554
Albums Rated
2.96
Average Rating
51%
Complete
535 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1950
Favorite Decade
Punk
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
29
5-Star Albums
39
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
|
5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
|
Repeater
Fugazi
|
5 | 3.13 | +1.87 |
|
Ragged Glory
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
|
5 | 3.14 | +1.86 |
|
Tonight's The Night
Neil Young
|
5 | 3.24 | +1.76 |
|
Sea Change
Beck
|
5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
|
Music From Big Pink
The Band
|
5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
|
The Band
The Band
|
5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
|
Locust Abortion Technician
Butthole Surfers
|
4 | 2.39 | +1.61 |
|
Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
|
5 | 3.51 | +1.49 |
|
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
|
5 | 3.54 | +1.46 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.72 | -2.72 |
|
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
Maggot Brain
Funkadelic
|
1 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
|
Aja
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
|
Play
Moby
|
1 | 3.45 | -2.45 |
|
Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
|
1 | 3.43 | -2.43 |
|
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
|
1 | 3.41 | -2.41 |
|
Channel Orange
Frank Ocean
|
1 | 3.33 | -2.33 |
|
Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
The Slim Shady LP
Eminem
|
1 | 3.28 | -2.28 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Neil Young | 4 | 4.75 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 3 | 5 |
| The Band | 2 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 4.25 |
| Beatles | 6 | 4 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.33 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Steely Dan | 3 | 1.33 |
| Kanye West | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Divine Comedy | 2 | 1.5 |
| Rufus Wainwright | 2 | 1.5 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 2 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Queen | 5, 4, 2 |
| Pink Floyd | 3, 5, 4, 2 |
5-Star Albums (29)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Electric Light Orchestra · 8 likes
2/5
Somehow this is bland mashup of McCartney, Queen, and Pink Floyd. Massively overproduced and twice as long as it needed to be. A couple memorable songs but mostly I just wanted it to end.
Bob Dylan · 2 likes
2/5
Of all the great albums of 1997, this one won album of the year? Really? Sure, it is well made but like every Dylan album except his early folk stuff it's WAY too long and just...boring. Some great urns of phrase of course, but you have to Wade through a sea of mediocre slow blues to rescue them. It sounds like Randy Newman and Eric Clapton...stale and derivative sad blues rock for aging Boomers. I ended up being genuinely annoyed by the end.
Alanis Morissette · 2 likes
4/5
"And what it all comes down to is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine. 'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket, the other one is giving a high five."
That might be the most perfect encapsulation of being an upper middle class white kid in America in 1995 ever written. GenX was able to be the "whatever" generation by virtue of coming to age at the absolute peak of western society, 1985-2000. The feeling that no matter what bad things happen, the arrow will still be pointed up and it will be alright. Before the Internet was monetized and ruined by social media. Before 9/11 made us all collectively paranoid and started us down the road to the political polarization that is tearing us apart 30 years later.
Alanis tapped a cultural vein in at the perfect time in the Lilith Fair era, and wrote some absolute banger pop songs with just enough non-conformity to give them a genuine/honest vibe. It may not be what I want to listen to anymore, but it's a great album.
The Divine Comedy · 2 likes
1/5
Crash Test Dummies guy meets Sinatra to sing songs about shoveling horse crap. Hard pass.
Aretha Franklin · 2 likes
5/5
What a great album. Great musicianship, a great voice, and great vibes throughout. Loved it.
1-Star Albums (39)
All Ratings
Adele
3/5
This album was released just as we bought our house and I have memories of the hits being played as we renovated the place. The production is immaculate as a platform for Adele's voice. So many vocalists have copied her style since then that it is hard to remember how fresh it sounded when it was first released. The first two songs and the last two are my favorites.
Nine Inch Nails
2/5
NIN just has never been my thing. Some interesting industrial sounds but everything is too drawn out and overly dramatic for my taste. Too much screaming. The sexual lyrics are just flat-out cringey and did not age well. The only song that seems introspective as opposed to masturbatory is Hurt.
Bob Dylan
3/5
I prefer the chaotic messy Dylan to the 70s light rock version, but his poetic genius shines in any format.
Violent Femmes
4/5
I enjoyed this one. Punk feeling with pop sensibility is my jam. I had heard many of the songs of course but I don't think I had ever listened to the whole album. I would give it a 3.75, so I'm rounding up to four. Memorable, my type of music, and will listen to it again.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
A lttle poppy, a little punky. Top end musicianship. I dig it. My only complaint is that the production sounds very "late 70s".
The Flaming Lips
4/5
This fits right in with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and OK Computer as albums that are describing the strange feeling that we were living at the high point of human civilization in the late 1990s yet something was missing. I like the other two albums better, but I very much enjoyed this one as well.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
You have to be some kind of America-hating commie to dislike CCR. That said, 1/4 of the album length is a one note masturbatory guitar wank fest (Keep on Chooglin'). Would have been four stars without that song.
ZZ Top
3/5
Sweet guitar sounds and tight songwriting, but also too over-produced for my liking with some truly cringe-worthy lyrics. This is becoming a theme in my reviews.
Jungle Brothers
3/5
This was pretty cool. I moved awkwardly to the beat while sitting in my office chair and I remember several of the songs hours after listening to them. A solid three stars even if hip-hop is not my preferred genre.
The Jam
4/5
Punky new wave with rockin' guitars. Count me in.
Sepultura
4/5
This album came out slightly too late for me to notice it. I was into grunge and metal in high school but by the time I went to college I had moved on and completely disregarded the nu metal/Korn/Limp Bizkit era, which I lumped Sepultura into. I was wrong. Although I still get annoyed by screamy growly singing, this album is frickin' cool. I love the indigenous instruments and chants. With the benefit of 28 years of hindsight, I can hear the influence of this sound on modern bands that I love like Gojira.
Queen
5/5
I would not call myself a Queen fan but this album is a monument to creativity and musicianship. The remastered version sounds incredible.
R.E.M.
4/5
It is a soundtrack to my high school years. 4 stars because I like early REM slightly better, but a great album nevertheless.
Kanye West
1/5
Kanye seems like a real fun guy to hang around with. Misogyny, personal grievance, and a complete lack of levity. I dislike this album for the same reason I dislike The Downward Spiral by NIN: it's all just too self-involved. Me, me, me.
The Clash
4/5
A punk rock classic. While I prefer the more fully-formed punk that followed soon after, it is tough to dislike these gleeful rockers. I miss some of the hits on the US release.
Coldcut
2/5
I guess I was entertained, but it was too long and I would not listen again.
Santana
3/5
I enjoyed this album. I wanted more Latin beats and less guitar hero stuff. Still, an enjoyable listen that makes me want to spin up more Latin music.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Not much to say that hasn't been said. Simply one of the best rock albums ever made. I get sick of every song from the 70s and 80s being about sex/love/women so I appreciate the broader thematic scope of the early 1970s Zep albums (LZIII - Physical Graffiti). When my daughter's high school orchestra is playing Kashmir at their concerts almost 50 years later it's pretty clear this album has transcended genres and reached all time great status.
Culture Club
1/5
Nothing here that I enjoy and a lot that I dislike.
Silver Jews
3/5
I like this type of music but the vocals are just too jarring for me. Some clever turns of phrase and some that fall flat. I think it would be four stars if I could get around the disinterested and out of tune vocal style.
Suede
3/5
A well-produced and well-played Brit rock album, but there is nothing that is truly noteworthy for me here.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Paul Simon is a genius songwriter and Art Garfunkel is a genius singer. This is a great album that is much better when heard through high quality headphones/earbuds. It's cheesy and beautiful and pretentious and fun.
Blur
3/5
Enjoyed the first two songs but it tailed off after that and ended up being yet another well produced/played Brit rock album. Solid but not that memorable.
Scissor Sisters
3/5
I don't think I had heard any of these songs before. It was a solid album for sure, just not really my style.
Caetano Veloso
2/5
It was interesting learning about his life and influence in Brazil. The music didn't do much for me.
Elis Regina
3/5
Two Brazilian artists in a row. I like this one better. Solid pop music that sounds good in any language.
Radiohead
5/5
Simply one of my favorite albums of all time. The end of high school / beginning of college. The 1990s at high tide. Hearing Planet Telex start brings me right back to that hopeful time. I love where Radiohead came from and where they went, but The Bends and OK Computer will always be my favorite albums of theirs. Awesome rock music with something a little scary lurking underneath. "I wish it was the 60s / I we we could be happy / I wish I wish I wish that something would happen."
Aretha Franklin
3/5
I enjoyed the arrangements/Motown of it all, and of course Aretha's voice is awesome. But I struggle to stay interested for more than a song or two when the main draw is being wowed by the talents of the vocalist.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
Had never heard any of it before. I was bored at first but it grew on me. It's a solid album but nothing overly memorable.
Radiohead
4/5
Some great songs on here but not as strong overall as The Bends and OK Computer. Bands change...it's the only way endeavors like Radiohead can stay relevant/sane. In this case they just moved away from what I liked most about Radiohead. And it's just so depressing!
King Crimson
4/5
Loved the bookend songs, the stuff in between ranged from kind of cool to annoying. I can hear the beginning of so many of my favorite bands in here.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
So hippie Boomer it hurts. But I mean that in the best possible way. Joni is ultra talented and there is some unique songwriting here that is not easily copied. Brandi Carlile probably comes closest. Maybe Tori Amos. Cool shit that just happens to not be my favorite style.
Tears For Fears
3/5
As far as 80s synth pop goes, this is high quality stuff. Shout is a genuinely cool song. But like so much else from the 80s, the cheesiness of the whole experiment ruins it for me.
The Associates
1/5
The colors they chose for the album art are nice I guess...
Electric Light Orchestra
2/5
Somehow this is bland mashup of McCartney, Queen, and Pink Floyd. Massively overproduced and twice as long as it needed to be. A couple memorable songs but mostly I just wanted it to end.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Another high school graduation year classic that I have listened to so many times on a spinning disc. Hearing it again now for the first time in many years, I fully expected to write that it is too long because I have come to dislike bloat and prefer shorter songs. But somehow there really is not much filler in this gigantic undertaking. A collection a varied, perfectly executed alt-rock tunes elevated by a few timeless classics like 1979. The one sort-of negative I can find is that the album doesn't innovate, it just perfects the medium of the grunge era. I am one that believes Corgan's voice is part of what made the band interesting, but then again I'm a Neil Young fan so I guess I have a soft spot for unconventional singers. Some of the lyrics are pretty 90s angst/cringe, but that is a product of the time. Siamese Dream is an absolute 5-star album for me...this is 4.5.
Metallica
3/5
Yes it's too long and yes the older songs are way better than the post-Justice ones, but any metalhead should get at least some enjoyment out of a huge crowd screaming MASTER and James Hetfield gleefully letting them sing half the verses. For how complicated this live production is, everything sounds near perfect....from Hetfield's vocals to the orchestra to the mixing. Truly impressive. I will save the high rankings for the studio albums, but I enjoyed this.
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
I had never heard it before, and I like it. This list is Brit rock heavy, but this is the best kind IMO. The best iteration of the rhythmic danceable rock of the early 2000s. I can't do it all the time, but when I'm in the right mood, it hits.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
What in the actual hell? This was...well...I didn't hate it. Did I like it? Yeah...I think I actually kind of liked it. I am a fan of Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker, and it's obvious she was influenced by this album. It is so weird, cool, and poetic. A true work of art among so many calculated over-produced efforts. This is a perfect example of why I enjoy this 1001 albums project. There is no way I ever would have heard this otherwise.
Neil Young
5/5
Love Neil and love this album even though the purists would say it was a sellout. Some classic rockers, and two of the best introspective acoustic songs in Neil's gigantic catalog makes this an easy five star album for me. It sounds so frickin' good...like you are sitting in the room with the musicians.
Joan Baez
3/5
Her voice is beautiful and some of the guitar playing is actually very good. I really like the darker songs. But as with so many albums it's way too long.
Beatles
4/5
Yes it's a great album and an all time classic. The stereo mixing is weird when listening through earbuds. Some of the songs are great, most are okay, some are silly and some are boring. There are other Beatles albums I like more. Early/mid-career Beatles were innovators and way ahead of their time. But by 1969, the rest of the music world had caught and surpassed them. There are 10+ albums released that year that I would rather listen to than this one.
The Velvet Underground
1/5
This actually made me angry listening to it. I don't care that it was influential. I hate the way it sounds.
Beck
3/5
I liked Beck back in the day, and saw him put on an awesome live show in the late 1990s. But I have to say, this album didn't do much for me nearly three decades later. Some cool beats and catchy sounds, but the nonsensical lyrics and themes lost me in middle age.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Some interesting arrangements but it's all just so cheesy.
Sparks
3/5
I had never of these guys, and I enjoyed the album. Glam rock is not really my jam but this is well-executed and memorable.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
I don't know much about jazz so I'll refrain from writing like I do. I really enjoyed listening to this so I'm giving it 4 stars.
The Doors
2/5
The Doors have never clicked with me. This type of repetitive blues rock bores me, and Morrison's voice is not my thing. Too much noodling on the organ.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
This had a cool late 80s vibe somewhere between the B-52s and the Pixies. You can feel the stale 80s music fading and the creative explosion if the 90s coming when you listen to this. Weird and memorable but I'm not sure I could listen to it regularly.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
This was strange. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I was going to. It was kind of original in a creepy lounge act meets Broadway kind of way.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Dylan is a master wordsmith and this album is great. The first two songs are awesome. After that it meanders a bit until the title track and Desolation Row bring it back home. For an all-time great album, I should not have to skip any tracks but I simply cannot listen to Queen Jane Approximately. Rage builds in my heart and all I can think about is how satisfying it would be to launch that damn harmonica straight into the sun.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Obligatory "too long", but still really damn cool and unique. Interesting guitar parts and dense instrumentation. Nich Cave's vocals can get old, but he is one of a kind and I was with him for most of this marathon.
Joni Mitchell
2/5
The light jazz/folk combo is a solid "nope" for me. I don't like the Elton John vibe either. I'm starting to the resent all of these albums that sound so mid-70s. They are so stuffy and pretentious. I'm just waiting for punk emerge and put us out of our misery.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Very good songwriting and clever turns of phrase delivered in a compact structure that doesn't drag on. The style isn't my favorite but no songs were long enough for me to get annoyed by them.
Lou Reed
4/5
When it started I thought I was going to hate it but by the end I couldn't deny the cohesive vision behind the album. It also sounds really good for a mid-70s record and doesn't suffer from that stuffy studio treatment that so many albums from this period do.
Basement Jaxx
2/5
It would be fine for a dance club. I don't need to listen to it in my earbuds for an hour.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
I enjoyed Sam Andrew's guitar playing. Janis I can take or leave. Sometimes her voice is really something special. Sometimes it just sounds forced and grating. The fake live sounds were cheesy, but overall I enjoyed listening to this album.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
3/5
Concise, catchy, and at the cutting edge of the rock and roll revolution that was coming.
Paul McCartney
4/5
I had never heard anything from this album except Maybe I'm Amazed. I really enjoyed it. It's like a proto-Guided by Voices. McCartney never disappoints
Destiny's Child
3/5
Hard not to be impressed with these catchy tunes. It may not be my favorite genre but damn...
Boards of Canada
2/5
At first it annoyed me but it grew on me by the end. Still on the negative side of my enjoyment scale.
Linkin Park
2/5
Slick production but it's just so cheesy and angsty. I know Nirvana was basically the same concept but this just feels so much more...manufactured. Some interesting metal/hip-hop mashups but I just can't connect with the energy behind the songs. I was five years too old for this to have hit me at the right time.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Just a flat out awesome performance by a true master. The way Johnny handles the crowd is a master class. The songs are classics, the singers include the founders of the country music genre, and the delivery is one of a kind. 5 stars.
Louis Prima
4/5
Enjoyed this a lot. Awesome high energy performances from the dawn of rock.
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
It was okay. Definitely a breath of fresh air after the glam rock and synths of the 80s. But the music itself kind of bores me.
N.E.R.D
2/5
Not my thing.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
An absolute classic by a true musical savant. The roots of so much of my favorite music are here.
Prince
3/5
80s synth music elevated by Prince's unique weirdness.
Jurassic 5
3/5
Out of the hip-hop/rap albums I have heard on this project so far, this was my favorite. Catchy beats, endless rhymes, and not every song is about women and money.
KISS
2/5
"Shit sandwich"
The Style Council
2/5
I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
It contains one of the best singles ever, so that elevates it. But in general this type of music is not my thing.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
It's a classic for a reason. It sounds great, the songs are memorable (and not too long), and it just has a ton of verve.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
This was a perfect album to listen to while working in front of a computer for the day. Top-notch musicianship and really interesting Caribbean jazz fusion. It made my office cubicle a slightly happier place for an hour.
ABBA
3/5
Eh. It was okay. Better than the vast majority of 80s pop.
The Saints
3/5
Pretty decent old school punk. Would have been four stars from me if it wasn't 75 MINUTES LONG. 40 minutes should be the absolute maximum for any self-respecting punk record.
Solomon Burke
3/5
This was a fun album with great vocals. Some of the subject matter was cringe but that is how it goes with old timey music.
Talking Heads
2/5
Is it okay that I just don't like the Talking Heads that much? Am I going to have my cool card revoked? David Byrne's wailing just grates on me. Sorry not sorry.
Judas Priest
3/5
This was a fun listen. Cheesy, yes...but still pretty rockin' and didn't overstay its welcome.
Sabu
3/5
This was fun for something different. I liked the energy and call/response dynamic. Some of the guitar playing was also great for 1957.
X-Ray Spex
4/5
Pretty kick ass punk rock. Sex Pistols style with a woman's touch plus a sax. Yes, please!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
American Girl and Breakdown are two all-time great tracks, but the rest of the album strays too far into bland Billy Joel/Van Morrison territory and I quickly lost interest.
Fela Kuti
4/5
New to me, interesting, and cool. Repetitive, yes, but I was feeling it.
Adele
2/5
Maybe I was just in a bad mood but this annoyed me a lot more than her first album.
Pink Floyd
3/5
IDK....I just don't think it's as great as everyone else I guess. That frickin' song with the woman wailing made my physically angry. A few great songs and a lot of experimental filler.
Deerhunter
3/5
Ya know what? It was okay. Pri-tay good even. I was skeptical after the first song but there was some cool chit later on the record.
Stan Getz
4/5
Yeah this was pretty damn cool. His voice is so silky.
Sufjan Stevens
2/5
It had a few interesting parts but the rest was bland and forgettable background music. I probably would have liked it more in my Wilco days but my tastes have evolved.
Butthole Surfers
4/5
I know some of the songs are annoying but damn...1987? These guys were at the vanguard of a massive assault on 80s shit music and they kick ass. Butthole Surfers, Faith No More, Fugazi, Pixies...there are many others but there is no doubt that was change in the air in the waning years of the 1980s if you could look past your Whitesnake and see it. And don't even fucking start with me...I loved Whitesnake! But it was time to move on by 1987, and bands like The Butthole Surfers forced the issue. As for this particular album, it a lot like other Butthole Surfers albums: annoying, brilliant, poignant, loud, repetitive, punky, rocky, poppy, confusing, funny. I felt like I was listening to music at least, as opposed to a commercial endeavor. And for that, I say, "Thank you, Butthole Surfers."
Skunk Anansie
3/5
It was okay. Some cool rhythmic heavy parts. Too much wailing and drama.
Khaled
2/5
Pop music is boring in any language.
Harry Nilsson
2/5
This type of Randy Newman cheese pop is just not my thing. I guess it's well written and performed, but I felt nothing while listening to it (other than mild annoyance).
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
One of the best albums ever made and a soundtrack of my life. I listened to this album in high school as I was learning to play guitar and finding my own style for songwriting. I listened In college while sitting on dorm room floors with people I had just met. I played the songs too loud live on stage and in beer soaked basements. I sang the songs quietly with friends around the campfire after our kids were put to bed. I contemplated the different meaning of the words as I sent my kid off to college and went through middle age. I will continue to listen as I head toward the autumn of my life.
Dennis Wilson
2/5
Some okay late 70s sounds, but WAY TOO LONG!! The decent songs just drown in a sea of samey blandness.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
It was okay. Tight bass playing. Some good jazz jams. Some utterly pretentious shite.
The Offspring
3/5
I enjoy pop punk but Offspring would not be my choice of bands to represent the genre. They are okay, but give me Bad Religion or NOFX any day.
Rush
3/5
I don't like much 80s music but at least Rush is something different. Cheesy as hell, for sure, but cool intricate music that doesn't sound like the other tripe of the era is worth at least three stars.
Cream
2/5
Maybe it blew peoples' minds at the time but most of this sounds like every Friday night down at the local bar and grill where a "Chicago Blues" band is playing and a bunch of Boomers are sitting around in their Harley-Davidson apparel sporting trimmed white goatees and drinking Budweiser. The psychedelic stuff was much better than the blues stuff. My favorite song was the last one.
Sonic Youth
3/5
The late 80s was a wild time. I enjoy observing the struggle of forward-looking bands to break away from norms of the previous decade. Sonic Youth definitely fits this mold. Although I can't say I love to listen to the music, it does at least hold my interest as something different and original.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
What in the ? This was cool! The first tune made me think of Mr. Bungle and anything from the 70s that gives me that kind of crazy vibe is a-okay with me. It would have been four stars if not for "Waiting for the Big One". Why does every album from the 70s have to have a cheesy Randy Newman blues jam on it? Why?!? So out of place on this otherwise unique and interesting effort.
The Who
3/5
I appreciate bands trying to do something different. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It mostly doesn't on this album, but there are a few great songs and I was at least entertained the whole way through.
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
Yeah this was frickin' old school cool. I miss 80s Hip-Hop!
The Velvet Underground
3/5
I just flat out dislike this band but this album was less annoying than the others.
Sade
2/5
Maybe you had to be there in the 89s to understand why people dislike this so much. Every damn song on the radio sounded like this shit. Smooth jazz/pop. Ugh.
Anita Baker
1/5
I have heard enough 80s crap to last a lifetime.
The Verve
4/5
A cup of Radiohead, a pinch of U2, and dash of Oasis. This is a good shoegaze rock album that was much better than I expected. Killer guitar sound.
Arcade Fire
2/5
Not a fan of this band.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
This kicked ass.
Air
4/5
Trippy, catchy and cool. I expected the songs to turn negative and whiny but they did not. A perfect album to have on while working at a computer. I love it when this project turns up music/artists I never would have heard otherwise!
John Martyn
2/5
I definitely did not need to hear this before I die.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
What a great album. Great musicianship, a great voice, and great vibes throughout. Loved it.
David Bowie
3/5
It's Bowie so at least there is some interesting stuff going on, but the whole thing was too 70s sounding for my taste.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Sonically, I prefer the metal that came after to the metal that started it all. But there is no doubt that Black Sabbath gave us all permission to be spooky with this album and for that they are legendary.
Beyoncé
2/5
Oh great...an hour and a half of pop music. Slickly produced but bland as hell. If Beyonce the diva icon was not in your mind when listening to this it would be completely unremarkable.
Brian Eno
4/5
This was really damn cool and I never would have listened to it if not for this project.
Brian Eno
3/5
After never hearing Brian Eno before I have now had back to back albums. I didn't like this one as much as the more experimental offering Another Green World. Still solid though.
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Really solid rock music. So much better than the KISS three chord glam rock of the era. There is nothing really groundbreaking here, and I'm not sure I need to listen to much more Thin Lizzy, but I enjoyed it.
Pink Floyd
5/5
I shouldn't like this album. I'm luke warm on Pink Floyd overall, I generally hate long/double albums, and pretty much everything produced in the late 70s tends to annoy me. *But* this particular album for some reason clicked with 14 year old me as it was spinning on my 5-disk changer as a high schooler in the early 1990s. I was able to get into the headspace of the music and the journey it took me on was truly extraordinary. I loved it then and I still love it today.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Slightly annoying, but unique and creative at the same time.
Alice Cooper
2/5
More varied and musical than I expected, but I was not expecting much. A strange combination of Rolling Stones musical vibes and theatrical/joke lyrics.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
This was...strange. Kind of cool, kind of annoying. At least it wasn't the same old boring 70s crap.
Daft Punk
2/5
If I were playing WipEout I would dig it. But I am not. But maybe I should? Hm.
Joy Division
4/5
Dark and punky and cool. Maybe I'm just a hipster at heart.
Mott The Hoople
3/5
It daftly executed what it was trying to do, but there just is not much there there with this kind of music
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
3/5
As far 80s synth albums go, this one is not terrible. At least it isn't shitty pop music about sex/women.
Os Mutantes
4/5
Strange but very musical and unique. I'm not sure I have heard anything like this before...and I like that.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
A great album with some true bangers and a little filler. Page's guitar playing and JPJ's bass work is simply superb throughout. Since I've Been Loving You has to be one of the heaviest non-metal song ever. Zep sounds like they are having fun writing/recording music at this point.
Marty Robbins
4/5
It's hokey, it's sexist, it's dated....but it's awesome. Such tightly written songs with vivid lyrical imagery. The music is performed flawlessly too. I am a sucker for old timey music and this was no exception. A really fun listen.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
A pretty decent record. The Stones can get a bit cheesy for me, but this one has a bit more sincerity that I think gives it more power. I love Drive-by Truckers and I never realized how much they were influenced by the Stones. Sway could straight up be a DBT song. They still lose me on some of the straightforward boring blues rock, but overall I enjoyed it.
Suede
3/5
I wanted to hate it but ended up respecting the effort and ambition. It definitely was something different. Some decent guitar work. That said, it felt a little like I was listening to Highlights from the Phantom of the Opera.
The Young Gods
2/5
If it was in English I probably would have hated it, but since it was in French it only slightly annoyed me.
Frank Ocean
1/5
Yeah, no. This music does nothing for me. The only emotion I felt was annoyance that I had to sit through it.
Eagles
2/5
Boring and prosaic tunes whose highest aspiration is to become background music in department stores.
Peter Tosh
3/5
It was fine as background music but didn't move me at all.
The Temptations
2/5
Not my jam. Very well done by talented artists, but I just can't handle screamy vocals of any genre.
The Stooges
3/5
Chaotic proto-punk that kind of rocks. A little exhausting to listen to, but that is kind of the point.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Way too repetitive but the songs stuck in my head and I didn't end up hating it.
Bob Dylan
3/5
It's always the same thing with me when I listen to Dylan. First three songs: This is the most unbelievable poetic songwriting have ever heard! Songs 4-12: Ugh...how can there be 7 minutes left in this song? He already sang 8 verses! *skip*
Kraftwerk
4/5
Great music to have on in ear buds while working at a computer on repetitive tasks. Enjoyed it from start to finish.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Good Lord the 80s sucked.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
At first I wanted to dislike the ultra hipster feel but I can't deny that I was entertained by the varied instrumentation and clever lyrics. A few of the songs completely missed for me, but most of them had me listening intently. I hear the Violent Femmes, Wilco, and many other bands I enjoy lurking inside the muted arrangements. But most importantly, listening to this album brought forth strong emotions and imagery of my daughter coming of age and leaving our house for college. Any piece of music that can stir my soul like that (especially one that I have not heard before and has no nostalgia attached) is worth four stars.
Michael Jackson
3/5
The year is 1983 and I am six years old. I am sitting at the kitchen table in the house I grew up in, listening to Thriller (the song) on a cassette through a huge silver boom box. I keep rewinding the tape and playing that song over and over. My parents are in the living room yelling into the kitchen wondering what is so great about that song that I have to keep listening to it instead of coming in to watch Hee-Haw with them. This has to be one of my earliest music-related memories. Now that I think about it, this might have been the origin of my enjoyment of strange, dark & theatrical music. Did Thriller send me down a path that ended with heavy psych and metal? Maybe. Listening 41 years later, that song still kicks butt. The album has three of the best pop songs ever written right in the middle of the run. Even with the hindsight of what MJ became, it is impossible to deny his genius as an artist. However, since we DO have the benefit of knowing what he was and what he became, I'm taking two stars away because of the ridiculous obsession with objectification of women (not unique to MJ in the 80s) and for the overall cringe-worthiness of a few of the tunes (PYT, The Girl is Mine). As I say on almost every album that comes up from this era...the 80s were a strange time to be alive.
Nick Drake
4/5
28 minutes was enough time of time to convey a lifetime of emotions. I loved the guitar playing, loved the vocals, loved the song structures. I had never heard Nick Drake before, but in listening to this album 52 years after it was made I felt an instant connection across the years and across the ocean.
XTC
4/5
Easily one of the best pop albums I have ever heard from the 1980s. The songs actually have depth and mystery as opposed to the artist finding the 1,000,001st way to describe the woman they are lusting after. The music is interesting and varied. It sounds like a mashup of Roger Waters and Ween to my ears, and that is a very good thing. A total surprise, and a positive reminder of why I am doing this project.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
A second solid 80s album in a row. It's nice to be reminded that not everything being produced during this era was crap.
Blue Cheer
3/5
I didn't mind the sloppiness and I can definitely get down with some proto-stoner metal riffage. I am, however, pretty sick of hearing blues standards. I know it was fresh and new on the first day of 1968 when this was released, and I bet the live shows were fun...but I got bored with the twelve bar nature of it pretty quickly.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
There are so many great songs on here that it is impossible for me not to give it 5 stars. I'm not even the biggest Credence fan, but damn...what an achievement of rock and roll songwriting and performance.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
Rockin' good music and a solid performance. It was a little more Elvis-like than I was expecting. I'm not a huge fan of putting live albums on this list. Oh yeah, and JLL is a turd.
Neil Young
5/5
One of my favorite albums of all time. I love the way you can feel the state of mind Neil is in when he puts out an album. The disillusionment of the 70s lies heavy on these songs.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Of all the great albums of 1997, this one won album of the year? Really? Sure, it is well made but like every Dylan album except his early folk stuff it's WAY too long and just...boring. Some great urns of phrase of course, but you have to Wade through a sea of mediocre slow blues to rescue them. It sounds like Randy Newman and Eric Clapton...stale and derivative sad blues rock for aging Boomers. I ended up being genuinely annoyed by the end.
Orange Juice
2/5
Not as bad as most 80s crap, but still...pretty bad. Cheesy, meaningless songs with jangly guitars, saxophones and synths. Like so much music in the 80s there is just very little depth.
Supertramp
3/5
It was okay. Some cool ideas and good musicianship but I barely cared enough about what they were singing about to notice.
Deep Purple
3/5
The music kicked ass but I just can't deal with the screaming.
Slayer
4/5
Well-produced and super tight thrash metal from the masters. Just an all-out frontal assault for 30 minutes and I'm totally here for it!
Carpenters
2/5
Boring, sappy and just downright claustrophobic. Going from Slayer yesterday to Carpenters today has to be one of the biggest energy swings possible within this project. You can probably tell by my rating which side of the pendulum I prefer.
Nanci Griffith
3/5
This album is a good, solid country folk album by all accounts. Easy to listen to with enough storytelling in the songwriting to keep my attention. Plus, it has Nanci Griffith's beautiful voice. But more important than the chord progressions and melodies are the memories this music evokes in my mind. Riding around the city in my mom's red Camaro while she was blasting Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Judds, and Tanya Tucker. Her singing every word and 10-year old me reluctantly learning every melody. She knew her old life was coming apart at the seams and this music helped her process her grief and stress. Before too long I would be too cool for folk music and would be off on my own journey of musical discovery. But hearing these songs again after so long and thinking back, I can feel the personal struggles my mom was going through at the time and I understand now why this music spoke so strongly to her. This album popped up on my project the day after she received some not-so-great health news and she has been in my thoughts a lot. It is almost eerie how music can focus thoughts and memories and emotions in such a powerful way. Love you mom!
Pulp
3/5
The music is catchy and good but I can't get past the omnipresent angry revenge sex vibe.
Elvis Presley
3/5
The thing I kept coming back to while listening to this is how much it reminds me of The Band. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road could be a single on The Band or any of their later releases. Maybe it was just the feeling in the air in late 1960s that permeates and connects so much of the music from that era. This album is well made and well performed by top not h musicians and Elvis near the top of his game. It's just that it's not as interesting as his grittier early material. The culture has caught up to him by this point and there were a lot of artists doing similar things.
The Damned
4/5
A good, solid punk rock record. Upbeat enough to be fun, dark enough to have some weight behind it.
John Martyn
3/5
Pleasant listening and an interesting mashup of styles. I heard some Zeppelin, some Pink Floyd, and even some Nuno Bettencourt. Some interesting guitar licks. The Elvis mumble-singing got on my nerves a bit, but I appreciated this original effort.
The Yardbirds
4/5
Jeff Beck's brilliance is undeniable, and I really loved the strange arrangements and weird songs. The 12-bar blues stuff just sounds out of place on this album. Overall, an enjoyable listening experience.
3/5
It is well-made and smart punky poppy rock like all PJ Harvey's work. It just doesn't do much to move me in any way.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Pleasant listening that comes across as little more than background music to my ears.
Primal Scream
2/5
Utterly shippable. Next!
Robbie Williams
2/5
Some of these lyrics are just downright cringe-inducing. All of the music is well-made but utterly bland. I just can't buy into the faux seriousness in every song.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
5/5
What an unbelievable piece of music history this album is. Masters of their craft and originators of a music genre coming together to place a marker for future generations to follow backward when they begin their own exploration of country music history. The between-song conversations are reminiscent of the Elvis Sun Studio Sessions and really add a lot to the depth of this record. I just can't say enough about how great and rare this confluence of history and performance mastery is.
Van Morrison
3/5
My mom's all-time favorite album and her favorite song. It's a chill record that retains just enough flair to avoid the Billy Joel cheese territory.
Dire Straits
2/5
I don't know...I just don't get it. I play guitar, I know Mark Knopfler is a great player. I just... do not like Dire Straights. It is boring background music that does nothing for me.
Deep Purple
2/5
70s glam rock just is not my bag. The fake seriousness just makes me cringe.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
I did not get RATM when I was in high school. Now I do. Some of the most visceral music of the 90s, and still relevant today. Expertly played and produced, yet retains a raw edge that cannot be denied.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Not as tight as San Quentin but still a master class in working a crowd and connecting with an audience. Johnny Cash is a force of nature.
The Doors
2/5
I can't help it, I just really dislike The Doors. They are so pretentious and the endless organ solos just grate on me.
Paul Simon
3/5
I know I'm supposed to rave over Paul Simon's genius, and there is some very original material here but overall I just did not enjoy listening to it. A lot of it was a little cheesy and the spoken word lyrics were a turn off.
Iron Maiden
3/5
Sometimes I forget how musical Iron Maiden is. They have sophisticated, rockin' riffs that genuinely set them apart from the other cheesy proto-metal acts of the era. The lyrics, on the other hand, are inescapably bad.
Tito Puente
3/5
Pleasant listening but ultimately forgettable.
Neil Young
5/5
There just are not a lot of artists in the history of music who could make an album like this. Soulful, rocking, beautiful, ugly, and unique. Neil wears his heart on his sleeve and I love him for it.
The Police
3/5
It's well made and interesting music but I can't help but think that Sting and the gang take themselves way too seriously.
The White Stripes
4/5
Kick ass album that combines the best raw elements of punk and rock.
Youssou N'Dour
4/5
I really enjoyed this. Awesome percussion and really interesting melodies.
Doves
3/5
Well-made pop music with enough originality and variety to keep me interested.
Pulp
2/5
Apparently being hardcore means writing needlessly long songs filled with half-whispered vapid lyrics about how hardcore you are. This dude needs us to think he has the depth of an ocean but it's obvious he is standing in the kiddie pool.
Tracy Chapman
3/5
Heartfelt and emotional music by a one-of-a kind talent. The mid-tempo light rock feel gets old after a while, but that is probably more a product of 80s production than anything else.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
It was okay. I liked the funkier parts. But overall it quickly turned into background music for me.
Stereo MC's
3/5
I wanted to give it a lower rating but those damn funky beats and 90s nostalgia won me over in the end.
Queens Of The Stone Age
4/5
I do love me some rhythmic heavy guitar jams. Maybe a bit overlong but it frickin' rocks.
Rush
2/5
Top-notch musicianship of course, and I usually dig prog rock, but....this one went *whoosh* right over my head and I just could not get into the headspace required to enjoy it. I know prog rock is all cheesy, but there is something especially so about Rush and this album in particular that makes me roll my eyes more than usual.
Gorillaz
3/5
Catchy and interesting but way too repetitive.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
It was okay but I did not enjoy it as much as their earlier releases. It's very New York City and pretentious.
White Denim
4/5
White Denim has something for everyone...jam band noodling packaged into a pop song shell with top notch musicianship and interesting instrumentation.
Bad Brains
4/5
I'm not sure how, but I completely missed Bad Brains. I really enjoyed this and will be listening to more.
The Crusaders
1/5
I just can't with light jazz. Like how many saxophone solos do you need to hear on one album?
The Who
5/5
A couple fillers in the middle don't do much to diminish the brilliance of the opening three and ending three songs. Serious enough without being sappy, light -hearted enough without being goofy. An absolute classic.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Yeah this is some pretty great swing/jazz.
Madonna
2/5
I honestly think Madonna should have recorded all of the lyrics in French. At least there would have been some mystery to the music. As it stands, this is shallow and forgettable pop.
Bob Dylan
3/5
There is obviously some great song craft here, but I still want to launch that damn harmonica straight into the sun. Like every single Dylan album, if it was 8 songs instead of 14 it would have been much more enjoyable.
Deee-Lite
2/5
Groove is in the Heart brought me back, but the rest of this was background music.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Bob Dylan meets Simon and Garfunkel. The whisper/monotone singing gets pretty old after a few songs.
David Bowie
4/5
This was weird and cool and original. I enjoyed it and I appreciate the effort to do something different.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Crash Test Dummies guy meets Sinatra to sing songs about shoveling horse crap. Hard pass.
The Pogues
3/5
A fun listen on a Wednesday morn.
David Bowie
3/5
Solid if uninspiring.
Bill Evans Trio
1/5
I know this is probably unfair as these people are great musicians, but I have a bias against piano jazz music. I think it's from listening to too much NPR over the years. It just grates on me.
Stan Getz
4/5
This is the kind of "jazz" I can get into. Laid back and rhythmic enough to be relaxing, yet varied enough to not turn into elevator music. Plus, there is no piano...always worth an extra star in my book.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
It is amazing how huge of an influence Thom Yorke has had on singers. It reminds me of Eddie Vedder in the 90s when so many vocalists copied his vocal style that now it is just an accepted, normal way to sing. This could be Thom Yorke singing on much of this album. All of that said, I didn't completely hate it...mostly just mild annoyance. Too operatic for my tastes but some original ideas keep it afloat.
Ministry
4/5
This brought back some things for me: A memory of my five-disc So y CD changer with Nevermind, Badmotorfinger, ...And Justice for All, Ten, and Psalm 69 in it. A memory of being in high school gym class and talking with a friend about NWO. A memory of seeing Ministry a few years later during the Filth Pig tour (still the loudest concert I have ever been to). I did not end up liking the industrial/nu metal that spun off from this album, but this original blend of kick-ass guitar riffs, driving industrial rhythm, political/religious, and goofiness was most definitely my jam.
The Mothers Of Invention
4/5
I did not expect to like this, but in the end the wackiness and sarcastic comments on the dark side of American society won me over. I need to listen to more Zappa I guess.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
Not my thing, but major props for having a unique vision and trying something different. Too long by half.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
I can dig some BM in the right mood, but a lot of it just ends up being background easy listening musak.
Funkadelic
1/5
I dislike this for the same reason I dislike The Doors...masturbatory solos that go on forever. I actually got a little angry listening to this, but maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of bed. Looking at the other ratings I'm way outside the norm on this. So be it
Napalm Death
2/5
Coarse, grating, and utterly inaccessible but at least it wasn't 90 minutes of songs about women filled with endless twelve-bar blues solos.
Maxwell
1/5
Oh goodie, another hour long album about sex. As an bonus, this one also somehow manages to sound like department store music.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Thematically troubling, way too long, but some undeniably great moments. I liked Take it or Leave it a lot.
The Black Keys
3/5
This one just faded into background noise for me. Well made but ultimately uninspiring light rock.
Alice Cooper
3/5
Alice Cooper is one of a kind, and it's honestly pretty impressive that he was able to carve out a great career playing his unique brand of zany rock and roll. He is the type of artist that the stuck up music critic in me wants to rip on, but I can't help but end up smiling while listening to his albums and singing along.
Digital Underground
2/5
Dated, misogynistic, silly, and way too long...but Humpty Dance was an anthem of my coming of age and I can't help but love it.
Wild Beasts
1/5
I found this to be utterly pointless and annoying.
Prince
2/5
I refuse to apologize for the fact that I don't like 80s synth pop, overly dramatic screaming or having every song be about about sex. This album has plenty of all three. I get it: Prince is a musical genius. I just don't want to listen to it.
Sonic Youth
4/5
This was pleasing to my earbells
Soundgarden
5/5
To my ears, this is simply one of the best albums ever. Heavy music with interesting arrangements taken to the next level by the singular talent that was Chris Cornell (R.I.P.). We were so spoiled by great music in the 90s!
Various Artists
3/5
It's a classic Christmas album that sounds great.
MGMT
3/5
I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. Catchy tunes that manage to have a little depth. Solid album.
Van Halen
3/5
It works as a showcase for EVH's obvious guitar virtuosity, but late 70s to mid 80s cheese rock is just not something I enjoy listening to.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
Well made and innovative. Varied and provocative. Still not what I want to listen to regularly.
Django Django
4/5
Unexpectedly different and cool. I was in the right mood for some art rock and this scratched the itch
Richard Hawley
3/5
Disliked it at first but it grew on me as the album progressed.
ABBA
3/5
Saccharine and infectious.
Green Day
4/5
The same mix of cultural factors that produced this album also produced Weezer and Foo Fighters. Listen one of the three bands and you will hear echos of the other two. This is a really good album with multiple radio hits and enough edge to keep it real. I personally prefer one notch closer to punk on the pop-punk spectrum, but there is no denying that Green Day rocks.
Muddy Waters
4/5
I get mad at all the 12 bar blues wanker bands, but it's hard to deny the energy of one of the OGs.
Giant Sand
4/5
A curious mix of Lou Reed, Wilco and Neil Young that I had never heard or even heard of, but ended up enjoying very much. I will be listening to more Giant Sand.
William Orbit
2/5
I don't hate it, but I don't get it either.
Ryan Adams
3/5
Like a proto Jason Isbell...beautiful alt country that is just one notch too bland to keep my interest.
Jethro Tull
4/5
A unique and interesting piece of music, if not always my cup of tea. I appreciated the varied instrumentation and non-linear song structure. It's actually pretty amazing that there were huge radio hits from this album. I guess things were different in the 70s.
The Temptations
3/5
It was okay. Well made with good social commentary. Funk and R&B just is not my jam and it just fades to background noise when I have it on.
Van Morrison
1/5
Unnecessary and way too long. Even gentle songs like Into the Mystic get butchered by Morrison's live shout-singing and chirping staccato delivery. This was a real chore to get through.
AC/DC
3/5
AC/DC falls in the same category as other bands from the late 70s to the early 90s for me. I call them 3F bands, because all their songs are about one of three things: fightin', fuckin', or foolin'. That said, I tend to enjoy riff-based music over masturbatory shredding, so Malcom & Angus' style of songwriting resonates with me way more than say, Van Halen's. This is a classic album, but it does get a little samey (like all AC/DC offerings). Easily a solid 3 stars, probably a 4 just for the classic title track. Impossible not to at least slightly bob your head to this music as you are driving to your office job in an SUV drinking coffee from a thermos.
The Blue Nile
2/5
Indie music for the era of cassette tapes and boom boxes. Not too bad as far as synth music goes, and I appreciated the non-sex subject matter.
The Pogues
4/5
Good fun and good musicianship. You have to be in a real bad place not to enjoy this on a Friday afternoon.
The Who
3/5
I mean yeah, it's a kick ass rock 'n roll album. But live albums just shouldn't be on this list unless they are olde tyme or displaying new material that isn't available in studio album form.
3/5
Well made smooth funky jazz with an edge. Still just background music for me but I didn't hate it.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
A really solid album that has a lot more depth than one would expect.
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
Pretty decent old school hip hop. Has the same issues as a lot of other hip hop, but I enjoyed it as a 90s throwback.
Beatles
4/5
Unbelievable song craft and just such tight songs. I don't know that I had ever heard I'll Be Back before, but that song is excellent.
Elvis Costello
4/5
I think I have been an Elvis Costello can all my life and just have not realized it. Love the tight songwriting that has an edge yet retains its pop sensibilities.
LL Cool J
2/5
Mr. Cool J wants us all to know that he has sex. A LOT. The title track is a banger I guess.
Goldfrapp
2/5
Maybe if I were in a hot, smoky basement bar in New York City at 3am with a half finished martini in front of me, listening to a drugged out, tired lounge act on the dingy stage. Maybe then this would have hit just right.
TV On The Radio
2/5
Too out there for me. Some of the vocals made me laugh out loud with how annoying they were.
Coldplay
3/5
There was a time when I was into it, and to be fair there is some good songcraft here. It's just that it all sounds so bland and meaningless now.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Definitely the best of the BM albums I have heard on this list. Still just not really my jam.
Isaac Hayes
1/5
That last song made me angry. Just....why? I have no idea how this album is so highly rated. It has everything I dislike in an album.....too long, every lyric about sex, pointless masturbatory instrumental wankage. I'm completely out on this. Sorry, not sorry.
Fiona Apple
3/5
In Fall of 1995 I went off to college. In the dorms at college I was randomly assigned a roommate. That roommate was a dude who was absolutely obsessed with Debbie Gibson. Posters, yearly birthday cards, the whole thing. So he was primed when Alannis released Jagged Little Pill. I probably heard that album 500 times over the course of the first school year, blasting out of our shared CD player. The next year when Fiona Apple released Criminal as the first single off of Tidal, that song (along with the evocative music video) became his new obsession. I worked at the Walmart electronics department at the time and had to watch the first 30 seconds of the video on loop for every 6 hours shift so I friggin' hated that song. With 30 years of hindsight, I can now appreciate the quality of this album, even if it still isn't really my jam. Fiona Apple resides somewhere between Tori Amos and Alannis on the female dark quirky pop music spectrum. She has forged a long career for herself that I would not have predicted while I was hating on the Criminal music video during my shift at Walmart all those years ago. This album is well written and well performed, but maybe a touch to 90s cheesy for my tastes.
Scritti Politti
2/5
There is entirely too much 80s pop on this list.
Eminem
1/5
Fucking horrible.
Queen
4/5
One of the things this project has revealed to me is that I am a much bigger fan of Queen than I thought I was. Brighton Rock...rocks. This is just straight up original music that doesn't sound quite like anything else.
Beatles
3/5
Good but not great. Some moments of true pop genius, some mailed in afterthoughts.
Sepultura
4/5
I needed this album today. I guess I have always been a Sepultura fan and didn't realize it.
Wilco
4/5
I came to Wilco later and still enjoy Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot more, but these songs are classic alt-country and I have played many of them live over the years. They have a sort of space within the music that a lot of other similar bands don't have. You can hear the beginnings of the experimental Wilco in some of these songs.
Paul Simon
3/5
Good music, but as always Paul Simon's unique blend of serious/funny/bluesy/folky light rock just is not my bag.
Pink Floyd
4/5
Had this one on CD in highschool. Enjoyed it then, and still enjoy it now.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Well made background music
Traffic
3/5
It was unique, I'll give it that. Like most jazz-infused music, I don't particularly want to listen to it. In general, way too much organ wankage, but I did like Jon Barlycorn. All of that adds up to a 3 star rating.
Steely Dan
1/5
Silly, frivolous, boring elevator music. Punk could not arrive fast enough in 1977.
Nas
4/5
I know fuck-all about the intricacies of hip-hop, but I know what sounds good to ears. And this album was seriously awesome. It has aged well compared to other 1990s music, and the energy and brilliance of the flow is undeniable.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Early Zep is one of those bands you can tell is bursting at the seams with creative energy and talent. This is an all time great rock album, even if I prefer the sound of their more experimental material.
Otis Redding
3/5
Yeah, it's good. I just can't get into soul music though.
Can
1/5
If the objective of this album was to piss me the fuck off, consider it a smashing success.
T. Rex
3/5
Silly, frivolous songs but very competently performed. It's not bad music but it's just not something I want to listen to consistently.
Green Day
5/5
This album is a punk/rock/pop tour de force. Bristling with killer punk rock licks and insightful social commentary, yet still somehow manages to be a mostly upbeat, foot-tapping sing along. Something about pop punk scratches an itch for my OCD tendencies where everything in the songs just fits together perfectly. I often rail on albums in this project for unneeded instrumental noodling, and well-written pop punk like this is the absolute antithesis of that type of music. The title track is somehow more relevant today than it was in 2004 and is a straight up banger. The thing that gives the songwriting such depth is that Billy Dee and the boys are writing about the hole that had formed at the center of American life. The party of the late 1980s and 1990s was over, and it was pretty clear even in 2004 that the American Dream had morphed into a race to the bottom to see who could accumulate the most money before the music stopped. And all of this was BEFORE the social media era. American Idiot is a kick ass album from a band at the absolute top of its game. 5 stars.
Ramones
4/5
That was an excellent way to get myself moving on a Monday morning.
k.d. lang
2/5
Pretty lounge music. It is amazing how much you can hear Brandi Carlile in her vocals. It is also just kind of creepy how female country singers from the 80s/90s pretty much only sing about being cheated on. I guess that has not changed a ton in the subsequent decades, but in recent times the vibe has turned from sorrow to retribution. In fact, the latter seems to have become our new national pastime. I liked sorrow better.
ZZ Top
3/5
I was prepared to rip on this album for all the things I dislike: derivative white boy blues, guitar noodling, etc. But in the end it is so well done that I couldn't help but enjoy it. There is some noodling, but the songs are short and tight, and the production is immaculate. The origins of electrified Texas Blues and even sub-genres like Stoner Rock are evident here, and there is *just* enough ingenuity to elevate the music above derivative blues. That said, Master of Sparks is the best song on this album by a long shot IMO. That song is totally original and would not sound out of place on a modern album by a heavy jam band like The Sword.
Tangerine Dream
3/5
I kept wanting this to bust out into a metal/heavy psych riff ala Elder. That would have been sweet. Still, these were decent sounds to have in my earbuds while getting some work done.
Massive Attack
2/5
Really cool music, but I just can't with the high school level lyrics.
Pixies
4/5
Really cool album that channels the bubbling discontent with 1980s American society very effectively. I happen to prefer Surfer Rosa, but the Pixies kick ass.
Baaba Maal
2/5
Look, I want to be a worldly person and keep my mind open to all types of music. I know and accept the fact that I have western culture bias. The language barrier further mystifies the appeal of this type of recording. But when it comes right down to it, the sound that is entering my ears just...annoys me. I like some of the guitar phrasings, but then they proceed to just repeat for 5+ with no changes or resolution.
Living Colour
4/5
Love this album and had it on cassette in the late 80s/early 90s. This is what I always want Prince to sound like when I spin up one of his records (and am inevitably underwhelmed). Kick ass hard rock with social commentary that still manages to remain upbeat and retain its pop sensibility.
Björk
3/5
First started listening in the car and in the wrong state of mind...hated it so I stopped. Came back to it when I was in a quiet place and a calm state of mind...thought it was okay. The instrumentation was really cool.
Beck
4/5
I just can't help but like Beck. So sue me.
David Bowie
2/5
The title track is a classic, but the rest of it is just too "Talking Heads" for my taste.
Gang Starr
3/5
Cool at first, but quickly became samey.
Magazine
3/5
There is entirely too much New Wave music on this list. I did enjoy the guitar work on this album, but I just can't with the British talk-singing thing that was so popular in that era.
Oasis
3/5
It is a good debut album, expertly produced and performed. But in terms of all the great music that was coming out from 1990-1995, it's just sort of...blah. Can we please move past the Stones and the Beatles at some point? I know the answer is "no", but I still need to ask. This album would sound fine on any light rock radio station today. Bland, safe, and boring.
Fats Domino
4/5
8 songs, 17 minutes? HELL YES!!!
These songs are simple but so, so catchy and expertly crafted. Fats' performance is soulful and organic...it sounds like you are listening live to a guy playing music he enjoys...which you are, of course. Music like this is enjoyable, doesn't overstay its welcome, and has a lot of depth in addition to being historically significant.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I mean yeah, some darkly beautiful words but to be honest this was all a bit much for me.
Kid Rock
2/5
Kid Rock is a fucking chode and this music sucks, but some of you gotta understand...when you are a high schooler in flyover country, you go to keggers in alfalfa fields where you drink Busch Light and listen to crap music like this and pop country and other annoying shit. It's not political, it's just a thing that happens. Or at least it used to happen before we all went collectively crazy and decided that we need to choose a side and fight to the death until "our" side wins and the "other" side is utterly destroyed. Maybe in some fucked up way we were better off when people of all stripes could drink watery beer and listen to Kid Rock together while yelling at the stars.
Cat Stevens
2/5
Not my thing, but my wife enjoyed it.
Bauhaus
2/5
Oh look, another New Wave/Post Punk/Krautrock album. I'm only 1/3 of the way through this project and I have heard three times more of this than I need to.
Public Enemy
3/5
Bursting with energy and urgency, but in terms of straight up listening enjoyment it's not my favorite 90s hip-hop.
Television
4/5
I rip on instrumental wankage a lot in this project. This album has a fair bit of it, but there is something different and more meaningful about the melodies and riffs that elevates it beyond "dudes playing solos". It evokes Neil Young and Built to Spill and so many melodic metal bands that I enjoy. This is a great album that I have somehow never listened to. Bravo!
Tortoise
4/5
I really enjoyed this as something to have on while I was working at a computer. If it broke out into heavy psyche riffs it would be close to Elder, one of my favorite bands.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
Beautiful yet insufferably pretentious music for Boomers, by Boomers.
James Brown
3/5
The pageantry of it all is kind of fun, but the actual music is not really for me.
Depeche Mode
4/5
Such a well-made album. The pinnacle of 80s synth rock.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
I mean, it's okay I guess. At least it is the OG blues wankage instead of derivative blues wankage.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Not as enjoyable as the other EC albums on here, but still solid.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Nah. I'm out on this one. The horns annoyed me. The British moaning vocals annoyed me. The whispering at the beginning of I'm Just Looking infuriated me. Why is every third entry on this list a New Wave album from 1977-1983?
Wilco
4/5
I know this is technically "boring music" that I would normally be annoyed by. And later Wilco does indeed annoy me. But this album and OK Computer and For Emma, Forever Ago...you just had to be there ..coming of age at the turn of the millennium and living through the 80s and 90s to understand why these atmospheric albums of the era resonated. They captured the longing, the loneliness, the sadness in the West. We all knew the peak was in the rear view mirror, even if we were afraid to actually look at it.
CHIC
2/5
I just wanted it to end.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Jimi's confidence and freedom to explore and push boundaries is a delight to hear. This is just organic, beautiful music by a true master. As always, his rhythm section is just fantastic as well.
Jamiroquai
3/5
Raging against the machine with a funky beat and a derigido.
LTJ Bukem
2/5
Mass Effect sounds over bass and drums. Hard pass for me, boss.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Every shoegaze album I listen to is the same experience. I really like it at first, then quickly get bored, and finally end up being annoyed. This one was no different.
U2
3/5
It's a classic, but is it good? Eh...it was better before U2 jumped the shark.
The Stone Roses
3/5
It was a okay, but just faded into background music for me.
Alice In Chains
4/5
Layne Staley's Songs About Using Drugs and Imagining The Moment After You Die, Volume II.
The knife edge between hard rock and metal is my happy place. I don't like screaming. I want melody and musicality and thoughtfulness. But I also want the raw power that metal can provide. There are very few bands that can pull this off. Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were the best of the grunge era in this regard.
AIC is so unique because of Staley's vocals, and it is easy to see the influence he had on nu metal which followed grunge. But the combo of Staley's vocals and Cantrell's guitar playing really is what really elevated AIC. Not every song worked, but the ones that did are like a unique art form that is almost impossible to duplicate.
Great album.
Peter Frampton
1/5
Breezy songs about nothing as a vehicle for endless guitar noodling. Still, this hour of Dad Rock for Boomers is solidly performed and would have garnered two stars except that it's a live album which drops it to one.
Pink Floyd
2/5
All I could think about was the psychedelic era scenes in This is Spinal Tap.
The Verve
2/5
Way too long and boring. Yes, Bittersweet sticks in your head. But the rest is forgettable.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
I have always disliked the Peppers. And now I can't unhear the fact that Anthony Kiedis' "rapping" sounds like Keenan Thompson playing his character on SNL. I know the 1990s were a different time, but this shit is cringe as hell. Yuck.
Fairport Convention
4/5
Really enjoyed this one. It sounds like Neil Young with an awesome lady singer in some places and unique folk in others.
Bobby Womack
3/5
Not a funk fan, but this was pretty decent.
Joni Mitchell
2/5
Joni Mitchell is the lady mirror of Paul Simon, and neither of them is for me.
Pixies
4/5
Innovative and "alternative" from back when the term still meant something. Beautiful music with just enough chaos to keep it interesting.
Nick Drake
3/5
Something about Nick Drake speaks to me. This is not the type of music I would normally enjoy listening to, but it is the kind of music I end up writing when I sit down with an acoustic and and idea. I only wish I could express the ideas as clearly and execute them as well as he does.
Lightning Bolt
3/5
Absolutely brutal, but I did not hate it.
Steve Earle
3/5
You can certainly hear the link between this music and that of his son Justin / Ryan Adams / Jeff Tweedy that came shortly after. Yes, it's cheesy, but so was nearly everything in the 80s. This album is more on the Brice Springsteen / Billy Joel end of the spectrum, but these are well-written songs. Loved the live cover of State Trooper at the end.
Miles Davis
2/5
Horn jazz simply is not for me. Maybe I need to throw more high class dinner parties or something.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
It all just seems so effortless for Jimi.
Ray Charles
3/5
It was good, just not my thing.
Pavement
4/5
Yup, this was cool. I totally missed on Pavement back in the 90s, but I'm making up for lost time now.
Steely Dan
1/5
Meaningless music for Boomers to put on in the background of their party to yell-talk at each other over.
The Zutons
4/5
These are the albums that I love most in this project. Bands that I have never heard before, and that are a little outside of the mainstream. I greatly enjoyed it!
Janis Joplin
2/5
Sure, it's a classic but I just can't with the insane wailing. If people could step outside their Haight-Ashbury mind castles and listen to this objectively, I think the ratings would be lower. Or maybe I'm just biased against screamy singers.
OutKast
2/5
Good hip-hop, but c'mon....two hours?
SAULT
4/5
I had no business enjoying this as much as I did. Excellent.
3/5
Not horrible, but these top-heavy prog albums with a 20 minute song to start are difficult to listen to.
The Beach Boys
4/5
Revolutionary for its time. Not necessarily my favorite music to listen to, but the depth of the songwriting is shocking for music that seems so saccharine at first glance.
Depeche Mode
3/5
Ugh....things sure were *dramatic* in the 80s.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Not as iconic as the earlier albums, but still pretty damn good.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
High quality music. Easy to see why she was an instant star and such a tragic loss.
Jane Weaver
3/5
Decent indie music, but nothing to write home about.
Neil Young
4/5
Not my favorite Neil album, but as always he wears his heart on his sleeve and it comes through loud and clear in his music. In this period he was feeling listless, disillusioned, and burned out.
Public Enemy
3/5
Pretty damn cool old school hip-hop. Yeeeah Boiiiiyyeeee!!!
Nirvana
4/5
It's just a classic album. Raw and authentic despite having top-flight production value.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
TVU just simply is not for me.
Herbie Hancock
2/5
So. Much. Noodling.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4/5
I really enjoyed the guitar playing in this album, and the tone and timbre of his voice is more pleasing to me than Woody or Bob. I also appreciate that the songs are short and to the point.
Funkadelic
2/5
Enjoyed it more than most funk, but WHY do these songs need to be so long and repetitive?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
An all time classic and a formative album for me. Cinnamon Girl is one of the best songs ever IMO.
John Lennon
2/5
Despite all his rage, he's still just a rat in a cage. There are obviously some good songs here, but any Boomer who ripped on grunge while listening to this whiny snowflake lament how his mummy neglected him needs to check their biases. And the screaming...ugh...there is an ART to screaming!. While he is talented in many other ways, John is coloring with crayons in this regard.
Earth, Wind & Fire
2/5
This type of music is not for me.
Brian Wilson
1/5
I really find it hard to believe that people are sitting in silence listening to these zany children's songs and slide whistles and marveling at the genius behind them. Maybe the fact we are much more in a "Four dead in Ohio" moment than a "Good Vibrations" one is clouding my perception of this music, but it fell completely flat for me. I was getting angry listening to it, and that signifies a one star rating for me. R.I.P. Brian Wilson...you were a musical genius, but it had a time and place.
Muddy Waters
4/5
I get annoyed at all the derivative blues on this list, but the OG is pretty damn good.
Little Richard
3/5
Undeniably influential. Not my favorite in terms of pure listening, though.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
"And what it all comes down to is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine. 'Cause I've got one hand in my pocket, the other one is giving a high five."
That might be the most perfect encapsulation of being an upper middle class white kid in America in 1995 ever written. GenX was able to be the "whatever" generation by virtue of coming to age at the absolute peak of western society, 1985-2000. The feeling that no matter what bad things happen, the arrow will still be pointed up and it will be alright. Before the Internet was monetized and ruined by social media. Before 9/11 made us all collectively paranoid and started us down the road to the political polarization that is tearing us apart 30 years later.
Alanis tapped a cultural vein in at the perfect time in the Lilith Fair era, and wrote some absolute banger pop songs with just enough non-conformity to give them a genuine/honest vibe. It may not be what I want to listen to anymore, but it's a great album.
The Cure
4/5
My my, how dramatic the 80s were! These songs are too long, but this is probably the pinnacle of 80s alt-pop. Pictures of You is a killer track.
Talk Talk
2/5
It was okay for easy listening in the morning while hung over.
Sex Pistols
4/5
This album just frickin' rocks, and I love it. Greil Marcus's book Lipstick Traces does a good job of fitting the Sex Pistols experiment into a historical/cultural context and helping to understand why they mattered.
Jack White
3/5
It's a very Jack White album. Some great jams, some ponderous hipster crap.
Marianne Faithfull
1/5
The life phases of a Boomer songwriter...
Phase 1: "Look at all the crazy things I have done! It's like the universe was speaking through me, maaaaan!"
Phase 2: "I ruined my life by doing all the crazy things! Look at the pain the universe has caused me!"
Phase 3: "I've grown as a person, and now I need to get back to doing crazy things again! The universe needs me!"
Tom Waits
1/5
Albums that make me physically angry get one star. This album gets one star.
Orbital
2/5
I should have hated it but I didn't because I needed background music while working on a project.
Dusty Springfield
2/5
So many songs pining over men who treated them like shit.
Foo Fighters
3/5
Foo has always been too generic rock for me, but this first album is still raw enough to hold my interest.
Throwing Muses
4/5
This was awesome and I had never heard it before. Love that early grunge sound with some pop punk added in for extra credit!
Rocket From The Crypt
3/5
It's not bad, but I can't understand how this was chosen among the avalanche of similar/better albums from the late 90s.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
2/5
I didn't mind the political stuff, but it was just way too repetitive and long.
Metallica
5/5
Simply one of the best metal albums ever made. Kick ass all the way through.
The Who
2/5
This...simply was not for me.
David Ackles
1/5
Oh hale no. This has just taken the top spot on my most hated album on this list. Pretentious, boring, and utterly pointless. No idea why it is on this list.
The Byrds
4/5
Really a cool and creative mix of genres. Fun and serious at the same time. I greatly enjoyed it
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I rarely enjoy listening to Nick Cave, but I'm glad he exists and makes music. The art just explodes out of him. The first track on this album is about as punk rock as you can get with an acoustic song.
Parliament
4/5
I don't like funk. That is an established fact. And yet....I did not dislike this album. Did I just use a double negative?
The Band
5/5
The Band definitely has something organic that is tough to put your finger on and almost impossible to duplicate. This album is a classic.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
One of the better funk/soul albums on this list, but still just not my thing.
Fiona Apple
4/5
I enjoy when artists do something different and unconventional. This album was creative, unique, and fun to listen to. The only things that bothered me were the overall length, and the fact that so many songs had added seconds/minutes of random noises tacked on at the end.
Baaba Maal
3/5
It's very difficult for me to evaluate this album, but I didn't hate it.
OutKast
3/5
Pretty kick ass hip hop. It's amazing how a little musicality elevates the sound.
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
Boring, too long, and just not my thing.
Public Enemy
2/5
Wasn't feeling it.
Black Sabbath
5/5
War Pigs and Paranoid might be the best 1-2 punch to open an album, ever. I love the way they take on serious topics with serious music, yet still retain a sense of joy. As a songwriter, that is very difficult to do and makes the tunes so satisfying to listen to. An all-time classic banger from the godfathers of metal. R.I.P., Ozzy, but rest assured your legacy will endure.
Pere Ubu
2/5
Trying to hard to be annoying. There is some decent punk rock buried in there, but it's too annoying to listen to all the other noise.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
Competently played, boring music. I just can't do piano and sax.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
This has to be one of the strongest debut albums of all time. Regarding the racism, Neil Young controversy, etc....go listen to Southern Rock Opera by Drive-By Truckers. An entire double length album attempting to explain the duality of The Southern Thing. If you (like me) are not from the South, it helps put all of these complex undercurrents in perspective. It is also a kick-ass rock album in its own right.
Norah Jones
3/5
Heavy on vibes, light on originality. But the vibes are great.
Beatles
5/5
I tend to gravitate toward music produced by bands in transition, and that is exactly where The Beatles were on this album. Moving from jangly pop to experimental fusion, Rubber Soul retains the upbeat, tightly written sensibilities of earlier albums while simultaneously adding a layer of complexity and variety to the tunes that was badly needed. The result is an awesome group of songs that pushed boundaries and gave birth to new genres. Listen to a early 2000s post punk/emo band like Jets to Brazil and you will hear concrete connections to this specific album...and that is a pretty cool thing.
The Smiths
3/5
I didn't hate it, but the meandering vocals grated on me. And boy, do I dislike the 80s recording style where every instrument sounds like it is recorded in an isolated soundproof room, then mixed together to form a semblance of a performance.
Marvin Gaye
2/5
One all time great song and a bunch of elevator music filler.
Moby
1/5
Utterly pointless and embarrassingly shallow. Am I supposed to feel something when I hear samples of old bluesmen repeated ad nauseum over generic dance tracks? Be awed by a mumbled poem about the nature of life and love? Maybe I'm just not hip enough to get it.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
A few clunkers, but it's easy to see how this album won everyone over in the '60s. Neil Young's songs shine as always. I didn't mind the vacillation between Rock and folk...in fact I kind of enjoyed it.
Minutemen
4/5
Wow...this was so far ahead of its time. I wish the instruments and recording on all 80s albums sounded this natural and good instead of thina and washed out. The singer sounds like a lovechild of Henry Rollins and Nick Cave. Some really innovative guitar work. A few annoying songs, but nothing is long enough to overstay its welcome. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this...chalk up another win for this project by introducing me to something completely new (to me).
Grizzly Bear
3/5
Indie rock gets old for me quickly. But I didn't hate it.
3/5
It's an iconic album bookended by classic songs. But frankly, the material in the middle of the album isn't that enjoyable to listen to.
The Go-Go's
4/5
This is pretty much everything I want in an album. Tightly written upbeat pop/punk with a natural sounding recording. Short, sweet, and kick-ass fun.
Björk
2/5
It's unique, I'll give it that. Do I want to listen to it? No really.
Roxy Music
2/5
Way too close to Billy Joel boring for my taste.
Gary Numan
3/5
Well that was really something. Jack White sings synth pop? I was into it for the first half hour, then it got old.
David Bowie
2/5
Smooth sax elevator music is not for me.
Elliott Smith
3/5
I would need to be in the right mood for this to hit perfectly, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely some clever songwriting. Reminded me of Sebadoh in some places...and Bon Iver in others.
Missy Elliott
2/5
Simply not for me.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
I dug the groove and old school style, but it got pretty samey.
Morrissey
3/5
I like the music more than I like Morrissey's persona and vocal stylings.
The Specials
3/5
As far as ska goes, it was good. The problem is that ska doesn't go very far with me.
Elton John
2/5
Tiny Dancer is a classic (thanks, Cameron Crowe, for bumping it in the popular psyche 29 years later), but I just can't do piano story songs. Elton John, Billy Joel, etc...instant snooze fest for me and oh so overly dramatic.
Moby Grape
2/5
Totally forgettable Boomer rock. Not horrible, but certainly nothing special.
James Taylor
2/5
The folks songs are fine, but the "blues" songs are peak cringe. I can't think of anyone further from being, "A churning urn of burning funk" than James Taylor. I just don't really understand the point of this type of homogenized third person story music.
Ghostface Killah
2/5
Women and drugs and guns, oh my!
Al Green
3/5
Smooth and easy to listen to. Enjoyed it.
Metallica
4/5
I understand all the true believers' arguments as to why this album was such a sellout/disappointment. I like RTL/MOP era Metallica better too. But damn...it is pretty hard to argue that this album is anything other than a hard rock masterpiece. There are only a few clunkers scattered among a lineup of absolute bangers (including the criminally overlooked The God That Failed). I first bought this on cassette tape and I vividly remember riding the school bus and listening to it on my Sony Walkman, just rocking out inside my head.
4/5
I had not heard this and I really enjoyed it. I prefer the Kinks sarcastic yet upbeat tone over their contemporaries. Really great, catchy melodies and great musicianship.
Eels
3/5
Is this a Beck side project?
The Kinks
3/5
I have really whiffed on The Kinks all these years and have not paid them the attention they deserve. I like their indie rock vibe, and listening to this album reminded me of Guided By Voices and others that have obviously sprouted from the seeds The Kinks have dropped.
Laibach
3/5
Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind on this particular morning, but this scratched an itch for me.
Beatles
5/5
The production is fantastic
The songs are writ' tight
The album is a classic
So I listened to it twice
Mekons
2/5
It's all just a little too British, innit?
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
Maybe a little overly dramatic, but in general I enjoyed the variety of styles.
Iron Maiden
4/5
I was in bad need of some riffage this afternoon.
Beastie Boys
2/5
For whatever reason I just can't get into the Beastie Boys. So sue me.
Amy Winehouse
2/5
A troubled laby sings light jazz, but she does not sing for me.
David Bowie
3/5
I appreciate the experimentation.
Kacey Musgraves
2/5
Reminds me of saccharine coffee shop fare from the late 1990s. It's fine, but I'm not understanding how it won all these awards.
Neneh Cherry
1/5
A slightly raunchier Paula Abdul.
Bad Company
2/5
Basically The Eagles with more overdrive. Bland and meaningless.
Saint Etienne
1/5
Another utterly pointless album that I barely realized was playing in the background.
Dagmar Krause
1/5
No idea what to say about this one..
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
I can dig it, but I can't understand it.
The Young Rascals
2/5
Ranging from pointless to annoying, this album was not for me.
Talking Heads
3/5
Another Talking Heads album, another round of me wondering why the heck they are so universally revered.
Roxy Music
3/5
Just weird enough to be interesting, too weird to be great.
The Smiths
2/5
I simply can't with the wailing. Best album of all time? Lunacy.
Red Snapper
1/5
Cut each song down by 75% and you have a nice little 15 minute album if some cool sounds without losing any meaning whatsoever.
Tim Buckley
4/5
An eclectic mix of sounds that I mostly enjoyed. Like any ambitious piece of art, some parts don't work as well as others. But I appreciated the originality.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
I keep trying with Bruce and keep coming up with the same answer: his music is not for me.
Ananda Shankar
2/5
At first I hated it. Then I kind of got into the cheesiness for a few songs. But in the end it still greatly annoyed me.
Ice Cube
2/5
Like every 90s hip-hop album it was too long and full of cringey mysogyny, but also has some great beats.
The Triffids
2/5
I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is WAY too much 80s music on this list.
The Birthday Party
1/5
Unbelievably annoying. I can deal with sloppy noise rock and punk, but the jazz overtones and Nick Cave's monotone growling just made me angry.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
No doubt one of the best first albums ever. Robert Plant's screeching does grate on me after a while, though
Queen
2/5
There is just too much scream-singing.
Fugazi
5/5
There is definitely an extremely scuffed up CD case containing this disc tucked away in my basement somewhere. This shit is my jam, and I love it. So many of my favorite bands (from all genres) were evolving at this exact same time, but the post-punk variety has really stuck with me over the years and listening to these songs was like coming home after a long time away. Defiant yet wryly joyful. Simple yet complicated. Noisy yet musical. The songs still sound fresh, and the political message rings 100% true 35 years later. A classic in my eyes.
Cypress Hill
3/5
No doubt it is great hip-hop, but it definitely made me a little uncomfortable. Maybe that's the point.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Solid if uninspiring just like all CCR.
The Incredible String Band
2/5
The sad thing is that there are some cool original song ideas buried beneath the endless layers of needless instrumentation. But once the flute started, I was out.
Mike Oldfield
3/5
Interesting? Sure. Masterpiece? Nah.
Madonna
2/5
Way, way too long and just not that good.
Massive Attack
2/5
I don't think I'm cool enough to enjoy Massive Attack.
Beastie Boys
4/5
It's great. Love the mix of genres.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
I can get down with some 90s derivative hip-hop once in a while (Citizen King), but this is just pointless.
Doves
3/5
A solid album that did not need to be on this list.
Steely Dan
2/5
Some great musicianship, but it's all so utterly pointless. I can't fathom anyone being moved or excited by these songs.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
Very listenable and not too long.
Dr. Octagon
1/5
Cringey, offensive, junenile...and yet I chucked a few times and didn't hate the beats/flow.
MC Solaar
3/5
Why do metal and hip hop sound cooler when not in English?
Merle Haggard
4/5
This is a banger of an album. Songwriting, production, and musicianship are top notch. It's catchy, it's fun, it touches on serious themes...I love it.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
3/5
I like the sloppiness of it, at least it sounds like real people making real music. A lot of it is silly and that cheapens the whole endeavor a bit for me. Still, I can dig some dirty blues riffs like this.
The Pretty Things
4/5
Never heard of these guys and really enjoyed it. Refreshing to hear 60s rock lyrics that aren't about gooning on girls.
The Monks
4/5
Wild, unruly, and real. I loved it. Truly an album that I needed to hear before I die. Props to this project for putting it in front of me.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Sad AF but pretty in it's own way. Too much of an art project for me to really get into, but I appreciate the effort.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
I have no idea how I slid past Dinosaur Jr. for so long. I love Neil Young, and Lou Barlow/Sebadohh, and Built to Spill...there is no reason I wouldn't like this. And yet, every time I had heard a Dinosaur Jr. song I was just "meh" about it. Sitting down and listening to this album from 1987, it obvious how far ahead of their time they were. Loved it.
Happy Mondays
2/5
Did not click with me.
Buzzcocks
4/5
This was awesome. I came to punk just after this early era, with Bad Religion being my entry point. I can hear so many influences on my favorite bands in this album. Riff-based punk that is still musical and joyful? Yes, please.
Brian Eno
4/5
I was skeptical because new wave typically annoys me, but I have to admit that this album was some unique and special.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
It may not be for everyone, but I remember being excited that there was actually some new/strange/interesting shit to listen to as the 80s came to a close. We had all had enough of AC/DC, Whitesnake, and the Scorpions.
Grant Lee Buffalo
3/5
Pleasant enough, if unremarkable.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
There is no reason it had to be this long. I enjoyed the vibe, bit it would have been better as a tight 35 minute album.
Hawkwind
2/5
I can get down with some rockin' psych cosmic storytelling, but why the hell is this two hours long? And live? No way it should be on this list.
Klaxons
3/5
Way better than I was expecting. Really well made and actually fairly original.
Sam Cooke
3/5
A top notch performance by a top notch showman (and band). As a live album it has to be one of the best ever. As far as the actual songs...meh. They work fine as party tunes, I guess, but there is just not much there once you move past Sam's contagious energy.
The Charlatans
2/5
Too much Brit rock, not enough metal.
Arrested Development
3/5
All the 90s hip-hop albums on here are good, but are starting to sound a little samey.
Kate Bush
4/5
Awesome in any time period, but for 1985 this was downright revolutionary.
Rahul Dev Burman
2/5
Not my bag.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Makes me think of cooking dinner on Sunday evening as our local NPR affiliate always had a folk show at that time. I'm not the biggest Dylan fan overall, but this is a great folk album. His voice is expressive, and the harmonica is at least kept under control. The five "hits" are some of the best folk songs ever written, so this gets five stars from me.
Grateful Dead
2/5
It sounds like the Eagles. And I friggin' hate the Eagles.
The Beau Brummels
2/5
Pointless and forgettable.
Michael Jackson
2/5
I just can't with the cheesy 80s pop anymore.
Spacemen 3
1/5
Apparently I've been putting too much effort into songwriting all these years. Agonizing over finding perfect rhymes and whitty turns of phrase. Little did I know that you could just choose a chord or two, play them over and over for 5-8 minutes while talking stream of consciousness psuedo intellectual BS over the top...and...BOOM...a hit record! I can get down with some shoegazey stuff, but these dudes are too high on their own supply.
Kanye West
2/5
More interesting than the previous Kanye album I reviewed, but his narcissism is just too off-putting for me.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
Pretty damn smooth.
Hot Chip
2/5
Unremarkable in every way.
4/5
Energetic, raucous and fun. I'm not sure it quite rises to the level of revolutionary.
Meat Puppets
4/5
Loved it.
Supergrass
3/5
Good energy and well-constructed songs.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Enjoyed the stranger parts of it, hated the faux Chicago blues.
Billy Joel
2/5
All my friends who listen to show tunes love this album. I do not like show tunes, although I will concede that The Stranger is a good song.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
Rockin', raw and authentic. This might be the purest distillation of Neil and The Horse. Old Black sounds so freaking good on this recording. It is certainly one of my most played CDs ever and on the very short list of my favorite albums of all time.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Does every song need to center around gooning on women?
Dr. John
2/5
I liked the R & B tracks but the rest was meh.
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
Generic and boring.
Leftfield
2/5
Made want to play WipEout
Tricky
3/5
Actually thought this was pretty cool.
Elastica
4/5
I needed some (post)punk to cleanse my palate after several overly dramatic, drawn out albums in a row. Loved it.
The Killers
3/5
Hard to deny the hooks on the first half of this record.
Ash
3/5
Decent album that is a creature of its era.
Willie Nelson
4/5
It's a classic for a reason.
The Band
5/5
The coziness and warmth of this album brings me joy. Very few bands in history could pull off a song like The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. A masterpiece.
The Adverts
4/5
Pretty kick ass Britpunk.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Innovative and original, but ultimately a little annoying to my ears.
Fairport Convention
4/5
Unexpectedly awesome.
Suzanne Vega
2/5
Pointless.
Jean-Michel Jarre
4/5
I was ready to rip into this before I heard it, but I have to admit it won me over. Weird, cool, and invocative...it was perfect music to have on while doing repetitive work.
Boston
3/5
Three are plenty of overplayed albums in this list, but I think this is the first one where literally every single song has been worn out by radio play. They are still great songs, if a little corny. I'm just not sure I need to hear any of them ever again.
Beck
5/5
This album made me feel honest-to-God feelings as I drove to work in the rain on this Friday at the end of a long, sad week; at the beginning of what will surely be a difficult year; in the middle of a decades-long decline. Hearing these songs evoked strong memories of the times and places and people in my life when the album first came out. Leaving Cincinnati. A blue Hyundai Tiburon. The end of the 1990s. An apartment next to a stockade. A downpour on our drive home. Auburn.
The production on this album is beautiful...simple, natural and warm, yet there is a ton of depth and complexity to the instrumentation that elevates the songs from being a bunch of sad, slow acoustic numbers to something completely new and interesting. It has a kind of a Mazzy Star meets Radiohead vibe that doesn't seem like it should work, but it does. Very much like Aimee Mann's Magnolia soundtrack or Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, you can feel the rain/snow falling outside and the thoughts swirling in the artist's mind while these songs are playing.
When recorded music is done well like this and I can tap into the artist's vision, listening to a full album is an emotional experience and one of the many reasons I appreciate this 1001 Albums project. Five stars.
Scott Walker
1/5
I'm from Wisconsin, so if I see the name Scott Walker I'm out. Sorry, not sorry.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
Original and cool without being pretentious.
Incubus
3/5
As far as nu metal goes, this probably as good as it gets. However, that is not exactly a high bar.
Christine and the Queens
1/5
I'm not sure anything needs to be said about this one.
Drive Like Jehu
4/5
I have somehow missed these guy my entire life, despite being a fan of punk/post punk/emo/math. Aggressive, intricate, and satisfying....this shit is my jam.
808 State
3/5
I'm sure it works if you are partying and on drugs. It doesn't hit quite as hard while sitting in front of a computer with a cup of coffee.
Paul Weller
3/5
It masquerades as generic 90s rock, but there really is a lot of depth on these recordings. A few songs wander too far into blues rock crooner territory, but they are balanced out by some truly original songs that elevate the album.
Minor Threat
4/5
Although I prefer the more melodic punk that came immediately after, this album just flat out rocks.
The White Stripes
4/5
Rawk, deconstructed. Probably would have been five stars if not for Ball & Biscuit. Everyone needs to just stop with the blues jams. It has been 65 years of this crap now. Enough.
Duke Ellington
3/5
The musicianship was out of this world, but it got too long and I just can't with the insane high note blowing.
The Shamen
1/5
It feels like Philomena Cunk is going to jump in any second and make a joke.
Brian Eno
2/5
There was music on in the background while I worked?
Janet Jackson
1/5
Take away the "Janet Jackson" of it all and you are left with a cheesy pop album with bad vocals and synthesized music that sounds like a the preprogrammed demo tracks from my Casio keyboard from the 80s. The social commentary is also completely laughable considering what has become of the USA since then.
Elton John
2/5
No matter how expertly performed, piano-based showtune rock is simply not for me. I'm really supposed to get excited about E yelling BENY 50 times in a row? Why, exactly? Or a Jimmy Buffet level slop song about Jamaica? I remember roller skating at Skateworld in the 1980s, and being confused when the DJ played Candle in the Wind for the slow song during couples skate. Oh cool...a showtune ballad about how the media exploited Marilyn Monroe...now watch me reverse skate so we can make out easier! Actually, in hindsight that kind of fits. It take that last part back.
Anthrax
4/5
Sarcastic yet joyous protest metal with maximum riffage. It warms my GenX heart.
Eagles
2/5
It completely baffles me that people can be so into this music. It is bland, boring, and utterly meaningless. But hey, Boomers are still paying $500/ticket to see them at The Sphere 50 years later, so it's probably just me.
Tom Tom Club
2/5
This music is not for me. 2+ hours? Really?
Röyksopp
3/5
Not my jam usually, but I enjoyed the melodies on this one.
Pantera
4/5
This one brought back some memories. With the benefit of hindsight and knowing how the world has changed over the last 30 years, a lot of this music is cringe. And yet...I can't deny the power and precision still speaks to me. You can hear Metallica, Helmet, Alice in Chains, and others influencing the band in this effort, and I like it. Dime's riffs are razor sharp as always, and even not having heard them for decades I found myself joyfully rocking out in my Subaru on the way home from my office job. Phil's "melodic screaming" method provides *just* enough musicality for me to buy into the earnestness of the songs, and even though it sounds like neo-Nazi music in our current cynical age, there is a playfulness and positivity lurking under the bravado that elevates the tunes beyond Punisher sticker anthems. Yet another example of the outrageously high quality of music being made in the early 1990s, this album sounds great and just flat out rocks.
Girls Against Boys
3/5
A little samey, but there was some cool stuff in here that I enjoyed.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
I must have been completely checked out during this era of music because I have never heard any of this. I don't believe I was missing anything too important.
New Order
3/5
The first song was awful. The rest was better.
The Zombies
4/5
A very solid album that sounds better to my ears than others of the same era. Just enough depth and dreaminess to keep it interesting.
Aerosmith
2/5
Temu Zeppelin with extra creepy pedo lyrics. Yuck. At least Joe Perry can play.
The Stooges
3/5
I enjoyed the raw emotion of the sound, but as usual with Iggy Pop, I guess I'm not cool enough to say I "get it".
3/5
Expertly performed, but the 60s really were the peak "complain about your spouse" time, weren't they?
Sheryl Crow
3/5
Another solid 90s album. Even the bland mainstream music was top quality.
Bill Callahan
4/5
The guy from The National sings Beck Mutations. I can dig it.
Nightmares On Wax
1/5
Pointlessly long and repetitive.
DJ Shadow
4/5
This was cool, and scratched an itch I didn't know I had.
The Black Crowes
3/5
It's good, and a few songs are elevated to great, but overall it is derivative blues rock that has been grossly overplayed.
Roxy Music
2/5
Boring and pointless.
10cc
3/5
Well, it was certainly something different. Not sure I enjoyed listening to it, but points for originality.
1/5
Painful!
The Gun Club
3/5
It was cool, but the vocals ruined it for me.
Rufus Wainwright
1/5
Can this dude possibly not wail for a just few seconds per song? Maybe? No? Fine. One star because it made me angry.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
71 minutes? That roughly 70 too many for this drivel.
Kraftwerk
4/5
I was annoyed at first but it quickly put me into a flow state that ended up being exactly what I needed this morning. I get it.
Arcade Fire
3/5
The pinnacle of the hipster mountain.
Motörhead
4/5
It's always the same with Motorhead...I love it at the start, but then it's just more and more and more of the same. They are great at what they do, it's just that they only do one thing. That said, this list is so sorely lacking in metal entries that I'm giving it one extra star as a matter of principal.
Lou Reed
4/5
Sloppy in a cool and comfortable kind of way, and not nearly as pretentious as VU. I can dig it.
Dr. Dre
2/5
The beats were sick, but so was the subject matter.
Venom
3/5
There is some cool stuff on here, but the recording is just so, so bad. I listened to some of their more modern stuff and it is much more enjoyable. That said...minus one star for Teacher's Pet. That song is gross and pure shit, right down to the twelve bar blues wank in the middle.
Donald Fagen
1/5
Anger inducing.
Gene Clark
4/5
Obviously derivative of Neil Young, but it is solidly delivered and sounds good to my ears.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
Undeniably great hip-hop. Undeniably cringe lyrics.
Slipknot
3/5
I was today years old when I learned I don't hate Slipknot. I remember being so annoyed with them back in the day, but I guess tastes change as time passes.
Koffi Olomide
3/5
It was pretty samey, but the musicianship was top notch.
De La Soul
2/5
It was fun, but didn't keep my interest.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
It annoyed me at first but it grew on me. Good background music.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Easy breezy and competently done.
Nirvana
5/5
The synthesis of everything that had been brewing since 1980. People call Nevermind a GenX anthem, but really it is a late GenX/Xennial anthem. People born between about 1972 and 1982 as opposed to the 1965-1972 set. It has been copied and turned into its own genre at this point, but it is hard to overstate what a sea change this album caused when it hit the airwaves. Nirvana was not the first grunge band, but they were the first to blend pop/metal/punk/rock into something that made sense to be played on the radio. Behind all of the screaming and blasting guitars are bonafide pop hits with catchy hooks and unusual turns of phrase. It was just fundamentally different than everything else you would hear at the time. An all time classic.
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
Refreshing and excellent.
Kelela
2/5
Not my thing.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
Kind of weird and kind of cool
Air
3/5
You can literally sing Karma Police over several of the songs and it fits right in. Radiohead without narrative structure of the lyrics.
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Fine. Nothing special.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
I dislike collaborations like this
PJ Harvey
3/5
I did not hate it, and enjoyed the whole In Utero of it all. But some of the wailing got on my nerves. I know, I know ... the raw emotion is the point. But I can't help it, it frickin' annoys me.
50 Cent
2/5
The cultural divide might as well be the grand canyon on this one, because I just don't see the appeal.
David Crosby
3/5
Cheesy, but ultimately endearing. I'm glad David Crosby had the artistic space to experiment the way he did.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
4/5
Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.