Jagged Little Pill
Alanis MorissetteA 90s classic but not really my bag, and I find Alanis’ voice a bit grating at times. Important record for WOMEN in ROCK though, and I am an ALLY.
A 90s classic but not really my bag, and I find Alanis’ voice a bit grating at times. Important record for WOMEN in ROCK though, and I am an ALLY.
Not good, not for me. Sounds like Muse but proggier
70s rock does not get much better than this. Front to back great. Peak Who. They’re all WASTED.
🎧Handful of really amazing songs, but pretty bloated overall. There’s probably a damn near perfect album in here if trimmed down to a single LP. Skits/dialogue are annoying and unnecessary too. Standout songs: Ex- Factor, Doo Wop (That Thing), Everything is Everything.
Rad debut from the Heads. Love —> Building on Fire should’ve made the cut.
A 90s classic but not really my bag, and I find Alanis’ voice a bit grating at times. Important record for WOMEN in ROCK though, and I am an ALLY.
Gets overshadowed by Funeral and career best The Suburbs, but this is a terrific AF album. It’s not as consistent as either of those albums though standouts like Keep the Car Running, Intervention, and (Antichrist Television Blues) reach similar heights. My Body Is a Cage is an incredible closing track.
Not good, not for me. Sounds like Muse but proggier
Possibly peak Elliott. Absolutely love this album, such a gem.
Excellent CCR record, among their best.
Impossible not to like this album. Peak Eagles. Slightly darker/more melancholic than I recall.
🎧Good stuff here. I’ve long known Porcelain and South Side (still a banger). There are other nice techno grooves here like Natural Blues. Everloving with its tender acoustic guitar was unexpected and quite beautiful. Couple snoozers/skips on the back half—If Things Were Petfect and The Sky is Broken are basically just Moby doing spoken word over boring instrumentation.
🎧I expected to connect with this album more than I did, which is probably why I’m giving it 2 stars instead of 3. There are a few standout tracks, namely Date With The Night, Maps, and Y Control. I’m kind of indifferent on the rest of it. Would prob enjoy this much more in a live setting. I believe It’s Blitz! is on the list…think that one is more in my lane.
Pretty stunning debut
🎧Walked around Bucktown listening to this. Lovely jazz/soul album. Smith lays it down on the B-3 Hammond organ, Stanley Turrentine on the tenor sax. Very pleasant weekend listening.
GOATed fr fr. Even with an annoying dud like Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow this thing is still somehow perfect and timeless and absolutely essential. Deserving of all the attention praise and the lofty place it holds in the history of rock/pop music.
🎧Look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it. First three songs are absolute heaters. After that album falls into a bit of a lull. Good laidback 80s rock, love Knopfler’s Dylan-esque delivery. Enjoyed the closing title track.
🎧What a drag it is getting old💊Listened to the UK version. Varied and adventurous Stones album with some classic songs.
🎧This album is something else. Must’ve really blown some minds back in 1972. Love Bryan Ferry’s goody weirdness on a lot of these songs. Virginia Plain is my favorite. First half is solid weirdo uptempo art rock. Meandering in the second half, not a strong. Eno had not yet figured out how to get the most out of a synth.
🎧This will not be the album that gets me into thrash metal. Sick cover art though, metal AF.
Arguably the greatest double album ever made
🎧I tired really hard with this album, and perhaps two stars is a bit unfair. Nyro has a beautiful voice and a swaggeringly confident delivery, but as a whole this record doesn’t work for me. Stoned Soul Picnic and Farmer Joe are nice songs. It’s when Nyro gets into the free-form scat-like delivery that she loses me.
🎧Interesting psych rock album with lots of cool experimental flourishes. Entirely unclear what the story of this rock opera is, but the same can be said for Tommy which it allegedly inspired (though members of The Who deny it).
Where Do The Children Play? is such an excellent song, one of Stevens’ best. Of course Father And Son is also great. I love Sad Lisa and the strings on that track. Hard Headed Woman is solid. Wild World is fine but overrated.
This is a decent new wave/punk album that I don’t find anything particularly special or exciting about. I love the song English Rose, but I’m pretty neutral on the rest.
Can only imagine how hard this hit in 1988. It’s good, aggressive, in-your-face political rap music. One of the most influential and important rap albums of all time. I’m not in love with it.
I find this boring and dour. Might grown on me if I spent more time with it. I know Will Oldham is considered a great songwriter and I enjoy some of his other stuff. Can hear similarities to Jason Molina’s Songs:Ohia output, but again, I don’t enjoy this.
Best album of the 2010s IMO. Beautiful slow burns, urgent rock rave-ups, atmospheric guitars, searching and introspective lyrics…burning and suffering. A modern rock classic that in the 10 years since it’s release has aged like a fine wine.
🎧 Sturdy folk punk album, heavier on the folk. Bragg brings romanticism, humor, optimism, and charm to his distinctly British musings. Bit dodgy innit?
🎧Good alt rock record. Less abrasive/punky than the earlier Dü I’ve heard. Probably didn’t need to be a double album.
Funeral changed the trajectory of indie music in many ways. I’ve loved this album for a long time, but it’s lost a bit of its luster for me over time.
70s rock does not get much better than this. Front to back great. Peak Who. They’re all WASTED.
🎧Decent pop, nothing to write home about. Opener “Being Boring” is excellent.
🎧Interesting genre change up here: Latin, acid jazz, downtempo, electronic. Antropofagos is a cool song. All in all, this doesn’t feel like a record I’ll return to. Pleasant listen though.
🎧A sprawling, wildly ambitious pair of statements from Big Boi and Andre 3000. Outkast in their “fuck it/anything goes” empirical phase. The Love Below has some bangers and I appreciate the adventurous p-funk/Prince/jazz kick Andre was on, but I think I prefer Superboxxx.
🎧Not really my kind of glam
🎧Metal is not my genre, though some of this undeniably fucking rips. RIP Dimebag Darrell. “By Demons Be Driven" appears in the The Big Short. Christian Bale is seen performing along to the song, which he learned for that one scene.
Great Zeppelin
🎧Weird, idiosyncratic album that I enjoyed and will return to. Blues In Bob Minor a playful reinterpretation of Subterranean Homesick Blues.
🎧Well I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. Wild Flower thru Bad Fun had me pretty locked in, it loses steam in its second half half though. Singer sounds like Billy Idol, I’m almost positive I’ve heard songs from this record in bars/restaurants and assumed it was him
🎧 Pretty solid psychedelic/blues rock album, nothing to write home about
Excellent Kinks. A bit overrated in their catalogue though.
🎧Decent, but not my kind of Bowie. Love Is Lost is a highlight. Album is overlong.
A no skips double album that cemented Wilco as one of the greatest alt-country acts of all time. Shades of experimentation and some punk edge in the Peter Laughlin referencing opener Misunderstood, one Wilco’s best live songs. From the start, Tweedy makes it clear this is not another Uncle Tupelo-esque retread a la A.M. Jay Bennett’s songwriting contributions and Bob Egan’s lovely pedal steel place this album somewhere between standard alt-country and the lush orchestral/power pop of Summerteeth. It is the record in which Wilco first showed signs of greatness.
One of the best glam rock albums ever. Mambo Sun and Monolith are under-appreciated gems, and of course there’s hits like Jeepster and Bang a Gong. This album is not peak Bolan, but it’s pretty close.
🎧Good stuff here. I love Shadowboxer and of course Criminal is a classic.
🎧this is solid. It sounds nothing like All Mod Cons by The Jam. Folky. Pleasant.
🎧Mad respect for Tina, but this just didn’t click for me. The covers are kind of weak. The 80s rock production sheen sounds dated. Still, I found the title track’s lyrics charmingly dumb/on the nose (“I'm your private dancer / A dancer for money”). Yup, that’s what a private dancer is. Interesting song, Mark Knopfler wrote it. Lastly, What’s Love Got to Do with It is fantastic, probably Tina’s best.
♥️8️⃣🖤
🎧How the hell was Holding Back the Years a US #1 single? Cover of Talking Heads’ Heaven is good.
Classic Bruce.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away and It Doesn’t Matter is stunning.
🎧good hip hop
🎧I’ve dipped into Tago Mago in the past and while I find it cool/interesting, it’s also a bit…challenging. This is Can after all, legends of experimental Krautrock. Future Days has a much chiller vibe. Not so busy. More ambient. I will be returning to the hypnotic 20-minute gem that is Bel Air.
Sabbath: 👀 (cracks knuckles menacingly) You: 😐 Sabbath: Drugs? You: No thanks, I’m good. Sabbath: I meant are you in here for drugs? You: Why are you here? Sabbath: Drugs. This album rules.
SLAPPIN’ DA BASS, MAN!! Limelight is an all-time classic and this album as a whole is prog rock I can enthusiastically get behind.
Lotta people will try to have you believe this is a GREAT record. It is not, it is just a good record.
Brilliant synth-pop.
Fine background listening…nothing particularly interesting here. Pleasant wallpaper music.
🎧This band sounds remarkably like Oasis and I’m here for it. Mad fer it even.
🎧Queen of pop. Til Death Do Us Part and Cherish are great. Title track is one of the best pop songs ever. Pretty neutral on the rest.
Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?
🎧This album is 2 hours long. Much of it is whiny crap. Much of it is just plain boring. Here Is No Why and Bullet With Butterfly Wings are terrific songs. Shame Billy Corgan couldn’t trim the fat, there’s probably a halfway decent record in here.
Dream pop perfection.
Quite possibly the finest collection of odes to desire, love, lust, and of course 🎷 (knockin boots). An unparalleled celebration of the joys of sensuality. Nobody smoother than Marvin.
🎧I’m pretty neutral on all of this. Some of the vocals don’t connect and feel like kind of forced new wave posturing.
Me and my loser friends, we gotta get Aerosmith tickets. Top priority of the summer.
The traffic lights, they turn blue tomorrow 🟢💨🔵 🟡💨🔵 🔴💨🔵
Brilliant, bold, beautiful, blissful Beatles
Nice, pleasant jazz. Arrived in Stevensville today for 4th of July week. Ancient Well made for good listening while running a few laps around Churchill Farms. Windy day, swells breaking on Lake Michigan shore.
🎧Decent, not great. Richard Butler’s vocals kind of annoying at times. I like No Tears.
A classic album though it’s got some filler (spoken word recording of old folks, Voices of Old People is a drag). Still, Bookends contains some of the greatest songs in S&G’s discography. I’d argue America is one of the best songs of the 20th century, period. I was impressed by the Moog synth and electronic textures of Save the Life of My Child—atypical for S&G’s sound and pretty out there for 1968 as well.
The first four tracks are all great. Everything else is average to forgettable with the notable exception of In A Little While, quite possibly U2’s most underrated song. Joey Ramone was reportedly listening to this song when he died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in April 2001. People like to shit on U2 and call their music soulless corporate rock, but if that anecdote and that song don’t move you in some small way, you probably either don’t truly care about rock music or don’t have a soul yourself.
🎧This is really good shit. On some of these songs Ice-T sounds like Rakim (who gets a shoutout along with a few dozen others on M.V.P.s). Rock song Body Count is a little out of place here.
Happy 4th of July to one of the finest albums of the 1980s and the Mats at their sloppy, immature, drunken, heartfelt, coming-of-age best. Look me in the eye then tell me that I’m satisfied.
In the right mood (miserable, depressed, angry, hopeless) Unknown Pleasures is the perfect cocktail of innovative post-punk bleakness. Much of this album piddles forth in somber despair. And then there are standout tracks like She’s Lost Control, Shadowplay, and album opener Disorder, the second strongest song Joy Division ever made behind Love Will Tear Us Apart. It’s an undeniably groundbreaking album, but also one I hardly ever want to listen to in its entirety. Maybe I should consider myself lucky for that.
🎧Handful of really amazing songs, but pretty bloated overall. There’s probably a damn near perfect album in here if trimmed down to a single LP. Skits/dialogue are annoying and unnecessary too. Standout songs: Ex- Factor, Doo Wop (That Thing), Everything is Everything.
Am I being a little harsh on the Peps? I don’t think so. Breaking the Girl and I Could Have Lied are decent. Under the Bridge is great. The rest is simply not for me. Some of it is mildly irritating actually.
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien said in 2008, “I never felt we were one of the great bands, up there with The Smiths or R.E.M. In my view, we’ve made three really good records The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A. What we needed was another great record just to seal it.” In Rainbows sealed it. For many, this album would be the bedrock of an argument for 2007 as the greatest year for indie rock. They’d have a strong case there. In his book This Isn’t Happening, Steven Hyden claims In Rainbows is the most beloved album in the Radiohead catalogue, even more than OK Computer and Kid A. That was published in 2020 and it’s become even more true in the ensuing years. In Rainbows didn’t have the kind of monumental career-making impact of OK Computer, or the prophetic, monolithic reputation of the genre-morphing Kid A. But it is arguably the most gorgeous collection of songs Radiohead ever released—each one taps into something deeply human and universal, without ever clearly being about anything specific. Yorke described the lyrics as based on “that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, ‘I’m sure I’m supposed to be doing something else’…It’s similar to OK Computer in a way. It’s much more terrifying.” I’m not sure the manner in which In Rainbows was released has any influence on how the music is perceived today, but at the time it cast a wide shadow. Radiohead were not the first artist to release their music online as a pay-what-you-want download—Jeff Rosenstock, for one, already had been doing it for a while—but they were the biggest. The degree to which this choice influenced the way we think about and value music today, or whether it played a role in ushering in the streaming era is entirely up for debate. In my opinion, if it wasn’t Radiohead, it would’ve been some other major established musician. What I am sure of is that there is nothing else quite like In Rainbows in the history of rock music, and it will stand the test of time.
🎧Not without its charms, but a lot of repetitive and cheesy bits. Probably one of the most 90s cultural artifacts in existence.
🎧Decent drum and bass album
🎧Pretty terrific snotty UK punk
WHEN THE TRUTH IS FOUND TO BE LIES
🎧Kinks-y. Standout tracks: Chemical World, Turn It Up
Rad debut from the Heads. Love —> Building on Fire should’ve made the cut.
Fantastic Neil.
🎧I can’t exactly say why, but this doesn’t do it for me. Not my kind of new wave. Costello’s voice is kinda annoying sometimes. (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding is pretty good.
🎧So much of this album is irritating drivel. It’s not completely unlistenable but good God I do not like this. Nick Cave, I don’t doubt you are talented songwriter, but on Murder Ballads you are one grating motherfucker.
🎧Strange little album. I get Ween vibes from some songs but there’s also Up With People (favorite track) which sounds like Belle and Sebastian fronted by Bill Callahan. I also like You Masculine You and Butcher Boy.
Excellent, super catchy pop punk
🎧solid heavy metal. Highlights: Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight
🎧This is fine I guess.
🎧Excellent and lively jazz/big band/swing
🎧I don’t really know “cool jazz” from “bebop” or really an other jazz styles for that matter, but what I do know is this is excellent.
🎧I liked Runaway Lover and I Don’t Deserve It even though both drag on a bit too long. Otherwise this album is a stinker. Madonna is, of course, capable of so much better.
Absolutely brilliant.
There’s a lot to love here. A remarkably impressive debut. Could listen to Mesmerizing on repeat.
From Spacemen 3’s Wikipedia page: “Their music is known for its brand of trance-like ‘neo-psychedelia’ consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizers, and minimal chord or tempo changes.” Pretty accurate description of this album. If you’re in the right mood or on the right cocktail of mind-altering drugs, Playing with Fire definitely scratches a particular itch. It’s not on the proper track listing, but the live version of Suicide is even better than the album cut.
🎧This album is WAYYY better than Fever to Tell. Some great lyrics, like on Hysteric. I was taking a walk in Bucktown while listening and saw a guy riding a bike backwards, sitting on his handlebars and playing an acoustic guitar.
🎧Pretty neutral on this. Nicotine Stain and Hong Kong Garden are cool
The only Billy Bragg album I truly love and of course terrific Wilco contributions throughout, the most notable being California Stars. They bring Woody Guthrie’s lyrics to life and make them relevant to modern listeners with their spirited, folk/rock affecting arrangements. Great stuff.
🎧THANK YOU Elvis for coming BACK
I too sometimes wish I had a river I could skate away on.
🎧2 stars might be a bit harsh for this, but it’s about as dreary and dark as they come so you really gotta be in the right mood to vibe with it. Favorite track: A Strange Day
🎧This does basically nothing for me, except for Big Me which is actually an excellent song
Decent garage rock record, albeit fairly uneven. Certainly not “the second coming of Nirvana” as the British press hailed them. Influential to Alex Turner in forming the Arctic Monkeys, so that’s a win.
🎧Nice soul record, little bit bloated
🎧Pleasantly surprised by this one. They’re not all gems, but some real nice pop/rock songs in here. Grungey at times, power-poppy at others. Shades of Teenage Fanclub and Weezer. Will definitely revisit.
A bonafide American classic by a group that was 4/5ths Canadian
🎧Decent, sort of generic-sounding at times. Not as good as Heartbreaker.
Cash is king
🎧Delightful jangle pop album. Really digging this. Closing track Dive for Your Memory might be my favorite.
🎧No thank you!
🎧Sick album cover. PJ Harvey rocks. Favorite song: Dry
🎧Really liked this. Mostly covers, almost all of which Cash nails and a couple of his originals. Favorite tracks: The Man Comes Around, I Hung My Head, Personal Jesus
🎧Wonderful. The Naughty Little Flea and One More Dance are the only songs preventing me from giving this a 5. 🇿🇦
🎧AFRICA! 🌍 Solid Afrobeat album, though not as impressive as his father’s work. Favorite track: Wonder Wonder
Solid Bowie but not among his best IMHO
🎧The longer I listened the more I disliked it. A mish mash of things in their worst possible form—musical theater, Cabaret, Bill Murray lounge singer-type fare, bland sentimental crap. It’s all there and it’s all bad.
🎧This is fine. Nothing in particular grabbed me (there’s no The Killing Moon or Bring on the Dancing Horses-level hits) but it made for a pleasant, if brooding listen. Final night of the DNC in Chicago tonight, Kamala Harris will accept the party’s nomination for pres. P!nk to perform (🤢). Rumors of Beyoncé showing up. And so it goes…
🎧Anita Baker sure can sing but this is drenched in bad 80s production that I can’t really get past. It’s not on Spotify so I listened on YouTube where every top comment is “who’s listening in 2024?” Favorite track: Same Ole Love (365 Days a Year)
This is the sound of star power. An essential soul record and one of the best live albums ever recorded. All hail James Brown, the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business and Godfather of Soul.
🎧Didn’t love this but it’s probably the best metal album I’ve gotten so far. Title track is cool, didn’t need to be over 7 mins long though. Some cool solos throughout and impressive musicianship, especially on Orion.
🎧Decent. Eclectic in sound. There’s nothing particularly great here. I liked Pressure Point as a kid. Enjoyed Railroad and Dirty Dancehall this time round. Probably not an album I’ll be revisiting.
One of the best from the Queen of Soul. Absolutely timeless.
🎧More songs should start like “I got loaded last night” (Sittin’ and Thinkin’)
🎧What an adventurous, unusual album this is. Musically interesting and a bit challenging (though not altogether inaccessible). It’s pretty damn out there at times—some of the most enigmatic krautrock I’ve heard, maybe even more than Can. According to Wikipedia “some fans of Faust's earlier work felt that it was a ‘sell-out’ album” which is baffling and hilarious. “The Sad Skinhead” reminds me of Fear of Music-era Talking Heads, wonder if they were aware of Faust. Traces of early Eno in “Giggy Smile.” So yeah, overall did not love it but I can see why this is considered a must-listen pre-death.
🎧This was a terrific listen, and I’ll be spending more time with it. Everybody knows the title track and The Passenger—both great, the latter maybe my favorite Iggy song ever, but everything else here is basically top notch as well. Joyful and irresistible post-punk from Iggy Pop and David Bowie, both at the peak of their powers
Interesting that I got Low after Lust for Life. This record is fantastic. Rare that you encounter an artist doing something completely different on side two from side one. This is almost like two different albums and yet the whole thing is perfectly inhabits the same universe. Canadian critic Dave Winnitowy called Low "hideously interesting.” I’ve been listening to this thing for years, and it’s also endlessly interesting. With the exception of pop stunner Sound and Vision, the music on Low is experimental, often very cold, and yet somehow strangely inviting. It sucks you in. Bowie and Eno are geniuses, Low is one of the most influential albums in the history of rock/pop, and the music here is unsettling, lovely, moving, strange, and stunning. I’ve taken many naps to side two, and I mean that as praise. It is a first rate experience, slowly half-nodding off to the soothing, otherworldly sounds of Low and appreciating its beauty with a semi-conscious mind.
“I’m coming to your party / And I won’t be able to stay / But I’m gonna kiss you one more time / Then I going away” Terrific soul. So much emotion in Burke’s singing, some great female backup singers too. There’s often pain in love and Burke reminds us of this in just about every song here.
🎧Excellent African rock/desert blues, really enjoyed this. Favorite tracks: Al Hassidi Terei, Petit Metier
🎧Not for me
🎧Lots of boring/annoying/noodling guitar jamming. Not a fan. First part of Who Do You Love cover is alright.
Lest we forget the Eagles have a song called “Chug All Night.” And it’s decent. Peaceful Easy Feeling is great, Take It Easy is an all-timer. Solid album.🌵
🎧Nicely done Slowhand. I’m assuming Have You Ever Loved A Woman is about Pattie Boyd/George Harrison.