Neil Young has written some really gorgeous songs. I didn't find any of those here. His expressions of grief may be enough to trigger sympathy in those who believe they know and love the man through his music to love the album. But objectively, I just don't find much here other than spontaneous lyrics about his pain. And lyrics are just poetry. A music album must be good musically; If not, I'd rather the read the poetry from a book. As an aside, I find the Woodstock sound interesting, but it occupies a tragically outsized place of honor in the rock and roll zeitgeist. Ultimately, though, it's that voice. I really, really, really, really, really dislike Bob Dylan's voice. Neil's is worse. It creates an angsty-pain that spreads from my throat to my ears and into my head. Interesting song writing isn't worth the literal headache I end up with.

It sounds as if the band is even bored by these songs.

Super cheesy. Gorgeous recordings. What a voice. This is one of those, "yeah, but it just makes me smile" albums.

If this album were any worse it would be interesting. Unfortunately, it isn't.

Fascinating. Gorgeous production. Really interesting tracks. Not sure it's one I'll ever be able to listen to obsessively. But I'm going to keep trying.

He is undoubtedly clever, well-read, and thoughtful. But to my ears he is a musical fraud. His harmonic structures are banal; 12-bar blues or Pete Seeger I-IV-V structures ad nauseam. At most only slight variations within a song between verse - chorus. No bridges to be found. Over the course of 15 verses every song becomes torturous. He occasionally developed the bones of a great melody, only to abandon it to his trademark pitch bends at the end of every phrase. It's as if he never had interest in developing the discipline required to complete and perfect a melody. To my ear he sounds almost disdainful of musicality. For example, the out of tune guitar on Queen Jane - there are so many ways to introduce dissonance (maj/min, dim, half dim chords, min 7, tri-tone, b9, etc.) And Willie Nelson demonstrated that you can bring them into folk-style music. But understanding of the use of those requires dedication, discipline and care. Far simpler just to detune a fifth of the band and call it art. Lyrically, while he is unquestionably gifted, I find he is more committed to demonstrating his mental prowess and breadth of education than in communicating ideas and emotions. And again, the length of the songs. He doesn't use that length to create narrative. He uses it to build layer upon layer of depth to a core idea. It's like a 15 layer butter cream cake. Two/three layers is plenty in the hands of a disciplined and more considerate master.

Amazing reminder of how good music made by a group of people accustomed to playing live together can sound. Great songs. Top-notch musicality. And amazing engineering / production.

I’ve been listening to this for 40 years and still find it riveting from start to finish. RIP Freddie.

So good in every way. Elton John became such a caricature as a performer in the late 70s - when I started really listening to music - that it took a while for me to come around to the fact that he is a brilliant musician and singer. The band is perfect. The story of the recording process is mind-blowing. There are moments on Side 3 when I start to wonder if it needs to be a double album; and then side 4 convinces me.

I want to love the Doors. I have wanted to love them for 40 years. Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krueger blend their sounds together beautifully and create a sound unique to that pairing. Jim Morrison is clearly capable of brilliance. And without a doubt he has one of THE great voices for rock and roll. I also applaud the effort to merge seemingly disparate influences into a sound wholly their own. But, for me, it just too often becomes silly. Hallucinogens can be great catalysts to the imagination, but art requires a lot of sober editing; tearing down and rebuilding. To my ears, it sounds like Jim Morrison NEVER edited. We're left with some really interesting craft work. Finally, while their brand of electric blues can be engaging, one listen to Howlin' Wolf or J.B. Hutto & the Hawks pretty quickly reveals that what these beach boys produce is a pale and too-often silly imitation.

There is something almost mystical about the ability of northern Atlantic folk singers of the sixties to distract audiences so completely with pretentious poetry that no one seemed to notice how utterly uninteresting the music was. It is no small feat to make an entire album of music devoid of energy and excitement. Is unadulterated earnestness enough to make music interesting? No. It is not.

Neil Young has written some really gorgeous songs. I didn't find any of those here. His expressions of grief may be enough to trigger sympathy in those who believe they know and love the man through his music to love the album. But objectively, I just don't find much here other than spontaneous lyrics about his pain. And lyrics are just poetry. A music album must be good musically; If not, I'd rather the read the poetry from a book. As an aside, I find the Woodstock sound interesting, but it occupies a tragically outsized place of honor in the rock and roll zeitgeist. Ultimately, though, it's that voice. I really, really, really, really, really dislike Bob Dylan's voice. Neil's is worse. It creates an angsty-pain that spreads from my throat to my ears and into my head. Interesting song writing isn't worth the literal headache I end up with.

In the wrong hands the 12-bar blues quickly becomes tedious. And the vast majority of those who play it have the wrong hands. I've always found that B.B., while technically incredible, plays a watered-down version of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, J.B. Hutto...As this album opened, the Las Vegas-review treatment was confirming my biases. But from How Blue Can You Get? forward, it builds and builds with one amazing performance after another. The band is crackin'. The sound is exceptional. B.B. got me.

Accusing Elvis of appropriation is like accusing Rick of permitting gambling in Casablanca. It's why people love him. The foundation of the artistic process is, literally, appropriation. Mozart appropriated Bach's baroque into Italianette style. Brilliant. Duke and Satchmo appropriated the blues scale and western theory to invent an entirely novel harmonic structure. Brilliant. Bluegrass appropriated the African banjo. Blues appropriated the Spanish guitar and then the Hawaiian slide method of playing it. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. But great artists don't just copy; they blend their inspirations and make something brand new; and they do it so masterfully that it seems obvious. That's what Elvis and Sam did, and did brilliantly, during this period. To my ears, the pure R&B covers (I Got a Woman, Tutti Fruity) are flat and, especially when compared with the originals, simply uninteresting. The magic of this period of Elvis' career is in the rock-a-billy/ country western numbers (Blue Suede Shoes, I'm Counting on You, Trying to Get to You, Blue Moon). IMHO the Sun Sessions collection of recordings is finer than this one because it is even more firmly rooted in country western music. Elvis sang these songs styled with R&B and a hint of Ray's electrified gospel and made something that no one had heard and that people all over the world are still listening to and imitating. And Elvis sang it with such confidence that it instantly sounded wholly realized and...obvious. Luminaries as far afield as the Rolling Stones and Waylon Jennings were appropriating this sound at their artistic high point. Zach Bryan is proving there's still ore in the vein left to mine. Country music isn't what it is today without this music. By the time Elvis came back from the Army, either he or his handlers decided pop rock was the way to go. He still dabbled in country western to great results, but it was never the focus of his career. Maybe this drift is the reason he became such a caricature. So I don't cast aspersions for his appropriation. But Q, who is American musical royalty to my mind, has said that Elvis, the man, was a racist. That's a lot harder to forgive. Sinatra, for one, motivated by his love of black music, took career risks to elevate his under-appreciated peers. That Elvis, apparently, was actively hostile to those on whose shoulders he stood is something we should all consider. It's why I can't give him five stars. But, for me, cancelling him and ignoring what he left us is pointless asceticism.

That voice is amazing. He could growl like Otis and purr like Nat. The engineering on the album is gorgeous. But for an album to be great it needs to be a collection of pieces that together reflect a single point of view. Great performers and great albums merge influences into A sound. Miles said it takes a long time to figure out what you sound like. There's some combination of Solomon, here, not yet knowing what he sounds like and Jerry Wexler not helping him find it or not trusting him enough to feature it. (It kind of reminds me of Columbia's inability to take advantage of Aretha's talent at around the same time.) This album goes from imitations of Staxx songs, to imitations of Beatles songs and ends up with an imitation of a Dean Martin song. And none of those songs really left out. None burrowed into my subconscious. So what's left are beautiful recordings of great performances, but with no coherence to the album and not much to "remember" about Solomon Burke except that he can flat-out sing.

The beginning of the high point of one of the iconic bands of the 20th century. Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exhile on Main Street are musical nirvana.

In the early 90s I had a techno CD named The Difference Between Noise and Music. I love the question. Here, we have no human beings playing instruments. No singing. No melodies. No harmonic structure. It is, in fact, all but atonal. We have rhythm and we have poetry. Everything else that defines music is, in reality, missing. And yet it somehow grips people emotionally in the same way that music does. This particular combination of rhythm and poetry didn't grip me when I was 18 and it doesn't now. Dre's beats are the only redeeming aspect of the album. But they're a bit one-note; like a robot army's drums of war. And the lyrics...you gotta give me more than threats of indiscriminate violence and gratuitous mysogeny. "So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her! You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker!" Not for me.

I really appreciate this band. The music is complex and interesting, and the band is so tight. I just fundamentally dislike the screaming and the rapping. It reminds me of Eddie Van Halen’s line, “why do we have to have lead singers? Beethoven didn’t need one:” But I even appreciate and respect Tom Morello’s work here. I just don’t really enjoy listening to it.

I listened to this one on HEAVY rotation when it was released. I think it holds up beautifully. I've always wondered if anything would have changed had there been the artistic/social/political space in Nirvana for Dave to share the responsibilities and burdens of success. To my ears, in theory, the mix of that Seattle soup that was Kurt's influences with Dave's D.C. hardcore inspirations could have left a legacy to compete with the Kings of the Golden Age. "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'it might have been.'"

It’s like listening to the soundtrack of an Argentinian film noir without getting to watch the movie…But the soundtrack is great.

Interesting concept. For my ears it doesn't work. I can think of three Metallica albums that properly belong on this list. This ain't one. At first I thought it was because the mix was "upside down"; the strings are prominent over the guitars giving this musac-metallica feel. But when I suggested it, my wife said, "or it just doesn't work." I think she's right.

I like this album SOOOOO much better than Five Leaves.

Such amazing riffs. Phil Rudd is a master at being exactly the drummer necessary. The vocals are lengendary. But the lyrics...Oh dear God those lyrics. Listening to AC/DC makes me appreciate David Lee Rother. His lyrics were just as dopy, but he was always in on the joke. Bon Scott never gives me the same feeling.

How did I get this old without hearing Orange Juice?? It's such a fantastic and weird mashup of Roxy Music, General Public, the Go-Betweens, horns from Specials/Madness. Every element is familiar and I've never heard anything like it.

Dislike. Dylan. Immensely.

Has anyone else made a synth album that sounds so cinematic? He was always so good at melody and mood. The songs on this album are of a piece with those on all of the PG albums right back to the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. What he nailed here was the production. This album is so lush and full. Particularly when you compare it to other synth-craft albums from the day. Listen to Winwood's Back in the High Life. That's how most synth albums sound. Then come back to this. It has aged remarkably well; a testament to the time he spent building the amazing sounds in the first place.

Historically important. Incredibly powerful. Very interesting. But sonically jarring - which was the point.

I had Funeral on heavy rotation when it came out. I was so excited when they released Neon Bible. But it never grabbed me. It felt like a classic sophomore effort - the same sound, but the songs just weren't nearly as crafted as those on the debut. I hadn't listened to it for 20 years. And my opinion holds. Intervention is a great pop song. The rest of it sounds like angsty jam sessions.

Sounds like the only thing that mattered was sounding good in a stadium - soaring, anthemic, monotonous structures, simple harmonies, slow builds. The songs are silly confections and instantly forgettable.

IIt used to be you could go to someone's place for the first time and go through their music collection - CDs or Records on shelves. There were some people who had a penchant for collecting the less interesting work of interesting bands. This collection is starting to feel that way. From Boy through Unforgettable Fire this band was producing some of the most urgent, intimate, moving, emotional music in the world. But then it appears that CEO Bono got a taste of the big time. Joshua Tree and especially this album always sounded to me like whoever was making decisions regarding the bands "direction" had decided that being the biggest selling band in the world was all that mattered. Reminds me of the Rolling Stones' albums from the 80s and 90s. The Edge's work is amazing - in everything. But the urgency and intimacy are gone; replaced by...the Manchester Sound?? U2 chasing the Manchester sound reminds me of Coke abandoning its original formula to chase the Pepsi flavor profile. And all in service of pumping out silly radio/stadium friendly anthems. Bores me; and to tears when I think of how Sunday Bloody Sunday makes me feel.

I actually own this CD from when it came out. And I forgot all about it. The sonic texture is amazing and completely novel and unique when it came out. But except for her voice and his weird whispering, it's all robotics. And none of the songs ever grabbed me. The only thing I recognized on resisting was the Public Enemy cover. And I never thought that worked very well.

This is becoming the 1001 albums to avoid until you die. Cyndi Lauper? C'mon man...

It's the production. The Dust Brothers did something here that will never be equalled - mostly because Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy of the Southern District of New York decided that, unlike compulsory licenses available in every other form of music cover, sampling from thence forth required permission of the original songwriter. R.I.P. an amazing form of artistic expression at the hands of a disinterested legal academic.

There are 1000 artists people should hear before they die. Two albums by Peter Gabriel?? So is a classic. PG 1-4 have sublime heights but a lot of filler.

Nice

Meh. Sebadoh and Pavement did it better.

white jazz. uggh.

Adele is amazing. But I always hear her like I hear Aretha's Columbia output - the talent is undeniable but the producers just don't know how to use it. 19 is a pretty decent album. This one starts out OK. But gets so boring so fast.

Super fun, if a bit amateurish

It isn't unlistenable from the very beginning. But it gets there pretty quickly.

So great. Pure rock and roll - no BS. Love it.

This is the first album on my desert island list. Absolute GOLD.

Hilarious. Though I get the sense I'm not laughing WITH them...Musically, the drummer can't quite hold the groove in double time. Though, to be fair, Art Blakey is about the only drummer I've heard who could hold a groove double time at these tempos. Good Lord.

How do you take what was in the air in 1971 and come up with this in two and half years? The creativity is mind-blowing. Someone said of the Velvet Underground - only about a thousand people bought their albums, but every one of them started a band. The impact of this band is at least as big. And on top of it all, 40 years later the album just makes me so happy. I think it's because this is such a pure demonstration of creative people being exactly who they want to be without even a moment's thought to commercialism or egotism.

Not my idea of a good time. It sounds contrived; like music by Record Industry Committee. I can hear the pitch to the A&R guys - it's Trent Reznor darkness delivered by Elastica but with some Manchester beats thrown in! The problem is that Elastica was great because they didn't sound contrived. Their riffs were certainly derivative. But the derivation sounds adoring rather than calculated, as here. Shirley Manson doesn't sing dark lyrics as much as she sings lyrics about darkness - making her sound like so many well-adjusted suburban teens who decided to dress Goth because they liked the look. And the rave beats reinforce the feeling that the producer was just chasing fads.

Amazing production. Really dumb songs. These songs are so dumb they could be SNL skit songs. But they'd be dumb SNL skits; like mid-90s SNL dumb. Of all the amazing disco and soul music from the 70s, the fact that this album makes this list makes me question my decision to participate in the first place. We are family may have been worthy of being a hit in '79. Now it's just a cliched wedding reception staple.

It sounds as if the band is even bored by these songs.

Interesting. Great recordings.

The Beatles put out at least three and maybe four legit five-star albums. This one is fun and cute.

Amazing musicianship. So avant guards it's entertaining; for a bit.

I have tried for decades to like this album. I respect Carole King enormously. I appreciate her songwriting a great deal. Her songs performed by Donny Hathaway or Aretha Franklin are as good as it gets. But there's something timid about this record that bores me through and through. Her thin nasal voice doesn't move me. The production almost matches. The backing track performances have that bored-studio-cats flatness. And just the endless parade of earnest introspection unbroken by mirth, imagery, or storytelling becomes tedious.

An interesting sound. But why does every cute pop song about unrequited love need a 13th and 14th movement? A little precious. A little over-wrought. Tediously self-indulgent.

Like Joe Strummer, McClaren does a brilliant job of blending all of the amazing music floating around London at the time. But the best parts, by far, are entirely the work of the South African musicians he neither credited nor compensated until they successfully sued him (with Paul Simon's help). So we're back to the the 21st Century moral dilemma - what do you do with really interesting art produced by Tossers?

Discoveries like this make slogging through the scores of mediocre albums on this list worth it.

I listened to this album while cleaning up the kitchen after a meal I didn't enjoy. This music was the least fulfilling part of my evening.

Fascinating. Gorgeous production. Really interesting tracks. Not sure it's one I'll ever be able to listen to obsessively. But I'm going to keep trying.

I love this album. Unique sound. Great songs. And so timeless. Last night while listening I asked my daughter, who is an amateur musician like the rest of us, to guess when the album came out. "2000s? 1980s? Is it new? Not the 90s." Like Roxy Music, the NY Dolls, and Velvet Underground, it's such a unique sound that it would have worked (and wouldn't have been popular) at any time in the last 60 years.

Found this album when I was 18. It changed my life.

Sounds like Otis, Carla or Sam and Dave without the vocals. Because, of course, it is! Even though its Stax without the best parts, its still pretty great. Time to watch the Blies Brothers.

Refugee was the first video I ever saw on MTV. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were the first band I ever saw live (1982). This album, for the most part, sounds exactly like what it is - a bunch of teenagers trying to sound like their heroes. But then Breakdown. A preview of that iconic, instantly identifiable Heartbreaker's sound. And American Girl. Holy Macaroni.

The sound must have been a sledgehammer to the speakers in 1965. Sixty years on, and accustomed to distortion and frenetic drumming, most of it sounds like what it was, awkward covers of American soul and blues. The titular song is amazing as is the Kids are Alright. Everything else is just filler. Paul, John, and Brian hadn't yet turned the rock and roll world onto the pursuit of making great albums.

At its best (Slightly All the Time) this is a mediocre contribution to the jazz fusion world of Miles, Herbie Hancock, Donald Bird, Chick Core, et al. At its worst (FaceLift) it comes across as slightly organized noise.

It is just SO self-indulgent. Fairly accomplished musicianship. So tell me how people who understand the rewards of a disciplined development of craft allow themselves to be so dismissive of the craft of songwriting? The same is true of vocals. For some reason, beginning in the 60s, accomplished musicians believed singing involved no skillset that had to be honed and developed. Just open your mouth and push out some air to words and an approximation of melody. Somehow it's the musical equivalent of communes. Everyone just trying to be free and live their fullest lives by getting out from under the constraints of convention. I'm all for pushing boundaries. Yes did it quite well. King Crimson does not impress me.

One of my favorite lines about musicianship is attributed to Miles: "It takes a long time to figure out what you sound like." I think Jeff didn't get that time. His voice is incredible. But the songwriting/production here sounds like a sonic museum of the mid-90s. So many of the songs chase the "sound" of one or another of the popular bands of the time. There are some beautiful moments. But Jeff needed 3 or 4 more albums and a lot of touring to figure out what HE sounded like.

To me Phil Spector's wall of sound always sounds a little shrill. So much great Christmas music. This is pretty average.

I love it. For 40 years I thought of Roxy Music as the Adult Oriented sounds of Avalon. And I loved it. About 20 years ago I listened to Country Life and thought, OK, they were a punk band that went AOR. That's typical. But hearing this album, I'm in awe of the breadth of their musical interests. It's as if they started their careers as kids who loved the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack SO MUCH they thought, "that's the kind of music I want to make." And they were good enough musicians already to do it.

I can't listen to this. The production is beautiful. OK I've said something nice. There is this trend - across genres - that started in the late 90s - wherein certain artists sound like Music By Potheads on Anti-Depressants for Potheads on Anti-Depressants. It creates recordings that are SO boring. This recording is an archetype. And this guy's voice. His cutesy-bear sounds to me like someone too lazy or cowardly to try to learn to sing. It stimulates the same rage I used to get listening to Barney sing I Love You, You Love Me on his insufferable cartoon.

I think this album and Tim are the among the very purest rock and roll ever made. No pretense lyrically, musically, or sonically. Just urgent honesty.

To my ears, it's just shrill. Is she passionate? Sure. But it's no more musical, to my ears, than Screamo. I'm sure it was shocking when it came out. And that was 1/2 of the point. But looking back, they spent far too little attention on the other half.

Greatest performing band in rock and roll history - by far. Greatest because their technical abilities were considerable, but didn't overshadow the music that they made together; because they listened to one another and played like a band made up of people who's only goal was to sound great together. You can pick apart their individual talents all you like and find individuals better at the component instruments. But show me any four people in the world of rock and roll who could create a more mind-blowing sonic experience together. That said, they were just beginning to realize their own sound with this album. It's like the cocoon is starting to split open but the butterfly is only starting to emerge. True brilliance was still two albums away.

I love this album. And it's a great example of why I put up listening to stuff I don't like on this project. I've spent the last 50 years listening to Smoke on the Water. But for some reason, I had never listened to the album. Holy Macaroni. I'm so glad I have.

OMG that voice. Karen and Dianna Ross were what I, as a kid, imagined that angels sounded like. I like that Richard still wasn't convinced that Karen was THAT much better at singing. (Imagine if Finneas INSISTED that Billie sing backup on two or three songs per album?) Still, the music is SO sickening sweet. You start to become convinced you can listen to it and then Help! (Who in God's name listened to Karen singing Richard's songs and thought, "you know, I'm not convinced these two can carry an album's worth of material.)

The only interesting thing about this album is the riddle it invokes. As painful as it is to listen to Bob Dylan, do I dislike an imitator of his more for the lack of originality, or less for the efforts at actually singing? Truthfully, Gene Clark sounds, by turns, like he's imitating, on some songs, Dylan and, on others, Glenn Campbell. He touches neither's greatness.

Great example of glossy punk. This band is so good. They could pull it off perfectly live as well; even those vocals - the power and range. Really impressive. But this album gets a little one note by about half-way through.

I shudder to think that bands, as we knew them are dead. People who grew up together or met when they were still young and poor and each had a talent and they just threw themselves into a community of effort at becoming something. Boy did these three become something. I LOVE this album.

With the opening track I thought, "OK, this could be interesting." And then Jupiter and Teardrop...I have a Playlist called Inadvertent Parody. Mr. Roboto is the first track. J&T is the latest addition. The engineering on the album is fantastic; especially the guitar and drum sounds. There are some interesting ideas and soaring moments. But the "songs" seem like they were intended merely as excuses to play music and impress people. It would be forgettable. But at Soft Wolf Tread I started imagining it was a Fred Armisen project with Bill Hader doing the singing. It is SO believable and becomes SO funny, I probably will listen again with that thought in mind to cheer myself up after reading the news.

It's hard to explain how mind blowing this album was when it came out. Rick Rubin deserves his rep - if for nothing else - for recognizing the possibilities from making a rap album with a punk band and using a heavy dose of Zeppelin samples. Is it an album of music worth listening to forty years on? It limps along in several spots. Super clever - to be sure - but now standing in the immense shadow of Paul's Boutique it feels flat. Then Girls - as good a novelty song as any, and Fight for Your Right which, in spite of its teenaged-meathead theme, just f@#in rocks. So I'd say, in retrospect, this is a solid debut album from a truly unique act.

The studio stuff here is gorgeous. I can't stand Cheap Thrills. But most of this album offers a tremendous dose of precisely what the Big Brother album lacks - musicality. I'm still not a huge fan of Janis' screeching. But here it is used as a part of her range, rather than the point of directing a microphone in her direction. The production (again on the studio tracks) is golden. I also love this particular moment of music where gospel, blues, country, and the transition of Stax-style Soul into Funk were thrown together seemingly indiscriminately. I always think of Leon Russell's bands as the best versions of this style. But the Full Tilt Boogie Band's performances on Pearl stand up to the best of those bands'. The live tracks are a let down.

I have always LOVED Siamese Dream. So I bought Mellon Collie the week it was released; but I've never liked it. There is WAY too much mediocrity here to truly appreciate the two or three amazing moments. And those amazing moments were played SO much on the radio in 1995, that listening to the album was just about exploring the mediocrity. It also comes across as a bit artsy (c'mon...Mellon Collie?) - too much of it sounds affected, gimmicky and/or half-baked. Corgan's clearly trying to expand his sound; which is laudable. But the less grungy the backing tracks get, the more they're ruined by their exposure of his voice - revealing his jarring and incongruously-timed transitions between whisper, vocalfry, failed attempts at real singing, and mediocre James Hetfield impressions. Ultimately, I'm frustrated by all of it. If he'd focused on making the best one-third of the songs here great (instead of making the Wall for Gen X - give me a break) he could have made a great album. Bullet With the Butterfly Wings is so great, though, that it earns the album two stars all on its own.

I feel like robots are trying to hypnotize me. Nice atmospherics...But do computer generated tones qualify music? Regardless, you have to be exceedingly generous to call these songs. Sophomoric tonal riffing in place of melodic structure; and lyrics that come across like High School poetry.

The concept is brilliant. Take the icons from hill country (bluegrass) of the 40s and 50s and put them in a 70s era recording studio with its capacity for making pristine and lush reproductions. The inclusion of the inter-track cross talk is brilliant. And I love it every time I start it. But bluegrass is like the 12 bar blues for me. The monotony starts to physically exhaust me about four / five songs in. I end up having the same experience listening to this album as I do in Renaissance art museums. I go from super excited to exhausted after about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through. (Are ALL of the paintings of Jesus and the saints?)

Baroque was already considered old-fashioned when Bach wrote the greatest pieces of the genre. With this album, the doves did the same with the Manchester sound. It flags a bit towards the end. But still a great album.

This album is the best example of "The Nashville Sound" I've ever heard. The recordings are SO lush and the reverb is so beautiful. There isn't anything out of place in the mix. The musicianship is perfect. But the flip side of it is here too - The heavy-handed production in pursuit of that soft, warm, perfection, tended to elicit flat performances. Ray Price's early honky tonk is exciting and super-interesting. Ray Price here sounds beautiful, but bored. But damn, it sounds good.

I think of the Strokes as the last in a long line of bands to have "saved Rock and Roll"; the last guitar-based band to have enormous success by reimagining the sound of two guitars, a bass, drums and vocals, while keeping the raw energy of youth as the guiding principal. I dislike the megaphone effects on the vocals and I still love this album.

I'll be the first to admit my own ignorance. But all I hear is robots and vulgarity.

Every song (except Lovesong) makes me want to turn it off and listen to one of the earlier Cure albums. I love the Cure. But this album has always sounded like a collection of songs that weren't quite good enough to make the cut for Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, so Robert tried to overcompensate by making the production cleaner and richer. It does sound beautiful. And Lovesong is gorgeous. And that's about it for me.

Interesting

In spite of the fact that DeadHeads love his music, the music is actually really good. But for the fact that they love him, I'd be tempted to think he was a brilliant songsmith.

The high points on this album are some of the best music ever made. But the low points get so bad as to be almost unlistenable.

As good as 20th century music ever got.

Interesting because of what we all now know was coming; but on its own merits its a group of really exceptional musicians feeling each other out over blues standards (uncredited though they be).

Invent a guitar-playing style. Check. Immediately take the music world by storm. Check. Release a debut album with no filler. Check. Create something that remains in the Canon almost 60 years later. Check. Try to listen like you’ve never heard these songs before. Forget all of your associations and memories and just hear the music. It is almost literally stunning.

Deep Purple makes me smile. I can’t quite figure out if this is absurdly fantastic or fantastically absurd. My wife hates it for reasons that I COMPLETELY understand. And yet, listening to it just makes me so…happy. There's joy - that definitely swings into laughter at times - that I get from the sheer audacity of it. So many bands dedicated to self-indulgent displays of technical mastery leave me feeling empty and kind of disgusted. But for whatever reason Deep Purple makes me smile.

To me, the real magic of Elvis was is in the rock-a-billy/ country western songs he recorded with Sam Phillips. Elvis sang those songs like he was born to do nothing else. Styled with R&B and a hint of Ray's electrified gospel, he and Sam made something that no one had heard and that people all over the world are still listening to and imitating. And Elvis sang it with such confidence that it instantly sounded wholly realized and...obvious. He joins the Army and upon returning they decide that he should make, basically, a doo top record ?? The engineering is BRILLIANT. It is one of the most beautiful sounding records ever. Fever is a fantastic track for auditioning hi-fi gear. But the magic of Elvis barely appears (Dirty, Dirty Feeling and Such a Night) and even then feels constrained and watered down. The remainder of the album sounds even more constrained as if he's imitating the crooners. And while it's a decent imitation, it isn't magical the way his Sun sessions were.

W T F. I have a love for the absurd. So I love it. It's like Frank Zappa lyrics set to Tom Jones songs, arranged and played by the 1968 CBS Television Orchestra.

1977-78 is my favorite period of music. Mostly because of the incredible diversity of really interesting and unique artists recording at the time - funk, soul, country, L.A.'s country-rock, pop, hard rock (classic and Van Halen's new take), soft rock (yacht and the decedents of Pet Sounds), prog rock, german synth-rock, punk, jazz was still kicking, and I'm sure I've missed a bunch. There was so much amazing and interesting music coming out that some real gems are all but lost to history. Never Mind the Sex Pistols. Here's the Saints!

Thank God for Aretha Franklin. And thank God for Jerry Wexler who figured out how to use that mind-blowing talent that had overwhelmed the brain trust at Columbia, and who then convinced Aretha to give him and Atlantic a shot. You can hear them all pushing the boundaries in various directions; sometimes leaning back towards her Columbia sound and sometimes going for a straight Stax sound. They'd perfect the sound with the masterpieces of the next year. But this album is really special. Holy Macaroni.

This starts off as a Prog-Rock album. Sure, it's dressed up in a 90's Indie Rock sonic palette. But as with all Prog-Rock, the music seems built up from clever/ interesting technical or harmonic concepts into "songs"; and that leaves the overall experiences unmoving. That starts to shift at Let Down and Karma Police which actually feel like songs that were crafted and then recorded, rather than the other way around. No suprises also feels like a song. But none of them are good enough for me to want to listen to the album.

Her voice is maple syrup. Unfortunately, for most of the album, Jerry Wexler surrounds her in cotton candy orchestration. But Son of a Preacher Man. That track is so good you could put the 45 on this list and I'd give it 5 stars. And the rest of the album is pleasant. So it's a good one to pull out and put on the platter from time to time.

His voice is shot, and it sounds exactly like what it is - a cynical effort to make him less un-hip at the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Booker T & the MGs made everybody sound cool. But in 2024, if I want to Stax myself, I'll opt for Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, or Sam & Dave every time. Listen to Ray's I'm Movin' On and then come back and listen to this. limp. But dammit, Wearing' That Loved on Look, Suspicious Minds, and Kentucky Rain are some of my favorite tracks ever.

It sounds like a version of Help! from an alternate universe in which John has no edge and he and Paul have mysteriously lost their talent for writing melodic hooks. It's well-engineered though.

The AI Emperor being familiar with Apocalypse Now, when the robot armies in their fleet of drones finally come to burn our houses and enslave our children, this is what they will be playing.

So good.

Proving that I'm no metal-head, my first thought was that Metallica is one of those rare bands that became better when they sold out. The engineering and production on this album are gorgeous. The guitars are as full and rich as anything since Eddie’s Brown Sound and it finally sounds like Lars is playing drums instead of slapping wet cardboard with wooden spoons. By Holier Than Thou I started thinking that, like REM, Metalica’s music is maybe more enjoyable when you can’t understand the lyrics. But that's not entirely correct either. Some of the lyrics are pretty damned good. It’s still a Metalllica album - which means it gets pretty monotonous pretty quickly. But it sounds amazing and the riffs are outta this world. The riff of Enter Sandman is worth 3 stars all on its own.

I appreciate music for melody, harmonic progression, emotional expression, rhythm, and lyrics - pretty much in that order. This has zero melody and zero harmonic progression. In terms of emotional expression, the backing tracks are (literally) robotic and the sample collage lacks integrity. Vocally it comes across like a watered down Chuck D. And lyrically, it's like going back and reading 30 year old political Op-Eds. They may touch on themes that remain salient. But they were written very much as a comment on the moment.

There are more than 10 Miles Davis records that contain some of the most beautiful music ever made. This is not one of them. These free-form, push-the-envelope-at-all-costs, modal jam sessions have aged about as well as Grateful Dead live tapes. The idea that someone who doesn't know Miles would leave their participation in this project believing that THIS is what his music sounds like is almost tragic. (In no particular order: The Birth of Cool, The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', Steamin', Round About Midnight, Some Day My Prince Will Come, Kind of Blue, Somethin' Else, Milestones, E.S.P.)

I said in a review of Neil Young's Tonight's the Night that the Woodstock sound occupies a tragically outsized place of honor in the rock and roll zeitgeist. This album may be 50% of the reason why. Which is a reminder that it's always the music that matters, not the particular genre/sound. This album is amazing start (almost) to finish. Gorgeous melodies, performances, lyrically inspired.

I love this album. Consistently great songs. The sound represents its moment perfectly without sounding quaint or passe all these years later.

Almost every innovative band (across every genre) that has found success has followed a common career arc. One, maybe two, ultra-raw albums; one to three albums that are technically imperfect, often quirky, and filled with brilliant songs; and then one to a series of well-performed and well-produced albums that aren't nearly as interesting. I think it's because of boredom and (ambitious) desperation. Artists that want to be unique are desperate to create great works. Starting out, nothing matters but learning to play better, writing better songs, and finding and perfecting that unique sound. And when they first hit the road they have SOOOOOO much down time; so much boredom - hour upon hour in vans and crappy hotels and backstage with nothing to do but joke around, practice, and write. I think the convergence of this boredom and desperation are the periods of intense creativity. Because the artist(s) is/are still searching for that perfect sound, all of their influences are freely thrown into the cauldron and stirred around. No one outside of the band is depending on the next album selling and so there is freedom to explore and take risks. In fact, the five to ten fans a week who come to the shows are the type of people who LOVE the creativity and quirkiness. And those few encounters mean SO much to the artist(s) that it reinforces the desperation and drive to make something brilliant. The desperation is never happy with the results and it fills all of that time with editing, writing, editing, writing, editing. And then they start to perfect and hone in on their "sound." They're mastering the instruments and the song-writing process from all of the practice. The writing and recording become just a bit easier. And then success starts to come. But it doesn't make life easier - it makes it a whole lot more complex. It's no longer a band in a van; it's an organization and a brand. Suddenly there are 1,000 decisions to be made every day about the business of the organization: the touring logistics, political/social/HR shit (among the band members, the roadies, the assistants...), the record label's demands, the publicists, the image, which festivals to play in 18 months...People the artist cares deeply about start to rely on the money coming in for their livelihoods. The band, the manager, the publicist, the roadies start to collect expensive addictions, car payments, significant others, kids, mortgages, etc. And this pressure tends to fall on the one or two people who are doing the writing because it's "their band." All of that time that used to go to songwriting and editing gets eaten up by more "urgent" matters relating to the health and sustainability of the org and the brand. But it's OK, because the artist(s) is/are more practiced at the songwriting and so it comes quicker and easier. We need three more songs? No problem, I'll do it on Tuesday. But the product doesn't lie. All of that desperate creativity, the social "space" for risk-taking, and the time spent editing made great songs. Now the "sound" is polished and the techniques are mastered and the albums sell because they sound great and the concerts are sold out because the brand is known. But the songs don't quite sparkle anymore. And the org and the brand are doing great so no one in the inner orbit notices or cares in the rush of the high-life. I love Sister and Daydream Nation as much as I love any albums by any band. The songs are absolutely golden and send me into a joyous delirium. This album sounds great. It reproduces a band that's clearly mastered a really unique and interesting sound. But the songs just don't sparkle and explode and stick in my head the way those on Sister and Daydream Nation do.

This is a really special vintage by an all but forgotten small producer. I get undertones of Television and Meat Puppets with gorgeous notes of Steven Stills, the Feelies and maybe just a pinch of Primus! This would pair really well with mid-length mindless activities like airplane travel and interior re-painting!

Monstrously important album from an historical perspective. Alt Country/Americana wouldn't exist - at least in the way we know it - without this effort. The missing string on the cover photo is a perfect reflection of what's inside. Sounds like he's not sure what he's doing or why, but he has to do it so here goes! His later stuff has aged better. But his commitment to making this music at this moment has given us so much that it's hard not to love it anyway.

For me Magic Potion and Attack and Release are brilliant. Thickfreakness, Rubber Factory, and Chulahoma are super-interesting. Brothers sounds great - but none of the songs grab me. It's such a perfect example of something I wrote for Sonic Youth's Dirty that I'll add... Almost every innovative band (across every genre) that has found success has followed a common career arc. One, maybe two, ultra-raw albums; one to three albums that are technically imperfect, often quirky, and filled with brilliant songs; and then one to a series of well-performed and well-produced albums that aren't nearly as interesting. I think it's because of boredom and (ambitious) desperation. Artists that want to be unique are desperate to create great works. Starting out, nothing matters but learning to play better, writing better songs, and finding and perfecting that unique sound. And when they first hit the road they have SOOOOOO much down time; so much boredom - hour upon hour in vans and crappy hotels and backstage with nothing to do but joke around, practice, and write. I think the convergence of this boredom and desperation are the periods of intense creativity. Because the artist(s) is/are still searching for that perfect sound, all of their influences are freely thrown into the cauldron and stirred around. No one outside of the band is depending on the next album selling and so there is freedom to explore and take risks. In fact, the five to ten fans a week who come to the shows are the type of people who LOVE the creativity and quirkiness. And those few encounters mean SO much to the artist(s) that it reinforces the desperation and drive to make something brilliant. The desperation is never happy with the results and it fills all of that time with editing, writing, editing, writing, editing. And then they start to perfect and hone in on their "sound." They're mastering the instruments and the song-writing process from all of the practice. The writing and recording become just a bit easier. And then success starts to come. But it doesn't make life easier - it makes it a whole lot more complex. It's no longer a band in a van; it's an organization and a brand. Suddenly there are 1,000 decisions to be made every day about the business of the organization: the touring logistics, political/social/HR shit (among the band members, the roadies, the assistants...), the record label's demands, the publicists, the image, which festivals to play in 18 months...People the artist cares deeply about start to rely on the money coming in for their livelihoods. The band, the manager, the publicist, the roadies start to collect expensive addictions, car payments, significant others, kids, mortgages, etc. And this pressure tends to fall on the one or two people who are doing the writing because it's "their band." All of that time that used to go to songwriting and editing gets eaten up by more "urgent" matters relating to the health and sustainability of the org and the brand. But it's OK, because the artist(s) is/are more practiced at the songwriting and so it comes quicker and easier. We need three more songs? No problem, I'll do it on Tuesday. But the product doesn't lie. All of that desperate creativity, the social "space" for risk-taking, and the time spent editing made great songs. Now the "sound" is polished and the techniques are mastered and the albums sell because they sound great and the concerts are sold out because the brand is known. But the songs don't quite sparkle anymore. And the org and the brand are doing great so no one in the inner orbit notices or cares in the rush of the high-life.

With a punk sensibility she made really interesting rock and roll. Solid.

I love Supertramp's ability to be theatrical and to flirt with Prog-Rock overindulgence, but never lose focus on the songs. The engineering and production are amazing. The songs here aren't quite as strong as those on Breakfast in America. But the arrangements are more interesting and Siebenberg is still hitting the drums instead of tapping out percussive licks as starts to do later on. It's amazing what a huge difference a drummer's performance makes to a recording.

Such a great album. While their influences are evident, they still managed to create a unique sound. But what sets it on a pedestal is the quality of the songwriting. Billy Joe rivals Joey Ramone and Mick Jones in the ability to make great pop melodies feel right at home in a legit punk sound. And it isn't just a few great songs; it's damned-near wall to wall.

Such a beautiful, unique, quirky sound. And it seems to have come out of the gate fully formed; perfected. These guys made several more great albums and about 8 years later they absolutely owned the summer of 1986. But for me this remains their best album. Two exceptional songwriters that seemed to get the best out of each other. The sequence of Best Friend's Girl ( Rick) and Just What I Needed (Ben) is the Cars in microcosm. Each belongs among the best tracks in pop/rock history. And Greg Hawkes doesn't get nearly enough attention. At this point, synthesizers weren't keyboards with scores of pre-programmed sounds. They were just wave form generators with scores of filters. To play one, you had to be both a piano player and an electrical engineer. You had to build each sound each time you played it. Greg did that masterfully, developing beautiful sounds that blended perfectly into the mix. But he also was always complimentary. The synths here don't ever get in the way, they round out that beautiful, quirky sound.

Whoever compiled this list L-O-V-E-S Metallica. I'm at about 110 albums and this is the third from these guys. Really? How many amazing bands are we ignoring to listen to THREE Metallica albums?? I bought this album when it came out. I listen to it every 10 years or so. It's interesting. The athleticism is astonishing. The songs are fine-to-good. The engineering and mixing are total garbage. (Lars' bass drums sound like wet cardboard being slapped by a wooden spoon.) If I want a dose of these guys I'm reaching for the album Metallica; same sound, better songs, engineering and mixing are superb. And if I want to remember how groundbreaking they were I'll reach for Kill 'Em All. This was an important stepping stone; the album when they really figured out what they wanted to sound like. And I'm sure die-hard fans will debate whether it's their best. But for the rest of us? Meh.

The engineering and mixing are gorgeous. The musicianship is top-rate. Marley had such a talent for melody. Almost every song has at least one ear-worm and several have a couple. Truly incredible melody-maker. But his lyrics! They sound tossed off the top of his incredibly pot-addled head. They are consistently SO poorly thought out; it sounds like he has feelings on religious/political/intimate subjects and was so celebrated at this point that he began believing he could just stand in front of a hot mic and riff and the truth would emerge. It's a mess, for the most part. The love songs on side two are somehow less cringe inducing - maybe because we expect people to sound adolescent when singing about love. All that said, Three Little Birds and One Love are two of the greatest tracks of all time.

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no Bruce Springsteen's brilliance was his desperate intensity combined with story telling that was at once epic and intimate. Born to Run; The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle; and Darkness on the Edge of Town are three of the most brilliant albums ever. Even Born in the U.S.A. had IT, fer chrisake. And I'll hold Nebraska up to any folk / americana album ever made. The Rising??@!?!!?? The engineering is perfect. That's literally all the good I can say about it.

I don't like the overall sound of most of these songs - sounds like the tracks are (purposefully) over compressed to the point of clipping. And the nasally pinched vocals aren't anything to crow about. And yet, I love this album. The songs are so so so good. Great melodic hooks behind every corner. The arrangements / instrumentations are really interesting and diverse. The album is anything but monotonous. Coming back to the sound - I'm wondering if they employed that particular effect in order to differentiate themselves from the hordes. I wish I could say with confidence that the great songs and production were enough to do that. But there are a lot of great albums that go completely unnoticed. So maybe it worked. That said, how interesting would it be to hear a "remix" without that over compression?

I have a strong sentimental attachment to this album and so can't be objective. I owned this cassette the year I got my driver's license. Back then cassettes were EXPENSIVE. So when you had one you listened to it; a lot. After 30 years I can sing most of these songs in my sleep. It sounds great to me after all of these years. But there's no way that this opinion is unsentimental. It's interesting to think of the band at this moment. With the incredible chaos of the Joy Division years fading into memory and set to take over the world with their next album.

There's nothing about this that I enjoy.

I love the STAX / VOLT sound. Sam Cooke is an undeniable talent. I would love to have seen him live in his prime. But this isn't a great music album. The songs (with the exception of Bring it On Home to Me) are monotonous. His improvisations, comments, and ESPECIALLY his weird farts of laughter diminish the performances, and above all - this album demonstrates how GREAT Booker T & the MGs / the STAX house band was.

This is NOT one of the 1001 albums I needed to hear. Sounds like 30 year old teen pop.

This album reminds me of being 15. Not because I listened to it then, although I am that old. But because I was in a band, and each of us had been playing for a year or so and we kind of knew chords and how music fit together, but for the most part, we just wanted to make interesting noise that didn't sound like anyone else, and we were just old enough to start to understand that life is hard no matter who you are, and no matter what you do it never actually makes any sense, and - most importantly - we were starting to have those moments when the five of us who almost but didn't quite know how to make our instrument do exactly what we wanted, but we did know how to make it kind of do what we wanted and could start to listen and react to each other. There's so much beauty and excitement and even transcendence in that moment. And this album captures it like few others. Add to that the knowledge we all now have that we're listening to this larva explore its musical world, but as soon as it becomes a pupa and is struggling to wrest itself from its youth and fly, a huge beast comes along and kills it.

Uggh. Another white band from the late 60s playing twelve bar blues through overdriven amps. The only thing I gain from listening to this is more respect for the Stones and Zeppelin.

I've always respected the Talking Heads. Interesting, unique, creative, thoughtful. I've just never been able to get into the music. I find it unmoving and tedious.

Legend has it that someone once asked Eric Clapton what it felt like to be the best guitar player in the world and he replied, "I don't know. Ask Prince." Prince's live act was legendary. And here we have him trading all of that in for sequenced synths and drum machines. I get that he wanted a change of pace. But the product is little more than mildly interesting. And not infrequently it sags into self-parody. I can imagine the Ballad of Dorothy Parker or If I was Your Girlfriend being the product of a Chappelle Show skit. I'd give 4 stars to Dirty Mind or Controversy and 5 to any of 1999, Purple Rain, or Around the World in a Day.

There's something about the style of her songwriting that reminds me of musical theater - both trigger an intense negative emotional reaction in me. My emotional response is always to music. Lyrics can make a good song great, but they can't improve mediocre music at all. Joni Mitchell, and musical theater sound as if the songs are written to fit the lyrics. The words are not only paramount, but primary. It sounds like Joni writes her po-EMS and then follows Buddy the Elf's advice - she just talks them, only louder and longer and she moves her voice up and down. The result is not melody but a lead line that meanders and drifts and sounds unfocused and even shambolic to my ears. And that's what irritates me. I feel like I'm listening to a poet tack on music as an after thought. And then there's her voice. Now if she wrote great music, I wouldn't care. But since I don't like the songs, I try to find something to listen to and then I'm annoyed by her faerie little voice all tarted up with inelegant displays of vibrato. Vibrato is an affectation that I generally find weird and off-putting. I say generally because in the hands of a Master vocalist - I'm talking Sarah Vaughan or Dinah Washington level mastery - it can add an interesting dimension. But Joni's abuse of it makes her sound like an 8 year old trying to sound old; which makes me cringe even harder.

It's certainly interesting. It came close to engaging a couple of times. But ultimately, it feels self-indulgent; a public display of weirdness in an effort to prove individuality.

There are easily 1,000 musical acts worth hearing before one dies. So I would prefer that this list stuck to one album per band. If there are two by Green Day, then there needs to be at least a dozen from Miles Davis, 7 from Frank Sinatra, 5 each from the Beatles, Zeppelin and the Stones. Pretty soon you run out of slots for great never-heard-of-em's like Teenage Fanclub, Slint, Love as Laughter, etc. That said, like Dookie, this album is an amazing collection of songs. I couldn't give them an honest listen when they were on top of the world. Listening back though, Holy Macaroni.

The best. Literally expanded the very idea not only of what a music album could be, but of what pop-music could be. It inspired people to believe that their sound was limited only by the scope of their imagination. The richness and variation of western music from the 70s through today is a testament to that inspiration.

It's as though someone bet him he couldn't make a truly bad album and he made an effort to prove them wrong (a hypothetical that's consistent with his quirky sense of humor) by turning to yacht rock and pop synths. The man is responsible for at least two and legit 5-star albums (Bridge Over Troubled Water and Graceland) and four more that are in the running (Bookends, Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme, There Goes Rhymin' Simon', and Still Crazy After All These Years). This ain't one of 'em. Some albums are lost gems, some get lost for a reason...

I respect these guys and what they're doing. I generally love sonic-collage type sounds. But where, say, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's collage produces a resonant, lush sound, these guys' sound is flat and tinny to my ears; to the point where it quickly becomes grating. Moreover, I don't find enough coherence between the melodic ideas within each track. I bought this album when it was released - back when people did that - and I listened to it several times back then. Coming back to it, I had no memory of any of the individual tracks. Ultimately, while I respect the effort, I just don't find the music engaging.

These are brilliant backing tracks. Had he collaborated with songwriters and performers he may have actually made something more than (admittedly gorgeous) sonic confections.

Quirky. Original when it came out. Unique forty years later. Great songs. A bit one-note. But always worth a listen.

There is so much to love here. The songs - the melodies and harmonic structures - are gorgeous and most of the production - instrumentation and arrangements- are unique, interesting, and sonically beautiful. But I'm left thinking that whoever's in charge doesn't believe that the music is enough. So they introduce all of these wink-wink clever elements that veer into novelty-act territory: the aren't-I-a-nerdy-wit lyrics, the Neil Youngish vocal fry, the intermittently over-compressed drums. So I appreciate what they're doing. I come really close to being moved at times; but each time I come close, they do something affected and unnecessary to ruin the mood.

Love it. So interesting and dark and beautiful and honest. Also check out XO. I think the songwriting on that album is even stronger than this amazing collection.

I keep trying. It's interesting. It falls into good from time to time. His voice is a trial though.

I tried to be cynical listening to this album for the first time in 28 or so years. Since the time when these songs seemed to have an exclusive lease on radio and MTV, I've always turned to Born to Run, Nebraska, Darkness on the Edge of Town, or the Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle for my Bruce Springsteen fix. So it had been a while. And I was ready to conclude that this was Bruce's jump the shark moment. Listening afresh I'm stunned by what an amazing collection of songs this is; pretty much without exception. The themes of alienation and redemption through community are beautifully wrought. There're ear worms everywhere. There's the joyful overwhelming spirit of the E Street Band. Sure, I prefer the sound of B-3s and horns to mid-80s synths. But that's a few nits in an otherwise gorgeous tapestry.

I appreciate the historic importance. And it's fun for a minute. But, as with almost all jump blues (all 12 bar blues to be honest), it gets really tedious after about three or four songs.

Once again, this list grabs a mediocre album by a once-interesting band. The Go-Betweens' Before Hollywood is fantastic. This album - I wish I could say it's forgettable. Unfortunately, its BAD. Bad as in, I'm rethinking my appreciation for Before Hollywood bad. 150 albums in and I've listened to mediocre albums by Metallica, U2, Bruce Springsteen, the Cure, the Black Keys, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Paul Simon, Prince, Miles Davis, and now the Go-Betweens. Given the GREAT music that those acts are responsible for, It's remarkable.

You could track Gimme Shelter ten straight times and I'd give it five stars. That song still blows my mind after, who knows, 1,000 listens? Amazing. With Beggar's Banquet and, my favorite, Exhile on Mainstreet, this album makes up the Holy Trinity. It just doesn't get better.

Another good example of "the Nashville Sound"; the engineering is so rich and clean - I'm not sure any recordings sound better - and the musicianship is absolutely top-notch. The problem is always that Chet's insistence on consistency and perfection produced a whole lot of almost fungible tracks. None of these songs grab me like Merle's Swingin' Doors or the Bottle Let Me Down.

As good as any other Talking Heads album. I appreciate the honesty and the creativity. I'm just never moved by the music. That said, I've dropped Heaven into a playlist.

The backing tracks are great. She has a gorgeous voice when singing softly. Not sure she/the producers are doing her any favors trying to make her a power singer. She ends up sounding reedy. The lyrics are cringe-inducing; both when she's going universal-political and when she keeps it personal. That said, it's pretty easy to ignore cringe-inducing personal lyrics because pop music is somehow geared for personal statements. When an artist goes for the political, they better work really hard to nail the lyrics. Abbie Lincoln, Marvin Gaye and Chuck D. managed it. Janelle hasn't. The backing tracks are great though. I wish I could listen to the album without the vocal buses.

It's interesting. I'm not into audio books. And that's what this feels like: short stories, read by the author, set to robot music. I really dislike robot music. So it's not for me. But it is interesting.

I've owned this record for years. I love War's sound. But I think it really finds its special purpose on Cisco Kid, when they come up with amazing songs to wrap it around. On this album, they sound like a bunch of stoners who've found a great sound, want to say something, but find it much easier to just jam out.

Moon Safari is a brilliant album of fully realized songs. Compared to that, this sounds like what it is - one song followed by a series of musical ideas composed and arranged for the express purpose of complimenting scenes in a movie. Why in the world someone would choose to listen to this instead of one of Air’s collections of actual songs is mind-boggling. And it's going on the sublist. GROUPS THAT PRODUCED GREAT ALBUMS BUT ARE REPRESENTED ON THIS LIST BY A MEDIOCRE ALBUM: Air, Go-Betweens, Metallica, U2, Bruce Springsteen, the Cure, the Black Keys, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Paul Simon, Prince, Miles Davis,

Bowie’s best song may well be on his worst album. The title track is extraordinary; just brilliant. After that, the quality drops off a cliff. The word “indulgent” comes to mind. The first half (save Heroes) sounds like improvisation in the style of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Eno’s solo stuff is far more focused and rewarding listening than their collaborations here. And the Secret Life of Arabia falls into “unintentional parody” territory.

I really like this album. Which is surprising because I don't generally like electronic beats (robot music) or Eastern Mediterranean music. I listened to this album a lot when it came out; haven't listened to it for a decade; didn't expect to enjoy it when it popped on the list; but I was wrong. It's unique and the musical ideas are super-engaging.

I did not need to hear this before I die. Perhaps there's something in the lyrics. It sounds like a mediocre imitation of a Tribe Called Quest.

Super cheesy. Gorgeous recordings. What a voice. This is one of those, "yeah, but it just makes me smile" albums.

Brilliant. Probably my favorite hip hop album of all time.

Do It Again is fantastic. Dirty Work, and Reelin’ in the Years are solid. The rest bores me. Steely Dan is like someone in your friend group who never causes any drama but never really opens up and is the last person you'd call to hang out with.

Mildly interesting; but its not for me.

The harmonies are absolutely incredible (take THAT auto-tune). The songs are great. But the guy’s daughter says he had sex with her while she was unconscious (19 yrs old) and they had a sexual relationship for years after. It’s pretty hard to listen without prejudice with that information.

Ray Charles is royalty. I'd give anything from him five stars. But this album deserves them all (despite the occasional use of cheesy strings and mid-century white chorus). As an aside; Willie Nelson credits this album with making Country a commercially viable genre. With all of the ridiculous conversation over whether Beyonce's Cowboy Carter is Country, I never heard or read anyone cite to this album. To me it proved that that whole conversation was never about music.

The greatest jam band ever is still a jam band. The musicianship is absolutely incredible. But how people find such self-indulgence entertaining is beyond me. And is there anything more tedious and less moving than post-WWII 12-bar blues? Midnight Rider is the only song on here I care to listen to and this may very well be the worst performance of Midnight Rider ever to appear on a major label release. One star for each drummer, and you can keep the rest.

A mediocre pop album filled with adolescent sensibilities. The engineering is top-rate. If I were a 13 year old girl I might like it. But I doubt it.

I'd rather listen to Bob Dylan.

Amazing collection of songs. The production doesn't hold up particularly well. Hard to believe people actually liked the sound of all of that solid state equipment.

I have a form of PTSD from We Built This City that causes me to want to dislike everything from the Jefferson franchise. So I went into this expecting some dumb hippy music. In spite of my prejudice, I actually think it’s really good.

Country pop by the numbers. Can’t think of a single thing you could do to make this music less interesting.

Brilliant; and the sound escaped the orbit of its age. It still sounds as unique and beautiful as it did when it was released.

It's like Ennio Moriconi produced an album with Jake Bugg singing in front of Tom Jones' band. Wild man; wild. Maybe a bit theatrical. But wild.

If I'm going to take a trip down this memory lane, I'm reaching for Teenage Fanclub, Stone Roses, or even Luna before this. Ride sound like they were an amazing live band; especially in a field on a hot August night with glow sticks and ecstasy. But like so many great live bands, their songs don't quite translate to recording.

By far the most enjoyable Neil Young album I've ever heard. Great songs. I just wish to God he'd let someone else sing them.

The sounds aren't even interesting; and that's literally all it is - a collection of sounds.

The musical ideas are trite. The production is flat. His poem/stories seem like they're meant to be edgy but come across banal and pretentious. His bellowing is difficult to listen to for an entire song, let alone an entire album. It's a poor imitation of Tom Wait’s late-80s sound with none of the talents for songwriting and track production.

I love Roky Erickson's music. But there's a limit to the number of these songs I can listen to in a single sitting. There's a tribute album called Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye that has some interesting takes on a lot of these.

It's impressive that the Zombies seem to have understood what John, Paul, and Brian (Wilson) were doing in (4-track!!) studios, thoroughly enough to reproduce the tricks to comparable magical results. But what makes this - or any album - great is the songwriting. This is such a stellar collection of songs that it belongs in any conversation of the best of Psychedelica: Rubber Soul/ Pet Sounds/ Sgt Peppers/ Good Vibrations. Hundreds, if not thousands, of acts all over the world captured that sound that tickles the ears. But so very few are built on songs that move the soul.

So much talent. Brilliant producer, guitarist and keyboardist. But something critical is missing; it sounds like product instead of art. I think back to the White Stripes' Elephant (which I think is brilliant). Same voice, same musical inclinations and it FELT genuine. This, by contrast sounds like one clever idea after another just laid out as they arise, with no overarching vision, nothing to say, no effort at coherence. I wish he would collaborate more. Because all of that talent could use some critical feedback.

Two amazing tracks followed by an album's worth of experimentation from a group of talented musicians with suspect capacities for self-control and an obvious love of, to use the parlance of their day, mary jane. Not only does the lunacy that ensues make me smile, I actually found myself laughing out loud more than once.

I love this sound but have always preferred Songs to Learn and Sing as an album. Silver and the Killing Moon are brilliant. Seven Seas is solid. The rest sounds engineered.

Strangely, I can listen to 70s soft rock but have always hated the stuff from the 80s. Maybe because I hit puberty in 1982 and started listening to the Clash and the Stones. In any event, I still can't listen to this. It's like hotel art - so carefully crafted to be inoffensive that it drives me mad. Top-notch production tho.

Brilliant concept; brilliant song selection; brilliant arrangements; brilliant performances; brilliant production.

I'm not a fan of hip hop. Melody and harmonic progression are my favorite parts of music and I find mechanical performances unmoving. But brilliant works of art transcend genre and are recognizable to even the uninitiated and the ignorant.

Great exploration of the line between noise and music. Not sure I need a whole album's worth. But I'm really glad this is out there.

I thought it was boring in the 90s. If anything, it's gotten less interesting with age.

I've always wanted to love the Kinks. I've always liked them instead. The music is so interesting; but maybe that's the problem. It's too clever by half and I'm always made to feel like its really important to Ray that we all know that he knows how clever he is. The Zombies are similarly studio/musically clever, but their music sweeps me up emotionally. The Kinks' music is always, just, interesting.

A perfect soundtrack for Waldorf PTA knitting circles...

90s-pop-by-the-numbers production; some of the most irritating vocal affectations ever recorded; and SO MUCH lyrical detritus: to paraphrase, its the sound of pretensions falling all around

With autotune, the robot take over of "music" is complete. It produces in me the same emotional response as linoleum.

I'm a huge fan of classic country. There's nothing memorable about this album.

It’s not often that I say myself, I’d rather not go on living than have to do it listening to this. In that context, I think it’s a testament to my fortitude that I got 1:30 into the second track.

These guys were so amazing, right out of the box. This album suffers from the same conundrum as Help! It's amazing but is almost impossible to fairly judge because, from here, it stands in the shadows of the legends that follow.

One of those albums that’s literally stunning every time you hear it. The man was a gift from the gods that keeps on giving. Unique for many reasons; among them - the first track is the only dud.

I was going to give it 2 stars, mostly on the middling strength of All I Wanna Do. But then I read about how many people she's offended.

Sonically gorgeous. He is absolutely brilliant musically. But as a collection of songs, it's pretty self-indulgent. It also tends to feel a bit unedited lyrically and melodically, as though he's so eager to get to the studio to arrange and produce that he rushes the song-writing.

Loved it from the day it was released.

A great sampling of one of the most unheralded staples of 80s pop - the frenetic bass line. Other than that; meh. The Look of Love is a solid addition to any 80s playlist. But the vocal affectations and synth sounds haven't aged particularly well.

Sister and Daydream Nation make up the stage of Sonic Youth's greatness. EVOL was the staircase leading up; Goo was the staircase leading back down. . . And it's still 5-star great.

I appreciate people who explore the line between noose and music. This album does that, but in an apparent attempt to irritate the listener; with significant success. On the rare occasions that they veer into something resembling song (e.g. Human Cannonball) it’s pretty sweet. But not enough to justify a second listen.

I love Steely Dan's sound. But there's something so smug, unmoving, and off putting about their songwriting that I can barely get through three songs at a time. Applies to every SD album I've ever heard; including this one.

I have the same reaction to this as to Deep Purple. There is NO WAY I should love this goofy, utterly-ridiculous music as much as I do. But do any of us really CHOOSE who we love?

Like Coltrane, Mingus was an absolute genius who went from playing beautiful and engaging music early to pushing the frontiers of jazz so far as to create music that is almost unlistenable to most of us mortals. Ah-Um, from 5 years earlier, is my favorite point on that progression. This album has hints of greatness but veers off the road too damn much to be enjoyable.

Super fun. Well made. But not particularly memorable. If I want this groove, I'm going to reach for Isaac, Curtis, or Stevie.

I loathe this thin, reedy, vibratoed, technically accomplished but soulless and powerless woman's vocal style so much I can't listen long enough to form an opinion.

A goofy concept executed perfectly; like anything Deep Purple or the first Earth Wind & Fire album.

This was my obsession from 15 to 21. No way I can be objective.

Not for me.

I feel like I'm listening to someone demonstrate what ProTools 2009 could do. Just way too much engineering.

VM is tolerable performing actual songs; like The Way Young Lovers Do or Madame George. But so much of this album comes across as free-form modal jamming from a bunch of stoned hippies led by a bleating billy goat. Whenever I'm in the mood for mandolins I reach for Rod Stewart, and then for Moondance; never this album.

Nice little album but unmemorable. I actually bought this when it came out and forgot all about it. Even seeing it on my list - no memory until the first song; which is adorable.

Polished punk pop sound. But utterly forgettable music. They're like the Libertines without the magic. Cocaine may make for great musicians; but heroine is so much better for making music.

This is among my favorite sounds from the 20th century. Brilliantly recorded. Top-notch musicianship. But the lack of melody and uninspired lyrics consign it to being just great background music

I had a fine time in middle school. But it is about the LAST period of my life I'm nostalgic for. I honestly thought to myself at the beginning of the title track that I was listening to a scared eighth-grader's ranting when the little kid started screaming and confirmed it. The production warrants a 3. I appreciate extending the lane that Rick Rubin carved out on Licensed to Ill But the vocals...I feel dumber for having listened to this.

Love it. I only knew them from their boring arena-pop. Turns out they once wanted to do more than just sell tickets to sheep.

Amazing.

It got me wondering, can "the Woman" really be your "baby" if she does not (yet, perhaps) love you? Beyond that, there's not much here for me except for the reverb. Never been a fan of Phil Spector's sound. Dion was right when he said the production makes the album sound like funeral music. But the songs aren't much either. Though I do like Mott the Hoople's version of Your Own Backyard.

Interesting; but easily forgettable. I try to let go and get sucked into the trance that the tracks promise. But the annoying vocals, bouncing through a series of unconnected melodic fragments, push me into an almost constant desire to listen to something else.

It’s interesting, for 60s folk. But I dislike Dylan’s voice so much that I’m triggered by those who ape his irritating affectations.

If a doctor ever decides that I need to be induced into a coma, I hope they accomplish it by playing this album for me on loop. It sounds GORGEOUS; from her voice, the instrumentation, the engineering, the mixing - lush, warm and clear in a way that few recordings accomplish. But the performances thus captured are just SO boring.

I've owned this record for decades. I pull it out every 2-3 years thinking maybe I'll finaly realize why people seem to like it. Still just sounds like a soulless pop cover band. On the plus side, it is really well recorded.

What was commonplace forty-fifty years ago has become the rarest of musical acts; a band - as opposed to an individual and a computer holed up in a bedroom - with the ability to write melodic hooks actually exploring the sonic boundaries of 20th century rock/pop.

I generally dislike pop music. But I've loved Thriller my whole life. I didn't like this album when it came out. I didn't really care so I never gave it much thought. Listening now, I think it's because Q turned the rhythm section over to synths and sequencers and that creates a flat, lifeless sound. Billie Jean has the simplest/straitest drum part maybe ever recorded. But that drum performance is AMAZING and it infuses an urgency into the entire track. Compare the feeling of that to anything here. Y A W N

Masterful usage of early 90s sampler/sequencer tech. But like most masters of that moment, without a gripping lead, you end up with a series of interesting but lifeless tracks. What's more, I find no coherence to the album. It's like a collection of background tracks from different films.

Amazing sounds. For me though, even the best instrumental music never holds my attention. It can only become great background music; which this certainly is.

Mildly interesting from an historical perspective; to learn that someone was making this music in S.F. in 1958. Musically, I can't find any reason why I needed to hear this album before I die.

When someone claiming to collect the greatest artwork of the 20th century throws in the equivalent of a digital print taken from the wall of a Courtyard by Marriott you know you're being trolled.

Just a great collection of songs.

The pop-music-as-sugary-confection metaphor is perfected with these songs. As appealing as they are on the surface, by the end of three I need something substantive or I begin to feel queasy. And the lyrics are among the worst ever published. But as much as I'd like to detest it outright, there's no denying the other-worldly power of those hooks.

I'm so glad this music exists. I don't think any group of people with the musical understanding and ability of a band of 13 year olds and fortunate enough to know a very competent drummer with nothing better to do could make music any more interesting than this. It never rises beyond novelty-act status. But it never feels like anyone wanted it to. I started high school in '83. Rock Lobster was a staple of our dances and we always went NUTS for it. I can only imagine what the house parties in Athens must have been like four years earlier.

Frank is amazing on everything recorded in the 50s and much of what he recorded through the 60s. But of all of the albums with Nelson Riddle, this one is my least favorite. Riddle is so good at arranging big band horns and their swing collaborations both before and after this one continue to be some of the most mind-blowing music ever recorded. But Riddle's string arrangements sound trite to me; like mediocre film scores from the era. And these arrangements cause Frank to deliver over-theatrical, almost melodramatic performances. The jazz is all but gone; replaced by Welk-like pop that bores me.

"He's not paid to think, just play." This album leaves me to conclude that the 22 year old Ray Davies didn't seem to appreciate that music is more about feeling than thinking. And the only thing that he seemed to feel at this point was cynicism and bitterness. He's undoubtedly clever lyrically. But there are only three SONGS here that I care to listen to: Little Miss Queen of Darkness, Sunny Afternoon, and I'll Remember. And the fact that they're buried at the back of Side B suggests he wasn't nearly as interested in exploring his gift for song writing as he was of proving how clever he was.

Beautifully recorded. The 12 bar blue numbers are well done. But like all 12 bar blue instrumentals - grow quickly monotonous. The ii-V-I numbers are more interesting. No one did a jazz quartet/quintet with a tenor and a B-3 better. Still not sure it totally works. The B-3 is such a great mood enhancer - like a peddle steel in country music. But as a lead? Hmmmm. And other than Turrentine, the players are competent but not stellar jazz improvisers. Great background music.

Extraordinary. The obvious - the musicianship, the synchronicity between mates, and the immensely creative song structures. But what makes this album great is what makes any album of songs great - emotional impact; and emotional impact comes from the use of harmonic structure and, most importantly, strength of melody. What's so amazing about this album is that there are often three and sometimes four counterpoint melodic ideas going on simultaneously and most of them are really strong. There are more strong melodic ideas in many of these individual songs than there are in most modern albums. And the complex harmonic progressions SERVE the emotional impact of the songs, rather than just show off an understanding of harmony and a capacity for complex ideas. Yes, these guys are all exceptionally learned, technically proficient and clever. But the album is great because the musicality is primary; and the cleverness and complexity are always employed in service of its pursuit.

I bought this album on CD when it came out and I've listened to it repeatedly. I find it wholly unmoving. Sonically, it's anxiety inducing. We know Thom can write beautiful melodies. It seems, however, that he's convinced himself that the concepts of melody, and even perhaps beauty, are banal. It comes across as wholly calculated and cynical; and it always leaves me feeling cold and empty.

Meh. Another band that adored the Ramones but liked the muscled sound of late 90s amplifiers. They perfected their sound; to the point where the album is pretty monotonous. Ultimately, I heard nothing that I'll remember.

Loved this album when it came out. Three or four classic songs. I love this era of building backing tracks by quilting samples. An era tragically cut short by greed and an ignorant U.S. District judge in NY. I was lucky enough to see Tribe play in a basement in Oberlin, OH to about 100 people. They were fantastic live. All that said, I don't think this album ages terribly well. Across time it sounds quaint and awkward - like they had an idea of what they wanted to sound like and were exploring in an attempt to realize it. In that regard Low End Theory ages much better; the sound of that album is perfected, it flows brilliantly and the rhymes are much more confident and interesting.

I'm struck by how many superficial similarities this has with Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters - jazz/funk fusion, exploration of electric keys with horns and guitar. Superficial similarities; because if listening to Head Hunters is like the best sex you ever had, listening to this is like sitting through a junior college lecture about intercourse. Head Hunters is heart, soul and libido, this comes across as applied theory and and fear of misstep. Donald Fagan definitely belongs in any conversation of artists who made a living draining a musical style of everything that makes it great: Lawrence Welk, Pat Boone, Kenny G. So polished; so awful.

For me Monk, as a composer, is second only to Bach in making music that reflects the fullness of life. It's almost unfathomably complex, at times messy, filled with tension, and constantly taking unexpected turns. But with all of that, it's beautiful and exciting, occasionally funny, and undeniably rooted in some grand pattern that we, mere mortals, can only vaguely recognize. And like life, as crazy as it gets, it always leaves me wanting more. Brilliant Corners is an absolute masterpiece.

The only thing interesting about this album is whether the lyrics of Welfare Mothers or the extraordinarily bad attempt at punk rock on Sedan Delivery is more cringe-inducing. Good Lord; enough with Neil Young! I’ve heard 4-guitar suburban dad garage bands that are more engaging than this. Enough already.

Recorded music is now 100 years old. You can make a strong case that there are 1,000 acts that have recorded music over that time that every music lover should hear before they die. In that context, we have three albums (at least) from the Beastie Boys on this list?? Paul's Boutique belongs. It's mind-blowing. Licensed to Ill...OK...it's historically important and pretty great. But that's where their representation should end. This album is fine. A couple of great radio-classic hits; some latin-funk jams that are fun, though a pale reflection of the 70s recordings they are imitating. And it falls off from there (and goes on and on and on.) I like Check your Head better. But neither is among the 1,000 albums everyone should hear before they die.

The fifth best Zeppelin album is so f#@king good.

Yes, schizophrenic musicians are interest. But the Piper at the Gates of Dawn gives any music fan a full taste of Syd Barrett AND is actually an album; and a really intriguing, cohesive one at that. This? This comes across as a basket of basement tapes.

Absolutely brilliant. At a time when American suburbanites' love for Sinatra made big band swing old fashioned and unhep, an OG said, "dig this" and makes arguably the best album in the genre's history. Cutting edge jazz at the time was Hard Bop with its faster, faster / more is better / Thousands of Notes per Minute ethos. Basie carved space into every arrangement and let very simple melodic lines dangle almost impossibly behind the beat.

Comforting and pretty; but not very interesting.

Still love it. It's striking how rare originality is in music made after 1980. Nobody has ever sounded like the Pixies. Great melodies. Emotional journeys. Fully baked right out of the box. F#$ing amazing.

If lyrics are more important than music to your appreciation for recordings, you might love the Drive By Truckers. When I want to celebrate poetry, or essays, I read books. When I listen to recordings, I want to be moved by music. There are moments of interesting southern rock here; but next to these guys' idols it's always a little pale, a little quaint. And the vocals - like Neil Young who they seem to adore - are just painful. I've wanted to like them for decades. But I just don't.

I love this album - start to finish

The incredible thing about the Smiths is that they never had a weak album; from The Smiths to Strangeways. My favorite is whichever I happen to be listening to. Morrissey and Marr get all of the love, but name me a tighter bassist/drummer combo than Rourke and Joyce. Those guys are in the Jones/Bonham category of creating unique, creative, but incredibly solid, rhythm platforms to support all of the genius stacked on top.

If this album were any worse it would be interesting. Unfortunately, it isn't.

The bass line on the Humpty Dance is brilliant. Other than that, I hear an hour of young men awkwardly stroking their own egos over mediocre robotic backing tracks.

Classic pop album. Sounds great. One great and very-radio-friendly song, and then a bunch of nonsense that makes you suspect that the one song was accidental. Nile Rodgers is a great producer and he and Bernard Edwards make great backing tracks. Chic was just missing songwriting and interesting leads.

I didn't enjoy this as much as Music from Big Pink. Their style is inherently shambolic and experimental; when they polished it up, for this album, it just lost a little something. I'm not a huge fan of this late 60s hippy Americana to begin with. If I'm in the mood, I'd reach for American Beauty (for the quality of the songs), or Music from Big Pink before coming back to this.

Of all of the 60s hippy Americana, these guys - with their southern influences and tendency towards raw emotion over stoner-chill - are my favorite. That said, it's still 60s hippy Americana.

The only band that mattered. How can I give this five stars with Give 'em Enough Rope and London Calling on the horizon? But how in hell can I give it less than five when it is so fucking off the hook amazing?

A great voice. And the song (not the track, the song) While You See a Chance is really strong. Beyond that, this album is one cringe-inducing element stacked on another. This is the precise moment when synths went from mind-blowing, other-worldly, and exotic to limp and feeble. Synths could still be fascinating - hear what Peter Gabriel or Greg Hawkes (Cars) are doing at the same time. But those guys were spending time and energy programming their sounds. SW showed the music industry that you could sell albums by being lazy; punching up the canned sounds on a Yamaha. So that's what we got for the rest of the 80s. The lyrics on Spanish Dancer are like an average SNL skit - no one could write these in earnest so they must be intended to be funny, but they aren't. They're just really dumb. The only track that doesn't sound painfully dated (thanks to those Yamaha synths) is Slowdown Sundown; but it just sounds like Van Morrison. (I would say watered-down VM, but VM is pretty watered down to begin with.) Great voice though. Imagine if he'd teamed up with a great musical partner/instrumentalist. (If you need a demonstration of how bad this album is, listen to the Spencer Davis Group...)

These songs bore me. Electronica/Trip Hop is not my thing. But the music of Moby or Fatboy Slim is interesting. This is not. Might work as a soundtrack to a low-budget sci-fi movie. Hard to get through it without moving pictures though. Definitely not an album I needed to hear before I die.

Hugely important historically; reviving interest in ska and making combatting racism ultra-cool. A Message to You Rudy remains an absolute gem. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it must have been to see these guys live in a club back in the day. But the rest of the album, 45-years on? It's a schizophrenic experience. The more punkish, up-tempo tracks (It's Up to You, Monkey Man, Dawning of a New Era, Little Bitch) still sound fresh and fantastic. The purer ska tracks (Doesn't Make it Alright, Too Hot, Blank Expression, Stupid Marriage, Too Much Too Young) have incredible backing tracks but are severely diminished by the irreverent approach to vocals, which may have sounded nonchalant and cool at the time, but now sounds lazy and uninspired. Particularly in light of how great they sound when they finally take vocals seriously on You're Wondering Now.

Incredible high points. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone is one of the top ten tracks of the 20th Century IMO. But the album? It's just too eclectic to qualify as a classic. So like so many others - it's that album that that song was on.

For God so loved the World, that he sent the Ramones. Mind-blowing technical prowess and a clear mastery of traditional western harmony. I also love the early synths. But music is, at its core, emotional. Any "understanding" should work in service of creating/communicating/manipulating feelings. This music makes me feel the way I used to feel doing Calculus problem sets. It isn't just that it's Prog Rock. Yes manages to take similar complexity and prowess and use it in service of emotional communication. This doesn't make me feel anything; it just sounds supremely calculated.

I appreciate her song writing ability. Like so many hook masters, her albums are very peak and valley. But, here, Shake it Off is bona fide. What I can't stand is the electronic backing tracks. All robo-musica sounds so sterile to me. Give me her first album, or the first side of Red.