457
Albums Rated
3.17
Average Rating
42%
Complete
632 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1970s
Favorite Decade
World
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
43
5-Star Albums
28
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
69 Love Songs
The Magnetic Fields
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
|
Cafe Bleu
The Style Council
|
5 | 2.87 | +2.13 |
|
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Genesis
|
5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
|
Tubular Bells
Mike Oldfield
|
5 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
|
Drunk
Thundercat
|
5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
|
Unhalfbricking
Fairport Convention
|
5 | 3.14 | +1.86 |
|
The Sensual World
Kate Bush
|
5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
|
No Other
Gene Clark
|
5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
|
GREY Area
Little Simz
|
5 | 3.24 | +1.76 |
|
Winter In America
Gil Scott-Heron
|
5 | 3.25 | +1.75 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Joshua Tree
U2
|
1 | 3.67 | -2.67 |
|
Maggot Brain
Funkadelic
|
1 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
|
Green
R.E.M.
|
1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
|
Tommy
The Who
|
1 | 3.34 | -2.34 |
|
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
|
1 | 3.33 | -2.33 |
|
Slippery When Wet
Bon Jovi
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
|
1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
|
Pink Flag
Wire
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
|
Your New Favourite Band
The Hives
|
1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
|
Killing Joke
Killing Joke
|
1 | 2.99 | -1.99 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Black Sabbath | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 6 | 4.17 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 4.25 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 3 | 4.33 |
| Steely Dan | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| U2 | 4 | 1.75 |
| R.E.M. | 3 | 1.67 |
| My Bloody Valentine | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| The Who | 5, 4, 4, 1 |
| Dusty Springfield | 1, 4 |
5-Star Albums (43)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Yet another example on this list of how dance music used to be way cooler than it is now. Albums like this make me truly tired of getting packed into a small dark room with 18 dollar cocktails just so that I can gyrate in my allotted square foot of space. I also think that there is a really cool level of fatalism present in this album. The world could end any day now in nuclear Armageddon, let's have four martinis and swing! Our fatalism today is much more depressing. Let's make fatalism fun again.
20 likes
OutKast
4/5
Truly a classic of the genre. Andre 3000 has probably been of the most influential artists to move rap music forward since Dre. There are a bunch of heavy hitters on this album and a lot of really good features. It's weird, it's innovative, it doesn't rest on its laurels and it really tries to make each track its own piece of art. I would say they hit on that promise 80% of the time. There is definitely a 5 buried in here somewhere but there are just a few too many misses to give it a 5. Very strong 4 though.
3 likes
Leonard Cohen
2/5
I don’t want it any darker Leonard I assure you. This album sounds like the track list about a Disney movie where the villain turns out to be the good guy, his voice isn’t doing him any favors here. Im impressed he’s been making music for so long, but this is my second album of his on the list so far and you can tell the drop off in ability- tough to do the singer song writer thing when you know…can’t sing anymore.
3 likes
Giant Sand
1/5
Never before have I listened to an album and got that the feeling that I'm being stalked. The entire thing sounds like he's whispering angsty poetry written by a heartbroken sixth grader into your ear as you take the back roads home at night. There were a couple of songs that I liked, but I guess when you throw 30 songs at the wall something is going to stick. If you look at their larger discography they seem content to release quantity not quality.
2 likes
Snoop Dogg
5/5
It’s cool that the chronic came up a few weeks before this album. This serves as a pseudo sequel to that album that continues to build on its creativity but has much stronger rapping (sorry Dre). It’s so cool to listen to an album like this in a genre that’s so self referential because you can hear this album’s influence on so much of modern rap. This and the chronic truly set the stage for the next 20-30 years of rap music. I don’t think their singular influence can be understand, one of the true masterpieces of rap music for the 90s.
2 likes
1-Star Albums (28)
All Ratings
Beastie Boys
3/5
Definitely funkier than I thought it would be. It had more unique sounds than what I give the group credit for.
Supergrass
5/5
I thought it was going to be grungier like the Sex Pistols but was pleasantly surprised. Very fun guitar riffs, feels like the original/ British version of the late 90s/ 2000s misfits troupe.
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
Some pretty solid tracks on this one. Interesting guitar riffs on a couple of these, I tended to like the softer songs at the end of the album better than what felt like a rehash of the classic Artic Monkeys sound in the beginning of the track list. Overall I wasn't blown away by it, tough to even really call it an average album either.
Jurassic 5
4/5
Funky as hell. I really liked all the verses, smooth, varied with the tag team style going on. Some of the verses go hard, not a ton of them though. It's hard to compare it to what would be released just a couple years later without thinking that the album just misses that last level of intensity that keeps it from being a five.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
I understand why this is routinely voted one of the best rap albums of all time. I don't think it fits my specific taste in rap, but there are still some absolute bangers on there and I had a good time listening to large portions of it.
Neil Young
3/5
The best songs on this album make me want to rate it a five. There is a very authentic sorrow and pain behind his voice. The worst songs on this album make me want to rate it a one. He’s being such a whiny bum and he doesn’t even sound good while doing it.
The Mamas & The Papas
2/5
There was a song or two that I liked, but overall I found this album really repetitive and boring- which isn't good because I don't really like their sound to begin with.
R.E.M.
1/5
I don’t know who bothered to remaster this piece of hot garbage, but clearly they wasted their time. The album was whiney and pretty annoying to listen to. I make fun of music like this all the time.
Hugh Masekela
5/5
Some of the best jazz music I've ever heard. Really unique sound, great walking around kind of music. That man can make an instrument cry.
Blue Cheer
1/5
A truly derivative album. It’s not a good album Rolling Stones and it’s not a good Led Zeppelin. If it’s supposed to be a bridge between the two, you have to ask, what is it good for? I would say, not much of anything.
The Police
2/5
Message in a bottle will always be an absolute banger. Everything else essentially sounds like the same music with varying degrees of incoherent lyrics from sting likely based on how much paint he’s huffed that day.
Talking Heads
3/5
This album is a lot like huffing paint. It's not really enjoyable but there is something inside you that doesn't want to stop. You keep going and you still don't like it but there's some hold on you that it has keeping you coming back for more track after track.
Frank Ocean
5/5
Truly a masterpiece for the genre. I remember listening to a bunch of these songs as a teen and loving them. I've never listened to the entire album front to back but there were some hidden gems I had never heard before. If I had to knock it for anything it can get a bit monotonous but I could listen to Franky's voice all day every day.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
This album wants me to work in a steel mill just so I can spit on the ass hole forman's desk when I quit and pursue my dreams in the big city. I got the spirit of small town America in my soul after this. Great album, a little too boomer nostalgic for me though.
R.E.M.
2/5
This was not the same whiney BS that Green was. It didn't sound like the lead singer was wailing his voice into the abyss but instead it sounded like some fake edgy guy who grew up as the black sheep in his small suburban town finally went to college and is playing his acoustic guitar on the quad for chicks trying to paint himself as a misunderstood, lost soul. I hate that it moves the needle for me but sadly I'll have to give it one more star.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
1/5
I don't understand why this album is so quiet. Is it because he doesn't want anyone to hear how bad it is? There was a good song or two, but most of it sounds like a frail old man on his death bed trying to sing along to his Vietnam war movie best hits soundtrack. Dude should have just stuck with Jefferson airplane.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Feels like I'm listening to the man who made the genre. At first, I thought this was going to feel like a derivative Blues album, then I realized, oh wait, everyone else is derivative of him- he's the original. I'm utterly enchanted by this man's southern drawl. Everyone on this album is overflowing with musical talent. If everyone from Florida was like this, maybe it wouldn't be the hell hole capital of the US. Not my cup of tea but it is my shot of whiskey.
The Smiths
4/5
This album feels like a really interesting bridge album. I can hear the echoes of the synth heavy British rockers like Sonic Youth and even a little bit of glam rock like The Cure. I can also see how the indie bands of the 90s like the Goo Goo Dolls and Gin Blossoms will build on this to make the iconic sounds of the late 90's to 2000's indie summer. I don't know how impressive of an album or a genre it is, but it sure does scratch that nostalgic itch.
Dire Straits
3/5
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this album. It felt like I went from listening to the Beetles to Phil Collins to Neil Diamond to George Michaels all in the course of four tracks. I liked their least popular songs on this album the best, maybe because there was a sense of honesty about them that you don’t hear on something like Walk of Life. And for me, I think that’s the crux of this album. It feels like they wrote it for someone else rather than writing the kind of album they wanted to make. There’s a lot of great songs and some real stinkers too, but I think a lack of focus and authenticity is what makes me rate this one down a bit.
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
There were parts of this album that felt like I was slowly falling into an acid trip…that was the cool part. Other than that nothing felt all that special or particularly special about this album. Just another 80s rock album.
Dolly Parton
4/5
I wish country stayed more like this. There is such a authenticity and realness to their pain and it's crystal clear in the music. The old southern twang is so charming and their voices are angelic. Not a country lover by any stretch of the imagination, but I get the impression that a lot of folk music I like today gets its roots from this. Glad to hear an album without anyone telling me how much they love crushing monsters in their big ass truck before they mud wrestle their friends to prove how HETERO they are.
Al Green
4/5
The man’s got the silkiest voice I’ve ever heard. Everyone knows let’s stay together, but I didn’t know how much variety and range he would bring to a single album. Loved every song on here, it felt like at times he got lost in the scat to the point where it just sounded like melodic whining or like he was on the verge of nutting for the last minute of the song.
Pulp
4/5
The lead singer reminds me of an ultra horny drama kid. Produces cool and edgy art but you would be scared shitless to be in the same room alone as this guy. I get some Rocky Horror Picture show mixed with the Cure vibes off this album. I really liked the music but it's hard to shake the creep factor at times.
Adele
3/5
This honestly just feels like watered down Amy Winehouse. Is her voice incredible. Yes. Does it lack a soul outside of the minimalist milieu that it was created in? Also yes. Maybe it’s because I’ve just been beat over the head with all the hits from this album since I was a teenager but I just find this unremarkable. I don’t think just having a good voice deserves a spot on this list.
Funkadelic
1/5
I’m tired of people thinking just because something is experimental it means that it’s good. You don’t get to put 9 minutes of disparate guitar sounds over empty noise and call it art. I know this because none of my dick head friends from high school ever went platinum. You could tell me a bulk of this album was the warmup they played before they recorded the actual album and I wouldn’t have blinked.
2/5
It's hard to imagine how a 28 minute album dragged so much. There were a couple of songs that I really liked too. Definitely a lot more complex than a lot of country music. It even made me feel like I was playing Fall Out New Vegas as times which might be why I'm rating it as high as I am. Overall I thought it was pretty repetitive and I don't know how much she really innovated on the genre.
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
I think this album can be encapsulated by a meme. It’s the one with young Michael Scott giving a handshake to his old boss. Eric Clapton is the boss, everyone else in this group is Michael. Seriously, this album is like a group project where Eric Clapton did all the work and let everyone else put their name on it. World class guitar playing from Clapton, everyone else mostly felt like a warm body on this album. Doesn’t mean this music isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but it will stop me from giving it a five.
Marty Robbins
2/5
If there was such a thing as emo cowboys this would be THEIR guy. He's such a sad boy- I think that's what people must like about him because it definitely can't be the music. I got excited with the first song Big Iron that I might have pre-judged this album- time makes fools of us all. The Valley, The Little Green Valley, it all sounds the same. This album really dragged for me.
Kanye West
4/5
I think the best way to define Kanye's career is to split it up by which political faction embraces him. This feels like an album of transition. He's talking about everything from new age slavery to the new globalist world order. It's weird to go back and listen to this and know everything that's about to happen to him and America in the following decade. The music itself feels like the cross of narcissistic musings of an egotistical maniac and cutting social critiques of a broken society. A dark album that serves as a dark omen of what's to come. Throw is some absolute slappers and you have a very prolific album.
Eels
4/5
This guy is the final boss of the 90s angsty grunge era. It's not my favorite genre in the world, but it does feel like this album has set the standard for all other albums for this era from both a musical and a lyrical perspective. You might not like it, but this is what peak indie performance looks like.
Giant Sand
1/5
Never before have I listened to an album and got that the feeling that I'm being stalked. The entire thing sounds like he's whispering angsty poetry written by a heartbroken sixth grader into your ear as you take the back roads home at night. There were a couple of songs that I liked, but I guess when you throw 30 songs at the wall something is going to stick. If you look at their larger discography they seem content to release quantity not quality.
Deep Purple
5/5
You know it's funny. These guys get remembered as one of the coolest rock groups of a generation, but you go back and listen to the lyrics and they are so abstract and removed from reality that it almost sounds a little dorky in a modern context. I wouldn't knock them for it, but there is a level of imagination you don't hear much anymore from pop musicians. Even some of their more iconic rifts and solos in this album are just a bit silly. Love the album, incredible musicians, ever last one of them, but wow has this album really aged.
T. Rex
3/5
You can’t be mad about an album like this. It’s well written well played and has a decent amount of variety. Nothing all that special about it either in my opinion and seems pretty lack luster in the broader scheme of this list.
Massive Attack
4/5
A very cool and unique album that seems to find its legs as it goes along. Each song is a deep and totally original soundscape. There is an incredible amount of variety between tracks. I listened to my favorite tracks a couple of times and picked up on new sounds every time. I can't wait for another playthrough with drugs this time.
Dr. Dre
5/5
I think this is the first rap album of all time that can be considered a true masterpiece. Dre is a good rapper in his own right, but where this album really shines is in the production. I don't know if it can be overstated how ahead of its time these beats were and how dramatically they would shape the rest of rap history. This album is so good and so influential that Kendrick would dedicate an entire album as a tribute to this project...that album would go on to be his best project (that album is also on this list incidentally). This album is banger after banger- it's a portrayal of the struggles of daily life in the inner cities - it's an album that changed a genre forever. Mad respect for this one- would give it a six if I could.
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
Honestly this just sounds like pretty standard pop rock album made by someone who is a little better traveled than your average musician. There is a lot of unique instrumentation in this album and it add some whimsey to a couple of these songs that I found pretty fun. He's got a great voice, the horns and synth are nice but I find it to be pretty par for the course for the decade. I like it, but I don't know if there is anything that puts it above a standard bearer of the genre like MJ or sets it apart from a lot else coming out at the time other than really strong vocals.
Wilco
2/5
Usually I give albums that are an hour of whiny bullshit wailing by the lead singer an automatic 1 because usually the group put as little thought into the instrumentation as they did the lyrics. This album is an exception. As annoying as the singing was, I thought the rest of the music was actually pretty good and creates a lot of interesting mood. I think it lives up to its reputation as art rock. Don't get me wrong, this album still sucks due to an unbearable front-man, but I won't give it a 1 either.
Ray Charles
4/5
There are two types of jazz musicians, those on coke and those on dope. Ray Charles falls into the later camp and it shows. My personal taste is for those in the former but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of the best jazz albums I've ever heard. Ray Charles on the piano and vocals are stunning but every instrument in the ensemble gets a moment to shine. It feels like a very complete album, lots of different melodies, lots of different instruments taking the musical lead...I still like my coked out jazz musicians though.
Tito Puente
4/5
This is seriously the most fun I've ever had listening to an album before. Fuck pop, fuck trap, fuck playing anything at the club that isn't this. I want down a pitcher of Margs and dance to this with a live orchestra. Despite being a dance album, there is a really impressive amount of variety on this too for what it is. Bring back really talented musicians making dance music.
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
I’m at a real conundrum with this album. On one hand this album feels like a tour through every 90s music troupe; you have the heavy synth, coffee shop grunge, whispering into a mic over a 3 note progression, and songs made for DreamWorks montages. Part of me feels really nostalgic about, the other half thinks they’re doing it satirically. I get the feeling that they’re making fun of me…but I also respect them for it. It's a weird thing to make an album almost entirely ironically but I get the feeling that we saw their true style in the last two tracks.
Burning Spear
2/5
There's a sort of foreign folk quality to this music, but much the same way that Europeans don't really understand American folk music, I don't really understand this music. A lot of it sounds really repetitive to me. I like a lot of the instrumentation, he's got an alright voice, but it just sort of drones on and on for me. Certainly don't hate, but other than the politics of it I don't have a lot to praise about it. I'm glad this was only 30 minutes, I don't think I could do much more than that.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
I wonder if there is such a thing as too much talent in one album. This collection sounds really unfocused and I would bet changes drastically based on who was driving on the song. As a result, I really like parts of this album, other songs just don't hit for me. I also refuse to believe that this was part of the 60s counter culture when the hardest song on this album is one of them whining about not cutting his hair.
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
I really wanted to like this album. I thought there was so many really creative elements to this one. I can’t get past the fact of how much they just mash the synth-keyboard button though and it really starts to detract from the other performances. By the end of it I felt like I was trapped in a fun house mirror maze at a minor league baseball game.
Don McLean
3/5
This album is all over the place. It starts off guns blazing with an all time American classic. Nobody can hate that song, it is the spirit of the American folk rock genre. After that the album feels oddly hungover for a while like it couldn't quite live up to the hype of the first track. I liked some of the slower songs but there was a total lack of energy and enthusiasm about them. Then the album ends with a couple oddly religious and almost monastic songs like Graves and Babylon which I was here for. American Pie weights up the rest of the album for me and it ended strong, but I can't vote it too high for that mid album lull.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
I felt a lot of things listening to this album but the one constant was anxiety. The first track feels like you’re in a horror movie on LSD. From that point on I really thought I was going to hate this album but it really started to grow on me. There was such a ride range of instrumentation and I can really respect that he was making this album for nobody other than himself. I can’t walk away saying I liked this album but I do respect it.
I'm still mad about waking up to find these assholes' album automatically downloaded into my iTunes. You can tell that these guys are from the era where people thought that music really could change the world. I would imagine this played better at the time, but this is the cynicism fueled 20s baby! Nowadays these guys just sound like preachy assholes. Did I mention that I think Bono is an asshole? I think he's an asshole. The music itself is fine. I think it rests on the laurels of its message, but its definitely aged out of its strengths.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
This is possibly the greatest folk album I've ever heard. I got a little nervous in the first couple of tracks that this album wasn't going to live up to the hype, but it really came alive down the stretch. I've heard instrumentation that I've never heard in folk before and it sounds truly innovative even sixty years later. A masterclass of the genre.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
There are two types of songs on this album. There is incredible Latin music that showcases the immense talent of the musicians in this group and there are vamp heavy songs that drone on that you'd hear in a small town Mexican restaurant played by the White to get everyone to forget who owns the place. I'm not even saying these are necessarily bad songs either, but they can clearly do better and it just makes it sound like they're phoning it in at times.
Van Halen
3/5
I just can’t get the image of Jack Black from School of Rock out of my head screaming the face of prep school kids that THIS IS REAL ROCK N ROLL while his slobber nails some poor soul in the eye. Just like that movie, there’s a weird sense of naivety to this album. Don’t get me wrong, Eddie Van Halen is a baaaaaad man on the guitar, but other than that it feels a little uninspired. Call it being inundated with decades of rock music just like this, but if this era is defined by sex, drugs and rock n roll, I’d say these guys are in it for the former not the later.
Mike Oldfield
5/5
I listened to this album twice through back to back and I'll say the second time through really helped me to understand what the hell is going on with this strange beautiful thing. I think it's really impressive that he's able to convey so much feeling and theme without any lyrics (possible werewolf growls aside). It sounds like a rock opera that doesn't need the actors. The instrumentation on this goes hard, the man is overflowing with talent. I think this is a really well done album that would have bordered on pretentious if not for the whimsical breaks where album doesn't take itself too seriously. I was on the edge of a 5 for this one, but the final skit pushed me over. It's blinking well baffling!
Guided By Voices
2/5
This album feels a lot like a beer flight or scrolling your phone for a while. Nothing lasts long enough to make an impression on you. It’s like 30 tracks of a minute each. The music isn’t all bad but they’re more like incomplete thoughts than songs. It’s more of a scratch pad of chords and high thoughts than a continuous musical idea. I get the feeling this album could have been at least mid if they took the time to flesh some of these out.
Elliott Smith
3/5
This must be what all those emo sad boys that fueled the early 2000s must have listened to in high school alone in their rooms as they cried alone at night. This album seems to be a perfect bridge between grunge and emo rock but still carves out a very haunting minimalist sound all its own. I dig it, but there are some limitations to the style of music and it can get old pretty fast. Still I can always appreciate another bleeding heart sad boi.
Sigur Rós
4/5
First Icelandic album I've ever listened to. It sounds a lot like My Morning Jacket if they went full send on the post-rock idea. Overall, I really liked this one, but I was surprised that for as an alternative of an album as it is, it can be limited at times. They are perfectly fine breaking of ton of conventional rules but oddly paint themselves into a bit of a corner. They break the rules in the same way on each song. I think for me, as cool as this album was, it lacked variety within the album itself. There were songs where they break out some very cool instrumentation, but they always seem to quickly get back into their comfort zone. I'm the slightest bit disappointed because I think this album could have been even better than it was.
Pink Floyd
5/5
This album is a masterpiece by a band that does nothing but produce masterpieces. For me, this album is second only to Dark Side. With an album this good I find it hard to say anything of substance - some of these speak for themselves and enough said is enough said.
SZA
2/5
This is the album equivalent of a meeting that could have been an email….this could have been a single and saved us all a ton of time. Not a ton of variety here. She’s got a really nice voice and I liked the production on it, but I got tired of it pretty quickly.
Christina Aguilera
4/5
I’m having sweet 16 flashbacks from high school. Easily the most talented singer I’ve heard on this list so far. Those vocals are so good I’d give it a 3 if there was no other lyrics or song writing behind it. That rasp is iconic. That being said the production doesn’t do a ton for me but is overall still memorable for a pop album so I respect it. The lyrics are pretty good and I imagine would do more for me if I was actually the target demographic. Still, I’m not sure if you can tell the story of this era of music without knowing this album. For me, that’s enough to bring it up to a 4.
Black Sabbath
5/5
During the COVID years me and my roommates would get get stupid high and play Battlefield while blasting this album - so I have very fond, albeit hazy, memories of this album. The irony of this is not lost on me. I think this album is revolutionary in several senses of the word. They pioneered the metal genre with this album. It's crazy to think that this came out just a year after Abbey Road and I think this album pushes rock forward in a meaningful way. It's also revolutionary in concept. They come after just about every axis of power in modern society. Fuck them war pigs, this is a nearly perfect album.
Adele
2/5
This is my second Adele album on this list- I thought I might have an idea of what is was going to sound like before I put it on. Sadly, I was spot on. Adele is pretty predictable, it's always power ballad after power ballad. She's got a beautiful voice but it's not enough for me. Some of the songs had interesting instrumentation but these all seem to blur together as a pretty standard Adele song. I also think she took a step back with this album. She's narrowing in on a single type of song which she didn't do in 21 and I generally get the impression that she's willing to try less. A little disappointing because I know she has a better album in her.
William Orbit
3/5
I have a separate collection of albums I've saved from this list just to get high to. This album is 100% making that list. At its best, this album can put out some incredible soundscapes with really rich instrumentation and is surprisingly funky. At its worst sounds more like his definition of ambient music is literally just soft noises to fill space. The change in effort from song to song is confusing to me. Still, I would say that the good outweighs the bad on this one.
The Damned
4/5
I'm impressed by any punk rock album that can avoid the Sex Pistols trap of making an entire album that essentially says, "We're young, we're mad at the system, we're horny, AND WE'RE YELLING!" Not that doesn't have a place, but there comes a point where you do that for an hour and people get tired of it. This album is a lot more creative than a lot of punk music and they're crazy talented. Not all the risks panned out, I'm looking at you clown song, but I respect the risks nonetheless. Really solid album.
Sade
3/5
I have very vivid memories from when I was a kid of smashing my head against a wall waiting for my mom to finish up shopping in the Lord and Taylor in the mall a few towns away. I am convinced this is the album they were playing in the store. I associate this type of music with that stale department store smell and the cinnamon from an Aunt Annie's pretzel. That's all to say that as oddly nostalgic as this album feels, it's so safe. I can't speak to whether or not this was 'revolutionary' when it came out, but nowadays it sounds pretty unremarkable. Pretty standard commercial music coming out for the decade.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
It's very cool to get a live version where they don't cut out the emcee. The crowd interactions gave a sense of authenticity to the album that I really enjoyed. If you listen really closely you can hear a man suck down his third Manhattan while downing a prime rib while his wife looks on with disdain. I don't know if it's an incredible jazz album though. I think it speaks volumes that my favorite song on this album is when she did an Ella Fitzgerald impression - I don't think she stacks up against the greats of the genre but it's a very solid performance. Very nice voice, smooth as hell back up band but nothing that's really going to stick with me.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
I never thought I'd say this but this jazz album is a certified slapper. I knew this album going into listen- my old roommate played this constantly in March of 2020 so I associate it with a lot of sitting around and looking at the Apple Music visualizer while getting crossed and pretending like I don't exist. On a more sober listen though there is a lot going on here that I didn't appreciate about it before. I really like the weird time scores and how off beat any individual instrument can sound while still making a really coherent song. This is kind of like the album equivalent of those pictures you have to cross your eyes up to see. Focus on any one part and you start to lose the music is actually trying to do. All respect in the world to these musicians.
New Order
3/5
Cue Squidward lying on the ground yelling, "FUUUTUUURE, FUUUTUUURE, FUUUTUUURE." This sounds like what every 'new age' band thought they were going to be putting out when they embarked on modernizing rock and it is a truly innovative album. They tried a lot of really wild sounds. Sometimes it feels like a every changing soundscape that keeps you interested in the song Fine Time, other times it sounds like the soundtrack to the game Bust-a-move like in Round & Round. Something you can definitively say is that they don't take a song off. I give them points for creativity and really good execution.
Janis Joplin
4/5
This has got to be among the most iconic voices of a generation and certainly one of the most iconic voices in the rock genre. It's almost like her raspy voice was handcrafted to be a rock singer. Loved the album, could listen to her sing all day. I understand that this is a solo album, but the only thing I would knock this for is that the back up band was a little meh for most of the album. I think I would have rated this higher if every song was as fun as Me and Bobby McGee where there is a good balance struck between the vocals and the band.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Everybody knows that kid from high school who went out of their way to be in your face edgy. It wasn't enough to be edgy, they need to constantly remind you how edgy they are at all times. For me, our edgy kid used to make people dare him to snort wasabi even though nobody wanted to dare him in the first place. Well, this is what happens when that kid gets to make an album. I thought I was going to really despise this album but edge lord does folk Americana became oddly endearing by the end of it. I don't hate it.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
This album is a lot like being on the edge of an orgasm. I spent the entire time waiting for her to do something musically that would really put me over the top and call this a great album. It’s just too soft and steady. I got close a couple of times, but never got there. It was a mostly enjoyable experience but I’m walking away feeling a bit blueballed.
Dusty Springfield
1/5
She's got a pretty good voice...that's where the compliments for this one end. When you compare her to a lot of contemporaries in the genre she's missing that added dimension of soul. Large parts of this album felt disingenuous- I got the feeling that recording this album was just a 9-5 for her and she was trying to get home on time. I didn't think the backing band was all that creative either. A couple of interesting songs, mostly pretty boring. The back up singers sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks half the time. If hell were the cabaret on a cruise ship, this would surely be the headliner.
Eagles
3/5
Hot start and finish to this album- the middle was a bit meh. This really is the pinnacle of dad rock. I don't know if the Eagles really do anything spectacular or innovative other than being one of the most commercially successful bands of all time - I've sold 0 albums so who am I to say that this isn't impressive. I suppose popularizing country rock isn't to be understated. At the time, most people didn't know what the album sounded like other than the singles before they bought it and true to form the singles were awesome on this one but everything else was pretty average.
The Beach Boys
4/5
Here's a hot take, Brian Wilson has more talent and creativity than any other single member of the Beetles and this band could have been as big or even bigger than the Beetles if he didn't have to single handedly carry the groups creative load. His genius is on full display in this album. I think that this is an album where it stands up today but you have to take a step back and realize how revolutionary this style of recording and songwriting was for the time. Brian Wilson and the Beetles stand alone as the only ones doing anything this innovative with the recording technology available at the time. The rich harmonies and orchestral sound was unlike anything anybody heard in pop music before. Is it my favorite collection of songs? Not really, I do like a bunch of them though. But the historical significance of this one is hard to understate.
The Dictators
4/5
I love a satirical album as much as the next guy but I do think there is a point where you go over the top with it. It’s a lot like SNL, we get it you’re being satirical about people you don’t like, it doesn’t make you clever. And a lot like SNL I’m sure that it hit better in the 70s than it does today. Music does rock though.
MGMT
5/5
When I was a senior in high school my best friends and I got green out high and locked ourselves in a beach house bathroom after prom. We put this album on and when it ended we were all so high we could have sworn that we all heard a “secret” track at the end of the album. As a kid, I never felt closer to anyone else in my life at the time. There’s some music you just can’t separate some of your best teen memories. This album is that for me. Hard 5.
Elvis Presley
2/5
I really loved listening to this album. The only problem is that I really enjoyed the accompanying band a lot more than Elvis himself. I read up on this one and he specifically chose this studio due to the fact that the back up band's soulful sound and to me it really carries the album for him...and isn't that the whole gripe with Elvis stealing the sound of other musicians in the first place? I think it's an amazing album but it feels weird to give Elvis all that credit.
The Associates
1/5
If I had to describe this as anything I would call it teen emo punk in space meets the 80s synth addiction voiced by Dennis from Always Sunny singing the Day Man song. If that sounds all over the place it's because this album is trying to do everything at once and is overwhelming. I thought this one was a chore to get through and I had to listen in multiple parts. This guys definitely think they are music's gift to the world because they released all their songs in triplicate assuming that anyone would every want to listen to this more than once.
Ravi Shankar
4/5
It's very cool how accessible this album is- I love how he explains all about his kind of music before he plays it. It adds a lot more context than I would otherwise have. It's hard for me to really judge this without much of a frame of reference to put it in because this is the first time I've ever intentionally listened to Indian music rather than just hear it in the background of something so I feel I can only really judge it based on enjoyment and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
I wanted to hate this one. I think the general affect of the people in the band is that they think they're better than you and that they couldn't be bothered to stop their sidebar conversation to record an album. I don't think I could stand to be in a room with these people for more than five minutes before wanting to smash my head against a wall. Unfortunately for me, they're really talented and damn good musicians. I said out loud 'Oh you fuckers' half way through This is What She's Like when I realized how good they were. I hate it.
Iggy Pop
2/5
I think I’m really starting to understand punk music after listening to this…because if I had to live in a world where this was popular I would want the antithesis of this created yesterday. Iggy is a self indulgent pop star who gives off the feeling that it’s more about him making the music in particular than making good music. Because on top of all this it’s pretty generic music. I don’t see that much creative or innovative. More than anything I get the feeling that this album was made more for iggy’s p
Elton John
4/5
I was really shocked for how much variety there was on this album. When I think of Elton John I usually think of him wailing on a piano and singing his heart out for an hour plus- and there was a lot of that. But there was also a lot of really unique instrumentation that I wasn't expecting. He had a damn sitar! On top of that it's the standard praise of Elton John, crazy talented song writer and very soulful voice. Great listen.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Another talented song writer lost to a tragic synth addiction. I started out really liking this one. I thought he was a lot like a zanier Joe Jackson but he just kept hammering and hammering and hammering the synth. One album ruined by a synth addiction is a tragedy- a whole decade of them is a statistic.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
I think it’s so hard to create an album that’s both rich with variety and has a consistent theme. A lot of albums try to to have a lot of variety and come across really unfocused, this album is an exception. There’s so much going on thematically, there’s folk, acid culture, funk, and rock all perfectly weaved into a really consistent and interesting album, great listen.
Elastica
3/5
It’s so weird that someone put the entire hot topic playlist onto a single album. I can’t shake the image of knee high converse boots, skirts over jeans, and RAWR XD when I listen to this. As a mid 2000s angst lord I do like the music, but it also sounds a lot like everything else that came out in this time span. I just don’t think it’s anything too memorable.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
It’s so hard to rate this album knowing that they’re about to make one of the best albums of the century in just a few years. I am grading them against themselves and I know that’s not totally fair but it feels hard to give it a five compared to what comes three years later for them. Still loved it but I know they’re music is about to get a lot better then this.
Snoop Dogg
5/5
It’s cool that the chronic came up a few weeks before this album. This serves as a pseudo sequel to that album that continues to build on its creativity but has much stronger rapping (sorry Dre). It’s so cool to listen to an album like this in a genre that’s so self referential because you can hear this album’s influence on so much of modern rap. This and the chronic truly set the stage for the next 20-30 years of rap music. I don’t think their singular influence can be understand, one of the true masterpieces of rap music for the 90s.
Billy Joel
5/5
It’s total mom rock and so I definitely came in with some priors but I was really pleasantly surprised. It’s hit after hit on this album and I can’t think of many more albums I’ve had so far that have been so prolific as this one. It’s got a lot of variety too and billy Joel is one hell of a songwriter. I also danced to just the way you are at my wedding with my mom and almost every track reminds me of her so I’m probably more than just a little biased.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Yet another example on this list of how dance music used to be way cooler than it is now. Albums like this make me truly tired of getting packed into a small dark room with 18 dollar cocktails just so that I can gyrate in my allotted square foot of space. I also think that there is a really cool level of fatalism present in this album. The world could end any day now in nuclear Armageddon, let's have four martinis and swing! Our fatalism today is much more depressing. Let's make fatalism fun again.
Paul McCartney
4/5
I thought this was a really good album but I don't know if I see the hype about McCartney being one of the greatest song writers of all time. I think a lot of it was elevated coffee shop music, but I will say the instrumentals showed off a lot more creativity than the tracks with vocals and I do think that deserves a lot of credit. By 1970 though, I don't know if any of this is true Earth shattering.
Beatles
2/5
This was my first Beetles album on the playlist and I have to say I’m disappointed. I’ve not listened to a lot of their stuff so I’m hoping this album is the exception not the rule, but this was so underwhelming. For a band that gets so much hype and credit for shaping the musical world, this album came off as cabaret at best. There were some interesting songs and some cool musical ideas here but nothing that lives up to the reputation of this band.
David Bowie
5/5
Seriously some of the coolest music I've listened to on this list so far. I've never heard a lot of Bowie so it was surprising to me just how much range he has. Everything he does is weird, but he keeps finding new ways to make weird music on the same album. I liked the instrumentals on this one the best because he makes such deep soundscapes and really transports you somewhere with his music. There are a lot of people who try to do what he does and for the most part it sucks and there's a reason why there is only one David Bowie.
My Bloody Valentine
1/5
My headphones died in the middle of listening to this...that was the happiest I was in this last hour listening to this piece of hot garbage. Are they trying to be edgy and make bad music to make a point or are they just really bad at this? I don't know if it makes a difference for me from a rating perspective but I need to know that people don't unironically think that this is good. This is the worst kind of emo music.
Femi Kuti
3/5
My enjoyment of this album went down the longer I listened to it. It started off as a really fun listen with really talented musicians creating really unique stuff from a continent that I don't hear a lot of music out of. But there's only so many of these ten minute songs you can listen to before it all starts blending together. I didn't think there was a ton of variety between the songs and for as much as I loved the first couple I got really bored by the end of this very long album.
Scritti Politti
2/5
This album is so quintessentially 80s...I don't mean that as a compliment. I feel like I'm trapped in a bad screening of the breakfast club while listening to this. There's some interesting instrumentation with the synth and the bass but it doesn't do it for me. It's a very pedestrian album for the decade.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
This was a cool time music. It feels like it's the last gasp of the punk moving having a significant impact on indie and rock music before it would get much more electronic heavy. I was a big fan of this band growing up but I don't know if I ever listened to much beyond Take me Out off this album. It checks a lot of boxes for what I really liked about this decade in rock but I don't know if I would call it exemplary for time and the lyrics leave a lot to be desired. I think you could do better in this decade than this.
The War On Drugs
4/5
My first thought I hear when an album claims to be able to synthesize so many different musical influences at once is that it's going to be really unfocused and lack any real direction. This album is the exception to that rule. It's able to take so many diverse influences and still sound like something completely unique. I can hear a lot of Springsteen, Tyler Petty, and Neil Young in here but it also sounds like very much their own idea. I don't know if it does anything new or innovative in its own right but I give it a lot of credit for making it sound like you just listened to an entire decade of rock music in an hour.
The Yardbirds
3/5
I listened to this one twice. I enjoyed it a lot more on the first listen. On the second listen I found everyone not named Jeff Beck to be kind of annoying. That being said, Jeff Beck may be a total dad pick for greatest guitar player of all time, but it’s albums like this that make a really strong case. It’s kind of a shame, there are so many albums from this time where the guitar player has to carry the whole weight of the band the quality suffers…I wonder if any of these guys will form bands of just the strong ones from these bands…a super group even?
Buck Owens
2/5
This feels conservative even in the most artistically conservative genre there is. I can't say that it's bad, but I can say that it's terribly, terribly boring. There are folks who really try to innovate country and I can find that respectable, but this is just half an hour and store brand country.
Mudhoney
2/5
Nothing spectacular for a post punk/ grunge era album. It's certainly not the best of the decade and rests on a lot of similar troupes common for the time. I guess you can say that they added a harmonica and that's innovative? I don't know, sounds like all they did was tee up the Gin Blossoms to do the same thing but softer and I don't think that's a compliment.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
At first I thought these guys were just a bunch of himbos incapable of writing a song of any substance - and that’s still the case. But they aren’t trying to present themselves as anything other than the rock n roll fuckboys that they are and this was a fun album to get dumb to.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I really thought I wasn’t going to like this one. I started off thinking this was pretty boring, but the longer I listened the more I grew to appreciate it. It’s still not spectacular but there is a real subtle beauty to this one that I really enjoyed. The music feels hauntingly beautiful.
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
This album sounds a lot like if you told some fairly talented guys to improv an entire project in the studio that day. I like their style a lot, I think the mix of blues, jazz, and hip-hop are really cool, but they keep resting on the same couple of musical ideas. It's chill- but almost too chill- like they couldn't be bothered to stop jamming out to come up with any sort of variety or compelling lyrics. It's a good listen, but after nearly an hour of it you can start to zero in on its flaws pretty quickly.
Everything But The Girl
1/5
This just sounds like an audition to get the job as the lounge singer on a Carnival Cruise, not something that should be on this list. And based on this album, I don't think she's going to get the job either.
Cheap Trick
3/5
They’re hot right? They have to be hot to get this kind of crowd reaction. I think it’s a good album, but I think there’s also a lot lost when you listen to a live album alone in your headphones too. I don’t think they are the best of what this era of rock has to offer nor do they have some of the smash hits of other bands in this era. But maybe it’s just that this performance was a once in a life time event… or who knows maybe it’s they’re just hot.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I love this album. It's an incredible early example of how alternative hip hop was growing out and apart from the mainstream. The beat production is so cool and jazzy and still hold up as some of the best rap album production ever made. I'm hesitant though to put this in the league of the best rap albums of all time. I don't really like Q Tip as a rapper, I think Phife is a lot better and I don't understand why he isn't included in so many of these tracks. If he was more prominent in the album it would probably be a 5 for me.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
This sounds a lot like if you took the ideas from prog rock and applied to folk, 90s grunge and even a little gospel. It’s such a weird album I get why it was never really commercially successful but I really like this one. I think this is a good example of being weird for a purpose because you’re trying to make an album that no one’s ever done before not just being weird for the sake of being weird. It can be a fine line to walk but this album has both feet squarely over.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
There are parts of this album that I think are so cool and innovative I want to give them a five. There are some songs that make me think this guy needs to get committed and is not safe for civil society (looking at you Dogfight Giggle). One thing I can say for sure is that this guys done a lot of drugs. I love the flow of this album and all the wild stuff he’s trying but I think he lost the thread at a couple parts so ultimately I’m going to end up more in the middle with this one.
OutKast
4/5
Somewhere in this album are all the elements of a five, but I think there is just a little too much of it. The production is incredible front to back but the rapping was disappointing. I can respect them wanting to do their own things but I think the real talent of this group comes from their collaboration. I think it’s telling that one of my favorites songs growing up off this album was roses which was one of the only ones they collaborated on. And the interludes. There were far too many interludes. If they cut some of the chaff I would have given this a five easy.
Richard Hawley
3/5
I don't know how much you can really say about this album. It's pleasant to listen to, he's got a nice voice, doesn't do anything particularly innovative or provocative in my opinion. It feels a little more like nice background music than something that really belongs on this list but I don't have anything bad to say about it.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Oddly enough I had this just one week after the other tribe album on this list. I do think the rapping on this one is a lot stronger, better usage of Pfife, but the production seemed to go down. If you could put the best elements from both albums together it’s an easy five, but I don’t think it’s all there on either album.
Willie Nelson
3/5
Wow a lot of these songs sound the same. *checks notes* Oh they are the same song. You can't keep just turning in the same thing over again and calling it complete - I tried that in high school and it didn't work.
I can appreciate the sincerity of this music though. It's hard to imagine that this is the same genre as modern country where every song is about making love to your truck while Jesus watches with a cold light beer in his hand. I respect this a lot more than any country music that gets made today.
The Sabres Of Paradise
3/5
As a big EDM fan there was a lot to like about this album. You can see the proto EDM emerging from the bones of this. There is some really synthy, funky and jazzy rhythms here that get built upon the make the genre what it is today. That being said, you could also see this whole album being recreated today pretty easily of FL Studios by a high schooler. I think it's innovative in what it tries to do and what it inspires but the actual execution is lacking for me. Overall, I can appreciate the attempt.
Hookworms
4/5
There's a lot of interesting elements going on here. I think it's a really good synthesis of a lot of bands that came before them in the late 2000's to early 2010's. I can hear some Foster the People, The Strokes, Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema Club and others in this. I think while this is a really good stamp on what a lot of music coming out around that time sounded like, I don't know if there's anything revolutionary in this. I think an album like this can go so far rating wise despite how much I enjoyed it.
Thundercat
5/5
This has got to be the most unique album I have encountered on this list so far. I think it does an incredible job of capturing a lot of musical currents of the time while coming up with something completely original. It is able to combine elements of EDM, post modern, rap, soul, R&B, and so many other ideas into a very comprehensive and complete album. I don't love every song of this album, and I think it even peters off for me towards the end, but the hits are so damn creative innovative that it feels like a crime not to give this one a five.
The Who
5/5
I can see it now- a whole generations of dads banished to the garage or the shed, cracking a bud heavy and lecturing to anyone who will listen about the good ole days and how music used to really rock and referencing this album in particular. And you know what? I think they might have a point. This album is a slapper. Every song was different and took you on a journey and had a distinct feel. Cheers to the dad rockers out there, keep fighting the good fight and annoying the shit out of your kids.
Calexico
4/5
Finally country music, this is what I've been waiting for. So many country artists are so content to play a couple of chords and drone on about their truck, a pair of boots, Jesus, or some heartbroken whiny BS and never really try to innovate on the genre. This album keeps very country roots while masterfully introducing elements of folk, indie, jazz, and Latin music. It's so refreshing to hear a country album not made by people trying to do the bear minimum to string songs together - easily the class of the genre for me.
Talking Heads
4/5
So many times you find really talented musicians who refuse to be weird or really weird people who refuse to be talented. These guys are the very small overlapping section of the Venn Diagram. This is my second Talking Heads album and I can definitively say they are committed to the bit of making you feel slightly uncomfortable while listening. I can't tell if they fall into the Devo camp of actively trying to satirize the music industry or if this is really just the deranged musings of mad men - either way I'm a big fan.
Moby
2/5
Each song is a microcosm for my feelings on the entire album. I start out thinking, wow that's a cool musical idea, I wonder where he is going to take this? The answer every time - nowhere - he's just going to play it on loop and run it into the ground. This one was tedious to get through.
Dead Kennedys
2/5
Punk rock band does punk rock things. Edge lord singer does edge lord songs. Nothing out of the usual or remarkable, maybe just how they were noticeably worse at doing punk than any other punk band I’ve had so far.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Good art communicates an alien world of the artist to the listener and helps foster a sense of understanding and sympathy. I can’t think of a better example on this list so far than this. Kendrick takes dark and twisted storytelling wrapped up in some of the best beat production of Dres career all into a varied and concise album.
I see a lot of negative reviews of this album from people who’s favorite albums are almost exclusively 60s and 70s rock and I can’t wrap my head around what they thought this list would be about. If you want to believe time isn’t moving than throw on your White Album on repeat and lock the channel on Fox News but if you’re not willing to appreciate an album that challenges your priors on music than what are you doing here?
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
You have to be really up your own ass to make this album. I mean 1 hour 15 of playing the same guitar riffs over and over again with almost no variation? You gotta think you’re gods gift to music or something. Yeah they’re crazy talented but crazy repetitive and boring too.
Love
2/5
These are just the inane ramblings of a bunch of fancy lads. It would be one thing if it were compelling lyrics or revolutionary song writing with a unique sound, but this really just gets lost in the noise of 60s psychedelic rock. This has all the makings of an album that nobody liked at the time that got retconned into significance by riding the wave of musicians much better than themselves.
Bob Dylan
4/5
There is something so classically American about this album. You can hear how instrumental this is for shaping so many different genres. It's impressive that he is able to do more with less - vocals, a guitar and a harmonica is all it takes to put this together. There is something crisp and clean about the simplicity. My only issue is that a lot of the album sounds pretty similar due to the lack of unique instrumentation. It doesn't feel right to give it a five when there are other albums that can make more novel sounds, use richer production or are more varied.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
I don’t want it any darker Leonard I assure you. This album sounds like the track list about a Disney movie where the villain turns out to be the good guy, his voice isn’t doing him any favors here. Im impressed he’s been making music for so long, but this is my second album of his on the list so far and you can tell the drop off in ability- tough to do the singer song writer thing when you know…can’t sing anymore.
Willie Nelson
4/5
I love an album that can defy genre. This one sounds like a very unique mix of blues and country mixed with the singer songwriter troupe and some jazz lounge singer thrown in there too. Willie Nelson has a truly angelic voice and can really write a song that pours with feeling and emotion. Truly beautiful music. I would have liked to see just a little more range for me to give it a five - it also sounds like the last couple of tracks are phoned in a bit compared to the beginning of the album.
Fairport Convention
5/5
So this a genre I just learned existed but I'm immediately in love with it. You can definitely hear some of their earlier American rock influence in some of these songs and I think they do that just fine, but they really shine when they get back to their roots of British folk. This album has the rare quality of being able to keep the song varied while having a consistent sound. The instrumentation is very unique and the whole album feels so fresh. This was a very nice change of pace.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
I love rap and this was a disappointment. It's hard for me to go back to the 80's era of rap when after knowing that Dr. Dre is about to revolutionize the genre with his approach to beats- I want to grade this on a curve because it's so foreign to what we know the genre to be today but it sounds really dated, the beats are worse, the flow is worse - nothing really special about this to me.
Soft Cell
3/5
Hey, these guys are a bunch of perverts! Also what is Michael Cera doing on the cover? Despite the creepy vocals and the depraved lyrics, I actually really liked the synth here. I think a lot of bands from this era will hammer the synth button because it was the popular sound but they won't really bother to innovate on it - these guys break that rule. As people, Soft Cell really turns me off and creeps me the fuck out, as musicians, they 're alright.
The Doors
4/5
That's some smooth keys and guitar work. I don't want to call them a one trick pony because they are so damn talented - but it does feel like they have a pretty narrow range on this album. I'm impressed with this album but I'm not really blown away by it.
Eminem
3/5
I forgot what a hold this guy had on culture in the 2000s. Hearing him rap about the absolute hysteria around his lyrics reminded me of the moral panic this country went through when he first got big and I think that's how I understand this album too. On one hand he doesn't care what you think - he is going to be a crude and crass as he wants and in some respects he is a free speech warrior, but on the other hand I think he does it just to piss people off and his music suffers because of it too.
I think he is one of the most talented rappers of a generation and he is maybe one of the best lyricists of the genre, but it songs like Kim that really turn me off of him. I think if he spent more time writing songs like Stan rather than songs just made to piss people off he would have had a much better album - but then again at the end of the day that's sort of the Eminem experience.
Animal Collective
4/5
I have the sudden urge to tell that alt girl from high school who always ironically a ripped up Ramones shirt how I really feel about her. This one brings back a lot of memories for me.
This album encapsulates the sound of indie music for an entire decade in the 2010s and this band is one of the early most pioneers. I think this album falls into the same trap that a lot of synth lords from the 80s do though- a cool new technology comes out and they keep hammering that button without really innovating too far beyond using it in the first place. As a result the sound is cool and new but after 30 mins it gets old pretty quick.
Ghostface Killah
4/5
This one is full of heavy hitters in every sense of the word, tracks, rappers and producers. Anytime you have MF Doom and J Dilla producing on the same album it’s going to be good. There was a lot to like from this album at the front and back end but I also get the feeling the middle third was phoned in. Songs get more lethargic than anything. The ends more than make up for it though to make for a really solid album.
Elvis Presley
2/5
Everything that boomers say modern music does to “ruin” it could be said about this album. It’s a bunch of really safe, unimaginative filler highlighted by one or two would be singles pushed by a pretty face and written by a bunch of industry execs just to sell more albums instead of do anything innovative or artistic. Really makes you think…
The Black Keys
3/5
It’s always tough when you’re best songs we’re produced by other people. I think they have a cool and unique style that feels modern western inspired, but a lack of creativity around that style leaves me thinking there is some unrealized potential in this album. I did really like the singles but when they run out of money for outside producers the album falls a little flat.
The Prodigy
2/5
It sounds like the soundtrack to every edgy early 2000s video game - and in reality it really should just be background noise rather than anything you actively listen to. This is more of collection of highly produced sounds than anything with a musical idea behind it. I can appreciate how how cutting edge this must have been for the time, but looking back from almost 20 years later, people have been able to use these musical ideas in a much more coherent and musical way that really makes me hate to listen to this.
Radiohead
4/5
It's interesting to get this album after a couple of electronic ones from the late 90s. I think where Radio succeeds and where those other groups fail is to use technology to enhance your music rather than let it take over your music. This album is a seamless integration of electronica into good, complex musical ideas rather than just mashing on the buttons on the mixer because you can. Ton of respect to this album, really enjoyed but it got pretty whiny at times which is going to stop me from giving it a five.
Neu!
4/5
Never before did I think I would hear punk mixed with ambient but it makes for a really interesting listen. There are a couple of songs where they put it all together and make something really interesting for the time, and there are other points where you don't know what the hell you're listening to. I think with anything experimental like this it's going to be a mixed bag but I liked it more than I hated it.
Nick Drake
4/5
This man is SMOOTH. Love the folksy swing to it. He beat Joe Jackson to the punch almost ten years early too. I think there is a lot of unique instrumentation to this, big fan of the piano and percussion here. There are a couple of songs that feel a little uninspired but I think there are a lot of really deep and passionate songs on this one. Not a genre I would listen to often but I do appreciate his mastery of it.
The Black Crowes
2/5
This album has committed the cardinal sin for rock projects on this list…it’s just so damn boring. Nothing innovative, nothing exemplary, and surely no anything risky.
David Bowie
4/5
You can really hear all the cocaine on this album. I love this erratic strung out banger of an album. It has all the innovation, mix ups and utterly weird sounds that I’d expect from Bowie. I’m sure he’ll get help for that little habit in no time….
The Shamen
2/5
Reviewing this album feels like trying to face your kid after a piano recital. You know they worked really hard on it and their heart was in the right place but it just wasn't very good. Some cool musical ideas here but I have the same complaint on this album as I do a lot of other albums of this genre from this time on this list - they can make some cool new things with the new technology available to them but they haven't figured out how to turn it into a bigger musical idea instead of disparate sounds.
Jane Weaver
3/5
No one is going to say that this album did too much. This album does have a cool ethereal almost understated quality about it. I really like the overall sound and feel to it, but she seems pretty content to stick to a single style for the better part of an hour without a lot of variety. I would have liked to have heard her push the style a little bit more but I liked everything that I heard.
AC/DC
3/5
"We're young, we're dumb, we're full of cum, and WE'RE READY TO ROCK!" Is what I imagine these guys said when they sat down to record it. I know it's supposed to be a cornerstone of rock history but it doesn't really do it for me. Yeah, they're talented, a lot of musicians on this list are. I don't think they were anything more than a bunch of fuckboys who didn't add anything meaningful to the genre...still fun though.
ZZ Top
4/5
It’s good, lots of interesting elements all thrown together here. I like the mix of blues, rock and a little soul of the south sprinkled in there. It does feel a bit formulaic for the time though. They throw in the obligatory ballad in at just the right time, follow it up with a bright classic rock song for contrast, hit some blues on the backend. It’s good, but it’s not ground breaking enough to give a five to.
Depeche Mode
3/5
This sounds like a rock opera made by your local goth high schooler who huffed too much paint for too many years and never really came all the way back...real dayman vs nightman vibes. It's eerie and dark and very, very cool. I don't really love the whole synth era or the sound in general but these guys were masters at it and you have to give them that. I still can't give them any more than a 3 though because I really didn't enjoy listening to it for an entire hour.
The Young Rascals
4/5
First half feels like:
Mom can we have the Beetles?
No we have Beetles at home.
Beetles at home - this album.
Just felt like a cheap knockoff at first, but they really come into their own in the second half of the album and start using really unique instrumentation. I wish they had done that the entire album but better late than never.
Wire
1/5
Sorry to all the post modern, "ironic" punk lovers out there, you can't fool me into thinking this one is even remotely good. I don't care if they were making a bad album just to piss people off, it's cheap art. Comically bad vocals on this one- maybe the worst on the list so far. The instrumentation is mid at best. I think this album does a disservice to the genre and I like punk for the most part but this is awful.
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
This album feels like one that they used to try to sell you through commercials in the early 2000s. They start by pitching 20 love songs. But wait there's more! If you call today, we're going to throw in 20 bonus love songs. That's a 20 love song value absolutely free. But we're not going to stop there- we're going to throw in the third disc, 60 love song! And if you call within the next hour, we're going to give 9 extra bonus love songs. That's a 69 song value for the price of just 20!
This album actually slaps though. 69 different genres and 69 different takes on love. In reality, love is such a complicated emotion and so many bands are so happy to talk about it so simply. This band takes the time to explore the emotion in depth and changes the music so dramatically around the exploration of love. It’s not always easy listening and you won’t find any dad rocking guitar solos on here but it is honest to god, capital A Art.
4/5
Pretty iconic sound from the late 90s early 2000s. She captures the angst and grunge sounds pretty perfectly. I enjoyed despite her keeping to a pretty narrow lane that she was able to keep each song in the album feeling fresh. The Thom Yorke were really good features too. Got winey at times but overall really nice album.
Ella Fitzgerald
3/5
There is no denying that Ella is in the top three jazz singers of all time, but I'm a little disappointed by this album. First, she didn't write any of this. Second, despite the fact that some of the greatest songwriters in the country to that point wrote everything, it lacks a lot of variety. There are a lot of unique songs, but when you have other three hours of content a lot of it is going to blur. Third, I don't think she gave herself many or really any songs that really highlight the full range of her potential. She's great, this is not her best.
Beatles
2/5
I think the legacy of the Beatles colors people's view of how bad this band used to be. This is 90% pop music garbage with nothing remarkable to say lyrically or musically. If this album was made by a group going by any other name it wouldn't be on this list. I refuse to think this is good just because this band goes on to make Sgt. Peppers.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
I don’t know how many times I have to say this about a post punk album on this list, sarcasm 👏 doesn’t 👏 make 👏 music 👏 inherently 👏 good. It’s whiny, it thinks it’s better than you, and they have nothing to back it up with. Absolute fuckers.
DJ Shadow
3/5
It's a fun album, I had a good time listening to it. It's got a ton of really nice beats, really deep and rich sound too. I can respect what he's doing, but to me, beat albums can feel incomplete and can get boring kinda quickly. A couple of features would have taken this album a really long way.
Prince
4/5
This is one of those albums that is able to take so many different musical themes from a period and synthesize them into a something more than the sum of its parts. It's got a heavy funk current, uses a lot of well utilized synth, has soulful vocals, can get poppy, can shred on guitar and keeps a consistent sound while keeping each song fresh with a lot of variety. This is a masterclass of an album and an excellent representation of the period.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
It's soulful, it's jazzy, it's bluesy, it's not like anything else I had ever heard from the Stones before...and it's probably also half an hour too long for its own good. It's cool to hear a lot of these concepts intertwined in a way that I don't really associate with this band and it's definitely my favorite project that I've heard from them so far. That being said, it's a little repetitive and the fact they don't really innovate on these ideas throughout the project leads me to believe that these aren't really their ideas and they are more or less copying what's already out there at the time. Very solid album though, but will have to miss top marks from me because of a lack of real creativity.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
This one got pretty boring pretty quickly. I like their sound but I don't like 45 straight minutes from a one-trick pony. Pretty good album, pretty illustrative of the 60s sound but ultimately lacks enough creativity to carry the project. I would have liked to hear them play with their sound, build on some of the concepts a little more. I think they do this in a couple of different tracks but too much of it is too much of the same.
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
This is just the track list to a generic guitar hero game. And just because you use a harmonica doesn’t make you “innovative”. The generic 80s rock obsession on this list continues.
Judas Priest
3/5
It’s hard to take them seriously when every other song feels like it was written by some kid playing D&D in his moms basement. The instrumentation on this album really shreds but overall it lacks variety.
4/5
Oh yeah, fuck the queen, fuck the crown, fuck the whole bloody empire! Quintessential post war counter culture album. Great listen with a lot of cool instrumentation, lacked some variety.
Louis Prima
4/5
This might be a brand new sentence, but goddamn does this big band music go hard.
Venom
2/5
Ok we get it, you can play those same couple of power chords really really fast, but what else ya got? I much prefer the Black Sabbath variety of metal where the music is a lot more varied and there is a lot more melody to it rather than bashing their skulls in on the same couple of musical concepts for an hour plus.
The Byrds
4/5
I know Bob Dylan didn't write anything on this one, but his fingerprints are still all over some of these songs. This is a really cool mixture of of David Crosby's style mixed with a little psychedelic rock and Bob Dylan's folk. It keeps the album interesting throughout and makes for a really different kind of 60's album- easily one of my favorite of the decade on this list so far.
Julian Cope
4/5
I can only describe this album as taking so much acid during a Dave Matthew’s band concert that your mind starts to go insane and fill it in with actually good music- overall a fan.
Pixies
2/5
So is the reason this album is on this list because it’s got a strung out tweaker screaming and sputtering nonsense? Because other than that there is nothing unique about this album and there are many underpasses around my city where I can get the same experience in half the time.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
It’s cool that it’s jammy and folky at the same time but I got to the end of the album and while I liked the sound of it, it felt pretty impression-less. Kinda average and disappointing for a Neil Young album.
Killing Joke
1/5
Is the whole purpose of post-punk to make the most annoying and bad album possible? If so do people unironically like it or are they all just parodies of stuck up pricks? This album had like one guitar riff and an hour of incomprehensible vocals. It's a joke. It's killing me.
4/5
This guy has huge theater kid energy. I really liked the sound, it was vibrant and kept my interest throughout the album. It does sound like they're a little bit of a one trick pony - didn't really innovate on their sound throughout the album and at times what they were doing got a little old. Solid album but I wish they had done more with a very unique sound.
Frank Black
3/5
After I learned that this guy was in the pixies I thought for sure that I was going to hate it. I was pleasantly surprised that I was only slightly annoyed with it by the end of the album. Aggressively average rock album was the best I was hoping for on this one and it delivered!
Paul Simon
5/5
Such a cool synthesis of sounds here. Paul Simon went to Africa to find new concepts for this album and it payed off. It’s a perfect fusion of the 80s pop and soul sound with the sounds of Africa. Not a single song on here sounds trite, repetitive or dull. One of my favorites on the list so far.
The Cure
2/5
This album had all the excitement of attending a goth kids TED talk. It just droned on an on. I kinda liked the sound of it but they never changed it up or tried to do any variations on their core concepts. Pretty disappointing.
Elton John
4/5
Overall I really liked this album, but a lot of Elton John albums lose me halfway through. Feels like he puts some filler in there and the album is really carried by his heavy hitters (and those heavy hitters make up a lot of ground for me). This album isn't any different. He does the whole wailing on the keys and flashy theater kid troupe which I actually like quite a bit, but an hour fifteen of it is a bit much and really drags at times.
Prince
4/5
I feel like I was just shot out of a cocaine cannon. That's one of the highest energy albums I've ever heard. Overall I really liked it, but like most cocaine highs, once I came down the whole thing was pretty much a blur. I don't remember much off this album off this album other than I had a really fun time on it.
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
Oh wow another generic 90s grunge band. *checks notes* and what’s this? They’re welsh? And what’s this? A satirical politics song? Daring today aren’t we?
Beatles
3/5
This album really is all over the place. It’s carried by its hits in the beginning but as soon as that octopus song stats this album falls off a fucking cliff. I’m sorry, I know this is the holy grail for boomers but I’m really not wildly impressed. There are multiple songs with a whiny voice over ambient tracks and it’s just plain boring. They do a lot of really cool things but they ruin it with how up their own ass they are at this point in their career. It’s not a bad album, but it’s really just an average album for this point in music history. Black Sabbath’s paranoid comes out just one year after this and I refuse to entertain the idea that these albums are in the same league. Sorry boomers, you remember this album better than it actually is, try to take the rose colored glasses off and stop judging the band on a curve.
The Smiths
3/5
I've been a Smith apologist on this site before, but this album is pretty hard to defend. It's a lot lower energy than the other Smiths albums on this list and it comes off as pretty whiny too. At their core, I really do like their sound but they lost me a little bit with this one. I've heard them do more and I've heard them do better than this. If you don't like the sound of the Smith's you'll hate this one, but I think even if you do like the Smiths this one will fall short of their other albums.
Les Rythmes Digitales
2/5
This album is a lot like sitting through heavy traffic. Every once in a while you'll look out the window and say to yourself, "Wow, that's a cool looking car, or that's an interesting thing that man is doing with the loose brick off the sidewalk." But for the most part, it's a really tedious, headache inducing experience. This album has its moments but I mostly wanted to rip my ears off my head and never listen to anything ever again.
Brian Eno
3/5
You know after nearly 200 albums at least this one is refreshing. I've heard a lot of albums that try to be mainstream and are boring. I've heard a lot of albums that try to be edgy and weird and are flat out terrible. This album doesn't fall into either of those traps. It's not my favorite but I can really respect what it's doing and that it made unconventional music actually sound good. I also thought this album got stronger at the end when he really started to let it rip.
Hüsker Dü
2/5
Sigh, another day and another late 80s early 90s generic rock album that only made the list because the author was a prisoner of the moment. I ended this one completely impressionless and bored. People should be meaner to these albums.
The Cure
4/5
I I love their truly haunting sound, haven’t heard anyone successfully try to replicate it which I think speaks to how complex and intricate it is. This album is a little long for my liking but I’ll give them a pass because they clearly have a lot of emotions to get out.
George Harrison
3/5
Ah favorite Beatle! Unfortunately that doesn’t really say much. I can appreciate this project, I like the influence Bob Dylan seemingly had on him and the folk turn is better than a lot of the pop he used to do with the Beatles, but there is just something so goobery about him. There’s a little too much of the beetles in this one for me to right super highly but for what it is I enjoyed it.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
These guys are almost too cool for me to even say anything about. Almost a perfect soul/ funk album if it weren’t for the absolute struggle that was sex machine.
The Police
4/5
Musically such a cool album. Some of the most unique sounds I’ve heard from this decade, blew me away on a couple different tracks….then there’s Sting. I even thought to myself, I’ve heard Sting fuck up an album waaay worse than this- then mother came on.
I understand the Sting is the creative drive of this group so you have to take the good with the bad, but wow is the bad real bad.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Damn this is one horny dude. There's more to life than just getting it in man. Let's get it on is an absolute classic (in some scenarios...) but other than that the album does kind of drag and I think like his personal life, he's a little too hyper focused on one thing.
Thelonious Monk
3/5
Very enjoyable album but it’s tough for me to say that this was too far beyond the level of coffee house jazz.
OutKast
4/5
Truly a classic of the genre. Andre 3000 has probably been of the most influential artists to move rap music forward since Dre. There are a bunch of heavy hitters on this album and a lot of really good features. It's weird, it's innovative, it doesn't rest on its laurels and it really tries to make each track its own piece of art. I would say they hit on that promise 80% of the time. There is definitely a 5 buried in here somewhere but there are just a few too many misses to give it a 5. Very strong 4 though.
The Darkness
3/5
There's more to like here than I find with a lot of glam rock bands. I don't think that there is anything too unique about anything that they're doing other than the vocals quality. Everything else is pretty standard rock music especially for what you expect by 2003. You could have told me this came out in the 80s and I wouldn't bat an eye. That being said, I really dig the vocals, very unique voice and they lean heavily on it. It's got its hits, its got its duds, enjoyable album but nothing that's really going to blow anyone away.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
I dig this one a lot. In a way, it feels like a prelude to punk with their feelings of consternation and irreverent disrespect for everything people seemed to hold sacred in the 60s. The big difference is that they have the talent and creativity of Frank Zappa which makes this a lot more enjoyable than a lot of punk and post punk music for me. Great counter culture album that doesn't forget tot focus on the music.
Mike Ladd
4/5
Alright, I get why this album gets a lot of hate. I think you need to like alt rap to get into an album like this, but on its own merit, for the genre that it is, I think it's a really strong project. The rapping is above average from what you hear from a lot artists - great flow, great diction, not just talking about bitches and hoes. And the production value is something truly unique. This guy is a mix of MF Doom, Open Mike Eagle, Talib Kweli, and the Alchemist and yet he preceded them all. No hate if this kind of album isn't your thing but if you're into a really off the beaten path underground rap concept album this is a great piece.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
Fundamentally I don't like Reggae, I think it's boring, I think it's musically it's pretty uninspired, and I think it's really repetitive. I can appreciate that Bob is the best to ever do it, I can appreciate that there was some extra musicality to it, but even all of that can't get me to like it. Even the extra instruments get repetitive. I get the feeling that people really only like this for the aesthetic. It's the college freshmen who put this poster on their wall because they want to let everyone know how "cool" they are and that they're not a narc. I just get the feeling that people aren't honest with themselves when it comes to Bob.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Listening to this album reminds me of that kid who is so geeky about something that you should feel secondhand embarrassed for but there’s just something about their passion that’s infectious. Objectively I should feel embarrassed about the fable of the brown ape but every time I get a nick cave album he wins me over. I don’t think it’s great music but he does move me.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
I don't understand all the hate this album gets. Yeah it's corny. Yeah they people remind me of those dorky drama kids from your high school who continually get shoved into lockers, but god damnit do they have some passion. I think it's creative, I think they innovate, but the album does seem to lag by the end and I don't know if it really needed to be all that long. Not a great album but definitely better than its reputation.
Gene Clark
4/5
Really surprised that I like this one, but hey I guess the Dutch have really good taste in American folk music? What about this even resonates with them? I'm so genuinely confused and I need to know more.
The Cardigans
4/5
Really cool pop album. One of the first pop albums I've heard that has strong musicality to fall back on. Really liked the Iron Man cover too. There was just one moment every song where I couldn't help but think to myself, damn this song is pretty annoying. It never lasted long but it happened every time. Maybe that's a limit of the genre for me, but I thought every song was a 4/5.
The Doors
3/5
This is a really strange album to review. On one hand it's got some the heaviest hitters in this band entire catalogue. On the other hand it's missing some of things that I love most from the Doors. Doesn't feel like there is any insane guitar solo or rock anthem on this album - it's just a lot of synth mashing. And while the synth does hit for me, I can't help but walking away from this one a little dissatisfied.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Just a bunch of dudes with some long hair shredding out guitar solos. What's more classic rock than this? One of the absolute heavy hitters of classic rock with one of the greatest rock anthems I've ever heard. Big credit for championing southern rock - lot of really cool and new innovative stuff going on in this album. Free Bird will always live on as the annoying song to request at a wedding or karaoke, who else can say that?
The xx
2/5
I think this is an important album to have on the list- that being said I really don't like it. This is a hallmark style from a lot of art in my generation - not even just in music but all over. This sort of minimalist, too cool to make anything truly expressive style that, in my opinion, plagues a lot of what got made when I was kid. On one hand it's cool, it's echoed soundscapes are interesting and unique, but on the other hand, too much of this genre is frankly lazy and thinks its better than you. I don't want to shit too hard on my own generation because a lot of really good music was made during this era, but this ain't it. Even if you wanted the trance, minimalist style, you're much better suited with a My Morning Jacket or a Chrome Sparks.
John Lennon
4/5
This would be an easy five for me if not for Imagine. Every other song is unique, does so much with the instrumentation, he’s innovative, it’s cool, it’s different, but then there is the unforgivable smugness of this fucker.
Gil Scott-Heron
5/5
Such a cool album. I liked the paired down jazz at first, it got a little old in the second and third tracks, but then it really started picking up. We start getting incredible flute and piano play which in retrospect sounds like a quintessential sound of the 70s. Then H20-Gate blues comings out the gate with a scathing yet resonating political critique. Then the gloves are off from there. I never thought I would be so into an album like this but I absolutely loved it.
Arcade Fire
3/5
Literally what the chat bots give you if you ask them what an average 2000s indie album sounds like. I get why it’s on the list but there is nothing more ordinary than this album.
The Isley Brothers
4/5
What a cool album. Such a cool fusion of a lot of different sounds that were coming out in the 70s. This is one of those albums that perfectly encapsulates the sound of the decade while still being able to innovate and make it sound fresh. I don't get the sense that they were copying anyone - just a bunch of talented musicians jamming out and creating an awesome album.
Soft Machine
1/5
I can respect what they're doing here, but god damn if this isn't just really annoying music to listen to. Every time I listen to a prog rock album punk music makes more and more sense to me.
Shuggie Otis
3/5
There's a lot of cool stuff going on in this album, but a lot of it feels just a little low effort. Strawberry Letter 23 is an awesome song and you know that he's got that in him, but so much of this album feels like he's just recording him fucking around with his band rather than a formal song. Really love the sound, don't love the effort.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
My whole youth I could have sworn he was wearing a T-shirt, my mind is blown to see that it's actually a button down.
This album doesn't take off for a single song- no misses. When I was a kid I loved this album but I underestimated how impressive the degree of difficulty of some of these songs. It's got a lot of what I like about punk and grunge with a little bit more musicality and space for some of the sounds to breathe. Great epitome of a decade.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
This album started as a five for me and every song past the first three or four slowly ratcheted it down. Crazy how much this one fell off. They’re so insanely talented but they’re just dogging it through 75% of this album. It’s not bad but you know they can do so much better than this.
I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.
Beck
4/5
Such a cool, ambient, dirty, folky album. There are like 50 adjectives you could slap on that list too. Beck is so creative and such an innovator without sacrificing making an album that’s actually nice to listen too. For my money, I really like his later stuff that goes a little bit further off the instrument deep end but this is a very solid album.
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
What an album. This is such a beautiful mix of so many genres, there is the emerging grunge scene, some early moody emo vibes coming through too all the while undergirded by really incredible writing and instrumentation. The hits on this one carry it just a tad but there really aren’t any misses here either, a couple of comparatively lesser songs.
Little Simz
5/5
Seriously some of the coolest beat production I've heard on an album since Dre. There so much musicality in them and you don't get the feeling that you're just listening to a back track only there to give the rapper something to flow off of, but it's an integral part of the song. And the grime scene lyrics are so good. I can really appreciate a break from the whole 'bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks' shit. There's a lot of variety on this one too. There's not just one style of beat, there isn't just one flow. Everything you want to see in a rap album.
Pixies
2/5
Listening to this album is what I imagine it’s like to suffer from multiple personality disorder.
Johnny Cash
2/5
I liked when he was just talking to the crowd better than when he was playing the music…so that’s probably not a good sign.
Pink Floyd
4/5
There is a baseline level of enjoyment that I’m going to get out of a Pink Floyd album. This one does all the really cool Pink Floyd things plus a really cool concept album to boot- but for me I couldn’t help but walk away longing for something to really put me over the top and I never quite got there with this one to call it a spectacular album.
The Only Ones
3/5
RFK Jr? Is that you? When did you get into 90s British pop rock?
Really cool instrumentation, doesn't sound like anything too ground breaking but it sounds good. Oh but the vocals, yeah those are dogshit.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Twice is a coincidence but three time is a pattern with all of these Eric Clapton bands. They exist solely for Clapton to show off - and hey, when you really are that much of a generational talent, sure, I get it. But all of these albums lack balance because Clapton is off in the corner wanking it for 45 minutes. It's certainly not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that there's a line you draw between an album like this and some of the behemoths of the mid 20th century.
TV On The Radio
1/5
This album gave me a headache. I can give them some props for creativity but god damnit, why is there so much reverb? It's a lot of that and piercing sounds contrasting each other and I am in physical pain after this.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
There’s a lot of albums that mash the synth and whiny unintelligible lyrics button to oblivion- but this is a pretty unique way to do it…points for that I suppose.
Queen
3/5
This album is a little Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for me. Mr Hyde is a generic, boring rock album, and Dr Jekyll is a strange, mysterious glee club album. I just wish there was more of the latter than the former. This is my first Queen album and I'm excited for more of them - but I hope they lean into being weird just a little bit more.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
I'm actually a bit surprised how limited this album is. At their core, I really like the sound of Led Zeppelin, but a lot of this album feels like the same classic Zeppelin shredding that we're used to hearing, and it's wild how quickly that can turn into more like background noise.
Steve Winwood
3/5
I’ve been pretty critical of albums that just mash the synth button because they can, I think it’s lazy and uninspired. This album has the opposite problem. This might have the coolest synth I’ve ever heard and he uses it so sparingly. If the coolest part of his sound didn’t feel like any after thought on so many of these songs I would have rated it higher - but I still really dig the sound.
Green Day
2/5
Yeah we get you're angsty youths and we live in a sucky country, that doesn't make it a good album. The music is pretty uninspired and the only real selling point is the angst. You know, I'm glad my mom didn't let me listen to this one growing up.
Lorde
3/5
Very solid pop album…that being said it’s also a pop album and there is going to be a natural ceiling on an album like this. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not innovative, it’s not trying to be, it would be counter productive if it were. For what it is, it’s very, very well made - it do be what it is though.
Radiohead
5/5
What a cool album. Perfectly bridges the earlier grunge era with a more ethereal, wispy, almost dream like sound that would dominate a large part of the next few decades. In large part, it feels ahead of its time, ushering in this new sound that would inspire tons of different groups. On top of all of that, it also feels ahead of its time lyrically. Looking back on this more than 25 years later, a lot of issues they sing about seem more pertinent now than they did then. Gotta be one the best albums of all time, certainly of the last quarter century.
Boston
4/5
This is the album you hear when you go to your friends house and you hear their dad pounding beers and reliving the glory days…peak dad rock.
The Youngbloods
3/5
A truly exceptionally average album. Some cool sounds, but nothing really wowed me.
Korn
2/5
After years of playing guitar hero three as a kid I started to experiment with heavier and heavier rock. Little did I know I was going down a dark path. A few of my friends started trying Korn, just to let of some stress on the weekends. It started slowly taking over their lives. Their whole lives became Korn. I could see the effect it was having on them and threw all away my metal albums. 20 years later I can definitively say this was one of the single most important decisions of my life. This album is too dangerous for our youths. It will turn you into the biggest douche bag on the planet.
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Oh how I wish I knew about this album in high school. The hours I would have spent alone in my room staring up at the ceiling endlessly applying the perfectly ambiguous lyrics to the drab and benign events of my mellow drama youth.
There is a strange quality about this album that can get me to go back to that place- if only for a couple of lines or an interlude at a time. Really makes me want to read a John Green book and drive the county highway alone at night.
Portishead
3/5
Of all the truly awful 90s electronic albums on this list, this one might be the least bad.
The Beach Boys
3/5
This is my second Beach Boys album and every time I listen to them my enjoyment goes down. They just have one pitch- it’s a damn good fastball but I think this is where groups like the Beetles surpass them, they adapt, I don’t get that from The Beach Boys.
Madonna
3/5
This sounds like what people thought the future was going to sound like 25 years ago, but now it feels like a strange relic of a future never played out. Certainly not a bad album, and definitely not what you expect from a pop star. I think there is a lot of cool stuff going on, but it gets old kinda quick and starts to drone in the second half.
Slipknot
1/5
These guys are exactly how they present themselves on the album cover…fucking clowns.
Norah Jones
4/5
I probably enjoyed this album more than its worth, but I just had a slipknot album yesterday and this feels like a girl you fall in love with after you just get out of a toxic relationship all because she asked you how your day was.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
I'm about a year in at this point and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that these albums come up just about once a week. The nerds among us will try to say that there is something very small that they were the first ones to ever do, and they might be right, but in the grand scheme of music, especially from this decade, it doesn't do much to me to stand out. The annoying screeching that was unique...annoying...but unique.
Kate Bush
4/5
Wow, who would have thought that Fran Drescher could have made an actually good 80s artsy album. Color me impressed.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Yeah they can play really well but at the end of the day these guys are just a bunch of fucking nerds. It felt like if all the talent of the 70s was funneled into an over zealous D&D group.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
2/5
This album is a lot like playing with an old Atari. It’s cool to see space invaders and you can squint your eyes and see that path that leads that game to something like Mario Bros or Dark Souls, but that doesn’t mean it’s a fun game to play. Just because this was a stepping stone on the way to modern rock doesn’t mean that it’s any good. I’m glad I listened to it but won’t be returning to it the same way those nostalgic freaks keep trying to insist that centipede was the greatest game ever made.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
An absolute cornerstone of rock history. They do so much cool shit from blues to southern rock and everything in between.
Lou Reed
3/5
There’s a reason why no one else can be David Bowie. Even when he produces the quality can’t match what he can put out. I’ve noticed this with this album and Iggy Pop - they don’t have that same fastball that makes Bowie HIM. Not a bad album though.
Massive Attack
2/5
I get the whole Trip Hop thing that they're going for, but it really just doesn't appeal to me. The album is just so minimalistic. They are doing some cool things with the beat on some of the songs and some of the sounds are really unique, especially for the time, but the vast majority of this song is so done down that it has a really droney, boring quality to it.
Fats Domino
3/5
I really liked it…but I also don’t know if I had time to dislike it either. It’s like watching the preview to a movie where they don’t have to show you any thorns…can’t quite trust it.
Stereo MC's
3/5
I enjoyed the beats more than I thought than I was going to when I saw that this was in the trip-hop camp. But I also think that an important element of hip-hop is trying to sell the audience that on some level, even if its ironically, you have some level of cool to you - and these guys are a bunch of fucking dorks.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
Every alt girl from high school that I had a crush on absolutely loved this album and when I was a kid I only downloaded it so that they could see the album art on my ipod but I never really listened to it. It's actually a very cool genre bending album with a lot going on to it. It's dark pop - it's proto alternative - it's just very cool.
The Who
4/5
Very much feels like a cornerstone of early modern rock. They can play the shit out of their instruments but it’s missing the more mature experimentation I’ve come to expect from peak The Who.
Mariah Carey
2/5
Why does the Christmas lady do other music? And why do I feel like I'm trapped in a 2000's mall Sephora?
Various Artists
4/5
At first I thought this was a joke that everybody gets on their first Christmas doing the project as a bit of a fun nod, but this Christmas album actually goes really hard - I’m very impressed [insert obligatory Phil Spector killed it joke here].
Tim Buckley
3/5
Tough to tell if he's got soul or if he is just truly a sad boy. Either way, I like it but for my money i'd take his son over him.
D'Angelo
3/5
I really like it but I honestly think I would like it better as a list of back tracks for a rap album rather than a soul album. He's got a really nice voice but the meandering wailing just doesn't do it for me. It gets pretty repetitive but it's still an enjoyable listen.
Steely Dan
5/5
One of the hardest things about doing this project is finding out that all the dads in your life were actually right about a lot of these bands. This certainly applies to the dad band to end all dad bands - it's innovative, its got a consistent sound but it doesn't rest on a single musical concept either and god damn can they really play the shit out of these instruments. I don't think there is a single miss on this one.
Queen
5/5
As a former band kid who used to bang their head against the back of the seat when inevitably some asshole from the saxophone section used to start singing this song on the bus ride to competitions - I used to hate Queen. I specifically used to hate Bohemian Rhapsody. I have it on a short list of songs that were taken from me by the horniest, geekiest people I have ever met along with Don't Stop Believing and Piano Man.
After listening to this entire album, I felt like the Grinch who's heart grew three sizes today - I used to stand atop my soap box and and look down on those tasteless, braces wearing, sportsball repellant dorks - but you know what? After experiencing the entire album I can truly grow to appreciate it. This is really the final act of a much larger rock opera. It's truly one of the most unique albums I have ever heard and I can't imagine there being anything else quite like this anywhere else in the entire catalog of the 70s. My mind has been changed.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
This album is a lot like the timeline of EDM music as a whole. At first it was fucking awful, but then it got really exciting for a while and after that I felt like I was on LSD. Overall positive experience.
Steely Dan
4/5
This is my second Steely Dan album over the course of a week and I have to say the difference is pretty stark between this one and Countdown to Ecstasy. There is still the unique instrumentation and insanely talented playing - but there also feels to be some energy missing on this one. The last one feels like they were shot out of a cannon, I get the more subdued vibe on this one but it's missing that intensity and tenacity for me. Still a very enjoyable listen.
The Cure
3/5
This album is like listening to an existential crisis playout in real time. You can even tell the exact moment when the drugs shattered their brains - kinda liked it though.
Doves
3/5
They gave AI 1,000 generic indie albums from the early 2000s and said, add some occasional synth for a little extra spice once a track - this is the shit it came up with. It's just generic as it comes. It's not that I don't think there isn't any merit to it, but I'm just really bored listening to it.
The Beta Band
3/5
It’s very cool, it’s very moody, it’s got so much unique stuff going on that I’ve never heard before..it’s just not really for me.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
It's a CCR album so obviously I'm going to like it - but there was a lack of energy from this album that I've felt in other CCR albums like in Cosmo's Factory. I still love their sound - but it felt like that they were phoning this one in.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
It was extremely pleasant, I loved the production on it but there isn’t a moment that I can point to where I said that it really enjoying this. Overall, I would say that this album is a tad unfocused and didn’t really major in anything.
The Waterboys
2/5
Jesus Christ just because someone in your little band learns how to play the fiddle doesn’t mean you’re all the sudden good or interesting. This is way too long of a milk toast album to be such a god damn bore.
Fugees
4/5
It's a really cool rap album, there are a lot of things in the production that most other concept albums don't. That being said - I really wish they rapped more. When they did it was good, but most of the time it was just a bunch of disparate talking. I even liked a lot of the filler, but at some point it became a little bit too much filler and not enough music.
Beach House
4/5
Mark another album down from this list that is going straight to my drugs playlist. Such an emblematic album from the minimalist, indie synth music that dominated so much of this era. I really did enjoy this one but couldn't help but get slightly annoyed with the vamping from time to time.
3/5
At its core I do like their style - something about the ten minute tracks of what feels like loops continuously layered on doesn't really appeal to me. There isn't enough variety when they go on these benders of songs and by the end, like any bender, I didn't really remember most of it other than the general notion that things felt a little silly.
King Crimson
4/5
I was really into this album for most of it. I usually don't like prog rock but I found this to be pretty innovative and fun even despite what massive dorks these guys are. Then came Moonchild. I don't respect what they did on that track - thought it was way too much disparate noise for the sake of disparate noise. I was actually going to give this a five but that track is going to bump this down a whole star for me.
Deee-Lite
2/5
The aesthetic of this album is the only thing that I like about it. I’m always so amazed that people thought this was futuristic.
The Byrds
4/5
I was lied to. I was told that the Beetles were the experimental, hard hitting 60s band, but these guys are so much better. They are so much less up their own ass than the Beetles and it shows in their music. This might be one of the first psychedelic rock albums I’ve ever liked…and I do a lot of drugs.
SAULT
2/5
It's a really cool instrumental album - there is a lot going on that I really like. That being said, especially at this time in 2020, it isn't anything novel to put these sounds together. This is stuff that producers have been doing for decades at this point. To me, it really feels like the core of this album is trying to capture the racial reckoning that was the year 2020. It is a sort of interesting snapshot in time as to what the discourse was at the time but five years later it feels out of place to say that "Black People are Gods among us." and that "Black People are older than time itself." And on top of that, it doesn't really explore the emotion of blackness either - it's more of a speak and spell of racial grievances and catch phrases boiling over that year. Honestly - you can get the same experience scrolling twitter and listening to the chill hip hop beats stream.
The Who
4/5
It’s such a cool mix of doo-wop, blues, proto southern rock with just a twinkle of metal in its eyes. Such a cool album with a ton of variety. Loved just about every track.
Metallica
4/5
They’re damn good at this…not my thing though. Also the eagles just won the Super Bowl, can’t feel bad about anything rn
Rush
3/5
The general feel I got from this album was continuously asking myself, "Oh my god, is this guy still talking?" I can respect how good all these prog rock musicians are at stringing together interesting passages of music, but I just can't get myself to give a shit about whatever the fuck they're playing.
Paul Simon
4/5
Paul Simon is one the greatest American song writers of all time. Everything in this album feels so fundamental to folk music. That being said, this early in his solo career he hasn't quite reached the same heights of creativity that he will with Graceland and it's hard for me to rat this as highly as Graceland - it's just not comparable. Maybe it's bias that I had this album second but it is a clear step below.
a-ha
3/5
All I can think of when I hear take on me is a bunch of mid level finance managers walking into their 9-5 thinking to themselves, "It's a bad day to be a spreadsheet- bout to go beast mode on these Henderson reports."
But like any one hit wonder, the album gets weaker the further into you go. I did like some of the more innovative synth techniques, but at the end of the day its pretty generic 80s music past the single. But damn does that single hit.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4/5
Going in, with a name like welcome to the pleasuredome, i just really wanted this album to not be one of those creepy ones but I was pleasantly surprised when it was just all the fun meme songs of the 80s - pure fun.
David Bowie
3/5
It really does feel that music has passed him by when he made this album. He’s been making music for four decades at this point and it just lacks any sense of modernity. I certainly don’t hate it but it feels out of place for something coming out of the 2010s. I wouldn’t expect Bowie to necessarily change his stripes this late into his career but man does this album just feel like it’s getting by on name recognition.
Björk
3/5
I’m a big fan of the production value, felt very unique at the beginning. I also thought she had a nice voice. My problem is that all of these songs feels so meandering and without any direction. I liked that quality at first but as the album went on it got old fast.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
I say this as this is my second Elvis Costello album on this list - I get the feeling that he's going through a personality crisis in the middle of this album. That album he released nearly a decade earlier was so polished, put together, soft even. I think he is trying to go for a more punk, proto grunge style as the times are changing, but I really just don't buy it. I think there are parts of him trying and mostly failing to do a grunge album and there are parts of him playing back the hits. Overall it feels a bit unfocused and like it doesn't all fit together. Also his grungey voice is hot garbage.
Bobby Womack
4/5
The pipes on this guy, oh my god. Seriously one of the coolest soul albums I’ve ever heard. Not sure if it’s anything wild or groundbreaking which is going to stop me from giving it a five but loved the voice, loved the production on this one.
Bill Callahan
2/5
Is the thing that makes this album remarkable how little effort he put into it? Because that's the only thing that I can think of.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
This was the first time I ever truly heard the soul in a soul album before. It was incredible. Could have gone without the 10 minute spoken word before that last song really got going though.
Nirvana
5/5
It’s an album that saved the very idea of the rock genre. You cannot tell the story of music in the 20th century without this masterpiece. This was the turn rock so desperately needed to stay relevant. Such cool music, such cool themes, this one hits on all cylinders for me.
Shack
2/5
They should be sued for plagiarism for how bad they just copied an entire decade of the most basic rock imaginable. Nothing original or exciting about this, just drivel.
Eric Clapton
4/5
Such a cool album, bit of a genre bender with everything going on. I’m a bit surprised to see a bit of a softer album from Clapton. Really feels like he’s just a good back up band away from really making a masterpiece though. The back tracking felt a bit muddled and disparate at times. I wonder if he’ll ever try to do that….
Green Day
3/5
Wow these guys are a lot less annoying when they aren't being such melodramatic bitches all the time. Granted, there is still some of that but far less annoying than American Idiot. I thought there were a lot of good hits on this album, but overall it was pretty uniform - not too much variety and all the non hits are really cheap knockoffs of the better songs on this album.
Foo Fighters
2/5
Me: Mom, can we have nirvana tonight?
Mom: we have nirvana at home.
Nirvana at home is this just this album.
1/5
This music is made exclusively for 90s movie montages and shitty Nokia brick phone ringtones. Nothing remotely soulful about it. Even the 'emotional songs' feel mass produced and algorithmic. Absolute fucking drivel.
Tim Buckley
3/5
Feels like a man caught in an identity crisis. On one hand he's making some pretty conventional music for the time, on the other hand it sounds like he dropped acid and wrote a song about his latest D&D campaign. Like the album, I had a pretty mixed perspective. Lots to like here, lots to scoff at. Why does psychedelic music always have to read like a medieval poem with 60's rock behind it?
Joni Mitchell
2/5
Seriously, what is the difference between this and your single aunt showing you slides from her summer trip over any generic Starbucks coffee house CD while going into far too much detail on the strange men she slept with along the way. Just like the slides it just goes on and on and on. This is wildly self indulgent.
Caetano Veloso
4/5
What a refreshing album. After seemingly weeks of straight rock albums something new. This may be biased based on my recent history but I loved how unique this one is.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Another really solid entry from CCR. Definitely not their best project but they’re younger on this one. I also wish they had a bit more variety between albums as this is my third on this list.
Nick Drake
2/5
Feels like this guy had about 10-15 minutes of an album figured out and just made a bunch of rehashes of a few concepts and released it anyway. Went from a 4 to a 2 overall the course of five very repetitive songs.
Turbonegro
3/5
I was transported right back in guitar hero 3 days. This is hard rock at its absolute core. Conversely, there really wasn't anything unique about it but certainly did a good job writing and playing a bunch of good rock songs.
Soundgarden
4/5
I can really appreciate this as a blend of the old punk sound and the 90s rock sound of the time. Very unique, really nice change of pace.
Arcade Fire
5/5
Call me crazy, but this is like a neon, folky, techno future version Bruce Springsteen. Lots of soul and folksy charm but with a real dark side to some of the music. Really atmospheric, I really love this album.
The Verve
4/5
Really underrated album here. I think that most people just think of Bittersweet Symphony and write this album off as a one hit wonder with a record around it. I would disagree. I think they do a lot on this project, it feels like an interesting bridge between some of the more poppy, alt rock songs coming out in the late 90s and some of the stuff that radio head was trying to do. Obviously there aren't as good as Radiohead, but this was a really solid attempt to do something just as cutting edge.
Meat Loaf
5/5
I've never heard someone go harder on an album before. 45 straight minutes of this guy putting his soul out there. Crazy respect for this album. Makes sense that this was derived from a musical, it's so theatric.
Tom Waits
4/5
And for today's album we have the soundtrack to every movie Tim Burton has ever made.
Gene Clark
5/5
An absolute master class in the folk/ country genre. It's really cool to see him take this approach after so much time with the Byrds and after some more basic folk solo albums. To see him weave in so much inspiration from so many other genres is just so cool. I loved the mix of folk and some heavier rock on No Other. Glad this album is finally getting its flowers.
Waylon Jennings
4/5
As much as I love this album, which I do, it makes me sad about the the state of country music. Everyone could just try a little bit harder to be this good and the genre would be significantly better- be like Waylon.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
One of the heaviest hitters of the 90s grunge rock era. I get the feeling that a lot of bands were just trying to rip off nirvana but the pumpkins had a lot more flair for the dramatic and really making some over the top songs. I don’t think they’re better than Nirvana but they put some distance between them in their style and form a bit of their own lane while a lot of other bands were just blending in.
Radiohead
4/5
It does feel like Radiohead took their music as far as it can go on this one. It feels like it builds on a lot of what they did on OK Computer and they pushed all the techno futurist music up to 11. I don't know if that's necessarily something I like between this album and OK Computer but it's still got a baseline level of enjoyment that I'm going to have from one of the most innovative bands of the 90's to 2000's.
Erykah Badu
3/5
With so many of these neo soul albums from the 90s and 2000s I start by really liking them and slowly come to think they’re mid by the end. Not a lot of variety and probably a bit longer than it needed to be.
Michael Kiwanuka
3/5
There was a lot of cool and unique sounds in the beginning of this album, but it really petered out in end. In large parts it was an evolution on the singer songwriter vibe but I’d call it an incomplete one.
Grizzly Bear
2/5
Starting my day by saying, "Oh cool, it's that album with that one-hit wonder from high school I really liked," never ends well. Two Weeks always slaps though.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Definitely one of the more iconic rock sounds of its time, I'm going to say that I didn't really care for the song writing though. A lot of what they did on guitar and drums as one off sounds in the middle of a song was cool and interesting, but apart from that the album was really all over the place and most of the songs were like six lines long followed by and endless jam of disparate rock ideas.
David Bowie
4/5
I've only started getting into David Bowie from doing this project. This is my fourth album from him on this list so far, and I was afraid that I had gotten one before he really started to go off the deep end and stared to make really cool music - but you can actually pinpoint the exact moment, it's around halfway through track four on this album. Started off too poppy - awesome by the end.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
File this one under the ever-growing category of self-obsessed edgy musicians who think they are making something incredible and innovative just because they are putting a bunch of disparate sounds together for an hour. I don't even necessarily hate the music, but I hate the kind of person who makes this album. You aren't 'god's gift' to music. You're an egotistical maniac who thinks that every random thought of complete drivel that you write ought to be eaten up by us 'normies' like baby fucking birds too unaware to understand your musical genius. Well this baby bird isn't fucking hungry - asshole.
Steely Dan
4/5
After three steely Dan albums I really think there are few groups with the same level of detail in instrumentation that they have. I loved a lot of this, had some of the hits but felt like they took some songs off too.
Motörhead
3/5
One hell of a live performance. It's insane to me that they didn't need any post production to clean any of that up. I don't really love metal but that's still wild. Very cool intricate work on guitar and drums. Felt a bit repetitive to me but I'm sure if you're in the middle of that mosh pit you don't really give a fuck.
Coldplay
3/5
I appreciate this album being on here because I think that it represents a time in culture. That culture happens to be minimalist, ultra safe, ultra boring bullshit. But you can't tell the story of music over the past 100 years without talking about this absolutely dreadful period of pop rock.
Television
2/5
There some cool shit going on the with the guitar, but for the vast majority of this album it's the most annoying post punk voice you've ever heard wailing on and on and on. It's just so repetitive.
The Who
1/5
This has got to be one of the most self indulgent albums I've ever hear. Seriously, nobody cares about your creepy little drunk uncle dude. Yeah there are some hits like Pinball Wizard, but by the time you get there you're already so fucking over these guys.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Neil Young definitely lost a step by the time he made this album. You can tell he's starting to lose it vocally. I also find it a bit "hello fellow kids" for him to try to take on the 90s grunge aesthetic. I don't really have a problem with him making this album per se, but there are grunge native bands that probably deserved the spot here over Neil Young for an album like this.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Really cool mix of radio head and Pink Floyd. This album encompasses so much about what I love in the early 2000s indie scene.
The Pogues
3/5
POV: It's St. Patrick's Day 2015, you and boys are crushing Harp Lagers and pounding Jamo shots. You could play this entire album, front to back all day and not a single person in the bar would notice it's been on repeat.
I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day it's an Irish folk album that plays 20 really similar songs. It's exactly what I thought it was going to be - not bad just not really innovative.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
This is just store brand Lincoln Park. I know why there is a lot of this particular genre on this list- but why this band in particular? Really unspectacular.
Parliament
3/5
This entire album felt like one long intro a song that never actually started. I was on the edge of my seat ready for them to start actually playing but it never really came. I'm impressed with some of the riffs and some of the sounds they were able to achieve, but the actual writing left a lot to be desired.
Metallica
3/5
I respect the hell out of what this band is for people but I just cannot bring myself to care about this kind of music. All love to true masters of their genre, not for me.
Fela Kuti
3/5
It’s definitely cool, they’re definitely talented, but how much absolute filler are we willing to take here?
Pearl Jam
4/5
This album is just rock anthem after rock anthem. I think it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of a 90s rock album. I don't know if it did too much to drive the conversation forward with what it does on this album, but really enjoyable listen to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Sonic Youth
2/5
I get it, I grew up in around the same era as this album came out, it was really not cool to care and it was really cool to piss people off by making shitty, low effort music. That being said, there is a part of this that really hasn't aged well. I appreciate it more of a cultural artifact of the beginning of people not giving a shit for the next 20 or so years rather than a musical album.
Screaming Trees
2/5
Verbal Meme:
Top Frame:
"Dust is inspired by psychedelic, punk, folk and blues music"
Bottom Frame:
"So that was a fucking lie"
Blondie
4/5
Surprisingly good album for a pop artist. It's a lot of fun to listen to but there is also a lot going on in the instrumentation and the raspy voice is iconic. I'm not going to call it anything ground breaking but you can see how an album like this inspired a lot of similar artists like Pink and Gwen Stefanie a couple of decades later. It's a lot more than just the hits too. This album doesn't take off any tracks and treats each song with a lot of creativity.
The Temptations
3/5
It was fine. I get that you can point back to this one and say this inspired a lot of shit, but really, it was just pretty boring .
Eagles
2/5
Everybody’s always wondering how this is the greatest selling band of all time. No seriously, everybody is wondering that. It’s one non sensual single and a bunch of filler. How did they bamboozle so many people? It remains a mystery.
Air
4/5
Albums like this reinvigorate this project for me. After weeks of shitty rock band after shitty rock band (looking at you Eagles) there is finally an album showing me something I’ve never heard before. Awesome sound and cool as hell concept.
The Coral
3/5
It's a strange sub-genre of music that I can only describe as "Tim-Burton" rock. It's good, I like their unique sound, but they really strike me as a bit of a one trick pony. Not a ton of variety.
Madness
3/5
It’s a very unique sound and I can be there for that but god damn does this list have to stop with every band that could foreseeably be in a Tim Burton soundtrack.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
I enjoyed the first hour of this. I even liked the second hour. But come on, by the end this just got ridiculous.
Amy Winehouse
2/5
Another casualty of 2000s minimalism. It’s such a shame one of the most gifted singers of a generation wasted her talents making coffee house singles.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
This is so much better than “A girl named Dusty”. It’s astounding how much better she isn’t when she writes her own interesting music and stops singing children’s nursery rhymes.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
It was a really enjoyable listen, but it ran out of gas halfway through and at the end of the album I’m asking myself, what’s the point of this album being included? Sounds a lot like a lot of other country and folk and I’ve heard a lot more that does a lot more than this.
Scissor Sisters
1/5
Absolute fucking 2000s pop drivel. This album has about as much permanence as a shit circling the drain.
Billie Holiday
2/5
I understand that this is one of those names that supposed to be untouchable in music history, but I just don't get it. I don't think her voice is all that great, I'd take some of her contemporaries like Sarah Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald hands down, and the music is just dry. Maybe it's one of those things that you just have to tip your cap to because you're listening 60 years after the fact and can't quite understand what it was like at the time, but I can't get there.
Public Enemy
3/5
I love the energy, I love the bars, I love the message, but frankly I just couldn’t help but find this one slightly annoying. Maybe it’s the whiny beat production, maybe it’s flava flav’s background musings through all the good verses, I just couldn’t get there on this one.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
What a cool album. Mayfield has such a silky smooth soul sound. Such an emblematic sound of the 70s. I had a lot of fun listening to this one, but I do have to say that it got a bit repetitive at times. That doesn't bother me so much because I really like the sound but I think a lack of variety is going to stop me from giving it a five here.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Once in a generation soul singer, some amazing backing tracks, only thing I think you can dock it for is a lack of variety. It’s not lighting my world on fire, but it might be hard to expect that from a 60s album.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Yeah he's got a good voice, but to me this is much more of something I'd like to hear live in a smoke filled room drinking a Manhattan than on an album. There's a bit of a repetitive to this that I think I could look past seeing it live, but I got pretty bored by the end of this one.
Tangerine Dream
1/5
An album with this little effort put in doesn't even deserve the dignity of a review.
Radiohead
4/5
The only thing that makes me sad is that now I’m out of Radiohead albums to review.
Garbage
2/5
There were a couple of cool things going on with this album but not enough to save the overwhelming amount of droning, pop grunge garbage that is the middle of this album.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
If this doesn’t make you feel like a hot blooded American with a bald eagle tugging out your heart strings with red white and blue tears in its eyes, I don’t know what to tell you.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
Some of the coolest sounds of the decade- can’t argue with you there. But I have to ask, what’s with the elongated love song to Stevie? Such a bizarre tone breaker and kinda ways down the entire album for me but I’m also not going to sit here and say that I didn’t have a ton of fun listening either.
Beastie Boys
2/5
I'm not going to be one of these boomers that comes on here and bashes every rap album I hear- I actually really like the genre. I even like a lot of the beats on this album, but god damnit are these guys annoying. It's something about the pitch of their voice and the cadence of their flow that makes me want to rip my ears out after a couple of tracks.
Genesis
5/5
Usually I don't go for the whole, I'm writing a concept prog rock opera song and dance because I find them extremely pretentious and made by people who think they are gods gift to music and what they are writing is the pinnacle of human artistic achievement. Even though that may all still be true, I still have to really appreciate the ambition and unique sounds on this album. There are a lot of really cool sounds here and I would have to put it right up there with Dark Side as one of the best albums I've ever heard in this genre. Peter Gabriel - you may be an asshole, but you've earned my respect.
Jungle Brothers
3/5
I’m a huge fan of rap, but listening to this I just can’t get the image of will smith out of my head. It really is kind of raps equivalent of rocks doo-wap period and my enjoyment of it can really only be academic. I guess they crawled so others could run but this just wasn’t that good.
Joy Division
2/5
I thought the album started off strong, and I can see how this was pretty influential to atmospheric bands like the cure that would take this and run with it, but those bands fixed a lot of what I don’t like about this. It’s got a lot of minimalism going on and that’s about it. There just not much here for this to stand on.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
I want to know the correlation between people who give this album a 1 or 2 and people who only have post punk 5's on their summary page.
If you're not having an absolute banger of a time listening to an album from a genre that's on this list like two total times I really don't know what to tell you - maybe you're one of those soulless psychopaths that only likes 'deconstructed music' and can't appreciate when an album is just plain fun.
R.E.M.
2/5
This is my third REM album and I always find a new way to hate them. At first I hated them because they were an inaudible mess and they gave me the sense that they thought they were better than me. Now, I hate them for the opposite reason. They sold out to make a generic rock album. At least before I hated them but they were principled assholes. Now they sold out who they were and it's just sad. It's not even that this was even really that bad of an album, but they came into this one with so much history and they just threw it all away to sell out. Maybe I can't be pleased. Maybe this band was never meant to be loved.
Doves
4/5
It’s dark, it’s moody, it’s innovative and varied, it’s a really nice and refreshing album in a sea of what can be pretty bland and generic indie music coming out around this time.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
It's a really enjoyable listen, the only real knock I'd have against this one is that it doesn't offer to much in the way of variety. I'm not going to call it a one trick pony like I would say about its contemporary on this list, Green Onions, but it's a bit too one tracked to get a five from me. Still a really solid album.
Beyoncé
3/5
I went into this convinced I was going to like this album and buck the trend of the boomer haters on this album - unfortunately that was not the case. The production value is as good as you'd expect for the corporatized pop at the time and Beyonce has a great voice. I started out appreciated the darker and more dramatic pop feel, but it tires out so fast. This album really suffers from a lack of variety. It's got the singles that were all hits at the time and those are pretty good, but the rest of it is just tired and repetitive.
Prince
3/5
I think I listened to this at the wrong time. This is not the mood for a Monday morning at work. It was fun and high energy but maybe its the fact that I'm staring down an entire work week but this kinda annoyed me.
Beatles
3/5
I'm talking directly to you - yes you Beetles homer on this website. You may be looking at this review saying, how could you be talking to me in particular you don't even know me - but rest assured I do, and I am speaking directly to you - pleading with you.
I'm begging you, I'm begging you on behalf of your presumed children too - stop! Stop defaulting that this is a top ten album of all time.
Can we please have a sober conversation about the Beetles?
If you heard this album for the first time and nobody told you it was The Beetles, would you jump out of your chair like a preteen girl proclaiming this is the among the best albums ever created? Or would you look at the album soberly and say, that's pretty good, some hits, some misses, some cool new ideas but on the whole a pretty pop rock album. I'm not going to disrespect this band by trying to tell you that this is bad, but why are we all losing our mind over this. I know I'm on my soapbox here but I'm willing to die on this hill.
And please apologize to your kids for boomer-splaining music to them.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Verbal meme: it’s the big Lebowski scene, “god I hate shoegaze man”
Air
2/5
This baffles me because this group a different album in this same year and it was leagues better than this. This is so much more scattered noise while the other one was a fresh take on electronic music for the time. It gives the impression that this album is the forgotten step sibling. While I pity it, I don't love it.
Tortoise
1/5
Jesus Christ we get it you learned how to use garage band, fine, it’s still awful.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
I've always said this about the post-punk genre - you're not making good music just because you think you're being subversive and ironic - random dissonant sounds shouldn't be taken seriously as 'innovative' - it's lazy. This is the first post-punk album I've heard on this list that bucks that trend. There are some hallmarks of the genre but you can tell that they actually gave a shit about the music and how this sounds at the end. Still not my absolute favorite genre of music, but this is the best of class in my book.
Ride
3/5
I didn't hate everything about this album and that's the first time I've ever said that about a shoegaze album. The genre just isn't for me. They're that awful kind of edgy that's both pretentious and whiny. But this isn't nearly as bad as My Bloody Valentine - so props, I guess.
The Flaming Lips
3/5
It's a fun a quirky album, there's a sort of exaggerated drama to the lyrics that makes me feel like I'm in the middle of an anime. It has a unique sound too, very layered, a little kitchy even. I think though listening to an hour of this it just starts to feel a little too almost campy. It's almost like watching trashy reality tv, you can really like it, it might even be really well made, but you can't really take it all that seriously no matter how entertaining it is.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
This album is a truly profound masterpiece is story telling -
It’s Kendrick’s personal experience in the trials, guilt, temptations, and ultimate self acceptance of going from nothing to rich beyond his wildest dreams seemingly overnight. The album is full of some of the heart breaking tragedy that he feels over losing his sense of connection with his home, feeling like he’s betrayed his city by leaving them to pursue music, the temptations of now having the money to do whatever he wants and feeling like he’s got to make up for lost time.
The true excellence of this album is that he is showing you, not telling you. It’s easy for David Bowie to go out there and shake his hips and tell you a story about what it’s like to be famous, but it’s something so much deeper and more meaningful to show you what that feels like.
On top of that you have masterfully produced back tracks that pay homage to the generations of music that have landed black folk in the same situation as he now finds himself in when he wrote this.
There is a crazy amount of emotional depth to this album and he did it all without sacrificing the sheer entertainment value of the album.
Rap doesn’t have to be your thing- that’s ok- this album doesn’t have to be for you. But if you’re someone writing that this album is just muddled rap garbage, take a long deep look at your own listening history.
Are you someone who likes mic jager ranting about all the strangers he’s fucking, or someone who raves about the beetles because they took drugs and talk about hanging out in an octopus’ garden but still claim that your music is real music because it really means something?
This album is one of the greatest of its generation and has extreme depth. You may not like it but don’t talk to me about some glam rock bullshit being more meaningful than this because if you do you’re just ignorant and probably don’t respect things that fall outside your definition of art- the purpose of this list is to open your mind and try new things - don’t be ignorant.
Beastie Boys
2/5
STOP YELLING AT ME - I DIDNT DO ANYTHING TO YOU - I DONT EVEN KNOW YOU
The Pharcyde
4/5
Such a fun album- they hit the right balance of playful beats, and unserious, high school style demeanor, and unlike groups like the beastie boys they can actually rap without just yelling at you. It’s not earth shattering but it’s a really good listen.
Pretenders
3/5
Such a fun album- they hit the right balance of playful beats, and unserious, high school style demeanor, and unlike groups like the beastie boys they can actually rap without just yelling at you. It’s not earth shattering but it’s a really good listen.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
This is a really challenging one for me to rate because I think there was a lot to like here, but I don't really know what they did to leave an impression. It's a lot of music that feels classical with some modern, electric instrumental layered on top. It's got a lot of mood which I can appreciate but nothing is really blowing me away here.
Alice In Chains
2/5
I used to think all those kids in high school wearing Alice In Chains shirts were tougher and cooler than me but now I know they really just had bad taste rock. Age really has a way of disarming you.
Nirvana
4/5
I used to think all those kids in high school wearing Alice In Chains shirts were tougher and cooler than me but now I know they really just had bad taste rock. Age really has a way of disarming you.
The KLF
4/5
I used to think all those kids in high school wearing Alice In Chains shirts were tougher and cooler than me but now I know they really just had bad taste rock. Age really has a way of disarming you.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I used to think all those kids in high school wearing Alice In Chains shirts were tougher and cooler than me but now I know they really just had bad taste rock. Age really has a way of disarming you.
Aerosmith
3/5
This is the album that AI would come up with if you gave it every 70s rock album. This is the absolute mean of all rock music from this period, even down to the folksy harmonica solo. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s average in every way possible.
Metallica
3/5
This is the album that AI would come up with if you gave it every 70s rock album. This is the absolute mean of all rock music from this period, even down to the folksy harmonica solo. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s average in every way possible.
Charles Mingus
4/5
This here is some good thinking man’s jazz. I may not totally get it as I am no thinking man but I enjoyed trying to understand it.
Jane's Addiction
4/5
Really solid rock album from a band I didn't know a ton about. It feels very emblematic for the time, even down to the album artwork. I don't know if there is anything in there that blew me away but I enjoyed the unique instrumentation, the really good guitar work and their best impersonation of the lead singer from Rush.
5/5
I may only be rating this so high because I’m in the heat of the summer but this album has a bunch of absolute seasonal bangers. It’s a good album for sure but there’s something about hearing Champaign Supernova this time of year. I also forgot just how many hits this album has on it. You may not love the genre but this is a crazy influential rock album for the decade.
Gorillaz
2/5
There is a stark contrast between the songs with Del and those without. With Del I would give this album a 4 or a fringe 5. Without him it's more like a 2. They have really interesting instrumentals but they really just cannot be trusted to do their own vocals on this album without this sounding like whiny shoegaze bullshit.
4/5
It’s this kind of music that’s responsible for turning me into the dirty, god forsaken socialist I am today. Still rocks pretty hard though.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
I like the sound at its core, but it's pretty boring. There's very little difference between any of the songs. It rests a bit on its laurels. This is my second Curtis Mayfield and I'm a bit shocked how much better the other one is than this one. I get the feeling he's phoning it in a bit here.
Stan Getz
3/5
It's an overwhelmingly pleasant album. So pleasant that it just sort of fades into the background when you listen to it. I have nothing but respect for Stan Getz - he's a super star in his very niche genre; however, that genre is more suited for a dentists office or an office cocktail party where the HR manager is too afraid to play pop hits so as not to offend the conservative CEO with songs about female empowerment or or remind him that other people who aren't at this office party are out there having fun.
Frank Zappa
5/5
This guy is truly pushing the boundary of music. I struggle to even put a genre label on this. It’s so cool and so innovative and like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I don’t need to hear a ton more albums like this, but I need to hear this album many, many times.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
This one started off strong but then tapers off quickly. I was impressed with the unique instrumentation at first but then it slides into a strange and sad mix between generic songs in a DreamWorks movie and songs you would hear at a Disney Cabaret.
Ramones
4/5
This album is the embodiment of really fun punk. It's the epitome of saying 'Fuck you nerds, I'm going to play cool music.' And at this time in music history there are quite a few progressive rock nerds to flip off. I get the criticism that this is a bit repetitive of an album but they really had to drive the point home.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
I don’t know a ton about the discography of Stevie Wonder but I assumed that he was losing a layer of skin off his finger tips every time he touched the keys from the level of energy and intensity he plays with. This was a lot more low energy. There were some songs where you could feel it peak through but the majority of this one felt a bit phoned in to me.
Robert Wyatt
2/5
Rock bottom of this list is more like it.
Another example of why drummers make fucked up albums.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
For the life of me I will never understand what this decades obsession with mellow dramatic solo singers wailing over a piano. There was some interesting, theatrical production to this but on the whole it felt like sitting through another dreadful episodes of American Idol and that was something I really wanted to leave decades in the past.
Ian Dury
4/5
This album is a bit like a scab. At first blush it’s absolutely repulsive. But then it changes, and it changes often. You start seeing the plight of the scab and you spend enough time with the little guy that you almost start rooting for it- liking it even. Then by the time it’s done you almost feel like you’re missing something from your life, like a little part of you is gone.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
It was an enjoyable listen but this really just feels like a slightly edgier version of the cranberries - another pretty unremarkable grunge band.
Bob Dylan
5/5
It’s an album like this that makes me reflect on how much this list has changed my perspective on music. I used to really hate Bob Dylan. I thought he had an annoying voice and boring music. I’ve really grown to appreciate a lot of new music and can feel all the raw emotion in a project like this. It’s truly beautiful music and bursting at the seems with soul.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
This was really good but ultimately it felt like an album of moments rather than one complete masterpiece. I liked a lot of small things they did but in totality it’s not blowing me away.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
Everyone I know likes this band, but nobody can tell me exactly why. I've never once heard someone articulate what exactly they like about this band other than screaming, HEEEEYYYYY OHHHHHH!
This album is extremely Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On one hand there is a lot of interesting mid 90s rock in here with some pointed cultural criticism - and on the other hand it's some weird bastardization of hip-hop. I think they make total fools of themselves during those songs. More misses than hits for me on this one, unfortunately.
Bon Jovi
1/5
This is the absolute worst kind of music made by the worst kind of people. This is literal dribble made exclusively to pack arenas and sell a brand. They just took a heaping scoop of rock du jour and put into a vat of shit that is this album. No creativity, no soul, no innovation. Fuck you Bon Jovi.
I also had to go to an awful Bon Jovi concert while he was 30 years past his prime with my ex-girlfriend and her family and I'm totally not bitter about it at all.
The Stooges
2/5
This album is yet another generation down the incestuous tree of artists downstream of David Bowie. The further you get away from big man himself the worse it gets. It’s a cheap copy of a cheap copy with a little extra late dynasty Hapsburg DNA thrown in there. This is just more solid proof that nobody can recreate the magic of the king.
Sister Sledge
3/5
It was some really cool and interesting instrumentation but it felt like every song just stalled out. I was hoping a lot more of these would go further than they did. Not a bad album but given some of its strengths in the production it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
These guys are fucking dorks but god damn can they make a song about being a boysenberry jam sound good.
Peter Frampton
4/5
Pretty standard 70s rock album but it was just done so well. Some interesting and unique instrumentation, mostly just shredding it on the guitar. Enjoyable listen but nothing that blows me away.
The Libertines
2/5
Why is it that whenever the Wikipedia article says that "This was declared one of the most important British Rock albums of all time" it's always some really generic bullshit that comes off as a total distillation of everything else going on around it while adding nothing new to the conversation?
Really makes you think...
Duke Ellington
2/5
Will you please shut the fuck up about Newport? Nobody cares. Honestly having this be a live album dinged this quite a few points for me. I understand that everyone playing is extremely talented, even if they are “from the Bronx”, but it’s hard to focus on the music when that putz is lecturing you after every goddamn song.
Nick Drake
4/5
After three Nick Drake albums I’m consistently impressed by consistently never blown away.
The Hives
1/5
So spoiler alert, this is not my new favorite band. It’s actually the opposite. Throw this into a the shit bin of uncreative and uninspired post punk that plagues this list.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Yet another album destroyed by this decades disgusting and twisted synth addiction. Synth addiction is a real problem that affected millions of Americans during the 1980s and we really ought to praise these sickos for donating their careers and suspected musical talent to highlighting the consequences of this awful disease.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I like doing drugs. I like listening to rock music. BUT if you look at my history on this site, you'll see that one of my least favorite genres is apparently psychedelic rock. I always thought, what's wrong with me, why can't I get down with something I should theoretically like?
Well today I learned I'm not the problem. Everyone else is the problem for failing to come anywhere close to the Jimi Hendrix which I know think ought to be the gold standard in the genre. This kicks ass and has reaffirmed my love of drugs - thank you Jimi!
The Doors
3/5
There are some absolute bangers on this track, but at the end of the day they took a bunch of songs off, full stop. You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me that there is anything of merit to Cars Hiss By My Window. There’s a lot of good but a lot of bad here too. Evens out to a three.
Tracy Chapman
2/5
He’s got a really nice voice and I can dig some of the song writing but god damn did this one just feel like listening to the same song over and over again.
Tom Tom Club
4/5
I absolutely love the zany approach they took with the synth. This album is really weird and a little off-putting at times, but they did what so many other artists who try to make an off the beaten path kinda album can't - the choices seemed really intentional and made the music better. So many of these 'out-there' albums are weird for the sake of being weird and expect you to applaud it because they did something weird, not because they made good music. This album threads that needle and is really impressive.
Sebadoh
2/5
Just think about everything that you like about the 90s but done worse and by the most annoying people from your high school. This is an absolute regurgitation of everything going on in the 90s topped with a heap of shit. Nothing original or of note on this one. Mostly whiny bullshit.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
I love hip hop, but there is just something so annoying about the early days of rap. Maybe it’s the flow, maybe it’s the beats, maybe it’s that it sounds kinda gimmicky, but the golden age of hip hop can’t come soon enough for the mid 80s. Not a bad listen, not a great listen either.
The Zombies
2/5
Time of the Season aside, this album has the aesthetic and sound of the WaWa Hoagie Fest. I get that this might have been new and innovative in the time that it came out - but now its aged into completely flat, smooth marketing material to sell sandwiches in the summertime.
Art truly is a cruel mistress.
David Bowie
4/5
Bowie does so many small things so well. There’s so much going on that you have to listen hard for but the little things are what make the songs. The Berlin trilogy is some of the coolest rock music I’ve ever heard.
Jazmine Sullivan
3/5
Nothing about this blows me away but there are consistently good songs on this album. I love all the collabs, Ari and Paak are good stylistic choices for her. I was surprised to see that this album came out in '21. It sounds a lot more like the speed of the early 2010s. If anything, it seems to be a going a bit back in time rather than throwing down something innovative for the decade.
Jack White
3/5
It’s smooth. Not in the way that jazz can be smooth. But more in the way your brain would have to look if you think this is anything other than completely average music.
KISS
3/5
I desperately want to live in a world in which this was considered cool; but I live in my world and these guys are just a bunch of cosplayers singing about weird ass mythology. Pretty good for hard rock but it’s just the corniest shit I can imagine.
Nirvana
3/5
Don’t get me wrong, I love Nirvana and I really liked this album. That being said, I don’t know if this album lived up to its billing as the tenth highest rated on this site. I didn’t really see any benefits from this being acoustic or live. It kinda detracts from the nirvana sound that I love. You can call it a change up pitch for the band, it doesn’t do it the way Nirvana typically does it for me.
Bert Jansch
2/5
Absolute snooze fest of an album. I couldn't tell where one track started and one track ended because they all sound so similar. This is better suited in a children's nursery to lull them to sleep than on a list of albums that you need to hear before you die.
The Replacements
4/5
I want to hear so much more punk like this. They have the distinct punk sound but they also give a shit that it sounds good too. Too much of the genre is people playing bad intentionally and asking you to applaud them for it. This is a rare punk mix of musicality, consistency in theme, and range. Really solid listen.
Suede
4/5
Very cool album. This sounds a lot like it the new Cure tried to sound like the old Cure. Kinda poppy but still has that moody ethereal feel to it. I wouldn’t say it’s ground breaking for what was coming out of the time but it’s music that I really like.
Lou Reed
4/5
I was ready not to like this. I typically don’t go for the David Bowie extended universe cast of super friends because I find them all to be cheap copies but there was something so darkly sincere about this album. The first couple songs in I was ready to agree with the Rolling Stone that this was “a disaster” but the album strikes a real chord in a twisted sort of way and really won me over.
Fiona Apple
2/5
Pretty strong vocals here and some interesting instrumentation but overall this is god damn boring. The punches it delivers feel just a bit manufactured. I think this album lacks a lot of authenticity. I can see a lot of people liking this album if you're already into the genre, but I don't see a lot of reasons for this album to be my beachhead into exploring it any further.
U2
2/5
Bono is so fucking annoying. Here’s an idea, if you want to make an activist album and get people to listen to your message, maybe you should make your music bearable to listen to. I think I’d rather go to war than listen to this one again.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I think if this wasn’t my third nick cave album I’d really dislike it but there is something endearing about hearing his evolution over time, and I think that’s why people like it. Sometimes doing this project it’s hard to remember that there was a sequence to their careers and it’s not just the order you get it in.
All that being said- kinda boring.
Nico
1/5
Imagine all the drab and dreary song writing of Joni Mitchell mixed with the singing ability of LATE Leonard Cohen. Of all the bad singer song writer albums on this list, this one may take the cake.
The Strokes
5/5
This is one of my absolute favorite albums growing up. But as a kid, I didn’t know how much I really should have appreciated for what it was for music at the time. After listening to over 400 albums on this list, and far too many post punk 90s album, I can say without a doubt, rock music needed this. Rock music needed a bunch of fuck boy himbos to make rock fun again. There’s just way too much overly thoughty, overly analytical rock music coming out around this time. This is just fun. It sounds awesome. Music doesn’t have to always be more complicated than that.
Wilco
2/5
This album is a lot like a stick of gum, it just doesn’t have the flavor to go the distance or 75 minute product.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Another incredible Stevie classic. This music is so rich and so well arranged. It’s not perfect but it’s a hell of an album. I appreciate the experimentation, but not every track hits as hard as the gold standard that Stevie has earned.
The Triffids
2/5
Yeah, just file this one under unmemorable 80s slop. Not good, not bad though, not really deserving of a three either though.
Portishead
4/5
This album is so freaking cool, I’ve never heard anything like this. The best comparison I can make is that it sounds a lot like if you were to mix the drugged out feeling of Jefferson Airplane with a more modern take on rock music similar to Radiohead. Totally unique and it’s the epitome of why I love this list.
Beatles
4/5
I've come on here and ripped a lot of the Beatles albums in prior reviews, but this one is actually pretty good. That being said, I still have my gripes here.
This album is kind of all over the place. It's very clear that the each of the (relevant) band members started going off in the own direction and writing their own stuff. Not a knock, there's a lot of variety here. It can be a little disorienting because some of these guys were into some pretty freaky shit and the lyrics on some of these are genuinely uncomfortable. And for being hailed as some of the greatest song writers of all time, there are a couple of songs where they just repeat the same line the entire time.
Overall, I liked this one a lot more than I've liked any other Beatles album. I thought there was a ton of creativity on this one, which I honestly don't know if you can say about a lot of their other albums. Understanding that this is one of their most beloved works, I still can't help but think that this group is overrated, but the absolute simping of this group by boomers makes more sense here than it does on any other album I've heard from them to date.
Daft Punk
2/5
This really feels like more of a collection of musical ideas rather than a full fledged album. I get it, this is house music and that's the point and maybe I would enjoy it more if I was out dancing but that still doesn't mean that I have to enjoy it on a Tuesday morning sipping coffee.
The Specials
4/5
I honestly don’t know why everyone gets so down on ska. It’s a little corny but this album in particular is such a cool genre bender and offers some really unique sounds that I still haven’t heard to this day. Very cool album even if it isn’t necessarily “cool”
The Temptations
3/5
There's a lot of ups and downs in this album. It doesn't help when I don't really like the most popular song off the album. It kind of feels like it gets a little lost in its own sauce.
Girls Against Boys
1/5
I looked at myself in the mirror, realized I didn't have a lip piercing, eye makeup or a long history of posting RAWR XD on anyone's Facebook wall and knew this one wouldn't be for me.
If you're going to make really bad emo music, at least be really good at guitar or drums or something. Melt my face with an over the top solo, make me feels something other than angsty.
CHIC
3/5
I really loved the highlights of this album, and at its best I could see it being a five, but there are so many minutes of this album that feel frankly wasted. They let a loop play out for entire tracks with not a ton of variation. If I boiled thus down to just what I really line, it’s probably just a 15 minute album.
Ministry
1/5
God (or maybe Satan) bless you if this is your kind of music, I hope you had a really nice time with this one, but this was painful to listen to from the first note to the last note.
Bad Company
2/5
Dad rock so aggressively average that I can’t even bare to give it an average rating. I’m knocking this down a whole star for a complete lack of originality and interest in making emotionally engaged music.
Grateful Dead
3/5
I’m honestly shocked that this music has so much cultural staying power. I don’t even mean musically, but the Grateful Dead are everyone even today, but really it just sounds like mid tier folk music to me.
Aimee Mann
3/5
Yeah it’s generic as fuck, any song could be the theme song or a B-Reel song for just about any melodramatic teen show in the 90s, but to be fair, there was a LOT of that coming out in the 90s. I don’t question this albums place on the list, but it is an incredibly average album.
Culture Club
3/5
I’m convinced that everyone who lived through the 80s is a massive fucking dork after listening to this. Not even bad music, just the antithesis of cool in every way imaginable.
ABBA
3/5
I liked it, but there’s only so much of this you can listen to in succession. It’s a very good pop album for what pop is- but that doesn’t mean I have to love it. Respect it, average level of enjoyment.
Björk
1/5
Literally music you hear while getting ritualistically sacrificed by a pagan cult.
Happy Mondays
3/5
It’s not a totally average rock album but it’s pretty damn close. Lots of using some mixed synth as a crutch instead of having anything genuinely interesting or unique. Not bad, not inspired either though.
Love
4/5
It's a really interesting album for the time. This is the second Love album that I've had on this list and it definitely feels like they've upped their game from the first project. I find myself wishing that more psychedelic rock was like this- if the rest of the genre was this inspired it might not show up as one of my least favorite genres on my summary page.
The Byrds
2/5
File this one under milk toast hippie bullshit. It’s painfully generic. I like a lot of what the Byrds and Gene Clarke put out but this one didn’t have anything that made me excited.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Feels good rock in the most classical sense. It’s not exactly my kind of music, but I really can’t think of too much rock music that I’ve liked more from a holistic stand point. Very solid album.
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
Hell yeah, finally something to break up the absolute slog this list can be of generic dad rock albums. Beautiful music, incredible talent, something completely new.
Kate Bush
5/5
It is 100% a byproduct of me being 450 albums in, and I know I sound like an asshole for saying it, I wish there was a lot more avant-garde pop like this.
This may be the most ambitious pop album I've ever heard. This album is firing on all cylinders from start to finish. Kate Bush is singing her god damn lungs out the entire time. We deserve for all our pop music to be as innovative and as beautiful as this.
Fred Neil
3/5
Nick Cave and the bad seeds heard this and said, I’m about to make this my entire personality. It’s fine, kinda grungier western rock, doesn’t make much of an impression though.
Afrika Bambaataa
2/5
These are some of the coolest hip hop beats I've ever heard. The problem is, as it is with a whole sub genre of hip hop albums on this list, is that the rapping is absolute trash. I know that it's from a different era and you can't compare this to something like Kendrick, but even for early stage rap this is garbage. I would love to hear this sampled by someone more modern who can actually flow. Really wanted to like this more, but I honestly found it annoying.
Beatles
5/5
I felt like I had been getting gas lit by the Beetles fan boys for so long. All I ever head was this was the greatest band of all time, this band revolutionized music, and all I ever heard was 60’s pop bullshit. This was the first album I actually heard it on. This album doesn’t quite live up to the behemoth hype surrounding this group, but with any other band this is and easy five, so I have to be fair here.
Orbital
2/5
You want to know when time becomes a loop? It’s when you have to listen to all these god awful proto EDM albums from the 90s.
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
I felt like I had been getting gas lit by the Beetles fan boys for so long. All I ever head was this was the greatest band of all time, this band revolutionized music, and all I ever heard was 60’s pop bullshit. This was the first album I actually heard it on. This album doesn’t quite live up to the behemoth hype surrounding this group, but with any other band this is and easy five, so I have to be fair here.
Saint Etienne
3/5
This album could be the entire playlist of an H&M store.
I like the ethereal sounds and it's definitely unique, but much like an H&M, it's really hit or miss and you get the sneaking feeling that person making the product is not well.
The Smiths
4/5
I felt like I had been getting gas lit by the Beetles fan boys for so long. All I ever head was this was the greatest band of all time, this band revolutionized music, and all I ever heard was 60’s pop bullshit. This was the first album I actually heard it on. This album doesn’t quite live up to the behemoth hype surrounding this group, but with any other band this is and easy five, so I have to be fair here.
Nina Simone
3/5
Voice - 10/10
Back tacks - 3/10
I want to like this one more but it really just washes out to be an average album for me.
Mj Cole
4/5
This album walked, and at some points, crawled, so that other albums that I truly love could run. Listening to this I hear a lot of inspiration for producers like Kaytranada, Louis Futon, and other artists who would use this ethereal club sound. I know this one isn't going to be for everyone, but I can really appreciate hearing a predecessor to one of my favorite genres today.
The Crusaders
3/5
I like it for what it is, but there’s just not much to it. This whole album sounds like the smooth jazz station setting on a clock radio alarm.
The Byrds
4/5
Honestly a very cool and fun album. I haven’t loved everything that they’ve done on this list, but I have really liked everything where they try to be unique like on this album.
U2
2/5
Fucking Bono man, I don't need this on a Monday morning. This is just the most empty noise of a band I've had on this list so far. Every album is just like this one too. Nothing unique to say, nothing innovative to try. Waste of time.
The Killers
4/5
I think this is a really good, emblematic album for the time. What I’ve learned about doing this project is that rock from the 2000s was just so much fun. After listening to so much morose 90s grunge where everything is emo as shit and just pure angst fuel, 2000s rock gives a shit about being fun and listenable music. It’s not perfect, but it’s very very fun.
Can
4/5
I thought based on the first couple minutes that this would one of those albums that’s just a collection of BS ambient noise passed of as a lazy attempt for art, but this group proved me wrong. This is an incredible ambient album, they were so good at creating mood an emotion without words, I’m very impressed.
The Style Council
5/5
This album is all over the place and I fucking love it. There isn’t a genre that they don’t kill and don’t bring their own unique style too. Not everything is a perfect song and this isn’t a perfect album, but it’s incredibly stylized and very unique.
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
I actually liked this one when it wasn’t just whiny bullshit. The problem was, that just didn’t really leave a lot left.
James Taylor
4/5
Wow what an album! Just an incredible voice, incredible, yet simply stated instrumentation, and a good variety of music. Lots of soul, lots of blues, lots of folk. Not every song is a knock out punch, but a bunch on here that I really loved.
Digital Underground
4/5
If you squint you can actually see modern hip hop in this which is very cool for an album this old. I really enjoyed it but i will admit that it’s really hard for me to take this seriously and give it consideration for a five with the all the songs actually about sex packets.
Ananda Shankar
4/5
Such a cool fusion album, you never really see it go the other way. A lot of times you hear that western musicians have taken inspiration from some other culture, but rarely do you hear other cultures borrow from western music, on this list anyway.
I am slightly disappointed in either the album, or potentially myself, or maybe both, that my favorite tracks on this album were all covers of western music. I think I would have liked it if they had one original western influenced rock song that wasn't a cover.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
These guys are FUCKING lame. Everyday I thank god that this weird mix of grunge, hip hop and funk was short lived. The music is alright but I cannot get the image of absolute 90s clowns on the other side of the recording. It's genuinely upsetting that this was ever considered cool.
Talking Heads
4/5
I love a satire album that doesn’t sound bad just to make fun of you for listening to it in the first place. Good music can still be satirical, what a concept!
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Honestly very cool to hear the softer side of Springsteen. It’s really not my favorite and I appreciate his more up beat stuff a lot more, but this is a strong album that shows a lot of range either way.
David Bowie
5/5
Over and over again I’m so impressed with Bowie. He practically remakes his style for every single album. He’s innovative. He takes risks, he’s everything people tell me the Beetles are. Easily one of my favorite by him on the list so far.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Over and over again I’m so impressed with Bowie. He practically remakes his style for every single album. He’s innovative. He takes risks, he’s everything people tell me the Beetles are. Easily one of my favorite by him on the list so far.