651
Albums Rated
3.29
Average Rating
60%
Complete
438 albums remaining
Featured Review
Tago Mago
Can • 4/5
Difficult to decipher, but I have rounded up some clues. I will need to listen several more times before even beginning to deduce who the killer is, but here's what I have so far: 1 - The term "Mushroom" has multiple meanings. Especially important to recognize that Damo Suzuki is a Japanese native person singing English words in front of a West German band. "When I saw a mushroom head I was born and I was dead" could refer to The Bomb OR a psychedelic experience. That the succeeding song pulls out of this one and literally explodes on the first note could also imply something more base level. Mushroomhead. hmm... 2 - Paperhouse lulls the listener into thinking this might be a rock album. It is not. That is a mental trick designed to pull you out of your usual reality in a nicer way than just dropping Aumgn on you. 3 - The rhythm section of Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebiz (later sampled by Q-Tip on ManWomanBoogie, I still can't get over that fact) both had parents who were essentially dispatched by the Nazis. This generation of German people is rarely talked about in these parts. Why do you think they're making so much noise? In some ways it appears this music might be a reflection of their inner lives, or at least in my imagining. Chaotic. Harsh. Frightening. UNRELENTING. WWII must have absolutely sucked. 4 - Unlike any other CAN, or any other Krautrock for that matter! 5 - WHY did they get a new singer? From wikipedia: "Mooney quit the band and returned to America soon after the recording of Monster Movie, having been told by a psychiatrist that getting away from the chaotic music of Can would be better for his mental health." IF THAT WERE TRUE, are we not encouraged to get away from the chaotic music of CAN? Why only Mooney? Just asking questions, not saying that CAN is an aborted CIA MKUltra spinoff project to weaponize rock music against the hippies. I am 100% NOT saying that. Do your own research. 6 - Damo Suzuki (friend of the great Mark E. Smith, RIP) did this month, just as my findings have come out and I now have no way to corroborate them. This is very suspicious. 7 - If you play "Aumgn" backwards, it says "Bring me a towel. I killed Luap" over and over. IN CONCLUSION: some say that this avant-garde masterpiece is not an experiment in merging rock aesthetics with musique concrete, or a stab at musical dadaism and surrealism, or spontaneous outbursts of sound simply for their own sake to further explore the ideologies of post-modernists like Stockhausen. No, they claim it is something more sinister, that perhaps CAN were mere puppets of the military-industrial establishment, bent on undermining the emerging free-thought and youth movements (among so many other postwar philosophies that were starting to dawn) by turning music against itself, in an effort to lead it towards it's own destruction. I don't say this, but some do.
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1970
Favorite Decade
Reggae
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
98
5-Star Albums
45
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room
Dwight Yoakam
|
5 | 2.6 | +2.4 |
|
Live At The Witch Trials
The Fall
|
5 | 2.64 | +2.36 |
|
The Infotainment Scan
The Fall
|
5 | 2.71 | +2.29 |
|
Group Sex
Circle Jerks
|
5 | 2.75 | +2.25 |
|
Nick Of Time
Bonnie Raitt
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
Warehouse: Songs And Stories
Hüsker Dü
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
|
Music Has The Right To Children
Boards of Canada
|
5 | 2.91 | +2.09 |
|
Spiderland
Slint
|
5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
|
Larks' Tongues In Aspic
King Crimson
|
5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
|
Wild Gift
X
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Hotel California
Eagles
|
1 | 3.59 | -2.59 |
|
Electric Warrior
T. Rex
|
1 | 3.53 | -2.53 |
|
Songs For Swingin' Lovers!
Frank Sinatra
|
1 | 3.52 | -2.52 |
|
The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem
|
1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
|
Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
|
1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
|
Be
Common
|
1 | 3.35 | -2.35 |
|
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
|
1 | 3.34 | -2.34 |
|
Melodrama
Lorde
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
The College Dropout
Kanye West
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Surf's Up
The Beach Boys
|
1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 6 | 4.67 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 5 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 5 |
| Beatles | 5 | 4.4 |
| The Fall | 3 | 4.67 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.67 |
| Yes | 3 | 4.67 |
| Beastie Boys | 3 | 4.67 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 3 | 4.67 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 2 | 5 |
| Paul Simon | 2 | 5 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 5 |
| Elton John | 2 | 5 |
| Green Day | 2 | 5 |
| The Who | 2 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 6 | 4.17 |
| Pixies | 3 | 4.33 |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 4.33 |
| The White Stripes | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kanye West | 2 | 1 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2 | 1 |
| Frank Sinatra | 2 | 1 |
| Rufus Wainwright | 2 | 1 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 4 | 1.75 |
| Eminem | 2 | 1.5 |
| Sonic Youth | 2 | 1.5 |
| Grateful Dead | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Eagles | 4, 1 |
| Pink Floyd | 5, 5, 2 |
| The Beach Boys | 1, 4, 3 |
5-Star Albums (98)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Mott The Hoople · 9 likes
2/5
I was going to say “the poor man’s David Bowie” but that’s insulting to the poor man. Formulaic and over-produced.
X · 7 likes
5/5
Wild Gift is a pretty complex thing for a punk album. Rather than shriek about violence or people who think they're better than you, we get these emotional open wounds. Really raw and seemingly personal, Wild Gift fits the genre by just confronting the ugliness that can happen in relationships. Yet X go far, far beyond genre expectations.
They beautify it with their harmonies: frightening, wistful, sad, vulnerable; they decorate it with their musical chops: heavy, dynamic, rootsy. It's so much more than the sum of its parts and there really is nothing else like it. DJ Bonebrake, Billy Zoom, John Doe and Exena have no peers in their genre.
MAN I hope the 1001 albums doesn't ignore the better and more influential X debut album.
Depeche Mode · 6 likes
1/5
At their best Depeche Mode are an overly serious version of Kraftwerk with a monotonous cabaret singer. At their worst a soulless New Romantic band of goth posers. PICK A LANE Depressed Mood! I will give the list a pass on one Depeche Mode album, but why two? At least I got them out ogf the way early. This has been a very below-average week. Hopefully next week isn't all Tom Waits and Rod Stewart 🫣 .
Incredible Bongo Band · 5 likes
5/5
I love this album more than life itself. The perfect expression of the 1970's. A bit cheesy, incredibly fun (yes, incredibly), slightly tipsy. I can imagine Fatboy Slim hearing these grooves and thinking "I'm going to base my entire career on this."
Incredible.
Pere Ubu · 5 likes
4/5
Discarding all sense of musical conventions reminds me of both the fall and the minutemen but with less of an effort to make musical sense. Anti music Don’t take the brown acid, man. It’s “challenge music.” Side effects may include writer’s block, delusions of postmodernism, man’s inhumanity to man, and improper comparisons to abstract art.
1-Star Albums (45)
All Ratings
Rush
4/5
I would give this a five star rating if it was just side one. A career defining disc for the band.
GZA
3/5
Rage Against The Machine
4/5
Settle for Nothing is a great Nirvana song
Love the snare sound on this album
Bullet in your head: so much sabbath!
Stylistically homogenous throughout which is the album’s greatest strength and weakness at the same time as it could get the point across with Bombtrack and Take the Power Back, then call it a day. Freedom is also cool. A good heavy rock album with a lot to say that kind of popularized the rap-metal hybrid genre that was outside the mainstream.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Amazing album. The perfect positivity antidote to my last two albums 😀 (Liquid Swords and Rage Against the Machine). Lots of variety stylistically from cut to cut. Really exceptional recording quality and virtuosity. Never realized what a great singer Maurice White is, this is just next level.
Marty Robbins
3/5
Every song is about some kind of conflict. Outlaws. Guns. Cattle. Saddles. Way out west. It’s all here. I’m just kind of digging it and HOLD UP THE MASTERS CALL! Jesus makes an appearance holy cattle stampede Marty. Calm the fuck down. However not a note out of place. Iconic vocal sound. Strumming acoustics. Lots of backgrounds and echo. Far west on the country western spectrum.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Easy to over-analyze this one. A sonic gem. Stevie wonder at his musical, spiritual, and intellectual peak. Absolutely astonishing record. I could listen to Higher Ground all day every day. Some other brilliant cuts that I was unfamiliar with like Too High and Misstra Know It All make this a great listen. Will revisit many times I’m sure.
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
Why didn’t I know about this back in the day. Kicks ass top to bottom. Taking away one star for the inclusion of Stephen Tyler
The United States Of America
3/5
Very avant-garde at a time when that was a term that meant something. The acid trip allusions are a bit much in this day and age but I'm sure at the time very subversive. Some intriguing sounds and themes. Music for musicologists, could be considered progressive Classical if not for rock instrumentation. Worthy of a place on the list but not something I would listen to repeatedly, though I do appreciate stuff that veers in this direction: music you might hear at an academic Art museum retrospective and go "huh!"Sort of surprising this ever got pressed. Interesting
Pere Ubu
4/5
Discarding all sense of musical conventions reminds me of both the fall and the minutemen but with less of an effort to make musical sense. Anti music Don’t take the brown acid, man. It’s “challenge music.” Side effects may include writer’s block, delusions of postmodernism, man’s inhumanity to man, and improper comparisons to abstract art.
The Stooges
3/5
Hard to get past the recording quality. Jarring changes in volume that have nothing to do with dynamics in the composition. Sloppy playing doesn’t make it “punk.”
The song “lRaw Power” could be half as long. As Pru lLeith would say “it’s a bit rough and ready.“
I “Need Somebody” is a template for STP, definitely get the feeling they listened to this stuff a lot. Just not a big fan of Iggy Pop. I sort of get what he’s trying to do but the drug-addled bad boy with no regrets schtick just isn’t that appealing, especially in a historical context. Do like the heaviness and riff sensibility though.
Prince
5/5
No notes. Perfect.
Muddy Waters
5/5
When did the Blues become a dirge? Cause this ain’t that! Was gonna tell a story about young me and how I accidentally discovered this and how I think it was an important punk album but I’ll save it for another time.
A lot of these albums are historically important because of their influence or popularity but don’t age well. This is not one of those. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t popular and influential. It’s just a great record. Fun to listen to, soulful, all the musicians are in top form. A gem top to bottom and glad to see it on the list.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
I saw this come up and went “ew” to myself 😬I’ll give it another chance. Did not like Dinosaur 🦕 jr at the time (even though I was the exact audience for this). Be right back…
Ok. I really like this one. It’s hard to get over the vocals but I think I am starting to understand the concept. The heaviness of the guitar, power trio factor, laissez faire attitude: tick tick tick.
I’m in. Kind of a fan now. 😬
Dire Straits
3/5
Omar Hakim saves this for me. Don’t love it. Great guitar playing but it sounds too much like a bad Springsteen impression
Depeche Mode
3/5
Good vocal quality from Martin Gore, well recorded, some cool synth sounds and darkish themes. But I didn't like it in 1987 and I still don't really like it. It just doesn't have the energy I want. You can sing some dark ballads, but give it a little emotional depth, man! Catchy tunes nonetheless, and "Personal Jesus" is always good for a laugh.
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
Not what I expected. A unique new take on some classic soul sounds. Kiwanuka has a great voice and that is the main appeal of this abum. It also works as an album , which is an interesting throwback concept nowadays. A little sad and lonely when you look at it next to its influences like Otis Redding or Bill Withers. Not a masterpiece by any means but you can feel Michael Kiwanuka's intention and looking forward to more. First time hearing about him - is the 1001 albums book slightly UK biased?
Sister Sledge
4/5
Learned this was a Chic album! Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, and Tony Thompson play funk with a Pop sensibility throughout and it's kind of above criticism.
Trying to approach these albums as one would when rating a wine or beer (possibly): is it a good example of the genre? Is it well crafted? This album is certainly a well crafted piece of music, Disco or not.
As much as "We are Family" is a standout, nothing here falls flat. There are some cheesy musical tropes (breathy whispering "why?" in the call-and response, the nearly overwhelming string section), but it's all much more innocent abstractions that service the songs. This album sounds great and is an example of Chic's musical genius - songwriting, producing, and playing gives them artistic control and they thrive in the dance pop environment, obviously.
Dwight Yoakam
5/5
Great traditional country from the late 80s. Dwight Yoakem's voice is perfect throughout, with just the right amount of crack, yodel, and twang. Not a note out of place with a genuine swing that comes from a place of sincerity. Deep emotional content and some intriguing darkness that bears repeated listening. Almost Shakespearean at times. Excellent top to bottom, and I'm not a big Country fan, but I DO enjoy almost everything I've heard from Dwight Yoakem.
Lightning Bolt
2/5
Okay I get it. Has notes of punk, post-rock, pure noise, industrial, and traditional rock as well. Too easy to criticize, this music is more of an artistic statement than Music. Much like The Fall as an anti-music statement. The album gets SO CLOSE to being interesting at certain points. I definitely experienced some cognitive dissonance, and I think that's what these guys are after (?). There is more interesting avant-garde and noise out there, starting with Merzbow (and maybe ending with Merzbow). I might check out some of this bands newer stuff just to see where they went with this idea.
Ute Lemper
2/5
This is not for me. Ute Lemper is an excellent vocalist. Hopefully she's doing some Disney soundtracks and making a living. Including this on the list feels like someone's pet project. We all know someone that tries to get you to like music that you just don't for whatever reason: "C'mon man! You HAVE to hear this!!!"
It's okay. Very heavy-handed. Maybe for another time. Elvis Costello jumped the shark a while back when he tried to do a Country album (yeah, I said it). Considering skipping blatant attempts at taste making on this list in the future.
Stan Getz
4/5
Great classic Brazillian Jazz, exquisite and mellow. Let Joao and Astrud Gilberto sing. The extreme closeup on Getz's tenor sax is jarring to me. Really great songs. Surprising that this was as popular as it was! First, it's mostly Portugese, and second, it's Jazz! A really important album that (sort of) defines its Jazz sub-genre. A good jumping off point for this kind of music.
The Temptations
3/5
I can’t fault it. On the other hand, this particular brand of 60s soul is a bit over dramatic. For me. Great musicianship and vocal harmonies and a small amount of risk taking make Cloud 9 inoffensive. Not awesome.
Public Enemy
4/5
Really like the heaviness of this. Chuck D's voice has power, and FlavorFlav is really entertaining, especially "Cold Lampin'." Love the socially conscious lyrics throughout. Great disc!
Pearl Jam
5/5
More from my bud GPT3.5, actually reflecting many of my own feelings about this album (also think the recording is fantastic and I absolutely love the drum mix):
"Ten" by Pearl Jam is an absolute masterpiece, earning every bit of its five-star rating. From the moment you hit play, the album takes you on an exhilarating journey through the grunge era, leaving an indelible mark on the musical landscape.
The opening track, "Once," sets the tone with its raw energy and Eddie Vedder's unmistakably powerful vocals. Each song that follows is a testament to the band's exceptional musicianship and songwriting prowess. "Alive" and "Even Flow" showcase the dynamic interplay between the instruments, while Vedder's evocative lyrics add depth and meaning to every track.
The album's emotional core is perhaps best exemplified by "Black," a hauntingly beautiful ballad that stands as a timeless classic. Vedder's soul-stirring delivery and the poignant instrumentation create an unforgettable listening experience that resonates long after the final notes fade.
"Ten" isn't just an album; it's a cultural touchstone that encapsulates the spirit of the '90s alternative rock scene. Pearl Jam's ability to seamlessly blend grunge, rock, and introspective lyrics is unparalleled, making this album a must-listen for music enthusiasts of all genres.
In essence, "Ten" is a five-star triumph, a sonic journey that remains as impactful today as it was upon its release. Pearl Jam's debut is not just a record; it's a timeless masterpiece that deserves its place among the greatest albums of all time."
John Martyn
2/5
Unfamiliar with this artist. I think I had a playlist based on Joni Mitchell where he showed up and I remember the song as a kind of stand-out. I could have been someone else, though.
This music is representative of something that I just can't put my finger on. I don't know what to call it. It's music that is highly regarded, but I don't see it. Other examples: Kate Bush, a lot of Bob Dylan, the band Bush ;) There's probably a German word for it. Music that 'everyone' likes, but it just rubs you the wrong way.
I almost had to turn off the the whole thing during the song Dancing - you really rhymed "fancy-pantsing" with dancing? "Certain Surprise" sounds as drugged as Martyn certainly was when they recorded this. Drugs feel good to him, I'm sure, but that voice is "infuriating" (to quote Phil Collins) - HIT THE NOTE for fuck's sake. Ugh. Sorry, just the visceral reaction I got from this.
There is definitely a free-form attitude about it, but it is more like Lightning Bolt than Coltrane. This freewheeling is possibly not done for artistic effect. Possibly he was just a problematic person who had enablers that encouraged him to surface his demons for some entertainment. It SOUNDS TO MY EARS like Martyn knows how to play and compose a kind of Nike Drake style English folk, but is so caught in his own mental shit (and wants the rest of us to feel this pain as well) that any song construction that might please the audience is eschewed. Just play the first thing that comes to mind. Sure it's unusual, but there are always critics who will give five stars to the unusual regardless of whether the music sounds good or not. As long as it's different sounding, which this certainly is.
Here's the thing. So many self-centered artists expose their pain to us, and many do it in a way that we can relate to. Kind of why we listen to music, to some degree, to get into or out of various states of mind, feelings, thoughts... I just think in Martyn's case he doesn't care whether I like the music or not. And I believe he has said so himself on many occasions. It's like the person who's "just being honest, telling it like it is." We all have our own reality. Great music intersects with the reality of artist and audience alike.
------------------------------------------------
The following is the result of asking ChatGPT to edit the above to be more concise, and I have to say I like it:
"Unfamiliar with John Martyn until he appeared on a Joni Mitchell playlist. His music, akin to the elusive category of universally liked yet divisive artists like Kate Bush or Bob Dylan, leaves me uncertain. Certain tracks, like "Dancing," made me cringe with questionable rhymes. "Certain Surprise" feels drugged and, though free-form, lacks the artistic resonance of Coltrane, leaning more towards chaotic than intentional.
Martyn's apparent disregard for audience preference suggests a self-indulgent approach. While he may possess the skill for English folk à la Nick Drake, his fixation on personal demons overshadows potential audience enjoyment. The music feels like a stream of consciousness, deviating from structured compositions that might please listeners. It's undeniably unique, but uniqueness alone doesn't guarantee quality.
Unlike artists who skillfully share relatable pain, Martyn seems uninterested in whether his music resonates. His indifference contrasts with the symbiosis of great music, where artist and audience connect. In Martyn's case, his "just being honest" approach results in a disconnect between his reality and that of his listeners."
4/5
Immensely listenable genre bending album that sounds as great as it did in 1973. Bringing the Latin vibe into the funk-rock gives the band a unique flavor that I've always really liked. A lot of great musicianship on this album. Hidden gem: Beetles in the Bog. It's got this New Orleans drumline feel with some conga and chopping funk guitar that was surprising, fun, and fascinating. I love the rhythms on this album.
Dolly Parton
4/5
I really enjoyed this. Some great story-telling and humor. A little bit of Peace and Love with "A better Place to Live," some sweet gospel, some humor ("Travelin Man"). But it has my new favorite song, the stunningly beautiful "Early Morning Breeze."
Short and sweet. Dolly Parton has such an iconic voice and her songs are more interesting melodically and lyrically than the Porter Wagoner ones. Still great overall. Coat of Many Colors has a comfortable, folksy tone, simple instrumentation that highlights the songs and Dolly's lovely voice.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
Just want to add - listen to Joe Morello's left hand on Time Out. Masterpiece. The subtlety and understatement is from a higher level. Beautiful example of dynamic range in that tight rhythmic structure. Great album, historically significant, an old favorite. I love every note on this and I am NOT a big saxamaphone guy!
Throwing Muses
4/5
1 cup post-punk poetics
1 tb each b52s, au pairs, and gang of four
season liberally with arpeggiated major chords and unusual rhythms
serve slightly undercooked
pairs well with the unmistakable Kristin Hersch/Tanya Donnely harmony
{chef's kiss}
Cool album, side 2 is especially good. Ronnie Lane doesn’t need to sing when you have Rod Stewart in your band. I liked it more than I thought I would. Love the guitar.
Pixies
4/5
Kind of a wild ride as it always is with Pixies. I love the Kim Deal/Black Francis harmonies, the dual guitar wall of noise, the verging on out of control lead vocals, the esoteric and inscrutable lyrics, the asymmetrical over the bar line compositions, the unusual but not too avant garde chord progressions... I will have to listen to it a few more times again to get the full experience. THis album bears repeated listening for sure. Also interesting to hear it in the same week as the Throwing Muses album, lots of compare-and-contrast available between these two. Killer album from an important band.
Ray Charles
2/5
Oooohh hmmm. Really wanted to like this but the big symphonic swells and background (FOREGROUND) vocals left me feeling … betrayed. Ray Charles is amazing though.
Ramones
4/5
I always want the Ramones to go harder. Good album though, short and sweet. Never really saw them as a Punk band, but I suppose for most listeners “punk” is more a musical style than a social group association so it probably qualifies. They have a good sense of humor and you get that the early Ramones didn’t take themselves too seriously. The later Ramones did have to be THE RAMONES and I wonder if that limited their artistic range. This album absolutely defines The Ramones, for better or worse. Good job attacking the status quo!!!
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Great album. I love Latin music and this is really enjoyable and extremely well executed example. Interesting variety of moods. Too bad I don’t speak Spanish 🇲🇽😌
Cream
3/5
Ginger Baker’s weird snare tuning and signature Tom sound. He also sings a song on this album, which was possibly not a great idea. Everyone was under the influence here, including the producer, how else to explain “Mother’s Lament 😭”
The best songs on the album are the ones you’re familiar with - Sunshine of Your Love, Tales of Brave Ulysses, Strange Brew. Which are great. Except for these standouts, it feels a little low-effort. Clapton was beloved back when this came out, but his style never touched me all that much. And apparently he was just as much of an a*hole in his early years as later (citation: A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, episode 126 - For Your Love by the Yardbirds, Andrew Hickey) so anything he could say now to turn people against him is pretty irrelevant now.
Ultimately for me there’s a lot to love here (Sunshine of Your Love, Jack Bruce’s falsetto) and a lot to just forget (Blue Condition, bearded rainbows).
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
I am firmly in the ‘Paul Simon is a songwriting genius’ and the ‘Simon and Garfunkel’s harmonies are without equal’ camps.
Lorde
1/5
Sorry Zoomers/Gen Y, I was like 50 when this came out so it's one of the worst things to ever happen to me. I AM sorry it's not King Crimson or whatever
Tom Waits
2/5
I came to the realization, after listening to this, that it's just a sideshow and each song is a different freak. Points for attempting to be entertaining. Tom Waits is the emcee/barker. This is not "rock" music however, and should not be categorized as such. If I think of it as an attempt at being folk-adjacent, it makes more sense. But I get the feel that Tom Waits is simply aping some persona, perhaps a troubadour William Burroughs? To my ear the music not really sincerely felt by the singer or has much of a folk soul.
Waits is just a kind of guy that got stuck writing high-school level poetry (one laughably typical example "Oh, when the moon is a cold, chiseled dagger/ And it's sharp enough to draw blood from a stone") and little stories about murder and bad people (that he imagines are out there). I don't get the gravelly voice affectation, I suppose it adds to the persona Waits is attempting to create. All of these little creations are deeply disturbed or whatever, and I'm not interested in meeting them or getting to know them, thank you very much. Keep them in your "closet of dreams" or wherever they came from.
This album is not something I would purposely play. I understand what he's trying to do and I respect it, it has artistic merit definitely. But it's just unpleasant and darkly weird. And some listeners really like the darkly weird. I do not, really.
Please stop yelling, Tom.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Third garbage album in a row!
This is the first album I ever bought with my own money. Best $5.99 I ever spent.
Never gets old. 10,000 out of five.
Last thing: listen to Plant screaming \"GO AWAY HEARTBREAKERRRRR!\" at the end of that song, then we can talk about Robert Plant, okay?
Rod Stewart
2/5
I love Losing You, the Kenny Jones solo at the end is superlative. Maggie May is okay. A lot of the rest sounds like a bar band jamming too late at night, as another reviewer here mentioned. The misogyny and racism on Every Picture Tells a Story is awkward. That's Alright is an abomination - the phrasing is off-putting "Well that's alright MA-MAMA" instead of NOW MAMA is irritating. Another case for me of "Why do so many people like this?" Was there a dearth of quality music in 1972? Is everyone (and by everyone I mean critics and record buyers AT THE TIME, check out the Wikipedia stats and critical reception) just overly impressed by British pub-rockers playing American country music? I know the Stones did this a lot in the 70s as well, never really found this appealing. Maybe it's more impressive if you're British and not ever been exposed. This is a bit third rate. He shouyld have stayed with the Faces, man!
Keith Jarrett
3/5
Super interesting at times. A lot of what you hear about this album revolves around the story of the bad piano and how everyone overcame their problems to produce one of the best Jazz albums ever. It's like the Michael Jordan \"flu game\" in the 1998 NBA finals. You won! Why belabor it? If I didn't know any of the story, I think I might like it better. Is the story making excuses for a poor performance? Doesn't sound like it.
The music itself plows vigorously through a wide range of feelings, tempos, techniques. I don't know a lot about music theory but I'm sure there's tons to dissect in this. It really is an impressive work. Verges on stepping into uncharted territory sometimes, but is a little timid in that regard - I would like to here more experimental sounds. I really like some of the atonal harmonics the piano gives off, especially apparent in the first minutes of Part I. I hear a lot of influence, from Bob James to Radiohead. Interesting album and pleasant. A little like a soundtrack, as Keith Jarret himself has said, but transcendant nonetheless (felt like pretentiousness was appropriate for this one).
R.E.M.
5/5
The best of the “grownup” R.E.M. albums. We are all alone, together. No jokes today.
A really professional production, some brilliant songwriting and spotless execution. Though I usually like my REM less polished and more inscrutable, this album hits hard emotionally. Looking back at it now makes it feel even heavier. This came out in the deepest part of grunge, a pretty rebellious move for a pretty sounding album. Find the River kills me. Check out the video.
The Monkees
3/5
Not bad. Probably overrated due to the Monkees' popularity, but a fun effort. A little light psychedelia here and there mixed with songs about holding hands and pretty girls. "Sunny Girlfriend" brings a little country to the party, and the first three songs could be on any alt-rock band's covers list. Not intense.
Fairport Convention
4/5
First time hearing this band and I have to say I am impressed, especially by the Dave Mattacks' drumming. Effectively mashing-up a fairly heavy rock sound (at times) with British folk sounds very natural for the band, at a time when LITERALLY EVERYONE was trying to be Bob Dylan. They find their own roots, resulting in a sincere and interesting sound. No one is trying to do the Blues®, or R & B, or Soul or country. So much has been said praising Sandy Denny that I'm not going to mention her except to say she makes this. Without her it's just ok, a nice try. Simply great.
Jeff Beck
2/5
NO
MORE
ROD
STEWART
PLEASE!
Jeff Beck is amazing, but he gets stomped by Rod Stewart and the ham-fisted piano player. Also you guys need to practice a little more, the drummer is trying to swing but my god is it awkward. Find the groove! Although with rod stewart screaming all over everything I can see how difficult it would be.
If only there was an instrumental Jeff Beck album 🤔🤔🤔
Paul Simon
5/5
She says “Losing love is like a window in your heart
Well, everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow”
Probably should write an entire essay about this album. Linda Ronstadt. Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Youssou Ndour. Adrian Belew. African skies. Diamonds. It’s all good and we forgive Paul Simon for whatever sins of appropriation because this album introduced a huge audience to a kind of music we were previously unaware.
Radiohead
4/5
Ahh, I love Radiohead's sonic experimentation. Just wish I had more time to just sit down and listen because there's a lot of layers. So I guess Radiohead is like an Ogre. I jest, but this band DOES NOT. This is their main flaw - so serious! That and Thom Yorke's vocals don't always resonate (no pun intended).
Sometimes feels like the musical equivalent of the movie Eraserhead. This is a really interesting album, heavy both thematically and structurally. A unique, risk-taking band band that somehow makes their experimental psychological meanderings almost accessible. One last thing - if EVERYTHING is obscure, nothing is obscure.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
She's Fresh, It's Nasty and Scorpio (especially Scorpio) are agreat time. Didn't love the R&B/slow-jam middle. THe Message everyone remembers, and sadly really nothin' has changed. This version finishes up with The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, very very cool, ya gotta hear it. Definitely agree that this is an album you have to hear before you die. Glad I didn't die before I heard it. 😬
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
Interesting document, but I don't need the talking in between songs. Enjoyable bluegrass. I especially like the instrumental tunes (please learn how to finish those without resorting to "Shave and a Haircut, though!). The old-school Country/Hillbilly artists are not at their best so it works more as a tribute than an original work of art. Could be condensed to a single LP without losing anything. Maybe do that for casual listeners then make the extended version for the hardcore fans/historically motivated.
Parliament
4/5
For me great music takes you to a different place, a state of mind. Mothership Connection does that. I got totally into it, just changed my thinking for the better in the middle of a semi-trouble-filled day. The opposite of the seriousness of Radiohead or Gracelend (Paul Simon) but equally excellent. Has a good sense of humor. I loved it.
Iron Maiden
5/5
Finally some metal! Near flawless execution by possibly the most influential Metal band of all. Kind of a bummer that Steve Harris and Clive Burr didn't play on more records together because this rhythm section is massive. Bruce Dickinson is hands down the best metal singer of all time. Yeah, I said it.
The Clash
5/5
First recorded use of guitar feedback! What an historic moment. Love Teenage Lobotomy! This whole album is great, put The Jam on the map, I love it.
In all seriousness, this is in my top ten favorite albums of all time and one of the most important albums in rock music.
Weather Report
2/5
They do not heed Miles’ admonition: “Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.”
Sade
2/5
Not bad, not my thing. Huge record at the time. A little TOO smooth. Inoffensive pop from the eighties, I sort of can't get through it all the way. Just okay.
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
Incredible musicianship and interesting juxtaposition of GSH's poetry in the jazz improv context. Different from anything else I've heard recently. A bit "of its time" while still being relevant. A lot of music about Black culture is acclaimed, but did we not get the point? It doesn't seem like the world has changed at all in the 50 or so years since this.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
You guys! Don’t tell anyone.
This is NOT GOOD.
Dude. Some people are going to pretend that they think this is the best thing that has, literally, ever been recorded. But here’s the thing about that:
They don’t play together
They sing off key ( annoying not quaint)
More pretentious immature poetry (I’m looking 👀 at you Tom Waits)
Don’t act like you’re the first person who was ever in a difficult relationship.
Seriously someone is trying to trick you. Listen more critically. Maybe I’m at a place in my life where I don’t want to hear your complaining anymore. I don’t understand the love for this or the VU in general.
Various Artists
3/5
Not bad. The Phil Spector spoken word thing at the end is... ironic? Cool Christmas album for Christmas day! Some really fun uptempo high-energy stuff, lacking in sentimentalism, which I appreciate in a Christmas album.
Nick Drake
4/5
So, this is a fairly deep work. Unique and touching. It's pretty obvious to me that this music would not be beloved by a vast audience. Too introspective, too insecure. These are qualities in people that we often tr to overcome and the casual music buyer doesn't want to spend their hard-earned cash on such things. But as a work of art I can appreciate it. In fact, the poetry here is (of course, Drake studied literature at Cambridge) on a higher level.
Sorry to hear about Drake's ultimate inability to satisfy his own ambition. Maybe if he had been able to accept his own version of himself... life is difficult for us all at times. Maybe don't try so hard and accept that the world IS the way that it IS. Not to say that it isn't painful. This music is a strangely clear and vivid view of Drake and his feelings, feelings that I know I've had a various times. Quite an amazing work actually.
Scott Walker
2/5
Didn't want to listen to this. Like a walk in someone else's dark, slightly frightening forest. You probably shouldn't be there alone. Very 'adult contemporary' without being catchy. No contrast, everything is of a piece. Nothing to anchor the listener in a context.
Seems to me like he is trying to write popular (1960's UK) music but with some kind of anti-war thread, but I could be completely wrong. I found this hard to understand in an unpleasant and confusing way, the point of view in any given song was not clear. But a lot of the best music is hard to "get" on first listen. Maybe I'll listen again to try to figure it out. Probably not, though.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Love CCR and I'm not even a boomer! Even their toss-off blues cover is far and away more entertaining than anything else at the time. The album has aged well, it still sounds good. Great mix of blues-rock styles with great energy. LISTEN UP ROD STEWART: this is how you do gravely-voiced blues singing!Short and awesome.
Blur
4/5
Moments of brilliance but nothing too special. Really liked the heaviness and interesting sonic quality splattered across the album. Didn't so much love the insincerity in the lyrics. Self-pitying super-successful rock stars has always been a sore spot for me and I think there is a bit of that here, albeit more abstract than Bon Jovi, Metallica or Bob Seger. All in all though an enjoyable listen if not slightly contrived, like most of Blur's stuff, but well executed.
The White Stripes
5/5
Ushered in an era of lo-fi blues posers. That in itself is both unforgivable and welcome. Unusual, heavy, bare-bones, intense, and satisfying. Actual songs that don't overstay their welcome. Some raw emotion down at the end that sounds more bitter 20 years on. Great genre-defining album with one of the most interesting drummers ever.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Much of this album seems to be self-indulgent experimentation, or contractual obligation work, or writer's block. None of these are bad per. But they are not the stuff masterpieces are made from. Bigger Rundgren fans than I probably appreciate this more, and it did have its enjoyable moments. Listened to this twice to get a better grip on it. It does go down a little easier the second time. Rather listen to Iron Maiden again, though.
Sex, drugs, and Rock n Roll I guess? A reluctant 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Still shockingly good, downright mythical. Simply a masterpiece.
Alice Cooper
4/5
Surprisingly great singing and you can feel Alice Cooper influencing every heavy rock artist that came after. Noteworthy for the Broadway style theatricality, which is not unexpected for Alice Cooper considering his reputation as a live act (esp. in the early days). I love that Alice Cooper is partially responsible for jettisoning the hippies from the pop charts. In 1972 I think everyone was probably ready for a break. Fun album!
Led Zeppelin
5/5
One of the albums I have essentially memorized top to bottom. Haven't listened all the way through in a while and it was interesting to hear Sandy Dennis on this after the Fairport Convention album. Truly did not appreciate her contribution on this. Remarkable. JPJ's organ on Misty Mountain Hop is underappreciated.
I don't want to see documentaries about this. I don't want to biographies authorized or unauthorized. I don't want to read the (probably) too long Wikipedia article. It's just music, man, don't over-think it. Unless you want to, and Led Zeppelin allows that as well. They finally got to jam the folk-rock down our collective ear-holes, though, and we ar BETTER FOR IT.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Hendrix is without question the BEST rock guitar player who ever lived - a fact I just came up with out of thin air, but also confirmed by Rolling Stone. The songs on this seem to me either overly numbed or excessively energized, neither to a satisfying effect. BUT SO CLOSE it's a little frustrating for me. I don't think that was the intention. It's hard to say what the intention was.
The music is just not completely formed. There's quite a bit of experimentation and what sounds like goofing that might have been left out. Heavy, innovative guitar sounds are sometimes squashed by the production: the stereo panning, the compression, the tape bouncing and flanging muddy the waters, if you will (see what I did there? Hendrix was kind of a blues guy? whatever, nevermind).
Ladyland is great but not awesome, with flashes of brilliance so blinding you have go over it again to make sure you heard what you thought you did. Overall groovy album with a few rough spots here and there mostly from the production stuff.
All the guitar panning made me dizzy. 😵 Not kidding.
Public Enemy
3/5
I love the heaviness P.E. brings to the party. I don't love the constant badgering. The audience for this is not going to listen to it anyway. I the end it comes off as complaining more than anything else. Some high-quality socially conscious takes are here though and sometimes those things make for an uncomfortable listen. I like Flavor Flave more than I should though. There's nothing I *don't* like sound-wise on this album. At the same time it's just more of the same. Not clear why it made tis list except for the Anthrax collab which is pretty groundbreaking.
Tom Waits
2/5
Her: I'm gonna pull a Tom Waits song out of my ass RIGHT NOW:
On a Thursday the rivers run raw
His garbage mitt can't catch the claw
The jailer-man don't obey no law
He planned it out, he killed his Ma
On Friday all the beggars fry
A rat-burger below the bigger sky
And now and again amongst the rye
We make all your mamas cry
There ya go. I'll be back later to pick up my Grammy.
Blur
4/5
A short, non-exhaustive list of things I liked about Blur's "Parklife":
Eclectic song styles keeps it interesting - a little dance music, a little post-punk, a little smooth Continental pop (I don't know what I mean exactly by that, but a lot of this album has a very "European" feel), a little new-wave, a little of that atmospheric Britpop sound but with *just* a hint more edge.
Drums, bass, guitar and vox all pretty resplendent, and excruciatingly tight even when purposely breaking into the sloppier compositions. Incredibly well balanced and "fresh" without sounding forced. This Is a Low is a great example.
Unapologetically anglo-centric.
Different and a wee bit odd without being overly challenging. Everything has a familiarity. But not predictable. Again, nicely balanced.
Has a good beat, you can dance to it :)
Pixies
5/5
Weird without being pretentious. Pixies came out of the womb fully formed, somehow. I always forget how heavy their stuff is. Gigantic is such a catchy, avant-pop song, as is the ubiquitous "Where is My Mind." Joey Santiago's solo on Vamos brings out the ghost of Andy Gill and is a thrilling surprise. The best albums (of which this is one) bear repeated listening and it seems like each time you play it, you hear something new. More accessible than some of their other stuff, possibly. One complaint: that song Cactus is trying a little too hard to sound like Nirvana ;)
And yeah, I give a lot of five star reviews, what about it?
Solomon Burke
3/5
Great voice, classic soul singer doing some less-than-usual tunes. I especially like the second half of this LP with "Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)". Nicely recorded and put together collection of singles and filler, none of which are throwaways. A nice, positive record if you're into that kind of thing. Didn't blow me away but has a good energy. Influential.
Elastica
4/5
You know the generator is up to something when you get Elastica so soon after the two Blur albums.
I love this A LOT. New wave? Really great post-punk, power-pop. A real headbanger, one of my favorites so far. No complaints, but with 16 songs you do get some monotony into the middle. A bit saucy and a blast of energy. I'd say a lot more about this but I'm falling behind in my listening so I gotta move on. Listen to Stutter.
Pantera
4/5
Dark dark dark. This is probably going to be the heaviest rock that we get on the 1001 albums list. Vinnie Paul shows here why he was considered among the best metal drummers to ever play. Clean on the fast parts. Massive on the slow parts. This brings a heat and rage that is not matched by any other genre. Unlike the storytelling you get with Iron Maiden or the confused existential soul-searching of Metallica, Pantera has an incessant raging emotional fire. Sonically crushing, creative, and astonishingly tight, this gives birth to some of the best metal to come after it: Gojira, Avenged Sevenfold, Lamb of God and Trivium among them. This album seems to have brought this sort of dark introspective hardcore more into the mainstream. Underground black and death metal existed at the time but it certainly wasn't as accessible as this or the early thrash of Metallica and Anthrax, etc.
It's cool, though. A lot of newer genres rear their ugly heads: djent, prog, post-hardcore, melodic death metal, southern (think Mastodon or Baroness), and whatever it was that Alice in Chains was doing.
Criticisms: can be same sounding, guttural screaming is a good effect when used sparingly but here Anselmo WANTS YOU TO HEAR HIM (fair enough given the subject matter), sometimes the subtlety sounds forced. Overall a good record with tons of intensity that I wish Pantera could have built on instead of started luxuriating in for most of the ret of their career.
White Denim
3/5
Interesting. Lots of juicy progginess disguised in early '00s Americana clothes. Has a strong psychedelic skeleton, and yeah, the rhythm section is great, throwing a lot of notes in there. Like Rush for Deadheads. Pretty cool, a good listen.
Elvis Costello
5/5
Although Critically Acclaimed®, still one of my all time favorite albums. Not a throwaway on here, but Angels Want to Wear my Red Shoes, Watching the Detectives , and Allison are outstanding. This is Elvis' debut, making it all the more amazing.
AC/DC
5/5
Rock and Roll the way Satan intended! An all time favorite of mine, reminds me of 8th grade.
Roxy Music
3/5
Brian Ferry sounds like he's doing a character. It lacks emotional depth and clarity for me. Not very sincere, but it feels like that's kind of the point (?). Songs aren't very memorable. That being said, Phil Manzanera is extremely good on here. Out of the Blue is a GREAT song though! And you can here the New Wave influence in a lot of this. Not awesome.
John Cale
2/5
Very poetic. I'm not very familiar with his work, which should appeal to my avant garde sensibilities. This album probably needs more context (time, place) for it to make sense to me. Another critically acclaimed record that made me wonder why. I like a lot of his later work better. Not sure what I'm missing here. If I had more time I would probably listen a couple more times.
Beatles
4/5
Let's talk about William Babinski's "The Disintegration Loops" album instead for a moment.
The Disintegration Loops album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disintegration_Loops# (actually 4 albums spanning nearly 300 minutes) are a museum piece, not necessarily music. Babinsky is a sound artist who used tape loops a lot in his work to evoke feelings that traditional recordings do not. The disintegration loops are recordings of some of these sound loops - recordings of voices, old music, found tapes, etc. - literally disintegrating as they pass across the tape heads. Each time they pass through the machine, a little more gets worn off. It's really interesting ambient music. There is a haunting beauty hearing the music itself completely fall apart. The falling apart is the music. The rhythm comes from the loop repeating, the sound changing ever so slightly as it goes on. Certain sections are beautiful, others nasty. When I listened to this, as more and more of it goes away, the more I found myself wanting it to remain in the world even though the whole point was it's own destruction.
Listening to something disintegrate works as a museum piece. As a rock album, especially from The Beatles, it just hurts a little.
Three stars was a bit harsh - many of these songs are in the "Dark Side of the Moon" range, like Dear Prudence, While My Guitar, and others. What I'm referring to above is that it just doesn't hold together, it's more of a couple solo albums, and Ringo gets short shrift.
Miles Davis
4/5
Thoroughly enjoyed Miles Davis embracing a minimalist approach and the innovations he adds. More approachable that the later electric work like Bitches Brew. I especially like the reprise on In a Silent Way, kind of the second half of side two, where the guitar plays an ostinato that reminds of Eno's Music for Airports I, the melody kind of revolving around itself without ever fully resolving. Innovative and lovely. Really subtle, bears repeated listens.
Arcade Fire
3/5
Decent post 9-11 indie Rock. Somewhat dismal thematically like a lot of Arcade Fire's stuff is. Nice execution. Some really interesting orchestration and instrumentation to deepen the mood. No Cars Go is a great tune.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
With all due respect, and I mean this most sincerely, this is yet another example of how Critical Acclaim® is a poor determining factor for whether I will like something. In fact Critical Acclaim® appears to be something that puts me off more often than not and unfortunately this very list is just a list of Critically Acclaimed® albums.
Critics™ want you to know they have better taste than you, possibly. Maybe you meet the artist, that's very special, so now you give an excessively positive review otherwise that artist (and their record company mates) won't be as willing to give you any attention in the future. Bit of a racket when you really sit down and think about it. Especially back in the 60s through the 90s when Major Labels™ and The Radio® were the primary form of music delivery. Critics at places like Rolling Stone and the NY Times could influence opinion for the unwashed masses who had neither the time nor the taste to decide for themselves what was good and what wasn't, after the Labels and The Radio told them what they should be hawking. It was a good system for those inside it. Everybody made a dollar (except the artists, of course!)
I'm not trying to be one of those trolling contrarians (everybody knows one - check out yfbspod.com for an amusing example of the contrarian taken to an extreme for comedic effect), but for reasons I am still trying to understand, if all the critics love something then I am immediately biased against the disc right out of the gate. Don't tell me what to think, I guess.
Which is why, after a mere 83 albums, I must remind myself NOT TO READ ABOUT THE ALBUM BEFORE I LISTEN to it so that I don't otherwise taint my own review. For some of the older albums I am already aware of the Critically Acclaimed® label (CA from here on out) and my own bias about that.
You gotta ask yourself: maybe there's a reason why every mainstream rock journalist can't keep themselves from being the first to fawn over certain albums (this, and all Bruce Springsteen albums, or anything by Tom Waits, for instance), put them on the best of the year lists, and so forth? Maybe this work is real world changing music unlike anything ever known, which will upend your existing worldview and alter the very course of the culture of humanity. It is possible, and I do myself a disservice by not allowing it.
Anyway, this is one of the most CA albums ever made. It's okay, a little dirgy, takes no risks to speak of, the instrumentation and technical quality is generally middle of the road. Springsteen isn't hurting anybody, and that's fine. There's some catchy songs here and some thought-provoking lyrics. The band is good, Clarence Clemmons (sp?)has a recognizable style and Springsteen's iconic voice is familiar and welcoming, but he can bring the heat when needed (not too much, though, we're not here to upset people). All due respect. Springsteen is an icon. That doesn't make it great. I'm going against the critics on this one.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Changed pop music not necessarily for the better. Didn't age well. The hits are awesome, Beat It and Billie Jean especially. Important culturally as R & B has completely replaced Rock as the mainstream in pop music. Mostly cringey (especially in retrospect), and MJ's voice doesn't work well in most of the material.
Eminem
2/5
Gross. I get it. Critically Acclaimed® (lol), but I don't want this in my life. Trolling. Seek professional help, this is not serious art.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
This is a great palate cleanser from the bitter nastiness that is The Slim Shady LP! I'm getting a lot of influences here ranging from Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, and the Beatles among them. It's nice, inoffensive, comforting folk-rock that ends up in Southern California and spawning a whole generation of singer-songwriters that punks and metalheads would later rebel against. The baby boomers did get to lay claim to some really interesting and iconic music that could give you something to think about. But only if you wanted, no effort needed! Graham Nash seems like a fairly cool bloke, too. And oh yeah, harmonies, lest I forget ;). 1969 was a watershed year for albums wasn't it?
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
There are some flashes of brilliance, of course. The outro on Bold as Love is especially amazing. Mitch Mitchell is in FINE FORM on this one, too. Hendrix always leaves me wanting a little more. Always kind of too loose. Great album overall.
Cee Lo Green
3/5
Interesting production and a nice variety of styles make this more entertaining than I thought it would be. Some of the more gangster material is a huge bringdown for after what seemed like it would be an entertaining and generally thoughtful album by an interesting vocal presence.
Elvis Presley
4/5
Elvis, before getting chewed up by the mainstream American entertainment industry, had an astonishing sound. The Sun Records rockabilly cuts are historic for a reason and there are some fine examples here. Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and DJ Fontana are present on most of the songs. After this Elvis got manufactured by Colonel Tom Parker and apparently sold his soul, but at least some of the early stuff like this is here to remind us all what a big deal this dude was at the time. What a voice. Okay song selection, but I think Tutti Frutti was swing and a miss, while Blue Suede Shoes is inevitably the more well known version but lacks Carl Perkins' edge. Absolutely an album you should here before you die. Really enjoyable for me as a big rockabilly fan.
The KLF
2/5
When this came out it fell into a category of music I called "Eurodisco," which my local "Alternative" station played so much of I actually wrote them a letter telling them if they didn't STOP DOING THAT I would be forces to take my business elsewhere and I MEAN IT! Wll, of course they didn't, I did and neither of us missed each other for a tenth of a second.
I hear this now as a frequent listener of electronic music and it has a... quaintness. It's kind of weak, still, and relies too heavily on dance styles that wouldn't be native to the Isles (mostly Acid House). Influential, not very underground, it lacks depth, and I found it to be kind of boring. But like I said, in my younger days when I would have been the audience for this, I absolutely abhorred this kind of music. Given that, it wasn't unpleasant or challenging and definitely has some fun moments. Also cool to see some EDM finally on this list!
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
One of the first albums I ever bought with MY OWN MONEY! By far the best post-Beatles McCartney album in my opinion. Catchy as hell, amusing, touches of the loveliness we've all come to know. The song arc is excellent. One of the best of all time and a big personal favorite. Brings me back to my childhood I would grab one of my dozen or so albums, put it on the record player and sit down in my beanbag chair with the album cover in hand and just get transported to a completely different world :P
Elton John
5/5
I apologize in advance for this being a review of my own feelings about the album rather than about the album itself. Pretty much par for the course for my reviews, now that I think about it.
There are five-star albums, and then there are albums like this, which hold a special place in my heart. I somehow bought this when I was 11 years old. Songs like "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "All the Young Girls Love Alice", and "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)" didn't make much sense to me back then. But I would put this on, open the album, and dissolve into a completely different world. When I heard this again just now, I was transported in my head back to my bedroom as a kid, lost in music, not really caring about the meaning.
The music transcends words. This is how great art always affects me. I WANT to tell you about it. I want you to understand its value emotionally, sensorially, musically, and in a thousand other ways that change my experience—some of which have English words, most don't. But the ability to communicate art's a priori nature lies exclusively in the experience of it. Which is both frustrating and fantastic. I will probably end up saying this again, and I wanted to mention it when I wrote about "Band on the Run" (another album that lives in the same place as this): analyzing art robs it of the deep joy that comes from experiencing it.
Check out the original album on vinyl if possible: every song has the lyrics and an illustration; it's an amazing package. Some part of the album experience is the package, the manipulation of the disc on your stereo, moving the needle JUST SO onto the groove at the beginning before the actual music starts... ah, good times!
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is fascinating, humorous, sad, multi-dimensional, deep and broad, engaging, weird, fun, cool, bold and meek, familiar and mysterious all at the same time. And for reasons I just can't put into words, it really means a lot to me.
Hole
2/5
The song "Celebrity Skin" is catchy and thoughtful enough, so satisfying in a way. Also familiar, being the big hit and title track on the disc.
I'm going to break down what I don't like about this and I'll try to keep personality issues out of it. Although I find it to be in extremely bad taste to attempt to force your drummer to quit. Really really bad form. Just have a meeting: "Listen, after doing two albums with you both of which were really succesful and Critically Acclaimed™, we just want to go in a different musical direction and we don't think you're going to want to hang, I'm sorry." Hole was of course just a Courtney Love project, but you don't have to be an asshole. Read the wikipedia article about how Love and the producer conspired to record this with studio guy Dean Castronovo. Even more unethical is not pulling the original grrrl drummer off the credits, keeping Hole's (almost) all girl grunge band aesthetic intact but still able to pull this over-produced attempt at a commercially appealing rock album. This attempt at a grunge-pop mashup (originally perfected by Nirvana) feels extremely disingenuous. Also whatever attempt at the "Califorinia sound™" {citation needed} would be the antithesis to that punk/grunge aesthetic that they were faking before.
Nothing about the band Hole feels genuine. From their going to Minnesota (!) to recruit Kristen Pfaff, guitarist Eric Erlander's girlfriend who overdosed at 27, 4 months after Courtney Love's husband, to the above mentioned drummer shell game, to the bizarre choice of Production and musical direction. The best songs here are co-written with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, which is telling. As a whole it is really not as great as you're being led to believe. So many other grrls did this better, from PJ to The Breeders to L7. Courtney love's singing ruins it for me. It's not good. I love the heavier genres like punk, grunge, an metal, but this is a cash grab or something and it sounds like it to me.
The Doors
5/5
Densore, Krieger, and Manzarek with some weird spoken word dude on vocals. Pretty obscure, surprised to see this on the list considering how underground this band was. Wonder what ever happened to them. Seems like they just stopped releasing stuff after a while.
One note: I never realized (or forgot) how incredible Robby Krieger. Really amazing, in all seriousness.
808 State
3/5
Really digging “Cobra Bora” it’s got some attitude. Likable uptempo electronic dance music. I much prefer instrumentals in this genre, and this albumis no escption. I think the weakest songs on this have vocals and they feel a bit labored: less funky or sincere. Like the artist is try to wedge a vocal track into his groove because he's "supposed to?" Likable nonetheless. The back end of this album is a little heavier, which I also like in this kind of music. Mostly a party, though!
Jimmy Smith
4/5
This is a really solid post-bop (?) jazz album with Jimmy Smith's instantly recognizable organ. Lots of saxamaphone (Stanley Turrentine) for those who like that sort of thing. Doesn't stretch the genre or do anything too fancy, and sometimes that's exactly what you want from a jazz album. The great Kenny Burrell pops by for anice bit on the guitar. Love Jimmy Smith's blues comp. Cool that this is mostly a three-piece.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I love this band so much it's kind of embarrassing.
This album cover LOL! It is "dad rock" that maintains some edge even today. I really like everything on here, it's a guilty pleasure. I dig their loose approach, it adds flavor to what could otherwise be unremarkable blues rock. "Lookin out my Back Door" is homey and quirky and I love it. I loved this even when I thought I hated country music, wghich this (kind of) is. Great band, killer songwriting, topical without being dated, at times fun and other times somewhat dark. A little humor goes a long way.
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
Glad I got this from the generator. I have heard of them but haven't listened to them at all closely. This kind of sneaks up on you from being a chavvy cross between The White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand, but toward the end of the album it seems to find its own voice. Listening to the whole thing beginning to end is sort of like riding along with these fellas as they experience a night out, stuff can go right(\"I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor\") and then things can go wrong (\"From the Ritz to the Rubble\"). Separating this from other post 9/11 post-punk revivalists (like Franz Ferdinand in fact)are that they make these compelling little stories, and the lofi affectations that have a ton of burning young-man energy. Actual songs that don'task me to invest too much effort (I'm looking at you Arcade Fire). Fun tunes, fun album, a great listen from beginning to end! At 41 minutes (the perfect album length) it's a throwback to when the Album was a \"unit of art\" to quote someone who I forgot.
Pavement
2/5
I was going to go on another useless diatribe about my problem with Critically Acclaimed® albums, but instead I will leave the following one word review of Crooked Rain Crooked Rain:
Whatever.
Can
4/5
Difficult to decipher, but I have rounded up some clues. I will need to listen several more times before even beginning to deduce who the killer is, but here's what I have so far:
1 - The term "Mushroom" has multiple meanings. Especially important to recognize that Damo Suzuki is a Japanese native person singing English words in front of a West German band. "When I saw a mushroom head I was born and I was dead" could refer to The Bomb OR a psychedelic experience. That the succeeding song pulls out of this one and literally explodes on the first note could also imply something more base level. Mushroomhead. hmm...
2 - Paperhouse lulls the listener into thinking this might be a rock album. It is not. That is a mental trick designed to pull you out of your usual reality in a nicer way than just dropping Aumgn on you.
3 - The rhythm section of Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebiz (later sampled by Q-Tip on ManWomanBoogie, I still can't get over that fact) both had parents who were essentially dispatched by the Nazis. This generation of German people is rarely talked about in these parts. Why do you think they're making so much noise? In some ways it appears this music might be a reflection of their inner lives, or at least in my imagining. Chaotic. Harsh. Frightening. UNRELENTING. WWII must have absolutely sucked.
4 - Unlike any other CAN, or any other Krautrock for that matter!
5 - WHY did they get a new singer? From wikipedia: "Mooney quit the band and returned to America soon after the recording of Monster Movie, having been told by a psychiatrist that getting away from the chaotic music of Can would be better for his mental health." IF THAT WERE TRUE, are we not encouraged to get away from the chaotic music of CAN? Why only Mooney? Just asking questions, not saying that CAN is an aborted CIA MKUltra spinoff project to weaponize rock music against the hippies. I am 100% NOT saying that. Do your own research.
6 - Damo Suzuki (friend of the great Mark E. Smith, RIP) did this month, just as my findings have come out and I now have no way to corroborate them. This is very suspicious.
7 - If you play "Aumgn" backwards, it says "Bring me a towel. I killed Luap" over and over.
IN CONCLUSION: some say that this avant-garde masterpiece is not an experiment in merging rock aesthetics with musique concrete, or a stab at musical dadaism and surrealism, or spontaneous outbursts of sound simply for their own sake to further explore the ideologies of post-modernists like Stockhausen. No, they claim it is something more sinister, that perhaps CAN were mere puppets of the military-industrial establishment, bent on undermining the emerging free-thought and youth movements (among so many other postwar philosophies that were starting to dawn) by turning music against itself, in an effort to lead it towards it's own destruction. I don't say this, but some do.
Kanye West
1/5
I'm not listening to this dude. Not gonna give him the $ 0.0002 or whatever streaming royalty you get. Kanye West sucks in so many ways all of us should do everything we can to reduce whatever influence this idiot mouthbreather has left.
Radiohead
5/5
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Q-Tip
3/5
Eclectic and entertaining. Especially liked sthe more innovative sounding stuff like "Manwomanboogie" ... OH SHIT!!! That's a CAN sample!!!
It's Krautrock week and I am PRESENT! I love that there is a CAN sample on here, had no idea. Good job Q-Tip. There's a little trilogy of slightly twisted prog style in the mifddle of the albumthat I was really impressed by the sheer "newness" of the sound (for lack of a better word) with "We Fight/We Love", "Manwomanboogie", and "Move / Renaissance Rap." Wordy but not obnoxious or excessively violent or confrontational. Interesting album.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
The slow tempo of these songs are, I'm sure, old Leonard Cohen's sincere self-expression. I haven't heard anything else he's done, so I don't know if his other work is like this. It's all stripped down to the most minimal instrumentation, simple progressions, simple poetic meter, in your face vocal production, and the aforementioned tempos.
Kind of refreshing in a way after listening to so much experimental stuff. I had this thought just this morning: very little music is acoustic now, very little is just people playing a non-electronic instruments, or singing without any digital manipulation. So I am enjoying this possibly for that reason alone, (fully aware that this album contains some electronic instruments). Electronics or the production trickery is not the main focus. For example, Q-Tip's "Renaissance," which I thoroughly enjoyed, is composed almost entirely of samples that are further twisted into a new sound somewhat distant from their original source. Whereas here Leonard Cohen invokes church organs, choruses, piano, a string quartet, and his own voice in a strikingly grounding way.
I found the songs with a religious theme were most interesting. Unlike Tom Waits, he's not playing a character, seems like he's speaking (literally, he doesn't sing much on this) from the soul. Different and unique, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. Play this during the daylight hours though, that's all I'm going to say.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Coincidence one day after the Q-tip album? I THINK not!
Positive hip-hop! Consistently funky beats throughout. Humorous and entertaining, youthful almost to a fault, but thoughtful as well. "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" and "Ham and Eggs" have a lighthearted flow that's missing from a lot of other hip hop. Having fun is allowed here, but they still speak from their souls. Some of the grooves went on a wee bit too long, but even for that and the length of this album, it was an entertaining ride.
CHIC
3/5
Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, and Tony Thompson can play whatever they want and it will always be the best funk you have ever heard. A couple of the ballads are a little bland, but outside of that, this is a true gem and a really satisfying listen.
Eminem
1/5
If I criticize this, then I am one of the people he complains about, so I'm not going to feed that. Although reading about this album did introduce me to a new term, "transgressive art," so I did learn something. "You know how a lot of white Establishment types think Rap music is nasty? Watch this!" As juvenile as anything else this dude does.
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
Listened to it several times trting to come up with a proper review, but you know, you just gotta hear it. Brilliant folky Latin Jazz, heartfelt, for the love of the music and nothing else. The musical equivalent of a National Park.
David Crosby
3/5
Pro: Vocals("Music Is Love", "Laughing", "What Are Their Names"), some cool experiments("Music Is Love", "Orleans", "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here"), Graham Nash, Neil Young, Crosby's guitar, Mickey Hart
Cons: Jerry Garcia (does he know more than the one guitar solo?), the cover, too much Grateful Dead slopping all over, heavy sedation
Marilyn Manson
2/5
The algorithm is really trying to bring me down. First Eminem and now this. I have avoided listening to this wannabe Alice Cooper my whole life and frankly I'm sorry to see it show up on this list.
Pretty inconsequential gross-out music, it proudly wears the Trent Reznor industrial-metal brand right up front. So if you like that stuff, which not everyone does, you'll like this.
Gives rise to some of the most extreme music to come, like Dillinger Escape Plan and their ilk. Marilyn Manson's (if that IS your real name) attempt at genre-bending transgressive provocation is merely a passable mashup of Nine Inch Nails, the aforementioned Alice Cooper - who, by the way, did a far far more interesting and entertaining version of this schtick 25 years prior - and possibly Throbbing Gristle. Take that mix, dirty it up, and voilà! Rock stardom! Fame! Fortune! It's all very self-referential. Wow, that's deep man.
I "like" extreme metal, and you might lump this in that category. But it's unoriginal and frequently boring, and like a lot of stuff that doesn't hit me, devoid of soul. This feeIs like a stage show that just needed a soundtrack. The music kind of sucks, the majority of the people involved are huge assholes, and while that's not in itself a disqualifier of good music, the shenanigans are a distraction.
P.S. The U.S. Congress in the 1990s really had some serious issues, why are they so worried about what your kids are listening to? If you want to MAKE 100% sure kids hear this shit, make a big deal out of how they shouldn't get to hear this shit.
Pink Floyd
5/5
The defining album of the Album Era. That cover. The long long chart run - 736 nonconsecutive weeks (from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988) including a run of 593 weeks. Nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. My own reflection listening again after many years:
- Still perfect.
- Owes its existence to Rick Wright and Nick Mason.
- The band is firing on all cylinders.
- Perfectly balanced between the head and the heart.
- An exquisitely beautiful work of art.
- Ironically, the start of the Roger Waters Corporation Business Interest Ltd. Money, indeed.
- There is a throughline from CAN to this to Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden" to late 90s Radiohead.
- Still powerful and really great to listen to, front to back.
Funkadelic
3/5
Progressive! Wish I could hear it on something other than youtube though.
New York Dolls
3/5
Seems like a bit of an experiment gone off the rails. Pretty aggressive and anti-establishment, but better as a concept than actual music. It's okay, I'll allow the proto-punk label (because I am, yes, the official in charge of allowing labels, suck it). Entertaining.
The Only Ones
4/5
If I saw this in the store as a teenager there's no way I want to know what's on this. No way. Based on the cover alone. I don't know who that red-faced squinty guy is, but he does NOT look like he will add musical value to my life. Or the Ron Wood-lookin dude on the left. The front guy just seems like he wants to be anywhere else and the only person who looks even somewhat like a rocker is being hidden in the back.
This better be good.
Well, it was good.Really good. Exactly the kind of thing I would have loved as a teenager actually. Like a cross between the Violent Femmes and the Buzzcocks with a bit of early rock influence (think Elvis Costello more than Elvis Presley).
The Only Ones are great instrumentalists, wrote hooks, and simply great all around. I guess these guys worked on the music more than how they look, which is perfectly fine considering the result. I apologize for my earlier remarks. This is a basket of fun danceable tracks mixed with some odd (in a good way) slower tunes. I'm astonished that I'd never heard of them. This album lives up to the "1001 Albums You Have to Hear" rule for me.
Eric Clapton
2/5
***BEGIN CHATGPT PROMPTED REVIEW***
"461 Ocean Boulevard" by Eric Clapton is a lackluster attempt at revitalizing blues classics through the lens of the so-called "California Sound." While tracks like "Mainline Florida" and the standout "I Shot the Sheriff" provide fleeting moments of intrigue, the album predominantly relies on covers, reflecting what seems like creative laziness from Clapton. The appropriation of reggae elements in "I Shot the Sheriff" may resonate with some listeners, but it also raises questions about authenticity. Ultimately, the album falls short of delivering the innovation and depth expected from an artist of Clapton's caliber, resulting in a forgettable collection of uninspired renditions.
***END CHATGPT PROMPTED REVIEW***
One last note: if Clapton only played guitar there would be no problem.
The Smiths
3/5
The Smiths weren't really all that great, but they were definitely considered that by some in their time. A bit too challenging to be a pure pop band, but they did fill a temporal void in alternative music between post-punk and grunge.
For me, Morrisey pushes his poetic self-reflections too far. AndI realize that while it's part of the campiness, his vocal affectations obscure the songs' musical soul. Like putting too much mustard on a great sandwich. No matter how good all the other elements of the sandwich are, all you remember is that it was mustard. With the Smiths, you have to like mustard A LOT.
T. Rex
1/5
Here is the lyric sheet for this album: ah - ah - ah - oh yeah!
I could have gone my whole life without listening to this and I would not have missed it.
The album is derivative in countless ways and so weak musically that I was almost offended. Electric? Hardly. MAYBE "Bang a Gong. MAYBE. Whoever is playing percussion on this is trying to be heard above the drummer, so they're hitting the tambourine (or clapping, or the bongo) just before the downbeat. And it's not consistently done, either. Just random movements to offset whatever groove might be trying to emerge. The guitar sound is compressed and a little flat. The singer (Marc Bolan always made me uncomfortable and not in that "ooh, what-a-strange-and-interesting-person kind of way but in the creepy-but-thinks-very-highly-of-himself kind of way) has NO dynamics or range, the lyrics are insipid and tried. Listening to this is like watching a remake of a TV show that was based on a bad Broadway show that everyone in the 70's had to watch because there was nothing else on. A real overrated downer. Electric my ass.
Fela Kuti
5/5
Funky, jazzy, high-energy afrobeat by the undisputed king of the genre. Throwing Ginger Baker in there creates a symbiosis that makes this album as great as anything else on the list. Pure soul from every single band member working as a team. Fun as hell and now my new favorite album. Love love love.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
One of my favorite albums. Lots of deep emotion. Monster musicians, especially Manu Katchè and Tony Levin. Bill Laswell and Nile Rodgers even pop in. In Your Eyes is the best love song ever written and there can be no argument. Saw Gabriel live in October 2023 and it was life-altering. This album never gets old.
Sleater-Kinney
3/5
Heartfelt and nicely recorded post-punk! Listening to this I was thinking about how refreshing it is to hear women doing heavy music without relying on tropes but rather investigating and expressing their own point of view, unapologetically, without compromise. And Punk is the format for that - the idea of people outside the mainstream doing what they want, don't really care what you think. Reminded me a little of Throwing Muses, but with even more edge. Glad to hear this, I've heard of the band but never had a chance to listen. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if I could.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
First time hearing any Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Really interesting. Kept me engaged over both of the albums, but kind of a bit much to take in all at once. Kind of Tom Waits-ish but without the annoying gravelly-voiced circus ringmaster character. Kind of pretentious, the songs about love and sex were compelling but lack ambiguity or abstraction that makes someone else's stories artistic. Otherwise very enjoyable on a Saturday afternoon cleaning my raingutters!
Amy Winehouse
2/5
It took 43 people to make this?
Unpopular opinion but I think Amy Winehouse’s voice is weak and annoying. The songwriting left me cringing. Much like every other post 2000 female r& b artist. Very commercial and definitely not for me. Owes too much to its influences.
Alanis Morissette
3/5
Head Over Feet is a nice song. Forgiven is a good new treatment of an old theme. She shows off some vocal chops on Mary Jane that were a surprise. Ironic is a way better song than I remember. Maybe it’s the nostalgia sauce that makes it more delicious than it used to be.
Fatboy Slim
4/5
A Moogtastic panoply of zounds with a surprise around every corner. Wish I was there to see it!
I like most of what Fatboy Slim does. This one is not quite as taut as "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" but has similar punchy rhythms and tasty synth oscillations as its successor. If you like "Praise You" and its ilk you'll like this.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
4/5
You can't fool me, I know punk rock when I hear it. Maybe it's psychobilly. Whatever it is, it's rad. Album of the week.
Dr. Dre
2/5
I'm a little loathe to admit it but Robert Christgau's assessment mirrors what I think exactly: "The Chronic (which I still can't stand but respect for its influence and iconicity)"
"Dr. Dre: The Chronic [Interscope, 1992]
The crucial innovation of this benchmark album isn't its conscienceless naturalization of casual violence. It's Dre's escape from sampling. Other rappers, as they are called, have promised to create their own musical environments, usually without revealing how much art and how much publishing fuels their creative resolve. But Dre is the first to make the fantasy pay out big-time. The world he hears in his head isn't the up-to-date P-Funk fools say they hear--that would be too hard. Instead he lays bassline readymades under simulations of Bernie Worrell's high keyb sustain, a basically irritating sound that in context always signified fantasy, not reality--stoned self-loss or, at a best Dre never approaches, grandiose jive. This is bell-bottoms-and-Afros music, its spiritual source the blaxploitation soundtrack, and what it promises above all is boom times for third-rate flautists--sociopathic easy-listening. Even if it's "just pop music," as some rationalize, it's bad pop music. C+"
DNF
Talking Heads
5/5
It's an art piece!
You will enjoy this a lot more if you take a naive approach and reject the notion that every band or album has to belong to some genre. For example, Wikipedia puts the song "Psycho Killer" alone into no less than 6, from art punk (wat?) to no wave (sure, okay). Just relax and allow Talking Heads '77 to reveal it's true nature.
Talking Heads laissez-faire approach to music frees them as songwriters to rummage around in your psyche and find whatever weirdness they can turn up. Like when you go to a new town, everything familiar is a little different. Songs about the mundane that reveal other concepts about ourselves without force or irony.
Groundbreaking yet catchy, odd but confident. Some of David Byrne's most entertaining and interesting vocals on all of the Talking Heads records are here. A really important album for the future of the metagenre known as alternative rock and a home run on their first at-bat.
I was complaining
I was down in the dumps
I feel so strong now 'cause you pulled me up
Radiohead
4/5
I have to put this to bed for myself. Been wracking my brain trying to figure out, really, what I think about this album (and Radiohead in general, as I still owe a review of Kid A). But I think I finally got it.
The band are paradoxical. Yorke goes out of his way to confuse us both lyrically and professionally - in interviews, his stage presence or lack thereof, etc. Abjectly refusing to take the Prog baton, while doing exactly that. Being the "Biggest Band in the World™" while at the same time the most introverted band to ever exist (putting the lie to "introversion" as real concept at all, but these personality tropes help marketers so let's all just keep on pushing the stereotypes). Being upper-crust English Gentlemen from Oxford yet having a vicious hatred for the establishment.
Being the living human embodiment of these paradoxes would push one to the edge of a certain socially acceptable madness. The listener is expected to ignore all of it and take a quick dip in this strange pool. I'm not judging this as bad. In fact, one of the reasons Radiohead succeeds is that they are somehow able to make catchy well-composed, almost accessible music out of this confused, often depressing and enraging state of mind. It's an impermanent state, but one that will float in and out of consciousness without warning. And one that leaves only on it's own accord, even if asked politely.
This is Radiohead for me. They absolutely went to a place pop music (HA!) never really went. If we believe Yorke and Co this was not contrived but spontaneous. Another paradox, in that if tyoou think about it, no music is either truly spontaneous or truly contrived, it's not a black and white thing.
I was becoming annoyed by interpretations of the lyrics and their confusing, abstract nature: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN! Add to it the idea, for me, that some of these interpretations do NOT correspond at all with what the words in the poems actually ARE. Just as an example, let's talk about Airbag (first song on the album and puts itself out there as a representative). I've read articles whose purpose was to shed light on the poetry (it's poetry, in the ancient sense, but without the storytelling) claiming this song is about a car crash. And outside of the literal interpretation, about "transport", and maybe even the dangers of modern society, cars, whatever. But if you look at the lyrics, what are they really saying? Born again. Almost died. Airbag saved my life. What actually saved your life, man? How did you almost die? Was Thomas telling the story of a car accident that he was in? Maybe.. these guys are a paradox. Maybe all of his angst has to do with people like me misinterpreting what he's trying to say. (I've read that infact some of Thom Yorke's angst comes from exactly this.) Is "Airbag" a complaint about technology, or an acknowledgement? The fine German car caused a problem (car crash), but the Airbag prevented a different problem (death), so maybe the technology that can kill you can actually save you? What is repeatedly discussed is being born again, and the chorus about an interstellar burst and how I am back to save the universe. Yes, Thom Yorke was in an accident, yes, he has spoken about it and the relationship to this song. So you can certainly take it very literally - the feeling of escaping a near death experience adn emerging from it with a renewed sense of joie de vivre. But HAVE YOU HEARD THIS SONG. There is no joy, only fear.
So it's poetry and soundtracks. The poetry isn't really all that great. The singer sounds almost as if he doesn't want you to understand the words, they are there as a vehicle for his voice to intertwine with the guitar - vocals as musical instrument. WHich is great. People love that. It has just been difficult to unravel the various paradoxes with Radiohead, or understand when they are possibly NOT being paradoxical at all. I came to this music later in my life. If I heard this first when I was 17, you couldn't tear it out of my cold dead hands. But I deeply respect it, tall the guys in this bad are fantastic musicians and Thom Yorke is without question one of the best vocalists of this generation (arguably any generation), and an entertaining frontman as well. But every time I hear Radiohead, a small bit of my enjoyment is clouded by the cynicism that they themselves frame everything with. It becomes tedious. I feel pressure to like them more than I do. When that pressure gets to be too much to take, I put on OK Computer and drift away to a different place ;)
The Coral
3/5
This was very interesting, as a Rock album after Radiohead supposedly ended the album era. There's a late 60's folk/psych feel here that is charming and sincere. Lots of musical variety and some intrguing surprises here and there without being overly ambitious, making this an enjoyable listen.The album feels very live - as if I were listening to the band in the pub wherever these dudes are from, everyone is having a great time. Really fun.
Nine Inch Nails
1/5
Another juvenile fit-thrower from the 90s, like Marilyn Manson and later Eminem. DNF
The White Stripes
4/5
There's a macho approach to rock 'n' roll that The White Stripes didn't exactly avoid in previous albums, but on this they somehow became Led Zeppelin all of a sudden. Almost overconfident without the self-effacing charm of previous albums. Still brilliant in a lot of ways: clever lyrically, solid grooves that maintain the DIY trope, and some 5-star guitar playing - Jack White's guitar sound speaks to me, and some of the solos on here are wildly expressive. Drugs make an appearance, though? What's up with that?
Kraftwerk
3/5
Sometimes music can just be something to listen to, not worry too much about, enjoy the sound, the rhythms, the little melodies, the chord changes. Just listening with no effort expected on the listener's part. Light entertainment for your amusement.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Give it up for The Attractions ladies and gentlemen! The rhythm section and drum 'breakdown' on Lipstick Vogue literally making me cry. It's not Punk Rock, it's another level of Elvis Costello that didn't show up on "My Aim is True." More complex. More inscrutable. Deeper. Heavier. Angrier.
"Big Tears
mean nothing {scowling}
When you're lyin' in
your coffin"
Jesus! Easy, Elvis!
Then they just toss off "Radio, Radio" like it's a Sunday afternoon jam with friends. Fantastic.
Takes a while to get into, but once you do, it's a pretty fulfilling musical experience.
Aerosmith
4/5
Kind of strangely good hard rock at the end of the hair-metal era. Peak Stephen Tyler, I'm not a huge fan, but tons of respect for the voice. Smarter than average but with some cheesiness (which is not the worst thing in the world - a sense of humor is always welcome). Enjoyable overall. For me the big winner is the whole second side of the album, notably Hoodoo Voodoo/Medicine Man, which was a Brad Whitford (!) song. Go figure. Janie's Got a Gun is a good song, regardless of what you think of Aerosmith. Good, well thought-out album. Good to see rock stars come back from the dark side instead of immolating themselves for a change.
The Fall
5/5
Five stars because fu the Fall are awesome. It's different and you just don't get it. This is their most accessible album, and it's not all that accessible. I wonder if someone challenged Mark E. Smith (who is a god by the way) to come up with a pop album?
Might change me name to Shadrach Glamrick.
Lauryn Hill
3/5
Pop R & B isn't my usual taste in music but the further into this album I got, the more I enjoyed it. Especially like the socially conscious songs and the variety of influences (dancehall, rap). Always cool to get a feminist perspective. Really like the cover of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You."
Radiohead
4/5
Really like Guitar-Radiohead a little more than Experimental-Ambient-Radiohead, and this peak Guitar-Radiohead. SO EMOTIONAL though, fakeplastictrees kills me every time. High and Dry is a great pop song on an album is chock full of great songs, I don't care if Thomm doesn't like it. Not an easy or casual listen, but as deep as anything the band ever did. Not for everyone. It was always odd to me how popular this band was, hoping someone can explain it to me some day.
Dead Kennedys
5/5
I saw the Dead Kennedys at this weird little gymnasium in SLC. Got smashed up against the stage for most of the show while my friends were either in a mosh pit or floating around the outside. I was wearing my favorite metallic orange skinny tie and a shitty thrift store suit. Someone tries to choke me or hang me by grabbing my tie, I couldn't see them and I decided I could escape by whipping my head around like a dog that doesn't want to e on a leash, all the while screaming Chemical Warfare into the mic the Jello pushed in the faces of us all getting smashed into the stage. The tie itself was finally unleashed but I didn't really care, that was he best night of my young life up to that point.
My friends had similar tales.
Hands down my favorite punk album ever and I think most of these themes still resonate. My deadhead friends couldn't listen to 5 minutes of this without yelling at me to turn it off, but that was their loss.
Janet Jackson
2/5
Inoffensive but otherwise meh. Owes a lot to Prince and Michael Jackson (no relation). Black Cat is a cool song, others are mostly unoriginal and weakly executed.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
Intense. Not what I expected. A lot of variety musically. Really powerful, at times prescient considering Jeff Buckley's short life - for example on "So Real" he sings
"...I couldn't awake
from the nightmare
that sucked me in
and pulled me under
Pulled me under
oh that was so real..."
5/5
Like the best bands, the best albums are of a piece.
The last of the great rock-era U2 albums, before they "reinvented" themselves - as what, many of us fans STILL do not know. I guess just "not this anymore." Yet this album (and the little portion of their career it represents) was a career plateau that they never really got back to.
They hold up a mirror to America, more as their own introspection than as a preachy diatribe. There is a respect and disappointment in the romanticism. And it's not all about America, either. Running to Stand Still, Streets Have No Name, most of these are about everywhere. Like a daydream, images fade in and out, some more lucid than others.
The themes and lyrical content give the whole thing its emotional underpinning. U2 as musicians have hit their stride, confident in the style that they invented for themselves and unapologetically galloping from one rendering of it to the next. Instrumentally, U2 have a tension between the piercing staccato of guitar and the down-to-earth smoothness of the bass. This tension is not so much antagonistic as it is a framework or scaffolding. The drums/bass/guitar push against each other and work together to support whatever chaos is happening on top of and around them. Kind of a cool trick that works really well for them in that the singer isn't doing pop tropes all the time. He requires an instrumental pulpit that the band are happy to provide. Neither can exist without the other. This structure sounds great on an album with outsized and ambitious anthemic thrust.
It does fail for some listeners who aren't up for that level of commitment, maybe. U2 have attempted to take on difficult and far-reaching themes, inside and outside of themselves. It can be a lot. I always really loved that about them, though. They are committed to each other, the fans, the music, and what they are trying to say. When it works, like it does here, it can be a religious experience.
Frank Ocean
2/5
Some interesting grooves. Story songs, but without much subtlety. I do feel transported into a world I'm unfamiliar with, I enjoyed that. Not Just Money, Super Rich Kids, and Crack Rock carry this whole thing for me. A lot to recommend but it doesn't make me feel anything. I like the minimalism and chill tempos. I would need more time with this. Seems like Frank Ocean (if that IS your real name!) is not that into making music and this was something he shedded like a snake skin from his lifestyle. It's ok.
The Beach Boys
1/5
Some of the worst music I've heard of the albums I've listened to so far. Really not good. I never "got" the Beach Boys, and this just makes me dislike them more.
Jacques Brel
1/5
Couldn't get through it. Maybe some other ti,e. He's a good enough singer, and I'm sure this is a good example of the genre. I couldn't do it. Grateful for having a streaming subscription so I don't have to buy or try to borrow stuff like this.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
This is heavy proto-grunge, negatively focused on the whole, challenging, noisy, and weird. What was happening in Massachusetts in the late 80s? This is what "indie" used to be. Much less of an attempt to be popular through hooky songwriting tropes. More from the heart and about as underground as you want to be without disappearing completely. I don't dislike this era, sort of underground American post-post-punk - I don't know. Definitely not for everyone. A bit in that Minutemen/Hüsker Dü/Meat Puppets vein. A lot more dismal and introspective though.
Depeche Mode
1/5
At their best Depeche Mode are an overly serious version of Kraftwerk with a monotonous cabaret singer. At their worst a soulless New Romantic band of goth posers. PICK A LANE Depressed Mood! I will give the list a pass on one Depeche Mode album, but why two? At least I got them out ogf the way early. This has been a very below-average week. Hopefully next week isn't all Tom Waits and Rod Stewart 🫣 .
The Verve
2/5
Too slow, too much production, too much not enough. Lacks any intensity. Pretty soulless. Damn, the whole thing is like the worst Lynyrd Skynyrd, but more robotic. The singer is good enough (I guess, can't really hear that well). Outside of Bittersweet Symphony, this just drags. It's so long. I tried, but the slide guitar/slow tempo/acoustic campfire strumming just feels contrived out here. Come On is okay. Rounding down one star for bad behavior and breaking up 3 times. I would love to hear something by these guys without all the echo and tambourine
ZZ Top
3/5
It's okay. Hugely popular and hugely disappointing for a ZZ Top fan back in 1983. One of the few bands though that was able to incorporate post-punk/new-wave into their mix a little. ZZ Top have some funk and soul baked in that helps this rise above the doldrums of the era. Also, TV Dinners is awesome, you guys just don't get it.
The Sugarcubes
4/5
I love everything about this band. Sort of a weird B-52s vibe but a little... nastier? Funny, interesting, different, upbeat, fun, contemplative, cerebral, poetic, odd, indecipherable, fascinating, Arty, percussive - has a good beat, you can dance to it. High quality musicianship, you can tell they've played together for a long time, very cohesive and tight, expressive, good dynamics and support for the voices. This is a good band. Oh, yeah, also Björk 🤩 (pronounced "byerk").
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
Soothing and hypnotic. Pt. 4 has a lovely mid-seventies European futurism, at the time the most high-tech sound imaginable which even today sounds somewhat otherworldly. Cool recording. Has an "organic" feel to it even though completely electronic, even the bird sounds are synthesizer and studio effect. Astonishing to me that he recorded this in his apartment.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Marvin Gaye has a remarkable singing voice. Let’s Get It On is pretty catchy and everything on the album is well executed. But! This music exists for one reason and one reason only, and I think we all know what that reason is. Outside of a very specific context- or possibly a slow dance - it doesn’t appeal to my taste. Great work though just not my bag. A little too slow and romantic.
Supergrass
4/5
Great debut album. It's just rock and roll, don't over-think it. A good bit of fun. You can really hear their influences, almost a little too much, but because I like those influences I won't count it against them ;). Cool sound, lots of bass, great drumming as well. There are some interesting innovations on here. I enjoyed this album quite a bit, fun uptempo blasts - probably not "Britpop" if it wasn't released at that time. Slightly better than three stars. If this were a 100 scale, and:
⭐️ = 0-20,
⭐️⭐️ = 21-40,
⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 41-60,
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 61-80, and
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 81-100
this album is definitely in the top third for me, especially after the last week or so.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
Listened to the first of the four (five) LPs that comprise this, I think. The Apple Music version did not include the instrumentals at the beginning, but you can find those on a different release if you want to be a completist.
Glad to be exposed to this. What Pop was before the rock era, this is definitely a work of art. You can't find fault with Ella Fitzgerald, or the band. Perfect execution and this was the peak of Jazz as a popular music form. A type of literature, music school is still teaching this for sure even though it is really no longer in the pop idiom. Which is a bit disappointing considering the level of talent here. Again, glad to get it on the list. Was meditating on the question of "How would you feel if today was your last" and I was definitely glad I heard this before I died.
Good to see this on the list, I think eventually I will play the rest.
Ravi Shankar
3/5
Oof getting behind in my reviews! Just a couple notes about this interesting album:
1. Obviously influential, maybe not just Ravi Shankar but the whole Indian Classical genre, and obviously in Britain.
2. Culturally more important than musically, maybe?
3. Difficult to pay attention to continuously, but enjoyable in the background.
4. Get your mind somewhere else for a change, this kind of music is really healthy for the brain if nothing else because it is different from what you're used to. You don't have to like it, but do yourself a favor, and as he says, listen with an open mind and you will be rewarded.
5. Virtuosic. I wish I had more time to just let it wash over me(maybe I'll listen to it again today, since I don't have to listen to Kanye West).
Scissor Sisters
2/5
Maybe some other time. Not my jam, sorry. Weirdly popular in the UK - why? Average to below average alt-pop. And, yep, I get it, you're gay. DNF.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Over rated.
I remember why I don't like the Stones all that much. They always sounded a little out of tune and like they were phoning it in (except for Charlie Watts, of course). Weirdly ironic to criticize your middle class peers while engaging in the very behavior you're criticizing. Oh wait, I forgot,you're writing about "characters." Sorry.
I KNOW I'm SUPPOSED to LOVE the Stones as anti-establishment heroes, but they were always pretty representative of the establishment in Rock, weren't they? Minus one star for Critical Acclaim®.
Queen
5/5
This is a pure masterpiece. Shows off their technical ambitions, their genre-straddling songwriting prowess, all with a positive approach.
Putting the monster that is "Brighton Rock" as the first song is a BOLD MOVE, and it pays off. Sets the tone (almost) for the rest of the Queen catalog with the vocal range and the ridiculous guitar fireworks and the blister-inducing drums. The epic lyric poem! What is even happening!
You never get the feeling that anyone in Queen is a junkie with a deathwish. Everyone is the best at their instrument, just a crazy once-in-a-lifetime band. They started hitting their stride on this album.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
I feel like they could have rehearsed more, but there are interesting ideas here and there. Flavors stuff that would come down the road 10 years later, especially in American New Wave and post-punk like Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, or Devo.
When this was released it was probably quite a bit more challenging than it is today (almost 60 years later!!!). Mostly typical 1960s blues-inspired meanderings, like every other psychedelic era band, but with less attention to hooks and more Dadaism.
Wondering whether Cap'n Beefheart suffered from some mental illness, and I don't say that in a joking or judgemental way, but I sincerely wonder if everything was going okay. I hear a little anguish in the vocals, and I could be mistaking Beefheart's method of self-expression for true pain. So maybe in the end, the Blues was sincere. This music walks on the ol' line between madness and art. Captain Beefheart is just over the line a little bit, at times on this album and ABSOLUTELY on the upcoming Trout Mask Replica. And that makes stuff like this even more interesting. Is it good? hmmm
Kanye West
1/5
Nope. Didn't listen. Won't ever listen.
It's really disturbing to me that EVEN AFTER Kanye West exposed himself as a conspiratorial anti-semitic dipshit, he goes on a tour and releases new stuff and remains popular. I hate it. Can't figure it out. I think he learned about how to con his loyal followers from the former president.
Just wrote about mental illness and how maybe Captain Beefheart was toying with that line between madness and genius (myth by the way, but hey, popular music, right?). Kanye West has the more sociopathic version of this, where he feels okay exploiting his fans. "Yeah, look how CRAZY I AM!! {That'll be $250, please.}" This dude has a lot of problems, always has, and I'm kind of sick of using brain cycles thinking about it.
Anthrax
4/5
So much music is both comprised of and decorated with vagaries, subtleties, and ambiguity. There's a lot of cognitive load trying to parse meaning, to unwind a metaphor, to extract contextual clues - like riding the train to someplace you've never been. {That's an analogy not a metaphor} While sometimes interesting and entertaining (appeals to taste notwithstanding), the effort can be exhausting, especially when traveling to a frontier where you must have your wits about you at all times, aware, ready for surprises of all kinds, friendly or otherwise.
Sometimes it's really nice to avoid all that and just get blasted with a straightforward message in a forceful way. Back it up with technical mastery and you've hit a sweet spot. Anthrax doesn't hit that spot for everyone all the time, myself included. But today, nailed it. No complaints.
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Vocals rely a little bit on a resemblance to Neil Young. Some novel rhythmic passages and the drums are up in the mix which I like. In fact the production of this album is interesting throughout. It takes risks. There is a definite early to mid 2000s alternative rock sound that this fits in with. Like Arcade Fire, maybe Interpol, etc I mean it’s not unpleasant , just a wispy psychedelia that I won’t remember well tomorrow.
Floydian spaciness in Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon
Massive Attack
3/5
When I drive now it is no longer a pleasant experience. It's a stressful exercise in accepting the fact that you can't control other people, judging only hurts yourself, and anger management all while navigating an increasingly dangerous and out of control world.
Putting this on helped soothe the pain as I drove to the store and back. Trip hop is cool, I listen to it a lot, especially instrumental stuff. This is great. Almost broke my earbuds, there's SO MUCH BASS. (A compliment, not a complaint). Not the best but there are some choice cuts - I could live with Five Man Army for a long long time. Owes a lot to some post-punk R & D guys like Adrian Sherwood and Jah Wobble.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Nearly flawless! An intriguing and important cultural milestone. Beautiful tunes perfectly executed, sort of like Rumors from a technical point of view. Eclectic. Socially conscious pop music is pretty rare, even more rare is socially conscious music that universally acclaimed and beloved.
I don't know what happened to music after this. It just got dumber and lower quality. Thank god for this high bar though.
Miriam Makeba
3/5
Lovely. Such a strong voice, it seems like studio recordings just don't capture her power. Very accessible, firmly grounded in popular formats - I swear I can hear samba, some calypso, jazz, and everyone will recognize Mbube - The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but the roots version. One More Dance is one of the absolute most bizarre recordings I've ever heard, I think.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
This is extremely okay. Brutally and immensely unoffensive. A brilliant, timeless, and absolutely astonishing variety of middle-of-the-road pop. Wants to be milquetoast without ever getting there. Jokes aside, if you're in the mood for some good-time mid-sixties pop-rock, go put this on. Stepping Stone is the edgiest thing here, but this isn't about being edgy. Some creepy moments (Girl on the 4th Row, Melody for an Unknown Girl) that didn't age well, hysterical nonetheess. They weren't going for that, but it's entertaining all the same. The perfect example of a "sound" that some cool new West Coast bands are going for (looking at you, Buttertones). Rock and Roll without all the drugs and sex.
Jack White
4/5
Jack White's talent is taking the simplest riffs and exploring all the possibilities of them. Here he works more on song structure and studio execution than the White Stripes' more blatant guitar-based anthemic crunchiness. This is a little bit more wordy than the White Stripes or even the Raconteurs, more thoughtful, and a little more obtuse for me. There's a strange flow to it, though, not BAD per se, just a bit stream-of-consciousness. Feels like we Jack White is going down a different road musically at the end of the album than where we started. It's not disappointing, but it is a goodbye to the earlier simpler grittier garagier (garage-ier?) work into the more backwoods idioms that he ventures into later. Can't wait to see how he changes in another 10 years.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
"It's Blitz!" comes across as formulaic. Lacks the aggression, emotion, and sincerity of their earlier stuff. The disco/dance grooves are just weak. Karen O's voice is not Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, or even Debbie Harry - and it is Blondie (or possibly No Doubt) who they seem to be reaching for, rather than capitalize on their OWN unique flavor. It just feels forced, like a great basketball player who suddenly gets to the Finals and chokes away the win because they get overwhelmed by the moment. Which isn't to say it's all bad. Dissapointing.
Boards of Canada
5/5
BoC are mechanistic, experimental, cerebral musique concrete with a very specific attitude as an art project. Late 90s Electronic music was Big Beat, danceable throbbing rave-oriented controlled chaos that required little to no cognitive effort on the listener's part. This is a completely different thing.
It is electronic music to be sure. Some bits also bear a resemblance to dance tropes of that era. Well-executed similarity to other forms of electronic music, serve as an entry point for something far more interesting, yet entertaining. From simple bass and drum grooves, they wash the whole with other colors that seem unintentional in their effect. Moods shift from joyous to anxious, naïve to wizened, celebratory to frosty boredom.
BoC create art that occupies an unnameable state of mind that existed in its past. Perhaps. I think I remember hearing this or that, I remember what it felt like (or I think I do), but that might only be because the sound suggests it. What you are hearing never actually existed. What exists is your memory of something similar, buried now because it's unimportant or unused. There is a way to dive into how this fits into postmodernism in a way that I won't go into today, but it can spin off in an epistemological direction for sure. What do you really remember? Is memory a real thing in the world? We probably invent an abstraction of the past so that the world has some structure., even though the "world" is just complete uncontrolled chaos. It's why we invented God, or maybe music This music works in that role for me really well. A structure where the mind can wander down weird little paths of memory and emotion, some I've seen before, some remind me of places I've been or people I've heard in other rooms while multiple TVs play various indecipherable and unimportant things.
"Music Has the Right to Children" is accidentally popular, it seems. Kind of divisive, looking at the reviews here. I love it, but you don't have to. Give it a chance if you want something to think about.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Perfect for walking around on a grey springtime afternoon, the mountains ahead, lake in the distance. Joni Mitchell has SUCH A GREAT voice, but she's pretty horny, isn't she? And why not? When a dude is horny and singing about it no one bats an eye. Joni Mitchell does it and EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MINDS.
God damn Jaco Pastorious kills it. Fantastic record.
Frank Black
4/5
A great Rock and Roll, underappreciated. Could have been the Pixies though.
Willie Nelson
3/5
Respectfully: Willie Nelson does a good job of infusing these old standards with his iconic vocal sound. But this comes out at a time when pop standards were passé. A few other big names filled gaps in the market when there was no traditional pop on the charts: Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart (!), Carly Simon, and this. Would have been better if Willie leaned more into his Country and Jazz instincts, instead of the straight approach he takes here. I will say, pretty rebellious to make this album, as a successful country artist, in 1977. At least it wasn't disco or punk. Thanks, I suppose for that!
Franz Ferdinand
2/5
Some okay tunes, a bit (a lot) immature lyrically. "Angular" guitars and pushing the bass up in the mix on top of a disco-style drum groove does not make this anything like post-punk, as I've heard this band described. I'm thinking more Roxy Music than Gang of Four, too slick to truly be a garage band. The best songs are the most popular and those verge on being mere earworms. Hints at heaviness. I vaguely recall reading something recently about listening to bands who aren't very good but have a great record collection. I think FF qualifies. Not a COMPLETE waste of time, but I have pretty limited time.
The Thrills
1/5
Is that Bill Hader? Dude's got a Rockmount Ranchwear shirt it appears. The cover DEFINITELY does not sell this - the posturing is strong in this one. The guy on the far right - ew. I bet they from Ireland or something. This better be good. (Not feeling generous today). Not going to break my rule and read about them before I listen, though. BRB!
Is this a prank? They ARE from feckin’ Ireland!!!! I just heard Willie Nelson and now here come these poseurs. Yikes. Bad ideas poorly executed. Why not do your own stuff and leave the Americana to someone who knows how to do it? Awful. Couldn’t get through it.
Lucinda Williams
4/5
Hahaha Lucinda Williams after that stupid The Thrills album!! Oh the ironing is delicious 🤤. Still angry about Irish guys using a fgake southern drawl.
Great songwriting delivered with authenticity. The album has a lot of variety, a range of emotion, interesting and fresh subject matter. Really liked these little glimpses of people's lives, Lake Charles was a memorable example. I've never listened to Lucinda WIlliams before because I kind of afraid of country music, but this was great. Haters gonna hate, as they say. I typically oppose the Critically Acclaimed™ stuff, but this deserves the awards.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
What's one thing we humans all have in common, regardless of nation, race, age, etc. etc. etc.?
This album answers that question for me.
Had to buy it because not on streaming, and I wanted to own this anyway. Certainly glad I did. Fantastic soundtrack for a hike. Timeless. Beautiful.
Paul Simon
5/5
Best songwriter of the baby boom generation and there is no argument. I too am Just thanking the Lord for Paul Simon's fingers 😉
George Harrison
3/5
Excepting the couple of hits, this is fairly mediocre. Relies a little too much on a laid-back acoustic folky sound, and George doesn't need the likes of Bob Dylan or Eric Clapton to help him. Not for me to decide, but in my revisionist history George does the following:
1. Instead of Phil Spector, literally anyone else. George's tunes just don't fit and there's no ironic contrast. Just reverb and it brings the wwhole thing to a place it doesn't belong. There's a fine line between clever and stupid.
2. Just get a band, abandon the all-star guest appearance party.
3. Pick the 8 - 10 best songs. OR
4. Finish a thought. A lot of the stuff on this album seems like demos without structure. Take all the ideas, put some together, take some apart, move some around.
5. Sing from your soul, not someone else's. George Harrison seems to get caught in that thing that so many British rockers did around this time and thought they were George Jones or something? Country rock is not all that awesome even when it's done well.
6. Of course, just one album man. Just one. The Beatles were so popular they got to that point where NO ONE gave them any feedback. This album is too long. Maybe flesh out the weaker songs and put them on a later album?
The good stuff is really good though. I just wish he pruned out the Americana sounding stuff. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Birthday Party
3/5
Some really cool rhythms and as Tim Bowness says “proto-goth… AB SO LUTE slab of atonal noise.” And that’s what this is start to finish. I listened to this out of context, that is, walking to a work function on a sunny cool late spring morning. 1982 me would love most of it. Very DIY with shades of PiL but not enough. More in a Crampsy/B-movie/ tongue in cheek vein than his later more literate work. It’s ok, a tough listen all the way through.
Roni Size
2/5
I wanted to like this more than I did. Just too long, man.
The problem with digital technology in music production and reproduction is that what used to be a creative constraint, being the amount of material the artist could reasonably add to an album. Because tape was EXPENSIVE, took specialized knowledge to work with effectively, had a finite physical capacity, and took up physical space among other things. The artist and producer needed to be super selective about what they committed to tape and by extension the record they made. You had to rehearse as studio time was also expensive and in limited supply. A lot of effort had to go into song selection, recording method, it all adds up. Only the best performances make the cut from a purely practical and financial perspective.
But with digital all that went away. On the positive side, now anyone truly can make professional sounding work, and make recordings anywhere (dorm room, backyard shed, etc.). Digital distribution has further democratized the industry, and most barriers to creating, publishing, and marketing music are gone. Additionally, recordings can be ANY LENGTH without constraint. This lack of constraints allows artists (who are in love with their own work as if it were more important than their own offspring) the ability to publish everything they make, regardless of quality of the performance, whether it's a unique or novel expression, or any other reason to prune. This lack of constraints is especially detrimental in electronic music, where an artists ability to play a musical instrument is another constraint that no longer matters. Just sample something, loop it, add some beats, boom - done.
Now there's too much. This Roni Size album has some good stuff on it! But too much. Too much of every song contains recycled elements of the last, and the next. Pop clearly eats itself here, but not in a self-referential post-modern way (like Boards of Canada). An example of the post-vinyl digital abundance and ego stroking that is now de rigeur.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
So far this week I've had a triple album (\"All Things Must Pass\" by George Harrison - 104:12), a double CD album (\"New Forms\" by Roni Size/Reprazent - 139:54) the very challenging 47:20 atonal slab of \"Junkyard\" by The Birthday Party, and now this Jazz double LP weighing in at a hefty 76:33. What next, possibly \"simulated_worlds\" by NǽnøĉÿbbŒrğ VbëřřĦōlökäävsŦ (80:49:58) or perhaps Bull of Heaven's
\"210: Like a Wall in Which an Insect Lives and Gnaws\", a piece lasting exactly fifty thousand hours? All told I have to put in 6 hours and 7 minutes, and it's only Thursday! Good thing I like Jazz!
This is a good album but not an exceptional album excepting the fact that it's Hugh Masekela from South Africa, not exactly a Jazz hotbed before this (so very groundbreaking in that respect), and the high quality of the music across the length of it. Subjectively speaking of course. I do like Masekela's spare style and bright, melodic approach to the horn. At times blasting out hard bop like Dizzy Gillespie or gliding into the long breathy single notes like Miles, where he tries to coax every last drop of life out of that one sound. All without being overly cerebral or challenging, making this a fairly accessible work for Jazz fusion (which is definitely what this is).
The best tunes on here are the more funk-driven ones where the band is not meandering as much, like on "Inner Crisis." Bringing in some textures that haven't been played to death for the 25 years prior. The drumming was a little heavy-handed I thought, great nonetheless. There are probably some number of Jazz albums that could be on this list instead of this one, but it's an enjoyable, uplifting entry.
3/5
The Kinks ushering a new political era! Dying in a war for no reason, income inequality, misplaced patriotism (is that what it's called in Great Britain?), wartime propaganda, questioning authority, parodying the advertising of Australia! This one's got it all! It's all good, The Kinks rule, and the British Empire is officially dead! huzzah
Tears For Fears
5/5
The opposite of a sophomore slump.
I was going to ding this by a star for "I Believe," but it's a perfectly executed soul ballad with the same self-observant attitude as the rest of the album, gently laying you down in front of the massive "Head Over Heels/Broken," which rips out your heart then gifts it back to you in a healed, refreshed state where you can now see the world a little more clearly, less shit-stained.
Brilliant album beginning to end, with that lush, mid-eighties gloss that can sound dated but here is effective as part of the music, magnifying the themes, spreading the music out. Simple without being boring. Huge without being obnoxious, or tedious. It just has a sincere character, unlike a lot of other so-called synth-pop/new wave from that era - not going to name names because Tears for Fears songwriting and musical chops elevate them to a level that exists sort of above any genre.
Unfortunately for us Orzabal and Curt Smith didn't get along well after the next album, maybe got steamrolled by their hype, who knows. Good to see they got back together later because this was a unique sound, great voices, great playing, great songwriting. "Songs from the Big Chair" has aged well, a superior example of what pop music sounde like inthe mid-eighties, and remains one of the best albums of all time.
Destiny's Child
3/5
Somewhat judgemental about the Nasty girl, which sends a mixed message on the heels of Bootylicious. Interesting attempt at infiltrating a pop/dance/r&b record with some intellect, and it has some touching moments. Probably aimed at a different demographic, but kind of enjoyed it, even though I'm a proponent of DAD ROCK. Makes sense, their producer is Beyoncè's dad.
2Pac
1/5
Gangsta rap
David Bowie
5/5
Every time I listen to this I hear something new. THIS TIME, I heard a running theme, both romanticizing and eulogizing someone's gauzy, distant view of a pop culture that never was. Like all the Glam was just for show, and underneath was something less appealing, strangeness that is no longer interesting and exciting but bitter, ungrounded, untethered.
Often the lyrics go off the rails of saliency, and this state of mind is further illustrated by Mike Garson's solo at the end of the title track. Like a stage set that we get glimpses of an unkempt chaos behind it. But just glimpses. Things are starting to fall apart. Or maybe just change into something else.
Yes
5/5
People on here hating real music that makes you happy for some reason. 5 stars always for one of my favorites. Not even bill Bruford's best work and it's still objectively better than anything - anything - released after 1999.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Another god-damn double album. Apple music describes it as the "first double-album masterpiece of the rock 'n' roll era". We'll see. Starting to be concerned about time about 1/4th of the way through this beast of a list. Although last week was great, 2Pac excepted.
This is the hipster music origin story. "Bob Dylan" is a brand, not a dude. An acquired taste. If I was 17 in 1966, I would have been on the bandwagon. But I wasn't, so I'm not, although the influence is EVERYWHERE. I'm going to make a little list right now, off the top of my tiny head (also going to make this review into a Bob Dylan-type song later):
The Byrds,
Every god-forsaken California Sound (and by extension, Yacht-Rock) associated artist from the Doors (yes, the Doors were the progenitors) to The Eagles (Dylan made it okay for these fresh suburban post-hippies to ape a Country vibe) to Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, etc etc etc ad nauseam,
Post-British Invasion - look at Pete Townsend's pretentiousness after 1966 - every rock musician smokes a bowl and thinks they're now TS Eliot,
Tom Fucking Waits and his ilk (e.g. Nick Cave),
David Bowie,
Bono,
Johnny Cash,
Patti Smith,
The Clash (wat?),
Springsteen and by extension Bon Jovi.
I could go on, but once again, TIME IS NOT ON MY SIDE. Then think about the artists THOSE artists influenced.
That being said, he is a wordsmith nonpareil. (<-- see what I did there?) Also his anti-authoritarian, anti-mainstream approach does expand his appeal to the more underground among us.
I have a philosophy about music that I want throw out here, and that is that there are two kinds of rock music. The first is Elvis based, the other is Dylan based. Every one, without fail, takes a spot on that spectrum somewhere.
Missy Elliott
2/5
Some of the lyrics are straight up hilarious, to wit:
"Not on the bed, lay me on your sofa
Call before you come, I need to shave my chocha
You do or you don't or you will or won't ya?
Go downtown and eat it like a vulture"
EAT IT LIKE A VULTURE!!! hahaha
Otherwise, some cool beats. WAY too horny though.
Deep Purple
5/5
Really thought it would sound dated, but in fact, better now than ever. Innovative - along with Zeppelin and Sabbath, created the genre. Cool, catchy, and unmatched performances - Ian Paice is exceptional on here, his playing is on another level. Great band, fun tunes, and if this is "Dad Rock," good! Now I know what my favorite genre is.
Venom
4/5
This one goes to 11. An absolute delight beginning to end. Like Satan's house band. Has that weird, garagey muffled-yet-echo-y sound of all the best underground music. Really great metal album. Thinking Van Halen probably secretly listened to this, especially Teacher's Pet. Which is a weirdly horny tune amidst all of threst of the hellscape. Good job!
Fatboy Slim
5/5
"Kids today don't know what it's like to get their hands dirty."
- FatBoy Slim, on cratedigging
The Stone Roses
4/5
Unrecognized jangle-pop masterpiece ;).
Really tight, they keep it simple and cool. Not the most profound music ever made but catchy and accessible. Great dynamics, lots of variety and little surprises embedded in familiar rock formulas that somehow feel innovative. Musicianship is the highest quality, really excellent playing. Again, not overly complex, not tedious or boring. Bears repeated listening for that reason. I like the recording quality. It's massive but intimate, full, crisp. A great record, like if there was a happier British REM.
"Fools Gold" rules!
The Afghan Whigs
2/5
Hey everybody! 😎😎😎It's the feel-bad album of the summer!🌞🌞🌞🤩🤩🤩
It's an artistic statement like Type-O Negative doing Summer Breeze. It surprises me whenever ideas like this get the careful, even superb execution that they do. Maybe they just sat down and said: "Let's write an album that will be critically acclaimed™," and that was the only parameter.
It's really pretty bad. The concept is derivative if not ill-conceived. The playing is fine, but I feel like they're pushing my face into something I simply don't want (and never asked ) to look at. The singing, while true to whatever disturbed and unlikable character this is supposed to be, is obnoxious with no real redeeming quality.
I'm not sure where this type of music comes from, just exploring the darkest places. It's just that there's no hope, it never let's up. It's not even like metal, where you get actual visceral anger. It's just the soundtrack of people being assholes to themselves and each other. Pretty lame. The effort that went into making this surprises me, because what do you think about yourself or your audience when you do something like this? I guess it's just going hard on your complaints, really really hard. Narcissistic. It's (again, this turns up a lot in the Critically Acclaimed® albums) like bad high-school poetry.
David Bowie
4/5
I am not a good enough writer or thinker to say anything cogent about this masterpiece immediately after hearing it for the first time.
Notes:
- Bowie is in a bad mood
- Theorem: David Bowie can do no wrong (musically).
- Dimery wrote a couple books about Bowie, IIRC?
- Fan fiction/speculative: Bowie actually is an alien or possibly a returned jesus and we (earth-based humans/mortals) are tested with determining this to be true. We are given some clues, all of them in musical form. This album is the final one. Our literal last chance to save ourselves, but we must first decipher the music.
A sad and brilliant album with amazing musicians. Heavy and very very dark in places. Throughout, I get the impression that Bowie just really likes to sing. There are some subtleties in his voice here that are really interesting, and absolutely on par with much of his earlier work. NOT THE SAME, different, but on par. Enjoyed this a lot, lives up to the accoades for sure.
Bowie is still with us.
Metallica
4/5
Every song is a dark epic. Brutally powerful and quite overwhelming, as is its intention. Lars Ulrich's drum sound was unique and genre-defining, Hetfield's vocals (though for me, somewhat monotonous) reflect the disturbed, unending torment, anguish, and anger that embody the victims in these songs: damned, despised, dismissed. Much od the al;bum could be described as over-complicated, but I get the sense the band is feeling its way through uncharted musical territory, and when they hit the sweet spot between excessive indulgence and grand artistic statement, it's pretty sweet. At the time, really experimental, and WAY more serious than a lot of Metal that had come before and in that, paving the way for more extreme genres.
The Police
5/5
Bring on the Night. Walking on the Moon. Bed's Too Big Without You. Message in a Bottle for God's sake. All the other songs are praiseworthy as well. Stewart Copeland proving once again he is the best drummer in the rock era. Andy Summers' artful renderings. Sting in top form. Great album.
Beatles
4/5
Writing about the Beatles is like Dancing about Astronomy... wat?
Dig these lads. There's more historic value than anything else to "With the Beatles." Still magical, the early Beatles changed popular music like nothing before or since.
The recording I heard today on Apple Music has obviously been cleaned up for the digital age and is a little out of context, but after a few minutes the ears become accustomed to the sound. In fact, the cleaned up digital versions gave a freshness to the sound that you don't get when playing an old scratchy vinyl. On the other hand, these songs are somewhat famous for their exquisite production and engineering, which were designed for the technology of the time. Meaning that vinyl was the way god (George Martin) intended.
There are a lot of technical avenues I want to go down, like how there's spanish rhythms all over the place, how the vocal harmonies seem to always resolve perfectly, how Ringo brings much-needed energy to tunes like Roll Over Beethoven (and every other song on here for that matter, many of which would be real yawners without him, more on that next time I get a Beatles record), but it doesn't matter in the end. Why does everyone love the Beatles WITHOUT EXCEPTION? Just listen to it.
Turbonegro
2/5
An album called "Apocalypse Dudes" ooh I don't know about this.
Not great. Doesn't come from a sincere place, all style and no substance. It's like they are consciously trying to make a mash-up of every heavy rock genre from glam to proto-punk (a term I violently disagree with, but that's for another time) to hair-metal. Well executed but puerile, with some very professional (too professional) playing. Anything resembling the sonic character of heavier genres like punk - the DIY aesthetic, a garage sound, etc. - are not present on this. Maybe that's the point.
The best thing here is the instrumental break on "Prince of the Rodeo" which is otherwise almost unlistenable.
B.B. King
4/5
Quintessential album by one of the most recognizable artists in the genre. BB King does some very “pop” sounding interpretations of his favorites, and everyone sounds like they’re having a good time. Killer guitar solos from a unique stylist, and his voice is in peak form.
Goldie
2/5
Like a lot of the other reviewers, I think your enjoyment of this is based on context. The less formulaic stuff sounds great while riding the exercise bike, for instance. But for me EDM with vocals can be grating if not done correctly though. And it is apparently really hard to do correctly. There's a jarring dissonance between the structured artificiality of the synth and a human voice. It feels like a cop-out every time I hear something like this with a female soul singer layered on top. It's like the artist has some idea about "dance music" and throws the vocals on. Gives it more soul? In theory this should be brilliant but there's a competition for attention, and eventually the lack of focus is annoying.
Soundgarden
4/5
Painterly, and excruciatingly dark. Which makes the popularity of this album interesting to me.If you were a heavy band from Seattle you were getting a lot of marketing push, like so many other underground trends did before. Like Rock music itself did when it first happened.
Soundgarden are excellent musicians, I especially love Matt Cameron, and of course Cris Cornell is the best rock singer of the generation. But the album leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I'm done chewing on it. The dark themes, the offputting odd time signatures, detuning, and otherworldly sonic landscapes combine with the high level of musicianship and Cornell's vocal prowess to create an intensity that takes you to another place altogether. Not a superfun place though.
DJ Shadow
4/5
Sample selection. Drum-forward. Innovative combinations of sounds - a floating female choir weaves through chopped-up funk grooves atop a skeletal piano scaffold.
Experimental without being overly challenging, complex without being obnoxious, heavy at the right moments and leavened with classical in places, soul in others, or maybe that's some 70's Adult Contemporary hits... just really entertaining.
Cool as ƒ€©k. Flirted with a 5 on this but it's not really on the same level as Aladdin Sane or Tears for Fears. On the other hand, I gave Fatboy Slim a 5, so maybe it is. Close, anyway. Maybe I shouldn't have given Fatboy a 5, this is easily as good.
Little Richard
3/5
Always loved Little Richard's stuff. Great to hear an entire album from him. Seminal and still has that energy he was famous for. Whe n your fans include Elvis and Paul McCartney, you're doing something right.
Prince
4/5
Prince at his horniest and weirdest. Still accessible, though, making this such an interesting trip of an album! 4+
Death In Vegas
2/5
Sold 100,000 in the UK, so there's that, I guess.
It's anyone's guess what the ACTUAL GOAL of this music is. I mean, it's fun to go down to the studio and just make noise, and I like the drums/bass/guitar formula as much as the next person. But what are you bringing to this party? Especially in 1999, la fin de siecle. Post-Radiohead, Post-Nirvana, Post-Britpop, Post-Portishead.
The bookending songs, "Dirge" and "Neptune City" are the most interesting ones on the album, and I won't remember them tomorrow (I barely remember them now). Not really songs so much as a kind of background noise you might hear at the new latin-fusion restaurant in some mid-population city like Des Moines or Santa Clarita. Just okay, just enough edge to make it almost tip over into the badass side of the rock spectrum without really hurting anyone. Looks like a lot of effort went into this, but for what?
The Offspring
4/5
Put this on, head down to your local skatepark and watch the kids - 'cause you're way too old to be skating now, you WILL hurt yourself.
Solid legit pop-punk. Thrashy and smashy. Respectful of its SoCal punk roots. Good energy, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously. And isn't that what rock and roll is all about, my friends?
Frontman Dexter Holland has a PhD in molecular biology 🧬, owns a hot sauce company, AND wrote Self Esteem. My idol.
OutKast
2/5
This album won a Grammy for Album of the year, which goes to show how irrelevant the Grammys are and how absolutely awful the state of pop music was. I remain astonished by the way critics fall over themselves to laud stuff like:
Better come back down to Mars
Girl, quit chasing cars
What happens when the dough gets low
Bitch, you ain't that fine, no way, no way, no way
Better come back down to Mars
Girl, quit chasing cars
What happens when the dough gets low
Bitch, you ain't that fine, no way, no way, no way
[Outro: Big Boi]
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
(Bitch) Crazy bitch
(Stupid-ass bitch) Crazy bitch
(Old punk-ass bitch) Crazy bitch
(Old dumb-ass bitch) Crazy bitch
Nice.
"Hey Ya!" is a fun song, but it's not as praiseworthy as many made this out to be. Mostly weak rap tropes and computer-generated, dirty R & B. The little 'chp chp chp' sounds and fake handclaps (I know, they make them sound even more artificial than they need to be for interest) are just on the cringey side of annoying.
Still looking for the "conscious" rap here, maybe self-conscious, because it certainly is that. Like you're Gil-Scott Heron? Overrated hype train with no redeeming value except for the single. Way too long, took me three days to finish it and I felt like I needed a shower afterwards.
1 star for SpeakerBox, 1 star for the OH SO SUBTLE Love Below.
Rush
5/5
All the things a lot of listeners abjectly hate about Rush, I love. Too many notes? Check! Geddy Lee's voice? Check! Bombastic overreaching themes? Check! "It's prog oh my!" or "It's nothing like the beautiful precious prog of the 70's oh my!" CHECK AND MATE!
To the haters: let people enjoy things. Maybe it's not your taste, maybe the Rush fans you've met are weird, maybe you have a belief system about Rock® that Rush doesn't quite fit into. Let it go and move on to the next thing. Rush play with their hearts. Yes, it's really technical, which can be a turn-off for a lot of people. You don't listen to classical or jazz either then, probably. Who cares. Let it go. Let us have our fun!
This was (kind of) the last album in Rush's golden era starting with 2112. It has the most popular hooky material they ever did, without a weak spot across the entire disc. "Vital Signs" is the harbinger of what was to come, a turning point for band and fans alike, as the music moved away from the spacey prog-like shenanigans they feasted on for so long toward more personal, simpler compositions. Very straightforward lyrically, unlike much of the earlier catalog, replete with metaphors and sci-fi as it was (not that we don't have metaphors here, but their meaning are very clear this time around). There's no long-form time-signature changing vulgar display of chops like "La Villa Strangiato" here. Cool moment in the sun for a band who really created their own path, and did so without hurting anyone or themselves along the way.
Blue Cheer
2/5
Yay drugs!
Summertime Blues is okay.
Eagles
4/5
The template for the rest of their catalog, but with that little EXTRA SOMETHING that superstar artists have before they hit it big. A little... hunger? Passion? Hate to use that word, but there it is. Before Glenn Frey acquired an unhealthy appetite for his own songs, and possibly coke.
Starts with one of the most iconic guitar chords in rock since A Hard Day's Night. Listened with 'beginner's mind' and really enjoyed almost every track except the forced-sounding ballad "Most of Us Are Sad." Earlybird was especially surprising, the band is having fun and it sounds like it, kind of a post-hippie campfire singalong. I like this banjo-driven profundity more than I should.
Have been a hater for the longest time, but I've gained a new appreciation for Eagles after hearing this (I think for the first time). 1972 definitely came HARD with the country, between this and Neil Young's Harvest, these successes led to that mid-seventies MOR AOR stuff like Bread and America.
Queen
4/5
A lush epic in which Queen homes in on the sound they became famous for. Massive, complex, and thought provoking compositions bolstered by a sonic tapestry built around Brian May's beautifully engineered guitar architecture (guitarchitecture?) and Freddie Mercury's mercurial vocals ;). Roger Taylor and John Deacon not only support this whole stratified monstrosity (which is continually threatening to cave in due to the sheer weight), they solidify and amplify the orchestration. This album gets more impressive every time I hear it. What an extremely good and interesting band Queen was.
Green Day
5/5
St. Jimmy is the best pop punk song since The Buzzcocks "Ever Fallen In Love." Fight me.
Big anthemic songs. Flawless execution, hard guitars, Green Day made a big rock album in an era when that just wasn't happening. A great sounding recording. A favorite and still meaningful. Somewhat sad and cynical - is all hope gone in modern America? How do we feel about it?
The Rolling Stones
3/5
The Stones are best when doing their own thing and not trying to sound like someone else. Here, you have essentially two songs where they sound like themselves, and we all know which two those are.
Advice: Mick, you're MICK FOOKIN' JAGGER you don't have to try to sound like Bobby Dylan or Muddy Waters. If I wanted to hear those guys I would go listen to them. Keef, wake up, tune up, find a lane. Again, when you do your thing, it's genius. Charlie Watts, just keep doing what you're doing - this album needs more drums. Bill Wyman good luck in your future endeavors, no notes. Nicky Hopkins, good job, calm down a wee bit please. Thanks.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Some catchy tunes but I'm extremely indifferent to the themes here. Very self-indulgent. The song "Porcelain" is downright cringey. Keidis' is no Freddie Mercury, let's just say that. Or T.S. Eliot.
Flea and Chad Smith are a top-tier rhythm section (of course) and the harmonic interplay between Frusciante and Flea is compelling, and the thing that makes this an album not to miss before you are dead: in the ground or in an urn on your grandchild's mantlepiece, never really knowing whether you had an impact on others, never having the fulfillment of a life well lived. Perhaps your death will be a glorious one, say, fighting for the liberation of a righteous people whose only hope is to live autonomously, unburdened by interlopers, overlords, or autocrats. More likely though is that death will come to you through the inevitable and unremarkable disintegration of your physical being. If you heard this album before your imminent demise, well at least there's that.
But like so many others, I wish Anthony Keidis was a better singer and they could think of something besides drugs, sex, and California to write about. There's nothing pulling me in on this.
Nina Simone
4/5
Really haunting. This draws me in and it's hard to drag myself away. Incredibly powerful, and like other great jazz singers of her era, a wild dynamic range. Moving from quiet to loud in the space of a couple syllables brings that majestic, epic feel. Like an ocean wave, you float in the warm sea, get lifted up, and as more and more turbulence spins up, you get pulled away against your own power and pulled onto the beach, slightly afraid but in awe at the same time.
Her piano playing is something special. Lilac Wine is a killer, her voice and the piano combine to create something unusual, astonishing. I've never heard anything like this before.
It was interesting, the day I heard this, Donald Trump was interviewed at the National Association of Black Journalists. He was trying to talk about how Kamala Harris identified as Indian, but all of a sudden she's Black. Trying to divide us all, again. Disgusting. Then I heard the song Four Women, the song about black women's identity, possibly the struggle of this. Something I know nothing about. Sorry that Trump's shitty little ideas still exist and I'm sorry Nina Simone didn't have more impact on American culture. It's telling that this is the first time I've really heard anything by her, a 20th century middle-class white guy.
Beastie Boys
4/5
The album for when you're ready to stop taking everything so seriously.
Johnny Cash
4/5
The most anti-establishment thing to come out of 1968. Fun to listen to, starting with the famous "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" line. June Carter sounds amazing. A true documentary, Cash is true to his Spiritual and chuggin' train roots. A little sloppy in places but that just adds to the charm of this album.
Oasis
4/5
This is unexpectedly exciting. Oasis pushes the poppy British alt-rock (Stone Roses, Blur) into a less profound but bigger-sounding, more entertaining place. It's catchy, crunchy, and a bit chippy as well. Having never heard anything by Oasis before except for the overplayed and milquetoast Wonderwall, I had no idea they had such a gigantic wall of guitar sound - and I do love a wall of guitar.
More Kinks than Beatles, but also neither of those. Deservedly on the Great British Rock Bands Continuum® "Definitely, Maybe" is surprisingly excellent. Never a dull moment, this entertaining record has some nice songwriting that finds a way to fit the singer's rather limited voice into their schema.
Of course as an American, we were denied this record, even though it sold 7082 billion in the UK, because it was too British. I say that facetiously (a word which I did spell without help just now, thank you!) but Americans in 1994 were looking for the next Kurt and this was consciously not it. THANKS A LOT music marketers in the 90s :( . Ended up missing out on this, Blur, and god knows what else! I suppose I will find out - god bless the list. May the force be with you.
Otis Redding
4/5
Otis Redding and the Stax band set an unreachable high bar here and make it sound EASY. Pretty incredible, important historically, aged to perfection.
Billy Bragg
3/5
I appreciate Billy Bragg's commitment to the bit. Not surprised to see it on this list. Has an amateurish feel that's slightly off-putting, what with the gigantic themes. He's like that dude who's always right and wants to bend your ear in a loud voice about how Reagan and Thatcher set us on the course to societal ruin, and you just came for the beer and the band.
Guitar sounds like this dude in my town that is busking by the train station sometimes. Not a great player, but has a very STRONG approach, a bit too shouty. This album could (should?) just be poems, but that doesn't pay as well or get as many girls nowadays, does it? And by nowadays I mean the 20th century. Maybe it was the opposite in the 1800's?
Some records take a lot more effort than others.
Beck
4/5
Weird, humorous, catchy, slightly antagonistic. Every Beck album feels like going to an invented magical world with its share of fun and fears alike. Unapologetic Beck fan - busted. Pack your suitcase.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Lacking in emotional content, or maybe I'm just a jaded aging hipster. More Talking Heads and even shadows of Gang of Four here and there: "Sound of Silver" more like "Sound of Anthrax - but I forgot the words so I improvised something really silly." A lot of misplaced nostalgia about growing up, wondering if this is purposeful or spontaneously heartfelt? Intuitively feels like the latter at first listen. Some mid-oughts alternative rock that sounds like the Killers, Phoenix, Franz Ferdinand, etc. etc. etc. Which *I* don't love but appeals to a lot of folks.
That said, this album is kind of interesting. More so when the singer is just chatting over the bleep blorp stuff, it's painfully obvious when he's out of his league - not everyone can be David Bowie, nor should everyone make the attempt to be. "Be yourself" is always the stylistic choice that is most satisfying. Works well on songs like "Us v Them" and "North American Scum." Not convinced it is worth all the accolades, though. Maybe it's the hipster music trick of appealing to the 30-something east-coast white boy English majors who write for Bitchfork, Rolling Stone, et. al. rather than doing anything risky.
Van Morrison
2/5
Van Morrison's voice doesn't appeal to me. Outside of that, a bit of cultural appropriation. Overrated. Extra point for everybody here hitting the notes at the right time. Not my jam.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
Listened to this three times already to try and figure i t out. It is a puzzle for sure.
Haunting musical illustration of a man's breakdown. These are demos, I wish Skip Spence could have held it together enough to fully realize the promise of these songs. As it is, very crude. The listener does have to do some work, meaning you have to listen hard and without distraction. Doing so yields an odd experience. It is a struggle to extract the idea from the music, sometimes Spence sounds buried in demons, drunk on a powerful metaphysics unrecognizable by mortals. He is bringing us a message from beyond, but that "beyond" is only known to him. This is a strange artifact, something that probably shouldn't exist. But here it is.
Some very cool psychedelic sounds, some rootsy baritone, some neat guitar work. Unfortunately a lot of it is on the other side of broken. I feel bad putting a star rating on this because it is SO different from a normal album, it's like a field recording almost.
Too many casualties in music. I wonder why that is, a lot.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
The children of rich people need something to do with their lives also, you know.
I was touched. \"Little tufts of finch-down\"
A lot to unpack here, as they say. Glad to hear this highly unusual bit of poetry and harp come down the pipeline. Has an ancient feel, and I could listen to a good harpist all day, not being facetious. The words, though, overwhelm with power. Really well done. A surprise. Who knew?
Radiohead
4/5
The drums are very grounding.
Videotape: sounds a little like they’ve been listening to Willam Basinski. Really nice avant-something piece.
The painterly approach to creating music remains but now it’s watercolor.
Lacks the intensity and energy of some of their earlier work. Feels like the band have become extremely comfortable with whatever it is that bothers them. Now we just float around in it.
Radiohead are great but I just can’t put my finger on what it is that bothers me about them. Maybe it’s that one time people liked the slow song, so every song is now a slow song. Maybe it’s the weird theorem that all singers want to be Frank Sinatra. It’s my theorem. All singers devolve into their favorite singers. Thom Yorke has a neat voice, but the bars-long sustain can be a bit much sometimes.
Neil Young
4/5
Neil Young always has done whatever he wants, and he is a bit of a complainer, isn't he? His complaining is usually relatable and soulful, right-minded, pointed. Here he acquires a bitterness and edge that follows him for the rest of his days. Neil's a sensitive dude.
He does the Dylan thing on "Revolution Blues," still doing the Neil Young thing, with the David Crosby guitar thing. Brilliant song.
This is kind of a masterpiece, now I'm listening to it again. All the "... Blues" are phenomenal, the country instrumentation is spot on, the metaphors are sharpened like vampire teeth ( 😘 ), and Neil's unmistakable voice is still youthful and pointed. On the whole, it's just... so... ornery? Jaded?
I strongly recommend going for a nice walk on a late summer afternoon while listening to this and getting caught in a massive downpour as the album build to its crescendo with "Ambulance Blues." Just walk on home, try to get through it, maybe.
"Though my problems are meaningless, that doesn't make them go away."
It's 'cause you have the curse of genius, Neil. Thanks for sharing.
Jurassic 5
3/5
I really really like this kind of jazz influenced hip-hop. Smarter, more positive, more diverse themes, still has a lot of toughness and rage. Standouts: Thin Line, DDT, One Of Them, Acetate Prophets - especially Acetate Prophets.
Love
2/5
I really do not Love.
I dunno man, I was just trying to be clever.
I mean, it's o... k... Owes a lot to the production, which is maybe trying a little too hard to be the Beatles or something? Songwriting is stilted more than organic, forced.
Just watched a live version of Arthur Lee doing \"Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale\" and the band he was with gave it the juice it needs, which it DOES NOT have on this album, none of the songs really do. With the possible exception of \"Live and Let Live.\" The lyrics on this leave me cold but I appreciate the effort. I've never heard this before, is a bit cynical inm the middle of the whole Flower Power movement. Baroque Pop and psych, leans into a folky space that collides with the songwriting a bit. By that I mean the lyrics have a more "pop" style, repetitive words or phrases, a verse/chorus/verse structure. Simon and Garfunkel use the pop formula to great effect by integrating folky sounds and vocal harmonies. These guys need to rock, I think. Interesting album and a unique band for sure. Sounds pretty dated. I'm sure I would have more affinity toward this if I was there at the time or understood the context better.
Beck
4/5
Beck creates enjoyable and (for me) thought provoking tunes. Stealing Stephen Wilson's term "magpie" for Beck, he gathers bits from a broad range of sources, reordering and reconstructing them in intriguing ways, but not with out soul and whole lot of catchiness. Surrealistic, other-worldly, mystical, and wack. Yeah I said wack 'cause I too am a linguistic magpie!
Jethro Tull
5/5
Tull is like your favorite familiar local restaurant. Often you go elsewhere, sometimes close by for a change of pace, sometimes venturing far afield to explore new culture, different surroundings, feel the thrill of novelty. But here you are now. Back again for the millionth time and no less disappointed for it, on the contrary, like coming home to loved ones or a familiar place that has etched a deep groove in your heart.
Familiarity overwhelms objectivity. What's good about the album, what's not, none of that matters. Music you fell in love with early on is forevermore untouchable, and this is such an album. I would posit that this is objectively good, whatever that means: well executed, well recorded, solid compositionally, surprises here and there, emotionally charged performances, intelligent, interesting, and unusual subject matter presented in a pleasantly poetic fashion. It even rocks, and there are those of us out there who, and this might be hard for some to believe, actually like the flute!
To add, the 2016 Steven Wilson remaster is a great addition to the canon. The drums are a bit more percussive, and the orchestral sections move forward in the mix to great effect, especially in My God and Wond'ring Aloud.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
A perfect gem. Have to give it 5 stars on the strength of Aretha Franklin's voice alone. So much excellence compacted into 30 minutes. This is the music every Soul/R & B artist forever after was trying to be (with a couple exceptions obviously, Stevie Wonder among them). Such a classic, unbelievably well executed, deserving of its accolades.
Portishead
4/5
Fascinating, dark, introspective, unbalanced, and difficult. Art, without question, but not for everyone. Managing our emotional pain is one reason music exists. Portisehead is really good at framing that world in a visceral way. Nothing is tactile, everything is just out of reach in a way. By that I mean the sound - almost drums, almost guitar, then it fades away or explodes off in the distance. THe sound of lonliness is really palpable in the vocals. Often it feels like you're the only person in a very large, very empty, very dark room. A little frightening.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Alright, what the hell is this? RESISTING THE URGE TO READ ABOUT IT BEFORE LISTENING... here we go... imagining myself seeing this at a record store, not gonna buy it based on the cover alone... plus who calls themselves "Casanova?" Later, after buying an Oasis album or something, I go to a friend's house and they HAPPEN TO HAVE CASANOVA's "The Divine Comedy" (and you thought Jethro Tull was pretentious) and I'm like, "Well, I guess we should listen to this." My fictional friend only has this album because he's a DJ at the local non-profit alternative radio station and everyone at the station has to review a few LPs before they play them. Record companies give these away to radio stations in hopes that the station will put it on their playlist. Alternative radio gets to be independent and play stuff that they judge to be worthy, unlike commercial radio, whole other story. ANYWAY my bud throws this on.
Poptones. Is this a throwback attempt? Seems a little professional for something that just comes out of left field. First song ("Something for the Weekend") is a little story-song with a twist ending. The next one is a cheeky little number, self-referential but, DO I KNOW YOU? Song 3 "Middle Class Heroes" is a cringefest with some weak abstraction of a moral judgement on... the middle class? People with children? Indians? "In & Out of Paris & London" is literally hurting me - trying to do a Morrisey thing? The reasonable side musicians he had on the first couple songs have now quit in protest and now Casanova (?) relies on synths. But not in a cool way. He's doing a lounge-lizard thing but the compositions are making me lose my faith in humanity. How did this get made, let alone released? I'll find out later. The next "song," called "Charge" (some war metaphor, clever, never heard that before!) contains a disturbingly childish derivative of a Brechtian march of some kind.
I keep using phrases like "of some kind" and "a ____ thing" because this is so badly executed I can't determine the musical roots to which it is trying to emulate. This person is TRYING REALLY HARD to be clever and it comes off as misplaced arrogance. Really difficult to get through, the vocal quality is awful, like a dude who just can't get enough of his own voice and no one has the courage to tell him it's medocre at best. Trying too hard.
I don't know if I can get through this, wondering why it's only the list. {EDIT: found out why it's on the list} Gah, more callbacks with the synthesizer trumpet and the dorky toy piano sound while this fool does his best Sinatra. "You don't really love me and I don't really mind, cause I don't love anybody, that stuff is just a waste of time, you don't really love me but I'd do you" WHAT IN THE LITERAL FUCK.
Argghhh second song in a row with the stupid whistling like it's 1937 or something. This is making me want to destroy my own house. Kill me now. Gonna stick it out because I'm a masochist I guess. The little jazzy breakdowns are godawful. I'm guessing this dude is like an actor or theater guy, who made this album as a side project. "Through a Long and Sleeples Night" starts and all of a sudden something extreme and sinister is happening, but the cheesy syntho-trumpet remains. No growly vocal will save this from pure amateurish contrived garbage that has made this bed... OH!!! This is that shite The Divine Comedy! The BAND is The Divine Comedy! Ah, also responsible partly for the insanely bad Ute Lemper album.
I'm leaving in the first bit where I mistake the name of the band for the name of the album because that's:
1. Bad graphic design,
2. Self-centered to think that I would know your band well enough to make the distinction correctly,
and 3. The name "The Divine Comedy" is one of the worst band names I've ever come across, while it is plausible that the guy on the cover might have the stage name Casanova - as many others do.
In all seriousness, this is so bad to be offensive. Hire a fucking trumpet. This is making me want to jam a sharpened pencil into my ears. Shocking to me what becomes popular.
N.E.R.D
3/5
Possibly a worse cover than Casanova by The Divine Comedy. 2004. Another one where I say "Why is this on the list?" Also, more hip hop? I suppose it's popular. Pharrel Williams is in this band, and that guy has become more successful than all but 3 other people IN THE HISTORY OF THE PLANET.
At a previous job, we would have an all-hands meeting with some teams under a director, whose meeting this was. After the song "Happy" came out, this director (a 60 year old woman) would play that song at the beginning of every all hands, while everyone came in to the meeting room. Every meeting. What a nightmare. A real Office Space moment. So, between that and this album cover, today's listening is already tainted. But, we press on, don't we. A lot of people don't like Yes or Pere Ubu, either.
Uh, this guy (Pharrell) is a good singer. Like really good. Songs are legitimately clever for the most part, interesting and have a bit of variety. And they rock, I am loathe to admit. Or maybe it's low key parody? Why not both? Pleasantly surprised.
Couple mainstream reviews calling it prog-pop? Not bad.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Was I just complaining about bad graphic design? Feeling much better now. Nothing on the cover of this album indicates who it is, what it's called, nothing. Just two suits. Wild but the PERFECT image for the music. Peak Hipgnosis and peak Pink Floyd. Peak album era. The imagery enhances the music and provides an entry into whatever world this is. The music has you doing a double-take back to the cover. Many levels of genius here.
The album's pretty good, too.
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
Neat high-energy rhythms from start to finish. A little "rickety," like a jalopy driving fast through the crowded streets of Rio in a 1970's spy movie trying to evade the villain. A new genre for me, glad to hear it. Jorge never takes his foot off the gas on this.
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Just okay. Like a lot of forgettable late 80's alternative with too much reverb and not enough edge. Too much acoustic guitar. Too much studio. Too much of the single octave where the vocals are. Songs are not memorable - not catchy, not hooky, no dynamic range, no temporal interest, everything sounds dated... there is a lot of stuff from this era that is so much better and meaningful. I don't want to say this is bad, but it is walking on that fence trying not to fall off. It's worse than bad in a way, it's boring.
Robbie Williams
3/5
Life Thru a Lens is starting strong, surprisingly entertaining. I can see why this was popular. I can do without the power ballad "Angels." "Old Before I Die" definitely trying to sound like Oasis, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Still, pop sentiment, it's all pretty shallow. It didn't hurt me to listen to this and now I am familiar with Robbie Williams.
Ride
4/5
Once again, slightly pissed that I haven't heard this before but really pleased though to have finally heard it.
Ahead of its time.
The massive, nearly overwhelming wash of guitar wouldn't work nearly as well without the bombast of the rhythm section, which 'swings' a little, for lack of a better term. The slightly out of tune singing is MY only complaint, but it has a unique charm. And it's not just a constant barrage. There are some subtle moments, a wide range of emotion.
I can see Radiohead using this as a bit of a template for sure. But Ride is blast of dark energy that has a spontaneity that Radiohead never approached, a dreamy unpolished rawness.
Television
2/5
A list of complaints about this album:
Pretentious and lacking punch. And by that I mean that I fail to find any real energy or enthusiasm. Perhaps purposely droll, so cool we can't be bothered?
Tom Verlaine is not a good singer. Not even in the Neil Young/Bob Dylan/Tom Petty way where the lack of vocal chops is secondary to the soul and lyricism. Just plain unpleasant.
Proving once again that you can't just call something "punk" if it sounds weird and amateurish.
I'm (again and not for the last time, I'm sure) missing something as this album is in the pantheon of American post-punk, Critically Acclaimed™, but I didn't like it. It has moments, but those moments require SO MUCH EFFORT on the listener's part. Maybe you had to be there? I get what they're trying to do, which is set themselves above the rest of the downtown art-rock scene in 1977.
Who rejects an invitation to be produced by Eno? Tom Verlaine thought he could do better himself. Incredible.
Hard to listen to some of these albums in an intellectual clean room due to their reputation. Part of an insular scene that was too cool for anyone except those in it. I don't think they were trying to be popular or appeal to an audience outside the scene. Certainly they wouldn't care what I thought.
5/5
Never fails.
Always found Ziggy to be strange and a little frightening. Really "trippy" without a TRACE of psychedelia. I wonder what it would have been like to hear this for the first time as a 17 year old, when it first came out. Imaginative and a little overwhelming. I don't think I ever really understood what was happening. It seems a little like a three act play, a musical (maybe? just brainstorming here).
Act one, Ziggy and "his" crew are not here yet, they're on their way. It's a Five Year mission, and someone is screaming at the end: maybe this is where they enter our world, where they discover love. Different kinds, different ways. This is our weakness, our strength, that we all share.I am also busting up my brains for the words. Moonage Daydream, arguably the best song on tis album. The protagonist is singing to the alien, he wants them (?) to love him. Desperately. We've all been there.
Notice how Starman starts. Like it's not in it's groove yet. I see this as the start of the next part, when the aliens figure out how to get here, how they're going to infiltrate us. See, a long time ago, aliens were not always evil, more like benefactors. Like the mythological Jesus. Is Ziggy the 2nd coming of Jesus, but now he shows up like this? At the END of Starman, "let the children boogie" and now there's a groove, right. They figured out how to play. Every song has some strange apparition at the beginning.
Through part two, we get sermons from, it would appear. We see the first worshiping by Lady Stardust. Star - has that early rock/doo wop vibe cut in with some heavy power chords. "I could play the wild mutation as a rock and star." WHO'S point ogf view is this? Ziggy? Wants to be a rock star so he can fall in love? THinks it will be easy? hmm
So, part three, the post-transformation, now Ziggy exists as a thing, too perfect, falls victim to the excesses of stardom (Suffragette City), then Rock 'n Roll Suicide, it's over man.
But your NOT alone. Just put this on, Ziggy is here to save us with his message of love.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Zep-heads who put III at the bottom of their stack might reconsider. They push you off a cliff with the seminal viking invective opener, planting their flag at the very summit of heavy metal (evermore). Allowing a moment of recovery with a strangely appropriate middle-eastern groove that not only presages the mighty Kashmir but pulls the persian rug out from under you with its hippy-dippy lyric, which, in the hands of anyone but Robert Plant, would alienate any previous fans and drive away any future ones. You have now been soothed into acceptance for the rest of this utter masterpiece as you glide into one of the absolute gems of their back catalog, Celebration Day. Peace and love, my friends, peace and love. But don't get too comfortable, cause here comes the fiercest blues the band has ever done (or will ever do, fight me). I listened to Since I've been Lovin' You yesterday and I'm still trying to recovery. OH THE PAIN as if Bonham was hammering nails into your head.
And it just gets better. Gallows Pole, Out on the TIles, Bron-Y-Aur, what a ride. The eclecticism here is pretty astounding, always with that incomparable rhythm section. Never again will we see (hear) such a thing. Frosting that cake with the weird Hat's Off to (Roy) Harper... this still leaves me wondering. It's one of those albums you can listen to a thousand times and still hear something new every time. Starting to think Zeppelin never made a bad record. I just lied, I've always thought that.
Mj Cole
2/5
Very forgettable Euro-disco. Not innovative or interesting in any way that I can think of. Surprised to find out that MJ Cole went to university on a music scholarship, graduated and then did this? Maybe if you LOVE House music this works for you. Ironically titled "Sincere."
Elvis Presley
3/5
Great album, never knew this existed. Elvis brings the country soul that was so popular at the time. And as always, that guy could sing like no other. His appeal, needless to say. This is all about Entertainment, and it does entertain. Doesn't try to get too profound, while at the same time, does give you stuff to think about, but only if you want. Consistently good. A great variety of songwriters here but cohesive nonetheless. Looks like this is where Elvis gets off the rockin' train and takes a stop at country town, with a soul twist. Well executed, very fun. Not quite 4 stars for being a little over-produced and loungey and not as heartfelt as some of his earlier stuff. "Ghetto" and (on the re-release) "Suspicious Minds" are standards now and for good reason.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Sucks that this stuff is still relevant 60 years later.
Kind of pre-proto-punk disguised as "folk." Or just hardcore folk, I'm no expert. The Bob Dylan early stuff is highly respected and highly influential, after hearing this, I can see why. A little self-centered(?). More entertaining than I thought it would be.
R.E.M.
5/5
R.E.M. veering into pop territory seemingly by accident. Still has shades of their earlier artier stuff. Michael Stipe is more in your face. Mike Mills weaving in tasteful homespun backgrounds. Bill Berry offers his best performance with his impeccable timing, and adding darkness to the orchestration. Peter Buck driving this whole thing without overwhelming it. This feels like a band who enjoy playing together, no one is trying to elevate themselves above the music. Great production, almost too spotless. A fantastic album that I've always loved and I wish I had more time to write about it.
Eagles
1/5
I don't want to spend any time on this. Some of the guitar solos are memorable. Another reviewer here said that this is the type of thing that gave rise to punk rock and I couldn't agree more.
ABBA
4/5
"Tiger"! The greatest ABBA deep cut ever!
Arrival has some surprisingly darkish stuff on it. Surprising because ABBA makes some of the lightest music ever made! I was thinking "oh! ABBA! Gentle enough for a fifth-grader!" Have you heard "Knowing Me, Knowing You" or "That's Me"? I'm not explaining that to a fifth-grader.
On the other hand, the shimmering pop beauty of "Fernando" or "Dancing Queen" (or pretty much any other song on here) knows no comparison. Really good, especially for those times when Nick Cave or Joanna Newsome are just a bit much!
Pink Floyd
2/5
Do I have to?
Comfortably Numb is fine I guess. Depressing in a kind of and exploitative way. Too long, too self-centered, inauthentic intensity. Unpopular opinion as a big Floyd fan. The Wall is another big seller,
Advice: don't take acid and see the movie in the theater. I WOULD NEVER do something like that, but I have heard it's a bad idea.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Definitely more cogent than Beggars Banquet. Pretty tight, which the Stones often aren't. "Monkey Man" is one of my favorite deep cuts. But this album is downright nasty, in places. Never read the lyrics to "Let It Bleed" or "Midnight Rambler," it's all fairly grim, which I suppose reflects the kids' mood at the time.
I think the Stones lack creativity in a way. They copy their influences a little too much in this period. They do a passable job of bringing bluegrass and country elements into the music, and of course they were the vanguard UK Blues Poseurs®. But they are best when following their own muse, like on "Can't Always Get What You Want" or the aforementioned "Monkey Man."
It's an essential album, no question. I don't know if it's great, though. So much time has passed since this came out, it's almost impossible to judge it on its own merits. For sure one of the top 100 Stones records.
Air
3/5
I would own an outdoor lounge at a luxury resort just so I could play this album on a loop.
The Libertines
2/5
Appealing musically, and anything Mick Jones is associated with can't be all bad. Props to the rhythm section. I'm looking for evidence of the Jam and I'm not really finding it, lads. I'll coin the term "Post-Brit-Pop." Smells like music industry chicanery, what with the pretty boys and all. "What Became of the Likely Lads is aight, innit?
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
Starts strong, then retreats into a sameness that I did not enjoy. Didn't care much for the pervasive violence.
Some think punk is defined by violence, but some are entirely mistaken.
The tunes don't benefit from the big-money production (also this is an anti-punk sell out) with horns and strings, especially if the orchestra is playing the same riff that the guitar/bass/drums/singer are playing. Kind of dull overall, not really hardcore because it relies almost entirely on violence and victimhood tropes. I don't know why but I thought it was somewhat incomprehensible.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Mostly a masterpiece. Accolades are deserved for this well-crafted pop album. Nilsson has a great voice with tremendous dynamic range, variety and a heartfelt emotional power.
Outside of the two more well-known tunes (Without You and Coconut), "Jump Into the Fire" and "Gotta Get Up" age really well.
Nice recording, too. Stands out, being from before the time when pop music was formulaic copy-pastes of pop music that was copy-pasted from the previous, ad infinitum.
Steely Dan
5/5
No reason not to give this a five. Steve Gadd putting on a clinic. Ridiculous. Bernard Purdue doing his shuffle thing (a god among men) in Home At Last.
Catchy, jazzy and just a little off, this is Steely Dan 101. Spotless performances of some great songs. Clichè though it is, this album exists at another level entirely. A satisfying listening experience that you can return to.
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
I am NOT their audience, but even someone like me can recognize greatness. Killer grooves, entertaining rhymes, stuff to think about. How is this triple-platinum and I've never heard it? Moody and dark.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
My precoceived idea was that this would suck. But apparently I'm becoming indoctrinated into the east-coast rap scene of the 80s and 90s.
I really enjoyed this record. Just the right mix of social consciousness and hardcore with some excellent grooves. I had a hard time with "Bitch," though.
Weird to get this and Wu-Tang one after another.
Frank Sinatra
1/5
Hi everybody! What a wonderful album, oh golly gee whiz! Well now, this is the bee's knees, I gotta tell ya! THE antidote for all the east-coast rap I've been getting. That Frank Sinatra sure is nifty!
{ Okay, I can talk now... some goon who I overheard being called \"Johnnie the Finger Breaker\" just left to use the toilet so I gotta write fast! I'm tied to chair in a warehouse, address unknown, except it smells like fish and sweat so I must be near the docks. Couple hours ago I'm in my usual coffee shop, writing this review of Frank Sinatra's \"songs for swingin' lovers\" (hey! it's not capitalized on the album, why should I have to follow the rules?) about an hour ago when all of a sudden these two huge hairy guys come walking up behind me and ask, in the most sinister way you can imagine, \"Are you writing a review of Frank Sinatra's \"songs for swingin' lovers\" for your 1001 Albums generator site?\" and I said \"No, this is, uh, this is just a quick email to my sister stationed overseas! See, she joined the Army last year and I haven't talked to her in a whille...\"
\"HEY,\" one of the thugs says in a stage whisper (at least they have a modicum of politeness, or maybe they were just trying not to draw attention to themselves), \"I can SEE the album art right there on your laptop and the too-small review box right below it! You think you can pull a fast one on us?! Well guess what Shakespeare,\" (aww! thanks man!) \"you ain't writin' nothin that we don't tell ya to write, capiche?\"
\"Kuh what? I'm sorry, didn't quite catch the last bit there my good man (trying to buy time -- I hit the power button on my phone 5 times in quick succession to alert the authorities -- you know if you do that, you can call 911? Pretty cool feature, on the iPhone anyway) and the other guy says to me \"OH! A WISE GUY! Hey Johnnie, we got us a wise guy!\" Then they both start laughing hysterically.
Well, no sooner do they STOP LAUGHING ABRUPTLY than I find myself tied to this god damn chair, and I'm trying to put together what happened between then and now.
And good lord do I have a headache.
Anyway, I really disliked the Frank Sinatra album, except for "You Make Me Feel So Young," which I only feel OK about because it was in that movie Elf, which is a fun time. As is the song "Pennies From Heaven," but it's the MUCH better version by Louis Prima, of course. Jazz is not something to approach casually. If this is your entry point to Jaz, then by all means, have a good time. The arrangements are perfect, every accent is perfectly timed, perfectly placed. But Jazz, like Rock, has some edge, it has some underground origins. This bears little resemblance to the Jazz of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, etc. But, you know, I guess everyone has to hear Frank before they die. (Insert bad Amy Winehouse joke here.)
OH! These dumbasses used blue painter's tape instead of duct tape! HAHAHAHA! My lucky day! Well cats and kittens I AM GONNA skedaddle before Fingers McGoo (or whatever) comes back to slap me again for dissing the once great Sinatra. I guess those Mob connection rumors were true after all!
Sonic Youth
2/5
When you make a clone of the Velvet Underground, then clone it again, then clone the clone, you get this untuned unlistenable non-sequitor spewing garbage. Like the bad practice tapes of the crappy punk band I was in as a 17 year old, except somehow they made a record? Because they're from New York maybe?
At first it was "Oh, a little Smashing Pumpkins precursor, ok!" but they really lean into the atonal stuff REALLY HARD. The only emotion it evokes is annoyance. And this from a person who has seen this band live and paid money for at least one of their albums (which also is not good).
One of the most overrated bands of all time and absolutely the most overrated band of the alternative rock era (1986 - 1994 approximately when all these guys - Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, etc. - got major labels deals because of Nirvana).
1 extra star for the song 'Cross the Breeze, and Kim Gordon.
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
Undeniably great. Some of the most astonishing bass playing I’ve ever heard. But a little Bill Evan’s goes a long way.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
Great album, great cover art. Janis Joplin is incomparable and probably influenced everyone from Chrissy Hynde to Bon Scott to Stevie Nicks. Just another level. I love the timelessness of this record, there's nothing on it that is topical or connected to the time it was made. Should last another couple hundred years.
Could be tighter. And if Janis Joplin is your singer, why would you relegate her to backups on "Oh, Sweet Mary"? Really the only flaw on this album.
LTJ Bukem
3/5
uhhm I thought we weren't supposed to have compilation albums on this? 3 1/2 hours? WHAT IS HAPPENING!
Well, you actually have to listen to the stuff. Enjoyed this as background sounds while doing other things, though the repetitive nature of Drum'n'Bass can be grating. Light and refreshing. Kinda cool.
Incredible Bongo Band
5/5
I love this album more than life itself. The perfect expression of the 1970's. A bit cheesy, incredibly fun (yes, incredibly), slightly tipsy. I can imagine Fatboy Slim hearing these grooves and thinking "I'm going to base my entire career on this."
Incredible.
Dolly Parton
4/5
Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton - how can you go wrong? A lot of heartbreak on here, great traditional country flawlessly executed.
Beatles
4/5
One of the most important documents in pop music history really doesn't sound like it after nearly 60 years. But in its context it really was earth-shattering and made it okay for rock and pop artists to explore what THEY wanted, and not the record company or the producer. Push the envelope and try to do more than your friendly rivals, and you end up with arguably the most creative period in music. Play with exotic non-western instruments. Upend a song structure. Cut some tapes up and throw them back together. Rubber Soul is the root cause of every album you love (and possibly hate as well, I don't know for sure). But for sure The Beatles started it. Whatever it is.
The music itself is great - not spectacular - but again the value is in the new construction, like post-modernism in art, nothing was ever the same after it.
Sadly, we have returned to the pre-Beatles era where commercialism is the driving force behind pop music, leaving virtually no place for art. There are still great musicians and singers. But their self-expression is absent, it seems. Maybe another Beatles will come along and change that. But that's as unlikely as the first Beatles were.
Radiohead
4/5
I have to avoid reading about what Thom Yorke thinks about his own work because it seems like I always disagree. For instance, he thought the song Backdrifts could have been left off the album when I thought it was a standout. Nonetheless, "Hail to the Thief" is like all Radiohead albums - never not interesting. Sonically shocking us this time, not with sounds like they lit a synthesizer on fire, but with acoustic guitar and a drum kit.
WELL PLAYED, Radiohead. Well played.
Ray Price
2/5
Decent sort of "lounge country." Lacks edge, but well executed. Willie-heads hate this version of Nightlife.
The Mars Volta
4/5
The Mars Volta have created their own world thematically and musically that can rightly summon King Crimson, CAN, and Mahavishnu in the same 4-bar phrase. Extending that over the length of this album is an astonishing technical achievement that does not put the lie to the most prescient criticism of Prog Rock/Metal which is the lack of soul. That said, it does reflect genuine emotion in a dark pool of surrealism that does meander into the nightmarish.
Truly a feast for the kind of listener (like myself no doubt) hungry for novelty, complexity, heaviness, and just pure instrumental debauchery. I tried to play thisa in the background on a small mono bluetooth speaker and I regretted that decision very much. You have to pay attention to this and you probably should use headphones if possible. One of the best albums I've heard in a while would give it a "high 4 stars" if that were possible.
Sonic Youth
1/5
Like I said about the velvet underground: this is not good. Pretentious art-fools (sorry Kim, I think you're great) being SO VERY EDGY! MY DAD DIDN'T LOVE ME. Fuck off with this. Stop calling it punk, I know punk, this is some bullshit.
Beastie Boys
5/5
In my personal top 10. Especially love their punk shit like Heart Attack Man. The thing about the Beastie Boys is they always go all in. They sound like they sincerely love what they're doing anfd they put some ENERGY into it. Combine that with the cleverness and the unique sound of their voices, the schtick, it all works somehow. More representative of gen-x than anything else, grunge be damned.
I should listen to Bodhisattva Vow every morning immediately on awakening and make myself a better person. RIP Adam Yauch. Music lets you live forever.
Beastie Boys
5/5
Another masterpiece. Trying to think of other artists who did anything like this - MAYBE Run DMC? - just can't think of any. Killer rhymes, sweet-ass grooves, so much funk, always tongue-in-cheek, pure entertainment. A huge step from their first album, which was a blast in its own right. Loved it.
Kate Bush
2/5
Creepy and purposely incomprehensible, gauzy, difficult. Kate Bush has a fine voice, but listening to lyric-based music always makes me search for the meaning and in this case I kind of don't want to know. Feels a bit (a lot?) self-centered but isn't appealing enough to make me want to explore further. Hearing this was a good idea, I get why people like her, but it just has a grating effect on me.
The Smiths
4/5
Letting Johnny Marr off of his leash, while tightening Morrisey's (the title track 🐄 excepted) proves to be the most enjoyable way to make a The Smiths record. "That Joke's Not Funny Anymore" is a really great song, and "Barbarism Begins at Home" is a better Gang of Four song than anything GoF was doing at the time. Good songwriting makes a difference, and letting the band run is, as I said, the best version of The Smiths.
Minus one star for not putting "How Soon is Now" on here. WHO'S THE REAL MURDERER?!
Fishbone
4/5
Trying to figure out why people don't like Fishbone as much as they SHOULD. Maybe black guys doing heavy rock makes people uncomfortable. (Maybe not, just wondering aloud). Stay in your rap, your R&B, but that's it.
But man these guys can do some cool cool shit. Maybe a little unfocused for some, but not for me. Appeals in the same sort of way as the Beastie Boys, music for the short attention span generation!
Fishbone is a "taste" issue for most people I think. It's hard to put my finger on why I like it. I generally go for high-energy stuff that's well executed and has something to say. For that reason I gravitate toward the more energetic genres like punk, hard rock, funk, and metal. (wanted to use a different word here, but gravitate is correct by this definition: 'To be attracted by or as if by an irresistible force.') Fishbone comfortably made their home in all of these.
And I'm the one guy who also likes ska, not gonna apologize. (Why does ska take so much shit? Maybe the genre was irreparably tainted by the 27,863 (give or take) bad 90's SoCal SkaPunk bands that thought music is mainly a comedy routine they could do to pass the time in college before going on to work in their Father's Law Firm? The mostly stupid hats? Motherfuckers made it so we can't wear a fedora seriously anymore. The cultural (in)appropriation? Now that I break it down there is KIND OF A LOT of problems aren't there? Of course very few of them involve the music directly, but whatever. I love all the Reggae branches - ska, dub, dancehall... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae_genres).
Fishbone lives in exactly that high energy place where the genre matters less than the content. But some people get inappropriately angry when a band starts with a soul song then does a punk song, then a funk song. And I understand, you want don't want to make trouble with your brain. I have a friend who refuse to listen to anything except "hard rock," his idea of variety is mixing in some U2 (FIRST 3 ALBUMS ONLY) with his Chevelle. I'm not criticizing his taste, I'm thinking of this as an example of the Fishbone hater who just can't break out of their own self-inflicted handcuffing to explore something (dare I say it?) different. Same person that HATES country music - I used to be that person, so I know from where I speak.
On the other hand, who cares? I love it, my wife doesn't have to, and we can all still hang out together.
Joan Armatrading
3/5
These songs have emotional power as deep as Joan Armatrading's voice, really bringing you into her world. Engrossing, like Joni Mitchell or Neil Young at times. Very listenable, sweet and lovely. Her voice is unique and you should hear it at some point in your life. Cool to see on the list.
Elton John
5/5
Every song is fantastic, and the hits are hits for a reason. Maybe "Indian Sunset" is a well written metaphor. Thinking of it that way helps me listen to it, otherwise it kind of fails. And that would make it the single sour thing on the album. Because this is so... beautiful. I just don't have another word that fits. For me Elton's early stuff is brilliant in every way, touches me, pulls my attention and keeps me in it beginning to end.
The background vox on this are worth 5 stars alone. I love the sincerity, reaching for Americana in the way all those British blues guys did. THis is successful, unlike so much - even the Stones are treating the country and bluegrass styles like it's a posh joke. Elton makes it his own. It's good music, well recorded, executed perfectly, with far-reaching lyrics sung by one of the greatest.
The Magnetic Fields
2/5
It's LGBTQ week (apparently)!
I think I've heard of this band before. Not familiar, though. I kind of don't have time for this and it's not really "my jam," but I'll try.
Cringier than expected, actually. How long is this? I'm going to move on now that I know what this is. It's fine, I understand why critics would praise it. Probably could have been 9 love songs? DNF.
Daft Punk
3/5
Way less pure disco than their later stuff, really well done EDM that possibly caused this music to infiltrate every TV show and ad that happened after. It's good though, so I get it. Not something you put on to have a serious listen. It's a non-stop party. First half is better, and the complaints about this being repetitive are not off-base. Liked it way more than I thought I would.
The Beach Boys
4/5
I see what they were going for, and it truly is an amazing execution of Brian Wilson's ideas. Groundbreaking sonically and I like Apple Music's quip about it: "Of all "Pet Sounds'" legacies, the most profound is the idea that pop music -- something accessible and extroverted -- could be used to express deep, internal worlds.
Definitely a must hear, especially this cluster of songs from the end of side one to side 2 - Sloop John B., God Only Knows, I Know There's an Answer.
Very highbrow.
Talking Heads
5/5
I Zimbra is such a fantastic groove, veering into a joyous Crimsonesque jam that always ALWAYS makes me happier than when I put it on.
Mind - clever, astute, amusing, paradoxically minimal and complex. Building on the annoyance of confusion, the guitar breakdown at the end solves nothing but is somehow incredibly helpful.
Paper is the epitome of Talking Heads funkiness. The verse part, with the little spoken stream of consciousness double meaning anxiety invoking lyrics - "hold on to that paper, there just might be a chance that it MIGHT work out!"
Cities is embedded in my skull (almost typed 'school' just now). What does it say that I often wake up in the middle of the night with this running in my head. Look aver there, dry ice factory, good place to get some thinking done. A guitar solo like no other. This song speaks to me so hard for reasons I just can't explain. "Forgot to mention Memphis, home of Elvis and the Ancient Greeks. Do I smell, do I smell home cooking? It's only the river, it's only the river."
We start seeing the source of the anxiety, which the scratchy funk is an expression of. Find myself a city to live in. I got three passports, a couple of visas, don't even know my real name.
Being in the Talking Heads is alienating. Life During Wartime is a metaphor for touring, which Cities is a kind of preface. You can almost take it literally. Also SO DANCEABLE I'M LOSING MY MIND.
Flip it over to side two. Don't get too far into your own head.
Ahh, too late, Memories Can't Wait. Listen to the Living Colour version of this, it will change your life. Whatever this party is, I just want to go home. "Other people can go home. Other people can split. I can never quit." So heavy, dude. But it's a solid idea that I'm not hearing from anyone else, I wish I could love this end part more but that wouldn't be possible.
The chorus of Air haunts me daily as well. "Some people never had experience with (Air)" sung with the airiest of vocals... so perfect. It's perfect. I don't know how but it is. And another ripping solo at the end, heavy Talking Heads is just so satisfying. A little anger, feels good to get it off your chest possibly.
Heaven is not my favorite thing, but still so clever and the band hits it so perfectly. Nothing ever happens, this feels like a little joke, and it's pretty funny. In heaven, everyone leaves your party at exactly the same time. This is something David Byrne fantasizes about, a place where something isn't happening, where he is in the moment, kissing someone again. Contrast! Nothing is exciting. It's hard to imagine that nothing at all could be so exciting, could be this much fun.
Animals. My favorite song.
Animals think
They understand
Trusting them
a big mistake
Animals want
to change my life
I will ignore
Animals advice...
absolute genius, the best of the earlier Talking Heads. Don't even know what a JOKE is.
Pixies
4/5
Complex and profound. A BIG four stars. Grounded a little bit by the production which is a good thing. Pixies can be a lot to take but they do a nice job here of overcoming their more out of control tendencies to make a very listenable album. Takes a few times through to really get it. Well worth the effort.
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
Really excellent trip hop. Groovy mid-tempo loops with some nice stylistic diversity thrown in - dub, funk, rock, this has a lot of little surprises. Frequently background music at work.
Arcade Fire
3/5
A bit dismal, some of the early 2000s “stomp - clap” alt sound in here. Thought provoking though. Great talent but nothing to write home about, there’s no Eddie Van Halen or Stewart Copeland here.
The Fall
4/5
Tunes!
David Bowie
5/5
The Specials
5/5
Best ska album ever, sorry Desmond, sorry Skatalites. Not sorry.
Red Snapper
3/5
Enjoyable mid-tempo EDM with bits of dub, funk, a little jazz at times - shades of Soul Coughing, but JUST shades... nothing really memorable or catchy but they successfully bring you from one track to the next without a lot of effort. Vocal tracks were a little week but overall pretty fun. Has a good beat you can dance to it. Always cool to get something I've never heard before, will be checking the rest of Red Snapper's catalog. Interesting drum/bass/guitar core.
Circle Jerks
5/5
WHAT A CLASSIC! 14 songs in 16 minutes, including the greatest songs ever recorded: Wasted, I Just Want Some Skank, Live Fast Die Young, and Beverly Hills.
This album rules. Saw the Circle Jerks in San Francisco in 1982 and it was the scariest show I've ever seen. Life changing. Punk as go intended.
Peter Frampton
4/5
You forget how much you like some albums. This one has a lot of nostalgia factor. Everyone's older brother was playing this constantly. It's great, though. Just don't look for a lot of profundity. 4 stars for the guitar tone alone, and the solo in "Do You Feel.." is one of the GOATs. Peace and love, very sincere, lots of mistakes - it's live after all. A great listen.
James Brown
3/5
Never realized James Brown had such a huge vocal range. This would be better - not that it's bad - if I could SEE what was happening. The music gets interrupted A LOT by the audience interaction. So it sounds like a wildly entertaining live show that doesn't translate too well to a recording. Sound quality kind of suffered as well.
That said there are some great moments on here, the medley at the end leading into Night Train are excellent. And you can definitely feel the energy. Proto-funk. Interesting transitional stuff, takes us from R & B/Jazz/Jump Blues into a heavier place.
Green Day
5/5
A great album! Catchy, heavy, ornery, a bit weird and personal. The frustrations of youth. Green Day defines the "pop-punk" genre with this album, respects its influences. Also, thank you for making something heavy that wasn't grunge in the 90s.
The Saints
2/5
First song had promise with the horns. Well, that went away as quickly as it came. Christgau was less enamored, saying "...if those horns are somebody's idea of a joke I am not amused."
Kind of a mishmash, the band doesn't seem to land on anything. It's okay, has good energy, not really punk though? DNF moving on
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
Imagine if Gorillaz was a mid-2000s alt rock band (think Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse) but take the dancing out of it. It's working overly hard at profundity, I think. It's okay... I mean, what do you do when you've reached that level of success? It's cool to take musical risks like this as the alternative is either more of the same or quitting altogether. At some points this album feels like it's going too hard for a contemporary sound, for example, shades of Radiohead on The Bunting Song. Hearing Simonon is the highlight for me, though, but it's altogether too laid bake and a little monotonous.
King Crimson
5/5
The best of the Fripp/Wetton/Bruford era. A pure smorgasbord of sound, I just can't get enough. Exiles being the only real downside, but the guitar/bass interplay is intricate, beautiful.
Crimson, and Fripp especially, had a way of giving soul and feeling (whatever that is) to their odd-time, meanderings. And this doesn't work at ALL without the musical confidence each of the members brings to the party. Very communal. Nothing else like it. Obviously not for everyone but gods among prog fans such as myself.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Stevie Wonder's hits overshadow the deep cuts SO MUCH that people like me, unfamiliar with the albums themselves, never got to enjoy the more subtle lesser known stuff. What an amazing songwriter Stevie Wonder is. Every cut on Talking Book is excellent. I don't have the good taste to embrace his soulful ballad side, but the quality is there. "Big Brother" is an AMAZING song, all of the funk stuff on here is awesome. There's even a little "country" (?) tunewhich was great! More guitar than I remember... a really satisfying listen with lots of variety, and of course, Superstition is on here. You can't go wrong!
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
This made me sad. Respect for the conceptual thrust. Very intense, and (for my middle-class white ass) pretty rough. I see why people are praising Kendrick Lamar. Interesting.
Cornershop
4/5
Mostly fun up until "Good to Be On the Road Back Home." Had to blow past that one. Brim Full of Asha is a killer pop tune, and I LOVE the heaping scoops of Indian classical. I'll definitely be playing this again, really innovative. Danceable, brings in some Dub style production. Has some really good heaviness to it, a good sense of humor (sorry: "humour"), surprising sound design, and moves at a nice tempo. Lots of variety.
Crowded House
3/5
Neil Finn: great voice. Theorem: all rock singers ultimately want to be Mel Tormé or Frank Sinatra. Neil Finn can almost prove this, most noticeably on the ballads. Great drumming by Paul Hester, tragically died of suicide at age 46 in 2005.
Great production, great songwriting, impeccable execution. All of this does not make for a perfect album though. It’s too precise, too chill, too easy. It’s not annoying, it just has zero edge musically or otherwise.
So it comes down to a matter of taste. Crowded House do a PERFECT job of not doing anything new or even all that interesting. Which sucks because I really liked listening to it. Also very much like the band. Loved Split Enz. I wanted to like this more. “Not bad != great” is another possible theorem.
5/5
PJ Harvey has a dark side that literally scares me. Because I’m afraid of the unknown.
This album brings together all of her very best aspects - the over- the- bar line cleverness, the plaintive and urgent vocals, direct, distinctive; songwriting that somehow manages to be simple but dives deeply.
She always bares her soul with a confidence you don’t get from anyone else. The duet with Thom Yorke emphasizes this: feels like Thom is always falling apart falling off a cliff. Until PJ comes along to pull him out of his quicksand. The woman is strong. I love this contrast. They pull it off.
Great art. Some touching pieces. But not off putting or difficult (Kendrick I’m talking to you). I haven’t heard something in a long time that I had the sincere urge to hear again like “Good Fortune” or “Kamikaze.” Genius.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
SHA-LA-LA
JAILBREAK
HUEY LEWIS
Good stuff. Heavier than I remember. Well produced - the energy builds across the entire album and crescendos at the right time. Not too long, works well as a "unit of art."
Black Sabbath
5/5
I wrote one of my GENIUS reviews about how Black Sabbath is weird and iconoclastic, etc. But the machine ate it somehow.
One of the main points was how unusual it was that at the nadir of the soft rock era, these blokes went to Southern California and came back with Supernaut. Brilliant. Not even going to take off a star for "Changes" as much as I want to. God I hate that song.
Hookworms
2/5
Never heard of it. Kind of like the Dadaist derived cover art. Don't like the name "Hookworms." Actually, I might have heard of this...
NOT GOING TO READ ABOUT IT
NOT GOING TO READ ABOUT IT
NOT GOING TO READ ABOUT IT
NOT GOING TO READ ABOUT IT
Every time I read. about the album it taints my judgement, especially when it's stuff I haven't heard of.
Starts off very kraut-rocky. Love it. Seems pretty positive. SInger is singing, has a Gary Numan or OMD vibe. Starts belting out a bit like so many other alt-rock, over emotional singers though, like LCD Soundsystem, Modest Mouse, Snow Patrol, etc. (Where did that sound start? hmm...)
Some interesting post-punk stuff here and there, but nothing that says “must hear before you die.” A little derivative, even. The book sometimes seems to include stuff like this just to remain contemporary and sell more editions, possibly.
…. AAAAANNND then I read about it. ☹️
Burning Spear
4/5
This is from the Wikipedia article: "Ed Ward in a 1976 review in Rolling Stone felt that the music was rootsy and compelling, but that it wouldn't be understood by American audiences, and that the lead song about Marcus Garvey wouldn't make sense to anyone who didn't know Jamaican culture."
TRY TO FUCKING LEARN about it then.
This is a nearly perfect Reggae album. The grooves, the themes, Burning Spear's voice - perfect in their imperfection. A textbook, go learn about why Marcus Garvey is important, go learn about Jamaica, go learn about Rastafarianism. Reggae is like Gospel. The passion of roots reggae lies in the combination of spirituality and social consciousness. It's pretty inspiring to think that after centuries of victimization and exploitation, which continues in Jamaica to this day, Rastas want to rise above.
I would love to hear the original mix, but it appears to only be legendary or lost?
Nico
1/5
Is this some kind of joke? If so, someone needs to explain it to me.
Once again: The Velvet Underground (and now that I've heard this, Nico) are BAD. As in NOT GOOD. You are being pranked. Hit a note. Tune your guitar. Take a poetry class.
WHO SAID YOU COULD DO THIS!
Insultingly bad.
Queen
5/5
The Beatles do stuff like "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and get called geniuses; Queen do it and they get called other names.
Janis Joplin
4/5
The always amazing Janis Joplin goes down some new roads here with funk, gospel, country, straight up blues. Fantastic album, and a bit sad in retrospect.
Genesis
4/5
I had no idea. What a wild ride.
One forgets what great musicians Banks Rutherford and Collins were, not to mention Peter Gabriel's outlandishness. AMazing, arty, bizarre.
Madonna
2/5
OHHH, I GET IT NOW! Madonna is like the pop superstar version of David Bowie, what with all the reinventing and \"shape-shifting\" and songwriting ability... nevermind, this bit sucks.
Mostly cringey, the song \"Amazing\" is ok, but even that just goes on too long. Madonna does not sound like she's having fun - which is the first rule for this kind of music. Some interesting production here and there. Why MUST I hear this before I die? Probably would not have been worse off without it. But hey, I made it through.
Japan
2/5
A poor man's Roxy Music with a bass player who forgot to tune up?
It would have been better if David Sylvian didn't just wake up before recording this.
Can hear all the influences too much, and I can hear who they influenced, and that bored me. Flat dynamic range and the sleepy vocals made this into a chore for me. Seems like a lot of what might be categorized as Post-Punk from this era had a very droll style, too cool to really rock. No fun.
Kate Bush
4/5
A lot more interesting and entertaining than I thought it would be. Very intense in places. "The Ninth Wave" was metal. Eclectic and surprisingly rhythm centered. I found it all more fascinating than I thought I would, having pretty much ignored Kate Bush this whole time. I'll probably listen again, the hits (Running Up That Hill and Cloudbusting) are actually really great songs that have aged very well.
The Temptations
3/5
Great vocalists (of course). The 12 minute album version of Papa Was a Rolling Stone is absolutely worth the price of admission. Everything else left me a little cold, but that whole first side was great.
Grateful Dead
1/5
IT’S THE VOCALS!!! The vocals are out of tune! It’s cringe-inducing bad country music, falling far short of the profundity to which it aspires.
The upbeat stuff is just goofy sounding and the slow stuff is banal and hits like old gum on the bottom of my shoe and I’m just too tired to do anything about it. You really need two drummers for this? As a drummer I can tell you, you might not even need one.
Not even going to write about the lyrics. God help us.
Sugar Magnolia is alright. This is what you think of when you think Grateful Dead. A rare tight performance, and I think it’s Bob Weir singing actually hitting the notes pleasantly enough. Still awful.
Now that that’s over I’m gonna sit down and “patch my bones” WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Really nice 80s jangle-pop singer-songwriter stuff with a touch of eclecticism and refreshing lack of social-consciousness. Perfect Skin is a killer song. And if you like Lloyd Cole's voice (which I do) then thi is a pretty enjoyable and very respectable piece of work.
Björk
3/5
Most of these albums are not the kind you can just put on in the background and groove to while cleaning the house. This is certainly one of those. Intricate and intimate. A very introspective album, very poetic, very arty. Interesting progressive electro-folk. A lot to take in, I would like to just put this on with the lyrics in hand on a Sunday afternoon in Spring with nothing else to do in order to feel it completely.
Beck
3/5
Dark but still Beck. Slower, Americana-tinged breakup songs pull you into a world of hurt. But little glimpses of optimism percolate up here and there. Like life. Beck is always a good listen.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Stevie Wonder number 4!!!
And in 4th place I'm sorry to report. :(
Just really like his funky stuff SO MUCH MORE than the love ballads. This album is a little less thoughtful than the ones that come after. "Boogie On" and the "You Haven't Done Nothin'" are SO GOOD it makes up for a lot.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
3/5
OMD is highly influential minimalist post-punk electronic pop that was not unenjoyable on first pass and became more interesting subsequently. More vital at a higher volume.
Still don't know what they're talking about really. But it's okay, our vocalist is a good singer and contrasts the artificiality of the tracks nicely.
Again, this bears repeated listening. A lot of what i thought was derivative at first sounded much more purposeful, experimental and passionate the second time around. Interesting record.
Randy Newman
3/5
I don't know, man. Pretty negative POV, first track over-uses the n-word - I get it, I get it, we're pointing out the racism and hypocrisy both north and south - at this point I need solutions, not more complaining.
That said, Randy Newman IS a great songwriter, and I'm thinking (after hearing this album) this is what Tom Waits is trying to be. BUT: extremely self-righteous and holier-than-thou, so for me, off-putting. Don't come in here with your class-struggle bullshit.
Leftfield
3/5
There's a lot of mid-nineties mediocre EDM on the list, and this definitely counts among them. Not completely awful: "Open Up," "Afro Left," and the opener "Release the Pressure" were good. Really enjoyed the eclecticism, but this didn't make me want to jump up and tell anybody "You must listen to this before you die!!!"
Fleet Foxes
2/5
Progressive-death-folk?
Has potential. I wanted a less polished production. This felt very academic, kind of showing off their chops, demonstrating a style. Nothing really hooked me though and mostly derivative.
If you're going to do your version of Folk, the lyricism needs to take center stage. This is, again, kind of a stylistic exploration without having much to say.
That droll singing voice again. Too cool for the turn-of-the-century. Middle-class white suburbanites don't usually have much to say though.
N.W.A.
3/5
Writing this review late because I skipped it earlier and I wish I hadn't considering the milquetoast albums that I got at approximately the same time.
Funky grooves, scary lyrics, I'm not f****ing with NWA. Extreme, inventive. Not a gangster fan but this is... as serious as they are (Fuc the Police) there's still enough self-awareness about being entertaining it just works better. You don't have to pretend your lived experience was different from them to enjoy this. High 3.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
I don't really know what to think about this. Sid one is a long jam on Bo Diddly's "Who Do You Love," and it has some fun moments. Overall I was far more irritated than inspired. The little guitar experiments - harmonic tapping, scraping the string, etc. - just annoying sonically. "Cavalry" was rhythmically inventive but, like the rest of the album, lacks energy.
Noodling. Self-indulgent and doesn't add any value to the song.
I guess this is then the perfect template for every country-rock flavored jam band that came after, so, good job?
Rufus Wainwright
1/5
Challenge music!!! As pretentious as I imagined.
They’ve been listening to Thom Yorke way too much.
Do I have to listen to this?
R.E.M.
3/5
The start of REM's downfall. This one was definitely phoned in. Orange Crush is great, and World Leader Pretend is one of my favorite REM songs. But mostly disappointing because they had set such a high bar for us fans earlier on in their catalog.
Even the worst REM is still enjoyable, though. Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry always sound great. And Michael Stipe is nothing if not entertaining and usually poetic. You can feel a self-consciousness about the change of direction I think, and that brings it down.
David Bowie
4/5
Definitely his best material since Let's Dance (which wasn't all that great, albeit one of Bowie's most popular). Some of the darkest as well, putting it in league with ★.
Bowie's albums are always complex and span vast galaxies. This is no exception. Lots of lyrics to pore through backed by incredibly skilled musicians.
Bowie has a weirdness that is his ands his alone. This album captures that so well. There are some sonic throwbacks to his earlier material, but that isn't here for nostalgic reasons. And the references are so indirect, unless you're very familiar with all of Bowie's catalog, you won't notice.
I had to listen to this three times to get even a small idea of what Bowie was trying to accomplish. It's great - deep, creepy at times, multidimensional - reminds me most of Lodger, being like an observer traveling from place to place. In this case it's all places in the mind. A lot to unpack. Beautifully complex and, as ever, grateful to have lived at the same time as David Bowie.
The Who
5/5
JUST thinking about how this is my favorite WHO album, unfortunately, the original vinyl running order isn't available (apparently) on Apple music. There are (it looks like) three versions of what is called "Live at Leeds" on Apple Music, one of them a heart wrenching 4 hours in length. All are remastered and have material that wasn't on the original, mostly the rest of Tommy stuff. This was a time in their history when they played the entirety of Tommy at their shows, along with extended jams of My Generation, blues covers, and it was the most exciting thing in rock. Better than the theatrics of Led Zeppelin, I would argue, because of the pure spontaneity and intensity The Who brought to those performances. Singular.
So are we thinking about albums or are we thinking about The Who's live performances from this era? Whoever is managing the music post 2000s wants us to hear the whole concert and ignores the single LP as the sonic explosion that it was. The Tommy stuff is intellectually stimulating, but I think the original LP RIPS YOUR FACE OFF from front to back, whereas throwing some of the softer more thoughtful stuff onto the second half sort of moistens the whole proceedings.
Subject two - if you see films of this stuff, try to watch Keith Moon and how his playing intersects with Pete. Ungodly. Absolutely some of the best rock music ever created.
Happy Mondays
1/5
Apparently you have to take a lot of drugs to enjoy this. Nasty looking cover, nasty sounding singer, nasty lyrics. They wanted to put more reverb on this recording, but had already used the entire UK supply for this record.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Tighter and more interesting than I imagined it would be. KIND OF samey throughout, but danceable and and charmingly unusual: you can't fault it for being overly challenging.
Like Thin Lizzy without guitars, bass and drums.
I despise the big hit though, just hate it. Hearing it makes me cringe so hard I need to go to the emergency room.
Killing Joke
4/5
Things I love about this album:
1 - Another "Where have you been all my life" listens.
2 - Sounds like a cross between PIL and Gang of Four.
3 - Metal.
4 - Unlike GoF, here we have a Goth underlayer of synth without losing the funk. Krautrock with more calories.
5 - Requiem is a straight banger - never used that term before and it's unlikely I ever will again. But it is.
6 - Riffs!
7 - The only thing I've heard that comes anywhere close to that uniquely disjointed funk that GoF made famous.
Really great post-punk, lots of variety, a bit scary and angry. Was familiar with "Eighties," one of my favorite songs, but never got that far into their catalog. Really glad to get this one.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
WHO’S a good boy! Whoooos a good doggy?! Good boy!
Beatles
5/5
Never REALLY looked at this cover before, very amusing. Might buy the shirt 🤔
A great Beatles album is going to be one of the best ALBUMS of all time. Best Beatles album? Maybe... I love this album anyway. Guitars getting heavier, themes getting heavier, beautiful musical contrasts.
5/5
Wild Gift is a pretty complex thing for a punk album. Rather than shriek about violence or people who think they're better than you, we get these emotional open wounds. Really raw and seemingly personal, Wild Gift fits the genre by just confronting the ugliness that can happen in relationships. Yet X go far, far beyond genre expectations.
They beautify it with their harmonies: frightening, wistful, sad, vulnerable; they decorate it with their musical chops: heavy, dynamic, rootsy. It's so much more than the sum of its parts and there really is nothing else like it. DJ Bonebrake, Billy Zoom, John Doe and Exena have no peers in their genre.
MAN I hope the 1001 albums doesn't ignore the better and more influential X debut album.
Björk
4/5
This shit hurts. Björk is an amazing artist in every sense of the word but this was difficult without having much sunlight. Reminded me of Beck's "Sea Change," without the hope on the horizon.
Rufus Wainwright
1/5
REALLY??? 🤦♂️
Dude I tried. I just can’t. 3 songs in and I’m ready to quit the 1001 project altogether.
Wainwright is a good enough singer. But the fucking affectation, the little slurry tongue the soft consonant sounds. I don’t have time for this shit. Get over yourself please. Why do we have two of these albums? Here’s something else: you think I’m complaining? You should hear this record. I think I’ll go listen to actual Radiohead now.
The Notorious B.I.G.
2/5
God damn dude. Your DEBUT album is an hour and ten?
Too violent, it's bringing me down. Sorry about whatever happened that made you feel like you had to be this way. Gangster violence is always going to be entertaining to some people. Like horror films, I'm not into it. This album is unrelenting in it's violence: I'm not going to try to stop anyone else from listening to it, it's well made (I'm sure, not an expert, critics like it apparently), and there's a lot of cleverness and rhythm in the "poetry." But the subject matter is not subtle, not all that artistic. Pretty sure gangster rap did NOT solve the problems the rappers were complaining about.
Miles Davis
5/5
Absolute classic. Max Roach for the win. Some of Miles' most joyful melodies. Crucial.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Non-offensive pop music from the early 2000s that has a couple standout songs (Beautiful and Fighter spring to mind) and a wide variety of styles. ENjoyable but probably twice as long as necessary. I blame digital media, where you can have a literal infinite number of tracks (8, 12, 24 - what the hell, why not 128? 256?) and an unlimited amount of recording time (in the past, you would only want to buy so much tape, noiw that doesn't matter, the artist can burn through digital media without consequence).
It's ok. More of a 2 1/2 star out of five but you have to round and I'll round up because Christina Aguilera is a better singer than most of her contemporaries including Madonna.
Julian Cope
3/5
This record grew on me. Had to listen through a couple of times. Cope's guitar and vocals are appealing - slightly aggressive with quite a bit of "I don't care what you think" attitude. Seems he had relationship problems, and I'm not getting the political and environmental themes I read about. "Beautiful Love" is brilliant.
The Cars
5/5
Thinking I can review this without even listening to it.
When you're 12 - 13 years old, you don't have much money, so any album you buy is going to need to be really really good. Imagine spending a month's salary on something like an April Wine album because you like the one song they play on the radio. It's a big investment for a little kid. Record store guys were no help either, they kind of just wanted you out of the store and knew you could only buy one album. So they'll recommend it just to get the transaction over with. Once you get it home, the album has the song you like and 8 or 9 other COMPLETE DOGS! One's only recourse was to tell all your friends not to buy it themselves, at the risk of embarrassing yourself.
This happens often enough, and you start to recognize from a cover alone (sometimes, this is not foolproof) whether or not the disc is going to come home with you. For a 13 year old, that Cars cover looks very promising. And the songs of their's that you have heard were strikingly new-sounding. Enough New Wave to stand out, enough guitar to not leave the well-tread rock 'n' roll path (reducing your risk!).
Beginning to end, The Cars did not disappoint me. Every song killed. No dogs at all. And, they flowed, one into the next. I'm pretty sure I have this memorized - every drum fill, every guitar solo, every synth line, every word. The type of album I would come back to time and time again. And it worked so well because my tastes weren't all that sophisticated back then (are they now?), and this was music that, as I said, rode the edge of novel without being overly alienating.
I'd give this 5 for Elliot Easton alone. But everyone else is equally (almost) as adept. Greg Hawkes' keyboards and Ric Ocasek's vocals season the rock undercarriage with an oddness that is appealing to a gawky teenager. I might not be this effusive if I never heard The Cars before, but it has been one of my ten favorite albums since it came out, and after listening to thousands of others, this still stands up.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
There are three songs where they use their own voice. "Breakdown," one of the most memorable TP tunes of all - a heavy, soulful tune with a hint of shuffle, lonely and frustrated. "Luna," the only real artistic risk, has that 4 AM can't sleep feeling, trippy, evokes the Eagles at their best. "American Girl," the double-time raver that got them a punk rock trading card.
We get some Beatles, Stones, Springsteen, Van Morrison (listen to Mystery Man again). All to good affect, though. Everything has Petty's Jagger-soaked drawl and that... Americana wash. Before it was called Americana.
Good, even great in places. I look forward to seeing what these guys will do in the future, lots of potential here if they can find their own style! ;)
Songhoy Blues
3/5
I have never met an African album I didn't like, and this is no exception. Fantastic guitar work and mesmerizing layers of rhythm. I'll definitely listen to this again. I just wish I had a translation. Sad to hear about the suffering in Mali, but this is a good way to educate a privileged westerner like me. I hope they have a lot more success.
Suede
2/5
Excessive and ridiculous. The soundtrack of egos inflated by early success. Interesting from a rock history point of view, but not necessarily enjoyable. I could die without it, to be honest. Some good playing though. Production was spotty, also overblown (the orchestra is insultingly cliche).
Nas
3/5
I need to find a course called "How to Appreciate Gangsta Rap" because YIKES there's a lot of it on this list (and in our culture, I guess). I'm glad for him that Nas got out of the crack game and into the rap game. The grooves and vocals were better than the usual, but this is still; all tropes top to bottom, nothing new. It was not a bad listen though. Less violent and gross than a some, like Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac.
Eels
3/5
Eels brings something new to late nineties alternative rock. The best I can do is "intellectual," but that's not quite it. Smart, for sure. Both lyrically and musically, there are surprising twists, sourness, and a droll flavor reminiscent of Cake. Odd and interesting with a cool new approach to the status quo. Not for everyone, but if you're in the mood for a little more to think about, Eels' Beautiful Freak will entertain.
Santana
5/5
I am trying to find a reason not to give this album 5 stars. I mean, if you like a guitar god who not only shreds (and who doesn't), but brings a latin-jazz-funk flavor to the proceedings, then Santana is your choice.
The playing is frankly breathtaking. The Latin percussion enervating. We are moved gracefully from one style to another - jazz, blues-rock, psych, traditional Latin grooves.
Fantastic album. Carlos Santana is truly a wizard, and a chaotic good one at that.
Talking Heads
5/5
Enigmatic. Frustrating. Odd. Unnerving. Amusing. Hypnotic.
Adrian Belew's solos on The Great Curve belong in a museum.
Is this a magnum opus? The first three songs completely dispose of any - ANY - traditional rock format. Talking Heads and Eno reinvent rock, from what I can tell. I haven't heard anything like it. It has relationships to everything the band did before it, but they just develop their own drone-like experimental version of themselves. Even "Once in a Lifetime" is a strange new world.
Weird and multi-layered. Gets better with every listen.
Nirvana
4/5
I remember seeing it live when it first came out on MTV, thinking about how it was a stupid idea to make Nirvana play acoustically. Doesn't make sense. I suppose that's why most of this album is covers - that and the fact that Nirvana loved to do covers.
This recording - with all of the conversations and quips between songs, the musical choices, Kurt Cobain's often faltering voice - is a document of his misplaced insecurity. If one allows oneself to ruminate on that, or the myriad other pains that come from being alive, then all that's left is nihilism, bitterness, disgust with oneself.
We are never going to separate the art from the artist in the case of Nirvana. Selfishly, I imagine an alternate reality where he was somehow slightly less tortured. I want to enjoy the art, instead of it feeling like watching a car crash. I have no such morbid curiosity. And I do wish Kurt Cobain had just 1% more resilience. He was a musical genius. It seems like the stuff he left behind was a sketch, the real art was yet to come. Because of that, for me, Nirvana is always heart wrenching to listen, no matter how brilliant.
Setting all of that aside, the album is a bit of a rollercoaster. You can just FEEL the disdain at having to play the "hits," which really brings the whole thing down. You can tell he is not well mentally or physically, exhausted. That energy blankets the entire album. The moments where he gives it some love, or uses the music to try and explain his tortured soul - Pennyroyal Tea, Apologies, Pines - are some of the most astonishing moments in rock music.
It's not the best performance. Nirvana just doesn't work very well in the "unplugged" framework. The whole idea is a little tongue-in-cheek. By this point, Kurt Cobain was sick of it all and had enough. Which sucks for all of us.
The Slits
4/5
Textbook English post-punk. Haters are annoyed by this for various reasons, mainly because they think it's about them. Which it is.
Offbeat, inventive, often difficult, Cut is easy to dismiss at first listen. It's really not intended to be easily digested. You have to accept this fact into your heart. It'smeant tochallenge the status quo, whther it be in Love, music, family, government, capitalism, pick your poison. It elegantly opposes musical conventions. This attitude doesn't go down easy. But like contemporaries Gang of Four, PiL, possibly Crass (!), The Slits do the courageous work of tearing down the establishment. I said courageous and I meant it. Easy for snot-nosed punks to fly in the face of expectations. Now women are doing it, and that's probably what's bothering you. Take some time for self-reflection.
Also Bjork sounds like Ari Up.
Adele
4/5
This is WAY better than I thought it was going to be, mostly because I only know of Adele from the hype. What a great voice. Such excellent songwriting, blistering intensity tempered with some beautiful smoothness. Big production. Great musicianship, but doesn't overshadow the singer. Usually not my cup of stylistic tea, but I was bowled over.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
This week's discs were 100MPH of intensity: Santana's "Abraxas", Talking Heads' "Remain in Light", Adele's "21," and Nirvana's "Unplugged," not to mention the Slits! Maybe because I listened to the latter four all on the same day. Maybe it's the combination of that and winter and the sheer frustration of living in America in 2025. Maybe it's the fact that my house is constantly under construction and I feel powerless to make it stop.
I almost started to cry today, man. All Apologies was a gut-punch.
Then, just when you're ready to just give up, Green Onions comes on and everything seems like it's gonna be OK. The first thing I ever played on the drums. Steve Cropper's semi-surf guitar. That walking rhythm. Let it go on forever.
The Smiths
4/5
I mean, with The Smiths, you're always going to get high quality art. And this is their highest quality album.
There's a reason Johnny Marr is considered one of the great guitaristas (yes I just invented the word). It's all very pristine, Morrisey's poetry is at its most sublime, his voice at its most confident, velvety, amiable even. The production is exquisite. The songwriting is engaging - fully embracing their best impulses. The Beatlesque "Death of a Disco Dancer" is deft. "Girlfriend in a Coma" follows in a similar string-fueled vein, a kind of lovely verse-chorus ballad that exists in the Jam's shadow a bit. Everything that follows pulls you in as well. Unhappy Birthday, so clever, the sort of song you unconsciously invent on your way to making toast, musically charming and lyrically difficult. Good stuff.
Much of the album swashbuckles its way into that self-pitying inner dialog the Smiths mastered. At times the poking witticisms feel forced. Overall The Smiths have their own atmosphere, foggy, British. It looks back, to last night or the 50's in an organic way. I just want them to rock a little harder, and for Morrisey to feel what he's singing a little harder. You know what I mean. Make me feel it also.
George Jones
3/5
Some say George Jones was the best country singer ever and this album does not present any evidence to the contrary! Short and sweet, funny, sad, lots of pedal steel and violins. Traditional Country that modern day singers try and mostly fail to emulate.
Nick Drake
4/5
I didn't realize I was such a Nick Drake fan. And it turns out I'm late to the party, but better late thatn never.
Some of the saddest music I've come across, executed with maturity and an elegant sincerity I've also rarely come across. Really brilliant. Needs more listens.
The Cure
3/5
I love that The Cure went back to being heavy. The Cure have a unique sound. The downtuned bass drone, echoey tomtom-driven drums, melodic minor key single note guitar picking, Robert Smith's sort of moaning vocals. Moody. Definitely goth. Maybe, for me, a little too introspective, a little too hopeless, too backward looking.
Nice job doing that, though! Again, bring me the serious heaviness with a bit less moping. The hookier tunes are the best on here. Sorry Robert Smith didn't like being popular, The Cure's popular stuff is better. "Pictures of You,' "Lovesong," "Lullaby," and "Fascination Street" raise all the other ships, not to say all the others would sink the album. Bit of a downer.
Fiona Apple
2/5
Great voice, the songs left a bad taste in my mouth though. Just... not for me, I suppose. Some interesting bits but nothing I want to bring into my future. Not relatable enough for me and toward the end everything started to sound a bit the same, with a couple exceptions that I don't really care to review.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Disc One - FUNK
Disc Two - MYSTICAL PROG
Disc Three - heavy folk
Disc Four - A Grab bag o' blues
If you make it through the whole thing you are rewarded with the tasty treat that is "Sick Again."
Zeppelin's more "mystical" stuff is better entertainment than the prettier love songs for me. "Houses of the Holy," "Kashmir," and "In the Light" stand alone as a post-psychedelic excursion into other worlds, atmospheric, swirling, immense. Only Down By the Seaside leaves me wanting, and Ten Years Gone is a bit of a toss-off. But Led Zeppelin's toss-off is a thoudand other bands greatest possible achievement. This album is another monumental piece of work, a great bridge to their later more polished stuff.
Tim Buckley
2/5
Never heard Tim Buckley before, heard a lot about him. Impressive voice. A couple of these songs didn't hurt me much to listen to but really don't age very well - especially the post-hippie jam Gypsy Woman. "Cast a spell on me, mama!" Yikes. Mostly vamping, lots of vibes (vibraphones that is, maybe it's a marimba), lots of jazz adjacent chords, pretty, subdued. It's really about this dude's voice though. Probably should hear before you die. Definitely of its time, that being the come-down off of the trip that was the psychedelic era. Like a lot of other 70's handsome boy singer-songwriter stuff. My divorced mom would have loved this back in '75.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
The "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" is not 42, as previously thought. It is, in fact:
Keep on Chooglin'
Madonna
2/5
The song "Ray of Light" is ok. The EDM framework is ok, sometimes even danceable. Madonna is not a great singer, though. And if you've heard one semi-naughty boy/girl song you've heard them all. I couldn't finish it, it's an hour-plus, and I know what the rest will be like. Small moments of interest but nothing thoroughly exceptional here.
AC/DC
5/5
None more black.
Duran Duran
4/5
Really tight uptempo new-wave pop. Mostly nonsensical lyrics, a state which adds to the entertainment. Some interesting deep cuts. Mostly fun and spontaneous, and I kinda hate to say it, but I think "Save a Prayer" is a good song. If I were teaching a class about this era, I would use this song as an example.
Brian Eno
4/5
Up front I will say that as an ENO fan, my bias will skew this review. Responsible for no less than 5 of my favorite albums (Devo's "Are We Not Men?", Talking Heads' "Fear of Music," Bowie's "Low" and "Heroes," and U2's "Joshua Tree") Eno's contribution to music can't be understated.
This album nicely bridges his earlier solo work with the ambient era. Every song is different stylistically: from the proto-ambient "Zawinul/Lava" and "Little Fishes" to the Beach Boyish experiment "Everything Merges with the Night."
Challenging and still listenable. Creatively courageous. Eclectic, and BONUS Phil Collins appearance!
Joe Ely
3/5
Starts strong, finishes strong, keeps it interesting throughout. There are some surprisingly modern touches in a sound that can too easily disintegrate into pure tropes. For instance, the guitar/synth solo on "Boxcars" or the lyrics on "Fingernails (which I swear Marty Stuart covers) or "West Texas Waltz."
Stays true to the Honky Tonk sound, as far as I know it. Accordions, steel guitar, fiddle... it's the Western in "Country and Western." Feels sincere and unapologetic, not trying to be popular, just trying to be what it is.
Les Rythmes Digitales
1/5
Oof
I had to listen to Physical Graffiti again to get the taste of this out of my mouth. How can this garbage be on the same list as Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or even "Homework" by Daft Punk?
It sounds exactly like what this cover looks like: childish, contrived, soulless - the look on that dude's face says it all. I guess it's supposed to remind me of the 80's, but I was around in the eighties and it was NOT like this. And thank god for that.
Shockingly, this person has won 3 Grammys, which I guess says more about the Grammys than it does about this guy.
Common
1/5
Gimme something without Kanye West on it.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
The Stones keep doing this "funky Americana" thing, vacillating between Gospel, Soul, straight blues, country, bluegrass... I mean, it's good, the band is tight but spontaneous (for the most part - I think they play up the sloppiness a bit to the detriment of the tunes), Keith Richards is always excellent. But it's more of the same since they started, this one has a little more orchestration. They're kind of poseurs, though. I guess they were the original Blues Poseurs™. Paves the way for a lot of fairly mediocre stuff to come later like the Black Crowes and Creed.
Doesn't suck but a bit long.
Michael Jackson
4/5
A breath of funky fresh air! I started dancing spontaneously as if controlled by some outside force. This NEVER happens to me. Bonus points for Stevie Wonder.
Röyksopp
4/5
I have Eple on a work playlist, and every time it comes on, it's a standout, and it's on there with Tycho, Bonobo, Aphex Twin, a bunch of other great electronic music. So I was psyched to see this on the list!
The album is joy. Röyskopp has a way with melody ("Eple", "Poor Leno," "Remind Me") and they create out of the ordinary sounds that remain organic ("Sparks," "A Higher Place"). "Röyskopp's Night Out" is outstanding, artistic and epic with a light touch. Great song. Typically I don't love featured singers on top of this kind of Electronica, but they make it work. The vocals are tuneful with out overwhelming the proceedings. Like French chillsters (huh? huh? OH COME ON!) Air, Röyskopp has a mood, like, grasping here for the terms, Brazilian Bossa Nova jazz - without being that. Sweet, dance-centric, positive, sunny, easy to listen to.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
Really emotional and interesting, haunting production. Lots of biblical and mythic references. Surprisingly heavy, very authentic Country, and Emmylou Harris voice is iconic.
Portishead
3/5
I thought I liked this more than I actually did. Some great stuff and a deep jazz influence. Groundbreaking and genre defining work. Somewhat monotonous tempo-wise, the last third of the album didn't hold my interest. It's ok.
The Strokes
4/5
Too cool for me you or anyone else for that matter. Great lo-fi retro garagey sounds, bespoke for a musical spot on SNL.
Caetano Veloso
2/5
I normally really like World music, for the sincerity and novelty of it - "Shaka Zulu" by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and "Buena Vista Social Club" being great examples. Ceatano Veloso did not have that appeal, for those reasons. He's doing something that sounds a little "put on," like a Carnaval mask (huh? HUH?).I craved some Brazillian Jazz and got an attempt at psychedelic-pop (maybe?). And not a really well executed version of that. Nothing to say about the lyrics or themes because I don't understand Portugese (I assume it's Portugese).
Mekons
3/5
I think you had to be there at the time. Bonus point for Gang of Four association, minus point for British people attempting to play country. I think this would be good to own in 1985 only so you can 'out-obscure" your music listening friends - you know the game, it goes:
YOU: "Hey man have you heard Beach Rat?"
THEM: "Uh yeah, have you heard Chat Pile?"
YOU: "Yeah of course, going to see them next week. Heard the new Yulia Niko?"
THEM: "Drakulas?"
YOU: "La Lom?"
THEM: "IceCreamDeathCult?"
YOU: "Grails?"
THEM: "Nurse With Wound?"
YOU: "MASTER BOOT RECORD?"
You get the idea.
John Lennon
2/5
Supposed to like it. But I just don’t. Obviously quality songwriting because it’s John Lennon , and there’s good stuff here and there. Just ok and you expect more from a superstar caliber musician. I like the more vulnerable stuff. Imagine is now a cliche, but has a lovely intent. So now why can’t he and Paul live in peace? Hmm? HMMMMM????
Sigur Rós
4/5
Lives up to the hype. Really inventive and unusual. They have a sense of melody that is lacking in a lot of other post-rock (or, let’s face it, rock in general). Intriguing.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
"Poppy" without being obnoxious, this album has a moodiness that bridges its goth forebears like Siouxsie and the Banshees and tThe CUre with - and I could be wrong about this - a new-wave influenced britpop. Vocals stand out, everything supports the song, high level musicianship, it's all very appealing. Cocteau twins have a unique sonic quality that isn't alienating, blending the novel with the familiar.
Slipknot
4/5
Not an easy listen, but if you're in the mood for metal that goes hard and offers something new and interesting for the post-nu-metal era, Slipknot is here for you. Built from trauma and the anger it produces. Fairly scary. Great live band as well.
The The
2/5
Don’t love growling. Sometimes it’s a good effect, Bjork does this very well. But ALL THE TIME in every song: it gets old fast. Not subtle lyrically, not a reflection on how he feels about things. Just moral absolutism. Underpinned by a strange Soul style, there’s just too much dichotomy. Can’t tell if the dude is mad or sad or what’s going on, and it certainly isn’t making me feel anything. Very tight musically though, no rough edges (except for the aforementioned growly affectation). Not all bad but a bit pretentious and insincere.
Neu!
5/5
This album is really amazing. First listen all I could think about were the negative things: mostly the vocals in “leb’ wohl”, the (at first glance) lack of coherency between the front and back.
After the second listen I was thinking “this is some kind of masterpiece!”
“Isi” has a sweetness and beauty on top of that motorik drumming, it’s hypnotic, charming music. Then “Seeland,” this epic journey, organic and evocative. Hero is clearly the song that Public Image was born from, a stunning proto-punk statement coming from NEU! of all people. “E-music” ties this all together with equal parts hypno-psychedelic and the chugging motor-beat that defines krautrock. What a fine flange-tastic way to spend ten minutes. Then we get launched off of whatever planet this was by “After Eight,” another rocker the predicts the most exciting post-punk.
This is great. My new favorite album.
Coldplay
5/5
Special guest reviewer says: epic sometimes minor key melancholy without causing pain, Yellow is a headbanger. Better than the White Album. So good.
ZZ Top
4/5
Blues funk hard rock soul and whatever LaGrange is. The best ZZTop album! Billy Gibbons has few peers.
Gary Numan
5/5
This is turning out to be a great week!
One of my favorite albums as a teenager. Really novel, Gary Numan's quasi-robotic voice and the mass of synths is the perfect vehicle for the angst and alienation of the time. Cars never gets old. I love it all.
Simply Red
2/5
There's a lot of actual soul and R&B music out there. A lot of good singers in that genre. I get the urge to play stuff you love, but Simply Red doesn't feel very real, just "chops" before real soulfulness, style over substance. Shallow. Mick Hucknall is a good technician, for what it's worth.
Marianne Faithfull
2/5
Not a great New Wave album. Didn't age well, a bit cheesy and lacks any sincere power. Good on Marianne Faithfull for making it out of whatever self-inflicted hell she had been in though.
Yes
5/5
The Killers
3/5
Tightly executed post-punk revival. A lot like The Strokes or Franz Ferdinand etc. but even hornier if that's possible. A wee bit of brit-pop and Smiths influences, perhaps. Got pretty tedious toward the end, but a couple of the early deep cuts were enjoyable, "Andy You're a Star" notably. Has a good energy, a bit dismal at times. Glad to finally hear it as my wife sings along such that I can't really hear the tunes. Good drums on this.
Bob Dylan
3/5
I'm not TRYING to describe the albums, it just sort of happens.
(Right now I'm trying to catch up on a few I've missed. I didn't even have time to write a proper review of The Yes Album, but now that we can edit our reviews, maybe I will fit that in some time.)
ANY hoo, this is an interesting one. You can be chastised for disliking Dylan's most notorious works like this or Blond on Blonde. I didn't dislike them, I just don't get the hype. Probably one of those "had to be there at the time" things, although some of the more pointed stuff hangs on. I guess people never change.
Still trying to understand "Ballad of a Thin Man." I enjoyed this album on the whole, nothing made me want to bury my head in the sand, like some stuff on this list does. Interesting, arty, and unusual. Lots to like. But Dylan's style is a matter of taste and it never hit me in the gut like it does a lot of people. I get the appeal though. And at the time, I guess, this was the most radical groundbreaking anti-establishment music being made. Which kind of broke open some floodgates in mainstream rock and pop. Respect.
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
I get what he's trying to do but it isn't working. Bludgeoning the listener with the little radio snippets to raise consciousness is pretty heavy-handed. And clichè, like much of this album. For example, the seemingly endless optimistic pep talk on "Pilgrim" or the over-done trip-hop sweet soul of the title track.
On the other hand, I wish he had doubled down on the Indian classical stuff, really pushed that to an extreme, instead of burying the most interesting thing about this underneath stupid western pop music tropes. Too long at nearly an hour, I cringed too much at the song "Immigrant" and had to excuse myself from the table.
The Bees
3/5
Pretty good. Eclectic styles, interesting indie production. Two dudes at home. Fairly impressive. Another post-1999 album that feels like they put it in newer editions of the book just to have albums from this era.
Joy Division
4/5
Nothing I know of makes you feel better, as an 18 year old man, than exorcising your demons (anxiety, sexual frustration, grieving the death of your own childhood, etc.) by torturing a guitar until it gives up its secrets, as unreasonable and unexpected and unacceptable as some of those sounds can be.
And it doesn’t have to be just a guitar. Maybe it’s the drums or bass or your voice. Maybe it’s the idea of music altogether that has to be wrung out, burned in a pile of “I don’t care” and then rebuilt as a lumbering skeleton from the grave.
Might not sound beautiful. Might not supposed to.
Metallica
4/5
I love the sound of the the album, and Metallica in general. Muscular, intense, massive... I love the speed metal and the compositions that aren't afraid to extend into classical territory. A lot to love. Sometimes the dismal unrelenting nature of it all is a bit much. There's no escape, no place to rest. Toward the end we have the song "Orion," but even this is a funeral dirge. Everything is a moral proselytizing - and whether or not you agree with their point of view (which I do in fact) - the dismal intensity remains.
Technically amazing. A heavy music fan's dream. Super tight, a bludgeoning of everything that's wrong in the world. All anger. In fact this is one of the most musically accurate representations of that emotion I've ever heard. Really intense.
Pretenders
5/5
In my top ten. One of those albums that reveals something you never heard before every time you listen. This time, I am hearing the guitar solos in "Private Life," where in the past I haven't paid much attention to this song. Masterful. Everything about this album amazes me, from the lust to the guitar tone, from the voice(s) to the inventiveness. The Wait, Tattooed Love Boys, Precious - good lord! THe only POSSIBLE weakness is Lovers of Today, but everything else here makes up for it and - you know - it still has Chrissy Hynde, so that makes it awesome anyway.
One of the best debut albums
EV...
ER.
Gets me every time.
The Damned
4/5
Has a bit of a Stranglers feel, but more aggressive and subversive. Seems like the English punks like The Damned and Buzzcocks are a bigger influence on the pop-punk we know and love than the USA scene. USA started going more hardcore, refusing to cow to the mainstream (up until the aforemantioned pop-punk) sonically or thematically. Minor threat, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Adolescents, etc etc etc leading to the alternative rock of Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, or thrash metal. Whereas the English second wave was more of a post-punk vanguard and then their progeny - the Cure, Smiths, etc. This album is a good example of the difference between the brutal depressed hardcore of the American scene and the British sensibility - I can hear what they're singing, there's melody and harmony, etc. They mostly stay with rock conventions, which is why lot of this stuff and post-punk (I'm thinking about Elvis Costello, not PiL) has some resemblance to earlier rock-n-roll. It feels like they're trying to get away from the hippie psychedelic/folk/progressive stream and return to the roots: where staying up all night Friday, drinking and driving fast cars was how you let off steam from your shit job (or lack thereof). This is the soundtrack for something like that. I'm all for it.
And Smash it Up is one of the best songs ever written.
The Kinks
4/5
Alright, I'll keep going with my rhetorical device of writing a long stream of consciousness exposition with no real point and then pointing out something about this album that is THE BEST EVER. Here we go.
Rock and roll probably ought to have an undercurrent of disaffection if it's going to be called that. The Kinks disaffection here is in fine form, and their eclectic urge is WAY out front on this album. The mixed feelings you get from the opener David Watts (which The Jam turned into one of my all time favorite songs, this version is more pointed, can't tell if mad, jealous, or ...) up to the resigned, possibly defeated protagonist on Waterloo Sunset are a ride and a half. Very entertaining, but there's a bitterness about being middle-class.
Waterloo Sunset might be the most beautiful song ever written in the English language. I'd probably put it in the top 5 at least.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
If you have one reggae album in your collection it should probably be this, or Bob Marley's greatest hits.
Goes hard, and here we are again, Jamaica 1975, America 2025. 3 O'clock Roadblock: "Hey, Mr. Cop, Ain't got no birth certificate on me now."
See you in another 50 years.
The White Stripes
4/5
Bursting with creativity. More mature, a bit on the depressed side. Nothing seems to make Jack a happy boy this time around. Still shockingly spontaneous, off-putting, heavy, and inscrutable (for the most part) as anything they've done.
Jack White seems to be seeking something. Or coming to terms that he won't ever find what he's looking for. That what this sounds like to me.
Lenny Kravitz
2/5
1 - Just a bad Prince impression.
2 - Bad Beatles impression.
3 - wat? I’m on a bitter train? A bottle train?
4 - Bad James Brown.
5 - A second helping of Beatles but way too long, and too much Lenny trademark screeching™.
6 - Metal Stevie Wonder! (shoutout Burning Spear).
7 - Ballad of unknown provenance.
8 - NOW WE’RE TALKING! Mr. Cabdriver some throwback rockabilly spice with a little “fuck you” for the punk credibility! Extra star, best Lenny Kravitz song. Every song should be this one.
9 - aaaaaand we ruin it with the acoustic… oh no! A harmonica! What the hell. Sad child song. What is this? Bon Jovi?
10 - Prince full circle.
Alright. Generally "listenable." Definitely doesn't need a whole album, and for those whose taste aligns with Lenny, you'll enjoy this a lot, so much trademark vocal sound. Interspersed with the contrived are some good moments, sometimes his little soulfunk/rock mashups work. It's a decent effort, Let Love Rule is nice, Mr. Cabdriver is great - really the only song on here that seems heartfelt at all.
Good to be born at the right time in the right place I suppose.
Deep Purple
4/5
Every one of the musicians on this album belong on their own instrument’s Mount Rushmore.
Grateful Dead
2/5
The Dead play this musical trick where they jam for what seems like an eternity on some atonal, arhytmic introspective self-indulgence, and it rewires your brain into an uncomfortable musical space, when suddenly they randomly land on a tune of some sort: simplistic, even immature, as if a child were in charge. And then the tension of the previous ten to fifteen minutes is released and you get a big dopamine hit. Boom. Very clever.
Some of the stuff can be hypnotic, for sure. Some of Garcia's guitar is interesting, and you can spot that unique tone from miles away, very iconic.
And I'm just going to leave it there because I'm trying to keep it positive. I don't love it, but it deserves a place on this list.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
For every person writing reviews on this site who just doesn't like Reggae, doesn't get it, or whatever negative reaction they have to the genre is a person like me who simply can't get enough. I like it all - the first wave ska, the sound system era, dub: it's all good to me. I love the hypnotic repetition, the deceptively complicated polyrythms, the vocals, the patois, the anti-authority line that runs through it all.
The almighty generator has blessed me with the second Bob Marley album in as many weeks, and both for over the weekend, which is when Reggae is properly appreciated. Here especially with the heavy biblical overtones both straightforward and subtle. "Movement of Jah people" is uttered in a way to be all encompassing. Jah people is all the people, all mankind. If you are not actively being oppressed Jah wants you to stand up to those who are.
The run of songs up to the end is beyond criticism (with the possible exception of "Turn Your Lights Down Low," but it's hard to fault the man for flexing his soul muscle, it wouldn't be reggae without that). Exodus. Jamming. Waiting in Vain. Lights Down Low. Three Little Birds (the best of ths bunch?🤔). One Love/People Get Ready.
They're not trying to do anything avant garde, they're not trying to keep the record company happy or win a rap battle or be more metal, or any other off-topic motivation. They're just adding beauty to the world and they're so good at it they get to tag a message to it here and there.
This is why I listen to music.
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
More tabla!
Virtuosity knows many forms. I'm not a scholar of Indian Classical music, but this seems like it's an exemplar. Very "listenable" and (this might seem weird) but it reminds me of the best jazz guitarists, like Django Reinhardt or Charlie Christian, the personality of the player really comes through.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Lou Reed
3/5
Least bad Lou Reed thing (that I have heard), although he did make a pretty cool ambient album in the 2010's I think. Avant-garde pop, more listenable than the VU stuff. Walk On the Wild Side and Perfect Day are great. THe rest is very interesting thematically, lyrically, musically sort of cheesy.
Roxy Music
2/5
My Mac just blew up in the middle of writing this and I lost another incredibly pithy review! :(
Mostly, Bryan Ferry sounds like he's struggling. I love Eno and his oddness, and I love Manzanarek bringing some heaviness. Quite the now-familiar "Glam" sound, with the sax and rocking piano. But Ferry is trying to hard and it shows. It's a struggle, I sort of feel bad for him.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
The depth and breadth of Neil Young's work is encapsulated here. The acoustic side is pure beauty, philosophical and edgy. The playing is so smooth, really sincere, it's amazing to me how perfect yet heartfelt. The electric side turns the tables without being any less beautiful and soulful. Spontaneous, deep, it's great. Not disturbing or upsetting, just more pure awesomeness!
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
Shades of the Mamas and Papas, which makes sense. D.C.B.A. 25, Embryonic Journey and White Rabbit elevate what could have been run of the mill late 60s psych-pop.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
At first I thought: a little too clean, low energy, some pop clichés like the smoky sax solos and drum programming. But some of these songs were really touching, clever, and they really sound good even if it's not my favorite style. Tracy Thorne's has a lush, expressive voice. Enjoyable easy listening, kinda jazzy (I guess). Just the opposite of challenging. Pretty good.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Tried a couple times, but the style and his vocals left me cold. Poetry is fine, but I'm not feeling it. Maybe a different context for me would help but I struggle to understand this, or the critical acclaim for Leonard Cohen - I suppose he's an alternative Dylan?
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Wow. Dark. Did not expect this. Good album, weird for Springsteen. Or weird for my expectation of Springsteen as I'm not a huge fan. This was really compelling though. Story songs for the most part about criminals and dudes who made bad decisions. What does this all represent for Bruce himself? Well done, sounds great, all acoustic, very intense. Interesting contrast to the Leonard Cohen album I got just before this, or even Neil Young a couple days before.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Interesting mashup of Gang of Four/Talking Heads/80's New Wave synth references with a bit of disco. I found "Emotional Haircut" and "Black Screens" to be especially entertaining, but some folks at my party thought it was a bit of a drony downer. Maybe too intellectual, and seems kind of self-pitying? Everyone gets older... I dunno, maybe a little self-centered and relies on a relationship with the listener, or some prior knowledge of James Murphy himself to create emotional connection to his material.
Liz Phair
3/5
Intense, definitely has an "indie" sound. I've never understood the love for this record, thouggh."Fuck and Run," "Never Said," and "Canary" stand out. The whole thing is clever and hass a very cool basement-dwelling lofi sonic quality. Dismal though, there's no relief. It's all awash in disappointment bitterness and existential dread.
Saint Etienne
2/5
It was meh. Some stuff reminded me of Madonna at her least exciting. Didn't offend me, but didn't surprise or excite me either. DNF
Scritti Politti
1/5
I’ll pile on. No reason for this to exist. Not even Perfect Way - a nominally passable pop song - saves the juvenile and cloying cringefest that this album is.
Boom! 💥 Roasted!
Minutemen
5/5
In my top ten. Absolutely brilliant in so many ways. Aged well. I will never get tired of Minutemen and this is their magnum opus.
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Passable power-pop. Potentially pleasant, perfectly palatable permutations: perhaps predetermined, prescribed possibly. Pundits praise, perplexingly.
Pulp
2/5
Another self-indulgent, self-important overly long album that like Casanova by The Divine Comedy. The pretentiousness, rather than being witty and self-conscious, weighs this music down. Honestly, this feels really judgemental, and "This is Hardcore" made me think "ew."
All from the singer, by the way. Nothing about the music made me feel anything, really.
We often wonder what the requirements are to be considered for inclusion on this list. Dark Side of the Moon? Makes sense. Nevermind? Sure. But this...
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
Grant-Lee Phillips has a great voice, the compositions and recording are perfectly complementary for the mystery and depth of the songs. Poetic, but unpretentious (maybe a little pretentious). Bears repeat listening for sure. Saw them live when this came out and it was memorable, really high-energy, dynamic. Excellent band, glad to see this album on the list. Well deserved.
Lupe Fiasco
3/5
Quite epic. He has a lot to say as most rappers do. Again I’m not the audience for this but it’s appealing. Really moved by KickPush and the reprise at the end. Listenable with shades of jazz and soul. Not bad!
Iron Butterfly
2/5
Cheesy psych pop for the most part. The album version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is amusing. Very surface level Doors-ish stuff.
Mott The Hoople
2/5
I was going to say “the poor man’s David Bowie” but that’s insulting to the poor man. Formulaic and over-produced.
Donald Fagen
3/5
Adult Contemporary. Some interesting stuff, but even more sterile than Steely Dan. Exceptions: I.G.Y. wiht it's new-wave tinged funk, "New Frontier" which has a very soothing melodic chord progression - I could listen to this all day - a kind of pulsing 16th note rhythm underneath the signature Fagan smooth vocals. And finally "The Goodbye Look," this pseudo-carribean thing that is just silly.
Overall not as awesome as Steely Dan, still pretty good. No rough edges, sometimes you need this. Yacht rock!
Aimee Mann
2/5
So mediocre it took all my energy just to write these thirteen words.
Like something that would come out of a university songwriting class. Professional but a bit soulless.
Bonnie Raitt
5/5
An old favorite. A lot of these songs hit hard emotionally. I love Bonnie Raitt’s voice, songwriting is unassailable in my opinion: hooky pop tunes with a little country flavor (?). A desert island disc with a lot of subtleties below the surface and super clean production that brings the song into the light.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Delightful. The drummer on this album is FEASTING on these rhythms, and, with a couple exceptions (A Parade and You Didn't Have to Be So Nice - cute though it is) everyon sounds great. Excellent late 60s Brazillian pop Jazz.
Justice
3/5
The first half was heavy and cool, glitchy and “mathy” with some cool sound collage and found sounds. It devolves into the usual and tired tropes in edm with the twee-singing chill hop and Daft Punk influenced dance pop. Disappointed after an intriguing start.
MGMT
4/5
Was really looking forward to hearing this album someday, glad it popped up here!
Novel. Well recorded debut, highly talented guys breaking with that mid-00s alternative rock/dance trend (like Snow Patrol, Arcade Fire, Killers, etc. etc.). I like music that confronts the artist's escaping youth and the shallow enduring pain that goes along with lost childhood, lost innocence. 21 Pilots do this well, also.
I really liked this album, the sounds, the songs, a lot of sonic variety. I'll put this on again. Better than a 3 but not quite a 4 but yoou have to round up sometimes.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
Heavy music with my favorite post-punk influences. Good singer, and I GET why this has so many huge fans. Intelligent.
It is, however, really difficult to listen to in light of the tragic disappearance of Edwards. Unpleasant to hear this person's mental breakdowns play out.
This is more metal than punk, thematically, inwardly-turned violence and self-loathing. E.g., name dropping Plath in a chorus is a BOLD CHOICE. If I heard this when it came out and I was a teenager It would be my favorite album of all time also.
The Adverts
3/5
It's alright late 70s British punk, which has pop leanings. Unlike some American or hardcore stuff, less experimental as well, more produced and less DIY sounding. There are exceptions on both sides of course. Thematically this stuff is more like what I understand "pub rock" to be, a little violent and reflecting a lower economic class' attitude as a reaction to the last ten years of hippie infused prog nonsense.
But The Adverts are leaning to pop more than even The Damned, maybe not as much as The Stranglers. "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" has a spooky feel, I want to call it proto-goth. Overall well done with a couple of snoozers and nothing really exciting or outstanding in a genre crowded witgh interesting and important music.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Kraftwerk ultimately forces the listener to confront their own relationship with technology, and the anxiety provoking duality of both depending on it for your very life, and our abhorrance of just that dependency. Bit of an existential crisis that the music reflects very well, creating natural sounds mechanistically, or mechanical sounds that are shallow renditions of the actual. There is some cognitive dissonance that is not unentertaining.
Philosophy aside: the compositions (I think) owe more to classical than pop. There is a complexity and intelligence at the core of this music. Kraftwerk almost completely abandons traditional instrumentation and essentially invents a genre. Prior to this, electronioc music was novelty ("Switched On Bach") or used as sound effects in other formats ("Good Vibrations", "Baba O'Reilly"). Here though we can take all-electronic compositions seriously for the first time, at least in the mainstream. There are earlier examples but Kraftwerk makes it eminently listenable, even catchy, and breaks into the mainstream in a small but highly influential way. Important album.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Hell yeah! 'Murica! ...oh wait...
Springsteen's most popular work. Good times, bad times, high quality musicianship, a little formulaic but a Classic Rock essential. The last half is exceptional.
The xx
1/5
Nearly unlistenable cliched low effort garbage. Sleepier than a teenage boy at 9 in the morning.
Björk
4/5
I love this album. Bjork makes me uncomfortable sometimes. Like when she sings about sensuality. Weird and beautiful. Art pop.
Def Leppard
2/5
I want to like Def Leppard, I really do.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Impeccable. Important. Too much religion for me and “Save the Children “ is a bit much for the modern ear. But still , a masterpiece nonetheless.
CHIC
4/5
There's Bernard Edwards and there's everyone else. Nile Rodgers and Tony Thompson are no slouches either. Top shelf funk - transcends the disco label. Good Times!
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Poetic and sublime. 'Sublime' is one of those vagaries that a truly good writer would do well to avoid, so I allow myself to use it. But here I use it to express the feel, mood, attitude... something below the surface, outside of your five senses.
Joni Mitchell floats in, doesn't force her way, you can go with her or not, up to you. If you do go, you are rewarded with that (struggling again to expel the word I want from my tight chest) transcendent place that you want music to take you. Joni Mitchell is extremely generous with that reward, bringing in surprises and poetry and characters and stories like nothing I've heard elsewhere.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
This is a "nice" album. "Love at the Five and Dime" is a good song, highly nostalgic, not for anyone under the age of 50.
Nanci Griffith has an interesting unique singing voice. Kind of light, not quite "twee" but could go there, but still powerful.
Great country instrumentation - mandolins, pedal steel, dobro, fiddle - and this was my favorite thing about this album. Used to emphasize the emotion in the song instead of decorate. In fact, the music is at the service of the song on the whole album, no one is overplaying.
With a couple exceptions early on, nothing here is too moving or exciting. Pleasant though it is.
Van Halen
5/5
I believe the term you're looking for is "kickass."
The Beach Boys
3/5
RIP Brian WIlson. Respect to you.
The compositions and vocals elevate this far above the sappy subject matter of the tunes. Important to the history of Rock music, but it lacks edge, the second half is especially soft. Catchy as hell though, and so many of these songs are memorable 60 years on. The distinctive vocals are also important. Not my favorite style, fascinating to listen to nonetheless. I want to give it a higher rating than a 3 but side two loses me.
Gram Parsons
3/5
One more vote for EmmyLou Harris. "Love Hurts" is indeed a killer track. "I Can't Dance" is amusing. Gram Parsons (no relation to Alan Parsons?) writes compelling songs, just needs a little more... passion, I guess is the word. Some good stuff on here, nothing that really made me want to go back and listen again except for the two I mentioned. And interesting that the first album I've ever heard from Gram Parsons is also his last album.
Another live fast die young guy, what is the issue? Too much pressure at too young an age?
Beatles
5/5
Beatles coming into their own. Another important album, but more than that, excellent pop music. The compositions are flawless in context, and there's a surprising variety of vocal and instrumental sounds. "Hard Day's Night" has that iconic opening chord, a story of its own, one of the best intros in rock. It is astonoshing to me how much material these guys put out inm such a short period, almost all of it the quality work, songs that were covered by countless other artists, to say nothing of the influence they had. Which is perhaps their greatest legacy. Bridging early vocal group rock with later exporations, and in doing so, inventing the genre. At least for me, this album, Rubber Soul, and Revolver are the Beatles high point and some of the best rock ever to be recorded. I can't get enough.
50 Cent
1/5
Repetitive, annoying, violent, and somewhat stupid. Same exact thing every gangsta rapper has been doing for the decade before this, probably longer. 50 Cent's marble mouthed overconfidence has no irony or deprecation whatsoever. Like most stuff in this genre it's all bad all the way down, everything sucks all the time, the only way out is to die. Or kill someone I guess. THe lowest of the low, congratulations.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
5/5
Pure genius. Groundbreaking sounds. Catchy as all hell. Beautiful vocal tone, pulling in the twang from rockabilly but not excessively. Just pure joy to listen to top to bottom. Masterful genre defining work.
The Hives
4/5
I love the Hives more than is actually necessary. Punk rock the way god intended - fast, loud, snotty, ironically dumb, fun. The band can PLAY, and they hold nothing back. Another old favorite.
Ghostface Killah
1/5
If you’re into gangsta rap as a musical style you will love this. Aggressive, crazy, anti-everything. Not for me and at almost two hours, way too much of something I don’t even like in the first place. Then Kanye is on here like wtf was this loser on EVERYTHING released between 2000 and 2010? Grr. DNF
Black Sabbath
5/5
One of the rare albums that "disrupts" music, to borrow from Dimery himself.
I learned that they recorded this beast in one day, mostly single takes. And it sounds like it. Fresh and spontaneous, very stripped down, not a lot of production - just four dudes playing music. That said, there is some complexity and innovation going on. The guitar and bass tone, the heavy handed drumming, Ozzy's off-kilter raspiness, all coalesce around a sense of foreboding and pain.
Like the fact that it was made in a day or two, everything about the album is strange, from the guitar sound to the jazzy interludes to Ozzy's weird vocals. Somehow this all worked to produce a heavy metal masterpiece.
Arrested Development
4/5
Apparently I do like this type of "progressive" hip-hop. This album has some intriguing sonic atmospheres, it's funky, and the themes are more life-affirming than hardcore or gangsta, so a nice antidote to all that. I had never heard this before, but I dig the energy and the attitude, good stuff. Easy to listen to, didn't make me want to murder anyone!
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
Brilliant. Brings up a lot of thoughts about genre.
When you're a very young child and you listen to music, you don't have any preconceived notions about "what kind of music" you're listening to. Rock, pop, jazz, whatever, you know it all simply as music. I'm leaving out "children's music", which is a thing, but not relevant and typically isn't really in the same world as, say, Aretha Franklin or The Beatles - both of which could be enjoyed by a child, whereas "children's music" is not for a general audience the same way. Likewise, nearly all the world's humans experience melody, rhythm, and the patterns in music in a similar way. I can listen to indigenous music from Africa and "get" it, or Asia, or British Folk... I can even play or sing along with music that doesn't come from my own cultural background, at least in a basic way.
WHAT IS YOUR POINT?
Penguin Cafe Orchestra brings my head to that place. It's just enjoyable music. When I was a kid I enjoyed Henry Mancini, Elton John, and Antonio Carlos Jobim equally. I still do! And I could put PCO in the same category, child or adult. It's all music.
PCO has a surreal quality that all great music does, separating you from the rest of the (sometimes stupid, annoying) regular day-to-day world. There's a quality to the album that is playfully creative, layering instruments in unexpected but perfectly comfortable ways, degrading the simple droning riff then returning to it, abandoning rhythm altogether. The interplay between musicians, as a concept, is another thing PCO works with to expand their scope, beyond the everyday. Playing tightly together is a given in most music, letting the players explore the spaces between the notes or the space around those notes creates a humanistic atmosphere that is really rare. It's a bit more of a challenge to listen to. Worth investing what little of my mind is left in that challenge.
Billy Bragg
2/5
When I get albums like this I feel sort of like my mom telling me to eat my vegetables because it's good for me, I don't have to like it but I do have to eat it.
And eat it I did... it didn't make me sick, at least. Well, the <stomp/clap> stuff kind of did, as did the couple of silly sexual innuendos - okay BREAKING NEWS - THIS JUST IN all lyrics are written by Woodie Guthrie. Bragg and Wilco put these to music. A brave move but it takes this down another notch. Just like there's a reason you don't watch the Director's cut of a movie, or listen to the ultra-mega-super-digital remaster extended version of an album (unless you're a HUGE fan, and even then it's iffy). There's a reason Guthrie didn't release this during his life, and that reason is because they're not great! Well, ok, Jesus for President is pretty good.
Leave well enough alone, let sleeping dogs lie, there are plenty of old sayings that directly address doing this as a bad idea.
M.I.A.
3/5
I was reading about Progressive hip hop the other day. A journalist was saying that M.I.A. was the best example in the UK still putting out relevant work in the genre... I should find this quote... found it in the Wikipedia article on "Progressive Rap":
"While arguing that American hip hop was in a creative and commercial decline, Marcus Dowling wrote contemporaneously that the English rapper M.I.A. remained a progressive-rap innovator for conceiving a globalized gaze of class- and gender inequality in a musical style that melds trap, contemporary dance, and deconstructed forms of rapping. "In the 21st century, it's entirely arguable that white is black, black is white, and things are obviously a bit difficult to understand", Dowling contended in regards to modern hip hop. "It's up to a wild, diverse, hyper-intellectualized and new-age brown woman to lead us."" (Dowling, Marcus (November 22, 2013). "M.I.A. and the Challenge of Marketable Diasporic Trap Music". HipHopDX. https://hiphopdx.com/editorials/id.2226/title.m-i-a-and-the-challenge-of-marketable-diasporic-trap-music Retrieved July 15, 2021.
The low-budget minimal production is appealing, and all these tracks are danceable. A refreshing lack of rap cliches, though she does veer a bit much to sex themes. But even those are from a subversive state-of-mind. "Bingo" is a new favorite. And while her girly sing-song voice may not work for everyone, she mixes it in to good effect. Not a lot of respect for her politics and worldview though. Kind of surprised about that.
Iggy Pop
4/5
VERY interesting. I'm listening to it thinking "This song is almost exactly like "Red Money" on Bowie's Lodger album!" And it in fact is. Down to the Carlos Alomar guitar drone. This is a lost Bowie album with pal Iggy Pop on vocals. It's also excruciatingly weird in places, making it all the more excellent.
Iggy Pop has a Lou Reed style in places, and often sounds like he just woke up or is about to go to sleep. Glad to hear he finally got his shit together (?). Methinks the list rates him as a little more important than he really is, much like they do with Sonic Youth. But this album was an undiscovered gem of Bowie esoterica that I never knew about!
5/5
Last of the great Arena Rock™ bands. More Muse please. They pull from everywhere: Queen, Joe Meek, krautrock, even The Beach Boys (listen to "Soldier's Poem"). Muse masterfully navigate through a magnificent variety of tempo, sound, dynamic range. Also not the typical themes - I love the apocalyptic dystopian outlook, outside of themselves rather than the self-centered whininess of their contemporaries. Heavy, well constructed compositions. LOVE!
Public Enemy
4/5
The more Public Enemy I hear, the more I like them. This is a great one. Tons of energy directed in a way that speaks to me, across cultures.
Lou Reed
2/5
Gross. Well executed, but disturbing. I get it - Lou Reed telling a story that didn't fit as a single song. Great musicians play on this, the Bob Erin production is very dramatic, everybody here bought in. So it succeeds in taking the listener into the dismal world of the people being depicted.
No disrespect intended, but the sincerity of the delivery is chilling, the craftsmanship painstaking, and it reveals something about the artist. Like horror movies that are hyper-realistic. How do you conceive of and execute these disturbing images? What is in your head that makes you pass it off as entertainment, rather than a kind of off-label therapy? And everyone around you is saying "Yes! You should absolutely record and sell this to the public!" instead of: "Hey, Lou, are you okay?"
Edgy, though. So if that's your thing, have fun with this.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
Has a good beat, you can dance to it.
Orbital
3/5
Especially enjoyed the krautrocky "Kein Trink Wasser," but it's all enjoyable. Upbeat and lighthearted, not trying to be something it's not - looking at other 90's UK dance music that pushes way too hard into soul territory like The KLF or 808 State. The synths sound like synths, in fact the artificiality of the synths are celebrated rather than downplayed. The production emphasizes that idea as well, lots of pleasant trippiness in the effects, nice big low end.
Thought it was going to be too long, but it really kept my interest the whole way through. Tons of variety rhythmically and sonically. Little surprises pop up, like the song "Quality Seconds." Some confidently executed interesting experimental work.
Basement Jaxx
2/5
Didn't hurt to listen to, a bit too long though. So interesting beats and samples, but after my first listen, I am left with not much to say good or bad.
It would be interesting if someone in this genre made a song where they sample a dude having an orgasm for a change of pace. Actually, nevermind, that would be worse and I'm sorry I said anything. I guess Robert Plant covered that ground anyway.
Mostly forgettable grooves. First half was ok.
Joy Division
4/5
I absolutely love the post-punk bass/drums/guitar sound and austere production. Lyrically, Joy Division go to to weird and dark places. Intimate but ambiguous. Ian Curtis sometimes struggles with his voice, and that’s the only thing that brings this down a little. Still, a post punk magnum opus from a band that could have done so much more. Dark.
Elbow
2/5
I wanted to like this but it rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like it was derivative and contrived. Pretentious without being self-effacing, a sort of "know-it-all" attitude. There's a haziness over it all, and they HAD to throw in a *stompclap* song because it's the mid-aughts and that's what all indie rock was doing. Well executed, interesting and subtle production, but not very creative or novel.
Gang Starr
3/5
First song, Step In the Arena, I thought "Here we go again, more violent Rap!" but it actually was a really clever metaphor. Pretty cool. This has a range of themes, ideas, attitudes. Thought it would be too long but kept my interest the whole time. Not bad at all.
The Associates
2/5
This didn't affect me emotionally at all - well, not exactly true. It did make me feel - uncomfortable? mildly disgusted? No, not disgusted, more like when you're stuck in a room that's a little too cold.
The sheer effort here is impressive, but the execution is a bit sloppy. The band tries for a long pass downfield and a spectacular goal every time, and we all want them to get it, but there always seems to be some foible. Sometimes it's the vocal affectation, sometimes it's the drums not quite hitting on time, sometimes it's the bass-heavy mixing. The Associates try hard, have a ton of confidence, and some of the songwriting comes right up to the edge of something great. A lot of flavor especially in the production, without much substance. Like a spicy piece of lettuce.
Bad Company
4/5
Classic. Memorized every song. The one flaw of this album is that its just too middle of the road. Doesn't go too hard, but still goes hard. Ostentatious power ballads don't get too low or too high. Pretty much paves the way for the big arena rock bands too come like Foreigner, Journey, Night Ranger, etc etc etc. It's really good though, fun to hear again.
PJ Harvey
3/5
I've listened to this a few times, trying to get a grip on what I think about it.
So, as a PJ Harvey fan, I want to like it. Has a lot of emotional depth, the vocal character that she's known for is fully present. But I think it lacks a spontaneity that most of her other stuff has. And the melodies are at the mercy of the themes, it's all pretty forced. A little too poetic to make a concrete statement, too. I struggled to understand the lyrics at some points (and this is an album that is all about the lyrics) because I'm not English.
A great effort, just disappointing for me. Of course, she has set SUCH a high bar tht if anyone else made this it would be a masterpiece. And maybe it is. Respect to the artist though for doing something completely unexpected yet again.
Please stay away from Nick Cave though.
3/5
1 - Bizkit > NIN
2 - This isn't as bad as y'all making it out to be, and it's one of the biggest selling albums OF ALL TIME weirdly enough.
3 - Was lovable but dim-witted Jason Mendoza of The Good Place based on Fred Durst?
4 - Why does Durst look like every suburban dad walking around the home depot checking out sprinkler parts and the newest grills? Or does he look like them?
5 - Just... let it be. There's a place for the lowbrow stuff on the list. Also more entertaining than a lot of what shows up here.
6 - Finally, think for yourself. Bandwagoning is not being an open-minded free thinker. Get over yourselves.
Beth Orton
1/5
I tried to get a sense of purpose from this. Who is it for? What's the motivation? Massively overblown. My opinion is that you really need to earn a symphony on your album, you can't just toss off... whatever, and create drama with the string section.
This album checks a box on some record company's list in the late 90's:
Post-grunge 4 piece heavy rock act (like Bush)? CHECK
Spicy girl group? CHECK
Whiny angst-addled indie rock act that forgot to tune up and the singer sounds drunk? CHECK
R&B group, R&B female singer, R&B male singer, dance music, rap, and or all of the above at the same time: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK
Female pop vocalist...
" Hey, Bill, we don't have a female pop vocalist anywhere do we, I need to check a box on this Corporate Music Form™?"
"Yeah, Bob, lemme look... hm, best I can do is that sort of monotone trip-hop act called Beth Orton."
"I haven't heard it, have you?"
"No, Bob I sure haven't!"
"Works for me, Bill!"
Both laugh hysterically and drive off in Bill's Porsche to golf.
Black Sabbath
5/5
The only problem with this album is I can’t get it loud enough.
War Pigs, Paranoid, Planet Caravan, Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Hand of Doom, Rat Salad, and finishing with Fairies Wear Boots. Come on man. The flawless Sabbath album. Absolute peak.
Gillian Welch
3/5
Some fine guitar and banjo playing on here. "Red Clay Halo" has an authentic Carter Family bluegrass feel with a charming little ragtime guitar solo. Anachronistic, astute.
It's almost too good. And by that I mean not a note out of place, vocally or otherwise. Even "I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll, ostensibly live, has a "perfected" feel. On the other hand, this would fail if it had any edge. That's not what it's about. It's about the moods. The further into the album I got, the more endearing it became. The more my self-defensive over-analysis started to peel away. The more poetic and in a word, beautiful. Once I surrendered, I found the edginess.
But after getting through it all, I see a really well-crafted album by well meaning people who are paying tribute to an art form that was born out of struggle, without ever actually experiencing the struggle themselves, giving this a polished sheen of insincerity. They did a really good job of it though.
The Undertones
4/5
Nine Times out of Ten is a song where the drummer does not touch a single cymbal.
Feargal Sharkey's voice is as odd as his name.
HIGH PRAISE for this throwback. Never heard it, and outside of Sabbath this is the album of the week. Another awesome UK punk album.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
I tried. I failed. This is pretty awful. Slow as hell, for example, I timed "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere" on a metronome, and it was slower than the lowest setting of 40 bpm. Add the brushed snare and your depressing fiddle like some lumpy gravy all over the top.
If you like music like this, that's cool. Nick Cave is not great at it. I don't dislike him. Just his brand of pretentious post-punk Leonard Cohen schtick just doesn't work with these sad little living-room ballads. "West Country Girl" was ok. It wasn't worth going through the rest to get to this filk appropriation. Wake up indeed.
Wilco
1/5
Please shut up and leave me alone. No, seriously, SHUT UP. I don't know what you think went wrong in your life but it's just not all that interesting. And yes, every song sounds exactly like something I've heard before a long time a go. Now please shut up.
2/5
High energy but sloppy. Not quite a groundbreaking as you might think. Reminds me of Blue Cheer on speed. Definitely heading into the hard rock post-psychedelic era, though.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Interesting nicely produced take on the blues by Bob Dylan. His voice is an acquired taste that I have yet to acquire. It's odd, though. I appreciate the weirdness of it. SO MANY other people doing a BAD job of expressing themselves this way (looking at you Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits) and it always comes off insincere. Dylan somehow makes every word believable. So even though not my taste, I get what he's trying to do. Highlands is amazing, and a couple other cuts were great. Love the instrumentation and the production.
2/5
When pop music was New Wave. I have a theory that every rock star wants to be a crooner, deep down. Martin Fry skipped the first part and went straight to crooner right out of the gate, so I respect him for that. Very melodramatic. Not my favorite style and too polished for my taste - but this isn't music that can really have any edge to be successful.
Mudhoney
4/5
Love this and once again slightly pissed that I didn’t know about until now. I was buying all kinds of albums back in the 90s, especially alternative rock and was all in on the grunge wave. SubPop must have not marketed well where I was. Nonetheless, I’m going to have this in my rotation from here on out.
Small Faces
3/5
Wholesome and strange. Great musicians. A little bit “old-timey” but I think that’s the bit. Enjoyable psychedelic pop. Small Faces are always a favorite so a bit of bias for the Mods
5/5
Life changing album for me. These guys are STILL trying to warn us about the deadly sins of consumerism, authoritarianism, conformity, and wanking.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
I think 🤔 the point of the album and the band themselves are to be as subversive as possible. It definitely makes that attempt. Lou Reed has his best performance vocals until Transformer. But Nico… oof. Musically too Dylanesque without the folky credibility.
Here’s the thing. I just simply don’t enjoy the VU. They just make me cringe. It’s a lot like Andy Warhol’s art. Mostly conceptual, and groundbreaking by bringing the subversive stuff up from the underground. Without being able to cite any example, there’s a lot of stuff from the underground that is well executed and thought through. VU are a little too spontaneous and sloppy for me to clearly see the concept. But according to Wikipedia all rock is essentially transgressive. So they do succeed at making rock music. I s’pose. 100% influential. Very risky. Not all bad. I get the experiment. It just freaks me out that this all gets so much love. 🤷♀️
The Residents
4/5
Absolutely loved this weirdness. 10x avant garde anti-establishment psychotic nonsense peering over the fence at you. I crave more of this.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Intriguing, multi-layered experimental rock that is at times scary, joyful, weird, and cerebral. I remember seeing this band on The Colbert Report around the time this came out and was blown away, as there wasn't much interesting alternative rock coming out at the time - mostly pop masquerading as rock, mostly British. Very cool, needs multiple listens.
Steve Winwood
3/5
1980 me kind of hated this. 2025 me really loves this. The perfect 80s pop sound, Steve Winwood's iconic voice, his knack for melody. Bonus that he plays all the instruments, cool and impressive. "While You See a Chance" is like a time machine, and "Night Train" is a fantastic deep cut, killer guitar solo on top of that cheesy yacht-funk that you couldn't get away from in the early eighties. (Hoping to have coined the term yacht-funk 🤠
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
One of the best albums of all time. The Attractions firing on all cylinders, Steve Naive especially. I just don't know where to begin... Read Franklin Bruno's brilliant 33 1/3 book on Armed Forces.
Chicago
4/5
A wild ride - jazz, funk, rock, soul, all perfectly executed. Another interesting transitional record, as we leave the hippies behind there's something more exciting in the future. (Turns out the hippies traded in their LSD for cocaine, but I digress). The double album is a little self-indulgent, but Chicago have that rotating lead vocalist and that variety of genres, so it remains interesting throughout. Amazing debut. Best horn section in modern pop music with the possible exception of Earth, Wind, and Fire. And I'm not giving that crown to EWF after this for sure.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
DAMN this was one of the best week's I've ever had doing this project.
The Furs are like a new-wave Led Zeppelin with a twisted sax that comes in the room every once in a while to wake everyone up.Owes a lot to Bowie, like most new wave, but they really take that off-kilter glam in a different heavier direction. The Steve Lillywhite production is a good match for the Furs slightly dissonant loping guitar/drums/bass surge: the dry beefy production, drums forward, favoring the low end; sprinkled with bits of high pitched punctuation from the guitar, keyboard, and sax... a lot of tension/resolution. It's a BIG sound. Richard Butler's voice ties it all up neatly, confidently. One of my favorite bands, much nostalgia bias here for me. Great to see Psychedelic Furs on the list.
Alice In Chains
4/5
What the hell was happening in Seattle in the 80's and 90's? This and Soundgarden, both of which I really love, but my GOD are they dark. This is some of the heaviest and most dismal music ever made, only lumped in with Grunge by the sheer proximity in time and space to that movement. It's all METAL when you boil it down. Dirt indeed. Great musicians, and the tragically short-lived Layne Staley's best work. Powerful, but listen with the lights ON. And don't do drugs.
Janelle Monáe
2/5
The pop and hip-hop genres are among my lowest rated. I'm not sure where that bias comes from, it's more a matter of taste than anything else. Maybe someday I'll go down some academic trail to figure it out. But for now, I just keep getting the same reaction to Pop and this sort of latter days R&B. I just don't dig it. It doesn't touch me, or move me. And this over-ambitious work is no different. Hat tip to the talent, Janelle Monáe is a fine singer. But there's so many producers, it ends up being a soulless musical exercise. Anytime pop artists use elements of Clasical or Jazz, or pop standards, critics fall over themselves to praise the boldness of moving around genres. But it's really not all that creative, like a lot of modern popular culture - movies, TV, music, etc. - we get a rehashing and reworking of ideas that have already been popular I don't think they bring TOO much new thinking to pop music here except for the conceptual idea behind this album. But even that doesn't quite work, and the androids among us story has been done better in different media (I'm thinking especially about PK Dick's "...Electric Sheep" which is referenced lyrically a few times in here.) A couple of excellent grooves here, especially "Faster" and "Tightrope." Otherwise forgettable and too long.
John Coltrane
4/5
This is why a lot of people say they "hate" Jazz. Confusing, tuneless, random sounding...
But if you like Jazz, or even put up with it now and then, you recognize why Jazz elitists put this album at or near the top of all-time bests. It breaks every tradition while maintaining some elements. It's an intense listening experience, not casual. If you can bring yourself to really pay attention, an entirely new world of mood and feeling comes to light. Technically, the musicians are Jazz GOATs. Elvin Jones is especially incredible here, I can here some proto-Bonham during Jones' solo in "Pursuance." McCoy Tyner is also amazing, and the whole rhythm section has that magical thing that "just happens," a peak experience. Rare genius.
Then there's all of Coltrane's mysticism, which comes through in his playing. It is free, as in unconstrained. The Apple music review describes it as "an evocative play between tempo and non-tempo." A massive work of self-expression. Definitely analogous to post-modern visual art: non-linear, creates its own rules, unstructured.
This is powerful music. I can't imagine how this was created, and I've tried many times. Like Keith Jarret's live album, it's not something to listen to casually, it takes a few listens and an open mind to "get it." It's worth the effort though.
Bert Jansch
4/5
Did not know I was such a fan of British Folk. Between Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and now this, I have a whole new genre to go explore. So for every Tupac or Ice Cube this list gives me, I get (hopefully) a little antidote to the hate with a Bert Jansch or Richard and Linda Thompson.
This was a "delight." Sweet songs and fantastic virtuosic guitar that doesn't overstay its welcome. You can see how someone like Paul Simon would catch this as an influence, especially with him being in England around the time this came out. Happy to discover this!
Calexico
3/5
There's quite a bit to like on this. The Latin and western influenced stuff was leaps and bounds better than the plodding downtempo dirges like "The Book and the Canal" or "Not Even Stevie Nicks..." which sounded to me like they were trying to hard to sound like Arcade Fire or some other generic 2000's alt-rock, and the singer's weak voice made me cringe a bit. The instrumentals were superb, however. A valiant effort overall, the vocals were not to my taste but some good musicianship and interesting genre-bending approach.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
In a word , GROOVY!
Highly influential mellow funk. There are some forward looking sounds on here: oscillating guitar lines, keyboards of unknown origin, bass lines that rock you and roll you. Sly’s voice is amazing too. Really entertaining album.
Shack
1/5
A less enthusiastic generic Britpop with an obligatory Beatlesque framework. Uninteresting compositions, quite contrived and soulless. Well executed but lame. I’m with a lot of others here asking why this is on the list.
Digital Underground
3/5
Silly
Spiritualized
2/5
Lots of callbacks to better musicians - Elvis of course, but also The Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, VU, etc. The heavier stuff got my attention but nothing here sticks or got me excited. Drug songs are getting tedious around here too. Enough.
Richard Hawley
1/5
The UK 🇬🇧 centric nature of this list rears its ugly head once again with a vanity project from a side musician in Pulp, a band who is inexplicably acclaimed. I played this for several people who agreed that it is NOT in fact on par with someone like Chris Isaak, and is a lame derivative of the source material (Roy Orbison and Elvis were sacreligiously mentioned).
Once again: style before substance.
The consensus was ”this sucks,” and I’m glad my squad backed me up on that opinion.
De La Soul
3/5
Cool cool cool ol skool progressive hip hop. These guys have Fun and -tip makes an appearance. No complaints.
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Unusual progressive jazz, I'd call it. Really interesting instrumentation - vibes, accordion, scratchy percussive violin that fill out a Classical atmosphere, for lack of a better phrase.
Youssou N'Dour
3/5
I love African music, this is some of the best. Youssou has such a cool voice. Very accessible. Killer rhythms, sweet guitar, this checks all the boxes. Soulful.
Steve Earle
4/5
Really striking. I'd heard of Steve Earle but never listened to him. Listening to all the albums on this list is often (too often) an academic exercise. But this actually affected me emotionally. Surprising and effective songs. Sincere work in a vast sea of insincerity - if I hear Irish guys using a fake twang ever again (or even Elvis Costello, for that matter), I'm just going to put this album on and try to put it out of my mind.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Reasonably nice electronic pop. Recognizable. You can't fault the Pet Shop Boys, can you? I mean they're no Led Zeppelin, but that would be apples to oranges now wouldn't it? Anyway, a heavy heavy ABBA influence here, mixed with Depeche Mode (if they were trying to be legitimately endearing and entertaining). The album has a nice, romantic feel throughout, some unique synth sounds and orchestration, and Neil Tennant has a distinctive, rather pleasant voice (if slightly nasally).
Also CONGRATULATIONS TO ME for passing the theoretical halfway point in the list!
The Kinks
4/5
The kinks melodies are always enjoyable, don’t have a. Better word than that.
Last of the Steam-POWERED trains is the the required Dylan type song that every band in 1968 had to do.
Is this a Sgt. Pepper’s parody? Maybe just a pop music parody in general. Or not? The last half of this album is nothing short of genius. Really influential, great songwriting. Possibly the first concept album. Phenomenal Cat is incredible.
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
Ooh just got the chills listening to Willow Weep for Me. Fantastic album top to bottom with one of the greatest voices in jazz history.
Roxy Music
2/5
I should start giving these reviews a title. This one is called: "It insists upon itself."
I don't know what it is about Roxy Music, but it just hits me wrong. Brian Ferry's voice mainly. The tremolos, the up-close recording, the histrionics, the choked falsetto, just all this... trickery. He also always feels a wee bit off-key. Obnoxious for me.
But the guitar work here is great (when you can hear it), and anything with Eno automatically gets some love from me.
I understand the novel ideas here, you know, developing a glam style or maybe sitting solidly in the center of a glam style ("a glam style" is one of the variants of glam that are less cogent even than Mott The Hoople). Dumb themes (Inflatable Doll? C'mon) and ham-fisted drumming are not very glamorous, as it were.
I'm going to regret using "It insists upon itself" for this one, because I'm pretty sure there are some albums coming up that insist much more than this.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Brian Eno
3/5
This didn't move me the same way most of Eno's other work does. Though, there are shades of ambient, and the simple melodies that form the skeletons of the music are still there, it feels... partial? Lacks the verve of his other solo work. I think he started getting into production more at this time, so perhaps he was moving away from this musical framework.
The Fall
5/5
This is their most unhinged and hopped up work. The Fall are frequently categorized as "post-punk" but this is really as "punk" as anything. I mean, Industrial Estate alone crystallizes everything the punks were about - anger, misspent youth, anti-establishment, anti-authority, delivered with a mocking acserbic monotone, bored , nasty, repetetive. It's 2:01. Genius.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
Gross.
Nick Cave can stop trying to prove how weird and cool he is any time.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
What a wild ride. You are NOT ready for Isaac Hayes’ version of “By the Time I Got to Phoenix,” by Jimmy Webb (look him up - that dude could write some songs) and mostly remembered for the Glen Campbell version.
Isaac Hayes has a fantastic voice and the soul on this slab-o-wax is heavily buttered, baby!
The Velvet Underground
3/5
The best VU album. Although it feels like they are mocking the inspirational material (Hendrix, doo-wop, etc) sometimes. And yes, very disturbing.
The Verve
2/5
I have mixed feelings about the Verve. Their heaviness and bombastic feel, the downtempo extravagance and over-engineered wall of guitar sound is both exhilarating and frustrating.
Exhilarating because of the sheer grandeur of the sound. That huge bass, the snare crack, guitar pyrotechnics without a respite. Unbelievably tight playing and production to match. Perfectly executed. But it's frustrating because I really don't care much about what they have to say. And if I did find even a slight bit of meaning, it's lost in a strange narcissistic haze. Style before substance, once again.
It's all a bit much, though. The interminably long ballads made me feel like a trapped animal trying to get away. The heavier, bigger songs sound phoned in, as perfectly executed as they are. I would rather listen to pretty much any other post-grunge stalwarts - Pearl Jam, Collective Soul, Bush even.
They sure do sound like Rock Stars™ though.
The Monks
3/5
I just agree with everyone else who gave this 4 or 5 stars - a great find, tons of fun, stands out from the rest of these albums for so many reasons. Love it.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Another Elvis Costello masterpiece. This time facing the emotional burden of Love and heartache head-on. The songs are more arty, more complex lyrically and musically, deeper, challenging and rich. Expanding into more symphonic instrumentation, a mature and sophisticated outing. I think this is the last of the early EC albums that matter, and he fully exposes himself as an artist reaching for something more mainstream.
Steely Dan
3/5
I unapologetically like Steely Dan. This album is inventive and has a rock undercurrent that a lot of their stuff lacks. It's less polished than what was to come for the band. Fagan has the voice of someone who confidently sang along to every R&B and Soul record he could find, but not QUITE getting there. I just find it endearing. Becker and Fagan are both great musicians. They explore some interesting sounds and a variety of rhythms on this, it's really satisfying. Good energy and intensity. King of the World is a new favorite, I haven't heard that before.
Queen Latifah
3/5
Funky, conscious rhymes. There's funny stuff and not-so-funny stuff, and it all makes sense. Adding another album to my stack of early nineties hip hop favorites. I love the feminist vibe, cooling off the sometimes prevalent misogyny of the time and the genre.
Michael Jackson
2/5
How do you follow Thriller?
Bad has some cool and heavier elements, but this is definitely MJ just starting his downslide.
I sure hope he's okay.
Kacey Musgraves
4/5
Unexpectedly great. This has emotional depth that I just wasn't ready for, but very welcome here in the streaming era. Sweet voice and good songwriting that hits the sweet spot between rock and country. In a sea of negativity on this list, here's a rare work of sincerity and optimism. Real.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
A lot different than I was expecting. Dark and weird but still listenable. Not party music. But not bad.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
The best Rolling Stones album!!! Focused, passionate and played from the heart. So good, and I was completely unfamiliar with it. No notes as they say.
Carpenters
4/5
I am a sucker for the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs and they put two of the greatest of all time on here, Close To You and I'll Never Fall In Love Again. Some of the most likable tunes and lyrics ever made, rendered exquisitely by Karen Carpenter. I'm biased by the fact that I heard the Carpenters on the radio constantly for ten years as a child, at the age when one just becomes aware of what music is. Catchy, clever, wholesome. The swelling backgrounds, the occasional flute, tambourine, harpsichord, it's the sound of the seventies all in one place. Beautiful.
Travis
2/5
Like if you want to listen to Radiohead but don’t want the intellectual challenge.
Why Does it Always Rain on Me is a good song. Pretty mediocre otherwise.
PJ Harvey
4/5
…in which she buries him and spits on his grave
Scott Walker
2/5
In the 70's on Saturday Night Live, Bil Murray did a great bit about a lounge singer who was completely non-self-aware, the cheesiness dipping off him
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like a plate of bad nachos at the ballpark 🥸
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I forced myself to listen to Scott2 all the way through, and I had Iron Maiden queued up to go afterward. Kind of forgot about that, but the contrast between Scott's "Come Next Spring" and Maiden's "Prowler" could substitute for a defibrillator.
Iron Maiden
4/5
Like the primordial goo of modern heavy metal. Fast, loud, not quite fully formed. Phantom of the Opera and Transylvania stand out. What a relief after forcing myself to listen to Scott 2 all the way through. Like a juicy steak after starving for two days.
T. Rex
3/5
This was good, and I was surprised by that after really despising Electric Warrior. Bolan the person comes through here. Turning to heavier riffs was a smart move. It feels like that is a comfort zone for him. Hugely influential, I feel like the Strokes just said - "here, let's just do this instead of come up with something ourselves." No real criticism of The Strokes per se, just an example (one of very many). Changed my idea of T. Rex and Bolan completely. Tight and well executed rock with a confident sheen, almost "campy" in it's self-deprecating assuredness.
Sugar
4/5
Bob Mould, erstwhile of Hüsker Dü, gives us a college radio proto-emo batch of pop-punk that is both timeless and an exemplar of it's time.
Timeless thematically, humans always had, and always will have these feelings of loss and bitterness, despair, anxiety and self-doubt. Nothing lyrically ties the songs to its time, no pop culture references or metaphors that won't make sense later.
An exemplar of the MTV 120 Minutes modern/alternative heyday of the late 80s/early 90s. "A Good Idea" could be the Pixies. Heavy, lurching guitar rock that sits next to era-defining artists like Nirvana, Screaming Trees, maybe even someone like Urge Overkill. Or a thousand local bands grinding through their set on a Thursday night in 1992, busting their ass for $40 just hoping to get noticed by someone who might get them to the next level.
The Pogues
3/5
A'ight this made me crack a wee smile. Good entertainment and you don’t have to overthink it.
Bauhaus
4/5
So many ways I want to describe this... it just has this dark mood, peeling back a curtain in a long abandoned theater. Even though we all know there's no such things as Ghosts, there's definitely... something... in the shadows. Exploring the vastness of its silence only reminds us of what used to be here, mysteries of the past unwilling to reveal themselves and would prefer we weren't poking around in the first place.
Bauhaus makes some really interesting rock music. Insect-like, or a cluster of bats slightly sickened by modern human existence. Possibly the remnants of a psychological experiment gone wrong. Exquisite.
Christina Aguilera
1/5
Keep Miles Davis' name out of your fucking mouth.
{Slaps the two dozen people it took to make this record}
David Bowie
5/5
Bowie had to make this album in order to shake off his singer-songwriter pretensions and start changing music the way the gods intended him to do. THat being said, what a great album. It flows from Introspective meanderings, to a cluster of tributes (Warhol, Dylan, The V.U.) to whatever the hell "The Bewlay Brothers" is. An album I've heard countless times that evokes something different every time I hear it. It grows with the listener. Very cogent and straightforward, for Bowie, which is in itself interesting. "Quicksand" and "Life On Mars?" bowl me over emotionally every time. Beautiful delivery and poetry, and even though Bowie hasn't QUITE found his voice, this is his launchpad.
Neneh Cherry
1/5
Passionless. I'm certain Nenah Cherry spent no time in the ghetto or the street corner.
She has a relatively weak voice and limited range. But most of the songs are for 16 year old girls anyway, so it is difficult for me to relate. Simple production, monotonous and even a little cliché. Is this trying to be the English Madonna? Do we really need another Madonna? Do we even need ONE Madonna...
But then I gravitate toward stuff like De-loused in the Comatorium by Mars Volta, so what does that say about my taste?
Alice Cooper
2/5
It’s okay. I don’t have a taste for Alice Cooper, the schtick feels really contrived. And these tunes have a phony weirdness to them that’s off putting. Kind of dumb really.
Sisters Of Mercy
2/5
I guess it’s October so I’m getting a cluster of spooky albums! Sisters of Mercy always seemed late to the party. Ten years prior, this would have been earth-shattering. But in the late eighties, more of a throwback. It's merely okay. Goth, yes, just evil enough to upset the parents, but not so disturbing as to make the listener question the artist's or their own sanity. And isn't that what you really want from your Goths, music that is ON THE OTHER SIDE of sanity?
The synth heavy sound and Eldritch's monotonous baritone became tiresome after about 30 minutes. Not enough hooks to keep you engaged as a first time listener. Not annoying, but not great either. Some intriguing poetic lyrics and sinister attitude keep it from being a total loser. Just kind of behind the times, and owes a LOT to all those late 70's acts it steals from like Joy Division, early Cure and the Berlin years Bowie.
The Gun Club
3/5
More like Lou Reed than John Lee Hooker, but that's okay. West coast post-punk from this era was starting to go to the country/blues/rockabilly direction with or without the Gun Club. I think a lot of hype about them comes from their influence in the UK, thus their inclusion on this list. Nonetheless, this album is, for the most part, a huge leap forward artistically for a genre that was essentially dead. Very creative, subtle, and dynamic; it flows from aggressive macho youth anthems to introspective country adjacent meanderings with confidence. Unexpectedly tight and skilled musical execution for punk rock. This album is a big step in the evolution of rock music.
Grizzly Bear
3/5
Too nice. Like, the children of classical musicians creating a Wes Anderson soundtrack or the writing prompt was "NPR Tiny Desk concert, Massachusetts, 2005." It's not all bad, kinda sleepy and pretentious. Great execution and interesting production for the most part. Not usually my style choice, a bit much like a Modest Mouse or Arcade Fire wannabe but with less edge. Stangely appealing though. Feeling generous, not as good as a lot of albums I gave 3 stars to, but better than most two-star listens. 🤷♂️
Nirvana
4/5
If extreme inner turmoil - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual - set to a harrowing Noise-inspired soundtrack is your cup of tea, then by all means dive head first into this pool. A masterpiece that invites you to f off in every possible way. Brutal and, ironically, unapologetic.
Giant Sand
1/5
Really hard to get over Howe Gelb's vocal affectations, the HARD 'R" sounds, the whispering, the little growls at the end of phrases, whatever the hell that accent is supposed to be.... SING SOME NOTES!
That in addition to the incredibly pretentious nonsensical poetic meanderings, apropos of nothing, is just a waste of time. Feels like some rich kid got a hold of expensive recording equipment and fancies himself a latter-day Tom Waits. Of course, Tom Waits is still around and producing music, so there's really no need for another (possibly worse!) version of that shit now is there?
DNF
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Interesting and creative. Kept my interest the whole time. The instrumentation was unique - string quartet, oboe and trumpet, small choir... I'm going to use a word that I really hate but can't think of anything more fitting, and that word is "different." In the boring watercolors of the mid-2000s Indie Folk and singer-songwriter trends (Mumford and Sons, Rufus Wainwright, Fleet Foxes, etc.) this record really stands out for its intelligent songs and sincere emotional depth. Like d it a lot more than I thought I would considering it was Critically Acclaimed™.
Primal Scream
2/5
In the right context this would have more impact. However, I was not under the influence of anything and it was a crisp fall afternoon; more conducive to Sjufan Stevens than Primal Scream. I did really like 'Don't Fight It..." and the Jah Wobble section in the reprise of "Higher Than the Sun. Pretty contrived, another one ruined by the singer.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Surprised that there are a couple songs here I'd never heard before. Not flawless, but nearly. Very much a proto Paul Simon album, especially these three on side two: "Baby Driver," "The Only Living Boy in New York," and "Why Don't You Write Me." "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" is another sleeper that doesn't get enough love.
Common
3/5
Conscious. Great production, good variety, some surprises. Enjoyable for such a long recording. Because I'm not a hip-hop fan I can't judge this against anything else in the genre, but I really liked the Jazz through-line which brought some uniqueness to a genre that sometimes overstays its welcome.
Butthole Surfers
3/5
Transgressive avant-punk that, if you allow their trolling nature as a core philosophy, contains some innovative depth. A sonic hodge-podge comparable to something like Can, this is on the continuum of anti-establishment music from The V.U., the 13th Floor Elevators and all of that 60's garage psychedelia through Pere Ubu, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and so on. More intelligent than you might think (or want) a band called Butthole Surfers to be.
Mylo
3/5
Enjoyable, uncomplicated synth based EDM not trying to be something it’s not; like soul or hip hop, funk, jazz or anything else. Has a sense of humor and self-awareness that was refreshing.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
No no no is my favorite Yeah Yeah Yeahs song.
Nope I lied it’s Maps.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Great vocalist, great guitarists, interesting songwriting, tight execution, nice recording, sincere delivery, classic FM radio rock: what's not to like?
Shuggie Otis
3/5
This is a nice, G-rated 70's R&B album.
Interesting for a lot of reasons. There are, especially on the amazing "XI-30," flashes of proto-electronica soul. Otis does the Stevie Wonder/Sly Stone/Lenny Kravitz "I played all the instruments" thing (admirably well). You can take a few days and go down the Johnny Otis (Shuggie's dad) rabbit hole, well worth the time if you like 50s and 60s R&B and early soul. A very important figure in the history and probably underrepresented on this list.
Not the worst thing I've heard this week. I suppose that's not the highest praise, though.
Country Joe & The Fish
2/5
Maybe … MAYBE if it was 1967 and I was really stoned.
It's okay, definitely a relic of its time. Proto-jamband stuff. If the late 60's country-rock psych era never happened, I think we'd all be better off (except for Jefferson Airplane, who rule). I'm being facetious, of course. You will like this if you enjoy the Dead, Phish etc. Not really well executed, nothing very novel in the songwriting or instrumentation, a bit sloppy.
Motörhead
3/5
Interesting, a live Motörhead album on the 1001 list. A gigantic bonkers slab of the heaviest speed metal you could hope to find.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Taking this too seriously can cause irritation, inflammation of the arrogance glands, and has been shown to cause cankles in laboratory rats (no rats were harmed etc etc).
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Pretty flawless. I love Curtis Mayfield's voice, it's so unique and recognizable. Cool instrumentation, smooth, a little dated - some might say CLASSIC. Compelling narrative: difficult but not disturbing, complicated without being taxing. Still sounds great.
3/5
So hipster even Pitchfork hated it!
Weird experimental underground noise art made cohesive by a loose concept. Has an "outsider art" feel. Highly unusual and not for those who find comfort in familiarity. Very goth, had a folk-metal attitude but a much different musical framework.
Massive Attack
3/5
Massive Attack is a good representative of a problem that all electronic music must overcome to be successful. And by successful, I don't mean selling huge numbers, or attaining Critical Acclaim™. I mean it succeeds in moving the listener in some way, emotionally. So this is why it is art and not simply a vehicle for telling stories. It's why I can enjoy African or Indian music and not understand the language. The problem is that electronic music is ultimately a technical genre, bound tightly to physics more so than self-expression. Creating soulfulness in electronic music, is its difficulty and most frequent downfall. This is the main problem for a lot of technically oriented music like EDM, Progressive Rock, and even Jazz to a large degree. Emotional content, the flavor, is underdeveloped at the expense of the difficulty of the technical aspects. So, in the very best music, the artist has the skill to express it all: technical chops and emotional depth.
Massive Attack come so close, but don't quite get there. A lot of sameness disqualifies them from achieving some kind of technical mastery. And the forced vocal soul does little to bring feeling to these purposely synthetic grooves. Nice though they are, soothing and mellow, but no urgency or intensity. No emotional depth to speak of. Which would be reasonable (for me) if the music were more interesting technically. Outside of the dub-tinged "Spying Glass" and their fantastic cover of The Doors "Light My Fire," this isn't something I would take all that seriously. Good soundtrack music perhaps.
Brian Eno
4/5
Eno assumes his final form in the Eno Expanded Universe.
Weird in a good way. Has a strangely Beatlesque flavor in places. A fun oddball piece. Eno is in a much better mood here than on "Before and After Science." It's less polished and all the better for that. Just this side of crazy.
Baaba Maal
3/5
Lovely voice and a big variety of styles. Some are more rock, some African folk, some traditional rhythms. Jovial!
Erykah Badu
3/5
A drum clinic. The drums and percussion are the most compelling thing about this album. Really for me, not a huge modern R & B fan, this was entertaining and nicely executed. In an endless sea of soulless pop music this album stands out for its natural feel. Erykah Badu has a unique sound not unlike Diana Ross, though less powerful and dynamic. Not bad.
Rod Stewart
2/5
I think the reason I don’t like Rod Stewart is that his singing voice sounds like an old woman.
All the covers just make me want to hear the original - or in the case of It’s All Over Now, the original cover.
Ronnie’s Wood and Lane are great, as is Kenny Jones on You’re My Girl. There are just very few highlights on this one.
2/5
Apparently I can't really call myself a proper XTC fan (even though I love most of their stuff) having never heard this before! In my defense, I have had it in my amazon cart since probably 2007. After listening, though, I'll probably take it off.
It feels a bit labored. Except for "Greenman" and the heartbreaking "Your Dictionary," XTC seem to be missing most of their usual edginess, their character, and wit.
I think they set too high a bar early on. This lacks that energy. Still exquisitely executed.
The Streets
2/5
Good idea poorly executed. My first impression was WHAT THE HELL? I really don't have much to say about this. Definitely sounds like it was made in someone's bedroom.
Silver Jews
1/5
I can't tell if these are good songs because David Berman can't sing. Just can't get past it. Insulting.
Herbie Hancock
5/5
One of the 10 albums you should hear before you die. THE jazz-funk masterpiece that all others must bow down to. Phenomenal.
The Doors
4/5
Iconic. It's one of those albums that is truly innovative and unique, changing the trajectory of music to some degree. Cool and edgy in a real way. Side 2 has some weaknesses, although those deep cuts still have something to offer. Maybe it just seems weak in light of the strengths like Light My Fire. The album still sounds good, still spooky and weird and dirty.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I get it, I understand the accolades and critical attention Bob Dylan got and continues to get to this day. His songs have lyrical depth truly unlike anything else in popular music. In the context of the time, very subversive and anti-establishment.
Musically, Dylan can drag. But thankfully he never stands still, and he pulls from so many places that his work is usually pretty interesting. Not always, but usually.
This album in particular has a cleverness and sentiment that stands out for its time. Everyone wanted to do this after they heard it, from The Beatles to The Velvet Underground, I'm even hearing shades of Dylan in Jethro Tull and the folkier Lad Zeppelin songs. Just a very few off the top of my head, after this I'm going to go to the Wikipedia page to see the enormous list of artists Dylan has influenced.
Regardless, this is a good listen, worth the time. Heartfelt as all hell, smart, enthusiastic. And humorous. Every song is a journey.
Get away from Maggie's Farm for sure.
SAULT
3/5
Pretty great. THe couple notes about this on WIkipedia made me think it was going to be like angry hardcore or Gil Scot Heron. Much more down to earth, think a modern day, more electronic Sly and the Family Stone with African vibes.
And I continue to be angry that nothing ever changes, BLM didn't seem to do anything. The Police are even more heavily funded than ever. Seems like we went backwards. It's 2025 and we were promised Fully Automated Luxury Communism, but all we got was the same racist police state. Somehow (maybe because of the 2020 protests) that racist power elite got even more scared than they were before, and entrenched themselves even further in their hateful, crude, and violent ways.
I really don't want this to end in a violent revolution. No one wants that. I love that this album really celebrated blackness and black people without being dicks about it. The positivity and love might be the thing to set us all free. It's a lovely thought anyway.
Def Leppard
2/5
Highly polished big dumb rock. Some memorable melodies: the chorus of Animal, the pre-chorus of Love Bites (I don’t want to touch you too much baby…)
The Blue Nile
2/5
Tasting notes:
Hints of Roxy on the nose, with fleeting scent of Peter Gabriel (or is that Kate Bush? Hard to say!)
The first taste wants to remind you of a more modern, more romantic Beatles (possibly). However, it eludes that comparison while begging for the same. Very smooth, sweet but thin, perhaps too chilled and could use some aeration. I never prepare well for these tastings! Ah well!
On the tongue, centrally, I'm noticing unusual and fleeting flavors - The Police ("When the World is Running Down" bassline jumps out in the song "Stay" possibly the most exuberant experience here today), XTC, Talk Talk, and a Bowie-esque mouthfeel. No finish or aftertaste whatsoever.
Overall a very well made and pleasant white blend, though sadly forgettable.
Pairs well with closing a restaurant at 2:30 AM on Wednesday, or brunch at Grandma's.
LL Cool J
3/5
Post-old school? Is that a rap genre?
I like this for the same reason hardcore hip hop fans hate it: LL Cool J appeals to the mainstream, and you can actually hear what he's saying. There's not as much lingo and obscure inside jokes in these, unlike a lot of other hip hop. The west coast stuff that was getting popular around this time was especially incomprehensible and unrelatable to most of us, whereas LL Cool J talked about girls primarily, and how he knows he pissed of the "community" because of the above and sorry he's just more popular than you (not sorry, he will knock you out).
The mainstream always eats the underground. Here's an example. It's entertaining to someone like me. A lot of other albums from the genre are difficult at best. This is more fun. It doesn't seem like anyone died.
The Who
5/5
All hail Keith Moon. Go ahead, hail Keith Moon, this review will be here when you get back.
My Generation is an "important" album. This has the seeds of The Who's explosive nature all over it. The title track is unquestionably the most incendiary thing on here. The Townsend compositions are miles and miles better than the covers. So after this, the band relied less on them and more on their own writing If I remember correctly this album was somewhat rushed out, like a lot of the early to mid-sixties British invasion tracks due to various managers trying to cash in on the rock-n-roll trend. Which interestingly, did kind of die in the 90's, didn't it.
But rock wasn't dead yet, Pete wasn't old, the rest of the band was on their best behavior and this incredible piece of work retains its charm 60 years on.
Doves
3/5
From this cover the music could be literally anything from pop to metal. But of course it’s British indie rock. And based on that and the year this came out I am lowering my expectations as far as I can. Hope to be proven wrong.
There's a lot to like, a lot to dislike.
Britpop + psychedelic pop + whatever Radiohead and Coldplay were doing around this time. I think it's the atmospheric production, that shimmering endless reverb and vaguely symphonic guitar and keyboard treatment, the jazzy chord progressions, arpeggios. It's a cool sound, but again, it just REMINDS ME of something else.
Then all of a sudden there's this garagey power pop heavy guitar thing "Catch the Sun." Just rock. Very nice. Out of place (finally something different!) but nice. Sounds like a Dave Grohl song, honestly.
Everything on here sounds like something. Nothing bad per se. Just something that you've heard before. They do tend to take a riff and wear out its welcome, drone-like. Really excellent production and all of the musicians are precise, not overplaying. They bury the vocals a lot, for good reason, but who am I to criticize?
Overall I really enjoyed this. Nothing hit me the wrong way, they have some power to them, some U2-esque ambition. The drum/bass/guitar section is exceptional, simple riffs well executed.
U2
4/5
There are a few U2 songs that make me weep, "One" among them. Don't know what it's "really about" nor do I care all that much.
As a U2 fan, I can't say this is my favorite album of theirs. They basically frosted over the things that made them great: the rhythm section sounds flattened and is mixed into a shoebox, the muscular guitar lines are buried under effects so thick you can only barely ascertain the guitar at all, and say what you will about Bono - you gotta respect his passion and commitment to the job - but on this he is (of course) devolving into the crooner all rock singers think they should be.
What U2 are good at is building an emotional vignette from the constraints of the four-piece rock convention. When they deviate like they do on Achtung Baby, it's a little disconcerting. They're clearly out of their comfort zone. But a band like this (hugely successful), at this point in their career (past their prime and entrenched in the mainstream), is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't position. Experiment and try something different, and your fanbase is repelled. Keep doing the same thing you always have and you're seen as lazy, tired, behind the times. The former is the natural thing musicians want to do, but riskier. The latter is a paycheck but a high-speed train to irrelevance. And U2 wants to be relevant more than anything else.
Although U2 don't seem to tire of playing I Will Follow or New Year's Day a million times, they did decide to go the riskier route on this album, with mixed results.
Hüsker Dü
5/5
I saw Hüsker Dü do a show in a gymnasium in ( i want to say) 1981 or 1982. It was amazing. So much different than any of the other punk stuff coming through town around that time, like TSOL or Black Flag. More musical in general, more professional. Punk in tempo and volume, but the songs flowed differently. They weren't merely an angry one-two punch to whatever random thing or person was close by. There was a craftsmanship more like the big time bands we pretended not to like - Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin. And they had a hippie aesthetic which was interesting. Grant Hart played the drums barefoot, which I was truly astonished at. I've never seen that before or since.
Warehouse: Songs and Stories is unfortunately their last album. So much bitterness, I don't know who lied to Bob Mould or why, but now they're done. A lot of spiteful songs on here. Still true to their pop-punk origins though, mixed with a punk-psychedelic wash which made them one of my all-time favorite bands. "Too Much Spice," "Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope," "Could You be the One?," "Friend, You've Got to Fall" are all super-catchy bangers. Every song on this album is appealing. And the contrast between Mould and Hart is played up well here, even if they would do better to combine forces. Maybe that would be too many cooks, though. A band who imploded too soon. RIP Grant Hart, sorry things didn't go your way.
It's not the best Hüsker Dü album, but it's probably a good one for this list, it's their biggest seller (I think) and an attempt at mainstream acceptance, meaning they literally sold out. A gutsy move for a punk band. Hüsker Dü's influence is huge, of course, and I give this an additional star just for getting something by them on this list.
The Jam
5/5
May everyone who listens to music experience the sheer bliss that this album has provided me over the years.
A power trio like no other, moving from their controlled pop-punk youth anthems into songs about relationships with more emotional depth than any 23 year old should have.
I've always found All Mod Cons to be an incredible piece of work that moved me in many ways. It is often considered the Jam's best work, and it probably is. It maintains their early roughness and moves the band into a more mature place, which had to happen if they were to survive. The stripped down format - guitar/bass/drums - is simple and effective. This is Peak Weller, both vocally and guitar-wise. Bruce Foxton always gives a chilling performance, the bass lines on this album are unique, powerful, and thunderous, without undermining the song's essence. And Rick Buckler shreds. His playing has an organic Moon-like lack of control that helps define the Jam's sound.
Existential anxiety plays out on this album in subtle ways. "…Wardour Street" asks you to confront a surprisingly violent adult world by way of a semi-autobiographical tale of nastiness. "Billy Hunt" and "Mr. Clean" also blurt out a kind of bitterness about where those fascist thugs doing the beatings come from. No explanations needed, just the feelings. "The Place I Love" is a million miles away. Weller must return to his "English Rose." He isn't there, he's just longing to get back to her, where he imagines some comfortable existence. And the Jam absolutely OWN "David Watts." We start with the disappointment of "All Mod Cons" and finish with the nerve-wracking "…Tube Station" to slam shut the door of innocent youth. All delivered with a musical framework that is both familiar and novel, muscular and (I hate to use this word, but it fits) tender.
Without question one of my top five favorite albums of all time, it never gets old for me. As a American suburban pseudo-intellectual teenager who took himself way too seriously, this was my go to. And my fandom of The Jam only provided a small sense of identity as I pretended to be a mod, without soothing any feelings of alienation.
Soft Machine
4/5
I really enjoyed the album. I found it to be far-reaching, ambitious, organic, a bit untethered, intellectually challenging. But that isn't all. It was unusual, and groundbreaking in its context of the late 60's/early 70's. Like Tago Mago by Can, this album exists in its own space, seemingly without contemporary Rock influences. At the same time, it floats in and out of various influences like free jazz, avant-garde classical, psychedelic rock, and (contradicting myself) rock as well.
Like this review, the album is long. It consists of four pieces, one on each side of a two album set. Each piece has its own cycle. These compositions remind me of classical, which is why I referenced that form earlier as an influence. The structure of the music is more classical than the actual instrumentation, which is the familiar drum/bass/guitar/keyboard of any other rock band of the time. Whitin each piece are parts, and often a reprise, like an Opus consisting of several parts. Most classical music that I've heard does this.
And Soft Machine explore uncommon time signatures you don't find in popular rock music, or really classical. Jazz? perhaps Take Five by Dave Brubeck. But Soft Machine go hard in the paint on the 5/4 and 7/8 stuff. They also juxtapose patterns in the rhythm section that I'm still trying to figure out/. Is it 9/8 and 4/4 back to back? Or is that 10/8? Again, intellectually challenging.
So these things - the relationship to classical music and playing fast and loose with the time signatures are the defining elements of Prog hereafter. King Crimson was attempting things like this at the time, and "Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June" could be a Genesis song. Nonetheless, Prog rock as we know it now starts here. It's not particularly well mixed. The drums are really flattened and pushed to the right channel for a lot of it, the keyboard can become shrill and overwhelming. Even with those faults, this is still an intriguing piece of work with some depth and artistic risk-taking that helps define the genre.
Ice T
3/5
Either I’m becoming inoculated to gangster rap or this is different and better. I would not dis Ice T.
Dr. John
3/5
Spooky supernatural and swampy with lots Afro Cuban and Caribbean influences. Felt like something you shouldn’t be listening to, like a secret voodoo incantation or something🧟♂️🧟♀️
Frank Zappa
2/5
Zappa’s long meandering jams were never my thing really. Respect to to musicianship though. This grew on me toward the end when I paid less attention and had it on in the background doing chores. I don’t thank Zappa respects his audience.
The Charlatans
2/5
I liked the spacey instrumental songs Area 51 and Rob’s Theme. Otherwise pretty boring britpop. Lacks any edginess and the vocalist has a somewhat nasally voice with limited range and poor dynamics. Decent musicianship but nothing exceptional. Another “why is this on the list?” album.
The Specials
3/5
Starts with the party anthem "Enjoy Yourself..." which may be the cause of the much derided third-wave of Ska. Then it kind of devolves into a loungey studio experiment where every member the band has a different idea about what to do - as long as IT'S NOT THE THING THAT EVERYONE LOVES YOU FOR!!!
How Rude
"Stereotype" and the dub contrast is a great example of what this album could have been. It's mostly merely ok, and because The Specials' first was one of my favorite albums, this is very disappointing. Fun Boy Three was a better version of this style, although Terry Hall does a great job on here (as usual).
M.I.A.
3/5
MIA's vocal quality is a little grating for me, a little twee. Not all the time, but more than I was hoping. Nonetheless, I liked this album quite a bit (with the exception of "Jimmy"). There are some unusual rhythmic bits, some new and interesting lyrics and an odd vocal style not quite rap but won't fit anywhere else. Something sinister is going on under the surface and she acknowledges other parts of the world the the mainstream usually ignores. Worth the time.
OutKast
2/5
B.O.B. is great, some of the other stuff is thought provoking, and there's some funky experimentation on here, some weird beats you don't usually hear. Andre 300 does his signature sing-song stuff, which has appeal. But it's mostly immature rap tropes and a bit too long. Surprised that Robert Christgau gave this an 'A', I usually agree with him.
The Cure
4/5
All the songs flow to create a spooky melancholic atmosphere. The Forest is the tent pole, though. The driving repetitive drones are like spidery skeletons of a post-punk Krautrock. Heavy without distortion or screaming, mysterious, slightly otherworldly. I thought the guitar parts were especially interesting and innovative (not knowing it was Robert Smith himself playing them. Cool album and one of my favorites. Definitely my favorite by The Cure.
Patti Smith
2/5
Had a REALLY HARD TIME teasing out the whole "punk" thing. Arty poetry based rock, sure. Critics are always falling over themselves when the next generation does something novel.
The album is merely okay. I never really "got" Patti Smith. I guess there's an interesting twist on songwriting here that definitely breaks from the mainstream. Stylistically crude (maybe that's why some see "punk" here), definitely part of the Art Scene more than the music scene. Like the Velvet Underground, who I also struggle with.
Influential though, I can see a path to Bjork ,The Pretenders, Nina Hagen possibly... just leaves mewondering why this is so "important?" There were and always will be a thousand poetry writers who can almost sing, why this?
Donovan
3/5
Season of the Witch is a great song. It aged well, which is more than you can say for a lot of the psychedelic pop from this era. Donovan is obsessed with royaltyqueens especially. Which is fine for me, I like this sideways take on British folk. And of course there is the requisite Bob Dylan-type tune. Interesting document of the era. About The Trip: I think their LSD was mild compared to what came around later (so I'm told :) )
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Nice! I hsven't heard anything by this band except "There She Goes" from the "So I Married an Axe Murderer" soundtrack, which is a sweet jangle pop ditty that isn't trying too hard). On this album, The Boo Radleys do try very hard, and are somewhat successful. Muscular riffs contrast with the quaint vocals (which are over-processed on occasion for psychedelic effect), giving this a little enthusiasm that a lot of stuff from the era just needs more of. Good dynamics, excellent musicianship, great sense of pop melody along the lines of XTC or (dare I say) The Jam, a little pretentious, a little long maybe. The standout songs (Lazarus, Wish I Was Skinny, Butterfly McQueen...) sound great. Semi-psychedelic. I especially enjoyed their infusions of dub and noise into the lite-pop. Cool stuff.
Fela Kuti
4/5
An absolute riot from the James Brown of Afrobeat. Do not sit down while listening to this. Brilliant.
Morrissey
3/5
Every time I hear something by Morrisey that I like, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I feel weirdly embarrassed for liking this as much as I do. I'm not sure why.
Heavier than the Smiths' in a lot of places, thematically and guitaristically (I had to invent a word, not sorry). Morrisey's voice is as smooth as ever, but he goes to a few different places with this one, stylistically (lots of -ically words today, lots of parentheses as well!) I think he's being less bombastically campy and untouchable, bitter. More... down to earth? Still lyrically clever, playing with poetic structure in pleasant and surprising ways.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the energy and great guitar work on here.
Kings of Leon
4/5
Sexy and heavy. One of the best alternative rock albums of the last 25 years, if not one of the best selling. Incredible rhythm section. Whatever happened to these guys?
Barry Adamson
1/5
Promising start then Jarvis Cocker comes in literally to gross everyone out. Wtf is this.
Laura Nyro
3/5
Lovely, singer-songwriter late 60's pop/soul, punctuated with orchestral flourishes that aren't used much anymore. Good art and understandably influential. Some of the songs remind me of Burt Bacharach a bit with small bridge sections that move time signatures around. Laura Nyro's vocals are dramatic but not histrionic, nicely balanced between bluesy, soul, and pop. Good fun!
Van Morrison
2/5
Sounds like someone doing a parody of Van Morrison.
American Music Club
3/5
Feels conceptual. The album starts strong and confident, the second song "Somewhere" is a rocker. Then it gets a bit tenative and introspective, finally ending with this dismal character breaking up or losing "Jenny" (possibly and just leaving the world behind, hitting the road,. Feeling sad. A bit of a trope, especially layering in the Americana feel instrumentation (slide guitar, slow tempos).
Randy Newman
3/5
I'm only familiar with Randy Newman's hits, like "You've Got a Friend In ME," "I Love LA," and "Short People." None of which I dislike, they're just out there in the world not doing too much. Then I hear this and it kind of blew my mind. Surprisingly eclectic, fun, philosophical, and funny. It's not rock, so maybe that's why Randy Newman was never on my radar. What a great collection of songs though. I'll listen to this again.
Morrissey
3/5
Morrisey tries to rock here, and mostly succeeds. As far as pop music goes, this has some weightiness. "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" and "You're the One For Me, Fatty" are strange and entertaining. Your Arsenal didn't leave a lasting impression, though. It's not as ambitious as the Smiths which is both good - The Smiths wereobnoxious at times - and bad, these songs mostly lack the drama and intimacy of The Smiths, making them less impactful.
Too much Morrisey on the list.
System Of A Down
4/5
THAT was wild.
Mystical surrealistic angry, complex scenarios of abuse, war, dreaming, outrage, recent and ancient history. Plenty of quiet breakdowns that explode for your moshing pleasure. Good musicians, insane vocals both literally and figuratively.
Napalm Death
4/5
This early example of extreme metal dubbed Grindcore has its roots in hardcore punk, which had been in a weird self-annhilating cycle of repeating the same forms, thematically and musically for 5 or more years. Over time, the shock factor of punk faded merely due to exposure. So, to counter the complacency of audiences burned out on weak clones of the same thing, some bands cranked up the attitude and the noise. In fact, there was a certain segment of the punk community who took it upon themselves to viscerally express the pain and anger that was driving them insane. Faster. Louder. Screaming about things that shouldn't even happen. Also, they JUST DON'T CARE. Add to this the nihilism of the late cold war and you get music like Scum from Napalm Death: entirely appropriate for the time, and launching new forms of music. Mostly unlistenable and torturous (and that is the point: we're being tortured), it's an artistic statement giving a voice to a subculture that demands attention.
Not everyone listens to music for the same reason. Surprised to see this on the list, it's a good example of extreme music in its early form.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Pretty weird document of a man (ok, Marvin Gaye is a bit of a musical genius, but still a man) exposing his inner turmoil, maybe using this as therapy. Not something a lot of men would do. Dude is clearly hurt. It doesn't seem like he is taking any responsibility, but maybe a closer listen would reveal otherwise. Pretty intimate. I can see how this would be off-putting when it came out, and there's a couple of things on here that don't make much sense, like the "Funky Space Reincarnation," but otherwise intriguing. It is too long, though, and a little monotonous.
Simple Minds
2/5
Unimpressive synth-pop, an altogether unimpressive genre. Better than Scritti Politti but just a little. I like the band, but their earlier stuff just had so much more edge. Maybe they were cashing in on a trend, which is their right. Not awesome.
Ryan Adams
3/5
This dude’s abuse of the English language is concerning. Nobody Girl rocks but a lot of these tunes feel contrived, and Adams’ voice is a bit weak for the grandiosity of the tunes.
Just made me feel more cringey than touched or excited. The rocking stuff is a better fit for him. Enemy Fire is pretty good, feels spontaneous and kind of post-grunge with a Byrdsy harmony and a nice thick snare sound. More of that and you really got something. The more country sounding stuff doesn’t hit the high bar I have for the genre. Self-centered.
Django Django
3/5
Great fun! Experimental bedroom psych-rock that evokes Eno and Devo (a bit) for me, but a little less serious. Interesting overnight sensation story. Enjoyable and innovative.
James Taylor
3/5
FIre and Rain is one of the best songs ever recorded. The rest of the album pales in comparison, but isn't awful. Some doesn't age well (Steamroller Blues I'm looking at you), otherwise an absolute classic. An enjoyable listen, one of the defining albums from a master of the singer-songwriter genre, during its absolute peak era.
Funkadelic
4/5
I should have been listening to this my whole life. Killer rock/funk up there with the best Sly and the Family Stone. I can see Vernon Reed and Prince being heavily influenced by this.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
Dry-na-mi-tee is a nice nod to reggae but doesn’t set the table for the album unfortunately, and Put Him Down has an appealing energy. But every other song is a slow balladic attempt that drains the excitement of the one before. Not that it’s all bad. The little a cappella “Watch over Them” and the (again) reggae flavored “Seed Will Grow (featuring Kymani Marley) excel regardless of genre. More socially conscious rhymes than not. Sincere feminism runs through it. Much more R&B than rap. Could really easily tip over into “meh” without much effort.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
1/5
This album was a pain in the ass when it came out and remains so to this day.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Nearly perfect expression of the melancholy of becoming and adult in the modern world. Very Existential and kind of hard to listen to, but impeccably rendered.
Deceptively Post-rock in a way: a lot of drones that cycle through a single riff, as instruments float in and out of the main dirge, often atonal, putting a filminess on the song that creates a cognitive dissonance, distorted, teetering on disturbed. Nicely done.
When I first bought this (after it came out) I thought it lacked punch, but hearing it now, I think the band accomplishes something very ambitious. More atmospheric, dispensing with the traditional verse-chorus-bridge rock composition standard. Not something I'll put on every day for fun, but good art nonetheless.
Buzzcocks
5/5
One of the greatest rhyme schemes in all music from Fast Cars:
"Sooner or later, you gotta listen to Ralph Nader
I don't want to cause a fuss, but fast cars are so dangerous!"
I have a deep and abiding love for The Buzzcocks. This album is a burst of youthful energy like no other. There's some really interesting musical complexity that you won't notice on first listen, or if you have a bias. Things like little key changes, long bridge sections leading into the solo, double guitar attacks, vocal harmonies that ground the tunes in the British Invasion. Goes fast, chews up everything in its path, spits it out. Nihilism for the rejected lover music, more intimate than a lot of other punk from that era.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Like a lot of commenters on other albums, for me this is a reason I'm doing this project: discovering interesting stuff I've never known about.
Jazzy and proggy... surprises around every corner. Somewhat surreal, but pleasant. Purely heartfelt without any noticeable reliance on standard pop or rock forms, although some of the pieces have a childlike näivetè. Really intriguing album, not for everyone. A wee bit Avant-garde.
Khaled
2/5
I usually like World music, but his was way too westernized, I would much rather hear traditional instruments, compositions, and sounds. Their version of "Imagine" was cringey
John Lennon
2/5
Lennon first album after The Beatles is hit and miss, mostly miss for me. Working class Hero is a great Bob Dylan song, and I always enjoyed Ringo. TMI about your headspace, and most of these songs would be more entertaining performed by The Beatles. It’s okay. Challenging.
The Band
3/5
This grew on me the further into it I got. Everything after "The Weight" was alright by me... "Chest Fever" was especially intriguing. No real home runs, and I'm still trying to understand the zealotry this album inspires. Maybe you had to be there? It is very unique for its time I suppose. Technically good musicians but a wee bit sluggish, digging into that rootsy sound... like if the Grateful Dead decided to tune up and drink a cup of coffee.
Soft Cell
1/5
Seedy Films is by far the stupidest song i have ever heard. I know that sounds pretty histrionic, but I really can’t think of a more cringe inducing aural experience.
You’ve heard Tainted Love so many times it has lost all its charm, and everything else is soulless drivel. Except Sex Dwarf. It is everything a song with a title like SexDwarf promises to be.
4/5
I had no idea this album has so much lore. Takes repeated listens, but an indulgence for any prog fan (that would be me). Bruford's last stand, and though he's quite buried in the mix, some really compelling rhythms bloom from the classical miasma
Bob Dylan
3/5
This is the most Bob Dylan-esque of the Bob Dylan albums I've heard, and by that I mean the vocal style, the harmonica vamping on the outro of nearly every tune, the poetic somng structure. Very nice. An acquired taste (Ithink I've said that before) but an entertainingan intimate album. An amusement park, all the rides are different. You don't like them all but you can see how some folks think they're fun.
Devendra Banhart
3/5
Odd cryptic voice… I’m going to have to listen to this again. The genre is called “freak folk” or psychedelic folk. But like the title of the book says, you really have to hear this one. Surreal hipster art folk, cool to see some people getting creative in here.
The Icarus Line
1/5
Like darker and noisier Jet. A little too drug addled for me. Every song devolved into this dude whining. Couldn’t finish don’t give af about your scumbag lifestyle. Sonic youth fans probably love this.
Steely Dan
3/5
The good stuff is legendary. But there are a few cuts on here that are just a bit sterile. They haven't quite hit their peak. Excellent guitar throughout, though. Like, REALLY amazing, which was unexpected. "Rickie..." is an all-time favorite.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
More proto-punk than anything I've ever heard. Throw in a little Hank Williams cover and you have something great. Also, all albums should be 22 minutes long.
The Zombies
3/5
The story about the recording of this album is more interesting than the album itself. "Time of the Season" is a classic, but the rest is pretty contrived psych-pop leaning heavily on style trends of the time - Donovan, The Beatles, Beach Boys... if I listened again I'm sure a Dylan tribute would rise from the swamp. It's not bad, though; not annoying or offensive or difficult to get through. It's nice, just not impressive.
George Michael
1/5
Annoyed me when it came out and remains annoying to this day. The influence of this is The reason pop music has sucked for the past 40 years.
Underworld
1/5
Cool looking cover. Unfortunately, the music verges on unpleasant for me. Again, techno with this overlay of vocals intended to give the dry dull skeleton some soul. Buried in an excessively long package - 1 hour 13 minutes! - the CD era did us no favors, as this kind of music was cheap to make and distribute on that medium. And because everything from synth to speaker is digital, it didn't have any pesky issues in engineering. Unimaginative and lifeless.
Fred Neil
2/5
This would be more meaningful if I had more knowledge of the context, meaning that if I knew more about the artists career and the musical scene he was a part of in the mid-sixties. Sounds like an attempt to be charming that didn’t resonate with me.
3/5
A nice attempt at bringing the Brazilian sounds into a modern electronic framework. There are some interesting ideas here that work better as decorations rather than a basis for the whole sound with electronic elements. Antropofagos is neat though.
Brian Wilson
3/5
Interesting artifact, legendary story. I think you must worship at the altar of Brian WIlson to have your mind blown, which I do not. Some interesting music and concepts. Glad that the man had some closure for this. Excessive hype, though, doesn't let this stand on its own musically.
Girls Against Boys
4/5
Another “where have you been all my life” album. Similar to a lot of 90s indie rock but being from the Discord Extended Family has a bit more bite and organization than say, Jesus Lizard, Dinosaur Jr, etc.
Not very novel or catchy, but that’s not what’s needed from music like this. Emotional power and a touch of fury. Girls Against Boys ride the last wave of pre-Napster heavy rock.
The Beta Band
3/5
Kind of forgettable. Pleasant enough indie psychedelic poppy experiments. Really great rhythm section, nice variety of sounds and textures. Nothing challenging, this album juuust flirts with boredom. Singer was pretty monotonous.
Taylor Swift
3/5
Not my jam, as they say. But it was interesting as I've never listened to Taylor Swift before. Songs of heartbreak, nostalgia, homecoming, breakups, murder, longing... quite dark in places. A bit haunting. She has a pleasant voice and I'd much rather hear this than 90% of the dance pop that is currently trendy. At least here we have actual songwriting. Better than expected.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
Same shit as all the other Nick Cave stuff.
Slint
5/5
Chilling. Really unique and visceral. Complex layers of guitars weave perfectly with the rhythm section, the music effortlessly scaffolding the vocals - odd, intriguing, dramatic- to build a world that is familiar and mysterious at the same time. A genre defying masterpiece. Evokes Sabbath at their most serious, but also Pixies, Pink Floyd, Keith Levine era Public Image, Fugazi …
“I miss you” is just chilling. No spoiler, it’s an experience. Listen through the album to “My Captain” then shut it down for the day.
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
Apple Music didn't have this, but I found it on Bandcamp.
The thing that stands out to me here are the melodies. They are novel yet familiar and unpretentious.
Jazz can be DIFFICULT, and can become really academic. Ibrahim counters this with solid compositions and tight orchestration that don't rely too heavily on improvisation to make their point. Even the 11 minute title track doesn't go off the rails, but stays within its own melodic framework while trading eights (or sixteens? I don't know) among all the horn players. There's no showboating. Everyone is playing to the tune. A really pleasant listen.
Screaming Trees
4/5
Screaming Trees - one of, if not THE best band name ever - take their place in the Pantheon of Grunge. Soundgarden inhabit a place of dark mysticism. Nirvana rain down a generational nihilistic celebration of fin de siecle self-loathing. Pearl Jam, cloaked in drama, seek what is True and Right in Rock and Roll as their ancient ancestors (Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream) had decreed. And Alice in Chains, ripping the mask off of our self-righteous indignity and feeding it back to us, burdensome, heavy, and bewildering.
Screaming Trees appear to have little use for these aspirations. What is important is the sound. We build structures from the bottom up, literally, layering melodies over washes of simple chord structures that are comforting, furtive, ebullient. Groove above all else.
Mark Lanegan is considered a god among rock singers, and rightly so. Barret Martin is he best drummer you've never heard of, who went on to become an academic ethnomusicoligist and played with Peter Buck in Tuatara. Van and Gary Lee Conner live on in this music and their own solo stuff, all brilliant. Unique. Tasteful.
However, this is not the band's best work. But anything by The Screaming Trees is important, and necessary in this list or the rock music generally. They fill a hole with beauty and musical expression, where so much else can be so depressing, so serious, so ugly.
The Stranglers
3/5
Who even knows what the goal is here?
Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks I suppose. Is it "Pub Rock?" Is it The Fall? Is it Prog? Dudes aligned themselves with "Punk," but really it has little to do with punk. Maybe that's why The Stranglers piss me off, they're poseurs.
Everything is marketing, though. The music isn't that great on this record, some incredibly fun riffs ("Peaches," "Get a Grip.."), and the organ/keyboard being the MAIN VOICE on this album is oh so great. Extra point for being unique. Minus a point for the shoddy fecking vocals.
"The Stranglers are an English rock band formed in 1974. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 20 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk scene." oof
The Black Keys
2/5
I have a list of complaints that I'm sure a lot of professional critics and others have shared:
- A lot of effort goes into making this sound like there's no effort put into it.
- More bass, please
- Mom: We have The White Stripes at home!
- I love guitar effects, but COME ON
- Why wouldn't I just listen to the source material? (i.e., Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, etc.)
It's an okay album to throw on for a long road trip, when you're tired of all your other favorites. The music just has an insincerity to it. They do a bang-up job of copying Soul and R & B as a style, but it's all academic. You have to actually HAVE soul, you have to actually feel the music.
Animal Collective
3/5
I’m not sure what to say about this. I want to listen to more… experimental and fun, would love a bit more edginess. Has a Beach Boys feel in the vocals, and I once again crave more bass. Inventive, but leaves me wanting more. I’m missing something so I really need another listen. Cool though.
Frank Sinatra
1/5
Who was this for? I can’t imagine some sad lonely dude throwing this on the turntable in 1956, sitting down with his cheap scotch and remembering when he was beloved for fighting in WWII, only to spend the next ten years spiraling downward and taking it out on his kids…
Tortoise
4/5
Some music is a matter of taste and Tortoise is definitely that. But I love everything about it. Two basses, xylophones, meandering compositions, the drumming, it's all great. It's just art, don't overthink it.
Peter Tosh
4/5
Peter Tosh has one of the best voices in Reggae. Nothing really clever or amazing or bizarre... just solid rhythms, some Jah, some ganja, some ketchy shuby. And anything with Robbie Shakespeare is going to be world class.
Gorillaz
4/5
Never heard the whole album before. Probably had some aversion because "Clint Eastwood" was so overplayed. I was wrong. This is one of the most entertaining things I've heard in a long time. This has a ton of stylistic variety, it's mostly uptempo with that low-key British hip hop vibe, a bit weird but still accessible. Well deserved place on this list.
Milton Nascimento
3/5
Lovely and sort of genre bending. A tiny bit forced. Which is not what you want from your Brazilian music. Poppy in places and very much of its time. Makes me wish for more Latin music on he list.
Sam Cooke
2/5
I expected more from this. Sort of one dimensional, hard driving throughout. Reminds me of the James Brown live album. Sam Cooke’s singles were legendary and I don’t think this performance reflects the greatness of the artist.
Thelonious Monk
5/5
Pure genius.
Sepultura
4/5
If you like your thrash a little more heavy, little more sinister and less introverted, look no further. Feels influential for a lot awesome newer bands like Trivium. Good to see some of the heavier stuff on this list.
Neil Young
3/5
Pretty sad. Neil Young just laid bare emotionally. His mixed feelings about getting "wasted" are interesting. Songworthy though? I don't know. Neil remains very unconventional among the 70s' singer-songwriters. Intense.
The Cramps
4/5
Brilliant. Take rockabilly and punk rock, add like this B-Movie twist, but the woman in charge, camp it up... it's a blast. Loved every second of it and am now in the cult. Thank you very much.
The Everly Brothers
3/5
Beautiful vocals and kind of innovative for the pop vocal style that was so dominant at this time. Love Hurts is enigmatic. Impressive.
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
Had a couple - three whiskeys. At home listening on the old stereo.
This is truly great, and I'm sorry Clapton turned into a judgemental weirdo. Because this has a sincerity and desperation that cuts to the bone. EVERY song has the best guitar solo you've ever heard. Clapton's voice is in perfect form. He still has some George Harrison in him. And it's ALL BLUES. Bell Bottom Blues and Layla are two of the best rock songs ever written. Colossal.
Jane Weaver
4/5
I really enjoyed this one. A discovery for which I am grateful to the curators of the list.
Krautrock inspired Folktronica with a heavy spiritual vibe, atmospheric, cinematic, very unexpected. It's rare when listening to one of these albums moves me, where the music gets my attention and keeps it, and then takes me to a... place I haven't been to before in my mind (or, haven't been in a while).
But, a mood lifter. SO much here is inward-looking lamenting, or outward-looking complaints. This looks both inward and outward but in a much different way. Like I said earlier, it's spiritual, some of the time verging on silly. But again, a rare case of transcendence.
Ice Cube
2/5
These grooves are funky, heavy, cool, infectious. Gangsta is a genre I don't really "get," it's not my culture, it's too violent. So, it doesn't appeal to me lyrically. It's hard to get past being offended. But I can see how some guys would be attracted to Mr. Cube.
Killer grooves though, foot tappin' production. Please don't make my head explode like a cantaloupe.
SZA
1/5
I tried. The voice is annoying, the lyrics are juvenile and lowbrow ( not in a sincere way, just weirdly crude), everything lacks dynamics, very one dimensional.
Ministry
2/5
It's an old trope, but I think I lost 20 IQ points listening to this. I usually like heavy music, but this is boring and torturous. Stupid themes that have been done a million times much more thoughtfully, you know, war, religion, etc.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Unmistakenly Elvis Costello. Has some of the bitterness, envy, and anger of the first two albums without all that pesky political nonsense (I miss the political Elvis). Some new and unique POV in these songs now, though - is the singer in "Poor Napolean" a woman? Nothing all that memorable except "I Want You" which is strikingly creepy, "Battered Old Bird" a surprisingly touching tune - "He'd better have a dream beyond these four walls" - and the three-chord verse/chorus banger "Next Time Round."
Totally worth a listen, but one that the anti-Elvis crowd here will present as evidence of two much Elvis.
Actually pretty great.
Morrissey
3/5
Every time I get Morrisey (and that is often apparently) I think "Ugh, oh boy, I'm going to hate this" but then I always kiond of like it. THis one has some really excellent guitatr and the usual moping. Perfectly ok.
4/5
Absolute traditional country classic top to bottom. Not a wasted note. Loretta Lynn is not taking any shit. I love that.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
A very heavy work of art, not really FOR me, but I get the hype. I like that he brings a lot of jazz and funk into the grooves. Kind of "next generation" rap. A bit long and pretty sad.
Incubus
4/5
This band has grown on me a lot in the last 20 years (woah). I love their novel vocal harmonies, the dynamics, the artful two guitar attack, the musicianship from the rhythm section. Even the judicious use of a dj for some skritchy punctuation, mashing up funk and grunge and alternative, works for me. Perfectly recorded.
Linkin Park
4/5
Linkin Park lean heavily into the psychological domain, trauma, and despair. Well executed and heavy. Chester Bennington (?) is an excellent singer, died tragically young. Great band. In the End is a classic, great hook, thoughtful and emotionally expressive. Well executed angry youth anthems.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
WHHHYYYYYY!!!!!????? 😭
WHY are there two albums by this person on the list?