Very drony. Interesting guitar parts and creative chord changes, but really overly drony for me. Not interested.
Production is too low-fi for me. Not a fan of his voice. It was hard to actually hear the melody of the songs in some cases. I get the sense that he's a strong guitar player, but it all just sounds muddy and tinny and distractingly shrill. Not a fan.
Very clean, rich production. Extremely satisfying. Tears for Fears have always seemed more ambitious than their pop peers to me, and you can really feel them stretching their creativity on this release. It's not my favorite of their albums, but it's very strong, and has a couple of absolute top-tier songs.
I went into this album with the worst possible attitude because what I'd heard from this band until listening to this album has always been absolutely insufferable garbage to me. Like, I've been unable to find ANYTHING to like about ANYTHING about them.
Imagine my surprise when I found myself completely smitten by this album. There's nothing new or innovative in here...from the first moment to the last, it's basically boilerplate 4/4 rock music, but it's done with such confidence and aplomb that it's just fun and catchy through and through.
Clean production, confident performances by all...just a fun album. I don't see myself returning to it, because there's really nothing there but simplicity and fun, but I'm happy to have heard it. Giving it three stars because it's fine, but totally forgettable.
I refuse to listen to this fucking album, having been subjected to it mercilessly when it came out in the 80s because it was a favorite of my mom's, and somehow still pummeled regularly by songs from this album, even 40 fucking years later. I have always fucking hated everything about Bon Jovi. Nothing about him appeals to me on any level.
HARD PASS.
Eh, it's fine. This kind of thing will never sound fresh in the 21st century, but I get that there was a time when it was new and interesting. It's hard for me to not find it predictable and dull, primarily because I've heard this kind of thing a million times before by a million other bands over the decades.
An absolute classic, kind of hard to listen to as an entire album in the modern world.
But I played this album to death as a teenager in the 80s
Every Radiohead album since OK Computer has been absolutely amazing. This isn't my favorite, but it's still in a class of its own.
I think every single Radiohead album except Pablo Honey is a 10/10. I love Pablo Honey, but it's not in the same league as everything after it.
In Rainbows has some of the cleanest, most satisfying production I've ever heard. The "In the Basement" live version of this album is so, so much better than the studio version.
Every Radiohead album since OK Computer has been absolutely amazing. This isn't my favorite, but it's still in a class of its own.
I think every single Radiohead album except Pablo Honey is a 10/10. I love Pablo Honey, but it's not in the same league as everything after it.
In Rainbows has some of the cleanest, most satisfying production I've ever heard. The "In the Basement" live version of this album is so, so much better than the studio version.
My favorite AC/DC album. I wore this cassette out as a teenager. Bon Scott at the top of his game. There is no weak spot on this album.
Of course I've heard quite a few of these songs a million times, but have never actually paid attention to them. They've been part of the background radiation of life since before I was born, and this was my parents' music, so I didn't really have or want a relationship with it.
Now that I'm deliberately listening to it, it's clear to understand why these songs were so important to so many people. There's a real sense of something greater than the sum of its parts happening here...some of these songs have a quality that feels somehow knowing and eternal.
Somehow I still struggle with Neil Young, though. I just flat-out don't like his voice. To me, his more solo moments are by far the least interesting, most annoying parts of the album.
I also really love the guitar-centered nature of these songs. I miss music that's made by guitars that aren't being piped through layer after layer of modern processing.
The wall of voices thing starts to feel kind of cloying by the end of the album to me, but it's all executed really well. I'll probably return to some of this album in the future.
I gave it a try. Fuck, I hated this. Jarring, unpleasant and pretentious.
I couldn't make it past the third song.
This is not for me. I hated it. Uninteresting and unpleasant.
Have never liked the Ramones. I have no problem with them, and recognize their historical significance, but their music has always been too simple and uninteresting for me. I really don't like the singer's voice, which makes it hard to get into any of it.
Their music is just boring to me.
I can't review this album objectively because Iron Maiden is one of my foundational bands. I've listened to this album thousands of times. I was alive when this was fresh, and listening to albums like this felt like plugging into something more important than anything else.
Somehow both lush and spare. This is just lovely. So many spicy chords and inversions that somehow also feel smooth and effortless. There's a warm simplicity to these songs that just seems to wrap around you like a familiar soft blanket.
The shtick started to wear thin by the fifth song for me, though, and I didn't complete the album. Doubt I'll be returning.
Vernon Reid's guitar work has always been too twitchy and nervous for me. I like the big hit from this album a lot, but the rest of it is just too spazzy and uncomfortable for me.
It's fine background music. It's not really interesting enough to keep my attention, though.
I mean, it's fine. I've heard all of these songs a billion times through osmosis. Nice production, but it's all pretty standard blues rock.
This is utterly boring to me. I can't stand it even as background noise. Hard pass.
I hate this. How could anyone think this is an "essential" album? It's the same repetitive drivel that everyone in this genre puts out.
I mean, it's fine. I didn't make it very long, though. Each song seems to be a single mildly interesting idea that's just repeated until it becomes numbingly dull. This isn't for me.
I also really don't like the skeezy spoken vocal parts. They're really gross.
These guys created something truly special in their prime. These are just wonderful songs sung by wonderful, distinctive voices.
Are they outdated? Sure. There are a couple of songs on there that are a little bit cringey. Does that diminish the? Not to me. This is magic stuff.
It's an ambitious project, but it didn't really work for me. There are plenty of moments where it's interesting for a bit, but I feel like nothing about it is inherently good or interesting enough to warrant all the (what feels to me) forced weirdness/quirkiness.
Like, none of the performances are especially great, none of the voices are particularly interesting, none of the lyrics seem particularly evocative or clever...it just feels like a lot of forced weirdness for its own sake without anything really there.
The music is lush and pleasing, but the voice is fucking awful. I can't do it.
Boy is this twee. It's really hard for me to get past the aggressive tweeness of this.
Holy shit, I did NOT expect to be as drawn to this as I am so far. Album is a straight up banger. Very few low moments.
Man, the production on this album is so satisfying. Crystal clear. And the performances are just amazing. This is really well done.
I don't care about this at all. I couldn't make it through two songs.
I mean, it's fine. It's glitchy and quirky. I got bored pretty fast. It's well made, I just don't care about this kind of music.
What do you call this, talk rock? I mean, if you're going to make such a point of not singing melodically, at least have something interesting to say.
This dude is fucking gross.
This isn't interesting to me at all. It's hard for me to imagine anyone actually getting into this. There's nothing here.
Eh, whatever. I guess this is important and foundational and all, but it's not interesting at all to me now.
How can anybody listen to this? That voice is absolutely fucking awful. Hard, HARD pass.
I really tried to like this album when it came out, and for several years after, but it just never grabbed me. It's fine...I don't HATE it or anything, but it's just kinda okay. Nothing special. Mostly forgettable, kinda spazzy, kinda noisy, kinda melodic...it's okay.
This is fucking insufferable. Get this shit far away from me. How could anyone deliberately listen to this absolute fucking garbage?
Man, this is so vanilla. There isn't one second of this album that isn't polished smooth. It's fine, I guess. I like the hits the best, and the rest of it is in one ear and out the other. There's really nothing memorable about the vast majority of this.
Huh. There's something kinda cloyingly over the top to this music, and I'm someone who tends to like music that's kinda over the top. Not sure why, but it's not really working for me.
Bit long at 17 tracks, too. It all started sounding really samey pretty early on.
This isn't for me.
I don't care about this. I don't like the album cover, either. Pass.
Their best album, IMO. A perfect blend of aggressive and harmonic, broad and contained. I love the harmonies. This is the album that turned me on to this band, and remains the only album that I find myself returning to all these years later.
I feel like I've grown out of Muse, somehow, but I do return to this album from time to time.
Why, exactly, do I "need" to hear this album? There's nothing interesting about this. I couldn't force myself to pay attention and gave up about six minutes in.
I mean, I guess it's fine or whatever.
Couple of genuinely good songs on here, but it's mostly really dated and kinda boring.
My parents bought me this album when it came out in 1983. Everything this band did after this is insufferable fucking garbage, but I think this album really holds up.
God, this is boring as fuck.
Pretty fun. Good party music.
God, the goofy-ass way he sings is so over the top half the time that it's hard to get past.
There are some genuinely great songs here with some really interesting wordplay, but the character that he's playing is just plain silly most of the time and it's very distracting.
The fuck is this shit.
What makes this "an album I must hear before I die?" This is just some sad, confused person's diary. There is nothing even remotely interesting about this to me.
I don't understand why I keep trying these fucking albums. This is so goddamn terrible...how can anyone think this is vital listening?
This site makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Holy shit, this is great! I had all but given up on this list, but this brought me back in. What a pleasant surprise. Every song was just straight-up fun. A few moments felt maybe a little bit repetitive, but not enough to be problematic.
I guess it's okay. Hard to get excited about it in the 21st century.
I can't force myself to be interested in this.
I don't like Bjork's voice. I've tried and tried, and it's just unpleasant to me. This album appears to be completely made of that.
Also, it's really boring. I slogged through about half of it, but couldn't force myself to pay attention to it. There were a couple of moments that managed to grab my attention briefly, but aside from that, it was like trying to listen to paint dry.
There is nothing interesting about this. At all.
This list makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. There's nothing particularly BAD about this, but it is wholly unremarkable. There is nothing interesting about it at all. It's just vanilla Americana performed by regular people. Why is this an album I "must hear before I die?" There are thousands of albums that are essentially identical to this, and not one of them will leave a mark on anyone except the moms and friends of the bands themselves.
How can anyone hear this and think "wow, this is unique and special and notable!"?
Are you fucking kidding with this? It's like a bad joke. HARD PASS.
I wish I could like this, but I really can't stand the guy's voice. Like nails on a chalkboard.
Kate Bush is a singular artist. A beacon of light in a sea of darkness, and this is her at her absolute peak. There has never and will never be anything else like this.
I guess it's fine. It's so dated. This doesn't really speak to me.
This is relentless shrill fucking noise. HARD PASS.
Really dated. Not feeling this.
It's fine. Clean production, very competent performances, a distinctive voice, though with a slightly off-puttingly juvenile quality, the flash of an edge here and there. Nothing remarkable, but totally listenable.
It's fine. Clean production, very competent performances, a distinctive voice, though with a slightly off-puttingly juvenile quality, the flash of an edge here and there. Nothing remarkable, but totally listenable.
Very cool. Nothing I'll ever listen to again, but it was a fun listen.
Huh. Who knew that this band was ever this good? This album is just flat-out fun, and holy shit, the bass work throughout it is outstanding.
The last track is awful, though.
Good fucking lord, I can't even get past the album cover. Hard pass.
I tried to get into this album for years shortly after it came out. I've always found his voice to be grating and jarring. It's just not for me.
Surprisingly rich for these guys.
