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Sat Jan 06 2024
Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
Oh, there are going to be a lot those, right? Albums that I kinda know and respect and the significance of which I understand but which have little to me?
This one could very well sit in my collection, though, bought 2nd hand early naughties. The inner sleave would have a pencil scribble "floor: d3 (d4)" for the occasional djing.
... and now I took some time writing this, while listening. It should have more significance to me.
4/5
4
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Sun Jan 07 2024
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Eurythmics
I... think this is a decent example of why I, 9 years old when the record came out, ended up listening to Metal as a teenager. Notwithstanding its hit and "This City Never Sleeps" (put that one into my big playlist of everything), I cringed more than once. And the sampling, the "let's play a guiro here, yay!", and the dryness of those (now) stock 80ies synth sounds aged like fine milk. I guess I'd have to be some kind of archeologist to feel otherwise, but I'm not so I mostly hate this.
2
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Mon Jan 08 2024
This Is Fats Domino
Fats Domino
When, say, Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygรจne" came out, Domino's recording of "Blueberry Hill" was 20 years old. Autechre's debut had its 30th birthday last year. Always blows my mind. Anyways, Oldies but Goldies, huh? What can I say...
4/5
4
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Tue Jan 09 2024
Young Americans
David Bowie
And I quote
"Bowie himself had mixed feelings about the album throughout his lifetime."
"Bowie himself labelled the album's sound "plastic soul"."
Smart guy, this Mr. Bowie.
2
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Sheer Heart Attack
Queen
Never cared for Queen's Musical music. Not going to start now.
(There's going to be more Queen, isn't there?)
3
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Thu Jan 11 2024
I Should Coco
Supergrass
"How much dirty Britpop are you going to be?"
"Yes, innit?"
Don't think I had paid much attention to their debut before and it's probably going to annoy me a bit, but this will get a proper listen. For now, "She's So Loose" goes into my basket.
Rating. I'm not keen on how aggressively snoty this all sounds, but... nice.
4
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Fri Jan 12 2024
Leftism
Leftfield
Not sure if my memory serves me right, but I remember this cover being quite the ubiquitous sight in people's record crates back then and me expecting to hear some greatness on there, because of that. And how it fell flat? A safe, rather boring and just sufficiently pleasant version of *other* UK electronic music of that time.
At least that's what I feel today.
3
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Sat Jan 13 2024
Kid A
Radiohead
Oh! Yes. I think there's some potential in me to be more of a Radiohead dude than I actually am but I do love some of their work and what happened to them on this album is a lot of the reasons.
5
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Sun Jan 14 2024
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Seeing the cover with the song titles on it, I scanned for "Tom's Diner" and it wasn't on there? That is to say, I may not have consciously heard any other song by Suzanne Vega, ever and: this is very nice! Thank You, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Halfways in (skipping around a bit), favourite so far "Small Blue Thing"
5
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Mon Jan 15 2024
american dream
LCD Soundsystem
My first impression was to go and listen to the sources of the eclecticism instead, that's on full display here, but after some tracks, this is better than the sum of those parts, so to speak? Not really my cup of tea but I understand how it's among the 1001. It's 2 pm now, I'll probably listen to it some more today. // Still, there're going to be trailblazer albums on here and this is anything but. 4
4
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock
Easy. Vibin' and boppin' here. (Made me peak at the 1001 to see whether my jazzfusionrock favourite is on there and now all is good.)
5
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Lost In The Dream
The War On Drugs
Oh, I see. Apart from not living in the US, I'm right in the demographic target group for this. On the other hand, I'm not so easily duped and would have to be in a special mood to not be mostly bored by it. And, as Bob Springsteen continues to push his lush but smelly blanket on me - I'm good, dude! - annoyed even.
2.5, let's make it a 3, because I don't exactly hate it.
3
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Thu Jan 18 2024
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Byrds
Make this a Beatles album and I went in like knowing them from little more than "Twist and Shout" and "Yellow Submarine". I'm fairly appalled by my ignorance of The Byrds, wtf.
So; while I am not too keen on the "Old John Robertson" side of this album's music, it was overall delightful and immensely surprising. I'm suspecting there is a 5***** in The Byrds' discography and it's probably this one.
///
Rating day. I'm not going to think "Man, you know what? I need to listen to The Notorious Byrd Brothers" any time soon, but I saved 4 tracks to my playlist of *everything* and this a damn fine album, a super nice blend of US-flavo(u)red late 60ies poprock and people being weird and experimental, yes indeed, 5 stars.
5
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Fri Jan 19 2024
All That You Can't Leave Behind
U2
Skipping the ones I know, I'm half a song in and already transported to the moment, you know, on a long, boring drive, when you've only had commercial radio to keep you company and you eventually choose silence? Yeah, that.
Why... would I need to listen to this before I die? Is there a secret message? Do I need to play it backwards? "Muh dna Elttar retfa deppots evah dluohs ew"?
1
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Sat Jan 20 2024
Jazz Samba
Stan Getz
This is obviously super nice, and hey, Stan Getz. I don't know what to do with it, though, in terms of rating it. Is it too easy on my, today's ears? Too much 'Elevator Muzak' for listening to it in 2024? How do I rate these albums, really? So I cheated, hah! I try not to look at the 1001, usually, but I had a peek and sure enough, the *other* one is yet to come, so I'm happily giving this a 4 without feeling bad about it. Still, sublime.
4
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Sun Jan 21 2024
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Oh no, really? Had a couple of conversations about 'separating art from the artist' recently and No. I do not. I won't neccessarily ban art from myself that I'd liked before I found out that the artist is a douchebagassholemoron but I'm sure af not going to seek out any more of it after. With that in mind, I had never listened to this album - I'm not exactly a great hip hop / rap afficionado but especially never cared about Kanye. Bad vibes? Silly hypes? Yeah, turns out the guy's an ugly mess.
This one? It's a big album, I get that, but I don't need it in my life.
Also, Thank God for Lyric Deafness.
2
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Tellinโ Stories
The Charlatans
The existence of a band called "The Charlatans" isn't entirely new to me, but if you had played this, without showing me the cover, I wouldn't have been able to guess. But I do know ~this music~. Duh. And you know what? "Tellin' Stories" is a nice version of that music. Really nice indeed. I don't care much for it, but it seems a shame these guys were overshadowed by that other band.
4
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Graceland
Paul Simon
Didn't know this one, I think?, besides "You Can Call Me Al" of course, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Read some reviews linking it to childhood memories and I can totally see how, a nice thing to have. I was actually inclined to give it 5*****, as I was dancing in my chair, smiling, stomping and those basslines!, but started to question how that would fit with my other ratings, hm, and then the last two songs happened, so, cool, that was taken care of. Still, a strong 4 - made me happy.
4
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Reign In Blood
Slayer
Oh! That was a brief surprise, seeing this pop up in the browser window. But of course, it belongs in here. Now, for the caveat. I was quite the Metalhead as a teenager, with checkboxes ticked for two of the Big 4, however Slayer had always been a bit too much and I had never listened to Reign In Blood front to back. Now that I do... maybe it's been too little๐ค? I respect and appreciate the intense, relentless pounding - it's the point - but half an hour of it as, y'know, *music*? Araya's recitals? And I can't divorce myself from hearing this in 2024, 38 years later: Like, my brain wants to grab onto something here that I find genuinely enjoyable, today, but there aren't a whole lot of interesting bits to work with or they fray immediately. That's probably the point, too, in an album about death and suffering, but honestly, it's an 'eh' from me. Rounding up for the impact Reign In Blood deservedly had.
4
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Thu Jan 25 2024
John Prine
John Prine
The thing is, I'm fairly lyric deaf. Without a conscious effort to process a song's words, they mean nothing to me. And when I put in the effort, it sort of muffles the music, so I mostly don't. Sometimes, this is a blessing however, so I can for instance pay attention to "Hello in There" while somewhat ignoring this album's country twang music and... my eyes feel warm?
Phew, this is a tough one. I can't do it justice, I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure John Prine was an exquisite human beโ ///a few moments latรฉr, an open Wikipedia article about Paradise, Kentucky on the screen/// Actually, this is good stuff. A good 4 kind of stuff even ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ.
4
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Fri Jan 26 2024
The Grand Tour
George Jones
Had a country album just yesterday which eventually grew on me (John Prine). Well, this one won't. It's like service music for when you're very sad, but also very manly at all times and crush empty beer cans on your forehead. And you wish you could ride off into the sunset, "screw her!", but you don't have a horse, you don't even own a truck, Bob, you're an accountant, get your shit together!
Very quintessential at that and it all sounds... nice, warm and cozy I guess, so I won't question its inclusion on this list (is it time yet to mention the Anglo-American centrism, tho?), but, man...
2
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Sat Jan 27 2024
Let It Bleed
The Rolling Stones
Outside of whatever Stones songs I happened to hear im my life, I'd never really paid attention to them. The couple of hits I like had always been enough for me. I know three of these here, but in newer versions? Quite cool how rough it's produced at times, like buskers on the street. But. Eh. Meh. Alright. Hoo! Ha! Three.
3
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Locust Abortion Technician
Butthole Surfers
While I was wondering how I'm listening to this wonderfully unleashed psych pre-slugde metal punk for the very first time, I simultaneously knew because they're called the Butthole Surfers and I had always assumed this band's thing is to be eฬทฬฬฬฬงฬฬฬฬผออdฬถอฬอ อฬฬจอgฬทฬฬ
ฬอ อฬอ
อyฬธฬฬฬฬฬฬฬอ, first and foremost. Was I wrong? no. But when '22 Going on 23' ended after me being quite entertained for 32 minutes, Spotify played the Melvins, because of course: as a point in the last 50 years' of music history, this album is perfectly good at making sense, and at its time, even if its or Butthole Surfers' schtick is not quite ~my vibe~.
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes
Knew the title track so I went in with anticipation of discovering another gem.
OH WELL.
In large parts, an amalgamation of early ersatz Stones/Beatles/proto-Doors - the ratios shifting on a per-song basis - rehearsing random B-Side material, while you're listening from across a long hallway. It's not *all* terrible, and I've tried to make the likeable bits count, really, and there's some interesting ear candy occasionally, but especially considering how this mess apparently came to be by a producer shoving songs down this band's throat - Yes, I can hear that - I am at loss as to what it's doing on this list.
1
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Oh, to be a teenager in February 1970 experiencing 05:15 on the opening track for the first time!
There are some remnants of the former 'Polka Tulk Blues Band' in here, which makes this album drag a bit, now and then, and it's a debut after all, like, they have not fully arrived at what they're really doing aka inventing here, but I was stingy with my stars yesterday, so today I'll be generous and not wait for 'Paranoid' to put a Black Sabbath album into my favourites, where it belongs.
5
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival
A short timeline:
โ Booooring
โ Cool music to patrol the Lรฒng Tร u to, though
โ [Stank Face]
Nice, actually. Raw, rough, primal. As if everything is eager to match Fogerty's voice. Maybe just because it's so worn, but Proud Mary might be the weakest track here? I briefly checked the other albums and, barring Fortunate Son, I do not need a lot more of Creedence Clearwater Revival in my life - it seems they have shaved off the edge later - but this one was rather fun. Plus, it was only 33 minutes. 4 stars, why not.
4
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Calenture
The Triffids
The worst of the 27 I've had. Wow. This is music as if cobbled together by an AI (I've heard some), trained on later 80ies pop rock and whatever they're singing in their camps at World Youth Day. It's all quite creepy, really. Made it to "Holy Water", and barely so, but only for the auditory equivalent of watching a train wreck. Absolutely dreadful. Ew.
I am honestly feeling sorry for the so far two albums in the 1 star suite, as I'm sending in their new roommate. They didn't deserve this ๐
1
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Fri Feb 02 2024
The Band
The Band
Day 28. Yesterday was hard. This whole thing may indeed be a challenge.
On to the next piece of... Americana, again. Sigh. The Band. All sepia, "leather" "bound", looking like they just staked a gold mining claim... how old-timey! Well I was born an ocean away from anything this stuff wants to make me feel nostalgic for, then or now. While I'm at it, I could really do without this Roots Rock Country for at least two weeks? Please? There have been pleasant surprises, but I'm Up On Fatigue Creek here. badumtsh. This specimen? Just excruciatingly boring. Whispering Pines was rather pretty, I've had the old Old Dixie earworm (Baez' version) a couple of times throughout my life and didn't mind it but by and large, this is little more than elevator music for forgotten roadside diners.
I'm sure this has a place in another country's music history, somehow, but I have no use for it.
2
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Sat Feb 03 2024
Abbey Road
Beatles
#29. Disposition: there's a photograph of me, 11, in front of the red wrought iron gate to Strawberry Fields, with my little yellow Beatles pin buttons on the jacket. On the way back from a Bed & Breakfast road trip vacation through the UK, my parents hadn't been too keen on driving into Liverpool but after I threatened to Silver Hammer them if we don't do this (cried silent rivers actually) they gave in and I got to see some places of - is there a threshold to fandom? but pretty much: - the only band/thing I've ever been a proper fan of. Went to the museum, too (maybe they had been playing a cruel prank on me?), it was awesome!
Since then - even though it's always been easy to reignite it - my love for the Beatles has grown old a bit; it's been A WHILE since I'd put on one of their albums to listen to with intent and attention. I... should do this more often, holy shit.
Just immaculate, amazing, every second. The production. I want to live in this! Even in its two sillier outliers, I don't care. My special song mention goes to 'Golden Slumbers', because fu, Paul, I cry if I want to, now.
One thousand stars.
5
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Sun Feb 04 2024
Talking Timbuktu
Ali Farka Tourรฉ
#30 | I should like this and I somewhat did but maybe with a lot less trite Blues and a lot more of what makes this Malian music, I wouldn't eventually have snapped out of an ultimately bored experience thinking "Oh, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด nice!", to find the album had ended and something else was playing (N'Gou Bagayoko - Kulu, exquisite, 5/5).
I am glad to, after 29 albums, see something in this compilation that acknowledges that the non-anglophone 95% of the world, too, makes music you should hear, but it's an underwhelming, and disappointingly safe pick. Familiar Enough Music To Do The Dishes To.
3
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Mon Feb 05 2024
Elastica
Elastica
If you need to show someone how the 90ies sounded and also hammer home that they happened 30 years ago, play them this. See also: Zeitgeist, this, that. Music like one ring in a tree trunk. Started listening with a 'Bleh', but I tuned into the vibe. Maybe just because of how much of a document this is. In a good way, turns out.
4
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Tue Feb 06 2024
Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
MUSICโข! ๐ #cozy #lazy #couch ๐ #sofa #comfy #sunday #saturday #snowy โ #winter #autumn #rainy #morning #evening ๐ #chill #chillout #hygge #blanket #coffee โ #cacao ~~ Order NOW, get 15% off your next purchase! ~~
2
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Germfree Adolescents
X-Ray Spex
I've never heard or known about this album or band before, I think? Which is okay, my Punk sensibilities aren't great. This was rad! Also, never used "rad" before but I know rad when I see it: this right here.
Truth be told, not something I need a whole 40 minutes of*, but how "Identity" sounds like Le Tigre feat. Bad Religion, in 1978, is fucking amazing. A history lesson, this one.
(*narrator: he spent much more time with it that day)
5
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Thu Feb 08 2024
O.G. Original Gangster
Ice T
Look, I bought Body Count's debut back then and still own it, with Cop Killer on it, but I grew up in a rural German town, riding my bike, listening to Thrash and Prog Rock. The most Gangsta I'd been by '91 was to hide from my parents that I had, legally, started smoking. I have never listened to much of this music, certainly not for 72 minutes straight. I don't know what to do here. It's... aight? Cool sampling? Probably important, too. I will say I kinda like this Ice-T fellow. Better than the other two Ices. Uhm. 4 stars, so when there's more of this coming up, I've already shown my due appreciation*. Ha!
(* in earnest. I don't relate to it, but I did need to hear this album - as a societal and musical slice of time - while being entertained well enough and that's a +1)
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Deloused in the Comatorium
The Mars Volta
This is why I had never quite clicked with At The Drive-In. It's just so goddamn stressful. Music like toddlers on a candy overdose. ...is what I thought initially, listening to this in between walking home after bringing my kid to school, the morning coffee, internet and organising the day / part of which was a quiet train ride of Deloused in the Comatorium's length: Nothing to do but watch a winter landscape zip by. With headphones. Time, thus, turns out, marvellously spent. It's still nervous as fuck music, with little respite even in its calmer parts, but in there is a really great album.
5
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Stankonia
OutKast
Music's lyrical content is always fairly lost on me. And, yes, that's a problem with rap. Outkast are just crazy good however, and it shows here. Plenty of quality, weird and exciting bits. B.O.B. was new to me (from this album's hits) B.O.B. is ๐ฅ. By the end, though, I had zoned out and the next track to catch my attention played when the album had ended.
BREAK
4
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Sat Feb 17 2024
Street Life
The Crusaders
If I were driving down the road of that album's cover that night, I'd probably dig this a lot more. But I'm in another imaginary scenario which is at a bar while this band is playing up on the stage and my mates want to leave for the next part of the evening and I'm like "Alright, let's go." (Street Life, of course, is gold)
3
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Music From The Penguin Cafe
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Never heard this before. I should have. Quirky, weird, beautiful. Where is this cafe, I want to go there, like now?, please!?
5
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Mon Feb 19 2024
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
I'm amazed how familiar this still is, after what must have been at least 20 years of not listening to it. Years in which I've sometimes wondered if maybe I had not liked Grunge as much as I thought for the music itself but more for how it had put an end - for me at least - to goofy theme metal and dressed up guys with stupid hairdos. And then how much I actually like(d) Nirvana. But I very happily returned to this album today.
5
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Nevermind
Nirvana
Huh, just had Nirvana's MTV Unplugged yesterday. And mused on how I had fallen out of love a bit. Or how it's never been that deep? But how beautifully familiar it was, nevertheless. But, NEVERMIND, despite how much more I may have resonated with Soundgarden or the Alice In Chains' SAP and Jar of Flies, Nirvana deservedly takes the crown of the Grunge Kings and I would be lying if this wasn't a 5.
5
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Wed Feb 21 2024
It's A Shame About Ray
The Lemonheads
It's pleasant alright. I don't have a strong connection to this though and may be too old to picture myself in something this would be the soundtrack to. A friendly Meh+ from me.
4
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
4
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
TV On The Radio
New to me, I believe, but from the name I know that in a just slightly alternate universe, I would have listened to this. Bring into question why haven't I?
A new challenge for my rating system: I'm hearing a lot of bits that remind me of other music, music I like even love but the whole thing... just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe it's the Gouache on Cat Hair Art School Rock-ishness that's turned to 11 here?, the blend is just too fucking much.
Hypothesis: this music is the reason why Post-Rock mostly ditched vocals.
3
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Live!
Fela Kuti
Yeah. I mean. Yeah.
5
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Ready To Die
The Notorious B.I.G.
Alright alright, a standout album of its genre, so they say and they're probably not lying, but it's not for me. And that's even before fully paying attention to the lyrics. And, as it turns out, some of the ~sounds. While I like me some beats, my life has no connection to this music's content and I'm extremely cool with that.
2
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Kenya
Machito
4
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Queen II
Queen
These Queen dudes are really good at what they're doing, but I have never liked what they're doing. The pathos in every note, the flourishes of it all, the operetta/musical-esque grandiosity. Blerg.
This here however, I don't mind too much. Unrefined Queen > Polished Queen. Still pretty blerg.
3
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Wed Feb 28 2024
En-Tact
The Shamen
#48, the first electronic music album. There aren't a whole lot of those, it seems? And I don't know how and why this one took one of the spots. I'm couple of tracks in and I'm sitting motionless. Dance music, huh? This is acceptable as a historical artifact but listening to it feels like playing Test Drive (1987, Amiga, C64, DOS) when there's Forza Horizon. Maybe not even playing Test Drive but watching a rhombohedron fly through a checkered torus, in a swirly CG sky! State Of The Art! Even the good moments - and sounds, there are some - just make me want to listen to En-Tact's contemporaries from, like, The Orb/-ital or so, which may give me a similar experience, listening in 2024, but at least there would be none of the Eurodance rapping.
I reserve my 1s for utter shite with no redeeming features - this album is not quite *that* but damn close.
2
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Frank
Amy Winehouse
When everyone and their dog liked Amy Winehouse back then, so did I. Or, well enough. Listening to this album today, here's a little thought I can't shake now: "Frank" is the rowdy, dark twin of Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" that I had earlier this month. It's about 19 times more interesting, but still firmly in the same safe and trifling genre of 'Rehashing X for People Who Don't Like X'.
It's... good at what it is, and my mouse hovered over "Add to Playlist" on two, three songs but ultimately, I would probably end up skipping them.
3
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Vulnicura
Bjรถrk
First of all. Compiling a list like this and not including Bjรถrk's '95 Post should be a criminal offense. Who is this Robert Dimery dude anyway? With this out of the way: Bjรถrk lost me somewhere around Vespertine. Her music became weird. Not cool weird, but a meandering weird weird. And so this album was new to me. Still weird and not pleasant, but well. There's the subject matter here. Seems like a return to Homogenic but with all Pop thrown out of the window. Like his stuff, haha. Innn aaany case. Very glad that I got to listen to it. Will I ever put it on again? Hm.
4
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Automatic For The People
R.E.M.
So. I enjoyed seeing this cover pop up: pleasant music that I know and like well enough, enjoy my time with it, give it a 4 or 5, move on. Maybe take the opportunity to dig deeper into R.E.M.'s work.
And then I started to wonder why I never quite *loved* them. And then I started to see. It's Your Friendly Neighbourhood Music. Music that rescued Little Becky's kitten. Helped clean up Mrs. Rosario's yard after the terrible storm last month. Which is all very nice and of course it is, but... I have picked up a word from other people's reviews over time and it is a good descriptor: "beige". Like that oboe(?) in Nightswimming, for instance? That's fucking beige. All of what the instruments are doing here is just, here's that word: boring. Also: safe, courteous, bland, mid. An inoffensive backdrop for Stipes' singing.
But then I also understand how I'm not doing it justice by just looking at the sensations I get from this music's soundwaves pounding my eardrums and suddenly I find myself missing the days of buying CDs and flicking through booklets, reading the lyrics and then "Automatic For The People" does a full circle and makes me feel nostalgic and it becomes... a 4 after all? Yeah. Rightly so. A good 4. Done.
4
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Dub Housing
Pere Ubu
Bottom line: that was quite something. But my initial WTF pretty easily gave way to me liking this. Not exactly loving, though: the often edgelord vocals unnecessarily shot the whole thing in the foot and that Spodyody tune was ghastly, but...
I had fun with this album. Wild, weird, unpredictable. loved how they used their synth(s), 46 years ago. Two songs went into my basket, glad I listened to this. Definitely an AYMHBYD.
4
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Let's Get It On
Marvin Gaye
Yeah, okay, sensual.
3
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Tue Mar 05 2024
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
I have heard a lot music in my life, in a lot of situations, but somehow Pink Floyd has always taken the cake in creating memorable moments. Or happened to play in those, I dunno. Case in point: when we took the last corner through the forest and before us lay the wide beach of Saint-Michel-en-Grรจve, low tide, the sun had just begun to warm the air and slowly clear the fog, no soul in sight. Breathe (In The Air) was playing. Was magical.
5
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Wed Mar 06 2024
If I Could Only Remember My Name
David Crosby
I've never had a particular or ongoing interest in this type of music but may have had a soft spot for Crosby's song writing, singing and vibe, whenever I'd come across it. Previously Wodden Ships and Triad (eventually recorded by Jefferson Airplane) and while doing these 1001 his contribition to album #13, The Notorious Byrd Brothers and... this was more of that. No problem whatsoever. Nice. Will probably put it on again, later today. However, I'm a bit mystified why I *needed* to hear it.
4
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
#56, the first of seven Dylan albums. I would want to put some rambling about this list and its curation process here, but I'll get to the point:
I tried it with this guy, really, but I just can't. The point of music, to me, is: music. It's not words. And so a vocalist's performance is mostly sound, timbre, a layer in the music's soundwaves which hit my eardrums and in the process excite the auditory nerves to generate a, hopefully, pleasant and/or interesting sensation. All of music is about that.
Dylan's soundwaves are shit. Firmly sitting in the space between grating and boring. And I'm not going to pretend otherwise, in order to be able to discover potentially good song writing. I know it's there, at times, but it wasn't Dylan who has shown me, but among others Melanie Safka (๐ข), Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, The Byrds, heck, even fucking Guns 'n Roses or U2. I don't understand why I would want to listen to this man.
[copy/paste to a Notepad file, for the remaining six]
This album? Yeah, boring. Grating. Occasionally, it brings about a hint of a nice vibe (Visions of Johanna) but any redeeming bits are nullified by how many more of the 72 minutes do - at best - nothing for me. Blues Rock Sonic Garbage that irritates me more than what his session musicians here eventually did as "The Band" (album #28) three years later and that was a 2 from me.
1
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Fri Mar 08 2024
We Are Family
Sister Sledge
The three hits are super dope, Thinking of You, too - the rest I've already forgotten.
3
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
Thus far, Hip Hop has shaped up to be among my Worst Genres here - I'm very happy to rectify that now. Knew their name but never heard it before and I enjoy this a lot. I have heard that one voice, though, and yep, Chali 2na on Roots Manuva's 'Join The Dots'. Fast Forward: This sentence now is from a few hours later than the previous ones, been playing this all day long. Head nodding fun. It eventually loses a bit of momentum during the tracks after Thin Line but that's on me. Great stuff.
5
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Central Reservation
Beth Orton
Went back and forth with my opinion on this one for a while, but then the album shed the -tronica part (with it, as a genre, there was and is much more exciting stuff around) and it became a Five. Reminded me of listening to Suzanne Vega's '85 debut (album #9), a 15 years younger 90ies version of it, just without the great sensation of discovery, but I can't hold this against the music. Which is lovely.
5
View Album
Mon Mar 11 2024
Junkyard
The Birthday Party
Oof. I feel like this Kombucha tasting woman from the meme with this one. But I will have to settle for Nah. I totally appreciate this album's existence but compared to the other aggressively weird one, Pere Ubu (#52) from recently, which also featured vocals from the psychiatric ward, the core of the music that's being mangled here is a lot less appealing to me. And so the result more painful than interesting.
3
View Album
Tue Mar 12 2024
Odelay
Beck
It's cool to come to terms with some of these albums that I've heard, or at least their hits, when they came out: I guess I've actually never liked Beck after all (90ies Beck. I don't know post 2000 Beck yet, outside of his Record Club project). Slacker music with aimless ADHD that's too eccentric for its own good. Or ~cartoony. Country Jangle Pop but also Beastie Boys. Like liquorice but icecream. It all seems a bit forced. Or something, I dunno. Whatever my problem with it is, for now I can definitely say that this is crap music to have my early morning coffee to.
[...]
A few hours later it sits better with me but I can't say that things have improved dramatically. I respect this album, for what it was in its time, but that's about it. Honorable mentions: Minus and Ramshackle.
3
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Wed Mar 13 2024
The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips
+1 to the list of bands that had only existed as a name on the fringes of my perception [trailing off] It's now some time later, after the previous sentence - this is becoming a thing in my reviews? - in which I have spent some more time with the album, and The Flaming Lips' work, like their, what? cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? the whole thing?, with huh?? Miley Cyrus on Lucy In The Sky!? I'm awed by how this here is my introduction to this band!
But hey, it's never too late. I... love this, I think? I'm firmly in the second half of my life, so this being new to me, it reminds me of a lot of other music - much of which is eligible for a good part of my all-time favourites list: do I sense Spiritualized, Pink Floyd, bits of Radiohead? German ~post-rockers The Notwist in the - well, not conventially great but endearing - vocals, especially in Waitin' for a Superman? Yes to all. It's quite gorgeous, really. Not sure if a 20 year younger me would have liked this, but I've been developing a soft spot for dreamy, shoegazy, psychy rock/pop and this fits *right* in. Thank you, 1001AYMHBYD.
(the inclusion of those Mokran mixes at the end is wtf, though)
5
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Ramones
Ramones
~~โจ Unpopular Opinion Time โจ~~
The Ramones' Punk only serves as the simplest possible wrapper for a sentiment - there's nothing else - in the same way Schlager Music does. Like, say, "Die Woodys - Fichtl's Lied". And as they have nothing punk to say over the course of their album - even less than the Woodys - it is equally as dumb as Schlager: shallow shit on a schtick.
(Havana Affair, in the Anniversary's Version mono mix, thus stripped of any pretense of sonic qualities or interest, was alright)
1
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Fri Mar 15 2024
Moving Pictures
Rush
Another album and band that had eluded me before. So, without any preconception: I should like this and will probably give it another listen later today, but... hm. So far, the first minute of YYZ sums up my whole experience with this album. As in: I didn't know 1981 could sound like Animals As Leaders (who came to mind), wtf, this is awesome until HAHA, tricked ya, we play white dudes' Hard Rock.
This is pretty great, when it's great. Sometimes it's not. The main issue for me is that 43 years later (oof), I can draw on a WHOLE lot of other music to scratch that itch more precisely. Or, all of the itches. However, this was interesting, glad I listened to it.
4
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Sat Mar 16 2024
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
Released in '89, I can see why it's regarded as a classic, but I'm listening to it for the first time (may have heard some of its singles before idk) and after the first two songs, which I like, it kind of blurs into the Madchester To Britpop pipeline stuff that became rather ubiquitous in the years after. And that I have, bar The Verve's "A Storm in Heaven", never cared much about. I don't want to use "overrated" yet, but from today's POV I could. If I wanted to. It's neat enough and was first, so I don't. But also: meh.
3
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Sun Mar 17 2024
British Steel
Judas Priest
Even as a metalhead teenager, I had not been interested in Judas Priest for some reason* and never listened to them, or at least never since. And I really only knew Breaking The Law, and likely via Beavis & Butt-Head, when I opened this, expecting boredom and possibly cringe.
Huh. This has been the most unadulterated FUN I've had with any of my 66 albums so far!? Fuck yeah ๐ค!
*Maybe I had filed Judas Priest under that trite Hard Rock of Living After Midnight but the rest - and I'll ignore the 2001 Remaster bonus track addition of Red, White And Blue - is chef's kiss! Halford is fantastic and something about the drums makes me go Wow! Those drums! Extra fun to spot the blueprints of what became circa Metallica. Great, great album!
5
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Hysteria
Def Leppard
See, that's what caught me so nicely off guard about yesterday's "British Steel" by Judas Priest (#66): I didn't need irony or nostalgia to have big time fun with it.
Hysteria, on the other hand, which I did listen to backthenโข, needs heaps of both now. A monumental achievement in megalomaniac Radio Hard Rock, with all the bAnGeRs, yes, but: cheesy, goofy, almost clownish today. And aggressively super-sized American, somehow, out of... Sheffield? That said, I still can't quite hate this and might even do a dramatic lip sync performance to Love Bites, in a car ride w/ commercial radio situation, but this album aged into Music For Memes.
3
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Tue Mar 19 2024
Who's Next
The Who
I've never sat down with The Who's work (any) and gave it a proper listen. And honestly, this album's middle doesn't make me excited about the prospect. When their music connects, though, it really does. Going to do some math here, with a +0.7 for "We bought a crazy synth and by God, we're going to use it!" and it comes out as:
4
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Wed Mar 20 2024
White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
I like The White Stripes, they're cool, and I enjoy quite a bit of what Jack White has been doing since, whenever his music came my way, but I didn't need an album of this today. It was ~alright.
4
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Life's Too Good
The Sugarcubes
I would like this to fall into my 5 star category: An album I had genuine fun with, no if/buts, or that I fully enjoyed discovering for the first time, but there's a bit of a chipper extrovert madness in the music here (not necessarily via Bjรถrk) that I found tiring after a while, somehow, right now, today. Shame. It's good, though!
4
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Fri Mar 22 2024
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Mudhoney
I don't always listen to garage punk and proto grunge but when I do, I'll now make sure it's Mudhoney.
Really now. My 5 stars often reflect how much I enjoyed an album within this 1001AYMHBYD challenge and this is the shit. Certainly one of the shits. Also, best harmonica I've heard so far. Looking at you, Bob.
5
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Oh. This one.
Okay. Like anyone who was a self-respecting teenager when Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out, I have a fair bit of RHCP residue in my system. Over time though, it caused me to develop an intolerance to their music. And looking back, it may have been Californication, my absolut last point of contact with anything this band has done, that did most of this. I liked it a lot when I came out, but it's like its age unveiled a crass caricature: I put this on a few years ago and literally sat there with my mouth open being stunned by the nails on chalkboard experience. How much of it is due to the pain- and godawful mix or Kiedis kiedising I don't know, but bottom line: while there's some great song writing in here (Parallel Universe and This Velvet Glove have always been my favs), I simply can't listen to this anymore.
3
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Hearts And Bones
Paul Simon
Man, Paul Simon, huh? Pretty great, this guy.
Should have given Graceland a 5, but I didn't so I'll make up for that. Happily. Even with the Sesame Street skit. Music to feel good to.
5
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Sincere
Mj Cole
Was just thinking how Electronica is, 72 albums in, my worst liked genre here. I mean, I get it. When you feel the need to have 7 Dylans and 5 Springsteens in your compilation, you are likely not expertly knowledgable in electronic music. Or interested. But you could have asked for help, no?
This offering is marginally better than what I've had so far, but it fits right in with the theme of "records I found in the ยฃ1 vinyl crate at the flea market": another entry of a safest, blandest and worst aged specimen of [electronic music genre] that had one or two radio friendly hits once.
That said, I've always liked the title track and the Jazzanova Remix is something I might still put on and it's all not horrible, but an album of this? You Must Hear Before You Die? Come on.
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
This old vocal jazz... it's super lovely and Sarah Vaughan is amazing but it quickly sates me somehow, sadly.
4
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Wed Mar 27 2024
Document
R.E.M.
I feel like returning to Automatic For The People to confirm that I wanted to poke it with a stick - do something! - and then compare but I can already say that this one here is all what's good about R.E.M. with... nothing else really. Needs no poking. Nice album.
5
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Boston
Boston
Did anyone even die in the past 40 years without having heard this? I may have filed "More Than a Feeling" under 80ies Hair Metal and I ~know half of these? And the thing is: rightly so? This is just excellent at what it is. Someone in the reviews compared the music to Deep Purple meets Queen and yes, at times it sounds like those two rolled into one - this might be my only gripe actually: while I like me some of the former, I don't care much for the latter. But that's nitpicking because fuck, this rocks!?
4
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Fri Mar 29 2024
You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fatboy Slim
Alright, a classic of course. And it's nicely illustrated by the photograph over at Spotify's "about the artist". This is a sculpture of vuvuzelas: kinda funny, for a very brief moment in time, but quickly just irritating af. And look! It's also a guy in a football jersey blaring PAAAARTY! in your face. For an hour.
When this came out and its hits played everywhere, I tolerated it for its novelty but today, *as an album*, I find this utterly obnoxious.
2
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Sat Mar 30 2024
The White Album
Beatles
Ah, the weird one. The beginning of the Beatles' end. This, and the cover artwork is so fitting, is their shoebox. Filled with random bits and bobs. Some are great, some are not. Lift the lid, take a look inside. This is them, "The Beatles", both the group and the four dudes. What they're about. Or were. All of it. No filters. And this is fine. It's not Abbey Road or Sgt. Pepper but it doesn't have to be. I wouldn't have rated this a 5, maybe, but just a few weeks ago, I happened to listen to the Esher demos, raw versions of these songs they recorded when they were hanging out at George's place, as friends, still or again, having fun and with those in mind, how can I not.
5
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Sun Mar 31 2024
The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
Had a couple of albums by bands I knew the name of but nothing about their music and mostly I'd not been missing much. This is not one of those. This is very nice. [break] Buuuhut. Its best moments are when - I don't want to make the comparison but here we go - it reminds me of what I liked about Coldplay's first two albums before they... whatever it was they did, those idiots. Sadly, I feel like after Mirrorball or Grounds of Divorce the "cinematic" aspect takes over. Or rather *theatric*. Soundtrack pieces for slow stage plays. [break] On the other hand, this music, all of it, has been a welcome companion throughout my day so far.
4
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Mon Apr 01 2024
The Joshua Tree
U2
U2's last fine moment, right there. This cover should be in illustrated dictionaries, under ๐ like ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ. It's the run-up, just before the jump.
What came after (Rattle and Hum is them right over the shark), when U2 either laboriously or safely focused on only chasing the highs of commercial success, I didn't care about or despised, and I have some more snark in me, but I can't bring myself to not admit that this still hits. I know "War" is up for a review and rating at some point, but I try not to pitch albums against each other, so...
Hello, first entry to "Controversial Artist"
5
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Tue Apr 02 2024
If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears
The Mamas & The Papas
Phew, what a band, I bet this bathtub could tell some stories. Now for the music. Eh. California Dreaming saves the record.
3
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Olympia 64
Jacques Brel
Nice. Always loved Amsterdam (and Ne me quitte pas), goosebump stuff, and I quite enjoyed the vibe of all of this. And as the 1001AYMHBYD list is so hilariously shit at acknowledging the existence of the non-English-speaking 95 percent of the world and its music, this is an automatic +1, makes ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฒ รฉ๐ต๐ฐ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด. And no, I do not understand what Brel is singing. You don't have to, you know?
5
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Thu Apr 04 2024
In Our Heads
Hot Chip
Alright, not bad! Contemporary Pet Shop Boys? The post-rock-turned-techno from Vessels but with pop๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ? This is neat. [...] ... I thought for a while but now I have the urge to - Oho-Oh-Ohoho-Eoh - skip through it. This isn't giving me anything I'd actually like or need to have. It's all just very whatever. At #84, the most interesting entry in the Electronica genre so far, sure, but that bar is crazy low. Still, not an actual bad or even truly boring album, but why is it here?
3
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Fri Apr 05 2024
Sรฃo Paulo Confessions
Suba
First impression: "6495 monthly listeners" ๐ค. Second: yes, I'm one of them! I don't think this is my absolut first exposure to this album - I bought quite a bit of circa this downtempo/experimental/nujazz/fusion records around the turn of the centuries and the cover looks familiar? - but it's a first active listening experience. And an excellent one! Time tends to not be kind on ~that~ music from the era, usually, but 'Sรฃo Paulo Confessions' with its vibes, textures, restrained funk and noise is way above those pastiches from similar sounding German or British producers. I read how Suba likened his experience of living in Sรฃo Paulo to something out of a tropical 'Blade Runner' and this album seems like a proper expression of that. Held up beautifully and definitely derserves a spot in here. (Now do Amon Tobin, ๐๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต!) Faves: the whole run of the first 3 tracks, Sereia.
5
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilco
It's one of those, right? An alt-indiepostfolk-rock album, this side of Grunge, Dad music for contemporary dads, that, in a slightly different parallel universe, I would love? But that, here, I don't? That, while I appreciate the sounds and sensations, bores me? That might have a chance to "grow on me" but why should I want it to? Yep, one of those. It has my sympathy, but I can't say that I care much for it.
4
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Sun Apr 07 2024
Scott 4
Scott Walker
Ah, the much revered Scott Walker. First time listen, no wait, I know "Old Man..". I'd like to queue this to return to it on a different day in another mood. Because the circa Morricone ร Crooner is pretty cool, I can already say, but it seems this is an album I should pay attention to and I don't quite have the patience today. Uhm, and this alone makes it a 4.
4
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Hounds Of Love
Kate Bush
I'd never quite paid attention to Kate Bush's oeuvre and I'll admit that it was Stranger Things' return of "Running Up That Hill' (and, my daughter playing Babooshka, because TikTok, somehow...?) which brought her into my consciousness and then made me realize and grow my respect for her.
Still, this was the first of her albums that I actually listened to and I'm stunned at how mesmerized I am by what, on paper, I should not be exactly be a fan of, "artsy 80ies weirdness"? Nope. This is amazing! An actual, wild masterpiece. Outstanding. Love.
5
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Tue Apr 09 2024
The Stranger
Billy Joel
It's a shame the person with the Chandler Bing/Patrick Bateman review stopped after 10 albums. Think about the bangers they would have brought us!
3
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Wed Apr 10 2024
Happy Trails
Quicksilver Messenger Service
A big regret of mine is that I didn't see Kyuss when they were playing at the festival I was at. Didn't know, didn't bother, probably [unclear mumbling]. With that, for context, Quicksilver Messenger Service gets a 4ยฝ out of 5 ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ท๐บ, ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐ง๐ข๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต!s.
4
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Thu Apr 11 2024
American Gothic
David Ackles
Oh, another one for my collection of album covers with brownish photographs of the artists! Cool!
1
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Fri Apr 12 2024
Seventeen Seconds
The Cure
During the years The Cure released their albums, say, between this one and Wish, I really, extremely didn't care for them. And even less so after. But it's been a very nice journey in the recent many years to (re-)discover what I had not been into, missed or ignored as a circa teenager and what it does to me today. The Cure, for instance. I'd already come to cherish the two "hits" of the album and the whole of it, not to my surprise, does not disappoint. On repeat, today=5
5
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Sat Apr 13 2024
It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
This may be an issue I have with much of contemporary and often synth infused Indie Rock, examplified by this album: I don't understand what it wants from me, what it wants to do with me. It doesn't touch me, it doesn't move me, neither emotionally nor my body despite its frequent dance tunes. Why ๐ช๐ด it? It doesn't tell me anything, explicitly or otherwise. There are no sonic discoveries to be made. The music may sound like a ruckus, but what's underneath is rather tame and boring. Coincidentally, there's a version of this album with a few accoustic takes of the songs, which are allowed to be ~tame and those are much more engaging to me. But that's not part of the assignment, is it?, so:
I don't particularly hate this but - despite or because of my aversion to purpose-made music: - what is it ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ? The only thing that comes to mind is someone's house party where let's call her Christine balances of bag of crisps on her head, she's just crazy like that, haha.
3
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Sun Apr 14 2024
The Sun Rises In The East
Jeru The Damaja
"Sounds like an angry, raw Jazzmatazz" I thought for a moment, believing I had a clever moment there making a connection, before looking up if, aha!, Gang Starr will also come up on this list. This is good. Will probably be on repeat today.
4
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Mon Apr 15 2024
That's The Way Of The World
Earth, Wind & Fire
I don't have any doubt that this is objectively god, that was a typo, it amused me, good, but my general desire to listen to disco funk or soul ballads isn't that great and it didn't increase over the course of this album. I think my left brain had more fun with this, dissecting it. When in "That's the Way of the World" Andrรฉ 3000, pretty sure that's him, starts singing, in my right ear "never never" over the other, main lyrics and then that becomes louder and center to BE the main lyrics? Some pretty cool bits in here. I'll keep this one in mind. Not entirely my cup of tea, but I might want to listen to it again.
4
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Fear Of Music
Talking Heads
I've been walking past one of their other albums for years, the one with the four heads, in the window of the record store, hanging next to Nevermind and Highway 61 Revisited, all blue tinted bleached out and I've been wondering if I should know this apparent classic. If I should have payed attention to those Talking Heads.
Haha, nope. This sounds precisely like "they met in design school and openend for the Ramones" and I don't mean this as an accolade. Honestly, I'm puzzled by all the glowing reviews. People, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ, listen to Electric Guitar, Animals or Drugs and go "Wow, ohh, wonderful! ๐"? Huh?Because: this album's ~art wave rock~ whatever with Byrne's exalted vocals made me think of the 1978 'Dub Housing' by Pere Ubu (#52) and that one is currently rated the 14th worst album on this entire list. I went and had a look at the reviews and sure enough...
"Talking heads but worse"
"It reminded me a lot of Talking Heads, especially the singing, but a worse version"
They have it backwards, though. Dub Housing was โ
โ
โ
โ
โ, actually wild, interesting and experimental. This is not. Fear of Music reminded me of Pere Ubu but boring bullshit, with a stick up its ass. I'll give them the "ahead of their time", if I have to, and 'Heaven' had a strange low key beauty about it, I might keep that one, but other than that, this sucked, mightily.
1
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Wed Apr 17 2024
American IV: The Man Comes Around
Johnny Cash
Do I have to?
Always respected the man, but I never cared much for Cash's music. This is an album of his music being other artists' music that he sings. He is about to die, with his old voice. Sentiment. Is a word. I appreciate all of this. But it's covers. And the sensation of Cash doing those songs in his style just doesn't carry me through 52 minutes.
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
The White Room
The KLF
Something could be said that sounds a lot like \"you had to be there\" and it would, unlike with some previous Electronica albums that seem to have found their way onto this list because of chart hits, actually make a strong argument, but even today, I'm enjoying this much more than I expected to. Which was - I knew there's more to The KLF than meets the eye (or ear), but still - highbrow eurodance. It kind of is that but... maybe because I'm clicking through The KLF's discography (the album on Spotify isn't quite \"The White Room\" anyways) I'd agree that this indeed is MusicYMHBYD.
4
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Fri Apr 19 2024
Oar
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
I think this aggravates me. How it's another offering of US psychedelic folk rock and I look it up to understand why that one might be on here and it's ... because the guy was fucked up? That's why? Or what? A musical genius, tormented by his demons, that story, or a drug-addled arsehole who happenend to be a not completely shit musician? What's the deal here? Why should I need to care? Because, without that cOnTeXt, much of what comes after the original 12 tracks is fairly laughable. And the world would be fine without 9 of those 12. So what am I reviewing here, honestly?
1
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Rubber Soul
Beatles
Wondering if I, for a change, should and could rate a Beatles album with less than 5. Just to see what it feels like, for the kicks. To spice things up. And maybe even to try out pretending I'm listening to this band's work for the very first time. But it's not this one, again.
5
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Sun Apr 21 2024
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
Tough one. I recognise The Downward Spiral as one of the great and important albums of the 90ies but it wasn't quite my thing then and it isn't now. I think I like my angsty depression soundtracks more on the ethereal side.
3
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Apple Venus Volume 1
XTC
[I've only recently realized that I can queue my reviews. I will have to use this here. First time I've heard of this band, I think(?) and this is certainly interesting, maybe more.]
Nah, it's easy actually. My 5 star ratings here don't necessarily adhere to my usual musical preferences only but also to how much I enjoyed being shown a particular album. Like this one.
5
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Ellington at Newport
Duke Ellington
Remarkable how many people feel the urge to detail their relationship with Jazz in the reviews. So... Me? I'm not a stranger to it, but (or therefore?) I can't say that I'm a great connoisseur of jazz', say, pre 60ies years. Unless it's ~smooth~ but then it becomes music for dinner parties. This here is cool, however, but solely because of the energy that's conveyed through the live recording, which also cuts it into slices that makes it unwieldy and too long. It's wild and again: cool, but - in 2024 - this album doesn't hold my attention or interest enough to grant these 2 hours more than a 3.
3
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Roger the Engineer
The Yardbirds
It's.. alright. Bit of a guitarists' music Starter Pack? A fairly fun listen, for '66. Someone said how it sits between The Beatles' rock 'n roll and Black Sabbath. Good one. That comparison, that is. I like both Beatles and Black Sabbath more than this.
3
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Thu Apr 25 2024
The United States Of America
The United States Of America
I'm always so disappointed when it says Psychedelic on the label and then it's just bluesy folksy pop-rock, but in bell-bottoms and someone may have had a joint. This here is the good shit. Yes. Bit cartoony at times, some tracks are like skits but I don't mind them in the flow of the album. Good one!
5
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Fri Apr 26 2024
Moss Side Story
Barry Adamson
I like instrumental, moody, cinematic music. Soundtrack-y. I listen to this stuff. Which is a problem for this album, because any- and everything it makes me think of is worlds better than this. Its only saving grace is how I wouldn't have guessed that it's from 198โ oh, there's the industrial synth drum, nevermind.
I also feel like pointing out that 'music for an imaginary movie' is not novel or clever - especially when you're putting it together as a literal job application in the movie industry. What is this doing here? Corny ass nonsense.
1
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Sat Apr 27 2024
Chirping Crickets
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
What a pioneer and so influential and what a tragic loss just think of what could have been! And now with that out of the way, I think I'm well within my rights to assess this music with ears from 67 years later: it should be on Diamond City Radio. I see myself shooting Boston's Super Mutants to 'Rock Me My Baby'. Outside of that? Eh.
3
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Fifth Dimension
The Byrds
When "Notorious Byrd Brothers" came around as album #13, I had of course heard of them and their Tambourine Man but I'd been largely ignorant about who they were and what they actually did. Some jangle pop folk rock, no? That album ended up in my favourites. So does this, even more so, because I've also since realized how much I like David Crosby ('Notorious' should have been a 4 probably, but I don't care, this isn't a contest). Bottom line: when The Byrds were like *this*, they were possibly the best 60ies band that side of the Atlantic.
5
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Mon Apr 29 2024
Step In The Arena
Gang Starr
A stellar album from two stellar artists, but maybe a bit lost or wasted on me, I'm afraid. As dope as this is, the musical content of the 1 sample & 1 beat (add some sprinkles) recipe of old hip hop gets tiring after a while.
4
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Tue Apr 30 2024
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
There are a couple of Jazz albums in here I'm looking forward to but this wasn't one of them. It would have been, if I had heard it before. Which I *think* I had not. Magnificent. Not easily digestible at times - Wikipedia taught me the term "Third Stream" - but it's all good every time Dannie Richmond starts drumming again. Been playing this all day.
5
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Wed May 01 2024
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Wu-Tang Clan
Yes, it is one of Hip Hop's great albums, but like the one from Gang Starr two days ago, for me it's greater in small doses. Just not a great enough connoisseur of this music to fully enjoy an album of it. Minus 1 in comparison to 'Step In The Arena' but plus 1 for ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ข๐ข ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ช๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐จ๐ก
4
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Thu May 02 2024
Good Old Boys
Randy Newman
These are, without a doubt, some of music's songs. Truly one of the albums, even!
2