Me: I am so sick of 70s rock music. 1001 Albums: let’s switch it up - here’s some 70s country music. Fuck this.
It’s very weird, and very good. I’m struggling on how to rank it because the last couple songs get, like, avant garde noise rock weird, which is annoying, but the rest of the album is very nice. In fact, there are a couple places where you could almost convince me that it’s an early Radiohead B side. I think the last two songs are too weird to give it 5 stars, but I think 4 is about right.
No. Just fucking...no.
It’s decent. A couple classic bangers, but there is a good amount of filler in there as well. Not a lot to say about it. Could be a 2.5, maybe? But I’m good with 3.
Blue Orchid is good, but the next few songs sound like filler dross that could have been on their last album. Then it picks up and becomes a pretty catchy blues-infused rock album. It's better than White Blood Cells, and it has some genuinely good songs. Yet again, I wish I could rate in half stars, but I think This one deserves a 3.
Fantastic album - Especially considering it was released in 1980. I’m obviously not going to put it on repeat, but I now understand why they’re so famous and influential.
As surprised as I was yesterday about how good Motorhead was, and how well it stood up over time, this is the complete opposite. Hard to get through.
Not good. I'm very confused why this band is so iconic. There were so many similarities between the Stones and The Beach Boys album. It's a bland, boring album.
A masterpiece. A couple of the songs are very much of the 80s, but the majority of this album is simply a timeless classic.
It was...fine? Very 80s hair metal, which isn't my thing. It is fun, however, to listen to these old metal/rock albums and really get to hear the influence they have on later music.
Both Synchronicity I & Synchronicity II are very catchy & Every Breath You Take is still a masterpiece. Honestly, the second half of the album is very, very good. Some of the songs in the first half were way too stereotypical 80s pop, but the second half really makes up for it.
Pretty decent straight jazz album. Great coffee shop background music.
I think the people that created Dungeons and Dragons were definitely reading Tolkien, getting high as balls on weed and LSD, and listening to Donovan. This is one of the weirdest albums I've ever listened to. Half the songs are like LSD-soaked medieval ballads, the other half are hazy, experimental 60s pop tunes. It's not my jam but...it's not bad!
Pretty decent. Offense, Boss, & Venom are highlights. Overall solid album, but we're not breaking any ground here, it's pretty standard stuff. I like grime, so I don't mean that in a bad way!
This album is anachronistic in all the worst ways. It's not only that it's from a long bygone era, it's that I can't even see the influence. When I listened to Motörhead, it's easy to hear the foundations of music that came after. The same goes for the Donovan album; not my cup of tea, but it's interesting, unique, and one can hear why it was popular in its time. This album is none of those things. It drags, it's boring, and I cannot understand why this band is heralded as influential.
It's fine. I will admit I'm tired of being served 60s music, but this is far better than The Kinks album. I'd say this one is very much of its time, sort of a paint-by-numbers 60s pop album. But, along with the Donovan album, probably the best 60s album I've listened to. Yes, better than The Rolling Stones
An absolute masterpiece, this album is a a timeless triumph of music, creativity and experimental bravery. There is nothing that sounds like this album and its companion album, Kid A, either before or since - a testament to its genius.
The Apple Music notes claim that he played every instrument and sang every part, and between the ages of 20-23. That, in and of itself, is very impressive. This is a great background music album, I actually listened twice while at work. Solid album.
It's not great. Fell in Love With a Girl was a massive hit that catapulted the band into superstardom, but there's just nothing exceptional about this album. Jack White is an incredible guitar player, but you wouldn't know it listening to this album. In fact, it sounds like a couple teenagers set up in their basement. The drumming is absolutely dreadful, to the point it sounds like the drummer had only learned how to play 6 months previously and only knows how to keep time in the most basic 4/4 signature and fills won't come for another 6 months. In terms of star rating, it's not "bad," yet I don't know that I would say it's "good," either. I wish there was a way to give it 2.5 stars, but since I can't see myself ever listening to this album again, I'm going to lean to the low side and give it 2 stars.
Blue Orchid is good, but the next few songs sound like filler dross that could have been on their last album. Then it picks up and becomes a pretty catchy blues-infused rock album. It's better than White Blood Cells, and it has some genuinely good songs. Yet again, I wish I could rate in half stars, but I think This one deserves a 3.
I recommend reading about this album, the story is fascinating and heartbreaking. The album itself is...unique. It's quite experimental in some places, especially the songs on the back half of the remastered/extended version. Some songs hold up wonderfully, some are painfully anachronistic, and some are just, well, bad. Overall, It's a decent album for what it is. Using my star rating system of very bad/bad/good/very good/epic, I'll say it's a firm 3 stars
This album sounds just as dated and "of its time" as any of the 60s albums I've reviewed, but since this time is *my* time, these songs cause an absolute flood of nostalgic dopamine in my brain. I used to sing some of these songs to my wife when we first started dating in 2002, the year this was released. It's funny that the album from the *NSYNC kid was considered more as hip-hop than pop a the time, thanks to his collaborations with hip-hop icons like The Neptunes and Timbaland. My walk down memory lane aside, this album is stuffed with bangers. It is "of its time" in all the best way, like a musical time capsule stuffed with early '00s pop, hip-hop, R&B, & Latin-inspired grooves, with a splash of disco and a heavy dose of Michael Jackson worship thrown in for good measure. There are some weaker moments on the album, like the formulaic Take It From Here, and the messy Let's Take a Ride that keep the album from being an all-time classic. But honestly, even the lesser songs are pretty catchy, and overall this album is stuffed to the brim with certifiable radio hits and club bangers that will have you nodding your head and swaying in your seat. Easy 4 stars.
This is a pretty decent album that sounds like a mix of early punk with a dash of 70s New Wave. I liked it! Pretty even quality throughout, no standouts, but no clangers either.
I cannot believe what I’m listening to. Of course I know who BB King is, and I’m sure I’ve heard him periodically throughout the years, but HOLY SHIT this album is magic. I’m not really a blues fan, but this entire album had me bouncing my legs, nodding my head, making faces at the nasty guitar parts, and laughing out loud at the brilliant lyrics. Listening to BB King bending those strings and screaming into the mic, one can see a simple, straight line to today’s rock music. I listen to a lot of technical “math” metal, and the influence of BB King is so clear. This album is why I decided to start this project. It is genius that I have somehow missed, but my life is better now having heard it. Epic, magical, genre-defining, massively influential, masterpiece. 5 stars.
Well, this is awkward. I mean, Stevie Wonder! Superstition! This is gonna be great, right? No, it was not great. In fact, besides for Superstition, it was not very good. It was clunky, disjointed, and very overproduced with 70s technology. There was so much background noise in the first track that it was actually distracting. It gives me no pleasure to give this a poor score, and Superstition is an all-time great song, but as an album? This ain't it.
Strange, but not entirely unpleasant album. I'm of an age where I remember this era of music very well, and it was a time where there was a jazz/folk/hip-hop/alternative fusion that saw a few songs get quite popular. Deep Blue Something, Soul Coughing, Cake, and this band, Cornershop, were part of that "genre" that parleyed their one-hit wonders into nice careers.
I started this project to expand my horizons, knowing full well there would be many albums I didn’t like, but committing to listen anyway. With one exception: I will NOT listen to any fucking country music.
The lyrics are so stupid, it’s like listening to a parity of Alternative music. “I want to be like water if I can, ‘cuz water doesn’t give a damn” is an honest to god lyric that was written, shared, sung, and recorded. This is the type of “Alternative” that is very country-adjacent. Not *quite* twangy enough, but it’s got the requisite slide guitar, or banjo. The singer sounds bored, but to be fair, I don’t know who in the hell could muster up any emotion whatsoever while singing these insipid lyrics. This is truly one of the dumbest things I’ve ever listened to.
I guess this is OK for what it is. It's not offensive, and I understand why people who like this kind of music would think it's great. For me, however, I find her voice extremely grating. It's sort of your boilerplate, folksy, easy listening, soft rock the early 70s is famous for. To be fair, this album might be one of the the reasons the early 70s is famous for this kind of music, so I don't really mean that as a critique. This is another album where I really wish there were half stars! I don't think it's 2 stars "bad," per se, but her voice is so annoying that it's hard to give it 3 stars to say it's "good." Ultimately, while I fully concede my own biases and that it's probably unfair to give this album 2 stars, I just cannot justify suggesting to anyone that this album is "good."
Chris Cornell was probably the most talented pure vocalist of his time. Outside the scope of this review, his solo album, Euphoria Morning, is one of the criminally undervalued albums of the last 50 years. Superunknown, however, isn't undervalued by any means, and to this day it is considered one of the greatest albums in rock music history. Although this is the album that propelled them to megastardom, I'll always maintain that it is actually Badmotorfinger that shows the band at the peak of its powers. I feel like this album has an amazing first half, but the back half slows just a bit. It's an all-time classic album, inarguably one of the best in the genre.
It's fine. It's like what The Rolling Stones would sound like if they weren't absolute shit. Evil Hearted Ada sounds like a weird Elvis knock off.
How this album can be categorized as rock music is beyond me. This is straight up, old school, twangy as hell, whiny ass country music. It's awful. We need a zero stars.
This is another shockingly good album. I kind of missed the 80s, so there is a lot that I missed, especially the more under the radar stuff. I don't have any affinity for the typical 80s sound, but this album isn't that. It's a very dreamy, gauzy dream-pop precursor, and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Chino Moreno from The Deftness absolutely loved this band. Again, I'd love the ability to do half stars, as this is a solid 3.5. I wouldn't say it's as good as Superunknown, which I gave 4 stars, but it's definitely better than Teenage Head, which I gave 3 stars.
Really good album. I never really got into the Talking Heads, but this was a really fun album to listen to.
It's pretty OK, I suppose. It's good tap your toes music. It's like the background music you'd hear in The Sopranos while the made men are sipping their cappuccinos. I don't think it's special by any measure, but it's not bad. 3 stars.
Radiohead is one of my favorite bands, but this album has always left me a little cold. Not that I have thought it was bad, just that it doesn't compare to the magnificence of their other albums (though I have always found it to be better than Pablo Honey). Since I generally skip this one when I'm in a Radiohead mood, it was fun to listen to this with a "fresh" perspective. While I don't think it's a timeless classic like most of the rest of their catalogue, I still think it's a very goddamned good 90s rock album. I'm comfortable with 4 stars here.
It is exactly what it says on the tin. Good, straight ahead, hard rock, keyboard-infused, 70s rock and roll.
This is a really interesting album. It's obviously one of the most popular, iconic, best selling of all time. I listen to it and it's obviously a good album, but I just can't quite connect to it. That's not to say I don't like it, I do! but without half stars, is it a 3 or a 4? Going through the track listing, I think the instrumental On The Run is a throwaway, and the shrieking in The Great Gig In The Sky was off-putting in an otherwise very good song. Other than that, the other songs are all hits. How can I *not* give it a 4?
It starts out pretty good, actually. Marimba Sun is catchy and doesn't sound overtly 70s, and cosmic dancer also holds up pretty well. Then it just kind of gets...boring. The vocals get a little whiny on songs like Lean Woman Blues, which is itself just a cookie cutter bluesy rock song without any thing to set it apart. Bang a Gong is one of those songs I've heard in stoner movies my whole life. It's fine, I guess. Overall it's just an Ok, pretty forgettable album. Oddly, Jeepster isn't available in my country via Apple Music, but I was able to listen to it through YouTube without a problem. Apparently that's one of the biggest hits off this album but, frankly, it wasn't worth the effort it took to listen to it.
I don't know much about Simon and Garfunkel, but this album sounds a lot more hippie, psychedelic 60s than what I *thought* I knew about them, which was more of a old-timey folksy 60s sound. Old Friends is a highlight of the album, a beautiful, haunting examination of the strangeness of old age by a young man. Now that these guys are, I presume, in their 70s, I'd be fascinated to know their thoughts on this song. Punky's Dilemna is the low point. A dumb song about being a cornflake or an English muffin. I'm sure there's an allegory or metaphor in there that I'm missing, but the song isn't good enough for me to examine it any closer. Mrs Robinson is the most famous song on this album, I think. I'm of the age that I know the song through The Lemonheads cover. A lot of times, the original can be a touch disappointing (Berlin's version of Metro being far inferior to System of a Down's cover, as an example), but I think this one holds up. I prefer the slightly more upbeat/electric Lemonheads version, but this is decent. Also, I had no idea A Hazy Shade of Winter was a cover! Overall, decent album. Not one I'm going to put on a normal rotation, but it's definitely "good" for what it is.
Sounds like a Ramones and Sonic Youth had a baby. It sounds exactly like you'd expect early 80s punk to sound. Because, musically, it sounds like every other early 80s punk song. The female vocalist sets it apart from its peers, but definitely not enough to outweigh the fact that it's bog standard, formulaic, early punk rock.
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this album. It's so outside of the realm of music that I've been exposed to that I barely know what I'm listening to. I'll tell you one thing, though: it's fucking violent. All the old people that cry about hip hop music -- this is an entire album dedicated to shooting people! Hanging Me Tonight is a story about a dude that murders his ex-girlfriend and her new man in cold blood. There's an ode to Billy the Kid, a notorious murderer; a serial killer feted in Big Iron; and is chock full of stories that glorify the robbing, killing, and all-around depravity of the thug life. Marty Robbins is about that life. Who knew?
It’s a good album, and Fast Car is iconic. It’s an incredibly important album and one of the biggest selling albums of all time. However…I just struggle to connect to it. I don’t know why, it’s a good album, for sure,but that’s as far as it goes. Lyrically, it’s brilliant. It is timeless in that if I don’t know any better you could convince me it was released today, but still. Three stars
No.
I mean, it's jazz. I don't know how to rate this, because it just sounds like jazz. Is it good? I don't know! is it bad? No clue! If you've heard jazz before, you've heard this album. I'm sure that's incredibly reductive analysis, and if someone who actually *knows* jazz reads this they're fuming at what an uncultured moron I am. In terms of rating, it's fine. 2 seems harsh, 3 seems inflated (considering some of the other albums I've rated a 3). I'd give it a 2.5 if I could.
This is a strange album in that Apple Music has it categorized as "psychedelic," and that's not wrong, exactly, but it could easily be categorized as folk, or singer/songwriter, with a heaping helping of blues. Fred's voice is unusual in that it's not exceptional, but it's very pleasant, and it works GREAT with his songs. The initial album is pretty OK. I didn't intend to listen to the second disk, but im glad I did, because the live performances are the highlight of the show for me. Overall, it's very 60s. Another highlight is hearing the sections where he's talking to the crowd and you hear that very stereotypical 60s/70s stoner accent. I'm ultimately pretty pleased I got to listen to this. Solid 3 stars.
Debonair is a high point. Otherwise this is the epitome of an early 90s, grunge-adjacent, rock album. And I say that, as a fan of early 90s rock music, in the least nostalgic/complementary way possible. It's just kind of boring. The singer isn't great. It kind of reminds me of The Lemonheads or Paul Westerberg. Not really heavy enough to be grunge, but with some of the same affectations. A grunge-ish paint-by-numbers album, if you will. Not terrible, I guess. Would give a 2.5 if I could, but feel like I should round down on this one.
This was a good album. Fun, and unique. It’s way, way different than his work in Gnarls Barkley. I was close to giving this album 4 stars, but it’s LOOOONG, clicking in at over an hour, and the last third of the album wasn’t as compelling. I wish I could officially give it a 3.5.
Fucking. Classic. All-time banger. Put this shit in a time capsule and future generations will know EXACTLY what 90s rap was all about. The incomparable Snoop D.O. Double G!
Apologies in advance for what is going to be a very "Bah Humbug!" review. I don't particularly like Christmas music. It's the same eight songs covered by 93,765 artists -- most songs sound the same, though some artists want to put their own "spin" on the song. I'm not sure which strategy is more annoying. I don't particularly like 50s pop. This album is filled with, what I presume to be, big-time 50s pop stars. The Ronettes & Darlene Love do most of the lifting here, and it's...sigh. Look, I don't want to give it one star, but there's nothing here for me. I don't know who these artists are, and the songs I do know I've heard a million times, and most of these songs are essentially indistinguishable from anything I've ever heard before. I'll give it 2 stars because I feel guilty giving it 1 star, but, yeah.
Christine's Tune starts the album and it's VERY country sounding. It gets worse from there. Sin City is a straight up country song. I almost never look up a band or album before listening because I want to formulate my own ideas, but I am *not* subjecting myself to listening to any country music. So I looked it up and it's Gram Parsons, who people somehow constantly label as a "rock" artist, but who, in my opinion, sounds indistinguishable from any country music snippets I've ever heard. In summary, this album is trash.
I’m a 90s kid and I never warmed to Sonic Youth. Listening now, I’d say I was a bit harsh on them, but I definitely remember why I never liked them. The Thurston Moore-led songs were better than I remembered, but the Kim Gordon screeching songs were intolerable. Overall, a perfectly serviceable early 90s album that bridges the gap between 80s punk rock and full on grunge. 3 stars is just right.
It was fine.
Honestly, a bit disappointing. I loved this album in the 90s. It was so different than anything else, and it was difficult to find this kind of music. I was excited to see it pop up on the list, but honestly, it was just OK. It’s still a good album that I would recommend for lovers of a certain type of music, but revisiting it after a long time away, I found it a bit dry.
I’ve never understood the allure of Springsteen, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a full song other than Born in the USA, either. So I was incredibly surprised at the music on this album. Many of the songs were surprising, the hard rock, versus the “working class“ pop rock that I’ve always associated with Springsteen. Now, for the not so good. Springsteen‘s voice is absolutely horrific. I do not understand how anyone would willingly subject themselves through any amount of time, listening to him, mumble shriek, unable to hit anything close to approximating a high note. I’m torn on how to rank this album, because I don’t think it was bad, because the music was good. But I don’t think it was good, because I never wanna listen to anything that comes out of Springsteen‘s mouth for the rest of my days. I would give it a 2.5 star rating if I could, because two stars does seem a bit harsh. However, I think giving it three stars is an incredible injustice to some of the good music that I’ve listened to over the course of this project.
It's fine. If you like this kind of electronica, It's what you'd expect. Bang on 3 stars.
This album is weird, man. It sounds like a Haight Ashbury hippie tried to make spooky Cajun music using a cookie cutter 60s psychedelic formula. It’s not “bad,” per se, but I don’t know why I’d ever listen to it on purpose, you know? I’d like to give it 2.5 stars because it’s at least *interesting*, but in this format, I think 2 is the play.
It’s decent. A couple classic bangers, but there is a good amount of filler in there as well. Not a lot to say about it. Could be a 2.5, maybe? But I’m good with 3.
I don't understand AC/DC. It wasn't terrible, but it's not my thing. I'd give it a 2.5 if I could.
Pretty good album. It's not as good as Purple Rain, but it's quite quirky and good on its own - in a VERY Prince sort of way. U Got The Look is the standout song on the album, and songs like Hot Thing, Housequake, and Sign O' The Times are very fun. Other songs, like Play in the Sunshine and Strange Relationship are very Prince-In-The-80s way. I'd love to give this album a 3.5
I think it's a fun album. It's very upbeat and definitely gets your feet tapping. The criticism I would have is that it all sounds VERY similar. It's almost like a single one hour song. Not a bad thing as background music, but a bit repetitive when you're sitting down to actually listen to it. I'll give it 3 stars.
So, I'm not a big U2 fan, but the first four songs are incredible. Very, very good songs, and I thought I was going to have to revise my opinion of them! We were definitely trending towards a 4-4.5 rating. Then the rest of the album happened. Look, it's not bad. It's fine. It's whatever. But I remember why I've always thought U2 was a bit meh. I believe this album is considered their magnum opus, and I can see why - if you're into U2. The album is moody, it's very unique for the 80s and doesn't really show its age in an anachronistic way. Exit is another very good song that's on the back half of the album, but songs like running to stand still and One Tree Hill are just kind of bland, overproduced, overwrought Bono pretentiousness. Still, though, four certified bangers plus another quite good song in Exit means that this can't be considered anything other than a quite good album. Honest to god, the last song, Mothers of the Disappeared was *just* good enough to push me over the edge. I'd love to give it a 3.5, but I think this will be the rare half star rating that gets rounded up. I mean, whether you love U2 or not, no one can deny that it's an all-time classic album.
It was fine.
Super strange album. Listening to a man repeatedly intone "We are the robots" in a German accent for four minutes is certainly a new experience. Still. Not bad.
I was kind of excited about this album, because I know Aerosmith has some really good songs, including a couple on this album - Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion. Sadly, though, the first three songs kind of suck. No More No More is OK, and Round and Round is quite good, but other than those 4 songs, the rest of the album is decidedly meh. Overall, really disappointing album. I kinda would give it a 2.5 if I could.
Decent.
Truly one of the most baffling "superstar" bands of all time. For example, I don't like Bruce Springsteen, but the *music* on his albums is dynamite. His voice is shit, but lyrically, at the very least, the man tells an excellent story. The Rolling Stones? Jagger's voice is awful. The music is bog standard basic "rock" at best, and cookie-cutter, cliche "bluesy" at worst. I just do not see the appeal in this band - at all. Now onto the actual album review. Sympathy for the Devil. That song slaps. I might like it because it's in the final scene of Interview With a Vampire, and I absolutely loved that movie when I was a kid. Street Fighting Man is a halfway decent 60s rock song. Not great, but better than what I've come to expect from the Stones. Prodigal Son is *actual* blues! Jagger does something with his voice that sounds different than usual, but fits perfectly as a blues song. Stray Cat Blues - not bluesy at all, but another pretty solid 60s rock jam. Better than Street Fighting Man, and I'd actually go so far as to call it good. And that's it. The rest of the album is filler trash. I'll give it 2 stars because there are two, possibly 3 good songs, and one song that doesn't suck.
This is a nice album. It’s funny to hear, in a way, because it seems so anachronistic it’s almost sweet. It was a very different time in hip hop, the early 90s, and as the antithesis to “gangsta rap,” this is on the “conscious rap” Mount Rushmore. That said, nostalgia aside, I can’t give it 4 stars, because I think the chances of me choosing to put this in my current listening rotation is slim to none. It’s a nice trip down memory lane, but I’ll take my feel good dopamine hit and move on to the next. 3.5 stars, if it were possible. *note: Busta Rhymes star-creating bars are always welcome in these ears!
Nope.
Brilliant album. Beautiful music, beautiful vocals, beautiful lyrics. It is nearly 25 years old, and it does not sound dated in the least little bit. This album is a true, timeless masterpiece.
It’s peppy.
Very good album. Better than Sign O’ The Times, not as good as Purple Rain - but close.
Every morning when I see wha album I have, I screenshot it and text it to my wife. We had extremely different upbringings, and have wildly different musical tastes, so it's fun to get her reactions of excitement, dislike, or even confusion for bands she's never heard of. Today's reply: "Meh." Nailed it. This album is aggressively mediocre. Most the songs sound pretty identical and it's so damn tedious. This album is what beige sounds like. It's inoffensive, sure, but goddamn. Do SOMETHING.
Loads better than I thought it would be. Not a bad song in the bunch. I’m blown away at how good it is. I’m not really an 80s music guy, but this project has shown me that there are some really, really good 80s albums.
Pretty great album, but difficult to rate. I don’t necessarily connect to it, but I 100% get why it resonates with so many people and why it’s one of the most successful, and enduring, albums of all time.
Very good. I've never been big on Dylan, but now that I'm older I definitely "get" him a lot more. Absolutely brilliant storyteller. If I have a critique, I'd say it does drag a little bit by the end.
Boring. He kind of threw in some Afrobeat stuff to make it less straight jazz, but...yeah. Jazz.
Weird album in a really fun way. There are some excellent songs in this album, like Come Alive, Dance or Die, and the the Gnarls Barkley-esque Tightrope. I didn’t love some of the slower, throwback songs like Sir Greendown, but I could see the sound and feel she was going for. Overall, an album I would highly recommend. 3.75 stars.
This is an interesting and eclectic album. It's kind of straight ahead experimental 60s rock, a harbinger of the progressive rock movement, a contemporary "jam band," and so much more. This is a terrific album in its genre and Calvary is one of the greatest guitar songs I have ever heard.
It's an interesting album. Not nearly as experimental as I expected, but of course that may not have been the case in 1975. Overall a nice listenable album. great background music for studying or working.
Will it be a 4 or 5 is the question? I *know* it’s a good album, but I haven’t listened in a long time. Nostalgically, it’s a 5. But in reality is it a 4 with a couple all-time bangers? Because Wonderwall is fucking *gooood*, man. It is potentially the anthem of my generation - and I say that as a certified hip-hop head. Wonderwall is nearly perfect. Don't Look Back in Anger. My god, what a song. Morning Glory is the underrated banger of the album. Then, when you think you're winding down, they hit you with Champagne Supernova! What an album! It's probably a 4.5, to be honest, but man, it's an excellent CD that has sparked a long convo with a buddy about the best 90s music for a certain subset of our generation. The dopamine hit from the nostalgia is worth another half star, easy.
A masterpiece. A weird album made by weird artists for weird kids, somehow became a classic. Party Farrell gave us a timeless masterpiece that sounds as good today as when I discovered it in the early 90s. Not a bad song in the bunch. 5/5 stars all day, every day.
Other bands/ singers this band sounds like - Richard Ashcroft -Oasis - Leonard Cohen - U2 Every song sort of sounded different, but every song sort of sounded like someone else. It’s not breaking any new ground, but it’s a pleasant enough album. 3.5
This is a beautiful album. I think it slows slightly at the last third, but overall it’s magnificent. It’s very much “of its time,” but it simultaneously transcends its time. It’s an excellent album, a special album by an artist who may have taken 90s rock in a slightly different direction had he lived long enough to continue his story.
Weird album. Definite indie vibes, but with some notes of funk, a little 70s organ rock, and No Trophy has that straight up classic reggae flavor. It's almost experimental? It reminds me loosely of The Flaming Lips, but more accessible. Every song sounds different, which is interesting. The first half was kind of interesting, the second half kind of reminds me of The Polyphonic Spree, which is to say it tries to be this grand cornucopia of sound but it's actually a bit boring. Kind of a 2.5 album. This is where I complain again about the 5 star review limitations because this is nowhere near as bad as some other albums Ive rated 2 stars, but nowhere near as good as some that ive rated 3 stars.
I texted my wife, "Pretty standard pre-grunge, punk-adjacent, late 80s/early 90s anti-glam rock. Sounds like a band Cobain would have loved." Says it all.
Turns out I really like Nick Cave. His voice is incredible! The album is from 1969, but *most* of it sounds like it could have been early 90s - which shows both the timelessness of his sound and how influential he is to musicians like Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley. The voice is the star here. The guitar and piano are set up softly enough to be adequate support for Drake to showcase his unique singing style. On several songs it sounds like he has an orchestral backing, and the strings pair beautifully with his voice, creating a lush, haunting soundscape.
It was very jazz.
Not great. It’s bog standard BootsandHatsandBootsandHats dance music. Very boring.
Another surprise home run that makes me so glad I started this project! I had heard of this band before, but somehow never listened to them. I don't know exactly what I *thought* they were, but it certainly wasn't the awesomeness that I just had the pleasure of hearing! This album is searing, aggressive, technical, and so damned fun. it starts with a weird, primal scream and gets weirder from there. At no point did I ever *really* know what I was listening to, it's so unique and unlike anything else I've heard. Although I could definitely hear the blues inspired riffing in the guitars, this album is more unabashed in-your-face rock than anything else. An easy 4.5 stars, a hidden gem, and one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in the 80+ albums I've reviewed
Meh.
This album is just not good. I remain baffled as to why The Rolling Stones are a thing.
If the Beach Boys morphed forward to the late 90s, spent a couple years listening to current music, changed their sound as little as possible while still trying to be more "modern" and, because no one would believe them if they said they were famous time-travelers from the 1960s, released an album under the name Super Furry Animals, this is exactly what it would sound like. Which is to say that it is bad. OK, the above was written during the first half of the album. I will concede that they did diverge their sound a bit in the second half of the album, even getting a little experimental in parts, playing with a bit of electronica. They did not, however, get better. A well-deserved 2 stars.
Their English is much better than my Finnish. I wish it wasn’t.
I have no idea what to even say about this. There's an entire song about poop, though. So that's fun.
It's OK. She's obviously very talented and has a great, smooth voice. But the songs sound quite dated to me. I'm actually a little disappointed, to be honest, because I've always known Sade to put out masterpieces - but apparently they haven't aged well to my ear.
Cookie cutter early 90s “alt-rock.” It sounds like it could be the Friends soundtrack.
I've listened to this album a ton of times, but not for 20+ years. It's excellent, better than I remembered. Frankly, I never realized that the majority of it is straight up, unabashed, undeniable punk music. The big radio hits were a little more straight ahead rock with punk influences, but make no mistake, this is a punk rock album. I never google an album before I leave a review because I don't want it to influence my opinion, but I would presume that this has to be one of, if not the, best selling punk albums of all time. Though I bet it's one that hardcore punk aficionados hate because they got popular and were thus "sellouts." But since the vast majority of Punk music is unlistenable shit, I think the direction The Offspring decided to take on this album was a good one.
It's fine. I think it started out strong, then sort of got a bit boring in the middle. it picked up a bit at the end, but I was kind of over it at that point. It's not really my kind of music, so an hour and 20 minutes is a LONG time. A bit of a fun fact: Apparently Huey Lewis, who would later achieve fame as the guy with all the songs in the Back to the Future movie, was part of the backing band or something. He got a call out for playing harmonica. This is definitely not Huey Lewis and the News-style music. Anyway, 3 out of 5 seems about right.
First song initial reaction: seems heavily influenced by Rolling Stones. This is not a good thing. After the first song they got a bit more diverse, but it made me realize something. All musical eras have their tentpole superstar acts that stand out and almost transcend the time and genre. Then there are myriad bands that are just kind of along for the ride, making music that is pleasing enough to the ears of those who like the tentpole bands, but never do anything interesting or fundamentally different. For the early 90s Alt-rock scene, the his band is the latter.
Not bad, but kind of forgettable. Sort of a wanna-be Nick Drake, with a little Neil Young thrown in for good measure.
If you’re from Boston and like to fight, you love this album. You know the type of white American that pretends to be Irish even though no one in their family has ever actually been to Ireland? This album is their soundtrack.
This is a very interesting, if uneven, album. After the first song, I wondered who, exactly, this was for. After listening to a couple more songs I realized it slots nicely into the Trip Hop, Bristol sound with bands like Morcheeba, Portishead, & Massive Attack. I love those bands, and utilizing that comparison is where I start to have slight issues with the album. Some of the songs are actually awesome, and represent the genre quite nicely, but some songs are just...off. I'm not sure how to describe it, except maybe they go a bit pop-y? When you're expecting a trippy, slowed down, psychedelic sound and you get some weird yodeling, or an upbeat 4/4 beat, it can be a little jarring. Overall, if you're into this type of music, this is gonna be a perfectly acceptable album - even good! Solid 3.5, but without any real exceptionality that sets it apart to push it to 4 stars
WTF
It's just kind of boring. Dreams is...OK, I guess ? Not for me, thanks.
it started off really strong. Immigrant Song is an all-timer, or course, and the album continued along that vein for a few songs. Then it got kinda bluesy rock, which was also pretty damn good. Then the last few songs were just kind straight blues. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, I just think they're not particularly good blues songs. Decent, sure, but nothing really to write home about. I know this is considered a classic rock album, and I really wanted to give it a good score, but I just kind of think it's just OK. Good even - but not great
I wanted to love this so bad!I listen to a lot of progressive metal, and Rush is the godfather of the sound. It started off well then it just kind of petered out. It's a decent 70s rock album, but it's not very proggy, to be honest, and it's no better than the Led Zeppelin album from yesterday. So, a sad 3 stars.
No.
Aggressively OK.
A goddamned masterpiece. I will admit that I am incredibly biased because I attribute this album to changing my life, but it really is that good. The songs hold up, musically and lyrically, more than 30 years later. The early 90s were a brilliant time for music, but we have lost so many of these artists far too soon.
It's listed as Indie Rock in Apple Music, but it sounds very punk to me. by that I mean it's sort of unimaginative, rudimentary instrument playing, and a high-pitched, nasally, South London accented singer with very little variation in his pitch or tone throughout the album. That said, there were a couple of songs where I caught myself bouncing my leg, so it's not 1-star awful. It is kind of tedious; however, so I can't really bring myself to give it more than 2 stars.
Excellent album. There is just nothing else like the Beastie Boys. Rap, funk, punk - it’s all there and more.
I’ll probably give it a three. It’s fun enough for what it is, but it’s definitely from a different time. It’s one of those “it’s fine, I guess” albums. Not shitty enough to be a 2, definitely nowhere near a 4.
It's definitely a time capsule to the early aughts, when it seemed like every rock band wanted to have this sound. The Killers, Jet, She Wants Revenge, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, The Strokes, and on and on and on. You don't hear much from any of them anymore, but this is a decent album. 3.5 stars
It’s a good time capsule album, but it sounds really, really dated. The beats are just from a completely different time, and it sounds almost quaint. When it released, however, it was the hardest hitting shit of all time. Definitely worth a listen, but it’s not going back into my current rotation. 3.5 stars.
This is a fantastic album filled with hits. Andre Benjamin AKA Possum Aloysius Jenkins is a goddamned lyrical genius. In an era dominated by gangsta rap (and OutKast gives you a little of that), Andre 3000 was usually way left of center. Even when he did dip his toes in the gangsta pool, his lyrics are written with a thoughtfulness and poetry only seen amongst the all time greats. I’d give this one a 4.5 if I could. There are a few songs that I think are kind of filler and the album is too long as a result.
Beautiful album. It sounds like a movie score.
It's kind of the quintessential early 2000s rap sound. The early aughts royalty of the hip hop world - Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nate Dogg - are all here. This was a difficult album to listen to with an open mind. I've never really warmed to 50 Cent, and it's especially hard to disassociate from the absolute clown he's become, but honestly, for what it is, it's a damn good album. This is the best selling album to come out of the Aftermath imprint (by anyone not named Eminem). It's hard to say where to put this album. I don't *adore* it, but that's because I don't *adore* this artist. That said, the beats kept me nodding my head and, if I'm honest, 50 Cent is a pretty damn good storyteller. I think I'd give it a 3.5 stars if I could, but it's undeniable that it is a massive album -- not only one of the biggest of its time, but one of the biggest in its genre of all time. And the diss track about Ja Rule is an excellent reason to bump it to 4.
So, I'll concede, I just don't get jazz. I know Coltrane is supposed to be the master, but this sounds like every other jazz thing I've heard. Obviously the musicianship is tremendous - these guys are professionals. But why is this better than any other jazz album? I listened to it twice just to see if I missed something on my first pass. It's good background music, I guess? But only in a coffee shop or something, because they go too hard with the horns to listen to this while studying or anything like that. I'll give it a 3 because I know I'm missing the point, so I don't want to go lower. It's not you, John Coltrane, it's me. But it's just not gonna work out.
It's different than I thought it would be, and I don't really know what I mean by that. There are a couple slow songs, which I didn't expect. It also kind of sounds like an exact meld of 70s rock and the hair rock that was big in the early 80s. The singer is not great. Very limited. The instruments are good, hard rock fun, if a bit rudimentary - especially the drumming. I guess the best way to describe the music is that they won't be on anyone's top ten lists for their individual instruments, but they sure know how to have a good time. This is a solid album. I've known of Iron Maiden, but they were a bit before my time so I never listened to them. Much better than I expected, I'd even say I enjoyed most of it, but I can't see ever listening to it on purpose. If that's not the quintessential 3 star rating, I don't know what is.
It’s OK. It sounds like Arctic Monkeys with a slightly 60s-ish loung-y vibe
It's just punk rock template. It's fine, I guess, and if you're into punk you'll probably like it, but it's just so boring. Nothing unique or interesting about it.
For better or worse, there’s nothing quite like Red Hot Chili Peppers — and both options are on display in this album. On one hand, songs like Breaking The Girl, Give It Away, and Under The Bridge sound as fresh and relevant now as they did 30 years ago. On the other, the juvenile lyrics featuring clumsy sexual metaphors and constant references to Keidis’s dick are cringeworthy and tired. The secret sauce to the Chili Peppers is, undeniably, Flea. He has a very distinct way he plays the bass, and is responsible for the very non-alternative rock sound on this record such as the orchestral arrangements, trumpet and violin. Although I think the last half of the album drags it down a bit, at their best, RHCP are in a league of their own, and for the majority of this record, they’re undeniably at their best.
It’s Elvis. I don’t know how to fairly rate this. I’ve heard so many Elvis impersonators in my life that it’s impossible to take him seriously. At this point, Elvis just sounds like another Elvis impersonator. Frankly, it’s just not for me, man. It sounds so old and outdated, I just can’t connect with it in the least little bit. And all of the organs and slide guitars put it veeeery close to being country, which I cannot abide. I thought about giving it 2 stars, just because it’s Elvis, and regardless of whether I like him, his music and legacy has, for reasons I cannot fathom, continued to endure. Then I remembered that he’s a child predator, so fuck him. 1 star.
It’s not very good. It’s really kind of poppy and random. It’s like what you would hear at a kids dance party.
It's interesting. Some songs are definitely stereotypical 70s rock, but there's an interesting thread running through the album of non-traditional sounds. Mercury's voice is, of course, a high point of the album, as he's got incredible range and creativity. Although songs like Bring Back That Leroy Brown are a bit hokey (as an almost ode to the 20s sound), there are definite high points such as Stone Cold Crazy and Killer Queen. Whereas bands like Led Zeppelin unabashedly "borrowed" heavily from Blues, Many of the songs on this album feel like they are from the soundtrack of a Broadway play. Hard rock cum musical theatre, if you will. I listened to it a second time, and it really is quite good, for the most part. I really don't think I can give it a 4, but I'd say its a solid 3.5 stars.
I didn't know what to expect when this popped up, but I was a bit disappointed because I'm tired of 70s albums. I've had 29 of them so far and it's my second lowest rated decade. I must say, however, that I'm pleasantly surprised by this. It's classified as Pop by Apple Music, which I find a bit odd. To me, it's punk-adjacent rock and roll. The musicality is superior to most punk music, however. They're nice, bite-sized songs rarely going much more than 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. 12 songs in 38 minute package. I certainly won't be putting this in a normal rotation, but it was a nice listen. 3 stars.
It's the gold standard of this sort of record bin dumpster diving sample-driven electronic music.
I wanted to like this album, I thought the first song was fairly decent and had some R.E.M. vibes. Sadly, I feel like every song got just a little bit worse as the album went on.
It’s fine.
Very interesting album. There are some songs that are extremely good, and some that aren’t. It appears to be a very personal story of a trans girl, and the lyrics are at times sweet, and delicate, and very moving. The singer has a great voice with a very distinct vibrato - perhaps too much at times. I liked this album. Although I don’t think I’d ever intentionally seek it out to listen from front to back, I probably wouldn’t skip any songs that started playing on a random mix.
Masterpiece. One of the greatest, most influential, genre-defining albums of all time. Literally not a single weak song on the entire album. This is the album that saved us from hair metal and I will be forever grateful.
It was pretty solid. I've never listened to any early Tom Petty, it was much better than I expected.
I know Joy Division is HUGELY influential, and I wanted to like it, I just couldn't really connect to it. I gave it a second listen, and I liked it significantly better. I'm not sure I love the singers voice, I'm not big into goth, and those are the vibes his voice gives me, even if the music isn't particularly goth. Overall, I can't say it's a bad album, so 3 stars it is.
It's kind of fun to listen to something so different. It's fun and bouncy, but it does start to get a little repetitive, especially as I don't understand Portuguese.
It's very U2. If that's your thing, you'll love it. if it's not your thing, you won't. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this band was so goddamned big. There are some decent songs on here, like Beautiful Day, but none of them are iconic enough to warrant the amount of adoration U2 always gets. I understand that Joshua Tree was a classic, but this album is like a decade or more later. Lots of bands have one awesome album and then a bunch of mediocre albums, why is U2 idolized? Anyway, it's fine. 2.5 stars if I could.
it really sucks. The Boxer is tolerable, the rest is just unlistenable 60s flower child ukulele bullshit.
I don't know what I *thought* Dire Straits were, but it wasn't this, and I don't like it. I can't say it's bad, but it's tedious and boring. Sultans of Swing has something to it, that was the only good song on the album. It's definitely blues-influenced rock, and the lead singer sounds like a dime store bob Dylan without the interesting bits.
This is a truly great album. Borrowing from countless genres, yet unmistakably electronic, Roni Size samples and incorporates so many sounds, beats and rhythms to make this album sound like nothing else. Not quite jungle, and far from your standard bootsandhats techno, I don't know how exactly to categorize it, but I love it.
Two songs in, and what an absolute delight of an album. The first 90 seconds sounded like a mic check, so I was a bit worried, but what followed was an unabashed hard rock album. It's not going to change the world, it didn't define a genre, but goddammit is it fun!. Bloodsucker is a fantastic mix of guitar shreds, offbeat rhythms, high pitched shrieks, and even a splash of 70s rock organ thrown in. What a treat! The album only has 7 tracks spanning 44 minutes. The third track, Child in Time, is a loose jam that I'm sure was dynamite to hear in concert. the rest of the album is very good, not great, with a bit too much of the 70s rock organ for my taste. All in all a terrific album that is an absolute grandfather to modern heavy metal AND progressive metal. 4 stars
This is very much not my thing. The singing is fucking awful. Wikipedia says Jerry Garcia is known for his "distinctive guitar style" and it just sounds like rudimentary bullshit to me. I dont understand the allure of this band if this album is representative of their sound. I cannot find a single redeeming quality other than it's not country. Right after I wrote the above, the next two songs have decidedly country-ish twangs to them. This album is just bad, man.
There’s a couple songs on here that are recognizable, the rest of it is shit. I’m so sick of 70s albums.
This is a really good album, man. I kind of want to give it 4 stars, but I’m not entirely sure I can because it does sound a bit dated. But it’s a hell of a fun ride and Bjork is incredible as always. You know what, I’m just gonna do it. I’d probably give it a 3.5 if I could do half stars, but this album is so much better than many others that I’ve given 3 stars to. Maybe not as good a those I’ve given 4 stars to, but the gap is much smaller.
The title track is sorta famous, I think? At least, I've heard it before and I have no clue who this band is. Furthermore, the second song, Ricky Dink, has some parts that are very familiar to me even though I'm fairly sure I've never heard the entire song. The third song is I Got A Woman, which is a cover of a Ray Charles song. It took this long for me to be sure that that this is just an instrumental album. It's kind of catchy, but it's a lot of organ playing, which gets old fast. Otherwise, it's just kind of there, you know? I'm not sure what's special about this album other than the fact that it appears to be a vehicle for promoting the organ, which doesn't really scratch any of my personal itches. Listening more through the album, it seems like it's very bluesy but distinctly, like, 60s rock organ bluesy. It's not my jam, but I think I can see why it was included in this list, because it is kind of its own thing, but at the same time, there appear to be several covers, which is the opposite if "it's own thing." I don't know. I'll never listen to it again. 2.5 stars.
I just can’t. 3 hours is too much, and I don’t love “indie” music in the best of times. It wasn’t awful, there were some toe tappers, but it’s just too much.
Very weird album, more like experimental noise rock than alternative. That said, I did like it. It's very unique and not unpleasant. Im not sure I would seek it out to listen to again, but I enjoyed it.
Decent. It’s the Police.
I'm SO tired of 70s albums, so I had very, very low expectations of this album. I had a bad attitude during the first song, so it was headed for a very low rating. But once I settled in, the album is actually quite good! It sounds less like 70s rock to me, and more like early 2000s the the vein of The Strokes, The Killers, etc. It's not earth shattering, but it's a unique sound for the 70s. Comfortable 3 stars
Oh hey, another 70s album. I'm shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you. I feel like this entire project is sponsored by the 1970s. Out of 145 albums so far, 40 of them have been from the 70s. Since my overall ranking is around 2.6 for the decade, you can imagine my excitement in seeing this album pop up. That said, I'm pretty sure I've heard of Genesis. I *think* Phil Collins was the drummer or something? It's not like I'm a huge Collins fan, (but I also don't have Arseblog-levels of hate for him), so I'm not sure how much that's gonna swing this album to the positive, but here goes nothing. Verdict: It's fine. Whatever. 2.5 stars.
A very good album. It's definitely old school, but it somehow doesn't sound as dated as Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted, which was released the same year. Flavor Flav is better as a hype man than the main vocalist, so the songs that he features on are just a little weaker than the songs fronted by Chuck D, though 911 is a Joke is a classic. Like the Ice Cube album, I'd give this a 3.5 if I could, but in this format, I think the fact that it still sounds fresh, plus the fact that the lyrics and ideas on this album still hold up, pushes this to 4 stars.
The Pixies' heyday was slightly before my time, so I never connected with them, but they were famously influential on the early to mid 90s rock bands that I adored, like Nirvana and Radiohead. While I've heard songs like Monkey Gone to Heaven, I've never listened to this album in its entirety. Overall, I think it's pretty OK. It's not transformative, but that's only because it *was* transformative when it was released in the 80s. Some songs sound a little dated, and some songs still sound very subversive. I think the album started a little slowly, but I warmed to it as it went on. Black's voice isn't the greatest, but it's somehow perfect for this band. The use of Kim Deal's hushed vocals on some - but not all - songs tend to add a welcome ethereal quality to the punk rock vibes, and tend to hit hard because the effect is used sparingly. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could. I think it's a very good album that sounds a little dated, while simultaneously holding up surprisingly well for an album reeled in the 80s.
First two songs have a TON of 70s rock organ. The singer and the vibe very much worship at the feet of The Doors. The third song has an abrupt and curious shift to punk rock, of all things. I didn't see that coming. Then back to The Doors cosplay. Look, I don't love it, it's not my thing, but I don't hate it, either. I'm slightly surprised this band isn't more well known, but also, there isn't really a stand out song on this album. In an era of radio play driving pop culture, having an album filled with solid songs without a hit single to drive it means very little outside a group's core fans. 3 stars. And please, if there is a god, please let me go a couple weeks without a 70s rock band with an organ player. Please.
Hilariously, in my last review I asked theoretical god to give me a few weeks without a 70s rock band that features an organ player. So of course my very next album is a 70s rock band that features...a synth player! It appears there may be a god after all, and the prick has a very mischievous streak. The second song, Metal, is familiar to me as it was covered by Nine Inch Nails. I'd imagine this Numan fellow was quite an influence on Trent Reznor. Overall, a weird, quirky little album that I'm sure influenced quite a few acts from the 90s, but ultimately its just fine.
It's early rock and roll. It's pretty upbeat, so that's good, I guess? Better than Elvis, at least, and ironically less country-ish. Wikipedia says it's considered one of th greatest live albums of all time. That might be a bit much, but it didn't suck, so that's something. 3 stars.
This is a tough one. There are some incredible, 5-star bangers on this album, like Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and Head Over Heels. Those songs stand the test of time, and are Exhibit A as to why New Wave hit so big in 80s pop culture. Then there are songs like I Believe and Listen that sound a bit dated I think this is a very good CD. Even songs like The Working Hour (which starts slow but grows into itself) and Mother's Talk are pretty decent. I've never identified myself as a person who likes 80s music - in fact, quite the opposite - but I like this album. So here, again, is the limitation of the 5 star system with no half stars. This album is miles better than some of the recent albums that I've given 3 stars, like Jerry Lee Lewis Live, Genesis The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, or They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, by Liars. On the flip side, I'm not sure I can say it's close to as good as any of the albums I've gives 4 stars, Like Public Enemy Fear of A Black Planet, DJ Shadow Endtroducing, or The Sugarcubes Life's Too Good. Where does that leave me, when I want to rank it 3.5 stars? Ultimately, I've decided to give it 4 stars. Not because it's an album that I'm going to put in my normal rotation, but because it was a phenomenal album in its time, it's an excellent time capsule of the best the New Wave movement had to offer, and, overall, the songs hold up pretty well 40 years later.
This album is terrific! I wish I had discovered it when it was released, because I’d have listened to it a ton. It’s a very unique, eclectic mix of sounds redolent of the best Trip Hop of the era - a sound that I was consistently searching for at the time. There’s some R&B flavor, traditional Indian sounds, a healthy amount of ethereal vocals, the requisite undercurrent of electronic beats, and an overall ambiance that, if you’re a fan of Portishead, Sneaker Pumps, Massive Attack, or Morcheeba, you’re sure to enjoy. I knew fairly early that this was a 4-star album, and briefly flirted with whether I should make it a 5 star. Then I realized that I’m scrolling through Apple Music looking for more of his albums. It’s that good. If a 25-year-old album holds up well enough that you're desperate for more music from the artist, that's a nailed on 5 stars. What an album.
The first two songs are pretty much country music. Not quite, but not far away. Lots of twang, lots of slide guitar, very whiny. Third song is more rock-y, but it's whatever. The fourth song sounds like -- you know those cheapo plastic pianos you can buy for a toddler? where all the keys sound similar and it's just a clinking cacophony of chaos as the happily bang away, oblivious to the migraine they're giving the parent? I'm pretty sure they used one of those pianos as the background for this song. Fifth song...Why don't they let this chick sing more? She's got a great, unique voice. The dude is just annoyingly bog standard. It's like when Alice In Chains started letting Jerry Cantrell sing more. Read the room, Alice, we're here for the vocal god, not the dude that sounds like my dad singing tunelessly while changing the oil in our 1967 Nova. Anyway, fifth song is pretty OK, actually. Bit long, but best so far by a mile. Song six, back to Jerry Cantrell Guy. Sounds like an overwrought marching band. I just checked and there are 20 songs. Fuck me, that's a lot of songs. I'm not doing this for 13 more songs, so I'll sum up at the end. It's just not great. There are crap songs, and there are inoffensive songs. It definitely picked up after the first few songs, but nothing I ever need to hear again. One star is extremely unkind, so I think 2 stars is the play here.
Excellent album. It starts out with Tom Sawyer and holds that level for the next several songs. It flags a slight bit in the last couple songs which, because the songs are ten minutes long, is a substantial bit of the album! They're not bad songs, they're just not to the level of the first few. But saying a song doesn't hold up to Tom Sawyer is nothing to be ashamed of. I find Rush, overall, to be uneven. Some of their songs are all time bangers, and some are just kind of there. I listen to a ton of metalcore and progressive rock, and Rush are the godfathers of those genres. But, overall, it's like I *want* to like Rush more than I actually do. Happily, this album lives up to the hype. Still slightly uneven at the back end, but an overall 4 star record.
Not for me, thanks. The best thing I can say about it is that it doesn’t sound like The Beach Boys. I’ll give him a bit of credit for that.
This album is VERY Bjork. Lots of sounds packed into this, from orchestral, to strings, to weird buzzes, clicks and hums - it'll keep you on your toes. Of course Bjork's wonderfully hazy, ethereal voice is the star of the show here. Apparently this is a breakup album, and it shows. The lyrics are, at times, gut wrenching, the pain and emotion palpable. I loved this album and would give it a 4.5 if I could.
It's another one I wanted to like more than I did. It's just not great. It's also not terrible, it's just slightly boring. I can see how it was quite subversive in its time, but today it just sounds quaint and anachronistic. I'd give it 2.5 if I could. I'll probably end up giving it 3 stars because it's not *bad* per se.
This is such a fun album. I’ve watched the Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel several times but this is the first time I’ve listened to The Darkness. It’s so over the top! It’s not something I’m going listen to every day, but it is unabashed in its silliness, while at the same time exhibiting some real bonafide musical talent. 3.5 stars
5 stars. I know this album like the back of my hand. This was the album that got me in to HARD music. I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music as a kid (I was in a cult), so my cousin and I would go to the basement and huddle around his little tape player with the volume on one and our fingers hovering over the stop button in case his mom opened the basement door. This was the perfect metal album. Cowboys from Hell still had tinges of their hair metal past, but by the time Vulgar dropped all traces of glam were erased and Phil’s growls, grunts and screams are pure aggression.
I know Nick Cave is beloved, and I never really understood why - but I somehow kind of missed him in the 90s. Listening through this I can say that…it’s fine. Interesting voice, not a lot of new ground broken, but pretty ok. I really wish this thing had half stars, because this album is a solid 3. It feels unfair considering I’ve given worse albums 3 stars that deserved 2.5, and better albums I would have loved to give 3.5, and there’s just no way I can give this 4 stars. So it’s an accurate score that feels unfair to other albums based on the limitations of the rating system
Love Otis Redding. That voice is as good as it gets.
It’s very weird, and very good. I’m struggling on how to rank it because the last couple songs get, like, avant garde noise rock weird, which is annoying, but the rest of the album is very nice. In fact, there are a couple places where you could almost convince me that it’s an early Radiohead B side. I think the last two songs are too weird to give it 5 stars, but I think 4 is about right.
pretty good, early prog.
I am very fond of Dave Grohl. I am not very fond of Foo Fighters. I was a huge Nirvana fan in the 90s, but never really warmed to Foo Fighters. Listening to this album, I think the non-radio singles are more punk, and better songs, but it all sounds very 90s - which is great! But it's still only fine. *Maybe* I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could do half stars, but I'm not agonizing about giving it a 3, either. Give it a listen. Or don't. You won't regret either decision. It's that kind of album.
No. Just fucking...no.
Ok, so, it’s not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it’s not bad at all! Really pleasantly surprised. 3 stars.
This is delightfully weird. Musically, it's all over the damn place. There are traditional sounds - guitar, drums, shaker - but there are all kinds of pops and cracks and just a general cacophony that probably shouldn't work, but does. And speaking of things that shouldn't work but do - Waits' voice. It sounds like he smokes 5 packs a day and gargles with razor blades but there's not a single misplaced note on the album. Who Are You is a song that's sparse, stripped back musically, putting his voice in the spotlight and, goddammit, it shouldn't work but it does. Even though the instruments are in the background, there's a standard 4/4 beat but there's a guitar, or banjo or something in the background that is definitely *not* playing the same beat/time signature and the rest of the song...but it works and it isn't distracting. I get the impression almost like I'm listening to a demo, and not in a bad way. There are always these drums and percussive sounds that sound like they're in the background; not turned down, mind you, but like Waits and co. are huddled around a single microphone and the percussion is farther away from the microphone. It has a rawness and authenticity, a lack of polish, an honesty of musicianship that is rare. I didn't know what to expect going into this album and, to be honest, I'm not *really* sure what I'm thinking after listening. I'm not sure I'd listen to it on repeat, but I'm pretty sure it's awesome?
It's better than I thought, but it's not great. There are some songs that I actually like, but then there are some that sound like country and country just plain sucks.
Country music is an abomination.
This is so incredibly not my kind of music that I just cannot see it. You Really Got Me is a song where you can at least see the Rock & Roll bones, but then they pivoted and went to this...mess. I don't even know how to categorize it other than to tell you there are lyrics about kissing a girl under the old oak tree. That's not much of a descriptor, I know, which should really underscore the deep antipathy I feel for this album.
This easy listening, banjo-pickin’, boring ass, elevator music is not for me. This is one of the biggest bands of all time? The early 70s were a cesspool of shit music. The very best thing I can say about this album is that it’s only 37 minutes.
Fantastic album if I wanna dance. Slightly less appropriate for sitting in my office. 3 stars, I think it's fine. It's not earth shattering, but it's definitely listenable.
It's all very Elton John. It's kind of bouncy, I guess, but good christ, it's too long. All of the songs pretty much sound the same, so an hour and 15 minutes or whatever is just too damned long. 2 stars because it's not awful, but I'll be happy to never hear any of these songs ever again.
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Honestly, it's just a bit boring. I know New Order are supposed to be the New Wave gods that ushered in blah blah blah, but it just sounds really paint-by-numbers synth pop. Considering this album came out the same year as Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails, I just think it sounds safe and uninteresting. It gives me no pleasure to give this 2 stars, and I would potentially give it 2.5 if I could, but here we are.
It started really strong, with Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day being amongst the first 5 songs. I was surprised that this album is early 80s, because it really doesn't sound like it...until song six, The Refugee. I actually stopped what I was doing and looked at my phone, surprised because I thought it was a different band. It sounds so different than the first 5 songs, I thought it was, like, Oingo Boingo or something. It sucks, is what I'm saying. After that it kinda picks up and sounds like U2 again, which means it's aggressively mediocre. I'll give this 3 stars, but it's milquetoast U2 at its absolute peak.
This is a wonderful album. It’s definitely a little “different,” but it’s amazing. Novocain for the Soul was a massive hit that most people will remember. The lyrics are tremendous - thought provoking and, in places, heartbreaking. E is amazing at seeing people and writing from the heart. 4 solid stars.
Honestly, one of the biggest and best surprises since I started this project, nearly 200 albums ago. I am stunned that I missed this band in the 90s. I had heard the name but somehow never came across any of their music and boy did I miss out! Musically it’s fantastic. The unfortunately named Charlie Big Potato has the chunky grooves and creative time signatures that would make any prog band blush. The lead singer has pipes FOR DAYS. She is one of the rare breed that can actually use her voice like an instrument, getting gritty when needed, or sounding ethereal and angelic when it suits the song. Add to this mix the very good lyrical writing and you have an album for the ages. Why this band wasn’t even bigger I will never know, but it’s a 5 star album for me.
I do not like 80s pop music. At all. So you can imagine my chagrin when this popped up this morning. Oddly, It starts off much stronger than I anticipated. Money Changes Everything was almost more punk than pop, with strong lyrical imagery. Even Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, the epitome of 80s pop, tells a pretty strong story if you focus on the lyrics. This is where it starts to fall down. When You Were Mine is a bog standard unrequited love pop song, and though Time After Time actually has some really sweet and heartfelt lyrics, the song itself is dreadful, and it just gets worse from there. The last song, Yeah Yeah, has some weird, badly mixed VoiceOver. I don't know if it's supposed to be Betty Boop or something, but it's distracting and annoying and it's definitely crap. I'm going to give it two stars. I'm actually impressed by parts of the album, but the parts that lean into the cliche 80s pop sound are just too bad and too numerous to rate any higher.
I wanted to like this album more than I did. I really enjoy underground hip hop, but this one just seemed a little boring. I don’t know, it’s fine. I’m really torn. I don’t want to give it 2 stars, but I’m just not sure it’s good enough for three. I would give it 2.5 if I could. Since I can’t, I have to go with 2 stars because I was just bored.
Yeah. 5 stars. This album is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. Not a single weak song. Goddamn, if I could give this higher than 5 stars I would. Masterpiece.
This album is just a bunch of nothing. I listened to it yesterday and now, at 8am this morning, I can barely remember anything about it. It left absolutely no impression whatsoever. It is a bowl of non-flavored yogurt. It is a lukewarm glass of water.
Yeah...no.
Totally fine. Sounds like mid 2000s radio rock. Kasabian-like. It’s fine.
Ponderous 80s bubblegum pop dross.
I don't know. Ultimately, I just find her voice regrettable. I think she's a good songwriter, but I just cannot connect with the music at all. I wish I could give it 2.5 stars. I think it's probably a "good" album if you're into this sort of thing, but I just don't like it, so giving it a 3 seems wrong. So just know in spirit it's 2.5.
I'm not going to argue that this is the greatest hip hop album ever made, but I'm also not going to argue against it. This album changed everything. It was grimy, it was dirty, it was chaotic, it was layered, it was nerdy, it was SO FUCKING COOL. It was life in New York on the ground level, in a voice never heard in such a way. It was The Wire in aural format. It was, and continues to be as influential an album as has ever been created, a seminal piece of art, a nearly flawless masterpiece. PS - Don’t listen to the edited version that the included link takes you to on Apple Music. Take a second to find the full, unedited version in all its glory!
I'm pleasantly surprised. I know M.IA. through her radio releases, primarily Paper Planes (which, ironically, is one of the weakest songs on the album in my opinion). They're catchy, but they've never really grabbed me enough for me to seek out a full album. I can now say that was a mistake. This album is really, really good. Taking a cornucopia of interesting sounds, cultures, experiences, and ideas, she's able to weave this really catchy tapestry of sound that has kept me bobbing my head and tapping my toes. I think the first two songs got a little repetitive within themselves, but that is a small niggle, and one that does not portend further repetitiousness throughout the album. Each song sounds different, but still work really well as part of a coherent album. This is a great album. 4.5 stars.
This album is filled with staggeringly good lyrics. They’re so smart, and heartbreaking, and relatable, and honest, and thoughtful, and wise - I cannot even believe they were written by a 19-year-old. I'm a child of the 90s, so of course I've heard the big radio releases, but unlike Alanis I was nowhere near as mature or emotionally intelligent to really pick up on the words. It's simultaneously a VERY 90s time capsule album, and a timeless album. You know, it’s almost a shame that You Oughta Know is the song she’s most well known for. I remember the talk always being how she was like kind of a psycho ex-girlfriend. When I hear it now I just hear pain and catharsis and an attempt to come to grips with the most intense emotional pain of one’s life. Which is what every breakup feels like at 19! But then the rest of the songs on the album show the growth, and self awareness, and expectations for future relationships, the healing process that shows how she came out the other side of that pain. There’s an understanding that pain is a part of life and if you embrace it, and learn from it, that it can be positive. it’s almost like You Oughta Know is the first half of the movie and most people don’t know how the movie ends. There are a couple songs that I don't think are as strong as others. I'd probably give it 4.5 if I could. Normally, for a 5 star review, I can't pick out any weak songs, but the lyrics on this album, I think, are so overwhelmingly great that I can forgive a couple songs that I, personally, don't connect to.
We’re having a baby in 9 months. Thanks a lot, Al Green.
Excellent downtempo electronic music. I greatly enjoyed this. One knock is I think it’s a little long, I kind of struggle with focusing with albums over an hour.
I don’t know. Maybe you had to be there?
Quite good. I’d imagine this band was an inspiration to Prince, as they blend R&B with Rock & Roll.
It’s fine. Very 70s.
I find this extremely difficult to score. On one hand, it sounds like theatre music, and I don't like theatre music. On the other hand...I kinda like it. I think they lean into the camp a little too much for me at times with weird sounds and slide whistles and stuff (Seaside Rendezvous is exhibit A), but man, is there anything else that sounds like Queen? I have a son that hates rock music, but loves musical theater. He actually loves The Wall because it's just a glorified musical, and this album has the same feel to me so I keep thinking of him. So how do I score it? I mean, it's a good album, but will I ever listen to it on purpose? Probably not. That said, I'm enjoying it! I'd give it a 3.5 if I could, but in this format, I think I'll give it a 4 because 1.) It's wholly unique, and 2.) Bohemian Rhapsody. The song is 50 years old and people still crank it. That's gotta count for something, right?
I guess it's kind of hard to completely dislike The Doors, but on the other hand, they sound very, VERY dated. This is another I would kind of give 3.5 if I could. When comparing it to yesterday's Queen album, I'd say the biggest difference is that the Queen album sounds unmistakably Queen, and very different than anything else. That gives it a sort of timelessness. This album sounds very The Doors, but The Doors sound is very heavy on the 70s rock organ, meaning it sounds very anachronistic. For that reason, I think this album gets a 3.
I enjoyed this. It was a nice palette cleanser, definitely music that I'm not very familiar with and it was a nice little head bopping background music soundtrack to my day. I'll give it a 3. At one point I was trying to look at it as objectively as possible, and as the musicians are obviously very talented, I wondered if it didnt deserve 4 stars. Then as I continued listening I felt like it was just a very long album. When I checked, I had blown past the album by 4-5 songs and hadn't noticed. So while I'm sure that these people are fantastic artists, the reality is that they're not *so* good that I could differentiate their sound from the next 5 artists that popped up. Ultimately, then, it was a pleasant little aside, and a happy 3 stars.
This is a quite good album, however, it does get a bit repetitive. I like the Black Keys, but many of the songs on this album - while individually good - sound very similar. Another album that, in my opinion, suffers for going over the hour mark. I really wish I could give this a 3.5. 3 stars doesn’t do it justice, but I just don’t know if it’s 4 stars good.
This one was a little difficult because, reputationally, this is one of the best rap albums ever made by one of the greatest rappers that ever lived. My reality, however, is that I never connected to it, or Biggie, when it came out. I have, of course, heard the radio hits hundreds of times, but I was legitimately curious to see how I would respond listening to the full album now, with fresh ears. Verdict: mediocre. I still just don't connect with it. Look, it's fine. It's very OK! There are some good songs, even one great song, but mostly it's just fine. As a hilarious bonus, while listening to the song Who Shot Ya?, which was/is a Tupac diss track, my mind kept going, "Who Shot Ya but you punks didn't finish, you 'bout to feel the wrath of a menace," which are the lyrics to Hit 'em up, Tupac's rebuttal, and the greatest diss track of all time. Checkmate, Tupac. Three stars.
So. Fucking. Tedious. It’s ok, I guess, but I don’t get the hype. And a double album? It’s too much. No thank you.
it was ok. A couple songs I really enjoyed, and a couple sound kind of 80s pop. You could feel the there's something different in here, though, from normal 80s pop, and it's this new wave, electro-pop stuff that gave us Nine Inch Nails, so that's worth something. 3 stars.
I quite liked it. Bowie, like Queen, is really his own, singular thing. I haven’t really listened to a ton of Bowie, but this album was really good. 3.5 if I could, but I’ll bounce it to 4 because I wouldn’t have a problem listening to it again for fun.
I really liked it. I don’t know how I missed this in the 90s, but Wikipedia says that the band never really broke out of cult status despite mostly positive reviews. They were big in LA, I guess, and I lived far, far away in flyover country at the time.
It’s an odd album. I thought it would be big standard 80s pop but it’s not. There’s a darkness to it that sort of seems like a precursor to emo. I liked it, for what it is.
This is country music masquerading as rock and it can go fuck itself.
I liked it. I know nothing about this kind of music, and I can’t say I’ll be seeking it out to listen to, but it was fun and pleasing.
I was raised in a cult, and Michael Jackson was one of the few secular music artists I was allowed to listen to. I didn't own this album, but considering 7 of the 9 songs were released as singles, I might as well have. I'm not sure how I actually feel about the album. Nearly 50 years later, Beat it, Thriller, Billie Jean, and Wanna Be Starting Something are still catchy in the best way. If I'm not mistaken, this is still the best selling album of all time, and with the way music is consumed now it will likely hold that record for the rest of time. How can you not give that a 5 star rating?
Welp, I love it. I couldn't listen to it all the time, but it's damned fantastic. I think it starts a little slowly, but that could be more because I didn't really know what I was listening to. It reminds me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor with vocals. I'm leaning towards 4 stars because I think it's a little niche for 5 stars, but it's great. I listened to it a third time because I kind of want to give it 5 stars. I think, however, I will go for 4 stars. I really, really like it, but im not quite sure it belongs in the 5 star group. 4.5 stars, for sure!
Frontier Psychiatrist is a BANGER, and Etoh was pretty great as well. The rest of the songs are kind of plug and play, paint by numbers, generic "electronic" music that I have trouble connecting with.
first thoughts: I'm worried. It's too long, and I don't generally like interludes, and this album has 7 "intros." On the flip side, I think I like Tom Waits - or at least I quite liked Bone Machine. We'll see. Starts out jazzy with the first intro, a live set where he's just kinda talking to the audience. It has the line, "I'm so goddamn horny the crack of dawn better be careful around me," which I appreciate. So it appears the album is a live jazz performance. It's good for jazz, his voice definitely lends itself to this kind of thing. I think it's enjoyable, but not particularly interesting or novel. I wonder about replay value due to the riffing and crowd work. It's interesting the first time, but how many times can you listen to it before it loses its appeal? Overall, I'm glad I listened to it, but I don't see how I can give it higher than 3 stars. One good thing, though, is that it's confirmed that I *do* like Tom Waits.
I've never understood the Kanye love. He's extremely mediocre. All of the bangers of his career are due to guest versus: Exhibit A is the song Monster. Absolute BANGER with a killer verse from Jay-Z and an absolute song stealing verse from Nicki Minaj. If I’m being fair, I think Monster was the turning point of the album. The first 5 songs were very meh, Monster is a classic, and the rest of the songs were pretty decent. 3.5 stars
I’ve heard the name so much with so much reverence that I was excited to get this! Turns out, I don’t get it. The music is pretty boilerplate and her voice is nothing special.
the most 80s of crappy 80s music.
It's pretty OK. Nice and smooth. It’s another one that’s tough to rank without half stars. I quite like it at points - Solid Ground is amazing. Probably 3.5 stars overall. Turns out he’s a t*ttenham supporter, which is AT LEAST a half star deduction.
This was about 20 years before I was born, but I liked it! I'm not sure I'd ever listen to it on purpose, but it was a damned good listen. This is a much better representation of 50s rock music than that thieving pedo fraud, Elvis. Elvis is boring and he sucks. Little Richard just makes you want to tap your toes and nod your head and shake your ass!
I realize I'm listening to this 40+ years later, and everything sounds quaint after 40 years, but I feel like I'm listening to a Yo Gabba Gabba episode. Sweet Dreams is good, so 2 stars.
Honestly, I just don't know what this is. Is it just cookie cutter hippie music? Because I cannot, for the life of me, find anything interesting or transformational about this music. I know the Kinks are supposed to be hugely influential, but why? Were they the first to do the 60s/70s rock organ thing? It all sounds like ren fair background music. It's awful, is what I'm saying.
I wanted to like it because I enjoyed the Little Richard album a couple days ago so much. I did not like it.
Pretty ok, actually. I’m not sure what else to say. There were moments where I could really hear the influence they had on Nirvana, so that’s good.
It's punk rock. I think I can understand why it's "famous" in its genre. It's like The Sex Pistols, but even more aggressive. Rollins' singing is abrasive and repetitive, and the overall musicality is kind of poor, but overall it's not, like, terrible. It's not good, mind you, and it gets terribly repetitive by the end, but it's not awful. 2 stars, I guess.
It's OK. I kind of like it, but it's definitely one of those things where I have to be in a very specific mood. 3 stars.
It's fine. Not much to say, really. It's kind of typical 70s reggae. It's pretty OK, for sure, but it's not special. probably 2.5 stars.
Too country. It's listed in Apple Music as singer/songwriter, but as the album goes on, the twang gets unbearable. I think she has a good voice, and the songs that don't lean country aren't awful - I could listen to them as background noise in a coffee shop. I'll give it 2 stars, because I'm fair.
Actually pretty decent. I've never heard of this band, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why it's included in this list, but it's pretty OK. kind of chill rock, if I had to categorize it.
OK, so Welcome to the Jungle is an all-timer if you like rock music, so let's just get that out of the way now. Sweet Child O' Mine is, if you're of a certain vintage, another all-time banger. Now for the rest. I mean, it's hard for me to get the fact that this is the quintessential hair band out of my head, but this is definitely straight ahead hard rock. It's not as hair band-y sounding as, say, Poison, so that' something. Rose's voice gets grating after awhile.
Perfection.
The first half was very good, the second half was much less so. I’d give it a 3.5 if I could, but I think I’ll harshly give it a 3 star because I very much disliked the second half of the album.
Pretty damned good, actually. Kinda punk, kinda zeppelin-y blues rock, kinda pissed off counter culture hard rock.
I just find early punk to be so repetitive and boring. It’s not awful if this is your thing, but 30 one minute songs that all sound like they are slightly different arrangements of the same song just isn’t my thing.
Get jiggy wit it! That’s the best thing about this album. I don’t like disco.
I like Bowie. I did not like this album.
No thanks.
Man, I’m on a bad run. This album was just kind of annoying and repetitive.
Kinda decent in a “World Music” sort of way.
I just can't with Kanye. Jesus Walks is a banger, I'll give him that, but the rank hypocrisy is so annoying I can't really enjoy it. Sometimes, he has some of the best lyrics in hip hop. Other times his flow is clunky, or so self aggrandizing as to be eye-rollingly tacky. Overall, I feel like it's an uneven album. Too long, for sure, but with enough quality songs that I can't hate too much. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could.
Frankly, it’s fine. Kudos to Aerosmith for being able to maintain their core sound while still evolving enough to stay relevant across several decades, but unfortunately, that means this album sounds like an 80s album. Lots of radio hits that I remember being pretty big, and even liking at the time, but now they just sound dated and mediocre.
It’s actually pretty good - another example of why I really wish this project had half stars. Because I liked this more than I liked Aerosmith, which I gave 3 stars, but I don’t think it’s enough to give 4 stars. Overall, solid electronic dream pop-y music. I actually like it quite a bit, musically, but the singers voice isn’t very good, so that knocks it down a peg for me.
I really haven't listened to much Bowie, but through this project I've realized I like him quite a bit. That said, I got Aladdin Sane last week, and that was a dog's album. awful. So I was actually nervous when this popped up today, but I shouldn't have been. I'm not sure if this is considered Bowie's magnum opus, but it should be. Magnificent writing, excellent vocals, and timeless musicality...for the most part. It starts off very strong through Starman, which is one of the best two songs on the album. It falters a bit in the middle starting with It Ain't Easy, but it ends very strong. If not Starman, Rock n Roll Suicide is the standout track of the album. Overall, I think the middle portion is a little too corny to give the entire album 5 stars, but this is a stellar album. Easy 4 stars, and another example of why we need half stars.
It’s ok. It sounds kind of new wave-y in parts, and sort of in that mid-2000s Strokes/She Wants Revenge/The Hives/Interpol genre. I don’t love the singers voice, but I think the fact that it’s a female singer is the only bit that sets them apart.
The problem with being on the bleeding edge with new technology is that it massively dates you in the future. This album is kind of the equivalent of a 14lb mobile phone shaped like a brick. It’s not that I don’t see the foundation it set (a young Trent Reznor’s mind must have been blown), and I certainly appreciate what’s to come from this genre, but to me, this sounds antiquated as hell. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments! There are a couple catchy songs on the first half, even if they do sound as fresh and relevant as bluegrass, and the second half has some nice ambient songs that are thoughtful and interesting and show that Bowie is not a linear thinker. It’s about as far from Ziggy Stardust as you can get, and it was an interesting listen. I’ve never heard any of these songs, and I wonder if this is a harbinger of Bowie’s later albums/sound. I read in a comment somewhere that this project allegedly has NINE Bowie records, so we’ll see.
Some bangers, kinda boring, tooooo long, basic Led Zeppelin template.
Lounge music isn't really my thing. The singer has a nice enough voice, I guess, but to my ears it's an album filled with The Girl From Ipanema, and that ain't it.
I really liked it. Once again, we need half stars. 3.5 would be my pick here, but I’ll go with 4 stars because I think It’s better than fine.
It was better than I thought it would be, but it sounds very much like what it is: mid-90s grunge. Fortunately, I very much like mid-90s grunge! But it’s not timeless in the way the royalty of the genre tends to be. I think 3.5 stars for this one.
Iron Man and War Pigs are such classics, though, and this album was incredibly subversive when it was released. All metal owes this a debt of gratitude, for sure. That said, while I respect it, I found it a little boring. Three stars is just about right.
I wish I liked punk. I have to admit, though, there's something charming about leaning into the cliched absurdity of the ultra short punk song in such a way. 14 songs in 15 minutes is sort of hilarious. And, as a bonus, It's better than the Black Flag album.
I don't know what this is. It's just noises kind of shoved together.
Well, I don't really know what I expected, but it wasn't this. I've heard about how "weird" Zappa was for years, but I definitely didn't expect a jazz-adjacent instrumental album. It's not bad, I'll start there. It's "experimental," sure, but not so much so that it's weird. There are horns, there are some odd time signatures thrown in, it all tends to be a bit free flow-y, but it's pretty standard stuff, really. A couple songs kind of give me a bit of a Phish vibe, which is blech, but overall, It's really just fine.
I love this album, It's SO good. The smoky, husky voice, the mellow, yet complex melodies, the sad relatability of the lyrics, it's amazing. If I'm being uber critical, I'll say that it does sound a *little* dated. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could.
I've never heard of The Band. writing this during the first song, a 5+ minute whine-fest, I wish I'd still never heard of them. Through the third song, this is awful. The vocalist is very bad. I understand why I've never heard of them. OK, song 5, The Weight. I've hear this song. I think it's just one of those songs that has been in movies or something. I don't know, I just know it sounds familiar. I'm through song 8. I am definitely considering some of my life choices. Mistakes were made. OK. Wow. That was painful. 1 star. There is nothing here for me.
I don’t know. I think it’s really good at some parts, and a bit tedious in others. Strangely, there are two songs with the exact same name, but they’re completely different. For me, the first Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road is the highlight of the album. Overall, I think the album starts a bit slowly, hit its stride on the third song, and finishes strongly. Solid three stars with the slight caveat that you absolutely have to be in the right mode to listen to it.
It's pretty OK. It sounds like mid-2000s rock (ala The Strokes, Interpol, The Killers, et al) but with a slightly more upbeat, slightly electro-pop foundation.
This is not their magnum opus, but it’s still so goddamned good. 4.5 if I could, but I’ve no issues giving this all five stars.
I often say that I feel like the 60s through the 90s have signature sounds, but the 2000s and 2010s are just kind of mush, but this album has proven me wrong. The mid 2000s absolutely have a sound, and it’s this. There are about a dozen bands that sound just like this, but I guess you’d say the strokes were the torch-bearers. I don’t know what you call the sound, or if they were the best at it, but they, and this album, are a time capsule to the mid-2000s.
Not for me. Blue Suede Shoes is fun and campy, but the I Got A Woman cover is a limp facsimile of the original. I Love You Because is sappy and unoriginal, and Just Because gives me old time revival vibes. The Blue Moon cover, however, has a sparse, interesting interpretation that I actually enjoyed. I know it's unfair, but Elvis has such an identifiable singing style, but unfortunately that sound and style has been relentlessly parodied for 50 years and I cannot take him seriously. When I was a kid, I bought the myth that Elvis was unique, and original, and brought a certain type of rock and roll to the masses. But as I've grown, and discovered that people like Ray Charles, Billy Wright, Little Richard and scores of others were out there doing the same type of music, I fully believe that Elvises level of fame has more to do with his race than his talent. Also, he was a pedophile.
This is so bad, dude. I think the singers sound Irish? So it kind of sounds like hippie Irish folk music - but not the cool hippie shit or the cool Irish folk music. If this was an album of old Irish drinking songs that would be AWESOME! sadly, it's more like music for Americans who pretend they're Irish and go to renaissance fairs and don't wear deodorant. The last song on the album, The Calvary Cross (live) is terrific. Like, where the hell was this in the original song - or at any other point in the album?! It's so, so good. What a shame there's nothing else like it, id have enjoyed an album full of songs that sound like this. Ok, so the last song was good enough that I went back and relistened to the album to see what I missed. I think it’s better than I originally thought, but i still stand by what I wrote above…just with a bit less vitriol. The Calvary songs are undoubtedly the highlights.
I just don’t know what separates good jazz from bad jazz. I can tell you I liked this album more than the last miles Davis album I listened to. This was much more interesting, lots of electronic, computer-ish sounds. Still, at its core, it’s jazz. Is it good? Who know! But I’ll never listen to it on purpose.
So, I'm not nearly old enough to have listened to a lot of Sinatra. That said, for the last 15 years, as we've set up the xmas tree with my kids, we throw xmas songs on the Alexa as background ambiance. Today I learned that Sinatra has, in my brain, just become the sound of xmas. Past that...I don't know how to rate this. I'm not a lounge-y type guy, so this doesn't really grab me. On the other hand, the voice is iconic, and no one can deny that it's excellent, but it sounds so, so dated that it's kind of boring. It's not bad, so it seems harsh and unfair to give it 2 stars. But I don't necessarily "like" it, and I wouldn't listen to it again on purpose, so giving it 3 stars seems like more of a reputation ranking. I'm going to go 2 star, because I think it's too long. I can stand it for a couple songs, but it starts to drone after a while.
I wasn't excited about seeing this album. I remember this album because it was everywhere you turned - tv shows, commercials - EVERYWHERE, and Moby kind of became a bit of an over-exposed joke. I was even less excited when I saw that the album is 2.5 hours long, which, no. Turns out the album was combined with a B-sides, so I found out where the original album stopped and committed to that - a still long but much more manageable 63 minutes. And it's terrific. Like, it's very, very, VERY good. The mixes, the vocals, the samples are all perfect and give this album an incredibly upbeat yet still chill vibe that is outstanding. I think it's aged awesomely well, and to be honest, I probably like it more now, 24 years later, with fresh ears. If you like electronica, especially downtempo, you're gonna like this. I'm not sure it's *quite* the rarified air of a 5 star as I think a song or two could have been trimmed, but it's a 4.5 for sure.
I like Bowie, for the most part, but how many goddamned Bowie albums do we need? There are lots of really great bands that haven’t popped up yet, but this is my 4th or 5th Bowie. I’m adjusting my view of Bowie from “I like Bowie” to “Bowie has some good stuff” This album was fine. I’ve never heard the full Changes song, just the chorus in movie trailers and such. It’s not that great. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a bit burned out on Bowie, but this does not feel like one of the greats.
I can't take the Monkees seriously. I'll say it's not nearly as band as I thought it was going to be. That's not to say that it's good, mind you. It's sort of stereotypical sappy 60s pop.
I’ve never understood the Beatles hype. They undeniably have a few good songs, but to be treated with such reverence and considered one of the best bands ever? I don’t get it. This album is kind of like that. Imagine is undeniably a good song. The rest are fine, I guess. Nothing really sets them apart from any of the other 60s pop songs. My album yesterday was The Monkees, and if I didn’t know the names attached to each album, there’s just not a lot between them. I'll give it 2.5 stars. Imagine is a good song, How Do You Sleep is pretty good as well.
Damn good album. 3.5
This is kind of tough for me to rate, because I'm not in the mood. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm not in the mood for it.
It sounds like the dude from the strokes woke up and decided to play with GarageBand on his iPad. I don't love it. I will say it's unique-ish, so that's something. I'd give it a 2.5 if I could. I'm going to give it a 3 because even though I don't *like* it, per se, I don't think it's *bad*, it's just not for me.
This is dirty, low down,stinking, nasty blues. Hell yeah.
Quite good, actually. It sounds pretty dated, but it doesn’t sound like 80s music at all. I can see why it’s so influential. 3.5 stars.
This was a lot of fun. I wish I had known of this when it came out. It’s very reminiscent of Massive Attack.
It's not bad, but I didn't like it as much as I had hoped I would. I think his voice is pretty basic, and the music itself sounds really dated. I'm not sure if he's known for being a lyricist, but the lyrics didn't really connect to me; I'm not sure if it's a generational thing or something else. I've heard the name for so long but never got around to listening to him. I have to say, again, I don't dislike the album, but I don't at all understand why it or he is so influential.
Weird album, kind of disco-y, didn't really love it, but Couldn't Love You More is the outlier stand out track. 2.5 stars.
I feel like this project is a little too heavily skewed to old music. Out of 270 albums, I’ve gotten 78 albums from the 70s (the most of any decade) and 46 from the 50s/60s - nearly half - and only 10 from the 2010s. Now, I do not, as a rule, like old music from the 70s and before. There are outliers, to be sure, and it's always fun when I discover the occasional BB King, or David Bowie, or Nick Drake. This album is not that. From the first song, it almost sounds like parody. Like a British comedian's version of what American disco sounds like. It's awful, is what I'm saying. It gets better after that...which is to say that while it still sounds like a British comedian's version of American music, it doesn't sound like disco anymore. So...better? It still sucks though. Bad. It's embarrassingly bad. I can only think of a few albums worse than this. Country music, shit like Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and The Byrds which claims to be rock music but is really country music in disguise, and Throbbing Gristle. That's it. This album is *that* bad. It's irredeemable.
I cannot overstate how absolutely fantastic this album is. I haven’t listened in many, many years, but holy shit. Not only does it hold up, it is definitively on the Mount Rushmore of hip hop albums. The beats, the lyrics, the wordplay, the interplay between the MCs - It’s all flawless. I often complain that we don’t have half stars in this, and for good reason. Even some of the other 5 star albums I’ve rated don’t hold up to this masterpiece.
Really good album from the “conscious rap” catalog. One of the best of the era along with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Nas. Minus one star because my wife won’t stop telling me how hot he is.
It’s a classic, but like most 80s rap, it sounds pretty dated. 3.5 stars because the message and the lyrics are timeless.
Like, what? Apple Music says this is punk, so I was prepared to be annoyed by nasal yelling, bad instrumentation and cliched riffs. What I got was…not that. The musicality is shockingly good (maybe only “shockingly” because of my own personal punk rock biases), and overall quite catchy. Make no mistake - it’s a mess. At points it sounds like a mic check, or a pre-show warmup. But then they morph into something fun, energetic, and downright catchy. The vocals are fuzzy and mixed back quite low, so there aren’t really any lyrics to speak of. I was so intrigued that I googled them, and Wikipedia has them listed as “noise rock,” which sound about right. I’m going to give this a 3.5. I’m sure it’s partly influenced by it being better than I anticipated - i.e. not punk - but I also think it’s pretty good, and it’s very different, and I’d totally listen to it again.
I'm not the biggest Chili Peppers fan. I think BloodSugarSexMagic was amazing, but after that I think they're just fine. This album, though, has to be considered a classic. Although I've never listened to this album all the way through, it's one of those that you kind of *feel* like you've listened to the whole thing because there were so many major hits released. I'll give it 4 stars, well deserved.
Randy Newman just sounds like Toy Story to me. This was like an hour of that family guy skit where he "sits there night and day, just singing about what he sees." it's funny for 30 seconds, it's a nightmare for an hour.
It's OK. I mean, it's pretty good in spots, damn good in others, and a little reductive in others. I was really into it the first half of the album, but it feels like he really leaned into the harmonica and folksiness at times, and it stopped sounding fresh and started sounding very cliche, repetitive, and boring. I think a 3.5 is about right for this one, as the songs that hit are fantastic. But it's really hard to give this a 4 because I just didn't enjoy the last half of the album nearly as much as I did the first half.
Most mornings, when my album pops up, I'll send a screenshot to my wife. This morning I sent a screenshot of this album with a crying emoji and a puke gif. Because I do not tend to like 50s and 70s music, and since this project seems to LOVE those two decades I feel like I have a constant onslaught of 60s and 70s albums. To say I was not excited is an understatement. But I have to tell you, it was much better than I expected. The first three songs were terrific! it loses a bit of steam after that, but there isn't really a "bad" song in the bunch. This is a solid 3 trending to 3.5.
Not really a whole lot to say. This is the quintessential sound of the mid 2000s. Not bad, but not that interesting either.
I like electronic music. As a relatively new art form, know that there is a certain degree of “you have to walk before you can run.“ This, however, is less “walk before you can run,“ and more “crawl out of the primordial ooze.” Although I greatly appreciate the pioneers that paved the way for the great electronic music that I’m able to listen to today, That appreciation does not make this weird, early German electronic noise easier to listen to.
I was afraid I was going to hate this but I didn’t. I don’t know if this is in any way accurate, since I don’t listen to much Billy Joel, but this reminded me of Billy Joel.
I didn't like this as much as I had hoped I would. It strays dangerously close to country in a couple places. That said, Down by the River is pretty awesome, of not a bit overly long. Overall, this is a three star album. Mostly fine, even pretty good in parts.
Very 90s, and not in the best way. It’s not a bad album, but for all the love it gets, I’m not seeing it.
This is much better than I expected. On one hand, it very much has the mid 2000s sound, but it kind of does it in a unique and interesting way. Overall, I'd give this a 3.5 if we had half stars. I'll give this a 4 because it's better than yesterday's Liz Phair by quite a distance.
For years I've had issues with Linking Park being lumped in with the testosterone-fueled Limp Bizkit bros of "nu-metal." In my mind, although there is anger and aggression at times, there is much, much more o this band. The Apple Music blurb for this album reads, in part: When Hybrid Theory came out in late 2000, it was easy to lump LINKIN PARK in with other so-called nu-metal bands. The difference was in how they processed their anger. If anything, part of what made Chester Bennington so compelling as a frontman was his ability to explore trauma without ever trying to avenge or place blame for it—a huge feat, considering how deep his trauma seemed to run. So, while the rap/rock/industrial blend of tracks like “Papercut,” “Crawling,” and “In the End” redefined modern rock, they also called back to bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode: sensitive young men looking for a break from pain. As one of those sensitive young men during those years, one who felt and feels a very acute connection with the lyrics and the pain of Chester Bennington, I feel seen and understood.
This is a tough one - because I liked it A LOT more than I thought I would. It’s a 3.5 at least, but is it a 4? I don’t know. But I’ll say this much: I don’t know why they thought they needed to add Neil Young. I had a Neil Young and Crazy Horse album a couple days ago and this is miles better than that. Since I think I gave that one a 3, I guess I’ll give this one a 4.
Pretty ok.
Pretty ok
It sounds like a Simpsons skit with Marge Simpson singing the most cookie cutter 70s rock music. It’s not awful.
There’s a certain stereotype of a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan that, as someone who grew up in Missouri, I have had the extreme misfortune of verifying many times over. So I never really sat down and listened to the band. Turns out I wasn’t missing anything. This band is what a confederate flag sounds like.
It’s not bad. It’s like that early 90s mixup of funky punk and folk. Reminds me of, like, The Lemonheads, or Dinosaur Jr, or The Replacements. It doesn’t really *sound* like those bands, per se, but they’d definitely tour together.
Part Polyphinic Spree, part Arcade Fire.
It’s very good, surprisingly so. It’s not really my kind of music, but it’s undeniably catchy. I’m going to say it starts to get a bit old. Y the last couple songs, but I won’t sing it to hard because it has the decency to clock in at an excellently paced 35 minutes. One of the relatively rare albums that lives up to the hype.
I don't know much about Nick cave and the Bad Seeds, but this album sounds like a guy who is a frontman for another genre of music trying to be a singer. His voice isn't *awful*, but it's definitely not great. In fact, his voice - and the album - is just boring. It's not bad, per se, but it's boring, and repetitive, and just plain bland. When the primary backing is a piano, the voice better be otherworldly. Nick Cave's voice is *not* otherworldly.
I'll never forget the night I saw the Firestarter video for the first time. Dark, mysterious, confusing, and a little bit dangerous. There had never been anything like it. Unapologetically hardcore, it was electronic music not for geeks, but for hip hop heads, ravers, metal lovers and those with punk sensibilities and a perpetual Johnny Rotten sneer. In short, this album had it all. I think this stands the test of time. Diesel Power with the inimitable Kool Keith is a highlight, but songs like Breathe, Smack My Bitch Up, and the aforementioned Firestarter will go down in history as some of the most famous and influential electronic songs of all time.
I do not know if this is considered "yacht rock," because I'm not entirely sure what "yacht rock" actually is. But whatever this is, it *should* be considered yacht rock. Or the precursor to. It's really annoying and I don't like it at all. I'm only on the second song, so I don't yet want to doom it to a 1 star review, but I just looked and it has 17 songs and lasts for 1 hour and 11 minutes and I'm telling you now that is TOO MANY SONGS.
This is exceptional. It just smooth, but funky. The use of horns and smoky vocals layered over a stellar backbeat is *chef's kiss*. If you like Wax Taylor, RJD2, DJ Shadow, etc. you'll love this!
It's kind of shoe-gazey, but not bad. There's a couple songs that, strangely, kind of remind me of, like, 60s pop that I'm not a fan of, but overall it's a pretty decent album.
It’s excellent.
I'm much more fond of the straight forward rock & roll songs like Somebody to Love and White Rabbit than I am of the flower child, ren fair shit like My Best Friend, Today, or Coming Back to me. If you're going to listen to weird hippie shit, I guess you could do worse.
It’s hideous lounge singer shit.
Absolutely not.
I'm sure my grandfather would have loved this, but it's not really my thing. All music from this era just sounds like lounge singer-y stuff. It's not *bad*, and she has a lovely voice, but the over-use of vibrato from this era starts to get on my nerves a bit.
I wasn’t sure about this album when it popped up, because I’m sick to death of 70s music. I have to say, at first, I was very pleasantly surprised! I don’t think that it sounded like stereotypical 70s music, it was very interesting and unique. For the first half of the album, I was leaning towards a four star rating, but I think the back half really declined in quality, in my opinion. I’d probably give this a 3.5 if I could, because I do you think that it is a good, interesting example of 70s rock music that isn’t the stereotypical organ rock.
I say this every time I get one of these classic rap albums, but old 80s/early90s rap sounds so dated and quaint, it's hard to take it seriously. The bottom line with this album is that it's better than I expected it to be, but it's WAY too long. No goddamned reason for this to be 24 songs and over an hour. A microcosm of the album is the song Body Count. Ice-T slipped in a hard rock song by his rock band on a rap album. That's creative, and interesting, and brave! The song is more than 5 minutes long - that's too long! I'll give it a 3. It is catchy, but man. Too long.
This is probably the best time for me to have gotten this album, because I've been listening to a ton of this psychedelic soul/alternative R&B. Frank Ocean, Miguel, Sza, etc, and this album fits in with that headspace. It's dreamy, it's poppy, it's ethereal. It's creative and unique, and it manages to be excellent background music while also being complex and poignant enough that one could sit in a dark room, close their eyes, and just concentrate on the music. 4 stars.
the epitome of 70s organ rock. This is not good at all. It's not country music bad, so I'll give it 2 stars, but it's really annoying.
Me: I am so sick of 70s rock music. 1001 Albums: let’s switch it up - here’s some 70s country music. Fuck this.
I’m. Sick. Of. 70s. Shit. 310 albums, 95 of them from the 70s. That’s ridiculous. As to this album, I have no idea what it is. Jazz, I guess? I don't get jazz, and then you add in all the weird 70s organs and I just can't.
pretty good. It's kind of a soulful, "conscious rap" type flow. The beats are more interesting than the lyrics, which are kind of standard, I think, but there's a lot of real creativity in the music.
I always say I don't like 80s music. But what this project has shown me is that there were loads of great albums released in the 80s, but what I don't like is a certain *kind* of 80s music. And that is this kind of 80s music. This sounds like someone created some synthesizer music, tried to sell it to Paula Abdul, and when she passed, sold it to these guys. I do not like it, is what I'm saying.
I've always heard how hugely influential this band is, but I'm not sure why. I think you had to be there. Because I don't hear a ton of sounds that I can identify from bands that came later. Actually, I just googled "what bands were influenced by The Velvet Underground" and most places reference older acts like Bowie, Eno, and Iggy Pop, and almost everyone says they are the godfathers of shoegaze. I don't really listen to much of any of that, so that's probably why it's hard for me to notice the influence. Overall, it's fine. The last couple of songs get weird, but I don't dislike it. I'm not sure I like it either, but 2 stars seems awfully harsh. 2.5 stars if I could.
Very 80s - but admittedly, a couple bangers (grading on a curve). The problem is, I just can't get past the cheesiness of it. It's 80s pop straight out of a lab, and that's just not for me.
I did not like this. It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be, it was very slow. It definitely had an 80s feel, but not overly so, like George Michael and that Scritti Politti nonsense. Still not good.
You know how sometimes in movies you see that old, stoner, hippie guy that drives a van painted with wizards, and dragons and shit? That guy loves this album.
Quite fun. 3.5 if I could, but I really enjoy these old rock albums. Except Elvis.
If Carol King and Joni Mitchell had a boring-ass baby.
In the 90s, I was a West Coast guy, so I didn't really listen to this on repeat like some hip hop heads did, so it's fun to listen to it now, with a bit of remove. I've never fully been on board with the genius of Nas, but this album is exceptional. the beats and samples are so good, and there isn't a weak song on the album. 4.5 stars.
It's pretty good. It starts out slow, but it picks up nicely - there are some bops in here for sure. The song Alright is the hit here - I feel like I've heard this song in every movie or TV show that needs a teen anthem montage. In fact, I just looked it up and it has been in 23 movies or TV shows since its release. Overall, I'd give the album a 3.5. I don't think it holds up to some of the 4 star albums I've rated before, but I feel like it's better than just "OK" or "fine," which has been my criteria for a 3 star album.
Pretty OK. Kind of a mellow rock type of deal. I'm curious why this is one made the list, but it wasn't unpleasant. Pretty unique. Solid 3 stars.
Really great album. I’m not really the biggest Beck fan, but this album is a bit of an outlier to his previous works. 4.5 stars.
I have heard of Killing Joke but never really got into them. People of a certain age will remember Columbia House, where you could get CDs mailed to you for a penny. I remember ordering a Killing Joke album and it just didn't really grab me at the time. Firing up today, I was very dismayed to see that this album was released in 1980 - I thought they were a 90s band. In short, this album is pretty awesome. It has shades of punk rock, in terms of the singers affectations, but musically it is much richer and more diverse. It doesn't sound like the 80s at all, or the 70s - it is something pretty damned unique. 4 stars.
It's pretty OK. It doesn't sound heavily 80s, but it definitely has some 80s rock flavor to it. One thing that knocks its rating down a bit is that its quality is fairly inconsistent. Some songs I feel like I can hear bits of R.E.M. or The Lemonheads. Other songs just sound like basic album filler that is just kinda there. Overall, not a bad album, but too goddamned long. 20 songs is too many songs.
I remember the first time I heard the song My Name Is, I literally said out loud, "Oh my god, Dre, what are you doing?" Turns out, I was very, very wrong. Not only is the song an all time great, so ids the album AND the artist. Eminem gets a lot of ink for being a white rapper, but amongst all the unique things about this album, his race is nowhere near the most interesting, influential, or radical. I've really spent a lot of time trying to decide the ranking for this album. with 25+ years of hindsight, I can say that this album launched the career of an all-time great, a cultural and musical phenomenon, a genius lyricist without peer. On the other hand, the lyrics are no longer shocking and, in fact, can seem attention-seeking and cringy. I would give this a 4.5 if I could. I don't think it's his best album, and I do think that it tails off a bit in the second half. Up to this point I've tried to reserve 5 star reviews for only the most special of albums, and I don't think this one *quite* lives up to that.
Overall, I like it. I think he's got a very unique voice. My main criticism would be that he doesn't have much range, so al the songs start to meld together a bit. I know people love Cat Stevens, so I'm glad I listened to it.
I love this album. There are a couple filler songs that keep it from being 5 stars, but the bangers are BANGERS.
This is a super weird album. At first, I thought I was really going to like it, later on...not so much. A brief listing of music that the album made me think of while listening: Arcade Fire, Charlie Brown, The Polyphonic Spree, Super Furry Animals, Peter & the Wolf. It's not unpleasant. It's unique and, in places, very, very good. 3 stars seems about right. I'd listen to it again, but I wouldn't seek it out.
Masterpiece. This album is Bjork at her weirdest, creative, beautiful best.
Country music is just whiny trash.
Firstly, Apple Music has this categorized as rock music. I'm not entirely sure *what* it is -- Funk? Disco? -- but it is *not* rock. With that out of the way...it was quite nice. Not anything I'd seek out, but very upbeat, groovy, and bouncy.
I don't really like punk music, but this is pretty damned good. It's like all other punk is either the early bones that this album perfected, or it's simply trying to be this album. I’m going to give this a 4, as I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
German noise rock is so tedious. Three songs in and I’m hearing something that sounds like a bubbling, clogged toilet with some simple banjo picking - oh, and here comes the random scream/wail and the shouting in German. It doesn't get better.
I don't really know what to say about this album. In fact, I was so puzzled trying to determine whether I liked it that I listened to it twice. The verdict is: I still don't know. I definitely do not like the first song, but after that it settles in to a perfectly nice, soothing, dream pop-type album. It's perfectly OK, completely non-threatening and about as cutting edge as a bowl of warm pudding. I feel like I've given worse albums three stars, but there's something about this album that's so formulaic that it's almost offensive. I think I'll give it a 3, because it's fine, but I'm not fully comfortable with it.
This popped up and my first thought was "oh, here's a 5 star album!" The first two songs are Bad and The Way You Make Me Feel - excellent! Both songs are toe tapping legends and we're well on the way to that 5 stars. But then...Oh boy. Speed Demon is just kind of weird, but still kind of bouncy and fine. But Liberian Girl is cringey af and Just Good Friends is gross 80s schlock. Another Part of Me is kind of catchy after you get past the early 80s sound effects. But then we're back to business! Man in the Mirror is amazing (even if it does sound a bit dated),Dirty Diana is still a pretty good time, and Smooth Criminal is still a banger. Overall, it sounds much more 80s than I remember. I'd give it a 3.5 but I'll bump it to a 4 because my brother-in-law was in the Smooth Criminal video.
Surprisingly decent. Wonderful? No. Very 60s, and Joplin is as screechy as ever. But eminently listenable.
A whole week without a Bowie album! Thank god this popped up, I don’t know how I was going to make it! There are too many Bowie albums. This one was fine.
I love this album. So fun, so unique. Fantastic from top to bottom.
It's incredibly bland, to be honest. You can tell this band LOVED Bowie growing up. Other than that, It's not special at all. They're trying to be Bowie-ish and Oasis-ish at the same time, but not quite nailing either. It's OK, overall, I guess, but I was surprised when I looked at the run time after the last song and discovered it was "only" 52 minutes. It seemed much longer.
It’s fine, I guess, I don’t know. Lust for life is a bit of a bop, Sixteen is creepy as hell (how were 70s rock dudes all pedos?), and there was another song I recognized that was kind of good but I can’t remember what it was. 2.5 stars
My initial thought when this popped up: Ugh. Not looking forward to this one. Let’s get into it. It starts off horrendous. Big Exit is a trash song that seems to go on forever, but it picks up a bit — a *slight bit* over the next song, and then One Line is actually good. A bit of a meh Beautiful Feeling, but then The Whores Hustle is pretty catchy. The Mess We’re In is FANTASTIC, though that’s mainly because it’s a Thom Yorke song. Back to meh for You Said Something, but then Kamikaze is a rocking good time. This is Love is OK, I guess (slightly above meh), and Horses in my Dreams is dreadful. Overall, better than I was expecting, but my initial reaction is still a bit justified. I kinda liked half the songs, so it can’t be less than a 3 star rating. I’m trying to decide whether I would rather listen to this again, or yesterday’s Iggy Pop, and I can’t really decide. Some good songs, some filler. Honestly, despite being 20 some-odd years apart, they’re not that different.
"That's a no from me, dog." --Randy Jackson
Because 1001 Albums You Dhould Hear Before You Die should be named All 70s Wll The Time, of course it’s Neil Young. That said, I *think* I like Neil Young, so I’m cautiously optimistic. Out on the Weekend had some slide guitar and a hint of strangeness twangy-ness that makes too country-adjacent for my tastes. This isn’t starting well. Harvest sounds even more country-ish. This does not bode well. A Man Needs A Maid is oddly named, but not country, so massive improvement. Sadly, the song - lyrically *and* musically, is just as bizarre as the name. Not great. The rest of the album is kind of the same. Some good (Old Man is FANTASTIC), some not so good. 3 stars, but overall, I think it diminished my opinion of Neil Young.
It’s fine. It’s just so…old sounding.
Masterpiece. Beautiful, bold, and flawlessly executed. Perfection.
OK, so, this may be incredibly unfair, but I just don't like it. I feel like it's really whiny. I'm all for a good breakup song, but dear god, every single song is about how she's been done wrong by a (I presume) man. So it's either she's been broken up with or cheated on, or she's pining for another woman's man or some sort of unrequited love. Ugh, it's boring. She undeniably has a great voice. Very powerful, and she has great mastery of it as an instrument - but she doesn't really showcase a ton of range. All the songs sound pretty much the same (the Lovesong cover; however, is excellent). I feel like two stars is harsh, but I also feel like I'd rather cut my fingernails too short than to ever listen to this again.
Ew. No.
Anthrax didn't appeal to me when I was younger, but I wasn't really into thrash or heavy music at the time. Fast forward 30 years, and I'm very much into heavy music, but I still can't get into this. It just sounds very messy, and very antiquated. It sounds like a garage band, really. it's just very much a thrash album of its time. I realize Anthrax are hugely influential and hugely important in the progression of heavy metal, but it's just not a great album. 2.5 stars.
OK, this is a strange album. The first song starts and I swear it made me think of Cyndi Lauper, it sounded so anachronistically 80s. The 80s sound was also heavy in the next song, but that song still had me tapping my toes. Then comes Personal Jesus. Fucking. Banger. Nothing 80s about that song, it's completely self-contained, only of itself, and timeless. What a song! Then you got Halo and Waiting for the Night, which, whatever. Halo is pretty OK, a bit of a filler song, and Waiting for the Night is slightly better. Then back-to-back you have Enjoy the Silence and Policy of Truth which - holy shit, that's a genius ten minutes of music! So, I've got an album that has some songs that sound really dated, and some songs that sound completely unique and amazing.
I gotta tell you- there’s nothing at all special or interesting about her music. Why the cult-like following? It’s cookie cutter, paint-by-numbers, bog standard, white girl pop music. And honestly, it’s just not that good.
Not my thing. I guess it's probably fine if it is, but it just sounds like tiki bar background music to me. It all sounds pretty much the same, which is great if you just want bland background music while you're trying to chat up drunk, divorced cougars, I guess.
I don’t like Arcade Fire. Some songs sound like Bruce Springsteen. I don’t like Bruce Springsteen either.
It’s sweet and fun.
God help me…I liked it. Like, a lot. Ren fair bullshit usually annoys the piss out of me and, honestly, it does with this album as well. But if I ignore the unforgivably stupid lyrics, it’s an outstanding album. I don't think I can quite give it a 4 because I think it's listenability is HEAVILY dependent on mood, but it's a strong 3.5.
It's so boring I cannot be bothered. I am also very far removed from the headspace in which this kind of music could be appropriate. The US election results have shown that this ridiculous country has decided to show the rest of the world its entire ass and re-elect a racist clown that has promised fascism. But, honestly, when a country that was founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves shows that a leopard doesn't change its spots, is anyone *really* that surprised? So we'll get what we deserve when the Christian Taliban and Supreme Court drag this country back to the stone ages. As a black man, that terrifies me, but the straight white people in this country couldn't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves. Always remember: There is no hate like Christian love.
Boring. Next.
One of the next albums, of any genre, ever made. There was nothing like Massive Attack before, and nothing like it since. Although the genre as a whole didn’t stick around, this album sounds as fresh and cutting edge as the day it was released. And it’s not even their best album.
Fuck sake. Two Temptations albums in three days. It's fine. Probably even good, but I don't need two Temptations albums in three days.
WEIRD. I kinda liked it.
I have had such a terrible week or so of albums, so thank god for the few rays of sunshine I have gotten. This album is awesome. It's so fun, and bouncy, and unique - I love it. Although I think they've done some solid work since this released, I don't think they've ever again quite reached these heights.
It's...not great. I don't really think it stands out. It sounds like stereotypical early 90s rock. That time where grunge was starting to wind down, but there were these acts that were kind of stuck between grunge and Clapton era classic guitar rock. 2 stars
30 seconds in, I'll say that I'm intrigued. Who knows if I'll like it (so far it sounds a little like circus music), but it's going to be completely new to me, and that's fun and interesting. I've gotten so tired of cookie cutter 70s rock, so anything new and/or different is so refreshing. OK, on to the actual thoughts about the album: It's not great. I don't know who this is for, really. It kind of reminds me of industrial in parts, but there's also a whole lot of something that sounds like an accordion. The vocals are kind of shit. All the lyrics are in French, so maybe it's genius lyrically, but I don't speak French. Overall, it's kind of experimental rock. Not the worst I've heard, but nothing I'm clamoring to hear again. Look, I stand by everything I said in the first paragraph. Discovering music is fun and energizing, and it's really the whole reason I started this project. That said, they can't all be zingers! And that's OK! So 5 stars to the project for including something unique and original, and 2 stars to the album for being a bit shit.
I never really connected with Sonic Youth in the 90s, but I gave their other album 3 stars, so let's see how this goes. I wouldn't say i'm excited for this, but I am feeling significant relief that it's not another goddamn 70s album. Final verdict: It's fine. Whatever. Sounds like Sonic Youth.
Hooray, more classic rock! Oh my god, it's been SIX WHOLE DAYS since I've gotten a 70s (close enough) rock album! I wasn't quite sure how I was going to survive without listening to another goddamned 70s album but THANK GOD that dry spell is over. OK, now that the snark is over...It's not bad.
It’s pretty ok for what it is. I got tired of it after awhile, but overall it’s solid.
Really enjoyable. Nice and calming, many of the songs were almost straight up blues. 3.5 stars.
This is a difficult one. As a cultural touchstone, it's epic. It's Eminem's magnum opus. No one can rhyme like Em, no one can tell a story like Em. It's actually difficult to listen to this while doing something else, it's almost like reading a book. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're not listening to the words. On the other hand, It's a tough listen in places. The violent and constant homophobia is gross. The violent and constant misogyny is exhausting. I'm not pearl clutching here, I know they're "jokes" or whatever, and I'm not offended, as it were, but it's just not appealing. I guess that's what happens when you push the line to get a reaction - eventually the line moves and what are you left with? An album that was once shocking but now, as society and culture have progressed, can come across as tired and cringe. If I rank it according to its popularity at the time of release, it's an easy 5 stars. If I rank it based on how I feel about it now, I don't think its repeat listenability is at the level you'd expect from a 5 star. Honestly, whether I rank it 4 or 5 stars, it'll be both very fair and extremely unfair.
Initial reaction to the album reveal: I am 49 years old. Prior to beginning this project, my entire exposure to Joni Mitchell is the line in Janet Jackson's Got Til It's Gone when Q-Tip say, "Joni Mitchell never lies." Based on the albums of hers I've heard during the last year of this project, I wish that were still my entire Joni Mitchell experience. It's probably the best one of hers I've heard so far. It's still droning and tedious. I sincerely hope there aren't any more Joni Mitchell albums.
Initial reaction: FUCK. I’d say that this album is approximating good. I don’t know if it’s quite 3 stars because I don’t really ever want to listen to it again, but it was miles better than the first Springsteen album I listened to, which I gave 2.5 stars. I’m going to give it 3 stars if only to not be a contrarian prick. I’m not sure how much I agree with that as a rating, but I’m also not sure it doesn’t deserve it.