Two hours of what I suppose would be considered Electronic Dance Music, so a standard song structure (intro, verse, chorus, etc.) is nowhere to be seen. Lots of pleasant looping beats, though. I'm not the target audience, but for what it's worth, people like me may still find value in the album as background music. I listened while working, and I didn't find it distracting at all.
This album keeps up an unrelenting rebellious attitude for its entire duration. The lead vocalist's voice is well-suited to this punk rock style of music, but is grating to hear for 40 minutes straight. My main gripe with the album is the lack of variety -- no one track stood out enough from any of the others.
Yeah, this is definitely good (reggae) music. Fun to listen to at least, and a nice moderate energy level. Lyrically there were some poignant songs on here, but I wasn’t focused enough to really soak it in. Musically nothing upset me on this album.
They get a bit wild with these songs at times, which makes for a super fun listen. There are a few tracks where they just make a bunch of noises, and they're fine, but I definitely prefer the more conventional songs on here. I don't fully understand the concept of Gorillaz, but there are definitely multiple genres present in their music that work together in an interesting way.
Listened to this just a day after "Gorillaz" (also a Damon Albarn project), and for some reason I preferred that one. It's hard for me to articulate why. There's a lot of creative stuff in "Blur," just less so. Also not a huge fan of the final song "Essex Dogs," which drags on a few minutes too long without going anywhere.
The (early) Beatles drew a lot of inspiration from The Crickets, and you can tell. The album has a classic rock and roll feel — generic at times, possibly an instance of “Seinfeld is Unfunny.” It’s quick, so I'd say it may be worth a listen.
A few long disco tunes. I want to emphasize that I have no issues with disco music; however, almost every song in this collection was too long and repetitive. Luckily the music kind of fades into the background, but I was expecting to enjoy this much more than I did.
Gaye really leans into the sexually suggestive theme he's going for, and the songs are good in isolation, but it's a lot to hear a full album of this. Perhaps the genre is just not for me, or perhaps I wasn't listening to the music in its intended setting... Anyway, surprisingly I don't think I've ever heard the title song all the way through until now. As a final note, I could do without the moaning sounds at the start of "We sure love to ball."
This was a tough listen. I couldn't quite figure out what genre this would fit into (which is not inherently a bad thing), but it was hard to pick out elements that I enjoyed. The album started out mediocre and only got worse, ending on a low with "Booming and Zooming," a song consisting of a man speaking unintelligibly on a radio over a vaguely funky beat. Also, and it may have only been problem with the recording I found, but there was heavy clipping on some tracks, like "Lorelei," exacerbating an already-unpleasant experience.
It's crazy that so many hits are packed into this album. Some highlights for me are the whistling part featured in "The Stranger" (reprised in "Everybody has a Dream") and the extended narrative of the three-part "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." But there are plenty more. I don't think this album could be improved.
This whole album was exceedingly avant-garde. The first track is 23 minutes of music prominently featuring highway sounds. Subsequent tracks are shorter, but somehow feel even more experimental. Strange audio samples are littered everywhere, though it should be noted that the more musical parts of the album are actually pleasant to listen to.
Clearly a masterpiece from start to finish, this album features a handful of hits accompanied by several lesser-known songs that are just as good. The title song builds beautifully (I'm a big fan of these songs that gradually become extravagant and orchestral), setting a perfect tone for the rest of the album. I'd never heard this whole S&G album before until now, but it might be their best.
Often I find myself bored when all of an artist's songs feel too similar, but even though Jamiroquai has a signature sound, I still weirdly like their music. As is often the case with this funk style, the production is full of lots of little instrumental details that make for an interesting listen. This is a longish album, so it's a good choice if you want to feel funky for an hour or so.
Not for me. Almost cheesy with its driving beats and repeated voice samples. Sometimes this genre helps hone my focus, but not so with "Dig Your Own Hole," which I found simultaneously distracting and boring.
Nice album -- often relaxing, but also dark. This album does a great job hitting heavy themes without overly-heavy music. I think the only song I was familiar with was "Everybody Hurts," but there were lots of great tunes... I will say, though, that nothing stood out as unforgettable.
I've never heard of this band/album before, but I liked the songs. Very much an '80s feel. Each track tended to linger, with the shortest one being about four and a half minutes. There were multiple times, most notably on the final song, when the vocals felt like they could have been cleaned up a bit.
Nothing on this album resonated with me very much. I listened to the Deluxe Edition with some bonus recordings and backing tracks, and they definitely didn't improve the experience.
Just a few songs on this album. And they're each 20 minutes long. And excruciating. Mostly guitar and saxophone, it goes nowhere and is not enjoyable to listen to.
Not my favorite from Radiohead, but for the most part it has what it needs. A heavier tone and some unexpected chord changes keep things interesting even though most of the songs are pretty laid-back.
The defiance is palpable. But I found most of this album to be a bit obnoxious. As a pure listening experience, I didn't think it was very enjoyable (lots of needless grunting, growling, and screaming), though I could see this being a good choice if you're feeling particularly pugnacious.
I'll have to listen to this one again sometime; I liked it. I listened to "Low-Life" (another New Order album) a week or so ago, and I think the production on "Technique" was much better. Songs were a bit shorter on this one, and there was a bit more variety.
Great album. Lots of stereo gimmicks with vocals constantly flipping from right to left and back again. Stellar guitar on every track, with some fun distortion/reversal effects.
This album surprised me because it was so good even though I had somehow never heard of Suede before. There was a high production quality, overall thoughtful lyrics, and diversity in sound from song to song. The highlight for me was definitely "Still Life," a song that had a powerful orchestral build and ended with a reference to Ravel's Bolero.
There were some decent songs on the album, but perhaps an over-reliance on 12-bar blues. I enjoyed the listen and it had decent production, but the homogeneity among tracks left me feeling like it could have gone in a more interesting direction.
This made for a pretty fun and interesting listen. It’s deliberately self-aware but also hits on some heavy themes. There’s dialogue interspersed throughout the album, often for comedic effect.
Slower-paced blues music. Impressive quality for a live performance. Most of the songs sounded very similar to one another.
Somehow fifteen minutes is way too long. This is really a rapid-fire barrage of rants yelled over loud music. Seriously, I MUST hear this before I die?
These are some of the most irritating vocals I've ever heard. Too many (sometimes one-note) melodies being unpleasantly shouted at me. I made it through, but it was hard to listen to.
I’ve never heard of these guys, and probably for good reason as they weren’t around very long, and their music is entirely unremarkable. There are a lot of okay blues and rock songs here, I just can’t imagine anyone would geek out over this music.
Decent ‘90s rock. For whatever reason, “Indian Song” stood out to me as the turning point on the album, after which the songs got a lot more interesting. The vocalist was fine, but the songs didn’t demand much of her, which I’d like to see improved.
Some great songs amid lots of mediocre songs. Weird skit interludes neither improve nor worsen experience of listening to the full album ("Break!"), which somehow feels like a missed opportunity -- I feel like they could have been much funnier. As for the lyrics, again: very strong on some tracks, but pretty weak on others. Note that the second half of the album was much better than the first.
I've never been the biggest fan of Morissette's vocals. However, once you get used to them, her songs are pretty good — fun to sing along to at least… Lyrics are solid, if a little edgy at times. For some reason she includes unpolished harmonica in a few tracks, which was odd, but otherwise the production is decent from a ‘90s point of view. Could use a bit more diversity between songs though.
It'll be a heavily biased review today, as this is possibly my favorite (and almost certainly my most-listened) album. Generally speaking, what I love about it is that it goes in so many different directions and that every track brings something unique and exciting to the table. Even the duds, which I'd say are "Love You To" and "Yellow Submarine," are just too good to skip. This record has what may be my favorite song, "For No One" which features a brilliant, emotional French horn solo. Revolver is often said to mark a major step forward for the Beatles and, in turn, for the entire music industry, but even ignoring its impressive legacy, it's simply an incredible album.
Guitar Town gets nothing more than a "meh" from me. Nice use of steel guitar, but other than that I was mostly bored by this unimaginative album.
What this album lacks in catchy sing-along tunes, it makes up for in epic, transcendent listening experiences. Okay, "transcendent" may be a bit much; the songs were pretty good. They are primarily based on electric guitar riffs and have decent enough melodies to go with them. If this is "heavy metal," I'm all for it.
Blondie is one of those bands that had lots of hits but was completely off my radar despite me knowing multiple of their songs. I liked Parallel Lines, but nothing about it felt particularly magical. It does feel like a snapshot of pop music from the era, though, so it's worth a listen if you like danceable music from the late '70s.
This is another one I'll have to revisit at some point. A bluesy atmosphere persists throughout the album, and each song follows a fairly conventional format, if that makes sense. However, to me this demonstrated that being out-there and experimental is not necessary to create good music.
This album didn't blow me away, but I'd say it's a cut above most of the blues albums so far, if only because it managed to avoid the trap of sounding too uniform from song to song. Not incredible from start to finish, but it did the job, and it had some arguably psychedelic rock-esque elements that pretty significantly enhanced the project.
I swear I've heard a lot of Radiohead that I enjoy before, but this didn't quite do it for me. The vocals are whinier than ever here. What I will say about Radiohead that does extend to this album, though, is that it definitely doesn't have a generic pop or rock music feel. Lots of songwriting decisions set them apart from what is standard, so even this collection -- which I didn't love -- is at least an interesting listen.
Another mediocre album. Lots of songs kind of dragged on without going anywhere… I’d probably not listen again, but nothing was truly bad.
This was pretty good. I liked the outro song "You can't always get what you want" the most. I'm surprised The Rolling Stones have largely flown under my radar because I definitely have a general appreciation for their style.
A solid album combining poetry and jazz. Lyrics are eloquent and expressive. Production is minimalist, which helps to deliver the main message against political corruption without any distraction.
The structure of this album is unique. There are only a handful of songs, but most are multiple parts, à la Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" or the second half of Abbey Road. If the album were nonstop punk rock, I'd struggle to enjoy it, but it was well-paced, with the best song for me being the slower "Wake Me Up When September Ends." A lot of the tracks are still well-known today, perhaps because the themes are still highly relevant.
This album didn't move me at all. It was certainly on the more musical side of avant-garde, which I could see being a good thing, but nothing about the music itself nor its experimental nature impressed me. The structure of the album (four songs: short, long, short, long) didn't work well either. I'll let fans of Czukay enjoy this, as it was clearly made for them and not me.
This was my first time listening, but definitely not my last. There are only a few songs, but the first and last songs each have several parts (collectively called "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"). The tunes on here are not necessarily catchy earworms in the way pop songs may be, but they're very pleasant and interesting. I appreciated the instrumental focus of much of the album. Depending on how you choose to listen, "Wish You Were Here" can be relaxing, or it can leave you with a lot to think about, or both.
The quality of this album was not bad, but it did really seem to drag on without going anywhere. Vocals were highly reminiscent of Radiohead, but the songwriting style and composition were often boring. It's clear that Wainwright is a talented musician, but this may not be his finest work.
This album had a strong start, but progressively decreased in quality. The last song was way too long and pretty annoying. Most of the album was mediocre.
This is an 80 minute album that I suppose would be considered a rock opera. There’s a lot to say about it. It’s not just a list of songs. There are overarching themes and oft-reprised melodies that combine to make a cohesive story. Pink Floyd makes frequent use of non-musical sound elements like sound effects or conversations, which work well in this context. The “regular” songs are great listens in isolation, but I do expect much of the album will only work well within the full context. I was surprised that “Another Brick in the Wall” actually has several parts, of which I believe part 2 is the only one I’d heard. This is a really solid album if you know what you’re getting into.
Another Beatles-esque band I’ve never heard of. Aside from a few early hiccups with the left/right split in the audio, this was a really solid collection of songs. I think I’d prefer if they’d chosen to take the overall feel of the album in a more lighthearted direction, since I think that would suit their style better. But I enjoyed the listen regardless.
People go crazy for Prince.... I must be missing something. This was an okay album, but most of the tracks were just that -- okay. Some of them were quite annoying, like "Hot Thing" and "It." "If I Was Your Girlfriend" felt more like a rambling meme/comedy song than a real track on the album -- and it's horrible. I'm sure more Prince albums will come up in the future, at which point I'll reevaluate. But for now, I'm somewhat unimpressed.
Pretty enjoyable — if forgettable — folk rock. I probably won’t seek out more of Stills’ work in the future, but for what it’s worth I thought this album really delivered as far as being an uplifting set of songs that work well when played in succession. A few extended instrumental interludes felt a bit out of place about midway through the album, but it wasn’t a big deal.
This album was pretty cool. A bit weird at times, but you get the feeling that’s what they were going for. “The Waiting Room” was a bit disturbing, but again, I think that was the point. I kept thinking, “That sounds just like Phil Collins,” and sure enough, he was involved in Genesis before his solo career. So now I know.
Say what you will about The Monkees being clearly derivative of The Beatles, their music is good in its own right. As far as that comparison goes, this album's style was more closely aligned with the early era of The Beatles, defaulting to a generic rock-and-roll or blues sound. But there is still a unique identity present, and most of the songs are fun to listen to at the very least. I look forward to exploring The Monkees' work more in the future.
Was I expecting to enjoy this? Nope. But I did. West's lyrics remain fun and impressive for the duration of the album. Skits on rap albums are hit or miss -- and these definitely missed. Another miss is the final track "Last Call," which is a 12-minute poem/monologue about West finally breaking into the music industry. But everything else was pretty good.
This was a great listen. A deliberately humorous album a lot of the time, some songs like “Sigourney Weaver” were a delight. (One song’s whole gimmick was an unexpected use of several slurs — not as effective in my opinion.) Musically a lot of the tracks sound strangely familiar, but difficult to place; one example is “Chicken Bones,” whose main hook is basically the verse in “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Chord progression and song structure similarities like this happened a few times, but I wouldn’t say that’s strictly a bad thing.
Most of this just felt like a mediocre rock band goofing around. Nothing really stuck with me. The album cover is pretty cool I suppose.
Most of the appeal of this album comes from the interaction with the prison audience. It's fun to hear Cash's jokes and the crowd's reactions to them, but the songs themselves lack depth. The live recording includes the occasional cough and some gaffes like trying to re-tune the guitar a few minutes in. It's debatable whether this kind of thing adds charm or removes polish.
Ahh yes, my favorite genre: Miscellaneous. I liked the extravagant instrumentation throughout the album -- lots of brass, some organ, and a surprising amount of flute. The Satie references were good too. That said, I did start to get annoyed by this album, especially during the 12-minute "Blues, Pt. 2."
Something weird was happening with the production on this album -- specifically the mixing: the vocals felt like they were consistently drowned out by the instruments; listen to "Freedom! '90" in headphones, and you might hear it. That's not even why I didn't like the album very much. The songs felt like they were supposed to be powerful or have energy, but that didn't really come through for me. It was kind of a boring listen.
The music here is a little more intense than I'd prefer. The lead singer's voice frequently gets a bit screechy, which I am not a fan of. Each song tends to follow a predictable formula, too. What this album needs most is a slow/quiet moment or two to let the listener (me) breathe.
Adele is undoubtedly a talented vocalist. 21 is mostly emotional piano ballads, several of which became well-known hits. A bit of extra variety would make the album a little better, but it's still fantastic.
I'm torn on this one. If I were in the audience when this was recorded live, I could see myself being absolutely enraptured. This genre of nuevo tango music is surprisingly anything but boring. Sure, a few songs stretch on too long without going anywhere, but for the most part this was a very dynamic listen. However, I think that as a packaged album, most of the appeal is lost. I don't see myself putting this on again unless I host a party with an '80s Argentina theme.
This album sounds vaguely pleasant, I suppose. The problem was it lacked almost every quality I hope to hear in music. No clever lyrics, no interesting melodies, the album was just generally boring.
Decent album. Honestly not much to say about this, but the songs all felt like they could have been hits to some extent (although I was unfamiliar with them). I'm glad The Cars are now on may radar at least. As a bonus fact, I'll note that 3 songs ("Good Times Roll," "I'm in Touch with Your World," and "You're All I've Got Tonight") all feature the bVI-bVII-I 'Super Mario Cadence.'
Aggressive music with equally aggressive vocals. The style may resonate with some, but for me this was a challenge to listen to in full.
This album was definitely not my cup of tea. On the one hand, there was some clever wordplay in pretty much every track. On the other, the music was not as catchy as I would hope for a rap album. I would also be remiss not to mention "Outro," the marathon of a final track in which Fiasco shouts-out contributors and inspirations. He was listing so many people for so long, I was half expecting to hear my own name come up. Instant skip if I were ever to listen again.
A charming blues/folk/rock album. Wikipedia lists the genres as "Americana" and "Roots Rock" -- I've never heard of either of these, but I suppose I'll add them to my lexicon. Most of the songs are fairly forgettable, but I really appreciate the simplicity at work here.
This album had some great tracks. This is pretty synth-heavy stuff, which works for them. However, the vocals were not for me. Maybe the singer has one of those voices that needs to grow on you — in fact, by the end of the album I had become accustomed to it, which made it a bit better. Like I said though, I really liked a few of the songs; I’ll have to check out more of their music.
I was really willing to give this album a chance, and I did. On the bright side, it's anything but boring; SOAD makes an effort to stand out with interesting aural, lyrical, and vocal decisions, keeping them from fading into the dense abyss of unoriginal loud music. That said, the yelling/screaming/roaring quickly becomes obnoxious -- and almost irredeemably so.
Interesting narration every once in a while to move the album along, but this was not enough to save what was mostly a collection of irritating songs. It wasn’t the worst music I’ve ever heard, but I don’t plan on revisiting this one.
This album felt like a film soundtrack in the best way. I was familiar with a few of these already, but I was pleasantly surprised by each new song. Of course this is a renowned and even legendary band, but I guess I hadn't quite given Led Zeppelin a chance yet. Definitely an album that flows from start to finish.
I know "unconventional" does not imply "bad," but in this case it does. Strange sounds are frequently employed, never to good effect. The vocalist sounds like he's being annoying on purpose. One song had such (deliberately) terrible instrumentals that I started laughing to myself, only to check the name of the song and see that it was in fact titled, "Laughing." So they nailed that one I guess.
Amos has a somewhat interesting voice, but the vocals are very strong throughout the album. Most songs are piano-heavy, which generally speaking I don't have a problem with. I can see why this album would be adored by many, but for me it was on the boring side.
Forty minutes of music and nothing compelling. The only risk taken in this album was the final song, "Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga," a long instrumental piece with Indian motifs, but even that managed to be completely unexciting.
I'm always impressed by these live recordings. Jarrett is clearly wildly talented, and a quick search shows he has been involved in a ton of projects. He gets really into the music, and even seems to holler a few times as he plays. As an album, this would not be my first choice for listening, but it was cool to experience, and as always I'm sure it would be unreal to hear live.
Excellent. I'd only ever heard Queen's "Classic Queen" greatest hits album, which is good and all, but an *album* album like "A Night at the Opera" makes for a much more satisfying listen. It does have a few hits, most notably the unconventional-but-brilliant "Bohemian Rhapsody," but I was surprised to see that most of the lesser-known songs here were also unconventionally brilliant. There are a couple brief moments that seem to cross-reference other songs on the album, but other than that every song has a completely unique feel. The album started looping when it ended, and I just let the whole thing play again -- that's how great it was.
This is one of the more monotonous albums I've heard so far. I'm struggling to think of something interesting to write about this album that brought nothing interesting to the table. One thing I won't hold against it, though, is that it is clearly pretty dated. It definitely is a glimpse into its era, so if that's what you're looking for for some reason, give it a shot.
I suppose this album was decent. I do think some more variety couldn't hurt. The singer has a distinctly gravelly voice, but he seems to be able to make it smoother when he chooses. Not my favorite album, but I see the appeal.
It's crazy that saying this album is anything but perfect is controversial, but if anything I think it speaks to the overall quality of Pink Floyd's music. This is absolutely worth listening to all the way through. Sometimes albums feel like random compilations of songs, and this is the complete opposite. Every track flows into the next, there's a good balance of ordinary and out-there music, and the production is second to none. All that said, there's personally not enough to satiate me here; the album seems to end before its ideas have fully concluded. Maybe that's an artistic decision, but if it wasn't intended, there's something missing. Again, I'd listen over and over, but for me this album could be improved, it's just hard to articulate how.
This album didn’t really have an impact on me. I get the sense it was supposed to convey some kind of cynical commentary on life, but the distinctly ‘80s rock feel somehow took away from the message. Amusing band name, but that’s not even related to the album.
A bit of a different entry today with more ambient music, almost like something made for a simple video game. The calmer songs reminded me a lot of recent "lofi" music (you know, like with the anime girl studying at her desk) -- a driving yet unimposing beat underneath simple chords and melodies on synth/piano/guitar/bass. This has more vocals and weird sound effects though, and it goes in unexpected directions more often. I wasn't enjoying this at all until something clicked and I randomly "understood" it a bit better.
Another ambience album, awesome. This time, it's apparently rock music... I guess I hear it. This was simply not my thing, and it definitely dragged on too long. The problem with ambient music is that it doesn't ever seem to develop; if it's not interesting at the start, it never becomes interesting. And that was definitely the case here.
To put it bluntly, I was not impressed by this album. The not-quite punk, not-quite rock genre with an early '80s feel is decidedly not for me. There's not much to dissect here, it was more or less annoying to listen to.
This album has cute artwork and a fun title. The music is maybe a bit too garage-y for my taste. The electric guitar strumming is constant, the vocals are often shouty, and the music is generally loud. And all this is made worse by a lack of both depth and variety.
Well this one was a delight. No vocals (until the last song, where there is some kind of chant), but the instrumentation was sufficiently interesting the whole album. Each song is on the longer side. I’d say the primary genre is jazz, but not the chaotic, pretentious kind.
Considering how relatively infrequently new music gets added, I'm surprised this one made the list. There are really no stand-out songs, and a lot of the lyrics are pretty cringeworthy. I was hoping to like this more -- I don't know anything about SZA, except her second-most recent tweet is a Beatles quote, so she has my respect for that at least.
I really dig this album. Not only are the songs good, but the pacing of the album was also great. Lots of diversity among the songs too, which helps keep things from getting stale. The penultimate track, “The Murder Mystery,” is a cool concept, but way too long.
Nothing here blew me away, but I was never annoyed while listening — a feat that seems to get harder to achieve as the days go by. I liked the early-2000s R&B feel, but I probably won’t seek out more of Ms. Dynamite’s music.
I could tell right away I was going to love this album. Smith's style reminds me quite a bit of Ben Folds' music, but a bit more mellow and with production that almost feels like the Beatles. I think every song uses vocal doubling, and it works really well. I do wish the vocals were in general a lot more assertive; they tend to be drowned out by the instruments. It's tragic and horrifying what happened to him, but I'm glad to have been introduced to his music.
There was something very comforting about listening to this. I’ve never heard them before, but the energy of their music is not too high, and the overall feel is very early 2000s. I suppose there’s nothing remarkable about this album, but I thought it had a nice sound and listened a couple times.
There are several hits here, which are probably the better songs of the album. Every song is pure ‘80s — lots of synths, generally upbeat, fun to sing along with, etc. Sometimes Lauper’s vocals are a bit much to take in, but that’s part of the appeal I suppose.
This album has all the ingredients of something I would enjoy, but it left almost no mark on me. I listened yesterday but forgot to write a review, and at this point I've almost completely forgotten what I thought about it. It's psychedelic rock from the mid-'60s, so it makes sense that it would have that dime-a-dozen feel.
