Starting off with a strong but long one. Of course being from Atlanta I'm quite familiar with Outkast, but despite having this album already being in my music library I don't think I'd actually ever heard the whole album before (while I definitely have listened all the way through their earlier work). Based purely on the radio hits which were inescapable when I was a kid, I expected to like The Love Below side of the album more than Speakerboxxx. But I found the Big Boi half to be really solid, and the Andre half to be (outside of two massive hits back-to-back which still hold up) kinda silly. Nothing wrong with that per se, not every record has to be serious, but it just felt kinda goofy in some places, like he wasn't putting that much effort into it. Still, I really liked it overall, and am a bit embarrassed that i never gave it a chance until now.
_We'll I know y'all wanted that 808, but can you feel that b-a-s-s bass?_
This is one of my top 50 records of all time. It starts so strong and never let's up on hits. Love the 90s feminist angst. Cheesy at points for sure, but sincere and fun. Also I think this every time: I can hear the influence on Evanescence in Forgiven.
Is she perverted like me? Will she go down on you in a theater?
Another classic. Not my favorite Bowie album but definitely top three. The beginning is a little weak but once it ramps up it's some of his best work
Yet again shuffle gives me one of my all time favorites. At some point it's got to give me an album I've never heard before. This is the Cars at their best. Iconic synth lines blend seamlessly into a traditional rock setup. Basically every track is catchy and fun. In Touch With Your World is definitely the weak part of the album but it's only noticable because the brilliance of the surrounding songs draw attention to it. Also story: my mom won this record by calling into a radio station in college.
She's always out taking pictures, she's always out making scenes.
Finally an album I'm not familiar with. I've heard some Portished before including Roads from this one but the rest of the album was new to me. I liked it, certainly more than a lot of trip hop I've heard. Will probably be coming back to it in the future
I listened to this album a lot growing up. My best friend even had a poster in his room (it was retro at the time; this was the early aughts). While I realize that metal as a genre had been forming for close to a decade at this point, I consider Iron Maiden to be the first true metal band. This record is full of genre-defining techniques you'll still find today. Nowadays it kinda all sounds the same and doesn't grab me the way it used to, but it's still a landmark of a record. Also the riff from Hallowed Be Thy Name is an all-time favorite of mine
Elvis Costello would come up on the radio a lot growing up, but except for the hits I hadn't heard this one before. It's a solid record. You can hear how much influence he had on later indie rock. Unfortunately this is also the album with the song where he said the n-word which was uh... ill-advised to put it mildly. A shame because I think otherwise Olivers Army might be the strongest track here, it's a great vocal hook.
I am pretty unfamiliar with this era of indie rock. At the time I was just "getting into" music; you know that phase where you listen to all the standard critically acclaimed stuff. I don't see this album ever becoming one of those; I found it quite forgettable.
I can name a dozen things that seem adjacent to this that I like. Pavement, Calvin Johnson, The Vaselines, Vic Chesnutt. And yet somehow I hadn't heard it before. I didn't hate it, but I didn't find it as compelling as I would have expected
What can I say? Joni Mitchell is iconic. She directly influenced much of my favorite music. Some great fretless tones on the album
