243
Albums Rated
2.64
Average Rating
22%
Complete
846 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
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Rating Timeline
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Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Funk
Favorite Genre
UK
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14
5-Star Albums
27
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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Ratings by genre
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Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lost Souls | 5 | 3.16 | +1.84 |
| Sea Change | 5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
| Blue | 5 | 3.49 | +1.51 |
| Maggot Brain | 5 | 3.6 | +1.4 |
| Hounds Of Love | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Harvest | 5 | 3.82 | +1.18 |
| Freak Out! | 4 | 2.84 | +1.16 |
| Innervisions | 5 | 3.87 | +1.13 |
| The Who Sell Out | 4 | 3 | +1 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appetite For Destruction | 1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
| Jagged Little Pill | 1 | 3.72 | -2.72 |
| Born In The U.S.A. | 1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
| To Pimp A Butterfly | 1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
| Straight Outta Compton | 1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
| 1984 | 1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
| Play | 1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
| If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears | 1 | 3.42 | -2.42 |
| Stardust | 1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
| British Steel | 1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 3 | 2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Miles Davis | 4, 2, 5 |
| Kate Bush | 2, 3, 5 |
5-Star Albums (14)
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Popular Reviews
Beth Orton
3/5
So glad I got this recommendation today firstly because it’s a good album but also I’ve had a run of sub-par music from female artists on here and was feeling sexist. Bad bits: sometimes veers off into quite poor trip-hop production, and that near-shout middle part of her voice wears a bit after a while. That’s it though, the rest l like a lot. It definitely wanders as an album, and in this case I like that, it meanders gently. When singing softly her voice is beautiful and in few places she stretches her vocals quite powerfully. Most of the songs are thoughtful and atmospheric and in “Pass in time” really quite moving.
5 likes
Dolly Parton
1/5
Nope.
Country is shit. I made it to 1:30 of the first track and was cringing all the way then came the steel guitars. Had to take a vom break.
This is very commercial shopping mall music too. Just all the cliches, nothing new or vital and not classic either. I was very sure to put Spotify into private mode for this one. I do not want this inexcusable excrement in my already awful recs.
Me listening to the albums on this list: "I literally never want to hear another rap/hip-hop or country album or song ever again". Far from making me appreciate some elements of these genres that had evaded me before it is simply convincing me how right I am to dislike this drivel.
And is this not a candidate for worst album artwork ever? Hideous.
If you want to listen to an album with 3 greats on it, listen to "Passion, Grace and Fire", or "Friday Night in San Francisco".
Still no Isley Brothers. Fuck.
5 likes
1/5
There's really only one category of music I'm prepared to say I outright hate and it's country, but I did listen, and I am sad to say my hatred is justified.
This is music for inbreds with Stockholm Syndrome marriages.
It's so sickly and syrupy, and it's from 1967? That revolutionary year? It sounds like it could have passed without notiuce in 1947. Objectively the songs are straight ahead ballady stuff that could be done in any traditional style but even then none really caught my ear except to make me grimace at the weeping steel guitars.
And it's message seems to be "men are so cruel, but well us gals just gunna have to deal with it". Maybe she's giving a voice to women in this situation but I don't care.
Oh and it seems she was a Republican influencer of many decades standing, yeah that fits.
How do I give minus stars?
2 likes
Donovan
2/5
Hmmm never been a fan and I'm not converted, but I am quite impressed how early he got his psychedelic touchstones in a row.
1966 does seem early for sitar, and the use of gloomy cellos and and the like seem to pre-figure Led Zep and the British Folk Rock Scene.
I still find him somewhat patronising in tone and it's all pretty lightweight. Inoffensive and faintly interesting. Very much of it's times.
2 likes
Alanis Morissette
1/5
Thought this would be fine to listen through, this was big in my early 20s and I always found the singles OK. Had no idea I was going to dislike it as much as I do! The first half really leans into the immature "psycho ex who needs to let-go and move on" theme a bit too much. It's fairly excruciating and the music is lightweight MTV freindly guff. We have a moment of self-awareness and maturity with "You Learn" then it's basically pure Middle-Of-the-road. By the end we are driving squarely down the middle of the Canadian highway in a winnebago listening to Linda Rondstat on 8-Track. Also first of the Sinead O'Connor copying yodellers. Yikes. Still not as insufferable as "What's Up" by Four Non-Blondes.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (27)
All Ratings
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Björk
2/5
Charles Mingus
3/5
More frantic and noisy than Mingus Mingus Mingus. I wasn't in the mood
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
Never quite got them at the time. This is patchy and oh-so-affected in a whiney Morrissey way. Cherub Raock and Today do still stand out and hold very well.
Elvis Presley
2/5
I tried. I don't like him and never have, but don't deny his appeal and talent. Suspicious Minds is a stone cold banger. But the rest is a very light scrape against the church wall of gospel and soul. So syrupy and middle-of-the-road makes Tony Bennett sound like Motorhead. In the Ghetto and Daddy Don't Cry made me cringe so hard it's going to take a week to unfold myself.
4/5
Not my fave Beatles album. Still a breath of fresh air though, so varied, so original.
Paul Simon
3/5
Somehow never listened to this completely before. It sure is eclectic. Energetic and original production. I think it does sound pioneering in the inclusion for other musicians and other musical styles other than US staples. Title track is much sadder than I realised, I have to skip "Al" because that's one song I never need to hear another time in my life. Will probably re-listen in the future I do find Simons solo stuff patchy, probably cos it's so varied, sometimes it's hard to settle into a groove.
Joy Division
2/5
Fucking Nora. What a monday morning pick me up. Once again struggling to see the appeal, this lot make me sound cheerful and I can't stand the drums. Obviously not worthless but heavy going for me.
Miles Davis
4/5
OK now we are talking. Not that keen on the Vamp section of this, but the slow moody bits are enjoyable and atmospheric. Still not a 5 due to its lack of really solid content.
Cream
4/5
Joan Armatrading
3/5
Hmmm interesting, know the hit single from this and have heard her do a great relaxed and warn set at Glastonbury but never really listened to her before. Very different. Kind of intriguing must listen again.
The Beta Band
3/5
Oh man. We talking overrated again? It has a certain original hazy charm but I much prefer Steve Mason’s more mature Boys Outside album. This is kind of dopey hipster music for dopey hipsters
The Police
3/5
Yeah. Definitely their most sophisticated and polished. Synchronocoty 2 and Wrapped Around Your Finger have stood up very well.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
It's packed full of influential bangers, but the production sounds sketchy and it's moralising is risible. No go on, say junky again. Sounds a bit victim blamey to me. Deserves all the respect it gets though.
Stan Getz
3/5
Finally an album I had no knowledge of! A bit soft for me on first listen, though the latin vibes did make me want to drive an open top Cadillac along a Cuban coast road... or something. Need to listen more... at some point.
Blondie
4/5
So packed full of bangers it's hardly worth listening to as an album since the filler is just that. And surprisingly rockabilly too. Hanging on the Telephone is the perfect pop single and the greatest cover version of all time.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
A bit twee and knowing. Everybody knows is great. Didn't really take to the rest but it sure does have some lyrics "If you were a horse I'd clean the crap out of your stable". Will give it another go.
Barry Adamson
1/5
I mean... I find this very lightweight musically, doesn't do much, doesn't go anywhere. Grand use of samples and great soundscaping, but very linear. Superficial? Made it half way. Not terrible music, not offensively bad, just a hackneyed waste of time to listen to. Harsh.
Harry Nilsson
2/5
I can’t liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisten to this more than twice. Pretty shit big single aside. Just very run of the mill except the questionable “you put de lime in de coconut” which… I don’t even know.
The Byrds
3/5
The Hollies! But with whiney Americans. This album starts well with it's bright jangly folk rock formula... which continues somewhat incessantly throughout. There are some more thoughtful tunes in here that hint at the later works of the personnel. They really sound like copycats at this point to me. Also shiny black shoes and blue jeans. Hmmmm.
The Who
4/5
EEE-YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The Clash
2/5
Yuck. These guys are to blame for all the boring bland corporate American punk bands. Joe Strummer's Mockney accent is a joke and isn't White Riot just a bit racist? Can't be doing with it.
Dire Straits
2/5
This starts so well with Down to the Waterfront, and obviously Sultans is great. My hopes were dashed by the pretend gruffness and country vibes. Don't like country. Seems like a wasted opportunity as those two fast, clean gritty songs are belters.
3/5
So influential. Just not very good. Laughable “revolutionary” shtick and borrowed riffs from The Who. You can’t deny its importance. Just sounds a bit shit these days
Orange Juice
2/5
Elbow
4/5
Not listened to this for a decade! Saw them live on this tour and they were great. Not my favourite album of theirs, I prefer "Leaders". Mirrorball will creep into my brain unbidden at anytime, Grounds for Divorce is just a barrel of noisy slightly menacing fun, Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver is very unusual, and desperately swaggering quite incredible vocal performance. And of course then we have the overplayed big hit single of "One day like this" which listened to again with fresh ears deserves all it's plaudits, plastic pint glass raising anthemic gold.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
I came to this one late having obsessed over the first 5 albums as a teen. Funnily it is more mature and settled, even for being a bit of a catch up album after all those tours, it sounds relaxed and confident and cohesive. Very good
Radiohead
4/5
Hated the singles from this at the time. But grew to realise my mistake and embrace this excellent original but still firmly rock and pop album.
TV On The Radio
2/5
Was familiar with Half way home. I like that one. Struggled with the rest of this. I think this came out around the time I started to become an old bastard and that has a lot to do with it.
John Lennon
3/5
Never managed to listen to a Lennon solo album all the way through before. I liked it a lot more than I was expecting. Despite the obvious personal content that is being laid bluntly bare here, there is a sense of relief that the whole Beatles hullabaloo is over and he can just be a singer songwriter. It’s nice and stripped down though I hate all that weird slap back reverb everywhere. Tough to listen to in places due to near screaming etc. enjoyable for the lack of pretence. Distinct lack of big tunes though.
William Orbit
2/5
Less than essential. Probably was quite an early exponent of this rambling, expansive new ambient thing. I see this is a year before FSOLs Lifeforms came out. Not earth shattering but quietly influential and a stepping stone towards his later success as a producer.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
I have to force myself to make it through this album, not because it's poor but because it seems to be the same song again and again. All very similar sounding tracks. But making the effort does pay off, his vocals are as plaintive and angelic as you'd expect, and the over-reaching sense of hopelessness and futility in a world going off the rails is annoyingly still pretty relevant. A benchmark album in terms of creative freedom and political awareness... just maybe not quite the musical epic it is made out to be.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
The Stranglers
2/5
OK what is funnier than Joe Strummer's Mockney accent? Hugh Cornwells grrr I'm such a tough guy voice. Another album where all the songs have very similar instrumentation. Peaches is skin-crawling. Get a Grip is good. It's basically toss though, especially considering the mountain of vital and long lived stuff that was around at the time this is a very poor album.
Lou Reed
3/5
This was a lot more fun than I remembered, really tuneful and light hearted.
Sam Cooke
3/5
Well this was a speedy and energetic rip through the hits. The quality of Sam's voice in this live setting is just amazing, tons of natural talent and the band punch out the classics with pace. Definitely sounds like they are playing fast to jam as many well known songs in their set (probably limited by others on same roster that night). The evidently delighted audience got their moneys worth. Smashing.
Janet Jackson
3/5
Not sure what to make of this one. I remember Miss You Much and the tilte track as singles, liked them both causally at the time. Very original and unrelenting sample based production. Does have that thing of telling us all we need to pull together to make things better whilst being a very comfortable and successful person. Comes across a bit lame and preachy. It's the gritty midlle bit to Janet's excellent purple patch though.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Yeah man. Almost impossible to knock from any angle. If you met someone who had never heard pop music and you wanted to give them a top flight example of great tunes, great performance, great recording this would have to be near the top of the pile. Big hits, groovy album tracks, only the slightly embarassing New York arrival bit stumbles. Do your self a favour people. Just great to hear such a multi-talented individual at the top of his game.
Gene Clark
2/5
I must have heard Gene before but really can’t remember. This is a bit too country and middle of road for me. Feels like the kind of thing that would really have been on the radio in the US in the early 70s rather than the psychedelic rock and soul stuff that younger people like me revere from that era. Inoffensive but kind of like Nilsson just not my sort of thing. Gave up at “Stand by Me”. Yuck.
Tortoise
2/5
Godspeed you bland Mogwai! I dunno I guess Tortoise started this gloomy downbeat instrumental thing and I don’t hate it. But it’s not atmospheric enough to enjoy on its own and the lack of dynamics and drama just leave you with a soundscape. Probably good music for driving at night or walking by the sea.
The Police
4/5
Actually their best. Hard to dislike, loads of big hits, some great album tracks like Bring on the Night and Contact. Sharp bright production that lets you hear the musicianship clearly. This was an album I was a bit young for but listened to it a lot in my secondary school years. Surprised to discover what a soft spot I have for it.
The Specials
3/5
Wow people hate this one. Always been a fan of their singles, have a compilation of theirs. I have to say this album is uneven, and yeah moaning lyrics are a bit of a drag. Hall is doing that "I'm young and I think I'm being edgy, but really I just sound quite conservative" thing. But the good songs are great, Gangsters, Message to you Rudy are total classics. The album version of Too Much Too Young is trounced by the live single version which captures the bands energy much better.
M.I.A.
2/5
This one's a non stop attack of catchy eclectic sample based hip hop insanity. I always like Galang but had't listened to the rest of this album at all, really not my cup of tea, I'm far too old. Also somehow seems a bit too clever and knowing. Good to listen to stuff that's not in your normal listening scope, but this album is quite a lot and by about song 28 I was really hoping it would finish soon.
Alanis Morissette
1/5
Thought this would be fine to listen through, this was big in my early 20s and I always found the singles OK. Had no idea I was going to dislike it as much as I do! The first half really leans into the immature "psycho ex who needs to let-go and move on" theme a bit too much. It's fairly excruciating and the music is lightweight MTV freindly guff. We have a moment of self-awareness and maturity with "You Learn" then it's basically pure Middle-Of-the-road. By the end we are driving squarely down the middle of the Canadian highway in a winnebago listening to Linda Rondstat on 8-Track. Also first of the Sinead O'Connor copying yodellers. Yikes. Still not as insufferable as "What's Up" by Four Non-Blondes.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I was looking forward to this one. Had a best of compilation for years and like nearly every track, and obviously despite a shambolic start they became very influential very quickly and developed a fair bit over their career. Already knew and liked Arabian Nights and Spellbound from this... not much on here really improved on those. Siouxsie is at least trying to break out of her signature monotone vocal sound here, but it all does sound a bit samey. There are no hidden treasures on this album sadly. Passable.
Genesis
4/5
Heard this a few times before, not very familiar with Gabriel era Genesis. Always loved the Seconds Out live album as peak Genesis and of course a lot of the originals are on here. I suppose this is their most formative album, it really sounds like each guy is developing into the artist they would become. Peter and Phil sound great singing together, Steve and Tony are playing their wonderful flowing original solo parts. It sounds cohesive and concise, there's no noodling really. Great stuff.
Lana Del Rey
1/5
Don't test me. Managed half the first song. Life is too short to make the effort on dreary over-produced piss like this. Really don't feel this is essential at this point, maybe time will prove me wrong.
Pixies
3/5
Not a big fan of Pixies, and not quite sure the idolisation they sometimes get is justified, but A) Really enjoyed listening to this properly for the first time and B) You really can't deny how influential these guys were on music going into the 90s. I can also see why they were initially more successful in the UK, they have some of the genuine anarchy and disinterest in genre that British bands such as The Fall had. We've still got some great big tunes on here that are now pretty legendary, and the rest fits together well and has the energy of a band discovering themselves and finding it good. Good.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
Thought I knew what I was going to get here: The Message, and more like it. Nope! This album is actually a bit crazy. It starts with a fairly typical disco-funk song that could have been by Breakwater or Cameo, which surprised me straight off, I was expecting tag-team rapping over 808s and scratching. Straight into the uber-sampled "It's Nasty" as in Tom-Tom Club and Mariah. Then next Scorpio which I don't think I've ever heard before but how not I have no idea as surely this is one of the most prescient things in electro, was totally not ready for that growling 303... so they even influenced Acid. Taking another turn "It's a shame" precedes De La Soul with it's sweet swinging guitar lick lifted from the Spinners song of the same name. OK the next rack can't be any more influential?... Err, no, it's not. Incomprehensibly the next tracks are overly silky gospel soul which sound madly out of place before we finally get to the message. Twelveteen out of ten for schizophrenia. Stupidly important and influential album, but also just mad and disjointed. That was an experience.
Pulp
2/5
Not as bad as I was expecting. Not a lot of Britpop has held up well over the years, and Pulp are no exception. But they were always a bit more cerebral than the other knuckle-draggers and overgrown school prefects. Patchy this one, I frankly detest the title track and "Help the aged" but some of the faux cinematic stuff is a bit stronger, and the opener does sound like a cold night after the pubs have shut and you missed the last bus. But if you are going to copy Bowie, copy the good stuff. Can't work out if this needs to sound less creepy and overblown or more. One listen was enough thanks.
David Bowie
2/5
Apologies to teary eyed Bowie devotees, especially the enforcers of the Bowie Orthodoxy on BBC 6Music and even R3. This is not very amazing. It's the same formula of 'get some already out of date eclectronic-lite rhythms and then do-a-Bow-eee-voice all over them' that haunts a lot of his later work. It's inoffensive and has it's moments. The eponymous opener does sound like the soundtrack to some as yet unmade space opera, Dollar Days is very nearly a nice song to go out on. I don't know, I was honestly expecting more given the extreme reverence this one gained, I hoped it would be a touching or disturbing goodbye from one of our greatest music icons. Really, it's just more of the same.
Beth Orton
3/5
So glad I got this recommendation today firstly because it’s a good album but also I’ve had a run of sub-par music from female artists on here and was feeling sexist. Bad bits: sometimes veers off into quite poor trip-hop production, and that near-shout middle part of her voice wears a bit after a while. That’s it though, the rest l like a lot. It definitely wanders as an album, and in this case I like that, it meanders gently. When singing softly her voice is beautiful and in few places she stretches her vocals quite powerfully. Most of the songs are thoughtful and atmospheric and in “Pass in time” really quite moving.
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
I'm not sure i was listening to the real album on Spotify. Was nice, and I must track down the original. Didn't have time to absorb it in one day.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
This is from my era but I was probably listening to Megadeth at the time. This is quite inventive and sounds like they are doing something new, I suppose pioneering in the use of samples for nearly everything apart from the rapping. I have a lot more time for these guys, De La Soul and other artists I heard back then than the huge-production look at me I'm a billionaire rap of Kanye and Jay-Z and those that followed. But i'm not the right person to ask about hip-hop. Enjoyable and important benchmark album I think.
Talking Heads
2/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Rock star decides to write album about rock star going off the rails and turning his band into a brutal dictatorship, in realising this idea as an album, he goes off the rails and turns his his band into a brutal dictatorship. Musical wonderment ensues.
Not fair to new listeners to expect any kind of real appreciation for this thumping great brontosaurus of an album in one day.
That said I don't think it's as self-indulgent as people say, it's self-examining and self-absorbed, but it is about taking a long cold look at yourself ultimately so it has to be. It is the most fully realised opera in rock music, it doesn't just drone on mostly, (though it has it's moments) it goes from scene to scene explaining Pink's spiral into mania, delusion and ultimate redemption.
If you require happy uplifting music that puts a positive spin on everything in 3 minutes then this claustrophobic, large scale work of unreleting doom will wear you down in a trice. But if you can take a bit of darkness and can manage repeated listens you will be rewarded.
'Goodbye Blue Sky', 'Hey You', and 'Comfortably Numb' are some of the best Floyd tracks, Glimour's voice and guitar playing are on typically superlative form here, there are classic studio effects and atmospheres (dive bombers, helicopters, TVs getting sledge-hammered, and a child innocently identifying the airborne apocalypse, a man drunkenly threatening a woman with poetry in the middle of a freeway as cars whizz past).
It's one of those rare albums where the ridiculous scale and ambition of a stupendous overblown idea is in fact upheld by the resulting recording. It makes 'Tommy' sound like an EP.
It's too long, it's depressing and scatalogical, Waters voice sounds like a particularly grouchy cat being strangled, and it really is the record of a band dying on it's feet. The songs 'Vera' and 'Bring the Boys Back Home' are annoying preludes to the subsequent Final Cut album.
The soaring guitar solos in 'Comfortably Numb' are really only bettered by the one in 'Time' by the same guitarist.
Spectacular, chilling and peerless.
Willie Nelson
1/5
Tried giving this a go but I just can't manage what to my ears are sentimental country versions of well trodden standards. Sorry Willie.
Fiona Apple
2/5
Oh this is OK isn’t it? Nice enough. Falls a bit too easily into background music. I like her deep velvety expressive voice, the arrangements are quite atmospheric and sweeping but never too dramatic. The same descending progression seems to appear a few times. Not setting the world on fire for me but a pleasant and thoughtful trip through some not too tempestuous seas.
David Gray
1/5
Another nice 1990s album of nice music for nice people who can only bear to listen to nice things. Male Dido. OK 'Sail Away' is a good, the rest is wishy-washy and forgettable... I was happy to have forgotten this.
Radiohead
3/5
This is just the sound of accepting lifelong disappointment. I was hoping, after the left turn of 'Kid A' that they had got that out of their system and would get back to making, you know, good, cohesive albums full of strong poignant original songs and only a bit of atmospheric and unsettling filler.
It's time to let this hope go for me. Need to stop thinking if I put 'Hail to the Thief' or 'In Rainbows' on that I will finally click with them. I like all Radiohead's stuff, but I like it, respect it, don't love it. 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer' are just classics for me.
Oh well it's not all wide of the mark, 'Pyramid Song' is indelibly linked in my mind with the events and outfall of the attacks of 2001, and looms with indecent gravity in my mind. I like 'Knives out' too.
It's a serious and inventive album, and to be fair Radiohead have totally trodden their own path since, but they's never quite lived up to their promise. Possibly on purpose.
I need to let them go, the next Radiohead album is never going to be the one.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Never listened to a Dylan album that I can remember and had to check this one wasn't a compilation as it contains so many well known songs.
He can't sing, he simply can't, everyone knows he has a nasal yowling voice and is simply tone deaf, but he is still just about getting away with it here, later in his career I find him unlistenable. The harmonica though just lives up to all the stereotypes, what is he doing? I swear you could wave a mouth organ under a hand dryer and it would sound better than Bob's attempts.
But the songs are great and influenced even people who don't think they've been influenced. The electric tracks sound a bit samey and the acoustc tracks sound a bit samey. It's just great though.
It does sound like an artist who is really in their prime and having a great time.
'Maggies Farm' is my favourite, snarky funny lyrics about sociual injustice with a catchy jangly backing that would set the tone for so many bands to follow.
The Who
4/5
Deifinitely not the best recorded album, but it's only 1967 and they have done a lot with the technology available to them on this one. Better than the horrors of The Kinks "self-produced" albums which have all the sonic grace of a donkey pissing in a bucket.
The idea of making a sort of virtual radio station for this album complete with jingles and adverts is really quite original, doesn't feel like it now, such pastiche is commonplace.
In truth the songs are patchy, enjoyable little comic songs such as 'Odorono', and 'Tattoo' meditate on the small worries of day to day life, whereas the coruscating psychedelic crash of 'I can see for miles' goes nowhere but makes quite an impact on the way.
Later on we have the excellent 'I can't reach you', 'Sunrise' and 'Our love was' are more mature and thoughtful pieces that point towards 'Who's Next' and 'Tommy'
In short this is the middle stage of The Who's manic race from garage R&B band to full on rock operatics which took barely 5 years.
Uneven, but important, contains a few great songs and is worth a spin just for historical interest. No joss sticks and ponchos for The Who in 1967.
The Mamas & The Papas
1/5
Plastic people. Oh baby now you're such a drag. This is so shiny and polished and bland and happy and superficial and inoffensive. So much so it made me angry. It is also derivative.
Do you find the Monkees a bit edgy? Are the Beach Boys a little subversive for you? This is the album for you.
Just the most banal, lightweight, pointless un-engaging sack of piffle. 'California dreamin' is a bona fide hit but still a pretty cheesy and jaded one. And how did they mange to such a gutless, souless, off tune version of the usually crisp and jaunty 'The In-crowd'.
They should have all got in toilet not the bath.
Public Enemy
3/5
Not sure there's too much I can add about this album, I'm not a rap fan but this is a total whirlwind. Really does leave the current ego-driven super slick hip hop in the shade. A great album for an grumpy monday morning.
3/5
Ah the best album by the greatest of the Mancunian Simian bands.
This is very much an album of my time, it was everywhere. I was not a huge Oasis fan, the stolen riffs, the dumbo lyrics, the "production", that top-flight gob-shitery. Enough to put anyone off, also they were a band that non music fans would go crazy about. I haven't listened to this old pup for 20 years...
Except. As I did, between snorking at the brain dead words, and rolling my eyes at the dog shit sound quality I found myself singing along happily to every word of nearly all the tunes. And it reminded me of friends and good weather and pubs when they were pubs not family restaurants, and feeling good to be in a Britain that seemed to be on the up and a world that was getting less frightening.
That's nostalgia folks. I'm not usually susceptible, so I was surprised when this braying donkey of a band sent me straight back to my twenties.
I never could, and still can't stand 'Roll with it' and 'Don't look back in anger' and 'Wonderwall' is overrated and will never recover from being so overplayed everywhere for ever.
'Hey Now' and 'Cast no shadow' are no-apology great songs, well done Noel. Liam could still really sing here too, 'She's Electric' is still a bundle of homespun fun, and 'Champagne Supernova' and the like are the overblown goodness you want. Trades description-worrying original drummer has been jettisoned for Alan White by this album and he makes a world of difference also.
Even better Noel gets his just desserts eventually for ceaseless riff pilfering by nicking one from Gary Glitter. You win some you lose some my mono-browed amigos. And though this was a far more complete and (if not polished) well-burnished affair than the debut, it was all downhill from here.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
Well this is an old favourite of mine.
$27,000 in 1965 to record a bunch of dive bar R&B wannabes. Tom Wilson signed them after seeing them at the Whisky on the Strip, he had also signed Simon and Garfunkel, and produced Bob Dylan. So he must have known what he was doing. Turns out he had no idea in this case.
Freak Out is an early double gatefold album and an early concept album, though what precisely the concept is might be hard to tell. The high quality Warner Bros production sounds incredible for the mid 60s especially since there is so much going on.
The satire isn't as biting as you might expect, we've already got comedy songs which put a lot of people off Zappa, see also the self indulgent and pointless sound collage at the end. But it does feature real social commentary on 'More trouble everyday' and 'Hungry Freaks Daddy'
There's a lot of sardonic doo-wop and the album title is done in the same type face as that year's 'Pet Sounds' album by the Beach Boys, probably Frank poking fun at how via the continued success of the Beach Boys Doo-wop and surf music were somehow still top of the charts in spite of everything.
Most of the songs are silly, poppy and feature some early blistering guitar work fom the man with the moustache (OK they all had moustaches) and it apparently influenced Hendrix, Clapton, The Who and The Beatles. Not a bad start.
'Who are the brain police', 'Help I'm a rock' and 'It can't happen here' really set the tempo for The Mothers more discordant, paranoid and counter-cultural work to follow.
Not for everyone, but a real milestone in expansive album production, psychedelia (despite Zppas strongest drug choices being coffee and beer) and anti-establishment culture.
Steely Dan
3/5
Now I am an old bastard I am of course moving into Steely Dan territory.
Like many reviews I see here, when I was younger I thought the soul and charm of the music and lyrics if there was any was eclipsed by the obsession with surgically clean production and endlessly winnowing session takes down to the "ultimate" studio performance. I found the music smug, superficial and overly shiny and produced. It had no grit.
Yeah, then I got older. Now I appreciate the dedication and thoughfulness, and also now I like the snarky, self-depricating and doom laden lyrics. This isn't happy-go-lucky cocktail lounge music at all.
That said this album is new to me, previously I have got into 'Aja' and 'The Royal Scam' on which Becker and Fagen had reached the apex of Steely Dan-ness. It's OK, it's not grown on me like the others yet, I'm familiar with 'Any Major Dude'. 'Rikki' and the title track and those aren't my favourite SD numbers. The other tracks will need a bit of time.
I'll circle back, the good stuff always takes a while to appreciate. At least this one has a half-decent photo on the cover.
Alice In Chains
4/5
Another one I came to later despite it being right up my alley on release, trouble is there was a lot of music to absorb in those days if you liked rock / grunge / alternative and then the wave of UK electronic music that wasn't just doof-doof-doof.
Of course I liked all the singles at the time due to continual rotation on MTV Europe, but the album is actually very solid. I preferred the less shouty 'Jar of Flies' album back then and still do, but really this is jam-packed with banging riffs and ripping solos, great vocals and harmonies.
It moves pace nicely opening with the hard charging 'Them bones' and 'Dam that river' before later giving way to the meditative 'Rooster' and self-hatred anthems of 'Dirt' and 'Down in a hole' before ending with the stone-cold-classic 'Would?'
The lyrics are troubling and explicit about drug use and psychological pain, which clearly transpired to be honest at least. There are some misses like 'Stickman' and a few others at the tail of the album that could have been happily omitted to no ill effect.
All in all a well played serious but accessible staple of that era of MTV botty-kicking rawk, with a sleazy and soulful but druggy edge.
Bauhaus
2/5
No mate, it's the weekend. I really don't want to feel that gloomy. I managed a few songs. I should try harder since they are original and influential, I just think they influenced other artists I don't care for also.
N.W.A.
1/5
Doesn't sound revolutionary to me. Sounds like a rip off of a Bomb Squad production at the start, then by the end it's just 808 beats and rambling rapping.
Over the top of that there's the desperate attempt to outrage everyone by doing lots of naughty swear words. I just hope their mummies don't find out. See also horrible misogyny and ridiculous boastful violence. Oooooh I'm scared.
This is the album equivalent of one of those video games that the media have a moral panic about every 10 years, oh it's so violent and it's making our kids kill each other. Net result, a lot of people rush out to buy the game to see what the fuss is about and then are disappointed by the lack of gameplay or substance.
The absolute towering cynicism of adding the totally harmless and radio-friendly 'Express yourself' deserves an award for sheer bullshittery.
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
A band I've always been meaning to give more time to, they are so well loved, they must be worth a listen.
Well there's things to like about this album, lovely recording, lots of live atmosphere, the guitars and vocals are excellent.
That's about it though, it's a well recorded and well played load of country blues, with forgetable songs and boring extended musical work outs.
Enjoyably free of Lynyrd Skynyrd's country-blues cliches, but lacking the muscular boogie and catchy tunes of early ZZ Top.
You probably had to be there. Nice enough but marred by the endless noodling.
The Charlatans
2/5
Not amazing, more original and less annoying than many of the UK guitar bands of the 90s, and this was their peak I suppose.
I'm bored to death of the big singles since they were overplayed for years, and the rest is fairly bland.
This one surprised me with it's dullness. Saw them at Reading Festival back in 2000 I think, they were great, more hit songs than I remebered remembering. But this just isn't much cop as an album.
Fairport Convention
3/5
Didn't get time to absorb tis properly on this occasion which us annoying as I've heard it before and enjoy the late 60s British folk stuff generally.
Another one I'll return to. Enjoyed what I heard so far.
Pixies
3/5
Another Pixies album? I like them, they are important but I'd say one was enough, and this one seems less vital and original than Surfer Rosa.
Nothing much wrong with it, just seems like they are in their groove a bit here.
Doves
5/5
This is not derivative of Coldplay. Both band's debuts were released in 2000 and Doves were an electronic act called Sub-Sub before that, and were Badly Drawn Boy band members in between.
And that's what makes the difference. Doves arrived with a bit of dance/groove built in from the start, and sound Northern and bleak and they are named after the imprint on a popular ecstasy tab. Whereas Coldplay were a bunch of posh London boys who had more in common with Travis initially before becoming the worlds most bland and therefore most successful outfit.
This is one of my favourites of all time, it came out when it was all festivals and girlfriends and hot-hatchbacks and post-pub sessions and job prospects for me. It's mix of doomy atmosphere, driven percussive songs and grimly-fought euphoria hooked me straight away and has stayed with me since, even if all the other things mentioned buggered off ages ago.
It's a well paced and atmospheric album too and works as a piece. The portentous opening, followed by a series of engaging songs that are in turns optimistic, reflective, swelling, and then coming down to earth with the title track before we are off to a forgotten night at the fairground with 'Melody Calls'.
Absolutely in place 'Catch the sun' ditches the introspective and bitter-sweet tone that preceded, and blasts into the open sunshine for an air-punching anthem, even if we do seem to be only just outrunning the ever present storm clouds.
The album ends with the wrung out heartbreak of 'Cedar Room' then ultimately 'A house' which hints at the studio fire that caused Doves to become Doves.
For a lot of people this will just be another gloomy English guitar band album but for me it's a stone-cold, copper-bottomed, masterstroke.
The Birthday Party
2/5
Nick Cave has done better. I always thought the Birthday Party were noisy and oh-so-challenging over being good, but i hadn't heard much of it. Now I've heard a whole album I discover I was correct.
Not terrible all the way through but has little to recommend it. They seem to be trying to jump on the psychobilly bandwagon of the time, it definitely has some Cramps style sounds but is no where near as catchy or characterful.
Prototype Grinderman but less good.
The only thing I like is that the guy on the cover is probably what Nick looks like now without the hair dye and fake tan.
Iron Maiden
3/5
Another album from my teenage years, though this was already sounding very dated in the late 80s when I heard it.
Interesting debut for the band that once Bruce joined did 40 albums that sound the same.
Some of the standard features of Maiden are apparent straight away, Steve Harris's bass sound and gallop, twin guitar attack and fast pace. Also nicking ideas for songs from books.
Still sounds like a funny mix this one and it's successor 'Killers', Paul Diano's voice was not much cop but at least a bit punky. That against the more expansive slow bits in 'Remember Tomorrow' or 'Strange World'.
These are definitely a band I grew out of but it was nice to reminisce for a bit. Mostly good fun, fast paced, slightly punky sounding metal.
B.B. King
3/5
A nice ramble through some classic blues. I do prefer Otis Rush, and the other 2 Kings but you can't deny BB's influence, graceful playing and audience bonhomie.
This is probably a lot more important than it sounds, but there's not much to complain about.
A really warm enjoyable live album with great atmosphere.
Roxy Music
2/5
I listened to this twice. But I feel like I haven't.
Generally like early Roxy Music and this was fine, 'Do the Strand' and 'Editions of You' I knew already, not much esle jumped out... ok maybe some weird Eno synth noises jumped out, probably not in a good way.
Probably better than it sounded after 2 listens but not that engaging for me.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Influential is a word I use a lot going through these suggestions. I think this and Oxygene by Jean Michel-Jarre have to be the joint most influential albums in electronic music history.
I know there was electronic stuff before this. But this is such a complete electronic album, and you can hear it's influence everywhere.
Trouble is I just don't like it that much. It's still getting 4 stars because it's amazing and so important it's hard ot know where to start.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
The greatest voice in soul at the vertiginous peak of her formidable power. Where is it coming from? How does she do it? One of those people whose talent does appear to be supernatural.
This is an old fashioned singles and album-tracks album so I can’t quite feel a 5 coming on. That said there’s loads of great tracks on here, and if this album did have a theme it’s simply “sit back and smile as you get joyfully atomised by a force of nature”.
Aretha is just rolling along like a river of soulful lava here. It’s not just the staggering range, power and flexibility of her voice either. Like Sinatra she is the perfect interpreter, the perfect conduit to get the song across to the audience, she embodies every song completely and effortlessly you just know that all the things in the song have happened to her personally (even if they haven’t).
I think this is my favourite recommendation of an album I’ve not heard so far.
Amen.
Jazmine Sullivan
1/5
Albums I have not been recommended yet:
'Mama's Gun' Erikah Badu
'Raw like sushi' Neneh Cherry
'Adventures in Paradise' Minnie Ripperton
Thankfully I've already heard those and one track from any of them is worth more than this entire album.
Not objectively bad, but how I needed to hear this before I died I've no idea. Is it a control specimen so I can judge talent, greatness and influence since this is pretty neutral on those key factors?
I am far too old and this album is far too new. It also just sounds derivative, it's an also-ran melting-pot of nothing in particular.
Apparently the lyrics are good or at least interesting, but I couldn't stay focussed to give them any thought.
Also the "candid" conversation bits need to get in the sea, if I want to hear that shit I can just get on a busy bus and not put my earphones in.
NEXT.
Suede
3/5
It's a funny one this. The debut Suede album was a slutty great wallop of glam pop singles, and did light a bit of a fire under the UK music scene in the midst of US dominated grunge. And then the one after this 'Coming up' was similarly full of swaggering original and snarky music that did very well.
This one, was a bit of a wet fart by comparison (possibly pictured on the cover).
So just classic second album doldrums? Well listening to it now maybe not, it's so totally of it's self, it's pretty theatrical and not that amazing, but it does have a strong central identity and some bordeline anthems.
'Wild Ones' is better than I remember now, though it is a bit too emotionally overwrought for my tastes.
Suede kicked off Britpop yet never conformed to it which is a rather neat trick. The best was still to come.
Beck
5/5
Another all-time favourite of mine. This was a wonderful change in direction from Beck at the height of his career.
After the success of Odelay things had really got a bit too "produced" on Midnight Vultures in my opinion. I remember seeing him at Reading Festival during that time and really struggled to work out what the hell was going on, it was like watching a rich white high school kid impersonate Prince.
But this one is pretty sublime, it's obviously very downbeat and acoustic but also features very straightforward and powerful song writing, that doesn't rely on samples or studio tricks or a big slick band.
Saw him do the sunset slot at Reading in 2003 and all was redeemed as we got most of this album with Beck and the band all just dressed in black jeans and t-shirts. That was one of my best gig memories.
Wonderful stuff.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Jimi was too busy revolutionising guitar playing and psychedlic rock in general to do really consistent albums in his short life.
I've always liked this one best of the 3 real studio albums of his. After the silly intro there's quite a few plain-old good songs on here, 'Little Wing' and 'Spanish Castle Magic' in particular. Noel Reddings songs seem like filler but are passable.
It's a staple alright, and a surprisingly coherent pop album.
The Human League
3/5
This sounds like the first time synthesisers and electronic music really sounded polished and shiny and pop-tastic.
More songs I remember and they are pretty good too.
Pivotal and fun.
Parliament
3/5
More of a Funkadelic fan myself. Maybe this isn’t the greatest album in itself, starts strongly but the later tracks are forgettable.
You have to view the ParliaFunkadelicMent things as one big rambling project which gave birth to the greatest sample bank of all time.
That said you certainly must endeavour to put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip and head on over to the mothership.
Neil Young
5/5
Probably the easiest listening of my all time favourites. Geffen Folk Rock sounds like anathema to me, but of course Neil’s incredible talent for being shonky but persuasive gives this album his usual underlying grit.
Tuneful, thoughtful, tragic. His best.
Fugees
2/5
This list is opening me up to how many varied types of hip-hop I don't care for (and a few I do). The opening rample about corporations is pretty laughable given the extreme commerciality of this highly polished effort. Apparently they are refugees... well one of them... probably... form some where in the Caribbean. Isn't Lauryn Hill a refugee from Hollywood child stardom?
I don't know, so many post 1990 rap/hip-hop things seem very fake and over-produced to me. And to my untrained ears this is mostly just another rambling rap album with not much original to say, and some limp wristed reggae thrown in towards the end when they remember they are cosplaying as refugees.
Of course it's saving grace and key to success are the storming vocals of Lauryn Hill, her voice is wasted on this album.
Those are my thoughts.
But then I only listened one time (one time).
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
The sound of a whole genre going overground. Also the sound of a rough and ready local music scene being given a very well judged polish to help it on it's way.
I often complain about over-production and commercial sounding albums, but sometimes just knocking off a few rough edges and warming the sound up a little with some accompaniment goes a long way. As here. You can listen to the "Jamaican" version of this album, i.e. without Island Records interference, it's still great due to the strength of the songs and performances, but this version is just perfect.
This is still truly 'The Wailers' as Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh are still here and Tosh in particular as musician and song writer, before it became the Bob Marley show.
So many great songs, and the influence of the band’s visits to London can be clearly heard.
The perfect starting point for new reggae fans, and a milestone for those already on the journey. Ideal balance between rootsy Jamaican music and world wide pop success, with simply stated political points too.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
I’m sure a lot of clever, talented, determined and imaginative people worked together to make the latest Ford Pickup Truck. But I don’t care and never will because I am not the target market demographic for that consumer product. I do not need a Ford Pickup Truck in my life.
Same thing with this album, no doubt the product of endless toil by top notch professionals to target the specific market segment they wanted to milk.
Well done everyone. Big each other up on LinkedIn or something.
On top of that I really don’t like the shouting instead of singing thing.
Competent pop music that says literally nothing to me.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I haven't got time to write everything I would say about this one, but to me it's peak Joni. Everything seems to have come to gether to make a perfect album. Happy, sad, reflective, and derisive songs sit shoulder to shoulder quite comfortably.
'A Case of You' and 'The Last Time I saw Richard' probably deserve health warnings for their ability to put a lump in your throat.
Also her use of various stringed instruments and piano definitely sets her apart from the typical 6-string strumming of some of the more popular folk-influenced acts of the time.
Heartbreak and disillusion never soounded more perfect and original.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
I had gone off Sly Stone since Spotify incessantly suggests 'There's a riot going on'. But it never once suggested this, so much for algorithms as this is a treat.
Knew more of these songs than I realised and I have to say it sounds ahead of it's time fo 69, definitely kicking the door open for all the funk and soul of the 70s.
Very punchy and energetic and full of catchy songs. Nice.
Kraftwerk
3/5
Radiohead
5/5
My generation’s ’Dark Side of the Moon’
The most complete album of the era. Two self standing hit singles, a film soundtrack song, experimental noises and soundscapes and really no filler.
Rock steady performance from the band, explosive guitar insanity from Johnny and you can still hear what Thom is whining on about (actually his vocals are quite impressive in places).
A whole mini industry has appeared online analysing this album, its themes, musical complexity and originality there’s just so much to get your teeth into.
Also this is the final wave from the band as they for better or worse turned in on themselves and became the Radiohead we know and are faintly interested in today.
Top ten of all time in my lifetime.
The Cure
2/5
I just don't get this band. So affected, so dreary, so downbeat. I think it's a post-Bowie case of style over substance to be honest.
A band for the girls who wrote poetry all over the covers of their exercise books at school and who thought Morrissey was "sensitive".
Dull.
Guns N' Roses
1/5
Bon Jovi for girls who hate their Dads.
The Prodigy
3/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Hot Chip
3/5
Was expecting to like this one a bit more than I did. 'Night and Day' is a banger, a lot of the rest was just too lightweight disco pop for me.
Jane Weaver
2/5
I think I preferred her earlier album 'Silver Globe', but this is still enjoyable. Not sure it's truly essential like most of the more modern choices on here but definitely worth a spin.
I'd say there are fewer stand out tracks on this one, this one is more of a spacey psychedelic journey with the usual lush analogue sounding electronics.
Sparks
2/5
Better than I thought. Totally worn down by the endless playing of ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ and the whole gimmicky nature of the band I was not expecting too much.
Which is kind of what I got. Definitely carving their own path through the varied world of 70s pop, you can’t accuse them of copying anyone. But it’s not that inventive or attention grabbing.
I did find my head bobbing to a few tracks along the way.
Deserves to be on this list just to highlight how many different styles of music were available back then.
2/5
The Kinks are a bit of a Greatest Hits band for me despite them being quite pioneering and relentless at concept albums. I like 'Something Else' as an album but not spent too much time listening to the others and certainly not this one.
And it's OK. Always loved 'Victoria' and 'Shangri-la' and those really stand out, the rest does seem to be treading familiar ground, complainy nostalgic lyrics with strummed guitars and a clumping rhythm section.
Also I really don't know why The Kinks were always so behind the times with sound quality, sounds like it was recorded in a shipping container. Compared to other 1969 albums it sounds horrible, in the same year we had 'Hot Buttered Soul', 'In the Court of the Crimson King' and even the folky 'Five leaves left' from Nick Drake is miles ahead of this.
Not amazing and the arch snarkiness seems ill aimed and just a little bitter.
Taylor Swift
1/5
Was determined to stay open minded and pleasant about this one after all pop music is harmless and I am an old fart. I couldn’t even remember whether Taylor Swift made golf clubs or luxury motor yachts.
That didn’t last long. This is powdered milk in musical form. Homogeneous Music Product has been generated for you. Guaranteed to contain no deadly viruses or sharp objects at a proven 0% musical nutrient level.
What has “my queen” got against interesting progressions, or light and shade and especially bridges. Haters gonna hate my lack of middle eights.
How to write a Taylor Swift vocal melody: pick a note then stay on that note and do this rhythm: duh duh duh duh duh duhh duhh. Forever.
Her voice sounds like a helium AI impression of Christina Aguilera but without the shouting or raunchiness. The whole thing is so empty and sexless.
Apparently the world wants bland and by gum this delivers.
Taylor Swift is living proof that entertainment is not about refining the perfect response to public approval.
Oh unless you want to be the biggest selling artist of the age in which case well done, the share holders are delighted and nobody had to experience anything.
Donovan
2/5
Hmmm never been a fan and I'm not converted, but I am quite impressed how early he got his psychedelic touchstones in a row.
1966 does seem early for sitar, and the use of gloomy cellos and and the like seem to pre-figure Led Zep and the British Folk Rock Scene.
I still find him somewhat patronising in tone and it's all pretty lightweight. Inoffensive and faintly interesting. Very much of it's times.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
I hope 'Black Moses' or 'Hot Buttered Soul' are also on this list as they are better albums. This is obviously influentiial but it really is a collection of soundtrack music.
I honestly don't think the main theme song is even that strong though of course it's a self-made meme these days.
That said it's a high quality funk and soul soundscape and has some classic staples of the type on display, wakka-wakka-waah guitar, crisp horns and grooovy vocals baby.
Ike has much more to give than this though.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Not an easy one to take in during 24 hours. I had heard this before having tracked it down for the original version of "Sea Song" as covered by The Unthanks. I really like that as a starter on this album though it does drone on too long.
The rest of the album is less melodic and between the atonal wheezy synths and Robert's nasal whine this can be quite grating if you aren't in the mood.
I have to say though I like it anyway, it sounds like it has come from a very dark period in his life (which it did), and it's very original.
Probably not essential but worth a listen again just to appreciate the variety of music in the 1970s.
Also a great album for apparently annoying reviewers on here who think music is good or bad depending on which genre they decide it's in.
A spooky wonky and slightly disturbing album of droning tunes that make you worry for the artist's and possibly your own mental health. Definitely an odd one, but not without merit. Also if you think this is too weird, for god's sake don't listen to any of his other stuff.
Tears For Fears
3/5
This is an album that sounds of it's era but has stood the test of time very well.
Mature complex pop music which seems to be making a lot of the studio technology and modern instruments but stays memorable. It's a real time capsule of what you could do with an album in the 80s.
The hits are huge and sound amazing, the album tracks don't grab me as much but it all goes together as a piece nicely.
We should forgive the mullets in this case.
Tricky
3/5
Well now. Here's an album that certainly deserves it's place on this list. This is a definitive one for those of you obsessed with genre labels.
Tricky left Massive Attack to do more of his own thing and he really has, despite several of his Massive Attack lyrics being recycled here. It's trip-hop alright but moves away from the reggae re-makes and orchestral juggenauts of his previous band and move into a creepy and varied new sound world.
The audacious Public Enemy cover of 'Black Steel' was very popular at the time and stands out like an enjoyable sore thumb amongst all the dense atmospheres and rumbling electronica of the rest of the album.
Comparison is always drawn to Portishead for their shared use of the Isaac Hayes sample but to my ears the 2 songs 'Hell is around the corner' and 'Glory Box' couldn't sound more different and just show how a sample canused originally. There's no blues guitar and noir-film samples on this, nor does Martina Topley-Bird wring her heart out on every song like Beth Gibbons does. In fact Martina's detached composure is a signature of this album.
So it's an original, far reaching, and unique album with personal themes explored in a way only Tricky would seem to. It's a class act.
I just don't like it that much paersonally. A bit short on tunes, wanders on too long. I do find something about it a bit too creepy and claustrophobic.
A landmark, worth visitng.
Justice
2/5
Another album that deserves to be here and is important, but isn't totally amazing.
In fact this is a classic of the incredible start, several strong tracks, then tails off, and in places descends into laughable cringe-worthy nonsense. If I never hear 'The Party' and 'D.U.N.C.E' again I will be just fine.
Have to admit the first time I heard the opening track I heard it on a very large high quality hi-fi and it blew me away. It still sounds very original today.
It wears thin quickly though. It sounds revolutionary at first but it seems like they kicked a new door open which absolutely no-one ran through.
An interesting footnote in electronic dance music history.
The Fall
3/5
This seems to be one of the more consistent Fall albums. I have not listened to all 40 or whatever it is, but they seemed to be going through a good spell here.
I think the central band of Hanley, Scanlon and Burns is pretty classic and they sound very together in this era. I reckon Brix Smith's pop ideas and catchy (if familiar) riffs help this along nicely.
Mark E. Smith is on top cantankerous form and yowls and snarls in trademark style.
Yes. Basically a good solid Fall album. I do think acts such as Pixies and Pavement must have been influenced by this band, the dry snarky humour, the refusal to be in any genre or do anything that you would be expected to, just plough your own scatalogical furrow.
That said this is hardly earth shattering, and might be quite a hard listen for many, it's not exactly The Carpenters.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
The ultimate and greatest example of the British blues nerds supercharging the black music of America.
But oh god Robert Plant's moaning and groaning on this is ridiculous. When I was a teen and discovered this amazing album I used to worry my mum would hear there was a Brummy man having an operatic orgasm in my room. Jeez Percy, pack it in.
Not a fan of 'Whole lottta Love' for above mentioned issue and also instantly tired sounding cliched riff. They could do better and immediately prove that.
As well as the Beavis and Butthead approved bluesy metal riffs juddering about all over this album there is a fair bit of light and shade, 'Thank you' is Beatlesesque and quite lovely really, prefiguring 'Stairway' and 'Rain song' on future albums.
But to me the thing on this album is the energy, much as Plant's vocals and associated pillow-humping noises can grate, just listen to the end section of 'Heartbreaker' just after the frenetic guitar solo, the band stop for one final huge gulp of air before crashing into the main refrain, John-Paul Jones' seismic jelly wobble of a bass loosens your fillings ready for the last time Percy almost sings himself inside-out with the final "Go away heart breaker!" and his voice just slightly cracks in the middle.
Holy smokes that's how you do it people. It is no wonder they became such a phenomenon following this.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Frank's in perfect swinging pop form here. Bright and breezy standards, played sung and orchestrated to a tee.
I prefer Sinatra when he's gloomy, this kind of stuff is just too corny for me.
I imagine this was a breath of fressh air after 'The wee small hours'.
Great but not for me.
Public Enemy
3/5
Another PE album! Wasn't too familiar with the titles on thos one except 'Shut 'em Down'. Was expecting to find it a bit 'more of the same' to the ground-breaking early albums.
But really they are still in full swing now and seem to have a new target in Gangsta-rap. Made me laugh out loud in a couple of places.
It does continue the feel of the other ones, sampling maelstrom, shouty polemic and Flav as slightly soulful sounding court jester.
It's good.
Pink Floyd
5/5
What to say? Top ten for me. Known it and loved it for 30 plus years, still blows me away. Better structured and more cohesive than most prog. The most amazing soaring lyrical guitar parts you could ever hope for. Dense studio soundscapes with ground breaking efffects.
It's in a league of it's own. Does sound very 1970s and the lyrics are a bit schoolboy-ish. Deal with it, make this one your friend for life.
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
Another popular album not to my taste that I thought "It's got some good singles, let's give it a go", ut then ended up disliking it immediately and thoroughly.
'I'm on fire' is good, 'Dancing in the dark' is a no-holds-barred classic. The title track is not even getting a listen I'm so sick of it already.
Now 'Born to Run' is a great song too, from earlier in Bruce's career, but it's a novelty song. You can only write one song that's quite so camp and cliched about being a blue collar working guy who's gunna make it sum day.
Except all the other tracks on this album are just continuing that trope but without the tunes.
This is bad. Extremely dull.
Neil Young
4/5
The somewhat muted follow up to Harvest. Really quite atmospheric though in an understated kind of way. A consistent one. Won't set your hair on fire though.
Solid, haunted and melancholy.
Traffic
2/5
This is a very OK album. Though a bit long given the lack of really cracking tunes. 'Medicated Goo' is pretty great.
Seems less than essential, a very also-ran album given the competition at the time, and it's not particularly original either.
It sounds great and Steve's voice is amazing as ever. Um. Yeah.
Better stuff was yet to come from Steve Winwood.
Goldfrapp
3/5
Quite a nice surprise this one. Was familiar with 'Lovely Head' and 'Utopia' don't think I'd listened to the album before.
Wasn't expecting it to be so wistful. Also that thing where she does the "guitar" solo by singing soprano through effects pedals still does it for me.
Enjoyable soundscape with some good strong songs holding it up. Trip=hop esque but the varied use of instruments makes it sound a bit more original.
Baroque-hop?
Elliott Smith
2/5
I remember hearing a lot about Elliot Smith at the time he was successful. Apparently he was one of those artists you needed to check out, below the radar, if you know, you know. So under the radar people never stopped talking about him. I never heard much of his music.
Now I have and it sounds like Teenage Fanclub and The High Llamas with a bit of Badly Drawn Boy mixed in. I places it's quite loud and rocks a long a bit.
Nice enough but wishy washy and bland to me. Not sure I've missed out on too much.
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Not as country as I was expecting, but fairly middle of the road folk pop with an updated production. Maybe I'll like this when I'm 80 or something. She does have a great velvety voice.
Giant Sand
2/5
I thought this might be great at the first song. Kind of hazy Dinosaur Jr. or Grant Lee Buffallo vibe. Then came the slide guitars.
Goes on too long, horrible country influence, directionless.
Daft Punk
1/5
Why was this drivel so successful? Actual brain torture. I like electronic music, Orbital, Underworld, Aphex Twin, Kraftwerk, Jarre, and on and on.
This is just infuriating repetitive toss. The repeated sections are so short and always have an irritating sound in them and are repeated endlessly with no variation.
I genuinely hate this and I say that rarely about anything.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Considering how good their singles performance was in this era, this album contains a few duds and really just comes off as annoying.
Dusty Springfield is on effortlessly imperious form of course.
Some of the 80's electronic sounds are very hackneyed, in fact I had to check Stock Aitkin and Waterman hadn't got their grubby fingers on this one.
Some great pop nuggets but a surprisingly irritating album.
Can
1/5
I do like a bit of early 70s jazz fusion nonsense, George Duke, Santana, Zappa, etc.
Not like this.
This is just horrible on the ears and goes nowhere, I'm all for free experimentation but let's have some kind of a result lads.
Public Enemy
3/5
PE album 4 at 150 albums in. OK I get it, I need to listen to Public Enemy.
Trouble is I already have. I've heard this one a few times before and liked it. Flav is on imperious form here especially on '911 is a joke'.
a-ha
2/5
Nah, this was silly over-produced high energy pop music when I was a teen, and it has not improved with age.
In fact I'd forgotten how much the guy's vocal histrionics got on my tits.
Wilco
3/5
Always liked the opening track on this. The rest is OK too. It's OK. I thought it was alright.
Green Day
2/5
The World's most Disney "Punk" band are here to complain about something. But don't worry kids they've bought a load of highly polished commercial pop songs that all sound similar apart from the really heartfelt slow one.
Still less cringe than Blink 182 and that bloke sure can play the drums... in exactly the same way on every song.
The Pogues
2/5
Never liked this lot. All seems a bit fake to me. The album sounded quite comercial and un-folky to me.
Nah.
Laibach
2/5
That time Yello got totally munted on Scrumpy Jack and PCPs and went to a Nazi bouncy-castle party to have a belching competition with Fasolt and Fafner.
This is my just desserts for complaining about stupefyingly boring artists like Green Day and Taylor Swift being on this list. I mean, I asked for it.
Funny once, but actually shit.
Miles Davis
2/5
I suppose this must be Miles just before he went off the deep end into hard-bop, this is surprisingly conventional I think. The voicing of tha band is quite traditional and there are elements of swing and big band music, it sounds like the bridge between wartime jazz and the new era he was about to spearhead.
I liked it, though it didn't blow me away, probably will return for further listens.
Eric Clapton
2/5
I imagine this is well loved because it is just so middle of the road. It's just really plain easy going versions of songs. "I shot the Sherrif" is one of the less good Wailers songs, Clapton does nothing to improve it.
That said i didn't hate it at all but now I've given it a few spins I won't be rushing back.
Also he does seem to be an utter twonk.
Miles Davis
5/5
The ultimate and ideal datum point of Jazz. Start listening to post war Jazz here.
If you get into this when you are young, you have effectively won the lottery, there is a huge world of amazing jazz out there leading to and from this.
If not, don't worry. There's time.
Kraftwerk
3/5
She's Glen Hoddle and she's looooking good.
3rd Kraftwerk album already, this list has a lot of albums from the same artists.
OK this is Kraftwerk goes pop. Catchy and still sounding like nothing else but influencing everyone.
Sehr gut.
Burning Spear
3/5
Yes! At last some reggae. (I mean that isn't Bob Marley)
Really enjoyable rootsy reggae with a polished sound.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
This was hard going for me, heard plenty of his stuff before thanks to BBC radio evening shows over the years, but none of it ever really stuck with me.
This one sure was a palate cleanser compared to the rest of this list, but I found the vocals repetitive, I guess that's part of it's style, but not my sort of thing, also a bit shouty.
Well done for putting it on the list.
ABBA
2/5
Classic some killer and the rest is filler. Not really an album band are they?
As such never listened to one of their albums before and it's pretty awful. You can't knock the big hits, they are classics, but the rest is rubbish honestly.
Bad Company
2/5
Competent but uninspiring rock music.
The The
2/5
This never grabbed my attention at the time and now listening to it in isolation it still doesn't.
The problem is I can't decide if the creepy vocals and over-the-top plastic sounding 80s production are ironic, or if they actually wanted to sound like that.
It's just too bright and in your face and jumpy. Contrasts badly with more thoughtful pop stuff from that era such as Tears for Fears whose albums sound great still.
Fever Ray
2/5
Well this was a surprise. Totally new to me. I listened a few times and remain on the fence about it.
The vocal sound is really annoying in a lot of places, and goodness knows what she was chunnering on about... but at the same time I thought it was musically inventive and varied and I've not heard anything quite like it before.
Thanks spooky huge synth lady darth vader pixie.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
A typically solid album from Marley, since Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh had departed by this one.
A bit middling though, maybe lacks the spitirt of 'Catch a fire' but this is Bob maturing into singer-song writer superstardom that was to follow.
U2
3/5
That time U2 stopped being po-faced and were all the better for it.
Really can't be doing with 75% of U2 but I always really liked this one, it's a load of tongue in cheek, loud and catchy pop and rock fun.
Lots of variety from the hazy pop of 'She moves in mysterious ways' to the deadly serious but tender 'One'. Album tacks are pretty good too.
Current pop historians will tell you it was all grunge in the early 90s but this was massively succesful then too and deservedly.
Fela Kuti
3/5
What a beautifully recorded live album. Sounds amazing.
Great afro-beat fusion stuff, but it is really just extended improvisational workouts. No catchy pop singles or introspective thought pieces.
Just groovey lively dance music. Which is great if that's what you're after.
Thelonious Monk
3/5
You need more than a day to absorb this. But will probably return to it on my continuing mid life jazz discovery.
Actually not the most modern sounding for the late 50s, but nicely recorded and very classic.
Nice.
Bad Brains
2/5
It seems I never listened to this band back in the day for good reason. This is average and the production is awful.
It is ahead of the game in terms of that funk/metal/punk thing that was so big along side grunge in the early nineties, but this must be one of those rare occasions where the original influence is worse than the copycats it spawned.
Mr. Bungle, Living Colour and early Faith No More definitely owe something to this, as I suppose do Anthrax and Fugazi.
Groundbreaking and influential, just not really that good.
Funkadelic
5/5
This should be a 5 for me as it fills one of the main criteria for that august accolade: it's one I have loved for decades and always return to.
It's also one of the more consistent and tune-packed albums from the scatological Parlia-Funka-Delic-Ment-Thang. They are on top form here and this is the best and purest form of the original band(s).
The actual highlight of this album is 'Super Stupid' which really does live up to the band name, hard psychedelic funk par excellence, and containing the Eddie Hazel guitar solo you actually want to listen to.
But the title track is not as good as people think it is and 'Wars of armageddon' is just silly and boring.
Nah fuck it, this is still getting a 5. Hit it or quit it.
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Not my favourite band but this is a good live album. Nicely recorded and full of energy, the band are tight and driving, Phil's voice is expressive and strong. Oh apparently it's overdubbed. Well that explains that then.
'Massacre' is a corker and obviously so influential on twin guitar rock bands like Iron Maiden.
I'm not converted though.
John Lennon
2/5
This one just washed over me like a bucket of wet sick. Very similar to the Plastic Ono one that precedes is but somehow less fresh and interesting.
His grandiose digs at McCartney on 'How do you sleep' are not a good look, and 'Imagine' is so hackneyed and overplayed now you just can't take it seriously (if you ever could).
'Jealous Guy' is the only one that stands out as a great pop song worthy of John's legacy.
The Replacements
2/5
Again like Bad Brains and Husker Du and Black Flag, they do have some good songs and you can see how influential they were but... it's just not very riveting.
I can see the appeal at the time, it's honest and original guitar rock in a time of big hair and cheesey synths but. Dunno, my candle remains unlit.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Is he an amazing poet? The lyrics on this made me chuckle in a couple of places, but generally this sounds like an old guy who is being indulged in order to make a bit of cash.
The backing music is just ridiculous. This album deserves a 1 just for the gratuitous use of corny plastic sounding slap bass.
Not quite though, it's unique and charming enough for a 2. Just.
Pink Floyd
5/5
***This is a headphones album or a good stereo system, or a decent in-car system album. Listening to this on a bluetooth speaker in the corner is pointless. It's not that it's an amazing production by modern standards (though incredible achievement for the time) it's just a big dynamic soundscapre full off effects and moments that need to be experienced fully.*** And now the review:
Stone-cold, copper-bottomed, nailed-on, drop-dead master-stroke.
The only album I've heard that gives birth to you at the start before giving you up to oblivion at the end whilst fast-forwarding through all of life's tribulations in between.
My favourite album of all time by anyone, and really I think it is the ultimate example of the album as an art form in itself. The guitar solo in "Time" is unmatched.
The only noodling on this album is in the transient "On the run" but that's because they were at the bleeding edge with sequencing analogue synths.
Despite the Syd Barrett mythology, they had come a long way from 'Vegetable Man' by this point, and even with the obvious big themes it is not pretentious, the lyrics are blunt and poignant.
The album this list was made for surely?
Manu Chao
2/5
This was quite varied for something that sounded so overtly Latin. Really not my kind of thing but was bright and colourful.
Also 'Bongo Bong' seem to be the song Gorillaz based a fair bit of their career on.
The Triffids
2/5
These guys must have thought they were the business cos holy hell that's a lot of tracks for such a bland band. And the re-ssued version has a second side of the same stuff again.
Aussie Lloyd Cole without the tunes.
Does remind me of a few of these slightly folky straight ahead rock bands of the time, maybe a bit of Deacon Blue or Big Country, but again lacking in interest.
I'm sure their mums all bought a copy at least.
Michael Jackson
2/5
This was worse than I remembered. Super plastic-sounding 80s sounds, and really much weaker songs than on 'Thriller'.
Let's be honest the James Brown style vocal tics have just grown beyond parody at this point. Like remember that bit on 'Don't stop til you get enough' where he goes "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" just before that little pause and then the main riff comes in. That was cool, this just sounds like someone who got their happy sack caught in their zip (or in someone elses).
I'm surprised this wasn't regarded as quite an anticlimax at the time as it seems a real step down in quality, especially compared to Janet Jackson's albums of this era, much better songs, far superior production.
Is it bad 'Bad'? Well it is a bit pants. Heeeeee!
Brian Eno
4/5
Brian Eno accidentally discovered and invented ambient music as a form in itself and pioneered the idea with ‘Discrete Music’.
However he codified it and made it listenable with this one. Just formless enough to be an atmosphere, just musical enough to be something more.
I think the Apollo album is my favourite of his. But this one is the most essential and is very deserving of its place in this list as a source point and milestone of so much that followed.
The White Stripes
2/5
Yeah it's OK isn't it. They weren't worth all the attention they got at the time, it was a bit like people had forgotten what raunchy rock or blues actually sounded like at that point, so when they heard some they got a pleasant surpirse.
I'd broadly lump this in as Junkyard Blues, you know, noisy blues by white people, Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, and Jon Spencer have all been there before but the White Stripes do have a charm of their own.
A breath of fresh air, but really just a modish re-tread, and as usual despite success and acclaim they went mostly downhill from here.
It's fine, I like it.
Kate Bush
2/5
Amazed to find this on here instead of all the superior Kate Bush albums. Found this grating and pretentious but only had time to listen once.
All though this clearly paves the way for the self-produced 'Hounds of Love' that was next, it does sound like she's in a bit of a creative cul-de-sac here, maybe even crisis, it's all trying too hard.
If she had to go through this one to get to HoL then great, but this is not essential. Will try again... eventually.
Billy Joel
2/5
Yes it's polished and well written pop music. The band of the time were fantastic too. 'Just the way you are' is one of the earliest songs i remember hearing.
I just can't be doing with it. I can't deny the quality of the song writing, musicianship, production and Billy's expressive voice but for some reason it rubs me up the wrong way.
Not for me.
Judas Priest
1/5
Even as a slightly gormless and tragic teenager when getting into comic-book metal bands like Iron Maiden, and even thinking Def Leppard was rock music I though Judas Priest were just silly and cringeworthy.
You will not be surprised to hear that in the intervening 30 plus years this situation has not improved. Who listens to this bollocks?
I don't care how well played it is. It sounds silly. It is silly.
Even the most credible sounding tracks on here are just copying Motorhead except the singer, instead of gargling gravel, apparently got his knacks caught in a pasta press.
Van Halen
1/5
Dogshit except for 3 things and they are not enough:
1) Occasional pyrotechnics from Ed. His influential style has become the norm by this point, but he's still great at it.
2) 'Jump' is a great pop single.
3) That thing where Dave sounds like he was out in the garden by the barbecue and someone calls him inside and he's like: "wuh, aaaaaaaaah. hey oh, yeah!"
These songs are bad, ZZ Top want their riffs back and the rest is hair metal with surprisingly dull sounding guitar and dodgy song subjects and lyrics. The band do have a driving AC/DC style chug, but so do AC/DC so listen to them.
This did not even make me want to buy a Camaro IROC with the bumper hanging off or get a mullet like 'Eliminator' does.
Pan-a-ma! Panama-hah! Pan-a-ma! It's on the street! The heat is (doof doof doof doof) on.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
An old favourite of mine, I think this is one of many I had a cassette copy from a neighbours LP or CD.
I must have heard this during the grunge era and despite being from the 70s it fits in, cleary a natural predecessor.
It's nearly a 5 too. Some very classic tracks on here 'Pocahontas', 'Powderfinger' with all the proverbial ragged glory you could ever want, chrunchy riffs, simple scorching solos, and thoughtful more downbeat semi acoustic tracks. It goes downhill with 'Welfare Mothers' and 'Sedan Delivery' before the "Better to burn out than to fade away" coup de grace of 'Hey hey, My my'.
A real classic live album that's also an album album.
Country Joe & The Fish
1/5
Retrospectively this sounds very bandwagonesque, it was preceded by The Mothers 'Freak Out!' The Doors debut and the first 3 Byrds albums, not to mention 'Pet Sounds' and 'Revolver'.
It does seem representative of the more San Francisco sound of the time, but to me it sounds like a fairly transparent attempt to cash in on the scene. The songs are dull and corny, and that guitar sound made me want to throw my speaker out of the window.
Also I got them mixed up with equally generic Big Brother and the Holding Company, at least they had Janis Joplin singing.
Sears catalogue psychedelia for those who don't want to freak out too much.
Bill Callahan
3/5
Missed this at the time but was listening to plenty of similar stuff, Timber Timbre, Bonny Primce BIlly, Sun Kill Moon. This fits right in with those.
It's nice enough, a rare country-tinged album I can get along with. But it is a bit more of the same.
It was OK.
Nick Drake
3/5
My least listened to Nick Drake album. It's sparse and well crafted but somehow lacks the charm and intrigue of the 2 before it.
However the lack of accompaniment does give it an extra haunted and introspective quality.
One of the albums on the list that should be a lovely surprise for many since he only really found success in the late 90s, twenty years after his death.
If you like this do check out his other two and maybe 'Bless the weather' by John Martyn.
k.d. lang
1/5
Apparently I need to hear smug, commercial, over-produced middle of the road country shopping mall music before I die.
What the hell is she looking so pleased with on the cover? Who the fuck is Owen Bradley?
Sorry, didn't make it to the end of the first song. This list is reminding me that I dislike and dismiss a lot of stuff with good reason.
Shat-o-land more like.
Jeru The Damaja
2/5
I keep skipping Hip-Hop albums because outside of Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest and some others, I rarely hear originality or innovation. So I thought I had better give this one a go just to make sure I wasn't missing some originality and innovation.
I wasn't. This sounds exactly like early 90s hip-hop and seems to be totally generic.
Gave up after the (to underline my point) one with the boring jazz trumpet sample called... I kid you not "Da Biches".
And that is just after "Mental Stamina" which is trying oh so hard to be "How I could just kill a man" by Cypress Hill.
Is the album title trolling? Because yes, this is the essence of predictable.
Beastie Boys
2/5
Important but hit and miss. Firstly I can't be the only one who can't stand Ad-Rock's stupid whiny shouting. Also some of the songs on here are just weird.
And of all the copycats in Hip-Hop these guys started out as the most bandwagon jumping of all, but... you can sort of hear the obsession with original samples and more experimental ideas coming through which led them to be totally original in the end.
Patchy but catchy.
Metallica
2/5
You'd think Metallica are the perfect choice to add a Symphony Orchestra to and maybe they still are, but not on this.
Metallica are definitely one of the most composer-ly bands. Their songs sound like they were written with real thought and direction particularly on the 'Master of Puppets' and '...and Justice for All' albums. Themes develop, songs have different sections, there is light and shade and changes of pace, reflective soulful moments are contrasted with fathomless heaviosity and then galloping pace. So perfectly suited to be backed by an orchestra well versed with Shostakovich, Mahler and Wagner?
Nope! the arrangements are pointless and mismatched to the band, and we are horribly exposed to Lars Ulrich's blundering inadvertant free-jazz take on timing. The orchestra are just whining and brassily farting in the background while the other 3 contend with bridging that and Lars.
Also this made me listen to loads of songs I'd missed post Black Album and frankly it's country-pop nonsense.
You never got this shit from Motorhead.
Pixies
2/5
A third Pixies album before I've listened to 200. Sorry, they really are not that important, and if they are, where are Mudhoney or Dinosaur Jr or Husker Du? They aren't really an album band either.
A festival band, that's Pixies in their natural environment and always has been.
Anyway this one has the most pop singles on it and you can hear their songwriting blossoming.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
Love this one, owned a copy 30 years. It's the beginning of the whole Junkyard Blues thing, white guys making raggedy loud blues music, that Tom Waits, Jon Spencer and the White Stripes among others would also do.
Don's Howlin' Wolf vocals over the top of the well drilled bands' (including a young Ry Cooder) jangly stomp dominates this one.
But it also has the proverbial "psychedelic gleam in it's eye", and is not afraid to break into outright crooning in places.
I think one of the most genuine and likeable albums of the late 60s psychedelic explosion. A real touch stone and full of catchy if a but wonky songs too.
Deep Purple
2/5
Never really been grabbed by Deep Purple, now I take the time to listen not much has changed. Driving but directionless fast hard rock.
Shrieking.
Not going to listen again.
Kate Bush
3/5
A solid album. Didn't have time to give it time.
You can't help but feel that she's settled into herself as a person and an artist on this, in a good way. It's mature and thoughtful and well sensual but steps back from the high drama and jumpy jigs of earlier albums.
Will return to it.
Thundercat
3/5
Unfortunately for Thundercat I have heard George Duke, The Isley Brothers and Frank Zappa before.
But I quite liked this, and might even return to it. At least it is a proper album, it's good to hear people will still go into the studio and put a whole collection of songs together on purpose, this feels crafted.
The rapping on a couple of tracks actually breaks the mood for me and seems spurious.
A rare thing, a fairly recent album that should be on this list.
Prince
2/5
This was much worse than I was expecting. Good poppy start but then just becomes annoying.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Surprised to read other reviewers bemoaning this being an album of songs not written by Dusty herself, as if Frank Sinatra or Aretha Franklin were singer songwriters. Especially given the wave of second rate cover versions we seem to be suffering recently.
Admittedly this album is a vehicle for Dusty's voice and personality which are fantastic and deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the artists above. Very contemporary to Dionne Warwick and sharing some of "her" songs.
But really Dusty herself is the reason for this album, amazing and unique voice, naturalistic phrasing on a bunch of generally good and in some places classic tunes.
Pop goodness personified.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Another lifelong friend. A very composed and mature version of the band, it's much more even and well recorded than the previous ones though does lack the gritty rawness somewhat.
Loads of light and shade, and what would hip-hop have done without those drum samples?
Only getting a four since it's not as revolutionary or exciting as the first 3, and 'Stairway' is a bit of an albatross.
This Led the way to "Houses of the Holy" and "Physical Grafitti" which just build on this nicely.
Syd Barrett
3/5
As a lifelong Pink Floyd fan I honestly think Syd Barrett was somewhat overrated. The first PF album was important and a pivitol part of the UK adoption and variation of psychedelic music. But it's not that amazing really.
This is an album with some real glints of originality and song writing quality in 'Terapin', 'Octopus' and maybe 'Long gone'. But the rest is patchy and stumbling. Is a bit of a hard listen in places as he's clearly not enjoying himself.
Though Syd's influence generally on alternative music and even the like of Bowie can't be overstated, this is an interesting document, more for Floyd fans and investigators of the London psyche scene rather than a truly essential album.
Tom Waits
4/5
Discovered this eventually about 15 years ago, loved it immediately. I't ramshackle and poetic ramblings suit me down to the ground and it really is quite original.
Always thought the guitar sounded like Keef Richards had accidentally stumbled into the studio after midnight and just decided to record something, turns out that is Keef on some tracks. Perfect.
'Downtown Train' despite its commercial success just sounds like a breath of fresh air here after so much heartache and gin soaked derangement.
MTV Friendly oddness of the highest order.
John Coltrane
3/5
I am discovering jazz as I get old. This is quite intense and difficult for me as a newb but I like it.
I like the way it starts of disjointed and rapid and by the last part it has become, particularly in the sax more of a plaintive soul crying out.
Needs more listens on my long journey, but it's a fundamental of post war jazz.
GZA
2/5
Oh I tried, but I'm not interested enough to find the differences in these hip-hop albums. Hip-Hop started when I was a kid but post 1990 it just seemed to be come an industry and the only way to mark yourself out is by how many times you use the N-Word.
This did have original spare sounding backing tracks. This is wasted on me.
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
I was going to give this 4 stars for unadulterated nostalgia. But listening to the whole thing again... it's not quite a 4 star album.
Obviously the big hits 'Turn to stone' ' Mr Blue Sky' 'Sweet talkin Woman' etc. are burned deeply into the earliest memories of those of us born in the 70s, but this shouldn't even be a double, a lot of it is smooth-radio-country. And it really really does sound a lot like Beatles tropes everywhere.
However this is a classic album cover if ever I saw one, the gatefold was excellent fun back and front.
Ridiculous, over-produced, rambles on forever but has the hits where it counts. Jeff's big sprawling and highly polished magnum opus.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
I was not offended. I really don't know how authentic this is though it clearly precedes most of Rock'n'Roll.
But to my untrained English ears it sounds like some fairly genuine American folk which seems to have been supplanted by MEGA COUNTRY these days so it was a bit of a breath of fresh air.
Moby could have got a whole album of lift music out of this.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
2/5
Not the best JSBX album. Starting with a song that hurts your brain that much is just stupid, and it hardly eases you in after that.
However saw them live around this time or after and it was one of the best gigs I've been to for pogo-tastic good crowd vibes and noisy rock'n'roll insanity.
This is another footnote album in this list.
Carole King
3/5
It's great to hear this valedictory example of Carole King's writing genius after her spell as a hit-maker and marriage to Gerry Goffin. Her own spare and fully inhabited versions of these songs are a revelation.
But there aren't actually that many crackers on here, and I find songs like 'Smackwater Jack' 'Beautiful' and 'Home again' a bit annoying for some reason.
'So far away' is the star of the show I think, Joni levels of longing.
Absolutely an essential album, but not quite the cavalcade of bangers you might expect.
Devendra Banhart
1/5
This album reminds me of the time I accidentally gave a Miles Davis album 2 stars on here. It was a mistake, I did not mean to give Miles Daves 2 stars. Please forgive me.
This is far too reminiscent of early T-Rex. Not in a good way. Yep 16 tracks in he's still doing the wobbly voice thing.
I mostly don't like it. I sort of like track 6.
If you are going to put a Devendra Banhart album on this list surely it should be Illinoise.
Sorry mate this is pants.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
No need to repeat the orthodoxy of Hendrix changing the guitar forever, but his albums were not amazing works in themselves.
This one is a good debut album in the traditional sense, though the original UK version did not have 'Purple Haze' and 'Hey Joe' on it.
His "yeah baby I'm groovy" schtick is pretty laughable and quite a few songs are fairly plain. 'I don't live today' is a particular low-light.
Listening to it again with fresh ears 'Love or confusion' is a standout. Other tracks ar clearly much more influential.
A good start from a world changing, history making artist, but maybe not such an amazing album.
Songhoy Blues
3/5
Yep always quite liked these guys, and this is more what this list is about to me rather than another bloody Elliott Smith album.
Driving bluesy gritty tunes from Mali, no idea what they are saying but the same goes for plenty of English speaking artists.
Great to hear there is music from beyond the Anglosphere worth checking out.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
1/5
Struggling to hear how this is country rock and not just.. country.
Lovely recording, horrible music. Given the reverence these guys inspire I was at least expecting a strong crossover, maybe some psychedelic sounds or some of the bluesy boogie of ZZ Top or even Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Nope just really polished cliched country.
And look at their stupid fucking clothes.
Duran Duran
2/5
Despite nostalgia blast from 8 year old me, and the 3 strong singles. This is not much cop is it?
The musicianship sounds great but again we have the super plastic mega polished 80s production which removes a lot of feeling and interest, Le Bon's voice is frankly crap and the other tracks are filler.
Important band and singles, but as an album barely registers.
Arcade Fire
2/5
No idea. Seems very bland to me. Yes it has an original dramatic quality to it but never seems to pick up any real pace. It's not as epic as it thinks it is.
Also, like the similarly incomprehensibly successful The Killers he sings like a third rate Meatloaf, and I don't like Meatloaf either.
I think you had to be there or something.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Soul's most plaintive murder victim is back with another meme track opener.
And another very smooth and effortless album where the songs all sound suspiciously similar.
Yeah very nice. Not as revolutionary as 'What's going on' but a solid example for all other soul singers to wonder at.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
2/5
This is exactly the kind of pretentious wank from the 1970s I should like.
But it's just annoying and tuneless and souless.
3/5
The Hedge: "Wait we can't start the album yet, I've got to switch on my 13 delays, 32 reverbs and EQ the amp for extra jangle... I know, play some ominous keyboard pads for 30 seconds then fade me up... what no then I'll be all set to go into the next track... what? Yeah track 3 as well... you get the idea".
OK OK, U2 are pretty annoying and Bonio especially, but they are on career best form here and the big songs are really big. Bono is singing his self-righteous, tax-dodging socks off. A bit too much in places.
Definitely sounds like they got lost on tour in America and then found themselves again, in a good way.
That's it though, I've been nice about this one and 'Achtung Baby'... I have exhausted my stock of U2 praise.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
2/5
Knew and loved 'Faith Healer' already, definitely the highlight of an entertaining but inconsistent album. Also heard the ribald 'Next!' but not the even more ribald 'Gangbang'.
You can certainly hear the influence on pub rock and AC/DC, and there's flecks of greatness, but a lot of this is silly and frankly irksome.
Another one to file in the 'weren't the 70s random' bin.
Soul II Soul
2/5
I was ready to jump to the defence of this one since it's lead singles are so influential on Trip-Hop. This and 'Raw Like Sushi' by Neneh Cherry preceded Massive Attack by a few years, and pioneered slower more soulful dance and rap music in the UK charts.
Also Caron Wheeler's vocals on 'Keep on Moving' and 'Back to Life' are absolute benchmarks of UK soul.
But it's a pretty shite album to be honest. A lot of the tracks are bland and it doesn't settle into the theme set by the songs I mention.
Probably hard for people who weren't listening to the radio in the UK in the late 80s to appreciate how original this was, but yeah as an album it's not amazing.
Van Morrison
1/5
Didn't have time to listen but Van Morrison is a so 1 star.
Though I've never heard anything I liked by him before either.
Prick.
Talking Heads
2/5
Yeah sorry I'm in the "Don't get it" camp when it comes to Talking Heads, they have some great singles and they do mostly sound like themselves, not anyone else.
Just find it generic of itself. Don't think they are as revolutionary as people say expecially given all the grat stuff that was happening in the late 70s and early 80s despite the singer's "oh so quirky" delivery and the energetic rthyms it's all a bit samey for me, and bland.
Muddy Waters
4/5
The album Americans weren't listening to when the Brits stole "their music".
It's OK though because now Americans show their authentic love of the blues by listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe (are you taking the piss?) Bonamassa.
Snide aside this is a great album and totally pivotal in modern music, the band sound very relaxed and together, and Muddy's voice is incredible, just the perfect link for American folk, real old school delta blues, the more electric Chicago scene and the emergence of Rock and Roll.
It also sounds great for a 1960 live recording and the respectful crowd get more an more into it as the songs roll along. Wonderful.
Actually one of the albums you should hear before you die because hundreds of the others on this list owe it a debt.
Boards of Canada
3/5
I think I had ambiented myself to death by the time these guys appeared an it's not my favourite. Too many annoying samples that repeat (not to a Daft Punk level of annoying but still I find myself skipping tracks for that reason alone).
However I love the way this sounds like a 1970s public information film with primitive hokey synth sound effects suddenly dropped acid and drifted off into heat hazy psychedelic nuclear dawn. Or something.
Did analogue synths ever sound fatter and more squidgy than in 'ROYGBIV'? Also I wish the shimmering opening of 'Olson' went on longer.
Another good footnote album.
Beatles
5/5
I real step change for The Beatles, and music in general.
I suppose this sounds like another twee 60s rock/pop album to some and nonsense like 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Dr. Robert' doesn't help.
But this is revolutionary. Hence the title. The Beatles were either getting in on new trends right at the start here (pysche, baroque-pop, world music, guitar feedback) or inventing them outright (studio as an instrument, tape effects, electronic effects, multitracking like crazy).
In just 3 years they had come a loooooong way from 'Love me do'.
Absolutely pivotal and essential.
Gene Clark
2/5
Another Gene Clark album? REALLY? Admittedly on the last one there was the bit Gilmour clearly got inspired by for 'Wish you were here'. But another one?
OK I prefer this one, it's more varied and I think some of the songs are a lot stronger, and it isn't just country rock like the other one, he's definitely moved with the times and sounds better for it.
Still a 2 though.
The Who
4/5
Despite my excellent Dad-Rock credentials and being a long term fan of other Who albums, never really got into this or Quadraphenia.
It's like the Kinks do The Wall. It's OK it is full of breezy songs and the story is a bit crazy but enjoyable.
Very pioneering but always feels a little unfinished to me. Already The Who's second concept album though, incredible really.
The Temptations
3/5
Good recommendation. They made their own niche really, still wearing suits and doing dance routines but singing psychedelic soul with political lyrics.
I enjoyed this though maybe it's not the most consistent album.
Extra star just for the bass vocalist.
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
I think this is about the 15th KL album that has appeared as a recommendation to me on here and to be honest it's the first one I listened to because...
ANOTHER RAP INDUSTRY RAP ALBUM PRODUCT
But I opened my mind up and prepared to be delighted by the lack of cliche and ground breaking originality that this vital modern artist would provide...
Wasted my time again didn't I? Swearing, N-Words, boasting, P-Funk rip offs. Man where is the innovation in Hip-Hop?
Again, this is wasted on me, just like hair-metal and country there's a market for it and I am not the market.
I'm going to listen to The Isleys now until I feel better. Fuck.
Madonna
2/5
I don't think any of Madonna's are really thought of as classic albums she's a singles artist. But THIS is the one I need to hear before I die?
Well I tried, it almost turns into a half credible dance album but then comes the god awful electronic country nonsense, a total re-run of 'Beautiful Stranger' and a cover of 'American Pie', to top it all it's got the auto-tune gimmick on it too. Sheesh.
OK, 'Don't tell me' is a corker. Fair play.
It's only right to have some Madge on this list, but this is a bloody odd choice.
The Cult
2/5
It doesn't even have 'She sells sandwiches' on it.
I managed 5 tracks, basic straight ahead rock, nothing to complain about apart from Astubury's nasal vocals. Nothing to be excited about either.
1980s replacement for Bad Company, or The Darkness without the humour, screeching and swearing.
Bon Jovi
1/5
Slippery when wet. Like your Mum.
No album on this list so far has made me cringe this much. It's just Springsteen blue collar nonsense but with Kiss doing the music.
I skipped through most tracks as I could feel I was growing a mullet.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Not my favourite Wailers album, but you can't argue with how strong it is. But it's the highly commercial Bob Marley show by now, and I find the whole Exodus schtick a bit odd.
Like Bob knows what's best for the black people of the western world, they need to "go back where they came from" I fee like I've heard that before somewhere.
Very polished and of course contains some classic singles, pop-tastic reggae goodness.
The United States Of America
2/5
Of all the bandwagon jumping late 60s psychedelic albums I've heard on this list, this gets the award for trying to copy the most acts.
The Mothers, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Doors, Jeffersson... they are just trying to sound like everyone and sounding worse than everyone.
I think this is the kind of album you'd buy after seeing the band live when you were off your face and thought they were amazing, then got it home and thought... yeah this is actually bollocks.
I do quite like the random insertion of Hollywood strings and music that sounds like it's from a 50s soap commercial, but then that's just copying The Who.
Again, this one is not in the pantheon for good reason. Interesting though and worth being on the list to show that in any great wave there are always the hangers-on.
Malcolm McLaren
1/5
OK all you "Those Brits stole our music" types, this is what artless theiving sounds like. This is cultural appropriation.
Funny thing is he clambered aboard the hip-hop / break-dance trend so quickly he's almost cutting edge (for a UK artist). I would say though as a South London kid when this came out I do rememeber Grand Master Flash, Break Machine, Rock Steady Crew around the same time.
But it's bad, really bad, reprehensible, this overtakes Bon Jovi for most cringeworthy by a mile. And it doesn't just bust it's way into the black american music scene of the time, it also bizarrley heads off into the land of country jigs and hoedown. Then there's the childish "scratching" obsession and the tapping away at the same single vocal sample repeatedly. Jesus.
Just painful.
Moby
1/5
Not listening to this, but still giving it a 1 star. I don't need to listen to it, I was alive when it came out.. and the 5 if not 10 years after where it was in TV programmes, TV adverts, on the radio, allover the internet. And why?
This must be cultural appropriation week as yesterday I had Malcolm McLaren, who is it tomorrow? The fucking black and white minstrels?
This was not only the most naked pilfering of the black people of America's heritage and culture, but it's also a complete waste. This was after ambient, after house, after trip-hop and any kind of electronic chill-down music, it was after sampling... this is the most laggardly and kleptomaniac of all the famous electronic albums.
It's bland, derivative. exploitative and breaks less ground than a chocolate pickaxe. Obviously this made it hugely successful... The Coldplay Effect I like to call it.
Fuck off Moby and take your background music from a dental plan advert dross with you.
OutKast
2/5
At last! A hip-hop album from after 1992 that actually sounds quite original!
Phew!
Sadly it's over an hour too long.
Boo!
Does take more than half an hour for all the n*****s and p***y and b*****s to appear so that's nice. It's still not very amazing, but it's less bad than a lot of the rest. I listened to it all in one go and now I would like my saturday afternoon back.
I've mentioned time a lot in this review. Temporally challenging.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
Another album from the late 60s Psychedelic bandwagon.
This one is as transparents as the others (Country Joe, USA etc.) I think, but I slightly prefer it due to it wearing its British Beat invasion influences on it's sleeve, these guys had definitely heard Dave Clark Five, The Zombies, The Animals, The Who and some other bands that start with The.
But that gives it a straight ahead pop/RNB vibe with a load of wonky psyche effects over the top.
A good effort for the time and probably helped set the scene but it's not exactly crucial.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Oh god who let this donkey bray into a mouth organ? STOP IT!
I guess this is important since he "went electric" on this one, but I have to say it's where all the cliches got set in stone and it was all downhill after here. Bad vocals, awful harmonica, songs that are bitchy rather than incisive, starting EVERY phrase with "WEEEEEeelllllll".
Influential without doubt but a worse listen than I was expecting.
The Boo Radleys
2/5
Very far from essential but not terrible. A bit of a puzzler for inclusion on this list, the 'Wake Up!' album was the one with the few hit singles on.
This is jangly British Indie not completely typical though, it owes nothing to Oasis-Blur-Pulp-Suede, but it does have a bit of a sense of humour and some musical diversions.
*Shrugs*
Pavement
3/5
One of those albums I've enjoyed for years but if you asked me to hum one of the tunes I'd be stumped before singing "stereo" which is on a different album. OK I might get "Cut your hair" classic.
I really like it and always have though "Terror Twighlight" is the album I discovered them with. There is something hard to quite lock onto with their songs.
It's great to hear an American band being sardonic and casually anarchic and not trying too hard, and like Pixies not chasing a genre to fit in.
A good snarky album by a unique band who ended up being influential by accident.
1/5
There's really only one category of music I'm prepared to say I outright hate and it's country, but I did listen, and I am sad to say my hatred is justified.
This is music for inbreds with Stockholm Syndrome marriages.
It's so sickly and syrupy, and it's from 1967? That revolutionary year? It sounds like it could have passed without notiuce in 1947. Objectively the songs are straight ahead ballady stuff that could be done in any traditional style but even then none really caught my ear except to make me grimace at the weeping steel guitars.
And it's message seems to be "men are so cruel, but well us gals just gunna have to deal with it". Maybe she's giving a voice to women in this situation but I don't care.
Oh and it seems she was a Republican influencer of many decades standing, yeah that fits.
How do I give minus stars?
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Making up for Loretta Lynn and The Flying Butt-Eat-O Brothers, a country influenced album I quite enjoyed.
CCR are quite a cliche in themselves since their music appears all the time in everything as a shorthand for regular American folk. But somehow they do maintain a solid originality.
They are the older brother from your farm family who went to college but came back angry. They manage to be down-at-home and traditional but also driving and outspoken.
I've got a bit of time for them and this is a solid bunch of songs with a few all time classics.
The Shamen
2/5
Oh this is pretty weak isn't it. Not held up well. 'Move any mountain' is still a minor league banger but the rest is mostly annoying.
Yet another album on this list that isn't essential at all, but does help fill out an appreciation of different times and movements in music.
3/5
Ah yes, how do Americans show their lack of conformity? By putting on uniforms. At least Devo beat Slipknot to it.
What a lot of Talking Heads sounds like to me, but I prefer this as they are being ridiculous on purpose. Not an amazing album but Devo deserve their place on this list for just being Devo.
Importnt footnote but you can only listen to so much intentionally plastic and robotic music in one go.
Eagles
2/5
Very slick country rock. What a surprise. Not a fan, it's very easy listening and not particularly full of fantastic tunes.
Thankfully the weeping steel guitars are having a day off but finger plucked banjos are sadly in evidence.
David Bowie
2/5
I think you have to be neck-deep invested in a very blinkered orthodoxy of Bowie's supposed genius to think this is much good at all, let alone some kind of swan-song masterstroke.
This and 'Black Star' are the 2 Bowie albums I can remember being recommended to me on here and frankly their quality has been hugely exaggerated.
Dull and irrelevant. You can't deny Bowie's place in music history, but this album has no place on this list. Still no Isley Brothers.
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
What a breath of fresh air this was at the time. The follow up was better in my view.
A bit of a patchy album, I was a bit old for it but you can't deny it's impact or the few absolute classics on it.
Dolly Parton
1/5
Nope.
Country is shit. I made it to 1:30 of the first track and was cringing all the way then came the steel guitars. Had to take a vom break.
This is very commercial shopping mall music too. Just all the cliches, nothing new or vital and not classic either. I was very sure to put Spotify into private mode for this one. I do not want this inexcusable excrement in my already awful recs.
Me listening to the albums on this list: "I literally never want to hear another rap/hip-hop or country album or song ever again". Far from making me appreciate some elements of these genres that had evaded me before it is simply convincing me how right I am to dislike this drivel.
And is this not a candidate for worst album artwork ever? Hideous.
If you want to listen to an album with 3 greats on it, listen to "Passion, Grace and Fire", or "Friday Night in San Francisco".
Still no Isley Brothers. Fuck.
R.E.M.
3/5
I think this was the first time the band became known to the general public despite them being around for most of the 80s and producing plenty of good songs.
This is definitely the warm up to their huge MTV success. It has a slightly annoying trebly sound to it, but it's packed full of strong songs, you can really hear they've matured and there's probably more to come.
Yeah a really good album which is near the start of MTV realising the whole world wants to listen to "alternative" or "indie" music, because it's just music.
Björk
2/5
This shouldn't be on this list. Not essential. 'Debut' or 'Post' should be and probably are on this list, but this?
I had to read the review to discover it's based mostly around vocal samples and pure singing... it doesn't particularly sound like it. OK, well done I suppose. Vocal samples and musique concrete are as old as the tape machine or mellotron so this isn't avant-garde to me.
It's OK, but it is literally Bjork doing a Bjork album and this one seems to retain the usual tropes with fewer musical highlights or real innovations. One for Bjork fans, you won't hear anythng you haven't heard before.
Minimal atmospheres with Bjork breathily twittering or bellowing over the top. Really not much else.
A passable minimalist Bjork album but a bewildering choice for this list.
Still no Isley Brothers.
Joy Division
2/5
Joy Division: Important but shit.
New Order: Less important, but less shit.
I don't know this is heavy going isn't it? It's dour, bleak, tuneless, played by trained chimps apparently. It has a layer of pathos and intrigue due to Ian Curtis' struggles and suicide and his very original persona is everywhere but...
I'd rather listen to some talented musicians playing some good songs on a pleasingly produced recording.
Destiny's Child
2/5
This has so much more whooomph than Tay-to Swift or even Chirstina Al-see-ya-later.
This is dynamic, raunchy and fun, it also features real ballsy vocals insteasd of just shouting in tune.
And come on, 'Bootylicious' is just an all time banger.
Trails off in the second half though, becomes a lot more over-produced boring soul, and the opening product placement is jarring. But a deserving pop nugget despite the conflicted "look at my bum / put some bloody clothes on woman' lyrics.
Eminem
1/5
What is actually wrong with Americans?
Sister Sledge
3/5
4 All time classics, Chic at the top of their game as band and producers, hard to dislike this one.
Again, Disco wasn't really an album scene, 12" remixes were the thing.
The other tracks on this are more downbeat and reflective but show off the sisters high quality vocals and personality nicely.
Ideal record form the disco era.
Grateful Dead
2/5
Impossible to fathom the devoted appeal to Dead-Heads of the time or even more latter day fans. I've really earnestly tried with these guys, and just none of it ever sticks with me. Also unlike plenty of other artists I don't care for, the Dead don't seem to have really been influential... not to an important degree.
The first 7 hours of this LP are passable, I mean it's jazz influenced psyche noodling, it's directionless and contains no fireworks at all, but it's fine.
As you move into the second and third weeks of your first listen to this it really starts to drag.
Listen to "Caravanserai" by Santana instead. It has more atomosphere, is far better played and has tunes and proper singing.
Metallica
3/5
They only did two good albums and this isn't one of them. Having made those two great albums, they decided they should make a popular album... and that undeniably worked.
I was just the right age for this when it came out (17) and having discovered Metallica in my teen years was keenly looking forward to the new album, and yeah I liked it at the time, it got a lot of plays.
Listening to it now I really don't like much of it, seems a real retrograde step for the band. It's just soft and easy, and the longer tougher songs are a bit boring and aimless, and what's with all the redneck shit on 'Don't tread on me'? The production is horrible, sounds like an old cassette.
This signalled the beginning of Metallica's decay into irrelevance and global success. Which seems to have gone just fine, but I never bought or listened to another thing of theirs after this really. I grew up I suppose.
Saw them live at Reading in 2003. They were shit.
Shout out to Kirk though, flawless widdly-woo guitar on this.
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
I don't think this is essential but then I drifted off after a couple of songs, paused it for a work call then never unpaused it.
I mean that certainly was an experience I needed before I died.
Probably ok but really who cares.
Kate Bush
5/5
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
Absolute class act. Breezy and relaxed trio and Sarah Vaughan's top flight vocals, lovely.
Never listened to one of her albums before, so don't know if this is really better regarded than a studio one.
The Ella skit made me laugh on the last track.
Great live session from a great jazz act. What's to dislike?
Shack
2/5
I get a bit bored of the "Another British band I've never heard of OMG it's just OASIS, weak Indie rock" reviewers on here.
Except this time. Go for it.
I always liked the Teenage Fanclub-like "Comedy", but couldn't remember much else of these guys despite them being quite hyped at the time.
Listening now this is pretty generic and I would have put British Sea Power, Cast, or even DODGY ahead of this as examples of pop-tastic UK guitar rock from 90s to 2000s.
It's fine, it's wistful poppy indie guitar music, doesn't particularly sound like Oasis to me but it really is quite derivative and has not become a cult classic for good reason.
I see no hits.
Death In Vegas
2/5
This deserves to be on the list since it's an example of the kind of studio based soundtrack style music that appeared in the late 1990s. It uses a seamless mix of electronics, sampling and live band which had become possible by this point technologically.
It's just not very interesting or remarkable, similar to the Barry Adamson album in this list, it's more style than substance.
'Aisha' was the gimmicky hit single with Iggy on vocals, and 'Lever Street' stood out as sounding like it should have been on 'Obscured by Clouds' by Pink Floyd.
Yeah passable but pointless. Another footnote.
The Vines
2/5
Good singles, average everything else. I am not offended but won't be going back for further listens.
There was a rash of these bands in the UK charts at this time, The Datsuns, The Von Bondies, Cooper Temple Clause, just straight ahead noisy rock.
Kind of stuck between Mansun and Arctic Monkeys, these guys just never went anywhere.
David Bowie
2/5
At last a proper Bowie album. I've had all the late career ones previously which are not very good. This one has the title track! Fripp! Eno! Visconti!
It's not very good. Sorry once more to the damp-eyed Bowie adherents, it's still style over substance. It mostly goes nowhere. It must have sounded quite cutting edge at the time and I guess it was but there's still not a lot going on in my view.
Also the lyrics on the album version of 'Heroes' are fucking laughable. "I... I like my cat... it sits... it sits on the mat... and that... well that's just about that..."
Undeniably influential and important but it's charisma and fashion rather than good content.
Julian Cope
2/5
Another entry on this list that can round out your understanding of music, but really isn't even faintly essential to anyone. Especially as an album.
Julian Cope is one of those that DJs, Reviewers and commentators generally persist with. They persist in making out he's a true original and the world is a more fascinating place with his music in it. But when I listen I just hear some fairly ordinary rock and pop with a few odd production choices thrown in.
It is fine I suppose but really had enough by track 13.
For those of you complaining this is self-indulgent or too arty or pretentious, you need to keep working your way through this list cos this barely registers in terms of poncery.
Elis Regina
2/5
The KLF
3/5