200
Albums Rated
2.66
Average Rating
18%
Complete
889 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2000s
Favorite Decade
Indie
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Critic
Rater Style ?
23
5-Star Albums
38
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Next
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
|
5 | 2.71 | +2.29 |
|
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
69 Love Songs
The Magnetic Fields
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
|
Your Arsenal
Morrissey
|
5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
|
Time (The Revelator)
Gillian Welch
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Life's Too Good
The Sugarcubes
|
5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
|
Let It Be
The Replacements
|
5 | 3.25 | +1.75 |
|
Either Or
Elliott Smith
|
5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
|
Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
|
5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
|
Strangeways, Here We Come
The Smiths
|
5 | 3.44 | +1.56 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
|
1 | 4.06 | -3.06 |
|
Let's Stay Together
Al Green
|
1 | 3.76 | -2.76 |
|
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
|
1 | 3.65 | -2.65 |
|
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
|
1 | 3.63 | -2.63 |
|
Hard Again
Muddy Waters
|
1 | 3.62 | -2.62 |
|
Frank
Amy Winehouse
|
1 | 3.45 | -2.45 |
|
At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
Eliminator
ZZ Top
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
The Band
The Band
|
1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Smiths | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Miles Davis | 2 | 1 |
| Amy Winehouse | 2 | 1.5 |
| Elvis Presley | 2 | 1.5 |
5-Star Albums (23)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
SZA
1/5
I try to confront everything this list sends to me with an open mind. This is immediately trash and I hate it. I don't need to hear an already dated auto-tune heavy trap album that has a three note variation talking about the various levels of self abuse you endured to get some dick.
6 likes
Mike Ladd
1/5
I wish I had more time to rip into this one. One of the contributors obviously liked boring experimental hip hop with no redeeming qualities. I have to imagine some kind of traumatic brain injury is required to enjoy this.
4 likes
Love
1/5
This is so inoffensively average and lacking in anything interesting. I ran straight to the book to see why it was put in there. Even the reviewer said that it was a second rate band and the final track was indulgent.
SO DON'T PUT THE ALBUM IN THE BOOK, IDIOTS.
Disqualified as meritless, 1 star.
4 likes
Pixies
4/5
This is a fun little album. I'm predisposed to like the Pixies. It just does what it does and doesn't annoy me, I guess. I'm tired. Have a 4.
3 likes
Beck
5/5
Ah Beck. I love Morning Phase and Seachange so much, you'd think I'd know this album back to front and inside out by now. But that's the magic is Beck - always something different every time. I've never really bothered to listen to this one.
But that's my problem, because this is joyous, chaotic, and masterful.
3 likes
1-Star Albums (38)
All Ratings
Nas
2/5
Starts out a little messy and confused. Second track a little middle of the road, but not annoying. Easy listening hip hop.
Jethro Tull
3/5
Sounds very 70's art-prog-folk-rock. Quite dated and not very interesting vocal melodies. The flute solos on a couple songs are fun, and squeezing everything out of a flute that exists. But idk, use a sax or a clarinet. Suffers from weak 70's production.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
This one isn't about the music, which goes from from clumsy to perfunctory. It's about the lyrics and the mood. This one feels like an old friend, who you invite over to share a beer and life's troubles. The Stranger Song stands above the rest.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Had to check I didn't accidentally put on a bootleg live album at first. This was apparently the intended sound. Right out the gates we get a 4 chord basic country jam with weak vocals and bad lyrics. This would be okay, but it's SEVEN MINUTES LONG. By the end it felt like purgatory.
We don't get anything resembling interesting until the third track and by then I'm exhausted. This thing didn't go anywhere near the inside of a studio. It's a bunch of demos.
Fela Kuti
3/5
The first track has a lot of funk and soul to it, and clips along at a nice pace. It gets a little groovy as the album goes on. Is it good? Yeah. Is it for me? No. I'm glad I listened to it, but I don't really see a place for it in my life.
Miles Davis
1/5
This doesn't register as music to me. I was playing it, loud, on my commute this morning. About 10 minutes into my drive I realised I was bopping along to a song and singing to myself.
It was a completely different song by a different artist from a different era.
This album is so bereft of anything that I consider music that my brain tried to fill the space where music should be. I value lyrics, melody, and texture. This music is so incredibly bland it's the kind of music you put on in the background when you don't want anyone to notice there's music playing.
Deep Purple
4/5
Oh no. A live album. A band that I don't care for in the slightest. Well, here we go...
Wait a minute. The guitarist is breaking into a 3 minute guitar solo? The drummer is going off? Old, tired, familar songs being transformed into incredibly fun explorations by a band at the top of their game?
This is not my kind of music, but it's strangely compelling and I feel like I'll want to revisit it in future.
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
This feels like along album. It's fine I guess. I didn't find anything that gripped me musically or lyrically. Perhaps the best I can say is that for its time there's a lot of slick gloss here stuck to some quite middling ideas.
I understand why it's here on this list, but it's not something I'll be throwing on for my own listening pleasure.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Not a new one to me. I listened to this one 20 years ago when it first came out. I'm surprised how many tracks I forgot existed over the intervening time. But also not surprised. The first two tracks are exceptionally powerful and then the rest of it just tapers off.
Love that the Desperado track was copyright struck for being Eagles content so I can continue not hearing their music anywhere ever.
Nightmares On Wax
1/5
DNF. My first DNF and probably not my last. There's just nothing for me here.
The Smiths
5/5
My first album on the list that I'm intimately familiar with. It doesn't have the hits, but it hits different. It's probably the most consistent Smiths album with a solid set of songs bearing the weight through the middle.
Obviously a solid 5/5 with no reservations.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
First impression: Who? This is not a genre of music I like. I've never even heard of this artist or album as a stand-out example of that genre. This has a massive uphill battle to even get me to say it should be on this list.
Based on my own criteria - Will I listen to this again? No. Does it deserve to be on this list? No. Is it possible to actually listen to? Yes. That's a 2/5 then.
James Brown
2/5
Another live record? There's a lot of energy and vibe captured here, but also perhaps too much. There is a lot of screaming. A lot of unrefined energy. There's a 10 minute track of James riffing over a repetitive blues riff and hyping the crowd to scream for him - which is great if you're there but I'm not there. I'm not here for any of this.
Am I going to listen to this again? NO. Do I know why this is on the list? No. It could be left off. But I could listen to it. Solid 2/5 from me.
Fiona Apple
5/5
Seeing those eyes after rating another mediocre album filled me with an adrenaline shot of joy. Teenage me grabbed her second (and better but not on this list) album, then devoured this one too. One of the few albums I can say I was too young to fully appreciate.
Only one track is anything less than perfect: The First Taste (and that's because it fell into some weird 90s R&B hole). Not ashamed to say I screamed along to Shadowboxer and Criminal in my car. And that closer - Carrion. MY FEEL FOR YOU BOY. So much soul in that delivery.
This album shaped me and my taste in music. Easiest 5 I've handed out so far.
Jeff Buckley
5/5
This is not an easy listen. I know this album very well and it's a 'break glass in case of breakup' album. Some of the songs are clearly better than the others, but the songs that hit me have me in tears. An unreserved masterpiece. Another easy 5/5 from me.
Amy Winehouse
2/5
I feel that I missed or dismissed this album very early on and never came back to it. Listening now, perhaps for the first time in full, I was hoping for something to stand out. But nothing does. Amy's voice isn't great in this one, but I can usually forgive a poor vocal performance. The production felt cloying, the instruments dead, and the songs derivative of a style I find uninteresting but that the production team also failed to transform.
The Strokes
4/5
Another one I'm very familiar with. And a frankly brilliant album, for what it is. It's cohesive and driven. Some of the songs are quite fun. It was part of revival in music, so has a huge part in rock history.
Do I enjoy it? Yeah. Is it a masterpiece that moves me? Not really. A great candidate for 4/5 stars.
Gorillaz
2/5
Not sure how to feel about this one going in. Obviously a well known band and I knew a couple singles but never checked out the album. It could have gone either way.
This is... Not great. Even the singles are more languid and poorly realised than I remember or their later works. Disappointing, experimental, and messy.
The B-52's
4/5
This is in the category of "Oh I meant to listen to this but I forgot". I've heard various B-52s songs at parties over the years, but only remembered the hits. This is the first album where I've not known the album, but immediately wanted to play it again after it finished.
It's not a masterpiece that will end up in heavy rotation, but it's good.
Rush
2/5
Oh boy. The reputation of this album precedes it. I've seen it come up in a few lists and given a few attempts to listen but never found a reason to come back.
On this listen, the best track was easily YYZ. The second best was The Camera Eye, which despite its length had some really engaging moments. The thing that drags this album down into oblivion for me though is the lyrical and vocal performance. The lyrics are trite and cringeworthy, and the vocal delivery takes the interesting musicianship and sends it to the dumpster.
Which is a shame. With a few tweaks, this could have been one of the greatest and most celebrated bands. All the ingredients were there but they were squandered on a mediocre recipe.
R.E.M.
5/5
The easiest 5 stars I've given so far. This album shaped my early taste in music, so it's hard to hear it with anything other than biased ears. That said, it did spend a while in the wilderness until I found it again recently and truly realised that Nightswimming is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Listening this time, I realise I find the album has a very unusual sequencing. The back half is stacked with an amazing four song run.
The Replacements
5/5
Immediate impression: Not sure if I like this? But then I started to hear it roaming out of punk, into garage alternative rock, into metal. I can hear Nirvana? Then a touching love song that questions gender. Then puerile adolescent rock. All laced with punk ethos that feels slapped together. It just finished and I need to go put it on again.
This will be my first 5 given to a formerly unknown album. I will absolutely be listening to this for years to come.
Supertramp
3/5
This is fine. Pros: It's Pink Floyd lite. Nice playing. Interesting change-ups. Recognisable style and vocals. Cons: Very 70s art-rock. It hasn't really aged well like most 70s music. I didn't find myself bopping along, but neither was it terrible.
Doves
3/5
Oh - I know these guys. I listened to their other albums Lost Souls and Some Cities back in 2005. I thought they were good, while I searched the British music press for bands as good as Radiohead or Coldplay. These guys were held up along with the Magic Numbers and Badly Drawn Boy as the new, mature, pop-rock for a new millenium.
But listening to this now, as the middle album, I'm not sure. I might have listened to this before, but put it aside? It feels muddy and indistinct and not as iconic as the album directly before or after. It's not bad, just unremarkable.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
It seems immediately obvious why this one is here, but it does throw up a few surprises. The first song is jaunty and fun. When Ken Lee starts playing, it feels out of place. I was completely disarmed by the Coconut song.
George Michael
2/5
Yeah, this is an album that has existed and I could have listened to it at any point in the 33 years that it has existed. George Michael is hardly a secret. I just don't think it has all that much to offer. It's telling that the most well known song on the album is nothing like the rest of it. He's not a ballad writer.
Billy Bragg
3/5
Decent, but a bit forgettable. An interesting concept. The best part about the album is when it ended because it started the best 'related to' playlist on Spotify that I've ever heard.
The Mamas & The Papas
2/5
Just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. This thing is barely holding together sonically. The mixing is offensive. The stereo split to hard left and right is disgusting.
(Turns out there is a mono version that immediately doesn't drive me nuts, though it does peak and hiss like crazy.)
This has so many Beatles moments (not a good thing) and the Spanish Harlem cover doesn't really improve on the original. California Dreaming is just shy of 3 minutes, and while great, doesn't justify the syrupy sickly nature of the rest of the album.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
This one comes out the gates swinging with a funk-metal sound that's very reminiscent of the couple of years either side of the millenium. It has a feeling that it's trying to reach for the 'next-big-thing' status of the new era of music to come.
What we end up with is a flimsy set of complain-rock tracks that try to replace hooks with simply beating the listener over the head with thrashy guitars. Very pedestrian, and not something I'll ever listen to again willingly, or think is deserving to be on any list (even a bad one).
The Young Rascals
1/5
This is some of the most boring, derivative, uninspired, forgettable music to come out of the 1960s. Even if I was hearing it in 1967, I'd think it was awful. The recording quality is naturally abysmal, but so are the riffs and the lyrics. Sappy, soul-styled romantic lyrics that are missing the key element of soul music - the soul. This crap is taking a place that could be given to an actually decent album.
The Triffids
1/5
This is just really bad poetry over really uninspired musicianship. There's no reason to listen to this in the first place. This has no place being on this list. There's literally an Australian album that was released in 1987 that is so much more important: Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust.
David Bowie
3/5
When I put aside that voice that says "I am supposed to like this" and consider this on its own terms, this album is fine. I don't think the album sells itself on its own merits. It's a little too jazzy and doesn't offer enough beauty for me to want to listen to it outside of this experiment. But I get why it's here.
Charles Mingus
2/5
There are some notes here that I enjoy, but then general cacophany and lack of theme or meaning really strip this album of any relevance to me. It feels less planned out than just being a vehicle for improvisations. Entirely uninteresting to me.
Faust
3/5
Not good, not terrible. First track is decent, but the next couple of tracks were just not very good. Strangely reminiscent of NIN ambient tracks or Holy Fuck analog electronica from the mid 00's. Or even MBV in the '90s. It's not something I want or need to listen to, but I can appreciate where it's coming from.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
I rolled my eyes when I saw this come up. I prepared my 3 stars. Then I listened to the album again for the hundredth time. It's the most music shaped music. It's the most album shaped album. It has charisma, and a desire to get you in the feels if you're not careful.
How can such a familiar and cliche album deliver a gut punch? On 'Go Your Own Way' no less?
Go on and take your 5 stars and get out of here, you monster.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
I don't really like this kind of blues music. This is fine though. Unremarkable. It's music that was at least two decades old in 1970. Noodley guitar work. It settles quickly into by-the-numbers blues chords and beats you down until Layla comes in (too late) with some genuine passion and clever playing.
SZA
1/5
I try to confront everything this list sends to me with an open mind. This is immediately trash and I hate it. I don't need to hear an already dated auto-tune heavy trap album that has a three note variation talking about the various levels of self abuse you endured to get some dick.
Kanye West
2/5
The best parts of this album are the parts when Kanye shuts up and lets other people carry it for him. I don't know why people go on about the production. Is it because there's nothing else to latch onto here? Anyway, the production is awful.
I'm only giving this a 2 because there are some fun guest appearances.
Elliott Smith
5/5
This is an easy 5 for me. Listening to this as a teenager when it first came out was formative for me.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
The Silent Night song at the end is funny considering I got this album for Christmas Eve.
It's a solid album, but not perfect.
King Crimson
2/5
It's Christmas. I genuinely don't care about this awful album. So it spawned a whole lot of dad rock classics? Don't care. I don't like them either.
Various Artists
2/5
Not what I want to listen to the day after Christmas. Maybe if this had been put before me on Christmas Eve or earlier, it would have been appreciated. Being given this as exactly the wrong time, I must give it a 2.
1/5
I'm just not a fan of psychedelia or rock music that doesn't have anything to say. This is overwhelmingly of the era. I don't like this era.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
I'm only vaguely familiar with their work. I see what they were going for with their proto-grunge sound, with a bit of experimentation thrown in the mix.
Beatles
3/5
It's easy to get sucked in by the popular consensus on an album and only see it as an unassailable monolith. Is it possible to separate the legend from the music?
On its face, this album isn't really saying anything either emotively or literally. Any psychedelic insights it provides are obvious and accessible, which is probably why it flourished with the general public. It's a group of love-song writers throwing together some loose ideas.
When people say you can't recreate the Beatles, or lament that there's no music like this today, it's because at it's core this isn't as striking or brilliant as it's made out to be - it was just one of the first to do it. It's One Direction for the 60s.
ZZ Top
1/5
This is like American AC/DC. Pure jock rock. This is the same song over and over again. This is probably the worst thing I've subjected my ears to in a long time.
And yes, I am familiar with all of the singles here. They're terrible. It's some cringeworthy guy claiming to be the Best At Sex. Who needs this? Oh there's a song that's about TV dinners. No deep insight. Just... TV dinners as a thing he likes.
Koffi Olomide
1/5
I really don't care for this, at all.
The Beach Boys
2/5
I would have just given this album three stars and moved on, but I've listened to it several times over the years and it just doesn't make sense to me. It's not good. God Only Knows is a nice song, but not perfectly executed. There are some ideas but poor recording, arrangement, and singing really let it down. Like nails on a chalk board to my ears.
Kate Bush
5/5
One of the all time greats. Listening again it's still as fresh and exciting as ever.
Buzzcocks
2/5
Oh now that is some terrible musicianship and some trite lyrics. I don't like punk, but especially I don't like this punk.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
I just don't get it. There's nothing here I haven't heard elsewhere or done better. Maybe they got there first? I don't care. I'm listening to them after.
Elvis Presley
2/5
Do you like Elvis? Do you like bad cover versions of songs by black people sung by a white person? Do you like songs recorded on a potato? Boy, do I have an album for you!
I don't like any of these things, so this is barely tolerable to me.
Fugees
4/5
This one surprised me. At first I got sent to the censored version of the album, but once I sorted that out it was great. This is the only kind of hip hop that I seem to enjoy. Clever, witty lyrics for the most part.
A couple of sections were a bit off colour. The Chinese restaurant martial arts beatdown? Not funny the first time, and who wants to listen to that EVERY TIME? Such a weird feature of hip hop albums.
Coldplay
4/5
An instant groan of recognition, followed by an indifferent shrug, followed by an appreciative murmur. I take it as the toxic masculinity leaving my system.
This is a good album. If you don't think so, it's probably because of some weird male ego thing. Let it go, buddy. You're the only one who cares about yourself being macho.
Mariah Carey
1/5
This is an infuriating and unsatisfying listen. I stopped this down halfway through to do something else and I don't see any reason to continue to the end.
Stan Getz
1/5
I put this on for my drive home and almost immediately resolved to change it. Ten minutes later I remembered it was on and changed it.
Jazzy bossa nova background music. Ew.
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
Y'all have no idea. Certified classic. "Oh no it's too looong waaah."
News flash, this whole activity is too long.
Morrissey
5/5
I don't get what people's problem with Morrissey is. For some reason the British press decided to crucify this guy from the beginning, and he has a long standing practical joke of doing things to get headlines and attention. Good for him.
As for the album? It's brilliant. Cutting political savagery but not in the tired old 'fight the power' way. It's a slice of the UK in the early 90s. It's a mirror held up to an entire nation. It's disenfranchisement.
Unplug your ears for a minute and you'll hear character stories from the working class of Britain. Welfare slobs, football hooligans, locals down the pub, the youth taking up with the National Front. I'm not British but this paints a picture better than any article in the Guardian. This is real. This is a love letter to a country that Morrissey saw spiraling out of control.
Jorge Ben Jor
2/5
I don't like dance music or 70s music or apparently Brazilian music.
Nina Simone
4/5
The gear change from the first track to the second threw me into reverse and wrecked my transmission.
But that's not a bad thing. The first track is just plain awful. Unimaginative blues with poorly sung cliche lyrics that can't even keep a set meter. The second drops us into a soulful telling of the lives of four women. Powerful, affecting, real. From there it's amazing. Lilac Wine had me bursting into tears!
Roxy Music
3/5
I like some Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry songs but generally his swagger is a little tedious. I've never felt the need to listen to an entire album and I understand why. This is a little proggy.
I don't think there's any problem with being progressive and experimental musically, but it dates an album. What was new and exciting in 1973 just sounds hokey and uninteresting 50 years later. Maybe my dad found this subversive and interesting and the feeling stuck with him, but that's not part of my journey.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
An album I've tried to listen to in the past. It's actually rather good. It bears further listens.
Aretha Franklin
2/5
Not sure what everyone else is hearing here. It's fairly rudimentary and short. I found myself relieved when the 30 minute run time was over.
I wouldn't count the singles Chain of Fools or Natural Woman as songs I ever get excited to hear either. A bit of a dud album really.
Maxwell
1/5
I can barely think of anything I'd like to hear less than this. This is a joke, right? This is so formulaic and boring it feels like paint-by-numbers music. There's an attempt at smoothness that is only going to convince a complete imbecile. This makes me cringe out of my skin.
I listened to the first track through, then skipped through the rest looking for anything that even remotely resembled an interesting idea. Nope. This is music for looping on videogame menu screens.
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
Another album that doesn't do anything interesting or do it well.
Doves
4/5
I've vaguely known this album for about 20 years. I don't really rate the start of the album. From Catch The Sun onwards it really picks up, but the beginning is quite muddy.
Queen
2/5
It's Queen but it's boring prog rock about fantasy crap. I'm a huge nerd but I don't get it. So you read Lord of the Rings. I feel like Led Zeppelin put out some stuff like this too in this era.
Whatever, it's not for me.
The Byrds
2/5
This is so dry. Half of these songs had me thinking that I know them, but there's a better version of it out there. If you were deep in the 60s and desperate for good music, this might be great. But like almost everything back then, it's a little too dated now unless it brings good lyrics. And this does not.
I was fully prepared to slap a 3 on this and move on with my life. But then I listened to it from beginning to end. It's like watching the Louvre burn down before your eyes, but the audio equivalent.
The lead single was so overplayed it's not even a song any more. Then you get stuck in a song and you can't get out of it. By the time Elevation comes along you want to dig a hole in your soul like a mole.
Oh the nonsensical rhymes! The song Grace made me cringe out of my skin. I can't even remember why and there is no way I'm going back there to remember. I will leave any situation where this album plays.
Metallica
2/5
Half way through listening to this album I remembered that I don't like Metallica. What revelation did I hope to achieve by listening to this? The growled vocals delivering pseudo-dark imagery, the tinny drums dominating half of each track and constantly changing direction while somehow never finding a groove.
If I was ever going to like metal as a genre (and I don't), I feel like this is the least convincing argument for me to hop on board.
Lambchop
3/5
There are probably better Lambchop albums, and better respresentations of this genre. It's fine. Didn't really grab me.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Bob Dylan is fine, but his style gets so cloying. I've had to listen to his songs done by the Byrds and the Fairport Convention, and it's always the same disjointed mess of lyrics. I'm a lyrics guy at heart, and there's just not enough here sung with meaning and purpose for me to enjoy.
Boston
3/5
Better than I thought it would be at the beginning. Still a lot of cringe and dated cliche lyrics that just don't work for me. It might have been a solid 5 the year it came out but it's not timeless at all. Solid 3.
White Denim
2/5
Not really my thing. I acknowledge there was this big neo-psychedlic rock movement going on, but I don't like the original stuff and this is no better. Entirely forgettable when placed beside its peers.
Aimee Mann
3/5
Totally indifferent.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
There was a moment when I was in my late teens and I heard I'm Waiting For The Man and was swayed by the apparent coolness of whatever statement it was trying to make.
There has been so much development in my own taste and in the progress of music in general that this just isn't relevant any more. VU didn't open a door for anyone - the saw an open door that no one else wanted to walk through and helped themselves to a banquet they didn't deserve.
3 stars, minus 1 for Nico's terrible singing.
Fleet Foxes
5/5
When this album came out and was the talk of the music press, I kept it at arms length and chose not to engage with it. It finally crept up on me after their superior follow-up album (Helplessness Blues) and I saw them live.
Take every folk album before this one and throw it in the bin. Start here. This is the pinnacle of folk music up to this point. It's mature and real and gorgeous.
Ray Charles
2/5
Oh boy, this draaaaaags. I don't have time for an album of country song covers that's so antique and out of touch with modern sensibilities. Ray's voice isn't suited for this style, the playing is repetitive, the lyrics are downright dreary.
I can't find any possible reason anyone would want to listen to this, unless you're 60+
Carole King
3/5
I remember my mum buying this album on CD in the 90s and hearing it played a few times. Like most albums of this era, the years have not been kind. The sound of the recording is flat and muddy and Carole's voice is definitely not the best. Add to this that the songs are just middle-of-the-road love songs.
The only song that remotely hits anywhere near good is "It's Too Late". The whole album just feels tired to me. 3/5 is being generous.
4/5
Maybe it's just the abundance of ancient, poorly recorded albums on this list that it makes Muse sound great by comparison, or this album is actually a bit of fun. I don't particularly feel anything listening to this, but I don't immediately hate it and there's a nice groove through the whole thing with good variation.
Not my favourite Muse effort but a solid album that I see myself listening to again or adding songs from it to my playlist. Solid 4/5.
The Fall
3/5
It's fine. Not mind-blowing, but not as bad or annoying as most of the stuff I've heard.
Germs
2/5
If you asked a punk enthusiast which albums are essential listens to understand the evolution of the punk scene, I guess this is what they come up with? It's another case of those who do it first not doing it the best.
I don't actually care about punk and I don't care about this album. This is an album and review that I will not remember in a week's time.
Moby
5/5
I actually didn't anticipate enjoying this album so much after not having listened to it in at least 20 years. About 8 of the tracks were immediately recognisable and absolute bops.
The sampling work is incredible, especially considering how much effort would have gone into finding some of these records at the time before mp3 and the internet media. Nothing is worse for a song than to go unheard and yet here we have these songs finding a new audience. Beautiful.
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
I might have a soft spot for this band because of a fun little song called "Gravity's Gone" which has been on my playlists for the last couple decades. But this is a different project entirely, and one that I probably should dive into a bit deeper.
Getting through it was a bit tough on first listen. Definitely not worth the dunking most listeners are giving it. A solid 3/5.
The Crusaders
1/5
The first track had me convinced the genre was CIA Torture Music but it was only 11 minutes of repetitive drone before they switched up for the Elevator Music genre.
If nothing else, this has solidified my opinion that Jazz is not actually real music. It's the Emperor's Clothes of music. Anyone who is telling you they enjoy it is probably an NPC.
Tito Puente
1/5
Irrelevant.
The Smiths
5/5
Easily one of the best albums of all time. This one comes out of the gates swinging - "Take me back to dear old Blighty" quickly giving way to drums that are taking no prisoners and an atmospheric whine that comes and goes, with a bass guitar that mumbles and groans under distorted guitars. This is England in the 80s. The real one. And we haven't even got past the first track yet.
Hate Morrissey all you want, but don't let it blind you to the brilliance of this album. It's not just musically exceptional, but lyrically cutting, maudlin, hilarious, devastating - the best of Morrissey's work on display.
The fact it tucks one of the best songs ever written (There is a Light) at the end of the album is a testament to how packed this thing is with statements. If you don't like this one, your opinion on music doesn't matter to me in the slightest, because you frankly haven't got one.
Method Man
3/5
It's fine. Not my kind of music. I got to the end without being annoyed. Feels like a 3/5.
Jimi Hendrix
2/5
Is this a demo record? It feels like this is a group of rough ideas jammed out by a group of improvising musicians. The way some of the tracks fade out feels like the engineer took a 15 minute take and just cut it off when he got bored. I was expecting just to slap a 3 on some dated, middle-of-the-road 60's trash guitar rock, but this is actively a bad album.
Kraftwerk
3/5
Fine. A classic but it's somehow more dated than most things of the same era.
Willie Nelson
2/5
I really love country-folk music, but I struggle to like this very much. The theme is quite weak and not borne out well in the lyrics, and the melodies lean a bit too hard into traditional, so I'm not hearing anything new or innovative. It's not bad, it's just feels unfinished.
John Cale
1/5
This guy should try out for the stormtroopers because he can't hit a single note. This is making me groan out loud in disgust. I hate this and it's making me angry. I'm not finishing this one. Easy 1 star.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
2/5
It's fine. Not really something I'll ever feel the need to listen to again.
Deep Purple
2/5
Utter lyrical garbage. This is incoherent nonsense. Probably the most 70s of the 70s rock I've ever heard. This feels like it's where ridiculous falsetto wailing began and it should have died here.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Waylon Jennings
3/5
It's fine. Totally unnecessary when you could listen to better country music. Most of these melodies are ripped off from earlier works. Lyrics are patchy at best.
Amy Winehouse
1/5
I skipped the first song where she champions toxic masculinity. Then I skipped the second song where she started singing off-key. I listened to a little of the third song for the few seconds it took to find a new album to play.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
This whole album is fine. Very much of the time in its attempt to be hip, which has obviously aged in the past 30 years. The single Strong Enough sits well with the other songs, but the clear winner is the breakout single. It's cliche to say but in this case it really does dwarf the rest of the album.
Love
1/5
This is so inoffensively average and lacking in anything interesting. I ran straight to the book to see why it was put in there. Even the reviewer said that it was a second rate band and the final track was indulgent.
SO DON'T PUT THE ALBUM IN THE BOOK, IDIOTS.
Disqualified as meritless, 1 star.
Screaming Trees
2/5
It's hard to have strong feelings about this one. Screaming Trees is a name that's familiar to me as a child of the 90s, and yet despite being widely listened, I struggle to come up with words to describe their sound. They existed in a space carved out for them by other, better bands. Their music exists solely on 90s grunge playlists as padding between better songs. The fact that this album came out in 1996 as we were already entering a post-grunge world, while still peddaling a dreary and lacklustre sound, places this firmly in the realm of mediocrity.
No one NEEDS to listen to this.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
A truly gorgeous album that has a lot of standout moments even on a first listen through. Where it falls down, and I acknowledge this is a thing about my taste, is the songs tend to overstay their welcome. But I'll certainly listen to this some more in future.
Wire
2/5
Short and uninteresting. Very little development of any of these ideas and it just comes across as generic punk.
Steely Dan
5/5
I hate Steely Dan. If they want my 5 stars they have to come claim them with their slick, guitar playing hands. If they want my 5 stars they have to come into my headphones and show off a crisp recording style. There's no way they're coming at me with clever lyrics and catchy tunes. There's no way Steely Dan is catching me grooving along and getting these 5 stars. If Steely Dan wants my 5 stars, they have to come into my bedroom and kiss me. And do it sensually too. None of this quick and dirty business. They have to... have to...
Damn it. Take your 5 stars. This is the biggest surprise of my musical experience. I have dismissed this album, unheard, my entire life and it's a masterpiece.
R.E.M.
3/5
I would say I actively like REM, jangle pop, and adore indie music. But this album falls into the realm of being too proto-everything. The recording is incredibly muddy, the lyrics too mysterious and hard to hear, and songs often devolve into repeating the song title as a chorus.
A start to an incredible band with great things ahead of them, but not a great listening experience for me.
The Pharcyde
1/5
My journey with hip-hop in this adventure has been pretty good so far, but it has helped me to find what I don't like in the genre. I like clever rhymes, but I can't stand when they go into sexual or physical violence. There might be something more interesting to this effort, but I'm not sticking around long enough to find out what it is.
David Bowie
2/5
This is the sound of too much cocaine. I wish I could say that this is a good album, but it just isn't. There's not a single compelling track on this thing. Jean Genie might be the closest we get, but it's still utter nonsense. There isn't a single coherent idea to be found anywhere near this album.
Joy Division
3/5
It's fine. I know this album and it's story, and there are some interesting tracks. But it's telling that I haven't found cause to listen to it over the intervening 20 or so years.
The Cars
3/5
So front loaded you forget it's not a greatest hits album. There are some serious duds in this line-up though, and the songs that I like are just on the good side of great. A strong 3 from me.
Britney Spears
3/5
This actually isn't terrible. It's what you expect, mostly, but there are a few surprises in there. If you get over yourself for a minute, the first three tracks are actually really well constructed.
It's not giving some deep philosophy, but that's not what the cover promises me. Very much the definition of mid.
Laibach
3/5
This is a treasure. I'm not going to go so far as to proclaim it good, but there's something wonderful about the terrible instruments being employed here. Is that some kind of midi syth being tracked directly into this thing? It's like 8-bit Nine Inch Nails in German.
I'm glad I got to hear this and I'll be glad to never hear it again.
The Offspring
3/5
I don't really think this is punk? It's more like Metallica lite. A few vague, empty lyrics about some kind of amorphous entity that pulls the strings, some vague anger about that. The assumption I'm listening on a CD is hilarious. But strangely it's not bad.
John Grant
4/5
What a remarkable album. This one is not perfect, but it has an eclectic charm to it. A lot of the lyrics and vocal melodies are downright clumsy and trite, but then it'll swing wildly and connect.
What is consistent throughout is the backing provided by Midlake. I centainly hope one of their albums made it onto the list (they didn't).
This is just different enough, crazy enough, bold enough for me to take an interest.
Pulp
4/5
Jarvis is like if Morrissey wasn't allergic of sex. He's like David Bowie if he could write interesting lyrics and music. I never really looked much past Help The Aged on this one in the past, but I should have. The same wry humour that was present on Different Class is sprinkled throughout this album.
This also made me remember the absolute madness of Jarvis Cocker on Ali G singing Help The Aged in the most unhinged way. Core memory unlocked.
The Roots
2/5
This is fine. I've listened a couple times and just can't seem to find much to really enjoy. I'm not saying there isn't something here, it's just not holding my interest enough to actively find.
Elvis Presley
1/5
I was born in '83 and this album was 14 years old. Anyone would have said this was antiquated then, even when it was released it was tired. Now it's 2024 and this sounds more tired and irrelevant than ever. I've never heard this album before and every track felt familar, like it was a rip-off. And the obnoxious fade-outs on every track drove me crazy.
Not ashamed to say I skipped my way through this album.
The Pretty Things
1/5
Initial thoughts: This is some poorly recorded psychedelia. The pans between left and right are so harsh and the instrumentation filling those hard pans is so reedy and light that it actually induces nausea. Getting everything hard left with a single snare on the right with vocals dead centre is an abomination.
These are not enjoyable songs, at all.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
This feels incredibly cynical. Let's wheel out some old and tired classic guitar player and team them up with other heavyweights and some "it" names right now. The result is paint-by-numbers blues/soul guitar songs from 70 years ago, produced in the style of a 35 years ago, being piped into my eardrums today.
I kept turning the volume down so it didn't keep interrupting my thoughts. Really not the sign of a gripping listening experience.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
This album immediately hits home with the initial track - a really interesting take on a soul/funk artist doing socially aware lyrics. I can see the influence on the soul revivalists with the stripped back instrumentation and falsetto vocals.
By the end of the album it was getting a little monotonous and repetitive. It's a shame that the lyrics also fell away, losing their punchiness by the end as well.
2/5
I don't have time to spare to start giving a damn about this album.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
A trip down memory lane. And one that I honestly thought would garner a solid 4/5 from me. But then I remembered how plainly gorgeous It's Summertime is, and the now anthemic Do You Realise? really did become a staple for turn of the century indie kids. It's still a beautiful song.
It's a monolith on the mostly featureless landscape of music. More than worthy of a perfect score.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
I'm coming into this one absolutely cold. It immediately feels like very storybook country to me, sung in an unsurprising style. Very little has deviated from expectation.
I would call it pleasant, but entirely forgettable.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I probably should like Springsteen but this really feels like it's not going to penetrate my brain. Nothing at all really stands out or grips me at all.
John Martyn
4/5
I immediately thought this was strange and didn't like it. And then "Couldn't Love You More" came on and I started to listen. A few listens later, I'm finding something really intriguing about "Small Hours", "One World", and "Dancing."
The more I listen to this, the more excited I get. Nothing else I've been served in over 100 albums has felt like this.
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
I don't really know electronic music too well, but this has been rendered fairly obsolete by modern computers. Perhaps it inspired some later indie French/German electronic music I listened too, but generally nothing too deep or interesting is explored here.
I thought perhaps "From Disco to Disco" and "Sometimes" stood out a little on first listen. Other tracks just fall back on tired chord progressions, or directly uplift samples and lyrics - probably why this can't be found anywhere online, because it's largely plagiarised? Anyway - not an essential album, though fine to listen to.
Television
3/5
I have their one song, Marquee Moon on a playlist somewhere and for a hot minute I enjoyed it. Now it's a hard skip whenever it comes on. That's some bands - for one bright moment they enter a point of becoming somewhat interesting but then the honeymoon is over.
And that's this album. It's fine, it exists, but it just feels a little under-produced and strained. Oh and it commits the all too common sin of having perfunctory, obfuscated lyrics. Just such an aggressively mid album all around.
Kacey Musgraves
2/5
This is the first album that I know reasonably well and feel is pleasant enough - that I am absolutely going to pan. There is nothing special here. This is off-brand Taylor Swift with a country twang.
I personally love pop music and have come to accept that some syrupy music is actually lovely when the mood strikes. This is not it. The lyrics are trite, the production is limp, the songwriting is pedestrian.
I don't hate it for what it is, I despise it for what it tries to do and fails to be.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Ooo la la la, la la la. Ridiculous. This is trite garbage, Neil. None of this makes any sense. Somewhere in there was a violin being strangled to within an inch of its life.
Maybe once this came across as clever, but wow are those solos and guitar flourishes clumsy and poorly realised to modern ears. The single note 'solo' on Down by the River is particularly painful.
AC/DC
3/5
I can tell this is probably going to be a fan favourite, but it really doesn't work for me for a few reasons. I understand it's meant to be a bit of fun, and the playing is actually quite decent for 1979, with a few nice recording flourishes. I understand entirely why it is here and deserves to be on this list.
It falls down for me on everything to do with the vocals - the most important part of any music to me. The lyrics are a joke, or downright terrible. The constant scratchy falsetto is just ridiculous. It's far from the worst thing I've had to listen to on this god forsaken list.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
I've listened to this a couple times before and it never really did anything for me. Somehow after almost 130 albums, most of which I've just not enjoyed at all, this is actually landing on some level.
Now, I don't really understand the cultural context of this album, or feel like the lyrics have any relevance to me. I don't think they're the best ever put down. I also don't like the jazzier elements, but I can appreciate the innovation.
It's good, but not special. Not something I'll feel the need to listen to regularly or pull any tracks for any playlists. Nowhere near the best album of all time - Not even in the top 100.
Aerosmith
2/5
Did a teenager put this list together? Someone with only a passing interest in music from reading Rolling Stone or NME? Hey, have you heard of Aerosmith - they've found a whole lot of new ways to sing about sex and penises and boobs while being so thinly veiled that it'll get past puritanical parental figures!
I have to imagine there are literally millions of albums out there, but I have limited time on this planet. The fact I'm spending precious moments of my life dribbling this garbage juice into my earholes is making me actively angry.
Donald Fagen
2/5
Not much to say. Not my thing.
Dusty Springfield
2/5
Something was happening in Memphis in 1969. First Elvis, now this. And while this is probably the better of the things that happened there, it's still a toothless, limpid excuse for an album.
This was mum and dad music in '69 and it's music for folks that are long gone. I heard it. What's next?
Depeche Mode
5/5
I've been meaning to listen to Depeche Mode for at least two centuries now and it was this list that finally got me there. Wow. This feels important. I can trace paths back to this band and this album from everywhere.
But not only is it important (which ultimately doesn't guarantee a great listening experience) it is good. This album sounds sinister, with a depth to the lyrics that might not be profound, but at least there are attempts. The rhyme of 'houses' with 'trousers' actually hit for me.
I'm definitely going to add tracks from this to playlists and listen to it more and more while looking into their catalogue. A resounding success.
Tom Waits
3/5
I mean, yeah, it's Tom Waits. Sometimes he's on point, but this one just doesn't find that point for me. It's fine though. A sign of things to come.
The Monkees
1/5
This book/list: It came out in 1967, it must be the best thing ever put to tape! I mean, no. Just no. When I think of the albums I should be listening to, it's not this.
I mean, the first song is just Doctor Roberts from Revolver. I don't even think the Beatles were that great, so why would I want to listen to a Beatles rip-off?
John Lennon
2/5
So typical of the Beatles crew to throw together an album which rides solely on the strength of a couple songs, while the rest are just weird experiments. I'm probably just coming too late to the party with this album, but I swear my parents bought this on CD in the late 90s and I literally recall none of it.
If ever an album needed a few more months in the development stages, it's this one. You can't just walk into the studio with one good idea and hope the rest falls into place. This could have been a beautiful statement, but instead is just a bunch of demos.
The Isley Brothers
2/5
This is not really my cup of tea. A little too 70s funk. Not really anything to latch onto or get excited about.
Peter Frampton
1/5
I hate this style of rock music. It's just so bland and boring. He's singing about nothing in particular and there is virtually nothing interesting or exciting about the music. Add to this the fact that it's a muddy, poorly mixed live album with crowd sounds included? What a waste of time.
Arcade Fire
5/5
FINALLY. Some decent music!
A colleague at a university job was a huge indie hipster and told me to listen to this back in 2006. It was one of the front-runners into an entire genre of music. And in my opinion, the saviours of music in general.
This feels like a turning point to me. An actual influential album that not only sounds good but means something. A rarity on this hellish experience that is this terrible list.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
This is fine. I've just heard the same thing done better by Brandi Carlile. Emmylou Harris has such a crispy voice here, it doesn't sell songs which are asking for a smoother voice. The music is nothing to write home about.
What are we left with? And album I really don't like or hate. It just exists. I couldn't wait for it to be over so I could throw on some actual good folk-country music.
The Stranglers
1/5
I thought I could tolerate the Stranglers. Turns out an entire album of their shit is just too much for me. This whole thing is weirdly horny while also being pathetic.
I hate the 70's with a passion.
The Thrills
3/5
It's 2003. You've just picked up a copy of New Music Express. They're looking for the 'new sound'. The buzz from the new Coldplay album is wearing off, and they've banged on about Doves for a while now. In a flurry of Badly Drawn Boys and Magic Numbers, a new band falls in their lap to save us from the US rock revival. The Thrills will slay The Strokes.
The battle lines are drawn. The initiative is anyone's to take.
Little did the authors know that just as they were collating and publishing this book that emo and indie rock were about to take over and wash away the softcockrock of the early 2000s, consigning them to obscurity (unless they happened to be called Radiohead).
This is fine, but entirely forgettable.
3/5
It's funky and well recorded, but not something in a genre that I enjoy.
Beck
5/5
Ah Beck. I love Morning Phase and Seachange so much, you'd think I'd know this album back to front and inside out by now. But that's the magic is Beck - always something different every time. I've never really bothered to listen to this one.
But that's my problem, because this is joyous, chaotic, and masterful.
Basement Jaxx
1/5
Thank goodness this album reminds me on every track that I am, in fact, listening to Basement Jaxx. I might wake up from the stupor this album put me into and wonder who I'm actually still listening to.
This is electronic muzak. This is everything electronic music shouldn't be. There is not one moment where I felt the joy of discovery, or that I was listening to something innovative. Entirely pedestrian. And what is even happening with that 'yo yo yo yo-yo-y-yo-y-y-yo' song? How can you listen to that and believe it belongs in someone elses ears?
Hugh Masekela
1/5
"Home Is Where the Music Is is a 1972 jazz and Afrobeat double LP". Oh. Great. A mashup of my least favourite genres, from my most despised decade of music, and it's a double helping?
Pure cacophony. If you're going to play instruments, at least adhere to a structure. I don't even want to think of the wankers who hear this and give it a 5.
Justin Timberlake
2/5
I actually wanted to be surprised by this one, but it was not to be. Every song on this thing inspires cringes, aside from the one outstanding track 'Cry Me a River'.
There's a weird horniness to this one that gives me the ick, and a strange clinginess. The production is limp. He wishes he was his lover's mother at one point. Even one good track can't really redeem it.
The Everly Brothers
2/5
Not even sure what to say about this really. It's super dated. Absolutely nothing about it is relevant.
Cathy's Clown is the only breakaway from the syrupy sweet pop, but barely. Bonus point for being referenced by Elliott Smith.
Thundercat
2/5
I don't know how to rate this. It sounds like an extended version of Bill Wurtz videos. You know? Like "The sun is a deadly laser."
But it also feels like jazz in that not many of the songs actually resolve into anything. Is it meant to be taken as a meme? All it did was make me a little more anxious than I was already feeling.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Pretty decent. Most of the songs fall a bit flat or are too unstructured and pedestrian for my tastes. Even the best track, Superstition leans too heavily on its groove.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
2/5
Okay so, this album spawned an entire mental discourse on meta-criticism of albums for me. What's the point of music? Is it to entertain, evoke emotions, inform, incite, exalt? Is it show off the skill of the artist? Is it a measure of all these things?
And so I wondered why this album falls flat for me. You could look at the social awareness and think "well, it sounds important, so I should give it a 5" right? This album is mostly concerned with inciting and informing, but on almost every other measure I can think of, it falls short. And for my own personal assessment, those values mean very little to me, hence my rating.
Otis Redding
3/5
At first I thought I was really enjoying this. But the best songs are really just covers of other greater artists work. And something in the telling gets lost - they're more pale shadows of great works. There's obviously something to Otis Redding's voice that goes a long way to carrying these, but it's not enough to lift it into the upper echelons of music for me.
John Coltrane
1/5
Oh hooray! Another jazz album. This one I had the misfortune of listening to 15-20 years ago. It did nothing for my developing brain then, and it still does nothing for me now.
I'll be honest, I only listened to the first track this time around. But it was enough for me to remember that I have heard this, didn't like it, and would much rather listen to literally anything else.
Duran Duran
4/5
This album feels like a vision, fully realised. It's lush, bold, poppy, and undeniably 80s. When you name quintessential 80s bands, Duran Duran should be one of the first to leave your lips.
But this isn't just the pop album that I, for one, had considered it to be all these years while ignoring its existence. There are real riffs here, real solos, real instruments being played with skill. There's unconventional songcrafting here as well - the familiar Save a Prayer is a prime example of this. My jaded ears can't even start to figure out what key and scale this thing is adhering to.
Ultimately a triumph, but also not something that impresses me so much as to call it an absolute masterpiece. Certainly a joy to listen to, and one that I'll be sure to spin again to see if my opinion changes.
Burning Spear
1/5
DNF. I really have no time for this. What I did hear was uninspirational reggae with tiresome lyrics.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
I don't fucking care.
Snoop Dogg
1/5
Oh wow, it's Snoop Dogg. He's such an icon. I should give this a 5! No. Every song is the same, talking about drugs, sex, and how amazing Snoop is. And I don't care.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
This sounds so dated, but in the worst possible way. Just listening to how busy these tracks are, with woo woos and soft flutes, a soft pad synth running through it. There's something proggy about the song structures, with some abandoning time signatures altogether.
It's gorgeously constructed and well recorded. But the songs are just shit.
Slipknot
1/5
I was 16 when this came out. I hated it then. I have so many more reasons to hate it now.
But also... "Liberate. Bananas." I don't care what they are really saying, it gave me a chuckle.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
Meh, it's fine I guess. If we were still in the 60s this might have been new or subversive, but it has been comprehensively surpassed in every way by modern acts. I'm also not a fan of blues/soul music.
Deep Purple
2/5
This is one of the most hollow albums I've ever listened to. It feels like these guys knew how to work a studio and their instruments, but what are these songs? This entire album played out and the overriding emotion I felt was cringe.
As the album started I was sitting at a solid 3, but over the course of the album the trite and meaningless songs wore me down to a solid 2.
Pixies
4/5
This is a fun little album. I'm predisposed to like the Pixies. It just does what it does and doesn't annoy me, I guess. I'm tired. Have a 4.
Shack
3/5
I'm not going to go so far as to say that this album deserves to be on this list. It's rather unremarkable. But on second listen, it's actually rather nice in places. I like it a lot more than other albums this list is trying to ram down my throat.
It actually reminded me of Oasis at first, but then I realised it actually sounds like the Stone Roses but good.
The Who
3/5
It's fine. Not really my cup of tea, but not the most annoying thing ever.
Christina Aguilera
4/5
This is actually pretty good. I legitimately found myself enjoying this more than most of the other albums I've heard up to this point. Not being huge on the manufactured pop genre, I really don't know much about it or the influences this album is drawing from (I haven't heard anything else on this list like it so far) but I know what this has influenced. Ariana Grande?
And yet, being 21 when this came out, I fell into the trap of hating on the image that was being cultivated for Christina. But that's exactly what am confronted with here. I got called a hypocrite in the first track for how I saw her back then. And I can't argue with that.
Christina has a gorgeous voice and it's treated so well here. This is a statement of intent, has some genuine bangers, and has a good message that is delivered well. I don't even care. It's a 4 from me.
Holger Czukay
2/5
I love experimental music. I love silly music. But when it comes along, it needs to be pushing something truly well produced and unique. I just don't get that from these rambling and silly songs.
Alice In Chains
3/5
Not really my thing. I've listened a few times and this all blurs into a mess of quasi-grunge rock.
Aerosmith
2/5
Find it really hard to care about this music. I guess I just don't like American rock music that's sold like a cynical product, or something. Not bad, just a chore to get through.
The Blue Nile
3/5
Just kinda nice. Not brilliant. I tried to like it more, but nothing really stuck with me. I enjoyed the restraint.
David Ackles
2/5
I had no idea what to make of this one going in. From the first note I was hopeful - but then my hopes were dashed. I was left somewhat bewildered. Is this a musical? Is it mimicking the style of a 1950's crooner?
And then the lyrics started to hit me. Perhaps I'm going to get some insightful poetry? I clung to the words sung with such conviction in a shaky voice with a very limited range - but it's all just hokey trash. Did he read some Americana novels and then spit them out in a stream of consciousness?
How about the lush orchestration? I feel sorry for the players on this thing. I don't understand the vocal melodies here, or the mix. It all feels wrong. If you told me this was generated by an AI it wouldn't surprise me.
The Doors
2/5
Really just tired dad rock. There's nothing really deep here, or any great production. It's by-the-numbers rock music by a bunch of amateurs. They just happened to do it before anyone else, making everyone think it's better than it actually is.
The Who
3/5
How many psychedelic 60s/70s albums am I going to be forced to listen to? There's really nothing great here. It's a weird and muddy mess of half-baked attempts at songs. The 'concept' is just to throw random advertisements into the mix. I'm giving a 3 because at least it wasn't excessively boring.
Mike Ladd
1/5
I wish I had more time to rip into this one. One of the contributors obviously liked boring experimental hip hop with no redeeming qualities. I have to imagine some kind of traumatic brain injury is required to enjoy this.
Sigur Rós
4/5
This is an album I should have been listening to more since I first heard about it. It's exceptionally lovely. I'm giving it a 4 for now and putting it on my very short list of albums that are decent on this list.
Tom Waits
4/5
I've listened to a couple Tom Waits albums so far, with varied results. This one is actually really good though. Some of the lines transcended right out of the songs and smacked me in the face. It's definitely a mood. The mood of a sad drunkard - but it sticks with that vibe and does it well. I feel like this is the Tom Waits that is catered towards me (of the ones I've heard so far).
Al Green
1/5
I'm not american. I have no connection to this kind of music. I don't understand it. Al Green is a violent piece of shit. His voice is ridiculous. This music is just incredibly boring and uninspired. What's he even singing about? Completely trite trash. I actively hate this album.
David Holmes
2/5
More pause menu music. Sounds like a rip-off from some late 90s spy film.
But wait a minute. That's because this guy literally scored Ocean's 11 and invented this sound, which is now ubiquitous with tense heists in every cool criminal/spy movie since then.
I am somehow both impressed and hate this album even more.
The Go-Go's
3/5
At first very syrupy sweet, but has a harder edge that creeps through. I kid you not, there is a lot of similarity between some of these songs and The Offspring, Green Day, and Nirvana in chords and melody, which took me by surprise.
The Allman Brothers Band
1/5
I have covid right now. From the very first second: Fuck off it's a live album. Then the first note: Fuck it's shitty american blues music. He literally says "I woke up this morning..." Could you possibly get any more cliche and formulaic than that?
There is no way in the course of my life that I would willing submit myself to this heaping pile of shit. Yet here I am, suffering physically, mentally, and now aurally too.
Fuck right off with this shit. 1 Star. I'm DNFing this.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
I am still sick, so I'll have to listen when my mind is back in order. But there's something here. Shades of the Cure and Morrissey, but also a precursor to the Smashing Pumpkins in that goth sound. Some Pumpkins things that I thought were entirely unique to their sound actually show themselves here. I didn't absolutely fall in love with it on first or second listen, but I'm hopeful.
Bill Evans Trio
1/5
Oh fuck off. Jazz again? This degenerate filth needs to stop. Play some real fucking music, you wanker.
Muddy Waters
1/5
Uggggh.
I hate this stupid list so much.
The first song on this is the most repetitive, trite, pathetic, worthless excuse for music I've ever heard. How is anyone hearing this and thinking it's good? It's the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Over 5 minutes of the same 3 seconds repeated over and over.
No. Just no. Not for me.
Blue Cheer
1/5
It's some kids taking drugs and turning up the volume knobs on their amplifiers and making loud noises. It's not as ground-breaking as music historians would have you believe. You just had to be there with an amp and a guitar and a lack of restraint.
"They did it first! It's important! Without them, you wouldn't have metal or bands like the Pixies or Nirvana!" says the Straw Man I just invented. No. This was literally inevitable. I'm not rewarding that.
Bert Jansch
4/5
I found this to be very intriguing. It bounced off a little on first listen, but then started to sink in. There are some very interesting/strange acoustic guitar flourishes, and some songs that feel influential on a lot of music that I value.
I'll be back to listen to this one.
Massive Attack
3/5
I'm happy to say that this isn't for me and I'm okay with that. I understand it's important, but there's a lack of emotional connection for me. It flies completely under the radar.
Miles Davis
1/5
Imagine recording this random cacophany of improvisational shit and listening back for the first time. The amount of masturbatory praise in that room alone as they imagined the hordes of imagination bereft soulless idiots that would clamour to exclaim their delight over this work. Jazz is for people who see music as a means to an end. A conversation piece. An opportunity to bluster and gatekeep: Oh, you loved Bitches Brew? Well you must be so cultured.
The Emperor is fucking naked everyone! Admit it to yourself, throw this in the bin, and go listen to something with structure, cleverness, and emotional connection.
The Youngbloods
3/5
From the first note: This sounds interesting. As soon as the weird falsetto came in, it started to lose me. Which is a shame because it has a jaunty musicality to it. The lyrics are also fairly trite. Just nothing to really engage me, but I'm feeling like giving it a pass and moving on.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
My first exposure to an actual Led Zeppelin album was... a little underwhelming. Obviously Immigrant Song is the standout, but nothing else on the album really follows it, and it comes off as a mid blues-rock album.
Antony and the Johnsons
5/5
There's something about this album that is touching and truly moving. ANOHNI's voice is such a rare and precious thing - and hearing this album for the first time back in 2006, I was enraptured.
I find some of the album to be a little strange and fractured, but the whole creates a sense of yearning that I feel is both masterful and necessary. This is the definition of essential listening to me.
To top it off, "Hope There's Someone" has stuck with me for almost two decades as one of the most powerful and touching songs I've heard. The fear of being alone, dying alone and unloved, creates such fertile soil for this album to blossom in. It makes putting a score on this album easy - it's a masterpiece.
American Music Club
2/5
What a disappointment. Maybe. It's hard to do this thing justice - listening to a youtube video playlist with random minute-long silence and different audio quality on each track doesn't reflect well on any work. What I did get really lacked any kind of substance. Clumsy metaphors, lacklustre singing, boring musical choices - it's an amateur effort at indie music.
And I will judge it harshly for this. You can't just throw a random pub rock indie band on the list and call it a day. There was literally an entire scene of indie music in Dunedin at this time that was inventing the grunge genre and this list completely ignores them.
Another annoying entry in a generally pretty terrible list.
Barry Adamson
4/5
Everyone once in a while this list throws me something completely unexpected. Usually it's a resounding disappointment. In this case it was a resounding success.
The sheer audacity of making a soundtrack to a film that doesn't exist, and then creating something that feels like it could have inspired Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Not in sheer industrial weight, but that ambient weirdness that this one takes us through. The fact that Reznor went on to make film soundtracks only confirms it for me.
This doesn't feel very important, or groundbreaking, or even particularly brilliant. But something here tickled me, and there are moments I appreciate. I can see myself recommending this for the curiousity value alone.
Public Enemy
2/5
I don't really have any great thoughts on this. Nothing really stood out. I'm not a fan of an album of any genre that just plods along. Is this socially conscious? If so it's not something I care for, but also from a country I don't care about.
Gillian Welch
5/5
I'm mad at myself. I love Americana and I've heard Gillian's name mentioned online in spaces which cater to my music taste. I love Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Neko Case, Songs: Ohia, and just everything in this scene.
I'm giving this 5 stars on the strength of the final sprawling track alone. The rest of the album is a warm bath that I'll soak in for years to come, but that final track has signalled both a new revelation and a sadness of passing and letting go on every listen so far.
The Sugarcubes
5/5
That's two brilliant and unexpected albums in a row after months of slogging through awful dad rock and jazz. And it's Bjork, showing us how she is and has always been a force to be reckoned with in music. This is fresh and exciting to my ears, even as parts haven't aged well.
This is another example of why I persist with this list. And disliking Bjork is big NPC energy. I'm onto you.
Van Halen
2/5
What in the American dad-rock is this? First track is familiar, obviously, but from there it goes into a masturbatory guitar ejaculation, then into a by-the-numbers cover that commits the sin of not matching the original.
From there on we devolve into a macho yelling match that I don't care to listen to. Technically good guitar playing is fine, I guess. It just comes off as a huge cheese fest.
Magazine
4/5
I'm a bit stumped on this one. I've listened about half a dozen times now and I still can't form an opinion.
On the plus side, the synths are really fun. I enjoy the music of the album and the lyrics are just kinda wacky enough to be interesting. That should be all of it. But on the negative, the vocalist is awful and the recording sounds incredibly 70's. I just struggle with old recordings.
But the fact I keep listening to it makes think I'll keep wanting to.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
5/5
I honestly don't know what's wrong with you all. At this stage whenever I see an album with an average score less than 3, I know I'm in for a good time.
I was skeptical at first with Swampsnake, but Gang Bang is BRILLIANT. Come on! Have a sense of humour everyone. This is swagger and stupidity at its finest. And then you get Next. Wow. I've never heard anything like this, but I adore it. Apparently from Jacques Brel, translated, but given so much feeling and spite. An absolute masterpiece.
And finally Last of the Teenage Idols? It's just good, clean. bizarre fun. But even for all of its weirdness, it maintains a sense of musicality and charisma. I love it. This is precisely the kind of curveball I like to see in this project.
Joni Mitchell
2/5
I made it through this once. I don't need to again. It's jazz with words, which are probably great words given Joni. But I can't get past the medium, which at a certain point you just realise is random notes and chords with words over top which gives it a rambling and unfocused feeling.
Not a great entry point into Joni's works I'm afraid.
The Band
1/5
I don't have anything good to say. This actively made me angry. It's poorly recorded, meaningless, unimaginitive, poorly sung. I skipped my way through the album. I hate country/blues/rock with a passion.
Pink Floyd
5/5
I showed my album of the day to my wife and she said 'oh it's a day off then?' But no. Why let a chance to listen to this album again in its entirety go to waste?
This is not my favourite Pink Floyd album. I don't think every note is perfect and I even think some of the songs don't work for me. BUT. This is masterfully recorded, brilliantly conceived, and lovely to listen to.
There's not a moment during my listen that I thought to bring this down from a solid 5 stars.