374
Albums Rated
3.41
Average Rating
34%
Complete
715 albums remaining
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1950s
Favorite Decade
Folk
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US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
73
5-Star Albums
15
1-Star Albums
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Ratings by genre
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playing With Fire | 5 | 2.54 | +2.46 |
| Sweetheart Of The Rodeo | 5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
| The Modern Lovers | 5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
| Here Come The Warm Jets | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
| Live 1966 (The Royal Albert Hall Concert) | 5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
| Songs From A Room | 5 | 3.16 | +1.84 |
| Soul Mining | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| Let It Be | 5 | 3.25 | +1.75 |
| Teen Dream | 5 | 3.27 | +1.73 |
| Fun House | 5 | 3.28 | +1.72 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt | 1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
| Deloused in the Comatorium | 1 | 3.2 | -2.2 |
| Pump | 1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
| Murder Ballads | 1 | 3.08 | -2.08 |
| Reign In Blood | 1 | 2.96 | -1.96 |
| Vulnicura | 1 | 2.79 | -1.79 |
| Arise | 1 | 2.72 | -1.72 |
| All Hope Is Gone | 1 | 2.7 | -1.7 |
| 90 | 1 | 2.69 | -1.69 |
| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 2 | 3.68 | -1.68 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 4 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 3 | 4.67 |
| The Velvet Underground | 3 | 4.67 |
| Fleetwood Mac | 2 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 2 | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| Steely Dan | 2 | 5 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 4.33 |
| Leonard Cohen | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 3 | 1.67 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| The Cure | 2, 5, 3 |
5-Star Albums (73)
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Popular Reviews
Beastie Boys
2/5
🎧Is it possible to think the Beastie Boys are both cool and pretty annoying?
4 likes
Alanis Morissette
3/5
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.
3 likes
The xx
3/5
I liked this album a lot more when it came out, it didn’t do much for me today though. I Dare You is solid. On Hold is terrific, one of the xx’s best songs. The rest is alright, not particularly great
2 likes
Various Artists
4/5
🎄Merry Christmas 2024. This is in the top 5 Xmas albums you must hear before you die. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love is probably my favorite Christmas song.
2 likes
1-Star Albums (15)
All Ratings
Alanis Morissette
3/5
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.
Arcade Fire
4/5
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.
The Mars Volta
1/5
Not good, not for me. Sounds like Muse but proggier
Elliott Smith
5/5
Possibly peak Elliott. Absolutely love this album, such a gem.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Excellent CCR record, among their best.
Eagles
4/5
Impossible not to like this album. Peak Eagles. Slightly darker/more melancholic than I recall.
Moby
3/5
🎧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.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
🎧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.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Pretty stunning debut
Jimmy Smith
3/5
🎧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.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
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.
Dire Straits
3/5
🎧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.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
🎧What a drag it is getting old💊Listened to the UK version. Varied and adventurous Stones album with some classic songs.
Roxy Music
3/5
🎧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.
Slayer
1/5
🎧This will not be the album that gets me into thrash metal. Sick cover art though, metal AF.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Arguably the greatest double album ever made
Laura Nyro
2/5
🎧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.
The Pretty Things
3/5
🎧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).
Cat Stevens
3/5
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.
The Jam
3/5
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.
Public Enemy
3/5
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.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
2/5
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.
The War On Drugs
5/5
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.
Billy Bragg
3/5
🎧 Sturdy folk punk album, heavier on the folk. Bragg brings romanticism, humor, optimism, and charm to his distinctly British musings. Bit dodgy innit?
Hüsker Dü
3/5
🎧Good alt rock record. Less abrasive/punky than the earlier Dü I’ve heard. Probably didn’t need to be a double album.
Arcade Fire
4/5
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.
The Who
5/5
70s rock does not get much better than this. Front to back great. Peak Who. They’re all WASTED.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
🎧Decent pop, nothing to write home about. Opener “Being Boring” is excellent.
2/5
🎧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.
OutKast
4/5
🎧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.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
2/5
🎧Not really my kind of glam
Pantera
2/5
🎧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.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Great Zeppelin
Robert Wyatt
3/5
🎧Weird, idiosyncratic album that I enjoyed and will return to. Blues In Bob Minor a playful reinterpretation of Subterranean Homesick Blues.
The Cult
3/5
🎧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
The Yardbirds
3/5
🎧 Pretty solid psychedelic/blues rock album, nothing to write home about
The Kinks
4/5
Excellent Kinks. A bit overrated in their catalogue though.
David Bowie
2/5
🎧Decent, but not my kind of Bowie. Love Is Lost is a highlight. Album is overlong.
Wilco
4/5
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.
T. Rex
4/5
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.
Fiona Apple
3/5
🎧Good stuff here. I love Shadowboxer and of course Criminal is a classic.
Paul Weller
3/5
🎧this is solid. It sounds nothing like All Mod Cons by The Jam. Folky. Pleasant.
Tina Turner
2/5
🎧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.
Elliott Smith
4/5
♥️8️⃣🖤
Simply Red
2/5
🎧How the hell was Holding Back the Years a US #1 single? Cover of Talking Heads’ Heaven is good.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Classic Bruce.
Marty Robbins
4/5
Bumping this from a 3 to a 4 👌🏻
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
🎧The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away and It Doesn’t Matter is stunning.
Beastie Boys
3/5
🎧good hip hop
Can
3/5
🎧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.
Black Sabbath
4/5
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.
Rush
4/5
SLAPPIN’ DA BASS, MAN!!
Limelight is an all-time classic and this album as a whole is prog rock I can enthusiastically get behind.
Queen
3/5
Lotta people will try to have you believe this is a GREAT record. It is not, it is just a good record.
Kraftwerk
4/5
Brilliant synth-pop.
Astrud Gilberto
2/5
Fine background listening…nothing particularly interesting here. Pleasant wallpaper music.
The Charlatans
4/5
🎧This band sounds remarkably like Oasis and I’m here for it. Mad fer it even.
Madonna
3/5
🎧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.
Pink Floyd
4/5
Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?
The Smashing Pumpkins
2/5
🎧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.
Beach House
5/5
Dream pop perfection.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
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.
Elastica
2/5
🎧I’m pretty neutral on all of this. Some of the vocals don’t connect and feel like kind of forced new wave posturing.
Aerosmith
3/5
Me and my loser friends, we gotta get Aerosmith tickets. Top priority of the summer.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
The traffic lights, they turn blue tomorrow
🟢💨🔵
🟡💨🔵
🔴💨🔵
Beatles
5/5
Brilliant, bold, beautiful, blissful Beatles
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
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.
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
🎧Decent, not great. Richard Butler’s vocals kind of annoying at times. I like No Tears.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
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.
Ice T
4/5
🎧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.
The Replacements
5/5
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.
Joy Division
3/5
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.
Lauryn Hill
3/5
🎧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.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
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
5/5
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.
Deee-Lite
2/5
🎧Not without its charms, but a lot of repetitive and cheesy bits. Probably one of the most 90s cultural artifacts in existence.
LTJ Bukem
3/5
🎧Decent drum and bass album
Sex Pistols
4/5
🎧Pretty terrific snotty UK punk
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
WHEN THE TRUTH IS FOUND TO BE LIES
3/5
🎧Kinks-y. Standout tracks: Chemical World, Turn It Up
Talking Heads
4/5
Rad debut from the Heads. Love —> Building on Fire should’ve made the cut.
Neil Young
4/5
Fantastic Neil.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
🎧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.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
🎧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.
Lambchop
3/5
🎧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.
Green Day
4/5
Excellent, super catchy pop punk
Scott Walker
4/5
🎧Cool album, I will probably spend more time with this one
Judas Priest
3/5
🎧solid heavy metal. Highlights: Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight
Cream
3/5
🎧This is fine I guess.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
🎧Excellent and lively jazz/big band/swing
Miles Davis
4/5
🎧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.
Madonna
2/5
🎧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.
Talking Heads
5/5
Absolutely brilliant.
Liz Phair
4/5
There’s a lot to love here. A remarkably impressive debut. Could listen to Mesmerizing on repeat.
Spacemen 3
5/5
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.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
🎧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.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
🎧Pretty neutral on this. Nicotine Stain and Hong Kong Garden are cool
Billy Bragg
4/5
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.
Elvis Presley
3/5
🎧THANK YOU Elvis for coming BACK
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I too sometimes wish I had a river I could skate away on.
The Cure
2/5
🎧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
American Music Club
3/5
🎧You can here this band’s influence on Counting Crows. Favorite track: Somewhere
Foo Fighters
2/5
🎧This does basically nothing for me, except for Big Me which is actually an excellent song
The Vines
3/5
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.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
🎧Nice soul record, little bit bloated
Ash
4/5
🎧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.
The Band
5/5
A bonafide American classic by a group that was 4/5ths Canadian
Dagmar Krause
1/5
Not my particular brand of schnitzel
Ryan Adams
3/5
🎧Decent, sort of generic-sounding at times. Not as good as Heartbreaker.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Cash is king
The Go-Betweens
4/5
🎧Delightful jangle pop album. Really digging this. Closing track Dive for Your Memory might be my favorite.
Sepultura
1/5
🎧No thank you!
PJ Harvey
3/5
🎧Sick album cover. PJ Harvey rocks. Favorite song: Dry
Johnny Cash
4/5
🎧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
Miriam Makeba
4/5
🎧Wonderful. The Naughty Little Flea and One More Dance are the only songs preventing me from giving this a 5. 🇿🇦
Femi Kuti
3/5
🎧AFRICA! 🌍 Solid Afrobeat album, though not as impressive as his father’s work. Favorite track: Wonder Wonder
David Bowie
3/5
Solid Bowie but not among his best IMHO
David Ackles
1/5
🎧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.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
🎧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
2/5
🎧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)
James Brown
5/5
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.
Metallica
3/5
🎧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.
The Zutons
3/5
🎧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.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
One of the best from the Queen of Soul. Absolutely timeless.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
🎧It’s certainly unique, isn’t it? Vibey as hell too. What in god’s name is Elizabeth Fraser singing with those angelic pipes?? Favorite track: Lorelei
Ray Price
3/5
🎧More songs should start like “I got loaded last night” (Sittin’ and Thinkin’)
Faust
3/5
🎧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.
Iggy Pop
5/5
🎧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
David Bowie
5/5
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.
Solomon Burke
5/5
“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.
Songhoy Blues
4/5
🎧Excellent African rock/desert blues, really enjoyed this. Favorite tracks: Al Hassidi Terei, Petit Metier
Jamiroquai
2/5
🎧Not for me
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
🎧Lots of boring/annoying/noodling guitar jamming. Not a fan. First part of Who Do You Love cover is alright.
Eagles
3/5
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.🌵
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
🎧Nicely done Slowhand. I’m assuming Have You Ever Loved A Woman is about Pattie Boyd/George Harrison.
The Young Gods
1/5
🎧How do you say “absolutely not” in French? Absolument pas.
The Shamen
2/5
🎧Listened to the US 1991 issue. Mostly generic sounding techno. Favorite tracks: Evil Is Even, Make It Minimal
Alice In Chains
1/5
🎧Butt rock
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
“We sing covers of songs, but we do it without any instruments. It's all from our mouths!”
-Pitch Perfect
“I thoroughly enjoyed this album.”
-me
Carole King
5/5
An absolute masterclass in songwriting. Gorgeous, warm, inviting, soulful songs that will continue to stand the test of time.
Tom Waits
3/5
🎧Can’t see myself ever revisiting this but I sort of understand the charm of Waits’ growling, almost gargling, sad drunk bastard with a glimmer in his eye brand of BS. Made me laugh.
Janis Joplin
4/5
Janis rules
Magazine
2/5
🎧Interesting but kind of aimless sounding post-punk album. I may spend more time with it. Songs drag on a bit. Favorite track: The Light Pours Out Of Me
Aerosmith
3/5
🎧7/9ths of this album kinda stinks, but then it’s got Walk This Way (good) and Sweet Emotion, one of the best rock songs of the 1970s.
Prince
4/5
I realize that giving Purple Rain anything less than 4 stars is widely considered blasphemous. Its place as one of the “greatest records of all time” is not lost on me—that’s a distinction it deserves, even if I don’t fully agree with it. In my estimation though, Purple Rain contains one killer party track (Let’s Go Crazy) and three truly great songs (When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 You, and Purple Rain). Ok I guess it does deserve 4 stars.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
🎧This feels like a bad Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields knockoff, though I believe The Divine Comedy came first. Regardless, no one needs to hear this album before they die. As noted by many listeners, “If…” features the lyric “If you were a horse I’d clean the crap out of your stable.” Listening to this made me want to put on a much better equine-themed love song, “Since She Started to Ride” by Jonathan Richman.
Brian Eno
5/5
Eno’s first solo record and he’s already surpassing most of Roxy Music’s output. It’s enigmatic, it’s exciting, it’s catchy, unusual, unpredictable, fun. Challenging but accessible, arty but not pretentious, weird but cool. Eno proves he quite possibly could’ve been the next Bowie if he hadn’t chosen another path, to build upon the genre of ambient music and produce some of the finest albums of the past 40 odd years.
Pavement
4/5
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain tracks in order from best to worst:
1. Gold Soundz
2. Range Life
3. Silence Kid
4. Cut Your Hair
5. Elevate Me Later
6. Stop Breathin
7. Fillmore Jive
8. Heaven is a Truck
9. Newark Wilder
10. Unfair
11. 5-4=Unity
12. Hit the Plane Down
Pulp
3/5
🎧British AF. You can’t deny Jarvis Cocker’s panache and droll delivery, especially on Common People which is an absolute banger. Other standouts: Bar Italia, Mis-Shapes. Still, this is not quite my cup of Britpop tea.
Morrissey
3/5
🎧In which Morrissey laments his deficit of British pride, forgives Jesus, and tells America where it can shove its hamburger. There’s nobody like this guy, this ignorant, out of touch, obnoxiously in-your-face vegan guy. Shitty man, surprisingly decent album.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Neil rips, this is terrific. Favorite track: White Line
The Verve
3/5
Hot take: Lucky Man is even better than Bittersweet Symphony. The Drugs Don’t Work is solid. Rest of this is fine, particularly like Weeping Willow, but doesn’t really connect with me like Lucky Man.
Elton John
4/5
🎧Lotta top tier Reg tunes here, but a few that definitely could’ve been trimmed (looking at you Jamaica Jerk-Off). Opening track Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding is epic and unlike any other Elton song, as far as I know.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
🎧Wonderful album, though I could do without The Yo Yo Man and Thorn of Crowns. The Killing Moon is one of the finest songs of the 1980s.
The The
5/5
Sometime shortly after college (might’ve been during my senior year) I burnt a bunch of albums onto CDs for listening in my car. It was mostly personal favorites and classics. Rumours, White Blood Cells, Alligator, etc. I still have those CDs in my current car.
Anyways, one was Soul Mining. Unclear why I picked it as I wasn’t familiar with the album. Pretty sure I’d read online about how some consider it one of the best records of the 80s, and I already liked This Is the Day (the song was in an M&Ms commercial).
I sure am glad I took a chance on it all those years ago, because this album is really special. It’s a pop record but an undeniably strange one, propelled by aggressive percussion and world-weary yet hopeful lyrics. It rewards repeat listens. I’m convinced the beauty of Soul Mining (aptly titled) can creep up on just about anyone who enjoys adventurous pop music and is willing to let it sink in—while driving, at home, or anywhere else.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Beat It, Billie Jean, P.Y.T., Thriller. Just loaded with hits. Best selling record of all time. Most of the non-hits sound kind of dated. It is also, of course, a shame that he molested children.
Brian Eno
3/5
🎧Thriller followed by My Life In The Bush of Ghosts. Hard to think of two more different albums. And they were released a year apart from each other. This is sone bizarre shit, innovative for its time, and still a fascinating listen in 2024. Favorite tracks: The Jezebel Spirit and Very, Very Hungry
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
Terrific side one. Side two not as great, but pretty solid! Forgot how good All Through the Night is.
David Bowie
3/5
🎧Bowie takes a crack at blue-eyed soul producing mixed results. Title track is terrific, nothing else to write home about here. Fascination is decent, Fame is fine but overrated.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
🎧Interesting, ambitious Joni record, but not my favorite.
CHIC
3/5
🎧Le Freak gets all the attention but I Want Your Love is the real highlight here. At Last I Am Free is 7 mins 8 seconds long which is about 8 minutes too long.
Thundercat
2/5
🎧This one never got off the ground for me. Them Changes is good though.
Muddy Waters
4/5
🎧Damn good blues record from a bonafide legend
Little Richard
5/5
It’s not an overstatement to say about 75% of modern popular music wouldn’t exist without Little Richard and this album.
Stan Getz
3/5
🎧Nice, pleasant, relaxing background jazz
The Zombies
5/5
Brilliant record, a psychedelic masterpiece
Napalm Death
1/5
Borderline unlistenable
Missy Elliott
3/5
Decent hip hop/R&B
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
🎧There’s a midget standing tall
Elvis Presley
4/5
Some of the King’s best work
fIREHOSE
4/5
🎧This is good! Lead singer kinda sound like Paul Westerberg
The Velvet Underground
5/5
I read somewhere that TVU&N could be interpreted as the story of a wild drug-fueled weekend, starting with the bleary-eyed awakening of Sunday Morning and then looking back to Friday afternoon onward on I’m Waiting For The Man. I don’t know if that’s what the band intended, but I like that reading. One thing I do know is this is among the most important, interesting, and influential albums in the history of rock music.
Pink Floyd
3/5
In Noah Baumbach’s 2005 film The Squid and the Whale, the teenage son Walt played by Jesse Eisenberg performs and claims to have written “Hey You” by Pink Floyd at his school's talent show. After he wins first place and receives praise from his family and friends, his school realizes that he did not write the song and disciplines him. The film takes place in 1986. The Wall came out in November 1979. It was the best-selling album of 1980, and spent 15 consecutive weeks at number one.
I love this movie, but it always struck me as odd and unrealistic that an audience full of Brooklyn teachers, parents, and students didn’t call Walt on his BS more quickly, so he wouldn’t win the talent show in the first place.
Anyways this album is bloated and pretentious but has a few great songs, like Hey You.
The Avalanches
3/5
Repetitive samples are a bit annoying in some songs, cool and vibey in others. Favorite track: Frontier Psychiatrist
New Order
4/5
🎧I thought I was already familiar with all the great New Order albums. I thought wrong. All the Way sounds like The Cure.
Holger Czukay
2/5
🎧While this is definitely interesting and not bad per se, I can’t see myself revisiting any of it ever again. Czukay was a pioneer of tape loops and sampling, so respect for that.
Beatles
5/5
With Rubber Soul The Beatles, to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, “took their first step into a larger world.” Brilliant stuff, a top 5 Beatles album for me.
Mike Oldfield
3/5
🎧Some interesting prog rock stuff going on here, and I like an album that’s one long song per side. But there’s all this growling about midway through Tubular Bells Pt. II that kind of spoiled it for me
SZA
4/5
SZA’s got a great voice and these are cool, sensual, chill jams. Favorite track: Prom
The White Stripes
4/5
Seven Nation Army, Black Math, Ball and Biscuit: these songs rule. Little Acorns rips, as does Hypnotize. A rare vocal take from Meg on In The Cold, Cold Night…underrated tune. And yet this isn’t even the best Stripes album (that’d be RBC). It might not even be the second best (arguably De Stijl). What a great fucking band.
2/5
MC5 are overrated as hell
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Schmamazing album. Without You is such an amazing song, it’s begging to be belted by someone like Lady Gaga. Nilsson’s no vocal slouch himself though.
SAULT
3/5
🎧Undeniably important album about blackness and racial injustice, released in the summer of 2020 at the height of the BLM movement. A rich R&B/soup tapestry—some of these songs landed for me, some are pretty meandering. Favorite track: Wildfires
Tori Amos
4/5
🎧Thoroughly enjoyed this. Stellar debut from Amos. Traces of Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. Couple moments that reminded me of Joanna Newsom, I wonder if Amos influenced her.
The Cramps
4/5
The first and forever greatest psychobilly record ever made. The Lord hath taught The Cramps well.
Prince
3/5
🎧If Prince had consolidated this down to one LP it probably would have rivaled Purple Rain in quality. It’s got some great tunes! Starfish And Coffee, U Got The Look—great slow builds on both I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man and The Cross. But then there’s also a lot of filler. Title tracks seems to suggest in one line that weed is a gateway drug to heroin?
R.E.M.
5/5
A stately, austere, reflective triumph from one of the best rock bands our country has ever produced
Metallica
2/5
Look I get it, millions of people think Metallica is a great band and most of those people probably agree that this live record from 1999 is an album you must hear before you take your final breath. I simply am not one of those people.
Deep Purple
3/5
🎧Sick album cover. Music sounds exactly as you would expect from looking at it.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
Just as great as I remember it in 2004, if not better
Beck
3/5
🎧Good songs: E-Pro, Girl, Go It Alone. Sonically mish-mashed, altogether fine but somewhat forgettable songs: everything else here.
The Damned
2/5
🎧2 might be harsh, but this punk album just doesn’t cut the mustard. It’s like if the Buzzcocks or The Fall were less interesting and fun, and kinda shitty instead.
Ramones
5/5
The cornerstone of punk.
Bee Gees
3/5
It is US presidential Election Day 2024, Harris/Walz vs Trump/Vance, and I’m listening to Trafalgar by The Bee Gees.
Iron Maiden
2/5
11/6/2024. Fuck.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
🎧This is good, maybe even better than Crocodiles. It’s not as strong as Ocean Rain. My favorite track, The Cutter, sounds like New Order. Echo were undeniably a very good band. Do we need 3 of their albums in the 1001 AYMHBYD? Probably not.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
🎧Fantastic, and one I’d never heard before. In fact Joan Armatrading’s name was completely unfamiliar to me. What a voice. Did not care for Join The Boys but otherwise this is great. Favorite track: Down To Zero
Paul Simon
4/5
Graceland rules.
Antony and the Johnsons
3/5
🎧Giving this album a 3 largely on the strength of Fistful of Love, a song I am obsessed with. Put it in the 1001 Songs YMHBYD.
Sam Cooke
5/5
Such incredible, stirring performances of great songs. Cooke elevates them to another level, and you can feel the excitement and joy in the room. Probably the best recording from one of the greatest soul singers to ever do it. Cannot say enough good things about this album.
Julian Cope
2/5
🎧The sonic equivalent of scrambled eggs mixed with horseshit. Favorite track: If You Loved Me At All
Bauhaus
2/5
🎧This thing is kind of a mess. Nothing against goths.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
🎧Mostly mournful crap
Queen
2/5
That’s not it at all. Do less. Try less. Do it again. Nope, do less, pop down.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
🎧 Melancholy and brooding but somehow life affirming too. A beautiful farewell from a deeply spiritual artist.
Steely Dan
5/5
Killer debut from the Dan
Bob Dylan
5/5
The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken
☀️🚫🟡⭕️🐔
The Go-Go's
4/5
🎧Fun, joyful pop music. Favorite track: Fading Fast
Wild Beasts
3/5
🎧This is fine, kind of middle of the road indie rock/dream pop. I don’t love the singer’s voice. Some of this reminds me of Alt-j. Favorite track: All The King’s Men. Worst track: Through The Iron Gate
Björk
1/5
🎧 I do not care for the music of Björk.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
This is peak Stevie in my (talking) book.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
🎧Madman Robert Wyatt strikes again. I got a question for Dimery: Why does the book include so much of this guy’s weird shit but doesn’t make room for slightly less weird but much better shit like Stormcock by Roy Harper?
Favorite track: Sea Song
Dr. Dre
5/5
Monumental rap
The Prodigy
2/5
In August 2016 the Chicago Cubs fired a DJ who played Smack My Bitch Up after reliever Aroldis Chapman left the mound during a game against the St Louis Cardinals. Chapman served a 29-game suspension to begin the season under MLB’s new domestic violence policy for allegedly pushing and choking his girlfriend.
10cc
4/5
🎧Eccentric, fun pop-rock. Can see how this was pretty adventurous and “out there” for 1974. I feel like The Lemon Twigs really like this album. The Sacro-Iliac might be my new favorite novelty “dance song.”
John Lee Hooker
3/5
🎧Solid, somewhat boring at times blues record
Lorde
5/5
One of the best pop albums of the 21st century, Lorde went off on this one
Bob Dylan
5/5
My favorite of Bob’s early folk albums. A timeless classic and the first sign of his burgeoning genius.
Love
3/5
🎧Interesting psychedelic jazz rock
Stan Getz
3/5
🎧Nice easy listening jazz/bossa nova record. Relaxing AF.
Fela Kuti
4/5
Excellent Fela
Dion
3/5
Dion, you son of a gun
UB40
3/5
🎧Pretty good reggae/dub album
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
🎧Rather generic sounding 60s psychedelic blues rock but as a whole this is by no means bad. David Cohen goes off on the organ on Love, enjoyed that. Grace really drags, what a slog. I get that this album is considered a major contribution to the genre but Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and the Byrds did it a lot better.
John Lennon
4/5
With meditation there’s no limit to what we can…imagine
Tim Buckley
2/5
🎧Wallpaper funk album, doesn’t belong in the book. Favorite track: Sweet Surrender
Devendra Banhart
3/5
🎧This is a pretty boring but altogether fine folk album. Favorite song is an instrumental, Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry. Reminds me of John Fahey, and hell of a title.
5/5
Kinks rule. This might be their peak. Wonderful rock opera. Favorite tracks: Victoria, Shangri-La, Mr. Churchill Says, Nothing to Say
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
I can’t be the only person who finds J Mascis’ voice kind of annoying. Great guitarist though.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
🎧Well this is certainly different. Props to Dimery for adding this soundtrack to a 1978 Indian film to the book, definitely would not have listened to this on my own. Favorite track: Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai. Least favorite track: One Two Cha Cha Cha
Goldfrapp
4/5
🎧This is not what I was expecting from a Goldfrapp album and I liked it quite a bit. Favorite track: Clowns
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
Get it Janis
Traffic
3/5
🎧This is not the Traffic of Dear Mr. Fantasy I know. Good, not great. Final two tracks are favorites.
Shuggie Otis
4/5
🎧Excellent stuff. Had definitely heard of Shuggie but first time listening to his music
Massive Attack
2/5
🎧If this is considered top notch trip hop then I officially don’t like trip hop
The Stooges
5/5
Raw, ripping, resplendent rock. Kind of goes off the rails with L.A. Blues, but still a landmark album
Skunk Anansie
2/5
🎧Interesting mish mash of genres but alas, this is not for me. Favorite track: Lately
Paul Simon
3/5
🎧Some good songs, some not so good songs (like Cars Are Cars)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Took me a little while to come around to Neil’s jammier side, but I like it a lot now
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Everything about Cosmo’s Factory rules. Find me a better song than Ramble Tamble to blast while ripping down the highway. You cannot. Quite possibly peak CCR, this album.
Spiritualized
4/5
This is a cool, vibey album that doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. It’s Jason Pierce doing his spacey druggy thing. Nothing mind-blowing, just good chill space rock. Favorite tracks: I Want You, Shine a Light
Blondie
4/5
🎧A new wave treat. Some very good songs: One Way Or Another, Pretty Baby, Sunday Girl, and the magnificent Heart of Glass (one the best songs of the 1970s).
Bob Dylan
5/5
Greatest breakup album of all time but of course, it’s so much more than that.
Various Artists
4/5
🎄Merry Christmas 2024. This is in the top 5 Xmas albums you must hear before you die. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love is probably my favorite Christmas song.
Suede
3/5
🎧Middle of the road Britpop record. Favorite track: Animal Nitrate
Tracy Chapman
5/5
🎧Fantastic record. I’ve loved Fast Cars for many years, can’t believe it’s taken me this long to listen to the rest of the album.
Method Man
3/5
Solid solo outing from Method Man
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
🎧Interesting/weird bluesy record. Dropout Boogie is annoying, the rest I didn’t mind.
Oasis
5/5
Absolutely mega, biblical, cool AF. Loved the debut album from Oasis when I was in high school, still love it today.
The Streets
1/5
Rubbish
Fleet Foxes
5/5
Outrageously beautiful harmonies, evocative pastoral imagery, indie folk rock magic. One of the best and most exciting debut records of the 2000s.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
🎧Decent jangle pop with literary/cultural references that sometimes feel forced. Some of these songs remind me of The Go-Betweens and The Vulgar Boatmen but, you know, not as good as either of those bands.
Wilco
5/5
5 star album from a 5 star band. The best album of the 2000s? Probably. Nothing beats the scene in the Sam Jones documentary when Tweedy and Jay Bennett are trying to mix Ashes of American Flags into Heavy Metal Drummer and struggling to communicate their respective ideas. A great rock moment, a great human moment. RIP Jay Bennett. This is a magnificent record.
Sigur Rós
3/5
Grandiose, dreamlike, ethereal, cinematic, inscrutable, demanding, boring, Hopelandic gibberish. Favorite track: Svefn-g-englar. Least favorite track: Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm)
The Byrds
5/5
Absolutely love this album, such a great mix of folk, country, and rock. Best thing the Byrds ever did
George Harrison
4/5
Second best solo Beatles album!
Paul Simon
4/5
🎧Love the flutes on Duncan. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard one of the best songs Simon’s ever written.
Jeru The Damaja
2/5
🎧Kind of mid tbh
T. Rex
5/5
Not a bad track here. Long live Bolan, long live T. Rex
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
🎧Giving this a 3 largely on the strength of the title track…one of the best songs ever made. Period. The rest is fine.
Meat Loaf
3/5
I really wanted to love this operatic over-the-top Meat Loaf album but ultimately I do not. It’s fun though, especially Paradise By the Dashboard Light
Iron Maiden
2/5
🎧Children of the daaaamned!
DJ Shadow
3/5
Endtroducing… is undeniably cool, enthralling, and innovative for its time. You could even say that at its heights it touches on the sublime. I like it a hell of a lot more than The Avalanches’ Since I Left You, that’s for sure. Still, trip hop is just not really my bag. Much respect though, and glad I listened. I’ll always hold this record in high esteem as a landmark of the genre and one of the boldest, most interesting LPs of the 90s.
Ryan Adams
4/5
A good album by a deeply shitty person
Baaba Maal
2/5
🎧Fine background music, never really got into it
1/5
Nope
Nirvana
4/5
6 of these 14 songs are covers, and pretty obscure ones at the time. Good on Kurt for shining a light on the talents of Meat Puppets, The Vaselines, and a lesser known Bowie tune. And closing out with an aching rendition of that Lead Belly song is viscerally powerful. Long live Nirvana. Worst track: Pennyroyal Tea
Rod Stewart
4/5
🎧Good early Rod! Just a solid classic rock record. Country Comfort by Elton John from his Tumbleweed Connection album.
Pere Ubu
4/5
Yup, it’s a little bit weird, it’s sometimes grating (Laughing) but it’s also very alive and enjoyable (Street Waves). Kind of incredible that this record came out in 1978, I’m sure there was nothing else quite like it at the time. Just sonically all over the place, almost impossible to categorize.
Isaac Hayes
5/5
Superb soul. Generated this album on 1/20/25, Martin Luther King day, and the day of Trump’s second inauguration. Insane and incredibly disturbing that we’re doing this AGAIN. Finding some solace in the dulcet tones of Isaac Hayes.
N.E.R.D
2/5
🎧I recall liking She Wants To Move as a kid. Today, not so much. Nothing particularly noteworthy or memorable here. I hope to never hear Jump again. Favorite track: Maybe
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
🎧Add Ali Farka Touré and this very cool African blues album to the list of great discoveries from the 1001AYMHBYD project. Will be returning to this one.
5/5
Cannot beat early live electric Bob. Also great when he’s playing acoustic and honkin on bobo.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
New York, I love you
But you're bringing me down
Like a death of the heart
Jesus, where do I start?
But you're still the one pool
Where I'd happily drown
Roxy Music
3/5
🎧Bryan Ferry up to his usual glammy weirdness. Favorite tracks: Beauty Queen, Grey Lagoons
The Clash
4/5
Just great, foundational punk. The Clash: the only band that matters
Simple Minds
4/5
🎧Surprisingly good 80s synth/new wave album. Favorite tracks: Somebody Up There Likes You, Glittering Prize
Pixies
5/5
Doolittle is one of the GOATs, plain and simple. The oft-discussed soft/loud dynamics has been much imitated but never done quite as well as the Pixies did here (not even by Nirvana). More noteworthy though is the strange, fucked up world built in these songs. Slicing up eyeballs, monkeys gone to heaven, Bathsheba and whores in my head—they’re all there and all fantastic. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to Doolittle (a lot) and every time it still feels fresh and gives me a jolt.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I’m not really an Elvis Costello fan but I like this album quite a bit. This Year’s Girl, Pump It Up, and Radio, Radio are all standout tracks.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Up there among the Stones’ best albums. Merry Clayton on Gimme Shelter is incredible.
Dead Kennedys
3/5
🎧Decent punk album
The xx
3/5
I liked this album a lot more when it came out, it didn’t do much for me today though. I Dare You is solid. On Hold is terrific, one of the xx’s best songs. The rest is alright, not particularly great
The Stooges
3/5
Little bit overrated, this one. Search and Destroy is classic and absolutely rips. Couple other good ones in here: Gimme Danger, Raw Power. Sick album cover. Prefer the Iggy mix to Bowie’s. Overall good, not great.
Yes
3/5
🎧Yes went hard on I’ve Seen All Good People. This isn’t quite my kind of prog though, I like Fragile a lot more than this
The Fall
2/5
🎧Post-punk is pretty hit or miss for me. This one’s a miss.
Nick Drake
5/5
Camus said “one must imagine Sisyphus happy.” I say “one must imagine Nick Drake happy.” Drake only put out three albums (each fantastic) and died in 1974 at the age of 26. Whether it was suicide or an accidental overdose of an antidepressant we’ll never know. Some consider him the Van Gogh of popular music—he lived an unhappy life and his music did not get its due until after his death. Bryter Layter is Drake’s most musically adventurous, full-sounding album and, though I don’t consider any of his albums sad per se, it’s probably his happiest. It’s easy to listen to this record and think of an optimistic young man eager to take on the world, to fully express himself through his art. He had a lot of passion and life in him, and he was a brilliant songwriter. Imagine Nick Drake happy because, for a time at least, he was.
Depeche Mode
3/5
🎧I had no idea Depeche Mode was capable of such darkness and brooding. Favorite track: Nothing
M.I.A.
2/5
🎧This music is pretty annoying. Favorite track: Sunshowers
Christina Aguilera
3/5
🎧Christina sure has pipes. Although this album goes off the rails a bit in the second half, and it’s overlong, overall it was a decent listen. Worst track: Enter the Circus
The Smiths
3/5
🎧This is a fine Smiths album. I feel like it doesn’t have any big standout songs like all the others do. Baseline on Barbarism Begins at Home absolutely slaps. Favorite track: Well I Wonder
The Bees
3/5
🎧Cool, bouncy, chill, eclectic little record. Had not heard of this band.
Goldfrapp
2/5
🎧Helped me doze off during a flight. Pretty same-y and uninteresting.
Slipknot
1/5
🎧I hate this.
Radiohead
5/5
❤️ Happy Valentine’s Day 2025. My favorite Radiohead album and IMO the band’s masterpiece. Whole record conveys such a sense of foreboding and dread, but somehow it’s not a bummer. Feeling overwhelmed by the many existential nightmares that plague our hypercapitalist, post-9/11, pre-gobal environmental collapse modern experience? Play How To Disappear Completely on repeat, disassociate, and keep telling yourself “I’m not here. This isn’t happening.”
Beatles
5/5
Of the first three Beatles albums, this one is the strongest
Fatboy Slim
2/5
🎧Here Fatboy Slim answers the age old question, “if cocaine was an album, what album would it be?” Praise You is terrific though.
Duke Ellington
4/5
🎧Terrific big band jazz from Duke
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
🎧Pretty good stuff. Nice R&B that mixes in a couple other genres—ragga, soul. Favorite tracks: Dy-Na-Mi-Tee, Brother
Pretenders
3/5
🎧Very neutral on this. Chrissie Hynde’s voice is cool and has a lot of character, but some of these songs kinda stink (like Stop Your Sobbing and Private Life). Then there’s Brass in Pocket, a classic and undeniably fun, flirty tune. Overall didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.
Frank Ocean
3/5
Channel Orange is cool and I’ve got mad respect for Frank post-Blonde. But I really did not understand the appeal when this came out in 2012 (except for Forrest Gump which I absolutely love). So yeah, I like it now. Pyramids already sounds a bit dated though.
The Cure
5/5
Absolutely sublime.
Mekons
3/5
Some good things happening here, some not so good things. One thing can’t be denied, it is interesting and unusual. Or is that two things?
Everything But The Girl
2/5
🎧Whoever described this as the soundtrack of “trying on jeans at the Gap or Banana Republic in the late 90s” hit the nail on the head.
Pixies
3/5
Pixies are very good at doing what they do. Favorite tracks: Cecilia Ann, Ana, Hang Wire
King Crimson
3/5
🎧Laid the foundation for prog rock, I’m told. 21st Century Schizoid Man is pretty sick. Some boring musical detours on tracks like Moonchild. Cool album, a little overrated though.
The Pharcyde
4/5
🎧Bizarre, somewhat, but moreso just fun as all get-out 90s hip hop. Fatlip, Slimkid3, Imani, and Bootie Brown are playful wizards on the mic.
Blue Cheer
2/5
🎧This is poorly recorded and not very good.
B.B. King
4/5
No bullshit blues, performed in Chicago Nov 1964
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
🎧The Rising is fine but, man, there are definitely other Bruce albums left out of the book that are more deserving of inclusion—The River, Tunnel of Love, Ghost of Tom Joad.
Eurythmics
3/5
🎧Title track is the pièce de résistance. I also really liked Jennifer.
Charles Mingus
5/5
I don’t know much about jazz but I know this album has a very cool vibe. When I listen to this it makes everything going on around me feel more interesting.
Leftfield
3/5
🎧Not too shabby.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Excellent Curtis
Pink Floyd
5/5
I don’t know what to say, it’s Dark Side Of The Moon, it’s exquisite. If you don’t like it, there might be something wrong with you. Or maybe you’ve experienced…brain damage
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Jimmy sure could shred
The Beach Boys
5/5
Simply and without question one of the best albums ever made.
Mike Ladd
2/5
🎧I’m Mike Ladd! Don’t act like u don’t know my name!
The Cure
3/5
🎧Good gloomy
Neil Young
4/5
Out on the Weekend! Heart of Gold! Old Man! The Needle and the Damage Done! Nice going Neil!
Suicide
4/5
🎧Man this rules.
The KLF
2/5
🎧Yeah idk this would probably be awesome in a club/at rave but in literally any other setting, it does very little for me. Acid-house maybe just not my thing.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
The Murder Mystery is a bad song. It’s among the worst songs by The Velvet Underground. Still, the rest of this record is so great that I have no choice but to look past that one lousy track and award this 5 stars. John Cale was out, Doug Yule was in. Lou Reed was free to focus on the tuneful pop side of VU and boy did he crank out some gems. There’s a world of melancholy and heartache in Pale Blue Eyes but it’s such a beaut. Love this album.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
🎧Pretty neutral on this. Winehouse was a real talent which is already fairly apparent on her debut, but the songs aren’t anything particularly special. That changed on Back to Black.
Talking Heads
3/5
I love the Talking Heads. I’ve never really understood all the fuss around Remain In Light? Why is it widely considered their best? I think it’s one of their worst. You’ve got Crosseyed and Painless and Once in a Lifetime. Great songs, the latter a classic. Everything else here is mediocre to average.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
🎧So much of Nick Cave’s music is ass. And this is a double album. Just cut half the tracks, no one needs this much Nick. Favorite songs: Carry Me, O Children. These are the final two tracks, the end was in sight. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
The Sugarcubes
2/5
🎧Whether in a band or solo, Björk is pretty annoying. Favorite tracks: Birthday, Delicious Demon
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
🎧Righto, pretty good Northern soul and punk-inspired pop rock. Some of this reminds me of Elvis Costello. Good brass section. Kevin Rowland’s voice sometimes stinks.
808 State
1/5
🎧Once again finding that I do not like acid house. This isn’t offensively bad, but it’s so generic sounding. I get it, it was very unique and exciting for 1989. Does not hold up today. Give me something like Deee-Lite or C&C Music Factory instead.
Santana
4/5
🎧Cool as hell & chill as f**k
Beastie Boys
2/5
🎧Is it possible to think the Beastie Boys are both cool and pretty annoying?
George Michael
3/5
🎧Totally 80s. Favorite track: Faith
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
🎧ELO’s greatest hits happens to be the CD in my car for the past few weeks. 3 songs from that are on here. This is overstuffed but ambitious and pretty marvelous at times. Wild West Hero is a new favorite.
The Modern Lovers
5/5
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Coldplay
5/5
Coldplay used to be a really good band, making pretty terrific pop-rock albums. Sadly their albums now suck, a streak of shittiness that started with 2014’s Ghost Stories. But this album here, 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head, is their creative peak. A modern day classic in my opinion.
Milton Nascimento
3/5
🎧I liked this, thought it was pretty good. Second half was a little more adventurous than the first.
Queen
3/5
🎧I contend that Queen is not an “albums band” though this is probably the most cohesive record of theirs I’ve heard. It’s got Killer Queen which is very good. It’s also got Bring Back That Leroy Brown which sounds like something from demented high school musical, and not in a fun or interesting way.
Aerosmith
1/5
🎧Vacuous garbage
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
🎧What a knockout. With Rumours, Fleetwood Mac proved they were a great band. With Tusk, largely masterminded by Lindsey Buckingham, they proved to be artistically restless and seemingly unstoppable.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Probably the best 90s rap album.
Soundgarden
2/5
🎧Idk just couldn’t get into this. Black Hole Sun is an anthem tho
Minor Threat
3/5
🎧Wtf this is an EP, not an album
Boards of Canada
3/5
I want to like this album more than I do. Roygbiv is great. Rest is good chill background music.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
I like jazz. Sue me!
XTC
3/5
🎧Decent enough
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I guess I’m kind of a Cohen-head
Boston
4/5
Boston!
Kanye West
4/5
Arguably the best debut rap album ever. Docking a star because he has since become a full blown nazi nutcase.
Alice Cooper
3/5
🎧Starts off strong with School’s Out and Luney Tune. Doesn’t follow through. What’s with the West Side Story “when you’re a jet” shit?
De La Soul
4/5
🎧Good stuff, nice alternative to gangsta rap. Also it’s crediting with introducing the hip hop skit, so that’s a hell of a legacy.
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
Ambitious, artful, strange, beautiful ode to the Land of Lincoln. A modern indie classic.
Tom Waits
2/5
🎧Still really don’t understand the appeal of Tom Waits. This was a real mixed bag, lotta garbage I’d be okay with never hearing again. Some decent tunes too: Who Are You, A Little Rain, Black Wings. Waits is undeniably interesting and has a way with words, but a lot of this is basically the musical equivalent of sandpaper bedsheets.
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
This is pretty much top to bottom great. Band On The Run, Jet, Mrs. Vandebilt, Let Me Roll It, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five. Just an absolute smoker from Paul.
William Orbit
2/5
🎧Background music. It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. I have no desire to revisit any of this. Also the last 20 minutes or so are, you could say relaxing, I say boring.
Circle Jerks
3/5
🎧14 songs in 15 minutes and lyrics like “I’ve got the whole world up my ass.” 👍🏻👍🏻
Beatles
5/5
This is a top 5 Beatles album and therefore one of the best albums ever made, but more importantly it created a whole new type of pop record that countless artists have followed in the tradition of. I’m referring to the stylistically diverse and adventurous double LP (often with an understated album cover). So many great bands have their own White Album, but none are as impactful and iconic as the OG by the greatest rock band ever…THE White Album. Truly magical stuff.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Not the VU’s finest outing, but some terrific tracks here. The lo-fi production/recording is a little irritating at times. HOWEVER the title track, Sister Ray, and Here She Comes Now all rule. And then there’s The Gift, one of the funniest songs in rock history with Cale’s deadpan delivery of the story of a man who ships himself in a box to his faraway girlfriend.
Gorillaz
3/5
🎧Cool, vibey. Cartoon band so that was/is pretty novel. Favorite tracks: Double Bass, Slow Country
Adele
3/5
Adele is a once in a generation kind of singer. Hello, I Miss You, and the staggeringly beautiful When We Were Young are the standouts here. Beyond that, great singing as always, but the songwriting on display here is not the strongest of her output.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
Just gorgeous stuff. Jarrett looks like Eric Andre on the album cover.
Waylon Jennings
4/5
Damn good country music. We Had It All is a great teardrop in my whiskey kind of song, maybe the best ever
Hugh Masekela
4/5
🎧Smooth, cool jazz, I like it
David Holmes
3/5
🎧Mostly pretty boring/background music. BUT it’s also got songs like Rodney Yates and the title track which were used in Ocean’s Eleven (2001), one of my favorite movies of all time. So it gets an extra star.
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
🎧Terrific stuff. Favorite track (aside from Shining Star): See the Light. “Lift me up when life's battles make me fall”
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
🎧This thing’s got great DMC songs like It’s Tricky and My Adidas. It’s also got duds like You Be Illin’ and Dumb Girl.
Steely Dan
5/5
Aja! Steely Dan! Oh yeah, gimme all of that ya got!
Beck
2/5
🎧stfu beck
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Good stuff here and not so good stuff here as well. Very 80s. Female backing vocals don’t always work.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Jimi continues to rip. Favorite track: Little Wing
Supergrass
2/5
🎧this was kinda ass
The Hives
3/5
🎧Pretty good stuff. I grew up loving Here We Go Again.
Beck
4/5
It looks like you got a little pain behind those eyes
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Queen of Soul…an absolute classic
4/5
Ms Lynn did a bang up job on this one. Real good old fashioned country music.
k.d. lang
3/5
🎧Not loving the “cabaret flavor” on display here. Chill background music though.