couple of hours of dross.

Treacly boredom with a Brazilian twist

It's a top-five Stones album, which puts it in some exalted company. The more country-blues end of their musical spectrum, which I know doesn't float everyone's boat. Surely hard to argue with the likes of Sympathy for the Devil though.

I think it's good though it didn't inspire reverence

Man, I love the Beta Band more than most, and this is a decent record, but I bet even they themselves wouldn't put it near an all time top 1k

Shouldn't really have come as a surprise how good this sounds, I suppose. I'd heard the hits of course, though none of the other stuff. A grand production!

Liked this a lot. Weird to call them an underrated band given they did actually achieve massive mainstream popularity, but that's how it feels.

I reckon the cognoscenti routinely place this record among Dylan's top two or three albums. And I reckon they're mistaken. Still good, mind.

Poppy and melancholic. Not one of my favourites of theirs, though still a good record and arguably the start of their mainstream breakthrough?

Ok, so a few of the rhymes feel a little old fashioned nowadays. But this rips

Banger