banger opener, wonderful, simple instrumentation, what a classic voice. I'm not usually interested in lyrics, but he definitely draws me in. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts draws on a bit. A few songs are just good, not great. Thinking a 4
Boomer mosh music. Energetic and electric performance. I find it difficult to really feel the difference between a lot of the songs though. Thinking a 2 for this one.
I didn't really enjoy this album the first time I listened to it, but having listened to it twice more now, I really enjoy the atmosphere of this album, which definitely improves the overall repetitive style.
Gets better and better every listen.
Man, extraordinary fucking orgasmic production, ye really lets his heart out, but the misogyny really does detract from it quite a bit, and really reduces the odds that I would listen to this more frequently.
Easiest 5 ever. This album is front to back perfect musical chemistry.
Very fun listen, my first foray into MPB-type music. There's a lot to appreciate here, you can definitely hear the compositional fluency of the artist, and the execution is so gratifying to listen to. That being said, it's not personally my jam quite yet, but I think future MPB will strongly benefit from this first exposure.
This album is frustrating. I've never really gotten into Radiohead in the past (listened to OK Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows at least once each), but I figure the passage of some time since then and changing tastes has inclined me towards really appreciating their abilities. Almost every song has this brilliant and beautiful spirit behind the instruments, the synthesizers, the sounds, but often I feel like there's not any direction it goes other than that spirit. The album as a whole also kind of slogs it's way through, despite individual songs that will blow me away. Given the background of how this album is kind of like a B side to Kid A, it doesn't seem surprising this is the result. All of that in mind though, there's a lot I appreciate and connect with on this album, and it seems like their other albums were more directly inspired, and so I feel that the likelihood I'll connect with their big albums is higher.
Man, I really like Metallica, I swear I do, but the way they play their songs here is just an assault on my soul. The emotional weight in their songs are completely lost here, given over to stadium rock BPMs and shoddy singing from James. I find the symphony on this really good compared to most of the ways I've heard symphonies incorporated into popular music. It's hard to give this album an 1 given the symphony's best efforts, but I connected with this in a hateful way. I ended up skipping a few songs to get to the last three songs, which I felt surely the couldn't fuck up. While enter sandman and battery were par for the course, their version of one is nearly unrecognizable to me, it almost completely lacks the soul of the original song at all. The only thing going for this album over the studio versions of the songs is sometimes the symphonic backing, and, if you saw some of these performances in person, it seems like the energy might've been a lot of fun.
goddamn, what an album! It's rare that a double album really manages to capture my attention for its entirety, but this album effortlessly grasps it and leads it through an eclectic tour of what punk means. I'm not a huge fan of the title track, but otherwise, so many songs on here soar above the post-punk I've listened to, especially "Lost in the supermarket", "Jimmy Jazz", and "Death or Glory".
Melancholic and beautiful to its core. I rarely cry to any song, but this whole album wells up my eyes between Nico's voice and the instrumentation. I really love the more experimental side of the instrumentation.
It's good, there's nothing really wrong with it, but I just don't connect with in a way where I'm likely to come back to it in my free time.
didn't quite finish this one, but that wasn't intentional. It's crazy how much I hate the singing style and how much I love the rest of the band. The band absolutely grooves, but the rap singing and lyrics from Kiedis is so embarrassing all the time. I might kinda ironically like this, and if I got used to the singing, I feel like I would unironically like this.
sickeningly fun the same way you eat too much of your favorite food because you can't stop yourself. I really didn't believe they could keep the energy they did without it all blending together and getting stale, but they really mix it up with addicting melodies on new instruments and fresh funky basslines throughout.
I always enjoy Neil Young, but have yet to get to a point where I feel like putting him on in my spare time. Let's go downtown is a great song, but otherwise it's more of a stream of good songs from him.
it opens with a country banger, but after that, there's a mix of genres and influences I wasn't really expecting. I only enjoyed a few songs really.
I don't like Kurt's voice, and other than a few songs, I find this quite boring to the point I'd rather listen to something else. I don't know if this is a case of an influential band spawning other bands that improved on the style, but it feels like it.
I've listened to this many times previously, and saw Lorde live when she was touring this album. All around great album, I'm particularly fond of the production. I find some of the lyrics to be kinda edgy and cringey.
amazing, what is love is a brilliant song, and all of it is a super fun listen
Goofy, solid rock that I laughed out loud to multiple times. It's fun hearing that proto punk sound including the 70s era rock solos, they can feel very out of place, but I think that's at least partially driven by most punk drifting away from that. Listening to those solos feels like a observing an intermediate species in the path of evolution.
eh, i got pretty bored with this one, and did not listen multiple times. There's nothing really wrong with it, just not the style of music for me
It's moon safari. 5/5
What I really love more than anything about this album is how well balanced it is across many spectra. It can feel wrong to describe it as mellowed out, because so many of its motifs and ideas are solidly presented to you, rather than rising beneath you. It simultaneously feels wrong to call it any sort of grand journey or something that takes itself very seriously. And still yet, I wouldn't describe this album as whimsical, or funny, or magical. Almost every song leaves me unsatisfied with the adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors I wrote to describe them.
The opening track "La femme d'argent" may lead you to believe this album will be chilled out and mellow. While I think this is somewhat refuted by the whirring, pitchy motif later in the song, it's a reasonable prediction. Then "Sexy Boy" hits and already, you are on the other side of the spectrum compared to the opener. This song pulses like an erection, and intoxicates like one. Later in the album, the song "Talisman" is almost reminiscent of a triumphant spy movie soundtrack. "Kelly watch the stars" and "Remember" are soaked in this electronic, wondering at the stars atmosphere. On and on it goes, every song has an insanely unique approach, with detailed strokes across trip-hop, electronic, and jazz. This is a rare album that I feel excels in many more directions than other albums I've given 5/5. Moon Safari is a versatile, masterful work, through and through.
Pretty mid to me, I knew by the fourth track I wasn't gonna give this a second listen. I'm iffy on John's voice, and so many of the songs blend together in a boring way. I wish there was more of the jammy kind of stuff throughout, that was somewhat enjoyable. I think I'm a little biased against CCR, because the vast majority of the time I heard this band before now was when I would drink with friends in a casino and observe these drunk boomers smoking and playing slots for hours, all to the tune of CCR and the stones, not exactly a positive association for CCR.
Very solid, thoroughly written songs. The details audible in the music despite their lack of electric instruments, really give it this satisfying sense you can feel their fingers working their instruments; that alone significantly adds to its punk factor. Mix in catchy melodies and choruses, a refusal of simple strum patterns, and angsty, untrained vocals, and you get a warm, folksy punk album. I think the album slumps a little bit after "Add it up".
This has probably been the hardest album to rank so far. I was quite off put by how noisy this album was on the first listen, and felt that the noise and pop structures were disjoint. For a few songs, I thought the noise was too strong, and the melodies too boring. I was ready to give this album a 2 or 3 at best.
But then I gave it another listen. And another one. Now, I hear the noise and instrumentation mix together beautifully (most of the time), because I hear these opiate tones drag on behind it all. For the first time, I felt like I understood what draws people in with shoegaze. So many songs manifested this melancholic, numbed out, blacked out, sound that I couldn't pull away from. The noise and various effects really reframe the purpose of the pop oriented rock, and caused me to reinterpret entirely the emotionally felt senses that pop goes for.
You know those cringey memes where people say something along the lines of "happiness is listening to the music, sadness is understanding the lyrics"? This album feels like the band wanted to bridge that gap, to create the body that feels the weight of the words it hears sung to it, while still remaining familiar at its core.
I truly still don't know how to rank this album. In some ways I don't see myself listening to this regularly, and I still think the album as a whole is a little rough around the edges and simplistic at times. But at the end of the day, Psychocandy unwrapped some unexpectwled, brand new appreciation for a music genre I've been otherwise unsuccessful at getting into, and that feels well worth rewarding on it's own. I think I'll look back on this album as fondly as my other 5s so far, but it really stands out on its own for the effect it had on me.
TL;DR I'm Frank Reynolds saying "oh my god, I get it"
Man, what the fuck. Slim's anger can really hit that beaten down, lower class rage mood, with engaging storytelling and masterful picture painting. But then there's the lines about date raping a 15 year old (Stan is an adult), and in another song, raping a middle school swim team (Slim is in middle school in this situation). In the first case, the song is explicitly about how various individuals ignore or outright rejects their moral conscience in favor of Slim's over the top violence, across a few situations. The latter case is claimed by Slim himself, as part of "Just don't give a fuck". The song " '97 Bonnie and Clyde" is infamous for its story of Slim taking his daughter with him to sink his baby mama's body to the bottom of the lake, weaving a tale to hide the reality of it from his daughter.
Every song has this level of over the top violence and anger to it, that frequently reeks of middle school edgelord "the world doesn't understand me" verses. At the same time, when Slim describes his life experiences, he frequently succeeds in humanizes himself in his actions somehow, despite their violence. Often I felt that this album was like listening to someone's violent fantasies they came up with to cope with a shitty, uncaring upbringing. Refraining this album this way helped me enjoy even the lyrics a lot more than I anticipated.
I'm still really unsure as to how to rank this though. It gets its points for its golden storytelling and unparalleled rapping, but even with the reframed lyrics, I'm skeptical the lyrical content is something to celebrate and acclaim. I've met multiple people who explicitly name Eminem and specifically the Slim Shady character as being relatable to them and their upbringing. They also continued to act like pieces of shit, and I frankly feel like they felt emboldened by that type of work to continue to act that way and blame the world for the problems.
I know including a fan base in a review seems rather dubious at best, but I can't shake this feeling that Em is in some ways trying to claim the Shady lifestyle as being a valid way to respond to things. For every line expressing contrition over his addictions, anger, violence, etc., there's ten about doing all of those things, making jokes about it and imagining even more fucked up scenarios.
This is more rambley than I would like, but I honestly find transgression work like this hard to evaluate. It gets a three to reflect these mixed feelings overall. If the lyrics were as impeccably constructed and told about non/less transgressive topics, I would more easily give this a four.
I love this band. This album is incredibly solid front to back. It's not as eclectic as London Calling, but it makes it back by being more even and great throughout. They rarely fall behind the energy in their songs, and bring in fresh sounds, hooks, melodies, etc. to leave their signature on every song.
This album is wild. I normally dislike classic rock groups having long instrumental sections where the guitarist jerks off his guitar for way too long. This album has some of that, but it also has some neat, kind of experimental sections in it with synthesizers (I think), a drum solo that beats most others in my opinion, and excellent energy throughout. I enjoyed listening to it twice through, but it's unlikely I'll come back to this one. For what it is, it's pretty good.
This is the first time I've really felt strongly limited by the fact that I've only had one day to listen to this. I'm not quite at the level of putting this into my main rotation, I personally found the first listen to be a bit dull in the first half and more exciting in the second half. The second listen however, revealed some details I had missed upon first listen. It's not hard to imagine myself liking this more in the future, but alas, I must rate and move on to the next album.
A few brief thoughts: I've never really listened to this late 90s/early 00s britpop (if that's accurate to what this is), and I honestly don't know what to listen for here. The first half was decent, and song to song there was good variety, but I felt like there was some lack of dynamics in each song. The latter half of the album has more styles and influences mixed in, and I gotta say, this stuff is great, I thoroughly enjoyed the last 5-7 songs.
Probably the strongest 3 I've given out so far, I think this has a lot of potential to break me into a genre I'm otherwise oblivious to.
An absolute masterpiece. If you would have told me, "here's an album with minimal chord presence, simple melodies, average song length over 5 min, where a goth sings about spiderman, and you will love it" I wouldn't have believed you. Disintegration achieves this simplicity with absolutely ecstatic, grand, melancholic synthesizers, hooky strings, one-note-at-a-time guitar work, and twinkly sound effects. His words are like the newspaper print in the instrumental fire, each throw eliciting the pain of the pages of his life. It is so unlike anything I've ever heard before and since.
Robert Smith apparently got really into psychedelics for making this one, and it really shows itself in a different way compared to the typical psychedelic music context. He opts to represent the feeling of bursting up from a cold serene river on a hot day, you're eyes are still closed, but you are breathing, maybe even gasping from the chill, water droplets resting on your eyelids, and you feel reborn in the day. Acid can make you laughy and silly sure, but one can also feel this intense, slow motion refreshment, where you are fully aware of the words that describe your life, but all you feel is what your body is right now.
Disintegration taps into this feeling so strongly it gives me flashbacks sometimes. The first time I listened to this album, I was working at a soil factory. While forklifting pallets of dried coco bricks back and forth amongst a hive of beeps, groans, clacks, and a shitty amp playing System of a Down, this album shined through and struck me. It has this weird effect of really reminding me of where I am in my life in the exact moment I hear it.
I refuse to describe this album in terms more concrete than what I've said. Unless you have a hate boner for goths or something, this album will set itself apart incredibly. Of course it might not be your cup of tea, but I would fight anyone who says this doesn't break the mold.
I knew ahead of time that there's quite a shift between Psychocandy and this album, but boy, I was not expecting what I got. I actually listened to Psychocandy for the first time about a week prior to getting this, good luck of a kind I guess.
The difference in genre is quite big. It might not have been historically seen as that different in terms of the label they put on the music, but in my eyes (and ears), it is a lot more common to hear music that sounds like this album rather than Psychocandy. Dinosuar Jr. is pretty much the closest I know of (so far) that incorporates noise similarly to this band, but they take it much further into the rock direction. Most bands do a worse job at this dream pop style, but at the end of the day, I don't see this album as groundbreaking.
I did enjoy it quite a lot though, their strengths in simple pop composition still shine through in this album, and they fill the room created by stripping back the noise very well with good production and a clean drum machine.
It's a little difficult to assign a rating for this one. Pretty much any other album in this genre I've listened to would get a three at best, but this album is the best of its kind I've heard by far, and I feel like it might break me into more dream pop stuff, so I'm choosing a four for this one. This band is overall really impressing to me in terms of how much they've stretched my appreciative ear, they've surprised me across both albums I've listened to from them so far.
Probably the weakest 4 I'm given out so far (~30 albums in). I feel like what they've got going on here sets itself apart from the typical folk I've heard from this era, and seems to have really inspired some modern day folk (it kinda reminds me of Joanna Newsom). Generally I found most songs quite great and interesting to listen to. Somehow, I'm not left totally satisfied with this album though, and I'm not sure how to put it. To a degree, I feel like this album feels more like a collection of songs than a carefully selected, thought out assembly. A few songs I felt were pretty forgettable, "For Emily..." I found to be a bit too whiny to enjoy. In the end, I think I'm interested in listening to this album more and putting it in my main rotation, so that's mainly why it's getting a four.
Only managed to give this one a single listen, not intentional, just short on time today.
Like any 70s hard rock band, I'm not giving this higher than a three because it's just not my thing really. That said, this is a strong 3. Yes, it has your standard long guitar and drum solos and over the top energy. This album also has insanely good groovy and bluesy bass lines, odd drum patterns, and a dynamic set list. The slower songs really help punctuate the high energy stuff, and generally I felt like the album as a whole flowed really well. It goes without saying that Phil Lynott has a great energy for this stuff; he surprised me with some of the personal depth on the lyrics sometimes. And yes, the solos are exhausting sometimes, but the guitarists generally did really well at keeping the solos solid throughout.
All in all, a great album I don't see myself going to too often, but if hard rock and solos are your thing, I think you'll love this.
I was so bored with this album, and it being a double album really wore me down. Barely got through it one time only. Almost every song felt identical, and I'm not really a fan of soulful music like this to begin with, so the closest I came to enjoying this was bopping my head to some of the drums and beats. I have no idea what to look for in this album, if it's in the lyrics, I wasn't tuning into those very much so I may have missed out on something there. It seems that his lyrics are a well praised aspect of his music by critics, so I'm giving this two stars to reflect that potential. I didn't actively hate this. but I really don't see myself listening to this album as a whole ever again.
This album is a lot of fun, and Lemmy's voice really grew on me throughout listening to this one. A lot of this album can feel a bit one-note, but it's a goddamn good note. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the solos, they're tamed back compared to a lot of rock at the time, and they generally don't span many bars, instead resembling more of a bridge from chorus to next verse than anything else. The bass playing was really excellent, I feel it was the most important driver of the energy and just has so much strength to it.
HOWEVER, there is a song on here called "Jailbait". Lemmy seems to be okay sleeping with minors. It's gross and wrong. The albums lyrics as a whole are almost entirely about sex and partying, so it's not terribly surprising the words he chooses for this song, but I mean, he openly says he doesn't want to know her age as long as she's down to bone! Gross! For that reason I give this a 3. The song really taints the album for me. At least Lemmy is dead so I can rest knowing my pennies I gave to stream the album aren't funding that kinda shit.
Fun to listen to, and the beats stay fresh. A few tracks surprised me with how dance influenced they are, although given the era perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. She really exudes confidence and flows as well as the best of the golden age hip hopists. If this kind of music is your thing, you'll probably like it more than I. In general, I don't find myself going to hip hop often, so it's only a 3 for me, but a strong one.
An amazing listen front to back. The only other artist I can think of who can pull off these whispery, but impactful vocals is Billie Eilish, but given the different genres of these artists, the effect of the vocals is different for each artist. Elliott's guitar playing is really dynamic between songs, he's just as skillful in the softer songs like "Between the Bars" and "Angeles" as he is in the more active songs like "Rose Parade" and "Pictures of Me". I think it goes without saying that his lyrical ability is very impressive; for me, this is an uncommon occurrence of me really tuning into and listening to the lyrics in music. I thoroughly enjoy this whole album, and the middle section in particular ("Between the Bar" to "Angeles") to be absolute top-notch songwriting.
Very solid album, they really blow me away with the breadth and depth of the music they make, this album has just as much wow factor as the queen is dead. I will say I think this album feels a bit messy, there can be some awkward flow between and within songs. Some of the tracks also have some longer, more experimental bits that miss sometimes for me. All of these are minor points against it though. They are absolute masters of their craft, every instrument sounds so perfectly composed and energetic, and the lyrics are enigmatic as always.
From what I'd heard on the radio from the stones, I was expecting some rusty boomer rock that feels overplayed even on first listen. Thankfully, that unfair expectation was not met, and instead I met a very solid, dynamic album. There's a lot of interesting influences at work in most songs, and even between songs, there was always an element of surprise lurking for me. Given that this is their debut, it's an incredible one at that. I greatly appreciate this album, and even though I might not listen to it as much as my other fours, I feel it's really earned it altogether.
It's rare that any album will bring tears to my eyes even once, but like Chelsea Girl and other Nick Drake albums, Five Leaves Left gently buzzes with melancholic warmth and envelopes me with this numb admiration of the world we live in, and brings tears to my eyes. His life and end strongly frames listening to his music after the fact, and this lends itself to some of the most humanizing music I've listened to. Drake isn't a friend who tries their best to cheer you up when you express that you've been feeling depressed recently (reality: you've been depressed for a year), or a friend who swings wildly to the other side of validating your experience, but otherwise being hands-off about those feelings. Drake simply expresses his felt life experience through his chosen mediums of voice and strings (and sometimes light drums), and the listener isn't alone in their head anymore. They're still depressed, but instead of being responded to, they get to respond to someone who isn't expecting a response, and that's nothing short of a blessing.
This album gets to me personally in way almost no other album does, while this challenge is fun for learning, practicing my writing, expanding my taste, it's stuff like this that reminds me why music is so important to me in the first place.
Compared to Made in Japan, this album has slightly less energy, but far more balanced composition, which is a welcome tradeoff to me. The solos feel less elaborate and less strung out. Sometimes, this felt more punctual and proper to the song, other times the solos lacked some soul to it. In general, the album has excellent composition, I found the flow of the album to be good, and other than the solos, I enjoyed the songs quite a bit. The solos were hit or miss (or more frequently hit, then miss), and those are primarily what prevent me from listening to this more often, hence the score.
What an absolutely fun album. Every song on here is just such a joy to listen to, they really know how to give the exact right dose of every element of their music, and it's just so damn catchy a lot of the time. This isn't my first listen of this album, but it surely isn't even close to my last. It's so good, it makes me wonder how in the world the 60s pop sound ever became less popular, although on second thought, perhaps the Beatles did it so well no one else wanted to try! I've never been this excited so far in the challenge to really dig into an group's discography, and since I've only barely listened to the other albums from the Beatles, I'm really looking forward into going into it more blindly.
I listened to this twice through and was rather intrigued by its composition as an album. The first side of the album is the bookends concept album, while side two is already released singles and unused material for the graduate. I'm not sure if this sort of thing was common at the time, but I do find it odd, and I wish there was more of the concept album personally.
That being said, I found myself a lot more satisfied with the first side of this album compared to PSRT. They knit together the songs well, and I felt like they went a little more experimental with side one, which really pays me off for me. The opening track has some stunning synth in it that surprised me with how well it sets the tone of the rest of the album. I'm an absolute sucker for sound collages, and "Voices of Old People" is so heartfelt and fits right in with the theme of the album. Side one as a whole really flows well and every song is satisfying.
I'm realizing more and more how important it is to me to feel like an album isn't just a collection of singles. PSRT kinda gave me that feeling, and so, it was hard to give it a four. This album does better, but the second side feels far more like PSRT than the first side. After reading about this album a bit on Wikipedia, it seems that Simon himself didn't really think much of the second side either.
Regardless of how strongly or weakly I consider the composition of the second side, I can still see myself coming back to this album, at least for the first side. A slightly weak 4 for this one.
I overall really enjoyed the album, they put a large gamble on having music that sounds so good, you won't care how repetitive it is because it's just so damn fun and satisfying, and that gamble pays off most of the time. I really think they could have shaved off 45+ seconds off of each song and put another song on the record, and that would have really hit the sweet spot for song length. It can feel a bit cheap to criticize on this point though, because it seems like if you're in the crowd dancing to this music, the fact that it's 7 min long per song matters a lot less. I mean, shit, I was walking home from work listening to this album, and I felt like I noticed the song lengths a lot less than when I was at home listening while doing homework. I think for the right context, the song lengths ultimately don't matter too much, so I'm deciding not to ding it for that really. Some albums just have a narrower context to listen to them in, and that shouldn't always count against it.
I'm going to thank God everyday "give up the funk" is the worst track on the album. I've heard that song several times before today, and I don't know what it is about it, but it just does not hit almost at all for me. There's a small sense of gratefully being proven wrong about classic funk while listening to this album for me. They really do have the funk, and God, the lyrics make me bust laughing sometimes, they must've been some drugged up horny motherfuckers. I love the inclusion of brass and synths in the music, it really helps to dig into each loop and listen for different details several times over.
In the right context, I see myself reaching for this album and enjoying it, and for that, I give it a 4.
God, I am an absolute sucker for great vocals on top of experimental electronic vibes. Every song has a unique character to it that contributes to the gentle, delirious miasma of the album as a whole. It seems to me that there's a strong trip hop influence here, with effort to expand the types and sources of sound present in the classic stuff. It largely pays off and gives it more of an ambient backing. Frankly, this lit up my brain quite a lot when I listened to it, it strongly expanded my appreciation for a genre I've yet to get into very much, and for that, a five feels appropriate.
This album gambles hard on you being willing to listen to a double album of Fleetwood Mac. For the right person, this seems like the dream. I liked it well enough to get through it twice, but I really would have preferred a standard length album here. It does some interesting things here and there that stray from Rumours, but the experimental billing this album gets doesn't really come across in most songs. I overall enjoy general style of Fleetwood Mac, they have a uncommonly good tenderness in their music, and a unique micro level sound to back it up. Seriously, I don't know how they make their guitar and drums sound so iconic. I'd be hard pressed to really differentiate between some of the songs, and I didn't really get wrapped up in the journey of the album either, because there isn't really one there. This seems intentional, but for me, very few bands can get away with no journey in their album. I see myself reaching for this sometimes, but listening to the whole thing? Probably not.
I've listened to this album many times before, and I listened to probably a dozen times over this weekend. I fucking love this album.
Every song on here is a gem on the unveiled crown that this album is. Other than the solos, every song sounds so wonderfully modern to me, it fucking blew my mind when I found out this came out before 1980. You can just intimately feel how influential this album is, and they remain on top of the pile when it comes to post punk and indie rock.
I really love how active and dynamic every instrument in this album stays, they manage to strike a balance the same way a ballerina balances between dance moves. The solos far exceed my threshold for enjoying solos, many of them are sensibly long, and don't go for masturbatory glory, but remain subdued and in step with the music. And God they're just so fun to listen to.
"Marquee Moon" is the (literally) largest and sparkliest gem on the crown. It almost feels like there's too much going on between all the instruments, but they truly struck fucking diamonds when they came up with this. The cackling guitar, the matched up rhythm and bass, and the drum setting the mood just line up perfectly for this dopamine stream. The solo on here absolutely rocks, and has beautiful grandeur unmatched by any other solo I've ever heard. The main verse and chorus structure coming back after that solo is immensely satisfying. Marquee Moon ends the first side of the vinyl, which I think is perfect. You get the opportunity to hear their new sound and know their style a bit before being given the real welcoming call to a new era of forthcoming punk and indie rock. It feels incredibly ahead of its time (at least to someone with a meager music history knowledge as mine). I couldn't believe how modern this song sounded the first time I listened to it, and it still blows me away to this day.
See No Evil and Torn Curtain are perfect songs to open and close with, the solo on Elevation might be my favorite on the album, and I think prove it stands a bit above the rest.
I can't stress enough that this album feels so gloriously groundbreaking, and its influence almost feels obvious, but it's still so so so much better than a lot of the stuff inspired by it coming out today. They crowned themselves with Marquee Moon for many decades already passed and future decades to come.
Pop punk is a very hard sell for me. Generally, I find it gets quickly stale from the same fast tempo, power chord only approach. This album is no exception. I listened to it twice, but really tuned out of it for the most part. Unlike many other albums, I found the second halfmore interesting to listen to, there's more dynamics and play between the instruments.
There's nothing I really hate or dislike about this album, I just find it bland, and can only imagine coming back to it for the songs I knew I liked before I even listened to it today.
Barely made it through this one. I didn't dislike it really, but I just found it rather boring, and his voice sounds kind of silly to me. There were some rather unique instrumentals here and there, it definitely has the brew for a rich album, but it ultimately falls flat for me.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. I normally find dad rock to be kind of plain and repetitive a lot of the time. This album starts off that way, but a few songs in, they start to mix it up with some good solos and dynamic rhythms within and between songs. It's also just full of heart. I still don't see myself putting this on often, but for those good occasions, I think it'll hit the spot.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I generally found the sound to be really uplifting, but nuanced from song to song. My limited experience with soul prior to this hadn't really left an impression on me, I could often enjoy a song here and there, but overall felt that a lot of songs kind of blend together and sound the same. As an album, cloud nine tends to escape this context I came into the genre with, I found myself listening to this album more than twice to really explore how I feel about the sound and style of the music. Soul still has a lot of room for growth with me, but this album made its own impression well.
The opener is a beautiful solo blanketed in effects and unusual mixing. Khruangbin undoubtedly seems inspired by this song, there were times I could see them playing this song in my head. The middle of this album is solid funk music with this kind of sinister undertone throughout it set by the first song. This becomes overt by the end of the album, climaxing in the final song, which is one of the weirdest things I've ever listened to, in a good way. Seriously, that last song feels straight out of Eric Andre at times.This album really tells a surreal story that rises above any individual song on here (or rather, falls to the depths of hell given the tone). I think that's very uncommon, and for a funk album, I never would have predicted it. I'm glad my preconceptions were shattered with this, I generally feel more interested in funk now because of this weird album.
There's a impressive sense of balance to this album as a whole and within each song. I generally find a lot of 80s pop music to go a little too hard to the point of being overwhelming. Throw in some uninspired instrumentals, and it's really a recipe for a couple good singles and an unsubtle album. Bad really seems to me to use a small set of sounds for the entire album, but with it they create these fresh, fun, and dynamic songs that flow very well together. There's a obviously a lot that can be said about MJ's vocal prowess, but in short, it's great. The bass lines drive almost every song with incredible smoothness. The album has a nice natural lull after the first few songs that relaxes the mind back from the bombastic start, before it launches back into it for the ending.
Overall, I can really see why people like MJ, and more than that, I myself really like this album already. I listened to it three times through today, and each time I felt like new aspects of the music just leapt out to me. That's a rare experience easily worth granting a five for.
Filled to the brim with wildly imaginative and flailing rock and roll. It hits a great balance between the avant garde and familiar rock practice of the 70s. Every song has a really unique character to it, and the frequently absurd lyrics on top of it all really seals the deal. The production process for this album is super neat too.
Solid throughout. Good laid back guitar work and spiritful harmonica. Songs are well differentiated throughout. There's a somewhat narrow context I would listen to country music in, but if I am in the mood, this album would be a great one to reach for.
Amazing voice, solid 80s pop senses, and a nine minute song about wanting sex. What more does one need in life?
A perfect example of music that's dancy, electric, eclectic, and dynamic all at the same time. The comparisons to Talking Heads are apt, although they definitely lean into the electronics more, and are not as globally influenced as some of the Talking Heads stuff. With the exception of "All my friends" (frankly, a bit of a dud), all the songs are incredibly solid and fill out their time well. As an album, it never gets boring with its sound, each song has its own strongly unique fingerprint on this album. I'm a bit biased because I've listened to this album a lot before, but I know I love it, and getting it in this challenge was a treat.
I'm not a fan of most of the vocal effects present throughout the album, and there is a slight sense that this album really fits the "product of its time" description, in that it's a noisy, punky, indie rock album from the early 2000s. Other than those things though, this album is very solid, they meet the energy their music demands, keep their production varied, and especially in the second half of the album, pivot between influences from different genres.
POV: you're at the county fair. Between eating shitty food, observing the irritated, underpaid workers, and wondering if rodeos are really ethical, you tune into your ears and realize "Damn, the band playing is really good!"
For real though, this band slaps. There's a oddly noisy component to this album that works really well, it kind of elevates the eclectic nature of this album. They achieve this with a broader set of instruments than your usual folk group, with each section getting its own strong part to play in it all. Some songs here and there are a bit plain, but I see myself coming back to this and smiling.
Eclectic, inspiring, and tantalizing. It was hard to predict what any track on this would sound like, there's a large range of influences present in this album that are mixed together very well for most songs. Some of the songs I found to be slightly too long or repetitive, but for the most part, it was easy to tune in and get lost in the music.
It's good for what it is, a straightforward, singer songwriter oriented rock album. Generally, the guitar doesn't fall into any boring patterns, the vocals have great energy, and the backing is solid. Despite near identical effects and mix between songs, I feel like the album flows well, although by 3 or 4 songs in, I already felt like they were going to largely fit the same mold with the following songs, in a rather plain, uninteresting way. For the right person, I would recommend this album whole heartedly, but it's not really my jam.
Brutal, beautiful storytelling over simple guitar arrangements. I would normally be bored by how simple the guitar work is, but the simplicity of it really amplifies her lyrics, and it works really well. The latter half of this album falls off a little bit with the lyrics, but a very strong album nonetheless.
Amazing. Funk has really grown on me since getting it on this challenge, and the upbeat, brassy groove on this album is so infectious, I came back to this album three or four times today after the first listen.
Filled to the brim with juicy details, this album fills in the gaps left by many electronic music groups putting way too much faith in thei staying power of their loops. Some groups nail the satisfying loop and create repetitive 5+ minute long songs worth listening to, but Basement Jaxx largely accomplish this satisfaction differently by frequently adding in new elements, and starting off dense to begin with. They're clearly masters of sound production, so many sounds and samples feel so novel. This shit must be so much fun at clubs. Overall, I feel that this has shown me a different approach to club friendly music that retains it's craftsmanship through unique sounds and rewards over a loop rather than a really solid loop. Some songs start off weak here and there, but I felt that all of them build to something with a great, continous, delicious payoff.
Lots of influences expressed well, with good sound variety. The album starts out really dance-y and shifts to a more trip hop oriented sound in the latter half, with more straightforward pop senses sprinkled in. This transition is a bit awkward, and overall, the cohesion of this album isn't strong. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and could see myself coming back to it.
while it has cohesion, well produced sounds, and the classic voice and lyrics, I just have a harder time getting into the purer singer songwriter angle this has, and there's not much dynamism in the album as a whole. It has its strengths for sure, but I don't think I'll be reaching for this album when I'm looking for something I know I like.
A thoroughly great listen, with seemingly incredible amounts of influence on many famous artists. It's solidly in the folk genre, but given that, it's definitely some of the damn best folk out there. So many of these songs continue to really stick out to me on every listen, but particularly "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "The Unfaithful Servant" really hit the brain buttons. They do plenty to keep every song interesting and unique in a genre that I think tends to be too simplistic with instruments sometimes. I don't put too much stock into lyrics in general, but this album seems to do really well in that regard, I felt pulled into the narrative for some of the songs, which is more than the average album can say.
Compared to Amnesiac, I find this more cohesive across and within songs, with more dynamism as well. They are absolute masters of subtle sound design, they ride this tightrope of intricate details and insect sound shifts while achieving a unique identity in each song. There are a lot of neat influences in their music, I felt some industrial undertones in some of the songs which were well implemented and welcome in my eyes. That said, I do think there's still not enough going on in the album as a whole for me to reach to the whole thing all that often. I'm getting used to Yorke's voice, but I still find that all of their songs fall into that `Radiohead` groove. It's good most of the time, great a lot of the time, but it just doesn't quite last a whole album.
This album has 3 or 4 good songs on it that get slightly remixed for the rest of the album. I enjoy how it starts, but by the middle of it, I feel like I've heard almost all the album has to offer. I can't really see myself coming to this for the whole album, but maybe for a few songs here and there.
Very fun, with a lot of great songs. While it's mostly folksy, I think there's notable influences from other genres here, especially punk, and it mixes together well. Irish music isn't really my thing, so I can't say I love it, but for what it is, it's great.
A solid, bass booming, old(ish) school style hip hop album with a strange concept executed with great humor and narrative. They generally pull it off well, and I would recommend this to someone who likes this style and is down for something weird, but for me, it just doesn't quite stick. It's definitely memorable, and satisfactory, but not much more than that for me.
Thoroughly great, I enjoyed every song a lot, the only thing really missing for me is more variation in the production of the songs, and a couple of the solos are a bit too much, but I'm hard to please in that realm anyway.
I'm totally blown away, they absolutely rock out and overflow with genius direction, distinct songwriting, and sturdily woven influences across several genres. It's amazing they debuted with this, and so young at that too, their teenage energy really bursts from this album, and it's an absolute thrill to listen to.
Neil Young has been somewhat hit or miss, I find his lyrics and stories captivating, but frequently, his instrumentals are just too similar and soft between songs to really command my attention for a whole album. Having also listened to Rust Never Sleeps, it seems that Crazy Horse really gives Neil Young the edge he needs to cut with his words. That said, the songs do get a bit stale from time to time, and some of the solos don't hit for me. But overall, I like it, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Neil Young.
I only got through this once, and while I found a lot of the influences and composition pretty neat, I found it very empty. It was like eating a bag of artisan potato chips, better made than normal, but not really satisfying in the world of cuisine. I might come back to this one, but it's one of the least intriguing albums I've heard so far (74/1001).
A great gym album, and while it drags on at times, the various influences from song to song have great breadth and are composed energetically. One thing I find really odd about this album being on the list is that this seems far more relevant to a club setting than a solo listening setting. I feel that the difference in ranking between those settings would be very large, and I'm not sure how to incorporate that into a rating.
That said, for a club album, it's great, and when I want to feel some grungy energy and move my body, I could easily see myself coming back to this.
I absolutely love this classic pop style, it's so vivid and magical that it captures my attention like a little kid watching the wizard of oz. Even with the simpler composition of the pop style, the songs are far from sounding similar, and to their benefit, conjure up a new setting with each track.
Warmly graceful and brightly energetic. I've yet to really get into jazz, so I feel like my appreciation of it could be lacking, but subjectively, I enjoyed this a lot. Every instrument has its strong moments in the spotlight, and always backs the others up in a very fluid, dynamic way.
A feverish, confusing album unlike any other. I really enjoyed it, and have gotten a lot of my several relistens. It somewhat chaotically traverses genres in between songs to the point one cannot predict where it will go at any point in the album. I've yet to hear any band even attempt this approach to an album. For its highly unique and effective style, I love what it does.
A weak four because even though I usually dislike masturbatory rock music like this, I'm a slut for old synths.
While I enjoy the downtempo vibes this has, it leans a little too much into the bluesy sound and ends up mostly blending together for me, I'm not much of a fan of blues. I would only come back to this album for a few songs that stick out.
I'm not a fan of the vocalist, and the songs do very little to distinguish themselves, besides perhaps the solos, which I generally don't like for any artist. Outside the solos, the songs have far too similar chord progressions. I didn't listen too carefully, but the lyrics also seem rather dull and misogynistic.
An absolute pillar of modern indie music. They wear their influences on their sleeves while tearing them from flexing their musical muscles. An absolute banger from front to back.
Huh. The guy who made "You've got a friend in me" for Toy Story opens up an album with a satirical take on racism in the North versus the South, and includes liberal use of the N word. This album is fifty years old, so it's hard to appraise the value of this storytelling in a day where pretty much any non-black artist using that word would instantly get canned, and for good reason. I like the song overall, but I'm not in a position to evaluate the choice of words really. For that song alone, I'm not going to give this any higher than a three.
Other than the opening track, his lyrical abilities across the album really shine, and I found the instrumentation simple but effective. It's not really my style of music to listen to, so I doubt I would've given this higher than a three anyway, but for the right person, I would recommend this with a caveat for the opening track.
Absolutely beautiful to its core. I never knew what to expect from the next song, and there's so much reward to listening intently to this album. Intensely interesting instrumentals, lyrically obtuse but soft and pleasant, and so vividly imaginative with its soundscape.
Not as bad as other hard rock, I actually got AC/DC earlier this week and found this to have more diverse instrumental sound than Back in Black. Nevertheless, I simply don't like this type of music, and would hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
An excellent, highly unique album. This is much harder than most to pin down to a genre, its influences aren't different types of bricks, they're melted down and mixed together into the foundation to make this brilliant, sometimes gazey, sometimes old school poppy, sometimes post punky album that just works. My only minor gripe with this album is that the ending is a bit drawn out in my view.
I'm astonished that this is considered his most accessible album. Not because I disagree, but because I have yet to explore any other Prince, and I find this to be already out there in terms of pop music I've heard. With the exception of the last song, every song has got a very unique soundprint to it that somehow ties together into a beautiful bouquet of songs. The last song is quite good too, but I think it overstays its welcome a bit.
Energetic, heartfelt, and rock and roll to its core. I listen to so much music like this nowadays that I can't help but wonder how much Hole has influenced this generation's indie rockers. I don't know if they largely invented this sound or not, but regardless, they know what how to make it strong and moving.
It's not really my type of music, but I've never really given reggae a chance, and this album has lots of good moments throughout. I like it, and I would recommend to the right person, but I still don't think I'm gonna be reaching for reggae in my free time anytime soon, and this album can't really escape that. It's good for what it is.
I feel like this is one of the quintessential hipster bands. Many critically acclaimed albums, minor commercial success, and at the core of it, velvet pop sensibilities that few other bands imitate. Although it's not what I love about pop, I can't help but really like this style for how unique it is, and how well crafted it all feels. I could easily see myself coming to love this, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone with interest in indie pop.
Couldn't get through this one. I'm really not into this sort of jammy, bluesy rock, and I think I would struggle to recommend it to anyone, not because it's bad, but I don't really know how or what to appreciate about this genre.
Wow, a surprising album. People seem to really like Sympathy for the Devil. It's a good song to me, but I feel the rest of the album really shines, with only very few lulls and misses, with no songs being fully duds. Rootsy, blues rock that I find sits on a good note for just the right amount of time before changing up sounds. I'm partially really impressed by this album because it's a genre I don't tend to enjoy, but the Stones bring together different influences in a very gratifying way that defies stale.
Funny, bouncy new wave. I give this a weak four, it has room to grow on me, but I don't find it as endearing as other key works in the genre. That said, they definitely carve out a unique style, especially vocally, but their guitar work is also kinda punchy, and it generally works.
If an album can get me to listen to many multiple songs on it back to back to back many times in a single day, what else could it be other than a 5?
It's a weak four for me, not because it's lacking anything really, but it's on the edge of what I would normally listen to on a random day. That said, there's a lot I like about the album, and I could easily recommend it to anyone who likes the broad singer songwriter genre.
An unbelievable album that frankly stretches the boundary of its legacy as an experimental hip hop album. Don't get me wrong, many songs on here are undoubtedly hip hop beats, but for a lot of them it's hard to imagine someone rapping over them. Some songs I outright don't consider to be hip hop at all, and fit in more broadly with a sort of trip hoppy ambient electronic genre. However you describe it, this album is astonishing.
I can't give this full points because it uses misogynistic language here and there, as well as a single instance of a homophobic slur (although he censors himself in modern performances of that song). Putting that aside, there's no doubt this is a pinnacle of hip hop. The production is classic and tight, and the stories of his life in New York are expertly expressed and vibrant throughout.
I kinda disliked this one, feels very one note, and I'm not a fan of the vocalist's style.
What else is there to say other than it is absolutely unparalleled in its dreamy, other worldly quality, and that it's a travesty we didn't get more music like this? It's influence is obvious, but it's instrumental style didn't really seem to catch on in popular music. It feels like walking in Wonderland.
The beats are great, and the rapping is on point, but there's some cringey 90s-ness about this that I have trouble getting past for whatever reason. I'm not certain the lyrics aren't problematic in some regard either. Nevertheless, I like it, and might come back to it here and there.
Doesn't start strong, but boy does the back half hit hard, really good shit here. Unfortunately, it has the run of the mill misogyny (and homophobia if i recall correctly), so it's hard to say I love it.
Rather unmemorable. I enjoyed the first few songs, but the rest felt largely the same.
Wow, this album is finger painted in a simple, beautiful way. It's kind of soft alt rocky with way more psychedelic and experimental influence.
Prog rock doesn't usually work for me, but this album is very good. Solid, punching instrumentals and verses effectively intersperse with the guitar and synth work to really build an identity into each song. The balance really shines here.
This is a weak four. "One" is probably one of the biggest reasons I like metal at all today, I listened to that song when I was six years old, and it's stuck with me as one of the best songs ever made since then. That said, there's only one song on this album that I feel like gets close to that level of quality ("...and Justice for all"), and otherwise, it's a solid thrash metal album. I'm not a big fan of thrash, and thus, found myself bored sometimes with this album.
It's a bit rough around the edges, and not every song really hits, but for a debut album, this is fantastic. I can't even imagine listening to this before the grunge era really took off, this shit just seems so ahead of its time.
I'm a sucker for 60s pop I guess, I really like this. I don't think it's as great as some other music of it's era, but it's solid, sweet, and mixes up the instruments like a good pop album should.
This album is vile. I find it far more misogynistic than your average hip hop album of this era, and the fact that Dr. Dre was actually physically abusive to multiple women really sours a lot of the lyrical impact this album could have had. I also find the beats annoying half the time, with the other half being very inventive with sampling and honoring funk music. I only listened to this album once, and had no interest in listening to it again. It's not irredeemably bad, and it certainly has its historic place, but I don't think this album will be viewed positively in retrospect as time goes on.
fantastic folksy, singer-songwriter music
I love your music, Nick Drake. Rest in peace.
Relentlessly fun with juicy melodies and better restraint than most poppy new wave
It's simple and even kind of plain, but her voice, lyrics, and performance are rock solidly beautiful throughout.
I appreciate this era of metal because it gave rise to the extreme metal I enjoy today. Nevertheless, it's just too over the top for me to really come back to this more frequently. Other than that, it's a decent album.
I can see why it was controversial in its time, I personally think it's rough around the edges instrumentally, and does less to set its sound apart than his other work. His lyrics still shine like a star though, and I still enjoyed it overall.
Surprised by this one, its kind of dad rocky, but with softer intensity and more thoughtful lyrics
Wonderful album. Not all of their wacky hijinks pay off, but most of them do, and do it well. I also appreciate the overall less misogynistic and less violent lyrics, it fits the overall positive attitude of the album really well.
You can hear the bubbles and see the feathers of their creative genius, but they're yet to grow into their most famous sound. Nonetheless, solid.
it's so corny! while it has its merits, I just can't really get into it
It's frequently outlandish and ridiculous in a good way, and hearing bjork start her music career off so strong is great.
No one parallels the playful discovery of electronic instruments like Kraftwerk
I'm biased positively towards this album, Van Halen is my dad's favorite band, and I listened to this album a lot growing up. Coming back to it now after many years of not listening to it left me with some surprises. For one, I realized that my dad removed the more sexual songs from my mpe player lol. For two, I remembered Van Halen as being part of the masturbatory rock genre, and while that's true, the combination of shorter songs with the bona fide talent of Eddie actually makes for pretty tightly made songs. Lastly, it is coherent as an album, especially a pop album. That's not pejorative at all, in fact, I prefer having some pop sensibilities in rock especially because otherwise we end up with these shitty rock albums where somehow they think it's okay to have a 3 minute solo PER SONG.
Nothing wrong with it really, just very forgettable soft pop.
I was a bit concerned hearing a full band backing on the first track, but it becomes quickly crystal clear that Elliott isn't just an excellent singer, lyricist and guitar player, but also knows his way around a full band better than most. Most songs have a great sense of dynamism on both a movement and a melody scale.
great album, they're really growing on me, despite their rolling nature
qotsa was always a band I associated with 2000s era hipsters, and this album is no exception. I was pleasantly surprised to find a good sense of experimentation and non-pop direction, although I think the album still needs a bit more of that to round itself out. Some songs are a bit repetitive, and I think the length of the album could be shorter, but overall, solid album.
it's weird how this album ends with cloud busting 100 times in a row
Nothing wrong it with it, just not my thing really
Their views on violence, race relations, and women are at least questionable, and frequently just straight up problematic. So much of this album goes so hard, and given the political climate and their lived experience, few other albums can be as authentic as this album is. Nonetheless, I don't really feel good saying it's one of my favorites or even one of my highly rated albums.
one listen was enough, not my thing
Few albums have a near perfect run front to back like this does. Even rarer is this albums place in history as the first true punk album (according to some). It's rare not because it's the first, but because of how hard it comes out swinging. I don't believe any band has ever refined or perfected Ramones, they've only attempted to reach these heights. Blitzkrieg Bop is honestly a top contender for best opening track and best song to mosh to, I can just see punks burning the place to the ground smiling.
My wife described this album as a bridge between Kate Bush and Fiona Apple, I think that's a perfect description. The first half has the dramatic, stringy, Bushy stuff, while the latter half has the more rock out with your piano cock out like Fiona Apple. The lyrics throughout are sharp.
the beatles: *drops acid and makes weird, eclectic album*
critics: "Beautiful, perfection"
Kate Bush: *produces her own album, gets a little weird and eclectic with it*
critics: "erm, does this LADY know what she's doing??"
Seriously though, let a girl have fun lmao, this is one of the best things I've ever heard
So happy to have had you Nick Drake. This is your last album for me on this list, but surely not the last time I hear you.
