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Tue Jan 02 2024
One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
The thing about listening to an album like this is that you sign up for this sort of ethereal experience where once you lose that initial luster of a new soundscape, you start to lose your focus, and once you start to lose the focus, you miss out on the nuances of the performance – the guitar player working overtime to hit every note, the bass player who has to keep the rhythm, the drummer working so fast in syncopation – that once you finally get back into reality, everything that you’ve been listening to hits you like a truck. When you’re listening, it’s a vibe, and it’s a vibe you don’t appreciate until that moment that it ends.
The soundscapes in this album do eventually overwhelm you, and your enjoyment of this album is truly dependent on how much of that soundscape you can stay engaged for. This album, sonically, is nothing short of incredible; every instrument mixed to perfection, every drum kick, every bass strum, every guitar solo just lies perfectly where it needs to. At some point, I got lost in it. However, I can’t give it a 5/5 just because at some points, I briefly woke up from that entrancing feeling. My best advice? Just let go. Put in some headphones, walk around, and let this album carry you.
it's like a 4.5/5 though
4
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Wed Jan 03 2024
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen
I feel like a moron for not listening to any Bruce Springsteen before this. This is a brilliantly produced, cohesive project that makes its theme obvious throughout and it's a treat to listen to, but it's another strong 4/5 for me.
4
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Thu Jan 04 2024
Parklife
Blur
I feel like the critiques of a very British culture that’s too obsessed with sex and too caught up in the material things isn’t as valid in 2024 as they were in 1994. It doesn’t mean this album is bad; from top to bottom, it never strays from what its purpose is, and I respect the hell out of it for that. It’s a good listen, but I’d say it’s only about a 3.5/5 for me.
3
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Fri Jan 05 2024
The Yes Album
Yes
From a pure technical standpoint, this is instrumentally just so ahead of its time for me (either that or I don’t know shit about ‘60s rock) that whatever sort of mesmerizing feeling it gave me throughout, it ultimately just left me impressed, across the board, except for A Venture. I struggle to give it a full 5/5 but it’s absolutely a 4.5, and I think it’s my favorite album so far.
4
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Sun Jan 07 2024
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John
For all intents and purposes, I have to give this a 5, because it’s so much closer to a 5 than it is a 4 – just after one listen, it stands on its own merit as just a classic album. Not only did it live up to the slightly lofty expectations I had set for it, it blew them away because it’s just far, far, more than what I originally thought it was gonna be. It is my favorite album we’ve done so far.
5
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Mon Jan 08 2024
Raising Hell
Run-D.M.C.
I have to rate this album for what it is: probably the endgame of the Sugarhill Gang-era style of rap, while setting the stage for rap to properly enter the mainstream behind such a commercially safe album.
Without the confidence in themselves & the genre as a whole that exists in this album, then I can’t imagine the genre really taking off like it did for the rest of the decade and the ‘90s onward. By every modern standard, I think it’s a mediocre album, and I personally can’t rate it any higher than a 3… but it’s not a BAD album. A little cheesy, sure, but that’s the sacrifice of making such a safe album.
3
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Tue Jan 09 2024
Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
If I could rate each part of this album, I think I’d give the front half a strong 3/5 (for my sensibilities) and the back half a 4/5, almost solely on production that feels at least 7 years ahead of its time.
Obviously, that balances out to 3.5, but as an entire album, I don’t think I’d feel right rounding that up to 4 – that would put it at the same level as the Yes album, the Springsteen album, and the Funkadelic album, and I just don’t think I enjoyed this as much as those. I think it’s about even with Parklife for me. Definitely better than Run-D.M.C. though.
3
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Rock 'N Soul
Solomon Burke
This isn’t an album you judge by modern standards. This is the sort of album that in 1964, you bought, you sat down, and you just listened. The lyrics eventually came to you the more you listened. This is a vocal showcase, but it’s also a musical showcase – not about how many synths you can use, or how fast you can drum or strum, or how fast you can spit out a melody, but a musical showcase of the innate spiritual feeling it gives some people, regardless of genre.
For my own personal enjoyment, I think just sitting here, vibing, and letting that feeling overcome me is a better experience than either of the last two albums we’ve listened to. I think for me, it’s a strong 3.5 that personally rounds up to a 4, but you have to be in the right mindset and mood for it to be a 4. It’s certainly no less than a 3.
4
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Thu Jan 11 2024
Apocalypse Dudes
Turbonegro
This album is absolutely what I hoped it would not be after the first 2 tracks – a kind of PS2 butt rock soundtrack.
If you were to just listen to a random song off this album, it’s probably a great burst of energy. Like, if you threw this album into a workout playlist and had a song occasionally come up on shuffle, I’m sure it would be a great boost. Yet, as a listening experience for a whole album, due to the lack of variance, it’s absolutely the least enjoyable of what we’ve done so far, at least to my ears, and I’m rating it a 2.
2
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Fri Jan 12 2024
OK Computer
Radiohead
For my first Radiohead album, I think I certainly got a more experimental one, but I didn’t get a bad one. Compared to the last album, we’ve got such a variance of styles, and those styles enhance the core sound & the core message of the album. As a listening experience, it’s a really good album, and I think I have to add every track (except Fitter Happier) to my big playlist pretty much solely on the production and the vocals. Lyrically, I’m sure I missed some stuff, but I don’t know if I really care.
Right now, it’s not a perfect album to me; there were some points where the dissonance of everything turned me away, at least on that first listen. I don’t think I can give it a 5 right now, but it’s no less than a 4. I can see where the hype comes from, and I think if I give it another re-listen or two to just let everything truly overwhelm me, it could easily be a 5.
4
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Sat Jan 13 2024
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
I think people know this album as the one with Clocks & The Scientist – I certainly did, and I won’t act like I’m not guilty of that. It's more than that; It’s an instant classic.
In terms of sticking to a theme, expanding on that theme, and keeping both a vocal style & an instrumental style that hooked me in, I think the album as a full experience was as enjoyable of a listen as I’ve gotten out of any other album. If I’m being nitpicky about it, then… yeah, the album sticks to its theme really, really hard, but it doesn’t really feel repetitive to me, even though we’re dealing with a similar one throughout.
Much like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, it’s not a full 5, but it’s so close to a 5 for me that I think I have to rate it that.
5
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Sun Jan 14 2024
Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk
This album could’ve been cut in half, or even into a third, and I would’ve given it a lot of credit for being an early proponent of the style that would come to define a lot of video game music & the synthesizer use that was soon to come in the ‘80s – short little electronica pieces with fun melodies that work as a great background noise, and certainly ahead of its time.
While all of that is still true to me, the issue is that each track is just feels so long to me that they all overstay their welcome. Don’t get me wrong; I understand that this is sort of what it’s like to ride on that titular express, as made obvious by the sound design. The problem is, if you're riding on an express and look outside, a landscape has scenery changes. Even if you’re just stuck looking at trees, each tree has their own thing, and they go by in a blur. These tracks don’t go by in a blur, and they didn't captivate me in like seeing a big mountain in the distance.
In 1977, I'm sure this was great, but in 2024, it feels less like I’m riding a high speed train, and more like I’m stuck on a tourist bus in LA traffic. I'm disappointed to give this a 2 -- not because it's that bad, but because it just doesn't fit my sensibilities for an album experience, and I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other albums we've done so far.
It was better than Apocalypse Dudes, though.
2
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Berlin
Lou Reed
In terms of being a concept album that gives you its story from start to finish, backs that up with great instrumentation, and keeps you rather compelled once it really kicks in, then… yeah. We’ve got a great album here.
It’s not perfect; even though I think Lou’s voice still ended up being the perfect tone by the end of the album, I don’t think the sort of monotony works at the start, when Jim hasn’t gone completely drug-addicted and insane. It also doesn’t really spell out the idea that there’s a story going on here until about track 6, at least for a presumed “casual” listen like I was doing. If you want to go all in on the concept album, then start with a curtain opening or something; give the listener a very audible clue that this is an overarching story and each song has a part to play in it.
I think just because I got so enthralled by it, I have to give it a 5 out of respect for absolutely nailing what it went for, but it's not a very replayable album: if we were going out of 10, I'd probably give it an 8.5/10. I'd recommend the album to anyone, as long as you tell them there's a story first.
5
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Murmur
R.E.M.
I think based on what I knew about R.E.M., I was expecting something more akin to their big hits – in terms of the soundscape, it absolutely delivered, and for a debut album, I think it perfectly sets up the framework for all of their future records. They stick to it perfectly, and I think the vocal performance on each track suits every single track.
Lyrically, I was just desperate for more substance. It isn’t gonna drag the album down for me that much, but after Berlin, I'm just kinda underwhelmed. I think I have to give this a 4, but it doesn’t really feel that way to me, just because I couldn’t get past the lyrics thing, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as say, the Yes album or OK Computer, but I definitely enjoyed it more than Neil Young & Run D.M.C. It’s like a 3.6, I guess.
4
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Metal Box
Public Image Ltd.
i liked it better when he wasn't singing
2
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Logical Progression
LTJ Bukem
well that sure was drum and bass
(it's like a 2.5 but i can't give it a 3)
2
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Vulnicura
Björk
I think it’s hard to quantify this album into numbers.
It’s not an album you can replay; there’s no big hit single here, there’s no catchy one-liners, there’s not even really melodies like that. There’s just Bjork, her voice, her emotions, and her soundscape. It’s hard to enter that soundscape at first, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns off some people early on (it nearly turned me off tbh). If you stick to it, what you end up with is a very cathartic album – a baring of the soul of someone who’s so clearly been through so much shit that they had to get it off their chest.
I do think the album could have ended on track 7 to make for a much more complete and fulfilling experience, but the last 2 tracks didn't take away from the sort of mesmerizing feeling the whole album gave me. I’m gonna give it a strong 4, and in retrospect, that’s the same rating I should’ve given to Berlin. They both do an incredible job of conveying their themes and their emotions, but I think the more personal nature of this album pushes it ahead of Berlin for me in terms of concept albums, though like I said; this is an album that you can’t really quantify with numbers. You either feel it or you don’t.
4
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Sat Jan 20 2024
The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
I mean… wow. Sonically, this album feels so full to the ear, from the heavy basslines, the sampled drums & other beats, and perfectly placed vocal flows that I find it impossible to not enjoy this album from that standpoint alone, but...
Look, if Run-DMC made commercially viable mainstream hip-hop possible, and N.W.A. gave rap the blueprint to have the amount of edge you’d find in albums to come, this album is the perfect melding of both – the commercially acceptable sounds of jazz and great sampling that others would continue to try and refine throughout the decade, mixed with the type of vocal flow to appease the holdovers from the Sugarhill Gang-era who couldn’t quite get behind Dr. Dre & company, with a lot of bones thrown in for the N.W.A.-adjacent crowd. Don't even get me started on the ripple effects this album must have had on R&B for the decade and beyond too.
For my money’s worth, this is the best album I've listened to so far. It is easily the most deserved 5 I've given, and if we were going by 10, I’d genuinely give it at least a 9.75/10, if not an outright 10. I think, for my sensibilities, it's basically a perfect album, and I am a complete moron for not listening to it beforehand.
5
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Another Green World
Brian Eno
Well, it’s not what I was expecting, obviously, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I think for 1975, it’s a very interesting call to go for an album like this, and in a lot of ways, I think there's a semblance of some modern production here. I don’t think there’s a whole lot to say other than “it sounded really nice,” and I think for my tastes, it did a really good job of filling its soundscape up to keep me captivated.
It’s like a 3 – I don’t think it’s super great, but it’s a really chill listen and it’s something I’d recommend. Just not like, mind-blowing or anything.
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite
Maxwell
This is an entirely forgettable album for me; it’s not really that good, but it’s not so egregiously bad that it sticks in the brain on account of that. Sure, the soundscape is great, and Maxwell’s vocals are really smooth, but I can’t really tell you the difference between Track 1, Track 3, Track 8, or Track 11 off the top of my head, and that’s just not a good album experience for me.
To me, it suffers from the same problems I had with Apocalypse Dudes & Trans-Europe Express: each track is either too similar or too long. They all sound nice, and I’m willing to give Maxwell credit if this album did indeed innovate and refine a genre like Wikipedia is claiming it did. But by the standards of 2024, I just don’t think it works for me. It’s still better than Apocalypse Dudes, but I actually don’t think I enjoyed it as much as Trans-Europe Express. I’m gonna stay consistent with my rankings of those and give this a 2.
2
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin
It’s a 5. It’s the fastest 5 I could possibly give.
Like, I could easily go on about the guitar work, the vocal work, the drum work, and how it all comes together to make one of the greatest rock soundscapes ever, but the strength of this album is simply making its listener feel. This album just enthralled me from start to finish, and that’s a compliment I can give to very few albums.
Really, I’m just… kinda speechless. It’s a perfect rock album in the same way that The Low End Theory is a perfect rap album. Pinnacles and bar-setters of a genre for their eras, with a timeless sound to both.
5
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Third
Soft Machine
Nah. Just nah.
It’s not egregiously terrible, but these songs drone endlessly on without any clear direction; especially Track 3, my god.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the most baffling instrumental choices I think any of these albums have made so far. For a pretty early attempt to blend jazzy instruments with electronica and synth, I have to give it credit for occasionally succeeding. The problem is, those moments are so short and so fleeting under these incredibly fucking long songs that it’s like finding a $1 bill while you’re walking through a sea of pennies. Those moments are enough to put this album at a 2 for me, but… this just wasn’t it, man.
2
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Stand!
Sly & The Family Stone
Man, that’s a really good album. For 1969, I think it completely hits on all of its goals; talk about the social issues of the time, show off some fantastic musical skills, and just make an album you can vibe out to regardless of who you are.
I’m really more impressed by the guitar work on this album than anything else – I’m not one to focus too heavily on individual instruments, since I think a full soundscape should usually be driven by everything working in harmony, but this album manages to achieve a great harmony between its vocals, the basslines, the drums, and all the other instruments that they throw in throughout, while letting the guitar just absolutely shine throughout.
I ripped heavily into Third for not being able to keep its listener engaged, but I think it’s because it was just experimenting too hard for my tastes. On this album, I think Sex Machine is 14 minutes of just an incredibly satisfying jam session (save for that kinda grating guitar about 9 minutes in) that does exactly what I wish Third had done: keep it simple while just finding a fun way to integrate these rock instruments with a jazzy feel.
That instrumental philosophy rings true throughout every aspect of this album, and I think my only complaint here is hoping for a little more lyrical density, but that’s kind of a nitpick. It’s a really fun album, and I think it’s a high 4 that could easily round up to a 5 on any subsequent listens.
Probably didn't need Track 2, though.
4
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
For a debut album, that’s a fucking great album.
A lot of my compliments for IV apply here too – the guitar work, the vocal work, the drum work all come together to make a really, really good soundscape. It’s obviously a lot more refined and perfected by IV, but this album is no slouch of its own, and I think some of its more high energy tracks just feel better to my ears than IV’s songs at certain points. For Stand!, I mentioned how the guitar work stood out to me, but that’s taken to an even higher level on this record for me. As a complete album, I do think there are some songs here that are just a little underwhelming, or a little unfitting, but they don’t take away from my enjoyment of this album whatsoever.
It’s not a 5 for me, at least not on this first listen, but it’s absolutely like a 4 at least, and a highly recommended listen.
4
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Sat Jan 27 2024
Sign 'O' The Times
Prince
I mean… man. Slow start, big finish, but what an album.
I’ve always been an MJ guy and not a Prince guy, which is to say I’ve always treated Michael’s albums with incredible reverence, and only given the same reverence to Prince’s big singles – Little Red Corvette, 1999, Kiss, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, and so on. This album has made me realize I am a moron for not approaching Prince’s albums in the same way. There’s just an energy to this whole thing that’s a bit understated – I thought tracks 2 & 3 were a little disjointed, and I wasn’t vibing with them, but it fucking kicked into high gear for me with Track 6 and then never looked back.
Lyrically, sometimes I wish Prince were a little less horny, but I get the feeling that would be the most futile cause in all of music. Instrumentally, I just hear the quintessential sound of the 1980s all wrapped up into one album; your acoustics, your electronics, your pre-programmed drums, your live drums, your horn sections, your deep voices, and your falsettos.
In every sense of the word, it’s a 5 – realistically, for my tastes, it’s probably like a 4.75 (few tracks go a little long, slight repetition, be less horny), but I’d be a criminal to not round it up. Just a really, really good listen. High recommendation.
5
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Drunk
Thundercat
So, I’ve never listened to this in full with headphones in or anything like that – I had a small sense of what the album was like, or at least I thought I did.
If you focus solely on the instruments, you end up with such a funky, bassy record that takes all of Thundercat’s best production beats on To Pimp a Butterfly, and then expands them to fit his own sensibilities lyrically. If you take the time to focus on the lyrics, you end up with all the phases of what it’s like to be drunk: the brief jolts of happiness, the random thoughts that creep in, the deep seated feelings that something isn’t right and you’re just kinda running away from something, and then the overwhelming sadness that comes as that drunk feeling starts to wear off.
They meld together to make a really good soundscape, and ultimately, a really good album. I don’t think it’s perfect – I think some tracks go a little too short, I think some tracks didn’t quite click right with me on this first full listen, and there are some instrumentals where I went “I wish this was used for something with a little more depth,” but those are all nitpicks. The whole album is a great, great listen, and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Strong, strong 4. Probably a 5 if you’re high.
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Wild Gift
X
…It’s just OK.
There’s really nothing that special here – I have a number of songs I sorta liked while listening, just because they hit on some of my musical sensibilities, but it’s a pretty forgettable album otherwise. There’s no standouts, there’s nothing here but a really stripped down style: two vocalists, a good drummer, and a sick guitarist. Instrumentals on this album are great, but the lyrics and the vocal performances just weren’t always clicking for me. It’s a mediocre 3; it kinda just feels like it’s a worse version of Murmur by R.E.M..
3
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
PJ Harvey
I think this is a strong 3 for me – like, if we could go by decimals, you’re looking at a 3.5 that I can’t personally round up to a 4.
This album hits on a lot of my sensibilities for this era, but I feel like the vision she’s going for isn’t fully realized over the course of this album. You’ve got great soundscapes, and when they hit in tandem with the lyrics, they hit, and I’d say they hit more often than not. However, when they do feel disjointed, it kinda sticks out to me in a way that… doesn’t ruin the album experience, necessarily, but it’s harder to stay invested for me because I kind of have to focus one way or the other instead of working in harmony.
Those moments are what’s keeping me from rounding up to a 4, but this is a really nice sounding album, and I think there’s some high emotional points on it that would make me recommend it to some people I know.
3
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Clube Da Esquina
Milton Nascimento
This is possibly the most conflicted I’ve been on rating an album so far.
The political climate of 1972 for Brazil underscores a lot of this album, and there’s a passion throughout it that’s so easy to feel, but probably very hard to understand in 2024 without an innate knowledge of the subject that I just don’t have. Let me be clear: I’d be a moron to not acknowledge that this is a good album. It does not sound like it came from 1972 at all – there’s an exploration of so many genres here that it feels like the album had an incredible vision of what music was gonna be for at least the next 20 or 30 years, if not longer, and it’s all carried by two things: guitar playing that simply feels timeless, whether it’s acoustic, electric, or bass, and absolutely passionate vocals by Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges that you can feel even through the language barrier.
My confliction is not “is this good or bad” – it’s do I give this a 4 or 5? I feel like I can’t give it a 5 because of that language barrier, and how I don’t think I can fully enjoy the album because of that, but I’d also probably be a moron to not give it a 5 out of pure trust in how cathartic this album must have felt in 1972, and how well it’s aged into modern times; so many of the other 70s albums we’ve heard have occasionally had mixing issues or choices that clearly dated them.
If we were going by 10, it’d be an easy choice to just say 9/10 and get it over with, but for a 5 point scale, I think I have no choice but to round it up, just out of respect for nailing everything it tries to do.
5
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Night Life
Ray Price
It’s… realistically, just a 3. It’s a pretty atypical country album for this time period I think, with a little extra flair here and there, and nothing really stands out except for a few tracks… but personally, it’s an album I think I’ll keep in shuffle.
I have an incredible nostalgia for this type of soundscape – the country twang, the strong vocals, the fiddles and violins and strings mixed with crisp drums. The feeling this album gave me really, really did send me back to days of sitting in a car that still took old cassette tapes, with my dad popping them in during any car trips, and they always sounded like this. I haven’t forgotten that sound, but I haven’t actively been seeking it out. This album has made me want to revisit that sound; to find those old cassettes, to see what they were and to see if they hold up.
It’s just a really nice album for me, and I'm glad I listened to it.
3
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Fri Feb 02 2024
Pacific Ocean Blue
Dennis Wilson
Another solid 3 – there’s some good highs here, not many lows, but overall, I feel just… whelmed. A lot of these tracks feel like they’re missing one extra thing in them that would really fill out each song and make them feel more complete. It’s not a disappointing album per se, it’s just dripping with some unmet potential, I think.
It’s not a bad album, but it’s not one where I’d go back to too many tracks. I think it’s certainly worth a listen – there’s good stuff in here, namely the stretch of tracks 5 through 9, and I’m sure there’s some of the other tracks that would hit better to my ears if I listen even more, but... I think I’m just gonna stick to a 3.
3
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Sat Feb 03 2024
Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
That is absolutely pure jazz.
I could nitpick; a few tracks have the instruments going a little too hard sometimes for it to be a super relaxed jazz album, but that’s the type of nitpick that would get you punched in the face. It’s just a great album for easy listening – there are some points where I was maybe hoping for lyrics or a brass section moment, but nothing ever really felt empty. Absolutely a must-listen record, even if it’s only as background noise, because it will eventually suck you in, either with the bass, the piano, or the drums.
I don't think it's a 5 – it's not the type of album that I'd give a 5, but I’m gonna go with a 4. I'm giving it that just because it’s a REALLY timeless jazz record; there’s not a single missed note or beat here. Just a great listen.
4
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Sun Feb 04 2024
More Specials
The Specials
I came into this album expecting ska, and to some degree, I did get it, but I kinda wish I came in with different expectations.
This is a highly diverse, really experimental album for 1980 that I think hits more often than not. As far as the production goes, even after a pretty slow start marked by pretty traditional instrumentation, once it starts to get into the experimental, a lot of what’s on this record feels pretty ahead of its era – the sort of soundscapes that diversify themselves throughout this album certainly became more mainstream by the late 90s and early 2000s, and in that sense, this album is way more of a trendsetter than I was expecting going in. For 1980, I’m sure this was a little polarizing, but for 2024, everything in here feels pretty typical, but it still feels kinda fresh and nice, and I’m super impressed by that.
It’s not a perfect album; there are some mixing things here and there, and a few tracks kinda just made me bored, but I think I’ve got to give this thing a 4 out of respect for being able to switch between so many genres and for usually just being really catchy.
4
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Mon Feb 05 2024
Rising Above Bedlam
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
This album could’ve been cut in half, or even into thirds, and I would’ve given it a lot of credit for being (does this sound familiar yet?) a completely competent album with a great runtime that explores a variety of styles and explores them all in short bursts, with some mediocre vocals, and I’d have given it a 3.
The completely needlessly long runtime and repetitive production that actually permeates this entire album single handedly ruins it. It’s not an egregiously terrible album, but it just drains on and on, and it gets so utterly boring by the end that you barely realize the final track is the final track. It’s a 2, but it’s an Apocalypse Dudes-style 2 where individually, I’m sure these would be great tracks in bursts, but as a whole album, it’s just a miserable experience to me.
2
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Tue Feb 06 2024
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
I am in a sort of stunned silence.
I know Nirvana’s big hits, but I don’t think those big hits really represent the true spirit of the band. Smells Like Teen Spirit is obviously nowhere to be found on this album, and it doesn’t feel missed at all. Kurt Cobain and the rest of Nirvana wanted to just be themselves, jam out, and do some of their favorites, big hits be damned. The fact that half of this record is covers is a testament to how little they cared about the commercialism of it all.
There were times where I kinda just zoned out to let the music carry me, but I think that’s the underlying point of Nirvana as a band. It’s very easy to understand their biggest hits, which is where I clearly was (and still am, really), but to understand Nirvana, and to more aptly explore Kurt Cobain, I feel like this album just gives a lot of insight into why Nirvana has endured this long after his passing. I’m sure there’s even more answers on their studio records, but there’s just something about that last song, and the way everyone literally held onto his every breath that just explains why he was so captivating to so many people without a single word.
I really don’t think there’s a flaw in this album – I’m going to give it a 5, but something tells me that I deeply need to go back to the original studio versions of each song in here that I didn’t know to really appreciate these more stripped-down versions even more.
5
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Trio
Dolly Parton
It’s a really, really nice 3 that I’m going to be biased and call a 4, just for how often I felt touched by this album.
It really does just come down to how well their vocals blend together, and my bias towards this sort of general sound. I might have this sort of bias for a lot of the country albums that come up, but I’ll live with that. If nothing else, this album is great for easy listening, and to hear three great female vocalists. For my tastes, it just hit right, and sometimes, that’s all you can ask music to do.
4
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Thu Feb 08 2024
Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
Sympathy for the Devil set a major tone for a completely different sounding album. I was expecting a sort of big heavy rock album, and instead, I kinda got a sort of pseudo country album mixed with some other flavors and rock stylings, but it’s an album I’m totally down with.
I’ve never listened to a full Rolling Stones album before this, but I thought the production here was incredibly good, and even though it didn’t retain the same energy that Sympathy for the Devil kicked off with, the sort of country/folksy/blues sensibilities that wash over the rest of the album just fit really nicely for me, and I liked it a lot.
It’s a strong 4; certainly worth a listen, and I’m sure that the tracks I wasn’t fully vibing with might be someone else’s favorite; that’s a testament to the pretty good variance in this album.
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Talking Heads 77
Talking Heads
I feel like I just got drugged by David Byrne.
I’ve never listened to a Talking Heads album in full, but I thought I knew some of the eccentricities of the band (and namely Byrne), but clearly I wasn’t fully prepared. This album goes in so many directions lyrically that it kinda distracted me from REALLY great production that feels ripped a little more out of 1987 than 1977. I’m not complaining about the album, necessarily; I think it’s a good listen, but you really have to be in the mindset for it, and you have to accept that shit will get kinda wacky.
It's like a 3.5 that I don't think I can really round up to a 4, but I think it's a good album, and it’s certainly an album that I think needs another listen or two to really get and appreciate more.
3
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Sat Feb 10 2024
21
Adele
That’s a 5, through and through, and if we were going by 10, to me, it’d be a 10/10. It comes as no surprise to me that this is the best-selling album of the 21st century thus far, and I feel like a moron for never listening to the whole thing until today.
I really truly think this is the album that defined the sounds of the 2010s, for better or for worse, and the fact that she was only 21 is insane to me. I loved every single song on here, and obviously, I’m a little biased because of growing up on the big hits, but there’s some incredibly good stuff in between that I had never heard until this listen. I think every part of this album, from the production, to the lyrics, to the vocals, hits on everything I love about music. Perhaps, in some subconscious sense, the amount of times I heard the singles from this album on the radio, or on YouTube, or in some movie or ad, is what shaped so many of my musical tendencies as I grew up. Just a spectacular album, and for me, a timeless one.
5
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Sun Feb 11 2024
Maxinquaye
Tricky
This may be harsh, but... I really think it’s actually the worst album we’ve listened to so far, at least for my sensibilities.
I think my main problem is that it’s just really boring. Like, with the other “bad” albums we’ve had, they keep a consistent theme, there’s at least an attempt at some energy, and there’s usually at least one song where I go, “you know what, that was kinda catchy,” but on this one… it’s just not there at all. The most important thing an album can do is make you feel something; the “bad” albums got me to feel, even if it was anger at repetition or never evolving a sound, but for this one, I felt quite literally no emotion whatsoever.
I feel like I’ve just listened to a bootleg album composed entirely of raps and instruments from old 90s CD sample discs; you know, the ones filled with nonsensical verses or random lines that ended up in like, Marvel vs. Capcom soundtracks and stuff. The problem is, there’s no way to make any of these songs actually interesting to my ear. Every track here feels like it’s got absolutely no energy, whether it’s in the production, the tempo, or the vocals, and that just goes against a lot of my musical sensibilities.
It’s the first 1 I’m going to give – it’s just that boring to me.
1
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Timeless
Goldie
Completely competent drum and bass that I listened to while doing my morning routine.
Just a 2.
2
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
It’s hard to find a good way to describe how I feel about this album. It’s certainly not bad; I think it’s one of the best albums we’ve hit upon during this experience. It’s just a lot different than what I was expecting, and it’s a little hard to find a way to really convey that.
Without question, this is fabulous production from top to bottom – I think the lyricism on all these tracks hits the right balance between serious, funny, introspective, and so on. The sampling throughout the album has such a wide and vivid range of styles and soundscapes that really shows just how much the Beastie Boys cared about respecting the genre and its evolving sound through the 90s as white artists.
If I had any nitpicks, it would be that there’s maybe a few too many instrumentals on the album? They’re all great, but they do sometimes fail to keep the energy of a previous track going. There’s also the amount of vocal distortion, which may or may not be a Beastie Boys staple, but I found it sometimes undercut the more serious lyrical moments of the album at times.
In terms of a ranking, I think it’s closer to a 5 than it is a 4, even with my nitpicks and my expectations being kinda thrown out the window. From front to back, I think it’s a good listen, and even if it could’ve been trimmed down a little bit, I think it deserves its place in the 90s rap canon as much as any other critically acclaimed rap album of its time.
5
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Wed Feb 14 2024
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
It’s another one of those albums where I end up at a 3.5 and I just can’t round it up to a 4.
Don’t get me wrong, for 1965, I think this is great lyricism across the board, and I think the first 7 tracks have such a great energy and sound and tempo to them. It’s the last 4 tracks where the emphasis is so heavily put on the lyrics at the sacrifice of the layered production of those first 7 tracks that kind of drag the album down from hitting that 4 for me. Take for example, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Smiling),” because it might have some of my favorite lyrics I’ve heard in a song yet, but the absolute minimalist production on it just doesn’t hit on my sensibilities, and that’s where you sort of lose me as a listener.
It could definitely go up to a 4 on some subsequent listens, but I don’t think I can bump it for now.
3
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Thu Feb 15 2024
A Northern Soul
The Verve
This album is a test in patience that I’m just not sure I really have.
I can commend a lot of things about this album; I think the guitar playing is fabulous throughout, I think the instrumental interludes are a fantastic showcase of that, and ultimately I don’t think it’s actually that bad of an album. It’s just not my kind of album.
It doesn’t hit on that many of my sensibilities, but much like a game demo, I’m smart enough to tell when something is probably good, but just not for me. I found that, for me, a lot of this album just felt too similar, a bit too boring, and a bit too monotone. I’m sure for another person, they’ll be able to appreciate those parts of it; to ignore the lyrics, ignore the slow prodding tempos that make songs feel even longer than they already are, and simply feel the music in a way that I just can’t. There are points in this album where it all clicks for me, and those moments, while brief, are really nice.
Realistically, for my tastes, I think it’s a 2.5 that I’m going to, perhaps begrudgingly, round up to a 3, if only because I recognize that it has something going for it that just doesn’t fit my vibe. It’s way better than Apocalypse Dudes, at least.
3
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Fri Feb 16 2024
Superfuzz Bigmuff
Mudhoney
I only listened to the original 6 songs from the first EP release, and I think that's the best way to listen to it, because that is an electrifying 22 minutes.
The energy on this album is off the charts, and once it gets going, it’s like a fucking freight train. I ripped on Apocalypse Dudes for not having enough variance, at least to my ears, but this album has enough variance in its short run time to keep everything fresh. I can see why Kurt Cobain liked this so much – there is a truly infectious feeling to it, and for my money, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
I’m gonna go with a 4 – I thought Chain That Door was kind of boring compared to the rest of the album, and I do think there is a hint of repetition in the styles of each song that does become a bit apparent once that initial wave of energy washes away. I still fucking loved that, though.
4
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Sat Feb 17 2024
If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears
The Mamas & The Papas
The very definition of a 3 – I think all the songs here sound really nice, but there’s only a few real standouts. I think it suffers from the general thing that ‘60s albums tend to do, which is really weird panning that kind of sacrifices the original vision of a song, but it doesn’t make them bad, necessarily. It’s a solid listen, but there’s just not enough to really warrant coming back to a lot of the tracks.
3
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Sun Feb 18 2024
You Want It Darker
Leonard Cohen
I am deeply struggling to find the words to say about this album.
It’s very rare for me to think of music as art in the classical sense – the way people get emotional at seeing the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel, where they can feel the weight of history and the absolute mastery of a craft come upon them, mainly because I usually just don’t feel that when it comes to art. I can certainly feel emotion in music, but usually that emotion comes from the passion of a voice or the lyrical content.
This album may be the only time I have felt the weight of a life long lived bear down on me in musical form, and in many ways, it’s a weight I’m not sure I can accurately hold or carry. In some strange way, I feel too young to truly connect to this album and its subject material in full, but I deeply appreciate every song on here and the man behind them.
In that sense, I have almost no choice but to give this album a 5.
5
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Mon Feb 19 2024
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
I needed the sound of this album badly. When I think of the 1980s, this is the sort of instrumentation I think of, but it also blends in so much of what I love from the early 90s. It’s a great album to just throw on and listen to even if you only care about the instrumentation, but lyrically and vocally, I think every song here has some kind of validity, whether it’s in how they made me feel, or in terms of its actual subject matter.
I’m gonna go with a 5, if only because this album really lightened up my kind of stressed out mood, and I think it’s just hitting on all of my musical sensibilities. It’s not perfect, but I do think it’s much closer to a 5 than it is a 4.
5
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Tue Feb 20 2024
In Rainbows
Radiohead
That’s an instant 5.
I have said before that the most important thing an album can do is to make you feel something, and… this album made me feel a lot of things. To some ears, I can understand it; occasionally, there is an incredible repetition in the soundscape that lingers on for a bit too long, and for those ears, that’s the sort of thing that takes them out of being engaged.
For my money, though, there was not a dull moment in this album – I think almost every track here pulled me into its mood and its lyrics, and that is a testament to the amount of detail and effort poured into this entire album, whether it’s from Thom Yorke’s vocals, the incredible guitar & drums, or just the mixing that made everything stand out that much more. Just a fabulous, fabulous record.
5
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Synchronicity
The Police
It’s… probably a really light 4, at least for me.
As an entire album, I think it does do a good job of keeping a consistent sound (except for Mother, what the fuck), but something could never fully hook me in to the whole thing. In terms of individual tracks, there are great ones on this album – obviously Every Breath You Take was a massive hit, but King of Pain & Wrapped Around Your Finger are both really, really good songs.
I don’t really have a good sense of The Police from before this album, and I have a much better sense of Sting’s solo work in the 90s, but it’s very apparent to me that this is a crowning achievement for both the band and himself, and I do think a lot of these songs have held up incredibly well for being 41 years old. It's honestly way closer to a 3 than a 5 for me, but I'm just satisfied enough to bump it up.
4
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Wild Wood
Paul Weller
I think, much like Synchronicity, I’m gonna go with a light 4, but I think this one’s a little closer to the side of a 5 for me.
As far as the instrumentation goes, I think this is one of the nicest albums we’ve had yet in terms of pure easy listening. Vocally, I do think there were some times where I would’ve loved a little more gruff in his voice to better fit the mood of some of the songs, but other than that, his biggest crime was just sometimes staying a little too monotone for me.
I think my big issue with this album is that it just goes a little long, and like I’ve said, if the sound starts to lose its luster, you start to lose the listener, and there are some tracks on here that either dragged on, or suffered from the infamous “the first minute is the entire song” problem. When this album hits though, it fucking hits, and I can’t say I ever really got bored of the album like that. Is it generic in a few spots? Of course, but when everyone was hitting around this sort of sound in the 90s, there are bound to be a few. I’d definitely recommend it, and I think some of the album’s weaker spots for me would be strong points for others.
4
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Devo
I did something I don’t normally do with these albums, and that’s go back to the first few songs after finishing. I’m glad I did, because I definitely came into this album with the wrong mindset – it originally clicked for me around Track 5 that the sort of cacophony I was embedded in was a very controlled and intentional chaos, which became incredibly apparent by Track 7, and from that point on, once they broke through to me, I thought tracks 8 & 9 were a great string of strong melodies and fun vocals, but that kind of started to fizzle out with how awkward the last 2 tracks felt.
As soon as the album ended, I went back to the first 4 and definitely had a better time with them, except that the Rolling Stones cover was still just a little too different for my tastes. All in all, though, I’d say…weirdly enough, it’s a 3.5 that I’m gonna go ahead and round up to a 4, if only because they managed to pull me out of whatever biases or predispositions I had, and made me really listen to what they were going for, and in that sense, I appreciate the hell out of this album for doing that.
There’s definitely flaws, namely that I just think it’s still a bit off putting near the end, and that sometimes it IS too chaotic, but it’s a really tightly produced album that takes a bit to crack through, and it might not ever crack through for some people, but when you get it, you just get it, and it makes the album work.
4
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel
That’s an incredibly tightly packed 28 minutes, with a strong variety of subject matters and music styles. A lot of it is held together by the same instruments throughout, but ultimately the album is just nice, and lyrically, it just feels way more in line with what I wish music still was. I’m not opposed to pop melodies or catchy hooks, but just hearing the lyrics on this album makes me want more of this type of poetic license, and not just super contemporary IG captions that everyone wants to write nowadays.
It’s actually a 5 for me – there’s maybe one or two skips, but ultimately, what a triumph of an album, and a masterclass in how to maximize the balance between being meaningful and being melodically appealing without feeling too preachy or too long.
It certainly helps that I actually understood half the references on the album.
5
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Central Reservation
Beth Orton
It’s a resounding 3 that has flashes of a really nice 4, but never ever quite gets there.
Ultimately, the biggest problem this album suffers from is its runtime, but it’s not in the sense that every track goes too long, it’s just that SOME of them do, and those extended periods where the song feels like it’s continuing just for the sake of padding or noise are what really drag this album down. There are some skips, don’t get me wrong, but I thought at least most of this album had really really enjoyable melodies (both vocally and instrumentally) behind them. The problem is, even with its best tracks, there are some moments of lyrical futility where it’s either full of empty platitudes or moments of repetition that are too often to not eventually notice.
I will say, though, from track 8 onward, the album ends on a really nice tone, and if the album were more like its final 5 (and first 2) tracks, I’d probably be pointing in the direction of a 4. It’s just that the other 5 tracks either drag on too long, or they’re just too boring for my tastes. It’s definitely not a bad album though, you just have to be in the right mood to endure some of its longer stuff.
3
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Now I Got Worry
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
It’s an incredibly bold and incredibly stupid choice to put two of your 4 worst songs (Skunk & Fuck Shit Up) at the very front of the album, but somehow, what emerges from it is a shockingly nice 36 minute jam session full of really good, diverse energy.
There are still points where the production is a fucking cacophonic mess, but those moments show up less and less after Fuck Shit Up, and by Track 7, the album actually becomes a fun listen up until the final 2 tracks, where it goes back into the bad habits of Skunk & Fuck Shit Up. Really experimental, avant-garde, greasy grungy garage rock that somehow hits on some of my sensibilities from about Tracks 5 through 14, and that’s most of the album, which is a miracle after that abysmal opening.
To put it bluntly, this is the album Apocalypse Dudes fucking wishes it could have been, and it pulls off a bigger comeback than the Patriots did in Super Bowl 51. It is a 3 as a whole, but the good songs on this album, I would genuinely rate a 4.
3
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Marquee Moon
Television
It’s a really, really competent and super nice 3.
I think, ultimately, my big thing with the album is that most of its tracks, while technically and instrumentally incredibly solid, with a great sound, and foundationally good to listen to, don’t do enough to stay memorable past those moments of bliss. Vocally, I find Tom Verlaine to be… I don’t know, just not the right fit for the great instrumentation on this album. He’s not bad, necessarily, but it feels more like a bit of Bob Dylan mixed with David Byrne to me, and that just doesn’t vibe well with these instruments.
In that sense, if you can’t keep me engaged with all the parts of your soundscape, it’s harder to hook me into the songs, and most of them never fully hooked me. The guitar work on this album would get a 5/5 if we were going only by that, but as an entire package, I just don’t think there are that many memorable songs to return to that would justify giving this any higher than a 3, but I could be completely wrong.
3
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Devil Without A Cause
Kid Rock
This is the worst Beastie Boys album I’ve ever listened to.
OK, fine, I’ll be real with you, it’s a completely soulless, uninspired, mediocre 2 that probably has at least one or two guilty pleasures on it, if only for their presence in the cultural zeitgeist of the time, or in the obnoxious case of Cowboy, a genuine acknowledgement that there is something catchy to it, however minor, if only for the obvious sample and how Neil Cicierega has used it in the years since.
From listening solely to the clean version, and refusing to hear Kid Rock openly use the N-word on the original final track of this album, what I find is that this is my “rap / country / rock fusion whatever the fuck genre we’re defining this as” version of Apocalypse Dudes, in which if you completely ignore the fucking horribly dated lyrics and just pluck one song from this album at a time while exercising or something else, you will end up with a small but effective boost of energy in terms of having not terrible guitar and drum work, even with Kid Rock just screaming on more than half the tracks.
As an entire album experience though, it is objectively so fucking boring, so draining, so long, so repetitive, and so similar for most of its tracks, that the only reason it’s even partially getting a 2 is that there are at least a few fleeting moments of actual tiny headbops that come in and out, unlike that fucking awful Tricky album (Maxinquaye is still worse, yes, sue me).
Out of a complete lack of respect for Kid Rock as a person though, even though this album is a 2 in my mind, I'm going to rate it a 1 anyway, because fuck you, Kid Rock.
1
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Songs From The Big Chair
Tears For Fears
It’s an easy 5.
I’ve never listened to the other tracks on this album besides the big 3 of Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and Head Over Heels, but almost every other track here really perfectly complements those 3. The one song on this album I wasn’t really feeling was Listen, but I’m going to treat that as kind of an epilogue track, because it sure feels like this album should have ended on Head Over Heels and that applause-filled outro.
Obviously, my opinion might be a bit skewed because we just did a Kid Rock album, but I felt quite literally spiritually cleansed of the stench of Devil Without a Cause by the fantastic saxophone in The Working Hour, and the album just stayed at pure bliss for me after that. I cannot believe that one-two punch of the outro to The Working Hour & the intro to Everybody Wants To Rule The World, because it sent me into the damn stratosphere. Super deserved 5, and a fantastic album.
5
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Deserter's Songs
Mercury Rev
It’s a 3.5 that I think I’m going to begrudgingly round up, if only because I recognize that its biggest weakness for me is not going to be as big of a factor for some other people.
I will say, first of all, that because of the renaissance of the late 90s aesthetic and style going on right now, something about this album does feel a bit like 2024 instead of 1998. That’s not to say it’s a timeless sound, but it’s certainly a sound that feels like it’s in vogue again, and that helped a lot with this album.
My biggest thing with this album is the vocals, and I know that shouldn’t be a dig in light of really strong top to bottom production (except for The Happy End), but it really did just drag me out of a few of the songs. There are points when the vocals click really well, but when the lyrics are great and the vocal passion isn’t quite there to match it, something just doesn’t work well for me. However, that’s me – this album is certainly deserving of a 4, and I’m sure it would get there on a subsequent listen when something just clicks better for me, and I’ll round it up now to be fair.
4
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Young Americans
David Bowie
Stuck with a 3 on this one – maybe something never quite clicked for me, but even though I liked a lot of this album, it either felt like Bowie was holding back a little bit vocally to try and better fit the atmosphere of the record, or that lyrically he got a little too repetitive at times in a way that kind of just distracted me from that excellent top to bottom instrumentation – what a band.
I can see what the vision was; a David Bowie soul album, and while I’d say he succeeded, those conflicts between the vocals and lyrics became just a little too distracting for me to completely stay invested in his messaging. It could definitely jump up to a 4 if something clicks right later, but I think for my tastes, a 3 feels right.
3
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Younger Than Yesterday
The Byrds
It’s a good, strong, technically sound 3.
There’s definitely some fun ones on this album, and when everything clicks, it clicks really nicely, but it just never retains that for super long on here, whether it’s the vocals not matching the lyrics or the lyrics not matching the instrumentation for a few extended periods. I think instrumentally, the biggest thing this album suffers from is simply the time period it’s in; Thoughts & Words would be an even more awesome track if the drums were mixed in to stand out better, and that applies to other instruments on some of the other tracks. C.T.A.-102’s ending is sick as hell, though.
Ultimately, what’s here is fun and it’s short, and each song has its own distinct flavor, which means the album doesn’t really tire itself out. Good listen, definitely some songs to come back to, but nothing higher than a 3.
3
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
That’s another 3 for me.
It’s really not a bad album, it’s just kind of unmemorable. I really think the production is the obvious standout here – only 2 or 3 tracks ever really fully got my attention lyrically, and the amount of mixed genres with hip-hop sensibilities does a much better (albeit admittedly less energetic) job than that shitty Kid Rock album we listened to. If we were going solely on production, it's at least a 4. Crime & Punishment is probably my standout here, either that or King of New York.
Much like some of the other albums we’ve listened to, the biggest issue is that it’s just a bit too long and a bit too repetitive in some spots to not notice, and those little moments just build up more and more every time, and that's why as a whole album, I can't go any higher than a 3.
(also i don't know where else to put this but i just kept hearing lotus juice in his voice the whole time LOL)
3
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
That’s a fucking great 4, wow. It’d be a 5 if we had gotten this around Halloween instead of March, and it could totally still be a 5 the more I listen to it.
There is absolutely no way you could have convinced me this album was from 1981, because from top to bottom, it feels at least a decade ahead of its time in terms of production and its general sound. The guitar work is absolutely on fucking fire here, no matter which song or which style, and the same goes for the percussion.
The only reason I can’t really give this a 5 on the first go-around is that there are a few points where the lyrics felt a bit too silly for the tone of the song, and a few points where there was a sort of emptiness carried by the instrumentation that took me out of it. Regardless, it’s at least a 4, and a great album for 1981.
4
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Wed Mar 06 2024
There's A Riot Goin' On
Sly & The Family Stone
I just don’t really know, but I think I’m at a 3.
For my tastes and my sensibilities, I think I came into this album with the wrong expectations, which is to say an evolution of the funky, polished, catchy idealism that was present on Stand!, and that expectation broke itself down very quickly. This album is a bit darker, a bit less polished, a bit less “catchy” in the sense that there’s definitely no Everyday People-esque songs on this album, and almost certainly a lack of the idealism from Stand!.
I tried to shift myself into the mood once it became apparent, but to me, there’s a sort of ethereal emptiness to this album that stopped me from ever really getting hooked in. Even with such funky instrumentation, the rougher, obviously re-recorded, re-dubbed, and re-taped vocals kept pulling me away from that instrumentation in a way that I think negatively affected my perception of the individual songs; they all felt like demo tapes to me. As an entire album, I think the looser style of the instrumentation here is very effectively realized, and with the context of the drug usage and loneliness that affected the production of this album, it’s really kind of a miracle that this exists as coherently as it does.
However, I just don’t think all of those elements hit on any of my sensibilities. There is something kind of intoxicating about this album though – I can see myself coming back to listen again and try to understand it better, but I also get the feeling this album is never going to fully click for me, and that’s where I’m stuck with a 3.
3
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Black Holes and Revelations
Muse
It’s a 5, with a few flaws here and there.
The weakest part of this album is the 3-track stretch of Invincible through Exo-Politics, which to me, tries way too hard to fit into the politically progressive rock niche that Green Day had carved into the mainstream when they dropped American Idiot. There’s something that either doesn’t click right for me, or just outright has not aged well under the lens of 2024 as compared to 2006.
The rest of this album is fucking spectacular. Take A Bow is the most electric opening track to an album I’ve heard in years, and an insanely cool tonesetter for the first 4 tracks. Soldier’s Song is fine, and it works with the backdrop of the Blair / Bush years without feeling too preachy. The last 3 (or 4, if you count Glorious) tracks are a great bit of variety, from super cool energetic bombastic pieces like Knights of Cydonia, or more atmospheric stuff like City of Delusion & Hoodoo.
I do think this album does lose its luster a little quickly, but it managed to grab it back at the end for me – realistically, that stretch of tracks 6-8 probably do round it down to a 4.5 for me, but I’d be a moron to not round it up. Fabulous stuff here.
5
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Fri Mar 08 2024
Under Construction
Missy Elliott
It’s a really cool 4 that I'm REALLY tempted to give a 5 for the hell of it, but I'll hold back.
I haven’t listened to almost all of Missy Elliott’s solo work before this, and that's completely my fault. She popped off on this album, and I'm a moron for not listening to her before now. There are some songs I’m not sure I’ll go back to, but that comes down to little things like “well, the beat didn’t go hard enough for me” or “I can’t be caught dead listening to this in public” (see: Pussycat), but there’s a lot of variety on this album that just hits my musical tastes right. I could try to explain myself, but when you’re vibing, you’re vibing, and I was REALLY vibing. Really fun album, with really cool production from Timbaland that sometimes misses the mark for me, but her vocals make up for it tenfold.
4
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Blue Lines
Massive Attack
I think I’m gonna go with a 4, but a low 4.
After listening to Tricky’s solo album Maxinquaye, I think I’ve come to my own conclusion that he absolutely works better as part of a group; his rapping is a genuine highlight on this album compared to the absolutely bleak and dreary style he showed on that album. There are still some misses on this album, but my biggest thing is that it’s simply not soul-numbingly boring like Maxinquaye was, as even the “misses” at least have pretty fun production and a few moments of catching the ear in a smooth way; some of it didn’t hook me, but it definitely wasn’t bad.
This is a genuine showcase of pretty cool production that would become a bit more apparent and a bit more mainstream as the 90s went along, and for 1991, a lot of what’s here is still pretty infused with the sort of soul/funk sounds of the 70s, so it’s a fun blend of both styles. A genuinely enjoyable listen across the board (except for Lately), and I’m pretty satisfied to give it a 4. It does just enough to be higher than a 3.
4
View Album
Sun Mar 10 2024
Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan
It’s a really nice 4.
Ultimately, there’s just something about Bob Dylan’s music that’ll probably stop me from giving him a 5, maybe ever; sometimes his voice isn’t melodic enough, sometimes his songs go too long, sometimes I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about… but on this record he seemed pretty good across the board. Really inventive and evocative lyrics of images that have long since left the public eye, and references that are ironically probably too intellectually driven now in a world that values TikTok celebrity compared to poetic license (or at least that’s what Bob Dylan would probably say if he had another fucking verse on Desolation Row).
I dunno, I just really liked the album. I wouldn’t say it has any standout all-timer songs, even with the super lauded Like a Rolling Stone, but there’s only really one or two misses on this album for anyone willing to sit through it. I just can’t go up to a 5 though; some of these ARE long as hell.
4
View Album
Mon Mar 11 2024
Seventeen Seconds
The Cure
It’s a 4 that falls just short of me being able to round up to a 5.
I think basically every song here manages to create a super cool atmosphere, and the album succeeds brilliantly at maintaining that atmosphere through its instrumental choices, its production choices, and how snappy most of the songs feel.
The only reason I can’t bump this up to a 5 is because of how it occasionally slips out of that atmosphere in a way that affected me as a listener; I think the choice to go for quiet vocals on tracks 3 & 4 is super cool, but they were too quiet to have a real presence in the song for me. I think some of the outros and intros go a little too long here and there. At Night, in particular, felt like it was just kind of stalling to artificially build up tension to me.
When this album just hits on vibes alone though, it’s a super enjoyable experience that feels like it’s shifting between the 80s and 90s – I really cannot speak enough to the production choices throughout this album. It’s a super cool 4, it could totally be a 5, but I think it’s just not quite there for me.
4
View Album
Tue Mar 12 2024
good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick Lamar
I knew coming in that I would give this one a 5 unless something shifted my opinion of it, and honestly, if I could give this shit a 6 or higher, I would.
TPaB is still the masterpiece, the gold standard, the highest of high bars for me in terms of Kendrick’s albums, but I don’t think I’ve ever properly appreciated the narrative arc of this album until this listen; doing this whole 1,001 albums experience has made me feel more attentive to music than I have in a long time, and this album has, by far, had the biggest boost for me because of that. There is seriously not a missed beat or lyric or breath on almost every track here – the only one I’m still iffy on is Real, but I just don’t think that song will ever click with my sensibilities.
I’ve also never really paid attention to the bonus tracks that are on the deluxe version, but Now or Never just feels like it should be the album closer, to just end the album on an incredibly bright note. I don’t wanna gush too much about this album, but it really is a piece of art, and it’s incredibly deserving of a 5.
5
View Album
Wed Mar 13 2024
Dire Straits
Dire Straits
I feel good with a 3.5 on this one, but I'm gonna round it up to a 4.
There’s not really a bad song here, but there are moments where this album just feels a bit empty, whether it's an outro going a bit long, or the vocals just feeling too monotone, and it makes the songs drag on just a little bit in a way that kind of dilutes them for me. When this album is hitting though, it hits really well and really smooth, with some of the best guitar playing I’ve heard from a 70s album so far. I don’t normally check the reviews on this site too much, but it’s a testament to their variety and their sound that someone’s favorite could be another person’s worst and vice-versa.
I don’t think it can ever bump up to a 5 for my tastes, but what’s here is really nice, and definitely a recommended listen.
4
View Album
Thu Mar 14 2024
Surrealistic Pillow
Jefferson Airplane
It’s another 3.5 that I think I’m gonna round up to a 4.
It’s just a really solid album to me – I don’t think there’s a bad song on here, just a few repetitive ones where either the lyrics don’t really do enough or the instrumentation stays a bit too grounded, but I liked a lot of this. Really fun guitar, some occasionally cool vocal melodies, and ultimately, just a really good sounding album that sometimes escapes my sensibilities, but still feels nice to listen to.
White Rabbit should have been longer.
4
View Album
Fri Mar 15 2024
Abbey Road
Beatles
I’ve never heard this album in full. I’ve never listened to a Beatles album in full, really. I know the biggest hits from the band, and that’s really about it.
This is a 10. Like, if I could give this a 10, it would get a 10. Instead, I have to give it a 5. I could try to gush about it, but really, I’m just kinda sitting here, stunned after the ending section of tracks that make up the final 8 of the album, wondering why I’ve never bothered to really go through The Beatles discography like that. This album is a genuine triumph of music, and I would imagine that for its time, it set the highest fucking bar imaginable; it's probably a bar that musicians today are still trying to reach, because for 2024, this still holds up unbelievably and timelessly well. It is indeed worth all the hype.
That medley just hits like a fucking truck, man. This was their last album? That shit’s crazy. That’s gotta be the best final album ever. Just… wow.
5
View Album
Sat Mar 16 2024
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
As an entire album, it’s a really nice 4, but I think tracks 6-10 by themselves are a 5.
I just wasn’t really vibing with the first 4 tracks too much; they felt a little slow, a little too lyrically dense, a little preachy, and not quite “poppy” enough. Track 5 started to bring in the energy, but it was about 2 or 3 minutes too long. Track 6 and onward, though… hoo. That’s really good stuff. Big difference from the front half and the back half; the more melodic instrumentation on the latter half of the album just sucked me in and had me FEELING that music really deeply.
I think the incredibly solid (but still just kind of OK for me) first half does drag it down to a 4 for me, but it’s no lower than that. Really good stuff here.
4
View Album
Sun Mar 17 2024
Red Dirt Girl
Emmylou Harris
It’s a super strong 4 that I’m gonna round up to a 5, just for my tastes.
There are some points early in the album where the production is lacking just that one extra bit for my tastes, but when this album clicks and puts it all together, it’s some of the best country/Americana stuff I’ve heard in a long time. The consequences of “bro country” coming into the scene in the late 90s and early 2000s need to be studied someday, because this is a really good album to me, and I need more stuff like this. Red Dirt Girl? That’s the type of country music I need, not bullshit about trying “that” in a small town, whatever “that” is.
The album is just a little too long for me. Could’ve cut it down to like, 8 or 9 tracks, but there’s really not a bad one here. I enjoyed everything on this album; I genuinely think it hits 12 for 12 for me, and that’s why I’m going with a 5 regardless of its slower moments or its perceived flaws. It’s good music, and that’s what matters.
5
View Album
Mon Mar 18 2024
Viva Hate
Morrissey
This album is weird to me.
Objectively, I don’t think there’s a song that SOUNDS bad on this album; I think the production work and the instrumentation across the board is really well done, really varied, and I’ll probably add a lot of songs from this to my big playlist just because they’re super easy listening.
Lyrically and vocally is where I think this album is kind of weak; it’s not egregiously bad (save for Bengali in Platforms), but it’s the least compelling part of this album to me, even with Morrissey’s super smooth voice. I’ve never heard a Smiths record or a Morrissey record before this, but I think I enjoyed this. I also know nothing about the guy’s personal views, and I don’t know if I really care to.
The problem is that I just kind of found a lot of the songs to be… weirdly unremarkable? I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus on my part, or if I was too hypnotized by the instrumentation, but even when the album has these sort of bombastic guitar solos that capture the ear, those moments just sort of faded away to me after. I do think it’s a great sounding album, but it just isn’t sticking to me in a memorable enough way; it’s a 3.5 that FEELS like it should be a 4, but I’m going to round it down to a 3, even if I’ll probably enjoy most of these songs on shuffle when they come up.
3
View Album
Tue Mar 19 2024
The Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks
Feeling a 3.5 and rounding it up to a 4 with this one.
I appreciate the brevity, the self-containment of each track, and I think I really respect the production throughout this album; there’s just little neat touches to each song that make them each have their own identity. I don’t think the individual songs on the album are super memorable, but they have some standout moments, and it’s a really good experience.
I can kind of see why this might have flopped in 1968; it’s just different from some of the contemporaries of this same time period that we’ve heard, and there are some points where the melodies and the catchiness take a backseat to what are sometimes baffling lyrics (I’m still kinda trying to figure out Track 1) but that’s the sort of thing that goes over much better in music nowadays. Pretty good album.
4
View Album
Wed Mar 20 2024
Nick Of Time
Bonnie Raitt
It’s a 2.5 that I’m gonna round up to a 3.
I don’t think there’s a bad track on this album, but when this sound starts to lose its luster, it loses it FAST. There are some really nice tracks here, but by the end, too much of it just started to blend together for me. Solid instrumentation, some occasional vocal standouts, but a lot of this just feels really really paint-by-numbers to me, and not in a way that hit with my sensibilities too often. Sort of disappointing, but not bad, just… plain.
3
View Album
Thu Mar 21 2024
Safe As Milk
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
It’s a 3.5 that I think I have to round down to a 3.
This album is weird. Not like Morrissey-style weird where something just felt unappealing and unnatural, but like, properly weird. There’s appealing stuff on this album, and I liked a lot of it. I think it’s just kind of disjointed to me; sometimes the vocals clash with the lyrics and vice-versa, sometimes the instrumentation doesn’t quite fit the lyrical vision, or at worst, sometimes it’s just kinda boring to me.
I don’t know if there’s necessarily a bad track on this album, but it’s a really diverse record that I honestly think doesn’t go far enough with its bolder choices. If you’re gonna try to be this innovative for 1967, then go all in, because it feels disconnected in a way that doesn’t melodically marry everything quite right to me. Certainly not bad though; I feel good with a 3.
3
View Album
Fri Mar 22 2024
Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch
I’m feeling a 4.
There’s just something nice about this album to me; maybe it’s the more intimate nature of the production, and the ability to so clearly hear both him and his guitar in a way that just enhances both. It could be the fact that there are occasionally audible “flaws” on this album that just add to that sort of intimate nature.
I think the weakest part of this album is its vocals, but I don’t think they’re ever bad; sometimes they’re just kind of plain or not as melodic as the guitar or the lyrics are asking for, but there are moments where it all clicks together super nicely. That guitar playing is kinda crazy though; it’s just fun to hear the strumming at work without the usual percussion or other instruments to cover up the more nuanced and technical parts to actually make it sound like that. Just some really nice acoustic stuff here, and it worked really well for me.
4
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Innervisions
Stevie Wonder
I mean, I knew it would be a 5, I just didn’t expect to want to give it a 6 or higher.
I have consistently said that Songs in The Key of Life is one of the best albums ever made, and my respect for Stevie’s work is off the charts; from Superstition to Sir Duke to Overjoyed and some of his collaborations into the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s, it’s very hard for me to come up with a more consistent artist. He might be the GOAT, and this album is just another masterclass in that.
I don’t know quite how to gush about it; everything here is just classic Stevie, from the funky instrumental of Too High, to the guitar on Visions, the all-timer that is Living for the City, the key changes on Golden Lady, the bassline on Higher Ground, the backing vocals on Jesus Children of America, the incredible vocal performance on All in Love is Fair, the percussion and feel-good attitude of Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing, and the bombastic (& slightly long) outro to He’s Misstra Know-It-All.
Easy as hell 5.
5
View Album
Sun Mar 24 2024
So Much For The City
The Thrills
It’s a 2.5 that I’m incredibly tempted to round down to a 2, but I’ll be nice and keep it at a 3.
When this album hits, it hits pretty well; instrumentally, I think the very best songs on this album click together perfectly, carried pretty handily by the steel guitar and the percussion keeping everything melodically stable. The fast-paced tracks on this are really fun and enjoyable to listen to. Vocally, I don’t think there’s enough emotion or variance in his voice; the soft-spoken thing works on a few tracks, but when you do it for almost every track, it makes everything blend together in a bad and unmemorable way.
That’s the problem with this album: there are too many tracks that blend together in a bad and unmemorable way, and that’s not good for an album experience. The amount of times that the album just gets annoyingly repetitive from both a lyrical and vocal standpoint is so often that it’s just too hard to ignore for me.
The crazy part is that I think I liked about 7 of the 12 tracks here, but for 4 of them to be some of the most boring tracks I’ve heard in a way that they quite literally dragged no emotion out of me but pure disappointment is not good. Still though, those 7 are good to listen to, but not great, and that’s where I’m stuck on a 3 for this.
3
View Album
Mon Mar 25 2024
Risque
CHIC
It’s a 3.5 and I wish I could leave it there.
This is a really good record that gets dragged down by one thing, and I’d be a hypocrite to call it out on the last album and to not call it out here: it’s the repetition. Instrumental repetition is obviously fine, but lyrically, these songs drag on and on most of the time in a way that just doesn’t click right for me. That’s not to say they’re bad; what’s here is absolutely fabulous and super funky. Super cool basslines, guitar work, and percussion throughout this album, and even the vocals sound great with super good melodies that compliment the instruments.
I just feel like this album deeply suffers from the “first minute is the whole song” problem that occasionally rears its ugly head, but I have to reconcile that with stellar production. That’s why I wish I could leave it at a 3.5, because I cannot in good conscience give it a 4 as an album experience. So, uhh… I guess it’s a 3. Dang.
3
View Album
Tue Mar 26 2024
The College Dropout
Kanye West
I have an annoyingly deep connection to this album. In every sense of the word, I do find it to be a timeless classic. I think that THIS version of Kanye West, before every single disgraceful and disgusting thing he's done and said in the 20 years since this album has dropped, is Kanye at his best, and this is his best album of the College Trilogy. It's a genuine 5, and I'm gonna keep it there.
It would be incredibly easy for me to rate this a 1 based on who he is now, in the year 2024, and move on, and give myself the moral brownie points. I just cannot bring myself to do it; I still basically know every line to every song on here, I still think the production is off the charts, and... to be completely honest, THIS version of Kanye West on this album just resonates with me still. Family Business, Jesus Walks, All Falls Down, Through The Wire... these are all obnoxiously good, and they all remind me of why the guy became a superstar to begin with. I miss that guy, not the anti-semitic Nazi-apologizing Trump supporter he's become.
Let me be extra clear: I did not stream the album when I wrote this review. I'm not giving him another cent. I wrote all of this without re-listening, because I know this album that deeply. I still believe it to be a 5, even if the man himself has dropped into the negatives.
So, uh... yeah, I listened to Desire, I Want To Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek today instead. Super cool album with a lot of 2000s influence clearly present throughout; definitely worth a listen, and worth all the hype it got in 2023. I'd probably give it like a 4.5, that I'd likely round up after another listen or two.
5
View Album
Wed Mar 27 2024
Picture Book
Simply Red
That’s a really good 4.
When this album clicks, it clicks; those are some high-energy tracks with the 80s written all over them to me, in a good way. When I think of the 80s, this is part of the sound my brain goes to: heavy synth work, deep drum pads for percussion, a whole slew of instruments that somehow work together in harmony, plus really fun vocal work that can run the range of “basically screaming” to “really smooth” in a heartbeat.
The slower tracks are what drag this album down to a 4 for me; they’re not bad songs at all, and I think they’re great to listen to, but they just didn’t keep me engaged in the way the higher paced and frenetic songs did. Some of them were a bit boring for me, even.
I’ll admit, a lot of this album can be called “generic,” but I’m a sucker for this type of sound and this type of earworm stuff. If you’re listening to this and not grooving on at least one track, then I think you’re too deep into the “artsy” side of music to enjoy a good time when you hear one.
4
View Album
Thu Mar 28 2024
Hunky Dory
David Bowie
I think I’m at a 4.
The weird part is that I would usually round up and give an album like this a 5, but for this one, I just… don’t feel that way. It never really connected to me in that way some of the other albums I’ve given a 5 to, but it’s absolutely no less than a 4. Changes & Life on Mars are all-time classics, and I think this album supplements them with really strong stuff that just never quite hit those heights for me (save for Quicksand & Queen Bitch). It could bump up to a 5 later, but I feel pretty good with a 4.
4
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Fri Mar 29 2024
System Of A Down
System Of A Down
That’s a much better Apocalypse Dudes, to the point where I’ll even go from a 3 to a 4, just because I liked it that much.
My biggest problem with Apocalypse Dudes is that it never really gave me a chance to breathe, and that it never really felt like there was that much variance in its sound; both of them came out in the same year, so I feel confident in saying this album does the heavy hard rock thing so much better.
In terms of both the actual instrumental performance, the actual variance of tracks (i.e., that nothing blended together endlessly), and just the general passion for each track (Apocalypse Dudes felt sort of plastic and fake by comparison), this album just does everything way better, way catchier, and way more memorably. Top notch guitar and percussion work; my only knock is that the vocals felt a little too sharp at times, and that the lyrics (save for the last track and a handful of others) just didn’t add too much depth. Still though, really fun 3 that I enjoyed enough to bump up to a 4.
4
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Sat Mar 30 2024
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
I’m vacillating between giving this a 3 or 4, and I think I’ve ended up on a 4, but a very strange 4.
I don’t think I paid that much attention to the lyrics on this album, which is kinda crazy, given that it’s so lyrically dense. I also wasn’t feeling the album at first at all; I thought there wasn’t really a specific genre, I didn’t get a sense of variety, and perhaps worst of all, I didn’t get a sense of direction for the album. I don’t know when it clicked for me exactly, but I think at about the halfway point of the album, I just threw out the lyrics entirely, focused on the general mood of the songs, and I tried to catch what I could.
That mood is what’s carrying the album to a 4 for me. Before I threw out the lyrics, I didn’t think there was necessarily a bad song, but I didn’t think there were any standouts either; once I kind of let the “analyst” side of me go away for this album, I just felt a deep, deep nostalgia for oddly, the late 2000s & early 2010s.
For an album made in 2010, talking about nostalgia, it seems clear enough to me that they’re longing for the pre-9/11 vibes of innocence, hope, safety, and just a general brightness to everything. In 2024, to listen to this after the social media era, the Trump years, the COVID pandemic, the BLM movement… it just makes me feel nostalgic for the now underrated brightness of what I can now officially call my youth, as all of that shit just weighs down upon me like an anchor I’m not sure I can drag off of me.
I need to give this album another listen or two to decide what the really good tracks are as opposed to just feeling the vibes, but I know this; I’m definitely listening to it in a car next time. This album feels like it was desperately designed for a car ride. Regardless, I feel good with a 4.
4
View Album
Sun Mar 31 2024
Take Me Apart
Kelela
It’s a really nice 4.
This album gives a really bad first impression through its first 4 or 5 tracks, but the stretch from Better to Truth or Dare presents the actual mood of the album so much better. LMK should have been the opening track, because the trap-hop beat on Frontline just gives the wrong impression for this album overall. Relistening to those first 4 tracks after finishing the album the first time gave me a really strong appreciation for this album overall.
Kelela’s vocals on this entire album are fantastic, and this album is at its very best when just she flows on the electronica-infused beats. I can understand some of the complaints about this album, but when it all finally starts to click, the little details in the production become more apparent as the album goes on, and the sort of dullness that the first 4 tracks give gets washed away (at least, it did for me). It’s crazy how much this album improves by Better, seriously.
There are some filler interlude tracks, some of the songs do go a bit long, but what ends up being here is some really cool R&B tracks with a clear Janet Jackson influence in the vocals, and a sort of “lo-fi Timbaland” feel to the production, and it just clicked incredibly well for me. I feel comfy with a 4, and it might even bump up to a 5 the more I listen. Glad to get this one.
4
View Album
Mon Apr 01 2024
Moon Safari
Air
It’s a 3.5 that I’ll round up to a 4.
I think about half of this album just didn’t fully click for me, but maybe it’s because I was still in a sort of “analyst” mode as opposed to just listening and feeling the vibe. We’ve had a lot of vibe albums lately, but this is very much a vibes album. What’s here sounds excellent; there’s not a single bad track on here, and in terms of super relaxing electronica, this is an album you can both study to and fall asleep to on a dime.
For my tastes, some of the songs felt a bit too empty at times or a bit too long, and I was still expecting at least one sort of Daft Punk-esque energy-filled song given the genre, but like… that’s an unfair expectation. This is a good listen, it’s well-recommended, and I’m perfectly ok with a 4 here. Good soundscapes, great vibes.
4
View Album
Tue Apr 02 2024
Surfer Rosa
Pixies
A resounding 3.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate the album, but like… it just never clicked. There’s great energy on here, and one all-timer in Where Is My Mind?, but past that, for my tastes, I think what’s here is a cacophonic, unwieldy, jumbled up mess of an album that occasionally shines through in a way that clicks. More often than not though, even with my newfound level of patience to an album with this sound, I just felt like I was listening to glorified noise.
To be more succinct: the guitar gets too harsh sometimes, the percussion is mixed way in the front where it overpowers the vocals, the vocals themselves are sometimes studio quality and sometimes sound like they were recorded off of a microphone hanging from a string 25 feet away in the air in a wind tunnel. When all of those things aren’t happening, and they take a more traditional sound, the album works well for me. It just felt like those moments were more rare than I’d like. Still though, I can hear part of why Kurt Cobain took at least some inspo from this album. It’s not that bad, it’s just not my thing. Hence, the 3.
3
View Album
Wed Apr 03 2024
Dub Housing
Pere Ubu
I feel like I got hypnotized.
Seriously, I really don’t quite know what the fuck to make of that. There’s two ways to listen to this album: by sitting down and trying to actually give a sort of critique on the soundscape of everything, the mixing, etc., and go from there. There’s also the approach I took by “Thriller!” which was to just stand up, walk in place, and let the music simply drag me around. The latter worked for me; I don’t know why, but “Thriller!”, “Drinking Wine Spodyody,” and “Codex” were hypnotically pleasing despite being objectively terrible soundscapes, solely from just walking in place. That hypnotism made me realize this album feels like a Talking Heads album one might create in their sleep (with a really bad hangover).
The first half of this album doesn’t work for me at all; I think it’s too noisy to be a walk in place sort of mood, but the back half works for me. I don’t think I can ever revisit this album except to experience that sort of hypnotic feeling again, because as far as an actual structured album, in the traditional sense, it’s absolutely a 2. However, in terms of just how I felt… I dunno, that feeling and the sort of otherworldly escape I felt seems 4-ish. I’ll split the difference and say a 3. What a strange, strange, almost alien album that doesn’t feel like anything else from 1978 whatsoever.
3
View Album
Thu Apr 04 2024
Everything Must Go
Manic Street Preachers
That’s a 3.5 that I’m really begrudgingly rounding up to a 4.
I think the first half of this album fires on all cylinders; great variance in the production, some fun soundscapes, good lyrics, great vocals, and it’s all really fun stuff through Track 7.
Tracks 8, 9, 10, and 11 all blend together in a way that really, really slows down the pace of the album for me. They’re all guitar-heavy songs that sound great to listen to, but they all sound the same to me, and the lyrics just weren’t as good to justify having such a similar sound. You can literally tell they lost steam. Track 12 was pretty nice, though. You just can’t have that much of an album feel like filler though; if this had been the first 7 tracks, it would probably be a really nice 5. It just kinda sticks around too long for its own good, and drags itself down in the process.
I don’t want to give this a 4, but I also just can’t in good faith give this a 3 knowing the quality of those first 7 tracks, so, uh… yeah, I guess it’s a 4, but just know I’m stuck at a hard 3.5.
4
View Album
Fri Apr 05 2024
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Pavement
It’s a 4.5 that I’ll round up to a 5.
Other than the extreme dissonance of Hit the Plane Down, I really don’t think there’s a bad track on this album; there’s a lot of Nirvana to this at the start, but it slowly blends in a bit of R.E.M. as well, and that general soundscape just worked really well for me. I think this album shines best in its guitar and percussion work, but the vocals hold up pretty well against them, as do the lyrics for a good chunk of the album.
Just a really strong listen for me; glad we got this one, and I feel good with a 5.
5
View Album
Sat Apr 06 2024
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
I mean, they really blew their load in the first 7 tracks here, huh?
This is a fantastic album that goes on just a little too long for its own good; those first 7 tracks could stand up with any 7-track stretch on any album like this, and I'll stand by that. The energy and the luster of the sound really started to fade away by Tracks 9 and 10, and it felt especially bad by Tracks 13 and 14 where it just felt like they were rehashing stuff from earlier in the album.
Road Trippin’ is a great closer, but I think that stretch of Tracks 9-14 where the energy starts to fade and the album simply loses its steam is gonna drop this down to a 4 for me. It’s a 4.5 that I just can’t bring myself to round up all the way; it could hit a 5 if one or two of those tracks in the back half of the album click for me better, but it’s a really strong album that’s worth listening to regardless. Think of it this way; it’s a 9/10 for me.
4
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Sun Apr 07 2024
Legalize It
Peter Tosh
That’s a solid 3.
When this album clicks well, it really clicks well; I think tracks 3-6 are strong reggae tracks, and I think Till Your Well Runs Dry has super fun vibes and a great mix between a typical reggae feel and sort of traditional 70s pop/rock. When this album doesn’t click, it’s a bit too long, a bit too repetitive, and the vibes just don’t fully click with my sensibilities, and I think that happens a bit too much. There’s definitely not a bad track here, but it’s just harder to get lost in the soundscape on this than it was for Exodus. Hence, just a 3.
Legalize weed, though.
3
View Album
Mon Apr 08 2024
Music From Big Pink
The Band
Surprisingly, I’m gonna go with a 5.
This album feels way way ahead of schedule for 1968 in terms of the general folksy sound that would come to pass by the mid-70s and early 80s; I think the percussion and guitar work are off the charts here. There’s not a single “bad” track on this album either; there are a few that go a little long, but they’re all great listens as far as catching the ear and keeping it engaged.
In general, despite being Bob Dylan’s backing band for a bit, it speaks to the talent that Bob Dylan surrounded himself with for them to produce something that feels this sort of influential and groundbreaking with only a small (but still sizable) portion of his musical DNA scattered throughout the record. There’s just some incredibly cool soundscapes here that have aged fabulously for the 55 years since this album came out, and I think that’ll give it a 5 from me.
5
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Tue Apr 09 2024
S&M
Metallica
I’m not sure quite how I should rate this, given my unfamiliarity with most of the source material, the fact that I sort of zoned in and out while listening to it given its runtime, and that unfamiliarity making me sort of unsure how much the orchestra added to the actual weight of the original songs. There were points where these sort of just felt like studio recordings to me.
With that said, it’s definitely somewhere between a 4 and 5. What a enriching album in terms of that soundscape and that orchestra blended with Metallica’s style. Seriously, seriously incredible stuff here. In some sense, I think my lack of familiarity with the band is a bit of a positive; even if some songs sort of blended together, and even if my focus was a little lost at times, something about either the orchestra’s ability to keep up with them or Metallica’s inherent charm and appeal kept pulling my ear back in pretty quickly.
Are there lulls and periods of this album where you can feel a sort of rest break built in? Yes, but they don’t take away from the experience for me because they blend it super well to a point where those rest breaks are just as needed for the listener to catch their breath. I might need to give this concert at least one more listen to really lock this in, but I’m super comfortable with the idea of a 5 just on vibes, execution, and energy alone. I can’t wait to get more Metallica, mainly so I can come back to this album someday with a very fresh sense of how much the orchestra added and how well these songs were adapted to incorporate them. Either way, I’ll go for a 5. Great stuff.
5
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Wed Apr 10 2024
Actually
Pet Shop Boys
Feeling a 4 here.
There’s no bad tracks here; as far as the soundscape goes, this is super cool for 1987, with some great synth work, cool percussion, and just some pretty captivating melodies. Sometimes, they don’t work or they’re a little repetitive, but when this album clicks, it clicks really well. I’ve never heard the Pet Shop Boys before this, but I get the feeling I’ve been missing out.
I think my biggest nitpick with this album is that sometimes the outros are just too long in a way that doesn’t really enhance the song. Music just can’t overstay its welcome, because it runs the risk of growing boring. I say that with the irony of having listened to 2 hours of orchestral Metallica yesterday, but that album worked because it was live and the energy never quite dwindled for me. On this album… yeah, the energy dwindled a little on those outros. Regardless, this is a really good album, definitely worth the listen, and definitely worth a 4; maybe a 5 if a few songs hit differently.
4
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Thu Apr 11 2024
Cloud Nine
The Temptations
Incredibly, it’s a 5.
Yes, the last 7 tracks of this album are a sort of stereotypical doo-wop affair reminiscent of “My Girl” more than the funk-infused and experimental first 3 tracks, but I love both sides of it equally. I think the doo-wop is just incredibly smooth, and even though it’s all just love songs, it manages to blend in that sort of late 50s/early 60s feel with a lot of their contemporaries of the era in a way that makes it feel kinda fresh and nostalgic at the same time for 1969, when Beatlemania was surely still in full swing.
Those first 3 tracks are still really cool; namely Cloud Nine & the 10-minute centerpiece that is Runaway Child, Running Wild; yes, it doesn’t need to be 10 minutes, but it fills its soundscape pretty well and it stays pretty engaging throughout, even if it plays it pretty safe the whole way through.
I can’t really explain why it’s a 5, but I think there’s just something about this sound that clicked with me super well; I don’t think there’s a miss on this album in terms of easy listening, and everything here is just catchy as hell to me. I feel pretty good with a 5.
5
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Fri Apr 12 2024
Illmatic
Nas
I mean, it’s obviously a 5.
I have some level of bias since I heard this in August 2022 for the first time and basically fell in love with the album there, but I’ve heard songs from it pretty sparsely, so to come back to it about a year and a half later with a more critical ear just tells me I was justified in liking the album the first time. A masterclass in lyricism and in flow with some genuine all-time beats here; I do think the latter half of the album relies a bit more on basslines to carry the beats than any substantial sampling, but Nas overshadows that incredibly well with his honesty and his enigmatic lyrics, even when he makes up shit like “magmatize”.
It really is just a fantastic debut album, and I still feel like I need to listen to more Nas. Super easy 5.
5
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Sat Apr 13 2024
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
This album makes that Bill Evans album look like a fucking preschool recital, holy shit. What an instant 5.
The layering on every instrumental is perfectly done, the mixing is fabulous, and the avant garde composition of the piano, the brass, and the percussion — good lord, the percussion — is a masterclass in jazz. For 1963, this is experimental as hell, but it’s aged beautifully well. The quickest 40 minutes of an album experience I think I’ve had so far, but in a really pleasing way that had me encapsulated the entire time. I’m really deeply impressed by how much this sort of touched me, and I’m glad I listened to it. Fantastic album, easy 5.
5
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Sun Apr 14 2024
Coles Corner
Richard Hawley
It’s a very nice 3 that I'll round up to a 4.
I really enjoyed this, honestly; I think what’s here makes for a great listen, there’s about 6 tracks that properly caught my ear in a captivating way, but the other 5 or so just sort of exist in a way that were only made for casual listening, at least to me. I thought the last track being fully instrumental was a bit baffling. Regardless though, this album evokes so much of that 50s/60s country sound that I tend to have a bias towards, and I thought it really faithfully captured a lot of its production quirks in a way that made the whole album feel authentically done and with a lot of respect towards that era. Hence, the round-up.
4
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Mon Apr 15 2024
Ambient 1/Music For Airports
Brian Eno
I mean, in terms of doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, I’d say it gets a 5 as an ambient album. In terms of the music itself… it’s like a 3.5, maybe, but the point of the album is almost certainly not to critique the actual composition – sure, there are layers to the music, intentional production decisions, and a general melody loop each track follows, but that’s not the stuff to focus on. It’s just about getting lost in the soundscape and going for it.
Obviously, it would be dumb to go, “oh, it’s a 5, that means it’s as good as Illmatic or something” because it’s obviously not, but like… what else am I supposed to rate it, you know? The only knock I have is that 2/1 was probably the most “distracting” of the tracks, but it’s like complaining that a bird is chirping while it’s sunny outside. It happens.
Seriously, I think I’m gonna go with a 5 in terms of keeping me focused, steady, and relaxed for its entire 48 minute runtime. If I had to go out of 10, it’s almost certainly like a 7/10 or something, but that’s just because it’s clearly not at the highest of high levels or anything. What a strange album to include in the 1,001 set, but like… I’m glad it came up, because now I have new focus/study music to add to my collection. Pretty good.
5
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Tue Apr 16 2024
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Once again, I have an annoyingly deep connection to this album. Once again, I do find it to be a timeless classic. I still think that THIS version of Kanye West, before every single disgraceful and disgusting thing he's done and said in the 13.5 years since this album has dropped, is still pretty damn good; not as good as his College Trilogy work, and honestly for me, probably still not as good as 808s, but regardless... ugh, this album is another fucking 5.
Yes, this Kanye certainly resembles a little more of the asshole he's become, but he was driven by that stupidity and that ego to create this piece of art instead of spreading hate. In that sense, I miss this asshole who tried to "redeem" himself by just making incredible music and not being a Nazi sympathizer for the fun of it.
Still though; just classics on classics on classics on this one; Dark Fantasy is a stellar opener, and the 3-track stretch of POWER, All of the Lights, and Monster is such a ridiculous flex. Devil In A New Dress is stellar, Runaway will stick with me forever, and the 1-2 punch of Lost in The World / Who Will Survive in America is a great way to close out the album.
Once again, I didn't listen to this album before giving it this 5, if only because I know it well enough to never have to give Kanye another dime ever again. It is once again, obnoxiously a 5, even if the man has dipped further into the negatives.
So, uhh... this time, I chose to listen to Sean Kingston's self-titled debut album. I mean, honestly? Not bad. Pretty fun album; a lot of 2000s-era production quirks in there, some slang I wish we would bring back in the lyrics, and ultimately, some pretty solid vocal performances by Sean Kingston. It’s got some weird sampling choices, sure, but I feel like I’ve heard worse. A solid 7/10 album.
5
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Wed Apr 17 2024
The Undertones
The Undertones
It’s a pretty good 3, but it’s just sort of… safe.
It’s hard for me to find the specific words I want to say, because I do think this album has some pretty energetic tracks throughout, but none of them are necessarily that memorable. It’s not an Apocalypse Dudes situation where I felt like every song just sort of blended together, but it is a point where the quantity of the album creates diminishing returns on the quality of the album – at some point, the soundscape loses its luster, and even with the 16 tracks here all being relatively short, some of them do feel unnecessary, even with some decent variety within.
It’s a good listen, and I’m sure it’ll resonate better and perhaps more deeply with someone else, but for my money’s worth, this is an album that you take all the songs in, throw on a playlist, and then just go “oh, this sounds cool” when it comes up on shuffle, and never think about it again afterward. Hence, the 3, but it could go up to a 4 later. The guitar work was absolutely stellar though.
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
Calenture
The Triffids
It’s a 2.5 that I cannot possibly bring myself to round up to a 3… but it’s not that terrible. It’s just boring.
There’s genuinely some good soundscapes here, and I’d say the vocal performance only ever dips to a real low by “Vagabond Holes,” but this album just feels like the equivalent of just getting a vanilla ice cream when there’s so many other flavors and toppings available. Most of the songs are fine to listen to, but when you look at the lyrics, the concepts of each song sort of fall apart with lyrics that are either too contrived or too outdated and “safe” for 1987, let alone 2024.
Instrumentally, I think the mixing on this album is all over the place, and in terms of production, these are trying so desperately hard to sound important and bombastic with this rich variety of instruments, and it just falls flat because as a listener, it’s incredibly easy to tell where they’re just trying too hard. The problem, of course, is that they’ve tried just enough to exist within the limbo of “good enough to listen to, not good enough to care,” and that is the cardinal sin any album can fall into. If I were going by a 10… I dunno, a 5.5, maybe? Decent listen, but instantly forgettable, hence the 2.
2
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Fri Apr 19 2024
The Sounds Of India
Ravi Shankar
That’s a really intriguing 3.
There are lulls around the middle where the sound sorta loses its luster, but all 4 of the core styles here make for good listening. I enjoyed the first and last styles (Dádrá & Sindhi-Bhairavi) the most because they just sort of had a more natural and free-flowing vibe to them; you can feel these guys feeling the music come to them. It felt to me like that was a bit more deliberate in the Máru-Bihág and Bhimpalási styles, and that’s why I didn’t enjoy them as much, but they’re all good listens.
The only knock I might have on these tracks are the runtimes? I feel like it could’ve been possible to trim this down a little bit, but that’s a knock against the sort of flow I was talking about earlier and I’d be kind of a hypocrite. I don’t think I can go up to a 4 or a 5 because it is kind of just the same throughout, but it’s a very enjoyable listen regardless, and I feel good with a 3.
3
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Melodrama
Lorde
I’m just a sucker for pop, man. It’s a 4.5 that I’m gonna round up to a 5.
It’s just a really fucking catchy album; there’s a lot to be said about Jack Antonoff’s influence (for better or worse) on so much of modern pop, but when he clicks perfectly with an artist, it’s easy to ignore those production quirks and just get a great feel for the music. Lorde’s vocals and lyrics on this album do a great job of distracting from those quirks in a way that makes her really shine on this album.
I do think she gives a more authentic view of herself on Pure Heroine compared to this album, but they’re intentionally tonally different. Even though I think I still prefer aspects of Pure Heroine more, this album is just full of bops, and it’s got an extremely infectious energy. Oddly, my standout on this album is Liability, which is the least boppy of them all, but it’s just an utterly beautiful piano-driven song that brought me to the verge of tears.
I can feel how this album did influence the direction this style of pop music would take; you don’t get to a Billie Eilish or an Olivia Rodrigo without this sort of album, in terms of its soundscape, its lyrics, and to some degree, its marketability. This style is starting to feel a bit overplayed now, but Lorde really makes it work for herself here, and I’m glad I listened to it. I feel pretty good going for a 5. Certainly no less than a 4.
5
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Sun Apr 21 2024
James Brown Live At The Apollo
James Brown
It’s a pretty decent 4.
James Brown has incredible crowd control on this album, which works well live, but occasionally hits some lull points when you’re dealing with nothing but the music – I thought Lost Someone really started to drag by the end, but the medley afterward started red hot. That’s the sort of thing where I imagine it was way cooler live than how it feels on this album. I also think Night Train was… sort of the “wrong” closer for this set? It seems like it was either recorded separately or recorded in a way where the crowd’s energy was drained.
Speaking of the crowd, they’re basically their own instrument on this album with the way James Brown and his excellent band basically hit every transition in a way to let them realize what’s up next without much of a pause (again, except for the extended dragout section on Lost Someone). Those little lulls are what get this a 4; honestly, it’s probably closer to a 3.5 than it is a 4, but I know it deserves higher than a 3. It’s just a really strong listen that didn’t quite click with me the way some of the other live albums we’ve gotten have, but it's enjoyable regardless.
4
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Cafe Bleu
The Style Council
It’s a 3.5 that I think I’m going to round down to a 3.
I really don’t think there’s a bad track here, save for two examples: the egregiously cheesy and quintessentially 80s “A Gospel,” and “Strength of Your Nature,” which is fine but did not need to be 4 minutes long.
Every other track, besides My Ever Changing Moods & Headstart for Happiness, ended up as a good listen, but not a very memorable one. Those two were the standouts for me. Individually, I think there’s some good soundscapes, some good vocal performances, and even the instrumental tracks have a nice energy to them.
The problem is that other than those 2 tracks, nothing really stuck to my brain on this album, but I’d honestly say I enjoyed most of it while I was listening to it. There are songs here I’d be happy to hear come up in a shuffle, but I don’t think I’d actively seek them out. I do think it’s higher than a 3, but it’s not quite at the level of a 4, so I’ll stick it at a 3. It might jump up to a 4 later though.
3
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
It’s a 4 that I’m gonna bump up to a 5.
I’m kinda just stunned, really, and I’m not really sure if I have the proper words to describe my mood right now. This is the first time I’ve properly heard Fiona Apple, ever; her voice is incredibly unique to me, and her slightly deeper tone just clicked super well for me as the primary instrument on this album. The piano, while it did eventually lose its luster near the end of the album, is a really strong choice for her to play off of, as there were times when she was just gliding with the damn thing. For 1996, this feels like it wouldn’t miss a damn beat if it had come out in 2024.
I also really liked the lyrics here; just evocative enough for imagery to sort of let the brain drift away and get lost, but not in a way where you lose all focus on the soundscape and her vocals. There were a few tracks where the lyrics sort of lost me, and when they lost me, the instrumental and her vocals couldn’t really pull me back in.
However, for the vast majority of this album, something just captivated me, and that’s why even though it’s nearer to a 4 for me, given the runtime, the occasional extended instrumental outros, and the occasional moments of lyrical confusion, I enjoyed this so damn much that I have to bump it up to a 5.
5
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Talk Talk Talk
The Psychedelic Furs
The definition of a 3, really.
I wouldn’t say it’s bad at all, but it never really makes the jump past “good” – Pretty in Pink is pretty fun, as are 2 or 3 other tracks, but this album feels like it’s missing a specific type of signature song. That doesn’t even mean a super commercial hit or anything, it just needs something that really defines their style and stands out, and I just never found that here. It is 1981 rock, which occasionally dips backwards into the late 70s and occasionally dips forward into some mid-80s R.E.M. type of soundscapes, but it never really settles into a spot where I found myself super deeply engaged with any one song, hence the 3.
3
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Thu Apr 25 2024
Dig Me Out
Sleater-Kinney
It’s a pretty strong 4.
I don’t know quite how to describe the way I felt during this album, but the energy grew throughout until it basically hit a peak at Not What You Want, before sort of curving back down. I felt a little nitpicky at first, with her vocals not quite meshing with the guitar and the dissonance not really clicking well for me sonically, to eventually just really getting pulled into the musical feel more than anything else.
It’s a testament to the strength of the album that I actually wish the last track had gone longer instead of feeling a little more abrupt – this is just a super fun listen, and if the inner punk/grunge-self in you doesn’t feel the energy off this album at least once, then something’s just wrong. Super fun 4 that has peaks that feel like a 5.
4
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Fri Apr 26 2024
Arular
M.I.A.
It’s a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4.
I think there are a few points of lulls on this album; not necessarily in the instrumental lacking an energy, or vocal repetition, but just points where the soundscape kinda loses a luster really quickly if the vocals aren’t flowing, and vice-versa. Most of the tracks here have a good energy, and a great soundscape, but there were some songs that were just harder for me to stay fully invested in on account of those little lulls.
I do think this album sounds well ahead of its time for 2005; not like, 2020s level of ahead, but certainly a bit more of an early 2010’s flair. I don’t think there are that many standout individual tracks, but the album as an entire package is just a fun listen, and a recommended one at that. It’s not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea; I do think there are some harsher instrumental choices here and there, and sometimes her vocals do feel a bit… aggressive. However, a lot of this just clicked for me as a listener – there were times when I wasn’t feeling a song, kinda zoned out, and enjoyed it more for some reason. Schrödinger’s beat, I guess. Happy with the 4.
4
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Sat Apr 27 2024
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
I knew I was giving it a 5, I just… ugh. Wow. It’s so good. I haven’t heard it in full in a bit, but it’s so goddamn good.
There are some songs where the repetition becomes too noticeable to ignore at times, but when this album clicks, it clicks deeply. Her lyricism is great, her vocals are spectacular, and the instrumentals are really fun throughout, especially when they lean into live instrumentation. The biggest knock I have on this album is its length (it’s a little long), but it just doesn’t matter that much to me. It’s not a perfect album, but I love it regardless, and I really wish Lauryn Hill had tried to top herself, but if she never does, she left an absolutely stellar project here, and it’s so highly recommended. Easy 5.
5
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Elastica
Elastica
It’s a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4.
It’s pretty good; I think the first half of the album is a bit generic at times, but I really enjoyed the back half of the album. I thought it had way more energy to it. However, when this album kinda hits those generic lulls, it’s just not that sonically pleasing; the guitar can overwhelm the vocals, or the percussion can overwhelm the guitar, or some other rock/paper/scissors type of connection with those 3 elements. When this album clicks and those 3 are in harmony, it’s really nice. Even when it’s not clicking in full, it’s usually hitting on 2 of those 3, and it makes for a fine enough listen.
It didn’t really do enough to ever feel like it was close to a 5, but it’s pretty good regardless, and I think a 4 feels about right.
4
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Mon Apr 29 2024
Back To Black
Amy Winehouse
It is, thankfully, a 5.
This album has received so much critical acclaim, and yet I only really knew it for Rehab and Back to Black, both of which are fabulous tracks. I think there are a few tracks on here that touched me really deeply, namely Love is a Losing Game & Wake Up Alone. Absolutely fabulous songs, and Amy Winehouse’s voice is spectacular on them, and the entire album. The production is off the charts too; Mark Ronson does a great job evoking the 50s and 60s with modern production for someone who feels ripped straight out of the era of R&B and soul music of that time.
To put it bluntly, I’m glad it’s a 5 because I feel like I would have been underwhelmed if it were anything else. The legend of Amy Winehouse has grown in the years since her death, and the fact that a movie is coming out about her soon is the craziest part. Great timing to get this album, and I’m glad I finally had the excuse to sit down and listen to it in full. I’m so glad that it’s this good, and I’m also so dumb for not listening to the whole thing before today. Fantastic 5. Easily one of the best albums we’ve gotten so far.
5
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Tue Apr 30 2024
The Wildest!
Louis Prima
Surprisingly, a 5.
Well, OK, maybe not that surprising, but for the earliest album we’ve gotten so far to get this out of me is a little surprising to me. It’s just a really fun listen. Louis Prima’s voice and tone has this great energy that gets matched by the band, and on the two tracks that have Keely Smith as the female vocalist, his voice blends really well with hers.
Ultimately, what makes this album is Louis Prima’s vocal energy; yes, the lyrics are there, and they’re pretty solid, but you don’t need them to enjoy this. This is just really fun swing music; it’s a good time, it’s a great listen, and I think the amount of infectious energy it gives out makes it very worthy of a 5. Certainly no less than a 4, at least to me.
5
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Wed May 01 2024
Low
David Bowie
It’s a 4.5 that I’m gonna pretty easily round up to a 5. First Bowie album to get a 5 out of me during this experience.
I can’t exactly explain how I feel after listening to this, mainly because it’s unlike any Bowie album we’ve gotten yet, or anything Bowie that I’ve ever listened to, really. I don’t know what crack Brian Eno put into these collaborations with Bowie, but something just clicked perfectly for me with this album; the synth work, the instrumentation, Bowie’s vocals in the first half, the moodiness of the second half, and really, just the sort of strange mix of melancholy and brightness that I had wavering throughout this album.
It’s very hard to describe it, but I know that I’m glad I listened to this album, and I know that I’d recommend it as an experience. It is not a traditional David Bowie affair, and I’d argue it’s more of a Brian Eno album that happens to have David Bowie on it for a strong chunk of the album, but regardless, I feel pretty good about bumping this up to a 5.
5
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Thu May 02 2024
The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden
That’s a 5.
I don’t even think I want to expound on that. It’s a fucking 5. Just… ugh. Insanely good. I’ve never heard Iron Maiden before this; I might be fucking stupid. What an incredible album, genuinely. I don’t have the words; I’m writing this right after I listened to it, and I’m stunned, and all I know is that everyone should listen to this. Just beautifully visceral. This shit feels like hearing Thriller for the first time. To me, it feels like the cornerstone piece of a genre. That’s all I can say. Easy 5.
5
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Fri May 03 2024
Life Thru A Lens
Robbie Williams
I’m feeling a 4.
I don’t really understand the criticisms this album has been getting on the site – yes, it’s very radio-friendly safe pop, but what’s wrong with that? Not everything has to be this absolutely blowout balls at the wall album. Sometimes, when pop is good, and it clicks, it just… clicks. This album clicked for me; I thought the instrumentation was pretty good, I really like the tone of his voice, and I thought the tempo and the vibes were pretty varied and entertaining throughout. Lyrically, I caught a few things that were dumb as hell, but overall, I’d say this is good, and worth giving a 4 to.
Let me put it this way: I’ve heard worse on some of the previous 121 albums we’ve done before this. To me, this is pretty fun. It’s not blow-me-away incredible, and it breaks the streak of 5’s I’ve been giving (4 albums in a row and 5 out of the last 6 is pretty good), but I definitely enjoyed it, and I’d recommend it. I’d say that makes it worthy of being on the list.
4