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Wed Nov 22 2023
Rumours
Fleetwood Mac
5
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Thu Nov 23 2023
Blue
Joni Mitchell
5
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Fri Nov 24 2023
21
Adele
4
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Mon Nov 27 2023
Deep Purple In Rock
Deep Purple
I tend to find a lot of ‘70s hard rock pretty boring, and while this doesn’t really escape the limitations of that genre for me, it does have a lot of energy.
3
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Tue Nov 28 2023
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John
5
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Wed Nov 29 2023
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
3
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Thu Nov 30 2023
Axis: Bold As Love
Jimi Hendrix
4
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Fri Dec 01 2023
For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
4
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Mon Dec 04 2023
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
4
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Tue Dec 05 2023
Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
5
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Wed Dec 06 2023
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Wu-Tang Clan
5
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Mon Dec 11 2023
Logical Progression
LTJ Bukem
3
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Tue Dec 12 2023
Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
Incredible to think that this is one of the greatest albums of all time, yet it’s probably Wonder’s weaker album from this period of his career.
5
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Wed Dec 13 2023
Dry
PJ Harvey
I just about prefer her later albums - particularly Stories From the City - but this has so much barely-contained energy to it. She still sounds like the most exciting person in music.
4
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Thu Dec 14 2023
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Aphex Twin
5
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Fri Dec 15 2023
Garbage
Garbage
Garbage passed me by in their heyday so I only really knew them from The World Is Not Enough thème, which I like quite a bit. There’s some wonderful songs on her, but it’s pretty samey and the standout tracks don’t elevate it quite enough to cohere as a strong statement.
3
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Mon Dec 18 2023
My Aim Is True
Elvis Costello
There was a period in my early 20s where I would listen to the album every morning after waking up, partly because “Welcome to the Working Week” is a perfect start the day song, but mainly because it’s wall-to-wall great, punchy songs. An insane start to a career.
5
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Tue Dec 19 2023
Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
4
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Wed Dec 20 2023
Oedipus Schmoedipus
Barry Adamson
3
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Thu Dec 21 2023
Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
When I was at college, I knew a lot of people - mainly girls I had crushes on - who were really into Ryan Adams, so I spent a lot of time trying to understand what people saw in him. Ultimately I just realized I didn’t like his music because it’s a shallower version of stuff I like better, and this is the epitome of that. It’s shallower takes on the kind of alt-country that bands like Wilco were doing much better at the time. The more energetic rock songs hold up better, and suggest he would have had a more fruitful career if he’d embraced that sense of fun rather than trying to be an artist.
2
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Fri Dec 22 2023
Tanto Tempo
Bebel Gilberto
4
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Sat Dec 23 2023
The ArchAndroid
Janelle Monáe
4
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Sat Dec 23 2023
All Directions
The Temptations
4
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Sun Dec 24 2023
Here's Little Richard
Little Richard
Sometimes you listen to an influential album and you appreciate what it meant but it doesn’t have the visceral impact now, and sometimes you listen to Here’s Little Richard and it still hits like a freight train. Musically it’s all very played out at this point, but his energy and passion transcends the decades.
4
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Mon Dec 25 2023
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Genesis
Even though I am more amenable to prog now than I was as a teen, when I was firmly against anything even remotely connected to the genre, i have never really gotten on with Genesis and this hasn’t shaken that assessment. The musicianship is very good, and the concept is an interesting one, but the songs are not distinctive or engaging enough to sell it.
2
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Tue Dec 26 2023
A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector
Various Artists
5
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Wed Dec 27 2023
Highway to Hell
AC/DC
3
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Thu Dec 28 2023
Greetings From L.A.
Tim Buckley
4
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Fri Dec 29 2023
Electric Warrior
T. Rex
4
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Sat Dec 30 2023
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
3
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Sun Dec 31 2023
Blood On The Tracks
Bob Dylan
This was the first Dylan album I ever listened to that wasn’t a best of and it was the thing that finally helped me understand what people saw in him. The music is complicated, the lyrics are intricate and tell such vivid stories, and his voice sounds phenomenal. The only knock against it is that it isn’t quite as good as some of the albums leading up it, which is more just an indication of what an insane hot streak Dylan was on at that point in his career.
5
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Mon Jan 01 2024
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin
4
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Tue Jan 02 2024
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
4
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Wed Jan 03 2024
The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem
4
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Thu Jan 04 2024
Amnesiac
Radiohead
I’ve never been able to love this as much as Kid A, despite them obviously originating from the same sessions and complementing each other. There’s a few stunning standout moments, most notably “Pyramid Song”, but it doesn’t cohere as well as its sister record. It’s still a very good album, but it doesn’t hang with the absolute pinnacle of their work.
4
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Fri Jan 05 2024
Definitely Maybe
Oasis
4
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Sat Jan 06 2024
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
3
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Sun Jan 07 2024
Aladdin Sane
David Bowie
4
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Mon Jan 08 2024
Made In Japan
Deep Purple
It’s probably dumb that the thing that turned me around on Deep Purple was realizing that “Highway Star” was the opening song to the first Rock Band, but here we are.
Aside from that, though, this being a live album does imbue it with a ferocity that their studio albums lack (at least in my experience).
4
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Tue Jan 09 2024
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
3
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Bubble And Scrape
Sebadoh
4
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Thu Jan 11 2024
Dirty
Sonic Youth
4
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Fri Jan 12 2024
Rejoicing In The Hands
Devendra Banhart
4
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Sat Jan 13 2024
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
3
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Sun Jan 14 2024
There's No Place Like America Today
Curtis Mayfield
4
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Closer
Joy Division
4
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
4
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Murder Ballads
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Melody A.M.
Röyksopp
4
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Chris
Christine and the Queens
3
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Sat Jan 20 2024
At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
3
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Spy Vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman
John Zorn
4
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Tue Jan 23 2024
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
5
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Shake Your Money Maker
The Black Crowes
3
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Sign 'O' The Times
Prince
5
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3
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Sat Jan 27 2024
The Clash
The Clash
4
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Morrison Hotel
The Doors
I have tried so many times with The Doors, but every time Jim Morrison starts singing I just glaze over. The musicianship is pretty good, but I cannot stand his nonsense.
2
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Survivor
Destiny's Child
There’s some filler in the back half which stops in from being wall-to-wall hits, but it gets pretty close. In hindsight you can really appreciate what a seismic impact this album had on the sound of pop music for the decade after it came out. I mean it was huge at the time too, but you can’t really just the size of the impact crater when you’re under the asteroid.
4
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Beauty And The Beat
The Go-Go's
5
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Dead Kennedys
4
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Raising Hell
Run-D.M.C.
The influence and importance of the album can’t be denied, but some of the production sounds very thin and the rhymes are a bit clunky and basic in places. Some of the songs retain tremendous impact - most notably It’s Tricky - but its overall not as compelling as its strongest moments.
3
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Fri Feb 02 2024
The Boatman's Call
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
This was my gateway album into The Bad Seeds, alongside Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues, and while I now prefer their rougher and more violent early work than this more polished effort, it’s still a great work of songwriting. “Into My Arms” is truly one of the most remarkable songs of the last 30 years
4
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Sat Feb 03 2024
The Cars
The Cars
There’s a couple of great songs on here - I particularly adore the synth bridge in “Just What I Needed” - and I can absolutely see why they were so beloved as part of that New Wave…wave of bands, but as a whole it doesn’t really hit for me.
3
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Sun Feb 04 2024
Different Class
Pulp
I lived in Sheffield for nearly a decade, no way I could give it less than a full five.
5
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Mon Feb 05 2024
Face to Face
The Kinks
While this is clearly an important album in the evolution of The Kinks, I like the ambition and songwriting in their subsequent albums much more. Some standouts (Sunny Afternoon remains one of the greatest songs ever written) but the cohesive vision that would soon emerge in their work.
3
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Tue Feb 06 2024
A Night At The Opera
Queen
As much as I like some of their songs individually, I’ve never been that much of a Queen guy, and I tend to find their albums pretty grating. This is no exception.
2
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division
This was a huge album for me as a teen, and directly led to several friendships when I went to University and bonded with people over how much we all loved Joy Division, so there’s obviously a lot of good memories and nostalgia wrapped in an album which is actually quite bleak and distressing. It doesn’t have quite the impact on me that it had then, but the sheer ferocity of the music and the sense of Ian Curtis being on the edge of something horrible is hard to deny.
4
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Thu Feb 08 2024
Foxbase Alpha
Saint Etienne
Their cover of “Only Love Will Break Your Heart” is the standout for how well it reconfigures the song to make it both eminently more danceable and even sadder, but the rest of the album is also very good, blending a lot of different sounds together to create a pop record that still feels pretty singular.
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Blur
Blur
Though I think Pulp’s This Is Hardcore is the better - in fact the *best* - Britpop is dead album, between that album and Blur you have a pretty definitive statement of intent from two bands who benefited from that label and also were determined not to get trapped by it.
“Beetlebum” sets the stage immediately with its woozy, burned out on excess tone and lyrics, signaling a break with their previous sound and a more personal lyrical style. The nods to Pavement and similar American acts abound, but on this listen I was struck by just how much of Bowie is laced throughout this, most obvious on M.O.R. which is a deliberate homage to him and Brian Eno, but also on “Strange News from Another Star”, which from the title on down sounds like something Bowie would have recorded circa his time in Berlin.
A thrilling record, both within the context of Blur’s discography, which it represents such a sharp break from, and as a record in isolation. “Song 2” may have been overplayed to the point of cliche, but that first blast of distortion still hits like a freight train.
4
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Off The Wall
Michael Jackson
For me, his best album. A collection of great songs that also represent his burgeoning ambition. True birth of a superstar stuff.
5
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Sun Feb 11 2024
Cross
Justice
4
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Mon Feb 12 2024
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell
There’s not a lot of real standout tracks on this, but the mood and tone of it is very intoxicating, and the shifts in Mitchell’s sound to include more jazz influence and different instrumentations make it a rewarding listen as someone more familiar with her folkier work.
4
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
I’ve always preferred Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed, in no small part because I tend to roll my eyes at double albums out of principle, but even if this has some of the bloat that turns me off double albums in general, there are so many great, punchy songs on it that it always wins me over.
4
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Wed Feb 14 2024
Kenya
Machito
4
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Thu Feb 15 2024
The Predator
Ice Cube
4
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Fri Feb 16 2024
Supa Dupa Fly
Missy Elliott
4
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Sat Feb 17 2024
Elephant
The White Stripes
Not my favourite White Stripes album, but the most important one since it was the record that really got me into them and made me want to listen to everything they had made before and would make in the future (even if that proved to be very short-lived). “Seven Nation Army” still bangs, even if it has become part of popular culture in the most obnoxious way (being badly yelled off-key at sporting events).
4
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Slayed?
Slade
Pretty fun! I’ve always thought of Slade as a novelty act on account of their inescapable Christmas hit, but this shows that they had real chops when it comes to writing entertaining, meat and potatoes rock. Not my cup of tea, but still good.
3
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Mon Feb 19 2024
The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
Despite some absolutely seismic songs - namely Firestarter and Breathe - this one has never chimed with me as much as the Prodigy’s earlier albums. The more aggressive sound is just not as appealing to me as the giddy fun of the first two records.
3
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Tue Feb 20 2024
The Wildest!
Louis Prima
I tend not to like this kind of Jazz - I’m more into stuff from the ‘60s and ‘70s when it gets more free form - but this is a lot of fun. So many iconic songs played with verve.
4
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Exile In Guyville
Liz Phair
4
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
4
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Pictures At An Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
5
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Unhalfbricking
Fairport Convention
4
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Celebrity Skin
Hole
4
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Tue Feb 27 2024
She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
3
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Wild Gift
X
4
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Yeezus
Kanye West
This was the last album from Kanye that I really dug, and even with everything that has happened with him since - artistically, personally, politically - it remains a bracing and thrilling record.
4
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Sex Packets
Digital Underground
3
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Sat Mar 02 2024
The Stranger
Billy Joel
Confirmed my general impression of Billy Joel, which is that when he’s writing really specific story songs, he’s great, when he’s writing more generic pop he writes the most vapid pablum.
3
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Sun Mar 03 2024
The Healer
John Lee Hooker
3
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Mon Mar 04 2024
No Other
Gene Clark
[Paul Rudd as John Lennon voice] Greeeeat record
4
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Tapestry
Carole King
5
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Wed Mar 06 2024
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators
3
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Orbital 2
Orbital
4
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Fri Mar 08 2024
Little Earthquakes
Tori Amos
5
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Hail To the Thief
Radiohead
4
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Kenza
Khaled
4
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Chirping Crickets
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
4
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Tue Mar 12 2024
London Calling
The Clash
5
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Live At The Witch Trials
The Fall
4
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Queen Of Denmark
John Grant
5
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Fri Mar 15 2024
John Barleycorn Must Die
Traffic
4
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Sat Mar 16 2024
Rubber Soul
Beatles
4
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Sun Mar 17 2024
Odelay
Beck
4
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Dust
Screaming Trees
3
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Tue Mar 19 2024
Lust For Life
Iggy Pop
4
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Arrival
ABBA
4
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Songs The Lord Taught Us
The Cramps
4
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Fri Mar 22 2024
A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Streets
4
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Rock 'N Soul
Solomon Burke
5
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Tusk
Fleetwood Mac
The only knock against this album is that it isn’t Rumours, which is also true of every other album.
5
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Raw Like Sushi
Neneh Cherry
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen
5
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Wed Mar 27 2024
GREY Area
Little Simz
3
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Another Green World
Brian Eno
5
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Truth
Jeff Beck
3
View Album
Sat Mar 30 2024
1989
Taylor Swift
4
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
4
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Mon Apr 01 2024
Real Life
Magazine
4
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Tue Apr 02 2024
Stand!
Sly & The Family Stone
5
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Junkyard
The Birthday Party
4
View Album
Thu Apr 04 2024
The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy
3
View Album
Fri Apr 05 2024
Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk
5
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Play
Moby
3
View Album
Sun Apr 07 2024
Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
4
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Germfree Adolescents
X-Ray Spex
5
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Zombie
Fela Kuti
5
View Album
Wed Apr 10 2024
Gold
Ryan Adams
2
View Album
Thu Apr 11 2024
Vanishing Point
Primal Scream
4
View Album
Fri Apr 12 2024
McCartney
Paul McCartney
4
View Album
Sat Apr 13 2024
Ten
Pearl Jam
More like 4.
4
View Album
Sun Apr 14 2024
Headquarters
The Monkees
3
View Album
Mon Apr 15 2024
Traffic
Traffic
2
View Album
Tue Apr 16 2024
Hot Rats
Frank Zappa
4
View Album
Wed Apr 17 2024
Darklands
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4
View Album
Thu Apr 18 2024
Penance Soiree
The Icarus Line
3
View Album
Fri Apr 19 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
5
View Album
Sat Apr 20 2024
Meat Is Murder
The Smiths
4
View Album
Sun Apr 21 2024
Manassas
Stephen Stills
4
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Olympia 64
Jacques Brel
3
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Tue Apr 23 2024
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
4
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Thriller
Michael Jackson
Real shame that he was a monster, because this is truly the perfect pop album.
5
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Thu Apr 25 2024
Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
4
View Album
Fri Apr 26 2024
A Northern Soul
The Verve
3
View Album
Sat Apr 27 2024
Funeral
Arcade Fire
5
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against The Machine
5
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Mon Apr 29 2024
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
4
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Tue Apr 30 2024
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
4
View Album
Wed May 01 2024
Warehouse: Songs And Stories
Hüsker Dü
5
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Thu May 02 2024
Sea Change
Beck
3
View Album
Fri May 03 2024
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago
4
View Album
Sat May 04 2024
Paul's Boutique
Beastie Boys
5
View Album
Sun May 05 2024
Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine
Cee Lo Green
3
View Album
Mon May 06 2024
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
3
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Tue May 07 2024
To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
4
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Wed May 08 2024
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
4