Before my group had ever even gotten this album—hell, from the moment I found out this album was on this list at all, I'd already given it a 1. It was one of only two 1 I knew for a fact I was going to give, along with the Limp Bizkit album that's on here. And that's unfair, I get that. As I'm writing this, I haven't even heard the album yet. At most, I've heard the inclusion of the album's opener in Weird Al's "Angry White Boy Polka", Cledus T. Judd's parody of "Cowboy" "Plowboy", and the REGRETTING THE PAST video Rocked did on the album as a whole. And of course that last one especially would lead to me having a biased view-point going in. I'm fully aware of all this. But you gotta realize, even if I wasn't aware of the stuff I just mentioned, everything else Kid Rock's done recently would sure leave me feeling that way as well. This is the guy who would go on to release "AIN'T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE" or whatever it's called and fully pander to the MAGA audience because those are the only people who sort of like him anymore. You give me an album by him, ANY album by him, and you expect me to go in with an unbiased mind? There's nothing listening to it could do to convince me otherwise; that I shouldn't just rate this album based on what I think of Kid Rock as a person and not what it actually contains. Because I know exactly what it is: it's shit-stupid country rap rock from a rich poser white boy selling a fantasy of being a suburban cowboy to other poser white boys. That's all this is, and the fact that it sold so much frankly kind of offends me. The hell was going on in the 90's that people just lapped this shit up? Hell, what is it even doing HERE, on THIS LIST? Normally I'm not one to ask why an album's here because I figure it has to be for SOMETHING, but in this case, I can't figure it out beyond MAYBE that it was important to rap rock? But was it really? Why is this something I HAVE to listen to before I die? Unless you wanna say it's because you can't appreciate the good without hearing what trash sounds like. I could possibly make an argument for Limp Bizkit, but not here. This IS a waste of a spot, completely. You can only imagine what else could have been included if not for this. Hell, I'm just left thinking about all of the albums my group could have gotten instead of this; from the proven timeless classics to shit I just love on a personal level. But no. We gotta waste our time with "FUCK ALL YOU HOES. DETROIT 'TIL I DIE, MOTHERFUCKER." And it's only because I wanna remain consistent in my intent to listen to every album here that I'm even bothering to taint my Spotify history with this sack of shit. So I hope you're happy, Mr. Rock. You've triggered me, at least. ---------------*****--------------- This part was written after I listened to the album, and... See, hours before I figured I may as well get it over with, I had this joke in mind. Imagine: all that preamble, 500 words worth, of me ranting on and on about Kid Rock and this album and the fact that it's on this list, all written before I even heard a second of the album. Then, when I get to the post-conceptions part of the review, I only have four words: "Well... That fucking sucked." You see the humor there, right? Oh, it would have been amusing—at least it would've been to me. Because right from the top, I didn't figure I had anything else to say about it. After everything I said beforehand, what else could listening to the album inspire me to say? Honestly, I WAS kind of considering just not listening to the album and posting that anyway. But I wanted to do my due diligence. I put YouTube in Incognito mode, started up the album, and... After a while, I got so bored of the album I just started watching Rocked's video on it and didn't even pause it. So it's entirely possible I missed some of the grosser lyrics, and, yeah, no doubt I didn't treat this album fairly. But the big singles and the occasional REALLY bad lyric aside, there's just nothing to it. Like every album that was released in the 90's, it's too damn long. There's so much stuff that could've been left out and no one would've missed it. Though unlike with other records I doubt cutting it down would help much. I mean, you'd still be left with Kid Rock's posing about being a "pimp cowboy," which only gets more infuriating every time he brings it up. All I can see is his stupid millionaire mansion. Seriously, Snow had more street cred than him—yeah, the guy who recorded "Informer". And at least Vanilla Ice was a goof so it was fun to laugh at his posing. I'm not even sure if Kid Rock's from Detroit! Lemme put time aside now to mention one thing I liked about this album, before I get into the worst thing. The instrumental for "Wasting Time"? I kinda liked it. Or at least how it sounded coming out of my iPhone's speaker. I thought it was some kinda monk chant that he'd recorded for the album, but I found out later on in the day that, yeah, it's actually a sample of "Second Hand News". I like the version I had in my head better. Speaking of the sampling, by the way, before my writing this I never 100% vibed with how Rocked talked about it on this album because I always got the feeling he thought sampling was cheap. Y'know, that sampling isn't an art form, as has been demonstrated on albums like PAUL'S BOUTIQUE and FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET. But that's just the thing—it's an art form, but the way Kid Rock uses samples is artless. I believe that's more Rocked's point; that every Kid Rock uses a sample, it's something where he could've recorded something original himself, but didn't because he's lazy and wanted to bank on recognizability. But let's get to the worst thing. Simply put, the last track on the album, "Black Chick, White Guy", is disgusting. Even if I understand that it's a true story he's rapping about here—supposedly, anyway—never in my life did I want to hear Kid Rock rap about ninth graders having sex. That's not ALL it's about; it goes from there to be about the consequences, but still. You're damn right I don't know the half of it—and I don't WANT to! So this ending up running on way longer than I thought: over 1,000 words. As I'm writing this, I have no idea if this website will even accept reviews that long; I might end up having to make a Pastebin for it. And of course it's an album as terrible as this that inspires so much writing from me. It's the frustration, and the fact that it's easier to dump about stuff you hate than stuff you love. I mean, I wish I had said nearly as much about MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK or GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD or SIGN "O" THE TIMES" or PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE or 21 instead of wasting my time on Kid Rock. Lemme, then, just summarize this whole thing the way I should have to begin with: this fucking sucks.

(NOTE: I did not stream this album. I listened to it via a CD I've owned for around a decade now. No money was given to Kanye West in the making of this review. Thank you.) Every now and then I think back to the review I wrote for THE COLLEGE DROPOUT and wince a little. Y'know, as much as I stand by a lot of what I said, there I hafta wonder, "Did I spend too much time calling out Kanye?" Like, "We get it. He's big divorced dad energy and loves Nazis. Do you **need** to keep saying you don't like him and 'Fuck him' and all that? You've talked about how much you don't like him as a person more than you have the damn music. You already gave an 'I don't condone him' disclaimer. What moral brownie points are you aiming for here, exactly?" On the one hand, I blame this on that album being my first Kanye review. I felt like I had to take the time to air out my opinions on the man. With how much he ends up talking about himself on these albums, it's not exactly an unimportant piece of context. Plus, it's better to get it all out in one burst at the start than to keep repeating myself over the course of the next two–even if I doubt most people outside of my group are gonna read my reviews, let alone in order. But on the other hand–and this is the bigger hand, I figure–I don't have much of an attachment to THE COLLEGE DROUPOUT. Preparing for that review was probably only the second time I've heard it in full over the course of a decade. Of course, then, it was really easy for me to get distracted from talking about the music to going on about something where I had more to say. Don't get me wrong, I recognize THE COLLEGE DROPOUT for its beatwork and "Jesus Walks" (even if Kanye's gone on to betray its message). But I just don't have that link that inspires me to write much about it. Unlike this album. MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY is home to my favorite song Kanye ever made, "Runaway". I love the extended "single note" piano intro. I love the beat it turns into. I love singing along to it. I even love the "I sent this bitch a picture of my dick" line for how memorably bad it is. And every other song on the album has its great share of beats, moments and memorable lines, too. "CAN WE GET MUCH HIGHER?" "Choke a SOUTH PARK writer with a fish stick." The whole ending to "POWER". Elton John's piano playing. "MJ GONE–A [n] DEAD." Nicki's verse on "Monster". "That'll be the same day MTV plays videos. That was a little joke–voila." That guitar line before Rick Ross's verse on "Devil In A New Dress". The "Iron Man" interpolation on "Hell Of A Life". "Avril 14th". The intro to "Lost In The World". None of them, though, compare to the second half of "Runaway". The entire vocal solo. That feeling when you want to express yourself, explain yourself ("I'mma be honest")... But you can't. And it can only come out as a long, pained, anguished wail that says more than any words ever could. It's beautiful, honestly. I get close to tearing up over it. And it's damn depressing with the context of 2024. I mean, let's be clear: it needs to be acknowledged that bad people can make good art. Just because Kanye turned out to be a piece of shit doesn't mean his old music is suddenly bad. Hell, he was a piece of shit back when he made this album. Remember the whole "I'MMA LET YOU FINISH" incident? This album was made following that controversy. And he's no stranger to controversy, of course–"GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE," after all. But when even the president was vocally calling him a jackass... You can view the vocal solo on "Runaway" as a reaction to all that. That he wanted to say so much in response, but ultimately couldn't. That he'd never be understood anyway. And in that light, this whole album is such an underdog triumph. That he was the world's public scumbag #1 and still came out with a critically acclaimed, world conquering smash. That success just feels non-existent these days knowing there'd be controversy following this album, and much worse controversy than stealing a microphone from Taylor Swift. MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY is a masterpiece. Kanye's absolute peak before he slid off, in my opinion. True, it's entirely self-indulgent in how damn long it is (see: Rick Ross's verse on "Devil In A New Dress", the "Blame Game" skit, etc.), and just because a lyric is memorably bad doesn't stop it from being... Y'know, bad. It's just all trumped by the fact that it's my Kanye album. The first one of his I've discovered. Where, more than once, I'd imagined one of my own characters screaming out the vocal solo in "Runaway". That aria of sadness and anger at how painfully aware they are that they're a huge fuckin' asshole. And Kanye is an asshole. A jackass, even. He was one back then, and he's an even bigger one now. But I'll always have this. Even if I don't listen to this album anymore because of how inseparable Kanye is from his music, he'll never truly take "Runaway" away from me.

Definitive. This, to me, is what big beat should sound like, in sampling, production, tempo, tone, energy—everything. Even in length, as much as I don't think everything needed to be 5+ minutes. If there's anymore big beat albums on this list, I doubt I'll like them as much as I do this. I mean, you name me another album with "Fucking In Heaven"—y'can't.

Part of me feels weird to like traditional country music as much as I do. Not country music as a whole; I've listened to too much Cledus T. Judd to say I don't like country. It's **traditional** country in particular I feel odd about. I grew up in the mid-/late-2000's. I became a teenager in the early 2010's. What is someone in **my** age range doing liking music this (to use this word as much as I can in the non-political sense) conservative? And if I was younger—goodness! Like, I'unno. This kind of sounds, these arrangements and instrumentations, the way they sing... It just does it for me. Like, this to me is **COUNTRY**, no extra qualifiers. I can totally see the appeal of just kicking back with a beer to this stuff. Even if the songs that aren't about heartbreak are about murder. It's not a sound I'd seek out all the time, but every once in a while, if I don't wanna put on Cledus or go the "I only listen to Johnny Cash" route... Sure. I can throw it on. Part of me wants to give this a 4 because of how much I ended up liking it despite my expectations (before we got it I was ironically hyping it up to my group), but... Eh. I like it, but I'm not in **love** with it. Definitie "It's fine" energy. Now if this had a goofy lookin' Satan on the cover like they'd have a few albums late, whoo! Five stars! A+! Six stars! Hot damn!

Y'know, when it comes to Billy Corrgan and the Smashing Pumpkins, I'll for sure have more to say about them once my group gets to hit up MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS. **That's** the one I have some sort of attatchment to. Versus this album, which, until today, I'd only known for "Cherub Rock" and, especially, "Today". As a result, in comparison, I don't really feel like I have as much to say about this album—except for that I'd really hafta agree that it's one of the best and most unique alternate rock and grunge albums of the 90's. Goodness me, can Corrgan write a tune—and can this band **play them**. (Plus, I don't mind Corrgan's voice, so that's a hurdle I have no problem getting over.) It's an **easy** 5 from me. It's an easier 5 than MELLON COLLIE might get at least, that's for sure.

Damn, I always the guitar on Funkadelic albums was great because of how much I've heard "Maggot Brain" praised, but actually hearing a whole album's worth of it is... Woo boy!

Y'know, I don't dislike this album, or even Springsteen (I think I like BORN TO RUN more, actually), but, gawd, he really does sound like he's singing in some kind of made-up gibberish language sometimes.

aw man i love gorillaz :) and british people too ig

I can't listen to "Your Move" without singing "Semi-Charmed Life" over the end part.

I mean, complete bias about this being my favorite Elton John album must be the only reason why I give a pass to "Jamica Jerk-Off".

I thought side one was pretty good, but when it comes to me being as interested in side two... Well, let's just say that it's tricky. Well, not as much as rocking a rhyme that's right on time, true, but still.

Well, I hope I'm more into any of the other six Neil Young albums that're on this list.

I vibe with it. Eight or so albums in, this one is so far the most "I'd never listened to this one before, but I'll be sure to do so again after today" one I've come across yet.

I enjoyed what I heard during my first listen, but, honestly, I don't really see myself coming back to this beyond one or two tracks. Still, though: motherfucking pizza.

"OK Computer?" More like... "Pretty Darn Good Computer."

I love me a good rush of side one.

I kind of consider this a "chill n' vibe to" album in my head, and under that light... I mean, I have other albums I'd go to before this, but, y'know, still. Ich denke, dieses Album ist gut. Ich nehme an.

I'll just say: if it weren't for those 30 seconds on "The Kids", this 3 would be more of a "leaning towards a 4" than the "straight 3" it is. I get those 30 seconds, I get why they're there, and I can appreciate what Reed was doing there, but they were seriously one of the most unpleasant times I've had with music in recent memory. No thank you, Lou.

Boy, now don't **this** make me kick my own ass for not listening to more R.E.M.? Gawddamn. Document used to be my favorite, but now it's this, and I'm gonna look back at this four I'm giving it and I'm really gonna wish I gave it a five, dang it.

Of the first fifteen albums I've listened to from this generaor, this is the first one where I've had to spend all day reconciling how I feel about it. It's not like the others, where I give 'em, two, one-and-a-half, or even just one runthrough and I know. This one, though... I ended up interogating a lot of different topics to try and get to how I felt. "Did I listen to it wrong? Should I have listened to it in bursts and out of order, like how it was originally released?" "Was I just in the right head space, in this weird moment between accidentally falling asleep for an hour, waking up feeling off, and knowing I was gonna go to bed in another two hours? Did I not pay enough attention, even then?" "What about all of the praise critics have given it? Why's there such a divide between the 100% approval rating from them and low 2 from the people here on this website?" "Is it just because I'm not into post-punk?" "What's even the point of lists like this or the Rolling Stone 500? Does rating these albums even matter?" "How does my rating system even work?" I went on like this until I reached two conclusions: firstly, in general I'm just bad at quantifying my opinion down to a single number. Like, all of those questions, and more I didn't list, were just to figure out if I was gonna give this thing a 2 or a 3. I had no idea which number better represented how I felt. And even if decimals were allowed and I could split the difference at 2.5, would that even still accurately reflect how I feel about it? Then there's the second point, which is, simply, "What's the point in putting in overthinking your rating so much when by 00:15 the next day you'll be on to the next album?" It doesn't matter, ultimately. Just pick one and move on. So let's just finally move onto my opinion, huh? Enough blabbering. On the one hand, I feel like I get METAL BOX, or SECOND EDITION, whatever you wanna call it. I actually kind of click with what it's going for, musically. I mean, for one, the dub bass is fantastic. Absolutely the best part of the album, and all of the praise in the world to Jah Wobble for it. And, I mean, you combine that with the guitar, and... I'unno. It kind of reminds me a pre-evolved Primus? Switch out the dub bass for virtuosic slap funk and have more conventional song structures, and sure. Hell, I even really enjoyed "Socialist", "Careering", and the turn to relaxing synths for the closer "Radio 4". I can find a lot of good moments scattered throughout. But, note: scattered throughout. There's pieces and songs here and there I like. But on the whole? On the whole, I feel like it's too long. Which, yeah, relates back to the earlier question about if I listened to this wrong: this was supposed to be listened to in bursts, ten minutes at a time. Sitting down with it for the full hour was never how it was intended to be listened to. But even accepting that and disregarding its total length as a criticism, to put it simply, a lot of it just doesn't interest me. Whatever anti-rock experiments they were going for... Just didn't do it for me. I can tell why most folks here checked out after "Albatross". I mean, of course if I sat with it longer and truly let it sink in I'd maybe grow to like it more. But with only one chance to rate this album before I have another one I hafta spend the day considering... I jus' gotta go with my gut. It's a 2. Part of me doesn't like that, since I feel like experimental in particular gets a bad rap from this website's users, but whatever. "Wha'cha gonna do," eh? All I can hope for is that I like the next album better.

I put on the first disc. Nearly fell asleep. Took notice of the FERRIS BUELLER sample. Nearly fell asleep again. The first disc ended. I'm good.

I'm pretty sure I transcended listening to "Stonemilking" for the first time.

"Vibes and stuff?" Oh, you better believe it. To reference a song from a different album—I can kick it.

I'unno if I have any thoughts about the vocal tracks, but the ambient ones? Aw yeah, **that's** the good stuff. Nice to hear what Eno can do outside of "produce U2 albums."

There's other soul I'd reach to first, and maybe I missed out on something by not banging someone else at the same time, but, hey, it's still pretty good tunes.

Listening to this album today, I spent a bit of time thinking about something I'd read on Wikipedia that Steven Hyden had written about this album. He put forth back in 2018 that there's, quoth, a "reflexive bias against it from both fans and critics," exemplified in two unwritten rules. First, you hafta claim a song from the second side as your favorite—'cuz that's the side has, quoth again, the "deep cuts with credibility"; and second, you can't ever claim that this is your favorite Led Zeppelin album. Now, I bring this up because when I sat down to write this review a few hours before the website would allow me that I decided would discuss where I fall on these two rules. Y'know, it's a way—a way, certainly—to get my thoughts down and out there. Better than just rambling off the top of my head and expecting gold to fly out, I figure. Though, what's funny is that the short answer to "where I fall on these rules" is that I actually follow both. That's particularly funny in the case of the first rule, because side two isn't even my favorite side. Sure, my favorite song on the record is there, "When The Levee Breaks", but otherwise it just doesn't do much for me. I much prefer the first side, since that's where the big hits are, and, well, at heart I'm a sucker for the hits. "Rock And Roll" and the ol' standby "Stairway To Heaven"... That's the good stuff! And the other two are fine as well. I mean, "Black Dog" is a really good opener, with that awesome riff, although I'm sure a lot of my affection for it comes from the fact that Weird Al was allowed to record a chunk of it for one of his parodies. And "The Battle Of Evermore" has guitar parts that I like, though I've never really cared to learn or dive into its high fantasy lyrics; it's kind of the weakest part of side one for me. When it comes to the second rule, my favorite Zeppelin album varies between II and III, and sometimes HOUSES. On those, I truly love and have affection for every song there. Yes, even "The Crunge"; I love how stupid it is. IV, meanwhile, has songs I really like—I just stated them in the last paragraphs—but more that... Are just fine to me? "Misty Mountain Hop" is good all around; "Four Sticks", even if I don't think it's bad, is the one I always pick whenever I hafta choose a "bad song" to make fun of; and "Going To California" is pretty, though it mostly glides by me until those "AAAHHH"s during the fade-out. It's just not a strong all-the-way-through package for me. Still a four star album for me, though. Even if my tastes skew slightly off enough that I can't join the endless streak of five-star ratings I've seen... Bah, there's nothing bad or even weak enough to justify me goin' down any further. I still enjoy thing every time I put it. Ol' wedding song does a lot for me, I tell you what. And speaking of "Stairway", if you ain't heard Frank Zappa's live cover of it, do y'self a favor. The horn section plays Jimmy Page's guitar solo note-for-note, which even got a shout out in the booklet for the MOTHERSHIP compilation. It's neat stuff.

Looking at from this album from the outside, it didn't look like one I'd enjoy terribly much. To begin with, the thing's a double album. Nearly 80 minutes of music! These days I'm not really that much into albums over an hour unless it's already something I love dearly, so right away this was fighting an uphill battle. And that battle only got steeper once I discovered that the album is only four songs long, one per side. That's four twenty minute songs! An album having one song that long is usually bad enough... And that's not even mentioning that this is a progressive jazz rock album! In my mind this was really shaping up quickly to be an interminably boring slog, like that drum n' bass compilation my group got a few days ago. Just endless jazz-y canoodling that I wouldn't be able to latch on. "Oh, a higher power have mercy. This is what I get for listening to every album that pops up." However, once I actually got into it and past the first minute—which really wasn't as bad as the top-rated review warned me it'd be, honestly... It kind of clicked with me? And I very quickly realized why, which ended up being my secret to getting through it: this album sounds a LOT like Frank Zappa's jazz work. Now, that isn't an original observation; I've seen a ton of other reviews, from here and on AllMusic, that point that out. It keeps getting made, though, because it's just true. It's a lot looser than a lot Zappa's jazz works could be, true, but tonally it's very close. Hell, there's even a part somewhere on one of these songs that sounds a lot like the electric violin used on "Willie The Pimp". (Forgive me for not knowing exactly which one; these are long and dense songs and I'm going off of only one listen.) With that framework in mind, anyway, my favorite and least favorite tracks don't exactly fall into it, 100%? I've seen a lot of people single out "Moon In June" as their favorite, but on initial listen, I'm not exactly feeling the hype myself. It's the one that sounds the least like Zappa jazz, and at this point that's what I'm listening to this album for. As a result, it ends up being a bit of a disappoint for me. Meanwhile, my favorite cut, "Out-Blood-Rageous", opens with these electronic tape loops and they're actually really pretty. It sounds nothing like Zappa would compose, albiet in the best way possible. If all that could've been in its own song, absolutely it would've been the one I'd come back to. And as a brief note before I conclude, part of me hates that I keep bringing up Zappa here instuead of considering the bang's music on its own. Part of me feels like it's disrespectful. But I don't mean it as disrespect, like I've seen at least one person use the compairson. I really like Zappa's jazz work. It's not my favorite section of his discography, but it's still an important one with a lot of great tunes. Anything that sounds like it gets positive points in my book. Although, with that in mind, I'm not sure if I'll give it another listen. For a one time listen, it was a pleasant surprise, and it was nice music to have on and not fully pay attention to while I played the Nintendo 64 DR. MARIO for the billionth time. The songs are still all twenty minutes, however, and I don't really usually have much room in my regular song rotations for it. So, with all that, it's a three for me, but if I do come back to again I could see it growing into a four over time. FInally, two spare thoughts that don't have anything to do with anything: ~ For the longest time I'd assumed that Soft Machine was a band that made music like The Flaming Lips did on THE SOFT BULLETIN or YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS. Just sounds like the perfect band name for that? ~ I totally mistook this band's THIRD for Big Star's THIRD.

Doesn't 100% bring the "wow" out of me, but damn if it ain't some good-ass funk n' soul.

Y'know, I was gonna start this review with a whole diatriabe on an unavoidable topic when it comes to Led Zeppelin's music: the stealing. The undeniable fact that the band snatched a lot of stuff from other artists, black ones in particular. And I actually did initially write it all down, althoughh once I was done, well... It ran on pretty long, for one. Fourwhole paragraphs of clarifying my poisition on the whole matter. But once I stepped back and saw the breadth of it, I thought: does it even really matter here in 2024? Like, yes, the fact that they stole so much is bad, but like that's a new concept in blues music. The real problem, I always figured, was the lack of proper credit, and while I think it was pretty damn shitty that it wasn't there to begin with and that they had to be sued into giving a lot of it, most all of it's there now. So, how much does it really matter today if Zeppelin stole a few lyrics and riffs? It's not like anything can be done about what happened nearly 60 years ago. Of course I understandable completely if that's a hurdle you can't get over, but for my own money... Truth is, I've just never been bothered by it enough to not listen to them. And what a listen this is. While, as I said in my IV review, I ultimately prefer its sequels II and III, this is still a damn fine album. Good-ass proto-metal blues riffs and solos, outstanding drumming, a killer vocal performance... And just some rippin' tunes to bit. "Good TImes Bad Times" is an absolute door kicker of an opener; "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a great bit of hard folk rock (with a part that sounds a lot like the riff from Chicago's "25 Or 6 To 4" in there, actually); "Dazed And Confused" has some all-time licks and violin bow noodling; I actually really like "Your Time Is Gonna Come"; "Black Mountain Side" is a neat instrumental; "Communication Breakdown" is damn proto-punk... The remaining tracks I don't really care so much for, and for me that's what mainly keeps it back from being on the all killer level of II, III and even HOUSES, but they're still jammin'. There's parts of how Plant sings "You Shook Me" that I'm pretty into. And just the fact that they recorded this all in 36 hours, too. Not that they're the first, or even last band, even in the heavy metal scene, to knock out an all-time debut in such a short period of time, but that doesn't make it any less impressive. Overall, yeah, it's a pretty four from me. Frankly, I don't think there's any Led Zeppelin album on this list I'd given less than a four. It just hits that good "dad rock" spot for me, y'know? I mean, maybe if IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR was here... Although, that DOES have "Hot Dog", to... Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I can't ever forget all the stealing they've done, and I don't wanna underplay it (even as much as I kind of worry that "it's 2024" bit might come across that way), but I can acknowledge thing bad and love it just the same, y'know? Besides, like the stealing is even the WORST thing Led Zeppelin's done, though let's not get into THAT and drag this review out any longer, eh?

The culmination of Prince's 80's work, as far as I'm concerned. And if not that, then an impressive and sprawling sample platter of a lot of what he'd been doing that decade, with some small glimpses into the future. Just one good-ass track after another. Some cuts are a little lesser than the others, true—mostly on side two, honestly—but that's more often than not inevitable on double albums, and there's nothing I don't enjoy here regardless. The whole second disc especially is just gold. I mean, you got bangers like "U Got The Look"? Fun-ass oddities like "Strange Relationship" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend"? The epic live jam that is "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night"? And such absolutely and amazingly perfect tunes like "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" and "Adore"? Absolutelt superb. Worth the price of admission. And let's shout out the first side as well: the stark and chilling minimalism of the title track, the absolute joy of "Play In The Sunshine", the absolutely danceable "Housequake", the quiet beauty of "Starfish And Coffee", those... Like, orchestral hits or whatever on "It" that've always sounded to me like that one instrument in TURTLES IN TIME that I've always thought of as a "turtle synth." And the part on "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" where he asks to get a fruit cocktail 'cuz he's not really that hungry... Inititally I wanted this review to have some kind of through line like my past couple have had. Y'know, an essay-like framework I can look at the album through. But, man, y'know, forget all that. This is just a good-ass album; one of many that've firmly wormed their way into my heart and/or soul and have gawddamn EARNED that 5 rating. And I don't need no fancy "creative writing" whatever to know or say that. 'Cuz lemme tell you, when this thing's on, that by itself is enough of a sign that there's a great time bein' had.

Damn, the guy who featured on Gorillaz' "Cracker Island" made his own music? And it's **this good**? Well, damn! And if the Genesis Sonic samples ain't the cherry on top.

I really like the rockabilly and early rock n' roll riffs that're on here (which it took me a hot moment to notice for some reason), but otherwise, eh, it's just above-fine to me. The idea of a punk album that covers domesticity and relationship issues is interesting to me, but it turns out it's more in theory than in practice.

Because I'd read that this album was inspired by PJ Harvey's affection for New York City, I decided it'd only be fitting that I spend my first listen to the album staring at video of someone driving around Manhatten. And somewhere during that, I just had to imagine the women—of course the badass kind in my mind—who relaxed by driving the long stretches of road under the bridges, just outside the jungle of buildings... It's sunny but coming on sunset, the top's down, and this album playing as the soundtrack... Yeah. It just hits right. Frankly, if I ended up getting bored at any point during the album, it was only because the footage ended up going into the city itself and, lordy me, you can't go for five seconds without havin' to stop at another light. Goodness me.

When it comes to a lot of foreign language music, as someone who's only ever known a spare few words and phrases outside of English, it ends up being essentially instrumental music to me. Which isn't to undermine or undervalue the words that're there and what they mean, of course; just because I can't understand them doesn't mean they don't mean something to a lot of people. But even if I do take the time to look up a translation, it's not like I'm gonna remember it every time I listen to a foreign language song, y'know? For me, the vocals, way more often than not, end up becoming just another instrument; another melody line. And in that light... Gawddamn, these are such great melodies, and the Brazilian Portugese is so pleasing to my ear. As a showcase for what MPB had to offer at the time, this is way more effective for me than, say, LOGICAL PROGESSION was as one for jungle. Like, for one, I'm able to tell songs apart, and that by itself is a huge advantage. This album's getting a 4 from me, but believe me, I feel it's so far the closest any album I haven't listened to before on this list has come to getting a 5.

As I'm writing this review, I'm only about midway through this album. Normally, for albums I haven't heard before I'd wait 'til after my second listen, or even halfway through my second at least, to get a jump on this, but... See, before I started listening to this album I did what I've done for a whilw now and checked out the already published reviews to find the most negative ones I could. Y'know, I guess I'm just interested in seeing the problems people have with these albums and then finding out if I disagree or not. Most of the ones I come across end up big negative "BAGHLE I DON'T LIKE THIS" dealies, but the one under this album that struck me so much is probably the most fair and balanced I've seen so far. In essence, it puts forth the following, which I hafta cop to: sure, it's good music, but is it important to music history or even notable enough on its own to be on this list of 1,001 albums? And at where I am in the album... Yeah, it sure is traditional country. Which is fine by me; I like traditional country. I know it's not the most much example, but I've listened to Johnny Cash's debut album a number of times. But—and maybe I'm just missing the larger context, I acknowledge that, but I can't hear what exactly's so special about this. Cub Koda on AllMusic claims this album is a number of things: "the last gasp of true honky tonk, the first stab at mainstreaming it into the Nashville sound of the 1960s, or country music's first country album," and, like, whichever one of those it is... I'm not getting it. Really, I'm having the same reaction to this that I did to X's WILD GIFT, where I'm not fully understanding why it's in this book. Although, I can at least acknowledge that WILD GIFT was notable to X as an in-between transitional point in their sound. Not to diss country, but what is NIGHT LIFE, this album, that a lot of other successful country albums from around the same time didn't also do? Now, my rating system is based purely on how much I personally enjoy the album and nothing else. That's why I'm giving it a 3; putting aside all of the gripes regarding its inclusion on this list, again, I like traditional country. As an album to, as Ray suggests, kick off your shoes and relax to, it does the job. Probably even better if I had a beer and a front porch to sit on. But if I was evaluating this album on whether or not it should be in this book; if I agreed or not that it SHOULD be something you listen to before you do... I'd hafta agree with that other review and smack it with a 2. Just how it is.

I didn't know much about Dennis Wilson before today. Especially if you compare it next to how much I knew about, say, Brian Wilson or even stupid Mike Love, it's pretty much nothing. Hell, the only thing I really DID know about Dennis is that he was the only true surfer in The Beach Boys and that, ironically, he'd drown in 1983. That's always been the framework I've viewed this album through, then: that it was the only solo project he released while he was alive. And going in, I felt that was kind of unfair to Dennis. Like, come on, this album should mean more to me than what its relation to the fact that he passed tragically young. I mean, hell, in my mind it always feels to me like they happened closer together than six years apart like they really did. I should be trying to see what this album provides on its own, seperated from all that. However, that turned out to be a lot more difficult than I'd thought. There's just so many moments in there that remind me of it. "Moonlight", in how it sounds to me, evokes that kind of "lost someone you love" melancholy, even if the lyrics probably have nothing to do with that. Though, speaking of lyrics, "Thoughts Of You" hit me especially hard with the part that goes "All things that live one day must die, you know." On my first liste that was the only lyric I picked up, and, gawd, I felt like it could have destroyed me if I were in a worse place. That's not even to mention "Farewell My Friend", which I found out was played at Dennis's funeral. And I tell you, learning more about Dennis and his life surrounding this album's recording certainly didn't make anything better. Knowing all that context just makes this a very sad album to me. It was never meant to be that, but looking back on it nearly 50 years later and considering all of that context... Hell, even Brian Wilson has said at point that he hasn't listened to it because there's too many sad memories for him relating to it. But then, that's still one reason why this album touched me so much. As much as I hate to admit it, it's because the album ends up being so sad that pushes it over for me from just being really good late 70's rock n' soul. It can even make me look past that one farty instrument on "Dreamer", though that break it has in there probably could've done it, too. Don't get me wrong here. If you're a big, BIG fan of The Beach Boys, and post-SMiLE Beach Boys especially, this might not do it for you. Luckily for me, I dig that stuff a lot, even if I don't necessairly think this album comes as close to SMiLE as that comparison implies. I just wish he'd had the chance to do more; see BAMBU through to completion, at least. But for what he's done here, as "End Of Show" fades surrounded by applause, for the people who know, he's really made something that'll last forever. And besides, it's better to view this album like I just did than through his relation to Charles Mansion. Wouldn't even make sense; Charley there didn't even have anything to do with this album!

I'll admit, there's probably something about the performance I'm missing—a review of the album on this website mentioned how good the interplay is between the three is if you listen hard enough. Of course, like a lot of other albums I've covered, I don't really have the time to listen to it closely enough to hear that? Like I normally notice stuff like that to begin with, anyway. And besides, even the review mentions it's not the reviewer's favorite album by this album, so... For my money, it's good jazz trio jazz (I like that sort of atmosphere), but I think I'll stick more with the A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS soundtrack.

I'll put it like this: this album reminded me of how much I like ska so much that I spent five hours at my work shift that night listening to ska. Wish I had more words or deeper thoughts, but that's really all I gotta say: I like ska.

First of all, I'll grant you—I think this is better overall than the last thing I heard Jah Wobble on, METAL BOX. Maybe attribute it to this album's pop sheen, I'unno. Although, with that said, I still find METAL BOX to be, like... More interesting? Now, yeah, the world music stuff is interesting; I'm not gonna deny that. But otherwise, it just kind of washes over me. At least METAL BOX had some parts where I perked up and went "Ah, damn that's cool!" Meanwhile, here, aside from a Sinéad O'Conner feature on the first track, I really didn't get much of anything out of it.

For some reason this has been the hardest review I've written yet. I just can't seem to find the right words to describe how I feel about this album. So maybe I shouldn't say anything. Just listen to the album, all the way through. Right to the scream at the very end of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", where the whole band drops out like they're shocked to hear it, leaving him to sing the last few words completely unaccompanied. Chills. Every time. And I'll probably look back at what I wrote just now and wished I'd said something else, but, honestly, that moment says more than I ever could.

I don't say this to undermine the contributions of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, because of course theirs are just as important—but gawd, it's always such a joy to hear Dolly Parton.

All my life I've always been a Beatles fan more than I've been a Stones fan. Blame it on exposure: when I was young I had a full-frontal blast of THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND, which inspired me to collect every one of their stupid albums and buy into the mythology the old guards had given them (which, to some extent, I still believe to this day). Contrast that with the Stones, where at most there was one song in GUITAR HERO III, a Weird Al polka, maybe some needle drops, and the knowledge that Lennon and McCartney wrote "I Wanna Be Your Man" for them. There wasn't really as much there to get me to dig through their stuff. Even as the years drew on and I became more aware of the praise given to them, a lot of their stuff has remained in a pile that I've come to label "Albums I'll Listen To One Of These Days–Honest!" Hell, it was only a couple of years ago I finally listened to the US versions of AFTERMATH and BETWEEN THE BUTTONS. So here I am, finally, with the first album in their golden period. How does it hold up to me? What have I been missing all of these years? To begin, let's pull this framework all the way through and get it over with: I prefer what The Beatles were doing in '68, which was their legendary WHITE ALBUM. Now, it's no doubt probably not fair to compare them. I mean, the WHITE ALBUM is an eclectic monstrosity of a double album born out of the turbulence the band was going through at the time. BEGGARS BANQUET, meanwhile, is a single album made under lighter circumstances except for what Brian Jones was going through, and at its core it's a return to the roots rock and blues they were doing earlier in their career. And don't get me wrong, I get that that's why this is here on this list: the return to roots. Well, the partial return, anyway, because while they were coming out of a heavy dive into psychedelic music on THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST they weren't leaving behind the worldly and more exotic influences. You wouldn't listen to "Sympathy For The Devil" or "Factory Girl" and say they're just roots and blues. Not to mention, I figure it's expanding on how they incorporated those influences into their regular sound that would lead them to later make LET IT BLEED and EXILE ON MAIN ST. and so on. It's just there here, at its earliest "stripped-down return to roots" form... Even with the external influences, it's still mostly just roots and blues music. Of course it's GOOD roots and blues music; it hasn't gotten all of this praise as the first album in their golden period for nothing after all. But I feel like even if I had listened to this at that young age, in the period of time between "Paint It Black" and THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND... I don't think it would've really swayed me to be a Stones fan more. Maybe another one, but not this one. To put it another way: I also find that "Hey Jude" kind of upstages this album. Sorry 'bout the birthday, Mick.

Another one where I don't have too terribly much to say. I think I like a bit more the stuff I've heard on their future albums, but this is still a fun, funky debut. And that's something I don't need to say again.

And here I am kicking myself for taking, like, thirteen years to finally get around to this. Good-ass stuff from the lady who'd go on to sing the "Skyfall" theme.

I wasn't able to give this album a second listen before I had to rate it like I'd wanted to, but, frankly, I don't think any amount of listens would make this album any less boring to me.

Between this and the LTJ Burkem compilation I got a few days ago, I've come to the realization that I just don't like jungle or drum n' bass. Sure, I can recognize merits in the genres and figure why people would like them, but for me... Nah. Not me. I mean, it just says something to me that the only track I really liked and devoted a good portion of my attention to was the third track from the first disc, which was the only one to me that didn't sound like drum n' bass. (It's for that reason, in fact, why I'm not recycling the review I gave for LOGICAL PROGRESSION like I'd honestly planned to. Believe me, though, with that **TWENTY MINUTE** nothing of a title track and opener I very easily could have.) End of the day, I just hope there aren't too many of these left on the list, if there are even anymore at all.

Of course in any context I'd probably give this album a four. It's the Beastie Boys doin' more of what they do best. Unless you were expecting more samples, I don't know what more you could want. Sure, the runtime could be a problem (peak "CD era" issue), but the way I listen to things it was hardly an issue. It's just, I feel like I was enjoying it more than I normally would this time because after the last two albums this randomizer gave me were so ass boring it was just a relief to hear the Beasties rap and yell over some good-shit beats. I'll take this over drum n' bass any day.

During the day I had to listen to this album, there was only one thing I wanted to figure out about how I felt about it: which side would I enjoy more? The acoustic half, or the electric half that prompted cries of "Judas?" That question puts aside how I feel about the album as a whole, by the way. To speak on that briefly, generally I think it's pretty good. This isn't my first Bob Dylan album (that would be BLOOD ON THE TRACKS), but it's been so long since I've heard any of his stuff that I might as well treat it as such. Under that light, and given that this record ends up being a transitional period for Dylan, I think it's a good introduction to his two most iconic styles: his acoustic protest songs and his electric folk. Of course, you could debate on how much protest there really IS in this album's acoustic songs, but that's besides the point. Though that actually does end up tying into which side I enjoyed more. 'Cuz y'gotta understand one thing about me, and that's that I'm ultimately more a fan of melodies than meaning. Not a bad thing, of course; you don't need to be a poetry scholar to enjoy music "correctly"–as if a "correct method" could exist. But you gotta look at how Dylan's lyrics are backed up on both sides. On the first side, the electric one, Dylan's words are scored by an electric band. As a result, I don't feel like I need to focus AS HARD on them. Naturally, I still do; they're not any less important here just because there's a drum kit. But if I find myself spacing out of the words and focusing on the music, then it's not as much of an issue. Compare with the second side, where the sole instrument a lot of the time is an acoustic guitar. With such sparse backing, the lyrics are the main focal point. That's all you have to focus on, aside from a harmonica line every now and then. If you're into dissecting all of Dylan's weird metaphors and obscure references, this side's way more of a treat, I imagine. And, yeah, the words are interesting as hell; please continue to not get me wrong here. It's just as a result of the presentation, it's not the first side I would reach for casually. This might be an esoteric comparison, but I like to think about it like this: Weird Al and the film WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY have both done Bob Dylan parodies. Hell, WALK HARD did two. Between them, I've listened to Weird Al's "Bob" way more than I have WALK HARD's "Royal Jelly". Or, to put it another way: consider me a Judas, too, I guess. So yeah. Now I've heard this Robert Zimmerman. And although I don't suppose I've taken in enough to fully agree with the hype, taking this as a cross-section... Yeah, I can begin to see it. I just hope I can get a little more out of his earlier, fully acoustic records whenever they show up.

It's a fine album, I guess. My main issue with it just has to do with the 90's CD-era trend of albums being TOO DAMN LONG. But this isn't a platform for me to rant about that, so I'll just say that I don't think this album needed to do over an hour.

So that's why it's in Kurt Cobain's top 50. I'll be.

It's a pretty fine album overall that's **really** elevated (by a whole star, even) by the presence of "California Dreamin'". Like, imagine how this album would play without it; imagine if Barry McGuire **did** end up recording it—and y'get it, right? I mean, if all the hype sticker covering the toilet had to bring up was their cover of "I Call Your Name"...

Y'know, I can completely hear why someone wouldn't like this album. Hell, in a lot of spots it reminds me of that needless DARK SIDE OF THE MOON REDUX thing Roger Waters did last year. But in a similar case to Dennis Wilson's PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE, when this album's in the context of Cohen's passing just a few weeks after its release... Oof. It's hauntingly melancholic. Not something I'd return to very often, but gawddamn was it powerful during my time with it.

I wish I'd caught this album on a better day; one where I wasn't operating on only three hours of sleep and could give fuller attention, 'cuz from what I caught on my two listens it sounds damn good to my ears. It's not the Madchester I expected to hear, but of course it's for the better it doesn't sound like EMF.

I like to think about this album in essentially the same way Ryan Marr does, as he wrote in his flash essay about the album for The RS 500: "as OK COMPUTER LITE: 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' with all the 'Fitter Happier' bullshit stripped away." Which, presented in that context, all by itself, sounds like an insult. Certainly it sounded that way to one member of the group I'm a part of. But it's not to say that OK COMPUTER is worse than IN RAINBOWS. Honestly, on whatever level you wanna define "objective" as, I'd say I still think OK COMPUTER is a better album overall. As for which one I'd return to first, though... OK COMPUTER is great. I just said as much. But it can also be a lot. Y'know, what with it being about the decline of Western civlization and all. IN RAINBOWS, on the other hand, is a lot simpler—and I don't mean that as an insult. It sounds like a much easier record to just throw on and enjoy without having to deal with any pigs in cages on antibiotics. That's true even if I can't really pick any one track as a stand-out like I could with OK COMPUTER ("Paranoid Android" and "No Surprises" for me). I guess to put it some way to close this out, if I'd been around for this album's original release, I wouldn't've paid nothing. Some pretty fine clothes the emperor's got there, I tell you what.

My group's 50th album. I think it's good, but I wish I could've found more things to say about it than "this is the first one to have a song Weird Al parodied," "I think I prefer when The Police have more reggae" and "I get 'Mother', but that doesn't mean I hafta like 'Mother' all too much."

Hours before I had to write this, I read another review on this website saying that the instrumentation on this album was very 70's. 70's singer-songwriter, I assume, since they'd also brought up references to Paul Simon and the like. And, yeah, that's exactly why I like this album. The 70's **are** my favorite decade, after all—or so all of the data I've collected over the last five years says. Because of that, anyway, even though I would've preferred something more around 40 minutes, I can absolutely overlook it's 50+ minute runtime.

Ah, primordial new wave! Back when it was weird, post punk-y and art rock-y! And much more palatable post-punk, too, than ‘Metal Box’! I'd probably be more into their other albums (the ones that lean more into synth pop and sound more like Weird Al's pastiche "Dare To Be Stupid"), but I really do appreciate this one for how odd it is without being a mess.

I can really appreciate how much work they put into the instrumentation and production (months worth, even—and it really paid off as far as I'm concerned), but otherwise I think it's just fine. I'm pretty sure I'll be into one of their other releases more.

While I was listening to the second track on the album, I came across multiple reviews on this website that mentioned nostalgia. Now, they were probably referring to the nostalgia they felt about when this album first came out, but I still wanted to see if it could evoke that sense in me; someone who only yesterday found out this album existed. So I leaned back as far as I could in my chair, closed my eyes, let me mind wander to earlier times... And it unlocked the rest of the album for me. Now, that doesn't let this escape the fact that this album is still too damn long (CD era bloat!), but, y'know, otherwise...

Before going into this album, I was only familiar with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion through the song of theirs that was in BABY DRIVER, "Bellbottoms". I've always loved it, largely for its association with the film, but in general I think it's great. And it did not prepare me for this album. I can hear some elements here and there, but this is some raw, loud, live show-ass punk blues. On some Jack White shit here. And I love it so much. It's so damn fun. I can understand that its energy might be too much, 'cuz it never tones down the whole album, even on the slower songs; and even if it isn't as long as some other 90's albums I've heard it could **maybe** stand to be a little shorter... Aw, but heck. I don't even care. It's fabulous. It's groovy. It dun' make me wanna dance.

Y'know, on the one hand I don't feel like I 100% get what all of the hullabloo is about this album. Maybe I just haven't listened to enough that's been influenced by it; maybe I've heard **too much**... I can't tell. But of course what I **can** say is that this album is good. Damn good. I wouldn't say it's my favorite 70's rock album, buit it's gotta be way up there. I wasn't able to get in a second listen to "Torn Curtain" before the day ended, but from the little bit I sampled of it while I was writing this... Goodness me. So, like, in one sense at least I get this album's praise.

Before my group had ever even gotten this album—hell, from the moment I found out this album was on this list at all, I'd already given it a 1. It was one of only two 1 I knew for a fact I was going to give, along with the Limp Bizkit album that's on here. And that's unfair, I get that. As I'm writing this, I haven't even heard the album yet. At most, I've heard the inclusion of the album's opener in Weird Al's "Angry White Boy Polka", Cledus T. Judd's parody of "Cowboy" "Plowboy", and the REGRETTING THE PAST video Rocked did on the album as a whole. And of course that last one especially would lead to me having a biased view-point going in. I'm fully aware of all this. But you gotta realize, even if I wasn't aware of the stuff I just mentioned, everything else Kid Rock's done recently would sure leave me feeling that way as well. This is the guy who would go on to release "AIN'T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME HOW TO LIVE" or whatever it's called and fully pander to the MAGA audience because those are the only people who sort of like him anymore. You give me an album by him, ANY album by him, and you expect me to go in with an unbiased mind? There's nothing listening to it could do to convince me otherwise; that I shouldn't just rate this album based on what I think of Kid Rock as a person and not what it actually contains. Because I know exactly what it is: it's shit-stupid country rap rock from a rich poser white boy selling a fantasy of being a suburban cowboy to other poser white boys. That's all this is, and the fact that it sold so much frankly kind of offends me. The hell was going on in the 90's that people just lapped this shit up? Hell, what is it even doing HERE, on THIS LIST? Normally I'm not one to ask why an album's here because I figure it has to be for SOMETHING, but in this case, I can't figure it out beyond MAYBE that it was important to rap rock? But was it really? Why is this something I HAVE to listen to before I die? Unless you wanna say it's because you can't appreciate the good without hearing what trash sounds like. I could possibly make an argument for Limp Bizkit, but not here. This IS a waste of a spot, completely. You can only imagine what else could have been included if not for this. Hell, I'm just left thinking about all of the albums my group could have gotten instead of this; from the proven timeless classics to shit I just love on a personal level. But no. We gotta waste our time with "FUCK ALL YOU HOES. DETROIT 'TIL I DIE, MOTHERFUCKER." And it's only because I wanna remain consistent in my intent to listen to every album here that I'm even bothering to taint my Spotify history with this sack of shit. So I hope you're happy, Mr. Rock. You've triggered me, at least. ---------------*****--------------- This part was written after I listened to the album, and... See, hours before I figured I may as well get it over with, I had this joke in mind. Imagine: all that preamble, 500 words worth, of me ranting on and on about Kid Rock and this album and the fact that it's on this list, all written before I even heard a second of the album. Then, when I get to the post-conceptions part of the review, I only have four words: "Well... That fucking sucked." You see the humor there, right? Oh, it would have been amusing—at least it would've been to me. Because right from the top, I didn't figure I had anything else to say about it. After everything I said beforehand, what else could listening to the album inspire me to say? Honestly, I WAS kind of considering just not listening to the album and posting that anyway. But I wanted to do my due diligence. I put YouTube in Incognito mode, started up the album, and... After a while, I got so bored of the album I just started watching Rocked's video on it and didn't even pause it. So it's entirely possible I missed some of the grosser lyrics, and, yeah, no doubt I didn't treat this album fairly. But the big singles and the occasional REALLY bad lyric aside, there's just nothing to it. Like every album that was released in the 90's, it's too damn long. There's so much stuff that could've been left out and no one would've missed it. Though unlike with other records I doubt cutting it down would help much. I mean, you'd still be left with Kid Rock's posing about being a "pimp cowboy," which only gets more infuriating every time he brings it up. All I can see is his stupid millionaire mansion. Seriously, Snow had more street cred than him—yeah, the guy who recorded "Informer". And at least Vanilla Ice was a goof so it was fun to laugh at his posing. I'm not even sure if Kid Rock's from Detroit! Lemme put time aside now to mention one thing I liked about this album, before I get into the worst thing. The instrumental for "Wasting Time"? I kinda liked it. Or at least how it sounded coming out of my iPhone's speaker. I thought it was some kinda monk chant that he'd recorded for the album, but I found out later on in the day that, yeah, it's actually a sample of "Second Hand News". I like the version I had in my head better. Speaking of the sampling, by the way, before my writing this I never 100% vibed with how Rocked talked about it on this album because I always got the feeling he thought sampling was cheap. Y'know, that sampling isn't an art form, as has been demonstrated on albums like PAUL'S BOUTIQUE and FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET. But that's just the thing—it's an art form, but the way Kid Rock uses samples is artless. I believe that's more Rocked's point; that every Kid Rock uses a sample, it's something where he could've recorded something original himself, but didn't because he's lazy and wanted to bank on recognizability. But let's get to the worst thing. Simply put, the last track on the album, "Black Chick, White Guy", is disgusting. Even if I understand that it's a true story he's rapping about here—supposedly, anyway—never in my life did I want to hear Kid Rock rap about ninth graders having sex. That's not ALL it's about; it goes from there to be about the consequences, but still. You're damn right I don't know the half of it—and I don't WANT to! So this ending up running on way longer than I thought: over 1,000 words. As I'm writing this, I have no idea if this website will even accept reviews that long; I might end up having to make a Pastebin for it. And of course it's an album as terrible as this that inspires so much writing from me. It's the frustration, and the fact that it's easier to dump about stuff you hate than stuff you love. I mean, I wish I had said nearly as much about MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK or GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD or SIGN "O" THE TIMES" or PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE or 21 instead of wasting my time on Kid Rock. Lemme, then, just summarize this whole thing the way I should have to begin with: this fucking sucks.

So, hey, it turns out the songs on here that aren't "Everyone Wants To Rule The World" or "Shout" are pretty dang good, too. And unless something else comes along, this might be the most 80's album I'll hear, so all around it's a real solid package.

Going into this album, the most important factor in me loving it is the fact that I also love—and a LOT more, I should add—The Flaming Lips' album THE SOFT BULLETIN. I'll save my exact opinions on it for when that actually shows up, but to put it in short, as a piece of music it's a very good contender for my top 20, if I ever wanted to make one. Anything that sounds like it would naturally appeal heavily to me. Although, with that said, while there are a rather large number of spots here that remind me of THE SOFT BULLETIN, I don't wanna act like DESERTER'S SONGS isn't its own thing. It's not a dream pop record, for one; and it's not nearly as grand as THE SOFT BULLETIN can be. DESERTER'S SONGS is way more of a rock record, with its saxophone lines and guitar parts. And while DESERTER'S SONGS is more restrained, it's still a very cinematic listen—I mean, they wouldn't master this thing to 35mm film print if it wasn't. Plus it's got a few more musically odd moments than THE SOFT BULLETIN did—just check that untitled instrumental appended to the last track. But I don't wanna act like my love for THE SOFT BULLETIN isn't a factor here. It absolutely is; I wasn't excited to listen to this thing until I saw that there was a whole section on its Wikipedia page about how they shared the same producer. Not to mention, to quote Wayne Coyne, "I think without DESERTER'S SONGS being so significant, THE SOFT BULLETIN would probably have not been followed too much." In that sense, at least, I owe a lot to DESERTER'S SONGS. Without it, it's likely I wouldn't have "Waitin' For A Superman" or "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate", or even "Fight Test", "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Part 1)" or "Do You Realize??". In that sense, even if I didn't like it, I'd have to give it SOME respect. And luckily, I do like it, a lot. Not as much as THE SOFT BULLETIN, but it's up there. And me relating it so much in my mind to THE SOFT BULLETIN, by the way, is a HIGH compliment, believe me. I had such a large smile on my face during the first track when I realized how similar they sound. I can't really give anything that evokes that kind of reaction from me anything less than a 5.

Y'know, I think it's fine. Like, I don't think Bowie did soul music badly, but I know there's better out there—better soul music **and** better Bowie.

Kinda wish I had more thoughts on this album, but I'unno. The jingle-jangly guitar just really appealed to me. And reminded me a lot of the first song off of The Monkees' HEADQUARTERS, which, hey, that's a good thing.

Honestly, this album is fun as hell. It reminds me a lot of That Handsome Devil, actually; just less weird and a lot more chill. And with more raps about Gotti.

I imagine if I were goth I'd be INCREDIBLY into this. But since I'm only someone who appreciates the style and am not so much a participant, it's some pretty fine juju.

Of course I the more idealistic music Sly and company have made, but somehow I dig this stuff a lot more; the stuff inspired by drug use, paranoia, and the death of the 60's idealism that influenced their earlier music. It's some hard-ass funk music about riots that are, unfortunately, still going on.

The most liked review for this album on this website compares it negatively to Coldplay (minus Chris Martin) apeing Radiohead. Well, joke's on them; I happen to **like** Coldplay! And Radiohead, too, of course. And I mean, like either of them would write that guitar line at the front of "Assassin", anyway. Or, for that matter, monsters of album openers and closers like "Take A Bow" and "Knight Of Cydonia". Or the... **Everything** of "Supermassive Black Hole". Maybe they could've done something like "Starlight" or "Invincible", but I'll take how they sound here. I mean, frankly, the one positive "they wouldn't write" I'll grant in favor of the other two is that I don't think Radiohead or Coldplay would write "We Are Fucking Fucked", but that's not even on this album. Does really make me appreciate how good the music is here, though, considering all I've heard about Muse's decline after this—and I'm saying that as someone who likes DRONES a lot.

This review is a Missy Elliott exclusive. Y'know, I'd be lying if I said a lot of the thoughts I had while I was listening to this album didn't have anything to do with the top-voted review on this website. Well, "review" in quotes, because it's not really one. It's a track-by-track stream-of-consciousness where they list off every complaint they have, presumably in real time. That sort of method just feels unfair to me. Like, sure, it's not as bad here as the "review" of THE FRAGILE that's over on Pitchfork, but if you're gonna try and formulate and structure your thoughts, then what's the point? What does anyone gain from this? I don't wanna make this whole review about that one, but lemme at least address the point where I stopped reading: right at the top, where they say "Shut and sing ffs." Before I heard the album, I thought they meant "Stop rapping; I just want to hear you sing." However, it turns out they were referring to a minute-long spoken introduction before the first song. Which I'm fine with, myself. This is a rap album, so they're allowed to have something like that. The words and what they mean matter more in this genre than any other (except maybe folk), and I liked being given some context directly from the artist themself. If this was a rock album, I think I'd have more of a problem with it. I mean, heck, I enjoy that one she has in the middle of the album, with the bit about Prince. Although, that said, it's not like Missy Elliott is a master lyricist. I don't think she's aiming to be one, but there's a lot of weird lines sometimes. Sometimes they hit, like on "Work It" (buh-dunk-a-dunk-dunk), but then you have that weird bit in "Pussycat" where she asks if she can put her ass on your spaghetti. And it's not like the featured MCs aren't any better a lot of the time, either; you hear that "solid water" bar from JAY-Z on "Back In The Day"? If that don't remind me of Nicki's whole "duct tape" bit on "Only". Plus, I can imagine how revolutionary Timbaland's production was back in the day, but here in 2024 it can sound pretty damn wacky at times. Of course, when it hits, it hits hard. It's just, when you take it together with some of the aforementioned lyrics... It's got weak spots, to say the least. As a sit-down-and-listen-to-it experience, anyway. I'm sure if you throw these on at a party people would indeed get on the floor. The album ends with another monologue from Missy (if you don't count the remix of "Work It", anyway), where she says, among other things, that she doesn't give a shit if anyone doesn't like her album. The "review" (and I checked, just to make sure I wasn't putting anything in their mouth) I read shrugs it off with an "OK." I can just hear their eyes rolling. And it's not like I can't see why someone, especially someone who doesn't like hip hop as that person admits, wouldn't dig this. I'm not giving this a 3 for nothing, after all. My problem isn't the negativity in and of itself. It's just that I feel like it doesn't add anything to the conversation. Complaining by itself, without much substance beyond it, is pretty useless. But then again, despite all I've said, I probably shouldn't care. I mean, if Missy doesn't care what they'd say, even as hard as I know it'd be for me to ignore it, I shouldn't either.rehtie t'ndluohs I ,ti erongi ot em rof eb d'ti wonk I sa drah sa neve ,yas d'yeht tahw erac t'nseod yssiM fi ,naem I

This is the second time now my group's gotten an album with Tricky on it—and unlike the time we got a second album with Jah Wobble, I can actually give this one a pretty solid thumbs up. Like every album I've gotten from this generator, I've only given it two complete listens at most, so I can't tell you exactly what makes this so much better than MAXINQUAYE. At the very least, I can say it's more interesting. The beats and production are interesting, the samples are interesting, the lyrics are interesting—and I'm not just talking about the strings of Beatles lyrics on that one song. It's not the bloated snooze-fest that MAXINQUAYE was. Maybe it's because this doesn't lean into dub as much as that one does, but I'unno. I was only going to give this album my typical "it's fine" 3, but as I'm writing this I'm listening to the second side of the album and "Hymn Of The Big Wheel" came on, and that alone is enough for me to bump it up another star. I also wanna say—my group all seem to agree that Massive Attack's later album, MEZZANINE, is better than this one. I haven't heard it aside from from hearing "Teardrop" hear and there, but looking it up on Wikipedia, I can't help but notice a curious lack of Tricky on it. Maybe that's relevant, I'unno.

I feel like I'm giving this album a 4 largely because that's what I gave the last Bob Dylan album my group covered (BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME). I mean, to me there's nothing really better or that much worse than the previous album that would give cause to a different rating. I think I ultimately prefer BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, at least the electric side, for how much more it leans into Americana melodies—I **do** tend more towards melodies than meaning, after all. And believe me, this album has a **lot** of meaning. It was way more with this album than with the previous one that I got some people's problems with Dylan. I mean, most people, especially those who're recently born, don't go to music to analyze Balzac poetry, I get it. I don't, either, and I had to go to Genius.com to help me parse a lot of it. But if I'm the mood for it, it can be pretty interesting. Heck, I was having a time figuring out what "Ballad Of A Thin Man" meant to me. If I'm not, combined with the instrumentals, it woulda felt like an absolute slog, but thankfully... And I don't know how to close this review, since I'm kind of just stream-of-consciousness-ing out thoughts I had about this album while I was at work, so, uhm... I guess I liked the "It Takes A Train To Cry" song the best? Ironically the track with the least words. And given my group got BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS the other day, that's two non-consecutive albums we've gotten in such a short period of time with ties to the WATCHMEN movie. Weird.

Y'know, I think I like this album a better than the previous gothic rock outing my group got, JUJU, because this one's way more New Wave-y. And it's an early example of the sound, too, given that this came out in 1980. If you didn't tell me what year this was released in, I coulda sworn it was later in the decade. And, yeah, it's not enough to raise this album up a star, but,y'know, still. I can dig it.

I haven't listened to this as much as I have TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY or even DAMM., but it's what kicked the door open for K.Dot, so... I wish I had more to say about this album, but I really don't. It's just good-ass raps around a story where a young Kendrick realizes maybe this hood life ain't so good after all. And note: a **YOUNG** Kendrick. To the guy whose response to the Eiffel tower line in "Backseat Freestyle" was "FFS grow up": did you even understand the plot? Seriously. Anyway, uhm, I'unno. "m.A.A.d city" goes hard as hell and that's the last thing I wanna say. Well, aside fro—YAWK YAWK YAWK YAWK.

Before yesterday, Dire Straits was a band I knew for only two songs: "Money For Nothing" and "Walk Of Life", which I'd been exposed to via Weird Al and ROCK BAND respectively. I really love both of those songs (a number of lyrics on the former aside), but I never really felt the need to dive deeper into their catalog beyond that. Sure, I think I listened to BROTHERS IN ARMS once a few years ago, but I know it was only once and I can't recall anything about it. So here we have the band's first album from a few years earlier, and... It's not really as complex. I mean, of course; there's no organs or synths, and there's no female backing singers and no song runs seven minutes. One runs six, sure, but still. It's just a whole lot rootsier and less pop. And I like it; it's good guitar music without all the extra frills. I mean, you hear all of those riffs Knopfler's playing on "Sultans Of Swing"? Goodness me. That being said, I did find it a little easy to have my attention swayed from it. Maybe it has more to do with things about me unrelated to the album, but it's still a fact that not a whole lot on the first album 100% pulled me in except for "Sultans Of Swing" and maybe "Wild West End". It's not entirely fair to compare this album to "Money For Nothing" and "Walk Of Life", since that's comparing two days to songs that've been in my life for years, but they got the pop hooks, y'know? And hooks, I gotta admit, are what keep me locked in a lot of the time. Good guitar playing can only do so much before I start to phase out. I'm happy I've heard this album, of course, and I wouldn't put it past me to give it another listen—and maybe BROTHERS IN ARMS, too—but I'd gone this long without doing it, so...

Before taking part in this generator, a lot of my experience with 60's music didn't go much outside The Beatles. Sure, I also have had dips into Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Monkees and so on, but never a true step into **the** stereotypical sound of the decade—hippie psychedelia. The closest I'd gotten before now was Frank Zappa's satire of the sub-culture on WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY. So as a first dip into the sound of San Fransico's Haight Street... Hey, I dig it. Outside of "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit", this is pretty much exactly what I'd imagine hippie psychedlia would sound like, and it turns out I like it a lot. The singles, of course, are just the little extra pinch of sugar on the LSD. Y'know, that's already on top of the sugar cube. Or something—I'unno, 60's drugs. Should I even be mentioning that stuff in the presence of "White Rabbit"? Big shout outs to THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS for first tipping me off to that song, by the way. Amazing shit.

I remember this was the first Beatles album I ever got on CD, for my birthday in... I wanna say 2011? And ever since, it's never stopped being my favorite. It's just non-stop masterpieces, front to back. Yes, even "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"; I **love** all of the Moog shit on it. But especially "Something", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Here Comes The Sun" and the entire medley. I get the arguments for REVOLVER as the more important Beatles album, but on a purely musical level, there's no other album that inspires as much joy in me as this one does. And I'm not even talking about just Beatles albums, or albums on this list. In general, it might be my favorite album ever made of all-time, and I cannot praise its ass enough. It's absolutely the one 6 I know I would give if I could. Now I jus' gotta hope the album I get after this can carry on this high.

There's so much things I could say about what this album makes me think about, from the fact that Marley was nearly assassinated before a concert against political violence, to my feelings about Marley's popular image is these days... But la-la-la-la, lemme just stick to the review: this is my favorite Wailers album. From all the hits on the back end to stuff I feel isn't paid much attention popularly up front. It's good to chill to, it's good to think about your spirit to... It's both sides of Bob, right here. And seriously, I'm doin' y'all a favor not writing a whole damn essay about...

I feel like the top-rated review of this album gave me the wrong impression going in. If you haven't read it—maybe you're sorting by date and not top-rated, I'unno—in short, it's not a review of the album but instead a critique of the 1001 Albums list for including the 29th album by an artist instead of, like, albums from people who're newer and more recent. Like, are the boomers really taking up that much air that a past-their-prime album can get on here instead of, like, I'unno, DEMON DAYS? That thought really set me up for the worst, and... Honestly, I really liked it. I mean, for one, I like Emmylou's voice a lot. This is the second album my group's gotten from her, after TRIO with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, and her voice reminded me a lot of Dolly's, actually. Which isn't a bad thing by me; I **love** hearing Dolly sing, so this is just a treat. And beyond that, I just really appreciate that there's more going on here than it just being a country album. With that genre label, I was expecting some shit that's like "Of course the critics would lap this the hell up, but I find it **boring as toast**," though it turns out it's kind of not even accurate. Sure, the country-ness of it is all over the place, especially, I found, in how a lot of the lyrics are structured, but there's so many more influences that've gone into it. Honestly, I'm more wont to use Wikipedia's second genre label for it, "Americana," than country—and even then I don't feel like that really taps into everything Emmylou did here. Y'know? And, I mean, despite what I just said, I actually **like** country, but I'm jus' kinda glad it doesn't sound anything like the other country from around this time that I've heard (via Cledus T. Judd's parodies). So I dug the album. That's neat. As for whether or not I think this belongs on the 1001 Albums list... No? Maybe? It's not a knock against the album, of course, and I think it **is** worth hearing if you're into country, but... Do I feel like it's omething you **absolutely** need to hear before you die? I'm not 100% sure. It's more worthy than Kid Rock at least, although it's not like **that's** a high bar to clear.

Y'know, if I'm kinder towards Morrissey than I am Kid Rock, it's not because I actually like the guy. More, it's just about exposure in relation to the quality of their music they've made. Kid Rock makes shitty rap rock that's very easy to dunk on, so of course more people have talked about him and his beliefs. Morrissey, meanwhile, was a member of The Smiths, and a lot of that stuff is generally accepted as "good" and not as fun to dunk on. Hell, the two biggest pieces of criticism of him I've seen are a recent SIMPSONS episode and a JPEGMAFIA song. And wha'd'y'know, this is pretty good, too. Musically a very chill record that brings to mind the words "atmospheric new wave" in a lot of spots. It's a sound I gel quite a bit. If this is anything like what The Smiths sounded like, then, honestly, it makes me feel a little sorry I haven't checked them out sooner beyond Richard Cheese's cover of "How Soon Is Now?". It's a bit of a wash-over, but like I don't like one of those every once in a while, eh? I was only able to give this thing one listen today, and that's largely why I'm giving it a 3, but I could totally see myself bumping it up to a 4 on repeat. Honestly, it's kind of a shame that just on principle I'm never gonna listen to this again. Like, if it weren't for the man behind it, I'd probably definietely play it a few more times. But that's what he gets for bein' a piece of shit. Boy, bet he feels bad now that I've said that. And, hey, I mean, if I want good music from people who hate Maragret Thatcher, I'll stick with Chumbawamba, thank you very much.

I'll admit, when I was listening to this album today I wasn't exactly feeling it. Sure, I recognized enough quality in it to give it an "It's fine" 3 at least, but compared to the other British 60's music I like, and even to blur's PARKLIFE, I wasn't exactly all there. But then I watched Parlogram Auction's video covering this and two other albums by The Kinks, where he pointed out a way it's relevant today: nostalgia. The album was always about nostalgia, of course, but specifically in regards to how people these tends tend to have artificial nostalgia for times they never lived in. After the video I went back and listened to the album's single, "Starstruck", and I started to feel it a lot more. 'Cuz, like, I've always kind of considered myself an older soul despite being in my mid-20's. I choose to blame it on how I spent a lot of time when I was younger and more easily influenced watching, like, James Rolfe and Doug Walker, and I ended up getting turned onto a lot of the nostalgia they expressed in their videos. I think it's largely where my love for physical media comes from, honestly. And as for music, well, I've always been a bit more fascinated by what's come before my birth than after. It might not be reflected stastically, but for as many modern albums as I love, I do tend to return to older stuff more often than not. Big surprise, when I take the lyrics into consideration I get more out of it; who'd'a thought? Anyway, it's not enough for me to bump this album up a 4, but it's certainly closer than it was before. Absolutely it's one from this band that should be checked one. And all the shout outs in the world to HOT FUZZ for turning me onto "VIllage Green", too. Love that movie!

The biggest thing I've had on my mind listening to this album has been context and its importance to the listening experience–or lack thereof. I've made it no secret in my past reviews that I find context pretty important: PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE, IF YOU WANT IT DARKER, EXODUS, even DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Nothing exists in a vacuum; what happens before and after a piece can be just as important as the piece itself. But I suppose the question is "To what point is it really necessary?" The review of this album on this website that stuck out the most to me has been one that claimed that Pitchfork's retrospective review of the album is 80% relaying the surrounding context. I skimmed the review before I read this, and that does seem to be the case. The reviewer does spend a lot of time going over the personal and professional trouble Raitt was going through beforehand and the success she found with this album afterwards. There's only a paragraph or two in there that actually touches on the music itself. And, y'know, on the one hand I get: the story is the appeal. Y'know, listening to it and knowing that Raitt was able to pull herself up from such a dark place and produce such a commercially and critically successful album. It won her Album Of The Year for goodness sake. But on the other hand, you wonder: is that it? Is that all this album has going for it: its surrounding story? What does it offer beyond that? I'll say to begin with that I had no idea who Bonnie Raitt was seeing this album pop up. Which felt weird to me. Sure, I recognized her name, the album title, and even the cover, but I didn't have a clue what it'd sound like. How do I recognize an artist so much and not know how they sound? It took me nigh on five minutes to remember she won the 2023 GRAMMY for Song Of The Year, and in the interim I legit confused this album for the Stevie Nicks one with "Edge Of Seventeen". Then, when I actually listened to the album... Despite clearly reading on Wikipedia that this is an Americana album, for some reason I kept comparing it to the country albums I've heard? From her debut she was blues and folk, but I kept thinking about, like, the Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton songs I liked, and the more modern songs I was introduced to through Cledus T. Judd. 'Cuz at least in the title track I can hear that style of writing. Musically, **Lord** no. It's not the most 80's thing I've ever heard, but it's up there. I mean, maybe that's why I thought it was country. I guess I expect Americana to be rootsier, like that Emmylou album I heard before. And with way less synthesizers. Certainly I can't hear it as **blues** like Wikipedia also claims it is. Honestly, listening to this album in 2024, I can't help but wonder why it was such a big hit. What was really so different in 1989 that this hit hard enough to win Album Of The Year? Even removing it from its context, like I often do with Axl Rose's CHINESE DEMOCRACY, doesn't make anything here terribly better. I guess her voice is nice, and I didn't think there was a song on here that was terrible, but... Beh. This is a 3 from me, but a lower end 3. It doesn't spill into the realm of 2's by virtue of not being an ass-boring drum n' bass album, and that's not entirely an impressive feat. At the end of the day, though, I don't wanna begrudge Bonnie Raitt anything. This album helped her out of a bad place, I'm happy for that. And clearly, this album and the story surrounding it holds a lot for people who resonate with it. Just a shame it doesn't do anything for me.

Ah. Good ol' Captain Beefheart. The absolute mad man who somehow got TROUT MASK REPLICA to exisit. And this is two albums before that. Y'know, only knowing Beefheart from TROUT MASK REPLICA, it really surprised me how... Compartively normal this album is. Sure, a bit of that weirdness is still there, particularly in the lyrics, but you compare, say, "Abba Zaba" to "Frownland", it's damn night and day here. And I actually like this lot. Like, yeah, this is pretty standard Delta blues compared to what Beefheart would later be known for, but he's got a great voice for it, and, I'unno, I jus' like me some good blues music sometimes. I mean, I only had to listen to this thing one time to understand it, so that's gotta be worth something, eh?

This ended up being a really evocative album for me. Not one I love, no, but one where, with just a guitar and his voice, I can just see the open London highway Bert's rambling down. And the way I figure it, how much you enjoy this album really plays into how much you buy the vocation. Either you're traveling right along with him down the road... Or you quickly fade back into reality, wherever you are. As for me, I'm firmly more in the camp where I can smell the early morning breeze.

Y'know, don't get me wrong—I love all of the single disc albums in Stevie's golden period. This period isn't so highly regarded for no reason. But... I'unno. As much as I like them, at a point the start to mesh together a little outside of the REALLY big songs. Like, TALKING BOOK is amazing, and I've actually heard it more than INNERVISIONS, but there are songs where I can't really remember how they go. Not with INNERVISIONS, though. Each song, they're all distinct from one another; I can remember exactly how they all go. Even the two songs I find the weakest, "All In Love Is Fair" and "Jesus Children Of America", they stick out so well in my mind. And, I mean, look, this album's got "Higher Ground" **and** "Living For The City". Even if this album was a 1, the presence of those two alone would raise this thing to, like, a 3 at least; they're just that good. Of course that's not to underplay the other songs; "Golden Lady" and "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" both come to mind immediately. It's just, those are such masterpieces on a masterpiece in a catlog of masterpieces. Absolutely incredible, all around. Another one I could give a 6 if I could for how much it's entrenched in my soul.

Listening to this album, in a lot of spots I was reminded of Owl City. And The Beach Boys. And Barenaked Ladies. And Ben Folds. And The Flaming Lips. And "You're So True" from SHREK 2. And, like, in another person's eyes that'd be harsh criticism, but me, I'm just like, "Heck, I like all those bands; I'm down for this 100%."

Y'know, I'm sure if I heard this album in a 70's dance club—and I mean a legit dance club, too; not something that was built into a strip mall—this woulda gone off for me so much more than it did.

(Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that neither this review or how I rate this album in any way endorses a belief in Kanye West. Additionally, I listened to this album using files I'd downloaded years ago; no streaming revenue went towards West.) I don't think I'll dread writing any review more than I did this one. Even the other two Kanye albums on this list won't be as bad as this, because it's with this I have to grapple with how I'm even going to talk about or rate his music in the first place. I mean, for all intents and purposes, I should just give this a 1 and move on. A 0, if I could. I shouldn't even have listened to the album. As of late, he's done nothing to deserve praise or fair analysis for anything he's done or will do. No matter how many "bagners" he has, at the end of the day he's a raging, far-right anti-semite, and I know it's not just me, but I find it hard to enjoy music from someone like that. I mean, he's not like Morrissey, where I'm VERY aware of his views, but because I haven't had much experience with them I'm more able to fairly judge his work. It's been way more... Y'know, Kid Rock. Kanye's decline has been in my face for the longest time now, and I've made efforts not to listen to him since at least 2019 and JESUS IS KING. Once he started pushing that "prosperity gospel" nonsense, even before he started praising Hitler, it was all over for me. Aside from some degrees-of-separation stuff like toasty digital and a Weezer mashup album, that, frankly, I should cut out as well, I just couldn't put up with him anymore. So, imagine my surprise when I come out of this, his debut, and the main feeling I have is... Sadness. Maybe a little mournful, even, for what we've lost. I mean, hearing "Jesus Walks" again, all I can think of is how he later betrayed the song's message (that Jesus walks with the downtrodden; not the rich who'd set up shops in the temples if they could) with JESUS IS KING. With "Through The Wire", I just think about how he'd later reframe one of the most important moments in his life, the car crash that resulted in his jaw getting wired shut, to be some petulant "divorced dad" shit about Pete Davidson. And listening to the extended outro of "Last Call", where Kanye explains how he even got to make this album... Gawd, it just felt tragic, knowing where he'd end up. And where he'd end up is VULTURES 1. I refuse to hear it, just on principle, but even the little I've heard about lets me know I'd hate it. Just knowing that on "Carnival"—which was a **NUMBER ONE HIT**, for some reason—that for shock value he compares himself to Bill Cosby, R. Kelly and Chris Brown... I'm tired. Writing this review has stressed me and made me feel not great and I'm tired. I'm giving this album a 3 only because in the brief moments I could look past what I felt about him as a person, it's fine. Good, but not mind blowing. I mean, I'll admit openly, there's parts I like. Even as much as new context has tainted "Jesus Walks", it's still amazing. The outro to "Family Business" is prtty damn good as well. Plus, jus', in general the beatwork is immaculate. But from what I caught of the verses... Big "Eh," y'know? And, like, did it **need** to be 76 minutes long? This isn't as bad as premo 90's CD bloat, but still. Some of this possibly could have been trimmed. He'll make better stuff later on that more justifies its length—in the brief period of time when he still made good stuff, anyway. And I hope it's a long time 'fore I ever hear him again. Fuck you, Kanye, for making me do this shit.

I enjoy this album in a lot of spots, but, honestly, I feel like I'd enjoy this band more as a subject on One Hit Wonderland, y'know?

Y'know, I wanna try something different here. I'm gonna comment on each song on the album. And this decision, by the way, has nothing really to do with the album itself; I just feel like it, mostly. So, to get down to it: "Changes": The song from the album I recognize the best thanks to the cover in SHREK 2 that Bowie features on. And in fact, I like that cover a bit better? A lot better, actually. I credit it mostly to how much older Bowie sounds there. I mean, of course after 30 years he would sound older, but seriously. Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, too, I'll fully admit that, but I really think I'm being genuine here. Even with that, that's not to knock the original here. "Oh! You Pretty Things": During all of the listening I did today, this is the one I came back to the most. I kept getting the title line stuck in my head. Although, of the album's first three main songs, I think I'd put it third of three. I mean, come on, it's just hard to compare when you're standing next to two giants. "Eight Line Poem": Oh, yeah, this. This is one of those "flow over" tracks I have, where I'm pretty likely to zone out during it when I'm doing full album listens. It can be a nice listen; I just don't think it's really worth listening to outside of the full album context or as a coda to "Oh! You Pretty Things". "Life On Mars?": Best song on the album, full stop. I remember the first couple of times I heard it. I probably had the wrong expectations because I kept hearing it described as a parody of "My Way", and I was disappointed when it didn't really sound anything like it, even in a broad "pastiche" sense. I've since gotten over that, and it's just **so good**. I've naturally memorized more lyrics from it outside of its chorus than I thought I would, which means a lot, believe. And for the record: yes, I **do** believe there's life on Mars—in the metaphorical sense this song means it in, anyway. "Kooks": It surprised me to read reviews here and keep seeing people say "Oh, I don't hate 'Kooks'; it's not **that bad**." Like, I'm not sure what I'd consider the "worst song" on the album, but I never thought it'd be this one. I've always liked it, at least because it's fun to sing with the "hung up on romancin'" line. Like, I'unno. It's just a nice, cute song. And a nice little break before what comes directly next, too. "Quicksand": OK, I know I just said I don't know what I'd call the worst song on the album, but if I were hard pressed... I mean, I don't even wanna say this one, 'cuz I know I'd just be saying it only because I find it the hardest song on the album to understand. Taking a guess, I thought it was about that feeling you get when you're lacking inspiration, but it might actually be about not knowing what happens after you die? Something about the "great beyond?" I really don't know, and I'm not terribly equipped to analyze poetic lyrics like this. I like the "Don't believe in yourself" refrain, anyway. "Fill Your Heart": If there's anything I wanna comment on here, it's the same thing Abigail Devoe pointed out when she talked about this song: how Bowie jumps into his falsetto during that last "free-EEEEE." Such a joy. "Andy Warhol": Most of the time I think about this song, it's about how Metallica later quoted it during "Master Of Puppets". And about how I can't **really** hear it? I'm sure it is, but sometimes I'm bad at picking up melodic references like that. Also just the fact that, eh, I'unno. It's fine. I like the "Andy walking, Andy tired" bit, but otherwise... Oh, and of course the chorus, too. I love me my chourses. At any rate, if I were Andy Warhol, I'd like it more than he actually didn't. "Song For Bob Dylan": One time I read on Wikipedia that this was considered the weakest song on the album, and that's how I've always thought of it. Is it really? Probably not, but of every song on this side of the record, I think I'd think about it the least. Even though I did reference/quote the opening lyrics back when I talked about HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED. I mean, you name me another song about Bob Dylan to quote, huh? "Queen Bitch": The best song on side two, hands down. "Bippity-boppity hat," I love it. One time while I was listening to this song, I imagined myself back in mid-1970's New York, dancing in a silk dress around some kind of Bohemian apartment with a glass of wine in hand. I was actually in my family's townhouse wearing a housecoat and holding a cup of water with red Kool-Aid flavoring that'd been squirted in, but, y'know, still. The spirit was there. Real lucky, that Lou Reed, to get this song made about him. "The Bewlay Brothers": The song that actually has the densest lyrics on the album, but I don't mind it as much as "Quicksand" because even Bowie himself said before recording a take not to pay attention to the lyrics. And most of the time, honestly, I don't. Before now, it's been another "flow over" track for me, where I zone out right before the final bit snaps me back in. Just like on "Eight Line Poem", I mostly blame it on the instrumental not being as attention grabbing as some of the other songs. But... Y'know, when I was relistening to this album at, like, 5AM, and I was staring into some of the dark corners of my family's townhouse... With this song filling my ears at the same time, it was actually a little unsettling, imagining what could be hiding in there. Jeez. Overall, let me say first I haven't sampled the entire Bowie ouvre. Heck, I only heard YOUNG AMERICANS just this month thanks to the generator. But I'm fairly certain that once I do, this'll still remain probably my favorite Bowie album. This or ZIGGY STARDUST. It dips a little for me on side two, but come on, it's got "Life On Mars?". Like INNERVISIONS having "Living For The City", that's worth enough points by itself.

Listening to this album really makes it hard to believe that it's the only System Of A Down album here. Like, no way this is the only notable thing they've ever done. You listen to Serj's vocals and how weird their instrumentals can get in places and tell me TOXICITY doesn't also deserve to be here at least. Come on, book. They've made some fun-ass angry music, and they deserve to get a double instead of a single.

Do I like this album? Yeah, a fair bit. I don't think I like it as much as the last indie rock album my group got, SO MUCH FOR THE CITY by The Thrills; and I don't think enough to give it a 4, but I can hear why so many people were goin' nuts for it back in 2010. Do I think it's the best album of 2010, though? I mean, I think I've listened to PLASTIC BEACH a bit too much to agree.

It's albums like these I'm glad I make an effort to listen to every album twice—or one-and-a-half times, at least. Because on a first go around, I was gonna give this a 3 that was leaning more towards a 2. Y'know, I didn't really understand it, but I didn't here anything I obviously disliked: it's fine. It was only within the last four tracks that this album finally clicked for me, and relistening to the first half of the album with those in mind (plus the knowledge that this is a concept album about relationships), I enjoyed it a whole lot more. Between Kelela's vocals and the R&B futurism beats... It's a lot of neat stuff. I'm still not giving this more than a 3 'cuz it's nothing I'd really return to beyond the day it was generated for me, but I had a good time with it while it lasted. Y'know, it's a 3 closer to a 4. (Also, another thing helped me understand this album, honestly: fanmade Epic Rap Battles. Jus', keeping those beats and flows in mind really did help me, honest to goodness.)

I've been tryna think of some kind of big through-line; some essay-style framework to write this review around, but nah, man. This is just some good-ass chill music. **Really** good-ass chill music. Like, within the first 30 seconds, I dug it so hard. Absolutely something I'm gonna put on in the future to kick back to. Hell, if my sleep schedule still meant I'd get up in the morning, I'd put it alongside FRIENDS by The Beach Boys and MOTHER EARTH'S PLANTASIA as a great "wake up, start the day" album. I mean, I don't even know what to say about the album specifically; it's just vibes too hard for that, and I'm all for it. And big shout-out, too, for the fact that The Moog Cookbook, a group I **really** like, remixed one of the songs on here. That's a damn cherry on top, and I don't even like cherries.

I wanted to write a longer review or whatever for this album, but some stuff happened in real life just before I got down to it that's stressing me the hell out as I write this, so I'm gonna make this a little briefer than I was planning. This is a fun album. I mean, **I** certainly enjoyed it. I can't hear **exactly** how it influenced Nirvana's NEVERMIND, but like I wouldn't take Kurdt at his word about it. It's clearly not for everyone—see the fact that the top-rated review of the album on this website, which gives it a 1, calls the it "just noise"—but if you click with it, it's a pretty enjoyable listen. And, hey, I'm just happy the superhero Tony finally got his own song.

I'll put it like this: the band was described itself as "avant-garage," and I dig the "garage" half more than I do the "avant-" half.

The top-rated review of this album complains about the abundance of Britpop on this list—"shitty Britpop," as they put it—and, I mean... I'unno. I'm OK with it. More than OK with it, really. Turns out I'm real down for Britpop, even outside of the big two of blur and Oasis. I'd put this below blur, though. Just considering the albums my group has gotten, anyway. But I'd still put it above The Verve, so...

Y'know, I've seen some talk this is the best album of the 90's, from the best band on the 90's. Like, that's a damn claim coming from the same decade that gave us Nirvana's NEVERMIND, Oasis's WHAT'S THE STORY (MORNING GLORY?), Radiohead's OK COMPUTER, Weird Al's BAD HAIR DAY and so many more. What makes this road material so great? And I didn't go into this album with the predisposed derision that question would imply, but it was still on my mind. What **did** make so many critics claim this thing's greatness? I can't claim a defnitive answer. Frankly, no one can, but that's besides the point. All I can speak on is the moment I got the closest glimpse to what they were talking about—without reading what they actually said, anyway. I was listening to "Range Life" for the third time 'cuz I kept missing the verse where the band disses The Smashing Pumpkins, and during an instrumentral break, I closed my eyes and asked myself: "What decade does this come from?" Does this **actually** sound like a 90's album? Or is it more 70's? 60's? 2000's? I couldn't exactly pin down what decade it sounded like. Stark constrast to a lot of the other albums I've heard so far, even the ones I love more, with all my soul. INNERVISIONS and ABBEY ROAD are masterpieces of their time, but in a lot of spots they kinda sound like their time. Not in a bad way, of course; but there's just moments where I can point to and be like "That's the 60's/70's." Meanwhile, y'look at "Range Life", and the mentions of The Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots aside, I'd be hard pressed. I didn't relisten to any of the rest of the album after that, so I can't say how much the rest of it holds up to that, but at least from what I remember about side two (that's the one I listened to twice)... "Fillmore Jive" especially, I tell you. Wuuf. So, do I agree with the critics? No, I don't think so. But can I at least understand where they're coming from? Eh, enough, I'd say.

I've yet to sample the entire RHCP ouvere, but for the time being, hot damn, this is my favorite album of theirs. Even when I do get around to sampling the rest of them, I doubt any of them will have just that right mix for me of their typical funk jams, alt rock doodlings and Kledis's weird-ass lyrics about sex, California or both. And they **are** weird lyrics, believe you me—let's not even touch those lines at the front of "Purple Stain". Big ol' bonus for me, too, that I can't hear any of the loudness war stuff I hear people talk about, so I don't got any points for that. I'm still docking for it's **length** of course, and that's the closest reason I can articulate why this is a 4 instead of a 5 (and even then that's not really an issue for me here), but at least I've never heard what clipping sounds like. Oh, and those lines at the top of "Purple Stain". Those dock points, too.

Well, it's 70's reggae by a Wailers-adjacent. You can't really go wrong with that stuff. Like, besides relaying my own relationship to legalized weed—that my mom smokes it for medicinal reasons and I think it smells kind of bad—I really can't think of much else to say. Granted, sure, it doesn't have that same spark for me that full-on Bob Marley material has—which is maybe why I liked the song he had a writing credit on the best—but don't take that to minimize Peter Tosh, no. He was a member of The Wailers, too, after all. But then, he doesn't get his name tossed up front, so... I'unno. Reggae is good reggae is the point. Unless it's cod. And even then I have my soft spots for "Jamaica Jerk-Off" and, damn, "Rude" of all things.

Y'know, I'm just not sure if I really get what makes this one of the top 100 albums of all time accoridng to Rolling Stone (as in, it's 100 exactly as of 2020). Like, I can guess at elements—the harmonies, the communial songwriting, how it sounds like it actually sounds like guys playing in a basement... And just the fact that they were able to step out of Bob Dylan's shadow the way they did. I mean, I think of these guys, I hardly ever think that they were Dylan's backing band. Even on this album, where I'm actively aware Dylan wrote two songs. It's just, I'm not seeing the sauce. Worth a listen, sure, but I'm not sure why music from the Big Pink is good compared to music from anywhere else. Also, for some reason it really made me wanna listen to "The Chain"? I have no idea.

I don't have much to say; I'm just an absolute sucker for when symphonies get added to songs that Ilike that originally didn't have them, and S&M is one of my absolute favorites. Sure, it runs a little long... A **lot** long, yeah, but I really don't care, honestly. Not when it has "No Leaf Clover" and among my favorite versions of "Master Of Puppets", "Fuel", "Hero Of The Day", and especially "One". The way James screams "NO" before the final guitar solo is just too perfect. It's stuff like that, and the transition from "The Thing That Should Not Be" to "fuel", that makes this one of those "deep in my soul" 5's for me. Plus, it's nice to give a metal album a 5 to balance out the 1 I gave to Kid gawddamn Rock.

Gawd, the keys and synths on this thing, man. The KEYS AND SYNTHS. That was my favorite part of this whole album, with a doubt. In fact, honestly, I kinda feel like this album could've been an instrumental and I would've enjoyed it just as much. I mean, certainly, whatever barbs it has against Thatcherism don't apply to me here and now, not being in the 1980's or the UK. But, jus', play me "Hit Music" or "It's A Sin" and I'm down **good**. If I gotta pick any one reason why I'm giving this thing a 4 and not a 5, I'll say it's "I Want To Wake Up". More like, "I Want To Fall Asleep. 'Cuz It's Kind Of Boring Compared To Everything Else On Here". Yeah, take **that**.

CLOUD NINE is an album carried **heavily** by two songs: the title track and "Runaway Child, Running Away". The rest of the album, meanwhile... I mean, to tackle those first, the songs from the fourth onward are just fine Temptations fare. Good, but nothing spectacular. Kind of underwhelming, honestly, in the face of its stand-outs. And, boy, that "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" cover sure does exist, dunnit? But "Cloud Nine" is a great piece of Sly inspired music, and "Runaway Child, Running Away" is a damn sprawling epic work of psychdelic soul that helped pave the way for their daminger sprawlinger epicer "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone". It's a trip and a half, I tell you what. The album's absolutely worth hearing alone jusr for those two. And, y'know, based on those songs merits I wanted to say that elevated this album as a whole to a 4. But, like everything else that aren't those songs are so "it's fine" that I'm really feeling it's more a 3. This isn't an INNERVISIONS and "Living In The City" or HUNKY DORY and "Life On Mars?" case here, y'know? So anyway, that was my group's 100th album. A bit of a squib for the only 100th album we're ever gonna get, but there's always hope our next milestones are better bangs.

Writing a review for an album like this is hard for someone like me. Because, sure, I enjoyed the beats and the samples that made them up, and I really dug the flows. Me tending so naturally towards melody, of course I do. But ILLMATIC is an album that's all about its lyrics; complexly-formed street poetry about inner-city life in Queens, New York. And it's just, unless I force myself to spend a whole day listening to nothing but this album and focusing on the lyrics, I can't grasp them. Sure, I can appreciate how the lines their constructed and all their internal rhymes, but I don't think I've absorbed enough of the actual meanings to really be able to comment on them. And with albums like this, I feel like if I'm not able to comment on the meanings, then why bother? Not that they'd mean much to me personally—me, a Canadian living in 2024. At the very least, do I think the lyrics expressed his stories well? With how well each line is made, it's hard to say they don't. I mean, I'unno. If I can appreciate MF DOOM's technicality without really understanding a lot of what he means, I can like this album, too. Besides, my favorite Nas song is "Hip Hop Is Dead", so how much is my opinion worth, really?

Seeing this album labelled as avant-garde jazz on Wikipedia made me expect worse. I mean, I see that descriptor and I'm expecting... Like, noise, honestly. Atonal and with everyone playing in a different weird time signature, but I'm supposed to appreciate it because, I'unno, it's hard to play a trumpet in 30/31. However, it turns out I really can't hear what's so avant-garde about it. At most it sounds like the jazz Frank Zappa would have The Mothers play—and that's a big compliment in my book. The same one I gave THIRD by Soft Machine, actually. (Though give this album the benefit, only one song approaches 20 minutes, and even then it's because it's comprised of three smaller movements). I'unno, I just really dug it. It's one I'd throw on whenever I'm in the mood for something like it, sure. Sometimes I need a little THE GRAND WAZOO, y'know? And this isn't even the album by this guy that got on the Rolling Stone 500? Gosh, you can only imagine how good **that one** is.

I'unno. I get what it's doing—some kinda Roy Orbison-style nostalgia throwback—and normally I'd eat that sort of thing up, but for whatever reason it just didn't click with me the day I had it. Maybe I just didn't catch it at the right time, maybe blame it on the fact that I was too lazy to move from the room where my mom was blasting "It's Gonna Be Me"... For what it's doing, it's very good, but just for my own personal enjoyment, I'm givin' it a 3 right now. And the building on the cover isn't even Coles Corner. I'd remove a star for that alone~!

Before I listened to this album, I told my group that I wasn't gonna be listening to this album. Which is to say, I wasn't going to afford it the same level of attention I've given every other album on this list. It's ambient music, after all; it's not meant to be listened to in the same way you would other genres. And that's not a knock against the stuff, of course. That's just, bluntly, how it is by design. And I understand, for that reason, the frustration some have about the inclusion of an album like this on a list like this. Ambient music, to most ears, is essentially wallpaper. You put that next to ABBEY ROAD and THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY, and how does it even stack up? How does it even compare? For me, yeah, I kept my word. I didn't really listen to the album; it just kind of floated in and out of my attention as I did other things. But whenever I did catch it... Damn, it's some transcendental shit. Just, these vast, open, beautiful soundscapes. Heaven stretches before your ears. There's not much there melodically, true. If you're looking for it, I get the disappointment. But just for how it evokes for me a sense of safety and calm... Damn. A++ tape loops.

(NOTE: I did not stream this album. I listened to it via a CD I've owned for around a decade now. No money was given to Kanye West in the making of this review. Thank you.) Every now and then I think back to the review I wrote for THE COLLEGE DROPOUT and wince a little. Y'know, as much as I stand by a lot of what I said, there I hafta wonder, "Did I spend too much time calling out Kanye?" Like, "We get it. He's big divorced dad energy and loves Nazis. Do you **need** to keep saying you don't like him and 'Fuck him' and all that? You've talked about how much you don't like him as a person more than you have the damn music. You already gave an 'I don't condone him' disclaimer. What moral brownie points are you aiming for here, exactly?" On the one hand, I blame this on that album being my first Kanye review. I felt like I had to take the time to air out my opinions on the man. With how much he ends up talking about himself on these albums, it's not exactly an unimportant piece of context. Plus, it's better to get it all out in one burst at the start than to keep repeating myself over the course of the next two–even if I doubt most people outside of my group are gonna read my reviews, let alone in order. But on the other hand–and this is the bigger hand, I figure–I don't have much of an attachment to THE COLLEGE DROUPOUT. Preparing for that review was probably only the second time I've heard it in full over the course of a decade. Of course, then, it was really easy for me to get distracted from talking about the music to going on about something where I had more to say. Don't get me wrong, I recognize THE COLLEGE DROPOUT for its beatwork and "Jesus Walks" (even if Kanye's gone on to betray its message). But I just don't have that link that inspires me to write much about it. Unlike this album. MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY is home to my favorite song Kanye ever made, "Runaway". I love the extended "single note" piano intro. I love the beat it turns into. I love singing along to it. I even love the "I sent this bitch a picture of my dick" line for how memorably bad it is. And every other song on the album has its great share of beats, moments and memorable lines, too. "CAN WE GET MUCH HIGHER?" "Choke a SOUTH PARK writer with a fish stick." The whole ending to "POWER". Elton John's piano playing. "MJ GONE–A [n] DEAD." Nicki's verse on "Monster". "That'll be the same day MTV plays videos. That was a little joke–voila." That guitar line before Rick Ross's verse on "Devil In A New Dress". The "Iron Man" interpolation on "Hell Of A Life". "Avril 14th". The intro to "Lost In The World". None of them, though, compare to the second half of "Runaway". The entire vocal solo. That feeling when you want to express yourself, explain yourself ("I'mma be honest")... But you can't. And it can only come out as a long, pained, anguished wail that says more than any words ever could. It's beautiful, honestly. I get close to tearing up over it. And it's damn depressing with the context of 2024. I mean, let's be clear: it needs to be acknowledged that bad people can make good art. Just because Kanye turned out to be a piece of shit doesn't mean his old music is suddenly bad. Hell, he was a piece of shit back when he made this album. Remember the whole "I'MMA LET YOU FINISH" incident? This album was made following that controversy. And he's no stranger to controversy, of course–"GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE," after all. But when even the president was vocally calling him a jackass... You can view the vocal solo on "Runaway" as a reaction to all that. That he wanted to say so much in response, but ultimately couldn't. That he'd never be understood anyway. And in that light, this whole album is such an underdog triumph. That he was the world's public scumbag #1 and still came out with a critically acclaimed, world conquering smash. That success just feels non-existent these days knowing there'd be controversy following this album, and much worse controversy than stealing a microphone from Taylor Swift. MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY is a masterpiece. Kanye's absolute peak before he slid off, in my opinion. True, it's entirely self-indulgent in how damn long it is (see: Rick Ross's verse on "Devil In A New Dress", the "Blame Game" skit, etc.), and just because a lyric is memorably bad doesn't stop it from being... Y'know, bad. It's just all trumped by the fact that it's my Kanye album. The first one of his I've discovered. Where, more than once, I'd imagined one of my own characters screaming out the vocal solo in "Runaway". That aria of sadness and anger at how painfully aware they are that they're a huge fuckin' asshole. And Kanye is an asshole. A jackass, even. He was one back then, and he's an even bigger one now. But I'll always have this. Even if I don't listen to this album anymore because of how inseparable Kanye is from his music, he'll never truly take "Runaway" away from me.

Just a very nice, fun burst of early pop punk (I didn't even think it existed before the 90's!) that reminded me a lot of the Buzzcocks and The Clash. And Jello Biafara in some spots, weirdly.

The first time I saw this album's cover, there was just this vibe about it. Like it was going to become the new album I bring up whenever I make some of the inclusions on this list. "CALENTURE got on this list, but not something or other?" That sort of deal. Listening to the album certainly didn't dispel that feeling. And the thing is, actually, that I don't even really think this album is... **Entirely** bad. It's got moments here and there—check those Irish-sounding instruments on "Jerdacuttup Man", not to mention how its opening sounds like Pink Floyd's "Echoes". I think that stuff's neat. It's just all so few and far between is all, which really highlights how oppressively, suffocatingly "FI-I-I-I-INE" the rest of the album is. I just can't hear what makes this thing so special, and as a result it's so hard to give a shit about it. While I was writing this review, even, I got so bored re-listening to the first side that I didn't even let it finish. What would I even gain? It's not like letting "Open For You" play out a second time would change my mind. In conclusion, to be fair, this album's got more going for it than others I've found to be slogs—TIMELESS, MAXINQUAYE—but, yeah, it's definitely going to be one of my new punching bags. Sorry, Australia. Maybe give me some AC/DC or INXS or whatever next time.

I kinda wish we got more albums like this and CLUBE DE ESQUINA more often. Not that I don't enjoy a good 60's folk album or... Random whatever from the 70's or 80's whose only legacy is being on this list, but I'd love to have more dives in foreign reigional music. I mean, it's just really interesting to get an earful of Hindustandi classical music—the really real stuff, too; not just what George Harrison was doing with The Beatles. And even if it turns out it's not your thing, I still think you're enriched by having heard this stuff. So, y'know, regardless of my feelings on it, I think it's worth your time.

I remember Todd In The Shadows's best list for 2017 was the first time I didn't recognize a single song he included, nor did I feel particularly inspired to listen to any of them. That was up to and including the song he picked for the top spot: "Green Light" by Lorde. Finally listenjng to it, and the album, seven years later... Man, I'm just reminded of how much I don't really care for modern, current popular releases. Like, sure, I can't hear anything I dislike about it, and I can probably point out a few specific moments I like, but in general nothing really speaks to or clicks with me, y'know? Even "Green Light". I mean, the only 2017 album I listened to in 2017 was HUMANZ by Gorillaz. **That's** what I'm into. This... Eh. Not as much, sadly.

The album that made James Brown a star. I mean, really; this right here is "star time." Front-to-back, it's nonstop excitement. And if you think the music's energetic, you gotta imagine what moves James is pullin' on stage. I mean, that's probably the only thing I'd really ding this album for—that, and the album ends a bit too abruptly after "Night Train"—but of course that's just a general fault of audio recordings; not just this album. Otherwise, more than just his hit songs or the sample clips, this is absolutely the album to understand why Brown was, indeed, the Hardest Working Man In Show Business.

When this album first popped up for my group, my initial reaction, like with a lot of albums from musicians and/or bands I don't recognize, was "Who the hell is this?" I mean, I hate to judge a book by its cover, but something about its cover just seemed... Off to me. Like this would be another random forgettable whatever where I hafta wonder why it's even on this list. Imagine my surprise, then, when after I listen to the album a friend in the group tells me that this group has **Peter Wellers**. The guy from The Jam! and whose solo album WILD WOOD I'd previously rated highly! That guy! I wish his presence did more for me than shift my question to "**What** the hell is this?", but still! Y'know, it actually took me a moment to figure out what a specific problem I had with this album was, and I think it's this: The Jam album I listened to back when, SOUND AFFECTS, is Mod revival and power pop, and it's very good at that. WILD WOODS is very much a 70's singer-songwriter dealie in the 90's, and it's very good at that. CAFÉ BLEU is called a sophisti-pop album, but it jumps all over the damn place, and it doesn't do anything it tries well. Aside from the album's opener, most of the album is just "bleh" dives into various styles. It's very lounge-y, and not even the fun, swinging kind of lounge. And when it's not just "whatever," it's "A Gospel", and the last thing I needed to hear on this album was any attempts at rapping. It's the most memorable thing here, and for all the wrong reasons. So that's a miss in my book, Wellers. I liked WILD WOODS, and my group hasn't gotten SOUND AFFECTS but I know I'm gonna rate it highly, and I know two-out-of-three ain't bad, but... Gawd, why the hell is this here?

The thing that surprised me the most about this album, honestly, is something another review for this album pointed out: if it were released today, or at least a few years ago, no one would bat an eye at it. In a world with Billie Eillish, it (Apple's voice here especially) doesn't sound out of place. And that's crazy, because not only was this album released back in the 90's, but by a 19 year old. How the hell did this woman at that age have such foresight to make this thing? I have to marvel at it. That being said, because it sounds so modern, it's not really for me. Like I said in my MELODRAMA review entry whatever, a lot of current popular just doesn't do it for me. Even Billie Eillish; I listen to new.wav's blink-182-style'd cover of "bad guy" way more than the original. The specific vibes this album gives off just aren't for me, y'know? I'unno. And I'unno how to end this, so I'll just say that when it comes to me and chamber pop, I way prefer LIL' BEETHOVEN and PET SOUNDS to what this is layin' down.

Eh, I'unno. As New Wave, it's not as weird as Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO!, and it's not polished as, say, RIO. It sits kind of in the middle, and as a result, it's fine, but not terribly interesting my ears. I 100% dug "She Is Mine", though, so you can have that at least.

Damn exciting album y'ask me. Exciting riffs, exciting drums, exciting vocals... Darn gets me in the mood to check out some more riot grrrl, I tell you what. Or maybe I'll end up just listening to "Rebel Girl" again, I'unno.

This is an album that's walking a very fine line between being annoying and... Being annoying. Between all the various influences and sources that make up the instrumentals and M.I.A.'s voice itself, it's one hell of a balancing act where, like, it never fell into obnoxiousness for me, but I can absolutely hear how it would for others. All that said, if I'm giving this album a 3 and not a 4 for any reason, it's an apples and oranges comparison kind of deal. Like, if I want music with revolutionary lyrics, I've already got Chumbawamba and Rage Against The Machine for that. Their respective brands of anarcho-punk/dance/world/folk and rap metal are way more up my M.I.A.'s dancehall material. And none of them were anti-vaxxers far as I can remember, so...

Before now, the only Lauryn Hill album I've really had any experience with was the one for her MTV UNPLUGGED 2.0 show. Defend that album all you want, I don't care, but to me it's for damn sure the worst introduction you could have to her music. I get that it's an unplugged show and that it's not supposed to be representative of her normal sound, but seriously, it's two straight hours of amateur plink-plonking on an acoustic guitar, ramble-y as hell lyrics, and babbling from Lauryn that to me sounds like the hook to Kendrick Lamar's "Real" on loop. When you take her mental condition into account, too, whatever exactly it is, the fact it was released at all just gets all the ickier and you gotta wonder, "**This** is the follow-up to MISEDUCATION?" I mean, be fair to Lauryn—if **I** put out an album as good as MISEDUCATION, I wouldn't be able to follow it up, either. On her first solo attempt, she put out a greatest hits record. I'm someone who's melody first, so I probably missed a lot of great lyrics, but just taking it as a vibe, it's pretty damn immaculate. The beats are probably some of the best from the hip hop albums my group has gotten so far. Lauryn's got a really good voice, too; it's fun to hear her rap, and it's pretty to hear her sing. I don't even mind this thing's length. I'm sure it could be cut down in a few spots, but it's still more than carried by what's here. Just on those merits alone I can hear why this was the highest charting hip hop album on the 2020 ROLLING STONE 500. I mean, do I agree 100% with it? At this stage, maybe not. It's the cliché music nerd answer, but I might still think something like TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY is better. Although, it's not just about quality, is it? It's about impact, too, The legacy. And I'm not aware of what exactly this album's done for the culture, though this just feels like an album that's changed everything. Mostly for women in hip hop, but in general, too. So, like, even if Lauryn never comes out with another album as long as she lives, she's got this under her belt. For anyone, that's damn more than enough. (And this all reads like a 5, I'm aware, but I'm giving it a 4 just because I don't think I've spent enough time with it yet for that. Once I actually do pay attention to and learn the lyrics, though, believe me, I'm gonna be wishing I gave this thing a 5.)

Aw yeah, more female-vocal punk stuff. I dug the hell out of this—maybe even a little bit more than DIG ME OUT, honestly. And for that, I think I hafta credit the Britpop sheen that's over this album. The riffs, the vocals... I jus' think it's fun stuff, y'know? I've loved every Britpop album my group has gotten so far, and this is no exception. And thus, I've paid the whole "WIRE copying" thing exactly as much attention as I think it deserves.

Coming into this review, I had a lot of thoughts about Amy Winehouse, but they weren't about this music. They weren't even really about her as a person, honestly. They were more about how the media in her time, specifically tabloids, treated her—as nothing more than a junkie barrelling to an early grave. Or how I assumed her biopic this year would treat her—I hear it's as "nothing more than a junkie barrelling to an early grave." Hell, I was thinking a lot about how the woman who co-presented Winehouse her GRAMMY for song of the year claimed that people like her "shouldn't be rewarded for bad behaviour." But going in with this mindset isn't fair to Winehouse. The treatment she got wasn't fair, either, and it's absolutely worth condeming, but that's not how I should be thinking about her. I should focus just on her art and what she gave the world. And what she gave the world was... Truly immaculate. A tight 35-some minutes of throwbacks to the early Motown sound and early rock n' roll. I love this kinda shit. Take it from someone who spun AN EVENING ON SILK SONIC back when it dropped, I love throwbacks so much. But not **just** throwbacks. Ones that, like the Silk Sonic mention implies, brings it into the current days. Give it up for Ronson and Salaam. They nailed the sound, but I'd never think this came out any earlier than the 2000s. Even when all I knew about this album was "Rehab" thanks to ROCK BAND 3, it still sounded so fresh to my ears. It's a groovy-ass track, but when this album needs to get soulful and back to black, such as it is, you bet your ass it will. And Winehouse's voice. Amy herself, so I've read, didn't regard her abilities as anything more than a party trick. But what a trick this is. If it didn't evoke "Motown diva" as well as it does while still being recognizably her own thing, it'd all fall apart. And, yeah, me being me, a lot of the lyrics didn't register in my mind. But just the tone of her voice was enough to get enough of the meaning across to me. That sounds like something most people can achieve, but to do it truly well—that takes a little something extra. Y'know, normally I reserve 5's for albums that've already wedged their way into my soul, or albums that manage to edge their way in there. I'm not sure if BACK TO BLACK is truly there yet, but regardless, it deserves a 5. Not as an "Oh, so tragic she died so young" deal. Not as a clapback against the people who treated her so poorly. But just because she made a damn good album. It was a damn good album back then, it's a damn good album now, and I wouldn't be happy if it wasn't a damn good album on the future. Gawd, I needa find the time to put on FRANK!

Oh, this one's just a blast. There's really nothing else to it—it aims to be swingin' fun and it sure as hell is. It's downright infectuous how clear it is how much everyone recording this is enjoying themselves. It makes me look forward to when/if my group gets more swing music like this. And in the meantime, I guess I'll spin this album again.

Going into this album I didn't expect to like it terribly much. After all, there was a line on its Wikipedia page about how much it influenced post-punk bands. I haven't disliked every post-punk album I've heard, but I sure as well haven't had a clean track record with it either, so I didn't have exactly high hopes. But then at the beginning of side two, there was this moment where I had to just... Stop what I was doing. Stop, close my eyes, inhale deeply through my nostrils... I have to give all the credit in the world to Brian Eno and the influence he had. Even on an album this gloomy and dark, there are moments in the soundscape I found kind of beautiful, actually. Really, it's a similar reaction I had to the two Eno album my group's gotten before, and it proves I really shoulda paid more attention to the "electronica" genre credit on Wikipedia. HUNKY DORY, largely because I've spent so much time with it, is still my favorite Bowie album, so that's why I'm not giving this a five. However, just the fact alone that it made such a strong case for that spot is incredibly noteworthy.

It's just kick-ass NWOBHM, simply put. Killer riffs, solos and vocals, front to back. It's no wonder this is the album they truly broke through with. I don't even know what else I wanna say, really. Just listen to "Hallowed Be Thy Name"—you'll get it.

I think this is the least interested in a Britpop album I've been so far. Like, I'm not gonna say it's bad, but it's not particularly exciting. For the most part, it's radio music—incredibly safe, even acknowledging some weird lines I've read about. And I don't even mean "radio music" as an insult; it can really hit the spot sometimes. I'm just not sure what makes this so special compared to any other Britpop I've heard—blur, Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Elastica... Honestly, I'm not even sure how much I even hear this as a Britpop album; it feels way more like a straight-up pop album 90% of the time. My one big exception is "Let Me Entertain You"—not a Queen cover like I always thought it was, but still. With its very obvious Who influence, it's driving as hell and the biggest burst of excitement and energu on the whole damn album. I can shake my head to that one, seriously. And, y'know, maybe if the rest of the album matched up to that... As it stands, the album's fine, but I can do without it. Like, maybe, JUST MAYBE, this list could do with one less Britpop album, y'know? Maybe?

This album's largely carried by "Son Of A Preacher Man", yeah, but that's not to put down the rest of it. It's very nicely orchestrated blue-eyed soul and there's not really much to complain about. Or say in general. So... Yeah. Good job, Dusty.

Of all of the British invasion regularly brought up and celebrated by Big Important Music Critics™, I've always had the hardest times with The Kinks. Up until now I've never exactly had a grasp on why, but I think I've finally managed to come to a answer—simply, they're the most British. No other big British invasion group (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who) are as British as The Kinks. It's in the tone, the riffs, the melodies, the lyrics... It's **British**. Not a lick of American skiffle, blues or hard rock in there. It's partly why, I'm sure, they're as regarded as they are. For my money, though... Mm, I'unno. Here, on The Kinks albums we've heard so far, it just really hasn't clicked with me. Hell, I'm not sure I click with extremely British music in general until Britpop in the 90's. Y'know, there there's bombast, bigness. On something like this album, meanwhile, it's a lot smaller, restrained... And I don't wanna say it's "simpler" given that this is some premo psychedelic music hall stuff, but it just feels that way to me. Of course every now and then there's something I can fully get behind. "Waterloo Sunset" is regularly highlighted as the best song on the album and for damn good reason. That's the one where the riffs and all work for me. But for the majority, it's good stuff, but not anything I'm really clamoring to get back to. And I don't think they should've had more American influence like the Beatles, Stones and Who just to appeal to my dumb ass, but... I mean, since they don't, I'll tend more towards who does.

See, I'm giving the same numerical rating as SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS by The Kinks, but believe me that this a much more positive 3.'Cuz... Man, I'unno. As much as I wanna pretend that I have good, approvable taste in music—even if I don't sway much outside the mainstream—in my heart of hearts, I can't help but be a bit of a dad rock girlie. It's nothing terribly special or memorable, but in the moment it's fun times. Plus, it's just fun that this group has a self-titled song on a self-titled album. That's the first and maybe only reason you'd put 'em next to Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Living In A Box.

Oh, sure, it's corny, it's cliché, it's... Another thing I had on the tip of my tounge that starts with "C" that I forgot. But darn it, that's what I wanted this album to be and that's what makes it so good. It's just such a delight, between Sinatra's voice and the arrangements. Man, neat my group got the Sinatra album that **isn't** depressing first, anyway.

Back-to-back-to-back loud, dirty n' heavy-ass rock n' roll that absolutely deserves to be played in a sleazy biker bar n' strip joint in the middle of nowhere off a desert highway. And I mean all that as the highest of compliments, by the way. It both kicks **and** bads asses. Next to AC/DC, you ain't gonna find a group that does one kind of rock n' roll as well as they do. Gawd**damn**!

Back when my group got MURMUR, I declared it my new favorite R.E.M. album. I was just so taken back by how much rawer that album is that I guess I got some kind "walking out of the movie theater" receny hype. Which I don't bring up to say that I suddenly think MURMUR's a bad album; just that, yeah, DOCUMENT is still my favorite R.E.M. album. It's the polish from producer Scott Litt, really. Applying it to the band's unique sound, which going too overboard with it... Gawd**damn**. The riffs and vocal melodies were always amazing, but they stand out so much more here. Some songs in the back half don't do it for me 100%, but throw on either of its two killer singles, and, woof, boy, I sure feel fine.

On the album's Wikipedia page, it says that this album is meant to be a return of sorts to their earlier sound, after all the dance and alternative they tried out for the entire 90's. So, as part of my listening today I also took in their album WAR, and... Man, I'unno. Even without having WAR in mind, this album just sounds kind of... Dull to my ears? Sure, it's not without its moments—"Elevate" is one of them—but on the whole it kind sounds like the stereotypical image people have of U2. Kind of a bummer to hear given how much I like THE JOSHUA TREE and enjoyed WAR, but eh. At least I've got those albums to go back to if I want the band's early sound.

Now this is peak Peppers. Smply put, it's the best and completest realization of their funk rock sound. It's true I haven't heard their entire discography, but I really kinda doubt anything else could match up to this. Just check "Give It Away"—besides my fondness for its Weird Al parody, if it mentioned California it'd be **the** Peppers song; the one to hear to see what they're all about. Although, all that said, I **do** kind of prefer CALIFORNICATION. Maybe I'm just a bit more fond its alt.-ier sound, I'unno. Plus, I'll acknowledge that it could be because I'm less familiar with this album, but there **is** a point where when it's not either of the songs parodied in "Bedrock Anthem", it **does** kind of blend a little for me? At least, I wouldn't be able to tell you what each song specifically sounds like aside from two or three. But I'll still maintain: this is the RHCP album to check out first. It's pure Peppers, and it doesn't get anymore red hot than this.

Lemme say off the bat, I don't think it's bad. It's a perfectly good mix of country rock, gospel... There's some R&B in there, too, I 'spose. I can hear how the melodies would do it for me. But the thing is, I gotta agree with the most-liked review of this album on this website. And even before I saw that review, there was just this vibe I got off the album that if I grew up listening to it I'd like it a **lot** more than I do. If it was there for me alongside THE WALL, ABBEY ROAD and Weird Al's complete discography, sure, maybe. But hearing it now, in 2024, in my mid-late 20's, sandwiched between all the other music I love and want to listen to more... I can only say it's just fine. I'unno, maybe you'll get more out of it than I did.

I actually first listened to this album three days ago, for comparison against another U2 album on this list, ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND. Weird that this album shows up so soon after this one, but whatever. I don't wanna talk about ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND too much, since I already reviewed it, except to say this: that album felt disingenious, which I can attribute largely to the "arena rock" sheen over everything. No matter how good it **can** sound in parts, it comes across as a little plastic, without even the irony of their 90's albums to justify it. On WAR, however, it's all post-punk. Raw, energetic, and **angry**. So damn angry. New Year's Day and Sunday ain't no beautiful day. And that's what makes WAR so engaging and relistenable. You can feel real easily how much they believed in these songs. It's not my favorite of U2's sounds—hello, THE JOSHUA TREE—but it's sure as hell worth your time regardless. Now hopefully this is the start of a trend and my grouo actually does get THE JOSHUA TREE three days later. Please, Randomizer? Pretty please?

Smooth, chill-ass bossa nova. There's a simple description of it, but that's all it is, really. It's an album to put on and mellow the hell out to. I really hear why it won Album Of The Year in 1965. Like either of the Barbara Streissand albums that were nom'd had a chance to beat it anyway.

Damn good agro dance music. Shit like "Breathe", "Firestarter" and, yes, "Smack My Bitch Up" just go off so hard. Really, the only reason I'm not giving it a 5 is that I prefer what the Fatboy slippin' does so much more. Still, absolutely worth your time to check. Just put it on and lose y'damn-self.

I spent quite a bit of today wondering why the Grateful Dead had the following they had—still have, even. What was their "secret sauce?" Turns out, even Deadheads don't know what it is. There's just this "intangiable 'X Factor'" about their live music, as I've read. "Vibee," in other words. It's just vibes. All vibes. The way I've heard "Dark Star" described in particular that's stuck with me is that it doesn't "start," per say—you "enter it." Conversly, it doesn't "end"; you "exit it." Like it's not a song but instead some field of energy you briefly entangle yourself in. Basically, you're supposed to lose yourself in the jams and improvisations, appreciating the near-psychic link the band members have between each other. And if you don't match up with those "vibes," then it's just a lot of pointless canoodling. Myself... I mean, I think I've listened to too much Phish to say I don't like jam bands or what they do. As "vibes" music, it's fine. Just not mind blowing like I imagine it still is to a lot of the OG Deadheads. Of course, if I wanted to hear what they do, I'd probably have needed to actually catch them live. Not 100s of times like some of these fans have, but at least once. Unfortunately, it's a bit too late for that now, so judging the music for its own sake... I get it. I just don't love it.

There's this line I remember hearing about sophmore albums. Essentially, they tend to be worse than first albums because it's on that first album where you have all of the ideas you've likely spent years and years toiling over. Meanwhile, your second probably has to be rushed out in a couple of months to capitalize on the first album—hence the "sophmore slump." It happens to even the best of 'em. Which makes it twice a miracle that LED ZEPPELIN is not only better than the first album, but in my eyes maybe the best album in their whole discography. I mean, not only did they release this album the same years as their debut, but they did it in-between tour stops. By all accounts, this should be a mess, but then they barge in here with "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker". "Thank You", "Ramble On", "Bring It On Home", "The Lemon Song", "Moby Dick", "What Is And What Should Never Be"... Even "Livin' Lovin' Maid"! From the moment you put the needle down on side one to the time it falls off side two, it's nothing but some of the best, stronger stuff they've ever done. And the most varied, too, until HOUSES OF THE HOLY. You just can't argue with riffs and melodies and a rhythm section like this. And seriously, "Thank You" might not be the first song most people think of when they think of favorite Zeppelin tunes, but it's **so high** up my list it might even be at the top, for serious. Like, if you can't tell, I don't even have anything insightful to say, really. It's just damn good stuff! Put it on! Jam out! I'unno, do **something** with it! Just don't listen to TRAIN DOES LED ZEPPELIN II. That's the worst thing you could do.

Y'know, I should be saying more about the album as a whole instead of talking about only one song, 'cuz as far as it's concerned it's probably the best rap album my group has gotten so far. The beats, the flows, the lyrics... It's all great and unique in that OutKast/ATL kind of way. But for my money, all I wanna do is gush about my favorite track, "B.O.B.". Simply, it's the hypest damn track I've ever damn heard. It's a rush, and hearing it in the context of the full album for the first time, I legit had to take a second to reorient myself. It's like I was skating along, and then this song burst in out of nowhere and I had to quickly scramble to get myself back on track. It's amazing, and so enjoyable to shout along to "BOMBS OVER BAGHDAAAAAAD" and "POW. ER. MU. SIC, E-LEC-TRIC RE-VI-VAL." Sure, maybe a couple of the lyrics are... Too unique that might be... Like, a little bad? Mostly I'm thinkin' of Big Boi's verse here when I say that, but I can hardly care. There's so much energy it carries me over all of that, and makes it just another lyric that I try to keep up with as I rap along with it. And the beat, THE BEAT. I've only heard this album one-and-a-half times, so maybe I could change my mind, but it's the best one. Kinda beat you get up and lose your damn mind to. Seriously, I can just imagine concerts where the moment it starts everyone's already turned the floor into a giant pit, y'know? It's just incredible. And I know from this review it might sound like I'm giving this album a 5 based just on one song, but, first of all, what a song it is. Secondly, I mean, a lot of this uniqueness, freshness and energy carries over to the rest of it, even if none of it's at the same tempo. It holds up insanely well even 20+ years later and the whole package is absolutely worth your time. STANKLOOOOOOOVE

Honestly, I'm kind of glad the original LIFEHOUSE pitch didn't happen. I mean, can you imagine? Instead of just nine of the greatest tracks The Who would ever make simply existing by themselves, they'd be surrounded by all of this weird whatever about people being fed entertainment through tubes or something? There's some explanation that the intro to "Baba O'Riley" is someone's DNA converted into song or whatever? I love a concept album, but nah. You don't need all that. It's a masterwork enough on its own. From the well-known songs down to even "My Wife"—funnily enough, the only song not written for LIFEHOUSE. Simply put, the album's the best The Who ever had. (THEY BEST THEY EVER HAAAAAAA....)

I wish I had more to say about this album. It's perfectly good metal, but it just didn't really grip me too hard. Maybe it's the overall length, maybe it's the specific style... I'unno. Part of me feels bad, 'cuz I'd love to have more to say about or higher marks to give non-American metal, and I do like how they incoporated an indigenous Brazilian tribe (the absurd length of the hidden track "Canyon Jam" aside), but that's just how it be.

Aahhh, it's just fun and energetic pop New Wave. "Bops," as the kids these days might put it. It's really not any more complicated than that. Sure, I can understand why people might find their voices annoying or grating, but if you don't crazy when "We Got The Beat" starts... Well, I don't even know what to tell yah.

For reasons unrelated to the album itself, I wasn't able to absorb the album as much as I would've wanted. Even with only 1.5 listens. Allow me, then, to keep this a bit short, so I didn't even up thinking of much to say. To begin with, I came into this album expecting it to be a lot... Y'know, angirer. Grungier. Punkier. Riot grrrl. That was always the impression I had of Hole, largely going by the cover to their album LIVE THROUGH THIS and maybe a sample I heard in a mashup somewhere. Color me very surprised, then, to put this on and hear California power pop and alternative. And more so to find out that I dug a lot. Hell, maybe even a little bit more than I would have LIVE THROUGH THIS. I don't have any specifics to bring up, 'cuz, y'know, as I mentioned, but the vibes are just there. And I like her voice a lot. I'unno. I just dug it a lot. Get off my back, eh?

I'unno if this is any better or worse than the last album of Hindustani classical musical my group listened to, honestly. But if I enjoyed my experience with this album any more than I did with THE SOUNDS OF INDIA—and I don't mean this in a negative sense—it had nothing to do with the music itself. Simply, because the only version of this album on Spotify is an apparently terrible re-recording, I had to listen to a vinyl rip on YouTube. And there was just something about all the vinyl crackle and pop underscoring the music that... Y'know, really, really did it for me. It makes me glad, actually that I didn't listen to this via streaming. Without the crackle, it wouldn't be the same. And I'm probably rating this album more for that than the actual music, 'cuz by itself I think it's good but the not mind-blowing "one album of Indian music you must own if you own one" I kept reading it is. But what an enhanced experience it is, eh? Kinda makes me wanna play more records, even if all I have are two portables Crossleys. So I guess I actually hafta thank Rahul Sharma. For him and his dumb re-recording being the only version available. That's something, I suppose.

I mean, come on. It's Aretha. She has such a powerful voice, she has such a pretty voice... She has such a **voice**. It's what makes her music, more than anything else. Sure, you can argue the instrumental or the lyrics or the backing vocals aren't up to snuff, but as long as she's on her game vocally, it's hard to call it bad. And, hey, this album has "Respect"—it's one of those songs that by itself gives this album a 4, so good on the rest of the album for earning that extra star.

Y'know, originally I planned to open this review with a short bit about how this album's always been referred to as and presented to me as a culturual moment, and how it's always so highly rated on "best of" lists, but let's cut straight to the point: it's a great album. An **amazing** album. On both ends, there's a reason it made grunge popular in the 90's and was ranked 9 on Apple Music's 100 in the 2020's. Lemme explain it thorugh my two favorite songs on the album. First, at the end of the album, there's "On A Plain". It's got hooks, man. "LOVE MYSELF, BETTER THAN YOU." "I'M ON A PLAIN—UHHHN, UHHHHN." Big singalong. Compared with that riff, I think it coulda been a hit. And I've always loved, too, how the lyrics end up being about the songwriting process, even referencing the fact that this is the penultimate song on the album (if you don't count "Endless, Nameless", anyway). Then there's "In Bloom". Contrasting heavy, loud choruses and interludes with a quieter chorus. Classic structure The album's big hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" of course has it, too, and of course I love it as much as everyone else does, but I've always liked "In Bloom" a bit better for its slower pace. It's always made it and its riff feel heavier to me. Plus, the lyrics about the people in Nirvana's audience who enjoy their music without understanding what it's about... Funny my two favorite songs end up being about their own lyrics, but I guess that kind of thing just appeals to me. Point is, it's all great songwriting from Kurt Cobain, played wonderfully by himself and his bandmates Krist and Grohl. I know one of the reasons he went on to resent the album was for its polish, but darn if it ain't still heavy as hell even despite it, y'know? It's not like it was made weak by the polish; you listen to "In Bloom" and "Breed" and tell me it's not heavy. Especially "Breed", with its machine gun drum fills. It's a 5-star album from me. I kinda feel like I should've said more just now to justify that, but it's just one of those album that's worked its way into my soul and was always going to be a 5. Does there really need to be anymore explanation than that? Well, I'd prefer to hear it over not, but still, putting on the album and letting it play is just as good as an explanation as any. It's totally worth the hype, high list rankings and deeming as a "cultural moment" it's gotten.

Like the last couple of goth rock albums we've gotten, I imagine I'd be into it way more if I was a goth girl. Since I'm just a regular girl, though, it's... Fine, y'know. I'll admit, there's some stuff here that made me like this album a bit more than some of the other goth albums we've gotten—I mean, that one guitar lick that sounds like it came from a surf rock song? I dig that all the way! On the whole, though, it just had a hard time keeping my attention for too long.

Listening to this album, I couldn't help but compare Otis Redding's singing to Aretha Franklin's—for no other reason, really, than the fact that this album features three songs Aretha would go on to cover. In particular, there's "Resepect", which actually showed up on album my group got just days ago: I NEVER LOVED A MAN THE WAY I LOVED YOU. And it's not exactly a fair compairson. Like, of course Aretha's take on "Respect" knocks Otis's out of the park. Even he said she'd stolen his song. But it's also not one I wanted to do if I could help it. They both have great voices, and they're both going for their own things, so what's the use? I mean, it's probably just because Aretha's take on "Respect" looms so large over the original that it's hard to remember there even was an original. Thus, by its presence on this album, it kinda spills over into everything else—not even helped by the fact that Aretha would also cover two other songs from it, "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long". Let's take Aretha out of all this, though. Fully leave her aside like I should have done from the beginning and judge the album on its own merits. And going just by what it does, it's really great stuff. I mean, all the love in the world for how Redding sings, specifically when it gets **gruff**. That shit? Oh, I love that shit **too death**. I listened to "Otis" five times the same day just because I wanted to hear his scatting on the beat. And that samples a song from the album he released after this one, so—! He's just so much fun to listen to, and so unique. I can't think of anyone else who sounds exactly the way he does. So, hey, that alone gets this album pretty good marks. And thankfully, the tunes underneath it are good enough to carry this thing to **really good** marks. I can't really recall anything specific about any of them, but that doesn't really matter to me. As just a front-to-back listening experience, it's a rippin' time. So, I guess to close this out I may as well answer the question I proposed at the front that I didn't wanna ask. Ultimately—yeah, I prefer Aretha's singing. It's prettier when it's soulful, and I like her hollerin' better. Otis's is good, but if you had him sing, I'unno, "Border Song" it wouldn't hit the same. But again, it doesn't matter. Regardless of who I prefer, he's just as much a soul legend as Aretha, and his music (not just this album) is worth anyone's time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go scat along to the "Otis" beat again.

Going into this album, I was ready to treat it the same way as I did PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE by Dennis Wilson or IF YOU WANT IT DARKER by Leonard Cohen, or how I'm sure I'll treat BLACKSTAR by David Bowie. In short: I tend to define albums like these, at least to one extent or another, by peoples' deaths. Even BACK TO BLACK, as much as I didn't want to, I partially defined by Amy Winehouse's death. So here we have Nick Drake's PINK MOON. Before today, I'd always thought of it as "that bleak, depressing album made all the sadder by its proximity to Nick's death." Hell, before today I thought this album was released **posthumously**—that's how much I'd had his passing looming over the album. Indeed, as I first listened to the side one and realized it wasn't as bleak as I thought it was, there was this air of melancholy I just couldn't shake. Even as I came to find out how beautiful it could be, the melancholy lingered. "How sad he died in proximity to this album's release." That's a thought I wasn't holding by the end of the day. In-between listening to side one and finally giving the whole thing I spin, I watched Abigail Devoe's Vinyl Monday video on the album. In it, she makes the following statement, which all but calls me out for my mindset: "I don't think it's intentional, but those who call PINK MOON one of the saddest albums ever made apply the end of Nick's life to his work, and that robs him of his legacy." I mean, let's consider—what even **is** a PINK MOON? I always thought it was a sad, poetic metaphor for something. However, a pink moon, from what I've put together, is actually the first moon of the spring season. The signal that winter—the hard times—is over, and that there are brighter times ahead. And with that framing in mind... Re-listening to the title track, when the piano line came—the only time on the album there's an instrument aside from acoustic guitar—I nearly cried. And Nick's guitar playing throughout, especially on "Horn"... What a talent. What an incredible talent. Although, I'll admit, if I'm not in love with this album, it's because runs a bit old on side two. It feels weird to say that kind of thing about a 28 minute album, and "Parasite" and "From The Morning" are exceptions, but that's just how it is. Maybe once I give it more time... Hell, maybe if I had given it the time it deserved today instead of realizing too late that it deserves it. As it stands, PINK MOON—and all the albums I mentioned above, for that matter, are more than just their artists' passing. And if I'm sad about anything in regards to it, it's that they didn't live long enough to see these albums succeed.

It's a pretty good album all around. I just don't have much to say about it. Like, I just can't think of a hook to base the review around. I'm pretty slow to pick up lyrics, even from albums I've listened to nearly 100 times, so there's not much I can say there. Besides, I doubt any of its content is really all that shocking today, in CURRENT YEAR 2024, compared to how it must've been in the 1970's. At most, I can say it's got a lot of good riffs, some pretty nice melody lines for the vocals, and of course "No Mr. Nice Guy" is a classic single. That statement alone might not be enough to sell anyone on this album, bult it's all I can give, so y'might as well take it.

This kinda stuff is jut really up my alley sometimes, y'know? This orchestral pop crooner thing. I'unno. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's more Bublé than Sinatra, and it wears out a quite bit during the last half of the album, but I found the first half just so much fun and the record (true to its word) is pretty short anyway at only half an hour, so I'm still able to come out of this saying I dig it. And the first track, melodically, really sounded to me like it could be sung by the guy from Sparks, and that's a non-zero factor.

Imagine being Arabian Prince, huh? You're on one of the most seminal, famous and influential rap albums of all time, and your only contribution to it is... "Something 2 Dance 2". A weak, wack-ass elecrtrodance track that sounds nothing like everything else on the album. Imagine: that's on the same album as the title track, with its driving, forecul production. It's on the same album as "Fuck Tha Police", so infamous for its calling out of the cops (even though it's really only Cube's verse) that it got an FBI letter. It's on the same album as "8 Ball (Remix)", with its amazing interweaving of samples. It's on the same album as "I Ain't The 1", which... OK, to address the lyrical content, a lot of the violence n' whatnot I've seen people ding it for can be easily excused, at least in my eyes, by the fact that they were just rapping about their reality at the time. And who am I, or anyone, to tell them how to represent their stories? But the misogyny, mm, that's a little less excusable. Hasn't aged all that well—not that it was any good at the time, but you know what I mean. That being said, though, I'unno why I'd spend in my time railing against nearly 40-years old lyrics when it'd probably be more worth everyone's time to address the misogyny still ongoing in modern rap. Although that's besides the point. Even despite that and it's weird, kinda corny beat, at least Ice Cube's delivery and flow are really good. Imagine all of that coming beforehand, nearly an hour of classic gangsta rap, and then you show up for dated production with barely any lyrics or flow with an alright sample usage at best. And as an album closer—don't get me started! If I were Arabian Prince, I'd be kind of embarased. Especially considering how hard he's been written out of the group's history. Goodness, he's on the damn album cover, but even a Wikipedia-style summary of their history like the STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON biopic can't make time for him. Although, to be fair, despite his appearance on the cover, he wasn't actually in the group at the time, so I don't know how they woulda fit him in anyway. And all that said, I can't actually say I dislike "Something 2 Dance 2". Frankly, I find it too goofy in how out-of-place it is to dislike it. And besides, I rag on Arabian Prince, but he was still on STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. I wasn't, and you weren't either. He's got that legacy going for him. Oh, and, uh, album's a 5, by the way. Not gonna argue with the current group average. I mean, **damn**, that shit was dope.

Mm, I'unno. It's great music—all the experimentation here of course has to be comended—but I just don't dig it as much as I do the simpler pop hits and face melters on the first two Experience albums. Don't get me wrong, I do love my fair share of cuts here:there's "All Along The Watchtower" and "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)", naturally, but I'm also all for "Crosstown Traffic" and the extended blues jam epic "Voodoo Child". But "House Burning Down", the entire second side excepting "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp"... Eh. Even "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)", as much as I recognize it as the centerpiece odyssey, isn't something I wanna listen to all the time. In short, I recognize it as Hendrix's most complete artistic statement, and I wish he'd lived longer to see what he could do next. My album preference doesn't make it any less of a 4, or even a 5. I just personally wouldn't return to this first over EXPERIENCED? or AXIS.

It was already pretty clear to me which genres I pay attention to their lyrics and which ones I don't, but it stands out more on this album than others because it has both cases. Like, when it's doing its soul jazz thing—and it's primarily it's soul jazz thing—the lyrics kind of pass by entirely in favor of the melodies and instrumentation. This is where I hafta give all the shout-outs in the world to Brian Jackson. Fantastic stuff; amazing stuff, all around. It's a sound I can really go for. But then when it's on its proto-rap thing on "H20gate Blues", and Gil Scott-Heron sounds like the guy who asked who will survive in America and stated that the revolution won't be televised—damn. The rhymes! The delivery! I don't wanna just say "Wow, it's enjoyable," 'cuz I feel like that kind of ignores what he has to say poltically, but seriously—it's really damn enjoyable to listen to. This guy, with this voice—I really like hearin' 'em go off. So, hey, that sounds like a pretty good 4 to me. If only I coulda listened to this album on Spotify, though. Thankfuly there's YouTube uploads, but I can't imagine why it's not on Spotify. Oh, and if my group could've gotten this album in winter, too, ans not the first day of June, that woulda been really appropriate. But then I'd still be in Canada, so y'know, ultimately, whatever.

It's pretty good collection of melancholic music. I'm sure if I felt the same way he did making it I'd be more engaged, but since I don't and didn't, it's a fine enough listen. Enough so that I didn't mind how it kept fading in and out of my attention. I'unno.

Until today, I've had this running joke with my group that only I've told that we weren't going to get an album longer than 69 LOVE SONGS. As far as I knew, that was the longest album in the book, standing at 172 minutes. It was gonna be the closest we ever got to three hours. After all, I knew the 1001 ALBUMS book didn't have mega-epic, 250-plus-minute box sets like AMERICAN ANTHOLOGY OF FOLK MUSIC or James Brown's STAR TIME, so once we got that we'd be in the clear. Then today happened. We got this album. And my jaw dropped a little. Look, let's make this clear: I don't have a problem with Ella Fitzgerald's voice. She's a lovely voice, beautiful. 100% deserved the shout out she got in Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke". I don't have a problem with George and Ira Gershwin. Or the Great American Songbook for that matter, or jazz standards in general. I still occasionally spin Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's CHEEK TO CHEEK album, and I really love "Anything Goes", the title track and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love". I don't even have a problem with the arrangements. I like myself a fair bit of vocal jazz and traditional pop every once in a while. Look at how much I liked the Frank Sinatra album my group got—and again, there's CHEEK TO CHEEK. My problem with this album, simply and solely, lies in its crushing length: **THREE HOURS AND FOURTEEN MINUTES**. That's longer than Prince's EMANCIPATION. I have no idea why they decided to record so many of these things except that they could. And truthfully, from the moment I saw its length, I knew I wasn't gonna bother listening to the whole thing. And I didn'! I heard from "Sam & Delilah" to "The Real American Folk Song (Is A Rag)", and then after that I just listened to a 40-some minute compilation from 2007. 'Cuz seriously, even listening to only the first hour of this got a bit excruciating. I don't hate this sound, but there **can** be too much of a good thing. Like, by the time I got to "Just Another Rhumba" and I heard "September" pronounced as "Septumba," I really wanted to just stop. I'd more than had my fill of Ella siiiiiiingiiiiing mooost of the sooooooongs like thiiiiiiiiiis. But there was still twenty minutes left, so—! One of the people actually did manage to sit through the whole thing. I can't begin to fathom how they did it. As I'm writing this, it's hours before we can share our reviews, so I don't know what they think of this, but I can imagine they're all too positive about the length either. Even beyond its length not every song on here is a winner. Like, some of them hafta be obscure for a reason, y'know? Again, I point to "Just Another Rhumba". Or the one that I read has the damn 20th Century fanfare. Or they're just plain indistinguishable from each other and blend together. Even on the 2007 "very best of" compilation they kind of do, but at least there there's only 12 songs and not **a billion**. And that's **still** the best way to listen to this material. Of course, by all means, if you wanna go digging through this set to find your own "very best of," be my guest. (Hell, I know I'm probably gonna do the same thing whenever I **do** get around to Prince's EMANCIPATION.) Or if you've already done it—good for you! I'm glad you were able to discover something in there that I didn't, seriously. For my money, however, I just don't have the time or patience. Ella's voice is generally too good to give this any less than a three, but believe me—I could. At least now I no longer fear 69 LOVE SONGS as much as I did before. Hell, I'll embrace it, even! The sweet, sweet feel of **SLIGHTLY UNDER** three hours. Oh, it'll be so nice.

Really fun hardcore punk with horns sometimes. Reminded me vocally of The Clash in a lot of places. I'unno, I just had a lot of fun with it. Shows what I know for giving it the ol' "Who the hell are you?" treatment.

I'unno. On my first listen, I just didn't care for it all too much. Very "boring late 2000's rock" vibes. Like, it honestly had my wondering why this album was a hit—if it even was a hit at all and wasn't just being carried by its two singles. Really, it was only on my re-listen to the first half where I began to enjoy it, and only because I saw someone compare this album to U2. Specifically, JOSHUA TREE-era U2, and, like, I'unno. I can hear it, certainly, but nothing here soars for me in the same way THE JOSHUA TREE could. Of course, that U2 comparison is the thing alone that's raising this to an "it's fine" 3, 'cuz otherwise I really could not care.

Don't ask me why I haven't heard this album before today. You'd think being the progressive rock fan I am (i.e. I love Pink Floyd and two/three Yes albums and don't hate ELP) I'd've heard this sooner. But, no. Blame it on the thing's overwhelming popularity, blame it on the fact that I wouldn't be able to have its cover shown on Last.FM... Most likely, blame that I just never got around to it. Whatever reason, it doesn't matter. I've finally gotten to this album, and, boy, am I glad I did. This is some premo-prog rock. Seriously, every song (save maybe one) scratches that exact itch. From the bombast of "21st Century Schizoid Man", to the way it quiets down for "I Talk To The Wind", to that Mellotron riff on "The Court Of The Crimson King". An exception aside, I don't feel there's a moment wasted. Impressive for an album where the shortest song of five is **six minutes**. (And that one exception, by the way, is "Moonchild". That's not an unpopular opinion, I hear; most fans of this don't like how "Moonchild" just... Doesn't end. I'm aware there's a remix by Steve Wilson that chops off two minutes and fans prefer that version—but that's besides the point. I'm not into all the free improv, in short.) In fact, "Moonchild" dragging on as long as it does is the only reason I'm not awarding this album a 5. Believe me, otherwise it completely deserves a 5. I mean, with how it lives up to being the codifier for prog? You bet your entire ass. But... Eh. If the remix were the version I listened to, maybe. In any case, I'm just happy to finally have this one under my belt. And I should actually go listen to other prog albums, too. Like THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY or... I'unno. TARKUS? I meant to get around to that one but never did. Maybe with this album on my mind, I can—... Eh, later.

Whenever people talk about this album, I feel like they're mostly talking about the title track. That's not to put down the other songs, of course, but "2112" is such an incredible, iconic, towering piece of prog rock (any Randian infiuence it might have aside) that it's hard to compare. But then, I don't think this album would be as acclaimed as it is if it was just a "2112" delivery system and the rest was "Who gives a dang?" The second has to, and does, hold ifs own. "Something For Nothing" and "Lessons" rock on their own; "A Passage To Bangkok" has to the hookiest hook on the album; "The Twilight Zone" is classic prog nerd topic shit with a killer guitar lick to boot... Even "Tears", the ballad of the album, comes out an enjoyable listen as some kinda 70's cheese. I wouldn't entirely blame the mindset claiming that the second side of the record is filler to justify releasing the title track on an album. Sort of a weird take on how a lot of 50's albums were constructed, y'know? But that's missing the fact that the other five songs are classics in their own right. They're worth the time, just as much as "2112" is. And all together, it makes one of the truly finest prog rock packages I've ever heard. And from Canadians, no less! My people! Now **this** is some national pride right here, I'll tell you what.

Y'know, if this were just an instrumental album, I wouldn't fully understand why it's here or the hype from mainstream, but I'd think it was just fine. Chill-type-I-guess electro-pop. Maybe a little boring to me, but otherwise it's nothing offensive. The vocals, though—**the vocals**. Like, I'm sorry, Karin sounds like a Björk wannabe. And not a very good one, either. Their voice really grated on me; enough that I had to dock this thing a star down to an "Eehhh" 2. Them's the breaks. Also, I kept reading their stage name as "Freaky Ray." And maybe it their vocals **had** been a little less freaky...

Y'know, I've never been much one to joke on Billy Joel, and this album here is pretty much why. Now, sure, before the first time I listened to this album in, I'unno, 2021, I just generally didn't have much of a reason to. But giving this thing two relistens in 2024—oof, boy. This is some amazing piano-led singer-songwriter 70's pop rock. And there's all those qualifies, yeah, but still—it's real good stuff. Maybe a little cheesy in some parts, but like I'm not at least some-percent cheese at this point in my life. I do with cheese; I enjoy cheese... This is good. Just look at "Scenes From An Italian Resturaunt". It's an epic for sure, and a fan favorite for a reason. And if I'm not giving it a 4, it's only just because it hasn't quite yet reached the "entered my soul" phase yet. I can't say I don't see this album doing it, but as it stands, it's just a really great listen. So, y'know, ultimately, no. I might not have provided a lot of explanation, but in general, that's why I won't joke on Billy Joel. Even with some of the stuff he made after this. Or some of the stuff he made **before**. You ever hear Atilla? Goodness me. Joke on that stuff all day.

Y'know, maybe it was just the state of mind I found myself in today—very tired, I guess 'cuz I forced myself to wake up earlier than I had been recently—but I'unno. This album just didn't blow me away. Of course, the one-two-three of the opening tracks are great (that's where "Just What I Needed" comes in, after all). Everything else, though... Eh. Kind of all slid together for me. And I'll grant, I could just been in the wrong head to take it in properly, although I have the impression I wouldn't even if I hadn't got conked out hard when I laid down on my bed while playing this album a second time. Still, I wanna give this thing a 4, thanks to those first three tracks. They're good times, what can I say? Otherwise, eh, it really woulda been a 3 from me.

I don't really have much to say about this one, except that of all of the Australian albums my group has gotten so far this is the one I've liked the best. Turns out all they hadda do to win my affection was play some damn solid punk with horns on a few tracks. Who woulda knew?

I think it's a good album, but one where I wasn't in the right mood to truly love it. Like, if I was happened to come into this thing while I was feeling sad, it probably would've blown my mind. For sure, the few times I tried to put myself in that headspace, it clicked way better. Though without truly being there—y'know, not pretending... I can feel it, rumbling under the ground, but at most it's a 4 teetering on a 3, speaking in terms of personal enjoyment. At least it wasn't the slog the album covered made it look like it'd be, oof.

And just as I thought I was getting sick of Britpop, here's one that leans way more into garage rock and pop punk (Britpop punk?), and, da,mn, I just think this shit rocks. 50 is a little long, yeah, but I had my fun with this, so I can't complain too much. Or really have much to say other than what I just did. "Girls From Mars" reminded me a lot of Weezer. I'm not the only one, right?

I feel like in most normal situations I'd give this album a 3. Like, as much as I can recognize in the moment, while it's playing, all the stuff that makes it great—the production, the sampling, the vocal style, the mood—hours later, I can't remember a second of it. And that goes for most all trip hop, really. Unless it's in direct comparison to much more boring trip hop (see: MAXINQUAYE), I'm not sure what it can really do to bump up an extra star. Well, this thing found a way: a **bitchen guitar solo on the last track**. Seriously, I'unno who decide it should rip so hard, but if I ain't happy! Absolutely, it's enough to earn that extra star from me. And maybe more trip hop albums should have solos like that, I'unno. Massive Attack, it wouldn't hurt to try. You too, Tricky.

I can't 100% remember how I've rated every other goth album my group's come across, but I think it's here I wanna firmly put this genre into the "not my thing" box. Like, lemme just stop saying "If I were goth...," y'know? 'Cuz this album in particular, this album was very "in one ear, out the other; can't recall nuffin'" for me. Normally I'd attribute that to undiagnosed ADHD, or a general "if I had more time to spin it," but here, with this kinda soundscape, it does nothing for me. And I'm not particularly clamoring to remember, either. There's not even any one element I can shrug at to justify bumping it an extra star. So, all the goths of the world out there, I like your fashion, and I like your girls with the big tiddy, but your music? I jus' gotta be honest with myself here and stop giving the benefit. Maybe down the line I'll find out that appeals more to my sensibilities, but for sure it's not here.

I wanna summarize how much I enjoyed this album just by talking the weird-ass cover of "Comfortably Numb". 'Cuz its ass is **very** weird. I mean, if you didn't tell me this was a Pink Floyd cover, just from the arrangement alone I wouldn't be able to tell. Some kinda electroclash glam rock thing? Very strange! And the vocals—they sound like SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER Bee Gees, right down to "AH-HA-HA"s. Why did they even cover this song at all? What the heck even is this? I don't know about anyone else, but to me, what this is is **great**. I know I've described a lot of albums I haven't heard before as "fun listens," but this is the most I've meant it yet. It's largely thanks to how glam-y it is. I've always had a thing for glam rock, and the way it's done here—**good shit**. Combine that with how queer it is, and I kinda feel a little dumb for not checking out any of their albums sooner. Like, I can blame my mom and sister annoying me with "Let's Have A Kiki" all I want; at the end of the day, this is incredibly up my alley. I'll even choose "I got distracted by other things" as the reason why side two didn't do as much for me as the first and why I won't dock it a star for that. I don't think there's any other Scissor Sisters albums on this list, and as I'm writing this I don't feel like checking. So thank goodness we at least got this album. I can't say how "worthy" it is to be here, but it's an absolute blast regardless. (And seriously, my mom and sister were **all the damn time** with "Let's Have A Kiki" back when GLEE covered it. In retrospect, it's the biggest foreshadowing I can remember for how much they'd end up getting into stuff like RUPAUL'S DRAGRACE. And, y'know, better that than wherever they would've ended up if they got more into the "Turkey Lurkey" half of GLEE's cover.)

This is actually the first time I've heard this album with its original vinyl track listing. Before now, I've always listened to it as it was expanded in 2001, which pushed its runtime from under 40 minutes to nearly 90. Hearing how it sounded with only six tracks to its name, though... Well, to start, in either case the music was electric. This is prime Who performing live here, after all. How they sounded in the studio was always great, but in a live setting, especially in the days this was recorded, they went to the next level. It was some of the wildest, hardest rock of its time, and even still now, and I'm thankful they got an album that captured that. And in this six song format? The expanded edition was always enjoyable, but 83 minutes **is** a lot, no matter how good the material is. With just the 40, however, this is **tight** shit. No nonsense, just three covers and three hits, including the mega-medley-extended "My Generation". That thing's gracious enough to give us a little "Listening To You" in there, and, like, I understand people who balk at its runtime, but with that, and energy and playing like this, I could never come close to disliking it. Speaking about people who balk at this album, by the way—I mean, I hate to make my review about other people's reviews, but I wanna defend not just this album's inclusion on this list, but the decision to include live albums at all. It needs to be realized—they can be just as, if not more important than studio albums. Take what I said above: The Who were great in the studio, but they could only come so close to capturing their live sound in there. I think it'd be a tragedy if we didn't have this album to preserve it for people who couldn't be there. And look at enough album on this list, James Brown's LIVE AT THE APOLLO. That was the album that **made** him into the star he was and household name he remains. He put his own money for that, 'cuz he knew he needed a good representation of his live shows that studio recordings couldn't. And, hell, take a look further into the metal scenes—with exceptions, I don't think you can be a good metal band without a classic live album to your name. Iron Maiden's LIVE AFTER DEATH, Judas Priest's UNLEASHED IN THE EAST, Motörhead's NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH, Thin Lizzy's LIVE AND DANGEROUS, Deep Purple's MADE IN JAPAN... I could go on. Point is, they all serve a purpose and provide a sound and energy that studio albums could never hope to. LIVE AT LEEDS very much deserves its spot on this list, right alongside WHO'S NEXT and TOMMY. It's an essential part of who they were as a band that cannot be missed. If you don't like live music, fine. I don't expect everyone to be 100% with how songs get changed or expanded on stage, especially when they **can** devolve into wankery sometimes. (Bonzo, I love you, and I'm in awe of your playing intensity, but I cannot deal with your 30 minute drum solos.) But don't say it doesn't belong here. It's more worthy than a lot of studio albums I've heard, and that's a fact. Also, the album packaging's got a really cool "bootleg" design, and that's just neat shit, man. I always love seeing bands intentionally do this kind of thing—like, Aerosmith's got one, too, that's even called LIVE! BOOTLEG, and that's just great. I hear actual material on it's not up to snuff—and in fact, from everything I've come across, I don't think Aerosmith has a single good live album. But I **did** say that were exceptions, after all. Sorry, Steven.

No deep thoughts this time. I just think Celtic punk is fucking awesome. And Celtic folk, too, for that matter. I just love the melodies these have. Like, damn, I feel like I should be in a pub, five Lagers deep trying to sing along, but I'm so blitzed I can't even **speak right**, let alone sing. And when the band plays "Waltzing Matilda", I'm down on the bar sobbing. Gawddamn. Amazing stuff.

I'm just in awe of the production, mostly. Of course Chuck D and Flava Flav's rhyming and rapping is amazing and worth a five on theif oqn, but the production from The Bomb Squad? The sampling going on here? Incredible, incredible. It's this kind of sampling I would love to do if I were a producer myself. In fact, at some point in the future I gotta

Mm. I think this is one where I hafta blame my expectations. Like, as far as I've seen, this is supposed to be the bestestest Beyoncé album **ever** forever and ever. I'd always assumed it'd be LEMONADE, but, no, it's the one she surprise dropped in 2013. And I'm just wondering, "Is it actually that good, or are people still being blindsided by its release method?" And it **is** good, don't get me wrong. But the greatest Beyoncé album of all time? I don't have enough context to really answer that, though I feel I'd still fall back on LEMONADE. And is it really that amazing? Eh... I won't say "No," but it just didn't hit that level where I can fully agree. Like, I know what a 5 for me sounds like, and this just ain't it. Beyoncé's got the voice and whatnot for a 4 at minimum, but I just didn't find that certain intangiable element that'd make me 5 it like the rest of my group. Just how it goes. (Also, even if I did, "Mine" would still be boring. Take that, Drake—I guess.)

Another one from the category, "Before now I only knew it for one song, but now that I've actually heard it—damn, what took me so long?" It's gotta be one of the best albums of the 80's, as one good album with "Sledgehammer" (the aforementioned one song) should be. Like, in terms of all the various worldy-type progressive art pop songs from the decade, I doubt it got any better than this. My only real complaint is that some of the outros run a bit too long, but it's a nitpick in the grand scheme of things. To quote a bunch of teen girls voiced by an e-mail checkin' wrestlem'n, this album really is "so good." (Now, to address if it's the best album of the 80's overall—I **did** have that thought, but, I mean, as long as Weird Al's IN 3-D still exists... Though that's such a high bar to clear, I would take it too seriously, y'know?)

Definitive. This, to me, is what big beat should sound like, in sampling, production, tempo, tone, energy—everything. Even in length, as much as I don't think everything needed to be 5+ minutes. If there's anymore big beat albums on this list, I doubt I'll like them as much as I do this. I mean, you name me another album with "Fucking In Heaven"—y'can't.

Part of me feels weird to like traditional country music as much as I do. Not country music as a whole; I've listened to too much Cledus T. Judd to say I don't like country. It's **traditional** country in particular I feel odd about. I grew up in the mid-/late-2000's. I became a teenager in the early 2010's. What is someone in **my** age range doing liking music this (to use this word as much as I can in the non-political sense) conservative? And if I was younger—goodness! Like, I'unno. This kind of sounds, these arrangements and instrumentations, the way they sing... It just does it for me. Like, this to me is **COUNTRY**, no extra qualifiers. I can totally see the appeal of just kicking back with a beer to this stuff. Even if the songs that aren't about heartbreak are about murder. It's not a sound I'd seek out all the time, but every once in a while, if I don't wanna put on Cledus or go the "I only listen to Johnny Cash" route... Sure. I can throw it on. Part of me wants to give this a 4 because of how much I ended up liking it despite my expectations (before we got it I was ironically hyping it up to my group), but... Eh. I like it, but I'm not in **love** with it. Definitie "It's fine" energy. Now if this had a goofy lookin' Satan on the cover like they'd have a few albums late, whoo! Five stars! A+! Six stars! Hot damn!

Now **this** is some damn good shit. I'm not sure what I expected out of it besides political commentary and criticisms I wouldn't 100% understand (and maybe I still should, though it's maybe a little too late for that), but this funk/jazz Afrobeat thing it's got going on it just amazing. I hardly even mind the fact it's made up of two tracks each nearly 13-minute; they're just that enjoyable to listen to. I don't even have a proper closer for this little paragraph excpept to repeat myself: this is **damn** good shit.

As Britpop goes, this is fine. I guess I just can't hear those "giant steps" forward for the genre that this album is supposed to have. I mean, I do like it quite a bit, but I just can't get myself too hyped over it.

I'unno if I've said this in an earlier review or not, but I really needa stop seeing albums from artists I don't recognize and going, "Who the f**k is this guy?" 'Cuz I've really enjoyed all the ones my group's gotten so far where I've had that reaction, and this is no exception. It's really fun late-60's psych rock released in 1970. And it's twelve whole dreams! What more could you want?

The Beach Boys' output post-PET SOUNDS from the late 60's to the early 70's, from SMILEY SMILE to HOLLAND, is a very interesting stretch of albums. In the grand scope of a band like them these records are pretty obscure stuff, put next to PET SOUNDS, SMiLE and their surf material. However, at the same time, they also happen to be a lot of the best work this band ever did. For example, SMILEY SMILE could never match up to what SMiLE could be, but as an early lo-fi and bedroom pop record, it's fantastic. SUNFLOWER has songs like "Add Some Music To Your Day", "This Whole World" and the masterpiece "Forever". And FRIENDS? FRIENDS is generally one of my top three Beach Boys albums; I used to wake up to it nearly every morning, back when I actually woke up in the morning. Then there's SURF'S UP. One blemish aside, it's the best thing the group had made some PET SOUNDS. Or maybe it's even better, if you wanna go that far. Front to back, from "Don't Go Near The Water" and "Disney Girls (1957)" to the triple threat of "A Day In The Life Of A Tree", "'Til I Die" and the title track, it's near untouchable progressive pop. Especially those last three songs. I didn't wanna focus all my attention on them, but seriously, the organ on "A Day In The Life Of A Tree" alone—!! You'd never expect music this beautiful coming from an album with a record cover like, y'know, **this one**, but that's part of why it's so amazing, honestly. It's not as dark as the cover lets on, but it still somehow manages to capture a lot of the feel, I think. At any rate, no matter how much I like Cooper Black font, it's a better album cover than PET SOUNDS had, that's for sure. Now, let's address the blemish: "Student Demonstration Time". It's the only one Mike Love wrote without any other Beach Boy, and fittingly, it's the worst track on the album. It's just so out of place with everything else. Seriously, what's this rewrite of "Riot In Cell Block #9" doing in the same space as "Surf's Up"? I can appreciate the band being more socially conscious with this song and "Don't Go Near The Water", and I get having some variety, but it just doesn't land too well. All the same, though... That's also why I kind of love it? Either way I don't think it's bad enough that its inclusion drags this album down a star, but I'm just so amused by how much of a sore thumb it is. And it's dumb "BAH-DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH" blues rock. I find it hard to hate that too much. Besides, it's not even the worst Mike Love song based on another song—and I know Brian co-wrote it, but in my mind "Be True To Your School" is all Love. Just the perfect example of him as an uncool prep. But anyway, it couldn't have made me happier that this is the first Beach Boys album we got. I actually spent a lot of time today listening to material on the box set FEELS FLOWS from this album's sessions; that's how excited I was. I don't think even PET SOUNDS, where I still maintain the cliché of holding it as their best, would've inspired me to dig in like that. Naturally, then, I can't give this album any less than a 5. I'd give it a 6 if I could, and I haven't felt that way about an album since we got ABBEY ROAD. It's just a gorgeous collection of tunes. I really wish they could've kept this streak up past HOLLAND, too. I mean, I give it up for THE BEACH BOYS LOVE YOU, but I know that it's not for everyone. And just knowing that this band eventually ends up recording "Summer Of Love" and letting John Stamos sing "Forever"... Yecch. Thanks a lot, Love.

Man, it was fun to see this one pop up, 'cuz I'd heard it for the first time only a month ago—ironic, don'tcha think? Anyway, I think it's a pretty darn enjoyable listen. I'm not 100% that any of the album cuts hit as hard as "You Oughta Know" or "Ironic" (except the chorus of "You Learn"; I fell in love with it the first time I heard it), but it's not like they're that far away, all things considered. And that moment when it cuts to silence on the opening track—man, I gotta kick out of it. So, yeah. In total, I just can't hear any reason why I wouldn't rate it a 4 at minimum. And that's not just because I'm Canadian and needa rep my people, no.

Up top, I wanna say that my relationship with Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't go any further than the fact that his biopic, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!, is one of the few I actively refuse to watch. And keep in mind, I've seen STARDUST and BACK TO BLACK, so that's saying something. It's just, I know he's a bad guy, and I'd rather not watch a movie about his life, but otherwise... Like, all I really know him for is his musicianship. And because of that, that's no doubt why I'm able to listen to this and enjoy it so much. 'Cuz, gawd, I can hear what all the fuss is about; he can **play**. Y'think you can calm down a second, man? Goodness. Sounded to me like one of those performances where the people would just straight fall apart because of how hard he's playing it. For my group's first rock and roll album, it's really good for showing off how wild you'd imagine it'd sound. I mean, there's still a part of me that'd prefer we'd've gotten something like HERE'S LITTLE RICHARD first, and not for any reasons having to do with Lewis as a person, but I don't think I can really complain about the album we got too much. As for the fact it's a 4 and not a 5, it's the usual reason—I'm just not blown away enough by it to really justify the extra point. It probably deserves it, but... Eh. I guess I'll blame that "RRRRRRRRRRR" thing Lewis kept doing; I wasn't too big on it. (Also, if anyone knows why the version on Spotify is truncated to 22 minutes... Seriously, the hell is up with that?)

*{nod, nod}* That's some cool jazz alright. I mean, I'unno. I'm no expert on what makes this jazz specifically so cool, but it's real good shit, at any rate. Gets me exicted to hear the other Miles Davis that're no doubt on here. Well, excited as I can anyway for an album as cool as this.

What a treat to get this on Canada Day. I mean, it'd be a treat to get this any day, but on Canada Day, specifically? Man, oh man. 'Cuz simply, this is one of the best Canadian albums ever released. Seriously, from the crashing opening synth of "Tom Sawyer"—damn thing's a jump scare if you're not paying attention—it's Rush at the top of their game, right on down. Like, 2112 the song is a masterpice, but as an album? Really feels like "2112 and five other songs," as good as those other five are. But MOVING PICTURES here, it's the whole package. You got your radio-ready songs like "Red Bachretta", and you got your proggier stuff like "Witch Hunt", but neither side is any more or less important than the other, y'know? It's rock damn solid. And to touch on the radio-ready material—like that's a bad thing? Hell if a prog band has some songs with hooks and that're catchy. Sorry they're not writing neo-jazz classical epics about By-Tor and honewdew, y'know? Like, my apologies, but it really stings me that the top-rated review of this album—which, I'll be up front, I didn't read in full because I come here for reviews, not creative writing exercizes—seems to be saying that Rush killed prog going into the 80's. At least that's what I gleam from the paragraph where Geddy Lee stabs prog rog to death—prog rock, who used to be about jazzy suites or whatever. Truthfully, I haven't heard enough 80's prog rock to comment on how it fared or has aged, but just talking about this album—no. No. Hard no. This might be Rush's greatest album, far as I'm concerned. This or 2112, but either way, MOVING PICTURES is a landmark album. It's simply incredible. I don't know how someone can hear "YYZ" or "Lifelight" and think this album's so bad they hafta write a whole fairy tale to express how much they don't like it. I mean, maybe I'm just mad at the form of the review. The fairy tale thing. Really, if they dislike the album that much, fine. In fact, I'd love to know **why** someone dislikes those songs as much as they do. But in the way they chose to present it... I'unno. It just strikes me as incredibly pretentious; like they think they're **so smart** for not liking this album and saying so in this way. And, y'know, apologies as well for ranting on so long about that. MOVING PICTURES has the kind of reputation where it doesn't need defending—by anyone, let alone me—but as someone who cares about hearing people's opinions, wether I disagree with them or not... It just frustrates me. So, lemme bring this back around: without any spite, I meant what I said about this album. It really is that good all around. Now, sure, I might return to the 70's hard rock sounds of 2112 a bit more than this album's synth thing, but that's not to undermine it. It's a classic from my home country, plain and simple. At the end of the day, that's really all that needs to be said. (And, hey, this album doesn't have influence from Ayn Rand, so that's another positive.)

It's... Pff, I'unno. It's just some easy listening bossa nova. Perfectly servicable. I just don't know what it's doing here on this list. Like, what exactly is so notable about it that it deserves to take up a spot? It can't be for Astrud herself, because you can already hear her singing on GETZ/GILBERTO. And that album doesn't have any out-of-place circus music, so...! Again, I'unno. It's pretty listenable; I'm just not impressed with it.

This album can be really pretty in parts. I'm not sure why this isn't as celebrated as TRANS EUROPA EXPRESS. I mean, that's all I really hafta say: I enjoyed this one **way more** than I did the other one. And people complain about this being repetitive? Please, like it doesn't evolve on itself. I swear...

This is one of those albums that's wormed its way so deeply into my heart and soul that I can't even think of anything to say about it. I mean, is it mixed like a brick? Sure, but I hardly even notice. I just throw on "Jesus Of Suburbia" and I'm, like... Still in awe of it. Top three Green Day album, for damn sure. Goodness me.

I mean, I'unno. I just have such a hard time getting invested or, like, interested in this. I'm sure there's some technical aspect about that I'm missing, like her breath control or something, but... Nah. I'm just gonna rate it how I feel: an "it's fine" 3.

Y'know, for the longest time, QUADROPHENIA was my favorite rock opera The Who had made. Attribute that to how I first experienced deep cuts from both that album and TOMMY: I saw The Who in concert back in 2016, and I was blown the hell away by "The Rock". Back-to-back with "Love, Reign O'er Me", I became an instant fan. Meanwhile, they'd played "Amazing Journey" and "Sparks" earlier, and... Well, I recognized "Pinball Wizard" at least. I'unno, at that time they just didn't really do anything for me. Fast-forward years later. I still like QUADROPHENIA a lot, but especially after having seen the film adaptation... It just feels a little more standard than it used to? Like, "Yeah, this is how The Who typically sound." And of course, that's not a bad thing, but... Eeehhhhh. It doesn't sound as incredible to me as it used to. Meanwhile, TOMMY, having seen its film version and having spun Tenacious D's medley a million times? Oh, hell yeah. This is the weird-ass rock opera shit I wanna hear. Mrs. Walker, it's a joy. Whatever problem I had with it way back when—maybe I thought TOMMY sounded smaller than QUADROPHENIA—I don't even mind. Nor do I mind its 74 runtime. I just have a blast listening to it, whenever I do spin it in full. But even when I restrict myself to the songs in Tenacious D's medley ("Pinball Wizard", "There's A Doctor" and "Go To The Mirror!")... Well, simply: "Listening to you, I get the [good-ass] music." (WHO'S NEXT still tops, though, just to be clear. And if you've never heard Elton John's cover of "Pinball Wizard" from the movie soundtrack, do y'self a favor. Honestly, I like it even better than the original. Love me all that piano stuff, goodness.)

I'll admit up front, I didn't really give this thing the proper time and attention that it—that any album, of course—deserves. Much like back when my group got COLES CORNER, for some reason I thought it'd be a good idea to try and listen to this thing in the same room where my mom was cleaning and blasting her own music from the TV. I mean, heck, even in the moment, I realized very quickly that there's only so much you can pick up on when "Houdini" and "The Real Slim Shady" are blaring right next to you, but thanks to the pure stubbornness I had for not wanting to listen to Eminem right then... The only part I remember fully picking up on (and it was only after I finally moved somewhere quieter) was the final vocal hit of the last song, and... I'unno. There was just something about the way it sounded that hit me the wrong way. Enough so that I didn't even bother giving this thing a second listen, so I'm writing this mostly based on samples and scrubbing around fan YouTube uploads. To be honest, I don't think this album's bad, really. It's a collection of soul-y late-60's tunes, very far away from the pretension I imagined I'd be in for thanks to the "folk jazz" genre label on Wikipedia. Normally, I'm very into this sorta thing. I dig Aretha Franklin, after all. And I can't say there aren't a few spots where I did find this thing kind of beautiful, even through the noise of "Mockingbird" and "What's The Difference?". On the whole, though... Look, I hate to parrot opinions, but there's just something about her voice sometimes, man. It leaves me very unenthusiastic to wanna revisit this thing. Now, I don't think I'm asking for a perfect voice here. I know I'm used to hearing voices digitally modified to be flawless, but I can recognize how much charm there is in the little human errors. That's what makes this shit alive, man. That's where the soul is! Or something like that. But Nyro here... I can tell when she wants to hit the big notes like Aretha does. She just can't manage them, though. In those moments, she sounds like Cher. I only just now realized that as I was writing this, but yeah: she sounds like Cher sometimes. And the thing is, Cher sounds like that **all the time**, so I'm at least able to let her get away with being unique. Nyro keeps fluctuating, though, and I suppose I can respect the fact that she's not trying to put on a voice, but I just wish she'd stick in one lane or the other. Now, I'd kinda feel bad about giving her a low rating. After all, from everything I've seen, she's clearly someone very influential who just didn't get her public due at the time. The album wasn't a commercial hit, but it did influence people like Elton John and Todd Rundgren, and in 2020 Rolling Stone named it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time. A more famous, well-known "greatest album"—like, I'unno, as an off-the-dome example, TALKING HEADS: 77—had to be kicked out entirely for this to be here. That's not nothing. And it's not like any of that means it should get an automatic five stars from me, but... I liked enough parts of it that I can't go lower than a 3. I don't like her voice, but again, there parts I **did** find kind of beautiful. It's just that this feels like the least enthusiastic 3 I've given since... COLES CORNER, funny enough. So I guess I didn't really miss too much when parts were drowned out by "Venom".

For me, listening to this album was about two songs: "Heroin" and "European Son". "Heroin" is pretty much exactly what I hear in my head when I hafta imagine The Velvet Underground. Stark lyrics getting at real experiences of doing drugs and living life on streets. The kind of lyrics you'd call "poetry." The arrangement is minimal, based around on chord and drums that're more being thumped than played. There's an atypical structure where there's no real chorus but it variously speeds up and grows in intensity to emphasize its words. And it's got those avant-garde-y noise elements in there as well. It's the kind of thing you listen to and give a small nod: "real music." In 2024, I don't really personally understand how groundbreaking all of this (aside from the lyrical content), but I still like it a lot. It's a bleak, harrowing listen, and the previously described way it goes up and down just appeals to me, I'unno. Then there's "European Son", which, as a closer, I think represents a lot of other things about this album. Not all of themm—Nico isn't on it, for instance—but for one, the first couple of minutes are way... Hookier than I expected it to be? Which I don't think is a bad thing. I like hooks, and I don't expect VU to be all all-caps "ART" like "Heroin" all the time. It's just a matter of expectation, y'know? Even if I do like them quite a bit. But then when it does get art-y, jamming out for the last three or so minutes, I kinda get this "noise for the sake it" feeling. Like, just play whatever you want as loudly as you want and call it "art." It's not as bad here as that description would imply, but it still leans in a little—so that's what I think about the art-y parts that I don't believe work too well. And the lyrics... I'unno, they're about somebody in Andy Warhol's circle. Or who was. As someone who has to take a second to start getting the lyrics, they're fine. As is the whole track—to paraphrase somebody else in my group, it's "a perfectly unconvential closer for an unconvential album." Speaking of closing, I suppose I should say something about Nico before I go. She's fine. I get this kind of New Wave-y vibe from her voice, and I'm kind of into that. I'unno why Andy decided she **needed** to be on here, but she's not a detracting factor. She does "I'll Be Your Mirror" very well—as I hope she would, after she broke down crying after how many times she had to record it. Overall, I can't give it less than a 4. I can't hear that special "makes you want to start a band" factor I've heard about that would make me give it a 5, but darn if it ain't good music all the same. Different from the norm, sure, though that's still what makes it so special to a lot of people. Y'wouldn't want it sounding any other way. Such as, for instance, what Billy Idol did to "Heroin". Serioiusly, if you haven't heard it before—goodness me, you're in for a trip. Recoil slowly and laugh.

Y'know, while to me The White Stripes are very much, definitionally, garage rock and blues, I did really enjoy hearing them explore sounds outside of that. Playin' around with marimba and more piano... And, hey, there's the song from the PARANORMAN credits. At my core, I'm still more a "Ball And A Biscuit" girl than anything (except maybe "CNR", honestly), but still, I'm happy they went ahead and tried all this out.

Y'know, listening to this, I was thinking back on why I gave IF YOU WANT IT DARKER a 5, and how much of it was because it was "the album he released before he died." Now, of course it's not the sole reason; that's shallow and would ignore everything being done there. The soundscapes, the mood, his voice, the lyrics I managed to catch... Like, it would have been an amazing album either way, but with the extra, unintended context of his passing, it just became all the more powerful. Here, then, we have an album on the opposite end of his life; his second ever released. The one I kept hearing described as "bleak," "depressing," "scary," "a mirror..." All that. It's probably his most famous album besides his debut or whichever one "Hallelujah" is on. A poet singer-songwriter's masterwork. And if this thing is a mirror... Well, I'unno how it reflects back on me that my second time listening to the back four songs on this album, I straight-up fell asleep halfway through. Like, don't get me wrong, there's stuff I like about this album. His guitar playing style on "Avalanche" was unexpected, but I was pretty amazed by it. And I can certainly hear, in its atmosphere, why everyone keeps saying it's so depressing. But then, that's also kind of the problem there: it's depressing, and aside from one or two songs, it hardly changes from that mood. Which is only a problem for me because I'm not in a state of mine where I can relate—or, at the very least, I don't feel like I'm smart enough to understand the lyrics well enough to get it. Like, trust me, I know there's no shame in it, but I still feel so stupid having to hop over to Genius and rely on their annotations to figure out that he's singing about Nico. I mean, I don't wanna have it come across like "sad music bad; happy music good." That's not it at all; there's plenty of sad songs I can put on and enjoy. It's just, when it comes to the super poetic singer-songwriter playing an acoustic guitar late-60's sorta deal... I'unno, I've enjoyed Bob Dylan's nonsense word salads more than I have whatever points Cohen's trying to make here. So, y'know, I wanted to give this thing a 3 at least. Like, hey, there's part of the instrumentation I enjoy, and maybe if I sat down and read all the Genius annotations... But I just gotta rate it how I feel. And to that, I **do** feel a little bad about it. Of course, I don't hafta be generous just because he's passed on, or so often called a genius, or a fellow Canadian, but... I guess combined with what I was talking about in the first sentence, it seems like if he'd passed shortly after this album and it that surrounding context I would've rated it a lot higher. And to be honest—maybe. Maybe I would have. But in a timeline where he thankfully went on to release a lot more music... I'unno. This just really wasn't my thing.

To me, this is the last of Metallica's classic period. I'm sure there's quite a few diehard metal heads who would love to debate me on that (among other topics, like if Metallica even had a classic period to begin with)—but look. This thing is full to the brim of amazing songs. And not just the singles, although let's not forget how incredible "Nothing Else Matters" is for being a 3/4 love ballad from Metallica of all bands. I'm talkin' the deeper cuts as well: "Holier Than Thou", "Don't Tread On Me", "Through The Never", "The God That Failed"... This is consistency up there with MASTER OF PUPPETS, you ask me. Sure, it's a more traditional "heavy metal" sound and not as thrash as some would prefer it, but like that even really matters. I doubt it'd bug most people while "Wherever I May Roam" is playing. Even the over-played stuff, too: they're played as much as they are for a **reason**, after all. So, big surprise, Metallica gets a second 5 from me. And if you ever have the time, check out Wax Audio's mashup of "Sad But True" and "Superstitious"; it's really good.

I can dig this. Vibe with. I really dig the beat work it's got goin' on. And... Yeah, that's all I feel like I hafta say. Which feels weird to me; I should have more about one of **the** albums of hip hop, but... I'unno. Yeah. It'd be neat if we lived in a timeline with a second album from these people.

Y'know, ultimately the first side of the album (the one with "Jesus Built My Hotrod") **is** the better half, but I really liked the second half as well. It's a departure from the "metal psychobilly" thing side one had going for it, but I'unno, I really dug these slow, heavy, epic riffs. It reminded me a lot of Rob Zombie, actually, and that's a big plus for me. I wasn't a fan of the last track, and that's why I'm only giving this 4 stars, but still, I had a blast with this album.

Y'know, I can't exactly hear what's so "grunge" about this, but for harder 90's psych rock that keeps in a lot of that folksiness—dang, it's good shit. I wish the group coulda gotten one of the albums that led to this group being named one of the earliest pioneers, alongside people like the Melvins and Mudhoney—'cuz otherwise I have no idea why this is here—but still, good tunes are good tunes, and these are good tunes.

Y'know, it's not just another amazing slice of Seattle grunge. That alone would already earn it high marks. But you factor how damn **metal** this thing is, and, oh, goodness, it's one of the highest classics of the time. That's all I have to say about it, really—it's just so good. I mean, shit, Layne's vocals and Jerry's guitar aren't praised to the Heavens and back for no reason. Combined, no one else in this genre sounds like this group, and that's damn special. My dad had really good taste buying this CD back in the day, I tell you what.

I like the downtempo and ambient parts, for sure. The rest... Well, I didn't find the more inaccessible parts to be as grating as others have. That's all I'm really inspired to say about this album—yes, sadly, I don't have any unrelated stories to tell about nearly having sex in a Joker costume. What a shame.

*{clicks fingers, finger guns}* That's country, alright! I'unno. I guess I just don't hear the "Cosmic American Music"-ness about it that makes it so important. To me it just sounds like early 70's country, which, hey, I can dig. I'll be generous enough to strike it a 4

There's a 1-star review for this album that compares Kravitz here to "Prince at home." Funny enough, I'd also compare Kravitz here to Prince, but in a 4-star way. I mean, 'ey, what can I say? I love Prince, I like the few Kravitz songs I've heard... Put 'em together with all these hippy vibes, and, hey, I can dig it. Tune in and drop out, man.

An absolute masterclass in sampling. Without a doubt, it's my favorite sampledelia album of all time. Like, seriously, the breadth of the samples used, and the way it all weaves together... I wish records like this could still be made. But short of releasing it independently, without clearing them beforehand... And I like what the Beasties are doing, too, by the way. I love how they rap, and the way they work with the samples is amazing. But the Beasties are the Beasties, y'know? Call me dumb for not catching the intricacies, but to me they don't sound terribly different from album to album. So for me, it's all about the beats, and I can hardly think of an album with better beats—not just sampled-based, honestly—than this. So, y'know, thanks for screwin' all this, Gilbert. Thanks a lot.

I'unno, I just like 50's rock and roll a lot. Most of it, if not all, sounds the same, I'll admit, but within this space, I don't think that's a bad thing, personally. I mean, getting on 50's rock and roll for sounding similar is like getting on Motörhead or AC/DC for all their songs sounding alike. If they do that one sound well, what's to complain about? And Buddy Holly and the quote-unquote "Chirping" Crickets do it very well. There can be something comforting in it, y'know? That said, if you want the **best** Buddy Holly album, go check out 20 GOLDEN GREATS if you haven't already. That's the best of the best of his work, and not just because they're all some of his biggest hits. I mean, that collection has "Words Of Love", and that alone's enough for the big thumbs-up.

LISTIE SAY yeah, it's a real good 80's album. I just wish I had a bit more time to figure exactly **why** it works so well for me. Is it just that I like synthy 80's music so much? That could be something, sure. Do I appreciate how odd this album is a lot of places? Good probability, yeah. Is it just because I recognize a lot of samples that were used in this kick-ass mashup with Iron Maiden's "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner"? I can't say no. Whatever the reason, its hits me (HITS ME) with those laser beams. Absolutely worth checking out beyond its one big hit.

Off the bat, lemme put this in the exact words that helped me clarify my opinion on this album: if SURFER ROSA is the Pixies' IN UTERO, then DOOLITTLE is their NEVERMIND. Maybe that's a bad comparison to you, but here's what I mean... I get why some people would consider IN UTERO(/SURFER ROSA) to be the better of the two albums. Courtesy of Steve Albini's production, it's artier, abrasive and very un-commercial compared to its sibling. And of course, just because something's commercial doesn't automatically mean its worse, but if the strawman I constructed in my head does exist, then that's the reason they'd cite. And it wouldn't be unfounded; even Kurt(/Francis) didn't like the polish the other album got, prferring IN UTERO(/SURFER ROSA)'s more underground stylings. Which, I don't say all this like I don't personally get why they'd think that way. I can see through the fuzz and appreciate the music for its riffs, emotion and energy. Without the polish, it's a lot rawer, and to a lot of ears, honest. I **do** enjoy IN UTERO(/SURFER ROSA) a lot. But even as much as I understand, I can't deny who I am at my core. And at my core—well, I often tend more towards polish. Poppier production. And that's why I tend to agree with the more general opinion that NEVERMIND(/DOOLITTLE) is the better album. Not only is it the blueprint for a lot of music going forward, but, damn, it's got the **hooks**, without really sacrificing any of what makes the band special. Even without all the noise, the songs and musicianship are still just fantastic. I mean, let me drop the gimmick here to say this: I think I'm gonna remember and enjoy "Monkey Goes To Heaven" a lot longer than I am "Where Is My Mind?". Naturally, "Where Is My Mind?" isn't a worse song, and I think how it sounds is interesting. However, "Monkey Goes To Heaven" has "THEN GAAAAWD IS SEVEN," and that sticks in my head. That's just how it all falls out. (Also, I think this is the album Weird Al had in mind when he wrote his pastiche of the band, "First World Problems", and me being me that alone gives it extra points. Enough for me to tell my friends and enemies Ilike DOOLITTLE better, though just not enough to push it over into a 5. Maybe in time.)

Hip hop albums always tend to [[be]] the hardest ones for me to review. I figure I've talked about this [[be]]fore, but just in case: I'm a melody girl. It's always what I tend to focus on, more than anything else. Like, I hafta **really** love an album or something to really pay much mind to its lyrics—and even then... The point [[be]]ing, anyway, that when I listen to hip hop albums, I'm mostly focusing on the beats and how the flow interacts with them. It's missing the point of the genre to not pay mind to the words, I know, but that's just how I [[be]]. And these, by man I've many times now expressed my dislike for Kanye West... Are fine. "The Corner" has the best best, and then the rest are just fine. Not even Dilla's beat wows me that much, surprisingly. So... I guess I'm at a 3? I'unno. If I allowed myself the time to really dig into and analyze the words, maybe I could rate it higher, bit with my autistic and undiagnosed ADHD ass... This is the best I can do. Take it or, I'unno, let it [[be]].

Let me just start by saying this: I haven't had ths bad of a first experience with an album since I heard Public Image LTD.'s METAL BOX . The first three tracks on this album... I had to wonder, honestly, if this guy was takin' the piss. I just couldn't comprehend that someone could have this kind of anti-flow on purpose. Like, does he know he's supposed to... At least **acknowledge** that the beat exists? That he doesn't have to stress each syllable exactly the same? That, hell, the beat should also be on beat? And I came into this knowing that British rap usually isn't very good in general, so you can only imagine my shock hearing this. I can breathe a sigh of relief, though, that it **does** actually get better from there. I can't say I ever 100% gelled with this guy's rapping style, but as the album went on I was more and more able to be fine with it. To the point where, heck, I'll say I actually liked the last two tracks, the closer especially. It does a neat thing halfway through, I feel like. Neat enough, anyway, given what this album started with. As for this thing's plot... Well, you'd probably do best to not think of it as a rap **opera**. It's more, as one of my group friends put it, a rap "TV show." I don't totally think thst saves this album's story from being a fair bit of nothing, but under that "TV show" mindset I can't be too bothered by it. So color me surprised that this thing actually managed to raise itself from a "What the hell is this shit?" 2 to a "It's fine, in the positive sense" 3. I don't really think it's something I **needed** to hear before I die—and I wouldn't call him "idiot savant Brian Wilson" like one review I saw did—but I can't really say I wasted my time pushing through it. Seriously, though, mate. Those first three tracks. It should be so easy to not sound like that, honestly.

It's 3-star albums like this I always have the most trouble with, 'cuz, like... I'unno. It's fine. I liked what I heard, but I wasn't amazed by it. I'unno what else to say, really. I guess there's that I liked the psychedelic parts the best, and if there had been more maybe I'd've bumped it up to a 4. But as it stands... Yep. That's a 3-star-ass shoegaze album. It's neat.

Did you know that ZZ Top's sound on this album was actually kind of controversial? Yeah, Dusty Hill, the bassist, compared it to the "Electric Dylan" controversy. I mean, ZZ Top, to that point, were best known for playing blues and boogie—the kind you'd hear in southern Texas, not too far from the Mexican border. So this comes along, and... What's that? Synthesizers? Drum machines? **New wave influence**? I gotta imagine their audience weren't happy with this contemporary, more-commercial sound. All these years removed, however, spinning it here in 2024... I'unno. Maybe it's not "La Grange", but it still sounds to me like ZZ Top. And that's all I could really ask from a ZZ Top album. Sure, the songs all sound like each other, but take it from a fan of AC/DC and Motörhead: that ain't a bad thing for some people. If the sound's good, distinctly theirs and they do it really well, who cares if they keep repeating it? So, y'know, I'm pretty good to give it a 4 all around. It's not a magnum opus masterpiece—gimme TRES HOMBRE if you want that—but as an early 80's rock record, it ain't one where you can go wrong.

Y'know, disco's one of those genres where I know when an album's good or isn't, but I wouldn't really be able tell you exactly why either way. Maybe I'm just not gay enough—I'unno. So, like, this is obviously a really good disco album, thanks largely to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards's writing and production. I just can't tell you why I think it's a better CHIC album than the last one I heard, RISQUÉ. Hell, I couldn't even articulate why I was so in-the-middle on **that** album. To me, disco's just disco—if there's there, it's there, and if it ain't, well, white people who ain't the Bee Gees probably made it. I will make one specific remark: past the title track, I feel like the album starts to drag a little. I don't think anything really changes past then, and my drifint attention around then might hafta do with how much sleep I'd gotten that morning, but I'unno. It just feels like a small step down from "He's The Greatest Dancer" and the frequent film needle drop title track. I mean, that first one didn't get sampled into "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It" for nuthin'. Anyway, I feel like I'm ramblin', so lemme jus' cap it here. The album's a 4, it's solidly in the "good disco" camp, and... I'unno. I keep thinking their name's Sledge Sisters, like the Scissor Sisters.

Off the top, I just wanna say: I get it. Y'know, why this is currently the 19th lowest rated album on the entire website. I do, honestly; I have sympathy. From what I understan, I can't imagine the Butthole Surfers are an easy band to get into. If you don't dig more experimental music—which, given a lot of the other album's in this website's bottom 20, most people don't—it's gotta be a real uphill battle. I mean, there has to be something there. Multiple publications wouldn't name this one of the best albums of the entire 1980's for nothing. Kurt must have had his reasons to put this down as one of his 50 favorite albums. So... What's, uh, the deal, eh? What did I hear? Above, I described the band as experimental. Now that I've taken in the album fully (I wrote those two paragrphs beforehand as preconceptions)... Well, it's still an appropriate word to describe them, of course. It's just not the single one I'd use anymore. They're more, like... "Noise." Big noise. Which, don't take that entirely in a bad way. There's still some melodies and riffs. It's just that they do whatever the hell they want, as long as it's noisy and abrasive. They do rock, sludge, punk... As long as it's chaotic and loud. And that, I figure, is the reason why it's rated so lowly. Some people can listen to this stuff, this noise, and hear the art of it; of the band pushing past and defying conventions and sensibilities. It's ugly, but that's what makes it so great compared to the formulaic and broadly appealing music of the mainstream. If you can't click into that, though... Well, then it's just noise. Too thick to penetrate and not worth the effort to try. And that's not laziness on their part; I mean, why waste the time when you know you're not gonna get anywhere? But that's enough essaying about other people's opinions. What about my own, eh? What did **I** think? Well, I can hear through the wall of noise and see what they're doing, but I'm not in love with it. It's just not the kind of music I gravitate towards, and there's nothing here that really convinced me to try harder. Sure, I did like a lot of the heaviness and sludginess, and that's why I can't give it lower than a 3, but it feel it says something that my favorite part of the whole album is the "Sweet Leaf" riff. And if I wanna hear that riff... I could just listen to "Sweet Leaf"? And VOL. 4? Maybe if I was sicker of the classics and the mainstream, or at least had more problems with it, I could hear this and be amazed by how unconvential it sounds. But I just gave a ZZ Top album a 4-out-of-5, and I can't tell you how many times I've listened to "Nothin' But A Good Time". I appreciate the underground—it's just not my scene.

Hearing this album for the first time, I realized—general pop culture knowledge has done WAR a disservice. Just look at their two most common needle drop and reference points, "Low Rider" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Both are good songs, true, don't act like I'm tryna put them down, but neither are in any way indicitive of what they're really capable of. Like, damn, you're tellin' me these same guys can also make extended odysseys like "City, Country, City", "Four Cornered Room" and "The World Is A Ghetto"? I'm not just impressed; I'm kicking myself for assuming this album'd sound like their biggest hits and not checking to confirm. This is some progressively soulful and jazzy music to get lost in. I hear this is their best album, and, frankly, just hearing "City, Country, City" alone I can agree. From everything I've read, that's not even people's favorite, although for me it **was** the moment it all clicked. Where I went, "Naw—for real? They can do this?" And I just started to imagine driving out of the city, passing all of the gas stations and rest stops and other stuff at the limits, until—bam. You hitn the country. Rolling, rolling along, slightly disturbed though still without a care. But then, the gas stations and billboards appear again, until—bam. City again. As you drive across the country, the cycle repeats. City, country, city; country, city, country... On and on. That's just wha popped into my head, anyway. So... Yeah, that's a big ol' 4 from me. It borders on a 5, but as I'm writing this it's only barely not there. Still, in any case, if somehow you've stumbled across this review on this website and haven't heard it yet... Well, damn, give it a spin. Hear for yourself the best of what WAR is good for.

Y'know, I just find it curious that this is the only Gorillaz album here. Or, if there can only be one (to nab a phrase), that **this** is the one that made the cut and not DEMON DAYS at least. That's not to put down the band's debut as a bad or unimportant record, but... I'unno. Maybe that's just me as a big Gorillaz fan speaking, 'cuz as someone who came into this group during the long hiatus between PLASTIC BEACH and HUMANZ... Their debut has just never been one of my favorites? Out of eight or so albums, I think I've commonly ranked this one around the middle. Maybe even towards the bottom. It's just that, with a few exceptions, this album is largely trip hop and dub. It's not my genre, exactly. Like, besides MAXINQUAYE on the trip hop side of things, I've yet to come across a trip hop or dub album I'm truly 100% negative about, but by that same token I've yet find one I'm 100% **positive** about. Which, to be fair, this probably the closet I've come, and not just because I'm a Gorillaz fangirl. I can't think of a better opener than "Re-Hash", "Tomorrow Comes Today" is of course incredible, "New Genious (Brother)" grooves hard, "Double Bass" is a nice roundabout, "Slow Country"... Well, honestly, "Slow Country" might be my favorite deep cut from any Gorillaz album. That synth line that preceeds the "Can't stand the loneliness" section—maybe my favorite moment on the entire album. Considering "Clint Eastwood" is on this same album, to this day one of the band's top five singles, that's saying something. And let's say some words about the rockers on this thing. "5/4", besides being a neat bit of... Whuzzit? Poly-meter? Mixed meter? Whatever word means that the riff is in 5/4 while the rest is in 4/4. I wish that one had gotten its video back in the day, but the fanmade version more than suffices. "Punk", meanwhile, is such an enjoyable, unintelligble goof that, heck, I can't help but love it. You'll always catch me yelling my own gibberish alongside it. As for the things that keep me from that 100% positivity... I'unno, "Latin SImon (¿Que Pasa Contigo?)" never really did it for me. It's just a little off my vibe—in Spanish **or** in English, for the record. Then you got "Starshine", which I've always found a bit too slowly and space-reverb-y for my liking. And "19-2000" is a fun single, but I've always much preferred Soulwax's "shot at a hit pop record" remix over the original. On the whole, too... Well, as I said above, this is their trip hoppiest album. Even with the rockers and the poppier bits, I don't think it has as much variety as some of their later albums. That variety, in my mind, is what makes them as great as they are: DEMON DAYS, PLASTIC BEACH, season one of SONG MACHINE... And also, they're poppier, and more often than not I tend towards that stuff? Which, y'know, this is probably a huge assumption about you, the reader, but don't take me as someone who looks up "without the rapper" mixes of these songs. I wouldn't live in a world without Del's verses on "Clint Eastwood", and neither should you. "Rock The House", even as a slightly lesser single in my mind, is way funner with Del's verses than whatever else could've been written. Similarly, as much as this isn't my favorite Gorillaz, there's a lot I love about it, and I hafta respect it for being as much as a success as it was. Enough of one, even, that it got to be in this book above DEMON DAYS. There's way more to it than Pitchfork's 7.6 would imply. It has "short-lasting, faddish appeal?" There's no way you coulda known where they'd go, mate, but come on. Murdoc, 2-D, Noodle and Russel deserve more credit than that. (And speaking of that review, I'unno why it kept confusing 2-D for Damon Albarn? I know they have similar voices, but continually insisting that Albarn's singing on this... Wasn't he busy making some opera about JOURNEY TO THE EAST at the time, anyway? Come on now. I expect better from you, Pitchfork.)

THE WALL has always been a hard album for me to talk about in terms of why I like it. Of course, I rattle off about the autobiographical-inspired elements from Roger Waters, the general amazing muscianship, the flow of the narrative, how incredible it is we even got this album at all given the state the band was in... And for the record, it's not even because I'm more melody-first than lyrics so I don't know what to say about this. This was my first Pink Floyd album; it's the one I've lived with the longest. I can rattle off nearly every word of it by heart. It's my third favorite behind THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and WISH YOU WERE HERE, in that order. I love, love, **love** THE WALL. Hell, it was Doug Walker's shitty "review" of the movie adaptation that got me to **finally** stop watching him. No, no, I've always struggled to talk about why I like this album is because I don't know what it means to me. Note: what it means **to me**. Not **generally**; I well understand that. What do **I** get out of it, personally? THE WALL, more than any other album I've encountered, feels like one where you **need** to talk about what it means to you. You can't just point out bangers or say "It's a bit comfortably shit, innit?" and move on. You need to have at least **some** self-reflection on what it says about **you**. And that's probably just a load of pretentious shit, I realize that. I'm probably just over-thinking and over-worrying about not enjoying this album "correctly." I know I won't be looked down upon if I don't bare my soul as part of this review. Certainly, looking around at a lot of other reviews, not a lot of people share my feelings. But that's just kind of the person I am, y'know? 'Cuz sometimes I think about this piece of creative writing I did for myself on THE WALL, inspired by The RS500, where all I did was talk about how my dad bought it for me at a book store, and I feel bad. 'Cuz it's like, "Really? That's all you get out of it? That you own it? There's really no deeper significance to you beyond the fact of your possession?" And knowing what the album generally means, and the elements taken from Roger Waters' and Syd Barrett's real life... I mean, is it any shallower than Doug Walker interpreting "Goodbye Blue Sky" as an Oscar bait song about "World War II with monsters?" There wasn't even a word in there about how I enjoyed it. So, maybe I'm just concerned that over a decade later the only other meaning this album's gained for me is "Doug Walker's a shithead." 'Cuz it's not like I haven't had experiences with isolation, or with how easy it can be to descend into far right points of view (and how hard it can be to completely rid yourself of them, goodness). It's just, I've never really made the connections back to this album. So what does that say about me and music, then? Believe me, THE WALL isn't the only piece of music I don't derive personal meaning from. Is it a lack of personal experience? Do I need more? How do I get more? Will I ever? Will I just be stuck behind this waist-high wall I've built for myself, that I could easily get out from behind but just refuse to for one reason or another? **Will I ever truly touch grass**? And it can go on like that, spiraling forever and forever further down the line of "What's wrong with me?" But that's probably a bit deeper than even this album calls for, honestly. And again, I look out at every one else who enjoys this album; all the people who blast "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" and "Comfortably Numb" without playing the rest of the album around them, or who go to concerts and make the "hammer" sign... Is enjoyment not enough meaning in and of itself? To experience a story, grasp its theme, delight in its melodies... Even if it's not as deep a meaning as I want it to be, it's still **something**. It's no less valid than relating personally to the album's themes of isolation, war, abandoment and cycles of violence. Just because I'm not engaging with the album, or art in general as a mirror doesn't mean I'm engaging with it wrong. So maybe that's the part of my soul I mentioned above. Or maybe it's not, and I still need to dig deeper to find it. In any case, THE WALL is deeply entrenched in there. For my money, it's the greatest rock opera of all time. I doubt I'll ever get sick of it. From the crashing, epic riff of "In The Flesh?" down to the hopeful words of "Outside The Wall"—followed then by the realization that the album loops, and that the cycle of walls being built and demolished will never end... It's a masterpiece among masterpieces. An amazing end to their imperial period that started with DARK SIDE. Bless THE WALL, and everything it does or could stand for.

The awfully presumptuous title aside—I'unno, a lot of this sounds to me like it could've been in the SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD movie soundtrack. Y'know, put it next to the Sex Bomb-Omb songs... They're garage rock, The Hives are garage punk... Makes sense. And I really love that movie, and I really like those songs, so on that basis alone... They're not my new favourite band, but yeah, I'm happy with a 4. (Also, a fact: my favorite Hives song is "Tick Tick Boom". Thanks, LEGO ROCK BAND, for that one.)

Off the top, in response to the top-rated review of this album, lemme just ask this: is it THE CHRONIC's fault gangster rap got as popular as it did in the 90's? Like, should we be mad at it for being the thing that popularized the genre, if you're the kind of person who gets mad at gangster rap as something that "killed hip hop?" Personally, I take the same stance as I do when I talk about SHREK being at fault for a lot of bad animated films in the 2000's: you can't blame the originator for everyone else copiyng it poorly. After all, it could have been anything, and getting mad at and blaming the album or film that randomly won the draw feels a bit like a waste of energy. I get the desire and the impulse to have something to rail against, but I'unno. With that off my chest, we can talk about the album proper—and already, I need to pull out another "off the top." We need to get the lyrics out of the way, first and foremost. Putting aside the rhymes and flow (both of which, honestly, Dre isn't terribly good at), this album can be terribly misogynistic and homophonic. That's not a new statement, of course; pretty much everyone who talks about THE CHRONIC address it at one point or another. It's not most can easily get over, if at all. So, y'know, I understand people who would rate this thing a 1 based on that alone. But at the same time, as much as I understand, I'm not here to pearl clutch about it. This album is some 30 years old. In 2024, I don't see the use, really, in getting too worked up. That kind of stuff is still happening, after all, and I think it'd be more worth everyone's energy to deal with it now then make a big show condoning it back then. That's enough moralizing and talking about what I think people should and shouldn't do. This is an album with a song called "Deeeeeeeez Nuts"; I should get a soap box if I **really** wanna go off. In the end, I jus' wanna express why I, myself, like this album as much as I do. It's really simple, and, point of fact, doesn't even have anything to do with the lyrics: it's the beats. What can I say? Dre's a great producer; an **amazing producer**, and G-funk beats... The **synths**...! If I had to pick any one reason why I generally tend to like West coast hip hop more than the East coast stuff, it's that the West gave us G-funk, simply. Next to sample-heavy beats, they have my favorite kind, period. And this album was where it started. They're all over this thing, and that makes me so happy. Like, 2001 has its own, iconic beats, sure—just look at "Still D.R.E.", but on the whole, nothing matches up to a good G-funk synth. Hell, if there was a purely instrumental version of this album, I'd be all over that. Of course, though, to stay consistent within this review in my beliefs, I must also say that I can't give this thing too much credit for being the thing that popularized G-funk. It could have been any other album; it's likely someone else could've stumbled onto what Dre did. Or, hell, some other sound could've defined Cali if THE CHRONIC or G-funk. But all the same, just because I can't give it credit, that won't stop me from being happy that this album **did** popularize it and loving the beats. So maybe I'm a hypocrite, just getting mad at people who like a thing I do, I'unno. You make the call. Me, well, I can't give this thing a 5, because... Well, yeah, its lyrical content (though, let's be real, it's not **all** just hating on women and gay people—there's hating on Eazy-E, too, after all). But as an album I put on to bump to its beats, damn. Near untouchable.

I don't think I've heard another album that so perfectly—and beautifully, honestly—captures the exact sound of late 60's psychedelic baroque pop. I'm in awe, quite frankly. So... Damn, I ain't got no choice but to give this thing a 4, at least.

If I half-points were possible, I feel like this is the first one (that I can remember right now, anyway) I'd give a 3.5 to. See, on the one hand, I like this quite a bit—this kind of snotty 70's British punk does it for me. I mean, heck, I still like the Sex Pistols' album despite a lot of their... Y'know, problems. (I don't need to hear "Bodies" ever again, and we'll never forgive them for necessitating the Dead Kennedys to record "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" years later.) The sound of the guitars, the shout-singing, the pace, the energy... That's what I come here for. On the other end of things, however, there was the problem that I've run into with a lot of albums on this list from more obscure artists: what makes this thing so special, anyway? 'Cuz as much as I like it's British punk-ness... Yeah, it's sure British punk. What exactly sets it apart from all of the other British punk that I presume is on this list? 'Cuz it doesn't have the prestige of the Clash's debut, nor the historical impact and infamy of NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS. It's just... A good punk album? That's it? That's all it takes to get on this list, over innumerable albums that're just as, if not more worth? And I don't wanna turn this into another one of the endless million screeds on this website about the fact that MADVILLANY or whatever isn't on here. Again, I wanna stress: I **like** this album. Enough to tip that 3.5 over into a 4, even. Jus', I'unno. Maybe if I had the book in front of me to explain what makes this album so important to listen to before I die, I'd get it. But in the absence of it... I enjoyed my time with it, yeah, and I might revisit it in the future. It's not like I'm gona to my grave, though, feeling like I missed some important part of music history because I never heard The Adverts.

Modern retro soul. I've seen a lot of other reviews describe this album that way and, I mean, really, it's the best way. It's like if "golden period" Stevie Wonder was making albums five years ago, it's great. There's not more I can really think to say than that, honestly. It's just a good reminder that I should probably be going out and listening to more recent music. Even if "recent" here means "half a decade old."

I wanna put aside that this is an album from Paul McCartney. Throw away any comparisons you'd be unconsciously making to the legacy of The Beatles—how do you consider this album on its own? If it was just a release from a band called Wings? Simply: it's one of the absolute greatest 70's rock albums of all time. Up there with A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, HONKY CHÂTEAU, HUNKY DORY, OUT OF THE BLUE, LED ZEPPELIN IV, THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON... I could go on. It's just masterful: hit after hit after **hit**. The only one I can think of that I like better than BAND ON THE RUN is BAT OUT OF HELL, which, I mean, that's a high bar to clear, but just that it's even in the same conversation...! And I just wanna take a second to say: "Jet" might be the best song on the whole album? I'm not sure what consensus says about it, but for me, gawd, the opening of "Jet" can excite me like nothing else could ever hope to. And the synth lines on it, too? **Damn**. Jus', I'unno. I'd talk more, but specific words fail me. It's really an album where I'd rather just play it for someone and let them experience what makes it so great than try to describe it myself. So... Y'know, go on, if you haven't already.

Look, I gave this thing the best shot I could, but... I'unno. I just really didn't care for it. Like, the first three tracks were fine, I guess. But after that, it was just a whole lotta indie rock nothing to my ears. Nothing I could really grasp onto. Sorry.

I don't have many words to say about this, honestly. It wasn't as noisy as I was worrying it'd be, and thank goodness for that. Going by the reviews and the samples Spotify provided, I was worried I was in for "noise purely for noise's sake." While I still don't think it adds to much, it's not completely unbearable. And what they're playing behind all the noise... Yep, it's 2000's garage rock revivial. Ultimately, I think I'd rather be listening to The White Stripes, bit as the "we have it at home" variety... It's not gonna "save rock n' roll," but in a pinch, it's fine. And that's my final verdict. "It's fine." A big ol' down-the-middle 3. Which, hey, I was expecting to give this thing a 2, or even a 1, so if I were The Icaris Line I'd be happy with a 3. I also, as well, wouldn't be surprised that I was taken out of later editions of the book.

Well, samba continues to not "wow" me too much, but just juding what's here: yeah, it's nice. Relaxing. Pretty in parts. I can see myself throwing it on again, and, I'unno, at this moment that's enough for me to score this thing a 4.

Eh, first, let me just say I wasn't able to take this album in as well as I wanted to the day my group got it. I'unno, things happened. But I will say, from what I did manage to take in—yep, that continues a lot of the stuff I loved hearing on the first side of HOUNDS OF LOVE. That's an easy 4 stars from me.

Y'know, on its own I woulda given this thing a 4. It's really good, soulful pop, but nothing that really blew my mind. But consider that I played this album's cover of "They Won't Go When I Go" three times. That alone moves it up to a 5 for me, goodness. So, so good, goodness.

Y'know, when it comes to Billy Corrgan and the Smashing Pumpkins, I'll for sure have more to say about them once my group gets to hit up MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS. **That's** the one I have some sort of attatchment to. Versus this album, which, until today, I'd only known for "Cherub Rock" and, especially, "Today". As a result, in comparison, I don't really feel like I have as much to say about this album—except for that I'd really hafta agree that it's one of the best and most unique alternate rock and grunge albums of the 90's. Goodness me, can Corrgan write a tune—and can this band **play them**. (Plus, I don't mind Corrgan's voice, so that's a hurdle I have no problem getting over.) It's an **easy** 5 from me. It's an easier 5 than MELLON COLLIE might get at least, that's for sure.

I'll admit, the only reason 100% on this album is because of how many times I've listened to MY AIM IS TRUE (and, as well, Weird Al's pastiche "I'm So Sick Of You"). Now, don't get me wrong: I still liked this album a lot. Enough to slap it with a 4, even. Compositionally, it still sounds like Costelo, and I like his writing a lot. It's just, instrumentally, aesthetically... In short, I prefer his new wave/pub punk sound. This alt. rock/power pop sound... It's **good**. It's just not what I'd reach for first. Ain't no "Miracle Man" or "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" on here.

I'unno who I heard say that UK rap sucks, because, honestly, I thought this "banged"—as the kids say. "Ladies Hit Club" or whatever it's called kinda sucks, but otherwise, yeah, I'm happy I heard this.

I could give this thing 1 star just for the damn headache I put myself through before I heard even a second of this thing. See, I found out that there are two songs on this album where the writer and singer, a very white guy, uses the N-word. With a hard "R" both times, too. (Genius.com claims the second one's a soft "a," but let's not split hairs; the first four letters are the same.) So, me, myself, for my benefit, before I could put this album on, I felt I had to answer one simple question: is this guy racist? Catch me, then, doing Google searches and reading articles from websites I'd never heard of, about not only this guy, but about punk's use of the N-word in general. See me find a Reddit thread where someone references a biography from a third party who says the songwriter regretted those N-words. Find me doing some soul-searching to figure out if the use of the word even bothers me, and what that might say about me as a person—after all, I still listen to Billie Joe Armstrong, Elvis Costello, Axl Rose, Ben Folds and Richard Cheese despite all of **them** using it. Eventually, after what felt like an **hour**, I just hadda stop. 'Cuz what was I even doing this for? Simply put: I don't know him. I'll never know him. Even if he hadn't passed away twelve years ago, I'd never get to know him well enough as a person, personally, to know if he's racist or not. I didn't even know his name before today—and even as I'm typing this, I can't recall it. All I'm left with, then, is the art. And I don't know if I can judge a person's entire soul based on forty minutes, let alone one word among many. And, yes, of course: it's a bad word. I don't like that he used it. But I can't just see it and call him racist entirely on that alone. Like, what's the context of the line? Does he **really** mean it? Is he playing a character? Or does it even matter in the first place? And for my money, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. This is punk, after all. Unless you're one of the groups the Dead Kennedys wrote "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" about, I believe, generally, you're against racism. Of course, there's plenty of exceptions you could list, but for this man alone, I didn't see anything to suggest otherwise. In the songs where he used that word, I'll grant he was probably just playing a character. If other people don't, that's fair. Interpretation and all. But as awkward as I feel about it, I just can't agree. So that's settled then. Although first, before I actually talk about the damn music, I wanna state the funny thing about those previous paragraphs. See, if my group had never mentioned it, or I just didn't see them mention it, chances are I never would've known about those N-words. After all, as I've stated in previous reviews: I'm melody-first. I hardly register lyrics the first time I'm listening to something unless I'm staring directly at them. And there's no guarantee I would've been for this album, so it might have flown over my head completely. I could've saved myself the headache and however long I just spent writing these nearly 600 previous words. Let's get to the actual point, then: the music. What do I think of it? Eh. It's fine. Like, I'unno. I saw one that Wikipedia had given "psychobilly" as one of its genres, and that got me really excited for something that, frankly, isn't here. This isn't the Reverend Horton Heat. No, I should've been paying more attention to the **first** given genre: "punk blues." And on that front... Sure? I guess? I'unno. There were a few parts of it that rocked, but on the whole it just didn't impress me terribly much. It's not **bad**; I'm willing to give it a 3 at most. I suppose it's just that I had misplaced expectations. Although believe you me, I'm **very** tempted to give this thing a 1 on the fact that I spent all that time reading articles and worrying just to end up at an "Eh, it's fine." Especially given that I didn't do nearly as much worrying over listening to Kid Rock or Kanye West, and I know for a **fact** over how terrible **those guys** are. So, I'unno. Take it or leave it. ("It" meaning either "this album" or "this review," frankly.) I'm just gonna hope whatever my group ends up getting tomorrow won't tire me out as much as this one did before I even pressed "play."

Y'know, while I was listening to this album I wasn't sure what exactly I was gonna say about it. 'Cuz, I mean, come on. It's TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY. Without a doubt, it's the most important and highly praised hip hop record I can remember. I know there's a lot of people who'd **heavily** disagree with that, but for my money, nothing else comes close. And therein lies the problem: I'd want whatever I'd say about the album to match how big I feel this thing is. But even after nearly ten years of living with it, I struggle to really come up with the words. It's not even a typical case where I can excuse myself 'cuz I don't really "understand" the album, because I do, and pretty well. Maybe I just don't have the vocabulary? I'm not sure, and I don't wanna bore you with speculation, so allow me to get to the one definitive thing I know I have to say. This album begins with a spectacular run. "Wesley's Theory" is... Like, maybe the best track on the album, honestly? "King Kunta" bangs so hard. "u" is, exactly as it set out to be, fucking depressing. And "Alright" is such an incredible groove that I can't even. But then we hit a strerch of songs where... Honestly, they just don't do too much for me? Excepting "How Much A Dollar Cost" and "The Blacker The Berry" (phenominal, both of them), the stretch from "Momma" to "You Ain't Gonna Lie (Momma Said)" just doesn't do it for me. Even understanding their place in the narrative. Now, of course, I don't not enjoy them enough to not give the album as a whole the 5 I believe it fully deserves, but... I'unno. I think it's just the beats? Comparing it to every think that comes before it and everything that comes after—well, there's some outros I love, but as a whole, they're just too laidback for me. So much smaller than what I expect from the rest of the album. It's always been a sticking point for me, and it's probably why whenever I listen to stuff from this album it's usually just the first three or five songs or just "Alright". Ultimately, at the end of the day. though, it's a nitpick. Not nearly enough to knock this thing upon the towering pedestal of importance where I've placed it. It deserves all the praise it's gotten, and whatever more can be said about it. So... I'unno, yeah. That's my perspective on that. What do you think about that, Pac? Pac? Pac—?

Welp. You know what time it is. Let's get this over with. As far as I'm concerned, there are two big "whammies" on this 1001 Albums list. Just, two albums that are "1/5" awful without a doubt, and are the only two where I legit wonder why they're here. First, there's Kid Rock's DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. A solid hour of shitty rap rock from a complete poser wannabe-cowboy-pimp-gangsta. Completely irredeemable even if Kid Rock wasn't a MAGA shithbag. And second, there's... Well... To me, Limp Bizkit isn't a band. Literally, yes, of course, they are. But in perception, they're a joke. A meme. Completey incapable of being taken seriously. Which isn't the fault of the instrumentalists or the DJ, let's be clear. They're all great players. The instrumentals on this thing are actually kind of kick ass. Especially "Take A Look Around"—the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE theme as a metal riff? Hell yes! No, the problem is, of course, Fred Durst. I didn't wanna lay the blame entirely at his feet, but that's just the truth. He gets his Durstiness all over everything and drags whole thing. He can't rap—when he doesn't sound smarmy, he's whiny, or he's putting on that "tough guy" voice. He can't sing—he's nearly completely flat and soujds like he doesn't care. And his lyrics? Goodness, they're petulant and stupid. I'm actually kind of offended he claims OTHER PEOPLE need to "get some better rhymes." And when you put him next to actual MCs like Xzibit, Method Man and DMX, Durst's shortcomings as a rapper only become that much more evident. Believe me, I wanted to be kind to this album and give it a 2, if only for the musicianship. None of them deserve to be stuck here backing up an idiot like Fred Durst. But Durst's the face of the band. He's the only member, besidee maybe DJ Lethal, most people know by name. He's the draw. And on that basis—yeah, no, this sucks major shit. This fully deserves the 1 I was always going to give it. I'm not as mad at this album as I was at DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE, but it's a chocolate hot dog nonetheless, and neither of them should be here. Fuckin'. (Man, can you believe my group got this album back-to-back with TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY of all things? Crazy.)

Honestly, after the last three albums my group got, I'm just happy to have one where I know I'm not gonna spend so much time reading, writing or thinking about it. (Seriously—way too much preliminary reading for FIRE OF LOVE of all things. Goodness.) This is a solid up-the-middle "it's fiiiiine" 3. Nothing great about it, but just enough that I wouldn't spin it down to a 2. I mean, honestly, it was nice to hear some good, punk female vocals. The abrasive kind, too, that for sure is gonna offend some people's sensitivities. It kind of reminded me of Yoko Ono's experimental warblings (which I mean in a positive way, I feel like I hafta point, 'cuz I know how some people would read that). All the same, however, I don't think it's a voice I'd regularly come back to. And besides the voice—unless I missed some stand-out lyrics, of course—there's just nothing else here I find terribly interesting. So, yeah, a generous weak 3 from me. I can applaud the fact that they apparently made all of this as teen-agers, which, goodness, I could never. But I can only hope they found some more interesting material on future albums.

I feel like there's a lot I could write about this album, but let's cut straight to the point: this is some the funkiest-ass funky ass funk I've ever heard. Grooves to interstellar degree. Jus', goodness me. Put this on, put on some sunglasses, and get the hell down. 'Nuff said.

Y'know, I don't have much a defense against this thing being one of the lowest rated albums on the website. Like, yeah, I'm not gonna blame aggregate taste for putting it down here; sonically speaking, it's for sure the absolute hardest album I've heard yet to get into. But I don't think it's **as bad** as its status would imply? For one, I expecting it be nothing but noise: no melody, just clattering and shreiking for the sake of it under the excuse of it being "experimental." But there actually **is**, however, composition, and some kind of melody line to latch onto. It's an incredibly **unusual** melody line to most ears, but it's still **there**. It's not completely thoughtless and thrown together like I'd've otherwise assumed. Then there's the second factor here, and that's the fact that it absolutely belongs here on this list. Like, there's two things I personally want out of this list: albums generally considered the greatest of all time (RS500-core), and interesting shit from around the world. This **absolutely** scratches latter. Believe me, chances are more than likely you're not gonna come out of this album liking it, but I garuntee you you've never heard anything like it before, and you'll be all the better for it. I mean, seriously, I can't tell you how many American and British albums my group's listened to that're flat 3 and I've gained nothing whatsoever from them. "That's sure **this** genre," "that's sure **that** genre," etc. I want more stuff like CLUBE DE ESQUINA, CALL OF THE VALLEY, RUM SODOMY & THE LASH, ZOMBIE—and, yes, this. Random, obscure 80's New Wave or post-punk albums won't broaden your horizons. But this will. It's absolutely worth at least one run-through. And at any rate, **this** is the lowest rated album on the whole website and not **Kid Rock**? The heck are we doin' here, people? Goodness me.

I'unno. As I'm writing this, it hasn't even been that long after I finished listening to this, and already I can't remember a second of how it sounds. Is that a critique of the album, or is it just me getting distracted and forgetting? Take your pick, I guess. Either way, I feel generous to slap this thing with a 3. There were enough spots I liked that prevent me from going lower—if only I could remember them.

The biggest question I feel like I've had to ask myself in trying to talk about this album is "Is it dated?" That being, "Is it dated in terms of its production and genre?" and "Is it dated in terms of commentary on the real world?" Of course, my answer to both variations of that question is "Yes." This thing was released in 1989, after all; I'd be surprised if either one had aged terribly well in 2024. But let's pull in and address each one separately. I wanna start with the thing I feel like most people would take issue with: the commentary. Naturally, there's gonna be a few issues it tackles that maybe don't apply... As well today? Although, if I've learned anything from history, a depressing amount **does** carry through across centuries. But that's not actually why I think most people would have a problem with it, despite "datedness" being the thesis. Moreso, I imagine they'd take issue with the fact that Janet Jackson is a celebrity, and, as such, who the hell is she to try and talk about the problems of the "common folk?" Given the pedestal she's been placed on, can it come across as anything but fake? To be blunt, personally, I don't care. I often talk to myself about the "power of music," but it can only do so much by itself. If Janet brought attention to some issues through some sick jams, then that's a good thing. I mean, I'm not sure what else she could or is really supposed to do besides jump to the extreme of "quit music entirely and spend the entire fortune she's amassed to fix it herself." I don't believe that'd be as effective as some people would want it to be, and generally I don't think that's what most people would want her to do, really. Frankly, I'd just be happy that someone with a position like hers would be speaking about this stuff at all. And besides, if I can listen to all of her brother's socially conscious music and never get put off by "fakeness," then it's not a problem for me here, either. And let's switch over to talking about the music, and to get back on the thesis. I'm not gonna front here: this album sounds incredibly dated to the late 80's and early 90's. But, like, I'unno—is that a problem, really? This is New Jack Swing. Maybe I'm just too much of a sucker for modern throwbacks to older sounds, but to me this is just what it's supposed to sound like. And frankly, it sounds **incredible**. It's maybe—no, **definitely** the single best collection of New Jack Swing I've heard. I mean, sure, it **can** get a little tiring because of how long the album runs. (64 minutes? Oof. I kind of wonder if the original vinyl version, which edited the album down a bit to fit, runs any better, but let's stick with how we were supposed to listen to this thing.) On the whole, though, I can only think of a handful of songs from other artists that I'd classify as more definitively "New Jack Swing." I can't think of any other **albums**, that's for sure. I'm still knocking it a star for its length, but regardless, I really enjoyed my time with this album. If you're the kind of person who's bothered by datedness in music, I maybe wouldn't recommend it, but if you take it as it comes like me, it's a hell of a time. No wonder there was a point in time where Janet was bigger than Michael, oof, goodness.

Y'know, I'm mostly just curious why **this** is the only Foo Fighters album on this list. Like, let me clear: this isn't a bad album. It still rocks, and hat's all I expect from them, ever. Long as they have the tunes, I can hardly complain. And of course, they are here, and the fact that Dave played it all by himself is impressive. I can tell why this was big. Me, though—I'unno. I just figure it's not the best of Foo. Like I know System Of A Down's debut shouldn't've been their only album on the list. Good grief, I'm not even the biggest fan of either band, or even that up in arms about it, but just knowing about their discographies all my life... But here we are, so... I'unno. It's just curious to me, that's all. Still, for their breakout, I can't give it less than a 4. In times like these, I don't figure it's anything **that** special, but honestly, it doesn't owe me anything. For what it gives, yeah, I'll stick around.

Y'know, maybe I had wrong expectations going into this. 'Cuz when I read that this thing with dream pop, my mind jumped to the example it always does: The Flaming Lips, circa THE SOFT BULLETIN and YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS. And those are both masterpieces of their times, so it's probably not fair, either, to compare this album to those. But I listen to this thing, and, like, honestly, there really isn't too much of a comparison? Like, it's dreamy in parts, although nothing to the extent that BULLETIN or YOSHIMI could be. Y'know, there's no "Buggin'" or "In The Morning Of The Magicians". Frankly, I think I'd hafta stand with what I've seen so many other people say and call this thing more "2010's indie." Which, if you consider that a knock against this album, it might just be a "blaming SHREK for all the terrible kids movies that came out after it" situation? Or maybe not; I haven't heard enough 2010's indie music to say. But just judging this... Pff, yeah, I'unno. It's fine. Kendrick Lamar got a good sample out of it, but otherwise... I'unno, I'm just waiting for THE SOFT BULLETIN to show up.

See, this is more like I wanted from the dream pop album my group got yesterday. Beautiful, etheral... Absolutely dreamlike; as if you could float away on it. And as far as I can remember, this is the best "vocals as an instrument" album I've heard in a while—where, yeah, there ate lyrics, but they maybe don't really matter? They're another melody, to help everything else flow along, and they're great at that. Jus', mm. I'm in love. It's real good stuff.

Way back in my review of The Who's LIVE AT LEEDS, I made a big deal vouching for the inclusion of live albums on this list. In short, if you haven't read it: there are just some bands where the studio setting didn't do their sound justice. Sure, they could sound **good** in the studio, but what they could do on stage is another level entirely. The Holding Company—as far as I'm hearing from this video I'm watching as I type this—was one of those bands. After their smash hit show at the Monterey Pop Festival and their debut studio album, the people were **clamoring** to hear the band's live sound captured on record. For some people, it was a hotter, more anticipated release than The Beatles' White Album. And come August 12th... Well, they sort of got it? Kind of, technically? Maybe not, depending on how you look at it? Most people these days probably know this, but in case you, the reader, don't, lemme jus' rip this off: this is a studio album. And it's not even a funky hybrid case like Frank Zappa's SHEIK YERBOUTI, where he overdubbed the shit out of live tracks. Despite what the cover claims, only one song on this album was recorded live, and it wasn't even where the cover says it was supposed to have been. This album is "live" in the same way "Bennie And The Jets" is, or Richard Cheese playing a royal wedding or Mos Eisley Spaceport. But putting that aside—would you know if I didn't tell you? They still kill it. They still rock to shit. Sure, even the **crowd noises** were recorded in the studio, but it's all put together so well, and the music is so good, I can hardly care. It's like the accusations lobbied against KISS's ALVIE! or Thin Lizzy's LIVE AND DANGEROUS being a studio creation. Sure, they lied about what kind of album this was, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get over it, y'know? Generally, I'd still enter it into the same pantheon as NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH and MADE IN JAPAN. And with it being at a nice, tight 37 minutes, too, there's no reason why you shouldn't give it a spin and try it out. It ain't a ball and chain; y'ain't got nuthin' to lose.

I'll keep this short, since I wasn't able to get to this album the day my group had it and I just **need** to hurry on to listening to Country Joe & The Fish—oops, I'm not supposed to know that. But anyway, before now, I had no idea what Bobby Womack had done besides "be on a Gorillaz song." So to discover that he used to make lush-as-hell funk and soul... Oooh, this shit is incredibly up my alley. The soul stuff especially, it's so pretty. Honestly, I really wish I'd been able to spin this yesterday instead of having to hurry along like I feel I hafta. This is shit I really adore, goodness. Country Joe could never.

Unlike other people in my group, I'd recognized Country Joe & The Fish right away: they're one of the bands who played Woodstock. Yeah, these guys were there on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Sly & The Family Stone, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez.. They shared ground with all'a those people. Although, honestly, from what I can remember of the movie soundtrack, I feel like I'd probably put Country Joe & The Fish more on the... Y'know, Arlo Guthrie and Sha-Na-Na side of notability. Which makes it even crazier than Country Joe himself got a solo performance on the album **alongside** his performance with the band, but that's besides the point. Neither song is on **this album**, anyway, so let's get back to the point. This, apparently, is the first psych rock album to come from the Bay Area. Right at the top of the Summer Of Love, these guys were there, and I hafta imagine that's why they were invited to Woodstock. By that same token, I also hafta imagine that's why people today wouldn't be too kind on it. Even accepting its place in history and its importance, it can be hard to go back to the first of something while being actively aware of all of the tropes and clichés it helped spawned. Now, I already made a case in my review of Dr. Dre's THE CHRONIC for why that sort of thing doesn't bother me. In short: I don't think you can blame the originator for everyone else doing its thing poorly or for everyone else tiring its thing out. Although... I'unno. This thing ended up going back and forth for me a lot. On one end, you got the stuff that leans more into acid rock, and that's the stuff that really got me to sit up and go "Yes! I can dig it, man! Tune out, drop in, whatever." But then on the other end, you got tracks where all I can think to myself is, "I've heard this a million times before—so maybe I just didn't like this kinda stuff to begin with? Or maybe they just didn't do it that good to begin with?Especially the song that explciity mentions LBJ, jus', **wow**..." Like, maybe it sounded better back when it was more special; when it existed more by itself and there wasn't as much similar material to compare it to. After being to absorb so much and come to a conclusion, though... Boof. I mean, lucky for them, I'm probably gonna remember this more for the acid rock stuff, but still—boof. And that's why I'm at a 3. "Section 43", by itself, is too good for me to really rate it any lower. And being 100% honest, the psych stuff isn't all **that** bad. Even if it's not very special, I can still be a real sucker for that keyboard sound. On the whole, however, besides the Woodstock notoriety, I'm not sure why you'd come back to these guys **first** over a lot of the other stuff that came out afterwards. At least they had a better set than Sha-Na-Na did.

Elvis was an amazing singer. Elvis **is** a **helluva** singer. We can have discussions for days about the people he took his voice from, or the system that caused his in particular to catch on over others', but that doesn't change how much of an incredible performer he was. It's evident even and **especially** as far back as his debut here, which was cobbled together from random RCA and Sun sessions. Truthfully, this isn't my favorite era of Elvis–I'm more excited for FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS to pop up–but regardless, it's always such a treat to hear him do his thing and adapt seamlessly to each style he tries while still sounding like himself. Jumpin' rockers, walkin' R&B, weepin' country... I can't help falling in love with his voice. Of course, let's calm down here and address some realities about this album. Primarily, as enjoyable as I think this album is, I believe, firmly, that it's more on this list for historical reasons than for "you **must** hear it" reasons. This **was**, after all, the first 12" record teen-agers bought in droves. Prior, the long-player was strictly the domain of serious classical and jazz, while the teen audience stuck with 45's and singles. As a result of its popularity, it's essentially **the** album we can point to as where rock and roll was popularized, alongside "Heartbreak Hotel" being the single. But as an album experience... Well, remember what I said above: it was thrown together from random RCA and Sun sessions. So, while it's a very enjoyable listen, it's not even where most people would recommend you go to discover why Elvis was as big as he was in the 50's. For that, you'd hafta turn to collections of his Sun recordings, such as THE SUN SESSIONS and SUNRISE. Heck, even the quickie "we need Elvis product while he's away in the army" albums FOR LP FANS ONLY and A DATE WITH ELVIS contain stuff like "Mystery Train" and "Baby Let's Play House". (Shout out, by the way, to the British being lucky enough to get "Mystery Train" on **their** version of this album.) FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS was also cobbled from sessions, but at least it feels a bit more purposefully put together. So, yeah, in 2024 there's better ways to understand Elvis than this album, and there's better Elvis album experiences than this album. Hell, there's better ways to take in this era of Elvis than this album (check ELVIS' GOLDEN RECORDS). But all that, of course, doesn't change how fun this album is, from Elvis's singing down to the band backing him. Seriously, let's not forget Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D. J. Fontana; they're as important as Elvis himself is. And if you wanna hear the exact songs, in the exact order, that caused America to fall so in love with Elvis, you're not gonna regret it. I mean, it's only 28 minutes, anyway; you don't have much to lose. All I know is, whatever way you choose to engage with this material, you're bound to be having fun on record with Elvis.

Slick, professionally played blues music. Compared to other albums we've gotten recently, it's not as energetic as LIVE AT LEEDS or LIVE AT THE APOLLO, or as jammy as LIVE/DEAD, or even as wild as CHEAP THRILLS (for all that album's "recorded in a studio"-ness). B.B.'s a consumate showman, and he can play the **hell** out of his guitar, even if he never lets himself get **that** out of control. Still, it's an album I've enjoyed a number of times before, and it's one I know I'll enjoy again. (Although, I'll also remark: crazy that this is here and not the Cook County Jail one. I know this one is regularly cited as a performance primer, and that's probably why it was here, but, man, that whole "performing in front of a prison crowd"t hing adds so much, you don't even... Jus' a bit of a shame is all. Seriously, check that album out if you dig this—or, like, AT FOLSOM PRISON, I guess.)

Indie garage rock. Ho-hum. It's perfectly fine; I found it really hard to care. I hate to leave reviews this short, but I really can't think of anything else to write up. No frame, no lens, nothing to write a faux-essay about. Just, "Ho-hum. Indie garage rock."

Holy shit. Now **that's** some fuckin' **blues**. The kind so hard it'll blow your speakers out if you play it too loud. Like, goodness, it's such a contrast from the last blues album my group got, only just a few days ago. 'Cuz, I mean, yeah, B.B. King's professionalism is something to be admired, and his playing is amazing even under his restraint, but you put it next to a band playing so raw and so electrically it's like they're gonna cause a blackout just on their own... Jus', oh, goodness. In short: it's the kind of blues I like the best (i.e.: "it sounds the most like Weird Al's 'Generic Blues', which is a **huge** compliment in my book, believe me). It's so much a 5 in my book, I won't even take the easy erection joke set-up the title gives. Good-ass job y'did there, Muddy.

Y'know, for most of my time listening to this album, I was all ready to give it an "Eh, it's fine" 3 and move on. 'Course, that's 'cuz I spun side one twice before I got to side two. And side one... I mean, it's good, but... Eh, I'unno? I was just expecting to have my mind more blown by "the album with 'Heart Of Glass'," and nothing on side one was really clicking into that. Even "One Way Or Another", although that might be because I'm so more familiar with it as "the Swiffer commercial song" than I am with it as a Blondie song. Then I slapped on side two... Oh, wow, "11:59". Now **that**'s an amazing tune. It aligns so much with the kind of energy and tone I normally enjoy that, g'y'ah, I hope it's the fan favorite deep cut, 'cuz it's sure mine. I'd put it with Elton John's "Have Mercy On The Criminal" on my "list of amazing side two openers that I can think of/remember as I'm typing this." And wouldn't y'know, the rest of the side kept pretty well around the bar "11:59" set—and "Heart Of Glass"goes without saying, naturally. So, that's a 3 for the first side, a 5 for the second side (I was at a 4 'til I heard the "WOW" leading into the guitar solo on "I'm Gonna Love You Too")... Well, hey, that's an 8/10. And I'll have you know, I woulda still rounded it up to that even if I gave side two a 4. Good that it all evens out for you either way, eh, Blondie? (Also, next time I'll listen to the two record sides closer together, promise.)

Hrm. OK, see, here's the thing: ARULAR was obnoxious. Incredibly so. That's what my review on this website of the album was about, and thinking back, it's really the only thing I can remember (besides "g'lang-a-lang-alang"). Despite that, however, I never found myself crossing over into annoyance at it. For sure, I got close a few times, but at the end of the day, I kind of just recognized that this was thing and I hadda accept it. KALA ended up being a different story. On the whole, I actually found it a whole lot less obnoxious than ARULAR. Although, as a result... I was kind of bored by the whole experience? Perhaps it's because M.I.A.'s whole "world music dance hall," "nasal monotone voice" thing isn't as shocking as it was the first time? Honestly, as much as I know I should, I can't muster up enough of a hoot to actually check. Hell, I don't even care enough to interrogate the thought I kept having throughout that it felt like big critics go gaga over this kind of music specifically because it's obnoxious on purpose (I **really** can't see what Robert Christgeau saw in this). Frankly, the only song I really paid any attention to was the big single, "Paper Planes", and that's just because, instrumentally, it remindedme of Post Malone's "Sunflower". And maybe I recognized a vocal performance from a mashup? But otherwise... Like, y'know, some part of me wants to be generous and give this thing the same 3 I gave ARULAR. M.I.A. doesn't **deserve** that kind of generosity, but that's besides the point. I could slap it with a "maybe it'd go off better in the club" and use that as the justification, 'cuz I really don't hear how it's any better or worse than ARULAR. But let's not underesimate how damn uninterested I was in this album. I hear this kind of beat work on the last album, I heard these nasally monotone vocals on the last album... For sure, there's something about this album that I'm missing. Something in its conception, or just some "media literacy" intepretation that'd make me like it a lot more. I just really don't care, though. Lemme jus' cross this shit off with a 2 and never hafta think about this damn anti-vaxxer ever again.

According to Wikipedia, this album's legacy has very little to do with its music—as in, the compositions, or what these songs about. Instead, its legacy is that it's a favorite among audiophiles. This album was a popular demonstration record for speaker sets. It, especially its opener, has been used to test studio and front-of-the-house systems. I'm sure the only list besides this one where it sits besides PET SOUNDS and SGT. PEPPER'S is EQ's list of the ten best recorded album of all time. Not that any of that matters to me, really, I should say. I'm the furthest thing from an audiophile. I listened to this album on, like, $20-some headphones. I can't tell if something's bricked or clipping unless I'm looking at it. And, generally, as long as what I'm listening to doesn't sound like unmistable **total ass**, I'm fine. I just find it curious that this album's biggest impact was to became a tool for testing speaker quality. 'Cuz listening to the music... Well, it's not bad. And maybe I actually kind of like more than a fair few moments on it? But it's wholly unremarkable; completely inoffensive jazz pop that, at points, sounds like it should be playing the background of a Sega CD pool FMV game. During two different songs, on opposite sides of the album, I yawned out loud, no foolin'. And, y'know, I don't wanna make any assumptions and say I "understand" what pepople are talking about when they say Steely Dan is boring, 'cuz this is from only one member of the group.... But he is, notably, the only currently living member, so... Look, if this thing **is** one of the best recorded albums of all time, then maybe it's been recorded too clean. Y'know? Nobody's doing anything terribly interesting; there's no risks being taken; there's no **edge** to it. It's been polished to be a smooth nugget. And, sure, I can admire and appreciate all the effort that went into getting it that way, but it's not even that shiny. It's there. It's something to fill your time for a moment. And then you move onto something more interesting.

Y'know, I'd just like to pull up two terms from one of the reviews of this album I read on this website: "Flaming Lips vibes" and "baroque-grunge." That about sums this album's appeal to me. It's the dreamty, contended sigh of melancholy, sometimes wrapped purely in the instrumentation of angst, and other times mixed in with more unique spices. Which, reading that back, sounds like a really pretentious way to put it, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it. Plus, of course—it has a song in SHREK. Nostalgia for that alone already garunteed this thing points, so it's nice to hear that the rest of it holds up as well.

Mm, I'unno. For me, it was all just a bit too low-key. What mean is, I just didn't find the beats terribly interesting, and being the "melody first" kind of person I am, if I'm not interested in the beats, then I'm probably not gonna be able to pay much mind to the lyrics. I figure GZA's a good lyricist—this album wouldn't be one of the big two solo Wu-Tang albums otherwise—but overall... I'unno. It just caused me to zone out too much, and not because the flows were hypnotic or whatever.

Look, let's get one thing straight: I review music, not musicians. If I wanted to just rant about how awful someone is, there's Twitter for that. I mean, consider Kanye West: these days, I hate that man with a burning passion, the divorced dad, Nazi-lovin' fuck. But despite that, I still gave MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY a 4 because the music still resonated with me. Sometimes, bad people make good art. That's not a rule, but it **is** a common fact of life. But I don't wanna sound like I'm pro-"separate the art from the artist," because let's make this clear as well: you can't. As much as people out there would want to, I personally believe you can't fully understand an art unless you take into consideration the artist. That's why, as much as I gave MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY a 4, I'm never gonna listen to it again, because Kanye is a fuck and I don't wanna give him my time. Like, usually it's never enough to affect my rating (unless you're Kid Rock), but if you're gonna come in here and be like, "Well, if you just look past their past transgressions," I feel like you're being disingenuous, at best. So, look, this guy's a child rapist. He was found guilty of raping a 15-year old, and that was the first thing I knew about him (because despite this album's appearance in this book it's apparently still not even notable enough in the English world to get a Wikipedia page). I could easily give this thing a 1 and move on with my life just for that alone. I don't blame others for doing that, but, myself, I just had to dig deeper and know: what's this thing actually like? Boring. This thing is fucking boring. From the first second, all I could picture in my head was commercials for cruise lines and it never let up the whole time. That's what this thing sounds like: chintzy background music for advertisements. And I don't know if that's what all rhumba music sounds like, or just what this guy sounded like by 1992, but I sorta refuse to let **him** be the representative, so... And none of these songs have enough going on to justify them being as long as they are. A 7+ minute average for track? Jeez! What gives him the right? Trust me, if you've heard the first thirty seconds, you've heard the last thirty seconds, and every random cluster of seconds in-between. Where in the world does this thing get off? Now, of course, there **are** parts I like. There hafta be; nothing's 100% bad. Even Kid Rock's stupid album had at least one or two parts I could begrudgingly say I like. But then, here's a good question: "why would I listen to **this guy** for it? Why do I **have to**, when there **has** to be someone else doing this who also **hasn't** been found guilty of any heinous acts?" Like, don't tell me there's no other album in the world that could've represented rhumba music better; I doubt **this guy** is the only one worth considering. So, like, this shit's a 1. A big, fat 1. And I don't hand those out easily, lemme tell you: you hafta **offend me** on some level to get one. Kid Rock's, well, Kid Rock. MAXINQUAYE was such an intermittently boring waste of time that I couldn't help it. And Limp Bizkit... Well, I was kind of hard on that Limp Bizkit album, but that's besides the point. If this guy had made better music, I woulda grumbled and complained about it, but I still would've given him the credit. Or, hell, if he wasn't a guilty child rapist, this thing would've been a 2, at best. But I feel no desire to give him any benefits. All I hear when I listen at this is this man's crimes. And frankly, given that I didn't know about him yesterday and I'll forget about him tomorrow, that's **all** I'll ever hear. Allow me to rate this thing accordingly, then: it's a 1. He's not worth anyone's time.

I think it's pretty good, but I don't think I'm as interested in it as I was in the last Pavement album my group got. Maybe because I can pin it more to the 90's, whereas they'd achieved something not as easily pinnable on their follow-up? I don't really find myself as interested in interrogating as I did the last time. I'll nod, acknowledge that it had some nebulous good influence on indie that I don't have the experience to figure, and say that there's quite a few moments and a couple of songs on here that I enjoy, but I can't do much more than that. It's a "minimum 3 and no lower" in my eyes.

"The Pretenders" was a name I'd already known, but when it popped up, I couldn't figure out why for the life of me. I knew they were an important band for **some** reason... It just alluded me at the moment. Or maybe I never knew, I'unno. Well, after listening to the album, I can tell you the exact reason: these are just real good tunes. It's not any more complicated than that. Although, I will say in agreement with Robbi Miller (from SOUNDS): yeah, the second side's better than the first. I listened to the first side while I was taking a walk, and, sure, I could hear **something** in there, but overall nothing really struck me. I can't even think of a specific song to bring up as an example. Listening to the second side hours later, however, after taking a second to warm up to it... Damn, goodness. "Brass In Pocket" and "Lovers Of Today"? Absolutely incredible, both of them. Listening to this album was worth it alone for discovering those two. **Especially** the last minute or so of "Lovers Of Today", I swear. For most of the day I was feeling a pretty decent 3, but after taking in the second side, yeah, I'll give it a 4. I've been made happy enough to be generous and do that.

SKA. I LOVE SKA. Seriously, at the moment I'm writing this, I can't think of another genre that makes me as happy as ska does. I'm such an unironic fan of the stuff—so why have I never heard Fishbone before today? I'unno. I suppose it's just a case where I already have albums lodged away as "my ska albums" (LET'S FACE IT by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and TURN THE RADIO OFF by Reel Big Fish), and given how much else I listen to as it is, I just don't have the want or time to find more. But dammit, I'm a fool. This Fishbone album, sonically, is everything I want from ska. It's damn near perfect—or maybe it just is, flat out. And, frankly, I should be giving Fishbone the respect they deserve, given how hard those previous bands I mentioned knocked their style. So, here I present it now: thank you, Fishbone. Not just for paving the way for stuff like "Sell Out", but for being the first among those mentioned here to make kickass music. (Seriously, though. You shoulda seen the smile on my face and felt the happiness in my heart. Gawd**DAMN**, I love ska!)

Y'know, I've actually heard this album. Yeah, I know this kind of album isn't exactly in my normal wheelhouse, it's true. I heard it one time, years and years ago—I'd wager at least six or seven of the buggers. I believe I was tryna start listening to the entire 2012 Rolling Stone 500 list, and this was the only album I heard before I got distracted and forgot, but it's been so long, and with a memory like mine, I can't really say for sure. I'll say this much: I remember exactly as much about it from hearing it six or seven years ago as I do from hearing it an hour ago. Like, I'unno. Maybe I was just in the wrong headspace when I put it on, but it kinda just washed over me. Perfectly pleasant, except for some, like... Dips into jazz, I think? They were out of place and I didn't like them, whatever they were. But other than that, I remember better the fact that this guy made a shitty anti-COVID restrictions song with Eric Clapton than a single second from this, his most acclaimed album. Honestly, I just can't bring myself to care. Still, I'm willing to be generous and give this thing a 3, because even how forgettable it was, I don't think I disliked enough about it to go full-on with a 2. It's teetering, though, believe me. Sorry, Van. Y'jus' ain't "the man" to me.

Well, I figured it had to happen eventually. Here it is, what I considered to be the wall of my group's walls before I had the displeasure of discovering that Ella Fitzgerald album: 69 LOVE SONGS. A nearly three-hour triple album consisting of... Well, just as the album's title says, with 23 of these suckers a disc. It's a tall order to ask, and there's not any way to cheat like there was with the Ella Fitzgerald album and its decades-later "best of" compilation. Hell, a lot of people in my group were talking about taking the album one disc a day at a time. And that's probably the most sensible solution here. Me, though? I decided, "Aw, fuggit. I'll get this album all out of the way now." And thus, I broke these nearly-three hours into twelve chunks (following the six 10" disc vinyl release) and listened to them across how-many hours. My goal, then, was simple: treat this thing like Prince's EMANCIPATION and try to find a good single album in this mess. Which kind of defeats the point of why this thing was made, but I doubt I'm ever gonna come back to the whole package, so... How did I fair? To begin with, lemme speak generally about this album: I actually like quite a fair bit of it. Yeah, a lot of songs on here remind me of They Might Be Giants or Sparks, with some of the weird angles it takes love songs at. As well, the woman who sings sometimes sounds like she comes direct from Chumbawamba, and I love the woman who sings in **that band** a lot, so that's another thumbs up from me. Reminding me of any of those bands is a big "plus" in my book. I wanna credit the TMBG and Sparks comparison, too, for why I ended up paying so much attention to the lyrics. Like, as I've stated so many times in my reviews, I'm "melody first, lyrics second," so if you've made music where I can actually pay attention to the lyrics... Jus', wow, million points in your favor. And I'd forgotten how much a song's melody can be improved by some good lyrics, 'cuz there's some songs on here I found legit beautiful. Pretty, at least. Like, goodness, it's sure been worthwhile for me to dig in. But let's narrow in on that. "Digging in." Unavoidably and obviously, the biggest problem with this album is that there's too much album. If you're willing to take the time to sift through it, you're bound to come out with a lot of material you like. But that's a tall, tall order to ask anyone, to sit through 69 songs and nearly three hours to find the smaller album within. It's why I haven't actually done this sort of thing yet with Prince's EMANCIPATION, even as much as I want to. Like, even accepting this thing's concept, I shouldn't **have** to play album editor, y'know? Sure, I can find it fun, but it's not something you should be asking of everyone. And especially if you listen to this whole thing in one straight shot instead of breaking it up into chunks like me... Like, even before I started playing this album I didn't agree with the 1/5 reviews I saw, but I can't act like I don't know where they come from. It's very easy for the ambition you'd hafta have to make something like this to be mistaken for complete and unashamed ego. Or maybe it's the other way around–who knows? For my money, though... Aw, hell, even if I know I'm never gonna listen to this thing in full ever again, I'll slap this thing with a 5. Not every song on here is perfect or even all that special (which would be a miracle if they were given there's 69 here), but way too many of them appealed to me specifically to really mind those lesser ones too much. Besides, this thing's such a unique experience. There's only maybe two or three albums I can think of that could provide something like this, and I doubt any of them would be as enjoyable or live up to this thing's level of consistency and quality material. I'm completely sympathetic for anyone who'd hate this thing, but, hey: at least the songs on here weren't all soul-drainingly similar like that Ella Fitzgerald album was. Seriously, goodness, now **that's** a slog... Now, about that "single good album" I said I'd whittle this thing down into... Well, unfortunately, it'd require a bit more time than I really had today. I will probably make one down the line, certainly—I didn't put all this effort into consideration for nothing—but for this review, allow me to close things out with my two favorite songs from each chunk. The "24 Song Loves," if you will. I'unno. (Also, apparently Daniel Hader, aka Lemony Snicket, played on this thing? I literally didn't find that out until the last few seconds of the last song. Well, I'll be damned.) A: "I Don't Believe In The Sun"; "All My Little Words" B: "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits"; "The Book Of Love" C: "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long"; "The One You Really Love" D: "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"; "Sweet-Lovin' Man" ==(23)== E: "Grand Canyon"; "No One Will Ever Love You" F: "(Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy)"; "Promises Of Eternity" G: "Washington, D.C."; "Papa Was A Rodeo" H: "Epitaph For My Heart"; "The Way You Say Good-Night" ==(46)== I: "Busby Berkeley Dreams"; "I'm Sorry I Love You" J: "The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure"; "Wi' Nae Wee Balm We'll Me Beget" K: "Queen Of The Savages"; "Blue You" L: "How To Say Goodbye"; "The Night You Can't Remember" ==(69)==