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Tue Jan 16 2024
Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix
5
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Wed Jan 17 2024
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
3
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
5
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Zombie
Fela Kuti
5
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Sat Jan 20 2024
Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen
2
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Mothership Connection
Parliament
5
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Mon Jan 22 2024
We're Only In It For The Money
The Mothers Of Invention
4
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins
1
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
3
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Thu Jan 25 2024
It's A Shame About Ray
The Lemonheads
These musicians always thought they were a little more special than they actually are
2
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
3
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Sat Jan 27 2024
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
4
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Sun Jan 28 2024
For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Rejoicing In The Hands
Devendra Banhart
4
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix
5
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Fly Or Die
N.E.R.D
4
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Wild Gift
X
I love punk but never got X. The sound of the two voices together makes me hate music.
1
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Fri Feb 02 2024
Fred Neil
Fred Neil
Great sounds and a cultural artifact of a proto-psychedelic album.
4
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Sat Feb 03 2024
Rubber Soul
Beatles
5
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Sun Feb 04 2024
I See A Darkness
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
It grew in me. Would rate it higher if I weren't on antidepressants.
4
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Mon Feb 05 2024
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
Wow! Everyone says Dusty in Memphis is the record to own but damn this set jumped out of my speakers!
5
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Tue Feb 06 2024
White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
The hits are great but the sound gets boring after a while.
3
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Wed Feb 07 2024
The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
Masterpiece
5
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Thu Feb 08 2024
At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
Masters of their craft at the peak of their powers, but ultimately I find this kind of music more fun to play than to listen to.
I love this story about Duane I only learned recently:
http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2012/08/wilson-pickett-and-duane-allman-birth-of-southern-rock.html
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
I think possibly every woman I have ever dated owned Avalon and that's how I got to know Roxy Music. So it was a bit of a shock the first time I heard this album, which to me sounded more like Pere Ubu than than the Roxy Music I was familiar with.
It's uneven but a lot of fun and I will always appreciate the role they played inspiring the punks.
3
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
Not a fan, sorry!
Never heard anything more than the singles in here before today. About halfway through the album she sings in a higher register and I received it like sweet relief from her normal singing voice, which to me sounds flat, both in terms of tone and intonation. She also sings with a "tough guy" attitude on some songs that feels unnatural to me.
I like all the vibes and marimbas throughout the record. The music is otherwise not all that interesting to me and some of her lyrics sound awkward. I guess you can tell I never understood her appeal.
2
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Sun Feb 11 2024
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles
I mean, c'mon. If you can't find the delight and musicianship of early Beatles totally infectious than you are probably having a bad day.
But the idea of rating the Beatles is weird to me, like rating Da Vinci. I don't think this is their best - a little uneven tune selection toward the end - but I have a hard time objectively comparing it to Roxy Music or Fiona Apple.
Lately, I've been getting more into their covers, particularly of Motown tunes like "Please Mister Postman," in which John's vocal is more emotionally tortured than anything Detroit produced.
5
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Fragile
Yes
Not my bag, but I respect the players' chops.
Also:
1. Google a recent photo of guitarist Steve Howe and tell me he should have been cast as Elrond in LOTR.
2. I've been working on a joke review involving the word "incel" but couldn't get there. Still, I couldn't leave this review without using that word.
2
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Tue Feb 13 2024
2112
Rush
Out of the incel frying pan and into the fire!
There are Rush songs I like but none of them are on here. The best thing I can say about this album is, like my favorite dental procedures, it's over before you know it!
2
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Wed Feb 14 2024
Slayed?
Slade
A delightful surprise! Never actually heard this band before - mainly just know them for Quiet Riot's cover of their "Cum On Feel The Noise" - I had a lot of fun with it.
A few reflections, Larry King style: Makes me want to drink 75 pints of bitters and get punched in the nose...this is what's playing in the background when Ray and Dave Davies are getting into one of their legendary drunken fist fights...they must've inspired AC/DC...the Joplin cover is aces!
4
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Thu Feb 15 2024
Frank
Amy Winehouse
Another one where I appreciate the artist being on the list but not this album. To my ears, neither the material nor the production are worthy of Amy.
2
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Fri Feb 16 2024
Honky Tonk Heroes
Waylon Jennings
I enjoyed it. Listened to it twice yesterday . I get the feeling like this album would grow in me but I'm not sure it's memorable enough for me to pick it up again. This album helped me finally realize that until now Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard were fused into the same entity in my mind. Now, they are separate (notwithstanding the fact that I had to check which one this album was when I was typing their names just now).
3
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Sat Feb 17 2024
All Directions
The Temptations
Disappointed. On paper, this is an amazing album, but while Papa Was a Rolling Stone is an awesome tune and well situated within this lineup, the rest of this doesn't hold up. This was made after Motown moved to LA and to me it's an example of what people mean when say that they lost something in the move.
2
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Spirit
One thing I love about this project is that it forces me to give things a fuller listen than I ordinarily would, like this.
I went through a HUGE Hendrix phase when I worked at the record store and Spirit's guitar player is sort of Jimi's preeminent disciple so my boss Pete Liberante and I tried to get into this album a couple of times and never could. Now I get the chance to hear side two and realize I was missing more than I knew.
Do yourself a favor and read all of Randy California's Wikipedia entry. It is very entertaining and after you give a listen to Taurus I want to know if you agree that this was SCOTUS's worst decision (to not take the case) since Bush v Gore - even more egregious than Dobbs, in my view.
3
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Mon Feb 19 2024
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
I had the most intense experience listening to this album that an album has put me through in a long time. At the beginning I was struggling to find something to latch on to, but by the time it ended I was so into it I immediately played it again, like the kid who survives the roller coaster and after disembarking sprints to get in line to ride again.
However, as amazing as it was, I have a funny feeling I may never listen to this album again.
5
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Back At The Chicken Shack
Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith is one of the all-time jazz greats and this album cover is all-world tier one. How can you not like this album?
But love it? I say this as a person who owns this album and has played it in my home many times, but I notice it often ends up turning into background music for me. If I were making this list I would have selected two other albums of his (The Sermon and Root Down, if you're curious) but in the end I'm just happy he's on the list.
4
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Picture Book
Simply Red
Better than I expected.
Lis is the only Simply Red fan I have ever met, and I always chalked it up to ginger solidarity, but this is the rare 80s record that manages to transcend the incredibly shitty production aesthetic that prevailed at that time.
I don't like it THAT much, though, and he lost points a few hours ago when I learned Money's Too Tight To Mention is a cover and that the original Valentine Brothers version is far superior.
2
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Wild Is The Wind
Nina Simone
I really wanted to like this but couldn't get into it, despite how much I love David Bowie's version of the title track.
I generally prefer her small band work, especially live, and her original material, of which there seems to be very little on this album. I read later that it's a compilation of previously unreleased material and I wonder if that is why it felt a little meandering to me.
2
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Pictures At An Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Sometimes this album reminds of what it sounds like inside a music store. Sometimes relatively quiet, sometimes a lot of sounds, in your face drums next to what sometimes sounds like someone testing each of the many settings on the synthesizer. Occasional strains of familiar melodies. When the musicians are playing together, abrupt stops and starts and stylistic changes on a dime.
The only throughline here is that the every musician uses every moment to beseech you to appreciate their chops. In fairness to them, I can hear the desperate psychology behind this music because I have been more generous than most in dedicating my youth to a similar cause.
Another take: the difference between ELP and the Allman Brothers explains the difference between UK and USA.
Thirdly: Where is the ELO-ELP supergroup?
Finally: I'm razzing them, but any band that has an album titled Brain Salad Surgery deserves some respect.
2
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Aja
Steely Dan
Huge Steely Dan fan and I always found it odd that this is their "go to" album for many people, as I find the songwriting to be inconsistent and this is probably my least favorite of their various albums.
Deacon Blues, Black Cow and Peg are great tunes, but some of the others are completely forgettable (I Got The News, Home At Last) and the title track sounds like a long and boring mistake.
3
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Sun Feb 25 2024
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
And what will she do with Thursday's rags
When Monday comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door.
5
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Mon Feb 26 2024
Whatever
Aimee Mann
Albums like this make this whole exercise 100% worth it.
"Voices Carry" was always a not so guilty pleasure at the karaoke bar, and I've read a lot of critical praise since about her lengthy solo career, and of course her long term personal relationship with Michael Penn makes them sort of latter-day saints of Laurel Canyon, but none of it got me off the dime to actually check out her work.
Masterful in every way. Immediately from the jump, just the basic sounds of it are interesting and well-considered in a way that betrays deep craftsmanship, care and, frankly, budget. But she knows how to spend that budget in a way few do. Compare the production to the flat monotony of Fiona Apple's album, for example. Or that of most albums on this list, for that matter.
Over the course of its tunes, the same depth of manicured mastery is revealed in the songwriting, both musically and lyrically.
This kind of well-rounded depth of talent is extra rare but as Charles De Gaulle once said, sort of, the cemetery is full of masterful albums made by talented people. And in the immortal words of Van Hagar, only time will tell if this we, this album and me, will stand the test of time.
All I can say today is that any album that can be this genuinely interesting the very first time you hear it deserves the highest praise.
5
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
(1) The pinnacle of my rock n roll career was closing our set at the EO Smith High School 1986 Battle of the Bands with "Pretty Vacant." We (my first band, The Jalapeno Tabernacle Choir, featuring Kevin Crockett on guitar) were unofficially disqualified because we were just about the only band to not perform "Crazy Train" that afternoon, which was heretical.
But anyone who was there knows who got the crowd on their feet and dancing and rocked that cafeteria the hardest. By the way, one of the other non-winning bands that day was led by future Bud Collins Trio guitarist and my eventual brother in law although at this time we were not on speaking terms Pat Guiney ("The Funny Hit Parade"). Another band had a rock star of tomorrow you know reverently playing "Panama."
(2) A couple of years ago, my son was getting into heavy metal and I felt compelled to pull him aside. I explained that there are two kinds of people in this world, metal heads and punk rockers, and that our family was a punk rock family. I felt like I was communicating effectively because I could tell that he could tell from the tone of my voice that he should take this conversation very seriously.
So this morning I told him that we got assigned Never Mind The Bollocks. He shook his head and with a judgemental tone cried something about the Pistols being "the first corporate plants" because they were sellouts from the beginning. Ha - I'm kvelling!
5
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Wed Feb 28 2024
Debut
Björk
I was sorry to learn that I like the idea of Bjork more than the reality, at least of this album.
2
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
My favorite of the later Pink Floyd albums. The cover is amazing, and to me the tunes feel more personal and emotionally compelling than most of their other work.
Beautifully recorded, understated performances from the band at the top of their game. Also, 500 points to Ravenclaw for David Gilmour's elegantly expressive guitar throughout. Highly recommend listening with headphones if you can!
5
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Chelsea Girl
Nico
Good example of the influence your mood has on a listen. Heard this record for the first time a few weeks ago and hated it. Today I listened to it again and liked it a lot more. Still, probably unlikely to get a ton of airtime at my house going forward, and I'm not sure this would be on my list of top 1001, though it has some archaeological significance.
2
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
Great, great show but after you listen to the patter and other improvisations you start to understand why he might have been shot to death by a woman.
I wish I could find out the backing band here - this ensemble is pretty damn good!
Bought this went it first came out and would listen to it back-to-back with my Otis Redding+Jimi Hendrix at Monterey record. Brings back a lot of great memories listening and fantasizing about what these shows must have been like. 😍
5
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Blackstar
David Bowie
WTF is this doing here? Provocative choice for this list but it needs another decade of maceration before it can be fairly evaluated.
This is Bowie's last album, made when he was terminally ill, though as I understand it he didn't disclose that to the backing band, which happens to be the one that jazz saxophonist and fellow Berklee alum Donny McCaslin was leading at that time when Bowie saw them play at a club and invited them into the studio.
Every time I listen to this record it sucks me in deeper, but putting stars on this feels weird. My 1 star is for the editors of this list.
1
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
If everyone I ever dated owned a CD of Roxy Music's "Avalon" then I would also say the same about this album for everyone I dated since it came out.
5
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
Three random notes on what is probably my favorite Dylan album:
1. Fourth Time Around. Is this a musical middle finger to John Lennon's supposedly Dylan-inspired Norwegian Wood? Was Dylan singing to John when he sang "And I, I never took much, I never asked for your crutch
Now don't ask for mine?"
Here's what Lennon had to say about it in 1968: "I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, what do you think? I said, I don't like it. I didn't like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn't like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out and out skit, you know, but it wasn't. It was great. I mean he wasn't playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit."
2. Visions of Johanna. Maybe the worst performance of this amazing tune. Shambolic, meandering and boring. I have read they had a hard time recording this tune over multiple sessions and they must've just been so sick of it so they just shipped this shitty version and washed their hands. The band barely knows the chord changes, bass player blatantly screws up multiple times...compare it to this version, which sends a chill up my spine every single time: https://youtu.be/awlrMmr9eNc?si=TtOJe4G_7nkx5m3A
My daughter is a big Swiftie and she agrees with my theory that Taylor was channeling "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" with the full-length "All Too Well" --- can you hear it?
https://youtu.be/sRxrwjOtIag?si=UX-5UzsRlek7595K
4
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Wed Mar 06 2024
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
This record triggers a Pavlovian response to turn on, tune in and drop out. All-World Tier One psychedelic rock opera.
When I discovered this record, 30 years after its initial release, it made the world feel a little bit bigger in a very exciting way that something this awesome could escape my attention for that long. The Pretty Things are perhaps the best 60s British band that never really made it in America.
Maybe the very first concept album, and it's a bummer of a concept, which is impressive in its own way and may be why it never reached broader acclaim. I will take it over The Who's Tommy seven days a week. So many great tunes on here I don't know where to begin, except at the beginning and playing through to the end. SF Sorrow is Born!
5
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Funeral
Arcade Fire
Not as good as I hoped. I bet it could grow on me, as I like the newer stuff you hear on the radio, but not grabbing me by the lapels on first listen.
3
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Fri Mar 08 2024
A Date With The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
Really fun!
If you were to reduce the Beatles sound to a formula, it might be something like:
Crickets rhythm section +
Chuck Berry guitar +
Everly Bros vox
4
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Sat Mar 09 2024
Smash
The Offspring
Not in my personal 1,001.
Jay walked in the door as I was cranking this last night and as our resident historian told me that Offspring was the first "incelcore" band. 🤣🤣🤣 Didn't know that genre existed but I believe him!
2
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Histoire De Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
Instant classic! First time hearing it but it immediately feels like discovering a key piece to a jigsaw puzzle covering late 80s/Early 90s music, from daisy age rap in the US to trip hop in the UK. I'm retroactively embarrassed to not have already been intimately familiar with it. I also feel really stupid for not knowing about his work with Jane Birkin.
I was fortunate enough to listen to it on headphones and was richly rewarded - strong backing band, beautifully recorded. Great dynamic range, too, that pretty much doesn't exist anymore in this era of highly compressed tracks produced to sound good out of a speakerphone.
I have no idea what they are talking and singing about but I strongly suspect that he would be cancelled if this came out now and I might not even be able to listen to this if I understood it.
Funny how some things unexpectedly stay with you. I immediately recognized 'En Melody' from this minor De La Soul skit from back in the day:
https://youtu.be/FTMOTsL1YIE?si=VFusrpdIM8e-QyKN
4
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Tue Mar 12 2024
The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden
Better than I expected. Respect!
4
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
If you rank musical artists by the number of albums you know/own of theirs and the amount of time you spend listening to them then Miles Davis would be my #1 by a mile.
Not to sound like a jazz prick but Miles easily has 20 or 30 albums I would put ahead of this and I regret that the album title and cover art are so interesting it ends up being an intro to jazz record for a lot of people and unfortunately it doesn't work well for that.
This is still very early in his career - I think possibly these are his first sessions after quitting Charlie Parker's band when he was 22? - and he didn't really become a great band leader until he got his act together and kicked heroin 5-6 years later. He is still finding his style as a soloist and the arrangements feel cumbersome to me.
I also prefer my jazz combos - and most ensembles in any genre, actually - on the smaller side for more intimate interplay among the musicians. But this is a nine piece band, and once you get beyond about five musicians in a band, the improv tends to take a back seat to composition and orchestration.
Afficianados call this record "important," which it took me decades to have the self-confidence to realize is usually code for "I know I am supposed to like this but I don't." Unfortunately, this perpetuates the problem, as another generation gets lured into jazz from this record and leaves bored and disappointed or possibly even feeling inadequate themselves. It's not your fault - the critics are cowards!
Speaking of great Miles Davis album titles, have you seen this hilarious memo to record company execs from Miles's longtime producer, Teo Macero - first ballot Hall of Fame usage of "Please advise":
https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/this-is-my-favorite-memo-ever
3
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Siembra
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
Pleasant but unremarkable 70s salsa, to my ears at least.
3
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Fri Mar 15 2024
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
David Bowie
Just like how there are some albums that shouldn't be on anyone's list, Ziggy should be on everyone's list.
I knew I married the right person when once we got into a huge fight over who was the bigger Bowie fan (to be precise, this was only one of the times we've had this argument - even just telling her I was telling you this story prompted another debate) and she made her case with a perfect off the cuff acapella rendition of Moonage Daydream.
5
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Sat Mar 16 2024
Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk
Typical Monk: killer tunes superbly performed. I don't want to write any more because it would be 3000 words, minimum.
5
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Sun Mar 17 2024
Countdown To Ecstasy
Steely Dan
One of my favorite Steely Dan albums.
Razor Boy>Boston Rag>Your Gold Teeth>Show Biz Kids is a helluva run of great memories tunes you'll never hear on the radio sandwiched between a couple of classic rock radio mainstays you may be tired of. Then you get Pearl of the Quarter and King of the World, the latter of which makes me want to wager that Dan has more songs about doomerism than possibly any other band to sell a million records.
About their lyrics. Today I noticed that all of the locations mentioned in the Boston Rag are in NYC, not Boston. Par for the course with these tricksters.
Also, I love it when lyricists give priority to the sound of their words over a direct literal meaning. The Rolling Stones and REM are two bands that are good at this. On Show Biz Kids, I think the backup singers are repeating something about "life's wages" but it also sounds like "Las Vegas" and in putting both ideas into your head at the same time, it adds a whole new dimension to the lead singer's words about a decadent LA culture, while better fusing the words and the music together.
This album was made when they still had a regular band and I think it benefits from the continuity. Denny Dias is a criminally underrated guitar player whose career never seemed to recover from Becker and Fagen's decision to stop touring and use more studio musicians. He gets more room on here than other albums and really makes the most of it. Worth listening to the entire record one time through just focusing on the guitars (Skunk Baxter is the other guitar player, and the two make a great team). It's stunning what's going on over there.
5
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black
Public Enemy
I tuned out PE after their second album and realize now I was missing out. Doesn't cover much new ground musically but Chuck D and Flavor are on point and their messages are still relevant today, unfortunately.
4
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Tue Mar 19 2024
3 + 3
The Isley Brothers
I love the Isley Bros - they are great players and I bet they put on a helluva show back in the day - but the songwriting is a bit inconsistent on here.
3
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Le Tigre
Le Tigre
I like Le Tigre but I'm reminded that it hasn't occurred to me to put a Le Tigre album on in nearly 20 years. I guess that's a problem with being so topical?
3
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Thu Mar 21 2024
The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
Solid late period Steely Dan minus Becker. Some people get turned off by the slick production of Donald Fagen's work, both solo and Steely Dan, and I did at first. But if abandon your preconceptions you will be richly rewarded with mostly excellent songs on this album that feel more personal than Fagen's work w Walter Becker as Steely Dan. Almost sounds like an autobiographical fantasy of a kid growing up in 50s NJ.
The production is immaculate - the instruments sound lush richly detailed.
I have probably heard this record hundreds of times and I still find it captivating.
5
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Sat Mar 23 2024
Paul Simon
Paul Simon
I laugh every time I see this album cover because it's so funny to imagine a contemporary top 40 singer appearing like this. Actually, maybe under certain circumstances a hip hopper could have a parka like this.
Wonderful songwriter, guitar player and singer kicking off a staggering run. Some accuse him of cultural appropriation, for example with the reggae of "Mother and Child Reunion" on here. I find the entire concept silly.
4
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
I like that Mister Blue Sky song a lot, but generally ELO sounds to me like they were inspired by the wrong parts of the Beatles and Beach Boys. Also, it occurred to me as I was wading through this that there is something Meat Loaf-ish about this (and that is not a good thing).
2
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Django Django
Django Django
Delighted to be surprised with something I had never even heard of until now. Listened to it without any context and enjoyed it. In fact, as soon as it ended, I played it again - a rarity around here
Reminds me a little bit of 1990s-2000s psych like Olivia Tremor Control - I think they use the same sound effect during one of the breaks between tunes, which I like to imagine was a conscious tribute.
4
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Tue Mar 26 2024
Moon Safari
Air
Most 90s electronica sounds dated to me but this still sounds fresh. Never heard of this band before but thoroughly enjoyed the laid back vibes.
4
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Wed Mar 27 2024
Justified
Justin Timberlake
Soundtrack to a wardrobe malfunction? I like a lot of the JT you hear in the radio and his SNL and Tonight show skits are great, so had high hopes.
Unfortunately, they were not met. The strangest thing happened to me with this album. Twice I put it on, was digging the opening sounds of Señorita, and then later on noticed that I had completely ignored the album like as if it wasn't on. It completely deflects my attention every time I try to to listen.
I wanted to like this more but when I could force myself to pay attention it was pretty terrible. Whoever wrote the lyrics to the last song, Never Again, should heed its title.
1
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Elephant Mountain
The Youngbloods
I wish this website would show the curator's rationale for including a given selection.
I found this album unremarkable. Maybe it's historically important - just a guess, because otherwise I don't get its appearance here.
Not a bad record by any means, but not remotely as interesting as other country/folk-psych bands like The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service or even The Byrds.
2
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Scum
Napalm Death
Great for what it is but in hindsight doesn't sound nearly as scary and intense as it did 30 years ago. Probably more historically important than great on its own.
3
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Sat Mar 30 2024
Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
God only knows how many copies of this I sold when I was working at the record store, and I scorned every buyer, as is the record store clerk's wont, if not their duty.
I hated the sound of it then and it hasn't grown on me. I do appreciate Alanis's humor elsewhere. For example:
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/weird-al-yankovic-tells-alanis-morissette-stay-in-lane-after-singer-tweets-pun-iconic-90s-hit
2
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Back to Basics
Christina Aguilera
It's telling that she has to tell us who inspired this album, rather than let our ears tell us.
Also, an easy way to make this record twice as good would be to cut half the songs. I wonder how many people who bought this in CD actually played the second disc more than once.
2
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Mon Apr 01 2024
Nick Of Time
Bonnie Raitt
Her success is well deserved but I am not sufficiently evolved as a human to disassociate this with the Boomer nostalgia soundtrack that I resent for degrading popular music in the 1980s.
3
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Tue Apr 02 2024
The Bends
Radiohead
There must be at least 10 or 20 great debut albums for each great SECOND album. For me, The Bends transformed Radiohead from near-novelty one hit wonders ("Creep") into A Band To Be Taken Very Seriously.
This album still sounds powerful but at the same time there are a couple of odd songwriting choices that don't work as well for me, and a couple of borrowed cliches, too. So while this album showed huge growth, their best was yet to come. Come to think of it, it's staggering to follow the growth of this band's artistry across their first three albums (or 5-6 albums if you're so inclined).
I've seen them play a couple of times and the first time they were in their prime and I remember thinking "if I was a teenager I would be weeping with awe right now and possibly for the next few days." Pre-girlfriend teenager, if I'm honest. Are they an incel band? If so, they are one of the very best.
4
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Hysteria
Def Leppard
Very popular album when it came out but not interesting to me in any way other than as a cultural artifact. I thought this list was more interesting than a popularity contest?
2
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Thu Apr 04 2024
Vanishing Point
Primal Scream
Kinda boring? They had a big album about 5-7 years before this...I assume that's on this list somewhere. Otherwise, I don't get it.
2
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Fri Apr 05 2024
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell
I ♥️ Joni. One of my favorite singer-songwriters of an era chock full of 'em, but never heard this one before. She may be the ultimate "musician's musician" - her music can be polarizing, and from what I can tell the fans tend to be musicians. I'm not allowed to listen to her music when my wife is home.
Not being familiar with it, I read a little about this album after listening to it fresh. What a strange time 1975 was that a record like this would reach the Top 40!
Great album title and cover art. I didn't recognize a single song on here except maybe the first one. The songwriting gets uneven after the first few. However, the deep, rich tones throughout are aural catnip to my ears - begging to be heard loud on a 1970s tube stereo with gigantic speakers that make you feel like you're sitting on the bass player's amp. The hissing (and crackling) of Summer Lawns on vinyl FTW!
3
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Electric Warrior
T. Rex
I feel like the idea of T Rex is better than the reality.
3
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Sun Apr 07 2024
The Man Who
Travis
I liked it alright but I don't see myself remembering this a month from now. Woulda missed the last tune if I wasn't lazy.
3
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Lam Toro
Baaba Maal
The opening notes had me thinking Lion King, but (thankfully) it turned into something else. Still, not my bag. It's like it borrows the wrong parts of American pop music and injects it with the wrong parts of African jams.
2
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
This record wastes no time. The opening notes and the entire first song is based on the nastiest musical interval, the tritone, which has been (appropriately) known as the "Devil's interval" since the Middle Ages because it sounds so ungodly. Perfect.
The power of this music cannot be denied. Their goal may have been somewhat juvenile - basically a treatise on raising hell in all its forms - but they nail it so completely you have to respect the accomplishment.
No work will be getting done by me for the next half hour and it's taking everything I have to not put on a jean jacket and skip school to have a bad trip down by the river.
See you in hell!🤘
5
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Wed Apr 10 2024
The College Dropout
Kanye West
Exceptional rhymes and great beats but I can't listen to this without thinking about how much I hate this guy.
2
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Thu Apr 11 2024
Brutal Youth
Elvis Costello
Elvis has easily a dozen albums that are more interesting than this one. I bought it when it came out and probably haven't played it in over twenty years.
The CD booklet did not contain any lyrics but one random line. My friends and I debated why only this one line and decided it was because he and his handlers were afraid his "anger" sounded like the n-word, a word Elvis has a disappointing history of using.
2
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Sat Apr 13 2024
1984
Van Halen
Where to begin? When the video for Jump made it's debut it was a shock to the system. Eddie playing keyboard?!? But where egregious keys had taken down other rock bands of the era, Eddie was so talented and revered that he emerged victorious.
Hot For Teacher ("I don't feel tardy") - smokin'est guitar and drums you'll ever hear
Panama - every high school metal band formed between 1984-1990 played this song
I'll Wait - the closest we'll ever get to hearing an introspective Diamond Dave and a soulful Eddie.
These are songs I'll pull over for.
As albums go, it's on the shorter side and the songwriting peters out toward the end, but the first 20-25 minutes are peak 80s. Not my favorite Van Halen album, but the one that should be in the Smithsonian for sure.
5
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Sun Apr 14 2024
Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
Very pleasant surprise. Love the swagger!
I had avoided these guys for years under the mistaken belief they were a southern rock jam band. Pretty psyched to be wrong, and a good lesson about what you might miss with mental shortcuts.
4
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Mon Apr 15 2024
American Pie
Don McLean
https://youtu.be/8V_hCqO6UQs?si=ZDhCgwdJU3Nb2S_c
1
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
The beat on the opening track - an epic, almost cinematic reinvention of the Bacharach/David classic "Walk On By" - has been sampled so much it is nearly singlehandedly responsible for the entire Trip Hop genre.
Four stars just for that tune. The songwriting on the rest of the album isn't as interesting to me, which is surprising considering how many classics Isaac Hayes wrote.
4
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Wed Apr 17 2024
Henry's Dream
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Wasn't that familiar w Nick Cave before so excited to check this out. Strong start, kinda theatrical sounding. Is this a rock opera?
Got less interesting over time but still enjoyable enough. However, immediately after it ended I was compelled to put on some Tom Waits, sort of to set the record straight or else the universe would be out of balance.
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
Truth And Soul
Fishbone
Fun artifact of the 80s.
One of the worst shows I ever saw.
3
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Fri Apr 19 2024
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
Any album the begins with a tune as great as "Victoria" deserves five stars almost no matter what comes after. In this case, a damn fine Kinks album all the way to the end, and a great redemption of the frequently cringe-y rock opera format.
5
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Elephant
The White Stripes
A monster of an album. Whatever happened to Meg White?
4
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Sun Apr 21 2024
Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix
When my big sister brought this record home, the fish eye photo scared the hell outta me. I was pretty sure that if I played this record when I was home alone, bad things would happen. I was terrified to become experienced.
It's not my favorite Hendrix - it's more of a singles collection plus extras than the albums he made when he had more experience, control and budget and could explore his vision in greater depth.
But this record does capture a 25 year old bursting with a creative explosion off a virtuosity and intimacy with his guitar unknown before or since. Charlie Parker and Jaco Pastorius are the only other musicians I am familiar with who may be in this category. He once described his tune "Manic Depression" as being about a guy who would rather make love to his guitar than to his nominal lover. He didn't describe it as autobiographical but I believe it was.
Speaking of lyrics, I noticed listening today how this record has some of my favorite rock lyrics - Wind Cries Mary ("the traffic lights turn blue tomorrow" absolutely shredded my tiny mind the first time I heard it), I Don't Live Today, and from the largely instrumental Third Stone From The Sun, the final spoken verse:
Although your world wonders me
With your majestic and superior cackling hen
Your people I do not understand
So to you I shall put an end
And you'll never hear surf music again.
5
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys
Never heard this record before or any of its tunes but always had a soft spot for these fellas. Good songwriting and and I love this singer's voice - these mostly overcome late 80s / early 90s pop production style that I really hate, particularly the drum sounds.
Particularly liked the first tune. Used to think of them as a singles band, but this has me wanting to check out the albums with tunes I know, like West End Girls and Domino Dancing.
3
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Music in Exile
Songhoy Blues
WTF is it about guitar players from Mali named Touré? Ok, I couldn't resist and looked it up about four tracks in. I didn't even realize that was a thing until just now.
A lot of blues influence here. I wonder how the cultural appropriation police would feel about this?
I like the playing and the sounds but the tunes aren't that interesting to me.
3
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Pelican West
Haircut 100
Let's clear the air: anyone old enough to visit a record store in the early-mid 1980s has made fun of this band. Myself included. I even had a band with a song that mocked them.
However, it turns out these guys can play their asses off. We are only discovering this now because it takes forty years to reverse an opinion.
Unfortunately, the songwriting isn't there. I kept thinking that the world missed an opportunity for a great band if only they could have been the backing band for a creative visionary who needed help. I can't give you any examples because the visionaries I am referring to never made it. However, many can be found at the end of the bar or other similar locale.
2
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Thu Apr 25 2024
Crocodiles
Echo And The Bunnymen
I like Echo And The Bunnymen but never heard this one. Sounds more raw and rockin' than the albums I was familiar with. Didn't really stand out on first listen, though.
3
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Fri Apr 26 2024
Tigermilk
Belle & Sebastian
Never heard this before. Only some of their later songs. This was pleasant enough but not as interesting, unfortunately. The cover kinda puts me off, too.
3
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Sat Apr 27 2024
OK Computer
Radiohead
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard "Karma Police" and if I had sixty seconds to compile top 10 songs of the 90s, it might be #1.
The whole album shakes me to the core in a way that few do. It made me feel less alone in my head, which is about the highest praise I can give something, now that I think about it.
5