Apr 15 2024
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Talking Book
Stevie Wonder
Stevie legend more like. Good album. Great mix of chill vibes and sexy funky tunes.
Best Song: I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)
Worst Song: Big Brother
Score: 8/10
4
Apr 16 2024
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Young Americans
David Bowie
David Blowie more like. Good album. The Beatles cover doesn't really work with the vibe, and Bowie is almost overdoing it with the vocals there. The rest of the album though is sleek, luscious, and sexy. The production is immaculate, so many great little details.
Best Song: Somebody up There Likes Me
Worst Song: Across The Universe
Score: 8/10
4
Apr 17 2024
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Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Punkies more like. Good album. Love the raw energy and youthful rock bangers in this one. Listening to this I can almost smell the Carling and WKD in the air, and feel the bottom of my shoes sticking to the club floor. I wouldn't want it any other way.
Best Song: A Certain Romance
Worst Song: You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
Score: 8/10
4
Apr 18 2024
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Sticky Fingers
The Rolling Stones
Strolling Bones more like. Mid album. I think the band clearly have a lot of energy and vigour - I can imagine they'd be absolutely sick live, but their music has rarely done anything for me. The bangers always feel like they need more punch, and the ballads always feel too meandering.
Best Song: I Got The Blues
Worst Song: Moonlight Mile
Score: 6/10
3
Apr 19 2024
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Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
Kat Seaton more like. Good album. Really immaculate vibes here - and the production is really fantastic on this. Late 60s and early 70s are such a golden era for singer-songwriter music and Stevens' is no exception in making his mark. His voice is gentle when it needs to be but possesses this strong earthy power at times too.
Best Song: Father And Son
Worst Song: Longer Boats
Score: 8/10
4
Apr 22 2024
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Lust For Life
Iggy Pop
Iggy Bop more like. Sick album. I've enjoyed the Stooges before but there's something special about Iggy's collaborations with Bowie, where I think the former's snarl and roughness is complemented by the latter's tenderness and charm. Love the production on this album - the guitars hit so hard and some of the rhythms here are so infectious too.
Best Song: The Passenger
Worst Song: Turn Blue
Score: 9/10
5
Apr 23 2024
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Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
5
Apr 24 2024
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Aja
Steely Dan
Steely Nan more like. Good album. Can't get enough of the band moving more into jazz fusion at this point in their career. The album is just full of juicy, sexy jams with a bountiful array of instruments and sounds to wallow in.
Best Song: Peg
Worst Song: Black Cow
4
Apr 25 2024
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Different Class
Pulp
4
Apr 26 2024
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Nevermind
Nirvana
Good album. Listened to this a lot as a teenager, probably my first intro to heavier sounding music & it still hits so hard. It's cooled on me a little bit but is still an album full of bangers.
Best Track: Something in the Way
Worst Track: Endless Nameless
4
Apr 29 2024
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Smash
The Offspring
One of the worst albums I've ever heard. This kind of pop punk is really not my thing & just sounds incredibly dated now. Some of the riffs are cool but the vocals are just so hoarse and uninteresting.
Best Song: Come Out And Play
Worst Song: What Happened To You?
1
Apr 30 2024
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Since I Left You
The Avalanches
5
May 01 2024
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Talking Timbuktu
Ali Farka Touré
Really lovely album. Just some great, chilled out cowboy vibes for a solid hour. Need to listen to this in the desert sometime.
Best Track: Ai Du
Worst Track: Sega
4
May 02 2024
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Meat Is Murder
The Smiths
Some really great guitar riffs on this - I can imagine listening to some of these a lot and not getting sick of them. Morrissey is a little whiney on this, and his vocals have never really appealed to me, but I think there's some really interesting lyrics in this. A lot of the album seems to be about adolescence, depression, and being suffocated by a hypermasculine school environment. I can see why so many people relate to these songs even when Morrissey seems like the strangest person to have written them.
Best Track: Barbarism Begins At Home
Worst Track: I Want The One I Can't Have
4
May 03 2024
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Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses
Clearly a very influential album in gothic and post-punk. It's been really interesting listening to the kind of band who would have inspired Sonic Youth, Pixies, or Nirvana. The music is dark and creeping, with often quite strange changes in key. Kristin Hersh's vocals vary between shrieks and whispers, and her lyrics are these striking tangled poems. I liked it a lot.
Best Track: Rabbits Dying
Worst Track: Soul Soldier
4
May 06 2024
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British Steel
Judas Priest
Such a meat and potatoes rock album lol. I kinda wanted it to be more metal but I think the corny 80s rock works in the right moments. The guitar solos are indulgent and sloppy and fun. Some of the tunes do sound very dated, and the perfect kinda stuff for my ready unsalted playlist, but there is certain kind of fun to it too.
Best Track: United
Worst Track: Red, White & Blue
3
May 07 2024
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Aftermath
The Rolling Stones
There were some good moments on this, but it's a little more sparse compared to sticky fingers. I like some of the darker gothic-pop moments on the album, but it's spread out amongst some quite tedious blues tunes, a lot of which lack energy behind them.
Best Track: Under My Thumb
Worst Track: Going Home
3
May 08 2024
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Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
Feel like this is more fun as background music. A lot of the album is inspired by punk and rock music but just sounds way too clean for me. Most of the album doesn't quite feel like it's doing anything new too. Some songs feel like it takes a page from the Strokes or the Velvet Underground. I mostly wanted it to be more raw.
Best Song: Talihina Sky
Worst Song: Wasted Time
2
May 09 2024
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Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
What a baller album. Probably one of my favourite discoveries since starting this challenge. Hayes' voice is lush and commanding, and he's accompanied by some really gorgeous production and orchestration behind him. I particularly like the last track with how this very bare bones instrumentation goes from unsettling to much more grandiose and beautiful.
Best track: By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Worst Track: Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
5
May 10 2024
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Two Dancers
Wild Beasts
Not really thinking much of this. I find a lot of the tracks to be quite forgettable and in the absence of anything catchy I feel like the tunes aren't that delicate or interesting either. I like the vocalist with the deeper voice more than the falsetto too - feel like he has much more going on.
Best Song: All the King's Men
Worst Song: Hooting & Howling
2
May 13 2024
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Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg
Maybe this album hits different when blazed out of your mind, but my overall opinion is that it is just good. There are some really fun beats, and I think Snoop is the king of vibes based rap, but there are a lot of elements to this that seem to have dated quite badly. He constantly raps about his balls - why? I think he also tries to emulate Slick Rick a few times on this without putting much of his own spin on it. Also the best song has by far the least streams???
Best Track: Serial Killa
Worst Track: Lodi Dodi
4
May 14 2024
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Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan
Good album! I like Steely Dan a lot and there's a lot of fun stuff on this one. I don't think it has the same excessive bliss of the jams on Aja, but there's so many great tunes and playful melodies to keep me happy. It's a short and sweet album too.
Best Track: Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Worst Track: Monkey in Your Soul
4
May 15 2024
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Dry
PJ Harvey
Wild to me that this is a debut album - PJ has such a defined sound at this point and it's electric to listen to 30 years on. It's really fun to listen to - a little grungy, snarly, but also tender too.
Best Track: Dress
Worst Track: Hair
4
May 16 2024
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Play
Moby
It might be because we've had 25 years of electronic/sample music since this but I found a lot of the album quite bland and uninteresting. There are some interesting and fun moments on the album, but especially when the Avalanches or DJ Shadow were doing much more unique stuff with sampling in this era, I was left wanting a lot more from this.
Best Track: My Weakness
Worst Track: If Things Were Perfect
3
Jun 25 2024
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Vulnicura
Björk
This grew on me so much! I love how concise and vulnerable the lyrics are. I love how the album goes from luscious string arrangements to haunting electronica over the course of the runtime. It's up there with Blood on the Tracks as an all-time great breakup album.
Best Track: Lionsong
Worst Track: Notget
5
Jun 26 2024
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Abraxas
Santana
Good album! I love how this doesn't seem to be confined by genre. It's just high energy instruments and vibes. What more could you want.
Best Track: Incident at Neshabur
Worst Track: Hope You're Feeling Better
4
Jun 27 2024
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This Is Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Good album - I don't think it matches the energy of Louis Prima but a lot of this is still really fun tunes. The kind of thing that would be perfect on the radio in Fallout.
Best Track: You Done Me Wrong
Worst Track: Troubles Of My Own
4
Jun 28 2024
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The Wildest!
Louis Prima
Lotta fun. The recording is a little rough but there's a lot of energy and charm to this album. Louis Prima is effortlessly magnanimous and I just love the spirit of swing channeling through this.
Best Track: I'm Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody
Worst Track: Whistle Stop
4
Jul 01 2024
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xx
The xx
I guess you had to be there...
Best Track: Islands
Worst Track: Shelter
2
Jul 02 2024
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Hail To the Thief
Radiohead
Fuck You Bush! Far from Radiohead's best but is a really solid album with a great mix of creepy/delicate tunes and some freakier paranoid anthems.
Best Track: There, There
Worst Track: The Gloaming
4
Jul 03 2024
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Slayed?
Slade
This album sounds like it should be blaring in the grottiest bar imaginable in Blackpool. Some of the songs do sound like a B-Tec Led Zeppelin, and some of the vocals are incredibly grating. I was surprised by how much of this I enjoyed though, some of it is just meat and potatoes rock and roll done well. And sometimes that's enough to make up for their spelling of 'Goodbye'.
Best Track: Gudbuy T'Jane
Worst Track: How D'You Ride
3
Jul 04 2024
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Elastica
Elastica
Enjoyed this quite a bit - nothing like some high energy girlpunk to get you through the day!
Best Track: Vaseline
Worst Track: S.O.F.T.
4
Jul 05 2024
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Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black
Public Enemy
Loved this album - it's so high tempo and the energy never quits over the entire runtime. The production is dazzling and the rapping is just as good, energetic, urgent, current, and so forward-moving in hip hop.
Best Track: Nighttrain
Worst Track: Bring Tha Noize
4
Jul 08 2024
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Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
Good album. This album just keeps on giving & it's probably my favourite of their self titled releases. I think they hit a great balance here between folk and rock & it slaps so much.
Best Track: Since I've Been Loving You
Worst Track: Hats Off To (Roy) Harper
5
Jul 09 2024
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Hot Rats
Frank Zappa
Loved this so much. I love how much Zappa embraces goofiness in this and ends up fully committing to a sound unlike any other. Such an influential album.
Best Track: Peaches En Regalia
Worst Track: It Must Be A Camel (only just)
5
Jul 10 2024
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This Is Hardcore
Pulp
I liked it, but was left a little underwhelmed. The highlights are really high on this, but I found the album as a whole quite a mixed bag. I think Pulp tend to do large, bittersweet, bangers really well, but I do think the more they experiment the less it works. Also I don't feel like album lives up to its title - it could be a lot sexier!
Best Track: Like a Friend
Worst Track: Seductive Barry
3
Jul 11 2024
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This Year's Model
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Really fun album. This Elvis guy knows how to make a banging tune - even better than his namesake!
Best Track: The Beat
Worst Track: Big Tears
4
Jul 12 2024
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Eternally Yours
The Saints
Think I'm just gonna have to accept that I'm not that into classic punk. Post-punk and proto-punk both have much more interesting things going on. There's some cool moments on this but I didn't get a lot out of it I'm afraid.
Best Track: Memories Are Made of This
Worst Track: International Robots
2
Jul 15 2024
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Revolver
Beatles
Obviously a great album. Not my favourite Beatles but it has some really incredible moments from both the singles and the B-sides. The 2022 mix also sounds so clean and crisp - what a treat!
Best Track: Eleanor Rigby
Worst Track: Doctor Robert
5
Jul 16 2024
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Stankonia
OutKast
Those guys know how to write a tune!! Big Boi and Andre 3000 are such a great artistic match - I hope they keep making music together forever!!!
Best Track: B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)
Worst Track: I'll Call B4 I Cum
5
Jul 17 2024
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Dookie
Green Day
I get why a lot of people love this album, and I was still thirteen I imagine it would really go off. The production is pretty good here & I don't dislike it. I do find the harmonies quite grating though, and the lyrics are frequently cringe.
Best Track: Longview
Worst Track: All By Myself
3
Jul 18 2024
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Odessa
Bee Gees
Thought this was quite mid. I think it lags behind a lot of contemporary pop music, especially the Zombies, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys. The orchestral stuff is a bit much, and they also really struggle to find a catchy tune for a lot of this.
Best Track: I Laugh in Your Face
Worst Track: Seven Seas Symphony
3
Jul 19 2024
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Mermaid Avenue
Billy Bragg
Delightful vibes from the GOATs of dad rock. It's silly and folky and heartwarming. Just what I needed.
Best Track: One by One
Worst Track: Birds & Ships
4
Jul 22 2024
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Beauty And The Beat
The Go-Go's
Enjoyed this a lot. Could imagine a lot of these riffs in a 00s indie rock song. It's a little punky but has a lot of melody and vibe still.
Best Song: How Much More
Worst Song: Lust to Love
4
Jul 23 2024
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Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
Ten songs - nearly all bangers. This slaps. Love you Mr. Dan - keep doing what you're doing.
Best Track: Only a Fool Could Say That
Worst Track: Fire in the Hole
4
Jul 24 2024
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At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GET HIM A GLASS OF WATER HE IS A THIRSTY BOY. NO, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF ITS RUN OFF LUTHER'S BOOT.
Good album. Some top tier memes in here - love the egg sucking dog, love 25 minutes, love cocaine blues, stage banter is top tier and Johnny's songwriting tells so much with so little. A lot of fun!
Best Song: Folsom Prison Blues
Worst Song: I Still Miss Someone
4
Jul 25 2024
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Nowhere
Ride
Really sick album - can't wait to listen to more Ride. Worth breaking EU law by turning up my headphones all the way. Love the drums, love the distortion, love all the little melodies, and most of all love the badass cover.
Best Track: Vapor Trail
Worst Track: Decay
4
Jul 26 2024
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461 Ocean Boulevard
Eric Clapton
What a dry album. Clapton is just so juiceless, I've listened to this four times and gotten barely anything out of it. Will likely forget soon.
Best Track: Mainline Florida
Worst Track: Let it Grow
2
Jul 29 2024
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Slippery When Wet
Bon Jovi
There are some songs I like on this - but the album as a whole is absolutely atrocious. The vocals sound like a nasty exhaust pipe. I think the album succeeds when it gets quieter, but unfortunately everything seems to be chucked in together as loud as possible. The kick drums, synths, power chords, and synths all feel so overindulgent; its like taking a five course meal and drinking it as a smoothie. I do think I might like the album a bit more if it was better mixed though.
Best Song: Living on a Prayer
Worst Track: I'd Die For You
2
Jul 30 2024
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Hard Again
Muddy Waters
Good album but I think for the full Jillions experience I need a plate of toast and a mug of tea.
Best Track: Mannish Boy
Worst Track: I Can't Be Satisfied
4
Jul 31 2024
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Elvis Is Back
Elvis Presley
He's bloody back. I hadn't heard of any of these tunes but this is such a slick album. He really plays to his strengths while trying new things. I liked it a lot!
Best Track: I've Got a Dirty Dirty Feeling
Worst Track: Reconsider Baby
4
Aug 01 2024
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L'Eau Rouge
The Young Gods
Absolutely cursed album. The opening track is one of the most horrid things that has ever befallen my ears. Harry Lime was right about the Swiss - their contribution to culture is a horrid one. I'd be lying if I said the album hadn't grown on me though, and some of it I kinda dig™. Tom Waits meets Oxbow would be a good way to describe it.
Best Track: Les Enfants
Worst Track: La fille de la mort
2
Aug 02 2024
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Ocean Rain
Echo And The Bunnymen
Adore this album! So much good vibes. There's a lot of bitter, dark goth rock here that you just want to wade all the way into. A couple of moments feel a little typical of 80s pop but otherwise the band manage to make a sound entirely their own.
Best Track: The Killing Moon
Worst Track: Crystal Days
4
Aug 05 2024
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My Aim Is True
Elvis Costello
He's pretty good at songs isn't he. Fair play.
Best Track: Watching the Detectives
Worst Track: Pay it Back
4
Aug 06 2024
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Ellington at Newport
Duke Ellington
No one's doing it like the Duke. I had such a fun time with this, it's a lot more playful than Coltrane or Miles Davis. While I like cool jazz and bebop a lot, it's also fun to just listen to some classic big band stuff and just wince and smile at the atmosphere and just crazy musicianship. The squeaky trumpet blew me away on this - just so so so good.
Best Track: Festival Junction
Worst Track: Diminuendo In Blue
5
Aug 07 2024
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Get Behind Me Satan
The White Stripes
Pretty sick album. I gotta say that the flow from track to track is pretty impeccable here. There are some great vibe shifts, particularly the ones into The Nurse and Passive Manipulation. I've not listened to much of the band before, but I liked how a lot of the tracks had more of an acoustic approach, and I think it emphasises the bangers even more.
Best Track: Take, Take, Take
Worst Track: Forever For Her (Is Over For Me)
4
Aug 08 2024
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Liquid Swords
GZA
Not quite 36 Chambers (what is?) but still a really solid bunch of tunes here. I loved the Shaolin interludes but worst part on the album is probably the Tony Stark skit which is just so embarrassing. GZA's flow is pretty understated but has a kind of quiet dread to it that I really liked. The beats are really fun and imaginative too. Especially loved the bouncy synth on 4th Chamber.
Best Track: Investigative Reports
Worst: Duel of the Iron Mic
4
Aug 09 2024
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Melody A.M.
Röyksopp
Fun album. Some great fuzzy tunes on this, and I think there's little else that I know of that captures the same vibes as this. I do wish it was a little bouncier though, there are some banging tunes on this but I do think the album slows down a little too soon.
Best Track: So Easy
Worst Track: A Higher Place
4
Aug 12 2024
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Eliminator
ZZ Top
Sucks - very much not my thing. Can't believe someone found a lost nametag at kink event and decided to name a band after it
Best Track: Thug
Worst Track: Sharp Dressed Man
1
Aug 13 2024
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The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
Very cold take but I think this album is good. Better than Meat is Murder. I don't think it's among the best of all time but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.
Best Track: The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Worst Track: Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
4
Oct 14 2024
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Idlewild
Everything But The Girl
So lovely, late-night tunes to swoon to. Definitely feels like a precursor to Yo La Tango and other sleepy-indie hits. I like the writing style and how personalised this feels, with a lot of the songs being portraits of friends or family members. A few moments are a little bit saccharine, but mostly I think the band finds that sweet spot.
Best Track: Tears All Over Town
Worst Track: The Night I Heard Caruso Sing
4
Oct 15 2024
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Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
Impeccable vibes. Few albums are this chill. Have been loving having a little read or a sleep to this. I do think that there's jazz that I find more interesting or exciting, but it feels like a significant development from cool jazz into slower pop music.
Best Track: Corcovado
Worst Track: Para Machuchar Menu Coracao
4
Oct 16 2024
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The Trinity Session
Cowboy Junkies
Some very breezy, very chill vibes. I like how the band commits to such a quiet sound but fills it with so much detail and atmosphere. The covers especially have a lot of uniqueness to them.
Best Track: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Worst Track: Walking After Midnight
3
Oct 17 2024
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Beyond Skin
Nitin Sawhney
The concept is a very interesting one, but the music itself doesn't really inspire me much. There are a couple of bangers here, and a few of the chanting tracks were really mesmerizing. I found a lot of the ambient, atmospheric stuff to be really bland though, especially Nostaliga, which ends up coming across like a bad Bjork pastiche.
Best Track: Nadia
Worst Track: Nostaliga
3
Oct 18 2024
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Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
It's okay. Kinda realising that I'm not too crazy about punk. There are some good tracks here but I do wish there was a little more going on here.
Best Track: Anarchy in the UK
Worst Track: EMI
3
Oct 21 2024
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Dusty In Memphis
Dusty Springfield
Absolutely incredible album - Dusty is a star. I've been listening to this nonstop over the weekend and for a 30 minute album I'm in awe of how rich it is. It's sexy and brooding and dazzling and existential and more. The tracklist flows really well from different moods, with such luscious orchestral instrumentation that compliment Dusty's husky voice so well.
Best Track: Windmills of Your Mind
Worst Track: No way
5
Oct 22 2024
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Born To Run
Bruce Springsteen
Good album. The title track is up there with Common People as an all-timer anthem.
Best Track: Born To Run
Worst Track: Fire
4
Oct 23 2024
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Raw Power
The Stooges
Such a sick album. Feel like it really lives up to the title with this bunch of sharp, snarly, and incredibly high energy tracks. It's sexy, filthy, lurid, and such a good time.
Best Track: I Need Somebody
Worst Track: Death Trip
5
Oct 24 2024
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Hysteria
Def Leppard
Some of this is very corny but not always in a bad way. Throughout this generator I think the stomp-rock stuff has been the hardest for me to get into, and as with this it's been difficult to tell if it's the album or the genre that's bad. Hysteria is by no means a masterpiece, it's at its worst when it just sounds like a cyberpunk Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun listening to some of this.
Best Track: Pour Some Sugar On Me
Worst Track: Love Bites
3
Oct 25 2024
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The Sounds Of India
Ravi Shankar
Good album. Very nice to read to - shit helps you lock in so well.
Best Track: Bhimpalasi
Worst Track: Sindi-Bhairavi
4
Oct 28 2024
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A Night At The Opera
Queen
I feel a little bit of a hypocrite for being annoyed at the swings this album takes - usually I love big swings. Unfortunately this is one of the most annoying albums I've ever heard - nearly every song starts off promising and then becomes irredeemable trite. There is one song that isn't annoying, and sorry, it isn't Bohemian Rhapsody.
Best Track: You're My Best Friend
Worst Track: The Prophet's Song
1
Oct 29 2024
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Blue
Joni Mitchell
Joni's the GOAT, man. I think very few songwriters manage to reach that kind of intimacy and vulnerability. I'm always finding new things to love from these songs. An all-timer.
Best Track: River
Worst Track: not a chance. you're 'avin me on
5
Oct 30 2024
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Playing With Fire
Spacemen 3
Really fascinating piece of proto-Spiritualized work! I think the influence of Suicide and the Velvet Underground come across a lot more clearly on this - and it's much more psychedelic than the music that comes after it. But I enjoyed a lot - it's soothing and hectic in equal measure.
Best Track: Lord Can You Hear Me
Worst Track: How Does It Feel
4
Oct 31 2024
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Lady In Satin
Billie Holiday
It's okay. Billie has a beautiful voice, and the arrangements are very sleek on this, but I can't help but find this kind of jazz quite dated. I'm glad we've mostly moved on from the Songbook stuff, a little sweetness can be very good but this is much too saccharine for me.
Best Track: I Get Along Without You Very Well
Worst Track: It's Easy To Remember
3
Nov 01 2024
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I'm Your Man
Leonard Cohen
Very sick album! Did not know how much of a great combo Leonard Cohen and synths would be. So many of these tracks are brooding, sexy, spiritual, and just so damn cool.
Best Track: Jazz Police
Worst Track: Take This Waltz
4
Nov 04 2024
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Dummy
Portishead
Obviously a groundbreaking album that to this day sounds like a little else. The samples are so slick, the vocals are sexy as fuck, it's a 5 from me. Glory Box is obviously one of the best songs of all time, and just so gender as well - it's a song about embracing femininity and coming into yourself. What's not to love.
Best Track: Glory Box
Worst Track: It Could Be Sweet
5
Nov 05 2024
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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
PJ Harvey
Found this a little disappointing compared to the other album's I've heard from PJ. It's quite lowkey, and I don't really feel like there are any standout songs from this. A banger or two would have bumped this up a star from me. Maybe it's more of a slow burn, who knows. But I have had this on repeat and it's just washed right by me.
Best Track: Horses in my Dream
Worst Track: Beautiful Feeling
3
Nov 06 2024
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Cloud Nine
The Temptations
This kinda sucks ngl. A lot of the harmonies are quite naff, and I don't really find their take on R&B that exciting at all.
Best Track: I Gotta Find A Way (To Get You Back)
Worst Track: I Heard it Through the Grapevine
2
Nov 07 2024
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Heavy Weather
Weather Report
They said that when this album came out white dads across the world started tapping their foot and nodding along. And I just think that's beautiful.
Best Track: Birdland
Worst Track: Rumba Mama
4
Nov 08 2024
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The Visitors
ABBA
Such a spirit-infusing album. It's goofy and fun but also deeply honest and heartfelt. A real achievement, especially considering barely any of their hits are on this.
Best Track: Slipping Through My Fingers
Worst Track: The Day Before You Came
5
Nov 11 2024
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Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
Speakerboxxx:
absolutely slaps. So many bangers, love the brass, the trap drums, the features. It's a bouncing, bopping, fun, and unapologetically Southern rap album.
Best Track: Flip Flop Rock
Worst Track: Reset
The Love Below:
I think a great example of when 'concept' takes precedence over 'album', and when trying to make an album into a narrative can actually harm the flow of it as a musical artefact. There are some banger tunes on this, but it's a shame that it doesn't come together all that well. Hey Ya is a miracle of a song, truly earth-shattering - the rest of the album, not so much.
Best Track: Hey Ya!
Worst Track: Where Are My Panties?
4
Nov 12 2024
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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Hasn't aged well I'm afraid! I think the hits on this still stand out, and the album has bangers in it's locker. I don't really think the themes of redemption and forgiveness work at all anymore. I think we've all culturally moved on from this kind of autotune too. The hyperpop era has not been kind to 2010s pop-rap.
Best Track: Devil in a New Dress
Worst Track: Blame Game
3
Nov 13 2024
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Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys
It's not completely my thing but I must admit there are some great vibes on this. Not sure how much of this is an acquired taste and how much I just need to adapt to the vibes. Synths are very cool though.
Best Track: Jealousy
Worst Track: Only The Wind
3
Nov 14 2024
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Tuesday Night Music Club
Sheryl Crow
Aggressively mid. Kinda sounds like Fiona Apple with all the edges sanded down. It's pleasant, bright, but there's no bite.
Best Track: Run Baby Run
Worst Track: The Na-na Song
2
Nov 15 2024
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Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
It's not quite Bob's best, but it's still a damn fine album. It's definitely a transitional moment in his career, and you can taste the excitement in a lot of moments here.
Best Track: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Worst Track: Outlaw Blues
5
Nov 18 2024
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Court And Spark
Joni Mitchell
Lotta big swings here! And I have to say I'm super impressed. I think after the intimacy and vulnerability of Clouds and Blue, I like that Joni then reaches out to more instrumental richness, filling her songs with bouquets of sonic joy. The harmonies are on point here, the compositions are just delightful - great album!
Best Track: Help Me
Worst Track: Trouble Child
5
Nov 19 2024
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Low
David Bowie
Not gonna relisten but this is one of my favourite albums of all time. Eno and Bowie are one of the all time great collaborations and they make something really beautiful here. It's moody, dark, luscious, and melancholy. An album very close to my heart.
Best Track: Subterraneans
Worst Track: nada
5
Nov 20 2024
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Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
Enjoyed this a lot. I don't think it quite matches contemporary post punk albums like Joy Division or Nick Cave but I think the groomy, grimy, bangers are completely my vibe.
Best Tracks: Monitor
Worst Track: Voodoo Dolly
4
Nov 21 2024
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Bad Company
Bad Company
Doesn't do much for me I'm afraid. Don't even think I could recognise a Bad Company song of it came on in the wild. They just have very little going for them that stands them out from the rest.
Best Track: Movin On
Worst Track: Don't Let Me Down
2
Nov 22 2024
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At Budokan
Cheap Trick
Lotta energy. Lotta bangers. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and as someone who doesn't know Cheap Trick at all, I'm excited to hear more from them. Each track flows into the next smoothly and at breakneck speed, and I think the show is paced really well.
Best Track: Need Your Love
Worst Track: Goodnight
4
Nov 25 2024
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Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
I know I said Joni's the GOAT in my Blue review but Bob is also the GOAT. The jury's still out imo on if this is his best album or not, but it's two discs, chock full of bangers, and he really is at the height of his powers here, musically, instrumentally, lyrically. The run of tracks from Visions of Johanna to Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine) is just crazy stuff man, seven of the best songs ever just back to back. Monumental.
Best Track: Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
Worst Track: Pledging My Time
5
Nov 26 2024
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Either Or
Elliott Smith
Enjoyed this a lot. There's such a vibrant spectrum of feelings going on in this album, and I absolutely adore Smith's voice on all of this. It's at once intimate and small, while huge and cacophonous. A few new favourites on this, and I can only imagine coming to love this more over time.
Best Track: Ballad of Big Nothing
Worst Track: Alameda
4
Nov 27 2024
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The Blueprint
JAY Z
Top 5 rap album for me. The beats are so consistently incredible on this, the album comes together so well, and Jay's rapping is confident, suave, and mechanical. Funniest lyric of all time is during the vulnerable breakup song where Jay says 'You don't throw away what we had like that / I was just fuckin them girls, I was gon get right back'. No notes.
Best Track: Song Cry
Worst Track: Renegade
5
Nov 29 2024
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D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Fuck it - five stars. Feel like this is the kind of album that some people will really hate but I feel like it made me feel like little else. In many ways it precedes dark ambient and a lot of environmental music that I think is mostly seen in movie soundtracks. Rather than any kind of music, the closest thing I can relate to this album is the movie Threads, just in the way it channels this sheer dread and terror.
Best Track: AB/7A
Worst Track: Blood on the Floor
5
Dec 03 2024
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Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
Definitely a much more put-together and slick sounding Stones than albums I've heard before. It's a little messy but I think that adds to the fun - there's a raw, energetic atmosphere to the whole album and really it's a vibe you just want to stay with for hours. Can see this growing on me even more.
Best Track: Tumbling Dice
Worst Track: Rip This Joint
4
Dec 04 2024
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Take Me Apart
Kelela
Remember listening to this a lot back in 2017 and having it go over my head a lot. Honestly can't say much has changed. There's some good stuff here, but I do think the electronica/R&b stuff has been done better. Moments hit but mostly this is just okay.
Best Track: LMK
Worst Track: Turn to Dust
3
Dec 05 2024
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Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water
Limp Bizkit
A persistently embarrassing album. Just doesn't let up.
Best Track: Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)
Worst Track: Rollin' (Urban Assault Vehicle)
2
Dec 09 2024
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Disraeli Gears
Cream
Really enjoyed. Like a 60s psychedelic White Stripes. Nothing mind-blowing but just a really solid album.Wanted more of the folk-pop stuff, didn't care too much for the full on blues rock.
Best Track: World of Pain
Worst Track: Take It Back
4