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Fri Jan 12 2024
Thriller
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson Thriller. What can you say? There were solid reasons that this album was the best selling album of all time for a good long while. Top notch Quincy Jones production. R&B, Dance, Pop, and Rock all well represented. "Thriller", the track is still magic to the ears after 41 years.
5
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Sat Jan 13 2024
Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg
I am not one to tell folks what albums they should enjoy, and while I can recognize Doggystyle as influential to the G-funk genre, and Snoop Doggy Dogg's career in particular, it was not something I would want to listen to more than once, unless there happened to be an instrumental version. Love Dre's production, and the performance of the musicians on the track, but the lyrical subject matter is not interesting to me at all. And I get it. I was not and am not the audience intended for this album.
3
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Sun Jan 14 2024
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
An album that sounds has haphazard as the circumstances that were experienced in Lagos, Nigeria while recording it, it really does propel McCartney to solo artist with a sound and voice. It also sounds a bit like someone took Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Band and passed it through a Bossa Nova pop filter.
4
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Made In Japan
Deep Purple
Props to Deep Purple for setting the live album format that would become ubiquitous in Rock, but this particular live recording felt a bit too self-indulgent and (my copy at least was) far too little gain. Between performances speech on the mic would be nearly indiscernible.
3
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Licensed To Ill
Beastie Boys
Three of the most harmless guys from Brooklyn show the world a whole other side to hip-hop with this 5 star album produced and engineered masterfully by Rick Rubin.
A classic!
5
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Machine Head
Deep Purple
Machine Head is everything that their live album "Made in Japan" is not: lean, tight arrangements, no filler, no self-indulgence, and an absolute joy to listen to. This should always be the first Deep Purple album that anyone hears.
5
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Thu Jan 18 2024
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
As I listened to this album, it was clear that it was a concept album, and I pondered whether its significance might be because it was the first rock opera concept album. Imagine my surprise when I learned that many rock critics do indeed consider THE PRETTY THINGS' S.F. Sorrow the first of a slew of rock operas that came out in the late sixties and would continue to emerge up until today.
It is wild hearing some of the sonic soundscapes tropes we are familiar with, emerge here first. Before Tommy, before The Wall, you can hear how The Pretty Things introduced the notion of dissonance, key change, rhythm, and melodic rephrasing as narrative tools.
Having said all that, this is an album that everyone should hear once, but aside from tracks "Private Sorrow", "Old Man Sorrow", and S.F. Sorrow is Born", I'm not sure if I have it in me to hear this album all the way through again anytime soon. A very dark story.
3
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Before I ever heard a QOTSA album, I heard them live on the NIN's WITH TEETH tour. My first impression was that each song was a barely different long dirge from the last one. I considered that perhaps my experience was just a result of the difficulties of mixing sound for an arena setting, but after returning home I listened to a couple of their albums and had the same impression. I suppose sameness is a legit creative choice, but it comes off feeling….I don’t know…lazy?
As a drummer, I found the drum tracks pretty boring. Less trance-like, and just uninspired. When the drummer had a chance to imprint an identity on the song, they seemed to just resort to the most straight forward prior examples, instead of putting their own style on the song as a Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abruzzese or Dave Grohl would. Then again, Dave Grohl joining the band later didn't really change this on later records.
When I hear them compared to a throwback to something like Black Sabbath, I cannot disagree more. While they explore rhythm as Black Sabbath did, they lack the exploration of dynamics as a group, and they don't possess the charisma/voice of Ozzy Osbourne to keep the listener interested. Kind of just a middling exploration of rhythm at one volume.
Now, having listened to this album again nearly twenty years later, I am struck by the banality of their sound. It is like they referenced all the best stoner rock bands without bringing anything of their own to the table.
Lyrics are dark and eye-raising, but they feel like they lack a voice unique to QOTSA. What I mean by that is that they feel like could have come from any of the countless stoner bands from that era. There is no Cobain/Dylan/Gordon Sumner/Trent Reznor gems here.
The titles of the songs are best thing going on this album, such as: "Mexicola", "Avon", "How to Handle a Rope (A Lesson in Lariat)", "These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For", "Hispanic Impressions", "Spiders and Vinegaroons" (Looked upon Vinegaroons and they look frightening as *#@!).
Unfortunately the tracks with the most interesting names were usually the least interesting sonically and lyrically.
The tracks I found most enjoyable were "Spiders and Vinegaroons", which has the most creative construction and sonic palette of anything on the album, and maybe "Mexicola" if I wanted something a bit more straightforward, then perhaps the creepy creativity of "I Was a Teenage Hand Model".
Not sure why this album is on the 1001 album list. I think if you want to reference stoner/grunge albums of importance to the genre and music in general there are more than enough other albums by other artists that actually bring their own thing to the form than any of these QOTSA albums.
Props to the band for the bravery of the album cover choice, both the original and the re-issue. It would be interesting if they would be so brave with the social climate as it is these days.
2
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Sat Jan 20 2024
Play
Moby
5
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Yank Crime
Drive Like Jehu
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin's influence on electronic music is such that anyone just picking up this record today in 2023 might not realize how special this album really was in 1992, because everything today sounds like this album. But it sounds that way because Aphex Twin showed the way to getting to this sound. It is not an exaggeration to say that after Kraftwerk, that one of the next huge leaps forward was Aphex Twin.
5
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Guero
Beck
Aphex Twin's influence on electronic music is such that anyone just picking up this record today in 2023 might not realize how special this album really was in 1992, because everything today sounds like this album. But it sounds that way because Aphex Twin showed the way to getting to this sound. It is not an exaggeration to say that after Kraftwerk, that one of the next huge leaps forward was Aphex Twin.
3
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Bright Flight
Silver Jews
Trying to be open minded, but this seems like ironic overrated lo-fi indie rock that someone chose just to mess with people. Is this hipster rock?
At first I thought Berman's vocal delivery was a choice but now I am certain this vocal delivery is the result of someone who is too high to perform well.
I was not impressed with the lyrics, so I was surprised to learn after listening to the album that David Berman was considered a lyrical genius. Really?
If I were Robert Dimery I would swap this album out for a Hank Williams Sr album. Particularly perplexing since Robert Dimery wrote a book about the final days of the lives of 100 musicians with Bruno Macdonald that book included Hank Williams.
2
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Real Life
Magazine
3
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Fri Jan 26 2024
The Real Thing
Faith No More
Perhaps this is nostalgia speaking, but this was THE Faith No More album. All of their quirky arrangements and tonalities, the punk roots, it is all here. I spin this album probably at least once a year since purchasing it in 1990.
The third album for the band and the first since parting with front person Chuck Mosley made the most of Mike Patton's vocal and style range to produce an album that perfectly represented the zeitgeist of American rock and roll in 1990.
Even if you are not a Faith No More fan, you are still likely to enjoy the standouts of "Epic", "Falling to Pieces", "Woodpecker From Mars", and their cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs".
Following the aforementioned songs, I dig "Surprise! You're Dead!", "From Out of Nowhere", "The Real Thing", and "The Morning After". Though I enjoy the bluesy "Edge of the World", I know there are many that do not.
In my opinion, the truly miss on this album is the cheeky ballad "Zombie Eaters". It doesn't quite come off.
5
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Sat Jan 27 2024
Cosmo's Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I think if you have to pick one album to give someone that encapsulates the Bayou Rock sound, it is this one.
I was weirded out hearing "Ooby Dooby" and realizing that it seems like a chord change for chord change cover of Tutti Fruitti by Little Richard, and then further realizing that "My Baby Left Me" is a knockoff of the chords of Elvis Presley's "That's Alright".
But who can see any film about Vietnam and not hear "Run Through the Jungle" in their heads?
And who hasn't heard "Travelin Band", "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Up Around the Bend", and "Who'll Stop the Rain"?
I guess because I grew with John Fogerty's solo career in the 80s it just felt like CCR and John Fogerty had been around forever, so I was shocked that CCR spawned all of this amazing music in just 3 years. Mind blown.
5
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Hail To the Thief
Radiohead
Radiohead is a band that I have been listening to for nearly 31 years....
...and yet, none of their albums do anything for me. I respect what their music seems to do for other fans. And I am glad those fans have their outlet. Personally, I only enjoy a handful of their songs, the songs that most Radiohead fans would probably cringe about.
HAIL TO THE THIEF is not for me.
2
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Darkdancer
Les Rythmes Digitales
Groovy dance music from top to bottom. A British guy, not a French guy. Works under many nom de plumes including the Thin White Duke (not David Bowie)
5
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Tue Jan 30 2024
21
Adele
I remember receiving a free iTunes download offer of "Hometown Glory" by this artist I had never heard of named ADELE. I was struck by, as everyone else has been, by the complete power and nuance of her performance. I had not been that blown away by a female vocal performance since hearing Whitney Houston in the 1980s.
But, as it usually does, life intervened and I never did get around to checking out her complete album 19. Nor, I am ashamed to admit, did I hear 21 when it came out. I was in the midst of dealing with family crises, and my attention did not have enough bandwidth to seek out new music. I had to rely on the old favorites to get me through.
My world started to right itself around 2013, but I did not hear 21 until I saw a social media post by someone sharing her Grammy performance of "Rolling in the Deep" broadcast live during February 2012. This led me back to Adele, and it has been quite a ride.
A breakup album, like countless others, but this one kept my attention all the way through. The song arrangement did such a masterful job of telling the narrative of the relationship blowing up and the process of healing, that to my ears you cannot convince me that it doesn't meet the criteria of a concept album.
She worked with fantastic collaborators, this much is true, but as a songwriter on all but one of the tracks, it is shocking that something this powerful emerged from a 20-21 year old.
A big fan of the The Cure's "Lovesong", the only song she didn't write, I was weirded out initially by her cover, but I have grown to love its place on the album as a whole. This is totally an album that should be listened to in its entirety, instead of as randomly shuffled tracks, as some are prone to do, or as cherry picked release tracks only.
Perhaps loathed by others because of its constant presence and massive success, I feel like this is one of those times I cannot help but tip my hat and say, well done, everything Adele Adkins received was well deserved.
5
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
TIDAL is good chamber pop for anyone, worthy of Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday, Apple's heroines, and great chamber pop when considering that these tracks were written over a period when Apple was 14 to 18 years old.
Poignant lyricism is matched by competent piano composition. Apple has said over the years that she did not want to record everyone one of the songs with piano, and that piano was merely her compositional tool, but Slater insisted on it appearing on each track. I personally think Apple had it right, that some of the songs might have benefited from song arrangements that leaned away from piano and incorporated the other instrumental and genre vibes more. For example "Never is a Promise" could have benefitted from a James Bond ballad song arrangement treatment, and "The Child is Gone" could have benefited from some brass.
Of the singles, I think the eclectic Bossa Nova vibe of "The First Taste" is criminally underrated, even if it is clearly inspired by the vibe of Sade. The hits are worthy of the plays. "Sleep to Dream" and "Criminal" haven't lost their potency.
I dig the outro of "Carrion", a pleasant way to end an album of teenage darkness.
The well known songs lyrics are written well, but it can become easy to tire of the juxtaposition and contrast technique that Apple uses extensively as she exhibits the tidal on TIDAL.
As an aside, Jon Brion's fantastic performance on marimba, tack piano, dulcitone, and chamberlain are evocative shades of darkness that really help the songs fill out.
Not sure this album belongs on the 1001. A Tori Amos album and a Sade album more than cover the lyrical, musical, and 90s decade better.
3
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Thu Feb 01 2024
A Short Album About Love
The Divine Comedy
This feels like They Might Be Giants met Jonathan Coulson, went to England and wrote the wackiest lyrics about love they could come up with, and then performed with an eye rolling, muscle pulling, wink as Frank Sinatra for hipster chamber pop, but demanded to be taken seriously, even though the word Comedy is right there in the band's name. Not funny enough to be funny and not serious enough to be taken seriously. Just more terrible Nick Cave-ous stuff.
The Divine Comedy feels like an acquired taste that I cannot seem to acquire. Or an acquired disease I need penicillin for. I understand what they are doing, but it just seems like a pointless exercise in juxtaposition and irony. "If" is an uncomfortable creep fest. It's like Hannon heard Radiohead's "Creep" and said "Here, hold my tea." The difference being that I think Cannon is trying to be earnest. Not here for the Schmaltz. What circle of hell am I in?
This is another one of those albums that makes me feel like we are being trolled by the list maker.
1
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Fri Feb 02 2024
Abbey Road
Beatles
The masters of popular music craftsmanship. Nothing else really needs to be said. Their weakest tracks on any of their albums would be release singles on the albums of other acts.
One of my favorite Beatles albums, (my absolute favorite being Revolver) there is just so much here.
60 years have passed since they arrived in America in 1964, and they still remain culturally relevant. I just love this album. Every decade I listen to it during my life, I am drawn to different tracks and learn more about myself as a musician.
In their discography, recorded between The White Album, and Let It Be, Abbey Road was not just figuratively crossing the road, but during the decaying process of The Beatles, the band's identity increasingly dissolving back into a collection of individuals. Fortunately these are interesting individuals, and the magic was not yet spent.
In the GET BACK long form documentary assembled, from footage by Peter Jackson, we see that the Let It Be sessions were largely an awkward and uncomfortable affair; a group of people at their own wake if you will. The formal decision and announcement that The Beatles had broken up was not made yet, but you can see in their faces, particularly Ringo Starr, that they knew, but that would come later. On this album you can feel producer Sir George Martin's deft touch.
Abbey Road still possesses the charm of The Beatles writ large: adventurous songwriting, sonic risk taking, and precise engineering on such tracks as "Come Together", "Something", "Here Comes the Sun", and "Because" with Moog Synthesizer, 8 track recording, and true Stereo sound recording that comes through clearly and gives ever song depth and subtleties. This album set the entire popular music world on a new recording path. So many ideas were sparked by this album and all kept and produced meticulously by Sir George Martin.
Songs that could have been silly, like "She Came in Through Bathroom Window", and the entire medley, would, in hindsight, foreshadow the entire dark heroin and cocaine years that awaited society in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
The beloved album cover has been imitated so many times by so many artists that I've lost count.
5 stars.
5
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Sat Feb 03 2024
Oracular Spectacular
MGMT
With a title like Oracular Spectacular, this album does feel like a hipster time travel report from the future (perhaps even now) back to 2007 describing what life will be like in post modern 2.0 internet
A debut album, and what a debut album it was. If it were a vinyl, Side A 1-5 is the strength and Side B tracks 6-10 are the weakness. I feel bad for this group because as a debut album they have been doomed, even as they mature experientially and musically, to never reach its groovy heights ever again.
1) Time to Pretend - A confession of pretension is somewhat comforting? And on this track grooving. I also take this as a warning that the rest of the album that follows is lyrically tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken to literally or seriously.
2) Weekend Wars - The Bowie idolatry is on!
3) The Youth - Woefully naive, or sarcastically cynical, I cannot decide which. Love the dreamy production with walking bass and The Beatles-esque harmony.
4) Electric Feel - Love this sound and production. Lyrically, I am convinced this song is just simply about the transcendence of youthful lovemaking, or extolling the society altering affects the goddess Amazon.com.
5) Kids - Ahh, the celebrated callousness of youth. Take what you want from it, but try not to be trapped by nostalgia nor participation trophies.
6) 4th Dimensional Transition - Where the college dorm psychedelia experience meets the road of reality. Love the pulsing tabla groove. Kula Shaker would be proud of this arrangement.
7) Pieces of What - The first song that feels like your standard early 2000s indie blues oriented rock. Not a bad thing, just the first song that did not eschew traditional song arrangement.
8) Of Moons, Birds & Monsters - Jefferson Airplane for the early 2000s.
I love the finger food of music history approach in this song, and frankly on this album. A cynical person could say they are being ironic with their sound, but I personally think they truly love these pop forms as much as we do. The lyrics seem nonsensical, possibly chosen for the sounds of the words more than their actual meaning on this song.
9) The Handshake - Feels like a failed effort at Goth inspired songs. The angst is a bit eye-rolling, but then I remind myself that they warned us Time to Pretend not to take anything very seriously.
10) Future Reflections - Feels like a primer for understanding the image chosen for the album cover.
All in all, a solid effort but in the canon of music nothing that delineated a before and after. One of the more interesting things to listen to in 2007.
on a ten scale I would give it a 3.5, but since we are on a five scale, I'll give it a 4 on the strength of the first 5 songs.
4
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Sun Feb 04 2024
Surfer Rosa
Pixies
I am aware of Surfer Rosa and The Pixies place in the mainstream crossover of alternative music. I've listened to Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, and frankly Doolittle is the better album, and the more critical album to the genre.
After the tracks "Where Is My Mind?", "Gigantic", and maybe "Bone Machine" the rest of the album is largely inconsistent. I think many are allowing their nostalgia to spackle over the huge flaws.
They get a 3 for one all time great track and this album's influence on better realized alternative musical ideas that would result.
3
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Mon Feb 05 2024
The Atomic Mr Basie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
A very solid final big band record of the era. A perfect record for introducing Big Band jazz to someone. It is all here. It was also the final hurrah and the last barrier before Rhythm & Blues, and Rock & Roll take over the popular music charts, from here on out. The album cover is iconic and may seem subversive for the era, but wasn't really because Atomic Age visual design motifs were all the rage in America at this time.
Swing would persist on the charts for a while longer but it was mostly around the personality and charisma of singers (such as Frank Sinatra), and iconic instrumental performers and arrangers (like Miles Davis), rather than the big bands themselves.
My faves were "The Kid From Red Bank", "Teddy the Toad", "Splanky", and the "Lil' Darlin'".
5
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Tue Feb 06 2024
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
One of the last nearly perfect albums of Black Sabbath released with Ozzy Osbourne as the lead vocalist. There are amazing songs to come after this on the 1973 release of SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH, but each album after that only spawned a couple of songs that would stand the test of time before Ozzy left the band in 1979, On the other hand, the first five albums, BLACK SABBATH (1970), PARANOID (1970), MASTERS OF REALITY, VOL. 4, and SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH would define the metal genre for the easily the next 15 years.
If someone said they loved metal but hated early Black Sabbath, it was hard to take them seriously.
If you had to introduce someone to Black Sabbath for the first time, I would still give them the debut album BLACK SABBATH first, but the next album after that would definitely be VOL. 4. There is so much here. The bangers are the well known "Tomorrow's Dream", "Snowblind", "Supernaut", but don't forget perhaps the best Black Sabbath ballad ever, "Changes". This ballad would set up the familiar heavy metal ballad structure that would re-emerge endlessly throughout the 1970s and 80s.
Even "FX" was trippy as hell when it came out. The 1st track "Wheel of Confusion/The Straightener" and the last 4 tracks "Cornucopia", "Laguna Sunrise", "St. Vitus Dance", and the closer "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes" provides a nice narrative of arc that ends with survival and dare I say a cynical optimism?
As an aside, check out one of my favorite covers of a lesser known Black Sabbath song, the Al Jorgensen/Trent Reznor cover of "Supernaut" under the nom de plume of 1000 Homo DJs. Sometimes hard to find, but a fun listen for fans of the Chicago Wax Trax sound of the late 80s-early 90s.
5
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Frampton Comes Alive
Peter Frampton
3
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Thu Feb 08 2024
Virgin Suicides
Air
I'm not sure I would include a film score on the 1001 albums list as the spots are far too precious. As it is there far too many albums from the same artists on this list and this is just wasting a list spot something far more relevant. If I were to include a film score of popular music, this one would not be it.
The score is as middling as the film.
If you were going to include recent important French electronica as a film score then work of Daft Punk on TRON Legacy would be a much better choice, or even the American Beauty soundtrack (also from a 1999 film) with which Thomas Newman handles the subject matter far more musically interesting and engaging manner, particularly if you've never seen the film.
2
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Dummy
Portishead
While I respect the astute production, it seems despite all the intricate production the songs aren't all that memorable as individuals tracks. The lyrics and vocal performance seem disjointed from the instrumentals completely, and perhaps that is the point artistically, but who knows? I am brought back to memories of brooding people in booths puffing away on clove cigarettes while high on Molly. Personally, of the Bristol sound, I am a bigger fan of Massive Attack's soundscape.
Being an adult in 90s, when this album came out, every decade or so I have tried to get into Portishead and their album DUMMY, in particular, but never quite managed to feel anything from their album. If you have also come away with this feeling, I recommend instead, the far lesser known British band of the time, 12 Rounds "My Big Hero" which creates grooves that support the vocals rather than feeling like an endless come down room at a rave. They are also more fearless about exploring other genres. Atticus Ross, a founding member of 12 Rounds with his wife Claudia Sarne, would eventually become the second permanent member of Nine Inch Nails.
Perhaps this would have been more interesting as an instrumental only album. I sometimes feel the intent of this album was meant for DJs and not for individuals to listen to as an album.
Over the years people have told me they get Bond-esque vibes from this album, but I just don't hear it. This lacks the big bold vocal and instrumental arrangements of the best Bond tracks like "Goldfinger", "You Only Live Twice", "Nobody Does It Better", and "Goldeneye", all tracks released prior to this album. And quite frankly Gibbons doesn't feel like she has the pipes for that kind of performance.
If you did not grow up in the 90s and wonder why there were so many rock/electronica albums in the 90s, it was because recording and mixing electronica became far more affordable, with advances of personal computers and the rise of the Internet in the 90s, than it had been prior to the boom in audio DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), such as Digidesign Pro Tools.
2
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
One of the most iconic jazz albums.
Love “So What”.
Not the kind of music I want a constant diet of, as it requires a ton of effort above shoulders and on a Friday I am ready for some music that works from waist down.
Every musician needs to take their vitamins once in awhile.
3
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Sun Feb 11 2024
The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
The best punk rave album of the decade. Production is immaculate. Liam Howlett is a genius. One of the few 90s records that has aged incredibly well. I still listen to this album at least once a year, if not more.
While I like their first album Experience, it is this one and the one that preceded it, Music For A Jilted Generation that defined this entire scene. No one quite sounded like them and EVERYBODY tried to sound more like them.
5
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Something/Anything?
Todd Rundgren
Mad respect for playing all of the instruments on 3/4 of the album, but at the end of the day it is an album that is far too long and should have been pared down to the strong tracks.
Competent recording, but in my opinion, after hearing it multiple times, it is not memorable.
3
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The jazz album that inspired a million progressive rock bands.
As a percussionist Time Out is, and always has been one of my all time favorite jazz records. Every track is an exploration of unusual time signatures.
If this album had only "Take Five", it would still belong on this list.
5
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Wed Feb 14 2024
A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Streets
After the first couple of tracks I really though I was probably not going to enjoy what seemed like a very amateurish hip hop record, but by the end he managed to actually make me feel like his character, Mike, in this Rap Opera, actually learned something among all the acts of pillock and spliffs.
It just goes to show that sometimes a listener really does need to give the whole album a chance, because sometimes, just sometimes, there really is a alchemical thing that makes the sum of an album, better than its parts.
3
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Thu Feb 15 2024
Cloud Nine
The Temptations
4
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Fri Feb 16 2024
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
Public Enemy displayed a new way of mixing hip hop that was very potent. One of the most densely sampled albums ever made. Hip hop with a punk vibe.
I saw them live in 1992, not long after the L.A. riots, and their show was was exciting, with the Black Panther military clad dancers and the massive crosshairs, teasing the potential of explosive social violence, which was fun for a young college student, but is certainly eye-rolling once looked back on through the eyes of a middle aged person.
This album , and NWA's "Straight Out of Compton" released the same year fueled the rise of black nationalism and gangster hip hop that the genre would get stuck in for next few years in which artists tried to out anger one another, to quote be more "real" than the next group. Public Enemy also at this time had a ridiculous view of sampling that they extolled as part of their Black Nationalist views that paraphrased went something like, well it was laid down by a black person, therefore its not wrong for me, as a black person, to use it to make myself money. U.S. Law in 1991 would reinforce the legal view that it is not fair to use someone's else work without clearance and compensation.
Black polemics aside, this album does groove. Tracks like "She Watch Channel Zero?" rocks, while the single "Bring the Noise" and "Rebel Without a Pause" are aurally top 100 hip hop tracks of all time. Chuck D's rhymes are composed and articulated clearly, which for this aging listener is very much appreciated. And Flavor Flav might be the most entertaining hype man of hip hop.
It is definitely an album everyone should hear at least once.
4
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Sat Feb 17 2024
White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
With the exception of "You and I Are Going to be Friends", the rest of the album feels like nothing more than a bunch of half baked ideas that almost approach demo level, but are not remotely album ready yet.
I respect the stripped down sound, but come on, this is ridiculous. The most fun you can have with this album is to imagine what each song could have been with a producer and song arrangements that included more instruments.
An album that I think does not belong on this list.
1
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Killing Joke
Killing Joke
Excellent album. The members of this band had only gotten together in June of 1979 and by 1980 this album would revolutionize the notion of punk and industrial music. On this album you get the proto tracks of industrial and electronic rock that would illuminate the path for groups I love like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and many others...
My favorite tracks are "Requiem", "Wardance", "The Wait", and "The Primitive".
5
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Mon Feb 19 2024
It's Too Late to Stop Now
Van Morrison
A night of Soul, R&B, and Pop that goes to show that a live album can be more than just a collection of the hits, it can also calcify songs that didn't quite have the impact on the original albums that they appeared, making them more forceful, and how a dynamic group featuring your standard rock outfit buffeted by horns, winds, and string can adapted their performances to the audience that is taking the journey with them on the night.
While there is fun to be had while hearing Morrison's compositions in this new light, it was also fun seeing Van Morrison covering songs by his heroes, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Willie Dixon.
An album that captures a certain vibe of a certain time.
A good album, but as I have said before I am not sure that live concert albums belong on this list, given that spaces are limited and important for exhibiting the most varied and best that popular music has to offer.
4
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
Not fronting, I am not much of a hip hop fan. So, this double album was too self indulgent for me to care much. Required way too much patience from me. I respect that this is someone's favorite album/albums of all time, but to me it doesn't belong on this list.
I sensed these were concept albums, but for the life of me I couldn't figure them out without studying the lyrics, and I am not about to read the lyrics of a 2 hour 15 minute long opus. I was unable to relate to the lyrics that I could make out. I think it was cheeky humor, but who knows? They kind of felt like soundtracks for a pair of "In Living Color" sketch comedy films that I never saw.
Not fun, mostly just an endurance race. I enjoyed the instrumentation more than the lyrics. If I had to choose one of these albums over the other, I lean towards The Love Below more than Speakerboxx, but that could just be because I have more familiarity with jazz, and I found the jazzy, bluesy exploration of melody and harmony compositionally more fun than Speakerboxx's more straight southern hip hop, which has never been my jam.
I did not particularly like any of the singles. My favorite track was the jazz hop instrumental cover of "My Favorite Things" from the musical broadway show, The Sound of Music, using, I think, samples of John Coltrane's My Favorite Things album from 1960.
2
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Brown Sugar
D'Angelo
Feels earnest and organic. I can see why people credit it with being one of the roots of Neo Soul in the 1990s. Very chill vibe. Personally, a bit too chill for me. I would have loved the inclusion of a couple of upbeat tracks just to change the pace up occasionally, keep the listener sharp, and to keep the album from becoming tranquilizing. It became, after awhile, dare I say, boring?
While I respect that he brought Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'" to a new audience, it just reminded me that I should go add the original to my collection.
Ultimately not really my bag. There was a reason that I was listening to very different music from this in 1995.
2
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Rio
Duran Duran
Rio has Duran Duran exploring all kinds of interesting ideas in New Wave/New Romantic music, and the Patrick Nagel painted album cover was so iconic that it became a signpost that directed the look and feel for the rest of the 1980s.
"Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "Save the Last Prayer", yes, but don't forget "The Chauffeur".
5
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Fri Feb 23 2024
It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
My first impression is that It'S BLITZ! feels like an updated version of the Wax Trax! Record label sound from the mid 1980s and 1990s mixed with a Blondie punk vibe, at least for the first 3/4 of the record. Also a bit of Ladyhawke/Metric thrown in for good measure. Good, but not as revolutionary as the music press would have you think.
Lyrics are cryptic, but I'm okay with that. I listen to music for the groove, melody, and harmony, not just for the lyrics, as some others do. Also, it is possible the words were chosen for the sounds they make when uttered and not for their meanings. One critic referred to their lyrics on this record as gnomic, and I think that is apt. Lyrical glimpses. Impressionistic, not narrative tales. Her vocals seems range bound, but after hearing her cover of "Immigrant Song" with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, I know that is not case. I would have liked to hear her expand her vocal exploration on this record. Frankly some of the songs, particularly on the back half of the record would have benefited from it.
"Heads Will Roll" didn't really do much for me. My favorite tracks were "Zero", "Skeletons", and "Hysteric".
If you love this, you might dig 12 Rounds, Collide, The Epoxies, Ladytron, Metric, Florence and the Machine, and Ladyhawke. I found all of them a bit more interesting than this.
2
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Surrealistic Pillow
Jefferson Airplane
A classic that holds up remarkably well. Yes, it is pivotal for the psychedelic rock of "White Rabbit" and the rock of "Somebody to Love", but there is also great folk rock and blues on here as well.
The first album of Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick and new drummer Spencer Dryden, and wow you can feel their impact. Slick's strong vocals have been acknowledged for years, but Dryden's ability cannot be understated, as he tightened the band up considerably and gave Jack Cassady, the bass player, a wider palette from which to improvise.
My favorite tracks not only include the singles "White Rabbit" and Somebody to Love", but also the guitar instrumental of "Embryonic Journey", folk ballad "Comin' Back to Me", psychedelia of "Fantastic Plastic Lover" and the heartbreaking "Today".
Such a great album.
5
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Tonight's The Night
Neil Young
Tried to get into this album. Even after I finally read about its origin story, tried to go back and live with it, but I cannot shake how passionately I dislike this album. It is barely a step removed from being a spoken word album. In my opinion, the music has to be interesting enough without the lyrics and this doesn't feel interesting enough to hold with or without the lyrics. After all, the music is the meat and potatoes and the lyrics are just a condiment sauce.
By this time in the 70s, every singer/songwriter driven project is doing this vibe better than this album, and with more interesting song arrangements . Simply don't understand the idolatry for this record. Pretty forgettable.
I know and respect that this is someone's favorite album, but it is not one of my mine.
Least annoying songs on this album were "Albuquerque", "Lookout Joe" and "New Mama".
1
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
Bitches Brew is a challenging album.
Perhaps too challenging, for me at least.
One thought that occurred to me many times while listening to this massive opus, was the phrase on the album cover, "Directions in Music by Miles Davis". I kept musing on it and I started to hear the album as less of a series of directions that result in destinations, but rather as if the album were the aural equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting.
Something that was less about the structure and nouns and more about verbs and action. Miles' horn comes in as bursts of emotion leaving bits of sound flying around chaotically, like paints that are being thrown around, dripped around, or in the case of "John McLaughlin" transparently not appearing at all .
And once my mind was in this frame, I was finally able to gain an understanding of the album. I was finally able to accept and allow all of the instruments to occupy a general space and time and not assign a particular narrative role. Some might call something with those qualities noise, but I prefer to think that it really is an oxymoronic exploration of controlled chaos.
The album cover is amazing as well. I could see someone buying the vinyl of this record just for the fantastic painting, so I thank this album for turning me on to the paintings of Mati Klarwein.
Having said all that, it is entirely possible that Miles Davis and collaborators created Bitches Brew as one epic prank.
2
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
I wasn't sure I understood or liked folk and folk rock until I heard this record. A brave concept record on Side 1 about the cycle of life. Love the "Voices of Old People", so much audio verite to relate to there. The bookends them breaks my heart every time. The album deserves a 5 just for "Bookends", "America", "Mrs. Robinson", "and "A Hazy Shade of Winter". Still not sure if this or BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER is their most complete album.
All I know is that those two albums are easily in the top 5 of folk records for me.
I've always enjoyed Simon's albums more than Bob Dylan's, and today's listen through just calcifies that thought for me.
Brilliant songwriting. Excellent acoustic guitar. Amazing harmonies. Stories you can relate to. It is all here!
5
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Songs Of Love And Hate
Leonard Cohen
SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE seems so dependent upon the point of view of the listener that anything Cohen wrote as lyrics seems rendered meaningless. The album does not provide earworms to aid the listener's concentration and help with the decoding. By album's conclusion everything was forgettable and I felt no insights about his love nor his hate.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of Leonard Cohen's work, but it is songs like "Everybody Knows" and "Hallelujah", released at a time when the song production seemed more fully realized, and I've never enjoyed his songs for what his lyrics might actually be about. Perhaps I see and experience too much joy in my life to truly live inside Leonard Cohen songs.
Or perhaps it was just the wrong day for the algorithm to serve this album up for me. Who knows?
2
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Hard Again
Muddy Waters
The perfect salve after suffering through yesterday's Leonard Cohen drudgery.
Muddy Waters' infectious charisma blows your ears back and you cannot help but tap your toes, shake your head, and smile at life's big and little troubles.
5
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Lazer Guided Melodies
Spiritualized
Proto space rockstars or not this album does not deserve a place on this list. A most average album where the most charitable thing you can say is that nothing stood out. Give me some passion. Give me some flaws. Give me something.
I sort of felt something during "I Want You", but it quickly disappeared. After enduring nearly an hour of droning, the last track "200 Bars" just seemed like someone taking the piss with their cheeky counting.
I would have given it a rating of a 1, but it was engineered and mastered well. A boring record that probably spawned a bunch of the boring brit and "dream" pop of the nineties.
Pitchfork, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone, Spin; you can all fuck right off. This stuff is terrible. Dream pop the sound that is coming from my ass.
2
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
A short, economical album of blistering rock. What a debut album! Solid hooks and dynamic performances! It is all here.
The only complaint I have about this album is that classics like "Breakdown" at only 2:42 are far too short. I could have used one more verse and chorus for all of the classics.
5
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Alien Lanes
Guided By Voices
Just absolute shit. Avoid at all costs. Stuff like this crap doesn't belong on this list. The thing about putting stuff like this on this list is that it gives a significant source of funding to these people who don't belong on the list, because a list like this generates a lot of streaming and download clicks every year that an artist is on the list.
The global history of this challenge shows, as of today, some 9.5 million votes, and while some percentage of people quit and never finish the challenge, it still means significant income generation that I think should go to artists that truly merits musical inclusion on the list.
Alright, TED talk over. Stepping down from soapbox.
1
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Parachutes
Coldplay
A solid debut album of mostly power ballads. "Yellow" and "Trouble" are the highlights, everything else kind of meanders around the same ideas. Passable, but not really inspiring either. More bearable and accessible than Radiohead or other Brit Pop. Well engineered and produced.
3
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Tue Mar 05 2024
More Songs About Buildings And Food
Talking Heads
Despite the manipulative controlling behavior of David Byrne to steal most of the song credits for himself, whether he deserved them or not, Talking Heads is a great, tight, and very creative instrumental band that took influences from everywhere they could.
The most enjoyable songs are "Thank You For Sending Me an Angel", "Found a Job", "I'm Not in Love", "Stay Hungry", and of course their version of the Al Green cover "Take Me to the River" (which is better as the up tempo number on their live album, but more on that later)
Byrne's voice is mixed low, which makes it impossible at times to make out what he is singing about without looking up the lyrics, and even when you have you still have no idea what he is on about, but the instrumentation is so funky and gripping that you don't care. This band's sound is defined by the wife and husband team of Tina Weymouth on bass guitar and Chris Frantz on drums. No one sounded like them then and frankly no one quite sounds like them now, despite most indie/art bands giving it their best effort.
Having said all that, I agree with what others have said on the reviews of Talking Heads albums on this list, which is simply that there are TOO many Talking Heads albums on this list. The only Talking Heads that ACTUALLY BELONGS on this list is the Talking Heads album that is not on this list, and that is perhaps one of the greatest live albums ever recorded, Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense. It should be on this list because not merely that it is a greatest hits collection of Talking Heads, but it features arrangements that actually work, and they managed to present them to a live audience at peak performance ability. So remove all of their other albums, and replace them with STOP MAKING SENSE, which covers their contribution and opens up slots for other important albums.
4
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Wed Mar 06 2024
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
Possibly THE artistic masterpiece of the 1990s. For the truly hardcore fans it is referred to by its alternative title Halo 8. Easily one of three of the greatest albums of music that was released in the entire decade, the other two also being Nine Inch Nails (Broken 1992, and The Fragile 1999). This is the album that delineated what music was before and what could artistically be realized afterward.
When I picked up this album I had limited experience with Nine Inch Nails previous songs. I didn't know what to expect and it was a musically religious experience. From the Russel Mills painting as the cover and the attention given to every little bit of every track on the album. It was the first time I really grasped how powerful a concept album could be. I was aware of Pink Floyd's The Wall, but it did not land with the impact and force that this record did.
A production and engineering master class. The remix album Further Down the Spiral (version 1 and version 2 (for the amazing Ruiner and Heresy remixes by Charlie Clouser) might be the single greatest remix album ever.
5
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Sheet Music
10cc
2
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Fri Mar 08 2024
Infected
The The
I had learned of the existence of the band The The from Trent Reznor interviews in the late Eighties and throughout the 90s.
When INFECTED came out in November 1986, I recall that it made no impact in our lives in the United States. While termed post punk, with its synth bass and song arrangement it feels like your typical, fun, quirky 80s album. Fun, but there were more interesting albums at the time.
Having said all that, a new album came out exactly 1 month earlier than this one, that everyone actually listened to, and that album was Wang Chung's MOSAIC, which seems like a criminal act that it is not on this list. Just sayin'
2
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
If rock music were made by NyQuil. Competent acid rock with risks of drowsiness.
Feels like they desperately want to be Radiohead/Pink Floyd.
As a fan of electronic music, this is the most enjoyable of The Flaming Lips records for me, as the inclusion of the electronic elements makes the sci-fi premise easier to slip into and offsets the boredom of the indie rock a tad.
2
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Nevermind
Nirvana
Hipsters will downplay this record and say that they prefer Bleach, or any other Nirvana record than this one, but this is the record where the strong point of view of Nirvana's punk ideas and production and engineering mastery all came together to make a masterpiece that changed the course of music creation/production and the music business in the United States.
The first six songs just slay. Absolute classics and two more awaited the back half of the album. Amazing album for the punk genre.
5
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Winter In America
Gil Scott-Heron
A fairly boring album from a musical standpoint. Doesn't move the boundaries on a jazz or blues front, nor from a production standpoint. About the only thing that differentiates this album from others is the lyrical subject matter. Perhaps would have been better as a poetry chapbook.
Currently unavailable on any of the streaming services in the U.S. Had to make do with an album length file on YouTube, so it was not a pleasant listening experience. Perhaps having better access to it would have increased my rating.
2
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Tue Mar 12 2024
Synchronicity
The Police
This album is an absolute pleasure. Perfect blend of punk/new wave, reggae, and pop.
Performances are amazing. Song arrangements are solid. Lyrics are thought provoking while remaining fun and anthemic. One of my absolute favorite albums.
This is the album you give anyone who has never heard The Police. Their other 4 studio albums are great and solid throughout, but this is THE iconic album that shows off everything The Police were about and what they could do.
5
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Beatles
5
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Toys In The Attic
Aerosmith
I own Aerosmith records and have listened to them many times over the decades, but I had never sat down and listened to Toys in the Attic all the way through uninterrupted. I learned that I still love the hits "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion" but I was also pleased to discover an enjoyment for "Round and Round" as well. The only track that truly seemed out of place was "Big 10 Inch Record". My 10 year old self would have giggled and loved it, but the middle-aged me cannot help but roll my eyes.
While the album is of cultural importance with its inclusion of "Walk this Way", thereby setting up the creation of the Rap Rock genre ten years later with Run DMC, and I enjoy the record, I'm not sure THIS album in particular belongs on this list.
3
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Fri Mar 15 2024
A Northern Soul
The Verve
A fairly long album in the which the sounds of the songs and the arrangements don't seem to differentiate themselves all that much. It became boring pretty quickly.
Every time the band starts to do anything interesting sonically, Ashcroft's voice comes in and ruins it. It seems like Ashcroft was writing and performing one album in his head, and the band were writing and performing something else entirely. The self disconnection as symbolized by the disconnection of the voice and lyrics from the music could have been an interesting idea but here it doesn't really work.
Features stupid lyrics that sound like they came from a 12 year old, with nonsense like "Oh, the bed ain't made but it's filled with hope, I've got a skin full of dope". We get it, your THE VERVE. You've beaten the irony so much by this point, that it should have formed into steel resolve. Get on with it. I don't find this interesting when Thom Yorke does it, and I don't don't find it interesting when Richard Ashcroft does it.
I enjoyed "Reprise" (Because Ashcroft finally shuts the heck up and lets the music speak for itself). It is a shame that more of the album were not instrumental. I might have enjoyed it more. The sonic chemistry between Nick McCabe (guitar), Simon Jones (bass), and Peter Salisbury (drums) is undeniable on this track. Shame those guys didn't kick out Ashcroft out of the band and stay together. It might have been interesting to see what that could have become.
I'm giving it a 3 primarily for the work of the engineers and producer who did the best they could with what they were given and to be fair do create a bit of lush sonics at times.
2
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Sat Mar 16 2024
Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy
While Thin Lizzy is an excellent hard rock band and one of their studio releases certainly belongs on this list, but I'm not sure another live double album does, particularly when it was created by cherry picking from so many dates and with so many overdubs.
Having said that I did enjoy the live segue from the last chord from "Cowboy Song" becoming the first chord from "The Boys Are Back In Town". This album demonstrated that Thin Lizzy wrote and performed solid songs.
I cannot help but wonder if Prince early in his career borrowed a ton of Phil Lynott's wardrobe look from this era. It would seem so.
3
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Sun Mar 17 2024
One World
John Martyn
The algorithm gave me this album on a Saturday, and I listened to it in the pre-dawn hours while sipping warm coffee. It was a perfect chill album that explores a bunch of different genres and obviously in 1977 pointed the direction to forge new genres that would not fully be explored until the 90s and 00's.
While very experimental with sonic backgrounds, the tracks are tightly focused and realized an album that is only 39 minutes in duration.
My favorites were the pre-trip hop sound of "Smiling Stranger" and amazingly lush space rock opus, "Small Hours". While I also enjoyed the bossa nova of "Certain Surprise" and the dub of "Big Muff".
4
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Mon Mar 18 2024
The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
Album was so short that I gave it a 2nd listen and while I’ve struggled to connect with The Smiths in the past, this is a pretty solid album. It won’t make my favorite rotation but I did enjoy the dark humor that is throughout.
My favorites were “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, “Frankly, Mr Shankly”, and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”.
3
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Tue Mar 19 2024
Appetite For Destruction
Guns N' Roses
Has all three of the vitamins: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.
My favorite tracks were not only the singles of "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child O'Mine", but also "Mr. Brownstone", "It's So Easy", and "Rocket Queen".
This album, their next 2 EPs and 2 full length albums would be a major reason that the overwhelming presence of rock was propelled into the early 1990s.
4
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Moss Side Story
Barry Adamson
After listening to this I can see why, as soundtrack producer for David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY that Trent Reznor included 4 Barry Adamson tracks. With this album coming out 5 years before, it seems that informed some of the sonic ideas on The Downward Spiral whether it was conscious or subconscious. You can also hear influences of this on one of my other favorite albums David Bowie's 1995 concept album, OUTSIDE.
In 1989, this was probably the first album I can remember that ever tried writing an entire film soundtrack for a non-existent film. These days it is an old hat idea that many artists have tried.
Groundbreaking as it might be, it does feel like it overstays its welcome a bit. I started feeling my attention wane at around track 11 of 15.
I do understand why it is on the list, though. It did influence many other acts, their albums, what was possible, and how they would present those ideas us in meaningful ways throughout the 1990s and up to the present. This set the scene for Trent Reznor to assemble the craziness behind the soundtracks for not only LOST HIGHWAY but also NATURAL BORN KILLERS.
3
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
5
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Fri Mar 22 2024
No Other
Gene Clark
I wanted to like this album, really. I could hear that great effort was put into the songwriting, the engineering, the production, and the performances, but other than the folky psychedelic track of "No Other", the album seems rather dull.
The album is mostly a mix of various forms of soulful country rock, folk rock, and just generally the California singer songwriter sound of the 1970s. No better than 100 or more other records that came out during that decade in these genres. On the other hand I am not a fan of this sound from The Eagles or Neil Young during this era either. I find all of it rather tedious. If you are a big fan of the aforementioned artists perhaps you will enjoy this more than I did.
Not a bad record, but not a special one either. I enjoyed it more when he was a bit more experimental.
2
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Sat Mar 23 2024
All Directions
The Temptations
On the surface the instrumentation and vocals are gorgeous. While "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is an all time classic, the meaning of the lyrics also rings a bit untrue once you look into the families of The Temptations, and their rock solid Dads.
All Directions is a very tight album of 8 songs that only occupies 35 minutes, of which 12 of them was spent on the iconic "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". *Chef's kiss* You can see why they won all the awards with this album. Well deserved fellas.
The Temptations are at their peak powers of psychedelic funk and it sounds glorious. When people think back on The Temptations, this is often the sound of them that bounces around in their imagination; it certainly did in mine.
My favorites tracks were "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" (which I only learned today was a cover of a song by The Undisputed Truth), "I Ain't Got Nothin'", "The First Time I Saw Your Face", "Mother Nature", and "Do Your Thing".
Such a smooth pleasure to listen to on a Friday morning. Really sets the tone for a bright weekend.
5
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Sun Mar 24 2024
At San Quentin
Johnny Cash
There is an undeniable kinetic energy between Johnny Cash and his captive prison audience on this album.
Tight, classic Country & Western songs that are hilarious and heartbreaking.
4
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Seventeen Seconds
The Cure
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
Sign 'O' The Times
Prince
I've never been much of a Prince fan. I always felt like Michael Jackson was the more consistent great pop performer, and I've never liked how Prince treated anyone within his sphere. He seemed like an egomaniacal prick, but this is probably the most listenable of his works, even if it is ridiculously long.
I enjoyed 3 of the songs, but only one of them was a single. Not really into the rest of it.
3
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Wed Mar 27 2024
The Genius Of Ray Charles
Ray Charles
I love big band. I dig Ray Charles, but Ray Charles doing standards doesn't belong on this list. His release WHAT'D I SAY is why he belongs on this list and yet it its not included. WTF?
These covers are no better or worse than anyone else that the time. Nothing notable here. About the release itself, my only complaint is that I wish the horns weren't distorting so much.
3
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Vivid
Living Colour
4
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Chirping Crickets
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Not one wasted note. The master of efficient songcraft, Buddy Holly really was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. This whole album is a joy. It is so clear how their sound inspired not only the sound of The Beatles but sound of many of the pop acts that would follow for the rest of time.
Hard to believe this album of 12 songs only has a duration of 25 minutes. Losing Buddy at such a young age was such a loss for music. It would have been fascinating to see what his songwriting would have evolved to become over the musically rich years of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
5
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Sat Mar 30 2024
Black Holes and Revelations
Muse
In 2006 someone heard that I liked prog rock bands such as Rush and Yes, and they emailed me the mp3 of "Knights of Cydonia". I was not all that moved by it, and promptly moved on with my life. I had never really delved into the rest of the album, until today.
In my opinion, BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS is your typical Muse record that rips other people's good ideas but doesn't provide any truly of their own. I admire the bands that Muse admires, I just don't admire what they tend do with the influence. For example, when I hear this album, I hear "Dude, we love Rush's record 2112". I love Rush, but I'd love to hear a Muse record, not a pale Rush knockoff.
Perhaps I am being harsh. I confess that Matt Bellamy's singing style and vocal sound is very unpleasant to me. He sounds like Thom Yorke, and I cannot stand Thom Yorke's voice either.
Asides from the lyrics that are overly paranoid about everything, Muse does hold together as a tight rhythm section. If you can ignore the lyrics and Bellamy's unpleasant croon, there is a fairly tight electro prog act underneath all of that.
After listening to the album, I actually added "Map of the Problematique" to my favorites, but I definitely don't think this is an album you should hear before you die. If I were to recommend a Muse album for this list, it would be their 2018 album SIMULATION THEORY, which I think shows something a bit more original of themselves, while still showing off all the prog geekery and power rock that fans of Muse enjoy.
2
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
George Michael
On this album George Michael strayed too far from what made him successful on FAITH, which is a shame because while I don't believe this album belongs on this list, I do firmly believe that FAITH does.
It is clear that with his collaboration with Aretha Franklin in January 1987 really affected how he went about writing and arranging his second album. LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE VOL. 1 is a very different album, but of the 10 tracks included only 2 of them remotely approached the dance genre that his fanbase had grown accustomed. The rest are version of adult oriented rock. He probably should have gone with a more even split to keep his FAITH fanbase appeased. The album presented comes off a bit more like Roger Whittaker, rather than George Michael, particularly compared to the kineticism of FAITH. I love me some Roger Whittaker, but that was not George Michael's core fanbase.
After the iconic coming out track "Freedom '90" I enjoyed the Lennon-esque "Praying For Time", and the bossa nova laced "Heal the Pain".
3
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Mon Apr 01 2024
You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fatboy Slim
I am a fan of this genre, and among the big beat albums of the day this was one of the weaker ones. It benefitted by coming out after The Chemical Brothers and Prodigy had already warmed up the U.S. audience.
After the propulsive opening of "Right Here, Right Now" and "The Rockafellar Skank" it is a long fairly samey sounding slog before "Praise You", and the rest of the album finishes on a more interesting exploration of "Love Island" which has another John Barry sample in there, after the one in "The Rockafellar Skank", and finally the nice techno "Acid 8000". For much of the album though Cook wasn't able to keep me, a fan of the genre, interested all the way through.
I've given YCALWB 3.5 stars for competent engineering and production, but as the rating stands, I'm leaving them with a rating of 3. There are other more interesting electronica acts at this time, particularly Prodigy, Meat Beat Manifesto, Orbital, Apollo 440, Daft Punk, and Paul Oakenfold just to name a few.
3
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Tue Apr 02 2024
Lady Soul
Aretha Franklin
A very quick half-an-hour meal of Soul food.
This album is worth listening to just hear her work the lyric "Everything is copacetic now" into "Niki Hoeky" just as naturally as the wind whispers.
Highlights on this virtuoso soul album include the classics "Chain of Fools", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Sweet Sweet Baby (Since You've Been Gone)", and "Ain't No Way", but really there are no weak tracks on this album.
I was blown away by how lush Tommy Cogbill's bass was on all these tracks. After Aretha's voice, his bass is the thing that keeps all of these Soul and Gospel tracks bubbling, bouncing, interesting and constantly propelling forward. He and drummers Roger Hawkins and Gene Chrisman do a great job of leaving enough space for Aretha and the backing singers, which by the way includes Cissy Houston (Whitney Houston's mom) and Franklin's sisters Carolyn and Erma to spiral around Aretha, as she explores the vocal melodies.
5
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Stand!
Sly & The Family Stone
4
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Thu Apr 04 2024
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
I've heard songs of Bob Marley & the Wailers here and there all of my life, but I've never truly sat down and listened to entire album of their work until today.
I was already a big fan of "Waiting in Vain", having heard it decades before when Annie Lennox covered the song and I was introduced to it. I enjoyed hearing the original as well as "There Little Birds" which I had heard countless times before.
As an atheist, who is not from Jamaica, and does not like weed, there was not much on this album I can relate to. I respect the performance and production quality, and their place in popular music history, but I am not likely to put this album on again, so I cannot give this a higher rating than a 3.
3
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Fri Apr 05 2024
Hejira
Joni Mitchell
The album is lyrically dense but her vocal performance is detached from the music, and perhaps that is the emotion she is trying to convey, but I was having difficulty emotionally relating to it, and therefore did not enjoy it much. I think the arrangements could have benefited from also exploring dynamics to keep from feeling quite so similar to one another.
I prefer a different album of hers than this one.
Also, apropros of nothing, I am aware that it is just the image of Joni's wrist and upper hand bleeding through the cover image, but it really looks like a penis on the cover and I'm having trouble unseeing it. It is unclear to me whether that was intentional or not.
2
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Elephant
The White Stripes
The reach of The White Stripes imagination finally match their grasp on their fourth album Elephant. Gone were the incomplete song fragments that littered the previous three albums.
Meg White's singing on "In The Cold, Cold Night" makes me wish that she were the lead vocalist on all of The White Stripes tracks instead of Jack.
But, at the end of the day, after "Seven Nation Army", it is just your typical The White Stripes album.
Anyone know why there is nearly an extra minute of silence after the conclusion of the final track "It's True That We Love One Another"? I expected a hidden track, but nada.
3
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Sun Apr 07 2024
3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul
3
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Public Image: First Issue
Public Image Ltd.
Thi rating is not so much for the quality of this particular album but for the albums that it would inspire from other artists down the road.
3
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Superfly
Curtis Mayfield
Sophisticated funk that's super chill. You might even say it's super fly.
My personal preference is the instrumental track "Junkie Chase" over the lyrical tracks, although I did add "Superfly" to my rotation.
It seems to me that disco age has to give thanks to this soundtrack and Isaac Hayes (Shaft) for forming the foundation from what was to come in the middle and end of the 70s.
You can also hear what will influence and be referenced by the hip hop and neo soul crowd that would come in the late 80s and all the way to the late 90s.
4
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Wed Apr 10 2024
John Prine
John Prine
Lyrics that were occasionally funny. I do enjoy him a bit more than Dylan. The music structure was the standard folk country, so that became a bit tiresome after awhile when it became clear there would not be any song arrangement surprises. Was worth a listen but probably won't make it into my regular rotation.
3
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Thu Apr 11 2024
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
Far more accessible than the other albums of The Velvet Underground. I can see why it is derisively called Lou Reed's first solo album.
I enjoyed all of the songs to one extent or another. My favorite track was "What Goes On".
Least favorite "The Murder Mystery", which is an interesting thought experiment of song arrangement, but definitely not the sort of thing that I am going to want to listen to again.
4
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Fri Apr 12 2024
Talk Talk Talk
The Psychedelic Furs
I am a big fan of post punk/new wave/modern rock. Having said that, aside from "Pretty in Pink" and "All of This and Nothing", the Steve Lillywhite produced Talk Talk Talk is a long dirge of samey sounding punk/post punk that has not yet quite made the turn toward the more interesting sound of modern rock. They also have not stopped mimicking the sound of The Sex Pistols and truly created their own sound yet.
The album that the algorithm pointed to was the remastered album re-released in 2002 instead of the original. This is relevant, because not only is it remastered, it is also longer because it includes all kinds of bonus tracks, and for some weird reason that re-ordered all the tracks which I don't think suits this album at all. I recommend listening to the 10 track original that was released in 1981 and is available on most streaming services.
Alas, there is not much memorable here. Talk Talk Talk didn't even make my top 50 for albums released in 1981, much less make my top 1001 for all time. Personally I feel their best album are to come over the rest of the 1980s, even though others criticize them for being over-produced. I don't buy this BS that somehow less production makes an album more sincere or authentic.
2
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Sat Apr 13 2024
Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
These guys created a sound of their own that is unmistakable. Every song is tight. Just a wonderful blues rock album from the early 1970s. Proto hard rock and metal.
4
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Sun Apr 14 2024
In The Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra
Recorded after losing Ava Gardner, “In the Wee Small Hours” is aching swing that is a joy to listen to.
4
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Mon Apr 15 2024
Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin
I've heard many of these tracks but I've never listened to the entire album all the way through in one sitting. Such a consistent album. You can hear so many albums in genres of hard rock, metal, grunge, and funk that will arrive in the future, due in part to the influences of this album.
A very good album even if it is a tad too indulgent. One hour twenty-two minutes is ALOT of Led Zeppelin to take in.
The two Johns, Bonham and Paul Jones, make this album soar. Perhaps the most consistently tight I've ever heard this rhythm section play. Robert Plant's voice grates, but the rhythm section and guitar work is so tight that you can basically ignore the vocals and still have a grand ole time.
4
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
Linkin Park doesn't really add anything here that nearly two decades of industrial, hard rock, and new wave hadn't already added to the genre. There have even been countless other bands that had mixed these styles together, by this point and this one is a boring as your typical Korn, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, and Deftones records. The only notable thing about this release is that had come to the party late, just as it was winding down. Your average suburban teenager in every community had already submitted to a genre that had been growing since the late 80s, and everybody was getting ready to move on.
Having said all that, in the end, (see what I did there?), I enjoyed the singles "Crawling", "In the End", and further into the album the songs "Runaway", and the instrumental "Cure for the Itch".
Hybrid Theory is a competent but ultimately forgettable album. Probably won't make my rotation, so it gets a 2.
2
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Wed Apr 17 2024
Bongo Rock
Incredible Bongo Band
Loved this!
5
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Thu Apr 18 2024
A Little Deeper
Ms. Dynamite
I enjoyed the straight edge hip-hop first track which was a pleasant turn for this genre, particularly in 2002, but after hearing the entire album I'm a little puzzled why this is on the list.
It is just another hip hop whine about poor life which this many decades into the format is getting a bit tiresome.
I understand that it won a Mercury, and it is a competently produced album, but that doesn't mean it merits a spot. Aafter all, in the United States you can throw a dime in any direction and hit a dozen female hip hop acts that were doing this 2002 at this quality or better. What makes this one stand out? Beats me. The rhymes are passable, but Ms. Dynamite isn't presenting them in a new way.
Hip hop as a genre is less appealing to me because while I love rhythm, I also prefer the music to focus less on lyricism and more on sonic exploration, and I find messaging to be a real turn off, which is not the strengths of hip hop.
A notable debut record, but not something that belongs on this list.
Passable tracks for me were "Natural High" and "Watch Over Them" but the rest of the themes were the typical trite of the genre.
2
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Fri Apr 19 2024
Achtung Baby
U2
This album is weird for me because it has never been my absolute favorite U2 album, but I've always loved certain tracks of this album, only those tracks keep changing as I mature and age through life. Having tracks that appeal to me at different stages of life has been a fairly rare in my extensive listening experience. It was and always has been a personally challenging record to listen to in the best of ways.
Hard to overstate level of post Cold War optimism that this album was recorded under in 1990-1991.
This is also one of those albums that coaxed me into entering the catalogs of whole scenes and bands that I'd never considered before. It was also one of the first albums that I really paid attention to who engineered and produced the album, which has made finding albums I might enjoy much easier over the years. I learned a ton about Krautrock, the Berlin dance scene, industrial music, etc. which led to a deep dive in the Wax Trax! Records dive on the American side of the pond as well.
This album also made it clear to me how and why a band might want to change their sound, and what that might mean, which was also a revelation as a musician.
This is part of a run of truly remarkable records that Flood produced in a 7 year period that might be hard for any producer to challenge short of Sir George Martin with The Beatles. A run that would include U2's The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Nine Inch Nails' - Pretty Hate Machine, Broken EP, and The Downward Spiral, and Depeche Mode's Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion. Perhaps 8 of the greatest albums ever recorded that defined the sound of late eighties and all of the nineties.
4
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Aladdin Sane
David Bowie
4
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Sun Apr 21 2024
Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
Lush funky arrangements that suffers from pacing issues that requires considerable patience. I say this as someone who routinely listens to tracks that can exceed 10 minutes by bands like Yes and Rush. 4 tracks with a duration of 45 minutes tells you all you need to know. Some of these tracks could have shined brighter had they been mixed down to single length versions, which after reading more about this album, sounds like what they eventually did.
Not digging the spoken word intro, it should have been a separate track as a lead in to the song proper, so you could skip right to the song. Did not dig the lyrics of any of the songs, but the instrumentation was on point. Props to his arranger Johnny Allen.
In my opinion "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" was the only song on the album that justified its length.
I think the last track was probably inspired by envy over William Shatner's spoken word masterpiece album The Transformed Man that was released a couple of years earlier.
3
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Stripped
Christina Aguilera
2
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Music in Exile
Songhoy Blues
The Fabulous Thunderbirds kind of blues if sang in Songhai and recorded with Mali sensibilities.
3
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Songs From A Room
Leonard Cohen
An annoyingly a-musical album that relies entirely too much on the lyrics, like most of Leonard Cohen's catalog. The only track I enjoyed was "Tonight Will Be Fine".
2
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Thu Apr 25 2024
Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake
For me Nick Drake's music is generally more enjoyable to listen to and contemplate than those of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, or Tom Waits, all of which I just find overrated and annoying.
3
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Fri Apr 26 2024
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
The moment when it became clear that while Nirvana were punk with punk credentials there were solid song arrangements beneath all those distorted guitars and screams.
The first live album by the band, and in my opinion, probably the best.
It was an appearance that also showed how wide of the music listening habits of the band really were with covers of The Vaselines "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam", David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World", The Meat Puppets "Plateau", "Oh Me", "Lake of Fire"and a Lead Belly version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?".
Solid performance through and through, never overstays its welcome, and plenty of surprises to keep the listener going, which frankly really was a complete surprise at the time that the show and album was released.
4
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Sat Apr 27 2024
KIWANUKA
Michael Kiwanuka
This was a pleasant surprise. I somehow missed this album when it came out. Michael Kiwanuka has a knack for capturing the authentic sound of the 60s and 70s soul while introducing modern little tweaks here and there that do just enough to keep you interested and wondering what might be coming next.
I agree with others that this album works really well as a complete album and not just a collection of singles. I certainly have my favorite tracks but I think I will keep them to myself and just ask that people give the whole album a listen to. I think they will find it worth it.
I also enjoyed that Kiwanuka wrote many of the lyrics of the songs from a universal point of view and especially from a viewpoint of compassion and hope. On the few songs that delved into subjects that have been done to death recently, the song arrangements and performances were done so well that I still enjoyed the track, despite disagreeing with the viewpoint of the message, and that is a pretty nifty magic trick to accomplish.
I can see why he toured with Adele in 2011. She opened the decade with a classic and he closed the decade with an equal classic of his own.
5
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
3
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Mon Apr 29 2024
Arular
M.I.A.
Gets tedious pretty quickly. Pretentious early 2000s "message" music.
Totally fresh and innovative? New York 1980s hip hop of Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash is calling on line 1. Paul Simon's Graceland on line 2. Neneh Cherry on line 3.
Feels like people were blinded by things other than the music.
2
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Tue Apr 30 2024
Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
A very good album to chill and ease into your Monday morning with.
One of the more interesting DJ albums out there. Shadow does a remarkable job of representing multiple styles and weaving things together in ways that might sound conventional today but were mind-blowingly fresh for 1996.
Furthermore the number of endless hours of listening to vinyl it required to just nab a few second sample here and a ten sample second there requires supreme patience and taste. I think way more effort was put into the creation of this album than you might think.
Also as someone who has some experience with this method of production, props to Shadow for managing to create this with the technology available to him as an indie artist in 1996.
Definitely the type of album that totally deserves to be on this list. This is the album that inspired the groundbreaking albums from Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, Radioplay, and countless other acts from 1996 up to now. For some that would be an indictment, but not in my view, as I enjoy the endless amount of diverse sounds and interpretations it has created. You can tell this came from someone who just loves music, of every type, from everywhere.
My favorite tracks were "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt", "Stem/Long Stem (Medley)", and "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain (Medley)
4
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Wed May 01 2024
The Who Sell Out
The Who
Fairly chill album. I wasn't a fan of the ironic commercialism album concept that they were attempting. I prefer their more anthemic fare with wider appeal than the niche comedy bits. I cannot help but wonder if a record like this was influential upon the members of Monty Python when they would conceive and perform Monty Python's Flying Circus television series only a couple of years later.
My favorite tracks were "I Can See For Miles" and "Sunrise".
After experiencing this album my favorite albums of The Who have not changed. Who's Next, in my opinion, is still the definitive album of The Who.
For inclusion on this list, this record is middling.
2
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Thu May 02 2024
Cheap Thrills
Big Brother & The Holding Company
The album cover is fire. The music on the other hand is a bit meh. Competent performances, but nothing that truly stands the test of time. Janis' voice, like Joe Cocker, Robert Plant, and Axl Rose gets a bit gimmicky and tiresome after awhile.
None of these tracks made it into my regular rotation.
3
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Fri May 03 2024
Moon Safari
Air
While I did not enjoy their other appearance on this list, the film score for The Virgin Suicides, I did find this earlier work to be far more interesting and enjoyable.
As might be expected from the down tempo genre, it is a very chill album. I can attest that this was the kind of music that was being played in the chill rooms of raves, to ease people back from the chaos of a rave and towards humanity. Top notch production and mixing. For me, the vocoder in "Sexy Boy" was maybe the only seriously jarring thing on the album.
It is also clear that while AIR takes their cues from all kinds acts, Yello, Curtis Mayfield and of genres prior to them (bossa nova, lounge jazz, krautrock, 70s era film scores) it is equally clear that this album has influenced the sound of acts since its release by reminding modern acts that smooth jazz from our earlier canon can be reinterpreted in fun and unusual ways, and therefore an album worth having on this list.
Having said all that, it is the kind of album that now having heard it, I likely won't put the whole thing on ever again. However I did add a couple of tracks to my regular rotation, which is a step up from their The Virgin Suicides film score album. Another listener on here noted upon this release that the line between relaxing and wondrous and kind of boring is a thin line, indeed it is, and they do cross it at times. I was not a fan of "Sexy Boy", "All I Need", or "You Make It Easy", lest you think I disdain Beth Hirsch, I think she is great, I just didn't feel anything with these tracks.
My Favorite tracks were the Curtis Mayfield inspired "La Femme d'argent" aka the Silver Woman, and the smoky acid jazz of "All I Need", the 70s cinema lushness of "Talisman" and "Ce Matin-La" aka "This Morning".
3
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Sat May 04 2024
At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
Another live album. This one is a blues rock jam of mostly covers that is a bit too self indulgent for my tastes.
I enjoyed the tracks that were shorter, had vocals, and included organ solos. The others were bit too samey after awhile.
I don't think I'll be re-visiting this album in the future and none of the tracks made into my regular rotation. I've already got plenty of blues covers in my collection already.
3
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Sun May 05 2024
At Budokan
Cheap Trick
The band doesn't really get into the pocket on this album until track 5 "Need Your Love", and the album as a whole takes off on tracks 6 through 10, which includes a rocking cover of the Fats Domino/Dave Bartholomew song"Ain't That a Shame", and the hits "I Want You to Want Me" and "Surrender".
Deserves about a 3.5 for keeping song and solo lengths reasonable, for making it a standard album length (42 minutes) and for resisting the urge to make it a double album. I'll round it down and give it a 3.
I might be one of the only people around that prefers their studio albums to their live ones.
3
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Mon May 06 2024
Remedy
Basement Jaxx
I love the electronic genre, but even I found this fairly boring. Not as interesting as Darkdancer by Les Rythmes Digitales, another club album, which also happens to on this list.
And neither of those albums is as interesting as Paul Oakenfold's Bunkka. I am unsure whether that album is on the list, but if not, it should be.
2
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Tue May 07 2024
Definitely Maybe
Oasis
Didn't like this album when it came out in the '90s, and I really tried to give it a chance this time around, but unfortunately I still don't.
I agree with others. A muddy mix. A poor pastiche of far better artists ideas, from David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, T. rex and The Beatles. The hooks aren't particularly fetching.
One of the most overrated albums I have ever heard, from one of the most overrated bands I've ever heard.
1
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Wed May 08 2024
School's Out
Alice Cooper
One of the glam rock albums that actually rocks from that period. Also a concept album that is not recognized as frequently as its contemporaries.
While the single "School's Out", gets all the attention, I actually also loved the cheeky humor of the glam rock rewrite of "Jet Song" from the musical West Side Story as the renamed "Gutter Cat vs. The Jets" along with "Street Fight".
My other favorites were the jazz loungie snark of "Blue Turk", the blues of "My Stars", the rocking rebellious "Public Animal #9", but perhaps my favorite track on the album is the instrumental "Grand Finale" that works in bits of the "Jet Song" melodies as closer.
While I enjoy bits of David Bowie's THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST, I actually enjoy SCHOOL'S OUT, which was also released in 1972, more. SCHOOL'S OUT, in my opinion, is a better mixed record and shorter, and tighter collection of songs at just 36 minutes.
4