903
Albums Rated
3.61
Average Rating
83%
Complete
186 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2010
Favorite Decade
Folk
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Cheerleader
Rater Style ?
253
5-Star Albums
61
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
The Incredible String Band
|
5 | 2.15 | +2.85 |
|
Rock Bottom
Robert Wyatt
|
5 | 2.39 | +2.61 |
|
Punishing Kiss
Ute Lemper
|
5 | 2.4 | +2.6 |
|
Bright Flight
Silver Jews
|
5 | 2.68 | +2.32 |
|
m b v
My Bloody Valentine
|
5 | 2.72 | +2.28 |
|
Basket of Light
Pentangle
|
5 | 2.77 | +2.23 |
|
Rejoicing In The Hands
Devendra Banhart
|
5 | 2.81 | +2.19 |
|
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Raekwon
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
69 Love Songs
The Magnetic Fields
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
|
BEYONCÉ
Beyoncé
|
5 | 2.86 | +2.14 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
|
1 | 3.34 | -2.34 |
|
The Man Machine
Kraftwerk
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Goo
Sonic Youth
|
1 | 3.24 | -2.24 |
|
Woodface
Crowded House
|
1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
|
The Rise & Fall
Madness
|
1 | 3.04 | -2.04 |
|
Coles Corner
Richard Hawley
|
1 | 3.03 | -2.03 |
|
Sister
Sonic Youth
|
1 | 3.01 | -2.01 |
|
Killing Joke
Killing Joke
|
1 | 2.99 | -1.99 |
|
The Dreaming
Kate Bush
|
1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
|
For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
|
1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 8 | 4.88 |
| Beatles | 6 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 5 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 4 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 6 | 4.5 |
| Radiohead | 5 | 4.6 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 5 | 4.6 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 4.75 |
| Joni Mitchell | 4 | 4.75 |
| Metallica | 3 | 5 |
| Nick Drake | 3 | 5 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 3 | 5 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.5 |
| The White Stripes | 3 | 4.67 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.67 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.67 |
| Public Enemy | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs | 2 | 5 |
| Elliott Smith | 2 | 5 |
| Green Day | 2 | 5 |
| Oasis | 2 | 5 |
| Taylor Swift | 2 | 5 |
| Massive Attack | 2 | 5 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 2 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 7 | 4 |
| Prince | 3 | 4.33 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3 | 4.33 |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 4.33 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Cure | 3 | 4.33 |
| Johnny Cash | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Slipknot | 2 | 1 |
| Emerson, Lake & Palmer | 2 | 1 |
| Sepultura | 2 | 1 |
| Pere Ubu | 2 | 1 |
| Public Image Ltd. | 2 | 1 |
| Sonic Youth | 4 | 1.75 |
| The Fall | 3 | 1.67 |
| Kanye West | 2 | 1.5 |
| Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Siouxsie And The Banshees | 2, 5 |
| The Byrds | 4, 1 |
| Elvis Costello | 5, 2 |
| Dire Straits | 2, 5 |
| Kate Bush | 4, 1 |
5-Star Albums (253)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
George Jones · 7 likes
1/5
I feel like this was old people music even when it came out. One of the lamest, most boring albums I have ever heard.
Aerosmith · 5 likes
3/5
Is Aerosmith an “all their songs sound the same” band?
I wish they actually would “Get the Lead Out”, as it were. This shouldn’t be this boring.
Cheap Trick · 4 likes
5/5
Every negative review of this one is accurate, but who cares? This would have been SUCH a fun show! My brain says this shouldn’t be a 5, but I enjoyed the absolute fuck out of this, so why wouldn’t it be 5 stars?
The Prodigy · 4 likes
3/5
Some cool beats here. I could see this being a huge hit at a rave, and I would actually be into it there. But there’s no reason these songs (which most tracks barely qualify as) need to be this long.
The Incredible String Band · 2 likes
5/5
How the hell is this one of the lowest rated albums on the site?! Peaceful and eerie at the same time. Paints a truly idyllic picture of the hills of Scotland, and the picture is of someplace I’d love to visit.
1-Star Albums (61)
All Ratings
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Neil Young
4/5
Good rainy day album
Nirvana
5/5
Elbow
4/5
Chill, a little overlong
The Smiths
4/5
DJ Shadow
5/5
Hip hop instrumental, love it!
Duran Duran
3/5
Aggressively 80s
Radiohead
5/5
The Doors
2/5
Heroin music. The Velvet Underground do it better. I like Soul Kitchen.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Gotan Project
5/5
Latin with strings, mostly instrumental. Really good!
The White Stripes
5/5
Beck
4/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
Christine and the Queens
4/5
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Brazilian world music. Good.
Michael Jackson
4/5
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Cowboy Junkies
4/5
Chill relaxing folky
T. Rex
5/5
Unexpected psychedelic surprise!
The Crusaders
3/5
I liked the funkier parts of this one. Could do without the stuff that sounds like 70s porno
The Who
5/5
Prince
5/5
David Bowie
5/5
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Stereo MC's
5/5
Miles Davis
4/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
The Young Gods
1/5
Neu!
4/5
Slipknot
1/5
I can understand how fans of the genre would like this, and I actually didn’t mind the parts with actual singing. But overall, not my cup of tea. “Snuff” is weirdly out of place.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
Daft Punk
4/5
Great sound for a party. A lot of the songs are about a minute too long
Bad Brains
4/5
When I first turned this on I was expecting to hate it. As I listened it grew on me. It's not my favorite but it was an enjoyable experience. And at only about 30 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Big Black
1/5
Screamy and no melody. It probably has its place, but ultimately not into it.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Sam Cooke
5/5
I can absolutely see why people went nuts seeing this live in 1963.
Skunk Anansie
4/5
I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did. This kind of music is definitely better with a female vocalist.
The Beach Boys
5/5
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
5/5
Frank Ocean
3/5
It’s a bit upsetting that this one doesn’t hit like it did in my mid 20’s
Rush
4/5
Rush is a band for whom I like the deep cuts much more than the hits. “Tom Sawyer” is one of the weakest songs on the album, and “Vital Signs” is a downer of an ending. But the rest of the album is great. “YYZ”’s reputation is 100% deserved.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Good for driving fast through the open countryside between Los Santos and San Fierro
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
We’ll, THAT’S something I never would have listened to without this list…
Tough to rate since I have no reference point for it. Not for me though.
The Waterboys
5/5
Much more melodic than what I was expecting, really ended up liking this one! I was worried when I saw 9-minute songs but nothing felt overlong.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
She’s got a reputation for a reason.
David Bowie
5/5
Harry Nilsson
4/5
The Undertones
5/5
This is what punk should be. Fun, breezy, and DGAF.
The Louvin Brothers
2/5
Good harmonies. Not for me though.
Prince
3/5
I’d love to hear a fan edit of this album with all of the overlong instrumental breaks edited down. This would be a 10/10 if most of the songs were about half as long. “International Lover” is the only one that earns that length, although it is good that the album ends on such a high note.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
The Cardigans
5/5
An awesome mix of rock and psychedelia. I unabashedly rocked out to this one. Certainly put a different spin on “Iron Man”.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
Nice and relaxing
The Birthday Party
1/5
“Junk” is certainly an apt descriptor for this one. Only people in their 20s who have done enough drugs to think they’re profound or talented would write garbage like “Dead Joe” or “Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)”. Happy to duck out of this birthday party early.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
Relaxing
Various Artists
4/5
Exactly what I wanted it to be on Christmas Day. Minus one star for the Phil Spector of it all.
Portishead
3/5
There’s a time and a place for this, and it’s a cool concept. But a whole album of this is a real bummer.
Scissor Sisters
5/5
Wow, what an interesting mix! Part Prince, part Beck, part Styx, part disco, part Pink Floyd (although the “Comfortably Numb” cover is a little out of place). Loved this one!
Kings of Leon
4/5
Good, nothing earth shattering.
R.E.M.
4/5
Enjoyable album
Metallica
5/5
Dear all metal artists that just scream into the microphone,
Having talented musicians and intelligible lyrics makes your music MUCH better. After so many one-star reviews of albums like this, Metallica was a really nice change of pace. Very much a fan of this one.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
Liked this
The Fall
3/5
This grew on me. I don’t love it but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. “I’m Going to Spain” is a standout.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
Really came out of the gate swinging. A fan!
Muddy Waters
4/5
Never realized how much this inspired. Enjoyed it.
Thundercat
4/5
I like the sound. A little long
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
I wouldn’t listen to this every day, but there’s definitely a time and place for it.
Donald Fagen
2/5
Decent elevator music
The Temptations
4/5
Very danceable, into this one.
Norah Jones
5/5
Perfect for a cold snowy night
Peter Gabriel
3/5
A tough one to rate. “Solsbury Hill” is a deserving classic, and most of side 2 is good. But there are also some real stinkers here. “Moribund the Burgermeister“, “Excuse Me”, and “Humdrum” really show that Peter Gabriel needed the rest of Genesis to rein in his dumber ideas.
Kanye West
1/5
Fuck Kanye. Also, the album just sucks. Like, hurts my ears bad. I don't understand the boner everyone gets for this stuff.
Deee-Lite
3/5
Groovy, fun, kinda forgettable.
Elton John
5/5
The Go-Go's
5/5
This album had one goal - to make its listeners get up and dance - and it accomplishes it beautifully. Any song here could have been a hit.
Kacey Musgraves
5/5
Beautiful voice, supremely talented
Super Furry Animals
4/5
Liked this. Got a bit repetitive though.
M.I.A.
4/5
MIA is a wack job, but this album is still good. Major nostalgia factor here, very unique sound. Still proud to say I liked this before it was cool.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
John Coltrane
5/5
Animal Collective
5/5
5 stars for the nostalgia alone. This is one of the defining albums of my life, and I’m glad to hear that it holds up so well. Just an absolute joy.
The Icarus Line
3/5
They say don’t judge an album by its cover. Based in its cover I thought I’d hate this one, but I didn’t. I ended up liking how the long songs build. Unfortunately there are still enough stinkers here to prevent me from fully recommending it.
TLC
3/5
I really liked some of these and forgot about others. Suffers from a lot of bloat like other albums from the 90s
Arctic Monkeys
5/5
Great confident hard sound. Rocked out to this one. “When the Sun Goes Down” was a late-album highlight, and “A Certain Romance” is a hell of a closer.
Elliott Smith
5/5
I was expecting this one to be quite depressing, glad it wasn't. Beautiful, moving music. Elliott Smith was quite a talent.
The Hives
4/5
Enjoyed, good for open driving
The Libertines
4/5
I liked most of this one. It kind of falls off though.
Stan Getz
4/5
Very good music for enjoying a cocktail at a super fancy gala.
Green Day
5/5
Green Day aren’t great musicians but they don’t need to be. This album is fun and not serious at all, which is perfect. I can see why it sparked so many imitators.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
I think my pants fell off while listening to this.
Don McLean
4/5
The title track is still a banger, and reminds me of the time of my life when I knew every word to it. The rest of it is good, nothing earth-shattering except The Grave, which is beautifully haunting.
The Band
4/5
Nice funky folky feel.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
Dinosaur Jr. is one of my favorite bands. I don't love J Mascis's voice, but they rock hard enough that it doesn't matter. The two Barlow songs at the end stick out, but the rest of the album is so good it doesn't matter.
Talking Heads
5/5
Weird and fun!
David Bowie
5/5
Bowie gets funky. IMO, nothing gets close to peak Bowie.
Sonic Youth
3/5
I wanted to like this, and there's a lot to like about it. But it feels like when I really get grooving with this it reverts back to noise. Parts of it really deserve the love they get, and Teenage Riot is fantastic. But on the whole it didn't do it for me.
Television
5/5
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
Loud, clearly talented, but nothing memorable. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Marvin Gaye had a beautiful voice and certainly knew the way to a woman’s heart and/or pants. Well-deserved reputation.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
For me, Beatles>Stones. The Stones only do one thing, but they are absolutely phenomenal at it. Gimme Shelter is a deserving classic that should be played at as loud a volume as possible, but so much in the middle rocks awesomely as well.
Caetano Veloso
2/5
Not my cup of tea. Gets real psychedelic at the end.
Mudhoney
1/5
Musicianship is good, but every time the lead singer opened his mouth it hurt my ears.
Method Man
4/5
Grooved to this one, definitely talented. Ends as it starts to get “samey”
The Smiths
4/5
Feels like more than the sum of its parts. Liked this one better than Queen is Dead.
Beach House
5/5
Brings me back. Perfect for lying on a beach or staying inside as the snow falls. Still holds up.
1/5
... the fuck?
"Hey, I have an idea! Let's just randomly play our instruments as loud as we can!"
"And we'll all be playing the same song?"
"No way, why would we do that?! We can just call it 'art' and that way no one can criticize us!"
Oh my god, this one sucked. Don't do drugs, kids.
Deep Purple
5/5
Like many others, I knew Deep Purple as the "Smoke on the Water" band, but they're so much more than that. This one starts a bit rough, but after the first minute gets into such an awesome groove. "Flight of the Rat" is a major highlight.
Van Morrison
5/5
I was dreading a 90-minute live album, but I was in for a pleasant surprise. So many emotions and different musical genres played here! This would have been great to see.
Louis Prima
4/5
Fun album!
Elton John
4/5
Beautiful album. Got weird in a good way. But as I have some distance all I remember are the two hits.
Madonna
2/5
Such a mixed bag. Some of these feel like Madonna is ahead of the curve (“What It Feels Like for a Girl”, "Gone") and some of these feel like she’s chasing trends instead of setting them (“I Deserve It”, "Paradise [Not For Me]"). Some good songs offset by some god-awful autotune.
The less said about the "American Pie" cover, the better. Talk about missing the point of a song.
Ash
5/5
This is the kind of album that this project was built for! Rocks so hard and so awesomely from beginning to end. Loved the use of strings too! Favorite track: “Girl From Mars”.
Stereolab
4/5
Liked this one, interesting sound. Could be a little shorter.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Beautiful album. Best enjoyed entirely in one sitting.
Judas Priest
5/5
I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this, as I've disliked a lot of metal I've heard here. But this one was great! Window down, driving fast, and this album blasting from the car speakers is the ideal way to listen to it.
The Mars Volta
4/5
This is a potentially phenomenal album that’s brought down by bad vocals. The music is like nothing else ever to exist, and the singing sounds like any of a thousand mediocre emo bands from that era. Still four stars because the music is that good.
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
The kind of album you play for a nightcap. Good for late nights
Ghostface Killah
5/5
I’m not much of a rap fan, but this was awesome! There’s clear talent here, and this stuff is always elevated by using real instruments.
Nick Drake
5/5
This album is beautiful from beginning to end. I know Nick Drake had his demons, but this put me in a much better mood. Perfect for springtime in nature.
The Police
3/5
The hits are good. But the rest of this one really doesn't do it for me, I find it kinda boring.
I would like to see Kevin Malone cover "Mother" with Scrantonicity II. WTF is up with that one?
The Pogues
4/5
Perfect album for a week ago. I want to dance and drink lots of beer when listening to this. The sound did get old though.
Marianne Faithfull
4/5
I didn't know much of Marianne Faithfull other than the fact that she was classic rock's Courtney Love. I didn't love this at first, and I still think the title track is the weakest one. But it's also out of place. Most of this album has an edge that I really like. I got a lot of "The Wall" vibes from this one.
The Byrds
4/5
This makes me want to drop acid and frolic freely while barefoot in the woods. Interesting experimentation, this takes a hard left turn at the end. "Goin' Back" is absolutely beautiful.
"Tribal Gathering" is a blatant rip off of "Take Five"; if George Harrison had to pony up, David Crosby should have too. Though, by the way the cover looks, he ponied up in his own way.
Garbage
4/5
Good sound, hard edge with a great singer. Not worthy of its name at all.
Fela Kuti
4/5
I like the energy in this one.
The Teardrop Explodes
4/5
I had never heard of them, but I liked this one. New wave but not aggressively so, worked for me.
Small Faces
5/5
Really unique psychedelic sound. I really felt like I was in a field with a bunch of hippies.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
At three hours, this is the biggest commitment of any album I've listened to so far. But Ella had a phenomenal voice that's worthy of the three hours. It's good background music for nighttime in the city. I may or may not have danced to "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" in my desk chair.
Oasis
5/5
I was not expecting this to rock so hard! I said this in my review of Green Day's "Dookie" that the lyrics are terrible, but they don't need to be good. It's not about the lyrics, they're just a vehicle for the music.
This one rocks so hard that I missed an earthquake because I was listening to it with headphones on!
Femi Kuti
5/5
I was expecting strict Afro beats, but this is so much more! What a fun, exciting album!
Elvis Presley
3/5
Elvis was such a blatant thief. Most of these songs are cheap imitations of better songs. Enjoyed it okay.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Banger after banger. Perfect for driving on a warm sunny day.
After an Elvis album that was essentially a shitty covers album, hearing an actually interesting take on an existing song was refreshing. I understand why you'd prefer Marvin Gaye, but I love the jam on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" here.
Snoop Dogg
5/5
Unapologetically dumb. Unapologetically awesome.
Fever Ray
4/5
Unique sound. Needs a good uninterrupted listen at night.
Miles Davis
2/5
This is a one-hour album stretched to 90 minutes. There's a lot here where not much is happening between the good stuff.
Not bad, just boring.
Funkadelic
4/5
I'd love to light up a huge blunt with George Clinton. This one can take you places. Really into it.
The Verve
2/5
Bad 90’s trend: overlong, repetitive, generic-sounding albums full of overlong, repetitive, generic-sounding songs. The ability to fit more music on a CD was a huge negative factor on the quality of some albums.
The Sugarcubes
4/5
I liked a lot of this. Could do without the Icelandic songs.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
I was worried about seeing just 4 long songs, but this was so dynamic and awesome, minus “One Woman”, which was thankfully the shortest song on the album. Best praise - I didn’t think about Chef at all when listening to this.
The Modern Lovers
3/5
Some of this is good. But this lead singer does NOT have the pipes to carry a ballad. “Hospital” and “Girl Friend” are both huge momentum killers, and the album would have been so much better if they had both been left off it entirely.
And I’m pretty sure it’s well-documented that Pablo Picasso was, in fact, an asshole.
R.E.M.
4/5
Great for when you’re sad, this album captures melancholy very well. If you’re in a good mood, it doesn’t work as well.
Fred Neil
5/5
I didn't know what to expect when I saw this cover, but it was NOT this. I can fully understand why the "hippie" artists loved this album. The OG version of "Everybody's Talkin" is far superior to the Nilsson one. If Fred Neil was 10 years younger, had long, flowing locks, and had completely changed the cover art, this album would have made him a huge star.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
If you’re in a good mood this will lift you up. If you’re in a bad mood this will help immensely. Marley was a legend for a reason.
JAY Z
3/5
The hits are good. But the filler really didn’t do much for me.
Taylor Swift
5/5
Taylor Swift’s star is very well deserved. This was a great album for the setting at which I listened to it. She’s going for something, and she just doesn’t nail it, she writes the book on it.
Green Day
5/5
I’m really glad I listened to this one after I listened to “Dookie”. The evolution of Green Day is insane. They’re still clearly themselves, but there’s no way they were doing a mini rock opera back then, much less two of them. This is an awesome protest album, maybe the last great one of its kind. I really miss this kind of album.
Maybe encapsulates its era better than any other album of the 00’s. Nailed the zeitgeist.
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Good in a vacuum and has good variety, but suffers when compared to some of the other Britpop on this list. Better than “A Northern Soul”, not as good as “Definitely Maybe”. But enjoyable nonetheless.
2/5
“Look at me! Look at how I say ‘fuck’ all the time. Isn’t it amazing how edgy I am?!” - Fred Durst (probably).
Swearing, cliches, and rhyming words with themselves - the album.
The sad part is, the instrumentals are actually okay, bordering on good. Nothing about this is offensive to the ears, which keeps it from getting a 1. It’s just that the vocals are So. Effing. Stupid. Being on the same track as DMX and Xzibit (far from the GOAT) doesn't help matters for Mr. Durst.
It’s also kind of funny how much better the production values are on “My Way” than the rest of the album.
The Prodigy
3/5
Some cool beats here. I could see this being a huge hit at a rave, and I would actually be into it there. But there’s no reason these songs (which most tracks barely qualify as) need to be this long.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Parts of this are beautiful, and parts of this are smug as hell. A lot of the protest stuff probably hit a lot harder in 1963. But it’s still a good listen out in nature, and you can’t deny that it’s revolutionary.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Has some really good moments, but also kinda dies towards the end. Everything between “Emit Remus” and “Road Trippin” feels superfluous. But the rest of the album is great.
Björk
1/5
An absolute shit album. But also a fascinating absolute shit album.
Pixies
5/5
Excellent
Todd Rundgren
2/5
What a weird mix of an album. Noise collages with generic 70s stuff. Could occasionally get into it.
Eagles
3/5
In a vacuum, the edgier stuff is pretty good. The Dude was absolutely right about the rest of it.
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
Was decent. I don’t know how much British hip-hop really resonates with me though.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
If I closed my eyes it felt like I was drinking whiskey in a smoky lounge.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
I liked the parts that didn’t feel like real sappy stuff.
Moby Grape
4/5
I’d lien to hang out with these guys.
Black Sabbath
3/5
Okay, didn’t quite have the punch I wanted.
Shuggie Otis
3/5
Enjoyed some, but I can’t really get into the softer stuff.
AC/DC
4/5
Yes, all AC/DC songs sound the same. But it’s a great sound.
Erykah Badu
3/5
Just okay, long. Did get into it by the end though.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Funky and fun!
Rod Stewart
3/5
7/8 of this album is an overlong mediocre yawnfest. “(I Know) I’m Losing You” is absolutely awesome and sticks out like a sore thumb here. It brings my review score up an entire star on its own.
The Human League
3/5
Very much a product of its time. Did get kind of into it though.
Prince
5/5
Simultaneously epic and sexy. Very much into this album.
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
Love this one. It’s got a vibe that’s good for driving and for sitting back and smoking a j with friends.
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
Kinda surprised it took me this long to get a country album. Doesn’t do it for me.
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
Production is great, vocals are great. Rockin out!
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
This man had talent out the ass. It’s easy to see how this became the defining soundtrack of an entire generation.
Sarah Vaughan
5/5
This one has such an intense sense of place. I didn’t just listen to this, I felt it. Absolutely demands to be listened to at night.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
There’s good stuff here, and Amy Winehouse had a great and unique voice. But there’s also signs of struggling to figure out what works for her. A big voice needs big songs.
Calexico
4/5
Very interesting music, really into the instrumental stuff.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Bob Dylan’s voice (raspier with age) arguably fits this bluesy stuff better than it does his early material. Gives it a haunting quality.
Mercury Rev
5/5
Peaceful and interesting sonically. I can very much imagine lighting up a J and putting this on.
Big fan of how it ends too. “Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp” put this over the hump to 5 stars (and I do kind of miss weird hidden tracks on albums).
Burning Spear
4/5
Up to listening to this, my exposure to reggae was limited only to Bob Marley. This feels very different, and I like listening to a different side of the genre.
Rush
2/5
First 5 minutes: ugh, this is such a slog.
Next 15 minutes: wow, this is incredible!
“A Passage to Bangkok”: this is pretty good, but that riff is kinda racist, isn’t it?
The rest of side 2: ugh, this album just died. When does it end?
Emmylou Harris
4/5
This kind of stuff usually isn’t my jam. She has a beautiful voice but I wasn’t super into the music, and I was debating on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars based on the strength of her voice. Then the “For No One” cover came on. Absolutely moved me, and my decision was made.
Ian Dury
4/5
Interesting mix of jazz, funk, and punk. Wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did.
OutKast
4/5
Speakerboxxx > The Love Below, although The Love Below is more interesting.
Good but long. I do wish they had blended the two better into a single album (cut out the skits for one). It’s a big reason why, IMO, “Roses” is the best song here, although “Hey Ya” still effin slaps.
Truly OutKast’s White Album.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Part of this project is listening to stuff you’ve never heard of from genres you’d never even dream of listening to.
Another part of this project is speeding down the highway in sunny, 80 degree weather with the windows open blasting Springsteen.
One of the easiest 5-star reviews I’ve given. Banger after banger here.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Definitely more than the sum of its parts. Not Arcade Fire’s best album, and some songs here, taken individually, are pretty weak. But the whole thing builds in a good way. I like the placement of the “No Cars Go” climax with the denouement of “My Body is a Cage”.
Linkin Park
4/5
Surprisingly effective for getting work done. Everything except the occasional random scream is great.
David Bowie
4/5
It’s good, Bowie was a genius. But I’d hardly call this one essential. I think they made the right call removing this in later editions in favor of “Blackstar”.
Big Star
4/5
Very nice summer album. Didn’t change my world but I liked it.
White Denim
5/5
The Deadhead in your life’s new favorite album.
Ray Charles
4/5
I really like these old loungey albums that essentially amount to a recording of the live show, although you can see the beginnings of studio experimentation here, especially on side 2. Side one is a total banger, and if you're in the right mood for side 2, it hits hard.
Queen
5/5
I’ve probably heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” more times than I’ve heard any other song on this list, but it really put it in a new perspective listening to it on the album, where it serves as an epic climax.
The deep cuts are all great (even though someone really should talk to Roger Taylor about his relationship with his car). Queen hit a real creative peak here.
Rod Stewart
4/5
Enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially considering how much I hated the other Rod Stewart album I've had so far. Not pushing any boundaries, but good nonetheless.
The Verve
3/5
“Bittersweet Symphony” is easily the best song here and still hits (almost) the same. “The Drugs Don’t Work” reeks of trying too hard.
The rest of it is pretty generic Brit Pop. The Verve still have the problem of an album full of overlong, repetitive songs.
Elvis Costello
5/5
This one was fun AF! Costello really came out of the gate swinging.
The Byrds
1/5
The Byrds had such an awesome sound. Why’d they have to pull this shit?!
Not the worst album I’ve ever heard, and I actually really enjoyed “One Hundred Years From Now,” but one star for shitting all over something that used to be amazing.
Depeche Mode
4/5
Definitely a unique sound. This one could only be classified as an experience.
Fuck it, I’m a fan.
Dire Straits
2/5
Like Springsteen working on a 70’s porno.
I really don’t like albums where the artists feel that the songs need to be crazy long. Especially if nothing happens.
Album did have its bright spots, but didn’t do it for me.
Steve Earle
4/5
Enjoyed it, especially considering I’m not much of a country fan. Rounding up because of how much Steve Earle supported Bubbles on his sobriety journey.
Supergrass
5/5
The song from all the commercials!
The rest of it is really good too. The right mix of rocking out and weirdness.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Almost 2 hours long and this didn’t drag once! I was dancing in public with this one on, really vibed with this one. Reputation very much deserved.
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
Good fun songs, and well-deserved hits. Does start to feel “same-y” after a while.
Dagmar Krause
3/5
Saw this was one of the lowest-rated albums here, and got worried. Was expecting it to be way worse.
It reminded me of the soundtrack to a weird Broadway musical. I can tell this is an intense war album, and it communicated that feeling very well even though a lot of it was in German. I also appreciate the instrumentals as a former band geek. The length is a problem; it lost its effectiveness about 40 minutes in.
I enjoyed this for what it was. Although I probably won't ever find the need to listen to it again, I'm ultimately glad I did.
Public Enemy
4/5
Good politically charged listen.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Not my favorite from Hendrix, but still more than the sum of its parts. They’re working together in such a groove to make an album that feels like one complete work instead of a collection of songs.
Bon Jovi
5/5
My “Born in the USA” review can be applied to this, pretty much verbatim.
Must be a Jersey thing.
The Killers
5/5
Banger after banger. Say what you will about The Killers, but this album effing rocks.
Billie Holiday
4/5
Truly the voice of an angel. Would probably be better served soundtracking a night on the town.
R.E.M.
5/5
Perfect Friday album. I definitely prefer this to R.E.M.’s slower stuff.
The Roots
3/5
I liked a good portion of this. Some good flow, interesting beats, and once this got going I really felt it.
Then I got to “Water”, and all that came to a screeching halt. Avant-garde does NOT fit here. That song sucked so hard it brings my entire score down one star. It should have been left off entirely.
Isaac Hayes
2/5
A few songs are okay, but this doesn’t really feel like an album. Probably suffers a lot without the movie it’s attached to.
…do I just not like slow, soulful R&B?
Michael Jackson
3/5
Some signs of what Michael would become, but a bit too much generic-sounding disco here. I do wish I had listened to this before “Bad”.
Country Joe & The Fish
4/5
Loved this one, great psychedelic sound. Not sure why The Doors have the lasting legacy and these guys don't.
This is also one of the most fitting album covers I've seen.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
Raw, powerful stuff. How could Uncle Joey hurt Alanis like this?
The Cult
5/5
Rocks hard with excellent guitar work from the first minute to the last. Loved this one.
David Bowie
5/5
Haunting even without the context in which it was written and released. If only we all could get a swan song like that.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
I could totally sexy dance to this
Public Enemy
5/5
Hit a bit strangely at first because I listened to “Apocalypse 91” before this one, but I ended up really liking it. Fun as hell.
Little Richard
4/5
Still rocks and rolls, and you can really hear the influence this had on so many other things (including being blatantly stolen by Elvis). Doesn’t have the “oomph” it probably did when it first came out.
Happy Mondays
4/5
Enjoyed the vibe, even if it was a little generic.
The Clash
3/5
Just okay, a whole album of songs that sound like each other. No real standouts for me.
Joan Baez
5/5
Wow. Seriously haunting album. This one floored me.
Phenomenal.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Simon and Garfunkel take LSD. I’m here for it.
Baaba Maal
3/5
A very hard one to rate. Overall the music was very good. Sometimes the singing fit it. Other times, the music was interrupted by the sounds of a whale in heat.
Split the difference I guess.
The Cramps
3/5
Didn’t consistently enjoy this. I did get into it for bits and pieces, but it feels longer than it’s 38 minutes. Not sure if it’s the singer or the fact that they didn’t have enough ideas to fill an album.
CHIC
4/5
I liked the upbeat stuff, but really not into the slow stuff.
More good than bad, I liked it.
The Residents
1/5
Just by listening to this I can tell that The Residents are all pretentious douchebags who would laugh at you for not “understanding art” when you, rightly, tell them that their album is complete garbage.
David Holmes
2/5
Some of this is good. But there is no reason for these songs to be this long.
King Crimson
3/5
That could certainly be described as, um, something…
I actually kinda sorta liked it.
The xx
5/5
If I’m ever feeling reflective about anything, I put this on. This album has gotten me through a lot. I’m happy to see it still has the same effect on me after all these years. Easily one of my top albums ever.
Traffic
4/5
Pretty solid. The stuff that doesn’t mean anything is better than the psychedelic stuff.
Meat Puppets
3/5
Strong music that’s not served well by the singer. Interestingly enough, Kurt Cobain’s voice would fit very well on every song here.
Paul Simon
4/5
Not sure how much of this would fly today, but it is interesting. The African sounds work very well with Paul Simon’s music. Difficult to separate from The Lion King for modern ears but it was a good listen!
Lightning Bolt
1/5
I thought it was bad enough being loud and shitty. Turns out it’s possible to be loud, shitty, and boring.
The unfortunate part is that these guys are talented players. Sometimes, this approaches something resembling okay, only for them to repeat the same thing for six minutes.
There is precisely nothing “wonderful” about this album.
1/5
Some of my 1-star reviews are weird genre stuff I’ve just felt wasn’t for me. Sometimes the musicians are talented but made awful musical decisions. Sometimes they overdo it with the artsiness. Sometimes I can see how some people might like it.
Not this, though. This just sucks. Strong WOAT contender here.
The band name is accurate though. The lie they tell is that they have any musical ability whatsoever.
Goldfrapp
5/5
How have I never heard of this before?! This should have been all over the place during college!
I don’t know if this is because of getting two 1-star albums in a row or a testament to how good this is (probably a combination of both), but this really vibed with me.
One of the best discoveries of this project for me so far.
Parliament
4/5
Funky and fun, danced the whole way through. You definitely got that funk, Parliament.
Digital Underground
2/5
Somehow simultaneously fun and boring. Danceable but also incredibly dated, a lot more so than other stuff from 1990. Also, same 90’s problem of overlong songs just because of the upgrade from vinyl to CDs.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
I wanted to like this more than I did, especially given Skip Spence’s story. It does have its occasional moments, and I genuinely enjoyed some of it. But it doesn’t really hit without the heroin.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
I’ve said it before, but the Stones only do one thing. However, they are phenomenal at that one thing. It’s nice seeing them get a bit experimental.
Not as solid as some of their later albums. “Paint It Black” and “Under My Thumb” are far from their best hits, IMO. It definitely picks up on side 2, though.
Nirvana
5/5
Not advisable to listen to this while driving. You may head bang too hard and lose focus on the road.
Beth Orton
4/5
Jewel vibes here. Didn’t change my world but I liked it.
The Beach Boys
4/5
Good but not cohesive. Almost sounds like a collection of leftovers rather than one album. “Student Demonstration Time” pisses me off because of how disgusting of a human being Mike Love turned out to be.
Score gets rounded up because of how hauntingly beautiful the title track is.
The Kinks
5/5
Very much an album that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Weird and disparate (a lot of these songs don’t work individually, and I’m still not quite sure what the concept is) but somehow fits together to make a great psychedelic work.
New Order
4/5
Good interesting sound. Enjoyable.
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
A good double album that would have made it a great single album, so basically Fleetwood Mac’s White Album (complete with its own “Revolution 9”). “Sara” is as good as anything on Rumours, and should have been a hit.
Meat Loaf
5/5
Schmaltzy as fuck. Five stars.
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
Based on the description, I was expecting to like this more than I did. It did kind of grow on me though, but only to a point.
I’m still not into the Indian-sounding stuff, but I like the bluesier parts. Unfortunately, the Indian-sounding stuff came to dominate the album.
Cream
3/5
I might be too sober to enjoy this fully. It was good, and the best songs (“SWLABR”) really showcase Cream’s musical talent. But ultimately I think the members of Cream (the Creamers?) might be better as session musicians than fronting their own band, Clapton included.
Underworld
3/5
Good beats, enjoyed. I could work to this music. Not sure why techno artists insist on their songs being crazy long though.
Wu-Tang Clan
2/5
I think it’s a testament to this project that I can articulate specifically why I don’t like this. They’re skilled rappers, but these beats kind of suck.
Charles Mingus
5/5
Not an album, but a symphony. I can see why someone wouldn’t be into this, but it worked for me.
What that asshat John Zorn wishes he could be.
2Pac
4/5
West coast hip hop > east coast hip hop
Good bears and true emotion here. I really wonder how 2pac would have handled the Bush or Orange Asshole administrations.
David Bowie
5/5
VERY problematic era for Bowie, but this might be his best album, which is really saying something. I forgot how awesome these songs (“Stay” in particular) are.
It’s amazing that he did so many drugs that he didn’t remember making this one. All that happens when I do too many drugs is that I lie on the couch and eat too many Cheez-Its.
The Kinks
2/5
How dare Ray Davies trash Revolver when he blatantly copied the Stones and the Who (and frankly, with the harpsichords, the Beatles too) in the same year! At least the Beatles did something unique. You should be ashamed of yourself, sir!
Good, but the fact that they just ripped off better artists makes me angry.
N.W.A.
5/5
Meaningful lyrics, good beats, and a good vibe. I can see why this is considered a GOAT.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Wow, what a difference between Side 1 (which is godawful) and Side 2 (which is actually pretty good). I was kinda surprised when I stopped hating this one. One of those “split the difference” scores.
Making this an EP with everything from “50ft Queenie” onwards would have been fantastic. Alas, it was not to be.
The Stooges
5/5
“I dunno, I thought this would hit harder.”
*turns volume up*
“Holy shit, this is amazing!”
The Beach Boys
3/5
Very much transitional, which means it kind of struggles to have a viewpoint. Not as good as some of their other material.
The Smiths
3/5
My third Smiths album. It was fine, didn’t really change my world or anything. By this point, I think I have an idea of what they’re about.
Nina Simone
5/5
Very unique voice that fits this music well. It moved me.
The Pharcyde
4/5
This is a real relaxing jazzy vibe. A lot of A Tribe Called Quest influences. I liked it except for the skits (which I have no idea why rappers love - they’re almost exclusively terrible).
David Bowie
5/5
Absolutely epic album.
No two Bowie albums sound alike. It makes them all essential listening. I’d call him the “anti-Morrissey”.
The xx
4/5
Cardinal Rule of Music: never listen to the xx during the day.
The first album is better, but this is good. Although at points it was mostly the Jamie xx show
Van Morrison
2/5
Ed Sheeran 100% stole “Crazy Love”.
Van has a good voice, but, with the possibly exception of the title track, even the big songs are bland AF. Disappointingly boring album.
Radiohead
5/5
This one (like a lot of Radiohead) requires the right mindset to enjoy. If you’re not in the right head space it would be a big miss. But it has an incredibly haunting quality that rewards concentration and focus, and if you’re in the right headspace it’s perfect.
Not Radiohead’s best, but definitely their most underappreciated. I was mesmerized by this one. Didn’t rock out to this by any means but a great album nonetheless.
4/5
Just as you start to get into it it gets weird, like if The Beach Boys went even further during Pet Sounds and had kicked Mike Love out of the group. Not a relaxing listen, but it is very interesting. It grew on me.
5/5
Probably suffers a bit from “Seinfeld is Unfunny” syndrome since it spawned so many imitators and “Wonderwall” has become so closely identified with douchebags with guitars. But it still rocks, even though it sounds a little generic now.
The Fall
1/5
Whoever decided speak vocals should be a thing should be erased from history.
Not only are these songs bad, they’re also long and boring. There’s some talent here but overall this is one of the dumber albums I’ve listened to.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
“A Child’s Claim to Fame” is god awful, and “Sad Memory” isn’t much better. The rest of this album is amazing. This one could have been a GOAT contender if they had completely cut out the steaming turd sitting at track 2, or if they had kicked Richie Furay out of the band.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
I like about half of this, which is more than I thought I would at first. It’s a weird vibe, some stuff that sounds great, and some truly awful shit, sometimes in the same song (looking at you, “Thorn of Crowns”).
Beatles
5/5
It’s a testament to the Beatles’ genius that even a “lesser” album like this is still this good. A lot of the mop top stuff sounds dated and of an era, but the Beatles were easily the best to ever do it.
Steely Dan
2/5
I was today years old when I found out that Steely Dan is just glorified elevator music. If the rest of the album had been more similar to “Josie”, it would have been so much better.
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
More than any other album I’ve listened to here so far, this is truly “one thing”. Wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but ended up liking it. Will definitely listen to again at night with a J in hand.
Metallica
5/5
If this were just a little worse, I would hate it. But as it is, this is amazing. What Metallica’s (many) imitators don’t get is that these are actual songs, with actual music and actual singing.
I think I’m a legit Metallica fan. Who knew?
Alice Cooper
4/5
Not what I anticipated it to be. I thought this would go harder. Jazzier than I expected though, which I enjoyed.
The Pogues
5/5
Drove down the street blasting this while swinging my arm back and forth. Big fan, and absolutely wouldn’t have listened to this without this project.
Mariah Carey
3/5
Mariah unquestionably has an amazing voice. But a lot of this sounds incredibly dated. The album also has the classic 90's bloat problem, although not as bad as some of its contemporaries.
Public Enemy
5/5
I didn’t know much about Public Enemy before I started this project, but they were consistently great. My favorite is still It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, but this is a lot of fun too.
Santana
4/5
Good album. The rest of the album doesn’t quite hit the awesomeness of the beginning, although “Mother’s Daughter” does get to that level.
CHIC
3/5
Dear artists,
If you have “album versions” and “single versions” that are half has long, your “album versions” are too long.
Very repetitive album. If I was a teen when this came out, I would have been “disco sucks” really hard. However, I might enjoy this in the right environment.
Gorillaz
2/5
There’s a surprising amount here that doesn’t work. The rap songs are easily the strongest parts, so I guess it makes sense Gorillaz leaned into that later.
Surprising to rate it this low. I actually really like Demon Days and Plastic Beach. But Gorillaz did not come out of the gate fully formed.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
I don’t usually go for this type of R&B, and I’ve hated some R&B I’ve had in the past. But I do like this modern take on it. Some good Lauryn Hill vibes here.
MC Solaar
4/5
Like a French Tribe Called Quest. Liked it.
Elliott Smith
5/5
The more I think about this one, the more I like it. Captures melancholy very well, which makes sense given everything I know about Elliott Smith. Probably a perfect “rainy day album”.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
Joan Armatrading would have absolutely killed the festival circuit. I want to hear her play with every great guitarist who’s ever lived.
Great discovery, unbelievable album.
4/5
Like a funky Pink Floyd. Liked this more than I thought I would.
Sabu
1/5
This might have been interesting live, but there is almost nothing about this that works as recorded music.
Pixies
4/5
An album that feels very much like “one thing”. Enjoyed it.
Songhoy Blues
4/5
Good mixing of genres here. Surprisingly enjoyable album.
The Triffids
1/5
There’s good schmaltz and there’s bad schmaltz. This is bad schmaltz.
Morrissey
4/5
Better than what he did with The Smiths. Good.
Depeche Mode
3/5
Needed to be in the right mindset for this. Even then it was just okay. Not really into new wave, I guess.
N.E.R.D
5/5
Ah, so this is why Pharrell is a star…
Enjoyed this one a lot. Big fan.
Donovan
4/5
What I imagine every hippie drum circle sounded like.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Say what you will about the Chili Peppers, but this album is great. Does get a little long (classic 90’s bloat) and the album would be improved by removing the title track, “Apache Rose Peacock”, “The Greeting Song”, and “My Lovely Man” (yes, I know it’s the Hillel tribute). But that doesn’t do much to dampen this album’s greatness.
Fela Kuti
4/5
Good upbeat jazzy album. I like that this is a protest album too. Enjoyable listen.
Kid Rock
1/5
Bad white-boy rapping, misogyny, racism, asinine lyrics, thinking saying “fuck” a lot is edgy, musical incohesiveness, bad autotune, AND awful bloat?! All in one album?! All from a noted Terrible Human Being?! Yay!!
Surprisingly does have some highlights (namely every time Kid Rock shut his mouth during “Fist of Rage”) but those highlights don’t outweigh the idiocy.
https://kamalaharris.com/
Sugar
5/5
A perfect time capsule of the mid 90’s. I wasn’t expecting this to be so familiar to me. It’s got a real “soundtrack to summer” vibe.
OutKast
5/5
A great sound at its peak. Love the talent here. OutKast are effortlessly cool, nice change of pace from some others I’ve gotten recently. Doesn’t overstay it’s welcome even after an hour.
Steely Dan
3/5
Steely Dan pisses me off because they were very talented and clearly had the ability to make awesome music, but just chose not to. “Bodhisattva” and “My Old School” both rock. But the rest of this is just repetitive or glorified elevator music. Incredibly boring.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Some songs are good, but something about this just doesn’t vibe with me. I think it’s the lead singer’s voice.
Van Halen
4/5
Good sound that I rocked out to, and a good encapsulation of "hair metal." However, the problem with this album is that it doesn't really "fit" as an album or feel like "one thing", especially towards the end. But I did enjoy it.
Queen
4/5
Not as good as A Night at the Opera, but still enjoyable. Love “Stone Cold Crazy” and “In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited” are real highlights for me. Straight up heavy metal!
I do wish they had made all of the shorter side 2 songs go together, Abbey Road-style. “She Makes Me” also would have been better with Freddie on lead vocals.
Björk
3/5
Tough one to rate. I liked this a lot better than Medúlla, which is admittedly a low bar. This one has some good hooks and interesting orchestral parts. I might actually like it under the right circumstances. Weirdly reminded me of the Hollow Knight soundtrack (which I loved).
Unfortunately, this isn’t universal throughout. Not sure what “Family” or “Notget” were. I do think it was intentionally uncomfortable though, even though some of it id just weird for weirdness’ sake.
I’ll give Björk this, though: one thing she definitely isn’t is boring.
The Yardbirds
4/5
A fun time! Nice mix of bluesy and psychedelic. “Ever Since the World Began” is a bizarre closer, especially since there’s already a song called “Farewell” on the album.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
I don't know how much of this is due to the fact that I was very much in the mood for classical music when I was listening to this, but this is incredible! Especially impressive given the fact that it's just one piano. Amazing find.
The Darkness
5/5
The 20-year nostalgia cycle is VERY evident here. If I had never heard of The Darkness and if “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” hadn’t been everywhere in the early aughts, I’d believe you if you told me this was from 1986.
Good, fun album you can blast out of your car speakers. Who cares if it’s not wholly (or at all) original?!
Nine Inch Nails
1/5
"Now here are some of your no-name bands. Sonic Youth? Nine Inch Nails?" - Homer Simpson
If hating this makes me uncool, then consider me a big ol' square.
Air
5/5
Chillwave before chillwave was even a thing. Love the use of real instruments interspersed here too. Great vibe with this one.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Captures a particular vibe very well. Probably not as revolutionary as The Velvet Underground and Nico, because of course it can't be. But it is good. "The Gift" is haunting.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
"I've got an idea. Let's cover some Russian classical music in our style! I think that could go over well"
"Yea, I think that's good. No one's really done that before, and these classical songs can still sound really good."
"But it's missing something..."
*band members think for a minute...*
(in unison): "MORE SYNTHS!!! ALL THE SYNTHS IN THE WORLD!!!!!"
Ugh, this one was a chore to get through. It’s everything people hate about prog rock all in one package. Felt so much longer than its 38 minutes.
Justice
2/5
D.A.N.C.E. is a classic, of course. Problem is the rest of it isn’t good. Repetitive uninteresting techno beats doesn’t make a good album.
U2
4/5
U2 was probably a breath of fresh air for everyone who hated hair metal. Say what you will about him, but Bono is arguably a GOAT-tier lead vocalist.
Nas
5/5
Solid rap album from beginning to end. Literally flawless.
Haircut 100
3/5
Not bad, good funky vibe. Nice use of jazz elements, but it does get a little “70’s porno”-ish. Does also get a little “meh” by the end.
Talking Heads
5/5
Bright and poppy and serves David Byrne’s weird vocals very well. It’s clearly what all other inferior New Wave bands tried to emulate. This is the kind of music I’d dance to!
Cee Lo Green
4/5
CeeLo is an asshole, but this is a fun album. He’s got a good unique voice and there’s skilled rapping all over this. The album is a bit too long, though. It would be 5 stars if it didn’t overstay its welcome.
Tangerine Dream
4/5
If you didn’t listen to this one at night, outside, while smoking weed, did you really give it a fair chance?
The Go-Betweens
3/5
If you were to tell ChatGPT to write you bland, generic movie montage music, this is what you’d get.
Nick Drake
5/5
Recommendation: listen to this one in the woods.
Muddy Waters
5/5
The blues had a baby and named it Rock and Roll.
I can see how this was so influential. I can hear it in almost everything I listen to. Great to see it works on its own too.
Pulp
4/5
Solid album. The hits are obviously the best, but this is pretty good as well. Does sound a bit generic, but not as bad as other BritPop.
The Doors
3/5
The bluesy stuff works better than the “heroin” stuff. A lot of this album is good, but many songs run out of gas before they end. “L’America” is a major low point, and “Riders on the Storm” is overrated. However, the title track is very good.
CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT: Jim Morrison’s reputation as a “poet” is undeserved, and The Doors would not have endured like they have if he hadn’t died young.
Massive Attack
5/5
What an interesting album! Never got boring from beginning to end, blended genres in a great way, and was great to listen to from front to (almost) back (the "Light My Fire" cover was a hair out of place). Loved this one.
George Jones
1/5
I feel like this was old people music even when it came out. One of the lamest, most boring albums I have ever heard.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Elvis Costello is good, but this is almost indistinguishable from his earlier stuff except for the fact that it’s lost some edge. I liked his first two albums, but this one gives me the sense that he had a good sound but never really grew or evolved as a musician. The album ends on a very high note - "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" is great - which helps it. The casual slur in “Oliver’s Army” has aged incredibly poorly.
I’ve now listened to three Elvis Costello albums. I don’t think I need three more from this list, especially given the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve already gotten his best ones.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
It's tough to believe this is the same person who sang "Son of a Preacher Man." Nice and peppy with a good voice. Not sure I would call it essential, though, especially considering this is very much not what I think of when I think of Dusty Springfield.
Sade
4/5
Nice background music. Not sure I’d pick this every day but there’s a time and place for it. I also can see why “Smooth Operator” was a hit.
Sonic Youth
2/5
“I bought another Sonic Youth album and it sucks. It’s just noise.” - Juno MacGuff.
There are some good songs here, most notably “Sugar Kane” and “Chapel Hill”, but overall Juno is right. I can’t rate an album where one vocalist sings like she’s throwing up everywhere very highly.
Sex Pistols
5/5
This one’s not about lyrics, which aren’t great. It’s not about musical talent either, which isn’t anything special (but if Sid Vicious wasn’t good enough to play on this, it really says something about his [lack of] talent). It’s all about a vibe, which is captured perfectly. There’s a reason this was so influential. Deserves to be played as loud as possible.
Jane Weaver
5/5
How have I not heard of Jane Weaver?! How is she not more popular?! This is such a solid album from beginning to end. Sounds like one thing and was a great listen.
Slade
4/5
I honestly thought this was 15 years younger than it actually is. Gotta give credit for inventing hair metal.
Sonic Youth
1/5
I feel like the only reason Sonic Youth got popular was because smug Gen Xers who bitched about “the mainstream” and “selling out” could feel good about themselves by listening to this garbage.
After getting two Sonic Youth albums within a week of each other, I feel confident in saying that they’re one of, if not the, most overrated bands in history.
Frank Zappa
5/5
I’ve listened to Zappa before, but never anything like this. Love the psychedelic jazz!
I get why Zappa’s music isn’t for everyone, but based on just raw talent alone he might have been GOAT-level.
Love
2/5
The music of a bunch of musicians who dropped acid and went to a Ren Faire.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Didn’t get into it until about halfway through, but this is beautiful! Joni has a beautiful voice, and the fact that this is mostly just her and a piano is amazing.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
5/5
Janis had one of those voices that was impossible to replicate. It gives all this music a raw quality and an edge that makes it that much more enduring.
This album deserves to be blasted at as high a volume as possible.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
I like a lot of this. Generally, but not exclusively, I think Bob Mould’s stuff is better than Grant Hart’s. Problem is, the album is so friggin long. It’s another double album that would work better as a single.
Doves
4/5
A psychedelic Coldplay - I like the sound, very much not the generic BritPop I worried about at first. Most of the songs are too long, though. The album would be a 5 if almost every song were trimmed down by at least a minute.
The Undertones
3/5
Literally just a carbon copy of Never Mind the Bollocks. Same exact sound but without the edge. In a world where that album doesn’t exist, this ranks higher. As it is, though, this just shows zero originality.
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
I first listened to this album when I was 21. I had been out of my “all music ended in 1979” mindset for about a year by that point, but I still only listened to what my friends told me about. I stumbled upon this on my own, almost by accident even though it had been out for a few years by that point. Almost immediately, my idea of what music could be was transformed.
I’ve listened to this one a lot since then. Listening to it again for this project reinforces everything that this album has meant to me. Every song still brings out such powerful emotions. In these dark times, “Come On Feel the Illinoise” and “Jacksonville” are such strong beacons of light. “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” is still haunting, I still know every word of “Decatur”, and “Chicago” never fails to bring a tear to the eye. And that doesn’t even get to what may be the single saddest song ever written, “Casimir Pulaski Day”.
This is a very long album, but it earns every second of its run time. (Also, listening to it now, 350-odd albums into this project, some of the interludes feel like they were meant to be intermissions, which helps with the length). The back half of the album is full of gems. Even after all this time, I was surprised at how affected I was by “Predatory Wasp”, even though nothing about this album should surprise me anymore. And the reward for sticking it out to the end is “The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders”, about as good of an album climax as I’ve ever heard.
Illinois is a perfect album, plain and simple. I’m glad to see that such a monumental album in my life remains that way after all these years.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
What’s worse than a bad synth album? A bad synth album with a single 20-minute song! ELP’s heads were so far up their own asses they forgot that random synth playing doesn’t actually qualify as music.
Some of this is actually pretty good, namely everything that’s guitar-dominated. But that just serves to make the terrible parts, which is most of the album, suck even more.
Grateful Dead
4/5
Solid summertime lounge music. I feel like you don’t really get the “need to follow them around” feeling from the albums, but I did like it.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Did The Velvet Underground get clean?
I enjoyed this one a lot. Nothing groundbreaking, because it's really only possible to break ground once like this (with a few exceptions). But I did like this one a lot, especially the ending - I was transfixed by "The Murder Mystery", which works very will with the extremely ahead-of-its-time "After Hours" as a denouement.
Lou Reed
4/5
Oh no, Lou Reed is back on the sauce…
This one is hurt by the fact that the first three songs on the album are the worst. It did get better, though, and by the end it’s a good story and a powerful album, especially side 2. The problem is that Lou Reed’s voice doesn’t fit a lot of these songs. It would have been so much better with a different vocalist.
B.B. King
5/5
B.B. King was fucking good at that instrument. Truly earns the title of master.
This captures the feel of this concert extremely well. Probably the rare live album that does that.
Spacemen 3
2/5
I could see how this would be influential, but on the whole this is a long, boring album where not much happens. Kinda disappointing considering I’ve really been into this sort of thing in the past.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Takes a bit of time to really get going, but it has a good funky sound once it does. “Higher Ground” is an absolute banger, and in general side 2 is better than side 1. Some songs, especially the slower ones, sound dated. Not as good as Songs in the Key of Life, but still enjoyable.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Hard one to rate. It almost goes like an “every other song” situation, where one song is good, but the next song is just art for art’s sake. I did enjoy some of it, but I wouldn’t say I liked the album. Reminds me of Zappa, but without the musical talent to back it up.
Killing Joke
1/5
Of all the music I’ve listened to here, this might be the single most devoid of talent album I’ve heard. The vocals suck, the musicanship shows zero evidence of actual ability, and it was overall a completely unpleasant experience. Like listening to a bad high school Battle of the Bands entrant.
Stan Getz
3/5
Background music for a fancy cocktail party. Probably wouldn’t seek this out for my own listening, but it works for that setting.
Dolly Parton
2/5
There’s no denying that these harmonies are great, and, yes, Dolly is a national treasure. But a lot of this music just bores me to tears. Probably would be better live, but as an album it doesn’t work for me.
A classic example of being impressed by the artistry behind something but still not liking it.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
5/5
Sounds quaint to modern ears, but you can hear the origins of so much different music here. It’s amazing how many artists can trace their lineage here, and how varied those artists are. That alone is worth at least 4 stars. One extra due to the boogieing.
Incredible Bongo Band
5/5
Why, yes, I did do the hip thing in my driver’s seat. Why do you ask?
Eminem
2/5
Eminem is a very talented rapper, but a lot of this hasn’t aged well. He does seem to have the self awareness to know that it’s an act and what he’s saying is horrible, but he still says it. It probably had more impact when this was everywhere, but with the separation of time, the album is left alone to stand on its own merits. Unfortunately, it’s a very abrasive experience, and not an enjoyable one or a good listen. Not only is it hateful, it’s also so long.
The 90s references in “The Real Slim Shady” are hilarious in retrospect.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
This one’s about mood and harmony, which they hit. Didn’t set my world on fire but I did enjoy listening to it.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
After listening to Eminem, who has talent but is so angry and abrasive, this was a breath of fresh air. Almost the exact opposite - technique is good but not the best, but great jazzy beats and, most importantly, it’s fun! Could stand to be a little shorter, but I liked this one a lot.
MGMT
3/5
The hits are great (especially "Kids"), but the album feels like it's pulling in two different directions. Sometimes it works, but a lot of the non-hits are mediocre imitations of better bands, and that sort of thing isn't in MGMT's wheelhouse. I know they didn't like the hits and wanted to do something else, but this ain't it.
Sinead O'Connor
5/5
In an alternate universe, Prince doesn’t give Sinead permission to record “Nothing Compares 2 U”. Sinead doesn’t get huge, but she becomes an indie darling with a long, ultimately successful career. She doesn’t get big enough to guest on SNL for another few years, at which point she picks a different target that doesn’t get the same kind of negative press, and she’s lauded for it. Alas…
Most of this is timeless and incredibly moving (which makes “The Emperor’s New Clothes” especially jarring). Mostly great from beginning to end. Rounding up because Sinead absolutely didn’t deserve what happened to her.
Björk
4/5
Good soundtrack to a dark, rainy day. Björk’s voice fits this when she’s not screaming.
I think I’ve now gotten all of Björk, in reverse order, which makes it seem like she started weird and toned it down, as opposed to the other way around. As it stands, it’s a shame she gave info her worse impulses. Still, definitely not a boring artist, for better or worse.
Peter Frampton
4/5
I don't love all of this, but this is definitely better than Frampton's recorded stuff. He's got an energy, I do wish we saw more of that. The amazing album closer brings this review up a point.
AC/DC
5/5
Fuck yes.
Le Tigre
3/5
A good sound, but really just one sound played over and over, with some random intellectual smugness thrown in.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
They should play this in clubs. It would make the whole scene so much more tolerable.
Beastie Boys
5/5
This is a fun, cohesive album with interesting ideas and an energy that can’t be matched. It needs to be listened to at full volume while driving as fast as possible.
Van Halen
5/5
“Play as loud as you can” + “Let Eddie do his thing” = a winning album. Loved this one.
The Streets
2/5
Really just some Cockney guys kind of talking. Doesn’t really make for a good album.
Kate Bush
4/5
Epic cohesive album that would be better if the songs were a little bit shorter.
Nick Drake
5/5
It is an absolute tragedy that Nick Drake only made three albums. He was a phenomenal talent who came out of the gate fully formed. This one really got to me. It pains me to think about what we all missed out on.
John Prine
3/5
Fun album that doesn’t take itself seriously. But this music just doesn’t vibe with me. Might be different live, but I just can’t do it when it’s recorded.
The War On Drugs
5/5
This one really grew on me. It’s way more than the sum of its parts. Perfect album for driving through snowy woods.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Very interesting sound that I was into, to the point that I could barely register that I didn't understand the lyrics. It helps that the album is under 40 minutes long - this one would wear itself out if it was longer. But as it is the album is good!
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Odd choice for the beginning of winter, but I did like this one. Perfect album if you need to relax a bit.
Taylor Swift
5/5
Oh my god, the haters in these reviews…
Look, I understand she’s the biggest star in the world, and naturally that’ll inspire some backlash, but this album proves she’s got the talent to back it up. Taylor Swift has more musical ability than 90% of top 40 artists combined. Folklore is probably more deserving of the “1001” spot than this, but Evermore certainly can hold its own. It’s stunning, it’s haunting, and it is absolutely deserving of its reputation (hey, that’s the name of another Taylor Swift album!).
I'd love for Taylor to take more indie left turns like this. She’d probably own it.
Saint Etienne
3/5
I liked the chiller stuff better than the "clubby" stuff. Good but a bit too long, no reason some of these songs are seven minutes long.
The Prodigy
3/5
My review, verbatim, from the other The Prodigy album on this list:
“Some cool beats here. I could see this being a huge hit at a rave, and I would actually be into it there. But there’s no reason these songs (which most tracks barely qualify as) need to be this long.”
Every word of that review still stands for this one. There’s no reason for there to be two The Prodigy albums on this list, although I’d give the edge to this one over Music for the Jilted Generation.
The Charlatans
3/5
“Hey ChatGPT, make me an Oasis album.”
Kings of Leon
3/5
Music is good but the vocals are terrible and don’t fit. There’s no reason for there to be two Kings of Leon albums on the list, and the edge would go to the one with the hits.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
You can sometimes forget how awesome Guns N' Roses were because the hits are overplayed and because of Axl Rose's general douchebaggery. But, listening to it after not hearing these songs for a while, you remember that this album is absolutely incredible. Head banging from beginning to end, to the detriment of my hearing.
Soul II Soul
3/5
Generally enjoyable listen. But a lot of these songs are way too long, dated, boring, or all three. The rap isn't great, but the beats are pretty good.
John Martyn
2/5
Sometimes feels like something nice and chill, but I could really do without the singing, which is straight up bad and really brings the whole thing down. Also, a lot of this sounds dated and almost like a 70’s porno.
The Auteurs
3/5
Great?: No
Terrible?: No
Influential?: No
Experimental?: No
On English radio during Robert Dimery’s formative years?: Yes
The Zombies
5/5
These guys should have worked with Brian Wilson! Not that asshat Mike Love!
Groovy, psychedelic, and hauntingly beautiful. The kind of album that takes you to a place and a feeling.
The Replacements
4/5
Very much more than the sum of its parts. The singing isn’t great and neither is the musicianship, but it goes together to make a good sound.
The Shamen
1/5
Ran out of steam about 20 minutes in, which made the rest of it a real chore to get through. The beats are okay but don’t really work as songs in and of themselves. The songs are almost like they were samples given out to rappers instead of meant to be listened to by themselves.
The Clash
5/5
Didn’t expect this one to be so jazzy and ska-heavy! I’ve listened to the title track a million times, but I didn’t realize that The Clash were so much more than that. It’s weird calling The Clash a “find”, but this album really is that for me!
The Incredible String Band
5/5
How the hell is this one of the lowest rated albums on the site?! Peaceful and eerie at the same time. Paints a truly idyllic picture of the hills of Scotland, and the picture is of someplace I’d love to visit.
Dire Straits
5/5
70s Dire Straits > 80s Dire Straits
Great funky sound. Really got into this.
Robbie Williams
3/5
I fully understand how “Angels” was a hit in the 90s. Unfortunately, the rest of it is just another Oasis clone, with a little Queen and Blink-182 mixed in.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Oh Amy Winehouse, if only you had said yes yes yes to rehab…
Amy Winehouse really was a modern day Motown diva, and this music really fits her big voice. Losing her so young really was a huge tragedy, and you have to wonder what could have been.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
Jerry Lee Lewis : Little Richard :: Elvis : Chuck Berry
I see why this was popular, but there’s nothing original here. Little Richard did it better before, and The Beatles did it better after.
In hindsight, “High School Confidential” sounds odd considering who Jerry Lee Lewis married.
Cat Stevens
4/5
Nice background music for a snowy woodsy afternoon.
Willie Nelson
4/5
The fact that Willie Nelson made such a lovely album should be all the argument you need that weed should be universally legal.
Julian Cope
2/5
I’m not convinced that Julian Cope isn’t just Nick Cave in a wig, figuring out what works and getting the worst of his Birthday Party impulses out of his system.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
When Elvis Costello tries something new (“Uncomplicated”, “Battered Old Bird”), it sucks. Otherwise, this is exactly the same as Armed Forces. It’s fine, but there’s nothing about C-tier Costello that I’d consider “essential”.
Mylo
3/5
I wouldn’t say this is “destroying” anything, but it’s fine. Not something I’d listen to on my own, and not something I “needed to listen to before I die”, but nice as background music.
The Police
3/5
I'm a rastafarian, Targaryen
I got some dragons and they're
Very scary and
Been here and there and then I've
Been everywhere again rastafarian, Targa
Call me Daenerys Targaryen
When you wanna reach me
And if you feel the love
Then you can call me Khaleesi
Got so many names i'm Queen of the Andals
Queen of the Meereen
Yeah! You can kiss m' sandals
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
A true musical journey. A two-hour album is so much better when it goes through all sorts of peaks and valleys like this. It's very impressive that The Smashing Pumpkins were able to fit all this music together so cohesively. Gave myself a good two hours to listen to this one, and it was very much worth it.
Talvin Singh
3/5
Hated the first 4 minutes or so. After they switched to real instruments, I actually kind of liked it. I can see the appeal, especially if you grew up with this kind of music. It did get old and worse as it went on, though, and I’m not a huge fan of the back half.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
Like walking into a majestic ancient palace, but with drugs.
The White Stripes
4/5
Jack White’s career is a fascinating study of how restraint can make great art. This one isn’t his best, and it’s the first one post-Seven Nation Army, with more resources available. The best songs here are the most bare-bones ones (although “My Doorbell” is great). The album is good, but it’s not as hard or as cohesive as other White Stripes albums.
Sonic Youth
1/5
Why, oh why, is Sonic Youth so effing overrepresented on this list?!
“Schizophrenia” is probably a 4/5. The rest of this album can go fuck right off.
Terrible way to start the new year. It can only go up, I guess.
Janis Joplin
5/5
Janis didn’t have the best voice in the world, but god damn did she know how to use it. The music and the vocals fit together perfectly, and come together to make something incredibly powerful.
It’s upsetting that this was Janis Joplin’s swan song, but at least she went out on top.
Bad Company
3/5
This was okay but a little generic. I can’t tell if that’s because it’s been played a lot or it really is that unoriginal. It’s classified as hard rock, but I don’t think it goes hard enough, and the slower songs bring it down.
“Don’t Let Me Down” rankings:
1. Beatles
2. No Doubt
3. Twisted Sister
4. Milky Chance/Jack Johnson
5. Sabrina Claudio
6. Chainsmokers
7. Bad Company
8. Hunxho
Aerosmith
4/5
Steven Tyler has a great voice and a high likelihood of serious sexual assault allegations against him.
Cornershop
2/5
A Sublime clone that can’t decide if it wants to go all in on the Indian thing or not. The more it goes into Indian music, the worse it gets. The best track, “Candyman”, is the one that sounds the least like the rest of the album.
Blur
4/5
The Britpop on this list should be limited to Oasis and Blur - everything else is superfluous. This is good and varied, and ended just as it was starting to feel a little long. It helps that the songs are (mostly) under 5 minutes, which justifies the length. A good fun album, and I can see why it sparked so many imitators.
Aerosmith
5/5
A little restraint, both in his singing and in his dick, is good for Steven Tyler. Allowing the rest of the band to be as powerful as the lead singer makes for a MUCH stronger Aerosmith album.
Orbital
3/5
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a bit long, but as background ambient music it works.
Aphex Twin
4/5
They certainly are ambient works. But they work pretty well for ambiance, better than a lot of other music like this.
Hawkwind
2/5
This would work as an instrumental, as I do like the music a bit. But the singing brings it down quite a few notches. It also probably loses something without the visual portion of the “audio-visual experience”, where you’re just left with long stretches of not much happening, between poetry sections that are incredibly dumb by themselves.
Barry Adamson
4/5
Tells a very clear story, and I was surprisingly able to follow along. Cool concept, enjoyed it!
Ice Cube
5/5
Great flow, beats that are fun but also socially relevant, and some serious bangers here. Love the horns on this too!
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
You can draw a clear line from this to Daft Punk, which I'll always support.
Bobby Womack
3/5
All I knew of Bobby Womack going in was his guest vocals on Plastic Beach, so I didn’t know what to expect. I can see why people would like this, but doesn’t really do it for me. His voice is good and the talent is there, but I’m just not an R&B guy.
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
Alabama!
Generic but it’s pretty good, so can’t really complain all that much. It’s got the right amount of edge to work. Problem is, it starts to get “samey”. Condense it into a single and this one is a hell of a lot better.
Radiohead
5/5
Can literally transport you. Ends in a very different place from how it starts, and never sounds samey or boring.
Jamiroquai
5/5
Serious funky Stevie Wonder vibes from this one. I’m on board.
Goldie
2/5
It would be a hell of a lot better if it wasn’t so. Fucking. Long. Actually works pretty well as background music, but really doesn’t work as an almost two-hour album. I got bored of this pretty quickly.
The title is actually more apt than I expected. It’s tough to place a year on this, has a retro future feeling. Would work well if it was like a quarter of the length.
Sepultura
1/5
Is singing like this supposed to be awful? If so, success. It brings the entire thing, whose instrumentals are actually pretty good, down so much that any track with vocals is unlistenable. Bringing myself to listen to 72 minutes of this trash was a real struggle.
Iggy Pop
5/5
You don’t see too many “reflections on sobriety” like this one. A very aptly-named album that reaches some epic heights.
Dennis Wilson
3/5
The Pink Floyd influence is obvious. It’s an interesting album, but Dennis’s voice isn’t strong enough to carry it. Ironically, I think this would have worked well as Beach Boys material, and makes for an interesting “what if”.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
An interesting, moving album that would be much better served by a gentler voice. Someone like Annie Clark would do wonders for this one. Still, the fact that this was able to get to me like this merits 4 stars in and of itself.
Billy Joel
5/5
Take away all the boomer nonsense that this is inevitably lumped in with and you get a remarkably sincere album that deserves every bit of praise it gets. There’s a good reason that seven of nine songs are hits (which does make the other two stand out in an awkward way). Still has a huge impact even though I’ve heard it a million times and know every single word to a lot of the songs.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Car radio volume went all the way up at the guitar break in “Whole Lotta Love”, and didn’t go back down once.
The Beta Band
4/5
I feel cool for liking this. Psychedelic in a way I could really get into.
U2
3/5
This one is pretty disappointing. Not bad by any means, but it’s got a real generic sound that loses the edge of U2’s previous albums. “Love is Blindness” is a major exception to this, and is easily the strongest song here.
Pretenders
4/5
I don’t know if it’s my mood, the quality of the music, or the fact that I was listening to a “spring” album in the dead of winter, but this didn’t vibe with me. I wish I liked it more.
EDIT: I gave this one another listen on a warmer day when I was in a better mood. I was right! This is a fun, driving album. Not perfect but it is very good.
Roxy Music
3/5
Certainly one of the more interesting albums I’ve listened to. I liked a decent amount of this. Still don’t know what the hell was going on for a lot of side 2, though - some of it was good, but a lot of it was weirdness for weirdness’s sake.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
A fun, upbeat album that I really enjoyed. Recording quality had some issues, but I did like the album, which is great for putting you in a good mood.
Ray Charles
4/5
It’s a real fun album when it drives. It does have too many slow spots. A lot of the middle of the album is missing the energy of “I’ve Got a Woman”. But when it’s on, it’s on! I’d have no idea this was originally country music if it wasn’t in the album title.
Cheap Trick
5/5
Every negative review of this one is accurate, but who cares? This would have been SUCH a fun show! My brain says this shouldn’t be a 5, but I enjoyed the absolute fuck out of this, so why wouldn’t it be 5 stars?
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Close your eyes, and you’re transported to a 70’s love nest. Enjoyed this more than I expected to.
Metallica
5/5
If this is what Satanism is like, then sign me up.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
VERY of its time. Sounds almost quaint to modern ears, and doesn’t really translate well.
Arrested Development
3/5
Now the story of an average rap group who made an okay album, and the one writer who had no choice but to put it in his coffee table book. It’s Arrested Development.
Arrested Development had been in the rap business a long time, but just couldn’t seem to get one in the can. Which makes sense. This is good but doesn’t really do much to distinguish itself, especially given its length. Or, put another way, I’m sure Egg is a great album.
Sparks
3/5
This one grew on me. I still am not a fan of the vocals, but it works in a weird way. Still can’t say I’d recommend it, but I do kind of get it.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
This one has a haunting quality that I like. Definitely doesn’t sound “samey” either. Not a huge fan of all of it (“The Losing End” doesn’t do anything for me) but, for the most part, this is a good winter album.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Glorified elevator music. Extremely undeserving of a spot on this list.
Chicago
4/5
Thought experiment: how good would Chicago have been if they had at least one black person in the band? It’s almost as if there are actual benefits to DEI…
The highs are high, and it’s almost a great album, even as long as it is. Some stuff doesn’t work (I think “Free Form Guitar” is good, but it’s hard to argue that it belongs on this album). A good double that would have made a great single.
Al Green
4/5
The title track is GOAT-level. The rest of the album can’t live up to that, because honestly what can? But it was a solid piece of music that I enjoyed.
Death In Vegas
3/5
I liked this a lot more than I expected. Call it a precursor to Lofi Girl. The album is brought down by every song with vocals, which turn the music into a generic Oasis clone.
TV On The Radio
5/5
TV on the Radio have one of the most distinctive sounds here. I was familiar with the hits, but they worked very well in the context of the album. And just when it starts to slow down a bit, it ends on a hell of a one-two. Great listen!
Funkadelic
5/5
Holy shit, it’s “Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells!
This rocked harder than a lot of albums on this list, and had not one, but two super long songs that justified their runtimes. Great listen.
I spent years thinking they were the same, but that’s very much not the case. Not sure the reasoning, but Funkadelic > Parliament.
Patti Smith
4/5
This did grow on me, even though it wasn’t quite the level of “punk” I expected or hoped for. I suppose the slower parts have their place, but the effect they have is that the album starts and ends on a bit of a sour note, although it becomes something much better.
Milton Nascimento
5/5
A super long album, on which I can barely understand a word, that’s varied and doesn’t drag once. It was a true musical odyssey, and one I very much enjoyed listening to. A legit accomplishment.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Joni Mitchell takes an experimental new direction. I enjoyed listening to it, although I think the earlier stuff suits her voice better.
George Harrison
5/5
I'm glad I listened to this after John Lennon's debut solo album, because it gave me some fresh perspective on that one. That was a single album, and only a few of those would be Beatles songs in a mostly unchanged form. On this one, on the other hand, most, if not all of the first two discs would have been Beatles songs, with only some trimming or some harmony added. As a double, you think it's flagging, only for it to throw a banger like "Art of Dying" at you.
I think the Allman Brothers-esque jam on the third disc should be treated as its own thing. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it's clearly different from the rest of this. If you look at it as it's own separate thing, the entire album looks much better.
Pere Ubu
1/5
I liked the first three seconds of this. It went sharply downhill shortly after.
What the fuck did I just listen to? It certainly did not sound swell.
Tim Buckley
2/5
It’s a very affecting album until it runs out of steam near the end of Side A, after which it just drags. Especially a problem when Tim Buckley does his damndest Jim Morrison impression in “Gypsy Woman”, to poor results. Trimming these songs would have done him a world of good.
Elvis Costello
2/5
The idea behind this list is that it’s 1001 albums that might be considered “essential listening”. A 15-years-past-his-prime Elvis Costello is NOT that. There’s nothing on this album that he doesn’t do better on This Year’s Model.
John Lennon
4/5
Half of this (most of Side A) is phenomenal, which makes sense. The rest of it (most of Side B) shows why John was best when working with the lads. I think Paul would have elevated “Love”, killed “Well Well Well”, and left “Working Class Hero” alone since it’s perfect as is.
Stephen Stills
4/5
A pretty solid album. I do think that some of these songs are missing the presence of Crosby, Nash, and sometimes Young.
The Stranglers
3/5
I get why some people would like this, I do see the appeal. But singing like this only gets so far.
Frank Black
4/5
Like many debut solo albums from people in great bands, this one is good, but also too long and filled with indulgences that the other band members would have put the kibosh on. Enjoyed it, but it was missing the other Pixies.
Aerosmith
3/5
Is Aerosmith an “all their songs sound the same” band?
I wish they actually would “Get the Lead Out”, as it were. This shouldn’t be this boring.
The Cure
5/5
This was a dark, epic album that I really enjoyed. The whole thing builds in a really interesting way. Loved it!
Pere Ubu
1/5
There’s two terrible Pere Ubu albums on this list?!
Best part of finishing this one: I don’t have to listen to this god awful band ever again.
Tina Turner
3/5
Sounds incredibly dated. A big voice needs big music, which eventually does come. Unfortunately, the elevator music in a lot of this album doesn’t do nearly enough to showcase Tina Turner’s ample talents.
Hole
5/5
An awfully difficult one to separate the history from the music. But, without all the Cobain-related baggage, this album is actually really good, with a driving sound that fits the style they were going for very well. Turns out Courtney Love is actually very talented and the hate she’s gotten over the years (unfortunately, not unlike many women like her) is undeserved. I can see why Kurt was drawn to her.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
This is probably the most I’ve enjoyed listening to country in this project. Even so, it feels a little self indulgent. The talking could probably be eliminated without losing anything, and the instrumentals start to drag on through the second disc. Could probably have made for a pretty fun single album.
Mekons
4/5
An interesting mix that I don’t think was executed as well as the creators had hoped. The more “Irish” this sounds, the better it is, and the back half is much better than the front half. The weaker tracks on this one (“Trouble Down South”, “Psycho Cupid”) bring it down a bit, but the album goes out on a very high note.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
One of those albums that is able to transcend a band’s lack of talent (which sounds harsher than I mean it) to be something great. So many punk/post punk bands aspire to do something like this, but few succeed. A pleasant surprise for me.
The Specials
4/5
I suppose a person’s opinion of this one entirely depends on how they feel about ska. I found this to be timeless and fun. It reminded me of the good parts of high school. Does run out of steam and would be better if it were a bit shorter.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
https://youtu.be/JwZwkk7q25I?si=--Y7Kn7-7qtNThtY
Brian Eno
3/5
The front half doesn’t really distinguish itself much from other artists that do that same thing better. The back half, which is more ambient, is better, like a less dark Pink Floyd. Ultimately, this shows why Will Shortz’s favorite artist is a better producer than a frontman.
Brian Wilson
4/5
I get why this is here, as it serves as a coda to one of the most interesting stories in rock history. But the 2011 Smile Sessions album, which would get a 5/5, is probably a better fit here. This is a beautiful album, and it’s a tragedy it didn’t get released as intended. But Brian’s 60-year-old voice can’t hold a candle to his 25-year-old one. This album is also missing the presence of (some of) his bandmates, Carl in particular.
One thing this album is NOT missing is Mike Love. That asshole contributed diddly squat. Fuck that guy.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
AaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaahhhhhhAAAAHHH
Orange Juice
3/5
Drunk Scotsmen who can sort of carry a tune doesn’t exactly qualify among the 1001 most essential albums ever, even if we’re including weird genre stuff here.
Tom Waits
2/5
You can feel the raw emotion here, and it’s effective at times. Problem is, Tom Waits doesn’t have the pipes to be Springsteen, no matter how hard he tries.
Jane's Addiction
5/5
I was today years old when I found out that Jane’s Addiction rocks this hard and is this technically skilled. Epic album.
Les Rythmes Digitales
1/5
Jason Mendoza’s DJing was probably better than this!
Zero talent on display here. This guy (complete with his eminently punchable face) just makes boring sounds that loop over and over. When sub-4-minute songs feel super long, you have a serious problem.
A bad album: that’s what you are.
Pavement
5/5
I don't know why, but I associate Pavement with springtime. Perfect album for today.
Pink Floyd
5/5
I’ve listened to Dark Side a LOT. It was on almost non stop at age 19, and is one of the seminal albums of my life. This morning, I got to listen to it with my almost 4-year-old son, who loved it. While it’s a far cry removed from the times I listened to it in college after consuming copious amounts of marijuana, it meant way more to me this way.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
4/5
It’s a real shame that Eric Clapton is a disgusting human being, because this is a real nice little blues album, even if it is blatantly stolen from the very people he’s prejudiced against.
Liz Phair
3/5
Good little album. I do wish it went a little harder - the hits are really the only memorable songs here.
Prefab Sprout
2/5
The first three songs are solid, if fairly generic. Once the synths come in on “When Love Breaks Down”, the album breaks down along with the love. Muzak with weird breathy throat singing ain’t it.
George Michael
4/5
https://media1.tenor.com/m/eGXEi8JyuMcAAAAd/pam-sploosh.gif
3/5
Enjoyed it well enough, even if I found it a little generic.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
I had no idea that's what that song is called.
A real fun covers album that I enjoyed and am glad I listened to.
Spiritualized
5/5
Pink Floyd-esque, but somehow in a more unique way. Simultaneously beautiful and weird, and I enjoyed the oddball left turns this one took. Great listen!
Manu Chao
4/5
Makes ya wanna get up and dance! (Get up and baila? Bailamos?)
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
Any album that goes from one of the most beautiful love songs ever written straight into a song about a dog is a 5 in my book.
A truly unbelievable feat of ambition. A deserving classic.
Megadeth
5/5
… is that Onion article totally accurate??
Biggest surprise of this project for me: I’m really into this kind of music.
GZA
4/5
Good beats and flow here. Nothing that really wowed me but I did like this one.
Dr. Dre
4/5
Great, fun rapping here. It makes sense why this is considered a classic.
BUT, the stupid skits ruin what could have been a great album. Most of this is rightly considered incredible, but there's definitely some willful ignorance of the idiocy here, too. Cutting them out would make this an easy 10/10 without losing anything important.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I could see how one would be put off by Dylan's voice, but even with his weird singing style, everything works here. This is his best album and is probably the reason his reputation endures. He can convey so much emotion with that nasal-ass voice of his. Even on a double, it's clicking in a way few artists can hope to accomplish.
Kings of Leon
4/5
Kings of Leon is NOT an important enough band to get three albums on this list. They’re certainly not more important than Weezer.
THAT BEING SAID: this is probably their best album on this list. Definitely better than Aha Shake Heartbreak. I still don’t think there needs to be more than one KOL album here, and the one that deserves the spot is still the one with the hits.
Raekwon
5/5
I feel like this is everything gangsta rap should be. Good beats, good flow, great skill on display, and good interplay between Raekwon and Ghostface.
2/5
After listening to side one, I fully understand the hate for prog. Side two improves a bit, but it’s still largely self-indulgent nonsense.
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
Interesting beats and song structure, and I like how everything fits together. Does NOT need to be this long, though.
Iron Maiden
5/5
Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!
Brian Eno
4/5
This one is a lot better than Before and After Science. When “ambient musician Brian ENO” sticks to the ambience, it works a lot better than when he does stuff that other artists do better.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
This might be up some people’s alley, but slow R&B does absolutely nothing for me. An incredibly boring album of songs that are WAY too long. The final song does liven things up a bit and is easily the best song on the album, but the rest of the album felt so much longer than its 35 minutes.
Tom Waits
4/5
Tom Waits' voice fits this music very well when the music is rough. It DOESN'T work when he slows things down. "Saving All My Love for You" and "On the Nickel" stick out like sore thumbs, and Springsteen does "Jersey Girl" better (although I was surprised at how good I found the OG version).
Eric Clapton
2/5
I’ve said before that Clapton is a better side man than a front man. This album is a perfect example of why. It does almost nothing to showcase his ample ability, and just sounds generic. Putting aside how horrible he is as a person, Eric Clapton is undeniably talented. An album by someone with his skills shouldn’t be this boring.
Can
4/5
This probably would have accompanied many a late night smoke session back in college. Not perfect, but in the right setting it’s a vibe I can get with.
Elvis Presley
3/5
I was upset when I listened to earlier Elvis when he just stole black music. This isn't that, but it also sounds quaint in a way that doesn't do much for me. When it rocks and rolls, it works better, but a lot of this is just too slow.
Also, we all know Elvis knew absolutely nothing about living in the ghetto.
The Associates
2/5
The Associates are NOT Bowie, no matter how hard they try.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Of the late 90s pop princesses, Xtina was easily the most talented. That being said, this album is long and samey. Disc 2 improves on that a little, but only so much. Integrating the pop and the jazz would have made for a good single album.
Rocket From The Crypt
4/5
A solid punk album, if nothing revolutionary
Franz Ferdinand
5/5
Such a fun album. Franz Ferdinand have such a good sound, especially for when it came out.
Alice Cooper
4/5
A solid album that I kind of expected to go darker.
Kanye West
2/5
Cracked called it: https://www.cracked.com/blog/what-if-kanye-west-is-retarded
In addition to being a nut job and a terrible person, is Kanye overrated as an artist? This has good samples and some good guest verses, but this, by and large, isn’t great rap. WAY overdoes it on the autotune. Also, “Last Call” is such a stupid song.
As an aside, fuck Kanye and fuck Nazi trash.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
A nice little blues album that really shouldn’t sound so samey given the amount of guest musicians here.
Pearl Jam
5/5
Banger after banger here. Fantastic from beginning to end. Deserving of its GOAT-level status.
Miles Davis
5/5
I want this album to soundtrack my life.
5/5
Any song on here could have been a single, which is saying something given how huge the first three songs are. An epic album that might not have as much impact now, especially since Bono is such a douche, but probably revolutionized the world when it first came out.
Supertramp
3/5
VERY of its time. Feels like it’s trying too hard to be epic. At least it dials back (some of) prog’s worst indulgences.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Once this got going it was a real solid album, with an edge I was really into!
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Great, poignant lyrics over music that just drags.
Can
3/5
Not sure what the fuck disc 2 was, but I did sort of get into some of it. Reminded me a lot of early Animal Collective. Disc 1 is a hell of a lot stronger, though.
Ministry
1/5
I can’t think of a less appealing album description than “religious industrial music”. After listening to it - yup, hunch was right. This one sucked.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
I’ve listened to The Jesus and Mary Chain a bit, but it took me until this album to get the dark Beach Boys vibes they have, which I’m kind of into.
The Who
5/5
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” hits a little differently these days…
Mike Oldfield
4/5
Why do I like this and hate so much other prog? Dynamics. Since this isn’t so in your face all the time (lookin at you, ELP) the big parts get a chance to shine and actually achieve their intended goal. Because of that, the long instrumentals don’t drag the way they easily could have. Part 1 was better than part 2 (could have done without the guy clearing his throat), but I did like the weird way it ended.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Jimi was obviously great, but the real hero of this one is Mitch Mitchell. This is, without hyperbole, some of the best drumming I have ever heard.
Black Flag
3/5
I’d bet a lot of 15-year-olds find this really deep.
Beyoncé
5/5
One of the biggest surprises of this project for me is how much I liked this. This album is sexy as fuck, in every sense of the word.
Suzanne Vega
5/5
Hypnotic
Johnny Cash
5/5
Not ashamed to admit I cried twice while listening to this one. Breathtaking swan song.
Missy Elliott
4/5
While some of this sounds dated and some of the lyrics haven’t aged particularly well, this is a real solid piece of hip hop.
Eminem
3/5
This one isn’t as harsh as The Marshall Mathers LP, but early Eminem has still aged poorly. Eminem raps very well and can rhyme like nobody else, but I really can’t abide such a violent album.
Marvin Gaye
2/5
Interminably whining about a divorce that you probably caused is NOT sexy. Just ask Robin Thicke.
Scott Walker
2/5
“Look at that, ‘My Way’ is popular! I can just copy Frank Sinatra, that’ll work for me!”
“But wait, my voice isn’t nearly as good as his…”
“Nah, nobody will notice the difference.”
The Who
3/5
Ya had to be there, I guess. Good music with surprisingly subpar recording quality and WAY too much talking. In the words of another live album, shut up and play the hits!
Judging on the original songs, this is a solid album. The problem is the reissue. The best songs were picked for the OG album. All the others do what was heretofore considered impossible (at least while Keith Moon was alive) - they make The Who boring.
James Brown
4/5
Unlike the live album I got yesterday, this one perfectly captures the show’s energy. A small venue like The Apollo is perfect for a live album. He earns the “Godfather of Soul” moniker.
Bill Callahan
4/5
Solid album with layers that don’t immediately come up on first listen. Good lyrics and beautiful, haunting music. I really wouldn’t call this “country” at all.
Slipknot
1/5
It’s irresponsible of the studio technicians to sit idly by while someone’s clearly having some sort of medical emergency not five feet away.
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
THIS is the kind of mix I hoped for when I read this guy’s bio! A very interesting and enjoyable album. Far superior to Ali Farka Touré‘s other album on this list.
Fugees
5/5
Good beats, great interplay between the three of them, and some of the best rhymes I’ve ever heard (particularly from Lauryn, who’s easily the most talented one). Arguably the GOAT rap album.
The Who
3/5
A solid album that’s more of an amalgamation of other artists than a proper Who album. The title track and “The Ox” sound like a band confident in their own sound, but the rest, while good, is just an imitation.
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
Even though this was probably after the whole Beatles concept for ELO went out the window, there are some good ideas here. I do think there are some that don’t quite work. Jeff Lynne tried to be both Lennon and McCartney, which just shows he really could have used a collaborator. I do enjoy the “Mr. Blue Sky” motif.
That being said, this was a lot better than I initially thought it would be.
Love
3/5
This probably would have been meaningful to me when I was 20. In my mid-late 30s, it just sounds kinda dumb.
Massive Attack
5/5
This album held my four-month-old daughter in a trance, keeping her quiet through its duration. For that alone it deserves five stars.
For real - these beats are effing good, and I really got into this low-key rapping style.
The Stone Roses
5/5
I feel like the Stone Roses are a huge "what if". You wonder if this was just lightning in a bottle, or if they really could have been among the greats if the record company wasn't such douchenozzles. Psychedelic in the best way. This one really feels like a complete work, and I don't think you'd be able to take off a single note of it without making it worse. Great album.
Faust
1/5
If Jennifer dumped these guys, I wouldn’t blame her.
Nico
4/5
I don’t understand the negative reviews for this one at all. Most of this is a stunningly beautiful album (not sure what "It Was a Pleasure Then" was supposed to be). There’s a reason Velvet Underground were never better than when they were working with Nico.
Really a 3 (most of it is a 4, but “It Was a Pleasure Then” costs it a star), but fuck the haters.
Fugazi
3/5
I appreciate what this is and enjoy it somewhat. I think this would be a lot better with better singing.
R.E.M.
5/5
Solid from beginning to end. Even when it gets all psychedelic it works. R.E.M. at the top of their game here!
Simply Red
2/5
“Sad Old Red” sticks out like a sore thumb because it doesn’t suck or sound awfully dated, which isn’t true for any other song here. Also, it baffles me that “Holding Back the Years” was a hit, as it’s the worst song on the album. The 80’s really must have been a low point in human history.
A lame imitation of Prince, but without the talent.
The White Stripes
5/5
I can’t listen to “Ball and Biscuit” while driving because I air guitar too hard.
Malcolm McLaren
1/5
This asshole 100% edited his own Wikipedia page to describe himself as an “impresario”. I’m still not quite sure if he actually did anything artistry-wise on this album. Reading his page - yup, just a dude who made a bad album that ripped off more talented artists and took credit for all of it. He’s basically an 80’s DJ Khalid.
Fiona Apple
5/5
A dark and beautiful album that showcases Fiona Apple’s talents very well. A pleasant surprise for me.
Marty Robbins
2/5
The lyrics say “outlaw”, but the music doesn’t reflect that in the slightest.
The Dictators
3/5
I can see why this was influential, but I feel like it’s not really saying anything. Musicianship is surprisingly good though.
The Black Keys
4/5
The Black Keys have a pretty good unique sound. I don’t know if this really gets going enough though. I think El Camino is better.
The Gun Club
2/5
Some punk bands are going for an energy, and some are just masking a lack of talent. This is a prime example of the latter.
The Zutons
4/5
Good varied sound that has all sorts of elements that don’t come out without multiple listenings. Nothing generic about this one.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
In albums like this, it only takes about three minutes to get the point across. Why does every single techno artist feel like they need double that? There’s good stuff here, but this would be a shitload better if every song was 2 minutes shorter.
Crowded House
1/5
There’s one Crowded House album on this list. Instead of the one with the only Crowded House song anyone can name, why the fuck would that one album be this cheesy, generic garbage?!
Terrible album that just drags.
The Pretty Things
3/5
I need to be tripping on WAY more acid to properly enjoy this.
Jurassic 5
5/5
It’s hard to believe that this came out at the same time that rap got supper clubby. Great beats with real instruments, and awesome flow. It’s like a rockier Tribe Called Quest!
Joy Division
4/5
Didn’t quite match my mood when I listened to it but did sound like the quintessential “dark” album that conveys its emotions well.
Silver Jews
5/5
I get why this isn’t everyone’s bag, but this hit something with me. I wish David Berman got to see how many lives he was able to touch just with music.
Wild Beasts
3/5
The music is great. The vocals are a complete mismatch for it. This needs some real chillwavey singing, not this falsetto garbage.
The Specials
3/5
This leans way too much into the Jamaican vocals, which gives it the sense of trying too hard. That’s especially true for when this gets all psychedelic, which doesn’t really suit the album. One Specials is plenty for this list.
2/5
In a live setting this would be beautiful, as her voice is great. A lot of this, especially the slower stuff (aka most of the album), doesn’t resonate with me all that much.
Otis Redding
4/5
A covers album has no business being this solid.
John Martyn
2/5
Drunk rambling over elevator music doesn’t deserve one spot on this list, let alone two.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
I was fully expecting to hate this given the genre and the fact that it’s an artist 20 years past her prime. But I very much did not. Country is, IMO, almost always better with a female singer, and the songs are beautiful with great imagery. It does fall into some of the common pitfalls of its era - namely, bloat and overproduction - but not as bad as some of its contemporaries. It’s better than I expected it to be.
The Beau Brummels
4/5
The ren faire version of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, for better and worse. Grew on me.
Deerhunter
3/5
I had friends who were into Deerhunter back in the day, but they never resonated with me. I was kinda hoping this would be different, and I did like some of it, particularly towards the end. Problem is, much of this album is incredibly boring.
Talk Talk
2/5
Ah, the 80’s - a decade where unbelievable talent was wasted on crappy music.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Not Bruce’s best, but still solid. Transitional in a lot of ways. I like when it gets hard in “Adam Raised a Cain” and “Prove It All Night.”
Def Leppard
4/5
Raise your goblet of rock!
Miriam Makeba
5/5
This album is low-key phenomenal. An interesting and varied album that I NEVER would have listened to without this project.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
“The most downer album possible” should not be a creative goal. “Madeline-Mary” is the only interesting song here; everything else is just a bummer with no nuance.
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
“Mom, can we stop and get Michael Jackson?”
“No, we have Michael Jackson at home.”
10cc
1/5
The origin of the band name is about a billion times better than the music said band made. It’s obvious that these guys were never told “no, that idea doesn’t work” at any point in their lives.
Ride
5/5
I can see why this inspired a whole genre. Dreamlike and atmospheric in the best way. Also didn’t get boring once, which was a pleasant surprise.
Shack
3/5
Robert Dimery probably heard these guys in a bar once and decided to put them in his book.
Carpenters
3/5
ADAM SANDLER: “The Carpenters are angry?? I mean…”
JACK NICHOLSON: “Don’t be naïve, Dave. ‘Close to You’? ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’? Songs of madness and obsession.”
Soft Machine
1/5
https://imgur.com/gallery/too-deep-into-yoga-cyJFn
Pantera
2/5
I had a whole review typed up trashing this one, but it actually kinda grew on me. I still think the indiscriminate screaming doesn’t work, but some of this does. It would really be a 3, but minus one star for this guy apparently being Nazi trash.
Def Leppard
3/5
Fun, albeit a little dated, album with an annoying amount of filler.
Living Colour
4/5
A series of timeless bangers that’s held back by everything slow, where the music sounds super dated. This one would be a 5 if they cut out about half of “Open Letter (To a Landlord) and the entirety of “Broken Hearts”.
ZZ Top
5/5
What can I say? I like dad rock.
The The
2/5
We should have listened to Justin Timberlake when he told us to drop The The.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
Some subpar beats here. It drags down some decent rap.
“I blow up spots like the World Trade Center” did NOT age well, although it was probably in bad taste even then.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
The Stones do one thing, but they do it very well. This is a solid piece of blues rock.
Girls Against Boys
2/5
EDITOR: I don’t know, Robert. 1,001 seems like an arbitrary number that’ll be tough to get to. Can’t we just stop at 900-something?
ROBERT DIMERY: We need 1,001! We can just add some random ones as filler.
EDITOR: Okay. There’s this band Weezer. Their self-titled debut is pretty popular and has that Buddy Holly song people like, and this Pinkerton album has been lauded by critics the world over. Maybe we put one of those in here?
ROBERT DIMERY: No way! This crappy Sonic Youth knockoff is way better!
808 State
3/5
Perfectly serviceable background music. Would probably work well in a video game level.
"808080808" should have been called “5318008”.
Ramones
5/5
One sound, one note, one feeling. Who cares? It’s the Ramones! You can feel why they started a whole genre - I’d imagine this blowing people away back in the day.
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
Lenny has a powerful voice, but this starts to get stale. Most of the songs can be trimmed, which would make this one a lot better.
The Sonics
5/5
This album is really fucking cool. Truly a sound I’ve never heard before. The bridge between Buddy Holly and punk that I never would have imagined to exist.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
Fuck yes.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Although the Beatles unquestionably came out on top, I can see why the Stones were seen as rivals. Some of this is derivative of their mop-topped rivals, but definitely signs that they’d end up being the best at what they do.
Van Morrison
5/5
I had no idea Van Morrison was an ar-tist. In my mind, this is the real him, and Moondance is the piece of shit it is because of meddling studio executives.
Talking Heads
5/5
New wave is a thousand times better when there is nary a synthesizer in sight. Not an overindulgent note to be found here, which is refreshing. Talking Heads really started out at the top of their game!
The Monks
2/5
The warning that I received, you may take with however many grains of salt you wish, that the brown acid that is circulating around us is specifically not too good. It's suggested that you do stay away from that; of course, it's your own trip, so be my guest.
Air
3/5
This would probably be amazing paired with the movie it scores. The problem with that is that it doesn’t quite work as an album in its own right. Like it’s missing something important.
Ms. Dynamite
4/5
There are some real solid beats here. I don’t love it when it gets to more of an R&B sound, which sounds pretty generic here, but the rap-heavy parts are good.
Devendra Banhart
5/5
This is why I do this crazy project! This was a beautiful sonic experience that I never would have listened to otherwise.
Traffic
2/5
Sometimes more is not more. This one is a fuckton better when they cool it with the horns and the synths.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Nobody could harmonize like Simon and Garfunkel. This album is a truly transcendent experience.
The “Silent Night” ending hits pretty close to home these days. Unfortunately timeless.
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
The cover makes this look like stoner rap or Bob Marley knockoff, when in reality it’s a tapestry for some kid’s dorm room. Literally an album meant to be listened to whilst smoking weed. In a weird way, a precursor to LoFi Girl.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
HOMER: Lisa, did you see the Grammys?
LISA: You beat Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
HOMER: Well, you haven’t heard the last of them!
2/5
The epitome of generic 80s.
The Stooges
3/5
This one kinda grew on me. There’s a raw power here that resonates throughout the whole album. Some of the songs could stand to be a little shorter, though.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Elvis Costello ✅
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gene Clark
3/5
This is solid when they bring back the acid, but sucks when it gets all twangy.
Talking Heads
4/5
Though many have tried, nobody else could do what Talking Heads could because David Byrne’s combination of weirdness and sobriety is a tough one to nail. This one isn’t exactly their most accessible album, which dings it a little, but there’s good stuff here.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Rest in power, Ozzy 🤘
Madonna
3/5
Unlike “Music”, Madonna feels like herself here; she’s not chasing trends. The whole thing feels very of it’s time, and, like many of its era, the length is a problem.
Suede
2/5
Dear Mr. Dimery,
Just because a person sounds vaguely like David Bowie and charted at some point in the UK doesn’t mean that they’re at all influential or that they qualify as “must hear before you die”.
Sincerely,
Listeners
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Ah, I get it now! This album is all about a guy creepily staring at an unsuspecting woman through her window while hiding in the bushes!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
Love the raw power of this one! It’s tough to rival the awesomeness of the first three tracks here. Solid album from beginning to end.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Doesn’t quite start off on the right foot, as the first two songs are the weakest, but as it gets going you really believe that this woman had a night with a preacher’s son. “The Windmills of Your Mind” sounds like an epic Bond theme.
Neil Young
3/5
Neil Young is a talented songwriter, but nothing about this really stands out. There’s a lot of Neil Young on this list, and this one probably could’ve been cut without losing anything.
“Albuquerque” ranked:
1. Weird Al Yankovic
2. Neil Young
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Starting the album with “Respect” takes a little oomph away from the rest of it (Al Green had the same problem with “Let’s Stay Together”). But I can see why everyone wants to party with Aretha.
Tom Waits
3/5
How does one rate an album that treats the line between breathtakingly beautiful and god-fucking-awful like a three-year-old with a coloring book? There’s a legit GOAT-level blues album hidden somewhere in this mess.
Giant Sand
4/5
Something like this can pack an emotional punch ala Elliott Smith or Silver Jews. A lot of this is very good in that regard. Not everything works, and it is a little too long, which means it loses some of that impact, but it is overall very good.
Mike Ladd
1/5
Boring beats, minimal skill, and excessive bloat combine to make a bad album.
Jethro Tull
5/5
I can see why people took this and went overboard with the unnecessary stuff, but Jethro Tull strikes a perfect balance here. I can see why people hate the ren faire stuff, but frankly that is pretty minimal in this one. It still has the edge it needs.
And btw, flute >> synth.
3/5
Holy shit, the lead singer composed the theme to The Office!
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
The fact that Captain Beefheart was trying to make something unlistenable means that this is an incredibly interesting album, even if it is also simultaneously a talentless mess. Literally just throwing stuff on the wall and recording all of it. It sucks, but if it held my attention the entire time, does it really suck?
To quote Roger Ebert, this album is a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. I cannot recommend the album, but … why the hell can’t I? Just because it’s godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from an album? Godawful and boring, that would be a reason.
Coldplay
4/5
I didn’t expect to be floored with nostalgia while listening to this one, but I most certainly was. A solid peaceful album. Coldplay might have their heads up their own asses now, but their meteoric rise made perfect sense.
Klaxons
2/5
There’s decent rhythm somewhere in all this noise. This was an overall unpleasant experience, and the random screaming that happens throughout really doesn’t help matters.
Neneh Cherry
4/5
Prince if sung by Mimi from Rent. It’s not Mozart, but fuck it, I kinda liked it.
System Of A Down
2/5
Somebody give this man a hug.
It’s weird that this album is on the list but Toxicity isn’t.
Steely Dan
3/5
The hits are solid. The rest of this is pretty inoffensive and mediocre. Pretty much the definition of a 3-star album.
PJ Harvey
4/5
I like this one better than the other PJ Harvey album I’ve gotten. Her voice has a quietly powerful quality to it that suits this music well. An overall very good album.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Ozzy's passing is still fresh, but even without that this is a banger of an album. Didn’t realize how political it is too, which makes it even better. Drive fast with the windows open and blast this one.
Kraftwerk
2/5
Yes, this is ahead of its time. But goddamn it this is boring.
Circle Jerks
3/5
No real talent, but also not trying to be anything other than what it is. There’s something to be said about a punk album being only 15 minutes long.
Orbital
3/5
Background music. It would suit a club atmosphere well, but really doesn’t fit anywhere else.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
There are very few albums by an upwards-of-a-decade past their prime artist that 1000% deserve a spot on this list, but The Rising absolutely qualifies. For anyone too young to remember 9/11 (a group to which I’d imagine 80% of the haters here belong - anybody who refers to this album as ‘patriotic’ probably thinks “Born in the USA” is patriotic, too, and has zero memory of the masturbatory “America, fuck yeah!” crap that had come out around then), it’s hard to state what a crazy time that was. People weren’t sure if they were ever allowed to feel joy again. I was a little young, but had I been the age I am now back then, I’m almost certain I would have lost friends or family members that day. It was a Herculean task for anyone to truly articulate what we were all feeling, but Bruce handled it with aplomb. I haven’t thought about 9/11 much recently, but listening to “You’re Missing” really hit a nerve.
On a personal note, my first concert was seeing Springsteen in support of this album. I didn’t expect the nostalgia to get me like this, but it certainly did. I could recite this album almost word for word.
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
Solid rock music, if nothing spectacular. Not better than Nevermind or Out if Time, but I did like it.
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
In college I had one friend who loved G. Love and Special Sauce and another friend who hated them. I kinda get both sides now. The beats are good and funky, but G. Love isn’t a good enough rapper to give them the energy they need. Another album that would be improved by incorporating at least one black person.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
I needed to be in the right mood for this one. Even though I still think Bruce’s strengths are in his more bombastic stuff, he’s a good storyteller and is capable of hitting some solid emotional beats here.
Antony and the Johnsons
3/5
This would be very good if they had a lead vocalist who didn’t need to rely on weird vibrato. I guess it fits with this album being all about the lead singer being trans - revolutionary for 2005 - which I guess makes this album significant given its themes (Robert Dimery often gets it wrong, but he gets props for including this one). Problem is, it hurts the album as a whole.
Ice Cube
3/5
This must have been Ice Cube’s bad day.
Ute Lemper
5/5
I don’t understand the negative reviews for this one at all. This is a really cool album. Ute Lemper has a powerful voice that elevates these covers and makes them something unique and epic.
The haters are pushing this rating up for me. People are so needlessly dramatic. Fuck that noise.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
This sounds like shitty dive bar stuff, not something that was made by the same guy who fronted a quintessential punk album. Why Johnny Rotten chose to channel his inner Yoko Ono is beyond me.
Violent Femmes
4/5
A good, hard album. I could see this having a lot of fans among people who hated hair metal.
Paul Simon
3/5
Generic 80's music is not Paul Simon's strength, although his talent does manage to shine through. I think Garfunkel would have elevated some of these. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" would have been unbelievable with him on it.
During "Cars Are Cars", you can pinpoint the exact moment where Paul Simon ran out of ideas for this album.
Jeff Beck
5/5
Hard to find fault with some good old fashioned blues. A lot of raw talent here. Rod Stewart is much better as part of a blues band with equal collaborators than he is as a solo artist.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
Abattoir Blues: The mashup of Springsteen and The Cure I never knew I needed it. An unexpected delight.
The Lyre of Orpheus: It’s really not that surprising that Nick Cave does introspective and soulful well. Some beautiful imagery on display here.
Two very distinct albums that complement each other very well. This one is quite an accomplishment.
Adele
5/5
Talk about using your voice as an instrument!
Stephen Stills
4/5
Cool concept with the different sides. They’re not all good, and this would have made an awesome single. The score is an average because most of this is solid, with the exception of the country side.
Suede
3/5
What’s annoying about this one is that there’s some good stuff here hiding in the schmaltz. “Pantomime Horse” and “Metal Mickey” are awesome. But there’s so much more that’s not great and that sounds incredibly dated. Next to this, the popularity of grunge makes so much sense.
4/5
This works when Devo embrace the fact that they’re goofballs.
Ray Price
3/5
Sounds like the beginning of “Walk Hard” before Dewey Cox writes the title track and Kristen Wiig keeps telling him that he’s gonna fail. Gets a pass because at least this is from the early 60’s and not the mid 70’s.
De La Soul
3/5
Ugh I wanted this to be better! There’s some really fun stuff here, but there’s also a lot of boring stuff too. A little trimming would have done this album a world of good. At least the skits are just one thing instead of overlong misogynistic stuff like a lot of its contemporaries.
Tito Puente
4/5
A fun AF album from the best music teacher Springfield Elementary has ever had.
Billy Bragg
4/5
Teehee… seaman.
Really cool idea and a good way to keep Woody Guthrie’s legacy alive. The two styles don’t mesh the best, and in general the Wilco stuff is better than the Billy Bragg stuff, but on principle this album is great.
Hot Chip
4/5
Solid album, better than regular background music. The chillwavey sound brought back a lot of memories.
Gang Of Four
4/5
I’m not quite sure what the difference is between “punk” and “post-punk”. Nonetheless, I did enjoy this one. It’s not literature, but it is fun as hell.
Travis
2/5
Oh hello, mediocre Britpop. It’s been a minute. Can’t really say I’ve missed you, though.
Minor Threat
3/5
Pretty generic punk. Honestly can’t really distinguish between this and other stuff from the genre.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
The best parts of hair metal without the excess come together to make a solid album. I can see why this would have been influential.
Koffi Olomide
2/5
Is generic island music universal?
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Has one goal in mind and hits it. Solid if not spectacular.
5/5
More ink has been spilled about Sgt. Pepper than probably any other album on this list. IMO , it’s The Beatles’ fourth or fifth best album. Still GOAT level; The Beatles were that fucking good.
Never could be any other way.
Tom Tom Club
3/5
Every single song on this one is both catchy and at least a minute too long. I suppose this makes it a precursor to modern electronica.
The Vines
4/5
Solid piece of rock. Pretty much right up my alley.
Adele
3/5
Adele is not Amy Winehouse, who did this same thing better. I don’t think she quite grasps what her strengths are here. The best Adele songs can’t be sung by anyone else, and a lot of these don’t really fit that bill.
Dr. John
1/5
I was expecting fun, “Iko Iko” shit, not heroin music! Did not enjoy this one at all.
Doves
4/5
Best enjoyed at night accompanied by a joint.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
While parts of this album are pretty good, I don’t know if Cocteau Twins needed more than one album on this list, and Heaven or Las Vegas gets the edge. That being said, “Lorelei” is a banger. I couldn’t listen to the album as intended because my son kept asking me to repeat that one.
The Black Crowes
5/5
Good old blues at its finest. Timeless in the best way.
Johnny Cash
3/5
The music is good. The yammering between songs is not.
I don’t really think it was necessary to have the same song played the same way twice in a row. Maybe if you were there it would be more powerful, but it doesn’t work on an album. (The negative of that one is cancelled out by how good “A Boy Named Sue” is.)
fIREHOSE
3/5
The quality here is wildly inconsistent. Parts of this are good. But other parts fall off pretty hard.
Richard Hawley
1/5
Oh my god this is boring. It’s annoying because there are bright spots on this album that show that the music doesn’t have to be this bad. Unfortunately, the lows are VERY low. It seems that Richard Hawley just chose to make this sappy garbage.
Adam & The Ants
2/5
The singing isn’t good here, and it brings down some otherwise decent music.
Holger Czukay
4/5
I was fully expecting to hate this, and didn’t. Not as totally zany and off the wall as it potentially could have been, for better or worse, but it ended up being a pretty interesting album that I was into.
Herbie Hancock
4/5
Cool and funky. Does get a little elevator music-y for my taste, but it’s generally good.
Bill Evans Trio
5/5
So simple but also fantastic. I can see why this could be considered the peak of the genre.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
I had a snarky review written after the first song, but I deleted it as the album went on. This is a pretty darn samey album, but ya gotta admit that Lana Del Rey does that one thing very well. A very enjoyable listen.
Paul McCartney
4/5
I played this one backwards and got a recipe for a really ripping lentil soup.
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
Very much a mixed bag of an album. I like the upbeat songs here, and on the whole there is a lot to like. But there's a decent amount here that doesn't work for me. Not a fan of Sonic Youth, and the influence of that band on some tracks is obvious in a bad way.
Bauhaus
2/5
Repetitive, generic, and dull new wave just doesn’t do it for me.
Blue Cheer
2/5
Gets some props for being one of the first to do it, although you can very much make the argument that they’re just copying Hendrix, who did it better. This one falls off hard after the first two songs. There’s a lot of overindulgence, which doesn’t work without the talent of a Hendrix.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
5/5
Just when it starts to lag, it swings right back up. I love jazz albums that are “this is the show we were doing”, because they have such an amazing sense of place. I would have loved to see this.
The Youngbloods
4/5
A nice little album that’s well suited for an open field, streamers, a group of people, and a tab of acid for each one. Not perfect - the long instrumentals get a little boring - but a good album with a strong sense of place.
I like the fact that there’s a little ditty called “Turn It Over” right at the end of Side A. It’s a fun little relic of vinyl.
Elastica
4/5
Pretty generic pop punk, but it happens to be a sound I like
Roxy Music
3/5
+1 for boobs. -1 for the weird Nazi song in the middle.
The Lemonheads
4/5
Mostly a solid, fun album. “My Drug Buddy” is a total vibe killer and doesn’t fit at all. IMO, it’s the only thing keeping this from being a 5/5. Why artists always have slow, boring songs in the middle of otherwise upbeat albums is beyond me. Everything else is very good, this album is otherwise a great time.
Gram Parsons
1/5
Everyone involved in making this garbage needs to be punched in the face.
The Soft Boys
4/5
Not everything hits, but the stuff that does is really good. The strong British accents, for whatever reason, fit the psychedelic stuff well.
Gary Numan
2/5
For the love of god, someone get this man a friggin guitar!
Jeff Buckley
5/5
I didn’t expect this to be this varied. All I knew of this one was “Hallelujah”, but this one is way more than that. Jeff Buckley really could do anything with true emotion, and could do it well. A great talent gone way too soon.
Merle Haggard
2/5
I fail to understand where the “outlaw” part of “outlaw country” comes from.
Supergrass
4/5
Senior year of high school, my English teacher used to reference Richard III by walking around with a hunch back and making a weird face. That was a thousand times more memorable than the song of the same name, or anything else on this good but forgettable ripoff of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory.
Ozomatli
4/5
While I wish the expanded “world” influences lasted through the whole album, this one is a fun party!
Little Simz
5/5
Little Simz is pretty damn talented. I liked the lo fi feel this one has - the beats really let her shine.
Laibach
2/5
Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing a lot of Silksong recently, but this gave me epic video game boss vibes. The music is the culmination of the whole thing, and the “singing” is the weird sounds the little bugs make.
“How the West Was Won” is weirdly Nazi-ish, and brings my score down.
Dirty Projectors
4/5
I have a lot of memories of this one. This is very closely associated with smoking a joint on an empty college campus in the dog days of the summer when it came out. While it does fall off a bit towards the end, I think it’s a good album that has a bit of a nostalgia tinge for me.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
Dear electronic music artists,
Two minutes is more than enough time to get the point across in a song that just repeats the same phrase over and over again. If the majority of your songs are hitting the 5-minute mark, those songs are WAY too long.
Sincerely,
The world
Joe Ely
3/5
Generic country music with lyrics that a teenager would find deep and romantic. That being said, I do kinda like this. I could see myself having fun with the fun parts of this one at a bar. Unfortunately, there are a few lame tracks here that bring this one down.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
What machine did you think they were raging against? The dishwasher?
Fuck Nazis. Fuck fascists. Fuck ICE. Fuck Donald Trump and anyone who supports that piece of shit. No kings. Ever.
Syd Barrett
2/5
“Madcap” is a little misleading. I was hoping this would be really off the wall. Unfortunately, without drugs this is just boring, even with the goofy moments. There’s no way a Syd-led Floyd would have been commercially successful, and this is unfortunately a sad reminder of his decline.
Beatles
5/5
It’s a massive accomplishment to make an album this long and not repeat yourself once, with none of it sounding forced. Since it might be the least “samey” album on the entire list it can be easy to forget how awesome the White Album is, but this is a real adventure. Deserves its legacy.
Madness
1/5
Madness? THIS. IS. TERRIBLE!!!!! (with some shockingly racist songs and cover artwork thrown in for good measure)
*kicks a dude into a giant well with a bunch of Maxwell House coffee at the bottom*
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Grooved to this a little but honestly nothing memorable. Not sure if there really needed to be 3 Echo and the Bunnymen albums here.
Primal Scream
3/5
When it grooves this one is really good. The problem is that it drags a shitload at parts.
King Crimson
4/5
I can see why so many bands wanted to do this. This was a real musical journey. So many moments would suck in a vacuum. But in the context of the whole album they work in their place. For the most part, a good listen.
The Style Council
2/5
The piano is nice, and the “cafe” descriptor is accurate. But there’s so much here (basically all of side 2) that doesn’t work. At least all of those songs suck in their own unique ways.
Kate Bush
1/5
Kate Bush is very talented. I’m glad she stopped wasting that talent on weird noises, grunting, and other experimental nonsense.
Turbonegro
4/5
This album is dumb and generic, but also fun as shit. Why would Green Day and Blink-182 get a pass when these guys get hated on for the same thing? (Speaking of which, where the hell is Blink on this list?!)
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
A folkier Radiohead. Some of this would work very well while secluded in the woods somewhere. Not all of it does. I think it tends to overstay its welcome a bit. Not sure if Rufus Wainwright has the range that he gets credit for, but parts of this were good.
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
Ten times out of ten I’d rather have lo-fi electronica than repetitive techno beats. That being said, it works as background beats but not as much as an album. Its a little disjointed in that regard.
Wilco
4/5
Nice album, I don’t think it’s earth-shattering or anything but it’s good.
Anthrax
3/5
Doesn’t have the musical chops or singing ability that Metallica or Megadeth do. Still an enjoyable listen. I can see how the more talentless bands were inspired by this.
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
DEPROGRAMMER: But I did get Paul McCartney out of Wings.
HOMER: You idiot! He was the most talented one!
David Ackles
1/5
Broadway stars usually have the pipes or the personality to back it up. Not this guy.
It's astonishing that Apple Music has the audacity to compare this cheesy crap to Elton John. This asshat deserved every little bit of his obscurity.
Elvis Presley
5/5
Easily Elvis’s best album on this list. I feel like this is the peak of Elvis as an artist in his own right; no longer blatantly stealing from black people, but before he got fat and sad. Seems like the army was a positive influence on the guy.
Boards of Canada
4/5
Mood and setting is very important for this album. This is a chill floaty album that in no way should ever be listened to during the day.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
The Stones really only do one thing. However, they may be the best who ever did that one thing. This is them at the top of their game.
Maxwell
2/5
"I grew up in a small town. What about me seems ‘urban’ to you?" - Stanley Hudson
Leonard Cohen
5/5
Leonard Cohen’s Blackstar. Hits the same way, especially knowing his time was coming. Any musician should aspire to go out like this.
The Saints
3/5
Extremely generic punk. This is probably some shit that was kinda popular only in the UK and made zero impact after a year, but Robert Dimery kinda liked it, so here it is.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Is it a controversial opinion that this isn't Bob Marley's best? This felt very average. Maybe in the right setting it could be something you can groove to, but I feel like he has better, more powerful stuff elsewhere.
Jungle Brothers
5/5
This is a great album with an empowering message and some real fun beats. The late 80's, early 90's is definitely my hip hop sweet spot.
XTC
3/5
Liked some of this. Really could do without the weird new-wavey parts or stuff that sounds generically 80's. At the very least this one isn’t boring.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
Young > Stills > Nash > Crosby
Blondie
4/5
A great album to listen to when you’re trying to catch someone in the act in the projection room above the auditorium.
The Jam
4/5
While I don’t know if this necessarily qualifies as “need to listen to before you die”, this was pretty good.
Minutemen
2/5
Did Minutemen just invent a new genre to mask a lack of talent?
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
I like how this one sounds - this one is a lot of fun. But you do start to wonder about halfway through if these songs are all so long because they ran out of ideas for a full album.
Motörhead
5/5
Things Lemmy was very good at: rocking out really hard, making a fucking awesome album.
Things Lemmy was not good at: singing. But honestly, does it matter?
Pentangle
5/5
I have no idea why ren faire hippy dippy shit with sitars is absolutely my jam, but ima let it ride.
The The
2/5
Why is there so much mediocre British new wave on this list?? The fucking Spice Girls would be a more worthwhile entry than this!! Fucking Nickelback would be a more worthwhile entry than this!!
The Monkees
4/5
This one would be viewed a hell of a lot higher without all the TV show nonsense. Turns out The Monkees could keep up with the best of em.
Motörhead
4/5
All of these songs sound exactly the same and are indistinguishable from their studio versions. It does start to get old after a while. While I don’t think this album was necessary for this list, this would have been a fucking awesome concert to go to.
3/5
Bob Dylan isn’t really the type of artist for whom live albums really get the point across.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
ELAINE: Although one wonders if "War and Peace" would have been as highly acclaimed as it was if it was published under its original name "War: What Is It Good For?"
LIPPMAN: What?
ELAINE: Yes, Mr. Lippman. It was his mistress who insisted he call it "War and Peace". "War: What Is It Good For?". [singing] Absolutely nothin'! Huh! Say it again!
4/5
Not a perfect album - gets a little too self-indulgent at times - but a good one, certainly not rubbish. It makes sense why Blur are the gold standard for Brit pop.
Faith No More
4/5
Good, but the “War Pigs” cover can’t help but remind you that, no, this is not the real thing.
KISS
4/5
Does it hurt my musical cred that I like this better than most punk?
The Temptations
4/5
Barely the same band that made “My Girl”, but a good album that showcases their talent.
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Never thought I’d like an album of accordion symphonies, but here we are.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Leonard Cohen’s style mixed with 80’s synths is a REAL weird mix that doesn’t really work. I might just not be into Leonard Cohen’s style.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
Very nice, albeit generic, background music.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
Neil Young wrote a song that was literally all about how it’s better to die than to make garbage like this. I kind of get it.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
I personally prefer a loungier, bad-boy Sinatra, so this didn’t really gel with me. It’s kinda one-note in a way that doesn’t really work too well. This would fit in certain settings, but a whole album of this is a drag.
It kinda hurts to rate Sinatra this low.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
All country. Zero sappy bullshit (although it is a little bit hokey).
Super Furry Animals
4/5
Some of the blips and blorps definitely venture into “weird for weirdness’ sake”, but more good than bad. Definitely not generic Brit pop.
John Lennon
4/5
I’m glad the whole “Lennon good, McCartney bad” narrative has died out.
Derek & The Dominos
5/5
Clapton sucks as a human being, but made a damn good album. When this becomes the Duane Allman show, it goes to another level.
Pulp
3/5
Factually incorrect title. I’d consider songs about being nice to old people to be pretty far from hardcore.
The National
5/5
The National are a "winter band". Since I happened to be listening to this in the northeastern US, where it's currently freezing, this fits perfectly. I get a very introspective feeling when I listen to this. It definitely helps during what can become a dreary time of year.
Skepta
2/5
The universal awfulness of skits on hip hop albums spans an entire ocean.
The Cars
4/5
The name of the game is restraint. By using synths only where they benefit the song, The Cars made a much better album than their (many) imitators.
Laura Nyro
3/5
Some jazzy psychedelia that’s held back by some odd vocal decisions.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
Another excellent “winter album” (with a very appropriate cover). This one is dark as shit, but it’s incredibly varied, a real showcase of Nick Cave’s talents. If you’re interested in that sort of thing this is immensely rewarding.
Destiny's Child
3/5
The ocean of talent that separates Beyoncé and the other members of Destiny’s Child is kind of amusing.
Gang Starr
4/5
While A Tribe Called Quest did this better, this is pretty solid. The early 90’s definitely was the golden age of hip hop.
Ryan Adams
2/5
I thought I hated all country. Turns I just hate slow, sappy country. Unfortunately, the majority of the album is the latter, which is a shame considering the fact that “To Be Young” and “Shakedown on 9th Street” are both genuine jams.
Jefferson Airplane
5/5
🍄 Life is. 😜
k.d. lang
2/5
Boring and dated. There’s good production and a lot that’s musically interesting (“Season of Hollow Soul” is a high point), but it turns out to be way less than the sum of its parts.
4/5
The evolution of the Kinks from a blatant Stones knockoff to something psychedelic and unique is fascinating. Still not the most original album in the world (Ray Davies added Hendrix and Barrett-era Floyd into his knockoff mix), but it's enjoyable and interesting.
Roxy Music
1/5
For whose pleasure? Certainly not mine.
Eurythmics
3/5
*snoooooort*
American Music Club
2/5
The fact that this isn't on streaming is indicative of how forgettable this is.
Iron Maiden
4/5
A nice prelude for better stuff to come.
Barry Adamson
3/5
Making a soundtrack to an imaginary movie once is a cool concept. Doing it twice comes off as desperate.
Neil Young
4/5
Neil Young is a good songwriter and sometimes sings very good and powerful stuff. I don’t think he has the pipes to carry some of these tunes, though. The stuff he harmonizes on is far superior to his solo voice alone. Still solid.
5/5
“Rise and fall” is a very apt descriptor for this. A deserving classic.
The KLF
2/5
It’s fitting that the first song is called “Go to Sleep” because that’s exactly what this album made me do.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Elevators: World Tour
M.I.A.
3/5
There’s an annoying trend on this list of debut albums from artists whose craft is not yet fully formed and who made much more of an impact with later works.
Bee Gees
1/5
Yes, when I think of The Bee Gees, I think of this weird knockoff of about five better bands with Yoko-esque singing added in. Not the music that defined an entire genre. No, it’s definitely this.
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
It’s something special when a band can be this locked in. This was a real pleasure to listen to, and I can see why it was such a big deal when MBV made new music for the first time in a million years.
Butthole Surfers
2/5
Track 1: this is a little weird, but I kinda dig it. I don’t really get why this is rated so low.
Track 2: ah, there it is.
There’s actually some to like here. “Human Cannonball” and the two tracks bookending this one are solid. The rest of it is exactly like I’d imagine a band called ‘Butthole Surfers’ to sound like.
The Isley Brothers
5/5
This one is fun as shit! Danced the whole way through. Some really good guitar work here too. Love some good funk like this.
UB40
2/5
Relaxing and beachy, but god instrumental reggae is boring.
William Orbit
2/5
Perfectly adequate, and WAY too long.
Robert Wyatt
5/5
This is a really interesting and psychedelic album! I think Robert Wyatt could have used a collaborator and I don't love his vocals a lot of the time, but I was hanging on this one's every note. I can see how someone would hate this, but it really resonated with me.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
1/5
Based on the cover art, it's clear that "Jah Wobble" has no idea that the terms "Indian", meaning from India, and "Indian", the outdated term for Native Americans, refer to two completely different groups of people.
The Doors
2/5
Jim Morrison has taught us all that it's possible to simultaneously do way too much heroin and have your head be way too far up your own ass.
Queen
5/5
The entirety of Side Black is unbelievably epic, and this album is phenomenal based on the strength of that alone.
David Gray
3/5
“The protagonist and his love interest have broken up, he’s fighting with his best friend, and he’s lost his job because he yelled at his boss while standing up for his principles. Cut to a montage where all the characters look sad for a while before they sort out their personal problems, followed by the protagonist making up with his best friend. At the end of the montage, it’s two days before prom and they’re hatching a grand romantic gesture to get the girl back. We need a musical cue.”
“Well, look what I have for you…”
The Fall
1/5
Sometimes when you listen to an album you can tell who was never told “no” at any point in their lives.
Marilyn Manson
1/5
Like Marilyn Manson the person, everything about this is for shock and not about creating a quality product. Exactly the kind of thing that someone who got a rib surgically removed so he could suck his own dick would make.
Also, it’s so…fucking…long.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
These guys are immensely talented musicians who could play any genre they wanted. However, that has the unintended consequence of making this album very disjointed. It feels more like they're auditioning to be someone's backing band rather than making a product of their own. There are a few tracks here ("More and More", "God Bless the Child") that are absolutely incredible, but there are others that just plain don't work.
The Offspring
4/5
Something about this makes me want to get on a skateboard. Does start to get a bit samey, but when the vibe is this much fun, who cares? A perfect time capsule of a very specific era.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
I’m getting older, life is short, and I don’t need to impress anyone anymore by appearing worldly, so I can say it: I don’t like this kind of music.
Fishbone
4/5
I was listening to this as I arrived in Southern California from the cold, gloomy northeast and it fit perfectly. It’s strongest when the horns are prominent, and the tracks that aren’t as ska-ey are weaker as a result, but the strong parts are what you come away with.
The Strokes
5/5
Hits are hits for a reason.
Incubus
4/5
Solid album. It’s weird how different “Drive” is from the rest of it.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
Not an easy listen, not a fun listen, and not something I want to listen to more than once. But goddamn it, that is powerful. An incredibly moving portrait of grief.
Megadeth
3/5
What happens when you can shred like crazy but can’t really write a good song.
Magazine
3/5
This would be awesome if the lead singer could carry a tune. It’s mostly very good during solos and instrumental sections, but the weak vocals hold it back. Doesn’t end well either - I was turned off by “Parade”.
Soundgarden
5/5
You can get away with a long album when it’s this solid and shows this much technical skill.
Scott Walker
4/5
At some point I went from hating this one to getting really into it. The lyrics are interesting (if misogynistic, homophobic, or racist at times), and the music is varied and captivating. You can also hear the influence of his psychedelic contemporaries here, which was a surprise. Better than boring-ass Sinatra.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
4/5
“OK, so let's, um, talk about your opening remarks. Do you want me to write you a rap? I'll write you a rap. No, you know what? You'll never be able to pull it off. You're too white. How about a show tune or something?” - Leslie Knope
Yes
2/5
If you have heaven, then for the love of god send me straight to hell.
Beatles
5/5
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve listened to this a thousand times, but this one still hits. There’s something magical about having this playing on vinyl while making breakfast on a snowy Sunday morning.
Common
4/5
Smooth, lo-fi hip hop with some great flow, even though (pre-brain damage) Kanye’s production is better than his rapping. A very melodic hip hop album. Something that someone with high quantitative intelligence should be able to appreciate.
Pink Floyd
3/5
Parts of this groove nicely, but then a lot of it is very much a bad trip. Often shifts within the same song.
There's no way a Barrett-led Floyd is commercially successful past 1968.
Cypress Hill
3/5
A good funky groove, although now that weed is legal, this doesn’t pack the same punch it once might have.
Randy Newman
3/5
Is it just me, or would all of these songs sound better sung by Ray Charles?
The Damned
4/5
A surprising amount of virtuosity here. Punk is always elevated by talented musicians. A good listen.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
This was a beautiful way to start a morning. A strong album that suits Joni Mitchell’s strengths very well. Ethereal listen.
Eels
2/5
A real disappointing downer of an album. This one could really pack a punch but it feels like it’s holding back.
Machito
4/5
A fun album that needs the right headspace to be fully appreciated. A bit samey but enjoyable.
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
Much better than I thought it would be. This is a truly global album with influences from all over the world. Well worth the listen.
Michael Jackson
5/5
HEE hee!
Dolly Parton
3/5
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” - Dita Von Teese
Stevie Wonder
3/5
When this gets upbeat and funky it’s a lot of fun. Problem is, there are a lot of long, slow, repetitive tracks that drag this down a lot. Songs in the Key of Life this is not.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Some of what makes Loveless special is here, but a lot of it isn’t. MBV didn’t come out of the gate fully formed. There’s nothing to distinguish some tracks from their contemporaries, and the end result is just noise.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Some of this is dated AF, but other tracks have a great Lofi groove to them. This is definitely an improvement over the other Everything But the Girl album on this list.
Moby
3/5
There are tracks that aren’t super repetitive, and those are pretty good. The album itself is nicely varied, but a lot of it fades into the background.
5/5
My wife will be happy that I liked this.
Tricky
4/5
Real nice groove up until “Strugglin’”, which I struggled to get through. You don’t get many “Revolution 9”s on albums, but here it is. Removing that track entirely would have bumped this to a 5 since the rest of it was pretty good.
a-ha
2/5
Memories of when “Take On Me” (the only half decent song on this album) would always play on my old school iPod because a-ha was my first artist in alphabetical order.
Radiohead
3/5
The highs (“Packt Like Sardines”, “I Might Be Wrong”, “Knives Out”, “Dollars and Cents”, “Life in a Glasshouse”) are high, but some of this album drags badly and sounds exactly like what it is: Kid A leftovers.
This might be sacrilege to some: TKOL > Amnesiac.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
1/5
Rap made by people who just finished their first semester of college and have all the answers, man.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
Gets into a good groove and hits it very well. Solid jazz album.
The Beta Band
4/5
A nice relaxing album. Not the most exciting thing in the world but if you want something calming it’s the exact sort of thing you want to listen to.
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
Some rockin tunes, but others that get stopped short by production that’s as dated as that hairstyle.
The Stooges
2/5
Iggy Pop’s career is proof alone that anyone who says drugs = better music has no idea what the fuck they’re talking about.
Kraftwerk
4/5
I still don’t get why people love Kraftwerk as much as they do, but this one was pretty enjoyable.
Brian Eno
3/5
https://share.google/36OH7Ll7pq0FWul37
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
1/5
Some half-decent blues that they keep ruining with noise.
Brian Eno
5/5
Surprisingly non-ambient music from Will Shortz’s favorite ambient musician that’s (mostly) a hell of a lot of fun. The quality of the outro cancels out the badness of “Driving Me Backwards”.
Neil Young
5/5
This is the Neil Young sweet spot. Songwriting that fits his style well, and a good variation to it. I still don’t love his voice, but it works here. I can see why this is considered his best.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
While not all of this works, you gotta give Joni Mitchell credit for stepping out of her comfort zone. The album is way more than the sum of its parts. It’s good despite its weak points.
You know what? Extra star because fuck the haters.
Napalm Death
1/5
The little “explicit” marking on all of the tracks is kinda funny. This album has zero intelligible lyrics. A death metal “Louie Louie”, if you will.
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
There was a time in my life when I pretended to like this to seem artsy and sophisticated.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Like butter is very apt for this one. Smooth as shit. IMO, a candidate for GOAT rap album.
Deep Purple
3/5
Some live albums are essential to understanding a band’s essence, and some are just “ya had to be there”. This is the latter.
Blur
3/5
“Song 2” is easily the best song. A lot of the rest of this is pretty weak.
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
An instrumental version of this sort of thing is a fuckton better than anything with vocals. A very zen listening experience, something I never would have listened to without this project.
Paul Simon
4/5
Like Lennon and McCartney’s early solo efforts, there’s a sense that this is missing a piece. There’s a big Garfunkel-sized hole here. Every song would be improved by his harmony vocals.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
A few good spots here and there, but a lot of this is kind of aimless in a bad way.
Slayer
2/5
CALVIN: Mom, can I have some money to buy a suicide-advocating, Satan-worshiping heavy metal album?
MOM: Calvin, the fact that these bands haven’t killed themselves in ritual self-sacrifice shows that they’re just in it for the money like everyone else. It’s all for effect. If you want to shock and provoke, be sincere about it.
CALVIN: Mainstream commercial nihilism can’t be trusted?
MOM: ‘Fraid not, kiddo.
CALVIN: Childhood is so disillusioning.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Love him or hate him, it’s an undeniable fact that nobody else could pull this off.
Sepultura
1/5
Jesus, someone give this dude a throat lozenge!
Justin Timberlake
1/5
In 2004, I turned off the halftime show at the beginning because I thought it was boring. Ergo, I missed Janet Jackson’s boob. I still regret doing that.
(SIDE NOTE: Janet got absolutely screwed there. That happening on “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song” shows that it was 100% intentional and 100% on Justin. The more you think about it, the more you realize how massive of a douchebag Justin Timberlake really is.)
Slow, soulful R&B is worse when it’s sung by white people. Also loses a point because after about minute 40, this one is absolutely interminable. This does NOT need to be this long.
Anything N*Sync > any JT solo material.
The Slits
2/5
Doesn’t have the power that could really elevate this. Musicianship isn’t good, and the songs themselves are really lackluster.
+1 for boobs.
Bert Jansch
4/5
Dylan becomes good but forgettable when you take away the harmonica and improve his voice, although this is elevated by some solid guitar work.
Beatles
5/5
Easily the best mop top album. The peak of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership (as a team). This is the album that showed that the Beatles weren’t going away, although “best band ever” was still a few years out. It’s very easy to understand why girls were chasing them to the train.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
This isn’t that great sober.
ABBA
5/5
A scientific study said that “Don’t Stop Me Now” is the world’s happiest song. Those scientists are incorrect. It’s “Dancing Queen”.
Leftfield
2/5
Kind of good, but also doesn’t quite work as an album - a lot of this is really just a space journey soundtrack. Also, like many electronic albums on this list, it’s So. Fucking. Long.
The 13th Floor Elevators
4/5
These guys are what I’d imagine an opener for the Stones would be like.
Genesis
3/5
Guitar-heavy prog is about a thousand times better than synth-heavy prog.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
Starts off pretty solid, but overstays its welcome. Starts to sound awfully samey and could really benefit from a little oomph.
The Jam
4/5
A solid piece of some very British rock.
The Adverts
3/5
Very generic British punk.
Throbbing Gristle
3/5
I didn’t hate this. There are some interesting ideas here. Parts of this (namely “AB/7A”) are genuinely good. However, a decent amount of this one is kinda aimless, random, and boring. A lot of songs that go on for too long and good ideas that aren’t executed well.
I probably won’t revisit this, but I’m glad I listened to it. Doesn’t deserve to be the lowest rated album in the generator at all.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
5/5
This is the whitest thing I’ve ever loved.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
This is the best post-1995 rap album I’ve listened to on this list.
Lambchop
2/5
An easy listening yawnfest for sad indie kids.
Guided By Voices
2/5
Very few bands are able to make incomplete song segments work. The Beatles managed to do it. GBV are NOT the Beatles. The terrible production doesn’t help. The complete songs are top notch, though that doesn’t do much to save the album as a whole.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
4/5
I can’t tell if this is derivative of several other, better bands from that era, or if this is a “Seinfeld is Unfunny” situation where something hugely influential has been riffed on so much that people lose sight on what was great about the original.
Radiohead
5/5
Any musicians who innately understand that the bass and drums are what makes “Tomorrow Never Knows” work know what the fuck they’re doing.
Jeebus, Kid A is a good album.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Not Stevie’s best but a fun, solid album. A sort of preview for the greatness to come soon.
Thin Lizzy
5/5
A hell of a lot better than any live album that’s basically just playing the his has any right to be. This rocks super hard and doesn’t let up. Yes, now it’s dad rock, but the dads are right with this one. Exactly what I wanted.
Hookworms
4/5
Good, but this feels like an “I know this genre is important, but since I don’t know enough about which albums from it are important I’ll just randomly pick a British band to represent it” choice from Dimery. I’d like this more if I didn’t know anything about Passion Pit.
The Allman Brothers Band
5/5
The reviews for this one really piss me off. This album is incredible. Sorry it’s not Sonic Youth, you pretentious twatwaffles.
Buck Owens
1/5
You cannot look me in the eye and say this is music made by grown adults for grown adults.
ZZ Top
4/5
Not all of the songs are great, but a few of these are certified bangers.
Dr. Octagon
2/5
Good technique over some boring-ass beats, with lyrics that sound like they were written by a horny 14-year-old boy. Cover art this cool shouldn’t be wasted on a product this subpar.
Finley Quaye
2/5
MICHAEL: I got to see how Jamaicans live. It is great. You know, they just relax, they party all the time.
PAM: It's kind of an impoverished country.
Iron Butterfly
5/5
Bart got some damn good rock and/or roll played in that church. Kudos to the elderly organist. I get why she collapsed at the end.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
I was certainly smiling politely while listening to this one. At their peak, Smashing Pumpkins were capable of a legit musical journey.
1/5
If you told me this was a high school band’s show, I’d believe you.
“Starship” brought this down a point.
Fairport Convention
4/5
Not sure about Dimery’s fascination with Ren Faire music, but I’m kinda into it.
Solange
3/5
When the beat drops, this is a solid album with an important message. However, slow R&B never did it for me, and a lot of this one is exactly that. The comparisons to her (admittedly more talented) sister are inevitable, but at least Solange has carved her own path.
Os Mutantes
4/5
I never imagined “psychedelic Latin music” to be a thing, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense.
The Only Ones
3/5
A solid rocking album that’s brought down by below-replacement-level lead vocals.
Tom Waits
5/5
This is the best Tom Waits album I’ve heard by a huge margin. Tom Waits sounds like he’s smoked WAY too many cigarettes, but that style really works here. Soulful and funny and evocative of a very specific kind of bar. I was hanging on this album’s every note.
Buzzcocks
4/5
Generic but good punk.
Slint
1/5
Oh look, there’s only six songs.
They’re HOW long?!
The Cure
5/5
This is an artist firing on all cylinders. Every note fits together like a puzzle piece, creating something beautiful.
Anita Baker
2/5
This was dated like two years after it came out.
Beatles
5/5
OBJECTIVE NON-HYPERBOLIC STATEMENT OF FACT: the Abbey Road medley is the greatest piece of recorded music in human history.
The Cure
3/5
Not the best from the Cure, especially since I listened to “Disintegration” yesterday, but enjoyable. Don’t love the short tracks, but at least they do their thing and finish quickly.
Steve Winwood
2/5
That’s a gift for you, bumblebee. Enjoy it, Coach Dick-and-Balls.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
The Flaming Lips make very pretty music with vocals that don’t live up to that music’s potential, at least here. Wayne Coyne has raw talent and a voice that can really fit this well at its best, but often sounds like he’s straining to make it work. A voice lesson would do him a world of good.
However, like my rating of The Mars Volta, the music is good enough to keep the rating high.
Tom Waits
2/5
Tom Waits works when he’s in his very specific wheelhouse. He has ventured FAR out of that wheelhouse for a lot of this.
X-Ray Spex
4/5
This is a fun one!
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
One of the biggest surprises of this project for me is how much I like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This spoke to my inner emo kid in ways actual emo music never could.
SZA
1/5
Alternates between being boring as shit and so morally and artistically bankrupt that it borders on appalling. I didn't know a female singer could be misogynistic, but here we are.
FKA twigs
2/5
I didn't understand the hype around this album when it first came out, and I still don't understand that hype. Yawn.
Janet Jackson
3/5
A largely fun album that’s held back by lyrics that think they’re deeper than they are and some bad early-CD era bloat.
SAULT
5/5
As a white male, there is a LOT that I could never understand about experiences that are not my own. Saying things like “people never thought about race” or “why do you have to bring race/gender into it” is something that only someone who has the privilege of not having to think about race/gender gets. A person who is a different race has no choice to bring race into it, because race is a part of their everyday life.
This album is very much a product of the time at which it was released. It happened to hit at the exact right time, speaking to a moment in ways that were unfortunately all too predictable when recording it. The fact is, there are certain things that ONLY happen to a small subset of people. This album is a testament to that.
Frankly, the music here doesn’t always do it for me, but fuck all of the hideously racist reviews for this one. A very spiteful five stars. Dimery doesn’t always get it right, but kudos to him for including this one.
Ananda Shankar
4/5
Yes, Side A is him piggybacking off of his uncle’s success with the Beatles, but it’s still a fun concept. I don’t know enough about Indian music to say if it was executed well or not, but I enjoyed it.
Side A also did a good job of priming my western ears for Side B. Yes, “Sagar” was too long, but it works in an album where it’s the only song of its kind. I can see how this would have its place.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Post-Vietnam, pre-old age Dylan is just fine. I guess this was a “return to form” from him, but it doesn’t stand out in an era where distance muddles the “when it came out” of all of it.
T. Rex
4/5
Solid album that doesn’t have the obvious hits like the other one, but I liked it.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
“Thom Yorke does Sinatra” isn’t quite the flex Rufus Wainwright seems to think it is.
Eagles
4/5
The Eagles are an interesting case study in nominative determinism. Bernie Leadon plays guitar like a guy named Bernie Leadon, and Joe Walsh plays guitar like a guy named Joe Walsh.
Germs
2/5
Do I not “get” punk?!
No, it’s the children who are wrong.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Didn’t “wow” me like it did others, but it definitely has its moments. More cohesive than his earlier solo album on this list, and gets stronger as it goes on. The ending pushes the rating up - “Biko” is a strong track.
Kraftwerk
1/5
This is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. How people get such a boner for this is beyond me.
Fats Domino
4/5
Oh, the ‘40’s, when an overweight guy could just casually go by the nickname “Fats” without anyone batting an eye.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
(Possible) CONTROVERSIAL OPINION: Garfunkel had the better voice, even though “The Boxer” might be a perfect song.
Genesis
4/5
Indulgent in a good way. Peter Gabriel really needed Genesis - this is a million times better than any of his solo material.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Not sure if this or Blonde On Blonde is the best Dylan ever got, but this is very much his sweet spot. I love how you can hear how influential this was in all sorts of places, from Nick Cave in “Ballad of a Thin Man” to Bruce Springsteen in “Desolation Row”. Several Dylan albums are overrated, but not this one.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Anyone else who refers to themselves as “outlaw country” is a big fat effin liar.
The Afghan Whigs
5/5
A really good grungey sound that resonated with me a lot.
Röyksopp
4/5
A solid album to listen to outside on a beautiful spring days.
Wilco
4/5
Is it controversial to say that this is better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?
The Avalanches
4/5
Solid album. I liked how everything flowed together. Electronic albums are always better when the songs don’t overstay their welcome.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
A little more self-indulgent than I’d like. Would be more effective if it didn’t outstay its welcome.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
The music is very good, but Neil Young’s voice isn’t really the best fit for it.
Fleet Foxes
5/5
When I was in college, a few friends and I dropped acid on an absolutely gorgeous spring afternoon. About 10 hours into the trip, my friend Mike and I got very into the song “White Winter Hymnal”, listening to it maybe, no exaggeration, 20 times in a row. By then it was about 5 in the morning. Mike and I went out to the front porch of our house to watch the sunrise, and made a detailed list of reasons we were proud of every single member of our fraternity. It remains one of the most deeply positive experiences of my entire life, and I am forever grateful for it.
Mike and I lost touch over the years (this was almost 20 years ago, holy shit), he left the country and has a different number nowadays. However, the memory of that night will stay with me forever. Mike, if you ever find yourself doing this ridiculous albums project and come across this review, miss you man.