Despite their obvious prominence, I’ve never viewed AC/DC in the same glowing light as some of the absolute best rock bands of the 1970s. And I think the same can be said for Highway To Hell compared to other prominent albums of the time. Being released in 1979, it feels like a record that was grasping as hard as it could to the waning zeitgeist that peaked several years beforehand. Good songwriting, grating vocalist (sorry Bryan), merely enjoyable.
Pre-1966 Beatles walked so post-1966 Beatles could run. All of their earlier material is essential to understanding their eventual brilliance, but it’s undoubtedly far less enjoyable. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the LOVE smothering in every song or the Chuck Berry pastiches they initially relied upon to garner their stardom. 🤷🏼♂️
Wanted to give this one more star, I really did. Some of the material on here is pure Prince gold (title track, I Could Never…, Adore), but I am a little more of a fan of his synthier side. As insane and underrated as his guitar playing truly is!
Not gonna say anything groundbreaking here, because Blue’s reputation precedes itself more than potentially any other singer-songwriter album. But still, this completely floored me when I first heard it. Genuinely one of the best albums of all time, no arguments. I always forget how charismatic Joni is with her vocal delivery - it’s so captivating, so hopeful and just the right medicine for hard times. She really is one of the best to ever do it.
Was super shocked to see Songhoy Blues pop up on here! I’ve enjoyed Music in Exile for some time - its story of origin is an important one to read up on. I wouldn’t say it’s the wildest form of Malian rock I’ve heard, but the songs still have the awesome riffs & group vocals that made me love this genre in the first place.
Potentially the best swansong of the 21st Century so far. Bowie bowed out in magnificent fashion with a heart-wrenching, yet extremely well put-together and thoroughly entertaining jazz rock record.
Not their peak, but still certainly a strong, influential effort from a band that had one of the greatest album runs of all time.
Best album of the 21st Century so far? It could well be. A seminal effort from a seminal artist. Nothing alike it before, now or after. A shining example of what humans are capable of. Unparallelled.
Arguably the peak of AnCo's discography, MPP took their sound further than it had ever travelled before, but also made it the catchiest and most fun of any of their records. Some of the best indie bangers of the naughties on here.
My god there was so much bad prog around the late ‘60s / early ‘70s, so I’m extremely glad albums like this exist. It helped to make prog rock worth the phase that it had. A highly influential, mesmerising rock record, KC were completely off their rocker for this thing. Insanely tight drumming, broad and fascinating soundscapes, engaging progressions that stay interesting throughout. Just a masterfully executed rock record, and absolutely mad that it came out in 1969. So ahead of its time.
A magnificent woman and a magnificent band to boot. No one has ever managed to make the smooth, sultry, loungey, proto-downtempo sound feel as good to listen to as Sade. Is it their best album? Probably not. But it is seminal.
This could well be a 5 if I’d listened to it more than I have.
There’s not much I can say about this album that hasn’t already been said. But this was the first Beatles album I properly listened to, after avoiding them for years in my adolescence because I assumed all of their music sounded like Twist and Shout. How wrong I was, and how glad I am that I eventually spun this. Undeniable masterpiece.
Very bold of Talking Heads to release the best album of the 1980s in the first year of the entire decade 🤌🏼
While it’s not their best in my view, this album was in my view the pinnacle of the folk resurgence that came in the 2000s. No other band emulated that sound better than early Fleet Foxes. This record is filled with utterly beautiful harmonies, immersive medieval passages and choruses that are immensely fun to sing. White Winter Hymnal, Ragged Wood, TMPS, Your Protector, Oliver James are some of the best folk songs of the modern era. And they only got better with their second album.
Simply one of the greatest works of jazz of all time. Mingus’ twisted melodies presented a challenging tone shift to the genre at the time, and paved the way for a darker variant of jazz that ventured into a more complicated emotional approach that listeners weren’t accustomed to at the time. Legend.
DKs led the American line when it came to punk music, and for extremely good reason. The raw, distorted and unapologetic sound they drove presented a welcome alternative to the more melodic punk music from across the pond. And punk is in a far better place as a result.
Their first great album. Many many more great albums followed. High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees and the title track are all some of the best RH songs of all time. Flies under the radar a bit but I love it. Free Palestine.
Don’t kill me, but this is their first great album. It was their first full venture into something deeper and more groundbreaking. While it retains some of the older, less mature Beatles mannerisms (lyrically on certain tracks, mostly), it marked the first point the Beatles truly became sonic visionaries. Seminal.
One of the best albums of the 21st Century. The best Radiohead album of the 21st Century. One of the most exhilaratingly-paced albums I’ve ever heard. Insane vocal performance. The tightest and most inventive percussion on an alt-rock album. A jam with all cylinders firing. Seminal record. Free Palestine.
A unique and standout musical relic for so many incredible reasons. Every time I see this album art I’m cast back to the awe I experienced when I first listened to the album. It made me realise all that time ago that music didn’t have to be pristine and perfect in order to be worth all of your attention. And this albums means a hell of a lot to me now as a result.
My easiest ever 5.
The off-the-scale ambition, the novel-heavy narrative detail, the endless euphoria within each peak, the crushing revelations in each slower passage, the riveting stories, the blaring horns, the sensational folky backbone, the fascinating historical lessons, the evident camaraderie in the band, the enchanting group vocals, the wacky experimental vignettes, the gut-wrenching personal anecdotes, the fucking weird sentence-long song titles, the tiny interludes that might as well have been added to the surrounding songs' runtimes, the riveting instrumental builds, the poignant opener and the poignant closer. All of it, and so much more, make it my most cherished musical experience of all time as of the quarter point of the 2000s.
Sometimes I feel a little silly having so much passion for literally just some guy. That's all he is, as is anyone else. But just the mere prospect that a person can willfully create something like Illinois is enough for me to always hold out hope that things will be okay in the world, because humans are capable of *this*.
