497
Albums Rated
3.43
Average Rating
46%
Complete
592 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2010
Favorite Decade
Hip-hop
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
76
5-Star Albums
21
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
We're Only In It For The Money
The Mothers Of Invention
|
5 | 2.46 | +2.54 |
|
Oedipus Schmoedipus
Barry Adamson
|
5 | 2.78 | +2.22 |
|
Whatever
Aimee Mann
|
5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
|
Ctrl
SZA
|
5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
|
Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
|
5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
|
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Lucinda Williams
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
|
Tom Tom Club
Tom Tom Club
|
5 | 3.03 | +1.97 |
|
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Spirit
|
5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
|
White Ladder
David Gray
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Queen Of Denmark
John Grant
|
5 | 3.13 | +1.87 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
|
1 | 3.4 | -2.4 |
|
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
|
1 | 3.35 | -2.35 |
|
Live At Leeds
The Who
|
1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
|
The Specials
The Specials
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
Trio
Dolly Parton
|
1 | 3.13 | -2.13 |
|
461 Ocean Boulevard
Eric Clapton
|
1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
|
Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper
|
1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
|
Crocodiles
Echo And The Bunnymen
|
1 | 3.04 | -2.04 |
|
Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
|
1 | 3.03 | -2.03 |
|
At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash
|
2 | 3.97 | -1.97 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | 5 | 4.6 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 4.75 |
| Beatles | 6 | 4.33 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.67 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 4.67 |
| Pink Floyd | 2 | 5 |
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 |
| Kanye West | 2 | 5 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 2 | 5 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| R.E.M. | 4 | 4.25 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Madonna | 2 | 1.5 |
| Echo And The Bunnymen | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Dolly Parton | 4, 1 |
| The Who | 4, 1, 4 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 5, 2, 4 |
5-Star Albums (76)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Jane Weaver · 2 likes
3/5
Nice vocals. Interesting composition. Feels very current for indy. I like some music like this, Alvvays, men I trust, etc. I don't find this exemplary although all the pieces are well done in their own right.
Sade · 2 likes
5/5
This album is fantastic. I like that I didn't' realize that it was smooth operator until halfway through. The track is that good, one of my favorite single tracks of all time. it's followed by 'Your love is King' and 'Hang onto your love' which are also fantastic and groovy and danceable. Cherry Pie is also amazing. The last three tracks are more forgettable though the final track is mostly a very cool jungle instrumental with some beautiful percussion.
This whole thing is so groovy, so danceable, so cool. This is the kind of music I really like driving with. It makes me want to put my sunglasses down and walk through the streets with my hips just barely swaying to the beat. These tracks are fantastically enjoyable and really make me yearn for a time where disco and soul were more prominent. Makes me want to go to a soul club. Maybe I will
Metallica · 1 likes
3/5
These guys seem very angry not a great way to make music I personally think that you should always be in a positive mental space before you try to make music otherwise that anger is going to come out in the music which we would never want.
Patti Smith · 1 likes
4/5
I think this is pretty great. Hard to pin down the style, but it's creative and cool. It's kind of art rock without being too noisy. It sounds good. It's just a cool expression and it lands. Great debut.
Björk · 1 likes
4/5
Björk is always fun to listen to. This project isn't as far out as her later work but it's still an odd sound for someone new to her music. I will say I'm not a big fan of the electronic and dance influences on some of these tracks but as a whole it's still an engaging listen.
1-Star Albums (21)
All Ratings
Fela Kuti
3/5
I think that this sounds good but it's a little percussion heavy for my liking. Certainly enjoyable but not exactly what I'm looking for.
King Crimson
5/5
Spectacular, avante garde, irreverate. This album feels fresh and exciting. The Kanye West 'Power' sample running through the first track is a brilliant Homage. This album is emotional, melodic, grand, everything I would look for in progressive rock.
Black Sabbath
4/5
A wise man once said that the greatest trick the devil ever played was that his fruit tasted sweet. Perhaps this is what Black Sabbath was going for on this album, Paranoid. The first track war pigs, a fantastic opening track paints the picture of what to expect, rage, power, and a commitment to dark powerful imagery. The pacing of the album works perfectly smoothly transitioning from more aggressive metal riffs towards more soothing and classic rock. Several times, the metal riffs return, in epic fashion and crash over the musical landscape in waves. There's a lot I love about this album and makes me excited for some of the metal and hard rock that I know is coming.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Perhaps in the 70s before netflix and air conditioned bedroom, something like this might have been necessary for getting your wife in the mood. Perhaps in the 70s the musical landscape was so much less dramatic that the soft crunes of Marvin Gaye were enough to satisfy your mind. Beyond the first two tracks which I think are excellent, the songs are a bit too sparse for me. There isn't much to chew on in the latter half of the album and I found myself waiting for the some of those iconic melodies that Motown is known for. That relief never came and I found myself bored, and wanting more. This style of slow-burning musical foreplay doesn't really suit me.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
This album is sonically interesting with a unique identity and very direct approach. The first track establishes a departure from a lot of the generic rock sensibilities of the time with unique noises. There hair-raising aspect to some of the sounds included along this album. "I don't remember" and "Through the Wire" are catchy and well crafted songs that feel just right for the period. Songs like "Games without Frontiers" and "Biko" have a unique sound that I really enjoyed. These songs feel foreign while also sticking in your head.
I would love to be whistling tunes and kissing baboons in the jungle.
I think the genesis/ Phil Collins style doesn't help or hurt the album it just feels a bit weird. This style of drumming without Collins voice feels imbalanced to me. Perfectly fine to listen to but it didn't blow me away.
Slipknot
1/5
I only listened to the first half of this album before I had to ear bleach with some Bob Dylan.
Favorite songs were 'surfacing' and 'me inside.' 'Me inside' had some 'rapping' that I could agree. There were a few tracks that reminded me of skillet or papa roach that would play on my pandora station. Hopefully that isn't insulting to the fans of this album.
If angry and disillusioned youth need to express their anger in society I would much rather them join a gang and steal kias then make this dreadful music. I even skimmed through the rest of it just now to see if there was anything I might want to revisit.
This album came out the year I was born and let me tell you, as a baby, I hated this kind of music and revisiting it 25 years later, still not a fan.
Black Sabbath
4/5
A solid Black Sabbath project. Had I not been introduced to Sabbath I might have been more suprised by the quality of this one. 'Changes' shows Sabbath's range with more of a ballad style song which I think is executed well. Most of the album is quality, the band is really in their bag on this project. I don't think there were as many sonic risks but it's all very well executed. Favorite song was Snowblind. Closing track was also very strong. The guitar on this album is really strong, it takes a powerful instrumental to pair with Ozzie's voice and Sabbath really came through with a good balance on this album. It's a great collection of tracks that feel like the band has found their sound but they aren't stagnating on it.
Worth noting that I listened to the 2021 remaster. Not sure how the original sounds and it sounds gorgeous..
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
Never heard Hanoi Rocks before. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of glam/hair rock but there are songs I can get into under the umbrella. Having said that, this album didn't do anything for me. I didn't particularly care for any of the hooks or choruses and I didn't find them very memorable. Favorite song was 'Tootin Bec Wreck'. I feel bad for it but I can't say I like this album or will even remember it.
Songhoy Blues
3/5
This album was good. I think the story adds some emotion to the music but the reserved African sound doesn't add to the emotions. It's a band of political refugees forced to uproot their lives and somehow it feels very little of it comes through the multiple vocal layers. The guitar instrumentation is tremendous, these guys are talented and the guitarist especially was very powerful and perfectly done. You can hear the inspirations, Hendrix'esq guitar and a real commitment to 60s and 70s rhythm & blues that you don't see as much anymore.
Favorite Song Irganada.
Note: This album reminded me of one of my favorite albums, Inteiro Metade by Tagua Tagua. It's a bit groovier and synthetic but I recommend if you liked this album and
The Cult
3/5
You know Turning this on and hearing 'Wildflower' I said, alright now we're talking. This was the kind of Rock I was hoping for from Hanoi Rocks. This is the rock and roll I can appreciate. Driving home on thursday afternoon with the windows down, Cult blaring, arm rested out the window throwing winks and peace signs to the cancer patients waiting outside my girlfriend's workplace to pick her up. I felt cool. That being said, I don't think its that great. It's good filler rock music and I could imagine going to a show of these guys and having a fantastic time, but it wasn't particularly memorable or replaceable. This would seemlessly slip into a rock playlist but it won't stand out very much. I wanted to give this a 4 but I think 3.5 is about right. It's better than middle of the road, but this is the best of the best and I don't see myself revisiting it any time soon.
Public Enemy
3/5
Overall cool album sound is good. Not really what I like in hip hop but lyrically interesting and way better than the mumble crap they put out today. Superb mixing, flows a bit antiquated and suprising how much space they leave for the instrumental.
The Bees
3/5
Radiohead
5/5
The Avalanches
4/5
I don't have a ton of exposure to dance or Electronic music. I typically don't like it. I did like this, it grew on me over time and it put me in a better mood than when I started. This album felt like a collage of pieces, but where some electronic music sounds robotic when put together, this felt very human which I liked. This album felt like a journey and I think the concept of it as a cruise around the world taking it all in is a great concept and executed upon very well.
Favorite tracks: Frontier Psychiatrist, Electricity, Live at Dominoes
Taylor Swift
3/5
Note: I listened to the original version rather than Taylor's version.
Turned this thing on and I think it started strong. 'Welcome to New York' is good followed by 'Blank Space' which slaps, followed by 'Style' which slaps again. The album coasts and then you get to 'Shake it Off'. I don't care for 'shake it off' If Taylor Swift is music for 12 year olds, 'Shake it off' is made for the sensibilities of an 8 year old. Maybe if I were listening to it for the first time I could like it. Then the next hit, Bad Blood comes on, which might be my actual least favorite TS song. I'm not sure what producer told Taylor that she needs a song with booming beats, but it doesn't compliment her voice at all and has what might be the worst hook/ chorus of any of her songs. It's undanceable which rides on a garage band bassline that can't even be salvaged by Kendrick Lamar, awful song, Failed experiment and I don't think we've seen Taylor try something like that again. Next song, Wildest Dreams, awesome, great song love it. How you get the girl and I know places are also good as the album closes.
This album has some of my favorite and least favorite Swift Songs, If I liked Bad Blood and Shake it Off it would probably be a 4/5 star album, relatively consistent with pop hits sprinkled in. As it sits with me, it feels like Taylor was trying a lot of things on this album, some stuck and some didn't. I will say I think that this is the first album of hers that shows influence from Lana Del Rey which she definitely taps into more on Folklore and Evermore which I think is a good direction for her to go. As it stands, this project may have been important for Taylor's career but as a musical statement it's a bit of pop guff.
The Pogues
3/5
Was hoping to like this album. I have a fondness for Irish culture and but this wasn't it for me. Maybe it's because I prefer punk music in theory to it in practice but it just sounded like irish drinking song with little addition. Favorite songs, Brown Eyes, Waltzing Matilda. If I'm in the mood for this type of tune I'll revisit but it's middle of the road for me.
Grateful Dead
4/5
It's the dead. Its awesome. I hadnt heard this album before. Certainly not their best but still great. This kind of music is slow burning and you can only like it when you've let yourself synchronize with it. Early dead still feels more like a rock band and hasnt found the sound that they move towards. Even still its awesome. I won't rate every dead album 5 stars
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
Groovy, smooth, relaxing. Another good jammy performance. Wish I could have been there.
The Boo Radleys
3/5
I thought this was fine. Some strong moments, some weak moments. Has some grooves and some things going for it but it isn't consistent or inventive. Plays like an album older than it is. When this was released, better things were coming out.
Adele
4/5
Adele is one of the earliest musicians I remember recognizing on the radio. I remember my mom purchasing the CD for 21 and often playing it in the car. Revisiting, I think the songs are still fresh and powerful. I think Adele was pivotal in diversifying pop music in the 2010s, it broke up the monotony of Kelly Clarksons and Mariah Careys. This album starts out very strong with rolling in the deep and rumor has it, demonstrating right away her willingness to stray from one style. Set fire to the rain is the emotional climax of the album and the closing track someone like you is a powerful closer. This album was an instant classic for good reason, great production and great vocals. I'm unlikely to revisit but I can't deny the project of this album and how successfully it delivers.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I was excited to hear this album and this man, my dad says this is one of his favorite artists. I gave this album a few listens and I just don't see it. I will say, maybe I've spent too much of my life listening to copycats of this guy's style, but the music felt pretty bland. I read some people talking about how this was punk but it just has no teeth. It lacks strong hooks or fancy instrumentation. I just don't know what to think of this album, everything sounds good but none of the songs stuck with me after the tape shut off. I did find it improved upon revisits. I could see this album growing on me, but I guess I just want to like it more than I do.
Barry Adamson
5/5
Wow. Front to back I've never been able to feel a story through music as vividly as this album. Set the Controls as the front and ending credits does a great job. Something Wicked feels like a character introduction. It's business as Usual introduces conflict and dirty Barry turns it up a notch. The track is noisy, claustrophobic, sinister, and kinetic. Achieved in the Valley of Dolls is clever and triumphant. Vermillion Kisses is a worthwhile interlude. The big bamboozle is big and boisterous. The Sweetest Embrace is the finale and mourns the ending of the story and the death of innocence. Then the album ends with a well-timed credits track, it doesn't overstay it's welcome and leaves the listener on a positive note.
I think that the three songs with lyrics were all excellent. The album gives enough space that it isn't a 50-minute assault. It builds things up and the transitions, like that between the smooth tracks like Miles or a moment of Clarity, feel organic. Rather than a roller coaster with twists and turns, it feels like a lifetime with ups and downs, fasts and slows.
This album surprised and impressed me over and over again. I won't be listening to it often, but I will certainly revisit in whole when I want to experience the rich soundscape that it is. As a concept and as it is executed, I believe that it is near perfect.
Koffi Olomide
1/5
Wow did I not enjoy this. The beats sounded like the intro to an african disney movie and the sing talking makes every track a slog. I kept skipping in hope for some hook or memorable something and it just never happened. Nothing memorable, nothing dance-able, and because of the language barrier, nothing to chew on lyrically. I just don't like it.
Sebadoh
2/5
This thing is noisy and a bit all over the place. My favorite moments on this tended to be the softer and more melodic tracks which is not the point of this record. I like some noise rock punk type music but this was a bit too dysfunctional for me to get into. I can totally see people really enjoying this but it isn't something I'm enjoying right now.
Beatles
4/5
I listened to this on a loud car ride with my gf and her mom so I wasnt able to give it a proper listen. I know some of these songs, but most it was my first exposure. I liked it. Im not sure if I've ever listened to a beatles album through and its interesting how all the more experiment songs get cut when you just listen to the hits. I liked the experimental stuff and I've always been a fan of the goofy stuff like yellow submarine and octopus's garden. Some of the best beatles tracks are on this. Eleanor Rigby, Taxman, Yellow Submarine are standouts just off the top of my head. I think this album is a great beatles album.
Randy Newman
4/5
This album is straightforward good fun catchy southern rock. I like it, I listen to some soft rock like Jack Johnson and this feels in the same vane with some soul and flair added on. The vocals are good and jazzy. The whole project maintains the sound that has that great quality that they picked for the theme song for toy story and I think it was a great choice.
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
I have a soft spot for emotional indie music. I find music like this soothing and I appreciate it being on the list. I spent a few years only listening to sad music and while I'm glad I don't do that anymore, I think this album is a very well executed piece. Favorite song: Jupiter and Teardrops
The Clash
5/5
This rocks. Title track is fantastic and the first half as a whole has no misses. I always wondered what a five star punk album would sound like and this is it.
My uncle has a poster of this on his wall in his basement. I was hoping to get around to listening to most of the albums he has on his wall. The first one I listened to was Bad Brains and I wasn't a fan.
Radiohead
4/5
Quite great. This ought to be the first radiohead album to listen to. Radiohead had it dialed in, its moody, moany, and slow building. This is why radiohead fans are like no other. Its a genre of its own.
Lightning Bolt
3/5
Not pleasent but engaging. I get what this is trying to do and I think its mostly successful. I dont think that this experiment works best as an album but I think it works and its emotional and resonant.
Robert Wyatt
2/5
This sounds like if a Ska band tried to make a radiohead album. You can tell this guy is drawing from the same well as Pink Floyd and other BritProg from the time but the kookiness weighs it down over and over.
Michael Jackson
4/5
Pretty strong MJ album held up by some stellar singles. I've heard Bad, Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal. Most of it I hadn't but the whole thing is soaked in the Michael Jackson swagger and sounds that make it all feel familiar. Perhaps at this point MJ's sound has staled but putting on this album it seems to tell you over and over again "You are listening to MJ". He's the king of pop and I think the music lives up to the hype.
Talking Heads
3/5
I'm not a huge fan. Don't really understand the hype. It was a little weird but not enough to feel groundbreaking or new. I'm not a fan of Byrnes singing voice across the board, it works on some songs like Psycho Killer very well but on others it feels out of place. I think the instrumentation across this album is great and as a textural album, it is evocative and powerful. I think it has a growing quality. I think it's somewhere between a 3 and 4 for me. I think Heaven is a highlight. Life during Wartime is a perfect litmus test for if someone is into the talking heads. It has the punk sensibilities and its danceable, I just don't love it and that's fine.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Todd Rundgren has before you a great example of the wonders of psychedelics. Rife with the instrumentation and free for all that can only be written by someone convinced that his audience will be salivating on every note played. Psychedelic music needs a backing. It's a texture but not the shape of the music. Grateful dead was more folk. Jimi Hendrix had soul and jazz, Pink Floyd had progressive Rock. The shape of Todd's music is pop rock, to me, the exact type of Pop Rock that David Bowie made, but with a psychadelic texture. Does it work? Eh. I'll say I don't think many people have tried it since. It was unique but I think too specific of a flavor. Sort of the ham and banana of music. It felt worthwhile to listen to but it just never found itself over its 55 minute run time.
And Todd, I can guarantee no one is getting erect over your name, it's Todd Rundgren, perhaps the least arousing name I've ever heard.
Willie Nelson
1/5
wowee, this is pretty lame. What is Willie doing here? These songs are so sleepy. The lack of song structure doesn't subvert anything, it just makes it hard to get into.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
This was an enjoyable listen. When I was a youth I downloaded all the free music I could off of amazon and one of the songs was rappers delight so I have a soft spot for the sugar hill gang. This album feels like an extension of that project. The message is my favorite song and I also enjoyed the message II (survival) that comes out later. This album was danceable and catchy even if it is dragged at points by non hip hop songs that they must've added to fit with the pop music at the time. Fun album expertly crafted.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
Personal biases not aside, this album is great. I love folk rock. 'Almost Cut my hair' 'Woodstock' 'Our house' and 'Country girl' are my favorite tracks. I could listen to it more times and give a more thorough dissection but I don't feel I need to. I'm comfortable giving it 5 stars as is.
David Crosby
3/5
Completely serviceable but ultimately not hitting for me. Cowboy movie is great. Lots of the tracks just miss the mark. I like the project of the album but maybe it tried to be more introspective and emotional than it could really pull off.
The xx
5/5
This is the type of album that would have blown me away in high school. I love dreamy ethereal spacy music like this and I think the vocals add a lot to it. I'm stoked to see something calming like this in the mix. Also interesting to see the spotify plays. First song has the most played. Second less and so on down the line. Looks like a lot of people gave it a chance but couldnt finish it.
Blur
3/5
This album was a blur. Kinda ripping off big time rush. I thought it was fine
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
I like a lot of latin music but wasn't a fan of this. I didn't feel the energy to dance. I wanted to like it but it just didn't strike me. I might try listening to it again since I wasn't paying a ton of attention. My grounds manager at my appartment listens to a lot of what I assume is salsa when he dances in the parking lot. I was a little stressed yesterday for my tournament but I put this on while I was cleaning.
The Band
5/5
Very good. Messy at times but fantastic folky psychadelic. I really enjoy the vocals. Track one sucked me in and I was having a great time until 'the weight' which is the kind of song like 'Our House' from a few albums ago that I've definitely heard before but had no idea when or how. Anyways, 'The weight' is great. Obvious highlight of the whole album. I really liked all the songs and I think the whole thing is beautiful and mystical. The album is tight which is rare for music like this. Considering it came out in 68, this thing holds up great.
Prince
3/5
I think this is pretty good. Doesn't strike me as particularly special. When Doves Cry stands out as a timeless classic and really cool that it has no baseline. Purple Rain on the other hand falls flat trying to be a ballad without anything to say. I think it's a fine pop album but not much more.
Bob Dylan
3/5
This album is alright. I think it's well produced but it's slow and long. Maybe when I'm older this will hit a little better but for the moment the emotions don't come through in the same way as other Dylan albums.
Holger Czukay
3/5
This is the kind of album I could see myself revisiting when I have the time and capacity to chew on it. When I listened to it yesterday I found it a little too ambient even for my tastes. I like the format and the mustache.
The Kinks
4/5
Great album. Interesting fun catchy 60s rock. It compares a to the Beatles but the problem is that no one compares to the Beatle.
Motörhead
3/5
I think this is good hard rock/ metal. I don't really know. I played it in my car and loud and it was solid. Probably wont listen again but I get why people love it.
Air
4/5
Great ambient and spooky. I wasn't sold on this at the beginning but I think it's a pleasant listen that creates a good atmosphere. I might watch the movie. Taylor won't want to watch it though.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Very Simon and Garfunkely. This could be the holy grail of music to garden too. Pleasent to the ear but very soft boy. A simple desusetric philipic is a venture into a more rock sound and wow they can't pull it off.
Steve Earle
2/5
Gosh this is lame. This might be the quintessential lame country music. For that I give it a second star. There was a song I thought was alright on the backside. Overall boring and bad.
Erykah Badu
3/5
It's a little groovy but not enough Seems well produced and she has a unique voice but I wish the hooks were stronger and in this kind of thing, that's a big deal. The longer songs drag and don't make use of their runtime. Ultimately it showcases one style of RnB and stretches it out to a full album.
Duke Ellington
2/5
I like jazz. I don't like the live aspect of this album. Makes it feel like a well made band concert. I appreciate this being made, but I prefer Motown and the funk that came after it. It's too long and I don't think has the dynamic and exciting quality that jazz should.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
To begin with, I think the Velvet underground might be one of the greatest band names of all time. I think it paints such a vivid picture and captures the music very well. This album is very good front to back and displays a sweet style of music that there wasn't a ton of in this era. Compared to their contemporaries this is more subdued and vulnerable. This is a great listen with a diverse sound across it.
Janet Jackson
2/5
Well produced. Some catchy tunes. Every song feels too long and I couldnt get through it.
The Beach Boys
3/5
I totally get why this is good but its so dated. I can see the influence but these tracks feel more at home in a nostalgic movie than something I would actively listen to. Perfectly pleasant but not my thing.
The Smiths
2/5
Hard to say whether I don't like this album or I don't want to like this album. Morrisey's voice is whiny and his lyrics are all over the place. Not for me I guess.
CHIC
4/5
Yeah this thing is awesome. Great grooves. Consistent all the way through. I don't think it's doing anything particularly inventive but the band is honed in and giving it their all.
The Zutons
4/5
I thought the album cover and names might mean this would be an exciting and creative piece. I was prepared to be let down. I thought this was a really executed album. Its unique and a whole lot of fun. Tons of stuff going on. Reminds me of theme songs but executed really well.
Nick Drake
3/5
A pretty solid singer songwriter album. Very gentle, doesn't strike my fancy.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Catchy and awesome. Im happy with the level of funk that this brought. Infectious beats a great listen from s great artist
Christina Aguilera
3/5
This album is pretty good even with some heavy signs of age. Much like the album art, this style is distinctly early 2000s and while that style didn't stick around, it's still iconic. This album puts Aguilera's vocals on full display and while being a bit overdone, I think it sounds great. There are some snoozers in here but also 'The fighter' and 'Beautiful' which are songs I didn't know I knew until I found myself singing along. I didn't care for the length of this and there's a lot of tracks and a lot of them drag. This kind of music does not need multiple interludes. Overall I think this is a great time capsule from the 2000s and well represents Christina Aguilera, whom I mainly know from watching 'The Voice'.
Radiohead
5/5
Some of the best and most interesting and captivating music ever recorded. I don't listen to it often because I find it requires so much attention. The first track is awesome and unique to radiohead. The closing track video tape is one of my favorites of all time. A remis is used for one of my favorite kendama videos of all time and I find it incredibly emotional and even transcendental.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI9bbb372y8
It's the type of music that radiohead makes and they're the best at making it. This thing is so cohesive and abstract and emotional, and the suprising part is that it is so accessible. I think someone who wants to dig into the music would prefer a different radiohead album but this is the kind of album that sends a generation of alt,indy heads down that pipeline.
Van Morrison
4/5
Great album. Smooth, distinctly Van Morrison. Has some hits. There's a lot to love here.
Parliament
4/5
I like funk music. I often think to myself I should listen to more funk. This is great funk music, at times, pushing the envelope with some of the funk levels. I did find myself thinking by the end of this, funk isn't something you can turn on or off, it's a lifestyle. The person who makes this music isn't funky sometimes, he's funky all the times. And while I do like this music sometimes, I don't like it all the time and I can get tired of it. I have a lot of respect for people who live for the funk.
Incubus
2/5
I'm not going to talk about what I think should and shouldn't be on this list. You can't question the list, at least not publicly. You need to have faith in the list. Music is subjective and every album on this list is someone's all time favorite album and worth listening to. That being said.
It's hard to say how I've been rating these albums. By how much I enjoyed it? Or by how good I think it is? Either way I think that this is perfectly well made and mostly unenjoyable. This is the soundtrack for a movie about a cool 17 year old boy spy who plays by his own rules and brushes off his leather jacket when he walks away with the real artifact. This is the album your younger cousin is referring to when he says he likes metal and punk rock. This is disney channel cool guy music. I think it's pretty well made and has some interesting choices but most of it bored me and I was painfully aware that I was listening to it.
David Bowie
3/5
Feels like a generic rock album spiced up by the fact that it is signature Bowie and his sound comes through.
When I got to Boss of me, I started to vibe and think I could really get into it, but then dancing in outer space came on and it reminded me of everything I didnt like about Bowie and how dated some of it sounded. Completely solid but perfectly middling among this list.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
2/5
Certainly is music. Definitely feels like music that inspired the beatles and now we're many degrees of kevin bacon away. Sounds good but the time has come and gone. Feels like an album you'd listen to in a music history class, not one you'd actually put on to enjoy.
Frank Black
2/5
I didnt really care about this.
Van Halen
4/5
Classic Rock. This is the cream. I dont listen rock and roll too often but I can tell that this is the good stuff.
The Zombies
5/5
Cool and fun. Before music had to be super intense. Feels like the 60s makes you long for a simpler time.
The Birthday Party
1/5
Hardcore for people who eat McDonalds every day.
John Martyn
3/5
I have a soft spot for this type of music and choosing to ignore that alternative cuts made it better. Not all that memorable, really sleepy and ambient.
Frank Ocean
4/5
This is the first album that I had listened through all the way prior to the list. I consider myself a frank ocean fan. This is an interesting album, it goes all in on the electronic R&B sound and showcases Franks vocals. There are great tracks, thinking bout you, Super Rich Kids, crack rock, lost, monks, forest gump, and of course pyramids (which is the stairway to heaven of electronic R&B). However there are so many interludes. Start, end, white, pilot jones, fertilizer, its all a bit unnecessary. There are a lot of highs on this album and very few lows. These tracks have been with me so long I dont know how to assess them anymore. I think they're a bit aged and not to spoil it but I think Blonde is an improvement on every front.
Frank Zappa
4/5
Frank Zappa. This is what you get when you make jazz music out of rock. Extremely noodly, but also extremely well made. He can make the guitar sing when he wants just as well as Eric Clapton. This thing goes nowhere the whole time, similar to the early dead. This album is rock and roll fantasia. Total stoner background music. I love it. I debated whether or not it had a ton of value outside of a smoke session or campfire. This is the prelude to psychedelic rock, its all a complicated thing but anyways this is the sixties hippy music in a nutshell. Zappa is so talented and ny friend Parker says he could like it Zappa would just take it seriously. I think thats the magic, it isnt serious, its shredding an instrument for the fun of it. This isnt procedural, its not epic, its not pop, its a fun jam, and that's pretty cool.
Fats Domino
3/5
Hard to dislike an album this short. Fats really bodies the tracks and everything is sounding great. I am unlikely to listen to this often but I know it will be here and that's a comfort.
Beastie Boys
5/5
This album is great. The tracks go hard and there is so much charisma and style to this. These boys should be held in the same regards as NWA or the Wu-tang clan. The style and punchiness stands out and begs you to listen. It's great, the way the group bounces off each other with clever and interesting lyrics are great. The sampling and broad sonic pallet is great. It's the Beastie Boys at their best.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Fantastic. Distinctly pink floyd, super spacey, super influential. I dont think its as good as the wall. Songs like money stand out. The later tracks can blend into each other. Not necessarily a defect but I think the album feels shorter as a result.
Django Django
2/5
Dont understand the project of this album. It just goes.
Boards of Canada
1/5
Pretty lame. Kind of dreamy kind of moody competently assembled. Im willing to be harsh, it's a no from me.
Germs
1/5
Might have just not been in the mood but not my thing. I fully expect domino-reviews-albums to say this is a cornerstone of his highschool experience. Not for me.
Daft Punk
2/5
I have no soft spot for Daft punk or euro step or edm. Is this good, I dont know. Some of it was repetitive as shit.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I like the RHCP when they are Chili Peppers and less red hot. The punk and hip hop components I think consistently come off terrible. Under the Bridge is such an obvious outlier from the rest of the bunch. There are bits here where they just play a cool blend or rock and other bits where the repetition is horribly grating. Blood sugar sex magik a notable song that I hate and they name the album after it. They really thought they had something there. As a whole I think RHCP put most of their eggs in the basket of their shouty "rapping" and I dont like it. I like their softer stuff like off californiacation.
Leftfield
2/5
I thought I would like this and then I found out it was house music. There were a couple more spacy songs which I liked but ultimately I couldnt really pay attention to it.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
I was prepared to like it from the first few tracks but it didnt fully deliver
MGMT
5/5
Ground-breaking emotional gothic and dramatic. This thing shaped so much music and theres so much emotion put into this. Best of all, its so serious in its weirdness. The album cover captures it perfectly. They're saying, "Yeah it's fun, but its deadly serious, it's silly, but its not a joke". MGMT has a commitment to making abstract and emotional music and never apologizes for it or tries to justify it. This is a rock solid musical statement and it deserves all the praise.
Massive Attack
4/5
Interesting album. Very cool blend incorporating hip hop and soul and funk and reggae. I might revisit this at some point.
Green Day
4/5
This album has a lot of character I think probably the most of any Green Day album. Probably the best Green Day album. Only because the direction they chose to go in it just wasn't as artistically interesting as this was. The middle stretch is fantastic. Beginning is pretty samey and the ending is interesting.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
It sounds like a well put together 80s rock record with maybe a slant of regionality. Totally solid not very memorable
Arcade Fire
4/5
This was pretty good. I find the blend of rock and electronic to be good and captivating to me. Pleasantly suprised
Hot Chip
4/5
I liked this more than I expected. The first half especially was catchy. Motion sickness is good. Look at where we are is good, flutes is good, Now there is nothing all goo. This reminds me of still woozy who I enjoy. Overall pretty cool very much chill vibes.
Sam Cooke
5/5
Simply fantastic. Sam Cooke makes it all work so well. He has the swing in his music that makes you want to move and he has a powerful voice when he wants to. Bits of this felt like he was channeling James Brown and the product is an incredible show that starts off super high.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Also good. I think its charming and catchy.
3/5
Kind of interesting. Kind of jammy and electronic.
Magazine
4/5
This is a solid post-punk album. There's a lot to like here. some of the songs are pretty catchy, the instrumentation is good and it has a clear defined sound for this project. I think they hit something good when they made this.
Os Mutantes
5/5
Awesome. Sounds great. Spacey and fun. I would totally put this on in the background for a barbecue. Feels like the beatles in spirit and quality but foreign. Im suprised I havent heard this group before.
Johnny Cash
2/5
Doesnt do much for me. Live element doesnt really add anything either.
Iggy Pop
4/5
Super solid punk adjacent rock. I think this aged very well. The songa are memorable and it all feels consistent and fresh.
Metallica
3/5
These guys seem very angry not a great way to make music I personally think that you should always be in a positive mental space before you try to make music otherwise that anger is going to come out in the music which we would never want.
Country Joe & The Fish
4/5
Start was very strong. Really cool blend of electronic and psych that I think is really predictive of the shape of indy and progressive music that followed. I think the second half is a little less focused and more noisy. I'll definitely revisit this. Falls just short of a 5 at the moment
M.I.A.
3/5
Sonically, this album is fine. Creative, politically interesting messaging (I'm sure, I don't often listen to the lyrics of music I'm hearing for the first time), ultimately this kind of electronic dance music is fine. My issue with it is that this type of music has become the music of tech company commercials trying to be cool. This is the exact music that plays in the background of a meta commercial where a BIPOC young woman bravely constructs a poster to take to her protest against plastic straws. The beginning of these songs makes me instinctively look for the skip ad button. It's hard for me to appreciate this music and its anthemic qualities when I associate it with the annoying commercials of Silicon Valley tech and their glamourized view of the inspired youth.
Talking Heads
5/5
This is a great album, and I think is clearly the best Talking Heads album. It's consistently exciting and rhythmically interesting for 40 minutes. It's great to listen to. It's fun and feels distinctly Talking Heads. That being said, I find the vocals always sound like a carnival barker and it's just kind of silly to me. It feels like an act, not in a phony way, more like in a drama. He's hamming it up and I appreciate that. I tend to like more vulnerable music, and this doesn't feel particularly vulnerable. Once in a lifetime is unique and it feels almost like a radio opera or a twilight zone episode. It's just cool. This feels groundbreaking and exciting and influential. Hard to say whether I should give it a 5 because I think it's that good or give it a 4 because it's not the type of thing I usually listen to. I'll give it a listen in the right set and setting and I'm sure I'll enjoy it even more.
Jurassic 5
4/5
This feels like an Album that Dan Kocman would be stoked about.
This album is great. The production is excellent and the mix of voices feels so classic, an extension of the furious 5 or the sugarhill gang. I think it's a real shame that at this same time, NWA, 2pac, Nas, and BIG were becoming the face of hip hop. Not that those guys aren't great, but it feels like it really squashed what was left of the old guard of artists making music in that sing song style. Guys like Snoop Dogg who started out more like that shifted their style into the 2000s. Ultimately, the worst thing to happen to rap was the feature culture where they would stick Juicy J on a Katy Perry song for 45 seconds but that's another story.
These guys are great. Having a dedicated or in this case two DJ's makes the tracks feel connected and consistent. Not only that but the production on these is really strong with very cool percussion that seems to me pretty influential. The rapping is all good and the hooks are pretty excellent.
I am a big fan of dedicated DJs/Producers. Run the Jewels, Death Grips, and my favorite, Brockhampton. I think it matters a lot more than people realize and it's part of why artists like Drake get more plays on their singles than their albums. They're just all over the place and he can't seem to nail down one style for an entire album.
Back to the Power in Numbers. The opening is strong. The Nelly Furtado feature on thin line is sweet and the closing track is powerful and interesting. Overall really solid album, will probably relisten.
Arrested Development
2/5
This album is Psyop by the US government to try to convince the urban population to go about changing the world in the right way. "Empower yourselve's fellow black people, don't turn to gang violence and crime to get by, put your faith in Christ and realize your own power to rise up through perseverance, education, and strength of character" George HW Bush was in charge and if the minorities weren't going to shape up he was going to flood their neighborhoods with crack and let the prison system have a crack at it. I'll let you decide what happened next.
Jokes aside, I think the beats on this are solid but a bit stagnant for my liking. Clearly there's some talent going into these beats, it feels like a real DJ and the rapping fits right over. That being said, I don't care for the lyrical flows and I think they tend to be basic rhyme schemes in the interest of making the message fit.
If it weren't for the Jurassic 5 album yesterday, I think that this would be higher because it shows off how much better the genre would be in just a few years.
Additionally, I didn't care for Tennessee. It didn't do anything for me, and some of the tracks on here reminded me of Smash Mouth.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I see the concept here. Let's make a bold dark project that's unashamedly gruesome. As society advanced and things that were once shocking gets less of a reaction. I think this album tries to get the same kind of vibe as Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison but for a modern audience. I like a lot of these tracks. I think they capture a particular place and particular time well. Stagger Lee, Wild Roses, are good tracks. I don't like O'malley's pub it's too long and sacrifices too much music for the storytelling. I also think the last song 'Death isn't the end' is lame and annoying. Overall the problems with this album are mainly it flirts with being 'cringe'. It's pretty self serious, like a kid telling an over the top scary story at a campfire and no one is all that scared but he keeps drumming it up.
I could see revisiting some of these tracks around halloween. I like the multiple vocalists as well.
Elton John
4/5
Great. Elton trying to capitalize on the progressive sound coming up and I think he does a great job. The piano forward is such a hallmark of John and even the lackluster tracks maintain the vibe. I liked the Indian song, I think people are being sensitive about it. The track is fine and sounds good. Honestly, it feels like he was auditioning to write the soundtrack for Disney's Pocohontas.
The Stooges
3/5
Pretty good for what it is. Hits hard, I don't think the production hurts it.
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
Mr. Blue Sky is the best song. This group has a really well defined style and I think it's cool that they are so unique. All of it sounds a little samey which wouldn't be a problem if I really liked it, but most of them, I think sound good, but I don't love them as tracks. There are also some experiments on here where they go a little progressive or a little moody. Ultimately, this thing goes on too long and I skipped several tracks out of boredom.
Beastie Boys
4/5
I would say that my opinion of the Beastie Boys was somewhat negative going into this. The extent of my familiarity was some singles, their feature in futurama, and I knew that they were all white.
At the beginning I didn't like this. It took a little for the project of the group to make sense to me. I think it was around Sabotage which I immediately recognized from this great youtube video of a guy recreating the skateboarding scene in family guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=4oS6ooRxZY0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY
When it got to the song with Q-tip I was pretty impressed. This album explores a wide range of sounds and the boys showcase their versatility and production skills. What impressed me most is the white space on this album. lots of space for the tracks to play on their own without the Beastie boys feeling they need to interject. This project is a space for the group to experiment and try things without it feeling messy. Some of the lofi stuff is really out there and not something that I realized that the beastie boys were interested in.
I was pleasantly suprised by this album, I didn't expect the depth and experimentation that we got here.
The Kinks
2/5
This album isn't doesn't do much for me. It pales in comparison the psychadelic rock coming out from the Beatles. This album is tame and doesn't hold up. Not as good as VIllage Greeen Society. It's probably a 3 on enjoyment but out of principle I have to dock a point because I was excited for this album and it wasn't what I wanted.
Gary Numan
3/5
I tend to like synth pop. I think that this album is decent. I guess it's cool that it's all synthetic but maybe it sounded a bit more novel and futuristic in the past. Realistically this probably inspired much of the vaporwave electronic ambient music that I do very much like but I don't think it's that great. I'll see if I ever think to give this another listen.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
This is dope. Great DJing, great rapping, creative choices executed flawlessly.
The Band
3/5
It's solid. A couple songs stand out as real winners, cripple creek and old dixie down. The band has a real legacy and they are one of the links between country folk and psyche and prog. This album especially feels like a stepping stone, but not some grand epic. It's good, but somewhat forgettable.
Sex Pistols
3/5
Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day has a nice rightup on the Sex Pistols in the rolling stones 100 greatest artists of all time. Growing up listening to Green Day, it's funny how my immediate impression was that Sex Pistols sounds a lot like Green Day, replacing Armstrong's California punk voice with a British one. This is definitely a noisy album, there's a lot going on at once and there is a chaotic angry quality that works well and feels important. I think I prefer the progressive building and more stripped back music from the Clash, but I get how this band is important for grunge and garage rock and a lot of music I hold dear. That being said, I hate the British accent.
Muddy Waters
4/5
You know, a lot of this old shit sounds great. Mannish Boy starts this album off with a bang. It all sounds really great.
Eurythmics
2/5
Completely listenable, much of the album feels like side pieces to the main event which is the title track. Eurotrash, I don't need it. Possibly sounded better at the time.
The Cars
4/5
I thought this was pretty great. The first 3 songs just keep getting better and better with "Just what I needed" the obvious radio hit. I thought I'm in touch with your world was a disapointing shift but it came back strong on the B side with "you're all i've got tonight" Overall, this is a style of rock that holds up well and this album is an exceptional debut.
Sister Sledge
3/5
Sounds nice. Honestly couldnt get through it all. Every song goes on too long. I think the title track has been played to death but the whole album is definitely a vibe. Not something I want all the time, but possibly a cool album to put on for the right crowd.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
This music sounds dark and serious and edgy while also sounding generic. I think this misses a big part of what makes metal and grunge good. Honestly, if it weren't for the Sex Pistols, I think that this is what green day would sound like. There's something about the high fidelity and clarity of this music that just makes it feel overprocessed and inorganic. I really didn't have a problem with it but it doesn't stir up anything under the surface. Hard to rate.
Fugazi
4/5
Repeater is an interesting listen. It's also Hi-Fi and clear which makes it stand out from a lot of punk and predecessors. I think it delivers on an interesting baseline of pushing past punk and making something that is less accessible and more raw without sounding chaotic or disjointed. This is probably my favorite album in this genre so I'll rate it favorably despite it not being my style. I like what one reviewer says about listening to it while moving. It's a kinetic album and you can feel it in your bones.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Bob Dylan had a long career but this is defining moment within it. Personally I hardly noticed that one side of the album was acoustic and the other side was electric. Goes to show that the music world has since decided that there is a place for electric guitar in folk music. Subterranean Homesick Blues is a great intro track. Maggie's Farm and the 115th dream are standouts on the electric side. Mr. Tambourine man is a huge refresh for the second half. It's an awesome track, and I prefer Dylan's version to the Byrd's version. The closing tracks are great and emotional and soothing.
This album isn't long, but importantly Bob Dylan doens't waste time. Each track adds and there's no filler and breaking the album into two stylistic halves make it feel even more full. This guy was fighting for your attention and that's something I appreciate. Some of my favorite Dylan tracks are on this album and it's a great introduction to the Folky side of Bob Dylan that often gets overshadowed by his rock sound that includes many of his hits.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Jimi Hendrix made psychedelic rock cool. The dead made music for the hippies and stoners but it wasn't genre pushing. Jimi Hendrix took the Blues and funk and prototypical rock and roll he learned while backing for pioneering rock acts like Little Richard and played with the freedom of the Dead. Here was a guy who wasn't old, white and clean cut. He was cutting loose in a way that wouldn't be seen again until Led Zeppelin. He was a rockstar in a way that few people have ever been. He was a performer and he had a special relationship with the music. I wish there was somebody out today who was pushing music this hard, and able to achieve mainstream success like he did. The 60s were a unique era in that way.
Onto the album. This album is long, and with most tracks not having a typical song structure it feels even longer. This feels like an album, not a collection of tracks which I think makes sense for an artist like Hendrix. My favorite songs are crosstown traffic, voodoo chile (though it requires a mood), come on, 1983, gypsy eyes, house burning down. This album is an experience as songs might seem to be following a traditional song structure and then degrade and branch off into chaos. Come on, specifically feels like a traditional blues-rock song but it starts wandering around going to all of these interesting and unexpected places.
The album feels like it ends at House burning down. I consider along the Watchtower to be a bonus track. It's a cover and feels different than the Hendrix originals. It's relatively short, The instrumental is the cleanest of the whole bunch, and Hendrix strips the guitar down. It's probably the best thing Hendrix has ever done. It's powerful, creative, and combines Dylan's evocative storytelling with some of the cleanest psychedelic guitar ever made. It might be my favorite song ever. I think it's important for experimental artists to have songs like this to show that they are capable of making traditional songs, but they are choosing to push the envelope and follow their passion. Pablo Picasso comes to mind. Voodoo Child slight reprise closes out the album again, I see this as a bonus track distilling the 15 minute track into its essential. I see it as Hendrix acknowledging that people may not be ready for his long guitar epics, and the shorter version will be more accessible and radio friendly.
As a whole this album is messy and ambitious. It's essential psych rock and it feels like a distinct part of the psych landscape. Where a lot of albums are stoner music because they are spacey and melodic, this album is noisy and kinetic. The point of all of this is to say that this album is both very good, and in my opinion, very important.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Stevie explores a different sonic pallet on this project. It does produce gems like Superstitious but as a whole, loses some of Stevie's unique style and funkiness. There's a lot of Marvin Gaye influence on this which I'm sure many people love but isn't really for me. It's still a Stevie Wonder project and it sounds great.
Venom
1/5
The words are quiet and the instrumentals are loud. I tried listening to it really loud. I didn't really feel it and it didn't work for me.
The Beau Brummels
4/5
If the Beatles came from the south and not England, I think they'd have sounded like this. It sounds like these guys are copying the Beatles style, but it also sounds worse. It makes me want to listen to the Beatles instead. Either way. This album sounds nice. I think they did a good job and I think it captures a distinct Beatle sound, Revolver maybe. Anyways, enough about the Beatles. This album sounds pretty good.
The Fall
3/5
I think this thing is charming. It's brief, punchy, and I think the concept is solid. Aesthetically it's there. I think the first track starts off really strong. It can be hard to bridge rock music with cryptic and scary music which tends to be more polished and crisp. I think this is a valiant effort. I think the sound is pretty standard post punk. I think it mostly holds up but doesn't exceed expectations.
I'm not exactly sure what he means when he says he likes to blow.
4/5
The type of album that either gets you or it doesn't. The thing with a dramatic opera epic like this is that if you aren't sucked in, it's hard to take it seriously. Perhaps because the aesthetic is too synthetic and the instrumentation is so squeeky clean. It doesn't have any of the rust or jingle that radiohead has. You're very aware that you aren't listening to radiohead when you listen to this.
When you shoot for the moon, even if you miss it, you might still make something very good. I would say this falls into that category. This has the pop sensibilities and accessibility that radiohead did not, and as someone who isn't a big lyrics guy, I personally have no issue if the lyricism is subpar, I wasn't paying attention.
This feels distinctly early 2000s, it reminded me of some bands I like such as Circa Survive or even Panic! at the Disco, or IDKHOW. I personally like a robotic progressive score and I think this hit the nail on the head. It feels worth its runtime and I think it succeeds at making emotional music that doesn't bury itself in so much abstraction. Solid project.
Thin Lizzy
5/5
Gold standard 70s rock. I think the first two tracks have some really great progression with psyche/rock guitar that is super clean and sweet. Springstein style vocals with great song structure and catchy hooks. Then "The Boys are Back in Town" which is obviously a banger.
Ministry
3/5
For what it was I thought it was good. I think the instrumentation was top notch and the vibe was good and dark. Didn't feel like it was a parody of satan music, it felt sincere. I imagine that this is what goth girls listen to.
Tito Puente
2/5
This sounded good but I really didn't get much out. I like some salsa music but this one really didn't do much for me. I went on a run while listening to it and kind of zoned out.
Nirvana
5/5
This performance is extremely good and drenched in personality that few other albums can achieve. The originals are good. The covers are very good. Lots of standouts. This is a vulnerable side and shows off the range of the band and Cobain's vocal style. This thing is tremendous and in context carries a lot of emotional power that the musical content absolutely lives up to.
Kanye West
5/5
Oh baby, I knew this day was coming. Kanye established himself as a top voice in hip hop in the 2000s with the college trilogy, but his reputation began to precede him at this point. 808s was not a commercial success, despite some critical acclaim and there were questions about what his next album would be. He went to the studio and assembled a team of talented writers and producers larger than he ever had before or would have again.
Track by Track, this album starts stronger than possibly any other.
Dark Fantasy: Incredible, great feature. This was the first track back, and already this was different than 808s.
Gorgeous: Epic, Cudi kills it great verses from everyone.
Power: Immediate standout. The first of many climaxes of this album. The Schizoid man sample is just phenomenal. The way KanYe is able to blend such a unique musical pallet to create stadium hip hop was unparalleled.
All of the Lights: Interlude and track keep the music high energy. Instrumental is great, Rihanna is fantastic.
Monster: Great hook, great beat. Great Ye verse, decent Jay-Z verse and then Nicki Minaj comes in and basically introduces herself to the world with one of the greatest verses of all time and foretelling the prophecy that she would fulfill of becoming one of the greatest female rappers ever. How sick is that.
So Appalled: Not that great. Feels like it goes on a bit too long and I'm not a big fan. Mostly forgettable.
Devil in a New Dress: Fantastic beats, kind of carried. Doesn't hold up super well but was seen as one of the best songs on the album.
Runaway: The grand epic of the album. The minute of slow introduction on keys is awesome. It's so subtle, and stripped back. Moments like this KanYe has been chasing ever since. The song is great, I think the lyrics are fine and as a whole but the instrumentals are all fantastic and the usage of the electric guitar is brilliant.
Hell of a Life: Kind of a reprive, falls into a lot of 2000s pop music traps and isn't great.
Blame game: Great hook great instrumental, I like the Chris Rock skit and I like John Legends vocal performance. Fits well in the album
Lost in the World: A good track, not much to say, Bon Iver on it is cool.
Who will survive in America: I think this closing track is pretty weak. It doesn't offer much and I think it allows the album to fall to a close rather than end with a big dramatic piece.
This album starts off with great track after great track climbing to Monster. Then the album moves and abandons typical song structure and begins blurring and mystifying with runaway. The album closes by slowing down, perhaps reflecting on the heights of the first half. Like the end of Evangelion, after the chaos and as the world is disintegrating, it quiets and there is space to breathe. Maybe it's KanYe's way of saying, you can't fly so high forever. Rome will crumble and what has been made can never be made again. This world we live in is mortal and as close as we can get to the gods, we will still fall back down to the earth with cracked bones and torn flesh. Regardless the moments we spent touching the sun were the closest we could come to being free of our world, and a part of something bigger. It's only human to want this. KanYe's been trying to find it again ever since.
The Strokes
5/5
For whatever reason, a lot of my friends got really captivated by this album. Maybe it's the faster pace and catchy lyrics. Maybe it's the gravely voice and the way the singer pushes himself. Maybe it's the fact that this sounds like the blueprint that much pop indie music would sound like. This thing is great. I was a big fan of cage the elephant in high school and a lot of their earlier work reminds me of this. Over time it's grown on me quite a lot. I think that this album is pretty quintessential with the type of people I like. It's pretty cool in that way.
Steely Dan
4/5
Before this I hadn't given Steely Dan much of a chance. The few songs I had heard didn't strike me. This album did. It was funky and smooth and mellow. It was short but high quality and takes all that good 60s guitar stuff and incorporates it with better recording quality, and nice clear songwriting. Between a 4 and 5 for me, I guess how it compares with the other Steely Dan albums will determine what it should have been.
Aimee Mann
5/5
This is a really good indie pop album. The songs are catchy, Mann's voice stands out, and the instrumentals are varied and fun. I liked everything about it. As far as dreamy pop music goes, this stands out as some of the best.
Screaming Trees
5/5
This thing surprised me because I did not expect to like it. It's a grunge garage album done extremely well. It's well produced, the guitarist takes a page from the psychedelic and progressive rock of the 70s and 80s and meshes it making this really polished grunge sound. I also like that it's clean enough it never feels too cringe, it gets its nasty and evil messaging not from extreme imagery or over the top scary sounds. It's rooted in reality, the darkness of spirituality and the world.
All I know is great, Witness is the best song to me and probably one of the best songs this list has brought me, the grunge mixed with the psychey guitar is so sick. Gospel Plow really ends the album strongly, the percussion is creative and the song progresses in a fun way.
This whole thing is a lot of fun and it really feels like a cool kind of rebellion that was really making interesting music. A real answer to the punk music coming from the UK. This is the kind of adventurous music kids can aspire to make.
AC/DC
5/5
Rick Rubin says when his friends were all into Led Zeppelin he was into AC/DC. Led Zeppelin is certainly the better band but the style of production and super minimalist instrumentals that AC/DC presented was arguably more influential. Rick Rubin is one of the architects of modern music and his style carries the essence of AC/DC.
Getting to the album. It's great. At least the hits are, there aren't any suprises or sleepers on this album. When you make an album off of catchy hooks and epic riffs it doesn't take long to figure out which songs are it and which songs are not. The guitars and drums stand out for a distinct sound that sounds so crisp and tight. I'm not a fan of the vocals, I know its their thing but I find it a little grating. Especially for a whole album. Additionally, every track seems to go on too long. They make about 3 minutes of content and seem contractually obligated to stretch it to 4 or 5 minutes. Overall I can't dock any points. This is the pinnacle of rock and roll produced and refined to it's core. The vocals are emotional they lyrics are empty and the riffs slam like an 18 wheeler. For an album from 1980 they found the sound that would dominate the radio.
Snoop Dogg
4/5
Snoop Dogg's breakout hit. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg combine for an awesome thorough piece of Gangster rap. The beats are great, Snoop's flows are great, and the guest singers and features all contribute. It slaps pretty good and Snoop's voice and style holds its own against the power of Dre's instrumentals.
There were a lot of negative global reviews for this album regarding it being offensive, curse heavy, and glamorizing a gangster lifestyle. What a soft opinion, This album can be viewed like Breaking bad, or the Sopranos, or Grand theft auto. It's art and documenting the life and perspective of a gang member is not only something we should allow, but is essential to the history of music.
Solomon Burke
3/5
I don't know how to feel about it. It sounds solid with some standout tracks but the whole album just feels weaker than the Motown that would follow. For 1964 it feels more like a stepping stone to where soul and R&B would go, but not a glimpse into the future. I guess I just don't like Soul that much.
Marilyn Manson
3/5
Looking back on this, it's surprisingly accessible. I guess it goes to show the difference between the aesthetic and the product. The lyrics are shocking and some of the effects can be off putting but the songs are 4:4 metal rock. It's not as challenging to enjoy as I was expecting. I'm not into this music per say, but there are times where I want to hear something intense and this kind of fits that bill.
Gillian Welch
4/5
I have kind of a soft spot for singer-songwriter indie types and this album pushes that in a country direction. I wasn't sure if I would like it and I definitely did. It's sad and emotional and Welch's voice is sweet and soothing. The title track is strong and the songs on the back end are high points.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Going into this cold I wasn't sure exactly what it was. It wasn't until after listening I saw the 2002 release and learned it was covers. When I listened I only recognized In my Life and Bridge over troubled waters as covers.
I was excited after the first track. I think the first/title track is fantastic and shows Cash stepping out of his lane and making something very cool and unique. After that I think the album drops somewhat. There are some classic songs thrown in there which Cash does a good job at. Even his cover of In my life is far enough away from the Beatles version that it lands a spot on this album. Cash Clearly inspired by Beyonce's cover of blackbird on Cowboy Carter.
This album suffers from its selling point. It's Johnny Cash with his deep chilling voice singing classic songs and turning them into his own. Since they aren't JC's original songs, the variety of this album comes from the variety of songwriters and writing styles rather than Cash's range. In this way the album falls flat as Cash takes a broad range of songs and puts them all through a Johnny Cashification machine and churns out these tracks. Cash takes tracks from all across the rainbow and turns them all grey to fit his style.
I can't even be mad though. Cash's voice holds up and his song selection is solid. It's a lifetime of music retold to you by an old man in the way that he was able to recreate it. I think it's pretty cool as an alternative to a greatest hits record. It's an epitaph of inspirations much like Young Thug's album Jeffrey, and it's a creative concept that even I (a Johnny Cash Hater) can appreciate.
Supergrass
4/5
This is a band who was still looking for their sound and they give their best effort in everything. The first track is fast and punchy. The album starts to move and get more slow and rhythmic, peaking with the hit track, alright. There are a lot of solid tracks on the backside, I like the closer. They experiment with a lot of different styles and I think it's a creative and tastefully made debut album.
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
The opening tracks are strong and it lulls towards the middle. I really like this kind of mellow hypnotic music. The style reminded me of one of my favorite albums, Isolation by Kali Uchis. As I was listening I recognized that there is a song on that album that directly samples Lonely from this album. That was pretty cool.
The Fall
2/5
The Fall wrote put together "This Nation's Saving Grace in 1985, completely unknowing that their saving grace, Wayne Rooney, was about to be born. Wayne would be the cornerstone of the Manchester United teams that would dominate the premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson all through the 90s and into the 2000s. The country, in a time of very little, had great premier league football to hold on to.
This album is a bit more like Stoke City. It captures a dreary quality and the vocals and instrumentals are strong. I think the songwriting isn't there and for a band's 8th album, I would have thought the songwriting would be better. It's like if the clash if you subtract the incredible clash hooks, or if you cleaned up the sex pistols production and toned them down. It feels like nearly all the songs on this hour long project is just a repetition of the track title several times for the chorus. It makes this thing take forever and it doesn't feel like it goes anywhere. It doesn't sound bad and I don't think I'd mind it in smaller doses but as an album to listen to through, I don't see the appeal.
The Who
4/5
It's hard to rate this since I didn't get the whole story on my listen. There are some great tracks and I think the album flows pretty well. It's a big undertaking and obviously inventive for its time. I'm going to revisit this at some point and try to listen more closely and follow the story.
The Smiths
3/5
Without a strong sense of who Morrisey is, it's hard to understand this project as anything other than a decent kind of pop punk act. I don't think they do anything special here but its all competent and there are some tracks that stand out I would relisten. I had this on in the background for most of the weekend and there are some catchy moments but mostly it just filled the space just fine. I could see it inspiring other bands like Panic! and in that way I think that this band is better than what came after. Overall it's not all that memorable but I kinda liked it.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
A solid project with great production. I'm not sure what to say about the songwriting, the songs are cloudlike and trying to hold them is impossible. I like the sound but nothing about the project resonated with me.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's very polished which is different than a lot of the garage type indie punk that is so distinct. The only real detractions I have is that some of the tracks feel too producer designed as party punk hits. At their best they remind me of P!NK and at their worst, Jojo Siwa.
The hit tracks do slap, and Skeleton is also very good. When they slow down and go more bare bones on the latter half it adds to the album and shows off different sides to that same sound.
Overall, pleasantly suprised.
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Really good ambient kind of spooky music. It sounds foreign even without words but it sounds very good and expertly mixed. If you had told me that this was a movie score I would have believed you. This is the La Croix of music, it doesn't hit you in your face, it creeps up on you.
John Grant
5/5
This is excellent. There's a lot of influences on here and the product is truly indie, it's psychadelic, electronic, folky, synthy, and the songwriting is distinct and surprising. The product feels personal and absurd. There's a beatles quality in that its psychadelic without the melt your face guitar. It reminded me a bit of the Todd Rundren album. There's an obvious 2010ness to this album bringing up the hypocrisy of the church but I think it's done creatively and doesn't bring down the sound. I'll probably be listening to this all weekend.
R.E.M.
5/5
I think that this was really excellent. It's crazy that this came out in 1983 considering how good it sounds and how much stuff in the 90s clearly took inspiration. The instrumentation is really simple and the vocals are bare and the whole thing sounds really good and moody. Awesome album cover as well. Favorite tracks are perfect circles and West of the Fields.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
This is one of the flagship R&B/ Soul / hip hop albums. It's personal, focused, and has a lot to say and a story to tell. I don't love all the 90s/ 00s R&B where it's a lot of singing without real hooks and this does fall into that sometimes but those moments are relatively far in between. The way these tracks are big and grand yet still catchy is always impressive. I haven't listened to this in a while and it's crazy how much hip hop and r&b after extensively sampled and in some case, just ripped off tracks on this. Drake's 'Nice for what' samples so much off of Ex-Factor it could be considered a remix. All in all it's timeless and as for R&B there isn't anything in the lane that comes close in quality.
Kings of Leon
3/5
Doesn't seem special to me. Nothing here that I haven't heard before. Was feeling 2 stars but I did like the last track quite a bit. So 3 stars.
Joan Armatrading
4/5
There were some catchy tracks on here. I think this era gave a light to some generationally talented singers. I'm not sure who is in the backing band but I think it's very well done and a great balance where Joan's voice is the centerpiece. Down to Zero, Love and Affection, and Tall in the saddle are probably my favorite tracks.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I like this album because from the first two songs you get two of the most Led songs that have ever Zeppelin'd. It's pretty amazing that this band came out the gun with such a unique style and performed and executed at such a high level. These guys were experimenting but there's no feeling of experimentation. It's all so expertly done, not like it's been rehearsed and perfected, but done like an old man who's been doing it for decades. There's an instinct to Led Zeppelin that they just seem to know what notes to play and the timing of everything is flawless.
This album is epic, birth of a new era of rock and roll. There's so much going on and it all rolls together, hard rock, eerie blues, psychedelic atmosphere, signature attacking percussion, and Plant's vocals always hit their mark. As a debut album this is the lightning bolt that starts the forest fire, and few if any measure up to the standard of innovation and quality.
Jeff Buckley
2/5
I tend to like crybaby music. This isn't it for me. The closing tracks are decent. It's all fine and I think the talent is there, but I have no idea what this album was about or if there is anything here. Either way. It's a 3 and the Hallelujah cover subtracts a point for bringing nothing to the table.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Bruce Springstein is one of my dad's favorite artists and thus I have a nostalgic appreciation for Bruce's sound. His voice, his straightforward rock instrumentals, and his knack for writing anthems and ballads make him easy to understand and relate to.
This album is great. It's got an edge to it and it has a side to Springstein that isn't represented by the hits. I wasn't very familiar with any of these songs going in, and I think the best songs on here aren't hits. They are good tracks but they don't have the immediacy that Born to run or glory days has. My favorite tracks are Adam raised a Cain, Promised Land, Streets of Fire, and Prove it all night.
On my quest to become my dad, I think having an appreciation for Springstein is essential. Even if I don't listen to it on a pandora station with ads.
Blondie
4/5
Iconic album. The hit songs on this album are songs I like but was always suprised that they are as prolific as they are. The album is really solid and enjoyable, not much else to say.
Jane's Addiction
2/5
I didn't enjoy this album very much. I thought the instrumentals were good not great and I thought the vocals were very run of the mill. I didn't find any songs catchy or worthwhile. Not for me I suppose.
The Police
4/5
The reggae influence is pretty cool and there is a lot to enjoy here. Both self titles are good and there were some Suprise great tracks. Every breath you take is obviously the most polished and it's impossible to hear it with fresh ears. As a whole I think that this was quite good and at least interesting.
Adele
2/5
You can tell that they let her spend whatever money she wanted on this and she spent it all on production. This album especially the first few songs are production heavy. It's like she doesn't trust her voice that she uses the instrumental to convey a lot of the emotion. It reminds me of the type of singer DJ crossover music from the early 2010s. I find that the addition clutters the tracks and adds very little. I wasn't looking forward to this album and the first two tracks really didn't agree with me. I found it obnoxious to listen to.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
This is the kind of album artists put out at the end of their career, when they've mastered the craft, only in this case, Stevie gets it right in his prime. A lifetime of experience and mastery with a fresh and creative streak of a debut album. Hardly any bands can do something like this. It is long and not every song is a hit. There's a lot of music in this album that isn't filler per say, but it represents musical calms and slow points that take you between the highs. This is the kind of album that you can put on just to enjoy. Before the age of burning CD's or the shuffle button, this is what you get a project that you can listen through like a movie and enjoy the pieces as they come. There are no skips and the highs are Stevie's best songs. This is an album that I had never properly listened through and I'm glad I did. I won't say that I'll start putting this album on when I'm bored sitting around, but I'd like to get to a place in my life where I could.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Blonde On Blonde is great and quintessential Dylan. In fact if you wanted a litmus test for if you could be a Dylan fan, I'd have you listen to "I want you", it's the Bobbest Song that ever Dylan'd and if you can enjoy it, you can enjoy his whole catalog.
Bob Dylan has said that this album is the closest he ever got to the sound that is in his head. He tries to capture a metallic quality and while he does hit that here, I think it's for the best that he doesn't often get it. This is one of those times where the music that your favorite musician listens to isn't the music that you want to listen to. So much of this album has a jingly coin purse sound to it and it isn't my favorite. I think while as a group the sound is consistent and there are great moments, it just isn't a sound that people like any more. This is really the end of this sound because this was around the time that Dylan started touring with the Band who was fusing folk with psychedelic, jam band, and RnB sound. One thing about Bob Dylan is that he is willing to change and grow with the times. I think this album is consistent and contains some of Dylan's best tracks while maintaining a consistent theme of rebellion, detachment, and the messiness of life as a 24 year old. Lyrically and thematically I think it tells a story as good as anything out there.
He doesn't seem like such a rebel anymore but these tracks were statements that you could be a poet no matter who you are or where you come from. Moving south of the Mason Dixon line I don't know if the spirit of Dylan is still here. Maybe people got tired of hoping. Maybe life has gotten so easy people have redirected their energy into college football and fighting against abortion. Maybe people have decided that they don't have to do any soul searching, maybe the answer is right here in the North Carolinian soil and traditional way of life. I can't help but wonder if Bob would have voted for Trump. I think Bob would have written songs about what tragedy it was and how the people are have given away their power to a tyrant. I'm not sure it would have been enough to do anything. Bob was an observer of the world, and successful enough to live in the clouds and write about the world below. Maybe he was the voice of a generation, a generation that has been sedated by words with friends and ai images on facebook. Perhaps the problem with Bob Dylan is that it's been 60 years and we're still listening to him.
The Black Crowes
4/5
yknow, I thought this was pretty cool. I've probably heard a few songs on here beyond hard to handle but I wouldn't know. The sound is good. There's some zepelin in here, Springsteen and even some ACDC inspiration. It's a blend with pretty good instrumentation and good fundamentals. I liked the aesthetic of the album and I think everything works for a nice package of songs.
Prince
3/5
The hooks, the voices, the funky beats. It's all here. I can see the talent. I think the songs sound great. I just don't want to listen to them. Maybe there's something wrong with me. It feels like Prince managed to influence the kind of pop music I find the least appealing. I've tried prince over and over again and every time I leave wondering how such catchy and original songs leave me so bored.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Really nice. There's a nice blend of country and soul here that is fun to listen to and sweet to the ears. I had "So much love" and "son of a preacher man" in my head all weekend. Taylor and I went on a walking ghost tour downtown and we listened to this and she fell asleep on the ride home.
Pixies
5/5
The pixies are a band that I have never listened to. I guess I assumed that they were just a popular 90s band that wasn't really essential. I was very wrong.
This album is absolutely essential and seems like a great introduction to Pixies for me. Debaser is a fantastic opening track and a great first track. The poppy guitar and grooves mixed with the visceral lyrics and desperate singing makes it hit that perfect sweet spot of musicality and raw emotions. Hey is great, Waves of Mutilation is awesome. Monkey gone to Heaven is fantastic, reminds me of Talking Heads but harder. Here comes your Man is great. The closing track, Gouge Away ends the album strong. These songs are so simple and straightforward but they are so effective and fantastic to listen to.
This was a real blind spot for me. If I had listened to the Pixies in high school, I probably would have been obsessed with them instead of cage the elephant. This band does what I think Nirvana is best known for which is walking the edge. Making music that is so rough around the edge that it starts to lose you. Singing with such emotions it starts to become screaming but never quite losing it. When you're that close to the edge, there's a fear of losing control like being on the brink of insanity and this pixies album spends the whole album in that space. This is really one of my favorite albums that this list has introduced me to.
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
There is a word 'Retrofuturistic' which refers to something designed to look futuristic from the perspective of the past based on what was considered futuristic at that time. That's the gambit of trying to be futuristic, if you predict correct, you're a visionary, but if you predict wrong it can come off as horribly tacky.
This album does that. It sounds great for the 70s it's super clean and clear. It's calming and soothing but ultimately it's not the sound that most Electronic music fans are into. This sounds like video game music, or nature documentary music, or minecraft youtuber music. It's not bad but it's so squeaky clean it feels like an AI could have made it. I think the album is impressive for the time, but it comes off as generic and boring in {Current Year}.
Janis Joplin
4/5
This was the first Joplin project I listened through and I was pretty excited. She definitely leans into blues and folk music and her music has a kind of classic quality to it. Her voice is really the hallmark, it's got such a coarse and damaged quality that it would feel insensitive to try to copy it.
These tracks as a whole are all solid, I love some of the more desperate bits like on Cry Baby "A good man, to one woman, one time..." I think it comes off as so authentic and fits with the story of who she was. She desperately wanted to be herself and be happy (without drugs). It's a sad story but listening to this album you can tell she was always trying to be positive. I really liked Mercedes Benz you could tell she just loved to sing and loved to put herself on the song. As a whole I think this album is great. It's unique, balanced, powerful. I liked it.
Soft Cell
2/5
I mean this with no disrespect whatsoever...
This is an album for casual gay sex. There's nothing deep or romantic in here. It's for going to a club putting some chemicals in your stomach watching the flashing lights, finding a guy who looks like a young Harrison Ford and bringing him home.
In the morning you find out that Harrison Ford was more of a Steve Buscemi, the ecstasy you took was meth, and this album is shit.
2 stars
David Bowie
4/5
I loosely remember when this thing came out and the hype around it and the shock that Bowie died just days after. I think it's cool that this guy who's entire life was making art where he is the art. He creates a world and character that he stars. This album is a continuation of that, a performative death to cap off a performative life. This is the kind of thing that Calculon would have loved to make.
Sonically this album is a lot and at times challenging. The title track is great, very noisy. Lazarus is another stand out, haunting and loud. You do get the sense that this isn't a halloween haunting, this is a rock and roll haunting. There are some ballads on the backside that are strong. The buildup and jazz on dollar days is my favorite part.
I'm not close to death myself but it impresses me the way that Bowie looks death in the face on this album. Bowie was the type who was true to his vision and this project feels uncompromised. Is it bold to make a song with the line "look I'm in heaven" with his history of, broadly, sexual indecency? I'm not the one to judge. But I will say Bowie's trajectory as a rock star and ultimately his demise feels true to who he was and even if his death wasn't particularly poetic, I think the way he made art of it is a feat worth celebrating. Few get a farewell like this.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Not a huge fan. Cash is obviously charming and his crowd work is exceptional. I think the songs are alright though they don't stick with me particularly.
New Order
3/5
I thought that this was Okay. I really don't know anything about this band. It sounds a bit like the Smiths. I don't love the vocals but I could get into the tracks. I spent some time listening just wondering what the listening experience for this was meant to be? Was it for dancing, smoking, a cafe? Punk adjacent music can be difficult to pin down in that way. It's not meant to be played softly but when you soften up punk music that's kind of what happens.
Elegia is my favorite track. It sounds like they made a song so good that they couldn't find words to do it justice so they left it. I think that's a smart choice.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
Ignoring the length and whether or not this is a best of compilation... This thing is very good. As one of the reviewers mentioned it is an anthology of the Gershwin Songs performed by Ella Fitzgerald who seems to have the perfect voice for these songs.
I'm not sure how these tracks were remastered when converted to digital but regardless this is some of the best quality 50s music I've ever heard.
The clarity is impeccable, and the songs are classic's classic's. Songs like Let's throw the whole thing out are so far deep in my brain, listening to it intentionally feels like digging up a dead cat and shining a strobe light on it. The tunes hold up well and the whole thing, which I tried my best to work through over the day, is completely listenable.
My only critique is that I don't think this is my favortie music coming out of that era. There was a lot of funky and more emotional stuff coming out at this time in a similar style that I think have aged better. That holds it back from being a 5 star album because there are times where it feels a little too sanitized and reserved. But overall I'm happy to have listened.
Iron Maiden
4/5
Never really listened to Iron Maiden and I think this was pretty epic. The instrumentation is awesome, it has a psychedelic quality and these guys clearly take inspiration from acts like Zappa and Hendrix. The vocals are quality and the songs are catchy and accessible. I think the band's imagery is a little unserious and the cartoon corpses feel more over the top. Maybe if this band had branded themselves differently they could have built more of cult status.
Overall great listening experience and I will probably spend sometime this weekend exploring more of the catalog.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
I have a particular soft spot for chill south american music. If I haven't mentioned it before Tagua Tagua's Inteiro Metade is one of my favorite albums of all time. I wonder if Jorge Ben Jor is an influence. Anyways this thing is solid all the way through. Meus Filhous Meu Tesouro and Xica a Silva aremy favorites. There's a lot to dig into in this well. I liked it well enough to explore some rainy day.
Beatles
5/5
The Beatles, the band, are widely considered the greatest band of all time. If someone doesn't consider them the greatest band of all time, I would expect a passionate case for a different choice. It's surprising that there is a safe answer for greatest band of all time. I spent some time trying to understand what makes the Beatles greater than say the Stones, Radiohead, or Led Zeppelin. The answer I think is the behavior. Michael Jordan is the GOAT because when he was on the court he was the best. I think the Beatles have a similar ethos. Whatever they did was excellent, and it left all their contemporaries saying "Shit, we should've done that". I think that this album is a legacy defining moment for the Beatles, not because it's their best work, but because they're just showing off that anything they touch turns to gold.
I never really understood what the white album was. I always heard of it but I didn't realize it was their longest and I didn't know why there was no artwork. This album is a coat of fresh snow. It seems like they wanted to make a debut album. They didn't know what kind of album they wanted to make now that they were so successful they were no longer bound by pop sensibilities. This is where this album segmented the band. You can tell the archetypes of the beatles here. John is the captain, John the radical, George the rocker, and Ringo the wild card. You can feel when one of the members got to do one of their songs and this whole album just gets passed around. From the poppy and energetic beginning with Ob-la-di, to more philisophical and softer tracks like black bird, to more bluesy and rhythmic tracks like yer blues and helter skelter, to experimental and out there tracks like Revolution 9. And in a really egalitarian way they sacrificed a cohesive vision of the album to make everyone's songs. I think that's really cool. And they put their all into those songs, even the stupid ones.
What does it say about a band when they decide for a few tracks to be a hard rock band and put down groovy 70s hard rock before the sound was invented. These guys decided to take us on the writing process with them. They were inventing genres midway through this album and deciding 'eh, let's go back to classics'. This is a band falling apart in the most brittish way possible, and as the band fractured it exposed so many styles of music to the largest musical fanbase. These guys put heavy metal into the pop soundscape. They brought noise rock and art rock on the radio. I don't know if anyone has had the impact that the Beatles had, and I'm not sure that there will be the opportunity for anyone to have that impact again.
I honestly didn't realize how big of a deal this album would be until I heard it. It's not just an epic long album full of great songs. It's a question, "What will become of the Beatles?" The answer being, that they went on to make Abbey Road, and then decided to leave the Beatles behind and follow their own roads, apart.
Fairport Convention
4/5
This has a nice little charm to it. The vocals are sweet and the tracks are unique. I liked songs like Matty Groves and Farewell Farewell. I think this band came off pretty confident and this is a well executed folksy thing.
Bad Company
4/5
Pretty solid. Glamourous rock and roll with a variety of inspiration. Executed well. I thought Seagulls was a weak closer but the rest are solid with some being downright good with some wicked guitar. Pleasantly suprised.
Elvis Presley
4/5
It's Elvis. I think it sounds good. If there's anything here that was revolutionary, it already revolutionized. It all sounded about average for Elvis which is to say good. The backing band is quality and the performance is always fantastic.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
This is proto bedroom pop and it's cool how great it still sounds. This was a good time and I'll probably listen to more of Joni because I do love Big Yellow Taxi
Dusty Springfield
3/5
Taking the best songs that America had to offer 10 years ago and performing them all together on an album that you name after yourself is the epitome of British excellence. This is an album for old racist fucks who have had 10 years of exposure to black American music and were finally ready to listen to it. The songs are fine, I don't think these versions add much to the original but Dusty seems like a swell lady and a talented singer.
Don McLean
4/5
My dad always liked American Pie the song. This was my first exposure to the album. I thought Vincent was really great, I have an affinity for Van Gogh's art and story. I think much of the album is slow but there are some more upbeat tracks. All in all I think that this is a pretty decent album and I think American Pie taking up almost a quarter of the run time bumps it up.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
This is a great short little bad bitch ep. Firmly in the camp of soul and RnB but with a very current flair. I think it captures a lot of the sentiment of the times where artists like Cardi B, Nikki Minaj, or Megan Thee Stallion are finding success reclaiming their sexuality and carving out a space for women in hip hop. I think this EP is excellent. It definitely feels more bare with the amount of skits but I think they add a lot narratively so I won't complain. The tracks we do get are very good. Put it down, price tags, and the other side are my favorite tracks. Content wise this album really seems like it could be looked at as a time piece. It has the type of comedy that made WAP the viral sensation but without departing from it's roots as an album about love and wanting to be loved. It's a touching piece that I think is very tastefully done.
I'll be honest, I've never heard of this album or artist prior to today. Maybe because RnB and Soul aren't popular as much anymore or because they get overshadowed by their brother hip hop. I guess this goes to show how easy it is to miss a hit release when you aren't really paying attention. This album won the BET best album of the year. That alone puts it on this list.
The Jam
3/5
Reading the global reviews of yesterday's album was a real bummer. Who signs up to listen to 1001 albums and is unwilling to give space for a more contemporary story told in modern soul language? Well whoever they are can be happy with this album. It's regular ass alternative rock from the UK that the writer has a particular affinity for. Hardly anything to write home about here. Every note these guys played is better done somewhere else. I'd rather listen to the Police or the clash or the cure or the doors, or any of those bands in a similar lane. I really don't care about this. It's not bad enough to get a 2 but I still went back to give it a second chance and that will likely be the last I hear of these Sound Affects forever.
Sade
5/5
This album is fantastic. I like that I didn't' realize that it was smooth operator until halfway through. The track is that good, one of my favorite single tracks of all time. it's followed by 'Your love is King' and 'Hang onto your love' which are also fantastic and groovy and danceable. Cherry Pie is also amazing. The last three tracks are more forgettable though the final track is mostly a very cool jungle instrumental with some beautiful percussion.
This whole thing is so groovy, so danceable, so cool. This is the kind of music I really like driving with. It makes me want to put my sunglasses down and walk through the streets with my hips just barely swaying to the beat. These tracks are fantastically enjoyable and really make me yearn for a time where disco and soul were more prominent. Makes me want to go to a soul club. Maybe I will
Funkadelic
5/5
I've seen this album cover around and always imagined it would sound like Wu-Tang Clan or a funkier Beastie Boys. I was not expecting the psychedelic blues metl your face guitar solo to start off. I love the first track, I am a sucker for Clapton type guitar wails, and this had it. I think the tracks on the interior of this album are all very solid with a nice variety of styles and sounds. The closing track strays towards noise rock but stays firmly psychedelic and interesting. I was prepared for this to be a classic and it met my expectations. Super out there and the checks that it writes are cashed. I'll need to listen to this more before I really get a sense for it. This album took what Hendrix and co were doing and fused it with modern urban RnB and funk and made something boundary pushing that to my ear has really stood the test of time. Nice Job Mr. Funkadelic.
Jane Weaver
3/5
Nice vocals. Interesting composition. Feels very current for indy. I like some music like this, Alvvays, men I trust, etc. I don't find this exemplary although all the pieces are well done in their own right.
Tricky
2/5
The first track was kind of spooky and there were some tracks that were intriguing. Didn't catch my fancy and can't say I connected with it.
The Vines
3/5
Super bang average. They seem not to know what kind of music they want to make. They wear their inspiration on their sleaves but it doesn't amount to much since each track seems pretty disconnected from the rest. They can put good songs together but there doesn't seem to be a cohesive vision here. My favorite track was In the Jungle but this was just an odd project overall.
Dolly Parton
4/5
This album is good fun. Dolly is sweet in her voice is classic at this point. She seems to be on the verge of cracking and she always sounds young and sweet. Title track is my favorite but it's a short listen and the whole thing is nice to listen to.
The Smiths
2/5
I really dont get the Smiths I find the instrumentals average and Morrisey's voice annoying and pretentious. I dont find it dark or interesting. Just extremely proto emo and every album of this group disappoints me.
5/5
This is an excellent album. To my ear this is much closer to the psychedelic sound that would define the genre than the psyche stuff by bands like the beatles. The sound has aged really well, it sounds much newer than it is. Most importantly, it looks like an influence on lil Yachty when he made his psychedelic album, the cover is clearly an homage.
Anyways this album is great and there's a lot to dig into. In a way it's greatness in it's accessibility. No 9 minute songs, no weird periods of silence or noise. Just a selection of really great songs, and while I like that kind of thing sometimes, the simplicity of this album is one of it's greatest strengths. There's no need to explain anything, you can listen straight through, no skips, and enjoy the heck out of it. I sure did.
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
This is an extremely solid project and I love the style. There's elements of classic rock, reggae, psyche rock, and tons of soul and it all blends together to sound new and exciting. Every track on here is really solid and but special shoutouts to You aint the problem, Piano Joint, Hero, and Final Days. This is a surprise inclusion for me since I didn't hear much of it when it was released. Glad to hear it now.
Garbage
3/5
With 90s music it's very hit or miss for me. This album is kind of in the middle. Maybe I missed the boat on this kind of moody rock music but it's a little slow for me. I tend to go more on the indie and alt rock side and this wasn't my favorite but I think the talent is definitely there on this project. The composition was interesting and the vocals were great. Decent project to me.
The Cure
3/5
I didnt really care for this. It was dark and moody but wasnt rhythmic enough for me. I didnt mind it but it wasnt memorable and aside from a few songs it didnt really peak my interest
Eminem
5/5
There are few songs that are as firmly lodged into my brain as "My Name is". It was omnipresent with certain groups and contemporaries. Despite this I never gave the whole album a listen until now. There's a lot to like about this album. First, the hooks, they are extremely good. It's not exactly how they do it now but these hooks were great. Also the stories are excellent, eminem brings you into the story better than anyone from that era. He does it all with an entertaining Psycho energy that hasn't really been matched. What an introduction, what a silly guy.
Mercury Rev
4/5
I listened to this a few time. There was a lot of comparisons to the Flaming Lips, which I have now learned is because of a few shared members. I spent some time listening to this album as well as Flaming Lips discography. I will say I am definitely a fan of the indie shoegaze style I would kind of broadly call it dream pop. Definitely psychedelic and spacey but this Deserter's Songs project is a bit more wirey and skiddish than the Flaming Lips. I think the result here is a project that tries to be unassuming and finds itself at some pretty cool places. My favorite tracks are Holes, Opus 40, and Goddess on a highway.
Various Artists
5/5
Can't say for sure but this feels like the definitive versions of many of these songs. Not sure if it was a new idea but having soul artists do christmas is great. These sound wonderful and these are easily the best christmas songs. With my favorite (Darlene's "Christmas"). Can't knock it. This is revolutionary
Lucinda Williams
5/5
Probably the best country rock that I've listened to. The front half of this is banger after banger and when she opens up with ballads midway through it makes them even more impactful. The imagery and lyricism is excellent but the hooks and instrumentation are great and fit right in. This album feels deeply personal and Williams puts so much of herself into the album. The closing tracks are slower and moodier but the album pacing works towards it and gets you invested earlier. To me this is exactly what country can be. It has elements of indie and rock but this softer side has a lot to offer too. It's really a 4 star album but I keep coming back to it and it's just too enjoyable.
Moby
4/5
Moby captures something here that is both hyper specific and widely accessible. The music here feels unusual but familiar. As someone who probably first heard Moby in ads long before intentionally listening, there's emotions that the music stirs up that aren't entirely clear. It's calming but also exciting. Some songs remind me of one of my favorite albums from the list Oedipus Schmoedipus. I think that the stand out tracks like Porcelein, South Side, Flower elevate the album to exceptional moody electronic. I personally like Whispering Wind. I also like the episode of How I met Your Mother when the group thinks they met Moby but it's just a different bald guy.
Beatles
4/5
You can tell these guys are talented and the covers are a credit to the good taste of the Beatles moreso than any kind of stealing. They made the songs their own and the end product is good and Beatley. They really sound like a 60s boy band here. This won't blow anyone away today, but this sounds like the Beatles and it's a stepping stone to their catalog that is fun to listen to.
David Gray
5/5
I find this album to really creative and effective. I like almost all the tracks quite a bit and I think it's aged well. The songs are accessible with some unique and creative decisions that give the album an intimate sound. As a package I think that this is very good. Between a 4 and 5 for me since I think it does it's job very well.
Bad Brains
4/5
Truth be told I am biased. My uncle really liked bad brains and I always wanted to be like him. I had a bad brains Obama t shirt in 2008. This is definitely the most i've liked bad brains. Theres some great melody and rhythm between the breakdowns and hardcore. I think this album's greatest strength is its creativity and I'll probably keep listening to this album and get more accustomed to some of its bitterness.
Madonna
2/5
Like a Prayer is great but this project isnt really for me. It's got a disney disco thing that (to my ear) hasn't aged well. Points for being influential and Madonna is great but I'm not sure it holds up.
Al Green
3/5
Great performance but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. It was a little slow for me. Overall It was still good but not my thing. Title track is my favorite.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Awesome Project. As a piece of groundbreaking art, this thing succeeds and as a danceable, fun piece of music it also succeeds. We are the robots is a fantastic opener and it never loses any momentum. Neon lights is a fantastic techno ballad. The model is probably the most human song on here and if you removed the electronic elements and replaced it with rock instrumentation it probably would have charted in England. The last song is a great closer and the vocal modifications might be played out now, but it fits with the track.
I was expecting something cold and soulless. With ai and the pervasive voice of tiktok and siri, I was expecting to dread this album. Instead, it's an incredibly warm and kinetic album. It feels calculated but not in an accountant way, it feels precise in the same way that a bird flaps its wings or cells divide. It feels natural, and it's endlessly refreshing.
In the 50 or so years since this album was released, I think that the role of the robot in society and music has changed a lot. Fears of robot surveillance is constant, with hysteria around drones in the sky while we also invite robots into our houses on apps on our phones and smart toilets that can give you insights on your health based on your poops. You can feel the optimism on this album. Robots aren't enemies or weapons. They are babies, they have a lot to learn about the world, and at least at that moment, in 1976, their only limit was the imagination.
Nirvana
5/5
I was debating this one. It's my least favorite Nirvana Album. The highs are great but I find some of the songs to be just Okay. Really what I think happened is that I've heard the best songs on the album too many times. This album is great and it's no one's fault that I can't listen to it with fresh ears again. It's a 5 star album. What Nirvana did was revolutionary.
Muddy Waters
3/5
This was pretty good but wasn't my favorite. Muddy Waters has a great voice but I wasn't the biggest fan of the tracks. He's got a great a great style but it didn't connect with me in the same way as some of his contemporaries.
Alice Cooper
1/5
Very little shock, very little rock. It's a guy in drag as someone with something to say. There's nothing here for me to enjoy here unfortunately.
Pink Floyd
5/5
This album is great. I think the guitar work Pink Floyd puts into their music is probably the best it's ever been. I like it more than Hendrix, Clapton, and Zappa. The atmospheric composition just speaks to me and I haven't even gotten into the themes and content of any of the albums other than The Wall. I'll definitely put some energy into a deeper dive because Pink Floyd is quickly moving up as one of my favorite bands.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
Haven't listened to this all the way through until now. It's a great wave of music. The hits are great, some of the best hard rock anthems of all time. Artistically I don't think this is revolutionary but culturally it was sort of the last of the old guard to fall before alternative rock and grunge became the prevailing force. It's a great project for hard rock, even if the vocals are a little silly.
Little Richard
5/5
First time listening to anything beyond Tutti Frutti and it's all very good and all mostly sounds like Tutti Frutti. It's fun to imagine a world where music was all buttoned up and contained and this guy went out and let loose. It's essential and also it's pretty fun and still sounds good. If this opened the can of worms that is rock and roll then maybe it really ought to be a 5. I'll bite. It's quality and the horns and jazz instrumentation holds up. It's been in my head all day
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
I always assumed Lynyrd Skynyrd was a man. This is a great debut album from a classic southern rock band. Hard to deny the influence. For 1973 this sounds great. I didn't realize that the band had so many issues with members coming and going as well as members of the band dying in a plane crash. It's a wonder if the band would have had a legendary career if fate had gone a different way. At least we got Freebird out of them. Any group would have been stoked to make Freebird.
Patti Smith
4/5
I think this is pretty great. Hard to pin down the style, but it's creative and cool. It's kind of art rock without being too noisy. It sounds good. It's just a cool expression and it lands. Great debut.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
So I listened to this album for the first time after listening to the mercury rev album and I really liked this album. Coyne said it's not a concept album but I think it would be better if it was. Also, learning that the pink robots are a metaphor for cancer, I was kind of disappointed. I guess I wanted it to be more abstract and I kind of made up my own. In mine the robots win and Yoshimi loses and the rest of the album is the robots journey of becoming humans, cultivating with the hit, do you realize. Where the robots gain humanity and continue the human project of enlightenment. I'm not sure how much of that can really be interpreted, but that's what I wanted the album to be after one listen.
All that being said. I love this album. I love the artwork, I love the wacky electronic components, I love the melodies. I think that this is a great alternative dream pop album.
Boston
3/5
I didn't get much out of this. All of the songs and instrumentation sound fine but none of it really stays with me. Maybe it suffers from being too classic, but this sounds like the rock played by a movie rock band. I was somewhat let down. It is super polished and high quality for a debut so I give them credit there.
Pentangle
2/5
This album sacrifices any sense of identity or charm to create music that no one asks for. This a renaissance fair of an album. It is a simulacra of a time that has only existed in Dungeons and Dragons. I give it 2 stars because I think it would be funny to play during DnD or while tripping. Favorite song is Hunter Song.
This album is totally fine, Beautiful Day, and Wild Honey are my two favorite songs but there's a decent number of snoozers on this too. I like U2 well enough generally, but this isn't essential in their catalog. Overall, it was fine, and I might revisit a few of these tracks if I'm in the mood.
The Afghan Whigs
3/5
I had a decent time with this album. There's a lot of really good fundamentals in the instrumentals on here but there's an amateurish quality. It feels like the emotions spill into the sound and gives it a garage band raw kind of feeling. The songs weren't very memorable but I appreciate this American style over the UK detached style that is very present on this list. I think these guys were making music true to them and that's pretty cool even if the final product doesn't hold up to their influences.
Elvis Costello
4/5
I liked this quite a bit. It's hard to pin down what this kind of music is. It's definitely not rock and it doesn't feel like punk to me. If different music was food this would be American gastropub. It's bold and punchy without being too far from the norm. Alison is great. 4 stars
Led Zeppelin
4/5
This is a very good Zeppelin project with some hits but a really consistent sound. This album feels more blues and Rhythm guitar than others but maybe that's just me. Anyways 'Whole Lotta Love' is the best song and the rest of the album doesn't necessarily go downhill but nothing exceeds it. This album proves that Zep 1 wasn't a fluke and it still holds up but my expectations are high and I don't want to give every Zepelin album a 5 so this is lower on the list.
JAY Z
2/5
Alright, I don't like Jay-Z. I think he's massively overrated and I like very few of his songs. I think his beats are average and his flow is boring. I'm sure that there's stuff to like about this album, certainly the nas diss track is cool and culturally interesting but I really just don't like his sound. His punch lines fall flat for me and he seems too cool to do anything more experimental with his flow. It feels like he's trying to be B.I.G. but without the charisma or range. All is to say that I don't hate it, but I can't believe this guy got as big as he is. Every verse I hear from him sounds like he's reading it off a sheet for the first time.
Ryan Adams
1/5
I could barely hear this in my car because of his refusal to do anything instrumentally. His singing is probably fine but he's unwilling to make a hook or chorus. Each of these songs that I heard should have been on a B-side. This whole album feels unfinished and apparently he didn't even have a name for this album and the label gave him 15 seconds to come up with one.
Korn
3/5
Put this on in the background while playing a quick round of disc golf and I started getting into it about halfway in. When Ice cube came on I was intrigued. Goes to show that people really didn't know how music was going to evolve and they were willing to throw some weird stuff on the wall to see if it worked. I enjoyed the track "Pretty" I also liked the song in the middle with some rapping and looked to see who it was and it was Fred Durst, who I only know from that eminem song, but I imagine he's not very cool. I was going to say I felt like there were Beastie boy influences, especially on that track but I don't know, kind of feels insulting to the Beastie Boys now. Overall I think that this project is a fully functional piece and it's a little challenging but it has high points. I remember thinking at one point that this is what Alice Cooper should have sounded like. Overall, it wasn't bad but I think the hardcore music scene was right to choose music like system of a down and death grips over sect.
3/5
This album didn't really hook me but I thought it was interesting which by my history usually gets a 3. This one was hard to rate because it really is slow and moody a lot of the time and really blends into the background in a good way I think. It's like a candle but kind of a post punk indie candle.
The White Stripes
3/5
This is pretty good rock. I put it on during a workout. It wasn't super memorable outside of seven nation army. There were also some weird moments that I don't think landed amazing but it was fine. Strong 3
ZZ Top
3/5
Totally fine. I'd probably be more appreciative of ZZ Top if they were the only one who sounded like this. Unfortunately for the ZZ toppers the people who took their sound made better music, thus putting them at the ZZ bottom of my list. I tip my ZZ top hat to these innovators but I see ZZ top as a vehicle to catch some ZZ's (tops)
Talking Heads
4/5
I accurately assessed that this was an early project for the Talking Heads. I thought that this was pretty good. Less adventurous than their next project but super consistent and catchy. I think that this is where Talking heads shines. Where you get into the groove and you stay there. Take me to the River stood out to me.
The Go-Go's
3/5
Somewhere between good and great. This album feels 80s in a good way. It falls into some of the 80s tropes of being repetitive and tonally samey but they own the sound and they do some fun stuff with it. Lust to Love particularly stood out to me as a little grittier that I think was the highlight. It leaned more on the edgier side and I wish I got more of that. Still though it's a solid album that I'm not the biggest fan of the genre.
Billy Joel
5/5
Total sing-along album almost every song. I love Billy Joel, I think his music is fun to listen to and sing. I think Vienna is the centerpiece of this album but it's consistent all the way through and I'm not the biggest fan of the ballad ending but it's fine. I was excited to listen to this album again and I still love it. My dad loved Billy Joel so it reminds me of car rides with him. It's a great album that I'll always be fond of.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I'm a big Bob Marley and Wailers fan. Bob and the talented group represent Reggae in the same way that Hendrix represents Psyche Rock or Cobain represents Grunge. Bob is a mythical figure that is inseperable from the legacy of Reggae. This is an early work but it is extremely polished. The songs are great, the big hit is stir it up but the supporting tracks like Concrete jungle and High Tide or Low Tide are also great songs on their own. This album really has no misses and shows that this group hit the ground running and this is the blueprint for the rest of Marley's work for the rest of his career. It's a great album that holds up and is still the perfect relaxation music.
The Prodigy
1/5
I was expecting crab rave meme. Instead it was a weird rock electronic fusion. Not my thing but looking at spotify listens, this thing was POPULAR. I guess this was the time where people saw Radiohead adding electronic music to rock so they said they could add rock to electronic music. I guess it mustve worked but I never want to hear it again.
5/5
Bob Dylan's career was so long and so great it can really be divided into several eras. This album functions as the greatest hits of his greatest era. Including all the best from his electric trilogy. I have been ignoring the context of whether or not any of the albums do or do not belong on this list and I will continue that trend. As a piece of music I would put on and listen to, it's among my favorite. If I was introducing someone to Dylan, this would be a decent place to start. And I think these versions of songs are just as great as the studio verisions. This is one of my favorite versions of Mr. Tambourine man I've ever heard and closing the show with Like a Rolling Stone is just the closer of closers. This might be top of my list of shows I wish I could have behind just Woodstock(?) This was a great show, possibly his best.
Roxy Music
2/5
This is pretty boring even by British standards.
Dire Straits
3/5
Pretty great guitar work. Money is for Nothing is the highlight and then it dries up. At the end they do a pretty cool Pink Floyd tribute. It's almost a 4 but the best song says F------ a bunch which makes me feel gross.
Björk
4/5
Björk is always fun to listen to. This project isn't as far out as her later work but it's still an odd sound for someone new to her music. I will say I'm not a big fan of the electronic and dance influences on some of these tracks but as a whole it's still an engaging listen.
The Who
1/5
I couldnt finish this. Did they think that they were above including their hits on this? They just released Tommy and didnt want to include pinball wizard or acid queen. Whats the point.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
Too much going on to enjoy for me. Some cool concepts but not enough space to flesh any of them out. I might come back to explore but this is not a great introduction.
Spiritualized
2/5
I liked the first song but the rest was very blech. This reads like a great album but it just doesn't connect like it's contemporaries
4/5
Simple, potent, suprising. I was expecting more pretentious British slop. This album is realy good. The first track is a great opener and the title track is a bold shift. Overall i'm impressed
Beck
4/5
I thought that this was pretty good. It had a classic folk feel and it was moody and atmospheric. I hadn't really heard of Beck but I liked this. Felt like Beck was accepting that his sound needs to evolve with time and I think that this is a great example of an artist doing that.
3/5
When I die and come face to face with the creator, I will have to answer his questions. Who were you? What did you live for? and Why did you write a review for Blur's 'Modern Life is Rubbish' without finishing it.
"It was tiresome and uninteresting" I would say, but that answer dissatisfying the creator.
"But what if it improved in the second half? Or what if it got worse. If you gave it 3 stars it mustv'e been enjoyable enough" replied my lord and savior.
"Well yes, it was good enough, it was exactly good enough to be insufferable. It wasn't bad enough that I could muscle my way through it like some of the slop on the list, but it wasn't good enough to be enjoyable. and the crushing weight of the run time made me so painfully aware that I was listening to it. It was all too much" I respond.
And I'll have to hope that answer is good enough
George Michael
3/5
There is some interesting sounds on here. There were pieces that sounded very Disney. There were songs on here that reminded me of father John Misty. The talent is there but it never climbs out of decent into the quite good.
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
Kind of a trash fire but there are still great moments and some individual brilliance manages to shine through.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I like the musical aesthetic that Arcade fire have. Kind of like a background music version of radiohead. Arcade fire has a knack for making music feel grand and impactful. Kind of like an alternative imagine dragon. I had a good time listening to it while I was hiking around a lake so I'm a little biased.
Prince
4/5
This album feels essential. I don't know much about Prince but it's kind of shocking how modern this sounds while not feeling like modern pop music. The space that Prince gives for his beats is something people just don't do as much anymore. I felt like I had heard most of Prince's catalog but there was a lot of classic songs that I've just completely forgotten. The whole thing assembled really confidently and I probably enjoyed this album as much as purple rain.
Side note I spent 9 months in 1999 unemployed living large and I don't remember any of it. I truly embodied the spirit of 1999.
Aerosmith
4/5
I was surprised how clean this is, production wise. I always figured that Aerosmith was really raw and abrasive, but it doesn't seem that way. It's pretty good. I won't listen to it often but it's got an undeniable charm.
Public Enemy
4/5
It's great. Bold and punchy. Not as memorable as fear of a black planet but another great project.
Miles Davis
5/5
Probably the best jazz has or will ever sound. This is the way Jazz merges with psychedelic. This is the farthest that jazz could go before Jimi Hendrix existed and expanded the world of what was possible. Hearing this in the 60s painted the future. Dylan went Electric, Davis went Electric, and the world is about the change.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Great singer songwriter album. Very vulnerable and expressive.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
We sang Bridge over troubled water in my middle school chorus class. The album was too gentle for even a weenee like me. Some undeniable brilliance but I would need to be in a very specific mood to want to hear this again.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
It's okay. I think the vocals elevate it but ultimately it sounds like this group wanted to write songs for Broadway. It's 80s pop with piano instead of synth. Been done better.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
As a fellow North American Jew, I've always appreciated Cohen as one of our best songwriters. This album shows Cohen really leaning into the idea that it is his dying songs and to do that you run a fine line between being a moving goodbye, and a last ditch cry for attention. Cohen doubles down the gravity of the album with grand orchestra and his graveliest voice he could muster. All of this framing makes it obvious that whatever he's saying must be important, which it is. Probably more resonant with an older audience, this album is straightforwardly poetic with a simple rhyme scheme. It's the kind of poems that anyone can appreciate. It isn't particularly challenging, it's simple punchy and gospel imagery, just like the music that he got famous for. It all works pretty well for me.
Turbonegro
3/5
Some pretty great playing and style is let down with lackluster songwriting. This has the font of something I'd be into
Neil Young
3/5
I was expecting to like it more than I did.
Rush
4/5
I don't know much about Rush but this seems like a good first album. Tom Sawyer is great and shows what they can do at their best. There's some cool prog breakdowns in this and it got me pretty amped for my bike ride.
Pulp
4/5
This has got kind of a grand post punk vibe that I think actually works well. It's a sound that I think is coming back (reminds me of Black Country New Road). Overall, I liked it, though I do wish it were shorter.
Antony and the Johnsons
4/5
I liked it. Kind of artsy fartsy but well composed in my opinion and I think the vocal performance is great.
The Crusaders
4/5
Solid smooth jazz with funk and great vocals.
The Beach Boys
5/5
I listened to this album and it's still shocking to me that this is 60s music. It's so freakin dandy. I guess it just goes to show you how sanitized and polished the 50s and 60s were. I can't imagine the atom bomb that would have been Zepelin and Black Sabbath that would come just a few years after this.
Anyways its good. Wouldn't it be nice, God only knows, and the closing track are all standouts but the whole thing is creative and well put together. These beach boys were really trying to capture that same lightning that the beatles were on and they did it in their own way. I was thinking a 4 but I did quite enjoy it.
John Lennon
4/5
Never listened to John's solo stuff. Imagine is a great song, I don't think it can be oversold. Jealous Guy, I don't want to be a soldier mama, How do you sleep, and Oh Yoko are all great songs also. I think the album goes well and Lennon is still at the top of his game. I was between a 4 and 5 for this one but I did feel that it was missing something without the rest of the beatles.
Sabu
3/5
Unique sounding percussion forward sound. Somewhat challenging musically but it seems pretty innovative for the time and manages to sound very good.
Portishead
5/5
This hit hard. Hadn't heard of Portishead before and I'm not very familiar with whatever genre they are but I was impressed. Vocals are great and the beats/instrumentation are powerful and groovy. Easy 5
Elastica
3/5
I loved these guys when I saw them lose to Sex Bob-Omb at the battle of the bands.
4/5
The front half of this is pretty essential U2. They found their sound on this one and the tracks are great. Easy to listen to, quintessential Irish Rock.
Beck
4/5
Beck goes all over the map with this one. From classic folk, to pop, electronic, and there are point where he starts rapping like a Beastie Boy. It's all fun and weird.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
CCR comes through with a solid project. Basically, Swamp Rock at its best. Great grooves great guitar. What's not to love.
The Lemonheads
4/5
I was impressed. This album has a garage punk sound that is a good blend of 90s and today. Songs like Rudderless, Bit Part, Alison's starting to happen are impressive for how timeless they sound. I could see this album growing on me even more with time.
The Youngbloods
4/5
Very diverse album all over the indie/ Psychedelic map. Sometimes to its detriment because the band is definitely better at some things than others but as a whole its a cool project. I was between a 4 and 5 because I really dig some of the tracks but there are some I don't. Definitely glad to have listened.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
It's a charming album. Kind of a classic showtune sound with a lovely voice.
B.B. King
4/5
This album gets down to business. Everyone does their thing and it's great. It feels right at the moment where jazz and blues were morphing into psyche rock and jam band style.
Machito
4/5
This is pretty good. It's african inspired jazz and the horns and percussion are tasteful and deliberate.
Arctic Monkeys
5/5
When I was in middle school I was good at math and science which meant that I was in classes with kids one year older than me. My biology lab partner's name was Sydney and she was a year older than me and had dyed orange red hair and one of the only things I knew about her was that she was really into the arctic monkeys. So I gave "Am" a listen. It wasn't really my thing, it was pretty close but I never really stuck with it.
Coming back to the band with an album that I hadn't listened to, I was very impressed. They reminded me of the strokes but a little bit moodier. I think the instrumentation was great across the board, the drums stand out, the bass stands out, etc. It's all punchy and works together to be better than the sum of its parts which is a high bar. I had a great time listening to this album and while I never got to be an angsty indie kid, I still felt nostalgic for the idea of it.
Nina Simone
3/5
There is evidently some classic stuff here but this feels a little too culturally deep for me to appreciate. Jay Z sampled four women on his 'Story of OJ' and it's awesome. The album is a lot to chew on but it's a little intense for me and I wasn't the biggest fan.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
Pretty good. Joplin's vocals are great and the backing band goes hard
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
I'm not sure if I was in a good mood when this was playing or playing it put me in a good mood but it's good. The kind of jazz that maybe isn't as challenging as some. I think anyone could enjoy this album while also being technically brilliant. It's the kind of jazz that you might hear in a movie and someone who would never listen to jazz eats it up.
Jamiroquai
3/5
Hard to put my finger on this. It is pretty incredible how much Jay Kay sounds like Stevie Wonder. There is a lot I like but those things are all the things I like about the genre from the 70s. I was expecting more fusion with the new and it just never really got there. An album doesn't have to be innovative to be good but I think it's still a missed opportunity. There are some tracks I quite like but there's a lot about this album that kind of rubs me the wrong way. Kind of like Greta Van Fleet, it's just weird to make music from a different era.
G. Love & Special Sauce
2/5
This is pretty bad, it's basically the backbones for all the worst songs from bands that I like.
Gang Starr
4/5
Pretty sweet. A missing link between the rhyme time 80s rap and the 90s gangster rap. It's pretty chill which I appreciate. The sampling and DJing is classic.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Eh
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
It is very long but it has a lot of variety and it's moody and immature. I had a good time despite not remembering much.
Faith No More
3/5
These guys have range. From songs I don't like to songs I kind of like, to covers of songs I do like. Sometimes in searching for your sound you discover that the journey itself was the discovery. Not the case here. Figure out what you do and if what you do is Nu metal, try something else.
Neil Young
4/5
I liked this project more than the last one. Young has a quirky style about him that I do like and his guitar style has a weird familiarity about it. It feels like a mix of psychedelic and idk indie shoegaze. There's something else in the mix that just elevates it for me. Super timeless, I like this more raw side than other Young projects.
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
This was entirely uninteresting to me.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Sometimes the stars align and a group puts out a project that is front to back enjoyable. Where every note is the perfect note for that time and place. I have to imagine this album was written in a total flow state, no thinking just going with the flow of the music. This album is refined without feeling too combed over, it goes deep without ever feeling unfocused, it flows well sonically without ever feeling samey. The album blends pop, rock, folk, psychedelic in a way that feels natural and fans of those genres can enjoy this album.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
I can believe my eyes and ears, this album is derivative and tepid. Nothing unbelievable here. Talented but unenthused by invention, this group is mothers and fathers of nothing. They are the child of greater groups and the brothers of the forgotten.
California Dreamin does hold up.
Stephen Stills
3/5
This could have been trimmed. I honestly don't know much about the individuals who comprise CSNY but we've had a couple now. This guy seems alright.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
Listening to this album is like eating at a white castle. The experience is fine but it's hard to forget that you are eating at a themed restaurant. In this case it's more like Bubba Gump Shrimp in that it is an overt cosplay. In any case I didn't notice the theme really come through on the music or lyrics, but what did come through was that it was boring. So yeah all this to say that I can overlook the weird tribute to Paul Revere, but I can't overlook the stale music. I guess this is what above average bands from the 60s looked like.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
Not a sound I like from Springsteen. I wouldn't judge someone who says this is a favorite album of theirs, but my first impression of this was that it wasn't great.
Beatles
3/5
Pretty bland by Beatles standards. It's early and it feels like it. It feels like the Beatles are convinced that if they work together they can be more than the sum of their parts. This is well polished and they show glimpses of what they would become.
ZZ Top
4/5
Pretty solid 80s butt rock with some big hits that pump it up a notch. This is what they play when the detective in an action movie walk into a strip club to get some intel. It's fun.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
This was interesting but I wasn't the biggest fan. It kind of just went by for me.
The Everly Brothers
4/5
Classy Doo-wop with some classic rapey vibes. Listening to this takes me back to the good old days when the white man prevailed and women knew their place. Dinner was always made when you got home and you spent half your day counting beans at the old 9-5 before unwinding with a 6 pack at the ball game. Your son Junior was getting straight A's and going steady with Jenny from down the road. Life is good. Since he's good at math he's planning to be an economist just like his old man, maybe work at the firm once he graduates from Duke where me and my father went. Duke's a great school, with a great basketball team now that they let the colored people play. Anyways I'm getting distracted. This is all to say that if I was at a diner and they played Made to Love I might just get down for a Bop, Jitterbug, Jive or Hully Gully.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
This album is the story that Kendrick was born to tell. It is a memoir that captures, probably better than any other piece of art that I've seen the intersectional experience of poverty, youth, and life in a city with gang culture (in lieu of a better word). The story of this album is not chronological which I think obfuscates the actual plot to a first time listener, but does result in a satisfying listening experience as the listener starts to understand how different pieces connect. The voicemail and the various voice clips for use as connective tissue is essential to piece this story together because it's easy to lose track of key events of the story.
As a whole I think that this album is a masterpiece. It's a story of Kendrick at a crossroads where he deals with love, opportunity, power, trust, risk, death, and faith. The way in which the story jumps around juxtaposes those concepts with callbacks and contradictions. Kendrick wants to be cool and rich and powerful, but if he wants to get those things he needs to be risky, break the law, engage in gang behavior, potentially giving up his potential path to wealth and power. He has this golden opportunity to success through his rapping which allows him to gain respect and power outside of fear and gang politics. It is from this privilege that he is able to report on those without that privilege who had to rise up via guerilla tactics, gang crime, and murder. This is the story of all of the "Good Kids" who are corrupted by the "Maad City" and the story it tells is relatable while distant to much of the world.
He brings us into life in Compton through the mindset of a young man living it. This album does a great job in never breaking the fourth wall. He never tells you who was right and who was wrong. He has so many voices talking to him and he doesn't know who to believe. We all have our biases but the album never tells us who was right. When I hear about Kendrick going in and robbing that house, I think it's a bad idea, and an immoral action. Someone who's been in that situation could have a different experience, robbing a house is a rite of passage, a path towards power and acceptance, an evil in the same way that slaughtering a cow or going off to war is.
When we see that Kendrick is having these conflicted feelings and chooses one of the many paths that lay in front of him, we have to respect his choice, not because it is the objectively right choice, but because it's true to him. There is no judgement of Kendrick's friends here, they are also good kids and if the mad city turns them to murderers, that is a sad reality. When Dave dies, the juxtaposition between what we just saw "[pop pop] HA, I got them n******s". We see what it looks like to get caught up in the game of war. We see what revenge costs and all this over a turf war we don't even know how it started. It's a game of ping pong and retributive violence that takes innocent lives from both sides, and in the middle of it is Kendrick who feels that his horniness has caused it.
Kendrick just wants to rap, and he is wrapped up in the middle of it, suffocating him, and the only thing he has to get out of it is his rapping, his escape rope. For the others involved, what it takes for them is to put their faith in God to take them out of it. They don't have the escape rope that Kendrick does, but they can see the bigger picture after Dave's death and have something that they can put their faith into to escape also.
After that the story is coded in triumph, the track real is the escape out of it. They may still be in Compton, but they have a new focus, that of faith and honor. Being true to themselves when they can put down their armor of gang colors that they used to protect themselves from the abrasive environment of Compton. And the song Compton shows us who's on the other side of the escape rope. Fuckin Dr Dre! The gold standard for a man who grinded his way out of the projects to become not just a success, but a businessman and a global brand, respected across the world. And the Bitch don't kill my vibe remix is a reminder that he is the same guy and now he gets to be true to himself in a way he was trying to but wasn't able to in Compton.
Talking about the music specifically, the album is sick. There are high points where Kendrick is aggressive and bombastic, representing the highs of that time, projecting the confidence that only a young man really has. The softer songs like poetic justice, bitch dont kill my vibe, and money trees are all great. Kendrick's use of features is always spot on. Bringing Drake to be a guy who he's competing with for Sherane is awesome. Swimming pools is great, even if it's not super relevent to the story. The way Kendrick layers tracks to create the feeling of having so many people and thoughts coming at you all at once is such a great way to use that tool.
There are so many things that feel intentional about this album. Releasing swimming pools as a single and then putting the swimming pools extended version on the album to add context and call out the listeners for not realizing that they are participating in the peer pressure that the song is criticizing. Genius move. So creative. Adds so much to the listening experience. Dying of thirst gives me chills every time and it succeeds as the emotional centerpiece of the album. The only track I really don't care for is Real where I think the hook is just weak. I also never really loved bitch don't kill my vibe, so having it on the album twice isn't my favorite decision.
Overall this album is amazing. I consider it essential listening. The way it tells a story is on another level and in concept and execution alone I think it succeeds. It also includes some great tracks, great samples, and world class story telling and symbolism. In many ways this album is cumulation of Kendrick's, with the emotions captured photographically and released with the hindsight of a matured man.
I'm pretty sure TPAB is also on the list so we will get to that, which is amazing in a completely different way and goes into his life in a completely new way. I feel that we are lucky to have these two albums and I think there are untold impacts from this guy's meteoric rise in the 2010s. It would be pretty funny if I were to give this album a 4.
Van Halen
4/5
I had a good time listening to this despite the fact that it was way more pop than I expected. Jump is an interesting song, almost made to be a meme/sound affect. I liked a lot of the guitar work and the thing is hugely radio friendly. This has got that Tom Petty pretty boy aesthetic thing going on which can be a little off putting but the album has a style and it commits to it.
ABBA
3/5
These guys are alright. I'm not a big dance music fan but ABBA is always fun
Gram Parsons
2/5
Boring country rock. Wish there was more to this proj.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
4/5
I had a good time with this. I wasn't expecting this album to be this complex musically, it's jarring in places with how much they are trying to do. This is maybe a good example of what makes Prog rock different than regular rock. The first track is a big undertaking but the rest of the tracks are also very good. I was a little disapointed there wasn't any(?) rad guitar work and it was mostly keyboard and other instruments but I found it super solid regardless. I'm excited to revisit this album. I also really like the album cover. It looks like a pokemon. I'm giving it a 4 now but it could move into 5 territories the more i revisit.
Syd Barrett
3/5
In a poetic world there would be more to this. Syd Barrett may have cofounded Pink Floyd, but the best thing he did for the music world was leave it and let Waters take over. The Madcap Laughs is pretty okay. It's got a whimsy to it, the tracks that he was able to finish. I do think that the process of recording bleeds into the album too much. We didn't need to hear his inability to finish things or get things right. The music will often tell the tale of its creation and all the extras really adds very little. Just kind of bums me out.
In a perfect world Syd would go on to do his own thing, make paintings and drift into old age and obscurity. Instead, he was ripped away from the band he loved, grasping at the ship as it left port without him. Sometimes music reminds you of the good times, but sometimes it just reminds you that the good times are gone.
Queen
4/5
Interesting album. Certainly a band trying to carve out their style. I think this was a good effort from the group. A little less poppy and a little more modern rock (for the 70s).
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Not my favorite collection from Bruce but that's more of a me thing. Born in the U.S.A. is a very strong aesthetic that the music lives up to with powerful imagery and themes. There is a lot to unpack and I think that this combination of patriotism, nostalgia, and melancholy makes for a pretty heady listen.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
As much as I'd like to be. I'm just not a Gaye man. I just don't connect with his musicality in the same way that I connect to other Motown singers like Stevie Wonder, the temptations, the Marvelettes, the four tops, etc. He's just a little slow and the music is a little disjointed. It's just not for me.
The Blue Nile
3/5
I thought this was decent. It's a bit radioheadish and there were some moments that I enjoyed but ultimately it was kind of meh.
Thelonious Monk
3/5
I've heard some Thelonious Monk and I just find it falls on the wrong side of the track for me. This album, despite the awesome album cover, delivers experimentation and creativity that doesn't pay off for me. Not enough to be any better than middle of the road, I found.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
This album is a great intro to Hendrix. More classic song structures and hints of the genius. Just enough classic songs to make this a 5. So much style and charisma in this project.
Jack White
3/5
This was a decent album. Pretty classic rock for the 2010s.
Depeche Mode
3/5
Kind of interesting and there's enough here to fit some very specific vibes but I don't see myself revisiting this.
The Roots
3/5
The Who
4/5
This is pretty great and it has Baba O-reily. The thing with the Who is that they play the most classic of classic rock. They are the vanilla ice cream of rock bands. They are great, but I have an affinity for the more avante garde and eccentric work. So I just can never get that into The Who. Tommy had the same thing going on.
David Bowie
5/5
Nice straightforward great album. Ahead of it's time and classic Bowie. It has changes on it but also every track is great. I do find the cover art off-putting.
The Doors
4/5
This is the first Doors project I really liked. I thought it was a nice engaging listen.
Prefab Sprout
4/5
I thought this was pretty good. There's a lot of modern indie in this mixed with some tasteful pop sensibilites. It's a nostalgic and romantic album that uses its moments well. I was pleasently suprised. Strong 4
The Stooges
4/5
Super solid punk rock proto grunge.
Tom Tom Club
5/5
Awesome. Ive had this mix on repeat. Puts me in a great mood.
George Harrison
4/5
Of all the Beatles, I think George Harrison had the musical style that I most enjoyed. Not to say he's the best Beatle, but I came into this project expecting to enjoy it, and I did enjoy it. But much like 1am after a drug bender, I started to get desperate for it to end. Sure the songs were good, but I just couldn't follow this thing the whole way. I was lost in an ocean of Mr. Harrison. The thought of deep listening to this album shocks and terrifies me.
Beatles
5/5
This is a good psychedelic album. There are some stand out tracks but the album is solid all the way through. The band did well on this one.
Little Simz
4/5
Another great little Simz proj. She's very consistent and makes being brittish work. Kind of reminds me of Charli XCX sometimes. Had to knock off a star because Little Simz is a monarchist and #hashtag #NoKings!
Mekons
2/5
Kind of like the pogues but shittier
The Beach Boys
3/5
2007 film Surf's up is a mockumentary style animated film produced by SONY animations. The movie is a bog standard herculean rise of our plucky protagonist who picks up the wisdom of an old legend, both learning new things along the way. That isn't to say it isn't a solid story. The emotional beats hit both on the side of the rise to the top, but also the has been rekindling his passion for a sport he quit on. Tank is an excellent antagonist and there are enough great side characters to really flesh out the cast. The music is solid if dated but the visuals are the best part of the movie. Few animated movies make you want to be there to witness the action quite like this one. The colors are vibrant and the waves animation is gorgeous. Overall the movie tells a fun story in a compact hour and 25 minute package. Fun for the whole family.
Fiona Apple
4/5
First real dive into Fiona Apple. She has a great voice and style. I know she's a beloved figure in the art pop/ singer songwriter world but I never really went down that road. I'm compelled.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Production, lyricism, hooks, this album has it all. Basically the every track on here is a standout. The poem that runs through the album with the payoff at the end is great the first time you hear it. The interview with Tupac is great. The poem that reveals the meaning of the album. This is one of those albums that can amaze and suprise you.
While GKMC was the story of Kendrick's youth, TPAB is a reflection on fame and blackness. I think the reason Kendrick had so much to do on this album is he was energized by learning about the national struggles beyond his local struggles. When he emerged from his chrysalis, he found a whole new world to explore, and this album is flush with all that energy.
Goldfrapp
4/5
I like this style of synthy sung music. I find it relaxing. This is a pretty great piece of that genre.
David Holmes
2/5
This was the musical equivalent of a toothy blowjob
Basement Jaxx
1/5
Terrible.
Talking Heads
4/5
It's very solid for early talking heads. What a unique sounding band.
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
I have a soft spot for Eric Clapton even though he stole George Harrison's wife, only to cheat on assault and abuse her then divorce her to move on to new 20 year olds whenever his last wife grew up. He also let his 4 year old climb out a window and die.
Anyways this album is decent with Layla being the only really inspired track. A lot of firepower went into this album being a solid project including Duane Allman of the Allman brothers. As a whole the album just doesn't stand out among the classics and pales in comparison to the work coming from Cream.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Neil boldly combines the folk jam noodling with the weird alternative rock budding in the late 80s early 90s to create an album that is decent but should probably never be done again. The band's instrumentation is both too good and not catchy enough for garage rock and every song overstays its welcome.
Destiny's Child
2/5
Not much that I really liked here
Lou Reed
3/5
It is a cool album but you get tired of Lou Reed’s talk singing about halfway through. Its well done but just doesnt produce anything that great. I did find Men of Good fortune stuck in my head for a bit
The Killers
4/5
Bangers on the front half. That first song feels like what 2000s rock could have become if not for imagine dragons. Really solid
Joy Division
3/5
This album makes for a better T-shirt than it does for a musical experience. Some tracks on the front were pretty good but I didn't find it doing anything particularly special.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Pretty decent project. I really like the album cover. I think Neil looks rugged in a laid back way. I also quite like the song down by the river. I've decided to grade a bit harder. Im probably not going to relisten so this has got to be a 3.
Living Colour
4/5
Pretty sweet. Heavy production and a lot of fun.
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
The first few songs are the best but its a solid project throughout. Paul is the most fun Beatle and it comes through on this proj.
Meat Loaf
3/5
Pretty decent kind of butt rock
R.E.M.
4/5
I can't really imagine a world with such narrow musical standards that this was pushing the fringes. It's great alternative rock but it didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary. I suppose too much time listening to copycats makes the OG's a little less special. It's a solid album but unlike Kurt Cobain, this does not crack my top 50
Duran Duran
3/5
In the wise words of the older brother in Singh Street no woman can truly love a man who listens to Phil Collins. That being said, this is pretty decent. I probably won't revisit I really don't jive with the music of the '80s for some reason
Iggy Pop
2/5
Grating without offering a purpose. Some songs were alright but there was an abrasiveness that only a brit could really appreciate
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
1/5
This is ahead of it's time in it's preachiness and repetitiveness. There's a world where this is particularly cutting and incisive but that world has come and the TV bad stuff just isn't hitting the same. It would be another thing if the flows or production was doing anything interesting but it doesn't. The emphasis is on the content and the content just isn't all that interesting.
Bob Dylan
5/5
For those who don't know much about Dylan, this was his second album after his first album 'Bob Dylan (1961)' which was all covers except for two not great originals. This album came out a year later featuring all originals, some of the best folk songs that have ever come out and the unforgettable 'Blowing in the Wind'. This album came out when Dylan was 22, and this astronomic leap in quality between his first and second project was a shock to the music scene at the time. Bob would go on to have the storied career that he has but the fact that this album, one of the best folk albums ever made and arguably Bob's best album, was the catalyst behind that career makes this all the more monumental. As an album, this one is great. There's such a unique style on display here, it's so old man, but with the energy that old men don't have anymore. Dylan sang with an accent that wasn't regional, it was him. Just like his songwriting and incessant harmonica playing, his weird voice was his signature that he stamped all over this album. The result is unlike anything that was coming out at the time, and no one has pushed the limits of folk music so successfully ever since.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Led Zeppelin has got it all, the imagery, the lore, the symbolism, and a naturalness to their sound that makes it feel like the song was meant to be assembled in the way that it was. This band could have radicalized me.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Pretty decent synth pop. They definitely use some effects to make it feel grandiose which seems pretty influential. It was decent.
Dion
2/5
This felt inoffensive in a way that offended me.
The Slits
3/5
This is a pretty interesting sounding. The standout tracks on the back definitely carry the album but it's a unique experience for any punk fan.
David Bowie
3/5
I found this to be kind of a lackluster Bowie album. Didn't feel particularly inspired and the tracks blend together. I was enjoying a track at the end until I found out that the album had ended and autoplay had queued up a track from Hunky Dorey.
Neil Young
4/5
This is pretty great Neil. There are some standout tracks like Only Love Can Break Your Heart and Southern Man but I think the whole thing is an effective folk rock album. There's a lot to like here as a sort of soothing front porch album. I enjoyed the instrumentation which means maybe I'm not a crazy horse guy. Either way, this is a good example of the great musician Neil Young is that doesn't always shine through
Bauhaus
1/5
Guys say that they would do anything to get a goth gf. But are you willing to pretend this is good?
Black Sabbath
5/5
It's shocking how versatile Black Sabbath was. Sure the first track invented doom metal whatever I don't care. Some of the progressive and psychedelic grooves are next level awesome. Tony Iomi is the man and the riffs are all genius. I was suprised when this album kept getting better after the wizard.
Roxy Music
4/5
I found this to be some pretty solid pop music and for 1973 it's pretty ahead of its time. I think it holds up well and consistently falls on the better than average side.
Nick Drake
3/5
This album has a soft rock sound to it that's ahead of its time. I can understand really liking this album, especially if you connect with Nick but I didn't have that experience.
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
I found this album perfectly enjoyable but not as bold or exciting as other jazz albums.
Björk
5/5
Great mix of spectral and ethereal sounds and orchestral grandeur. This album succeeds in every way in it's uniqueness. It's loose, slippery, and feels weird to listen to. It's a magical experience that is unlike much else. My favorite Bjork project.
Can
3/5
I think this album and particularly the last song are great soundtrack music. There is a lot I like about this album but it didn't add up to enough for me. I can't see myself relistening.
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
It's ahead of it's time in that they are playing shitty 90s music in 1980. I can't believe this was 70 minutes long
R.E.M.
3/5
REM comes from the weird puberty of the 80s where music had to evolve from the rock legends of the 70s to the rebirth of rock in the 90s. I didn't like it but I was suprised when I heard the hit songs that this album contains. It's just weird to me, the sound, it's hard to pin down what they are going for and if they are nailing it.
5/5
I put this album on and went skateboarding and it was a great time. When the album looped and wonderwall happened I let it play. I was originally thinking 4 but I enjoyed it too much for that. As far as pop rock, this is probably some of the best of the 90s.
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Too little too late Emmylou. This was pretty slow for my liking. I did like the song in french, that one is going in the rotation. Didn't like much else.
Baaba Maal
2/5
Just kind of boring. I didn't find anything compelling.
Morrissey
2/5
I really don't know how to rate this. He has the same pretentiousness and accent as Jimmy Carr who I can't stand and Morrisy just kills me with what he chooses to talk about. He's trying to be woke but in the shittiest way possible. He injects himself into the music so much and it's awful. That being said, I think I liked this more than the Smiths. There are some catchy tracks on here. I liked The first in the gang to die. I would give it a 3 but I wanted to give it a 1. I'll settle on a 2.
Air
4/5
Pretty high quality synth pop. Like the band name the music is airy and spacey and a lot of music like this get's used for soundtracks and backing music. This alubm works well standing alone and it's pretty impressive. It's just super chill.
Jimmy Smith
3/5
I thought this was fine but I was expecting more from the album cover
Primal Scream
4/5
I think this is one of the best pure psychedelic projects of the 90s. Well it has some of the best moments. There are some moments where the band tried to do EDM stuff that I did not like, as well as generic pop rock. But the tracks where it shines, shine bright. I was thinking potentially a 5 but there were some dud tracks.
The Gun Club
2/5
I didn't care for it. Found it a bit tedious.
Killing Joke
3/5
This is a comparative step up from yesterday's punk album. I kinda tuned it out but I remember thinking it was pretty decent.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
This was perfectly wonderful but I would've appreciated some more hits.
Dire Straits
4/5
This is the Brittish response to Swamp Rock and Dire Straits is the Brittish Creedence Clearwater Revival. This album is a response to the mainstream rock at the time with a message loud and clear. "Let's get groovy". This album is great and Sultans of Swing is an ultra classic. Just a fantastic project and it's unbelievably polished for a debut.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
This is alright but Sinatra and the Rat Pack have done better.
Coldcut
3/5
This was better than I expected but only so good.
Bassnector could have been on this list if he would stop snapchatting tweens.
Jacques Brel
1/5
This album is a bit like oysters. If you can put up with it you'd probably fuck anything.
Metallica
4/5
I thought this was pretty good. Maybe I'm a poser
The Specials
1/5
I'm not going to pretend to know what this is trying to be. It blends reggae and pop and rock in a way that takes the worst of both and complements it with bad lyrics. yikes
Mylo
2/5
Listenable and forgettable.
Radiohead
5/5
I've heard that this album is often overrated by people who hadn't listened to the innovative and experimental electronic music that was coming out in the 90s and considered this album to be the first of its kind. This album isn't the first to combine electronic and progressive rock but it might be the best. This is one of those albums that make me feel like I'm floating but in typical radiohead fashion it's chilling and raw. I love the album cover, the deconstructed abstract and jagged mountains in the dark red background reminds me of a twisted version of the island of misfit toys. It's so imposing and threatening. It captures the essence of this album, it's a scary place and you feel the aura surround you as you enter. The electronic components throw you off and make the world feel artificial, like it's glitching out and collapsing around you. This world is scary eldritch horror but it's also brittle, susceptible to collapse and fragmentation. If this is the matrix and the terrifying soundscape were to shatter into shards and dust what would be left behind? Is the terror of this world preferable to the unknown that lays behind it? The Radiohead legacy is one of asking these kinds of complex unknowable questions.
Laura Nyro
4/5
Great tunes, well produced. Nostalgic sounding and charming.
Deep Purple
3/5
The most exciting thing about AI and automaton technology is also Machine Head
U2
4/5
This was a more enjoyable U2 project to me. I thought it was pretty charming.
George Jones
2/5
Once again I find myself unenthused by country music
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
A pretty complex and experimental album. I can tell that there is a lot going on with this one and I'll try to revisit when I have more time to invest in it. Brock Lesnar you've made a great album.
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
Kind of bog standard live 60s rock. It's fine but there's better examples of the genre than this I think.
Iron Maiden
4/5
Iron Maiden has a kind of campiness that I appreciate. The imagery and intensity is all great, it doesn't take itself too seriously but it commits. There are a few songs that raise it up to 4 status.
Louis Prima
4/5
Holds up very well and is probably the music of that era that holds up the best. When Nick Vianco DJ's my wedding, he's going to play songs from this album.
Silver Jews
2/5
A voice fit for a podcaster and decent instrumentation elevates this collection of spoken word poetry from terrible to boring.
SZA
5/5
This album was a big deal when it came out. I think it falls in line with a style of RnB that is really specific to the 2010s like the music of frank ocean or the weeknd. The album is great, SZA's voice is generational. The hits are fantastic. This album is very unified directionally which I think is great for a debut to establish the SZA sound. While this album is simple, things in SZA's personal life, seem to not be with SZA's online presence eclipsing her musical output. While it is nice to imagine artists as singularly focused on capturing magic in music, SZA. Being a SZA fan following this album included an 8 year wait for SOS. A wait so long I would say that it would be impossible for the listener, as well as the music scene not to grow and change within it. And that's what happened. This album is a bit of a time capsule. I was graduating high school and leaving my friends most of whom I haven't reconnected with to this day. That summer, those graduation parties, and listening to tracks off this album (among others) is a time and place that I will never be able to go back to. And listening to this reminds me of that. It's between a 4 and a 5.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
4/5
Living in the south now I learned a bit about modern bluegrass and country and this is pretty cool. I didn't listen to all of it but I don't see the length as an issue because it's more of an anthology/playlist than an album. In that way if I'm ever in the mood for some southern folk I will definitely put this on. My favorite track so far is the Tennessee stud.
Pixies
4/5
This is a pretty great album from Pixies. I don't think it captured lightning in a bottle in the same way doolittle did it has some stellar moments and I'm sure some people would call this album their favorite. This is a strong 4
T. Rex
4/5
Pretty funky and good. Hadn't heard of this band and this is a bit better than a lot of the things I've heard that have been described as Glam Rock.
The Sabres Of Paradise
3/5
This is definitely not bad, but it's not quite good. It's got a kind of spooky vibe and there are some conventional tracks and some of it falls into the outrun retrowave vibe that I was really into in high school.
That being said, it's definitively not that and the sense of aesthetic is not committed. I think that there's plenty of talent but in a world before mainstream edm and hyperpop none of the pieces connected.
Madonna
1/5
I can't believe that this is on the list. The whole thing of experimental music is the risk reward. It's risky, you might make something revolutionary but also there's a chance that people won't like it and you'll look stupid. This is the abominable spawn of eurotrash dance trot and 90s diva pop and it's revolting. Perhaps this failure is so revolting it's impossible to forget. If there is a merciful god, I hope he lets us forget this album so we can live our lives with dignity and grace.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
This album is hard to see as an album because it feels more like a reggae playlist on shuffle. These tracks aren't just great songs, they are titans of the genre. It's hard to imagine what reggae would be without these songs. Three little birds, jamming, One love... These songs defined reggae and the Marley legacy. There's something weird about hearing classic songs, the type of songs that even someone who doesn't listen to music knows, Bohemian Rhapsody, Stairway to Heaven, Hey Jude, Blowing in the Wind... There's no way to hear it for the first time again. I imagine to reggae fans, these songs and this album are a bit like that. If someone had a framed picture of the mona lisa, I wouldn't think "Wow this guy loves renaissance art" I would think "hmm this guy hasn't replaced his frame's stock photo." This is the height of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob got bigger than Reggae, he became an icon, and now a legend. And if somebody doesn't listen to reggae, they will start with this band, and this album. There are no other options. I think that's interesting.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Amy Winehouse is supposed to be this tragic figure like Kurt Cobain. She's also a member of the 27 club. I do think this album is good but I think her fame has more to do with the aesthetic of Amy Winehouse than anything that she actually produced.
This album isn't a jump in quality from the soul produced in the 70s and 80s. She has a great voice but it's not better than Nina, Tina, or Aretha. But it's not an example of a white woman stealing a sound, I think there is something genuinely captivating about the story of Amy Winehouse. She had kind of a perfect storm that fit into the cuture of the 2000s. She was unquestionably talented, but she was also hot and trashy. I think the 2000s was a time where multiculturalism and the rise of rap/hip hop was making people kind of respect the style and sensibility of being trashy. Eminem was exploding onto the scene and artists like Christina Aguilera, lady gaga, were making it big telling stories that were raw unfiltered and unashamed of their roots. And the fashion was gross. This was shaping an America that saw wearing low wasted jeans and getting trashed on cheap liquor as an aesthetic choice that was desirable. I think people saw themselves in Amy, even if they weren't talented they could understand alcoholism and living like a rockstar, and they recognized what a tragedy it was that she was struggling so much with those addictions. She fit the tortured artist persona that people loved to watch and enable except she wasn't pretentious or elitist. She was easy to love and a lot of people did. Britney Spears has the same effect on people and would be remembered the same way if she would have died instead of shaving here head.
Back to the album it's good and I understand the reverence. It's the best work of somebody taken too soon. I'm not going back to rehab is awesome and obviously more poignant with her death.
Carpenters
4/5
I like this. Stunning vocals. This is old enough that the pop to copy was the Beatles and that's a good thing. Did enjoy
The Saints
3/5
Totally solid punk album. I would have no objections if this was being played at the function.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
Pretty Blech
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Musically this isn't my favorite Velvet album, though it does have some of my favorite songs from them, Sunday Morning, Devil in Fur, Waiting for the Man, and Heroin are all great songs. The album gets noisy and devolved on the second half which I don't love but it is interesting. The tracks with Nico in it are very good, she has a nice voice they complement her voice with the tracks and it comes together. The ending track, European Son is very challenging to listen to and I imagine many would stop short after a few minutes of it.
While it isn't my favorite Velvets album, it might be my favorite noisy psychadelic art rock albums. I've listened to it a few times before and my take was generally wow. This is interesting and bold. It's influential and it's the type of album that used fly under the radar. Now everyone is expected to like old experimental influential stuff even if they don't have the ear for it. I'm glad to have this album and I'm glad it left a mark on a lot of people. 5 star legacy. I'm glad to live in a world after this kind of album.
Kanye West
5/5
It's an interesting feeling when you see your favorite artist from your coming of age decide to start hating your people.
For starters, everybody giving this album a 1 because of Kanye or Ye's antisemitism, you aren't doing anything. You aren't standing up for jews and you aren't scaring nazis with your mean words. There are lots of bad people on this list, including antisemites, and artists who's bad politics come through in the art much more than this. An album who's author became antisemitic 20 years after its creation. It actually comes off as pretty racist and xenophobic that Ye/Kanye gets dogpiled for his life outside of this album when the global community is able to separate the art from the artist with other things.
This album is fantastic. It set a new standard for rap in the 2000s and every aspect of it is some of the best that was ever made up to that point. The sampling is phenomenal. The production is phenomenal. The skits... are good. Ye's rapping is some of the best it would be. The lyricism is clever and Tongue and cheek. So many great lines in this, "Named her daughter Alexis", "Said I had a Bloodclot, I said Im not Jamaican". Ye was genuinely funny on this. The features were great. Getting Jay-Z, Ludacris, etc. on a debut album shows that the industry was just waiting for this debut to drop. Everyone wanted in on this.
Lastly, thematically this is a fantastic album. The themes in this album of rebellion and confusion come through across the whole thing. Ye is challenging institutions set up for white people. Going to College, working corporate and living a normal life, where he knows the urban black experience is either be a wage slave or escape through either music or drug dealing. Ye has for a long time in his music expressed themes of finding yourself incongruous with the systems of oppression that exist, whether they be racial, federal, or social. On this album you see Ye talk about being religious. The challenges he experiences trying to balance his faith with the godlessness of his contemporaries.
These feelings are what the reactionary and fascistic groups prey on. Ye ultimately didn't have issues with the institutions of power, he had issues with his position within them. And when you're a genius, that is a mistake, you should be at the top. The problem isn't with the slave ship, it's that Kanye isn't' the one driving it. And when he was the one selling $90 T shirts made in sweat shops it was good. But when he stopped doing well, the yeezy bubble burst, and other companies were doing fine, the problem couldn't be with him. There must be a bigger institution that he is underneath, and that is unacceptable. That's where he became so susceptible to believe the shadow government, and the jewish control... because when you're on top but you still feel oppressed, you have to invent an oppressor. Social media, feminism, jewish label executives, Skete Davidson.
This album is the introduction of KanYe West. KanYe was a hard worker, someone with things to say, someone with belief in his talent and faith in his religion. There were a lot of things along the way that challenged the man. The death of his mother. Drug addiction, mental health struggles, being constantly surrounded by yes men. His wife leaving him and taking his children. Shady and predatory business dealings exploiting his financial inexperience. Things used to be simple for Ye, and now the world is very very complex. It's nice to imagine that the world is simple and explainable. Why do bad things happen to good people, why can't a billionaire buy whatever he wants. For a man like Ye who sees the world as a very designed place, randomness is unacceptable.
It's a good thing Kanye changed his name to Ye. I find it easier to see them as two different people. I still love Kanye's music. From College dropout to The Life of Pablo and ye., this music taught me to be myself, have fun, live life, be reflective. Kanye is still one of my favorite artists. Ye is a problemtatic and deeply troubled individual, a guy who rides the Coattails of that other guy, a guy who died a few years ago.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Pretty great. Classy
Rush
4/5
Cool Prog. The opener is great. The singles are tight.
The Last Shadow Puppets
3/5
They didnt have the full album on yt music so I didnt get the whole thing. It was distinctly arctic monkeyish but I didnt find the choruses as catchy.
Dolly Parton
1/5
Didnt love it.
Fairport Convention
3/5
Pretty good kind of proggy. I liked sailors song.
Soundgarden
4/5
This was great. It takes a lot of talent to make an album that sounds this good. I wasnt the biggest fan of the songwriting which is the only reason why I left this at a 4. Performance, production, its all fantastic.
The Cure
4/5
Another solid cure project.
The Adverts
3/5
Pretty decent kind of pop punk. If someone were playing it or I was at a show, I would have a good time listening.
Sugar
3/5
One of the less interesting grunge/alt rock albums that I've heard so far but it's still good.
Sonic Youth
3/5
This is a perfectly average good album. I'm sure there's plenty to read into this but unfortunately I didn't get much on my listen. I will say that they go all over the place on this album, some good, some shit. It's better that way than average all the way through. A perfect 5/10 but I will round up.
Hookworms
3/5
These guys are trying to do the dance/ psychadelic thing that is very hard to nail. To their credit I skimmed through it again after listening and I didn't dislike it. It's solid even if I don't think it really stands out.
Les Rythmes Digitales
4/5
Pretty great dance album. Has some duds but that's dance music for you. Music makes me lose control.
Side note. I love the cover. It looks like ai with the glow, the way the buildings are tipping in different directions, the way the hands look kind of weird and over accessorized. Also, it looks like a pepsi ad, the DJ handing you a pepsi and cracking it open and the music comes out. It's awesome and I think it kind of reads like this is the world in a commercial. Listen to this music and you can pretend life is simple, all your friends are here and all you need to be happy is some wicked tunes and this refreshing pepsi.
The Pretty Things
3/5
It's cool that this is an early concept album that I have never heard of. It's not as good as Tommy but I had never seen someone try to work the pure psychadelic sound into a concept album. I wanted to like it more than I ended up but there are some great moments.
The Kinks
4/5
Great project. Catchy, beatlesy, great example of the other music coming out of the 60s that stands toe to toe with the other guys
Brian Eno
1/5
Two guys messing around with their soundboards. Some of these would be good intros or instrumentals. I think the idea was Byrne would bring the creativity and Eno would bring the production and it just didn't culminate in anything. I didn't like it.
Van Morrison
4/5
I generally like Van Morrison and this album is no exception. I think he takes the jazz and soul music, mixes it with some jam band fun and creativity and adds his own kind of soft rock musicality to it. It's super easy to listen to and just gives me the warm fuzzies. This live show is energetic and Morrison brings it to life. He put his Van Morussy into it and it elevates it.
The Sonics
4/5
Came into this with no expectations and was happily surprised. This album is noisy, raw, and it rocks hard. For an album full of covers they were chosen tastefully and the originals are solid. It's a short album and I was toe tapping all the way through. Thoroughly enjoyable today.
Burning Spear
4/5
Good classic Reggae. Maybe a bit bland and samey but this music is more about vibe than anything and Burning Spear does it right
Britney Spears
2/5
I did not realize that this came out in 99. I always assumed Britney was just before me. Anyways, this was pretty bad. Not strictly musically. I think Baby one more time is a solid track but the rest of it is pretty bad. Pop music really didnt' know what they were doing. There are some tracks that are more danceable, some are them sound more like musical theatre. The voice she does for a lot of this is pretty awful, it reminds me of christina aguilera or maybe just a general "urban female voice" but it's bad. The production is good and it makes sense because I imagine she was an industry plant. I do think the sexualizing of Spears on this album (who was 17) is pretty gross. Sexuality on albums like these aren't always bad, but when the emphasis is on her youth and being a schoolgirl, it's pretty gross and fetishistic. Britney had a magnetic angelic personality and look. She was a great performer and knowing now what we know about her, it's sad that this is how her legacy turned out. Despite this we see the same blueprint being followed again with Sabrina Carpenter and we'll see if she is able to handle it better in this slightly different world.
Paul McCartney
4/5
Paul got lucky that it has been cold and rainy today and yesterday and this album happens to be a perfect chill coffee shop album. As an indie album I think it is solid, with some great tracks sprinkled in. Overall nice and enjoyable.
The B-52's
3/5
Honestly this is the best new wave/ post punk I've heard. I liked the vocals, i like the spookiness. I was starting to get into it but just got bored. I was expecting rock lobster to grab me more than it did.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Most of this album is middling but "This is what she's like" is such a banger that it biases my review. Historically having one great song and the rest of it being a two nets the album a 3
Elvis Presley
2/5
I truly can't fathom the fact that rock and roll went from this to Led Zeppelin 1 in 9 years. Maybe this was good for it's time but after this were the Beatles, Stones, Zep, Hendrix, Floyd. Saying Elvis is one of the best artists is like saying that Wilt Chamberlain is the best basketball player. What they did then is now being done by middle school boys. There's nothing left to enjoy. It's not listening to Newton explaining his first law, it's a professional ball player showing off that he can throw with his left hand. This stuff is C plus work and it was given A's because the rubric was easy. Stealing songs from black people is like getting a foreign exchange student from Canada on your hockey team, or a Spaniard for your soccer team. You get credit for being clever, not for being good.
5/5
This isn't my favorite Beatles project but as a project it's still one of the best pure psychedelic albums of all time, if not the best. Even when trying to make music that's weird or inaccessible or simplistic, they can't help but make perfect songs. This album is rich with some of the most warm and interesting psyche music ever, I can't imagine what it would be like to listen to this is 1967.
OutKast
3/5
There are some hits on here but it's too long. I'm not the biggest OutKast fan but I thought it was alright but I'm can't listen to this straight through.
Cornershop
3/5
Cute fun good time. Not particularly noteworthy I thought.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Fun fun fun on the autobahn... It speaks to a fun simple time. An era of optimism and energy that I'm not sure if we can go back to. Things were never simple but it can be fun to imagine that they were.
OutKast
4/5
I really didn't expect this to be as psyched down like an electronic as it turned out to be honestly it was pretty cool and I liked it better than the other outcast album
Kings of Leon
4/5
This seems to be an eariler example of the pop rock that really sucked in the 2000s. I happened to be in a great mood listening to this and I liked it. It has some hits and hit a nice sonic middle ground of melodic and anthemic. The kings got lucky with this one.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I liked this more than some other NC projects. He this album felt more time and place for the brooding than some others
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
Rock solid great production. Jeru showcases east coast rap just before the genre was really elevated by Nas and Biggie. Still great sound from this guy.
Morrissey
3/5
Most tolerable Morrissey I've heard yet. I liked the percussion on this one, and the instrumentals did a better job hiding Morrissey's whining.
Coldplay
5/5
This was the soft rock that my peers were into in middle school. Sure it's derivative of radiohead without the prog or electronic that made radiohead great... but it's still good. I love piano ballads.
Tom Waits
3/5
Tom here is trying to sing the blues. I can't say whether he's doing great at it or not. The background jazz is good. I had to stop listening when he got to the bit about cranking it and the audience was cheering. I couldn't handle it.
Beck
3/5
Beck does this thing where he paints with such a broad stroke that he can't help but accidentally predict the future. The musical equivalent of betting on every score in a football match. This album goes all over the place from Beastie Boy style to hyperpop and art electronic. There are also some tracks on here that I really like but there are tracks I quite don't like. It's a strong 3
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Interesting psyche samba blend but I found it fell short of it's potential. Still a great debut for the guy.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
This sounded pretty good. The production and features are the highlights but JT is charismatic and brings charm and style.
3/5
Hey, an american punk band from the 60s. They sound good. Nice
Harry Nilsson
4/5
This is a chill fun record and Nilsson is clearly talented. I do see why this album received so many 4 votes. It's great at what it is but it's not grand enough or influential enough or suprising enough to get that 5 score. That being said, this thing is a perfect album. I would put on for a kickback.
The Undertones
3/5
Now I don't know if Tom Tom Club's under the boardwalk is a cover or not. Either way decent early pop punk over here.
Yes
3/5
Yes always strikes me as the type of prog that gets in its own way. Either way, the first track is in Jojo's and maybe it should be a 4 on that basis alone but I wasn't into it and turned it off.
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Interesting Indian motifs and piano but didn't connect with me
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
There was certainly a buck to be made trying to be like radiohead. This album is certainly listenable but not very memorable. I guess I'll give it a 3 because I think it was well produced and I like the cover etc.
Madness
4/5
This is a great ska project. Ahead of its time and influential. This album is shockingly cohesive and intuitive. These songs were begging to be written and the energy is there.
Tim Buckley
3/5
Decent moody music. Good for the rainy drive to work.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
This was cool and funky. I can't say how inventive or influential this is but I imagine it was both. It still holds up and sounds good and puts one in a good mood.
Spiritualized
2/5
It's a bit too ambient and doesnt quite progress how contemporaries would go on to do. This seems like a stepping stone to radiohead that is now just outclassed.
Eric Clapton
1/5
What was the point of this. This is supposed to be impressive because it sounds good? There's no creativity because Clapton is seemingly unable to add any of his own flair to songs that he covers. He didn't write the songs, he didn't improve the songs, he just recorded them again in his voice. What even is the point of being one of the best guitarists ever if you aren't going to go all out. It's like the world was in a hangover from the 60s and wanted less challenging music. Fuck that... Eric should be playing like in Cream. Go raw and make music for music fans, not for barbershops.
Slayer
2/5
Slayer... I hardly know her.
I think this type of music is too fast for me, It doesn't fit my speed and it makes it hard for me to tell if it is good or not. There were a couple moments where I liked it but for the most part I did not enjoy this one.
X-Ray Spex
4/5
Very good punk music. Probably my favorite punk I've heard so far. Nearly a 5, possibly a perfect punk album.
Genesis
4/5
Sounds later than 1973. This is well produced, played and performed with a lot of talent and they do a great job. I never really gave these guys a fair shot but this prog effort is worth revisiting.
Sinead O'Connor
2/5
Not engaging enough Sinead,
System Of A Down
4/5
Probably great. There were moments I liked but also some I didn't. I'm not much of a metal guy but if you are I'm sure this is wonderful to your ear. I definitely liked the creativity and production and rawness but I didn't connect with it the way some people do.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
Totally fine and pretty good for the time.
Donald Fagen
3/5
Elevator music in the best way
Suzanne Vega
3/5
Sweet singer songwriter that thankfully wasn't influenced by the Smiths.
Buffalo Springfield
2/5
Nothing Special as expected.
Queen
4/5
Aside from Killer Queen which feels a little out of place, this was quite good. Queen is clearly talented and when they bill themselves as a diet Black Sabbath the music is pretty good.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Makes me want to watch the movie. Doesn't stand alone particularly well
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
Pretty neat. Definitely dated as all early 2000s rap sounds but the beats are cool and I could see this being really ahead of its time at release. The beats are crisp and though i'm not generally a fan of grime, the fact that this sounds so close to little simz and co is a good sign.
The Undertones
3/5
I would say above average punk rock record.
The Young Rascals
4/5
Pretty good interested in hearing more
Black Flag
2/5
Hardcore punk? Not my thing though it is cool to see hardcore outside of metal which is what I feel like it's most associated with.
Lorde
3/5
Blending pop music and electronic and indie music. Not as good as Lana or Taylor or Carly…
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
I have a real soft spot for synthpop and I liked this one.
Dennis Wilson
3/5
Solid but I think he went on to be better
Judas Priest
3/5
Not as good as bands this guy is grouped with
Blue Cheer
3/5
Pretty cool and ahead of its time but it doesnt hold up with the rest of the legends of the era
R.E.M.
5/5
First impression was this sounds great. The mixing is fantastic and all the instruments are balanced and sound good. Second impression is the album is great. It builds it has hit songs I didnt realize, and the songwriting is consistently good. Easy 5 star album will listen to again.
CHIC
4/5
Once again Chic delights with hits and fantastic disco tunes.
k.d. lang
4/5
Beautiful and moody. I was impressed with this record's radiohead like atmosphere and vocals. Strong 4
Norah Jones
2/5
A little bit sweet, a little bit insufferable... I think this sound could work well as Christmas music where you hear it once a year, but as an album you're supposed to just put on and listen to... this album is sea glass, it's polished away all but the cleanest safest melodies. I think this is the perfect album if someone were having a panic attack but if I were feeling any better than complete terror, I would listen to the comparatively experimental and abrasive, Jack Johnson.
Missy Elliott
4/5
I never really listened to Missy Elliott but I thought this was very good. Production was excellent, features were pretty good, although used in an old school way, and vocals were good. I liked it more than I thought I would. Better than that mumble crap they make today that's for sure.
Saint Etienne
4/5
Pretty good. Neat little electronic joint
Roxy Music
3/5
Pretty okay album
Tom Waits
2/5
Pretty spooky. This could have been higher if I cared to listen better.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
There's some good stuff in here. I think it could have been gussied up into a four but it is very bloated. That being said, I am more interested in Husker Du than I was before so I'll be keeping an eye out.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
The effects put an interesting vibe on what would otherwise be a pretty bland pop album. It's creative but it lacks a cool factor.
KISS
3/5
One of the first genderbent drag acts to make its way into the Boomer collective consciousness. The act is either radical rockstars or musical clowns depending on your tastes. I can't say I love it but they have some good tracks that I appreciated while speeding through the one way roads of downtown raleigh.
Giant Sand
3/5
I liked this for what it was which was kind of forgettable and kind of ambient. I played it at the gym and it passed them time. I should have saved some songs to relisten to because there were a few moments that made me happy to be listening.
Wilco
4/5
There was a period in my life where I was very emotionally fragile and insecure. Wilco was a band I listened to a lot at that time. It's hard to decouple the emotions of those times with the music. This album is a little bloated but this was a time before streaming where getting more music for the same price was great. I like this album, though it isn't my favorite from the group.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
LCD Soundsytem is a unique group. Fusing electronic dance and indie rock. I guess with everything if it's done well, it will find its audience. Either way, this is a fun listen and I think it's emotional and good. NYILYBYBMD, the last track is one of my all time favorite songs.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Squarely in the not for me category
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
This seems like a standard dexys album but some quality brass and prog moments elevate the experience
10cc
4/5
Pretty fun. I like music that doesnt take itself too seriously and celebrates the process.
Hole
4/5
This was cool. Quiet loud thing but woman. Certainly a good album
Kid Rock
2/5
Okay, I was expecting this to be worse than it was. In a list with a lot of boring music, this is at least interesting. I was expecting the production to be bad, but it's great. The tracks are good, the hooks are solid, I imagine it turned out just the way Kid Rock hoped it would. I don't like NuMetal so doing it badly doesn't matter to me much but the soul and rap elements, they aren't good, but its an experimental fusion. Honestly it's between a 2 and 3, and if you told me that you were into this, I wouldn't think any less of you.
PJ Harvey
3/5
This album sounds like someone heard a grunge track a long time ago down a long hallway and wanted to recreate it. It's sparse and understated. I just don't get PJ Harvey
The Sugarcubes
4/5
I like this more than some of Bjork's solo albums. This thing is much more conventionally alt rock, or punk and it's easy to see why Bjork was able to blast onto the scene. She stands out as the most interesting part of the music. The songwriting and instrumentation is quality and Bjork brings it to life. This is a fabulous debut.
Emmylou Harris
3/5
Emmylou is a very pretty lady
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
This album is awesome, the hits are giants. I wouldn't say this is Hendrix's weakest album, but the next two built on this and expanded it in bold ways.
Orbital
2/5
Not good. Extra point for being somewhat original and unique but I would imagine this only gets worse the closer you listen.
Echo And The Bunnymen
1/5
Let this be a lesson to all 80s post punk bands going forward. I do not want to hear it.
The Mothers Of Invention
5/5
This rocks. To start I'll say I agree with this album philosophically, I think that there's entirely too much commercialism, phonies, and aesthetic signifiers in the hippie movement. There are two types of weird, the type that's cute and fun and makes you unique. I'm weird I like funky music and where funky clothes and say funny things. Then theres the weird that Zappa represents, keeping bugs as pets, using crystals instead of deodorant, spending a week in a cave in the woods subsisting on LSD and Cheetos. The type of weird that makes you unattractive, an actual outcast. The Beatles don't represent bringing psychadelic weirdness to the mainstream. They represent bringing normies to the weird spaces, and when normies enter weird spaces they feel the need to normalize and rationalize it. To this Zappa says no. This music is weird, it's complicated and won't fall into neat repeating loops like you want it to. You can't sing along. You try to capture the music, describe it, wrap your head around it, and it fights you.
Anyways, musically this is awesome. You have to view it as a patchwork of sounds, melodies and bights, because as soon as you hear something you like it could be gone. I have a soft spot for music like that. This album gives you a lot of that "What am I hearing" feeling.
It's awesome I listened to it multiple times. The mothers of Invention are great on the instrumentals Zappa asks a lot of them and they deliver.
The Offspring
4/5
Super solid punk rock album.
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
This is one of those albums where I think that it's exactly what they hoped for. I think that this product is to them, and probably their fans, the best they could have done and achieved the vision they set out for. Unfortunately that vision was a crunk rock opera glazing Skynrd. Who cares, if your goal is to make the shiniest, stinkiest poop, it doesn't make your ass a genius.
The Dictators
4/5
This was pretty cool. The time when Rock was starting to veer off and turn into punk was a cool time. This sounds like the Clash but before the clash and on our side of the pond. I was pretty impressed with the simple instrumentation and punchy vocals. It all aged pretty well... maybe not the lyrics.
Soul II Soul
3/5
This is dance music I could get into. Better than the EDM my friend James likes.
Doves
3/5
I liked this well enough.
Minutemen
3/5
Pretty decent. Cool instrumentation, pretty imaginative. Didn't hook me but nothing in the 80s really did.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
This is a rock solid swamp rock album championed by possibly CCR's best song 'bad moon rising'. Unfortunately I learned that CCR is actually from the San Francisco Bay area and not Louisiana and I found that profoundly disappointing. That does explain a similarity I always noticed between CCR and the Dead, similar timeframe, similar locales. Just food for thought I suppose