706
Albums Rated
3.14
Average Rating
65%
Complete
383 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
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Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1990s
Favorite Decade
Britpop
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Balanced
Rater Style
49
5-Star Albums
36
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| 69 Love Songs | 5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
| Aha Shake Heartbreak | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| The Coral | 5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
| Hot Shots II | 5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
| The Notorious Byrd Brothers | 5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
| Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus | 5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
| Done By The Forces Of Nature | 5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
| Smile | 5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
| The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway | 5 | 3.08 | +1.92 |
| Youth And Young Manhood | 5 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt | 1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
| Diamond Life | 1 | 3.42 | -2.42 |
| If I Should Fall From Grace With God | 1 | 3.34 | -2.34 |
| Rum Sodomy & The Lash | 1 | 3.25 | -2.25 |
| Like A Prayer | 1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
| Actually | 1 | 3.18 | -2.18 |
| Crocodiles | 1 | 3.05 | -2.05 |
| Floodland | 1 | 3.04 | -2.04 |
| Behaviour | 1 | 3.04 | -2.04 |
| Will The Circle Be Unbroken | 1 | 2.99 | -1.99 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Blur | 3 | 5 |
| Beatles | 5 | 4.4 |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4.5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 4.67 |
| Paul Simon | 3 | 4.67 |
| Beastie Boys | 2 | 5 |
| The Who | 5 | 4.2 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.25 |
| Beck | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Beach Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| Kings of Leon | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Pogues | 2 | 1 |
| Pet Shop Boys | 2 | 1 |
| Roxy Music | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Mothers Of Invention | 2 | 1.5 |
| Everything But The Girl | 2 | 1.5 |
| Miles Davis | 4 | 2.25 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Albums | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Morrissey | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Byrds | 3 | 1.25 |
5-Star Albums (49)
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Popular Reviews
The Velvet Underground
2/5
The emperor is naked, let's just be honest about it. Just because people say this is the coolest album ever made, doesn't make it any better to listen to. It has its moments but is wildly overrated in my opinion.
8 likes
Kelela
1/5
This album has 20 people listed as producers or instrumentalists, including Kelela herself. I've no idea what they were all up to, as this sounds like something that could be knocked together on a laptop in about a week. Her voice is ok but it's just generic RnB. I gave it a second chance but couldn't last a full go through. Whatever was bumped from the previous editions to accommodate this 2017 effort was almost certainly more deserving of its place.
3 likes
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
I don't get it.
First off it's an instrumental of a classical piece that's basically a lullaby. Then it's time for some prog and classic rock with almost yachty elements (although I don't think yacht rock actually existed in the 60s?!) and a bit of something like funk. Near the end we get a song literally called 'Blues, pt. 2'. That one is 80% jazz with a psych rock ending. And it's back to the lullaby for the closer. Apparently every song was written by someone different and only some of them are in the band. This is the sound of ADHD with guitars and bass and drums and some brass. Quite a lot of brass actually. No idea how you boil this down to a rating out of 5, especially after only a few listens. I quite enjoyed it but it's a strange ride.
2 likes
The Specials
2/5
I’ve never got into ska. It’s interesting to see it emerging as a sort of oddball love child of reggae and punk at this point in time. But that doesn’t quite equate to me wanting to pop this on and listen to it again.
2 likes
5/5
As a rule, if there's a late 60s/early 70s classic/psych rock band that I've never heard of, it's either because my dad never heard of them or never liked them. So I was immediately suspicious. It turns out I'm going to have to be the one to introduce him to Spirit, as I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I didn't just like the tunes or the songwriting either; it hangs together as a concise project as well, sort of concept-y without leaning too heavily into it. I kept this one on rotation for the whole weekend and am quite likely to buy it very soon.
2 likes
4-Star Albums (232)
1-Star Albums (36)
All Ratings
Green Day
4/5
If you only listen to one Green Day album before you die, make sure it is Dookie. But hopefully you have time for two, as this one should also not be missed. Yes, it’s a fairly formulaic pop-punk album composed of catchy riffs and Billie-Joe’s signature vocals but the ambition and creativity to attempt the concept rock opera should be applauded - the segues between songs work well, a few nice changes of pace and instrumental arrangements, and the recurring lyrical themes make you feel like you’re on a journey, not just listening to a collection of songs.
Something to make America’s youth think about what was going on in their post-9/11 world without being preachy, but more importantly, packed with great tunes.
American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia and Holiday are all memorable but it’s Blvd of Broken Dreams that is the real jewel in the crown.
Only loses a point for me due to a slightly weaker second half but it would be an easy 4.5, great start to this project for me.
*my CD version must be different to what’s on streaming now as I have a 13 tracks compared to the 9 on Spotify, altho the runtime is the same.
1/1001
Various Artists
2/5
While I enjoyed the timing of this coming up, it feels like a strange inclusion for the list. Are there really many people who die without having heard this dozen or so schmaltzy Christmas standards? It’s essentially the 1960s edition of Now That’s What I Call Christmas so of course it contains all the festive classics but it feels out of place in the project for me. The narrated final track ruins Silent Night as well, sadly, and has me reaching for Simon & Garfunkel’s version to cleanse my palate.
Roll on, Boxing Day.
2/1001
Ray Charles
4/5
This is the kind of challenge I was hoping for but also not prepared for with this project. How to rate an album that is quite clearly and objectively beautiful and essential, but so far outside my own wheelhouse that I’ve never heard it before and probably won’t put it into regular rotation.
It feels daft to underrate it based on my own ignorance but pretentious to just slap on a 5.
But I thoroughly enjoyed the listen, at times spine tingling and heart wrenching. Musically excellent and vocally delightful. While I may not put it into regular rotation, when it does next come up, I know I’ll be very happy to spend more time with it.
‘Midnight’ gave me goose bumps.
3/1001
Violent Femmes
2/5
I must’ve listened to Blister In The Sun a hundred times in indie clubs through my University days without knowing what it was called or who it was by. So I was immediately grateful for that discovery. The remaining half hour or so was unremarkable.
The sound doesn’t deviate much from track to track although the acoustic bass is fun and I had a few chuckles at the lyrics. Can’t see myself coming back to this one, and not sure I really get why it makes the list. I guess you had to be there.
4/1001
Nas
4/5
Brilliant and seminal album, an important piece in the history of hip-hop but also, more importantly, a joy to listen through, with bangers at every turn and lyrically engaging.
Manages to sound fresh even nearly 30 years on.
5/1001
Willie Nelson
3/5
Bluesy country rock. It's a little formulaic and the album doesn't stray far from its template but there's a quality to Willie's voice and guitar playing that I can't help but appreciate. The storytelling and concept feel to the album was an unexpected treat and I definitely plan to give this more time in future.
There's plenty to like about it, even in a style and genre that I would never choose for myself. It's a very very strong 3.5 that could even end up a 4 if I were to get to know it better.
6/1001
Frank Zappa
3/5
Something of a surprise - I had no idea Zappa was this jazz-influenced but it's clear this is an adventurous and highly accomplished record. I pretty quickly found elements worming their way into my brain and as challenging as Captain Beefheart's singing may be, his performance on Willie The Pimp is memorable and brilliant in its own way.
The bluesy elements and dense production definitely appealed to my more classic rock taste, although the composition is looser than I tend to prefer. I can understand why this is an important album and glad to have met it, but we're likely to stay acquaintances, rather than friends.
7/1001
Fred Neil
1/5
- "Sorry to let you know you have died. Welcome to heaven. How are you feeling?"
- "Relieved that I listened to Fred Neil before I went. Wow. That was lucky."
Said nobody, ever.
Give me actively terrible over offensively bland and unmemorable, any day.
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
Probably not for me but lots to appreciate and some great numbers. Shining Star is great, and plenty of this album feels familiar from film soundtracks and the like.
9/1001
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I know Leonard Cohen a bit so wasn’t surprised by the fantastic voice and the songwriting. I was surprised by the 80s flavour to the production and instrumentation. Almost go so far as to say cheesy in places but this was an enjoyable listen and I am glad to have given it a couple of goes through.
10/1001
Michael Jackson
4/5
A classic that could be heard everywhere in its time. Listening to it now I was a bit surprised by the number of slower songs that I didn’t really enjoy so I can’t quite give it that 5 stars but it is rare to find the sheer quality of the title track, The Way You Make Me Feel and Smooth Criminal, all sitting together on one record.
11/1001
PJ Harvey
3/5
Lot of respect for Polly Jean and gave lots of her albums a go but none of them ever seemed to stick with me.
Same for Rid Of Me. First track was great but I felt it went off the rails a bit after that and after two listens I’m glad I know it now but don’t think it will enter my rotation. Heavy influence on a lot of great artists too, I can hear a lot of this in Garbage, Elastica and even more recently Wolf Alice. It’s one of my stronger 3s for sure.
12/1001
The Teardrop Explodes
3/5
I've never been massively keen on the post-punk/new wave sound but I enjoyed this more than I expected. Its influence on some of my favourite 90s Britpop bands is really clear to see as well.
The Doors
3/5
Quite enjoyed the overall vibe and some classic tunes. I don't love the proggy, organ-led numbers or the long stonery jams. It's probably not quite up my street but I am glad to have given it a couple of listens and I do get the hype, at least at the time.
14/1001
Björk
4/5
Obviously know Bjork but this was a new album to me and one I enjoyed through twice. She is a mad genius and it’s about of fun to hear her creativity. An influence on many many other musicians. This worked well for background atmospherics and it might just be the time of year but feels frosty, delicate but powerful.
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
I was pleasantly surprised by this one! All I really knew was Girls Just Wanna Have Fun but ended up gladly giving it a second listen. Also learned that Cyndi Lauper wrote Time After Time. Plenty of good tunes and overall an enjoyable listen.
Deep Purple
3/5
Quite enjoyed my slice of classic rock this week but I don’t tend to love live albums and there was a bit more on the jammy side here. It lacked a bit of punch and cohesion for my liking but a lot of fun.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Just an essential album for any guitarist. Was great to give this a couple of proper airings. I knew all about Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and All Along The Watchtower but Little Miss Strange and 1983 are also brilliant.
Elvis Costello
3/5
All I really knew about Elvis Costello was his cameo in Austin Powers. So much more to be discovered. Great debut album that could’ve come from the 50s with its rock n roll swagger. Really enjoyed it.
SZA
1/5
Awful
The White Stripes
4/5
A pleasant surprise today as an album I know well from when it was new. It’s not quite ‘White Blood Cells’ but the White Stripes in their prime were exciting and consistent, bashing out their unique brand of blues-rock. Equally capable of creating a catchy rocker like Blue Orchid or My Doorbell as a tender but accomplished piano ballad like I’m Lonely or Forever for Her.
Great album and very close to a 5. Comfortably a 4.5.
Grateful Dead
4/5
Really enjoyed this one. I know bits of the Grateful Dead from my Dad and they certainly know how to take a solo for a walk, go on a jam or write a hook that'll stick in your head. This particular one had some familiar hooks and tunes and some new ones. Definitely worth a couple of listens. Great album.
Miles Davis
2/5
First dabble into Miles and still not a big fan of jazz/fusion. Found the first half chaotic, noodly and directionless. Enjoyed the second half more and could contentedly work with it on in the background. That said, I’m quite happy to work with music on that is actually a lot more melodic and deliberate than this. It’s a 1.5 but I’m rounding up because it’s definitely not offensively bad.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Took a while to get to this as it's not on streaming but it was worth the wait, it's got some great stuff that I really enjoyed. He can write a hell of a song. I felt it tailed off a bit in the second half making it a strong 4, rather than scraping a 5.
Gorillaz
4/5
It’s a great album, a dub and hip-hop classic that introduced me and a lot of the indie crowd to this kind of music through Damon Albarn’s connection. Really enjoyed having another listen. Although there are one or two odd experimental tracks that prevent it from being a perfect 5, it’s a very comfortable 4 and a half.
Amy Winehouse
2/5
Not really my thing but she does it well and has a hell of a voice. There were some memorable numbers but I just don’t see myself going back to it. Glad to have heard it though.
Ananda Shankar
2/5
I don't really get why this belongs in the 1001. It's interesting to hear the sitar used in a contemporary (well, 1970...) setting, but the inclusion of Stones and Doors covers, especially in the opening run, make this feel like a bit of a novelty record. The most entertaining parts are the original works towards the end of the album but overall it doesn't get out of second gear, for me.
Frank Ocean
2/5
I liked it better than I expected but I had really low expectations from brief previous encounters. Won’t be going into my rotation but I can see how it would be important within its genre.
Mott The Hoople
2/5
Listened twice and didn't really interest me. They sound like an imitation of Bowie but the tunes weren't catchy or interesting and I'm left wondering why this was included. Pretty ordinary to me.
Blue Cheer
2/5
Fairly unremarkable 60s fuzz rock. Summertime Blues was a nice surprise; I only knew of the Who version (which is better). It's hard to unpick the influence of a band of 60 years ago when I am so much more familiar with all the artists it has since influenced but to me, on two listens there was nothing I'd come back to.
Screaming Trees
4/5
This has been a pleasant surprise. I knew nothing of Screaming Trees and didn't even know they comprised later members of Queens Of The Stone Age. This is a great melodic grunge album from a time when I was listening to a lot of this kind of music so I'm surprised it passed me by but maybe I just had plenty to keep me occupied at the time.
I'm glad to have found it now though. It's nothing massively groundbreaking but I am definitely keeping it on my radar for the future.
Sister Sledge
2/5
Not really my thing but objectively good and a couple of classics on here. I gave it a go but won't really be coming back to it.
5/5
Simply the greatest album of all time. Even if it had come out today it would be incredible but the fact it is nearly 60 years old and changed the course of music makes it even more extraordinary.
Iggy Pop
4/5
Listened to this a few times - really good album and a clear influence on a lot of the post-punk/garage type band and albums of the 90s and 00s. I am sure this one is going to head into my rotation now.
Pixies
4/5
Can do without the screamy stuff but liked the second half. Quite a clear pathway to a lot of music I liked in the 90s and early 00s and a lot of great guitar work.
Dr. Octagon
4/5
Had never even heard of this but if I’d discovered it in the late 90s or early 00s I would definitely have bought it. Great hip hop album that clearly influenced a lot that came after it. Glad to have found it.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
A lot to like about this and something that I didn't know at all before today. Another pleasant surprise in that this album is 55 years old yet, to recycle a cliche, sounds fresh to me and has influenced a lot that I like, from Portishead to Labi Siffre. Probably won't be one I add to the regular rotation but I have enjoyed a couple of listens and certainly won't mind dabbling again in future. A very very strong 3.5!
George Jones
1/5
Oh dear. Just so dull. Very very country and it all sounds the same. Some poetic lyrics and he has a good voice but I have no interest in coming back to this.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
A lot of it didn’t really stand out, a fairly middle-of-the-road 80s rock album as far as my two listens went. Some nice familiar numbers but I have to say the lyrics feel a bit cliche and I don’t think there’s anything remarkable about his vocals or musicality. Just a few catchy hooks. The title track is by far the redeeming moment and a couple of nice numbers in the closing run.
Janis Joplin
3/5
Janis rocks and has some great songs here. She also wails and I enjoyed this one a lot. Really on the fence between 3/4 as I don’t really feel myself coming back to it on a regular basis. Probably the highest 3 I’ve given.
The Young Gods
2/5
What have I just listened to?!
Swiss French industrial metal apparently. And yet having found it bizarre and horrendous at first, I quite enjoyed a bit near the end and might give some of it another go. Some of it, I never want to hear again in my life.
3/5
Pretty good Beatles-y rock. Nothing that really grabbed me but it was good and I'll keep it around for a couple more listens. It's hard when The Beatles did all this first and so very well, raises the bar to ridiculous standards and now with all the benefit of hindsight, it's hard to judge them fairly hearing them all together.
Still, I enjoyed it and will listen to it again.
The Byrds
5/5
My favourite new discovery so far. This is a cracking album and one I’ll be buying. Going Back is a brilliant song. They have a lovely psychedelic folk-rock sound that just rolls through the album and then they seal the deal with effortless harmonies. I really really like it.
Metallica
2/5
Not really my thing. Gave it a go and yeah in some moods there’s a good groove and some fine guitar work but I just can’t see myself ever choosing to listen to it.
Linkin Park
2/5
I didn't particularly like Nu-Metal when it was new but it was at least interesting - mashing pop-punk with turntablism and rap. Now it feels dated and there's really nothing here I'm that interested in returning to.
The Who
4/5
Really listenable and clearly a classic. More bluesy than I was expecting and I was surprised I only knew My Generation and none of the rest as The Who have always been a staple of my Dad’s taste.
Pavement
4/5
It’s an indie staple with a lot to like about it. Not quite as enjoyable to listen to as I want it to be but there are some fantastic moments, like Here and Fame Throwa. Really on the edge of a 3/4 but I’m in the mood to round up.
Django Django
4/5
Only knew the name and nothing more before today but this was a lot of fun and an unexpected hit with me.
The 2010s was a quiet period for me with new music so it’s good to find some hidden gems that had passed me by.
The Pogues
1/5
Nah. Seems wrong to give an album 1 star that includes Fairytale of New York but I was just waiting for this to end and don’t see myself ever coming back to it. I’m sure it’s a great album if you love Irish folk but it was very much not for me.
Aerosmith
4/5
Lots of classics here. Already a fan of Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion but there is more to like and overall a solid selection.
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
It’s just organ and guitars. It’s a cool groove and the title track alone goes straight into the library but the pace, instrumentation and mood never really shifts and it didn’t really stick with me. Glad to have found it. Will be moving on, thanks.
The Strokes
4/5
One that I know very well but in my opinion, bettered by its successors. I didn’t quite get the hype at the time; it sounded a bit mechanical, the vocals are all distorted and I sort of felt the songs all sound too samey. It’s still one I listen to quite often though and was hugely significant at the time, which fortunately I was there to see.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
Started off thinking this would be dull, generic cock rock but I got quite into it and found that lots of it was really good. Most of it is indeed generic cock rock and variations on the 12 bar blues but they could rock out and it has all the energy and grime you want from a live album. It’s probably a 3.5 but I’m feeling generous for some reason with this one.
10cc
4/5
It’s wacky but I’ve listened to it a few times and really enjoyed parts of it. Nice to have something completely different but they could also write a good hook to be fair.
T. Rex
2/5
Really didn’t grab me. Found myself thinking (wishing) something catchy like Get It On or 20th Century Boy would come on but it was all pretty drab and samey. Obviously got the wrong T Rex album for today.
The Clash
3/5
Obviously an important album for punk and the direction music would go in from here on but after a couple of listens, nothing really got me wanting to keep it in my rotation. Decent but not incredible.
The Byrds
3/5
Liked it but not as much as the previous Byrds albums (Notorious Byrd Brothers). It feels a lot like The California Beatles and the best numbers here are jangly covers of Dylan songs. I like their sound but evidently they got better as they started writing their own stuff.
Incubus
3/5
Some good moments that I enjoyed. Generally very 90s alternative US, feels a bit cookie cutter at times.
Prince
3/5
Liked this more than I expected. A varied mixture of sounds and perhaps a touch too long but there were some songs I really enjoyed and will spend more time with.
Nirvana
4/5
Really good album. Nirvana were just a bit before my time but I’m looking forward to digging deeper and live acoustic is a great different angle to approach them. Will keep this one in rotation.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Liked this more than I expected to. It’s more mid 60s jangly folk rock but the songs are solid, catchy and I’m a sucker for a harmony.
Discovering so many contemporaries of the Beatles is also making me realise more how special they were, considering they basically pioneered this movement and achieved what they did in just 5-6 years. But I enjoyed this one twice and will keep a few highlights on rotation.
Ray Price
1/5
I really thought the biggest struggle of this challenge would be RnB, Soul and maybe Jazz. But no, who would’ve thought? It’s the dull, depressing 60s Country albums that turn up from time to time. I will be forgetting this one immediately.
The Band
2/5
I’ve discovered a fair bit of 60s rock and beat pop etc through this challenge so I was pretty keen for this one but it fell flat. Disappointed. Nothing really stuck with me after two listens and I can’t see much reason to go back. The overall sound was ok but never really turned into anything.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Great stuff! A very cool album and hard to imagine this hitting shops in the 70s when it was a pretty new sound. It’s basically what has evolved into Daft Punk but a bit more atmospheric rather than dance floor friendly. Definitely coming back to this one.
OutKast
4/5
I actually liked this more than I remember. Still not sure there’s enough material for a double and it would’ve been incredibly consistent if it was whittled down to one disc but I respect what they’ve done here. Speakerboxxx over The Love Below for me but it’s a solid collection and doesn’t seem to have aged in 20 years.
Yes
4/5
Already know and like this one although it’s definitely stronger with the bonus tracks as ‘America’ is a prog masterpiece that the original is missing.
Neil Young
3/5
It’s nice but it didn’t blow me away. Admittedly I’ve heard it before but other than Heart of Gold and Out on the Weekend, it pretty much passed me by.
The Clash
4/5
I live by the RIVERRRRRRRR!!
The Thrills
1/5
Nah. I heard this one at the time it was new and a bit hyped but I found it dull and cheesy. Time has done nothing for it. No idea how it has made the list. Is he trying to sound American? It’s just not good and it was also too long, I could not wait for it to end.
Eagles
4/5
Three songs in, I thought I was headed for an easy 5 but it goes a bit soft rock in the second half and overall just has a middle-of-the-roady feel to it. Title track and Life in the Fast Lane are brilliant though and generally just enjoyed it a couple of times through.
George Harrison
4/5
Took a few days to digest this fully and there are some outstanding songs here, certainly close to being a 5 but I felt it just dragged a bit. It's a huge volume of work and such consistently high quality. In a way it might have been better as a tight, 12 track masterpiece but at least this way we get more of Harrison's genius, just spread across three discs, including all of the filler.
Steely Dan
4/5
I found this really interesting. I’m not sure what it is - a bit like rock but then it’s also funky and a bit jazzy. I did like it though, strangely. It’s close between a 3 and 4 but I think it’s going to fall on the higher side. It’s just fun.
Talvin Singh
3/5
I remember this when it was new and didn’t try it out but it’s nice. A lot of atmosphere and a decent album. Just not one I can see myself coming back to, but that’s probably not Talvin Singh’s fault to be fair.
Lou Reed
4/5
Owned this one for a while and probably never gave it enough love beyond Perfect Day and Walk On the Wild Side. It’s much more than that, really consistent and enjoyable listen. Tails off a bit at the end or it could even be a 5.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
2/5
It feels like an important album in the history of hip hop but personally I don’t see myself coming back to it. Other than The Message, which is a classic. The rest was a bit slow and unremarkable.
Beatles
4/5
It not my favourite or one of the Beatles’ 5s but it’s still packed with tunes and great songwriting.
David Bowie
2/5
Of course I know Bowie but I don't know this one. First three tracks had me really interested. But then it lost its momentum and direction and the second half was pretty disappointing, weirdly avant garde and just a bit random.
Jurassic 5
5/5
This is a stormer. I bought it way back but clearly hadn't remembered how good it is, just consistently excellent throughout. I probably didn't give it as much love as their debut back in the day because it doesn't have stand-out single type material but the overall quality is really high and the production is superb.
Johnny Cash
2/5
Didn’t do loads for me but his patter is quite amusing and clearly he can turn a tune. Can’t see myself coming back here again.
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
It sounds a lot like an 80s movie soundtrack. Which in a way isn’t surprising as this is what JMJ did for a lot of his career. While it’s still pretty impressive in a ‘before its time’ kinda way, I just wasn’t that excited by the idea of listening to it again.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
This gave me American Zeppelin vibes. Very similar sound but the voice is nowhere near as good as Plant and the guitar work is nowhere near Page. Some stuff I liked but not as much as I’d hoped.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
Familiar with lots of QOTSA but not this one. And it’s good, consistent with their work but it’s no Songs For The Deaf to be fair. Slightly too long as well, but I later found out they added some extra tracks to the original release. Some great stuff but it’s not quite a 4. Not far off it but not there.
Doves
2/5
I somewhat remembered this album from its original release but I didn’t remember how dull it was. It never gets going and never goes anywhere. I clearly didn’t remember it very well as it’s just not that memorable. The follow up was much better.
Fela Kuti
2/5
I appreciate the musicianship here but it's more jazz fusion and I just don't really click with it. Some very long tracks of (albeit impressive) just drumming. And drumming. I appreciate that Tony Allen is a legend but can we give him a band to stick an actual melody over that?
N.W.A.
4/5
Another really strong entry in the hip hop genre and one that is just classic after classic. Amazing to think this happened in 1988, which is 36 years ago now, and the influence it spread across the decades that followed.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
I've probably prematurely dismissed Captain Beefheart after hearing Trout Mask Replica many years ago and finding it pretty painful. However, I found a lot of good stuff in Safe as Milk and kept it in rotation for a few days while deciding between a strong 3 and a scraped 4. But every time it comes on I enjoy its bluesy vibes and variety so I'm going generous.
The Monks
2/5
Don’t really get what’s special or significant about this. It was ok, similar to much other 60s beat pop. Maybe I’m missing something.
Van Morrison
3/5
I was expecting a bit more as this one feels like it should be a classic but found it a bit bland. Some nice moments but nothing really grabbed me and doubt I’ll rush to return to it.
Anthrax
2/5
Bit of thrash metal. Not super keen. Obviously there’s always some good guitar work in these albums but there’s not enough of a melody and the drums are so fast it just feels exhausting. Not for me.
John Martyn
4/5
This was a joy to discover. Never heard of him but reading around his bio, I'm familiar with a lot of his peers and collaborators. Clearly a really talented guitarist and takes a lot of interesting directions on this album. At first seems like a fairly tame folk record but there are some real gems hiding in here. Very tempted to give a 5 but will go with a strong 4.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Great album! One I’ve owned for a while and packed with bluesy classics. Come for Freebird, stay for Tuesday’s Gone and Mississippi Kid! It’s not a 5 but it’s a very very easy 4.
Pretenders
3/5
It’s very textbook punky new wave. A bit jangly for my taste but I can see where this comes in the line from the punk and rock eras to where we were in the 90s and today. Don’t see myself going back to it but I appreciated it.
Echo And The Bunnymen
1/5
More of the jangly new wave and just boring.
Not for me. Couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Digital Underground
2/5
Some good moments that I’ve heard sampled in other hip hop and apparently pretty important in its place but it’s just so cringy to listen to. Sounds dated and embarrassing. It’s a whole album about some kind of weird sex drug. What?
The xx
3/5
Underwhelming. There was a fair bit of hype when it came out and I gave it a go then but didn’t really get it. Listening with fresh ears, I still don’t. It has some nice moments and overall a good vibe but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before or since really. Basic Space and Crystalised just about got me thinking 3 over 2 but it’s more of a 2.5 really.
Morrissey
1/5
While Morrissey is a complete lunatic and wildly unlikable, I do try to separate the art from the artist. However, the ‘art’ here is also boring, full of asinine and hypocritical political bollocks and just not very good.
Sade
1/5
There’s nothing like this in my collection so I guess I’ve learned about something new. But there’s also a good reason I have none of this in my collection. I can’t stand it.
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
Just not that inspiring. Better than some of the more drab RnB but it’s not as fun or exciting as the classic Hip Hop that’s been on the list so far. Don’t really understand why he’s considered as highly as he is. It was very average for me.
Pere Ubu
2/5
Very random and quirky noisy post-punk type stuff. Pretty bizarre but I feel it warrants more than a 1 because it’s sort of innovative and original in a way and not boring. Can’t see myself coming back to it but it’s something learned that I’d never heard of, and I can see where it led to things like Pavement, Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem.
UB40
2/5
It’s ok. I mean, it’s all very samey reggae. I liked the overall groove but it doesn’t really change formula throughout and had me waiting for it to end.
Van Halen
4/5
Really enjoyed it. Especially after days and days of duds, a bit of good old fashioned rock music. Easy to get into, rock out a bit and not overthink my 4 star rating. Knew Jump was great but there are numerous bangers here.
The Who
4/5
Don’t tend to like live albums and I also don’t know The Who much deeper than Who’s Next and the singles, so I’ve never given this a go til now. But it was a lot of fun with a number of really strong live takes. The medleys and jams are great, take a lot of these songs to the next level and they have some good patter with the crowd.
AC/DC
3/5
Generally enjoyable cookie cutter hard rock but it does start to feel a bit generic and samey by the end. Would be interested to hear the odd change of pace but not really their thing I guess.
Hot Chip
4/5
Always liked Hot Chip and while this has been somewhere in my collection for years, I hadn't given it a fair crack for quite a while but it's a brilliant album, both eclectic and focused. Nice and chilled but has its boppy moments too, although I think it fades a bit in the second half which is keeping me from thinking too hard about a 5 star. No qualms on giving this a 4 though. Great stuff.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Nice little album although I found it tailing off in the second half. Never really made time to listen to a lot of Bob properly but enjoyed this and happy to have found it.
Killing Joke
4/5
Some of the post-punk movement really bores me, even when I understand that it forms an important path from rock and punk to the indie and garage music I liked around the late 90s-early 00s. But something about this album really appealed. The rhythm section really gets into some grooves and I can also see the path to the likes of The Prodigy and Primal Scream through this. I can definitely see myself listening to this again. It is a chaotic, noisy mess at times but there's something strangely brilliant about it.
Tom Waits
2/5
That was hard work. Good grief. A truly horrible vocal performance. But something about this prevents me from giving 1 star. There is some really nice music hidden under it and it's full of variety and intrigue. In a way it's a shame he ruins it by singing over it, to the point where I never want to listen to this again in my life, but I do have an appreciation for the character and craft on display.
Tina Turner
2/5
Yeah just not my thing. I gave it a go. Next please.
DJ Shadow
4/5
Remember this one from the late 90s and it was pretty important in terms of opening the door to more of the mixing and sampling subgenre of hip/trip hop. It’s mostly great as background vibe music but undeniably cool.
Bob Dylan
4/5
I’ve been surprised not to have encountered Dylan yet in over 100 days, and here comes one I don’t know at all. I didn’t actually know he was still releasing decent new material in the 90s to be fair. It’s a good job he knows how to write a damn fine song and execute it with this much earnest authenticity, because he sounds like a goblin and that’s the only thing holding me back from considering 5 stars. Great album.
The Fall
3/5
Liked it. I know OF The Fall but not sat and listened to any of their albums and this one I enjoyed twice through. There's a bit of baggy type early 90s influence and a bit of post-punk new wave, a bit of a Talking Heads meets Primal Scream vibe but also with Smith's distinctive vocals.
The Prodigy
5/5
My reviews have settled into a much more succinct form since starting the challenge. Who has time to listen to AND write a full page review for an album every single day?! But this one is special.
I already loved the Prodigy by June 1997 and had been anticipating this one since the Firestarter single in 1996. I can't remember why I would have had a day off school on a Monday in June 1997 but I clearly remember meeting my best mate in town to buy a copy of this from Our Price at the moment of release, 9am. I also clearly remember taking it back home and smashing it on Dad's big stereo at about 9:15 and for most of the rest of the day, and much of the rest of the year. It's just an all time favourite. Are some parts of it dated now? Sure. Are there still new releases in the 2020s that borrow from and are indebted to it? Absolutely. I'm sure there were less well-known artists fusing punk and techno at the time but none were doing it AND breaking the UK charts with consecutive huge #1 singles.
The side-B suite of Mindfields - Narayan - Firestarter is one of the strongest 3-track runs in all of music, and while I was slightly worried that I may have gone off it somewhat in the past 25 years, I thoroughly enjoyed listening through today. It was a life changing album for me and a game changing album for music in the 90s.
M.I.A.
4/5
I'd not come across this before but really glad I have now. Loved how distinctive and different it sounds. Really tribal rhythms and her voice is brilliant.
Wire
3/5
It's good. I've often been underwhelmed by these 70s-80s post punk albums which is probably unfair as I'm coming at them with the benefit of hindsight and taking them for granted. You can hear the influence of this one in Ash and a lot of the 90s-00s guitar music I love, so it's great to experience it as part of that journey. I didn't quite love it though; the sound is great and I did enjoy the overall vibe but never quite found myself thinking I'd come back to it in any hurry.
Love
3/5
I liked it but not as much as I'd hoped. It felt up my street stylistically and there were lots of good elements. The searing guitar solos kept grabbing my attention but then they never lasted long and despite three full listens it never really raised my head above a pleasant nodding along. 1967 was a great year for albums but I'm a little surprised this is one that gets held in such high regard.
Radiohead
3/5
Today I learned that Amnesiac was essentially a Kid A leftovers album. It makes a lot of sense too, as it has very similar atmosphere and instrumentation, particularly compared with the pre-Kid A Radiohead sound. It also explains why this is a bit of a loose and inconsistent record. In places it soars and touches the highs of its predecessors but it doesn’t feel as coherent or rewarding a listen.
The Replacements
2/5
It has a lot of ingredients that I often like. Post-punky, crunchy and rocky. But beyond a couple of songs, the vocals really grated on me and the chaotic arrangements just don't land often enough. I don't really see myself wanting to come back to it.
Merle Haggard
2/5
More 60s US country. Not my thing. But there's a little more here than in some of the previous albums I've been dealt. A bit more blues and some variety on the pace and overall feel. I still didn't like it much and was glad when it was over.
Public Enemy
4/5
Another classic from the golden era of hip hop. Just flows and never really drags for the better part of an hour, then you get ‘Fight the Power’! Great stuff
4/5
I remember parts of this from when it was new and it's actually even better than I remembered. Some great electronic-tinged rock and Bellamy's voice and guitar playing are on another level. I thought about giving this a 5 but somehow just feel it's on the lower side of a 4.5, a little overblown and bloated at times. Fantastic album though and really glad to have rediscovered it.
Beatles
5/5
There isn't much to be said about this album that hasn't already been said. The first half is classic after classic and the second is one of the most fun runs of songs in the history of music. It's probably only my 4th or 5th favourite Beatles album but it's hard not to consider it an all-time great. And that's even when you allow for Octopus's Garden.
Rod Stewart
3/5
It's a nice, safe rock album with some really enjoyable numbers but never quite consistently crosses over from good to great for me.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
Not really playing on my home turf here but for a precious hour on a Friday afternoon, I'm more than happy to slip into the warm glow of a Cuban evening and enjoy this slice of the Caribbean. Impossible not to move your hips, admire the musicality and enjoy the vibes.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
The other Elvis has been a really fortunate discovery for me on this challenge. Who knew he'd done so much and carried the rock'n'roll torch for so long?! I liked this more than the previous one, he does catchy and hooky really well and lyrically there's loads to unpick, so this one stayed in my rotation all weekend and will stay on the radar.
Air
3/5
When it's good, it's really dreamy and atmospheric. It's also a lot of slightly out-of-context soundtrack music so at times you don't really know what to make of it. Air are fantastic and do what they do better than anyone else. But this one feels a bit odd outside of the film it was created for. Some great moments though.
The Who
5/5
I always have time for a concept album and obviously this is one of the 'rock opera' variety. It's got so many great tunes on it that even if the story gets incredibly weird and doesn't always make complete sense, the songs are there and it's great fun to listen to, regardless. Pinball Wizard has to be one of the greatest rock songs ever written.
Traffic
4/5
I was a little concerned when it started off a bit funk/jazzy but then they pull out a really classic rock sound with some great guitar work and catchy hooks. I've enjoyed keeping this one around for a few days. Nice find.
Gene Clark
3/5
I didn't realise Gene Clark was a member of the Byrds, but it makes sense. The guitar playing is nice if pretty simple and it's a soft and enjoyable little collection of songwriting. Some great moments but a few too many that didn't really stick in the brain after a few listens, for me.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Gave this a couple of goes but it really didn't click with me. It's not terrible and there are some good moments but I could never hear this again and not really feel like I'm missing much. Geno is good.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
When I listen to an album in the car, I often turn the volume up when my favourite song comes on. When I listen to Led Zeppelin II in the car, I often turn the volume up 9 times by the end of my journey. It’s probably my favourite pure rock album of all time. I defy anyone to listen to the opening riff of Heartbreaker and not want to be Jimmy Page just for a few sweet moments.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I had to give this one a few goes through with the good headphones. It's a fantastic record. The minimalistic sound and the poetry in her lyrics are just perfect.
The Temptations
4/5
This was a really pleasant surprise. I had no idea this is what The Temptations could sound like but reading around the progression of the band and their sound it makes sense. The brilliant 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' is a perfect centrepiece but it's just groovy and fun the whole way through.
Soundgarden
3/5
It's a decent slab of grunge. I would definitely have enjoyed it more if a third to half was trimmed off as it's a bit long and bloated with some of the more middle-of-the-roady mid-tempo stuff but there was plenty I enjoyed. Chris Cornell was one of the best vocalists of his generation, but I prefer his later work against the harder backdrop of Audioslave.
Taylor Swift
2/5
It's inoffensive if a little dull. I'm sure it would be easy to shit on Taylor as she's become irritatingly ubiquitous and I'm really not sure she deserves it. The songs are ok and she can sing them just fine but I don't really see the appeal above any other young pop female singing about their breakups while seeming to sit on a mildly feminist platform. I gave it a couple of spins but don't see myself coming back for any of it.
Pearl Jam
3/5
I've found it hard to decide how I feel about the 'between' albums that plot the course from the 70s classic rock I like to the 90s-00s garage rock I like. I know without some of them, we never end up with some of my favourites; the grunge movement is a crucial piece of the puzzle and this is a significant band and album of that movement. But I haven't got into most of them as much as I had hoped. I gave it a few listens and enjoyed it overall but it never quite felt like something I'd buy or consider essential. It's consistently good but never quite crosses into 'great' for me.
Fiona Apple
2/5
I respect this more than a lot of the bland two-note pop music. She’s gone for it with both feet and at least written something as cool as Under The Table. Lots of it is very very odd and doesn’t strike me as something I’ll be coming back to.
Dolly Parton
4/5
Considering how far out of my usual territory this fell, I really liked it. She writes a nice country love song and tells stories that have some real emotional punch.
Portishead
5/5
Just an incredible piece of work. From start to finish, creates an atmosphere, smashes it up, takes you on a journey and it still feels as amazing 30 years later. It’s as good sat in the background, listened to in detail on headphones or blasted on the stereo. One of the all time greats.
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
Had no idea what this would be and was a really pleasant surprise. If music has a colour scheme, this was one of the most colourful and joyous records I've heard in this challenge. Some outstanding playing and just a rich tapestry of instrumentation and melody. I was reminded frequently of Paul Simon's Graceland and clearly this style of music was an inspiration throughout that project.
Nirvana
4/5
This album was utterly ubiquitous throughout the 90s so it's hard to be really objective about it but giving it an honest listen through from front to back, it's held up really well and you can immediately see why it was such a massive influence on alternative music - and culture - of the time and the decades that followed. I've had a handful of grunge classics so far but this definitely stands above the others.
Travis
2/5
I’m pretty sure anyone who died without hearing The Man Who will be just fine with that. It was everywhere for a few minutes in 1999 partly because of the dirge that is Why Does It Always Rain On Me? But even that doesn’t really justify the hype. I’m giving it an extra star for Turn which I always liked, but it’s just not a great album.
Raekwon
4/5
Once again, the list delivers really high quality in 90s Hip-Hop fare. I only (currently) know the tip of the Wu-Tang iceberg, so adding more context and background is definitely a rewarding process. The production is excellent and Raekwon plus an array of guests add superb vocals throughout. The quality rarely dips although it is a long old album to get through at times.
3/5
Gave it a few goes and thought it was fine. Some good moments but nothing to really grab my attention. The jazz/soul variations of rock are always interesting to discover, drawing from a slightly different palate of instrumentation to what I'm used to in the rock genre. Overall it felt nice for the background but not one I feel the need to add to my collection.
Radiohead
3/5
Spent a few days here to make my mind up, although it's one I owned when it came out. There are some tracks I really enjoy here but there's also just too much arty, directionless later-Radiohead noodling under the whiny, mumbling version of Thom Yorke. I remember now why I lost interest in Radiohead after OK Computer. The good moments are too deeply buried in art noise.
Beck
4/5
This is a great album. Beck does so much hopping around between genres, styles and instruments and it's always fun and arresting. I don't think Guero quite reaches the highs of Odelay or the fun of Midnite Vultures but it's got good to great songs peppered throughout and never really dips too far below the median.
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
I tend to roll my eyes when I get anything in the jazz realm but shame on me today. I had no idea how much I would enjoy this. Probably a bit elevator-y at times but the musicality really grabbed me, it's got some brilliant moments and overall a good upbeat vibe. A pleasant surprise.
Cream
4/5
There's enough classic psych rock riffage here to warrant a comfortable 4. There's also unfortunately too much weird vibrato vocals (We're Going Wrong - yes you are) and what sounded like a bad Monty Python outtake (Mother's Lament) to hold me off giving a 5. Overall a great discovery and definitely one I'll be coming back to.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
Exit Planet Dust came out at a time when the whole big beat genre was still mostly hiding underground and brought it to the mainstream. Hugely important and influential and also a lot of fun to listen to. They really soar with their collaborations and it's Beth Orton and Tim Burgess who take this album to another level. It's iconic and truly brilliant.
Bee Gees
4/5
I think this suffers from being too long in places but there is loads of it I really enjoyed and I like the overall concept feel of it. It seems they were trying to show the world they were more than just 'Stayin Alive' and job done, because I had no idea this sort of work was lurking in their catalogue and I'm glad to have found it now.
Supertramp
4/5
Really enjoyed this and had to go back for repeat plays. Found it on the rockier and more accessible side of the prog spectrum and really cinematic in a good way. Naturally made to be played loud, I feel. Looking forward to trying more Supertramp in the future.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Another Elvis Costello album but this one failed to grab my attention in any serious way. It's consistently good but doesn't ever really raise its head much higher than that and I don't think I'll come back to it in any hurry.
Beastie Boys
5/5
The progression of the Beastie Boys from hardcore and joke punk songs to become pioneers of hip-hop is laid bare on these 13 tracks (and the album that followed) - from picking out the samples that range from Led Zeppelin to 80s television characters to tracking the beats and snippets that were subsequently sampled by the future hip-hop greats, it's very clear to see where this absolutely vital album sits in the history of the genre. It's a phenomenal record that takes rock and rap and forces them to play nice. Sure, some of the lyrical content is dated, but the Beasties were literally boys at the time, and the production is many years beyond its time.
Talking Heads
4/5
Such a fun album. The beat kicks off and just never seems to stop. Easy to forget this album is over 45 years old! The influence it's had is enormous and it's also a really solid great album to listen to.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
The emperor is naked, let's just be honest about it. Just because people say this is the coolest album ever made, doesn't make it any better to listen to. It has its moments but is wildly overrated in my opinion.
Pere Ubu
2/5
My second Pere Ubu album and I'm none the wiser as to why it's here. They seem to have been an important underground influential artist but it's just such messy noise and not a million miles from the last one.
Ray Charles
2/5
Obviously a hugely important and talented musician but this style of music just does nothing for me personally.
The Beta Band
4/5
At their peak, the Beta Band were one of Britain's most innovative, creative and promising bands. Sadly that peak came and passed far too quickly. The aptly-named Heroes to Zeros soundtracks the period from their excellent Hot Shots II era to their breakup just months after this was released. It's a damn shame but they just didn't seem to be able to agree on the creative direction, some members struggled with mental health and they and collectively kept hitting the self-destruct button.
Lots of this album are of the playful, genre-bending variety that made them so exciting, but it lacks consistency and sags in the second half. I can't go lower than a 4 because they were just so special while we had them around (and outstanding live) but it's much messier than its predecessor and not as much fun as the 3 EPs that put the Betas on the map in the first place.
Fats Domino
3/5
I'm know this is an important, milestone collection from the very roots of rock'n'roll and blues but I prefer the later music it inspired. After a few goes, it's good stuff but doesn't really have me adding to my rotation.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Always been aware of Nick Cave and sort of considered him a Leonard Cohen-lite. Probably a bit unfairly, but this album has done little to deter me from it. That said, there is some stellar songwriting here, he does a superb job of stripping back the production to make the lyrics the focal point. Would have liked the odd change of pace but in the right mood, it's an excellent record.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
I remember this being synonymous with a certain demographic at school, which put me right off but it you can't deny its influence. I went into it with an open mind though, but it's too long and really not as hard or heavy as I expected and left me a bit bored.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Never been the biggest Johnny Cash fan but I found this engaging and I love the idea of him playing in prisons for some reason. He has a good bit of fun with his banter with the inmates and delivers his brand of country rock with humour and conviction.
Joy Division
4/5
Found this one washed over me as background music but I appreciated it a lot more a second time on headphones. It's moody and atmospheric and never in a rush, which is much rarer in more recent music. But I can see the influence from here on lots of great bands like Interpol, BRMC and Bloc Party who moved post-punk into the 21st Century. A challenging listen but well worthwhile.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Getting this immediately after Joy Division was interesting as I'm pretty sure it was a major influence on them and the two flow quite nicely into each other. Dark and angry but some great riffs and tunes and they really lean on quality basslines, which you can miss if you rush it.
Cornershop
4/5
Everyone will remember Cornershop for Brimful of Asha but I did a little more digging back in the day so I remember this album and it is a brilliant, colourful cocktail of indie rock and electronica with its British Indian influences worn very proudly throughout. It was a joy to revisit and has held up extremely well.
Neil Young
2/5
My third Neil Young and it's a worrying trend - I've gone from a strong 4 to a comfortable 3 but this one I can only give a 2. I didn't realise I had it on repeat and listened to it nearly three times without noticing. I just thought it had gone on a long time without ever piquing my interest. Just very bland and unremarkable. I understand why he's made the list, even multiple times, but surely this spot could've been given to something a bit more interesting?!
Primal Scream
3/5
The highs are high; Movin On Up and Loaded are two absolute anthems of the baggy era and helped spawn a genre and a whole range of subcultures. I owned this album but didn’t remember any of it outside those two tracks. On a few pills at an early 90s rave this album, I’m sure, was as good as it gets. I just find that on headphones in 2024, it’s hard to keep enjoying the formula for a full hour. Influential and brilliant in its time but happy to move on now.
Wild Beasts
1/5
If nobody has yet taken this ‘singer’ aside and discussed alternative career options, it’s just cruelty at this point.
King Crimson
3/5
I had high expectations and while it’s a good album I didn’t quite understand why it’s so highly rated. Some good moments and an overall well written and complete-feeling LP. But it misses in places and didn’t jump out for me as often as I had hoped.
5/5
The album that started Britpop. Basically sounds like a week in the life of your average Brit in 1993. Light-heartedly cynical at every turn and full of wry smiles and nods to the British way of life. Not to mention the work of a master songwriter and a genius guitarist, in Albarn and Coxon, beginning to find their feet as a creative force that would influence and lead the whole Britpop movement. And it's just a fantastic record from start to finish.
TV On The Radio
4/5
Great record, kept this in my rotation for a few days and enjoyed tracks from all over it at different points. Varied but still cohesive. Reminds me of the Young Fathers more recently and had me digging into their back catalogue all week.
The Triffids
2/5
Odd lyrics, unimaginative production and generally forgettable experience bar one or two half-interesting moments.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I’ve always viewed the Stones as predominantly a singles band and I’m afraid Sticky Fingers has done little to challenge that preconception. Brown Sugar is great and I really enjoyed Midnight Mile but there was a lot in the middle that didn’t stand out in two plays through. Can you Hear Me Knocking has good moments but is just too long.
Roni Size
2/5
Remember this being a towering influence at the time, a true drum n bass classic. And at times it scales those heights still today. At times it also sticks around longer than necessary and feels very dated but in fairness, it wasn’t written to be listened to while unwinding in my lounge after work.
Morrissey
4/5
I've been dreading the inevitable tide of Morrissey albums on this challenge but determined to give everything a fair crack with an open mind. Here goes... I really liked this. Yes, I struggle with his voice and knowing more about him as a person whose views I disagree with but I sat and enjoyed listening to pretty much every track of this album. The guitars are brilliant (credit to Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer, and probably Mick Ronson) and I don't hate Morrissey's dry humour on this occasion. A pleasant surprise, in spite of myself.
Sam Cooke
3/5
Funky and foundational rock'n'roll. It's hard to put yourself into a 1963 state of mind and listen to this as it would've been heard back then, before rock music had taken all the turns it took in the subsequent 60 years. There's a lot to enjoy here though. The man can sing!
Snoop Dogg
4/5
Considering this album came out in 1993, its production is fantastic, the beats are smooth and grimy and it massively influenced hip-hop in the 90s. The only downside is the lyrics which are just puerile and uncomfortable in far too many places. That was the game though, and if you enjoy it in the right mood, it doesn't ruin the better tracks.
Crowded House
3/5
A pretty safe, enjoyable pop rock album that feels very 90s, I remember a few of these hits. Found this hard to rate as it was nice enough and has some great moments but also never really held my attention in a serious way. I won't begrudge it coming up again but I can't see myself seeking it out in future.
JAY Z
3/5
The 90s Hip Hop selections have so far been excellent, showcasing the records that influenced the genre at the time and are still generally good to listen to today. Likewise, The Blueprint has held up well and is a reminder that Jay-Z was pretty ubiquitous at the time, collaborated with all the big names in a way that elevated both his work and their involvement. This one does strike me as a little 'safer' than some of the others though, less of an edge to it and perhaps a little overproduced at times. It's nice not to be cringing at the lyrics but it's also a shame they don't ever really hit deeper or challenge the listener too much.
Bill Evans Trio
2/5
I hate to judge a jazz album by its cover but this is as dull and loungey as it looks. I know it's great for people who like jazz but it just felt like background restaurant music and went on far too long. Looking more closely at the tracklisting, most tracks are played twice? But I couldn't have told you that. Not for me.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I wonder if there’s a trend in people’s ratings of Elvis Costello albums depending on what order they were generated. I’ve gone on the journey from ‘oh cool, Elvis Costello, the guy from Austin Powers. He’s pretty good’ to ‘Elvis Costello again? Ok. He’s good but why’s he here so many times?’ And finally I’m approaching ‘Really? Again?’ And my ratings will probably reflect that. I like the album. It has some great moments, I just don’t get why we need quite so much of his really-fairly-similar body of work. We get it. He’s good. He’s not THAT good though, is he?
Hole
3/5
It sounds a lot like a Nirvana album with Courtney Love on vocals to be honest. Good in places but not amazing. Definitely an influence on the post-grunge/punk scene, can hear shades of this in things like Ash and Garbage.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Classic swing and very easy to listen to but not really my home turf. Not one I've minded listening to but not really one I'll put on rotation.
Michael Jackson
4/5
There's flashes of brilliance but his slow songs are just dire. Same experience on Bad, which I was really excited to get (months ago) but found that outside the upbeat singles, it's a bit disappointing.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
I've had this on rotation for days and it's an absolute beauty. Sometimes it feels like a folk-rock album with some brilliant electric guitar and bass, but it's also so much more. The soul in her voice and gentle forays into jazz and blues make for an incredibly rounded and varied, yet consistent album. I didn't know this one before but I am so glad to have discovered it. The songwriting is first rate and she executes time and time again.
Jeff Beck
3/5
A times I thought I was onto something really exciting as he and the band are clearly all fantastic and can really rock out. But then I also found bits of this just odd - lots of it is covers or sort-of covers, including his take on 'Greensleeves' among the blues standards, and it has a weird flow, to me. Doesn't feel like a coherent album. One or two highlights but will have to move on to the next.
Steely Dan
2/5
I really enjoyed Countdown To Ecstasy so was excited to dig into Aja, but left feeling pretty nonplussed. It feels a bit elevator-y, very easy-listening and lacking in any real edge. Musically, it's solid and the songs are well written and constructed; It's fine and inoffensive but just can't think of any reason to keep it in my rotation.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
I’m afraid this was never going to be a big favourite for me but she does have a fantastic voice and puts it to great use here. I appreciate that she leaned into the RnB and soul influence and her vocals work well in that oeuvre. It’s slick in its production and you can see why it sold so well and she was such a star. I didn’t mind it but it was definitely too long - two discs are really not necessary and while it’s all good fun pop, it’s not something I really need in my life.
Jane's Addiction
4/5
I've kept this on rotation for a week now and every time I hear it, I really enjoy it. They nail the dark and moody, they nail the rhythm section and I love how it's produced. It's also a huge influence on what came next - the alternative transition from 80s hair metal to 90s/00s post-punk that doesn't have to veer into punk or grunge. It's another pleasant surprise and welcome discovery. It's probably a 4.5 but I'm feeling a little generous and will definitely be adding this to my collection.
David Bowie
3/5
There are some great moments I really enjoyed but Bowie also likes to experiment and while I applaud his efforts, I don’t always like actually listening to them. When it’s good, it’s really good, but when it’s not, it’s pretty forgettable.
Mj Cole
1/5
Ah yes, UK Garage. Popular for 20 minutes at the turn of the century. And still grim. This album is far too long, full of awful vocals and irritating beats.
Def Leppard
3/5
Pour some sugar on me.
In the name of love.
Pink Floyd
4/5
Nice that my first Floyd album is the first Floyd album. And really good it is too. Hadn’t listened to this for many years but there are great moments I remember, like Bike and Astronomy Domine and great moments I was more than happy to be reacquainted with, like Lucifer Sam and Interstellar Overdrive. A sign of things to come, albeit via some lineup changes, and a great listen in itself as well.
The Black Crowes
4/5
Is it pretty derivative blues rock? Yes.
Is it fairly generic and predictable? Sure.
Did I enjoy almost all of it for just being pure rock n fun? Well, yes I did.
David Bowie
3/5
I respect the art and genius of Bowie. He does piece together some fascinating work, that's full of ideas and interesting production. It's just not always that fun to listen to. I liked the slow burn on the opening track and there are some great details throughout but I found a lot of it was a bit of a slog to get through.
Manu Chao
2/5
He does what he does but it’s not quite my thing.
ZZ Top
4/5
ZZ Top are one of those bands I’ve always been aware of but never really given a longer thought. This is a great album though, so I’m really glad that it’s come up. I love the way the first couple of tracks bleed into each other, it’s a really strong start and time and time again they deliver catchy and brilliant dirty, bluesy rock. Only once or twice does it sag but this earned a week’s worth of replay; a comfortable 4 that I contemplated awarding a 5.
De La Soul
4/5
Another great addition to the hip-hop selection here. Picked this one up on second-hand vinyl about 20 years ago and it was nice to get reacquainted today.
Justin Timberlake
1/5
Really really not my thing but also not that good.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
It’s hard to argue with an album that can boast Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City and Sweet Child O’ Mine but it does have a handful of middling songs in there too in my opinion. Obviously it’s iconic and was a pretty important album of its time that inspired generations of future guitarists and subgenres.
Iron Maiden
3/5
Found it really hard to decide between a 3 and a 4 on this one. It was much less hard and heavy than I expected and I really enjoyed it overall. Some terrific guitar work and great changes of pace and rhythm. Definitely glad to have discovered it and will be a lot more excited and open minded when Iron Maiden (surely) reappear in the challenge.
Ice Cube
3/5
It’s another hit for 90s hip-hop. Production is great, the bass and beats are hard not to like and it’s generally just a good groove throughout. With the lyrics and vocals there’s plenty that’s poignant and clever but there’s also a fine line between what’s still funny and what’s a bit awkward. The majority falls on the right side but there’s a chunk of this album I’m not in a rush to listen to again. I don’t love his delivery but overall I’ve enjoyed the album.
Ryan Adams
4/5
Know this one well from 2001/2 and it’s packed with brilliant singer-songwriting that varies effortlessly from bluesy to rocky and ballady with a dose of the better kind of country in there too. The opening run of five tracks is pretty spotless (New York, New York, Firecracker, Answering Bell, La Cienaga Just Smiled, Rescue Blues) but the latter half does drop off. I learned today that there’s a second disc that apparently Adams always intended to be included. It seems he can be a difficult person to work with and was regularly at odds with his label but I must say, in my experience the labels know what they’re doing as the extra minutes only serve to dilute the quality here. It’s a fantastic album that I’m always happy to play but doesn’t quite sit in my absolute top tier.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
About a month on from getting Sticky Fingers, which I liked for some individual songs but didn't love. This, I like more. There's more blues and soul and it stayed in my rotation for a few days quite happily. Much more consistent and more memorable for me.
The Verve
4/5
A stone cold 90s classic. Gets lumped in with Britpop but is definitely part of that post-Britpop maturing movement. You couldn’t go anywhere circa 1998 without hearing Bittersweet Symphony or The Drugs Don’t Work. Lucky Man and Velvet Morning were my favourites though. I think it’s a little on the long side and has some middling tracks in amongst the great ones. It’s still brilliant overall and has held up well 25 years on.
Oasis
4/5
One of those albums that will forever be associated with the whole Britpop genre/movement and spawned a thousand copycats. They had a formula and they delivered on it again and again. For me, there are a handful of mediocre songs here and as perfect as Liam Gallagher's vocals were for the band, they are also an acquired taste and bring back memories of what an arrogant, insufferable nugget he was as well. Noel could certainly turn a tune though and they captured a moment brilliantly.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
While I remember the predecessors to this album and I remember the existence of this one, I don’t remember any of it. So they apparently became a bit more sophisticated in the production and songwriting but also apparently became a bit less memorable. There are some good moments here but they really get lost in the mediocrity of general alternative mush. Skin was a great frontwoman and singer so they were very good when they were good. But I don’t see myself coming back to this again with any urgency. I am glad it reminded me to listen to their first couple of albums again though.
The Cure
2/5
I have no problem with slow burn albums that build tension gradually. As long as there is a payoff. This album felt like 35 minutes of build-up, and decent at times, but with no climax. I gave it three goes and none of it grabbed my attention at all. Fine for the background but not enough... happened?
Minor Threat
2/5
I love that albums like this happened and the impact this had on punk, post-punk and all the guitar music that came after it. But that doesn’t make it that great to listen to. Would it have hurt to give your angst a bit more of a tune? I’ll tick it off and move on.
The Beach Boys
4/5
It’s great to sit and listen to a Beach Boys album that’s not either literally or effectively a collection of singles. Of course I know Pet Sounds and Smile very well but otherwise tend to lean into the hits. This is quite a different experience and one I enjoyed. The lyrical themes are different and the production feels a far cry from the Brian Wilson masterpieces. But it’s no less enjoyable for it.
Metallica
2/5
I can understand why this album was so massive and continues to be considered a classic in the metal genre. It just does nothing for me. The drums are always maxed out (on speed and volume), the guitars chug along in much the same way on every song and there's nothing particularly interesting about his voice. I do get it but I'm not feeling it, personally.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
I wanted to like this more - you can see its fingerprints on a lot of post-punk, grunge/noise and indie of the 90s and 00s but I just found it a bit short on tunes and not particularly memorable.
Miles Davis
2/5
Backgroundy Jazz. It's just never going to be my thing, as cool as this is, I don't really see myself choosing to come back and listen to it again.
Public Enemy
3/5
Enjoyed the bass and beats and generally it's a great vibe. Didn't quite stick with me as much a Fear of a Black Planet but still good, solid stuff.
Beatles
5/5
Famously the soundtrack of the Beatles starting to break up. The White Album always felt to me like a sketchbook of musical ideas from all four Beatles that they were too tense and fed up of each other to agree on and properly produce. Had they not been breaking up by this point, they could conceivably have trimmed half of the album down, polished the chosen tracks and made another tight, 35-minute album. But luckily for us, we got to see the full workings of their minds and hear them play around with a whole smorgasbord of genres and styles. And astonishingly, they rarely miss. It’s a brilliant, if at times bonkers and confusing, absolute masterpiece.
Pulp
4/5
Fond memories of this from the mid 90s. It was nice to have a relisten, but I'm a bit offended on behalf of my poor, innocent teenage ears. Jarvis was one horny bugger!
Def Leppard
2/5
Not as good as its successor and sort of feel like once you've heard one track, you've heard it all.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Nothing wrong with a bit of reggae, it's groovy and you feel incredibly cool listening to it. I do find after a while that I might appreciate a change of pace or a different dynamic.
The Gun Club
3/5
Quite enjoyed this raw and messy, punky number. Not exactly a masterpiece but short, sweet and to the point.
Roxy Music
1/5
I'm not sure if it was the vocals, the music, the production, the lyrics or just the whole sum of its parts. But I found this to be dreadful, unlistenable and an absolute Displeasure. I never want to hear it again.
Orange Juice
3/5
The better moments are really funky and a lot of fun - reminiscent of Talking Heads and baggy indie. The rhythm section is having a great time and I enjoyed it. The slower numbers didn’t do anything for me though and I generally struggle with overly ‘80s’ production and post-punk/new-wave vocal style, which definitely tempered my overall enjoyment here.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
The vocal harmonies are first rate, there’s a fantastic blend of borderline country, blues and acoustic psychedelia that really hit the right notes for me. The vocal harmonies are first rate, there’s a fantastic blend of borderline country, blues and acoustic psychedelia that really hit the right notes for me. Worth listening to again and again.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Led Zeppelin were remarkably consistent through their first four albums. Then they got experimental. They dropped off a bit with Houses of the Holy, and then they came roaring back with this, their double, Magnum Opus LP, Physical Graffiti. It chugs through an hour and a half of various genres, ideas and variations on their signature blues rock and never really misses.
Genuinely might be the best rock album ever made and has an amazing cover, just to throw into the mix too.
T. Rex
4/5
Plenty of great glam riffage, I enjoyed it considerably more than its successor (The Slider) although the two aren't miles apart stylistically, I just felt it had more tunes. Maybe I was just in more of a T. Rex mood today.
Nick Drake
4/5
Really impressed by what he does with almost exclusively a guitar and a voice. Fantastic songwriting and some really enjoyable guitar work. Definitely going to be digging deeper into his catalogue. It's exactly the sort of album I wanted to make about 20 years ago.
U2
3/5
I know the singles of U2 but only a cursory knowledge of their LPs (I'm sure this won't be their only appearance on the list). While the singles do stand out on War, there are a lot of good moments further down the tracklist, not least "40" which I thought was just the change of pace that was needed. I enjoyed the album overall but it's not one I'm too disappointed not to own.
Fairport Convention
4/5
Very enjoyable folk classic. The fantastic Who Knows Where The Time Goes is its clear highlight but I also got a lot of enjoyment from the epic A Sailor's Life and Percy's Song either side of it. It's not my favourite genre but it's a great record that I enjoyed a few times through.
Elton John
4/5
Picking this mammoth double album apart, you find all kinds of treats and tricks, from the proggy opener, Funeral For a Friend, to ubiquitous classics like Candle In The Wind and the title track, via the rather irritating Bennie and the Jets and Saturday Night's Alright (for Fighting) which never quite found a place in my favourites. For me personally, it's an impressive work of art but one I admire from afar. It won't make it onto my regular rotation but that doesn't mean it isn't a great record worthy of its success and acclaim.
Paul Simon
5/5
I don't think degrees of perfection exist. Something is either perfect or it isn't. But Graceland is perhaps the most perfect album of all time. Paul Simon's lyrics floor me time and again, his way of poetically portraying any emotion and making it beautiful is just unmatched. And here, he went outside the realm of popular music and brought the very best of what he found back with him. There isn't a wasted note, word or moment here, one I can listen to anytime, every time and hopefully many more times to come.
Motörhead
2/5
All just a little bit over-the-top for my liking. Yes, there are some killer licks and great rockers in there but I can't really get on with Lemmy's amelodic yelling and the rhythm and bass just lack nuance and variety.
Willie Nelson
2/5
I'm sorry but I don't get it. Willie Nelson has a great voice and I know he wrote some fine country music but what has he added to this relatively uninspired selection of predictable covers? It's interesting to hear a country legend take on classics of swing and pop but I just found it a bit pointless.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Simon & Garfunkel seemed to evolve from fairly simple folk numbers to the big, grandiose songs and it’s interesting to see the progression as they got a bit more experimental and veered from the folk tradition. Not all experiments work out and while this is an interesting listen throughout, the more ‘concept’ elements are less compelling on repeat listens. But the genius of Paul Simon’s songwriting comes to the fore on the album’s best moments (America and Mrs Robinson are some of music’s best moments, period) and make it a classic nonetheless.
Genesis
5/5
I’m a sucker for an overblown concept album so there was always a danger that I’d love this. Fortunately I’m also a sucker for a catchy hook, good riff and a bit of poetic storytelling and these are all present in spades. Of course, there is a lot here that is batshit crazy but it keeps on rewarding me with melodies, basslines and little fills that just bring joy to my ears. I had to come back to it a few times and kept expecting it to outstay its welcome (23 songs, 94 minutes…) but it never did. An absolute masterpiece.
Laibach
2/5
Batshit crazy Yugoslavian industrial-military metal. There are actually some pretty cool moments here and some rather terrifying ones. Sometimes you just have to Laibach, think of England and welcome discovering something a bit different.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
I've always considered Belle & Sebastian to be one of the most inoffensive indie acts that never really became anything - they seemed to earn exactly the levels of tepid enthusiasm and moderate critical acclaim that they deserved. I almost smashed 3*** before I'd even got halfway through the album as it seems the 3***est album ever by the 3***est band of all time. But I held off, listened to Tigermilk three more times this week and enjoyed it a lot.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
This album just oozes sexy funk vibes. It's not the sort of thing I'd usually listen to regularly but they do it SO well, I'm definitely glad I've now discovered it.
Guided By Voices
3/5
Albums like this are one of the best things about this challenge. Scuzzy, Indie-adjacent 90s band I’ve heard of but never listened to? Good start. 28 tracks? Uh-oh. But wait, 41 minutes total. And all tracks under 3 minutes. Most of them under 2 minutes and some of them under 30 seconds? What’s up here then? Well, it’s a fun little blast through the mind of Robert Pollard. Some of it fades out, some blends into the next idea, some of it comes to a deliberate - and sometimes abrupt - halt. I didn’t necessarily love it but it kept my attention and I was keen to give it another go soon. This maybe a slightly generous score but I just respect the fact it does what it wants and never outstays its welcome.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I sort of feel the amount of EC on this list does him a disservice in a way. This is my fourth, from under 250 albums so far, and I can’t see much discernible evolution in his sound, there’s a lot of overlap and while it’s all good, there’s plenty that’s just that, and not enough that’s great. Not sure how many more times he’ll appear but it’s getting harder to be objective when I see his name appear. Again. I did really like Uncomplicated though.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
To be honest, I recall this album being better than this. Midnight Rambler and You Can't Always Get... are elite rock'n'roll and obvious standouts. I also quite like Gimme Shelter but there's a lot more forgettable in there than I'd remembered, which I guess makes sense somehow. 3 stars feels a bit low; it's consistently solid even if it's only fleetingly outstanding. Let's say a light 4, definitely would be a 3.5 if it were possible.
The Go-Betweens
2/5
Really bland and dull. No earthly idea why it's been included in the book. A bit like the jangly Smiths-y late 80s indie I’ve heard before and that’s not really helping its cause.
Sonic Youth
3/5
I'm generally pretty keen on raw, scuzzy indie noise rock, but then I never seem to enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. This was the case again with this album. I kept it in my rotation for a few days, hoping it would click but it never really did. It's a good overall vibe and I feel it's worthy of more than a 2, but I still feel a bit disappointed.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I was expecting a much more depressing listen but either my preconception of Leonard Cohen is off, or it's based on later work once he's become old and sadder. Either way, I really enjoyed this; his songwriting and delivery are both excellent, understated but also grandiose. I'm looking forward to listening to more of his work and seeing how wrong I was to expect the worst.
Eminem
2/5
There are some great moments here but it's mostly buried deep in layers of cringe. It was pretty shocking and fun at the time but we always knew it wouldn't age brilliantly. Fair play to Eminem for bringing this stuff into the mainstream shifting a LOT of units, but it's not one I feel the need to put into regular rotation.
Has some cool bluesy tracks and overall enjoyed it but nothing quite raised its head above the 'pretty good' bar. I quite like Rod's voice and it's better with this kind of backing than what I've heard of his solo work. The harmonica is one of the best things about this record though. The title is comfortably the worst.
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
This one is an all-time favourite. An in-depth study not necessarily about love (after all, we know nothing about love) but about that great art form, the love song. Some of it's just transcendental, and some of it's just really dumb.
Could this have been shorter, tighter, more glossily produced and a bit more 'curated'? Perhaps, but then it wouldn't be anywhere near what it is; you'll find jazz, country, pop, indie rock, a bit of electro and a lot more that doesn't really fit any label except that it's a version of a love song.
I bought it years ago for The Book Of Love, after I fell for the Peter Gabriel cover. But I found that to be just the tip of the iceberg and a wonderful gateway drug for the creativity, humour and genius of this simply marvellous album.
Alice In Chains
1/5
Sludgy, dull and dreadful. I tried a second time on a new day but couldn't find anything redeeming and will happily never hear this again in my life. I don't hate grunge and at times I really like it as a genre, but this feels like it beds down into one chord progression, one guitar tone ('chug'), one tempo, all laid under that whiny, uninterested, reverb-laden drawl. Even the lyrics are utterly miserable when you can actually make them out.
Tim Buckley
2/5
There's some interesting stuff going on here musically and I respect the ambition in a lot of places, but I'm afraid I found his voice really hard work and it just didn't really stick for me consistently. Good in some places but never really much more than that.
David Bowie
3/5
I respect the art. Of course. You have to; it's Bowie. Still creating experimental and unpredictable music on his deathbed. So it's hard to separate this album from its context and story. I am trying to be really objective though and honestly, this isn't an album that I feel I'll be coming back to for regular replays. Once again, Bowie creates great tunes but buries them in a more ambitious and grandiose work of art. So yes, I can appreciate how GOOD this is, in spite of the fact that it's not really for me.
Meat Puppets
3/5
My first encounter with Meat Puppets was on the Nirvana unplugged live album; it seems Kurt Cobain was a fan. I can see why, this is a whole collection of fun little nuggets of songs from lo-fi indie, folkish in places to angry little punk numbers. I like the pace of it; lots of 1-3 minute head nodders and all very listenable. Not one I can see myself buying but have had a good few days listening to it on and off.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
Bought this at the time, mostly on the strength of Take Me Out. Still comfortably the best track on the album but there are some hidden gems in the form of Tell Her Tonight and Michael. I never quite fell in love with it as an album and don't feel that Franz Ferdinand really lived up to the hype. Fizzled out very soon after their patchy sophomore effort. Enjoyed the trip down memory lane as this took me right back to my first year at uni but it's still in the 'good' not 'great' column for me.
The Band
2/5
A band so inspiring they named themselves ‘The Band’ and released, as their second album, and album called ‘The Band’. I’m not sure what I was expecting here but it’s about as exciting as pocket fluff and while I read that they inspired the likes of Dylan, Clapton and Harrison, I’m glad they took that inspiration and turned it into something more interesting than this lot. It’s slow, ploddy country rock with one or two toe-tapping moments and a lot of meh. The Bland.
Santana
4/5
I've always known Carlos Santana was a good guitarist but it's good to be reminded that he (and his band) was making stuff this creative and genre-crossing as early as 1970. The Latin vibes combined with classic rock sensibilities and spotless execution made this a really enjoyable listen for multiple days.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
One of those consensus masterpieces that I've always been aware of but shockingly it took until today for me to sit and listen to the whole thing. And it's very easy to see why it's so loved and highly acclaimed by so many. So many iconic standards of soul and funk, some that I knew and some that were brand new to me. Some that frightened me on first listen; sounds I had no idea were being employed in the mid-70s and just a level of pure sexiness that is just unfair in these kinds of quantities. This is not my favourite kind of music and I don't own a lot of soul but it's clear how far ahead of his peers Stevie Wonder was and it's obviously a good starting point to dabble into the unfamiliar. I will be returning.
Parliament
3/5
It feels a bit unfair to drop this badboy right after Stevie Wonder as it was never going to match up, but hey, I'm on a funk kick, why not extend the grooves. Enjoyed the vibes and had a good time with this on the rotation for a few days.
The Everly Brothers
2/5
My wife walked in and asked why I was having a high school sockhop in 1959. Some nice harmonies but let's be honest, I'm never consciously listening to this again.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
4/5
After 20 seconds of mostly screaming, it seems like this is going to be a tough listen.
But wait. 40 minutes later and I've tapped my toe, nodded my head and smiled far more than I expected. It's dirty, dirty blues guitar with the lots of the good kind of experimental edge and a raw, raucous coolness that I can get on board with. A really pleasant surprise.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
It feels a bit cruel to notice this was a 1967 release as it was never really going to match up to Sgt Pepper, Piper at the Gates etc. It's nice enough and some songs I recognised straight away but it didn't really grab me in any powerful or lasting way. Maybe you had to be there.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
I know nothing at all about Emmylou Harris but from what I read, this is quite a departure for her in the latter stages of a long career in the country and folk scene.
I really, really enjoyed it.
What grabbed me first was the wall-of-sound production. In places it sounds more like Eno than Eno (Nod to producer Malcolm Burn here, it seems); combining hypnotic drum machines with rich instrumental layers and then just floats her voice over it all like syrup. And the vocals are just fantastic - she's able to turn her tone from sweet folkiness for the more country moments like the title track to bring a dense, ethereal quality to tracks like Bang The Drum Slowly and Hour Of Gold - huge shades of Massive Attack's Teardrop. Then just for fun, she drapes big power popstar vibes over Michelangelo and One Big Love. I very strongly contemplated giving this a 5, I just think it's one that you have to be in the mood for and while I don't think I always will be, I happen to be in that mood today.
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
Apparently this is some kind of parody of 50/60s high school rock'n'roll but then it's also really pointlessly weird for no good reason. Feels like an odd in-joke that I don't get. And while fragments of the normal songs are OK, the utter bollocks that passes for the final track is just an irritating, deliberate 'look-how-zany-we-are' effort. I'm sure Zappa is a genius but this was more annoying than funny.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
One thing this book has absolutely nailed is its coverage of classic Hip-Hop from the golden era across the late 80s and early 90s. This is yet another superb entry to the chapter. The beats are slick and just incredibly listenable. It never outstays its welcome and the blend of vocals keep it fresh, fun and arresting throughout. Still find it astonishing that this album, along with its peers, is over 30 years old. It surprises me that there aren't more acts like this in the 2020s; solo rappers and RnB artists seem to have taken over and it's a real shame.
Nina Simone
2/5
It's a delightful voice to listen to, and I'm glad for the challenge to have been educated and experienced it. But boy, did this one drag on. I really liked the upbeat bluesy rock'n'roll of I Love Your Lovin' Ways but the rest of the album slowed down to an almost pedestrian tempo and I found it far too slow and sad.
Billie Holiday
2/5
She's got a lovely voice, sure. It's just not doing anything that interests me, unfortunately. Getting this one the day after Nina Simone is possibly doing her a disservice as I feel similarly about both, but it's not a genre I enjoy listening to a lot.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
Comfortably better than the iconic but underwhelming Velvet Underground & Nico, this one is rockier and has some actual tunes. What Goes On and Some Kinda Love are both great and even it’s token weird, avant-y epic, The Murder Mystery is superior to anything on their debut. It’s only getting one star more for me but if I could give half marks it would be 3.5 (vs 1.5).
Stan Getz
2/5
I’m pretty sure this is the best bossa nova album I’ve ever listened to and I’m also pretty sure that’s a title that is never at risk of being challenged too hard.
Fishbone
4/5
A pretty wild ride and a lot of fun! I was a bit confused at first as I couldn't really work out what this was. It feels like it's going to be quite hard rock, but then it has some ska elements, even quite soulful vocals, while getting very political and deep in a lot of places. I had to play it through multiple times and felt like it revealed itself the more time I gave it. I'd never heard of Fishbone but this is definitely a worthwhile discovery and one I'm not sure I ever would've made otherwise.
Eagles
2/5
It's no Hotel California, is it? Found this to be pretty drab and unremarkable country rock. Never actually offensive but just nothing reached out to me at all after a few listens.
Nirvana
3/5
Ok, I get it. You’re a grimy, punky grunge band railing against the establishment when you suddenly get massively popular from your polished, commercially-friendly album. How do you respond? Why, you make a deliberately abrasive and decidedly un-commercially-friendly follow-up. It’s pretty hard to listen to in places, but the songs that were taken and remixed to be more palatable (Heart-shaped Box and All Apologies) are, well, much more palatable. Maybe that means I’m pretty basic when it comes to my taste in grunge, but I’m not gonna argue with that.
Very Ape, sampled as the basis for the Prodigy classic Voodoo People is a bit of a hidden gem as well.
Richard Thompson
3/5
A familiar old friend - one of my Dad's all-time favourites so an LP he has given me when he replaced it with the CD. It's quite understated and easy to miss the quality of songwriting if you're not looking out for it. I still think it starts too slow but picks up from the title track onwards. Down Where The Drunkards Roll is a classic. If you have any interest in folk, it's surely essential but I am content to listen to it from time to time when I'm in the mood.
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
I love this challenge for discovering albums like this. Never would've listened to it and would be missing out. I've heard of Ry Cooder but Ali Farka Toure is completely new to me. The man can play the blues though; there's a general grooviness and great vibes throughout. And unlike a lot of blues albums, it feels full of joy and colour. In its best moments, it reminded me of Graceland, which is an absolutely massive compliment.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
This one has been really hard to rate and I've had to listen to it about four times to figure out how much I like it. At its best, it's really good; he builds these grandiose tunes with loads of instruments and theatrical levels of drama and songwriting. But then the pace drops off and I just can't quite get on board with the slow burners. His voice falls somewhere between Thom Yorke and Robbie Williams, which is odd for a North American. But it also means it veers into 'whiny' when it's going too slowly.
11:11, 14th Street and I Don't Know What It Is are brilliant, but the rest just doesn't do enough for me to think I'll be back. I'm glad I have given it a go, though.
Black Sabbath
3/5
And on the 8th day, Black Sabbath created Doom Metal. And it was ok in places. I quite like the long, atmospheric moodiness of some songs but it didn't blow me away. Quite amazing that later in the same year they came back with Paranoid, which seems a lot more deliberate and sure of itself, where this debut feels a bit more of an experiment.
Joan Baez
2/5
You’ve got to be really spectacular if you’re coming at me with 13 covers of traditional folk songs on just a voice and guitar. She’s a good guitarist but the arrangements are nothing to write home about and she’s a good singer but the constant vibrato just gets annoying. El Preso Numero Nueve was the most exciting moment as you try to understand what it means in realtime. Sorry Joan but it’s just not that essential or interesting to me.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Spot the fake Cocteau Twins track name is the quiz round we never knew we needed...
a) Iceblink Luck
b) Fifty-Fifty Clown
c) Socketface Grapefruit
d) Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Some albums just scream 80s at me from the first few seconds and I immediately fear the worst (despite being released in 1990). In fairness, it has some hooks and the overall sound is richer and less cheesy for the most part than I was worried it could be. I find myself quite enjoying the shoegazy production and her vocals somehow both irritate and intrigue me, at times I swear she's singing in a strange foreign language. Spotify doesn't have the lyrics so I never bothered finding out.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
It's a modern classic that helped define post-grunge and late-90s alternative is very much indebted to it.
There's always a temptation to take a double album that has flaws and proclaim that 'if you cut out x and y, it's a perfect album' but that always feels like an insult to fans and artists alike. There's a reason and a place for all of this and it's a journey, albeit a long one, that deserves to be travelled in full. That said, this journey does sag in the second half and takes itself out of contention for a fifth star, from me. Is that fair, when it easily has ten or more tracks of 5-star quality? Well, if I'm going to appreciate the full journey for the journey's sake, then I can judge this journey to be a little too long and a little bit self-indulgent.
The run on side one of cassette one (yes, this was an old Walkman favourite of mine) is absolutely ludicrous though.
1. Mellon Collie...
2. Tonight, Tonight
3. Jelly Belly
4. Zero
5. Here Is No Why
6. Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Madonna
3/5
The title track was definitely a guilty pleasure for me at the time and I have a lot of respect for the fact the Like A Virgin and Isla Bonita girl came up with this in 1998... and had a massive hit with it. Frozen is brilliant as well, but while the overall vibes are good, I'm a little disappointed to learn that the singles are its best moments. So while 70% of this is new to me, nothing is quite as exciting a discovery as I'd hoped. Still, the production is excellent and overall I'm glad it's included as it's definitely a snapshot of the time and a testament to Madonna's versatility, something that probably doesn't get talked about enough.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
In 1995 I was irrationally irritated by the fact that a song about irony, called Ironic, could be filled with so many bad examples of things that, ironically aren’t actually ironic. They’re mostly things that are just a bit of a bugger. Eventually I developed the theory that the irony all along was that the song highlights examples of things that people seem to call ‘ironic’, despite them actually just being a bit of a bugger.
Still, Jagged Little Pill, bloody good album.
Fleet Foxes
2/5
Hard to explain but something about this album left me just a bit cold. The ingredients are there; good harmonies, nice, well-crafted indie-folk-but-not-quite, but I've been playing it for a few days and every time it starts again I don't feel like finishing it. Somehow less than the sum of its parts.
Jethro Tull
4/5
I know my Dad is a fan and his classic rock taste is generally superb. So I'm not sure why I always gave Jethro Tull a miss. I knew there was flute involved but while I don't mind the flute in itself, I assumed it would feel like a bit of an anachronism in rock music. Well, my own loss as this album is great. The melodies and chord progressions got easily stuck in my head and I'll definitely be coming back to it. And the flute works just fine, as it turns out.
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
Well, today we ran the gauntlet from ‘OK this is actually pretty funky’ right down to ‘Good grief, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?!’
I’d listen again, but certainly not in polite company.
Aretha Franklin
3/5
It's just a great vibe and while it's not my home turf, it's great turf to spend time on. My favourite moments are the bluesier numbers but you can't fail to admire the quality of her singing throughout.
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
It's fine. A chaotic rowdy live rock'n'roll album of almost entirely other people's songs. Nothing massively exciting and actually pretty exhausting to listen to if we're being brutally honest.
Prefab Sprout
1/5
The first 10 seconds was ok but it went downhill, and fast. Something I never want to listen to again in my life. I'm often bewildered at how we took the amazing rock of the 70s and went so far backwards in the 80s. But we did. And luckily the 90s turned up to save the day. This is dull, terribly produced and totally unmemorable. I guess we could blame The Keyboard but plenty of people figured out how to use it without creating soulless cheesy pap. Prefab Sprout did not.
The Police
2/5
Oh yeah, The Police, I like them. I have that greatest hits collection, it's great. Wait, what's that? It's a load of weird noise. But why? They made such great singles... OK, phew, here we go. Every Breath You Take. But no, that's it. Really the only memorable moment on this album. Earns it a second star on its own but I can't find any reason to go higher than two. Miss Gradenko has a cracking bassline, to be fair.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Feels a bit cliche but it's just good, gritty indie rock from indie rock royalty. I can't really explain why I've never got massively into PJ but while I've never loved her work, it's very consistent and highly listenable.
Deep Purple
4/5
First guitar riff I ever learned. Me, my mate Sam and a million other budding young guitarists. A fire in the sky.
The War On Drugs
2/5
Once again I’m left bemused by why someone felt strongly that this warranted a place on this list. Perhaps it was close to a publication deadline and they wanted to take a punt on something new with a mildly evocative name. Sadly the music is as bland as rich tea biscuits with one or two moments of vague interest.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
Great timing for this one and a certified banger. You have the outrageously funky North American Scum and Watch The Tapes, along with the emotional punch of Someone Great. I never quite got New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down but it makes a good comedown closer, I must admit. I've always considered LCD Soundsystem one of those acts I like the idea of them more than I actually like their music but this was their finest hour and it's a top, top record.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Just a lovely warm vibe, hard not to move your body. I must confess it’s my first time listening to this classic and I think it deserves more time to fully appreciate. Christie loved it so it gets a bonus star for that.
The Zombies
3/5
I'd never heard of The Zombies so this was an interesting little rabbit hole. The album is nice enough, mildly psychedelic beat pop - I particularly liked 'I Want Her She Wants Me' but overall it was nothing to rush to write home about after a couple of listens.
Hüsker Dü
4/5
This was a really pleasant surprise, even for a pretty long album (70 mins, 20 songs), I had no idea what Hüsker Dü were all about and I found that album cover frankly offensive. But they're like a melodic, post-punkier 80s REM with some great tunes and a handful of really catchy hooks. I found myself adding more and more tracks to my playlist and having a good dive down the rabbit hole. Definitely the sort of day I hoped for when I started the challenge. Would not have discovered this by myself.
Incredible Bongo Band
5/5
Is this the album that launched a thousand hip-hop careers? Quite possibly. I had no idea what to expect from what appeared to be 80 minutes centred around bongo drumming, but mercifully, it was much more than that and funky as hell. It might actually be my favourite discovery yet from this challenge.
Keith Jarrett
4/5
It's hard to argue that this is a pretty lovely album. I have nothing like it in my collection and I probably never will, but if I did, I think it would be this one. Reading the context behind it was really interesting too. To think he made this up as he went along, on a piano he didn't expect to be using, at a time and place that wasn't ideal, when he was tired, hungry and in pain.
The experience for me, was long drifts on one pattern that feel calming and a bit backgroundy, then he decides to shift key, do something unexpected and grab your attention again. I didn't think I had a favourite solo improv jazz piano album, but I do now.
Kings of Leon
5/5
A wise old sound engineer once told me there are two things a great album can be made of. Great songs or great memories. And sometimes both. Well, the songs on Youth & Young Manhood are regularly great (Dusty, Trani, Holy Roller Novocaine, Red Morning Light…) but the memories are what make this an easy 5 for me. I went to university in 2002 believing nightclubs to be somewhere you went reluctantly so as not to be the only one home on a Saturday night, danced ironically to bad house music and tried desperately not to waste all your CD money for the month on sickly alcopops or horrible lager. I left in 2005 with great memories of nights at Fuzz Club and the Leadmill spent in my ripped jeans, t-shirt and tie, listening to great indie rock’n’roll and drinking (horrible AND sickly - but I didn’t care) snakebite til the early hours. It only takes the opening chords of Molly’s Chambers to transport me back.
Yes, I grew out of those days around the time KoL grew out of them too and became a shit U2 tribute act without the tunes. But in those heady days of my own youth and young manhood, this was a firm favourite.
Moby
3/5
In 1999, you were never more than 50 metres from someone listening to a track off this album via a film, TV show or advert.
I don't think it's aged very well though and it's still definitely 6 tracks and 20 minutes too long. It's almost like he tried to make something to cater to every commercial opportunity that might come up... and forgot it was also supposed to be a coherent album. At it's best, it's really good though.
The White Stripes
4/5
Something of a modern classic and another one that featured prominently in my university years. Not all of the experiments paid off so it has a few misses to go with the likes of Hotel Yorba and Fell In Love With a Girl, but overall it was great to see the blues-garage-rock crossover at the time and at a time when minimalist production was peaking. It's hard not to love the style and aesthetic as well. They were just so damn cool.
Ministry
2/5
Very aggressively not my thing. It's somewhat cool in places, a few unexpected twists and turns and I appreciate the drumming. I'm never going to willingly listen to it again but it's good to have options for if I ever need to make someone wake up screaming in abject terror.
New Order
2/5
I just really struggle to get on with New Wave. We discovered keyboards and drum machines and for some reason decided to replace everything that was good about rock music with these thin, synthetic, monotonous tunes. For all their plaudits, this New Order LP delivers them in spades. I understand and respect the impact this had on dance music and some of the sub genres that emerged in the later 80s-00s, but twice through was more than enough for me. I just didn’t enjoy it.
Kelela
1/5
This album has 20 people listed as producers or instrumentalists, including Kelela herself. I've no idea what they were all up to, as this sounds like something that could be knocked together on a laptop in about a week. Her voice is ok but it's just generic RnB. I gave it a second chance but couldn't last a full go through. Whatever was bumped from the previous editions to accommodate this 2017 effort was almost certainly more deserving of its place.
The Doors
4/5
I listened to this a few times and feel like I enjoyed it more with further listens. Some fantastic blues-rock and a lot more developed and hooky than their debut which I thought was good but not great. My biggest gripe is the vocals but overall, I can see myself coming back to this when I'm in the mood.
The Vines
4/5
It's 2002 and unbeknownst to us at the time, print-music-media has just about peaked and will soon decline rapidly. So how is the NME spending its prime-to-twilight years? Well, these are the days before rage bait and 'engagement'. In this simpler, less cynical age, engagement = sales. You don't actually want or need your readers to feel the need to argue with you. You want them to feel excited enough to keep paying money to read your pages every week or month. So how do you excite your readers? You tell them on a regular basis that THIS IS YOUR NEW FAVOURITE BAND! This is a SCENE and you want to be part of it! Every few weeks something else was ESSENTIAL listening according to the NME. It published a COOL list and a ROCK'N'ROLL list. And so we bought the magazines and CDs and gig tickets with our precious student loan money and loved them for a few months. Then we grew up, got mortgages, had kids and put our old CDs in boxes in the loft.
And so with a little trepidation I'm here, rediscovering these LPs and realising I've not listened to them for 15-20 years and I'm really not sure how they've held up. Did The Hives do anything after Your New Favourite Band? (Insane fact: they actually did loads BEFORE it and it wasn't even really a proper album. Who knew?!) Did Bloc Party simply run out of ideas after their brilliant debut? (Yes.) And whatever became of The Vines? Like many of their garage rock revival peers, it seems from memory that they rode the hype train to decent sales of their debut, made a patchy follow-up then disappeared into oblivion.
So I was actually pleasantly surprised to give this a spin after two clear decades of the CD gathering dust in the loft and discover that it was... really good. They didn't cling too stubbornly to the garage rock template, veering into some fairly successful experiments with slower songs, piano numbers and acoustic flavours while still peppering you with some great 3-minute rockers (Get Free, Outtathaway, Sunshinin'...) at regular intervals.
There's a decent chance I'll wait another few years before busting Highly Evolved out of the loft box again, but I'm quite satisfied that in spite of the fact I will have bought it on the strength of one article, one glowing review and a couple of solid singles, I did have some sense of what made for a good debut album. And I might even dig into the six (SIX!) Vines albums that have come out in the meantime, as it turns out. Good for them.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
I seem to be in the thick of a wave of New Wave. I've learned that this is one of my least-favourite genres in music. However, despite the heartsink and perhaps helped by my rock-bottom expectations, I thought this was pretty good for the most part and didn't mind giving it a second listen.
Pink Floyd
5/5
This gave me an immediate Shine when it came up. Immediately transports me back to listening to Dad’s records On his stereo in our first house. You remember little shards of music from your youth. It’s Crazy how then listening as an adult, it all fits together as a mixture of memories and new discoveries - I found myself flipping it over and listening twice in one sitting. A true Diamond of an album.
Beatles
3/5
I think it’s ok to admit that early Beatles were just ‘ok’. I understand that they were starting to do things that other bands weren’t, but while there are some classics here (I Wanna Be Your Man, Hold Me Tight, All My Lovin’) we also have half an album of fairly ordinary rock’n’roll covers that don’t really add much to the story. Maybe it’s because we know how spectacular the story becomes in its later chapters, but I can only call it like it hear it.
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
Alright lads. You’ve had your fun with the power tools in the studio. We’ve all got actual jobs to do now.
5/5
As a rule, if there's a late 60s/early 70s classic/psych rock band that I've never heard of, it's either because my dad never heard of them or never liked them. So I was immediately suspicious. It turns out I'm going to have to be the one to introduce him to Spirit, as I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I didn't just like the tunes or the songwriting either; it hangs together as a concise project as well, sort of concept-y without leaning too heavily into it. I kept this one on rotation for the whole weekend and am quite likely to buy it very soon.
Charles Mingus
2/5
This is the jazz equivalent of that awful Adam Sandler film where everyone talks over each other constantly and the whole thing is stressful. It sounds like a random cacophony created by people who are presumably actually really good at their instruments. Why not just write something coherent? I dunno. There’s something somewhat cool about it but I just didn’t enjoy listening to it and I doubt I will again.
Supergrass
4/5
Britpop was equally brilliant and terrible for some of its poster children. Yes, it thrust them into the limelight, got them sales beyond their dreams (you'd imagine), and created anthems out of songs like 'Alright'. But at the same time, Supergrass are a genuinely fantastic band who nailed the genre, created multiple really strong albums that pushed its boundaries and really deserve to be seen through a wider lens. It's a real shame if they felt the need to play Alright at every gig they ever played, as it's far from the best track on offer here. They had an excellent knack for fills - nothing is ever just a simple chug through a chord progression. They add clever guitar work and basslines at every turn and while some moments are a little on the more playful side, they were basically kids at the time, and tracks like Lenny, Strange Ones and Time are hidden gems.
Ian Dury
3/5
This was a lot more punk than I expected and a lot more punk than a lot of the more iconic, stereotypical punk acts that seem to be touted as pioneers. It's pretty cool in a lot of places, albeit also very, erm, gritty in others.
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
This feels like the big, ugly, complicated older brother of Rumours. It's not as immediately accessible or timelessly catchy but it goes to some fascinating places and tries some really interesting things. There are flashes of real beauty and I listened to it repeatedly through the day, having never given it a chance before. There's somehow both the feeling of dense overproduction and too many ideas, while also seeming to be stripped back to its bare parts. I actually really enjoyed it and glad I've given it the time of day. There's loads to like here and it requires patience. While the gold is buried in a lot of 'stuff', it's largely good stuff that is worth wading through.
A couple of minor things that bothered me though are a) it's too slow for too long. Some lovely songwriting but the tempo hovers at a very pedestrian level. And b) why oh why must you fade out so much?! A good song deserves an ending. I imagine some of this was based on time constraints, but surely that's a question of deciding what to take out of the song, or which songs to cut, not just turning the volume down slowly every time you pass the 4 minute mark.
Frank Black
4/5
Polish up the production a bit, give it a less bizarre cover artwork and title, lop off about 8 tracks and 20 minutes and you have a certified masterpiece on your hands. However, you also lose a lot of the chaotic charm. It took me a few days to digest this fully as it is all over the place but I have enjoyed it more and more the more I've got to know it. It reminds me a lot of Stephen Malkmus, who I already considered a true lo-fi genius.
The changes of tempo and raw bursts of furious melody are fantastic and for someone I'd never heard of or seen before (although of course I know the Pixies somewhat), I am really really glad to have met Frank Black this week.
Rod Stewart
2/5
Sort of feels like once you've heard a Rod Stewart song, you've heard them all? And once you've heard eight or nine of them in one go, you've heard every Rod Stewart album ever. I quite liked Maggie May though.
Iron Maiden
3/5
Pleasantly surprised again by how non-scary and heavy Iron Maiden truly are. I do have time for a dose of hard rock from time to time and there's some great stuff here. Probably not going to emerge as a personal favourite but I've not minded having this around for a few days.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
Sorry but I don't really get it. The bombastic 80s Springsteen somewhat ok, patriotic and singalongable but this too-cool-for-school, drawling unremarkable Springsteen with odd saxophone interludes, I just got nothing from it in two listens and couldn't hack a third.
Koffi Olomide
3/5
Pretty funky. Reading his bio made me sad and unfortunately you can't unread these things. I'm glad the music brought me some joy before I read it though.
David Bowie
4/5
My parents gave me something of a Bowie entry in my early music diet but I realise now that I barely scratched the surface. Changes, The Jean Genie, Major Tom... Bowie snacks. Bowie purée; easily palatable and tasty in small quantities.
Then I went off to university and bought a Best of Bowie compilation so I'd know it all. A Bowie buffet. Still nice and tasty and nothing too challenging. (I also bought Hunky Dory, which as far as I could tell, was fairly straightforward but I mostly skipped from Changes to Life On Mars? and gave the rest a miss.)
Now this challenge is gradually educating me on Bowie in a way that puts all of my existing knowledge to shame. Full Bowie meals are hearty, complex and unpredictable. The man was obviously a genius and a total innovator, and much more of a nuanced, acquired taste than I ever realised. Listening to full albums is an eye-opener and a fascinating experience. I don't love it all, and some of it I don't really like but he picks a direction and goes for it with all of his creative force, which I can't help but respect.
Low is probably my favourite Bowie discovery so far, although it's also challenging in places. There's a definite groove and mood running throughout but it feels hookier and cool in a way that I haven't quite found with his work yet. The experiments are still bizarre but this time, he kept the bass running and the atmosphere similar, so they kind of pull you along. The first half is an easy 4. The second half is more of a 3 but it's a comfortable and interesting 3, so we'll go on the high side.
Coldplay
5/5
Coldplay are a bit of an easy target, what with Chris Martin being so irritatingly pretentious and utterly sold out at this point. But when this album came out, they were still on an upward trajectory and this was, in all honesty, an excellent progression from the groundwork laid by Parachutes a couple of years previously. There are too many excellent songs here to dismiss it as coffee table rock but it was starting to waver dangerously close. I must confess it has aged well and perhaps a 20 year break from it was what we all needed as it was just so ubiquitous at the time.
The Beach Boys
4/5
Always considered the Beach Boys to be 'just' a singles band.
Of course with the exception of Pet Sounds. Oh and Smile/Smiley Smile which I really like. And then I got Surf's Up and that was really good too. And actually this is packed with gems too.
Maybe it's time to reconsider.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Objectively clearly very cool but I just can't imagine myself choosing to put this on, it's just not a style of music I enjoy.
Small Faces
4/5
How could they ruin that brilliant first half of swaggering late-60s psych rock with the frankly ridiculous story concept on the second half?! I kept coming back though, as the music itself is so good.
Thankfully Spotify has a massive deluxe version with a superb stereo mix and some alternative takes, so you can virtually piece together everything that is awesome about this record without the nonsense mockney narration. On the one hand, what a shame they didn't just make that, take their 5⭐s and move on. But on the other hand, they clearly had this quirky idea, took a load of drugs and made something a bit different. Is it mad genius? Maybe. I have to take off a star as it's just so hard to enjoy side 2 in its original form.
I'm really glad to have discovered it though; the title track, Afterglow and the single versions of The Journey and Mad John are all damn fine songs.
The Flaming Lips
3/5
I tried this once and dismissed it at the time, partly because I couldn’t stand Wayne Coyne’s vocals and his overall zaniness. 20 years later I’ve given it a fair shot and enjoyed it more. There’s a lot of careful craft and a vast array of ideas crammed into the dense, dreamy layers here and it’s actually quite lovely in places. I still found it pretty weird and don’t like his voice any more than I did before but I appreciate it’s a great work of art and have been happy to keep it on rotation for a few days. I’m also happy to be moving on to the next thing now.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
I feel this warrants a review in two halves as the album felt like that to me.
First half: it’s not exactly Loveless, is it? Sounds like a load of half-finished ideas from those sessions that he’s reheated and churned out for the sake of getting them off his plate at last. 2 stars
Second half: ‘new you’ feels like a statement, it’s time to drag MBV into the 21st century with more progressive beats, more defined sound and much more engaging pace to the songs. I will definitely be coming back to tracks 6-9. I’m almost tempted to buy the record and just never bother with side a. 4 stars. Thankfully pretty easy to give the average here.
They also have an irritating habit of naming songs like they’re reading a scrabble board. Except it’s a game of scrabble being played by two robots who have only learned pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions. Is this and yes? In another way, nothing is.
Thelonious Monk
2/5
It's jazz. It's kinda cool. If you like jazz. Which I don't.
The Killers
4/5
I was excited to see this come up - very much of my era, memories of university and one of few albums now that my whole family will get on board with. That said, it is pretty front-loaded with most of its best songs in the opening run and then sags in the middle. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll is one of my all-time favourite songs though so I'm always happy to let it run to the end.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Just a few days after Yoshimi, a good way to give The Flaming Lips a proper go. I liked this one more, found it a bit heavier and catchier and less wacky and far out. I generally love a concept album but this one, being more of a standard LP was more of my thing. I felt my 3 was a little bit of a rounding-down for Yoshimi which was a weak 3.5 so I'll balance that out by rounding up this guy, which is a much stronger 3.5, to a 4.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Kind of amazing how Stevie was pushing boundaries such a long time ago; he's playing with sounds and sonic ideas that I would not have associated with the early 1970s at all. It's outside my comfort zone but multiple listens have all been really enjoyed although I don't think I can pinpoint a particular track or tracks that have really stood out. Just a lovely load of vibes and a fabulous performer.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
Quite enjoyed the colourful, world-y vibes. So was very surprised to dig a little deeper and find that Jah Wobble is an old white punk from Public Image Ltd and a close associate of the Pistols. There are some great atmospheres and movements here and loads going on. It's all quite unexpected and unpredictable so while there are a couple of bits I really like, there are also bits that don't click but it's a good discovery and a good bit of education for me.
Sarah Vaughan
2/5
She’s got a lovely voice. This style of music just does nothing for me unfortunately.
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
Fix up. Look sharp.
Was never really my thing but the album is better than I remembered to be fair. I also feel the need to slightly round up here to counterbalance all the reviews claiming that UK hip-hop is shit. Firstly because it isn’t, but also because this ain’t it. This is grime. It’s like saying Blur proves that UK grunge was shit. I can’t really in good conscience go above 3 but happy to go that far.
OOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!
Gillian Welch
2/5
It was pretty enough, singer-songwritery country folk and at first I found it quite pleasant but I also started to lose patience with it not going anywhere or showing much variety or innovation. Then the final track epitomised the whole experience by lasting 15 MINUTES and also going absolutely nowhere. Meandering, to put it kindly. I'd never heard of Gillian Welch before today and there's a good chance I'll have forgotten the name by the end of the month.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
This really knocked me sideways on first listen. What an album. The songcraft and poetry is stunning and he delivers it in such an authentic way. Nobody has a voice like him. That's not to say it's my favourite voice and I certainly couldn't listen to this on any old day, but objectively I can only have huge respect for him.
On second listen, I dug a little deeper and found out that he literally made it on his deathbed. He's staring death in the face and going, 'yeah I need to make a record out of this.' Which is both defiant and heartbreaking. I've consistently found Cohen's albums incredibly solid on this challenge and while I don't feel drawn to go out and buy this one, in the right mood I will definitely return to it.
Klaxons
2/5
I kinda go between finding this funky and interesting and just chaotic and stressful. From two listens though, I've consistently been waiting for it to end. I really think they struggled to predict what would stick in these later editions. This one is rather forgettable and long since forgotten.
Deee-Lite
1/5
Even Groove Is In The Heart can't save this.
John Grant
5/5
Inventive, funny and utterly heartbreaking. This is one of the best albums I've heard in a long time and I had no idea who this guy was before today. I expected the worst when I saw the strange cover and started the first track, and let it wash away in the background while I worked. But it soon caught my ear and I had to start over on headphones and engage fully once I realised I might have a real gem on my hands.
There's a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good loose-leaf tea. But I brewed up, poured a pot and then got entirely distracted by the lyrics of song after song, meanwhile enrobed in a beautiful combination of catchy melodies, creative instrumental fills and moments of inspired genius. My tea was stewed and luke-warm by the time I remembered to drink it. But it was totally worth it to discover John Grant. Fantastic stuff.
Adele
3/5
She’s got a great, soulful but authentic voice; it’s impressive how she can channel who she clearly really is herself, while wearing her influences right on her sleeve.
This is not a style of music I really enjoy but I’ve appreciated it and respect the quality of the songcraft and the talent. Don’t mind hearing it again but probably won’t seek it out.
Steely Dan
3/5
Steely Dan is an artist I’d heard of but never listened to before this challenge. 3 albums down, I think I’m starting to get it. Music that sounds like it belongs in TV theme tunes. Technically very good music, but all very sanitised and safe, while the lyrics make little or no sense most of the time. I don’t hate it.
The Auteurs
3/5
It’s a shame I can’t stand his voice because there’s definitely some great tunes here and lots of ingredients I’d otherwise like. The guitar work is really good and interesting in a lot of places. Apparently this was one of the founding Britpop albums so I do respect that about it but I can’t see myself wanting to return to it particularly regularly. First track is great though.
Louis Prima
3/5
I've said before when rating jazz albums that if they stopped all just 'improvising' and agreed what they'd play together, they would sound so much better - as they're all clearly fantastic musicians. Thankfully here we have a jazz album where the musicians have decided what to play and all play it together. Yes, I realise that jazz has many forms and this bluesy/rock'n'roll form is just one of them, but I like it a lot more than the make-it-up-as-we-go-along kind. It's not really my thing but I enjoyed it and yeah, you can't deny he has a pretty cool, iconic voice.
The Youngbloods
3/5
Had never heard of The Youngbloods and after a couple of listens, I still can't really figure out what this is. It's not really typical late-60s psych rock although it veers that way at times. It has some country leanings but then it also feels a bit yachty and soft rock, with a handful of instrumental interludes. There are some nice moments here but I couldn't quite get into it as an LP.
It's good to challenge one's perception of genre, especially in an album that is over 50 years old. So I respect that about it and I will give it some more play in the future. I also absolutely love that cover art. Not sure why but it really appealed to me as an aesthetic.
Bee Gees
2/5
The two Bee Gees albums I've been served so far have confused me. This is the band of 'Stayin' Alive' and 'Night Fever' fame? Apparently they started off doing this soft-rock countryish thing and while I enjoyed Odessa, I'm not so convinced by this. There are some nice moments but I cannot be doing with the vibrato vocals.
The Streets
2/5
I remember listening to this for the first time when it came out and thinking it might be a modern classic. A concept album for beginners; pretty straightforward story, easy to follow, written in modern English and sprinkled with humour. With a happy ending, to boot. A fairly accurate snapshot of life in 2004. Not my life, though. The humdrum life of a bored druggie whose daily highlights include monging out on the sofa, cheating on his girlfriend and getting into drunken scraps on a night out.
Listening to it 20 years on, unfortunately all I can muster is cringe. It has not aged well. Even the beats and Mike's rapping at one time seemed fresh and a bit different but in the cold light of day you have the sound of someone who can't rap, talking through the tracks with poor sense of rhythm and a lack of poetic nuance. He even struggles to hit some notes within his own songs. It's your song. Why not change the pitch instead of just accepting that you'll sing it badly?? Fit But You Know It was always the most fun moment, a bit of a working-class 'Parklife' for the garage generation, but its inane lyrics have caught up with it and rendered it skippable. I'm embarrassed to risk my children hearing this album, sadly. I can't slate it completely because it was something at the time, but that moment has passed and it's something different now. Something I don't really care to listen to anymore.
Blur
5/5
I can very much remember this one coming along and blowing me away. They front-loaded it with the singles that had come out, so Beetlebum and Song 2 were already familiar but it then did for Britpop what the late-60s Beatles did for beat pop. Took it, threw it out and made a bold shift into a different direction. Britpop carried on doing its thing for a couple more years but with its primary flag-bearers now firmly focused on exploring their American influences, this marked the beginning of the end.
Gone were the character-based songs and in comes the more personal writing, heavier riffs and more sonic experimentation. The Great Escape was the album everybody seemed to want them to make after the cultural phenomenon that was Parklife, but this was the album they wanted to make. Graham is absolutely in his element, tearing through guitar lines that are deceptively complex on Country Sad Ballad Man and I'm Just a Killer For Your Love, then throwing together chords and words with effortless effectiveness on You're So Great and Look Inside America, but it's when the band started to push the genre envelope the most, on Essex Dogs, On Your Own and the hidden gem, Death Of A Party, that this dark, growling masterpiece really comes into its own.
1997 was arguably my favourite year of all time for new music and this is the dark horse for album of the year.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
Not one I’ll be coming back to but not as bad as I feared it could’ve been. Some decent moments.
Sisters Of Mercy
1/5
It’s like doom metal and new wave had a baby. But even more ugly and fucking irritating than I even dared to expect.
Fiona Apple
4/5
The more closely I listened to this, the more I liked it. At first I was just relieved it's less kooky and challenging than 'Fetch The Bolt Cutters' but then I started to find it samey and wished she'd taken a few more risks after all.
Then I listened to it a couple more times and thought, yeah ok. She does a fair amount of rocking out and there's a range of subtly different styles that showcase her fabulous voice. It reminds me a lot of Beth Gibbons but the production isn't quite at Portishead levels. Nevertheless, by the time I'd had a third go, I was really enjoying it. Probably more on me for not really giving it enough attention at first.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
As a Blur fan, this is pretty familiar to me but I gave it a few goes through anyway. And to be honest, I feel the same way I do about it now as I did when it first came out nearly 20 years ago. Yes, it's interesting and packed with some good ideas, fun instrumentation and experiments with layers and tempos. And it's all well executed and high quality, musically.
But I just don't find myself particularly grabbed or excited by it. Sorry, Damon.
Waylon Jennings
2/5
I just really do not like country music. I can’t connect with it and the only real relief here was how short this record is. I am giving a bonus star for the quite superb harmonica performances on display, however.
Radiohead
3/5
I do get why you’d make something like OK Computer, basically building the blueprint for experimental rock, with the world sitting with baited breath for your next move… and go nuclear with what Radiohead did next. But that doesn’t mean I particularly enjoy it.
Thom Yorke stopped singing like a rock singer and adopted his fractured, falsetto style, Johnny Greenwood basically abandoned the guitar for synths and the drums became mechanical and stuttering. Hail To The Thief is probably the ‘rockiest’ of their experimental shift from where I’m sitting but I just can’t get on board with it. I’m craving a riff, hook or melody in the swirling murk. Maybe if they’d always been like this, I’d have appreciated it more but I’m just frustrated that what we had on The Bends and OK seems to have been thrown out. There are some nice moments but it’s too much hard work to go through this and keep finding them amongst the discordant space debris.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Maybe unluckily for this album, I've had it after Electric Ladyland, which feels like an untouchable showcase of what Hendrix could do, both as a virtuoso and a visionary of the complete, wider production of the album.
Axis seems smaller in scope and where there are flashes of his genius and some fantastic songs, it still feels like he's finding the direction he wanted to take us, or perhaps the exact destination. If this was the only Hendrix Experience album it might be even more impressive to me but it does suffer from the fact that I now know he will go on to reach even higher heights.
I personally found this album a bit difficult to get into as well; it didn't flow naturally and feels like a smorgasbord of nearly-finished ideas. But when you're dealing with these levels of genius and innovation, even a nearly-finished idea can be something pretty special.
Ozomatli
4/5
A hidden gem of an album! Had to go to some extra effort to tick this one off but it was definitely worth it. Latin-flavoured funk/rock with hip-hop elements and just all-round great vibes. Immediately swivelled my head when I heard Chali 2na's guest slot on Who's To Blame (aka the best voice in rap, IMHO) and repeatedly wanted to add tracks to my Spotify playlist but sadly couldn't as it's not on the UK version.
So yeah, I bought myself a copy of the CD and can see myself coming back to it often. Reading a bit more about Ozomatli is fascinating too, just a cool group and one I am really glad to have discovered.
Björk
4/5
I’m really glad this album chose a quiet Sunday when I could lie in bed and do nothing but pop in my earbuds and *experience* it. I suspect there are other artists who create music like Björk’s work but they aren’t as famous or successful and she’s doing this while holding her own in the mainstream. Reminds me of Bowie in her ability to innovate and push boundaries while also remaining fiercely confident and individual in her style. There are also a lot of shades of instrumental post-rock in her soundscapes and mournful strings. All exacerbated and punctuated by her breathless surrealist and distinctive vocals. You can only respect the hell out of her as an artistic force.
Is Vulnicura something I’ll now put into regular rotation or go out and buy? Probably not. But is this listening experience exactly the reason why I am excited to open the app and take on this challenge every day? Abso-bloody-lutely.
ABBA
4/5
Didn't have 'came within a hair's breadth of awarding ABBA five stars on the old 1001 generator' on my 2024 bingo card. But here we are.
It's basically wall-to-wall perfect pop songs. Even the songs I didn't know before today are catchy, funky and well executed. At no point did I get bored of this. Even the title track, a fun little instrumental interlude, is cool. If I liked pop music just a smidgin more, I'd be here dishing out an extra star but the reality is, I won't be coming back to listen to this all that regularly.
Finley Quaye
3/5
I remember Finley Quaye but I'd forgotten the actual tunes and this has been a pleasant stroll down memory lane. It never really grabbed me in a major way back in '97 and it also hasn't now but it's pleasant enough.
He does a nice job of combining his singer-songwritering with some Reggae-tinged RnB, which was certainly having a moment at the time. I appreciate it, although it's not really my favourite thing.
Holger Czukay
3/5
I found this hard to rate as it's not particularly straightforward or accessible but there were loads of really interesting ideas and some fun moments that made me smile. The overall vibe was great. It feel unfair but I'd have almost definitely rated it a little higher if it was divided into more palatable tracks and the ideas fleshed out and tidied up, but I also appreciate that a lot the charm is in the messy looseness of it.
I find myself coming down on the slightly lower side of a 3.5 because I don't think I'll choose to go here again but if it comes along I'm happy to have it on. If my finger slipped and gave it a 4, I wouldn't go back and change it.
Madonna
1/5
I pray that I never have to listen to this again.
Johnny Cash
2/5
Here's the thing. This has a lot of lovely moments. His version of In My Life is very sweet. Hurt is excellent. His Bridge Over Troubled Water gains a nod from me for applying a different formula to one of the greatest songs ever written. But I don't really understand why this is here. It's a nice passion project or something for someone starting out to showcase their voice and/or playing. It's a nice thing to do live for unsuspecting punters. And sure, your fans might appreciate an album of your interpretations of covers.
But why is it here, on this list? Can we not have a bit more coverage of artists who didn't make the cut at all, rather than this guy, once again, but singing other people's songs (and some of his) that we've already heard before?
Soft Machine
1/5
Look, I'm fine with experimental. I love some experimental music. But I also understand that some experiments just don't yield good results. It's ok to admit that.
What baffles me is that this experiment, in which four apparently excellent musicians get high and/or drunk and muck about on their instruments (sadly including the quite awful vocals of Robert Wyatt), has made it not only out of the jazz club where it took place but was then actively and consciously pressed onto a release and shared with the world. Sold for money. And even after that series of questionable decisions, the editor(s) of this book somehow decided to go one further, and that a lot of pissing about with instruments was worthy of being deemed a *MUST* hear. And I use the term 'a lot' because it is. 75 long, hard minutes. SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES. It took about half an hour for any discernible melody to attempt to emerge and I use the term very loosely indeed.
I had high hopes as my Dad has raved about Soft Machine for years but either he had gone off them by this point, started to lose his hearing, or he was just taking the piss out of me.
Massive Attack
4/5
Massive Attack had an incredibly consistent run in the 90s, starting with Blue Lines and ending with Mezzanine, but Protection happened in between and is, for me, the weakest of the three. That's not to say it's weak, by any means. Protection, Karmacoma and Sly are all fantastic, brooding, sublime pieces of trip-hop magic. There's a great vibe that doesn't give up for the full LP but it does sag in the second half.
R.E.M.
4/5
I've liked R.E.M. for a long time but I somehow just saw Murmur as Radio Free Europe and a bunch of other songs. I'm a lot more familiar with the major label stuff of the 90s but more fool me as I've now had this on rotation for days and it's stacked with quality songs that draw you in with catchy hooks left, right and centre. Michael Stipe has an excellent way of harmonising his vocal melodies with the guitar lines and it hits my ears in just the right way. I was strongly considering giving this a 5 in the end but I know the best is yet to come for R.E.M. as they perfected their sound and got even more consistent in the years that follows. For a debut though, it's an outstanding record.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I just love the production across this album. It bangs where it needs to and then it's also smooth in all the right places. Q-Tip is a huge talent but it's also fun to see the burgeoning talent of a young Busta Rhymes emerging. They switch up lyrical styles often enough to keep it fresh and keep your attention but there's a strong vibe running right through it with some just fantastic basslines.
Norah Jones
3/5
Siri, please choose me the musical definition of the word 'vanilla'.
Of course, her voice is gorgeous and she doesn't feel the need to push it or shove it in your face but this album can fade so effortlessly into the background, even on repeat listens on headphones, that it may as well just stay there.
Sepultura
2/5
Maybe there will be days that I'm in the mood for a thrash metal-a-thon but today was not one and honestly, they aren't a regular occurrence. Rapid bastard drums and growly vocals just can't make up for what I will admit is some cool guitar riffery in a few places. And it's too. Damn. Long.
R.E.M.
4/5
Had this a few days after Murmur, which I appreciate but it’s hard not to compare them directly. Document is definitely less fun and less catchy (End of the world as we know it… notwithstanding) but Finest Worksong is up there with my favourites. There are a few songs here that feel a bit samey and they were taking fewer risks at this point. I was tempted to give Murmur a 5 but rounded down in the end so it seems only fair as I’m feeling 3.5ish to round up this time.
Barry Adamson
3/5
I had a film soundtrack before in the challenge and it was Air’s Virgin Suicides. It’s quite nice but felt like without seeing the film you were missing a bit of context to fill in the blanks.
So what about a soundtrack to an imaginary film? Here, I know I’m not actually missing anything as it doesn’t exist. So Barry Adamson has a bit more of a job on his hands, painting all of the imagery sonically where there is none visually. And to be fair, he does a decent job; before reading about it, I figured this sounded like a film and he creates some great moods and atmosphere.
There are also a lot of sections that feel like a GCSE music student got a brand new keyboard for their big project and want to try everything out. I admire Barry’s creativity and imagination but ultimately decided on a B minus. It was interesting but I’m not that likely to come back to it again.
2/5
Hey kids, we made you an album about willies and bums and lots of swear words so you can feel badass around the bigger boys and cosplay at metal.
Tragically, there are a handful of semi-decent tunes but they’re all ruined by ridiculous lyrics when all Fred Durst really has to say 90% of the time is fuck you because fuck you.
It’s one star for The One and another star for the other 70 minutes.
Fatboy Slim
5/5
You can put forward a very strong argument that Big Beat was as important a part of British music culture of the 90s as Britpop was. Fatboy Slim was instrumental in bringing it to the mainstream; this album was pretty ubiquitous for about a decade, between Rockefeller Skank and Praise You being big hits and Right Here, Right Now popping up in all sorts of places. And even now with more mature ears, it’s still a really consistent album that encapsulates his style and the whole movement perfectly. I thought my opinion of it might have cooled over time but I just don’t think I can justify not giving this a full 5 stars. I love it.
Iron Butterfly
2/5
First half was a string of forgettable organ-based psych rock and the only memorable thing on offer is the epic title track on side b.
Memorable doesn’t necessarily equal ‘good’ though. It’s memorable for being very long and having a catchy riff. I much preferred the Incredible Bongo Band’s version of it though.
Neneh Cherry
2/5
Christmas Day!
And the generator has brought me a lump of coal. Pop album from the late 80s. I didn’t want to write it off before it even started but I did write it off pretty soon after that.
My Christmas treat was discovering that the Spotify version contains 4 bonus tracks that I was quite happy to bin off. I recently gave a sort-of similar Madonna album a 1-star and this feels a bit more authentic and interesting. But I won’t be rushing to listen to it again.
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
I wouldn’t mind a world where I never have to hear the Pet Shop Boys’ music ever again. In fact, can we arrange that please? I’ve never understood it.
Songhoy Blues
4/5
I've never heard of them, I'm not sure what this is and I can't understand a word of it. But good grief, these funky Malians can rock. It's all the best kind of funky blues-rock and I could listen to this over and over again. I actually did, for the past week, to be fair.
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
I remember listening to this the first time, with a bona-fide Chicagoan; Nate, my great friend from university, who spent a year in Sheffield and many a great night was spent swapping recommendations and rocking out. I even spent a week with him in Chicago and I do miss him. This is almost certainly my favourite of his recommendations and I love that it'll always remind me of him. It was supposedly the start of a project to create an album for every US state. He also made '(Greetings From) Michigan', but then stopped, presumably because 50 albums is pretty ridiculous and more than most artists would muster in 5 lifetimes.
This in itself is a gorgeous project though, the songs are deeply affecting and cover both rich and stripped-back production. While its 74 minutes can feel like a lot, it takes you on an emotional journey and is well worth every minute. An indie masterpiece.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
It wouldn’t be a challenge without some feats of endurance and this was certainly one. It was enjoyable though and with today being a quiet Sunday, I was able to blow through it in one sitting. Her voice is great and even for someone who would admit to not liking jazz, I quite liked it all. With a lot of these songs you can play ‘guess the next line’ with reasonable success and it’s always toe-tappingly melodic. I can understand why it’s on the list as it’s pretty impressive as a collection but I’m surprised by its relatively high score considering how few people seemingly make it through the whole thing. I suspect there’s a lot of ‘I got bored of it but she’s a legend so I’d better at least give it a 3’. I won’t listen to the whole thing again but parts of it were certainly worth the investment of time.
Miles Davis
3/5
Always find it hard to rate jazz, as I'm sure this is much better than I believe it to be, I just don't dig jazz music and I never choose to listen to it. If I was in a lift, or struggling to drift off to sleep, or perhaps in a jazz club with a nice drink and good company, I'd be more than happy to let some Miles Davis rinse over me, as he's very good indeed. But I'm only in these scenarios very rarely, sadly.
Elvis Presley
3/5
I guess there's validity in choosing an album of covers for its cultural significance. This is an iconic and important album. But his rock'n'roll covers are less good than the originals and I don't enjoy Elvis at a slower pace at all; the ballads were really hard work. At least the whole thing is fairly quick and easy to blow through.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
This was a total, pleasant surprise. It's somehow quite experimental, especially in its production and songcraft, but also highly accessible. I didn't read until after my first listen, that this was divided into four distinct sides; the opening run is all safe, soft-rock ballads, but that's not to say they lack creativity and edge. Then he starts *trying stuff out*. And a lot of it really, really works. The songwriting is great, the guitar work is fantastic and the production is frequently excellent and very engaging. It simultaneously reminds me of late-60s Brian Wilson and early-70s John Lennon and I am definitely listening to this some more.
Marty Robbins
2/5
He has a lovely voice and some really pretty harmonies. I really really don't love this genre, the stories are all basically country and western stories of stealin' girls and shootin' bad'uns and rustlin' horses. I can see the charm and I didn't hate it, but it's not really for me. Tip of the cap for El Paso, though, which is a brilliant song and immediately brought me back to watching Breaking Bad.
Funkadelic
3/5
It’s got a funky vibe to it but it also goes around in circles and gets stuck in its own groove for long periods of time. I’m ok with a couple of tracks of directionless funk but after an hour it gets a bit old.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
I've always known and respected Joni Mitchell as a top, top tier songwriter but I'd not really sat and listened to her albums properly before starting the challenge. Then Hejira absolutely blew me away, so I was really looking forward to trying Blue, which seems to be her most iconic and 'classic' work. And it has delivered.
The songcraft and the quality of her singing and playing are fantastic; she's a true poet and a master of melody. I am more on the fence about my rating here, and maybe it's just because I heard this one later but it's not affected me quite like Hejira did. I don't know if that's because I've mentally set the bar too high, or if it happened to be the mood of the day but while I have gladly played this a few times, enjoyed it a lot and will keep it on rotation, I don't feel as excited to keep coming back to it as I did with its big, complicated older sister with her stunning double-bass work. The songs on Blue are probably just as good but I think I prefer the production and denser instrumentation on Hejira.
Green Day
5/5
When it comes to 90s pop-punk it simply doesn't get better than this. Dookie was essentially the blueprint for what hundreds of bands started doing, to the point where every track on this album now sounds like dozens of others, where in truth, THIS is what they were all going for. I remember playing it on repeat for hours on my old Walkman and honestly couldn't pick a favourite track.
Otis Redding
3/5
Don't know much about RnB,
But I do know Otis Redding had a wonderful voice,
What a wonderful album this could be
Paul Simon
4/5
Paul is a genius and has so much quality output through his career. Hearts And Bones is not my favourite of his solo albums but even a middling Paul Simon record is clear of much of the competition. Cars Are Cars seems to be the butt of a lot of jokes in other user reviews but I've always liked its commentary - it's not about cars at all but people - although it's not exactly a lesson in subtlety. It's one that I don't have many favourite tracks from but Paul weaves his poetry throughout and his ear for a melody is timeless. He's even able to turn 80s production into a thing of beauty, which takes some doing.
The Residents
1/5
Barely listenable. I've said before, I don't mind a bit of experimental, but I'll be experimenting with the 'off' button now.
The Pharcyde
3/5
Enjoyed this a lot but it didn't quite take me to the places some of the 90s hip-hop has. I guess it's a bit more jazzy and feels like more of an RnB blueprint. I appreciate the fact its lyrical content is more comic and ridiculous humour than the more aggressive themes we were getting from the likes of Snoop and NWA. Overall great grooves but I'd say I 'liked', rather than 'loved' it.
Foo Fighters
4/5
I remember hearing this in 1995 and it didn't grab me at first but their second and third efforts became favourites. And eventually I came back to the debut and enjoyed it more. It's quite rough around the edges, where the Foos quickly became a lot more polished, but that's not entirely a bad thing. The layers of polish have reached such exorbitant levels by this point in time that I've taken no enjoyment from anything they've made in about 20 years now. There are some absolutely brilliant moments here but too many forgettable ones to really consider it for anything higher than a 4.
Depeche Mode
2/5
I just cannot get on board with new wave. There’s good bits here; some catchy hooks and elements of the lyrics but yet seen to fixate on a short refrain and just build a whole song around it, dripping with cheesy 80s production, tinny, uninspired guitars and drum machines and that vocal style, I just don’t get it. It’s weirdly over articulated and stuck up, while also being drenched in reverb and featuring needless vibrato. I just don’t get it.
John Prine
3/5
Well, I'm not really keen on country so this poor guy never really stood much chance. But I got into the lyrics and have a lot of respect for some of what he's saying. The fact 'Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore' could have literally been written last year about the world today really got me.
He's also got a great voice and I enjoyed the harder edge that crept into the latter songs on the album and kept me going after the slight lull just after the middle. It's still not going to rank among my favourites but I didn't dislike it.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
I really should've been on this 30 years ago to be honest. I liked Mellon Collie but I never dug into more of the Pumpkins' albums. Admittedly it was harder to do so in the 90s, before streaming was even a twinkle in Napster's eye, but it's my loss - had I bought the CD at the time it would've been worth every penny.
Part of me thinks it's better than Mellon Collie; it's tighter (shorter) and a bit more consistent. There are still changes of pace and volume but the overall feel is more raw and immediate. I was on the fence between 4 and 5 with that album and I feel myself in the same place here. Maybe the fact I don't have the nostalgia factor means I'm not quite there but both albums would fall under 'strong 4' rather than 'just about a 5'.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I was pleasantly surprised by the last NC&TBS album I got; it was less depressing and dark and more interesting than I was expecting. This feels like a bit of a recalibration. I didn’t enjoy it much. It’s chaotic and a bit overly dramatic. I think Nick Cave has a great voice but it’s much more effective, in my opinion, when deployed in a more stripped-back and intimate manner.
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
I generally try to give an album at least an initial listen before digging into the story behind it. All I could think here was 'why is this band trying so hard to copy Arctic Monkeys?!' and then I had a look at the wikipedia and now I understand. I'm a bit disappointed in myself now as I can't unknow that detail and review it objectively on its own merits. At least I no longer think it's a rip off, but I don't quite understand why it's a necessary addition when and there are lots of other valid entries from the 00s that seem to be missing. It's not as good as what AM were doing at this point either. It maybe helps explain why they ended up changing their sound so drastically in recent years though; and the influence of James Ford is very apparent. Kind of charts the development in Turner and Ford from mid- to later-era Monkeys. Unfortunately, that’s where I stopped liking them, so while there’s some good, atmospheric kinda cinema-noir stuff here, overall it feels self-indulgent and a bit up its own arse.
CHVRCHES
2/5
Not funky enough for dance music and outside of a couple of decent tracks, not interesting enough for chilled headphone relaxing music. And kinda pretentious to boot. I gave it three attempts and couldn’t get into it at all.
Pink Floyd
5/5
It's 1996, I'm 13 and all alone in the Czech Republic. A school exchange trip and the furthest I've ever felt from home. There were about 30 children from my school but we were a bit of a random crew, I don't remember any of my actual friends being there, and after the school day ended, we all disappeared back to our host houses all by ourselves. A well-meaning family of essentially strangers have put me up in their home but we don't speak the same language. Throw around cliches like 'character building' and 'expanding horizons' all you like but in that moment I felt pretty terrified and very homesick. So the Czech teachers organised an outing to the cinema in Prague. Seems a nice idea. But for some bizarre reason, the film they took us to see was Pink Floyd's The Wall. Maybe because they figured we were British and Floyd were British. Maybe they were just a decade and a half behind our movie release schedule or the cinema just didn't have a lot of options. Either way, we sat in confusion as this surreal rock opera played out in front of us.
Now, I knew some of the music as my Dad has always been a big fan of Floyd but I'd never seen anything like this. "So ya... thought ya... might like to... go to the show. To feel the warm thrill of confusion, the space cadet glow." A number of our group left the auditorium because they were actually bored or confused. A handful more left because they were offended by the content. (I think this was around the In The Flesh Pt. 2 mark.) But I was having a great time. It was an arresting and engrossing film which brought the story of the album to life in vivid technicolour. It was shocking at times, as well as fascinating. But the music was absolutely amazing. As soon as I got home I asked Dad if I could listen to the album. My Mum was horrified that we'd been shown this film on the other side of the continent. My Dad was chuffed to bits and got the old record out immediately.
The Wall has been one of my favourite albums ever since. Obviously Comfortably Numb and Another Brick.. pt.2 are all-timers but Goodbye Blue Sky sends absolute chills down my spine every time. Run Like Hell is pure adrenaline. I almost feel like it's too obvious to give this one a 5 but for me, it's not influenced by how big, popular, iconic or acclaimed it is today. It all comes down to the fact I remember sitting and listening to it in the cinema in Prague nearly 30 years ago and how deeply it affected me both then and now. It's a masterpiece.
John Martyn
3/5
Didn't enjoy the songs on offer here as much as those on Solid Air, but the overall vibe and sound was lovely with some great guitar work and production. He has created some really warm and interesting tones and atmospheres and this was easy to listen to multiple times, although I was waiting for it to grab me a little more convincingly and it never quite did. His voice has grown on me too, although you can almost feel the cigarette smoke doing its work on his lungs throughout.
Stephen Stills
4/5
Had this on rotation for a few days seeing which individual songs stand out but it just hangs together really well as an album. I love the overall sound and Stills' guitar playing is excellent throughout. The second half shifts between styles in a bit of a strange way, I feel like I'd have played with the tracklisting if it was up to me. I already enjoyed the CSNY I've had so far so I'm definitely going to dig a little deeper into Stills' catalogue.
Dr. Dre
4/5
Can't fault the production or the vocals themselves, but the lyrics and skits are a bit cringy in places. It's a shame (for me personally) because I'm less likely to listen to this knowing there's more violence and sex in the lyrics than I usually want to hear but the beats are fantastic and Dre has done a great job of getting guest vocalists in to mix it up throughout. Snoop Dogg is a stand-out but overall just hearing changes of tone and pace keep this interesting throughout.
Stan Getz
2/5
I guess some elevator music is better than others but I just can't see myself choosing to come and listen to this other than to have pleasant background noise rather than silence. Just not my thing but nice enough and inoffensive.
Can
3/5
As far as ambient experimental jazz-adjacent rock, this is really nice. I found it great for background while working or reading and very soothing without being boring. I don’t think there’s quite enough to really write home about or trouble the 4/5 ratings but I’d be happy to listen to it again and I can see why it’s something that a lot of people would love.
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
Don't really know how to review this. The front cover sums it up pretty well, it's cool in a way but also a total, confusing mess. The background story here is all a bit awkward with Malcolm McLaren essentially ripping off artists from Africa and the Caribbean and not giving them credit for it. So it becomes an exercise in separating the art from the artist and difficult to be truly objective. Thankfully, it's not actually good enough for that to muddy the waters for me. The great moments are immediately ruined by bizarre experiments and a total disregard for sequencing or flow. Every time I think 'yeah I might bookmark that track' it descends into nonsense. An interesting discovery, I guess, but also one I'm not too fussed to see the back of.
Steely Dan
3/5
My fourth Steely Dan album and further cements them to me as ‘a band who once existed’. I had a bit of an emotional rollercoaster as I recognised the opener and tried to work out where from. Then excitement as I realised it was from Guitar Hero, which I loved and brings many happy memories. Then anguish as I remembered this was one of the hardest songs on the game and cost us HOURS of getting that boring long intro exactly right only to fall down on the stupid solo. I doubt I’ll be back for more.
Judas Priest
2/5
I’m ok with a bit of hard rock but this went around two clear times and never remotely piqued my interest. Next.
Dirty Projectors
4/5
Found this really interesting and enjoyed a few plays through. I knew a couple of Dirty Projectors songs but never really got into any of their albums. This kinda reminded me why. They have a load of creative ideas and throw disparate beats and instruments together in a really playful way while the vocals skim around on top and through in a very indie kinda way. There are moments when I love it and it excites me but they always seem to skirt around a great idea and never quite turn it into a fantastic song. The elements are there for this to have been a 5 but it just never quite realises its potential for me. I’d buy the album if I spot it in the wild some day but I couldn’t pick out one track to add to my playlist.
Carole King
4/5
An album that you know before you’ve even listened to it. Classic, classic, classic, her songwriting is up there with the very best. The first half is impeccable but I found the second half just ‘great’ and it didn’t quite move my heart to a 5, even if my head was almost convinced after one listen. Home Again is perhaps a little lesser known among the many-times-covered hits here but it’s an absolutely wonderful song that I listened to over and over again.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
Highly listenable funky soul with great lyrics and vocals. Didn’t mind this at all. Not my usual cup of tea but I quite enjoyed it for the day and wouldn’t mind coming across it again in future.
Blur
5/5
The epitome of Britpop. I probably can't be truly objective about this album as it was one of the first cassettes I ever owned and I wore that sucker out. And then I also bought it on CD as soon as I had a CD player and I also bought the LP when I saw it one day because I had to have that iconic front cover in the largest format I could buy. I spent hours perfecting the riffs on Parklife, End of a Century, Jubilee and Magic America on my first electric guitar while trying to get my hair to look like Damon Albarn's. It was genuinely a life-changing album for me and I can listen to it anytime, from front to back and on a loop.
If I'm trying my hardest to be objective, I'd highlight the variety and musicality of Tracy Jacks, Badhead, The Debt Collector, To The End and This is a Low. Here was a band who had self-imploded on tour in America two years prior, come back with the fantastic Modern Life Is Rubbish, which wasn't rubbish but didn't sell very well and now had to make this record work, somehow, in order to save their career. It's the sound of Damon maturing into a top-tier songwriter while Graham Coxon cemented his place as one of the finest and most versatile guitarists of his generation. It's lyrically astute and sad and funny and a remarkably vivid reflection of Britain in the mid-90s. For me though, most importantly this is the album where Alex James comes of age. Blur's elegantly effortless bassist kicks proceedings off with the classic intro to Girls & Boys and sets the entire tone of the album. It's not just a collection of moody musings, oddball characters, doomed love songs and wry observations from park benches and underground trains and nostalgic windows into a resurgent London. It also repeatedly implores you to get up and dance, bop, pogo and mosh, by having the coolest rhythm section in British music at the time.
There seems to be a bit of anti-Britpop backlash in some of the reviews and ratings here, and for this to be sitting with an average rating below the global average is absolutely criminal. I can only assume that you just had to be there and the majority of my fellow album generators weren't, which I guess makes me the lucky one.
It gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing. And then I'm happy for the rest of the day, safe in the knowledge that there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it.
An absolute stone-cold classic.
The Bees
2/5
Really struggling to understand why this is here. They're like a less fun Beta Band. The vocals are half-hearted and the music is predictable and dull. There was definitely more exciting and essential music coming out in 2002; I remember being there. And this was not it.
In fact. If anyone is reading this, just bin off The Bees and listen to 2002's The Beginning Stages Of... by The Polyphonic Spree. It's everything this album promises but doesn't deliver. Symphonic, optimistic and joyous indie rock that makes the sun itself into a spiritual force. A lot of the critical attention the Spree got at the time centred around their cosplaying as a sort of cult with frontman Tim DeLaughter as their leader, wearing matching, flowing robes and performing as something between a choir, orchestra and rock band. The music itself deserved a lot more of the hype though as their fantastic debut combined their 25-piece instrumental wall of sound with driving rock and DeLaughter's dreamy vocals to create a 10-'section' journey that flows from track to track. You've essentially got a more epic, less depressing Arcade Fire but without the indie darling tag. 5/5
Oh, but it's a 2/5 for The Bees. Not even interestingly bad enough to get a 1 and earn a place on my summary page, no. To mildly dull 2-star purgatory with you. Buzz off.
Peter Frampton
3/5
Man! That guy's guitar is talking!
HEY! My shoes are talking too...
Wilco
4/5
I bought this album in 2001 on the back of a glowing review. And I got it home and listened to it once and returned it to the shop. In those days there were some CD shops that would let you exchange something you didn't like, as long as it was still in perfect condition. And up until today, I didn't even remember anything about it. So when I opened the generator this morning, my heart sank a bit. But I am committed to the challenge and was determined to give it a fair crack.
Well, I'm torn between glad that I did, and feeling foolish for not being more patient with it in 2001. Because this is a fine record, and I've missed out on 20+ years of having it in my collection. I can't even remember what I exchanged it for. Yes, it takes a long time to get going, and not just at the outset, but a number of tracks are slow and difficult and it loses its momentum a few times.
Acknowledging that I should've been more patient with it is to stress that this album DOES require patience. They were not afraid to build up the layers one by one, painstakingly constructing dramatic tension slowly and deliberately and wringing every last trick out of the studio to paint shadows, glimmers of light and echoes of colour that you have to sit with and focus on in order to fully appreciate. At times it's the sonic equivalent of looking at a pointillist painting; if you sit too close, you'll just see disparate dots, but if you sit too far back, you lose the detail and atmosphere. With this one, I found that having it on in the background caused it to slip by; it needed to be listened to, rather than heard. This is probably where I went wrong in 2001. I was only a teenager, to be fair.
There are times I'd like to have heard them hone in on one idea rather than drop it into another idea and bounce them off each other. It's deceptively experimental for something that on the face of it, feels like a very cookie-cutter turn-of-the-millennium indie album at first. I don't feel like there are tracks here I want to add to a playlist and listen to to death, but when I have an hour free, I'll definitely listen to the whole thing again. I'm sure there are details I've still missed, even after three listens in 48 hours. I'm certainly interested enough to have a dabble in the rest of the catalogue too.
So thanks, Wilco, for waiting 23 years for me to truly find this album. Sorry I wasn't quite as patient with you. But let's be honest, that 7-minute opener is really pretty heavy going.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
It's consistently good blues rock but I don't really feel much more than that. Up Around The Bend is the second song in about a week to give me Guitar Hero flashbacks and I learned today that Eric Clapton didn't write 'Before You Accuse Me'. In fact I then learned that CCR didn't write it either. So there you go. Three times through but nothing that blew me away.
Kings of Leon
5/5
Still long before selling out, Kings of Leon were absolutely swaggering at this point. They also weren't making huge waves in America, which was fine as it meant we got to appreciate them on the smaller-venue scene in the UK while they were absolutely battering tracks like The Bucket, Pistol of Fire and Four Kicks.
There's definitely an argument that there's too much unchecked testosterone and not enough finesse on display here but I didn't particularly care then and I'm not about to pretend I'm too highbrow now to enjoy it still.
Rise and shine, all you gold-diggin' mothers.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
4/5
Don't ever reach a point in your life where you're too much of a snob to admit that Fun Lovin' Criminals were just a decent three-piece having a good laugh. Were they the first or best to ever put rock and rap together on a record? Certainly not. But Come Find Yourself is very listenable from start to finish, it's pretty distinctive and like it or not, it holds up against anything else that attempted this sort of thing at the time.
Baaba Maal
2/5
I realise this is entirely the fault of my rigid white western understanding of music. I blame myself, not the artists. But this sounded like a disparate series of repeating instrumental patterns that didn't really turn into a cohesive melody at any point. I can appreciate the overall vibes and the rhythm of it, but I wouldn't choose to come back and play it again.
The Specials
2/5
I’ve never got into ska. It’s interesting to see it emerging as a sort of oddball love child of reggae and punk at this point in time. But that doesn’t quite equate to me wanting to pop this on and listen to it again.
Fela Kuti
2/5
Always interesting to read a bit of back story around an album and this is a wild one. The album that led to his mother being thrown from a window to her death is shocking enough, but Fela Kuti apparently marked the anniversary of this event by marrying 27 women on the same day.
Either way, it's a somewhat funky afrobeat/jazz kinda fusion but I didn't really get on with it and don't see myself coming back for it.
Beastie Boys
5/5
I’d clearly heard that ‘Sgt Pepper’s of Hip-Hop’ cliché as a younger man and repeated it somewhere as I remember being told it was the whitest thing I’d ever said. Probably a fair call.
While clichés are often unimaginative and reductive, there is sometimes truth to them and the fact is, this is as groundbreaking and phenomenal an album in many ways as Sgt P was in its time. The production and sampling amount to an absolute masterclass and while you can question the Beastie Boys’ lyrical themes and maturity, they truly nailed the delivery and execution. It’s a belter and one of my all-time favourites.
Kate Bush
2/5
Is Kate Bush Britain's answer to Madonna? It's VERY 80s synth-pop and not my thing at all but I guess I respect the experimentation and some of her more ambitious ideas. I'm more impressed than anything at hearing the original Hounds Of Love, as The Futureheads clearly heard something in that and turned it into an absolutely banging garage rock song that I would never have imagined possible.
XTC
4/5
One of those albums where it's really hard to form an opinion over a short space of time and then a simple score out of 5 feels too dry and reductive.
I was pretty optimistic as XTC is quoted as being a big influence on Britpop and Blur in particular, and I definitely felt similarities to Parklife tracks. I was also optimistic as I 'met' Todd Rundgren last month on the challenge and really liked his solo album, and then read that he'd been brought in to channel the songwriting and arrangements here, and had wanted to build on the concept elements. All really promising before I'd even pressed play.
So I was a little underwhelmed on the first listen but went away and found that bits of it had embedded themselves into my head. There are these great little bits of melody and hooks sprinkled throughout that really caught my ear. I don't necessarily think the 'concept' landed in the way that some albums nail it; songs run into each other quite seamlessly and there are noticeable lyrical themes, but it doesn't feel like a journey or experience to me. And the risk is that by running into each other, it can feel like a series of long pieces without enough definition.
I'm probably being a bit generous and giving it more of a chance to 'click' with me as I want to like it, but I did find it really interesting and I will keep it in rotation a bit longer as some parts have really stuck with me. I feel like I'm still guessing at my rating at this point, and it might be one I amend later.
Rush
3/5
I generally quite like a bit of prog but I found this a bit inconsistent and over the top in places. The bits I liked, I really liked but they got a bit lost in the noise here. I certainly won’t mind coming back to this but I probably won’t seek it out too often.
Prince
2/5
Found this somewhat funky in places but it didn't really grab me and went on too long. I've discovered some good Prince through the list but this wasn't it.
Butthole Surfers
3/5
I like it.
What's not to like?
Custard - good.
Jam - good.
Meat - GOOD!
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Hints of early Britpop, some melodic indie vibes and flavours of shoegaze. But it doesn’t really lean hard enough into any one lane so it’s left me feeling a bit mixed. I like a lot of the ideas but as a whole album it just lacks coherence and direction. Somehow less than the sum of its parts, in spite of it having some cool parts.
I feel a bit bad for them that it was the cheerily basic ‘Wake Up Boo’ that subsequently made them a bit of a name in the UK. This earlier stuff is far more interesting but maybe it’s a lesson (for us all?) in what sells. Unsurprisingly enough, if you want to sell a lot of records you kinda need to make something catchy. Three plays through of Giant Steps was very interesting but ultimately not enough of it really stuck with me.
Machito
4/5
I'm not particularly keen on jazz but this is something else entirely. The real star here is the percussion section. Relentless afro-cuban drums that you physically cannot hear and not at least move your hips just a little. And yes, I certainly did.
Dire Straits
5/5
I'm pretty sure if this was new to me today, I'd think:
1. Ugh 80s soft rock.
2. Too much sax and too cheesy.
3. They all go on too long.
4. OK fine, the guitar work is great.
But there are very few albums I've heard more in my lifetime than Brothers In Arms. Countless long car journeys and dozens of Sunday roast dinners spent as a child with this as the soundtrack. So of course there's some nostalgia involved but while I probably can't be truly objective about this, I've actually not listened to it much as an adult and I had forgotten just how good a guitarist Mark Knopfler is. There's also something to be said about letting a song breathe. While a lot of rock music in the 90s and 00s seemed to be based around a 3 or 4-minute template, the tendency here to go for seven or eight minutes might have annoyed me on something less familiar but if you have the time, it's great to sit back and let an epic like Why Worry or the title track gently unfold on your ears. I also have to give a nod to the fact that as a 6 or 7 year old, I dedicated hours and hours of my life to perfecting my air guitar rendition of Money For Nothing and it was definitely an inspiration to me taking up the real actual guitar soon after. So nostalgia wins today, the rating goes with the heart but the head is not exactly arguing.
U2
4/5
It’s packed with great songs, including some that I’d totally forgotten about. But it’s also U2. The U2 tax must apply. You can’t just be U2 and make great songs and think you can get away with it. There’s always going to be that begrudging feeling that you’re U2. It annoys me a bit that I did pause and wonder if I was going to give this five stars but thankfully a couple more listens reminded me that it is U2 and I just don’t want that hanging over me for the rest of this challenge. Sorry boys.
The Beach Boys
5/5
Pet Sounds is definitely an album I’ve taken for granted. It was always part of my childhood but somehow didn’t leave the impression on me that the likes of Rumours or Sgt Pepper did. Besides having the best song about being homesick on a boat ever made, it seemed like a catalogue of fairly simple love songs and a couple of instrumentals. It’s over before you really feel you’re into it.
But I’ve given it a few listens this week, proper, nothing-else-but-headphones listens and boy is that the beauty of it. It makes you think you’ve heard a simple love song when you’ve actually heard the masterpiece that is God Only Knows. The genius is in making something really immaculately crafted feel like something so simple and pure. It actually had me feeling quite emotional just focusing on the lyrics and getting lost in them. I mean, they’re lyrics I’ve known for years but *heard* without really *listening* to them.
My first reaction was ‘oh ok, Pet Sounds, that’s an easy 5.’ Then I thought ‘ah but is it, shouldn’t I actually give this a bit more thought and be more critically minded?’. So I was, and yeah, it’s Pet Sounds. It’s an easy 5.
Tom Waits
3/5
Tom Waits seems to straddle the line between cool experimental blues and utterly batshit crazy. I can’t quite work out if having the voice of a grizzled old cartoon toad adds to it or detracts from what would otherwise be a much more comfortable listen. I find myself not hating it. I also find myself needing it to stop after a while.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Can’t deny she’s got a fantastic, distinctive voice and knows how to use it. I always mentally put a ceiling on how highly I can rate albums which the artist hasn’t written any part of. I know, I know, that’s how a lot of artists worked in the 60s and before and there were some brilliant songwriters intentionally writing these songs for great singers, but part of me wants to know what *she* had to say, as well as what songs her label/producer/manager thought would sound good in her voice.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
My favourite flavour of Rolling Stones is definitely the dirty, dirty blues variety.
It always feels a bit lazy to criticise double albums for being too long or 'sagging' at some point so I try to avoid that critique but I have found even after a few listens that particularly the first ten or so tracks have a bit of a habit of blurring into one. I personally found myself digging the second half more and if I had this on LP, I'd probably default mostly to listening to disc two. I've been gaining a massive appreciation for the harmonica recently and this has some truly vintage parts on the old mouth organ. So that helped tip me from a strong 3 to just about a 4.
Kraftwerk
3/5
I've always suspected I'd quite like Kraftwerk and getting Man-Machine here last year proved me correct. I think it may be a shame I had that album first though, as this feels like more of the same and just a bit repetitive in comparison. There's some cool ambience and I enjoy the flow of the tracks into each other, but I don't think I'll be coming back to this as often as its more iconic, distinctive successor.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
I'm sure I apply a Sunday morning boost to albums when I have the time to sit and do nothing but listen to them on headphones while having a lovely lie-in. I also have a lot of time and respect for Peter Gabriel, so this one is onto a winner already. He's got just the right level of experimentation for my taste, it's unusual and interesting without being overly strange for the sake of it. The songwriting is also on point when you're able to listen to it properly; Gabriel is poetic in his storytelling about violence, isolation, mental struggles and apartheid, and the instrumental arrangements are often fascinating.
I will be coming back to this for further listens and I'm always interested to hear more of Gabriel's work. He reminds me a lot of Bowie in his eccentric genius and artistic bravery.
Korn
2/5
Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to be yelled and growled at today but this just isn't something that has resonated with me and I don't plan to go back for more listens. I don't hate it but I also don't particularly like it.
The Crusaders
3/5
Super cool and funky. Not something I'd have found or will choose to put on again, probably, but something I've enjoyed listening to. Even if it does sort of sound like the theme tune to an American gameshow a lot of the time. The guitar solos in the second half definitely helped secure that third star for me. Smooooooth.
Basement Jaxx
4/5
And
The
Music
Keeps
On
Playing
On
And
On
Anita Baker
1/5
One of the longest 36 minutes of this challenge. Will never listen again. Sorry Anita, it's nothing personal.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
The best bits are great - That Lady, Summer Breeze and Sunshine (Go Away Today) are brilliant, but to be honest, funky soul isn't really my favourite so the majority of the album was cool but not particularly memorable to me. I quite enjoyed it as background a few times though and it has got me listening through the excellent Anchorman soundtrack again, which is definitely to be welcomed.
Pink Floyd
4/5
It’s a defining and seminal work of art, a true masterpiece that flows, peaks when it should and feels head and shoulders above its peers of 1973. It has a bit more saxophone than I’d wish for and Clare Torry’s vocals are… a lot.
I can already feel myself going back and forth with my future self questioning if I was trying to be too objective or contrarian here but if I’m putting on a Floyd album, it’s more likely to be Wish You Were Here or The Wall, and I probably even prefer the less abstract concept of Animals. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest albums ever made by one of the most exceptional bands to walk the earth, but to me it’s sat in (the very top of) the second bracket of my personal favourites.
David Holmes
4/5
I thought this was great. Somehow it hadn't crossed my path at the time but I was enjoying other albums in its wheelhouse at the time (Bentley Rhythm Ace, Midfield General, Squarepusher) and would definitely have bought this if I'd heard it circa 1997-99. It may not be something I'll be putting on regular rotation but I'll come back to it at some point. The field recordings make for an interesting touch which could've come across a bit as cultural tourism but for me they punctuate the longer tracks and vary the pace a bit.
Public Enemy
4/5
Came back to this multiple times this week and it’s such a solid and fantastic album. I didn’t know how consistently good Public Enemy’s output was in the late 80s-early 90s but I’ve enjoyed finding out. Fun to pick out ‘…Arizona’ from one of my favourite video games of all time - not Guitar Hero this time but the fantastic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 and just a run of absolute belters.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
I never really liked EBTG at the time and a listen through this has reminded me of why. That slightly-jungly beat just batters on for the whole thing and goes nowhere interesting. Tracey Thorn has a decent voice on her but I just remember seeing their music videos on a loop in the old VH1/MTV days and thinking she just looked so miserable all the time.
I don't really see the ambient cool trip-hop type connections some people seem to be finding here. Nowhere close to Massive Attack or Portishead levels.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
I was so happy to see this turn up on the list. A pleasant surprise. Super Furry Animals get lumped in with Britpop but they absolutely transcend the genre. What we have here is their debut, a relatively straightforward rocker but it was the first step on an eclectic and fascinating journey. They wouldn't hit their creative stride right away but within a few albums, the Furries would be experimenting with more psych elements, fusing both mellow acoustic and upbeat indie rock with techno and electronic excursions, often within a single track and always with their trademark eccentric lyrics and undisputed ear for a melody and a hook.
They also broke a series of brilliant and unusual records later in their career; highest-selling Welsh language album (Mwng), most UK top-40 singles without a top-10 hit, and apparently the first band to release an album with an accompanying DVD (Rings Around The World). So I'm giving Fuzzy Logic a solid 4 today but I want it to be known that SFA deserve 5-star recognition for being a ground-breaking and wonderful fixture in British music history.
Minutemen
4/5
The more l listen to this, the more I enjoy it. Hard to believe I grew up thinking The Sex Pistols were the epitome of punk, while there were so many more authentic and interesting punk bands doing things like this just a few years later. It might be a victim of its own length; as much as I kept checking track names because I was enjoying them, I was also constantly surprised how much album was left to go. Can’t help thinking I’d have liked it even more if it was half as long. But there’s always a risk then that they’d have edited out the best tracks. So we’ll take it as it comes.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
3/5
I think there’s some solid songwriting in here but I just couldn’t get into it even after three listens. At worst it’s fairly ordinary folky singer-songwriter fare but I can see how it would be more than that to some people. Just didn’t get there myself.
MC Solaar
2/5
This basically sounds like French Tricky to me. Admittedly I quite like Tricky and the beats/production here are pretty cool. As entertaining as it was trying to pick some meaning out of the 20% or so of the words I understood (baby, baby, strawberry, raspberry, music…) my bigger issue was that it didn’t really shift in tone, tempo or mood for most of its hour-long runtime. So I can’t see myself coming back to it again anytime soon.
Scott Walker
3/5
I don't think this really knows what it wants to be. It's croonery and corny at the beginning, then it sounds like it belongs in a James Bond film, but in the Roger Moore era. It's quite impressive from an instrumental, production standpoint and he has a good voice if you like that sort of thing. The last couple of tracks were surprisingly great but nowhere near good enough to rescue this as an album, for me.
Steve Earle
3/5
I groaned a little when this kicked off as I am not a country music fan. But as it wore on, I found myself really enjoying a lot of the songs. I do like a bit of sparingly deployed slide guitar, the drums were on point and anchored the solid, driving rhythm section. It also veered on the bluesy side quite often, which I am generally on board with. There are a few cheesy clunkers near the end but a couple of songs here I really liked.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Ah, prog. So often an exercise in creating something that turns out to be less than the sum of its parts. Take hugely talented musicians, get them onto big, ambitious ideas, convoluted concepts, sprawling long epics and experiments with seemingly adventurous arrays of new and strange instruments, unusual time signatures and what do we get?
Overblown theatrics that are just hard work to listen to. Even side 2 which seems to be the bits and pieces left over after the frankly ridiculous side 1 epic, is patchy at best. There are some cool moments but I had to wade through so much dense musical clutter to find them.
Hole
4/5
I almost forgot that I’d had a Hole album previously as this was such a departure. I knew the title track but was surprised to discover that’s the grittiest, grimiest number here and the rest is very pleasant and melodic alt rock. I was almost annoyed at how clean and just plain good it is. You sort of want Courtney to swear more and scream and shout and break a few more instruments. But poor old Courtney, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. I really enjoyed it.
CHIC
2/5
Beyond the title track, which is kind of a disco classic, the rest was a bit forgettable. I’m just not that into this kind of thing.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
I don't get it.
First off it's an instrumental of a classical piece that's basically a lullaby. Then it's time for some prog and classic rock with almost yachty elements (although I don't think yacht rock actually existed in the 60s?!) and a bit of something like funk. Near the end we get a song literally called 'Blues, pt. 2'. That one is 80% jazz with a psych rock ending. And it's back to the lullaby for the closer. Apparently every song was written by someone different and only some of them are in the band. This is the sound of ADHD with guitars and bass and drums and some brass. Quite a lot of brass actually. No idea how you boil this down to a rating out of 5, especially after only a few listens. I quite enjoyed it but it's a strange ride.
The Who
5/5
I can actually remember the first time I heard this album. I was in my teens and popped Dad's copy of the LP on his turntable. The cover had struck me, I knew The Who had great singles and Dad had definitely mentioned that this was an excellent album. As good as their singles are, I was not prepared for this full 43 and a half minutes of greatness. Baba O'Riley has to be one of the most distinctive and brilliant rock songs ever created. I remember how much I wanted to create something that sounded like it, but somehow, circa 2000, I had no idea how to make sounds like I was hearing on this record from 1971.
As I understand it, the idea behind Who's Next started as a concept album, lost its way and became a bit of a plan-b. Well, thank the gods of rock for this busted flush as it flows beautifully, doesn't have a bad track and manages to get the blend and balance of soft, upbeat, poetic, angry and emotionally charged, exactly right.
I was so happy on the day Dad replaced his LP for a shiny new remastered CD, as it now sits in my collection so I can relive that afternoon again and again on my own turntable.
Portishead
3/5
I find the legacy of Third strange and interesting. I’ve recently discovered to my surprise that it’s highly regarded in some circles and just the fact it made this list shocks me. Portishead released one of the greatest debuts of all time in Dummy, and it remains rightfully a towering work. Then the difficult follow-up did a very fine job of meeting expectations; it wasn’t Dummy 2 but it kept close enough to the formula. It’s another excellent album.
Then roughly ten years passed and Third came along. I was bitterly disappointed. Gone are the turntables and heavy, trip-hop beats. The rhythm section is heavily dependent on tinny drum machines and laptop electronics in place of most live instruments. The samples and tidbits from dusty archives are much sparser, less atmospheric and rinsed dry by synths and compressors. Even Beth Gibbons’ vocals, such a stunning feature on the first two albums, feel phoned-in, tired and lacking emotional range.
I love Portishead so much for their early work so I just feel like I can’t rate this too low. It does have its moments. But I didn’t choose to listen to it for a good 15 years after hearing it the first few times and even a fresh listen now won’t be changing that.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
The words 'Rock n Roll' feel synonymous to me with grimy, dirty, rough-around-the-edges counter culture music. So it's always a bit disappointing to be reminded that original Rock'n'Roll is basically 50s/60s ballads about a-kissin and a-missin and girls and cadillacs and fairly predictable 12-bar blues numbers. Of course, these are fairly predictable now because people like Buddy Holly made them famous so hundreds and thousands of people copied them over the following 75 years.
It's all very pleasant and obviously I recognise that without this there may have been no Beatles or Led Zeppelin etc etc but it's not the kind of album I'm going to seek out for repeat plays all that much.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Super smooth background music. As inoffensive as you can get but just a bit... boring?
Thundercat
3/5
This felt like listening to someone read out text messages between stoned GenZers. Simultaneously wacky while also humdrum and uninteresting.
Sort of experimental R&B with dizzy, stream-of-consciousness feel to it but for me it walked the line between being interesting and infuriating. I absolutely love that front cover though, made me want to like it more than I ultimately did. But for 21st-century R&B you can do a LOT worse than this, in my book.
Michael Jackson
3/5
It's taken me a few days to land on a rating for this one. It's obviously a masterpiece in its genre and an album that changed the music industry forever. I try to rate based on my own experience of each album and not let things like that sway me too much but it's very hard not to.
On the one hand, you won't find many better runs anywhere than Thriller - Beat It - Billie Jean. On the other, that's only a third of this record. And similar to my criticisms of Off The Wall and Bad, the slow songs are so unbelievably forgettable. To the point where this, one of the world's most famous albums and one I've heard plenty of times, contains at least three tracks I barely recognised and that did nothing for me at all. It also contains The Girl Is Mine, one of the most shocking examples of a product equalling far less than the sum of its parts.
So I'm going to come down on the 3 side of the 3/4 fence. Because I know that while I'm happy to hear this album when it comes on, I'll never choose to put it on myself.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
I've never got into reggae but if I was going to, this album would probably have been the catalyst. Three Little Birds and Jamming are superb but I find the rest of the time, the tracks merge into one reggae reggae beat and as much admiration as I have for Bob, it's just not my turf.
Ryan Adams
3/5
I'm resisting looking at the Global reviews as I predict a tide of art vs artist cliches focusing on him being a terrible person. Interesting how these debates seem to hone in on certain artists (Morrissey, Clapton...) while others get a free pass (Lennon, Plant, Bowie...) Because, well, a combination of recency bias and people's individual hangups. Obviously racism and being horrible to women are still awful characteristics but were much more commonly ignored in the 1960s/70s so while RA might have got away with it 50 years ago, he's been widely cancelled in the 21st Century, while Lennon and Bowie are still revered. It definitely helps that their music was many orders of magnitude better than his, to be fair.
I do have personal beef with Ryan Adams though. I went to see him on tour in 2003 and it was an aggressively bad concert. Genuinely a waste of time and money. He mostly played songs from his two brand new albums - Rock n Roll, (which he apparently threw together when his label refused to release his other new album...) and Love Is Hell (said other album), so the audience had barely heard any of the material. Rock n Roll had literally been out a few days and Love Is Hell wasn't actually out as an album yet. He then chucked in a couple of tracks from Heartbreaker at the end, and nothing from Gold or Demolition, which were the two albums I knew. He got the crowd interested with his cover of Wonderwall, only to close out with two more random unknown album tracks. Very odd choice. Added to which, he was clearly absolutely wasted, foul-mouthed and unpleasant the whole time. Didn't attempt to interact with the audience and left with the distinct feeling that he'd cut it short.
This album is nice enough. It has some pretty decent country ballads and he does a good number on that harmonica, but it does get a bit one-dimensional and formulaic after a while. Amy is a fantastic song but I personally think Mark Ronson covered it better a few years later. I don't mind it as an album but if I'm in the mood for some Ryan Adams, I'll gravitate towards Gold and probably then move on with my day.
Erykah Badu
3/5
It's been a week of albums falling outside of my wheelhouse but being very good at the same time. Some of this was brilliant and really impressed me. Love the voice and at times the rhythm section and production are fantastic. It also had some really dull moments and went on for far too long.
I fluctuated from a 2 to a 4 so obviously need to settle on a 3 for Ms. Badu. Won't mind if it comes on again but doubt I'll seek it out.
The Style Council
2/5
I'd heard the name and honestly expected The Style Council to be a lot cooler than this. It's a mess. A mishmash of different kinds of songs, strange collaborations and just didn't do any of many things very well at all.
Slayer
2/5
Ah yes. The subtle art of twatting a load of drums and guitars as hard and fast as possible while screaming about blood and nazis and death and possibly religion for three minutes at a time.
Damn this challenge is long...
William Orbit
3/5
I don't mind a bit of chilled ambient electronica so this was a pleasant discovery. I was only aware of his work as a producer and 'Pieces In a Modern Style', which got a bit of attention after his run of Madonna and Blur albums.
It's a bit too easy to dismiss this kind of thing as 'background' music but to be fair, it rarely stands out enough to demand attention and doesn't seem to try. It has a couple of great upbeat funky tracks but isn't really consistent enough for me to consider putting it into my rotation. I did quite enjoy it though - in the background, of course.
Nick Drake
4/5
This is my second Nick Drake album and for the second time I've experienced his work wash over me and not really grab me the first go through. Then I've found myself wanting to listen to it again and been drawn back in, listened to it more closely a couple more times and really started to appreciate the gorgeous guitar work and genius songwriting.
It wasn't long before I decided I wanted to buy a copy of Pink Mook and it wouldn't be a huge shock to find Five Leaves Left make its way into my collection sometime in the next year.
Black Sabbath
4/5
I'll take this over pretty much all of the death metal, thrash metal, prog metal, black metal and heavy metal it inspired. Obviously Ozzy Osbourne isn't the only rocker to have fried his brain and become a bit of a sad meme in the 21st Century but it feels like that's how my generation remembers him. Hopefully future generations will remember him more for albums like this. When Sabbath were good, they were really really good.
Brian Eno
4/5
I really wanted to like this as it seems super cool, and Eno is a really decent guy who has spent his life pushing the envelope and being truly one of the great music innovators. It's certainly not TOO experimental for my taste and loads of interesting things going on, but I just didn't quite find it as repeat-listenable as I'd hoped. I can't see myself needing to own a copy or listen to it regularly more than out of pure intrigue.
I have to give him credit for artistic courage and clearly having a lot of fun with it, so I feel the need to round up on what probably would've been a 3.5.
Bob Dylan
4/5
This is the first line of the song,
Oh yeah this is the first line of the song,
This is the line with some kind of twist,
A clever or ironic set up you might have missed,
Then this is the payoff you were waiting for all along.
It is definitely possible to recognise that someone is a genius while also finding them a little overrated. Plenty of great songs here either way.
Dolly Parton
2/5
These three are absolute heavyweights of country but unfortunately there's only so much enthusiasm I can muster for their collective efforts. When it's guitarry it's ok, when it goes slow and sappy, it's just unbearable.
Air
4/5
Yeah I had the privilege to be alive in the time when all this slow, whispery chill-out electronica was popular and people loaded up on Air and Royksopp CDs for their ubercool house parties. It was perfectly nice. It's not got the cutting edge of a Portishead or Massive Attack but it's stood the test of time and I've enjoyed a bit of nostalgie, aujourd'hui.
Kelly Watch The Stars is still an all-time favourite, especially the fantastic Moog Cookbook remix. Seek it out and thank me later.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Fun fun fun* on the autobahn!
(*OK so it's actually fahren but I like what they did there)
I was always afraid I'd really like Kraftwerk if I got into them. This might be my favourite so far. I'm glad I've reached an age where I no longer care if it's uncool, or ironically uncool or even ironically cool. It just makes my ears happy and that's enough for me.
Lorde
2/5
'Melodrama' seems like the perfect name for an album of shameless Gen-Z cliches and first-world problems. I just can't raise much enthusiasm for it. Maybe she's got a good voice but it is so overproduced and autotuned that I can't really tell. One listen was more than enough.
Peter Tosh
4/5
Maybe I'm coming around to Reggae or maybe it's just because the sun is finally starting to come out. This one has some interesting twists and changes of pace that I can definitely get onboard with.
Pantera
2/5
It does exactly what it says on the tin. I just don't think I quite have the energy for this these days.
I am pleased that I've found 'Walk' though, which was on a playlist that used to go on at the soccer arena where I used to play indoor ball in Texas, and that comes with some very happy memories. So that's worth a whole bonus star.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
30 seconds in I thought, ‘this sounds like Primal Scream’. Then I found out Bobby Gillespie used to be in The Jesus and Mary Chain and thought it made sense. Then I found out that he was the drummer in JMC and actually left before this album. So who knows. I guess he just sings a lot like Jim Reid.
Quite enjoyed this a few times but I can also take it out of rotation now and probably won’t really miss it. I liked the vibe without actually getting attached to any of the songs in particular.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
3/5
Listened once, found it fairly dull. Read the background: fascinating. The guy was genuinely mentally ill and completely wild. So they locked him in an institution and he wrote this. Then when he was released, he got on a motorcycle in his pyjamas* and rode straight to Nashville to record it, and his producer/manager just basically sent it out as is to be released.
(*this part is apparently urban myth but I like it so I’m keeping it)
Wow. That deserves a relisten or two with a bit more of my attention.
A couple of relistens later, yeah it’s still fairly dull unfortunately. There are some interesting moments but he never sustains it for an entire song, let alone a full double album. It’s also horrendously mixed, with this awful huffy bass guitar drowning out his ‘vocals’ a lot of the time. Not to mention that said ‘vocals’ rarely equate to more than the mumblings of a literal madman. Poor guy. I’m glad he lived to come out the other side and hope he found peace later in life. It’s an interesting legacy but not one I can see myself listening to again very regularly.
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
This album is so good at finding a cool little nugget of sound then forcing it through the repeat-o-meter until it becomes a fully-fledged cheesy house bop. I want to defend it as I remember it from my youth but listening to it now reminds me that I also wanted to like it then but couldn't actually bring myself to listen to it that much. I'm pretty sure I borrowed but never bought it.
I'm pleased to discover that LRD went on to carve out a fairly successful career as a producer. One go through this LP for old time's sake was more than enough though. An odd inclusion on the list, to be perfectly honest.
Big Black
3/5
Abrasive post/punk tends to take me a few listens to get into it and this was no difference. I knew straight away that it wasn't getting rated the same day but coming back to it a few times and letting it sink in, I've found it pretty cool.
I only really learned about Steve Albini since starting the challenge and when he passed away last year, so it's good to hear where he first started out and see where his signature sound was born. I don't think I'd rush out and buy this guy but I'll definitely come back and listen to it again soon.
The KLF
3/5
Another one where the story behind it turns out to be more interesting than the music itself. And it’s not immediately easy to find via streaming. A welcome Side Quest!
I have to give it credit for the fun Wikipedia rabbit hole and I love finding out that people who were making music aspired to so much more - they actively railed against the music industry, took deliberate steps to surprise people and were loyal only to their art and, well, vibes.
I can already tell that this will be fighting uphill on the global average rating front as it’s a) British music from the 90s, b) Dance-adjacent while not being an industry darling and c) Required a modicum of effort to find and listen to. So I’m going to be generous with my own rating. Will I be buying this or coming back to listen to it regularly? Probably not. Would I have loved it if I’d known it at the time, and memorised the raps to impress the other kids at the Year 4 school disco? Abso-bloody-lutely.
Bob Dylan
3/5
While this was on, I tried to explain to my eldest why it’s such an important album. The honesty and innocence of her questions put some of the more pretentious reviews to shame.
“So nobody made songs like this before him?”
- Well not exactly but nobody made them as popular as Dylan did…
“This was popular?”
Was probably my favourite but she also wanted to know if the standards for singing were lower in the 60s and if it was possible for a harmonica to be out of tune.
Look, Bob, I can only defend you so far before I had to admit that it’s an important album but I don’t think most people can really fully explain why. I told her lots of other people had later sung these songs even better than him.
“Maybe they should be on the list instead then.”
Maybe they should, my dear. Maybe they should.
Sonic Youth
4/5
The 80s have always been my biggest musical blind spot but I do think if I was born 10 years earlier I'd have to have found my musical happy place somehow or another. I've always been instantly put off by jangly New Wave and never that into disco or soul music. So I'm guessing I'd have found my comfort food in the scuzzy embrace of post-punk and US indie when indie still meant 'indie'. This is where I think Sonic Youth just arrived and peaked too early for me. It's a shame for my younger self but I'm happy to make up for lost time now with this discovery.
I got on OK with E.V.O.L when that came up last year but this feels a lot more what I'd hoped Sonic Youth would offer me. It's messy and noisy in all the good ways but it has its melodic waves, the drums and bass work are great and I can trace a line from here to a lot of the post-rock and post-punk of the late 90s-early-00s that really shaped my musical taste. Blur-era Blur owes a lot to this; Coxon was clearly a fan. Some of my more recent art rock finds like Guerilla Toss, Traams and Bodega also owe a lot to this. I'll definitely be spinning this one more in the coming months and while I expected it to be something that would need a bit of time to unravel and reveal itself, I'm already enjoying peeling back the layers as there are sonic treats throughout.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
Another Sunday, another Jesus & Mary Chain album. Slightly disappointed that I'm going backwards in chronological order but here we are.
I did buy a JMC album about 25 years ago when I used to go to the record shop and randomly buy CDs to try them out. Someone had obviously made some shoegaze/noisy recommendations to me as I also bought Loveless by My Bloody Valentine that day, which is probably unfair on JMC. Because that turned out to be a brilliant album that I loved and the JMC... got rather neglected in comparison.
I quite like it, much like Darklands last week, but once again it feels a bit like they landed on one setting and stuck to it. The overall vibe is solid and I'm happy having it on in the room but I also struggled to distinguish one song from the next, and nothing stood out to me after three listens.
The Avalanches
5/5
I could be quite biased here as I LOVE this album but even being as objective as possible, it's hard to fault it. It was such a fresh and different sort of album when it came out, and that's now 25 years ago, unbelievably.
They've taken hundreds of disparate pieces of samples, old films, crate digging nuggets and just sewn them together into a crazy patchwork that sounds like a non-stop party for a full hour. Frontier Psychiatrist is its insane centrepiece but only scratches the surface of what makes this such an enjoyable listen. It also nails the artwork and overall visual aesthetics. A true modern masterpiece.
The Stooges
3/5
There are moments when this oozes rock’n’roll cool but there are also too many moments of just utter racket. It has a jazz feel to it in the way that a group of musicians all play in ensemble and it feels like they’re waiting for a song to emerge from it but sadly that song often never really does. I do want to like it because at times it feels raw and rough in a good way. I also want to report it to Trading Standards for the cruelly misleading title of the decidedly un-fun ‘Fun House’. Kinda made me want to put on some Madness instead.
Mylo
4/5
Electronic dance music hit its peak in the late 90s, between the big beat acts riding the Britpop coattails, the French House scene and then IDM, before it seemed like Drum’n’Bass just took over the world. I’ve learned to approach noughties electronica with some caution. Even the Chemical Brothers have missed more often than not since the turn of the millennium.
So it’s with great pleasure that I’ve discovered this little gem. It’s not as innovative as what we were getting a few years beforehand but the bass is consistently mischievous, the samples are good fun and all in all, it’s just a funky hour of good vibes. I’m not going to run out and search for a copy but if I happen to spot it in passing, I’ll definitely add it to my collection.
Aerosmith
4/5
The worry was that after the one-two punch of Back In The Saddle and Last Child, that the rest of this album would never maintain that level of exquisite, dirty hump rock. Of course it doesn't quite manage that, but it's still a fine attempt. I found plenty of good, fun riffery in the remaining seven tracks and Nobody's Fault in particular is an absolute gem.
At least there's not much risk of overthinking this one; it's consistently exactly what you expect it to be.
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
It’s like if Bon Jovi was a woman. And not just because of the hair.
Kanye West
3/5
I bought this at the time and like most people, could immediately tell that Kanye was destined for big things. The production and lyrics are great and it comes back with great tunes again and again. I was excited to see what he'd do next and I thought he was genuinely funny and clever.
Now, if ever there's an appropriate time to dock a star for being a genuine binbag of a human, this is the one. It's hard to identify the extent to which his clear mental health issues have contributed to Kanye's artistic and personal decline but you can't just casually become a nazi sympathiser and dangerously narcissistic megalomaniac without having some serious character flaws to begin with. There are plenty of narcissists in this world and particularly in this industry, but when you combine that with these levels of wealth and influence it becomes truly dangerous.
I'm sure there will be further Kanye albums to come in the list but the closing number of this one in particular struck me as an accurate representation of his career generally. For the first couple of minutes there's a great track building, but then we end up with ten minutes of Kanye rambling on about himself in a seemingly unscripted history of the man and the artist, while the beat sort of chunters along in the background, long since forgotten behind the self-obsession. I just want it be over. Please shut up, dude. You had our attention and were earning our respect but you should've stopped a long time ago.
Baaba Maal
3/5
It's outside my personal comfort zone, partly because it's not sung in English but also instrumentally falls outside of my usual palate but I found it really joyful and rhythmic. There is some brilliant guitar and bass work and I enjoyed a few plays through this week. I'd be happy to listen to this again even if I am unlikely to seek it out. Definitely what this challenge is all about as I'd never have found it without a nudge in the right direction and it was also interesting reading more about Baaba Maal and his significance.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
Whether you're going on how much this influenced rock and metal from the 90s onwards or how consistently brilliant it is, it's a pretty straightforward five stars.
I was blown away by it in my teens and it holds up today when, sadly many of the themes are still highly relevant. If there's one silver lining to the state of the world today it's that we might get some more amazing protest music and who knows, it might be what rock music need to kickstart some fresh new subgenres. I suppose you could lay Nu-Metal at RATM's feet if you were looking for negatives, but it's hardly Zack De La Rocha's fault that none of the impersonators were anywhere close to his level.
Killing In The Name has grown almost irritatingly ubiquitous by this point but there are so many other highlights that you can forgive them for an album like this accidentally spawning a smash hit. Know Your Enemy, Bullet in the Head and Wake Up are all full-throttle bangers.
Talk Talk
3/5
This has left me conflicted. It's SO new wave, but in places I really enjoyed it. I guess it shows what new wave could be without a total overreliance on synths and jangly guitars. I can't quite get on board with the vocals, which is often the case for me with this era, but instrumentally it's really interesting and had a lot of catchy hooks and melodies. I also don't hate the production which again, can be a major challenge with other albums in the genre. At times I was reminded of Genesis, which is definitely a compliment. It also had me thinking about the XTC album I got a few weeks ago which required a few extra listens to really fully appreciate. Will revisit.
Bill Callahan
4/5
Saw the cover, didn't recognise the name. The site put the genre as 'Country' and I feared the worst.
I was wrong to fear. This is a really nice record and totally not what I was expecting. Yeah I guess kinda country-adjacent folk but it reminded me a lot more of Leonard Cohen than Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson. Decided to give it another play on my headphones so I could really get into it and enjoyed the experience. There's a track that seems to be in a strange language that sound a bit like Welsh but I suspect it's pure nonsense. I didn't hate it. He has a nice warm voice that you can get lost in and the songwriting overall is really poetic. He's not afraid to sound very raw and stripped back. At times you want to just pause him and tune up the guitar a bit but he clearly either liked it that way or it was such a great take nobody wanted to try and make him redo it.
Paul Weller
3/5
At its best it's pretty good, straightforward rockers. My biggest criticism is that it feels like it's coming to an end four or five times but just keeps chugging on. As someone who quite liked Ocean Colour Scene in the 90s, it's interesting to see just how much Steve Cradock was influenced by working with Weller at this point in time and knowing this helped to fund OCS's early recording sessions. I kept listening to this again and wanting to like it more but it still only has this handful of pretty good, straightforward rockers and never really turns into anything deeper.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
This is just a racket. I can either give it another spin to see if I can justify a second star or just give it one and move on with my life.
Ok I gave it another spin and I’m giving it a second star because there’s some cool bass guitar work in there. The vocals are dire and every song is too long though.
Radiohead
4/5
It's just such a crying shame that Thom Yorke quit actually singing in the later Radiohead albums because when he sings, they absolutely soar. There are so many fantastic songs on this album: Just, My Iron Lung, Planet Telex, Fake Plastic Trees and Street Spirit all stand out. I was a little late to the Radiohead party but when I found myself there it was actually because of 'Just' being a favourite of the DJ at the Rock & Indie night at uni. I then had to work my way backwards and forwards but by that point, they'd stopped making the great rock music that got my attention. This is the Radiohead album I still come back to the most, either way.
3/5
Every time With Or Without You comes up on a pub quiz I start by shouting out 'Where The Streets Have No Name'! Then I go with 'actually no, it's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'! And then someone else calmly says 'it's With Or Without You'. And they think I was joking but I wasn't.
You have to feel for Bono. He makes all this daft, pretentious pseudo-political music where he overeggs every syllable and makes out like he's far more important than he really is. And yet all anyone seems to be able to say about it is 'ah Bono, what a twat'. Credit where it's due, this is some of the most daft, pretentious pseudo-political music that U2 made in their whole career (so far) and it deserves to be recognised as such, regardless of whether Bono is a twat or not. And the silly thing is, there are artists on this list who have beaten up their wives and girlfriends, abused children, been openly and outwardly racist, there are nazi sympathisers and even at least one convicted murderer. And yet we universally rally around 'Bono is a twat' mostly because he's a bit annoying and try-hard.
After the first three songs, The Joshua tree drops off and becomes pretty average ambienty-inspired rock music and nothing really rises above the rest. I quite like what Eno did to their sound but they don't really lean into it, they feel the need to stadium rock over the top of it and it lacks any genuine subtlety. It's good, but it's nowhere near 'great'.
Nanci Griffith
2/5
Always a pang of hope when you see the name of an artist you've never heard of before. Always a pang of disappointment when you realise it's a pretty unremarkable cookie-cutter country album.
Happy Mondays
3/5
Shaun Ryder's distinctive 'can't really be arsed' singing voice is equal parts fun and distinctive and also a little grating after an hour.
I've never really understood why a simple piano motif repeated over and over and over and over constitutes a danceable tune but they seem to make it work. I respect it for the part it played in British music of the 90s and there's some baggy stuff it inspired that I can get behind. I'm fine with having heard this a couple of times and moving on.
Simple Minds
3/5
Everything I could see here made me dread this listening experience. That front cover is just horrific. Why would you want your album to look like an 18th Century Celtic hymn book?! And it's more 80s synth-tinged New Wave? Please, spare me.
Maybe lowering my expectations to rock bottom was a clever strategy. The listening experience was... not terrible. The bass and rhythm section is somehow on the better side of what the 80s was capable of and there were times that I didn't want to rip my ears off. I still have no earthly clue how something like this becomes popular or significant to the bigger picture of music but it was at least, listenable.
Weather Report
2/5
It just sounds like a series of TV show theme music.
And none of it really sounds like weather report music, so that's a bit misleading.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
I didn't mind it in parts, it definitely started stronger than it finished. I guess that's not too hard when it finished with this guy just yelling and screaming at me. Maybe I'm missing something crucial but there wasn't much justification for there being two Dinosaur Jr. albums on the list. I got the gist.
Ghostface Killah
2/5
On the one hand, great production and beats. On the other, and I say this with full awareness of what hip-hop has always been like, the lyrics both bored and bothered me in equal measure. I'm quite keen to fill in the gaps of my own knowledge when it comes to the Wu-Tang Clan and their associated solo projects, but having filled this gap, I can ignore it from here on.
Gang Of Four
3/5
Worth it to add Ether to the playlist, gloriously sampled by Run The Jewels but to be honest, I found it a little bit monotone for the most part. Cool, sure. And I understand why it made the impact it did, building on what punk had started to achieve. But I wanted it to go further and do more cool stuff.
Everything But The Girl
1/5
Please, no. Anything but 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭.
Kid Rock
3/5
I thought it was OK. The first few tracks are fun and have some brilliant guitars but it does get old after a while and the novelty wears off. There is some dross in the second half.
I get that he's a crappy human being but it starts to feel a bit pointless rating these albums if we're just going on our feelings about the people themselves. I don't want to be his mate, but his album is less boring than a lot of other ones I've heard so far.
Joe Ely
3/5
Thought the first track, Cornbread Moon, was fantastic and that I was in for a brilliant discovery here.
I couldn't find out too much about Joe Ely from the internet but tried to read around a bit. "Too rock for country, too country for rock", according to one article I found. But after a couple of listens, I decided it was probably country enough for country and doesn't quite maintain the excitement of that opener. When he does lean more bluesy rock'n'roll, he's great but I certainly didn't think he was 'too rock' for country. I'm keeping Cornbread Moon though.
Ash
4/5
When the music mags are raving about a new band and their great new debut, then your local Our Price puts the cassette at a special price of £3.99, yes, you race there after school on release day to grab it.
1977 became my life for basically the whole summer and second half of 1996. I bought it soon after saving up for my first electric guitar so it became an album I listened to in great detail as I figured out the chords to Goldfinger and tried to nail the solos in Lose Control (and failed. I was a 13-year-old beginner, to be fair.) So there is zero chance of an objective rating or review here. A part of my heart belongs to this album and it will always be a personal favourite.
There were five UK singles on this album and they are all perfect examples of the kind of pop/punk that had emerged in the shadows of Britpop for those of us who liked Britpop just fine, but also wanted something with a bit more edge and a bit less irony. There were also some solid rockers in between the catchier singles and Tim Wheeler was an underrated guitarist, considering the guy was also a teenager at this point.
With all that said, I actually think they went on to make a comfortably better album with 2001's Free All Angels. I can gladly listen to this badboy though, any day, from front to back.
Tom Waits
3/5
Third Tom Waits album and slowly (albeit in reverse-chronological order) starting to appreciate what he does. It's bluesy and has real swagger. The most accessible of his records I've heard yet. Obviously his voice still stands out as abrasive and difficult, but I've somewhat got used to that now. He's not someone for whom I'm going to run out and buy the back catalogue but I don't mind knowing what he's actually all about now.
The The
2/5
Here’s a cool, clever, edgy idea. Let’s call ourselves ‘The The’ to poke fun at all the ‘the’ bands who are making cooler music than us. And make it a bit awkward for people to find us on the internet in 40+ years when that’s a thing.
It’s yet more dreary new wave. I’m awarding a bonus star for whoever their bassist was. Because they do some great work in the trying circumstances of being in a really dreary new wave band with a stupid name.
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
I really wanted to like this more than I did. It seems right up my street and it features Stills and Young, both of whose other projects I've enjoyed. I've also waited nearly a full month for anything pre-1975. But while there are some great moments that got my hopes up, it never seems to sustain for long enough for any of the tracks to really stand out. Closer, Broken Arrow seems a perfect example of this. It keeps changing its mind on what it is. Each different part of the song has its charm and feels like it could be the best song on the album but then it just stops, loses its momentum and changes direction again.
Overall it's an album that never quite delivers on the promise or potential for me, and then it's over. I tried and tried again to love it but there comes a point where it's just not happening and I'll settle for just 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 it and get on with my life.
The Cardigans
4/5
It must be pretty annoying to have made an album like this that's pretty cool and interesting but forevermore have your legacy be
ℒℴ𝓋ℯ 𝓂ℯ 𝓁ℴ𝓋ℯ 𝓂ℯ 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝓁ℴ𝓋ℯ 𝓂ℯ
I hope it at least made them nice and rich from all the royalties.
The Darkness
4/5
I can remember hearing this for the first time and thinking 'they're just taking the absolute piss on every track'. Later in life, I would take on the 1001 albums generator challenge and listen to a lot of AC/DC, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy and Guns 'n' Roses and realise that they were 𝙖𝙡𝙡 taking the piss pretty much all the time.
I reckon The Darkness do it with a bit more obvious humour, irony and self-awareness, so fair play to them. The vocals, let's be honest, are pretty incredible and it's great to hear some joyous, unashamed rock riffs after a fairly indifferent run of albums lately. Givin' Up and I Believe In A Thing Called Love are frankly wonderful.
The Undertones
4/5
My only real knowledge of The Undertones is that 'Teenage Kicks' was famously the late, great John Peel's favourite song. I'm always wary when it comes to bands that I know from their one great song. Is the rest of the album going to hold up? Highly unlikely, which is why they are known for the one great song.
Thankfully this was not the case here. I thought this album was great. The bass is terrific, the tunes are regularly catchy and nod-along and it's got the right blend of humour without being overly wacky or not to be taken seriously. Kept it on my rotation for a number of days and I can see why Peel was so endeared to them.
Sinead O'Connor
2/5
Groaned when I saw this come up. Started listening and I was fully expecting to hate it but it was actually pretty inoffensive and some tracks were quite good. Reading more about her, someone I’d heard of plenty but really didn't know much about, I feel a bit bad for dismissing her. She was clearly quite a troubled person who tried to do right against the tide a lot of the time. That said, while I don't actually hate the album, it's really not something I'm gonna come back to for repeat listens.
Pulp
4/5
I remember giving this a chance in 1998 after liking Different Class but finding it not as accessible or fun. I borrowed it but never actually bought it.
The 27 year wait was clearly what I needed as I really enjoyed this in 2025. It takes the spirit of Different Class (indeed, the spirit of Britpop, if you will), and takes it that step further. More adventurous lyrics, more experimental instrumentation and just overall a more mature, accomplished album. Still not as fun as its predecessor but not everything needs to be fun if it's well written and still has plenty of hooks and great lines.
Eminem
3/5
It's a shame really because this is a superb work in places but it feels like Eminem doesn't know when the joke's gone too far. Nobody actually listens to this and then goes out and beats up their girlfriend or even considers it, but there's undeniably a subconscious impact when your heroes (and somehow for a LOT of young rap fans, Eminem became a genuine idol) talk about this so much it becomes normal and funny.
I did enjoy listening through this - I'd heard basically all of it through my brother's bedroom walls 25 years ago anyway - and you can't help but laugh at his turn of phrase and nod along to the beats. But I didn't feel like I wanted this playing aloud in my house or car, for fear of strangers or worse, my daughters, to think in any way I would condone or sympathise with any of its messages, however tongue-in-cheek they may be. I also didn't want them to hear a 'skit' of people sucking each other off.
I have been somewhat forgiving of the late 80s/early 90s hip-hop with all its flaws and lyrical faults but I feel there's a big difference between those guys doing this in a relatively underground scene at the time and Eminem doing it as possibly the biggest star in music at the turn of the century.
Jack White
3/5
Jack White is really talented and one of the few remnants of the 00s garage/rock scene to come away from it still doing creative and interesting things. This one is certainly creative and interesting although I feel he's more in his element in the first half when it's straight up rockers than towards the end when we get more piano and slower paced songs. I don't feel there's loads here to qualify it as a must-hear but it's perfectly good and listenable. I'd probably bump it for his 2024 'No Name' album at this point, if it was up to me.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Ah, 1967. The year that all the amazing psychedelic rock got made and changed music forever. Meanwhile this odd homage to all of the better stuff slipped out unnoticed. I tried to like this more but it will be forgotten very quickly, I’m afraid.
Rocket From The Crypt
3/5
Another one that is perfectly enjoyable and a solid rock out, but I don't really understand what it's doing here. Bit pop-punky, bit of brass, lot of shouty vocals. It's better in its more melodic moments but there were a handful that caught my ear and made it to the playlist. I'm not sure I feel the need to make return trips after a couple of goes through.
The Mothers Of Invention
1/5
Just, why?
You know they are all capable of something so much better than this.
It’s a joke record that nobody was prepared to put a stop to when they should have.
The Byrds
2/5
After loving the Notorious Byrd Brothers and liking Mr Tambourine Man, I'm starting to wish the list had stopped there as they're appealing to me less and less with each entry. Here, The Byrds recruit country music 'pioneer', Gram Parsons (why?) and make an album of covers that was supposed to be something else when they came up with the idea. Parsons then apparently steered them towards this new direction, caused fights within the band and then left before it came out. Seems to me it should've been shelved but no, they released it anyway. I don't like the style at all and it feels pointless listening to albums of covers on this challenge unless they're doing something really groundbreaking or interesting with the songs. The only redeeming feature here is that The Byrds do lovely vocal harmonies so it was never actively bad to listen to. It was just a bit boring and pointless.
Tricky
4/5
Tricky always felt like an afterthought in the Bristol hip-hop 'trifecta' as I was a huge Portishead fan and a big Massive Attack fan. That's not to say he wasn't equally great or influential; I did buy Maxinquaye, I just didn't listen to it nearly as much as Dummy, Blue Lines, Portishead or Mezzanine. It's a great album and I was delighted to have it on rotation for the past week. Both for the nostalgia and the unbiased, pure enjoyment of it.
k.d. lang
2/5
This seemed like a dead easy 1 star. First four songs were so unbelievably bland, it was boring me to tears. Then somehow in the middle of it all I had to pause and appreciate So It Shall Be and Still Thrives This Love. Two tracks emerged from the desert that caught my attention, had some lovely passages of melody and really interesting instrumental fills. Uh oh. Have I been too hasty? Is k.d. lang secretly incredible? I should give this album a proper chance at redemption.
OK, did that and never mind, I guess sometimes really boring albums just have a couple of great songs on them.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
I bought this one soon after buying Loveless on a whim (circa 2000) and was really quite underwhelmed. I'm glad it laid the groundworks or whatever for the follow-up, which instantly grabbed me and became a favourite, but while I find the noise and production strangely soothing, I don't ever find myself reaching for this one with much enthusiasm.
Mike Ladd
3/5
I have no idea who he is, what this is or why it's on the list. But that's why we're all here, right?
Some kind of experimental electronica/hip-hop hybrid. I'm digging it. I can understand why it never became a household name; it's understated and creeps up on you. Never really announces itself like a lot of hip-hop does. But multiple listens have been great to peel back the layers and sit with it. I find myself wanting to like the whole experience more than I actually do, but there are some great moments and the vibe is cool.
The Icarus Line
4/5
On the one hand, not really sure what this album has done to deserve inclusion. I think The Icarus Line drifted into insignificance without actually making any lasting impact on music. On the other hand, I thought it was pretty great so I'm not too bothered. Very typical of a lot of the early/mid-00s garage punk stuff but there's some mild experimentation that separates it from the obvious comparisons to the likes of Jet and BRMC. The long, dark centrepiece, 'Getting Bright At Night' shows they had some ideas above their station, which I can respect. I think the editor took a punt on what might turn out to be of lasting significance. They may have missed on that front here but for me at least, it’s something I’d never have found and am glad I did. Really enjoyed it.
Germs
2/5
I will say this for punk albums. Generally, they don't mess about. They're punk from start to finish, don't usually last too long and they don't try to be too clever. I expected something different from the artwork so it was fun to discover that I was wrong. The fun didn't last that long though. It's fine. I don't really get how it earned its place on this list though.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Frank had a lovely voice and he knew how to use it, you can't argue with that. But I'm just never ever going to decide 'I fancy listening to some vocal jazz today', and this album has done nothing to change that. It's very good at being what it is. It's just not for me.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
5/5
I was a fairweather fan who hopped on the Chilis wagon at Californication and off again after By The Way but I definitely didn't give BSSM enough of a chance at the time. It is damn fantastic. The funk/rock/rap fusion is so effortless, it's easy to forget there was so little of this around at the time and basically none of it in the mainstream. There's such a satisfying synergy as the guitars, bass, drums and vocals all click in so many places. Time and again they seem to coalesce around the perfect note, harmony or fill and it's incredibly satisfying. The real genius here of course is Flea, one of the all-time great bass players. When he gets off the chain, he elevates the whole sound to another level. You even get the feeling here that we're still scratching the surface of his powers.
In places the tracks flow seamlessly into each other to create thematic runs that keep the pulse moving and hold the attention. The opening trio showcases superb variety while clinging to a clear thread and that's before we even get into the highlight reel: Funky Monks, Suck My Kiss, Give It Away and the classic Under The Bridge to name but a few. There simply is no filler here, and they even pull off the epic experimental number in Sir Psycho Sexy before smashing it back down with They're Red Hot to ensure we don't go home feeling too highbrow.
There's a reason the Chilis were so annoyingly ubiquitous in the 90s, they were at the absolute top of their game here.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Really appreciating my Sonic Youth education this year. Not quite as good as Daydream Nation but it's got some equally high highs and isn't far off as consistent. It's just the right kind and degree of chaotic and reminds me a lot of bands I loved in the late 90s-early 00s who were very much influenced by this.
Gotan Project
2/5
Well I didn’t know that I didn’t like tango until now. It’s interesting I guess but then they keep getting the damn awful accordion out.
I’m also unimpressed at the track that had me keep on pausing it to see what my dog was barking about. Only to discover she wasn’t barking at all. Not funny or clever.
Ice Cube
4/5
I had no idea Ice Cube was this good solo. I've kept this on rotation for days and it's yet to get old. He covers incredibly powerful subject matter but the beats are superb and varied throughout. It brings a lot of fun and uptempo numbers to draw you in, then smacks you in the face with fearless, up-front commentary on equality, racism and police brutality. It's just sad that this message is still relevant over 30 years later.
Sparks
4/5
A really eclectic ride today as my first real introduction to Sparks. At its best, its like Abba with swagger. At it's worst, it's the hideous closer 'Equator' that I could barely finish. I just can't quite figure out if one cancels out the other. Overall I found it pretty good fun more often than not. Three-quarters of it, I'm happy to listen to again so I guess that makes for a positive impression overall. I was surprised to realise this was a man singing though. He has one very strange singing voice.
Hawkwind
2/5
I really like 70s psychedelic rock. But this is some other monster. Horrible, muddy, messy, bizarre and while I hate to echo every other reviewer, it is just far too long. What a waste of time.
Cat Stevens
5/5
There's a quite immediate and comforting feeling I get in my gut when I hear an album this immaculately written. I just love hearing a melody unfolding right before my ears and I somehow know exactly where it's going to go, but also didn't foresee quite how it would get there.
A gorgeous, succinct and rewarding little record.
Moby Grape
4/5
I can't quite decide if the complicated process of finding the tracks of this album, in order and on a platform I can listen to them, made for a fun side-quest or a frustrating waste of time. Part of it's on Spotify. Part of it's on Spotify but hidden within a best-of compilation. Part of it isn't on Spotify but can be found on a live album. Physical copies are extortionate, even second-hand. iTunes has all of the tracks, but across multiple albums and priced individually, not as an album. OK fine, I can decide - it was indeed, frustrating. Especially as this eventually turned out to be a really rewarding find. Not a million miles from its late-60s contemporaries, from The Beatles to the Small Faces via the Byrds, CSNY and other reference points in-between. '8:05' is superb. 'Indifference' is brilliant and overall it just hangs together as a great rock album from a golden era.
I am going to keep searching for a copy that costs less than my car, as I think I really like it, and I hope whatever legal wrangle has got in the way for so long eventually gets worked out. This deserves to be properly reissued so it can be heard and enjoyed by more people, including those who don't have the patience to stalk every track and put it back together piece by piece. Pause and talk to the rabbit; it's worth it.
Tears For Fears
2/5
80s synth pop records are the things I can do without.
I am willing to concede that Everybody Wants To Rule The World is a tune though, so I'm just about willing to award a second star.
Beck
4/5
I prefer wacky, genre-bending Beck to sad, pipe-and-slippers Beck but this has some wonderful moments.
It's a beautiful record at times but it could do with a few changes of pace and a bit more adrenaline. Obviously the subject material centres on heartbreak and you can't really argue with a man writing from the heart, especially a man with this kind of talent at the top of his game. It's best when it leans into the more layered, psychedelic moments but it also has a gorgeous fragility as songs build up around his plaintive vocals.
I don't know if the generator has finished feeding me Beck albums but I hope there's at least another twist to come as his 90s output definitely deserves inclusion above the two 00s representatives I've had so far.
Bon Jovi
3/5
At its best, it’s up there with Aerosmith for some air-guitar-worthy cock rock. At its worst it’s Livin’ on a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name. I think we’re gonna have to split the difference here.
I’m quite glad to have Raise Your Hands in my playlist now. That is my unexpected banger of the day.
Jane Weaver
4/5
I've never heard of this artist,
I don't really know what this is,
and I don't understand why it's in the book.
It's fantastic. Will definitely look for a copy.
The The
2/5
You can't just go making a really ugly, scary album artwork and calling your record 'Infected' and then make it a load of cheesy synth-driven new wave. I was already unimpressed by The The, a band so boring they forgot to name themselves twice. I'm even angrier now I know they are taking up two entries.
Brian Wilson
5/5
While it was nearly impossible for Brian Wilson to recreate the pure vision and inspiration behind the Beach Boys' lost 1967 masterpiece, he has created something here that gives us the closest peek yet behind that curtain. The songs are both playful and technically brilliant, with all of the humour and depth that was originally intended.
Unfortunately, it 𝙞𝙨 impossible to recreate the state of the music industry and the world in 1967 so we'll never be able to appreciate this work in context to understand the cultural and historical place it might have held. It may have had an even more significant impact than Sgt Pepper once Lennon and McCartney got their hands on a copy. But we'll never know.
Fortunately, the music alone is good enough to stand on its own and deserve all of the plaudits and mystique that it earned even after nearly 40 years sat on a shelf and buried in Brian Wilson's mind. I've been a fan of this album and its story for a long time and I'm no stranger to this iteration or the original 1967 release, 𝘚𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘚𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦. If people ever ask me for my favourite song of all time, I choose Good Vibrations. It's a genuinely perfect song that I could hear every day and never get bored of. I knew I loved it from a very early age, having had it on tapes recorded from Dad's records as far back as I can remember. The strange, beautiful sounds, the ghostly theremin, the chugging cello, the harmonies and of course the ‘na-na-na-na-naaa’ chorus outro. And while it sits at the end of this album, it feels like the centrepiece of the project. Everything else on the album seems to me like it was crafted as the supporting cast for its perfectness. The zany rhapsody of Heroes and Villains, the gentle humour and thumping bassline of Vege-tables, the breathless warmth of Wonderful all setting the scene for 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳.
I was always going to spend time today sitting with some of Brian's greatest work in memory and tribute, but it was fitting to have an added bit of purpose and direction with it. Many of his peers were lost before their time and we may never know the peak of their potential but luckily for us, we got to walk the earth with this genius until he had more or less finished sharing his creative spark with us all. His legacy will live on in the many great musicians and artists who continue to make music inspired by his wonderful life's work. Thank you, Brian.
Suzanne Vega
3/5
I was pleasantly surprised by this. Kind of a stepping stone between Joni and Alanis. Not as good as either but decent and with some strong songwriting and guitar chops. I found myself wanting to listen to it more and more closely, but the deeper I dug, the less rewarding I found it on repeat listens. Still good but not great, in my eyes.
George Michael
2/5
I wasn’t too excited about this but I followed the instructions and listened without prejudice. How did he know he’d have to ask listeners to do this?
There are a couple of good songs early on but it’s really not my thing, the slow songs are unbearable and the whole thing tailed off massively in the second half.
R.E.M.
4/5
Third R.E.M. album for me and all in chronological order. I think they're a good band to listen to in order as the sound develops and here we are approaching their commercial peak but coming off their college radio indie years, still before I knew them. They have started to vary the sound more, which I appreciate, with some nice mandolins sandwiched between the drum-driven rockers. I'd heard this before but not really 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 enough perhaps. There are the obvious stand-outs, including Pop Song 89, Orange Crush and Stand but I found a lot to like right through the runtime and it's yet another really enjoyable and consistent LP from Athens' finest.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
A live, organ-heavy prog epic. I mean, it was always going to hit its own ceiling and it does so pretty early on. Most of it sounds much of a muchness, it sort of smears into one long prog-fest and doesn't really try and be any more than that. It's probably a lot cleverer than it leaves you feeling it was, but clever isn't always fun, and I had enough fun in one play through to not need to hear it again, thank you.
Al Green
3/5
About as cool and funky as you'd expect.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
I don't think I'm ever going to get the appeal of the Velvet Underground. I must just not be cool enough. The visual aesthetic, the 'barely sold any records at the time', the endless avant jamming on tracks like Sister Ray, hell they even have arguably the coolest name in rock. I just don't enjoy listening to it.
Lou Reed's lazy, drawling vocals do more to irritate me than anything else and I find it annoying that these musicians were talented but recorded themselves making a racket and managed to somehow be critically adored. Seemingly not at the time, but people seem to have heard cool people claim to have loved them and rushed to revise their opinions. I am convinced a lot of their fans are just trying to be part of something. I'm happy for you if this makes you happy. But I refuse to join in and pretend I like it.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Starting to understand the whole Cocteau Twins schtick. The 'lyrics' are irrelevant, the song titles are just words, the tunes are just vibes.
It's all vibes. This one isn't as warm or compelling as Heaven or Las Vegas but it's cut from very similar cloth. It's just colder, a bit more sparse and spiky. I gave HoLV three stars but felt this strange compulsion to keep going back for more listens and eventually decided it needed an extra star so I edited my rating. Maybe that will prove to be the case here too but only time will tell. I don't mind it at all, but I can understand why they eventually decided to pack it in. There's only so long you can survive on vibes alone.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
I can only respect the fact he's gone with that album title, and the cover art is him just chilling in a robe. The guy is too cool by far. It's also a great album, covering all sorts of musical avenues, easy to forget it's from 1971. Production sounds much more fresh and advanced than that and he combines playful instrumentation with excellent songwriting and really strong vocals.
The Saints
3/5
First couple of tracks I thought I was really onto something here. But I did find it started lacking variety and losing my attention halfway through each of three listens. I do quite like the early punk and ska-adjacent vibes but beyond a couple of strong tracks it probably won't stay with me too long.
Laura Nyro
4/5
It's a bit of a strange album but with moments of absolute stardust sprinkled all over it. I'm not the biggest fan of her voice but she does a lot of different things with it at different points. I do really like the songwriting overall; for the late 60s she's pretty nonconformist and there's a lot of joy in the music. Her favourite trick seems to be the sudden, unexpected change of tempo, which is fun but does start to get a bit predictable after a while, ironically. It's not really in my wheelhouse but I can see myself coming back to it for more listens. There's certainly a lot of ideas and layers to it that I fear are hiding beneath the surface. On first listen I wasn't keen but the more I hear it, the more I like it.
Grateful Dead
3/5
I quite like the sound but I found it all merged into one long jam session and I couldn’t tell where one track ended and the next began. I feel like you probably had to be there, with a few beers and your friends and soaking up the atmosphere. It felt a bit ordinary to me on a stereo in my house in 2025.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Another soul/funk album that is just impossibly cool. It’s not really within my usual wheelhouse but I’ve enjoyed it a number of times over the week. And the title track, as well as giving me a ‘spot the Beastie Boys sample!’ moment, is absolutely brilliant.
Living Colour
3/5
Never heard of Living Colour but I thought this was pretty cool overall, just a bit all-over-the-place. Generally very 80s rock without veering too much into power-ballady territory. After a couple of goes through, only the opener really stayed with me but I liked the whole experience enough. May revisit again in future.
Culture Club
1/5
Yeah, this was simply awful. I thought Karma Chameleon might be enough to save it from the ignominy of a one star rating, but to be honest, unless I'm three beers in at a party or wedding I have zero interest in that irritatingly pointless song either. I was really relieved when this one ended and never want to hear it again.
Chicago
3/5
'Free Form Guitar'. Just why? I mean, sure, muck about and see what sounds you can make for fun. But nobody else needs to hear it. It's not cool or clever.
Don't put it on the damn record.
And it’s not the only time they get in the way of their own album being better than it ended up being. Some excellent moments get lost in thick layers of prog nonsense and they absolutely could’ve cut this down into a really tight, really solid single LP. I’ll give it some more listens because there’s some great stuff hidden in there but I know which parts to skip now…
The Pretty Things
4/5
Generally onto a winner with late-60s psych, add to that a bit of a concept and lesser-known discovery and it's one of those days I love about this challenge. At times they sound more like The Beatles than The Beatles, and supposedly inspired The Who's Tommy. I listened to it a number of times throughout the week and enjoyed it on repeated listens. Another one to look out for when record shopping but I would admit it's a shame nobody stepped in and stopped Phil May's drawings from becoming the cover art; if this had a really psychedelic and cool iconic front cover, I guarantee it would be more highly regarded.
Silver Jews
3/5
For much of my teens I would have said I was massively into indie. Britpop was a gateway for me but I was a bit young when that was happening. Indie was something I was old enough to buy lots of, start going to gigs and feel part of the scene. Then I moved to America and was pretty confused. What they called 'indie' was totally different to what I had grown to love. And not just different bands, quite a different sound.
As I soon found out and logically deduced, since 'indie' was ostensibly a nickname for 'independent', it stands to reason that different music would end up on independent labels in different countries. But it took some time to adjust my understanding.
US indie is quite hit or miss for me and this album feels fairly typical of what I associate the term with in the US market. It has its rock leanings, a lot more country-infused than you'd get in the UK. It's pretty lo-fi, and most notably, the lyrics are infantile. For some reason, US indie artists seem to be intent on writing songs that sound like nursery rhymes and then playing them in broadly 4-piece bands. The vocals seem to have a loose, open relationship with tuning, and sometimes the instruments do too. So when Silver Jews started coming out with absurd lines like rhyming 'a kitten' with 'Great Britain', bits like 'they flew to Aruba and threw a boom box in the sea' and 'my horse's legs look like shotguns' I could just feel the stars dropping off my rating.
To be fair, the music is decent. I nodded along to plenty of it, there are good hooks and an overall sound that's easy to get into. There are some clever, affecting metaphors but I just found the lyrics ridiculous in so many places. They're either trying too hard to be quirky or they're just odd and nobody at their indie label was prepared to say 'No. Write something sensible. You're fully grown adults'.
Arctic Monkeys
5/5
Get off the bandwagon. Put down the handbook.
Soft Cell
2/5
There are so many things I'd rather do than listen to synth-pop.
Tainted Love is at least decent but I learned today that they didn't actually write it. There were some moments here that were better than I had expected but from a very low level of expectation, it won't get them above two stars. And they'll thank me for it.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2/5
That was one long elevator ride…
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
1/5
A relentless barrage of country and bluegrass. This was released on six sides of vinyl. Imagine flipping three discs one by one and hearing the same twang-diddle-iddle for over two hours.
TLC
2/5
Waterfalls is great and Creep is good but the vast majority of this album was, to my ears, uninspiring and drab. I’ll probably never really be a fan of RnB but some of the more hip-hop elements are ok. Reading more about them, we’re talking about essentially a manufactured girl band who had to rename one of their members because their gimmick of ‘TLC’ being the initials of the three girls fell apart when they binned off the original ‘C’. I’d stop short of being too critical as it’s not terrible but I’d happily never listen to it again.
The Go-Go's
3/5
Quite enjoyed this against the odds. It’s very jangly new wave which is usually a death sentence for me, but I enjoyed the bass guitar throughout and there are a lot of great bits of guitar work and catchy hooks. Better than feared but not exactly troubling my all-time favourites.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
Giving CSN (and Y) a proper go has been a true delight of this challenge so far. Stick those vocal harmonies straight into my veins...
Sonic Youth
3/5
Continuing to enjoy my Sonic Youth education. Not one of their albums (four down so far) has been easy to rate or even really listen to and gather my thoughts on. And I’ve really appreciated that. It’s just the right level of challenge and interesting for my musical curiosity.
Goo is, like its successor and predecessor, full of great guitar work and far-too-cool vocals, it evokes a load of great indie and post-punk bands of the 90s and 00s (Ash, Placebo, Interpol…) but throws out curveballs to jolt your attention back. I plan to spend more time with this one and the others, when I have a bit more time. It’s just a shame I didn’t do so 30 years sooner. Better late than never.
Traffic
4/5
I wasn't really familiar with Traffic before the 1001 and this is the second of their albums I've now listened to and really enjoyed. I feel they maybe deserved a bit more success but the late 60s were so packed with good classic rock, clearly some things just got lost in the noise.
There are a number of songs I liked enough to add to my playlist and as an album it just continued to deliver satisfying hooks and a decent quantity of swagger.
The Jam
4/5
If you told me I was getting two albums by The Jam in a row, I'd be mildly disappointed that I didn't have something inbetween that would've made an appropriate Jam sandwich. As it is, I've drawn The Jam immediately after Traffic. So I'm stuck summoning up visions of frustrating hours spent in the car rather than sweet, sticky bread.
This album has really grown on me; I've kept it on rotation for the better part of two weeks since generating it. I'd never have called New Wave one of my favourite genres and I had a 3 in mind after the first listen but the songwriting is just so damn good. I've had multiple different songs stuck in my head and been reminded of various 90s-00s Britpop and Indie acts that were clearly influenced by this record. From Supergrass to Ocean Colour Scene and I was constantly picturing Blur listening to these vocals and basslines while writing Modern Life is Rubbish and Parklife. I'm convinced that Set The House Ablaze is the blueprint for parts of Bloc Party's Silent Alarm album.
It's tight, punchy, very consistent and a lot of fun.
The Jam
4/5
A two-day Jam-fest! Well, I enjoyed this marginally less than Sound Affects. It somehow felt a bit looser and more raw, and a lot of the little hooks and melodies stayed with me, although they felt somehow like less fully realised and perfected songs. I could see a lot of influence on Britpop, especially the likes of Supergrass and Elastica, not to mention Ocean Colour Scene, who worked a fair bit with Paul Weller in due course. This album also has one of my personal favourite features; really good bass guitar work.
PJ Harvey
3/5
I'm quite sure my ancestors fought and possibly died so that I could live in an England where it would be possible to both respect PJ Harvey's efforts here but also not massively enjoy it. Bit too twee, bit experimental, fair play to her for making a project out of it but it's not my favourite work of hers.
Miles Davis
2/5
If you locked an infinite number of monkeys in a room with trumpets, swing drums, bass guitars and keyboards, and left them for an infinite amount of time, could they recreate Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew?
I have almost zero doubt they could, but they would be far too creative, sensible and restrained, and would actually create something resembling a tune with a structure.
I love the cover art. If I owned this, I’d just leave the record inside and admire it from the outside.
3/5
Couple of days on from saying that Let England Shake was 𝘯𝘰𝘵 my favourite PJ Harvey work, I now know what 𝘪𝘴. It's this one. She's still got the edge and anger from her early work but there are some really complete and accomplished songs here. Is it maybe too safe or pedestrian in places? Yeah it is. But she's matured and the songwriting and poetry is obviously a bit more subtle than 'lick my legs, I'm on fire'.
I don't love the Thom Yorke duets but are there many other recording artists who could casually just call up the lead singer of Radiohead and get him to do some vocals on their album? I still don't think I'm coming back to listen to this all that much and I feel four PJ Harvey albums is a little more than needed, but glad to have had a good rummage through her highlights.
Bob Dylan
3/5
He's a legendary songwriter but I just can't help thinking someone should've been at the helm telling him 'Rainy Day Women' is an in-joke that's not really funny. Leave it on the cutting room floor. Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands is somehow eight minutes too long and doesn't go anywhere.
You've got some excellent, highly listenable numbers in Just Like A Woman, Fourth Time Around and One Of Us Must Know, but this could've definitely been a single, and it would've been fantastic.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Back with more theatrics! I didn't find this as catchy or interesting as Want One but it was all decent and an enjoyable enough listen. I hovered on the 3/4 fence with that one and fell on the 3 side. So now I'm hovering on the 2/3 fence with this, it seems only fair to round up this time.
The Modern Lovers
4/5
He's has a really pretty loose relationship with tuning in his singing, doesn't he?
But I guess that's just rock'n'roll, baby. 4/5 no further notes.
The Coral
5/5
In university halls circa 2002, if the dreamy tones of Bill Ryder-Jones' guitar licks, James Skelly's doleful tones or Paul Duffy's infectious 'Dreamin Of You' bassline weren't seeping through the hallways at any given moment, something was seriously wrong.
This is a fantastic whistle-stop tour that never sits still for too long. It lurches from psych-rock to sea shanty via indie folk while sounding like the whole band is having a great time and totally in sync. And that's just Skeleton Key. The combination of youthful experimentation, bold and varied influences, and having some damn fine musicians in the band made this a hugely promising debut overall and they were outstanding live at the time as well.
What's crazy about The Coral is that you could hear such a high ceiling of potential even in this wonderful, eclectic debut that it always felt like they had an even greater masterpiece in them just waiting to come out. Maybe it's time we stop waiting for that and accept that what we got in those early days was indeed them at their confident, inspired best. It was a tragedy that Bill stepped aside after a few albums because he was both a creative force and technical genius in the six-string department but clearly he wasn't happy in his role and has, luckily for us, forged a mighty fine solo career since.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
My knowledge of Brasilian music from age 6 to about 13 was based on the Bossa Nova demo rhythm from my first Casio keyboard. From 13 to 41, this was diversified to include the theme music from various Nike commercials featuring the Seleção juggling footballs around an airport in the run-up to a World Cup.
Thankfully I have now listened to a couple of actual Bossa Nova albums to educate me further. And while I may not be rushing out to buy this, it made a nice accompaniment to my doing a little Latin cooking while moving my hips. I'm always reluctant to relegate an album to 'perfect background music' but this is exactly how I found it.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Everyone is allowed to have one or two of those artists they just dislike for no good reason. So when this was generated for me on a lazy Saturday morning I was deeply irritated. But I’m committed to the project. So I duly listened.
And now, in fairness to The Divine Comedy, I actually do have good reason. His voice and delivery are unbearable, the arrangements are needlessly OTT and the lyrics are painfully pretentious. It’s nowhere near divine and it’s not remotely funny. Get in the bin.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
I enjoyed a lot of the guitar and bass and I can see how this became an influential point in post-punk and what came after. I appreciate that Siouxsie is one of the great British singers of all time but the style of singing is just not for me and really puts me off. Also features the classic 80s production hallmarks of too much treble on the guitars, too much reverb on the vocals and not enough punch from the drums.
They do a great job of creating this dark, gothic atmosphere for her singing to float around in. I do get it and it’s great for what it is, but it won’t be one I’m coming back to listen to myself.
ABBA
4/5
First of all, as someone who does not generally enjoy pop music, I somewhat guiltily enjoyed Arrival for it's breezy, catchy pop magic. I already knew the title track of this album and absolutely love it, so had high hopes and was initially a bit underwhelmed by the lack of catchy hooks and obvious 𝘧𝘶𝘯.
But on a second and third listen, I peeled back the layers on what turned out to be a mature yet frequently hilarious post-30s breakup album including songs about incestuous threesomes and being “Slightly worn, but dignified, and not too old for sex”? ABBA, as it turns out, have quite the knack for cynical humour and, writing about their respective breakups brought out a fresh authenticity to the songwriting.
Maybe not as much fun as Dancing Queen or Mamma Mia but another great album with a legendary opener and well worth taking the time to get to know properly.
Carpenters
2/5
Meh, most of it is other people’s songs. Don’t really care for this twee karaoke stuff myself.
Black Sabbath
3/5
Third and I believe final Sabbath album today. I'm certainly no heavy metal connoisseur but I appreciate they were one of the first to do it and created a blueprint for many many artists and subgenres that came after. It's a good, solid album with plenty of the high-octane stuff and a few experiments, although I must confess, the ballady 'Changes' is a bit of a dirge. It's not on the level of Paranoid, for me. While I've enjoyed the melodic riffery, I'm happy to say thank you Ozzy (and friends), that will do, and may you rest in peace.
The Kinks
4/5
I've heard lots of good things about this album and people hail it as a blueprint for what Britpop would become. I can certainly see its influence on the likes of Blur, Ocean Colour Scene and Supergrass. I thought it was a lot of fun and broadly in a Beatles wheelhouse but it's always a bit harsh trying to compare other 60s beat pop with their titanic influence. The Kinks were clearly very very good at being what they were themselves.
There were plenty of songs that wormed their way into my head and are still stuck there, days later. Ray Davies' delivery works perfectly with the sort of dry wit and mildly absurdist commentary on British life, and there are plenty of fine melodies crammed into what felt like both an eclectic mixture of songs and a flowing, well-constructed, complete LP.
King Crimson
4/5
To me this feels a lot more like experimental post-rock than prog, which also means it sits more squarely in my own wheelhouse. It follows a fairly familiar pattern with both though, of having long periods of patient build-up to those big payoffs. This album has a slightly disappointing ratio of payoff:build-up; the payoffs aren't quite as frequent as you'd hope for but when they do pay off, there are some brilliant moments. The epic, slightly bloated title-track bookends are probably the most notable for this, with a few relatively more straightforward rockers in between.
It ticks the boxes for me in terms of being an interesting and overall enjoyable experience. I immediately like it more than my last KC album (In The Court... Yeah. I didn't really get the hype there.) and I can see myself coming back to it again in future. It seems like it would play well on a long car trip.
4/5
What a fun, intriguing and unique set of songs. It takes a really special talent to create music in this many layers of instrumentation and have it feel this organic and not fall into overblown, pretentious territory.
The only real drawback is some of the strange lyrics. Not sure how much he’s going for sincere, ironic or trying too hard to be poetic. I’m definitely going to be coming back to this album though. Really enjoyed it.
D'Angelo
1/5
This sounds nothing like the Rolling Stones classic I was expecting. Rock legend Mick Jagger tries his hand in a falsetto register while the band seems to be just about pulling off an RnB flava.
I'm disappointed that this one doesn't include their popular hits Bump 'n' Jack Flash or (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Motherfucka.
Radiohead
4/5
I do remember the OK Computer bandwagon and I was not on it in 1997. For me, it was the year of Blur, The Fat Of The Land and Dig Your Own Hole. Years later I would come to appreciate The Bends and eventually give this album the appropriate amount of attention. Of course, it is a superb record.
While British music in the 90s was in a fantastic place, what was happening with guitar bands was they all suddenly had a hit. Probably a twangy, digestible Britpop hit. But looking back on the era, lots of the Britpop albums were flawed and bogged down with filler, rushed out to capitalise on that hit, and the sudden moment that guitar music became cool.
What Radiohead, Blur and a handful of others managed to do was to redefine the album as a format. This was the first era where the CD was established as the king, meaning two 23-minute sides were no longer necessary and artists could play with a full 80 minutes (and lord knows, some of them did), cram multiple B-sides onto their multiple-variation CD singles and really make the most of their studio time. So the best artists made some incredible work and I honestly believe 1997 stands up as one of the finest years for music.
First of all, OK Computer is packed with tunes. The big crowd-pleasers such as Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No Surprises deliver their highs, so hidden gems like Subterranean Homesick Alien and Let Down (famously so underrated it became overrated) can knock you out when you least expect it. The album also does an immaculate job with its pacing and ordering, as it feels like they have everything in its right place. Personally, I prefer to listen to The Bends but that album ran so this one could fly.
Elbow
5/5
I found Elbow a huge source of comfort in the famously horrific year of 2020. Something about Guy Garvey's calm and authentic voice, the embrace of warm, rich instrumentation and some truly poetic songwriting combine to create a deeply soothing aural experience. You can pick on many different songs or verses and dive deep into the lyrics or briefly grab hold of any number of simple, effective couplets and just snack on their innate charm.
You won't find many better songs by anyone ever, than One Day Like This, but even away from the grandiose and obvious, the imagery on Mirrorball, the stomp of Grounds For Divorce and the deft fragility of Weather To Fly are all confidently crafted while still remaining understated and unassuming.
Elbow offer everything you can find in a Radiohead or Coldplay album with none of the hype or histrionics and they somehow remain one of post-millennial Britain's best-kept secrets.
Femi Kuti
2/5
There are a lot of nice noises, rhythms and grooves going on here. But they are all a bit long, a bit repetitive and feel a bit 'loose' for my personal liking.
Method Man
3/5
More solid, enjoyable 90s hip-hop and more Wu-adjacent education for me. Not quite as much fun as Raekwon but more consistent than Ghostface Killah.
The Yardbirds
3/5
Enjoyed the overall blues-rock vibes and generally a good listen but I also thought it was a bit incoherent and all over the place at times, lacked consistency and the feeling that you're listening to an album, rather than a set of rock musicians playing around.
Cypress Hill
4/5
This is just a load of fun. I'm about as close to giving this five stars as I can possibly get while not quite committing to it. I can see myself coming back to listen to it more. I've known about Cypress Hill for years but never got into a full album and I have been missing out. Gonna have to listen to the rest of them now.
The Blue Nile
3/5
Didn't take me long to draw a bad first impression from the very 80s production and vocals but given a bit more time and patience I quite enjoyed a handful of tracks from the middle part of the album and realised I may have been too hasty. Another 80s trait is to let songs take forever to get going and establish what they're doing. On my review of the great Brothers In Arms I described this as 'letting songs breathe' and after a couple of plays through I appreciated it more here.
For all the ingredients I don't tend to like (add jazzy tendencies and a general new wave flavour to the list), I found it greater than the sum of its parts and might even find time to give Hats a listen at some point. Not my home turf, not my favourite but I'm glad I've given it a proper chance and discovered something I otherwise wouldn't have.
Beth Orton
3/5
Bit disappointed to discover that Beth Orton is basically trendy 90s Dido. The sound is really nice and chilled but then it doesn't really go anywhere for an hour. So the album title feels quite appropriate. Her appearances on Chemical Brothers tracks are all comfortably better than everything here but it was pleasant enough listening.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
It must've been tough trying to be a beat pop band in the 60s and not being The Beatles. You're doomed to be compared constantly. I mean, it doesn't help when you seem absolutely committed to the idea of trying to sound more like The Beatles than they do themselves. Ironically, the best song on it is the one that sounds more like The Beach Boys and you can't help but think they should've tried a bit harder to carve out their own sound as they seem like they have the ingredients but just lack a bit of originality. It's a decent album either way.
The Verve
4/5
Like most of alternative 90s Britain, my interest in The Verve began and ended with Urban Hymns. I think I gave this a spin or two but nothing stuck for me. Listening again 30 years later I can see why nothing stuck at the time but I'm also kicking myself for not trying harder.
I've really got into this album today; there's a lot more noise elements and the guitars are actually doing a lot more for me than they would subsequently attempt on The Drugs Don't Work and the like. This is a fascinating and atmospheric beast that ebbs and flows with superb bass and effects-laden guitars dancing around Richard Ashcroft at his surreal and swaggering best. It's probably as good as Urban Hymns, certainly darker and moodier, and might actually be even better than its famous, acclaimed sibling. I'm gonna have to go away and listen to their debut properly now, aren't I, dammit?!
Big Star
3/5
I have an irrational need to recognise an album as an album; a complete and intentional work. So where these kinds of entries pop up with a somewhat controversial tracklisting, muddled between different releases across regions and formats, it annoys me. The album (in whichever version Spotify presented me) starts out pretty good fun. It's upbeat and rocky and I will forgive the ambiguity if this is what we're getting today. Things tail off in the second half though, a bit more slow and pianoey. It lost my attention on multiple listens and while it was never quite 'bad', it didn't do enough 'great' for me.
Stereolab
4/5
I don't think I really understand the inclusion of this album. While I appreciate that Stereolab have been around for years (they just released an acclaimed album in 2025, 30 years on from this Ketchup one) I'd never really been aware of their influence or importance to music. Maybe that's on me. They've always been there and yet I've never delved into their catalogue.
I think the name and aesthetic lends itself to something quite spacey and electronic so the opener made sense to me but there's also some great rock music in here and there are some very successful experiments in doing rock things over electronic loops and structures. The middle run of OLV 26 - The Noise of Carpet - Tomorrow is Already Here - Emperor Tomato Ketchup had me wondering if we were looking at a five star effort. But honestly it didn't quite do enough for me outside of that run. I enjoyed it a lot and will address my own ignorance by having a further listen to their other albums when I have time.
Mike Oldfield
3/5
I randomly came across Mike Oldfield's 'Guitars' album years ago, in which he uses exclusively (you guessed it) guitars to make all the sounds on the record, including some blues and rocky tunes and a few more soundscapey numbers. So I was mildly disappointed to discover this is his whole thing. He just did it with bells first. And bells are less fun than guitars. I don't love horror films so the opening 5-10 mins isn't much fun for me but there are some cool moments across the two long tracks. There are also the moments where he grunts and growls instead of attempting to sing and I'm not entirely sure why.
I would definitely call this more of an interesting listen than a great or engaging one. But it managed to be simultaneously kind of boring and while I was on the fence about giving it a 2 or 3, I don't feel motivated to listen to the whole thing again, unless it's literally as background noise that I can ignore if I need to.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
I went to the Isle Of Wight festival in 2002, mostly to see The Charlatans, Ash and The Coral. My friend John and I made our way gradually closer to the stage through the afternoon in order to be in the front for headliners, The Charlatans. The act immediately before them was Robert Plant. I knew very little about him but was informed he'd once been the singer of Led Zeppelin. When he took to the stage, a group of older guys asked us if we minded swapping places with them so they could be near the front for Robert Plant, and that they would then let us have the space back for The Charlatans. Sure. No problem. About halfway through his set, he told us he was going to play a song called Going To California, and the older guys went ballistic. With good reason; it was absolutely jaw-dropping. He had the audience in the palm of his hand and performed this delicate, beautiful number about a woman with 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 as the sun set over the horizon of the island.
It would be a couple more years before I truly fell in love with Led Zeppelin but I appreciate now what a moment that was to treasure. At this point, it is one of my favourite songs of all time.
The crazy thing about Led Zeppelin's fourth self-titled album is that it contains the classic Stairway To Heaven but there's an argument to be had that it's not even the best song on the album. This is an album which also features the awesome closer When The Levee Breaks, the barnstorming opener Black Dog and one of my other personal favourites - Misty Mountain Hop. It's also probably my fourth favourite Led Zeppelin album, lacking some of the bite on II and the joyous experimentation of Physical Graffiti. But when your discography is this solid, that still makes it a damned fine slice of rock music.
Jazmine Sullivan
1/5
I was really relieved when this was over.
Robert Wyatt
4/5
Robert Wyatt was partly responsible for the absolutely dire Soft Machine album, 'Third', which I begrudgingly awarded a whole star a few months ago. I was not excited to see this come up on my generator today.
Thankfully, he seems to have taken a different approach with his solo work, that of actually making coherent songs with something approaching structure and melody. Now, that's not to say this is an album of catchy pop songs, it's experimental and challenging and parts of it are, let's be brutally honest, deeply odd.
But I was pleasantly surprised by the Little Reds ‘Robin’ and ‘Riding’ Hood and there's plenty of delightful, melodic ear candy buried here amongst the noise, jazz-fusion-tinged bursts and frankly bizarre lyrics. I must confess, with successive days I’ve returned to it more and more out of a combination of affection and curiosity and as I’ve got used to its strangeness, I’ve come to really enjoy it for its mad genius.
Tim Buckley
2/5
Once again, I found Tim Buckley's voice really really hard to listen to for a full LP's worth of somewhat summery tunes. The vibe was ok but the songs were forgettable.
The Afghan Whigs
2/5
Pretty sludgy alternative but with a few interesting grooves. I didn't really pick up on the soul influences but I probably won't be back for many repeat plays on this one.
The Beta Band
5/5
I’m sure it’s more common for bands to last longer than they probably ought to, than to not last as long as they should. But The Beta Band definitely fall into the latter category. Three great EPs, a shaky debut and a rather less shaky final album sandwiched Hot Shots II; the sophomore album where they finally found their happy medium. Tight, accessible songs that had structure, hooks and the best of their songwriting prowess, while also pushing genre boundaries, fusing psych-folk with hip-hop and trip-hop and exploring the human condition through wide-ranging, ever refocusing lenses. The perfect storm that occurs when experimental music actually yields rewards worthy of the risks. It’s genuinely gutting that they never quite caught lightning in a bottle again but we’ll always have this record and the giddy memories of some spectacular live shows of the time.
Squares is the hit single they deserved but never got, Dragon is the most blissful five minutes of trip-hop this side of Bristol that morphs into a raucous dub-rock chorus and crawls back out the other side, before ending on a lo-fi psychedelic mood. Quiet is a xylophone-tinged rocker that became a different animal live as the band hopped around the stage in a frenzy of instrument-swapping and improv drums. Life is a looming, introspective folk-hop lament. “I want to be somebody else, I feel I wanna be free… is this me for life?”
It’s one of those albums that invites you to listen in closely to hear all the intricate details but simultaneously gets better the further you step back and appreciate it as the sum of its parts. An absolute masterpiece.
R.E.M.
5/5
I've now had four R.E.M. albums in 250 days, in chronological order. I've consistently rated them as solid enjoyable 4-star albums but with 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤, I feel they hit their peak. It's stuffed with great tracks that cover a wide variety of sounds, moods and tempos. The dark, building creep of Drive, the straightforward upbeat rock of Man on the Moon and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, the gorgeous, lurching wall of sound on Sweetness Follows, all the way to the wonderful Find The River.
It always elevates an album when they nail the order and flow of tracks and R.E.M. got this absolutely right in my mind.
The Associates
1/5
80s Synth-Pop but without any upbeat catchy hooks to at least provide the odd glimmer of guilty pleasure. It's miserable from start to finish. The best moment was the little instrumental outro track at the end.
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
So my reward for getting two 5s in a row for only the second time in 600 days, is getting two 1s in a row, for only the second time in 602 days. Rough. And it's more 80s synth-pop. Slightly less dreary and miserable than the Associates, but zero desire to sit through it again.
The Monkees
2/5
We're just like The Beatles, honest! See how we make the same kind of music and sound and look a bit like them and can do the silly charming chatter on the album as well?
No. You're not and you can't. Twee and boring.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
It sounds like what you'd get if Bjork fronted a late 80s post-punk band.
There are some cool tracks and it's pretty uplifting vibe overall but it feels a bit zany and not something I'd be that likely to come back to regularly.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
There are some half-decent bursts of a sort of post/punk rock but it gets long forgotten after a lot of John Lydon screaming and wailing and just a load of random half-realised noise. 'Public Image' could just about be deemed a song. 'Annalisa' might have been if someone had kindly faded it out three minutes sooner. This has been a terrible week so far.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
I don't necessarily have anything 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 Punjabi worship music. It started out quite pleasant with some nice melodic guitar sounds and his impressive vocals. It soon wore me down though. It got a bit repetitive and monotonous.
Blondie
4/5
I'm not particularly into New Wave but this is a great album nonetheless. The songs I knew are all great, although some I've probably heard enough of for one lifetime, never mind 'before I die'. The album tracks range from ok to really good but it's solid enough to earn a 4 in a really iffy week.
Van Morrison
3/5
There's always going to be a ceiling on how highly I'll rate a long, live album peppered with cover versions. The vibe is all good and it's not unpleasant to listen to but you'd need to be in the mood for an hour and a half of blues-tinged yacht rock and probably be a Van Morrison fan specifically. If he'd picked the best 40 minutes I'd be feeling more generous but as it is, I just found there was way too much of it to want to return for repeat listens.
Barry Adamson
3/5
The second - and second-best - album on this list so far to have this kind of title schmitle.
The crazy thing about this Barry Adamson guy is he knows his way around a tune, there are some great things happening here, some really nicely done atmospherics and interesting instrumentation. But he decides he wants to keep throwing us off with bizarre lyrical choices, outright weird ideas and once again pretending he's making the soundtrack to a film, which he's not. It's particularly odd that he features multiple times and this is very similar to the other of his albums in the list. If we really needed to hear a Barry Adamson album before we all die, I can assure you that we did not need to hear yet another one too, that leans on many of the same ideas.
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Generated this: who is this?
Listened to it: why is it here?
It's just bang average bland hipster folk. I gave it another listen and his voice was even more annoying the second time around with the forced, over-the-top vibrato and just a total lack of variation.
James Brown
3/5
The Godfather of Soul. About as cool as you'd expect. The voice is pretty amazing (especially considering this was recorded over 60 years ago) and musically it's just such a vibe. It's not my favourite genre or an album I'll be making lots of return trips to but it's a highly enjoyable listen and a lot of fun.
The Pogues
1/5
I already had If I Should Fall From Grace With God and awarded it one star in spite of it featuring the stone cold classic Fairytale of New York. So what in the world were they thinking adding a second Pogues album that does the exact same shit for another 45 minutes?! It’s somewhere between a barn dance and a renaissance fair and both of those things are a million miles away from being enjoyable listening for me. I will never ever willingly choose to put this on and I maintain there is no need whatsoever for TWO Pogues LPs to be on the list.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
I absolutely loved the 2000 Emmylou album I discovered last year, Red Dirt Girl but I was made aware that it was quite the departure from her typical country style, so I knew if I met her again in the future (or the past as it happens here), it may be a shade disappointing for a non-country music fan. And so is the case, but it took a few background semi-listens before I stopped on a quiet evening and actually digested this on my headphones and was reminded of a lot of what I loved about Red Dirt Girl. Her voice is simply gorgeous, dripping with longing, regret and authenticity. She knows her way around a good song and her tone suits the genre perfectly.
Once again, I feel there's a ceiling on how highly I will rate an album that's almost entirely comprised of other people's songwriting (Red Dirt Girl, conversely, wins hands-down again on this front, being almost entirely written by Harris herself) but she executes everything here beautifully. I must confess I don't love her take on The Beatles' For No-One; she's taken the melody in a different direction to the original. While I do feel if you're going to cover something well-known, you may as well do something interesting with it, I just didn't feel it myself.
Overall though, she has a little credit in the bank with me and I enjoyed it for the most part.
David Gray
4/5
Objectively, White Ladder is a nice, inoffensive, accessible album that somehow sold about 700 million copies and veers far too close to the bland side of a 2.5ish rating. However, for me it has two tracks and a life event that elevate it beyond that.
I’d been recommended the CD by a friend on the strength of a hidden track, Through To Myself. The trick was to rewind track 1 until you found it. In those days, most of my music consumption was via iPod and aux cable but annoyingly, iTunes couldn’t find the track so I had to listen to it on the only CD player I owned; in my car. It then basically stayed in the car indefinitely while I had the stereo set to aux 99% of the time.
Some time later, on the day my wife went into labour with our firstborn, my iPod was safely packed in the “go” bag so the drive to the birth centre was soundtracked by White Ladder by default. Fine, it’s a nice, inoffensive, accessible album and we had other things on our minds. But one of my most vivid and emotional musical memories is from the following morning. I got into the car to go and buy breakfast for myself and my heroic wife who had just brought our beautiful daughter into the world at 4am.
I turned on the engine and ‘This Year’s Love’ started playing. I sat and sobbed for four minutes, overwhelmed with tiredness, joy, probably some mild terror and the feeling that my life would never be the same again. It’s a beautiful song about hope and taking a leap into love, not knowing whether or not it’s going to break you. So yeah, every time I hear that song, it takes me back to the day my life changed forever, for the better.
And my friend was right - Through To Myself is also an absolute banger, somehow made sweeter by the feeling that of the 700 million-odd people who bought this nice, safe, inoffensive, accessible album, most of them probably never even heard it.
Missy Elliott
4/5
The first time I heard this album was on a long, long road trip from Dallas to Los Angeles with my dear friend Anthony (rest in peace big guy). I can't remember everything, or even all that much we listened to on the 24-hour road trip but I do remember this. It was Ant's suggestion, I wasn't too excited about it but I had to concede I was wrong to judge. This is a fantastic album. It's the epitome of Old School, combining Missy's irrepressible attitude and vocals with Timbaland driving the beats and samples to create a patchwork of both progressive and retrospective grooves.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
It's a 4 from me
David Crosby
3/5
I really enjoyed the CSNY album I generated last year, Deja Vu, and it's been interesting exploring the various solo projects from the respective members. Here, Crosby pushes the psych-rock envelope with long, meandering tunes that showcase his guitar playing with dreamy, ethereal elements. I found it a bit lacking in direction and purpose at time, I'd be interested to hear what he'd have made with a producer pushing him to tighten up the arrangements as there are glimmers of lovely harmony and superb guitar work. For me it was just a bit vague and loose but at no point did I find it a difficult listen. Nice stuff.
Burning Spear
3/5
Saw the front cover, knowing nothing about Burning Spear and assumed this was some hardcore/punk stuff. I also assumed Marcus Garvey was the artist and Burning Spear was the album. Apologies to him as I hit play and discovered this was some pretty sunny reggae and I quite enjoyed it on what seemed like the last day of summer.
Eurythmics
3/5
Could've been a lot worse for me, being 80s synth-pop/new wave but I found a lot of decent, catchy hooks and her vocals are actually great; they fit the vibe perfectly and she harmonises with herself really well. I'm very unlikely to be in a Eurythmics mood often if ever but I didn't mind it chugging away on a long drive and even nodded along at some points.
Boards of Canada
3/5
This brings a very 'jazz' essence for me. Not in the way it sounds, on the face of it, but in its overall energy. It's cool that they could do all this with their instruments and it's certainly not unpleasant to listen to but it feels more like a tapestry of sound that doesn't really take the form of songs or 'tracks' as we know them. It makes for a nice electronic backdrop that I could have on while reading, relaxing or working, without getting distracted.
The cover art also feels somehow appropriate in this regard as it shows a group of people, out of focus, distorted by colour and without faces. Somehow while there is something interesting and arresting here, it just lacks a bit of 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺?
Saint Etienne
2/5
I prefer the football team.
It was a bit stuck between things. Sometimes verging on baggy, sometimes a bit house-y but didn’t really lean into it. Some nice moments but overall nothing I’m really excited to return to.
White Denim
4/5
When I generate something I've never heard of before, I try to go in as blind as possible; no Wikipedia, no scrolling down on Spotify to see what 'fans also liked'. Add it to the daily playlist and hit play.
And this was a really pleasant surprise. I had noticed it was a 2011 release but it would fit right in with late 60s-early 70s psych, from the cover art to the flange-fuzzy melodic guitar tone, straightforward-but-effective production, long jammy instrumentals and surreal lyrics. Tracks run into each other and the structures keep you guessing. We're treated to some jazzy flute solos alongside summery, virtuoso guitar lines and a stomping rhythm and bass section.
I have been looking forward to repeat listens and kept this on rotation for a number of days. I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of White Denim until today but I'm really glad I know about them now.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
It's strange how things come around and go around. This album was everywhere in 1999-2001 and my perception was that it had a pretty watertight reputation as an album that was probably a bit overplayed (not massively helped by having four or five big singles that were on the radio constantly) but universally hailed as a classic. Listening to it 26 years later is much less rewarding and the consensus seems to be that it's not held up. It's still got its great moments, the band is tight, in sync and it's very listenable. I'm a lot less excited about it now than I was then though, and I suspect that's down to my maturing music taste and the fact it's actually quite shallow as an album. Lyrically, it's all over the place. Musically, it's a catalogue of wasted potential; great moments that give way to uninspiring choices at every turn and too many humdrum tracks allowed to creep onto the second half.
The opener Around The World sums this whole experience up perfectly. First, it breaks in with that trademark spiky, Flea-driven groove on the verses but then it flops back into a disappointingly middle-of-the-road chorus of 'life is beautiful around the world'. Towards the end of the song, Anthony Kiedis gets so bored of his own lyrics, he just resorts to lazily scatting to fill the bars. Even a signature funky instrumental bridge near the end can't quite save it, despite a lively flourish of guitars and slap bass. And that's one of the 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 of the record. On the album as a whole, we have moments of brilliance (Parallel Universe's swaggering rhythm section, the iconic guitar riff on Scar Tissue, recalling Under The Bridge but falling flat once again on the chorus. The rasping guitar-bass interplay on Otherside and Get On Top) but they give way to far too many forgettable numbers in the second half. 'Easily' is easily skipped and while we're at it, you can quite easily skip the whole run to Purple Stain and not really miss much. I will defend Right On Time to the death though, and Road Trippin' is a solid closer.
I saw the Chilis live a couple of times around this era and while I remember them being excellent, I don't really recall much beyond the fact that I was there. And I think Flea was naked at one point. That feels a bit damning. (Not Flea being Flea. The fact I can't really remember much of the shows...)
A few months ago I generated Blood Sugar Sex Magik and while I assumed it had 4 written all over it, I ended up giving it a 5 as it had all this but with a lot more edge to it. I'd have said Californication also had 4 written all over it but I'm pretty content rounding down this time around.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
'Tigermilk' squeezed a four star rating out of me, in spite of myself. I'm not entirely convinced we need a second Belle & Sebastian album on this list, never mind one that followed just six months later and sounds like more of exactly the same. I guess that makes this more a critique of the list's authors than the album itself but I can only speak to my own organic response. It's more perfectly nice, gentle folky indie with some clever lyrics and inoffensive melodies. But it's not doing anything I haven't heard before, whether on its predecessor or any of the seven or eight albums they made using this exact formula in the decade or so that followed. I found myself quite enjoying Barfly but then I realised it was basically the same melody line as She Bangs The Drums. If you'd not spotted that yet, you'll not be able to unhear it now, so, you're welcome!
Nice and easy listening but not particularly exciting.
Van Halen
4/5
Sometimes what you really need is to listen to delicate, intricate and nuanced music which speaks to your soul and challenges your perception of what music is; how, why and to what end. To feel, experience and connect on an intellectual and spiritual level with the notes, chords, lyrics and atmosphere.
And sometimes you just need to listen to Eddie Van Halen shredding his way through the 1-2-3 punch of Running With The Devil, Eruption and You Really Got Me.
3/5
I don't mind a bit of prog. I don't love a LOT of prog though and this list does seem to have a bit more prog than it probably needs. I hadn't heard this before and it's pretty good; like the best prog I've discovered so far, plenty of good stuff emerges from the long, thick clumps of music that sort of chug away. But it's always just buried so deep within these needlessly long and elaborate passages.
I do understand why people love it and I can imagine it being pretty mind-blowing when it all emerged from the jazz and rock of the 70s. But I think at this point I get the gist of it and we're just adding context for the sake of it. There are some great moments but I'm not going to be coming back to plough through all this to find them with much regularity.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Quite enjoyed its broody atmosphere and some cool moments and I don't mind the experimentation but overall I just found myself running out of patience. Especially knowing now that their later work would be so much tighter, more immediate and just plain better.
N.E.R.D
2/5
In the early 00s, I didn’t know enough about hip-hop to appreciate the importance of producers in crafting the sound. Around that time, someone who did, told me that “everything The Neptunes touch turns to gold” and this statement seemed cool and sophisticated enough that I faithfully parroted it for the next few years. So naturally I had to back this up by finding out what The Neptunes (two thirds of N.E.R.D) had actually produced and led me to buy their compilation ‘Clones’, followed by digging into the N.E.R.D albums. If this list allowed compilations then I’d fully understand and expect Clones to have made the cut over this record.
I would soon discover that The Neptunes were at their best when channeling and featuring some of the best talent in hip-hop at the time and putting them at centre stage. What we get on Fly Or Die is essentially The Neptunes (and friend) cosplaying as a rock band, learning to play real instruments and putting themselves at the forefront. It’s not my place to tell anyone what kind of music they should make or gatekeep rock music at all. But music journalists are capable of hearing something like this and calling it what it is. The fact it’s included in the book of 1001 albums you MUST hear before you die is pretty embarrassing really. It’s decent in places. They do know their way around a hook and some tracks are memorable but it’s not an album I came back to for repeat listens and hearing it again after 20 years, I don’t feel tempted now. I’m sure there are less proficient artists in the 1001 who got away with faking it, but The Neptunes thankfully continued producing good records for other people while their side project has now disbanded.
Do yourself a favour, pop this one back down and give Clones a listen instead.
Brian Eno
3/5
There's nothing wrong with a nice choice of wallpaper. I mean, at the end of the day it's just wallpaper. It's there to sit in the background and make the room more pleasant without really getting in the way. It doesn't make the room. But it certainly can make the room a bit nicer.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I remember not quite catching the excitement and fervour that a lot of my friends did at the time this came out. It has some fantastic numbers on it but somehow just didn't quite ignite for me. That said, listening to it now it has all the ingredients and is their best work in terms of raw emotion and authenticity. Great songs like Rebellion (Lies), The Crown Of Love or The Neighbourhood suite don't come along every day and it was both very accessible and replayable while also being pretty experimental at the time.
I think perhaps some of my resistance at the time was due to their bandwagon trendy hipsterness. You can absolutely make cool music without dressing like the cast of Schrute Farms and it's also ok to crack a smile from time to time.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
After four really consistent Leonard Cohen I seem to have hit my limit, as I found this one less memorable and less engaging than the others. The voice is still somewhere between the youthful rawness of his debut and the rich treacle of his later years so it falls a little flat at times and while the songwriting is still very good, it never really stopped me in my tracks the way it has on the other three of his albums.
Throwing Muses
3/5
A bit of fun and some good numbers thrown in there. I was always going to be wooed by the bass guitar and occasional vocal harmonies but it hit its ceiling and repeat listens didn't really challenge that.
The Damned
4/5
Quite enjoy some dirty punk, especially when it's slightly lesser-known and therefore not overplayed (at least to me) and found myself nodding along and adding multiple tracks to my playlist. Found this generally a good fun album and liked it more the more I listened to it. Definitely one I'll be coming back to.
The Dictators
3/5
There's some decent shouty punky rock here. I'm not entirely sure who was asking for a really pretty bad, slow punk cover of I Got You Babe but there it is. I found it a bit generic and repeat plays didn't really reveal anything new to me.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Two Arcade Fire albums in a week! And possibly the best two? Neon Bible is darker, moodier and more fully-realised than Funeral and for my money it's a better album for it. The track sequencing always puzzled me though. You have this fantastic moody, looming opener, Black Mirror, which sets the tone, then one of the album's brightest moments in Keep The Car Running brings the tone right up, only for Neon Bible and Intervention to drop it back down. I realise it's a bit sacrilegious to mess with the order of a concept album but I much prefer it with those three tracks reordered.
Housekeeping aside, where it does benefit from being fuller and more focused than its predecessor, it then suffers from feeling overblown at times and losing the carefree rawness. I also feel like there's a tendency for tracks to start to blend into each other and the formula gets repeated a little too often. I listened to this album a lot when it was new but I still had to check the names of basically every track outside of Keep The Car Running, which to me speaks to it lacking a bit of variation and range? It's probably just an example of art being subjective and where my head might be tempted to consider 5 stars, my heart is saying 4.
Queen Latifah
3/5
Pretty good fun and certainly important for rap and R&B - laid the groundwork for a lot of what would follow in the shape of Missy Elliott, TLC, Destiny’s Child… it does sound dated and a bit corny in places, you can almost hear the dayglo shellsuits being zipped up in the background.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Possibly unfair on Stevie to draw this one after Songs In The Key... in spite of being released first and representing an earlier stage in his development. This is still a really good album, albeit in a genre I generally don't turn to. When it's strong, it's excellent (Higher Ground, Golden Lady, Misstra Know-It-All) but a bit too much of it fades away for me and is just objectively cool without leaving much impact on me personally.
I have enjoyed listening to this sporadically over the past few days and will happily listen again, but probably won't go and pick it out anytime soon.
The Prodigy
4/5
I listened to this album a lot in my teens and the trajectory from here to The Fat Of The Land is one of the greatest in British music, period. This album is a tribute to the rave scene while Liam Howlett desperately pulled the band towards more progressive punk fusion. Strong themes of rebellion and defiance sit as a response to the government at the time making moves to curtail the growing underground scene. But it was more than a punk attitude starting to spill over into their well-drilled big beat electronica; from the guitars on Their Law provided by Pop Will Eat Itself to the Nirvana and Led Zeppelin samples on Voodoo People, the band was preparing to lurch directly into the mainstream with their high-octane blend of synths, samples and rock'n'roll.
With 'Jilted', they were on the precipice but not quite fully formed. While this album is a masterclass in sampling and downright nasty beats, after a knockout first half, culminating with the superb centrepiece of 'Poison', it begins to sag a little. I had hoped to live my life never hearing the dire 'One Love' again (terrifyingly an edited version of a much longer original) and I also tend to skip No Good (Start The Dance) but the closing three-track 'Narcotic Suite' bring back some experimental flair to the album and demonstrate Liam's lingering loyalty to his synths.
It would soon be bettered by its successor, propelling The Prodigy to new heights of greatness and popularity and making a superstar of the late, great Keith Flint.
Spiritualized
5/5
I finally succumbed to the Spiritualized hype on this album's successor, Let It Come Down. An album I loved and played a lot in my teenage years. I even managed to scratch it on my favourite track, Stop Your Crying and was forced to buy it a second time. It was only a few years later that I finally made time to rummage back into the critically adored Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.
I was an avid Q and NME reader in my teens (definitely helped by having a paper round and an open tab to subtract the cost of magazines from my weekly wages) and both publications seemed obsessed with Jason Pierce and this anecdote about him assembling a band, creating an incredible work of art and then sacking them all before starting on the next album. I was irritated both by this behaviour and by the mags' fawning over it as being some sort of cool rock'n'roll schtick. I've also found it rather disappointing how fixated Pierce seems to be with drugs, throughout his body of work. (2022's Everything Was Beautiful is yet another strong album and contains a majestic song called Laid In Your Arms, which I thought was stunning, thrilling and romantic until I listened a little closer and realised it wasn't a person in whose arms he was laid... it was just drugs, once again.)
But yes, I finally bought this album and my initial response was that it was harsher and louder and messier and longer than its dreamy successor and didn't have a song I loved as much as Stop Your Crying. And yeah, it was all about drugs, to which I couldn't relate at the age of 16, 18 or really any stage of my life since. So I somewhat dismissed and have neglected it ever since.
The criticisms I have are still valid and I still personally prefer Let It Come Down, but listening to Ladies and Gentlemen... a couple of times this week, I can't help but admit that in spite of the length and the messiness and the edginess and the bordering-on-ridiculous-obsession with drugs, it's an utterly fantastic LP that should be recognised as one of the very best in arguably the greatest year in music history.
Dennis Wilson
4/5
There's a lurching swagger running through this record that makes it feel almost impossibly cool. Probably cooler than it actually is, but you can already tell just from looking at the cover art that that sums Dennis up perfectly. When it's good, it's fantastic. The rich vocal harmonies (he was paying attention in all those Beach Boys recording sessions), the confident bursts of brass and Brian-esque piano chords, the brooding, breathy lead vocals and blues licks are all hugely enjoyable. Thoughts Of You has a bombastic, almost Pink Floyd-esque dynamic, shifting from vast instrumental walls of sound to a delicate piano backdrop for the ending refrain. For me, it doesn't quite maintain that throughout, though, and it feels a bit phoned-in in places.
Reading around the background of this project and Dennis more generally is fascinating. He was clearly quite the character and a victim of the wild LA scene of the time, making some highly questionable choices of who he hung around with but seemingly a guy who was often at the heart of the party. He apparently proudly embodied the adage of 'live fast, die young' but I'm glad he at least had a shot at getting his own solo work out there before his tragic death. This is a great little album that I am glad to have discovered.
Bert Jansch
3/5
He has a lovely, stripped back fingerpicking style and has written some really pretty songs. I listened to it a few times as it was just a really nice vibe but after multiple times I still felt like nothing here really reached out and grabbed me as being a particularly high point. I guess that's ok, but when Nick Drake does something similar, for example, he somehow finds that little bit of magic dust to elevate the simple sounds of the wood and the wire to another level. It's consistently good but never quite great, for me.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
Fun and funky as hell. Another one I'd have never discovered without this challenge so I'm prepared to round up what would probably be a 3.5 on the 'pleasantly surprised' factor.
Serge Gainsbourg
4/5
This album has actually made me incredibly frustrated. There is so much excellent music in there but he insists on chuntering over it all his breathy, monotone ‘singing’ turned right up in the mix, to the point where I can’t just put this on and enjoy it.
There are so many great bass lines, guitar fills and instrumental wizardry I would honestly have called this a masterpiece if it was completely instrumental. It flows, swells and the orchestral arrangements are perfect. I even went in for a listen of the bonus tracks to see if there were instrumental versions to be extracted but it seems to be more of the same but with a few more cuts and a bit of studio chatter between takes. Such a missed opportunity but I guess the artist knows best.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
I didn’t really want to be spending 77 minutes listening to Christina Aguilera today but here we are. It’s got some good songs, her voice is great and the second half has a bit more variety than the opening run.
Still, won’t be listening to this again by choice. It’s just not a genre I enjoy.
Suicide
3/5
I actually quite enjoyed this entry from 1001 albums you must hear before you die by suicide
Is a sentence that really depends on correct punctuation.
I did find some of it a little too abrasive and if I go back to it, I’ll be using the skip button from time to time but I do plan to come back to it as there are plenty of cool moments of angry, melodic joy in here too. I can see why this had a mixed reception in its time but it definitely left its mark on electronic, punk and industrial over the following 30 years.
The Smiths
3/5
I knew they were coming for me but it's pretty amazing that I've made it through 645 days without hitting The Smiths, a band I have always disliked, just on the basis of the few singles I've been subjected to, while living in a house of Indie-loving Mancunians. In fairness to me, I disliked The Smiths long before I learned that Morrissey was an utter helmet; his vocal style has always made my skin crawl and it seemed like they always defaulted to jangly, over-trebly guitars and over-the-top, pretentious wannabe poetic (faux-etic?) lyrics.
So it seems I owe Johnny Marr an apology. The guitars are the one serious saving grace here; Marr varies his tones, styles and basically turns his talent to making a handful of decent tunes that even Moz can't completely ruin with his crooning. I even found the irresistible acoustic guitar riff of Girlfriend In A Coma got stuck in my head for days.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Every now and again, a glimmer of genius emerges from the murk. A wonderful little hook, a guitar twiddle, a fragment of bassline. Sometimes even Beefheart himself sings with a bit of melody and you think 'maybe there's music here'. And then the aural terrorism returns. It was just so totally unnecessary to take all this musical talent and use it for evil. I refuse to accept that people enjoy this at face value rather than as an attempt to lord it over lesser listeners who just never had the musical or intellectual courage to 'get it'.
The Libertines
3/5
A band for whom I was very much present for the hype; the music press 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 of the depravity porn than The Libertines provided. I'm not going to judge the music by Pete Doherty's sad drug problems or the obsession with his and Carl Barat's tumultuous relationship but I do believe the relentless column inches drove far more attention their way than the tunes deserved. The early-noughties version of engagement bait, if you will.
And so, the tunes. Could they find catchy little guitar hooks? Occasionally, sure. Did they turn those into consistently decent complete songs? Seldom. Can't Stand Me Now is the closest they came on this LP, which was somehow recorded in between Carl and Pete having fist fights, Pete being strung out on smack, burgling Carl's flat and subsequently doing time in prison. But they muddle through thirteen more really-quite-average garage rockers without much in the way of technical proficiency or lyrical nuance.
I can absolutely forgive a lack of ability - tunes teased out of instruments played with passion before young, keen bandmembers quite know what they're doing - fine by me if they're good tunes. But I don't even really hear many tunes being teased out here and I wonder how much of the teasing is thanks to Mick Jones' presence in the studio.
While I may well have been caught bopping once or twice to Can't Stand Me Now or the criminally non-album-despite-being-recorded-around-the-same-time, Don't Look Back Into The Sun (easily the best Libertines song ever made), I never quite boarded the bandwagon in 2002 and I'm not particularly tempted to now. I get why it's here but I don't really need it in my life these days.
Shack
2/5
I’d never heard of Shack and was surprised to read that they predate Britpop as this sounds like a fairly derivative Oasis/Stones-lite North-West indie act clinging to its coattails. I’d much rather listen to any number of similar-sounding acts from the same era who were writing better, more catchy and lyrically clever songs at the time. There are some half-decent moments but I have no idea why this made the list.
Simply Red
1/5
Simply Dreadful
Boston
4/5
First time I've really listened to Boston. My first impression was that it was all a bit cheesy hair balladry but after More Than A Feeling and Peace of Mind, it improves significantly. Foreplay essentially sets us up to think we've managed to stumble unwittingly into a prog album before Long Time reminds us that where prog and classic rock cross over in just the right proportions, greatness can reign.
The second half is all more straightforward 70s riff rock with some solid blues influence and honestly I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected (or hoped) that I would. Hitch a Ride is a hidden gem with another few bursts of wild organ and delightful guitar fills and before you know it, the ride is over; it doesn't outstay its welcome and even ended up getting a few replays this week. Fair play to you, Boston. This thing is pretty great.
Beck
5/5
So, the generator has not finished feeding me Beck albums and we hit peak Beck, in his mid-90s pomp.
Within Beck's discography, you get a total variety of different flavours of albums. Within this album you get a complete smorgasbord of different kinds of songs and within each song you're also likely to get a ramshackle pick'n'mix of hip-hop, folktronica and psychedelic rock.
The raucous guitar line that underpins Devil's Haircut, the irresistable stomp of Where It's At, the groovy electronic mosaic of The New Pollution (complete with dreamy sax solo on the way out), the delicious bassline of Novacane or the glittering country twang of Jack-Ass. Take your pick, it's all fantastic.
Jungle Brothers
5/5
When I find myself repeatedly adding tracks to the library, it's time to consider that I just need this album in my life. It's fun, it's funky, the production is outstanding (please can we have a remaster, as it also feels a bit quiet and muddy in the mix?) and lyrically it's smooth, funny and clever. There are influences from jazz, house, R&B and Afrobeat, but they all sit alongside each other seamlessly, reminiscent of Paul's Boutique with its combining of samples with live instruments.
I've come back to it repeatedly over the past week and it's had me combing through their other releases for more gems. Now to find myself a copy.
The White Stripes
4/5
In February 2003, aware that I was spending too much of my student overdraft on CDs, I decided to give up buying them for lent. This caused me some issues when The White Stripes released one of the defining albums of the noughties a few weeks shy of Easter. So I bent my own rules, created a vinyl loophole and bought Elephant on LP. As it turned out, Jack White had decided they would be eschewing digital technology in the production and making this whole thing on analogue, so this actually felt accidentally apt.
It's an album that will always stand out for the single that ended up being arguably bigger than the band themselves, Seven Nation Army. But there's a sackful of garage rock goodness to go around here, from the all-out rocker of Black Math to the irrepressible stomp of The Hardest Button To Button. If there's a weakness across the Stripes' output, for me it's the slower songs in their canon, but overall, Elephant is the most consistent and replayable album in their impressive catalogue.
Slipknot
2/5
Look, there's a time and a place where a bit of furious Nu-Metal can be fun and get the adrenaline going in a good way. At my age, unfortunately these times and places are few and far between. He sounds so unbelievably angry at the world, and this is 1999. They have no idea how angry the world is going to make us all 20 years on. And why is he taking it out on me? Just tirades of yelling and fury. I can pick out some elements that I enjoy but there's just so much overdramatic noise that I'd never ever choose to put it on. I guess I'm not really its audience anymore though.
Aimee Mann
2/5
A crucial influence on Natalie Imbruglia and Avril Lavigne, probably. Does this really need to be here?
Scritti Politti
3/5
I’m not at all keen on 80s synth pop so this ticks all the wrong boxes as far as I’m concerned. But it’s not a challenging listen, it’s got some catchy lines and for being everything I usually hate, I didn’t mind it all that much.
George Michael
2/5
Sorry George, I think you were probably a really nice dude but this is just not my vibe. The title track is good though.
Cee Lo Green
2/5
Too long and too much of it is just plodding, unremarkable R&B that I can do without. The Ludacris feature had me bopping my head so that's a bonus star but I'm not going any higher than that.
Ute Lemper
1/5
I don't know who she is. I don't know what this is. And I have no earthly idea why I 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 listen to it. Just a load of weird atmospheric sort-of vocal jazz that feels like a shit movie soundtrack. Punishing Kiss? My arse.
The Who
3/5
As an attempt at a concept album, for me this sadly falls flat. It's slightly unfair that it was released just a few months after arguably the greatest concept album of all time but even so, it just doesn't hang together very convincingly. As a simple collection of 60s rock songs, it's pretty solid. Maybe they should've dropped the weird fake advert stuff and just focused on rocking out.
Outside of Who's Next, it just seems like The Who found a pretty consistent sound and didn't really ever venture too far from it. Once again, it's hard not to compare them unfavourably on this count to the likes of The Beatles and Floyd who took their sound on a wild evolution from the mid 60s onwards. I enjoyed it but after a few replays, I didn't really feel like much of it stood out to me.
Bebel Gilberto
2/5
As far as jazzy, sexy Brasilian wallpaper goes, I guess this is fine, but it doesn't exactly demand attention. Apparently the producer, 'Suba' Subotić tragically died while rescuing the tapes from a studio fire.
I feel a bit like Colin Firth's character in Love Actually where the Portuguese maid jumps into a lake to save his novel while he desperately tries to convince her, despite them not speaking the same language, that it's really not worth saving.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Like a nice warm massage for the soul
Kate Bush
2/5
I’m not a big fan of weird for the sake of weird, but I do have a degree of respect for experimentalism. Kate Bush earns some of that respect for this punishingly bizarre album but I don’t plan on listening to it ever again.
Paul Simon
5/5
Fascinating glimpse into Paul Simon stepping out on his own, post-split from Garfunkel. You could forgive him for keeping things really simple; writing his signature folk songs and delivering them with consummate effortlessness. But no, he's not content to do this on more than a handful of songs. He is also insistent on taking inspiration from rock, reggae, blues, Latin music and jazz; a very telling peek into his overall curiosity and wide-angled lens on music. The man just loves to push boundaries and try his hand at new things.
When you couple that hyperactive musical palate, the fastidious attention to detail and Paul's natural talent for poetry and melody, you are onto something truly special. This LP was just the tip of the iceberg. Paul's opening statement, but it's also a sublime collection of inspired songcraft that dabbles in the unexpected while remaining totally accessible and delightful.
Badly Drawn Boy
4/5
Well, this brings back memories of riding the bus to the record shop and spending my wages from my first job on random CDs I'd never heard just in case they were amazing. I also had a discman with me so I could try the new stuff out on the bus home. I actually remember picking this up and listening to it a lot in a short space of time. I remember flicking through the booklet while enjoying its simple, sweet melodies and straightforward but thoughtful arrangements. And then I remember not listening to it again for about 25 years, so I'm not sure it really had the staying power required to really consider it a classic or must-listen. It has some great moments; Once Around The Block was an excellent lead single, and opener The Shining evoked a warm smile and spent the rest of the day stuck in my head.
Listening to the instrumental sort-of-title track, Bewilderbeast, though, reminded me of why I generally found it a little twee and irksome in places (and probably why it then gathered 25 years of dust). A sweet glockenspiel line comes in towards the end of the track, and it's out of tune with the rest of the instruments. I'm not sure of the solution to an out-of-tune glockenspiel. You can't tweak its knobs or stretch it out a touch. I think you have to physically shave the metal bars, or you just have to go with it, and tune the rest of the instruments 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵. So I understand why, if it was a musical afterthought, that it was left in and its tuning ignored. But I also wish someone had pointed it out and got him a different one. I often feel this way about lo-fi records though, and while I appreciate it's a part of their charm and it definitely works in moderation, there's a reason most artists work to a more polished finish. In fact, listening to the swaggering Disillusion towards the end of the record demonstrates that when he does give his work that extra bit of polish, it's quite fantastic.
I feel bad wanting to take off more than a single star, since being truly objective, it's a really nice, complete and clever album and the real reason I haven't listened to it for so long is my own shifting music taste. And that's hardly his fault, now is it?
Death In Vegas
2/5
Bought this in 1999 on the strength of Dirge and Aisha being moody and cool. I think I probably listened to the whole thing once or twice. I’ve given it another go this week but still, it just never really takes off for me. The whole thing is vibes and atmosphere so it wins on that front, but falls down on a lack of tunes.
The Black Keys
3/5
Everything about The Black Keys points to me being a fan. They're rock'n'roll, they're a bit dirty, garagey, bluesy. They were popular when I was consuming a lot of music like this but they somehow never quite caught and held my attention. Hell, I own this album and forgot that I had it until I was scrolling my iTunes looking for something else this week. I couldn't remember or recognise a single moment. It's generally good and an easy listen but it just fails to excite me. I never raised the enthusiasm to go and see them live at the time or quite possibly, I did but I've already forgotten about it.
So this is about as 2.5 an album as I can possibly imagine but I do find myself feeling that it's better than most of my 2s, even if it's also worse than most of my 3s.
Lambchop
2/5
Found this to be twee and schmaltzy and I've no earthly idea, either from listening to it or reading about it, why it was included in the book. Utterly forgettable and dull.
Coldcut
3/5
Another tricky side quest, as one that's not on any streaming platform except YouTube, where because I won't pay for a subscription, I have no choice but to 'watch' it play while keeping my screen on the app. I'm not opposed to buying an album like this if I have a good idea that I'm going to like it but the first track on YouTube told me that's probably not necessary here. I like it when it's hip-hoppy and the sampling is cool and funky. But it's also a bit house-y and wore thin on my patience. I'd like to give it more of a chance and not be too swayed by the platform, as that's hardly Coldcut's fault. But I don't feel that excited to spend another hour with it, if I'm honest. That'll do.
I definitely groaned when this was generated for me on a nice calm Sunday morning. Who wants to ruin a nice day off by blasting 'Beautiful Day' and pissing off the dogs and neighbours?! It's a shame it was so horribly overplayed and will forever be associated with the dark days of ITV winning the rights to Match of the Day from the BBC and choosing Bono to replace one of British television's most iconic theme tunes. It's objectively a great tune and opener but that kind of tarnish is hard to shake. The true nadir of All That You Can't Leave Behind then arrives in the form of the truly awful 'Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of'. (And not just for its unforgivably sloppy stranded preposition; just imagine Bono attempting to make a chorus out of 'you've got stuck in a moment, out of which you cannot get'?)
Fortunately for U2, and my Sunday morning, things improve vastly from there and I'll be damned if I didn't find myself enjoying a good 80% of this album. I've always appreciated Brian Eno productions and his work helps to elevate the less single-heavy second half of this album with his complex and at times dreamy interpretations of what are otherwise a little unremarkable rockers. I do think overall it feels a bit safe and predictable. 'Elevation', 'Walk On' and 'Kite' are great for what they are, basically cookie-cutter catchy rock songs and I enjoyed the pulsing ambience in the closing run of 'New York' and 'Grace', but after applying the standard U2 tax, this will have to sit as a solid 3 rather than scraping a 4.
B.B. King
3/5
'The Blues' famously means having feelings of sadness. This is about the most joyous and fun half hour of sadness I've heard in a long time. This boy could PLAY.
Elastica
4/5
Once again, the Britpop selections in this list come through with the goods. Being famously both Brett Anderson and Damon Albarn's girlfriend (although not at the same time...) did Justine Frischmann a massive disservice. She was a brilliant frontwoman in her own right and despite whatever musical contribution Albarn may have provided on Elastica, she absolutely knew how to deliver superb, tight, catchy 2-3 minute rock songs. It just made such an easy introduction to every review, interview and article that nobody could resist.
The majority of this album is straight-up single material (and a third of it was actually released as singles); 'Stutter', 'Waking Up', 'Annie' and the excellent 'Blue', punctuating legitimate transcends-the-Britpop-genre classic 'Connection'. They also had a bit of fun trying different vibes such as the atmospheric, shoegazy 'Indian Song', the sleazy '2:1' and post-punky 'Never Here', but there's always another 2-minute bopper to bring you back. It never outlasts the attention, never drops the adrenaline and has passed the test of time convincingly.
Billy Bragg
3/5
I have enormous love and respect for Billy Bragg and I had a great time finally giving Wilco the time of day a few months ago on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, so I really wanted to like this more than I did. It took me a few goes through to really appreciate it but of course the key is the lyrics and I've never been one to really hone in on lyrics until I have been truly hooked by the music. It did get me in the end but I still just don't think I'll be putting it into regular rotation. What a lovely idea and well executed by some fine musicians but it's just outside the sphere of what I really enjoy listening to.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
My second encounter of Rundgren after Something/Anything, which I really enjoyed. I was surprised to read that this album came after that one as it feels like a more chaotic and less refined selection. That, however, turns out to be a creative decision. A conscious attempt to throw out the accessibility in exchange for more experiments, more risks and frankly, more studio haphazardry. I found roughly the same breed of fun, catchy nuggets of greatness but he obviously wanted to wrap them up in more layers of noise and make us work (and wait) for them a little more. I don't mind that at all and while it took me a few days to digest this one fully and get my head around the songs, it's been well worth the effort.
The guy is a genius and it seems he never stopped trying new things or breaking the rules of what music can be. He may have eschewed becoming a Star but he was clearly a True Wizard of the studio.
Grizzly Bear
3/5
I wanted to like this so much more. I thought it would require repeat listens to unpack and it probably does, but after a good few goes, I'm still feeling a bit underwhelmed by it. The first few tracks are good and there are nice pockets of music scattered throughout but overall it doesn't hold my attention for enough of its runtime to be something I'm really excited to keep coming back to.
Maxwell
1/5
Would rather listen to Maxwell’s Silver Hammer on repeat for a hour. This was not enjoyable.
4/5
Call me a basic Bowie bitch but I just enjoy his pure straight-up rock albums so much more than his other stuff. Give me Starman, It Ain't Easy, Suffragette City or Rock'n'Roll Suicide over every minute of the quirky art rock experiments. I'm glad he made it all, I respect the hell out of him and love that he pushed those boundaries before it was cool but I'm going to rate based on what I want to listen to more than what piques my curiosity and seems clever.
Coldplay
4/5
There's still a good argument to be put forward that this is Coldplay's best work. Less is more; four guys playing standard 'band' instruments for 3-4 minute simple indie rock songs. And it works. There are a load of strong, memorable tunes here. Yellow and Trouble are classics and they probably could've had four or five hits with how well this album was received at the time. The real jewel in the crown though, is the excellent Everything's Not Lost, foreshadowing the greater ambition and bombast to come on successor A Rush Of Blood To The Head.
I do respect the fact Coldplay have gone on to even more ambitious things from there but I'm personally content to enjoy the early albums and not hold the shameless collabs and songs with emojis for titles but no actual substance against them too hard.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
I definitely thought they were another overhyped NME darling at the time but probably harshly. It is possible to be really good and also overrated if you’re being rated through the wazoo when you’re actually just really good. The fizzy, punky stuff is what made their name and elevated Karen O to indie goddess status but I personally think they’re at their best on the more layered, slow burners such as Maps and Modern Romance.
I don’t know who needs to read this as well but Spitting Off The Edge Of The World from their 2022 comeback album is an absolute stunner and reminder of the immense potential that earned them all that hype 20 years prior.
Q-Tip
4/5
What good is an ear if a Q-Tip isn’t in it?
Kings of Leon
3/5
I can actually remember the raw, visceral response to my first listen of this album. I wasn't even mad, I was just 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥. It even starts off so well. Closer is, ironically, a fantastic opener, and then Crawl was like a polished but still gnarly offcut from this album's predecessor, the superb Because Of The Times. And then the whole thing sinks to the abyss of bland, radio-friendly pop-rock, never to return. Sex On Fire is the prime suspect here, exposing the band to a huge new audience and setting the wheels in motion for a sell out on a spectacular scale. It used to really bother me that people would associate this band entirely with that one awful song, but thankfully, I simply grew out of them and was able to stop even wasting my time, money or energy raising any excitement for their subsequent releases.
I read somewhere that they actually hated those early years and felt that after this point they started to make the music that they really liked and wanted to make. Well, fair enough, I'm happy for them. But if they really want to be making stuff like 17 and Revelry then I won't be buying it. Their first three LPs were formative and hugely influential in my life. I suppose while Closer remains a great opener, it was the beginning of the end for me.
Slint
4/5
I've listened to this a few times this week sort of expecting it to fall into place and blow me away. I can't quite decide if it's pleasantly non-conformative and atmospheric in a post-rock way, or just pretentiously odd for the sake of it. I guess on the other hand, I've listened to this a few times this week and quite enjoyed it, so I guess it must be closer to the former.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Musically enjoyable, it feels like a lot of it is fairly basic 12-bar blues for Eric Clapton to riff over. At its best, it's really good but I could've almost been listening to about three or four tracks on a loop as it felt very samey and predictable after a while.
Ravi Shankar
2/5
I’m well aware that this will rank up there with the whitest, most Western-centric things I have or could ever say, but while this is broadly pleasant and inoffensive, I like this sound so much more when it has a Beatles song built around it.
In its raw form, it’s 10-plus-minutes of drone and sitar that I must confess, I was ready to move on from when it was over.
Roxy Music
2/5
I did enjoy this more than For Your Pleasure although that's not saying much as I gave that album one star. Instrumentally this feels more interesting but I still cannot stand the New Wave / New Romantic vocal style, it just cuts through me. Quite enjoyed Virginia Plain, only to discover it wasn't actually on the album and they added it to the US release after it was a standalone hit.
Dagmar Krause
2/5
Hate to 'punish' the album for being hard to find but it is really difficult to appreciate when peppered with YouTube ads and I swear the tracklisting I found was far longer than the standard album. The book says this one is under 40 minutes but I swear I was waiting for it to end for well over an hour. Maybe someone had added bonus tracks, maybe it had that many ads in it or maybe it just felt like that because it was a boring and repetitive listen. Some good atmospherics in the instrumental side, I'll give it that. But her voice is rough and I just did not enjoy the theatrics at all.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Four Sonic Youth albums in seven months. My Spotify Wrapped is going to love this. Well, it's apparently the last of their albums I'll be listening through this challenge and while I have enjoyed getting to know them, I do think the book editor(s) were pushing their luck here. Five albums spanning seven years is excessive from anyone not named The Beatles, and there's nowhere near enough progression or variety from one album to the next to justify it.
Sister is the second (chronologically) of that run, but you can't really tell as it hovers around the same territory as the rest, with noisy, messy, feedback-laden guitars and moments of melodic genius, scattered around its relatively snappy runtime. I found it neater and tidier than Daydream Nation but without quite as many highlights, and definitely better than Goo and E.V.O.L.
Sooner or later, I'll start buying some of these when I spot them in the wild but I will admit I'm glad to have completed the SY portion of the challenge. Once again, it's been hard to digest in a short space of time and I'll want to come back to it in due course.
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
It's a pleasant surprise to see this one make an appearance. Not because Teenage Fanclub don't deserve a place on the list but because they feel like the kind of band that could slip through unnoticed. I also would've chosen the more accessible (and commercially successful) Grand Prix if I was including one Fannies LP. But on a personal level, I love to see them given their dues as one of Britain's great underrated 90s bands. This was also a nice reminder to give this album a fresh listen as it's probably their album I return to the least. It has some fantastic little tunes on it and the vocal harmonies are excellent. It feels a little rough around the edges but that's not a bad thing - you could probably accuse them of feeling a little too polished on their late 90s-00s albums.
Dire Straits
4/5
A few months ago, I gave that Brothers In Arms a 5-star rating based largely on personal nostalgia and bias, yet here I am listening to their debut all the way through for the first time. It's actually surprisingly fresh, feels lighter, breezier and less self-indulgent than Brothers... a bit bluesy but also somehow more optimistic and innocent. I could definitely find myself adding this to the collection when I find the chance.
Sleater-Kinney
3/5
Punky guitars: good
Melodic in places and generally listenable
Those vibrato vocals: massively outstay their welcome
I liked it in places but I just got tired of the singing and I didn't really find anything going on here that felt enormously original or bold. Maybe you had to be there.
GZA
4/5
Smooth, fun and highly listenable.
Beyoncé
2/5
How do you rate somebody that is clearly, objectively very good at something you really don't enjoy? I can't be giving her a one star but I can't stand this kind of music and I'll never be consciously listening to this again.
Elliott Smith
3/5
There are some singer-songwriters whose work demands closer listens to find the fragile, tortured genius lurking behind the surface. And sometimes you’re midway through a three-year, one-a-day project to listen to 1000+ albums. Sorry Elliott, I just didn’t have the time or patience for a third go through. This was nice enough but failed to really grab or excite me. I hope he’s at peace now, though.
Pavement
4/5
I liked Slanted and Enchanted a lot more in my 40s than I had in my 20s, when it was generated for me last year, so I was quite excited to continue my Pavement discography dive today. I only really knew Cut Your Hair and Gold Soundz from this album but it had loads of great songs throughout that I didn't see coming. I don't always love Malkmus' slacker vocals or the slightly off-kilter melodies but I 𝘥𝘰 love the delivery and the guitars throughout. Found myself keeping it on rotation for days and enjoying it more and more. Another one I'll look to add to the collection when I find it.
Suede
3/5
Despite being very swept up in Britpop, I never really gave Suede the time of day. The singles they released did nothing for me and I couldn’t stand Brett Anderson’s whiny voice or pretentious posing. Listening to the whole of this album was less painful than I’d feared but also reinforced my gut feeling. Not a fan. The deep cuts and slower, more layered songs are better than the upbeat rocky ones but he spends too much energy trying to channel Bowie and Morrissey for my liking. The closing trio was probably my favourite part of the album; all three are too long and contrived, and the needlessly strings-y 'Still Life' is almost definitely ridiculous and over-the-top but I actually thought it was an interesting and pretty nice way to end the record.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Very cool but bit long and samey. I did enjoy it but it faded into the background and melded into one long, continuous funkathon. I guess you could do a lot worse.
Iggy Pop
4/5
Second Iggy Pop album I've enjoyed, although I really didn't know him beforehand. It's just a good, fun vibe and a really listenable experience. He goes from the rocky and immediate tracks like Sister Midnight and Nightclubbing through to the sludgy, experimental chugging of Mass Production. And I found something to like about pretty much all of it.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Unless you're David Bowie, Paul Simon or The Beatles, you probably don't deserve to be represented more than three or so times on this list. And yet here we are, listening to a third Nick Cave album (and with more to come). This one is hard to judge and rate. It’s deep, heavy and incredibly raw, emotionally. I feel for the guy based on the personal tragedy that fed into the subject material here. But it’s also a hell of a long slog with painfully little dynamism or variety.
Le Tigre
4/5
I've had a bit of Riot Grrrl stuff and been a bit underwhelmed but this is a lot more melodic and does some great crossover of indie-punk with more electronic stuff, motorik beats and loops. I really enjoyed it and kept it on rotation all week. It doesn't feel like something from 1999 though, the production, cover art and overall vibe is very late-80s to me. So maybe it's slightly less groundbreaking than I'd initially assumed but no less fun to listen to.
David Bowie
4/5
Look out, you rock'n'rollers
M.I.A.
4/5
Kala was a really pleasant surprise for me about 18 months ago so I was quite excited to give this a go and once again, not disappointed. M.I.A. brings attitude and humour while the production is slick and incorporates a world of influences to basically create a party. I actually think this is even better than its successor; slightly less polished and more in-your-face. Great stuff.
New Order
2/5
I don't love the vocal delivery or the production. I do love the cover art. I think New Order are probably great but just not to my taste. If it's not Blue Monday or World In Motion, I'll pass, thanks.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
This isn't the first album to deal with a downward spiral of mental health, violence or suicide. But it's one of the more high profile and well-known ones. It's violently aggressive at times but also has an irresistible swagger throughout. Kind of a weird juxtaposition, I want to hate it and love it at the same time. Musically it's got a lot going on that isn't immediately easy to pick out and the production is excellent (today I learned Reznor worked with Flood). Definitely best appreciated in one long sitting.
Lightning Bolt
4/5
Never heard of this one so going in blind.
'Wonderful Rainbow' by Lightning Bolt - could be anything here. Most weather-related names I've pulled so far were jazzy or post-punk I think. It's quite recent though, and I've never heard of them so maybe it's a bit of US electronica?
That said, 'wonderful rainbow' sounds twee and the cover has a colourful bit and a scribbly doodles bit. So maybe it's quirky indie?
Well, it's neither of those things. It's absolute carnage. Rapid twatting of drums and a distorted wall of guitar noise, almost definitely fed through a series of sequencers and effects. This would be insane to watch live. At times I feel like I'm listening to a Prodigy side project but at the same time it's arguably one of the heaviest slabs of pure noise I've heard in my life.
In the wrong headspace, I'd just stop it dead and set it on fire, but I can imagine it wouldn't care and just keep playing anyway. In the right headspace, which I seemed to have been when I listened to this on a long, wet drive, I somehow absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to hear it again.
I generally love it when music challenges me and pushes me out of my comfort zone. If I'd never done this challenge I'd have no idea how strangely hypnotic and meditative industrial noise could be. It's definitely unique and I'm happy that I've discovered it.
The Electric Prunes
3/5
- It's some zany-ass psych rock from the 60s. It has some great moments.
- It definitely influenced The Coral, which earns it some points from me but it's a bit more all-over-the-place and bizarre at times.
- There's no reason any self-respecting rock band should be recording 'The Toonerville Trolley' or 'The King Is In The Counting House' and be taken seriously.