This is awesooooome!! I love the simple, dirty smash up of rockabilly and punk with some of those surf rock licks sprinkled around. If I would have been cooler as a kid I would have listened to the Cramps - good thing I’m so fuckin cool now!!
What a fun and wonderful album! I’m so glad to be back in the saddle and greeted with these sonic delights. This is my new go-to for when I get that itch to tap my feet.
You know how cats look when they’re basking in the warm sun shining through a window and it seems like all their bones melted away into a puddle of bliss? That’s me listening to Emmylou.
The tits! Five stars!
Cool dudes being cool from beginning to end. Don’t think I ever listened to the whole album before and it gets a little repetitive, but also kind of cooler because you get to see they’re going for a vibe and it’s not about any one song. Also wouldn’t have been able to put the finger on this as what I think of when I think of baseline hip hop for me, but this is definitely it. Seems like it’s probably the case for a lot of middle American suburban kids - probably even now! Hearing it through, it’s interesting how closely it cleaves to garage rock band sound throughout - especially on songs like Raising Hell. Came out in 86, and I was only listening to what my parents put on the radio until early 90s, so must have been via wedding soundtracks that it first made it into my brain. Glad it did!
Five stars. If I’m honest though, it’s because I want to love it, not because I really do. I almost love it though, so I’d rather round up from 4.5 than down. I don’t have critiques or anything like that, it’s just kind of an ugly puppy is all, you know? It’s basically about the terror and madness of life and they’re kind of too good at conveying it at some points. I’m glad I gave it another listen through and surely will again, but just not one I’d often put on.
A minute in, I was thinking THIS IS AWESOME!!! I felt like such a dipshit not having heard it before and wondered why didn’t anybody tell me? But the album overall got pretty boring pretty fast. It’s kind of ironic because seems like they were both opening the door to and critiquing the kind of mechanized media word we live in now that could make it possible for an album like this to be boring. Seems like it would have been super fun back in the day! Also, four stars is the minimum because any one song is fun to listen to on its own plus it seems like they should get an A for effort given they were blazing a trail and all that entails.
Irrefutable proof that Johnny Cash is The Man! It’s amazingly sweet even when he’s saying fuck you. I especially loved the reprise of San Quentin and would love to see the footage. I was surprised and pretty bummed the album was so short. I honestly felt bad for the guys at San Quentin and thought Johnny kind of screwed them out of more fun time, but then learned the full concert was much longer - you can listen on Legacy edition of the album. It’s pretty great!
It had me tapping my feet from the first beat, and I was pretty pumped for an hour of We Are Family-esque vibes to kick off the weekend, but it started to drag pretty quickly and the album overall didn’t give me that deep down tickle I was looking for. Three stars feels harsh and I wish I could add a half star in there at least, but maybe I’m just a grade inflator. We Are Family is such a great song though - impossible not to feel good when you hear it.
First time listening and the opening song was a bitchin entrance to my world! Just kept rippin it from there!
Loved the first song Offence and Therapy and liked the rest of it, but wasn’t over the moon about the rest. I was in kind of a grumpy mood when I listened to it though and don’t think it’s a good grumpy mood album for me at least.
Excellent vibes from start to finish.
Love love love it. The haters will scoff and say “it sounds like elevator music” in a dumb Mean Girly voice and that’s how you’ll know not to be friends with them anymore. I hope there are other albums on here by each of these two because this isn’t the best of either, but if you can’t lounge in these warm waters then you can get out of my pool.
First time listening to more than one of the hits at a time and I double dog dig it. It’s always special when bands are able to capture a vibe like this and all the more so when you find out they conjured it almost from scratch. I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to music history and 100% thought they were a supergroup because they sound like such a blend of the best. I’m impressed to learn it’s the other way around!
Love the energy and have deep respect for Bowie, but if I’m honest his music always makes me feel like you kinda had to be there and I wasn’t and I guess still am not.
I’ve been trying to use my album a day as an exercise in optimism and to go into each album with the excited spirit of a fan to be able to give the album the best shot it could have. I didn’t want to when I saw it was Rod Stewart though. I’ve always thought he was annoying. I’m still a little perplexed that it made the list, but I’m pleasantly surprised by how good this album is and am now willing to reconsider my position on how annoying Rod Stewart is. The first two songs were especially kick ass!
This is awesome!! I feel like my reviews are turning into confessions, but I have to admit that I’ve never listened to a Black Sabbath record and not even a single song by choice. I always though Ozzy was playing a character and that people who claimed to like Black Sabbath were just in it for the fuck you value of the stance, but the first song was enough to convince me I’m an idiot. The first time I listened to doom metal was after I read a Henry Rollins review of an Om show or record that he said was only for people who were willing to ride the big waves of sonic destruction. I was willing and am glad I did, and now even more glad to have listened to the guys who got those waves rolling in the first place.
Hearing the hits on their own so often made it easy to forget how great this is altogether. You deserve a five star wedgie if you can’t give this one a fiver.
I respect that it’s a vibe, but it’s not my vibe.
It’s kind of fun and impressive because it feels like listening to a kind of boring 90s radio station with the mishmashing and all, but even then you’re still listening to a kind of boring 90s radio station.
Maybe this just happened to synch perfectly with my inner aggression, but I had a blast listening to this. It’s probably not one I’ll have in the regular rotation, but it’s honest energy that I can get behind!
Three stars out of respect for the idea and effort, but this is one you fall asleep to and wake up wondering why you had such weird dreams.
Fun to listen to and there’s some impressive drumming throughout! Solid rock and roll and I have naught but respect for the dudes. I was hoping to have my mind blown by one of the deeper cuts though and didn’t happen.
The melodrama makes it a heavy lift at times, but it’s a fun and impressive sonic journey overall. I was especially happy to learn there’s more to the album and band than Starlight, which has always been a puzzling hit to me. I will admit that I’m biased toward a bump up in the stars by Exo-Politics though.
I really like how ignorant this album a day thing reminds me I am. It had been the likes of “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” that came to mind when I thought of the Temptations - I had no idea they had this kind of funk in them, let alone that they were tearing the roof off before the Mothership even landed! That backbone of soul through the middle gives it a delicious grounding like mashed potatoes in the middle of a perfectly stacked plate. Loved it from start to finish and back around again.
Seems like it would have been awesome as a 16 year old in the 80s! It’s sweet and earnest and I love how big the simple sounds can feel, but too many of the lyrics reminded me of the emo poetry I wrote as a kid for me to comfortably settle in to this one. It was a good reminder to find and burn those notebooks before they fall into the wrong hands though.
Today lots of people in Long Beach saw a balding, 40ish year old white dude in a white Subaru Outback absolutely destroying the air drums whenever it was safely possible because it was the first time I heard this album and it absolutely fucking rules! If you listen to Hard Lovin Man real loud with your eyes closed, you’ll have a glimpse of the great beyond when you get the gong halfway through. And you won’t want to come back when it picks up again!
It’s one of those albums that makes me want to go plug in an amp and let some chords rip. Like taking a trip through a magically melancholy world for an hour.
I loved hearing the songs that made everyone love Norah Jones, like Don’t Know Why and Come Away With Me, but was bummed the in betweens of the album were kind of boring.
I hold a number of controversial opinions and one that always gets me howled at is that I think Bob Dylan is overrated. I still do, but listening to this album helped me to understand how he got up on that pedestal in the first place.
Totally mesmerizing - you can never tell if you’re being tucked in to bed or if you’re being pulled out to party, and it feels great either way. Willie is the absolute Man and his is at the top of my list of hands I’d like to shake.
Carole got my foot tapping and my heart strings bending! I loved the ride and the ups and downs - especially how Smackwater Jack was such a nice pick me up after Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Kind of a bleak pick me up, but still. I was bummed by how not great the title track was though.
It’s tough to beat a Billy Joel song when it comes on the jukebox, but a whole album of them at once is too much strained drama for me to really get behind it. I respect the commitment though, and was happy to hear some new ones for me that are fun - especially Get It Right the First Time.
This is awesooooome!! I love the simple, dirty smash up of rockabilly and punk with some of those surf rock licks sprinkled around. If I would have been cooler as a kid I would have listened to the Cramps - good thing I’m so fuckin cool now!!
I love the energy, but was exhausted by it too and felt like I couldn’t keep up. Think this one’s a big burrito that’s best eaten in small bites.
Seems like those first few chords open up portal to the rock and roll dimension - how can you not be pumped when you hear them? I hadn’t listened to this all the way through and was a little surprised with how low key much of the album is, but I still loved it. It hadn’t occurred to me before how odd it is for a bunch of Brits to let their Americana rip with Country Honk, but this is what appropriation should look like, you know?
Lots of groovy licks, but it felt like it’s missing that thing that grabs you and makes you not want to let go. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations, but I thought I’d be slappin my knee for an hour and instead was just mostly bored.
It’s always amazing to hear Billie Holiday sing - it’s like her voice is coming from somewhere in between. I’m a Fool to Want you cut me deep, but the album overall was a little too sleepy to be the tops for me.
Brown Eyed Girl was the song I played during my audition for the 8th grade jazz band. I got the gig, but if I’m honest, it was only because no one else auditioned. Actually, I was so bad that the band director made me take lessons on my own for three months before our first practice, and even then he was always turning my amp down whenever I wasn’t looking. In any case, the experience left me with a lot of love for Van Morrison, but I somehow never got to this one before. Listening to this feels like being in a dream - it all makes perfect sense, but none of it really does. And it seems like every time you try to turn your attention to one part, it fades away as soon as you do.
This is fun! Too much fun for a straight though listen for me, but it pumped me right up in pieces!
Good vibes, but never really grabbed me.
There are a couple of bright spots, but mostly I just felt like shrugging my shoulders and saying meh.
There were some moments that had me flying!
I double dog dig the vibes! There better be another Curtis Mayfield album coming down the line though - I’ve had him pick me up and spin me all around, but I had my feet tapping on the ground all the way through this one.
Love it!! It’s my first time listening to a full Talking Heads album and it really makes for a good time.
Whenever I hear her voice, it feels like it’s registering in the middle of my spine - like some kind of sonic electrocution. The shock is too strong for this to be to be an everyday kind of listen for me, but it’s nice to touch the wires and feel that jolt every now and then.
They killed it!!!
Albums like this are why i signed up for this project in the first place. i don’t know where the idea came from but somehow in my mind pop-culture had told me that John Lennon had become kind of a little bitch when he struck out on his own. But boy oh boy the hour I spent on this one really sent the record straight. He’s the man!
I grew up a huge REM fan and it’s fun looking back on albums I loved as a kid. When I was 10 or 11, I was determined to learn the lyrics to It’s the End of the World as We Know It and remember spending an hour with my cassette player transcribing the lyrics. It was a pain in the ass, but now I have a pretty great karaoke song always up my sleeve!
I wanted to love it, but feel bad because I think I got too excited when I saw it was the pick for the day and overhyped myself. Just a few minutes of that’s energy she channels is enough for four stars in my book though.
I was honestly scared to listen to it straight through because I thought maybe I’d be a little less into it in which case I would have been very bummed. But good news! It was one of those no need to worry things because this is still amazing and I love it.
It was a fun journey from where this started to where it ended up. I was a little worried at first when it felt like Gene Belcher joined the guys who got kicked out of Green Day and Oasis, but warmed up to it pretty quickly and had fun throughout.
It’s amazing how many love beams he can cram into song after song. It feels like he’s trying to shake you awake from the inside out and he got me out of bed!
I really wanted to love this more than I do, especially because I know it’s foundational to so many and I think of my friend JP whenever I hear the Allman Bros and I love that guy. It just didn’t break through me though, and I really tried to let it.
I felt neither chill nor post-orgasmic at any point and my first listen kind of felt like this was on the list just to see if we’re paying attention, but I thought maybe it was just the LA traffic bumming me out and gave it another shot. I’m glad I did! I still disagree with the album title though. False advertising.
I have deep respect, but maybe haven’t ever caught her in the right mood because her earnest angst always makes me feel a little too wracked to enjoy it.
It’s strange to have such sadness sound so amazing, but if that’s what it’s all about then this is it.
I liked the vibes, but wasn’t really moved and am not sure I’d be able to pick them out of a sonic lineup down the road. Maybe their sweet every band sound is why they’re on the list?
She deserves all the hype. Just when I felt like it was about to be too much, she shifted gears and showed me what that star power is all about!
Kind of amazing that an album could be so prescient about the pull of the cultural tides. It’s like they had a fever dream of what the 80s had in store, then brought it into being. It kind of sucks for them that this sound has become a caricature of the indulgences of the 80s, but isn’t mockery the highest form of flattery or something like that? And I should have put it together a long time ago, but I never realized this is where Beavis and Butthead got their tag line from. It’s the opportunity to weave the threads of my life together like this that keeps me coming back for an album a day.
Man they really nailed it on this one. It felt like being lost in a dream that I didn’t want to wake up from. It’s like they captured that moment between the force that pulls a wave up and the one that brings it crashing down, then somehow stretched it into an hour.
If I had the capacity to reach that stage of enlightenment that enables you to direct your rebirth, I’d do it just to be have the short lived existence of a microbe in her mouth that gets to ride into oblivion on one of the soundwaves coming from her voice.
I never bothered to give Nine Inch Nails a real chance because it seemed like only emo fuckboys were into in the suburbs back in the day, but you can color me impressed on the creative chutzpah that went into this. Now I wonder if those fuckboys listened to the whole album or just had the fuck you like an animal thing in repeat.
Loved this start to finish and the second time too. I can’t say it helped me calm down and don’t think it will be a regular for that reason, but it stroked the inner thrashings I had going on in just the right way and it’s inspiring to see what kind of beauty can emerge from the mud of rage.
What’s not to love man? Made me feel like swinging my squeeze around from the get go.
I’m maybe a little biased because every song reminds me of some of the most fun times in my life, but fuck it man - this shit rips!
I have a lot of love for Ella Fitzgerald and she’s a regular in my house to get the morning going. I hadn’t listened to this album and wanted to love it, but show tunes always remind me of the drama club kids who made the drama class I would have otherwise found delight in absolutely suck and I can’t help but have those animus feelings stirred listening to this, hence the markdown.
Just amazing. Some people think you can see it all if you look into a cup of tea the right way. I think you’ll get there faster if you just sit down and listen to this.
I fell off the album a day horse for too long and it’s hard to imagine a better way to get back in the saddle. How long do we think the gods will keep Willie on loan to us? Whatever they decide, I’m glad they let us borrow him for a bit - his gritty grace is the perfect model for us to all follow. Fuck the Man, but love your neighbor and also maybe the ladies along the way, you know? It’s wild to me that he recorded this at my age and went on to keep it going for more than double the time. Willie for President!!
This absolutely rules. I think I was 12 by the time it made it to me and it hit at just the right time. One of my favorite memories is New Years 1993 when I was hanging out with Greg Reevie, who was the absolute man. My brother was supposed to be watching us but left for several hours to do cool kid shit and so me an Reevie put this on and turned my parents’ new sound system all the way up and just went completely bananas running around and dancing and ripping some righteous mid-air guitar riffs as we jumped from balcony to balcony in my parents crazy ass house. I distinctively remember the picture frames rattling on the walls and thinking how fucking cool that was. My brother lost it on us when he came back but just got really really angry because he knew he had no leverage. What was he gonna do? Tell mom? Beat me and Reevie up at the same time when both of us were already hopped up on these kick ass tunes and big enough to take him on our own? The answer is he wasn’t going to do anything except get angrier. We did turn it down a little bit, but kept on letting these beautiful soundwaves wash us into the new year.
It’s like eating Lucky Charms. You know it’s terrible, but it’s so good and you just can’t stop. Their addictive riffs are like those crappy dehydrated marshmallows that get stuck in your teeth and linger, reminding you all day that you should do better things for yourself.
This reminds me of seeing a great feat of accomplishment that I have absolutely no interest in other than the fact that I almost always appreciate and want to support people who pour their hearts into whatever they’re doing, like the time I saw the giant corn castle in Nebraska or when I visited Foamhenge in Virginia.
Sign me up! So glad I listened to the album. Brimful of Asha is a fun song but one of those overplayed ones that kind of makes you cringe when you hear it now because you know that loop is in your ahead again even if you turn the song off right away. The rest is so much better!
I can’t explain exactly why, but The Clash have always seemed to uptight to be taken seriously to me. I’m still not sure they’re not uptight, but it seemed like they were having fun on this one at least!
It’s strangely hypnotic and I love how the songs build and run away from themselves. It also seems oddly timeless. I mean, I’m sure it sure sounds like the late 80s crawling into the turn of the century, but songs like Heaven or Las Vegas at least seem like they could have come out last week too.
I like Bittersweet Symphony, but sitting down for 75 minutes of it again is a no thanks for me. I’ll admit being into the general vibe in the 90s and early 2000s and still to some extent when I’m in a particular mood these days, but the overwrought pseudo symphonic thing generally just doesn’t hit right at this stage for me. I’m not offended or anything by this and it all sounds fine, but I’m very skeptical about the assertion that any of us need to listen to this album before we die and think maybe the author just had Bittersweet Symphony stuck in their head when they were getting toward their deadline.
I loved this. This is another I hadn’t listened to, mainly on account of the vibes the people who wear the Ramones t-shirts tend to give off, and I’m glad I did. I know it’s punk and rough around the edges and all that, but it’s somehow pure and crisp in ways I wasn’t expecting.
Listening felt like seeing a high school girlfriend who you’re still friendly with but have no romantic feelings for anymore. I once loved this and even more so because REM at Fiddler’s Green was the first concert I went to without any parents supervising, but now it’s just a hey how are you nice to see you type of thing.
Some really great ones for sure, but it’s all too much for me.
Holy shit this is awesome!!! It sounds like I’ve always imagined cocaine feels.
Another one that makes me grateful for this exercise - such an amazing and powerful voice. Obviously I’d heard some of these hits, but never all together and even piecemeal was always happenstance. I’m delighted I gave it more concerted attention. I had that fuck yeah feeling as soon as the first riff ripped, and just sunk deeper into it through to the end.
I have the same feeling in my ears listening to Belle and Sebastian that I have in my mouth when I drink Mountain Dew. It’s okay at first, but too saccharine for more than just a sip or two. And the whole bottle leaves me feeling a little queasy and angry about how jittery I am.
Love these vibes. I understand why this sound came to be caricaturized and I wouldn’t choose the synthetic keys on a regular basis, but there were bigger missteps in the early 80s than these silky sounds.
Really love this. I didn’t at first and to be honest initially thought there was a mistake in the database, but instead ran with the assumption that I’m fundamentally a square and needed to give it another spin with a more open mind and I’m glad I did. It’s groovy and moving, but light and fun too. Three cheers for Thundercat!
Just amazing. It seems tough to beat as a standard bearer for what an album should be in my book. He covers so much musical and lyrical ground, but it feels like it’s just effortlessly spilling out.
This is probably one of my most listened to albums and I was kind of dreading giving it a listen with wisened ears, but am delighted to see I wasn’t totally wrong about everything at the turn of the century. It’s an emotional and musical masterpiece.
It feels like a landscape painting of the 90s and I love what they’re doing and where they’re trying to take us. Its a few lyrical repetitions too many for me to be a perfect score, but one I’d happily listen to again.
This is absolutely an album you should listen to before you die! I can’t think of another album that made me so dramatically rethink what we’re capable of as humans. It’s amazing because it’s such a weird idea, but also so obvious to make an album exploring what the human voice can do and it’s kind of wild that no one gave it a shot like this before. I’ll be honest in that I’ve always waffled between admiring Björk’s kookiness and suspecting it was just a schtick to stand out, but I’m all in on admiration after this one.
Yes, please. Feels like taking a warm bath.
I’ll be honest and tell you that my eyes rolled a little bit when I saw this album pop up and figured it was just the result of some Paul Simon fanboys on the editorial team for the book. After all, I consider myself a Paul Simon fan (though I stop short of being a fanboy) and I’d never even heard of it! It turns out I just don’t explore enough because this does in fact kick ass and even though it seems unfair for Paul Simon to have at least three albums on here (because surely Graceland at least is still coming up, right?), I agree you should listen to it before you die. The only thing that sucks about it is that it sounds like Paul was a dick to Art during the making of it and that the experience broke the Garfunkelian camel’s back, leaving all of us without the opportunity to hear what the two of them could have gone on to do together.
I listened to this on a Metro ride from Long Beach to downtown LA, and seemed like just about a perfect soundtrack. I have to admit that I’ve always felt like Beck is trying a little too hard to be too cool for school instead of just being it, but I dunno man - even if that’s true he’s pretty fuckin cool on this one.
It’s one of those you really have to sit down with to get all the way in there. It feels like being in a half awake dream where everything seems not quite real and sometimes a little disorienting, but when you make it through to the end you just want to go back and do it all over again.
I dunno about this one man. If not for my mom and her love of these guys, I might ask to speak to the manager about this decision.
Out of the chute, my knee-jerk reaction was that these guys must have been paving the road to 90s alt rock that I’m not really interested in treading, but I warmed up to it and some of this really rips! Even if they did cut the path that Gen X stomped down, I can still appreciate the vistas they uncovered here.
Man this is so good! I’ve heard and always loved the hits of course, but am way too white to blast these beats and have never been much of a headphones guy. Very glad to have had the excuse to listen to the magic in full.
I’m torn because Nina Simone is as close to a medium for the wonders of the great beyond as we can get and I love her, but just didn’t love this album.
What a blast from the past! U2 seems so cheesy these days that it’s sometimes hard to remember how fucking great they were when we were in high school in the 90s. As soon as those first few chords of where the streets have no name ripped, I felt myself transport to the passenger’s seat of Zach Shattuck’s car as we drove from school to swimming practice - windows down, wind whipping, and just absolutely belting the lyrics with all of our naive little hearts. It was fuckin great man. And this one still is!
No thanks. Was this a prank?
Bang a gong man! These are good vibes!
The one song holds up but the rest seems kind of weirdly formulaic and kind of whiny. Adios F Ferd! Maybe Ill catch you on the radio or on some throwback list at a bar.
Some bitchin rips in here! Kind of felt tedious at some points but I think that’s just my instantly gratified early 21st century brain at work.
Some fun stuff and good vibes, but kind of feels like getting a half assed massage. I just want it to go a little deeper, you know?
I don’t wanna work just wanna bang on my angle grinder all day!
There are some very lovely sounds in here. I may have had my expectations too high going in on account of Paul McCartney’s stature, but I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this one. It was like eating a sundae that had good but not great ice cream, but then just some basic fudge and a couple of obligatory nuts. I need sprinkles and cherries to be impressed.
I wish I could give 6 stars to the ones that not only kick ass but also are now in my lineup. Like summa cum laude for albums. I’d hang with these hombres any day.
Some very excellent rock and roll here! It’s not an every day set of jams for me, but I’m glad to know it’s there and wouldn’t be upset at all about coming across these guys again in the future. Reminds me of an Irish version of Better Than Ezra, only better.
Man what a delight to find something I loved in the 90s that still kicks ass! I’d been starting to think I was wrong about it all back then. At least I wasn’t totally off musically, and seems like my celebrity crushes were on point.
What a fun and wonderful album! I’m so glad to be back in the saddle and greeted with these sonic delights. This is my new go-to for when I get that itch to tap my feet.
I have to admit that I read the wiki page first and let out an unhappy fart when I saw “straightforward pop ballads”, so I went into this with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was pleasantly surprised by most of it and really loved some of it, but there are also some fart inducing passages in there. Bonus half a star for being creative and kind of kooky.
Oh man what a great blast from the college past! I remember when every fucking coffee shop and cool dude bar or restaurant around played this on repeat, and it still as great as ever!
I wish I could remember when I first heard this. I think it was my first intro to “world music”, and it’s still got that same magnetic charm now. I love this and all the musical doors it opened up for me. Three cheers and five stars!
I always have a little bit of a through the looking glass feeling when I listen to electronic shit like this because I don’t love it but know there’s a version of myself I could have been who absolutely would. I feel pretty lucky to have made it out of the 90s without getting swallowed up in the abyss of ravelife, but I’m glad to be able to take a peak over the precipice every now and then.
Man I don’t care if this guy is rapping about which marshmallows in Lucky Charms taste the best - it sounds cool as fuck no matter what. I felt cool as fuck just listening!
I like the vibe and am proud of their trailblazing and all that. Maybe I’m just a dipshit, but I wouldn’t be able to pick this sound out of a lineup, and that’s a must for top scores for me.
I dunno man I kind of wish I had left my understanding of the Black Keys to be informed by their hits that already made it to me, which are pretty fuckin great! They should get a smiley face on their homework for sticking with the vibe, but the rest of the album feels like a stream of faxed over copies of the hits and I’m a little bummed to have learned there’s not more to it.
I never knew about this! It’s not one I’d throw on anytime, but that’s probably the point. Bonus half star for being fun and creative.
I dig it man!
I hear echoes of this in just about every band from the 90s I grew up loving, so you won’t hear any denials of the impact and long tail on this one from me, just not my thing these days.
I have to admit that I listened to this on a foggy morning after a sleepless night, so I wasn’t in the best place for this to hit right, but all I could keep thinking about was a version of that hypothetical on how many first graders you could realistically take in a brawl except it was angry Care Bears instead and however many it was, I was losing.
Oh man I would have never known to give credit to the Cars for all these kickass songs! I could do without a couple of the ballads, but they’re still cool dudes and I hope their parents are proud.
I’m torn because I like the beats and what he’s doing, but they conjure images of aggro hipsters trying too hard to be cool and maybe it’s just my state of mind, but I can’t wholeheartedly endorse such inducements.
It seems like it can’t be real how amazing she is. It doesn’t feel right to really rock out to this - especially that opener - given we know now how rough the seas this ship was sailing in were, but there’s no denying this is truly great.
They’ve never been a band I’ve been interested in, but this is my favorite of what I have heard. Give me some good old fashioned rock n roll over the theatrics any day!
I love the Dead, but I’ve never really been too interested in their meandering live jams. Maybe that keeps me on the square side of the Deadhead line, but I’ll own that. I’d always skipped this one because I didn’t want to sit through Dark Star and knew I’d heard most of the rest elsewhere at other points, but I’m glad I finally gave it a spin. I still don’t love the Dark Starry jams, but I have a lot more appreciation for the no holds barred declaration of freedom that it implies these days.
This is another one I regret avoiding because of my distaste for the sneering fan base that shaped my impression of what it was all about. I love how simple and quietly confident the whole thing is. I mean, I know the hardest thing is to make great things look easy, but it really seems like they’re just kind of fucking around at some points, and it’s great!
This is so good it’s almost a caricature of cool.
You know how cats look when they’re basking in the warm sun shining through a window and it seems like all their bones melted away into a puddle of bliss? That’s me listening to Emmylou.
I had fallen off the Radiohead train by the time this came out and maybe I’m spoiled by nostalgia or just in less emotional turmoil, but this was kind of boring. Beautiful, but boring.
No thanks!
I absolutely hated his voice at first but by the third song the tunes were so good I was not only over it, but into it!
I’m so glad I finally listened to the Kinks. I must have had an aural hallucination when I was younger because I always though of slightly out of tune, aggressively strummed chords and have just assumed they were annoyingly overhyped for as long as I can remember. It turns out I’m just an asshole and that these dudes are pretty groovy.
It’s all solid and some great moments for sure, but this made me realize I like my folk music like I like my coffee - straight up and erring on the gritty side of things.
Good stuff! I’m glad to have heard it, but it made me realize I’m biased against British accents in rock music.
Never have I ever listened to Janelle Monae before and I’m glad I finally did! Super weird album, but I’m giving extra credit and rounding up for what felt like a smooth, groovy ride anyway.
When I was a kid, I absolutely hated olives. They were so gross they’d make me gag. But everyone else seemed to love them and I wanted to share in their joy, so I’d try olives once a year or so to see if my palate had changed and I could hop on that train. It felt like a futile and a little masochistic for years, but I kept trying and finally had a delicious green olive when I was 25, and now I can’t get enough. I’ve always felt similarly about the Police - they don’t quite make me gag, but I keep trying to like them just like I did with olives, because how could so many people be wrong? I’ve never turned the corner in my musical palate and at this point don’t hold out much hope, but I respect the joy they bring to others.
Solid rock! Not for me these days, but I think I would have been much more into them before I crested that hill of life.
I’m glad I finally listened! Way better than I expected.
The hits are great but the rest tastes like dry toast.
My mom listened to Elvis all the time in the car when I was growing up. It was only when I was much older that I realized her cassettes were all the hits and that I never listened to any albums. What a fuckin blast man! I know he stole it all, but he’s still the King.