This album is extraordinarily easy to listen to. There are some bad tracks (lookin at you Jamaican Jerk-off) but also some all timers (Bennie and the Jets, etc) and the mixing is really good. I like but don't love Elton John, but this is a well made album.
Like everything Neil Young makes, it is easy to listen to and has some rather clever lyrics and musical decisions here and there. I couldn't tell you a Neil Young album I love top to bottom, but this is yet another one I could easily throw on while doing something and enjoy.
What a friggin set of pipes. I've always had a soft spot for Aretha and it is always nice to hear her. The immortal Respect is on this album as well as a few other stellar tracks.
This is one of the first HipHop albums I remember listening to and really liking when I was young. It's best tracks like The Magic Number, Change in Speak, or Me Myself and I are just really, really strong. There are also some straight up odd tracks like Can U Keep a Secret where it is clearly early days of the genre and they are seeing what sticks and I kinda love that energy. It's also a long album with 23 tracks rolling over an hour of listen time, but some of the tracks just didn't hold up.
Is Elevator Rap a recognized genre? Or maybe Yacht Rap? The tracks that weren't actively annoying felt like songs I would tune out while at a chain restaurant. This is the first album I've hit in this activity where half the tracks I listened to about 50-60% and skipped the rest of the track because it got too annoying. The only reason I am not giving this 0/5 is because the score wouldn't register.
There is a reason 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' got all the radio play. The funk riffs on 'Night by Night' were cool. Overall there are some cool sounds on this album with some jazz, blues, groove/funk influences and blending vocals that push it from background music to interesting for me. Yacht Rock doesn't always have to be a pejorative. There aren't a lot of standout tracks here for me, but there also weren't any I disliked.
Never really went through their backlog prior to Songs for the Deaf before this. It is exactly what I expected though. Some tracks are good, and the sound and style is easy to listen to and consistent but that also makes it a bit bland for me by the time I get to the end of the album, like I've listened to variations of the same 3 tracks a lot.
I listened to this on Youtube in an Incognito browser because I didn't want Spotify to remember. If only I could also not remember. The best part of this listening experience was the Youtube ads. Vanilla Ice with metal/country fusion. This is one of the worst albums I have ever listened to.
These old hard rock albums just have such a soft spot in my heart. The cover of Summertime Blues is delightful. This is 6 tracks of heavy feedback and just a really quality example of the genre. Not crazy special, just a good listen.
Janis Joplin has one of those polarizing vocal styles, but I really dig it. Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee, and Mercedes Benz get most of the love from this album, and they are all good, but there is a lot of quality top to bottom on this album. Even the tracks I liked a bit less like Half Moon weren't bad.
For some reason I hadn't given this a dedicated listen before. I love the layout of this album and the storytelling. On top of that, some really strong beats to go with Raekwon's easy flow.
Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Disco vibes, doing none of them enough to fully capture me in the elements I like nor to lose me in the elements I dislike. It takes a very meandering path to about average for me.
I totally dig this style of progressive British rock. All Good People gets the radio play and attention, and for good reason because it is a quality track, but there isn't a bad track on this album and I have a fondness for Yours is No Disgrace.
I really like Arctic Monkeys, and while this is a really solid album it doesn't hit the heights of Favourite Worst Nightmare and AM for me. It has the foundational sound and style that will make those later albums great, but just doesn't quite get there.
Standout tracks for me are I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Red Light Indicates Doors are Secure, Mardy Bum, From the Ritz to the Rabble, and A Certain Romance.
This brand of proto-punk/pop kinda music is super hit and miss for me from band to band and even track to track, and that was my experience here. The Whole of the Law? Solid. Another Girl, Another Planet? Good. Breaking Down? Full dislike. And so it goes, on and on with tracks raging from 4/5 to 1/5 for me. Overall, the inconsistent experience made the whole less than the sum of the parts for me with slower pieces not working at all with his voice and faster pieces lacking a hard enough edge to get over the top for me.
It would be a 2.5 but enough tracks didn't work for me I rounded to below average.
Vocals and backing vocals are strong throughout. The R&B/Motown to Funk/Rock transition in this album is really interesting to me, and I feel those influences wound around each other constantly in a way that elevates the music to me. The mix of time tested R&B beats prevents any song from being outright bad for me. Standout tracks are That Lady pt. 1, Listen to the Music, Sunshine, and Summer Breeze.
Probably a 3.5, rounding to 3.
While I understand that this type of music takes some level of skill to make, it does not appeal to me very much. The beats felt pretty repetitive (so much cowbell) and the vocalist just didn't do enough for me to make up for it. There were stronger tracks for me like Someone Great and All My Friends, but even those felt long and wore out their welcome for me. A lot of this would be fine if it was like...in the soundtrack to the right movie.. but I cannot think of a time in my life I will ever want to sit and listen to this again.
Alright, this was an interesting entry. It opens with some really solid funk/rock and has a rad overall feel from track one. Very cool Funk/Reggae/Rock vibes throughout with implementation of traditional and modern instruments in ways that blended nicely.
Highlight Tracks - Ponta De Lanca Africano, Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu, Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado, Taj Mahal, Xica Da Silva
Less Liked Tracks - O Filosofo
Not really my favorite genre of music, but I can get into it at times. The opening couple of tracks were a bit rough for me, but it did get better as it went on...though through that back part a lot of the songs sounded the same to me.
2.5, rounding to 2.
This is the musical equivalent of the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando both in that it is an incredibly basic "Guy" thing and in that despite that it still manages to be entertaining. Also, people who like Back in Black probably also like Commando.
I like Paul Simon's folk stuff. The 80's pop aspects really weaken this one for me, and while I think the varied influences being brought in are interesting I'm not sure all of it is really executed in a way that adds to the music for me. In the end, for all the different things it is doing it had a big time generic 80's pop feel. Cultural Appropriation and other issues aside, this is musically inoffensive to me but also doesn't stand out really. It just..is.
This is a super unfair way to say it, but basically the entire time I was listening to this album all I could think was I'd rather be listening to The Pogues. I appreciate the attempt to meld folk with rock but it was a bit too poppy and the music didn't match the messaging of the lyrics in some cases to an extent that took me away from the song. It wasn't bad, but it just never really worked for me.
I'm familiar with songs and hung out in a basement and listened to this on vinyl at some point in my life, but a top to bottom listen of this album is not an experience I had done often or in a long while. I know how influential it is though, and that always makes me excited to listen.
21st Century Schizoid Man is just...excellent. Banger track doing a bit of everything and being lovely about it. It is like an over the top movie chase sequence is a song. The rest of the album doesn't hit the same highs for me and the three longest songs REALLY feel their run time, but there is a lot of musically good stuff happening and I did enjoy listening to the entire album even if it did drag in a few moments.
The beats on this album are strong, and it is extremely influential on rap music. However the lyrics are lacking, Dre's rapping never did it for me, and I've always felt like Doggystyle and a host of other albums iterated and surpassed it over the years. It's worth a listen for the beats and the history, but I don't find myself wanting to play it again outside of a small number of tracks.
This feels like if Frank Zappa had been into Rap instead. I don't know that I like it. I don't even know that I fully appreciate it. I am glad it exists though, because it is interesting. There are some really cool beats in here and it is just stuffed full of style. It also uses Meow as a key and repeated lyric in a song. Every track was at least enjoyable, and there are a few bangers with Them Changes and Walk on By being highlights.
This album feels like it was made to be played during melancholy retrospective travel scenes in movies, or at book stores that also serve coffee. John Martyn is not a performer I was familiar with, and this was a cool introduction to him.
Billy Joel makes songs that are really easy to listen to. Lots of radio play classics on here like Movin' Out, Just the Way You Are, Only the Good Die Young, Vienna, and She's Always a Woman. 5 songs with staying power on a 9 track album is a good ratio, but not all of them move the needle for me. Then you have songs like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, which is 7:36 long and I don't ever get that time back. I dunno, I'm never gonna sit and listen to this one but the good songs are good.
This album is easy to vibe on and hard to dislike. That being said, nothing about it really stood out either. Despite how broad the range of vocalists was, the result when mixed with the good use of sampling and chill beats made for a mild experience. I dunno, this was like a vanilla milkshake where it might be perfect sometimes, I'm usually looking for more, but I'm never upset with it.
There are things about this album that are cool. Use of instruments to make the beats, some good flow and lyrics. But I don't care for Little Simz or the backing vocals on many of the songs and the music on a lot of tracks borders on annoying to me. I recognize some musically good things being done, but it doesn't work for me.
A neat mix of punk with some pop influences. Not every track worked for me with some like Couldn't Get Ahead mixing the vocals and music in a way that just missed me, but a lot more had a cool punkish beat with solid sound like Bombast, Spoilt Victorian Child, and L.A. The first 7 tracks were good, then 3 tracks that droned too much, then melody returns and I can enjoy myself, and so the pattern repeats. I wanted to like this more, but after that opening half of the album the back half just didn't bring enough to push this above average for me.
The Smiths are in that post-punk / college radio / alternative rock 80's category that I often have a soft spot for with bands like R.E.M, The Cure, Pixies, Sonic Youth, and The Cranberries.
From quirky songs like Frankly Mr. Shankly and Cemetry Gates to more typical songs like I Know It's Over and Bigmouth Strikes Again I can just sit and vibe on the whole album easily while I'm working on something just hanging around. Love the way that jangly guitar and upbeat sounds are paired with stinging lyrics in the quicker songs, and those songs are sprinkled in to keep it from feeling like it dragged at any point.
Morrissey is a toolbag, but this album is real good.
4.5/5 and 4.5's always round down for me.
Goth-Rock isn't my favored genre, but The Cure have covered a lot of ground over the years and in my opinion are almost always at least musically interesting. The album feels very atmospheric, and while I wouldn't listen to it is some situations it is good for studying or doing research, tasks where I want my ears occupied but the moody darkness doesn't bother me.
Play for Today, A Forest, and At Night were highlights for me.
Dookie was a foundational album in my musical experience, so I've always had a soft spot for Green Day. The highs of American Idiot are very high, but with some stretched out tracks and lyrics that sort of hammer a single note a bit too often it doesn't quite hit perfection for me. I might be odd for like Warning a whole lot and Dookie above American Idiot as well. Their new album Saviors is also very good, which pushes American Idiot to 4th on my list.
Highlight Tracks - American Idiot, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Extraordinary Girl, Wake Me up When September Ends
4.5/5 rounds down to a 4.
Half of War had more style than most entire bands, and I was very happy to see one of their albums pop up. I don't listen to them frequently or anything, but I love their electric funk. When you read that most of their songs they just recorded a ton of jamming and then picked a section to clip really is clear. Several went on a bit long, but it didn't drag the album down.
Highlight Tracks - The Cisco Kid, Where Was You At, Four Cornered Room, The World is a Ghetto.
Neat album that manages to be eccentric in just under 40 minutes, which feels very Bowie. Regardless of how much I like or dislike any given track on the album, they are all doing musically interesting things. There is some funkish flow to the music feel of a lot of this that runs almost uncomfortably close to disco with a track like Stay, but works well on tracks like Golden Years and TCV15. Cocaine was the co-producer of the album and had it's fingers all over.
Highlights - Golden Years, TCV15
Shoegaze isn't my favorite genre, but just like the best of The Smiths and The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain at their best strikes a certain mood pretty perfectly. This is their album I like most, and at 10 tracks in 36 minutes I appreciate that they could be moody without killing the pacing.
Highlights - Happy When it Rains, Down on Me, April Skies, Fall
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is widely considered David Bowie's best album, and I agree. The way that the songs were made independently and the rock album aspect was decided in the ordering was kind of neat when I read about it too. 11 tracks in 39 minutes as once again Bowie manages to be indulgent without overstaying his welcome on any tracks.
Highlights - Five Years, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n Roll Suicide.
One of the quintessential jazz-funk fusion albums. I like a lot of funk and I can do some jazz, so I enjoyed this. The tracks are long and super jammy and they clearly know their way around their instruments. This type of album is really unlikely to reach a 4 or 5 from me, but it's a solid 3 that I could see throwing on for chill vibes.
Highlights - I dunno man, it might as well have been 1 super sized track for me.
Blends in some of the soul and R&B roots to the overall psychedelic rock feel to make a cool album. Not every track is a banger for me, but this was overall pretty experimental and Jimi is clearly trying to keep from being kept in a stylistic box.
Highlights - Spanish Castle Magic, Little Wing, If 6 Was 9, Castles Made of Sand, Bold as Love.
This is a band I was familiar with without realizing I was familiar with them. I instantly recognized Alex Harvey's unique vocals. Almost fun and rather throwback, but some long tracks and some tracks that feel a bit long and overall a more showy and ridiculous than good. Probably too much Sensational and not enough Band.
Highlights - Umm...yup...the one that wasn't about his wiener?
Curtis Mayfield's voice is delightful, and this album is very good. It's an interesting concept album with some very well written songs that are underlined by some soulful singing, powerful horns, and overall well executed music. I'm familiar with the music from the movie and occasional radio plays, but it was cool to see how extremely well it held up all on its own.
Highlight tracks - Little Child Runnin Wild, Pusherman, Freddie's Dead, Superfly.
The intro to some of these songs is solid, but every song is over produced and about twice as long as it needs to be if it needs to exist at all.
Lowlight: There were a lot of songs on this I disliked, but Why Worry being as bad as it is and as long as it is offends me.
This era and style of 80's rock really carries mixed reviews for me, but of all the bands trying to do this ZZ Top is one of the ones that worked better for me. However, there were still the issues I find typical of the genre with frequently empty lyrics and songs that are about a minute longer than needed as well as some songs that were their entire run length too long. I think I'll stick to the hits only and even then they are an average listening experience.
Highlights - Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man
Runs a bit too pop-country for my tastes with the high production levels and twang and whine. That being said, there are some solid musical choices here that hit southern rock elements I enjoy and some decent lyrics. Not for me, but I get it.
This album dropped when I was in high school and was my introduction to Johnny Cash, so I probably have a bias for it. The stripped down sound and the mixture of fragility and power in his voice backed by acoustic guitar just really hits hard for me and several of these covers are on my list of favorite Cash songs in addition to him reworking some of his older material and providing it with a different tone. A run time of nearly an hour, but no single song taking over 4 minutes (intro to The Man Comes Around being cut puts it under 4) means it doesn't overstay it's welcome for me.
Highlights - The Man Comes Around, Hurt, I Hung My Head, Personal Jesus
Not crediting the people who actually made most of the music on the album is a scummy move, and drags it down. There are some cool beats and interesting bits, as well as parts that drag a bit and the interludes could have been better instead of just making it messy. It felt like a concept album without a concept...or maybe exploitation was the concept?
Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens and the other uncredited musicians get a 4 on this album, Malcolm McLaren gets a 1, so I'm left at a 2.5 and rounding down.
Highlights: Obatala, Buffalo Girls, Double Dutch, Soweto
This band reminds me of Sonic where you are listening to them and immediately seeing all the bands you love that they influenced. A lot of reviews probably ignore that this sounds a bit less unique because we have 40 years of bands borrowing from the influence of the album.
I don't think I've listened to this album before front to back and was shocked by the length of it, but I had heard multiple of the tracks from looking up the original after a band I liked covered it. The kind of post-punk guitar folk just works pretty well for me. It's a style where even the okay tracks are pretty solid and never offensively bad. It is pretty long and self indulgent, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Highlights - I Wanna Destroy You, Insanely Jealous of You, Tonight, There's Nobody Like You
This was wild. I kinda wanted to give it a 2 for being so bold of an experiment, but it also felt like the soundtrack to my migraines so it gets a 1.
Synthesizer heavy music has a bit of a cap for me, but I can acknowledge that Depeche Mode is one of the best of the genre and as a result a lot of their catalogue is solid. At times it feels over long and repetitive, but that is just how the genre comes across to me in general so I think it could be a me thing. First half was solid, but it just trailed off too much for me to enjoy the whole thing.
Highlights - World in My Eyes, Personal Jesus, Waiting for Night, Policy of Truth,
Shoegazing All-Stars The Jesus and Mary Chain are back on my list again and are still the cream of the crop of a genre I'll always be middling on. I appreciate that most of the tracks are right about 3 minutes or under, which keeps the droning feeling that can develop from being an issue.
Highlights - Just Like Honey, Taste the Floor, The Hardest Walk, Taste of Candy
One of those bands where it is interesting how they didn't catch on originally and became "Your favorite band's favorite band" in the 70's and 80's and caught on as a result of it. The stripped down sound of the album appeals to me, with an almost folkish quality to some of it due to the sing-speak style. As with anything a bit experimental there are highs and lows, but overall a lot to like.
Highlights - Sunday Morning, I'm Waiting for the Man, Run Run Run
Talking Heads is classified as New Wave, which I guess is fair because of what a catch all that term is. Their debut album has all the elements and is quite enjoyable. Just a really easy to listen to and easy to like band for me.
3.5 that I'm rounding down to a 3.
Highlights - Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town, Tentative Decisions, Psycho Killer
One of my all time favorite hip hop albums. Great beats, fun skits, some good lyrics, some great guests. What's not to like?
Highlights - Unhappy, Bowtie, The Way You Move, Church, Knowing, Last Call, Love Hater, Happy Valentine's Day, Hey Ya, Roses, Behold a Lady
Van Morrison is a real bag of dicks and not my favorite of the folk musicians of this era, but when he hits he hits and I won't discredit that. I feel sometimes his shout/talk/sing move works well and other times it feels like it just isn't a song for him to sing, so it is about alignments and tracks because otherwise he sounds samey or off. Like, Beside You sounds like yell-whining to me while Sweet Thing sounds like an actual song.
Highlights - Sweet Thing, Madame George, Slim Slow Slider.
Being a big presence on 36 Chambers, I have a soft spot for Method. Additionally, some of his acting roles are really enjoyable to me. This album is just a classic with the solid kung fu movie sampling, a laid back and cool flow, and some staple beats and some real fun samples. Release Yo Delf particularly stands out with the fun kinda remixy style.
Highlights - Bring the Pain, Meth Vs Chef, Release Yo Delf
I'm a sucker for this kind of folk-rock. Even the songs I like less like Marrakesh Express are still pretty easy to listen to a vibe on.
Highlights - Judy Blue Eyes, Hopelessly Hoping, Long Time Gone
I like punk rock, cheesy science fiction, and slasher movies. As a result, I am legally required to enjoy The Cramps. It cannot be helped. This is just some punkabilly fun.
Highlights - TV Set, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Mystery Plane, Strychnine, Tear it Up, Fever
This brand of poppy 80's rock is pretty hit or miss for me. XTC is a band I wasn't particularly familiar with, and their story is an interesting one. However, this album is just kind of a lot of bubblegum. I can't call any tracks bad, but I also didn't find any particularly good. It was like a greatest hits cover album or something.
These early punk albums are good fun. While this might not hit my favorites of all time, X was both good and influential and this is one of their best albums.
Highlights - The Once over Twice, In This House that I Call Home, White Girl, Year 1
