This is a pretty solid album. I like the lo fi production, I like the nuanced song writing choices. It has an earnestness and fire that was emblematic of the music scene back then but seems to be in short supply in the 2020s.

This is the third Paul Simon album I've been served in the span of two and a half months. Please make it stop. I'm really starting to resent the people who catapulted this man to such fame that he is considered so essential. He is about as fundamental to musical experience as the Barenaked Ladies.

It's ABBA. If you want to get down with some well-crafted pop songs, this is your jam.

It’s pretty fresh beat wise, both Phife and Tip grew lyrically in the following albums. Maybe it’s not fair to compare it to their later work, at the time I am pretty sure there was almost nothing else like it. Still! The best was yet to come.

I don't get it, but then again, I don't get Simon and Garfunkel either. This is the sort of record that makes me want to scream at baby boomers like "THIS is what you think is an alltime record?" while throwing an endless stream of vinyl copies across the room. Chevy Chase was the best part of "You Can Call me Al" and given how he has become known as one of the biggest tools in show business, even that carries very little water.

The music is pretty great, Morrison's lyrics sometimes come off as hokey and corny - I mean, "she's a 20th century fox" wow deep bro, deep. Despite this, it's easy to see what makes it a renowned album. Each musician knows when to pull back and dive in, creating a sense of depth that a lot of recordings lack.

This is probably better suited for an ambient speaker system than in ear headphones. Layers upon layers here, and so many call forwards to hip hop songs that became part of the modern vernacular.

Pretty dope, I feel like I've heard some afrobeat in the past and felt meh on it. But this is the real stuff! A protest album with dire consequences.

It's easy to forget how good this album is amongst all the things that followed - Wyclef's penchant for flipping cheesy samples, Pras' legal troubles, and Ms. Lauryn imploding her career after dropping Miseducation. But subtract all of that and take it back to the source - fresh beats, interwoven rhymes. Three lyricists giving their best over their own productions. Who could have blamed anyone for seeing anything but a brilliant run of albums as a collective and individuals? Dang. We'll always have The Score.

no no no no big no no thank you I don't care how is this even on this list

Definitely some catchy songs. FF is one of those bands that I bypassed when they were at the height of their popularity. Take Me Out is a jam, at the time we were inundated with bands that were similar to, but not exactly like, the Strokes. This hits a bit different than the Strokes, but not enough to convince me I needed to hear it!

Great vibe, incredible voice.

BIG is a nihilist. I have had this album for years and don’t revisit often because of that. But it is a stone cold classic, the beats are amazing, the rhymes are excellent.

A solid listen, no real ear worms tbh. I guess I’m more of a Toots and the Maytals enthusiast.

It’s no Angel Dust!

It’s no Angel Dust!

This one grew on me as I progressed through the album. There are some musically interesting bits, all of them sequenced before the most famous track on the album. I feel like I will revisit this one!

There are some gems on here, but a lot of the album feels like filler. The hits are the hits, of course, but they are hits for a reason!

Nah

This album is... sprawling. Compared to the first three outKast albums, it is far more indulgent and the moments of pure head nodding bliss are farther between. But they do come up with some bops here and Andre 3000's contributions are pretty interesting. A keeper that will probably reveal more on further listens.

It's ABBA. It slaps.

Damn near perfect album, perfect energy.

yea I just couldn't finish this one. I like Pump It Up. I know that he played "Radio Radio" with the Beastie Boys on SNL. But this just does nothing for me. I WANT TO LIKE IT. But no.

This feels like a watered down version of Jimi Hendrix's "Band of Gypsys" album, which came almost a year before this. Is there a connection or influence? I have no idea. But if they are drawing from the same well, I would take the Hendrix album just about every time. It's not bad! But it pales in comparison.

I would consider this a "technical" album. But I did not finish it simply because I don't believe in forcing myself to do so. Three stars based upon what I heard. If you are into a stiffer version of Medeski Martin and Wood, this might be your shit.

Thanks I hate it.

Just some good songs. There's no doubt that Bowie is a good song writer, and this album is a prime example.

A well crafted pop album.

A solid album, the last two cuts not living up to the promise of the previous eight. But fair enough! I will be coming back to this one.

Dear Lord did I really need to hear this? I skipped the first track because I've heard it enough, the second song was solid and gave me hope. The third and fourth songs? What the actual f. It really sounds like some dude who is half in the bag that decided bringing his guitar to the party would be super cool. It's not.

Yasiin Bey once described Drake as "music you can shop to" and I think that's an apt description for Coldplay. There are a couple exceptional songs on here, but if you heard the singles... you're not missing anything. Everything else can be categorized as "songs to fall asleep to".

There are a few good songs in here but the sheen of the production wears thin after a bit. Maybe that's just a contemporary sensibility. Still I won't be running back to this record, though I wouldn't be in a hurry to turn it off if it was already playing.

Pretty foundational album. Delete tracks 9, 10 and 11 and it would be damn near perfect.

This teeters between a three and four. I really liked the opening and ending tracks! Not sure how I feel about the middle three - they're not bad, they don't swing like the other two do, that is for certain.

I really can't be mad at Steve Winwood, this just doesn't do it for me though.

Some of the sounds she gets from pure vocals are impressive! I had a few moments where I had to remind myself there's no instruments. That being said, is this a great album that is drawing me back for repeat listens? I don't think so. Bjork has done more memorable work, and acapella songs have never really worked for me personally.

Some moments of pure musicality, but not enough to put it over the top.

Starts slow and picks up by the end!

A strong start, weak finish, "Heart of Glass" notwithstanding. Disappointing to say the least!

I think I would like this if I was into poppy 90s alternative. It's catchy and pleasant.

You want me to listen to 24 songs of The Who? No.

oh hell no

A lot of the riffs here are great, pummeling stuff. But a lot of the lyrical content paired with Belladonna's vocal style really doesn't do it for me. This is more of a three and a half but I think there are plenty of other thrash albums that would easily make it to four over this one. Apologies to Scott Ian.

It's very beautiful.

Yea this is what I am here for. weird, trippy soundscapes. I'm in.

Nothing to see here.

A pretty solid album, on the cusp of a four. The final song "Reconsider Baby", comes off as a tepid lift of far better blues songs and reminds me of how much the entire affair owes to artists who were not given the same chances as Elvis.

I wanted to like it, and can tell that some of the songs hit the numbers for being solid pop jams. It just could not hold my interest.

Seems technically good, it just wasn't working for me. Had to quit after awhile.

This is a pretty solid album. I like the lo fi production, I like the nuanced song writing choices. It has an earnestness and fire that was emblematic of the music scene back then but seems to be in short supply in the 2020s.

It bops.

The singles are jamming. I think I'm developing a process here - the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the songs songs, and then the singles if nothing holds my interest in the first group. Using that metric, this album does ok! But I did not hold out for any surprises once I finished with the singles.

Though Dre disavowed this album in terms of production quality, the beats are working on just about every cut. Even "Something 2 Dance 2", which seems out of place but slaps in its own right. When Ice Cube is firing on all cylinders, he's a great lyricist. Five minutes of him talking about how he disrespects women ("I ain't the 1") is about five minutes too long. Everything else hangs together pretty well. Timeless.

oh god no

The production is brilliant, as to be expected. Though I wouldn't revisit, I get why this is a popular album.

Overlong. self-indulgent. 1979 can't redeem this album, and it's just as much a waste as I remember.

Meh. The piano player is great, and it's clear that Bowie is a skilled songwriter. Outside of the first track, nothing that remarkable IMO.

I don't know who this is for, but it's not for me.

Borderline four / five. Just about every song is a catchy jam.

It's cool. But not cool enough.

This is the third Paul Simon album I've been served in the span of two and a half months. Please make it stop. I'm really starting to resent the people who catapulted this man to such fame that he is considered so essential. He is about as fundamental to musical experience as the Barenaked Ladies.

Mehhhhhhhhh

I can respect Young as a songwriter but this just wasn't for me!

The next time an older person decries the state of music, I will be able to reflect on the multiple baby boomer-centric albums served to me on this list - the Paul Simon records, the Village Green Preservation Society, anything from Paul McCartney and Wings - and conclude that, no, it was not better back then, and that having skipped this genre in favor of others did nothing to degrade my quality of life.

I like a lot of stuff from Davis. For some reason this album misses me. Hoping that some of my favorites landed in this list but time will tell!

No doubt Sullivan has a great voice, I just think her songwriting style is not correlated to my own tastes for the most part. I think fans of adjacent artists will get a lot out of this record.

A stone cold classic.

Peak boomer bullshit. Let me die without having to insist the musical idols of my youth are some type of critical piece of musical education.

I thought I would like it much more. I wanted to be a “blues guy” but it just never hit for me the way it fires for others.

Some people really like Common. I am not one of those people. Solid effort, his lyricism just doesn't work for me on a consistent enough basis to warran more stars.

lounge music, pass.

What a weird album.

I wasn't too optimistic about this one, I prefer more of a Lemmy type growl to the the clean singing and high pitched tones you get from a vocalist like Rob Halford. But I have to admit, this album won me over. Living After Midnight is far from the high point of the album, though it is as renowned as Breaking the Law.

Pretty solid!

Man. This goes between a three and a four. There is some generic filler here but the good songs really work.

I really love the opener and the last two songs. Everything in between is a skip! Should have been a four song EP.

A beautiful album

I really really really really wanted to get into this album when it dropped. But the title tells you what to expect: 50 doing whatever he needed to do to get rich, even if that meant dropping subpar lyrics that managed to rise to the top during one of the more fallow times in hip hop. I mean... definitely one of the weaker eras in my book, Eminem aside. So this is what we got. C'est la vie.

It’s dope but dark

Not bad, but also not good enough to revisit. In general, once you've heard three or four Belle & Sebastian songs, you know what to expect!

I WAS SURPRISED. I have owned this album for a long time and never made it past the first or second track - to be clear, I do think the first song is a banger! I don't know why I wrote them off. But it's a good one. Full listen, lots of hooks, lots of melody.

To no one's surprise, John Lydon's vocals are the worst thing on this album. And then I made the mistake of going on his Wikipedia page. Never again. I wish I could give this zero stars, but the musicians do hold up.

I can tell this is musically solid but just not my thing. So... three stars ofc.

I know this is good but I can't handle a pink floyd double album.

There are a few songs in the beginning that rely on high pitched samples, which always kept me away from the rest of the album. But yea it’s good, obsession with whistles aside, great rhymes, unparalleled beat making.

strong meh from me!

I've never been a huge Neil Young fan, but this one slaps from front to back. A must listen.

I want to like this more than I do. That being said, it is a pretty solid album.

Too mellow for me.

No.

This one's tricky - it's so good! But also not the easiest listen. You really don't fire up this album to kick back for the evening and shake off the day's troubles. But it's still a keeper!

Fun, depressing, an album that is somehow inaccessible in full anywhere but Youtube (or buying on bandcamp but not ready to commit!)

It's solid but not that great!

Solid, front to back. Worth a listen.

It's ok. Like a lot of electronic music, there's nothing challenging and it winds up feeling as if you've heard every song on the album once you've waded through the first three or four.

So weird, so dark. Love it.

The songwriting hangs together well, it just really really really sounds like an album that was made in 2000. Which is, canonically, one of the worst times for music. This was the mashup era, and it shows.

The audio quality undermines the effort here, yet the music is on par or better than what we get out of modern metal.

Sounds good, I just can't rock with folk. For me, British folk doesn't have the cultural baggage of the American folk movement of the 60s. So there's that. I can say on the merits of the sound and playing, it's good. But I can't go above three because that would mean I'd want to come back to it later. And I don't. But if you put it on in a restaurant or coffee house or just chilling somewhere it would be just fine.

Classic, easy five stars

I would give this three stars on the strength of "Clean" alone. And yet! You've got plenty of other bangers on here.

this is ok.

Boomer bait. Sounds fine but no thanks.

I'm starting to feel like the random choices are saying "are you sure you don't like 60s folk? how about psychedelica?". I get that just about every genre sounds 90% the same with a few standouts that transcend their categorization and do really interesting things. This is not one of those standouts.

Ah, we've found "The Shitty Beatles" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIpeW581rE

This is pretty dope. Beth Gibbons doesn't reel me in when it comes to her style and melodies, yet the atmosphere throughout the album keeps things interesting.

Pretty much the culmination of an incredible four album run.

Sorry Fred. This ain't it (for me).

Pleasant enough, but pleasant ain't gonna get you past three stars Bert.

He's a good piano player, it's a good recording. It just doesn't do anything to move me past three stars.

Some of the songs fell flat for me, but there are plenty of cuts that held my interest. Worth another listen in the future I think.

Ray Charles is always a solid pick.

There are a few flat spots, yet the good songs more than compensate!

I've had this one for a while. It's one of the weaker Led Zeppelin records for me! It feels meandering and self-indulgent in way too many places.

This is four and a half because I think one track is a miss, but I cannot bring it down to four.

Nope! I'm sure it's fine. But still, nope.

I was surprised at how much I like this, I am pretty sure this album is the first one without any of the key Wailers. Great stuff regardless.

I've taken two passes at this and it wasn't working. There are a few Roxy music cuts I do enjoy. I suppose I was expecting something similar to Eno's solo work but not to be.

Kinda fun, kinda entertaining but after awhile I was like "ok I've had enough"

The music is pretty tight!

I really love the choices they made in this album. I was familiar with more of the pop parts of the Cure, and this one defied my expectations!

There really is something about the way the Beatles phrase and sing lyrics that can make me go "oh I don't give a shit" the minute the vocals come in on so many of their songs. And TBH I think it's more Paul McCartney than anyone else. If there's ever an argument of throwing out any of your drug induced song ideas, "Yellow Submarine" would be it!

This one's better than I remember. People really get down with Ghost as a story teller, but songs like "Be Easy" are just straight swagger and so good. I will forever give Ironman five stars, but this one runs a close second or third.

I feel remiss giving this a three given the source! But I got this album when I was much younger and I wasn't vibing with it then either. Sad, mostly for me.

yea, no. but you do you.

Kind of underwhelming but then I've always felt this way about the singles from the album. I like them if they come on, yet rarely seek them out.

She can play, she can sing. The composition is excruciating.

meh

Anything that needs to be said about this has been said.

Not exactly my bag, but you can tell the Cohen is firing on all cylinders. The production is well done, the composition is well done. He's not a strong singer, but it does not make much of a difference!

This is decent, but John Phillips is probably a sex pest, so 2.5 stars for you!

I wanted to like it more than I actually do. Alas!

This is alright. It does have the worst De La Soul cut I have ever heard, not because of the beat or the rhymes, but because of the extended outro where they pretend to be babies.

Yikes. I feel like this man's greatest contribution to music may have been his son.

It's ABBA. If you want to get down with some well-crafted pop songs, this is your jam.

Oh goddamn this is worse than the last one they gave me.

I can't disrespect Elvis Costello but it's just not working for me.

You don't need to hear obscure folk-pop psychedelica. Ever.

Every song is a hit. Even the deep cuts sound like hits.

JFC. More generic folk psychedlica.

This is ok. And again I ask... was it really a MUST that I hear this before dying??

I'm about one tenth of the way through this list, and the sheer volume of folk and folk tinged albums is almost embarrassing. Other forms of music exist! That being said, the track "Helpless" by Neil Young is good. It's no wonder Young has managed a career spanning decades while the others remain relics.

It's ok. I think they improve on this formula in their later efforts.

I can see the appeal if you're into noise rock, which I am every now and then. But I don't think you gotta hear this one.

There are some great songs, some good songs, and some real let downs. I think the strength of the good songs, as well as the rhythm section, keep the album moving forward.

Going to pass since it is so difficult to find this.

Frank Sinatra is a dipshit that lent Ronald Reagan his plane in his campaign against Jimmy Carter. That's just a fact. But this album is a vibe that I need for all the times when I'm not trying to make myself sick with such knowledge.

I appreciate that it's satire but the racial slurs are a no from me. He's a good musician but man get this off the list for the love of god.

Lou Reed seems like a shithead but this album is pretty good.

I wouldn't put Chapman's style in my list of gotos - she is skilled beyond a doubt in her playing, composition, and lyricism. I do think this one is an actual must hear, for people in the United States in particular.

This is a thing that exists.

Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes alone would bring this to three stars. The remaining cuts are a weird, enjoyable journey.

I'm not a huge fan yet, but I'm getting there!

🤷‍♂️

It's got some neat songs. Not mind blowing by any stretch of the imagination.

Is this cool or just inoffensive?

Nahhhhhhh

A pretty solid listen

Solid!

For me, Lenny Kravitz is perpetually on the verge of doing something ambitious or interesting. And that is just not enough for my one life.

dude wtf

I always liked this album for standouts like "Buggin Out", but once I gave it a closer listen I came to appreciate how the sound and details of the deeper cuts make this a very complete sounding album.

My first exposure to a Police album. It's ok but I'll be sticking with the hits.

It's alrigh!

its fine! I think Phair's vocal delivery just doesn't work for me.

The lead guitarist and Joplin are standouts against a backdrop of boilerplate rock numbers. Otherwise, its spot here is boomer fan service.

It's good. Just not for me.

I wish this service was context aware. As in, I've already gotten two Who albums and gave them two stars. I don't want to listen to the Who. Two albums is enough.

It's fine. Musical is good. Just not working for me.

I don't know if I'll ever be a Bowie fan but god damn this man can write a song.

what is happening

Not bad for elevator music

🤦‍♂️

yea but no

we will not be doing any more steely dan

A lot of his songs sound the same but every now and then he drops a banger. Love "San Quentin" and "A Boy named Sue" on this one.

I feel like the album starts off very strong and gets muddled towards the middle. But it can live off the strength of its best cuts.

I feel like this one is worth coming back to!

Wild that the JBs did every single beat on here, and every one is fresh. No misses.

ah it's fine. not for me.

I had gotten this album during a personal jazz craze and had remanded it to second tier status for being too busy in comparison to albums like "Coltrane + Hartman" and "Lush Life". But coming back... it's good. It's working for me. I will be coming back for more.

eh it's ok

The first three songs are pretty good. And then it dies.

Damn near perfect album tbh

This album is so intertwined with my childhood I needed a lot of space to really appreciate it. But it is really a solid one.

I can see the appeal but it gets kind of repetitive after a bit.

Grohl playing the drums on this really gives it a life I don't hear on their other stuff. I like Foo Fighters songs, I think this one has some of the most consistent writing on it. He just went and did his thing and it really shows.

Nice mellow jams. Would listen again.

The music has a good vibe, but I don't enjoy Mick Jagger's vocal approach at all. I don't think I'll understand this band, I just can't get past it!

TBH I like this one better than Bitches Brew. Can't explain that. But there it is.

I feel like I have to give this a four because he's one of the most skilled lyricists of this generation. But the production we were getting in the 2000s just feels so generic, with few exceptions.

I have no ill will towards drum and bass as a genre. Does this deserve space on a list of "albums you must hear before you die"? No. This would be a three star if it was just something someone told me to check out, but since this list is telling me it's a "must hear" I gotta knock it down to two.

Songs like "A&E" and "Caravan Girl" have some character here, but it's not so much the rule as the exception.

This is good background music... but that's it.

This one sits between a three and a four. The last third of the album is classic, but the front of the album has one standout (4 Better or 4 Worse). Those songs are strong! But not enough to pull up the rest.

yea, no. it's fine. but moving on.

Seems like this is only a "must listen" if you really want to explore the roots of hip hop, but for the most part it's like a snapshot of people figuring out what hip hop is going to be.