Should you ever want to transport yourself into an old world cocktail jazz bar complete with timeless lyric and lush but personal vocal delivery, this is your pick. I dare you not to get lost in soulful nostalgia.

The energy and intention in this album is stunningly Bowie. It knocks my socks off to know how his health must have been when he was making it. Man, who among us hasn’t felt “Where the fuck did Monday go?” So good.

If I ever wanted a complete foreigner, an alien say to understand a certain glorious feeling of burgeoning, rangy, late teens energy of an American summer in a tight t-shirt, perfectly worn pair of jeans, a cherished moment of perfect hair and flirting from car windows? I’d play them this album and lend them my converse sneakers.

I was prepared to be irked. My prior exposure to Zappa is brief and left me with the firm conviction that Frank Zappa is somehow important currency exchanged between 12-year old boys. A rite of passage or something. Resolved to listen openly I was surprised to discover things to like! The opening cheery sweetness of Son Of Mr Green Jeans bicycling its way to a groovy chunk of funk kept me happily intrigued and amused by its narrative story telling. I found similar doses throughout the rest of the album as well. While it still contained its share of jangly parts requiring an angsty 12 year old boy to truly appreciate, I have to say I feel good about this album and I’m glad I listened. I may even listen again.

I was surprised by this one. I didn’t know it at all but it sounds like some Venn diagram of Jimi Hendrix plus the Who plus some sort of trippy other thing mixed in. It’s not something I’d have discovered on my own but it definitely has a 60’s vibe that I dug.

If you’re old enough or lucky enough to remember the Electric Company’s animated short where you visually follow a pinball and the audio is the iconic “one-two-three-FOUR-FIVE”, my comment may resonate for you. A huge chunk of this album sounds like it could have been a contender for that kind of fun, veering around the curves, speedy sonic adventure. Eno and Byrne are clearly having fun together but know how to get out of each other’s way to let the pinball keep careening. And just when you give over to the colorful fun sounds that perhaps might be what it sounded like if all your small electronics picked two bars of tech music to stitch together, you tumble right on into Solo Guitar with Tinfoil which is beautifully soulful but still retains a hint of wacky verve around some of the curves. This album has serious fun factor.

This album made me think we need a second rating system where I rate myself on how dumb it was of me to stop listening to this on repeat 20 years ago. It’s astounding that this came out in the 70’s. It’s so fresh even now. It’s almost magic how Elvis Costello combines soulful but edgy, impeccably punctuated vocals to layered, leveled up but super listenable composition. Leave this on repeat for 20 years. You won’t regret it.

There a reason this band is the major elements of existence. This album is in fact ALL THE THINGS. It covers classic r&b, kicky funk, and elevated groove, seemingly effortlessly, and somehow IS the 70’s without all the parts of the 70’s that feel cringe now. For extra points listen while roller skating.

It’s unfair to be judgy about this album because Sade has a gorgeous voice and the musical choices completely work. Dinner by candle light? Put it on, open the wine, and let everything breathe. This album will deliver the right notes. Except.. just like the line in Your Love is King, “I’m crying out for more” here. I kept wanting stretch in this album. I wanted her to climb tougher hills instead of blending in with the admittedly lush sax notes. As I said, it’s not fair of me to judge, but I wanted it to take bigger steps.

I’d contend this is a grunge explainer. It has raw energy connecting it to punk but with gritty layers instead of stripped down speed like early punk. It brought back an excellent era in my Gen X memories. Happy to revisit this one.

Today’s album makes me antsy! Shut UP Tim Buckley. You are NOT the Velvet Underground and you are NOT Paul Simon and I have had ENOUGH. No. Just no. Bring me the mouthwash.

I’m not sure this album was supposed to make me laugh so much but it did. Maybe it reminded me of Strongbad from Homestar Runner’s reverence for “de wicked guitar solos, meeebly meeebly meeebly” or maybe it was the crazy energy and gravel voices that just cracked me up. I’d never listened to a Megadeth album before. I expected to hate it. It ended up being memorable but I’m not qualified to render much opinion on its musical genius. It was still light years better than Tim Buckley.

If you’re not a PIL fan but want to try to give it an honest listen, I might recommend starting with the last track and working backward. It might make this a little more accessible for you. If you’re me? The cranky, rough, aggressive guitar with the impressive-if-outsider bass coming at you from the mash up of part Sex Pistols and part Clash (rip Keith Levene) scratches an itch for some stretched out post punk. It’s interesting to listen to this with an ear for how this predates Rise but you can definitely feel the “anger is an energy” vibe here. Not gonna lie, this one may try the patience of some. But if you need some cranky but cool and ironic music to accompany a certain feeling of snark with a surprising groove and scratchy vocals? This is a good pick.

Full confession with bonus cliche. I’m fairly certain I’d heard each of these tunes - in the 70’s, at the swimming pool or spilling out of a house or car window. As I listened lyrics tumbled out of my mouth, surprising me that I guess somewhere they’ve been preserved in my brain. But! I’d never listened to them as a complete work. This was a game changer. I thought I’d tire or find it repetitive and instead I found it soulful, subdued, at times aching, but with equal parts brilliant keyboard and funky bass lines that reel you in. It can’t be called folk easily, nor necessarily rock but it’s distinctly American. It’s certainly no wonder they were Dylan’s backup before they were The Band. This album speaks to you not just in lyrics but in serving up rural life nostalgia with blues, folk, rock, and even gospel as its ingredients in a tasty dish. There’s no shininess or preachiness, it’s not overly 60’s-fied sentiment or 70’s era clunky. It’s got groove, sentiment, guitar and soul in a way that lets you trace forward from this album to so much later music like the Grateful Dead, the Allman brothers and way more. If that’s to heady for you, I can say this. This album is also perfect for evoking summer in the 70’s on a late summer afternoon in the wide open and will go great will a lazy, cold beer.

I got bored. But I promise you that if any of these songs came on in the corner bar where I was knocking back beers with friends of a similar age to myself, three things would happen: 1. More than a few of us would end up singing along without realizing it. 2. All of us would make fun of each other for that. 3. Someone would snort beer through their nose. File under “music to accompany scenes of 70’s kids washing their car on the street or driveway, preferably an orange car. “ Alternately I could see it as a wide shot of 70’s American high school kids walking through doors at school. I imagine those kids got bored with this as well.

So much fun! The energetic but not juvenile straight on fun of this is a standout. Love the jazz, funk, killer horn-section-a-la-New Orleans-when needed-cool clever hip hop here. Further thoughts? We don’t get to G Love & Special Sauce (whom I love) without A Tribe Called Quest. It’s cool to consider that.

For me, Van Morrison will always work. He’s got timeless appeal.

I understand it. I see its place in the canon. I appreciate the sort of “we dumped in some of all the ingredients in the cabinets but we worked on it to make it palatable but also new” style. And.. for me? It’s just okay. It feels like I should just go listen to the Replacements.

This album just works. The vocals are imperfect technically but carry emotion and haunting gravity expertly. The fact that it’s electronic but switches its mood in ways that do much feel like how that happens to humans? Resonates remarkably. Is there a lyrical quality that sometimes softens and coaxes yiou along until some kind of heightened energy busts out and makes you feel way different? Yep. Is it indicative of an era? Yep. Put it on the turntable and let your head away.. it’ll be good.

Brit pop? Yay. Switched up stretched Britpop? Yep. I’m in.

Glorious. Full stop.

This album is like “what kind of music would 70’s bots roller skate to?” It’s wacky, easily accessed like disco, totally wants flashing lights like a laser show, and might be just the thing on a cold, dull, January day. Do I find technical perfection? Nope. Do I find genius lyrics? Also nope. Can I completely get why it’s included? Yep. Is it understandably fun? Also yep.

Fun if you need a mix of bluesy 70’s grindy-voice feel that descends into the bizarre, and then clingy rock. It has its moments.

The energy, the absurd observations, wacky rhymes, irony, and sounds that make you feel hoppin. It may not be everybody’s thing but man, what a hip, rangy vibe. Loved it.

I would never have sought this out but I super dug it! It’s a terrific compilation of pop and electronic. Madonna keeping it fun and relevant through a strong career arc.

Dutifully relistened to this album as a complete work, not out of obligation but as an act of contemplation. It has my all time favorite Beatles song (In My Life) and I know every tune pretty much by heart. But to listen to it as a whole? Brought all manner of fresh feelings. Love love love this album.

A charming album. Imagine you combined a bit of Ray Charles, Bette Middler without the over-the-top-flambouyant Schtick, stride piano and some New Orleans flavor and you’d arrive at the heart, wit, and singalong fun of this album.

Okay, solid. Some fun bass and horns. I wouldn’t have thought to put this in the turn table but it amused me.

This may make me deeply uncool but that Billy Joel album is so “put it on and sing into a spatula while you cook” fun. Like let’s agree Billy has talent. And let’s also agree that in 1977, when there was a ton of glammy disco? Plus the EWF funk and certainly some acid/jam band whatever happening? Billy Joel stands out as kinda repping that there’s a still place for the idea of standards .. in a way. It sounded refreshing!

Oh happy day! Any day I listen to REM is a fine one. Without REM do we get to Radiohead? Do we get further on down the road of indie rock? I honestly don’t know but I do know that the jangly guitar and Michael Stopes’ lyrics and yawping vocals totally work to set you into an “I’m 20 ish and waking up to opinions about a world larger than myself” flight of energy and that “singing out loud in the car” feel. It’s accessible but complex, angsty but listenable, ironic but not exclusionary and I LOVE IT!

Straight on rock and roll with a hint of rockabilly. Why have I not been listening the whole time?!?

It’s divisive for some. There are those who don’t love the gruff voice and boxy piano-ish thing here. But for me? I love it. Speaks to a place in my head and heart. Happier to listen to this than Bob Dylan. I said what I said.

Effervescent! So lovely and so much range. I’m a huge Beatles fan and would have been happy had they stayed together but this album in particular makes me think, “if they had would Paul have gotten to open up this way?” And lord, I love Let Me Roll It. I’ve never been a “listen to music at the beach, type. Too much to fuss with and I’m happy to listen to the ocean but Let Me Roll It is perfect on a hot sunny day with the waves coming in!

My punk loving heart tried hard to give this stink eye scorn. But some of these sounds are hard wired to ridiculous summer day fun in the swimming pool with ELO in the background which nearly hard wires me to smile on hearing it. Poppy, for sure. It isn’t Queen or Bowie it’s spangly stuff with orchestral bits thrown in but come on, Mr. Blue Sky is just fun. I want to give it a 3.5 but I can’t. Sigh. A 3 it is.

I thought it was Sade most of the time but then sometimes it put me in mind of Annie Lennox. I didn’t have strong feelings about it but it was listenable.

I don’t even have to wait to listen. This one is regularly one repeat. I admit that it asks a bunch from listeners. It’s angular instead of lush. It’s not always lyrical. It’s tough to stay with it but it just works for me. And the cover image is on a t shirt I own. And it’s the soundtrack in my mind to a zillion things.. and.. and..and.. five effing stars.

Yesssss!!!

I love The Temptations and lean toward the funk over the soul even though both are good. I had never listened to a complete Temptations album prior and while I liked it there were some surprises. I didn’t completely love this version of Heard it Through the Grapevine - surprising, right? Some tunes left me hungering for a tastier baseline that what it delivered. Other tunes were the perfect thing for grooving in my kitchen while cooking. A true mixed bag.

I was glad I listened. I didn’t love all of it but it felt good to try new things. I had never heard of this band or album prior. It felt like each cut would open and draw me in but then I’d get lost in widening electronica.

This is one of those albums where I can’t evaluate technical excellence or composition well but I know I found it super groovy. It’s a fine example of what’s good about psychedelic rock, and I dug it!

Stick with it. The funky payoff is worth it.

A mixed bag. Brit pop with a slidey grindy 90’s feel. It has a certain enjoyable slouchy accessibility to it.

Shades of Prince, a hit of Bowie, prog rock energy. It’s fun. I’m not sure it’s ground breaking but there’s a bunch that will have you shaking it and letting your hair down.

Two words. Mark. Knoepfler.

Gorgeous and I love it!

Love the rangy, grunginess of Neil, full stop. What I love about this album is how it brings out more rock & roll feel while hanging on to a distinctly folk-music underpinning. Somehow it transforms into another rock & roll thing altogether.

This is like of yacht rock met Tears For Fears and had listened to maybe one Bowie tune and a little bit of Elton John. It’s like the wine I had on Sunday night - went down easy but unmemorable, even though it’s possible I’d drink it again.

Loved it.

This may be controversial but I’ve listened to Beyoncé’s Renaissance album repeatedly and admittedly, it’s good. I prefer Survivor though. I enjoy the early range and … naïveté in this better than later Queen Bey. It’s a refreshing and I enjoyed hearing her work as part of a trio than a standalone performer.

Powerful. I understand it’s place but not my favorite.

I’d never listened before and now I’m hooked. Somewhere in the Venn diagram of Bob Dylan but with diction, a little bit of Tom Petty, a little Neil Young, a fine degree of heart and soul is this wonderment. Glad this got served up!

I wanted to love it. Instead o found it frustrating and disjointed. It’s not for me

While EmmyLou is never less than stellar and I adore the verve of honky tonk piano with a good twangly guitar, this didn’t particularly resonate.

Nope. Not my groove. I adore Joni Mitchell and even the treat of Joni didn’t keep me listening.

Hell yes. Jazz diction but her musical choices span such a wide path. Hard to believe she was so young when she made this album.

Man this was a fun one to revisit. Lord I love the Scooby Snacks track. This album may not be revolutionary but I love its groove - a bit of California/Chili Peppers, a horn section with a touch of Mexican in it, shades of rap-like rhyme.. just fun.

Yep. Dear to my punk loving heart.

Jarret always makes me happy. This one might ask much of some but I enjoyed it.

Fabulously syrupy schmalz!