167
Albums Rated
2.97
Average Rating
15%
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922 albums remaining
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2010s
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15
5-Star Albums
6
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross | 5 | 3.28 | +1.72 |
| Melodrama | 5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
| The Downward Spiral | 5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
| 2112 | 5 | 3.39 | +1.61 |
| Illinois | 5 | 3.49 | +1.51 |
| good kid, m.A.A.d city | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Pictures At An Exhibition | 4 | 2.65 | +1.35 |
| Jagged Little Pill | 5 | 3.72 | +1.28 |
| American Idiot | 5 | 3.77 | +1.23 |
| Siamese Dream | 5 | 3.83 | +1.17 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lady In Satin | 1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
| Songs Of Love And Hate | 1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
| Os Mutantes | 1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
| Green River | 2 | 3.78 | -1.78 |
| Let's Stay Together | 2 | 3.76 | -1.76 |
| Chore of Enchantment | 1 | 2.64 | -1.64 |
| Morrison Hotel | 2 | 3.6 | -1.6 |
| Talking Heads 77 | 2 | 3.56 | -1.56 |
| Electric Warrior | 2 | 3.54 | -1.54 |
| 1984 | 2 | 3.51 | -1.51 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 2 | 5 |
5-Star Albums (15)
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Popular Reviews
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
One of the most well-executed concept albums ever. The lyrics are so good, along with the story they tell. Sherane and The Art of Peer Pressure are two of the greatest storytelling rap songs ever written; they're practically short stories. Ben's right, if these reviewers think that this is just an album about drugs and sex and violence, they're simply being ignorant. How can you listen to this and completely look over the message of every single song? The songs about those controversial subjects are looking at them from a perspective of growth, a move away from hedonism and toward looking back on a life and asking why it had to be that way. Great album.
4 likes
Screaming Trees
3/5
I really should like this more than I do. It falls into my music taste so well; I love 90s grunge-adjacent alternative bands like this. I think it's just missing the spark that makes the albums in this genre that I DO like so special. This one feels a bit generic in comparison, even when looking at it next to Copper Blue by Sugar, which is probably the album most similar to this one that I've heard on the list so far. Listening back, Copper Blue has the oomph that this album lacks.
Maybe this album suffers more from Similar Song Syndrome so I can't evaluate each song individually as much, which makes it less interesting as a whole. I think the unthreatening production coupled with the fact that each song feels too sonically aligned with all the others kind of makes the album fade into background-music status.
3 likes
Madness
2/5
Album for true Brexit Geezahs. Quite possibly the most British album ever recorded. And yes, that includes the borderline rockabilly song at the end and the guy in brownface on the album cover.
Our House fucking BANGS tho
3 likes
2/5
POV: Your friend is driving you around in his mom’s car because his is in the shop. You don’t want to listen to the radio so you decide to rifle through her CD booklet. You pick one at random and pop it in. It’s boring.
I like some of the PJ’s songs, but this is peak 2000 Toyota Corolla music imo. I unfortunately only started vibing at the chorus of We Float. However, I will give props for probably inspiring a lot of In Rainbows
1 likes
The Zutons
2/5
More kind-of-forgettable early-2000s indie. These guys kind of sound like a band that would be playing in a beer garden or something. The album was fine, but it seems pretty out of place on this list. This isn't even the album with their biggest hits on it!
1 likes
1-Star Albums (6)
All Ratings
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
One of the most beautiful albums ever. Sufjan’s voice has that amazing, airy timbre and the instrumental arrangements are so distinct and layered extremely well. The aesthetic of the album is so unique and the concept is so rich; I have not heard anything like it since. This thing is dense as hell without ever getting old. So many songs, especially Predatory Wasp, truly move me every time I hear them, and I can’t say that about a lot of albums. This thing is close to perfect. Easy 5.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
The energy of RATM is unmatched. Listening to these songs is the only time I’m ever angry in a fun way.
Lorde
5/5
This came out right after I graduated high school, and my relationship with this album was basically just liking it more and more as I progressed through college and grew up. I had a record player at my college house and this was near the top of the most played list just because everyone would pick it when searching through the record collection. The music is great (obv awesome vocals, but all of the songs are overall super memorable and the perfect amount of poppy), the lyrics and the central themes are great (oversaturation of the party lifestyle, confusing relationships, etc), the production is great (basically made Jack Antonoff a known name imo). At the end of the day though, it simply bangs and will certainly be remembered as one of the best albums of the 2010s.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
Peak Toyota Corolla Music, and I'm finally saying that not as a diss. This is the masterwork that every other album in the genre aspires to be, and its quality will probably never be surpassed. The savior of CD-case browsers everywhere, as it bangs and you already know it's gonna be in there before you even open it.
Justice
5/5
It goes hard. Whenever I put this on in my headphones I will straight up struggle to resist dancing. Every single song does this. When I hear Genesis I transcend.
Pearl Jam
5/5
I was scared to death of the Jeremy music video as a kid after seeing it in the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago. I deprived myself for years of one of the hardest, most unique rock songs ever for that reason and that truly saddens me.
Such a well-rounded, well-produced (perfect amount of reverb) album with incredible vocals and great grunge arrangements that are sophisticated enough to maintain the legacy this album has into today. While its sound is clearly a product of its time, it doesn’t sound stale or dated. There are some weaker songs (Why Go and Garden, mainly), but they still have their place on the album between the massive hits and better deep cuts (Oceans is one of the most underrated songs of the 90s). Edward Vedward and the Crew really did it to em with this one
Sugar
4/5
A lot of my music taste falls into a genre I like to call “sunroof music”: music that one could easily blast while driving a car with the windows down on a beautiful day. This album fits that description remarkably well. It’s ultra-90s, ultra-sunny, and packed with ultra-powerful guitars. Incredible sunroof music.
Man on the vocals does kind of sound like Jake from Adventure Time on The Slim though
Beatles
5/5
Paul McCartney’s voice is angelic. For No One and Eleanor Rigby are two of the best songs ever written. The Beatles have to potential to really make waves I think if they keep putting out stuff like this
Dr. Dre
4/5
Total vibe album. However, with a heavy heart I cannot put this on the Topster because of The Doctor's Office. And the fact that the last few tracks honestly drag a bit. The first half of the album hits so mf hard tho
2/5
POV: Your friend is driving you around in his mom’s car because his is in the shop. You don’t want to listen to the radio so you decide to rifle through her CD booklet. You pick one at random and pop it in. It’s boring.
I like some of the PJ’s songs, but this is peak 2000 Toyota Corolla music imo. I unfortunately only started vibing at the chorus of We Float. However, I will give props for probably inspiring a lot of In Rainbows
N.W.A.
3/5
Ice Cube: suck my ding-a-ling
Eazy E: suck my wing-ding-ding-a-ling
Dr. Dre: I will never 😤 smoke weed 🤮
MC Ren: My name is MC Ren
The production is awesome on this thing, and the first two songs are two of the greatest rap songs ever. The album is def an enjoyable listen but I will say they pretty much keep the same flow the whole time and all the songs go like a minute and a half longer than you’d think they would. Good album but you can tell it ended up being a precursor to at least Dre and Cube making better music in the future. 6.9/10
Louis Prima
3/5
Louis Prima be like “Hold up I’m gonna fuck with my saxophonist real quick. ZIDOODLYBOPDIHOYMEYOY”
6/10 bc the first half’s fun but then it’s just the same stuff
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Everything I’m reading is saying this is soul music but I think they’re just too afraid to call it ska
5/10
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
These guys are all like 22 on this album and they sound like old men for some reason.
Half the songs are good and the other half are forgettable. Bluebird is a fucking ripper and it's comical how large the gap is between how much I like that one and how much I like the second best song.
6/10
Stevie Wonder
4/5
First two songs were nothing special, and then Living For The City started and the album started popping off. I was night swimming in the rain while listening to this and felt like I was in a Scorcese movie or something. 7.25/10
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
The age of streaming really fucked the dudes who only got to be on the back cover
Beatles
5/5
Side 2 is a masterpiece. Side 1 is almost as good which is saying something because they have that cute and cheeky little song about a dude beating a bunch of people to death on it (Octopus’ Garden obv)
Merle Haggard
2/5
Country artists just don’t sing about killing their girlfriends and contemplating suicide in prison like they used to
4.5/10
Randy Newman
2/5
If you don’t like to hear Randy fire off n-bombs but you like the melody of Rednecks, good news: he uses pretty much the same melody on a lot of the other songs on here! He also uses the structure “Title of the song, Title of the song, some other line, some other other line” for at least five songs on the album.
Kingfish and Louisiana 1927 are quite good. 4.5/10
Van Morrison
4/5
This was quite a pleasant album. Some of the songs blend into one another, but at least they're good. He was really going for a Brown Eyed Girl II on Glad Tidings. 7/10
The Avalanches
3/5
I have an unfortunate relationship with this album, as I've re-listened and tried to like it all the way through a bunch over the past few years. There are some bangers and really nice tracks on here (title track, Stay Another Season, Frontier Psychiatrist obv, ETOH, Electricity, some others that I've warmed up to recently) but there are so many more misses than hits and the misses are, dare I say it, annoying sometimes. Ahh, had to- to book a flight tonight, ahh, had to- to book a flight tonight, ahh over and over is a bit grating, and there are some loops in other songs that are just as unpleasant to me. It's super unfortunate because of how cool and dense the construction of the album is, but there are some songs that remind me of being stuck on a dance floor just waiting for the DJ to move on from the current song. 5.75/10
Os Mutantes
1/5
This was unpleasant. There were a couple songs with good parts but then they would always throw in something that was just quite unfortunate, really. The lady who sings on the first song sounds like the I Play Pokemon Go Every Day kid.
2/10
Pink Floyd
2/5
This is clearly what they were going for on that Os Mutantes album, but this one has a little more beatboxing. Giving it two stars because the first few songs aren’t that bad, but the rest of the album is just strange. I think if you played this to me while I was on drugs I would probably never forgive you for the rest of my life 3/10
Giant Sand
1/5
This guy be like “hmm, I can’t seem to hit these low notes. Oh well”
Radiohead
5/5
This is a great album. It’s not perfect, but there are definitely some perfect songs on it. High And Dry and Fake Plastic Trees, for two, are absolute masterpieces to me, along with Black Star, which imo is tied with Airbag for most underrated Radiohead song. But even the ones I like the least are still really good. I’m a total sucker for guitar-heavy alt-rock, so it’s like Radiohead made this album to completely fit in with my taste.
Harry Nilsson
2/5
LIME IN THE COCONUT JUMPSCARE
The Byrds
3/5
Some really cool psychedelic bangers (5D, Wild Mountain Thyme, What's Happening), some snoozers. That's all I can really say. Like Buffalo Springfield did a bit more LSD.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
As a kid I used to hate All I Wanna Do bc I thought it was just rambling. I have since become enlightened.
There are some good songs on here but a bunch of them didn’t make too big of an impression on me. She really had her Joker Moment on Leaving Las Vegas and by that I of course mean the song sounds like Joker by Steve Miller Band but it totally works
The Cure
2/5
There’s a high barrier of entry to old Cure albums for me. They’re always mixed so flatly that the instruments kinda sound like MIDI (especially the drums). Robert Smith sounds like he’s singing into one of the drum mics from across the room, and two chords over and over on the guitar gets kinda stale after a couple minutes, even when they turn the chorus pedal all the way up. I guess I’d throw this on if I wanted to feel like I was in a Halloween store or something. Maybe I’ll warm up to it later in life.
T. Rex
2/5
Beck
3/5
This is almost a 4. There are a lot of songs on here that sound pretty ahead of their time, like a proto-Tame Impala or Thundercat (especially Earthquake Weather)
Alice Cooper
3/5
Okay turns out I had no clue what kind of music Alice Cooper made. Luney Tune and Grande Finale go hard, and I hate to be a basic bitch but School's Out bangs. The childish "badass" lyrics did elicit a couple giggles from me but I don't think they're a detriment to the album bc they were probably written that way on purpose. Light 3 stars bc most of the album was just fine.
Billie Holiday
1/5
This just made me wish I was listening to Aretha or Ella instead the entire time. I just don’t think I like Billie’s voice/inflection, and that paired with some of the blandest slow-oldies ever written did this album no favors.
Ryan Adams
2/5
Dude writes music for the opening titles of a 2000s rom-com. Specifically, the shot of the main character’s Toyota Corolla driving across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Tears For Fears
4/5
Alternate track listing:
1. One of the best songs ever written
2. Banger
3. One of the best songs ever written
4. Banger
5. I Believe
6. Banger
7. One of the best songs ever written
8. Not quite a banger but I’ll give it to em
Two dudes who look kind of like each other and sound kind of like each other decided to come together and make one of the best albums of the 80s. Very strong 4; it might have been a 5 if I Believe wasn’t on it.
Green Day
5/5
When I was probably seven or eight years old, I went to a friend’s birthday party and we watched Shrek The Third on DVD. One of my friends at the party had an mp3 player, and for some reason he offered to show me a song. It was American Idiot. I was listening to it during some sort of scene where people are flying on brooms, and I was like “This is literally the best song I have ever heard.” Some time shortly after, my parents gave me an iPod Nano. We were looking at iTunes to see what songs I should download and I went to that one first. My mom looked at it and said “Do you know what this label ‘explicit’ means?” I said no. She did not let me download it. I ended up downloading the Green Day version of the Simpsons Theme from The Simpsons Movie instead.
All of the songs on this are good. The singles are fucking crazy. I have no choice but to give this a 5.
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Easy 4 for me. To be honest, when I saw the cover, the title, and the tracklist, I felt like I might be in for a chore, but that was not the case. The story behind the album is fascinating, especially the fact that the guy who wrote most of the lyrics disappearing shortly after its release. The lyrics are extremely heavy (especially Yes and 4st7lb, two of the best songs on the album overall) and are clearly the product of someone going through a lot of emotional turmoil. They're a strength of the album, but at the same time, it's clear that they were written separately from the music because of all the liberties the singer takes with their pronunciation. But that doesn't really take a lot away from the album since the singing is such a strong instrument on its own. This is odd to say, but the singer sounds kind of like a cross between Gerard Way and Andrew Garfield in Tick Tick Boom, idk. The guitar work is also insane.
There are some great songs on this thing, and some that I probably won't listen to much in the future, if at all. Crazy album, 4 stars.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
This was fine. They’re a good band. These are all covers but one. The list couldn’t have used this spot for Weezer’s Blue Album?
Rush
5/5
This shit was fucking awesome
Van Halen
2/5
There’s Jump, Panama, and a bunch of vessels for Eddie Van Halen guitar solos.
Hearing David Lee Roth’s very 30-year-old-man speaking voice pretending to be a kid on Hot For Teacher was very interesting.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Ngl I would love to swing with my lover to this. Funniest album cover so far as well like why is Frank looking upon the swingin’ lovers like God and why does the girl have a mullet
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Highs: Ramble On and Thank You
Lows: Robert Plant’s porn impression on Whole Lotta Love
If these guys keep it up, they could be the next Greta Van Fleet!
Steely Dan
3/5
Started off strong with the first three songs, but it got a bit boring as the album went on. Guitar tone is fucking sick though
Love
2/5
I have no meaningful input
The Cure
3/5
Pleasantly surprised. A lot better than Seventeen Seconds. Mixing was better, the songs were more complex and interesting, and I could hear the vocals. Lullaby and Fascination Street are dark bangers and the first two songs go off as well. Nice job, Cure!
Paul Simon
4/5
This was really nice. Didn't click at first, but then I got the hype. If you were like "I liked Moondance, but I wish it had way more African influences," this is the album for you. The run from You Can Call Me Al to Crazy Love Vol. II is an all-timer and I will be staying away from roooooly-poly little bat-faced girls from now on.
Donovan
2/5
It was alright, but maybe just by today’s standards. Some of the songs were just too long. If this didn’t somehow influence Sgt. Pepper I’d be surprised.
SZA
4/5
Contender alongside TPAB for hardest album art of the 2010s. Sometimes SZA has similar-melody syndrome on her verses but come on man these are good songs. The run from Drew Barrymore to Anything is dope.
Turbonegro
3/5
A couple standouts, but lots of kind of standard punk stuff that isn’t really memorable.
The Police
2/5
The writing process for On Any Other Day: "Let's make an awful version of Message In A Bottle"
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Sex Machine is a preety good title since it’s essentially 13 minutes of fucking around
Marvin Gaye
4/5
This was dope. Marvin’s voice is fucking insane. Hilarious how he basically just reprises Let’s Get It On with Keep Gettin’ It On. This is one of those albums where I don’t exactly save a ton of songs off it but the album is just great as a whole. Totally an album to play through on a turntable (except the part with the sex noises).
Randy Newman
2/5
Having trouble understanding why this is on here when it’s basically just a not-as-good version of Good Old Boys which is also on this list. All the potentially good things about Randy Newman songs (biting lyrics about America of the past and present, beautiful instrumentation, saying the title of the song in one line and repeating it in the next line, etc.) are done better on the other album.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
4/5
Clearly this is a hot take on this website but I actually really liked this
Keith Jarrett
4/5
Cool. First five minutes of song 2 gave me a new outlook on life. His little yelps throughout the whole thing kept making me think someone was behind me.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Fucking amazing album; one that grew on me a lot over the years, as I didn't like most of it when I first listened back in high school or something. In fact, it's still growing on me to this day, as I only saved Spaceboy and Luna after this listening session (I only have Quiet left). Billy Corgan is honestly an underrated guitarist and he rips on a ton of these songs, a handful of which I consider perfect (a large handful tbh). Not a bad song on this thing though. The drumming is also insane. Deservedly ranked among the best albums of the 90s, as it truly captures the "sad happy music" sound that makes so many of the best albums of that decade so great.
If you like this album, you must watch the acoustic album release show they did, especially the Cherub Rock performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwOwzGtiZw
Madness
2/5
Album for true Brexit Geezahs. Quite possibly the most British album ever recorded. And yes, that includes the borderline rockabilly song at the end and the guy in brownface on the album cover.
Our House fucking BANGS tho
Liz Phair
3/5
This is one of those albums that you can tell has influenced a lot of stuff that came out after it. I feel like there wouldn’t be a Phoebe without this album, for instance. It has that kind of raw, blunt energy in its lyrics and very singular vision in its instrumentation. Like, she’s probably not playing all the instruments on the album but it feels like she made the whole thing herself. There are a lot of highlights: the lyrics/meaning behind Fuck and Run, Divorce Song, and Flower hit especially hard, and I feel like the slower songs are Liz’s strong suit on here musically, especially Canary which is amazing. However, I don’t think it’s consistent enough to give a 4. Very strong 3 though.
David Gray
2/5
First two songs had me like “oooh the John Denver-Moby collab might hit!” and then it lost its energy completely. Apparently this was on the UK Top 100 albums chart for THREE YEARS from 2000-2003. Toyota Corolla Music was truly an epidemic in the early 21st century and I’m glad we finally got the cure (Party Rock Anthem)
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3/5
Repotted my plants while listening to this. Perfect album for that occasion
Nina Simone
3/5
Nina’s voice has such a unique timbre that even the romantic songs sound haunting.
Also, she’s been sampled on so many big rap songs that she could practically be on a greatest producers of all time list
R.E.M.
4/5
EASY 4. Lots of absolutely beautiful songs. Brings a bit of a tear to my eye because this was the third album I picked when I was doing my independent Album of the Day Club with my college friends a little over 5 years ago. I surprisingly have pretty much the same opinion of the album today as I did back then (which was pretty great), although I've certainly warmed up to the last song a lot. In my review back then, I said that Nightswimming could be a Disney or Christmas song, but in a good way. I think I still stand by that. Near-perfect song. The slow songs are the strongest on here, but Man On The Moon, Ignoreland, and Sidewinder are great uptempo ones that diversify the album well. Overall, super consistent album that has remained wonderful over the years. Quite nice to listen to it all the way through again.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Okay album. I was never really a huge fan of Bob Dylan’s voice, and some of the songs just kind of sound like one stanza of a Shel Silverstein poem over the same music over and over. Nothing against Shel Silverstein poems tho. Like A Rolling Stone, however, is a certified classic, along with the fucking slipping-on-the-banana peel sound effects in the title track.
Charles Mingus
2/5
First listen-through was highkey one of the worst musical experiences of my life. It felt like one of those sections of a rock song where everyone just plays whatever they want to make it sound chaotic on purpose, but for 39 minutes straight and with more trombone. The second listen-through made me rethink my entire life experience because it wasn’t even close to as bad. How could I hear it so fundamentally differently after just one day?
I do think that there’s still something I’m missing about this album though, because I was still very glad it was over after the second time through.
Otis Redding
3/5
Of all the songs to be an original composition on what’s essentially an Otis Redding karaoke album, I did not expect it to be Respect. This was good.
Nirvana
4/5
Oddly enough, the first Nirvana album I ever listened to all the way through, because my dad had the CD. One of those albums where I don't have a ton saved, but the context of the album and the way it works as a whole allows me to recognize its merit enough to give it a 4. Would highly recommend watching the full concert (or at least some songs) on YouTube.
The Zutons
2/5
More kind-of-forgettable early-2000s indie. These guys kind of sound like a band that would be playing in a beer garden or something. The album was fine, but it seems pretty out of place on this list. This isn't even the album with their biggest hits on it!
Janis Joplin
3/5
Glam as fuck! Pretty good album for sure; a strong 3. Her singing voice reminds me of Robert Plant’s, oddly. I like that she said furthermore on the first track.
Also, she says “daddy” A LOT on this.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I was surprised at how much I liked a couple of these songs, especially Papa Won’t Leave You and Straight To You. He sounds kind of Elvis-like in vocal timbre and song style. The album tapered off in quality after the first few tracks, and I had to straight up skip Christina the Astonishing, so I’ll give it a 3.
Nick Drake
3/5
Nice Nick Drake album with some nice Nick Drake songs. You have to like Nick Drake songs to like this album, but I do which is fortunate.
Duran Duran
2/5
I didn’t feel this one very much. Hungry Like The Wolf and Rio are good of course, but none of the other songs really made any impact on me.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
Ben said pretty much everything I was thinking about this album while listening. Nine Inch Nails does everything Marilyn Manson sets out to do without the lyrics being edgy to the point of cringe. I like some of the music on this but The Downward Spiral and The Fragile by NIN do all that better too, so I’ll just listen to them instead.
Gary Numan
3/5
Super interesting album. I didn’t think I was gonna like it at first but it ended up being pretty cool, and it seems to be quite a pioneer in new wave; I hear a ton of influence from this album in all the 80s CDs my parents would listen to, and hearing decade-defining sounds in an album released earlier than that decade is super cool. Vsauce music would be nothing without this album. Extremely strong 3, would rate it a 3.5 if I could.
Also, I have to say: Jimmy Fallon probably has an impression of this guy locked down in case anyone ever asks him
Depeche Mode
3/5
This album sounds like they all were required to record it shirtless.
Good amount of all-timers (Enjoy The Silence, Policy Of Truth, Personal Jesus), okay amount of other good songs, hearty amount of mid.
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
Bruh Moments from this album:
1. “I got the cleanest, meanest penis”
2. Biggie really starting to go hard in Fuck Me (Interlude) when she starts talking about all that food
3. Fuck Me (Interlude) in general
4. “They call him Two-TECs, he tote two TECs”
5. “You look so good, I’d suck on your daddy’s dick”
6. The fucking blowjob at the end of Respect. This is a good song, but I had to save the censored version bc I don’t wanna listen to a full minute of Biggie pretending to get sucked off whenever it comes up on shuffle.
7. The Raven-Symone line in Just Playing?????????
Bad Company
2/5
Bad Company has a couple standout songs. They’re not on this album
Buck Owens
3/5
I say this with respect: this album is Muppet-Show-core
Doves
3/5
Seeing the release year and the cover, I was prepared for more forgettable early-2000s music, but some of the songs were actually really good!
Talking Heads
2/5
This was goofy as fuck. It felt like I was listening to a random silly album and Spotify accidentally added Psycho Killer to the queue. It’s not like Psycho Killer is an island tho, David Byrne really tried the gibberish stuff on a bunch of these songs and was like “I just know one of em’s gonna make it work”
The Waterboys
3/5
Started out as a 4 with some surprisingly awesome songs that sound like they could have been recorded yesterday. Like, We Will Not Be Lovers killed. But a lot of the songs in the back half of the album were a bit *too* folky or dragged on compared to those in the first half. Still pleased that this was on the list though because I never would have heard it otherwise
Robert Wyatt
1/5
Answers the age-old question “What if Peter Gabriel sucked?”
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
Really sick instrumentation on here, especially on the first and last songs. Super interesting album sonically and one that you can tell has had an influence on a lot of artists. I do wish the lyrics were about something other than fucking a 14-year-old.
Deee-Lite
2/5
Sometimes you can tell when an older album on this list has one song on it that’s way bigger than all the others because it’s mixed 10x better and like twice as loud
Missy Elliott
3/5
Very vibey album. Definitely has its moments and there are a couple all-timers on here (The Rain is amazing), but I’d classify most of this as really dope background music. Slightly above a 3. I’ll prob put it on next time I’m high or something.
Suzanne Vega
4/5
I liked this more with each listen. I guess I like department-store-core. A lot of these songs go hard in a really soft way; if Freeze Tag and Small Blue Thing had drum drops, they would unironically pop off. It’s giving Cranberries, it’s giving 90s, it’s giving Tarzan soundtrack, it’s giving Schoolhouse Rock. I apologize for all the Gen Zed slang in this review
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Isaac Hayes sat in despair. The album deadline was fast approaching, and he had a severe case of writers’ block, stuck with only four song ideas and a record label contract mandating at least 45 minutes of music. Suddenly, he had an idea.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Literal divorced dad music. He was really channeling Bob Dylan on that first track. Also, the lines “why do I have to pay attorney fees? This is a joke” kinda have SNL Digital Short energy. I hate my wife now
X-Ray Spex
3/5
I think I would have liked it more if I was more of a punkhead. Plastic Bag was super enjoyable; it’s like a proto-Black Country New Road.
Death In Vegas
3/5
Lever Street walked so Motion Picture Soundtrack by Radiohead could run
Suede
4/5
Sweet album. Really epic instrumentation that wasn’t too cheesy. Still Life makes me feel like I’m having a profound connection with the world.
Joy Division
2/5
Most overrated album of all time. Disorder is good.
Hole
3/5
I know I might be a pleb/pophead for saying this, but I think Celebrity Skin is the better Hole album 🫢. This one is still good tho. I love female vocalists in grunge bands and Courtney Love kills it. Miss World is a slapper
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
This has some good songs on it and really great guitar work/solos, but it’s not consistent enough to warrant a 4 from me. The quality definitely took a drop after the first three songs, and I’ve had to skip Don’t every time I’ve listened to it. I do appreciate how 90s it sounds for being an 80s album; I love it when those appear on the list.
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
I don’t know why I like The Conference so much. I feel like I need to do some serious introspection.
Common
2/5
I find Common albums vibey but unmemorable most of the time. A couple good beats but overall nothing that stuck out.
The Pogues
2/5
They sound oddly like They Might Be Giants. Waterboys did it better
Queen Latifah
2/5
This album suffers because of the beats. Queen Latifah has a great voice for rap, and her skills are at least on par with other rappers from this era (she has better songs on her other album that I've heard, Black Reign), but these instrumentals are either uninteresting or poorly constructed, in my opinion. For a lot of these songs, it feels like the samples aren't in the same key with one another, or the bassline doesn't fit, or they're based around an annoying loop or something. It brings the whole thing down, unfortunately.
Al Green
2/5
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
Nine Inch Nails really know how to write great Nine Inch Nails songs. I was gonna use this review to showcase my hot take that The Fragile is better but I don’t know if I think that anymore.
Björk
2/5
I liked when she pronounced “ghetto blaster” with a soft g
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Pretty good. Starts out quite strong and gets a little forgettable toward the end. Very Schoolhouse Rock at times. Made me really wanna listen to You’re So Vain by Carly Simon.
Ananda Shankar
2/5
Fine. A lot of sitar songs just sound like a lot of other sitar songs
Aphex Twin
2/5
Video game menu music would be nothing without this album.
I can almost hear some really shitty southern rapper over Aegispolis.
Green Calx is David S. Pumpkins-core.
Blondie
3/5
Some ones with big staying power on here, but most of these didn’t keep me super interested. Hanging On The Telephone was an out-of-nowhere hit for me though
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
They have the guy going “doogadoogadoot” in the background working overtime
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
Wow, no album has ever made me feel like I’m in line for Space Mountain quite like this one
3/5
I know it’s prob not this guy’s fault that his voice sounds like Thom Yorke, but it’s a bit hard to ignore. The music’s not bad, but the production sounds corporate compared to their influences, which are kind of hard to get out of your mind, especially for the first half of the album. Like, my thoughts were essentially this until Exo-Politics:
Take A Bow: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did a Queen song
Starlight: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did a Coldplay song
Supermassive Black Hole: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did a Nine Inch Nails song
Map of the Problematique: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did Enjoy The Silence by Depeche Mode
Invincible: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did MCR covering a U2 song
Assassin: Oh nice, it’s like if Radiohead did a hard Guitar Hero song
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I would LOVE to rate this a 5, because the first half and the end absolutely rip. Masterful songwriting, amazing grooves, instrumentation that's certainly seventies but is truly timeless. But all the songs from Joy Inside My Tears to Another Star all drag or are simply not to the caliber of all the others (except Black Man). This is still objectively one of the greatest albums ever, but I can't help but feel that there's fat to be trimmed. 4.5
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Big mix of ok songs and bangers. I probably could have improvised better lyrics to Misty Mountain Hop. How the fuck are these guys British
Janelle Monáe
3/5
Some standout songs. Overall very early 2010s in a way that I can’t really put my finger on. It exists in the same space inhabited by a lot of the albums on best-of lists at the time, with maximalist album artworks and songs that were super agreeable but just didn’t have staying power to me. Like The Black Keys or some Lumineers-esque indie rock band that was big at the time, even though obv I wouldn’t say that they’re the same genre. Maybe I’m just not that big on the 2010-2012 music-publication-core aesthetic. Just makes me feel like I’m in a too-expensive burger place or a store with concrete floors.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Tombstone Shadow sounds like a song that would play during a scene in a 60s/70s period piece where the characters are naked or doing drugs and I’m watching the movie with my parents and we’re all uncomfortable. Also, I like how the lead singer sounds like an elderly muppet
Talvin Singh
3/5
I mean, it’s DVD menu music, but it isn’t bad
Chicago
3/5
Questions 67 and 68 made me transcend. The rest of the album is a mix of "holy fuck these musicians are so talented" and "alright guys let's wrap it up"
Peter Gabriel
4/5
What is that acrid smell? Oh, it’s Ben smoking crack. This album is dope. Red Rain: CLASSIC. Sledgehammer: CLASSIC. Big Time: CLASSIC. In Your Eyes: CLASSIC. That Voice Again: NOT CLASSIC BUT A BANGER NONETHELESS. We Do What We’re Told and This Is The Picture: STILL GOOD SONGS. If Mercy Street’s verses Don’t Give Up weren’t on here this would be a 5.
Disclaimer I’ve been listening to Sledgehammer and Big Time since I was like 7 bc my aunt would play a greatest hits CD in her car all the time (that didn’t have In Your Eyes on it for some reason). This may make me less inclined to gravitate toward certain Gabriel eras
Sonic Youth
3/5
The kind of album you need a palate cleanser after. I needed to get out of the dark and sweaty music venue illuminated only by five blinking red marquee lights ten feet apart from each other and listen to some fucking Shania Twain or something
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
I’ve been trying to get into this album since 2017 and it has been a struggle. But Only Shallow just kept getting better and better over the years, and as my brain continued developing, the rest of the songs slowly sounded less and less cacophonous. I expected to remain a contrarian Loveless hater when this came up on the list, ready to slap a 2 on it and dip, but I can’t.
This music seems like it wasn’t even made by people, but by some sort of entity we don’t really know about. Yet the emotions somehow conveyed through each song remove any doubt over its humanity: To Here Knows When sounds like lying on a sunny spot on the floor on a Saturday and faintly hearing people in the other room; When You Sleep sounds like the part of a pregame where all the lights are still on and everyone’s just starting to get tipsy and excited for what’s to come, but knows they aren’t ready to leave the friendly, comfortable atmosphere yet; I Only Said sounds like driving home with the windows down at night; Come In Alone sounds like sitting on a couch after a hot and sweaty day out and feeling a fan on your skin; Sometimes sounds like kissing someone for the first time.
I have to face it: this is a good album. It will probably be a 5 in a year at this rate
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
One of the most well-executed concept albums ever. The lyrics are so good, along with the story they tell. Sherane and The Art of Peer Pressure are two of the greatest storytelling rap songs ever written; they're practically short stories. Ben's right, if these reviewers think that this is just an album about drugs and sex and violence, they're simply being ignorant. How can you listen to this and completely look over the message of every single song? The songs about those controversial subjects are looking at them from a perspective of growth, a move away from hedonism and toward looking back on a life and asking why it had to be that way. Great album.
Arrested Development
3/5
Tennessee, People Everyday, and Mr. Wendal are bangers. Tennessee was one of the first songs I saved on Spotify. However, the rest of the album doesn’t really match up as well. ATCQ does “positive” hip hop better imo. I heard Mr. Wendal and was like “this is so Schoolhouse Rock influenced” and then they sampled the verb song in U and my theory was confirmed
Nightmares On Wax
2/5
Imagine your friend being like “Dude, you MUST hear this album before you die” and then putting this on
Björk
3/5
Nice instrumentals and pretty devastating lyrics. It was tough to get through and I’m sorry to say that
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Really enjoyed it. I loved how haunting even the pretty songs felt. I also like the way this album was mixed; it’s like they were playing the songs in an empty train station or something. The random Bob Dylan diss track was crazy
Flamin' Groovies
2/5
Yesterday’s Numbers was good but I mostly found myself wanting to listen to something else
PJ Harvey
2/5
Convinced that PJ takes her songs to her producer and is like “make these sound as dull as possible”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
Scott Pilgrim-core for some reason. This was a good listen. Obviously, Heads Will Roll is gonna be around forever, but Zero and Hysterical were also highlights. Where's the 3.5 button
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
If these guys grew up in a less harsh environment they'd probably be total nerds (not a diss). A bunch of great and classic songs on here but the fellas really need to learn to split up their skits and the real tracks. Two big things I appreciated about this album: (1) Ol' Dirty Bastard sounding like he had just run a marathon before recording every verse; and (2) Method Man starting his solo track telling you how he'll brutally torture you and then slamming into some of the most whimsical verses I've ever heard rapping about Patty-Cake, Green Eggs and Ham, Tweety Bird, Fat Albert, and Mary Poppins.
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
This was sick. Sometimes you just need some funky instrumental music to listen to and this delivers excellently in that regard.
Super Furry Animals
2/5
Another kind of dryly-produced 90s album that seems like it might have been influential to certain bands, but I don't know what they are. A couple good songs but I don't think I'll be coming back to it.
Youssou N'Dour
3/5
This was good! Immediately clocked him as the dude from In Your Eyes. Spotify radio-played a song called Doley by Xalam after this album was over that was better than all of the songs on this one.
Steve Winwood
3/5
This is jammier than a good piece of toast. You can tell he’s on the way to the big hits with this one
The Clash
3/5
A masterclass in making a hit-and-miss album
Screaming Trees
3/5
I really should like this more than I do. It falls into my music taste so well; I love 90s grunge-adjacent alternative bands like this. I think it's just missing the spark that makes the albums in this genre that I DO like so special. This one feels a bit generic in comparison, even when looking at it next to Copper Blue by Sugar, which is probably the album most similar to this one that I've heard on the list so far. Listening back, Copper Blue has the oomph that this album lacks.
Maybe this album suffers more from Similar Song Syndrome so I can't evaluate each song individually as much, which makes it less interesting as a whole. I think the unthreatening production coupled with the fact that each song feels too sonically aligned with all the others kind of makes the album fade into background-music status.
George Jones
2/5
Very thankful that these 70s variety-show-type country albums are always like half an hour. Some great lyrics on Borrowed Angel and She’ll Love The One She’s With for all the cheaters and manipulators out there. I actually really like the lyrics on Our Private Life because they’re so real and speak to something I’ve thought for a while. Like, why DOES society expect celebrities and rich people to be these pictures of morality when we all know a hundred assholes each IRL? Unfortunately I must give this a 2 because I have heard all of these songs on the other country albums from this era on the list. These songs would hit if I was a really sad drunk tho probably
The Black Keys
3/5
It's a real shame what the marketing majors did to this album. The entire time I was listening I just felt like I was watching commercials.
Tom Waits
2/5
If I were a caveman this would slap. That Feel sounds like something all the weird scraggly muppets would sing together in a muppet film. I will never listen to this again.
Barry Adamson
3/5
Liked this more than I thought I would. The concept is cool; I mean I’ve listened to multiple film scores without seeing the movies they’re attached to anyway. Probably won’t be coming back to it very much, but it did make me feel like the Trader Joe’s I was in was about to get robbed
Brian Eno
2/5
Whoa, it's the dude from all the crosswords!
Sparks
3/5
It was interesting hearing an album that I’d never heard of before which clearly influenced some albums I really like. However, I think there may have been too much whimsy involved for me to enjoy most of the songs.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
BANGER album cover. Unfortunately the album quality does not match. They manage to be an amalgamation of The Cure and Joy Division, but only the aspects of them that I don't care for. Lead singer also sounds too much like Morrissey. First track is excellent tho
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
I truly don't know how many more old country albums I can sit through
Big Star
2/5
This just made zero impact on me whatsoever. It was like listening to a mediocre collab album by George Harrison and Violent Femmes.
5/5
I loved it. I really loved it. I had of course heard the hits before but never the whole thing for some reason. It’s truly like if someone put the poppier Beatles stuff into a 90s-ifying machine and I wish I was kidding about that but I’m not. It’s like a time-traveler showed them Sugar and The Bends and dipped. The influences are on full display on this album but this is a case in which the album is enhanced because of that. Topster time
Emmylou Harris
3/5
There’s a direct line between Emmylou and Adrienne Lenker
The Flaming Lips
4/5
S-tier drum production. I also really liked the soundscapes and the arrangements. I liked the album as a whole, but only saved a couple of songs. I think this is one I'll come back to, but as of right now I mostly just appreciate the creativity and the vibe. Still an easy 4.
Meat Puppets
2/5
Yeah it tracks that Kurt Cobain liked these guys. I liked the instrumental songs enough but that’s pretty much it
Oasis
4/5
Liam Gallagher looked in the mirror before recording this and said “By God, I will pronounce every word on this album like no one has ever pronounced it before.” Shoutout to lasaaaaaaagneeaahhh. This was not as good as What’s The Story but you could tell they were getting there. 3.5
Tom Waits
2/5
Whenever Tom Waits gets on the marimba I become Dom Waits, as in “Dom waits for the song to be over”. I was kind of feeling Big Black Mariah and then he hit us with another Donkey Kong type beat. I think Tom is at his best when he’s outwardly sentimental, so I fuck with Time and Downtown Train heavy, the latter of which is practically a The Cars song lmao. At some points on this album it’s like he’s doing chamber pop Slipknot, and I surprisingly found myself appreciating it. This is better than Bone Machine. I should have given that a 1.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
You Gotta Move is Adam Sandler-core. How tf are these guys British? Mick Jagger has to be purposely singing like someone from Alabama which i find a bit funny to be honest
Circle Jerks
3/5
At first I hated it. The lyrics were so juvenile. Then I realized that it was 15 minutes long and the songs were a minute and a half max. For some reason that changed my entire opinion: now it was just fun. It was so 80s in the way that the dialogue in a John Hughes movie is 80s. I also love punk songs where I can hear the drummer kind of struggling. I think that punk has its place and that place is a 15-minute chunk of my day when I'm walking through Safeway. Would have been fun to get thrown around at one of their shows back in the day. 3.5 Gonna show this to my mom
DJ Shadow
3/5
It's good, but it gets a bit stale. I love sample-based albums, but I think it's tough to make one that's as interesting as it is creative all the way through.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
A little joke: What are Sinatra and Jobim’s favorite kind of pants? Jean jean jean jean jeans.
It’s Girl From Ipanema, the song where he’s singing to the gingerbread man from Shrek, and then a bunch of other songs that are like boring versions of Girl From Ipanema
The Doors
2/5
You can only write so many blues songs before you have to switch something up. Also I’ve never really understood what the big deal was about Jim Morrison
The Associates
1/5
British post-punk has gotta be my least favorite genre. I was going to give this a 2 and say "these guys put the mid in MIDI," but then I read the Wikipedia article about this album and these guys are so far up their own asses about it that I had practically no choice but to give it a 1.
Madonna
3/5
WHADDIYAMEANITSNATINDACOMPUTER
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Hmm. Yeah, these guys ARE pretty good! Not as many heavy-hitting individual songs as The Holy Bible, but the sound is still there. I also appreciated the more luscious instrumentals, but they didn’t really stick with them after the first few tracks. Crazy that their lyricist disappeared.
ZZ Top
2/5
This sound got old sooooo fast. Also, dude sounds like Meatwad
Mudhoney
3/5
You can tell this was influential for grunge, and you can also see why this didn't blow up like some other grunge bands did.
Leonard Cohen
1/5
Dude. I used to think Bob Dylan was a bad singer until I heard this album full of one second-rate, overlong Bob Dylan knockoff over and over and over. Dude sounds like a drunk Neil Diamond. I cannot believe he wrote Hallelujah. Sorry Cohenheads
Cypress Hill
2/5
Great for Danny Brown fans who wish he would put out an album rapping over throwaway De La Soul beats
The Isley Brothers
4/5
Finally, good music
Fatboy Slim
3/5
The Amen Break and its consequences. I will say that I was refilling some spice jars while listening to this and it made me feel like I was cooking meth
The Kinks
3/5
The first three songs are hitters, but the carnival aesthetic got kind of old around Sitting By The Riverside. 60s bands were really not afraid to be whimsical from time to time. There is a noticeable lack of whimsy in the music of today. The carousel-core gap in pop and rock has not been filled effectively since January 1, 1970 (excepting Mr. Blue Sky).
Steely Dan
3/5
I don’t understand why this album has their most popular songs on spotify (except Reelin in the Years). Most made no impact on me. Spider exercise in the guitar solo is insane
Hookworms
4/5
This was good. Reminds me of The Big Roar by The Joy Formidable, even in the "the first song sounds like it sucks and then it gets good". Check that one out, Ben!
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Getting crazy deja vu bc I just listened to Achtung Baby. It's like a record label executive brought U2 and The Smiths into their office and demanded they produce a hot and fresh batch of Toyota Corolla Music.
Elvis Presley
3/5
Suspicious Minds bangs. The rest is alright. I'm sure if I was alive in the 50s I would have popped my pussy for this shit like everyone else (so to speak)
Todd Rundgren
3/5
*Listening to Slut for the 9th time in a row, tears careening down my cheeks* they don't make em like this anymore
U2
3/5
so okay