What a yawning chasm between the quality of songwriting (at least musically) and instrumental performances, and the singing. Tonight, Tonight is one of the most beautiful songs that I never listen to. One day I hope to find a cover of it by a band that changes nothing about the arrangement and performance but has a halfway decent singer. I’d listen to the hell out of that. The voice is less off-putting in some contexts (it’s relatively inoffensive on Bullet and 1979), but other times it’s just distractingly forward in the mix with little to no processing to cover up the weaknesses, and ends up ruining otherwise good songs. Frustrating! Also, rock stars with egos are nothing new, but how up your own asshole do you have to be to think that anyone wants your next album to be more than 2 hours long? Speaking of which, fuck good-friend-of-Alex-Jones Billy Corgan. His guitar playing is great, the songwriting is frequently great too, but all of these positives are overshadowed by things that are clearly the product of his insufferable self-importance, from the insufferably self-pitying lyrics, the awful, awful title, his lack of perspective to realize that his songs would be better served by being sung by someone else, to the mind numbing length of this thing. On the positive, the guitars sound great in a very-1997 way, and Jimmy Chamberlin is a great fucking drummer. There’s an alternate universe where the Pumpkins have a lead singer who can actually sing and make a 45 minute-long album (or even a 90 minute double album) made of the best songs here and call it something - ANYTHING - else. In that alternate universe, I probably love this album. Unfortunately, we live in this one.

You can hear the influence, but my god does it become unlistenable by track 5.

It sounds great and there’s a stylishness to it that’s appealing. However, it’s hard for me to hear this as anything other than glam-era Bowie but with worse songs sung by a far less compelling singer.

1. Battery - Metallica largely stuck to a format for their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th records. As a result, it’s hard not to compare the songs in each “slot” across the albums. I’ve always liked Fight Fire With Fire better than this song, but that’s no knock on Battery, which is essentially a more refined version of a very similar song. A perfect album opener, and a testament to how good Metallica is that it’s like their 4th best album opener. 5/5 2. Master of Puppets - what’s left to be said? Perfect. 5/5 3. The Thing That Should Not Be - kind of underrated, to the extent that anything on this album can be considered underrated. Foreboding, doomy, also oddly catchy. 4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - again, it kind of falls into the shadow of Fade to Black and One, which are similar, but definitely superior songs. That said, this song could really only look “just okay” in comparison to two of the best songs, metal or otherwise, ever. Taken on its own merits, this song rules. The pattern (both rhythmic and melodic) of the vocals during the verses is great it a way that I can put my finger on. Maybe the song best suited to James Hetfield’s younger, screechier voice. The riffs crush and progression of the song keeps it from ever feeling overlong. 4.5/5 5. Disposable Heroes - As an aside, you can tell that this album was sequenced for vinyl with this as the lead off to side 2. I don’t own the vinyl but I would imagine it works even better in that context, where track 5 is like the opener of a second set rather than a hard pivot to an upbeat song mid album. As for the song itself, again, it rules. Kirk’s leads really stand out as a highlight. Also, given what comes later, it’s exciting to hear the moment Metallica progressed to big, global subject matter after two albums focused on “the metal lifestyle” and fairly teenage concerns, like Ktulu, respectively. - 5/5 6. Leper Messiah - I don’t think a lot of people would name this as Metallica’s best song, but apart from Master of Puppets, One, or another of the thrash-era “hits”, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more quintessential Metallica. The title is so perfectly “Metallica”, it’s powerful and propulsive, the drums are wild but oddly intuitive, and it has the thing that Metallica has that so many of its peers lack - a hook. 5/5 7. Orion - An all-time great instrumental - you almost forget that vocals are usually a part of rock songs. Also a perfect, if unintended, epitaph for Cliff. 5/5 8. Damage, Inc. - Aaaaaand out with a bang. 5/5 —- Much like Born in the USA is one of the all time greats and also like the 4th-best Springsteen album, this album is rightfully considered one of, if not THE quintessential metal albums, and yet people (including me) regularly put it as their 3rd or 4th favorite Metallica album. I think the sad thing about Metallica is that the individual musicians peaked at different times. Obviously, it’s Cliff’s last album, and he was never better. And I’m not sure they ever top this album from a songwriting perspective. But James’ voice improves significantly on the next two albums. Kirk and Lars probably both peak on the next album, and the best sounding Metallica album is the Black Album. Imagine if all of those things had come together at the same time. But, minor flaws, what-ifs, and all, this album still comes out to be more or less perfect, and indisputably one of the genres high water marks.

What a yawning chasm between the quality of songwriting (at least musically) and instrumental performances, and the singing. Tonight, Tonight is one of the most beautiful songs that I never listen to. One day I hope to find a cover of it by a band that changes nothing about the arrangement and performance but has a halfway decent singer. I’d listen to the hell out of that. The voice is less off-putting in some contexts (it’s relatively inoffensive on Bullet and 1979), but other times it’s just distractingly forward in the mix with little to no processing to cover up the weaknesses, and ends up ruining otherwise good songs. Frustrating! Also, rock stars with egos are nothing new, but how up your own asshole do you have to be to think that anyone wants your next album to be more than 2 hours long? Speaking of which, fuck good-friend-of-Alex-Jones Billy Corgan. His guitar playing is great, the songwriting is frequently great too, but all of these positives are overshadowed by things that are clearly the product of his insufferable self-importance, from the insufferably self-pitying lyrics, the awful, awful title, his lack of perspective to realize that his songs would be better served by being sung by someone else, to the mind numbing length of this thing. On the positive, the guitars sound great in a very-1997 way, and Jimmy Chamberlin is a great fucking drummer. There’s an alternate universe where the Pumpkins have a lead singer who can actually sing and make a 45 minute-long album (or even a 90 minute double album) made of the best songs here and call it something - ANYTHING - else. In that alternate universe, I probably love this album. Unfortunately, we live in this one.

With few exceptions, I despise jazz. I always think of Paul F Tompkins very accurate description of it as music “that is defying you to like”. HOWEVER, even though I’m not exactly going out of my way to listen to it, I like this record. Some of that is definitely familiarity, but more of it that the songs are relatively compact, and they have (the jazz version of) hooks. Take Five actually feels designed to get stuck in your head, rather than the standard jazz approach of taking seemingly random chord changes and using them as background music while the (I’m sure very talented) people in the band do the musical equivalent of jerking off at you. Jazz is fun to play, but I rarely find it to be particularly fun to listen to. Typically, whatever germ of a melody, chord progression, or groove exists within a song is fully overwhelmed by the compulsion to “add color” by dressing up the melodies with chromatic runs until they’re no longer memorable, adding dissonant extensions to chord progressions until it’s impossible to tell if it’s a progression and not just a random assortment of notes played in sequence, and inserting rhythmic hiccups into grooves until an average listener can no longer tap their feet to it. This album certainly does some of that, but it’s generally tasteful. Even with embellishments, the melodies still stick with you, the chord progressions have forward propulsion, and the odd time signatures (especially in the records two most famous songs) add to, rather than detract from the songs. Also, not to shill for Apple Music, but the Atmos mix of this record songs phenomenal, and it’s especially evident in the drums. Honestly, even when my interest in a song would wane a bit, the music is so pleasant sonically that it kept me engaged.

I’m glad Michael Jackson is dead so I don’t have to choose between listening to this album and not giving money to a monster.

Initial thoughts: Based on the last time I listened to it, this record rules. But also, is Vol. 4 on this list? It should be. Always felt like it was quite a bit better than this album, and maybe comparatively under-appreciated because this has the three most famous Sabbath songs on it. Either way, Paranoid (the record) still rules. —- 1. War Pigs/Luke’s Wall - perfect. There’s really nothing left to say, other than that its status as one of the all-time greats is fully deserved. 5/5 2. Paranoid - The story is that this was a hastily-written, last-minute addition to the record, which ended up becoming (according to Apple Music’s stats) Sabbath’s most popular song. There’s a freshness about the song that makes sense given its origins - it’s not overthought. Along with War Pigs, it also avoid the most annoying tendency of Ozzy-era Sabbath, which is having a vocal melody that’s the same as the guitar riff. The lack of a melodic counterpoint makes several of the songs fall into the “has a great riff” category, instead of “is a great song”. This is a great song, with a great riff and a great vocal melody, and a great groove. I’ve got plenty of gripes about the production on Sabbath records (see below, imaginary person reading this), but the slap back echo on Ozzy’s voice is one of those subtle choices that disproportionately contributes to the strength of the song. 5/5 3. Planet Caravan - Honestly hard to know what to make of this song. I like the change of pace (though their attempts to do so are way more effective on Vol. 4), and it’s got a spacey vibe that works pretty well. That said, it’s probably at an inopportune spot in the track listing and comes off as slightly undercooked. - 3.5 4. Iron Man - Exhibit A for the “great riff” rather than “great song”. Arguably one of the 2 or 3 most iconic guitar riffs of all time, for good reason. But Ozzy’s contributions feel lazy and it feels like that squanders all of the potential offered by the riff. In contrast to most of the rest of the record, I don’t really think Geezer Butler and Bill Ward bring much to the table here either. So hot take! Iron Man sucks! Well, maybe not. The riff alone is worth a lot, but any credit to the song is basically for the riff and nothing else. 2.5/5 5. Electric Funeral - All of same problems as Iron Man but with better drums and bass but a lesser set of riffs. - 2.5/5 6. Hand of Doom - We’re back on track. 4.5/5 7. Rat Salad -A very solid instrumental that suffers for comparisons to Zep’s Moby Dick. Bill Ward can’t match Bonham when it comes to making a drum solo worth listening to. Some is the result of skill (the machine gun fills aren’t as brutal and solid) but really good sounding drums make an huge difference when it comes to keeping someone engaged listening to a drum solo, and these drums just don’t sound that great. This all makes my feelings sound more negative than they are. The riffs are good, the band is tight, and there’s an awareness that most instrumentals like this should be kept concise. 3.5/5. 8. Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots - I somehow got this far without actually mentioning Tony Iommi. He’s definitely the best part of this song. The subtle delay on his guitar really adds depth (though the fact that his guitar is slightly out of tune bugs me a bit). The leads on the Jack the Stripper (Whatta title) showcase both the skills that led to him essentially inventing the genre of metal, and the skills that are largely outside of the metal lexicon and give his playing more depth and texture than just about all of his imitators. The Fairies Wear Boots section is great too, even if it has uh… complicated distinction of being anti-Nazi by way of homophobia? I think? The 70s were a confusing time! 4.5/5. — Overall, this album isn’t nearly as good as I remembered it. I think its inclusion on this list and reputation as one of the all-time greats is the combined result of its importance in the development of metal and the presence of the three most famous Sabbath songs. Two of those three songs, along with 2 or 3 of the album tracks are amazing and worth the price of admission. But the first Sabbath album is more important in the development of metal, and Vol. 4 is a better, more diverse and more consistent listening experience. A lot of people would say the same about Zeppelin IV compared with anything from the first three albums, to House of the Holy or Physical Graffiti, to even (for a certain crowd) Presence. But LZ IV is still a top to bottom great record. The knock against it is overfamiliarity, and that it’s a bit less daring and adventurous than most of the other Zeppelin records, not that the tracklist is inherently weak. Another overall thought: it’s tiresome to compare Sabbath to Zeppelin, but it’s pretty hard to avoid doing. Listening to Sabbath always makes me appreciate the production of (very bad person/sex pest who also unavoidably talented and significant) Jimmy Page. I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that Bill Ward is as good of a drummer as John Bonham (not least because almost nobody is), but I still think that Bill Ward is far closer to being a Bonham-level drummer that his reputation would suggest. Honestly, I struggle to think of many drummers outside of those two who have that combo of swing and power. I think a huuuuuge part of why Bill Ward is rarely discussed in the same conversation as Bonham is the sound of the drums themselves. 50+ years on, Bonham’s drums are still the gold standard for what rock drums should sound like - huge and powerful, but with a character that’s almost like (forgive me) creamy? By comparison, the drums on this, and all of the other classic Ozzy-era Sabbath records sound small, dated, lo-fi and weak. They sound closer to the drums on Simon and Garfunkel songs (especially Only Living Boy in New York) than what we generally expect hard rock drums to sound like. That they’re being played with an amazing amount of power and skill is evident in spite of, rather than because of the actual sound of the drums. The guitars, on the other hand sound massive. I don’t know enough about audio engineering to know for sure, but I’d imagine these two facts aren’t disconnected. The guitars on Zeppelin are often cleaner and more high-end focused that you’d expect, presumably leaving more sonic space for the enormous sounding drums. Anyways, too much Zeppelin discussion, but also nobody is reading this. This is a good album with several great songs, but it shouldn’t be the only Sabbath album on here (and I just looked it up, and it isn’t - s/t and Vol. 4 are both in the list too. Good job list!) Overall - 3.5/5

It sounds great, the playing is flawless, and the vibes are all kinds of warm and sexy. But the songs don’t really grab me. Admittedly this might be a product of this being a first listen, but I can’t find much to grab onto in the songs themselves, despite the many other strengths.

Oh my god why with the jazz Random thoughts: • Are drums the only instrument on jazz records that are consistently enjoyable? • If I, a terrible piano player, attempted to solo by playing random, dissonant, syncopated notes over these chords changes, would the average listener be able to tell the difference? • Seriously, how to people get pleasure out of music that is simultaneously so dissonant and yet so bland? • I really like Mike Garson’s work with Bowie. Why does that work for me when this is so off putting? Maybe it’s because Mike Garson works when he’s the only one going nuts in a band. This is like if the whole ensemble is made up of people doing the solo in Aladdin Sane at the same time. • No shade to bass players, but electric bass solos are rarely good, and upright bass ones are worse.

You can hear the influence, but my god does it become unlistenable by track 5.

1. Serve the Servants - God dammit Dave Grohl is a great drummer. And these drums sound great. 2. Scentless Apprentice - Some of the abrasiveness feels a little put on. Obviously Nirvana started as a punk band and that abrasion was always part of their sound, but this song feels like an attempt to weed out the people who bought Nevermind because it was catchy. Kurt Cobain’s skill, in his singing and his songwriting, was always the ability to meld grit and melody. This song is unusually averse to any kind of hook, and given how effortlessly hooks seemed to just appear in Nirvana’s music, it feels intentional. 3. Heart-Shaped Box - On a purely musical level, there’s so much bleakness in the verses of this song and the lyrics are so evocative. The arrangement feels like the next evolution of the Pixies-ish quiet verse/loud chorus thing that they made popular on Nevermind. 4. Rape Me - It’s still pretty fucking wild that the biggest band in the world had fairly popular song called Rape Me in 1993. Again, it’s that classic Nirvana thing of being an incredibly bleak song that’s also filled with hooks. And man, when Kurt repeatedly screams the title near the end of the song… the way that moment is mixed is so perfect, as if all of a sudden his voice is just directly in front of you and everything else has been pushed aside. Their personal lives aside, it feels kind of fitting that he and Courtney Love were together, because she’s the only other person I can think of who can scream full-out, and do so melodically. 5. France’s Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle - gotta circle back to this song, because there’s more here than I can digest in a single listen. 6. Dumb - Nirvana has two different songs where a cello is (arguably) the highlight. Isn’t that something? 7. Very Ape - this and Milk It are good, not great album tracks. Okay got tired of making song specific comments. This is a really good album. It feels like a reaction to the success of Nevermind in a way that’s a little forced and a bit… meta? But the peaks are era-defining and remain capable of packing an emotional punch that transcends the “importance” of this music to the broader pop culture landscape.

I was not prepared for this. I haven’t mad music hit me like this in a long time. There’s something so joyful about it.

1. Sunday Morning - I’ve never understood why this song isn’t talked about as being on the same level as I’m Waiting for the Man or Heroin, or one of the others that are considered highlights of this album. Great album opener, great song. 2. I’m Waiting for the Man - It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that, when this album came out, music with this kind of subject matter was just basically non existent. In that context, this song is amazing. In a world where VU’s grittiness has long since been surpassed, this song is merely a very good song. 3. Femme Fatale - I wish this has been recorded a little more cleanly. This song is so mellow and that’s really undercut by the amount of distortion in the mix. It also makes it difficult to hear Nico’s voice during the verses. 4. Venus in Furs - does that thing that great experimentalish music can do - evoking things that you can’t quite put into words. 5. Run Run Run - maybe the weakest song in here? It’s fine but sounds fairly conventional, especially compared to the rest of the album. Also, they’re a Who song with the same title, that also sounds kind of similar, but it’s also way better, which probably plays against this song. 6. All Tomorrow’s Parties - forgot how good this song is. 7. Heroin - There’s probably nothing left to say about this song, but it’s as good as its reputation suggests. 8. There She Goes Again - pleasant, but one of the albums lesser songs. 9. I’ll Be Your Mirror - kicking Nico out was a mistake. 10. The Black Angel’s Death Song - people compare Lou Reed to Bob Dylan, but Lou Reed talk-singing projects swagger and coolness to a way greater degree than Bob Dylan. I kind of feel like Patti Smith is the better analog for him than Dylan. Anyways, this song made me realize that. 11. European Son - Alrighty 4 minutes into this song, which should have ended 2 minutes ago and has 3 minutes left to go. This album is great, but this is getting into the kind of thing that bugs me with Sonic Youth and bands like that. It’s the same impulse that drives prog rock and free jazz, but from people who don’t have that level of music proficiency, but the same boundless confidence that their musical fuckery is something that people simply must heart. —- Overall, this album is pretty stunning. Rightly regarded as a decade ahead of its time and with maybe the craziest ratio of sales to influence ever. I’m caught between wishing that some of the rough edges - the harsh audio engineering, Mo Tucker’s “unconventional” drums, etc. - were sanded down, and recognizing that the rough edges are part of the point. I wonder if this same album with cleaner production and a more typical drummer would lose its impact. I can see a good argument for it, but later VU albums and Lou Reed’s solo stuff are both produced more cleanly and (at least in the case of Reed’s solo stuff) have more professional-sounding rhythm sections, and the impact is still palpable. I’d definitely listen to it more if that was the case, but I’m also kind of ambivalent about more abrasive avant garde stuff.

This is a long album made up of long songs. My contempt for jazz cannot be overstated, but Miles Davis has often been a weird exception to that. The vibey-ness of this record makes it a super compelling listen, even when the songs aren’t totally connecting with me on a melodic level.

Good guitar stuff