Have loved this one since high school. I think something clicked about “the sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken” this time around.

Lots of high bpm tracks with rock/punk/ska influence, plus a very 90s intro/outro and not-quite bonus track that reminds you it’s an album. Very listen-able.

There are a handful of tracks on this album that with an immersive, full-orchestra sound to them that’s really enjoyable. But it’s also got some aggressively mid-2000s sad boy vocals and experimental mini tracks that hit just a little different in 2024.

Love this one! Soft and folksy at times, with some jazz and ballads folded in with lots of heart the whole way through.

I was excited for this one, since I had stumbled across the track Frontier Psychiatrist previously and really liked it. Ultimately, I was a little disappointed…the album is atmospheric and groovy, there is a lot going on, so it’s never boring. But there is maybe one other stand out track (Since I Left You); besides those two, there aren’t any songs I would come back to listen to outside the context of listening through the whole album. Maybe that’s good in some ways (I love an album that knows it’s an album—cohesive and interwoven), but it doesn’t really jive with how I tend to consume music.

Bjork has a great voice, but this was a little too experimental and dissonant—the club-y electronic tracks too.

It has some moments—my fav was “This is the Picture” but mostly because it reminded me a lot of The Talking Heads—but overall, it’s got a little too much melodrama and 80s synth for me. Totally makes sense that he and Phil Collins worked together though, they have a lot of the same sensibilities.

Had some great funky baselines and jazzy moments, but I feel like Joan never really hits her stride and pops off…the whole album sort of feels like a performance you’d hear in a really ritzy hotel lobby.

Had a great time listening to this! Lots of great bass lines and rhythms to build out Colon’s trombone.

I’m sure prog rock versions of classical compositions are for someone…but not me. To their credit, it’s unique and the audience seems to be having a good time.

Lots of funky base and the kind of weird stuff I like. Definitely made me curious about his collabs and other projects.

I was nervous about another prog rock album, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. It ranges from pretty standard rock to video game-y to very 60s renfaire. The tracks are long and wandering, the sort of thing that lends itself to getting stones in a basement and listening to. Not sure it needed an extended version, though.

Of course I had heard a lot of the songs on this album, but I don’t think I had ever listened through it as an album. I’m honestly not sure how much sense the songs make as an album—side one is a lot of fun, short songs (some with a little social commentary) that are great to listen to as one offs. Side two gets a little more experimental and psychedelic and overall seems more cohesive. Worth a listen, but I think most people are familiar with at least a handful of the tracks on this album as singles.

Lotta trippy 60s stuff…it has some really fun moments (standout track for me is “The Garden of Earthly Delights”), but a lot of the tracks go a little overboard on the sci-fi and slide whistle sound effects. Overall still a fun listen.

Oh this was hard to listen to…cheesy and overproduced (Church bells? Pedal steel? Why??) but most of all just the most over-the-top melodramatic lyrics this side of a musical.

It’s got some really beautiful guitar parts and a couple really enjoyable tracks, but—maybe because it’s just so much longer than most albums—there are also some kind of mid, boring elevator music mixed in.

ZZ Top! Blues-y, a little bit funkier than I thought, and just all around a good, riff-filled time. A lot of the kinds of elements that make classic rock what it is.

Early, folksy Dylan. Blowin in the Wind and Masters of War feel like timeless protest songs, right alongside the haunting Hard Rain, broken up with some sort of silly and fun tracks and put over the top with some of the most epic breakup songs (North Country and Don’t Think Twice). Pretty much everything you’d want from a folk album.

It’s kind of like a being in a swimming pool—an immersive but gentle cacophony of noise, but organized into the shape of a more traditional pop/rock songs, all held afloat but the earnesty of Wayne Cohen’s vocals. Sometimes playful, sometimes heart-wrenching, always a good listen.

Fun, lots of short and sweet tracks. I love what the California beach-rock bass lines bring to the simplicity of punk rock.

I had so much fun with this one! I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of GO4 before. Funky, playful poppy punk that has so many elements I enjoy from other artists (dissonant bass and guitar riffs repeated in a way that makes them melodic, upbeat boppy drums, BRI’ISH YELLIN’).

The Spotify description for Public Enemy notes that Flavor Flav is supposed to be comic relief for Chuck D’s gravity which….I think makes a lot of sense. There’s a lot going on lyrically that gets lost in the sound design, between the turn table effects and the name drops. It’s not a bad album but I think Public Enemy is a little easier to digest in single form.

I like Elton John, truly. He’s got a great voice and the melodrama of his singing is always so well-suited to the drama he brings with the piano, guitar and horns on this album. And somehow it’s when he strips back a lot of the “oomph” most of his tracks that he really shines (on this album, it’s Tiny Dancer). This album had a lot of “oomph” (or in Elton’s words “Jeasus!”) across it. Indian Sunset kind of threw me for a loop. But overall a good listen.

Very lyric/bar-forward. The flows speak for themselves, the musicality that is sprinkled in is beautiful in its simplicity and really underscores that the verse is what’s doing the work.

This band is famous for having all the ingredients of a great late 60s rock group but never taking off for some reason….this album is the same. It’s really good but just never breaks into great. Still a really enjoyable listening experience.

Ok wow wtf was this. I won’t give it one star because I can totally see how G. Love has legs at a music festival—this is exactly the kind of wanna-be bluesy music that a bunch of white folks who have considered dreadlocks would groove to. It begs for a sack to be hackeyed, and I hated almost every minute of it.

This was a quick lil listen. Lots of horns including that one from Jožin z Bážen…I feel like I don’t really know enough about jazz to know if this is good or not. I think I like percussion-forward jazz over horn-centric jazz?

She really does have a great, jazzy voice. This album has a couple of fun tracks that lean jazzy or bossa-nova, but I think Amy Winehouse really hits the magic formula with the full band pop sound on Back to Black.

Idk…it definitely makes you appreciate the influence of Irish music on Appalachian musical tradition. At its best it goes folksy protest songs, and it clearly laid some track for the Dropkick Murphies and chant-y punk bands that I might be good but have been ruined by their fandom.

Feels like an attempt to bring reggae into the 21st century and it largely works (crisp snare alongside steel drums and rock guitar riffs with distinctly reggae vocals). Occasionally certain elements combine in a way that holds back the whole track (on Even After All, the vocals muddle the grooviness of the track), but overall I think the album succeeds in moving the genre forward.

For something called shock rock, this album is actually pretty tame…it dabbles in jazz and country, but is mostly a punk-leaning rock album. I appreciate the cohesion of the bands sound while playing with elements from other genres.

I liked this a lot more than I expected to! Yes it’s electronica, but it’s also very layered, atmospheric and chill. It’s the kind of music that you can put on in the background and still get pulled in every so often by haunting vocals, good percussion or something sonically compelling and experimental. It veers occasionally into almost silly 60s sci-fi effects and can start sounding like soundtrack music, but it’s the soundtrack of a very cool movie you wish was your life.

I liked a lot of the pop-y post punk stuff (similar to Bowie and the Smiths) but it occasionally dabbles in sad vampire music, which….wasn’t as nice.

I mean, it’d be hard to make an album 2.5 hours long that didn’t have a few hits—there are some beautiful, meandering tracks and some pop-y dance songs that make it enjoyable but it’s just….so…..looooong.

There’s definitely a seat at the table for glam rock with 2000s sensibilities. The falsetto vocals and campiness poke fun, but there’s still enough energy and ability to work as an homage to the genre.

Crazy piano riffs, all the melodrama but in a fun, musical-theater way.

It’s got some nice beats and À temps partiel has a funky baseline and sounds like he’s wrapping about Jimmmy John’s

Sounds a lot like Blondie but never quite their stride. Cuban Stride comes close but it gets a little lost while also sounding a little too much like “I Want Candy.” A lot of what I like about the good tracks fees like it was lifted from other songs and their big hit (Brass in Pocket) is very middle of the road New Wave.

Kicks off with a bang and Carrie’s it through to the end. Lots of classic rock drum, guitar and piano riffs with Bruce’s signature touch of drama on the vocals.