Journey in Progress
Discovering music one album at a time
771
Albums Rated
3.18
Avg Rating
86
5-Star Albums
71%
Complete
318 albums remaining
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7
Per Week
769
Days Active
Reviews
771
Written
100%
Review Rate
vs Global
-0.03
Avg Diff
3.18
Avg Rating
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How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1970s
Favorite Decade
Hard-rock
Favorite Genre
UK
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Balanced
Rater Style
51
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Venus Volume 1 | 5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
| Let Love Rule | 5 | 3 | +2 |
| Vespertine | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| Nothing's Shocking | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| Loveless | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| Selling England By The Pound | 5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
| Countdown To Ecstasy | 5 | 3.28 | +1.72 |
| Slippery When Wet | 5 | 3.29 | +1.71 |
| Court And Spark | 5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
| Ágætis Byrjun | 5 | 3.37 | +1.63 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ill Communication | 1 | 3.65 | -2.65 |
| Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
| Straight Outta Compton | 1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
| The Marshall Mathers LP | 1 | 3.49 | -2.49 |
| 3 Feet High and Rising | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| The Fat Of The Land | 1 | 3.4 | -2.4 |
| It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back | 1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
| Ready To Die | 1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
| Fear Of A Black Planet | 1 | 3.34 | -2.34 |
| The Chronic | 1 | 3.33 | -2.33 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and high weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 6 | 5 | 4.33 |
| Led Zeppelin | 5 | 5 | 4.25 |
| Radiohead | 5 | 4.8 | 4.13 |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4.75 | 4 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| The Who | 4 | 4.5 | 3.86 |
| Joni Mitchell | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| The Doors | 3 | 4.67 | 3.83 |
| David Bowie | 7 | 4.14 | 3.8 |
| Marvin Gaye | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Michael Jackson | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Steely Dan | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| The Rolling Stones | 4 | 4.25 | 3.71 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Björk | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
| Johnny Cash | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and low weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Enemy | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Public Image Ltd. | 2 | 1 | 2.2 |
| Sepultura | 2 | 1 | 2.2 |
| Ice Cube | 2 | 1 | 2.2 |
| M.I.A. | 2 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Baaba Maal | 2 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Eminem | 2 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| The Prodigy | 2 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Missy Elliott | 2 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
| The Fall | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
5-Star Albums (86)
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Popular Reviews
Pere Ubu
1/5
Summery: One of the rare albums that's genuinely hard to listen to. Solid bass and drum playing throughout (including some undeniably good bass riffs), but the vocals are consistently garbled and grating. It gets even worse when the vocal harmonies join in. Additionally, the sound effects are really, really annoying. I can see these songs being used to extract information from foreign espionage agents.
Non-Alignment Pact: Punk, for sure. Very high drone in the right channel is annoying and unnecessary. Fantastic bassline begins to make itself known, and around 1:30 we get some really solid reduction in texture. The right channel is almost completely unlistenable - like the end of Queen's Sheer Heart Attack (the 1977 song), but for more than 3 minutes. Too irritating for my taste.
Modern Dance: The right-channel noise has been replaced by literal static noise (a bit like the sound lava makes in Minecraft when it turns into obsidian), and it's a welcome relief. The song would be much stronger without it, though. Fun vocal back-and-forths, and an overall fast-paced groove. Unfortunately, though, Pere Ubu adds these really unappealing sound effects that make these songs go directly from 3-4 stars to 2 or less.
Laughing: I sat through 125 seconds of painful, off-tune intro, before an equally out-of-tune shouting harmony ensued. At 2:50, the thinning of texture was again a welcome relief. Great bassline and decent drumming, but everything else is... not good... At least the ending was tolerable.
Street Waves: Easily the best track so far, because it lacks the incredibly grating sound effects that dominates the earlier songs. Another solid bassline that steals the show, and a garbled, technically unsound vocal that brings the song up several notches as soon as it ceases.
Chinese Radiation: It's alright until the loud-crowd section, which is bad. Strange piano-based section at the end that I can't really comment on.
Life Stinks: The singing is actually pretty funny here. However, whatever's happening at around 0:55 is unacceptable.
Real World: Pretty good, actually. Fairly nondescript. The singing is very weak.
Over My Head: Floyd-esque whale noises, but the comparison ends there. The singing is okay, particularly the backup vocals (they're especially okay). Nice and chill.
Sentimental Journey: The breaking glass probably means something. I wonder if it's a result of the vocal performance. Lots of nonsensical noises here, again reminding me of some early experimental rock piece by Pink Floyd (think Several Species from Ummagumma) or possibly Revolution 9. Not fun.
Humor Me: At this point, you'd have to give me a Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven to bring this album up from 1 star to 2 stars, and this song wasn't either of those. It was pretty good though, especially the bassline. Good guitar playing, but whatever effect was used on it doesn't fit the song well (too much distortion). A decent ending to an indecent album.
14 likes
Soft Machine
4/5
The musical rendition of Hitchhiker's Guide. Adventurous, mind-bending, indecisive, crazy. I got lost several times.
The fact that this was recorded live is incredibly impressive. It sounds several years ahead of other bands that would themselves be considered wildly ahead of their time (e.g. Pink Floyd's Meddle and WYWH). Unfortunately, though, the music lacks riffs, hooks, and (for the most part) chord progressions and melodies, making it tough for your standard listener. One thing I will say is that it wasn't boring. It just overrepresented creativity and musicians' enjoyment, at the expense of building a connection with the audience. Because I'm part of said audience, I can't give this 5 stars.
Great synths. In fact, great instrumentation all around. The musicianship is solid and the band sounds like they're genuinely enjoying themselves without sounding too indulgent. Fun and well-executed build-ups as well. It's mostly great, in theory.
4/5
Fave track: Out-Bloody-Rageous
12 likes
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
The instruments mesh together well, creating a distinctive, warm, laid-back atmosphere. For such an unfamiliar musical style, I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Now for the negatives. The songs are unadventurous and painstakingly repetitive. This makes the album really dull for close listening after the first 30 seconds or so of each track, and even a little grating in the lengthier ones. Some people might describe the songs as "chill, doin' their own thang" but I think it's very important that the musicians interact with and entertain the listener as much as possible. In my eyes, Toure's music does not accomplish this.
7 likes
Christina Aguilera
4/5
I'm a hater of modern pop as much as the next guy, but this is some seriously great material. Stripped showcases an array of musically diverse, tonally diverse (importantly!), and complex songs in a sort of R&B-riffing style. The album goes back and forth between catchy and heartfelt – sometimes even both at the same time – and it makes for a good album experience overall. I enjoy the use of electric guitars (and human-played instruments in general) that tend to be absent from 90s and 00s hip-hop/R&B. There's a lot of piano, so a plus there. I wouldn't say there are any huge standouts, but certainly Aguilera picked her singles wisely. The anthem-like songs Fighter and Beautiful are my two favourite tracks here – barely edging out groovier tracks like Make Over and smooth lilting hits like Impossible and Keep on Singin' My Song. But perhaps the biggest factor pushing this above the rest of the pop-R&B pack is that the vocals (including the melodies) are fantastic. This gal has some chops.
One thing Aguilera fails to shake from the R&B meta, though, is the interludes. There are four songs in here that the album could do without. And it's not like they were added to pad runtime (since they cumulatively only make up 4 minutes of the 77-minute-long record). Missy Chrissy could have removed these empty and relatively pointless tracks without any loss in engagement. (Well, at least they're pretty good as far as interludes go. The acoustic guitar picking in Primer Amor is nice and a cool transition into Infatuation.) I also disapprove of an album being this long unless there's a running theme/concept. But all in all, Aguilera exceeded my expectations.
4/5
Key tracks: Fighter, Impossible, Beautiful, Keep on Singin' My Song
4 likes
5/5
First off, this album gets 5 stars from me. It's great music that's aged in a pretty interesting way, in that the sound is very dated (and reminiscent of the 60s), yet rather than being grating, it acts as a beautiful kaleidoscope into 1967's Summer of Love and the coincident musical revolution.
I would've made this review a miniature love letter to Sgt. Pepper's and the Beatles as a whole, because the album really exemplifies what made the band so incredibly influential in the 60s. But then I noticed the highly upvoted review that gave the album 2 stars out of 5, and I had to object. The reviewer isn't exactly wrong (after all, it's mostly opinion), but they're approaching this music the wrong way. I think it's very important to have an idea of the Beatles' history and the context of this album – as well as at least some vague idea of what the Beatles' "classic" sound is – before diving into Sgt. Pepper's. So, let's get started.
The reviewer comments that the title and opening track is bombastic, orchestral, and sends you straight into the album on a huge high. This was partially the point of the track, but you also have to realise that the Beatles were exhausted from touring around the world and (in a sense) "competing" with the roaring, screaming audiences in order to make themselves heard. This led them to quit touring after mid-1966. Sgt. Pepper's was a chance for the band to fully take the reins in the studio without having to worry about performing live. This idea – to fully utilise studio techniques and ignore the logistics of performing – was unheard of at the time. A rock band creating an alternate persona (which was also a rock band, albeit a much quirkier and stranger one) was also pretty much unheard of. The opening track, even in the first few seconds with the ambient noise of musicians warming up and tuning their orchestral instruments, exemplifies this perfectly.
With a Little Help From My Friends is decidedly the "Ringo" track of the album (there's always one!), and it's cheerful, hopeful, and warm all at once. The reviewer quipped that it's incongruous with the opening track and isn't the perhaps-expected "well-oiled machine", but did you hear that song transition? How much better, more iconic, can you get than the crowd cheering wildly as Billy Shears appears onstage? The tone of the song is uplifting and full of love and friendship, again solidifying the song as an artifact of the Summer of Love and wordlessly requesting that the listener not take the music too seriously. If a track like Within You Without You had been second instead, I think it would've been misplaced, heading into a more mysterious and introspective mood much too early.
If the reviewer had paid attention to the key changes, they would've noticed that the choruses of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (and, for that matter, the verses) are a master class in merging several otherwise harmonically disconnected song sections. Also, I disagree with the idea that the chorus is musically inert, considering the building, overlapping harmonies that more or less form that entire part. And the verses... Man, even as someone who's not a fan of psychedelia, how can you dismiss how perfectly the genre was executed? It essentially laid the groundwork for all future psychedelic sound, the lyrics are beautiful and poetic, the chord progression is smooth... And no, I've never done psychedelic drugs either. It sounds like the reviewer in question just wasn't paying much attention to the music, and especially not to the full context of the album.
I think the criticism of She's Leaving Home – that it's a mellowing track for an energy peak that never happened – is unfounded. This isn't meant to be an album of bombastic peaks and troughs (except the title track and its reprise). In fact, it's rather the opposite: Sgt Pepper's maintains this lighthearted hopefulness that bridges the gap between a variety of otherwise unrelated genres. If you're looking for lots of ups and downs, try, like, The Wall or something.
The reviewer dismisses most of Side 2, including the crucial and mesmerising album centrepiece Within You Without You (wildly underrated and, considering the context, wildly impressive and ballsy to include on a Beatles record), When I'm Sixty-Four (the fan-favourite "granny music"), and Good Morning Good Morning (showing direct inspiration from Pet Sounds, another masterpiece that I doubt this reviewer had anything good to say about). At this point in the album, the first-time listener is meant to have forgotten that they're listening to the Beatles, and the title track reprise comes back with an old-school Beatles sound to remind you that yes, this really is the same band that released Please Please Me and A Hard Day's Night just a few years ago. (Mind. Blown.) And no, the point of this track is not to have the band pat themselves on the back for a show well done. It's to tie everything together, to shine a light on everything that's possible in this beautiful world of music. Especially if you have access to psychedelics.
And then there's A Day in the Life, a brilliant album closer that many fans (including myself) consider to be the band's magnum opus. And it goes completely unmentioned by the reviewer, leading me to question if they actually listened to it. Once you've listened to it, had several mid-life crises, and had your mind wrenched away from your body twice during what have been coined the "orgasmic" orchestral sections, a final thunderous E major chord sounds, signalling the end of an era and the start of something new. A revolution.
(Well, you know, we all want to change the world.)
5/5
4 likes
1-Star Albums (51)
All Ratings
Lauryn Hill
3/5
Not a style I'm usually a fan of, but Lauryn's voice is really fantastic in this.
Great backing vocals throughout, especially noticeable in Doo Wop and Superstar. (Superstar gets points taken off for sounding like a Megan Trainor song, especially at the beginning.)
Melodies and percussion throughout were nothing special.
Cool rapping rhythm that has that satisfying laid-back offbeat delay. Sometimes makes me feel a little on-edge though, and very difficult to focus on the lyrics when the lyrics are so deliberately and consistently off the beat by the same fraction of a second.
Many of the tracks overstay their welcome. Classroom interludes (e.g. end of Ex-Factor) are useful for breaking up the fairly repetitive music.
Love the overlapping harmonies and general verse/chorus harmony choices in I Used to Love Him. Less so in Everything is Everything. (Two chords. E and F? exhausting.)
Nothing Even Matters is just fun to listen to. Great one.
Can't Take My Eyes Off You - (I Love You Baby) - so much missed potential. If it were a ballad (piano? acoustic guitar?) it would have potential to be the best track on the album. The percussion and too-fast tempo ruin the track.
Good: Doo Wop (That Thing), To Zion, I Used to Love Him, Nothing Even Matters
Rush
4/5
2112: impossible to find the beat or key in the first 90 seconds (intentional). Track is immediately reminiscent of a 70s Atom Heart Mother. Huge pickup at around 3 minutes that changes the mood spectacularly. Vocals at 4:30 are unexpected and a little out of place, especially when they're replaced with Geddy's vocals soon afterward.
Something's missing from the next couple minutes. Synth, maybe? Texture is thinner than the instruments would normally indicate, and harmonies/drums are quite simple (at least comparing to Moving Pictures, which I've already listened to).
Acoustic evening-outdoors-nature sound with no transition into the section. When vocals come in, it almost reminds me of the low-energy parts of Led Zep's Ten Years Gone (this is a really good thing!). The lyrics are clearly telling a story but I chose not to follow it.
Whoa. Big hits with guitar/bass/drums leading into new, slightly more upbeat section. Adventurous, structure-wise. Rush's acoustic guitar is really fun to listen to.
13 minute mark: starting to warm up to the very simplistic repeating theme now that it's being varied throughout the piece. Guitar solo has an awesome quality to it and makes the most of the chords it's playing over. Strange non-transition to a wobbly, "churchy" acoustic sound. Geddy's voice sounds very different here.
Really energetic following section - more like the Moving Pictures Rush I'm used to. Fantastic sound, if a little unmemorable from my first listen.
Next section has a pretty incredible contrast between the reflective beginning section (repeat of the trickling water theme from earlier) and the screaming emotion that follows it. Apparently this is called the "soliloquy" section and okay wow I'm just getting to the next guitar solo. This one is stanky (9/10). Wish it could've gone on for longer and let the rhythm section build more behind it.
Around 19-minute mark: we start to see a compound time that really brings up the energy of the song. Love the drumming here - some really subtle and lightning-fast fills.
20-minute mark: alien-like, powerful, otherworldly. Great ending.
A Passage To Bangkok: immediately a very cool (but quite lengthy) riff. The higher guitar on top really bolsters it. Chorus lyrics and their enunciation are a bit silly. Great bass throughout - guitar as well. Halfway through song - guitar solo is really strong. Drums are simple and repetitive but sound awesome - very 70s-esque (what else?). The lyrics never mention the song title, which is strange considering that this is a fairly "poppy" track.
The Twilight Zone: No idea what's happening in the verse. The "chorus" is unusual - not very deviating melody and all the instruments feel further back in the mix. By the second verse I'm starting to get it, but the swing is so wacky for Rush and it's a little difficult to comprehend. Second chorus - nice whispering vocal counterpart in the left ear. Would've been more effective if my left ear worked.
Lessons: Geddy sounds really happy (perhaps high as well?) during this song. Energetic. Bass and layered acoustic create a kind of celebratory mood - love it. Bass in the chorus is rapid and groovy. Fadeout works nicely.
Tears: Nice interlude track. Strings (mellotron?) provide a fitting atmosphere. Surprised this one doesn't have more listens on Spotify - could be because it's unlike Rush to release quieter acoustics.
Something For Nothing: not much of note, except that I liked the tonal transition between Tears and the beginning of this track. Fun way to end an album.
Overall:
Ray Charles
4/5
Superb. Music that's played self-assuredly and maturely, taking inspiration from several genres and turning it into a timeless, uniquely Ray Charles sound. The backing vocals are generally strong, as is the simple, quiet drumming. And, of course, Ray's vocal is heavenly and full of heart and soul. The strings are a little overdone at times, giving the album a Christmas feel that's a little exhausting on top of all the holiday music I'm forced to listen to this December. However, every track on here is great as a standalone. Seventy-four minutes is a lot to handle, and while Ray's style is freaking awesome, the style doesn't vary much. But it's darn good music.
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
Summary: Very simplistic – too much so. Title/opening track is iconic and played to perfection, but most of the other tracks really aren't memorable. Instrumentation and performance consistently plays it safe, to the detriment of interest in any of the tracks. Lack of vocals is fine, but it does leave a higher demand of interest in the other instruments, which just isn't there. The tracks could be ordered better as well – tracks 6/7/8 sound very similar.
Green Onions: Iconic! Warm atmosphere created with the organ. Other instruments give the head melody (played by organ) plenty of space. Guitar soloing could be better – very rhythmically repetitive, although that could be explained by this section not actually being a solo at all. (Whoops.) Organ section comes back, and it's brilliant. Fade-out is choppy.
Rinky Dink: Heart and Soul chords. Organs are at the forefront again, with a less memorable melody than the previous track. Tropical feel. Feels like it should have vocals. Love the guitar solo.
I Got a Woman: fun quick drums and guitar. Jammy. Easy to lose myself to the groove.
Mo' Onions: Discount version of the opening track. At least, I thought that at first. Would've preferred this to be the closing track or immediately follow Green Onions, but it's a perfectly fine reprise. Lots of repetition here. I think they knew the title track was their strongest – maybe a better idea to make that one longer (merge tracks?) instead of this separate one. Filler? Nice filler, for sure.
Twist and Shout: A cover of the track we all know and love. The Beatles did it better, although a shoutout to the organ for doing its darnedest. Some cool guitar fills at around 1:20 – wish they kept going with those.
Behave Yourself: first time where I found myself really enjoying the bass. Layered organ also pleasant, and swing composition is a nice change of pace. Still too simplistic for my taste. Props to the organ melody in the last minute for going ham.
Stranger on the Shore: Feels like a continuation of the previous track (same swung tempo). Reverb on guitar. Wacky chords. Otherwise, kind of boring :( I imagine this works great as a (jazz) standard, but not with this band.
Lonely Avenue: Again, same tempo+swing as the previous two tracks. Intentional? Getting hard to maintain interest at this point. Relaxed.
One Who Really Loves You: Whew - a change in pace! I enjoyed this one more than I probably should have – almost sounds video game soundtrack-esque. Production quality on guitar is muted and brings it down substantially.
You Can't Sit Down: upbeat 12-bar. Green Onions's hyperactive cousin. First piece that makes use of (relative) silence, around the 2-minute mark – and fairly successfully. One of the stronger tracks.
A Woman, a Lover, a Friend: I didn't have much to say about this one. Nothing particularly bad, just uninteresting. Solid ending.
Comin' Home Baby: Love the composition. The playing is pretty lightweight - the lower held notes on the organ could be brought forward for a substantially heavier (and, in my opinion, better) sound. Really good guitar solo. I so wish it kept going higher towards its climax.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Summary: An incredibly solid album filled with lush harmonies, tasteful arrangements, and powerful lyrics. This is such a darn strong tracklist. You can't really go wrong. The Chain and Go Your Own Way. in particular, are in a league of their own. Fleetwood Mac masters this element of humanity that really allows you to relate to the lyrics and the sound.
Second Hand News: Soft, acoustic, energetic. Just a great, hopeful, cheerful mood. A song about wanting freedom, or regretting freedom? Title drop is catchy and climactic.
Dreams: Unusual and pretty vocal. The mixing is very radio-friendly - unfortunately, at the expense of the rhythm section (aggressively simplistic at times). Lush yet simple harmonies (three-part?) during chorus. I really like the atmosphere of this album so far - solemn yet hopeful.
Never Going Back Again: Folky. Is that only one acoustic guitar? It's really impressive playing, if so. The vocal quality is so on-point in this album - not overbearing, and giving the instrumental time to shine. Fantastic.
Don't Stop: Lyrically, the coda (or counterpart) to the Beatles' Yesterday. Lacking some harmony in the vocals - I mean, come on, the "Don't Stop" in the chorus is pretty much begging for it! Solid swing beat and great instrumental layering underneath. Shiny organ sounds especially prominent towards the end. Neat.
Go Your Own Way: Drumming is superb here. Chorus is goosebump-inducing... so damn good. Lyrically, a little depressing, but from the song's tune it seems like they're at least breaking up on good terms. Gosh, this track is so uplifting. Tasteful solo with tasteful separate of channels (acoustic vs electric guitars especially). Second solo - first extended solo in the album? Carried out beautifully. I love this track.
Songbird: I zoned out. This is a gorgeous track. Simple, yet so darn effective. Not a huge fan of the acoustic guitar fade-ins, although it makes the piano sound that much better by itself.
The Chain: Bluesier, more ominous intro. Arrangement is the strongest it's been so far. Overlap/repetition of lyrics in the chorus is catchy. Weird drum sound at 1:30. This is definitely the most varied and unpredictable track so far. Organ, guitars flowing and melting together, tambourine... ear candy. Brilliant use of build-ups and texture change throughout. Unexpected outro.
You Make Loving Fun: Even bluesier. I like the dirty guitar, although the transition to a more airy, celestial sound is a bit sudden. The second time this "chorus" shows up, I'm warming up to it, and it's more effective. Outro is very pretty and a fitting way to wrap up the song.
I Don't Want To Know: The signature Mac harmonising shows up right at the beginning, and I'm here for it. The song gets a little "monotextural", but it's such a good-sounding texture that I can't really complain. I could see this song closing the album, but of course we've got two more tracks.
Oh Daddy: Good singing and atmosphere. Possibly the most "serious"-sounding track on the album, but I can't take the track seriously daddy. Backing vocals lift moments of this song (esp. ~2:50 and ~3:05 - the subtle two-part monosyllable harmony. Oh, Daddy!).
Gold Dust Woman: You can tell there's going to be a build-up. When the chorus hits, it hits hard. The backing doesn't change much, but the harmonies are (as usual) gorgeous. Biting lyrics. The outro is lengthy and man, what a way to close an album.
Wu-Tang Clan
1/5
Summary: Uninteresting. Lyrics weren't relatable and I ended up subconsciously tuning them out. It didn't help that very few tracks had any kind of melody for my mind to hook onto. Rare, scattered moments of interest, mostly in the track C.R.E.A.M. (the only track that caught my attention for being slightly good). Nice underground-y production but incredibly monotonous.
Bring Da Ruckus: Out of the gate, not a sound I enjoy. Thick, bassy percussion is some of the crunchiest I've heard in hip-hop. I would almost describe the backing as hard lo-fi. Still, there's something about this style and arrangement that makes me feel empty. Absolutely nothing. It's not bad, just doesn't evoke anything in me. Lack of melody plays a big part. Hopefully later tracks are more interesting.
Shame On a: Just uninteresting. Lyrics are stupid and recited with an aggressively monotonous constant yell. Piano is nice when it shows up, which isn't often.
Clan In Da Front: Beginning to get exhausting, and we're less than 8 minutes into the album. Cool three-note bass riff, but they don't vary it in the slightest. Reintroduction of the piano, except this isn't varied either, making the only saving grace of this track another flop. (I'm trying to think of anything good to write about these songs. Seriously.)
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber: Good transition. Non-music conversation was a welcome break at first, but a little too long.
Can It Be All So Simple / Intermission: Nothing good until 3:30 when singing starts. Jumps up from a 1-star to a 3-4 star performance during this section. Groovy.
Da Mystery of Chessboxin': no new comments.
Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit: no new comments.
C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me): Piano lick (dorian mode?) is really strong, but nothing else interesting. Oop, never mind, we got the "dollar dollar bill yall" vocal. Best track so far, but there wasn't much competition.
Method Man: This one's pretty catchy at the beginning, but nothing lasts forever.
Protect Ya Neck: nothing.
Tearz: fuzzied backing vocals at 1:50 were a welcome breath of fresh air, but otherwise nothing.
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber - Part II: nothing.
Arcade Fire
3/5
Summary: The album title and cover art really describes the album better than words could. Semi-urban, semi-rock/country feel with solid playing and pretty good vocals. The lyrics are really strong. Transitions between songs are sometimes good and sometimes not. The atmospheres in each song are inoffensive and unadventurous for the most part, but because of that it's difficult to find genuine fault in the album other than the songs just being plain and uninteresting. The mixing and overall sound quality could be stronger and much more engaging at times, especially given the lush textures throughout. The melodies are consistently below average.
The Suburbs: Weird chord progression! I love it! Fun vocal, especially during the chorus. The rhythm section (particularly the drums) have a slightly muffled sound - interesting. At around 2 minutes you start hearing high string alternating with high backing vocals - this leads to a thick, ethereal texture. Only problem I have is that the melody isn't very catchy or singable, which (for the album's lead single) can't be a good thing.
Ready To Start: Transition! Gotta love it. Immediately, an energetic and slightly foreboding rhythm section. There's a strange, subtle vocal effect throughout that is either a really convincing double-track, an echo with incredibly short delay, or me imagining things. Winding-down of texture following the climax at 3:00 is effective. Again, the melody is pretty unremarkable. Nice ending.
Modern Man: Strange time signature, but only sometimes. Same vocal effect as the previous song (I wasn't imagining it). Otherwise, not much to say here. Solid, inoffensive track.
Rococo: The vocals should be put even more at the front of the mix. The lyrics, enunciation, and emotion are great, but they're held back by the loud, repetitive backing. Another good ending, but the next track shatters this too quickly.
Empty Room: The female vocal here is a great change of pace. Not much else to say.
City With No Children: This isn't a new vocalist, but it still sounds very different. Percussion (apart from hand claps) is put back in the mix, and the result is very effective, especially when the second singer starts harmonising. Some of the lines are a little clumsy ("cityy withh NO CHIL-dreninit") but it does make for a more memorable chorus. Chord progression is uninteresting.
Half Light I: Atmosphere-wise, the same pros as the previous track.
Half Light II (No Celebration): Good transition, very similar to the transition between tracks 1 and 2. Sounds suspiciously like a celebration for a track titled "No Celebration". Nice percussion that's especially noticeable around 2:30. Vocals sound really good here. Woo!
Suburban War: Not interesting until around 3:30 when the tempo and percussion change completely, reflecting the track's title.
Month Of May: Grungy. Velvet Underground-ish, but with more harmonies. Alien-like drone synths at around 2:50 are nifty.
Wasted Hours: Brought down substantially by an awkward (yet boring?) melody. Not a fan.
Deep Blue: Atmospheric! The low, distorted guitars work excellently throughout.
We Used To Wait: The backings in this track are great, if quite repetitive. The bass drum backs the synth, piano, and vocal at 1:00, which creates a nifty little texture.
Sprawl I (Flatland): Strong vocals here. Strings are very pretty, but are begging for more layering.
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains): Whoa. Completely different sound here. Powerful, pulsating bass synth notes contribute greatly to the texture. Actual emotion in the vocal (though it's hard to tell what emotion it is). ABBA-esque. The melody's the catchiest it's been so far. Repeating synth melody at 1:30 is prominent in the mix and makes it very radio-friendly.
The Suburbs (Continued): Short reprise-y track tacked onto the end. Probably not necessary. The fade-out certainly wasn't.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Summary: A solid album. Consistently energetic (but relatively uninteresting) rhythm section backs an impressive vocal with occasional backing harmonies that really make some of the tracks shine. Love the style and callbacks to American (or British invasion) rock of the '50s and '60s, while staying true to the early '80s rock trends. Harmonies (chords) were very uninteresting, but I didn't actually notice this until the final track's fadeout. The production, as with many popular '80s tracks, is quite dated, and this detracts from a set of otherwise fairly strong country-pop-rock compositions.
Born in the U.S.A.: Earworm chorus and a melody that is backed steadfastly by synth and piano. Brash, confident, \"lumbering caveman\" drumming (as Rick Beato might describe it). This could really do with some vocal harmonising, but overall a pretty convincing hit song.
Cover Me: Very overblown vocal. I haven't listened to much Springsteen before, and I was secretly hoping his voice wouldn't be this... persistent. It's skillful singing, but it'll be a bit of a slog to get through the full album. Rockin' guitar backing the riff.
Darlington County: Intro reminds me of Honky Tonk Women. Very country-ish. We hear some (self-?)harmonising in the chorus, and it was a jolly good time. Impressively catchy chorus considering there aren't any words. Reduction in texture at around 3:10 is a fantastic choice, and I almost wish the two previous tracks had followed in these footsteps.
Working on the Highway: Clearly inspired by Elvis. A great fast-paced '50s American rock feel.
Downbound Train: Fairly nondescript Springsteeny track with a solid backing (nice dreamy synth sounds a little back in the mix). Weak drums.
I'm On Fire: Strange semi-electric guitar quality on this one - I dig it. The one-line chorus reminds me of Cash's Ring of Fire, although the delivery is quite different. Definitely an inspired album. Very strong track, and my favourite so far.
No Surrender: A rocking start to side 2! This song has plenty of elements that make for a good American rock song: powerful vocals, tastefully placed vocal harmonies and synths, and a confident (yet still very simplistic) bass and drumbeat. \"La-la-la, la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, la.\" (Brucey, 1984)
Bobby Jean: There's something really interesting happening in the instrumental but it's often too far back in the mix to properly appreciate.
I'm Goin' Down: A very memorable chorus that again is lacking adequate vocal harmony. Strong piano in the rhythm section.
Glory Days: Ooh, I've definitely heard this one before. The riff is very strong and easily the standout riff in the album. Effective use of synths, if slightly repetitive. The percussion has a little more emotion in it than in previous tracks, and it brings the album up spectacularly. I also notice myself slightly tuning out the lead vocal by this point in the album, not because it's necessarily bad, but because it's so similar between most tracks.
Dancing in the Dark: Keyboard is cool but could be cooler. More than three distinct melody notes, maybe. (The vocal melody doesn't have this problem.) The vocals show a little more restraint, and crack at times, which is actually a huge strength of the song. There's a definite emotional contrast between sections. Very catchy as well. It makes sense that this is the most streamed track on the album.
My Hometown: Light, tasteful keyboard and percussion. Bruce's voice is great for the second consecutive track, leaving me wondering why he placed all the songs with good vocals at the end of each side. Blend of acoustic and electric (via synth) is great. I realised as this song faded out that I hadn't heard any interesting chords in the last 45 minutes, and grew frustrated accordingly.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Summary: A good album. I would rate this higher if I valued lyrics above sound. The album starts off spectacularly with the first two tracks, but tapers off significantly due to the tracks' sonic repetitiveness. The chords aren't adventurous, but the instruments sometimes are (especially percussion). Great vocals (lead and backing) throughout. The main issue is that most tracks present a specific, non-novel sound and then refuse to deviate from that sound for 4 minutes.
Lively Up Yourself: A chill reggae bop. Instrumentation is on point here. The bass is very prominent and grooves along with the light, varied percussion. Singing is emotive, confident, and (for lack of a better word) really satisfying. Vocal melodies are used tastefully and sparingly.
No Woman No Cry: The percussion is again really strong (but repetitive) and unusually modern-sounding. The modified verse/bridge at 2:10 is fantastic, as is the choruses (and the verses, for that matter). The organ and subtle, occasional keyboard are great additions too. This was the only track I'd heard before.
Them Belly Full (But We Hungry): A half-swing; wicked! Pretty backing vocals. There must be more than one bass guitar here, and they create a complex, rhythmic backing. The lyrics ("a hungry man is a angry man"? (sic)) are a bit weak.
Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock): Something about the instrumentation here just doesn't do it for me. It feels a little unmixed and thrown together randomly. Cool mesh of harmonica and organ, but it only sometimes works. This is also the first track where the vocal rhythm and melody were quite weak. Cool high notes by Marley at around 1:50. The phrase "rebel music" being sung as one of the main hooks is a weird choice - much like if Mercury sang the words "Bohemian Rhapsody" after every verse of the beloved 1975 song.
So Jar S'eh: Bringing back the unusual percussion, and it's great. Nice back-and-forth between lead and backing vocal. The horn arrangement is smooth too. At this point I'm fairly sure this is a political commentary album (not paying much attention to lyrics).
Natty Dread: The bass and especially the horns are the stars of this song. Nothing else shines much compared to some previous tracks. Too much repetition of the song title.
Bend Down Low: It's cool, but... only two chords. Every bar sounds the same.
Talkin' Blues: Ooh. The backing vocals are incredible here. Singing "talking blues" is an awkward lyrical choice, as explained previously. Lots of passion and personality in Marley's voice.
Revolution: Nifty chords in the intro! (We haven't had many nifty chords in this album.) Again, great backing vocals - strange shouted whisper at 2:20. Otherwise, not a super engaging song.
Am-A-Do: Not a fan of the echo effect on the lead vocal. This was a weak track; my ear couldn't latch onto anything I liked. Strange choice to end an album, especially with a fadeout rather than a definitive conclusion.
The Stooges
4/5
Summary: An album that was surely ahead of its time. Monotony of chords (monoharmony?) isn't normally my jam, but it's incorporated into a sort of proto-punk/proto-grunge style here that works excellently. All tracks except the 10-minute slog "We Will Fall" are very strong. The vocal, bass, drums, and guitar (particularly the latter) all have chances to shine throughout the album, and the band is consistently a cohesive unit.
1969: Wacky panning - very distinctive. Intensely late-60s rock sound, but with an almost proto-grunge/punk feel. Progressive sound, but anthem-like in structure. The lead guitar is intense! A fantastic song.
I Wanna Be Your Dog: From the beginning, strong drumming and guitarwork. Simple riff that I'm hoping won't grow stale (it didn't). Vocal inflections are a lot like Mick Jagger (mid-60s era) and Lou Reed from the Velvet Underground. Definitely an inspired style.
We Will Fall: An unusual atmosphere - like a group of old men chanting in a cave. The percussion even sounds like water dripping onto cold, hard stone. Not sure what to think about this track, other than that it's out of place and the novelty wears off quickly and brutally. The casual, matter-of-fact "g'bye!"s near the end are pretty funny, though.
No Fun: Again, very Velvet Underground inspired (I'm Waiting For The Man!). That grungy distortion on the guitar is tasty. The singer gets strangely excited at around 2:45 and it's really entertaining. Nice guitar solo, although it being in the left ear behind the vocal going all-out "Come on!" on loop means it's easy to miss at first. The five-minute track length flies by, and it's all jolly fun. Poorly named.
Real Cool Time: The triumphant return of the wah-wah guitar. The lyrics are silly, but this can easily be forgiven because the track is just great. Adventurous bassline is especially noticeable from 1:45 onward when the vocal halts. I imagine an extended version of this would be great to play live.
Ann: A change of atmosphere that actually makes sense (unlike a certain earlier track). The vocal is fairly low in the mix and panned entirely to the left channel. Actually, the panning feels entirely wrong, and after noticing this I flipped my headphones around. It felt more normal after that. Slow, moody little song.
Not Right: The lyrics get goofy again. They're also delivered pretty slowly, with plenty of time between lines to ponder how goofy they actually are. Lead guitar with a low-resolution, slightly goopy texture that differs weirdly from lead guitars on earlier tracks. A good (albeit forgettable) track.
Little Doll: Nice repeating drum lick - absolutely the star of this track. Melody stands out as being almost too brashly rock'n'roll. It works, though. The chords aren't anything special (but still better than the 10-minute We Will Fall, which was exactly 1 chord).
Black Sabbath
5/5
Holy paranoia. This one is brilliant. Catchy, memorable riffs played over a grungy metal sound that I would've called derivative if it was from 20 years later, but is pretty revolutionary for its time. Incredible restraint shown on all instruments, demonstrating that the most effective musician plays what's right for the song. And yet, all instruments (particularly the drums and bass) have countless outstanding moments that make for great replayability.
Intense, energetic, and impassioned. I love it.
5/5
808 State
4/5
Summary: The first track's title sums up the album. A really solid album with some creative and very technologically-impressive (for their time) synth/electronic drum beats. The electronic percussion, in particular, stands out greatly on this album. A lot of the ideas are pretty cliched now, but at the time of release they would've been revolutionary, not only for acid house, but for all modern genres of music.
Magical Dream: Crazy drum machines. This would be an incredible event to experience while high. Rhythm is 4/4 but has an alternating 7/8-9/8 feel at times. The vocals are very weak, but this is forgivable since they clearly aren't the focus. Rave-like synths and other high-pitches sound effects I can't name. Smooth transition to the next track.
Ancodia: Reminds me of something you might hear in a 2000s/10s rhythm video game. The soundscaping is definitely ahead of its time. The drum machine is killing it again (in a good way). Vocals are better in this track than the previous one. Very jarring but fitting transition.
Cobra Bora: Normally I dislike drum machines, but the drum machine work on this album is just great. Hyper-syncopated riff at 0:45ish that is really well composed. The track could be cut down a little. Video game shooting solo at 3:10 - cool. New high-pitched synth introduced in the outro - also cool.
Pacific 202: Great intro, with a strange bird-like electric sound repeating heading into the verse. Hard to tell if the sax is real or fake, but the melody on it is solid. Jarring percussive noise at 5:00 takes us into a great percussionless synth outro.
Donkey Doctor: Solid track. Not too much to say here. Terrible transition to the next track - the music just stops. And this ain't no I Want You (She's So Heavy), so don't think you're getting away with this, 808 State.
808080808: The drum track is a little less in-your-face than the previous tracks, but this means the primary charm (and strength) of the artist's music is slightly lost. Bubbly noise throughout. Fun chords, but they never resolve because of another really badly cut ending.
Sunrise: Very repetitive rhythm, but the airy synths hovering around the mix create this awesome, mystical, spacey atmosphere that definitely makes up for any lack of interest in other parts. Synths are especially noticeable after the texture drop at 3:25.
The Fat Shadow - Pointy Head Mix: prototypic. Reminiscent of a "Seven Seas of Rhye" off Queen's debut album. Some cool synth-voices in here.
Scott Walker
4/5
Summary: Beautiful string arrangements, tasteful acoustic guitars, and light drums (among others) accompany Walker's confident baritone vocal in this excellent album. Some unusual mixing (especially with the vocals), but brilliant and luscious textures easily make up for this. The lyrics were really pretty too. The genre was difficult to pin down; Walker's one of those musicians that creates his own signature style. This was a tossup between a 4 and a 5, but I'm reserving the latter for unquestionable masterpieces, and a few questions could be asked about this album.
The Seventh Seal: Lovely voice and dramatic, legato instrumental backing it in the intro. Either a weird vocal effect or a poor microphone setup gives it a semi-live feeling, but this mixes strangely with the studio-sounding percussion and guitars. Nice strings that only get better throughout the track. I'm finding it difficult to pin down the name of this style. Walker's powerful tenor-baritone is really something great.
On Your Own Again: A brief, beautiful ballad. Sinistra-esque. Strings are again excellent. I wish this track had been extended.
The World's Strongest Man: Not the direction I was expecting the lyrics to take based on the song's title, but it fits more with Walker's style. Something about the melody reminds me of a Billy Joel ballad, possibly in his River of Dreams era. Great stuff.
Angels Of Ashes: The vocal is much louder in this track than previous ones, and it's a bit out of place. Very pretty acoustic guitar panned to the right, and some smooth strings (and occasional very high-pitched guitars? What is that instrument?) panned to the left. This song gave me chills, especially in the second half. Beautiful.
Boy Child: We're back to the legato feel of the album intro. Another great track; not too much to comment on that hasn't already been said about previous tracks.
Hero Of The War: The prominent, deceptively simple-sounding percussion gives this track energy we haven't seen thus far. At one point he pronounces "war" so that it rhymes with "tar", even though the previous line ended with "more". (Hmm.) Loved
The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalinist Regime): Fantastic bassline. Bluesy melody, with heavy use of the major-IV chord giving a hopeful undertone to the primarily minor key. Gosh, this song is so good... I forgot to write things about it. Fun scatting in the outro.
Duchess: A fairly nondescript but nonetheless beautiful track. (The main culprit was the very boring chords.) Love the smooth ending though.
Get Behind Me: Fun verse, but it's the chorus where things really get crazy. Some choral harmonies and a very out-of-place electric guitar back Walker's powerful melody. The later verses are strong, especially with the acoustic guitar "hook". Uplifting.
Rhymes Of Goodbye: A pretty, soaring waltz sends the album off on a good note.
M.I.A.
2/5
Here's a vital lesson in musicianship: don't be a vocalist if your voice is annoying. (M.I.A.'s voice is annoying.)
She does this sudden upward rise at the end of some notes (a la Freddie Mercury, early-mid-80s) which just doesn't work with her voice at all. The backing instrumentals add very little to the experience other than being repetitive and rhythmically (fairly) simple. The electric sounds create this unsatisfying liminal feel that makes it difficult to really get into the music. Many of those sounds are piercing "whines" or monotonous synths. Not ideal.
Since every other aspect is poor, the lyrics must be the intended focal point. And, for what it's worth, the lyrics are actually really badass - when they're not a little goofy ("Quit bending all my fingo/Quit beating me like you're Ringo/You wanna go/You wanna win a war/Like PLO, I don't surrendo"). But that's the thing - I place lyrics very low down on my priority list in music. Arular just doesn't sound good, so I'm judging it accordingly. That being said, it doesn't exactly sound bad. I could imagine this coming on in a supermarket or movie and I wouldn't give it much mind.
2/5
The Who
5/5
Summary: The Who have mastered the craft of early-70s hard rock through this unquestionably great work of art. A solid lineup of songs and three particularly strong ones bookending the rest. The instruments are all played excellently, including the drums, guitar, and synth (when it appears). Also, one of my favourite-ever album covers.
Baba O'Riley: Incredible intro - one of the stadium-filling, immortal moments in rock history. Simple bass, drums, and guitar back some brilliant singing. A thrilling masterpiece. Seamless movement between the sections, showcasing variations on the iconic synth+guitar strums combo from the intro. Exciting, semi-climactic ending.
Bargain: Some excellent drumming (Keith Moon!) leads us into a driving rock beat with a mean melody. Again, a well-constructed mood change at 1:50, with some noticeably good playing on the bass. More mood changes later. Consistently engaging, and a variety of fairly memorable riffs and licks. A lengthy synth-guitar tradeoff solo section ends the song.
Love Ain't For Keeping: The acoustic guitar and soft backing vocals are most impressive here. Classic blues chords and a laid-back drumbeat. Quite a short track, which fades into the next one.
My Wife: Different vocalist. Simple melody (I feel like there's something missing here in the verses; we know this vocalist can hit some higher notes ("yeaah!"), so incorporate those into the melody!). Some slightly more adventurous chord progressions, still keeping in the heavily bluesy rock style of the previous tracks. Nice meshing of brass and synth at 1:35.
The Song Is Over: Piano intro sounds familiar. Nice chords and a wistful atmosphere. Great drop (with a strange tempo change) at 1:15. Bass fills are strong, and the song's feel gets really adventurous leading up to the 2-minute mark. Build-ups and drop-offs are used frequently, to great effect. Brilliant. Build-up similar to Baba O'Riley towards the end, for a nice climactic end to side 1.
Getting In Tune: Sounds in tune to me. Unexpected chords in the chorus create some seriously cool vibes. "Right in on you"-"ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᶦⁿ ᵒⁿ ʸᵒᵘ" makes a good back-and-forth. Harmony in the left channel at 2:15 - nifty. Long outro with the "getting in tune with the straight and narrow" line repeated over an energetic rhythm section. Note the high piano at the end; very cool.
Going Mobile: Gosh, that drum part is so fun. An almost country-ish feel at times. The selective drum breaks, acoustic guitar, and vocals (quality/melody) remind me of Fleetwood Mac. Fast and bluesy.
Behind Blue Eyes: Pretty. I can see myself listening to this a lot. The lyrics speak to me, even though I'm not nearly successful or admirable enough to relate to them. Exciting drumming and guitar work just before the final chorus. Great vocal harmonies throughout.
Won't Get Fooled Again: The synths return, and they're mesmerising. An epic to conclude an epic. The rock section hits hard and possibly overstays its welcome, but this can easily be forgiven. I'll probably change my mind through relistens. The outro, with the bare-bones synth followed by the reintroduction of other instruments, is great.
Pere Ubu
1/5
Summery: One of the rare albums that's genuinely hard to listen to. Solid bass and drum playing throughout (including some undeniably good bass riffs), but the vocals are consistently garbled and grating. It gets even worse when the vocal harmonies join in. Additionally, the sound effects are really, really annoying. I can see these songs being used to extract information from foreign espionage agents.
Non-Alignment Pact: Punk, for sure. Very high drone in the right channel is annoying and unnecessary. Fantastic bassline begins to make itself known, and around 1:30 we get some really solid reduction in texture. The right channel is almost completely unlistenable - like the end of Queen's Sheer Heart Attack (the 1977 song), but for more than 3 minutes. Too irritating for my taste.
Modern Dance: The right-channel noise has been replaced by literal static noise (a bit like the sound lava makes in Minecraft when it turns into obsidian), and it's a welcome relief. The song would be much stronger without it, though. Fun vocal back-and-forths, and an overall fast-paced groove. Unfortunately, though, Pere Ubu adds these really unappealing sound effects that make these songs go directly from 3-4 stars to 2 or less.
Laughing: I sat through 125 seconds of painful, off-tune intro, before an equally out-of-tune shouting harmony ensued. At 2:50, the thinning of texture was again a welcome relief. Great bassline and decent drumming, but everything else is... not good... At least the ending was tolerable.
Street Waves: Easily the best track so far, because it lacks the incredibly grating sound effects that dominates the earlier songs. Another solid bassline that steals the show, and a garbled, technically unsound vocal that brings the song up several notches as soon as it ceases.
Chinese Radiation: It's alright until the loud-crowd section, which is bad. Strange piano-based section at the end that I can't really comment on.
Life Stinks: The singing is actually pretty funny here. However, whatever's happening at around 0:55 is unacceptable.
Real World: Pretty good, actually. Fairly nondescript. The singing is very weak.
Over My Head: Floyd-esque whale noises, but the comparison ends there. The singing is okay, particularly the backup vocals (they're especially okay). Nice and chill.
Sentimental Journey: The breaking glass probably means something. I wonder if it's a result of the vocal performance. Lots of nonsensical noises here, again reminding me of some early experimental rock piece by Pink Floyd (think Several Species from Ummagumma) or possibly Revolution 9. Not fun.
Humor Me: At this point, you'd have to give me a Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven to bring this album up from 1 star to 2 stars, and this song wasn't either of those. It was pretty good though, especially the bassline. Good guitar playing, but whatever effect was used on it doesn't fit the song well (too much distortion). A decent ending to an indecent album.
Arcade Fire
3/5
Summary: An all-over-the-place rock album with some hard-hitting walls of sound throughout. Sonically, it's pretty great to lose yourself in, if you can tune out the harsh vocals. Spectacular creativity, especially for its time, but that creativity only amounted to a medium amount of good. It's not really my style. Musically, close to a 4/5, but my enjoyment was a bit lower.
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels): Intense, self-assured modern rock. Thick drum-based textures underlay a passionate (and slightly crazed) delivery of some interesting lyrics that hint at a mortality theme. This'll be the only time I check the lyrics.
Neighborhood #2 (Laika): Some fantastic breakdowns throughout, but the repetitive harmonies and lead vocals can get a little grating. Still a banger and really sonically enjoyable as a wall of sound.
Une Année Sans Lumiere: Using French lyrics is a Beatles gag that I don't normally let bands get away with (especially after Billy Joel's subpar "C'etait Toi" on the otherwise stellar Glass Houses album). This song doesn't get away with it either, until around 2:50, when the previous feel is abandoned for a much more energetic one. And it kinda slaps.
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out): Such an unusual sound here: frenetic vocals, a wildly indecisive shouting melody, brash drumming, and glockenspiels. It's not really my thing, but I have to give it credit for sounding incredibly unique for its time. The rising guitars at 3:00 are pretty cool.
Neighborhood #4 (Kettles): A lower-energy track, and a welcome break from the previous songs' colossal textures. The wobbly strings (the "kettles") in the back are a little distracting, but at 1:55 we get a huge improvement and the song sounds much better after that point. The vocals are quite strong. The acoustic guitar and strings work well together.
Crown Of Love: An emotional song that feels, instrumentally, like the sequel to Kettles. Nice backing vocals at 1:35 which would've been even better if they were harmonised (with several vocalists). Same comment for 2:45. The chorus/post-chorus part at 3:00 is really strong. What the heck happened at 3:40. I love it. I-iv chord changes are the best, and the strings do them justice.
Wake Up: A riff that would be stronger if it had more than one unique note in it. Still, a strong, memorable intro. The singing in the verse is stretched out awkwardly, and the vocal inflections don't help here (he's out of tune and it sounds like he's just been crying). I can't help but like the song, though. Must be the bias of seeing 140 million streams and subconsciously believing that it has to be good. The sound wall beginning at 3:20 is pretty sick. At 3:50 we have an unnecessary tempo and textural change that adds little to the song, at least until the singing starts again. They start to hit their sonic stride again, but then the song kind of disappears without warning. A weak ending.
Haiti: The vocalist is great here. I wish she was a little more forward in the mix so that I can distinguish the lyrics from the floaty, magical instrumental. A little repetitive after the halfway point. Fantastic transition to the next track.
Rebellion (Lies): 20 seconds in and I already really like it. The kick drums are aural dopamine. Harmonically, pretty simplistic, but the chord progressions in the second half of the song are wildly popular among musicians for a good reason. Great use of muted strings, and a brilliantly thick texture that doesn't go overboard. My favourite track.
In The Backseat: The piano(? harp?) arpeggios are great with the backing guitar and strings, and the vocalist really shines here too. Until 1:15, it sounds like a completely different band playing (the electric guitar brings it back). Lengthy instrumental with a soft, harp-based ending.
The Zombies
4/5
Summary: A summery baroque-pop collection of songs with fantastic production, vocals, and instrumentation (for the most part). There was a lot of clear inspiration taken from other mid-/late-60s artists, and it's combined beautifully into this pretty paintbox of an album. Half a star docked for the songwriting being slightly weak at times, but luckily that still rounds up.
Care Of Cell 44: A bright Summer-of-Love atmosphere. Some great singing and bass in particular, and one shouldn't shake a stick at the drummer either (pun intended). Some great, brash vocal harmonies that make for archetypal 60s rock-pop. The 2:55 drop into harmonisation is great. The only real issue here is the lack of a hook, apart from possibly the piano/harpsichord melody.
A Rose For Emily: The kind of haphazard melody one might expect from a Pet Sounds deep cut. (Likely an inspiration.) Some strong back-and-forth singing with a simple piano backing. The ending is Beatlesque; actually, the Zombies' whole sound kind of is.
Maybe After He's Gone: There's a lot of vocals trying to grab your attention in the first 60 seconds, and upon first listen it's a lot to take in. Still, brilliantly composed. Very high piano chords are very high. I've just noticed how clean the production's been so far. Another very typical 60s-pop imperfect-cadence ending.
Beechwood Park: A laid-back feel with some cool vocal and guitar effects. The chorus is well-constructed, again with very strong vocals and harmonies, but the rest is a little repetitive.
Brief Candles: Unusual vocal enunciation until the change in feel at 30 seconds, which is more Zombies-sounding. I have a huge soft spot for the chord progression used in the chorus (I-I7-IV-ivadd4-V). Great song.
Hung Up On A Dream: Whoa. Now this chord progression is interesting, and quite unpredictable. The vocalist sounds like Nico (from the Velvet Underground) here. Fantastic drumming, and unintrusive, beautiful backing vocals in the left channel that sound like a children's choir. An unexpected ending.
Changes: I was hoping this would be a Bowie cover until I remembered that wasn't really possible. The (unharmonised) singing here is a little unkempt, similar to Syd Barrett's. The flute keyboard thing (also used on Strawberry Fields Forever) is used to shadow the vocal melody, and it's fun. Unusual percussion too, but it's a great choice for the song. Solid ending with a fadeout.
I Want Her She Wants Me: The two-part harmony breakdown is great, as is the transition back to the bass-led chorus(?). Beautiful outro, but the fadeout should've been slower and been started earlier.
This Will Be Our Year: Great chord progression, and the guitar shines because of it. Earnest singing that might be the strongest it's been so far. A short, sweet track with a simple, pretty melody – but a darn good composition. Favourite track so far.
Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914): Another Barrett-esque vocal. Very simple instrumentation; apart from the foreboding intro, it's just an organ (and a brief mellotron cameo) and some occasional drumstick tapping. Solid. My [insert body part here] won't stop shaking.
Friends of Mine: Energetic guitar and drums back a vocal performance that goes all over the place texturally. These rapid changes took me most of the song to warm up to, but by the end I loved them. Silly ending.
Time of the Season: A chill atmosphere, made especially so by the vocal and bass parts. The sudden, intense harmonies in the chorus are fabulous. And that organ/keyboard solo... Gosh. It's the first really strong improvisation we've had on the album, and it's so good. "Who's your daddy" is a strange line to hear in 2023. A second organ solo (this time containing two organs fighting for the spotlight) closes out the song. A groovy, tasteful way to end the album. Also, this song has singlehandedly moved the album from a 3.5 to a 4.
Tori Amos
4/5
This album has clean, chill production with a kind of lightly ethereal atmosphere. The singing is fantastic and the choice of instruments is on-point. Piano and string arrangements work beautifully with Tori's vocals. The only things preventing this from being 5 stars are a lack of obvious "hit" tracks and the absence of guitar and (active) drums.
Favourite tracks: Silent All These Years, Winter, Happy Phantom, Tear in Your Hand
a-ha
4/5
A playful, and at times pretty hilarious, mash-up of 80s synth-pop-rock. I wasn't expecting to like any of it other than the brutally popular Take On Me. And yes, many of the tracks had an extremely dated feel to them that distracted from the compositional talent. But that's just it: if you can look past the 80s polish, you'll discover that most of the tracks are freakin' bangers. Fight me.
The Sun Always Shines On T.V. has a gritty, intoxicating riff that is played to perfection, avoiding being overused. The Blue Sky sounds exactly like its name: fresh, clean, and carefree. The title track is great.
A few tracks were forgettable, but I forgot which ones.
John Grant
4/5
Great instrumental interplay in this album (see: acoustic guitar+piano+strings in Marz). The smooth, light harmonising in many of the choruses also makes for some great easy-listening. The harmonies and melodies are generally strong and enjoyable. That being said, nothing in this album blew me away or demonstrated some idea I'd never seen before (apart from possibly the quirky lyrics). The track "JC Hates Faggots" is pretty on-the-nose with its lyrics - just a fair warning. Sixteen incredibly solid tracks well worth a re-listen, but nothing outstanding.
Key tracks: TC & Honeybear, Marz, It's Easier, Outer Space
Huh tracks: That's The Good News, Supernatural Defibrillator, What Time?
Hugh Masekela
4/5
Smooth. Intoxicating. Like honey. You like jazz? Then bee my guest.
It's "Kind Of Blue"-esque in its approach to album creation, with hook-heavy, solo-laden charts at the beginning and more unconventional, exotic improvisation session towards the end. All ten tracks, including the intermediary ones, are quite long, the shortest one being over 5 minutes in length. Part Of A Whole and The Big Apple are highlights.
Beatles
5/5
I mean, duh.
The first few times I listened to this album, I thought it could've done with some trimming (songs like Wild Honey Pie, Don't Pass Me By EGSTHEMAMM, Revolution 9), but I've come to seriously respect the charm these tracks add to such a disparate and diverse album. The stylistic diversity in this album is mind-blowing, and yet all (most) of the songs sound uniquely Beatlesque.
Most tracks get better on each listen (but a few, like Ob-La-Di, get significantly worse). There are countless little details to keep repeat listeners interested.
The playing is complex yet laid-back; very self-assured. The track ordering is freaking awesome, as it is in nearly all Beatles albums.
David Bowie
4/5
An eclectic mix of rock and jazz noises thrown together into a decently coherent early 70s album. Certainly, the sound is quite innovative for its time. The musicians involved are playing passionately – perhaps too much so – which creates a very full-on, almost chaotic atmosphere compared to his previous atmospheres. Too much energy and excitement, possibly from Bowie's rise to superstardom the previous year.
Most of side 1 suffers from too-complex flourishes, chord changes, and melodies that aren't quite catchy enough to justify themselves. In fact, this is a rare album where I can say definitively that one side (side 2) is stronger than the other. Time, Lady Grinning Soul, and The Jean Genie are my personal favourites (particularly the latter). In The Jean Genie, Bowie finally decides not to go overboard on the musical theatrics that greatly bring down other songs like Panic In Detroit and the title track. This creates a piece of music that not only rises to the heights of Bowie's previous album, Ziggy Stardust, but actually surpasses most of it. The other two aforementioned tracks are also like this, and easily move the otherwise 3-star album up to 4 stars.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Summary: I've only heard their debut album prior to listening to this, and there's a marked difference in quality and professionalism with this album. The songs are mature and tightly arranged. Just an all-round incredibly solid rock album that's on par with Abbey Road for sounding like 1969's future. The majority of the tracks are fire. It's close to being 5 stars, for sure, but the weaker tracks and very questionable "experimental" choices on them hold this album back.
Candy Says: A very pretty ballad with an excellent chord progression and melody. Love the confidence on this track compared to their comparably laid-back debut album opener, Sunday Morning.
What Goes On: A stronger counterpart to the identically-named track off the Beatles' Rubber Soul. Organs are well-placed and the vocal ensemble lends it a bar-singing vibe. Distorted guitar/horn-sounding solo would be better without the piercing high organ notes over the top. Overall, the song gives a progressive early-70s underground feel.
Some Kinda Love: The spread-out mixing on this bluesy, one-chord "talky" song is really fun. A little monotonous, but a good track.
Pale Blue Eyes: I've just noticed how great the singing is on this album. Especially in this track, Reed's vocal has this quiet sadness and maturity that's difficult to describe but incredible to witness. Excellent guitar and bass playing here too. My favourite track so far. Reminiscent of Radiohead's No Surprises (which was recorded 28 years later). It's even in the same key!
Jesus: Unusual mixing in the intro, but it rebalances after the 30-second mark. A beautiful, quiet track.
Beginning To See The Light: A bombastic start to side 2. The chorus (or post-chorus? "Here we go again...") is excellent, and Reed's wild hollering heading into the next verse is pretty hilarious. A great track.
I'm Set Free: A good track with a good guitar solo, but otherwise nondescript compared to other quieter songs on the album. Fitting choice of percussion.
That's The Story Of My Life: The melody doesn't deviate much here, but interestingly the vocal still ends up shining.
The Murder Mystery: A very odd intro with a convincing guitar riff that ends up being the star of the first portion of the song. Confusing two talking vocals at the same time is confusing. These are replaced by two completely new talking vocals, again different and played over each other. It's impossible to keep track of, so the listener tends to focus more on the rhythm section, which (fortunately) is kind of fire. New section at 6:30 is fun but makes the song sound like heavily discount prog.
After Hours: Huh? Who's this vocalist? Honestly, this song bops, and it's difficult to explain why. The guitar and singing are extremely simplistic, and there's nothing else there. The lyrics are pretty but naive - and maybe that's exactly why the song shines. It's a simple, blind, naive, childish, beautiful lullaby concluding a great album.
Key tracks: Candy Says, What Goes On, Pale Blue Eyes, Jesus, Beginning To See The Light, After Hours
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
A hauntingly beautiful snapshot of Indian pastoral and musical culture in the 1960s. The blend between Eastern and Western influences (I hear you, flutes and guitars!) is immaculate and truly a sound to behold. A variety of moods are captured throughout the album diverse, lush track listing.
Really, the only thing holding this back from 5 stars is the fact that there's very little in the way of "hooks", meaning it's difficult to follow along or predict the music.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
Sweet and really depressing – even more so later in the album. Lo-fi-sounding with its disheveled two-part harmonies and tentative rhythm section. The climactic moments, such as the second half of Nomadic Revery, are powerful. I See A Darkness is a stellar track that really summarises the whole album, making the tracks following it a little obsolete. Simplistic instrumentation, chord progressions, and melodies, all of which point to an emphasis on lyrics and mood. Not exactly my thing, but still easily one of my favourite post-80s albums.
Key tracks: A Minor Place, Nomadic Revery, I See a Darkness, Death to Everyone
Animal Collective
3/5
A crazy, spinning, hypnotic "mess"(?) of vocals and heavy production. Probably meant to be listened to while on hallucinogens, but it was still perfectly decent without them. My Girls and Summertime Clothes are clear highlights, for having some satisfying vocal moments and non-overbearing instrumental interludes. Daily Routine, on the other hand, is one of several examples of experimental synth-pop done very, very incorrectly. It's an irritating sound.
The songs are mostly hits or "eh, it's alright"s, with a couple of these absolute honks thrown in to remind you that Animal Collective isn't perfect. That's part of the charm, though. They sound like a group of kids making a relatively organised racket with a mishmash of modern sounds at their disposal. And, honestly, it's pretty cool.
Willie Nelson
4/5
Willie Nelson's takes on these covers are heartwarming, soulful, and full of softness and spirit. Nelson's voice, while taking the vibrato a little too far at times, meshes beautifully with the other instruments. The in-and-out trickling of different textures, such as harmonica, piano, horns, and strings (especially noticeable in songs such as Georgia On My Mind) is carried out fabulously.
Now for the negatives. Many of the tracks sound very, very similar, indicating a limited ability to play outside a specific style and tone. Non-vocal instruments are only very rarely given moments to shine, and other vocals (e.g. backing) are not present. Also, it's a cover album.
Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for this one. I'm bumping it up to 4 because of Nelson's happy charisma.
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
The instruments mesh together well, creating a distinctive, warm, laid-back atmosphere. For such an unfamiliar musical style, I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Now for the negatives. The songs are unadventurous and painstakingly repetitive. This makes the album really dull for close listening after the first 30 seconds or so of each track, and even a little grating in the lengthier ones. Some people might describe the songs as "chill, doin' their own thang" but I think it's very important that the musicians interact with and entertain the listener as much as possible. In my eyes, Toure's music does not accomplish this.
Paul Simon
3/5
An album that doesn't take itself too seriously. I can admire that.
The tracks are generally light-hearted and full of life. The instrumentation is fantastic and Paul's vocal is, of course, strong. The lyrics sometimes leave a lot to be desired (Allergies, When Numbers Get Serious) but I can't get too annoyed at that given the circumstances.
The problem is, the album never really wows me. Like, at all. It plays it incredibly safe, especially for Paul Simon. Also, the song Cars Are Cars exists when it has no right to do so.
For these reasons, I cannot in good conscience give it more (or less) than 3 stars.
The Police
4/5
Summary: A really great album. Spiky, punky, semi-reggae emblazoned with Sting's signature (and sometimes unhinged) vocal. There are a couple of hits in here, mixed in with high-energy instrumentally-focused tracks and a few oddities thrown in for good luck (On Any Other Day). Shoutout to the snazzy album cover!
Message In A Bottle: a fast-paced thumper. Sting's vocals are the centre of entertainment, but the guitar, bass, and drums are all given chances to shine. The guitar riff is excellent and the chorus is laden with memorable vocal hooks. The outro could be cut down significantly, or have a guitar solo replace the repetitive four-word vocal.
Reggatta De Blanc: Has an almost reggae-ish feel, but much more energetic. The texture is high-frequency-heavy (hope you have good headphones), giving a "windy", outdoorsy atmosphere. Incomprehensible lyrics. A fun jam session.
It's Alright For You: The standout of this track was the short guitar solo at around 1:45. Strange "alien" inflections that bring life to an otherwise pretty generic pop-rock song. Also, the outro is fire.
Bring On The Night: Whew. What a freaking amazing intro, and some killer guitar arpeggios to follow. I usually condemn octave harmonies, and this is one of those circumstances. These kinds of harmonies require much lower-energy instrumental accompaniment to not sound overblown. That being said, the vocal in the higher register is great. Whatever's going on in the instrumental before 3:00 is cool, and the outro is similarly very strong.
Deathwish: A wacky track with an adventurous bassline, but only sometimes. The rest of the time, it plays one repeated note in a syncopated rhythm. The lyrics are enunciated weirdly and a little difficult to make out.
Walking On The Moon: Possibly the most "stylish" instrumental so far, on par with Roxanne from their previous album. The melody is really funny and unpredictable. The bridge is odd, and the drumming in the following mini-instrumental is stellar. Lunar, even.
On Any Other Day: Mostly entertaining lyrics (though the line "my fine young son has turned out gay" is a bit sus). The singers have American accents - does this mean something? Commentary on the gun-blazin bacon nation? Nah, probably not.
The Bed's Too Big Without You: I'm noticing a bit of fuzziness over some of the louder notes and beats here - production quality drop? Sting's singing is top-notch. Interestingly, the production quality suddenly improves at the 3-minute mark. Fun percussion and bass; actually, hang on, that bass lick is fire.
Contact: I could see this being a Bowie song from the same time period. A great, cosmic track that surely deserves more Spotify streams than it has (2.6 million). Some very high-level playing on all instruments.
Does Everyone Stare: The first track to heavily feature piano instead of guitar, and the band pulls it off. The repeating, deceptively simple instrumental is insanely catchy, and the vocals are on point. The gradual addition of harmonies seem to represent an increasing paranoia (also demonstrated through the lyrics themselves). One of my favourite tracks on the album.
No Time This Time: Okay, now here's some serious instrumental prowess. The vocal filter makes Sting sound a little unhinged.
Grateful Dead
3/5
I realised pretty quickly that 23-minute live tracks are next to impossible to focus on for the entire duration. So, beware; this is not an album for close listening. I also imagine this would've been pretty painful to listen to live.
That being said, it's excellent background music. The jams are mellow and laid-back without sounding too egregiously noodly. The melodies are unmemorable but not bad. The instrumentation and musical skill being showcased is fairly strong.
Can I see myself giving this album a 3, on par with Hearts and Bones, Born in the USA, and Natty Dread? Sure - but no way it's getting higher than that.
3/5
This one is a tough call for me. On the one hand, the lyrical storytelling is fantastic. I can tell because I found myself actively listening to the lyrics, which is extremely rare for me. On the other hand, Bob Dylan’s vocal is lazy, almost drunken-sounding in this double album, and overall the sound is less refined than the studio versions of these songs. Even with the storytelling element being a big positive, the first disc is still a slog to get through, and the highlight is Mr. Tambourine Man simply because it’s the most famous song on the disc. Disc 2 is better, incorporating some electric guitar, drums, bass, and other instruments to create a fuller, more interesting texture.
Rod Stewart
4/5
Some excellent tracks in here. Rod’s husky vocal took some time to warm up to (knowing that there was an entire album ahead of me), but once my brain accepted it, it really was a blast to listen to. Six covers that easily improve upon the originals, and three new compositions that expand on the blues-folk scene. The tracks It’s All Over Now, Cut Across Shorty, and especially You’re My Girl are the standouts; the latter is funky and rocking, approaching a perfect array of sounds that I’ve come to adore from bands like Zeppelin and the Velvet Underground (among others). The remaining tracks don’t stand out nearly as much. The rhythmically clumsy harmonies, fairly typical of the folk genre, are also really fun. The instrumentation isn’t particularly grabbing (excluding the final track) but it’s passable. This is very close to 5 stars, but there’s something missing from the sound.
Adele
2/5
It's not the worst it could be. Adele's voice is very strong, pretty much guaranteeing the album will get more than 1 star. The vocal is subtly flourish-y, which sometimes works to its advantage but also sometimes accentuates the subtle autotuning and occasional wacky overproduction. The compositions are generally very weak, being both (lyrically) unrelatable and (musically) unadventurous, almost to the point where it's hard to take Adele's clear vocal talent seriously. The instrumentation is consistently poor, especially the percussion. A few tracks on the latter half of the album are very strong (e.g. Million Years Ago, All I Ask) but most of the songs are unconvincing.
Hello: Every time I listen to this song, I like it less than I thought I would. Verses are mediocre (piano isn't given any chance to shine or vary, and the melody is weak). Chorus is catchy and extremely memorable, but it isn't the culmination of several instruments; instead, it's Adele's slightly processed voice with scant flowery adornment. The other instruments aren't contributing enough, and I can't forgive that.
Send My Love (To Your New Lover): The harmonies in the chorus are a fantastic choice, and they almost distract from the egregiously stereotypical-pop percussion (invariant bass drum and claps). The contrasting acoustic sound of the verses is solid.
I Miss You: The percussion is really fun to focus on in this song. It seems like the drummer can't decide whether he's playing a straight syncopated rhythm or some kind of quintuplet polyrhythm. The indecisiveness actually becomes really distracting, since the rhythm keeps changing slightly each bar. At this point, I was most of the way through the song and had to think of something else to talk about. The backing vocals are nice, I guess. Good outro.
When We Were Young: Similar problems as the opening track, albeit with a more interesting verse. The chorus is odd, because Adele's voice is very powerful but the lyrics themselves are pretty bad. Picture Freddie Mercury singing Yellow Submarine. (Huh, that would actually be pretty badass.)
Remedy: This one's fine. Not much going on instrumentally, but none of it is bad (in fact, the piano playing is the most adventurous it's been). I really like the outro.
Water Under the Bridge: Generic 2010s pop instrumental and chord progression that I tried my best to ignore. Melody is solid in the verses but exactly three different notes in the chorus.
River Lea: Clumsy transition from the previous track. The build-up to the chorus is good, but the chorus itself isn't great, mostly because of the percussion. Seriously. With a proper acoustic drum kit, that chorus could actually be the strongest on the album, because the synth(?)(strings?), harmonies, and singing are fantastic here.
Love In The Dark: Again, great strings! Nothing else particularly stands out.
Million Years Ago: Hang on. This one's actually good. Some clumsy editing (0:50) but overall pretty darn solid. The acoustic guitar sounds much better with Adele's voice than the piano. Also, is that the Autumn Leaves chord progression? Sick!
All I Ask: This one's really strong too. The chorus is excellently done, with some seriously great chords complimenting Adele's singing.
Sweetest Devotion: It's passable. Bonus points for including percussion sounds that could actually be produced by a real, unprocessed drum kit.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Rundgren didn’t try hard enough to make this cohesive. The textures are lush and interesting, but they also make very little sense. The lyrics are pretty confusing and sung in a strangely un-catchy way. With some of the less substantial tracks removed and other shorter ones (such as Tic-Tic-Tic and Rock & Roll Pussy) more fully realised, this could’ve been a great double album. Unfortunately, I can’t give this more than 3 stars. The ideas have a great deal of potential that just doesn’t land properly. We instead get a decent-sounding but very swift-moving, hard-to-remember set of psychedelic rock tracks.
There are definitely some highlights, including the I’m So Proud medley, Is It My Name?, and Sometimes I Don’t Know What to Feel.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
I like the use of organs, horns, and especially strings on this album. It creates a very retro feel, a la Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man, but mellower (and, in my opinion, far inferior). Unfortunately, the commitment to a 50s/60s-era sound means the percussion (and instrumentation as a whole) isn’t very interesting. The vocal is often brash when loud and very weak when quiet; it doesn’t ever find the right timbre.
They’re fun songs, but there’s plenty to fault. The main limiting factor preventing this from being higher than a 2 is that “spark” – anything exciting or inventive.
Also, the solemnly-delivered lyric “You’re a horse, I’d clean the crap out of your stable” made me take the album a lot less seriously.
Key tracks: In Pursuit of Happiness
The Smiths
3/5
Some fun sounds here, but nothing revolutionary. The singing is quirky yet unobtrusive, making for good background music. The texture is extremely monotonous, which isn't always a bad thing, but it generally limits relistenability. That being said, the texture the Smiths cooked up is pretty awesome, almost like continuous-alternative-punk. If this counts as punk, it's definitely one of my favourite albums in the genre.
Fave tracks: What She Said, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Barbarism Begins at Home
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Ultra-electronic - a little disconnected-feeling, maybe. The only obvious human elements are acoustic guitars and vocals, and the former unfortunately only appears on some of the weaker tracks. Walking Wounded and Before Today are highlights for purely atmospheric reasons (by my normal, heavily instrument-based standards, they wouldn't be standouts). The percussion in the album is about as solid as electronic drums can get, but heavily limit the songs' potential. Unfortunately, as a general rule, electronic drums suck the life out of a track, and this album is no exception.
The vocalist is clearly strong, but I feel she doesn't express as much emotion as she could. The singing is a little restrained, playing it safe in terms of both melody and range.
Alright, I've dunked on this album enough. The pros: the textures are fresh and reasonably unique for their time, the lyrics are pretty strong, and there's this indescribable warmth present. For all the sins it commits, it's surprisingly good.
Brian Eno
4/5
Brilliantly detailed and crazy - almost a little too much so, relying on weirdness and "wow here's another fun bit/bob to keep your interest for the next 30 seconds" to the point where it stands more as camp than as creativity. However, there's literally nothing else bad to say about this album. The songs are so darn fun to just quietly observe, all the while thinking, "How the heck did this guy manage to make that sound good?". It's reminiscent of an early-70s Bowie record - think Aladdin Sane, but with less of David's distinctive drawl and slightly more tea and crumpets. The transitions are goofy and work really well - On Some Faraway Beach leading into Blank Frank, in particular, had me wide-eyed.
Highlights: Needles In The Camel's Eye, Baby's On Fire, Cindy Tells Me, On Some Faraway Beach
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
Great modern easy-listening music. I'd never heard of this band before, which is surprising, given their clean, catchy sound and engaging instrumentation. It's reminiscent of 60s/70s music, and merges Brit-pop-rock with hints of country, drama/cinematic, and country. An eclectic combination, for sure, but it sounds pretty good.
No tracks that stand out, although I did find myself particularly enjoying My Mistakes Were Made For You, The Age Of The Understatement, and The Meeting Place.
ZZ Top
3/5
Such an odd listening experience. The guitars - clearly touted as ZZ Top's signature instrument and defining sound - are distorted in a very processed, controlled way, creating an atmosphere where I feel like I should be headbanging but can't quite hit the groove. The sound is too heavy to qualify as pop rock, but not heavy enough to succeed Zeppelin or other towering contemporaries. The instrumental consistency is either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you view albums. It's somewhere in between for me. Many of the tracks sound extremely similar, rendering it good background fodder for a garage hangout. On the other hand, the album has zero flow or order to it, kind of tossing any vestiges of a concept album out the window.
That being said, some killer tracks in here. Sharp Dressed Man, Gimme All Your Lovin', I Got The Six... in isolation, these are pretty great, possibly 4s or 4.5s. The album experience drops my rating down to a 3.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
For 1971, perhaps the most revolutionary year in modern musical history, this album just doesn't stand up against its peers. That being said: props for having one of the dumbest, awesomest album covers in prog rock.
The title track is a mind-bending soup of keyboards and indecisive time signatures. The material is complicated, and E/L/P mostly pull it off, but there are points where the band goes noticeably out of sync. The song is almost too adventurous, rarely seeming to revise earlier themes, and introducing wacky new ideas every few bars. The "singing" sections of the suite are fairly strong sonically, but the lyrics are less than compelling. The tracks on side 2 are so tonally distinct from side 1 (piano rockabilly/ragtime, compared to the stupidly indecisive organ-laden heavy rock on the flipside) that I'm also convinced E/L/P has no idea what kind of music they want to make. "The Only Way" is, well, the only way I might see myself coming back to listen to any part of side 1; the other tracks are dated rockers.
David Bowie
4/5
Summary: A surprisingly diverse array of tracks that showcase Bowie's prowess when tackling many different musical genres. Instrumentation is fantastic throughout, and Bowie's vocal is mature yet whimsical. It's so difficult to label this music with a particular style, but of course that's the virtue of the Bowie. The only real drawback is that it's not simple music, and could take a few listens to really "get".
Station to Station: a dramatic, exotic, eclectic mix of instrumental weirdness. Also, for what it's worth, incredibly groovy. Bowie's voice is very strong here, exploring some self-harmonising that keeps the backing from getting too repetitive. At 5:20, there's a mood change with a faster tempo. You can tell that Bowie's really getting into it in the latter half of the track.
Golden Years: Bowie perfects the craft of funk here. The percussion is subtly and precisely chosen, the harmonies make masterful use of the lush dorian mode, and the guitar is just the right level of grungy. A light-hearted foot-tapper with not a single wasted moment.
Word on a Wing: Some weird chord progressions are presented here via a confidently-played piano. The lead vocal is very cutting in the mix, and the song is generally just a little louder than I feel it should be. Still, who am I to question the Thin White Duke? The section between 3 and 4 minutes balances the instruments' volumes noticeably better. A very expressive song that probably would've been more meaningful if I'd paid attention to the lyrics. He title-dropped a few times, I think. The organ fadeout is good but feels a little low-effort for ending side 1.
TVC15: Side 2 begins with a bluesy number you might expect from the Stones or rock-era Billy Joel.. The bass is quite prominent here and the lines are solid. The vocals carry those confident, swaggery inflections one would come to expect from the piano man. There really isn't anything questionable about the track, except perhaps the song title that you're forgetting even as you read it.
Stay: Whoa, that percussion. Soundscapey. The bass is even more prominent now and it's approaching "thats darn fire" territory. Everything's working together perfectly here, and it's complex yet simply groovin.
Wild Is the Wind: Probably the simplest track, instrumentally. Bowie's vocal is, again, very strong here - possibly the best it's been yet. The guitars overlaid onto each other are yummy (ear-yummy, I guess). Great track.
Deep Purple
4/5
An intersection between psychedelic rock, hard rock, and metal. Definitely a pioneering album for its time, and a friggin' awesome-sounding one at that. The only complaint I have is the slightly excessive screaming, but that's purely based on personal taste. The bass playing is reminiscent of the late-60s-early-70s burly psychedelic bass sound, and the guitars complement it beautifully.
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
A very strong album that takes some of the best (and worst) elements of Beatles music and mushes them into a hook-laden mulch of pop rock. McCartney's ideas here are darn good, and their execution is mostly on-point. There are a few glaring issues, though, when it comes to some of the tracks noticeably losing their steam and creative spark partway through. "Mamunia", "Mrs Vandebilt", and "Picasso's Last Words" are the main offenders here. McCartney's overactive hook-imagination is prevalent in the track "Jet", which is exhausting to listen to no matter how familiar you are with it because of the overwhelming jumble of brash musical ideas. "Bluebird" is a solid lower-energy track, reminiscent of Ram-era solo Paul. The remaining tracks - "Band On The Run", "Let Me Roll It", "No Words", and especially "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" are killer, and turn an otherwise average post-Beatles McCartney album into one of his finest works.
Primal Scream
4/5
A fun, modern psychedelic loop-de-loop (rollercoaster isn’t quite the right word). The first two tracks are so incredibly strong that it’s almost unfair to the remainder of the album – which itself is, to be fair, also solid. Some tracks, notably Come Together, Higher Than the Sun, and Loaded, are anthem-like, paying homage to the likes of Hey Jude. Unfortunately, they’re not as good as Hey Jude, but still go on for longer. The messages of freedom, solidarity, and love are pretty clear-cut from the beginning of the songs, and I think their runtime could’ve been cut down substantially. Oddly, there seems to be a strong influence from the Beach Boys in some of these tracks. This influence is most obvious in the instrumental Inner Flight, which bears a very strong resemblance to Let’s Go Away for Awhile – albeit with more modern instrumentation and atmosphere. Also inspiration taken from the Beach Boys’ early 70s sound with I’m Comin’ Down. Good contrast between louder/”thicker” tracks (most of the album) and quieter tracks (Damaged, I’m Comin’ Down). Close to being a sonic masterpiece, but it’s just a little longer than it needs to be.
Key tracks: Movin’ on Up, Slip Inside This House, Inner Flight
Paul McCartney
4/5
An album that, under ordinary circumstances, I'd happily give a 2 or 3. There's an element of simplicity that usually grinds my gears with other artists. However, Paul McCartney makes it work with his mind-bending charm and heart he puts into his singing. The bare-bones instrumental approach to most of these tracks works excellently with his vocal. The only particularly complex arrangement, Maybe I'm Amazed, is also one of the best songs by any Beatles member. The remaining tracks, of which there are many, hit different in the context of McCartney's emotional state at the time, and there's something about them that just clicks.
4/5.
Maybe I'm delusional.
Maybe I'm amazed.
Heh.
Adele
3/5
This album is better than 25 in just about every way. Unlike the latter, the percussion on 21 isn't obnoxiously electric, and the acoustic elements are emphasised. Use of strings is quite prominent and complements Adele's singing nicely. The production is high-quality and sounds really fresh.
On the flipside: the songs aren't very memorable or lyrically compelling (this only applies to the ones I hadn't heard previously). Additionally, Adele's vocal timbre is such that it sounds like she's constantly trying too hard. It's a little off-putting, especially in tracks like Set Fire to the Rain that have almost zero textural variation. Adele also overuses little melodic inflections, which isn't a huge issue except during close listening.
Favourite tracks: Turning Tables, Don't You Remember, I'll Be Waiting
Soul II Soul
3/5
Back to Life – the single version, not the album version – is fantastic, and I’m not surprised it was a huge UK hit. Keen on Movin’ is also a great track, and Holdin’ On and African Dance aren’t half bad either. The female vocals in every track that includes them are gorgeous, to the point where the carelessly-spoken male vocal is “immersion-breaking” and obstructs the otherwise very cool, hip-hoppy flow of the album. The percussion is pretty boring, predicting the upcoming decade of similarly unremarkable percussion being (somehow) a hit with the crowds. Other instruments are cool but repetitive, such as the fun horn licks decorating some of the later tracks.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
The opening track, Badlands, is executed really well, perfectly setting the mysterious, goofily-lighthearted-yet-kinda-serious tone of the rest of the album. His distinctive singing fits the songs really well, especially on the album’s first side. The sound is slightly less “commercialised” than his later album Born in the U.S.A., which I’ve already encountered on this list (and gave a 3/5 rating). Instrumentation is good, but doesn’t vary noticeably from song to song (with the exception of the piano-ballad tracks, which are arguably the weaker tracks anyway). Still, good stuff. A jolly good time.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
A good album. The tracks are very similar sounding to each other, and no fresh material is used (i.e. a cover album). Very typical of the early-to-mid 60s. Dusty's voice is great, and the remaining instruments complement her well.
Le Tigre
4/5
What an absolutely strange, liminal sound Le Tigre have got here. It's music that shouldn't exist - and that certainly shouldn't sound good - but it does. Vocals that are clear and full of emotion, yet monotonous and robot-like (in a good way), conveying some message I have yet to figure out. Lots of motif repetition and droning with synths and guitars, to a pretty good effect. The music is kind of time-defying, not in the sense that it doesn't sound dated (it does) but that it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what era or genre it's emulating. There's clearly a punk influence... but anything further than that, I'm lost.
Key tracks: Deceptacon, Hot Topic, Let's Run, Les and Ray
Taylor Swift
4/5
Summary: There aren't many albums from this era of music that I enjoy. That being said, this was great! Lyrical themes of lost love and a fresh new start, often involving said love. I think Taylor needs to learn to move on. The album's atmosphere is confident, positive, and fresh. It risks sounding austere or sterile at times, but Taylor's vocal is consistently very emotional (at least, compared to Midnights, the only other album of hers I've listened to) and this balances the feel out. Mostly poor electronic percussion, but the tracks that avoid this are fantastic, and the ones that don't are still pretty darn strong. A clean, modern tracklist that only Taylor could pull off.
Welcome To New York: Very fresh-sounding. The percussion isn't great, but the vocals more than make up for it. Taylor's singing is the brightest I've heard it, although the lackluster melody detracts slightly from this. Simple and fairly effective.
Blank Space: Whoo boy, now here's a good melody. Infectious. The moment when the instrumental disappears at the end of the chorus is a huge highlight - "... and I'll write your name." The percussion is distractingly electronic, much like the previous track. Hopefully at least one track will have either good percussion or none at all. "Getting bored of Walls 2, I should find a new minigame..."
Style: the intro is great. This is the kind of atmosphere where I can forgive the lazy percussive instrumentation, because it creates a clean, goosebump-inducing synth feel that just clicks with me. One thing I notice about this album is that Taylor really likes hanging onto one melodic note for several words, or even entire lines. She also uses the 6th and 9th of chords VERY frequently in her melodies, which is a little difficult to swallow since most artists don't do this. All of that aside, this is a fantastic song.
Out Of The Woods: a distinctive intro, for sure. The building-up atmosphere leading into the chorus is good, but the chorus itself is not. There's a release of tension at the beginning, but afterwards it feels like Taylor forgets both the lyrics and the melody and just repeats one line, hoping for the best. Breakdown at 2:50ish is solid.
All You Had To Do Was Stay: Ugh. I guess I'm not getting Taylor's vision. Her choruses are just... not good (excluding Blank Space, which was kinda fire). The high-pitched "stay!!" hook is the strongest part of this song, and it seemed Taylor was aware of this.
Shake It Off: Fantastic. Taylor's voice is positively bursting with excitement and enthusiasm, and the melody is the strongest one so far. The percussion is also significantly more human-sounding than previous tracks. Spoken vocal in the middle has a great lyric that really nails home song's atmosphere and message. The hooks are incredible, the backing vocals are sung to perfection... If this song isn't the winner, I'll eat my hat.
I Wish You Would: The guitary-thing far back in the mix (except during breakdowns) is the best part of this song, although the wacky syncopation in the vocals is a close second. The repetition of the song title at the halfway mark is also a great moment. However, the percussion has relapsed (sad face). I won't comment on it anymore unless it's good.
Bad Blood: This song feels like very generic Taylor Swift. There isn't much to go on. Choruses are energetic and fairly catchy.
Wildest Dreams: Oh man, this one's good. The description of the man of interest does kind of combine all the traits of a perfect man (hence the song title), and I wish it weren't the standard I was competing against. The melody is subtly brilliant, the self-harmonising (especially towards the song's conclusion) is another goosebump-inducer, and the restrained percussion is fantastic. Another highlight.
How You Get The Girl: Taylor has correctly identified that I need a lesson in this. Wait, she's telling me to... Break the girl's heart, then stand outside her house in the rain, attempting to make up? Kiss her on the cheek? Yeah, that'll get me reported for stalking and assault. Also, it absolutely only works if you follow rules 1 and 2 (be attractive; don't be unattractive). I'm good. Chorus is similar-sounding to Blank Space, but a bit worse. A Swift Standard, one might say.
This Love: Dreamy, almost ethereal atmosphere. Lots of goosebumps during this one, though it could be because I'm wearing shorts. A good track with good percussion.
I Know Places: The verses are a bit jittery and all over the place, but they hold their own. The choruses, on the other hand, are so much better than the verses that they're almost different songs - particularly the chorus at 2:15. Confident, positive, and fresh. Notably, a great song ending with the little VHS click.
Clean: I wouldn't have chosen to end the album with this track, but go off, I guess. The contrast of bumpy, staccato synths with smoother overlaid ones creates a distinctive atmosphere that's really enjoyable, but more befitting of a track near the beginning of an album. This is me being really nitpicky though. The song's message is encouraging and speaks of Swift's journey with addiction and how she overcame it. Proud of you, Taylor. <3
Cypress Hill
1/5
Not great. Some of the backing musical ideas are good for the first ten seconds, but they aren't varied or developed. Combined with the lack of melody or (cohesive) harmony, this creates a very monotonous listening experience that's only slightly improved by engaging vocal rhythm and attitude. The lyrics were probably relatable for someone, but not me. There just wasn't anything in the music to latch onto, and I felt myself unconsciously tuning out the noise. A great deal of 90s rap and hip-hop can be summarised with a description like this, and Cypress Hill is no exception.
At least the album length wasn't excessively stuffed with dull, scripted skits. It's got that going for it.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
This is very close to 5 stars for me. The playing is confident and on-point, with a near-perfect blend of grungy distortion and smooth licks. Guitar and bass are in sync for much of the album (woo!) and the vocals are rough in their usual classic hard-rock way. The riffs are reasonably catchy, though they really start to sound similar after an hour of riff-oriented songs all in the same style. (I’m glad I didn’t do a track-by-track analysis.) The audience interaction is really fun; live recordings are always improved by an engaged crowd (see: YYZ performance by Rush in Rio). Honestly, any and all of the songs may as well be highlights, but my personal ones are Dancing In The Moonlight, The Rocker, Are You Ready?, and Southbound. The band definitely knows how to effectively and satisfyingly end a song, much to my delight, but just a few of the tracks take too long to reach that ending. Still, one of my favourite-ever live albums. Thin Lizzy slaps.
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
Sisters of Mercy knew exactly what style they were going for, and they rocked it. Dark, haunting synth rock with low, foreboding, almost monotone vocals. Memorable bass riffs and solid instrumental expertise. It's not exactly my style, though. The synths are heavily overused, creating a very dated sound a la A Momentary Lapse of Reason (which is weak for a similar reason). The choruses are often an intensified, faster version of the verses, which might bode well for live performances but not so much for album close-listening. My favourite track was This Corrosion because it sounded the least like the others: a more light-hearted, standard rock style.
Beatles
5/5
Abbey Road has this subtle mellowness and melancholia that can't be missed once you've noticed it. And knowing the context of this album makes it all the more beautiful. The band members were at their breaking point, all of them composing solo material and avoiding having to collaborate (especially between John and Paul). It was Paul who suggested they record an album that returned to their old Beatlesque ways: engaging song structure and melodies, breathtaking harmonies, and creativity that pushed the boundaries of rock and mainstream music. (I imagine all four members knew, in the back of their minds, that this would be the final album they ever recorded together.) The production is not to be overlooked either; it rivals Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper with its fresh, clean audio that makes for an incredible with-headphones experience.
The result? A collection of rock classics that have easily stood the test of time and include some of music's most beloved tracks. Come Together. Here Comes The Sun. Something. Because. Octopus's Garden. Oh! Darling. I Want You (She's So Heavy). The Abbey Road Medley. (And, just like that, I've covered every track except for Maxwell's Silver Hammer, which some people consider a dud but I definitely don't. It's a banger.) Within the medley are killer moments such as the multifaceted You Never Give Me Your Money, the beautiful serenity of Sun King, the energetic and fun-packed transition between Polythene Pam and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window... and, of course, the iconic finale of Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End. What a brilliant way to end the career of the greatest band of all time.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Really good. Lots of energy and poppy synths, with a cool spunkiness in Costello's vocal that reminds me of Billy Joel around the same time. (I still prefer the Piano Man's chops, though.) The compositions aren't especially memorable, but they keep the listener constantly engaged with radio-friendly instrumentation that plays it just safe enough to be universally appealing while still incorporating punk and pop sounds that would've been fresh and new at the time.
Special shoutout to Chelsea and Living In Paradise for having a sick riff, and to The Beat, No Action, Pump It Up, and Radio, Radio for just being really strong overall.
The Only Ones
3/5
A decent album. The vocalist's nasal, "teacher's-pet" voice quality got under my skin at first, although I warmed up to it slightly by the album's conclusion. It works decently as background music. The band sounds like very, very discount Rush mixed with some Bowie and Velvet Underground.
The second track, "Another Girl, Another Planet", is a futuristic-sounding standout. It (strangely) reminded me of the Beatles' track Let It Be, but with a power-pop, 80s spin. Guitars are solid. The opening track, "The Whole Of The Law", is also pretty good, as is the instrumental second halves of "The Immortal Story" and "Peter And The Pets". However, the track quality dips as the album continued and the songs' sounds begin to sound less unique and more derivative. Passionate playing, but the compositions aren't there. Plus, as mentioned previously, the vocal is very bad.
Dolly Parton
3/5
It's alright - some good harmonising - but instrumentally it's very straightforward and doesn't give the listener much to latch onto. Extremely simple percussion appears in a couple of tracks, which end up being the highlights of the album for that reason. Most other tracks are guitars and vocals, and the songs sound quite similar to one another as a result. I guess this was meant to be a lyrics-focused album, but the lyrics aren't particularly strong either.
Still, the general vibe/mood is positive and carefree (to an extent). I can appreciate that.
Key tracks: Wildflowers, Those Memories of You
Arrested Development
4/5
Surprisingly good. I usually dislike 90s hip hop, but this defied all expectations. Warm, uplifting, funky, spiritual album. The lyrics were enrapturing and (for the most part) relatable. And, for once, there were actual vocal melodies! Some darn sick beats rooted in blues, funk, and rock from earlier decades.
This honestly has the potential to be a 5/5. What's stopping it is the crude 1-bar repetition that defines most of the hip-hop genre.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Energetic and spunky. Lots of obvious blues influence even before the Stones' reputed "blues era" of the late 60s and early 70s. Under My Thumb is a fantastic, memorable number that seems to perfect the combination of lots of different mellow-rock cliches of the time. ("Ain't it true, babe?") Paint It Black is a brilliant, exotic-sounding tune that clearly takes influence from the Beatles and Eastern artists. The remaining tracks are solid, particularly "Stupid Girl", "Flight 505", and "Lady Jane", and showcase common motifs in the US/UK rock scene with utter confidence and precision.
One star has to be taken off for the lyrical ping-ponging between desire (acceptable) and misogyny (a bit less acceptable). I guess the Stones were trying to be relatable with their material, but even if it possibly was relatable at the time of release, it hasn't aged well. Still, if any album's an artefact of its time, this one definitely is.
Patti Smith
4/5
Bold and almost underground-esque, with Jagger-like vocal inflections used by somebody who definitely isn't Jagger. But Patti pulls it off convincingly, and with some really inspiring compositions to go with it. I had to do some reading on Wikipedia, and it seems this album was hugely influential on the rock, punk, and female musicians' scenes. I can definitely see that in Patti's music.
Gloria is an excellent, exciting opening track, making heavy use of a three-chord power harmony. Free Money, Redondo Beach, and the title-ish track are also strong. It's not exactly punk, but that's fine. It's better than most punk anyway.
There's just something a bit unpolished about the album that's hard to pin down. It's missing something that really creates relistenable, coverable classics.
4/5
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
A really good acoustic Latin record. Incredibly catchy vocal hooks, especially in the opening three tracks (Chan Chan, De camino a la vereda, El cuarto de Tula). The fact that this album was recorded in just six days only adds to its impressiveness. The guitarwork is also very solid and provides an atmospheric backdrop to the shining vocals, emphasising the band's Caribbean roots. The energy and soulful performance decreases slightly throughout the album, but this is harder to notice if you have it playing in the background. However, through close listening, this was a bit of an issue (coupled with the lyrics I couldn't follow!).
Various Artists
3/5
The bands performing on this album are fantastic, and the music is high-quality. The actual songs being covered are overplayed and exhausting to give a close listen to after months of hearing them day-in-day-out at every shop in the city. Still, the charm and passion of the musicians means I can't really justify giving this less than 3 stars.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
The one time I can excuse all of an album's tracks blurring together.
The Stones are seriously glowing throughout this album. It's obvious they're having a blast, and the songs are incredibly consistent, linked together by a country-esque ecstasy that only this band could pull off. Songs such as Tumbling Dice, Shine A Light, Loving Cup, and Rocks Off are highlights, but there really isn't a bad track. I could easily see this going into my regular rotation.
Ice T
2/5
It's... fine. Passable for 90s hip-hop, at least. The skits are actually pretty entertaining, and come close to outshining many of the actual musical tracks - which is a bit of a no-no. There are a few musical highlights, namely the great Mind Over Matter, the raging mood of Fly By, the unexpected metal-rocker Body Count, and the chilling keyboard hooks in The Tower. Unfortunately, the album is brought down severely by its lyrics, which veer all over the place, from misogyny (Bitches 2) to narcissism (Straight Up, among others) to underwhelming sex-talk after stating in the previous track that there would be nothing of the sort (Fly By). The percussion is also generally uninspiring - very standard for 90s rap, having a kind of semi-lo-fi electronic sound that makes the production sound much worse than it should. The rhythms themselves are not interesting.
2/5
4/5
Summary: Far too many I-IV chord progressions for my comfort. That being said, Bono's voice is stunning, and works for every occasion (in this case, all 11 occasions). Guitars and synths are used tastefully throughout, and the overall sound is full and satisfying. 4/5.
Where The Streets Have No Name: An 80s counterpart to Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News". Energetic rhythm section backing a soulful, heartfelt lyric about finding your place in the world.
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: Again, just a brilliant atmosphere. The chorus is a little generic, but still powerful and (probably) crowd-energising. Harmonically, not interesting – essentially one chord with heavy textures trying to convince you otherwise.
With Or Without You: The singing on this is pretty darn great (although it's easier to pull that off when the melody doesn't deviate much. Hang on, the melody's getting higher. A five-minute emotional arc? ... Yep. Whoa. This song is an anthem if I've ever heard one. Some good guitarwork in here too.
Bullet The Blue Sky: Groovy. Two chords, but the almost angsty vocal coupled with a slow, druggy metal instrumental makes up for it. Atmospheric. I think I'm starting to see the band's main strength.
Running To Stand Still: A little nondescript until halfway through, with the repeating "Ah la la la de day" lines and the following "Hoooooo!"s and verses. Lyrically: Man, this Bono guy didn't have good relationships [with drugs], did he?
Red Hill Mining Town: Okay, the number of I-IV-I-IV-... chord progressions in this album is kind of crazy. Fortunately, I was saved (partially) a few seconds after typing that sentence. A slow, powerful mourning sesh about a worker's strike. Kind of generic-sounding, but Bono's vocal once again saves it.
In God's Country: A different chord progression. Huh, actually, this one's the same. No wonder some people (especially "background-listeners") complain about all the songs on this album sounding the same. Fast-paced and possibly more intense than it needed to be.
Trip Through Your Wires: Harmonica! I-VII-IV-I is a slight change, but nothing crazy. The vocal harmonies and rhythmic choice of 6/8 time really sell this one for me.
One Tree Hill: The gold standard. Every song on the album (after the phenomenal opening trio) is trying to be like this one. The first track where I noticed how much I liked the drums. Simple-but-not-too-simple, effective, repetitive, great. "Run like a river/To the sea..." Bono's going all in on the chorus, and the backing vocals agree. As long as you're okay with the second consecutive VII-IV-I song in a row, this song is probably your jam. Interesting change in atmosphere in the final 30 seconds, almost like a departing prayer.
Exit: Kind of an homage to punk, or a tongue-and-cheek reply to the post-punk that was popular around the same time. Also clearly inspired by blues, what with the "caveman bassline" and heavily dorian-mode melody. Fun contrast between the "moody" and "rahhh!" sections. I'm pretty sure the entire song is one chord. Tasteful use of synths - not too overbearing.
Mothers Of The Disappeared: Pretty. A good choice to end the album; it wouldn't have worked anywhere else. The fadeout is a little rough.
Santana
5/5
I came into this from the Wikipedia article expecting to give it 3 or 4 stars, and left very surprised. It's pretty darn great. I'm familiar with a couple of the tracks (Oye Como Va, Samba Pa Ti) as jazz charts, but this overall modern Latin-rock genre is quite unfamiliar to me. And Santana Latin-rocks the house down. Every song is great - even the mysterious, atmospheric Singing Winds, Crying Beasts - and the album was over as soon as it had begun. Excellent guitar work and a fitting, precise-yet-jammy vocal performance.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
Music, quite by definition, decorates time (much how art decorates space). This album is the music equivalent of sprawling mass of mud and rocks heaving slowly down a long mountainside. Even though it technically decorates the landscape, most people could only watch it with boredom or discomfort, and it would be a stretch to call it art.
The instruments, individually, are played well, but when put together as a band, they feel incongruent and without passion. The vocal is consistently, uncomfortably out of tune, which might be a staple of the genre but isn't working for this album.
Albatross is a slog to get through, with even the bass (which seems to be touted as the crowning sonic achievement of the album) hardly deviating from repeated tonics in an eighth-note rhythm. There's very little material to hook the listener's interest after around three minutes. The unhinged falsetto at the end is probably the best part of the song.
The tracks following Albatross are slightly better on account of simply being shorter (and having some good interplay between drums, guitar, and bass, e.g. in Poptones). The songs Poptones and Socialist are highlights because of the guitar/basswork, but the former is much too long. The Suit is very strange, almost like a Syd Barrett or Chats track with a dark bass undertone. Bad Baby is as bad as the baby. Chant is also bad, because it takes repetition to the extreme in an album already overloaded with it. The final track, Radio 4, is far and away the best track on the album, and yet it's merely a semi-good synthy instrumental.
Another reviewer stated it best: "Fair play for abandoning the Sex Pistols' sound and exploring new and interesting sonic textures, but this seems like a case of PiL crawling in a slow, ungainly manner so other post-punks could run."
Fiona Apple
5/5
My first time listening to Fiona Apple, and it was great. Ten stellar tracks, each with their own unique instrumental feel and brilliant, non-overblown piano part. The mixing is done well, allowing Fiona's beautiful and emotional vocal to shine. Fiona also incorporates a hard-to-describe theatrical element to her performance that adds drama and variation to each of the songs. The songwriting style is unadventurous but honed to near perfection. Sleep To Dream, Sullen Girl, Criminal, and Carrion are highlights.
The album cover is the only obvious thing bringing this album down (a blurry brightness filter on a poorly cropped selfie isn't ideal).
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Spectacular. Ten great compositions, executed beautifully. Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Boxer, El Condor Pasa, Baby Driver... goshdarn Cecilia. Earworms in the best way possible. The harmonies are S&G's signature, and they really shine in most of these tracks. Simon's solo vocal is always playful and conversational, which really draws the listener into the music. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" is the only odd one out; there's something just a little unsatisfying about it, like an incomplete souvenir shoved into the middle of the album to increase runtime. Still, it's not bad, and the consistent flow of the album manages to work with the variety of moods and styles. For its time, this music is phenomenally fun and creative. This customer has been kept satisfied.
9/10
Baaba Maal
2/5
There are some great melodic/instrumental hooks in these pieces, but they're hardly developed and it's easy to lose interest after the first three or so minutes of each track. And, given the five-plus-minute average length of the tracks, almost half the runtime is spent wishing the song would progress to something a little more engaging. I'm glad I listened to this album, but it's a bit too tedious for a relisten. The opening track was a highlight, if only because I didn't yet realise how thematically repetitive the future tracks would continue to be.
Cool singing voice. I was a little worried I'd tire quickly of it, but I actually really enjoyed the vocals, especially when they were harmonised.
2/5
Dennis Wilson
4/5
A fresh, very pretty sound with some funky instruments. In my eyes, none of the tracks are standout classics, but you can see the heart in Wilson's compositions, as well as the inspiration from the Beach Boys.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
For an album released in 1970, it was just a little underwhelming. The music felt like it was meant to be enjoyable (by myself included), and it got most of the way there. There was just something incomplete about nearly every song in this set. All of side 1 was, barring some pretty simplistic arrangements, fantastic. The harmonies were glimmering and it sounded at least five years ahead of its time. As the album progressed, the music seemed to shift into more dramatic, "proggy" territory, but never quite reached the heights of other prog rock giants around the same time. Rundgren's style is a bit indecisive at this point. Black Maria, Hello It's Me, and Slut were some later highlights, but the energy of the album had long since plateaued.
I thought I was going crazy. The Wikipedia article showed near-perfect critic reviews, and I couldn't observe that near-perfection.
That being said, it's incredibly impressive that every instrument on sides 1, 2, and 3 was played by Rundgren. That's some sick talent.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Moody. Cinematic. A brilliant dive into late 60s soul-light-rock, including the gorgeous hit "Son Of A Preacher Man". The other tracks are nothing to sniff at either, although they can often be difficult to tell apart from one another. Dusty's voice is pretty magical, and the other instruments (such as horns and strings) are given a chance to shine too. I think it's very important that a solo artist give equal (or close to equal) priority to their band members, even though the music is only under an individual name. The vocal harmonies are good, and should've been utilised even more. The musical harmonies (chords) are unadventurous, which I can sometimes forgive, but not quite in this case.
Note: This album is really close to 5 stars. It's delectable, but not delicious.
Black Flag
3/5
Crazy, energetic, deadly. Some tracks were actually really catchy and evidence of strong songwriting prowess (Rise Above, Six Pack, TV Party) but others were just several minutes of angry noise from all instruments who showed up to the party. In those moments (which were far from fleeting), the music wasn't exactly musical, and it was a slog to get through despite the tracks' very short average runtime. These vocals are best when performing a mini-skit or sing-talking, but not when screaming.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
It's decent music. The intended audience is definitely not me, so I can't appreciate the lyrics. The tracks are pretty hit-or-miss, particularly with regard to the backing instrumentals. Tracks like Gin and Juice, Ain't No Fun, and Gz and Hustlas are seriously catchy because of their intoxicating riffs, varied rhythm, and non-monotonicity. Some tracks, like the opening Bathtub, are acceptable as skits but clearly not relistenable. Most of the remaining songs are fine but pretty uninteresting and repetitive, especially compared to the incredible rock, folk, and post-prog music being released around the same time.
Snoop Dogg is, as his lyrics demonstrate, pretty narcissistic. It alienates me even further from the already uninspiring lyrics.
5/10
The Clash
5/5
The most musically impressive punk music I’ve ever experienced. Everything that punk does wrong, London Calling improves upon, and everything punk does right, London Calling gives a nod (and a half) to. Absent are the arhythmic, atonal travesties of same-era punk (such as Public Image Ltd.’s “Metal Box”, another album in this list). The tracks are short, varied, energetic, and powerful in terms of their messages. The Clash ain’t messing around here. The singing is archetypal punk-esque, not going overboard but maintaining a balance between energy and control. The guitars and drums are great, and addition of other instruments (such as horns) is tastefully done. They’ve also expanded upon the sound from their earlier albums, taking influence from blues, jazz, and Latin – among other genres – throughout the tracklist. Essentially, the White Album, but more cohesive and with fewer obvious “classic” songs.
Key tracks: London Calling, Lost in the Supermarket, Death or Glory, Train in Vain, Jimmy Jazz
Living Colour
4/5
Great guitar, great bass, great drumming. It's a bit Rush-esque, with much more conventional singing timbre to fit the late-80s "funk metal" style. The opening track, Cult of Personality, is pretty infectious, and the remaining tracks are all good, though many of them sound similar. The three live tracks tacked onto the end are unnecessary, both for runtime and for being repeats of earlier tracks. Still, a very strong showing for an album and band I'd never heard of.
CHIC
3/5
Fairly good disco, but disco itself is a very dated genre that inspired many significantly better, more varied styles in future decades. It was one of the lowlights of the 70s. For what it’s worth, CHIC pulls it off very well, nailing the chill multi-harmony vocals, smooth synths/horns, and tight drum beat. It’s just a little artificial, which is an artifact of the genre rather than any fault of the band. The opening track, Good Times, has that excellent hook, but runs over twice its ideal length. What About Me is another very strong track, the harmonies especially notable here. Otherwise, the album is fairly monotone. Suitable for a soundtrack (or indeed an actual disco), but not for close listening in the modern day.
Soft Machine
4/5
The musical rendition of Hitchhiker's Guide. Adventurous, mind-bending, indecisive, crazy. I got lost several times.
The fact that this was recorded live is incredibly impressive. It sounds several years ahead of other bands that would themselves be considered wildly ahead of their time (e.g. Pink Floyd's Meddle and WYWH). Unfortunately, though, the music lacks riffs, hooks, and (for the most part) chord progressions and melodies, making it tough for your standard listener. One thing I will say is that it wasn't boring. It just overrepresented creativity and musicians' enjoyment, at the expense of building a connection with the audience. Because I'm part of said audience, I can't give this 5 stars.
Great synths. In fact, great instrumentation all around. The musicianship is solid and the band sounds like they're genuinely enjoying themselves without sounding too indulgent. Fun and well-executed build-ups as well. It's mostly great, in theory.
4/5
Fave track: Out-Bloody-Rageous
Joni Mitchell
5/5
This is a tough call for me. It’s between 4 and 5. The compositions are great yet simple (but unfortunately not memorable), and the lyrics are relatable. I’m guessing this is one which I’ll grow to love, not only as I listen to it more in the future, but as I gain more wisdom. This is an album for wise people.
Instrumentally, the songs are nothing mind-blowing, but they complement Joni’s vocal. The harmonies are gorgeous and well-placed.
Yeah. I’ll have to give it a 5. But it’s a low 5.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Dramatic. Hard-hitting. Gospel-soaked, yet utterly merciless. Avoids falling under one genre; the closest would be something like "blues gospel metal" or, more vaguely, alt-rock. Lots of minor keys, dorian modes, and V-i / i-IV chord changes. The drumming is darn fantastic, full of anger and rocking energy. The lead vocal is throaty, manly, and distinctive.
The main drawback is that it goes on far too long, and the ideas in many tracks are sometimes very similar to one another. Sure, each individual song is a blast, but as an album it's too exhausting to give 5 stars. The album's bookends are the clear highlights.
Fave tracks: Get Ready For Love, Cannibal's Hymn, Babe You Turn Me On, O Children
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Fantastic. A collection of smooth, soulful anthems with excellent singing and percussion in particular. This album contains classics like Mercy Mercy Me and the warm-yet-earth-shattering What's Going On, but also some excellent deeper cuts such as Flyin' High, Right On, and Wholy Holy. There are no duds, and Marvin Gaye is clearly confident in this style of music. It's also such a non-grating, relistenable genre that you can't help but adore it. The transitions between tracks are smooth and unforced. Add to that the groundbreaking impact this album had at the time of release, and the clear-cut, powerful messages passionately laid bare within the music, and you have an all-time classic. Easily 5/5.
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
Impressive blending of several styles, including country, rock, jazz, and most notably blues. The band and instruments mesh well together. You can tell they've rehearsed these pieces a lot, because even live it sounds like it could be a studio recording.
The opener, Stateboro Blues, and the three longer tracks are all highlights, though at times you really start to notice their length. The extended ending to Whipping Post, with countless false finishes, is good, and would've been fantastic to hear live (without knowing the track length in advance). The guitar playing is superb but plays it safe stylistically (every excellent solo is very similar-sounding).
4/5
Madonna
3/5
It's fine. Very late-90s-easy-listening-esque. Sounds a bit like Lana Del Rey's music, but leaning into bluesy melodies and harmonies more often. Madonna's music throughout this album isn't particularly exciting, but it's fun to listen to and the songs are executed smoothly and earnestly. It's inoffensive and doesn't take many risks - at least, viewing it through a retrospective lens.
The quality of the track listing is a little inconsistent. The first three tracks - Drowned World, Swim, and Ray of Light - are pretty darn great, introducing a variety of moods and instruments to the table. Candy Perfume Girl is goofy and passable. Skin is less passable, for having an uninteresting atmosphere and weird lyrics, and we run into this problem with later tracks such as Frozen and Little Star.
Fever Ray
2/5
Bjork-esque, but more monotonous and tedious. Very few acoustic instruments; the only frequent acoustic element (vocals) are often heavily filtered. This lack of humanity creates a huge rift between artist and listener. Sometimes that lack of connection works wonders, but not in this case. Cool textures that are difficult to really get into because there's no human element.
The opening track is the strongest, on account of being the Fever Ray equivalent of Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place (an incredibly strong album opener from the same decade). It's still a little monotonous, but for a first listen, If I Had a Heart is solid. The remaining tracks are less engaging, except Keep the Streets Empty For Me, which has a standout atmosphere.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
I came in fully expecting to dislike this album, it essentially being a set of electronic dance tracks – and, worse, 90s electronic dance. However, this was actually executed pretty well. The tracks are a little repetitive and cling strongly to certain chords and rhythms, but those motifs are very catchy and manage to avoid getting irritating. Already, this lifts the album above nearly all of its annoying little brothers of the same genre. Couple that with the fantastic track transitions, high energy, and ability to be listened to both closely and in the background, and you have a really solid end result.
Queen
5/5
A prime example of glam-meets-prog rock, performed with skill, passion, and a sense of adventure. An argument could easily be made that this is Queen's greatest and most ambitious album, surpassing even the heights of Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera.
This album is also an example of how not to produce your album. The mixing is a little untidy at times, and it's very obvious when the guitar/drums max out their volume. Still, it gives the music a raw, fierce energy that doesn't really detriment from the sound.
The "concept" of this album, featuring the "White" and "Black" sides (reflecting themes of reality and fantasy respectively), is really cool. The songs are wicked, particularly March of the Black Queen, which is one of Queen's best.
Cee Lo Green
2/5
For what it's worth, this definitely isn't a soul album. It's closer to soft hip-hop. A couple of the tracks stand out with their warmth and uplifting feel - Livin' Again and All Day Love Affair - but most of the other tracks are not notable, covering hardly any new ground and presenting cliched, overused hip-hop ideas. The beats are reasonably catchy but difficult to get into, partly because of the percussion (which is very simplistic), generally weak vocals throughout, and lyrics that are hard to relate to (and at times hard to hear!). The textures are generally thick and unvaried, again making the music harder to consistently engage with.
All Day Love Affair is concrete proof that this artist is much more skilled as a singer than as a rapper. Why he didn't lean into that more is beyond me.
OutKast
2/5
This started as a promising 3-or-4-star listening experience, but it quickly became a slog to get through. Sure, there’s variety (especially if you’re a hip-hop fan), but any album longer than two hours is going to drain the listener of enjoyment regardless of content. Couple that with my not being a fan of the genre or music era, and you have a recipe for disaster. The album is somewhat salvaged by the backing vocals, horns, and relatively hit-or-miss percussion (the percussion has to be really incredible to make up for the fact that it’s non-acoustic).
The second disc is noticeably better than the first, incorporating more singing and elements of rock and jazz, but it still suffers from the overbloating problem; there are plenty of lesser songs that could be left off the record.
Cut every interlude and about half the remaining tracks on each disk, and you have a result worthy of its “classic” status. Some tracks that should be left in, primarily for their fun instrumentals and singing rather than rapping, include GhettoMusick, The Way You Move, The Rooster, Happy Valentine's Day, Love Hater, and of course the genuinely great Hey Ya!
Fleet Foxes
4/5
I struggled to find the words to describe my feelings about this album. It was really good. Hopefully I can safely steal someone else's description here:
"Haunting, majestic, uplifting - like watching the sun rise over a mountain, gradually spreading light over the rocky crags and dissipating the frigid mist."
Yeah. It's atmospheric and has a fresh, oldey-time-folk sound, almost implying a sort of medieval fantasy setting (especially given the album cover). It would've been fun to hear them lean into that idea more. The instruments are played well but not virtuosically. The choir-like harmonies are consistently gorgeous. The band's sound is good but not very distinctive.
Air
4/5
As far as soundtracks go, this one has some seriously cool sounds. The mood is brooding yet expressive, sensual, and atmospheric. There's a solid blend of electronic and acoustic sounds, possibly paying homage to Pink Floyd and other rock giants of the 70s and 80s. The only real drawback is that the lack of vocals and non-rhythm instruments creates a hook-vacuum. The tracks aren't distinct from one another.
That being said, the opening track (Playground Love) is fantastic. Love the sax. Also, Highschool Lover sounds like a vocal-less Great Gig in the Sky. Another connection to Pink Floyd.
Fela Kuti
3/5
A fun collection of jazzy jam sessions with clear Nigerian influence. The percussion (and general instrumental work) throughout is well done, and the resulting sound is clean, groovy, and deceptively simplistic. However, if you’re going to put out a full-length album with four tracks, those four tracks had better be either groundbreaking or consistently engaging. The album almost managed the latter, but the music eventually became straightforward, conventional jazz, albeit with a stylistic spin. The vocals, particularly in the opening/title track, are the most hook-like element. Everything else was background music - "bar jazz" - and, most likely, nothing more.
Slint
3/5
The time signatures and song structures are atypical and very fun to ponder over. On the flipside, the songs drag on, giving you plenty of time to understand the strange arrangements and musical choices, think them over, grow slightly bored of them, and then frown and check how much time is left in the track (barring the opening track, Breadcrumb Trail, which is fantastic throughout). The lyrics are great, but sometimes difficult to make out. The instruments demonstrate the band's punk roots, which I'm not a huge fan of, but they make it work to an extent.
Like another reviewer commented, I listened to this whole album closely and I still can't decide whether I like it.
Sam Cooke
4/5
This album is so fun. Excited, passionate, soulful vocals by Cooke that absolutely live up to his legendary reputation as a singer and performer of the early 60s. Sure, there isn’t much variety, but this is to be expected for a live album released during this period. Tracks like Feel It (Don’t Fight It), Twistin’ The Night Away, and Chain Gang, among others, are honestly just a blast to listen to. You can definitely hear how Cooke was influenced by 50s blues/rock and how he would leave a legacy for decades to come. Really, the only thing preventing this from being 5 stars is the fact that it’s not really meant to be listened to as an album. Such is nearly always the problem with live albums. It would’ve had an even bigger, louder, prouder effect live – but as an album it loses some steam when the performers aren’t actually present.
Meat Loaf
5/5
I love this album. It's stupid, ridiculous, unhinged, overdramatic, and brilliant all at once. The theatric element is overdone to the point where the cheesiness and unnecessary horns and whistles end up being unironically fantastic. It's like operatic-soft-metal, with just the right level of kitschiness to convert the haters. The instrumentation is on point, and the melodies are fun and relistenable.
Maybe the most shallowly important element that pushes this to five stars for me is its utter confidence to be loud and nonsensical.
The Avalanches
3/5
A mess of cool-sounding but meaningless repetitive vocal licks, coupled with basic synth/percussive rhythms. It’s actually really interesting, bordering on soundscape-esque during some moments, and the music isn’t so repetitive that it gets boring. And it sounds, well, cool. However, even though the music is sometimes catchy, it’s disorganised and nonsensical to the point of (often) going in one ear and out the other. Maybe I don’t understand The Avalanches’ true genius.
Highlights: Since I Left You, Close To You, Live At Dominoes
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
I wanted to give this more than 3/5, but couldn’t find a way to justify that. The tracks “Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou” are fresh, energetic, and well-played; they’re my personal favourites on the album. The remaining tracks are quite dated. While it was probably impressive (and clearly popular) for its time, the swampy, heavily-accented drawling and half-impassioned instrumental isn’t quite doing it for me.
Björk
5/5
This album is a whirlwind of surprisingly congruous ideas, beautifully executed and (at least to me) wildly ahead of their time. Bjork is clearly a master of her craft, which incorporates heavy, ethereal textures and a smooth blend of modern, electric sounds and more "acoustic" ones.
These tracks seriously make me want to ascend to the heavens and live the remainder of my life as a mythical air spirit.
Best tracks: Cocoon, It's Not Up To You, Undo, Sun in My Mouth
Eagles
4/5
I really like this album. The vocal harmonising is incredibly distinctive for its time, creating easy-listening music like no other. The two opening tracks, "Take It Easy" and "Witchy Woman", are a brilliant one-two punch that made me immediately love the album regardless of the future tracks. The downside is that the instrumentation and harmonising is so consistent that it makes the "filler" tracks much harder to remember.
The final two tracks - especially the grand finale "Tryin'" - also kick some serious butt.
The music is simple, elegant, and does its job - but it's not quite mind-blowing.
4/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I'm familiar with this album already, and it's excellent. With LZ's first record, the band said, "Here's what we've got." With their sophomore record, the band said, "No, seriously. This is what we've got." And what they've got is absolutely legendary.
Nine near-faultless hard-rock/blues tracks, performed with unparalleled energy and stadium-shaking riffs. Unlike their first record, this setlist works very well both as a live performing set and a high-production album showcase. All four musicians are working in sync with each other, the musical ideas (especially for 1969) are pretty groundbreaking, and the songs are incredibly catchy. Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker (paired with Living Loving Maid), Ramble On, The Lemon Song, Bring it On Home... I can't give enough positive feedback on these tracks.
The weakest track, Moby Dick, is still a powerful, hard-hitting instrumental, with the low point being the slightly misguided drum solo that works better when performed live.
The drums are so loud and solid that they sometimes audibly clip the sound. I'm guessing that was intentional, given how esteemed Page's production is.
David Bowie
5/5
It's haunting, dark, self-reflective... the perfect swan song for Bowie. I only really got into Bowie's music right after his passing in early 2016, and yet I avoided this album in particular. Maybe I was worried that it would be too depressing, shining in a completely different light once Bowie passed away several days after its release.
The album is, for lack of a better word, a masterpiece. All seven tracks are intense, creative, incredibly unique-sounding, and somehow both chart-topping and genre-avoidant (they definitely aren't pop songs). They're also some of Bowie's most complex compositions, delving into wacky time signatures, complicated percussive rhythms, and prog-esque multi-part experiences.
It's an experience you can't miss. 5/5
Holger Czukay
3/5
A small collection of songs trying to act as multi-genre prog, but actually not really settling on any genre. It’s an odd, nondescript kind of sound, but it also jams nicely, especially in the opening track. Czukay’s German accent is also really fun across all tracks, and it’s placed tastefully (i.e. not overused). The synths are also pretty fun. The instruments generally don’t show much “flourish” or expertise, and the hooks (if there were any) aren’t memorable.
I guess it’s a little unclear what musical statement Czukay was trying to make. It sounds good, though, so I shouldn’t complain!
Key track: Cool in the Pool
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
I'm going to put the same review I wrote for Metal Box, because I have nothing new to add. They may as well be the same album. Even the opening tracks of both albums are both horrendous slogs to get through before the slightly more palatable later tracks.
Music, quite by definition, decorates time (much how art decorates space). This album is the music equivalent of sprawling mass of mud and rocks heaving slowly down a long mountainside. Even though it technically decorates the landscape, most people could only watch it with boredom or discomfort, and it would be a stretch to call it art.
The instruments, individually, are played well, but when put together as a band, they feel incongruent and without passion. The vocal is consistently, uncomfortably out of tune, which might be a staple of the genre but isn't working for this album.
I'll give the album some credit, though: The riff in Religion II is good, if a bit poorly mixed. The title track, Annalisa, and Low Life are passable for their nicer texturing and guitar work. Unfortunately, the mixing (throughout the album) makes the nearly-droning cymbal and bass sound so harsh that it's difficult to genuinely enjoy the highlights of these tracks.
Another reviewer stated it best: "Fair play for abandoning the Sex Pistols' sound and exploring new and interesting sonic textures, but this seems like a case of PiL crawling in a slow, ungainly manner so other post-punks could run."
3/5
An album that doesn't quite commit to jazz, but nor does it come anywhere near the pop/rock that was typically popular at the time of release. I'm very surprised this sold as well as it did, because the individual tracks aren't particularly memorable. Some really solid guitar, bass, percussion, and overall instrumentation, though.
"Four Cornered Room", with its dreamy hypnotic atmosphere, is probably the best track on the album, and the only lengthy track that justifies its runtime.
The Specials
4/5
Who knew a Ska revival album would be so catchy? Really, the only thing preventing this from being 5 stars is the limited complexity of the genre. Aside from that, the songs are infectious, well-played, and brimming with attitude. Elements of punk and reggae sneak their way into several tracks; the latter is particularly noticeable in the guitar riffs.
Coldplay
3/5
Every year or so, I think, “Okay, time to give Coldplay another chance. Maybe this time, I’ll get it.”
I didn’t get it, but there are still a few standout tracks. In particular, Clocks, God Put a Smile upon Your Face, and A Whisper are really solid songs that honestly wouldn’t be out of place on a Greatest Hits record. The Scientist, on the other hand, does not justify its own popularity, being an incredibly nondescript piano track with very little to distinguish it from any of the thousands of highly-produced piano ballads out there. The remaining tracks fall somewhere in between. Most of the songs are slow, synthy, and awash with thick, dramatic textures that grow old surprisingly quickly, especially in the context of the 2020s where there are far better synth-based “soundscape” bands out there.
I’ll say this: the album is definitely overrated, but it isn’t bad.
3/5
Frank Sinatra
4/5
What a legend. Sinatra's voice is luscious, filled with emotion, and really draws you in. It also has a Christmassy vibe similar to Bing Crosby. The strings are fantastic - the best I've encountered on this list so far. The songs are not very distinct from one another, but still perfectly good as heartfelt love songs.
I really enjoyed this album. It gives you a warm, fuzzy, almost nostalgic feel.
Björk
4/5
Bjork’s music has such a quirky, cool, likeable aesthetic. Her debut is no exception, though it is a little less interesting and varied than some of her subsequent albums (e.g. Vespertine, one of my previous albums on this list, received an even higher rating). Venus As A Boy vividly demonstrates Bjork’s understanding of musical hooks, and the instrumentation throughout the album is incredibly atmospheric and ethereal. Other highlights include Aeroplane (nifty percussion!), Violently Happy, and Human Behaviour. The tracks are of ideal length (runtime), and differ from one another enough to maintain good listener interest, particularly for a debut. (Debut albums can sometimes fall into the trap of every song sounding the same, under the guise of committing to a particular style – see Bowie’s first, self-titled album.) The only track that was a miss for me was The Anchor Song, whose hook was unsatisfying and a little grating. Still, a generally very good album.
Saint Etienne
3/5
A cool sound for its time. Kind of an industrial feel, hip-hoppy without rap (for the most part). It’s pretty good, although at times it felt slightly aimless, as if the musicians had no idea what they were banging on about. The singing is typical of the genre, being light and airy in contrast to the heavy instrumental. One element of 90s hip-hop that’s included here is skits, which (thankfully) are short but still unnecessary. Some of the tracks are great, including Carnt Sleep, Stoned to Say the Least (what a fantastic atmosphere! seriously.), She’s the One, Only Love Can Break Your Heart. Most of the others are pretty forgettable, but musically still quite interesting in their own right. The album, in my eyes, hasn’t aged particularly well, but for its time it’s seriously impressive.
Mike Ladd
2/5
This album is tragically less “full of [quirky] life” than it was probably intended to be. Especially tragic, because the song names allude to something really creative that never really gets off the ground. The artist was clearly trying to showcase nifty space-rock elements (e.g. filtering vocals to emulate alien speak) to merge with some prominent hip-hop themes, but in my opinion space-rock completely fails to convince when there’s no melody, very little (real) percussion, not many contrasting “elements of humanity”… Honestly, this album isn’t that bad – in fact, it’s close to getting 3 stars on account of its fun textures – but it just doesn’t succeed at all in its goal of genre-blending. The closest the album gets to a convincing, musical, spacey atmosphere is the semi-layered synths and bluesy bass playing in To the Moon’s Contractor (which I think is the album’s strongest track). In particular, the drum sound in the last couple minutes of the album’s centrepiece is really cool, and I wish they’d leaned more into that in other tracks. The track following this, I Feel Like $100, is also pretty good.
Daft Punk
3/5
I was expecting a little more variety within each song. Daft Punk are touted as “the” electronic club duo, so inevitably there would be an explosion of creativity throughout the album. The problem is, it’s a pretty long album (74 minutes), and with some tracks lasting more than 7 minutes, the one-chord, one-bar, one-idea repetition can get a little stale. Still, I thought it worked excellently as “empowerment” music. The lengthiness and repetitiveness of many of the tracks made me feel productive, like I needed to do things and do them now! Aw yeah!!
The electronic instrumentation - primarily synth-based - is honestly really cool-sounding for its time. With more solid song structures and less perpetuity, this album could easily be a 4/5 or higher.
Key tracks: Indo Silver Club, Rock’n Roll, Around the World, Da Funk
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Never heard this guy before. Very Thom York-esque. The vibe is hard to pin down, containing subtle hints of fantasy, medieval-ness, dramatic opera, and piano/music hall, all wrapped into a neat genreless package. All of the tracks sound great and are genuinely fun to listen to, with the exception of Vibrate (something about the lyrics just don't translate the way I imagine Wainwright wanted them to).
The album cover is very odd, with an unattractive colour palette and - looking at the knight's attire - allusion to just one of the many genres included in the tracklist.
Weird. 4/5
The National
2/5
This artist had so much potential with the opening track, which had a vibe of ominous building-up prelude to (presumably) an earth-shattering intro. Annoyingly, though, every track was precisely like that: build-up and no payoff. The mumbled, indistinct vocal got old fast, and the low, atmospheric instrumental present in most tracks was good in isolation but tedious when listened to for 47 minutes straight. That being said, Terrible Love was a good opener, and could’ve easily been the legendary opener to an album that made some very different decisions. The second track, Sorrow, was also good. After that, only tracks with higher energy (usually dictated by the presence of louder percussion) were enjoyable - including Afraid of Everyone, Bloodbuzz Ohio, and Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.
2/5
The Doors
5/5
I adore the production on this album. It's warm, bluesy, and gives a soft jazz bar vibe. Morrison's vocal is noticeably more gravelly and mature than on the Doors' debut, but still equally strong. The compositions are strongly rooted in blues, and the band remains loyal to the genre while providing a selection of excellent, catchy compositions. The instrumentation is near perfect, suiting every song fairly well without being overly showy. The energetic-yet-simplistic piano in the title track is a good example of this; the consistent, laid-back synergy of the rhythm and bass guitars is another. (Virtuosity works in some genres, but generally not this one.) Also, it's a (somewhat) rare album where the hits, according to Spotify listens, match up with my favourite tracks: Love Her Madly, L.A. Woman, and Riders on the Storm.
Finally, it's the friggin' Doors. Wooooooooo.
5/5
R.E.M.
4/5
My first experience with a full REM album, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The instrument playing does come off a bit dated, seeing as many timbres and textures of popular 80s and early 90s bands ended up sounded very similar to this. However, speaking objectively and without regard to other musicians, this is some great stuff. Pulsating, atmospheric guitars, melodic basslines, a tight rhythm section, and solid vocals. Some forgettable tracks, and some really fun ones.
Highlights: Talk About The Passion, West Of The Fields, Radio Free Europe
4/5
5/5
I was hugely surprised by just how great this album was. It has a shot at having the highest quality-to-popularity ratio on this list. The compositions and arrangements are little Beatlesque, or perhaps Brian-Wilsonian, especially in the slower, more string-oriented tracks. The strings are the album’s point of focus, along with the smooth, emotional vocals. Really, the only slightly weaker track is Your Dictionary, because of the horrendously goofy lyrics – but that can be overlooked. The rest of the album sounds really good, cementing its place as an obscure classic in the world of British baroque-pop.
Key tracks:
I Can’t Own Her – Beautiful shimmering strings and some sitar-like instrument in the back. Very cool. Takes a darker, more aggressive turn in the B-section halfway through the song.
River of Orchids – Man, that orchestration is haunting. Cool, dark, nature-overgrown alleyway. A little haunting.
Easter Theatre – Fun, poppy, well-produced.
Greenman – Hard-to-place genre. Some quasi-medieval hints – possibly mode related? Again, great use of strings – adds so much colour. (This is a consistently strong theme throughout the album.)
John Martyn
3/5
Small Hours is fantastic, and singlehandedly adds a star to an otherwise substandard 2-star album. The vocals are very low-energy, which works in the aforementioned track, but comes across as not trying hard enough in the other songs. The "echoey" layering effect in the album is pretty cool, though it feels flourishy at times to cover the fact that the compositions aren't very strong.
For its time - mid-to-late 70s - it's impressive. However, I still found plenty of negative points.
The White Stripes
4/5
Cool production and sound-panning. The vocalist reminds me of early-career Robert Plant (a la Led Zeppelin III, 1970). Tracks like The Denial Twist and Instinct Blues really capture this classic-rock energy, which is also present in other tracks with a really nifty modern spin. Some unusual instrumentation in The Nurse incorporates this modern spin especially effectively. Add to that Blue Orchid, an excellent, catchy pop-rock track, and you have a pretty darn good album. One issue that prevents this from attaining a 5th star is that the filler is noticeable (Forever For Her, Passive Manipulation, Red Rain) because you notice several weaker hooks being haphazardly thrown together to make up for the fact that they're weak (think "Jet" by Paul McCartney + Wings). The instrumentation is also a little inconsistent, making it hard to recall the band's sound other than "modern garage rock with, uh, some guitars and pianos? I think?"
Other than that, though? Fire.
Key tracks: Blue Orchid, My Doorbell, Little Ghost, The Denial Twist, Instinct Blues
AC/DC
5/5
I’ve been looking forward to this one!
An instant classic. Roaring guitar hooks backed with precise-yet-grungy bass playing, solid drumming, and electrifying vocals that take the band that huge step further into the land of classic rock giants. This album, while not exactly exploring many genres, contains a wide array of incredibly catchy riffs that I caught onto and loved immediately each time. It felt like one track after another of pure rock energy that made me feel pumped, excited, ecstatic, and high on something illegal and unidentifiable. I would probably categorise this as a hype album; there are definitely times where it would be inappropriate to play this, but if you’re having a good time already, you can’t go wrong with some goshdarn Back In Black. (I hit the sack.)
Key tracks: Hells Bells, What Do You Do For Money Honey, Givin the Dog a Bone, Back In Black, You Shook Me All Night Long, Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution
(tl;dr: all of them are key tracks, basically)
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
It's heartening to see a modern album remaining faithful to the "album spirit", particularly adhering to the art of song transitions that lifted so many 70s and 80s albums to masterpiece level. This album doesn't quite reach the same level, though it does contain a great array of acoustic riffs, genre distortion, and meaningful lyrics that really make you question the true nature of broader society.
The blend of blues, 60s acoustic pop, rock, and lyrics that tackle modern politics and human struggle is also refreshing.
Key tracks: You Ain't The Problem, Rolling, Living In Denial, Solid Ground
The Slits
2/5
For punk, it's distinctly average. Out-of-tune vocals and instruments, fairly unskilled playing, and repetitive motifs that are very much hit-or-miss. When they hit, they hit reasonably well, with stronger tracks like Instant Hit, Typical Girls, and I Heard It Through The Grapevine (which, let's be honest, is hard to do a bad cover of). Most of the other tracks were a slog and a relief to get through, which is typically a bad sign.
I will give a shoutout to the sheer boldness of an all-female punk band in a musical scene which (at the time of release) was heavily dominated by similarly hit-or-miss all-male punk bands. From what I've read, this album was also incredibly influential on the post-punk and wider music scene - possibly for that reason. This doesn't justify the music's messiness and the fact that punk, with few exceptions, is a difficult genre to enjoy through a modern lens.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand, 2004): 3/5
Summary: First, the pros. The tracks all sound fairly different to one another, and for the most part are good pop compositions. However, the album feels a little incongruous or lost, like they band can't decide which instruments they want to sound consistently good. Sometimes it's the guitar riff, sometimes it's the vocal - but no matter the focus, all other instruments tend to get "downgraded" as a result. It's strange, really. I've never heard another album that does this. It's not quite convincing, but I'll give credit where it's due: the music is still pretty darn good.
Jacqueline: A pretty, acoustic ballad, before a jarring bassline leads into a punk-esque breakdown at 45-50 seconds in. Cool guitar riff, if a little simplistic. The vocals (and indeed all the instruments) sound slightly muffled, adding to the punky feel. Even though the vocalist seems pretty good at his craft, the actual melody and lyrics are so uncatchy that it's a mystery as to why this was chosen as the album's opening track. This track didn't do much for me.
Tell Her Tonight: Hmm, looks like that muffled production has continued into the second song. I hope this doesn't become a theme, because it's pretty distracting. The chorus is pretty good here. Slightly rockier than the previous track.
Take Me Out: Immediately, the vocal distortion works better than in the first two tracks. The relatively clear percussion and right-channel guitar helps with this. Cool tempo change leading to an entirely different sounding song just 60 seconds into the song. The multi-vocal thing is very messy sounding (single-track vocals would work much better). Chorus is pretty catchy; outro is similarly strong. Best track so far.
The Dark Of The Matinee: The intro is decent, and the vocal distortion seems to finally be absent. First time the vocals sound good, and they work well through self-harmonising(?) in the chorus. A solid track.
Auf Achse: Simple and effective bassline that easily steals the spotlight. An energetic, almost frenetic (at times) track that doesn't quite manage to be catchy, but is still really engaging. I'm not a big fan of the percussion, which would sound pretty darn nifty if it went all-out.
Cheating On You: See - this drumming is already noticeably the standout instrument. Unfortunately, nothing else really interests me. The riff is played so confidently that it's easy to miss the fact that it's... pretty terrible.
This Fire: this fire is out of control i'm gonna burn this city burn this city this fire is out of control i'm gonna burn this city burn this city this fire is out of control i'm gonna burn this city burn this city this fire is out of control i'm gonna burn this city burn this city
(tl;dr: chorus, which is meant to be the best part, is very repetitive)
Darts Of Pleasure: Thickly-textured. High energy, and a good, decisive ending. This is a good track.
Michael: Something about the vocal really stands out here. Lots of passion and an almost Elvis-like timbre that jells well with the heavy indie-punk-rock backing. Great track - probably the strongest on the album.
Come On Home: C'mon Franz Ferdinand, why'd you have to hold off on genuinely fun vocals until the final few tracks? Also, the first track to have a noticeably good chord progression. Me likey.
40': A jangly, country-sounding guitar riff steals the spotlight here, cutting its way into the post-chorus amidst smooth, slightly timid singing. I particularly enjoyed the sudden juxtaposition between the lighter and heavier textures.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
Cinematic, genre-bending, emotional, and at times hard to keep up with. A few of these tracks are whirlwinds of soundscapey synths that aren't necessarily bad, but could use some cohesion. Occasionally the music will veer into a kind of electronic avant-garde (not good), e.g. in the track No Sympathy. Some of the chord progressions, especially in the key tracks below, aren't necessarily creative, but they're darn great to listen through. The band is very obviously stronger and less abrasive when they lean into their more acoustic sound.
I really like the vocals. They're not overwhelmingly the focus, which is often a problem with post-2000 pop: artists in the pop genre will tailor their music to be singable rather than high-quality/complex, and the two are often mutually exclusive. Super Furry Animals knows when to let other instruments shine, usually for the better. This does come at the cost of the lyrics and melodies being a little harder to take in and recall.
Key tracks: (Drawing) Rings Around the World, Receptacle for the Respectable, Shoot Doris Day, Juxtapozed with U
Stereolab
3/5
The music is fine, albeit very, very repetitive at times. There are several tracks that are mostly one chord, which is always a risky move. I don't reckon that choice ever paid off (e.g. The Noise of Carpet, an otherwise fantastic rock track, is seriously marred by how harmonically monotone it is. Tomorrow Is Already Here suffers from the same issue). It's also bold to start off the album with the heavily looped electronic track Metronomic Underground - an 8-minute track that uses almost exclusively one repeated lyric - and expect the product to be likeable by wider audiences.
That being said, some of the instrumental and (especially) vocal layering in tracks like Cybele's Reverie and Les Yper-Sound is super cool. The combination of synths and more old-school rock elements in songs like The Noise of Carpet is enjoyable. Additionally, I can respect the lack of electronic percussion in an album from the mid-90s.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
This album is fine. Highlights include Under the Bridge and (arguably) most of the first half of the album, excluding Suck My Kiss which is pretty terrible. Give It Away is also not great, being too repetitive and droning for my taste. The vocals are largely misses rather than hits, often being a kind of half-spoken-half-sung thing that definitely isn't appealing. The riffs and overall rhythm section often make up for it, especially in the opening few tracks; the band is very well-practiced and in sync with one another, making for a great sonic basis for some good tracks. However, by the latter half of the album, it's pretty clear that the Peppers are padding runtime for the sake of composing a "grand masterpiece".
Props to them for making themselves known – arguably superstars – with this album. There's some good material on here, and influence from 80s rock, pop, and (soft) metal is apparent. Shaving the album down to its stronger tracks would've been a good decision.
The Cardigans
4/5
The vocalist was a huge standout here, with her soft, airy-yet-lilting voice that brought a great atmosphere to each track. I do imagine her vocals, and the absence of any others for contrast, might get stale for listeners after a few album repeats. The 90s sound is also a little dated. And yet, every track was great (or at least good). The Cardigans managed to grab the listener immediately with cool chord changes and fresh, modern instrumentation. I think they mostly used acoustic instruments, but I wasn't paying too much attention to that. The compositions were just so fun and creative that it wasn't too hard to ignore any downfalls.
Also, that Iron Man cover shouldn't exist, and yet it does. (Why did they try to make the song seductive?) It's brilliant.
Key tracks: Iron Man, Step On Me, Lovefool, Choke
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I'm listening to this just two days after another Peppers album - Blood Sugar Sex Magik - and my opinion of the band has remained very much the same, despite 8 years of discrepancy between the albums' releases.
The vocals are largely misses rather than hits, often being a kind of half-spoken-half-sung thing that definitely isn't appealing. The riffs and overall rhythm section tend to make up for it, especially in the opening few tracks; the band is very well-practiced and in sync with one another, making for a great sonic basis for some good tracks. However, by the latter half of the album (excluding Road Trippin'), it's pretty clear that the Peppers are padding runtime for the sake of composing a (second) "masterpiece".
I have some respect for the fact that this album was (and still is) wildly popular. However, it doesn't cover any particularly new ground or invent anything interesting. It just exists, as decent, aggressively inoffensive rock that's a microcosm of its time. Like the Eagles, but two decades later. (Eh...)
Key tracks: Otherwise, Californication
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
Albums like this are surprisingly rare on the 1001 Albums list, considering how important of a foundation they are to early 60s skiffle and pop-rock (and, by extension, pretty much all music after that). It’s reasonably enjoyable, although it uses just about the least exciting instrumentation possible: a solo vocalist (very occasionally switched out with another) and an acoustic guitar. Fun stuff, sure, but those instruments definitely limit the textures and dynamics available to the aspiring composer. Many of these tracks, if not all of them, are covers in a blues-country style, and it’s pretty boring and blurry after the first 20 or so minutes. I can acknowledge its influence, but at the same time, there really isn’t much happening. If it had taken an Elvis approach, even while incorporating the same “rambling” vocal style that Elliott sticks closely to throughout the album, it would’ve been much more engaging.
Eminem
1/5
Oof. This was a rough listen. There are just too many un-catchy tracks, during which the only hooks are harsh electronic jingles or some 17-year-old-sounding kid doing a subpar gangster impression. The mannerisms are pretty awful, even for the time; there were frequent slurs, including (among others) the inexcusable n-slur, and the extremely tonedeaf r-d and f-g-t slurs. Considering the artist is very much white, and presumably progressive for his time, these are especially egregious. As a listener, you also receive a lot of references to "sucking my d*ck" and telling people to "f*ck off", which would be pretty irritating by itself - and then, because of Eminem's odd rapping style, it comes across as a young, overconfident dude who mistakenly thinks he's badass. (The track "Under The Influence" is the most obvious offender in this regard, being possibly the worst track on the album.) Honestly, it's kind of sad to listen to. The skits end up being some of the stronger tracks, and they're absolutely filler, no question. Tracks such as Kill You, Who Knew, I'm Back, and Kim are bottom-tier in these regards, and without convincing melody, harmony, or instrumentation to back them up, they end up being worse than throwaway.
The out-of-left-field Dre shoutouts, which appear on several tracks, are pointless and dated.
The clear standouts are the two biggest hits (by Spotify listens): "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady". Both are really catchy and capture the smooth intersection between a solid, modern backing instrumental and some great (albeit repetitive) vocal hooks. "Stan" is strongest during Dido's sung vocals, but the rest isn't half-bad either.
Wilco
3/5
An interesting atmosphere here. It’s almost like a more acoustic Coldplay record in several ways. Like Coldplay, the lyrics might be fascinating (I’m not sure), but are accompanied by such “standard” vocals that it’s very easy to not really take in what’s being sung. The vocalist is probably the band’s weak point, having a clearly limited melodic and emotional range. The instrumentation is fairly unremarkable, but really picks up in the second half of the album. My four favourite songs are actually the final four in the track listing, because the texture really starts to noticeably thicken and stir up some drama, incorporating (what sounds like) heavy synths, electric guitars, and more front-of-mix drum patterns. I’m surprised “Jesus, Etc.” is the album’s hit song, because it doesn’t sound much like a hit. Tracks like that one are flawed in that they don’t contain any obvious hooks. Still, it was enjoyable.
Key tracks: I’m the Man Who Loves You, Pot Kettle Black, Poor Places, Reservations
Jazmine Sullivan
1/5
There are exactly four tracks that are legitimately good, four tracks that have bad lyrics and a bad message, and six “tales” that act as interesting interludes between the music.
I’ll start with the pros. Bodies, Pick Up Your Feelings, Lost One, and Girl Like Me are great examples of how to use themes in modern electronic pop to make well-textured, smooth, listenable R&B that appeals both to general audiences and music enthusiasts. The lyrics are fairly uninteresting but still relatable, discussing topics like love, relationship, and interpersonal conflict.
Now for the cons – and they’re some pretty serious cons. Put It Down and On It are essentially a love letter to the small population of well-endowed men, and they perpetuate an insecurity that a huge proportion of guys have about their bodies. For an album with such a commercialised sound (trying to speak to a wide audience), this ain’t gonna fly. I guarantee that any man singing or rapping about a woman’s body like Jazmine is here would be shunned, cancelled, the works – and rightfully so. In addition to how frustratingly tone-deaf and entitled the lyrics are, they’re also just poor lyrics, and they distract from the otherwise great sound.
On the topic of entitlement, the tracks Price Tags and The Other Side speak to another fairly toxic dimension of partner preferences in men: wealth. Sure, you have some oldies that commit the same offence (ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money” is an obvious example) - and I’ll admit I dislike the lyrics of that song too, but at least in isolation, it expresses a desire without trying to rationalise it. However, combined with the interlude “Precious’ Tale”, Sullivan is essentially saying that because she (and/or other women) grew up poor, and yet they’re confident in their attractiveness, they deserve to have a wealthy, hard-working, attractive man to themselves. It’s another really tone-deaf pair of tracks that expresses an ugly shallowness and sense of entitlement which take away from the rest of the music.
I’m all about social progress, but this doesn’t feel like social progress to me. (Hopefully I’m completely off the mark here and Sullivan is doing social commentary about the commodification of men, but I doubt it.)
Edit 4/1/25: This album has aged poorly in my mind. (Liking someone solely for their money won't fly, sis.) Bumping this down from 2 to 1.
Key tracks: Pick Up Your Feelings, Lost One, Girl Like Me
The Offspring
4/5
It's like Nirvana, but slightly less overwhelmingly good. There's a sprinkle of indie mixed in with the punky, thrashy metal rock that was all the craze in the early 90s. The outcome, for what it's worth, is very consistent and pretty good. Intense, rugged, angry guitars constantly keep you on your toes, and the vocals, while not that distinctive, work well with the genre.
Key tracks: Nitro, Come Out And Play, Self Esteem, Smash
Kraftwerk
4/5
Surprisingly great. You can definitely hear the influence this record had on Bowie's Berlin-era albums (Low, Heroes, Lodger), what with the vivid electronic quasi-soundscapes, stationary vocals, and gradual, impactful chord changes. It almost jumps on the prog-rock bandwagon that was all the craze in the early-to-mid 70s, but veers into a more slow, electronic genre. I get the point of the opening, title track, but clocking in at almost 23 minutes without too many new ideas being introduced throughout, it's just too long and repetitive to really be a masterpiece. The four tracks on Side 2 are all great (if a little unmemorable), containing some pretty synth melodies and a few extra instruments thrown into the final track. A really good album that was very much ahead of its time.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
A fairly anonymous and very inoffensive take on modern country-folk. Every track is noticeably strong, as is Harris's smooth, strong vocal (particularly in her lower register), but the songs are missing some key hooks that would really push my rating beyond 3 stars.
I remember thinking "This one is pretty good" during Red Dirt Girl, Bang the Drum Slowly, My Antonia, and Michelangelo - but thinking back now, I couldn't tell you much about those tracks. There were lots of major chords on acoustic guitar, some airy background strings, and of course Harris's voice at the front of the mix - but as for the rest... well... I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now. (heh.)
Anita Baker
3/5
Baker's voice, which is very "full" (particularly in the lower register), has an almost Cher-like quality to it. Coupled with the cliched heavy piano chords and light drumbeat, the album has an aggressively 80s feel.
The opening track ("Sweet Love") is very catchy, and an easy playlist-padder. It's pretty infectious. The following tracks, "You Bring Me Joy" and "Caught Up in the Rapture", are also strong. The song "Mystery" almost reads like a slow disco song, with its outspoken electric keyboards, wiggly bassline, and call-and-response backing vocals. "No One in the World" is similar, but commits the sin of distracting the ear with too many incongruous elements (possibly a failed attempt at emulating MJ). The track "Been so Long" is a slight stinker, mainly for the vocals being nonsensical and lacking any kind of hook.
Same Ole Love is almost good, although the use of lyrics with any number greater than 100 is always risky because it often just sounds clunky. Also, the phrase "365 Days a Week" is part of the song's title, but the word "week" doesn't appear anywhere in the lyrics. Strange.
I'm a sucker for iv-I chord changes, and the final track, "Watch Your Step", is drenched with them. (The entirety of every verse is just those two chords.) Not too much else stands out, except for the "you fall and hurt yourself one day" hook performed by gospel-esque backing vocals, and the cool sax solo. I'm very surprised this track has the least listens on the album, because it clears all the other tracks except "Sweet Love".
Still, the inconsistency of quality means this album gets 3 stars from me. A high 3 stars, but 3 stars nonetheless.
Garbage
4/5
Some seriously good 90s rock - a little too polished to be garage-style, but also too rough and wild to not be. Still, the band is fairly tight, with precise instrumentation and musical ideas that work very effectively. The abrupt pauses in Supervixen are just fantastic, emphasising how silence can be an integral element of music. The mixes throughout the album are dense and heavy, mostly because of the distorted lead and bass guitars that occasionally overpower the band – but then, I think that's kind of the point (exhibit A: the incredible build-up in My Lover's Box).
The vocalist is noticeably stronger in higher registers, though her lower voice does play a kind of mysterious, foreboding role in some tracks.
Do I have time to talk about Stupid Girl? No? Well, I'll keep it brief then. Stupid Girl is absolutely the best track here, at least upon a first listen, though some other tracks do come close. It's catchy, has a good chord progression, and remains true to the band's style.
Key tracks: Supervixen, Only Happy When It Rains, Stupid Girl, Dog New Tricks
Lou Reed
3/5
As a rule of thumb, I prefer albums with heavier production and less lyrical focus. I was prepared to make this album an exception, if only because Lou Reed has a reputation as a musical storyteller and for being incredibly influential on his contemporaries.
The album is decent, albeit incredibly lyrically-focused and without much melodic (or, indeed, musical) regard. There were some musical peaks, namely the brilliant horn-focused production in some of the later tracks. However, I did drift away from the lyrics a few times and found myself thinking "This music is kind of nondescript... where's the energy?" And with the exception of a few tracks on side 2 (Sad Song, Caroline Says II, The Kids), the music does feel somewhat lacking energy and emotion. Maybe that was the point. I can see someone of Reed's calibre asking his bandmates to "Play simply!" for the sake of driving home the album's concepts of introspection, lost love, and coping with hitting rock-bottom.
Perhaps as a result of this, the concepts are communicated clearly and capture a vivid image of a doomed couple's lives falling apart. Even someone as thick-headed as myself could pretty much understand what was going on. As a concept album, it's tough to fault it.
I've listened to a couple of Velvet Underground albums prior to this (their first two albums), and I do prefer them to this one. Still, I can acknowledge the influence this had on artists such as Bowie (Low-era) and some later Pink Floyd projects like The Wall and The Final Cut.
3/5
Beatles
5/5
A whirlwind of 60s pop-rock at its finest, with an unstoppable energy that only the Beatles could really pull off in early 1964. This is an incredibly consistent album with some seriously infectious hooks and countless moments that would make musical history - starting with the very first chord in the opening track (what chord is that, anyway?). The hurried, catchy adrenaline-rock of A Hard Day's Night leads into several more "poppy" tracks with I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, and the George vocal I'm Happy Just To Dance With You. We get a pristine, flowy, Latin-influenced ballad in And I Love Her, before the band starts firing on all cylinders, blasting the listener with track after track of excitement, fun, and love (or lack thereof) - perhaps the most famous being Can't Buy Me Love. Uncharacteristically for the band, the album ends on a more mature, almost introspective note with I'll Be Back, which sees major-minor interplay and beautiful harmonising in the vocals.
The instrumentation - with excellent guitarwork, drumming, and singing - is there. The harmonies, melodies, and songwriting are there. The lyrics, however straightforward they may be, are easy to remember and insanely catchy. This is a 10/10 album if I've ever seen one.
Key tracks: all of them
3/5
A heavily 2000s feel. Harvey's vocal is great - kind of Lana-esque. I loved "This Mess We're In", which featured Tom Yorke of Radiohead and his ethereal voice, as well as the two preceding tracks for being musically strong lead-ups to the album's centrepiece. The rest of the tracks were alternately rocking or soothing, with a few interesting time signatures. The main downfall of this album was its lack of adventurousness. Every song focused on a single particular sound (be it a nifty rhythm, a couple of unusual chords, or a guitar lick) and didn't really deviate from that sound at all. I felt that many of the tracks could've been shorter, and/or shown more intra-song variety.
Key tracks: Good Fortune, The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore, This Mess We're In, This Is Love
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
A haphazard approach to world music, with some beautiful-yet-simple tracks led by choruses of vocalists, mixed together with subpar takes on proto-hip-hop.
The track listing was the definition of hit-or-miss, with strong cuts like Jive My Baby (man, that hook), Punk It Up, and Double Dutch alternated with some noticeably weaker ones (Song For Chango, Legba, Buffalo Gals). I don't really get what McLaren was going for, but whatever concept might have existed was pretty messy and inconsistent.
Other notes:
- Cover artwork is great
- The context of this album and the unacknowledged theft of musical ideas must be taken into account
- 3/5
Jefferson Airplane
5/5
I think we've got a hit here, boys.
Surrealistic Pillow is something pretty special. All tracks on the album are great in some way or another, with very convincing hooks and a couple of excellent singles (Somebody To Love, White Rabbit). The opening track is killer, being both energetic and psychedelic, setting the mood for the rest of the album and for the Summer of Love as a whole. Embryonic Journey is an unexpected instrumental gem, featuring intermingling elements of classical, rock, and folk music. Go To Her, How Do You Feel, 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds... Just great. A really well constructed setlist with equally well constructed songs.
The vibe here is also pretty darn brilliant, if a little dated. Jefferson Airplane perfectly capture the year of 1967 in pop/rock, in all its colourful-yet-dark, flourishy, crazy, psychedelic glory – more so than any other band, even the Beatles. In fact, there's a definite chance that the two bands played off each other during the latter's Revolver- and Sgt Pepper-eras.
Key tracks: She Has Funny Cars, Somebody to Love, 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds, White Rabbit
Pink Floyd
5/5
I think there's a good reason this album is the fourth-best-selling worldwide, and frequently tops (or nearly tops) album rankings. It's mind-blowingly good, and coincidentally also my current favourite album.
Pink Floyd has done something really incredible here that's harder than it sounds: musically tying a concept album together. In particular, the opening and closing tracks ("Speak To Me", "Eclipse") are respectively a teaser and an encore for all the sounds that appear throughout the album. It's an idea I've never seen repeated to the same high standard.
The lyrics are absolutely incredible. Take "Time", for example. In this one track, nearly every line is a gem:
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day"
"No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun"
"Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines"
"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way"
Add to that the pristine, psychedelic, soul-lifting guitar solo, backing vocals, and thematic connection to the earlier track "Breathe", and you have as close to a perfect song as one can get.
Speaking of "Breathe", its lyrics are nothing to shake a stick at. "All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be" is a mantra I could live the rest of my life by. The transition between the previous track and this one is iconic, heart-stopping, and beautiful all at once. And the song really sounds like stepping out of the frightening darkness of noise and maniacal laughter into the air. (Ahhhh.)
"On The Run", justifiably the album's weakest and most sonically dated track, is still great, incorporating an ultra-fast synth-bassline to create an agitated, restless psychedelic atmosphere. It's unnerving, which was certainly the intention.
Need I mention "The Great Gig in the Sky"? Ugh, those vocals. They're disgustingly brilliant. Clare Torry might not have been given the best instructions in the studio, but whatever improvised magic she came up with, it was incredible. Coupled with Rick Wright's insanely cool chord progression, Roger's floating bassline, and Nick's drumming, this is another perfect track. Seriously.
And yet, somehow, side 2 is every bit as good as side 1. The transitions are particularly of note, making the four-track run from "Us and Them" through "Eclipse" incredibly cohesive. "Any Colour You Like" has brilliant, rainbowy synths and guitarwork, with a classic Floydian i7-IV chord progression. "Money", popular for a reason, has an infectious bassline, a groovy 7/4 time signature, and a break into 4/4 whose instrumental is seriously one of the best you'll get in any 70s album. "Us and Them", the album's true centrepiece, is magnificent, laden with emotional sax and piano solos, nifty chord progressions, and four complementary out-of-body experiences as the song shifts effortlessly between the A- and B-sections.
"Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" are so congruent that they may as well be one track. And gosh darnit Roger, you've really done it this time. His understanding of textural shift and artistic motifs is off the charts here. It's a perfect closer to a near-perfect album.
Oh yeah, the album art. It's decent... Maybe it'll become famous someday.
Lorde
4/5
First, the flaws:
- Lorde has this odd singing accent that sounds very... lazy? It's hard to articulate (ha-ha), but whatever's going on, it's distracting me. Reminds me of pretty much every girl during music class at my high school.
- The sound is really artificial – but honestly, I didn't mind too much. Production-wise, this worked in its favour (see below); normally, such a lack of acoustic sound would be a bigger problem to me.
Now, the neutrals:
- Sounds a lot like Lana Del Rey.
- It's fine for easy-listening – maybe a 3-star album when played in the background – but handily jumps to 4 or 4.5 stars when you put on some headphones and really key in on the lyrics and the sound. This feature can sometimes be a liability, but based on album sales, it seems the general public didn't mind much.
Finally, the pros:
- The production is seriously cool. Atmospheric, panning echoes of vocals, mixed together with a muted lo-fi bass and drum combo, backing a strong, emotive, moody vocal from Lorde herself. Everything's put together professionally, and it sounds great.
- A large number of tracks that are individually very, very strong. Green Light, Sober, Homemade Dynamite, The Louvre... And those are literally the first four consecutive tracks. Man.
- Lorde experiments with piano ballads! And they're (arguably) every bit as strong as the darker, more dramatic tracks.
Favourite track: Green Light
Honourable mentions: Sober, Hard Feelings/Loveless, Liability
4/5
Massive Attack
3/5
One of the more upvoted reviews explained my feelings about this album better than I could:
"Cooooooool. Deep moody lounging. An overcast afternoon in Ibiza. The soundtrack that plays over a moody montage of parallel characters in an ensemble drama. Closing credits to a 2000s James Bond movie."
That being said, "Protection" (the album) comes with some flaws. The final track, a cover of the Doors' legendary "Light My Fire", is so far inferior to the original song that it's almost painful to listen to. None of the iconic chord changes (like, e.g., the sudden III chord in the middle of the chorus) are present, and instead a weirdly grating electronic psychedelia insists itself upon the listener.
The title track, however, is great - along with some other key tracks, listed below. The sound and production across all the songs are fairly strong, but nothing mind-blowing. The tracks that have an actual melody are (both genuinely, and as a rule of thumb) better than those without. An enjoyable listen that sits somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, but drops down to 3 on behalf of its incongruous closer.
Key tracks: Protection, Weather Storm, Sly, Heat Miser
The Who
5/5
Already listened to Who's Next on this list. My Generation is an energetic, honking good ol' time, keying in on many themes of "forefront" 60s pop-rock. It's comparable to the Beatles and Stones albums coming out around the same time – the likes of Rubber Soul, Out Of Our Heads, Aftermath, ya know. The classics.
And this album is definitely a classic. Excellent vocal hooks that immediately key the listener in. Thick, boisterous harmonies which (more often than not) max out the audio and cause a blurry, distinctively 60s-quality sound. It's just so loveable, fun, rocking, [insert more adjectives here]. And the party starts quite suddenly with the opening track, Out In The Street, a fairly standard yet wildly invigorating taste of what's to come. Following that are a string of would-be classics, overshadowed only by The Who's later work; songs like The Good's Gone, La-La-La-Lies, A Legal Matter, Please Please Please...
Then, of course, the two radio tracks: My Generation and The Kids Are Alright. These are the peak of the album, and are fittingly placed as its double-centrepiece.
The whole thing's a jam. I dig it.
Key tracks: Out In The Street, The Good's Gone, My Generation, The Kids Are Alright, Please Please Please
The Stone Roses
4/5
A shimmering, easygoing sound that's quite refreshing for its period of music. There's a solid textural approach, though often there are many tracks that sound similar. The band must've been exhilarating to experience live.
There's a heavy British accent in the vocal. For some reason it reminds me of a punk vocal (I Am the Resurrection being the primary suspect) even though it surely isn't punk music. Cross-genre? Otherwise, the album's solidly in the (80s) rock category.
Huge props to the drumming on this album – really engaging, good use of silence and some interesting rhythms. It complements the other instruments nicely. I first noticed it on She Bangs The Drums, and especially on Shoot You Down, but it's great on all tracks.
I Am the Resurrection is a mostly-instrumental epic. (Love it.) In fact, the album ends with two back-to-back "epics", which is a little exhausting as an album experience. The final track in particular could've been cut down.
The album is probably best appreciated via close listening. My rating was a high-3 at first (on account of many tracks sounding similar, e.g. Waterfall/Don't Stop, and others being lengthy), but increased to a high-4 when I went back through the track listing and paid closer attention. Good stuff.
Key tracks: She Bangs the Drums, Bye Bye Bad Man, Shoot You Down, This Is the One
The Doors
5/5
I like The Doors! Do you like The Doors?
The Doors (The Doors, 1967) is inexplicably unique-sounding, both for its time and in retrospect. Pretty interesting, really, because the instrumentation is simple (vocal, drums, organ, bass) and the genre is very in-your-face blues rock without much room for wondering. And I reckon that's entirely the point. The Doors knew their strengths and played to them.
Couple that with a string of easy classic compositions, and you start to verge into masterpiece territory. Break On Through and Light My Fire are the main radio hits, but many other tracks here are so goshdarn memorable. The Crystal Ship, Soul Kitchen, Alabama Song, Back Door Man... and, of course, the closing track that slowly and sinisterly tears at the soul: The End. You can't argue that that isn't an impressive track listing.
The lyrics (arguably) aren't exactly poetry, but Morrison delivers them with such manly, whiskey-soaked confidence that you don't really notice.
Also, the cover art is great. It's one of my personal favourites. As another reviewer wrote, "The fact that 75% of the band is standing neatly next to a massive, superimposed headshot of Jim Morrison is hilarious."
Key tracks: all of them, probably
Janis Joplin
4/5
Seriously. What a great voice. Janis Joplin has a clear vocal talent and she tailors the music to emphasise that as much as possible. It's so fun, energising, thumping, honking... really just makes you want to perpetually make the stank face.
Shoutout to the percussion and horns for complementing Joplin's vocal really well.
Unfortunately, there are a few obviously weaker tracks (alongside some really great ones), which knocks my rating down to a 4. I don't know how Me and Bobby McGee could possibly be the most popular song on the album, given how relatively uneventful and devoid of hooks it is. And soul-rock masterpieces like Half Moon are left in the (popularity) dust! Man, people have some questionable music taste.
Key tracks: A Woman Left Lonely, Half Moon, Buried Alive In the Blues, Mercedez Benz
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
I don't have much to say, really. It's passable music with decent but unremarkable elements in pretty much every regard. Nothing is (very) memorable, it sounds exactly like it should for its time (1967), isn't groundbreaking or inventive, yet still sounds pretty good. My guess is it's on this list purely for Buffalo Springfield being the foundation for Stills' and Young's later careers.
There are a select few elements that caught my attention, such as the fleeting yet relatively complex guitarwork in Bluebird, the bluesy vigor of Mr. Soul (and indeed most of the album), and an interesting genre-blend between pop, country, blues, and rock.
Key tracks: Mr. Soul, Bluebird, Rock & Roll Woman
Enjoyment: 3/5
Does it belong in the list: 2/5
David Bowie
5/5
more like david lowie am i right
Here we see a tastefully confusing piece of art that's surprisingly grounded for someone recovering from drugs.
The synths and especially the drums are most notable, instrumentally, on this album. The drumming has a very loud, distorted sound that probably isn't to everyone's taste, but I think it sounds fantastic. And it's front-and-centre in every track on side 1. The tracks themselves on the record's first side are short, catchy, thoughtful, and... I can't really explain how, but they're so darn artistic. Speed of Life, the opening track, is the iconic opening to a new electronic era of rock music. Immediately following that, we get an electric, bass-driven interludey number with Breaking Glass. What In the World is a wobbly, synth-laden, two-chord ball of energy. Sound and Vision, with its simple chord I-vi-V-I progression, manages to be one of the most satisfying standalone tracks in Bowie's discography. Always Crashing In the Same Car and Be My Wife are a one-two punch of moody tracks driven primarily by synths – and both are great. Finally, we close side 1 with a return to simplicity in the fresh, upbeat instrumental track A New Career In a New Town.
Then we get to side 2 – arguably what the album is most known for. It's pretty brilliant, again incorporating several layers of synths that flow rhythmically in and out of the mix. The four tracks on this side are all quite distinct from one another, and yet share that indescribable Bowie creativity. Warszawa in particular creates a cool, yet very grim, atmosphere.
5/5
The Lemonheads
3/5
Nifty alt-rock. Also, respect for keeping the tracks consistently very short – an art that feels very rare nowadays. Not every track is a hit (indeed, none of them particularly are) but they are all similarly strong.
The mixing and overall sound is pretty high-quality, at the expensive of the music sounding extremely typical of 90s alt-rock.
The vocalist has a very pleasant and distinctive voice quality, but it could really do with some harmonies. Some tracks approach this, but more self-harmonising (or collaboration with other musicians!) would really boost the strength and memorability of most, if not all, of the album's tracks. As it stands currently, the tracks, while individually exciting, blend into one another – and this isn't only the fault of the singing, but the singing is the most obvious factor that could be improved upon.
Key tracks: It's A Shame About Ray, My Drug Buddy, Kitchen, Mrs. Robinson
Don McLean
3/5
Strong start with the monumental singalong title track, before the album falls into (debatably) an acoustic rut. It's just McLean and his guitar, baby. And you darn better feel emotional and all "countried out", even as you reach the fifth consecutive track with exactly the same texture. (Seriously – Till Tomorrow, Vincent, Crossroads, Winterwood, and Empty Chairs all have such similar feels that it's pretty surprisingly they were clustered so closely together, or indeed all placed on the same album to begin with.)
Following this train of thought, it really does feel like Don McLean can only write songs with two textures: the slow, acoustic ballads with little to interest the ear other than lyrics (which are admittedly pretty touching), and the semi-joyous, pessimistic country singalongs (title track and Everybody Loves Me, Baby) In fact, Everybody Loves Me, Baby feels like a thinly veiled adaptation of the verses of American Pie, with similar vocal inflections, instrumentation, chord progression, and melody. Still, it's a pretty strong track.
I won't end this review without giving a special shoutout to Babylon, the medieval-sounding closing track. Thick with self-harmonising, the track is a textbook use of canon and is honestly great. Very pretty.
The album comes across as a slightly weaker and less varied Cold Spring Harbor (Billy Joel). It's a high 3, but a 3 nonetheless.
Key tracks: American Pie, Vincent, Winterwood, Babylon
Duran Duran
3/5
3/5
80s synth pop... hm... it's okay. A very boomer-esque opinion, to be sure, but what else can I say? It certainly had potential to be lower, but the tight instrumentation (particularly in that sexy, sexy bass part) made up for the overused, overhyped, overrated genre.
In fact, the bass is so integral to the album's quality that I only ended up saving tracks that (in retrospect) had great basslines: Lonely In Your Nightmare, Hold Back The Rain, and The Chauffeur, to name a few. The title track and Hungry Like The Wolf were also quite strong, presenting some pretty catchy vocals and harmonies.
The remaining instruments are either straightforward (drums, vocals) or very irritating (synths, saxophone (seriously, what is with that weirdly artificial sax sound?)).
Best track: The Chauffeur
Worst track: Last Chance On The Stairway
Grizzly Bear
2/5
It's not very good. (No mercy.)
Don't get me wrong – the music isn't unpleasant, like most of my 1-star ratings tend to be. It's just underwhelming; almost entirely set-up without payoff. Two Weeks and While You Wait For The Others are easily the two strongest tracks because they have some darn great hooks. Frustratingly, though, most other tracks just don't get off the ground.
It almost seems like knock-off Radiohead (note the modern soundscapeyness), or perhaps just a heavily misguided blend of generic alt-rock with something harder to describe – maybe country? Blues? Hard to pin down. However, without Yorke and the gang to back them up, Grizzly Bear is left with somewhat interesting atmospheres and pretty much nothing else. The band doesn't ever go all-out, and instead sticks to an odd, mostly quiet, half-baked feel.
Backing vocals are pretty strong. The drumming isn't incredible, but it lifts the band up texturally whenever it's used. Lots of unusual instruments seem to be used purely for novelty and don't really improve the music. Same goes for rhythms, chords, and so on – particularly in the first half of the album.
Key tracks: Two Weeks, While You Wait For The Others, I Live With You
2/5
Spacemen 3
3/5
Very nifty, but also monotonous. Generally this would work much better as background sound than close-listening music, because there really isn't any variation within each of the tracks (excluding a few songs, which were the album's highlights).
An odd fusion of influences. We've got the folksy, introspective feel of Simon and Garfunkel (in tracks like Come Down Softly To My Soul and Lord Can You Hear Me, the album's strongest track). We've got a lot of wibbly-wobbly space rock with a wide range of potential influences, most likely (and famously) Pink Floyd.
Honey, So Hot, and Suicide were big highlights if you got over the overall repetitiveness.
Great bass sound – again, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd and some later prog-/space-rock in the 70s and 80s. The synths were cool, though I think they could've been made more complex, with more interesting chord progressions to better engage the listener.
Key tracks: Honey, Come Down Softly To My Soul, Lord Can You Hear Me
3/5
Nirvana
5/5
This was a great listen. I respect the choice of (somewhat) unusual chords for the genre, and melodies that are just unorthodox enough to keep you on your toes. Reminds me of Radiohead's melodic style; it's possible that Yorke and the crew were inspired by Nirvana in that regard.
So, what exactly is the genre here? There are elements of punk, considering the heavy repetition of hooks (mostly in guitar and vocal) and the aggressive, unrestrained mood. Noticeably more punky in the track Territorial Pissings, which was fantastic. Definitely hints of early alt-rock too. And, of course, the heavy metal that takes centre stage. Cobain and Grohl's playing (and Novoselic's too) is very... synchronous? The band knows how to play together. It's clear that they're comfortable with one another and incredibly skilled on their respective instruments.
Let's talk individual tracks. Of course, there's the single that shook the music world, Smells Like Teen Spirit – renowned for its infectious guitar riff, sudden-yet-smooth texture changes, and Cobain's iconic rock wail during the chorus. It seems the band made some darn good choices for singles: Come As You Are, Lithium, and In Bloom are all heavy, instrumentally dense tracks with good riffs and longevity (i.e. they all still sound fresh and fantastic today). Something In The Way is a sort of acoustic ballad, and is also one of my favourite tracks. Really, the only track I disliked was Endless, Nameless. Its extended guitar solo was just a little too atonal and experimental (and long) for my taste. Cut out that track, and the album is honestly near-flawless.
Good music though innit.
5/5
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
I love albums like this. Some fun banter over a few mistakes made during the live recording, and this really adds to the album's liveliness and humanity. Really great tracks, too, especially for a long-time fan of jazz singers. It's certainly a snapshot in time, and Vaughan's voice is lovely.
Cool idea to include the warning given to the audience at the beginning of the album. Really makes you feel like you're there, and the recording quality reflects that, being surprisingly high-quality for a 50s live show. The songs themselves are excellently written, as individual tracks, but perhaps not the most varied or interesting setlist when played back-to-back. Backing instruments are played well, if a little simply. The understatedness kind of works here, though.
Nifty.
4/5
Spiritualized
4/5
Very cool idea for an album cover. (Pharmaceuticals and stuff. Whoa.)
Possibly a bit bloated in terms of runtime, but why care about runtime if you're on drugs (or a pretty convincing sonic representation of drugs)? The instruments are tastefully selected and played fairly well, creating some great space-rock inspired grooves. Really, the only track that obviously falls apart – from lack of musicality – is The Individual. All other tracks are, in some way or another, fairly solid, incorporating elements of early-mid career Pink Floyd (and other artists in the space/prog/rock genre) with the clean 90s mixing and a few hip-hoppy elements. Note in particular the percussion, which heavily favours clicks, shakers, and tambourines over the more classic drum kit. Not quite my thing, but it has its place. And it makes for a nifty mixture of musical eras.
The vocalist often sounds disinterested or unemotive, which makes the singing harder to pay attention to. In other words, I feel like the singing doesn't add much substance (heh) to the music. Was there some message in the lyrics adding key political or personal contextualisation to the music? Who knows?
Great textures, and a nice variety of moods. (The final track, Cop Shoot Cop..., is an unprecedented and apocalyptic epic that showcases the texturing in action.) This is a huge plus that boosts pretty much any album to a 4 or higher.
Key tracks: Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, Come Together, Stay with Me, Electricity, Cool Waves
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
This album is an example of an objectively weird combination of styles that accidentally sounded kind of good.
It's easy to hear the influence of Public Image Ltd (of which Jah Wobble was a member) in the form of brutish, ambling (yet melodic) basslines and a punk/post-punk freedom in the vocal and percussion. In fact, the basslines are some of the most impressive elements of these tracks. Mr Wobble definitely knew what he was doing in that regard. There's also a distinctive foray into world music, sort of like the very-post-punk equivalent of Paul Simon's Graceland. The world influence is butchered slightly, focusing heavily on a bright, positive, celebratory atmosphere while kind of ignoring cultural nuance. Feels kind of like cultural appropriation, almost. But it's fun music... what else could you ask for?
Well, you could ask for a male vocalist that suits the band. There are two lead vocalists – one male and one female – and while the female one, as well as the backings, are generally very strong, the male one is so incongruous that it feels like a tipsy British bloke had a stack of five quid slapped into his hand and was asked to freestyle-ramble about philosophy. I actually didn't mind it too much. It was such an odd sound that it ended up being pretty entertaining and engaging. Still, it's nowhere near a masterpiece.
The album cover is horrendous.
Key tracks: Visions of You, Relight the Flame, Bomba
3/5
5/5
A testament to simple, short, effective rock tracks. They can be pretty darn effective. Each song in this collection is pretty distinctive from the others, and has a fun Bowie-space-alien spin while still remaining very loyal to standard rock roots.
I also admire the concept behind the songs, even if it's a little haphazard in places. Five Years is an excellent album opener, setting the stage of an Earth that's five years away from utter destruction, and the emotional and psychological turmoil being spread as a result. Soul Love begins to introduce Ziggy Stardust as a character, focusing on his (surprisingly poetic) foreign understanding of love. Moonage Daydream takes Ziggy's alien nature up a notch, and (in combination with the next two tracks, Starman and It Ain't Easy) emphasises Ziggy's desire to understand/save the human race which is both innocent and difficult to fulfil. Lady Stardust and Star seem to be discussing Ziggy's unexpected success in the world of rock'n'roll, whereas the next three tracks – Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, and Suffragette City – present varying outsider perspectives on his overbearingness and overconfidence. At this point, Ziggy's probably forgotten his original goal of saving the planet, and the story culminates in an epic climax with the finale, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.
And yet, the concept isn't obvious upon a first listen unless you're really paying close attention. Because of this, whether you're a fan of concept albums or non-concept albums, this album is able to impress, since it can be considered either one. (Does that make sense?)
The key to a really great album is a plethora of iconic, memorable moments – and Ziggy Stardust definitely has plenty of those to go around. The brilliant use of climaxes and textural changes in the opening and closing tracks. The beautiful pop genius that is Starman. Mick Ronson's finesse on the guitar, especially in the outro of Moonage Daydream. The ballsiness of essentially making the main character a drag queen, as an artistic statement in the early 70s.
(wham bam thank you ma'am)
Key tracks: Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide (though honestly, a solid case could be made for any/all of the tracks)
5/5
Tim Buckley
2/5
"Do whatever you want with [...] music, just don't make it boring."
-Freddie Mercury
clearly Tim Buckley hasn't heard of Queen smh
It's passable music, but the tracks are much too long for their own good. And not in a proggy or atmospheric way. They're just... very long. And static. Even the ones with a mere 5-6 minute runtime really start to drag.
I do appreciate the elements of jazz. The marimba (or whatever percussion it's called) is a big standout, adding a chill, semi-exotic atmosphere to the already jazzy mix. There's a lot of acoustic guitar with drone-ish bass notes, which I've found to be a hit-or-miss harmonic choice in other albums. It's a miss here, since the tracks are already fairly unchanging. Buckley's vocal is generally good, though the inflections and twangy accent feel somehow forced.
Strange Feelin' and Buzzin' Fly are my two favourite tracks, although that lent more credence to their position in the tracklist rather than how good they actually were compared to the later tracks. Buzzin' Fly has an interesting country spin; Strange Feelin' doesn't.
2/5
Elton John
4/5
A fun little collection of songs, featuring Elton John's signature janky piano playing. He really doesn't vary his playing style much, so while it sounds pretty darn great (especially in combination with his voice) it makes many of the tracks sound very similar to one another. This, along with a marked decrease in songwriting quality throughout the album, explains why side 1 is much stronger than side 2.
Indian Sunset, Rotten Peaches, and All The Nasties are lyrically very odd and incongruous with the remainder of the album. And sonically, they aren't any better, replacing the emotional grandeur of Tiny Dancer and Levon with a more acoustic, country-ish style that doesn't suit Elton's singing as well. It's hard to explain.
However, the two opening tracks – Tiny Dancer and Levon – are so darn great that they very nearly justify a 5-star rating by themselves. They're essentially a one-two punch version of Bowie's "Life On Mars?" released the same year. (Dang. 1971 was fantastic for music.) Texturally, the combination of strings, light drumming, and piano playing self-described by Elton as "pound[ing]" makes for some really exhilarating accompaniment to the vocal, which is strong and unfaltering. Definitely adding these two (and a few others) to my playlist.
Key tracks: Tiny Dancer, Levon, Madman Across The Water, Holiday Inn
Side 1: 5/5
Side 2: 3/5
Total: 8/5
Adjusted total: 4/5
Eagles
5/5
Ultra-solid songwriting wrapped in a neat 70s soft-rock package. Me likey.
There's plenty to compliment here and not much to fault. In terms of track listing, the first three (Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane) leave little to be desired. They're so darn catchy while (importantly) not making you feel like your brain is decaying slowly. I do feel that there's some punchy, electric element missing from all three tracks (particularly Life in the Fast Lane), but then the same applies to all Eagles music. Eh, whatever. They knew what they were doing, probably. Except for that weird accent in the title track.
There aren't any major standouts in the remaining six tracks except the pretty, acoustic finale, The Last Resort. They're all inoffensive and, while still catchy and musically complex enough in their own right, aren't quite as memorable as they could be. Still, it's hard to find specific faults. Still lacking the gritty element I'm looking for, but that would be incongruous with the Eagles' style that made them so successful. (But there's a flaw - they played it safe.)
In terms of general sound, the band's firing on all cylinders here. The textures and vocal timbre/harmonies are incredibly smooth, like sonic mousse. Chocolatey, too. The guitar solos are groovy, catchy, and deceptively simple. The drumming is fairly standard but works excellently in every song.
Key tracks: Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane, The Last Resort
5/5
The Velvet Underground
5/5
A solid collection of songs with a heavily "late 60s" musical style, but perhaps more risqué and experimental than was the norm. And yet, if you go beyond the surface, you'll realise how monumentally influential this music actually was, despite its poor sales when it was released. Yeah, sure, everyone talks about how important this album is as a landmark in music history. But there's a reason this is so universally accepted. It's because it's true.
Chronologically, one of the first-ever albums to dive headfirst into lyrical (and, in a sense, musical) themes of drug addiction, sex (addiction?), prostitution, masochism, and more. For the 60s, the Velvet Underground and Nico were light-years ahead of its peers. Pretty dang cool album cover too – instantly recognisable, mysterious, and just plain strange. One of Andy Warhol's finest contributions to music.
Plus, you just have some genuinely fantastic songs. The album moves effortlessly from the beautiful, airy, music box-like lullaby Sunday Morning to classic grungy underground rock tracks (I'm Waiting For The Man, Run Run Run, There She Goes Again) to exotic mystery (Venus In Furs) to pretty 60s ballads (Femme Fatale, I'll Be Your Mirror) to some seriously impressive experimental rock epics (Heroin, European Son). It's a versatile mix, with a couple apparent instances of new genres being created on the spot.
An otherwise 4-star experimental rock album, pushed off the charts when you consider historical context.
5/5
George Harrison
5/5
One of the most fun, laid-back, pure-joy albums I've heard. George knew his stuff, and he definitely deserves his status as the best post-Beatles Beatle (in terms of raw music quality).
There are so many tracks here that are just a blast to listen to, with the added benefit of musical complexity that keeps both music aficionados and more casual listeners engaged. Isn't It a Pity, Wah-Wah, What Is Life, Beware of Darkness, Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp, All Things Must Pass... The list goes on, and there isn't a single stinker track (except possibly It's Johnny's Birthday, but come on, it's under a minute. Give Sir Georgie a break!). Add in the monumental and iconic single My Sweet Lord, as well as the run of groovy instrumentals that conclude the track listing, and you have a near-insurmountable double album.
There's a spiritual vibe that really shines through, particularly throughout disc 1. Lots of organs, acoustic guitars, and pianos playing together, along with fun adaptations on I-IV chord progressions. It sounds pretty great. George's vocal is also well-suited to this (for lack of a better descriptor) preachy style. Not exactly comparable to any of his Beatles output, except for possibly Within You Without You (a very underrated Sgt Pepper's track).
Some excellent texturing here that's apparently underappreciated, based on Spotify listens. Let It Down, Isn't It A Pity, and Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp all have an anthem-like quality that automatically gains my approval. They're also well spread out across the album, which brings me to another point: I really like the order of tracks. Reminds me of Low (David Bowie) with its fantastic instrumental final side, and just a fun, creative, diverse mix of songs earlier in the album.
Lucky me - the third consecutive day of 5-star albums. I've living the life, truly.
The Undertones
3/5
It's fun music, though pretty derivative of other punk bands in the same era. I don't think much new ground was covered here. Also, 15 tracks is a lot to stomach in under 40 minutes; given the high-energy sound, it would've been good to have a few longer, slower tracks for a better full-album experience.
Good instrument playing – well, as good as the punk genre allows. The issue with punk is that it's very difficult to showcase good musicianship when the genre's existence hinges on sticking it to the "music elite" by playing simply (and sometimes haphazardly). It doesn't leave as much room for creativity as other genres.
I will give The Undertones credit for having clean, fresh music production, particularly in the lead and bass guitars. The vocals also meshed well with the other instruments. It meant that all the tracks honestly sounded great – at least, in isolation. I'd be tapping my foot along to any of these tracks in the car (especially the key tracks – see below). An entire album full of tracks with very similar energy, though, is harder to stomach.
Key tracks: More Songs About Chocolate And Girls, Hypnotised, Whizz Kids, My Perfect Cousin, Wednesday Week
T. Rex
3/5
I came into this with very high expectations, considering the big hit "Get It On" (aka Bang A Gong). I left somewhat underwhelmed, but I'll start with the pros.
Great guitar riffs, a fun vocal performance from Marc Bolan that was extremely typical (and rightly so) for its time, and just an overall fun vibe. Comparable to Ziggy Stardust. The tracks are produced very well, almost to an 80s punk-rock standard.
Now for the cons. The tracks just aren't particularly memorable, excluding the aforementioned Get It On and a few others (Cosmic Dancer, Jeepster, The Motivator). In fact, most tracks sound like budget versions of Get It On, demonstrating a lack of musical versatility. Although I just complimented Bolan's vocal, it gets just a little grating towards the end of the album. And the comparison to Ziggy Stardust flops as a positive when you realise just how much more conceptually interesting and catchy Ziggy Stardust is.
Key tracks: Cosmic Dancer, Jeepster, Get It On, The Motivator
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
This album has a sort of grandeur that is pulled off more convincingly than in Springsteen's later albums Darkness At The Edge Of Town and Born In The U.S.A. (both of which also appear on this list). His voice still sounds like a slightly less enjoyable Roy Orbison, and it's mainly this that brings the album down from a 5. I just can't make myself enjoy Bruce's vocal, and seeing that he's the face and focus of his music, it prevents his albums from reaching masterpiece territory.
But the compositions, arrangements, and instrument playing are pretty darn great here. Jungleland is the main exhibit: a crazy, twisting multipart epic with a heavy emphasis on exotic, thick textures and an impressive sax part. The saxophone is also (nearly) front-and-centre in many other tracks on the album, which is rarely a bad thing. (Big shoutout to Clarence Clemons!) Born To Run, the title track, is of course a classic. Thunder Road is an explosive opening track that's a contender for the album's finest.
Great guitar, bass, and drums. Not much to say in terms of creativity or ambition, but they do what they need to do and it sounds good.
Admittedly, when listened to as one long musical adventure, the high energy starts to get a bit exhausting, especially with the relative lack of ballads.
Enthuastic, anthemic, and bombastic – I can see why it's popular.
The Temptations
4/5
This album was a real blast. It's that typical blues-funk-soul-band with quick, biting horn stabs, great vocals, and classic (yet very simple) chord progressions. A fun ensemble that was perhaps a little surprising for its time. The 70s aren't normally associated with such an intensely 50s/60s style - but then, the Temptations had made a big name for themselves by this point.
Interesting touch of politics, presumably, in the track Run Charlie Run. The lyrics are pretty cool, and I especially like how their grim, sarcastic message conflicts with the upbeat positivity in the music.
I've never heard the extended/album version of Papa Was A Rollin' Stone before, and it's just as good as the single. Long instrumental build-up is worth the wait. I do wish a few more tracks on the album had the courage to be longer than 3-4 minutes, because it seems like that's all it takes for the Temptations to really shine.
Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On is a medium-paced headbanger with a lot of call-and-response between several vocalists. It introduces the album's fun-filled atmosphere effectively. Do Your Thing is an interesting contrast to conclude the album: a laid-back song draped with soft bass and backing vocals.
While the remaining tracks were definitely good, they're harder to remember. All I can recall, a few hours later, is that the album didn't flow very congruously. The track listing jumped from quick, peppy funk to ballads, which isn't intrinsically a bad thing - but safe to say it didn't work here.
Rating: high 4/5
Key tracks: Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On, Papa Was A Rollin' Stone, Do Your Thing
The Beach Boys
5/5
This is the album you get when you confine a semi-psychotic musical genius (Brian Wilson) in a sandpit with some goats and a sizeable budget.
Pet Sounds is that rare album where I can say that nothing - absolutely nothing - sounds quite like it. I challenge you to prove me wrong. There's something so oddly gratifying about the loopy chord progressions (consisting of a lot of melancholic maj7 chords), slightly blurry orchestra sound, the angelic voice of Brian Wilson, the silky-yet-rough-around-the-edges American production sound... But the fact that it's so hard to pin down is probably why it hasn't been replicated.
The songs themselves are straight up bangers, start to finish. The trio of radio-friendly tracks - Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, and God Only Knows - are all fantastic, incorporating pop elements from the Beach Boys' "rival" band, the Beatles, among other influences. The two instrumental tracks, particularly the first one, Let's Go Away For Awhile, are beautifully composed; the tasteful entry and dropping-out of different wacky instruments is especially noticeable.
Most of the remaining eight tracks take on an introspective vibe that's noticeably different from their previous output, and indeed from nearly all pop music up to 1966. I would list highlights, but it's so hard to choose. Don't Talk is just utterly gorgeous and a brutal reminder that, as a single person, I'm missing out on a lot. You Still Believe In Me has such an unpredictable melody and smooth, goosebump-inducing harmonies (and a car horn).
Oh yeah, I should mention the vocal harmonies. It's the Beach Boys. The harmonies are spectacular. Nothing else to say.
The bass playing is also worth pointing out. It contributes monumentally to that gorgeous sound that's so hard to pin down.
Rating: 5/5
Key tracks: all of them
Caroline: No
The War On Drugs
2/5
Oh, this album is just so disappointing...
Don't get me wrong. It's not terrible (hence the 2 stars). The lyrics are pretty thought-provoking, and the sound is high-quality (particularly where synths are involved - mixing is fun and immersive). Some of the tracks are pretty good on account of their catchiness, including Red Eyes and Lost In The Dream.
The primary mistake made by The War On Drugs is a failure to deliver anything exciting, energetic, or (sonically) volatile. Nearly every track sounds exactly the same for the entire 7 minutes, and at least half of the tracks bear the additional burden of sounding identical to each other. This isn't helped by the fact that the drumming is extremely standard and uninteresting (one-a-two-a-three-a-four-a- throughout every song). The vocals aren't anything particularly interesting either. They're perhaps Dylan- or Petty-esque, especially in the title track, but this only accentuates the difference between those bands and The War On Drugs in terms of how good the rest of the music is. Oof.
The album also fails to justify the long track runtime on all of their longer songs. In general, these songs drag quite a lot, increasing the length of what should've been a 40-minute album (or less, if you remove the duplicate tracks) to roughly an hour. If the band was trying to create a slew of "epics", a la In The Court Of The Crimson King, they didn't succeed.
Key tracks: Under The Pressure, Red Eyes, Lost In The Dream
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
A great balance between consistency and variety makes for a great album. Jimi Hendrix pretty much nails it, and casually throws in a few absolute powerhouse tracks to top it off. Even without those songs (Purple Haze, Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary, Foxey Lady) this could feasibly be a 5-star or high 4-star album, purely because of the high-energy explosion of ideas, riffs, and attitude in essentially every track.
Hendrix's vocal is pretty strong. It packs a big punch, driving home the romantic and/or political lyrical ideas with spunk. And his guitar playing, which may well be the best of all time, is the musical highlight. For its time, Hendrix's guitar tone is electrifying, in-your-face, shredding... really demonstrates his virtuosity. The other instruments are also able to shine in places.
I also love the influence from psychedelia. In fact, given the year of release (1967), this was probably one of the genre's pioneering acts.
Classic. Brilliant. 5/5
Key tracks: Purple Haze, Manic Depression, Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, Foxey Lady, Are You Experienced?
Marty Robbins
3/5
Albums before the mid-60s tended not to capture the concept of what really makes a great album. This is a collection of good songs - but when listened to in one sitting, the style isn't quite good enough to boost it to 4 stars or higher. It's at the upper end of 3 stars.
It's performed well, with a very strong vocal and simplistic backing arrangement. Big Iron, El Paso, They're Hanging Me Tonight, and Billy The Kid are highlights that could really shine as concept album material if placed in the right order. The chords definitely lack inspiration, being primarily the 3 blues chords plus the occasional minor 6 for moodier pieces. The instrumental backing the vocals also really doesn't add much to the table, being mostly bass, acoustic guitar, and light drums, all of which could be further forward in the mix and played with more energy.
Overall, good music, but not pioneering - which isn't a bad thing, but I feel it doesn't fully belong in this list.
3/5
Nirvana
5/5
Pretty haunting in retrospect, given Cobain's mental state in early 1994. And yet, this is a surprisingly intimate set of songs that still remains faithful to the Nirvana spirit. It's every bit as good as the only other Nirvana album I've listened to (Nevermind), but with some interesting differences in energy. It's lower-energy, more relaxed, and has a great un-produced acoustic feel similar to the Naked version of Let It Be (which is vastly superior to the original). The banter between tracks – something I normally criticise – works much better in a live album than the more typical scripted skits of hip-hop bands.
The cover of Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World is iconic and, maybe surprisingly, outshines the original by a lot. The riff, infectious as it is, is all but lost in the track on Bowie's 1970 album – but it takes centre stage here. Love it.
The other tracks I'm familiar with are ones that also appeared on Nevermind: On A Plain, Something In The Way, Come As You Are, and Polly. They're good choices for this album because of their more introspective, low-texture feel. Even On A Plain, whose original recording was a fiery ball of pop-energy, is toned down a lot on MTV Unplugged.
About A Girl was a solid choice of opener. Hoping Nirvana's debut album, Bleach, appears on this list.
5/5
Key tracks: all of them, honestly
Tom Tom Club
2/5
I would describe this album as a large, bad mound of noise made by self-described "musical geniuses". There are a few tracks that are passable - namely, Genius Of Love (by far the strongest in the set), Lorelei, and On On On On. The remaining tracks straddle this weird balance of children's music and extraterrestrial "alien pop"-type stuff. It's not that good, but I don't hate it either. The texturing and production are pretty good for their time.
Excluding a couple short tracks, all songs on this album go on for longer than they should, failing to introduce any new compelling musical ideas after the 1-minute mark in most cases. The lyrics are also pretty uninspiring, and often the only point of the vocal seems to be to add more noise. This idea definitely has its place (vocal solos - think Robert Plant) but it's not executed very well by Tom Tom Club. Just because something is creative doesn't mean it's necessarily good.
I feel this album does not belong on this list. (Change my mind!)
2/5
Key tracks: Genius Of Love, Lorelei, On On On On...
Louis Prima
4/5
An album chock-full of saxy-trumpety jazz swing. It's good fun, although some of the tracks are definitely stinkers, which holds it far back from getting the coveted 5-star award. These stinkers include The Lip (a brutally narcissistic song trying its best to be coverable by other artists), Be Mine, and Body and Soul (two uninteresting tracks with few memorable moments). The remaining tracks, however, are generally better; the opener to the album, Just A Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody, is the strongest.
The lead vocalists (of which there are several) are great. Super strong and full of personality, yet still laid-back and non-overstepping. Soft brushes play a swing beat on the drums during most tracks, creating a lovely jazz bar atmosphere. Definitely approaching the best of pre-60s "pop" music.
4/5
Can
4/5
This is the sort of weird, wacky, prog stuff I've been holding out for. It's layered, atmospheric, and (as I kept noticing throughout the album) sonically well ahead of its time. An argument could be made that the aptly-named Future Days is more musically progressive than The Dark Side Of The Moon, another 1973 album commonly touted as one of the crowning achievements of prog rock.
Only having four tracks is a little risky in a musical world where bite-sized tracks are the standard. And yet, Can definitely justifies the long runtime of some of these. Bel Air, the monstrous 20-minute epic closing the album, is a spiralling trip where synths, bass, and drum calmly take turns absolutely shredding – but in a trippy, relaxed manner. (In fact, all four tracks could probably be described like this, but Bel Air was the standout.) I wasn't particularly focused while listening to the album, but even so, I found myself drawn to the bass in particular. I'm all about it. Very post-psychedelic.
The 9-and-a-half-minute title track, Future Days, is also really strong, though I don't have much memory of it. I guess the primary flaw of the album is that none of the tracks really stand out from the others, even though the feeling of listening to them is very memorable.
4/5
Key tracks: Future Days, Bel Air
Eminem
2/5
Having listened to the Marshall Mathers LP before, and given it 1 star, I came into this with low expectations. And I was pleasantly surprised (if only a little). This album admittedly does sounds very similar, suggesting that Eminem isn't a very versatile artist. (Probably could've guessed that.) But there's a series of 4 or 5 tracks in the middle that are unironically bopping.
The skits on this album are very much focused on public opinion of Eminem and rap/hip-hop in general, as well as Eminem's controversial position in the genre as a young, overconfident white guy who's in over his head. That, I can agree with. Fun choice to include mostly guest vocalists in these skits, allowing for a break in the monotony of Eminem's irritating hip-teen vocal. I enjoyed the skits quite a lot, actually - more than I normally would with a hip-hop record.
Like his other albums, we see caution thrown to the wind as Eminem carelessly lets out a torrent of slurs, misogynistic remarks, and narcissistic, dismissive attitude. It leaves a bad taste in the listener's mouth. I really don't see how anyone can genuinely enjoy the lyrics.
The music, on the other hand, is at least hit-or-miss. And when it hits, it hits pretty well. The tracks Role Model, My Fault, Cum On Everybody, and Rock Bottom have fun, nightclub-esque atmospheres, and Eminem's vocal meshes decently in that environment. Chord progressions are also (sometimes) very cool here.
2/5
Key tracks: Public Service Announcement, If I Had, Bitch, My Fault
Aretha Franklin
4/5
It's truly great music. The main thing holding it back from 5 stars is the low production quality, which is impossible to ignore once you notice it. There's a fuzziness to every instrument's track during quieter moments. Could definitely do with a remaster. The songs, for the most part, also aren't super impressive. It definitely sounds like 60s music. Not a big fan of the album cover either, which is about as basic as you can make artwork containing Aretha Franklin's face.
But that's where my criticism ends. The songs are performed spectacularly. Aretha's vocal is gorgeous, soulful, and full of spirit, all while letting the other instruments shine. Chain of Fools and A Natural Woman (you make me feeeeelll!!) are 60s soul classics, and the remaining 10 or so tracks are full of great moments too. Good to Me as I Am to You, with its slow, lilting feel and prominent bass, is a highlight. Ain't No Way, a jazzy, emotional piano-based ballad, is also fantastic. In terms of actual performance (not songwriting), pretty much every single track delivers.
4/5
Key tracks: Chain of Fools, A Natural Woman, Good to Me as I Am to You, Groovin', Ain't No Way
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
It's fine, though some tracks have a noticeable dip in quality when Ms. Dynamite focuses on lyrics (particularly her "I'm a badass independent black woman who's been through some shit" lyrics, which are fine in isolation but brutally unrelatable) rather than focusing on sounds and memorable hooks. The tracks Watch Over Them, Seed Will Grow, Now U Want My Love, and Gotta Let U Know, to name a few, suffer from this issue. Other songs, like the pop-track Dy-Na-Mi-Tee, lean so heavily on their hooks (dynamite-hee~!) that they become pretty annoying. It's safe to say this album is pretty hit-or-miss (most of the tracks I haven't mentioned are passable or better).
The interlude at the beginning could definitely be cut out. The run of songs from Anyway U Want It to It Takes More is pretty strong, with some really great modern synth-pop textures and basslines. Percussion is rarely, if ever, acoustic, which is generally a big criticism of mine unless it's seriously justified by creativity or something groundbreaking. (In this case, it isn't.)
The lyrical themes are, like nearly all hip-hop/rap, not relatable. I find myself subconsciously tuning out the lyrics in most tracks. In general, lyrics that reflect every human's experience (such as those on The Dark Side of the Moon, The Stranger, Aja, Blackstar...) make for much stronger music.
Close to being 3 stars. But there are a lot of places to improve.
2/5
Key tracks: Anyway U Want It, Put Him Out, Brother, A Lil Deeper / Get Up Stand Up
Arcade Fire
3/5
I've already listened to Funeral and The Suburbs (both by Arcade Fire) on this list, and gave them both a 3 for similar reasons. I enjoyed this album slightly more than those two, though it could be because I was listening to it with higher quality headphones.
But even so... eh. The songs aren't very catchy, which is really the band's only obvious downfall – but it's a big downfall. Otherwise, I can think of some definite pros: The tracks sound really well produced, layered with slow, contemplative synths and percussion. With good noise-cancelling headphones, I could appreciate this production more.
The opening track, Black Mirror, was actually pretty fire. If every song had been that much of a moody, mildly catchy adventure, the album could've scored 4 stars or even higher. The song Black Wave / Bad Vibrations, on the other hand, was Black Mirror's brutal antithesis: it was just uninteresting. The remaining tracks fell somewhere in between these in terms of quality, and while I liked all of them, I didn't love any of them.
The dramatic touch in this album, seen with is a fun addition that I didn't really notice in Funeral or The Suburbs. Especially liked the organs in Intervention.
Close, so close, to 4 stars. I believe in you, Arcade Fire! Just don't be so pretentious and use those musical chops to make something worth bopping to!
Key tracks: Black Mirror, Keep the Car Running, Intervention, (Antichrist Television Blues)
Primal Scream
2/5
The space-rock thing Primal Scream's going for isn't terrible, but it's very undercooked. Also, it's one of the few renditions of "90s space-rock" I've heard - and there's a reason there aren't many albums in this category. Without the low-production, experimental, semi-psychedelic charm of the 60s and 70s, there's just something lacking.
Most notably, the melodies sound incredibly low-effort, as do the vocals. There's nothing in the form of catchy melodies, interesting (vocal) rhythm, emotion, drama, or really anything to hone in on in terms of singing. Instrumentally, my criticism is similar, but I'll give Primal Scream some leeway here because the mood set by the slow synths and light drumming is pretty nifty.
Something else that disappointed me was that all the best tracks on the album - the run of tracks including Jesus, Know Your Rights, 96 Tears, and Rebel Dub - aren't even on the album. They're only included in the expanded edition. The exciting hard-rock guitars and high energy in some of those tracks boosted the album to a 3, until I checked and realised they weren't actually there! (Must've been my imagination.)
2/5
Key tracks: Star, Medication, Long Life
Guided By Voices
2/5
What bothered me most about this album was its lo-fi production. I'm normally pretty open to lo-fi if it's done correctly, but something about Guided by Voices's un-remastered, homemade sound is very off-putting. Another reviewer wrote it best:
"I cannot stand the mix. I get what they were going for with the dirty, fuzzy sound but I fucking HATE it. The guitar tones on this album are fantastic but I feel like that gets so muddy and hidden in the mix. This would easily be a 3 or 4 star album for me if it were a little "cleaner" sounding."
Another issue is melody. These vocalists cannot carry a tune. Add that to the factor that some of these melodies can hardly be called tunes in the first place - owing to lack of musicality and a generally improvisatory feel - and the list of tracks that could be considered catchy becomes short very quickly.
But with 28 tracks, at least a few had to stand out, and indeed I did notice some highlights. The main factor that boosted these to being "good" songs was higher energy and a solid melody. These songs, in particular, I wish could've lasted longer (nearly all 28 tracks are under 2 minutes), but I still appreciate them as they are.
Also, for what it's worth, the lyrics are pretty fun. So is the album cover.
Key tracks: A Salty Salute, Game of Pricks, A Good Flying Bird, Blimps Go 90, Alright
Jane Weaver
2/5
I tend to give post-2000 albums a pass if they were really popular on release or have since become popular, because that means they would've had a big impact on the music world (for better or worse). Modern Kosmology definitely didn't make a big splash on the music scene, looking at the Spotify listens. Because of this, I have to ask: why is Modern Kosmology included in this list?
The music itself has a mix of good and bad going for it. The good: it's chill music. Very atmospheric. Good to put on in the background while you meditate, before/after a big public speech, or during a particularly uninteresting cricket match. I liked the very out-of-place male vocal that bookended the track Ravenspoint. Also, the style is pretty consistent but still varies in terms of songwriting. There's a good creativity-consistency balance.
Now for the bad. Jane Weaver's singing is... not great. It's possible that either she or the production team knew this, and added thick layers of effects/filters in some tracks to disguise it. (This actually made her voice sound definitively worse.) But even without the filters, she doesn't have much in the way of vibrato, range, or clarity. Her voice is a little breathy and she doesn't get much volume or depth out. Another criticism I have is with the synths, which are almost too consistent/unwavering within tracks. Often, they'll either drone one note for entire songs or song sections, or repeat some simple melody relentlessly. It's exhausting for the close listener.
But yeah, I did enjoy the music. Kinda. Just not sure why it made the list.
Enjoyment: 3/5
Does the album belong on this list: 1/5
Avg: 2/5
Key tracks: Did You See Butterflies?, Modern Kosmology, Valley
Talking Heads
2/5
Talking Heads are so often touted as one of the "classics" - to be revered, reviewed, and NOT reviled. Everyone loves the Talking Heads, right?
Not this guy. David Byrne's vocal is rightly criticised by many listeners, because it just sounds plain bad. Almost to the point that it sounds like he's trying to sabotage the other instruments' sound (which is otherwise pretty solid). It's often atonal, arrhythmic, slurred, and bored-yet-strained.
That's just about the only criticism I have, but Byrne places himself so front-and-centre in the music that it very nearly destroys the entire album. Everything else is good, if a little samey in places. The opening track, Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, uses a simple yet satisfying chord progression and powerful guitar for a great start to the album. (Seriously. By the end of this track, I was thinking, "at this rate the album's getting 4 stars".) The next two tracks featured more varied guitar lines/licks, with some energetic drumming and bass playing. Unfortunately, the vocal gets more and more unappealing as the album progresses, and it's difficult to really groove as much as the other reviewers seem to be doing. I'm jealous.
2/5
Key tracks: Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, The Good Thing, Take Me to the River
Bill Callahan
3/5
Unusual genre – country prog? Most of the tracks are pretty long (though none overstay their welcome) and any instrumentation/melody changes within songs are very gradual and subtle. Bill Callahan's voice is old-fashioned, almost Johnny Cash-esque but with a less pleasant vocal quality. Sounds a bit underproduced. It's a weird juxtaposition with the otherwise fairly clean production, but still cool-sounding regardless. Also fun to hear the half-spoken half-sung vocal style that seems to be a rarity in the post-2000s era of music.
Beautiful string playing. It's quite raw-sounding; it really sounds like a string ensemble, or (at some points) an entire Romantic-era orchestra, is playing on the stage behind Callahan. And yet, it's a very thin texture. Generally I'm not a fan of thin textures unless they're placed as a contrast to much thicker, more dramatic textures in other places. That isn't really the case here; the album doesn't have much sense of "flow" or "ups and downs". It commits to one thoughtful, melancholic mood and sticks to that throughout, which definitely limits audience excitement.
The strongest instruments are the acoustic guitar and piano. Simple and pretty playing over (mostly) standard chords. The drums, during their appearances, are played lightly and tastefully.
3/5
Key tracks: Jim Cain, Too Many Birds, My Friend
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
My rating here is partially a response to the album itself, and partially an artifact of having listened to far too many consecutive Britpop/post-punk albums. At a certain point, it really takes a toll, and not in a good way. Now, like just about all of these identical-sounding British 80s bands, I:
- hate the monarchy
- hate the government even more
- desire a healthy gossip about the Silent/Boomer generations while sipping a good Earl Grey
- dislike the music industry, but not quite enough to go against the brutally unvarying trends
I guess this is how Echo and the Bunnymen felt. Even so, I can't bring myself to love the music. The singing doesn't quite fully commit to the punk genre, but instead has that kind of wobbly, unpolished quality that's so commonplace in this decade of music. It's put through a sort of distant, metallic filter here, but rather than masking the poor singing, it just makes the music seem emptier and less passionate. In addition, within the tracks, there isn't much progression or change of moods. It feels a little disorganised and chaotic, yet still manages to be (energetically) monotone. Wacky. (There is a healthy variety of moods and energies throughout the album, though, so this isn't too much of a fault.)
The drumming and guitar playing is nothing incredible, but it's solid. Just about any fast drum fill will make me appreciate the percussion as a whole, and this album is no exception. The world-music gig going on in the instrumental is also pretty nifty. Not sure what a lot of these instruments are, but they add a seriously cool atmosphere that singlehandedly brings the album up to 3 stars. Well done, Bunnymen, you saved yourself.
3/5
Key tracks: Heads Will Roll, Porcupine, Back of Love
Michael Jackson
5/5
Some really solid stuff on here, even ignoring the rose-tinted lens of fame that nearly allows the album (and its monumental sales) to speak for itself. The music is crammed with little bits and bobs to keep the listener absolutely hooked. Take Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, the opening track, as an example. There are constant little flourishes in the backing vocals, electronic drums, synthy bassline, and so on, all amounting to six minutes of pure musical excitement. It's incredibly engaging – addictively so. Imagine one of those heavily edited TikToks or YouTube Shorts, but in song form, and you'll understand where I'm coming from. But, unlike TikTok, this has some pretty darn good music. Baby Be Mine, P.Y.T., and Thriller (title track) are also distinctively engaging in the same way. Obviously Michael Jackson's voice is the star here, but even if you don't like his voice, there's plenty else to lap up.
Jackson's voice is pretty cool on this album, though. A bit of an acquired taste for some because of his ultra-youthful, almost whiny timbre - but honestly, he makes it work really well here. We see a healthy mixture of ballads (The Lady in My Life, Human Nature, The Girl Is Mine), disco (Baby Be Mine, kinda Billie Jean), high-energy pop (Thriller, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', P.Y.T), and a very poppy rendition of rock (Beat It). And for all of these, Jackson manages to find a reasonably convincing vocal while sticking to his "slot in random cool noises" guns. His breathy crooning in the ballads is probably the weakest his voice gets, and it's still pretty good.
Also, to all of you saying The Girl Is Mine is cringey and that McCartney should stay out of Jackson's music: Yeah, nah. It's a fun-filled collab that's not meant to be taken seriously. Sort of the "Yellow Submarine" of the album. I dig it.
5/5
Key tracks: all of them! Reads like a greatest-hits record.
Madness
3/5
It's a really strange collection of songs. On the one hand, there's definite musical prowess and understanding of texturing, keeping the listener's interest, and knowledge of several genres (including blues, jazz, funk, and ska). On the other hand, it genuinely seems like Madness was trying to alienate the listener during some tracks.
Take Sunday Morning, a theoretically strong track. It tries to go for almost math-rock levels of auditory annoyance with its frequent, unorthodox pauses, off-kilter horn hits, and so on. The song That Face, later in the album, is similar. Separately: New Delhi (the track) is so caricatured that it's hard to enjoy. Also, the main vocalist has a pretty monotone British-conversational voice, reminiscent of punk. Not a big fan.
But when the album hits, it really hits. Our House, the international hit single, is really good. The eclectic nature of the band is relegated mostly to the haphazard chord changes, which honestly sound pretty great in this instance. Tomorrow's (Just Another Day), Rise and Fall, and Tiptoes are all just great jazzy/brassy tunes. The four promo video tracks, which weren't included on the original album, are some of my favourites. (Seriously – they should've been on the original! A travesty.)
Unfortunately, there's the blackface guy on the album cover. What's up with that?
3/5
Key tracks: Tiptoes, Our House, Tomorrow's (Just Another Day), Rise and Fall
Eels
4/5
I surprised myself here. This record is pretty great. Alt-rock nearly at its finest, with little bits of influence from jazz, funk, and classical (among others). Reminiscent of Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey, though I would argue Beautiful Freak is generally better and more consistent. Lots of electrical SFX, synths, and sharp/sudden editing, all of which I really enjoyed (though I understand people who don't). That editing is especially apparent in the stop-start-filled opening track, Novocaine For The Soul, which is coincidentally also my favourite song on here.
My main criticism is that the vocalist doesn't have much variety – but even so, it's still a more convincing voice than half the albums on this list, so I can't complain too much.
4/5
Key tracks: Novocaine For The Soul, Flower, Mental, Spunky, Manchild
The Triffids
1/5
I didn't like this album, and there's a lot of space to improve. For one, the main vocalist's voice is barely passable. It has that distinctive 80s-pop-synth-man that's trying to be embellished and theatrical, but doesn't quite get there. And yet it's obvious that the music is centred around the singing, excluding the short title track Calenture, which was a mess of orchestra and piano, attempting and failing to deliver any drama. The remaining tracks aren't exactly terrible, but they're very uninteresting. The instruments are easy enough to focus on in terms of volume and texture, but they don't vary much, instead yielding to the singing, which isn't the best idea for this band.
The strongest track was the album opener Bury Me Deep in Love, which was heavily 80s-acoustic sounding but still decent. Disney-esque. It overstayed its welcome by a minute or so, which was also true of many other tracks. Vagabond Holes was so ridiculously poorly written, mostly in terms of melody/rhythm, that (coupled with the catchy instrumental) it looped back around to being kind of fun to listen to. Save What You Can was a decent piano-driven track that ended the album on a good note. All the remaining tracks were aggressively forgettable, even while I was still listening to them. The reason behind this was most likely the poor melodies – easily the music's weakest link – and the lack of any good hooks.
Very surprised this made it onto the list. It isn't captivating, innovative, inspiring, catchy... or popular (judging by Spotify listens).
1/5
Key tracks: Bury Me Deep in Love, Vagabond Holes, Save What You Can
Charles Mingus
2/5
As a jazz musician myself, it feels a little traitorous to give this such a low rating. But really, Mingus could have done so much more to make this more accessible to a wider audience. The organised chaos of avant-garde jazz is just a little much even for me to handle, and it brings a consistently crazed, dizzying mood to the table that makes it harder to engage with that it should be.
Still, the music is dark, energetic, and filled with humour and little winks to jazz contemporaries and predecessors. There's definitely some Davis and Ellington influence with the rapid, wavery trumpet and sax lines. Interesting mutes on those wind instruments during some parts, though it could just as easily be the musicians trying to play as weirdly as possible. The wah-wah, almost kazoo-like sax timbre in Duete Solo Dancers was the clearest example of this. I also liked the wild, interweaving melodic lines on, like, 7 different instruments at once. This happened very often in the track Group Dancers. Cool mood transitions in this track, too. And, obviously, fantastic, dynamic bass playing.
I'm not a fan of extended jazz tracks on albums. They're much more forgivable when recorded live, but of course this is a studio album. The 19-minute album closer is, by its own admission, a medley – and in fact the song includes several near-silent intermissions. Break them apart, Charles!
2/5
Key tracks: Duete Solo Dancers (track 2/4), Group Dancers (track 3/4)
Buck Owens
3/5
Solid, catchy, yet fairly nondescript country music. This album was released while the world of modern music was rapidly approaching more artistic, experimental territory (The Beatles, other British Invasion bands, Dylan, Beach Boys, arguably Elvis)– and if anything, I imagine this was a return to normalcy for many listeners. But was that necessarily a good thing? Even for 1965, this is some incredibly simple material, barely varying harmonically from the four pop/country chords and showcasing good but unexciting performances on guitar, drums, bass, and vocals.
Still, it's fun, positive music. I can dig it. I especially enjoyed Act Naturally, which the Beatles would cover soon after this album's release.
3/5
Key tracks: I've Got a Tiger By the Tail, Wham Bam, Streets of Laredo, Act Naturally
Elvis Presley
3/5
He's back!
...but he isn't perfect.
It doesn't help that none of his huge hit singles are present here. And concordantly, a key element of pre-army Elvis energy feels keenly absent. None of the tracks are particularly memorable except the three openers (Make Me Know It, Fever, The Girl of My Best Friend). The two moods appear to be either "crooning with very little instrumentation" or "fast-swing-rock but lacking some energy". Don't get me wrong – it's still pretty enjoyable music. But it doesn't reach the heights of his pre-1960 work I'm familiar with.
Lots of gentle, "classical rock" harmonies going on in the backing vocals. Pretty cool. The bass and particularly the drums are mixed decently, but written simply, without letting their respective players shine as much as the vocalists and solo instruments (e.g. sax). Feels a little gramaphoney (granny music?), but what can you do, prior to the earth-shattering revolution of music in the 60s? This is the kind of music that sold well, and Elvis was fully aware of that.
3/5
Key tracks: Make Me Know It, Fever, The Girl of My Best Friend, Dirty Dirty Feeling, Such a Night
Neil Young
5/5
Love this one. Tasteful, fun, positive, well-written. I really don't have anything bad to say. Maybe his voice is a little wacky (especially when it isn't joined by any harmonising), but it definitely doesn't overstay its 35-minute welcome.
But the songs themselves are superb and performed exactly as they should be. Great instrumentation, particularly with the acoustic guitars. The guitar solos are also worth mentioning: they're easygoing and expressive, without using too many notes. Sort of the folk-rock equivalent of David Gilmour. Nice variety of moods throughout the album too. Nothing revolutionary, but the perfect (standard) album experience. Wahoo!
5/5
Key tracks: Tell Me Why, After the Gold Rush, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Don't Let It Bring You Down, Birds
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
Reminds me a lot of Bowie's Aladdin Sane album. Similar atmosphere, with heavy, plodding, bright instrumentation. Piano, electric guitar, brass, and voice are all bombastic and in-your-face. Though, I think I prefer the Bowie rendition of glam rock. The songs here sound a little undercooked.
The catchiest track, Gang Bang, also bears the burden of having horrific lyrics. And the lyrics of Next (the title track) are also not great. But the overall sound and mood is consistently fun, glamorous, and overall kinda nifty. Definitely captures the 1973 vibe.
This is groovy enough, but the 70s had better offerings. Give me more of those! Next!
3/5
Key tracks: The Faith Healer, Next
Fatboy Slim
3/5
The extended intro of Right Here Right Now is pretty infectious. I wish they'd gone into more variations of that repeating theme, because it's genuinely great. The Rockafeller Skank also has some great ideas (those two simultaneous guitars... man. Good stuff.), as does Kalifornia.
Unfortunately, there are numerous moments with only vocals and/or percussion. The vocalist (rapper?) in most tracks has a generic and unexpressive rapping voice. When this happens, I tend to start paying closer attention to the lyrics, but that's a mistake here. ("Right here right now right here right now right here right now check it out right here right now right here right now check it out now funk soul brotha right about now right here right now funk soul brotha now now now now now now right about now now now now now now now right about now.") This album is a solid reminder that using a soundboard for vocals is a terrible idea.
The percussion is barely passable as long as you don't pay too close attention to it. Very repetitive and artificial. The producers are trying to direct attention to the synths and guitars (I guess) and those are pretty good. Praise You takes the synth prominence to the next level and, combined with singing rather than rapping, it's easily the strongest track.
3/5
Key tracks: Right Here Right Now, The Rockafeller Skank, Praise You
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Earth, Wind & Fire is a great band. One of the most carefree, tight, badass sounds of any band – and certainly any 70s band. Up there with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Tower of Power, and Steely Dan in terms of consistently great feel-good tunes that are known for their sharpshooter horn hits, high-level musicianship, and impeccable incorporation of jazz/funk into pop music.
That being said, this album doesn't showcase any of Earth, Wind & Fire's absolute best tracks, leading me to question why it's the only EW&F album here. Don't get me wrong – the tracks are all very good (particularly the two openers) and generally kick some serious bum – but they don't quite reach the heights I know EW&F's capable of. And as good as some of the songs are, some are pretty forgettable (See the Light, All About Love). Not a huge fan of the vocals in Yearnin' Learnin' either. EW&F pulls off the proto-disco falsetto better than the rough vocal fry.
Key tracks: Shining Star, That's the Way of the World, Reasons
Paul Simon
5/5
A must-listen. Great production, fantastic genre-mixing and cross-cultural nods. Lots of little quirks to discover upon a second or third relisten. You definitely notice Paul Simon's attention to detail and how he embraces the music of his global contemporaries. Add that to the kaleidoscope of different instruments meshing together seamlessly, and played excellently, and the entire album feels like a warm embrace between friends, amidst the surrounding chaos. You even have the large number of different vocalists contributing their little parts. Paul Simon's vocal is also very good here, but doesn't take the spotlight as much as his earlier material (including from Simon and Garfunkel). I like that.
And no, this album isn't cultural appropriation. If the only people throwing around these allegations are white guys who raised themselves on classic rock and proto-metal of the 60s and 70s, and not the wide array of open-minded African and African-influenced musicians contributing to Graceland, then I think this speaks for itself.
5/5
Key tracks: Graceland, I Know What I Know, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, You Can Call Me Al
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
It's fun to see the wacky origins of Frank Zappa. This album, surprisingly, delivered some pretty great stuff. The out-of-sync vocal harmonies, kazoos, and "yuueah"-ing (see: You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here) firmly root this album in the mid/late 60s, but there's also some serious inventiveness that places elements of the music well ahead of their time. But, as interesting and risky (for the 60s) tracks like The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet and Help I'm A Rock may be, they're just a little too "out there" for my taste. Important to musical evolution, maybe, but that doesn't mean I have to necessarily enjoy their free-jazz-esque noises. The former (The Return...) is like a slightly more musically coherent Revolution 9 – though that isn't saying much, given Revolution 9's generally accepted status as the worst Beatles track.
But what the album does well, it really nails. Really solid, fun pop bops with a lot of musical coolness to hone in on – especially on the album's first disk. I love the vocals, which parallel those of British Invasion bands. Great, clear bass playing too. I guess this is an early concept album, in the sense that there's a distinctive yet gradual shift in tone throughout the album, from bright and collected psychedelia to dark, crazed, ...uh, psychedelia.
4/5
Key tracks: Trouble Every Day, Hungry Freaks Daddy, I Ain't Got No Heart, Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder
Led Zeppelin
5/5
The true-to-roots variety show that blows all pre-1975 music out of the water. This is Led Zeppelin at their loudest, proudest, and most groovy. Of all albums I've listened to, this is probably the one that made me thrash my head and stomp my feet with the most gusto.
It's fair to argue that, other than Kashmir (a track that's quite possibly the pinnacle of LZ's career), there aren't any big archetypal LZ songs on here. Maybe it's comparable to the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street in that way. But every track packs such a satisfying punch that it's hard to really fault it for lack of hits. And in my mind, there are plenty of "hits" here. Custard Pie, The Rover, In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Under Foot, The Wanton Song, Sick Again, In The Light... man, the list really goes on. Even the "filler" tracks are pretty great. Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman, and Bron-Yr-Aur are all very strong in their own right. Those tracks add colour and change of pace to the otherwise nearly overwhelming powerhouse of straight bangers.
Oh yeah, there's also Ten Years Gone. (The best LZ track.) A dozen guitars layered atop one another, backing a gorgeous, emotional-packed ballad with one of the coolest chord progressions that could've been chosen.
Plant's vocals have changed a lot in the six years since LZ's debut. They've gotten more butty and "manly", which is an interesting change of pace. I know some people prefer this style of vocal, though I'm torn. LZ3/4 present the best balance between cutting and gruff, I think. The drumming and bass playing are near flawless, as usual, and the lower-energy guitars compared to earlier albums is made up for by Page's sophisticated and timeless production.
5/5
Key tracks: Custard Pie, In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Under Foot, Kashmir, Ten Years Gone, The Wanton Song
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
While I can appreciate the historical importance of this album and a tremendous side 2, side 1 doesn't quite reach up to the same heights. It tackles a fairly straightforward concept – ageing – and while it captures that idea pretty well, it's at the expense of the music's quality. The tracks on side 1 aren't very catchy, and musically they're very simple, often consisting of finger-picked guitars and odd, repeating melodies. America and Old Friends are my two favourites on this side. The Bookends Theme and its reprise are very forgettable, and Voices of Old People is obviously unnecessary. I will acknowledge that this would've been a pretty big stepping stone in the development of concept album culture. At least it's a more well-defined concept than Sgt Pepper (as another commenter pointed out).
Side 2 is brilliant. Fakin' It, Punk's Dilemma, Mrs. Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter, At the Zoo... All of them put a huge smile on my face because of how goofy and fun-packed their melody and lyrics are. Mrs. Robinson, in particular, is pure 60s pop, and it's a masterpiece.
4/5
Key tracks: Fakin' It, Punk's Dilemma, Mrs. Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter
Frank Zappa
4/5
Summary: Very cool. Jazzy, multi-instrumental, varied, and musically super engaging. A lot of the tracks sounded similar to one another at a distance (i.e. when not close-listening) but it's seriously good overall, especially for 1969.
Peaches En Regalia: Fresh, exciting, and almost classical with its structure, showcasing a theme and several brief variations. The variations showcase a wide variety of instruments. A near-perfect track.
Willie The Pimp: Strange raspy vocal. I checked later, and it seems this was sung by Captain Beefheart. I'm not surprised. Approaches being unmelodic, but the vocal-sounding guitar and very melodic/dynamic basslines make up for it. The extended instrumental gets away with being largely one chord because of how texturally crazy it is. The music really picks up around the 6-minute part, with some great playing on drums, guitar, bass, and some keyboardy instrument that's very quiet in the mix.
Son Of Mr. Green Genes is essentially an extended version of the opening track. It's weaker overall, but the keyboards (I think those are keyboards) and percussion are a highlight.
I listened to side 2 without my laptop nearby, so I couldn't write direct notes, but they would've been similar to my discussion of Son Of Mr. Green Genes. Wacky prog rock with jazz elements (also known as "jazz") dominates side 2. It Must Be A Camel was my favourite on this side. It had a lot of personality and energy, and the track name is fantastic.
4/5
Key tracks: Peaches En Regalia, Willie The Pimp, It Must Be A Camel
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Compare to other Neil Young albums, there's something lacking here. Part of it is that the tracks are definitely too long for a non-live album. I felt like, with the longer track lengths (over 6 minutes on average per song), the "good stuff" was diluted and hidden underneath a thick layer of relatively empty jamming on lead guitar. The vocals, while fine, are not up to Young standard. And the strongest track (narrowly), F*!#in' Up, is solid, but barely more memorable than the other songs in the setlist.
That being said, the atmosphere is pretty badass, and I assume the lyrics were strong too (I wasn't paying much attention to them). Even for some of his worst material, you can't go (too) wrong with ol' Neil.
3/5
Key tracks: Country Home, F*!#in' Up, Love to Burn, Mansion on the Hill
Crowded House
4/5
Being a New Zealander, my opinion of Crowded House is definitely more positive than it should be – but seriously, this stuff slaps. The band is sort of a combination of R.E.M. and the Eagles, with a little of Neil Finn's 80s Split Enz sprinkled in there. The main reason I mention the Eagles is because of Crowded House's tendency to rely heavily on two- or three-part harmonies throughout entire tracks – not that that's necessarily a bad thing. It adds a bit of colour to an otherwise fairly standard vocal. The guitar lines and solos are solid, if a little artificial – but honestly, for 90s pop rock, I'll take what I can get.
The hit single Weather With You has a sparkling, sitar-sounding lead guitar that inexplicably forces its way into your head even though it doesn't exactly scream "riff". It's pretty infectious, and also the strongest track on the album. Fall At Your Feet has a catchy melodic hook, making it another great track. Other tracks like Chocolate Cake, It's Only Natural, Four Seasons In One Day, and Fame Is are pretty darn good too. Lots of references to other musicians and famous figures in the lyrics, which comes across as a bit contrived at times but is still a fun addition.
I have to imagine the cover art is a nod to either Aboriginal or Māori (Australia or New Zealand native) culture, but I'm not certain. Still, it's pretty cool, and certainly memorable.
4/5
Key tracks: Chocolate Cake, Fall At Your Feet, Weather With You, Four Seasons In One Day
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
When you have a band this confident in their craft, it's hard not to love them. CCR has nailed the art of feel-good, soulful, simple tunes with three chords and a rocking folksy beat. The sheer number of consistently great songs packed into an 11-track album is a testament to this band's skilful songwriting. I particularly like the lead and backing vocals, though after an album or two, I might want to listen to someone with a "smoother" voice. The bass playing is also easily audible in the mix, and it's played very well.
I guess I'd like to see a little more variety in terms of instruments and production. There are a few tracks that feel like filler versions of other ones, and a couple of tracks are great but don't quite justify their track length. Think S&G's Bridge Over Troubled Water, released the same year. CCR taking that approach would've raised my rating to a 5/5, no question.
Key tracks: Travelin' Band, Lookin' Out My Back Door, Up Around The Bend, Who'll Stop The Rain, I Heard It Through The Grapevine
The Specials
3/5
Definitely loyal to the ska genre, but given that it's an 80s album, I expected something new to be brought to the table. The Specials delivered a messy array of fun, proto-reggae-ish bops with dated production and decently catchy melodies.
Pros: it's just such a joyful, fun time. Almost reminds me of the Beach Boys' "Party" album, or possibly a live album recorded at a Jamaican bar. If I encountered the band playing this in public, I'd jump on the dance floor and have a grand time. A festive kind of feel, especially with tracks like Enjoy Yourself, Hey Little Rich Girl, Pearl's Cafe, and Holiday Fortnight – some fairly complex arrangements and interweaving of instruments here. Also, when the band hits its groove, it really hits it...
Cons: ...but when the band misses, it falls flat. The female harmony is not at all synchronous with the male vocal, and anytime they're singing together I'm hoping the song will end soon. The drumming is also generally not great. It's either so simplistic that it's overshadowed (International Jet Set, Sock It to 'Em J.B.), leans heavily on other percussion (Pearl's Cafe), or it's very washed out in the mix (most of the remaining tracks).
3/5
Key tracks: Enjoy Yourself, Hey Little Rich Girl, Do Nothing
Death In Vegas
2/5
Vibey synth stuff. It's listenable, but it's also been done to death. The genre of "repeating electronic noise with very gradual and minute variation spread across six minutes" might've been revolutionary back in the 90s, but it's not so impressive anymore.
Not everything about the album is necessarily bad. Some of the tracks, such as Dirge, Soul Auctioneer, and Flying have a chord progression that's just interesting and exciting enough to be engaging. Flying, in particular, exhibits a level of slowly rising energy and adventure that I really liked. My main issue is that most of the remaining tracks are just not interesting (Death Threat, Lever Street, Broken Little Sister) or kind of irritating (Aisha). Speaking of Aisha, what's going on with that random screaming, weird monsterish mumbling, and out-of-place synth noise? Coupled with what's essentially a one-chord retro video game soundtrack, the result isn't great. I feel a lot of the tracks, particularly that one, could've been improved by cutting down on the experimentation and adding a good crooning singer.
2/5
Key tracks: Dirge, Soul Auctioneer, Flying
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
A sort of soft-club-rock mashup. It's listenable, but it's also been done to death. The genre of "repeating 1-2 bars of theme with very gradual and minute variation spread across seven minutes" might've been revolutionary back in the 90s, but it's not so impressive anymore.
(Also, this is the 2nd day in a row where my opening remark is almost exactly that. C'mon 1001 Albums, I know you can do better!)
Not everything about the album is necessarily bad. Some of the tracks, such as Someone Great, All My Friends, and New York, I Love You but you're Bringing Me Down have a hook that's just catchy/silly enough for me to not grow tired of it. The latter track in particular exhibits a level of slowly rising energy and adventure that I really like. (Also by far the most liberal use of acoustic instruments in the album - great piano and raw vocal.) My main issue is that most of the remaining tracks are just not interesting or memorable, and this effect is exacerbated by the long track lengths. There's so much repetition and not enough variation. So much lifeless processed stuff, not enough soul. The '00s decade has better to offer.
2/5
Key tracks: New York I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down, Someone Great, All My Friends
Al Green
3/5
Cool voice, though I wish he'd vary it a little more between the tracks. Given the album's release date in 1972, "variety albums" had become much more accepted than 10 years earlier – so give us a little more variety, Al! Regardless, it's pretty solid material, and Al Green's vocal has a soulful, warm quality that keeps on delivering. It's strongest in the track How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, where Al really goes all-out on the emotion.
Good backing vocals throughout, along with the pretty (though dated) strings. On some tracks it's hard to distinguish between keyboard and piano - are they playing in unison? Great brass, but I would've loved more complex arrangements for them. The playing is a little predictable at times. (See: trumpet lines in La-La for You.) Interesting freeform-ish song structure that gives the impression of a live jam session - I'm not a big fan. The production is also a glaring step backwards from some of the incredible production showcased in the late 60s from other artists. You know what I always say: "If you've got the tech, then use it, heck."
3/5
Key tracks: Let's Stay Together, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, La-La for You
Funkadelic
4/5
The rare album on this list that has the guts to be funny while also being genuinely great. The singing varies from solid rock-soul to whatever the heck is going on in tracks like Groovalegiance. The high-pitched wailing coupled with a tight funk arrangement is almost too much to handle. It's terrible, brilliant, and ridiculous, all at once. I wasn't even listening to it closely, but I was still head-bopping and toe-tapping for nearly the whole hour.
The interacting vocals, littering of little flourishy noises in the mix, Latin American sounding percussion, and a slick guitar-bass combo work together pretty well. The percussion could be a little more interesting.
There are some things that knock it down a little. It strays away from typical funk, which is definitely easier listening than whatever this is. The backing vocals are, unusually, kind of messy. The mixing is fine, but during most of the tracks I was thinking, "This would be incredible with some better stereo mixing."
4/5
Key tracks: One Nation Under A Groove, Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock, Cholly, P.E. Squad
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Here we see Peter Gabriel making his music weird for the sake of being weird. Truth be told, it does sound pretty great, but it could do without the excessive quirkiness. It also makes the music unrealistic to play live in some cases, though that isn't always a bad thing (see: Sgt Pepper et al.).
The drumming is fairly simple but extremely effective and importantly, actually human-sounding. No artificial nonsense going on here, like some other late-70s bands were transitioning into at the time. The electric guitar isn't always prominent; it's added in tastefully, whenever a track needs that rocky spark of energy. The only "instrument" I'm more ambivalent about is Peter Gabriel himself. His voice is pretty standard (if a little piercing) during his rock-screaming, but implacably odd at his normal energy. Could be the echoey vocal effect, I guess.
Solsbury Hill is definitely the highlight here. The interaction between the wavery keyboard thing, harmonised vocals, and constant percussion give a Wall of Sound feel, but perhaps less intense. It's a simple, happy, marketable tune, and I love it. Here Comes The Flood is also really good. It's intense, varied, emotional, almost proggy at times. (I'd give the opening track, Moribund The Burgermeister, a similar description – but it's not nearly as good.) I like when strings are dropped into an already-strong track, almost like the cherry on top. It rarely fails, and definitely doesn't fail here. Fun singalong chorus too.
4/5
Key tracks: Solsbury Hill, Humdrum, Slowburn, Here Comes The Flood
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Unlike the other Joni Mitchell album I've listened to (Court and Spark), this isn't a tough call for me. It’s a clear 5/5. The compositions are great yet simple, with gorgeous, semi-unpredictable melodies and some of the best singing you could ask for. Mitchell's voice is incredibly on-point here, and her little improv flourishes sound kind of jazz-vocal-y. And, like pretty much everything she writes, the lyrics are relatable. (Or they'll be relatable in a few years, hopefully.) I’m guessing this is one which I’ll grow to love, not only as I listen to it more in the future, but as I gain more wisdom. Like Court and Spark, this is an album for wise people.
Instrumentally, I'd compare this album to Paul McCartney's and John Lennon's solo debuts, in that the instrumentation is very minimalist yet complements Mitchell's vocal beautifully. The piano is particularly good.
Yeah. I’ll have to give it a 5.
5/5
Key tracks: All I Want, My Old Man, Carey, Blue, River, A Case of You
Sonic Youth
3/5
Raw, distorted, slightly atonal. And yet here it is, getting 3 stars from me. Because despite its theoretical unlistenability, it's actually pretty good. The instrumental track, Death To Our Friends, is perhaps the strongest track here, lacking the disinterested and off-putting singing that pulls some of the other songs down. The music in this particular track is dark and foreboding, and overall a great ambient track. Many of the other songs intrigued me because of their spoken vocals, which seem to capture a proto-emo feel. I definitely enjoyed these more than the sung vocals (which were, frankly, bad). At the end of the day, music that sounds good is going to rank higher than music that doesn't, and bored, out-of-tune singing doesn't sound good to me.
The drumming and vague rock influence was a standout. Seriously - the percussion in In The Kingdom #19 is great. I also like the instrumentation in Shadow Of A Doubt, combining piano, drums, and acoustic/electric that are just filtered enough to blur the line between human and alien. We also hear rising and falling tension in this song, which is always a win. I don't like the singing, but the backing more than makes up for it. Madonna Sean And Me is similar; a great track overall. Bubble Gum sticks out like a sore thumb at the end of the album, having more of an early 70s sound than an 80s one. Sounds like early Queen prog mixed with Velvet Underground (+ Nico) vocals. Weird, but pretty catchy.
3/5
Key tracks: In The Kingdom #19, Death To Our Friends, Madonna Sean And Me
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Pretty depressing stuff. Poor Mr Cohen. He's clearly been through it - maybe even more so than Bob Dylan.
Now, a day after listening to the album, I can confidently say that it was good but pretty unmemorable. And my policy is, if an album ain't catchy, it ain't getting a 5. I'll admit, though, that the lyrics intrigued me. Mournful, reflective, and oddly poetic in a kind of old-fashioned, rambly way. The instrumental backing for every individual song is great, though I wish there'd been more variation in energy throughout the album. (Nearly every track is a slow meandering tempo with cut-back textures. The best of these is, no question, Famous Blue Raincoat.) Cool voice - better than most who are dubbed "singer-songwriters" - but the real sonic strength is in the guitars here. The plucking is done delicately and thoughtfully, and I really dig it.
3/5
Key tracks: Avalanche, Famous Blue Raincoat, Diamonds in the Mine
Rush
5/5
Here we have a band that's clearly excited to get their hands on some fancy synths. But unusually, they have the musical genius to make it sound interesting and the audience awareness to make it sound darn good.
All seven tracks here are near flawless. One could make the argument that The Camera Eye's instrumental sections drag on too long (I agree) or that Vital Signs is a bit incongruous and hard to latch onto (I agree). But as for everything else, well... there's so much to love. Peart's drumming is killer here, particularly in the instrumental YYZ, the enormous single Tom Sawyer, and the soaring rocker Red Barchetta. The mixing is very clean and makes way for the percussion at all times, giving Peart plenty of space to spew out lightning-fast triplets and fills. And yet Peart is completely in sync with the rest of the band. Lee's bass playing is often a little further back in the mix, but it has a vibrant, synthy tone that really distinguishes the Rush sound. And, like the drums, the bass is extremely volatile, often playing its own melody alongside the guitar and vocals. Speaking of which: Lee's vocal is fun, confident, and (for lack of a better descriptor) nerdy. (Much like his fans.)
Add Lifeson's on-point, precise, energetic, melodic guitar playing, and you have a near-unbeatable trio. And then there's the synth experimentation in every track, giving the album a kind of cinematic feel. For 1981, this would've been pretty groundbreaking stuff.
Then there are the individual tracks. Tom Sawyer, a sassy, catchy pop track with some intense harmonic play. Red Barchetta, with its indecisive, memorable melody and adventurous feel. YYZ, the ultimate condensed rock instrumental. The Camera Eye, with its cinematic juxtaposition of two completely different atmospheres. Witch Hunt, a dark, foreboding track that is surely underrated. And Vital Signs, which has a retro video game sound that's hard to place but I seriously love.
If you're still not convinced, listen to YYZ Live in Rio. That audience is freakin' convinced.
5/5
Key tracks: Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs
Miles Davis
3/5
The pinnacle of experimental jazz. I would describe it as "cool" - about as cool as you can get (check out that badass keyboard playing!) - but not necessarily good music. The repetition of themes is nearly non-existent, so for the non-jazz-minded, it's hard to really latch onto anything other than the drum beat. Even that is often absent. Feio, for example, has very drawn-back and irregular percussion. Pharaoh's Dance leans heavily on its unusual harmonic mode, but doesn't do much to make it sound marketable. Contrast that with Caravan, a comparable jazz standard, which is much more friendly to the crowds (and to me).
The skill and instrumental control here is unreal. The bass, keyboard, drumming, and weaving wind section are all, separately, fantastic. (Man, those muted trumpet growls. Mmm.) But I think this ensemble is less than the sum of its parts. I also think that the Kind Of Blue ensemble is much stronger, though that could be because of the difference in style rather than how proficient the musicians actually are.
3/5
Key tracks: Pharaoh's Dance, Spanish Key, Sanctuary
U2
4/5
It's cool to compare this to The Joshua Tree. This seems a lot more carefree, wild, and filled with humour. The Baby takes itself less seriously than the Tree, and I can respect that. This difference is similar to the difference between Radiohead's OK Computer and In Rainbows.
Alas, the album isn't perfect. For some reason, Bono's voice is a lot less friendly to my ear than it was on the previous album. It's less melodic, less lilting, less powerful, and more... sporadic? Could just be the choices of melody, which are on the whole less catchy and memorable than in The Joshua Tree. And judging by Spotify listens, it seems most modern-day listeners agree with me.
The instrumentation is pretty darn powerful, though. The anthemic guitars and percussion make their triumphant return, while also showcasing a lighter, more upbeat texture that begins to display signs of 90s music.
Key tracks: Even Better Than The Real Thing, One, Mysterious Ways
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Holy smokes. This was recorded in 1968. I mean, sure, the Beatles were wildly ahead of their time with all their material, but compare their White Album to this earth-render of a debut album, recorded at the same time. It's like night and day. Or heaven and hell.
Imagine what 60s youth were thinking when they set the needle down on side 1. First track: Good Times Bad Times. BOOM-BOOM. A stadium-shaking E-major chord rings out twice, with all three rhythm players playing in unison. BOOM-BOOM. The light drumbeat doubles in speed, adding dramatically to the tension and excitement. BOOM-BOOM. The percussion rapidly grows more complex and the texture begins to thicken. And just a couple bars later, we enter a flurry of instrumental showcasing, centred heavily around Bonham's in-the-pocket drumming. Man, what a great drumming track this is to start off Zep's career. It's a strong contender for my favourite drumming in any song, ever. Also, some incredible guitar, bass, and 60s-pop vocal with a Plantish flair. And for January of 1969? Mind. Blown.
Then we have the wailing rollercoaster ballad of Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, the head-thrashing You Shook Me, and the monster Dazed And Confused (containing some of the strongest guitar riffs of all time) finishing off side 1. Side 2 begins with the whiskey-soaked, gospel-inspired crowd singing of Your Time Is Gonna Come, followed by Black Mountain Side: a short and exotic-sounding instrumental focused on the acoustic guitar and light, wooden percussion. Then we come to an excellent proto-punk tune, Communication Breakdown. Led Zeppelin returns to a slow semi-blues, a la You Shook Me, with the following track, I Can't Quit You Baby. Finally, we end with a jazzy rock jam in How Many More Times, and you're left wondered what the heck you just listened to, other than some of the greatest music of the 60s.
Yes, the songs are a little derivative in terms of musical and lyrical ideas – but the raw energy and proficiency on the members' respective instruments is pretty obviously unmatched. And given how popular the band became in the years to come, it seems most people tended to agree with me.
5/5
Key tracks: Good Times Bad Times, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, You Shook Me, Dazed And Confused, Communication Breakdown, How Many More Times
The Black Keys
3/5
I like to think the number of Spotify listens on each track represent people's actual reaction to listening to the songs in order. "Hey, this is pretty cool. Nice bluesy synthy rock mash-up genre. I dig it. ... Holy smokes, this is great! Tighten Up, Howlin' For You... very catchy. A nice fresh take on the genre. ... Ah, the next track kind of sounds the same. Oh well, every album has its filler. ... Oh. A lot of these tracks sound exactly the same. They're in the same key, similar tempos, and use an identical instrument line-up. Really, the only difference is occasionally swapping out acoustic with electronic percussion (or vice versa). ... Yep, pretty much all the tracks after the big singles sound the same as one another. I mean, sure, it's good music, but it completely lacks versatility. This could probably get higher than a 3 from me – but it would be a stretch.
The high-pitched singing, most prevalent in the opening track Everlasting Light, is really funny, showing that The Black Keys had the ability to not take themselves too seriously. They vaguely emulate that feel throughout the rest of the album, but that initial flurry of excitement and weirdness is never quite recaptured. The album also lacks distinctive guitar riffs or solos. The entire mix has a sort of blustery, lo-fi filter put over it (but it's subtle), greatly reducing the audio quality. It almost sounds like a 40s or 50s rock record if not for the synths. Not that that's a bad thing, but it just lacks what makes really convincing blues.
3/5
Key tracks: Everlasting Light, Tighten Up, Howlin' For You, I'm Not The One, Unknown Brother
Elvis Presley
4/5
Groovy. Lower energy and more mature lyrics than some of Elvis's earlier work, but there's a soft-spoken introspection here that I really enjoy. The instrumentation isn't spectacular but it does its job, weaving tastefully between the vocal lines and creating a kind of jazz-blues feel.
4/5
Key tracks: In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, Wearin' That Loved On Look, True Love Travels On a Gravel Road
Stephen Stills
4/5
I wouldn't say any of this material is necessarily filler, but the album could definitely use some shaving down. It lacks a sense of adventure and versatility, leaning heavily on a proto-reggae rock feel for nearly every track. That being said, it reeks of "dad album", which I approve of. Stephen Stills is great at that gentle, acoustic, American texturing (a la Eagles, Neil Young, Elton John) that all fathers of the world can unite under.
Colorado is so warm and campfire singalong-y that it's hard not to love. Several tracks like these are proof that Stills's vocals really shine when accompanied by a few backing vocalists. By itself, the lead vocal sometimes struggles to push past the in-your-face mixing of the drums and guitars, but it has a fun Southern American twang that's really likeable. It's noticeable in all tracks, but I especially like the main vocal in Song of Love, Rock and Roll Crazies, and Johnny's Garden.
Overall, great stuff. Warm, accessible, fun-filled. A bit bloated, but no individual song is necessarily bad, so who am I to complain?
4/5
Key tracks: Jet Set (Sigh), Song of Love, Colorado, Johnny's Garden, The Love Gangster, What to Do
B.B. King
4/5
From the 70s onward, blues has tended to be associated with low-skill, low-energy music for boring members of the Silent Generation. This album, as with some of the best music of the 50s and 60s, blows that idea out of the water. This is what true blues sounds like. Powerful, soulful vocals, a swung rhythm that can flip between mourning and upbeat, a walking bassline, and some jazzy, involved percussion. Plus, of course, we have B.B. King's excellent guitar playing. Despite its relative obscurity for this list (at least in terms of Spotify listens), I don't see how Live At The Regal could get any less than a 4.
It does have its flaws, though. Being a live album, and one that seems quite improvised at that, the tracks differ in mood but not in instrumentation or key. Seriously, it really feels like all of these are in the same key, making for poor album flow. I have the same problem with albums like Led Zeppelin's debut, where the two consecutive blues numbers on side 1 are in the same key, greatly decreasing how memorable one of them (You Shook Me) is. The same problem occurs here, particularly on side 2.
Still, music like this makes my soul move. And not all music can do that.
4/5
Key tracks: Every Day I Have The Blues, Sweet Little Angel, How Blue Can You Get, Help The Poor
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
I like the "lighthearted impending doom" feel throughout this album. It's incredibly weird, but not necessarily bad. I first noticed it in Nocturnal Me, a strange kind of sea shanty with a foreboding chord progression (lots of diminished chords) and yet a gentle, childlike texture of light acoustic instruments. Lots of orchestral strings are used in combination with Spanish guitar(?). The feel is subtler in other tracks – such as The Yo Yo Man, where the medium-tempo swung rhythm and low vocals create a subtle ominousness that's otherwise obscured by the joyful vocals. Thorn of Crowns is similar. Cool juxtaposition between carefree and ominous elements, but I wish they'd picked one or the other. The whole album experience is kind of shaky.
But I'll come out and say it again: claiming you're standing up against the "music elite" by creating (deliberately bad) punk/post-punk music is only a sound idea if you're actually good at playing your instrument. And nowhere is this rule broken more egregiously than in post-punk vocals. Echo & the Bunnymen is no exception. Tracks like Crystal Days and The Yo Yo Man are only listenable for their instrumentalists – and nearly unlistenable for their untrained, out-of-tune vocalist. ... Okay, it's not that bad – in fact, at times, it's almost Jim Morrison-esque (but more out of tune) – but it's bad enough in its post-punk context that I should point it out.
The exception is The Killing Moon; I actually really like the singing there. The Killing Moon is also a standout track for its very thick, ongoing sonic texture. Reminds me of Radiohead. Hard to explain why, but it sounds great. The following track, Seven Seas, is also strong. A bit reminiscent of early Bowie (1970/1).
Close call between 3 and 4. I do like it more than Porcupine, which I gave a 3. I'll give this a high 3.
3/5
Key tracks: Silver, The Killing Moon, Seven Seas
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
The tracks are a little one-dimensional for my taste. The only variation within tracks is (most often) vocalists joining with new melodies or fading out again. The percussion, in all the songs where it's prevalent, is so consistently simple that it may as well not be included in the mix. Consider an 8-minute Led Zeppelin track where Bonham is playing the exact same bar of drumming with no complex rhythms on repeat for the entire song. Or Neil Peart of Rush doing the same thing. It wouldn't be nearly as fun to listen to, right?
The vocals, though – especially those of the lead vocalist – are very strong. Confident, melodic, exciting, and playing along to the mood of each song. I found myself wishing the tracks were a bit shorter (the average track length was around seven and a half minutes) but the lead vocals made it bearable. The acoustic guitar(?) in Ali Maula and acoustic strings on Ni Main Jogi De Naal are also worth a shoutout.
2/5
Key tracks: Allah Hoo Allah Hoo, Ali Maula Ali Maula Ali Dam Dam
Nico
4/5
The strings on this album are gorgeous. I really wish more rock and rock-esque artists used them to the extent Nico used them here. They're adapted to be smooth and lilting in the ballads, and a more foreboding staccato when the song calls for it. It also makes me feel fancy and superior.
And Nico's singing... it might not be technically perfect, but it's pretty unique, with her distinctive accent and a signature deadpan delivery. There's a weird mixing error happening nearly every time she sings where a soft fuzz can be heard behind her vocal. It's a little distracting once you notice it, and it's prevalent in other un-remastered music from this era. (Clare Torry's vocal in Pink Floyd's The Great Gig In The Sky, 1973, comes to mind. Also very noticeable in The Velvet Underground's debut, which featured Nico's singing on three tracks.) It's not a bad thing, just an interesting little detail.
Other than strings and vocals, there's not much in the way of instrumentation. Some very light drums and guitar here and there, and while they fit well with Nico's voice, I would've liked to see more textural variation and experimentation with how other instruments interplay with Nico's vocal.
4/5
Key tracks: These Days, It Was A Pleasure Then, Chelsea Girls, I'll Keep It With Mine
5/5
First off, this album gets 5 stars from me. It's great music that's aged in a pretty interesting way, in that the sound is very dated (and reminiscent of the 60s), yet rather than being grating, it acts as a beautiful kaleidoscope into 1967's Summer of Love and the coincident musical revolution.
I would've made this review a miniature love letter to Sgt. Pepper's and the Beatles as a whole, because the album really exemplifies what made the band so incredibly influential in the 60s. But then I noticed the highly upvoted review that gave the album 2 stars out of 5, and I had to object. The reviewer isn't exactly wrong (after all, it's mostly opinion), but they're approaching this music the wrong way. I think it's very important to have an idea of the Beatles' history and the context of this album – as well as at least some vague idea of what the Beatles' "classic" sound is – before diving into Sgt. Pepper's. So, let's get started.
The reviewer comments that the title and opening track is bombastic, orchestral, and sends you straight into the album on a huge high. This was partially the point of the track, but you also have to realise that the Beatles were exhausted from touring around the world and (in a sense) "competing" with the roaring, screaming audiences in order to make themselves heard. This led them to quit touring after mid-1966. Sgt. Pepper's was a chance for the band to fully take the reins in the studio without having to worry about performing live. This idea – to fully utilise studio techniques and ignore the logistics of performing – was unheard of at the time. A rock band creating an alternate persona (which was also a rock band, albeit a much quirkier and stranger one) was also pretty much unheard of. The opening track, even in the first few seconds with the ambient noise of musicians warming up and tuning their orchestral instruments, exemplifies this perfectly.
With a Little Help From My Friends is decidedly the "Ringo" track of the album (there's always one!), and it's cheerful, hopeful, and warm all at once. The reviewer quipped that it's incongruous with the opening track and isn't the perhaps-expected "well-oiled machine", but did you hear that song transition? How much better, more iconic, can you get than the crowd cheering wildly as Billy Shears appears onstage? The tone of the song is uplifting and full of love and friendship, again solidifying the song as an artifact of the Summer of Love and wordlessly requesting that the listener not take the music too seriously. If a track like Within You Without You had been second instead, I think it would've been misplaced, heading into a more mysterious and introspective mood much too early.
If the reviewer had paid attention to the key changes, they would've noticed that the choruses of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (and, for that matter, the verses) are a master class in merging several otherwise harmonically disconnected song sections. Also, I disagree with the idea that the chorus is musically inert, considering the building, overlapping harmonies that more or less form that entire part. And the verses... Man, even as someone who's not a fan of psychedelia, how can you dismiss how perfectly the genre was executed? It essentially laid the groundwork for all future psychedelic sound, the lyrics are beautiful and poetic, the chord progression is smooth... And no, I've never done psychedelic drugs either. It sounds like the reviewer in question just wasn't paying much attention to the music, and especially not to the full context of the album.
I think the criticism of She's Leaving Home – that it's a mellowing track for an energy peak that never happened – is unfounded. This isn't meant to be an album of bombastic peaks and troughs (except the title track and its reprise). In fact, it's rather the opposite: Sgt Pepper's maintains this lighthearted hopefulness that bridges the gap between a variety of otherwise unrelated genres. If you're looking for lots of ups and downs, try, like, The Wall or something.
The reviewer dismisses most of Side 2, including the crucial and mesmerising album centrepiece Within You Without You (wildly underrated and, considering the context, wildly impressive and ballsy to include on a Beatles record), When I'm Sixty-Four (the fan-favourite "granny music"), and Good Morning Good Morning (showing direct inspiration from Pet Sounds, another masterpiece that I doubt this reviewer had anything good to say about). At this point in the album, the first-time listener is meant to have forgotten that they're listening to the Beatles, and the title track reprise comes back with an old-school Beatles sound to remind you that yes, this really is the same band that released Please Please Me and A Hard Day's Night just a few years ago. (Mind. Blown.) And no, the point of this track is not to have the band pat themselves on the back for a show well done. It's to tie everything together, to shine a light on everything that's possible in this beautiful world of music. Especially if you have access to psychedelics.
And then there's A Day in the Life, a brilliant album closer that many fans (including myself) consider to be the band's magnum opus. And it goes completely unmentioned by the reviewer, leading me to question if they actually listened to it. Once you've listened to it, had several mid-life crises, and had your mind wrenched away from your body twice during what have been coined the "orgasmic" orchestral sections, a final thunderous E major chord sounds, signalling the end of an era and the start of something new. A revolution.
(Well, you know, we all want to change the world.)
5/5
Laibach
2/5
This is definitely one of the strangest albums on this list.
We start with the almost military (or perhaps sea-shanty) Leben heist Leben, with a dramatic, artificial drumbeat and a team of bellowing male vocalists. The guitar solo is pretty cool, incorporating some staple 80s elements like slow, post-psychedelia-esque guitar picking and blurry, interweaving guitar in the background. The atonal organ and backing guitars create a weird doomy atmosphere that isn't quite synchronous with the rest of the song. Many of the following tracks are similar. Also common to most tracks is a strange half-brass-half-synth sound that makes me more uncomfortable than anything else. It's incredibly weird. Like an army of nationalist cyborgs is approaching and spewing propaganda.
Geburt einer Nation, the second track, is incredibly similar to Queen's One Vision – as I'm sure was intended – but it's not nearly as good as the work of Her Majesty. The interacting gravelly and nasally vocals are goofy, but they're worse than goshdarn Freddie Mercury's voice. The synths are comparatively lower in the mix, and the very simple drumming is pushed to the forefront (not ideal). I did enjoy this track, though, if only because the original Queen material was so strong.
The track F.I.A.T. takes the album's artificial feel to the extreme, even placing a robotic filter over the monotone vocals and using some kind of string-keyboard. It isn't exactly bad, but it feels like it's trying to be alienating. Something something dictatorship nationalism.
Opus Dei, the title track, does the whole "fascism rock" gig best. All of the tracks after Opus Dei are confused and not very memorable. Herz-Felde, with its annoying tape-looped vocals, is essentially the end of Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, but for nearly five minutes. It's the weakest track on the album. Jagerspiel isn't much better, essentially being a sound collage with a fast tape-looped 6/8 rhythm on repeat for more than 7 minutes.
That album cover, though? Badass.
2/5
Key tracks: Geburt einer Nation, Opus Dei
Black Sabbath
4/5
Good stuff. Not as strong as their earlier material, but still some of the best in the proto-metal genre. I think Ozzy Osbourne said this was his favourite Black Sabbath album.
Tomorrow's Dream has a great, relatively short guitar riff – almost reminiscent of Led Zeppelin (who had recently reached their songwriting peak in terms of iconic riffs). Contrast it to tracks like Supernaut, which have single riffs lasting the length of an entire verse. (Dang.) The bass is also not to be underestimated in either of these two tracks, pumping out some dynamic, melodic lines even as it's mixed underneath the lead guitar.
I'm normally pretty indifferent to mellotron as an alternative to strings, but I really think strings would've suited the song Changes much better. The mellotron contrasts a little too sharply with the warmer piano timbre.
Osbourne's vocal has a bit of a harsh attack on the melody here, where something a little mellower would've worked better. As far as ballads go, Black Sabbath has better to offer – but that's not to say this isn't a fantastic track. (It is.) The piano riff is played with gentle emotion, and it's one of the more memorable parts of the album.
Snowblind is a solid track, showcasing the drums more than anything else. The percussion is very forward in the mix, overlaying a repeating two-chord sequence, so the drum patterns and fills are easy to latch onto. (Man, the musicianship in this band is impressive.) The following track, Cornucopia, has a completely different drum sound; while they seem similarly active to the previous track, there's some kind of mute (or mic adjustment) that's mellowing the sound out. Fun choice – I'm interested to hear how hard-hitting this track would be with a more "live" mix.
Overall, this album's pretty dang great. Each song showcases a different facet of Black Sabbath (and heavy metal music as a whole), and it's cool to see Black Sabbath testing the waters.
4/5
Key tracks: Tomorrow's Dream, Changes, Supernaut, Under the Sun
Neil Young
4/5
Great stuff. Reads as 60s Dylanesque in some places, but I'm not complaining. The harmonica-acoustic guitar-lamenting husky vocal combo can do wonders sometimes. Plus, tracks like On The Beach and See The Sky About To Rain absolutely nail the singer-songwriter blues ideal, and it's a joy to hear.
Like other Neil Young albums, I was initially a little peeved by his quavery voice. But after a certain point, you can learn to ignore it. For some tracks here, it actually worked to his advantage, such as the mournful-sounding Motion Pictures (where it, correctly, sounded like Young was on the verge of tears).
My complaint here is that the genre and combination of instruments are very much playing a safe card. Apart from many of the tracks (particularly on side 2) sounding very similar, the musical upheaval of the late 60s and early 70s had already happened by this point, and artists like Neil Young are still releasing unexperimental, (arguably) overdone genres by the mid-70s? Live life on the edge a little, Youngster!
4/5
Key tracks: Walk On, See The Sky About To Rain, Vampire Blues, On The Beach
The Icarus Line
1/5
I won't stoop to calling this shoegaze, because it would do the genre injustice. Most of the album is over-distorted rock nonsense with apparently zero thought put into production or a positive listening experience. For the most part, the only discernible feature of the vocals is an American twang, and this is because everything is horribly mixed, making it impossible to appreciate the musicality of any one instrument.
I listened to the YouTube playlist, and the comments were wack, as the kids say. Nearly every comment was either unintelligible gibberish, or called this "the last good rock music", "nothing even comes close", and so on. But don't get me wrong – it's not the worst on this list. At least it's coherent music with some vestige of skill. But it's still pretty bad, and these commenters can't see that. Crazy.
I mean, if you have to include an anonymous garage rock album, go off, I guess. But this choice seems quota-filling more than anything else. If Penance Soiree really is one of the 1001 most important albums in (Western) musical history, as this list is meant to showcase, then I'll eat my hat.
1/5
Key tracks: Spike Island, The Icarus Line
The Saints
3/5
Imagine the Smiths where the bass remains the same, the drums and guitar are dialled back in the mix, and the singer, rather than Morrissey, is some drunk Aussie off the streets of Canberra. That's pretty much what we're working with here.
The standouts on this album were the bass and horns. The bass guitar was very energetic and motile, arpeggiating up and down chords at just the right time and gluing the rest of the band tightly together. The horns/trumpets, in the few tracks in which they featured, were tight, punchy, and just a little low-quality (a la Got To Get You Into My Life, Beatles version). I'm a fan of that sound. There were some catchy (albeit extremely generic in the punk genre) guitar riffs, but I wish they would've gone all-out and played it with more gusto. The electric guitar sound is often very washed out here; same with percussion. Again, the bass definitely keeps the band afloat, establishing a solid energy and defining the chord progression when the guitar fails to do so. The singing is very typical of the punk genre – namely, unrefined and technically not great – but it works. Kind of.
Great energy throughout the album. Some fun moments too – International Robots, (I'm) Misunderstood, Orstralia, to name a few. Trust a punk band to not take themselves too seriously. I just wish the music was backed up with better recording choices and a stronger vocalist.
3/5
Key tracks: Know Your Product, Orstralia, (I'm) Misunderstood, International Robots
Jane's Addiction
5/5
I actually had never heard of this band, and honestly, what the heck? How is Jane's Addiction not more popular? (They freaking slap!)
The first thing that really stood out was the clear, rockstarry guitar sound. Sounds like a combination of Brian May and Jimmy Page – notably, two all-time greats – with just a touch of psychedelic distortion. The guitar playing here is insanely good. Big shoutout to Dave Navarro. The bass and drums are also really solid, playing tightly and packing a big punch. The mixing is really clear, allowing all of these instruments to shine. And Perry Ferrell does his classic-rock screaming over that, merging some pretty hilarious lyrics with a weird multitrack semi-melodic gig that sometimes works in the band's favour. But the multitracked vocals can also bea little distracting; they make Ferrell sound a little messy and it can be hard to make out the lyrics. But who cares, really? It's (alt)-rock-n-roll, bro.
In fact, what impressed me the most was just how many excellent tracks there are here. The songwriting is nearly off the charts, falling just a little short in terms of melody but making up for it with thick, complex rock textures that keep the listener engaged and guessing. Also, the band gets away with lengthy tracks like Ted Just Admit It and Summertime Rolls. I hardly even noticed the length, really. I was enraptured. Addicted. Haters might even call me Jane.
5/5
Key tracks: Up the Beach, Ocean Size, Had a Dad, Ted Just Admit It, Standing in the Shower Thinking, Summertime Rolls, Mountain Song
Paul Simon
4/5
Paul Simon's treading a fine line between beautiful simplicity and blandness, and that's not necessarily a good thing. I think the full-on analog sound suits Simon pretty well – and, given his discography, it seems like he agrees with me – but when acoustic instruments swamp an entire album, it's easy to get tired of them. Still, in terms of singer-songwriters (i.e. people who rarely, if ever, make use of new/electric/innovative sounds), Paul Simon's one of the best. He's great at constructing a happy, carefree atmosphere with some truly fantastic lyricism and solid production.
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard is great. In fact, it's one of my favourite 70s songs, even before having heard this album. It's the only track I'd heard before, and it still remains my favourite. (Can't really go wrong with Simon's youthful, peppy vocal over a I-V-I-V guitar chord progression.) Excluding Graceland, this is surely the best in Simon's solo discography. I was also impressed by the lively reggae track Mother and Child Reunion, and the lower-energy, lyrics-focused Run That Body Down and Peace Like a River. The remaining tracks, on side 2 in particular, were not impressive, and an album consisting only of songs of that quality would get a 2/5 at most. Paranoia Blues, Hobo's Blues, Papa Hobo... they just felt a little devoid of substance. But I think I can forgive Simon just this once.
3.5/5
Key tracks: Mother and Child Reunion, Duncan, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Peace Like A River, Run That Body Down
Killing Joke
3/5
The main standout, as is often the case for post-punk music, is the bass playing. Very energetic and flamboyant, keeping the songs moving even in the 5-6 minute tracks when the music is otherwise pretty static. Many tracks here feature a full-on punk-rock wall of sound. which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but some could use more of a sense of "progression". The drumming and guitarwork is theoretically strong, but it doesn't shine as much as it could due to textural monotonicity and there not being many solos. Requiem and Change are, in my opinion, the two tracks that avoid that constancy, and are hence the two best tracks.
I will say, though: none of the tracks are necessarily bad. Sure, the vocals are nearly objectively bad – but that's essentially a staple of the punk genre. And when I'm in a revolution-esque mood (or maybe going through an unprecedented emo-punk era), this could make for an excellent soundtrack.
3/5
Key tracks: Requiem, The Wait, Primitive, Change
The Replacements
3/5
I'd heard good things about this album going into it. But... it just isn't that good. Straightforward punk-rock with no risk-taking either musically or lyrically, solid musicianship with no particular standouts, and a mild combination of genres and moods without the album quite feeling like the adventure it was intended to be. The best tracks on And the worst tracks can be identified by their titles alone, even excluding the relatively weak hooks in them (Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out, Seen Your Video, Gary's Got a Boner). My favourite track, if only for its nifty doubled guitar/bass melody, is the opener I Will Dare. Androgynous is about as controversial as the band is willing to reach - particularly in a genre defined by its controversy - but it's surprisingly good.
The drumming throughout the album is pretty fun, with some good, satisfying fills here and there. The experimentation in guitar sounds, if a little limited, is fun and keeps the listener engaged. In general, the bass closely mimics the lead guitar, so it doesn't stand out as much as it could. A couple of bass solos would've been darn cool.
The Replacements aren't necessarily bad in Let it Be. But the Beatles did it better.
3/5
Key tracks: 20th Century Boy, Temptation Eyes, Androgynous, I Will Dare
The Isley Brothers
4/5
Not too much to say here. Tight soul-funk with some great guitar and horn sounds in particular. The song That Lady, among others, has a distinctly Earth, Wind & Fire sound, suggesting that EW&F took some inspiration from the Isley Brothers (or vice versa). Lots of synth use here, which has dated a little poorly, but the jazzy improvisation in some of the synth parts/solos makes up for it. The percussion (including piano and drums) is also worth a shout; even though it's often low in the mix, it does an excellent job of creating a light, warm, dancey atmosphere. Perfect for a sunset drive along the coast.
4/5
Key tracks: That Lady, If You Were There, Summer Breeze, The Highways of My Life
John Lennon
4/5
Given the title track, you'd expect this to be an easy 5-star album. The song Imagine is one of the best, most famous, and most memorable anthems in rock history. It overshadows most of the rest of the album, which is still fairly strong but a bit scattershot. The melodies are a little undercooked and the lyrics are all over the place, but I think by pure lucky coincidence Lennon happened to hit several home runs here. Some of these tracks shouldn't work, what with the melodic/lyrical oddities and barebones instrumentation... but yet they do. Gimme Some Truth is a great example of this. All the musicians in the track, including Lennon himself, are playing/singing kind of halfheartedly... and yet it works. And the chorus is darn memorable (and darn good), despite consisting of a yelling monotone.
The weakest track here - I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama - isn't terrible, but it's not particularly engaging. Just the title, repeated, with a bluesy, sololess backing instrumental. That being said, blues elements are prevalent throughout the album (which I wouldn't have expected from Lennon), and they're actually pretty great. All of the tracks on side 1 (excluding the title track) feature swung acoustic guitar and twangy singing over some variant of 12-bar blues. And, for the most part, they work. (Maybe it's just the novelty of having Lennon's vocal paired with an unexpected genre.) Side 2 alternates between light anthems and lighthearted ballads, with the centrepiece being How Do You Sleep?, a very thinly veiled diss track dedicated to fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. Brutal.
4/5
Key tracks: Imagine, Jealous Guy, Oh My Love, Gimme Some Truth, How Do You Sleep?
Kanye West
2/5
There's some good instrumental potential here, yet there's also a lot of self-sabotage (mostly in Kanye's vocal performance) preventing certain tracks from being sonic masterpieces. The few times when singing is present, it's often heavily autotuned – to its detriment – and the synths, while great, are frequently interweaved nondescript rapping vocals and weak lyrics. I'm judging these lyrics on relatability and depth, and in general the lyrics on Yeezus have neither.
On Sight: intense and reasonably catchy synths back a fairly nondescript rap vocal. Weird choral interlude makes the track a lot less accessible. This track definitely starts the album with something new and creative, but does it sound good? Not particularly. When the track ended, I found myself letting out a sigh of relief. Note the heavy use of very brief silences, which is also seen throughout the rest of the album.
Black Skinhead: The percussive rhythm here is very strong. Consistent, brutal, paralysing. There's a sudden-mute sound that reminds me of the drumming on David Bowie's "Low", an album that was revered (in part) for its revolutionary drumming. Not a fan of the artificial clapping though, and I'd like to hear some more human-played instruments. Kanye's voice isn't that good, and incredibly non-distinct from contemporaries, so I'm interested to see if he varies his enunciation or maybe introduces more vocalists.
I Am A God: A bit fever-dream-ish. Lots of little details to keep the listener engaged. I'm also noticing at this point that (possibly due to nearly 100% electric instrumentation) the textures are quite thin. The screaming towards the end is a bit off-putting, as is the narcissistic theme, but I'll let it slide.
New Slaves: the melodic theme is good. Foreboding, impatient, menacing. Everything else about the track is pretty mediocre until the section with the radio-filter singing, which approaching soul territory (with just a hint of shoegaze). Here, the music quality drastically improves. I could listen to a whole album of the last 90 seconds of this song.
Hold My Liquor: God, the synths behind Kanye's voice are so darn good in this track. Melty psychedelic electric guitars intermingling with one another over a restless, dronelike low synth line. Kanye's voice actually kind of gets in the way of an otherwise brilliant instrumental track.
I'm In It: The lyrics here are pretty gross ("Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce"? Seriously?), and there isn't much else going on. At least we're introduced to a different vocalist/rapper, this time with a solid and distinctive voice, but that doesn't improve the track much. And, in contrast to the previous track, the instrumental never settles on anything convincing. Generally a weaker song.
Blood On The Leaves: It takes some guts to sample Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. It had better justify itself with good music. In fact, the track starts off promising, with some (ridiculously) intense horn-synths punctuating some fun electronic harmonising. I can't even tell if the female vocal in the chorus is a human or not. Unfortunately, the track is severely tarnished by the autotune on Kanye's singing.
Guilt Trip: the retro video game noises get old really quickly, leaving us with nonsensical lyrics and repetitive electronic percussion. Somehow the "dem a gwaan" section is the strongest and most memorable part of the song, and it's not particularly appealing. A throwaway track.
Send It Up: The vocals here, while being monotone, match reasonably well with the chord in the synths, making them stronger than most other tracks. The "security breach" noise that defines the track is a little grating, and substantially took away from my enjoyment.
Bound 2: the (texturally) thickest and most musical backing of any of the tracks. I feel that singing, rather than rapping, would've meshed much better with the childlike multipart harmonies. Still, this was a pretty good way to end the album. The singing breaks are clearly rooted strongly in soul-pop, and they serve as fun interludes. One of the strongest tracks.
2/5
Key tracks: Black Skinhead, New Slaves (second half), Bound 2
Barry Adamson
2/5
I can't justifiably give this 1/5, because it at least had some substance and exciting moments. I found myself wondering how exactly this could be a soundtrack to a nonexistent movie. How did Adamson know where to build crescendos? How did he know where the moments of tension and relief should be? This at least gave me something to ponder over, and combined with the music not being actively bad (unlike some Public Image Ltd records on this list), it was actually a fairly interesting listen. Reminiscent of Revolution 9 from the Beatles' White Album, particularly in the opening track, On the Wrong Side of Relaxation.
Other than that, though, there's very little personality or gusto in the music. The mixing is also very dull and blurry, and considering the era, there's no excuse for this. The Dark Side of the Moon and Aja - both timeless sonic masterpieces - had been released more than 10 years prior to Moss Side Story, and they sound significantly better. There's no excuse for bad production.
2/5
Key tracks: On the Wrong Side of Relaxation, Suck On the Honey of Love, The Man With the Golden Arm
Television
4/5
What a great find! I was most impressed by the strong hooks that managed not to get old even with their repetitiveness. Great guitar and bass playing in particular, extending past the typical low-skill-high-energy combo of the punk/post-punk genre. See No Evil in particular has an infectious guitar riff that opens the album excellently. Not a huge fan of the vocals – partially demonstrated by the lack of memorability in the lyrics and melodies – but the instrumentation mostly makes up for it.
Marquee Moon is the groovy, hard-rocking centrepiece of the album, blurring the border between classic punk and classic rock. Venus is another highlight. Overall, exceeded my expectations. A high 4.
Key tracks: Marquee Moon, See No Evil, Venus
Spiritualized
3/5
If anything, a very musically consistent album. Every track has soft, semi-psychedelic vocals overlaying a thick and emotion-laden instrumental, with a guitar playing a repeating two-bar melody over various chords that work well with the melody (mostly I/i and IV/iv). It's cool, though once you figure out the trick, all the tracks start to blur into one another.
In terms of specific tracks, Shine a Light is the strongest, despite also being the longest. It's positive, dreamy, vibey... somehow without overstaying its welcome. But on the topic of overstaying welcomes, let's talk about 200 Bars. The best thing I can say about this track is that it's experimental. Until now, I've never heard a song whose lyrics (half of them) are spent counting which bar we're up to, like a lousy band director. And the backing - Spiritualized's signature I-IV-I-IV repeat - isn't anything particularly inspiring. These two songs represent the best and the worst of the album, and the whole track list balances out at a fair 3/5.
3/5
Key tracks: You Know It's True, Run, Shine a Light, Sway
Blue Cheer
4/5
Proto-metal is an underrated genre. With albums like Vincebus Eruptum, you can hear the melodic precision that was so favoured by critics in the late 60s, along with the pent-up energy that would soon explode into popularity. We have some great (but very simple) riffs in tracks such Rock Me Baby, accompanied by Robert Plant-esque blues wailing and in-sync drum/bass. Not terribly much letting loose and going all-out metal jam – but then, I doubt the album would have sold as well if they had taken that approach. Plenty of precursor elements of metal (and hard rock) are still present here, and considering it was 1968, this must've been pretty darn wicked to spin in front of your horrified parents.
Interesting texture. A distinctly 60s mix, with vocals and drums panned to the right and lead guitar primarily on the left. Additionally, there isn't actually much going on at once. It's very easy to hear the complexities in all instruments, unlike music like Steely Dan where there's so much complex interweaving sound that it can't be mentally separated (though it still sounds great). Reminds me of the Doors. The texture often picks up during the allocated "jam" portions of the songs – for example, in the middle third of Doctor Please – even though no vocals are present.
Good music, though dated and limited by the technologies and societal preferences of the time.
4/5
Key tracks: Summertime Blues, Out Of Focus, Second Time Around
Pink Floyd
5/5
Brutal, at times overwhelming, and tied together into one neat package ready for shipping. Lots of themed reused/recycled throughout the album, which can be a bad thing for many listeners, but not me. Take the "we don't need no education" melody. It appears again and again, not only in the three "Another Brick In The Wall" parts, but in The Trial, Run Like Hell, Hey You, and more. It's just one of many examples of this album's genius. Thematic repetition adds this beautiful consistency that you normally only hear in classical symphonies.
The Wall's "plot" strikes a good balance between easy-to-follow and left-open-to-interpretation. The tragic story of an up-and-coming rock star trying (and failing) to come to terms with his past, leading to several recurring instances of mental breakdowns. Roger Waters, the primary composer here, creates these darn great musical ideas that, while not exactly complicated, tell the story perfectly. There are ups and downs, problems and solutions, comedy and tragedy (mostly the latter) - and Roger Waters does all of these justice. Some great song transitions in this album too.
Lots of incredible musicianship here, particularly in the lead guitar (Gilmour) and bass (Waters). The guitar solos on some of these tracks are pretty incredible and some of my favourites of all time. The bass playing, particularly in the "radio" tracks like Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 and Comfortably Numb, is superb. I'm not a huge fan of Waters's vocal here (it's stronger in the previous three Floyd albums) and Gilmour definitely outshines Waters on that front with his rough rock voice. Wright's synth and keyboard playing is more understated than in earlier albums, but it's placed tastefully and played excellently. Mason's drumming is solid as always.
Also, this album arguably has more Pink Floyd hit/"classic" tracks than any others (though that could be attributed to The Wall being Pink Floyd's only double album): In The Flesh, Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Young Lust, Hey You, Run Like Hell... and of course the crowd favourite Comfortably Numb. With a portfolio this strong, I think you can afford to have a few throwaways.
5/5
Suede
4/5
The ballads from this band – including The 2 Of Us, Daddy's Speeding, and The Wild Ones – are fantastic. Seriously. 5/5 on that front. The vocalist's expression is pretty darn top-notch in those. (As I would later find out, they aren't all fantastic; I'm not a fan of the song Black Or Blue and its wavering, uncertain melody. Failed attempt to be theatrical.) The higher-energy pieces are a little more questionable, particularly ones like This Hollywood Life and The Power that try to pass themselves off as masterpieces when they don't quite have the lyrics or hook memorability to pull it off. I do appreciate the track Introducing The Band, where the vocalist's strong English accent and repetition of the title is reminiscent of the "Sgt. Pepper's" title track.
Love the non-traditional instruments here mixing in with the (alt-)rock genre. The low flute-sounding thing in The 2 Of Us, the brassy (yet not quite rock) horns in several tracks, and the odd, spacey guitar filter in Black Or Blue – to name a few. I was trying to find another artist to relate this to, and couldn't quite put my finger on it for a while... Ah, yep, Bowie. Pretty much all the tracks sound heavily inspired by the Starman, with the thick British accent in the vocals, haphazard self-harmonising, experimental instrument combos, and lots of quirky little vocal mannerisms. As I'm typing this part, I'm listening to The Asphalt World (which is a perfect example), but this applies to the other tracks too.
A very good album, particularly on side 1, but not quite a 5.
4/5
Key tracks: The Wild Ones, The 2 Of Us, Daddy's Speeding, Introducing The Band, We Are The Pigs
Mekons
3/5
One of the coolest genre fusions ever (country and punk? what?) completely and utterly marred by a bad vocalist. He has the mannerisms of Morrissey but without any of the vocal control. He's often out of tune as well. Otherwise, the instrumentation is tight. The percussion is a bit repetitive and artificial, but the liveliness of the guitar, bass, backing vocals, and fiddle make up for it.
Fear and Whiskey also has a fairly unique sound (I haven't heard anything like it before) with its odd genre and spacious mixing. Nice live performance feel.
As a side note, I'm 250 albums in, and I've found myself criticising vocalists more than any other musician. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh; maybe my standards have been raised by the likes of Lennon, Mercury, Wilson, Cooke, Wonder. But then, a vocalist is usually a frontman, a spokesperson, a figurehead. It's their responsibility to hold the band's sound together.
3/5
Key tracks: Trouble Down South, Last Dance, Country
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Overall, wildly creative (particularly for its time), with some pretty incredible synths and harmonies. But the vocals aren't great, and the music lacks anything catchy or memorable to balance out its experimental nature.
Right from the first track, we hear heavy use of synths that had recently entered the rock/pop music sphere. Some cool keyboard layering, combining electric and acoustic sounds, and inspiration from jazz (including a nifty piano solo over augmented and diminished chords). The vocalist's British accent is pretty strong, possibly inspired by Bowie's early works, but more distractingly untrained than Bowie's vocal. (Take that weird and unnecessary vocal solo in Sea Song. Yeah. Not great.) Lots of complex melodies that lack an obvious melodic hook. I suspect more effort and musicianship was placed on the drums, bass, and keyboards, which are the star instruments in most tracks.
Ignoring the vocal, the sound is reminiscent of Radiohead - specifically the Kid A record, as another reviewer pointed out. A proggy, dreamy sort of feel, with production that favours layering and surround-sound rather than something performed live. Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road is particularly relevant here for its crazed overlapping horns (The National Anthem) and artificially-cut, psychedelic vocal snippets (Everything In Its Right Place), though the latter appears on many tracks on the Rock Bottom album. Radiohead pulled these ideas off better.
3/5
Key tracks: Sea Song, Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road (reprise)
Deep Purple
2/5
Not a good look for Deep Purple, one of the all-time "greatest" pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal. The individual instruments are played skilfully, but each of the six tracks contain drearily long jam sections with not much substance. You can tell the audience isn't particularly engaged – for example, the only audience noise during a piece is clapping along to the Smoke On The Water riff – and this sentiment bleeds into the listener (me) as well. Highway Star is the strongest track (a solid 3.5/5 even in the live format) but most of the remaining songs aren't very memorable. Overall, a high 2/5.
2/5
Key tracks: Highway Star, Smoke On The Water (but the original is better)
Pulp
4/5
I really like this album. The intensity, strong (but not too strong) musicianship, and moodiness capture the essence of (90s) Britpop. The oddly deep/bellowy Blackstar-era Bowie vocals took some getting used to, but once I did, it was a good time. Apart from the opening track (The Fear) and the title track, none of the tracks had particularly memorable hooks, but this was generally made up for by having a really gratifying emo-ish quality to it. Roaring, slightly distorted guitars, often without a distinctive riff and mostly providing a loud atmosphere. Fun use of synths in tracks like Party Hard – and not overused, which is a plus. Additionally, I did enjoy every single track (and added them to my Liked Songs playlist!). The same can't even be said for some of my all-time favourite albums. That's gotta count for something, right?
4/5
Key tracks: The Fear, Help The Aged, This Is Hardcore, I'm A Man
Muddy Waters
4/5
Gritty, emotional, bluesy stuff. A little repetitive at times, but then blues isn't exactly a genre known for being prolific in that regard (without introducing a blend of other genres to the mix). Muddy Waters does the genre justice with his gnarly blues wail, and though none of his big hits are present, the album does just fine without them. Love the live setting, too. It's fun to hear how laid-back gigs could be in 1960. Waters, by this time a pretty big face on the musical world stage, ends each piece with an offhand "Thank ya." before introducing the next piece and getting right back into the music – often in 10 seconds or less. It's great pacing and the audience experience must've been fantastic.
Love the piano playing too. Other than the singing, this was a highlight.
4/5
Key tracks: I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man, Goodbye Newport Blues, Got My Mojo Working
Radiohead
5/5
Very different to OK Computer, and (contrary to some people's beliefs) that's fine. In fact, it makes this album a heck of a lot cooler, and gives a fat middle finger to managers and producers that solely encourage formula-following. Sure, guitar-soundscape-art-rock pays the bills, but have you checked out these cool synths and voice filters?
Everything In Its Right Place is aptly named for its heavy reliance on C and F chord resolutions, making use of several smoothly overlapping synths. Trippy vocal editing. Very little going on, instrumentally, yet the signature "soundscapiness" of Radiohead is still very much present. Smooth transition into the title track. In fact, it seems like nearly every pair of tracks has a transition worth complimenting. The National Anthem is an energetic high, coming out with a positively crazed brass section and loud, deadpan, repeating, catchy(!) bassline. The vocal can be described in the same way here. It's classic Thom Yorke, and yet he's without emotion... and yet he's expressing so much. Encapsulates this album nicely, I think.
How To Disappear Completely is just magnificent and gorgeous and great in every way. Even that off-kilter high note at the beginning that's a semitone off the chord fits in with the lyrical theme of unbelonging, of wanting to disappear. (Disappear completely, even.) Optimistic is the most OK Computer-esque on the album, with a solid guitar riff and a fairly typical rock melody accompanying some surprisingly thoughtful lyrics. Incredible transition to In Limbo, which itself is a trippy, psychedelic experience based mostly on its dizzying guitar riff. Idioteque's electronic drums are immediately memorable and, arguably, singlehandedly introduce an entire genre to the world of pop(/rock?) music.
Then we have Morning Bell, which has a lonely yet restless feel with its quick 5/4 time signature, followed by the beautiful Motion Picture Soundtrack to end the album by tugging on your heartstrings.
Yeah – a darn good tracklist if I've ever seen one. I should also give another shoutout to the mind-blowingly good production on this album. Lots of surround-sound stuff going on, rivalling OK Computer as some of the best sound artistry in recent music history.
5/5
Key tracks: All of them. This is a whole-album experience.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Definitely a new entry to my "favourite genres" list, Mostly because of the singing. Hard to describe the genre though - maybe "overdramatic horny punk" or something along those lines. The vocalist here kicks some serious butt and makes otherwise pretty weird and nonsensical lyrics surprisingly engaging. The singing (particularly in the first half of the album) is dramatic, sarcastic, desperate, and hilarious. It's great. And the vocals are completely different in every track, controlling the flow of the album. Because it's nearly always the backing instrumental that has this job, it's easy to see that the vocals are the band's centrepiece. The drumming is also energetic, wild, high-strung - complementing the singing nicely.
I'll knock the album down a little for having technically weak lyrics, as well as a run of lower-energy tracks at the tail end of the album that seem a heck of a lot like filler. But otherwise, there ain't much to slander here. Good job folks.
4/5
Key tracks: Rich, Man, Tick, Black Tongue, Pin, Maps
JAY Z
2/5
I'm not a huge fan of this album, though it's marginally better than music from JAY Z's contemporaries (Eminem comes to mind). Most of the tracks had really good, lo-fi-ish backings, often with the electric guitar(!) standing out the most. Unusual for rap/hip-hop from this era – at least, in my experience – and it's a welcome breath of fresh air. We get a bit of disco and soul in places, too, in the form of horns, backing vocalists, and retro-style synths.
The main issue I have here is JAY Z's vocals – in terms of intonation, melody, emotion, and lyrics. All of them are heavily flawed in some way, and detract from what could easily be a 4- or 5-star album if it had some convincing singing instead of the relative disappointment we have here. Firstly, JAY Z doesn't do much to stand out from the crowd, vocals-wise. He sounds nearly identical to other, more anonymous rappers from the 00s, with a flat, disinterested tone and lyrics that primarily speak towards rebellion, going against those in power, standing up for yourself. And yet, ironically, this is the kind of music that sold millions in the 90s and 00s, meaning JAY Z was very much conforming to the norm.
We also get some truly awful lyrics in the form of Girls, Girls, Girls (and its reprise). Appropriation over... and over... and over. "Now that's Spanish chick, French chick, Indian and black / That's fried chicken, curry chicken, damn I'm gettin' fat." (Oof.) And yes, I'm aware that this theme is common to a vast array of songs, and has been for decades. Yet, California Girls (by the Beach Boys) is still one of my favourite songs, because it makes up for it with fun summery charm, decent singing, and a great melody and chord progression. Girls, Girls, Girls fails to do this, and we see JAY Z's lyrics for what they really are: a mild dumpster fire. Most of the lyrics throughout the album are misogynistic, narcissistic, prejudiced, or some combination of those. And the vocals are delivered so flatly and without any kind of melody or style that it makes the lyrical content impossible to ignore.
Not quite a 3. Do better, Z.
2/5
Key tracks: Renegade, Hola' Hovito, Song Cry
2/5
The majority of this is loud, brash, and unsubstantive - particularly the first half, which seems to incorporate all of the worst and most overused elements of heavy metal, hip-hop, and alt rock into one slushy mess. One red flag was in Hot Dog with the horrendous lyric "If I say fuck two more times / That's 46 fucks in this fucked up rhyme". (Side note: by the end of this pair of lines, "fuck" had only been said 45 times. Points docked for inaccuracy.) The lyrics don't particularly evolve or improve over time - nor does the sound, which is often blisteringly loud, including the vocals. Yes, I could turn down the volume, but the auditory overload primarily comes from the poor, blistery production, particularly on the guitars. Distorted electric guitar can sometimes sound great (see: nearly all Led Zeppelin tracks that use it), but when you can't hear a riff anymore, a line must be drawn.
There's also the issue of rapping. I'm not typically a fan of rap anyway, but add to that Fred Durst's general inability to rap (compared with popular contemporaries) and you get a pretty bad result. Had me wincing - when I was engaged enough to do so.
But when Limp Bizkit avoids horrific eardrum torture and uses Durst's singing rather than his rapping, it actually produces some decent tunes. My Way, The One, Take A Look Around, and It'll Be OK are all songs that succeed because of their non-overbearing sound, fun guitar riffs, and genuinely good melodies. This is good enough reason to raise the album to a 2. Plus, as another reviewer pointed out, I can avoid having the extremely questionable album cover forever pasted onto my front page.
2/5
Key tracks: It'll Be OK, The One, My Way, Take A Look Around
Jack White
4/5
I really liked this one. It's essentially a modern take on the rock'n'roll genre, with a particular highlight on the rocking electric guitar and country-esque violin. There's a clear Beatles influence (particularly from their early career) and some similarities to the guitar and bass of Rush. Some nice soulful harmonies in the organs, guitars, and vocals, though I feel the vocals could be a little stronger. The vocals are a little goofy and pretentious most of the time as well, and the album isn't particularly cohesive.
That being said, though, I was pretty engaged throughout the experience. There isn't a single bad track on here, and very few "middle-of-the-road" ones. It might be worth checking out the White Stripes after this.
4/5
Key tracks: Take Me With You When You Go, Sixteen Saltines, Blunderbuss, I'm Shakin', Love Interruption
Violent Femmes
3/5
Good, but repetitive. Consistently fast tempos, a small range of keys and chords, and a heavy reliance on the punk-rock genre in every track are the main factors contributing to this repetition. The songs Kiss Off, Promise, Confessions, and To The Kill are slightly below the rest of the tracks (and the only ones I actively disliked), lacking any significant hook that can drown out the poor singing. Yep, the vocals here are pretty bad - particularly when the guy tries to reach the top of his range. I've said this frequently about punk music on this list, which is that it's (typically) not very good on account of the instruments not being played well. The vocals are the most common offender here since they're the easiest to sound terrible with.
That being said, some of the hooks/ideas here are strong enough to overcome these obstacles. Blister In The Sun has a fun, syncopated, memorable line in the acoustic guitar, easily bringing it to the forefront of not only the album, but the Violent Femmes' discography. Add It Up, Gone Daddy Gone (man, that xylophone!), and Good Feeling are also fun listens.
3/5
Key tracks: Add It Up, Good Feeling, Gone Daddy Gone, Blister In The Sun
Burning Spear
3/5
There isn't a single bad track, but there aren't any particular standouts either. It's just a happy, groovy time without much musical substance. Most of the meat seems to be in the lyrics, but even those are executed a bit clumsily. I'm not a fan of the vocals - the enunciation is hard to make out at times, and it's almost too reggae-ish - but it could definitely be worse. The guitars and percussion are fun and catchy.
I think the positives of this album were articulated best by another reviewer. It's clear that Burning Spear's message is very specific those who were raised on Jamaican culture and politics, and I doubt I'll ever be able to fully appreciate the ideas laid out here. There are definitely those who get a lot more out of the content of the lyrics than I ever could. The lyrics do have a haunting quality to them (though I feel they could be more elegant), and there's a certain melancholy present. Maybe if I dug a little deeper, I'd uncover the full darkness and beauty of this album.
For now though, Marcus Garvey is just another average reggae album. Feelgood, lighthearted, bluesy, with some political undertones. But nothing particularly revolutionary.
3/5
Key tracks: Marcus Garvey, Slavery Days, Tradition
Aretha Franklin
4/5
I'm very surprised at just how many 2- and 3-star ratings there are, with a significant number of them being some variant of "Respect is great, but the rest is meh." Nah, no way. This is easily a high 4-star album, if not 5 stars. There are a couple of factors holding it back. Like Lady Soul (another album on this list), the production is noticeably poorer than more modern soul material - which aligns with Franklin's releases having performed poorly on the charts prior to this one. The mixing is typical for old-school blues/soul, bringing out all vocals much more clearly than the rhythm section. This is a little problematic for the backing vocals, which sometimes overpower Franklin's lead (and/or the horn/piano parts) when they shouldn't.
Otherwise, though, there's nothing to fault. The lead vocal is stellar. The songs - many of them covers, by the sound of it - are fantastic, paying homage to the original versions while (almost always) brilliantly overshadowing the original with soulful, powerful vocals and instruments. The piano is also really good throughout the album.
4/5
Key tracks: Respect, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You), A Change Is Gonna Come, Soul Serenade
Lightning Bolt
3/5
Utter insanity. Not just the music itself, but that so many chaotic and clashing elements were brought together to create something that sounds kind of good. I did not expect to like this album based on its Wikipedia description as "noise rock", but man, this is some good stuff (considering the genre). Vibrant, colourful, wall-of-sound-ish. Interesting how every track has a consistent rhythm, but tries to trick you into thinking otherwise with its ridiculously complex polyrhythm overlays - particularly in the drums. But all the instruments - drums, guitar, and bass - are performed frenetically yet masterfully. It must be exhilarating to perform this live. The mixing definitely gives off a raw, live-show feel.
Now for the cons. It is absolutely not danceable or foot-tap-worthy. Nothing about this music screams "catchy". The three main instruments seem to be going out of their way to play the least radio-friendly riffs or beats possible, and gosh darnit, they stick with it. And that's not a good thing. 30,000 Monkies and Duel in the Deep are the most obviously offending tracks here, but most of them are like this. A bit like free jazz in this way, though a little more accessible. Also, each individual track is very, very repetitive, with little in the way of structure.
That being said: Assassins is freaking amazing. Good job blokes, you sold me. Somewhat.
3/5
Key tracks: Assassins, Dracula Mountain, Crown of Storms
Fairport Convention
3/5
It's good, but doesn't vary much in texture or dynamics – either within songs or between them. I'm not well-versed in traditional British and Celtic folk material, so it's possible there are more nuanced variations I'm not picking up. But for the most part, there's the "bard tunes" (e.g. Matty Groves, The Lark In The Morning) and the mournful yet hopeful ballads (e.g. Reynardine, Farewell Farewell), and Fairport Convention sticks solidly to one of those two. The music lacks versatility.
But for what it is – a showcase of classic folk tunes and original compositions emulating them – it succeeds pretty darn well. The instruments are mostly ones traditionally used in a rock band (vocals, electric/acoustic guitars, bass, drums), but they're played creatively to get that distinctive "folky" feel. This is particularly noticeable in the drum playing/mixing. Then we have the vocalist - love the singing here. Reminds me of Christine McVie. The musical modes are also indicative of that old English (and surrounding regions) sound.
Definitely stands out from the rest of the pack, and is deserving of a spot on this list. But there are more versatile, engaging albums out there.
3/5
Key tracks: Come All Ye, Matty Groves, Reynardine
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I've heard a lot of fans knock this album for being "Immigrant Song and a bunch of boring acoustic stuff". Rubbish. Although not quite bearing the "classic" status of I, II, or IV, this album is arguably the best in terms of raw songwriting. And while there are fewer distinctive riffs on the electric guitar and bass than usual (thus lacking one of the key elements of Led Zeppelin music), the actual instrumental skill is possibly the most consistently impressive, especially from Jimmy Page. I also think this album showcases Robert Plant's most impressive vocals on any single track, with the stunning semi-epic Since I've Been Loving You. In that song, Plant's rock scream is the perfect balance between his early otherworldly youthfulness and his later manly husk. Other songs, like Out On The Tiles, Gallows Pole, Immigrant Song, and Celebration Day further showcase this vocal.
Then of course we have the iconic stadium-shaker Immigrant Song, with its heavy, octave-based riff and foreboding chord progression. Friends is most notable for its odd, horror-esque string melodies, juxtaposing the kid-friendly lyrics. Tangerine is arguably Led Zeppelin's best early ballad (giving Going To California and Thank You a run for their money), containing the rare vocal self-harmonising and a pretty acoustic guitar pattern. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp is a solid jam, with slightly odd mixing that half-buries the vocals – but I'll give it a pass because it's insanely catchy. Hats Off To (Roy) Harper is really the only stinker on the album. It's a fiesta of terrible echoey vocal/guitar effects with little substance and no actual reference to Harper. I suspect most of the hate towards Led Zep III comes from this single track, because pretty much everything else is pure fire.
5/5
Key tracks: Immigrant Song, Since I've Been Loving You, Out On The Tiles, Tangerine, That's The Way, Gallows Pole, Friends, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
The Cars
4/5
One of the highlights of the New Wave movement, even though the genre is (more often than not) pretty bad and invariable. The songs here are incredibly catchy, often using synths to their full potential to get some seriously catchy riffs. The first three tracks in particular are great - what I would call "pop standards". They aren't necessarily interesting or virtuosic, but they're a darn great time, and I could easily see them being covered by lesser New Wave (or even alt-rock) bands in the years to come.
The singing and drumming is just a little immature, in the sense that the beats used aren't particularly creative or inspiring. I've heard each of the individual elements before, such as the drum fills, chord progressions, melodies, and so on. In addition, all of the tracks are so packed with energy that it doesn't quite capture that "perfect album experience" I'm looking for.
4/5
Key tracks: Good Times Roll, My Best Friend's Girl, Just What I Needed, Moving In Stereo, All Mixed Up
Prefab Sprout
3/5
Per the top-rated review:
"When people say they don't understand this album, or that it's "too 80's", what they really mean is that they have never felt soaring, impossible limerance... their lives have been absent of love and loss"
Hey, that's mean. My life's had some loss.
Still a pretty good album though.
3/5
Key tracks: Bonny, When Love Breaks Down, Moving The River
TLC
2/5
There's some decent material on here, but (like many albums in the genre) the idea of a faux-plot with various interludes is just not cohesive enough for a good album experience. The inclusion of these interludes comes off as a bit pretentious when they could easily have been made full tracks, or even better, left off the album entirely – especially given that they sound like knock-offs of earlier tracks (and of each other). Just because interludes are a staple of 90s dance/hip-hop doesn't mean they're a good idea. Sexy-Interlude is the worst offender here, being a gross and immature non-sequitur to the previous songs.
I'm also not a big fan of certain parts of the instrumentation and performance. The choice of instruments creates a texture that often combines very poorly with the vocals (especially the huskier singer) and makes the lyrics difficult to hear. This is noticeable in Case of the Fake People and Let's Do it Again, among others. Additionally, the lyrics themselves clearly cater to an audience that I'm not a part of. That's not necessarily a fault of TLC, but more so an artifact of relying on a vibe that's... well... crazy, sexy, and cool. Not really my thing.
That being said, there are some positives to point out. Creep and Waterfalls (particularly the latter!) have some seriously great hooks and instrumentation, cementing their well-deserved status as 90s classics. Check out the brass and dynamic basslines in Waterfalls – now that's what I'm talking about. The production is also consistently solid and immersive, and there's some serious attitude in the singing. If I'd been a teenage girl in the 90s, I could've easily fallen head-over-heels for this.
That being said, I'm lowering my rating slightly to counterbalance all the 5-star reviews. This is definitely not a 5-star album.
2/5
Key tracks: Waterfalls, Creep, Diggin' On You, Switch
Metallica
3/5
Some of the heaviest music you'll get that manages to stay fairly mainstream. The tracks are (mostly) catchy foot-tappers, and a few are compositionally great too. The main issue is the rest of the tracks. Most of the songs on "Metallica" are heavily riff- or atmosphere-based, and hardly vary in terms of structure or texture. Nothing Else Matters is the album centrepiece, the breath of fresh air, that momentarily makes you believe that songwriting is one of the band's strengths. Nah, man. Nearly all 55 remaining minutes in the album are a bit too invariable for my taste. It lacks creativity. And, especially in the latter half, it lacks punch.
The instrumentation, though, is about as good as you can get. Hammett's piercing guitar tones, shredding solos, and memorable solo lines definitely make him a contender for one of the best rock guitarists of his generation. Hetfield's vocals are solid and an excellent instrument for the thrash metal genre. The drumming, performed by Ulrich, is in near-perfect sync with the guitar and bass (Newsted). The absolute tightness and synchronicity in the rhythm reminds me of Nirvana, or earlier music greats like EW&F and Tower of Power.
I'll also shoutout a few tracks of interest. Enter Sandman is solid, and probably the catchiest of the simple, raw songs on the album. Holier Than Thou has a fun, memorable chorus, and I was a little surprised it hadn't been released as a single. The Unforgiven is my second-favourite track after Nothing Else Matters. It's texturally lush and musically complex - and its placing near the beginning of the album means I haven't yet tired of the relentless onslaught of guitar noise. The four tail-end tracks (Of Wolf And Man, The God That Failed, My Friend Of Misery, The Struggle Within) are indistinguishable in my memory.
My conclusion: it's good, but not *that* good. Legacy is nothing without substance.
3/5
Key tracks: Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, Sad But True
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Less internally repetitive than Sound of Silver, and groovier - but not by much. And based on some of the reviews, I suspect a great amount of the "creativity" here is blatantly copy-pasted from other original artists. The genre itself - seemingly combining retro-EDM with elements of post-punk and hard rock - is fairly good. I'm just glad they didn't commit to the whole "repeating 1-2 bars of theme with very gradual and minute variation spread across seven minutes" again.
Some of the tracks, including the heavily rocking "tonite" and foot-tapper opening trio "oh baby" "other voices", and "i used to", are really strong. In most cases, these have a hook that's just catchy enough for me to not grow tired of it. I also have to hand it to LCD Soundsystem: the tracks I just mentioned, along with the title track and a few others, have some fantastic thick textures, what you might calls "highs". Often there aren't any "lows" to create contrast and emotion, but then this is meant to be an idle atmospheric album, isn't it? My main issue is that a few of the songs are just not interesting or memorable, and this effect is exacerbated by the long track lengths. The song "how do you sleep?" tries to take a prog rock approach but it's not convincing at all. There's no rise and fall of energy, just a few disparate song sections.
The '10s decade has better to offer. But this is still solid. I like to think Sound of Silver primed me for LCD Soundsystem's style, and that I'd also give it a 3/5 if I came back to it.
3/5
Key tracks: oh baby, other voices, i used to, tonite
Fiona Apple
4/5
This is the second Fiona Apple record I've listened to, after Tidal (which I gave a 5/5 rating). And I have to say, the creativity here is pretty ridiculous. As in, I can easily see it being ridiculed. There are so many wacky, unfamiliar, nifty ideas being tossed around here that it was a little hard to keep up, and it's easy to imagine people being turned off by that. "Quirky for the sake of quirky". That being said, I bet this gets better upon relistening.
Looking at the Spotify listens, I actually disagree with the apparent consensus that the opening three tracks are the strongest. I was surprised and a little disappointed when starting the album, because these songs (I Want You To Love Me, Shameika, Fetch The Bolt Cutters) were nothing spectacular. Just standard, non-catchy, instrumentally rich stuff with a fresh 2010s sound. But then Fiona's music really started to grab me. Under The Table is pretty much a textbook "good song" - literally so, because I remember our music teacher playing Under The Table to my music class back in high school as an example of how to write great music. The overlapping vocals, revision and variation of previous sections, fun but sensible key changes, and a gradual build-up of emotion. Relay, Rack Of His, Newspaper, Ladies, Heavy Balloon, Cosmonauts, For Her... all of the following songs are similarly really enjoyable.
For the cons: the production is poor, and not tastefully so. It's in the uncanny (bad) valley between the wild 60s/70s sound and the clean production that should be expected in the 21st century. The percussion, so touted by other reviewers as the general highlight of the album, sometimes sounds a bit washed out, with the high-frequency cymbals (e.g.) bleeding into some of the other instruments. Also, the final three songs - For Her, Drumset, and On I Go - are all technically good, but lean on a similar "hook" element: a pretty, girl-group-esque self-harmonisation for the entire track duration. It honestly sounds fantastic, but I wish those three songs had been moved further apart in the track listing.
4/5
Key tracks: Under The Table, Relay, Ladies, Cosmonauts, For Her
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Interesting sound. Very indie-sounding, almost operatic at times with the heavy use of classical string arrangements, piano, and classical/romantic-style melody and harmony. It isn't as enjoyable as Want One (another Wainwright album on this list), but it's still pretty substantive and engaging.
This Love Affair, Memphis Skyline, and Waiting For A Dream (among others) sound a heck of a lot like Radiohead songs from the A Moon Shaped Pool era. Wainwright's vocal has that clear, nearly (but not quite) whiny quality that makes Yorke's voice so distinctly memorable. And yet the mesmerising Radiohead-ness doesn't really make an appearance here, and is instead replaced by... well... it's hard to describe. The music here sometimes feels a bit empty, particularly in the lyrics.
3/5
Key tracks: The One You Love, This Love Affair, Peach Trees
Duke Ellington
4/5
A jazz masterpiece that brilliantly showcases Duke Ellington and his orchestra at the peak of their powers. The live performance is a testament to the enduring popularity of big band jazz, and I wish we saw this more often (preferably with packed stadiums) today. Ellington's masterful compositions and arrangements shine throughout, with standout tracks like "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" having some pretty darn great solos. The trumpet playing from Cat Anderson is particularly strong. Paul Gonsalves' iconic 27-chorus sax solo is also a highlight. The band's cohesion and the spontaneous brilliance of the solos make for a fun-packed listener experience.
I'm not a fan of the live aspect. The constant background noise and emcee banter can often be distracting, and a big chunk of the album is just that (and nothing else). A studio recording of all the musical tracks likely would've earned this a 5-star rating from me. Even then, I suspect the album would be a bit bloated - maybe splitting this up into several albums and carefully arranging track listings could've proven beneficial here.
4/5
Key tracks: Diminuendo (And Crescendo) In Blue, Black And Tan Fantasy, Take The "A" Train
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
Incredible? As in, "not credible"?
I'll concede that many of the tracks here are very catchy, especially in the album's first half. The horn arrangements are pretty standard and unrevolutionary, but they're also tight jams. The main issue arises when we start comparing the covers to the originals, and see that just about everything in the Incredible Bongo Band's version is worse. Satisfaction, while still a solid track, doesn't live up to the Rolling Stones' original in the slightest. Sing Sing Sing is just too low energy to be even comparable to the brilliant original. And many of the bongo-based tracks, which are (probably?) originals, sound quite similar to one another.
3/5
Key tracks: Apache, Last Bongo in Belgium, Dueling Bongos, Bongo Rock, Bongolia
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
A traditional jazz record that would've been more fittingly released in the 60s or earlier. I understand there's a political message somewhere in the music, but without any lyrics, it's very hard to pick up on. We see mentions of Mandela, Tuang Guru, Manenberg, and Sameeda, but these are largely unrelated to the tracks themselves, which consist of warm, full blues-jazz ensembles. You might as well have named the tracks after generals in the French Revolutionary Wars, or after exoplanets in distant star clusters.
The music itself is a standard, forgettable level of "good". The piano and horns stand out the most amongst the instruments. Manenberg Revisited is also notable for its excellent, dynamic basslines. There's a soft, pleasant ambience present in most tracks here that's indescribably comforting, again acting as a weird contrast to the political implications. Regardless, the musicians here are clearly excellent at their craft.
3/5
Key tracks: Mandela, Song For Sathima, The Mountain
Rage Against The Machine
4/5
Oh, man. This is a tough one. On the one hand, the genre-blending is a pretty darn great idea. Metal and rap? Badass - at least in theory. (Particularly for its time.) We see themes that are frequently covered in each of these "parent" genres, including anti-capitalism, police brutality, the broken education system, assassination of political figures, and corruption. There's a brutal, wild anger in the music that's very nearly unmatched. The instrument playing is almost too perfect for the mood RAtM is trying to convey. It's loud, disarming, terrifying. The guitar and bass, while playing the (great) riffs, are perfectly in sync, and I'm also a big fan of the ridiculously atonal guitar solos. (If they'd been contrasted with some coherent vocal melodies, I would've liked them even more.) The drumming is your classic metal crash bonanza. It's fast, energising, and fitting for the music.
On the other hand, the singing (which is very much a centerpiece element) could use some improvement in a few ways. The vocals are mostly unmelodic screaming, with very few actual melodies to make the tracks singable or memorable. The songs then have to lean heavily on the riffs, which thankfully are much better. This isn't a deal-breaker for everyone, nor is it for me, but it's something that could be amended. In addition, the lyrics don't exactly mince words, getting directly to the point with each and every line:
"Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" (x16)
"See through the news and the views that twist reality / Enough, I call the bluff, fuck Manifest Destiny"
"Networks at work keeping people calm / You know they murdered X / And tried to blame it on Islam"
It's almost too in-your-face. And that's not really a fault of the band, who remains stoutly true to this revolutionary new genre. It's the fault of the genre itself.
4/5
Key tracks: Know Your Enemy, Wake Up, Bombtrack, Killing In The Name
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Slow, chill, and (very arguably) a near-perfect rendition of 70s soul. Stevie Wonder is one of the most likeable musicians of all time, and his music is no different. I'm impressed by how much is consistently going on, sonically, at any given moment – and at the same time, how cohesive and smooth it sounds. And, heck, Stevie's voice is so soft, effortless, and beautiful. An absolutely perfect genre-vocal match-up. The creativity with chords, melodies, and lyrics is also pretty darn great. Another nifty musical element here is the spontaneity of the backing vocals, which drop in and out of the music effortlessly. And they sound great.
I guess the main thing knocking this album down is that it doesn't pose much of an adventure to the listener. All of the tracks are at a medium tempo, a medium range, with a fairly consistent texture. And while I appreciate the consistency, more variety (either in instrumentation or in mood) is called for. If my soul ascended from my body during Fulfillingness's First Finale (it didn't), it would've only been a few inches above my chair, and it wouldn't have varied in altitude after that. You Haven't Done Nothin' gets the closest to the high-energy funk I usually expect from Stevie Wonder, and it's also my favourite track on the album.
4/5
Key tracks: Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away, Boogie On Reggae Woman, You Haven't Done Nothin', They Won't Go When I Go
Carole King
5/5
Even for 1971 – arguably one of the greatest years for music of all time – this gives King's contemporaries a run for their money. The songwriting quality here is so darn strong for (essentially) every track here, including a fair share of all-time classics. Check out my list of key tracks and you'll realise just how consistently great the songs here are. Some great melodies, powerful (but not overdone) vocals, and smooth, feelgood instrumentation that compliments the mood of each track perfectly. For a while, I couldn't quite place what made King's vocal mannerisms so familiar. But... ah, yep! She sounds like a female Lindsey Buckingham, in terms of accent, inflections, and melodies. And of course Fleetwood Mac's music was later, meaning there's probably heavy influence taken from King's material. Lots of parallels can also be drawn with Joni Mitchell's stripped-back indie sound from around the same time. Cool stuff.
I Feel the Earth Move is a great choice of opening track, being a catchy, upbeat song with a distinctive vocal hook. The other bookend, A Natural Woman, is a solid choice of finale too. The track ordering definitely does the music justice.
I guess the only thing I could fault would be the uninteresting album cover... except it's just about the best album cover you can get. (Cat)
Key tracks: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, You've Got a Friend, It's Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
While I can understand the historical importance of punk, that doesn't justify how ridiculously often it appears on this list. And albums like this are just about the most archetypal examples of why it shouldn't.
Siouxsie's vocals aren't very appealing to begin with, and they sound even worse when double-tracked. It's gives off a very unprofessional and messy feel. McGeoch's guitar playing is similarly inaccessible, mostly avoiding any particularly good hooks or solos, and instead playing experimentally in a way that hasn't aged well since the early 80s. I'm very surprised that these were the two musical aspects most praised by critics, because they bring the music from decent, energetic rock down to near-unlistenable dreck.
I do feel that I'm giving Siouxsie And The Banshees a little too much flak here. Some of the songs are genuinely pretty great – namely, the two opening tracks, Spellbound and Into The Light (the latter of which should've been the second single instead of Arabian Knights). Spellbound was an immediate hit for me and the rest of the album never quite reached the same energy. Great drumming and bass playing here too. Monitor is also a solid track, containing a simple yet elegant chord progression and a prog-esque textural journey.
But the remaining six tracks... man, they're just not engaging at all. Really makes you wonder what was going on in Dimery's head.
2/5
Key tracks: Into The Light, Monitor, Spellbound
Muddy Waters
4/5
Gritty, gutsy, emotional, and biting. Muddy Waters is undoubtedly one of the key pioneers of the Chicago blues style.
Mannish Boy has that classic, unforgettable 5-note riff that's become a staple of the blues genre. (Darryl even referenced it in The Office when he and Michael belted out the riff together during a car trip.) You can see the direct influence of the riff not only on blues contemporaries, but also on later rock bands – such as George Thorogood and the Destroyer's Bad to The Bone. Bus Driver is another excellent track showcasing the slow 12-bar blues in all its emotional glory. Nothing particularly novel is introduced after these two tracks, but the quality of music remains impressively high throughout the album. Most of the remaining songs are relatively unmemorable but still great tunes. The guitar and bass work is also a highlight.
The production is quite bad for 1977 – notably, the year of Bowie's Low, Steely Dan's Aja, Pink Floyd's Animals, and the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever. There's no excuse for the fuzziness and lack of sound clarity in some of these tracks, especially given that this is studio-recorded (and not live like many of Muddy's other releases).
4/5
Key tracks: Bus Driver, Mannish Boy, The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll
Elastica
2/5
I'm unimpressed. This is clearly a punk (or worse, post-punk) band, despite Wikipedia claiming otherwise. Punk has little place in the "influential-music"-sphere of the 90s, and my experience so far is that the 90s has much better to offer than whatever this nonsense is. It's derivative to the point of anonymity. The music is technically high-energy, but lacks any kind of soul or emotion. This is most noticeable in the vocals, which are a standard punk-monotone set to a backing instrumental that isn't very impressive either. The guitar playing is fine but not memorable. Same with the percussion.
Whew. I'm just so tired of listening to low-effort punk album after punk album. This honestly could've been worse, with songs like Smile, Car Song, and especially Connection cutting through the darkness and giving us a little excitement. Connection has a fun, subtle synth thing going on that I really liked. (Though even that sounded like hundreds of other bands, most of whom did it earlier.)
2/5
Key tracks: Connection, Car Song, Smile, Vaseline
David Crosby
2/5
An album that feels very directionless and lacks any heart. There's little in the way of creativity, spunk, or excitement. It's just bland acoustic country-rock with a large host of musical superstars (or would-be superstars, anyway) scrawled onto the record sleeve, presumably to increase sales.
Laughing is the only really good track here – where the atmospheric softness actually achieves its goal of being mellow yet powerful. Most of the other songs are mellow and, well, powerless. The mixing makes the texture sound oddly empty for most of the album's runtime, excluding more energetic tunes like Cowboy Movie and Music Is Love. Speaking of Music Is Love... talk about a terrible idea for an opening track. The singing is wobbly and crazed, drunkenly repeating one line for essentially the entire track. Why this is the most popular track on the album – by a significant margin – is beyond me.
2/5
Key tracks: Laughing, Song with No Words, Cowboy Movie
Bob Dylan
4/5
Dylan's weird voice was less distracting on this album than on other records by him. I think the studio is his friend, with his vocal meshing well with the acoustic guitar and other instruments much more smoothly than on his live albums. I could hone in on some of his vocal mannerisms, like his apparent adoration of the "blue notes" (e.g. F#, or Eb, during a C major chord) or his very long rambly lines that only commit to rhyming at the very end (or sometimes not at all). It's fun to see these patterns and how they shaped folk rock for years to come.
There are some genuinely good compositions here too. Mr Tambourine Man is memorable and catchy, and probably a "return to normalcy" to fans that criticised his shift to a more electrical sound. (Side note: I would hardly call the sound on Side 1 electrical, at least not compared to conventional rock bands at the time.) Subterranean Homesick Blues is a fantastic choice of opener, being an energetic blues number with some biting lyrics and one of Dylan's best song titles. She Belongs to Me, It's All Over Now, and It's Alright Ma are also strong.
The main thing that brings Bring It All Back Home down from 5 stars is the lack of variety and adventurousness – especially looking at it through a modern lens.
4/5
Key tracks: She Belongs to Me, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Outlaw Blues, Mr Tambourine Man, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, It's Alright Ma
Suede
3/5
I found myself thinking, "This album has to get interesting at some point, right? Right?" Cue my excitement when I reached the final trio of songs – Metal Mickey, Animal Lover, and The Next Life – which are the only really great cuts from the tracklist. The remainder is fairly bland, milquetoast Britpop that was clearly inspired by the likes of early-career Bowie and the Smiths, but with less gusto and nothing new to bring to the party. (In fact, the same could be said for every song, but the final three were just a smidge better.)
I'm definitely giving this album more flak than I should, because it was by no means bad. The vocals were funny and British, and the instrumentation was actually pretty dope. But I came in with high expectations because of the 4/5 album Dog Man Star, released a year later, which I had already reviewed. I'm not even sure I would say Dog Man Star was good, even though I gave it a good rating – but it committed a kind of Beatlesque style, which is at least a genre you can't go wrong with. Britpop is much more questionable.
3/5
Key tracks: Metal Mickey, Animal Lover, The Next Life
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
Incredibly heavy, yet ethereal. At times, it felt like I was drifting slowly through the multiverse, with any emerging questions being pounded down by the sheer heaviness of confusion. A nightmare that's terrifying yet strangely comforting. It's hard to describe.
The guitar is easily the peak, sound-wise, of the music. The riffs are thick, distorted, and unforgiving – yet still pretty darn catchy. Take, for example, the alien-teque riff in "when you sleep" (or the similar-sounding one in the following track, "i only said"). Or the throbbing two-chord progression in "only shallow" Whoever's contributing the guitar playing, and indeed that of the entire rhythm section, really knows their stuff. The bass playing should also be complimented; I'd be interested to hear this music with the bass cranked up to the max. It could create something transcendental. I'm a fan of the drum mixing too, which is unusually without distortion relative to the other instruments. Something needed to maintain a grip on reality, and the percussion is a solid choice for that role.
But if this is genuinely the peak of the shoegaze genre (as it seems to be touted), I do worry a little bit, because it was great – but not life-changing. Music with lyrics that are too distorted to make out is a strange idea that hadn't been tried before the 90s precisely because it's hard to connect with. Maybe that's the point, though. Maybe I'm missing some brutally deep commentary on the nature of man.
Edit: I take it back. I relistened to Loveless on full volume with better headphones. I have discovered life's meaning.
5/5
Key tracks: only shallow, when you sleep, come in alone, sometimes, soon
Traffic
3/5
Weird and (sometimes) oddly likeable music that I would best describe as "jingly British rock aggressively trying to sound like American country". For some reason, early on, I was reminded of King Crimson's music, even though I know they're stylistically wildly different to this. The singing and drumming were particularly reminiscent. I've not a fan of the title-esque track John Barleycorn, where I think Traffic bites off more than they can chew with the country twang. The final song, Every Mother's Son, is also unappealing. However, the first four tracks are good or better, with Freedom Rider and Empty Pages being the standouts. They're full of energy and make good use of piano and organ for a fun, inspired performance.
3/5
Key tracks: Freedom Rider, Empty Pages
Ray Charles
4/5
Crazy horn arrangements. I'm not super familiar with Ray Charles's music, so I don't know if he's the one doing the arranging – but man, it's good. Dramatic, thick vibratos, particularly in the trumpets, punctuate Charles's soulful vocal with jazzy, big-band-style hits. This is particularly prevalent in the first half of the album with tracks like Let the Good Times Roll and It Had to Be You (which are, coincidentally, my two favourite songs in the set). And Charles is just about the most likeable singer you can get, even with the steep 50s competition of Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Ella Fitzgerald (among countless others).
This is about as good of an album as you can get without committing to any sense of album-esque "adventure". In other words, I reckon you could rearrange the songs on this album in pretty much any order and get the same experience. It did feel at times that the songs were slight variants of each other, what with the identical arrangements, commitment to the big-band swing-pop genre, and so on.
4/5
Key tracks: Let the Good Times Roll, It Had to Be You, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Come Rain or Come Shine
Steve Winwood
3/5
Reminds me a bit of Elton John crossed with Bon Jovi. Warm, bluesy, and heavily keyboard-based songs, with the rock-husk vocal quality of ol' Jonny (and tons of other 70s and 80s stadium-rock singers). We see heavy use of synths in particular on the keyboard, though organs and pianos are also present. Knowing that Windwood played every instrument here makes the listening experience considerably different, as you struggle to comprehend how musicians are able to do this. It's pretty impressive.
The reliance on synths is the album's downfall, though, because for all its success (particularly in the 80s), it makes the music sound pretty dated. And once you realise that, the miffed-ness you feel is unavoidable. (While You See A Chance is great, though, and I'm sure I recognise it from somewhere. It gives the album bonus points for familiarity.)
3/5
Key tracks: While You See A Chance, Spanish Dancer
Jeff Beck
3/5
A style I would best describe as "discount Led Zeppelin". It has essentially all the blues elements (and one of the songs) of LZ's debut album, but with less of the punchiness, musicianship, or raw energy that shot LZ1 into the musical stratosphere. But then, this did come out one year earlier, so I guess it's technically one year more impressive. Apparently this was a proto-metal cornerstone that inspired the heavy metal of the 70s and 80s, and I definitely see it. Pretty cool.
The mixing splits the instruments almost too harshly, giving an odd impression of standing right in front of the band and facing away from them into the audience. (And once you notice it, it's hard to ignore.) Despite this, you can clearly hear the robust, punchy rhythm sections (particularly the bass, which is pretty great), along with Beck's loud and bluesy guitar. I have some qualms with the vocals, which are probably good for their time, but in a broader blues context, incredibly generic. The vocal mannerisms ("oh baby, you shake me, gimme all your lovin' baby...") are ridiculously overdone and it would take a little bit more than that to wow me into giving a 4- or 5-star rating.
3/5
Key tracks: You Shook Me, I Ain't Superstitious, Blues Deluxe
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
A very goofy album cover (and title) for a surprisingly great collection of songs. The horn arrangements here are the most obvious highlight, written to impress jazz musicians and admirers of more accessible music. They're tight, sly, and playful, acting as a substitute for vocals in an otherwise entirely vocal-less album. Great piano playing by Basie, too – just the right balance of musicianship and pure joyful energy. I love the little off-kilter, slightly jumbled chords he plays. Was that intentional, or just Basie having so much fun that he lost a bit of his precision? Who knows?
This style was very much the norm for "pop" music in the 40s and 50s (along with string-accompanied ballad songs), but that was soon to change. As another reviewer pointed out, The Atomic Mr Basie is a kind of last hurrah for big-band presence in popular music before rock 'n'roll completely took over in the late 50s and early 60s.
Unfortunately, as good as this music is, I'd be hard-pressed to give 5 stars to any album without lyrics, because purely instrumental sound lacks the verbal element that really blows me away. But Count Basie and his orchestra get pretty darn close. Replace a few of the virtuosic trumpet lines with stanky soul singing (a la Ray Charles) and you'll approach something really special.
4/5
Key tracks: Splanky, Lil Darlin', The Kid from Red Bank, Fight of the Foo Birds
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Okay, this is a sound I can dig. I've heard plenty of great things about Amy Winehouse, but this is my first real experience with her music, and it was incredible. The sound is obviously inspired by 50s and 60s girl groups, and we hear plenty of elements carried over: lush horn sections, backing harmonies, a soulful lead vocalist, clapping, a light acoustic drum in the rhythm section... man, what else could you ask for?
The compositions themselves are so darn memorable and present a great album experience, with energetic highs and lows creating the ideal journey for the listener. Rehab, my personal favourite and arguably the catchiest track, is placed at the beginning – exactly where it should be. The team behind this album deserves several pats on the back for doing their darn homework.
I guess the only things I would improve are the production (sometimes the volume maxes out and causes some distortion) and Winehouse's singing, which has that heavily-accented twang that makes her, and hundreds of other 21st-century singers, sound kind of tipsy. (See: the track Love Is A Losing Game, where she sounds very drunk the entire time – but then, maybe that's exactly the point.) But never fear! These don't take away from the music very much.
Bangers up and down. An easy 5.
5/5
Key tracks: Rehab, You Know I'm No Good, Back To Black, He Can Only Hold Her
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Not as good as her earlier magnum opi "Court and Spark" and "Blue", but Hejira has its merits. The lyricism is complex and thought-provoking (though to be honest, I didn't really follow what they meant) but this was the music's greatest strength. Mitchell's melodies, which I've criticised before for being hard to follow and incongruous with the harmonies/chords, are noticeably more rambly and even less accessible than her earlier works. In fact, the melodies are so odd and (dare I say it) "incorrect" that it kind of forces the listener to engage fully with the lyrics. Interesting strategy – after all, lyrics are Mitchell's strong point – but it does negatively impact the listening experience.
Interestingly, this also has the effect of making the simpler tracks more enjoyable than the more complex ones. Black Crow, a stripped-down tune with a simple chord progression on the acoustic guitar, is a standout for this reason. A Strange Boy and Coyote are also fairly simplistic and have reasonably catchy melodies. The instrumentation is fantastic, always complementing each song as well as it can. I like the basslines, particularly in the two opening tracks, Coyote and Amelia. The drumming is done lightly and tastefully.
I'll raise it to a 4 because Joni Mitchell is cool.
4/5
Key tracks: Coyote, A Strange Boy, Black Crow
American Music Club
2/5
A style of music that's hyper-American, both in name and in substance. The genre is a laid-back country blues, which can have its merits in the music world, but American Music Club doesn't really cut it here. The playing is (for the most part) low-energy, often to the point of sounding lazy. The vocal enunciation is similar, and I'm not a big fan of the singing. Probably the main highlight is the sparkling acoustic guitar lines in tracks like Lonely, Firefly, and Jenny. The ballads in this album are also worth a shoutout, not necessarily for standing out sonically, but for having some great lyrics. Pale and Skinny Girl, while very forgettable in terms of sound, has some pretty haunting poetry in there. The closing song, Last Harbor, is actually a surprisingly solid and mature finale to an album that didn't deserve such a thing.
A lot of reviewers are bringing up the fact that this isn't on Spotify. While that isn't usually a fair "criticism" of music, it is in this case – because even on YouTube, the songs don't have many views. And for good reason.
2/5
Key tracks: Firefly, Lonely, Last Harbor
Green Day
4/5
A great modern take on punk. It's almost too clean, too polished, to fit the image of punk I'm familiar with – but I think this works to its advantage (mostly). It's hard to find any actual flaws with the sound. The guitar melodies are very loud; I wish I'd have heard Green Day on their American Idiot tour back in the day, because I would've gone crazy over the lead guitar/bass synchrony and how the riffs dig straight into your chest. I do think those two instruments could be played a little more liberally, just to give then a bit more of a human element. Armstrong's vocal is great, though. It complements the instruments perfectly, and retains that great punky youthfulness.
The record's concept is a little loose and messy, perhaps counterbalancing the incredibly tight rock sound. I keep hearing mentions of this Jesus of Suburbia guy, but it's hard to really connect the lyrics together, especially when bands of the punk genre don't usually commit to big operatic concept albums. But the lyrics are meaningful, probably. (I was able to work out the title track's meaning!)
4/5
Key tracks: American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wake Me up When September Ends
Joy Division
2/5
I like to think of myself as a Joy Division fan (of their first album), but come on, you can't expect your fans to genuinely love this. Half of these tracks sound very amateurish, both in composition and in instrumental skill. Atrocity Exhibition, Passover, Heart and Soul, and Decades are all blurry and forgettable tracks that are the very definition of filler. The remaining five tracks are stronger, though they teeter towards the same flaws. Paying attention to the drumming, which is prominent in the mix, I noticed that there was pretty much only one fill used dozens of times – and once I noticed this, it was difficult to ignore. The singing is also more distractingly bad than on Unknown Pleasures.
It wasn't entirely bad, though. The atmosphere created in The Eternal is great – slow and impending-doom-esque. Isolation is a solid pop track that's reminiscent of their previous album. The lyrics are good, roughly akin to the Smiths' lyrics, and the themes of depression, loneliness, and mortality hit pretty darn hard considering the events surrounding this album's release.
2/5
Key tracks: Isolation, A Means to an End, The Eternal
Tito Puente
3/5
A delightful but not particularly varied output from a band I've absolutely never heard of. And there's very little in the way of uniqueness – hundreds of other bands have a near-identical sound to this, with even the overlaid seductive female vocal being an overdone element. Maybe the "trumpets and woodwind and bongos and Spanish chanting" wasn't ridiculously overdone in 1958, but it sure as heck is now. We can clearly see why the genre was successful, both in Latin America and worldwide, but I view it similarly to modern-day pop/country in that it's too derivative to have any chance of blowing my mind.
But there were specific elements that appealed to me. The (male) singing is great, surpassing language barriers with its pure energy and drunken giddiness. It's a fun contrast to the female vocal, which is excellent and not overused. I'm pretty sure the only brass is trumpets, and the lower wind sound is from woodwind instruments. It creates a lighter, airier sound than a full-on brass band would. I enjoyed the two opening tracks (El Cayuco and Complicación) the most, simply because they were early enough that I hadn't started to notice the musical repetition yet.
The top-rated reviewer commented that "you really get the feeling the Latin people are having way more fun than everybody else." (Well said.)
3/5
Key tracks: El Cayuco, Complicación, Mambo Gozon
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
A very chill and groovy take on the hip-hop genre that I wasn't expecting. It's one of the best in the genre – certainly in the decade. (Though it doesn't have much competition.) Nice to see Ghana's flag on the cover representing the deep African roots found in nearly all American music. The beats and riffs behind the vocals in nearly every track are excellent – so much so that I would've loved to have this album be instrumental, or even better, have a soulful/rocky singing vocal rather than a rapping one. The guitars and bass in particular really stand out.
I'm not a fan of the sampling at all. Even though the source material is great (Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, the Beatles... dang), the actual licks are sloppily edited into the beginning of their respective tracks and not really integrated into the song. It's like the band's saying, "Hey geezers, we like your music too! Please give us money." And, like I mentioned above, the vocal just don't cut it here. We need some kind of melody to make this music memorable and singable, otherwise it just comes across as trend-riding dreck designed to appease the hip-hop crowds of the era.
3/5
Key tracks: Luck of Lucien, After Hours, Can I Kick It?
Peter Frampton
2/5
Also known as "Frampton Is Barely Clinging To Life", this album is very much propped up by its (admittedly strong) electric guitar sound. The vocals are pretty variable, but none of them are convincing. At one point Peter Frampton sounds like a discount version of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, which isn't necessarily a good thing. At other points, Frampton sounds like discount Bowie. Lots of discounts here. Kind of makes me want to discount the entire album.
And yet, the crowd is going positively wild for the whole performance. Even during the comparatively simple and repetitive acoustic instrumental Penny For Your Thoughts, you can hear giddy whoops from the audience like they're drunkenly cheering on their girlfriend at karaoke night. It's a little distracting, especially in some of the weak tracks like All I Want To Be and the cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash. You guys do know you don't have to cheer when the music isn't good, right?
But despite all its flaws, the electric guitars on this album are honestly some of the best I've heard in 70s music. Show Me The Way is a highlight.
2/5
Key tracks: Doobie Wah, Show Me The Way, It's A Plain Shame
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Great album cover. Unnecessarily serial-killer-esque vibes – I dig it. The music itself is peculiar yet reasonably catchy, utilising a variety of instruments and tempos to create lots of different textures and moods throughout the album. This might be my first experience with Brazilian music, and I thought it was fairly strong. The music has a fun, light, dancey feel, even in its slower ballads. Veloso's melodies are quirky and unpredictable (except for the songs which were released as singles). There are little elements sprinkled throughout that hook the ear, such as subtly-mixed organ licks, horns arrangements on scattered tracks, and the occasional vocal harmony.
I do take issue with a few things, though. The melodies on non-single tracks, while interesting, are a little too jumbled for their own good. The music isn't particularly punchy, with the lack of percussion being particularly noticeable. This isn't head-nodding, foot-tapping music. So, even though Caetano Veloso ticks most of the boxes in terms of musicality, the approachability is lacking. And I don't quite see the connection to psychedelia that many sources insist upon.
3/5
Key tracks: Tropicália, Clarice, Superbacana, Soy Loco Por Ti América
The Everly Brothers
4/5
The best two-part harmony you'll find anywhere. I mean, I can't reasonably give this a 5 considering the jarringly dated lyrics ("Girls, girls, girls were made to love / That's why some have eyes of blue / That's why some stand five feet two" - oh no). And from a modern perspective, the sound is just so simplistic and doesn't feel very fresh or creative. But other than that, there isn't much to complain about. The harmonies are great, giving me heavy vibes of early Lennon-McCartney. You can easily see the huge influence the Everly Brothers had on the Beatles' early music. And given the prospective influence of the Beatles on essentially every single pop/rock predecessor, we can trace the lineage back to these two guys right here. Pretty cool, eh? Even other huge legends of (roughly) the same era – the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, and so on – clearly took inspiration from this style.
Every song here is at least a 6/10 – an impressive feat for any album. The instrumentation is pretty, pillowy, and perfect in the ballads, and punchy and powerful in the more upbeat pop tracks. The vocal harmonies are great. Did I mention I like the harmonies? (I guess I'm a teenage female boomer. Darn.)
4/5
Key tracks: Made to Love, Lucille, Love Hurts, Cathy's Clown
Jimmy Smith
2/5
Lesson learned: If you're going to commit to a 4-song album where tracks range from 7 to 13 minutes, those songs better be some darn masterpieces. But thin-textured, somewhat monotonous 60s blues doesn't really get there for me. Sure, it's a pleasant listen, but nothing more. My favourite piece is the opener/title track, mostly because the music hasn't yet run itself dry.
I see this album as a continuation of the trends set by Booker T. and the M.G.'s and other contemporaries. Light jazz, no lyrics – just a simple, lighthearted atmosphere. But honestly, unless you're in one of these bands, there just isn't much to keep your interest. All the tracks are identical texturally and in terms of overall mood. The long-form solos on sax and keyboard are solid, but without vocals or really anything to break them up from one another, they can come across as repetitive.
2/5
Key tracks: Back At The Chicken Shack
Coldcut
2/5
Pretty bog-standard house music with DJ sound effects sprinkled around to give an air of legitimacy. But the music's quality is undercut pretty significantly by the track length, which (with an average of 6+ minutes per track) is just too long to maintain interest for most listeners. The music also generally lacks hooks or any key elements to keep the listener engaged. It's extremely repetitive, and not in an especially great way. The percussion is almost all (if not entirely) electronic, and that's a bad thing. It makes the music sound dated and is pretty exhausting after an hour of club-house tunes.
But it could be worse. Stop This Crazy Thing has a great big-band-esque horn riff (almost like a samba melody). People Hold On has an unusually loud synth/piano/drum combo to complement the already clear-cut vocals – which are the best vocals on the album – making it pretty memorable. It's quite disco-y, which is a contrast from the otherwise hip-hop-like atmosphere.
2/5
Key tracks: People Hold On, Stop This Crazy Thing
Joan Baez
2/5
This is very simple music, and somewhat effective. In fact, I consider this to be one of the peaks of the folk-singing-with-acoustic-guitar genre (which has wider scope than you'd think). The main problem I have here is that there's so little musical variation, and adherence to the idea of an album experience, that it's hard to seriously engage with this as an entire album. Add to that the fact that there aren't any noticeable hooks in the guitar part (which is the only non-vocal instrument) and you're looking for some sort of variation in the singing, which just isn't there.
Let's talk about the singing. Joan Baez's voice is very strong, but in my opinion she heavily overuses vibrato, almost to an operatic extent. There's something just a little off-putting about melodic ornamentation (e.g. vibrato) that, rather than decorating a melody line, makes it sound kind of off-pitch. I like Baez's use of modes, though, and it's one of the strong points of her vocal part. Fun little nods to English and Irish folk music are present. I do think other artists in the genre, such as Joni Mitchell, pull off what Baez is attempting much more successfully.
I would've liked to see some original compositions on here, too. House Of The Rising Sun is a fantastic (and heavily covered) song, but it can get old after so many artists cover it.
2/5
Key tracks: Wildwood Flower, House Of The Rising Sun, Donna Donna
Johnny Cash
4/5
Man. I don't know what to say. This is heartbreaking to listen to - a fitting swan song for a brilliant career in country-folk music. Johnny Cash's voice is expressive, emotive... just great. The instruments backing his singing make tasteful use of piano, strings, and even guest vocalists (including Fiona Apple in the third track!). If I had to suggest one thing to change, it would be to include more original compositions (fewer covers) and more musical variations between the songs. But really, given the context of the album, I doubt this performance could have been surpassed.
4/5
Key tracks: Hurt, Bridge Over Troubled Water, In My Life, The Man Comes Around
Soft Cell
2/5
This is a fine album, but its quality goes up and down in a way that would definitely make me want to skip tracks on subsequent listens. Tainted Love, albeit a standard 80s-sounding hit, is a great track, in part due to its infectious synth riffs and Soft Cell having enough self-awareness not to include mind-dulling repetition in the synth/keyboard/brass parts. The same cannot be said for all tracks. There's a lot of filler here, which could easily be made otherwise by adding some more variation in pretty much any instrumental part. Exceptions are Tainted Love, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Bedsitter, Torch, and a few others. Given the 1hr 14min runtime, I think this could be shaved down, especially seeing that it isn't a concept album.
I'm not a big fan of the vocals either. They're reminiscent of British punk, a genre that hasn't seen much high-complexity or groundbreaking music (in my opinion). Swapping them out for someone subtly different but more flourishy, like Morrissey, could be the way to go. Vocal harmonies also could've been a good strategy, but alas, those are generally absent here.
2/5
Key tracks: Tainted Love, Bedsitter, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Torch
Coldplay
4/5
Better than its successor, A Rush of Blood to the Head. Synths definitely have their place as an instrument, but I think Coldplay's music is much stronger without it. And following this idea, the band's attempts to come across as "Radiohead incarnate" are less obvious in Parachutes, with a slew of focused, powerful, slow-tempo songs paving the way for a great deal of 21st century music. The vocal is pretty good, and distinctive from other contemporary modern rock bands. The mixing is done perfectly – almost a little too perfectly – but with the deceptively simple music, it elegantly tows the line between too bland and too pretentious.
Fantastic guitar playing. I dig the acoustic sound. Most of the music is centred around the guitar and vocals, and there's a fresh yet melancholic atmosphere here that I haven't seen many other albums achieve. The lyrics are consistently really good (enough to get the album banned in China upon its release). I do wish the sounds were a little more varied between tracks, but I also admire the commitment to one sound. It's a good sound.
4/5
Key tracks: Don't Panic, Sparks, Yellow, Everything's Not Lost
Tom Waits
2/5
This album tows the line between genuine brilliance and utter absurdity (the bad kind). And I'm torn between giving this the 1 it probably deserves and a 5 for the sheer fun of it. I'll go with a 2. The singer's gravelly voice is kind of out of place in an 80s context, but it occasionally works, particularly in the great mid-album one-two-punch of Hang Down Your Head / Time. If I were forced to pick which other vocalists sound like this, I'd go with Ram-era McCartney (think Monkberry Moon Delight) and Randy "It's a Jungle Out There" Newman. But honestly, the voice is so distractingly out of left field that there's little time for comparison.
The instrumentation is a whole different can of worms, with the only common element being a jangly old-blues guitar, reminiscent of pre-WWII acoustic blues charts. Everything else is thrown together pretty oddly, including free-jazz brass playing, a drum player that really isn't trying (example track: Downtown Train), some light organs and synths, and incredibly straightforward chords that make one reminisce about simpler times. Then one meanders through this album's tracklist and correctly wonders, "what the heck?" Songs like 9th & Hennepin, Midtown, Singapore, Blind Love, and Tango Till They're Sore - among others - seem like purely novelty tracks. Except here they make up the entire album. What a strange idea.
2/5
Key tracks: Time, Hang Down Your Head, Clap Hands
Talking Heads
2/5
I'll say what I said in my previous Talking Heads review: TH are so often touted as one of the "classics" - to be revered, reviewed, and NOT reviled. Everyone loves TH, right?
Not this guy. The music is just difficult to latch onto, largely because of the very weak and questionable vocal delivery. Byrne's voice is just not good in any context, but particularly for this funky instrument lineup, the music works best when there's no singing. It actually sounds pretty darn great during instrumental breaks like the intro of Drugs, and parts of I Zimbra, Paper, and Cities (among others). But when Byrne's vocal comes in... ugh. It's incredibly off-putting, marginally out-of-tune, slightly ahead of or behind the beat at times, and there's little in the way of articulation or emotion within each track.
I like the compositions on this album, particularly Memories Can't Wait, Air, Paper, and Cities. Life During Wartime is also worth a shoutout – I think I recognised it from somewhere. If the right band had been playing these tunes, this album could've easily scored a 3 or even higher. As another reviewer commented, "Every track is completely original and arrestingly immediate. They would move onto more ambitious work immediately afterwards, but 'Fear of Music' shows the band absolutely mastering three-minute songcraft." I guess the only task now is to hire the right frontman for the job.
2/5
Key tracks: Cities, Drugs, Paper
Suzanne Vega
4/5
I enjoyed this. Reminded me a lot of the Indigo Girls and Lana Del Rey, though of course Suzanne Vega preceded both artists. The folky singer-songwriter scene was growing rapidly at this time, and Vega's definitely got to be one of the better ones. In her music, we hear lots of fun acoustic guitar licks, light percussion fills, and soft, expressive singing. There's something very humanlike and approachable about Vega's vocal that you don't often hear from "superstar" pop singers, and I really appreciate that.
And the music's pretty solid. Some great lyricism in tracks like The Queen And The Soldier and Marlene On The Wall, as well as some darn catchy vocal lines/melodies in other songs (Freeze Tag, Undertow, Some Journey). Some Journey in particular is a brilliant track in terms of atmosphere, using a synth-string-type instrument to create soft wavey swells that made it a textural standout. This again reminds me of Lana Del Rey and (in particular) her Norman Rockwell album. I'm surprised Some Journey isn't a more popular song.
There are a couple of things dropping this from a 5 to a 4. There's no vocal harmony, which I feel is a missed opportunity (even if it would just be self-harmonising). With one or two exceptions, the textures are generally pretty thin, and the album journey can be a little one-dimensional. But otherwise, Vega's kind of slaying here.
4/5
Key tracks: The Queen And The Soldier, Some Journey, Marlene On The Wall
Destiny's Child
2/5
Although the music isn't great, the top reviewers are definitely giving girl groups like Destiny's Child too much flak. The music, while technically generic early-2000s pop, is undeniably catchy - particularly the opening trio of songs, Independent Women Pt. 1/Survivor/Bootylicious. The sound is reminiscent of some mega-popular pop and R&B acts from the 80s and 90s, and clearly takes inspiration from these. The percussive rhythms are complex and engaging in the former part of the album, and the textures are really ear-catching.
Unfortunately, there are a few reasons to lose interest after the first three songs. The fourth, Nasty Girl, is lyrically very off-putting. And, excluding a couple of highlights, most of the remainder of the album introduces absolutely nothing new to the party. It's a pretty long album, too, and this isn't to its benefit. The chord progressions are pretty cool in the first few tracks and in Fancy, but later on they become very generic. The drum machines rapidly grow old as you keep listening. Mini-skits appear at the end of some tracks, and I'm not a fan of those at all. (I also doubt I'm the target audience for this music. And my policy is that the best music can connect with people from all backgrounds.)
2/5
Key tracks: Independent Women Pt. 1, Survivor, Fancy
Keith Jarrett
4/5
A gorgeous and ridiculously impressive set of extended piano performances. Given the context – that this was performed in one take, live, completely improvised, and using a practice piano rather than a performing one – The Köln Concert is even more breathtaking. The actual skill level is through the roof. Even if Jarrett had been reading from pre-arranged sheet music, the virtuosity required to pull off all those quick-fire ornaments, arpeggios, and so on is pretty mind-blowing. The repetition of themes is also worth mentioning. You can almost see the exact thoughts going through Jarrett's head (at lightning pace) as he tinkers with ideas, finds certain ones that sound good, and lean into them as he experiments with variations. The audience is taken on an artistic journey, in a more raw sense than any pop or rock album.
A couple of problems, though. Three of the four pieces are just too long to reasonably be called their own tracks, though this is more a production/editing complaint (about poor track listing) rather than a complaint about the artist. Some of the motifs are done to death, such as the repeating one-bar/one-chord phrase throughout nearly the entirety of the second track. The first track, which excellently avoids this motif problem, instead falls to the track runtime problem above.
4/5
Key tracks: all of them, kinda
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I don't have too much to say about this album. It's solid, it's enjoyable, it's Sinatra. Lots of his majestic, iconic crooning going on here – but even for its time, it doesn't introduce much new to the music scene. And of course, there's the issue that every track has the same melodies, vocal ornaments, instrumentation, horn section punches, percussive beat... Even the keys and tempos used are often pretty similar. This creates an experience which is a bit hazy and not particularly cohesive. I honestly couldn't tell you which tracks I liked more than others, because I enjoyed them all very much equally.
For all my gripes, though, this is pretty good. It gives me some misplaced nostalgia for 40s and 50s swing-pop (I'm a 2000s kid), and comes with all the perks of the era – most noticeably, the fuzzy production you associate with gramaphones and your grandparents slow-dancing in the living room on Christmas Day. Sinatra's voice is familiar, smooth, lilting – like a warm hug. I dig it.
3/5
Key tracks: unsure
Ozomatli
2/5
Interesting sound, but kind of done-to-death. It's essentially modern Latin-pop with a noticeable electronic influence (e.g. DJ sfx/sampling, synthesisers). The opening three tracks were strong patch in a fairly weak track listing, possibly for being the beginning of a listening session before my enjoyment tapered off substantially. This album just doesn't bring anything new to the table. Anything on this list post-2000 has got to be seriously creative or ear-catching to really justify its presence.
As is typical for the genre, the horns and percussion are two very strong point. I love the trumpet harmonising and extensive syncopation, and could easily see me in my high school jazz band struggling to play Nadie Te Tira correctly. Brings back some good memories. The percussion is reasonably complex and busy – always a plus. The production isn't particularly interesting, and I would've liked a less mono-sounding mix. There's less piano than I would have expected, but when it appears, it's usually played with gusto. I don't like the singer's vocals at all – it's a bit hoarse and unrefined – but I can understand its appeal in this genre.
2/5
Key tracks: Believe, Street Signs, Doña Isabelle/Nadie Te Tira
The Fall
2/5
Even in spite of the pretty horrific Thatcher era of UK leadership, this album is far from the country's saving grace. It sounds like most of the band members – most noticeably, the singer – are piss-drunk, and I'm guessing I'd only genuinely love the music if I were the same. This does have an air of late-night pub, helped by the sluggish yet punkish feel of the rhythm section. The riffs are actually pretty great, until the first 10 seconds of any given track have passed and you realise it's a two-bar loop lasting anywhere from two to six minutes. The lyrics are generally unintelligible gibberish. I can hear the Britpop influence. This album doesn't help with the genre's reputation.
It could be worse, though. The production was palatable enough that there were a few tracks that were pretty enjoyable. These include L.A., Spoilt Victorian Child, Paintwork, Cruiser's Creek, and (notably without vocals) Mansion, the opening track. For all of these, if played on more distorted guitars (lead and bass), the riffs wouldn't be out of place on a Led Zep record. That's got to count for something.
2/5
Key tracks: Mansion, Spoilt Victorian Child, L.A., Cruiser's Creek
Blondie
3/5
Going into this album, I only knew Heart Of Glass and One Way Or Another (both great tracks) and I was expecting the rest of the album to be roughly the same style and quality. I was a little disappointed. Most of the remaining songs, while generally good, don't quite live up to those two overshadowing singles. Neither of the two facets (rock and punk) were really committed to fully, and the product is a sort of lower-energy blend of the two genres. It's not bad, but I wish it were more gritty, more "biting". Even One Way Or Another, arguably containing the hardest rock on the album, is tamer than I remember it being.
The songwriting is pretty great, though, and for that reason alone I can't justify giving this album less than a 3. The guitar riffs are simple, effective, and catchy. I enjoy Debbie Harry's clear, emotive singing, though again I wish it could be grittier. Not too much else to comment on.
Key tracks: Heart Of Glass, Hanging On The Telephone, Sunday Girl, Heart One Way Or Another
Ella Fitzgerald
3/5
We'll start at 3/5, the rating of an average album.
-1 for album length. Listen, I'm all for a compilation album, but not on a list like this one. You might as well put in compilation albums by other greats, like the Beatles' "1", Led Zeppelin's "Mothership", Queen's "Greatest Hits"... but those would (in some cases) also be too long, and for that reason I'm glad they aren't included. Ella Fitzgerald doesn't get a pass. In fact, out of protest, I only listened to 40 minutes of the album on shuffle, and the rest of the review is dedicated to those 40 minutes.
+1 for gorgeous vocals. Ella Fitzgerald's singing is smooth, lilting, well enunciated, and just all-around fantastic. She's definitely material for a "top 10 vocalists of all time" list, even if lots of online critic articles seem to disagree.
-1 for bringing nothing new to the music scene. By the late 50s, rock, skiffle, and experimental jazz were experiencing revolutions, and in terms of sheer creativity, Fitzgerald's style of music can't quite compete. It doesn't help that nearly all the songs on the album are in the same style and mood. Add to that the fact that none of these songs are originals, and you have a set of material that's not quite deserving of a spot on a list of the 1001 most important albums.
+1 for atmosphere. There's something so indescribably charming and beautiful about soft brass, a laid-back rhythm section, and jazzy harmonies and melodies. You can all too easily lose yourself in the music if you're not careful. It's hypnotic.
3/5
Key tracks: The Man I Love, Embraceable You, They Can't Take That Away From Me
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
This is my second listen, and it's a little better on the second pass. Some great lo-fi-esque beats accompanying a standard (if not slightly substandard) vocal. The lyrics are all over the place in terms of rhythm, rhyming schemes, and general themes, towing the line between being oppressed and being the goshdarn king of the world. This is a problem I have with most hip-hop lyrics, and while Kendrick Lamar makes a small improvement on the generally bad poetry in the genre, it's a small improvement only. The lyrics in the interludes are particularly suspect:
"Fuck you, motherfucker, you a ho-ass n-a / I don't know why you trying to go big, n-a, you ain't shit / Walking around like you God's gift to Earth, n-a, you ain't shit / You ain't even buy me no outfit for the Fourth / I need that Brazilian, wavy, twenty-eight inch, you playin'"
...Yeah. If this is the best the rap/hip-hop genre has to offer (and it clearly is, based on reviews from rateyourmusic), then that's a very bad sign. I'm also not a fan of Kendrick's husky, almost raspy voice, though it does somewhat stand out amongst the crowd.
The instrumental behind the vocals, though, is pretty solid. Kendrick pulls out all the stops for adding little bits and bobs to the music – sound effects, synths, horns, backing vocals, and so on – to really spice up the texture. And he does it better than most, to the point where you feel like you're listening to something truly incredible. (Whether you are actually doing that is up for debate.) Tracks that are more texturally busy, like King Kunta and Alright, are some of the stronger ones for this reason.
The cover art is iconic, and possibly my favourite aspect of this entire album. But the music could use a little work. Bin the interludes and some of the lyrically-suspect full tracks, and you have the scaffold of a masterpiece.
3/5
Key tracks: King Kunta, Alright, Momma, i
Fugees
2/5
This felt like very standard hip-hop to me. There wasn't much in the way of variation within tracks or between tracks, creating a slightly monotone atmosphere for a grand 77 minutes. The songs involving (melodic) singing rather than rap were easily the highlights; Ms Lauryn Hill is always a win. (I still regret giving her "The Miseducation..." album as low as 3/5, but I was much more naïve back then.) I'm surprised this album was the 5th best-selling hip-hop LP of the 90s, because it's very nondescript.
It wasn't terrible, though. I enjoyed the variety of rappers, and the cover of No Woman No Cry was almost as good as the incredible original. The production was fairly good as far as 90s hip-hop goes.
2/5
Key tracks: Fu-Gee-La, Killing Me Softly With His Song, No Woman No Cry
Red Snapper
2/5
This music is very... odd. I think I'd enjoy it more if it were accompanied by a late-night drive out of the city (or, perhaps more fittingly, through an urban hellscape). The music is kind of dull, but with a hypnotic electronic spin.
The percussion creates an almost industrial atmosphere, particularly in tracks like Shellback that have heavy, atonal synths backing a slow, equally heavy drumbeat. The tracks with vocals are very artificial-sounding, and I imagine it would be an unusual experience listening to them live. The bass playing is probably the album's high point – particularly on tracks like Don't Go Nowhere and Keeping Pigs Together, where it's more prominent – because of its clear, central mixing. It acts as the melodic voice when there aren't vocals, and I think that's a nifty choice.
Other than the points above, the music is pretty nondescript postmodern stuff. At times, it's almost brutalist, and can get a bit overwhelming. I didn't enjoy it much, but it wasn't horrible either.
2/5
Key tracks: Keeping Pigs Together, Don't Go Nowhere, Bussing
Aerosmith
3/5
Very middle-of-the-road rock for me. But hey, at least it pulls off that generic (and good) 70s rock sound that so many other bands tried and failed. Guitar riffs that are simple, brash, and somewhat memorable, propped up by a bass that often mirrors the riff but never really strays out of its comfort zone. Some good vocals, but ultimately they just aren't distinct enough from other bands at the time. And after having heard Led Zeppelin's music from 1969-75, I'm finding this a steep comparison to make.
I'd like to take a moment to comment on the top-voted review here:
"back in the 70s, steven tyler fucked an underaged groupie, and proceeded to literally adopt her as his legal daughter so he could keep fucking this child. he can stuff his big ten inch up his own ass for all i care"
Now, I'm no Aerosmith fan, especially after the unremarkably passable rockfest of Toys in the Attic – but you can't seriously hold this belief unless you extend it to just about any white male 70s rock artist. Lennon, Bowie, most of Led Zep, Kiss... et cetera. This kind of review is just farming likes for something you could easily put on another artist. I was hovering between a 2 and a 3, but this review made me choose 3 to counterbalance the 1 (which is unreasonably low, even if you (rightfully) despise members of the band).
3/5
Key tracks: Toys In The Attic, Adam's Apple, Sweet Emotion
R.E.M.
4/5
I'm a little biased here because the two huge tracks here (ITEOTWAWKI and especially The One I Love) were kind of like childhood anthems for me. I grew up on Guitar Hero: World Tour, and The One I Love was my favourite song on there. Some of my best memories from the late '00s are jamming out on a plastic orange guitar with a Wii remote wedged into the back while my mom belted out "FIREEEEEE" at the top of her lungs. (I'm surprised our neighbours never complained.) So, as simple as the melodies and harmonies are in most of the tracks, R.E.M. gets a pass for pure nostalgia. The pure energy in the other track (with the funny long name) also bumps this album up significantly.
Other than those two tracks, the songwriting isn't particularly memorable, and the main draws into the music are Buck's shining guitar arpeggios and Stipe's distinctive and heavily American vocal. I wasn't sure if R.E.M.'s music qualified as alt-rock, so I had to look it up, and it seems they're pioneers of the genre. I can definitely hear it towing the line between classic 70s rock, the clean, electronic "danciness" of the 80s, as well as something indescribable that's unique to alternative rock.
4/5
Key tracks: Finest Worksong, It's The End Of The World As We Know It, The One I Love
Nina Simone
4/5
Nina Simone's voice takes a little getting used to, but once it hits, man, it really hits. One of the coolest, most soulful, and most distinctive singing vocals of the 60s. The lyrics in these songs are also great. The three-track run of Four Women, What More Can I Say?, and Lilac Wine is especially strong in terms of both lyrics and musical hooks to back them up.
So, in a rare turn of events, the weak point in the album is actually the instrumental. There's a lot of piano, and it's all played in one particular register that gets a little stale after the first twenty minutes or so. (The piano on the track Four Women, though, is fantastic – partially for being beautiful/bluesy, and partly for just being near the beginning of the album.) The percussion is present, but never quite in satisfying quantities. I think the soul and drama in these compositions should be complemented by an equally dramatic instrumental section (think muted crashes, more strings, and so on) – but it's not *quite* there.
4/5
Key tracks: Four Women, What More Can I Say?, Lilac Wine, Wild Is The Wind
Turbonegro
1/5
Objectively speaking, this album shouldn't have been created, but it's got a few things going for it. Some of the song titles (Rock Against Ass, Humiliation Street, Rendezvous With Anus) are fire. The opening song, The Age Of Pamparius, has a decent sounding, new-wave-y atmosphere in the opening that introduces the album pretty well.
But apart from that, the sound is just generally bad. All the tracks are a weird sort of abrasive metal-punk. And I mean all of them. Because, apart from the opening track, they all sound identical. There's little in the way of musicality outside of the opener. This album was a slog to get through, particularly with the horrific cover of Bowie's Suffragette City and some other album fillers like Monkey On Your Back and Back To Dungaree High. Even if this album had been shaved down to a more appropriate 30 minutes (or less), it still would've been a painful commitment.
1/5
Key tracks: The Age Of Pamparius
Elliott Smith
3/5
This was an enjoyable but very inconsistent listen. The first half of the album is packed with a variety show of indie-sounding piano ballads and country jams – and, for the most part, they're all reasonably catchy. The opening trio of Son Of Sam / Somebody That I Used To Know / Junk Bond Trader is arguably a one-two-three punch of great harmonies, instrumentation, and just an overall groovy feel. Everything Means Nothing To Me is one of those tracks that I love for its several distinct sections, featuring a sudden percussive buildup that makes the second half of the song one of the album's highlights. The dramatic shift in tone (even while the melodic hook from the first half continues to repeat) is a fun part of this song. L.A. continues this lineup of very strong tracks – at least, on side 1.
Then we get to side 2, and it immediately becomes apparent that Elliott is padding the runtime with melodies that are difficult to follow, instrumental lineups that imitate those of earlier songs, and less interesting singing. (And I wasn't particularly a fan of this guy's voice to begin with.) The three-song run of Easy Way Out / Wouldn't Mama Be Proud / Colorbars is most suspect here; there just wasn't anything particularly standout in any of these. We see a couple of standouts with the catchy Happiness/The Gondola Man and the haunting piano outro Bye, but otherwise, there's not much going for this half.
All in all, the two sides balance each other out, and we end up with a standard 3/5 rating. Some other notes:
- As I mentioned, Smith's whispery and unvaried vocal is not good.
- The lyrics are pretty darn depressing even in the more upbeat tracks.
- This album is recontextualised (to an extent) given that it's the last of Smith's albums released during his lifetime. I almost wonder if the drop in quality throughout the album is meant to be a metaphor.
3/5
Key tracks: Son Of Sam, Somebody That I Used To Know, Everything Means Nothing To Me, L.A.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Man, I love this guy. It's not often that I enjoy the little spoken skits and interludes in an album, but this time they could well be the album's highlights. When Cash declared to the audience that they were recording an album and that none of his band members should even think about saying "hell" or "(bleep)", I gained at least a year of life. His little bouts of campiness during tracks like 25 Minutes to Go ("And now I'm swingin' and here I go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o") and Cocaine Blues ("Hopped and he coughed as he cleared his throat / He said, *cough cough* *obviously with an obstructed trachea* 'Come on you dirty heck into that district court' *cough cough*") are fantastic. And the audience at Folsom Prison is clearly having a blast.
The main critique I have is that the music is very simple. As in, simple enough that Cash can go completely off-script ("...hehehe did I see somebody applaud that lyric? hehe. anyway,") and the instrumental remains entirely intact. But even then, I have trouble really faulting the music for this. The musical simplicity is made up for – even complemented – by the audience interaction, the humanness of Cash's singing and the backing instrumentalists, and the music's incredible rawness and "instant classic" energy.
Quoting one of the top reviews here: "This dude is up there singing about murdering dudes to applause from murderers." Can't get much more badass than that.
5/5
Key tracks: Folsom Prison Blues, Cocaine Blues, Orange Blossom Special, Greystone Chapel
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
As soon as I saw a review comparing this to Hitler screaming into a microphone, I couldn't get the image out of my head. Even the mic quality is the same.
And the drums, the relentless, dull, muted-yet-deafening miscellaneous percussion, the nightmare-inducing screams, the empty, brutalist soundscapes, the lack of any melody or harmony save for some scant, poorly-played horns, the repetition that makes me want to fold into a small cube and hurl myself off the conveyor belt...
Let's just say there's a lot to be desired here.
1/5
Key tracks: none
Bob Dylan
3/5
I have similar feelings about this album to Dylan's earlier album Bringing It All Back Home, although the latter is better in my eyes. Dylan has a weird vocal that, in many cases/genres, would be very unappetising – but he generally makes it work. His sound is also immediately recognisable and distinctive, primarily because of his voice but also his melodies, which often center around "blue notes" (e.g. F# or Eb during a C major chord) or his very long rambly lines that only commit to rhyming at the very end (or sometimes not at all). These "Dylanesque" motifs are strangely comforting amidst all the horrific Britpop, hip-hop, and post-punk on this list. It's also fun to see these patterns and how they shaped folk rock for years to come.
Unfortunately, unlike his predecessor albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde doesn't have any particularly standout tracks. They're all just kind of "there" – good, but not great. (I'm disregarding the lyrics here, because that's the way I prefer to listen to music. Judging by the reviews, the lyrics easily bump this album to a 4 or higher.) Absent are the fresh organs and biting phrasing of Like A Rolling Stone, or the memorable melody of Mr Tambourine Man and Subterranean Homesick Blues. In addition, there's really a lack of variety and adventurousness (other than being one of the very first double-albums) – especially looking at it through a modern lens.
3/5
Key tracks: Just Like A Woman, I Want You, Absolutely Sweet Marie
Miles Davis
5/5
I do think this album is a little overrated in terms of raw sound and catchiness – but then, I reckon that's an artifact of (most of) the jazz genre. That being said, Kind Of Blue is fantastic in just about every other way. The talent and virtuosity presented here is insanely good – easily putting it on par with the likes of "rock-equivalents" Led Zeppelin or the Beatles, in the sense that every member of the band is contributing equally interesting, impassioned, and creative parts.
In fact, in some ways, Kind Of Blue (and well-played jazz in general) outperforms any kind of rock or pop imaginable. The restraint shown in the rhythm section, and in the horns, is undeniably tasteful. It makes you feel warm, comfortable, sophisticated... And, as other reviewers have mentioned, this music works in any setting. From close listening to a dinner party, from including it in a screenplay to playing it in the background while you seduce that girl you've had a crush on for years. It's pretty versatile. And its influence on both the jazz genre and the wider music scene cannot be understated.
For specific tracks: the quirky, high-energy feel of the first two tracks outshines the rest of the album by a decent margin. So What and Freddie Freeloader are by no means overwhelmingly complex, but they're played so goshdarn well – especially the solos, which are simple, elegant, and playful – that you're still sitting there thinking, "Man, I could never come up with that." The trumpet solos in these two pieces, as well as the remaining three, are particular highlights.
But then, as I'm relistening to the album, I'm realising that every instrument is a highlight. The bass, the drums, the sax, the piano... Shoot.
So, even though it's easy to zone out to this music (and cite boredom as a reason), all the other factors bring this straight up to a 5. Plus, is zoning out really a bad thing?
Key tracks: So What, Freddie Freeloader, Blue In Green
Public Enemy
1/5
Clearly these guys are skilled, but it's hard to enjoy the music when they seem to be actively shooting themselves in the foot at every step. The SFX soundbites include this very grating high-pitched loop that shows up relentlessly in most of the tracks. There's extremely little in the way of melody, harmonies/interesting chord progressions, any kind of acoustic or rhythmically engaging percussion, variation within or between the tracks, and so on. The album is essentially a 58-minute wall of angry political yelling and drums. Often hip-hop can make up for the lack of harmony and melody with complex rhythms, sampling from tracks with many acoustic/melodic instruments, or backing vocalists – but in this album, Public Enemy doesn't appear to do any of those.
These factors are very distracting from what's presumably an important political message. Apparently this album was meant to be, thematically, the hip-hop equivalent of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On". The latter pulled this off much better in just about every way. It Takes A Nation Of Millions... gets slight bonus points for being ahead of its time in the genre, but not impressively enough to push this beyond the 1/5 it deserves.
1/5
Key tracks: none
The Style Council
2/5
Weird album.
The track A Gospel is a strange turn of events, committing to the rare combination of jazz and rap. It's very ahead-of-the-curve for its release year, 1984. I kind of like it, though I could probably only take it in moderation. Strength Of Your Nature continues this odd "modernisation"-esque trend. I have no idea what to think of most of the latter half of this album. You're The Best Thing and My Ever Changing Moods, the two biggest tracks and my favourites on the album, are the only two standouts.
2/5
Key tracks: You're The Best Thing, My Ever Changing Moods
White Denim
3/5
An album that centres around guitars (both acoustic and electric) and some slightly inconsistent vocals. Sometimes the singing is fantastic and soulful, and other times – most times – it's slightly weak and nondescript. The music has a sort of soft rock-pop feel with a hint of country. Very layered, a little hard to follow, variety-show-esque. I got hints of psychedelic pop, which other reviewers also noticed. There isn't any particularly new ground covered, seeing that this was released in the 2010s and mishmash albums with an abundance of catchy guitar hooks had been done to death by this point.
All that being said, I really enjoyed listening to this album. Even though there were no particularly memorable tracks, every song made it into my "Liked" playlist.
3/5
Key tracks: Back at the Farm, Street Joy, Anvil Everything, Is and Is and Is
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
This music is heavily reminiscent of a live Beatles show, minus the thousands of giddy screaming girls. Even this Jerry Lee Lewis guy sounds pretty similar to Ringo Starr, especially on the tracks that both bands covered (Money and Long Tall Sally). In places, when I wasn't paying close attention, the resemblance became a little uncanny. Other than that, the music here is straightforward high-energy rock'n'roll. Lots of fast, repeated piano chords, often in high registers, make an appearance, as well as crash-heavy drums in the background and plenty of twelve-bar blues progressions. From the Wikipedia article, I get the impression that Jerry Lee Lewis had quite the stage presence, though it isn't as apparent in the audio recording.
I'll try not to let the fact that he's a horrible person affect my rating. (Hence the bonus 3 stars.)
3/5
Key tracks: Great Balls Of Fire, Good Golly Miss Molly, Long Tall Sally
Mike Oldfield
3/5
Something about this feels very pretentious. Mike Oldfield, through the music, constantly insists that, "Hey, this bit is cool too. And this instrument. And this little melody that you'll be hearing for the next seven business minutes. Spiffing! Hey, did you know that I played 27 different instruments on this album?" During one extended segment of Tubular Bells - Pt. I, he even announces the new instruments as they appeared. This actually would've been pretty funny if the music wasn't taking itself seriously, but I get the feeling it was.
In addition, this guy needs to learn about variation over a theme. Some of the musical motifs are pretty good, but they get stale quickly when you play them on repeat for several minutes with the only variation being the entry of a mandolin or a Spanish guitar. This could've been improved with some more pronounced variation in dynamics, texture, maybe some lyrics... but then, this serves its purpose as a soundtrack, so what can you do?
The second side of the album is mostly stronger than the first – has kind of a medieval feel with all the overlapping arpeggios – but that gets fairly old after the first five minutes or so. (I'm a Gen Z guy. My attention span is low. Give me more drama!) Then we get to the grunting part at around 12 minutes in, and it's all over.
Maybe I just don't get prog rock.
Edit 4/1/25: This is way better (and revolutionary) than I gave it credit for. Bumping my rating from 2 to 3 stars.
3/5
Key tracks: Tubular Bells - Pt. II
The Fall
2/5
I’m not sure that I’ve had another album be brought down quite so violently by its vocalist. Without the singing (which I’ll get to), we have a sort of post-punk (or possibly Britpop) style of instrumental, with the main focus being nicely distorted electric guitars riffing over one-bar patterns. A little jam-sessiony for my taste, given that it’s been judged one of the 1001 most important/influential albums of all time, but I’ll let it slide. There’s a sprinkle of grunge in there, suggesting a possible influence from Nirvana or other contemporaries. The drumming is fairly strong, having fills every so often that perk me up and keep me engaged with the music.
The main downfall of The Infotainment Scan is, of course, the vocal. Rhythmically, it sounds like the guy’s at least trying to pull off a decent melody, but his pitch is very conversational and droning in a really unappealing way. Some people like this style of singing, but I'm willing to bet most don’t, seeing how aurally frustrating the lack of commitment to a melody is. The singer also has a habit of ending words with “ah”, making him sound like a particularly enthusiastic drunk. The vocal is mixed loudly, making it unavoidable in many of the tracks that are otherwise really strong. I’m reminded of Slang Of Ages, the sole Steely Dan track sung by guitarist Walter Becker, and how it’s generally considered one of the weakest tracks by the band because of the very off-kilter, off-key sing-talking. The Infotainment Scan is a fifty-minute-extended cut of that. (What’s not to like?)
2/5
Key tracks: Lost In Music, Im Going To Spain, Ladybird
The Go-Go's
4/5
I really liked this! Upbeat, refreshing, new-wavey pop with some hints of (classic) rock scattered throughout. The two singles from the album – Our Lips Are Sealed and We Got The Beat – are the two strongest tracks overall, but the entire album maintains the energy of those songs very consistently. The most noticeable common thread is the peppy vocals, which admittedly aren't the most technically good voices out there, but make up for it with sheer 80s girl-group energy and some fun overlapping harmonies that never failed to bore me. The music is deceptively simple; when listening closely, I heard quite a few rhythmic doodads (particularly in the drums) that pop music of that era often shies away from.
The main thing bringing this album down from 5 to 4 is exactly what brings a lot of these down: a combination of overcommitment to a particular style (i.e. not enough versatility) and datedness (some of these lyrics and musical tidbits are almost jarringly "of their time", and not necessarily in a good way).
4/5
Key tracks: We Got The Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed, How Much More, Lust To Love
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Behold, one of the most likeable figures in the music world! Stevie Wonder is fantastic, and his music pretty much never fails to deliver. Innervisions has a versatile yet consistently high-quality setlist, with great high-energy blues-rock tracks like Living For The City, Higher Ground, Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing... I could go on. There aren't any bad tracks on here, though a couple are slightly forgettable because of a lack of any obvious musical hooks to keep the listener engaged. But the stronger tracks are interesting, exciting, soulful, and sung from the heart.
According to my research, Innervisions is also a creative and musical milestone in Stevie Wonder's career. This album is the end of a transitional phase from mostly 60s-style ballads (and the "Little Stevie Wonder" persona) to a mature, musically complex, and self-performed style. And that self-performed element is a big one. Stevie Wonder plays nearly all the instruments on nearly all the songs here, and this sets the agenda for the albums to follow.
Great singing. Great horns. Great guitar and bass. Great jazz-rock-jam drumming.
5/5
Key tracks: Living For The City, Higher Ground, Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, He's Misstra Know-It-All, Too High
The Stranglers
2/5
I'm not a fan of punk, even punk on the higher-quality end like Rattus Norvegicus. Normally my complaint (about punk) would be that nothing is catchy or played well, though I will give a shoutout to The Stranglers' organ and bass playing, which is pretty fire throughout. The organ makes it feel like something from The Doors. But the band falls apart with the drumming and vocals, which feel uninspired and bland – just enough so that the music fades into the background as repetitive Brit-punky stuff that doesn't engage me. The general positive reception in the other reviews surprises me. I'll grant that the bass and organ particularly stand out in Hanging Around and Peaches – the two best tracks by a significant margin – but most other tracks fall a bit flat for me.
Additionally, the band as a whole has this stylistic superiority complex that I'm not a fan of. Between the lines: "My lyrics are sexist and also anti-establishment and also we're cool blokes with leather jackets who like to beat up our fans in the middle of a song." (Weird flex.)
That being said, the listening experience wasn't actively bad like some other albums on this list.
2/5
Key tracks: Hanging Around, Peaches
The Hives
2/5
Not a huge fan, although some of the earlier tracks showed promise. Hate To Say I Told You So is a strong album opener, almost verging into pop territory with its infectious guitar riff and glowing, colourful chord progression. But (most of) the rest of the album commits to a much less enjoyable version of that first song, with net-positive tracks being few and far between. The sound is kind of Rolling Stones meets Strokes meets very-very-weak-post-punk, and it's mostly the latter.
The singing is clearly imitating the more "crazed" side of the punk movement, featuring a lot of off-pitch shouting and screaming, caveman drums (a bit faster though. maybe "caveman in a hurry".), and a heavily distorted guitar-bass combo. It definitely would've riled up the teenage crowds back in the 70s, but it's weirdly out of place in the 21st century, and I can't say it's covered any new ground.
2/5
Key tracks: Hate To Say I Told You So, Untutored Youth, Here We Go Again
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
Is it blasphemy to say that I think this album is really overrated by most of the reviewers here? Sure, Cyndi Lauper was a far-reaching, flamboyant act that spoke to millions of music lovers (especially teens) in the 80s – but is her music really as good as her legacy suggests?
Maybe not. Lauper's vocal, while powerful, quirky, and memorable, does not provide good material for an album's worth of music. After the first 20 minutes or so, her voice starts getting a bit abrasive – and of course you're only halfway through the album at that point. Combined with the overactive synths, electronic drumbeats, and backing vocalists, we have a product that's very much larger-than-life and a little exhausting to follow completely. But Lauper's music is a goshdarn fun time, I'll give it that. It's impossible to hate this woman.
3/5
Key tracks: Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time, All Through The Night
Kraftwerk
4/5
This music reminds me of the colourful synthy-ness pioneered (arguably) by several Pink Floyd projects – including Any Colour You Like from The Dark Side Of The Moon and the entirety of the Wish You Were Here Album. The overlapping synthscapes here are clearly inspired by one of the best aspects of mid-career Floyd (and a lot of 70s prog rock). It's certainly the highlight of the album, and justifies some of the long track runtimes by kind of mesmerising the listener in most of the songs. Neon Lights may actually be the best track here, because despite its lack of catchy lyrical hooks, it takes you on a dizzying techno-journey that lets you forget about silly human-run reality. Sometimes you'll get bands that can't quite pull off the electro-trend (see: mid-80s Queen) but then MJ, Rush, and other 70s/80s bands – including Kraftwerk – prove that the genre has potential.
There are a few things that bring this down. For one, the vocal is quite deadpan, which is either hilarious or lazy depending on what mood you're in. I personally don't mind it, but I can see how some people would, given the incredible vocals of 70s music contemporaries. Additionally, most of the tracks are six to eight minutes long, and there's little in the way of variation within each. This is a bit of a sin for me, but at least it doesn't verge into prog rock (dangerous territory).
Every bit as good as Autobahn, another Kraftwerk release that's also included on this list.
4/5
Key tracks: The Robots, Neon Lights
The Flaming Lips
2/5
Kind of an odd experience. I wasn't really able to connect with the music, though that's not to say it was unpleasant. The production and mixing is solid, the use of strings is decent (if a little too standard and non-boundary-pushing), and the layering does give the impression that this should be really good music. However, there are too many flaws to justify any medium-to-high rating. As many reviewers have noticed, the vocalist is quite bad, having a promising timbre but with half the notes being very off-pitch. (This gets really distracting as early as the opening track, Race for the Prize (Remix) – which is also the strongest on the album.) The instrument-playing is not impressive/virtuosic in any capacity. Additionally, a lack of solid hooks really holds the music back.
There's not too much to say here. The Soft Bulletin is fine, but nothing special.
2/5
Key tracks: Race for the Prize, Waitin' for a Superman
Girls Against Boys
1/5
An exhausting and pointless listen. The main culprit here is the singing: your typical gravelly, undertrained garage/death-metal timbre. Like nails on a chalkboard. Like unsanded brass against unsanded brass. Like Kurt Cobain with a dead squirrel lodged in his throat. It's bad. Even though the instrumentation is your standard rock lineup, it sounds brazenly amateur, and even the players seems to concede this fact through their repetitive and uncohesive sound. If this were written and released as a kind of satirical statement about how low record labels sometimes stoop in order to get something released, I think I could forgive Girls Against Boys for this release. But unfortunately, I think they're serious.
The one-two "punch" (really a halfhearted nudge) of Bullet Proof Cupid / 7 Seas is a welcome breath of fresh air towards the album's conclusion, notably having some catchy guitar/bass riffs to drive a slightly more cohesive sound. But overall, I can't see myself ever listening through the album again to reach that point. We aren't getting to Venus Luxure No. 2, baby.
1/5
Key tracks: Bullet Proof Cupid, In Like Flynn
Van Morrison
5/5
I loved listening to this. It's a lively fusion, of rock, blues, soul, and singer-songwriter, with Van Morrison himself being the star performer. Morrison's voice is punchy, powerful, and surprisingly unique (given the enormous number of vocalists in the soul scene by the 1970s). He varies his tone from tender to wild to mournful, and everything between, throughout the album's tracks. The drumming is usually light, swung, and very committed to a jazz sound (this is good). The acoustic guitar is lovely, drifting in and out of the mix as appropriate; similar comment about backing vocals, brass, and other "guest" instruments like the flute in the title track.
Every song on side 1 is utterly fantastic. And sure, the latter half of the album is a little more forgettable, but it maintains the sound/stylistic quality of the first half and keeps me wanting more.
5/5
Key tracks: And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Crazy Love, Caravan, Into The Mystic
Lambchop
2/5
Poor Nixon. If this is his legacy, then, coupled with Watergate, you really gotta feel for the guy. He was only trying to purge all the hippies, prolong the Vietnam War for as long as possible, increase organised crime rates by attempting to prohibit drugs and alienate drug users, and employ espionage to sabotage the plans of the Democratic National Committee. Simple pleasures.
This album wasn't particularly a simple pleasure, though that's not to say it didn't have any positive aspects. The vocal alternates between a very weak timbre that can only be described as "generic-old-man-hunched-over-guitar"-voice and its significantly stronger/younger counterpart. And for what it's worth, some songs with the latter vocal are actually pretty good. The four track run of You Masculine You / Up With People / Nashville Parent / What Else Could It Be shows some vestiges of cohesive songwriting, incorporating some nice guitar and string hooks to engage the listener. The backing vocals, when they appear, are a nice atmospheric touch. I paid essentially zero attention to the lyrics (as I normally do), but there's some chance they were poetic. There's really no way of knowing.
Typing this part a day later, though, the album just isn't particularly memorable – apart from the really discomforting old-man singing in about half the tracks.
2/5
Key tracks: You Masculine You, Up With People
MGMT
3/5
This is pretty good and creative music, but it also gives me terrible flashbacks of wandering through department stores with my mom back in the late 2000s. (I tried to ignore that when listening.)
I like the modern pop take on the "wall of sound" technique. A chorus of vocalists and light synths that, individually, aren't anything impressive – but as a group, they sound bright, heroic, unified. It's hard to describe. But the best tracks are the ones that embrace this fresh, modern sound, including Time to Pretend, Kids, and Of Moons, Birds & Monsters.
There were exactly two tracks – Pieces of What and Future Reflections – that were noticeably worse than the others simply because they stopped committing to this "choral"/wall-of-sound technique, and it became more obvious that these musicians aren't nearly as good as their smokescreening might suggest. This was especially noticeable in the vocal, which was wavery and technically bad when it was by itself. In other tracks, like Weekend Wars, the instrumental was uplifting and well-mixed enough to mitigate the poor solo singing. (Is this being a little harsh? Maybe.)
3/5
Key tracks: Kids, Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, Of Moons Birds & Monsters
Thelonious Monk
3/5
It's jazz, and at this point it'll have to do something seriously crazy (for better or worse) to sway me away from a 3/5 rating. The beginning of the opening/title track is a little worrying because, rhythm-wise, it feels almost free-jazz-like with the percussive uncertainty and lack of cemented rhythm. But then it hits its stride after a minute or two, and it's smooth sailing from there. Most of the remainder of the album is bouncy, joyful, unassuming jazz played by some of the genre's legends (including, of course, the great Thelonious Monk himself). But no track in particular really stands out. The sax and piano playing, particularly the sax solos (which are extremely plentiful), are fantastic, particularly in the title track and Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are; however, they're absent in the remaining three tracks, which are largely piano instrumental ballads. The lack of album flow isn't ideal and takes away from the listening experience.
3/5
Key tracks: none
Jacques Brel
3/5
The opening track (Amsterdam) is intense - it kind of has the chord progression of Greensleeves but with the addition of some seriously cool/dramatic singing and timpani-like drums punctuating it. About half of the remaining tracks follow the same lines, with the more upbeat, intense ones being the highlights. The ballads, on the other hand, are kind of lost on me - excluding the string parts, which are pretty good. "Le plat pays" is a track which would be a complete throwaway without the strings in the latter half (though honestly, it's still probably a throwaway regardless).
As an aside, this musical style is exactly what comes to mind when someone says "French 60s music". The accordions probably don't help to break down the stereotype.
I'm giving this a slightly higher rating than I would've initially, because as another reviewer pointed out, it's hard to judge this without understanding the nuances of the language, since Brel is known for his wit and turn-of-phrase.
3/5
Key tracks: Amsterdam, Les timides, Tango Funebre
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
2/5
Some claim this album hugely popularised the blues genre. I call utter bologna, because even by 1966 standards, this kind of music is massively overdone. And an entire album filled with 12-bar blues (half of the tracks all in the same key) isn't doing the music any favours.
Sure, it sounds fine, but it also has that '60s unpolished feel that makes the band appear more unprofessional than anything else. With a more interesting mix of genres, a la Revolver or other contemporary albums, they could've gotten away having unsteady mixing and performance – but here, they don't quite cut it. The piano (appearing in many of the tracks) is probably the highlight. The singing is fine, though I slightly prefer the instrumental tracks to the ones with lyrics. I have such an intense and rightful grudge against Eric Clapton as a person that all of his music is irreparably tainted even if it's played well, so I can't really say I loved his guitar cameo.
As with a lot of my recent album reviews, I'm probably being too harsh here. But Clapton deserves it. Take that, little racist anti-vax guitar boy.
2/5
Key tracks: All Your Love, Have You Heard, Little Girl
2/5
Too ambient and aimless to really be noteworthy. It isn't bad, but for an album released just 25 years ago, only the most influential/important music should genuinely qualify for "1001 albums you must hear before you die", and I don't see anything particularly influential here. Clearly (judging by number of listens), Spotify listeners don't either. In fact, São Paulo Confessions feels mostly like a vague and uninspired continuation of Latin American music from decades prior (with a little electronic sound sprinkled in to remind you that this ain't no 60s throwaway – it's a 90s throwaway). Props to Suba, I guess, for capturing this sound accurately.
Felicidade is probably the track that intrigued me the most and had the more enjoyable electronic contributions. Those quiet pulsing synths are fun, and the singing is solid. The opening track, Tantos Desejos, is good for similar reasons. Most of the remainder of the album blended together for me.
2/5
Key tracks: Tantos Desejos, Felicidade
Prince
3/5
Solid, but I do feel that Prince is more hyped up by my rose-coloured-glasses-wearing Gen X parents than it should be. 1999 (and Prince's discography as a whole) speaks to a post-disco generation who's still interested in this whole moonwalking/showboating gig. There are some great electronic sounds here, and that's the main highlight. Almost comedically 80s-sounding for pretty much the entire runtime. Throughout this "1001 Albums" project, I've really warmed up to musicians who wholeheartedly embrace that feel.
That being said: the songs are far too long, having an average track length of more than 6 minutes (and some reaching almost 10 minutes). Disco and post-disco have a habit of doing this – presumably because it works well in a club-music context – but during close listening the songs get a little repetitive. The title track is the only one that really gets away with being this long, though it could still be shaved to half its runtime and I'd be happy. I get the feeling this album would've been excellent for live touring.
3/5
Key tracks: 1999, Little Red Corvette, Lady Cab Driver
Steely Dan
5/5
Muahahahaha... Steely Dan. This is my dojo.
A big step up from their debut album, particularly if you're a fan of the jazz-rock fusion genre they'd eventually cling to in their later works. Gone are the fun but cliched radio hits of Do It Again and Dirty Work, and instead we get a diverse whirlwind of jams, miniature-prog projects, and some truly epic solos (mostly on guitar). And only a year later! And, for 1973, it sounds completely different from anything released before it.
Man, there's just so much to like here. From the crazed slam-dunk opener of Bodhisattva to the glowing pseudo-pop Razor Boy with its unpredictable harmonies and percussive bells, to the extended shredding solos in The Boston Rag and Your Gold Teeth, to the brassy joy and snarkiness of My Old School... Big shoutout, too, to King Of The World, one of the more underrated Steely Dan tracks – for its excellent synth solos, floaty/psychedelic guitar lines, jolting chorus harmonies, and a very odd lyrical theme for Dan standards. Normally their lyrics are tutorials on how to prepare high-quality meth or about the regret of hiring a pair of 19-year-old prostitutes, but here we have this post-apocalyptic theme more akin to something by R.E.M. It's a great closer to a great album.
The two weakest tracks here are probably Pearl Of The Quarter (the line "voulez voulez voulez vous" being its only real notable moment) and Show Biz Kids (that weird whiny shouting towards the end emphasises my feelings about a 5-minute jam over one chord and the backing vocalists repeating "lost wages" for its entire duration). And I guess the album art is kind of goofy. But the music is so darn fun to listen to that you can't really fault ol' Don and Walt.
5/5
Key tracks: Bodhisattva, Razor Boy, Your Gold Teeth, My Old School, King Of The World
Kate Bush
5/5
This album was such an odd, magical experience, and nothing else I've heard sounds quite like it. I almost gave it a 4, mostly because I caught my attention drifting during some of the slower tracks. I'm also not a fan of the 80s production gloss that obscures some truly brilliant material. But eventually my mind was changed. The vocalising here is distinctively Kate Bush, and the real highlight of the album - along with the strings, which are generally excellent (Under Ice, Cloudbusting, the title track). The album keeps throwing surprises, twists, and turns at you, whether it be reversed octave-harmonised singing in Watching You Without Me, the exciting medieval battle-esque fiddles in Jig Of Life, or the beautiful overlapping piano and acoustic guitar in And Dream Of Sheep.
Kate Bush is honestly one of the most badass artists of the 80s. She pulls off this powerful aura with her voice, songwriting, and experimentation, inspiring the likes of Bjork and other atmosphere-experimental female artists of the 90s and early 00s.
5/5
Key tracks: Running Up That Hill, Hounds Of Love, And Dream Of Sheep, Jig Of Life, Cloudbusting
Joan Armatrading
3/5
This is good music, but it's a bit anonymous, especially for the 70s, when this is more of a 50s genre. In general, I prefer to give high ratings to "genre renaissance" albums only if they bring something really new and special to the table, and I don't think Joan Armatrading quite accomplishes this. It (at least the first half) absolutely sounds like an Ella Fitzgerald release from the 40s or 50s, with better production and maybe a little more country-focused.
That being said, the soul in Armatrading's vocal is undeniable, and the strings and horns complement her well. The acoustic guitar playing is incredibly groovy in certain tracks too, including Like Fire. The songwriting could use some work - there aren't particularly many hooks to make the individual songs memorable - but you can't really make bad music in this style. There's a reason this genre (which is sort of a blend of funk, country, and soul) had been done to death by the mid-70s and continues to be reasonably beloved in the present day.
3/5
Key tracks: Down To Zero, Help Yourself, Like Fire
Solomon Burke
2/5
The vocal production, as with many albums from the early 60s, is poor. It's impossible to ignore once you've noticed it. The quality is pretty low, and the audio peaks every single time Solomon Burke pulls out his soulful wail. And, in a rare turn of events, the backing singers are even worse than the main vocalist (for the same reason: production). It probably doesn't help that one of the higher-range backing vocalists is frequently out of tune. The overall production in this album is questionable, and it detracts noticeably from the listening experience. The lyrics are love-cliched to the point of obscurity.
The album does drag a bit in terms of musical themes and styles, not really deviating from a crooning sort of soul for its 35-minute runtime. This lack of diversity was the norm for late 50s and early 60s albums in the UK and US. As another reviewer wrote, early 60s music is "like taking a trip to a forgotten era, one that’s kind of familiar, but also completely foreign. Having been released in 1964, this record is closer to the familiar than to completely foreign, but, it feels…old. Like if you could listen to music in black and white." In fact, the production makes this feel even older - like something from the 40s. It's not impressive for its time.
Now for the positives. The songs, in isolation, are well-written. I imagine a lot of artists covered this guy, and the general boomer populace most likely knows a few of these tunes (possibly without knowing the guy's name). The opening track, Cry to Me, is easily the main highlight, having a fun little bass guitar-lead guitar back-and-forth as a hook.
2/5
Key tracks: Cry to Me, If You Need Me, Someone to Love Me
The Fall
2/5
It's a coinflip between a 2 or a 3 for me. On the one hand, it's punk, and very low-effort punk at that. By the late 70s, few bands were on such tight schedules that they genuinely had to record albums in timeframes as short as one day. In general, I don't enjoy projects that have low effort. (It's one reason why I'm so critical of the punk genre.) Also, whoever's on lead vocals has that unbearable drunken monotone that crops up in pretty much every new British rock band in the late 70s. I refuse to grow numb to this. They're competing with the likes of 70s-era Queen (which some of you are giving 2s and 1s for some reason), and I refuse to lower my standards too far below the late great Mercury's voice.
On the other hand, I caught myself tapping my foot a few times. The music on Live At The Witch Trials is surprisingly catchy, especially when you've just completed a couple of difficult uni assignments and you're feeling particularly anti-establishment. The riffs, played on a janky and jangly sounding electric guitar, are actually pretty solid. The singing is absolutely terrible, but then who needs a good singer anyway?
(Wait a minute. I need a good singer. Who am I kidding?)
2/5
Key tracks: Frightened, Rebellious Jukebox, Mother - Sister!
John Cale
3/5
I would describe most of this as gentle, slightly sappy orchestral rock that didn't really make me feel one way or the other in terms of enjoyment. Those kinds of albums usually warrant a 2/5 from me, and normally this would be no exception. But then we arrive at the killer title track, with its infectious string arrangement and excellent "la-la" singalong hook, and my rating is raised (almost singlehandedly) to a 3/5. Child's Christmas In Wales is another strong track for its festive carol-esque sound. Notable instruments on several tracks include the glowing strings and organs, as well as the simple yet expressive bass and drums.
But the weaker tracks definitely bring this down. The song Macbeth has little to show aside from the horrible mixing of an already fairly weak vocal, plus some brash electric guitars to drown the guy's voice out. Hanky Panky Nohow and The Endless Plain Of Fortune bring out Cale's voice more clearly but the compositions (and the voice itself) are nothing to write home about.
3/5
Key tracks: Child's Christmas In Wales, Paris 1919
Beatles
5/5
For about a year, back in 2020, this was my favourite album of all time. Here's why:
Years of stressful touring, tens of thousands of screaming fans sacrificing their dignity/lives to get to you, a goofy comment about being more popular than Jesus leading to the most powerful country in the world turning against you. That's what the Beatles were wrapped up in. It's no wonder they started taking LSD in addition to heavy use of cannabis. The LSD had the side effect of creating some of the best 2-minute pop of the 60s.
Taxman is the Beatles' first time opening an album with a George Harrison-penned track, and it's rock-solid. Jam-packed with distorted guitars, biting lyrics, and brash, infectious basslines, there's really nothing to complain about here. The "ah-ah, Mr Wilson" and "ah-ah, Mr Heath" backing vocals are one of the many tricks pulled out of the Beatles' collective hat here.
Then we move onto Eleanor Rigby, a depressingly stark reminder that people like Eleanor Rigby, me, and others exist everywhere. One of the earliest uses of strings in a definitively rock-genre song, and it sounds fantastic. The contrast between staccato and legato string playing in the chorus is great. And other than the strings, there's just Paul McCartney and his more-nasally-than-usual vocal (he was sick during recording).
"Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name / Nobody came / Father MacKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave / No one was saved / All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" Harrowing stuff.
I'm Only Sleeping - one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of reversed guitar in a pop song. There's an entire solo built around this and it really adds to the slow, swung, dreamy mood of the piece. Also, fun little bass licks bookending those music breaks. They're three for three so far, these Liverpudlian lads.
Love You To is a track I feel gets too much hate simply for being wildly outside the Beatles' pre-1966 sound. I think it's a solid fusion of sounds from Indian classical and British rock (cool instrumentation especially), and George's vocal melody is super fun.
Here, There, and Everywhere is gorgeous. Apparently it was Paul's "reply" to the Beach Boys' gentle yet revolutionary Pet Sounds, released a few months before this album, as part of the two bands' ongoing rivalry. It's a huge standout track in the Beatles' discography as a whole, particularly the chord progression, which is a masterclass in harmony by itself.
Yellow Submarine is unequivocally the weakest track on the album, but that's not to say it's bad. On the contrary, it's probably the catchiest song released by the band that year (if not in their entire discography). Everybody knows Yellow Submarine. The "band begin[ning] to play" is the best part of the song.
She Said She Said features some distorted, layered guitars, giving a very distinctive texture that would feature in many later Beatles tracks (including some others later on Revolver). There's so much going on here sonically that it's easier just to bask in the incredible harmonic work between the guitars and vocals, along with Ringo's crash-heavy percussion.
Flip over the record and we come to Good Day Sunshine, an upbeat pop track centred around a very low piano register. What is it about low-register pianos that makes music sound comedic? This song makes me want to laugh, prance about, remember this song's lyrics don't really apply to me, and then sit down glumly and acknowledge the lack of a nearby presence.
And Your Bird Can Sing, one of John Lennon's best Beatles tracks (despite the nonsense he spouted about it being a throwaway). The distorted, self-harmonising lead guitar line is brilliant, the vocal harmonies are on-point, and whoever's doing that tambourine at the end should probably be fired. (It's pretty low in the mix, though, don't worry.)
This is taking too long to write, so I'll make this quick. For No One is a short, to-the-point ballad that is so simple and elegant that it may just be in my top 5 Beatles tracks. Doctor Robert's guitar riff is maybe a little annoying, but that middle organ section is a moment of spiritual ascension. I Want To Tell You has that great tritone+semitone clash in the piano part that some people apparently hate but I personally love. Got To Get You Into My Life is energetic, brassy, and has an excellent one-liner chorus, as well as a brilliant final section where the guitars take over for the trumpets. Tomorrow Never Knows still sounds like the future even 58 years later, with some of Ringo's best drumming to date, heavily edited guitars(?) that are made to sound like gulls, a pedal tone, an indecipherable lyric (LSD), and some stunning surround-sound mixing. What a freaking awesome album.
Of course, as with every sane Beatles fan, I eventually started to prefer Abbey Road over Revolver. But the latter has this brilliant energy and raw creativity that I'll never forget.
5/5
Key tracks: all, pretty much
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Not as good as Peter Gabriel 1, which is also on this list. Some interesting and mildly progressive sounds here, particularly with drumming and synths, but anticipating 80s as a musical decade isn't exactly something to boast about unless you're seriously ahead of your time. Biko is the star track here primarily because its sound strays away from that of earlier songs into something intense, exciting, and (probably) revolutionary.
3/5
Key tracks: Biko, Games Without Frontiers, Intruders
Q-Tip
2/5
Q-Tip's The Renaissance sounds like your typical 2000s rap, heavily laden with one-bar loops over a monotone vocal delivery, miscellaneous DJ/quirky techy sound effects, and (unnecessary) nods to other contemporary hip-hop artists. This "triple threat" has been done to death, and it doesn't get particularly better over time, no matter how many artists give it a whirl.
With this record, Q-Tip tries to go for a sort of "smooth jazz" approach to the hip-hop genre, in particular making use of crooning vocals, some interesting instrument harmonies, and some fun piano and bass lines here and there. If these had been a little more varied, my rating would've been raised to a 3 (or even higher). The track Gettin Up is the standout in terms of instruments, having some pretty good backing vocals, an infectious piano riff, and one of the best/funkiest bass parts I've heard in hip-hop. The album never really reaches this height again, and is mostly repetitive monotonous filler.
The album cover is pretty cool. Nice 70s/80s "future-teque" vibe.
2/5
Key tracks: WeFight/WeLove, Get Up, Johnny Is Dead
Radiohead
4/5
Yeah, even as a long-time Radiohead fan, I can't let myself give every album of theirs 5 stars - not even to offset some of the mind-boggling 1- and 2-star reviews on here. This project is Radiohead's wild, bloated whirlwind - and after enough listens, it starts to hit pretty dang hard. Every track is charming in its own way, even the two-track dip of We Suck Young Blood and The Gloaming, and (contrary to the band's own opinion) I wouldn't cut any tracks out. Truly the White Album of Radiohead (and possibly of alternative rock overall, considering how big this album was upon its release).
There's a paragraph from another reviewer that really resonated with me here:
"So yeah, there's a lot going on here. Not all of it works, it's bumpy tempo transition-wise, and some of it just isn't even palatable the first time around. But despite its flaws, the LP presents such a logical step in the band's discography and overall sound that it shines in context (and honestly presents some experimental pathways I wish the band had followed). I don't fault anybody who hates this on first listen or just doesn't get it - an album that requires understanding an entire band's output to 'get' isn't perfect by a long shot. For me, though, I keep coming back to this runt of the litter LP that wears its 'Scatterbrain' on its sleeve and finding things new to love about this band."
Seriously, though, whoever's calling Radiohead "boring" with the ridiculously intricate instrumentation, rhythms, chords/harmonies, and melodic lines has to be kidding themselves. A song doesn't have to be catchy to be engaging, but half of these are catchy anyway, and several of them made my "key tracks" list. The outro to 2+2=5 is explosive and packed with energy, as is the outro of the following track, Sit Down, Stand Up. The exciting country-esque acoustic guitar of Go To Sleep is also worth mentioning, and the chorus of A Wolf At the Door is as great as choruses can reasonably get. We hear an eclectic mix of styles from all throughout the band's career to that point - including The Bends-era, OK Computer-era, and Kid A / Amnesiac-era instrumentation and mood. I appreciate the overarching theme of the authoritarian government patting you on the head and telling you it'll be okay. Who doesn't like free pats?
4/5
Key tracks: 2+2=5, Sail To The Moon, Go To Sleep, There, There, A Wolf At the Door
Green Day
4/5
A solid album – one of the better punk entries on the list – just slightly edging out American Idiot as the strongest "well-known" Green Day album. The album seems less full of itself, less insistent upon itself (as the famous saying goes). It exists, first and foremost, to provide a clean, energetic punk-rock sound – rather than prioritising proving its own cleverness. This is something that American Idiot fell prey to, though that album was still very good.
So, Dookie. A sharp, consistent, relatively simple-sounding (particularly in terms of harmonies and instrumentation) setlist, with a surprisingly good ratio of meat to filler. In fact, upon a first listen, I'd argue that there was essentially zero filler – except maybe the closing track All by Myself, which is a goofy little aside that probably should've gotten the chop. Save that kind of lo-fi acoustic fluff for breathtaking swansong projects like Abbey Road (though even in that context, Her Majesty is questionable).
My favourite tracks are also the ones with the most Spotify listens: Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case, Longview, When I Come Around... Seems like Green Day fans (and to an extent, the musical public) know their stuff.
4/5
Key tracks: Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case, When I Come Around
Guns N' Roses
5/5
I loved listening to this. Of course, I recognised half the tracks despite never having actively listened to Gun N' Roses, but it was still an exciting, raw, libido-fuelled journey that showcased every instrument's potential. This is especially true for the vocals. Axl Rose, like Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, has a great rock scream that toes the line between high-pitched and gritty. And there are so many great vocal and guitar hooks, making just about every track easily re-listenable. Paradise City, Welcome To The Jungle, Nightrain, Mr. Brownstone, It's So Easy... Then, of course, there's the star track – not just of the band, but (arguably) of all of 80s rock – namely, Sweet Child O' Mine. I think it's safe to say that there's nothing bad about this track (in isolation), and everything good. The semi-distorted, semi-melancholic guitar riff, the wistful lyrics, the stadium-rocker chorus. Quite good eh?
Sure, half of these are played to death on rock radio stations, but can you really blame them? There's such a raw power in every instrument here, all brought together into a monster of an album that can absolutely stand up against other giants of the rock genre.
Side note: "It's overplayed" is not a good criticism of any form of music. Don't give a 1-star review if that's your only justification.
5/5
Key tracks: Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, Mr. Brownstone, It's So Easy, Nightrain, Welcome To The Jungle
Pavement
3/5
By all means this should be a 4- or 5-star album for me, genre-wise, but something didn't click for me. The songs aren't particularly memorable, generally lacking any real hooks, riffs, or singability – excluding some standouts like Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz, and Range Life. The singing is pretty lacklustre, though the guitar-playing mostly makes up for it. I'm a big fan of the acoustic guitar in Range Life (it really defines the track) and the simple yet stylish distortion in the guitar and (partially) the drumming.
The main thing that really brings this down is the vocals in several particular tracks. In Newark Wilder, Stop Breathin, and Heaven Is a Truck, the singing is done quite lazily and atonally, almost giving the impression of an untalented band. But clearly these guys have talent (exhibit A: the instrumental track 5-4=Unity). I'm giving a generous 3 stars because I think this band is better than they're letting on.
3/5
Key tracks: Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz, 5-4=Unity
Elvis Costello
3/5
My first time hearing Costello was in December of last year, with the album "This Year's Model" with his band The Attractions. This isn't quite as strong. Something about his voice frustrates me, like it's in an uncanny valley between a few other, better vocalists. He sounds *kind of* like Billy Joel, the better Elvis, the Strokes, and a few other rock bands from various eras mashed together. Another problem, related to that one, is that the music doesn't really bring anything new to the party, other than some decent compositions. The style is an odd sort of soft-punk, with clear 50s/60s R&B and rock influences. (My friend and I argued briefly about whether this counted as rock, and we couldn't come to an agreement. But being "genreless" isn't necessarily a good thing.) There's a lot of filler music and poor mixing on the album too.
As for the positives: Watching The Detectives, Alison, Red Shoes, and Less Than Zero are really fun little tunes, especially when paying attention to the instrumentals only. Watching The Detectives has a great bassline that really holds the song together. Alison is an enjoyable sort of chill power pop, featuring a chorus that sounds exactly how you'd expect based on the title and genre. Throughout the album, the guitar and drums are generally pretty good, and the bass is pretty killer.
3/5
Key tracks: Alison, (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, Less Than Zero, Watching The Detectives
Dr. John
2/5
Not really my thing. I can see the innovation, and I can also disagree (with most reviewers, it seems) about it sounding good. The 60s-quality production isn't doing Dr John any favours, particularly on the vocals, which self-distort at almost every volume. The lead vocals are mixed completely differently to the backing ones, creating an odd aural disconnect that's very distracting once you notice it. The instrumentation is very pulled back, focused mostly on a heavily acoustic and lo-fi percussion section (which actually does sounds pretty good). The guitar playing is incredibly retro even for its time, with licks and strumming patterns sounding like they date back to the 1910s or even earlier, but it's also passable (if very dated and odd-sounding).
I'll give Dr John this, though: Gris Gris doesn't sound actively bad or boring. In fact, I was pretty intrigued during the entire 33-minute listen. It's fun when this list allows you to discover genres you couldn't have even conceived of. I'd love to see this style revisited with better production and with some stronger compositions and musicians backing it up.
A slight improvement on Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict".
2/5
Key tracks: I Walk on Guilded Splinters, Mama Roux
Manic Street Preachers
1/5
Pessimism won't get you far, even in the realm of music. I'm not an advocate for it, particularly when it drives all the focus into the lyrics and none into the actual sound. The music is very brash, unrefined, and there's little for the ear to grab onto so that you can recognise and predict the music later on. The (rhythm) guitar playing, in particular, is punky, heavily distorted noise that probably should have been taken out. The lead and bass are fine but nothing notable. Even the lyrics – so dark, grim, and utterly depressing that they're surely the focus of the album – are next to impossible to discern without straight up Googling them. The lyrical enunciation is poor even for post-punk/alt-rock standards, and the melodies aren't exactly memorable or catchy either. Sure, the lyrics themselves definitely come from the heart, but given the quality of the package they're delivered in, I'd rather just read them from an agitated political revolutionary's memoir.
The Holy Bible isn't necessarily actively bad like other 1-star albums on this list, but it has very little good going for it. I can't think of much to compliment, and there aren't any standout tracks. She Is Suffering and 4st 7lb are maybe the only tracks I partially liked, but I couldn't tell you why. Maybe the chorus of 4st 7lb was kind of catchy. P.C.P. has a good energy too, and the sound was fairly enjoyable.
Very bad album cover art. Though I will say – it definitely makes a statement.
To those of you calling this the "greatest album of all time" (there are surprisingly many of you), I ask: in which ways does The Holy Bible outperform OK Computer? Abbey Road? Rumours? The Stranger? Tapestry? The Dark Side Of The Moon? Blue? Back to Black? (just to name a few.)
1/5
Key tracks: 4st 7lb, She Is Suffering, P.C.P.
David Bowie
3/5
I usually expect a fun, commercial-yet-complex sound from David Bowie but, unlike Low or most of his earlier albums, the commercial part is really lacking here. Bowie and Eno's creativity is possibly unparalleled for its time, and I'm aware that "Heroes" was contextually important for musical contemporaries – but it doesn't hook me in anywhere near as effectively as Ziggy Stardust, Blackstar, Low, Station to Station, or Aladdin Sane (all of which are on this list).
Briano Eno's contributions are top-notch here, particularly on the side 2 track V-2 Schneider. The background synths are a nice contrast to the "bloopy" ones (which are less enjoyable), the guitar playing is solid, the drums are more or less a continuation of the proto-80s feel in Low. Based on general consensus from the reviews, it seems like Lodger is a continuation of these trends. I feel that, at this point in his career, Bowie's vocals start to abandon the early/mid-70s quirk and charm that most earlier albums showcased, and that really brings an album like this down – especially for such an iconic rock figure.
3/5
Key tracks: Heroes, Blackout, V-2 Schneider
Napalm Death
1/5
Listen, I like metal as much as the next guy (if the next guy were indifferent to metal), but even I can appreciate the catastrophe of an album that is Napalm Death's "Scum".
There's not much to comment on, but I'll do my best. Scum is 33 minutes, and 28 "songs", brimming with the beautiful voices of drunken ogres crying for battle over a loud, heavily distorted, extremely crash-heavy percussion line that can't quite decide whether it wants to sound mildly professional or like some kid in a garage that's angry at his mom for grounding him. Honestly though, the drums aren't terrible, nor is the guitar - though I wish it was easier to hear the melodies and harmonies in the latter. The music is severely lacking in any kind of melody for the ear to grab onto, and this makes it horrendously difficult to properly engage with in any meaningful way. The question "what was your favourite song?" could not honestly be answered, because they're all puddles of equally unmemorable, bland, testosterone-laden mucus (or other excretions). In that regard, the songwriting is some of the weakest I've ever experienced in all my years of listening.
I know I've already slammed the singing, but god, it's so terrible. Inexcusably so. Any form of singing with any effort put into it would be better. Even a regular speaking voice would've made this infinitely more listenable (though I would still give the album a 1/5 rating for a plethora of other reasons). It sounds like somebody vomiting, kicking dogs, and drinking a smoothie made primarily of braised beef and malic acid - all rolled into one miserable trainwreck of a vocal in an instrumental lineup that already didn't show much promise.
I tried to enjoy "Scum". I really did. But it's unequivocally a contender for the worst album on this list.
1/5
Key tracks: none
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
No, I don't want to listen to people having sex for an hour.
In fact... *checks notes*... the album is 69 minutes long. You can't make this up.
1/5
Key tracks: Warning, Big Poppa
Beatles
5/5
Some rock-solid songwriting from the Beatles, showcasing the finest harmonising in their discography and a bright, colourful genre-blend of rock, pop, and folk. Every track is great in its own right, but I'll shout out a few specific ones.
Rubber Soul sees possibly the band's best integration of Indian instruments into their own style of music in the form of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), a powerhouse track that has since become one of the most covered songs in modern history. Norwegian Wood is truly one of their masterpieces and easily a top-10 (or even top-5) Beatles track, despite its instrumental and harmonic simplicity. The riff and melody (the two are pretty much identical) are just fantastic. There's a fun synergy between the acoustic guitar and sitar, as well as tambourines backing it up – along with the gorgeous harmonising vocals. But that's pretty much it. Simple and effective.
Michelle is one of the Beatles' most harmonically intriguing songs, and again has been heavily covered since its inception. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the French choruses – they've always felt a bit gimmicky – but then, this was before everyone was messing around with similar ideas, leading to the likes of Billy Joel's dud track C’était toi (You Were the One) on his otherwise stellar 1980 album Glass Houses. Other than the Frenchness, Michelle is a mellow, mysterious, quietly empassioned interlude between some of the rockier tracks.
In My Life is another incredible tracks, showcasing not only some of the Beatles' best lyrics, but also possibly some of the best lyrics of all time. And apparently they get better as you get older. Gives me something to look forward to, I guess. The baroque-style keyboard/harpsichord solo is also a wacky standout here, using the same gorgeous chord progression as the rest of the song but otherwise sounding completely different. Was this a stroke of genius by the Fab Four? Probably. People seem to think it was, anyway. I see it as the "good old days" flashing before the narrator's eyes, but maybe that's reading too much into it. Regardless, In My Life is another easy top-10/top-5 Beatles track.
Then there's a plethora of great pop-rock tracks here with a sprinkle of country-folk that was developed in 1964/5, likely inspired by Dylan's records. These tracks include Drive My Car, You Won't See Me, Think For Yourself, Nowhere Man, I'm Looking Through You, Wait, and If I Needed Someone. (And just like that, we've talked about almost every track on the album!) Plus there's Girl, an acoustic-guitar-heavy ballad that's hard to describe but radiates a feeling of "wow this song is utter genius". I like the part in the chorus where John inhales weirdly.
I can see why some listeners would find the album closer Run For Your Life questionable. To me it comes across as a peppy Elvis imitation, and I don't have a problem with it other than its lyrics (which haven't exactly aged well). Ah, well. Even the big Beebles were fallible.
5/5
Key tracks: Drive My Car, Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Nowhere Man, Michelle, Girl, I'm Looking Through You, In My Life, If I Needed Someone
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
A silly little album with a few silly little songs that any fan of classic rock will instantly recognise. Yet I can't help but feel that there isn't much variety, either in the lyricism or (especially) the style and instrumentation of each track. Tracks like Things Goin' On and Poison Whiskey, while technically fine, fade into the background when compared to the more well-known songs surrounding them. And is it fair to say that the "confederate rock" genre is both overdone and slightly in poor taste? I think it is.
When the songs shine, though... man, they really shine. Tuesday's Gone and especially Free Bird are masterclasses in how to keep a 7-plus-minute song interesting through exciting solos, varying energy, and experimenting with combinations of instruments. Gimme Three Steps has a memorable vocal and guitar riff, as does Simple Man – justifying their clear popularity. I would've liked to see Lynyrd Skynyrd take these ideas and make more of a creative splash on the music scene through experimentation and artistic expression, but this album is pretty solid as is.
4/5
Key tracks: Free Bird, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps
Hot Chip
2/5
Something about this feels oddly soulless. There are some nice overlapping instruments, particularly involving string instruments and synths, but it's very artificial. Even the singing feels kind of empty. I'm also not a big fan of the melodies here, which are at once slow-moving and very difficult to catch onto properly. The chords are kind of weird and don't make it easy for the (vocal) melody to be catchy or singable – at least, upon a first listen. Maybe the music on In Our Heads ages like wine upon relistening, but I doubt I'll be giving it that second chance.
The music wasn't entirely bad. There were a few musical ideas that caught my attention, particularly in the tracks Motion Sickness, These Chains, and Flutes. (Phoebe Bridgers pulled off the former much more convincingly though.) There are some fun guitar and synths arpeggios in these tracks that are significantly better-sounding with the wacky chord progressions than the singing generally was. The track Night And Day is almost nightclub-esque, although it has a heavy retro/80s vibe that separates it from the more 2000s-esque remainder of the album.
2/5
Key tracks: Flutes, Motion Sickness, Night And Day
Wilco
2/5
Weaker than Wilco's later work, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The band experiments with a fairly bland alt-country genre that might work as a track or two sprinkled amongst some much stronger and less outdated compositions, but 77 minutes of this is just slightly too much for my taste. The jangly acoustic guitars and uninspiring singing get a bit stale after the first dozen tracks (and some of these tracks are in excess of 6 minutes long). Poor music for close listening; great fodder for background noise at Uncle Joe's farm party.
Fortunately, though, we do see a glimmer of the better songwriting that's to come. The tracks I Got You (At the End of the Century) and Monday have an electric hard-rock energy that's quite different from the remaining tracks, and that breaks up Disc 1 nicely. Dreamer in My Dreams, the closing track, is also worth mentioning for its overuse of drunken noises and being a nice all-out way to end an unnecessarily bloated album. Forget the Flowers and Misunderstood are the strongest of the slightly mellower tracks, but they (like most early Wilco songs) still bring nothing new to the musical world, and are pretty uninteresting as a consequence.
2/5
Key tracks: Monday, I Got You (At the End of the Century), Dreamer in My Dreams
Dire Straits
4/5
I enjoyed every track on here except Money For Nothing. The f-slur? Repeated three times in one verse, because I guess once wasn't enough? Not cool, man.
Otherwise, there's not much to criticise here. Dire Straits have a very refined and precise style, and it works in all kinds of settings – from stadium rock to meditation music to everything in between. I'm a big fan of whatever's going on in Your Latest Trick. Smooth synth-jazz, reminds me a bit of Gaucho-era Steely Dan (which is an incredibly sick style in its own right). You can't go wrong with various sax licks over a chill, future-esque jazz bar cocktail night aesthetic. The synth riff in Walk Of Life is instantly recognisable, and the moody, memorable opener and closer (So Far Away; Brothers In Arms) set the album's tone very nicely. There's some clear influence from prog rock, country, jazz (of course), and classic blues-rock – and despite being from the 80s, it just barely manages to remain timeless. (Or it doesn't, depending on who you ask. I'm 50-50.)
4/5
Key tracks: So Far Away, Walk Of Life, Your Latest Trick, Brothers In Arms
Dr. Dre
1/5
Oh, boy... we finally made it. The artist that every rapper name-drops in every one of their tracks since the early 90s. This guy better freakin' blow everyone else out of the water.
After listening to this album in full, I can safely say that Dr. Dre fits in snugly with the rest of the 90s hip-hop crew. The percussion is consistently very bad, using low-quality, poorly produced loops that add little to the overall sound. The synths are a coin flip on each song, with their timbre being either fair or ear-piercingly terrible (see: the first three tracks). And the vocals... Dr. Dre's voice is so incredibly hip-hop-generic that the music is much better when you tune him out completely. And thankfully, it's not too hard to do that. Once you do, you realise nearly every track is completely devoid of anything interesting – with the exception of the quasi-outro The Roach, whose instrumental is actually kind of fire. Nice brass-synth interaction going on there. Decent riffs are spread here and there throughout the album, including on Fuck Wit Dre Day, High Powered, and A Nerd Witta Gun – but for the most part, there's nothing of value to glean here.
Then we get to the lyrics. Huh... There's a ton of swearing, misogyny, sex noises, pretty much the usual fare for 90s hip-hop music. But the lyrics of Bitches Ain't Shit are a new level of heinous. It might have been partially because the vocal enunciation was more brash and unique-sounding, so I had to pay attention to it. Check out the poetic lyricism in the chorus:
"Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks
Lick on deez nutz and suck the dick
Get's the fuck out after you're done
And I hops in my ride to make a quick run"
...Yeah. That's what we're dealing with here. I can't justify anything higher than a 1. I didn't have the heart to sift through the lyrics to the other tracks, so I'm relying on another reviewer's opinion here:
"The subject matter barely moves beyond smoking, macking, hoes, fronting and general gangsta BS... this album just has nothing to say." Do people genuinely like this guy's music?
1/5
Key tracks: High Powered, The Roach
The Stooges
3/5
My first listen to this was on a bike ride, and it sounded pretty bad. I was prepared to give it a 2, or even a 1, but the glowing reviews on here convinced me I should give it a relisten with higher-quality speakers. It's definitely better that way, though Raw Power still isn't as wonderful as many people claim it is. Very cool sound, guitar-heavy, incorporating elements of proto-punk, metal, and a heavy dose of 60s blues-pop. The Stooges' sound reminds me of the Rolling Stones' sound around (roughly) the same time. It also anticipates a lot of late-70s and 80s stadium guitar rock.
All of the tracks were better upon a relisten, but some were still poor. The vocals in the songs Penetration and Raw Power (the title track) are poor: vocal breaking, microphone clipping, little to no discernable melody, the works. In fact, the vocals in general are quite unmelodic and unrefined, but it's most noticeable in the title track because of a lack of good instrumental riffs to distract the listener. Penetration has a great bell(?) riff and driving rhythm section, but the vocals are a horrendous half-whispered sexual frenzy that's not fun to listen to at all. The closing track, Death Trip, is essentially a longer cut of the title track, and doesn't add anything new to the table. The two opening tracks – Search and Destroy" and "Gimme Danger" are the strongest.
I'll give this to the Stooges: they really pump you up. This had to be incredible live.
3/5
Key tracks: Gimme Danger, Search and Destroy
Justice
4/5
I really liked this album. It was full of energy, creativity, surprises, twists and turns. The leading single, D.A.N.C.E., was fantastic, and just imperfect enough that it doesn't come across as a manufactured EDM piece like so many of its contemporaries. These Justice guys are great at their craft and clearly competent at composing tricky, stimulating, crazy textures. There are dozens of interacting synth sounds across the album's 12 tracks, including ones that sound like ultra-processed guitars and bass. (Relatedly, the "bass" sound is consistently great here.) The use of reasonably complex chords and melodies is always a win. The transitions between tracks are very sudden, which definitely makes it an "album experience", albeit a slightly jarring one.
According to the Wikipedia article, the album features a heck-ton of sampling – which I'm still not convinced has much creative merit, but I guess it was done well, because I hardly noticed it. The album does lose a bit of steam in the last four tracks or so. It seems like Justice tossed the four tracks with near-identical tempo and percussion onto the end of the album and called it a day. The track order could use some reshuffling.
4/5
Key tracks: Genesis, D.A.N.C.E., The Party
Black Sabbath
4/5
The riffs on this album are great, except for (funnily enough) the riff on the most popular track here, N.I.B., which is too simple to prop up such a lengthy song. Any melody doubled between electric guitar and bass feels weighty and stadium-shaking, even if it's really only shaking a localised environment like your middle ear. But it gives off the impression of raw power. Led Zeppelin does the same thing, to equally great effect. The title track is excellent, almost a proto-doom-metal genre – which is pretty ballsy for a year where other hugely popular releases were Let It Be, All Things Must Pass, and Cosmo's Factory. (Very different to their contemporaries, is what I'm saying. And in the 60s and 70s, that was usually a good thing.) The Wizard, Evil Woman, and N.I.B. are all fun, energetic jam tracks set to rock-solid guitar hooks. Admittedly, a couple of the tracks are definite filler and are entirely kept afloat by the riffs.
My favourite moment was listening to Black Sabbath on Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath.
4/5
Key tracks: Black Sabbath, The Wizard, Wicked World
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Passable, though barely. The bloated Britpop numbers on this album have produced a great many frowns and grimaces from (judging by the reviews) a great proportion of the audience, including myself. There's too much drum-machine, splashy/bloopy synth, and bland, uninspiring lyricism to really justify a positive review here, though a few pros are worth mentioning. The track When I Dream has potential to float to the top of the dumpsite, based on its infectious synth line – but after the two-minute mark you're thinking, "man, this is bloody repetitive, innit?" (you're British) and you glance at the runtime only to realise the song is over 7 minutes long. You sit back in your Union-Jack-cushioned and gaze out the window into the dreary, overcast Liverpool skyline, and think, "Ah, this is the life" as what little vitality remains in your English cadaver eagerly drains away.
But seriously, there are some pros worth a shout-out. A few of the melodies in the synths are pretty good. The vocal is an enormous improvement upon most contemporary Britpop – reminds me a bit of Greg Lake from King Crimson. Nothing revolutionary, but a solid complement to the rest of the sound. The instruments are played fairly well, particularly the bass.
But man, that repetition, particularly in the melodies... Each song is two bars of song looped for anywhere between 2 and 7 minutes. It's unforgivable.
2/5
Key tracks: Treason, Ha Ha I'm Drowning, Brave Boys Keep Their Promises
Fugazi
2/5
This album has a lot of thought and emotion hidden beautifully behind a post-punk, vaguely jazzy mask. I say "hidden beautifully" because it really is so well hidden that I have trouble discerning it. So many of the top-rated reviews give this a surefire 5 stars, and I'm left here wondering: what exactly is the craze all about?
I'll give Fugazi some credit here. The bass is very good, and the drumming is pretty solid too. Even in some of the weaker tracks, like Greed and Shut The Door, the bass stands out as a rope of reality to cling onto. Also, there's a lot of potential for greatness here. The band really knows how to use silence to create tension, but rather than filling it (or following it) with exciting fills, the moments of tension will often flop, leaving the listener a bit unsatisfied.
Amidst a sea of 5-star reviews, there's one well-approved 2-star review that puts my thoughts into words better than I could: "I don’t really like the vocals and although I see how this album could have been influential, I didn’t enjoy much of it. The almost yelled vocals that weren’t in tune were clearly on purpose [particularly noticeable on the song Merchandise], and it’s hard to say that they are bad, but they did nothing for me personally. The instrumentals are pretty good but not good enough to make me want to listen to most of the instrumental songs again."
I guess a lesson here is that, while rebelling against the "musical norm" is all fun and good, there's a reason why it's the norm. (Because it sounds good.) And deviating from that norm is a dangerous game to play.
2/5
Key tracks: Brendan 1, Blueprint, Sieve-Fisted Find
Supergrass
3/5
Fairly groovy but anonymous material from the later Britpop days. It still has that subtle sheen of 80s production to it, but underneath there are some genuinely solid compositions. The track Alright sounded familiar upon a first listen, and no wonder: it's a huge hit. (So much so that I wonder if these guys are considered one-hit wonders.) Super catchy though. Whatever chord is being played under the hook lyric "I can't be sureeeeee" is a great choice to make the song more memorable, and there's a youthful energy in this track and many others that's frequently absent in the Britpop genre.
I'll be honest, I don't like the vocals here. The singing is very unrefined and out-of-tune in places, and it sometimes has a scratchy/whiny quality that's very distracting once you notice it. Certain tunes, like Time (with its octave-harmonised falsetto) and She's So Loose (with a more driven, "rockier" quality) disguise the poor vocal better than others (Caught By The Fuzz). Then there's the song We're Not Supposed To, which sounds like a different band entirely.
Some great grooves here. The instruments are, generally, played very well. She's So Loose, Alright, and Time are a few standout tracks in terms of backing instrumentals.
3/5
Key tracks: Alright, I'd Like To Know, Time
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
Fine, but not incredible. The music lacks any real spontaneity or "punch" that I would've expected from a post-2000 album on this list. Heavy use of acoustic guitar and strings, which normally impresses me to at least a 3-star rating – but not this time. The vocal is enunciated kind of lazily, making the melodies both difficult to sing along to and difficult to remember – two sins every songwriter learns to avoid during day 1 of the course. And the singer's vocal quality is like a heavily discounted Richard Wright of Pink Floyd (who himself isn't exactly known for his singing).
I liked the part on The Good, The Bad & The Queen where The Good, The Bad & The Queen played The Good, The Bad & The Queen. (Although, the fact that such a sentence is grammatically correct makes one question whether this band's name is all they had going for them. It's not even that great of a name. Even the band's Spotify description admits that.)
2/5
Key tracks: History Song, Herculean
Kacey Musgraves
3/5
I enjoyed this, although as the opening track suggests, Kacey Musgraves really enjoys her slow burns. Golden Hour is a little slow to get through, in part due to all the songs having fairly similar country-pop arrangements. This includes a horrifically simple drum machine loop on most tracks – though the songs that don't include any percussion really shine as a result. The acoustic guitar playing is colourful, emotional, and really carries most of the songs here, along with the reasonably strong piano. Both could've shown some more virtuosity, but there's a beauty in simple music that Musgraves definitely has the hang of. I also have to mention her singing. Musgraves's singing accent is so quintessentially American that it loops back around from being a bit silly to being genuinely fun to listen to.
In addition, her lyricism is very straightforward, memorable, and easy to sing along to. But it's not particularly poetic:
"Monday, I was gone, and Tuesday, you were workin' late
Wednesday went to hell, then Thursday kinda had to wait, yeah
Friday, you were leavin', goin' out of town again
I should see what's goin' on, only got a couple friends"
"Is there a word for the way that I'm feeling tonight
Happy and sad at the same time"
"Texas is hot, I can be cold
Grandma cried when I pierced my nose"
Musgraves's style is definitely inspired by the likes of Alison Krauss, early Taylor Swift, and (possibly) some very particular aspects of Dolly Parton. More processed-sounding than all three, though. I think an artificial feel has its place in music, but perhaps not in country. But then, people seem to enjoy this stuff. It did win 6 Grammys.
3/5
Key tracks: Slow Burn, Butterflies, Space Cowboy, Rainbow
Like its two monumental predecessors (Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby), ATYCLB is very anthem-focused, almost to the point of losing the emotion and passion that backed a great deal of rock, punk, and post-punk in preceding decades. (Although, I will say – this sort of alt-rock is leagues ahead of nearly any post-punk on this list.) Beautiful Day is a complex, multifaceted power ballad that may be my favourite U2 album opener. The following track, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, is catchy, guitar-heavy, and has some lyrics I can really relate to. Elevation and Walk On are similarly great.
However, the album becomes much less sonically memorable after these first four hard-hitters, and I couldn't tell you a single thing about the record's latter half. Well, maybe a couple of things. Peace On Earth, New York, and Grace are three limp, powerless songs on side 2 that give zero sense of progression despite all being around 5 minutes long. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is passable as a bonus track, though like most bonus tracks, it feels more like a blandish afterthought that doesn't mesh well with the earlier music.
3/5
Key tracks: Beautiful Day, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, Elevation, Walk On
Johnny Cash
4/5
"San Quentin, I hate every inch of you"
-Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969)
At San Quentin is very similar to At Folsom Prison, an album released a year earlier and also included on this list. It does mar the listening experience just a bit, given the fact that he makes pretty similar jokes, and to a similar audience of overjoyed prisoners. But I won't let that impact my rating. Folsom got a 4, and San Quentin's getting the same treatment.
Fun banter, great (albeit extremely simple) music, and the strongest version of perhaps my favourite Johnny Cash song, A Boy Named Sue. Also, if you squint your ears, every one of his songs is identical. But you can't squint your ears, silly!
4/5
Key tracks: Wreck of the Old 97, I Walk the Line, San Quentin, A Boy Named Sue
Afrika Bambaataa
1/5
The interesting thing about this album is that it's quite bad. There's very little substance and lots of amateur DJ noise. It seems that a lot of people are giving this a higher rating on account of having lived through its release as a kid, but that's a ridiculous measure. It's like me saying Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album is good. Utter delusion assisted by violently rose-coloured glasses. Obviously Afrika Bambaataa was going for something groundbreaking, and that grants it some merit – but the end product is aimless, repetitive electronic drumbeat stuff with no particularly interesting melodies, textures, or variations in energy. There's no adherence to the classic "album experience" that showcases all the strengths of a band across a miniature variety show of tracks within one or a few genres. Instead, there's just soulless noise.
And sure, it pioneered the hip-hop genre – but is that really something you want to be known for?
As another reviewer wrote: "In historical context this album is very important for electro and hip-hop, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's still interesting to actually listen to today."
1/5
Key tracks: Looking for the Perfect Beat
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Some good songwriting here. Very mellow, keeping in line with their (equally great) works before and after 1966 – but still some strikingly good melodies and excellent two-part vocal harmony. I guess I shouldn't expect any less. Some of these songs could do with extended cuts, because at the moment many of them sound like unfinished snippets that aren't developed enough within their two-minute runtimes. The album as a whole is under 30 minutes, which is short even for its time. I would've liked to see more of an exhibition.
In terms of specific tracks: A Simple Desultory Phillippic is a strange tune that sees Simon and Garfunkel at their most aggressive, channelling a kind of angry Bob Dylan style, dropping many famous names of the time. It's suffers a lot from short runtime, but it's pretty fun, showing off their ability to emulate styles other than their classic acoustic singer-songwriter gig. Scarborough Fair / Canticle is a beautifully executed cover of the classic English folk tune. 7 O'clock News / Silent Night is haunting and sounds like it could easily be released today without the general populace so much as blinking.
4/5
Key tracks: Scarborough Fair / Canticle, Homeward Bound, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
N.W.A.
1/5
This album is a perfect showcase of just about everything wrong with 80s and 90s hip-hop. Listen, I get the main message – the police are racist – but though it still holds true to this day, it's overshadowed by the rampant sexism in nearly every track, including the opener/title track:
"I find a good piece o' pussy, I go up in it
So if you're at a show in the front row
I'ma call you a bitch or dirty-ass ho
You'll probably get mad like a bitch is supposed to
But that shows me, slut, you're composed to
A crazy motherfucker from the street"
...and later in the same song:
"So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her /
You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker"
...Yeah. Pretty disgusting. The following track, Fuck Tha Police, has a near identical percussion section, tempo, and monotonous rapping style to the first track, albeit with a slightly more palatable subject matter. But the sound is bland, unmelodic, and repetitive. Like nearly all hip-hop music of the time, the lyrics here are littered with nods to the same small circle of other hip-hop artists, including Dre, Ice Cube, Ren, and so on. It's just... not enjoyable at all. Do people like listening to this?
Track number 3, Gangsta Gangsta, shows that they're committed to being genuinely horrible people:
"So we started lookin' for the bitches with the big butts
Like her, but she keep cryin'
"I got a boyfriend" bitch, stop lyin'
Dumb-ass hooker ain't nothin' but a dyke"
And just when you thought they were done:
"We didn't get no play from the ladies
With six nerds in a car are you crazy?
She was scared, and it was showin'
We all said "Fuck you, bitch!" and kept goin'"
The rest of the album is very similar.
There are some hip-hop albums on this list I've given 3s, 4s, and 5s to. This isn't one of them. N.W.A.'s Spotify description introduces the group as the "unapologetically violent and sexist pioneers of gangsta rap". If you're violent and sexist, and show it off like it's anywhere near a positive trait, nobody's going to take you seriously.
1/5
Key tracks: Express Yourself
The Beta Band
2/5
Pretty uninteresting. Some fun little modern electronic ideas here and there, but for the most part it had all been done before 2004, and Heroes to Zeros remain as stragglers chasing after a previously-claimed pioneership of an already mediocre genre. The singing is bad and almost offensively inoffensive. It's mixed down to take away from the focus, but man, I hear you, vocal boy. And you're bad. Get a solid rock screamer or jazz scatter and you might have yourself something worth listening to, but this music hinges on the vocals being good and the talent just isn't present. See tracks like Wonderful, Lion Thief, and Liquid Bird to sample aforementioned poorness.
The opening track, Assessment, is easily the strongest in the set, particularly when the singing is ignored. It's bright, catchy, and guitar-laden. Troubles used overlapping pizzicato, arco, and something glockenspiel-adjacent to pretty good effect – but again is only really enjoyable when considered without the vocals. Easy is fairly good, though it does rely quite a bit on the four-bar guitar/drum loop.
2/5
Key tracks: Assessment, Easy, Troubles
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
I get that this group was going for a warm, empassioned, bluesy setlist with a host of guitar-heavy epics to go down in history. They get about halfway there, and the main things holding these songs back are their long runtime and inter-track similarity. Half of these songs sound completely identical, including the solos – and oh boy are there a lot of solos to choose from here. Most of them are technically good, but hardly are very memorable. I do quite like the vocals here and they almost outshine the guitars even though they're clearly not meant to. (Take that, Clapton!) Shorter tracks that are more singing-focused, like It's Too Late, Layla, and Have You Ever Loved A Woman? are strong.
The guitar playing is obviously good – almost too good. It's not nearly raw or passionate enough for ideal enjoyment, and it remains extremely consistent in this regard. The party-blues atmosphere, consisting of lots of jam-session-style pieces and background whooping/chatter, sort of works, but does get old towards the latter half of the album.
3/5
Key tracks: Bell Bottom Blues, It's Too Late, Layla
SAULT
2/5
This music is fairly minimalist, and depending on what small selection of instruments were chosen for each track, it either works for or against the music. Hard Life has good overlapping vocal harmonies with light percussion, piano, and bass – and very little else. It's also well-mixed and fairly smooth. Other tracks, like Stop Dem, Don't Shoot Guns Down, and Miracles have much worse production quality. The vocal echo effect in many of the songs is very hit-or-miss for me. It works excellently in Hard Life, but is nearly unlistenable in the preceding track, Stop Dem. Another vocal effect I'm not a big fan of is the blurry distortion seen in (e.g.) Wildfires, Monsters, and Sorry Ain't Enough. It's a jarring contrast with the rest of the instrumental, and an exception to the otherwise-good mixing. (Props to Sorry Ain't Enough for emulating Marvin Gaye, though!)
The messages in the lyrics are important, but I think they're delivered unconvincingly. Don't Shoot Guns Down, X, and Black Is are egregious examples of this. There's little emotion or even audible comprehension of the lyrics in the singing. It sounds like a very drunk (but average) person reading somewhat enthusiastically from a teleprompter. I still hold that a political message in music needs to be delivered in earnest while still being listenable. Untitled (Black Is) tends towards the latter – listenability – while forgoing the former.
2/5
Key tracks: Hard Life, Sorry Ain't Enough, Pray up Stay Up
John Coltrane
4/5
This is fun! One of the better albums on this list – certainly one of the better jazz albums. There's a good balance between experimentation and radio-friendliness (or as radio-friendly as you can reasonably get with extended jazz tracks). The intense, complex, mostly drumless atmosphere on the fourth/final track Psalm is a huge standout and brings this album up from a 3-4 tossup to an easy 4-star pick. In fact, the whole album is kind of an "experience" that I wouldn't listen to very often, but that I'd keep on for the whole 33 minutes each time. Comparable to The Wall. The Jazz Wall? Coltrane's Enclosure? Davis's Dam? There's a real sense of plot and adventure, with points of tension and release – such as the intense yet lonely drum solos in Pursuance, or the playful bass breaks in Resolution.
Coltrane's saxophone playing is consistently fantastic, though I would've liked to hear a greater variety of horns (or even different sax players/types of sax) showcased, particularly for close listening purposes. It's easy to lose focus on the music even when there's so much harmonic and rhythmic complexity to focus on. In fact, the complex melodic rhythms – first seen in the opening track, Acknowledgement – are a little hard to catch onto, and the drums don't make this task easier. There are definitely arguments for Acknowledgement being the weakest track here.
Regardless, A Love Supreme is a huge musical feat, and easily deserves its spot on this list.
Key tracks: Psalm
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I can't decide whether this is genius or terrible, so my rating is entirely a compromise. Simple, noodling, yet strangely comforting tunes involving only an acoustic guitar and Springsteen's vocals. The singing is kind of bad, especially compared to his more bombastic works, but it somewhat works in this context. The guitar-playing is pretty good – again, incredibly simple, yet charming and moving. As far as I can tell, the only "upbeat" track is Open All Night, but oddly it doesn't manage to be a standout. Instead, I picked the songs with the most comforting and heartwarming feel to be my key tracks.
To those people giving this 1 star: fair enough. To those giving the album 5 stars, you're clearly not paying attention to how unengaging and uncreative some of these tracks are. Or maybe you're one of those people who pays attention to lyrics. (In this economy?)
3/5
Key tracks: Atlantic City, Johnny 99
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
A very good album, aside from the synth- and electronic percussion-laden atmosphere. Nearly every 1-star review on here cites "80s production" as being the main factor that overshadows anything good about Introducing The Hardline..., but that's not a great way to judge every form of music. Other than the production (which admittedly is pretty bad), the music is honestly great; I can't really see any sound justification for anything less than, say, 3 stars. There are some solid horns, bass, and of course the vocals (lead and backing), which are excellent.
I don't tend to pay much attention to lyrics, but from what I picked up, the poetry here is a little subpar. Lots of fairly bland lyricism without much clever wordplay or variation of topic. There's no depth. Take the first verse of the biggest hit on here, Sign Your Name:
"Fortunately you have got
Someone who relies on you
We started out as friends
But the thought of you just caves me in
The symptoms are so deep
It is much too late to turn away
We started out as friends"
Pretty unremarkable, no? The same is true for the album's remainder. I'm surprised Sign Your Name is (apparently) the most popular track, because it isn't exactly a sonic standout.
3/5
Key tracks: If You Let Me Stay, Dance Little Sister, Who's Loving You
The Clash
4/5
As a rule of thumb I tend to be wary about punk as a genre, but these guys pull it off – and rather spiffingly at that. The Clash's self-titled debut record is definitely weaker than the follow-up London Calling, but that's not saying too much. The latter is a juggernaut album that's pretty difficult to top. Regardless, The Clash really nailed punk here. Fast, energetic rhythm sections underlying simple, catchy guitar riffs and poor vocals. What more could you want?
The presence of the track Police & Thieves surprised me. I wasn't expecting The Clash to release such a strong "epic" track, especially when the genre they're typically known for defining is itself known for having incredibly short tracks (downwards of 2 minutes in many cases). And we get our fair share of those, in relative bangers like White Riot, Career Opportunities, and Protex Blue – but then Police & Thieves, a 6-minute bombshell, comes to remind you that not only can punk verses sound decent (not just the choruses), but tracks can get away with being three times their normal length. And to great effect. It's the best track on the album.
4/5
Key tracks: White Riot, Deny, Police & Thieves
CHVRCHES
4/5
Mayberry's vocals are great – as the Spotify description says, they're crystalline and emotive – and they really make the music pop. Sure, bass-boosted synths and electronic drums are fun, but the singing lifts the music above other, more unassuming electro sounds from contemporaries. The male vocals, in the few tracks in which they appear, are definitely weaker, but they're by no means bad. I'm a big fan of the electronic drum rhythms in songs like Gun and Recover, as well as the synths which encapsulate a sort of retro-80s feel (but without the 80s production accompanying it, thank goodness).
The main thing holding this back from a 5/5 is (surprisingly) not the distinct lack of acoustic instruments, because CHVRCH≡S actually manages without them fairly well. Nor is it the album flow, which is again surprisingly good for its time period. I don't normally associate the 21st century with satisfying album progression, but there's a nice variation between the tracks in terms of energy, tempo, and texture. In fact, the thing holding back The Bones Of What You Believe is that it's very easy to stop paying attention – and when you do, the music begins to sound like just about every 2010s EDM composition. Very club music-like, albeit with slightly more complex ideas and a better vocal. Still, I can't give a perfect rating in good conscience when music actively embraces elements of music from what's likely the lowest-quality musical decade.
4/5
Key tracks: The Mother We Share, Gun, Recover
Ravi Shankar
2/5
I can appreciate the historical significance of Ravi Shankar's music, particularly when considered in combination with his influence on various rock/pop artists in the 60s, but The Sounds Of India is definitely more of a historical curiosity than an enjoyable album experience. I'll start with the pros. Shankar's sitar playing is fantastic. The tabla is also clearly being played skilfully, and the result is a smooth, dextrous journey wrapped in a reasonably neat 53-minute package. A little long, sure, but there are very few actual records with this genre of music, and it's good to have it out there. I also enjoy Shankar's brief spoken-word explanations of the musical theory behind each track.
Now for the cons. 53 minutes is a passable runtime for records in general, but classical Indian instruments have an issue: the tanpura. Its one-note drone is fine in small doses or as atmospheric background music, but for almost an hour of close listening, it gets stale really quickly. Inclusion of a tanpura also insists upon commitment to a single key for the entire album, even if the musical modes change every ten minutes or so. (Relatedly: a small nitpick about Shankar's spoken word. He says in the first track that Indian music doesn't use modes – at least, not in the Western sense – but then uses four or five standard Western modes, including Lydian, Mixolydian, and Phrygian, in the album's tracks. What gives?) The album is a bit of a darg, lacking much in the way of textural variation, harmony (aside from the one chord), dynamic changes, or melody. Really, the whole thing is a sitar solo. Props to Shankar, I guess – but it's not really for me.
2/5
Key tracks: Dádrá
Gillian Welch
2/5
I question the placement of this particular album on the list, because it sounds about as "typical" as you can get of a genre (in this case, of southern/country acoustic music). There's nothing groundbreaking, not much even interesting, on here – though that's not to say it's an unpleasant listen. Welch plays it very safe on Time (The Revelator), incorporating soft textures through her acoustic guitar and drawling vocals. This sound works best when leaning into the blues sound (e.g. "blue" notes, 12-bar patterns), but Welch doesn't do this in many tracks. Elvis Presley Blues is a highlight, as is Revelator for its solid execution of a guitar ballad with a catchy vocal hook.
Otherwise, there's isn't much to say. Most of the album is unmemorable and doesn't push any musical boundaries. There's not much in the way of album flow, of ups and downs, of any sort of emotional journey. (In fact, there isn't much noticeable emotion at all – but that complaint can be made for a sizeable number of great albums, so I'll leave it to rest.)
2/5
Key tracks: Revelator, Elvis Presley Blues, Everything Is Free
Nirvana
5/5
A juggernaut album that somehow balances a polished sound with utterly raw anger and emotion. Nirvana's clearly mastered their craft here and are confident enough to come out with guns blazing and hearts asleeve. It has an entirely different sound to its predecessor, Nevermind, despite being in the same genre and technically involving similar instrumentation and textures. These three guys create a huge sound over some truly great (and catchy) compositions, including Heart Shaped Box ("Hey! Wait! I got a new complaint"), Pennyroyal Tea ("I'm anemic royalty"), and the mature closer All Apologies ("All in all is all we are..."). I wish we'd gotten more from this band other than the three studio albums and the incredible MTV Unplugged live album, because this is some gritty stuff. Cobain's vocal is at its finest in this album. The drumming and guitarwork is maybe a little less radio-friendly than in the band's earlier catalogue, but it's played to perfection.
There are a few tracks that could be considered smudges on the otherwise rock-solid setlist that is In Utero. Scentless Apprentice verges into death metal, which isn't everyone's cup of tea – it definitely isn't mine – and it's best to tune it out. The "token death metal track" of the previous album, "Endless, Nameless", is better placed at the end of the album, where it doesn't mar the listener's expectations essentially right from the get-go like Scentless Apprentice does. Tourette's is also a rough listen, though fortunately it's well under two minutes. Songs like Milk It and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter are maybe a little questionable, but all the remaining ones are excellent. And don't you forget it!
5/5
Key tracks: Heart Shaped Box, Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea, All Apologies
GZA
1/5
This is pretty bad, even by hip-hop standards. The 90s had it rough for the genre as a whole. Melodically, harmonically, and in terms of overall sound, Liquid Swords is incredibly repetitive and tedious. The fairly long (55 minutes) album runtime doesn't help. Each track, rather than being a snapshot of a particular texture of artificial drumbeats and monotonous yelling, is instead a sluggish 4 and a half minutes of a particular texture of artificial drumbeats and monotonous yelling. The strongest tracks were those which at least combined these elements with a catchy one- or two-bar loop. In this case, the catchiest songs contained saxes, synths, and other melodic instruments. A few scattered basslines show promise, but surprisingly many of them are just one-bar loops of semitone movement, which gets old fast.
The lyrics are also just about the most bland you can get for hip-hop, despite GZA being touted as one of the greatest lyricists in the genre. After the twentieth mention of nerds (well, the other n-word) and sex in one song, it's difficult to really take the lyricist seriously. One track that was a particular letdown for me was the album closer, B.I.B.L.E.. The lyrics are so close to being genuinely great, but then we get towards the end where GZA talks about teaching his kid to follow the word of God:
"Son, life is a pool of sin, corrupted with foolish men
And women with wicked minds who build picket signs
To legalize abortion, the evil eye extortion
I quiz son with my wisdom"
...Yeah. Pretty rough. If this is meant to be satire on bad people, it's a little too well-disguised. Otherwise, GZA is just another one of far too many terrible people in the music industry. And he doesn't hide it well.
One of the top-rated reviews here claims that GZA's music is fresh and exciting when performed live. I have to believe that, because there must be a reason for this guy's success, and this album is not it. (Nor is Enter The Wu-Tang, another weak album on this list.)
1/5
Key tracks: Shadowboxin', I Gotcha Back
The Band
4/5
Hey now, this is pretty good. The Band's got a sort of country-party-blues sound – it's bright, positive, and laden with overlapping organs, guitars, and vocals. There's also a lot of variation in sound and texture (though the "thick-texture" ones are numerous) throughout the album, meaning the listener stays fairly engaged. The songs are a good length and none of them feel too dragged out. (Albums with too many "epics" are a peeve of mine, with very few exceptions – such as Pink Floyd's Animals.) Additionally, The Band's sound is surprisingly complex for the 60s, and also manages to separate itself from its "Bob Dylan phase". You can definitely hear Dylan's influence, but it's not overwhelming.
The main thing holding this album back from 5 stars is that there weren't many "wow" moments. Sure, there's a nice rush listening to the blockbuster vocal hooks on The Weight, the lush organ notes that open Chest Fever, or the quasi-angelic singing on the closer I Shall Be Released. But these "highs" aren't that high. Absent are solos, transitions, or tight instrumentation (for the most part). In addition, the record doesn't provide a particular cohesive "album experience", even if it's a darn solid album. When I think of The Weight, I don't think, "Ah, that great song partway through Music From Big Pink!" And we're judging albums here, not average song quality.
4/5
Key tracks: Tears Of Rage, The Weight, Chest Fever, I Shall Be Released
Tortoise
3/5
A fun little foray into instrumental post-rock. The "post-" genres are usually executed very poorly, whether due to too much experimentation or sheer boredom while listening – but Tortoise's effort here is solid. The first track being one 21-minute-long epic is unnecessary here, given that the transitions between sections are just as jarring as if they'd been separate tracks. Side 2 is better in this regard, and Tortoise makes some pretty great atmospheres. Fancy time signatures (including the rare 11/4 and 14/8 rhythms) are seen in The Taut and Tame and Glass Museum. A Survey goes full-on acoustic, incorporating various melodic elements from the blues genre. Along the Banks of Rivers creates a calm guitar-/synth-based atmosphere that reminds me of later-era Pink Floyd instrumentals. Glass Museum is similar, and also my favourite track on here.
For all its merits, though, Millions Now Living Will Never Die is a little dull, particularly for close listening. A severe limitation of instrumental albums is that there's very little replayability. Good for background listening, but no more.
3/5
Key tracks: Glass Museum, Along the Banks of Rivers
2/5
I'm very surprised this made the list. It's difficult to nail the punk genre because of the limitations on creativity and skill level (if the songs are too good, they don't sound like punk anymore). This is on the lesser end of punk. Despite being only 32 minutes long, the album feels tedious, there's little sense of album progression other than the surprisingly good oddity track Adult Books, which creates a calmer moment in a long series of frantic and poorly played tunes. The singing is quite bad, particularly the male vocal, which is consistently grating and out-of-tune. The harmonies between the two voices are pretty cool though, if a little simplistic (mostly using perfect 4th and 5th intervals).
Other than Adult Books, the strongest tracks are those with guitar "riffs" (really just rhythmic strumming on electric axes) that don't get old within the first minute. These include White Girl and In This House That I Call Home. The drumming is poor throughout, consistently of extremely simple rhythms that showcase little in the way of virtuosity. The bass playing is similar.
2/5
Key tracks: Adult Books, In This House That I Call Home, White Girl
Machito
3/5
Pretty good. I feel that its sound is more Central American than Kenyan (as another reviewer pointed out), but the jazz elements are fairly strong. The improvisation is skilled, as is the technical ability in the drums, trumpets, and other horns. The tracks I could really jive to were ones that had distinct, easy-to-remember/-sing melodic hooks – including Holiday and Wild Jungle. Others were less commercial, having complex rhythms and a (perhaps) overwhelming number of sax/horn notes spilling out all at once. The compositions are impressive in this regard, but they aren't necessarily enjoyable.
Unlike most other genres, jazz typically needs long track runtimes, both for development of themes and allowing chances for soloists to shine. I feel there are dozens of missed opportunities throughout this album for the solos (particularly with the trumpet) to really gain momentum. Instead, the tracks flash by in 3-minute chunks. It's a puzzling choice. There are also so many indistinct melodic themes presented in quick succession that it starts to blend together around the halfway point. Punk albums, being comprised of similarly "quickfire" tracks, tend to have a similar problem.
3/5
Key tracks: Wild Jungle, Kenya, Holiday
Korn
1/5
We're at album #405, and this is possibly the most lyrically bad album so far. I won't go into the lyrics, because frankly I'm exhausted after 67 minutes of this nonsense. Nu metal is also a pretty bad and unpolished genre, particularly in the pre-2000s era. As a whole, Follow The Leader is (I guess) listenable – but barely. The riffs are vaguely interesting, and in a very specific mood I could see myself enjoying this, but at the moment it's not doing much for me.
The artist features on the album are also horrible picks. Fred Durst is widely recognised as one of the worst singers and frontmen in the music world, and the track All In the Family doesn't do him (or Korn) any favours. It's bad. Ice Cube is better, though again rapping is a very questionable choice for the nu metal genre. The song Children of the Korn is a complete outlier in the album, sounding more like a purely Ice Cube-dubbed hit – and it's also pretty bad. Cameltosis, featuring Slimkid3, is experimental-sounding and continues the trend of horrendous, misogynistic, disgusting lyricism. Earache My Eye is a six-and-a-half-minute throwaway track featuring an extended skit/spoken intro followed by several minutes of uninspired ear-blistering guitar noise. The tracks Freak On a Leash and Dead Bodies Everywhere are certainly the only two mildly enjoyable tracks, and any of the others having more than a million Spotify streams is a tragedy.
1/5
Key tracks: Freak On a Leash, Dead Bodies Everywhere
Van Halen
5/5
A little crazy and disjointed, sure, but cool nonetheless. There's very little to dislike about this sound, unless you think it's overdone. But really, can anything be reasonably compared to music with the Edster's epic, galaxy-rendering guitar chops?
I didn't think so.
5/5
Key tracks: Runnin' with the Devil, Eruption, You Really Got Me, I'm the One
Fred Neil
2/5
Admittedly, I was a little bored by this. The low-energy twangy acoustic guitars didn't do it for me, with a few exceptions. In the better tracks, the energy is higher, or the guitar meanders until it settles on a relatively catchy riff. Highlights include Sweet Cocaine, That's The Bag I'm In, and (what I assume is) the lead single, Everybody's Talkin'. In other tracks, like I've Got A Secret, Faretheewell, and Green Rocky Road, there's very little to actively engage the listener. The singing is solid but not spectacular, the instrumentation is extremely simple, and the writing has a semi-improvisational quality to it. The overall feel is floaty, disjointed, unemotive, even unprofessional. It sounds like something that could've been written and recorded on the spot during a round of old man karaoke.
But is it bad? Not completely. (I'd cut out the eight-minute raga at the end, though.)
2/5
Key tracks: That's The Bag I'm In, Everybody's Talkin', Sweet Cocaine
Morrissey
4/5
This album reads like an unapologetic continuation of the Smiths' sound, and I honestly really like it (or most of it, anyway). Morrissey's grandiose British bellow is on full display here. It adds this quirkiness and energy to the music that few others can match. The drumming is also pretty strong here. The lyrics are goofy, and it's hard to tell whether that's intentional. It makes for a more entertaining listening experience, if nothing else.
If you're giving a review to someone on the basis of them being a bad person - or, in Morrissey's case, blatantly opinionated - then you'd darn better give 1-star reviews to all the pre-2000s rock artists on this list. (Which is the majority of the list.) Because those people invariably suck at least as much as Morrissey, and some of them have done horrible things that Morrissey couldn't hold a candle to. My rating is partially to make up for the abundance of low reviews with silly reasoning behind them. Sure, maybe the guy's insufferable, but the music doesn't have to be.
4/5
Key tracks: Irish Blood English Heart, I Like You, First of the Gang to Die
The Who
4/5
This album is mind-bending, mostly in a good way. It's fun to follow the storyline along until you realise that it's a little devoid of substance, but even after that it's goofy enough that I could see myself being entertained upon repeat listens. Townshend must've had a right time of it explaining the album's meaning to the press. A boy becomes psychosomatically deaf, dumb, and blind after childhood trauma? Sure. He's prescribed psychedelics by an alt-doctor and picks up the pinball machine? Of course. He develops a cult following and dislikes it so much that his character development goes out the window? Superb. I'm not sure that it's particularly relatable, but it's certainly one of the plots of all time. (To give Tommy some credit: it's a ballsy idea for a 60s album, and it turned the world of music – particularly rock artistry – on its head.)
A heavily acoustic and vocally-harmonised atmosphere is presented in the Overture, and this sound remains more or less consistent throughout the album. There isn't much electric guitar compared to some of the Who's earlier and later works. The drumming is perhaps a little tamer than fans might have expected, but I enjoy it. The melodies are a little difficult to follow, and they're by no means simple, but that does provide plenty of room for relistening and working out what the heck is going on melodically and harmonically. And the main single, Pinball Wizard, is excellent.
4/5
Key tracks: Pinball Wizard, Go To The Mirror!, I'm Free
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Goofy and likeable, though the music is a bit weak in places where it really needs to pop. The opening track, One More Chance, sounds like a primitive DJ soundboard showcase (particularly in the first minute) and it's very off-putting, especially through a modern lens. I've found that dated experimentation is best placed at the end of an album, not at the beginning where most people will approach (and promptly be turned off). The beginning track of side 2, It Couldn't Happen Here, is a sloggish track with drunken vocals (further blurred by the string arrangement) and lack of a strong melody. But many other tracks, including What Have I Done to Deserve This, Rent, and It's a Sin, are textbook examples of how to do 80s pop correctly. The 80s production, so frequently bashed by critics and listeners, isn't as overwhelming here as with other, bigger 80s acts – which is a good thing.
The synth work isn't very strong – surprising, maybe, given the Pet Shop Boys' status as a synth-pop duo – but the upbeat energy in most of the tracks makes up for it. The main contributors are fun chords and melodies, good singing (with a couple of exceptions), and decent lyricism tackling some heavy topics in a radio-friendly way. The strings are definitely hit-or-miss throughout the album: in It's a Sin, they're pop-standard and sound quite good, but in It Couldn't Happen Here, they're lethargic. You win some, you lose some.
3/5
Key tracks: What Have I Done to Deserve This, It's a Sin, Rent
Björk
4/5
Björk's music is so surreal, so psychedelic and creative, that it very nearly defies logic. Medúlla is no exception. I am bumping it down a notch for the music being less accessible to general audiences than some of her other entries on this list (e.g. Debut, Vespertine). But it's still excellent stuff – really, mind-bending rather than necessarily pleasant. Mind-bending in the best possible way. Björk's overlapping vocal arrangements on this album are easily the highlights, particularly in tracks like Mouths Cradle, Where Is The Line, and Triumph Of A Heart, where she really goes all in on the weird avant-garde scatting. The music is bursting with personality, ideas, and musical virtuosity. It's insane.
The music is quite minimalist, with instruments (or even non-vocal sounds in general) being used sparingly. A few of the tracks, particularly on the first half of the album, do suffer a little from this, particularly as Björk's accent makes her lyrics hard to make out at times. Show Me Forgiveness, Vokuro, and Oll Birtan (tracks 2, 4, and 5) are essentially 100% vocals-and-nothing-else songs. I worry it could get a little stale, especially upon album relistens. There's not much to glean from these kinds of tracks without dissecting the lyrics and melody, and if you're not that kind of listener, you can feel a little lost in the weird wonderland of Björk.
4/5
Key tracks: Mouths Cradle, Oceania, Triumph Of A Heart
Norah Jones
2/5
There's something deeply unsatisfying about this record. It feels incomplete, shallow, half-baked. This isn't helped by knowing Norah Jones's star musician status, and that the record is one of the best-selling of all time. All that for an album that's essentially monotonous lo-fi jazz. It gives an illusion of refined complexity by combining various elements of jazz/soul bar tunes, including soft (and very simple) percussion, back-mixed guitar strums, some scattered soul-blues piano notes, unremarkable basslines, and various toots from wind/brass instruments. The piano is definitely supposed to be the central focus of the non-vocal instruments, but as a piano player, I can say that the primarily octave-based playing isn't that interesting or complex. And there's no central exciting element to tie the music together The product is something that "feels" like it should sound good, but doesn't. Jones's vocal is fine but is overshadowed by the occasional backing vocalists, which are great. They should've been a bigger part of Jones's musical style. Guitar ballads like Seven Years and Lonestar don't do her any favours.
A key problem with the album is the stark lack of riffs – or, for that matter, any memorable moments in any instruments, including the vocals. There are few highs and lows; instead, the listener receives a steady, low buzz of inoffensive low-calibre noise that pushes no boundaries and sounds kind of good, especially if you aren't paying close attention.
Maybe I'm being a little harsh. It's true that I'm slightly tanking my rating to counteract some of the 5-star ratings which only seem to laud this album for its historic fame.
2/5
Key tracks: Don't Know Why, Come Away With Me, Turn Me On
Beyoncé
2/5
Some of these tracks are strong, but they're too inconsistently scattered throughout a lot of filler to really make for a positive album experience. The opener, Pretty Hurts, is an overexcited hype track that doesn't really get anywhere musically or lyrically. The next three consecutive songs – Haunted, Drunk in Love, and Blow – are all fairly good, particularly the former, which is a satisfying balance of moody and upbeat. Drunk in Love's "goodness" comes mostly from its circle-of-fifths chord progression (think the jazz standard Autumn Leaves); the rest is pretty unremarkable R&B/pop noise. The highlight of Blow is easily the guitar-synth interaction. It creates a funky, danceable atmosphere. No more interesting tracks appear until much later on the album with the song XO. This seems to be the point on the album where Beyoncé figures out how to write a convincing melody, because three of the final four tracks (the exclusion being Flawless) have some of her best vocal lines – helped greatly by the melodies. The two songs Heaven and Blue, in particular, are a great one-two to end the album on a high note.
Other general comments: As another reviewer mentioned, her music sounds almost factory-produced at times. It's really difficult to connect with the music, even while ignoring the lyrics (which are clearly meant for an audience I'm not part of). Nearly everything is artificial, sterilised, and soulless (ironically). I assume the lyrics are meant to be the dirty, gruelling, boundary-pushing part, but I wouldn't know, because I'm not a lyrics guy. This album has further convinced me that Beyoncé is much more interesting as a media personality than as a musician.
2/5
Key tracks: Haunted, XO, Blue
Chicago
3/5
I recognised some tracks on here, which surprised me. They seem pretty obscure in terms of Spotify listens. The song Questions 67 and 68 in particular has some catchy horn lines that really pop amidst some of the more "filler" tracks on here. Beginnings has a great layered acoustic guitar part which barely gets away with outweighing the bloated eight minutes of song length. I'm a big fan of the mix in I'm a Man. It's party-like, containing everything from exotic percussion and organs to chromatic movement in three-part harmonies. The guitars and percussion on this album are played skilfully in just about every track. The instrumentation choices are excellent and pretty complex for 60s music.
But the filler on Chicago Transit Authority is just too glaring to ignore. Free Form Guitar gets old after less than a minute of its nearly seven minute runtime. It's jarring, hard to catch onto, and missing any catchy hooks or riffs. The "August 29" trilogy that closes out the album is passable, but could easily have been left out entirely. Liberation, in particular, is a nifty jam session but just doesn't belong on a studio album. Other songs, including South California Purples, Poem 58, and Introduction, are likeable, somewhat radio-friendly cuts that would be much stronger if they were trimmed down. In fact, bloated track length is a common theme in many of Chicago's non-hits, perhaps suggesting why the hits were so relatively popular. Save the long cuts for live performances, guys.
3/5
Key tracks: Beginnings, Questions 67 and 68, I'm a Man
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
1/5
This album is a very bland take on political hip-hop. Excluding a few key tracks (see: "Key tracks"), none of the songs are memorable in any way, whether in terms of harmony, instruments, melody (there's a distinct lack of melody throughout the album), or even rhythm/backing percussion, which is normally a cornerstone of "good" 90s hip-hop music. The sound is generic, dull, and repetitive. The lyrics, while easy to understand and politically agree with, are almost too much so. There's no nuance, no wordplay, no cleverness that separates The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy from their contemporaries. In fact, nearly all tracks involve a chorus that consists of monotone repetition of the song title. It's a glaringly obvious sign of poor songwriting ability. I'm not surprised at all that this didn't receive much airplay upon its release, nor has it since then.
Okay, maybe there is one example of a lyric whose meaning isn't immediately clear:
"Medical racist social statistics
Has everyday life become a health risk"
The more I ponder this one, the less sense it makes. Other reviewers seem confused as well. Not a good sign.
The soft, laid-back guitar in Music And Politics is pretty sick, though.
"If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics
I would tell you that I pooped in my own dog dish"
1/5
Key tracks: Music And Politics, Television The Drug Of The Nation, Satanic Reverses
Country Joe & The Fish
2/5
It's not all terrible. There's some solid guitar work here. The drums are typical of the 60s: mixed badly and rawly, not overly complex, fitting the music pretty well. Porpoise Mouth is one of those charming folksy songs that critics love to lump in with the rest of the psychedelia genre but should really be considered part of a whole separate, endearing beast. Flying High's swung rhythm is great, making the song stand out from the pack. I'm a fan of the twangy vocals and weaving, interjecting guitar lines in Super Bird. And of course, you know I dig a mean organ – as heard in the track Love.
And if I'd encountered this album earlier in the list, I'd give it a 3 or higher, no question. But this "late-60s rock psychedelia" genre is so darn oversaturated – especially on this list – that it's become a bit arduous to sit through 40 minutes of this every other week. The two seven-minute tracks here – Grace and Section 43 – are the lowlights of the album. They flounder in circles without gaining any legitimate traction. They could maybe pass as proto-prog rock, but as a genre predecessor they're pretty terrible (and primitive). Other than psychedelia being fairly new in 1967, there isn't anything particularly fresh or daring here. Really, should it be considered creative when literally every other rock band is doing the exact same thing at the same time? Is this what you wanted, Dimery? For us to suffer?
2/5
Key tracks: Flying High, Super Bird, Love
Madonna
3/5
This album is on par with most of Madonna's other big records: fine, pleasant, but nothing particularly special. It's intensely 80s-pop-oriented, which could tank some reviewers' ratings, including my own. The production has that spacious electronic quality that is nearly universally agreed to have not aged very well. The percussion, as is to be expected for 80s pop, is mostly too artificial to really enjoy. There's not enough humanity in quite a few of these tracks. Even Madonna's singing, while technically very strong and excellent for the genre, could use a little more heart and/or soul.
The song Express Yourself sounds like a mildly better version of Lady Gaga's Born This Way. (Seriously. The choruses have the same chord progression and a similar melody. And the singers' voices are pretty similar.) It's a very strong track – certainly better than the title track, which listeners seem to prefer – and a contender for my favourite Madonna song. Later in the album: I was not expecting the Latin-style brass amidst the sweet, poppy strings of Dear Jessie. Cool. The string arrangement in Oh Father is also worth a shoutout.
The melody of the penultimate song Spanish Eyes is very hard to catch onto, and the track ends up dragging as a result. In addition, the odd reversed sounds and side-mixed electric guitar on the final track, Act of Contrition, are unpleasant and a poor choice to end the album. But excluding these two tracks, I enjoyed most of the album. Not a bad showing for the Queen of Pop.
3/5
Key tracks: Like a Prayer, Express Yourself, Oh Father
PJ Harvey
3/5
Polly Jean Harvey, the legendary Cuban cigar retailer and deadly clandestine assassin, really pulls one out of the bag here. But which bag, and whose was it? These are the vital questions that need answering, and we are just the right crack team of aquatic mammals to answer them. But first, we'll investigate the bag to see if it contains any delicious molluscs or other seafood. Using our WHISKERS and and our PAWS and our adorable little black NOSES! Our vestigial arm bones will clink and clatter as Bitter Branches rings out through the murk, and then all will be revealed. The meaning of everything.
3/5
Key tracks: All of them!
Brian Eno
1/5
Experimentation for experimentation's sake doesn't have to ranked highly, even if it ended up being influential. It's like giving Trout Mask Replica a 5 (though in this case there are some good tracks buried amongst the nonsense). Wake up, sheeple. You're being targeted by Big Avant.
The one-chord songs are particularly suspect. I'm a big fan of chord progressions, and songs that don't utilise them face an uphill battle in my ears. Mea Culpa, Number 8 Mix, Very Very Hungry, and various other tracks commit this sin. The sounds are scattered, seemingly selected at random, and not at all coherent with one another (in most songs, anyway). There are very few melodic hooks on any instrument, or indeed any melodies at all until the final track, Solo Guitar with Tin Foil, which acts as a breath of fresh air at the end of a dubious setlist.
Quotes from sanest reviewers:
"It just seems the artists are trying to make it weird, and not trying to make it good."
"A lot of unique sounds, but very little musical cohesion and flow."
"Some of the songs are almost enjoyable but it all gets lost in a giant mess of sounds."
(And even then, these negative reviews are often 2 or 3 stars. Delusion.)
1/5
Key tracks: Regiment, Help Me Somebody, The Jezebel Spirit
Orange Juice
2/5
The horns, particularly the saxes, on this album are pretty dope. I Can't Help Myself is a standout for having a great, energetic sax solo that tows the line between rock- and jazz-style improv. But the main downside is the really terrible singing that's apparently ubiquitous to punk and post-punk. Songs that are otherwise good, like Tenterhooks and Louise Louise, are marred significantly by the animalistic moaning and groaning of lead vocalist Edwyn Collins. It's reduces the music to a product of its time rather than anything revolutionary or noteworthy. And that's disappointing, because the guitar and horns are darn good.
Highlights, including Rip It Up and I Can't Help Myself, have a clean 80s-esque sound that partially distracts from the horrific singing. Rip It Up contains a prominent bass synth that defines the whole song and is reasonably catchy, especially when taken with the higher, melodic synths and almost reggae-esque guitar lines. Flesh Of My Flesh has a notable percussion section, blending well with the pretty trumpet lines throughout the song. I Can't Help Myself is energetic and again brings a Caribbean sound to the table. I do wish the chords were more complex on many of these pieces, because after a while the I-IV-I-IV-... changes get stale. Combine that with the singing (which is bad), and I can't justifiably give this album higher than a 2. But there's potential here.
2/5
Key tracks: I Can't Help Myself, Flesh of My Flesh, Rip It Up
The Coral
4/5
Great stuff. I don't really get the critics comparing this with psychedelia. Apart from the album cover, which resembles some 20th-century psychedelia classics, the record is more akin to a collection of rock-influenced sea shanties. You've got the drunken choral vocals, the shrill harmonica, the shoop-shoop chugging of the drums, the tonic-dominant basslines... It's not unpleasant by any means (in fact, it's surprisingly enjoyable), but does it really belong on the list of the 1001 most important albums in history? Even the hit track, Dreaming of You, maintains this strange nautical dance energy that eludes comprehension of how it came to be such a hit. It's a fun track, sure, but having 100x the number of Spotify streams as the next-most listened on the album is a little extreme.
The vocals are an obvious strong point here. They're clearly inspired by the likes of Jim Morrison, Piper-era Floyd, the Stones, and perhaps a sprinkle of CCR. Definitely a throwback to 60s and early 70s music with its thick vocal harmonies, brash mixing, and simple rocking energy. The song Goodbye is particularly suspect here. We love some good retro singing. The high-energy shuffle of all the songs does get a little repetitive, and the album feels a little lengthy even for just 34 minutes – but judging by other entries on this list, it could be much, much worse.
4/5
Key tracks: Spanish Main, Dreaming of You, Goodbye
Mylo
2/5
Proto-lo-fi/EDM with tinges of drugs and psychedelia. Unremarkable, but pleasant enough. The piano-bass interaction in Sunworshipper is worth mentioning – it's smooth, dynamic, and manages to pull off what's essentially a two-chord track. The electronically-pitched vocals in Drop the Pressure is pretty darn sick, and significantly niftier than any other
form of autotune I've heard. As with most electronic music, more acoustic percussion in all tracks (including that one) would be a significant improvement. Drum loops only get you so far, and when you're mixing them up and down, they're bound to stand out (in a bad way). Guilty of Love – or at least the string part of it – reminds me of Frank Zappa's music. I would've liked to see more commitment to rapid strings with weird harmonies, but unfortunately they only really appear in this track and the album opener, Valley of the Dolls.
Overall, Destroy Rock & Roll is fine. It's just part of a genre that doesn't appeal to me. The title track is also a ridiculously low point in an album packed with "medium" points, and that's unforgivable.
2/5
Key tracks: Sunworshipper, Drop the Pressure, Guilty of Love
Elliott Smith
3/5
Either/Or is enjoyable, and probably better than Elliott Smith's other entries on this list. But there are a lot of elements missing that could bump this up to 4 stars or higher. The melodies are technically fine – maybe a little meandering and unrefined at times – but it's the vocal delivery that really sabotages the entire sound. Smith's singing is breathy and out of tune. It sounds like he isn't trying at all, and that's something unforgivable in my view. (Billie Eilish commits the same sin, and I'm not a fan of her voice either.) Many of the 5-star reviews here speak to Smith's emotional vocal delivery, but I don't hear emotion so much as a sense of depression and hopelessness. Even as someone with a history of depression, I really can't bring myself to enjoy the atmosphere Smith's singing creates. Especially during the summer. (Darn.)
That being said, the instrumentation – particularly the guitar playing – is consistently excellent. It's simple, enjoyable, and smooth. Great for background listening. The album has ups and downs, switching effortlessly between the groovy, early-Radiohead-esque Ballad Of Big Nothing and the sweet acoustic ballad Between The Bars. So, unlike a huge proportion of the albums on this list, Either/Or actually feels like a complete album experience. And Say Yes is a solid closing track.
3/5
Key tracks: Between The Bars, Pictures Of Me, Say Yes
Adam & The Ants
2/5
I'm not a big fan of this album, particularly the final three tracks (Jolly Roger / Making History / The Human Beings) which leave a sour taste in the mouth after a surprisingly palatable beginning to the album. The music is primarily punk-inspired new wave, with dollops of Burundi music sprinkled in through the vocal techniques, percussion section, and modes (noticeable in some of the melodies). It's crafted extremely sloppily, though. And, as is standard fare for new wave music, the vocals are generally horrendous. Someday those 70s kids will learn to compose something palatable... someday...
The top-rated review here gives this album a 4/5, citing that "the lyrics are stupid, the music is stupid, the name and album art are stupid... there's even a completely random pirate song for absolutely no reason." They also mention that "this is what the kids like to call 'penis music'." I agree with all of those sentiments, and believe that reviewer is clearly fishing for likes through the humour of giving a high rating while correctly bashing every aspect of the music itself. That being said, there are flashes of merit (through interesting riffs, basslines, melodic hooks, and so on) that push this beyond a 1.
A 4, though? Are you insanity incarnate?
2/5
Key tracks: Dog Eat Dog, Antmusic, Don't Be Square (Be There)
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
What in the fresh heck is going on here? I love it. It makes no sense. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra creates such an odd avant-garde atmosphere, creating what I'd call the musical equivalent of liminal space. I was so intrigued during the forty-two minutes of runtime that I couldn't really say I enjoyed it so much as vividly and confusedly experienced it. The electric keyboard, violin, cello, chilling Nico-esque vocal, and bass mesh well together, despite them not necessarily being played masterfully.
The main highlight track is The Sound Of Someone..., which has a soft, melancholic feel that's fairly distinct from the more upbeat remainder of the album. I enjoy this kind of muted guitar tone (seen frequently in some of my all-time favourite albums, like Radiohead's In Rainbows). The ultra-high strings, which appear in this track and several others, aren't my favourite sound, but I can understand their place as another quirky voice in the choir of strange musical interactions and conversations going on here. The Sound Of Someone... showcases a great deal of these conversations. It's pretty captivating. Probably better on drugs, too.
4/5
Key tracks: Penguin Cafe Single, Zopf: Giles Farnaby's Dream, The Sound Of Someone You Love Who's Going Away And It Doesn't Matter
Funkadelic
5/5
The first half of this album is impeccable, and the second half ain't too bad either. The title/opening track is killer, despite consisting essentially of an extended guitar solo with a two-chord muted bass arpeggio underneath. It's soulful, full of expression, and it sounds great. Any ten-plus-minute song that keeps you mesmerised the entire time is impressive in its own right, and the fact that it makes up almost a third of this album has to be acknowledged. (The first third of a (relatively) mainstream album being flawless psychedelic guitar noodling? Insanity!)
The album closer, Wars Of Armageddon, is essentially a brasher and more texturally crowded version of the first track. The remaining five songs are chock-full of harmonised 60s-esque vocals, a solid funk rhythm section (including some great basslines), and elements of rock and jazz. In this middle part of the album, the atmosphere is almost party-esque, particularly in the songs Can You Get To That and Hit It and Quit It. Although I found that some of the later tracks were compositionally and tonally weaker than the opening trio, it's pretty dang tough to keep up that quality. And I daresay that this album would not have its legendary status without the mixture of "hook" tracks and "boys, do whatever you want" tracks. These guys are jamming, and you've got to hand it to them: they really pull it off.
Note: Listen to this with headphones. My second listen was without headphones, and it was significantly worse.
5/5
Key tracks: Maggot Brain, Can You Get To That, Hit It and Quit It
Foo Fighters
3/5
Apart from the (great) drumming, the Foo Fighters' sound on this album is pretty anonymous, particularly for the already-oversaturated field of 90s alt-rock/grunge. Grohl continues faithfully in the footsteps of his previous band Nirvana, to fair effect – although the juxtaposition (for some listeners) between Cobain's roughened, emotional vocal and the weaker, blurrier one in this album can be stark. Grohl definitely made the right decision by distancing his Nirvana identity from the new music he wanted to spread and perform with the "New Foo". And maybe that separation of identity worked wonders back in the 90s, but with more hindsight information, I doubt it fools many people in the present day.
Every track is pretty enjoyable, pretty energetic, with instruments that are pretty well performed – but not much more. The relatively mellow pop track Big Me is a highlight for having a warmer guitar sound and a generally more singable melody. The album opener, This Is a Call, is iconic enough as a full-fledged introduction to justify its place in my "key tracks" list as well. Most of the remaining tracks are inoffensive, perfectly fine tracks in a genre that had been (and still is) done to death. The Foo Fighters don't do much to distinguish themselves as artists, and combined with the lack of album flow (aside from the contrasting tone in Big Me and For All the Cows), I can't justify giving this any higher than a 3.
3/5
Key tracks: This Is a Call, Big Me, For All the Cows
Deerhunter
3/5
I really wanted to give this a low rating because the vocals are very obviously bland and half-baked. But the instrumental's pretty good on most tracks, and it's enough to counterbalance the singing to create an overall neutral/slightly good listening experience. But certain parts of the instrumental are better than others. The chord progressions are engaging, and the percussion (whether acoustic or electronic) is pretty fire. Deerhunter is clearly great at creating an atmosphere, a setting for the plot to unfold. I'm normally partial to bass playing, but the bass is a little repetitive even for my taste. The guitar lines sometimes sound a bit like something from Create A Sim mode (exhibit A: Desire Lines) but that's by no means a bad thing.
Overall, the vocals are holding the music back severely here. This seems to be a common occurrence on this list.
3/5
Key tracks: Revival, Desire Lines, Helicopter
Wild Beasts
2/5
An incredibly distinctive and strange style, with the focal point being the operatic vocals. In my opinion, the wavery falsetto gets a little annoying after a few tracks, and songs which give the ears a temporary rest end up being highlights as a result. All The King's Men switches between falsetto and a more pleasant tenor. (Two Dancers (i) and (ii) do the same thing, but the backing instrumental is worse. Darn.) The drums are generally poor throughout the album. They're mostly electronic drums, or are acoustic but do an excellent job at imitating electronic drums. Either way, their sound isn't promising. My favourite instrument showcased here is probably the piano, most noticeable in We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues / Wild Beasts. The echoey repeated guitar strums (in most tracks) are also worth a mention, if only because they're a key part of the spacey, post-psychedelic atmosphere. They're fine, but nothing special.
The production is also worth a mention. It's bad. Gives me '00s flashbacks, and I wasn't even self-aware during that decade.
2/5
Key tracks: All The King's Men, We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues / Wild Beasts
James Brown
3/5
I've been led to believe that this guy's an amazing singer. He's good, but not mind-blowing. His "I Feel Good" vocal is better. The sound here is extremely typical of the 50s, meaning an album released in 1963 is actually a step backward (or at least sideways) rather than forward. A gutsy move, for sure, putting this album on a list of the 1000 best albums of all time – especially considering it's a live album that hasn't reached many people (based on Spotify numbers). Was it the right choice?
Well, probably. The influence on both contemporary and future musicians is palpable here, from the soul-rendering vocals to the relaxed, almost jazzy rhythm section and tight horns. It's at once a relic of its time and a clear inspiration for the likes of British Invasion bands, experimental jazz/blues, hard rock, and R&B. Plus, there are some mild standouts here. Most of side 1 is very strong, featuring thematic interludes that don't just talk about "sex, ya know what I mean, brotha?" (as interlude tracks in later tended to lean into). Instead, the interludes are generally instrumental and play off a horn section theme with slight variations each time. It's far more exciting and a solid addition to any live setlist. That being said, it's far too easy to skip these on subsequent listens, because they do interrupt the flow of side 1. Side 2 is marred by the almost 11-minute Lost Someone, featuring an arduous two-chord slog punctuated by Brown and the crowd having a back-and-forth screaming competition. It gets old after the first 5 minutes, and then you realise you're less than halfway done. And it takes up one third of an otherwise fairly strong album.
This album was ranked 25th-best of all time by Rolling Stone in both 2003 and 2012, which is surprising. I can definitely think of 25 better albums released in the 60s alone.
3/5
Key tracks: Try Me, Think, Medley
David Bowie
3/5
Some ups and downs to talk about here. The album covers is so horrendously low-budget that it wraps around to being kind of good. It's a grainy close-up of Bowie putting on an unconvincing seductive face, two fonts that are ugly and hard to read, and some cheap sparkly plastic stuff from your local dollar store for good measure. The music itself is very strong, though until the final track, the songs feel just a little incomplete somehow. It doesn't help that Bowie's singing is wavery, lazily theatrical (even more than usual for mid-70s Davie), and can barely hold a melody. It's also mixed uncomfortably, sounding both in-your-face and partially muffled by the other instruments at the same time. Anyone who thinks his vocal here sounds better than on Low or Hunky Dory has a very odd taste in vocals. And I know there's at least one of you in the list of reviews here.
The album really shines when you focus on all the instruments other than Bowie's voice, as well as the compositions in general. The backing vocals are gorgeous in just about every track. Incredibly tasteful sax solos are sprinkled throughout the album and I'm mesmerised every time they appear. The guitar style and especially the dynamic bass playing are clearly influenced by funk, and showcase the prototype of what would later populate much of 80s funk, pop, soul, and early R&B. This is the first album, chronologically, where Bowie commits to a setlist of jam sessions. I think it works pretty well, though Bowie's voice brings it down significantly.
3/5
Key tracks: Young Americans, Fascination, Fame
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Unusually, these string arrangements don't do much for the songs, apart from possibly the strong opener Love Goes On!. But that track is mostly supported by its driving acoustic guitars and chord progressions, which the strings accentuate. The string playing in the remaining tracks is unremarkable. The singing is poor, not quite reaching the same humorously dramatic heights as Britpop giants (e.g. Morrissey). In fact, this band has quite a few parallels with the Smiths, but generally carries them out pretty badly in comparison. Quiet Heart and Clouds are two very sonically similar tracks that showcase the weak singing excellently. (Clouds tries to cover it up with octave harmonising, but I remain unconvinced.) The songs, in general, are a medium level of catchy. I could see this being a shameless chart-filler back in the 80s when Britpop was inexplicably popular.
Another parallel: the track Was There Anything I Could Do? sounds extremely similar to the Smiths' Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (1986). So similar, in fact, that I'm ready to call it a knock-off song – much like George Harrison's My Sweet Lord being a knock-off of the Chiffons' He's So Fine. Still, the sameness allowed me to actually enjoy it more than most other tracks. And mere second-hand enjoyment should raise some alarm bells.
2/5
Key tracks: Love Goes On!, Streets Of Your Town, Was There Anything I Could Do?
Antony and the Johnsons
2/5
Anohni's lower register is much more pleasant (and, dare I say it, bearable) than her upper register. The vibrato is so rapid that it becomes distractingly omnipresent, but it's less noticeable with lower notes. With the alto range, it sounds like Anohni is constantly shivering while attempting to sing, and the result is goofy and hard to really take seriously. Clumsy lyricism. Generally good piano, though its ballad-like emotiveness gets a little repetitive. I enjoy the strings, which are arranged skilfully.
What Can I Do? is a short laid-back jazz track, and I dig it. Definitely underappreciated, judging by Spotify numbers. Fistful Of Love is also worth a shoutout for its soul-esque horn section, which really separates the track's sound from the ballad-heavy remainder of the album. Most of the remaining tracks, though, are pretty forgettable, sharing a common element of having a poor vocalist.
2/5
Key tracks: Hope There's Someone, What Can I Do?, Fistful Of Love
Van Morrison
3/5
Too many tracks that are too long. The Way Young Lovers Do is tied for shortest, at 3:17, and its Latin waltz feel is excellent, making it the primary standout track. I love harmonised trumpets. They're used so frequently in jazz, reggae, pop, and soul – among others – and for good reason.
I would've liked to hear more than two repeated chords (for seven minutes straight) on the title track. That being said, it sounds pretty decent, especially if you're not listening to it studiously. The violin and flute additions are nifty. Tragically, though, the seven-minute I-IV chord progression comes back to bite you in the eardrum with Cyprus Avenue. Less than halfway through the album, and we have over 14 minutes of essentially two chords and some rambly singing. (Ballsy, I guess?) Madame George, clocking in at just under ten minutes, comes dangerously close to repeating this feat, but fortunately adds a V chord to the progression to break up the monotony slightly. But the title track carries out the bland chord progressions best.
From another reviewer: "I feel like all [of these tracks] are kind of like the folksy acoustic songs that Zeppelin did, but that Zeppelin did them better." Moondance is significantly better than this album, and comparing the two only serves to hurt the latter.
3/5
Key tracks: Astral Weeks, The Way Young Lovers Do
Jungle Brothers
3/5
The Jungle Brothers are further evidence that 80s hip-hop is peak hip-hop, by a wide margin. The 80s saw R&B and rap being fused with almost jazz- or blues-like instrumental licks (whether sampled or not), whereas the 90s tended to avoid those licks in favour of stronger political messaging. As a listener who tends not to pay much attention to lyrics, I definitely prefer the 80s style, and Done By The Forces Of Nature fits my groove. The first half of the album is consistently strong, with standouts like Feelin' Alright and What "U" Waitin' "4". (Putting the "texting" abbreviations in quotation marks feels like something my grandparents would do. I love it.) The keyboard is great whenever it makes an appearance. So are the (acoustic) drums, which inject a raw, rocking energy to the music.
Later songs like Beeds on a String, Good Newz Comin', and the title track slightly abandon the melodic and harmonic elements in the background, and hence deal some critical blows to the flow of the album. I enjoy the interweaving male and female vocals on Black Woman and the excellent keyboards on Doin' Our Own Dang, but otherwise, the latter half of the album really loses steam. Most of this half of the record should cut out, particularly as the album is unusually long in its current form.
3/5
Key tracks: Doin' Our Own Dang, Feelin' Alright
Van Halen
4/5
Not as strong as the self-titled debut, but still exhilarating, darn it. Jump has that instantly recognisable synth riff that gives it a legendary stadium-rocker status (akin to Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al). The short opening track also sets the atmosphere for Jump nicely. Hot For Teacher / I'll Wait is a brilliant one-two punch later in the album, giving the listener an adrenaline booster after the relatively standard rock fillers Top Jimmy and Drop Dead Legs. The bass playing deserves a big shoutout here: it's hard to miss, but incredibly addicting once you catch onto it.
One thing that knocks this album down is that its lyrics (and melodies) aren't particularly singable (with a possible exception being Hot For Teacher). They're danceable and hair-thrashing – easy to drive along to with slicked-back hair and a convertible – but not exactly singable. David Lee Roth still pulled them off fairly convincingly, but at the end of the day these compositions just aren't as compelling as on the band's debut.
Good guitar playing though.
4/5
Key tracks: Jump, Hot For Teacher, I'll Wait
k.d. lang
3/5
Works like this are sonically passable, but do they really deserve to be on a list of the 1001 most important albums in history? Shadowland sounds like a 40s or 50s soft jazz-country album, but released (incredibly) in 1988. It's such a step backwards in musical progress that you have to wonder if the authors of 1001 Albums sprinkled in a few personal favourites to pad the numbers. Toronto Star described the music as "purely retrogressive and deferential", and if that's not an indicator of a record that shouldn't be on this list, I don't know what is.
The music isn't very memorable or interesting, though I'll give that it sounds pretty good. The production is on-point. k.d. lang's voice is consistently silky and beautiful (some jazz scat would've gone hard). I enjoyed the horns throughout, and the quietly intense strings on various songs, including Black Coffee. There isn't much in the way of album experience/flow – that is, not many "ups" and "downs" to keep the listener seriously engaged – but then, the same is true of most albums.
3/5
Key tracks: Western Stars, Black Coffee, Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them
John Prine
3/5
I love this guy's country twang, and his lyrics are goofy and enjoyable for the most part. That being said, the music is fairly simplistic (even for its time) in terms of melody, harmony, song structure, and choice of instrumentation. Prine clearly can't hold a melody with his voice when the compositions call for it. He sounds like your farmer uncle who sits in the corner bouncing a kid on his knee. And singing. Safe to say I'm quite surprised to see any post-60s country on this list if it doesn't revolutionise the genre in some way.
The song Pretty Good is a bit of an anomaly here: the chorus lyrics are horrifically bland (to the point where they feel like a 70s sonic shitpost), but Prine kind of makes it work. There are a couple of songs where the lyrics are so distractingly bad that no American charm can save them from the fiery depths: namely, Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore and Donald & Lydia. The best songs, on the other hand, are ones that add backing vocals or other ear-catching instruments. Paradise has what sounds like a fiddle(?) and some lovely campfire-country harmonisation in the chorus. Spanish Pipedream contains a surprisingly great electric guitar riff. Angel from Montgomery, while not being the only track to contain an organ, pulls it better than the others.
3/5
Key tracks: Spanish Pipedream, Angel from Montgomery, Paradise
The Prodigy
1/5
The song Smack My Bitch Up is horrifically bad, both in terms of lyricism and sound. Scattered tracks throughout the remainder of the album are sonically good, but lyrically poor (and the rest are sonically and lyrically poor). They should've gone purely instrumental here to at least maintain some semblance of trying to make something decent-sounding. In addition, most of the tracks sound extremely similar, with Narayan perhaps being a standout for having lower energy and a thinner texture. I'll give it that it definitely influenced later electronic music. But think for a moment – is that really a good thing, given how frequently modern-day electronic music is criticised?
1/5
Key tracks: none
PJ Harvey
4/5
The energy here is exhilarating, rushed, angry, emotional. All the instruments are used in the right places, including furious, atonal strings on Dress and especially on Plants & Rags, distorted guitar (plus an abrupt punk-esque ending) on O Stella, the Nirvana-esque guitar and drums of Sheela-na-gig, the rolling, mysterious rhythms in Hair… the list goes on. Harvey’s vocal here has that signature classic rock energy, comparable to that of Blondie or the Cranberries. It’s not completely refined, which adds to the atmosphere rather than detracts from it. There’s a clear punk influence here, but Harvey’s voice is significantly better than the (vast) majority of punk singers. It’s a breath of fresh air, for sure.
The compositions are reasonably good, but could be a bit more melodically and harmonically complex. There’s a lot of “hard rock melody” going on here. It makes the songs difficult to sing along to even if you know them well. Many of the songs are two or three chords, meaning it’s also difficult to catch onto the melody based on chord changes. Additionally, for 1992, I guess I don’t see this album progressing enough past its contemporaries to warrant a perfect 5 stars. But it’s still a darn good showing by the PJ.
4/5
Key tracks: Oh My Lover, O Stella, Sheela-na-gig
King Crimson
4/5
What a freakin' journey. I started out unimpressed with part 1 of the title track, which sounds like a slightly discount Tubular Bells. In the first half, there's a lot of silence with various instruments tentatively tooting out every so often. It's the kind of output you'd expect from a band who thinks they're so successful, they can get away with anything – except King Crimson wasn't particularly successful by this point. But then the texture thickens substantially, and we start to see an interesting kaleidoscope of the prog[-rock] genre. Book Of Saturday makes good use of soft electric guitar licks (à la In Rainbows), including some nice reversed guitar. Whenever the backing vocals enter, the band's music is elevated (even though I suspect the singer is layering several tracks of his own voice, meaning this couldn't really be played live). Exiles starts off unpromising, but from the 2 minute mark onward it's an excellent acoustic track that sounds like a combination of British, Irish, and Eastern European folk. Part 2 of the title track is worth a shout-out for being a big improvement on part 1. The distorted guitar and bass are great here, as are the unhinged strings.
The album is uncohesive enough (excluding the bookend/title tracks, which technically have some resemblance to one another) that I don't really see myself giving it 5 stars. But darn it, I enjoyed myself.
4/5
Key tracks: Book Of Saturday, Exiles, Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
The Prodigy
2/5
The track Full Throttle freaking slaps, and no other tracks (except possibly No Good) come even close. I'm amazed it doesn't have more listens. It's a breath of fresh, turbo-charged air amidst a sea of mundane, repetitive 7-minute tracks. The chromatic two-chord changes, airy synth bass, and almost cinematic atmosphere really drive the music, and the drums are at their most acoustic-sounding. All in all, a solid recipe for decent electronic music. No Good (Start the Dance) fades into the background until I picture a real bass player shredding those lines. It's a lot more entertaining that way. It's also the most exciting of the "hype" tracks, of which there are many.
Most of the other tracks are fine, and probably in the better half of 90s electronic output, but they're too long to properly engage with. Sure, put this album on in a club or at a party and nobody will think twice. But nor will anybody call for the DJ to spin "Claustrophobic Sting" or "Speedway (Theme from Fastlane)" another time. There's little to distinguish the individual pieces. This is probably because of lack of instrumental variation, zero balancing between electric and acoustic (or acoustic-adjacent) sounds, almost nothing to show in terms of melody or chord progressions, and rhythms that are fine but a bit indistinguishable from one another.
2/5
Key tracks: Full Throttle, No Good (Start the Dance)
David Gray
2/5
The audio quality of this album is a bit distracting. All of the instruments sound fine production-wise except the singing, which is almost painfully crackly. Don't get me wrong – Gray's voice is fine, a bit Dylanesque – but something about the vocal mixing/production makes it sound like it was recorded in the mid-40s. Once you notice it, you can't ignore it. It's a shame, really, because the acoustic instrumentation backing his voice is fairly strong and a breath of fresh air in the midst of heavily electronic (and often soulless) R&B/rap that dominated 90s charts. I'm not someone who tends to pay heed to the lyrics unless they're egregiously bad, so I can't speak to Gray's lyricism, so his voice is all I have to go on. And it's best to try to tune out his voice.
Now for the compositions: they're fine. Passable. One sign of good songwriting I like to look for is if different parts of the same song are sonically distinguishable (disregarding lyrical changes, e.g. different verses). Changes in key, texture/instrumentation, and dynamics (loudness) are all examples of this. Think Stairway to Heaven, A Day in the Life, Good Vibrations, Bohemian Rhapsody... all the classic greats, you know? Some songs do this much better than others. I find that, while Gray's style is mostly pleasant to the ear, this intra-song variation is absent in most tracks. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is one of the better tracks for this reason, slowly introducing more intense guitars and percussion as the mood transitions from mournful to hopeful. This Year's Love is also notable for (perhaps rebelliously) not using an acoustic guitar. The cinematic strings go well with simple piano chords.
All that being said: there's nothing revolutionary about the music. White Ladder doesn't belong on this list.
I like to call this album art "Blurry Tommy".
2/5
Key tracks: My Oh My, Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Sigur Rós
5/5
Reminds me of a more electronic version of Pink Floyd in their golden era. Tracks like Flugufrelsarinn have surprisingly similar textures to those of 70s prog, including slow, smooth basslines, thick synth soundscapes, and music that isn't primarily focused on vocals. The drumming also reminds me of 90s alt-rock in places. There are a variety of influences here, and they work pretty darn well together. Also present are many seamless shifts in mood within tracks, and some The Wall-esque track transitions that really glue together the album into a singular piece of art. The little melodies in the synths, guitars, and winds are fun. The strongest melodies are in Svefn-g-englar (it didn't get annoying, surprisingly!) and Olsen Olsen (the little flute coda is such a fun way to end the track).
There isn't much to criticise about the album. Maybe the production could be a little more sharp, particularly in the instruments with varied frequency (vocals and percussion). Somebody might also argue that the album commits to a specific fantasy-winter theme (supported in part by the lyrics) and refuses to deviate from that, though I think that's a strength rather than a downfall. With Ágætis Byrjun, Sigur Rós have nearly perfected this strange, wonderful genre that, in my opinion, is one of the better ones. It's certainly some of the best 90s output I've heard.
5/5
Key tracks: Svefn-g-englar, Starálfur, Olsen Olsen
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I can appreciate the deep emotion and heartbreak worn on Nick Cave's sleeve here. It's not really what I'm looking for in an album, but it has its own merits. Ghosteen commits to this intense yet soft and mournful mood that's reminiscent of Bowie's final album, Blackstar. The synths in tracks like Ghosteen Speaks, Hollywood, and Leviathan are pretty darn great. You don't hear many albums with such a low, downcast tone hit the charts these days, and it's cool to hear a modern take on what's essentially a grief concept album. Leviathan is an excellent track, made so by its light, airy percussion and piano (added to the already-strong synths).
My main issue is that there's exceptionally little variation in mood or instrumentation between tracks. The same melancholy, the same piano-synth-bass-downtrodden vocal combination, the same slow tempo, swamping every track and making this a little exhausting for one continuous 68-minute listen. I don't see myself listening to this album often. There's a lot for the ear to pick up on, though it falls towards being accidental rather than soundscapey. You hear little crescendos and blips in the backing vocals, in the synths, and wonder if it's a mistake or intentional. Then you decide it's probably a mistake when it doesn't seem to add much to the music. I'm also not one for listening to lyrics, but I get the impression Cave is quite focused on them.
All that being said, I'm willing to bet this album hits a heck of a lot harder for somebody in mourning – and for that, it warrants at least a decent rating.
3/5
Key tracks: Ghosteen Speaks, Leviathan, Ghosteen
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
You don't hear much brass in punk music. Tracks like Young Livers and Drop Out incorporate it fairly well, though at the cost of the music sounding a bit staged. Non-spontaneous. Which sort of goes against the "point" of the genre. That being said, I actually enjoy it more than most punk on this list – at least on the scale of individual tracks. After 40 minutes of this nonsense, the high energy becomes pretty tiring to sit through, and you can find yourself counting the remaining minutes. In other words, the "album flow" isn't very good. I could see myself listening to individual tracks here as part of a mix, but not the album in its entirety, in the future.
There's a lot of "drunken chorus" singing, which is pretty enjoyable if only to serve as a contrast with the bad lead vocalist. The guy sounds like an unreasonably low-effort Axl Rose.
The lyrics of Ball Lightning are stupid. Normally I ignore the lyrics, but not when they're this egregious. Around this point in the album, I started paying more attention, allowing me to notice gems like these:
"Well, come see, come saw, come cruelty / When it's hungry it's gonna fight, gonna fight, or gonna bite / And it chalks up one so hasty"
"Want some cheese with your whine?"
"I can't believe it's not butter, but it's sour / Learn blow by blow / What does fat lip know?"
Yeah. Not exactly poets, these guys.
2/5
Key tracks: On A Rope, Young Livers, Misbeaten
Venom
2/5
This genre doesn't appeal to me much. I would say it's historically significant, except earlier output from this genre (70s and early 80s) were more harmonically and rhythmically complex, had more discernible singing/lyrics, and overall represented a more "golden" era of metal. (Think Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy.) Another inclusion on this list that I don't really understand. Sure, there's a ton of energy and it's actually pretty fun to thrash your mullet to at first – but in the latter half, the unrelenting fury starts to sound a little artificial and repetitive.
2/5
Key tracks: Black Metal, To Hell and Back, Countess Bathory
Roxy Music
3/5
Roxy Music, at least in this stage of their career, seems to be a "weird-for-the-sake-of-weird" kind of band. The chaos of the opening track, Re-Make/Re-Model, is something pretty special – particularly with the brass and saxes. It sets up the music as being unpredictable, energetic, and highly dynamic within individual tracks (you love to see it!). Each song is almost its own proto-prog vignette. The genre is thrown around haphazardly, even tossed out the window completely in some cases. I mean, can you even begin to categorise the bass-heavy, oceanic "epic" that is Sea Breezes, the dozen completely distinct song sections of The Bob, or the combined horror movie and delightful end-credits sound of Virginia Plain? If these guys were trying to avoid fitting into one musical categorisation, they definitely succeeded.
All that being said, I have some problems. The singing isn't great. It's wild, wobbly, and difficult to latch onto as a listener. There's little in the way of melody or catchy, head-nodding hooks. The vibes are fun, sure, but is this really something you'd want to put on for your friends? Does this music work in any setting, social or otherwise, other than scrolling through Spotify in search of quirky post-Summer-Of-Love oddities? I guess it could fit into the underground scene, but it also sounds a bit like punk (which is anything but underground) and perhaps art rock à la Brian Eno. The listener is left happy but confused.
3/5
Key tracks: Re-Make/Re-Model, Virginia Plain, Chance Meeting
Simply Red
3/5
The first two tracks are an introduction to the two facets of Simply Red: the pop/post-disco side and the jazzy, soulful one. I think they pull off the latter better, though it's a fun experience seeing two very different genres being juggled pretty convincingly by the same band. Little elements like the walking bassline and fluttering sax lines on Sad Old Red take me back to my jazz big band days. Although no other tracks reach the smoothness of Sad Old Red, you can still hear hints of soulful jazz and blues through some of the keyboard and vocal parts, particularly on Jericho and Open up the Red Box.
A couple of songs are definite misses. The Talking Heads cover, Heaven, is too artificial for my taste. No Direction is created in the fashion of "throw more musical bits and bobs at the mix until something magical hopefully happens", and it's a little more chaotic and non-cohesive than I'd like. The vocals are also pretty inconsistent between tracks. It almost sounds like every song features a different singer, yet there's a good reason why most musicians tend to avoid doing this. Regardless of any flaws, though, this is far from a 1-star album. The top reviews are almost entirely 1s and 2s, and this surprises me, because there's some genuinely good stuff hidden amongst the 80s-era sheen. I suspect widespread, deep-seated hatred for anything 80s-related is the culprit here. And if that sounds like you – man, what are you doing this project for?
3/5
Key tracks: Sad Old Red, Money's Too Tight (To Mention), Open up the Red Box
Butthole Surfers
1/5
The overall sound here is grating, unmelodic, difficult. Some of the songs, very unusually, lack a bass (including Graveyard, Weber, and The O-Men) – which removes harmonic grounding and can make it really unappetising to sit through. The vocals are not enjoyable in most tracks. In Graveyard, it sounds like a filter not unlike something from early King Crimson or Black Sabbath – except without the infectious instrumentation to back it up. Instead, throughout the whole album, we get a gravelly, unskilled guitar part that meshes badly with the similarly gravelly hard-rock vocals. The vocals in other tracks are often Axl Rose-esque, but with transitions to weird chipmunky filters (or other assorted voice effects) that make it impossible to take the singing seriously.
Other things of note: Hay is a crowd of filtered voices shouting "hay" over a really unpleasant soundscape of reversed factory noises. It's pretty out there for its time – but is it groundbreaking? Sweat Loaf (the opening track) is pretty good. Nothing particularly catchy, but it's fun to hear alternating soft and loud song sections, and an adapted guitar riff from a better band. U.S.S.A.'s singing reminds me, very loosely, of Nirvana's Endless, Nameless – but with a considerably more irritating rhythm section. The singing in O-Men is a babbling mess.
There's no album flow, no experience, concept, or genre to latch onto. No convincing melody or harmony (apart from the key tracks). There's nothing here. I'm obliged to give this 1 star, and everybody else is too.
1/5
Key tracks: Sweat Loaf, Human Cannonball, Kuntz
Os Mutantes
4/5
For 1968, this stuff is pretty dang creative. It represents the almost euphoric happiness that the world of psychedelia had to offer back in the 60s. The multiple song sections squeezed into tracks under three minutes in length, the multi-tracked layering of vocals (e.g. in Trem Fantasma), the heavy 8-bit distortion of the guitar on Bat Macumba... man, how do you come up with this stuff? There's some clear influence here, not just from British psychedelic pop but also towards it. I'm willing to bet the likes of Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, and Jefferson Airplane both inspired and were inspired by Os Mutantes. Each track is distinct from the last, and the energy of the album rises and falls like a (slow) rollercoaster. The bass playing is one of the highlights of the album, being simple, bluesy, and infectious.
There are a few aspects that could've been better. The production is fine for its time, but through a modern lens it feels a bit brash and messy. (Hard to explain.) The vocals are mixed too loudly – commonplace for the 60s – giving it an overly retro feel. I'm not a big fan of the male lead vocal, which sounds untrained compared to its female counterpart. There are parts of the album where Os Mutantes seemingly chooses to be "weird for the sake of weird", and generally I'm not a big fan of that. They make it work pretty darn well, though. It's a gas.
4/5
Key tracks: Panis Et Circenses, A Minha Menina, Trem Fantasma
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
There are countless standout tracks here that would easily be huge hits for any other symphonic/prog rock bands, yet here pale in comparison to the pop-single trio of Turn to Stone / Sweet Talkin' Woman / Mr. Blue Sky. It's easy to lose track and dismiss half these "filler" songs for bloating the album's runtime. But then you listen closer and realise that lesser-known tracks like Summer and Lightning, Steppin' Out, and Night in the City are pretty darn sick. The same applies to just about every song on this monster of an album. The record is incredibly diverse and yet maintains this homogeneous "soft wall of sound" feel. The vocals are a big contributor to this sound, being mixed non-overbearingly and meshing really well with the synths and strings. The whole album feels light, pillowy, hopeful. Clearly Beatles-inspired, though a little more laser-focused on their style than the Beatles (who were more experimental in terms of genres).
There could be more emotional ups and downs on the album. And maybe the vocal and string melodic lines are a bit artificial and predictable. But even those are a stretch as far as criticisms go. There isn't much to criticise – Out Of The Blue is just that darn good.
5/5
Key tracks: Turn to Stone, Night in the City, Jungle, Mr. Blue Sky, Sweet Is the Night
Buzzcocks
2/5
The singing is so off-putting that it distracts from the exciting energy and decent (as far as punk goes) instrumentation. The melody is nearly nonexistent in every track, and yet the singer somehow manages to sing out of tune. And violently so. His hollering is wavery, untrained, even a bit grating. In addition, the Buzzcocks have placed this horrific tinny filter on the vocal that makes it sound degrees of magnitude worse. I don't normally pay attention to lyrics, but these ones caught my attention for being your standard fare of punk clumsiness:
"My mad love battery wants to charge you / My mad love battery could maybe enlarge you"
"Makes me wish I could drop / Dro dro dro dro dro dro dro drop / And I don't like French kissing / Because you swallow my tongue"
"You tear me up, you're a bloody swine / All this slurping and sucking / You know it's putting me off my food"
One criterion I always consider when judging an album is how it works as a whole experience. Does the album tell a story, even if only emotionally? Energetic ups and downs are a must for any good record. Punk tends to get this wrong (being high-energy by nature), which is why I think it's a genre that albums simply aren't equipped for. Another Music In A Different Kitchen is no exception here. There aren't any "down-tracks" or ballads to break up the tiring passion and anger.
All that being said, this isn't the worst I've heard. Some of the riffs and basslines are pretty good.
2/5
Key tracks: Fast Cars, I Don't Mind, Fiction Romance
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
I like this sound. Reminiscent of Pat Metheny, but with more use of horns and thicker textures. There's decent tonal variation between the tracks, allowing for Jorge Ben (and his band) to present a variety of jazz motifs and atmospheres from the time. Normally I'd give an album with consistent good vibes and variation throughout the album at least 4 stars, but there are a few distractors. There's some recurring instrument that I'm pretty sure is woodwind, but it irrevocably sounds like somebody wiping glass with a sponge. Each two-note woo-woo sounds like your local Ralph scrubbing down the school's windows. It's very prominent in Taj Mahal and O Filósofo, but it appears in nearly all the tracks – and once you notice it, it's difficult to pay attention to much else. Great singing and other instrumentation – so was it really worth sabotaging the entire sound for a two-note flute that sounds off-pitch in most tracks?
One of the worst albums covers so far! The blur makes Jorge Ben's eyes look slightly demonic, and the text font/layout is about as bog-standard as it can get. Very goofy.
3/5
Key tracks: Ponta De Lança Africano, Taj Mahal, África Brasil (Zumbi)
M.I.A.
1/5
Whew. What a slog to get through. We start with the one-two helicopter crash that is Bamboo Banga / BirdFlu, a pair of songs so self-assured that they surely don't need any kind of melody, good vocal delivery, or convincing instrumentation – at least, according to M.I.A. In fact, these factors end up being the songs' downfall, because when so much is stripped away, you're left with complex artificial percussion backing an unrefined, childlike vocal and to bland, clichéd lyrics. It turns out M.I.A.'s voice is actually pretty good (see later tracks), but in this first run of songs, she sings/raps in a near monotone which still manages to be harmonically disjoint from the chord progressions. It sounds... well, bad. M.I.A. also chooses to double-track her vocals on most songs, which is by no means a bad choice – countless 60s bands pulled this technique off well – but her clumsy, inconsistent delivery makes the singing sound messy and unprofessional at times.
The song Boyz begins to show promise with the Olympic-sounding brass part, but again M.I.A. self-sabotages with the (essentially) one-note melody. Jimmy and Hussel are the first two good tracks. They showcase some fun synth parts and the first appearance of solid singing and melodic work. The only other tracks I'd be willing to listen to again are the mega-hit Paper Planes and the album closer Come Around, both of which have memorable, catchy hooks. The remainder of the album is mostly complete throwaways. The kids of Wilcannia Mob who feature in Mango Pickle Down River just don't sound very good – though props to the low beatboxing that substitutes for a bass synth. Pretty cool. XR2, World Town, and 20 Dollar are three extremely anonymous electronic club-rave songs that don't really get off the ground at all.
I'd be interested to hear M.I.A. singing with any kind of effort or passion. It would completely change my view of her music.
1/5
Key tracks: Jimmy, Hussel, Paper Planes
1/5
Not good. The bad singing brings an amateurish quality that is already bluntly apparent from the scattered, tribal-esque percussion and extremely simple melodies and chords. With the exception of the album opener, Broken Witch, the entire album has a sluggish energy that it never really squirms free from. There's (almost) nothing exciting to let the album "pick up" from its lulls.
And yet the songs seem to insist to the listener: "Trust me, I'm clever! You must acquire more delusion in order to see the truth!" I'm really trying to see the substance here, but it's just noise. Vaguely interesting noise, to be sure – but in the end, nothing more. I suspect this is the reason why They Were Wrong is far from their most popular album, and I wonder why the authors thought it should be included in a list of the 1001 most important records of all time, while Pink Floyd's Animals shouldn't. Insanity.
1/5
Key tracks: There's Always Room on the Broom, They Don't Want Your Corn They Want Your , Flow My Tears the Spider Said
Richard Thompson
3/5
This is pretty solid as a laid-back, largely inoffensive folk record. It sounds nice, the vocal harmonies are good (and better than the sum of their parts), and the acoustic guitar playing is pretty. But excluding the opening and titles tracks, there isn't much to get excited about. Absent is the juxtaposition between textural highs and lows that really makes some of the top-tier albums stand out from the pack. There are definitely memorable moments, but those stand out for being odd rather than necessarily high-energy. Take the questionable inclusion The Little Beggar Girl. A catchy track, to be sure, and one that pays homage to the adjacent genre of Celtic folk – but I was engaged for its really weird vocal delivery and lyrics rather than for any kind of "wow" factor. Many (most) tracks are "lull" songs, including Has He Got A Friend For Me, The Great Valerio, The End Of The Rainbow, Withered And Died, and so on. The multipart mini-epic The Calvary Cross and infectious Bright Lights Tonight (title track) are the album's saving grace from getting a 2.
Folk music, having one of the longest lifetimes of any musical genre, is incredibly oversaturated, and I don't see how this is any more deserving of belonging on the list than just another Mitchell, Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young, Simon/Garfunkel, or Dylan record. Though, at least with those, the records selling widely was part of what made them influential: more people listened to them at the time. But Bright Lights Tonight was "never commercially successful and critically ignored upon its release", according to the album's Wikipedia article – so can you really say with a straight face that it belongs with the 1000 most important records of all time? (I can. I have an excellent poker face.)
3/5
Key tracks: The Calvary Cross, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
The Roots
1/5
My main takeaway was that this album is repetitive, monotone, bland. The bass synth + electronic percussion combo in Rock You, hitting beats 1 and 2 of every bar for three minutes, gets old really fast. Not my thing. Many of the tracks can be described in an extremely similar fashion, including Thought @ Work, Water, and Quills. Then there are complete flop songs like Pussy Galore (what?), Rock You, and the weak album closer Thirsty. I think it's pretty telling that the most popular tracks on the album (by Spotify listens) are those with clear-cut vocal melodies, instrumental hooks, strong backing vocals, and less focus on monotone, clichéd rap delivery. It's obvious what listeners want, and The Roots seemingly covers their ears and sings (raps) "la-la-la, I can't hear you" after their first four studio albums to arrive at this mild train wreck with a couple of scattered gems.
One thing I'll give props for: the track transitions, particularly between an interlude and the following track, are darn smooth. I also find it pretty funny that The Roots brought in Ursula Rucker for the 20-second opening track, and she doesn't appear anywhere else on the 67-minute record.
I'm stealing a comment from another reviewer because it sums up most of my view about this album (and many other 90s/00s hip-hop records): "This was a real slog. Overlong, half acerbic and irritating rap, half bland nu-soul, neither very good. Black Thought's voice and lyrics are pretty uninteresting, and the "it's a real band" conceit leaves little room for innovative (or even catchy) samples or effects."
1/5
Key tracks: Sacrifice, The Seed (2.0), Break You Off
The The
3/5
Oh man, I've been waiting for this one. The one, the only, The The. The The The song The Sinking Feeling is the The The song I liked the most on the The The record. (Well, Uncertain Smile is better, but it doesn't fit with the "the" theme.)
This Is the Day is a good track. Distinctive use of accordion that really punches through the mix to create a distinctive sound. Happy, upbeat, and the vocals (which aren't good) mostly fade into the background. Uncertain Smile is also a huge standout for its piano solo, which (in my experience) seem quite rare in synth-pop and post-punk. The bass playing throughout the album is strong. The mixing is also quite crisp, separating out the bass part from other, higher frequencies (most notably the guitar-esque synth lines).
There are some factors that really bring this record down though. The singing isn't great, and I don't really see the experimentation that other reviewers are lauding this record for. Additionally, the bulky track lengths leave a lot to be desired. Every song is enjoyable, but only typically for the first three or four minutes.
Key tracks: This Is the Day, The Sinking Feeling, Uncertain Smile
Prince
3/5
The drum machine sounds really bad here. Prince's output really seems to lose steam around this point in his discography. Sign 'O' The Times appears to rely on a "chill vibe" with its artificial percussion, prominent bass/synth lines, and nods to the outdated disco genre – but the percussion ends up being annoying and repetitive rather than smooth. In fact, the biggest problem with this record is that, despite every instrument technically being played well, the ear-catching compositional elements are missing entirely. That is, there are pretty much no melodies I enjoyed. In the entire album. On any instrument. This made it pretty tough to enjoy most tracks. They're difficult to sing or hum along to, and rely more on showmanship and flourishy vocal/synth lines rather than anything simple, concrete, and infectious.
The track Starfish and Coffee is a major exception to these complaints, having a good melody and legitimately fun, groovy backing instrumental. Slow Love is also notable for its soft, lilting guitar work, nice backing vocals, and use of a real acoustic drum kit. The title track/album opener is the best instance of a song sounding fairly good despite all the problems mentioned above, probably because of Prince's good vocal delivery. His voice doesn't go weirdly off the rails like some of the more questionable tracks (Housequake, It, U Got the Look), but instead is smooth, steady, and to the point. Props.
3/5
Key tracks: Sign 'O' the Times, Starfish and Coffee, Slow Love, Adore
The Pharcyde
3/5
I always brace myself when an album begins with an interlude, but 4 Better Or 4 Worse was a jazzy kick in the butt to start this album on a good note. The piano and fuzzy percussion on Oh Shit really drive the track and there's a lot of emotion and enunciation in the rapping – something that's surprisingly rare in 90s hip-hop. Then we shift into the skit It's Jiggaboo Time, and it becomes obvious that The Pharcyde is establishing a trend of goofy, chaotic interludes. These are my favourite interludes of any hip-hop record I've heard on this list. 4 Better Or 4 Worse is the first stinker track, having some pretty nauseating lyrics detailing two people doing the deed. The wah-wah keyboard is fine in isolation but does little to help the song out of this poor-songwriting rut.
I'm That Type Of Nerd is on the verge of being pretty good. The one thing holding it back, in my opinion, is the exceptionally monotone rapping. From earlier tracks, I know this group's ability to inject emotion into a vocal is fairly good – so what happened here? The horn lick is good until you realise that it's exactly one repeated bar for five minutes. And then it becomes goshdarn annoying. If I Were President is (sonically) a welcome break from that previous track, and a reminder that The Pharcyde is, strangely, much better at writing interludes than writing full-length songs.
Most of the remaining songs are good, the exceptions being the bland On The DL and Return Of The B-Boy. The lead single Passin' Me By has a great bassline, but the songwriting really clings to that, because the rapping wasn't all that interesting. And of course, the interludes and skits are all oddly great. This album's an anomaly in that regard.
3/5
Key tracks: 4 Better Or 4 Worse, If I Were President, Quinton's On The Way
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
Ultimately, the goal of music should be to sound good. This does not.
1/5
Key tracks: AB/7A
Cream
5/5
The percussion throughout this album is a clear standout. Not for being showy, necessarily – in fact, quite the opposite. The restrained, laid-back style of drumming, featuring a softness that's often missing from 70s rock, is pretty refreshing. Of course, it could also be an artifact of bad/blurry production, but I like to think otherwise. The guitar, of course, is fantastic, featuring the perfect balance between clarity distortion to showcase some seriously great riffs. That hook in Sunshine Of Your Love is banned from guitar shops for a reason: everybody wants to play it. It almost transcends rock music. The guitarwork is Tales Of Brave Ulysses is also fantastic. The doubling of lead and bass parts does wonders. And that I-VIIb-VI-VIb bassline (and I-I7-IV-iv chord progression), as clichéd as it may be, has this unmatched medieval, magical, foreboding element. Love it.
The singing is fine, but clearly not the focus of Cream's sound. In that way, and several others, the band sounds a bit like a prototype King Crimson. Take It Back is possibly the vocal standout track, and I'm a little surprised it wasn't released as a single. I did notice some flashes of political lyricism throughout the album, which is pretty nifty (though I generally ignore lyrics unless they're egregiously bad).
I get the impression that hatred of Eric Clapton is bringing a lot of these reviews down a star or two. Listen, I get it. Clapton's a terrible person. So is 6ix9ine. So were/are Lennon, Kanye, Cardi B., Dr Dre, and countless others. I trust you can separate the artist from the music.
5/5
Key tracks: Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love, Tales Of Brave Ulysses, SWLABR
Depeche Mode
4/5
Reminds me of the Smiths, albeit more instrumentally diverse. Good use of keyboards and piano in songs like The Things You Said, To Have And To Hold, and Little 15, creating a foreboding, melancholic atmosphere that post-punk, proto-Britpop often struggle with. I really enjoy it. At times, Music for the Masses approaches almost a "medieval gaming" genre – think Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, and so on. This is most obvious in the instrumental track Pimpf, with its deeply harmonised choir and a dramatic, percussion-heavy orchestral backing, but hints of it are seen throughout the entire album. The audience is exposed to a grand, tense atmosphere not only in this song but also in Strangelove, I Want You Now, and several others. Points for consistency while still varying the mood enough to create an engaging album experience.
I do have to bash the drums here (heh). They sound exactly the same in every track, and in a bad way. The airy downbeats being emphasised for an hour straight really gets to you, and it's the main detractor from an otherwise rock-solid 80s sound. Even the vocals are pretty darn good compared to 95% of British post-punk from the same period.
4/5
Key tracks: Never Let Me Down Again, Strangelove, I Want You Now
Fishbone
4/5
From the creators of Shakey Ground, one of my favourite pieces for a big band. These guys are funky as heck, approaching the likes of Blood Sweat & Tears and Tower of Power. I like how the music isn't taken seriously at all (in terms of mood), yet is loyal to song structure and the various hooks introduced in each song. The singing is great: emotive, soulful, goofy, laid-back, and everything in between. The bass and drums are fairly strong, and the horns are some of the tightest I've heard from this era. And that brass has some pretty steep competition. Looking at the number of Spotify listens, I'm surprised this band doesn't have orders of magnitude more listens. Their sound is pretty darn commercial. (See Bonin' In the Boneyard, Ma and Pa, and (frankly) most of the album's tracks as examples.)
I will admit though, there's a lot going on. It's difficult to keep up if you're actively yet tiredly listening in, hoping to catch everything. And some of the musical elements and genres don't mesh together. The hard-rock feel in Freddie's Dead and Deep Inside (among others), particularly with the almost thrash metal-esque guitars, doesn't work well for the band. It's a shame, because the vocal hook in Mighty Long Way creates the blueprint for an otherwise excellent track – but it's marred by some very insistent electric guitars and organs that confuse rather than excite the listener.
4/5
Key tracks: Ma and Pa, Bonin' in the Boneyard, Ghetto Soundwave
UB40
3/5
The percussion in the track Tyler is lush, textured, and well-mixed. Easily the highlight of the song, though I'll give props to the soulful vocals and light, restrained sax playing. The following track, King is significantly worse in every way – especially on the vocal front. From that point onward in the album, the instrumental tracks (of which there are many) are slightly better than their sung counterparts. The musical prowess of these people is definitely a sound to behold. The saxophone, as a recurring instrument throughout the album, is great. The basslines, while very simple, are fun and keep the music moving.
A key issue I have with nearly all tracks here is that there's little variation of musical ideas, particularly in the rhythm section (rhythm guitar/bass/percussion), within each song. That is, a song starts with some rhythm, key, chord progression, and texture – and repeats an extremely precise set of measures over and over for five minutes. Even the melodies are suspect in this regard. The closing track, Reefer Madness, is a good example of this. It has no reason to be more than two minutes long, and even then, I'd call it a repetitive track that doesn't really get anywhere after the first 30 seconds of musical exposition. Most other tracks on Signing Off do the same thing. In addition, given the lack of experimentation with different genres here, the tracks really start to blur together sonically after the 30-minute mark. Which, unfortunately, is less than halfway through the album.
Nifty album cover.
3/5
Key tracks: Tyler, Burden Of Shame, Signing Off
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
About on par with Steely Dan's identically named Everything Must Go album – another pleasant but relatively forgettable 3-star hitter. The music in the Manics' version is good, inoffensive, passable – but not much beyond that. The guitar sound is a little on-the-nose for 90s alt-rock. Its distortion is so darn overdone for that musical era that you pretty much tune it out as a listener in search of something more unique. A Design for Life reminds me of a better version of Sulk (off Radiohead's The Bends, released a year earlier). The "group" singing is a musical trend that I feel really picked up in the early 2000s, so in that sense the Manics were ahead of their time.
The Girl Who Wanted to Be God is another standout track. It sounds very much like something the Smiths would've released. The tambourine and spacious production is a big part of that. Morrissey's undeniable stage presence is missing though, replaced by a fairly generic youthful quasi-rock vocal. The singing does sound pretty good when it's self-harmonising though (as it does in many choruses throughout the album). The album closer, No Surface All Feeling is the rare track that actually has a riff, and a good one at that – though it's overpowered by the avalanche of distortion on the rhythm guitar when it appears. I like the juxtaposition between high and low sections of the song.
There are a few tracks that do pretty much nothing for me, which is another factor bringing this down from 4 or 5 stars.
3/5
Key tracks: A Design for Life, The Girl Who Wanted to Be God, No Surface All Feeling
Sister Sledge
4/5
A highlight of the disco genre, for sure. The title track, appearing partway through the album, is an exhilarating pick-me-up after a slew of "disco ballads" on side 1. It's obvious why it's the lead single and the most well-known track by Sister Sledge, because dang it, it's catchy. The chorus line "Get up everybody and S I N G", with that sexy major 2nd added to the IV chord vocal harmony, really gets my jazz-soul heart pumping. The chord progression here is also so simple, yet so perfect: I-VIIb-IV-VIb/IV. You see it everywhere in disco, but Sister Sledge adds something extra, indescribable, magical. It's no wonder the song became such an anthem of the early 80s and the post-hipster era.
The rest of the album isn't half bad either, except for the tracks Somebody Loves Me and You're a Friend to Me, which are half bad. He's the Greatest Dancer has a ridiculously memorable string riff that matches the chorus melody. The song goes on a bit longer than is justifiable, reminding me of Chic having the same problem with their megahit Good Times (released the same year as this album!). By the six-minute mark, my party drugs are wearing off. Cut the runtime in half, ladies. I also enjoy the laid-back, reggae-ish guitar in Thinking of You. It really brings the song together. In fact, in general, the sound is great. I like that the singing isn't overpowering and doesn't prevent the other instruments from shining. It's done skilfully and tastefully, though this comes at the cost of the music sounding like most other disco bands rather than an especially distinct one.
Per another reviewer: "This album is funky, it swings. It makes me want to sing and dance. The vocals are incredible and the instruments are clear and good. This is music." (Though there's room for it to be even "more" music. Do you get me?)
4/5
Key tracks: He's the Greatest Dancer, Thinking of You, We Are Family
Iron Maiden
4/5
I love a good guitar riff. Backed by excellent basslines, which alternate between mirroring the lead and doing their own mind-bending shreds, you can't really go wrong. We hear all of this from the get-go in the Invaders, the ridiculously invigorating album opener. Then Children of the Damned shows up to bring you some fairly strong rock vocals and another kick-ass blues riff. We also get a taste of airy, calm acoustic guitar to juxtapose with the more aggressive electric sound that punctuates the song title. The Prisoner features a very active, cymbal-heavy drum part, and the first guitar playing so far that I'd describe as "shredding". Man, this guy's got some chops. The title track is fast enough to approach thrash metal. I love it, especially the excellent guitar solo at around the 2:45 mark, and the insane bassline accompanying it. Run to the Hills is another track that I just can't find fault in (excluding maybe the lyrics). It's fantastic. So is the album closer, Hallowed Be Thy Name, which has another killer riff and some strong synchronised guitar-drum action.
I had a gander at some of the lyrics while listening. And, yeah, they're pretty bad. Egregiously so, you might say. Not for being overly misogynistic, but for their obvious clumsiness and lack of tact. Now admittedly, this music isn't for singing; it's for jamming. For rocking, breaking, twisting, thrashing, for getting positively bevved on your friend's couch after you get evicted for doing the same thing on your own couch. But if you're going to sing words rather than strange, incomprehensible noises, the words had better be good. Or at least easy to sing. These aren't.
Per another reviewer: "There’s room in this world for big dumb fun, and a band with a zombie mascot. I enjoyed it."
4/5
Key tracks: The Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, Hallowed Be Thy Name
The Young Rascals
3/5
Stupid, simple, and good. It's so Beatles-insistent that it comes across as a bit of non-serious fan material rather than anything particularly sound, but then it's legitimately kind of fun to listen to. Especially the more groovy tracks like A Girl Like You, How Can I Be Sure, and, well, Groovin'. There wasn't a single track that I disliked, though, and that justifies giving this 60s self-parody at least a 3.
3/5
Key tracks: Groovin', A Girl Like You
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
At times, this sounds like a post-MJ relic, with the vocals to match. It's pretty good. I'm in awe of the reviews that describe this album as boring, because it's anything but that. Complex percussion rhythms, an enormous variety of singing styles, and some wacky chord progression in tracks like Letting Go and (especially) Tides. Really, the only obvious stinker tracks are Pilgrim and Serpents. The former features an annoyingly repetitive monotone vocal line. That song in particular seems to be catering to fans of 90s hip-hop, and I'm not one of them. The latter sounds pretty nifty at the beginning, but the musical ideas aren't developed at all. And the lyrics throughout the album – at least, the English ones – could use some work. As an example, the song Immigrant sounds fantastic, but when you dig deeper into the lyrics, they're pretty clumsy and shallow.
But "boring"? Nah, man, nah. Maybe the wide variety of genres mixed into one bubbling, mind-bending pot is a lot to wrap your head around, but once you do (or even before you do), the music is undeniably interesting and engaging. The complex vocal lines on Immigrant, the beautiful and atmospheric instrumental Tides, the use of electronic sound effects. The album does lose a bit of steam in the latter half, but the above elements surely can't be discounted. Beyond Skin sounds fresh and different, and it's gonna be hard to argue otherwise.
3/5
Key tracks: Broken Skin, Homelands, Tides
Pulp
3/5
Not a fan of this whispery vocal. (The singer's encroaching on my personal space. Not cool, yo.) It feels like every song is competing with the bad singing to be a good song in spite of it. Even the best songs here, like Common People and Disco 2000, rely on their instrumentals to distract from the bad singing. These vocals in a 1995 album mark the beginning of the end for Britpop. I'll give Different Class this, though: the production is pretty good. It gives the impression of a live performance, with spacious mixing and full-frontal bass and drum sounds. Even some of the weaker songs, like Bar Italia and Live Bed Show, incorporate this oddly satisfying mix.
"I really love it when you tell me to stop / Oh, it's turning me on"
Seriously? You have to try really hard to come up with lyrics this abhorrent. The song Underwear pulls off questionable lyrics significantly better, unlike the abomination of a song that is Pencil Skirt. Fortunately, the bad singing discourages the listener from paying much heed to the lyrics themselves, and for most other tracks I didn't notice anything worth getting my pencil skirt in a twist over. The title of track 9, though, is ridiculous, as another reviewer pointed out. Acronyms in song titles are bad enough, but 17-letter ones are egregious. Every time the backing vocal sang through each of the letters individually, I wished to perish.
3/5
Key tracks: Common People, Disco 2000, Something Changed
The Louvin Brothers
1/5
Maybe the most surprising 1-star album so far. I need to be in the right mood to have patience for incredibly normal and unassuming 50s country. And even then, I doubt this would do much for me. Every track sounds identical, especially for a listener who pays little (if any) heed to lyrics. A 3/4 time signature, a chord progression with some matchup of I-IV-V, two vocals that are so boringly harmonious that I instinctively try to tune them out... And then, after doing so, you're left with some incredibly amateur acoustic guitar and bass playing. I mean, come on, can you do much worse than plucking one note per bar after squinting at a lead sheet cluttered with a multitude of exactly three different letters? Even John Cage writes more interesting music than this nonsense.
What I'm saying is this: if I died without listening to Tragic Songs of Life, I would feel just as fulfilled. Perhaps even more so. (Darn.)
1/5
Key tracks: none
Morrissey
3/5
We see a continuation of the same sunny, airy 80s British pop-rock energy that the Smiths were known for. As a fan of said energy, I approve, although it's so consistent between tracks that the album definitely loses some steam later on. I'm guessing other Morrissey albums have a similar problem, given the other one I've listened to (You Are the Quarry). And I preferred that one. Morrissey records get old real quickly, it seems. Vauxhall And I is still getting a solid three stars, because I continue to have some patience for the genre. But I worry about the upcoming records from Misery Mozzery.
Even though it's technically one note repeated at fancy intervals, I like the riff in Now My Heart Is Full. However, the riff in The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get is almost objectively better, both in terms of guitar tone (clearer) or melody (more than one note). Speedway is a surprising burst of octane-fuelled force to end the album on a high note. It does continue the cliché of including engine-revving sound effects in a song about (or inspired by) cars. By the time the 90s rolled around, this wasn't creative anymore. Sorry, Steven.
The apparently random choice of which words are capitalised in the song titles is... artistic?
3/5
Key tracks: The More You Ignore Me the Closer I Get, Why Don't You Find out for Yourself, Speedway
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
It's rough having so many songs self-sabotage by including bad vocals that could've easily been omitted Naag Devta has a group of backing vocalists that seriously damage the song whenever they butt into the (otherwise fairly good) instrumental. Track 3, which starts with a brief dialogue, diverges into a thin, weirdly percussive soundscape with brief interjections of human elephant noises. Fortunately, the lead vocal is good enough that it's still a decent track, but those noises should be removed – particularly as the production isn't doing them any favours. The lead vocal in Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai starts well in the low register, but as the singer goes into her upper range, it immediately becomes clear that the production doesn't do her voice justice. It sounds like one of those operatic tracks from a 1940s Disney film, with equally blurry high-pitched yowling to match. I would've happily taken this song without the lead vocal, because it actually sounds good after I tune out that singing.
Now for the highlights. One Two Cha Cha Cha is, as the name suggests, a catchy tune with a Latin-style hook. It's fun, and a definite highlight. Mera Pyar Shalimar is the lead female vocalist's best performance in the soundtrack, vastly outshining Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai from side 1 (though it could still use some improvements on mixing and getting rid of those vinyl aberrations). Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay is a solid closing track with a simple, driving percussion-string backing, and Cash-esque vocals.
All in all, though, this sounds far too musically conservative to belong on a list of the 1001 most crucial, groundbreaking listens in the world of music. Perhaps if it had come out twenty or thirty years earlier, my opinion would be different.
2/5
Key tracks: One Two Cha Cha Cha, Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay
50 Cent
2/5
With the exception of In Da Club, which uses an extremely dated slur one time too many, all of the hits in this album are pretty good – at least for 90s/00s rap standards. Unlike various other hip-hop artists from the same era, 50 Cent is at least unapologetic about something both relatable and admirable: having to work his whole life to get the riches he deserves. (Hence the album name, I guess.) The compositions themselves, though, are extremely spotty, with about half the tracks having little to no interesting hooks to keep the listener engaged. 50 Cent's voice doesn't help matters, being incredibly generic for the genre. Man, even Eminem has a pretty distinctive voice – and I haven't been generous enough to give any of his albums a 2 just yet.
One of the main separators, bringing this far above the countless 1-star hip-hop records, is the lack of interlude/skit tracks. In addition, once you start hearing tracks with genuine hooks, melodies, chords, (god forbid) instruments, the music really starts to pick up. Many Men (Wish Death) has a great bluesy lo-fi-esque backing, making it a standout. If I Can't, although a little repetitive, has the same advantage. P.I.M.P. demonstrates that 50 Cent isn't a particularly good singer, but it still sounds better than his lazy/slurred spoken vocal – and for that reason alone P.I.M.P. is relatively good. Judging by the listens on Spotify, most people agree that 50 Cent's music is better with these more "tonal" musical elements. So it's a little surprising to me that many of the remaining songs – including What Up Gangsta, Poor Lil Rich, and U Not Like Me – avoid them entirely.
2/5
Key tracks: Many Men (Wish Death), If I Can't, P.I.M.P.
Alice In Chains
3/5
This is a kind of sound I feel obligated to like simply because of the instrumentation. The roaring guitars, including the thickly distorted bass and drum sound, is done fairly convincingly here. And yet... something feels missing to me. Maybe it's the variation in mood, which is pretty much nonexistent. In other words, every song sounds very grungily similar to the last, and that's especially sinful for a consistently high-energy album (and one that covers nearly an hour of runtime). As another reviewer correctly pointed out: "The grungy sameness of it all makes for difficult listening." Another reviewer, giving the album a 5, conceded that Alice In Chains creates disorientation through their weird time signatures and near-atonal sound. And sure, pushing the boundaries of music is fun - but at some point you have to concede that music sounds better when it's, well, musical. Dirt gets about halfway there.
3/5
Key tracks: Them Bones, Down In A Hole, Rooster
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
My third album from this guy, and Costello seems to be one of those artists that I lose patience with over time. His voice is goofy and distinctive (in a bad way), completely overpowering the other instruments in terms of what captures the listener's attention. It has the unfortunate effect of making all of his music sound very similar. The cons of this album, in my opinion, are shared by all of Elvis's other works. Something about his voice frustrates me, like it's in an uncanny valley between a few other, better vocalists. He sounds *kind of* like Billy Joel, the better Elvis, the Strokes, and a few other rock bands from various eras mashed together. Another problem, related to that one, is that the music doesn't really bring anything new to the party, other than some decent compositions. The style is an odd sort of soft-punk, with clear 50s/60s R&B and rock influences. (My friend and I argued briefly about whether this counted as rock, and we couldn't come to an agreement. But being "genreless" isn't necessarily a good thing.) There's a lot of filler music and poor mixing on the album too.
And the more I listen to Elvis Costello, the less effect the positives seem to have on me. I Want You, Blue Chair, and I Hope You're Happy Now are some of the better compositions – especially when paying attention to the instrumentals only – but the singing is poor. Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind tries to take an instrumentally experimental approach to fast rock'n'roll but doesn't really get there. Many of the tracks are obviously too long, including Battered Old Bird, Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head, and the egregiously repetitive Tokyo Storm Warning. For the latter track, the melody is actually pretty good, but by the first six minutes it's become very stale.
Per another review: "Nothing was awful about this album, but nothing felt special. I spent more time digging into lyrics and story behind it, and still didn't spark excitement. Meh." (Agreed.)
2/5
Key tracks: I Want You, Blue Chair
Dolly Parton
4/5
Country music that packs a punch. The tracks are short, sweet, and to the point. Modern-day country musicians only wish they could capture the same beautiful energy. The title track is a highlight, with succinct, peppy storytelling accompanying a simple lilting acoustic guitar line. The lyrics are really pretty. When the backing vocal harmonies come in, it's a brief moment of ascension to another plane. It's magical. Other highlights include the lighthearted Early Morning Breeze, with its subtle melodic nods to the blues, and Traveling Man, a high-energy song with a wild-west tinge. In addition, there's a good amount of album flow, of juxtaposed ups and downs between tracks that create a whole album experience, stowed in this short album of a mere 27 minutes. That's something that can't even be said for a lot of 1-hour-plus records.
Admittedly, the music itself is extremely simple. Layering of vocals, strings, and acoustic guitars gives the passing appearance of complexity, but in actuality most of these songs consist of three chords – which doesn't give the ear much material to work with. It's a good thing the music is texturally and lyrically rich to make up for lack of harmony.
4/5
Key tracks: Coat Of Many Colors, Traveling Man, Early Morning Breeze
Emmylou Harris
4/5
This gal sounds like Stevie Nicks. I like Stevie Nicks. Therefore, I like this gal. Her vocal is clear, precise, and expressive, with just the perfect amount of country twang to let the listener know they're in for a classic all-American adventure. The slow, contemplative cover of the Beatles' For No One is excellent, nearly rivalling the original. I enjoy the use of strings to both separate itself from the Beatles' version and to keep with the lamenting orchestral theme that the Fab Four originally captured using a French horn. The opening track, Bluebird Wine, is another standout. Its high energy makes for a solid way to begin the album. I also like the thick, dramatic texturing done on Boulder to Birmingham with its shimmery combination of piano and drums added to several layered/harmonising vocals. Another cover on this album is Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, which (coincidentally) is the title track of the album I listened to yesterday. This puts Pieces Of The Sky in an unfortunate position, Parton's version of the title track is better, though this version is fine too.
Comparing Pieces Of The Sky (and other similar albums) against modern-day "country" records, there's a stark contrast. Sure, Cowboy Carter, Deeper Well, and The Tortured Poets Department are all passable, but there's so much less musicality, heart, and soul in them than in 20th-century releases like this one. I can't help but agree wholeheartedly with the top-rated review: "I’m beginning to realize I don’t dislike country. I dislike the modern hybridizations of pop and country." (Preach, man.)
4/5
Key tracks: Bluebird Wine, Boulder to Birmingham, For No One
The Yardbirds
4/5
Roger the Engineer follows the late-60s blueprint of showcasing a variety of styles, all rooted in a kind of semi-psychedelic rock to musically tie them together. It's clichéd, sure, but it sounds great! The riff in the opening number, Lost Women, is excellent, possibly being the hook-highlight of the entire album. The album continues this energetic feel throughout the album. Other highlights include the similarly great (and musically interesting!) riff in Over Under Sideways Down, the strong basswork in Rack My Mind, the nifty 14-bar blues progression of The Nazz Are Blue, and the impressively consistent, fast drumming in What Do You Want. Judging by the Spotify listens, this album has to be pretty darn underappreciated. Its production is very rough around the edges, but the mood and musicianship and is pretty great.
Lowering the rating because one of the band members (Eric Clapton) is an asshole is not justified. (Even crazier is the fact that Clapton is not present on this album, having left the Yardbirds in 1965. So what exactly is being critiqued here?) For consistency, you'd have to apply the same logic to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, just about every pioneering rock or pop group from the 70s and 80s, and so on. I guess you *could* let every album in this category be ruined forever, but where's the fun in that? Separate the art from the artist.
4/5
Key tracks: Lost Women, Over Under Sideways Down, Rack My Mind
Ghostface Killah
2/5
Orders of magnitude better than the near-unlistenable 36 Chambers. Here, we see Ghostface Killah's evolution into a hip-hop artist who actually knows how to place interesting instrumental loops behind his vocal. The rapping itself is not great, with Mr Killah having a pretty standard voice for the genre and the overuse of expletives leaving little room for lyrical creativity. But that's a problem with all post-1990 rap. And, like most of the genre, I've learned to mostly tune out the lead vocal, because there's nothing interesting to find there. The little I gleaned from this album was glorification of gang and drug culture, which I'm not a fan of. 9 Milli Bros, Kilo, Underwater, and most others highlight these themes in a stark spotlight. I have to give a shoutout to Jellyfish for having the most obviously terrible lyrics on the album. (I'd give an example here, but the entire song is at fault.)
What of the music, the compositions, themselves? The album starts off pretty well in that regard, with the non-skit consecutive songs Shakey Dog / Kilo / The Champ / 9 Milli Bros actually making an enjoyable run of tracks. I've gotten used to the muted, "radio"-ish quality to hip-hop production from this era and it's used skilfully on the horns in Shakey Dog and The Champ. Lots of head nodding from this guy. The light guitar picking, backing vocals (especially in the chorus – it's darn memorable), and saxes in Kilo are also great. The choruses of Back Like That involves singing by Ne-Yo, which is also pretty fire. It's no wonder that this song was the biggest hit off the album, and that Ne-Yo would go on to be a much more successful artist than Dennis Ghostface.
2/5
Key tracks: Shakey Dog, Back Like That, Three Bricks
Joe Ely
2/5
Nothing revolutionary for its time - in fact, I'd argue that it's a step backwards for 1978 - but it's perfectly passable as an average country-rock album. The production is slightly too clean to be from the 60s, but other than that, Joe Ely may as well be a spitting image of his predecessors. Even the slide guitar feels too perfect, too stereotypical, for me to unironically enjoy it. Instead, this is just kind of bland, empty, soulless stuff that fills an album-length of time adequately. Nothing more. In addition to the numbers of Spotify listens, which indicate that this band isn't popular, there's no way in heck Honky Tonk Masquerade belongs on a list of the 1000-odd most important albums in history.
2/5
Key tracks: Cornbread Moon, Boxcars
Pixies
3/5
This is an interesting one. I can hear the sound carried over to Nirvana in the thunderous, aggressive drum sound and the driving guitar riffs. I don't really see the connection to PJ Harvey as mentioned in the album's Wikipedia article, but even so, clearly this album was widely influential. And what for? Sure, the sound is kind of fun, liberating, emotional – presumably what the Pixies were aiming for – but I don't see anything that really elevates this to the legendary status so many musicians, critics, and regular listeners tout it for. There are countless 5-star reviews that cite reasons like "timeless", "scratches an itch", "classic", "human" – but very few address exactly what it is that makes Surfer Rosa a masterpiece. I wish I knew.
The main problem here is the vocals, which are bad. They're weakly delivered, mixed badly, and are often out-of-tune. The instruments are actually really good, significantly elevating the music's quality where the singing betrays it. The riffs are great, and again I can hear direct parallels to Nirvana's later music. Where Is My Mind?, Cactus, Bone Machine, and Gigantic are all standouts for being really catchy in spite of the singing. It's a general improvement on the punk genre (which is known for disregarding good sound in both instruments and vocal). And for that reason, I can acknowledge it as a crucial step in the punk-to-alt rock movement.
3/5
Key tracks: Gigantic, Where Is My Mind?, Cactus
Grateful Dead
3/5
Dad rock at its finest – or at least at its most "daddish". Happy harmonies abound, backed by pleasant instrumentals that invariably consist of electric and acoustic guitars, bass, and light drums. A couple of times you can hear an organ or piano dropped into the mix to add a religious or honky-tonk feel, but in general all the songs here sound very similar. Similarly good! There's a general lack of interesting hooks to really separate the tracks from one another, but the atmosphere is so warm and fuzzy that it doesn't matter too much. I would've liked to hear some songs in a minor key, maybe some kind of experimentation on any instrument. I noticed that the performance is a bit unpolished in places, and the production is questionable. But that, in my opinion, adds to the album's humanness where countless other touted masterpieces lack it.
(My dad's admiration of the Grateful Dead is definitely colouring my view here. I completely understand the 2- and 1-star reviews.)
The cover art is a little rough. Very difficult to read the text, apart from the "VOTE" sticker, which is an odd choice given that the album was released in a non-(major)election year. The colour palette is pretty bad too. The dull yellow and rusty green on wood isn't a good combo.
3/5
Key tracks: Friend of the Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Ripple
Pink Floyd
5/5
A fantastic album. WYWH has, at several points, been my favourite record of all time. There's something so surreal, satisfying, soul-wrenching about the Pink Floyd sound, especially this timeless stuff from the 70s. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, in all of its nine monumental parts, is a master class in musical restraint, motif development, instrument layering, production, synth technique, guitar technique, chord progressions... I mean, seriously, what's not to love here? The four resounding notes ringing out at the beginning of Part 2 that changed the world of progressive rock forever. The lush choral delivery of the song title that sends the listener into a heady euphoria. The incredible chords, matching Roger Waters' indescribable poetry to Syd Barrett. (SOYCD may well have my favourite chord progression in any song.)
Then we have a heady transition into the mind-blowing guitar-synthscape of Welcome to the Machine, the groovy, heavy electric jam of Have a Cigar ("Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?), and the mesmerising acoustic anthem Wish You Were Here. All of these songs could easily have a feature-length documentary on their genius, their power, their general excellence in pretty much every regard.
I'll restrain myself from writing the equivalent of two phone books about WYWH. It's great – as close to "objectively great" as music can get. Everything else I want to say has been said already by critics, fans, or your local Joe.
I will, though, highlight one of the best lines in rock history: "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year." Damn.
5/5
Key tracks: all
Motörhead
2/5
I wonder if these guys ever realised all of their music sounds the same. Maybe not for them, but certainly for the audience. Even Capricorn, a track that is introduced by the singer as "a slow one, so you can get mellowed out" – and it ends up being just as rambunctious, as high-octane, as the rest. An album as exhausting as this hitting #1 in the UK is pretty crazy. Even crazier when you consider the production, which is pretty terrible even for live thrash-metal standards. Everything is messy, manly, sweaty... and for the most part, I'm not into it. I'm of the opinion that the best thrash music comes from bands that normally produce a completely different kind of music. Queen's Stone Cold Crazy is perhaps a top 10 Queen song. And it's slick, ultra-fast, and heavy in just the right places. Much better than this nonsense.
Some decent riffs throughout, though. Ace of Spades, Metropolis, Overkill, and Bomber are highlights in that regard (though I honestly can't remember a thing about each individual riff even 5 minutes after finishing the album). The guitar tone is in-your-face and the instrument is actually played pretty well, complemented by decent bass and drums. The singing is so unhinged and terrible, yet strangely perfect for the genre, that it balances out to a middling experience. But it definitely gets old after the first hour. I actually sought out the shorter, 18-track edition of the album (rather than the 29-track one linked to by 1001Albums) because I realised I was gonna have a darn rough time. And, clocking in at over an hour even after a huge chunk was shaved off, it's safe to say 2 stars is being generous.
2/5
Key tracks: Ace of Spades, Metropolis, Iron Horse
Elvis Costello
2/5
My fourth encounter of an Elvis Costello album on this list, and my patience for him is running pretty darn thin. And honestly, I don't have much new to add. Costello's voice is goofy and distinctive (in a bad way), completely overpowering the other instruments in terms of what captures the listener's attention. It has the unfortunate effect of making all of his music sound very similar. The cons of this album, in my opinion, are shared by all of Elvis's other works. Something about his voice frustrates me, like it's in an uncanny valley between a few other, better vocalists. He sounds *kind of* like Billy Joel, the better Elvis, the Strokes, and a few other rock bands from various eras mashed together. Another problem, related to that one, is that the music doesn't really bring anything new to the party, other than some decent compositions. The style is an odd sort of soft-punk, with clear 50s/60s R&B and rock influences. There's a lot of jangly noise that, with a better singer, could have easily entrenched itself in the realm of 80s/90s music legends.
Sulky Girl is a key example of Costello's bad singing. It's delivered in a sneery, nasally manner that's tough to actively listen to, let alone take seriously, for the full 5 minutes of track length. My Science Fiction Twin, along with the tracks that come after it, is also pretty bad in this regard. Actually, Brutal Youth does have a pretty solid run of songs at the beginning, from Pony St. through to This Is Hell. But it's safe to say 57 minutes is too long to put up with Elvis Costello. And any more albums from him pose a real threat of getting a 1-star rating.
2/5
Key tracks: Pony St., Kinder Murder, This Is Hell
Khaled
2/5
Very repetitive, especially with regard to melody. The lead singer's range feels like it should be pretty versatile, but the guy still only commits to about four different notes (with ornaments/flourishes here and there). This makes most tracks sound vocally similar, and the only way to distinguish most of them is through the non-voice instruments. Which, to be fair, are pretty darn good. But the bloated album length, combined with a lack of album flow (i.e. a bunch of the tracks blend together into a sonically homogeneous mush) bring this down a lot. 5-6 minutes is also definitely too much for track length, given how each song is essentially one melodic idea with not much deviation from verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Not cool.
The best songs were ones that had the most interesting/bearable melodies or instrumental hooks despite all of these flaws. The two singers interacting with each other in El Harba Wine makes for a pretty fun listen. The trumpets and acoustic guitars in Ya Aachkou are memorable and played well, as are the exotic strings of Raba-Raba. The latter sounds like something my high school big band would've covered. I have a soft spot for that kind of tune.
I'm not a huge fan of the disco imitation in some of these songs. My experience with disco is is that it's a genre that easily overstays its welcome.
As a side note: man, I didn't know Imagine was such a hated song. It's one of Lennon's best solo compositions, and one of the most beloved peace anthems in all of music. Do you guys really feel the need to hate the song because of the (admittedly terrible and tone-deaf) celebrity cover? Yes, the cover on this album isn't much better, but the original is well-regarded for a reason.
2/5
Key tracks: El Harba Wine, Ya Aachkou, Raba-Raba
Finley Quaye
2/5
This is a Scottish guy pretending to be Jamaican. Once you realise that fact, it's very distracting – coupled with the fact that he's just not a good vocalist. His enunciation is pretty bad, occasionally making it tough to work out the lyrics from listening alone. It sounds a bit like he's learning to speak for the first time. And doing so drunkenly in front of a large, judgemental crowd. The melodic rhythm is often tentative, fragmented, oversyncopated to the point of arrhythmia. The melodies themselves are nearly nonexistent. They're not only unmemorable and not very catchy, but they sound improvised. As if Quaye were making them up on the spot, without really understanding the harmonies or what the other instruments are doing. The opening track, Ultra Stimulation, is a bad choice to introduce people to Finley Quaye's music because it's (maybe) the worst offender in terms of vocals.
Some highlights: the basslines in about half the songs are uninteresting, but the remaining ones are excellent. Super groovy, reminds me of your classic Marley recordings with a small dose of modern electronic influence. For this reason, Sunday Shining, Even After All, and some of the non-hit tracks actually become bearable in spite of the bad singing. I'm a fan of the chill keyboards too – first seen in It's Great When We're Together and Even After All, and then throughout the album from there. It really glues together the instrumental sound.
2/5
Key tracks: Sunday Shining, Even After All, Your Love Gets Sweeter
Gang Of Four
2/5
Is there a reason why every punk (or post-punk) singer has to sound like that? Their weird enunciation and questionable ability to sing in tune makes them sound inebriated and even more British than usual. With few exceptions, this is what all of punk sounds like, and often I'd prefer having just the instrumental (or the instrumental plus a singer who's been formally trained). The songwriting isn't really there either. Sure, it breaks old conventions – which I guess is the point of punk – but those conventions exist for a reason: they sound good when followed, and bad otherwise. The main hit off this record, Damaged Goods, abandons any sort of rhyming scheme with its chorus, "Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you / But I know it's only lust", and its painfully bad repeated verse: Sweat's running down your neck / Sweat's running down your back / Heated surface in the sun / Colder surface in the night (never saw your body) / Your kiss so sweet / Your sweat so sour". (A highly upvoted reviewer said this lyric was great, but I don't see it.) I'm amazed it was the lead single. Even the bass, which is generally very good throughout the album, hardly moves from the tonic note of each chord in this song.
Great bass mixing/playing in this album. It's clear, driving, and the main "hook deliverer" when you'd normally expect the lead guitar to take on that role. The key tracks (listed below) all have solid basslines that partially distract from the bad singing. The drumming and lead guitar are somewhere in the middle: not great, but not bad either. High-energy stuff. This could be good listening for a morning jog.
I'm not a fan of post-punk in general. The massive popularity of punk in the 70s meant that punk had become the "establishment" genre, much like how rock'n'roll had ruled over the 50s and 60s. Post-punk is essentially an genre trying to act musically rebellious while doing exactly the opposite.
2/5
Key tracks: Natural's Not In It, Return the Gift, I Found That Essence Rare
KISS
3/5
A solid, albeit not very distinctive, rock'n'roll sound. I've heard some great things about KISS's live performances and I can definitely understand how their stage presence would elevate these songs to an otherworldly level. As it stands now, the layered rock vocals do their job of creating a thick, energetic texture and complementing the guitar riffs and rhythm section nicely. The riffs themselves are very good, and they really make the choruses shine in songs like Sweet Pain, Do You Love Me, and Shout It Out Loud. Beth is a strong ballad that breaks up the high energy well enough, illustrating the huge importance of ballads in rock repertoires.
There's something that doesn't quite make this "great", though. It's true – the lyrics (or at least the lyrics I comprehended, being someone who doesn't normally pay heed to them) are amateur and devoid of any engaging message. The rock sound plays it extremely safe, especially for the mid-70s when pushing the boundaries of popular music was all the rage. Even punk, a genre I usually dislike, has a leg up on KISS's music in that regard. KISS's contemporaries in the hard/classic rock era, like AC/DC, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, etc. are also leagues ahead. It's a rough comparison with KISS on the losing end at every turn. Less bite, a less distinctive sound, slightly worse musicianship... I have high hopes for the band, though. They've got more ammo in their discography.
3/5
Key tracks: Sweet Pain, Shout It Out Loud, Do You Love Me
Hookworms
1/5
This is an album I really wanted to like. The genre, the era of electronic music, the album cover (god, it's so cool)... all signs point to a sonic masterpiece. Or, at the very least, something to which I could give a respectful nod and create a vague mental note to tell my friends, "Hey guys, look, I listened to something post-2000 today! And it was pretty good!". But alas – it was not good. Pretty bad, in fact.
The first three tracks are actually fairly promising, showcasing repeated layered synths (à la Daft Punk or, at a stretch, Pink Floyd) and decent singing. The album opener, Negative Space, is a fantastic track, setting the tone for what would ideally follow. But the energy begins to dissipate with the lengthy interlude Ullswater, and for the next three songs disappears completely. The Soft Season / Opener / Each Time We Pass is a brutally slow album midsection. The singing is either absent – leaving a barren landscape with hardly anything to catch the listener's attention – or it's present, but not very good. By the time you've reached the end of the tunnel with the song Boxing Day, it's hard to pick up the pieces. Boxing Day itself is a fairly good nu-rock/experimental track, and Shortcoming is a surprisingly gritty hard-rock song to end the album on a high-energy note.
It's between a 1 and a 2 for me. I've chosen a 1 because there are countless other, better albums that could've been chosen from this era of music. A Moon Shaped Pool, Blackstar, WWAFAWDWG, NFR... But Microshift? I think I could die without having listened to this. It could be worse, sure, but I feel it's too early to tout the importance of a (comparatively) anonymous electronic album released just seven years ago.
1/5
Key tracks: Negative Space, Static Resistance
Laura Nyro
2/5
This "old New York" style is really strange. It almost actively avoids any hooks that would make the music catchier or more memorable. Nyro's vocal seems to meander between various notes that usually don't follow the chord (instead changing the chord into a 6, maj7, and so on) – and the chords themselves don't exactly conform to an easy-to-follow progression. Jazzy, for sure – but good? Not in most cases. Sweet Blindness is one of the stronger tracks because the rhythm section commits to a specific, confident, driving sound that's both catchy and (importantly) predictable. Nyro's unpredictable melody acts as a fun contrast, rather than a further agent of chaos, in this song. Luckie, Eli's Comin', and the three-track run of Woman's Blues / Once It Was / December's Boudoir are highlights for the same reason.
Something else I noticed is that this was released in 1968. I would've guessed, based on the sound alone, that it was released much earlier. Almost like 40s/50s croon-heavy jazz with slightly better production. Additionally, compared to most other albums on the list, it has a relatively small number of listens. All these factors lead me to question why it appears amongst the 1001 most important albums. Man, it's not even that good!
2/5
Key tracks: Luckie, Sweet Blindness, Woman's Blues
Prince
4/5
Definitely better than Sign 'O' The Times and 1999, both of which I gave a 3. But there's something in Prince's style that always stops his music just short of being truly legendary. Maybe it's the lack of distinctive melodic hooks (in most tracks), where an album like Thriller excels in exactly that way. Even Let's Go Crazy, a song defined by its fast, rhythmic synths and drum machine – which is surely the perfect setup to an incredibly catchy hit – ends up just being a hit. Not catchy. At least, not in the sense that it'll be stuck in my head for the rest of the evening. Prince creates music that kind of goes in one ear and out the other (no doubt magnified by the overdone 80s production style), and for that I can hardly justify a 5-star review.
But man, I completely understand why this guy was (and is!) so popular. He exudes allure, sexuality, mystery. Not just in his lyrics (which are suspect enough) but in his vocal delivery, his pained and lustful guitar playing, the contrasts between high and low energy. In these ways, where countless other artists miss the mark, Prince really delivers. No other famous artist has quite as high an innuendo-to-runtime density. The album art is hilarious to me, because it's so ugly it wraps back around to being kind of great. Purple and orange is a terrible colour duo. And those floral margins are completely unnecessary. I love it.
Other highlights are the unexpectedly emotional ballad The Beautiful Ones, the otherworldly Darling Nikki, and the monumental title track. Dang, I wish I could give this album a higher rating.
4/5
Key tracks: Let's Go Crazy, The Beautiful Ones, Purple Rain
SZA
1/5
Another album where I feel I'm forcing myself to continue listening. Not a good sign. The autotune, which I'm normally fine with in moderation, is pretty out-of-control here. It makes it feel like SZA (pronounced "scissah") isn't putting any effort into her singing. The lyrics themselves are actually fine in general, excluding the first two tracks (Supermodel and Love Galore) which really leave a bad aftertaste heading into the meat of the album. Here are a few especially bad samples:
"Let me tell you a secret / I been secretly banging your homeboy / Why you in Vegas / All up on Valentine's Day?"
"You gots a fetish / You gots a problem / Now it's a problem, oh no / Skrrt, skrrt on bitches / I don't know these bitches / Dig dirt on bitches"
SZA definitely has the pipes for some truly fantastic singing, and she flexes those pipes often – but her vocal is marred by poor instrumental accompaniment, repetitive melodies, lyrics that don't really say anything, and autotune that makes her sound bizarre and unnatural. Re the autotune – I have a similar complaint about Charli XCX's music (though compositionally and energetically, she's far superior).
What of the instrumental? Broken Clocks stands out as the only track with an obvious material instrument – the acoustic guitar – and for that reason it's a huge breath of fresh air amidst a sea of uninteresting electronic noise. A few songs have trap beats, others have simple unlayered synths, still others have a sluggish electronic bassline... it's just not interesting enough to really grab the listener's attention. I have to assume it's built for listeners to focus on the vocals, but as mentioned previously, those are flawed for their own reasons.
One other quirk I noticed is a reliance on the 2nd of a tonic/major chord and 4th of a tonic/minor chord in SZA's melodies. Modern pop seems to do this a lot; it can be seen with artists like Doja Cat, Lizzo, even Taylor Swift. In just about every track (and possibly even every line in some tracks) SZA clings onto this melodic idea. I would say it's an artifact of a genre, but seeing how universal it is only recently, it's probably more an artifact of a musical era. It's a bit distracting when these notes are used constantly instead of just as passing notes.
After this album, I went ahead and listened to SZA's later album SOS (2022), which is musically pretty similar but dives more into melodic hooks and sound layering than Ctrl. I reckon 2017-SZA could take some notes.
1/5
Key tracks: Drew Barrymore, Broken Clocks, 20 Something
James Taylor
4/5
I'm definitely overrating this one on account of the vocals. But after a slew of albums delivered by (frankly) bad singers – including SZA, Gang Of Four, Finley Quaye, Rahul Dev Burman, and Elvis Costello – somebody with a simple, strong voice like James Taylor's is a blessing. Everything about Sweet Baby James is sappy, conventional, boring... And yet it's delivered with such earnest that you can't help but love the guy. I completely understand why someone would give this 1 or 2 stars. I guess I'm giving a 4 to rebalance the scales a little. And because I'm a sucker for acoustic guitars. Taylor also sounds a heck of a lot better here than in "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon" from the following year. He's not twangy, just smooth and comforting.
Even though I think a low rating is justified here, I'm not convinced by the top upvoted reviews.
- "It’s what I’d expect a murderer to have playing in the background whilst I’m strapped to a chair and he begins to systematically remove my face skin with a scalpel." Okay, but that probably wasn't happening to you. Surely the album is actually more enjoyable with the added juxtaposed relief that you aren't having your face removed? Like how horror movies can be fun, but being chased by an actual chainsaw murderer is not.
- "The world is stagnant because of [James Taylor], failing to venture into richer realms of funk and rock, treading circular to nowhere, listening easy and listening safe." You could describe nearly all music of a given era like this. Any kind of acoustic soft-rock created before what's generally considered the musical "breakthrough" year – 1971 – shouldn't be thought of as regressive, but normal. And Taylor's clearly one of the best of his craft. The reviewer's comment above is like criticising high-quality punk music released during prime punk era for being too punky.
4/5
Key tracks: Sweet Baby James, Country Road, Blossom
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
Super smooth voice. Great for background music. I won't go as far as saying this music is revolutionary in any capacity, but it's pleasant, played well, and pays homage to a fantastic jazz sub-genre. Bebel Gilberto's vocal is definitely the highlight, though the lightly strummed acoustic guitar is a consistent and comforting element that should also be commended. The modern production sounds fine here, but I honestly didn't notice it until I read some more information about the album and its significance. It's pretty subtle. I didn't catch it on a first listen. As another reviewer wrote: "Tanto Tempo is often billed as bossa-nova meets electronica, but on first listen the electronic elements are scarcely noticeable. At best, they contribute really well to the ambience."
In fact, some tracks actually take this the other way. The album opener, Samba da Bencao, sounds like it's being played from an old, battered vinyl. So Nice (Summer Samba) sounds subtly like this too, as do many other tracks on the album. Was this an intentional effect? And if so, why?Another problem is that I don't hear much in terms of album "ups" and "downs" that create a full experience. In other words, there isn't much variety – texturally or tonally – between the different tracks. Medium energy, medium-slow tempos, essentially the same set of instruments (and often in the same key) throughout. Everything remains in one tasteful style, but for a record to achieve a really high rating from me, it's going to have to be more impressive than that.
3/5
Key tracks: August Day Song, Mais Feliz, So Nice (Summer Samba)
Tom Waits
2/5
Album #500!!
Every interlude track here is unnecessary. I don't like them in genuine live albums either, but this is especially egregious because the live element is completely manufactured here. Tom Waits could have easily let each track bleed into the next without the two minutes of gravelly boomer-banter separating each song. The lyrics and general attitude remind me of George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Sort of a "Hey, you old guys, you manly men, you with me? Wives are bad, eh? Drinkin' whiskey, heck yeah, it's sure darn good bein' Murican." Boomer-pleasing at its finest. But heck, at least George Thorogood has a pretty good rock-esque vocal. Tom Waits's voice is incredibly grating, especially after the first half hour when you realise you're only a measly 40% through the album. And normally the word "grating" in my review warrants an immediate 1-star rating – but there's some good stuff here too.
I do like the pianist and especially the bassist on this album. The latter is clearly having a blast (or is putting on an extremely convincing façade of blastness) with his complex walking lines. The style is aggressively jazzy, almost begging for a better singer than the hostile mob that is Tom Waits. With a Fitzgerald, Vaughan, or Holiday, this could easily be a 4- or 5-star album – and a big improvement on the slog that is Fitzgerald's Gershwin Songbook. A missed opportunity for sure.
All in all, Nighthawks At The Diner is of slightly worse quality than the other Tom Waits entry I've listened to, Rain Dogs. But not quite bad enough to warrant the "rating of shame".
2/5
Key tracks: Eggs And Sausage, Better Off Without A Wife, Nobody
Skepta
2/5
After a very rough start with the inaccessible tracks Konnichiwa and Lyrics, the album improves slightly with some high-energy and thick-textured dubs. It Ain't Safe has a catchy enough vocal hook ("...not even for the cops!") to justify its repetitiveness, and it's actually one of my favourites on here. It's one of the rare hip-hop tracks that doesn't go completely off the rails lyrics-wise. Numbers is another strong track with some soft mixing of industrial noises really adding atmosphere to complement the humorously earnest lyrics (numbers! calculators!!). The song Man vaguely approaches a Nirvana-esque chord progression with its high synths, and I can respect that. Similarly, the almost ethereal keyboards in Shutdown are absolutely the star of the track. Unlike most other songs on here, they provide some kind of melody that allows the track stand out.
But there are some real issues with the album – first and foremost that countless other albums from the same era should have been included in the list for the post-2005 update. A 2010s hip-hop record with the most generic possible British rap vocal isn't going to cut it. The album flow is a bit rough too. The tried-and-true best strategy for organising an album of mixed good and bad tracks is to place the best ones at the start and end, letting those two points on the album pack the most punch. It leaves the listener in awe and wanting more. In the case of Konnichiwa, the aforementioned starting duo is pretty bad – and to top it off, the finale couplet of Detox / Text Me Back is (arguably) even worse. Completely monotone vocals on top of identically monotone backing instrumentals, including a simple trap beat that provides nothing interesting. And once you've managed to tune out all of the above elements, there isn't much left to listen to.
2/5
Key tracks: It Ain't Safe, Man, Shutdown
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
Terraria music before its time. Incredible.
I like that the tracks bleed into one another. It gives a 70s prog rock feel (which, I guess, is exactly what it is), a genre that somehow feels both overrated and underrepresented in the set of most legendary music ever created. The bass at the beginning of Pt. 2 is very reminiscent of Pink Floyd's Sheep (1977) – so much so that it's very possible Pink Floyd was inspired by Jarre's work. The beginning of Pt. 4 also greatly resembles the opening of One Of These Days (1971) off the Meddle album. I wonder if the two artists influenced each other throughout the 70s. There are also some elements of Oxygène that are unusual for progressive rock, the most noticeable of which is the very abrupt addition of cosmic, high-pitched synths partway through Pt. 5(?). This almost gives it a movie or TV show soundtrack feel rather than a slow soundscape record. In contrast, the music's tendency to stoutly remain on one chord for several minutes at a time does get a little tedious. This is not one for close listening, that's for sure.
Jean-Michel Jarre is clearly having a blast in his makeshift home studio. And heck, the audience is too. This apparently reached #1 in France and #2 in the UK, which is something that would be unheard of for an ambient electronic album in the 21st century. (Man, these zoomers and their dinky attention spans!)
4/5
Key tracks: Side 1 (Pts. 1-3)
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
The soft, clear electric guitar sound is great, especially when it's playing riffs. The guitar hook in Today is instantly recognisable and glues itself to your temporal lobe (the part of the brain that deals with auditory stuff). The distorted guitars are more questionable, in no small part due to their omnipresence in 90s rock. It's the same reason why Radiohead's Pablo Honey gets its well-deserved hate (when compared to their later records), along with countless other rock bands from that era. The compositions are generally good though, with solid song structures that showcase the guitar riffs and vocal lines nicely. The bass and drums are fairly good throughout the album too. I dig the track layering that was clearly a sonic/production focus for the Smashing Pumpkins.
All that being said, I'm not a fan of the singing. It's the classic combo of "strained and untrained" that's ever-present in alt-rock and its popular predecessors of punk and post-punk. Someone described it in their review as a "petulant whine", and I can't say I really disagree. One thing I've found from this project so far is that vocals are one of my (very few) dealbreakers when judging the quality of music. And unfortunately, it's more often the vocals that make/break an album than any other factor. The singing drops this from potential 5-star territory to a middling 3. Other reviewers cite the lyrics as working particularly well with Corgan's vocal quality – but as a listener who never pays heed to lyrics unless they're either masterfully poetic or egregiously bad, I didn't notice this synchrony.
3/5
Key tracks: Today, Disarm, Luna
David Holmes
2/5
"It's like hip-hop without any rapping. And good riddance" -me
Let's Get Killed, though a bit underwhelming, is one of the better albums from contemporary R&B – if you can really call it part of the genre. Some white Irishman putting together miscellaneous hip-hop beats with various disconnected interludes doesn't sound, on paper, like your typical 90s R&B. But without most of the lyrics and rapping, both the musician's and listener's attention is pulled to the instrumental. And I'll be honest: it's pretty darn good. A little repetitive and uninteresting at times, sure, but not having to actively tune out some generic, unmelodic, loudly-mixed shouting is a relief.
The song Don't Die Just Yet is a really nifty soundscape of shifting guitars, bass, contrabass, mellotron, and a constant hip-hop-produced drum beat. It's far and away the best track on the album. Radio 7 is obviously a derivative track by design, but it has its own merits. Allusions to Black and Hispanic culture at the beginning give the track a lot more meaning than it would've had otherwise. Rodney Yates and Gritty Shaker are two other highlights for their well-selected hooks. But there are also some particularly weak tracks, including Freaknik and Caddell Returns, that really put the latter half of the album into "flop" territory. And of course, interludes are (nearly always) unnecessary. Cut them out and we'll have ourselves a deal.
2/5
Key tracks: Gritty Shaker, Rodney Yates, Don't Die Just Yet
Nanci Griffith
3/5
A good, albeit nondescript, country sound. Fairly retro for its time, not pushing any musical boundaries but instead perfecting a pre-established style. Her music reminds me of a more simplistic Dolly Parton or (at a stretch) Joni Mitchell. There's an abundance of acoustic guitars, I-IV-V progressions, fiddles, low-calibre piano and vocal harmonies. And none of the musical elements are distinct/memorable enough to really allow any songs to stand out – hence my list of key tracks being (unusually) empty. I could almost see this being a concept album consisting of one or two length, introspective country tracks taking up the entire record. But I doubt that much work would be put into a musically straightforward project like this. (I will say this, though: Pink Floyd pulled off One Of These Days much better than Griffith. Huh, that could be part of my judging through prog-coloured glasses...)
I was in a pretty low mood prior to listening to The Last Of The True Believers. Though I wouldn't say the album fixed it, it at least lifted a weight off my shoulders for a cool thirty-six minutes. That's all a listener can ask for, really. Nanci Griffith doesn't make her music insist on audience happiness, force a particular mood on the unsuspecting listener (I'm looking at you, Pharrell Williams, composer of the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack). The light breezy feel is just there, beckoning you in, but not dragging you around the fun-filled mud pit once you're there. You dig me?
3/5
Key tracks: none
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Albums with these kinds of streaming numbers are always worrying. My immediate thought was that this surely isn't one of the 1000 most important records of all time – at least, not according to most Spotify users. But dang, this is great. The quirky yet intense music, the rises and falls in energy, the unpredictable twists and turns... these guys, Piazzolla and Burton, they're pretty good. The accordion playing, particularly in the final track, is excellent. It's not often you hear this odd piano-accordion-vibraphone combo with low string backing. Such an odd combination, and it does wonders. The two closing tracks, Operation Tango / La Muerta Del Angel, turn the energy up to an almost Mission Impossible-esque level. I'm also a big fan of Vibraphonissimo for its mind-bending percussion lines. And seemingly played perfectly, too. In a live setting. That's darn impressive.
The New Tango would be a 5-star album, no questions... well, except for the fact that it clearly hasn't had a big historical influence since its release. I don't hear elements carried over into post-2005 sounds (at least not with more well-known contemporary musicians). Nor have I ever heard of the artists, Astor Piazzolla and Gary Burton, themselves. That tends to be a bad sign for judging the significance of music in a modern-day context. Because whatever you think about the quality or novelty of some kind of music, the ultimate marker of its importance is how much it changed history. As far as I can tell, the main way The New Tango changed history is by making it into this list. As such, I can't in good conscience give this 5 stars.
4/5
Key tracks: Vibraphonissimo, La Muerta Del Angel
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
Now *this* is what I look for in hip-hop. The synths on here are emotive, layered, and add to the atmosphere. The songs Sunshine and The Cool are prime examples of this great synthwork, but plenty of songs showcase it. When the synths aren't present, other instruments get plenty of great moments to shine (check out those horns in Pressure!). Across the various songs, there's a wide variety of (electronic) backbeats, ranging from Purdy Shuffle-esque loops to more straight-played danceable rhythms. Notably, there's a distinct lack of trap beats. This means I didn't reflexively discount the music for being low-effort (which unfortunately happens all too often with 21st-century hip-hop). Another reviewer commented that Kanye took a similar approach to his own music in his early career. For the first time, I'm actually kind of excited to start getting some of Ye's earlier records.
But I think the main thing lifting this above its contemporaries is having vocals that are more than passable. Goshdarn good, in fact. The singing is great, and the chorus melodies are hard to dislike. I enjoy the mood contrasts between verse and chorus. The lack of melody in the verses is hard to dislike when it's broken up by some sweet memorable tunes. In some songs, we even get beautiful backing vocals behind the rapping. For a while, during the track Hurt Me Soul, I was trying to work out exactly what about the sound was so appealing. It's the subtle backing vocals half-mirroring the synths. One of several examples of good textural work here.
Not too much holding this back from 5 stars. But the aptly named "Outro" is suspect. More than twelve unnecessary minutes added to an already hour-long album. In addition, I feel a little betrayed that The Instrumental is not that. It's still a solid track, but it would've been better without vocals. Every song feels similar in terms of energy and tempo, so changing that up would've added to the whole "album experience". But as far as hip-hop inclusions on this list, Food & Liquor blows other touted masterpieces like 36 Chambers, Cypress Hill, and Nation of Millions completely out of the water.
4/5
Key tracks: He Say She Say, Daydreamin', Hurt Me Soul
The Beach Boys
4/5
Some unexpectedly heavy-hitting lyrics from a band with such light-hearted branding. The boys continue their trajectory into a more sombre, thoughtful mood that began in 1966 with Pet Sounds. In fact, I find it difficult to assign a genre to this sound. The light orchestral touches, the unpredictable melodies, Brian Wilson's haunting soprano... It's a stark contrast to most of the other big records from the same year (including the monumental Led Zeppelin IV, Hunky Dory, Who's Next, Tapestry, and Imagine), which all take approaches that are more obviously rooted in a specific genre. I'm torn between a few ratings here. The music is hard to "get into", but clearly a ton of thought was put into it (lyrically and musically) and it's such an oddity for the Beach Boys that I have to give it some credit. I'm going with a 4/5.
All of my chosen key track fall into this genre-indeterminate category, but there are a few others that are easier to put my finger on. Long Promised Road is a relatively upbeat tune for this era of the Beach Boys, incorporating some group harmonies reminiscent of their early-to-mid-60s sound. It's exciting, and an interesting choice to have it come second on the album (after the sobering Don't Go Near The Water). Disney Girls (1957) is a surprisingly complex track that I definitely see myself returning to. Student Demonstration Time is certainly jolting and I agree with most of the reviewers that it doesn't really belong on the album. Swap it with some introspective track off Wild Honey or Sunflower and you'll have yourself a deal. The title track, Surf's Up... man, it's just excellent in every way. The lyrics are equal parts nonsense and revolutionary poetry, with odd rhymes and melodies that swivel everywhere you don't expect. The backing vocals are intense, harrowing, and yet create an almost lullabye-like atmosphere. Plus, multi-part songs are pretty much always a win. Proto-prog rock at its finest.
4/5
Key tracks: Feel Flows, 'Til I Die, Surf's Up
Taylor Swift
3/5
After the brilliant one-two punch of Willow / Champagne Problems, I found that the album lost a lot of its energy, and some of the tracks were just hard to pay much attention to. Songs like Long Story Short and 'Tis The Damn Season aren't instrumentally diverse enough to make up for a lack of energy in Swift's singing, and the result is roughly 20 minutes of tracks that could've been left as B-sides. That being said, it's a more "mature" sound than Swifties were probably expecting from earlier albums like Lover and Fearless. For that, I can definitely understand the hype. Transitioning away from country-pop into this genre that's harder to pin down is a step in the right direction, I think.
Swift's melodic preferences are on full display here, including her faltering to a 2nd or 6th of a normal triad chord. It's something a lot of modern pop artists do, and it can hinder an otherwise strong melody. Another technique(?) she uses in all her music is singing softly and deliberately weaker than her full voice. You can tell she has the pipes for stronger vocalising (and she demonstrates her ability in songs on other albums), but here she consistently tones down the energy for a more everyday, talkative voice. It's not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it's probably done deliberately to make the sound more commercial. But I can't help but feel she's shooting herself in the foot. This is some of the weaker singing I've heard from Tay-tay. The lyrics feel copy-pasted between different songs, too. (I guess there's only so much you can write about relationship woes.)
For all the flak I'm giving her, I respect Swift's music. She's obviously very successful, and for good reasons.
3/5
Key tracks: Willow, Champagne Problems, No Body No Crime
Suicide
1/5
This is really bad. I don't give out 1-star reviews lightly, but Suicide is a textbook example of one. No development of musical ideas, essentially no melody, terrible low-effort singing, each track being exactly one chord and one loop... Seriously, you only have to listen to one measure of each of these songs to understand the entire track. The remaining 99% of the song fills you with boredom and utter despair. The song Girl is somehow made even worse than this, specifically via the lyrics being delivered in a nauseating "drunk-horny" voice. Frankie Teardrop is another rough track, pitting the listener off again ten and a half minutes of monotone industrial noise and indistinct screaming.
A "milestone in electronic music"? I don't think so. 1977 was a pretty incredible year for musical progress in general, with David Bowie's Low being a key electronic milestone. This pales, violently, in comparison. Listen, I understand – music is always subjective – but this is about as close to objectively bad as music can get.
1/5
Key tracks: none
Iggy Pop
3/5
It's an odd sound. Kind of anticipatory of the 80s – but I don't necessarily hate it. In fact, for punk, it's unexpectedly good. Iggy Pop has a good, gritty vocal with more emotion and better technique than the usual drunken schoolboy slurring that you tend to associate with the genre. But even on Lust For Life, I'd prefer a voice that's more rock-oriented, given the sonic focus on the distorted lead guitar – but it's passable as is. Pop's voice imitates that of David Bowie around the same time, particularly in the song Tonight. (It makes sense, given Bowie's heavy influence on Pop's style and his involvement in several of Pop's albums.) You can also hear influence from earlier blues-rock, particularly the likes of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison. But once you make the comparison, you realise the 60s guys are simply better.
Instead, the album's greatness is carried by Bowie's compositions. The technically straightforward rock feel with countless quirks added (e.g. octave-harmonised vocals, all-over-the-place basslines) is The title track is great, being a sort of repeating anthem with a pretty darn convincing vocal hook. The Passenger has a very memorable guitar chord progression; it's obvious why it's the most popular song on here. Extra points for Tonight being a multi-part song.
...And minus 1 star for such an odd fixation on 16-year-old girls. Normally I don't pay much attention to lyrics, but these ones were bad. Iggy was 29 years old upon the album's release, so there's no excuse.
3/5
Key tracks: Lust For Life, The Passenger, Tonight
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
A great classic 60s sound. It's warm, soft, catchy, and has some glowing harmonies. The whole record is a fun listen, but the first half really stands out. Monday Monday, Straight Shooter, Got A Feelin', two excellent covers, then Go Where You Wanna Go. And the party continues with the group's most well-known track, California Dreamin'. And gosh darnit, that song is highly regarded for a reason. It showcases the best harmonies the 60s decade (and possibly all of musical history) has to offer. I don't see how anyone with half a temporal lobe could dislike this kind of music. There's nothing offensive, nothing grating... just pure, sweet, simple musical talent.
I noticed a few jazz (or jazz-adjacent) chords in the vocal arrangement, which seems pretty darn progressive for its time. Kind of like Dylan's turn toward a more electric sound in 1965. As another reviewer wrote about the harmonies, "the forward-looking eclecticism of this record is part of its genius." Really, the only things I can fault about the album are (a) that its tail end is a bit lacklustre, and (b) hopping on the "counterculture bandwagon" is actually much less impressive than its sounds. These guys/gals were not part of the vanguard, even if they spearheaded a very specific subdivision of it. You can kind of feel them clinging to the pop meta even despite their harmonic experimentation.
On a different note: we have another record where the top-rated review gives a lower rating on account of the band members being horrible people. I'd like to mention that removing every "morally bad" artist on this list would probably leave less than 100 albums. (In other words: it's not a good criterion to judge music by.)
4/5
Key tracks: Straight Shooter, I Call Your Name, California Dreamin'
Radiohead
5/5
On some days, this is my favourite album of all time. and at those times I just can't fathom any other music coming close to this level of brilliance. (Except maybe other Radiohead records.) I could go on and on about how ridiculously excellent this record is in just about every regard. Even the haunting computer-spoken interlude Fitter Happier, which most people probably consider a filler/throwaway, fits perfectly when you consider OK Computer as a concept album.
Unlike most of my other reviews, I'll try to keep this short. Every song on here is excellent, both individually and in context. One could justifiably rank Paranoid Android and Exit Music as two of the best songs of all time. The depth and complexity of the mix, particularly in songs like Airbag, Subterranean Homesick Alien, and Climbing Up The Walls, is near-orgasmic. There's so much to take in at once that it's kind of overwhelming, and yet all the elements fit together perfectly. Even in 2025, this sounds like the future. The lyrics (once you look them up) are pure poetry that's just as relevant today as ever. Electioneering, The Tourist... goshdarn No Surprises. Every song is a hit in every way imaginable. Karma Police. Lucky. Let Down. Holy smokes, man.
And just like that, I've covered the whole album. What a freakin' masterpiece, yo.
5/5
Key tracks: all
Christina Aguilera
4/5
I'm a hater of modern pop as much as the next guy, but this is some seriously great material. Stripped showcases an array of musically diverse, tonally diverse (importantly!), and complex songs in a sort of R&B-riffing style. The album goes back and forth between catchy and heartfelt – sometimes even both at the same time – and it makes for a good album experience overall. I enjoy the use of electric guitars (and human-played instruments in general) that tend to be absent from 90s and 00s hip-hop/R&B. There's a lot of piano, so a plus there. I wouldn't say there are any huge standouts, but certainly Aguilera picked her singles wisely. The anthem-like songs Fighter and Beautiful are my two favourite tracks here – barely edging out groovier tracks like Make Over and smooth lilting hits like Impossible and Keep on Singin' My Song. But perhaps the biggest factor pushing this above the rest of the pop-R&B pack is that the vocals (including the melodies) are fantastic. This gal has some chops.
One thing Aguilera fails to shake from the R&B meta, though, is the interludes. There are four songs in here that the album could do without. And it's not like they were added to pad runtime (since they cumulatively only make up 4 minutes of the 77-minute-long record). Missy Chrissy could have removed these empty and relatively pointless tracks without any loss in engagement. (Well, at least they're pretty good as far as interludes go. The acoustic guitar picking in Primer Amor is nice and a cool transition into Infatuation.) I also disapprove of an album being this long unless there's a running theme/concept. But all in all, Aguilera exceeded my expectations.
4/5
Key tracks: Fighter, Impossible, Beautiful, Keep on Singin' My Song
Public Enemy
1/5
Public Enemy, in this instance, seems to be not only an Enemy of the Public but also of themselves. Because these guys are clearly musically talented – but the sound is just not engaging or memorable enough to warrant a positive review. The sound experimentation in Power To The People, Anti-Nerd Machine, and Leave This Off Your Charts (among other tracks) is irritating and hasn't aged well in the slightest. All of the singing/rapping is just anonymous shouting with no personality, no emotion other than performative anger. Nothing that makes me want to re-approach the music for a relisten. I had the same problem with the group's previous release, It Takes A Nation Of Millions. Although, in the case of FOABP, there are exactly two tracks I enjoyed amidst the sea of nothingness (Pollywanacraka, Final Count, and Fight The Power).
What surprised me, looking at the other reviews here, is that this seems to be a highly regarded album even when compared to other hip-hop releases from the same period. Listeners praise FOABP for being rowdy, rude, and in your face, for having weighty lyrics and a relentless vocal delivery. I don't tend to pay attention to lyrics unless they're particularly terrible, so we can discount them in this case. Everything else mentioned are reasons I dislike this style of music. The relentless vocal delivery comes off as monotone and forced rather than whatever enthusiasm it was trying to achieve. (At least have some mellower tracks to split up the onslaught of bellowed cursing?) It feels haphazard, tactless, and kind of against the whole notion of music as an art. There's no subtlety, nor any attempt at it. Just shouting, scattered sampling from other artists (less impressive than it sounds), and hardly any humanity in the instrumentation.
I agree with another reviewer here: "As far as I understand, this album is quite important for the history of hip-hop. But definitely, absolutely, without any question not for me."
1/5
Key tracks: Pollywanacraka, Final Count, Fight The Power
The Cult
3/5
The singer sounds like he's the only one genuinely enjoying himself. It's unusual for this list – which tends to favour music with great instruments and bad singers. But in this example, the vocalist is having a good ol' jam (complete with rock screams and clichés), while the guitar, bass, and drums plod along somewhat repetitively. The bass sticks loyally to static chord-roots, and the lead guitar riffs, while fairly catchy, aren't varied enough to keep a whole lot of interest for the listener. Same problem with most of the percussion. "Unadventurous" is the word that comes to mind. I guess rock didn't have anywhere to do except alt and Britpop at this point in time, but there's still plenty of good hard rock from the 80s, and this is simply not the best example of it.
That being said, The Cult imitates some seriously great (legendary, even) sounds from the likes of Guns 'n' Roses and Led Zeppelin. (And in that regard, you really can't go wrong even if you lack creativity.) The guitar solo in Electric Ocean sounds exactly like the song title and it's a darn cool track. Love Removal Machine is carried by its riff, which is good only because it sounds near-identical to Start Me Up by the Stones. But copying is fine, I guess, if it's copying something good. There isn't a single song that "misses", and there are a few mild standouts. A textbook 3-star record.
3/5
Key tracks: Wild Flower, Electric Ocean, Love Removal Machine
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Listen, I get it. Lyrics are important to some songwriters. But there are plenty of artists that put effort into other aspects of the world and don’t rely (mostly) on the poetry aspect. This Gabriel guy is probably saying something important, but as a listener who tends to disregard lyrics even if they’re spectacularly good, I didn’t notice it. And it’s obvious that less effort was put into the sound. The instruments actually sound okay as a sort of slow, 80s-produced mini-soundscape. But with a few exceptions, the entire album carries on with that sound – and without any interesting chord progressions or riffs to back it up. One clear exception to this is the song Sledgehammer, which kicks some serious rock butt and is easily the strongest on the album. Love the bass riff, the guitar tone, the horns, the energy – and I think Gabriel’s vocals work better in this raw rock texture. And judging by Spotify numbers, it seems like most fans of Peter Gabriel agree with me. I’m surprised he didn’t commit more to this rock style, given how it was clearly more popular and interesting than the swamp of poorly produced synth pop Gabriel’s contemporaries were releasing.
The two tracks I mostly had a problem with were Mercy Street and This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds). The former is just too dull to really get into, focusing sonically on this high-pitched percussion that doesn’t really change for six minutes straight. The latter is as odd as the title suggests and lacks the hook(s) to justify it. But the first half of the album is pretty darn solid, with Red Rain, Sledgehammer, and That Voice Again forming the album’s highlights. In Your Eyes is also a good note to end on, even if its percussion is so 80s-esque that the song could probably do better without drums at all.
3/5
Key tracks: Red Rain, Sledgehammer, That Voice Again
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
This is likeable enough, surpassing the quality of its punk contemporaries in terms of instrument playing. The guitar playing is strong without being too harsh or obtrusive, and the drums are played in a skilful, driving manner. Of course, as per punk standard, the singing is bad. A good measure of whether somebody is putting effort into their vocal is if their accent and "talking timbre" are mostly absent when singing. The singer in The Psychedelic Furs, unfortunately, sounds like a mere Brit talking rather drunkenly and expressively. Even in the lead single and (probably) the best track here, Pretty In Pink, this problem makes itself apparent.
There isn't enough variety between tracks to justify giving this album higher than a 3, but I respect that it tries to sound different from its contemporaries (even if it mostly fails at this). Calling yourself "psychedelic" is an interesting approach to turn away punk fans that were disenfranchised a decade ago by the overwhelming presence of psychedelia in popular music. And boomer fans of psychedelia are in for a rude awakening when they put Talk Talk Talk on for a spin. I will say, though, that I really like this album art. It's a style that would be imitated by the Police a couple of years later with Synchronicity – another great album cover art.
3/5
Key tracks: Pretty in Pink, All of This and Nothing
The Who
4/5
You can’t go wrong with what’s essentially a greatest-hits album from one of the most legendary 60s rock bands... right? Well, the Who pull off this task pretty convincingly. However, because it’s a live album (and a lengthy one at that), there are noticeable and frequent mistakes, particularly in the lead and backing vocals, compared to the studio versions. And you can be sure the audience has spun the studio version until the disc is cracked. Live music actually benefits from this sometimes, making the music sound more human. It also allows the audience to connect to the band by being up close and witnessing their fallibility in real time. The downside is that the off-kilter singing just doesn’t sound as good as the studio version, and since albums like My Generation and Tommy are included in this list too, you’re better off omitting Live At Leeds.
Regardless, it’s a fun listen. The extended versions of some of these hits are enjoyable, showcasing the band’s improvisational skills (especially those of the great Pete Townshend) through lengthy solos. Keith Moon’s ridiculously good drumming is always present, dancing between the guitar and vocals lines to create an energy that was (at the time) unmatchable. The band would go on to perfect their craft with their next studio record, Who’s Next, but the sound is nearly fully developed here. The rock vocals of Roger Daltrey are distinctive as ever, belting out fun-packed 60s-esque lyrics like nobody’s business.
4/5
Key tracks: Happy Jack, I’m A Boy, My Generation
Screaming Trees
4/5
The riff in All I Know is straight-up classic rock. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling, thinking back to times when the Venn diagram between good music and popular music was nearly a perfect circle. It's such a darn good track, with subtle synths underlying a thickly layered guitar-bass arrangement. Plenty of distortion, a solid chord progression, good singing, active, driving drums... what more could you want from a track? Dying Days has a nifty acoustic-to-electric transition that's reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. I'm almost positive it was intentional. Regardless, another rock-solid track, with some great layered guitars and drums giving a heck of a lot of energy to the sound. This isn't the only time Screaming Trees tries out this idea of acoustic-electric contrast between two different sections. There are at least two other tracks on the album with this kind of transition. And it’s cool every time (though it starts to become predictable by the lengthy closing track, Gospel Plow).
I noticed a Mellotron in several tracks, including the beautiful Traveler and country-spy-esque Dime Western. Reminds me of 60s and early 70s rock, as well as some other 90s material that was released partly as a 60s nostalgia trip. (Mellotron was featured heavily in Radiohead's OK Computer, for example.) Lots of nods to psychedelia, blues, classic rock, and retro country throughout the album, which is a fresh take on the grunge movement I don’t think I’ve seen before. And yet I do kind of understand why critics place this record below some of its contemporaries – including Pearl Jam and Nirvana. It isn’t fresh-sounding for its time, even if it is technically a fresh combination of genres. And many of the tracks sound similar to each other. A feel-good record, not unlike the Eagles (or whatever the grunge equivalent may be). But in the 90s, most audiences were looking for something more cutting-edge.
4/5
Key tracks: All I Know, Dying Days, Traveler
Ian Dury
3/5
The disco-style Dorian mode in the opening track, Wake up and Make Love with Me, is undeniably cool. What immediately brings it down is Dury's vocal. Apart from the occasional Jackson-esque squeals, his melody rarely veers from the same three notes, and his delivery is flat and emotionless. Couple that with his shamelessly thick Cockney accent and you have a voice whose quality is just lower than the rest of the band. It really brings down the music. Which is a shame, because a lot of the (instrumental parts of the) music is excellent. Take the two-part Sweet Gene Vincent with its unexpected rock breakdown. With a singer that's even slightly competent, this could easily have become a multi-part rock classic, along the lines of Happiness Is A Warm Gun or Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey. But sadly, no banana. I guess the producers knew this - explaining why they chose to mix down Dury's voice. The same is done for quite a few tracks. My Old Man, with its distinctively lilting, melodic bassline and softly punctuating saxes, is similarly marred by the drunken, slightly out-of-tune monotone of Ian Man. The songs that suffer the most from Dury's oddity of a larynx are the novelty tracks Billericay Dickie and Plaistow Patricia - though to be fair, every song on the album kind of sounds like a novelty track.
On the other hand, the music is so unserious that you can't help but enjoy it, even if it consists of objectively bad songwriting. As a listener who usually ignores lyrics, I actually took notice of these for being so goofy: "Every bit of clothing / Ought to make you pretty / You can cut the clothing / Grey is such a pity / I should wear the clothing of Mr Wool O'Mitty(?)"..."Get your teeth into a small slice / The cake of liberty" I went back through the lyrics in some of the other tracks and they're a rollercoaster of word salad and Cockney self-cockfidence. Overall, the good and the bad balance out to a cool 3 stars out of 5. This is one of those stupid albums on the list that you're glad you listened to, because it put you into a much better mood. But you'll never listen to it again for fear of God making fun of you at the gates of heaven.
3/5
Key tracks: Wake up and Make Love with Me, My Old Man, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Circle Jerks
2/5
What an insane idea for an album. 15 minutes of screaming, noise, and lyrics about, well, group sex. +1 star for creativity. +1 more star for having a song called World Up My Ass.
2/5
Key tracks: Deny Everything, World Up My Ass, Live Fast Die Young
Genesis
5/5
This is fantastic. With an album title like "Selling England by the Pound", you'd expect either a stereotypical punk/Britpop album or maybe something more classic-rock and psychedelic. With Genesis, you get neither – instead, you're presented with a crisp, dynamic, fresh, unique take on the enigmatic style of prog rock. It's so easy to mess up the genre and sound like you're (as many reviewers put it) "wanking around", but I would attribute that more to the meandering, stop-start-laden subgenre that includes albums like Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. (I like Tubular Bells, by the way. But I like this more.) Selling England by the Pound toes the line between wankery and tightness, and ends up with the creativity of the former and the satisfying musicianship of the latter. Seriously – the guitar and drums are excellent on this record. I enjoy the vocal, too, particularly in how it doesn't try to take the spotlight even when it's active. Reminds me very much of King Crimson's stuff.
There's not a miss on the album. The track closest to being a "flop" is the medieval-sounding instrumental After The Ordeal, but even that is well-arranged with a focus on piano and an unusually melodic electric guitar. Firth of Fifth has to be my favourite track upon a first listen, mostly because of its contrasting parts: a jaunty piano some of the time, and an intense, foreboding, organ-laden feel at others times. Also a cool time signature. Genesis seems to like those. We see another nifty rhythm in The Cinema Show, and there are surely plenty others elsewhere in their discography. Something about Genesis's music reminds me of Rush. Maybe it's the overactive guitar and bass, and the flurried yet ultra-precise drumming. Geddy Lee and his gang must've taken notes.
5/5
Key tracks: Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, Firth of Fifth, The Cinema Show
TV On The Radio
2/5
The sound here is heavily electronic, with the only obvious "acoustic" instrument being the vocals for the vast majority of the album’s runtime. The singing, to be fair, is pretty good. I enjoy the falsetto backing vocals that appear in just about every track (though in some cases it sounds odd and slightly out of tune - see the songs Dreams, King Eternal, and You Could Be Love). I feel that the lack of acoustic percussion (excluding Bomb Yourself), or even the lack of clear/rhythmic percussion in general, really takes away from the record's energy. The album moves very slowly and takes a cool 60 minutes to finish if you include the bonus tracks. It might be better to have this in the background than to commit to the close listening this project normally requires. And then there's the bonus track You Could Be Love, which is so bad it's no wonder it was left off the original album. Fortunately, the groovy one-two of Bomb Yourself / Wear You Out makes up for this. Staring at the Sun, as a vocal-only track, is also worth shouting out. Reminds me a bit of Homeless by Paul Simon - though Simon’s song is better.
The 00s decade had so much great and influential material to offer the world, so it's pretty surprising that something like Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes made it on this list. Some of the music has merit, but for the most part it's just not interesting or fresh enough to compare with artists like Aphex Twin, Muse, Radiohead, or Green Day. TV On The Radio doesn't have the influence (judging by info on their Wikipedia article) to justify being on the list at all. The album only barely charted in France and the UK, and didn't chart anywhere else. Once again I question the metrics used by Dimery and his musical goons.
2/5
Key tracks: Staring at the Sun, Bomb Yourself, Wear You Out
Sleater-Kinney
2/5
I don't like the lead singer's voice. I think the main problem, the one that so many other reviewers are finding it difficult to pin down, is the extremely rapid vibrato she tries to squeeze into every note. It's... well, irritating. The melodies are also extremely basic, so there's little to make you want to sing along. But if I imagine the music without that shrieky-sounding wavering (and just a normal, high, clear vocal), coupled with some more interesting chords and melodies, it's great. Everything else about the music is straightforward, aggressive, invigorating. Nothing particularly special for its time, considering it sounds like punk releases from 20 years earlier, but it's perfectly good as punk goes. The improved production (compared to the 70s) is also a welcome addition.
But if you have one bad omnipresent element, it lowers the quality of the entire album. The top-rated reviewer here seems to suspect that any dislike of the lead singer's voice in Sleater-Kinney is a result of sexism. I doubt that, mostly because there are countless male punk singers that are just as bad or worse. I've given my fair share of 1's and 2's to punk albums on account of a singer ruining a record. Dig Me Out is no different. I will also add that there's not much of an "album experience" here. No ups and downs, no changes in mood to bring the listener along on a journey. It's kind of emotionally monotonous, even if that emotion is a pretty darn exciting one. We need some ballads up in this joint.
2/5
Key tracks: Dig Me Out, One More Hour, Jenny
The Adverts
3/5
Some of the most convincing punk vocals I've heard. They don't bring this all the way up to 5 stars, but (perhaps unusually for the punk genre) they also don't drag it down to a measly yet unsurprising 1 star. There's a lot of snark and bite, shown by strong enunciation in several songs. I first noticed it in New Church. The melodies are also... well, they're not exactly McCartney-level, but they're unexpectedly good given the style. The name of the opening track, "One Chord Wonders", is less suited to this band themselves than most of the punk movement. Maybe it's a commentary about the monotonicity of their contemporaries? (Not sure. I'm not a lyrics guy.) The frequent doubling of guitar and bass parts gives the music an almost anthemic sound - a little odd, maybe, but it kind of works. Makes the music sound bigger and more important than it is. (And given its numbers on Spotify, it isn't.)
Overall, this album is pretty solid. The exception is Bombsite Boy, which is near objectively worse than the other tracks because of its horrific out-of-tune first half. The latter half, which returns to standard high-quality punk, saves it. Overall, though, the record is dandy. I would have preferred some ballads or changes in instrumentation to get a more varied timbre within tracks and mood between different tracks. That's a pattern I've noticed with many greatest-of-all-time albums, particularly those from the 70s: they really try to showcase a diverse range of moods and (sometimes) styles. Sure, maybe that kind of music-making was part of the "music meta" in the late 70s, and the entire point of punk was to break free from that. But to be fair, it was the meta because it was good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
3/5
Key tracks: New Church, Gary Gilmore's Eyes, No Time to Be 21
The Pogues
4/5
Right from the start, we have a crazed frenzy of accordions, acoustic guitars, flutes, and a grand Irish-folk sounding vocal. It's the kind of music that's just ridiculously fun to listen to, and (at least at the beginning) there's very little to fault. The Pogues are having a blast, and it shows. The instrumental tracks interposed throughout the album, containing just as much energy as any of the sung ones, are fun. I wish more albums were willing to do the same. (Interludes don't count. I'm looking at you, 90s hip-hop.) Overall, I don't have too much to say about the album. There's isn't much of a flow or sense of album structure apart from the last few tracks. Rum Sodomy ends with a harrowing war lament in The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, kind of thematically similar to Billy Joel's Goodnight Saigon. I like to think the former was inspired by the latter. It's an unexpectedly serious ending to an album filled with joy and colour. The ones that really throw all caution to the wind and just have fun repetitive lyrics are some of the best (specifically, Sally MacLennane). A very good record.
4/5
Key tracks: The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn, Sally MacLennane, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Great basswork. That's the first instrument that really stood out to me. The basslines are simple yet quirky, warm yet alien. Kind of psychedelic, fitting in with the spacey otherworldly feel of the album. Unusually for the 2000s, the production has that warm early 70s production that was the signature of bands like King Crimson and Pink Floyd. There are touches of more modern techniques too - such as the ultra-electronic percussion in Pt. 1 of the title track, and the synths being omnipresent rather than intermittent. The Flaming Lips reminds me of ELO in an alternative universe where they went in much harder with their "electronic" feel.
The problem I have with this music is that it's too unmemorable. The melodies are just not very strong - which is a shame, because it really seems like they were trying in that regard. The singing isn't exactly bad, but it's not trained or powerful enough to distinguish itself. I don't see myself listening to this record again. There are better iterations of "alien rock" elsewhere, though I'll give this group credit for being reasonably big in the genre (judging by Spotify numbers). But if I ever want to spin something thematically and musically like this, I'll put on Aladdin Sane and pretend there are a few more synths and a lower value on the cheerfulness scale.
3/5
Key tracks: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell, Do You Realize??
Ananda Shankar
2/5
A lot of albums by the Shankars on this list, eh? And it seems that some are more justified in their inclusion than others. Ananda Shankar is on the less justified end. Though in Ananda's case, there are some very specific elements that I feel could be improved to bump it up to a 3-star record or higher. The most noticeable element is the left-right mixing in the tracks Mamata (Affection) and Sagar (The Ocean). For reasons I cannot begin to understand, the sitar is played on-beat in the left ear and repeated about one-third of a beat later in the right ear. And darn it, it's distracting. These two songs ended up being the only two I didn't at least slightly enjoy – but Sagar is 13 minutes long, making up nearly 33% of the album's runtime. Pretty rough. I also wish they had used more vocals and percussion solos in the album, because those have historically been my personal favourite elements of Indian classical music.
The opening cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash is so odd that I can't help but be charmed by it. Pumped up, even. It really transforms the sound of the originally straight rock'n'roll piece into something almost wall-of-sound-esque, maybe like a work by Phil Spector. I could see it being played in a stadium for hippie-boomers after their exhausting day smoking weed on a beanbag in a dimly lit apartment. The textures are thick and exciting (helped significantly by the backing vocals, which are great). Really the only big problem is the sitar's melody sounding a whole lot clumsier than the vocal melody in the original song. Sitar just doesn't work with static melodic lines, and the song (or part of it) ends up sounding more like a silly parody of the Stones than a faithful emulation. It's still a solid performance, though, and is probably the strongest single track on the album. Light My Fire is a more questionable cover, seeing as the thick vocal texturing is abandoned and you're forced to listen to the melody. Which is fine, by the way – but not on a sitar. The Doors did it better.
2/5
Key tracks: Jumpin' Jack Flash, Snow Flower
Steve Earle
2/5
I don't have the patience for mediocre country music in these troubling times. There are exactly two types of song on this record – happy and sad – and those emotions are portrayed with as many chords (pretty much). Add something, anything, resembling harmonic musical progress and we'll have ourselves a deal. The album has very little sense of progression, which is a problem I have with most single-genre artists on this list. Even though it cycles through a few moods, providing some variety from the otherwise monotonous listening, it feels more like treading water than swimming towards this fabled Guitar Town. Instead, we start in Guitar Town (a great song, by the way) and drag our feet slowly through the quicksand. Also, there's no excuse writing a song called My Old Friend The Blues and having it be anything but blues. (The Rolling Stones did the same thing on Sticky Fingers, but I'll allow that because it sounds good.)
There are a few positives to shout out here. Consistency has its place in music, and it's definitely something Earle does well. The songs are similar to each other but differ through their guitar hooks, which do hold their own (even if they're unmemorable). Earle's voice is pretty good – certainly twangy enough to follow in the footsteps of the country genre. The spots of 80s production and instrumentation (e.g. the airy electronic percussion), while normally a terrible addition to music, are used sparingly enough that they spice up the album a little.
2/5
Key tracks: Guitar Town, Goodbye's All We Got Left, Little Rock'N'Roller
Klaxons
3/5
Two outlier tracks, Atlantis To Interzone and Four Horsemen Of 2012, prevent this from being a consistently good record. I will admit, though, that I enjoyed this significantly more than I thought I would after seeing the description "rave rock". Apart from the singing, which is almost bad enough to be comparable to punk, the cool synths save it and then some. Lots of nifty layering, modern clean production, and gritty guitarwork give Myths Of The Near Future a pretty darn satisfying sound. I will say, it really doesn't sound like rave music, even for its time. The singing and instrumentation are too human for that. Piano is used only sparingly (and mostly in low octaves) but I still appreciate its presence.
Golden Skans is the best song on here, no question. Sounds a bit like Coldplay. One of the measures of good singing is when it's difficult to hear an accent. Luckily, that's the norm with most music - but not most of this album, hence my complaint above. In Golden Skans, it's much harder to make out the singer's thick English accent. Good drumming, overlapping vocal harmonies, and thick texture that's extremely reminiscent of the good ol' 2000s. Two Receivers also deserves a shoutout for kind of being the Klaxons' Astronomy Domine. Probably because of the retro-space noises and 5th-interval harmonies in the singing. This is another song where the singing is genuinely good. (In contrast, take the lead single from the album, Magick. It's energetic and bursting with techno rock elements like the other tracks, but the singing makes it sound... amateur, I guess?)
3/5
Key tracks: Two Receivers, Golden Skans, As Above So Below
Common
2/5
In the first two tracks, Time Travelin' and Heat, the clear standout is the basswork. You might as well lose the vocals entirely because the bass is so darn great (particularly when combined with the light, muted guitar riffs). The rapping is fine. Pretty monotonous and droning, as per the genre. But those backing instrumentals... man. Much jazzier than I'm used to for late-90s/early-00s hip-hop. Lots of Dorian mode (the best-sounding mode). That chopped-up electric guitar sound on Cold Blooded is fantastic. Just imagine that song as an instrumental. With some minor editing, this music could reach the heights of Floyd jam sessions. Unrelatedly, my favourite track on the album is Geto Heaven Part Two (mostly for the abundance of great instruments like the piano, harp, flute, and violin). And my favourite part of the album is Common pronouncing "questions" as "kwustiss".
As many fellow reviewers have pointed out, the lyrics are fairly homophobic. This is, for our purposes, bad. I don't tend to pay lyrics much attention unless they're particularly bad, yet I was paying much attention to songs like Dooinit. Which I suspect also contains some racist poetry about halfway through its runtime. (Only need a drop of sexism to complete the holy trinity of rap! But, judging by the unusually pro-women lyrics at the end of The 6th Sense, it looks like Common covered their tracks.) Speaking of runtimes, the album is too long to really justify. If you've got 77 minutes of material, either release two albums or cut out the less interesting half. Another interesting element is the abundance of very sudden jumps into what sounds like a completely different song about a minute before each track ends. Now, if you have a fade or otherwise reasonable transition, I can understand it. Even hip-hop interludes, when found at the end of songs, typically don't leap straight into a skit but fade into it gradually. I guess Common isn't a typical rapper. But that doesn't make him better.
2/5
Key tracks: Cold Blooded, The 6th Sense, Geto Heaven Part Two
2Pac
4/5
Some of the best hip-hop on the list, no question. The lo-fi synths and beats predate the huge popularity boom of the lo-fi genre by at least a decade. And that's especially nifty because lo-fi is, in my opinion, one of the best-sounding musical styles out there. I wish this list had more artists in the genre (Ween, Grifters, etc.). I genuinely believe that if all the songs on here had solid melodies instead of (relatively) monotone rapping, it would be 5-star material. As it stands, the best-sounding tracks are the ones with singing. The female guest vocalists are generally excellent and complement both 2Pac's hardened rapping and the chill, jazz-electronic fusion backing instrumental. Normally I'm not a fan of the low-budget-sounding production in 90s hip-hop, but I think it works unusually well here, mostly on account of the synths. And man, those synths. They're so smooth, harmonious, catchy, jazzy, that you can't help but nod your head. 2Pac forgets to include the synths in a scant few tracks (including If I Die 2Nite and Heavy In The Game), but it's hard to actively dislike any of the remaining music.
2Pac is clearly laser-focused on his lyrics. And while I'm not normally a lyrics guy, I can appreciate a 90s hip-hop artist thinking of content other than sex and misogyny. Sure, there's a lot of talk of violence – but Me Against The World seems to act as an autobiography, a reason to explain why he is the way he is. A defence mechanism, a reaction to the harmful/racist culture that shaped him and his environment... however you want to split it. I wholeheartedly agree with what another reviewer said: "This felt a little like someone was finally explaining it all to me – the background and the context and the emotions of someone finally trying to process his life experience as he reached adulthood. It goes beyond the protective bravado to, for me, a more interesting place."
4/5
Key tracks: So Many Tears, Dear Mama, Can U Get Away
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
1/5
"Classic" country music is bad enough, but two hours of it is serious torture. By halfway through disc 1, I was already checking my phone every minute or so to see how long was left in each song. Nobody should be subjected to such a monstrosity of a collection, particularly when the topic is woeful masculinity and the sound is bland three-chord jangly nonsense. It's a shame humanity didn't advance far past this, considering it sounds like it could've been recorded in the roaring 1890s.
1/5
Key tracks: Grand Ole Opry Song, Tennessee Stud, I Saw The Light
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
After receiving this album, I played American Girl with my phone held up to my ear in a loud cinema lobby. It sucked. I thought, "Man, this is getting a 2-star rating at best. It all sounds like a whole load of electric-country mush." But I tell you, when I sat down to listen to the album with headphones, it was a completely different experience. The music is alive, heavy, rocking... and the vocals sound slightly better. Sure, they're still the weak point, but if I've learned anything from this list, the vocals are *always* the weak point. But Tom Petty's generic rock singing (and the similarly generic rock backing vocals) fade nicely into the background and you end up focused on some of the best parts. I also appreciate the album's succinct 31-minute runtime.
The song Breakdown is hecking groovy, man. It's such a simple keyboard riff, but backed heavily by a guitar and bass, it sneaks cozily into your ear and refuses to leave. Strangered in the Night has a piercing guitar sound, in a good way. It has a sneaky background kind of wailing, wrought with emotion and personality. And American Girl is substantially, indescribably better with headphones. The main takeaway is this: get yourself a good speaker system if you're going to listen to this without the old earmuffs. It'll do wonders. The production itself is a little patchy in places, and there are a few "miss" track in the middle (though honestly I enjoyed those too). But there are enough bangers and fun rock noises to justify a cool 4.
4/5
Key tracks: Breakdown, Strangered in the Night, American Girl
Minor Threat
2/5
Time and time again, bad singing ruins a band's otherwise fine (even good) instrumental section. This is one of those times. The vocals sound drunken, half-baked, and horrendously produced. The lyrics are presumably important, but they're so buried in the mix (mostly obscured by the crash-heavy percussion) that all you can hear is vaguely melodic moaning. It brings the record down at least one full star. I do like that the guitar and bass kind of "flow around" each other. Together, they're large and in charge; chunky yet funky. They make certain elements of the music, like the riff in Cashing In, really pop. Unfortunately, not all tracks are created equal in this way. Despite the album's runtime being a mere 20 minutes, the consistent, aggressively high energy really starts to drag around the 10-minute mark (with the only upside being that the final track is a solid album finisher). Earlier songs like Betray and Look, Back & Laugh are also mild standouts.
2/5
Key tracks: Betray, Look Back & Laugh, Cashing In
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
Just a simple, straightforward 60s sound. Pretty similar to the Doors' material from the same period, but with hooks that are less catchy and less passionately delivered. The riff in Louie, Go Home sounds like a half-Day Tripper. A Morning Tripper, perhaps. SS 396 sounds exactly like the Beach Boys (circa 1964). It's almost uncanny. In fact, the more I listen, the more this feels like a mash-up of all of Midnight Ride's contemporaries. It's a shame, really, that they ended up being some of the less successful of the British/American Invasion crowd, because this sound is clearly pretty good. It just doesn't have the fame (at least, judging by charting and Spotify stats) to really justify its place on a list of the 1001 most important albums of all time.
Now, if the overall sound were excellent despite all this, it would still eke out a 5-star rating. But the sound isn't excellent. The song All I Really Need Is You has a distractingly bad percussion line. It's... well, terrible. Like an elementary school marching band during warm-up period. The guitar and bass are also amateur in this song, and not entirely played in time with the drums. In general, the instrument-playing is unusually poor for the musical powerhouse of the late 60s. Even Kicks, easily the best song on here, sounds half-baked and incomplete somehow.
3/5
Key tracks: Kicks, I'm Not Your Stepping Stone, Take a Look at Yourself
The Smiths
5/5
Peak Smithification. Sure, Morrissey's vocals continue their annoying melodic clichés – but this is the least egregious case of them I've heard. Several songs, including Frankly, Mr. Shankly, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side, and I Know It's Over are actually pretty dynamic and adventurous with their melodies, meaning this is probably the most "singable" music from the band thus far. The jangly guitars, echoey production, and fun little quirks like the ultra-English schoolchildren singing at the beginning of the title track is so charming that I can't help but stay engaged for the entire runtime. "Bigmouth, la da da ha haha, Bigmouth la da da da. Bigmouth strikes again!" And just when the album seems to be losing some "seriousness steam" with Vicar in a Tutu, you're hit with a one-two juggernaut ending of There Is a Light That Never Goes Out/Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others. There Is a Light is smooth, depressing, suicidal, and yet sounds better than just about all the punk it's imitating. And it brings with it a strange, almost masochistic theme that works just perfectly with Morrissey's overly theatrical delivery.
I agree with this reviewer, who captured exactly what I wanted to say about some of the songs: "The surging momentum of the opening track with its hilarious stream-of-consciousness lyric (there is so much more humour here than casual listeners give the Smiths credit for); the magnificent melodic run of upbeat-but-caustic-but-wistful "Cemetry Gates" to "Boy with the Thorn..."; the heartbreakers "I Know It's Over" and of course, "There Is A Light..."."
Yeah, whatever, Morrissey's a bad person. I don't care. His music (at least on this record) is fantastic.
5/5
Key tracks: The Queen Is Dead, Cemetry Gates, Bigmouth Strikes Again, The Boy With A Thorn In His Side, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Django Django
4/5
It's not too often you get such a joyous and vibrant sound that's also so heavily electronic. There are a lot of I-IIIb chord changes (where you'd normally expect i-IIIb) – noticeable everywhere throughout the album, including in the tracks Default, Waveforms, and Storm – giving the record an overall very happy, chill vibe. It's a refreshing change of pace from other 21st-century albums in this list. I do get a sense that the lyrics are a bit empty/not fleshed out, but as someone who rarely (if ever) takes lyrics into account when judging albums, that's not much of an issue for me. What *is* a slight issue is the singing, which sounds like if ELO or LCD Soundsystem took their vocals and made them sound even less... distinctive, I guess. It's hard to describe the problem I have with these kinds of vocals. On the plus side, it's the kind of voice that meshes well with a good instrumental section, so at times you kind of forget it's there. And that's certainly better than an actively bad vocal.
4/5
Key tracks: Hail Bop, Default, Life's a Beach
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Just 22 years old, and already releasing his 15th studio album. What a dang legend. Most critics and listeners peg this record as the start of Stevie Wonder's peak songwriting period, and I can't really argue. The music is warm, well-arranged, catchy, and soulful. There are some points where the music seems to lose its way compositionally, leading to lengthy outros that decay slightly in quality the longer they go on. Maybe Your Baby and You've Got It Bad Girl are the two suspect tracks on this record, and others appear on Wonder's later records – even his magnum opuses, Innervisions and Songs In The Key Of Life. But in these cases, the lead and backing vocals are strong enough that you can almost ignore the track runtime. (Almost.)
I never knew Superstition transitioned into another track! And I kind of like it better this way. The foreboding, snaking, playful trumpet lines just beg for you to stay tuned for the next track (which, unfortunately, is the much less engaging Big Brother – but my point still stands). Superstition is such a fantastic song that it's made its way into several of my "top-tier track" playlists. It's very nearly a perfect Wonder song, I think, along with Sir Duke and I Wish from the aforementioned SITKOL album. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life is another highlight. It's the perfect kind of mellow opener that intrigues rather than excites, but it has an equally strong effect as starting with a bang. The keyboards are just lovely in this song. Same goes for the funky guitar-like keys in Maybe Your Baby and the emotional acoustic piano in I Believe.
4/5
Key tracks: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, Superstition, I Believe
Supertramp
4/5
I always like a piano-centric record, and this album stands out in that regard. If Everyone Was Listening sounds straight out of an Elton John compilation. The title/final track introduces the heartbreaker combo of high piano, high strings, high sax, and slow 6/8 time. It's a great way to end the album on a grand "impending-doom" note, though it would be significantly better with an actual ending rather than a fade-out. There are also a few mildly suspect tracks that could reasonably be described as filler - most notably Dreamer, which is more of a silly novelty track.
One of the singers' voices is pretty goofy. It's most noticeable in Dreamer during the solo vocals. Sounds a bit like the higher range of early-career David Bowie. The backing vocals give an extremely retro feel (almost like something you'd hear from the Four Seasons) that really creates an odd feel, because the instruments heavily imply a mid-70s sound. That being said, the music itself is excellent. A solid combination of multi-part prog, 60s rock, and groovy modern blues. One of the best examples of the latter genre is Bloody Well Right, which is instantly likeable. The keys are the highlight. I love the gritty, positive classic rock feel in that track.
4/5
Key tracks: School, Bloody Well Right, Crime Of The Century
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
Pained, raw, and jarringly truthful. People are afraid of saying the kind of stuff talked about in these lyrics, even within music. Life sucks, and howling into the void about depression, sex, politics, and suicide is a perfect way of expressing that. Especially with the industrial rock genre, which historically hasn't exactly popped on the charts, but works so, so well with the lyrical content here. And yet Reznor and Ross churn out this excitingly gritty anger-anthology for the world to relate to so much it hurts. As another reviewer accurately wrote: "Raw, powerful, visceral, animalistic. Sexy. Twisted. Demented. I want Trent Reznor to whisper the word "piggy" to my ears over and over again."
All that being said, it's still industrial rock. A genre I can't bring myself to love, no matter how hard I try. Although the vocals are near-flawless on every track, the other instruments veer in and out of being appealing – most obviously in the songs March Of The Pigs and The Becoming. (Which is certainly the point. Nine Inch Nails absolutely know what they're doing, musically.) The music is just too abrasive too often to place this album amidst the top tier, even if it does give most other music from the era a run for its money. NIN have created something really special here and I completely understand why others dub it the greatest record of all time. (Maybe a couple of relistens will do it... I'll keep you all posted.)
4/5
Key tracks: Heresy, March Of The Pigs, Closer, Hurt
Talking Heads
3/5
"I sure hope there aren't any more Talking Heads records on here." -a happier me, one hour ago
(As with the other three TH records I've gotten on this list, I will emphasise that TH's general sound is great – but David Byrne's voice is really bad and comes close to ruining any song he appears in.)
3/5
Key tracks: Happy Day, Psycho Killer, Pulled Up
Pixies
4/5
Great little compilation of post-punk-esque tracks, featuring a vocalist that’s unusually good for the genre and some fantastic musicianship (or a very convincing guise of it) in the guitars, bass, and drums. “Highlight moments” include some short, well-placed bass or drum breaks. The Pixies know how to utilise silence and drastic, rapid changes in musical texture, which I think is a really under-utilised element in 21st-century popular music. It makes the material a heck of a lot more engaging.
Here Comes Your Man is the obvious pick for a lead single, having a memorable, catchy guitar line and a fairly strong melody. The guitar sound is thick and highly distorted in most tracks, which can get a little distracting but is used for some pretty nifty transitions (as in the final track, Gouge Away). There aren’t any bad tracks here, but there are a few questionable elements that take away from the otherwise very musical, dynamic, and professional sound. The repeated out-of-tune falsetto in Hey is done well, I think, but in other tracks like Mr Grieves and No 13 Baby (and in fact most of the songs), the singing being out of tune sounds bad – as expected. It’s an element of punk I really wish hadn’t made it into the mainstream. The late 60s and early 70s tended to showcase skill over memorable personas. And that’s what makes it such a legendary period for music, in my opinion. Once you arrive at the punk and post-punk period, a lot of the convention is thrown out the window simply because it’s the standard, and the standard is always bad, right?
4/5
Key tracks: Here Comes Your Man, Hey, Gouge Away
Sepultura
1/5
The opening track is sung with such unapologetic anger that I can’t help but enjoy it, even though it would be significantly better with a properly delivered vocal and melody. The horrific atonal singing is absurdly hard to listen to for more than a few minutes... as I would soon find out. It’s pretty funny looking at the listening numbers on Spotify as the album progresses. There’s an obvious negative correlation between progress through the album and number of track listens – punctuated by the opening track having the most and closing track having the least. And for good reason. This genre (nu/atonal metal) is hard to listen to, appeals to a very specific demographic, and hasn’t aged well. There's little to enjoy here other than the novelty of drunken screaming and a few decent instrumental tracks dotted around.
Ratamahatta is one of the better songs. It gains points for being fairly early in the album (and hence not being unbearable) and having some good sub-melodies. Itsari is a more acoustic track without screaming, making it much better. The final track, while generally lacking the crazed screeches, resembles proto-prog in the worst way possible: 13 minutes of instrument noodling and quiet, passionless chants. It's a waste of runtime on an already bloated album.
Not an album you must hear before you die. As another reviewer wrote: "There are some interesting things happening rhythmically here and the riffs are pretty heavy and fun, but I just can't cope with the vocals. The older I get the more trouble I have with such abrasion. The guttural shrieks and howls just turn me off." True that – I'm not even particularly old and I can't imagine anyone unironically enjoying this.
1/5
Key tracks: Roots Bloody Roots, Ratamahatta, Itsari
Randy Newman
3/5
Very retro-sounding for its time. Could be 50s or even older, judging by the piano, strings, and bluesy style of vocal/melody. Randy Newman's voice is iconic for his later You've Got A Friend In Me and It's A Jungle Out There (among many others!). He sounds like your local bar alcoholic who's convinced he can tell you a good story but then goes off on a half-hour tangent about Reaganomics. Also, as I like to say, if any human was ever born from an egg, it would be Randy Newman. He's such a musical oddball that you can't help but respect the Newman grind. A pretty long career (starting in 1968) and yet his sound hasn't changed all that much.
I realise it could dangerous to claim to enjoy the opening track, Rednecks, but it's pretty good if you ignore the lyrics. (The lyrics send a message, but they're tone-deaf and drop an entire star off what would've been a solid 4-star record.) But the rest of the sound, including the remaining lyrics, is solid. Jaunty, mostly acoustic, decent production, and excellent compositions – including fun melodies and chords. The strings are very pretty, particularly in Louisiana 1927 and Birmingham, and there isn't a single track where they sound too cheesy or out-of-place. It's a straightforward likeable sound – not much else to say.
There's not much of an "album arc"/experience that most 5-star records have. That is, Rednecks could just as easily have been placed anywhere in the track listing rather than at the beginning, and Rollin' anywhere rather than at the end. This is an issue with many promising albums on the list.
3/5
Key tracks: Birmingham, Mr. President, Louisiana 1927
Robert Wyatt
2/5
As usual, a heavy accent all but destroys the enjoyability of a vocal. Wyatt's voice isn't particularly good to begin with (with the backing vocals overshadowing him as early as the opening track), but the droopily British accent is the final nail in the coffin. He sounds unprofessional, kind of like most punk vocalists – but at least with the punk genre, that's kind of the point. Light prog/experimental isn't meant to sound deliberately bad. And for the album's remainder, whenever Wyatt starts singing, it distorts the otherwise pleasant experimental feel into this indescribable auditory hell that's almost objectively bad-sounding. If this album were an ambient/instrumental one full of tracks like the outro The Whole Point Of No Return, I could see giving this an easy 4 or 5 stars – but with the singing? No.
Songs like The Duchess I feel I have to dislike out of principle. Music that sounds intentionally messy isn't an artistic statement about the nature of the music industry or some other nonsense. It's just bad. Other tracks, including Free Will And Testament and Out Of Season, have the same issue. I tend to give older music some leeway in this regard because the 60s-80s were a time to be harmonically and instrumentally experimental. But by the 90s, random discordant guitar/piano lines and freakish melodies weren't news anymore. Experimenting with production and instrumentation became the meta and artists like Robert Wyatt clearly didn't get the memo. That's why I gave Wyatt's 1974 record Rock Bottom a 3-star rating and this one a 2, despite them being sonically pretty similar. I'm judging it for its time.
2/5
Key tracks: Maryan, Alien, The Whole Point Of No Return
Beastie Boys
1/5
Good chorus hook in the opening track: "Ya can't and ya won't and ya don't stop!" My Shot-esque. It's the kind of rap-track I tolerate because it's dang catchy. Sabotage has some nifty electronic sounds and a metal-esque guitar line. It also comes fairly close to having a melody, which is always a plus. Sabrosa is a fantastic instrumental jam track with a cool guitar tone. I like the organ-guitar harmonising too. Plus, it's one of the few tracks that doesn't use deliberation distortion, which I find usually hinders tracks. Other instrumental tracks, like Futterman's Rule and Eugene's Lament, are also strong for that reason.
However, in general, I feel that the Beastie Boys think they're significantly cooler than they actually are. Songs like "B-Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak" are all fun and games until you realise the semi-industrial nonsense you're being subjected to. And it's clear most of their audience agrees with me. The tracks closest to sounding like somewhat-normal rock - such as Sabotage and Sure Shot - are not only the best, but have also received the most listens (according to Spotify numbers). In addition, this album contains interludes, which (as usual) mar the album flow. Judging by the already lengthy runtime, I reckon the interludes here should be cut. Specific full-length tracks are near unlistenable, too. Root Down is *not* good. Check out those sweet lyrics: "The Beastie Boys, you know we're gonna get down / Because I've got the flow where I grab my dick" / And say oh my god, that's the funky shit!" The best part of the track is the bassline. Everything else is painfully grating to sit through. The Update is another rough one, being not only entirely rapped, but done entirely monotonously and distorted just enough for the lyrics to be impossible to understand. (Though somehow I doubt the lyrics were worth listening to.) Alright Hear This is functionally identical to The Update. And many other tracks on here are near carbon copies of these two. Combined with the lack of melody and singability, it makes for a really bland listening experience.
Per another review: "Some of the world-music or jazzy-type stuff is interesting, but for most of the record they sound like a sloppy, unfocused Rage Against the Machine." Essentially, too many low-quality tracks to justify the scant few great ones.
1/5
Key tracks: Sabrosa, Futterman's Rule, Flute Loop
Slipknot
2/5
I find the best tracks are those with "normal" singing. Parts of the choruses of Sulfur and Psychosocial immediately stood out to me, like "Hang on, Slipknot momentarily sounded good. What's the deal?" It's a shame they branded themselves as heavy metal, because a lighter kind of rock-metal would've been almost objectively better-sounding for the band. This record, particularly in the latter half, tends to alternate between fairly good tracks like Snuff and Vermilion and significantly worse "noise" tracks such as Child of Burnin Time, This Cold Black, and Butcher's Hook. It's much worse than the tried-and-true formula of grouping all the good tracks together on one side and all the silly filler on the other.
The guitar sound is extremely distorted and it's clear these guys are loving every moment of it. But is it musically interesting? Well... not really. Given the oversaturation of the heavy metal genre, particularly by teenage garage bands, Slipknot fades into the noisy calamity, surrounded by hundreds of bands with the exact same sound. The only time when they sound even slightly unique or interesting is in more acoustic or melodic tracks – but even then Slipknot is just imitating the sound of better, more musically complex bands like Nirvana or AIC. The rest of the time, it's that demonic vocal that's pretty hard to take seriously.
2/5
Key tracks: Sulfur, Psychosocial, Dead Memories
Everything But The Girl
3/5
Overall, a very pleasant listen, but nothing that stands out from all of its contemporaries apart from some solid two-part harmonies. These songs lack substance or excitement. The singing and atmosphere are good enough to partially justify it, but the fact still remains that having twelve tracks with (roughly) the same tempo and combination of instruments is not enough to make for a "great" record. An album is more than just a collection of songs - it needs to make some kind of statement or musical impact to achieve bigger and better things than the thousands of other artists fighting for a handhold in the savage music industry.
Two harmonising vocalists, acoustic guitar, electric keyboard (usually on a "synth" setting), and extremely simple drum percussion. The presence of balladesque piano in The Night I Heard Caruso Sing is unexpected and refreshing, making the track a standout. The opening track/lead single, I Don't Want to Talk About It, is also a really solid track - though it kind of dictates the feel of the rest of the album (which sounds generally the same). The soft acoustic arpeggios are soothing, a bit ethereal even, when combined with strings. I'm glad strings weren't particularly overused in this album. In fact, I think they could've been incorporated even more, with more complex arrangements and experimentation. The bass-percussion interaction in Oxford Street also makes that song a standout, cancelling out the bad-sounding 80s production.
3/5
Key tracks: I Don't Want to Talk About It, Oxford Street, The Night I Heard Caruso Sing
Sugar
3/5
A very familiar sound. Like Pablo Honey with a different, less distinctive vocalist. Extremely typical of the early 90s, imitating the popular grunge sound that exploded around the same time. The consistent thickly-spread electric guitar and bass is a signature element of the genre. The band Sugar is a bit monotonous in that regard. Particularly on side 2 of the record, I found myself wishing for a more instrumentally diverse arrangement and more varied melodies, chords, and textures - despite the individual tracks being passable. The singing is fine but pretty forgettable, limiting the rating I could reasonably give this record to a 4 at best. It doesn't project much personality. Which is a shame, because the genre has potential to spit out some emotion-laden classics (as seen with Pearl Jam, AIC, Foo Fighters, and so on).
If I Can't Change Your Mind has a completely different feel from the rest of the album. A jangly semi-acoustic guitar sound, reminiscent of pre-Britpop like the Smiths. It really does sound like a Smiths track, and for that it gets bonus points. Also up a notch or two for helping side 2 of the record be less of a slog to listen through. Distinctive high guitar lines in Man on the Moon, but those are spread out across a generic 5-minute rock track with (essentially) three chords. Changes is helped out by a high-energy rhythm section and (what sounds like) a glockenspiel faintly mixed to the right side under the melody. Helpless sounds a bit like a royalty-free loop at the beginning, but ends up having one of the strongest melodies on the record - so it gets a shoutout.
3/5
Key tracks: Changes, Helpless, If I Can't Change Your Mind
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
Mayfield hits a home run with what I consider to be the "correct" rendition of hip-hop. Compare this to later artists with similar lyrical themes, such as Public Enemy or the Wu-Tang Clan and you see a vast difference in accessibility, melody, harmony/chords, instrumentation, and variation both within and between tracks. It's such a relieving breath of fresh air - especially given that this subgenre is underrepresented on this list. I'd compare it to Marvin Gaye's output, particularly his monumental What's Going On released just a year before Superfly. Both artists skilfully weave together poetic, hauntingly human lines about poverty, drug use, and politics. But where Gaye takes the smooth, soulful route, Mayfield opts for something a little groovier. And that's where I can shout out the rhythm section. Man, it's so good. Especially the drums.
Per specific tracks: From the get-go, in the album-opener Little Child Runnin' Wild, we have an organ-keyboard setting up a mysterious and understated atmosphere. The strings bring in this hurried, hushed mystique that sets the tone nicely for the rest of the song and the record. The singing is on-point. Percussion is texturally light but very complex and engaging for the ear. Pusherman and Freddie's Dead have brilliant guitar hooks that go excellently with their biting lyrics. In the latter track, the combo of strings in the left ear and a bit of everything (wah-wah guitar, horns, harp) in the right ear is heavenly. The title/closing track definitely sounds like a track for a film, with its big-band arrangement and driving tempo. It's very catchy and a solid album closer.
I could listen to this for hours.
5/5
Key tracks: Little Child Runnin' Wild, Pusherman, Freddie's Dead, Superfly
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
As another reviewer pointed out, one's enjoyment of many kinds of music – including this one – is heavily dependent on the context in which it is played. I listened to this while doing dishes, and that was a mistake that I don't think could be repaired by future listens. This album feels extremely slow and understated to the point of shooting itself in the foot in terms of "album flow". Instead of having an up-and-down between high- and low-energy tracks, or perhaps some proggy tempo and textural changes within some of the lengthier songs, Cowboy Junkies select a specific, nondescript genre and roll with it for fifty-three minutes. It's, to put it gently, a slog. Tracks 5 through 7 are particularly bad because they're at similar tempos and have comparable percussive patterns. To Love Is To Bury and 200 More Miles are essentially carbon copies of Misguided Angel – a song with very little to talk about in the first place.
The highlight of the album is the vocalist, but her skills are not being put to their best use. She's got a voice suited for up-tempo jazz (maybe), but instead rides the low-energy train for all it's worth without even experimenting a little with starker dynamics, improv, and so on. I do enjoy the two tracks (Mining For Gold and Postcard Blues) that feature a solo vocal for part of the song, but both of them would have worked significantly better when surrounded by a high-energy contrast. In The Trinity Session, soft ballads like these fade into the background as quietly unremarkable noise.
2/5
Key tracks: Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis), Dreaming My Dreams With You, Sweet Jane
Alanis Morissette
4/5
A great album with solid 4-star energy. The sound is excessively 90s, but in the 90s I doubt that was considered a bad thing. And it's not the worst decade you could excessively be. The synths and beats are a little simplistic and repetitive, but they're full of energy that could fire up a department store in an instant. I'm impressed by the harmonic experimentation in some of these tracks. Morissette will add a sly blue note here, a tritone substitution there – to catch you off guard without you quite understanding what's happening. Along with fairly dynamic bass and vocal lines, the listener is kept fully engaged with what's happening for the entire 57-minute runtime. Then there are songs like You Oughta Know whose chord progressions aren't creative at all, but they're exciting and raised to the next level with some incredibly dense, exhilarating textures. Speaking of which: the songs on Jagged Little Pill do an excellent job of juxtaposing thick and thin textures. Even the most popular track, Ironic, does this – starting and ending with a quiet acoustic guitar and vocal and then escalating the song from there.
That being said... Ironic irks me. Though I normally ignore lyrics, these ones are plain incorrect and I had to be that "well, actually" guy when listening to them. Here's a guide for the next time Morissette writes a song called Ironic:
Rain on your wedding day: not ironic
Rain on International Drought Awareness Day: ironic
A free ride when you've already paid: not ironic
A free ride the day you launch your taxi app: ironic
A death row pardon two minutes too late: not ironic
A death row pardon signed by the guy you were jailed for killing: ironic
Sure, these lines are rhythmically terrible, but the important thing is that they're accurate. Morissette's producers can fix that in post.
4/5
Key tracks: You Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket, You Learn
Pixies
3/5
Overall, a good middle-of-the-road Pixies record. Every individual track (except Rock Music) is strong but not anywhere near a masterpiece. The vocals are easily the limiting factor. The whole sound is produced a bit messily, but the vocals are done especially poorly, not doing the already-bad singer any favours. And the singer... well, he's bad. Untrained, often subtly out of tune, even a little whiny at times. And this was the 90s, when the fad of "unprofessional music sounds good" had started to phase out. As an example, try listening to Stormy Weather and pretending the vocals aren't there. It's a pretty good sound, right? Now add the vocals back in, and suddenly the whole ensemble sounds messy, unprofessional, unorganised. But other than the singing, it's really good. The instrumental is up there with pre-grunge legends from around the same time. I like the guitar and bass sounds; unlike the vocals, they're distorted in a tasteful manner.
I want to give this album a 2-star rating but it's not quite bad enough.
Is the song Rock Music meant to poke fun at rock music, or is it a serious, faithful rendition? It sounds terrible. And rock music (usually) doesn't.
3/5
Key tracks: Cecilia Ann, Is She Weird, Down To The Well
Shack
2/5
This record was released in 1999, and is sonically very 90s-esque, but compositionally seems more like the mid-70s. And I'm judging these albums partly on context. Something so ridiculously outdated for its time does not belong on a list of the 1001 most important albums of all time. I definitely agree with the many reviewers describing this as "generic Britpop", though something about it seems even more generic and dull than your typical Britpop entry here. I do enjoy the thick, muddy textures at times, making the music seem more complex or impressive than it really is. A great deal of 21st-century pop rock and emo rock do the same thing. And usually, it seems to get some decent listening numbers. But judging by Hms Fable's popularity both then and now, it was not a commercial success. The question then has to be asked: why is Hms Fable on the list?
The opening duo of Natalie's Party / Comedy is pretty promising. Natalie's Party is a poppish number with decent vocals and guitar. It's upbeat, driven – kind of sounds like something from the late 60s. A strong start, for sure. Comedy is a little heavier on the strings and has a more emotional yet foreboding feel. At five and a half minutes, a little long for my taste considering the poppy style – but it's still good. After that, the music gets less and less promising, with some of the later songs sounding like carbon copies of earlier ones. Captain's Table, Since I Met You, and Re-Instated are examples of this, though the latter tries to distinguish itself by adding some trumpet notes in strange places. This monotonicity is extremely bad for any record, let alone one in a genre with so much oversaturation (and hence competition, most of which is presumably better than Shack). To stand out amongst your peers, start with songs that are distinct from one another.
2/5
Key tracks: Natalie's Party, Comedy, Beautiful
Gil Scott-Heron
4/5
This is a great sound, kind of like jazz small-combo music with soul (or rock) vocals. It's funky, chill, and positive – until you notice the politically-charged lyrics and Scott-Heron's haunting vocal delivery. The bass playing is great. Though overpowered slightly by the vocals and piano, it really shines in tracks like Back Home that have a more dynamic bassline. Same with The Bottle – man, listen to those funky staccatos. It creates such a fun, playful vibe throughout the albums even in the tracks with a lower energy and thinner instrumental texture. The flute is also a huge contributor to Scott-Heron's unique sound, having a particularly heavy impact in the gorgeously ethereal Your Daddy Loves You. There's a subtle Latin feel throughout, helped by the atypical percussion.
I first noticed in track 3, A Very Precious Time, that the mixing (at least on the YouTube version) is subpar. Specifically, the vocals are too loud, which leads to both drowning out softer instruments and a messier production sound. I usually prefer the vocals to be used as an instrument working in conjunction with the band rather than a frontpiece, even if the vocals in question are delivering important lyrics. There's also the issue of this record not being on Spotify while other Scott-Heron records are. It suggests that Winter In America isn't a historically significant album – or at least not significant enough for consumers in the present day. My guess is it's another "personal fave" of Dimery's that slipped through the "importance" criteria. Luckily for Dimery, it's a darn good "personal fave".
4/5
Key tracks: Peace Go With You, Back Home, Your Daddy Loves You
The White Stripes
4/5
Interesting that the White Stripes are compared to the Rolling Stones so much, because I don't hear much connection apart from maybe (at a stretch) the blues. And even there's more resemblance to Led Zeppelin than the Stones. I guess the singer is sort of a mix of Plant and Jagger. Note that there's little, if any, blues present in Elephant until side B with the monster track Ball and Biscuit and several tracks following it. The genre/sound before that is a bit more amorphous, incorporating some elements of hard rock and garage rock, and focusing heavily on guitar riffs. That's one thing they do excellently. From the stadium-rocker tune in Seven Nation Army to the violent blues-scale Ball and Biscuit, to the stop-start melodic rhythms in The Hardest Button to Button... nearly every track's guitar part has something to say. In the form of a short, catchy, repeated statement. (I can dig that.)
The guitar sound itself is odd, and it took me most of the album to work out why. It felt a bit... ungrounded, maybe? Turns out the White Stripes don't have a bass player, and the bass sound is created by heavily filtering and layering the lead guitar during studio recording. I can't imagine how they'd play some of this material live without a bass guitar. The whole sound is a bit simplistic and I can't imagine gleaning much more upon a second or third listen. And as a piece of art, for its time (in the 21st century!), it doesn't push many musical boundaries – mostly sticking to a mishmash of late 20th-century rock subgenres. So I'm a little surprised it had this big of a splash on the musical scene. That being said, there are plenty enough bangers on Elephant to jam out to with your friends, and there's no filler.
4/5
Key tracks: Seven Nation Army, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, Ball and Biscuit
Deep Purple
5/5
The extended keyboard intro to Lazy is pretty crazy. Reminds me a bit of the intro to Pink Floyd's Sheep, except I think I like this one even more. (That means a lot, coming from someone who thinks Sheep is a near-perfect track.) Of course, the riff in Smoke On The Water takes the spotlight, but also of note are the singing (especially that chorus – swanky), guitar solo, and driven percussion beat. In fact, the drumming is really solid in every song. I appreciate the little triplet fills to keep the listener engaged, and yet still enough restraint to fit the mood of the song for tracks like Lazy and When A Blind Man Cries. Also worth a shoutout is the basswork, which is most notable on Pictures Of Home but is skilfully done in every track.
Overall, very little to complain about – other than the rock style being done to death, and the riff in Smoke On The Water sounding a bit goofy after experiencing its omnipresence in the media. But those "problems" speak to Deep Purple's undeniably enormous influence on the music world. Great ensemble, following roughly in the footsteps of Led Zeppelin and the Who, with equally good riffs to boot. In particular, the hooks in Space Truckin' and Maybe I'm A Leo are fantastic, and (even better) unfamiliar to me at the same time. Always a good sign when tracks you've never heard outshine the familiar ones.
As another reviewer wrote: "An absolute masterclass in rock musicianship and virtuosity without becoming overbearing or wanky. Every band member brings a tour de force performance."
5/5
Key tracks: Highway Star, Pictures Of Home, Lazy
Pink Floyd
4/5
A slightly questionable introduction to one of the greatest bands of all time. It's generally not considered part of their "big four", normally replaced with Meddle or Animals from the next decade. But there's a lot of nifty stuff here. Astronomy Domine is a perfect snapshot of the Summer of Love, combining elements of deadpan psychedelia with space-race-era admiration of the great abyss. The recording of Piper started at roughly the same time as the debut of beloved TV show Star Trek and the influence is clear. Not just in the opening track, but in the ethereal, wandering Matilda Mother, the SFX-heavy Pow R. Toc. H... and, of course, the electro-charged jam session that is Interstellar Overdrive. Is it one of Pink Floyd's better "prog" tracks? Maybe not, but it certainly holds its own as an instrumental with a darn infectious riff.
The remaining tracks are perhaps more radio-friendly, though only in a way that reeks (in the best possible way) of the mid-late 60s. Even the production is half-baked and weirdly mixed in that loveable 60s way, where the vocals are blasted up far too loud and the drum crashes frequently max out the volume. It's most obvious on Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk ("doctah doctah!") and The Gnome ("look at the sky, look at the river, isn't it goooooooddddd"), which are both notable for their inexplicable use of whispering in the lead vocal. Flaming is an odd choice of single, especially when the surf-rocker Lucifer Sam's sitting right there. That track's something I can't explain. Bike is also notable for its extremely odd decision to play the vocal twice, once in each ear, with a half-beat delay between them. It's disorienting, which is of course the point. A great closer.
4/5
Key tracks: Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Bike
Public Enemy
1/5
Once again, Public Enemy demonstrates that sounding rebellious does not equate to sounding good. Sometimes musical molds are good to break away from, as seen with the rampant experimentation in the 60s and 70s. Other times, when melody is rejected in favour of bellowing about how much your life sucks while swimming in cash from your previous album releases, I think you should stick to convention. This kind of 90s hip-hop sound is very dated and I'm convinced the 5-star ratings are primarily nostalgia-driven rather than a reflection of how good the music sounds. Apocalypse 91 is even worse than its big brothers, It Takes a Nation of Millions and Fear of a Black Planet, because there's a stark lack of radio-friendly (and consequently better-sounding) tracks. Instead, the listener experiences 52 minutes of monotonous noise and near-identical beats (most of which are artificial, further removing any humanity or relatability) with a few moments of fresh air to remind the listener that this group is capable of making good art... they just don't particularly want to.
The fresh air in question are the tracks Can't Truss It (debatably), By The Time I Get To Arizona, and Bring Tha Noize. The former would normally be a soulless throwaway on most R&B/hip-hop records, but it comes with a vaguely good brass riff that makes it stand out slightly from the pack. Kind of a dorian-mode feel. But the fact that it doesn't vary throughout the song, even slightly, demonstrates the level of quality we're dealing with here. By The Time I Get To Arizona has a shockingly complex synth line that sounds like a different artist entirely until the vocals come in. Ignoring the vocals, it's actually a darn good track. Sounds sci-fi-esque. Bring Tha Noize brings in the electric guitar and (judging by Spotify listening numbers) once again demonstrates that rock influence will make just about any music sound better. I wish Public Enemy would experiment more with a rock sound, maybe add some interesting melodies to replace the agonising loops. Because, despite their obvious influence in the 90s, they've got very little going for them. Public Enemy is a musical dead end.
1/5
Key tracks: Can't Truss It, By The Time I Get To Arizona, Bring Tha Noize
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
My third album from Echo And The Bunnymen, and I'm tired of pretending the music sounds good. It doesn't. Sure, the energy and enthusiasm is kind of there, but the musicianship is definitely not. I don't actually have much to say after my reviews of Ocean Rain and Porcupine, particularly in the vocals. Claiming you're standing up against the "music elite" by creating (deliberately bad) punk/post-punk music is only a sound idea if you're actually good at playing your instrument. And nowhere is this rule broken more egregiously than in post-punk vocals. Echo & the Bunnymen is no exception. Tracks like Stars Are Stars and Crocodiles (the title track) are only listenable for their instrumentals – and nearly unlistenable for their untrained, out-of-tune singer. It's put through a sort of distant, metallic filter here, but rather than masking the poor singing (which would still be a bit damning), it just makes the music seem emptier and less passionate. In addition, within the tracks, there isn't much progression or change of moods. It feels a little disorganised and chaotic, yet still manages to be (energetically) monotone. Impressive, I guess.
The dense guitar/synth sounds sometimes make up for the singing and push this record to a more reasonable 2 stars. But no higher. (I'm trying to understand what people see in the Bunnymen, I really am!)
2/5
Key tracks: Do It Clean, Rescue, Villiers Terrace
Kanye West
3/5
I think where Kanye goes wrong here is relying too much on production and letting the song composition slip as a result. The production is excellent, I'll give it that. The left-right balancing is ear-scratching in the best way, and all instruments and sounds get equal attention. Even some of my all-time favourite records can't get this right. However, loops are heavily relied on, taking songs with fairly good riff ideas (e.g. Gorgeous) and making them a tedious, monotonous slog. The "one-two snail" of Monster and So Appalled experiences the same issue, though in this case it's simply because it does nothing to stand out from other '00s hip-hop. Just bland, average rap with zero attempt at melody or interesting instrumentation. The song Power is fairly good, featuring some intense backing vocals and a raw yet thick instrumental arrangement. The blatant sample from King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man comes off as a bit jarring, acting as an interruption rather than a smooth segue. And Ye didn't even bother to copy the best part of that song – the roaring guitar riff – but instead cut it off at the first note. Shame.
Songs like Runaway, on the other hand, are freaking amazing and (in my opinion) deserve all the attention they've received. I'm shouting out Runaway specifically because of its several song sections that flow near-seamlessly between one another. But more than that – the final section, lasting roughly a third of the track's length, is a gruelling combo of electric guitar, piano, and aggressive double bass. The song alone pushes this record to at least 3 stars. All Of The Lights is also worth a mention for its female co-lead vocals (which are great) and stadium-esque synth hook behind everything else. It's a rhythmically complex track and very engaging. And, of course, the interlude is the first of its kind that I've ever actually enjoyed. The tasty synth bassline in Hell Of A Life is the song's highlight, while the off-brand sampling of the melody from Black Sabbath's Iron Man is far from being the positive Ye might've hoped for.
References to other songs or artists need to be done subtly. Lost In The World is an average song with no notable hooks, but the feeble attempt to appease the listener with a Manu Dibango (or Michael Jackson) line makes it considerably worse.
Close to being a 4. The lyrics bring it down.
3/5
Key tracks: Dark Fantasy, All Of The Lights, Runaway
Stan Getz
3/5
For a (supposedly) non-remastered version, this sounds surprisingly good for its time. Nice mixing with the instrument separation, giving a convincing live vibe. Highlights include O Pato and Samba De Uma Nota So for their infectious riffs and rhythm sections. The feel is consistently relaxed, lighthearted, and unassuming. I can dig that – especially amidst a list of albums that are, for the most part, famous for their rebelliousness in some way.
But that lack of rebellion is also problematic. Identical instrumentation and textures in each track means they all sound extremely similar. The only real way to differentiate them is the hooks, since even the tempos and keys are similar. Not a very versatile band, I suspect. The sax technique/tone is impressive, and I found myself searching for something even a little more complex than what Getz and Byrd were going for. It felt like a professional was playing a college jazz band part. Some bebop lines (bebop was certainly invented by this point) would go a long way.
Unimpressed by the cover. I didn't think it had any meaning behind it, and after looking up the artist – abstract expressionist painter Olga Rosaly – I realised I was right. It's too bland for the sound it represents (or, for that matter, any sound). This is the 60s. At least have a snazzy shot of the ensemble!
3/5
Key tracks: O Pato, Samba De Uma Nota So
Ride
3/5
Dense, psychedelic textures are clearly this band's strong suit. Other elements like the actual skill level of the musicians, composition/structure of the songs, and so on are not up to scratch, and it shows. The singing is that horrific Britpop drunken drawl that is justifiably obscured by the loud guitars, drums, bass, and synths. The melodies are pretty bad too, though in the genre of shoegaze it's a little more forgivable. Often, the listener is left expecting some complex, satisfying melodic resolution, but is just left with alternation between the same two bland notes. It makes for a frustrating listen at times. Beginning with the opening track, Seagull, we hear a melody that really can't be sung along with, (in my opinion) defeating the point of having a melody at all. An instrumental shoegaze album in this precise style would kinda slap, no?
That being said, there's some intense, indescribable quality here that makes the music feel huge, grand, apocalyptic. Or in the case of the final two tracks, Paralysed / Vapour Trail, refreshing and cheerful. Almost like something from The Division Bell. While not enough to push it to a 4, the wall of sound certainly threatens to do so. As another reviewer wrote: "It has a semi-epic, sweeping melodic quality, which combats neatly its noise-rock leanings. Pretty decent." Not as groundbreaking or memorable as MBV's stuff, and I'm surprised the two bands are compared so often. I guess there's a story of competition for everything.
3/5
Key tracks: Polar Bear, Paralysed, Vapour Trail
The Monkees
2/5
Lacking any of the hits of its predecessor albums, it's surprising to see Headquarters make an appearance on this list. As other reviewers have pointed out, it's just about the most generic 60s pop one can get, capped off by the ever-so-clever homages to the Beatles' techniques from four years earlier. (Nowhere near the Fab Four's level of quality, though.) We've got double-tracked vocals, wishwashy drum production, ultra-60s song structure and texturing, and basslines that perhaps sound more interesting than they are. Clearly this album hasn't aged, either – for even if we give the Monkees the benefit of the doubt with regard to sound, the Spotify numbers speak for themselves. Modern listeners (including me) are unimpressed and it shows.
Actually, from background listening only, it's fine. Passable. The band does have that palpable British Invasion energy, observable in the best of the Kinks, the Who, and the Zombies. The vocals in particular are delivered so earnestly that it's obvious they're unaware of the turning tides in the musical scene. ("This is the start of something great" ahh.) But dive into the instrument sound quality and you'll realise this band is not all that the record labels tout them to be. Chasing the success of early-60s bands in 1967 is a risky move. Revolver had been released, as had Pet Sounds; the world was starting to move on.
2/5
Key tracks: For Pete's Sake (Closing Theme), Randy Scouse Git
De La Soul
1/5
Maybe the most missed potential in this entire list. The beats are fun but (mostly) incredibly difficult to latch onto as a listener. What can you really sing along to, other than a scant few tracks near the beginning of the album? Where's the concept, the album flow, the lyricism? Does the percussion sound messy and off-beat on purpose? The Magic Number and Change In Speak, two early tracks with a bit more melody and soul than usual, are fairly memorable/singable. But what of the rest of the album? What of Intro, Cool Breeze On The Rocks, Can U Keep a Secret, Jenifa Taught Me, Ghetto Thang, Transmitting Live from Mars, Take It Off, A Little Bit of Soap, Do as De La Does, Plug Tunin', Buddy, Description, This is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime ERA, I Can Do Anything, and D.A.I.S.Y. Age? This honestly may be the most filler-heavy album I've ever heard, and that's saying something. (The genre of industrial rock gives this kind of music a run for its money. But even in that case you can kind of understand that most tracks aren't meant to be filler. In this case? 90% fluff. Insane.) The fact that 3 Feet High and Rising made it into the "significant" list of the National Recording Registry, alongside Dookie, Minecraft: Volume Alpha, Synchronicity, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Stairway to Heaven brings a metaphorical tear to my eye.
Eye Know, which is otherwise a standard/decent hip-hop track, is lifted orders of magnitude by the sample of Steely Dan's Peg (in my opinion, a near-perfect song). But then you realise that De La Soul's version is outshined, and you feel this inexplicable urge to abandon 3 Feet High and Rising in favour of the infinitely superior Aja. Yet you persist onward, forever reaching for musical quality, hooks, melody, or instrumental prowess that this group's supposed to have. Then you get over a minute of sexual moans ("De La Orgee") and you finally feel comfortable giving this the 1-star rating it was begging for since track 1.
The saddest part is, these guys are obviously having a blast. As another reviewer wrote: "They are clearly having so much fun making this album. The friendly comedy sketches. The playful dissing (“everybody in the world, you got dandruff”, “you got doo doo in your pocket”)." Take it from me and the countless 5-star reviewers here: the musicians are pretty effortlessly cool. But the musical quality, on average, is just not there.
1/5
Key tracks: The Magic Number, Change In Speak, Eye Know
Aimee Mann
3/5
I think of this as straightforward 90s country-pop. It's pretty generic-sounding, but the compositions are still strong and sound good. Reminds me of the Indigo Girls without the two-person harmonies – and for that reason, it's strictly inferior (because its sound is more anonymous). Possibly Sheryl Crow-esque too. Aimee Mann's voice is clear, warm, and perfectly suited for the musical style. The production is excellent, even given its relatively recent release. You can hear the multi-tracked self-harmonised vocals, the backing instruments, the imperfections (which are great in moderation)...
A bit long, though. And the songs aren't different enough from one another to justify an above-average runtime.
Shoutout to the tone-deaf reviewer who called this album "mom rock bullshit". If that's all you have to say about a record that's objectively more than that, man, why are you even doing this project?
3/5
Key tracks: Stupid Thing, I Could Hurt You Now, Way Back When
Roxy Music
2/5
I'll say what I said of their debut album: Roxy Music, at least in this stage of their career, seems to be a "weird-for-the-sake-of-weird" kind of band. But unlike their self-titled debut, For Your Pleasure is near-impossible to latch onto or to remember the next day. And I wasn't even drunk when I listened to this. Maybe it would've done better if I was.
Otherwise, I have very little new to say about Roxy Music, so I'll paste in my earlier review.
The singing isn't great. It's wild, wobbly, and difficult to latch onto as a listener. There's little in the way of melody or catchy, head-nodding hooks. The vibes are fun, sure, but is this really something you'd want to put on for your friends? Does this music work in any setting, social or otherwise, other than scrolling through Spotify in search of quirky post-Summer-Of-Love oddities? I guess it could fit into the underground scene, but it also sounds a bit like punk (which is anything but underground) and perhaps art rock à la Brian Eno. (Edit: it turns out Brian Eno is actually in the band, and now I feel equal parts smart and silly.)
Another reviewer wrote that they initially hated the album for "the SQUEEK SQUUUANK SQUORK that Brian Eno felt like he had to apply to the most basic harmonica, and Bryan Ferry's warbling, death bird cry". It was only many years later that they finally started "getting" the album. (I call this the Trout Mask Replica effect.) You tell me: is this really the sign of a "good" album?
2/5
Key tracks: In Every Dream Home A Heartache
Neu!
2/5
Never before have I heard an album with such a disappointing side 2 after a reasonably appointing side 1. The first two tracks are ridiculously good. Sort of an ambient prog-esque instrumental, focusing on driving percussion rhythms and some excellent melodies on guitar and other instruments. After the one-two of Isi / Seeland, I was ready to give this album 5 stars without even questioning it. Track 3, Leb Wohl, is definitely weaker on account of the clock ticking which gets a little annoying after the first 8 minutes of it. But I was extremely tired when listening to the song, and it honestly felt relaxing more than anything – even though the ticking kept changing tempos (whoops). Still a fun and thoughtfully arranged instrumental that continues the electronic-prog theme.
But then, once you flip over the record to side 2, all sense of artistry is thrown completely out the window. Hero and After Eight are extremely bland renditions of pre-punk(?) rock with zero melody to speak of, zero memorable moments, nothing. Just several minutes of deranged, indecipherable rock screaming backed by somewhat atonal and heavily distorted guitar. And the drums... they don't change. At all. The same percussion pattern repeats for 7 and 5 minutes, respectively. It's exhausting and such an odd change from the former half of the album that not only does it sound like a different band, but a different genre. You can hardly even call side 2 "music". I guess for 1975 it's pretty interesting to see how bands were experimenting, but (as NEU! 75 demonstrates) about half the time, you land upon something that is going to age horrifically.
2/5
Key tracks: Isi, Seeland
Radiohead
5/5
The weakest of the 5-star Radiohead records, but still an easy corker. It's such an odd album. I'd describe it as "quietly apocalyptic", beginning with the unassuming synth mumble Packt Like Sardines In a Crusht Tin Box and moving in haphazard leaps and bounds until it arrives at the brash, depressed, paranoid semi-jazz number Life In a Glasshouse. And between those two tracks are a strange array of different styles and sound experimentation. It really is the perfect example of a band trying out new sounds and those sounds being weird but surprisingly (maybe accidentally?) good.
Pyramid Song is a juggernaut track. It incorporates a 4/4 rhythm that sounds like 5/4 with intermittent pauses between bars. (So already you have a classic to share with your non-musical friends to confuse them.) Add to that the excellent keyboard chord progression and you have one of the most fun songs to play on piano – not just of Radiohead, but ever. It's an exotic, eerie piece of art, in the key of F# but using a ton of non-F# chords to create a Phrygian-mode sound. Fitting for Egypt, I guess. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors is justifiably memed about on the Radiohead subreddit. You And Whose Army? is another chord- and melody-heavy track with two separate parts. The second section explodes out of nowhere from the muted, underwatery first section.
There are so many oddity tracks after this point. The murmured vocal over a heavily charged guitar riff in I Might Be Wrong. The biting lyrics of Knives Out. The dreary, dreamy Morning Bell/Amnesiac, which is essentially an alternative take of the namesake track on Kid A. The fighting major/minors and Thom Yorke's obvious dislike of his own vocal in all tracks, but very noticeably in Dollars and Cents. The slightly ominous guitar instrumental Hunting Bears. The incomprehensible post-psychedelia dub Like Spinning Plates. They're all such weird numbers, and separately they'd be lower than 5 stars. But these songs, as a collective, hold a special place in my heart.
5/5
Key tracks: Packt Like Sardines In a Crusht Tin Box, Pyramid Song, You And Whose Army?, Life In a Glasshouse
Maxwell
4/5
Dude, what are these reviewers on? This album slaps. It's so, so much better than what I imagined after reading "R&B" and "1996" in the same record description. This is what hip-hop should sound like. This sends a message, and dang it, it sounds smooth as heck. Half the reviews be like:
- "This is the soundtrack of moist vaginas. 3 stars." (You meant 5 stars, right?)
- "Smooth, funky baby-making music. 3 stars." (What the bum? Where's your baby-making patriotism?)
- "A few nice funky parts but overall very boring r&b/soul. 1 star." (Hey, at least it's got melody, consistent harmony, instruments played by humans, and non-hateful lyrics. Already it's doing better than most 90s output.)
- [paraphrased] "yeah this is the smoothest, sexiest, most insanely good R&B I've ever heard, but some of the tracks are a bit long. 1 star."
In general, the instrumental is slightly stronger than the vocal, which is so stereotypically soul-esque that it does admittedly get a little stale. The high-pitched disco vocal, à la Marvin Gaye or Barry Gibb, is a welcome blast from the past, but also old news – particularly for the Gen X/Millennial audiences who were expecting explicit-content-warning misogyny and overdone shoutouts to other black musicians. But the synths, the drums, the hecking bassline? Yeah. That's some good audio content. Particularly in the former half of the album, with a top-tier array of songs including The Urban Theme, Sumthin' Sumthin', Ascension, and ...Til the Cops Come Knockin'. (The final-track reprise probably should've been cut, but alas.) 58 minutes of solid enjoyment that I would gladly sit through again. Public Enemy ain't got nothing on Public FWB.
4/5
Key tracks: The Urban Theme, Sumthin' Sumthin', Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
I'm a big fan of this "depressed guitar distortion" sound. It reminds me of better times. The song Gentlemen has just the perfect blend of distortion and tasteful precision. Lots of silence is used to separate riffs and sub-riffs, and the bass undercuts the guitar exactly. (In fact, the bass might actually be better than the lead, at least in this particular song.) The singing is definitely above average here too, and the drums are energetic and complex. Debonair is another standout for essentially the same reasons. The texture is thick but not too thick. It's very appealing. Fountain and Fairfax, at the very heart of the album, is another contender, this time specifically for its guitar line and underlying bass drone notes. None of the other songs particularly stand out, and some (like My Curse) come dangerously close to boring the listener. And I don’t really count this as part of the “up-and-down” rollercoaster that’s essential for any great album. A low-energy track still has to be consistently engaging – and fortunately, all of the songs here manage to do that, if barely.
As is the modus operandi for nearly all forms of punk or alt-rock music, the vocals are kind of bad. The singer sounds the best when he's doing a rock-esque scream (e.g. in Gentlemen), but even then it sounds like a mildly discount Robert Plant or Axl Rose. The lyrics, or at least those few I paid attention to, are pretty clumsy. Literacy clearly isn't one of the Afghan Whigs' strengths.
"It's all a lie / It's nearly dead / It's in our hope baby / It's in our bed"
"I got a dick for a brain / And my brain is gonna sell my ass to you"
"I'm really slobbering now / Let it stink / Let it dry up / Is it impossible? / How?"
3/5
Key tracks: Gentlemen, Debonair, Fountain and Fairfax
Kid Rock
2/5
This guy is irritating and writes stupid lyrics. It's a good thing the opening track, Bawitdaba, has a heavy metal-esque guitar and drums, because the vocals are mildly unbearable. Some of the remaining songs have good instrumentals too. I appreciate the cliched but fun guitar lines and old-school hip-hop percussive beats. ...But alas, all mediocre things must come to an end. Kid Rock's lyrics are bad and he delivers them with such gusto that it's clear he genuinely believes he sounds good. (He doesn't.) Confidence is cool and all, but when it's misplaced the result makes your cochleas want to curl up into a ball and refuse to continue taking sonic input. As the album slogs through its 71-minute runtime, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the vocals. Kid Rock shouts (raps?) in a sort of faux-gangsta way - à la Eminem, who is bad for the same reason. It's so forced, so artificial, that it makes your skin crawl. Which is a shame, because his singing (especially with harmonies) is decent, as seen with the choruses of tracks like I Am the Bullgod and Wasting Time. Only God Knows Why is an interesting case of a genuinely good song with a great chorus, piano, and organ - but it's marred by the autotune. I want to say that the sound aged poorly, except autotune is even more prevalent today. I guess society doesn't learn, eh?
Re lyrics, there are countless gems in the title track alone:
"So shut up now or put my balls in your mouth / Bet that ass hoss I ain't forgot"
"Used to call me funny when my nose was fucking runny / Now my fucking bunnies getting fucking Matchbox 20 money"
"Old as piss but small as ass / Watch me cash, smoke some hash"
Plus a few from other songs:
"People always talkin what they gonna do / They must want their face to maybe taste my shoe"
"Don't wannt hear me cuss don't wanna hear me brag / So I'm grabbing on my thingy while I let my pants sag"
"He's rocking dickies, sipping, licking, slipping honeys, pop that daddy steady"
This guy is endless entertainment for all the wrong reasons. It's much more fun reading his lyrics than forcing yourself to listen to them.
2/5
Key tracks: Cowboy, Wasting Time, Only God Knows Why
Jurassic 5
4/5
Unlike many of its contemporaries, I really like the vocals here, even if they would probably be better with a singable/memorable melody. The rappers here have a fun, enthusiastic, and (importantly) non-generic quality to them. Rather than being edgy and deliberately ignorant of musical norms, Jurassic 5 embraces a lot of elements of rock, blues, and soul in its instrumental to complement the vocals pretty darn well. The lyric writing is impressive too. Often, with hip-hop, I find myself cringing into my chair for at least a few lines per album - but not on Powers In Numbers. Very little, if any, focus on violence, drugs, misogyny, or the age-old "fuck da police". It's refreshing. Reminds me a bit of De La Soul.
The first proper track, Freedom, is great, especially if you ignore the melody-lacking vocals. A warm bluesy feel. The piano-flute combo in If You Only Knew is peppy and uplifting. It's hard to pin down a style - maybe some kind of very odd cafe jazz? Add to that the breaks and record scratches characteristic of the 80s and early 90s, and you have a snapshot of an iconic era. Thin Line's subtle chords and harmony-thick chorus also make for a strong track. A lot of the songs on here have some great bass parts. Could be a keyboard, but it's hard to tell since the personnel (for instruments) isn't listed anywhere on Wikipedia.
Power In Numbers approaches 5 stars but doesn't quite get there. The album is a bit long, and there are definitely some musically weaker tracks wedged between the stronger ones. Remember His Name, with its one-note background synth and lack of chorus or vocal hook, is a strong contender for shaving off the record. This Is and DDT, as interludes with no musical contribution, are obvious picks too. One Of Them startled me a bit, since its lyrics are blatantly homophobic. Unexpected, maybe, considering how strong some of the earlier lyrics are. It's easily the worst track here.
4/5
Key tracks: Freedom, If You Only Knew, Break
Rod Stewart
4/5
My second album from the Rodster on this list. I dig his gravelly voice and pure enthusiasm. Some of the compositions are surprisingly driving and upbeat. Intermingled with some lower-energy songs, the album acts as one coherent journey, and every track is pretty darn memorable. I kept having to switch my "key tracks" list around as I found new favourites. The two songs Seems Like A Long Time / That's All Right, despite ranking lowest on Spotify listening numbers, make an excellent pair of bangers – incorporating country-esque piano, active basslines, and exciting vocals. The acoustic guitar outro of That's All Right is a little out of place, sure, but it has a similar melody to the rest of the track and leads nicely into the percussion-less guitar honker Tomorrow Is A Long Time.
(I Know) I'm Losing You is my favourite new discovery of Rod Stewart's discography. It's a sort of jam-session track with (importantly) a satisfying chord progression in the chorus. Add to that the drum solo and the best singing in the album and you have a certified banger on your hands. Maggie May is also great (of course). Really, there's not much to complain about here in terms of individual song quality. I do wish some of the songs were a bit shorter. Maybe some more genre variety would've been good, too, considering what Stewart was up against in 1971.
4/5
Key tracks: Maggie May, (I Know) I'm Losing You
The album title is so goofy that Faces had to cut it short for the cover art. Not a great sign of things to come.
Actually, I really enjoyed this listen. Stay With Me, while not exactly the Sam Smith version many people might've hoped for, is arguably even better. I enjoy the high energy and relentless rock-vocalising. Miss Judy's Farm is also a big highlight. With its driving rhythm, great guitar riffs, gritty honky-tonk piano, textural breakdowns (man, that middle section!), and wild percussion towards the end... what's not to like? Add Debris to the list of highlights. It's a rock ballad reminiscent of something off the Stones' Exile On Main Street (released just one year later). It's texturally dense, yet has a kind of mellow, sorrowful feel to it. None of the other tracks particularly stand out, but all are at least reasonably strong in isolation. I appreciate the change of moods throughout the record, keeping with the primary goal of an album: to demonstrate a variety of sounds from a particular band. That being said, a greater diversity of genres would've been good too.
Got this album the day after Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story. The two records are functionally equivalent, and hence I shall give this one a 4-star rating. (One star for each set of 9 minutes that I felt like I was listening to a Stewart extended cut – not that that's a bad thing.)
4/5
Key tracks: Miss Judy's Farm, Stay With Me, Debris
Gorillaz
4/5
Dang, this is pretty good. For some reason, when I read the phrase "virtual band", my mind immediately went to the Wiggles. I spent the next twenty minutes scrolling through their Wikipedia page (while listening to Gorillaz) and getting lost in a wonderful world of fruit salad, hot potatoes, and cold spaghetti. Honestly, that's not a terrible description of the Gorillaz' sound either. It's pretty experimental, with quite a few musical ideas that aren't really developed into something I would consider a masterpiece. The songs are a bit disjointed from one another, making each Gorillian creation stand out but also making for a slightly confusing/exhausting album experience. But every single track on here is incredibly interesting, if only because musical experimentation is a breath of fresh air in the grimy, overpopulated swamp of punk and Britpop on this list. 5/4, Tomorrow Comes Today, New Genius, Man Research, Double Bass, Slow Country... It's funny, half these songs sound exactly like their title (at least until 5/4 diverges traitorously into a 4/4 time signature). Crazy how that works.
Some tracks definitely stand out for all the right reasons. Clint Eastwood has that ridiculously memorable vocal hook ("the future, it's comin' on, it's comin' on, it's comin' on...") and exotic hip-hop backbeat. Rock the House is a fresh, clean, lighthearted track with some carefully edited horns. I would probably prefer the trumpets if they were less edited and sounded more human, but it's still great as is. And... is that a pan flute? Insanity. 19-2000 wasn't initially in my list of key tracks, but the Soulchild Remix version at the end of the record has a significantly cleaner production, and bumps it up to a top-tier track. Man, listen to those drums. That fast tempo, the women meowing for backing vocals. As for Tomorrow Comes Today, I can't really explain why I enjoyed it as much as I did. It sounds a bit like lo-fi, which is of course the best genre of music to emerge from the 90s. These primatez know their stuff!
4/5
Key tracks: Tomorrow Comes Today, Clint Eastwood, Rock the House, 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
Mudhoney
2/5
I immediately knew I would lose patience with this sound after about 20 minutes. And it seems like most Spotify listeners agree with me. By the end of the track Halloween, I'd had quite enough, and stopped listening after that point. For whatever reason, Mudhoney decided the fans needed an expanded edition of their debut, featuring roughly four times the original album length. They were incorrect, mainly because there are very few songs that actually stand out from the heaving mass of proto-alt rock. The ones where the guy sings with a properly melodic voice instead of a scream are a relief more than anything. And whenever you find yourself being repeatedly strained then relieved during any artistic experience, something's gone very wrong. Superfuzz Bigmuff needs to be shaved down.
If I Think, with its multiple engaging sections, is the best track here – no question. I'm surprised it's on the original version of the album and wasn't a separate single. The song Need has kind of a deranged punky vocal, which isn't great, but it's an improvement on the tried-and-untrue scream. The main highlight is the high-energy rhythm section and hilarious backing vocals that sound like they were tacked on at the last minute. Mudride, though pretty simple, is catchy enough to be in the better half of songs here. The album opener, Touch Me I'm Sick, would be a key track with its incredibly distinctive guitar sound – but again the singing kind of ruins it. Shameful.
As with most artists from the genres of punk, post-punk, Britpop, and alt-rock – four genres that are vastly overrepresented on this list – more noise does not equate to a better sound. More musicality/intrigue does.
2/5
Key tracks: Need, Mudride, If I Think
Tracy Chapman
4/5
Great album, great political messaging, and a lovely soulful sound overall. Fast Cars is an incredible track, restrained yet powerful, letting its hook play out softly between verses. Talkin' Bout a Revolution and For My Lover are two other big highlights. The music, sonically, isn't anything extraordinary for the late 80s - apart from shaking off the extremely hit-or-miss production that came with the new wave and electronic generation. Chapman's singing is really good and ties the whole sound nicely together. Solid album length too. 36 minutes is pretty much perfect in my eyes. The artwork reminds me of a proto-Miseducation album, which is probably partly true - Lauryn Hill's material does sound inspired from Chapman's.
The guy who wrote the "secretary rock" review needs to get off his high horse. Reiterating one weak point over and over ("it's for women, I'm not a woman, wahh") based on the genre rather than the strengths and quirks of the artist is silly - and goes against the point of this project. Man really said "Music with a female vocalist that's easy to listen to? Better give it a low rating." ..."No dissonance"? Okay. Most music doesn't have dissonance, and that doesn't stop it from sounding great. "Very weak eroticism"? Fine. The vast majority of music doesn't attempt to be erotic, and I would argue that's a good thing. "It lacks any bite"? Boy, have you seen the lyrics? And this guy has the gall to claim that Chapman is advocating only for "better school and hospitals" (instead of, you know, racial discrimination, police violence, inequality of pay and employment, housing, healthcare, and so on). People this tone-deaf shouldn't be listening to music at all.
I digress. Don't do this project if you aren't willing to understand the context of each record or enjoy music that pushes lyrical boundaries instead of sonic ones.
4/5
Key tracks: Talkin' Bout a Revolution, Fast Car, For My Lover
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
Jagger was wrong. This is definitely worse than Sticky Fingers despite both being fairly spirited attempts at the same genre. At several points throughout the record, I found myself wishing I could kick back with some good ol' Brown Sugar or Wild Horses. Missing is the soul, the passion, the spiky in-your-face guitar sound. I might've given this album a 4, but Wikipedia bringing up the Rolling Stones meant I couldn't shake the comparisons out of my mind. There are other problem too: The guitar is almost invariably in a low register, meaning it often blurs with the low rock-growl vocals. There are sometimes sounds at higher octaves, such as the quiet harmonica in the left ear throughout the title track and the (boring) guitar riff in Evil Hearted Ada. But there should be more high frequencies. Even the drum crashes are mixed down quite a lot, creating this consistently low, muddy sound that I'm not a big fan of.
Still, due to the blues-rock style, I did find myself grooving to every track on the original 30-minute album. I like the alternation between upbeat and mellow tracks on side 1. The bombastic High Flyin' Baby and Have You Seen My Baby? are split by the slower, more ballad-esque City Lights and Yesterday's Numbers. The latter has a very full sound and is one of the record's strongest tracks. Side 2 is not quite as varied, with the youthful bops Teenage Head / Doctor Boogie / 32-20 / Evil Hearted Ada being balanced out only by the slower Whiskey Woman. I'm an exhausted, revolutionised old man by the time that final track comes around - and fortunately, it's quite a good one.
3/5
Key tracks: Yesterday's Numbers, Doctor Boogie, Whiskey Woman
Heaven 17
3/5
Summary: An album that I would've hated as background noise, but upon close listening it's unprofessional and silly enough to wrap back around to being kind of good. Lots of goofy synths, following in disco's footsteps and doing the experimentation that would be capitalised on by Prince, Jackson, and many others. The record starts with a few densely textured tracks, but as soon as the piano and guitar drop out, the rest of the album is missing a little something.
(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang: The synths set up a cool chord progression that never really resolves, so it's a bit unsatisfying. The low synth solo at around 1:35 is pretty nifty. In general, the singing is mixed quite low, and I think the music would sound better with something more "upfront". But it's still groovy. I do worry that the lyrics imply Reagan was a fascist president. Listen, I dislike Reagan and his stupid economic policies as much as the next guy, but he's no fascist - especially compared to some other (unspecified) presidents.
Penthouse And Pavement: Another prominent synth part. I see a theme. This one captures the early-80s electronic fascination that makes that decade such a charming little time capsule. Cool percussion, especially when it's soloing at around 4:00. The piano (with a convincing chord progression!) and back-and-forth female backing vocals give this a post-disco feel, which I would normally shun but is actually pretty good here. The song's too long, though. (Pah. Typical disco.)
Play To Win: This sounds very much like Let's Dance-era Bowie. Except, unlike with Dave, something about this singing is just unprofessional-sounding and unappealing. The reverse fade-in noises in the backing(?) vocal continue to make it sound like a Bowie parody. The synth solo in the middle of the song doesn't quite save it. But the synths, guitar, and bass do. I just hope Heaven 17 grows out of this disco feel before the end of the album.
Soul Warfare: Essentially the lengthy outro of the previous track. It's the same tempo and uses a near-identical set of instruments. Great little bass solo around 3:10. The basswork throughout this album, so far, has been really strong. With this particular track, the bass really sells the entire song. The percussion definitely anticipates Michael Jackon's 80s material, and I wouldn't be surprised if he took notes from Heaven 17's output.
Geisha Boys And Temple Girls: The noises in the intro could be best described as "squirty synths". They're unpleasant and I have to imagine they just haven't aged well. It's like if the Star Trek universe had water guns, and the water guns made an appropriate or inappropriate) sound. The rest of the song is uninspiring and the synths are a bit of a nuisance here.
Let's All Make A Bomb: The texture feels a bit thin here, and I guess that's a good thing. It creates more of an "album experience" to have some variation in thickness and loudness. The octave-harmonising is fine, though I think there should be some more interesting vocalising going on when they sing the song title. This has the beginnings of a good song (maybe good for covering?) but as it stands it's not *that* great sounding.
The Height Of The Fighting: "HEAT. WAR. SWEAT. LAW." These vocals are unnecessarily grandiose (and kind of cavemannish) which definitely adds to the charm. Again, another fairly thin texture - pretty much every instrument, including the vocals, is played with staccato. I miss the fatter synths and piano. Still, this is a fun track.
Song With No Name: Lots of interacting synths here. Complex textures are always a win, and this is probably the most interesting track so far in that regard. I don't know what the heck's going on with the melody. Definitely some polyrhythms going on, but at times it sounds completely improvised, for the worse. There's also a construction drill noise that's very distracting to the ear. I kept hearing it and glancing out the window to admire the phantom blue-collar workers outside. (Still a good song though!)
We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time: Are we, now? A very high synth mimics the melody and also gets a few solo lines. It makes the whole song sound silly and nonserious. And great at the same time. Why am I enjoying this? It almost objectively sucks. But hey, at least these guys aren't actively trying to sound bad for the purposes of societal revolution (I think they aren't, anyway) - and for that, this entire album gets several bonus points above punk, post-punk, and industrial music. Repetition of the track title at the end is goofy and such an odd choice to send off the listener that I have to give props. Because, perhaps unexpectedly, I enjoyed this album.
3/5
Key tracks: (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, Penthouse And Pavement
Bon Jovi
5/5
I thought the "crowd singing" effect was a one-time thing in Livin' On A Prayer, but it turns out it's used in pretty much every track. The mixing places Bon Jovi's vocal dead centre, with a group audience behind the listener mirroring the vocals. Really tricks the 1986 listener into thinking these songs are more beloved than they are. Which is pretty genius if you think about it. This was the band's breakthrough album and it has the huge, stadium-esque sound to match it. Plus, having three instantly recognisable megahits in one album is a bit unfair. Give the other albums on the list some room to breathe, will ya? The remaining tracks aren't too bad either. If any of the songs on a record could have plausibly been a global hit single, you know you've done something right.
I like the lead vocal. The singer is a pretty typical rock screamer but it works wonders for this style. The arrangement is almost a textbook level of perfection. Incredible riffs in the lead guitar, bass, and synths. Generally great instrument arrangement (the tried-and-true guitar/bass/vocal/drums plus some synths here and there for the 80s flavour). Gritty rock melodies and chords. Maybe a slight overreliance on VIb-VIIb-I progressions, but I don't mind it. Less wishwashy than the infamous "80s production" which is definitely a relief. Livin' On A Prayer, as iconic as it is, doesn't even crack the top 3 tracks on the album because of how dang good some of the "lesser" hits are.
Also, as another reviewer wrote: "was going to give this a 4. It's a great album. However, I am going to up that to a 5 as a finger to all of the unfun people who take music so seriously." Yeah. Take that, hippies.
5/5
Key tracks: You Give Love A Bad Name, Social Disease, Wanted Dead Or Alive
Eric Clapton
4/5
I've had a few entries with Clapton playing, but this is my first album by him as a solo artist. And I'll be honest: he's pretty good. Not spectacular – especially on this record where he seems oddly restrained given his legendary status as a musician – but pretty good. Clapton's singing is generally good, at least until you reach the extremely discomforting Willie And The Hand Jive and think he's murmuring creepily about handjobs. (I wouldn't put it past him.) But in general, he's found a nice balance between soul, blues, and rock, showing mainly restraint as opposed to energy. Another reviewer put it best: "As a vocalist, Eric Clapton is very good, superlatively aware of his limitations. Soulful, with simple stylings."
I do try to separate the art from the artist, and it seems like most reviewers cannot do that. Musically, this is easily at least a 3-star record, despite how gross and despicable of a human being Eric Clapton is. The backing instrumentalists are fantastic, especially the bass and backing vocals. The production is strong. The mood of the album is warm, uplifting, and groovy. There are no obvious throwaway tracks, despite the majority of them being covers. Let It Grow is significantly better than the version from The Lorax. And his cover of I Shot The Sheriff slaps. I don't care what anyone else here says. There plenty of valid reasons that prevent 461 Ocean Boulevard from being a 5-star entry, but Clapton being a dick isn't one of them (unless his music is affected, which it isn't).
4/5
Key tracks: Motherless Children, I Shot The Sheriff, Let It Grow
Can
2/5
There's so much experimentation here, especially for 1971, that it's a little hard to digest. It's like musical celery. Incredible transition between Paperhouse and Mushroom. The singing in Mushroom is almost deliberately lazy. I like it. The vocalist starts whispering halfway through the track, and I like to think it's because he's out of breath from two minutes of breathy murmurs. The bass is also mixed to be very loud and bounces back-and-forth between the ears. Backward vocals in Oh Yeah are pretty questionable, but I guess back in the day people still weren't quite sure what would catch on. Judging by the original charting positions and modern Spotify listens, it seems that Tago Mago did not (in fact) catch on.
It's ballsy to have not one but two tracks that consist of approximately 18 minutes of noodling. The first, Halleluhwah, makes it works. The second, Aumgn, doesn't (consisting primarily of various cavemannish voices grunting the song title at various tempos). Sections of it – most of it, really – were like the bad parts of King Crimson's Moonchild, without the good parts to back it up. Just 18 minutes of relentlessly mindless and goofy noise. Lots of clattering that turns the ear away rather than towards. Peking O is essentially an alternative take of Aumgn with screaming instead of grunting, but the effect is much the same. There are some fun Nintendo-esque electronic noises to keep you company at around the 3-minute mark. And a terrible grating squeak-drone thing at 8 minutes. A full album of the quasi-rock prog stuff on the album's first two sides would've scored much higher for me, but alas. At least the closer, Bring Me Coffee or Tea, is some consolation for the listener's tragic efforts.
I get the feeling a lot of reviewers paid attention to the good parts only. There are plenty of good parts here. But if an artist is only good half the time, it gets a middling mark – minus an extra star for the insanity of placing it on a list of the 1,000 most important records of all time.
2/5
Key tracks: Paperhouse, Oh Yeah
Genesis
3/5
My policy on double albums is that you need a really good reason to not just release two separate albums. Usually I'm looking for some sort of concept, but TLLDOB seems to lack one. Side 1 alone as an LP would garner 4 stars, but having to then listen to a weaker version of the same album brings my rating down somewhat. The songs get gradually less convincing in terms of melody and hooks (which are generally the best indicator of how good a tune is). The first half of The Waiting Room, early on disc 2, is bad for this reason. The Colony of Slippermen is similarly hard to approach on a first listen. There are quite a few good tracks to balance these ones out, though. The Carpet Crawlers sounds like something from Pink Floyd's The Wall or The Final Cut – complete with uncomfortably Waters-esque vocals and soft, fast synth lines. The quiet atmosphere is quite different to the rest of the album. One of the best tracks for sure. Lilwhite Lillith is also very strong, if only for the funny way they say "Lillith".
What the heck is going on in the lyrics of Counting Out Time? "Erogenous zones I love you / ... / Touch and go with one to six / Bit of trouble in zone number seven / ... / There's heaven ahead in number eleven / Getting crucial responses with dilatation of the pupils / Honey get hip, it's time to unzip / To unzip zip zippa zippa zip, whoopee!"
Also in the final track, aptly titled It: "It is chicken, it is eggs / It is in between your legs / ... / It has no home in words or goal / Not even in your favourite hole / It is the hope for the dope" One drug too many, I'm guessing. For the relatively banging predecessor album Selling England By The Pound, this is a bit of a disappointment.
3/5
Key tracks: Broadway Melody of 1974, Carpet Crawlers, Lilywhite Lillith, The Lamia
ABBA
4/5
I love ABBA's music, and not just for the hits (of which there are many). They have this magical quality, this carefree likability, that hasn't been replicated with any other artist. And their later material (from ABBA: The Album onward) starts drenching their material in synths – but rather than this being detrimental, as seen with artists like Queen, it shifts their music to being more like early-80s Bowie or perhaps Kate Bush. Very common in The Visitors is the three-way combo of synth, acoustic guitar, and strings (violins), or at least two of the three harmonising with one another. Coupled with the singing, which is already pretty distinctive, ABBA's sound here is really memorable and you can't help but be intrigued, on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear what quirky tunes they deliver you.
And man, for the most part, they deliver. There are a few songs here that are harder to latch onto due to a lack of hook, such as Like An Angel Passing Through My Room and I Let The Music Speak. You really start to feel the album's length during these songs. But then there are plenty of great tracks, usually with more driving rhythm sections and a chorus with an instantly singable melody. Slipping Through My Fingers, though a slower, semi-balladesque tune, is powerful and has a vocal/guitar melody that kicks butt. The title and opening track, The Visitors, is an excellent intro to this side of the band. It starts off slow and kind of cosmic, then transitions into a catchy disco number at around the 2 minute mark. One Of Us has such a ridiculously good melody (which the entire track is built around) that it could easily be a top 10 ABBA track, if not top 5.
4/5
Key tracks: The Visitors, One Of Us, Slipping Through My Fingers
Janet Jackson
2/5
Leaning on interludes to make your album cohesive feels very... artificial, I guess? It's hard to explain why I'm not a fan of interlude tracks, but I'm not. They take up runtime and drag album flow to a halt in most cases, including on this album. Are they trying to tell a story? Continue the riveting plot of the preceding tracks (which don't seem to have any storyline in common to begin with)? And in this case, 8 out of 20 tracks are interludes. Pretty bad. Fortunately, they don't take up much of the 64-minute runtime. And a good few of the full-length numbers are actually pretty good. The backing vocals and thick bass part in Miss You Much make it a highlight, though some effect is placed onto the vocals that mar them significantly. Same problem for Escapade: the backing vocals are great on paper, but they have this metallic filter that makes the sound a heck of a lot less appealing.
Rhythm Nation 1864 is a slightly tough listen because it's overproduced. Jackson throws the whole kitchen sink into the percussion and SFX, and it's more distracting than it is particularly exciting. The high-pitched "whoo" in Alright is the best example of this, but distracting SFX show up everywhere on this record. I understand how this might have appealed to audiences from back in the day, but it comes across as extremely dated even relative to other 80s entries. The only track that (for the most part) dodges the terrible 80s sound is Livin' In A World (They Didn't Make), making it easily one of the highlights. Black Cat has a pretty sweet electric guitar part, including an excellent solo, so it ekes out a spot in my key tracks.
2/5
Key tracks: Miss You Much, Livin' In A World (They Didn't Make), Black Cat
Bob Dylan
4/5
There's something quietly legendary about Dylan's sound - particularly in his early, pre-1965 material. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan has this magical, untouchable quality, a key part of it definitely being a relic of its time. The album being released today would not garner nearly as much respect from me or (I imagine) most audiences. But in the midst of a civil rights movement, these tracks are powerful. Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, Girl from the North Country, Don't Think Twice, Hard Rain... dang. It's pretty moving. Even when the lyrics aren't directly related to civil rights or warfare, they're still poignant - and I say this as somebody who doesn't usually pay attention to lyrics.
"And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it / And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it / Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin' / But I’ll know my song well before I start singin'"
This is a great album for the tired listener. Musically, it's pretty simple, consisting mainly of bluesy and folky melodies/harmonies and the standard Dylan instrument lineup (rambling vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica). No percussion, no backing vocals, just Bobby and his brain. The freeform blues style is solid. We first hear it in Down the Highway, and it's revisited frequently throughout the album, including in Corrina Corrina and Bob Dylan's Dream. In the context of this list, though, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan hits a barrier. It just isn't musically diverse enough to hold a candle to most "masterpiece" records. Through background listening only, I can definitely see how people could get irritated or bored by the monotonous textures or by Dylan's weird singing. And the main point of music is for it to engage the listener (ideally as many listeners as possible). If you aren't lyrically inclined and aren't aware of the historical power of Bob Dylan, this might not engage you at all.
4/5
Key tracks: Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, Don't Think Twice It's All Right
Big Star
2/5
Right out the gate, the singing is painfully bad. The guy's out of tune and sounds inebriated. Vocals are always a potential deal breaker for me, since they can so easily make or break a piece of music. In Kizza Me, the singer here seems to have doubled his vocals quite messily, and only in some places. It's very distracting and very nearly ruins the excellent rock instrument going on behind it. This album was released around the time of the punk movement, so the terrible singing makes sense. I guess I was just hoping for a punk(-adjacent) band to break the mould. (Kind of hypocritical, for punk bands to all be doing the same thing as each other?) Nature Boy is also pretty bad, if only because a mere piano stands between the atrocious singing and the listener.
The cover of Femme Fatale is passable - mainly because the original is so darn great. Big Star's version is noticeably worse for several reasons, including the weird extension of the "femme fatale" backing vocal, the out-of-tune lead, and the inconsistent percussion. In contrast, the strings in Stroke It Noel really sell the song. I'm a big fan of songs that mix up the instrumentation. The following track, For You, continues that trend, as does Take Care (with folk-European-sounding strings - maybe a fiddle?). All are strong tracks. Till The End Of The Day is an unexpected rise in energy towards the record's tail end.
AllMusic gave this album a retrospective review of 5 stars, writing that it was a "shambling wreck of an album" and "the slow, sinking sound of a band falling apart". Where's the consistency? This is getting a 2 from me, and a well-deserved one at that. We have to start punishing these bands for their singer singlehandedly sabotaging the sound.
2/5
Key tracks: Thank You Friends, For You, Till The End Of The Day
The La's
4/5
These reviewers are (to put it lightly) a bit delusional. The sound on this album is fresh, bright, and energetic. It takes influence from areas of folk rock and country, seen as early as the opening number, Son of a Gun. That song is a great choice for starting the album and hits pretty dang hard on a sunny morning in the countryside. (That's where I listened to it.) There are definitely no "misses" here and plenty of "hits" to justify a 4-plus-star rating, including the hit single There She Goes. The singing is particularly strong on here, supporting a memorable falsetto melody during the chorus. I'm not a huge fan of the singer's voice, but (unlike a great deal of punk, post-punk, Britpop, and alt-rock) it isn't nearly bad enough so as to completely sabotage the sound. Well done, Robert Dimery – you've outdone yourself! Doledrum sounds like something off a Stones album, complete with the gently messy backing harmonies and aggressive guitar riffs. I'm a fan of the similarly lively lead-bass interaction in Feelin'.
Speaking of guitars: they're definitely the instrument highlight on the album, especially in the midst of so many tracks that omit drums and use the harsh strumming as makeshift percussion. That's another element that really reminds me of folk music being released around the same time.
Maybe there's one "miss" track: the sluggish album closer, Looking Glass. We can just ignore that one, right? (But then the record would run for only 27 minutes. Scratch that idea.)
4/5
Key tracks: Son of a Gun, There She Goes, Feelin'
New York Dolls
2/5
The ultimate snapshot of glam rock if there ever was one. Unfortunately, it doesn't represent the genre at its best. The sound is pretty messy and unrefined. It sounds like the main band members don't really know what they're doing, musically, and that can seriously hamper a band's listenability (even if it's not actually true). A reviewer described this record as "sleazy, messy, trashy and raunchy" and then used that as a reason to give it 4 stars. I would argue that if you can only think of adjectives with negative connotations to describe music, maybe that music is... well, bad. Another reviewer cites their apparent influence on the music scene: "Without the New York Dolls, there is no punk and new wave. Without punk and new wave, we're still listening to arena rock and suffering through endless drum solos." I really don't think musical progress is that one-dimensional. Genres constantly influence each other, and there's no linear "shift" from arena rock to punk/new wave. (In fact, I'd argue that both genres emerged at roughly the same time.) Plus, plenty of proto-punk acts were around during or before the early 1970s. And most of them were better than this.
The singer's very angry in Frankenstein. I wonder why. I would feel happy and vindicated if I created a living monster from sterile flesh. Or if I was the living monster in question. Maybe the lyrics on this record are something spectacularly incredible and groundbreaking – though I doubt it. My focus was primarily on the melodies, harmonies, and instrumentation. The melodies, which are the most immediately noticeable parts of music (and therefore some of the most important), left me unimpressed. Lonely Planet Boy, Looking For A Kiss, Bad Girl... try humming their tunes after a couple of listens. You'll realise that, without the instruments (which are pretty good), these songs are just not composed to a very high standard.
2/5
Key tracks: Personality Crisis, Trash, Pills
Simple Minds
3/5
Each individual track is good enough on its own, but as a collective there isn't enough variety to justify a high rating. It's a kind of semi-experimental synth pop, propped up by some nice basslines. Pretty funny to see the split in reviewer sentiment here. Half the reviews are "this is the best synth-based creation of all time, richly textured beautifully crafted songs, a complete cohesive experience" and the other half are "this is balls. unmemorable, bland, bloated, dated". As one might guess, I fall somewhere in the middle. The sound is definitely dated and I would never go out of my way to listen to the record again. On the other hand, the compositions are decently strong, there are some good hooks here and there, and for the most part I enjoy the singing. 9 tracks in 46 minutes is certainly not bloated for an album, so I don't really see those reviewers' points.
The title track is surprisingly good, having a satisfying chord progression that repeats every few bars for maximum ear exposure. Someone Somewhere (In Summertime), the album opener, is also pretty solid – though I couldn't for the life of me tell you why. In an alternative universe I'd be complaining endlessly about the annoying high-pitched staccato synths, but they're not that bad in this setting. The best song, though, has to be Promised You A Miracle. The hook is great, the intermittent tempo-halts are just weird enough to be engaging but not so weird as to alienate the listener.
I walked away from this feeling like a 2-star rating would be justifiable. But one of my policies is that, if I "like" every individual track, the album must get at least 3 stars. (Voilà!)
3/5
Key tracks: Promised You A Miracle, New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)
4/5
An unexpectedly solid continuation of the 1964 Kinks sound I'm more familiar with. There are some great riffs, textures, and instrument playing here. Brainwashed has an excellent hook that I'm very surprised hasn't received more attention, on Spotify or otherwise. It wasn't a single, yet Shangri-La somehow was. (Don't get me wrong – Shangri-La is pretty good in its own right – but it doesn't have as memorable a hook.) I wasn't particularly paying attention to the lyrics in the first track, but the following song, Yes Sir No Sir, is about as lyrically direct as it gets. It hits home a heavily anti-British message that was unusual for popular music in the 60s, and for that I give it credit. Definitely more impressive than the hugely oversaturated punk genre of the following decade. As a general rule, the 60s did rebellion better than the 70s, and Arthur demonstrates that principle nicely.
Victoria is a driven, country-influenced track that can easily hold its own against the Kinks' more well-known singles, not to mention other hits from 1969. The vocals and lead guitar mirror each other with a solid melody in the verses, the harmonies in the chorus are just excellent, the drumming is perfect for the song... The closing and title track is similarly great, mostly for having that same warm, energetic feel. Some of the tracks in the middle are a bit weaker – though still good – like Australia (which definitely goes on too long), She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina (lacking any memorable hook and instead opting for a weird high-pitched kazoo thing), and Some Mother Son (weird mixing makes it sound a little dated). Still, this album is a strong showing for the Kinks, and a strong 4 stars indeed.
4/5
Key tracks: Victoria, Brainwashed, Arthur
Miriam Makeba
2/5
Every song on here is essentially confined to three or four chords (I, ii, IV, V), meaning the harmonies and progressions are pretty limited. Coupled with the unchanging texture of solo vocal and light bass/drum accompaniment, there just isn't quite enough diversity in texture or overall sound to really justify making an entire 35-minute record from Makeba's material. The original release year of this record was 1960, so the precedent for diverse albums hadn't yet been set (by the likes of the Beatles), and I think that severely detracts from this album's appeal. Even if an artist's music is conceptually/culturally interesting or fresh, it needs to showcase more than one musical dimension. Otherwise, you could easily put out a single or EP rather than a full-length LP. Even at a relatively short length of 35 minutes, I felt this particular entry dragged on towards the tail end.
The choir backing in Holilili, particularly the baritone voice, is really good. I also enjoy the freeform-rhythm nature of Mbube, something that isn't replicated in any other track. Plus, the iconic "wimoweh" in the backing vocals. Unfortunately, in this track (and many others) it becomes apparent that the sound is in need of remastering. Makeba's vocal frequently causes audio peaks that blot out other instruments and the listener's brain. The cover of the traditional House of the Rising Sun is fine but a bit musically inert. I feel that Makeba's version doesn't add terribly much, in contrast with the explosive Animals version. And what's going on in One More Dance? Some guy chuckling maniacally while informing Makeba of her husband's untimely death? I had to go back and check the lyrics. It really dates this already heavily-dated sound. Is this record really qualified to sit amongst the 1000 best albums of all time? (Questionable.)
2/5
Key tracks: The Retreat Song, Holilili, Mbube
Metallica
3/5
From the get-go, the sound is grand and orchestral. Pretty impressive for a live performance. And for the first few tracks, it gets even more grand and orchestral, and hence even more impressive. Of their material, I've only heard Metallica's self-titled LP before, and I didn't realise this was how their sound had developed. Being able to maintain a steady musical buildup for almost 10 minutes (The Call Of Ktulu) is a feat for the ages. My main takeaway from these first few tracks is that having a strong orchestral backing is integral to completing Metallica's normally guitar- and percussion-heavy sound – because this record already better than most of their self-titled record.
But after the first hour, man, the tide really changes. My policy is that, for an album to qualify as "good", it must work well as a complete "album experience". The listener must be able to sit/lie down with a pair of headphones and enjoy the record in its entirety, ideally in one sitting. There are a few rules that absolutely must be adhered to, including mood variation, textural variation, and a diverse showcase of the band's stylistic repertoire. But Metallica doesn't try very hard at creating a cohesive experience. Although there are lower-energy tracks here and there, including the much-needed Nothing Else Matters at the beginning of disc 2, the large majority of songs on S&M are just identical glam-thrash-rock noise. With orchestral backing, which makes it a lot more bearable – but even so. (Metallica, you should know better! An album is an artistic medium, so use it properly, dang it!) Too many good tracks to justify a low rating, though, and I did enjoy it for the most part. Just had to split it into two sittings when I found myself tuning out the music more than taking it in.
3/5
Key tracks: Master Of Puppets, No Leaf Clover, Nothing Else Matters
The Smiths
4/5
A reasonable continuation of the sound from the Smiths' previous album, The Queen Is Dead. Lots of solid tracks here especially on side 1. Stop Me... has a classic Smiths arrangement and sounds grandiose and fresh. Despite having a bit of an "80s production sheen", none of the tracks particularly suffer - including this one. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish is similar but with a more foreboding melody and harmonies. And a subtle accordion (or maybe a trumpet?) in the background adding to the mood's "importance". Death of a Disco Dancer sounds very unusual for a Smiths track. It's in an unusual key, is kind of balladesque, and includes some chord progressions that are a little more complex and 70s-ish than the rest of their discography. Pretty nifty, if I do say so. And the Bowie-esque instrumental taking up the entire second half of the track is fantastic. Compare it with the back-to-basics Girlfriend in a Coma that acts as an extended outro, and you'll realise that Death of a Disco Dancer is something really special.
I know most musicians hate the industry, the terrible dehumanising machine that takes human lives as input and churns out sounds whose sole purpose is to sate the masses. And every musician needs to write about this evil at some point in their career. But if you're going to do it, darn it, make it more lyrically interesting than the thousands of other songs with the same subject matter. Pink Floyd nailed it with Welcome To The Machine / Have A Cigar. Billy Joel nailed it with The Entertainer. But the Smiths, in Paint a Vulgar Picture? Hmm. "Reissue, repackage, repackage, reevaluate the songs / Double pack with a photograph / Extra track and the tacky badge / A-list playlist" ... "I touched you at the soundcheck". ("Hmm" indeed!) Admittedly, this slight drop in quality can be attributed to the entirety of side two of the record. The songs get less musically complex and the lyrical quality diminishes. Not much, mind you - this is still a cool 4-star dub by the Smiths. Anything that sounds even remotely like the legendary The Queen Is Dead deserves at least this much glory.
4/5
Key tracks: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish, Death of a Disco Dancer, Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Kings of Leon
3/5
The heck are these reviews? One review starts with the sentence "Good music." then drops a 2-star bomb on us. And the top 6 upvoted reviews are all 1 or 2 stars. Seems people can't handle old-school rock or weird vocals in the 21st century. This album is solid – and I say that as somebody who's never heard any of their material. I gave some of their biggest hits a listen after finishing Aha, and all of them drew a complete blank. So I'm not comparing this to their later material. Aha Shake Heartbreak is good, short, sweet, punchy. Not particularly memorable, but good hooks (especially in my 3 chosen key tracks, Taper Jean Girl / The Bucket / Soft). Slower tracks like Day Old Blues and Milk to mix up the pacing a little bit. Listen with headphones and talk an empowered walk while listening to this record. It vastly improves the sound.
The singer sounds like he isn't putting much effort in. Sluggish drunken drawling doesn't usually do the job. The instruments, which are almost aggressively human-sounding (much unlike most popular music from the Kings' contemporaries), generally make up for the vocals. Great bass and guitar playing, though pretty simple. Straightforward drum patterns. I reckon you wouldn't get much out of this album upon a second or third listen; this is a problem the White Stripes have as well. I'm not claiming the Kings of Leon are bringing anything new to the table. But if they sound good and I enjoy essentially every track, they're getting at least a 3. Then +1 star for the energy and the willingness to put out a relatively acoustic album in the electronically-charged atmosphere of 2005. (It'd be even tougher to make it big with a sophomore album like this in 2025.) And -1 star for the singer.
3/5
Key tracks: Taper Jean Girl, The Bucket, Soft
Nas
3/5
Whoo-boy. Seeing yet another 90s hip-hop entry on this list doesn't inspire much hope. But honestly, after a front-to-back listen, it's pretty good. At least, musically. Nas's vocal is solid for rapping, and his rhythm is pretty dang immaculate. But the highlights have to go to the backing instrumentals. They're mixed quite far down on most tracks, but they really enhance an otherwise boring hip-hop record. The sampled synths in It Ain't Hard to Tell, the jazzy piano chords in The World Is Yours, the muted trumpet in Life's a Bitch... Some of them are so great that I found myself deliberately tuning out Nas's rapping to make room for the good stuff. (This is a common theme in the genre. Seriously – singing instead of rapping would easily push this album to 4 stars or higher. That's how much of a quality difference there is between vocal and backing.)
But Illmatic isn't without its blemishes. Listening to Halftime, I was on the fence as to whether I enjoyed it. Then it dropped the R-slur and I decided that, not only did I not enjoy it, but it's a near objectively bad track. Avoiding use of an offensive slur isn't that difficult – just don't use it. Nas didn't get the memo. Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park) has a similar issue: I found myself vaguely grooving, until Nas pulled an F-slur out of his crack. I'm all for reclaiming offensive words, but Nas isn't gay (I checked) so that argument doesn't apply. Nope – he's being deliberately crude and offensive, for the sake of... getting a reaction, I guess? Regardless, we shouldn't reward Nas by pretending to enjoy nonsense like this. Then there's The Genesis, which acts as an "interlude" to start the album. I'm grateful for Nas generally avoiding the use of interludes here, but then he drops this number on us. It's musically barren. A group of guys shouting empty lyrics over a beat. Considering it's unlikely he plays this track live regularly, what's the point of slapping it at the start of an album as if it accomplishes something? Thankfully, the album gets a little better from there.
3/5
Key tracks: Life's a Bitch, The World Is Yours
Missy Elliott
1/5
The album almost makes it to 2 stars, but it shoots itself in the foot too many times when it could have easily been avoided. Sacrificing musical complexity, song structure, instrumentation, melody, likability, and infinitely many other factors for the sake of... whatever this is... isn't worth it.
Under Construction is yet another example where narration is very unhelpful for the listening experience. Intro / Go to the Floor is already not a particularly convincing track, and the musically barren first half doesn't help. Pussycat is a good track, but it's similarly dragged down infinitely by the monologue at the end. Again I question how some of these musically barren song segments made the final cut on an album that's already slightly bloated. The exact same problem happens in Can You Hear Me. Missy Elliott doesn't even have the goodwill to put these in their own discrete interlude tracks so that they're easier to skip. The latter track is the final one in the album, in which Elliott declares that she hopes you enjoyed, but doesn't care if you didn't. Man, are you *trying* to make your listeners despise you?
The constant cutting of the melodic and harmonic parts of the instrumental is pretty jarring, and yet is consistent enough that I have to imagine Elliott thinks it sounds good. Go to the Floor does it every single bar, Bring the Pain makes the jump-cutting part of its hook... This is a common music trope in the 90s and it hasn't aged well. Separately, Missy Elliott's voice is pretty annoying, especially when she's rapping in the upper register. All in all, the sound comes across as amateur and indulgent in lyrics/attitude while completely neglecting musicianship and quality of composition. I doubt many artists would want to listen to Gossip Folks more than once, let alone cover it. Chronologically, the first decent track is Back in the Day – partly because Missy Elliott finally sings rather than using her obnoxious rap voice, and partly because the hook doesn't keep cutting out and disrupting the smooth funky experience. The music is continuous (lacking the very sudden silences that prevent the listener from properly grooving), for the most part.
1/5
Key tracks: Back in the Day, Funky Fresh Dressed, Play That Beat
Ryan Adams
3/5
Right from the first track, New York New York, the music sounds like The Stranger-era Billy Joel or any-era Van Morrison, with less interesting songwriting and a more countryish vocalist. But then the style goes all-in on country rock, abandoning the New York vibe. Which is fair, I guess. Only one of the songs has New York in the title. Though each individual track is fairly solid, the entire setlist doesn't quite work as an album. This is partly due to nearly every track consisting of three chords (and often just two, I and IV, such as the opening track), the same instrumental arrangement, and (for most of side 1) a similar tempo and upbeat country-esque mood. 90 minutes is just a little too long for an album that doesn't have a concept to back it up. Adams should've released this as two separate LPs. Particularly by disc two (or, as Adams calls it, "disc four"), the album really loses momentum. Goodnight Hollywood Blvd. is a solid ending to an album that's already a little longer than is standard - but then we're blessed with five more tracks that don't add anything musically but Adams insists we must listen to.
When The Stars Go Blue is a mellower track that still manages to be more emotional and soulful, making it an easy standout. The low-mixed cello and violins really tug at your heartstrings. Nobody Girl is solid but definitely too long. It really only has one musical idea/hook - the melodic delivery of the song title - and that alone doesn't justify almost 10 minutes of runtime. Ryan Adams's singing sounds very odd in Sylvia Plath. Kind of sounds like a female vocalist. I wonder what made him choose that particular vocal style. You hear the same thing later on with Goodnight Hollywood Blvd. Wild Flowers is another standout for being brave enough to include some switches to relative minor and other (relatively) wacky chords. Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues sounds like something off the Stones' Let It Bleed, but with better production. A great track. The combo of female vocals, piano, and guitar is nostalgic and I'm happy it's getting some traction in the 21st century.
3/5
Key tracks: When The Stars Go Blue, Enemy Fire, Wild Flowers, Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues
The Beach Boys
3/5
I think what a lot of reviewers are missing is the sheer importance of some of these albums. Sure, Sgt Pepper's is probably not at the top of anyone's ranking based on sheer sound – but its monumental impact on popular culture and the Western World in the 60s has to move it up the ladder. Any boomer (or, for that matter, any learned music hobbyist) can attest to this influence, and that the 60s were generally a time of hugely influential releases in the world of music. Many of those releases came from an inner circle of competing rock-pop groups, including, of course, the Beach Boys. Listen to any pop/rock album released before 1965 and you'll realise how much the Beach Boys flipped the script, beginning with The Beach Boys Today! and culminating in Pet Sounds and the Good Vibrations the following year. The "Wall Of Sound" technique pioneered by Phil Spector doesn't work in every setting (see Let It Be, 1970), but dang it, it works here. Do You Wanna Dance? is an excellent opening track that brings out this almost overwhelmingly joyous atmosphere, using brash multilayered vocals, dramatic low-pitch percussion, and sounds ranging from baritone to ultra-high in frequency. It's a euphoric assault on the senses, and it seeps into most tracks on side 1. Dance Dance Dance combines this with classic rock'n'roll basslines and guitar, leading to a Beatlesque track that's the main highlight of the album. Help Me Rhonda is a slightly less polished, but still great, alternative take of the song that would later become the band's second #1 single. Great melodies in some of these side 1 tracks.
But the negative reviews aren't entirely off the mark. The Beach Boys' lyrics, prior to 1966, are pretty straightforward, simple lyrics about a young guy falling in love (with either a girl or the art of dancing). One reviewer claimed every song is about sexual assault or rape – I made sure to check, and exactly zero lyrics allude to either one. But I still wouldn't call it poetry. The songs are a little similar, especially on side 2 when instrumental variation kind of gets thrown out the window. And extending a 26-minute album to 28 minutes with the musically barren Bull Sessions With "Big Daddy" is a bizarre choice for a band as popular as the Beach Boys. In addition, the musicianship and singing is quite clumsy, as is the production. Kiss Me Baby includes two very odd fake fadeouts that I have to imagine are production errors. It really makes these guys look unprofessional, something that the punk movement would embrace the following decade.
3/5
Key tracks: Do You Wanna Dance?, Help Me Rhonda, Dance Dance Dance
Christine and the Queens
3/5
These songs are not bad. But they're also not spectacularly good, especially for the year 2018 when there was much better material on offer. The music here offers little in the way of instrumental/textural variation, virtuosity on any particular instrument (including vocals), or really even creativity in terms of style or ideas. Though 80s-style music doesn't get as much traction these days, it's not like nobody's making it. It just isn't as popular – and justifiably so, being a relic of a bygone era. I feel that praise on account of Chris's distinctly 80s atmosphere is kind of empty. The meat of this album lies not in the style, skill, or creativity of the music, but in the magical, floaty galaxy you're sent to when you close your eyes. Great for when you're tired and don't want anything overly complex or stimulating. In that sense, every individual track is fairly good (except for The stranger – that one is pretty terrible). But if your goal is to find a pot soundtrack, you can definitely do better than this (see: Pink Floyd).
"Comme si" is a peppy opener that I'm surprised isn't the most listened-to song here. It must not have been a single. The following track, "Girlfriend", is sonically near-identical to Comme si, but without the nifty melody to back it up. The song "Doesn't matter" has ABBA-like vocal harmony and an awful drumbeat – but something about it still spoke to me. And Goya Soda sounds like it was plucked straight off Thriller, complete with the twangy synth-bass, Dorian mode, and glass-clear vocals. It could well be the best song here. In the song "Damn (what must a woman do)", man really said "damn what must a woman do? more like deh wah mashta poomadoo."
3/5
Key tracks: Comme si, Doesn't matter, Goya Soda
Ray Price
2/5
Before listening, I can already tell that this album doesn't really belong here. If it's from the early 60s, it'd sure as heck be popular enough to justify its inclusion on the "most important 1000 albums of all time" list.
Fun atmosphere, sort of an old honky-tonk style (as Price points out in The Wild Side of Life) with elements of country and blues. Price's voice is full, soulful, and has a surprisingly wide range for a baritone. But there's only so much you can do with music that absolutely refuses to push any boundaries. Harmonically: essentially just the standard 3 chords. It makes the full-album experience a bit frustrating and monotone. I suspected this would be the case from the get-go, but still enjoyed the first few tracks since I hadn't yet succumbed to the lack of interesting chord progressions (and resulting lack of creative melody). The percussion is also brutally unstimulating to the listener, right from the beginning of the album. No fills, not really any pitch (frequency) variation... The guitar plays a reggae-esque line in most tracks, but somehow even simpler. The player could be a master guitarist for all I know, but he/she certainly doesn't demonstrate it here. The bass is probably the best non-vocal instrument, but even it sticks to bass convention of playing solely arpeggios with a few transition notes scattered in there. And yes, this record came out before the huge musical/cultural revolution in the 60s. I'm not saying the record is bad for its time, just that it's a bad inclusion on this list.
In terms of specific tracks: I'm not a fan of the Introduction and Theme track. It seems a pointless inclusion when the album isn't a live one. Lonely Street has some of Price's best vocals, easily earning it a spot on any "key tracks" list. There's No Fool Like a Young Fool has similarly strong vocals. A Girl in the Night is unfortunately placed right after The Twenty-Fourth Hour in the track listing, and the two are functionally identical. Similar tempos, identical arrangements/riffs/basslines, same key, and similar melody. This is one of many examples of poor album design in the 50s/60s. Artists, remember: the best albums are both a collection of songs and an artistic statement. You need to keep the listener engaged for the full runtime by varying songs sufficiently - especially consecutive songs!
2/5
Key tracks: Night Life, Lonely Street, Are You Sure
Linkin Park
4/5
Speaking as someone who has never (intentionally) listened to Linkin Park, and who was born after this album came out, I was surprised at just how many tracks I recognised. And this is their debut... Damn. Normally I'm not a fan of music that forgoes melodies in favour of loud rapping, but Linkin Park really makes it work. A Place for My Head has a solid guitar riff and chorus melody, but the verses have some solid vocals in their own right. Reminds me of heavy metal and alt-rock from the previous decade. Plenty of other tracks, including Crawling, Forgotten, and Runaway, follow this formula of "rap during verse, rap-sing during chorus, and have a guitar-bass-doubled riff mixed to a heart-stopping level". It's not exactly a new idea, but it sounds great, so I can't complain.
One thing I've noticed during this project is that I latch onto tracks I'm familiar with, even if they're technically worse songs. One Step Closer is a perfect example of this. I don't think I've heard the song in its entirely, but I've heard it referenced time and time again – especially the lines "Everything you say to me / Takes me one step closer to the edge / ANDIMABOUTTABREAK". Similarly, my primary experience with Crawling is the "crawling in my crawl" meme from way back when. And of course I've heard In the End, because who hasn't? Great riff melody in that track, solid backing vocals, great overall atmosphere... nothing to complain about here. There are no throwaway tracks, the album is a perfect length, and the cover art is cool as heck. I would've liked to see more variation in mood rather than a near-relentless onslaught of emo lines. Maybe some novel instruments, a few ballads dotted throughout, or any track that avoids rapping altogether. Hopefully Linkin Park heeded some of that advice later in their career.
4/5
Key tracks: One Step Closer, Crawling, In the End
Bob Dylan
4/5
Great folky stuff for your innocent, wide-eyed American boomer (or Beatle, for some reason). Sure, the melodies aren't great, but they're a whole lot better when you realise the vocals are laser-focused on projecting emotion and plot. Dylan ain't got no time for writing polished melodies when there are stories to be told and political messages to get across. In general (with the opening track being a big exception), I'm not exactly sure what that message might be, but Dylan's lyrics are so darn fun to listen to and read, so I can't complain too much. This record is every bit as good as Bringing It All Back Home, with as much variety and grit that made the earlier record so likeable.
Like a Rolling Stone is one of the quintessential Bob Dylan tracks. Everyone knows the iconic chorus beginning with "How does it feel? How does it feel?" Loaded with wordplay, a loud, bright instrumental, and yet having dark, serious undertones. Kind of sneering in a way. It's a great song and (from what I've read) pushed lots of musical boundaries. Tombstone Blues also kicks some serious butt. Check out that biting guitar – with tasty licks spilling into every break in the vocals, a driving percussive beat, and Dylan's weary, battered singing. It would genuinely be one of the best tracks of the 60s if the guy managed to eke out a single melody worth singing along to, because there really isn't anything else in the music to complain about. Desolation Row, while definitely too long for my taste, is a back-to-basics nod to those outraged fans who thought he'd abandoned the all-acoustic persona.
4/5
Key tracks: Like a Rolling Stone, Tombstone Blues, Queen Jane Approximately
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4/5
The band lacks one consistent sound, and I love that. Bouncing from tribal percussion and vocalising to what can only be described as hesitant 80s-style prog rock (the title track), to pure 80s fantasy, to an homage to Edwin Starr's "War", to bluesy jam-rock, to a Bruce Springsteen cover... And with a few exceptions, all the songs are really enjoyable, despite being longer than a non-concept album should generally be. I'm a little surprised that the musically desolate album opener, The World Is My Oyster, is getting significantly more Spotify traction than later gems like Wish and Krisco Kisses. But such is the beauty of streaming services.
The track "(Tag)" is stupid. (This is all I wrote about the track as I was listening to it, and now, a day later, I can't remember what the fuss was about. But it was stupid, I swear!) The song Including The Ballad Of 32 reminds me of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine, if it were an oversimplified instrumental with a slightly more interesting electric guitar part and weird sexual moans in the background. Special shoutout to The Power Of Love, which has all the elements of a great 80s track... except for good singing. Seriously, what's going on here? Like a significantly whinier Bon Jovi who was ordered to sing during his time-out. To be fair, though, he sounds worse here than in most other tracks on the album. Relax (Come Fighting) is a wonderfully 80s-esque track, complete with light female backing vocals during chorus and heavy synths. Honestly, it's great. The song title is sung exactly how you'd imagine it.
4/5
Key tracks: Relax (Come Fighting), Two Tribes, Wish (The Lads Were Here)
Baaba Maal
1/5
I have trouble engaging with music that's this devoid of any actual consistent musical ideas. Occasionally Baaba Maal will strike gold with a particular vocal melodic lick or (very rarely) a guitar riff, but in every single case he just discards the lick as soon as it's played. Because of this, the album comes across as 58 minutes of uncertain noodling where none of the instrumentalists really know what they're doing. Even if the guitarists and percussionists are skilled, it absolutely does not sound that way on this record. "Theme and variation", the tried-and-true method of hooking your audience into music and keeping them interested with a balance of familiarity and innovation, is completely thrown out the window, with essentially all musical elements being repeated with no variation whatsoever (à la hip-hop backbeats) or played once then never again. The xylophone part is great – or would be great if it were consistent.
My three chosen key tracks are the closest to resembling something musically engaging (to me). Toro is actually a pretty solid track, with a psychedelic guitar part that doesn't drag out at all. At that point in the album I was expecting to give out a 3-star rating. Gidelam almost sounds like a Western funk track that's a little out of place in this context, but enjoyable nonetheless. Hamady Boiro is similar and incorporates some 80s-esque synth lines. On the other hand, songs like Daande Lenol, Lem Gi, and Sy Sawande just don't have that much sonic content. There are periods of complete silence in some of these that, rather than being tasteful, feel as though the band forgot what comes next.
1/5
Key tracks: Toro, Hamady Boiro, Gidelam
Gotan Project
3/5
Solid instrumental jams. None particularly stand out as hit tracks, but some stand out for being slightly odder than the rest. Heavy use of instruments like accordion, mouth organ(?), and some distinctive light-texture percussion definitely give this group a unique sound. Where the music falls flat is in its compositions. Structurally, the songs are pretty weak and tough to sing along to or cover (as another band). Each track bounces from idea to idea without ever really settling, which makes for a frustrating listen. There's a reason why ABAB song structures do better than ABCD on the charts. In general, there isn't a "head" or riff/hook that is returned to or developed in any of these pieces, which also separates it from the jazz genre. I guess I'm not really sure what Gotan Project is going for here.
In Época, we witness an accordion being used for the first of many times throughout the album. It's also a good example of my earlier point about song structure. There's some instrumental, then two verses, then a completely different instrumental (idea-wise). Wacky, and also difficult to jibe with. Chunga's revenge, a Frank Zappa cover, still has one of the best song titles I've ever heard, and is coupled with some odd yet endearing vocalising. I was able to tell people nearby that I was listening to a song called Chunga's revenge (and certainly gained some coolness points in the process). Tríptico is a solid track but feels a little weaker than the rest because of its over-reliance on that guitar riff and corresponding synth backing. Santa Maria has a fresh and well-produced sound. The percussion is some of the best here. And the light interaction between different instrument melodies is fun. Vuelvo Al Sur has the most vocals of any track – and props to the singer, because she's great.
3/5
Key tracks: Chunga's revenge, Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre), Vuelvo Al Sur
Steely Dan
5/5
After their soft rock-oriented debut and jam-session-laden sophomore record, Steely Dan takes a strange approach to album-building that I can only describe as their "White Album". The opening track is one of their biggest hits, and rightly so – it's got a catchy chorus, memorable bassline (courtesy of the jazz standard Song For My Father), some solid vocal harmonies, chords, melody, a great guitar solo... it's got it all. Night By Night is even more heavily jazz-influenced, featuring more horns than you'd normally expect for what was (at the time) still a rock band. This record is the turning point between Steely Dan's "early"- and "middle"-career stages, judging from these two tracks alone. The third song, Any Major Dude Will Tell You, is the softest soft-rock you'll ever come across, but it's still lyrically moving – particularly in the verses which have some pretty great melodies to go along with them.
Already from the three opening tracks, you have something really special. The rest of the album wanders off in various new directions, showcasing Steely Dan's incredible versatility – the most (I think) of any of their records. Barrytown: a snarky pop-rock track with a very odd melody. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo: a straight-up ragtime jazz instrumental. Through With Buzz: a strings-focused interlude track that's reminiscent of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby. With A Gun: a sort of Western/country track featuring a driven acoustic guitar. And then there's the title track, which appears to be a blues number on its face, but actually cross-matches so many different genres together (in just four and a half minutes) that it's a little dizzying.
I do think Pretzel Logic is the weakest of the Dan's first six records, but not by much.
5/5
Key tracks: Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Night By Night, Any Major Dude Will Tell You, Pretzel Logic
Bonnie Raitt
2/5
Finished the album, and I still haven't worked out who Nick is. In fact, I listened through all the songs twice: once while half-asleep in the car, and then later with all my attention. I liked it significantly more the first time, which is not a good sign. There's so little creativity, so few musical liberties taken, that Nick Of Time comes across as a mostly-lifeless parody of dozens (hundreds?) of albums before it. Even the guitar solos feel half-baked, the synths empty, the vocals tired and without soul. It's not at all unpleasant – otherwise it would receive 1 star – but it just doesn't do much for the ears, brain, heart, or vertebrae. Raitt's singing is strongest on the opening/title track and I can definitely see why it was a moderate hit.
I think the bleedy, echoey sound is a big part of this album's downfall, but that's more a fault of 80s production in general than specifically Raitt's music. The compositions also aren't that interesting. I struggle to see many of these songs being sung along to (at least not these versions), though they do seem like covers. The Wikipedia article for Nick Of Time notes that, when asked why Nick of Time sold as well as it did, publicist Joan Myers said: "Bonnie's personality and sincerity just won people's hearts, in addition to her music. There was nothing ever pretentious about her." And sure, I guess I can see that. But that's not what makes good music for me. I look for musical complexity, interesting chords/melodies, a unique sound, and a selection of instruments that create a satisfying texture. Most of those are absent here.
Key tracks: Nick Of Time, Have A Heart
PJ Harvey
3/5
My fourth encounter with PJ on this list. And holy heck, that breakdown in the opening track! PJ Harvey's gonna stop my heart one of these days. There's an intense punkish element to this music, with hints of Patti Smith, Dolores O'Riordan, and (maybe) Björk. But grittier than all three. The melodies are a little wonky throughout the record, but you can tell Harvey's singing with utter determination and passion. There's also a sort of trepidation in her voice, heard in the slightly wavery tone that's become her signature by this point. It's particularly apparent in the songs Legs, Rid Of Me (title track), and Me-Jane. The style is more rock-oriented than her later works, and I think it works pretty well with Harvey's vocal quality. Lots of post-punk elements such as atonality, slightly industrial drumming, and chords that don't match the melody (although we also see this with Dylanesque folk-rock, so it could be a universal thing).
Man-Size Sextet is insane. It's uncomfortable, screechy, unnerving, and (tonally) matches its lyrics dead-on. The only track to prominently feature strings, and it does so in a brutal fashion. Another unconventional technique is the ultra-bendy guitar playing in Dry. The solo near the end of the song is wild.
But is the music *good*? Well... not exactly. It's engaging, sure - because of how it breaks music conventions rather than how it builds upon them. Every song is likeable enough, so I can't give lower than 3 stars - but the songs just aren't enjoyable (or relatable) enough to warrant any higher than that either. Atonality should be reserved for very exceptional cases, maybe once per album at a stretch, but this record relies entirely on not having a catchy melody. Or indeed any catchy/memorable moments at all - whether they be riffs, hooks, vocal hooks (which happen just a couple of times here), or something else. You can grab someone's attention and also have the musical chops to justify it, but Harvey doesn't quite get all the way there. Still, it sounds pretty badass.
3/5
Key tracks: Rid Of Me, Rub 'Til It Bleeds, Man-Size Sextet
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Brother My Cup Is Empty has some pretty insane vocals. I love the contrast between the held-back and "enraged" sections. It's far and away the strongest track on the album, beating out songs like the vocally confused Jack the Ripper (which is meant to make the listener uncomfortable rather than overjoyed with its rock-scream singing). And the calmer, balladesque Christina the Astonishing is a solid choice of song to follow Brother. A sign of good album-building is having those contrasting songs lead into each other seamlessly. The music throughout the album reminds me of the Smiths; although the vocals obviously have a different quality, but his inflections and emotive style are quite a bit like Morrissey's. When I First Came to Town could easily be a Smiths track.
And yet one of the best features of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is that they have an instantly recognisable sound. As soon as those deep, battle-worn lyrics start, you know you're in for some slow, gritty, satisfying bangers. I'm less certain about having three (or, by the looks of it, four) Nick Cave records on the list, since I've found that they sound kind of similar to one another. Still, another good showing!
4/5
Key tracks: Straight to You, Brother My Cup Is Empty, John Finn's Wife
Orbital
3/5
The first track, Forever, is great. Very reminiscent of a late-era Pink Floyd or Kraftwerk instrumental. The synth rhythms are consistent but also broken and alien, very space-rock-esque. In contrast, the second track (I Wish I Had Duck Feet) is just standard percussion with a strange radio announcement monologue laid on top. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, nor is it particularly enjoyable. The rest of the album is similarly spotty. Sad but True is a track laden with alien sounds and fun harmonies. Blue notes and diminished chords abound. Then Crash and Carry, with very little harmony or melody to speak of, ends up being five minutes of uncomfortable noise that varies only minimally for its duration.
Philosophy by Numbers is like a better version of Radiohead's Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, with some melodic synth lines mixed in. And I'm a staunch defender of Pulk. So this strange alternate take was oddly nostalgic for me. Kein Trink Wasser is such a violent outlier from the rest of the album, with its jaunty ragtime-esque piano lines and low backing strings, that I can't help but like it – even if it does diverge from that feel into less distinctive, moodier synths after a few minutes. The album drops the ball with the horrendously bland Quality Seconds (truly the lowest-quality 85 seconds of the album), but fortunately follows that with two solid prog-rock tracks that last for a combined 28 minutes.
3/5
Key tracks: Forever, Sad but True, Kein Trink Wasser
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
Excellent music for its time. But the 50s had lower standards. There are a few genuinely great songs here, including the tongue-and-cheek cover Oh Boy!, the fast-paced blues number I'm Lookin' For Someone To Love (showing clear ties to Elvis), the poppy Maybe Baby... and, of course, That'll Be The Day, which was essentially the catalyst of the late-50s skiffle movement and the Beatles carrying the baton through to the 60s. The latter song is undeniably a solid composition and the biggest highlight of the album. But there are also some droopier songs that are only made listenable because of Buddy Holly's enormous influence. Tell Me How, An Empty Cup, Last Night... these just aren't that memorable. (But at least I can remember them sounding kind of good.)
So what of the sound in general? Every element is just a little too simple for me to envision listening to the record more than once. Many of the tracks are simple late-50s blues-rock numbers, complete with 12-bar progressions that had undoubtedly exhausted listeners even back in the day. The production is quite bad – most obviously with the backing vocals, where you can practically hear the record fuzz whenever they come in. They're also not subtle at all – often loud enough to drown out the lead vocal – and occasionally a bit out of tune. The guitar has that classic jangly tone that every single electric guitar sounded like in the 50s/early-60s. There are very few musical liberties taken, not just sonically or instrumentally but also with melodies and harmonies. Melodies in these songs frequently bounce between the same two or three notes, which is fine in isolation but worth pointing out as a flaw when it happens throughout an entire LP. The chords progressions are generally either 12-bar blues, "Heart & Soul" (I-vi-IV-V) or (worst of all) bouncing between I and IV for the entire song. The beginning of the rock movement sometimes feels like a regress in musical progress, even if it did popularise the "guitar-guitar-bass-drums" setup.
3/5
Key tracks: Oh Boy!, That'll Be The Day, I'm Lookin' For Someone To Love
Small Faces
3/5
This is a solid album, with the most obvious flaw being the English-accent gibberish bookending some of the tracks. Spoken interludes are bad enough in albums as it is, but having them be unintelligible and meaningless just makes the band come across as unprofessional. The singing isn't particularly good either, though to be fair it outshines most punk and Britpop on the list. I have to imagine this only hit #1 in the UK album charts because of the post-Summer of Love haze and the subsequent adoration for anything that was both British and weird. Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother is another UK chart-topper (released in 1970) that takes a similar approach, but with less gibberish and more of a prog-rock talent showcase. Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is just... odd.
But a good kind of odd. When you get to the actual music, it's pretty great – especially if you tune out the vocals. (Because of the oversampling of punk music in this list, I've gotten pretty good at that.) Distorted guitars playing great riffs, good drums and drum fills, a solid bass part, and a host of strong 2-minute compositions. Lazy Sunday should've been the opening track, but the instrumental title track is also perfectly fine. Rollin' Over has one of those great riffs and grooves I'm talking about. There isn't a single "bad" track (though some come close!).
3/5
Key tracks: Afterglow (Of Your Love), Lazy Sunday, Rollin' Over
Ramones
3/5
For how much this album (and band) is hyped up, I expected better. It's not an exaggeration to say that every song sounds (for the most part) the same. Ramones could be described as a single 29-minute track with brief moments of silence to allow the listener's heart to calm down for just a moment. Which I'm sure is entirely the point. As a semi-concept album (at the vanguard of the punk movement), it's a pretty darn cool idea. I just wish it had taken the time to be musically engaging beyond the first couple of tracks. It's a rough listen towards the back end – at which point you're drowning in youthful drunken grunting and monotonous raging guitars, wondering when any new ideas will be introduced. (Fortunately, the closing track actually does a pretty good job of this! Nice melody and slightly held-back mood to end off the album.)
In isolation, it's a fantastic sound. Great guitars and use of power chords. Great (if simple) drumming. Great basswork. Questionable vocals, but I feel that starting the album with Blitzkrieg Bop was a good way to amend that. It's pretty endearing to hear Ramone Numero Uno(?) belt out "hey ho, let's go" and the verses in his odd faux-British drawl. Every track is kind of a bop by itself, which means (per my rules) I can't give this album less than a 3. But it loses out on remaining stars, mostly because it acts as the forefront of a musical movement that did more harm than good. Rejecting musical norms can sometimes stand the test of time – as with jazz, prog rock, and metal – but I don't think punk does.
3/5
Key tracks: Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, Today Your Love Tomorrow The World
Soundgarden
4/5
Tough crowd, eh? Just because an album is beloved (maybe even a little too beloved) doesn't mean you have to give it 2 stars to balance out all the 5-stars. This music has a lot going for it in terms of sheer musicianship and songwriting. Nice vocals. Headstrong, emotive, and heavily influenced by 70s/80s metal-rock. The singer's best vocals are probably in the megahit Black Hole Sun, though they're pretty consistent throughout the album. In various songs you can also hear Soundgarden's intense grunge sound. Fell On Black Days and The Day I Tried To Live are textbook grunge tracks, mirroring works from the other members of the Big Four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains).
The guitar solo at the end of the title track is great – chaotic, rocking, rampaging, wild. Until that point, the song kind of lacks anything "grounding" or memorable, but the solo definitely sells it. In fact, very few tracks here have what I believe to be the most important determinant of a "good" song: a hook (of any kind). Black Hole Sun has it in the chorus - almost like the track was made to be a hit. Most of the others sound fantastic but lack any hook, riff, or something similar to really sell it. Fun back-and-forth between various instruments and riffs in the song My Wave. Melody-wise, there isn't all that much - but everything else is spot-on. The bass at around 4:20 starts to play independently of the guitar and you get to hear that tasty bass wah-wah. Spoonman is similarly a formidable track for its bassline, with additionally excellent percussion and vocals to bolster it. There's no filler at all, and I could see myself giving this a 5 on a good day.
4/5
Key tracks: Fell On Black Days, Black Hole Sun, Spoonman
The Pogues
3/5
Many of the high energy accordion-based tracks are in the same key, giving the whole experience a bit of a monotonous feel – akin to punk music released a decade prior. And in fact, the punk influence is more obvious than I thought – lots of other reviews mention it as well! The refusal to do any sort of experimentation or have a "wow" factor in an album is an element that's present in both punk and in the Pogues' work. With a few exceptions, the songs never stray from the same three or four chords, nor from the fast, excited, Irish-stepdancing-worth tempo. It would be more excusable to have a sort of "genre-snapshot" record if it were 40 minutes long, but at over an hour's runtime, the sound gets pretty old, pretty quickly. As another reviewer wrote: "Really fun for about 4 songs, and then it's very difficult to listen to. There's only so much Irish pub a man can take."
The opening/title track is a good example of songwriting and lyrical ability, with some pretty solid melodies and an ensemble that hasn't yet tired itself out. Fairytale of New York is almost a good track but fumbles by dropping a slur where it doesn't belong. (Whoops.) Other than that, there are some nice piano lines accompanying a slower balladesque tempo – something I would've liked to see more of. Metropolis is a goofy play on spy/stealth movie soundtracks, and it works surprisingly well as a genre-blend. The Irish Rover is a nice pick-up after a slew of completely unmemorable tracks (including the very questionable Worms) and it has some fun vocal back-and-forths.
3/5
Key tracks: If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Metropolis, The Irish Rover
Tom Waits
2/5
Man, I forgot how terrible this guy's voice is. It could hypothetically work, but definitely not with this weird faux-happy-mysterious-stomp mood that he insists on replicating in all of his music. And half the songs are musically unapproachable (see: the monstrosity Dave The Butcher). There are also a few songs that are technically fine but a bit empty of musical ideas (Frank's Wild Years, Rainbirds, Trouble's Braids). But many of the remaining songs have some interesting hooks to keep them afloat. In The Neighbourhood reminds me of a sort of slow Irish tune – not so different, melodically, from the Pogues album I listened to yesterday. Soldier's Things, while texturally not interesting at all, kind of makes Waits's voice work with the light, airy piano playing. The earlier song Johnsburg Illinois kind of does the same thing but as a sorrowful ballad.
The trombone appears as early as the opening track, Underground (which is a dwarf-chant-type song reminiscent of Diggy Diggy Hole). I couldn't find any fish or swords, even in the title track. Maybe the fish are the friends we made along the way. All in all, the album's only cohesive factor is Waits's bad voice, which is not something to boast about. The music isn't terrible, but nor is it good – certainly not in album form. At least he kept it down to 40 minutes.
2/5
Key tracks: Underground, Johnsburg Illinois, In The Neighbourhood
Dirty Projectors
2/5
The entire time, I was thinking: "what am I supposed to do with this information?" Right from the first track, Cannibal Resource, we hear contrasting elements of several eras of music. The brash, complex timbre of late-70s-esque drumming, guitar tones from a bygone era, both messy and clean vocal harmonies (representing new and old, respectively)... and a melody that's extremely difficult to follow on a first listen. This last aspect is a common theme throughout the album. Temecula Sunrise gets even tougher to follow, introducing what I can only assume are polyrhythms to the mix. And nonsensical guitar solos. Every melody is in conflict with its chord, and at the same time every chord sounds just a bit wrong. The Dirty Projectors pick and choose musical elements seemingly at random – like suddenly introducing a doubled electric guitar and bass line at the end of The Bride with a completely novel riff which is played exactly three times, then the song ends.
Stillness Is The Move and Two Doves are the easiest songs to follow mentally. Probably why they have the most listens on Spotify. In both tracks, I enjoyed the vocals and strings competing to see which high-frequency texture could outperform the other. No Intention is also a fun track with a simple modern-rock texture and a great repeating guitar riff. But others, like The Bride and Fluorescent Half Dome, are unapproachable – at least during the first listen. A bit like Captain Beefheart (or what I imagine his stuff is like – still holding out on Trout Mask Replica until I get it on this list). Or maybe a Frank Zappa mimic who aged less elegantly.
2/5
Key tracks: Stillness Is The Move, No Intention
Tangerine Dream
4/5
Very Pink Floydian. I have to imagine the first track was inspired by On The Run (from The Dark Side Of The Moon) for its fast-paced tempo, repeating ascending bass synth, and ever-changing synth texture in the higher register. Also lots of musical ties with modern ambient music, particularly around the 12-16 minute range when there's no obvious rhythm. It's an excellent track and well ahead of its time. I guess my only issue is that the track doesn't resolve at the end - it just kind of halts. Returning to the original theme might've tied everything together more neatly.
The second track, Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares, uses a string-orchestra-like synth arrangement, combined with some whooshy synths. Definitely conjures some imagery of the great outdoors. The precipice of a windy cliff, gazing out into the aurora blanketing the night sky... At this point I have to imagine most of the 1- and 2-star reviews are from people who don't find imagery in music. Tangerine Dream's style seems to be entirely imagery-based, and they're darn good at it. Track 3, Movements of a Visionary, is a little more unsettling, especially the opening minute or so which is swamped by percussiony electronic sounds played very rapidly. After those fade out, the sound gets a little more relaxed, but there's still an air of uncertainty with the conflicting harmonies never quite resolving. Similar to parts of track 1. The album ends with the short Sequent C, which is essentially a flute-synth-based epilogue to send the listener off on a calm yet hopeful note.
I do kind of see where people are coming from when they say Tangerine Dream is too noodly. The album pretty much lacks any melody or obvious hook. It also takes a long time to progress from one theme to another - though this could easily be considered a strength rather than a weakness. I could see myself coming back to this record, but only for something ambient rather than something to actively appreciate. Pink Floyd (and for that matter, King Crimson and early Genesis) did it slightly better. The 70s had some tough competition.
4/5
Key tracks: Phaedra
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Once again I'm really impressed by the vocalist here. She's utterly perfect for the kind of rambunctious techno-pop-rock they're aiming for.
I wasn't sure what to write that didn't mirror my previous Yeah Yeah Yeahs review, but another review here spoke to me: "Electrifying. Karen O is a rock and roll goddess and the band has a blast on this record. Every song is just a ton of fun, very original, and a lot of good grooves too." I'm not sure that I would go quite that far – seeing as the album peaks compositionally at the beginning and never quite recovers – but it's still darn good.
The relentless bass synth in Zero starts off the album on an intriguing, dark, yet hopeful note. Heads Will Roll is tailor-made for radio play, which (contrary to popular belief) is completely fine. The vocalist's tone alternates between smooth and almost whispery in the bridges(?) to brashly matter-of-fact in the infectiously catchy choruses, to somewhere between in the verses. The chord progression here isn't anything spectacular, but it gets the job done. Soft Shock is another great song, with a peculiar high synth that sort of acts as a makeshift bassline while the bass itself is more dronelike and immobile. Again the singing is fantastic, working with the instruments flawlessly. At this point in the album, though, all three tracks have had roughly the same mood and tempo as one another, and the listener is looking for some tonal variety. Skeletons, with its thinner texture and relative lack of a solid beat definitely achieves that – but at the cost of being just a little less interesting or memorable. The album is pretty good from then on, though I wasn't "wowed" by anything else.
4/5
Key tracks: Zero, Heads Will Roll, Soft Shock
The Mars Volta
4/5
Oh, man. From that first transition (Son et Lumiere -> Inertiatic Esp) you can tell this is going to be something special. The latter is a great all-round track, with the highlight being the very frequent short silences between guitar/bass/percussion/vocal sounds. It's hard to describe but it creates a pretty unique atmosphere that keeps you on your toes. The intro to Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) is insane, particularly the drumming, and this is continued fairly convincingly for the rest of the track. Drunkship of Lanterns is similar but varies the atmosphere relentlessly throughout its 7-minute runtime, really lending credence to The Mars Volta's "prog rock" label. It's kind of overwhelming at times.
Eriatarka pulls a Whole Lotta Love by alternating between high-energy hard-rock sections and trippy interludes. Cicatriz Esp does essentially the same thing, but (at over 12 minutes) is nearly twice as long. This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed does essentially the same thing, and at this point I'm realising this is a little samey. Give me something other than aggressive faux-experimental rock you might find in some Japanese rhythm game. The final two songs, Televators and Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt (the heck are these titles?), do manage to mix things up a little bit. Televators reminds me of Muse's work, particularly with the acoustic guitar and Bellamy-esque vocals. Concluding the album, Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt actually sounds a bit like Muse too – though looking back through the songs here, I might've just missed the resemblance earlier on. Around the 4-minute mark, the song starts a pretty crazy guitar solo with a space-techy sound. Combined with the lighthearted Central-American-style percussion, it sounds weird (and cool) as heck.
Tira Me a Las Aranas is a short experimental track with nothing of substance. For general purposes, I'll pretend it doesn't exist.
4/5
Key tracks: Inertiatic Esp, Eriatarka, Televators
Tina Turner
3/5
A textbook example of what people mean when they say 80s production hasn't aged well. The omnipresent background synths, the synth-drenched vocal mixing, every melodioc/harmonic instrument having its notes mirrored by synths... I think you see a common theme. If you manage to tune out the ridiculously synthesised parts, the rest of this LP is pretty solid. Tina Turner's voice is fun, memorable, soulful. The backing vocals, when they appear (which is more rarely than I'd like), are fairly good. The percussion, while sometimes bad, is also varied enough to maintain interest.
In terms of specific tracks: What's Love Got To Do With It is the obvious lead single here, the chorus being as universally known as it is. I'm not a huge fan of the percussion and synths on the track, but the chorus (and other elements, such as the bass playing) more than make up for it. The feel is warm, fuzzy, groovy. I Can't Stand The Rain is one of the better showcases of synthesisers – that high staccato is actually pretty good – and the singing is top-notch here. I think Let's Stay Together wouldn't have appealed to me as much if its instrumental wasn't so ABBA-sounding. But it is, and I love it for that. On the flipside, the title track (Private Dancer) is not as good as its Spotify listens would suggest, propped up entirely by its piano part. The hook "I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money" is annoying and gets old well before the 7-minute mark. The cover of the Beatles' Help! is bizarre – not exactly bad, but definitely missing the furious, fast-paced charm of the original. And the melody is thrown away entirely. Good luck trying to sing along to Turner's version. The cover of 1984 is also fine (the muddled strings and backing vocals being key highlights) but again a significant step down from the original.
3/5
Key tracks: What's Love Got To Do With It, I Can't Stand The Rain, Let's Stay Together
The Verve
3/5
Bitter Sweet Symphony... what a way to start an album. It's beautiful, well-palyed, and catchy as heck. The Rolling People is essentially an extended 70s-rock jam with a particularly great bassline. Lucky Man is possibly even more symphonic than the opening number, with a gorgeous cacophony of piano, strings, distorted guitar, and overlapping vocal lines. It's incredibly feel-good and is definitely the centrepiece of the album. But the quality is a little choppy across the rest of the album, with many tracks being passable but nothing special. Velvet Morning, Neon Wilderness, Come On / Deep Freeze... they're fine, particularly the guitar parts, but also pretty unmemorable and serve as generic filler (especially in the case of Come On / Deep Freeze).
I'm half convinced all the top-voted reviews (i.e. all those 1- and 2-star ones at the top of the review page) are gut reactions from seeing any British album released in the 1990s on this list. It might amaze some of these people to discover that British music consists of more than one genre! Urban Hymns genuinely sounds nothing like the Britpop that swamps a great proportion of this list – apart from maybe the vocals (which admittedly aren't great). Everything else is so sonically versatile that I struggle to identify it with any one genre apart from, well, alt-rock (as the album's Wikipedia page identifies). It sounds a bit like The Bends-era Radiohead, which notably is not classified as Britpop. Finally, even if it is indeed Britpop, it can still be good. Which this album is, for the most part.
3/5
Key tracks: Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Rolling People, Lucky Man
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
Synth with nice harmonies are plenty enough to get me to enjoy something, and this record is no exception. In fact, I was a little worried looking at the artist's name, album length, and presence of several interludes that this would be yet another bland 90s hip-hop record – but I was immediately and pleasantly surprised. Nights Introlude is smooth as heck, making itself a contender for strongest track right out the gate. The tracks are all in the tried-and-true form of "introduce an idea and repeat it relentlessly, adding and removing textural elements as you go". For the first half of the album, it works pretty well. But all good things must come to an end.
Around the point of Bless My Soul, the tracks *really* start to drag. There's no intra-track progression, no sense of adventure, just one idea repeated for six or seven minutes with the occasional "yeah" or "uh" slapped in to give the passing appearance of an engaging track. ("These artificial disembodied are grooving to the song? I guess the song must be groovy!") Cruise (Don't Stop), apart from having Terraria-soundtrack-esque arpeggio synths at the beginning, falls victim to the same problem. There's just not enough interesting content. Give me a key change, a rhythm change, some song structure, anything! Mission Venice is a great change of pace towards the album's tail end – at just under 3 minutes, its clear-cut melody only gets a little repetitive, and there are multiple well-defined song sections. Definitely a top-3 track. Love the softer breakdown in the middle. Big fan of Rise and its reprise too; those chords are yummy (even if they're heavily looped). These two tracks should have closed the album instead of the almost objectively less interesting Gambia Via Vagator Beach.
3/5
Key tracks: Nights Introlude, Stars, Mission Venice
The Verve
2/5
My second Verve album in 3 days! This one is worse. And I'm not sure I can keep defending this band. Apart from the first three, every single track on this inarguably bloated record is over five minutes long. And most of those tracks have no business being that way. Brainstorm Interlude, Stormy Clouds, (Reprise), and several others are very insistent upon a singular repeating theme (or in some cases literally just a texture with no hook) that is repeated with tolerable vocals placed over the top. I had a similar complaint for Urban Hymns, but at least that album had a selection of fantastic songs to counterbalance the mediocre ones. In contrast, this album has two or three "good" songs, while the rest are more filler than killer.
There are so many questionable elements in the four-song run starting with So It Goes, culminating in the ridiculously out-of-tune singing in Drive You Home. Great violin hook in History, with the whole track probably acting as a precursor to the style and texturing found in Bitter Sweet Symphony. The soft strings backing the vocals in the (pre)choruses are honestly even better. Would've liked to see The Verve take an ELO-type approach (or maybe Radiohead AMSP) and really commit to an orchestral sound, because I've found that has a really high success rate among audiences. Regardless, definitely one of the most emotive, satisfying parts of the album. I'm also a big fan of the bassline and conjoined percussion/rhythm guitar parts in Life's An Ocean. A chill, groovy sound that I'm disappointed they didn't commit to for most of the record.
2/5
Key tracks: On Your Own, History
Boards of Canada
3/5
A tough listen, at least towards the beginning, because of the impenetrable fortress that is An Eagle In Your Mind. Pretty much no melody or (consistent) harmonies/chords to speak of. It's trying so hard to be alien that it forgets to be approachable. But then the disembodied vocals come in with The Color Of The Fire, and you begin to understand what's going on. It's alien music. Music from an alternate timeline, one where humans never existed. It's what I think Radiohead were trying to emulate in 2001 with Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors (a track I will defend until my dying breath), which is admittedly not quite as ear-friendly as Boards of Canada's material here. But Music Has The Right To Children is still not exactly prime radio material, and for that it gets points taken off. Music, first and foremost, needs to sound good.
The best tracks are generally the short interludes, which establish a beautiful atmospheric synth theme before fading away after about a minute. "Something something beauty is fickle/transient". Triangles & Rhombuses is the first genuinely great track (I'm a sucker for pulsating synths) and Kaini Industries, Roygbiv, Olson, and One Very Important Thought are also standouts. They're all warm, vibrant tracks without any message to figure out – you can just sit back and take in the cool sounds, wahoo. In contrast, songs like Sixtyten, Smokes Quantity, and the lengthy bonus track Happy Cycling are mainly built from one (mostly-)unchanging percussive rhythm and a few discordant synths, with little vocal snippets occasionally coming in at random.
3/5
Key tracks: Triangles & Rhombuses, Roygbiv, Olson
Yes
4/5
Summary: Solid 70s prog. I've never actively listened to Yes, so this is the first time I'm noticing just how intricate some of their vocal harmonisations are. Some of the music is a bit complex and alienating to an average listener, but for 1971 I think we can cut musicians a little slack. It was, more than any other year in history, a musical revolution. Lots of influences taken from the likes of the Who, the Beatles, and early Led Zeppelin - as well as being an influence on many artists to come. It's a fun, engaging listen. Friendly on the ears. But it could be friendlier on the mind.
Yours Is No Disgrace: Man, such an "early-70s" sound! Energetic, particularly the drumming, and the chords are simple and very rock-oriented until the vocals come in. There's some weird key-changing going on. Reminds me of Elton John's Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding, with electric guitars and organs replacing the dominant piano part. There's a great bass breakdown at around 2:45. The album is essentially a progressive jam track with multiple contrasting sections that don't transition smoothly at all. I guess that's part of the early-70s prog meta. Even so, good stuff. The acoustic breakdown at 7 minutes is very odd but is carried through by the thick, bluesy bass tone.
The Clap: A short folky instrumental. Reminiscent of Black Mountain Side (the Led Zeppelin version), a little bit. Super interesting harmony ideas going on here, but texturally about as standard as a prog-rock bands is probably ever willing to go. The applause at the end suggests it was performed live, but amidst a bunch of non-live tracks, it feels out of place.
Starship Trooper: A more convincing 10-minute track than Yours Is No Disgrace, though it's pretty close. They're playing around with time signatures and keys here - fun, but is it necessary? Yes (hehe). I can't help but think of Tommy (The Who) during the vocal harmonies, particularly in the section around 4 minutes in. Yes was definitely inspired by that late-60s proto-metal sound. The hook (rapidly ascending major scale) is fun and memorable. Extended outro, with its I-VIb-iv progression, is also really good.
I've Seen All Good People: A song very focused on the singing and vocal melodies/harmonies. Everything else in the intro sequence is mixed down to let the singers shine. Even though it's lighthearted like all the others, this song feels completely different - almost ethereal. At least, until the halfway point, when a fast rock-swing is added to shift the mood entirely into jam territory.
A Venture: I don't know what to make of this one, other than it sounding very good. Love the guitar tone and the subtle lines placed behind the vocals. And, of course, the piano gets a long jazzish solo during the outro. Interestingly, a guitar solo can be made out in the last 5 seconds as the song fades out. It's so quiet by that point, though, that it's difficult to tell. Would've loved to hear the full solo.
Perpetual Change: Thick distortion on the opening suspended chords. It's a distinctive and appetising intro. And the crystal-clear electric guitar tone is back (wahoo!). Middle section sounds like Katy Lied-era Steely Dan, featuring some guitar-piano mishmash and several minutes of excellent (if a little one-dimensional) soloing. I get the feeling the lyrics are important here, but that's for somebody else to figure out.
4/5
Key tracks: Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good People
1/5
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
1/5
Key tracks: Good Old Days, Rejoicing, Feet Music
Leonard Cohen
3/5
The song You Know Who I Am is in a gritty, sorrowful minor key that makes the song stand out from the crowd. It's the best song here by such a wide margin that I was kind of stunned when I looked at the track listing on Spotify and saw it had the second-least number of listens on the album. Everything else is fine, passable, but so brutally unmemorable that I could never forgive myself (or anybody else) giving it 4 or 5 stars. What is it about country mumbling alongside a poorly mixed acoustic guitar for 40 minutes that makes people think, "You know what this is? One of the best albums I've ever listened to." The lyrics are fine – or indeed great, if you're somebody who actually focuses on lyricism – but the sound? Not so much. I would immediately forgive a lot of these sins if the album had come out in 1854 or if the down-tracks were balanced out with something more uptempo. But it seems Cohen isn't particularly keen on giving his listeners the album experience they deserve.
The competition is stiff in 1969, what with Led Zeppelin's first two records, the Beatles' Abbey Road, the Velvet Underground's self-titled, King Crimson's debut, Zappa's Hot Rats, and the Stones' Let It Bleed. Cohen's in the very same music scene. He can do better – though I'll give him credit for not tiring me out, even after two of his albums. Not yet, anyway...
3/5
Key tracks: A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes, The Old Revolution, You Know Who I Am
k.d. lang
3/5
Much better than her lacklustre debut Shadowland, which is also an entry on this list. Ingenue starts with a warm, well-arranged number in Save Me. The acoustic guitar, light hand percussion, and velvety vocals (lead and backing) make for a solid texture. Gorgeous old-timey strings (think original Disney fairytale films) are used frequently throughout the album in combination with some pretty great backing vocals and solid mixing to create a generally lovely, albeit not unique, sound. The first half of the album is much more consistent than the second in this regard, with most of tracks 1-5 following this same warm mid-tempo feel. k.d. lang's singing is fine, about on par with her previous performances.
The entire sound is a bit held back - something I also took issue with in Shadowland. I felt the whole time (in Ingenue) that k.d. lang was searching for a big break, a rocky blast of emotion and loud percussion somewhere in one or several of the songs. Instead, every song is more or less the same volume and textural depth as the rest. We do get a variety of genres and harmonic ideas though, from the jazzy swing and unexpected stadium-rock change in Season of Hollow Soul to the soft, introspective Wash Me Clean, to the upbeat pop of Constant Craving. Tears of Love's Recall is the worst song of the pack because it forgoes any kind of memorable memory in favour of... something. I'm not really sure what k.d. lang saw in this composition but I definitely don't see it.
3/5
Key tracks: Miss Chatelaine, Still Thrives This Love, Season of Hollow Soul
Syd Barrett
3/5
Not sure what to think of this album. Octopus is a true return to form for Barrett, capturing the playful whimsy that marked his brand of psychedelia in 1966/67 and even outshining many of the tracks on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. For that reason, it's the best song on this record. Here I Go, with its fun chord progressions and unusually low vocal register, works so well as a collective that it can't help but stand out too. And No Good Trying should have been the first song on the album. People (hippies) are coming from Pink Floyd records like Atom Heart Mother and seeking out the artistic, talented psychedelia-virtuoso who started it all. They should get what they came for.
The actual album opener (Terrapin) stands out for the wrong reasons. It's clumsy, out-of-tune, and harrowingly self-aware. Interesting choice to start the album, particularly in the context of Barrett's downward spiral. It began in 1967 with his overdosing on hallucinogens and emotional withdrawal, continued through the late 60s with his departure from Pink Floyd, and culminates here (or starts to culminate, anyway). The songs Feel and She Took a Long Cold Look are also passable but feel pretty detached from reality, even by Barrett's standards. If It's in You is an interesting but bad inclusion on the record because it shows some studio interaction – and we're once again reminded of how Barrett is been essentially exploited and touted as a "fallen hero". As another reviewer eloquently put it: "It didn't feel like the demonstration of a lost genius; it felt like a ramshackle using of a talented but troubled man." Despite all the British whimsy on The Madcap Laughs, there's an undeniable dark undertone. And though it's not pleasant to the ear, it gives context to the listener that they wouldn't otherwise have. Man, poor Syd. The guy had it rough.
3/5
Key tracks: No Good Trying, Here I Go, Octopus
Sonic Youth
3/5
Same musical echelon as their earlier album E.V.O.L., but slightly more adherent to chord progressions, melodies, and hooks. The influence from other grunge bands really benefits Sonic Youth here, creating a more palatable kind of noise rock than some other contemporaries. But noise rock, at its root, is all about the passion and not about the sound. Nothing about this sounds particularly good. The instruments are all played well, but the notes and tones they're playing (particularly the guitars) are verging on noise-for-the-sake-of-noise. Swimsuit Issue is the first real offender here, though the first half of the record is pretty good overall.
The song "100%" is a solid, punchy way to start the album. I would've like a melody instead of the singer kind of muscling his way through the lyrics as though he has a personal grudge. Great drumming though. Orange Rolls Angel's Spit is an absolute debacle of a song, with several completely unintelligible verses/chords of various timbres. There's nothing good and everything bad about the lyrics, which sound partly inspired by babies going through an amphetamine withdrawal. It's a shame, because it comes right after the coolest and (probably) cleanest track, Sugar Kane. The entire album is a little patchy from this point onward, with Youth Against Fascism being passable but fading into abrasive punk territory, and Nic Fit not even trying to avoid the punk influence anymore. I really like Chapel Hill, particularly its riff and the breakdown+speeding up towards the end. This is in contrast to JC, a melodiless and aimless song with only its percussion going for it. The vocals, guitar, and bass are all muddy and unappealing. All in all, not much better than E.V.O.L. (if it's even better at all).
3/5
Key tracks: 100%, Sugar Kane, Chapel Hill
Jethro Tull
5/5
Another ultra-classic addition to the monster of a year that was 1971. Sounds like a softer version of Black Sabbath, particularly with the singing. The title/opening track is a solid prog-folk number, featuring plenty of different instruments played near-flawlessly. Great riff, though it really only appears at the start and end. The piano and bass are highlights, and the latter really stands out during the guitar solo at the song's halfway point. Drum fills in the outro are solid too. The percussion sound throughout the album is very reminiscent of its time (or even late 60s), rather than the crash-heavy stadium drum sound that would come to define the 70s. It's such a feelgood atmosphere that you can't help but vibe along, even if it's not really "dancing"/radio music. (Not yet, anyway.) Cross-Eyed Mary has an excellent riff and a biting, groovy feel. Interesting combo with the flute but I think it works. And even though I'm not one for lyrics, it's hard to miss references to the previous track. This is a religion-based concept album whether you like it or not. I like it.
By the time we get to the song Mother Goose, it's clear they're committing to this folk-tale-rock feel that I loved so much back in King Crimson's debut record. There are a few interlude tracks mixed in with the 5-plus minute ones, and while they're not perfect, they're (musically) leagues ahead of any hip-hop interlude you could dream of. My God is a solid start to side 2, though I feel there should be more than just the one somewhat undeveloped riff carrying us through the whole 7 minutes, as nifty and spy-movie-esque it is. The following song, though... man, it's so good. Hymn 43 is just about perfection when placed after My God, with its brisk pace, variety of guitar lick hooks, a prominent and skilful piano part, a groovy, bluesy feel... It's probably the most radio-friendly track on here. And of course it manages to sneak in Jethro Tull's signature flute. The last two songs are just as solid, the final one having a similar progressive rock feel to the opener.
All in all, a very human, passionate take on folk/prog rock. These guys are pretty good.
5/5
Key tracks: Cross-Eyed Mary, Up to Me, Hymn 43
Common
4/5
The opening number, Be, is weird as heck. It consists of a very melodic bloop-synth (think 80s-arcade-machine-core) combined with some messy violins, a double bass, a low-quality rap beat, and a pretty solid rap vocal. Really odd – but honestly, it works wonders. The synth is so odd and endearing that it really sells the track. The double bass is a common theme and carries this old-fashioned jazzy quality that creates a wholely unique hip-hop feel. Nice small-combo-jazz feel too, particularly in songs like Real People that put specific emphasis on horn likes and chord progressions. The lo-fi feel is fantastic and is featured on pretty much every song except The Food.
Like a disappointingly large proportion of hip-hop, the lyrics are a swing and a miss. Even in the most popular track: "Go and uh ooh baby, she liked it raw and / Like rain when she came, it poured / And like a car that I can't afford / I would want it then want some more / The positions our frames explored let me know / She was secure, back for more"... And in a later track: "Wonder how many of us these drugs gonna touch / Used to gangbang, ain't really thug that much / Rather have some thick broads then the dutch to clutch"... Yeah. Not great. And the lyrics don't improve much from there. On the bright side, it's pretty easy to tune out the vocals because the instrumental is so fun to listen to. Check those keyboards! The muted trumpets, backing vocals, and piano in Faithful! It's so tastefully done that it could easily get a 5-star rating without the melody-lacking lead vocal. Picture the track Testify with just the female vocalist, with her bluesy, soulful lyrics. And without the comparatively monotonous male vocal. Dang it, this Common bloke's music would be so much better if... well, if he wasn't in it. The track They Say gets close to this, featuring Common's singing voice, and it's a sonic breakthrough I hope he picked up on in later recordings.
NB: the PhD guy is an idiot.
4/5
Key tracks: Be (Intro), Faithful, Real People
Aerosmith
3/5
Pretty standard stadium rock, and likeable enough. The opening number, Young Lust, is a fireball number with a vocal hook the singer obviously really liked given how much it's repeated. The song is memorable and earwormy, and it doesn't stop there. It turns out, though, that most songs here can be described that way. Everything here is driven, upbeat, glamorous, slick. Very much imitative of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and other contemporaries. And they weren't like this with their 70s output. This is a response to the stadium/glam-metal movement throughout the 80s, which I think really takes away from the album's historical value. Anything made to appease the masses will always be overshadowed by a group at the forefront of a genre. I've never appreciated bands who follow trends for the heck of it, because it goes wonky more often than not.
The guitars, though, are great. The solo lines in Going Down/Love In An Elevator must sound incredible love, plus of course the high echoey vocal harmony during the chorus. And there are a few tracks that stand out like a healthy thumb (because they're unexpectedly good). One of them is Water Song/Janie's Got A Gun. The addition of wind instruments and other acoustic elements, plus several sections of varying texture/volume, works wonders here. Dulcimer Stomp/The Other Side is also a standout, for its heavily acoustic intro and its melody that kind of serves as an development of the previous track. Hoodoo/Voodoo Medicine Man has a distinctive intro, at least, but falls prey to a fairly anonymous/acceptable/crowd-pleasing 80s stadium atmosphere thereafter. Still decent, though. Weird choice to include an accordion and a didgeridoo, among others. I guess that was Aerosmith's attempt at pushing the limits of the genre? Probably would've been the same quality without them.
3/5
Key tracks: Going Down/Love In An Elevator, Water Song/Janie's Got A Gun, Dulcimer Stomp/The Other Side
R.E.M.
4/5
Cool! I was worried Automatic For The People would be a tonally bleak version of R.E.M.'s earlier records, but it definitely holds its own. And sure, most of the songs here are focused more on slow emotional build-up than instant-gratification pop rock (with The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and Man On The Moon being exceptions). But everything here feels intentional, intellectual, carefully considered. Even if it isn't always the right decision in the end. Monty Got A Raw Deal and Star Me Kitten are two slightly peculiar tracks that lack any memorable moments, hooks, riffs, and so on. In fact, only a couple of songs here really shine in that regard: Everybody Hurts with its lyrics and chorus, Man On The Moon for its thick vocal harmonies, and Drive that catches you completely off-guard if you were expecting a punchy/upbeat album opener.
Apparently Led Zeppelin's ex-bassist John Paul Jones was heavily involved in the string arrangements on this album. And no wonder – the strings sound great! Stipe's voice is definitely iconic and immediately recognisable, though I agree with the reviewer who wrote: "I really like it, though sometimes I find he becomes a bit of an American Morrissey, just warbling and rambling out of time on certain tracks." As for the album as a whole, I don't know exactly what's missing, but something is. The "wow" factor, the element that turns it from a classic record into an artistic experience. As it stands now, it's every bit as good as Document, which I also gave 4 stars.
4/5
Key tracks: Drive, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Everybody Hurts
2/5
The production stands out immediately, for the wrong reasons. It's a bit blurry, very much a relic of its time. Definitely in need of a remaster - and the fact that it isn't suggests there isn't much demand for it. The compositions are fine, nothing standout for the mid/late-60s, but good enough. I would've liked a little more variety in instrumentation than a country-twang lead guitar, simple 1-5-1-5 bass part, extremely plain drumming, and the one singer (who, to be fair, is great) occasionally with some backing vocals. There's only so much you can really glean from an album like this through a modern lens. No variation, no commitment to an "album experience" as a singular piece of art... It's really just a collection of similar-sounding songs, most of which aren't originals. Is this really part of a list of the 1000 most important albums in history?
I found myself hunting down tiny snippets of songs that made them stand out from the crowd - if even a little bit. The two-note interjective lick in The Devil Gets His Due. The fluttery, elusive piano part in I'm Living In Two Worlds. I Got Caught for ending the album on such a goofy upbeat note (and sounding nearly identical to the opening track - a bold move!). And Don't Come Home A-Drinkin, if only because it's one of her hits and is actually decently catchy. But the lyrics throughout this record aren't anything impressive, despite lyricism usually being a key focus of country music.
2/5
Key tracks: Don't Come Home A-Drinkin', The Devil Gets His Due, I'm Living In Two Worlds
Frank Ocean
2/5
This is a bit of a frustrating listen. The instruments (everything non-vocal) are almost impeccably clean, synth-drenched, and harmonically tasty – jazz fans would be proud. Unfortunately, the chill lo-fi-esque sound falls apart when Frank Ocean attempts to add vocals. Because his singing, particularly his melodies, don't mesh with the chords being played. At all. It's almost as if he recorded a freeform vocal line, then composed a completely unrelated electronic mix on a completely different day. The disconnect here makes channel ORANGE hard to legitimately groove with. At a glance, you notice "whoa, perfectly-mixed synths and drums. this sounds crazy cool." and at another glance, you hear the singing and think "hey, this guy's pretty good with his voice." But the two don't go together at all – save for a few tracks like Thinkin Bout You, Lost, and the surprisingly great interlude Fertilizer.
Speaking of interludes, though: man, hip-hop artists really didn't learn from the 90s. Interludes break up an album's flow rather than glue it together. Ocean's ones aren't as egregiously jarring as most of his contemporaries, but the album still would've been better without them (or in the case of Fertilizer, it should have been a full-length song).
One thing I have to mention is that this guy sounds like Stevie Wonder. The chord progressions, voice quality, and frequent use of keyboards are common elements. But where Wonder shines with catchy melodies, incorporation of big-band textures, and moving lyricism, Ocean completely falls apart.
2/5
Key tracks: Thinkin Bout You, Lost, Bad Religion
Grant Lee Buffalo
2/5
The opening number, The Shining Hour, isn't very melody-focused. The singer seems to be picking a haphazard series of blues-scale notes and belting them out with more oomph than tunefulness. But hey, it's better than no melody at all. And starting with Jupiter and Teardrop, it gets a heck of a lot more listenable. Nice acoustic guitar tone, especially when the electric guitar jolts you awake with a dreamy, distorted solo. The guitar are a real highlight throughout the album, with their peak possibly being the title track. Lots of (post-)psychedelia-type tones in the choruses and solo. The acoustic strings also do a solid job in the music, giving it a heavily American tone that toes the line between country and late-80s rock.
The sound gets very cumbersome about halfway through the album. Soft Wolf Tread and Stars n' Stripes have very lazily delivered vocals and fairly unconvincing instrumental parts – the vocals exposing just how limited this guy's range is. Some of the higher sung notes in these later songs are egregiously out-of-tune, and it's up to the other instruments to cover for that. Sometimes they do – Dixie Drug Store has a fun piano-based, honky-tonk atmosphere. You Just Have To Be Crazy is a slow yet powerful way to close off the record. But for about half the time, the sound is either unkempt or uninteresting.
So the album is about 50-50 on "the good vs the bad". That being said, an album like this (particularly when it's not that famous) should be judged harshly. How did it get onto this list, other than Michael Stipe really liking it?
2/5
Key tracks: Fuzzy, Wish You Well, The Hook
The Young Gods
1/5
First track: "The Girl Of Death". Sounds like the perfect title for a heavy-metal banger, especially with its 8-minute runtime. But instead we get this incredibly odd whimsy-prog one-bar-loop thing, featuring flutes and a vocalist that can only be described as "huskier Roger Waters". I definitely see the connection to Pink Floyd, as several other reviewers have pointed out – even their earlier material, like A Saucerful of Secrets. But where Pink Floyd (usually) lands on their feet after a chaotic episode, The Young Gods amputate those feet and then scream at you as if it's your own fault. That first track contains five different sections and none of them are thematically connected or smoothly transitioned. Progressive rock? More like regressive (take that!)!
A scant few tracks here toe the line between interesting and palatable. And one of the three "listenable" numbers (Pas Mal) wasn't included on the original album release. It's straightforward screamy metal, which importantly includes a metal element and is hence at least slightly good. Nice drums, I guess. Charlotte is almost a sea shanty, with the accordion not exactly helping matters – but it also avoids being deafening and/or horrifically terrible, which is always a plus. I also enjoyed Rue des tempêtes with its rapid, tense, unnerving atmosphere. Tragically, the album contains seven other songs, and they all suck. Mostly because of the Tom Waits-esque singing, which quickly diverges from Waters into an irritating atonal shell that barely resembles anything human. Most aspects of the music are pretty atonal, though. And we've learned since 1989 that atonality doesn't (in fact!) sound good.
1/5
Key tracks: Rue des tempêtes, Charlotte, Pas Mal
Jeru The Damaja
1/5
When you see a pre-2000s album with "(Explicit Version)" in the title and three 1-minute interlude tracks, you know you're in for a bumpy ride. Actually, The Sun Rises In The East isn't too bad (sonically), other than lacking energy and creativity compared to most 21st-century hip-hop material. In many tracks, the quality is kind of blurry, as though the instruments are submerged underwater. The production is definitely nowhere near the height at which other reviewers are touting it. Lots of fun drum noises and sampling does not equate to good-sounding production even if it was technically difficult to pull off. There are too many misogynistic lines to keep tracks of (and here I was thinking hip-hop was lyrically listenable before the 90s).
Plus, of course, the all-too-common problem of having no melody, making it almost intentionally unmarketable and unlistenable. At least put in some sung choruses! – because the constant onslaught of monotonous noise gets old really quickly. The song Da Bichez is the first decent track in terms of pure instrumental sound (the drumming, bass, and trombone are on point), but unfortunately the lyrics are so obviously terrible that you can't possibly enjoy them and simultaneously be a good person. "Most chicks(...) spend up all your ends, probably fuck your friends / High-post attitudes, real rude with fat asses / Think that the pussy is made out of gold" ...Then, in the very same track, Jeru The Damaja goes on with the absolute corker "I body slam her but I'm not a misogynist". You can't make this up.
The vocal distortions in the line "B-B-Brooklyn keeps on t-t-takin' it" are pretty sweet, though. Also the "Oh-oh! Heads up 'cause we're dropping some shit" in Come Clean is nifty. Not enough to push the record beyond 1 star, but then the website average is a viciously generous 2.94 stars, so what do I know?
1/5
Key tracks: Ain't The Devil Happy, My Mind Spray, Jungle Music
Dion
2/5
The songs are too slow and too intentionally "anthemic" for my taste. The entirety of the record, particularly side 1, has a sluggish tempo and poor production on most instruments. Your Own Back Yard is an exception, having good-sounding guitars that make up most of the instrumentation. Dion's voice is fine but heavily marred by clumsy mixing and the compositions being kind of stale. I could tell this was getting a mediocre rating from me when I read the review telling me I could stop after song #8, and felt nothing but relief. Not that the album's terrible – in fact, it's tailored to be pretty listenable, especially if you aren't listening closely – but it's by no means great.
(He's Got) The Whole World in His Hands, more noticeably than any other track, showcases some egregiously bad production, particularly on the vocals. It maxes out pretty much any time Dion makes a noise, creating a distracting static-y effect that drags down the entire song. Not that the other instruments were really helping. In and out of the Shadows has essentially the same problem. The entire record has a dated, gramophone-era feel, and not for the better. 1975 was the year of A Night at the Opera, Wish You Were Here, One of These Nights, Physical Graffiti... if you want to compete with the big guns for success, particularly success on what should be a highly competitive compilation of modern Western music (this list!), you need to do better.
2/5
Key tracks: Your Own Back Yard, Only You Know
Michael Jackson
5/5
All these upvoted 1-star reviews, and most of them cite Mr MJ being a child molester. Either that or a perceived "dead zone" in the album from tracks 3 through 6. Re the first point: sure, Mikey wasn't the cream of the crop when it came to proper human etiquette, but he wrote some seriously infectious material and (I would argue) changed popular culture for the better much more significantly than he marred it. And even if that weren't the case, you don't have to virtue-signal-hate all of his music to give the middle finger to terrible people like him. The art is not the same as the artist. Half the music on this list (debatably the better half) would be unlistenable if that were the case.
Re the second point – that the album has at least one streak of unmemorable tracks – are you sure? Compare this to artists like Throbbing Gristle, or Pere Ubu, or Public Image Ltd – and you'll realise just how much MJ's other material (mainly Off The Wall and Thriller) have raised the standards. Because Speed Demon and Just Good Friends are solid. Great, even. The feel-good melodies and backing vocals, the insanely catchy basslines, MJ's energetic vocal delivery... you can't ask for much more from 80s music. But because they're not Billie Jean or The Way You Make Me Feel, the whole album is brought down? I don't think so. I'm willing to bet some people didn't pay attention during an initial listen, glanced at the Spotify numbers for tracks 3-6, saw they were a bit lower than the rest, and decided they must've been terrible. If that's how you're approaching the project, then you're entirely missing the point.
Regardless... this is a great record. If not as good as Thriller, then it's darn close – and 80s audiences seem to agree with me.
5/5
Key tracks: Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal
Missy Elliott
2/5
You know when you can tell an album is going to be pretty terrible based on its title and track listing alone? Yeah. Having 10 of the 17 songs featuring other musicians, especially for a debut record, gives this intense feeling of unprofessionalism that you see in a lot of hip-hop records. Plus the interlude tracks that add little other than a sweet chord progression on the synths. Bite Our Style and Missy's Finale could, and should, be cut entirely without anybody missing much. From tracks 11 through 17, only one (Gettaway) had anything musically interesting or memorable: specifically, the chorus ("Said I'm writin' rhymes, writin' rhymes every day") and the backing beatboxing. There are some other runs of decent tracks earlier, too, including The Rain / Beep Me 911 / They Don't Wanna Fuck wit Me.
Sonically, it was better than I expected – but the clunky track naming and horrific lyricism put me off somewhat.
In the song I'm Talkin': "Like a dick / I make myself sick / I'm so motherfuckin bad to the bone / Like my titties are full blown / My style of rappin, my style / I'm such, such a good rapper / I'm such, such a good rapper".
In Him 'Em wit da Hee: "It's the Q to the B to the double E spittin' lovely / And it don't stop, rocks shine through my tank top / Where your bank stop, I despot all the one drops / Think not, excuse me but uh I like to flow / Cause this joint knocks harder than indicot".
On the topic of lyrics, I wish she'd stop mentioning Timbaland in a feeble attempt to make this a concept album (or maybe break the fourth wall?). It gets old really quickly, and by Izzy Izzy Ahh, where Missy Elliott's moaning and meowing between bouts of "Timbaland my guy", I'm about ready to tap out. Only to realise I'm barely halfway through the album.
2/5
Key tracks: The Rain, Beep Me 911, Best Friends
Culture Club
3/5
Perfectly pleasant and passable 80s material, with nothing especially bad pushing it below an average rating. I'm very surprised by the average sitting at 2.80 stars (which indicates a lot more 1s and 2s than usual) given that this is pretty distinctive-sounding for its time and compared to the rest of the list. And, to top it off, the whole record has decent melodies, harmonies, instrumentation, and groove. Really, the only especially bad parts of this album I noticed were the cover art (messy, cluttered, too colourful) and its lead single, Karma Chameleon, being massively overplayed. It's a carbon copy of most other huge singles from the decade (compare this to Take On Me – they're shockingly similar). Also, Stormkeeper is kind of a boring song compared to the rest of the pack.
All that being said, Colour By Numbers still impresses me. That's The Way is a pretty piano ballad that absolutely deserves more listens than it seems to have, particularly seeing that the questionable 80s production sheen is completely absent there. Church Of The Poison Mind is also a standout, mostly for the excellent backing vocalist in the chorus. Nice driving tempo too, with trumpets punctuating each line like any sensible 80s track would do. It's A Miracle is essentially a mildly stripped-down disco track, again with the great backing vocals that defy description other than "dang, that's great". In fact, the entire album reads as a response to Chic's 1979 album Risqué, perhaps with slightly less complex instrumental arrangement and marginally better compositions.
3/5
Key tracks: It's A Miracle, That's The Way, Church Of The Poison Mind
Dead Kennedys
4/5
The vocals here are unerringly entertaining. I find that, with punk, the singing can either make or break the music. As they should in any genre – because, generally, vocals are the focal point of any piece that includes them. Jello Biafra isn't exactly technically good with his voice, but he has this playful raspiness that really lifts the experience past most of the Dead Kennedys' contemporaries. The instrument playing is a bit brutish and (for the most part) lacks technique, but in this case I'm convinced that's an artifact of the genre rather than of these specific players. In Drug Me, the guitar and bass start absolutely shredding and you realise that these Kennedys are very much Alive. Staying true to punk rock, the album is mostly focused on underdeveloped motifs, loud noises, and sticking the finger to a perceived "musical establishment." The way I see it, the Dead Kennedys made the best of a bad trend.
Then there are the lyrics, which normally I don't pay much attention to but are simply too comedic to let pass:
"Oh, life's a dream with you Miss Lily White / Jane Fonda on the screen today / Convinced the liberals it's okay / So let's get dressed and dance away the night / While they kill, kill, kill, kill, kill the poor"
"I am Governor Jerry Brown / My aura smiles and never frowns / Carter power will soon go away / I will be Führer one day"
"We're gonna steal your mail / By the pale moonlight / We better not get caught / We'll be dumped in institutions / Where we'll be drugged and shocked / Till we come out born-again Christians"
4/5
Key tracks: Kill The Poor, Chemical Warfare, Viva Las Vegas
Aerosmith
4/5
My third album from Aerosmith! We start with a pretty sick guitar line in Back In the Saddle, coupled with a slightly messy rhythm section and very vague, generic songwriting. It almost sounds like something spat out by generative AI when you prompt it to write a 5-minute classic rock track. But with a nifty mixolydian-mode riff that surely involved some human intervention. The whole thing's pretty much one chord, but these drug-pumped laddies seem to be having a time with it. I won't get in their way. Last Child continues the trend of the guitar hook being a clear standout - and the bass, mirroring the guitar in the verses(?), seems to agree. Sick solo, too. The band seems to be finding their groove more in this track than to the last. The song Combination is another standout for its pretty intense resemblance to the Stones' style. Maybe a little more on the electric side, but the brash harmonised vocalised leave little to be desired. Pretty cool!
Maybe the weakest track here is the one with the most obviously flawed production: Nobody's Fault. (It's somebody's fault.) The echo on the lead guitar and vocals was something used a lot in 70s and 80s stadium rock, and it's one of the genre's worst downfalls. Clear vocals are the best vocals. Fortunately, most other tracks on Rocks don't have the same issue.
All in all, nothing mind-blowing - but it still grooves like heck. And the track and album lengths are perfect. I would've liked a little more instrumental/genre variety. We hear a slower power ballad in the album closer Home Tonight, but otherwise it's pretty standard medium-energy classic rock with swagger and not much vulnerability or virtuosity. Aerosmith was up against steep competition in 1976, particularly the works of Stevie Wonder, the Eagles, Steely Dan, and Queen - so the fact that they managed to hold their own on the charts with this record (#3 in the US!) is a feat unto itself.
4/5
Key tracks: Last Child, Rats In The Cellar, Combination
Stan Getz
4/5
Some great stuff going on here, most notably the crystal-clear production (by 1964 standards). Gilberto's vocals are something pretty special. They're soft, eloquent, silky-smooth, and seemingly transcend language barriers, conveying characters from tired party hosts to lamenting ex-lovers. The sax is the liveliest instrument throughout the record, jumping between chords rapidly in a way that tells you these guys are professionals. But they don't try to flaunt their virtuosity, which I can respect. Its quiet complexity also means it works well for both background and close listening. The Girl From Ipanema is the clear standout and I can definitely see why it was selected as the lead single. Crisp vocals, a catchy chorus (kind of unexpected for bossa nova/jazz), a simple repeated piano riff. Although, listening to the remaining tracks, you could feasibly describe all of them like this. Whoops.
The piano and keyboard parts really define this bossa nova sound that, for its time, was very nearly a swan song for the genre. Getz and Gilberto propelled jazz back into the mainstream music sphere with this record and its predecessors "Jazz Samba" and "Big Band Bossa Nova" - but this record takes it to more accessible and (dare I say it) radio-friendly territory. The sound is fairly minimalist, lessening the danger of abrasive elements that some people might fault in rock'n'roll records of the time. But it also seriously limits the ways in which tracks on the album can vary from one another, demonstrating the most common problem I have with albums on this list. For 5 stars, an album needs to do something pretty out-there, and the easiest way to achieve that is to present a variety of sounds and styles. Not many artists/bands do that, so doing it is a surefire way to stand out.
4/5
Key tracks: The Girl From Ipanema, Desafinado, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)
Tears For Fears
4/5
The opening track, Shout, could've been overly repetitive. But its track length was actually pretty good, and with a few added instrumental solos, I could see this being a top-tier 80s track. It's catchy, intense, riveting, and easy to get an audience to roar along to. Musically, it's a little dull (and we encounter this issue throughout the album) but this isn't too much of a problem. Normally the production of 80s pop records is a bit frustrating, what with the airy, generic percussion, overuse of synths, and questionable use of echo effect in most vocal parts. But Tears For Fears pulls it off really convincingly. It helps that they incorporate some pre-80s sounds, particularly in the guitars – such as in Everybody Wants To Rule The World. (Side note: I love this song. As do a ton of people, clearly!) As another reviewer wrote: "Masterful pop production. It wears its era on its sleeve, which is perhaps the only complaint, but also a big part of the charm."
The tracks are long but don't really overstay their welcome, especially as background listening. Normally I'm not a fan of five-plus-minute tracks unless they're some variety of prog. Despite this, Tears For Fears make good use of slow, dramatic tempos and engaging textures to combat this and get away with an 8-track, 40-minute album. Indeed, lots of factors here shouldn't work but do anyway. Even the weird falsetto(?) delivery in the song I Believe has this weird charm (helped substantially by the beautiful sax and piano parts) that makes it very difficult to hate.
4/5
Key tracks: Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World,
Bobby Womack
4/5
Funky post-disco style. And of course, plenty of soul. Womack's vocal is pretty great, full of emotion and complemented by the solid backing vocals. Despite having barely missed the height of disco, The Poet actually pulls the genre off better than most actual disco albums. It's less dated, for sure. In general, the shorter tracks here are slightly stronger – with the exception of Secrets, which (according to my rules) prevents the album from getting 5 stars. So Many Sides Of You has a slightly cliché melody/chorus but the instrumentation is more than enough to compensate. Great punchy track to open the album. If You Think You're Lonely Now is excellent, featuring a lot of back-and-forth between Womack and other instruments, plus something similar to scatting that he does surprisingly effectively. Also a shoutout to Stand Up for its percussion and fast tempo. It's impossible not to tap your foot to this one.
I have no idea what's going on in Secrets lyrically.
"When you hold me close, and do all the things / You do to me, oh wee, baby / Just like some good ol' Kentucky fried chicken"
"She takes me for a younger bonus revelation / But the first time in my life I'm getting off on her conversation / Just like the apple pies my mama made from scratch".
...I don't know where to begin. But whatever it is, it's distracting enough to render the whole song a miss. I'm also not a big fan of choruses delivered entirely by backing vocalists, which was (oddly) a big early-80s trend. Steely Dan's Gaucho record would've been a contender for the best album of the year 1980 if it hadn't done this.
4/5
Key tracks: So Many Sides Of You, If You Think You're Lonely Now
Talk Talk
3/5
Double bass immediately stands out in the first track, Happiness Is Easy. It transforms the stereotypical 80s sound into something more soulful, more alive. Pretty cool. Jazzy chords and a children's choir accompaniment make this track stand out for all the right reasons, including that it give the listener a break from the lead vocal. I'm not a fan of the singing at all, though at least it doesn't really get in the way of the good stuff. Hollis's vocal kind of blends in with the other instruments, not unlike a lot of solid shoegaze material from the following decade. But it's a little out of tune and has a nasal quality that gets old fairly quickly. Vocal echo does not help with bad singing, since you essentially hear the same lyrics several times in quick succession, and I'm glad that trend has mostly phased out of modern music.
Life's What You Make It has an exotic anthemic feel. The bassline (which I think is played on piano) is an obvious highlight, but I also like the dreamy spring-morning mood established by the production and relatively light percussion. Great use of organs/keyboard too, not just in this track but also in Give It Up (among others). There's some influence from psychedelia and, to an extent, prog rock. Sometimes it works, as in this track. In others, like April 5th, the sound is a bit bland, attempting to pull off some kind of feverish Pink Floyd-esque instrumental but not quite being engaging enough to pull it off. It's still likeable enough, especially as background noise, but there just isn't enough going on instrumentally or compositionally to make me want to come back for more. The song Chameleon Day is similar, although thankfully its length is 3:20 (as opposed to an average of 5-6 minutes for the other tracks) and it passes as pleasant, boring filler.
3/5
Key tracks: Happiness Is Easy, Life's What You Make It
T. Rex
4/5
It immediately sounds like a more intense Bowie creation. I got that impression less than 2 seconds into the opening track, Metal Guru. Something about T. Rex's intonation and mannerisms, even his hair and expression on the album cover, give off this glamorous alien alter-ego persona much like that of Ziggy Stardust. The production is a little messy and overwhelming, which unfortunately was a bit of a counterculture fixture of the 70s. That, along with the music here not being very catchy or singable, is what drops this down to a 4. I have the exact same criticisms for Aladdin Sane – the two records actually parallel each other in a lot of ways.
More consistent than Electric Warrior, T. Rex's previous album – though I feel I rated that one a little harshly when I first heard it over a year ago. Electric Warrior has stronger singles, but The Slider so incredibly slick and stylistically assured that I couldn't help but enjoy it more. Rock On, The Slider, Baby Boomerang, Buick Mackane, Telegram Sam, Chariot Choogle, Ballrooms Of Mars... Every song has a slightly different feel to the last, and the riffs aren't anything to sneeze at. They're well thought out and excellently played.
4/5
Key tracks: Rock On, The Slider, Buick Mackane
Giant Sand
2/5
Giant Sand is going for a bland, stripped-back sound – represented visually by the cover artwork – and they definitely succeed. Not only do most tracks only consist of 2-3 instruments, the vocals (which are one of the few instruments present) are often in a low, almost atonal register and lack any easy-to-remember melody. I haven't heard much music like this, where it's unapproachable not due to excessive experimentation but (rather) to a complete lack of commitment to make anything interesting. But there you go, I guess. Songs like Raw, X-Tra Wide, and Dirty from the Rain are good examples of this husky atonality that isn't necessarily bad, but is so goshdarn frustrating to hear from a 21st-century album. And an album in a list of the 1001 most important records of all time. The heck?
A scant few factors save this from being dreadful. There are a few decent acoustic tracks, often featuring a glimmery piano or guitar line that completely props up the main vocal. Temptation of Egg and Bottom Line Man are two of the best examples of this. Many of the dullest tracks, like 1972, Overture, and Shrine, are thankfully very short. This is in sharp contrast to a lot of hip-hop, where the best musical ideas tend to be found in these interludes. I also enjoy the backing vocals on Chore of Enchantment despite their rarity. NME's description of the record as having "raw but tender empathy in songs full of unexpected departures" is maybe a little soppy and generous, but I wouldn't fully disagree! The arrangements and vocals need some serious work, though.
2/5
Key tracks: (Well) Dusted, Temptation of Egg, Shiver, Bottom Line Man
The Jam
2/5
Incredibly choppy, as reflected by some songs having tens of millions of Spotify listens and others having under a million. And interestingly, these numbers almost perfectly reflect which songs are better than others. Start!, although imitating other earlier basslines (Taxman, hmm), is a solid track with a nice glimmery guitar tone and fun vocal harmonies in the (pre)chorus. And there's a strange playful falsetto breakdown that happens several times. That's Entertainment is also memorable, both for the almost psychedelic singing and the dynamic, biting instrumental (which lacks percussion but has a bright, assertive rhythm guitar to make up for it). The two opening tracks are also fairly strong, especially Monday for having perhaps the best hook in the album. I could see this being covered by artists like Bowie or T-Rex – though that comparison does highlight The Jam's slightly behind-the-times songwriting (given that this was released in 1980).
To offset the positives, there are a ton of weak tracks that I can't even begin to understand the significance of. Why are the vocals so horribly mixed in Set The House Ablaze? Was Dream Time just devised as one good bassline, before the other instruments and singers tried to improvise over it in a single take? What the fresh heck is the singer drunkenly bellowing about in Scrape Away? I guess the genre is meant to be new-wave/punk, but with the band members especially unskilled at playing their instruments and at songwriting. Sound Affects is such a weirdly produced and composed collection of half-decency-half-nonsense that I can't see the justification for including it in this list.
2/5
Key tracks: Pretty Green, Monday, Start!
The Charlatans
3/5
The lead singer's voice is like a bad impression of late-60s Jagger, particularly his exaggerated pronunciation of long "ee" sounds, and saying "eeyue" instead of "you". It's distracting, and I'm surprised more reviews aren't pointing it out. Additionally, I'm not impressed with the lyricism – though it still outshines the likes of Oasis and Weezer. And the sluggish How High joins the musically empty outro Rob's Theme in the group of "obvious throwaway tracks". Removing them would've made this a perfect-40-minute record, too! (Shameful.)
But the guitar and bass are excellent, beginning their rampage from the very first track. The riff in North Country Boy is the guitar highlight but there are plenty of moments to pick from. One reviewer called the music "generic garbage", and I have to wonder if they forgot to put on their ears during the space-rocky opening of One To Another, or the *very* frequent use of a sort of acoustic lo-fi piano tone (pretty rare for anything 90s onward or for anything in the alt-rock genre). Not as generic as a vague background listen might suggest. There are some cool sounds and instances of genre-blending that you won't find in most other 90s music. I think a more accurate assessment was done by a different reviewer: "In an alternate universe most of these tracks would replace the same timeless status as Oasis' big hits. This is a better band with better songwriting... the single "One To Another" was immediately recognisable, deservedly so." Preach.
3/5
Key tracks: North Country Boy, One To Another, How Can You Leave Us
Sonic Youth
3/5
My third Sonic Youth album on this list, and it's completely fine. Just like the first two. I'm tired.
There's plenty of dissonance to please even the most industrial of music fans, as well as some sick guitar riffs to appease the fans with correct opinions. Lots of screaming and weird chords, too. I didn't enjoy the vocals much, but then that seems to be a problem with my own listening preferences. I should really stop comparing everyone to Freddie Mercury. The drumming throughout the album is a strange combination of punk and math-ish metal, a set of genres I wouldn't normally place in a room together. It makes for some pretty darn interesting music even if it isn't particularly pleasant. Some of the tracks drone a lot, like Tuff Gnarl and Pacific Coast Highway. Others, like Master-Dik, are completely devoid of content and read like a proto-Endless, Nameless.
A song called Schizophrenia immediately makes me think of Anxiety. The internet has broken me. (Obviously, Sonic Youth's one is better by a wide margin, being a sort of melancholy rock ballad that contrasts sharply with the death and destruction that follows.) That trippy psychedelic guitar solo closing out Pipeline/Kill Time is majestic, alien, magical. It's just a shame it comes after such a bland vocal performance. Kotton Krown, though technically consisting of a medium-length repeating riff for five minutes, does the best with what it has – and it's surprisingly enjoyable. Beauty Lies In The Eye is similar to the album opener and I quite like the distortion, which also surprised me. I think you have to be in the right headspace for this sort of music.
3/5
Key tracks: Schizophrenia, Beauty Lies in the Eye, Kotton Krown
Doves
3/5
The music is enjoyable enough, though its close resemblance of other similar-yet-better bands makes for a predictably frustrating listening experience. Definitely reminds me of Coldplay's early material – at least, the instrumental does. The vocals have a croakier and more retro/classic-rock (almost punk) quality to them than Chris Martin's, especially when they're harmonising in the first few songs. The first full-length track, Words, has a full and densely packed texture with a bright, optimistic feel. Reminds me of an alternate-reality No Surprises if the lyrics were more positive and encouraging. Really feel-good and a solid way to begin the album. (Later edit: never mind, this song is arguably just as depressing as No Surprises. So are the others. Whoops.)
The subtle riff in There Goes The Fear is taken directly from Bowie's Sound and Vision. But I'll let it slide, because the song is pretty good. What's less forgivable is the very next track, M62 Song, being a shameless cover of King Crimson's Moonchild but with a seemingly inconspicuous title to hide it. (Again, the song is really strong, which I hate.) N.Y. stands out as one of the most engaging tracks on the record, for its energetic drumming, alt-rock-style guitar picking, and slow, dreamy coda section. Also, man, that bass part! Shame that it's followed by one of the weakest tracks, Satellites, which drags on for nearly 7 minutes and has nary a hook to speak of. The Sulphur Man is similarly dull but has a more reasonable duration. Three tracks on here – namely the three singles Pounding, Caught By The River, and There Goes The Fear – obviously pander to a wider pop-loving audience with Coldplay-tinted glasses. They don't take many musical risks in those three, unfortunately.
3/5
Key tracks: Words, There Goes The Fear, N.Y.
Oasis
4/5
Better than Wonderwall, and that's all that matters. I haven't listened to (What's The Story) Morning Glory? yet, and I imagine it's as good as this – but thank the gods, at least this record doesn't force me to listen to Wonderwall again. Instead, it forces me to listen to various chunks of muddy nonsensical goodness with an aggressively basic classic-rock sound. Really pours one out to all the 70s music nerds who became depressed after the rise of punk, Britpop, grunge, disco, and whatever the heck was going on with synths in the 80s. Up In The Sky, Bring It On Down, Cigarettes & Alcohol, and of course Rock 'n' Roll Star are all essentially semi-alt renditions of a sound dating all the way back to the late 60s. We hear elements of CCR, the Doors, the Who, the Eagles, and everyone in between. And the Beatles (can't forget them). Plus Liam Gallagher's silly nasally little voice.
Even though attitude and political messaging has its place in music, particularly that of the early/mid 90s, I have a soft spot for artists that toss all that aside in favour of a happy, carefree sound with (judging by the reviews) relatively empty lyricism. You can tell this from the song titles alone, and the simple yet bombastic sound (I-VIIb-IV progressions, slightly distorted guitars, good drumming, the whole shabang) only serves to bolster this view. As another reviewer wrote (and I agree with): "A vastly different facet of Britpop that cared less about post-punk/new wave reminiscing and more about pummeling, piledriving good old fashioned rock and roll, Oasis were ready to pick up a new baton for those who were more inclined to having a good time and forgetting your ills."
4/5
Key tracks: Rock 'n' Roll Star, Live Forever, Supersonic
Lenny Kravitz
5/5
This is great. Has the sort of homemade, keyboard-heavy texture that you might find on a 70s Stevie Wonder record. A lot of these tracks are laid-back and jammy, reflecting a sort of return to normalcy after the overly synth-happy 80s and a tendency towards overwhelming, roaring textures by Kravitz's contemporaries. To be sure, Lenny Kravitz's style is more accessible (to, say, proto-soul (à la Marvin Gaye) fans) than someone like Prince, who tends to be weird and sexual for the sake of being weird and sexual. This material is definitely more rocky, more bluesy, and arguably more carefree than any of Prince's famous material. I also appreciate how Kravitz isn't taking the direction of LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and others from around the same period. They didn't know it at the time, but they were pioneering a pretty hit-or-miss (mostly miss) genre. Props to Kravitz, I guess, for recognising the value of more old-fashioned funk/soul at the same time.
The sheer number of negative reviews here almost reads like a bot trying to bring the average rating down. It's kind of shocking. Let Love Rule isn't perfect, but it's sure as heck better than most other late-80s material. 1989 was a rough year for even the strongest bands at the time (Storm Front, The Miracle, Hot In The Shade, Built To Last...) and this stands out from the crowd in terms of both quality and genre. Great guitars, consistently excellent basswork, a strong vocal that's projected to the forefront of the music (as it should be!). An incredible sax solo on the title track too. The guitar sound reminds me of Mick Ronson (who played with David Bowie on his Ziggy Stardust record). It's especially apparent in I Build This Garden For Us, which is also a great (albeit brashly mixed) song in its own right. Mr. Cab Driver sounds like early Lou Reed over a funk beat – a combination I never would've expected to work. Rosemary is essentially an acoustic ballad with a clichéd chord progression, but it sounds so darn great that I can't find any reason to complain.
5/5
Key tracks: Let Love Rule, Mr. Cab Driver, Rosemary
The xx
2/5
Kind of bad. Boring, even. These other reviewers are definitely onto something. The best tracks on here are ones with the female vocalist, though even she gets a little flat and monotone at times. I would pin this up as AI-sounding, except it was made before the era of (convincing) AI audio. On Hold and Lips are two of the most energetic and internally varied tracks, though I still can't really recall much about them except that I was nodding my head a little more than usual. The lack of percussion is slightly destructive to the overall sound. On the back-to-back songs A Violent Noise and Performance, it's obvious the listener needs a pick-me-up after the relatively sluggish opening trio of songs. But then these two end up being even slower, featuring melancholic tempos and textures, and zero percussion to keep any kind of interest. The following track, Replica is *slightly* better, but not by much.
I appreciate the interesting bass lines occasionally making up for lack of any other interesting musical elements. But once you realise said bass lines are either electronic or trying really hard to be, most of the soul is sucked out. What's left is an empty shell of an album trying much too hard to sound important. The slow synths and drawn-out vocalising is an attempt to obscure the fairly poor songwriting here. If you actually pay attention to the lyrics, they're a big old nothing burger.
"I need a reminder, the feeling's escaped me / I went looking for it / Could have been anyone's kiss / Throwing my arms at no one / When I gave up, I found love / The thought flows through my mind / And it's growing all the time"
...Bored yet? That's actually one of the better set of lines on the record.
2/5
Key tracks: Lips, On Hold
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
A little less interesting than Loveless, but then what could possibly compare to Loveless? As a standalone record, m b v is still pretty dang impressive. It's less obscured by a distortion-wash than its predecessor, meaning the compositions themselves are a little easier to judge. And they're pretty good (if a little longer than necessary). The experimentation leans more on individual instruments, including a goopy-sounding guitar in the opening track and a rougher, 90s-esque texture in the following song ("only tomorrow"). Track #2 also benefits from a distinctive central guitar melody that carries the baton for the vocals, which take an eerie background role for the full six minutes. Track #3, "who sees you", has a sort of weeping melody on another thickly distorted guitar, though this one's a bit harder to follow. And again, another six-minute track. The sudden end comes as a shock, but also a bit of a relief.
The two strongest tracks here, in my opinion, are the aforementioned "only tomorrow" and "is this and yes", narrowly beating out some strong contenders. The latter song is fever-dreamy, switches between four (or so) heavily suspended keyboard chords with a high hummed vocal on top. Pretty simple, and maybe a little unexpected from MBV. But it's excellent. The five remaining tracks pick up the tempo significantly, beginning with an unnervingly echoey rock piece in "if i am". "in another way" is a rapid number that begins with a nifty guitar tone that it doesn't replicate anywhere else in the song. I would've loved to hear a soundscape made of interweaving guitar lines with that techno-ey feel. But alas. "nothing is" is another slightly odd track for MBV to release. It's one very fast 3/4 bar with a repeating two-note melody, over and over again for three and a half minutes. Weird.
4/5
Key tracks: only tomorrow, is this and yes
2/5
This sound is stupid. ABC had to be aware of it. A lot of tracks are violently lacking in hooks or memorable, musically sound parts – especially in the vocals, which are generally pretty bad. Poison Arrow, one of the album's released singles, is bland and generic. It's strange: even though every instrument is technically played well (barring the vocals, which are average), they don't combine into something special. The instrument playing is extremely cheesy (e.g. instrumental breakdown around 2:40 of Many Happy Returns), but that's to be expected for 80s pop. The Lexicon Of Love is actually above-average for this era, but the bar is pretty darn low. It took until The Look Of Love, Pt.1 on this album to really impress me. The singing is good and soulful on that one, as well as the vocal and bass on Date Stamp.
Compare the sound on this album to something from The Nightfly, released the same year. While Fagen's record essentially carries the baton from Steely Dan, incorporating meticulous instrumental arrangements that don't fall in line with 80s musical trends, ABC doesn't really achieve this. (I guess the competition was pretty steep.) Or compare it to Thriller, which features a much slicker and catchier setlist. Or Rio, which is Duran Duran's analogue of this record but is near-objectively better. An online review said of this album: "[the songs] demonstrate [producer] Horn’s signature style of rich, bombastic, borderline campy pop in full force." I think that's accurate, but really it reflects a producer making the best of some fairly patchy material.
2/5
Key tracks: The Look Of Love Pt.1, All Of My Heart
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Thinking of Ways sounds like a late-60s Beach Boys/Brian Wilson (may he rest in peace) composition. Comparable to some of the unreleased Smile material, or maybe a few tracks off Surf's Up or Sunflower, especially with the vocal harmonies and otherworldly feel. Quite a few songs on this record are focused on the acoustic guitar, and end up being some of the highlights as a result. Wish I Was Skinny is (unusually for a post-punk band) almost danceable with its lighthearted pop-guitar feel. The sound apocalypse at the end of the song is also worth a shoutout – at least it's better than a gradual fade-out. Lazarus is another very strong track. The guitar-synth interplay is fun. Reminds me a bit of Bowie, who coincidentally released a track called Lazarus 23 years later. Barney (...and Me) is, in my mind, a reprise of Wish I Was Skinny, and it's a welcome break from some of the other tracks.
So, why not 5 stars? Well, it's these "other tracks" that I have a problem with. Beginning with the opener (I Hang Suspended), there are some extremely harsh noise-tracks dotted throughout the record that bring us back to the post-punk reality of this list and of the time period. Fortunately there aren't many of them, but enough that you could easily remove songs like Upon 9th And Fairchild, Butterfly McQueen, and Take the Time Around (among others) to reduce this album to a reasonable length and get rid of the very obvious filler. The singing is also not great, and though the producers try to obscure this by putting the vocals through some weird quality-lowering filters, this only highlights the issue. Ah, well. There's enough good material on Giant Steps to get by.
3/5
Key tracks: Wish I Was Skinny, Thinking of Ways, Barney (...and Me), Lazarus
Anthrax
3/5
One of the Big Four of thrash (allegedly)! The first track opens a bit more like doom metal than thrash, but the tempo eventually catches up. The lead guitar is immediately the star of the show, outshining the lead vocals as soon as it launches into its solo. The same is true for the next track. And the third track (I think I see a pattern in Anthrax's songwriting). The tone is so crisp and distinct from the heavily distorted rhythm guitar. It's a delicious texture combo and I can easily see how this genre was popular back in the day. Unfortunately though, the singing is generally not great – essentially being a series of warlike man-grunts/wails that attempt to add some singability(?) to the songs. The vocals are best when they follow distinctive melodies, as in the chorus of Caught In A Mosh (e.g.).
A lot of the tracks definitely go on longer than they should. One World, A Skeleton In The Closet, and I Am The Law are all culprits. I would normally suggest that an album with longer tracks is better for background listening, but you can't exactly put this on while you study or while you're cuddling with your girlfriend. Maybe Anthrax didn't plan ahead on their target audience very well. Despite this, every track is pretty solid in isolation. Thrash metal isn't my thing at all, but I was still able to appreciate the quaint selection of loud noises. As a collective, they aren't quite as strong, since many of the tracks sound the same – so perhaps Anthrax is more of a single-oriented group.
3/5
Key tracks: Caught In A Mosh, Indians
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
I don't think I've ever seen song titles be so obviously connected to one another. The first six (of only ten!) tracks' titles are essentially a list of short questions about love. In fact, these songs (which make up all of side 1) are essentially an extended jam session, and I'm absolutely here for it. All instruments are showcased and played pretty darn tastefully, from the Zeppelin-esque bowed-guitar-panning in Where You Love to the raging blues solos in When You Love, to the questionably mixed but still fun vocals in Who Do You Love. It's immediately obvious that this was a live recording, owing to the inconsistent singing volume, but that actually makes the rest of the performance more impressive if anything.
Side 2 is also essentially one extended live take – excluding the final track, Happy Trails, which is a bizarre acoustic folk-jingle that acts as an afterthought. Calvary is also on this part of the record. And at 13 and a half minutes, it's too long. It's not exactly progressive rock, since the music doesn't progress at all. It just noodles over the same two chords with occasional addition or removal of drums. And it's at this point that the listener realises they've been duped into listening to 50 straight minutes of two-chord noodles (yes, the musical equivalent of your roommate's favourite meal). It's fun to kick back and mindlessly enjoy, but if you start to focus, there's not actually much of substance.
Does it belong on the list? No. But it's a fun jam nonetheless.
3/5
Key tracks: Side 1
The Vines
3/5
Here, the Vines flip-flop between outright punk and a kind of soft alt-rock, somewhat lacking the energy of their most lauded contemporaries. Get Free is great. Sort of the punk version of You Really Got Me. ("Come here, come here, come here..." Awesome hook.) The opening track also jumps into the action with zero prelude – which I'm a big fan of. My favourite album opener of all time, Good Times Bad Times, does essentially the same thing. And Autumn Shade demonstrates that the band is (in fact!) capable of slower, more balladesque tempos. Which is more than can be said of most punk artists. Outtathaway has a focused, melodic guitar part that really steals the show. It also continues this up-and-down of energy/texture that I really love to see in albums. With the exception of the weaker Sunshinin, the entirety of side 1 does this.
The album loses a lot of creative steam at around the halfway point – and judging by Spotify numbers, it seems like most listeners agree with me. Still, every track is solid in its own right, each featuring at least one hook, riff, or interesting sound of interest. Ain't No Room, which is by itself pretty forgettable ("Forget it now / Forget it then" really living up to its lyrics) but the brash guitar sound – particularly the feedback-heavy break in the middle – lifts it up to "good song" status. The album closer 1969 suffers from perhaps the worst production on the album, though it could have been a live performance. Very bombastic and stadium-rock-esque, with some tempo changes. It's also essentially a repeat of the track In The Jungle. (Seriously. The two tracks may as well be identical.)
3/5
Key tracks: Highly Evolved, Outtathaway, Get Free
Peter Tosh
3/5
Cool. Not anything revolutionary, including the message (which is very hippie-era coded), but nifty regardless. Legalize It is so darn catchy that you almost forget there are 9 other tracks on the album that need to be judged and held to the same standard. And unfortunately, some of them don't quite get there. While Ketchy Shuby is a pretty great track that's begging to be released as a single (those guitar tones are freakin radical, dude), the instrumental version tacked onto the end of the album is unnecessary. It's worse without the lead vocals, and having to listen to the same instrumental twice is more of a chore than it's worth. Burial and Why Must I Cry are two fairly unremarkable filler tracks that add essentially nothing to the then-oversaturated reggae market. Tosh had to be aware of this, having come directly from the Wailers' fame.
But when the album hits, it hits hard. The title track is the strongest here by a wide margin. The backing vocals in the chorus are so smooth, so direct yet subtle. Despite having just two chords to its name, the song manages to be musically interesting. And of course, the message itself must've been pretty controversial, considering how the song was banned in Jamaica shortly after release. (Which only served to make it more popular. Whoops.) No Sympathy, repurposed from an earlier Wailers album, is another solid song. I appreciate the more interesting chords and fuller sound on this number. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) is also a standout, if only for sounding much darker and more foreboding than any of the others. One reviewer here claimed that all reggae songs sound the same. I'd like to point them to Igziabeher, along with half of Marley's material. This record has some issues, sure, but every song sounding identical is not one of them.
3/5
Key tracks: Legalize It, No Sympathy, Ketchy Shuby
Megadeth
4/5
Silly, dramatic, heavy, and (mostly) played excellently. The best combo.
Immediately hit by some great riffs in Holy Wars. The vocals are qualitatively strong (fun classic "metal shout"), but something about what's being sung doesn't sit quite right with me. It feels meandering, almost as though it's being improvised on the spot. (Or at least the melody is.) Almost everything is one note, giving off a sort of punky impression that I imagine is a bit of a hassle to sing to your friends without them getting profoundly annoyed. I hope the remaining tracks give some more creative liberty to the singer. The latter third of the song is where the instruments really start to shine, with a blistering guitar solo and significantly more energy in the drums. The following track, Hangar 18, gives off the feeling of something off Rush's Moving Pictures. But with less interesting bass and drum parts. Still, it's already a little more interesting than the opener. As with the first song, the guitar work in Hangar 18 is phenomenal, particularly at the sudden tempo change about halfway through. Very Alex Lifeson-esque. Dave Mustaine's got some great chops. Becomes almost "malfunctioning-computer-core" towards the end.
Take No Prisoners keeps the party going. Mirrored guitar and bass, a furious vocal back-and-forth. And at this point I realise this is not music to be sung. This is music to be felt. And suddenly my appreciation for Megadeth's sound skyrockets. It helps, too, that Take No Prisoners sounds a bit like Black Sabbath's material, or (again) a much heavier and less complex Rush. We head into Five Magics, and heck yes! The band is actually willing to change moods! This is something I have trouble finding anywhere on this list, let alone in the thrash metal aisle. Megadeth, for all their love of blundering through the heavy metal jungle of the late 80s/early 90s, manages to harness a darker, more mysterious, less... "thrashy"... sound here. Great solo at 3 minutes, by the way. Maybe the best one so far.
The album continues in much the same way, with what I'd describe as "banger after banger". The lead guitar continues to be the highlight. I found myself hitting the "Like" button right around when the guitar solo started in each song.
My main gripe with the entire record is that I couldn't tell you anything about any of the lyrics or vocal parts/melodies, unless they were actively bad. They're brutally unmemorable, made as filler to appease the crowds (because audiences are repelled by bands without singers for some reason). This problem is most apparent on Dawn Patrol. The "singing", really just toneless growled talking, is pretty terrible. And the lack of lead guitar doesn't help. At least it's under two minutes.
4/5
Key tracks: Hangar 18, Take No Prisoners, Tornado Of Souls
Method Man
1/5
Aha, a Wu-Tang Clan member. I sure hope this won't be self-centred and full of sexist, violent lyricism that lacks any kind of musicality.
Well, shoot.
The music is pretty much devoid of any interesting melodic or harmonic musical ideas. Everything is looped, nothing is fresh or interesting - possibly barring the vocals. But even those are suspect. Method Man's vocals are touted by Vibe magazine as having "complexity", and Wikipedia describes it as a "distinctly smooth-yet-rugged voice". I get the feeling the authors are grabbing at anything to describe his voice, mostly because it's incredibly nondescript for the genre. Just monotone shouting with an East Coast accent. (A slight exception is Release Yo' Delf, which includes a pretty solid intro with actual singing. And a fun looped trumpet melody. For obvious reasons, it's one of the strongest tracks on Tical.) Sometimes Method Man invites a guest vocalist so they can both shout the same words at the same time with (vaguely) the same pitch and intonation. It's so bland, unchanging, and passionless. If you really must pick something that separates this record from the rest of the vastly-oversaturated hip-hop market, Method Man's voice doesn't cut it. And the collaborations don't bring much to the table either. The track All I Need may as well consist of Method Man double-tracking his own vocal. That's how insignificant Streetlife's contribution is. Or, maybe, it shows how inflexibly dull the composition itself is. What The Blood Clot isn't much better despite having not one but two guest musicians contributing.
I don't pay much attention to lyrics unless they're very obviously brilliant or terrible. These were unremarkable in either direction – though I will criticise the frequent references to the Wu-Tang Clan and their 36 Chambers album. I get the sense it's done to mooch off the earlier record's commercial success to earn some credibility points with the listener. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's comparable to the Beatles releasing a new album after Abbey Road that includes near-identical music – except all lyrics are replaced with "We're the guys who made Abbey Road, yeah / Abbey Road's the best, and so is George Martin, hey / Oooh, my girl loves George Martin and I feel fine. yeah yeah yeah". It's also analogous to early-90s hip-hop artists having half their lyrics be shoutouts to Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. It's a cheap method to make the music "feel" more important than it is.
The song Bring The Pain is saved entirely by its hummed backing vocal. Maybe Method Man should've run with that idea, because it's clearly something his audience appreciates (judging by relative popularity).
1/5
Key tracks: Bring The Pain, Release Yo' Delf, Stimulation
Happy Mondays
1/5
Someone listened to Public Image Ltd and decided "You know what? We should make more of this." Bummed is definitely a step up from the likes of Metal Box et al., but not by terribly much. The singing has that sort of lazy, drunken, British drawl that you'll find on most punk and post-punk records. Happy Mondays tries to spice it up with vocal doubling in some tracks and complex, layered instrumentation. (The latter detail reminds me distinctly of the Smiths.) It works on some tracks and *definitely* not on others. Country Song, as the name suggests, is a jaunty piano-based rock track with a decent enough melody – so it gets a pass. Mad Cyril, with its terrible gated drumming (Low did it better) and jungle of clashing harmonic elements, does not get a pass. Nor does Fat Lady Wrestlers for its horrific attempt at a melody. Nor does Do It Better (Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good / Double double good).
Do one, do one, do oneThe band is throwing stones into a sea of British 80s clichés and sprinkling various stimulant drugs onto whatever gets fished up.
The music is also generally boring, particularly in the run of tracks from Mad Cyril through to (aptly named) Brain Dead. I found my mind constantly wandering away from the music and to doing my taxes and reading Crime and Punishment. Hence Happy Mondays have broken the absolute most critical rule of music: don't bore the listener. ...But that doesn't mean the listener is off the hook. One reviewer wrote that they dropped out before the first song finished. To that I say: why are you completing this project? To broaden your musical horizons? Or to reaffirm existing ones? I sat through The Modern Dance, 36 Chambers, Spy vs Spy, Lam Toro... and now Bummed. If I can do it, so can you. Another reviewer wrote that the album is "a complete mess from start to finish and sounds like it was recorded in a club toilet", then gave it 5 stars. I agree with the sentiment. Must've been a mouse-slip.
1/5
Key tracks: Country Song, Lazyitis
Harry Nilsson
4/5
The feel here is light-hearted, fairly acoustic, free. Reminds me of Fleetwood Mac's 1975 and 1977 albums. An upbeat, surprisingly complex opener in Gotta Get Up, featuring a slew of fun instruments including the trombone (among other brass) and the accordion. Lots of chords squeezed into a two-minute ditty. Most of the tracks after this one are very musically simplistic, like the bluesy two-chord Early in the Morning (featuring nothing but vocals and soft keyboard) and the repetitive, one-chord, seven-minute Jump Into The Fire. Without You sounds very much like early-70s Elton John (original Candle In The Wind, perhaps). Nice use of strings and backing vocals. Everything is either light-hearted or an obvious interlude between the light-hearted tracks. I definitely appreciate the adherence to one of the most important aspects of an album: the "album experience". (Ups and downs in mood and texture, essentially.)
I did *not* expect to recognise any of these songs. So you can imagine my surprise when Coconut began playing and Nilsson started belting out the absolute banger of a line "Put de lime in the coconut, you drank 'em bot' up". And heck, I knew the song! It's not exactly a masterpiece (more of an earworm, if anything) - but I'll be darned if it isn't a cult-classic household piece of art. And speaking of art: I love this album cover art. A low-quality B&W pic of the Nilster himself, half-awake wearing his trusty bathrobe and (presumably) nothing else. With "Nilsson Schmilsson" written in the Pet Sounds font in the top left, so you know it's a good album. (Wahoo.) I couldn't have described the music's sound better if I tried.
Unfortunately, I can't take this record seriously. The goofy faux-dramatic I'll Never Leave You closing off the album, the musical anonymity of Driving Along (anybody could have written that one), and the existence of Coconut are a few reasons for this.
4/5
Key tracks: Gotta Get Up, Down, Without You
Hüsker Dü
2/5
This may be one of the worst vocals on this list. It's helped somewhat when backing vocals harmonise with the lead one (as in Ice Cold Ice), but in general it's terrible. The wishwashy mixing of the singing with the other instruments definitely doesn't help. Actual Condition, You Can Live at Home, Tell You Why Tomorrow, Too Much Spice... everything is so similar to the rest, and not in a good way. Another reviewer wrote: "I like some of the individual pieces of this album but as a whole, not an enjoyable listen for me. Vocals especially rubbed me the wrong way. Kind of felt like 'what if REM, but worse.'" I'm poaching that snippet of text because it perfectly summarises my thoughts.
Standing in the Rain has a pretty sweet major-II chord that gets introduced about halfway through and really saves the song. Others, like She Floated Away and Ice Cold Ice, have particularly solid hooks that make the best of a bad situation. The sheer volume of this monster of an album makes it easier to find highlights in a mushy swamp of (semi-)dreck, but it also suggests Hüsker Dü should have just released a 35-minute record with all the mediocre songs removed.
2/5
Key tracks: Standing in the Rain, Ice Cold Ice, She Floated Away
King Crimson
5/5
Throughout this record, King Crimson absolutely nails the art of "theme and variation". Five lengthy tracks with (essentially) only five musical ideas spread across them – and yet you're completely hooked, completely engaged, for all 44 heart-wrenching minutes. The quiet, tense lead-in of 21st Century Schizoid Man with the lonely sound of wind whooshing past you – and then you're hit with an excellent riff and (soon afterward) an enraged, heavily distorted vocal. Greg Lake delivers a slew of disillusioned and disjointed lyrics about, well, a schizophrenic dude. Rapid time signature and tempo changes, a bluesy harmonic mode, fast horn lines, and extremely high-level playing on bass and drums definitely sell this piece. Then we get I Talk To The Wind with its largely flute-based instrument accompaniment and a chillingly desolate melody. Epitaph has one of my favourite uses of the mellotron in any piece of music. And again Lake's singing is very strong – possibly the best on the record.
Upon a first listen, Moonchild is definitely a tough nut to crack. It has an almost ancient-imperial feel about it, as well as the dizzying fantasy element (à la side 2 of Queen II). I've seen a lot of criticism about the lengthy soundscape in the middle of this track, with many citing it as boring and longer than necessary. I kind of agree. It's the weakest point in the album, though it does have its place as a sort of semi-psychedelic downtime between the two darkest and heaviest tracks. Speaking of which, the heavy and dramatic title track is ridiculously good. It's a climactic way to send off the listener, that's for sure. The delivery of the title line and subsequent backing vocals is so over-the-top, so passionately done, and has such a great melody that it's impossible not to fall in love. This is around the time where the strange cover art really clicks. We're all just puppets, subjects in a terrifying mystical court. (Or something.)
Not a perfect album by any means, but as prog rock goes, it's darn impressive for its time. A rollercoaster of emotions showcasing lots of interesting musical ideas, some excellent musicianship, and variation of mood. If that ain't a great showing, I don't know what is.
5/5
Key tracks: 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, The Court Of The Crimson King
Arctic Monkeys
5/5
My first venture into the Arctic Monkeys' material, and I have to say: this is fantastic. The 2000s equivalent of London Calling. And every bit as angry and energetic. I've been known to condemn punk/rock artists for releasing a relentless onslaught of high-calibre 2-minute tracks, but something about this music just screams "good" more than so many of its predecessors. It's clean yet gritty, tasteful yet grungy... and of course has that anti-establishment embellishment that you don't need to read between the lines to notice. There are no throwaway tracks, with the worst ones still being "really good" and probably the strongest song on most other punk(esque) records. Every instrument is not only played well but also mixed and produced excellently. And those guitar riffs! Juicy, they are. The guitarwork and basswork is on-point here, along with the driven, reasonably complex drumming.
The Arctic Monkeys do some pretty unconventional things throughout this record. Music stopping and restarting is interesting enough by itself, but doing it for several seconds? Sometimes multiple times per track? Leading to a new section that develops the pre-established musical themes? Holy arctic. Turner's vocal is intensely British (what else?) but he doesn't sacrifice quality of singing (much). Compare to bands like the Sex Pistols, Limp Bizkit, and Bad Religion. Maybe I'm just immeasurably relieved at a band in this genre actually being kind of great, not sacrificing quality for the sake of political messaging. The two can coexist, and they do here, easily. Re my previous point about the onslaught of punk-esque tracks, Arctic Monkeys even manage to somewhat avoid that with the quieter interlude Riot Van, showing that they don't just cater to sorrowful Gen X alumni with worn-out, now-unused VCRs.
5/5
Key tracks: The View From The Afternoon, Mardy Bum, When The Sun Goes Down
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
Early 80s hip-hop? Is there yet hope for the genre?
...But this doesn't sound like hip-hop at all. It's much better than anything I ever could've expected from the description. Fast-paced, punchy, and the cheesy electronic clap-percussion manages to still be infinitely better than a trap beat. There are definitely ties to Stevie Wonder, as highlighted by the band themselves in Dreamin': "We'd like to send this one out all the way out to Stevie Wonder (Yeah, Stevie) / After all, he's the greatest". When the lead vocalist goes in, man, he goes *in*. That particular track also has a lot of Wonder-esque chord progressions, mannerisms (e.g. one bar of melody going up an octave), lots of melodic syncopation, lush backing vocals, horns and keyboards... One of the strongest tracks here for sure. The song You Are is similarly Wonder-ful but a bit less wonderful.
We open with She's Fresh, which isn't the most singable music in the world, but the delivery of the title vocal is so fun and funky. The Furious Five's energy is contagious. Some simple, sharp, biting horn lines punctuate the album, along with tasteful bass playing. And a chorus of kazoos in It's Nasty (Genius of Love). Hey, whatever works, right? Most of the verse vocals are spoken/chanted/shouted in all the tracks, which is obviously a big minus. In Scorpio, the entire vocal is delivered by a monotone techno/robo-vocal, which is also a pretty significant downfall. Though the track doesn't exactly blow me away instrumentally either. The synth sounds on Scorpio, more than any other song here, are extremely dated and shatter the "cool funk" illusion established by the previous tracks. The final track, The Message, is rock-solid – I can easily see how it was a hit. A signature post-disco song with that wah-wah synth bass and lasery synths in the higher register, coupled with clichéd "disco guitar". It's a shame that It's a Shame (and Scorpio) are on this record, because it would be pretty darn fantastic without them.
3/5
Key tracks: Dreamin', The Message
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Another Nick Cave record? This guy's got some steep competition (with himself).
Very rambly, yet oddly intense. Almost like little Nicky is possessed by something sinister. I love the duet with PJ Harvey. The Pajama Harvester (as the neighbourhood calls her) really shines when she's battling it out with assorted kings of 90s rock (see: collaboration with Thom Yorke on Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea). The Kylie Minogue song is also very strong. Lots of medieval-fantasy allusion in the lyrics. (Probably. I don't take much notice of lyrics.) The instrument arrangements are a little bare-bones, which is not necessarily problematic by itself but can get tiresome if it's done consistently. Most tracks here read like slicked-up jam sessions, more so than other Nick Cave records, which tend to be more deliberate in their structure.
Though O'Malley's Bar is definitely too long (no excuses here, it's not prog rock), it still features some fun lyrics, such as the swanky "And with an ashtray as big as a fucking really big brick / I split his skull in half / His blood spilled across the bar / Like a steaming scarlet brook". Me too, Caveman. But the track's length and relative monotonicity, ugh... it takes a solid 4/5 rating (up to that point) and drives it into the ground. A jam session interrupting what was well established to be a fairly high-calibre studio recording is not cool, yo. Fourteen and a half minutes of one chord, nigh one melodic note, and what is (by Nick Cave standards) relentless incoherent babbling. On the bright side, the final track Death Is Not the End comes as a blurred yet sweet relief from (ironically) the clutches of death. It seems Cave works well alongside other vocalists, particularly female ones.
3/5
Key tracks: Henry Lee, Where the Wild Roses Grow, Death Is Not the End
Brian Wilson
4/5
I can smell the music gatekeepers from a mile away. (I'm one of them.) This material is brilliant! So much so that there are dozens of iterations of this album, and each is just as intriguing as the last. The vocal harmonies are some of the most brilliant you'll find on any record, by any artist, anywhere. And sure, the musicianship isn't anything spectacular. If you were looking for the next iteration of Queen's A Night at the Opera, you'll be a little disappointed – particularly as most of the vocals are delivered by 21st-century Brian. But the compositions? Otherworldly. The mind-bending song structures on Heroes and Villains and Good Vibrations and Surf's Up are pretty dang nifty. The song transitions are exciting, smooth, dynamic – allowing any changes in energy/texture to happen within individual songs. For example, the change from Wonderful into Song for Children is completely seamless. It's something seen only very rarely from other artists. There's also a lot of foreshadowing/reprising themes, seen as early as the opening trio (Our Prayer / Heroes and Villains / Roll Plymouth Rock). You hear it again when Song for Children heavily foreshadows melodies from Good Vibrations. Everything is interconnected. Talk about creativity.
And there are plenty of excellent standalones here too. Surf's Up is just as haunting, maybe even more so, than the original album version (1971). The high notes, the interweaving vocal parts, the ridiculous chord progressions, the wacky structure that's impossible to comprehend upon a first listen, the breathtakingly beautiful lyrics... Such a brilliant track. Good Vibrations is just as gorgeous as the version that stormed throughout the world back in 1966. In fact, I think the Smile version is slightly stronger compositionally, considering additions like the "I'm pickin' up" just before the choruses, and the "hum-be-num, oh"
The sentiment of there being too much "filler" is definitely understandable – particularly as the album is already 10 minutes longer than your standard vinyl LP.
4/5
Key tracks: Heroes and Villains, Surf's Up, Wind Chimes, Good Vibrations
The Temptations
3/5
Hey, George Harrison already took this album title. No fair.
Heavily dated sound, almost resembling a 50s record. Other Temptations records (Psychedelic Shack, Sky's The Limit) would be a little more suited to a list of the 1000 most important albums of all time - but less so this one. Still, the keyboard-heavy semi-psychedelic feel definitely places the record solidly in the late 60s. There's a kind of divide between Motown and (proto?-)funk throughout the record, and both are done reasonably well. Points docked for the songs having relatively few streams, suggesting the present-day audience doesn't find this music as important or enduring as Robert Dimery et al. might. Points added back for some seriously cool cover art, and for the final track being the strongest on side 2 by a very wide margin. The lead vocal there is angelic.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine is unremarkable, and inoffensive. I think I would enjoy it more if I hadn't heard dozens of more impressive/interesting covers previously. The version on CCR's Cosmo's Factory is simply better, featuring crisper instrumentation and a much more distinctive vocalist. (I disagree with the reviewers who are complimenting the production on Cloud Nine. It's not that good.) Marvin Gaye's cover is even stronger and probably the "definitive" one. The version here has some decent falsetto, but otherwise it kind of fades away as quickly as it began. (The following track, Runaway Child Running Wild, has much stronger vocals.) This brings up another slight issue with the record: the instrumentation and musicianship isn't *that* impressive for the year it was released. In 1969, Cloud Nine had competition like Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin I and II, King Crimson's debut, Let It Bleed, the Velvet Underground's self-titled... Cloud Nine's title track won the 1969 Grammy for "Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group", and while it's a great tune, I'm a little surprised given the heavy competition.
3/5
Key tracks: Cloud Nine, Runaway Child Running Wild, Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Some reviewer: "An hour of Civ IV menu music"
...And you're saying that's a bad thing?
Okay. It's not the best. But hey, I was having a good time.
Many tracks are essentially chill mono-harmonic jam sessions featuring some cool instruments and solid melodies. The first time I started getting irritated was in Sega, which is thankfully the second-shortest track on the record. Four of the tracks are at least seven minutes long, and those ones better as heck be listenable. Banga is another one with an aggressively un-groovy beat and annoying melody, but (again like Sega) is very short relative to the others. The monstrous 9-minute Amandrai is one of the grooviest jams here – almost reminding me of some early Led Zeppelin improv sessions – but it's just a few minutes too long to make it to my upper echelon. Ai Du achieves the same goal with less runtime and a great viola-esque instrument punctuating it at all the best moments. (I can definitely understand Ai Du's relative popularity.) Both Ai Du and the closer, Diaraby, make use of the same extremely simple i-V chord progression – and (yet?) both are pretty good. Sometimes tried-and-true methods are the best ones. Although I would've loved to hear them get more musically adventurous.
3/5
Key tracks: Soukora, Ai Du
Kate Bush
4/5
Kate's got some big shoes to fill after the stunningly magical Hounds Of Love album. And incredibly, she kind of does it. There's just as much mystery, fantasy, intrigue, and charm as her earlier hit record. Admittedly, some of the songs' melodies are a little difficult to latch onto for a first listen. And there aren't any obvious "anthem" tracks that would be instantly recognisable to any passers-by. (I didn't recognise any of these.) This Woman's Work is a bit of an inert ballad, presumably relying on its lyrics and not interesting/engaging music to deliver its message. The echoey production definitely doesn't help. Not that it's a bad track – I guess I'm just surprised it's the most popular track here when head-nodders like Love And Anger and The Sensual World exist in the same record-space.
The title track, in particular, is so darn smooth, uplifting... just all-around listenable. And it has that clichéd string instrument used in the majority of country songs (fiddle?). Excellent. Love And Anger is also a highlight, this time for its drum-piano combo and positively infectious bassline. (Man, listen to those lines at around 2:30. Mind-blowing.) I also like the subtle nods to Stevie Nicks's material in this tracks and various others. Another standout is Heads We're Dancing, which has that dangerously catchy VII-IV-I progression that makes me instantly fall in love with a song. The Fog is also a song of interest: the instrumentation is otherworldly, whereas the structure is... well, a little confusing. It's a song worth listening to a few times, I think.
4/5
Key tracks: The Sensual World, Love And Anger, Heads We're Dancing
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Crazy distortion for its time, and Dylanesque lyrics and vocal delivery right from the get-go. And distinctly different from their debut, though it's hard to describe exactly how. The same one- or two-chord drones are used extensively throughout both albums, so it can't be that. The two short, "single-prone" tracks – White Light/White Heat and Here She Comes Now – are a notch above the other tracks in virtue of simply being more accessible. I'm a huge fan of TVU's debut record, and these two tracks in particular carry on the energy of the very best of TVU+N. Here She Comes Now is very clearly the sequel to There She Goes Again, though I enjoy this album's version slightly more. Hearing The Gift is one of the strangest experiences I've ever had listening to a song – certainly one from the 60s. It features eight minutes of a deadpan spoken vocal overly an intensely energetic slew of distorted guitar riffs. Pretty cool, eh? Well, the story is even cooler. Gruesome ending Almost reminds me of a Stephen King short story, though of course this predates the Stephster by almost two decades.
I Heard Her Call My Name is also pretty dang out there for its time. You can't tell me with a straight face that Helter Skelter is the heaviest rock song of 1968 when the this song's relentless onslaught of screeching guitars and hammering drums are sitting right there. The seventeen-and-a-half-minute Sister Ray is similarly mind-bending. Reminds me of (perhaps) an extended cut of the Doors' The End, and every bit as dark yet exciting.
I'm struggling to find the right words for this album, but one thing's for sure: it's very good. All those 1- and 2-star reviewers have no idea what they're on about.
4/5
Key tracks: White Light/White Heat, Here She Comes Now
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
The vocals are horrendous. Everything else is pretty solid.
I have some reservations against distortion unless it's counterbalanced by a smoother element, otherwise it just comes off as music that's deliberately obtuse and hard to approach. What exactly about this makes you want to hum it, to come back and listen to it again? The answer, in this album's case, is the almost soundscapey backing instrumental. If you can manage to tune out the vocals, which (as another reviewer identified) are consistently very out-of-tune (flat), you end up with a surprisingly gratifying set of instruments. I really like the rise and fall of textures throughout the record. In a Jar has a fresh, simplistic, punky feel, while the track immediately following it, Lose, is a muddy (yet fast), bluesy number. Sludgefeast alternates between foreboding softness and foreboding heaviness, creating an almost prog-like structure in the process.
Despite being the 2nd most popular song here, I had to try pretty hard to enjoy Little Fury Things (though I got there in the end). To Mr J. Mascis: vocals don't get more in tune if you double them. But the guitar, drums, and assorted percussion are great – if a little cliché for their time. The guitar solo in the album closer, Just Like Heaven, is much better: melodic and skilful, ducking out of the ultra-distortion style into a softer, 80s-esque kind of grunginess. The end of the track is extremely sudden if you aren't watching the progress bar. Unfortunately though, there are some obviously bad songs on here too. I found myself grimacing throughout Tarpit because the singing is so horrifically bad and the instrumentation doesn't *quite* save it. Poledo sounds like early Pink Floyd mixed together with low-quality hallucinogens and a strong desire for filler material with zero musical content. At least the Floyd were had some convincing musical ideas. Poledo is a complete nothing burger. (And any review worth its salt will take this 6-minute disaster into account.)
3/5
Key tracks: Sludgefeast, In a Jar, Just Like Heaven
Beck
4/5
Easily one of the best uses of the "90s hip-hop beat" I've heard. The combination with low, heavily distorted guitar and mellow semi-echo vocal sounds pretty darn good. E-Pro, the opening track, is the first of many uses of this combination – and it slaps. And it's not overdone, either: after the first two tracks, Beck diverges into other kinds of percussion that come to define each track, starting with track #3, Girl. If you saw the song title Girl and were hoping for a Beatles cover, you'd be disappointed. It sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. A fun set of acoustic guitar chords, pretty vocal harmonies, and a very memorable synth intro – all produced to perfection. This is the best track on the album, no doubt. Go It Alone comes close with its deadpan, ultra-bluesy i-IV harmonic progression. (Gotta love that Dorian mode!) The very sudden drops in texture are very modern-sounding.
The end of Black Tambourine heading into Earthquake Weather... Looks like somebody forgot to take song transition classes. Earthquake Weather has a fun repeating keyboard lick in the chorus that sounds nearly identical to a car horn. I have no idea if it's intentional, but I really hope it is. Hell Yes is one of the tracks I was most conflicted on. It's very hard to catch onto, particularly as the bass is the only well-delivered instrument and it isn't exactly consistently present. The vocal is delivered kind of lazily, without any sort of melody apart from the one-note robot filter thing in the chorus. But even the robot sounds bored. That takes some serious skill.
4/5
Key tracks: E-Pro, Girl, Go It Alone
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Are you smiling? I'm smiling. Gosh, this is such a fun record – and just as engaging as whimsical as the rest of their tragically short discography. Feels just like the album's cover art (which, by the way, is probably the best of their cover arts). Fogerty's singing really establishes the who band's sound as this gritty-yet-gentle backwoods groove group, complete with the twangy accent. I like how the melodies bounce from him to the guitars and then back to him. It creates some really interesting textures that I'll definitely be keeping an ear out for in the future. Distinctive guitar texture as well, and bass and drums (while pretty simple) work well with the overall sound. Props for that.
Now for the big issue: most of the songs here sound very similar. Sure, you have the outliers like Bad Moon Rising and Commotion with their distinctive hooks/melodies, and The Night Time Is The Right Time for its excellent backing vocals relentlessly hitting the "night and day" line. But most of the other can be described accurately with the following: A medium-fast tempo, bluesy chord progression, bluesy melody, that opens with a strong electric guitar line before breaking down into solidly delivered soul verses. Seriously – you can't convince me that Sinister Purpose and Graveyard Train are two different songs. Wrote A Song For Everyone, while very strong, is outshined by the sonically very similar The Night Time (which has the added benefit of those great backing vocals). And Lodi, for all its clear sound and simple, infectious melody, is pretty darn similar to Proud Mary from the previous album. The versatility of songwriting here leaves a little bit to be desired.
4/5
Key tracks: Commotion, Bad Moon Rising, The Night Time Is The Right Time
Air
4/5
Starting off pretty darn strong with La femme d'argent. Its ridiculously good bassline refuses to get old, even after seven minutes. The synths wash over you, fading in one side and out the other, creating a spacey (or hyper-futuristic, or both) atmosphere. Later on the album, we encounter All I Need, which is straight coolness. Again we see a strong (and this time more acoustic) bassline, backing a beautifully airy combo of Hirsch's vocal and high strings. The mix is stripped back but also close and intimate: you can really hear every instrument in detail. The strongest track on the album. Ce matin-là is a surprisingly similar track, having essentially the same instrumentation but with the vocals swapped out for soft, melodic brass. And a happier, freer, but less airy feel. A very pretty track that's hard to fault.
One noticeably weaker track is Remember because of its irritating synth-robot-vocal that repeats the track title over and over... and over... Otherwise, it blends into the standard space rock genre that's been done hundreds, thousands of times before. Sexy Boy is also a little questionable because it's so directly and irrevocably cheesy. The vocal is either broken up and underwatery, or else muted/self-harmonised/a straight-up "emo murmur". (You'll understand what I mean if you give the track a listen.) It's a bit of a dated vocal unless it has the instrumentation to justify it, but seeing that the synths and drums reek of 70s space rock, it doesn't quite work. (Yes, the same reasoning can apply to all the other tracks. Yes, I'm being nitpicky.)
Overall, the album is very strong and much less exhaustingly "dancey" than artists like Daft Punk or the Chemical Brothers. But that does mean it lacks some energy and punch compared to its contemporaries.
4/5
Key tracks: La femme d'argent, All I Need, Ce matin-là
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
I just shouted out the Chemical Brothers seconds ago in my previous review! What are the chances?!
Block Rockin' Beats has a darn groovy hook in the bass. Reminds me, vaguely, of The National Anthem (Radiohead) – in the sense of having relative chaos tied down by a constant, familiar bassline. Where Do I Begin is also a standout. Everything is at roughly the same tempo, but that isn't a terribly damning aspect when other elements (mainly instrumentation) fade in and out so much.
Elektrobank is cool, but there's no reason for it to be that long – particularly after you established a non-prog-track precedent with the transition from Dig Your Own Hole into Elektrobank (and the many transitions that follow). Still a great tune though. Other tracks, such as Piku, It Doesn't Matter, and Get Up On It Like This, are relentlessly repetitively to the point where you start deliberately tuning them out and feel nothing but relief when the room finally lapses into silence. The album's longer than the standard, too, and doesn't justify it by way of any kind of concept, lyricism, slew of big singles, anything. Not cool, yo.
3/5
Key tracks: Block Rockin' Beats, Where Do I Begin
Gene Clark
4/5
Man, poor Clark. The record label (and critics) spat all over the album, leading to a commercial failure and ultimate obscurity of the rest of his output. But this is genuinely really good. A warm, relaxed, full sound with a variety of instruments and influences (ranging from soul to country). This feel is particularly present in the songs Life's Greatest Fool, From a Silver Phial, and Lady of the North. Feels a bit like filler material at times, catering to an audience that was obviously pretty significant in size at the time but just doesn't quite scratch that itch in the present day. The country genre was already oversaturated by 1974, so even through a retrospective lens, I frown down at "country music that sounds like all other country music". Some credit to Clark: there's clearly some back-and-forth influence between himself and Neil Young, the Beatles (particularly George Harrison), and perhaps anticipation of some of Fleetwood Mac's 70s material.
A mysterious sort of minor-blues choir carries the track Strength of Strings, which breaks into an excellent, full-sounding, All Things Must Pass-esque section around 1:30. It's, like, indescribably good. This is genuinely some of the best music I've heard from 1974, on par with Queen's one-two punch of Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack. The prog rock influence makes itself abundantly known with the various song sections, extended instrumentals, and resemblance to King Crimson's material.
As another user wrote: "It is packed with lush vocals, rich harmonies, crisp instrumentation and perfect dynamic. Putting aside the wonderful magical storytelling, it’s just a Great Wall of beauty. Please try it, from start to end." Yeah, agree with pretty much all of the above. I just wish Clark had gone all-in with the semi-progressive approach in Strength of Strings and the brooding country-rock mishmash of No Other. Most of the 5-star reviews laud these two songs in particular, and fair enough – but in my view, if you can't shower the entire album (or most of it) in the same level of praise, you can't really justify a 5-star rating.
4/5
Key tracks: No Other, Strength of Strings
Femi Kuti
3/5
The mean track length here is over 7 minutes. And without the (unnecessary) 30-second interlude, that average jumps to over 8 minutes. Man, I got places to be, man!
Regardless, despite my low expectations, this music was pretty good. Nothing legendary, and no particular standout tracks (other than the earlier ones like Wonder Wonder and Survival being more enjoyable simply in virtue of them appearing early in the album before my patience had run thin). Just 73 minutes of lighthearted world-tinged jamming with a fairly clear political undertone. It's good, it's different, it's nothing spectacular. The instrumentation and musicianship is definitely on point, while the songwriting (mostly song structure) is... well, not great. Love the sax-playing though. I don't trust any 1-star reviews for this album.
But nor do I trust any 5-star reviews. Judging by the period in which the Femi Kuti record was released and the subsequent number of Spotify listens, the tracks on here were clearly not very influential on audiences – either for their time or in the present day. I would even vouch that a significant proportion of Femi Kuti's present-day attention is from the 1001 Albums project itself. Some of the inclusions on this list feel a bit performative – in the sense that Dimery thought, "Huh, too many UK and US albums? Better grab one from Nigeria to appease the critics. Can't be too careful these days." – and this album is one of them. And considering global influence is a very real factor affecting how good and how significant music (and art in general) is, I can't in good conscience give this a perfect rating.
3/5
Key tracks: Wonder Wonder, Survival
Christina Aguilera
4/5
After listening to Aguilera's earlier album Stripped, I had high expectations. This record did not disappoint. Disc 1 gets a little monotonous, but the tone in question is quite simply spectacular, particularly near the beginning when it hasn't yet overstayed its welcome. It's hypermodern (for its time), slick, badass, catchy, poppy, and held together by one of the strongest vocals of the time period. Aguilera's voice is undeniably brilliant. I'm not a huge fan of the backing vocals throughout disc 1; they do that hip-hop harmony thing where they just kind of sing in haphazard thirds apart from each other and hope the audience doesn't notice that it's exactly the same as every other backing vocals. Beyoncé does the same thing in most of her music, and it's equally frustrating there.
There are a few dud tracks. And no, F.U.S.S. (Interlude) is not one of them. That one may as well be its own standalone track, it's got such a catchy, funky synth part. On the other hand, Thank You (Dedication to Fans) was placed smack in the middle of the album, just before you flip over to disc 2. And it's such a show halter – in the worst way – that it almost makes you want to stop listening right there. Five minutes of recordings of your fans thanking you for your music isn't exactly an exciting or moving musical experience. It's just a slow, painful wait-fest. And then you switch discs and are hit with the extremely questionable Enter the Circus. It's an attempt to turn disc 2 into a concept sub-album, I guess, but it's such a silly, cheesy idea with a half-baked performance. The next track, Welcome, is thankfully much better, and the third on the disc, Candyman, is excellent. Back to form – whew!
Disc 2 is, for the most part, the "jazz-soul crooning" half of the record. More points from me in that regard. The tracks are more varied from one another, and the vocal harmonies are (mostly) more interesting than the modern hip-hop ones found on disc 1. Nasty Naughty Boy, I Got Trouble, Hurt... there are so many standouts that disc 2 could feasibly be a 5-star album on its own (if it weren't for its opening number).
4/5
Key tracks: Ain't No Other Man, Nasty Naughty Boy, Hurt, Save Me from Myself
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
Misspelled his own album title on the cover! Oh dearie!
Everything about this is wrong and I have no idea what to think except "huh, that was kind of good, I guess." And that's probably wrong too. Regardless, there's so much musical content here that it's a little overwhelming. And none of it is particularly mind-blowing, save maybe for the catchy and instantly memorable track Chicago buried somewhere in the middle of the record. The "title" track, Come On!, is also solid, along with some of the proggy songs like The Tallest Man and The Predatory Wasp that move through several distinct sections. Can't really go wrong with that. The album is dotted with unusual time signatures – maybe not quite as impressive in 2005 as it is in 20th century records but still a cool addition. The "make every name way longer than it should be" gig gets stale pretty fast, though I'll give Stevens props for the opening track. The title "Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois" goes kind of hard.
Stevens has an almost comically stereotypical voice for any male 2000s singer-songwriter artist. He also sounds like a slightly happier Elliott Smith (may he rest in peace). I'm on the fence as to whether it's necessarily *good* (or, for that matter, enjoyable) but it gets the job done. The instrumentation is a scattershot of weirdness that employs everything but the kitchen sink and any kind of standard rock instrument. We bounce everywhere from marimbas to brass bands to airy violins to light, exotic percussion. And weird synths/SFX (I think). The two final tracks, Riffs & Variations and Out of Egypt, suffer particularly from the strange instruments because they're the only tracks completely devoid of anything found in mainstream music of the time. Out of Egypt is entirely marimbas (and/or marimba-adjacent instruments) and lacks any kind of melody, let alone a catchy one. Riffs & Variations, like most of the sub-one-minute tracks here, should've been cut entirely.
3/5
Key tracks: Come On! Feel the Illinoise!, Chicago, The Predatory Wasp, The Tallest Man
Love
2/5
Sounds like exactly the thing that would've topped the British charts back in the hallucinogen-drenched 60s. I'm a little surprised it didn't. In fact, quite the opposite is happening in the present day: none of the songs come close to breaking a million streams on Spotify, suggesting that modern audiences don't appreciate this album's existence very much. And longevity is, of course, a very real part of what makes music good.
The style is reminiscent of the Doors without Manzarek's keyboard/organ and with an uncanny-valley Morrison soundalike (but still much weaker). And, of course, without the hooks, riffs, or pizzazz that made the Doors so successful. The compositions are *okay* but nothing that inspiring. Every song on side 1 is decent, except for The Castle, which kind of spins its wheels in the mud without getting anywhere. The 19-minute Revelation, taking up the entirety of side 2, is a pretty feeble attempt at a proto-prog jam session that never really settles on any good hooks, chord progressions, or anything worth sitting through a second listen. I'll stick to my Pink Floyd prog epics.
2/5
Key tracks: Orange Skies, Seven and Seven Is
TV On The Radio
3/5
Musically quite hard to follow – and not because it's complicated, but rather because it's a bit haphazardly composed. There isn't much in the way of catchiness or hooks, though I'll give the vocal (particularly in more melodic songs like Dancing Choose) props for trying. Notably though, other tracks like Stork & Owl completely throw aside the idea of an enjoyable or technically good vocal in favour of... experimentation? Not sure. Don't like it. TV On The Radio is like a group version of Bowie but with zero vocal control. It's a shame, because the instrument arrangements are generally fantastic. Love Dog ends up being a better version of Stork & Owl because it takes a similar instrument texture and places decent singing on top of it. Golden Age is also great: it sounds straight off the better part of Young Americans, with a couple of melodic lines in the instrumental poached from the 1975 record. It has to be the best song here. DLZ is not nearly as good as Golden Age despite being more popular.
I'm not a fan of the quote that's this album's namesake: "Dear Science, please start solving problems and curing diseases or shut the fuck up." Not sure what exactly this is responding to – there weren't any huge notable science controversies in 2007 or 2008 – so presumably it's just a general anti-science sentiment. Very uncool. What's cooler is that (at least on the face of it) the songs themselves don't appear to be anti-science. Check out some of the sweet lyrics on DLZ: "This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never / Static explosion devoted to crushing the broken and shoving their souls to ghost / Eternalised, objectified, you set your sights so high / But this is beginning to feel like the bolt busted loose from the lever." It's very pessimistic, possibly inspired by (and improving upon) Muse's early-2000s poetry. The style isn't (post-)alt but the lyrics definitely are.
3/5
Key tracks: Dancing Choose, Golden Age, Love Dog
Sonic Youth
3/5
My fourth(!) album by Sonic Youth on this list. I'm still tired.
The group seems to struggle in deciding whether they want to commit to a tonal or an atonal sound. Tunic, My Friend Goo, and Scooter & Jinx are their three primarily atonal tracks (the latter being just a minute long), and they're fine – but only as artifacts of the album. Tunic and My Friend Goo have particularly terrible singing and it's a bit difficult to listen to them. And yes, I'm aware that that's the point – but that doesn't make it enjoyable, or necessarily good music. The song Tunic reminds me of the Velvet Underground's The Gift from their sophomore record, but simply worse (darn). Throughout the album, lots of distorted, echoey guitar, paying homage to a lot of 80s and late 70s hard/stadium rock. I do think Sonic Youth pulls this sound off a little better. The interplay between the two vocalists, like in Titanium Expose, is actually one of my favourite parts, and I wish they'd utilised it more.
Great strong sound in Kool Thing. It's almost mainstream-poppy in the way it uses riffs. Sounds like the Pixies, or *maybe* an earlier version of Radiohead's noodlage on their first two records. Mildred Pierce is a high point too. It's essentially a very (and I mean very) well done punk instrumental. Foreboding, atmospheric, and yet still very energising. Good stuff. Only two minutes as well. Dirty Boots, the album opener, is also a standout, though I have trouble articulating why. The rise and fall of textures/dynamics, maybe. And the stupid but excellent chorus delivery. Dirty boots. Dirty boots, baby. Dirty boots! Unfortunately, the rest of the album is inconsistent (quality-wise) at best. And I only have so many stars in my sack of stars.
3/5
Key tracks: Dirty Boots, Kool Thing, Mildred Pierce
The Strokes
5/5
I like the album cover (it's a butt). The music strikes a lovely balance between several genres, and ends up being much greater than the sum of its parts. There's heavy punk influence, but also some (classic) rock, alt, and grunge. And it's darn catchy – a key factor I think is absent from a lot of post-70s "music-with-a-message". The riffs, the hooks, the instrument playing, the chord progressions... all of it is simple and effective. The sound (particularly the vocal) has a sort of tired, frustrated energy that's reflected in the repetition-heavy lyrics. And all the instruments are active but not too active. The vocal effect is maybe the only thing that irks me about the Strokes' material. The vocalist sounds like he should be a great singer – so why can't we hear it unfiltered? I get it, it's probably the band's gimmick, but once you key into it, his voice gets very distracting.
In terms of specific tracks: The guitar and bass in the title track are instantly recognisable, to the point where I'm a little surprised this isn't one of the Strokes' biggest hits. The song Someday very much resembles Bowie's Sound and Vision, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's heavy influence taken from there. It's a fantastic song, though, and without the weird grainy vocal filter it has potential to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It's delicate, vulnerable, heavy, lively, happy and sorrowful at the same time. That's not an easy feat to achieve. Last Nite is similar to Someday in tempo and texture, with the main difference being the brasher guitar in the right ear and more bouncy melody. Another incredibly strong composition. New York City Cops is an unexpected shift in tone, more aggressively tuning into the band's punk influence with an almost Ramones-esque setup. (That chorus is so Ramonesy, my goodness.)
I could go on. Every track here is very good or better.
5/5
Key tracks: Is This It, Someday, Last Nite, Hard To Explain
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Time to hear where it all started!
Not quite as hazy or distortion-happy as MBV's two later records, but for its time it's pretty darn out there. I'm a little surprised this was liked as much as it was on release, given that the shoegaze genre was all but nonexistent back in 1988.
Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside) hits you immediately with an endless, overpowering wash of slightly off-tune guitar noise. It's just as overwhelming as I hoped for the debut song on their debut LP. It transitions into the unusually mellow (for MBV) Lose My Breath. No More Sorry is another standout, not necessarily for being a strong composition but more so for being utterly strange, yet at the same time completely on-brand. It sounds like there are a series of overlapping organs, and maybe some Indian classical instruments way back in the mix. There are no obvious percussive instruments (or indeed any rhythm), apart from a quiet, slightly hypnotising rumbling in the right ear. (That's what this whole project is: hypnotising.) It's an intriguing track, for sure. The following song, All I Need, is conceptually very similar – the main difference being having guitars instead of organs – so it's a bit of a weird choice to have the two back-to-back from an album-building perspective.
Feed Me With Your Kiss isn't my favourite. It's too rocky, almost punky, for a band like MBV. Several Girls Galore and You Never Should are also pretty unremarkable as MBV tracks, and are barely passable as post-new wave (which I have to assume the band was going for). Not a fan, but at least the album ends fairly strongly. It's a solid effort but definitely weaker than the other two records by the Bloodsters.
3/5
Key tracks: Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside), Cupid Come, All I Need
Marilyn Manson
2/5
I haven't heard this style of music much. It comes across almost as novelty, but at least it's pretty unfamiliar (and therefore interesting). I really hope nobody took Marilyn Manson, as a band, seriously. But then they're tackling some pretty serious topics. Autocracy, violence, the religious right... and they do it in this stupid horror-theme tone that really takes away from the message. Even punk delivers its message better than whatever this oddity is. And, being as recent as 1996, I don't really think this is really a successful attempt to "shock your way into the mainstream" (as another reviewer wrote). Nothing about this is shocking for its time. It comes across as a bit cheesy, or maybe insincere. (That being said, Tourniquet has a stronger delivery and manages to climb out of the cheese rut.) And yet some of the lyrics could actually be really dangerous for impressionable teens. Something about this whole combination doesn't sit right with me.
Right up front, Warner's vocal delivery doesn't do it for me. In Irresponsible Hate Anthem, he alternates between a creepy, deliberately "weird" whisper and a sketchy metal scream. I say sketchy because his voice manages to be somewhat raw yet completely lacking in the genuinely anger and energy that the "metal greats" tend to channel. Deformography and Man That You Fear are both equally weak tracks for this reason. The Beautiful People is immediately stronger for a few reasons. The lower-energy vocals are actually fairly catchy, and the guitar part is significantly more interesting. Everything is loud, brash, and... well, spooky. The band's original name (Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids) makes perfect sense. The delivery of the track title in The Beautiful People is just perfect for an zombie-ghost anthem blasted in some decrepit mansion somewhere. The riffs are pretty strong (at least when they aren't drowned out by other elements) such as in Little Horn, Wormboy, Angel With The Scabbed Wings, and The Reflecting God. But those riffs don't exist in a vacuum.
2/5
Key tracks: The Beautiful People, Tourniquet, The Reflecting God
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
The cover art looks like a watermarked stock photo, and I think that's a pretty accurate analogue to the album as a whole. The style gets really old, really quickly. It comes across as an 80s pastiche that's struggling to cling onto the dwindling audience that actually enjoys this genre/era heading into the golden age of grunge and alt-rock. For that reason, the first three songs are by far the most enjoyable, because you're still holding onto hope that they'll branch out stylistically once they've blasted through all the easy-listening synth pop tracks. (They don't.) Everything else after that is a bit of a drag – at least until the final track Go West, which has that glorious and instantly recognisable backing choir. It's such a relief, such an uplifting way to end the record, that it almost makes me want to bump my rating to 3 stars. Almost.
The opener, Can You Forgive Her?, uses orchestra hits on every single melody note in the instrumental. Bold. But I've also never heard it before – not to this extent. It's pretty fun, except it's used again in A Different Point of View, and in Dreaming of the Queen... in enough others that it does get a little tiring. The harmonies (something I look for in most music) are hit-or-miss, with one of the "hits" being To Speak Is a Sin. It's more soundscape-y than most other tracks. Kind of reminds me of something from later-era ABBA. The synths are slow and cinematic, outlining some simple but effective chords. Liberation also gives off an ABBA-esque feel (the singing in particular), and its synths are less overdone.
2/5
Key tracks: Can You Forgive Her?, Liberation, Go West
Otis Redding
4/5
This is exactly what comes to mind when you think of the name "Otis Redding". Nothing more, nothing less. It's good, it's hearty, it's influential. But is it exciting? Does it break any new ground, venture into the musical unknown, give us musical ideas we've never heard? The unfortunate truth of (quasi-)cover albums, particularly those performed by an already established musician who is known to perform in an outdated genre, is that they just aren't that interesting. Otis Blue is one of several famous 60s records that suffer for this reason (others include Beach Boys' Party!, Ella Fitzgerald's Songbook, the Rolling Stones' debut, and A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector). A cover or two is fine, but by 1965 you really need to extend beyond 8 out of 11 being non-originals.
That being said, if you're going to pick songs to cover, you can't do much better than this. Satisfaction, My Girl, Wonderful World, Rock Me Baby... man, so many greats. The former in particular nearly lives up to the original. It's missing Jagger's grit and the heavy electric guitar sound, but the razor-sharp brass makes up for it. And Redding's vocal delivery is excellent – nearly unrivalled for his time. There's a good reason why he's a bit of a legend in these here parts. He's great at riffing with absolute nonsense syllables, in the sense that he's clearly having a blast doing it – and that joyful feeling rubs off on the listener too. Good range of emotions, too. I admire that, unlike certain punk entries on this list, Redding rotates between various tempos and moods. It's a really fun listen.
4/5
Key tracks: My Girl, Wonderful World, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
The Crusaders
4/5
Incredibly slick and groovy. This deserves no less than a 3, if only for sheer smoothness and ease of listening. Every instrument is played tastefully, the textures are warm, and there's a delicate balance between repeated hooks (heads) and improvisation. For anyone who has an issue with the Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew style of jazz, Street Life is definitely the kind of album you'll be more accepting of. I'm surprised, I guess, by the fact that this is less *universally* acclaimed than Miles Davis's material (even if I personally prefer Davis's stuff). To the reviewers who compared this (unfavourably) to telephone hold music, I have to ask you: how do you think telephone hold music is chosen? Certainly not because it's bad. I'll let you have a think about that. Hand in your answer after class.
The problem is that this list of the thousand most important albums of all time just isn't in need of a jazz album from 1979. That's why the title track stands out the most to me (and, clearly, to everyone else): it fuses jazz with disco. And makes both genres sound significantly better in the process. It could almost belong on Steely Dan's Aja, if the instrumentation was a little more varied. The other five tracks shy away from the disco style and go all-in on major-7 keyboard chords, acoustic basslines, and crooning saxophone solos that make you want to lounge around instead of boogie. It's a bit of a letdown after that powerhouse of an opener, though Carnival Of The Night gets bonus points for its nifty bassline. The remaining songs are all good – no filler at all. Maybe the songwriting and melody are a bit lacking in places, but you can't deny this sounds great regardless.
4/5
Key tracks: Street Life, Carnival Of The Night
Radiohead
5/5
What else is there to say? Radiohead have mastered their craft, and even escaped the "depressive lyrics" rut that so many alt-rock-haters criticise them for. What's left is a warm, lively, relatable slew of artwork that doesn't let up a single time. Every song is near-perfect and I have a very hard time picking any single element I would improve. *Maybe* the outros of Videotape and House Of Cards are a little long. *Maybe* Faust Arp could do with more track length to develop its musical ideas. But I'm grasping at straws. Thom Yorke's voice is arguably the finest, rawest, and most emotive it's been (barring individual earlier tracks like Black Star and Exit Music). Jonny Greenwood finds this spectacularly mellow guitar tone, heard as early as the opener 15 Step, and runs with it. In fact, that guitar sound not only defines the whole album, but essentially creates its own unique genre that I haven't seen replicated, not even by Radiohead themselves. The basswork ranges from silky to jamming, and just like their previous records, is played in exactly the right places. Seriously. Pay attention to the bass in each song and you get an entirely new album experience. And the musical motifs are developed so darn tastefully. It's just brilliant. Utterly brilliant.
15 Step is sort of the band's first (most famous?) foray into drum loops. They do it to a much greater extent on The King Of Limbs, but they did it best here, no question. The way the texture is gradually built upon, adding in Thom's vocals, then acoustic drums to mirror the electric loop, then guitar and slow bass, then faster bass licks over the top. And of course the soundscapey synths worm their way into the mix partway through. It's fast-paced, energetic, warm... and talks about suicide. Cool!
Bodysnatchers is the most "classic-rock" the album gets, featuring a slightly off-kilter rock-inspired vocal from Thom and a garage band/surf rock type guitar groove. It's divided into two distinct sections, the first with a sort of crazed, paranoid mood and the second expressing wonder and quieter confusion. And check out those lyrics. (Dang.) The riff is phenomenal here, performed with an energy that wouldn't really be matched until near the album's conclusion.
Nude is one of the two best songs on here. It starts off understated, with an absolutely killer octave-based bassline, reversed vocals, and free, angelic strings. Then the textures drop off. Everything is slow, thoughtful, deliberate. "You paint yourself white / And fill up with noise / But there'll be something missing". The soft, almost lazy strumming of guitar. Then the texture builds, slowly but assuredly. Thom hits a crescendo, showcasing his best vocals on the record. The chord progression is phenomenal. Then an "ooh" vocal finishes out the song, accompanied by those gorgeous strings from the intro. It's beautiful, it's complete. It's perfect.
Weird Fishes / Arpeggi is one of the most popular ones on here, and for good reason. It has some pretty badass rhythmic interplay between guitar and drums throughout essentially the entire track. Again, we see a rising energy, almost frenzied towards the middle of the track as more and more musical elements are added – before nearly everything is stripped away and you are allowed to have your allocated out-of-body experience. (You'll get another one later with Reckoner, don't worry.) The end section is much darker and more foreboding, featuring a more dynamic bassline that works its way through some killer riffs. And a rare Thom Yorke low vocal.
All I Need is yet another song with a gradual build-up, and this one has a ridiculous payoff with its colourful full-scale-chord playing on piano. It sounds kind of magical (don't you think?), particularly when combined with the glockenspiel, generously layered synths, and Thom's emotionally conflicted vocal, "It's all wrong, it's all right". I'm glad it's getting some more Internet recognition these days.
Faust Arp is the album's flawless interlude. It consists only of acoustic guitar, Thom's singing, and a small string section. Kind of reminds you of a rabbit frolicking through a summery forest. The lyrics make no sense. The time signatures and chords change extremely rapidly here, though it's not obvious on a first listen.
Reckoner has an almost shockingly "big"-sounding percussion part after the mellow ending to Faust Arp. The feathery guitar tone contrasts sharply and yet perfectly with it. And Thom delivers this entirely in his falsetto range. The middle section has a drop in texture (just like in Weird Fishes) and is kind of the album's centerpiece. "Because we separate
/ Like ripples on a blank shore". What the heck? This is incredible. Before you know it, it's all over, and you wish it could last for hours longer.
If I had to pick the weakest track, it would be House Of Cards. But please don't make me. This song has perhaps the cleanest sound, the sharpest production, of all the tracks here. Everything is understated here. Thom's vocal is (perhaps questionably) put through an echo effect to deliver one of Radiohead's most romantic – or maybe anti-romantic – tracks ever. Throw your keys in the bowl / Kiss your husband goodnight / Forget about your house of cards / And I'll do mine". As in, "I love you so much that I would really prefer it if you just cheated on your significant other already." (Hmm.) But it sounds incredibly good, so I can't complain.
Jigsaw Falling Into Place is the other contender for best track. Although the melody isn't particularly adventurous, it's mainly holding out until the second half, where it jumps an octave and goes completely ham. (Unless you're vegetarian like Thom.) The chords are slightly unorthodox but that just makes it all the more fun to play on either guitar or piano. The build-up is, once again, one of the highlights. There are submelodies racing everywhere throughout this thing, weaving their way around the main vocal at various points. And the lyrics... "She looks back, and you look back / /Not just once, and not just twice / Wish away the nightmare / You got the light, you can feel it on your back / Your jigsaw falling into place". Damn.
Videotape has a happier, or perhaps more hopeful, message than it appears on first glance. The narrator isn't just declaring his own death, he's also celebrating what made him happy in life. Coupled with the "instrumentalised" version of a video recorder running out of tape, this is one of Radiohead's most creative endeavours to date. It's no wonder it took them so long to record.
An easy 5 stars.
5/5
Key tracks: all
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Banhart isn't good at singing in tune, and it's very distracting. I wonder if people only enjoy his voice because it's different, rather than because it's technically strong. There's so much wobble and quaver, particularly in the opening track, that it feels like his neck could disintegrate at the slightest breeze. There are very few musical elements to key into other than Banhart's vocal. There's the acoustic guitar, plucked slowly (almost lazily) in pretty much every track. There's the occasional second vocalist harmonising with the first, creating some standout moments. Sometimes – rarely – you hear the odd string or percussion instrument. The trouble is, aside from those standout moments, the whole thing is a bit monotonous. The songs' melodies are varied, but they're doing the heavy lifting. Everything else is one strange yet bland flavour.
Truth be told, I found myself enjoying more than half the tracks. The songs A Sight to Behold (good strings and fluttery, dynamic feel) and Fall (many instruments keep the texture interesting), in particular, are strong. But for something to make it onto the list of the 1001 most important albums of all time, I need more than that. It needs to be all killer and no filler.
2/5
Key tracks: A Sight to Behold, This Beard Is for Siobhan, Fall
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
Aall the power to you if you want to write something that sounds completely different from Rumours. Just don't be surprised if people think it doesn't sound as good, and when those same people constantly make comparisons to Rumours and earlier beloved Fleetwood Mac records. The Mac gang definitely made this sound different from earlier endeavours, essentially abandoning the "lovey atmosphere with sniping lyrical remarks" theme of Rumours. We still get the sniping, but now the atmosphere is all over the place. From beautiful, powerful ballads like Sara, Beautiful Child, and Sisters of the Moon, to the brisk, semi-tribal feel of the title track, to the drug-inspired country nonsense of That's Enough for Me, to the confusing semi-rockabilly(??) of What Makes You Think You're the One. Every track is incredibly distinct from the last. And for a record boasting 20 tracks, that's pretty impressive.
The Nicks and McVie tracks really are a breath of fresh, ethereal, magical air amidst the heavily Buckingham-dominated interim tracks. Sara is absolutely stellar as a side 1 closer, and Sisters of the Moon is a spectacular, beautiful way to end the first disc. But that's not to slander Buckingham's songs – at least, not too much. They're fine, they're solid. His first appearance on Tusk is in The Ledge, which is a frantic, almost crazed nod to punk and post-punk influence. Not That Funny is another overtly punkish track, featuring a slew of shouted vocals and simple, rough, distorted guitar playing. But the quality isn't *quite* consistent enough to warrant a perfect rating from me. There's a ton of good material here, but also a ton of less interesting stuff that, while unique, isn't as grabbing – mostly due to either melody or Buckingham's weirdly unhinged persona.
4/5
Key tracks: Sara, Storm, That's All for Everyone, Sisters of the Moon, Tusk
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
I've listened to Are You Experienced before this. This is less cohesive and self-assured, though it does have its strong moments.
Exp definitely comes off as an excessive load of studio noise with nothing musically interesting. It gets much better, musically, after that. But per my self-inflicted policy, if I don't at least "like" every single song on a record, that record cannot receive a perfect (5-star) rating. There are other things that are detrimental to Axis's perfection, though. All of the tracks before Little Wing are fairly good, but lack many convincing hooks or melodies. Hendrix is very strong at a sort of "riffing" vocal that lingers on one bluesy note for a long time, sounding almost like proto-rap/R&B material. This is not good. Most listeners are looking for melody when they want something they can sing along to and share with their friends – hence the success of more melodic tracks like Little Wing and Castles Made of Sand. Other songs on here, like You Got Me Floatin' and Up From The Skies, are good enough, but their melodies really hold them back.
Throughout Axis, the main focus seems to be on jumping on the psychedelia bandwagon (though to be fair, Are You Experienced did this back when the bandwagon didn't exist). I'll let it slide just this once, Jimi. There's a ton of playing with the mixing equipment, seen most frequently in the form of sound panning. The guitar, drum, and bass goes every which way throughout the record. It's honestly really fun, if very much a product of its time. That album cover screams "all the hippies love Indian culture and so do I, wink wink." It's a lot less cool when everybody is doing it, and also when the music itself is not at all indicative of Indian influence. I do like all of Jimi's hands, though. It's how I usually picture him when I hear his guitar playing.
4/5
Key tracks: Little Wing, If 6 Was 9, Castles Made of Sand
Jeff Buckley
4/5
This guy's vocal is all over the place. Sometimes he'll be in tune, someone he'll be wildly off, but one thing's for sure: he's confident. And his vocal quality is smooth as heck. Last Goodbye is the perfect showcase of when that weird vocal is combined with an excellent backing instrumental (love the guitar and overall feel here – reminds me of Radiohead's Go To Sleep). It's the first big standout track here. The album covers a range of emotions – another reviewer eloquently described it as "a diverse range of orgasms" – but the general feel is plaintive and uncertain. Lots of good, memorable hooks too.
Hallelujah I feel is simply a great song no matter who covers it. Buckley does it well. Unremarkably, but well. Lover You Should've Come Over is an intense experience, building from soft to thunderous and heartstopping over a slow-burn 6:44 runtime. It's fantastic. Probably the strongest track on here, though Last Goodbye is also a contender. Corpus Christi Carol, on the other hand, is a dead-obvious throwaway track. As far as I can tell, it's a solo Buckley with one lightly plucked acoustic guitar. These sorts of songs can be extremely hit-or-miss: your attention is drawn to the melody and style of singing. But there's nothing catchy about either factor, nothing that makes me want to come back and give it another chance. (I did end up giving it another chance, and I was even less impressed the second time.) A shame, because the rest of the album is really strong. But per my self-inflicted policy, I can't give it a 5.
4/5
Key tracks: Last Goodbye, Hallelujah, Lover You Should've Come Over
Silver Jews
2/5
It's like an older, more haggard Tom Waits. Or a less haggard Nick Cave, with consequently less mythical appeal. This guy's voice both sounds tired and makes the listener feel tired well before the end of the album. At times it's bearable, but in certain songs (Time Will Break The World, Tennessee) it causes the singing to be completely and horrendously out of tune. Some may call it experimental art; I call it holding modern music to a higher standard because earlier artists figured out already that singing out of tune sounds bad. A band from 2001 should know better. Another reviewer correctly identified that the music is "so wearing and wearisome ... that these hangdog vocals overshadow everything else. In an already muted soundscape, such a lugubrious performance merely serves to poison the well."
One of my highlights ends up being the instrumental Transylvania Blues, in part because the vocals are absent and in part because the atmosphere is a bit more lively and honky-tonk than in the others. The two opening tracks, Slow Education & Room Games and Diamond Rain, are also "standouts" (at a stretch) because at that point you're still holding out hope that Berman's just going through a phase. (He isn't.) The musicianship throughout is listenable enough, but nothing exciting or outstanding. The album flow is passable. I would've liked to hear more interesting melodies in either vocal or guitar lines.
2/5
Key tracks: Slow Education, Room Games and Diamond Rain, Transylvania Blues
Elbow
4/5
Overall, a very fresh, modern, refined sound. There's a broad range of instruments, from the glorious string orchestra on Mirrorball and One Day Like This to the mirrored parts of piano and ghoulish choir on The Fix. Reminds me a bit of Radiohead – if only for their musical versatility and slick mixing.
The Bones of You is excellent. Swift, light, high-pitched tribalesque drumming in 6/8 that reminds me of Steely Dan's Two Against Nature title track. Muse-ish choral harmonising, too, along with an intense synth bass part and a chord progression that's almost droney but gets some variation during the verses. Another huge standout is Grounds for Divorce. Its riff is so dang good (the band definitely realised this) and the doubling between guitar and bass is the correct move to accentuate it. A page taken from the Led Zeppelin handbook. I'm not as big a fan of the verse/bridge section towards the end – it breaks the flow – but otherwise it's rock-solid. Some of the tracks are still enjoyable but noticeably weaker, such as Weather to Fly and Some Riot.
Responding to another reviewer who asked "Do you guys just eat up anything that comes along and sounds like Radiohead?"... Yes. Yes, I do. Because Radiohead is an incredible band. Anyone who successfully imitates them is doing at least one thing right.
4/5
Key tracks: The Bones of You, Mirrorball, Grounds for Divorce
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
These lyrics are unusually weak for Springsteen. "The sky was falling and streaked with blood / I heard you calling me then you disappeared into the dust / Up the stairs, into the fire". Seems like the 9/11 theme really sold back in '02. But it reads as clumsily as songs written about COVID. The songs feel sort of unwieldy, like normal solid rock songs that were reshaped to fit the patriotism cutout that was suddenly all the rage. And some of them aged badly because of what happened in the following years. "House is on fire, viper's in the grass / A little revenge and this too shall pass". Ouch. That one stings. Dubya would like a word, along with all the people that rightfully hate him for launching the war on terror.
That being said, the music's actual sound is pretty darn great. I kept expecting to be disappointed or bored, especially considering the long album runtime, but excluding the song Into the Fire, every song has at least one element worth staying for. Lonesome Day is a bright, hopeful way to start the album, featuring a cheesy but ultimately heartwarming riff on guitar and strings. Waitin' On A Sunny Day is as bright and happy as you might expect. Not a huge fan of the echoed vocals (which Springsteen seems to utilise a lot) but the backing vocals are great here. And another goofy yet fun repeated string tune. Mary's Place has one of the thinnest textures you'll ever hear from Big Bruce, pulling off the kind of summery vibe that was all the rage in the early '00s. And the chorus plus its lead-in are really catchy: "Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain... / Meet me at Mary's Place". Heck yeah!
3/5
Key tracks: Lonesome Day, Waitin' On A Sunny Day, Mary's Place
The Jam
3/5
As expected for a punk band during peak punkage, the vocal isn't very good. There's a reason why musical training is so important for a band's singer – more so than any of the other instruments. It's the most noticeable part by a long shot, and it needs to be done well. This project has made me realise just how much a vocalist can make or break an album's overall sound. In this case, it's somewhere in between. In some songs, like the title track and It's Too Bad, the vocal is laughably bad. It sounds slurred, drunked, and like the guy's reading the lyrics for the first time as he sings them. The bass and guitar really hold the songs together, and elevate them to a whole other level in the rare event where the singing is good. Mr. Clean is the first example of such a track. It's slick, well-mixed, well-composed, and the singing is actually alright.
English Rose has to be the best song on here. The best singing by far, and the acoustic guitar lines are very pretty. These "The Jam" guys, for all their spunk, are pretty good at not jamming. (The exception, maybe, is the song Fly, which feels like a weak attempt to follow in the ditty-prog footsteps of (e.g.) David Bowie's "Star".) But sometimes the jamming is good: I enjoy the choppy riffs in Down In The Tube Station At Midnight. Pretty unusual to hear tasteful use of silence in music – especially punk music – and it's a breath of fresh air. The aforementioned Mr. Clean is really good, as is the driving piano-based tune David Watts. The end of the album starts to feel a little samey, particularly with 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street, but it's still catchy enough.
3/5
Key tracks: Mr. Clean, David Watts, English Rose
Beck
3/5
Listened to Guero a few weeks ago, and gave it 4 stars. So I have pretty high expectations for this one.
The opener The Golden Age is solid, if a little repetitive. The song doesn't really go anywhere, apart from the chorus having a couple of distinctive high backing vocals. But the guitar and slow tempo are pleasant. A fresh, clean sound. Where Beck really comes to life is in the next track, Paper Tiger. The strings strike that perfect balance of beautiful and mysterious (even slightly menacing) that I came to love in some of Radiohead's tracks off A Moon Shaped Pool (2016). The bassline, when it comes in, is also fantastic here. Beck plays around with just a couple of chords to create a weird classical-blues genre hybrid. Lonesome Tears, though slower and more balladesque, is great for the same reason.
A few of the songs suffer simply because Beck's voice is kind of... well, boring. And the instrumental can only do so much to help that. Guess I'm Doing Fine and Round The Bend are, collectively, ten minutes of indisputable filler caused by Beck trying to make a vocal-and-strings-based ballad and failing to do anything musically interesting with it. End Of The Day is, instrumentally, a very similar track – but it does more with its chord progression. Round The Bend and Side Of The Road are two other dull tracks that suffer from a lack of zest/oomph. Could be due to not having any percussion. In fact, pretty much all tracks here lack percussion, which I think works heavily against Beck compared to his Guero album (which has a diverse range of percussion sounds). I gave that one a 4. It's pretty reasonable to give this something lower.
3/5
Key tracks: Paper Tiger, Lonesome Tears, Lost Cause
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Pretty dated with the first track (for using a presently offensive term for small people) and the second track (for obvious reasons). The first track, though is pretty darn groovy. I dig it. Lots of bluesy melody, and a few unexpected chords thrown in for good luck. Track 2 is similarly good – that instrumental outro is fire – but I struggled to add it to my Liked playlist, knowing it would be visible for anyone who bothered to look. The reverse is true of Everyday People: sure, it's *fine*, but I almost felt obligated to give it a "like pass" because it's so popular. It's nowhere near as good as the other singles, lacking the catchy, brass section, bluesyness, and general feel-good element.
You can hear the influence from late-60s psychedelia in the guitar lines and weird vocal decisions. In some cases, it culminates in utterly genius musical moments like the infectiously upbeat Sing a Simple Song and You Can Make It If You Try. In others, the track is just strange and difficult to understand unless you're on a hallucinogen or three. Somebody's Watching You is a good example of this. It inserts and removes vocals haphazardly, and is way too happy-sounding for the oddly creepy lyrics. (Still a good song, though.) In others, it's somewhere in between. The psychedelia influence is fun enough in the guitars effects on the instrumental Sex Machine, but the main comment I have is more obviously apparent: it's far too long. 14-minute tracks have no place on a commercial album unless it's some kind of progressive – that is, it gives the listener multiple conrtasting sections for the price of one lengthy track. This does not. It's just a bunch of solos of various wah-wah guitars, one after the other. (I still liked it. But I hate that I liked it.)
4/5
Key tracks: Stand!, Sing a Simple Song, You Can Make It If You Try
Neil Young
3/5
My fourth offering from Neil Young on the list. My opinion of him has varied quite a bit. This is on the lower end, though the compositions and instrumentations are undeniably strong. Good country feel, kind of sounds like it was recorded live in some rural saloon. Soft, nice guitar and drumming, very feel-good. I commented this on another Young record, but he can absolutely nail the singer-songwriter blues ideal if he tries to. In tracks like Speakin' Out and Lookout Joe, this is definitely the case. The backing vocalists are also generally strong, though they're far from perfect (mostly because of their mics)
Young's vocal is a bit sketchy in general, but it's positively horrific in Mellow My Mind. Holy smokes, that timbre is almost unlistenable. The rest of the track can be played off as an innocent Bob Dylan cover, but the singing is unavoidable croaky, wavery, and very clearly out of tune. I'm not giving him experimentation points, either, because a) it still sounds bad regardless and b) Young isn't an experimental artist. The vocal mixing is also pretty bad here, especially with the backing vocals, which tend to change volume haphazardly as if the singers are leaning away from a microphone. The problem is most noticeable on Roll Another Number, but also shows up on both title tracks. It all feels quite low-budget and unprofessional. And for Neil freaking Young, of all people! Do better, man!
3/5
Key tracks: Speakin' Out, Borrowed Tune, Lookout Joe
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Lots of synths. Some of them are pretty fun and have a good beat/melody to them, like in the opening track, Buffalo Stance. There's a *lot* of Mixolydian mode in the synths and backing vocals, characteristic of disco/post-disco and early hip-hop. Lots of harsh cut-off production too – maybe it sounded cool and fresh for its time, but man, it sounds so forcibly dated now. Record scratch sounds are fine if they're used once or twice per album, but every single darn track? Yeah. I'm good. A lot of the musical elements here are best ignored when listening through a modern lens. Manchild has to be the best song here, mainly for avoiding the quick-cut DJ SFX and sticking to the tried-and-true method of having good melody, harmony, and beat.
The digital triangle sound on Buffalo Stance is quiet, but impossible to ignore once you've noticed it. Very much like Usher's "Yeah!" in that way. It's very annoying and takes some solid effort to make myself enjoy the rest of the music. But I get there in the end – at least for that song. The rest of the record is a little patchy, with the former half being significantly better than the latter. The lyrics are uneven and discontinuous, and the samples are overused both then and now. To her credit, Cherry does seem like she's having a ton of fun – but she may well be the only one. As with other parodied vocals (unless it's specifically meant to be comedic), I'm not a fan of the forced hip-hop voice. The entire project screams "I'm following a trend". Outré Risqué Locomotive and My Bitch are the two worst offenders on the album in this regard, and that's reflected in them having lower Spotify listening numbers.
2/5
Key tracks: Manchild, Kisses On The Wind, Inna City Mamma
Kate Bush
3/5
Wow. Definitely more... cinematic(?) than some of her other projects. I've heard Hounds of Love and The Sensual World already, and what I think those did better was show a bit of restraint with the level of experimentation. In The Dreaming, that factor is a little on-the-nose. It still has all the markers of utterly Bushian magic and wonder, but there's something kind of unpredictable, alien, almost grotesque about some of the songs here, which wash over you one after the other like a musical. There Goes A Tenner even has the sort of music-hall-production arrangement, what with the muted upright piano, brass section, and incredibly dramatised vocals. Sometimes it works, and you have no idea how; it just does.
The grotesqueness I'm talking about peaks at around the time of Leave It Open, with its reversed high vocal harmonies, various weird looping techniques, and so on. It's like she's trying to make her music inaccessible. I completely understand some of the 1-star reviews here. Weird for the sake of weird might fly for some listeners, but not most. Including me. Other questionable moments include the end of Get Out Of My House (less cool than reviewers are making it out to be) and all of the preceding track, Houdini. I can't help but feel that this is too weird for a first listen, and subsequent listens will let me adore this project. That seems to be the case for some other reviewers. Just stick with it, right? Well, first impressions are important too.
3/5
Key tracks: Sat In Your Lap, Suspended In Gaffa, Night Of The Swallow
Def Leppard
3/5
Huge, anthemic, loud, stupid. The riffs, when they're actually present, are a ton of fun, both for me and (presumably) for Def Leppard. The run of tracks Pour Some Sugar On Me / Armageddon It / Gods Of War is heavily riff-focused, and to good effect. Part of the latter's riff reminds me (tragically) of the main guitar tune from ABBA's Voulez-Vous. A lot of the songs don't have any interesting musical elements to make the listener come back for a second run-through. Run Riot and Excitable are two examples. They really don't live up to their respective names. Regarding the song Hysteria: Muse did it much better, but this version's still alright. All of side 1 is pretty good, explaining why all six tracks were released as singles.
As a (technically) first-time listener of Def Leppard, I'm tempted to say they come off as a knock-off Guns N' Roses. The two bands sound pretty similar. Both are the easily-dismissable "hair rock" that swamped the 80s popular music scene. So clearly these guys are trend-followers, and since it's a bad trend (as agreed by most listeners), and they do it noticeably worse than Guns N' Roses, I can't really give this a 5. Knock it down to a 3, actually, because the album took up much more of my evening than it had business doing. The tracks drag on, solo after solo, chorus after chorus... The shortest track, Animal, is still a bit of a slog at over 4 minutes, and the album in its entirety is over an hour. You need prog-rock levels of slow, interesting musical ideas to justify that.
3/5
Key tracks: Rocket, Pour Some Sugar On Me, Armageddon It
Sepultura
1/5
Once again with Sepultura, we get this pretty humorous correlation between progress through the album and number of listens on Spotify (the track Orgasmatron being an exception that proves the rule). This Brazilian heavy metal genre is exhausting to listen to because it's so goshdarn monotonous. An endless onslaught of 4-to-6 minute tracks with almost nothing distinguishing each one, musically, from the next. Comparing this to their later album Roots, it doesn't seem like they develop their sound in any kind of meaningful way. It's like they wrote one metal song in this style, realised people vaguely enjoyed it, and "wrote" a couple hundred replicas to appease those people. A shame, really – the guitar texture is pretty cool. But it needs to be used a heck of a lot more sparingly if you want to keep your audience coming back for more. Also, the album is a little bit too long (nearly an hour) to stay engaged with it consistently.
The run of three tracks from Dead Embryonic Cells to Murder is stronger, I guess, though I'd be pressed to articulate why. I guess they're near the beginning of the album, so I'm not hating myself yet. There are a few tempo changes among these tracks, maintaining my interest somewhat. And the various guitar ideas in Desperate Cry allow for a proggy sort of song structure that I can be made to appreciate. The melodies are absolutely horrendous (good luck convincing anyone to sing along to this) and the drumming is technically impressive but somehow just as monotonous as the rest. I wish I could see what some of you guys are seeing.
1/5
Key tracks: Dead Embryonic Cells, Desperate Cry, Murder
Frank Black
3/5
Is this what teenagers looked like in the 90s? Man, I'm young. Frank Black does pretty well with many of these songs, but other act as filler that can certainly be cut out of this 62-minute hulk. Influence from the Pixies is definitely present in the spikiness and high energy, though there are less occurrences of soft-loud and stop-start changes here. This causes a bit of monotony (though it's still energetic) as the album progresses. All of the best songs are near the start anyway, so you might as well ignore the latter half of the record if you're seeking out one cohesive piece of art. (Seriously - you can't tell me with a straight face that Big Red or Pie in the Sky add anything musically interesting compared to some of the earlier songs.)
Ah. Co-produced by an ex-Pere Ubu member. That explains a lot. Many of the flaws, the drawbacks holding this back from being 4 or 5 stars, comes from a generation of experimentation and atonality that hit a near-objective dead end. Various musical elements are tacked on seemingly at random and without regard for the key, making it difficult to hear the sounds in a positive light. Songs like Superabound and Two Reelers are technically pretty good songs, but all the side synths, guitar licks that never repeat, musical ideas that are never revised... it kind of violates the "Chekhov's gun" of music. (Don't introduce musical elements that contribute nothing to the flow/movement/ plot of the record.) A lot of songs here either avoid doing this or hide it well, as in the excellent Thalassocracy, Headache, and (I Want to Live on An) Abstract Plain.
3/5
Key tracks: Thalassocracy, (I Want to Live on An) Abstract Plain, Headache, Freedom Rock
Sonic Youth
3/5
My fifth(!!) album on this list from Sonic Youth. I'm still tired.
Interesting to see the numbers drop from track to track as you venture further into the album. I suspect my experience matched up with many others: the first song is pretty good, the second song is pretty good, the third song is pretty good... and then you realise it doesn't achieve the "incredible" status that all the critics are spouting off about. (Plus, some of the later ones are "okay" or worse. I'm looking at you, Rain King and Kissability.) Sounds a bit like if Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and Tom Petty wrote a shoegaze record together. The vocal delivery in Eric's Trip is very Dylanesque, the vocal itself sounds Reed-ish, and I just get this Heartbreaky feeling when focusing on the instrumental.
Providence is stupid. 160 seconds of people talking on the radio with Fitter Happier piano backing. Soon after, the album takes a nosedive in quality with Rain King, which is severely held back by its completely monotonous melody. You see this a lot in Bob Dylan tracks too (and it's one of the few things holding him back). The A/B/Z trilogy at the end is pretty sick though (or at least A/B are). Some good blurry post-psychedelic guitar solos in there. Generally, the vocal is pretty weak, and I have to imagine it's not Sonic Youth's focus. More emphasis is put on the guitars and adherence to proto-shoegaze (this came out the same year as Isn't Anything!). The two albums are very comparable.
3/5
Key tracks: Teen Age Riot, Silver Rocket, The Sprawl
Merle Haggard
3/5
Considering the fierce competition from the year 1967, any albums on this list in the Cash-esque “retro-country” style come off as a little underwhelming. (Yes, that excludes Cash himself, but only because he hams it up spectacularly by interacting with the audience and adding little quips that make him instantly loveable.) Merle Haggard presents us with a slew of very inoffensive country-pop tracks that would be much more impressive if released in the 40s or 50s. The vocal harmonies, the (very, very simple) chord progressions, the twangy electric guitar... everything screams “dated”. For a list of the 1001 most important albums of all time, this has got to be on the lower end in terms of importance. Either that or (more likely) it just doesn’t quite belong on the list.
But dang it, I’m A Lonesome Fugitive is still such a fun time. It takes you on a slow, laid-back, lilting journey through various country and proto-rock clichés, and not a single track is more obviously “fillery” than the rest. One highlight is If You Want To Be My Woman, which gives us a sudden uptick of energy amidst several drowsier ones. It’s packed with piano-driven energy, and it follows a blues progression – two elements that, when combined, are almost never a miss. Drink Up And Be Somebody is also strong for its more prominent, complex guitar line in the verses and pre-verses. Of course, the title track is also worth mentioning, this time for just being indescribably positive and beautiful. If some of these tracks were improved upon using cutting-edge techniques/styles of the period, the album would have some serious firepower.
3/5
Key tracks: I’m A Lonesome Fugitive, Drink Up And Be Somebody, If You Want To Be My Woman
Pantera
3/5
Funny, catchy, memorable guitar riff in the first track. Albums that start off with a bang are always worth paying attention to. Unfortunately, Pantera goes down the well-trodden path of "recruit an absolutely horrendous and incredibly stereotypical singer (for the genre)". In fact, the singing isn't bad when it follows a melody – but it rarely does. Walk is a clear standout because the singer manages to squeeze a good melody out of the very strained and painful singing. In contrast, there are a few songs towards the album's tail end that sound identical to one another – which could be partly due to sonic exhaustion after half an hour of monotonous noise (with some highlights). Rise, Regular People, and By Demons Be Driven are the main culprits here. Live in a Hole would be too, but it's saved entirely by its guitar solo near-ish the end.
This Love is excellent. It's a great compromise between the darkly horrific scream-vocal style and a similarly dark, more brooding, much more musical feel. A slow, extended blues progression can be hit-or-miss, but in this track it works wonders. Easily the best song on the record. Hollow, the album closer, is in close second in virtue of sounding like the gates of heaven compared to the nigh-torturous run of tracks before it (from Rise to By Demons Be Driven.) Those harmonised guitars... man. And that soft, sparkling arpeggio guitar in the back. And Anselmo's back to his singing voice, which is orders of magnitude better than whatever the heck he was doing before.
3/5
Key tracks: Walk, This Love, Hollow
Mariah Carey
3/5
If you're like me, you've heard just one song from Mariah Carey (and we all know which song that is). And your opinion of her music is ambivalent in virtue of this track's extremely overdone vocals and the fact that it's played everywhere. Maybe you're worried that this will just be an hour of the same pain. Well, behold: Butterfly is noticeably better – or at least, it starts off that way. We begin with Honey, a hip-hop-inspired track with lots of different frequencies playing at once. It gives the ear a lot to latch onto, and though it could be overwhelming, I found myself really enjoying it (excluding the triangle which is a bit annoying). Light, magical, and unabashedly feminine. Carey absolutely nailed the atmosphere. She finds this delicate, vulnerable, expressive, and technically near-perfect vocal tone in the next two songs. It sounds so darn good. At least until she hits some of the higher-intensity parts in My All, where her note-warbling gets old very quickly. (Not every melody needs to be riffed and wobbled over, Mariah.) Whenever You Call has the same problem.
The main issue is, once you get over the initial awe of her utterly magical vocal, you realise the songs (particularly from Babydoll onward) just aren't that good. The instrumentation is lacking in songs like Fourth of July, Whenever You Call, and The Beautiful Ones. That by no means drops my rating down to a 2 or a 1, but it's worth considering. An important element of any album is consistency, so if you only have a few strong tracks released as singles and the rest is sloppy and musically uninteresting, you didn't do a great job. There are a lot of things in this album that seem a little low-effort, including the album artwork, which feels like Carey said to the producers, "Hey, I can be a pretty girl just standing there. Holding a butterfly. Get it? Like the name of the album. Wink wink." Even though there are plenty of weak elements to point out, I'm convinced people don't like this because of the weak album cover and because they have some vendetta against Carey for her past crimes.
3/5
Key tracks: Butterfly, My All, Breakdown
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
This album is the reason I hang my American flag upside-down.
Free Bird? These guys must know who Lynyrd Skynyrd is. Oh, yep. They know. Oh, they definitely know. They make absolutely certain that we know they're fans.
Sweet riff on Ronnie And Neil. It's a tried-and-true sound that works (obviously) despite being a little unimpressive for the 21st century. A better example of a great track is Dead Drunk And Naked. It's pretty strong: it does a lot with the few chords it uses, and the vibe is unabashedly positive. The vocal harmonising is good too. A fun track. Zip City is another standout, this time for its distinctive low drawl and warm guitar tone. Combined, this sounds like something right off the Stones' Sticky Fingers. And that's a (very) good thing. Women Without Whiskey is very strong too, mainly due to coming after a trio of very weak tracks. And it's exactly what the doctor ordered. Musically, pretty similar to Dead Drunk And Naked. Plastic Flowers On The Highway is even better (great interacting guitar tones) and rounds out the "key track trio".
George Wallace being touted as one of the "three great Alabama icons" is pretty gross. The infamous pro-segregationist that stood firmly against the rights of non-white people for decades? The band kind of covers this in the lyrics, but doesn't justify his inclusion beyond "he makes it easier to do racism if you have a Southern accent". Coincidentally, the song itself a disaster (musically) for its entire seven-minute runtime. It's also around this point that you realise the band is only subtly condemning Southern racism and that most listeners will interpret the music on its face (i.e, pro-segregation). Darn. Note that the line "Now the Devil's got a Wallace sticker" doesn't work on racists who take pride in being bad people, which is surprisingly many of them.
I have to steal another reviewer's writing here because it's so spot-on:
"I don't dislike it at the normal 2 star level, but the problem is, if you're going to do 90 minutes, you at least have to have a few songs that GRAB you, which this doesn't have. It just goes on and on and on remaining passable but never great [apart from the keys tracks below]."
2/5
Key tracks: Dead Drunk And Naked, Zip City, Plastic Flowers On The Highway
Slade
2/5
This hit #1 in the UK charts?! You could've fooled me.
The vocal echo effect usually doesn't work with any singer, but it's especially bad here. It completely masks what little melody we have to work with (as a listener), and the quality goes from a decent emulation of Roger Taylor (or 70s Robert Plant) to an ear-shattering mess. The song The Whole World's Goin' Crazee is the best (or worst) example of the absolutely horror show that is the singing. Mama Weer All Crazee Now is also pretty bad. Gudbuy T'Jane is a great track with a stupid name – even more stupid when you notice it's followed by the poetically christened Gudbuy Gudbuy. But both are passable, and I found myself nodding my head a bit. In general, this band's groove is the best part, and it's just okay. The guitar has a fun distortion that's just about the most clichéd for its time (1972). It's as far from groundbreaking as you can get.
The lyricism is terrible too, and I say that as somebody who pays little heed to lyrics unless they're very obviously bad. I selected a random song and picked a random lyric from it, and this is what turned up:
"Here's nothing like the feeling / When the sound is getting wild / You're jumping up and dancing on the seats / The whole world's goin' crazee / Crazee crazee crazee crazee crazee"
And another:
"She's a queen / Can't you see what I mean / She's a queen / See, (see) see, she's a queen / And I know she's alright, alright, alright, alright / I say you're so young, you're so young"
(Hmm.)
2/5
Key tracks: Look at Last Nite, Move Over, Gudbuy T'Jane
ABBA
5/5
A very strong showing from ABBA. Possibly their best album – mostly in virtue of having both Knowing Me Knowing You and Fernando, separated by some very strong non-single tracks. A big element is nostalgia: those two singles I just mentioned take me back to my childhood, singing in the car with my parents. And they also benefit from not being horrendously, massively overplayed. But more than anything, ABBA just feels... powerful here. Confident. Poppy. Experimental – at least, compared to their other work. They haven't quite undergone the disco transformation (that would be in their next record), so their sound is still pretty timeless. I love the textures they create with their voices and the jangly, quick-witted piano lines. Plus, the melodies/hooks are fantastic here.
This is one of the rare albums where I would say the singles (specifically Dancing Queen and Money Money Money) legitimately suffer from being overplayed. My Love My Life, That's Me, Why Did It Have To Be Me?, and Tiger are really solid tracks that outperform those two any day of the week. Tiger in particular has some excellent vocal layering and chord progressions, and My Love My Life is one of the group's prettiest ballads – again with some stunning harmonies. The title track is an exciting, grandiose way to end the album, and a darn good instrumental in its own right. Why Did It Have To Be Me? is one of the classic (partial) male-vocal ABBA tracks, and its catchy melody puts it on par with the similarly strong Does Your Mother Know, released two albums later. Happy Hawaii, while possibly the weakest of the non-singles, is a fun callback to Why Did It Have To Be Me's melody.
Many consider this the band's greatest record, and I can see why. Everything is joyous, uplifting, and darn good.
5/5
Key tracks: Knowing Me Knowing You, Why Did It Have To Be Me?, Tiger, Fernando
Manu Chao
4/5
One of the most notable elements here is, of all things, the song transitions. Seriously. I didn't even notice the change between BongoBong and Je ne t'aime plus. It's so simple, and yet insane, genius. Desaparecido, despite having a similar name and melodic hook to Despacito, is infinitely better. A lot of that is because it's less overplayed, but Desaparecido just feels... genuine. Smooth, simple (there are essentially only two chords), elegant, and perfectly atmospheric. I like the transition to Bongo Bong. Which, by the way, I wasn't expecting to recognise. But I've absolutely heard Bongo Bong before. I'm not a huge fan of the deadpan semi-rap thing – it's very out of place for the genre – but the rest of the track is ridiculously catchy. The majority of the albums tracks are, well, just as catchy. I like the guitar sound.
Unfortunately, there are a few tracks in the album's latter half that just aren't memorable at all. They make no attempt, genre- or texture-wise, to stand out from the crowd. Songs like Malegria or La despedida. They're fine, and honestly pretty darn solid by themselves – but in the album's context, they act as filler. In a 16-track selection you can easily cut some of these out and extend the length of some of the others that are much too short to make the most of their high quality. Clandestino, Je ne t'aime plus, and Bongo Bong – three of the best songs here – are all well under 3 minutes. It's a travesty.
One of the 1-star reviews is simply: "Was not in english so not for me". To which I have to ask: why are you doing this project? To re-listen to your favourite psychedelic rock and punk rock and hard rock records time and time again when there are already countless critics and fans singing their praise? Branch out a little. That's what 1001 Albums is for.
4/5
Key tracks: Clandestino, Desaparecido, Lágrimas de oro
Bert Jansch
3/5
One should always tread with caution when the opening track – normally a punchy, exciting number that throws you right into the action – is a jaunty but ultimately extremely simple song with just acoustic guitar and vocals. What if the rest of the album is the same? How will I maintain my enthusiasm, my sanity?
The bad news: the rest of the album is the same. The good news: in spite of this, musically, Jansch really goes places. Without a bass or any kind of percussion, it was a little hard to get my bearings – particularly in some of the more technically complex instrumentals, like Smokey River and Angie. Others, such as Finches, Veronica, and Dreams of Love, are just uninteresting and go nowhere. A key element of good music is finding a balance between these, and Bert Jansch only sometimes manages to do that. Needle of Death strikes a good balance, and also manages to have some pretty harrowing lyrics that whose effects are only exacerbated when you know the backstory.
I like Smokey River. Reminds me a bit of Led Zeppelin's Black Mountain Side (but with a faster tempo). A lot of the instrumentals fit a similar description, which makes me think I should probably listen to more acoustic guitar instrumentals from that period. But it does kind of feel like a sonic copout. It's 1965. The year of Rubber Soul, Highway 61 Revisited, A Love Supreme, and My Generation. You have to *really* justify your inclusion if you rock up to the party and you're Bert Jansch, with your primitive technology (guitar) and unremarkable vocal.
3/5
Key tracks: Oh How Your Love Is Strong, Needle of Death, Running from Home
Paul Weller
4/5
I mean, it's a good sound... but when you really stop to think about it, what makes something "good"? Is it distinctiveness? Weller completely misses the mark in that regard; every track, from start to finish, could've been innovated (and in some cases dropped as a B-side) by countless other rock musicians. But there's a reason for this: it's a kick-ass sound. And there are definitely elements of interest that pop up in some of the stronger tracks. Sunflower's "descending" chords, unexpected bridge, and flute cameo. The Elton John-esque gritty piano-rock of Can You Heal Us (Holy Man). The soft strings that join the arrangement at the end of Country. The glorious, never-ending jam-session that is Shadow Of The Sun, accompanied by a slew of instrument drop-ins that leave a pleasant footprint before moving on. The piano part on this last song, while simple, is really enjoyable here. I also like the guitar solo that appears around the 6:20 mark and how everything slowly builds up from there.
The extended instrumental outro of Has My Fire Really Gone Out? is great. In general, the music throughout the album does seem to noticeably improve once the vocals drop out. Well, maybe that isn't quite true. Weller doesn't add much, so the instrumentals shine whether he happens to be singing or not. 5th Season is a staggering exception though. I don't know if they hired a session vocalist or if Weller decided to go entirely ham for one song (and one song only).
Having a song called Instrumental Two and a completely different song called Instrument - Pt. 2 is a goofy choice. Neither of them wowed me (in fact, they're the only two songs I didn't add to my Spotify Liked playlist.)
4/5
Key tracks: Can You Heal Us (Holy Man), 5th Season, Shadow Of The Sun
Lou Reed
4/5
This is the "big" Lou Reed album. Makes sense – it's aggressively VU-ish right from the opener. Vicious is an excellent start: it's fast, groovy, has a fantastic distorted guitar line, and (of course) includes Reed's deadpan vocal that emulates Dylan and early Bowie. Satellite of Love is in the conversation for one of Reed's finest creations. Again, intensely Bowie-esque; it wouldn't be at all out of place on Ziggy Stardust. Perfect Day continues the conversation: it's genuinely a really strong track, beating out nearly all VU tracks (as compositions) as though they never existed. Who would've thought a gritty proto-punk proto-rapper whose main focus is realist, street-smart poetry could compose such a beautiful ballad? I really like the strings, piano, soft drumming... everything about it. This is the album's strongest track.
Perhaps surprisingly, I hadn't heard Walk On the Wild Side before today. It's strong – but not top-3 (on the album) material. The sax solo is cool but a little out of place for the style Reed's going for. The two-chord progression also gets old really quickly.
Seeing a track called New York Telephone Conversation is definitely cause for concern. Fortunately, it's essentially an early-70s campy piano track, even complete with the high-pitched, out-of-tune vocal harmony. Very charming, but probably the weakest song of the bunch. Though it did make me realise: this album doesn't have much going on musically. Half the appeal is knowing that the likes of Lou Reed (and other rock/underground/glam giants of the era) are involved.
"But she never lost her head / Even when she was giving head / She says, "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side""
Dang. I love how shamelessly blunt Lou Reed's lyrics can be. This one's right up there with Heroin and The Gift.
4/5
Key tracks: Vicious, Perfect Day, Satellite of Love
The Rolling Stones
3/5
More than any of the Stones' other records, their debut suffers from being very, very derivative. The fact isn't helped by nearly all tracks being covers – and some of the covered artists being better choices than others. (A Phil Spector original? Seriously?) And due to the very short track lengths, you start to feel the sluggish pace of the album before you've even hit the halfway point. Every song has the same outdated rock feel that the vast majority of British Invasion bands clung to (or maybe it's just the only British sound that sold well to the Americans in the early 60s). One thing's for sure: if all their records had been this bog-standard, the Stones absolutely wouldn't have made it big. They really stepped up their creative game in the latter half of the decade, but in '64, the band clearly relied on marketing to make it to the big leagues. Even the album's alternative title, "England's Newest Hit Makers", leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Not only are they not "making" the hits at all (in contrast to the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night album released around the same time), but they're being touted as the latest new fad before they're a fad at all. Feels a little tacky.
Route 66 is just a standard blues rock number, but Jagger delivers it with enough passion to make it a standout. Pretty obvious why it's the most streamed song on the Spotify album. Now I've Got A Witness is essentially the instrumental version of Route 66, harmony-wise, though it's worth pointing out the rapid, soft guitar arpeggi in the first half, replaced by a twangier electric guitar solo halfway through. Cool stuff. (I'm surprised Nanker Phelge – a.k.a. the band itself – was able to claim songwriter credit on a standard blues instrumental. Don't thousands of other 50s and 60s releases sound near-identical?) Mona (I Need You Baby) has a distinctive percussion-guitar combo that creates an interesting sort of proto-psychedelia feel. It provides some relief from the surrounding tracks that act as a constant barrage of bluesy blueness. Annoyingly, though, some of that barrage is genuinely really strong. Carol, despite being a carbon copy of Roll Over Beethoven and countless other Chuck Berry(+contemporaries) numbers, is great. There's a reason the song style is copied so much.
3/5
Key tracks: Route 66, Mona (I Need You Baby), Carol
The Pretty Things
3/5
Another "first-ever rock opera". (I thought Tommy was meant to be the first one? What gives?) It sounds very much like Tommy, complete with the weird chords that aren't quite where they're supposed to me. There's definitely influence from the Beatles and early Pink Floyd. (Completely different from Wall-era Floyd, though, despite what some reviewers seem to be saying.) The stereo mix is exactly what you'd expect from a 1967/68 recording. It's charming in its own dated way. The guitars are fun and vary quite a bit from track to track, so there isn't danger of monotonicity. (That's more than can be said of most pre-70s albums.) Other than the guitars, the musicianship is pretty unremarkable. I have to assume the lyrics are interesting, but since they're not spectacularly bad, I didn't pay them much of my attention. I'm not a big fan of the track titles, though: they feel clumsy and too literal with regard to the "plot". They may as well be the section headers on S.F.'s Wikipedia page.
The group must realise that Well Of Destiny is a bunch of incongruous noises and sounds absolutely terrible. Right? (...Right?) It's the absolute low point of the album, though others come pretty close. Death, I See You, and Bracelets Of Fingers suffer from having very few actually interesting or memorable moments. The most distinctive part of Bracelets Of Fingers is that its melody refuses to resolve into the correct chord, and it ends up being a bit of an exhausting listen. It's not even four minutes long, but it feels like quite a bit longer. Many of the tracks on the album's tail end (from Old Man Going onward), despite actually sounding pretty good, kind of drag on as the record approaches the 1-hour mark. It's hard to explain why – after all, the individual songs are strong – but it marred my experience.
3/5
Key tracks: S.F. Sorrow Is Born, She Says Good Morning, Loneliest Person
Marvin Gaye
5/5
This is a gorgeous, soft-spoken, restrained piece of art. All of Gaye's pieces are like this. And dang it, he's good at what he does. The melodies are great, the chord progressions are simple and effective... And every instrument is played perfectly for its song. Nothing overly virtuosic (not that that would be a bad thing), just pure tasteful groove. It's interesting to see the album progress sort of haphazardly, without the singles being clumped and with a reprise-ish track getting slapped in the middle. Unusual for its time, I think. But that wouldn't have marred its success in the slighest. It's such ridiculously easy listening, and a step away from Gaye's political side, that I have to imagine audiences would have eaten this up.
Starting off the album: Heheh. It's the sexy song. Turns out it's really good even after the first 5 seconds. The horns behind the chorus really add to the chill element, and the bassline is going on more adventures than you'd expect. I'm tempted to give Keep Gettin' It On the "key track" treatment, but it's actually pretty similar to the title track (whoa!) and is reprise-ish enough that I can't bring myself to include it. You Sure Love To Ball has Gaye sort of riffing/scatting off a select few lines. And on the face of it, that sounds like a bad idea for a song. (It isn't helped by the first 10 seconds being a woman moaning softly.) But the weird syncopated scat rhythms, the strings, the consistent understatedness... it's enough to give you goosebumps. There's even a tuba, a harp, and several saxes in the back. Distant Lover's 6/8 rhythm makes it slow-dance-esque. I like the long, soft "ooh"s in the back, harmonising with each other and almost providing the main melody under Gaye's riffing.
5/5
Key tracks: Let's Get It On, Distant Lover, You Sure Love To Ball
The Magnetic Fields
2/5
I find it a little hard to believe that anyone (except the band themselves) thought a 69-track record was a good idea. It's in poor taste, for more reasons than one. And the songs seem to get more deluded and obscure the further you delve. The first half of disc 1 isn't bad at all, but then the Magnetic Fields really seem to go off the deep end. The duo of Fido Your Leash Is Too Long / How Fucking Romantic is just strange: lots of wacky electronic sounds that are more distracting than interesting, and then a 1-minute track that very much goes against the album's title. (Unless this whole thing is meant to be a sarcastic metaphor about how true love is impossible? Could be.) By disc 2, less than half of the songs are musically convincing, and far too many are experimental in the absolute worst kind of way. Roses / Love Is Like Jazz is a complete trainwreck with absolutely nothing catchy or memorable. You won't be chatting to your friends about that great song you heard on the radio, Love Is Like Jazz. You have to wonder: what are The Magnetic Fields going for? Random noise acting as the most fillery filler of all time in order to hit that 69 benchmark? (Yes, I think that's exactly what they're doing.)
The band has this "friendly quirky acoustic country band" feel going, and it's honestly pretty great. At least, to begin with. After the first 40 minutes, it gets a little stale. And after the next 40, and the next 40, and the next 40, you want to smash a guitar into your own head.
The female vocal is strong. I first noticed it in Reno Dakota, one of a slew of 1-minute ditties, and I very much enjoyed it. The main male vocal sounds like a peculiar cross of Johnny Cash and Nick Cave – and under normal circumstances, that would be a huge plus. Unfortunately, I don't think the low budget electro-country-pop style really suits his voice. Papa Was a Rodeo is the best use of his voice, and it takes listening (suffering?) through half the album to get there. The album is an extremely inconsistent variety pack of several (mostly retrospective) genres and sounds. Some of it works, some doesn't. But in my mind, consistency is key, so this one's a bit of a miss.
2/5
Key tracks: All My Little Words, I Don't Want to Get Over You, I Think I Need a New Heart, Papa Was a Rodeo, Epitaph for My Heart
Talvin Singh
2/5
Cool 11-minute prog track to start with. The lack of tempo really adds to the floaty soundscape. At first I didn't really know what to make of it. Picture a barren desert, except it's completely made of vast swaths of grey and blue metal. It's eerie, otherworldly, and a sort of desert-cyberpunk. Pretty different to anything else I've heard, and for that, it gets at least some points. The strings coming in towards the end of Traveller really elevate the track to a level worthy of my praise. Very cinematic. Foreboding, mysterious, and surprisingly loud and in-your-face for a track that's pretty soft-spoken up until that point. The pace significantly picks up in the following track, Butterfly, with the addition of some gnarly electronic percussion. I like the split mixing here. Less of a fan of the sitar – it feels out of place – but the Indian classical percussion being mixed with the electronics is sick as heck.
It is kind of boring, though – particularly in some of the (oddly numerous) 5/6/7 minute tracks, and after the first four (which are all pretty solid). The total album duration is also a bit questionable. A 60-minute album better have some serious justification for being that length other than "well, we have one track over 10 minutes in length, so I'm sure they'll understand." No, I do not understand. I also have zero interest in whatever plot is being pushed in the interlude tracks (Decca, Disser/Point.Mento.B). The album gets less accessible as you go on, and not in a particularly interesting way. In a loud, cacophonic way, in fact (see Soni and Vikram The Vampire). Also: I have no idea what's going on in the title track. It sounds like something straight out of a 90s Japanese karaoke parlour. It's both a sore thumb and earbleed material.
2/5
Key tracks: Butterfly, Sutrix
The The
3/5
Album #2 from The The. The The The album Soul Mining is just a little bit better than this one. (And I bet I made the exact same joke – using lots of "The"s in a row – for the other one too.)
It's a fun, fairly stereotypical synth rock sound from the mid-80s. It has that unappealing sheen that makes everything, particularly the synths themselves, sound glossy and inhuman. But it does kind of work on some tracks. Infected, Heartland, and Slow Train To Dawn have other positives that distract from the questionable production. Lots of punk/post-punk influence which I actually think works better here than in most punk records. Because, unlike punk, whoever's on the synths and percussion is slightly competent at their instrument. Infected really gets lifted with the trumpet solo in the second half. Seriously great playing there. Heartland is most memorable for its octave harmonies in the chorus. It's oddly nostalgic (though I was born well after the 80s). Slow Train To Dawn has a great female vocal and a quieter keyboard line that keeps the song moving smoothly.
Twilight Of A Champion is The The's slightly bizarre attempt at spy rock. (Or whatever the genre is called.) It's so goofy, and self-awarely so, that I can't help but kind of enjoy it. The heavy, plunking bassline, hitting all the expected blue notes for the next James Bond film, is hilariously perfect. The long notes behind the vocals, bouncing back and forth between synth and trumpet, are fun too. The next song, The Mercy Beat, is essentially a (very) extended coda of the preceding one. I have no idea how both of these have significantly less listens on Spotify that the absolute mess that is Sweet Bird Of Truth. The song is a monstrosity and I have no idea why it doesn't have the least listens (by a wide margin) on the album. The vocal styles, which seem to switch after every line, are all bad. The male vocalist's weird low moaning slow-rap is also bad.
3/5
Key tracks: Heartland, Slow Train To Dawn
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Very reminiscent of shoegaze and alt rock – which is interesting as neither genre was quite mainstream yet in 1990. I love the smooth, clear quality of the vocals and the fact that (in many tracks) you can't really make out the lyrics if you aren't paying attention. The close harmonies throughout the album, as well as the fast vibrato, remind me of ABBA if they'd taken a rockier, gazier approach to their early 80s material. (I wonder if that's a common comparison.) Both Iceblink Luck and the title track can reasonably be described in this way, but that would be understating their grandeur and complexity. The songs on this album are heavy as heck, something that ABBA never quite achieved.
Pitch the Baby is maybe the most lighthearted song, insofar as it grooves really well and the bassline jumps around between various bluesy notes. Compositionally a disco/post-disco track, which is perhaps a bold move for 1990 when the disco genre had long fallen out of favour. Cherry-coloured Funk probably has the coolest, most memorable vocal on the album. Those high notes in the chorus are great. The final track, Frou-frou Foxes, is strong for the same reason. What's consistent in all tracks is the 80s "production sheen", heard very prominently in the synths, that makes the whole record distinctly worse than it could be. And the textures are very similar between tracks (there isn't much variation in genres or in instruments used. no acoustic tracks, no ballads, etc.), meaning the album doesn't flow particularly well. There isn't the sense of up-and-down, of adventure, you would hope to find in an album.
3/5
Key tracks: Cherry-coloured Funk, Pitch The Baby, Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Faust
3/5
Would be much more interesting under the influence of some hard hallucinogenics. Especially the 12-minute opener (aptly named Krautrock) that, fully sober, you can feel dragging on for its entire length. It's very repetitive on account of the 1-5-1-5 synth notes (which are boosted way up in the mix). I have to imagine the synth player wasn't having the most interesting day. Maybe he put paperweights on those two notes and then snuck out the back of the studio to go watch The Godfather, and the other band members were too wasted to notice. There's a reason why long, uninteresting tracks tend to be put at the end of an album – at least, if the album's good. (Think Endless Nameless, Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, Revolution 9.)
In contrast, The Sad Skinhead is great. The addition of vocals lets the album pace really pick up after the endless slog of the opening song. There's some great guitarwork between the verses, and we actually hear a chord progression (rather than a drone) for the first time. Sounds intensely punkish (or proto-punkish). Unlike punk, though, there are lots of little details to keep your interest here, including some fluttery xylophone lines, sound effects in the left ear, and a simple, fun bassline.
Jennifer is reminiscent of some early Black Sabbath (maybe Planet Caravan?) with its repetitive, echoey guitar tunes and spaced out lines. The throbbing bassline is cool but I would've liked to hear some more complexity. The outro is very weird but oddly enjoyable. The rest of the tracks continue in much the same way, and I'm left wondering what exactly happened in track 1. Did they forget how to write good, engaging music? Are they stupid?
3/5
Key tracks: The Sad Skinhead, It's A Bit Of A Pain
Cocteau Twins
3/5
My second Cocteau Twins album in three days!
This one isn't quite as shoegazey as their later Heaven or Las Vegas record, though some tracks get close (Pandora, Amelia). Instead, the music is more pulled back, simpler, softer. What it lacks in complexity, it makes up for with each individual instrument being easier to pick out, and (arguably) a more enthralling set of vocals. A little overdramatic, and heavily 80s-tinged, so it's tough to consider this a timeless masterpiece. (I doubt anyone's arguing that it's timeless.) It's busy enough that you do really have to listen closely, otherwise the songs sound very similar to one another (as others have pointed out). I don't like the drums at all. They feel gimmicky and low-effort, and they take away greatly from the overall quality. It's frustrating, because everything else is good or better.
Track #2, Lorelei, is an unexpected turn in sound. The drums have this weird soft electronic mute effect on them. It's very distinctive. I like it, but sadly it isn't repeated anywhere else. The lead vocalist here is also much airier than in their other tracks, and that, to me, makes it smoother and nicer to listen to. Pandora (For Cindy) is incredibly dreamy – enthrallingly so – and it could well be the strongest song here. It's worth mentioning that artists can excel the most when it's impossible to compare them to any of their contemporaries or predecessors. With Heaven Or Las Vegas, I kept hearing ABBA's influence in the vocal delivery. Not here. Treasure's influence is much harder to pin down, and I love that. The song titles all being names of semi-fantasy (or very antiquated) names of women is super nifty. It conjures a sort of fantasy concept album feel – though the music itself doesn't exactly repeat motifs like a typical concept album might.
3/5
Key tracks: Ivo, Lorelei, Pandora (For Cindy)
Dire Straits
5/5
This album (and band) has a reputation for its enormously popular single Sultans Of Swing. But does the rest of the album hold up? ...Yes, it does.
I'm impressed by the production here. It's crystal-clear, especially for "classic" rock, which often tends to be too gritty or dirty to get a clean sound. (I'm looking at you, punk.) But here, you can hear each and every note. The instruments are separated into channels as with a live setting, and it's done in that nifty way that puts you right at the front of the audience. Onstage, even. That's how immersive it is. The vocal is pretty standard – it suits the band yet isn't virtuosic – but standout vocal tracks include Six Blade Knife and Sultans Of Swing. The former has thick, almost drawled singing that really puts in you the cool, mysterious, countryish headspace Dire Straits were going for. In the latter track, the singing is heavily Dylan-influenced, and with that insanely catchy guitar hook and all the guitar fills/interplay, it's just... incredible. Seriously, what a brilliant track.
Very bluesy, starting from the very first song. The opening instrumental in Down To The Waterline is mysterious, understated, but as soon as the drums come in it's a driven, groovy, and tight soft-rock sound. And at a cool four minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome. A near-perfect opener. No wonder these guys were popular from the outset. The album flows well, somewhat Dylanesque in its songwriting approach but with orders of magnitude of better sound quality than Dylan at his 60s songwriting peak. It isn't perfect – far from it – but every song on this record is very solid, and different enough from the last to keep the listener engaged and guessing. I like the fast pace of Southbound Again that rebounds after the slower, lower-energy preceding tracks. And SoS launching off side 2 of the disc. It's that sort of track ordering that'll get bonus style points.
5/5
Key tracks: Down To The Waterline, Southbound Again, Sultans Of Swing
Barry Adamson
3/5
Great album title. The songs titles are a little odd but mostly stick with the "riffing" theme (particularly the opener, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis). I don't really know what to make of the album as a whole – some parts are great, others are questionable at best – so I'm sticking with 3 stars.
Being a former member of Nick Cave's band, Barry Adamson revisits a few of the same musical techniques, particularly with the singing (melodies, intonation, song structure). The opening track is essentially a mid-length jam session. The riff is placed, oddly, in the violin part. The whole ensemble is sort of post-disco, particularly that swanky guitar sound in the back. It's honestly a pretty fun sound. Better, anyway, than most of the Moss Side Story record. The next song, Something Wicked This Way comes, has essentially the same song structure (or lack thereof). Again it's a 5-minute, two-chord jam session with various instruments taking the spotlight before relinquishing it 30 seconds later. (The sax verse about halfway through is undeniably great.) Not that there's anything wrong with these kinds of tracks, but starting your album with two in a row is an... interesting choice. And track 3, again pretty similar: barring the unsettling ASMR vocals, the track kind of drags on, never really picking up steam (but still sounding fairly good).
The good news: we get some very different-sounding tracks after the opening trio. The bad news: it sucks (with a few exceptions). Songs like Dirty Barry and It's Business as Usual are undeniably noise-for-the-sake-of-noise – and fairly grating, at that. They kind of remind me of disc 11 from Minecraft. State of Contraction/The Sweetest Embrace is fantastic – easily beating the other tracks to become the strongest one here. It actually has proper singing and a rock-solid instrumental to back it up! (Zoinks!) The synth and the low vocal harmonising are two big highlights here. Along with the soft strings, it's a fitting song for Halloween.
3/5
Key tracks: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Sweetest Embrace
Queen Latifah
3/5
Hang on, I thought Lauryn Hill was the first mainstream female rapper? This is almost ten years earlier and arguably even more mainstream (sonically). Although nowadays, it's fair to say that the record's sound is heavily dated. The looping, lo-fi, badly mixed (and I mean *badly* mixed) percussion beats. The unnecessarily frequent record scratches (and other assorted DJ sound effects). This is as 1989 as it gets. Once you realise that, it becomes a more fun listen.
But holy hell. You cannot possibly get any more repetitive with hip-hop tracks, perhaps with the exception of having a "King Latifah" instead. For example, the chorus of Wrath of My Madness is very strong, but the verses are unbearably boring. (Except... is that a lyric about ramen? Never mind, it's about rhymin'. Just when I thought it was getting interesting.) This highlights a point I often have with artists that use looped melodic ideas. Without development, and indeed without any human element whatsoever (aside from vocals), there's no continuing interest, no life, no soul in 80% of the sound. The only solace therefore is found in the singing, but rapping tends to take away nearly all of the melody.
Ladies First is a huge highlight for vocals, though, because of the excellent idea to alternate sets of lines like a rap battle. It's the most engaging, and probably best, track on the album. Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children is another key track. The horns in the background are easily the standouts – much more, anyway, than the milquetoast delivery of De La Soul. The producers had to dedicate four separate breakdowns purely for the saxes to shine. Weaker tracks include the lastlustre trio at the end (Evil that Men Do / Princess of the Possee / Inside Out), which I describe as such because there just aren't any catchy or interesting elements. A King and Queen Creation is pretty similar.
3/5
Key tracks: Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children, Come into My House, Ladies First
Miles Davis
4/5
I see this as a more progressive, mildly psychedelic version of Davis's earlier records. And it works well. The musicianship is about as high-calibre as it comes. The lineup, man... you can't ask for much better.
Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland. Wow. The trumpet playing is, of course, utterly beautiful (when it wants to be; it's quite brash and outspoken at other times). The end of track 2, just as all the other instruments fade out, is the absolute peak of the album, I think. Just Davis's slow, crooning notes over a soft drone in the bass. (It's singing, man, the trumpet's singing!) The bassline, which repeats more or less unchanged for almost 18 minutes, is hypnotising.
So what brings this album down to a 4, compared to the likes of Kind Of Blue? The main difference is the energy. At a certain point, for a really great album, I'm looking for ups and downs. And though there are technically some of those throughout A Silent Way, they're very subtle and spread out. Fair enough. Extended jazz can be like that. It's just not for me (as much as a faster paced progressive jazz). Davis achieves this extremely consistently chill mood, and nails it to a T – the brass entries are smooth rather than harshly cutting – and though we shift from "chill A" to "chill B", we never escape the chillism. I'm sure there are a mountain of advanced musical ideas here that my rock-loving brain is too feeble to comprehend. Ah, well. You can't comprehend everything.
4/5
Key tracks: Both of them
Ice Cube
1/5
Strap in, boys. This one's gonna be rough.
...Yep. The lyrics are blatantly sexist ("Women, they're good for nothing, no maybe one thing / To serve needs to my ding-a-ling", among countless others). Per another reviewer: "How can you critique the oppression of black people and at the same time promote the oppression of women?" That's exactly my thought when listening to the majority of 90s hip-hop/rap entries on this list. Of course, Ice Cube is just following the trend of whatever sells the most in the moment – which is fair, I guess – so I guess the onus is on the audiences to avoid listening to and promoting Ice Cube and artists like him. Can audiences please stop rewarding this genuinely harmful and hypocritical music under the pretence of "haha rebellion fun"? At least with harmful rock music (e.g.), a lot of listeners misinterpret the lyrics to mean something more innocent. That isn't possible here. And I have no problem with this music existing. I just have a problem with it being touted as "important" in album compilations like this one.
The opening track, The Nerd Ya Love To Hate, leaves little to pay attention to aside from the lyrics. So congrats, Ice Cube. You've forced me to do something I don't usually do. Let's look at your poetry, eh? "That's from the nerd ya love to hate / Fuck you, Ice Cube" Yeah. Thats pretty much the central message of the song. Other people hate you, and... you wear it as a badge of pride? (He does it again in Turn Off The Radio, and various other songs.) Why? Is there something enticing about being an unlikeable villain ("shooting out the window of a drop-top Brougham", "peace, don't make me laugh... I'm a nerd, gotta live by the trigger")? No. Glorifying violence is not the answer, nor is supporting artists who do. I get the anti-racism sentiment, especially for the police-brutality-ridden times of the early 90s, but there are much better ways of expressing it.
The backbeat in You Can't Fade Me is pretty sweet. Just tune out the vocals, and you encounter a sick bassline with some well-placed brass/synth fills. The following song, Once Upon A Time In The Projects is also surprisingly groovy. The interludes also aren't as terrible as they could be, and a lot of them blur the line between interlude and full-length track. In that regard, Ice Cube's doing pretty well. There just isn't enough melody, good lyricism, chord progressions, or good instrument combos in the album to make it worth ever listening again.
1/5
Key tracks: You Can't Fade Me, Once Upon A Time In The Projects, Who's The Mack?
Hawkwind
3/5
Decent. Barring a few tracks, you can almost forget this is a live album – and that's a good thing.
The opening track is a really cool build-up to... well, not much. Some mildly bad rock harmonising and a continuous build-up in the guitar and percussion, but there's never a payoff. The entirety of the song Born to Go is like this, and it's a frustrating listen. In particular, once you notice the cymbal being relentlessly tortured in the right ear, it's hard to hear anything else. Regardless, I did kind of unironically enjoy how terrible the musicianship was. You can tell these guys don't care at all, and they're definitely on drugs. I wasn't. Maybe that was my mistake. As with many tracks that occur early in a track listing, I gave Born to Go the benefit of the doubt. If it were followed by a Comfortably Numb, I'd be eating my words, wouldn't I?
It isn't followed by a Comfortably Numb. But Down Through The Night is solid regardless. Very spacey, psychedelic, with a strong riff and incredibly guitarwork, particularly in the left ear. The drumming is good for the first time, and the lack of vocals is welcome. Unfortunately, after this point, the record gets very spotty. The interlude tracks, which are nearly all over 2 minutes long (and there are 7 of them), are terrible. There's no obvious plot reason for them to exist and they contain nothing musically interesting. Just a dude speaking slowly and nonsensically over random noises. The longer tracks, which range from 6 to 13 minutes in length, are hit-or-miss, though most are honestly pretty solid. Seven by Seven is a great opener to disc 2, using the tried-and-true i-VIIb-VIb-V chord progression and alternating between lots of different textures for an exciting 6-minute mini-adventure. Orgone Accumulator has one of the only decent vocal performances on the whole album, meaning it's reasonably catchy. Master of the Universe has an excellent bassline and skilful drumming, which together make the song one of the strongest here. The only "meh" full-length track on the original double album is Time We Left This World Today, which is more annoying than anything else. That repeated titular back-and-forth between two bad vocals is just not good on the ears.
3/5
Key tracks: Down Through The Night, Orgone Accumulator, Master of the Universe
Roni Size
1/5
The sound isn't unlistenable – it's just a plain, average level of bad. In the first track, there isn't a single instrument that's worth paying attention to. The singing, if you can call it that, is monotonous, bland, unidimensional. The percussive beat is fast, and I guess it would be impressive if it were played live, but of course it's all electronically looped. The synths are strange and unappealing – not to mention they're not at all impressive for the year 1997. Brown Paper Bag is a slight improvement, featuring various acoustic instruments that present some melodic ideas to ponder over. (I'm guessing this is what appealed to masses the most, judging by streaming numbers.) The problem is, the melodies are quite bad (at least on a first listen), but the double bass one is pounded relentlessly into your skull for almost the entire 9 minutes. As the tracks continue, their quality is dubious at best.
I guess the only consistently commendable attribute is the song transitions, which are (sometimes) swift and clean. Definitely gives incentive to run back the whole album rather than individual tracks/singles. But the singing continues to be terrible (Let's Get It On, Digital, and so on... it's just hoarse, drunken, and, well, bland). Mad Cat is the first non-vocal track after a long streak of suffering, and it's almost a blessing. Not a full blessing, of course, because it's not very good. The bassline is passable but gets old quickly, and the MJ Thriller narration ending is nothing special. Heroes has the most bearable version of Size(?)'s voice, plus a great bass part and atmosphere, so it gets a pass (which is apparently difficult to come by!). Morse Code doesn't get a pass, however. I don't know whose idea it was to have a loop of a woman rhythmically moaning with an irritating beep in the background. But it's a terrible idea.
1/5
Key tracks: Brown Paper Bag, Heroes, Share The Fall
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I've heard Juju already, and I gave that one a 2, mainly for having an inaccessible sound, bad vocals, and bad guitarwork. The Scream improves greatly on the guitars (and all-round instrumentation), but the vocals could still use some work. Still, I liked the majority of tracks here, so I can't justifiably give this a low rating too.
I feel the Helter Skelter cover kind of misses the point of the original Beatles version. The texture doesn't vary at all, while the original shines because of its ups and downs. Actually, a lot of songs on The Scream suffer from lack of "flow" in song structure. The verse-chorus model, while cliché, is insanely popular and dominant in the mainstream for a reason: it's a great model. (Punky artists tend to reject a lot of music convention for the sake of it, rather than because it sounds good. But I digress.) The Staircase (Mystery) does well in this department, however.
I do like the tense build-up in the opener, Pure, and how it pays off with the explosive Jigsaw Feeling. Siouxsie's singing is still pretty terrible, though, and at this point I doubt that'll ever change. I feel that her timbre is more suited to balladesque pieces rather than punk rock, which typically requires shouting. Her shouting voice is just... not good. Nor are most people's, to be fair. It's one of many reasons why punk hasn't aged well as a genre. (Yelling about feelings and political leanings is, more often than not, way more grating than singing them well – and it makes you subconsciously reject the artist's message.) Siouxsie is also frequently out of tune – she's slightly flat for the entirety of Overground and Carcass, and most of Suburban Relapse – and the mixed self-harmonising doesn't disguise it. It sounds terrible. Which is a shame, because the guitars are really solid in Overground.
3/5
Key tracks: Jigsaw Feeling, Metal Postcard (Mittageisen), Hong Kong Garden
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Soundtrack albums can be extremely hit-or-miss, since they often depend on the visuals of their parent film. It’s the reason why Queen’s Flash Gordon, or the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine (album), or Pink Floyd’s More (or Obscured By Clouds), are regarded so much more negatively than the rest of their respective discographies. Shaft encounters a similar issue. Without (many) vocals to guide the listener along, and of course without having the movie playing alongside it, the music feels a little all-over-the-place. And often it’s plain bad. Walk From Regio’s is the first suspect track. It’s dominated by its slow, simple, repeating drum pattern, which gets old pretty quickly. (Good thing the track is also quite short.) Interlude tracks like Shaft’s Cab Ride are also completely unmemorable. But most of the album is plain, standard, “good” soft jazz (maybe elevator jazz?). Which, of course, earns the plain, standard 3-star rating.
Highlights are tracks that can reasonably stand alone, even as instruments. Café Regio’s is one of these. Clocking in at just over 6 minutes, it has plenty of time to develop its musical ideas and juggle a few different textures one after the other. It’s also a pretty chill song overall, lacking most of the weird tension in other tracks and going all-in on the “background of a musical” feel. I can easily envision the concert band playing this during a (very, very long) onstage scene transition. The Theme From Shaft is also good. Musically, it's pretty simple, but has some instantly recognisable high notes in the strings that justify the simplicity. Soulsville and Do Your Thing earn points for being two of the only ones that utilise the band’s decently strong vocalist. But then Do Your Thing throws some of those points away for being… let’s see… what? 19 minutes? (Holy hell!)
Be Yourself is impressive for the year 1970. It sounds straight out of the disco era. That combo of EW&F-esque guitar (whatever it’s called) and tight horn section are straight out of, well, a EW&F record. Or Tower Of Power. Strictly speaking, in isolation, it’s not a life-changing track. But I have to imagine it was pretty ahead of its time. No Name Bar, on the other hand, attempts a sort of progressive rock thing with the genre’s signature multiple sections, but it doesn’t work at all. At least the jazzy sax sections are good.
3/5
Key tracks: Theme From Shaft, Be Yourself, Soulsville
Led Zeppelin
5/5
What is there to say that hasn't been said already? Take a band that's already one of the biggest acts in the world, with three near-perfect albums under their belt already. The year 1971, with some of the steepest competition of any point in musical history. And Led Zeppelin, man, they do it again. Eight banging tracks, most of which boast a general consensus of being essential classics in hard rock.
Black Dog has that iconic opening line in the vocals, followed by one of the greatest riffs of all time, no exaggeration. It's fun to try and count out the time signature with the drums that don't quite match the guitar, an idea the band would revisit in Kashmir a few years later. The effect this song has on me is indescribable, but safe to say it's one of my all-time top head-bangers. Walking down the street with Black Dog in your headphones is a surefire way to give you some swagger. I have a fond memory from 10th grade music class, where I had to select a classic blues track to analyse. My dad suggested Rock and Roll (and rather urgently), but I stupidly rejected the idea after hearing it once. I was unhappy with how extended the 12-bar progression was. Only now do I understand its genius. Sure, it's not your typical blues track, but only because it takes the genre to an entirely new level. And it jams like nobody's business. One of Robert Plant's finest vocal performances, too. There are some fantastic live versions of Rock and Roll with an extended drum outro. God, I wish I was alive in the 70s.
Stairway to Heaven needs no introduction. It's an incredible track (though not Led Zeppelin's best. In fact, it's not even the best on the album, since Black Dog exists).
Going To California might be the most vulnerable the band gets with their sound, rivalled only by Thank You and The Rain Song. It's one of their simpler tracks musically, though the acoustic guitar part is by no means easy to perform. The "seems that the wrath of the gods" section is maybe a tad jarring on a first listen, but man, it's so emotionally charged. Keeps you paying attention, too. When The Levee Breaks is defined by its thunderous drum part, and it's, well, excellent. Conjures some imagery of broken dams and death and destruction.
Even the intermediary tracks are some of Led Zeppelin's finest. The Battle of Evermore is insanely good, and a bit of a grower track. The combo of acoustic guitar and mandolin creates a sort of "fairylike" atmosphere. Plant's angelic, echoey singing does wonders. Misty Mountain Hop and Four Sticks are known primarily for their riffs and (in the latter's case) 5/4 time signature. Just great, classic Led Zep. They'd easily be highlights of most other bands' discographies.
And yet it's debateable whether this even top's Led Zeppelin's own repertoire. LZ1, 2, 3, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti all have strong cases for them topping the list. Holy heck, this band is good.
5/5
Key tracks: Black Dog, Rock and Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway To Heaven, Going To California, When The Levee Breaks
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Sonically, this reminds me a lot of Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, though the sound here is a little less consistent and the production flaws are more pronounced.
Super groovy with the opener, Luv N' Haight, despite the slightly dated production (the sound gets a little blurry whenever anything loud happens – and this is true of all tracks on the record). Great interplay between all the different instruments, and though the chords are very simple, everything riffs up and down a blues scale, and you can't really go wrong with that. Family Affair is another straight-up banger of a track. Chorus is catchy, singing is very strong, and the female vocal is a great addition to riff off Sly's lines. Another strong contender for best track is (You Caught Me) Smilin', which, along with the excellent secondary vocal in the chorus, also has possibly the strongest guitar and bass lines on the album. (Seriously, that bass is spanking.)
Spaced Cowboy is a standout track for being the most, well, distinctive. It doesn't fit in with the other tracks at all, but at least that means S&FS is showcasing some variety. Yodelling and harmonica. Weird. Just Like A Baby is fun enough, boasting some really good falsetto vocals. It's more of a slow-dance track than a "banger", and doesn't feature any distinctive hooks, but it more than makes up for that by maxing out the soulful-meter. The four-second title track is incredibly dark if you really think about it. There's a riot going on, and what's the response (presumably from the authorities, the government, the top 1%)? Radio silence. Not that it's inaccurate, it's just a surprisingly bold musical statement. Just goes to show how insanely power-packed the year 1971 was for musicians.
4/5
Key tracks: Luv N' Haight, Family Affair, (You Caught Me) Smilin'
Hole
4/5
You can definitely hear the similarities between Hole and Nirvana, though who influenced whom is up for debate. I love Love's vocal timbre – it's absolutely perfect for the mood and lyrics of each and every song. From the opener, Violet, we hear the anguish, the strain, the anger that you always hope to get from an alternative rock band. And yet it manages to avoid being overblown, maintaining a pretty tasteful musicality. The same cannot be said for other sub-branches of rock like post-punk and death metal. She Walks On Me is probably the closest Hole gets to these more experimental genres, what with its filtered vocal, guitar distortion, and fast, angry rhythm. Credit In The Straight World is also a standout, musically, though it's hard to tell why. It has an unconventional opening sections that's mostly echoed vocals, and it's very cool. Exotic, almost. On the other hand, the songs Plump and Jennifer's Body are excellent examples of keeping this balance between (radio-)friendliness and harshness, and they're two of my favourites for that reason.
The lyrical themes in this album are pretty frustrating (or maybe "harrowing" is a better word) to listen to in 2025. It feels like nothing has changed in 31 years. There still has to be an active push against misogyny, body shaming, and societal standards to keep people safe. (And, in some places, it's gotten significantly worse since the 90s.) "Every time that I stare into the sun / Angel dust, and my dress just comes undone / And every time that I stare into the sun / Be a model or just look like one / Wild-eyed, rot gut, do me in / Do you think you can make me do it again?" Damn. I know there's plenty of similar themes being expressed in music nowadays, but that music isn't gaining as much traction as it did in the 90s.
The main thing stopping this from reaching 5 stars is that none of the songs are particularly catchy or obviously "hits".
4/5
Key tracks: Violet, Jennifer's Body, Doll Parts
Kings of Leon
3/5
Pretty aggressively Dylanesque, but there's plenty of punk influence here too. And, oddly, a large splash of CCR bayou-rock. I guess that's the Nashville studio influence. The lead vocal is like a very discounted Dylan/Fogerty combo who's trying his best to pull off either a gritty punk scream or a laid-back drawl. In a lot of songs (Spiral Staircase, Molly's Chambers, Holy Roller Novocaine), it kind of works. In others (Trani, California Waiting), it's more suspicious. I had the same complaint about their sophomore album, so it seems the King of Leon aren't great at learning from their mistakes. The sound is lively, owing particularly to the rapid movement between sections in songs like Spiral Staircase and Wasted Time, as well as percussion (and other instruments) coming in and out very quickly.
Songwriting-wise, it's about on par with their next work Aha Shake Heartbreak (which is also on this list). There are some great musical ideas, particularly in the riffs of songs like Red Morning Light, Wasted Time, Spiral Staircase, and Molly's Chambers. The latter song in particular has a very clean, poppy sound that's boosted even further with the quiet self-harmony in the chorus. But in terms of being cutting-edge and influential, the record as a whole is pretty underwhelming for its time. Keep in mind that Muse's Absolution was released in the same year as Y&YM, QotSA's Songs for the Deaf was released a year eralier, and Radiohead's Kid A was released 2 years before even that. Kings of Leon don't introduce anything to the musical canon that really justifies their inclusion on this list, I think. It's a pretty good sound, and takes inspiration from a plenitude of big names. That's just about it.
3/5
Key tracks: Red Morning Light, Wasted Time, Molly's Chambers
Ash
3/5
Hey. This was made in 1996. What a scam.
At least it sounds straight out of late-70s sonic literature, but with a tangible grunge influence. From the opener, Lose Control, you can hear several differently-distorted guitars vying for control with several others layered underneath. So much effort is put into the stringed instruments that you almost forget that the vocal is meant to be good. (Almost.) At least having a lazily-enunciating vocalist is also on par with plenty of the "1977" punk output. (Lost in You has the same issue.) It gets a little better with Goldfinger, a song that reminded me of a slightly gazier 90s Green Day track. Wheeler is channelling that smooth young-man voice that was extremely prevalent in alt-rock of the era. That decent vocal continues for *most* of the rest of the album, but I really would prefer something more along the lines of Armstrong.
I'd Give You Anything has an excellent riff, and I bet it'd be exhilarating to listen to live. Great solo, too. Is that a reversed guitar? I don't think so, but it's got an effect put on it to make it sound reversed. Pretty nifty. The guitars are generally great in this album, culminating in the centrepiece track Oh Yeah, whose second half absolutely soars with its instrumental. So many instruments coexisting and playing slightly different parts to one another. Very cinematic, and probably my favourite song. There are some violins, too, which certainly helps. (This cinematic texture is revisited in the album closer, Darkside Lightside, which is another really solid track.) The music also somewhat diverges from the canon with Innocent Smile, a hyper-distorted mess of experimentation with guitar noises that, while kind of cool, had definitely been done before. Not my favourite track.
3/5
Key tracks: Goldfinger, Girl from Mars, Oh Yeah
The Killers
4/5
This is one of those powerhouse albums you hear about all the time but (in my case) never get around to hearing. I was definitely missing out. Hot Fuss is great, and surprisingly British-sounding for an all-American rock band. Mr. Brightside is obviously the anthem of the bunch, transcending cultural boundaries (or at least the Atlantic) with its lyrics of social isolation and being romantically sidelined. (Darn straight.) If you pay attention, you'll notice that the melody is kind of bad – seriously, the entire verse+prechorus is two notes – and it's a little surprising why people adore it as much as they do, myself included. The melody and singability of Somebody Told Me are excellent, though, and it's probably my favourite track on the record. There's so much energy, passion, vocal talent... it's all there.
All These Things That I've Done is excellent. Very climactic with its rising texture that culminates in a sort of stadium singalong in the last couple minutes. The drumming is simple yet passionate, the singing is solid, the guitars are exactly what you'd expect from 2000s emo-ish, post-gaze, poppy stuff. It's a sound that I think is underappreciated these days. The Killers try to surprise us with synths thrown in here and there, and I think they have a mostly negative impact on the sound. Very cheesy and 80s-esque in an ensemble that's otherwise pretty serious. (See: the songs On Top and Everything Will Be Alright.) The album pacing slows down considerably at around the halfway point, with Midnight Show being the strongest in the latter half. Great fast pacing and bassline.
4/5
Key tracks: Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, All These Things That I've Done
David Ackles
2/5
I don't even need to listen to this one (I still did). American Gothic doesn't belong on this list. The streaming numbers are some of the lowest I've seen in the Dimery docket.
Stylistically, very concert-hall-esque. It's definitely outdated, even for its time (remember how much Lennon scorned McCartney's "granny pieces"?), but it's still charming in its own way. After 6 or so tracks, though, that soft-spoken rambly concert hall style gets old *really* quickly. Tracks like Family Band and Waiting for the Moving Van just lack that punchiness or creativity most listeners are looking for somewhere in an album. By the beginning of Montana Song, you're breathing a sigh of relief, thinking, "okay, just one more track. I can do this." In a sinister twist of fate, though, Montana Song is over 10 minutes long, and doesn't showcase any sort of progressive element to make up for it. There are some minor ups and downs in energy/texture, but absolutely nothing that justifies taking up almost a quarter of an already questionable album.
Love's Enough sounds like something off the Billy Joel debut record (the year nearly matches too) but with a different vocalist. Neil Diamond, maybe. The whole record is like a sack of Diamond trinkets created after he went completely mentally off the rails. Another reviewer described Ackles's delivery as "manic" and, though it's subtle, I have to agree. It's a weird, fevery, mildly uninteresting sound that I don't see myself revisiting. Nor do most other listeners, it seems. Wikipedia notes AllMusic's mini-review: "American Gothic remains one of those great albums that never found its audience. It waits to be rediscovered." That feels like a cop-out comment for unpopular albums, and doesn't consider the possibility that maybe people haven't heard it because other people didn't enjoy it.
2/5
Key tracks: Love's Enough, Oh California!, Another Friday Night
Mott The Hoople
3/5
All the Way from Memphis is definitely inspired by Ziggy Stardust-age glam rock. The piano, which is extremely consistent throughout the tracks, has that slightly underprocessed old-school timbre that was extremely prevalent in early 70s rock. Plenty of wall-of-sound techniques in the vocals, alluding to some Beach Boys and Ronettes tracks from the mid-60s. The lead singer's unashamedly thick British accent again calls back to Bowie and also to proto-punk and Syd Barrett-inspired psychedelia. So, plenty of influences. But does it pay off? Well... sort of. Ziggy Stardust, and off-branching albums like Aladdin Sane, Queen's debut, Roxy Music's debut, and some of Iggy Pop's material, all kind of cross-affect each other, to very positive effect. But that's because they're also very distinct from one another. On a first listen, Mott sounds completely plagiarised. Like Vanilla Ice, but in 1973. It still sounds really good for the most part, but I'm annoyed that it does.
Hymn for the Dudes takes a while to get going and directly rips off the structure and lyrics of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide. But Rock 'n' Roll Suicide is also one of the most flawless songs ever recorded, so you can't go too wrong in drawing inspiration (even if that inspiration is a little too close to plagiarism for comfort). The song Violence goes all-in on weirdness and experimentation, and I don't think it works. At least not on a first listen. The singing is extremely bad and doesn't allow any room for other instruments to sound bad in the name of avant-garde-ness. I'm a Cadillac / El Camino Dolo Roso is surprisingly good, though I do wonder if a lot of my enjoyment comes from not having to hear Hunter's singing. The album closer, Rose, is passable but is a bit of a frustrating listen once you notice the climax isn't given time to sit. It's in one second, out the next, and the vast majority of the track is an indecisive, unsatisfying quietness.
3/5
Key tracks: All the Way from Memphis, Ballad of Mott the Hoople, I'm a Cadillac / El Camino Dolo Roso
Isaac Hayes
2/5
I think these tracks work fairly well as singles but not quite so well as extended "prog" (heavy on the quotes) tracks. Walk On By is alright at the beginning - a sort of mellow soul, heavy on the organs and strings - but devolves in the last six minutes into an extended noodle. The energy does increase, but it's so gradual that it doesn't really achieve the desired effect. Instead of excited, we feel perhaps a little frustrated. Cool guitar solo at the end though. Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic (horrifically misspelled as "Hyperbolicsyllablecsesquedalymistic" on Spotify) is another consecutive "long, chill" track that doesn't allow the album to pick up steam at all. Again, it reads as an extended jam, which isn't terrible by itself but teeters on boring in an album context. The only song that doesn't (egregiously) follow this pattern is One Woman, which non-coincidentally is also the one I found the most engaging. It's balladesque and uses a slew of soppy romantic instruments that create a perfectly cheesy listening experience. Think soft harmonising trumpets, high strings, a xylophone, a crooning Sinatra-like vocal... great for slow dancing around a gramophone. I won't call it a masterpiece, because it isn't. It's not even particularly catchy. But you can't keep a huge grin off your face awhile you think about Isaac Hayes's love life and how it's so much better than yours.
The behemoth of a closing track, the 18-minute By The Time I Get To Phoenix, starts off at a sluggish pace. The first part of the song is entirely summed up by "dude rambles over rhythmic cymbal tap". That first minute turns into two minutes. And then three. Then five, then seven. Finally, at just shy of nine minutes into the song, we finally get something that sounds half-decent, but at the cost of me dismissing the entire song as unnecessary filler slop that is very clearly designed to push up the album length. Tragically, good music is about good sounds, and (in my opinion) lyrics generally don't contribute much to the experience unless they're extremely bad. These ones aren't extremely bad, so they fade into the background and we end up with a cool 20% of the album being utterly devoid of the content I signed up for. Even the instrumental and singing after the 9-minute mark are noticeably less interesting than those of the previous three tracks. Which is kind of unforgiveable. If you don't have a full album's worth of solid material, dang it, don't release an album.
Very surprised by how many 3, 4, and 5 star reviews there are here.
2/5
Key tracks: One Woman
George Jones
2/5
Jones's intense country accent stands out immediately. Not really positive or negative, though in general I do think there's a good reason why most singers drop most of their speaking accents. It's because it tends to sound better (plus the slow deliberateness of song necessitates a loss of accent anyway). But the main issue with the vocals, and the overall sound, is that they hearken back to older music - think 40s and 50s - giving me the feeling that this mid-70s album doesn't belong on a list of the 1001 most important and revolutionary albums of all time. Couple that with only one song being a "Spotify hit", and only two songs breaking the 1-million-listen barrier at all, and you have the perfect candidate for "old album that isn't relevant today".
I can definitely understand the complaints about the music being boring (despite the album being almost too short to have time to induce boredom). There's no spontaneity, no surprise instruments or interesting basslines or drum fills or creative solos. Nothing that you'd hope to hear from cutting-edge music from 1974, anyway. Jones's competition in the year 1974 included Pretzel Logic, Fulfillingness' First Finale, Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack, Court and Spark, and Here Come The Warm Jets. Forgive me if I'm a little underwhelmed. Particularly with slow identical-sounding tracks like She'll Love the One She's With, Once You've Had the Best, and Who Will I Be Loving Now. The highest energy the album ever achieves is The Weatherman and Our Private Life, which (uncoincidentally) are also the strongest songs apart from the title track.
2/5
Key tracks: The Grand Tour, The Weatherman, Our Private Life
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
I worry: is this another 90s group that glorifies crime and violence?
You know what, even if their lyrics are horrible (they might be; I didn't pay attention), I don't care. Because the sound is so refreshingly soulful and acoustic compared to other hip-hop from the same era. The drumming is either entirely analog or a very convincing electronic impression of it, and in terms of quality and "human-ness", it runs laps around the lo-fi-electro loops that dominated the charts in the 90s. The guitar and bass are also much heavier than you tend to find in 90s hip-hop, hearkening back to the grunge movement and beyond. The song Passive / Aggressive almost sounds like a Marvin Gaye instrumental, with passable but largely ignorable spoken vocals on top. That song has the added advantage of a sort of group-semi-singing in the chorus that catches you off-guard if you aren't prepared, and it's really fun.
Over and over, I kept discovering new tracks that blew my initial expectations out of the water. The Grave and the Constant has a repeated keyboard that smells suspiciously of sampling, but then the great horns come in for the chorus and you forget you ever suspected anything. If the Fun Lovin' Criminals are sampling, they're doing a good job at hiding it. Scooby Snacks is pretty goofy, and not that interesting in the first half... But once that main chorus hits, it hits hard. Smoke 'Em has some excellent horns in the outro that immediately call for a relisten of the entire track. I Can't Get with That has its great guitar jam in the latter half.
Unfortunately, the tail end of the album really drops the ball in quality, with nonsensical throwaways like Bear Hug and Methadonia (the singing is stupid and low-effort) taking up unnecessary runtime.
3/5
Key tracks: Passive / Aggressive, The Grave and the Constant, We Have All the Time in the World
Ministry
1/5
I don't really know what to expect from the "profane" album title, or the intriguing cover art, or the clearly religion-themed song titles. I guess, scream/death/industrial metal. Let's hope it's not that, because that genre has a horrifically low success rate in my books.
Well, heck.
The opening track, N.W.O., is repetitive, only breaking the monotony with vocals that make you want to tear your ears off. They just... sound bad. Whoever funds these kinds of projects has definitely gone off their rocker, and they probably had a hearty chuckle when the album got as high as #27 on the Billboard charts. The following track is much more promising. Just One Fix has a nice guitar theme that rocks out with the bass behind a sort of fast-doom drum beat. The vocals are bad, though an improvement over N.W.O. The rage in this piece is more palpable – and (importantly) more tastefully expressed – than its predecessor. The next couple of tracks are somewhere between: not good enough for me to particularly enjoy them, but also not nearly as horrifyingly bad as that first song. TV II commits to the unfortunate theme of switching between spaces of dead silence and brutally loud instrumental cut-ins. Not good. Hero sounds like an attempt at a crowd singalong, but it just isn't that good. And the singing is at its very worst in the verses. (The guitar abruptness at the end is pretty nifty, though.)
Jesus Built My Hotrod is a return to form – if you could call it that. The guitar playing is blurry and overblown but it's pretty fun, particularly in the verses. Also, far and away the most pleasant vocals to listen to. Ding ding dang-a-dang. Or something. Great guitar solo at the 3-minute mark, too. This is definitely the album's strongest track. Scare Crow isn't bad, but at 8 minutes with no progression between the beginning and the end, it gets a little tiresome. Compare that to something like the Beatles' I Want You (She's So Heavy) for a crash course in how to pull off a 7-8 minute doom track. Psalm 69 gives Jesus a run for his money with the medieval-fantasy-bossfight atmosphere in the first 90 seconds. After that it delivers a fun standard guitar riff that repeats for a while. The last two tracks are uneventful. All in all, definitely not an essential listen.
1/5
Key tracks: Just One Fix, Jesus Built My Hotrod, Psalm 69
The Shamen
2/5
The music is very repetitive, which is clearly the point, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. But I do enjoy it, kind of. Mercifully, and unusually for the genre, the tracks are generally shy of the five-minute mark (with some exceptions). It's a really easy condition to fulfil, but I should give it some credit. Other 90s-electronic-loop music tends to overdo the length, presumably because they run out of musical ideas but still have to fill an LP.
There are some good tracks, though. I find it pretty funny that the main single, Move Any Mountian, is misspelled on Spotify. It stands out positively as a track for having one of the only genuine melodies on the record – even if that melody is kind of mundane. Possible Worlds: Deep PSI is a mild standout for incorporating a sort of Spanish guitar part. I so wish it had been more varied. Some solos, some taking of inspiration from a theme... anything. Especially since it's the longest track on the album. Give us something to work with. (It's still pretty solid relative to the rest of the record.) Omega Amigo has some decent harmonies, and the arcade-machine synths every few bars are pretty nifty. Make It Mine's vocals are lazily delivered and mixed poorly so that you can't make out the lyrics easily. But it makes up for it (and then some) with its excellent guitarwork.
The sounds here are absolutely nothing revolutionary, which I feel is a bit of a requirement for albums that receive very little streaming time in the modern day. (Seriously. 9 of the 15 tracks have under 100k streams, which is pretty bad for a list of the thousand most important albums in history. It would seem modern audiences disagree with you, little mister Dimery.) And there are plenty of bad tracks that easily justify their low popularity on the Spotifies. Evil Is Even is interesting, I guess, for its use of really bad high drones in the vocals (or Mellotron, maybe?) and just an overall unpleasant sound. The percussion pattern in Lightspan is irritating once you start paying attention to it. Hear Me just has aggressively bad production – very much a product of the 80s – and a bad choice of sound effects to accompany it. The jittery shouting isn't great either. 666 Edit reads the same to me, only without the vocals (creating a negligible change) until the second half. The callback to Move Any Mountian is fun but unnecessary.
2/5
Key tracks: Move Any Mountian, Possible Worlds: Deep PSI, Make It Mine
Goldfrapp
3/5
A surprisingly restrained sound for 90s/00s electronic music. Very soft, mysterious, understated – particularly in the two opening tracks, which are just an excellent way to start of the album in the most unexpected way possible. I'm a big fan of Goldfrapp's tiredly seductive vocals. They tickle the ear in just the right way, and mesh well with the strings, acoustic instruments, and (generally very soft) percussion. Speaking of percussion, it conjures a strange semi-Central American feel that sort of works, but is mostly quite confusing. Lots of exotic influence in the frenetic string lines (as heard in the song Human) and strange choices of instrument and melody (Oompah Radar). Some of it is good. And some of it is indecipherably odd. Underwhelming, even.
Where the album gets frustrating is when it refuses to climb out of this "understatedness" rut. There's no "pick-up" moment, no point where Goldfrapp decides it's time to pull out the big guns. The audience gets 39 minutes of buildup with no payoff. The absolute peak (trough?) of this problem is in Felt Mountain, which is just devoid of any sort of energy. It makes Oompah Radar, an otherwise bizarre carnival-sounding instrumental, sound like a Led Zeppelin masterpiece by comparison. Utopia is also a much-needed step-up in pacing with a great thick-textured arrangement. Love the synths on that track. Horse Tears is just a better Felt Mountain. It's placed in a more fortunate spot, directly Utopia. The highest-energy song on the album followed by a soft but emotionally charged closer.
3/5
Key tracks: Lovely Head, Paper Bag, Utopia
The Rolling Stones
5/5
The best Stones record, and you'd be hard-pressed to argue otherwise. Only Let It Bleed and Exile On Main St. give it a run for its money. But Sticky Fingers is the band at their most stylistically assured, their tightest, their grooviest. And it has some absolutely killer compositions. Brown Sugar and Wild Horses are almost anthemic, for wildly different reasons. The former, for its brash political commentary that gets away with it only because "Eh, it's just the past, we've moved on from slavery, right? Nudge, nudge?" The latter for just being breathtakingly beautiful, in its melody, guitar line, bringing-in/-out of the percussion... and yet still being genuinely catchy at the same time. That song, as well as Sway and Moonlight Mile, have some excellent lyrics as well, rivalling even the best from the ridiculously competitive year of 1971.
Another reviewer described Jagger's vocals as a mess, but in a way that's perfect for the rock'n'roll style they're going for. Absolutely gritty, dirty, imperfect. Jagger's rock scream is on-point and can be heard in every upbeat track. Maybe there's a slight issue with his delivery of lower-energy tracks, where his exaggerated faux-country accent is on full display and you can start to hear the cracks in his delivery. Such is the case for Wild Horses (and others, like Sway, I Got The Blues, and Moonlight Mile). But Wild Horses is a special case because it's such a stunningly beautiful composition in its own right that I'll let the Stones get away with using the wrong vocalist for it. (Countless other bands have covered it anyway.) Can't You Hear Me Knocking contains one of the best rock jams you'll ever hear, especially from such a hugely popular band. The three-plus minutes at the end were not only entirely improvised and done on the first take, but they also hadn't planned to jam at all until precisely that moment. Pretty darn cool. It also begins with one of the sickest riffs in all of music, and I wish they'd returned to it later in the song. The riffs, in general, are excellent: Brown Sugar with its humorously uplifting chords to launch off the album, and Bitch spitting out fire straight from the blues scale.
Sure, I *guess* this album could be improved by making tracks like Sister Morphine or You Gotta Move a little more musically interesting. But cut the boys some slack. 1971 was a hectic time for the Stones (and just about the entire music world).
5/5
Key tracks: Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Bitch
Stephen Stills
4/5
Love the One You're With is instantly recognisable. Or at least, it was for me, and I don't consider myself a Stills fan. But any peppy, positive gospel chorus is going to have a real good chance of melting my heart, and this one's no exception. Reminds me a lot of textures from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, particularly with the very soft percussion under a large array of harmonised vocals. An excellent way to start off the record. Overall, the album's sound is surprisingly accessible amidst some of the more out-there releases of the late 60s. Stills creates a gentle, bluesy, fun atmosphere that doesn't push any boundaries (except perhaps lyrically – I don't know, I don't pay attention to that), which could be considered its downfall. It makes me feel good, though, and can you ask for much more?
Plenty of acoustic guitar sound to work with, and Stills tries to mash it all together with the acoustically hectic (yet still very tame) Do for the Others. It's a fun little ditty that seems to end as soon as it begins. Later in the album, Black Queen is an even more barebones acoustic guitar piece – countryish, with nods to some past (and future) Led Zeppelin tracks. (Plenty of influences with other artists though, I'm sure.) Church (Pt. Of Someone) shows a clear commitment to that gospelesque sound (seeing as two of the opening three tracks are like that), and even bolsters that impression with a strong heartfelt piano part. Pretty cool. Hoping to see a little more variety, but pretty cool. (Later, we see Sit Yourself rehashing the gospel vocal, and this works better than expected.) It's Old Times Good Times where the pacing really picks up. Although the track is mostly an instrumental/jam session, the fast bass combined with atypical percussion keeps the song engaging. And Stills *really* sounds like Paul Simon in this song. Go Back Home is the exact same concept, only it's longer, more frenetic, and uses a nifty guitar riff as its main attraction. At this point in the album, I'm completely on board with the possibility that Stills put out a completely jam-based solo debut album.
Some of the later tracks are a little less successful. To A Flame and We Are Not Helpless are a bit lacklustre even if they technically sound fine. Cherokee would be lumped in here too, except it has a 7/4 time signature that Stills doesn't quite get away with. It's almost good, almost danceable – but, of course, not quite.
4/5
Key tracks: Love the One You're With, Old Times Good Times, Go Back Home
Brian Eno
4/5
Ooh, I like this one. It's like a new and improved Tubular Bells (with fewer different instruments), which itself is a project I seriously underrated when I first listened to it. Brian Eno, in this project and many others, has near-perfected the art of understatedness, and (especially) of not sounding too pretentious.
The opener, 1/1, glows softly for its entire 17-minute duration. This effect is largely due to having lots of space between melodic phrases and the long reverb on every note. It approaches being a solo piano piece, and I like that, though admittedly there isn't all that much to analyse in terms of texturing when every moment of the piece sounds like any other moment. 2/1 is a harmonic showcase, focusing particularly on suspended chords. The arrangement is much less impressive if you know it's a keyboard, not a choir, but it's arranged to make it slightly ambiguous. A choir could definitely cover this piece, and it would sound beautiful. Probably more so. 1/2 is a combination of the first two tracks and inherits the strengths and weaknesses of each. 2/2 is the most instrumentally complex track, involving a slew of brass and string instruments (or brass/strings voices on keyboard). But harmonically, it's all the same rehashed suspension and resolution.
The highest-rated review here gives this record 1 star, and asks just one question: "What makes this example special other than it being the first?" Is that not reason enough? And come on, you need to let your enjoyment have some bearing on the rating. If ratings were done purely on uniqueness, then sure, Ambient 1/Music For Airports tanks. Hundreds, if not thousands, of albums have been released since 1978 that sound exactly like this one. But then the same is true of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. And you don't see that one getting slandered (much) for everyone copying them later. It's a darn good record. And so is this one.
4/5
Key tracks: 1/1
Ice Cube
1/5
I had AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted earlier this month. The main lyrical theme of that one was "people hate me, and I wear that as a badge of honour". Which is just the dumbest, most bigheaded message ever. And The Predator seems to continue along the same lines, with gems like Say Hi To The Bad Guy, ,
and The Predator ("Riots ain't nothing but diets for the system", "I'm meaner than a motherfucking hyena chasing antelope", "Rat-a-tat-tat on your noggin 'cause Ice'll cream your ass like Häagen-Dazs").
Combine that with a healthy
Some of the lyrics are pretty harrowing, though, in a good way. When Will They Shoot? has nothing to latch onto musically, and I can't see myself ever listening to it again. But the story it tells is slick, fast, and horrific. I'm glad I didn't live in an American city in the 90s.
This record was released right at the crux of the hip-hop "golden age", so you'd think it would showcase some of the best the genre has to offer. It isn't Ice Cube's debut, either, so he's had some time to learn. And yet he still includes interludes that go nothing except act as musically inert ad breaks. If you're putting in a 60-second track, it better as heck have an incredible melody/riff, or else complement the next/previous track excellently. The interludes on this album do neither.
I enjoy the secondary vocalist that takes the middle verse in Wicked. The rest of the track is extremely repetitive, but that guy's voice injects some fun into the monotony.
In Now I Gotta Wet 'Cha, the brass and bass, despite being pretty repetitive (pretty sure the bass is only two notes) is such a contrast to the four atonal tracks preceding it that it has to be one of my favourites. It Was A Good Day is much the same way. Hopefully Ice Cube realises now that incorporating melody and harmony does wonders for his fans, who very obviously enjoy this kind of music to any of his other work. (1.4 billion streams is, well, a lot of streams.) Dirty Mack does the same thing but with less interesting vocals, and a bizarre baby-sounding vocal harmonising during some parts. Still decent though. Check Yo Self is also strong, and even incorporates some genuine singing for a few seconds.
The keyboard part in Don't Trust 'Em is, I suspect, sampled from Steely Dan's Green Earrings. Which is a significantly better track in every way.
/5
Key tracks: It Was A Good Day, Dirty Mack, Check Yo Self
The Doors
4/5
I think a lot of people sleep on just how consistently good The Doors' output was (pre-1972). They performed decently on the charts, but that doesn't speak to how ridiculously influential they were, and how simple yet universal their compositions and performances were. For a band without a bass player, the bass part is pretty dang strong. It especially shines in Ship of Fools and The Spy.
Roadhouse Blues is incredibly strong, succinct acid-blues. It's pretty straightforward musically, but it's what Morrison, Manzarek, and the others do with their attitude and stage presence (you can feel it through the screen) that counts. You Make Me Real is much the same way. I like the slightly out-of-tune piano that creates a sort of ragtimey saloon feel. And The Spy is another blues iteration that takes it in a completely different direction. Much slower, almost a rocking chair ditty, with a slow swing and compound-time bassline. Maggie M'Gill does it again, and this time I can't really describe the style, but it's a fast, bright, outdoor-walk-time beat with an extremely prominent organ part. All this showcases, if nothing else, the diversity of a band that isn't typically known for stylistically branching out.
One noticeable fault is that the lyrics can be a bit goofy. And sure, earlier albums suffered from the same issue ("Well, she's fashionably lean / And she's fashionably late" ... "Show me the way to the next little girl / Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why") yet I feel that the Doors' self-titled debut and Strange Days both still have the earnestness of a band who didn't know any better. Morrison Hotel is the band in a grittier, manlier state, so the silly lyrics come across as a little low-effort at times. But that's by the Doors' lyrical standards, which are generally pretty high. I also would've liked to see some more interesting melodies and chord progressions here – the latter in particular is something they don't branch out with much, and this would've been the perfect time in their career to do it.
4/5
Key tracks: Roadhouse Blues, Peace Frog, Maggie M'Gill
Talking Heads
5/5
I'm floored by how much better this is than the other Talking Heads records I've heard. Talking Heads 77, Fear Of Music, and More Songs About Buildings And Food all got nothing on this. And sure, most of these 5 stars come from Once in a Lifetime, but the rest of the album packs a real punch too (nudge, nudge). Especially with headphones.
I love the interacting guitar lines in Born Under Punches. They're so fast, peppy, slick. And dirty at the same time. I appreciate that Byrne isn't trying too hard to pass off his singing as competent, instead adopting a sort of ad-lib expressive talking, as well as using vocal harmonies in some places. Towards the end of the song, the band really keys in on overlapping vocals in the second half. (Dang. This is a great piece of music.) Am I right to think this counts as world-inspired music? Some of the unusual vocal tendencies, and the light, varied percussion, remind me of Fela Kuti's Zombie record. But I enjoy this significantly more.
Crosseyed and Painless makes it clear that the band's committing to that twangy, distorted bass sound that was a staple of the disco and post-disco genre. It sounds fantastic though. That repeating line "Stilllll waiting", combined with all the other overlapping elements... there's so much to focus on. The highlight of The Great Curve is the instrumental in the middle, which combines the ubiquitous rapid guitar riff with some solid horn hits (sounding suspiciously like those orchestra hits you can get on keyboards, but I'm sure they're legitimate here) and a very odd guitar solo. The backing vocals – especially "So say so, so say so" – again do wonders here.
No idea what's going on in Once in a Lifetime. I assume those are keyboards... and Byrne yelling about my beautiful wife... and some odd percussion and bass. The chorus is very recognisable. Combined with that wacky, ethereal keyboard part, the chorus really lifts the song above the rest of the album. It's so, so good. Goddamn.
Houses in Motion is the "bacteria music" of the album, but I still enjoy it. Seen and Not Seen flashes by quickly, and seems to be mostly a glitzy keyboard jam session alongside Byrne calmly talking about facial structure. Listening Wind has a fun chorus melody, and an echoey, sort of arcade-esque synth line that complements it well. Before listening to The Overload, I was apprehensive because it has so few streams on Spotify compared to the other tracks. But it's just as strong as most of the other tracks. Dark, slow, psychedelic, and I enjoy the low drone that stops the track from sounding too desolate.
5/5
Key tracks: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Crosseyed and Painless, Once in a Lifetime
Fats Domino
4/5
You can't go wrong with something as classic as this. Of course, you're also limited by there being a lot less innovation at the time, since in the 50s music was less a form of (creative) art – excluding jazz – and more a form of showmanship. But Fats Domino is a showman of the ages, and he puts on a grand concert here. Great beats, most of them fairly fast, and most of them harnessing the tried-and-true power of the blues. I can usually only handle a couple of blues progressions per album, so after the fourth or fifth one I was starting to tire a little, but Domino is great at keeping you engaged and swaying around the kitchen while you dry the dishes. (Anyone else?)
The tracks with "blue" in their title are the strongest, despite being some of the least "blues" tracks. It makes sense that these were the hit singles. Reeling And Rocking is maybe the most challenging track, accounting for its strange rhythm that's sort of halfway between a slow rocking-chair shuffle and a swift, peppy jig. Not much new in the way of chords, though. Overall, plenty of way-paving for British Invasion bands, modern blues, soul, and R&B. Not much else to say, really. The songs are extremely simple and about as effective as they can be despite that. At least it isn't a live album, because in the 50s, those tend to be sketchy (in quality) at best.
4/5
Key tracks: Blueberry Hill, Blue Monday, So Long
John Martyn
4/5
This guy really needs to hire somebody better to sing his pieces. The instrumentation is excellent. Those saxes, vibraphones, soft bass plucking, and drumming in the opener/title track are atmospheric as heck. But then Martyn's mumbling comes in and you wish you forgot to bring your ears to work. (Not really. But you get my point.)
Over The Hill is a big improvement, though I can't quite say what's changed. At least, not singing-wise. (Turns out the higher notes were helping. Later in the album, Go Down Easy also has noticeably better singing, but mostly with Martyn's higher notes.) The guitar part sounds great. It's well-mixed and sparkles with The Battle Of Evermore. May You Never very much follows in the same footsteps, boasting perhaps the most "coverable" songwriting of the whole album. A very accessible track, and the guitar playing is still very good. In Don't Want To Know, Martyn returns to his suspiciously slurred vocal delivery, though it's somewhat covered up by having group singing towards the song's end. All in all, a solid, groovy track, helped a lot by its keyboard part.
I'd Rather Be The Devil (Devil Got My Woman) is bizarre. It maintains a specific level of tension that doesn't ever get off the ground. Which illustrates my issue with a lot of Martyn's music, actually. The arrangements are really creative for their time. With this song specifically, I don't even recognise some instruments here, but the soft organ, wacky guitar/bass noises, and mysterious, exotic rhythm (and, at times, lack thereof). It reminds me of sound-prog not too distant from some of King Crimson's stuff (Moonchild?).
Dreams By The Sea is another standout. That high keyboard line in the chorus is great, and it leads into an intensely classic-rock instrument in the middle of the track, with a strong, groovy sax solo. And more falsetto, too. Not exactly the easiest melody to follow, but it's still solid. And considerably more movement than the rest of the tracks.
4/5
Key tracks: Over The Hill, Dreams By The Sea, May You Never
Willie Nelson
3/5
These songs could be described as country bagatelles. With a couple of exceptions, all the songs are very short. Almost half are under two minutes. The longer ones have the obvious advantage of allowing build-up and progression within a track, which Can I Sleep in Your Arms (the longest song here) does well, and which Hands on the Wheel does less well. I found myself thinking about Willie's Stardust album (which I've heard already and given a 4). But I have very little memory of it, so this is sort of a fresh slate. I think both are pretty Dylanesque, and maybe a bit "behind their time" – there's nothing that really speaks to the year 1975 or anywhere past it. Indeed, Red Headed Stranger could've been from the year 1960 and I wouldn't've have batted an eye.
The first four tracks are pretty similar to one another and could reasonably be mistaken. Apart from I Couldn't Believe It Was True being slightly faster in pace, they're all slow, mildly dragging pieces with pretty melodies and extremely simple instrumentation and chord progressions. Blue Eyed Crying In the Rain is a subtle but appreciated improvement, the high acoustic guitar solo being a big highlight. Red Headed Stranger is a solid continuation of the higher-energy pieces and is another highlight. Can Willie continue the streak? ...No. The "Short Version" of Time of the Preacher should just be left out of the discussion, though the track it leads into, Just as I Am, introduces a lovely piano part, which is continued a few tracks later with the straightforward ragtime instrumental Down Yonder.
3/5
Key tracks: I Couldn't Believe It Was True, Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain, Red Headed Stranger