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Thu Nov 30 2023
Disintegration
The Cure
Ethereal soundscapes interspersed between the bigger hits. It’s sooo good! I didn’t want to say it but thought the last third or so got a little same-y but I reckon I just need more listens
5
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Fri Dec 01 2023
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
Miles runs the voodoo down is a fav so far. I think so anyway. Not like I can remember all that’s come before it! Bitches Brew was cool I think! But spooky towards the end.
Hopefully in the future I’ll look back and say that I didn’t know enough about jazz to get everything out of this album. I look forward to that. In the meantime, I did really enjoy it though I cant say I wasn’t glad to have finished it - it is bloody long.
4
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Mon Dec 04 2023
Heroes
David Bowie
In Heroes, David Bowie was clearly inspired by the artist David Bowie and his album Low. David Bowie pays homage to David Bowie’s album Low and its formula of having a broadly instrumental B side, very unlike the more rock-orientated A side. While Heroes is an excellent emulation by David Bowie, David Bowie’s album is certainly a more rounded and more enjoyable album all in all.
Side A becomes so much more when I start paying attention to Robert Fripp’s guitar. Blackout is thrilling, Joe the Lion is such electric. Sons of the Silent Age is like if the middle of Court of the Crimson King was more lively.
Also love that so many of the songs fade out. Adds to the chaos - a constant sprawl of Krautrock-y mayhem.
And god I love some piano in a rock song. Ben Folds Five will always astonish me. Be My Wife is my favourite Low track and there’s so much to love on Heroes with that dirty piano energy. Beauty and the Beast the most obvious to me.
4
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Tue Dec 05 2023
L.A. Woman
The Doors
Apparently Robby Krieger said this album “sounds almost like a rehearsal. It’s pure Doors.” Yeah, that’s it! It’s so cool and casual despite being incredibly good. It’s like if slacker rock went blues-y.
4
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Wed Dec 06 2023
On The Beach
Neil Young
Yesterday’s album was LA Woman so it’s been great fun hearing just how differently you can interpret a basic blues structure!
Definitely needs a second listen. Sure, all albums get better after multiple listens but particularly with albums like this where the songs don’t massively distance themselves from each other in style, theme and energy, it’s never more needed. Listen 1 was a nice gentle folky mush. Listen 2 was more refined and more moving. I’ll find time for Listen 3. Looking forward to it!
For the turnstiles sounds like an Elliott Smith song!
4
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Thu Dec 07 2023
Live At Leeds
The Who
Incredible fun. Pure, simple, electric.
The drums sound incredible! The snare sounds like machine gun chatter.
Impossible not to love. My Who knowledge isn’t as good as it should be so I imagine my experience would only be heightened if I knew their previous discography really well.
5
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Fri Dec 08 2023
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel
Particularly love A Poem on the Underground Wall and The Dangling Conversation. The imagery in both is so beautiful!
The jazzy double bass sound in The 59th Street Bridge Song is so cool and can’t get over the brilliant piss-take that is A Simple Desultory Philippic!
Already familiar with Scarborough Fair and Homeward Bound. Overall just beautiful little album. Really short as well! It all just works.
4
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Mon Dec 11 2023
One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
Generally, really good fun. Managed to be both cheesy and mature.
Some moments felt repetitive and dull which is annoying an album that's over an hour long where you can definitely shorten it in places
But the blend of rock and funk was great! Particularly loved the title track, Who says a Funk Band...., and Cholly, Also, the guitar on Lunchmeataphobia was amazing! Sounded like if Black Sabbath went Funk!
4
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Thu Dec 28 2023
Synchronicity
The Police
4
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Mon Jan 01 2024
Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf
It's Warren Zevon: The Musical
Catchy and fun at times! But it's basically a musical soundtrack and I really can't stand musical songs most of the times. OK, I like the folk rock essence of some of it and some of the hard rock moments were nice though they felt really diluted by the musical-y tone. Almost oxymoronic. Like a wrestler whose entrance song is the muppets theme tune. Doesn't work.
I think I liked it less and less as it went on. The first few seconds of the title track had me convinced I was gonna find a new favourite album. By the final musical-y twang on All Revved Up... I felt ill. The last two tracks couldn't have gone quick enough.
Demonstrably, I think it's a good album. It's just not for me. At all.
I'm very glad I've listened to it. I can imagine I might revisit the first two tracks very occasionally but that's it. But hey, Two Out of Eight Ain't Bad. But it's close.
2
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Tue Jan 02 2024
1989
Taylor Swift
Right, going in open-minded. Gonna focus on all the positives, let's do it
OK, thought the opener is fun but a little dull
I've heard Blank Space before. It's a great song!
Oh yeah, I've heard Style before as well. Yeah, really fun chorus! Great bridge as well!
Out of the Woods isn't for me. To me it sounds like a spoof of a pop song. Like something they'd play at the end of an episode of Smack the Pony.
not mad about All You Had to Do Was Stay. The thing is, I'd love all the songs I'm not enjoying if I was a pop song. Which is to say they're all great pop songs! But it's not what I'd choose to listen to so even great examples of it are boring for me.
Shake it Off is great. Probably gonna be my favourite on the album. I've obviously heard it plenty of times before but focusing on it here, the drum groove is brilliant! The open high hats make the song if you ask me. Builds really well, chorus is really fun. The 'rap' bit will never not sound ridiculous but who cares, it's a great song.
I've heard that the snares on I Wish You Would are inspired by She Drives Me Crazy, the Fine Young Cannibals song. I love that song. I can hear the resemblance here. Especially in the last few seconds. Don't think anyone would've been able to notice it if it wasn't revealed though. Still, it's a nice song. Feels like a bit of a filler to me.
Heard Bad Blood before as well, of course. Again only now noticing the great drum groove. Simple but really effective. Never loved this song. Liked it a bit more on this listen but not one of my favourites.
Oh, I've heard Wildest Dreams before as well! Christ she's everywhere. It's nice. I don't know that the strings work with the bass. Don't think those things mix so well. Good song though!
How You Get the Girl: Oooooh OK did not like that. Sounded like a country artist doing a cover of a 00s song by a manufactured band of 16-year-olds.
Thought This Love was boring. Oh no, album. Please don't totally shrivel away.
I Know Places: Well I sincerely hated the verse and then the chorus came in and totally saved it. Still didn't enjoy it but could've been a lot worse without the decent chorus. God, it's the 'I, I, I, I'... felt abusive.
Clean was really boring. I really tried.
It's not for me. But I can appreciate it.
3
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Wed Jan 03 2024
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Devo
Devo is Talking Heads if David Byrne got an early autism diagnosis.
All the beautiful, neurodivergent angst and chaos of, say, Fear of Music, but with no intention from the musicians to be anyone but themselves. Even if that occasionally came at the expense of the music.
All I know is I will be blasting Mongoloid at every house party I go to from now on to ensure nobody ever lets me connect to a speaker again.
4
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Mon Jan 08 2024
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John
Yeah it’s alright!
3
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Tue Jan 09 2024
A Night At The Opera
Queen
This album is so brilliant that I always forget it has bohemian rhapsody on it
5
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Bandwagonesque
Teenage Fanclub
God bless the second listen.
Was so uninterested on my first listen. Sounded plain, uninspiring and mainly derivative. I then learned that the album preceded most of the artists it seemed to derive from. It sounds very Oasis-y and Madchester-ish generally.
On the second listen, it all came together to create something really special. I love the first few tracks collectively. The final track Is This Music is easily the best on the album. Sounds so so much like a Cure song. A discarded intro to a song from Disintegration that Robert Smith never got around to writing lyrics to.
Pet Rock is also a favourite. It’s a great album. You just need to listen to it again.
5
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Thu Jan 11 2024
Crazysexycool
TLC
I really didn’t want to be one of those people that just vaguely says that it’s not for them. They tried and it’s just not their type of music.
So I wasn’t that kind of person. And it turns out it’s a fantastic album! No denying it. Loved it!
4
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Fri Jan 12 2024
Future Days
Can
Beautiful, ethereal soundscape. And with drums that are basically the lead instrument!
This album is what this whole website is all about.
5
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
4
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Deep Purple In Rock
Deep Purple
If I didn’t look at the year it came out then I’d say they were clearly inspired by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Bit of King Crimson and elements of Doors in there too.
But then I’d look at the year it came out and realise it deserves a lot more credit than I’d given it.
5
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Vespertine
Björk
4
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Court And Spark
Joni Mitchell
Yep. Yep yep yep.
Lyrics are amazing. Her voice is amazing. I loved all the jazz inflections. I get the Joni Mitchell appeal.
5
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Here, My Dear
Marvin Gaye
Actually pretty funny after a while. God, he was really going through it!
4
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Crime Of The Century
Supertramp
I love this album. Bloody Well Right is enough to earn it five stars in and off itself. Add to that Asylum and Hide in Your Shell and it’s brilliant.
Yeah I saw the comment saying this is “prog for people who think billy joel “rocks”” but hey! Guess what! You can think this is a great rock album while also loving hard rock albums! And I do! And so should you!
5
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Tommy
The Who
I can't knock it too much. I get why it's a classic! It was just hard to take entirely seriously. Lyrics certainly weren't subtle. But the music itself is godly. Wincing my way through tracks like Fiddle About where made easier by the insane brilliance that is Keith Moon.
Without the drums, I might have given this a three to be honest! But I'll try to relisten at some point. I reckon I'll appreciate it more over time.
4
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Wed Jan 24 2024
All Mod Cons
The Jam
One of the easiest five stars yet. Such a distinctive and addictive sound, and the lyricism is fantastic. The political commentaries are beautifully described and I love when Weller's brilliant, spikey cockney accent is used to sing incredibly sweet love songs like English Rose or The Place I Love.
In so many songs, the bass acts at the lead guitar and the lead as the rhythm. It complements Weller's gritty voice perfectly. I only knew English Rose and Down In The Tube Station... before I listened and as soon as the the first track All Mod Cons came on I knew it'd be five stars.
The album is 37 minutes of pumping cockney poetry and I could listen to it forever.
5
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab
4
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Cafe Bleu
The Style Council
Weirdly, my album two days ago was All Mod Cons. At no point during that did I think "this is all very good... but I wish Paul Weller would start rapping."
That track excluded, the album is great fun. I love the jazzy instrumentally tracks and the politically charged songs in between. Big fan.
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Elephant
The White Stripes
Jesus Christ this is amazing.
Was really lucky to have not listened to this before. I've listened to their first album and to White Blood Cells but other than Seven Nation Army, Hardest Button... and Ball and Biscuit, Elephant was new to me.
Black math is a perfect statement of intent for the rest of the album. There No Home... is literally just Dead Leaves in the Dirty Ground with new lyrics but I'm not complaining. Other highlights for me were Little Acorns, Hypnotize and Girl You Have No Faith... but I absolutely loved every song and could and will and almost already have listened to this album countless times.
5
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
Yeah, it’s alright! Pretty fun
3
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Back In Black
AC/DC
Ah ok I get the hype.
5
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Diamond Life
Sade
4
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Mon Feb 05 2024
Grace
Jeff Buckley
I do like it! It's one of those albums I probably wouldn't have got around to listening to were it not for this project. I think I was always hesitant because the very little I'd heard from it before hadn't astonished me like it seemed to for other people. And that problem is still there a bit to be honest.
I do have a big fear that I'll soon come to see this as a masterpiece and I'll deeply regret giving it four stars. I'm sorry future me! I didn't know yet!
4
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Tue Feb 06 2024
Doolittle
Pixies
5
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Phrenology
The Roots
Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping this website would help me with. Rap has always been an embarrassingly large gap in my music knowledge but I haven't known the best way in. This may have been it! I love the blend of rock and hip hop and I just found the whole thing incredibly listenable.
I want to take a closer look at the lyrics some time soon, I'm sure it'd only make me appreciate the album more.
5
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
Jet is a masterpiece, the title track is brilliant, 1985 is great and the rest of the album definitely doesn't sway too far from those assessments.
4
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Tue Feb 27 2024
All Things Must Pass
George Harrison
I had Wings' Band on the Run yesterday and now this! Maybe tomorrow I'll get an album by the main man: Ringo.
I've always said this is the best Beatles solo album (just beating RAM I reckon). Such a distinctive sound throughout with a slide guitar which (thankfully) never goes full country. There's a couple of close calls like Behind that Locked Door but that's excused because it's followed by Let it Down.
If Not For You might be my favourite. Amazing song already but covered so well by Harrison, making it a whole different animal.
Great, great, great album.
5
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Urban Hymns
The Verve
The three singles are all great obviously. They clearly knew that and decided to make every other song on the album as similar as possible.
That can work in some cases but here it means you end up with over an hour of mumbled, soporific rock mush.
3
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Being There
Wilco
4
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Fri Mar 15 2024
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin
5
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Natty Dread
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Hadn't come across this one before. Really enjoyed it. Particularly liked Lively Up Yourself, Them Belly Full, Talkin’ Blues and Am-A-Do
4
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Tue Mar 19 2024
The Yes Album
Yes
Sort of album you really have to listen to multiple times. Second listen immediately better and more colourful than the first.
Opener has a great Queen-esque feel that feels like synth before synth
Love the drums! Especially on Starship Trooper where the drummer sort of floats in and out of the beat
I haven’t even properly read the lyrics but I bet they’re taking inspiration from King Crimson. Has that biographical feel.
Doesn’t seem like it would’ve reinvented the wheel at the time… more research for me to do!
4
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Wed Mar 20 2024
...Baby One More Time
Britney Spears
I really didn’t want to be this person but my unfortunately my entitled expectations were correct.
Really boring, nothing-y lyrics… I just felt sorry for her. Having a bunch of blokes sit around and write a song about ejaculation for a teenager to sing.
I know it’s said to be an incredibly important and influential album but I can’t give it any more stars for that alone.
At least there were some catchy moments here and there and the title track is objectively a good pop song.
2
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
Yep. I get it now.
I knew this was shoegaze and was expecting a very mellow tone throughout. Was happily surprised within the first second!
The opener was like Sonic Youth meets Psychedelic Furs with Bjork on vocals.
That blend of gritty, unkempt, feedback-riddled instrumentation and soft, mumbled vocals was just as captivating throughout the rest of the album.
God, I love this website.
5
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Fri Mar 22 2024
Illinois
Sufjan Stevens
I found it grew to a point of real beauty upon multiple relistens. I had to pause this project for a fair while to have enough time to properly understand this album.
Overall, I think the arrangements are quite Disney-esque which isn't really my jam but, I mean, you just can't not appreciate the majesty of the instrumentation none the less.
It doesn't quite scrape 5 stars for me based purely on subjective takes but I have absolutely no problem understanding its placement on this list.
I mean, some of the songs here... Casimir Pulaski Day? Fuck. Me. Just... utterly soul-crushing and beautiful. Sitting down to properly pour over the lyrics made me feel like someone was squeezing my fucking wind pipe. It's the way the lyrics so brilliantly demonstrate the narrator's youth and naivity. It brings to mind Bowie's Five Years and how the emotions of a tragic event is made so much stronger by having them described by someone young and ignorant. You feel such an aching sorrow for them. I also do appreciate that even a overtly religious song comes nowhere near to proselytising. It's just frank and earnest and beautiful and harrowing and therefore equally powerful for everyone, from a heathen like myself to a devout Christian.
Oh what am I doing? Five stars. Has to be. Well done, Sufjan, well done.
5
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Tue May 07 2024
Garbage
Garbage
I liked it! Only knew Stupid Boy going in. Loved the genre-bending mess of it. Preferred the grungier elements to the poppier parts
4