676
Albums Rated
2.28
Average Rating
62%
Complete
413 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1990s
Favorite Decade
Grunge
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Perfectionist
Rater Style ?
21
5-Star Albums
156
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Bright Flight
Silver Jews
|
5 | 2.68 | +2.32 |
|
Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Loretta Lynn
|
5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
|
New York Dolls
New York Dolls
|
5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
|
John Prine
John Prine
|
5 | 3.22 | +1.78 |
|
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
|
5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
|
Garbage
Garbage
|
5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
|
It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
|
5 | 3.49 | +1.51 |
|
Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room
Dwight Yoakam
|
4 | 2.6 | +1.4 |
|
To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
|
5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
|
Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
|
5 | 3.65 | +1.35 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Abbey Road
Beatles
|
1 | 4.46 | -3.46 |
|
Revolver
Beatles
|
1 | 4.25 | -3.25 |
|
Rubber Soul
Beatles
|
1 | 4.12 | -3.12 |
|
Purple Rain
Prince
|
1 | 4.02 | -3.02 |
|
The Doors
The Doors
|
1 | 3.95 | -2.95 |
|
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
|
1 | 3.94 | -2.94 |
|
In Rainbows
Radiohead
|
1 | 3.84 | -2.84 |
|
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
|
1 | 3.77 | -2.77 |
|
Songs From The Big Chair
Tears For Fears
|
1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
|
Born In The U.S.A.
Bruce Springsteen
|
1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Metallica | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 6 | 1.5 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 3 | 1 |
| Tim Buckley | 3 | 1 |
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 1.5 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 4 | 1.5 |
| The Who | 4 | 1.5 |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 1.33 |
| The Beach Boys | 3 | 1.33 |
| Blur | 3 | 1.33 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 1.33 |
| Kraftwerk | 2 | 1 |
| The Police | 2 | 1 |
| Yes | 2 | 1 |
| Pet Shop Boys | 2 | 1 |
| Randy Newman | 2 | 1 |
| The Doors | 2 | 1 |
| Emerson, Lake & Palmer | 2 | 1 |
| Love | 2 | 1 |
| Talking Heads | 4 | 1.75 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 3 | 1.67 |
| Miles Davis | 3 | 1.67 |
| Happy Mondays | 2 | 1.5 |
| Eminem | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2 | 1.5 |
| Van Morrison | 2 | 1.5 |
| Ryan Adams | 2 | 1.5 |
| Depeche Mode | 2 | 1.5 |
| Kate Bush | 2 | 1.5 |
| Pulp | 2 | 1.5 |
| Madonna | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Mothers Of Invention | 2 | 1.5 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 2 |
| The Rolling Stones | 4 | 2 |
| Brian Eno | 5 | 2.2 |
| Kings of Leon | 3 | 2 |
| The Kinks | 3 | 2 |
| Steely Dan | 3 | 2 |
| Kanye West | 3 | 2 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 3 | 2 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 3 | 2 |
| Prince | 3 | 2 |
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 2.25 |
| Neil Young | 4 | 2.25 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Marvin Gaye | 5, 2 |
| The White Stripes | 1, 4 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 4, 1, 1 |
| David Bowie | 2, 5, 2, 1, 4, 2 |
| Beastie Boys | 3, 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (21)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
My dad in 1997: why do you have my fender and a monkey wrench in your room Mason stop messing with my stuff!
Me: *all of 11 years old and doing tom morello shit to the fender with the wrench* FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME
17 likes
Van Morrison
1/5
multiple 7+ minute van morrison songs is the worst thing this list has produced since it was multiple 7+ minute live van morrison songs
6 likes
Talking Heads
1/5
when talking heads works it works really well. when talking heads doesn't work it is the most annoying music on the planet. this is an entire album where it doesn't work.
2 likes
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
i think i judge single instrument noodley virtuosos on a 2 axis matrix. they're all really good at their thing by definition, so from there it's:
are they cool, and are they just technically skilled and making masturbatory music or is there artistry involved
so for instance: yngwie malmsteen... one of the least cool people you've ever seen in your life (and also a dickhead), and he's just up there noodling for noodling's sake to prove that he can. your enjoyment and even your presence is irrelevant to him.
jimi hendrix, one of the coolest people you've ever seen in your life, and he's pouring himself into it.
0 stars for yngwie malmsteen on principle if he ever pops up on this list, 3 stars for this particular jimi album
1 likes
The Stone Roses
3/5
I enjoyed most of this. It felt somewhere in between the classic rock Zach braff would put on a soundtrack and the indie rock Zach braff would put on a soundtrack.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (156)
All Ratings
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Includes two of the all-timers in the "long ass songs" category. A great album for driving, cleaning, cooking, background noise at a small gathering.
Kraftwerk
1/5
I'll take others' word for it that it's seminal and influential for a lot of things I've enjoyed since it was released, but no thank you never again
AC/DC
3/5
AC/DC songs are just a vehicle for Angus to play a guitar solo. They really are best consumed as a closing pitcher's entrance music instead of by the album.
R.E.M.
4/5
You can draw a straight line from this album to The Decemberists and I think that's neat. I stole this CD from my Dad when I was 11 and have loved it ever since.
Björk
3/5
The whole album sounds like one song. Which is different from saying the songs all sound the same. It sounds like one hour-long song.
1/5
Live albums are rarely good and this one is not an exception
Cream
3/5
Quintessential 60s classic rock sound
King Crimson
1/5
A nonsense 13 minute long opening track is exactly why nobody likes prog rock
The Cars
4/5
Almost entirely bangers.
Pearl Jam
5/5
Bands that got massive radio play in the 90s are weird because some of them (Pearl Jam included) are precious to me, and some of them were so overplayed that I cannot stand them now (Creed).
Start to finish fantastic rock. Unique, bordering on weird in a way that was important to me as a kid.
Of Alice In Chains' Layne Staley, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, it seems cruel that the one who got his shit together and became a vegan and insufferable and might now be immortal is the latter.
New Order
3/5
It played on repeat like 2 and a half times before I realized? It was fine, with some moments.
The Band
3/5
The intersection of easy listening classic rock, southern classic rock, and radio classic rock.
The War On Drugs
1/5
FULL ADMISSION: I made a big mistake. I read the "about" blurb on spotify before listening to this. The "about" blurb on spotify for The War On Drugs appears to have been written by the band (and given that all the photos are of the lead singer, one presumes by him specifically). It is nonsense from start to finish, and negatively colored my impressions of the record thoroughly, so I recommend not doing that.
Perhaps their other albums show off their skill as "this century's great rock synthesists," but the start of this record is nondescript middle of the road indie rock.
Then suddenly, the warning signs: an extended Dire Straits impression on "An Ocean In Between The Waves." The almost-unique vocals now sound like they're trying to be something specific.
And then inexplicably it turns into Bob Dylan tribute music on "Eyes To The Wind." If you inexplicably turn into (bad, I might add) Bob Dylan tribute music in the middle of your record I will give you 1 star every time.
If you then, after an unearned instrumental interlude, turn into Bruce Springsteen tribute music on the very next track, I'll wish I could take that 1 star away.
This album infuriated me in a fun way. 5 stars for the experience, 1 star for the album
Ramones
3/5
Foundational and iconic and all that, but it's not really listenable as an album.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
Not my thing. I'm giving it an extra star because it absolutely succeeds at the band's goal of creating an "anti rock" sound.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
It's endlessly odd to me while listening to the album straight through that Simon & Garfunkel put stuff like 'bridge over troubled water' and 'so long frank lloyd wright' on the same album as stuff like 'cecilia' and 'keep the customer satisfied,' and then i remember they broke up acrimoniously.
the boxer is a perfect song. the lyrics are almost conversational but flow with the music perfectly like a gentle downhill stream in a way i don't think anyone else has ever come close to matching.
most of it is listenable, a lot of it is good, and bridge over troubled water is one of the most annoying songs ever recorded.
Fairport Convention
3/5
It was fine. Mostly charming. I'd go to a tavern to see it live. Another case of "I'm sure several artists I enjoy cite them as an influence."
The Temptations
3/5
Easy listening, no complaints
Kings of Leon
2/5
Weird album for me. I think it's important as a bridge between a time when alt rock had become very samey and when actually-alternative alt rock became widely commercial and popular. Some of the guitar work is very foundational for the alt rock of the 2010s. The AltNation SiriusXM station and many of the bands they play regularly owe a lot to Kings of Leon.
Unfortunately, Caleb Followill's voice is unfuckingbearable.
Moby
3/5
If you can set aside the cartoon character that is Moby, I believe there is a 4 or 4.5 star album here, but there's so much useless underground electronic DJ set filler squeezed into the cracks that drags it down.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Classic, mostly great outside of extended noodling sessions
Public Enemy
4/5
It was great
Sisters Of Mercy
4/5
enjoyed it from start to finish. type o negative vibes
Robbie Williams
1/5
irredeemable garbage from start to finish
Beck
3/5
Solid, but not nearly as good as 2005 Mason thought it was
The Sonics
3/5
Another in the "i understand that it's foundational and influential but i'll stick to the things that built upon its foundation and were inspired by it thank you"
Amy Winehouse
4/5
I have no particular attachment to either artist, but at least once or twice I thought "Man Adele really stole her whole vocal sound didn't she"
Me and Mr. Jones gets the album an extra star all by itself. "What kind of fuckery is this" is a wonderful line
Beastie Boys
3/5
yep, that's a beastie boys album
Gang Of Four
3/5
love an english punk band where you can hear their accents (meegraine)
Richard Hawley
2/5
I want to rate this higher. I didn't dislike it, it shines in a couple spots. But it can't escape sounding like the solo effort of a guy who does his best work collaborating with other artists (which it is)
The Fall
2/5
*shrug* if you say so
Supergrass
3/5
fun all the way through
Soft Machine
1/5
prog rock is a tool of the devil. jazzy prog rock is a WMD.
Skepta
4/5
one of the best grime albums ever. bonus points for putting a recording of a cod lobby on a track
Joni Mitchell
2/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
no skips
Christina Aguilera
2/5
did not realize christina aguilera was making christiany pop albums
a couple of these songs felt kinda.... pandery? weird vibe. i like the risk taking with the sound though, it's not exactly what you expect from christina
a song full of voice mails from fans is a CHOICE.
Crowded House
1/5
bland and offputting in a way i'm not sure how to explain
Pixies
5/5
one of the ones where you just go "yeah of course this is one the list"
Radiohead
4/5
I was excited to sit down and listen to this as an adult. I know there are some bangers on here, but as a young'n Radiohead was the annoying boring stuff that interrupted the loud grunge on the radio and the music video for paranoid android was highly unsettling to me.
It really drags at the end, but there's a lot of great stuff here. It has an emblematic 90s non-music interlude track which I appreciate on principle. It hearkens to a time when people made albums instead of singles
The Kinks
1/5
i have a generally positive opinion of the kinks from the singles i'm familiar with and their appearances on wes anderson soundtracks, but i hated this
Beatles
2/5
the beatles fall into a category of foundational, influential inspirational media where i consumed everything it inspired before i consumed the media.
boring, but i don't hate it.
Talking Heads
1/5
when talking heads works it works really well. when talking heads doesn't work it is the most annoying music on the planet. this is an entire album where it doesn't work.
Dire Straits
3/5
The bangers are banging, the bops are bopping
I've never listened to this album all the way through, so I did not expect a Chuck Mangione joint on track 4
X-Ray Spex
2/5
The spotify version doesn't have oh bondage up yours on it, so what's the point?
Daft Punk
2/5
I know that this genre of music simply isn't for me, and also I shouldn't be listening to it while I do my fake email job at 1pm on a Thursday, but even so I cannot fathom why this album is held in such high esteem by those who are into it.
There's a 7 minute 33 second song of the same 8 count of noise repeated over and over with nothing but various effects and additional percussion layered onto it. Most of the album just isn't compelling if I'm not at an EDM show and on drugs.
Extra star for Da Funk and Around the World tho
Frank Sinatra
2/5
I went through a middle school kid who got super into the rat pack phase and nothing from this album was ever of interest to me. also it's really sleepy
Fred Neil
2/5
Absolutely love the vibe of a dude named fred releasing an album called fred with a song that includes "(fred's tune)" in its title. It was fine.
U2
3/5
I was aware of Bono and The Edge as kind of insufferable before I was aware of U2's good music, and it definitely colors my impression of them. This is a pretty good album though.
2/5
Yep. That's a new wave album.
Calexico
2/5
The platonic ideal of the kinds of albums I let ruin my mood throughout the 00's. No thanks!
John Prine
5/5
an all timer, one of the kings of sad as fuck country still being a good time
Led Zeppelin
3/5
yep, that's a led zeppelin album
Joan Armatrading
3/5
Enjoyable throughout
Keith Jarrett
2/5
I would never choose to listen to this again, it simply doesn't interest me, but it's not bad.
Muddy Waters
3/5
pretty hard to mess up blues
Frank Black
3/5
I like a lot of the guitar work, but this album feels like when a good character in a show disappears and comes back but now they're dark and brooding cause they've been through some shit.
Shouldn't have broken up the pixies, francis
Soundgarden
5/5
This is one of the most precious albums to me of all time. There is so much there beyond the singles. The sludge of 4th of July, the creeping opti-pessimism of The Day I Tried To Live, the groove of Let Me Drown... No skips. All timer. 6 stars.
Germs
3/5
Nina Simone
2/5
First couple tracks were great, but Nina Simone's vibrato is not for me for extended periods of time
Roxy Music
2/5
mostly fine, sometimes irritating
Bad Brains
2/5
I am convinced that the vast majority of the punk included in this list was done so as an afterthought to avoid the author getting yelled at about it
Bob Dylan
1/5
How can there be so much Bob Dylan yet only Tangled Up In Blue is good
Arctic Monkeys
2/5
I know that arctic monkeys know how to use distortion on their guitars because they do it on this album and yet they spend so much time opting instead for the most annoying guitar tone ever recorded
The Police
1/5
There are a lot of albums we've heard so far where I could see why it would be enjoyable to someone, but this is the first one that just fucking sucks and I cannot fathom enjoying it. ZERO stars I never want to hear any of these songs again.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
all of the rough edges of a live performance with none of the energy, but mostly fun to listen to
The Kinks
3/5
Better than the last one but still some real questionable stuff in here
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
one of the best albums of the 00s. And I love an album with some acoustic versions at the end
Deep Purple
2/5
Live albums are rarely good and this is not an exception. That being said, extra star for space truckin. Space truckin is never not good
Various Artists
2/5
A completely fine and inoffensive Christmas album punctuated by a weird spoken word greeting from a convicted murderer
Richard Thompson
2/5
mostly agreeable listen
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
2/5
I didn't mind most of this, though I don't particularly enjoy when an otherwise good if not weird song descends into noise making for no good reason in the middle.
I am ten thousand percent positive that wayne coyne lyrics and vocals would make every single track a certified banger. i think i expected the flaming lips to show up on every single track.
David Bowie
2/5
I love the guitar work throughout most of Bowie's career, I just don't like when he sings over it throughout most of his career also.
Steely Dan
2/5
There was nothing wrong with anything on this album I just wouldn’t ever choose to listen to it again and “would listen again” is my bar for 3 stars so…
Yes
1/5
I hold these men personally responsible as the progenitors of most prog rock
Tom Waits
2/5
Every single Tom waits song is simply wait(s)ing for the right scene in a movie or tv show of which to be a theme song. It all feels like it’s missing context when you’re just listening to the album.
Pink Floyd
3/5
I’ll take the layne Staley Tom morello version of another brick from 1999’s criminally underrated The Faculty, but an extra star for producing the original so it could be used in a movie about alien teachers attacking students instead of protest
Judas Priest
3/5
Probably the third best Priest album. I remain shocked this was picked as their appearance over others. If I ever run into Rob Halford in San Diego again I will ask him about it.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
There's not really much that moved me outside of the singles (BUT THE SINGLES ARE ALL TIMERS)
Björk
2/5
Pretty listenable, but a lot of making weird noise for weird noise’s sake
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
pretty fun the whole way through, and a perfect album to listen to while doing house work
UB40
2/5
Just not for me in album form
Eagles
3/5
I’ve never listened to this in its entirety and I probably haven’t heard anything but a snippet of hotel California on the radio in a store or something in years.
I think it’s one of those songs that younger people just sort of take on faith as being an all timer but it is exactly as good as your dad says it is.
The rest of it is decent 70s rock ranging from listenable to pretty good.
Also it’s weirdly fun to listen to good music when you know the people making it utterly despise one another. But then less so when you know what a bunch of assholes they are.
The Beach Boys
2/5
Try as I might to give this an unbiased listen The Beach Boys are simply “my dads music” from a time when I was starting to choose “my music.” Didn’t really enjoy my time here, but didn’t dislike it as much as I thought I would
Billy Bragg
3/5
I enjoyed this quite a bit
Scott Walker
3/5
I did not expect to enjoy this but it was quite lovely to make soup to
The Pogues
3/5
Don’t think consuming the pogues in album form is for me, but I really enjoyed quite a few songs
Elvis Presley
4/5
In the ghetto is one of the most insane songs ever penned. Just totally wild that was a hit even accounting for “it was a different time”
It always makes me laugh to hear Elvis plead with the recipient of a song to believe him or cry about his partner being suspicious of him, ELVIS PRESLEY.
Only a couple songs on here that really drag. Great overall
Talking Heads
2/5
Was having a much better time with this talking heads album until warning sign. And the song after that. And the one after that. And then I was like ah fuck yep this is a talking heads joint. Then it recovered a bit! I would listen to some of these songs again, but never in album form.
Deerhunter
2/5
There was some really fun stuff here but the rest of the album sounded like the fun stuff but not as fun.
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
I’ve always been vaguely sure I don’t like Springsteen now I know for sure. It all sounds the same and it’s not great. A lot of it is quite bad. Why does the melody in jungleland sound directly ripped from tiny dancer? Why is the title track held in such high regard? And why is one of the e street band members a main character in The Sopranos?
Lou Reed
2/5
Some real standouts amid a lot of dullness
Happy Mondays
1/5
Really didn’t enjoy any of this
The Roots
3/5
My room mate played this album a lot in college. It's very enjoyable.
5/5
A personal top 5 album of all time. As a kid learning to play guitar but not being very good or fast and only having metal and grunge in my musical tastes, Mick Ronson was revelatory.
I would say the ziggy era is the only Bowie I really like, but even Aladdin Sane abandons so much of what makes me love this album.
Five years is one of the best songs ever recorded.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
This album and band have an outsized reputation that neither really meets. What’s good is pretty good, and what’s bad (when they go full talking heads, my disdain for which is already stated in these records) is pretty bad. The rest of it is fine, but nothing revolutionary or legendary like I’d been led to believe
The xx
2/5
Chris isaak I wanna fall in love the album
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Too long, but almost entirely enjoyable. Can I kick it is an all timer
Johnny Cash
2/5
Live albums are rarely good and this is not an exception. Love Johnny tho
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
didn't mind any of this, very much enjoyed the vocals and the instrumentation
The Killers
5/5
might be my favorite album of the 00s
JAY Z
3/5
the late 90s/early 00s is an era of hip hop that doesn't really interest me, but hov interests me more than the rest. You can only hear Jay-Z talking about beating the charges so many times before you get tired of it, but I will readily admit he is the best at it.
Television
2/5
Too much jam bandy noodley guitar work on too-long songs, but I liked some of it. Wouldn’t reach for it again
Stan Getz
2/5
This is one where I want to find a copy of the book and find out what about it makes it an album you should hear before you die. In a genre that I would describe as "fancy hotel lobby music" or "tv/movie incidental music," is this particularly exemplary? was there special drama in its recording? I enjoyed it, but it's not immediately clear to me why I needed to hear it before I die.
The Avalanches
1/5
absolutely not. the whole idea bothers me in principle.
CHVRCHES
3/5
It went on a little too long, but it's good overall and there's some real bangers
Def Leppard
2/5
i found it very hard to take this album seriously. i recognize logically that def leppard is probably the target sound for every tv commercial or show that wants 80s rock-sounding incidental music, but the whole album sounded like that.
The Who
1/5
Easily the biggest delta so far between the reverence most folks have for the album and the depths of my distaste for it.
Roger Daltrey is unbearable both as a singer and a human being. The story is boring. The music is fine. I never want to hear it again.
Jurassic 5
2/5
It was a fun listen, but not something I'd ever reach for
Todd Rundgren
1/5
Definitely bottom 5 so far. Just a terrible experience sonically.
Common
2/5
Not my favorite Common. Doesn’t help that it’s full of problematic language. He has thankfully publicly realized that was a problem and resolved not to use homophobic slurs anymore. A couple great ones here though
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
My dad in 1997: why do you have my fender and a monkey wrench in your room Mason stop messing with my stuff!
Me: *all of 11 years old and doing tom morello shit to the fender with the wrench* FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME
Talk Talk
2/5
Mostly had a bad time, from some of the stuff I was reading it sounds like they had a bad time making it too. I do enjoy some of their other work though (which would be perhaps much to Mark Hollis' chagrin)
The B-52's
2/5
I was surprised by how regularly bothered I was listening to this. I really love Kate Pierson's voice, but she spends so much time using it to make annoying noises in addition to her singing. Hero Worship is a great song! Rock Lobster is a gimmick that simply does not need to be almost 7 minutes long!
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Lou Reed
2/5
The instrumentation is wonderful (because it’s largely Mick Ronson of David Bowie fame), but that’s about all I enjoyed
Travis
2/5
Pretty forgettable but not disagreeable. Because I listened to this the other day and then got 3 songs into it before realizing I’d already listened to it
Tricky
1/5
New pet peeve unlocked it’s a guy talking while a girl sings the same words
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
Spanish Harlem was incredibly unsettling to me as a child and I never really clocked why and yep as an adult it’s still a kinda creepy song. Everything else is great except The In Crowd
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
Neil Tennant is simply a non starter for me
The Zombies
1/5
this is like the platonic ideal of 60s rock. right down the middle. and i do not enjoy it.
Gang Starr
2/5
Snoop Dogg
4/5
an all timer
Traffic
2/5
Brian Eno
1/5
Going into this I thought “surely Brian Eno won’t let David Byrne ruin an entire Brian Eno record” and I was right, but multiple songs sound like 5 minute long intros to a Talking Heads song and that’s just such a waste of the time these two had together I expected better
Elliott Smith
3/5
I am 100% confident if you gave Elliot smith the drummer from That Thing You Do! and he made him play everything faster his music would be really really great instead of just good, mood depending
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
Loved it!
Nirvana
3/5
Most of this isn’t actually that great but the quarter of it that is good s EXTREMELY fucken good
Youssou N'Dour
2/5
I enjoyed almost all of it
Led Zeppelin
2/5
My vote for the widest gap between the good and the bad so far. The iconic songs are iconic, the ones that aren’t are nigh unlistenable
Destiny's Child
2/5
This album is so full of judgy weird like internalized misoginy I had no idea
Bad Company
3/5
Perfectly fine classic rock
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Proud Mary keep on boinin is one thing, but thirty people toined to stone is too far. There wasn’t much especially disagreeable but I’d never reach for it and you gotta be replayable if you want 3 stars from me
Koffi Olomide
2/5
A fun listen once
Solange
3/5
Duke Ellington
1/5
This made me feel like my atoms were out of position
Beatles
2/5
I know it’s sacrilege and everything I like stands on the fossilized bones of The Beatles, but I just really can’t stand these guys. And even the remaster sounds like it was mixed to evoke the record being played on Walkman headphones with the volume all the way up but lying on the counter of a bathroom instead of on your ears.
The lyrics of Glass Onion seem to indicate that the Beatles were openly contemptuous of their stardom and fans, and then Wild Pie Honey, Piggies, and Happiness Is A Warm Gun removes all doubt. A reluctant extra star for Rocky Raccoon, I’m So Tired, and Helter Skelter
Eagles
1/5
What a snooze fest
Dead Kennedys
3/5
Radiohead
1/5
truly unbelievable lows after such highs in their career
Carpenters
1/5
did they just not make any good music in 1970 why is this momentous in any way
Waylon Jennings
3/5
cain't so no to any waylon, tbh. this is one of his more listenable albums from start to finish
Parliament
3/5
Give the people what they want when they want and they wants it all the time
Linkin Park
1/5
2000 is about when we got the internet at home and i was finally able to begin discovering and choosing my own music and drifting away from what the alternative rock radio station was playing. violently rejecting linkin park is like one of my first conscious musical choices and i'm committing to the bit. i do not like this.
2/5
Feel like there was a better way to tell the story of mongoloid without the word mongoloid even in 1978. Devo is very much like talking heads where when they do it good it’s great and when they do it too much it’s unlistenable. Thankfully they do it much more infrequently!
Joe Ely
3/5
So very many crimes were committed in the mixing of albums in the 1970s. This is fun though.
Beatles
2/5
absolutely as good as the beatles get in my ears
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Paul Simon
2/5
This my dads music. I can’t stand the instrumentation for large portions of this album, but I do enjoy all of the vocals
Elvis Presley
3/5
way better than the last elvis
Jethro Tull
1/5
Bonus star (up from zero) because I got to make my gf experience this for the first time. This is legitimately one of my least favorite albums (and bands) ever recorded
Garbage
5/5
this album is connected to so many wonderful memories. but nostalgia is a toxic impulse (you can never go back). shirley manson was one of my first celebrity crushes.
ABBA
3/5
fernando valenzuela used to enter baseball games to fernando, 3 stars for that song alone
GZA
2/5
It’s pretty enjoyable for the parts where you can zone out and not hear all the NGE/nation of Islam hate group stuff
Manu Chao
3/5
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
2/5
Fun instrumentation but sorry Damon your voice doesn’t do it for me if it’s not a blur song
Fatboy Slim
2/5
i am 38, this can only be chore music for me now
Iron Maiden
3/5
a pretty good album, but vastly overrated on the strength of two songs. i've never been a huge maiden fan, they are fischer price baby's first metal to me. some of the best song writers ever in the genre, i just don't like their sound.
Funkadelic
3/5
pretty much has everything you expect from a p funk album, a true album experience from start to finish
Dr. John
1/5
Cajun Tom waits is a no for me
Amy Winehouse
2/5
This is a tough listen with hindsight. Underproduced too. Just feels too light since we know what can be with Black
Paul McCartney and Wings
2/5
On the Wikipedia entry for Wings one of their ever rotating guitarists claims Wings sounds like a band and not a solo McCartney project and that is only true on the songs that sound like Beatles songs. Mostly boring!
Green Day
4/5
Somewhat slow start and then 7 straight classics. One of the best albums of the 90s
Wilco
3/5
this is kind of exhausting to listen to now because of the time it represents, but it is a formative experience
Louis Prima
3/5
fun and engaging throughout. perfect blend of musicianship and showmanship to keep it entertaining the entire time. shouts out to all middle schoolers currently going through a weird rat pack/lounge phase you're doing great
The White Stripes
1/5
this is unarguably the worst white stripes album why have the authors of this book done this to us? it's fine. it's got a couple singles that were fine to hear in a 00s alt rock shuffled playlist, but they are scattered throughout a desert of jack white being unproductively weird. a horrendous full-album listening experience.
Dagmar Krause
1/5
u gotta be kidding me
Sigur Rós
3/5
i don't live a lifestyle conducive to sitting around listening to an hour of post rock songs anymore unfortunately, but i fondly recall when i did
Buzzcocks
3/5
more musicianship than you expect from punk of the era, it's really great throughout
Goldfrapp
2/5
Dreadfully boring almost the entire time. We’re getting RNG’d here but this is a lot of “why on earth would you pick this album from this artist” entries recently
Bob Marley & The Wailers
1/5
An entire album of the same rhythm is not fun to listen to
Blondie
2/5
Almost nothing of note besides the singles. A very puzzling entry to the list.
Kid Rock
2/5
some of this is still pretty damn infectious, but it all sort of generally sounds like a lot more like shit than i remembered. just wildly under and/or poorly produced.
The Crusaders
2/5
this was fine. after the opening track, which i enjoyed in substance if not length, i was not exactly expecting an easy listening album having seen it described as jazz. i wish all jazz was like this.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
1/5
this wasn't as bad as i was expecting, but then again the basic ingredients of reggae are like nails on a chalk board to me
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
it's all a little samey, but in the comfortable way that it sounds like a complete album to listen to rather than "the songs all sound the same" if that makes sense. the music is exactly as shoegazey as i want my rock before it goes overboard and i just want it to be post rock instrumentals. it perfectly blends a lot of different ideas and ends up unique. it's very good.
Neil Young
2/5
It’s weird how we got the weird jam band album first and then we got this one and this one is bad because it also sounds like a jam band (and because Neil Young is singing). Some nice instrumentation though
Jack White
2/5
this sounds like white stripes b sides, which perhaps provides some clarity for why this list includes the lesser white stripes albums. i think that jack white is supremely talented, but it feels like he got famous for being a weird lil guy at a time when we didn't have enough weird lil guys and i can't help but wonder if he's chained to his schtick or if this is just really what he's after when he records for himself.
Pere Ubu
2/5
Some of this was VERY fun, but dissonance and noise rock has always been widely available to me and so i don't think it has the same uniqueness it probably did when people discovered it in its time.
Eminem
2/5
the phrase "heavy lifting" doesn't come nearly close enough to describe what the eminem singles do for the rest of his backlog
Pink Floyd
3/5
Beastie Boys
2/5
Sufficiently different from the other beastie boys albums on the list to be interesting, but idk that it holds a candle to either of them
John Martyn
1/5
i hated all of my time with this album.
The Young Rascals
1/5
I keep wondering if the 60s had anything interesting to offer and 60s bands keep saying “nope”
OutKast
3/5
B.O.B is undefeated, and the rest of it is good too
Fugazi
3/5
Fundamental guitar work for a lot of what else came in the 90s. Enjoyable throughout
The Cure
2/5
I can’t think of a way to describe this album besides “mostly interludes.” It felt like I was constantly waiting for an actual song to start and it only did a couple times.
Fats Domino
3/5
I enjoyed this a lot. I can imagine putting this on the record player while you're having friends over and it being the perfect compliment to a nice little party.
Aerosmith
3/5
It requires setting aside some notions about Aerosmith and Steven Tyler from the intervening years, but this is a pretty good classic rock album. It relies on superior guitar work and a unique vocalist without forgetting the rest of the band entirely. It's got grooves and riffs and it feels emblematic of the time.
Holger Czukay
2/5
each song had a good half that went off the rails, but I mostly was fine with this. it came very close to scratching the itch that I normally get from shoegazey post rock instrumental bands these days. proto-post-rock is a funny concept.
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
astoundingly inoffensive for a live album. doesn't go too overboard with jam banding. produced and mixed well. no excessive faffing about between songs.
Beck
1/5
Flatly insane to include this album on this list. It would only meet the criteria if there were more than a thousand Beck albums and then you could be like wow what a step outside of the box for Beck. Honestly beck has certainly earned the right to make this album, but it is not what I want when I go to the “Beck” section of the music store. Get it outta here
R.E.M.
2/5
Yep that’s an rem album
Gillian Welch
4/5
One of my favorite albums. Her voice, the writing, the way it pulls from country tradition yet also subverts quite a lot. Pieces here have a distinct songwriting character, yet still manage to span a breadth of country song types. It’s an album where I think yeah this definitely should be on the list and should be heard by everyone.
Joy Division
3/5
A 3 because it has very high peaks and is the bedrock of a lot of stuff I like, but I don’t particularly enjoy listening to it as a full album
PJ Harvey
4/5
A nearly perfect album. One of the first tapes I bought for myself, a formative “choosing my own music” moment. 50 ft queen is a banger
Aretha Franklin
3/5
This is maybe not the thing I’m supposed to take away from an Aretha album but I really liked the harmonies
Brian Eno
2/5
there were some moments, but i don't think i'd like to hear the vast majority of this again. i'm just not sure how you could pick this as what you need to hear from brian eno given his entire repertoire
Miles Davis
2/5
giving this two stars because it made me feel like my atoms were out of place, but not as far out of place as i expected it too, and i found myself bopping along a couple times.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
there was so much weird stuff (respectfully) in here. not something i probably would have come across outside of this exercise
The Jam
2/5
i feel like i almost liked this multiple times
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
i think i judge single instrument noodley virtuosos on a 2 axis matrix. they're all really good at their thing by definition, so from there it's:
are they cool, and are they just technically skilled and making masturbatory music or is there artistry involved
so for instance: yngwie malmsteen... one of the least cool people you've ever seen in your life (and also a dickhead), and he's just up there noodling for noodling's sake to prove that he can. your enjoyment and even your presence is irrelevant to him.
jimi hendrix, one of the coolest people you've ever seen in your life, and he's pouring himself into it.
0 stars for yngwie malmsteen on principle if he ever pops up on this list, 3 stars for this particular jimi album
Girls Against Boys
3/5
Tim Buckley
1/5
Horrendous. Sounds like it was recorded in an aluminum trash can.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
Mario music
Adele
2/5
It's... fine. Idk, I just like 25 better.
Beach House
2/5
these are all the same song, and it's a good song, but i dunno what punch the album is meant to bring to this activity. i guess i recognize how it could be considered important by idk lana del rey and her whole entire thing
Jeff Buckley
2/5
a fun listen that couldn't justify the outsized reputation this album has
T. Rex
3/5
I really liked a lot of this and I really hated a lot of it. There's a tight 4 star album in here somewhere.
Jeff Beck
3/5
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to because it's a guitar noodler and a vocal noodler together. maybe their noodling cancels out and it's just mostly enjoyable music as a result?
Guided By Voices
2/5
This was mostly fun and interesting but I find it surprising that by 1995 it was still interesting enough to get on this list.
Cocteau Twins
1/5
Diablo II town music ass album
Jimi Hendrix
2/5
The best Jimi Hendrix songs are actually Stevie Ray Vaughan songs
Rush
1/5
Prog rock is anything but prog
The Beach Boys
1/5
People were STARVING for music in the 60s
Kanye West
2/5
It’s the highlight of a weird ass career
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
I have never heard this but I’ve heard plenty of later LK and I can only describe this as a caricature of what his sound would become. It’s not good but it’s charming. I’m bewildered. I think I like it.
Ray Charles
2/5
not at all what I expected from the title, even knowing it was RC
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
a nearly perfect album
The Who
2/5
Do you know how whiny an album has to be to get an elder emo like me to go “what a sad sack bored this album was”
Couple bright spots tho
Run-D.M.C.
2/5
It strikes me that to this day every time white people try to do an ill-advised rap song about like how to check out books from a library or why Jesus is cool to try and relate to kids they are still entirely influenced by Run. I can’t wait for the day that a municipal water conservation effort tries to bring awareness to itself via rap but instead it’s like dirty south hip hop as an influence instead
Solomon Burke
3/5
this was really fun! the country twist to some of the songs is such a good layer for otherwise great soul music
Ian Dury
3/5
This is the kinda album I expect to be hidden on this list. There is so much genuinely interesting music here and some very funny and interesting lyrics and also so much of it is entirely off putting in a compelling way. What the hell
Suicide
1/5
very few times have i encountered an album that is mostly good, but the part that is bad is so bad that it ruins the entire thing
Pavement
2/5
this is one of those albums that i know a lot of my friends consider precious and i get why they do, but it's still pretty bad
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
this is probably a 4 star album but billy corgan is enough of a shit for it to be dragged down to a 3
Pretenders
1/5
On the strength of one single
The Verve
2/5
This was dreadfully boring! I knew one song, extra star
Talking Heads
2/5
There are good talking heads songs but there are no good talking heads albums. This one wasn’t quite as annoying as the others we’ve had and it has one of the ones everyone knows
Stereo MC's
2/5
Oh that’s the band behind that one song that I didn’t know was called connected, neat. There were a couple other fun moments on here at least
Steve Winwood
3/5
not at all what i expected from steve winwood based on what i know about steve winwood, pleasantly surprised
Goldie
2/5
i can't tell why this is distinguishable from other D&B besides it being first or early or something?
Cyndi Lauper
2/5
sonically annoying in all but the hits
Tracy Chapman
2/5
entirely distracted by a song with the word "talkin'" in the title and the word "talking" being sung
The Who
1/5
Genuinely don’t know how we made it through the 60s to start making actual good music
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
the least offensive neil young so far
Tom Waits
1/5
The Monkees
1/5
i fully understand why people were anti rock n roll during this period
Steve Earle
2/5
Talking Heads
2/5
better than all the others before it
Lupe Fiasco
3/5
The Boo Radleys
2/5
This felt fairly nondescript but had a few interesting moments
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I had fun the whole time
Basement Jaxx
1/5
Sounds like the music they played at visible changes alongside videos of fashion shows in the 90s
Dexys Midnight Runners
1/5
This was never fun
Cornershop
3/5
Brimful of Asha is one of my favorite 90s one hit wonders and the rest of this was actually really nice
Miles Davis
1/5
Makes my atoms feel like they’re in the wrong place
Os Mutantes
2/5
Never reaching for this on my own but it had some yams
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
1/5
Tears For Fears
1/5
Don’t think I’ve really ever heard anything but the chorus of the obvious songs. I hated it throughout!
2/5
Fun
Randy Newman
1/5
whatever cleverness is there in both his lyrics and his songwriting is entirely overwritten by the sardonic moping
Serge Gainsbourg
1/5
What
Steely Dan
2/5
The classic steely Dan vocal harmonies are usually a non starter for me but it was actually a lot of the instrumentation that bothered me here
The Black Crowes
3/5
really excellent guitar work regularly ruined by the vocals, but a listenable album nonetheless
Jane's Addiction
3/5
they were always peripherally available and interesting, but i never got into them. there's some very fun things here, but i think all of it was better done on their second album and in their other bands
Massive Attack
2/5
Nothing really stood out to me here, in that it played like 1 1/2 times before I noticed. I didn't mind any of it, but it's not my regular fare.
N.W.A.
3/5
The beeeeeaaaaaaaattts. The beats. Amazing album. It’s really mean though.
Metallica
5/5
An all timer. A really masterful turn by a band trying new and interesting things, and managing to keep their familiarity at the same time (something they would more (St. Anger) or less (Load and Reload) fail at for their next 3 albums.
Opened the flood gates for a wider audience to get into heavy music without the gatekeeping or high barrier to entry of most metal. Launched the superstardom of one of the best touring acts in history. Full of hits. Culturally relevant.
Also provides (via the making-of documentary) the first glimpses into what a bunch of turds those guys can be.
Venom
2/5
There's a couple standouts here, but this album is kind of a prototype for the stuff that would end up being formative for me
The Stone Roses
3/5
I enjoyed most of this. It felt somewhere in between the classic rock Zach braff would put on a soundtrack and the indie rock Zach braff would put on a soundtrack.
Van Morrison
2/5
Live albums are rarely good, and this is not an exception though for different reasons than usual! this actually sounds really good for a live album from a production and recording standpoint, and then it’s just a terrible performance. Why is he like that live? Why were the horns so bad? Why was he yelling instead of singing? If I’d gone to that concert it would be to hear him singing! Reluctant extra star because it really is an impressive live recording
fIREHOSE
2/5
This was compelling and weird and thoroughly ruined every time the guy started talking
Neil Young
2/5
The bangers elevate this above all the Neil young before it but I have to believe this album is on the list based on their strength alone. The rest of this is entirely forgettable
Happy Mondays
2/5
happy mondays on bummed bravely asks the question "what if a mancunian smoker did a bob dylan impression while he was already doing a david byrne impression" and the answer is "it would be annoying most of the time"
The Smiths
3/5
I don’t have much exposure here and I’m torn between being predisposed by the reputation of the music and the reputation of morrissey, but I enjoyed it
William Orbit
3/5
I didn’t know what this was and I still don’t know what it is but I liked it
Frank Sinatra
3/5
That’s the good stuff when it comes to Frank. Much more engaging than the previous one we got
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
The lack of an E street band made this tolerable
Burning Spear
3/5
For a genre that so often loses me because the music and instrumentation is exactly the same for an entire album, this was pleasantly surprising and varied.
Nirvana
4/5
Not as close to no skips as I thought I remembered, but it is a masterpiece.
Björk
3/5
Are all Björk albums one long song? This one and the other one we've had felt that way, but it isn't a bad thing. It was weird and mostly enjoyable which is about what I'm after from Björk
Sebadoh
3/5
Weird but mostly good! I can hear it in the basement with a lot of other inspirations of a lot of the music I really cherish
Quicksilver Messenger Service
1/5
Dreadfully annoying
James Brown
1/5
worst or second worst live album we've had so far, but mercifully short
Leftfield
3/5
This was mostly fun! It's not something I'd ever come across or reach for unprompted, but I enjoyed my time with it
White Denim
2/5
What if a kings of Leon knock off was also a jam band
The Doors
1/5
I really hate this on so many levels! It's the platonic ideal of annoying 60s rock and it's the most annoying because it's so organ driven.
Jim Morrison and the deification of him has always always grated for me. Especially the ones that subscribe to the theories that he was still alive for a time. He very clearly was desperate to die from doing drugs based on this album, of course he is dead.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
I am not with this in principle or in execution
Frank Zappa
2/5
This was mostly inoffensive until it wasn’t. I’ll never be high enough for Frank Zappa I don’t think
Jane's Addiction
3/5
The hits are pretty darn good, a lot of the rest of it is weird (respectful) but not earth shattering
Leonard Cohen
2/5
this was exactly as weird as you'd ever want it to be! he's a genius of the weird lil guy genre! there's not really any issue i can take with anything here except that if I'd not been in the right space for it i would have not liked how weird it is instead of loving how weird it is
Chicago
2/5
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It gets too noodley fairly often, but it never really got bad enough for me to even notice it, which is about what I expect from chicago
The Stooges
3/5
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
The Lemonheads
1/5
This feels like a subgenre of 90s alt rock that I can't stand. Acoustic guitar-led sort of cloudy vocals. Toad the wet sprocket. Lemonheads. All them things. They all had a hit, and those are fine, but an entire album of them is distasteful.
Stevie Wonder
2/5
There is so much amazing stuff on this album, but the stuff that is bad is so, so, so incredibly bad.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
1/5
worse than the other 2, glad we're done with this
Coldplay
2/5
this was WAY more boring than I remembered it being, and way more boring than its reputation suggests it should be. what a dreadful era of music
Mike Ladd
2/5
sometimes fun, mostly weird
The Undertones
3/5
a little much as an album, but very good vibes. had no idea about this going into it, came out enjoying it
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2/5
So many otherwise good songs ruined by Tom petty singing he was so annoying on his early work lol
Afrika Bambaataa
1/5
It’s kinda all the same
Sepultura
3/5
Foundational, a little much as an album, some extremely important standout tracks
Ananda Shankar
3/5
doors organ driven light my fire: one of the most annoying songs on earth
ananda shankar sitar and moog light my fire: amazing. perfect. beautiful.
David Bowie
2/5
Bowie kinda lost his fastball after Ziggy for me, and this one goes back and forth between being very interesting and the garden variety Weird Bowie that makes up most of his backlog
k.d. lang
3/5
One of the best voices in western music history
The Temptations
1/5
This was sooooooo boooooorrrrriiiinnnnggggg but an impressive number of times to write the same song
The Police
1/5
this was infinitely better than the other police album and still incredibly annoying for most of its run time.
Green Day
2/5
The singles are unfairly maligned, but the whole thing was always more “musical” and less “concept album” and that is grating to me
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
This was pretty snoozy (respectfully) mostly
The 13th Floor Elevators
1/5
I’m told this is the first true psychedelic rock so I guess at least I know who to hold responsible for the rest of it
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
So much better than I expected it to be. It doesn’t all sound like That One CCR Song like so much of the other album we’ve had did. And nothing boined or toined.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
I was over this before it even got to Layla. It's fine for the most part. I can see why it would have been amazing in its time thanks to this exercise.
The Cult
1/5
This sounded like royalty free 80s rock and then it went to absolute hell with a born to be wild cover kill me before subjecting me to that again please
Norah Jones
2/5
Therapy waiting room music, but some of it is nice
The Incredible String Band
2/5
I can hear Colin Meloy telling me how important this album is but that doesn’t make me enjoy it necessarily
Living Colour
1/5
There’s nothing here but the single, a baffling choice for the list
Cheap Trick
3/5
Live albums are rarely good but this IS an exception! It well recorded well produced and well performed. The crowd gives it a lot without taking away from it.
Peter Gabriel
2/5
Liked every song but every song was too long. They all overstayed their welcome.
Blur
1/5
I appreciate how timely this is, given the Oasis reunion news. There is one good song on this album and a bunch of unbelievably annoying ones. It is absolutely insane that they were ever placed in a "rivalry" with the Gallagher brothers, who are absolute knobs and wildly overrated in their own right, but Blur never came close.
Aimee Mann
1/5
Hated the entirety of this
The Offspring
4/5
This was no skips for me as a kid. Still almost entirely good
Led Zeppelin
2/5
The hits are the hits but otherwise pretty snoozy
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
None of this was interesting enough for me to notice it while doing other things
Tom Waits
1/5
I know that this IS a Tom waits album but so much of it sounds like a caricature of Tom waits. It’s Tom waits at his most Tom waitsy (this is not a good thing to be)
The Velvet Underground
2/5
It's not my bag, but I get why people love it so much. Some standout moments.
LL Cool J
2/5
Wasn't overly familiar with it in the first place and now it kind of feels like a novelty
Cowboy Junkies
3/5
This was almost entirely amazing, but that is the worst version of i'm so lonesome i could cry i've ever heard. it was so grating for reasons i can't pin down. star deducted for that alone.
David Bowie
1/5
Bowie can and did do whatever he wants, but this was upsetting at release and is more so now for different reasons
Lucinda Williams
3/5
I loved so much of this. She has such an interesting voice and the instrumentation was varied and surprising at times. Title track and Joy are two of the most annoying songs we’ve encountered
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
That was.... a lot. If you played almost any of these songs I'd be like "that's pretty good" but I don't know that I'd have a huge appetite for more. As an album, it's a lot of kind of the same thing.
Is he recording all of his vocals through a megaphone, or does his voice just sound like that?
Extra star because you can tell they said "this is a little light can you put down a couple more tracks" and the result was a song about cold drinks and a song about basketball
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
This was chill as hell
The White Stripes
4/5
yeah that's the good stuff. this is what made the white stripes the white stripes and they never fully recaptured it across a full album in followup efforts. almost all of this is really good and no frills in an authentic way instead of feeling like it was a gimmick (a lot of the rest of their catalogue and jack white's solo career)
Heaven 17
3/5
fun, dancey, anti reagan, what can you complain about
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
Probably my favorite album from an artist and genre i never would have discovered or listened to on my own. I liked the whole thing. Her voice is remarkable. One star deducted for the song with the child.
Little Richard
2/5
there were exactly 3 different rock and roll songs in 1957 and all anyone did was put different words to them, so i dunno how you could possibly need a 12 track record. nothing is particularly objectionable here on it's own, but it is not a good listening experience as an album.
Tortoise
2/5
The problem with this and so much post rock is that it’s an entire album that sounds like an intro for a song that never starts
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
a lot of the content here is really good, but richie edwards voice has always been a non starter for me
Leonard Cohen
3/5
A triumph for weird lil guys everywhere. I feel like this is as good as everyone says Dylan is.
Sister Sledge
3/5
every song is a bit too long for listening at home as an album, but no skips
Stevie Wonder
2/5
there's nothing particularly bothersome here, but not very much of it was exciting either
The Modern Lovers
1/5
Like if one of the replacement ramones who was super into the doors and velvet underground tried to make the most annoying album they could
Bill Evans Trio
1/5
live albums are rarely good and this was undeniably the worst one we've had. as far as jazz goes, this wasn't as bad as i was expecting, but the whole experience was not good. learning that recording a live album at the village vanguard with light dinner conversation in the background of all your songs is a rite of passage for jazz artists was upsetting.
Massive Attack
2/5
it was fine
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
chill as hell
Elvis Presley
2/5
some of the least elvisy elvis ever, surprisingly varied for a 50s rock and roll album.
The Who
2/5
it's fine, i guess. the hits are the hits, the rest of it is so dreadfully boring compared to every musical genre that came after it
Flamin' Groovies
3/5
a sometimes good sometimes terrible rolling stones impression (shocking to learn Mick Jagger apparently thought this album was a better Sticky Fingers). doesn't feel cohesive as an album, but still mostly good
John Lee Hooker
2/5
this was mostly pretty boring
Metallica
5/5
5 star no skips. the foundation for the vast majority of riff-led metal being made to this day. on a less positive note it is also, along with ride the lightning, the source of even more lead guitarists covering up how much they suck with a wah wah pedal.
Ryan Adams
2/5
i've heard to be young before and i gotta say i thought it was from the 70s. it's pretty good. the rest of it sounds like it's from 2000 but is trying to be from the 70s and was pretty bad.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
1/5
i read that someone described oliver's army as "a single radio couldn't refuse" and i am guessing that is purely because of the political content because every song on this album sounded the same and it was all a snooze fest.
Dwight Yoakam
4/5
Dwight Yoakam is the sweet spot of all country for me and this is his most complete album. He’s not Nashville he’s not Bakersfield he’s not honky tonk he’s not rock, but he’s each of those things and more when he feels like it without ever seeming hewn to the rules or expectations of any of them, and without ever seeming like he’s cramming them together without thought.
The title track is perhaps the all time masterpiece of the Killin’ Folk What Done Ya Wrong genre of songwriting. He’s a master of sad sack country songwriting. The Pete Anderson guitar work is often imitated and rarely matched by other artists.
1 star deducted for the hymnal.
The Smashing Pumpkins
2/5
if you stuck to the hits and a handful of the other songs on here you'd have one of the tightest no skip albums of the 90s instead of a double album full of some of the most forgettable music of the decade
Baaba Maal
2/5
this was mostly enjoyable, but not my bag
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
1/5
i would imagine that my politics align fairly closely with Michael Franti's, but so much of this album just made me laugh because it's so dated??
Like setting aside that I don't even know if it ever gets away from spoken word and into hip hop very often, there is a lot of very (by today's standards) softy lefty ideas here, couched weirdly on the title track within the boomers' near-satanic panic about their grandkids watching too much tv and i don't know how i'm supposed to take it seriously. I know that the line "well, the only soda I that support would be a union C.O.L.A. cost of living allowance" probably hit some people like a ton of bricks in 1992, but it did not land for me in 2024, and around the time he made the "military intelligence is an oxymoron" joke i really lost the will to continue.
the instrumentation and sampling was great, though
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
This is in the running for biggest delta between its reputation and how much it sucked
Brian Eno
3/5
this was neat, idk really how to explain it any better than that
Justice
4/5
fun all the way through
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
yeah sure. i don't reach for this genre often, but i can tell this is standout
Willie Nelson
5/5
formative album for me, engendered a love for concept albums in me that essentially no one else has ever satisfied.
AC/DC
2/5
AC/DC makes music for venues to play between bands
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
High highs and low lows
Jimmy Smith
3/5
my tastes made me wary of this album but I liked it a lot. It avoids all the jazz stuff I don’t like and focuses on the stuff I do
The Smiths
1/5
I do not get the smiths and I am at peace with that
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
maybe the most unnecessary double album i've ever encountered? not much deviation from the standard nick cave experience
Dennis Wilson
2/5
haunting, interesting, mostly fun
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
I vibed with this one way more than I did the first one.
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
Instrumentation 5 stars vocals 1
Suzanne Vega
2/5
Vocals 5 stars instrumentation 1
Violent Femmes
2/5
one trick pony but the one trick is pretty darn good
Bill Callahan
3/5
In the right time of life and/or mental headspace this fucking slaps
5/5
All timer, no skips, perfect combination of her unbeatable vocals with a buncha guys singing backup like they know what they did wrong
Motörhead
2/5
Live albums are rarely good and this one is not an exception, but it's not the worst one we've had so far. In my late thirties I'm thinking "Motorhead opening with Ace of Spaces is wild, why is anyone hanging around past Overkill." One time in my 20s the answer was "Cause Judas Priest is on next" and that concert was maybe the drunkest I've ever gotten. There's much better ways to listen to this band than a live album
Depeche Mode
1/5
the vocals of depeche mode have always been a non starter for me, so the almost entirely acapella sexy breathing song really ruined my night. i also did not care for the songs that sounded like they were from a castlevania soundtrack
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Probably my favorite hip hop album of all time. Takes a sledgehammer to the walls of what music can be behind rap. In the hall of fame of rap’s double entendre venereal jokes, “like a Chevy in quicksand” before that beat shorts out and comes to life is inner circle
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
Hell yeah this is what I was hoping for more of from this list. In a genre that seems to mostly be on rails this album bends them in a very pleasing way. Bossa nova is mostly fine but this was really nice to listen to and stood out in a way very little bossa nova ever has to me
The Rolling Stones
2/5
That sure was one of The Rolling Stones albums of all time
The Velvet Underground
1/5
I can easily imagine in 1968 that there was so little going on that someone could hear this and it could be so experimental and different and interesting that they’d be like wow this is so experimental and different and find it very entertaining, but i am listening to it in 2024 and it isnt interesting it’s annoying
John Lennon
1/5
Was worried I might have to grudgingly admit this slapped until jealous guy started.
I am willing to admit that my view of Lennon is colored by current events and because I just finished For All Mankind where they retcon his assassination to fail and I spent a good couple minutes imagining how insufferable he would have continued being. But I am not willing to admit that much of this album was any good
Soft Cell
1/5
One of the more annoying kinds of albums you come across on this list is “someone with an interesting voice who chooses to use it to make annoying noises instead of singing good.” This is only here for tainted love.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
I regret to inform the rolling stones that we do not all need someone we can cream on. It boggles my mind that anyone ever let ugly british guys get away with this kind of cosplay. Extra star for gimme shelter which would be ten thousand times better if Merry Clayton sang the entire song instead of just backing vocals
Missy Elliott
3/5
Harry Nilsson
1/5
I don't think I've ever heard any Harry Nilsson besides the obvious one before and I imagine if I listened to this record again in 6 months i would say the same thing
Muddy Waters
3/5
The album is probably not the format in which to listen to the blues, but there's a lot of really good stuff here
Radiohead
2/5
That sure is one of the Radiohead albums! I don’t mind anything here but none of it stands out either.
XTC
4/5
Went into this completely blind, never heard of it and it was genuinely lovely almost the entire time.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
This was mostly good but there were a few moments where the vocals were mixed so prominently it sounded like someone was in the room singing karaoke to you
Van Halen
1/5
pairing guitar virtuosos with a Front Man™ instead of a journeyman always ends in disaster. I cannot stand Roth's vocals or antics. there's some good stuff here but it's all of a time and the dated sounds don't really hit for me
Antony and the Johnsons
1/5
i don't think i get it
CHIC
3/5
immaculate vibes
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Hard to argue with anything here, it's always been a vibe
Neil Young
2/5
fuck. listen, it's fine, OR WHATEVER, but give it a rest there's no possible justification for including this many albums that all sound like this from this one dude. it has added nothing notable to my pre-death experience
The Teardrop Explodes
1/5
This sounds like junior varsity police and I hated every dreadful second of it
Spiritualized
3/5
This felt spiritually shoe gazey if not musically in a way that was compelling
The Doors
1/5
The only redeeming quality of this album is its brevity.
Thelonious Monk
2/5
Surprisingly I enjoyed 3 of these tracks. The xylophone solo was a deal breaker and the opening track’s timing fuckery made me feel like my atoms were in the wrong spot
Neil Young
3/5
This was good but that doesn't justify how much gd neil young is on this list
Carole King
3/5
No complaints here, score one for mom's music
Pantera
2/5
There's some really good and influential stuff on here. One of my first mentors in my professional life was a grizzled former session musician who was very good friends with everyone in Pantera and often told the story about how in 1999 when the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup there was an absolutely nutso party at Vinnie Paul's house and Guy Carboneau tried to toss the Cup into the pool and missed and that's where the visible dent during the parade came from. The Cup was then allegedly wrapped in a bungie cord anchored on either side of the pool and ridden by women like it was a mechanical bull.
They're all such complete dickbags that it's kinda gross to listen to though.
Hole
4/5
The timeline of an album called Live Through This with the deaths that preceded and followed its release is crazy. I don't think I would have succeeded. Almost a no skip album
N.E.R.D
1/5
This had aggressively mediocre side project energy.
Elton John
3/5
There are very few weak tracks here, but there are so many in total that it's a lot as an album listening experience.
Big Star
2/5
Platonic ideal classic rock type stuff. There's nothing to write home about in complaint or compliment.
Dire Straits
3/5
The call and response of vocals to guitar on dire straits makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside
Minor Threat
3/5
joyfully noisy without being repetitive like a lot of their peers
Justin Timberlake
1/5
This has aged maybe the most poorly of anything we’ve had so far
Kate Bush
2/5
I gave it my best shot, but no thank you
Orbital
2/5
when i was a child my mom took us to this place called visible changes in the mall to get our hair cut and they always had music like this playing
Kanye West
3/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
Very many pleasant memories of this album from my childhood except for I've Had Enough. I've Had Enough inspires Bridge Over Troubled Waters levels of fury inside me. I cannot stand that song.
Hugh Masekela
2/5
this was mostly unintrusive. one of the songs sounded like the mario 2 theme for a minute that was nice
Beatles
1/5
The motherfucking Beatles opening an album where they describe taxes with the understanding of a 12 year old who had nothing to read but ayn rand on a transatlantic flight did not do much to dissuade me of my stance that the Beatles suck shit, and neither did the rest of the album
Michael Jackson
2/5
The hits are the hits, but the rest are definitely not hits
David Gray
1/5
this album feels like a beige doctors waiting room
Marvin Gaye
2/5
i did not enjoy the vast majority of this, but i did find it funny after learning the back story of it
Milton Nascimento
3/5
very yes
Sex Pistols
4/5
All timer for a reason
The Last Shadow Puppets
1/5
Nasty business to trick everyone into listening to a junior varsity arctic monkeys album
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
1/5
There is a Neil Young amount of unnecessary Elvis Costello on this list, and this is yet another one that doesn't even have Alison on it. What a snoozefest.
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
No thank you Neil
The United States Of America
1/5
This was almost impressively miserable!
Digital Underground
3/5
Extra star and relisten just for Underwater Rimes
The Verve
3/5
I feel like this got completely blown out of the water by its contemporaries, but it's a perfectly fine brit pop album
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
it's noisy and loud and brash and loud. i love it, your honor.
Paul McCartney
1/5
I liked a couple more songs than I expected to but I really did not like the other ones. This man’s career is unfathomable.
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
i'm still very confused as to how this made it on to this list. are there other soundtracks? i am surely missing something culturally here, but parts of it were fun.
The Kinks
2/5
Sure why not
Aerosmith
2/5
this is really boring but i can see it really blowing some minds in 1975
Hookworms
3/5
had no previous knowledge of this, liked it enough to listen to more hookworms
2Pac
3/5
Some of the shine has gone from this the farther we get from the events surrounding it, but it inspired a satanic panic in white suburban moms that was funny to witness as a kid
Super Furry Animals
2/5
This was musically interesting, but we're not far enough removed from the last Elvis Costello album for me to really enjoy a guy that sounds like Elvis Costello.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I don't think i liked this exactly, but it was compelling
The Charlatans
2/5
I was ready to apologize for accusing the Charlatans of being junior varsity Oasis based solely on the album cover but then they turned in the most junior varsity Oasis album they possibly could have. It was fine throughout.
Billie Holiday
2/5
I am not one for an entire album of Billie Holiday at a time, but there are some standout tracks that I like in more varied playlists
Marty Robbins
3/5
There's like 3 song templates on this album and then there's like 3 or 4 versions of each template, but thankfully they are pretty good
Van Morrison
1/5
multiple 7+ minute van morrison songs is the worst thing this list has produced since it was multiple 7+ minute live van morrison songs
Dion
2/5
There is far too much of this but I like Dion's musical journey
Miles Davis
2/5
i did not skip any of these tracks and that is about as high as the praise gets from me on jazz
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
a nicely varied experience compared to the usual Nick Cave but it was heavy and difficult to listen to for most of it
a-ha
4/5
almost everything here absolutely slaps, why was a-ha a one hit wonder in america
wish i was in the universe where the faces got huge and lived forever and the stones were the also ran
SAULT
3/5
the spoken word interludes really slam the brakes on this as a start to finish album listening experience but the rest of it is so good
Fishbone
1/5
i'm finding it difficult to explain how much i hate this. this album isn't an important step on the way to anything, it was a distraction in the wrong direction. we kept making good music despite everything fishbone has ever done. every single track on here made me so mad it was amusing, and that was the only reason i made it through it
George Harrison
3/5
wah wah is such a nostalgic dad song for me, extra star on that alone. there's a lot here that does not sound like george misses making beatles records (though there is some that extremely does sound like that), and that is also a point in his favor.
Incubus
1/5
this was not as bad as the esteem in which i held it from memory, but i really cannot stand the vocal stylings of incubus
The Jam
2/5
This had stretches where the sound was grating and the police-like but it also had some great tracks that I will extract to playlists for more listening
DJ Shadow
3/5
excellent throughout, not what I was expecting, enjoyable and sent me looking for more
Pulp
2/5
The music never got particularly interesting for me and it felt like every song is about the same thing. Common people tho
Don McLean
2/5
junior varsity Dylan
KISS
1/5
This is the most boring rock album I’ve ever heard and here on album 445 the new worst thing we’ve had. the 70s must have been so boring
CHIC
3/5
Delightful
Robert Wyatt
2/5
this is kinda like the nick cave post son's death trilogy album in that you can easily see it was a working through stuff project for him, but it definitely has a feeling of not being for anyone else as a result
Queen
3/5
my favorite Queen song ('39) but not my favorite album. There's so much really good stuff here and I appreciate the easily noticeable differences in songs that were crafted by different members
Santana
3/5
expected a little bit more guitar wankery from a virtuoso guitarist led band, but it was pretty tame
Animal Collective
2/5
This was like just on the wrong side of the line between an album with A Sound™ and an album where everything sounds like the same song, but it is a pretty good song
Air
2/5
i liked a lot of this very much but the stuff i did not like i very much did not like
Deep Purple
4/5
yeeeaaahh yeeeaahhh yeeeaaahhh space truckin! this is head and shoulders above the rest the finest rock and roll work of the 70s
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
1/5
I think I had fun a couple times but mostly this seemed intentionally annoying
Slint
2/5
the exact kind of crunchy weirdo music i like, ruined by spoken word weirdo stuff i don't like
Nine Inch Nails
3/5
i am of the age for this to have been a real eye opener and it stands the test of time really well
ABBA
2/5
easily the most unpleasant abba full album experience, but there are a couple standout moments to help you survive the ordeal
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
a surprisingly enjoyable live album experience, as far as live albums go.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
3/5
This is compelling and often good, but there's an element of kitsch to it that i can't quite nail down that might just be because it's an extremely old and somewhat underground staple all-timer that people speak about in hushed tones lest too many people find out about jack elliott
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
1/5
everything on here besides relax sounds like relax outtakes this might be the new most "this is only on the list for the single" album we've had. yawn.
Barry Adamson
2/5
high highs and low lows but i get how this would really hit for some people. as a full album experience it was a drag
Coldplay
3/5
this was so overexposed in the early aughts that it sounds like stale chips taste now. we really were starving for good pop back then. the hits are the hits and the stuff in between is hmmmmm more resilient than i expected it to be. making a willful effort to ignore how insincere everything about chris martin always seemed (to musical fucking brats who came of age in the early aughts), this is good.
Weather Report
2/5
background music for 70s corporate training videos (respectful)
The Byrds
2/5
Does a song like Hey Hoe become a rock standard through so many people playing it that you inevitably get shit versions of it or do the shit versions come because it is a rock standard? Real Byrds and the egg situation here. This was fine until it wasn’t. It’s just the most boring era of rock and roll imaginable.
Silver Jews
5/5
Everything Berman ever did is amazing. I don’t know if it’s exactly a good time listening to it but it’s also all elevated when you learn the backstory of everything surrounding it. He and his work are mythological for a reason. But I am convinced it contains magical incantations and if I listen to it too much I will also kill myself.
Metallica
3/5
This is fun if not overly cheesy. They really hammed up the metal slobs invading the proper arts bit. It would be so much better if they had let me make the set list because I would not have put seven fucking songs from load and reload on it. More of Cliff Burton’s classical music-inspired writing would have fit better than the heavily blues inspired sludge groove stuff, but they had records to sell
Sonic Youth
2/5
At times Noisy (respectful) but also at others Noisy (derogatory)
Taylor Swift
4/5
this is a weird one to listen to. i kinda blacked out for the whole reputation era thing and my conception of the taylor she presents to the world, the taylor the nasty folks pretend she is, and the taylor she actually is is extremely distorted. i would like to be able to listen to it without worrying about any of that, but that's just not how experiencing taylor works in the current cultural environment. then there was the whole covid thing. some of this feels edgy in a way that's refreshing within the entire taylor catalog and some of it is edgy in a way that feels performative, but i don't LIKE that it feels that way. mega fame is stupid and has never improved anything and i don't like that i can't escape letting it detract from taylor sometimes. this is a good album and she is a generational songwriter.
SZA
4/5
this is a really good album except for the part where forrest gump is described as "never without pussy" that just isn't accurate, SZA
R.E.M.
1/5
this album is just as disappointing now as it was when i first heard Orange Crush and asked my dad to let me listen to the entire album. it might be the most boring R.E.M. album
Eminem
1/5
eminem is like the yngwie malmsteen of rap. yes you're very good at the technical skill of rapping, preternaturally good, even. this shit still sucks though
Jamiroquai
2/5
the bulk of the jamiroquai catalogue is pretty middle of the road (respectful) and when something stands out it really stands out, but this isn't their strongest work. not much of it stands out above the rest.
Jazmine Sullivan
2/5
great concept for a mostly good concept album
Can
3/5
there’s a good cohesion here to the weird noise being made and so I enjoy it instead of not enjoying it, but it came close to the line a couple times
Brian Wilson
1/5
This album is how I found out that the Brian Wilson scenes in walk hard were almost not parody what the fuck man
Grant Lee Buffalo
1/5
I guess one of the minor fun things about this exercise is when you hear an album and go “why is this guy doing a weird shitty David Bowie impression with his voice the whole time” and then you go read about the artist and he says that’s his main uhhhhh “influence” yeah that tracks Grant
David Bowie
4/5
everything between ziggy and this is a desert for me on bowie, but this is so dang good from start to finish. there's a bit too much instrumental noodling in a couple places, but it's still at least interesting most of the time
New York Dolls
5/5
yeah this is fucking awesome. how on earth did this come out in 1973 and why did it take so long for us to get more stuff like it. the lead in the air really fucked everything up didn't it? i listened to it like 5x before i turned it off
Madonna
1/5
the mountains of effort poured into this album to give it a different sound ended up making it the most year 2000 sounding ass album imaginable. it's so obviously an elder stateswoman of pop trying to prove she's still got it and just copy pasting whatever christina and britney were up to. holy shit this is so bland. this is a mayonnaise sandwich on wonder bread.
[tapping my ear]
we're just hearing reports that it ends with an indefensibly weird rendition of american pie this is soooooooo bad
Faust
2/5
Weird and atmospheric and unsettling but not in a wholly bad way
Merle Haggard
3/5
Really falls off towards the end but some solid genre staple stuff for most of it
Method Man
2/5
The Black Keys
1/5
i would rather listen to 5 kings of leon albums than one black keys album this is so dreadfully 2010 and i have very little respect for the vocal distortion sound they're so in love with. it is not 1950. you are not more authentic because you've made yourself sound like you're on a record being played on the radio in 1950.
Tim Buckley
1/5
Killing Joke
3/5
doomy and gloomy and sludgy and british as hell
Nick Drake
3/5
this is almost a no skip album and perhaps takes a slight hit for being the proto sound of zach braff's inner monologue
Beatles
1/5
card carrying beatles hater but come on even beatles fans have to be like "nowhere man is the only thing worth hearing from this album"
Yes
1/5
the no album by no
Prince
3/5
this is a lot of prince at once but it's without a doubt the best double album we've had in this exercise so far
Mercury Rev
3/5
east coast flaming lips
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
no skips, i will not be elaborating
Mekons
2/5
While i was listening to this i kept thinking "this sounds like the kind of thing people say is revolutionary for reasons they won't expound on" and then the first thing in their about the artist blurb is "Lester Bangs once wrote, "The Mekons are the most revolutionary group in the history of rock 'n' roll," and although he wrote it tongue in cheek, that doesn't mean he was wrong."
I'm not going to pretend I don't enjoy a lot of alt country, but I think this is accidentally alt country. It didn't inspire the rest of the genre that didn't show up anywhere else for another 10 years. It was fine if not grating at times.
Britney Spears
2/5
the hits are the hits, but the filler is some of the emptiest pop music ever recorded
Kanye West
1/5
a troublesome exercise in attempting to separate the art from the artist
The Rolling Stones
2/5
"what a drag it is getting old," sings the man who won't die over one of the most annoying guitar lines of the 60's played by a man who won't die even harder. Most of this is extremely boring but you can at least see how it's the bones for rock and roll to get good some day.
Femi Kuti
2/5
Tim Buckley
1/5
bland, boring, uninspiringn
Ministry
4/5
Dr. Octagon
1/5
what if you used a lot of these great beats and instrumentation and didn't bury it under dumb shock rap
The Human League
2/5
that sure is one of the synth pop albums of all time
The Pharcyde
3/5
this was super fun and new to me.
Nick Drake
2/5
i would describe this as inoffensive
Suede
2/5
really fun guitar work but vocals that grate by the end
Pulp
1/5
every pulp song sounds like an interlude or b side meant to kill time until they do common people
Fiona Apple
3/5
i think i heavily disliked fiona apple because she was interrupting my very rude alternative rock and grunge airwaves in 1996, but this is pretty good throughout
Miriam Makeba
3/5
every song was a treat except for the extra slow warbly one
Public Enemy
3/5
The Beau Brummels
1/5
This sounds like an alpha test of Colin Melody. Glad they eventually worked all the bugs out
Christina Aguilera
2/5
with the benefit of hindsight it is wild to go back to the "the studio is no longer in control of me i am independent and sexy in a grown adult way instead of a lolita way" era of pop music where the studios made all their "aging" female pop stars do an album about how independent and free from control of the studio and sexy they are now. the singles are still good though
The Pogues
2/5
there's some heavy lifting being done by fairytale of course, but when you're in the mood for the pogues this is probably the best album
Frank Ocean
1/5
tiring in the same way dr. octagon was
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
1/5
it's inexplicable for us to still be coming across more neil young albums in this exercise, and this is so aggressively mediocre even within what we've gotten so far that i thought i was going to turn to dust like an avenger in end game
Love
1/5
[through gritted teeth] the 60s rock and roll circus organ doesn't ruin this like it does most 60s rock albums because the rest of it is terrible too.
Songhoy Blues
2/5
this was mostly nice, but it was also mostly the same song over and over again
TV On The Radio
3/5
"Let's dance, but not in a way that makes it seem like you like to dance" music
Malcolm McLaren
1/5
not sure how to explain this album other than it sounds like kids music in everything but lyrical content (and sometimes also in lyrical content)
The Band
1/5
this is such a disjointed listening experience. pick a lane instead of being bad at all of them. the gall to call yourself THE band. you're barely AH band
Queen Latifah
2/5
MGMT
2/5
i know it's probably completely unfounded, but in my head this is the artist and album where we completely abandoned making albums because singles could do all the work with streaming and digital music. at the very least it's confirmed by the rest of this album besides the singles being dogwater
Pavement
3/5
music for blobs who feel like being blobs
Death In Vegas
2/5
this was excellent until it suddenly turned into a 60s rock album replete with 60s rock album organ out of nowhere
Michael Jackson
3/5
secretly the most complete MJ album, the filler is mostly just good
Caetano Veloso
2/5
50 Cent
2/5
The hits are the hits, but not much else here stood out for me
Bert Jansch
2/5
comforting in a curious way
Prince
1/5
the hits are big enough hits that i can kinda see why this is still on the list, but as an album experience this is dreadful. outside of the opener, doves cry, and purple rain every single track on here is the most annoying prince ever was.
Portishead
2/5
weird and spooky, great arrangements, but some vocal work that really rides the line between being weird and being annoying
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
Perfect mix of uninterested vocals, jangly guitars and distorted guitars
Pentangle
1/5
Fail to see what the rush is to hear this before you die
The Mothers Of Invention
1/5
This is for someone and I hope they find it but it sure ain’t me
T. Rex
3/5
This is like a ziggy stardust tribute album. Soggy Bar Dust and the Drivers of Cars or something. I mean it’s mostly good throughout but it bears a striking similarity in sound and affectation to that other 1972 album.
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Fun at times mostly grating
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
dragged a little in the back half, but lots of fun
Kraftwerk
1/5
uhhh i am very grateful for all of the good music kraftwerk inspired? slog
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
This is a good album pretty much all the way through! Freebird even is a good song. It is however the most overrated guitar solo in the history of rock and roll. It’s not interesting or good or even particularly technically impressive it’s just long.
Steely Dan
2/5
Steely Dan is mostly just not going to be for me. I find that 70s harmonics style grating. But maybe more than any other band that is not for me I can easily see why this is the absolute jam of dads and dads at heart all around the world
Drive Like Jehu
2/5
Enjoyable, but also not very readable as multiple songs.
Mudhoney
2/5
Ehhhhhhh I think mudhoney sits in my adolescent mind as noisy and interesting and good because it annoyed older people in my life but now I am older people and it wasn’t as fun as I remembered
Paul Simon
3/5
Score one for moms music, only drags a couple times
Pink Floyd
1/5
I asked my dad how this became one of the biggest bands in the world and he said “we were smoking a lot of weed” the weed was like 90% dirt that doesn’t explain anything. This was dreadful. A bottom ten experience here in the 500s
Goldfrapp
2/5
British bjork
Japan
2/5
Morrissey
1/5
i missed the morrissey boat and i have a lot of trouble squaring his reputation (even though it's pretty bad in a lot of ways!) with how beloved his music is. this is mostly annoying, sometimes terrible, and dated throughout.
Spiritualized
2/5
yeah alright sure man
Ice Cube
4/5
kinda wild to hear an insert on a 1992 album where ice cube doesn't all that strongly refute his anti semitism considering the obviously and heavily anti semitic poster's madness he's been experiencing in recent years. an all time rap album that has been making a case for it being an all time exercise in separating the art from the artist since its release
LTJ Bukem
2/5
acknowledging that i am not a d&b enthusiast or anything but this all sounds the same! it sounds nice though
The Specials
2/5
yeah ok sure, i'm just glad we stopped recording vocals that sound like they were in the bathroom
Otis Redding
4/5
no skips! a true exemplar of the [artist] sings [genre] album conceit! tight 32 minutes! hell yeah!
Prince
2/5
There's a lot of video game music on this one. Drags in the second half
Beautiful Day is a banger that warranted being overplayed into oblivion, but the rest of this is the very steep hill U2 deliberately climbed to become aggressively mediocre dad rock
The Bees
3/5
Heal yeah that’s weird and good and hazy
Johnny Cash
4/5
Hurt gets all the headlines but if you survive that and think you’re gonna make it here comes I’m so lonesome I could cry and now you’re dead from anguish. Star deducted for bridge over troubled water
Le Tigre
3/5
emblematic of a scene, pretty good the whole way through, excellent as an album experience
Ozomatli
1/5
this was a snooze fest to me
The Vines
3/5
i once heard the vines described as one of the most "rock is back" bands of the aughts and it's very true, but also it worked really well. excellent guitar work, often detracting vocals, a lot more here besides the hit than i expected
Bon Jovi
4/5
this slaps in a way bruce springsteen fucking wishes he ever could
Fleet Foxes
3/5
every track on this album sounds like a song you'd hear on a toyota commercial and be like "hey what's that song" (respectful)
Underworld
1/5
this sounds like stuff i would have heard while getting my hair cut at the Visible Changes in the mall where they constantly showed fashion shows on the tv
Fever Ray
3/5
it's like an electro swedish GWAR that makes good music without sacrificing any of the unsettling characters or visuals
Bob Dylan
2/5
it's fine as far as bob dylan goes. perhaps the king of all the artists who i don't like but recognize they were foundational for many of the ones i do
808 State
2/5
did not ever vibe with this, but didn't mind it at any point either
The Flaming Lips
4/5
this is the platonic flaming lips sound to me, oft imitated, never duplicated. i legitimately like this more than yoshimi, but even i struggle not to wonder if i'm just saying that to sound cool.
Ride
2/5
jumping back and forth across the line between weird (respectful) and weird (derogatory)
Machito
4/5
platonic ideal of the kind of album you discover in this exercise. never would have heard this. loved it almost all my time with it.
Anita Baker
2/5
Napalm Death
2/5
yeah mostly yeah, but it's an acquired taste
Elis Regina
2/5
this album has two modes: annoy you into hitting the next button or whipping loads of ass
Sparks
2/5
Ehhhh I can see some of these in a playlist but it didn’t move me as an album
Depeche Mode
2/5
yep that's depeche mode
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
Fuuuuuuuuuuck no. Live albums are rarely good and this one isn’t even in the same country as an exception
New Order
2/5
yep that's depeche mo-- i mean new order
Cypress Hill
2/5
technically impressive within the genre, but not something i'll ever reach for
Roni Size
1/5
this provoked in me the same feeling as when jazz makes me feel like my atoms are in the wrong place
The Afghan Whigs
1/5
i have no prior experience, but this band is the favorite of one of the worst people i know so i had to discard some preconceived notions.
i then quickly conceived of them again. yawn on its own merits, bottom of the barrel considering the context of music available around it in that time frame. and scene.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
idk why the drums were recorded in a cave underground but i liked it
Aerosmith
2/5
even by the standards of aerosmith they were really in their bag here. indulgent. over the top. too much. fine for the most part.
Herbie Hancock
2/5
largely listenable without causing me the anguish a lot of jazz does
Dolly Parton
4/5
almost no skips
Arcade Fire
3/5
half of this album and half of funeral can be combined to form peak arcade fire but then there's neon bible somehow in between them as the trough.
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
hard to shake the feeling this would be better in a club in europe on drugs
Julian Cope
2/5
some of this was fun but i said "what the fuck" a lot during it, and he sounds like jv nick cave often. "enigmatic storyteller, contrarian, mystic, and hallucinogen enthusiast" yeah sure man
The Pretty Things
2/5
it was fine. apparently it was extremely edgy in its time. it sounded like any other 60s rock.
Mudhoney
3/5
a lot of the times you come across something that everyone gushes about because it's foundational to a lot of stuff that came after and is better, but this is still pretty good in its own right
Magazine
2/5
this was fun on the tracks that didn't sound like circus music
The Rolling Stones
2/5
while it must be noted that they are extremely good at it, i've never been able to shake the feeling that the rolling stones are cosplaying at best. this is mostly fine if you can work your way past the weirdness
Hot Chip
3/5
Randy Newman
1/5
this sucks! randy newman sucks! why were we inflicted with randy newman for so long! everyone's reaction to randy newman is always "oh yeah... randy newman.. huh" like he's just there by default. he doesn't have to be!
Fiona Apple
1/5
0:00 of play time that weren't annnoying
The Divine Comedy
1/5
i dunno what this is and i am not interested in discovering more about it. it was dreadful to experience.
Laibach
1/5
every once in a while an album seems like it's included on this list for run of the mill music writer "look at the weird shit i know about" reasons. you don't need to hear this before you die, you need to hear this before about 1993 if and only if you live in former yugoslavian republics, and you'll hear someone's version of live is life at every european sporting event anyway.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
it's fun, it's weird, they're weird, it's a perfect album to include in the list
Cocteau Twins
3/5
spacey and airy and wonderful
Sheryl Crow
2/5
this is drastically boring compared to her self titled album, i almost can't believe it
Love
1/5
indistinguishable from any number of other 60s rock albums we've had, another album that seems like it's on the list for the single. an entirely unrecommendable album experience.
Lauryn Hill
3/5
overstays its welcome, mostly enjoyable. a couple really huge moments, some real all timers.
Boston
3/5
probably in the finals of the boomer dad rock tournament against ELO. the platonic ideal of classic rock. drags towards the end.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
they need to make up their mind about whether they want to go home or go to new york
Devendra Banhart
2/5
too of a time for me, but i enjoyed some moments from it
FKA twigs
2/5
this vocal style is going to be the millennial whoop of the 2020s
Circle Jerks
3/5
listened to it like 4 times, it was good
Lambchop
1/5
i'm sure somewhere in my collection (2002) there is a group and album (The Sound Of Urchin, You Are The Best) that is weird in a non-complimentary way that I still think everyone should hear. that's what this album felt like. it's someone's weird group and weird album.
Bob Dylan
2/5
the least offensive dylan
The Beach Boys
1/5
another L for dad's music. why do the beach boys sound like chicago and steely dan all of a sudden
Deee-Lite
2/5
Rod Stewart
2/5
there's some standard separating the art from the artist with rod stewart, but then there's also the british guy cosplaying as a bluesman thing that he's never quite able to shake. it's pretty good cosplay though
Kings of Leon
2/5
same review as i gave the first one, really. the 2010s alt rock sound is built here, and it's pretty good yet subsequently utterly ruined by caleb followill (about 17 year olds this time for some reason)
Elbow
1/5
alt rock colin hay no THANK you
Ray Price
2/5
you can drink to this and maybe should otherwise you'll notice how it's the same 3 songs 4 times each
Madonna
2/5
Buffalo Springfield
2/5
The amount of Neil Young on this list in the form of multiple different artists is the kind of thing only a British guy would come up with. This was fine.
1/5
Apologies for falling for it, but it remains insane that there was ever some kind of competition or comparison between this band and Oasis. This was dreadful at all times.
Sepultura
3/5
Hearing the bass in metal hadn’t been invented yet in 1991, but this is otherwise one of sepultura’s best
Bob Dylan
1/5
We Just gone done with secret Neil young and now here’s Bob Dylan singing about listening to Neil young I’m so tired. Anyway, this has some high spots but it’s mostly the bedrock foundation of any good slurred Dylan impression and I disliked most of it
De La Soul
3/5
This is the best De La Soul and the stings and skits don't feel like an interruption as they do for a lot of its peers
Stephen Stills
2/5
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH CROSBY AND NASH it's actually pretty nice for most of it. chalk one up for dad's music
Sam Cooke
1/5
live albums are rarely good and this one is not an exception. maybe it's just a fact of the recording, but it sounds like sam cooke is absolutely dying on his ass up there. the crowd doesn't respond to him at all and it's uncomfortable to listen to
The Damned
3/5
love to hear songs about the anti pope. this is probably my favorite experience listening to the damned, especially as an album. i bet this made people crazy in the 70s
Paul Weller
2/5
90s grocery store soundtrack but it had some nice moments
Erykah Badu
4/5
almost no skips, thank you to the manager of one of my first jobs for not firing me when i put this on the barnes and noble music section stereo and a wine mom got mad about it
The Go-Go's
2/5
Startlingly jangly and grating, but the hits are the hits
Sabu
3/5
My perfect ideal of an album from this list. Something I never would have discovered myself, remarkable good time throughout, sent me down a wiki and spotify rabbit hole
Fela Kuti
1/5
TLC
3/5
An inescapable experience in the mid 90s and it holds up mostly well. Drags a couple times but the high points are spread evenly through out
David Bowie
2/5
this is the wandering in the desert period of Bowie for me. listening to it again for the first time in quite some time it's got some good stuff on it, it's just not i want or expect from Bowie and that's more my problem than his
Simply Red
2/5
There are some real speed bumps in this as an album but a lot of it was really good stuff
The Everly Brothers
2/5
Did not realize a date with the Everly brothers was a threat until the first song. I mean one of the Nick Cave albums had a song that was explicitly about sexual assault but at least he didn’t present it was love life advice. The rest of it was pretty whiny, which is a weird thing for me to say as an elder emo!
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
If you listen closely to the background of Badlands you can hear late era Brandon Flowers literally being born. This sounds to me on a lot of songs like someone doing an intentionally bad Bruce Springsteen impression but it’s actually the boss? Wild
Tom Tom Club
2/5
Mostly fun bops, with a couple moments of sounding talking headsy (derogatory)
Ella Fitzgerald
1/5
I listened to this while doing extremely mundane work and essentially never noticed it. I’m giving it one star because it’s crazy that you had 6 discs to make me notice something I really liked and never did. I’m giving it a second star because it had 6 discs and never annoyed me enough to notice it either. I’m taking the second star away again because putting a 6 disc set on a list of albums to experience is fucking preposterous.
Def Leppard
2/5
It’s interesting to listen to this as a child of grunge because it has always sounded like a parody of something, but the something is just itself. An era of rock that seems like the excess and rock star was of it all was the point presaging an era of rock where the excess was all directed as a means of escaping the last era’s bullshit. Can’t deny a power ballad or pour some sugar tho
Kate Bush
1/5
“There goes a tenner”
-someone after buying this album in 1982 and listening to it
Kings of Leon
2/5
since it appears we are going to get all of them, i am remain waiting for a kings of leon album that isn't completely fucking ruined by caleb followill's vocals. there's a good album hiding here
R.E.M.
1/5
I think i have Singles Expectation Disease with R.E.M.. Every time I listen to an R.E.M. album I'm waiting for it to become an R.E.M. album and most of them never do and it's disappointing.
Common
3/5
a bajillion times better than the first common album we got
Blur
2/5
I saw someone talking about Oasis the other day and someone else said “you seem like more of a Blur guy” and that’s the rudest fucking thing I’ve ever seen someone say on the internet. Extra star for song 2, the rest of it is mind numbing.
Brian Eno
3/5
yeah that's a brian eno album. weird and interesting. annoying sometimes. and a good *album* experience
Prefab Sprout
1/5
i really did not like this!
Spacemen 3
2/5
what if the doors were lazy as shit
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
they were really starting to figure it out at this point in the 60s. we finally got good at making rock n roll!
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2/5
doesn't make me feel like my atoms are in the wrong place like most jazz. too piano forward. mostly fun.
Black Sabbath
5/5
foundational in almost every way. riff making is tony iommi's legacy (for better and worse depending on where you look in modern metal). ozzy is the quintessential tortured scene maker messy rock star. this one even has the out of character balladish departure in the middle and the song about cocaine! all of the heavy music in the world today walks on roads paved by black sabbath. this is probably the best and tightest sabbath album that doesn't indulge in too much extended wankery (or maybe the wankery it engages in is just good enough to justify itself).
Led Zeppelin
2/5
high highs and way too many low lows that make you go "ugh get fucking on with it"
Screaming Trees
2/5
quintessentially 90s (derogatory)
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
Gary Numan
2/5
I gotta be in the right mood for this kinda beeps and boops but they are good beeps and boops for when i am
Jane Weaver
1/5
literally fell asleep listening to this
Supertramp
1/5
q: what if a 70s easy listening band did prog rock
a: i would not enjoy it for a single second
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4/5
this sounds exactly like you would expect a band called the flying burrito brothers with a pedal steel player named sneaky pete to sound (laudatory)
this is not only a good album on its own it's also foundational for a LOT of stuff both good and heinous that came after
Butthole Surfers
1/5
When they figure it out, they're unstoppable. It's just that it takes an entire album for them to figure it out for one song, and that results in a terrible experience for an album-listening exercise.
Emmylou Harris
2/5
i think this might be the least listenable of all the emmylou. it just drags for wide stretches, and the instrumentation doesn't really give you what you expect from an emmylou album in a bad way.
Alice Cooper
2/5
conceptually i like alice cooper, but i don't think i've ever sat down and listened to an alice cooper album. why does he sound like he's doing a mick jagger impression for most of it? a couple songs were neat though
maybe i just liked alice cooper's cameo in wayne's world.
Mariah Carey
1/5
Pixies
3/5
none of their true hits but still the best pixies album. weird and interesting throughout
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Avalanche is probably my favorite work by Cohen and it's endlessly upsetting that it's perhaps best known because of an aimee mann cover for a shitty true crime documentary and a nick cave cover for black sails lmao. this is a good, complete album experience and worth listening to as that.
Fairport Convention
2/5
this feels so different (and better) than previous fairport we've heard. to a startling degree. this was somewhere between inoffensive and enjoyable to listen to.
The Velvet Underground
1/5
this was so thoroughly boring that it made me go look for the context on why it's on the list and i found the explanation wanting. it sounds like there's a producer in the studio glaring at lou reed to make sure he doesn't get too lou reed about anything
1/5
On principle, this kind of album is the true benefit of this list. Out of the way music you never would have discovered without being pointed towards it. Unfortunately, it sucks big time
Beatles
1/5
i feel about the beatles the same way i feel about the 1900 BC sumerian joke that no one understands in the modern day. i'm sure it helped pave the way for the good stuff, but that doesn't make it good.
i tried to set that preconceived notion aside while listening to this, but the best part of the album is the back half when most of the songs are <2 minutes long
Tito Puente
4/5
this list turning people into fans of bossa nova and mambo is like evolutionary carcinisation. platonic ideal of an album i love to see on this list. never would have found it, loved pretty much all of it
Big Black
2/5
probably would have loved this if i first discovered it as a teenager. it was fine.
System Of A Down
2/5
perhaps the all time GOAT of incredibly talented vocalists who use all their talent to piss me tf off
Drive-By Truckers
1/5
we've had to listen to like 4 completely unnecessary neil young albums from this list, so i was primed to not take it seriously when these guys started very badly singing about him AND ronnie van zant.
Honestly, the vocals on the live jam band unnecessary neil young album were better than this. this is TERRIBLE.
Brian Eno
2/5
at times weird (respectful) and weird (derogatory), precisely what you're looking for from a brian eno album.
Can
1/5
the three 10+ minute songs in a row are how i know the drugs were shit and they didn't have enough movies or video games back then.
Tangerine Dream
2/5
early 90s first person fantasy game music
Joni Mitchell
2/5
i can tell that this is expertly made music, it just isn't particularly for me
4/5
hell yeah this was awesome
Saint Etienne
3/5
totally new and unexpected and not something I would have come across on my own! what a fun a group, what a good album from outside my normal musical wanderings
Ryan Adams
1/5
offensively bland in an emblematic way for 2001
Gene Clark
2/5
Inoffensive dentist waiting room music.
Bauhaus
3/5
George Michael
2/5
Was George Michael just junior varsity Prince, discuss
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
The weaponization of music in the 60s was dreadful. I am not openminded enough to get this or really even conceive of anyone getting it. It’s just noise for me
The Stranglers
2/5
This was almost entirely good, goofy, and grouchy. Star deducted for 70s circus organ
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
This is pretty good except for all of the vocals
The Fall
3/5
The ur-angry mancunian hollering about stuff I don’t really get over music that I find enjoyable
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
At some point a weird lil guy like Frank Zappa, either through longevity or by inspiring more mainstream acts, gets described as making “challenging music” instead of just being a weird lil guy. Weird lil guys are critically important, but the shine wears off when they become “challenging musicians” instead, so I’m always going into Zappa vehicles braced against whatever sucker punch is coming and there it is: a call and response in the melody with a kazoo on track one. Weird lil guys forever, but also probably only one listen per
5/5
In my head canon all of the conflict between the Gallagher brothers comes down to one of them wanting that waily harmonica on this album and the other one didn’t. It’s an otherwise no skips album